May 5--my birthday
Lots of people celebrate with fiestas on the Cinco de Mayo, and while I'd like to claim that they're all just ecstatic about my birth, I know full well they're mostly just ecstatic about an excuse to consume large amounts of alcohol. Oh well. If they only knew me... ;o)
This year, Jim asked if I wanted to get a babysitter and go out to dinner or something, but when I thought about it, I realized that for the last few birthdays, all I REALLY wanted for my birthday was a baby. Last birthday was particularly bummer for me, and I just felt old and unsatisfied with my life. So the LAST thing I wanted this year was to leave my baby behind! Jadon is my best birthday gift ever, and so I opted for a night in...tailored to me. Jim picked up Pizza Hut (my favorite splurge, since it's twice the price of Little Caesars, and probably twice the calories, too) (I know, my tastes are simple), and then graciously walked the aisles of Home Depot with me and helped me get supplies for my garden. (That was probably the most generous gift he's ever given me--he HATES shopping, and has no interest whatsoever in home improvement projects. PATIENTLY walking through the store WITH A SMILE was one of his sweetest moments. I love that guy!)
I unwrapped a few presents from others, including an AMAZING edible bouquet from Abbey, Jadon's aunt from his birthmom's side, the one who originally called us to see if we would be interested in adopting Jadon. Eleven months earlier she gave me the best gift ever, and I am so blessed with the new friendship we have now on top of that.
Oh, and the other gift from Jim was a combination Rachel's birthday-anniversary-Jim's birthday gift. We decided to spend the next 90 days doing P90X together. (For those of you who haven't heard of it, it is an intense 90 day fitness program.) We bought the dvd's for half price on Craigslist, then spent a lot more money than we expected on dumbells and yoga mats and protein powder and recovery drink powder, and started the program on May 2. We will be done on July 30, supposedly with the "beach bodies" of our dreams. I doubt it, but more on that later...Oh yeah, this is what Jadon does while we work out:
Lucky kid! I wish I could be snacking!This birthday was 180 degrees better than last year, probably due more to my state of mind than anything else. While last year I was struggling with depression and hopelessness and frustration primarily due to our infertility, this year I feel happier and more hopeful and more satisfied than I have in a long time (maybe ever). I feel like I am walking in God's sweet spot and am drenched with unending showers of his blessing. It feels SO fantastic! Thank you Jesus!
May 8--Mother's Day
Three days later was pretty much just an extension of my birthday. And again, this holiday was polar opposite from last year. Last year, Jim took me on a writing getaway over the Mother's Day weekend. I took 2 days off of school, we drove up to a friend's cabin, and ditched church on the day dedicated to mothers so I wouldn't have to deal with any of it. And we wrote like crazy (like 12-16 hours a day)! It was really nice...but this year was so much better!!! After church, Jim took me to Coco's (his favorite restaurant right now because of some special they have), and then we went home and worked more on my garden. And once again, it really didn't matter what we did. As long as I got to hang out with my Jadon, I was the happiest mother I could be. God is good!
This is when we were just getting started on the garden:
This is it after my dad helped us put the finishing touches on it (OK, correction, when my dad finished what we had barely started), nearly a month later when my parents came down for Jadon's birthday. Unfortunately by then all of our stupid ground squirrels ate all the plants I had bought, except for my strawberries and sweet 100 tomatoes. Bummer.
Oh, and Jadon and I made some really cute Mothers' Day cards this year for his grandmas. I saw these hand and footprint flowers hanging in the window of a day care next to our church, and was inspired to try it out on my own. Jadon wasn't quite as excited about the prospects, and turned out covered with paint. But I liked the end results. Maybe next year he'll be more into it...
June 1--Our 9th anniversary
A few weeks later, we celebrated our wedding anniversary. Nine years sounds like such a long time to me! And it has gone by so fast! This past year of marriage has been our best one yet, thanks in large part to becoming parents. (Do you sense a common thread...hmmmm...) Sure, certain more intimate aspects of matrimony have suffered, but overall we have grown closer and are enjoying life together more than ever. And at a month into our P90X program, we're finally getting over the worst soreness and starting to feel that maybe, just maybe, it's working a little and we're getting a little stronger...
