Wow, so much has happened over the past few weeks - I don't even know where to start!!!

Of course, the biggest news is that Cosette Grace "Coco" was born on December 7th at 7:30pm.

She is so perfect.

The hospital experience was... well... a hospital experience. The medical staff didn't fail to attempt to add a few gray hairs and a little more unnecessary worry than they already have... but that's for another blog. The bottom line is... Cosette is a perfectly healthy 6lb 14oz beauty.

Javan is a proud big brother! (she's sporting her little sister shirt)

Javan has had several exciting things going on. Last week, well, actually I think its been 2 weeks now.. Javan started wrestling.

Wow, does he love it!

Its so fun to see Lance get excited with him too. Lance wrestled from 1st grade through high school so he is great at working with Javan. (and yes, he high school's team is the "Lancer's" haha. too funny)

Javan also had his pagent on Sunday.

He, of course, was the BEST little angel up on stage.

I've got about 18 million (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little...but not much) pictures to sort through and I'll get some good one's up here..hopefully soon!!

Saw this today and it made me laugh out loud :-)

Source: Uploaded by user via Samantha on Pinterest

we bought a new car!!

Its official. We are a minivan family :-)

It will definitely make our trip to PA a lot more comfortable!

Here's the link to the ad for it. I was going to take my own pictures and then realized.... they did all the work already, might as well utilize it while its still on the site. haha.

http://www.accumotors.com/inventory/view/3205971/2006-Chrysler-Town%20&%20Country%20LWB

Zaine

Wow, yesterday it was 72 degrees ... today I don't think it hit 50. brrr.....

Didn't stop the kiddo's from playing outside together :-)

This is Zaine and Javan

This is Zaine, Tanner, and Javan.

Tanner is a little older and his parents are divorced and spends a good amount of time with his dad. We don't see him very much, but its nice for them when he comes out to play :-)

Well, things around here have been BUSY (really great) but  so busy I haven't had a chance to write any updates. So here's life in the Ferris house in a nutshell...

Little baby Ferris has yet to make her debut (obviously) and she's still breech. I have done every trick in the book that you could think of to turn her but she doesn't want to budge. Our doctor offered to do an "external version" where they manually turn her and has a very high success rate.  Sounded great and we were totally gung ho for it  at first until we heard..

They hook you up to monitors, inject a medicine that stops your contractions, and it can be so excruciatingly painful that you may be sore for days later. Oh yeah, and there is that risk that the baby could go into distress from it and you would be immediately sent into an emergency c-section.

Lance and I decided to just pray about it and so we prayed that if it His will then he would give us BOTH peace about the version.  

I don't think that an external version is necessary a bad choice but we both did not have peace about it, so, unless she decides to turn at the last minute... we'll be having a breech birth. That aside, she's doing great!

Its that time of the year at Olson Research Group where all of our clients have to use up their budgeted money before the end of the year or they lose it... on top of co-workers using up their vacation time before they lose it on Jan 1 (therefore a lot of "covering" going on") its been BUSY for me. Last week was just crazy with me working all day and into the evening. I'm really looking forward to maternity leave!!

Lance is experiencing the same kind of busy-ness at his job. In fact - last night and tonight he has been working overtime from 2:30am - 9am!!

Javan is doing awesome, of course. He's excelling at school (as I knew he would). We just got his midterm report and got "excellent" on everything. His reading skills are amazing and we are now working on chapter books. He is also doing really well adding and subtracting in his head (or with his fingers, if necessary).

He talks about being excited to have the baby but his reasoning is that "she always gets the middle when we snuggle." oh boy! haha. I'm a little nervous about the jealousy issue, but we will overcome it like everything else.

The most exciting thing for Javan right now is that there is a new neighbor in our neighborhood. His name is Zaine and he is in first grade. These two were best friends from the minute they met. Every day this week Zaine comes over after school and rings our doorbell and off they go to play in their "fort", (a log in a few bushes) riding bikes, cowboys and indians etc... I've met his mother and she is very sweet - I haven't met his dad yet since he works a lot. We are excited because Zaine is going to come to church with us tomorrow and it will be a great opportunity for Javan to share Jesus with his new friend. The mom wasn't quite ready to go to church. She said "When my husband isn't working so much we will go together." that's ok with me. I have begun praying for opportunities to share Jesus with our new friends and neighbors.

I will post a pic tomorrow of Javan with his new buddy. If you think of it, please pray for their friendship. I know he is young but we all know that "you are who you hang out with" and since we don't know where they are spiritually - it does cause some anxiety for me. I know I can't shelter my baby forever so I've been praying  over him every night this week specifically that The Lord would give Javan discernment between right and wrong and be a good influence to Zaine and also Lance and me insight to know if there is something that needs to be addressed. :-)

This afternoon we decided to buy last minute tickets to a production of Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Our midwife's children were in it. It was great and so fun to see Javan get into it :-) He kept on reminding himself "those are real people all dressed up" or "those swords aren't real" or whatever...its always less scary when you can see that it is just people in costumes as opposed to how realistic Hollywood movies appear. One of the witches helpers had a mask on that looked like he had only one eye and this totally baffled Javan. He kept on asking where are that guy's eye's????? How did they make it look like that?? It was cute and fun and of course as soon as we left he said "is it too late to go play with Zaine?" haha.

