When the thunder and lightning preceeded the actual dumping of water from the sky, I was on the phone with Damon. It started to pour and I could see the wind picking up by the movement in the trees. At one point the color of a tree changed completely because all I could see was the silvery-green underside of the leaves. As I hung up with Damon I told him it wasn’t the rain that bothered me, but the wind.

We have a rather established Tulip Poplar tree in our back yard. Four months after we moved into this house, a wicked storm blew through and knocked a really big portion of the tree into the street. It crushed the chain link fence we had at the time, and ruined a perfectly good afternoon nap.

At some other point in the nine years we have lived here, a storm blew a heavy branch onto my car, smashing the windshield. This is a possible side effect of parking under a tree.

And yesterday, we lost some more of that tree into the alleyway behind our house.

I had to call Damon and ask him to try and come home sooner rather than later because it was blocking the alleyway, specifically the driveway of the house behind ours. I moved some of the manageable branches, but really the biggest hunk had to managed by the strength of my husband’s chainsaw.

Damon told me he would come home as soon as the rain passed from downtown. I didn’t realize he meant downtown was suffering from flash flooding.

We are really fortunate the debris fell where it did, because it didn’t land on any cars (ours or anyone else’s), our fence, or nearby buildings. And yet, our tree still stands tall. Hope it doesn’t fall completely down during the next storm.

Hi! I’m Fuller! I play wit you? We can play puppets!

This is snail. He smiles and isn’t a bad guy.

Mommy Bird says “tweet! tweet!” Louder! “TWEET! TWEET!”

Baby Bird gets lost from Mommy Bird a lot. Baby Bird doesn’t obey and cries.

Galigator is bad guy. He tries to eat Baby Bird and Mommy Bird. Baby Bird cries. (Fuller Mommy says Baby Bird cries a lot.)

Galigator is green. Green is my favorite color. Mommy’s favorite color is orange. Daddy loves blue.

Ion is bad guy. He stomps on Galigator and Baby Bird and Mommy Bird and Snail.

Spider-Man Puppet is good guy. He gets Galigator and Ion with his webs and sends them to the police. He saves Baby Bird and Mommy Bird and Baby Bird. Baby Bird says “Thank you!” and doesn’t cry.

Come back in my room and I play wit you?

Apparently Fuller’s alarm clock had been turned on and went off around 1, scaring the poor boy awake. Damon had the situation under control, drying tears, reassuring Fuller it wouldn’t happen again, and putting Fuller back in the land of Nod.

This morning when I went to greet Fuller this morning, he was still fearful and had to recount the entire story for me. I guess now we have to make sure his alarm clock isn’t accidentally set, which will probably come before the goodnight kisses and hugs.

Last week, during one of Fuller’s quiet times, I was resting on the couch watching Scrubs. It was an episode I had seen several times, but still special because it was the episode where Turk and Carla finally get pregnant. There are hi jinks involved in Carla finding out, but in the end there is a big scene where all their friends are gathered to hear the announcement and congratulate them.

And in the many, many times I have seen this episode, I never really paid attention to the song playing during the scene. It heard the words “I lift up my hands and I worship” and my ears perked up. Then the lyrics I heard were “It’s not that I’m worthy I thank you Jesus” and I guess my eyes got big because my favorite TV show was using a Christian rock band to support this wonderful scene celebrating new life.

We aren’t worthy for anything God gives us in our lives. It is just the reality of sin. But by the grace of God, here we are blessed with ten weeks of pregnancy and looking forward to a lifetime of love and care for a new little one. I thank you Jesus.

How do I speak of the indescribable to You
I will try to explain these feelings that are true
So looking to the sky I will sing and from my heart to You I bring

All of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship
I worship You

In your presence I forever choose to live
I will praise You for it’s all I have to give
So looking to the sky I will sing and from my heart to You I bring

All of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship

By Your grace You let me come talk to You
It’s not that I’m worthy I thank you Jesus
For the love that You have shown

All of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship

With all of the words in all of my life that could never explain and never describe
All of my love, which is nothing to hide so I lift up my hands and I worship
I worship You

Technorati Tags: Scrubs, Kutless, pregnancy, grace

On Tuesday Fuller and I took a trip to the Creative Discovery Museum. Fuller really, really enjoys the new Corner Clinic where he can “be doctor” and play with things like the x-ray lights and look up a gigantic nose with a mirror.

