Grandpa Steve, meet Grandpa Steve

OK, so they've met before, but not since Luke was born.

Dad came out today, only to get mad and drive off tonight. What a tool.

He actually flew into STL to drive our truck back to MD. It's holding the bulk of the stuff we wanted to hang onto - whether it was too important for the movers to take, or we just needed it for this month, he's got quite a load of stuff. Plus our dog.

He left greater Salis about 6am-ish and finally got into STL at 2:30pm.....Philadelphia strikes again. (Actually I hear people from Philadelphia have smaller brains than the rest of us. That's scientific fact. Just look at that Rocky Balboa guy.) There was lots of fog on the east coast, so he got delayed several hours. He was supposed to arrive here at 9am. So he got about 1.5-2 hrs with Luke, who he hadn't seen since July 4th. He left a little after 5pm, with Riley in tow. She looked a little confused as to why she was going for a car ride and why Mindy and I were outside the car waving, but she'll be fine...especially when she meets Mom and Dad's new dog, Kaley (sp?). So wish Dad luck as he drives back across the country. He needs to be back for choir practice tomorrow night. (Update: Dad made it to the Interstate, which was in question when he left here, and now he's on his way east. Also, he said Riley keeps looking over at him and wondering "who are you and why are you taking me somewhere?" Good stuff.)

Here's a few pictures of the two grandpas and their pride and joy.







And since Mindy won't let me do the Illinois Christmas pictures yet, and since we probably won't blog until we get to MD on Tuesday, here's one more sneak peek...

We are so Illinois-an

Chris here again with another exciting update from the great state of Illinois. Today was a grand old party with your three heroes finding themselves in a sticky situation once again- with a visit to the Jerseyville Community Hospital! Hooray for sickness. Mindy finally had enough and convinced me to take her and Luke to the doctor, so we figured that since Tricare wanted us to go as expensive as possible, we'd go to the ER and have them run a battery of tests on everyone. Luke got labs done, and made his first visit to Radiology! Wow-eee! Actually it was pretty painless (except for Luke when they drew a gallon of his blood- he started to look like that guy in Hot Shots) and it was really just a long wait. Oh well....diagnosis: ear infections for everyone! We got some antibiotics and some other goodies and were on our way. All said, a great way to kill 5 hours in southern Illinois. All the farmers around here are doing it.

Last night was Illinois Christmas, a Festivus-like celebration involving poles and feats of strength. OK, it was really just opening presents with the Shotts. Luke got lots of sweet toys, and I would tell you all about it, but someone in my family (hint: not a male) decided that I couldn't yet. So I tease you instead.



Now you want to know what I got, don't you? Too bad!

So instead of all that, I'll throw some pictures at you. The first is of the worship team from the Manhappenin' Church of the Nazarene on Mindy's last day there. It's kinda half silliness, half seriousness...John, you know you wanted to choke out Bobby when given the chance. And DJ, I expected more from you.



The next series is Mindy's last time announcing for the service. She decided to be funny (good job, honey!) and took pictures of the congregation from the stage.

The left side:


And the right side:


Things to note are the smug jerkiness I'm displaying in the back, the petite man on his tip-toes trying to see over the soundboard, and the absence of children. We don't allow them. OK, I lied, they were behind Mindy since it was the children's Christmas program that morning. Not pictured: the precariously leaning Christmas tree.

We are homeless

Well, we've officially moved, and now we have no home. We are a traveling band of circus people - that's actually the new job I will be taking. I (Chris) got everything packed, loaded, cleaned, and cleared (with help from the packers, movers, helpful friends, and Picerne Housing) last week, and after a short stay with the Crawford family, I left Sunday and arrived in Brighton, IL, just NE of the STL. Everything went really smoothly and I'm glad that part's over. Thanks be to all those who helped.

I basically walked into the sick ward here, as Mindy, Luke, and my father in-law are/were all sick upon my arrival. Luke had a fever (which seems to have broken today) and some congestion, Mindy has a cold/headache/earache, and Steve had a cold. I am doomed. Anyway, we tried to get them both to visit the doctor today, and we eventually gave up. Thank you Tricare, for making it as painful as possible to get medical help when you're out of town. I think I'm going to call the OMB and tell them that Tricare would rather I go for an expensive hospital visit than take them to the Shotts' normal family doctor, which would be much cheaper. If anyone ever wonders how much money the Army wastes per year, you're probably not even close in your estimate, trust me. Luke's fever broke not long after my marathon phone session, and Mindy ended up just going to the drugstore to get ear drops. Our government hard at work for you, soldiers!

