Easter and Birthday Surprises…

Chris says I start the blog the same way every time, so this time I will start it differently…

As I write this blog (just to set the mood for you), Luke is crying into the monitor. He went down for his nap at 1pm and needs to stay down until 3pm and he’s already crying at 1:43pm. =) He’ll go back to sleep…hopefully. Riley just went upstairs to go lay down on the bed next to the crying Luke, Tiger is upstairs in the hallway with his head next to the water bowl and Little One is curled up in my closet. Chris is at Famous Dave's at a class lunch and here I am typing at the computer. I have the screen door open so a lovely cool breeze is blowing and I have a yummy cup of coffee sitting next to me. If it weren’t for Luke’s persistent cries over the monitor, it would be a very peaceful setting. =)

Ok, on with things you’d actually like to hear about. =)

Easter

Our Easter plans were sadly not what we had panned. We had hoped for a 4 day so we could drive up and spend Easter with Chris’s family – unfortunately, there was no time off. Chris even had a meeting on Saturday, so getting away for a short weekend wasn’t even an option. So we spent Easter at home. We had a good day despite being disappointed that we were unable to carry through with our plans. Chris and I bought Luke a few toys and empty Easter eggs (knowing he would much prefer playing with the eggs to finding candy in them at this age.) We gave him his gifts Saturday evening and he played with them for the rest of the night.

Easter Sunday we went to church and enjoyed a nice Easter service. I do have to admit that I REALLY missed putting on an Easter Production. I missed it so much that Saturday night I dreamed that I was putting one on anyway. =) But, I suppose it just wasn’t meant to be this year. It’s only reconfirmed, however, my passion for directing productions. I may not be good at it, but I LOVE doing it. =) We spent a relaxing rest of the day with Luke and each other. It was very nice.

On Monday, an Easter box came from Grammy and Grandpa Scott. Luke had a great time pulling out the different items! And we had a great time eating all the yummy candy that came in it! =)

Oh, and just a word of warning - I dyed my hair. So the below pictures will show me sporting my new color. It's not permanent - I just wanted to try a darker color out. I would have liked it, but for some reason the color went on really uneven, so I'm using the Prell Shampoo trick to get it to fade faster. Most of the time I forget that I've done it - until I pass a mirror and then I'm like - "oh yeah, I'm not blonde right now." It's fading pretty fast and then I'll go back to being a blonde, but it was fun to try something new.

Birthday Surprise

The rest of the week was busy and went by pretty fast. We decided that we would make a quick weekend trip to Maryland for the next weekend (April 14-15) to surprise Mom Scott for her birthday. We knew it would be a lot of driving for a short time, but we really wanted to do it. So Friday after Chris got home from class, we jumped in the car and took off. I had tried to pack everything I thought we would need for the next 2 days, but if Chris was writing this, he would tell you that I forgot a lot of stuff. For once I didn’t over pack though! =) The trip there went pretty fast (it’s a 9-10 hour trip depending on weather and traffic.) Only Randy and Jamie knew we were coming, so it was a complete surprise to Mom and Dad Scott. We got to the house at about 1:00am. It was all dark inside and we knew they were fast asleep. We quickly changed Luke into a shirt that we had made that said Surprise! and Happy Birthday! on it and went to the door. Chris knocked. Then knocked again…and again…and again…and again…finally Kaylee (their cute chocolate lab) heard the knocking and started barking.

We were getting somewhere. =) So we continued knocking. Finally a light came on and we hear from within the house, “Who’s there?!” So Chris and I respond, “It’s a surprise!” Then we see Dad Scott come to the door, and finally it registers for both of them who we are. It was great and definitely a huge surprise! So we stayed up for an hour visiting and playing with Luke. (And for those of you who know how we travel, yes – we brought our entourage…Riley, Tiger and Little One came along too.)

Saturday was a lot of fun. Luke had a blast pulling things out of the kitchen cabinets and helping GrammyMom and Grandpa put together a highchair. Randy and Jamie and Great-Grandpa Scott came over and we all spent time visiting together. Later we went out to lunch. For supper we had crabs (much to Chris’s delight) and were able to visit with Aunt Marge and Uncle Joe as well. It was such a great day!

Sunday we were able to stay and go to church together. Luke didn’t last to long in the service and Grandpa took him out to play. We stayed and ate at a Sunday School class potluck at church and Luke sampled many new dishes. After that we packed up our things and headed back. The weather was pretty bad the whole way (we drove through a nor'easter), but we made it in one piece.

We had a really really good time and our only wish was that we were able to stay longer.

I thank God for his continued protection over our travel. We had a really, really close call on the way up. We were almost rear ended on I-20 in Columbia, SC at a pretty fast speed. It could have been a serious accident, but God’s hand was over us, as well as the other vehicle. The guy that almost hit us had to slam on his brakes (he had just switched lanes behind us and was accelerating quickly – however our lane was slowing down quickly), and we were sandwiched between a cement wall with no shoulder, a car ahead of us and a semi on the side. So the guy had to slam on his brakes, somehow switch into the other lane, ended up doing a 180 turn (in heavy traffic might I add) and ended up a few lanes over. Although a VERY scary thing (we could see he wasn’t going to be able to stop in time and I was sure he was going to hit us) God poured out his protection and the accident that could have been really bad (not only for us but for many others) never happened. Praise God!

So far no official word on where we’ll be heading to next, but hopefully in the next few days we’ll know. We have a broad idea of some of our possibilities, but that doesn’t really help us to much in getting prepared. I just want to know if it’ll be overseas or in the states so we know how to begin preparing. We’ll just have to wait and see though. =)

We are really looking forward to our next visitors this weekend! Jenny and Jamie are coming down on Friday and I can’t wait!! I haven’t seen them since the beginning of December, so I’m really really excited to get caught back up again. It’ll be fun to see Luke and Jamie play together too!

Alright, I think that’s all the new news.

Have a wonderful week!

10 months at a glance...

A few days old...

5 weeks old...

8 weeks old...

13 weeks old...

18 weeks old...

21 weeks old...

25 weeks old...

29 weeks old...

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45 weeks old...