Fuller and I have been attending the downtown library’s Wednesday story time. It consists of several books being read (some with children participation), a short film, and a craft. This past Wednesday the theme was Superheros in Space, which was totally up Fuller’s alley.

After story time Fuller and I wander the shelves one through seven and pick out five books. I don’t know why five, I just decided that was a good number. It has been exciting to read to him and then later see him reading the book to himself. He remembers plot lines and key words or sounds. It warms my heart.

We won’t get to keep going on Wednesdays when Moms’ Group starts up again, but we are having fun right now.

Chattanooga is buzzing with Antiques Roadshow rolling into town this week. The official “Welcome to Chattanooga” event was on Thursday morning at the incline and I wanted to go to take pictures. I wasn’t prepared for Fuller’s attraction and pleas we ride the actual incline (or train, as Fuller called it) and he had quite the break down. After many speeches by local city officials and Antique Roadshow personalities, I bought the tickets and Fuller and I took a ride on America’s Most Amazing Mile.

I had never been up the incline before, so it was a fun experience for me too. But Fuller was amazed. He loved going up, he loved the pulleys, and he loved the popcorn in the gift shop.

It was such a fun week, even though it was tiring.

After reading the breaking news at 11:00 AM, we realized we had just enough time to dash over to the Hunter Museum for the 11:30 official announcement. We’ve added a Flickr set, here. They even gave away gift bags afterwards.

Achtung Baby!

And then again, when I look over the archives of my blogs I see big spaces where details of our lives haven’t been splashed over the internet. Believe it or not, our family blog isn’t a true tell all because we simply don’t tell all.

Then when something happens we want to blog about but have to wait.. well, it makes it harder to write about because it seems like it happened so long ago. In fact we are six weeks passed when we found out and yet I have no real way of poetically announcing I am nine weeks pregnant.

Oh wait. I think I just did it.

It has been difficult to keep the secret, especially since we were surrounded by so much family on our vacation. But we prefer not to raise too many hopes and wait until we hear the heartbeat. And Tuesday morning we went to the doctor to check out the little one I carry.

It turned into a scary ultrasound because the doctor could not find the baby. He finally found it to the side and we all started thinking it was ectopic. We went to a hi-res ultrasound (thank you modern medicine) and learned I have tilting uterus and the baby (with very strong heartbeat) was in utero. Exactly where he/she should be!

I had to wait share the news here because really we prefer friends and family find out from us and not the blog. And today Damon shared the news with our church family (complete with football analogy and loud “Yahoo!”), so really how could I not blog about it now?

I have the journal entries from when I was pregnant with Fuller and I have been looking over them to remind myself of what I was thinking then…

We got our first glimpse of you on Monday afternoon and as your Daddy said, “It was historic.”

You are so cute with your little round shape that resembles the blob of Jello that fell on the counter top this morning. And your heartbeat was very… loud, I guess. It was 128 beats per minute. It has to get up to about 140, so start doing jumping jacks or something. That will get your heart rate up in no time.

Since we had a hi-res ultrasound, Baby Two looks more like a baby than a blob of jello. And it was nice to hear his/her heartbeat was perfect instead of making us jumpy like Fuller did. However, taking up shop on the side of my uterus and hiding wasn’t a great way to start the parent-child relationship, so I guess we have room to improve.

The countdown is on… February isn’t that far away.

As a kid, when Damon and his sister Vicki were at The Lake for two weeks in the summer, Albert (their dad) would set up a treasure hunt for the kids. This usually involved money and possibly diving to the bottom of the lake (a shallow part). Damon has probably told me in more detail, but I’ll spare you.

Damon decided it was time to bring the treasure hunt into this century and introduce it to Fuller, Nick, and Vivian. It stemmed from our Memorial Day present, a Garmin GPS. (What? You don’t give Memorial Day presents? You totally should.)

Damon and I picked up a nine piece puzzle from the dollar store and wrote a “secret message” on the back. We then wrapped each piece in saran wrap with an identifying symbol so the kids knew exactly what they were looking for.

Damon then attached each piece to nine different trees along the road.

Then he used the GPS to determine the lattitude and longitude of the clue and saved it in the GPS as “Clue One,” “Clue Two,” etc.

Damon planted an invitation to the kids in the mailbox. Getting the mail was a daily ritual for the kids, so Vivian (the only one who can read) was thrilled to find something in the mailbox for them.

The package contained a CD with a message from a mysterious looking man in the shadows. (The mysterious looking man looks like he needs a haircut.)