We'll try to get another blog in before we leave STL for the cold, white north. So wish us luck. For those that don't know, we're here until this weekend, when we go to Michigan for a few days, and my Dad will take the dog and the truck back to MD to meet us there when we arrive early next week. Then after Christmas, I head down to GA to find a place to live, and my class starts on 4 January.

Keep it real out there. Props to my crew back in the Little Apple. We out.

I am so far behind on my blogs! =)

I am soooooooooooooooooooo far behind on my blogs!!! I should have some time to play catch up here over the next few weeks - but right now Luke is screaming, so I'll leave you with this...

This time last year (December of 2005)....



Trying on maternity pants...




Going Christmas shopping in a beat up wheelchair at Wal-Mart... =) Chris was so embarrassed to push me around, but I seriously couldn't walk around that long at that time (ahhh, the joys of pregnancy and being sicker than a dog because of it...) The basket was nice! =)


and now (December of 2006)...



A beautiful baby boy... he'll be 6 months tomorrow! It's amazing how much can change in a year.

I'll blog more later!

A few pictures until I can post the BIG blog...

I have sooooooooooooo much to blog about, but I just haven’t had the time to sit down and record everything I want…so I thought I would post a couple of pictures in the mean time. =)







Luke smiles all the time now, but it's hard to catch on film.



Luke's first major attempt at baby food. Yeah...let's just say it was EVERYWHERE...all over him, all over me, all over the cat, all over the couch...but he loves it!



Looking cute in his bear outfit...



Luke at 2 days old...can you believe he was ever that small! =)

Trick-or-Treat!

Here are the Halloween Pictures I promised a few weeks ago...I'm also working on November's Blog...so I should have another post soon. Enjoy the pics!




Playing with some toys while we waited on daddy
to get home from work so we could go trick-or-treating...



Luke and Jamie - Charile Brown and the Great Pumpkin!




Our first stop was to see Cherry at the church...



Then we went to see Corey and Holly...



Then we went to June's house...



Then we went to Mike and Carolyn's house...



And then to Bobby and Lindsey's party trailer.




Jenny, Jamie, Luke and myself...



Charlie Brown? I thought my name was Luke...



Luke is in a constant state of drooling...



Bobby and Lindsey's cat - The Duke of Whiskerton - playing with Luke's carseat



Luke all snug and warm at the end of the night.


I'll try to get November's post up as soon as I can!

Details of October part II

This next blog won’t be nearly as long as my last one…only because I have less time to cover…and fewer pictures. =) So let me finish the festivities of October for you. I think I last left off at the yard sale (Oct. 21st.)

So on the 22nd we went to our whole Sunday thing, 8:30am- Praise Team Practice, 9:30am – teach Sunday School, 10:40am – sing on Praise Team and Service…etc. That afternoon, we headed out to Britt’s Pumpkin Patch with our wonderful friends Jon, Jenny and baby Jamie. It was a fun and amusing event! We started off on a hay-rack ride, which Luke and Jamie slept through, then they drop us off at what they call a “corn maze.” Which it was, but all the corn was bent over, and the trail through it was pretty obvious…and if you really were having a hard time, all you had to do was look over the knee high maze to see where the pumpkin patch was. Regardless, we had a good laugh meandering our way through it. Once we hit the pumpkins, we started our search for the perfect orange pumpkin among many green ones. Before we knew it, Jenny and I were on our own as Jon and Jamie and Chris and Luke went out into the wild yonder to find the perfect pumpkin. After a few shouts of “Jon? Chris?” we were all reunited with perfect orange pumpkins. We loaded back on the hay-rack ride and headed back. It was lots of fun!

Sunday night fell back into our old routine as we graduated from our Sunday Night Crown Financial Study a few weeks back. So we got to the church at 5:30pm for Praise Team Practice, had service at 6:00pm and then finished the film work for the NMI video we were putting together.