Our anniversary fell on a Wednesday night, which happens to be our couples' small group night at church, so we didn't really do much on the actual day, but on Friday night, Jim got Abbey and her family to babysit Jadon overnight (our first night away from the kiddo! eek!), and we drove down to our favorite date night spot, the Imperial Beach Drive-Ins. Once again, we got Pizza Hut (totally not part of the P90X nutrition plan!) and Jack in the Box Oreo Shakes (our first unofficial date), and watched X-Men (the only first feature we were even remotely interested in) (Jim fell asleep) and then Pirates of the Carribean 4. Of course, that was the movie I really wanted to see, but as the first features don't start until dark, the second one didn't start until 11pm, which is far later than we are accustomed to staying up. And we had packed Jim's Jeep SO comfy with pillows and blankets, it was like a little nest just begging you to cuddle up, and so needless to say, I didn't see much of this one. So sad. I guess I'll just have to wait until it comes out on video. I did see the last 15 or so minutes, though, and they weren't bad. After the movie was done after 1am, we drove across the street to the Days Inn where we had a reservation. Yeah, kind of ghetto area, but like I've said, our tastes are simple (which is one of the things I love most about Jim). So we crashed, and I didn't even worry about Jadon! Until Jim's phone rang at 4 am. Immediately I expected the worst, but Jim was so out of it he missed the call. But it didn't matter, since it turned out to be a friend from back east who accidentally butt-dialed Jim. Bummer. My one night NOT to wake up at 4am to Jadon's cries. Oh well. Turns out Jadon woke up crying right about the time anyways, but Abbey and Jason quickly consoled him and none of us missed too much sleep.
June 8--Jadon turns 1
This day came quicker than I could ever believe. My baby is 1 year old already!!! Where did the time go?
June 23--Jim's birthday
We rounded out our months of celebration with Jim's birthday. Being much less sentimental than me, he chose the baby-sitter route, and we used a gift card to Claim Jumper and two movie passes to see Super 8, while Jadon had a date with one of his favorite people, Amy Seed. Dinner was delicious (it is SO great to have an excuse to break our nutrition plan!!! Our dessert alone was 1700 calories!!! (good thing we shared it and brought half of it home!)), and the movie was surprisingly good. Based on the trailer, I didn't think I'd be that into it, but I LOVED the dialogue between the main characters, this group of middle schoolers who acted their parts SO realistically. It inspired me to work on the dialogue of the current movie script we're writing, making it more quirky and witty and endearing. And Jadon did great, in spite of taking a turn for the cranky that afternoon. He LOVES Miss Amy!
It is such a blessing to have this much to celebrate. And not only that, now it's summertime, our favorite time of year. Not much time for blogging, but we are having a blast!!!
May 8--Mother's Day
Three days later was pretty much just an extension of my birthday. And again, this holiday was polar opposite from last year. Last year, Jim took me on a writing getaway over the Mother's Day weekend. I took 2 days off of school, we drove up to a friend's cabin, and ditched church on the day dedicated to mothers so I wouldn't have to deal with any of it. And we wrote like crazy (like 12-16 hours a day)! It was really nice...but this year was so much better!!! After church, Jim took me to Coco's (his favorite restaurant right now because of some special they have), and then we went home and worked more on my garden. And once again, it really didn't matter what we did. As long as I got to hang out with my Jadon, I was the happiest mother I could be. God is good!
This is when we were just getting started on the garden:
This is it after my dad helped us put the finishing touches on it (OK, correction, when my dad finished what we had barely started), nearly a month later when my parents came down for Jadon's birthday. Unfortunately by then all of our stupid ground squirrels ate all the plants I had bought, except for my strawberries and sweet 100 tomatoes. Bummer.
Oh, and Jadon and I made some really cute Mothers' Day cards this year for his grandmas. I saw these hand and footprint flowers hanging in the window of a day care next to our church, and was inspired to try it out on my own. Jadon wasn't quite as excited about the prospects, and turned out covered with paint. But I liked the end results. Maybe next year he'll be more into it... June 1--Our 9th anniversaryA few weeks later, we celebrated our wedding anniversary. Nine years sounds like such a long time to me! And it has gone by so fast! This past year of marriage has been our best one yet, thanks in large part to becoming parents. (Do you sense a common thread...hmmmm...) Sure, certain more intimate aspects of matrimony have suffered, but overall we have grown closer and are enjoying life together more than ever. And at a month into our P90X program, we're finally getting over the worst soreness and starting to feel that maybe, just maybe, it's working a little and we're getting a little stronger...
Our anniversary fell on a Wednesday night, which happens to be our couples' small group night at church, so we didn't really do much on the actual day, but on Friday night, Jim got Abbey and her family to babysit Jadon overnight (our first night away from the kiddo! eek!), and we drove down to our favorite date night spot, the Imperial Beach Drive-Ins. Once again, we got Pizza Hut (totally not part of the P90X nutrition plan!) and Jack in the Box Oreo Shakes (our first unofficial date), and watched X-Men (the only first feature we were even remotely interested in) (Jim fell asleep) and then Pirates of the Carribean 4. Of course, that was the movie I really wanted to see, but as the first features don't start until dark, the second one didn't start until 11pm, which is far later than we are accustomed to staying up. And we had packed Jim's Jeep SO comfy with pillows and blankets, it was like a little nest just begging you to cuddle up, and so needless to say, I didn't see much of this one. So sad. I guess I'll just have to wait until it comes out on video. I did see the last 15 or so minutes, though, and they weren't bad. After the movie was done after 1am, we drove across the street to the Days Inn where we had a reservation. Yeah, kind of ghetto area, but like I've said, our tastes are simple (which is one of the things I love most about Jim). So we crashed, and I didn't even worry about Jadon! Until Jim's phone rang at 4 am. Immediately I expected the worst, but Jim was so out of it he missed the call. But it didn't matter, since it turned out to be a friend from back east who accidentally butt-dialed Jim. Bummer. My one night NOT to wake up at 4am to Jadon's cries. Oh well. Turns out Jadon woke up crying right about the time anyways, but Abbey and Jason quickly consoled him and none of us missed too much sleep.
