Busy Weekend

We've had a fairly busy past few days around our house. First and foremost, Zollie has officially made the jump from crawling to walking. I keep telling him he's too little to be walking, but apparently he thinks that whatever will get him caught up with his big brother faster is a good thing. He's so funny to watch...he walks with his hands out in front of him like Frankenstein's monster, all wobbly. Then he'll get proud of himself and start clapping and grinning! He's so cute!

Ian is a bit frustrated that Zollie can catch up to him faster, now. Zollie follows his big brother around like a little puppy, and Ian isn't real pleased with that a lot of the time. He doesn't like having his toys taken away, his food grabbed at, or be tackled whenever he's sitting on the floor, but Zollie sure loves it. You can definately tell they really love each other...they are always falling and sitting on each other, squeeling and sharing toys. We are so blessed!

Saturday we decided to rearrange the house. We got most of it done and I'm really pleased at how the living room looks now. It doesn't necessarily look bigger, just different. I need different every now and then. That afternoon PG went to the gym to work out with Dave and I took the boys to a playgroup for residents' spouses and families. It was so nice to meet other people living a similar schedule to me, and I also know a few of the moms there share some of my crunchy tendencies...I talked cloth diapers and breastfeeding for a while...that always makes my day!

After the playgroup, we went and picked up PG and headed to the home of the chair of his department for their annual cookout. So much good food! And so many kids! There are really a ton of young kids in the department now and it was great to let them all play and roam together. While we were there, we heard squeeling tires and a crash on the street in front of his home. Of course, everyone went running to see what had happened. The call for "Is there a doctor in the house?" went out and everyone laughed...I guess if you are going to have a wreck, that was the place to have it. There were probably upwards of 20 doctors mingling around. Luckily no one was hurt, though a mailbox did seem to get demolished.

Sunday morning we went to church where PG was worship leader. He looks so good in his suit, especially now that he's lost so much weight! He's down 45 lbs since Zollie was born. It's amazing! I'm so proud of him for the dedication he's put in to working out and jogging. After church, his parents came over and we had a nice lunch, plus they got some playtime in with the boys, which they always adore. They were astounded to see how well Zollie is walking and also to hear Ian counting (he's up to firteen now!) and singing the ABC song.

My inlaws left after a few hours and we had a bit of time to rest and take a nap, then Suzanne and Dave came over. We fixed a great supper (Suzanne shocked me with her cooking prowess...the fried eggplant was delicious!) and watched some Shark Week.

This morning, I decided to go ahead and finish moving furniture around. I wanted the piano to go in the front hallway and figgured that since it had wheels, it should be pretty easy to move. I was wrong and now I have some seriously pulled muscles in my lower back. UG! Getting up and down out of a chair, much less off the floor, is a royal pain...literally! I think PG might have tomorrow off, which would be great, because I don't know if I'll be able to even get out of bed. I know these things are usually worse the second day.

Prayer/Praise: Please pray that my back gets better soon and that PG has tomorrow off to help me. Praises for my two smart boys who are learning and growing each day. My prayers go out to my friend Carli who lost her mother to cancer last week. Pray also for this coming weekend when my sisters will be moving into their new appartment and that everything goes smoothly.

Six years together!

Six years ago, on July 4, PG and I were married. It's hard to believe that it's been six years already. We've been together as a couple for a whole decade. Wow. We were thinking back to when we met...my sisters were 8 and 10 years old. Now they are a freshman and junior in college. We met 2 days before classes began my freshman year. My friend Crystal and I (who had just met and become fast friends the night before at the Wesley Foundation open house) were walking through our dorm trying desperately to figgure out how to translate the bus schedule. Crystal spotted PG down the hall and said a sentence that would change my life forever: "Hey! He looks like an upper classman. Lets ask him!" I don't think my mother in law will ever forgive her...*snicker*

I was dating someone at the time, but PG - with all the suaveness of a future psychiatrist - convinced my boyfriend to break it off with me. Granted, my boyfriend had confided in PG that he really had liked me better as a friend and wanted to be free to date in college, but I was not told that part of the story for years to come. PG jumped in as my rebound guy and assured me that he was "only looking for a casual relationship...nothing long term". 10 years and 2 kids later, I love to remind him of that.

Where would we be now if we had never met? Well, at the time I was planning to be a medical missionary in Africa or some other far off land. I was so head over heels in love with PG by the end of our first semester, though, that I bunked my plans to transfer to a divinity college and just stayed at ECU so I could be near him. Apart from living worlds apart, we also wouldn't have our beautiful boys, so I guess God works everything out in the end.

To celebrate our anniversary this year, we invited Crystal (who I'm still best friends with) and her husband and children over to spend the night. We ate delicious food, and then watched the fireworks here in Farmville. I love to pretend they are shooting them off just for us. Then we got the boys in bed and played D&D until the wee hours of the morning, went to sleep, woke up Saturday and played all day. We had a blast. Who needs an expensive trip or gift to celebrate your anniversary? We spent ours with our match maker and our families and enjoyed every minute of it (besides, having company over is great motivation to get the house clean!)

Happy anniversary, dear. My prayer is that we have MANY more ahead of us!