Soon after the message was played, the computer blew up.

Just joking. That only happens in the movies.

We took off in the golf cart and followed the GPS directions given by the lovely British woman trapped in the gadget. Vivian and Nick were having a grand time finding the clues and bringing them back to the golf cart. Fuller was moaning and groaning, and then threw up around clue four. Damon quickly drove Fuller back to the house while Vivian, Nick and I walked to clues 5, 6, and 7 which were all in the emergency landing area for medivac helicopters. We accidentally found clues 7 and 6 in the wrong order, but it didn’t matter. The kids were having fun!

After the nine clues were found, we ventured back to the house to put the clues together. It was rather easy for the big kids and soon they were looking at a picture of Diego.

Once they realized they had to put the puzzle upside down, it became clear. Or did it?

Turns out the message on the back was out on the lake, so we had to wait until Grandpa Albert came home and helped us go to the secret location of the treasure.

The treasure was found, the bag opened, and the loot distributed to the cousins. Candy, hats, kickboards, and some silly string were welcomed with open arms by the kids. Nick was constantly heard saying, “This is so much fun!” And Cool Uncle Damon enjoyed giving the kids an updated version of something he enjoyed as a kid.

Next year we will have to figure out how to top it.

Technorati Tags: Lake Martin, GPS, treasure hunt

If you follow our flickr stream, you will see we didn’t fall off the face of the earth, but continued with our family vacation in a meager fashion.

What the pictures do not tell you is Fuller got worse before he got better. With the threat of severe dehydration on our minds, we called an actual ER doctor (thanks, Uncle John!) and received our medical training advice to keep giving him liquids and popsicles. This saved Fuller from a traumatizing ER trip. (It also meant that the number of family members in the hospital was kept to one- my sister Austina spent three days in the hospital with pneumonia.)

Uncle John also called in a prescription for phenegrin to help calm Fuller’s stomach. Since it was Thursday night and Friday was a holiday, he had to call it into a 24 hour pharmacy in Montgomery. It was pretty much a three hour round trip. The things we do for kids!

I’m happy to say Fuller started to get better that evening (and we never gave him the phenegrine), making the rest of our vacation a bit more pleasant. We are bummed to say my dad caught whatever Fuller had, so we issue our official blog apology here: Sorry Grandpa Fred!

The actual July 4th celebration was the usual: lots of family, lots of food, and playing in the water. Fuller didn’t partake in much of it, since his diet was restricted to liquids, popsicles, and simple starches (crackers). Damon showed Fuller how to take a long nap, which really rejuvenated Fuller and made us think he would make it to the fireworks later that evening.

Mother Nature however decided to throw up a storm of her own, making our side the lake a little tumultuous. We decided to skip the fireworks in favor of keeping our son on the path to healthiness.

Getting Fuller healthy was important so he could travel to Americus, Georgia for my cousin’s wedding. While he wasn’t as into the actual wedding part, the reception was a big hit for Fuller. First we all rode the trolley from the church to the reception. Fuller and Damon even rode it back to the church for another round trip. Then there was dancing with all kinds of little girls (the one above is my cousin). We also allowed him a few bites of cake before going on another trolley ride just for the heck of it. Fuller wasn’t into the sparklers used to wave goodbye to the happy couple, but over all he was thrilled with the fun of the day.

The rest of the weekend was going to church, playing with cousins, and then hours in the car getting home again by way of Lake Martin (to pick up the dogs). Our vacation may be over, but the laundry still reminds us of the fun we had and fill us with hopes of a healthy trip next year.

The highlights of Fuller’s 2008 Lake Martin trip include the following:

• An allergic reaction to sunscreen, prompting a trip to Wal-Mart for Benedryl. Fortunately the hives subsided within 12 hours or so, but he did look pretty puffy and blotchy for a while.

• Stomach monkeys causing problems coming out both ends. Today a canoe trip was postponed when he vomited on the porch steps and his Spider-Man shoes.

• Fighting with his cousins causing plenty of time outs and life lessons. He is learning people who are older than you don’t always like it when you are in their face at 7 in the morning. And sometimes behavior like that gets you a knuckle sandwich.

But this fun is counterbalanced with lots of swimming, boat rides, and plenty of attention from four grandparents. He might be able to have ice cream again tomorrow, which will turn the fun quotient up over 100%. And if he gets to start running around the house with his cousins again, he won’t want to leave next Monday.