June 8--Jadon turns 1
This day came quicker than I could ever believe. My baby is 1 year old already!!! Where did the time go?
To celebrate Jadon's special day, we started with Mickey Mouse blueberry whole grain pancakes with strawberry topping. Jadon was pretty happy. 
After playing in his new ball pit, 
we took my dad's truck in to get smogged, did some yard work,
and hung out. For dinner we barbecued, and Jadon's favorite part was an empty corn on the cob. Cute boy.
Jadon's birthday also happened to be the graduation ceremonies of 4 of our local high schools, which happens to be a pretty important event for those of us in youth ministry. So this year, we divided and conquered. Jim went to the beginning of El Camino's and the end of Vista's, and I went to the end of Oceanside's so I could see my old students graduate in addition to the students in our youth group. Jadon was a trooper, and when we got home at 8:30, he finally got his first real taste of sugar: vanilla ice cream. I am an ice cream addict, and so this was a long anticipated day for me. Sadly, Jadon was a little apathetic to the sweet tasty treat. I think I'll attribute it to exhaustion from his long day. I look forward to many more icecream dates with my kiddo... 
June 11--Jadon's 1st birthday party
That Saturday was Jadon's party. Whew! What an undertaking. I'll devote a whole other post to that!
June 19--Father's Day
The party continued with Father's Day. It landed in the middle of a month of weekends where Jim had to preach 5 services a day, so he was pretty exhausted and didn't want to do much. So I barbecued for him, we had a nice liesurely afternoon, and that was about it.
This is the best shot I got because seconds later Jadon lunged out of Jim's arms so he could go play. Jim barely caught him in time. Crazy kid! :o)
After playing in his new ball pit, we took my dad's truck in to get smogged, did some yard work, and hung out. For dinner we barbecued, and Jadon's favorite part was an empty corn on the cob. Cute boy. Jadon's birthday also happened to be the graduation ceremonies of 4 of our local high schools, which happens to be a pretty important event for those of us in youth ministry. So this year, we divided and conquered. Jim went to the beginning of El Camino's and the end of Vista's, and I went to the end of Oceanside's so I could see my old students graduate in addition to the students in our youth group. Jadon was a trooper, and when we got home at 8:30, he finally got his first real taste of sugar: vanilla ice cream. I am an ice cream addict, and so this was a long anticipated day for me. Sadly, Jadon was a little apathetic to the sweet tasty treat. I think I'll attribute it to exhaustion from his long day. I look forward to many more icecream dates with my kiddo... June 11--Jadon's 1st birthday party
That Saturday was Jadon's party. Whew! What an undertaking. I'll devote a whole other post to that!
June 19--Father's Day
The party continued with Father's Day. It landed in the middle of a month of weekends where Jim had to preach 5 services a day, so he was pretty exhausted and didn't want to do much. So I barbecued for him, we had a nice liesurely afternoon, and that was about it.
This is the best shot I got because seconds later Jadon lunged out of Jim's arms so he could go play. Jim barely caught him in time. Crazy kid! :o)June 23--Jim's birthday
We rounded out our months of celebration with Jim's birthday. Being much less sentimental than me, he chose the baby-sitter route, and we used a gift card to Claim Jumper and two movie passes to see Super 8, while Jadon had a date with one of his favorite people, Amy Seed. Dinner was delicious (it is SO great to have an excuse to break our nutrition plan!!! Our dessert alone was 1700 calories!!! (good thing we shared it and brought half of it home!)), and the movie was surprisingly good. Based on the trailer, I didn't think I'd be that into it, but I LOVED the dialogue between the main characters, this group of middle schoolers who acted their parts SO realistically. It inspired me to work on the dialogue of the current movie script we're writing, making it more quirky and witty and endearing. And Jadon did great, in spite of taking a turn for the cranky that afternoon. He LOVES Miss Amy!
This is Jim talking to his parents while enjoying his "special" birthday breakfast, a la P90X--scrambled egg whites with bell peppers WITH CHEESE as a special treat. Oh how we'll be glad when P90X is over! Jim had to rush off to work, so this was the only picture I got.
It is such a blessing to have this much to celebrate. And not only that, now it's summertime, our favorite time of year. Not much time for blogging, but we are having a blast!!!
Whew, you made it through May and June!! What a fun, crazy, busy time of year that is for your family! Looking forward to hanging out soon.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a post! So glad to be able to catch up. I've been checking often and wondering what you guys are up to! Love your little garden. Good luck with the Topsy Turvys. My strawberries bit the dust =(
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