Monday (Oct 23rd) was a fun and adventurous day. Luke and I were in pursuit of the perfect stroller. A lady in our church is due at the end of November, so a bunch of us girls went in together to buy her a nice stroller for her shower (which was that night.) So, Luke and I hit Target first. We find one we really like and think would be perfect, but as I look, I don’t see them in stock. Soooo, on to Hey Baby…and we couldn’t find much in our price range there. So then we made our way clear across town to Wal-Mart thinking for sure they’ll have what we need. No luck. All they had was stroller/car seat combo’s and I knew she didn’t need a car seat. So Luke and I head to the church to decorate for the shower. Luke did well…for the most part, but then got real fussy as I was nearing an end to the decorating. So I fed him, finished decorating and we headed back out to Target to recheck the strollers there. Miraculously when we got there we found the first stroller we had wanted! So we picked that up along with a few smaller items and headed back out to the church. The shower went great and Lily got a lot of great gifts. After that we headed out to Monday Night football, where I was supposed to meet up with Chris…only to find he wasn’t there. Worried, I call him but he was fine…just had a long tiring day and decided to stay at home (Husband’s note: I did call to tell her I wouldn’t be there, but someone in our family never answers her cell phone). (Wife's Note: He called during the shower, so I had my cell phone turned off...and he didn't leave a message, so how was I to know he had called?) So I stay and enjoy visiting for awhile and head back home.

Tuesday (Oct.24th) – Saturday (Oct. 28th) mornings and afternoons were spent trying desperately to catch up on housework and laundry during Luke’s short naps, as well as working many hours editing the video for NMI and doing errends. The evenings were quite full as well: Tuesday evening we had a meeting with some friends about a project they’re doing. Wednesday evening was small groups and another meeting, Thursday was shopping at the Commissary, Friday was our weekly Friday Night Supper…since we did a Halloween Theme, we whipped up some Sloppy Joe-a-Lanterns and Mummy Dogs (Hot Dogs wrapped up like mummies) and then headed to meet up with our fantabulous friends and enjoyed supper together.

On Sunday (October 29th) I woke up early, took Riley out for a much needed walk, we all got ready for church…and shock of all shocks, actually made it out the door in time. It was quite a busy day at church. That afternoon, Fort Riley was hosting the annual Ghost Tour. Unfortunately, it happened to fall on this very busy Sunday. However, for the three years I’ve been here, I’ve always wanted to go, so I was determined to try to at least make the first few stops on the tour before we left for evening service. I didn’t realize how popular this event was, and by the time we got there, there was a line of at a couple hundred people ahead of us! I was half tempted to turn around a go home since I knew we didn’t have much time before we had to leave, but it was only $1.00 to get on a tour group, so we figured even if we only had time to hear a few of the stories, we weren’t losing out on much money. So we finally got in the third tour group, unfortunately we were only able to hear a few of the stories and see a few of the haunted locations before we had to rush back to the car and on to church. Luke pretty much slept through the whole ordeal…until the end when he started to get hungry. By the time we got back into Manhattan for the evening service (to play the NMI video) I was having a hard time putting two words together that made sense. So I introduced our video with a horrible batch of unformed words and thoughts, sat down and was overcome with exhaustion. The video turned out pretty good, so we all got a good laugh (and it was informative about the mission work in Argentina as well.) A bunch of us went to DQ for a quick bite to eat, and Luke pooped so thoroughly through all his clothes that we had to change him in our trunk in the parking lot (since DQ dosen't seem to have a changing table in the bathroom.)

Monday (Oct 30th) was spent at home trying to once again to catch up on all the housework and laundry…it just never ends! =) Later that evening, Chris, Luke and I took Riley for a brisk walk and then headed out to the mall to try to find a last minute Halloween costume for Luke. We went to the Bootique, where a photographer from the Kansas State Collegian was taking photographs for the paper. We happened to be trying a cute dinosaur costume on Luke so he took our photo. It was pretty funny. We didn’t buy the costume however, because it was $30.00. So then we went to Wal-Mart where it was all picked over, strike 2. So I dropped Chris and Luke off at Monday Night Football and headed out to Target…completely picked over as well…strike 3. So we will be improvising (unless Chris can find a costume at the PX today.)

