Oh My!...I'm Really Behind!

Well, seeing as we are leaving for overseas for 5 weeks in 3 days, naturally the most important thing that I should be doing at this late hour is to

CATCH YOU UP ON OUR LIVES!!!

All from a month, or so, ago:

JJ's 8 sessions of swim lessons ended on my b-day (may 21st) and JJ, we are all
"SO P-OUD OF YOU!"

As with many adventures down here, my dear friend, Anita and her sweet 3 also participated;)
While a slight setback initially, he's done beautifully in the water since then! I hope he'll be swimming by the end of next summer with some hard work!

Our neighborhood Block Party was a complete blast...full of JJ's first ice cream cone and a FIRE TRUCK! What great fun!
(I love how the kids are all just "hanging out"...wonder what they're talking about??)

The cone and fire truck were in pretty close competition as favorites for the day...

mmmmm...how do you think he did eating the cone??

10's each for taste and messiness...and a 10+++ for the meltdown when we got one when we left and he couldn't have a second one...as my twin would say "a very "2" day"

Smiling now, but with a red, puffy face because of the other meltdown he'd had because he couldn't stay in the fire truck seat FOREVER...thankfully, there were 4!!!

Our sweet friends from church (who are getting ready to go to Papau New Guinea) gave us this wagon and many other great things...we are so blessed by them!!!

love how you just see the top of Susie's head/hat!!

To celebrate my birthday, the end of the school year and to get some time together before we all go separate ways this summer, the girls on my team and I went to the beach! Fun!!!!

Left is Sandra--she's been mentoring me:) Her husband, Jeff, has been mentoring Jared...they are in the process of re-locating for a pastor's position (hopefully!), but it will be sad to not be able to keep meeting with them--they are such a blessing!!!

Who's TOO CUTE FOR WORDS??!!!

She's moving ALL OVER...not officially crawling, but, as you can see, she gets around:)

Surprise Shower

My beautiful teammates (as you can see pictured below) had a surprise shower. It was an incredibly special time and I am so blessed to have them! I didn't think I'd be surprised this time around, but I was and it was fun!

Left to right: Laurie, Kristie (my mommy mentor:), Kaye, Me, Shannon and Jeannine

Opening up gifts...it's fun to be getting pink things:)
Kaye has 3 girls and had the idea to decorate letters for Susie as she has done with her girls. Since there were five of them, each one took a letter. On the back, Kaye had them come with a Bible verse for Susie that they wrote on the back. This is what the final project looked like.

Here's my first belly shot since I was very early along...everything else is just candids. I'm glad that we took this one:)

As I said, it was a beautiful time...We also had a party for JJ with his friends here on Saturday...between these things, we marvel at how blessed we are to have been given so many wonderful friends in just one year!

Staff Retreat

(Julie, or anyone can you help me? My pictures aren't showing up--only http's. I think I hit something and I can't find where to change it. Thankfully, it posts ok!)

Here are a few random pictures from our Staff Retreat.

Top left and bottom center are JJ with his buddy Jake. It's fun since Jake is older, that they can interact a little more. Jake reminds us of JJ when he was a baby...so CHUNKY!!!

Top right is JJ on the bed in the house where we stayed with Gloria. She is one of the three girls of Scott and Kaye on our team...We stayed in a house with them and it was one of the highlights of the retreat to be able to spend time after meetings and in the mornings with them.

Bottom left is Jake with his Dad, Jeremy, our director. Jeremy was really tired and had "sacked out" on the couch while we were all talking. His mom, Shannon, gave him to Jeremy to hold and Jeremy briefly woke up only to fall back asleep and Jake was still hanging out on Jeremy, thinking "Dada, whatcha doin'? Why aren't your eyes open??"

Bottom right are Jared and JJ "pretending" to blow out candles on their joint cake--the same one I made for Jared's birthday that we celebrated during Bible Study (previous post). It was a hit at the Retreat too!

 

Happy Birthday Annette!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures (yet) of Annette (our German team member here for the year...although we'd all like her to stay longer) at the party our team threw for her last Saturday. I was kind of "in charge" so I was running around and had no time to snap pictures. Annette is the one with me on the wave runner (top left) and to the right in the boat picture (top right). She turned 40! I don't think she'd mind me telling since she is as youthful (in a great way!) as they come. She is full of life and has blessed us all so much. We were so happy to throw her a big SURPRISE party American style--something she has never experienced and she was COMPLETELY surprised. I made her cake (bottom left) and used my friend Anita's awesome cake decorating stuff. She loved this too and so did Gloria (bottom right enjoying the cake!)