So, he did.

And when it got dark he watched some of a movie at their house and had dinner with them... and the best part was that afterwards he just had to run home (no picking him up or driving anywhere involved... sweet!)

I can't believe its almost time to meet our newest little family member. We are sooo excited!

I am halfway through my 37th week....we had a doctors appt today and everything looks happy and healthy, so I can't complain about a little backache and braxton hicks :-)

I wish I could figure out how to rotate my pictures on this crazy blog!! When I look at the actual picture in the file folder its not sideways...grr...well, anyway, this is me at 36 weeks. If you would like to see the picture without having to turn your head, you can just look at facebook. haha.

Happy Birthday Lance!!

Yesterday was Lance's birthday. I got him a watch for his birthday but it wasn't really a surprise so Javan and I made up a scavenger hunt for him to find it. haha. Here's what the watch looks like:

I also made him snickerdoodles. His favorite kind of cookie. Its kind of a huge deal not only because its his favorite cookie but because its basically just made of sugar and flour...2 things I don't eat... therefore 2 things he doesn't get very often. :-)

THEN we went out for icecream.

All in all I think he had a pretty good day and Javan was pretty delighted to have some cookies and icecream too...I made myself a lentil pie and it was pretty delish too (even though it sounds kind of gross from the name haha)...

Let the swelling begin

You may all still have nightmares of my  elephant angles when I was pregnant with Javan.

 Ah yes, I remember all too well the way my leg turned into my foot without a single curve....

I wrote it in my pregnancy calendar with Javan. It was toward the beginning of my 33rd week.

You may not believe me, but I seriously did track this excessive swelling from last time and was ECSTATIC when the 33rd week came and went without any swelling - phew... a sigh of relieve that I won't be plagued with the horrendous cankles.

Well, I went to my appt today. I am 2 days shy of 35 weeks. My doctor says to me "looks like you have a little swelling..."

You better believe I checked out those ankles as soon as I got home in hopes that maybe it was an oversight on the md's part...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! They're HERE!! The Dinosaur ankles have made their debut.

And so it begins.

They WILL get bigger.

 Of this, I am sure.

They will be shocking, I promise.

I'll wait until they look like something from Ripley's believe it or not before I share a pic with you. (I know you're dying to see them).

Wonder if this says something about when she is coming... let's see... Javan was born at 36 weeks and 7 days  and the swelling started at 33 weeks and 3 days....I am 35 weeks and 5 days so that makes her "due date" 38 weeks and 4 days (you better double check my math... its not my strong point).

If I'm going to have to deal with this swelling then I'd like to opt for sooner.... (like I actually have a choice)

Halloween

Another fun Halloween!!

Javan had a little Halloween party at his school. This is his class:

I made the juice boxes for his class ;-)

then we took Javan out to Legacy Church's halloween festival. Javan had fun. Here are some more pirate pics...I couldn't figure out how to rotate them so you'll have to turn your head. haha!

And then we went trick or treating... Lance enjoyed the decorated house:

pumpkin carving

Finally time for some good old pumpkin carving :-) Javan thought it was a lot of fun and of course SUPER cool to light them. :-)

Only 6 more weeks until her due date... yeek!!! so excited :-)

Well, the weeks are getting closer to when we get to meet our little girl and I am so excited to meet her (and to be done with this crazy pregnancy!! haha.

Sunday Lance's sister's threw a baby shower for me and it was a nice time. I've got lots of cute little girl clothes and hats and headbands and coats to dress her up in.

Today we had another ultrasound. The baby is in the exact same position as she was in the last ultrasound. Breech. So, She's gotta figure out how to turn herself around in the next few weeks.

Also, the fluid on her brain is still there. It is the same size though - which is the very good news. And it hasn't grown as she has grown so if you think of it proportionately...its actually smaller. The doctor isn't very worried since she is measuring perfect and proportionately. Her head isn't huge or anything.

Since I'm diabetic he would like me to do non-stress tests 2x a week. boo. They think that I just have all of this free-time to sit around with a heartrate monitor strapped to me. blah.

They want to do another ultrasound in 3 weeks to check again to see if the fluid has gotten any bigger. Not sure if we are going to be keeping that appointment....

Well the bad news is we needed to buy a new water heater.

But the great news is - WHAT A COOL BOX! True entertainment for hours :-)

Sharing Jesus in school

Every Wednesday Javan gets to bring a show and tell to school.