So anyway, on to Luke facts! =)

Luke is continuing to grow like a weed. I think he’s going through another spurt because he’s eating ALLLL the time again. And no, he’s still not sleeping through the night…sniff…sniff. One of these days…one of these days just maybe he will. The “cry it out” method is working fairly well. The first few nights were AWFUL, but he’s getting the idea and fighting sleep less. If he’s way overtired, he’ll still fight it like the dickens, but if we can get him to bed at a decent time, he’ll cry a few minutes and then fall asleep. He had his first taste of apple juice Sunday, Oct 22nd. We thought he was a bit constipated, so we gave him some diluted apple juice in a bottle…and he wasn’t really that fond of it. I was surprised, and had to eventually spoon feed him some just to get it into his tummy. It did the trick though, and lets just say…well, let’s not even say. =) He’s still loving his rice cereal, and I’m anxious to start incorporating some other baby food into the mix. I’m going to wait a bit longer, but I think within the next few weeks, we’ll start putting some other baby foods in the repertoire. Let’s see what else, ah yes, his eye has seemed to heal nicely, so that’s good. He’s able to sit up unassisted for a small amount of time and his rolling skills are just getting better and better everyday. He can now roll across the room…which means we have to keep a close eye on him! He loves his toys, and I can already see him picking out favorites among them. His most favorite toy however, is the remote to the TV…he is completely enthralled with the thing! I’m sure it’ll stop working soon with all the drool he’s slathered all over it.

As far as Chris, he's actually keeping fairly busy at work! We’re beginning to make finalized plans for our move. I can’t believe that in 5 weeks we’ll be on the first leg of our journey to Georgia. It’s going to be VERY hard to leave Fort Riley/Manhattan…it’s hard to even think about it! So I won’t right now.

I hope that all is going well for everyone! Until Next Time, here are some pictures!

---------------------UPDATE-----------------------------

Since I didn't get this posted yesterday, I can fill you in on our Halloween fun! Because we were bad and waited until literally the last minute to buy Luke's costume, we were left to improvise. I recalled that someone (I don’t remember when and where I heard it, but I do remember hearing it) had said a while back that Luke would make a cute Charlie Brown. So as I was frantically trying to find him a costume Monday night, the thought occurred to me to buy a yellow shirt or onesie, put the classic Charlie Brown stripe on it and go from there. Sooooo...that's what we ended up doing! So yesterday afternoon, I started putting the costume together. Since I didn't have a fabric marker, I took a Marks-A-Lot marker and colored in the stripes, then hung the onesie outside so the marker smell would air out of it...didn't want Luke to get high on marker! Then I found some brown pants, yellow socks and black shoes for him. I raided the costume makeup at the church and Chris drew the swirly hair and eyebrows.

We met Jenny and Baby Jamie at the church. Baby Jamie looked absolutely darling in a pumpkin costume! We made the joke that we had Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin! They looked so cute together!

(Side Note - I had bought a HUGE bag of candy at Target the other night, just in case we got back to post before the trick-or-treating hours would be done. Chris didn't think we would be back in time, so I brought the candy with us to leave at the houses we went too. Let's just say Chris had a heyday making fun of me for bringing candy with me to leave instead of going to get candy...I know it's hard to believe that Chris would ever make fun of me, but it does happen once in awhile...HA! )

Anyway, back to Halloween fun...

Our first stop was to see Cherry who was working at the church, then we headed out to the RozenbLooms (hehehe), then to June's, and then to Mike and Carolyn's and our last stop was at Bobby and Lindsey's Party Trailer. We had a wonderful time and great visits with everyone!

Here are pictures, so enjoy!




This was acutally taken a couple months back...and from the video camera, but it's so hard to actaully get him to smile for the camera. Anyway, I found it the other day and thought I would post it.




Luke posing by some pumpkins at the Pumpkin Patch...



Out in the Pumpkin Field!



Jon, Jenny and Baby Jamie searching for the perfect pumpkin...




Luke sleeping through the hay-rack ride...




A happy day at the Pumpkin Patch!




Luke drinking apple juice...the look on his face says it all!




Luke sitting...he's doing so well. Pretty soon, he'll be sitting with no
support.




Luke fell asleep in his Jumperoo...tee hee...




Luke in action, rolling over!





Luke LOVES Riley...here they are hanging out!




More play with Riley...





Some pictures from the Ghost Tour...




Luke trying to eat the camera on the Ghost Tour...



Luke sleeping on the Ghost Tour...



Luke in his cute hat and mittens...



This is the picture that was in the K-State Collegian...
Chris and I look funny, but Luke looks adoreable!
















Charile Brown and the Great Pumpkin...


*I'm having some trouble posting pictures right now, so I'm going to go ahead and post this blog, and post more halloween pictures a bit later.*


PS - Kara, I loved your messages last night! =) hehehe