Today Javan decided to bring a key that has the word "Jesus" written on it. He got the key from Awana last year and it is very special to him. Its Jesus's key to his heart and he keeps it by his bed at night.

I just got an email from Javan's teacher and it warmed my heart:

I loved Javan’s show and tell today!  Lol…what a great way to share Jesus with the kids.  It really made my day.

Thanks!

Teresa

I wish I could have been there to have heard exactly how Javan explained it. I asked him about show and tell and he told me the kids had LOTS of questions but, of course, he couldn't remember anything specific. Its funny how selective his memory is **sigh**.

Well here is a picture of our little munchkin. Its hard to see at first...its a closeup of just her face...see it?? She's looking at us. :-)

Anyway, the great news is she weighs a healthy 3lbs exactly what she should weigh at this point. Not big OR small.

The bad news is that she is breech and since she's so low (below my pubic bone) they couldn't confirm the sex. Let's hope they were right cause I bought a whole bunchof baby girl clothes yesterday :-0

The scary news is there is a little spot of fluid on her brain. Could be a cyst could be nothing could be something bad. Oi. These doctors are so good at scaring you.

So in 2 weeks they want to do ANOTHER ultrasound. Hopefully she's turn herself around and hopefully her little "spot" will not have grown or even better...it will be completely gone and leave the doctor scratching his head.

Javan went to the dentist today. He did great! No cavities and a couple of wiggly teeth :-)

He got to pick some toys from their toy chest and one was a magic boomerang. We just had to try it out at the park.

Apparently we are doing a good job of instilling healthy eating at home because yesterday he asked if he could invite his friend over who is sick. I said no, your friend has to get better first before she can come over and he says "but MOM if she comes over we can feed her salad and she will get better!" Haha love it.

In about an hour I'm going in for another ultrasound and to see the doctor. I'm sure ill have another update after that.

New Flooring

Nesting has officially kicked in. I've got a list a mile long of things I want to get done before this baby comes and one of them is checked off the list.

The flooring in Javan's room was a horrible old 70's brown carpet. Oh it felt so wonderful to pull that carpet out. Of course, it would have been a dream to have had hardwood floors under there, instead it looked like this:

Next, we cut up brown paper into 3 inch strips (i know you are jealous of my socks in this picture!)

There were two different techniques for laying down the paper. The first was to dip it in a solution of 50/50 water and elmers glue. The other was to put down poly and lay the paper down on top of the poly. We thought that the poly options seemed a little more "sturdy" but since we were staining the paper....I think the glue solution would have been the better option. We noticed a lot of wrinkles and bubbles in the paper after we laid it down. The other person who used poly said that the bubbles came out once the poly dried... but it didn't quite work out that way for us. Anyway.. here's a picture of what it looked like after we laid down the paper.

We put a few pieces of white paper in there to add some texture to it and a few of the pieces we printed words on there.


And now for the stain....

We added 4 coats of Poly on top to protect it and voila... "Hardwood" floors.

The shiny poly made the bubbles stand out a little, but all in all it looks awesome. I love the words in the floor, it looks really cool!  Now that we've learned a few lessons along the way....I'm ready to do some other rooms in the house... but FIRST I've got a few other projects I want to get done before I have the baby. :-)

For labor day weekend we went to Lance's family's get-together. It was a fun weekend and Jav was exhausted on the way home. He thought Lexi would make a fine pillow on the car ride. Lexi was less than pleased. Haha

Might as well put him to work. Tee hee.

No, really, he asked to carry the ladder.

Our future electrician

Lance volunteered at the church tonight to fix some lights.

Javan thought it was SO cool to help him!

New window treatments

I know, it wasn't that long ago that I made curtains for the kitchen.. but those were brown and we just painted the countertops black. (plus, they were getting dirty and "old")

I used this tutorial to make these and I LOVE them.

http://365days2simplicity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easy-no-sew-roman-shades.html

The important thing that Lance taught Javan.
You don't get taught this in school! Haha

(sorry its sideways...silly "smart phones")

Today was a big day in Javan's world.

Lance and I decided to start a system for Javan to earn his own money. There are five things that he has to do each day (go the whole day without picking his nose, obey the first time he's asked, make his bed before breakfast, brush his teach without being asked, and I can't think of the 5th one and i'm too tired to run downstairs to look.. but you get the idea). He gets 5 cents per day for each item he accomplishes totaling a whopping $1.75 per week if he doesn't get any stickers taken off of the chart.

He had already accumulated a hefty sum from birthdays and Christmas so we took all of that money, put it in saving and gave him $7 and some change for him to start off with.

Well, the first day we started it... he spent his first dollar at dunkin donuts for a chocolate glaze donut.

Today was big for him, though. He had this huge balloon that he had been playing with over the past few days.... blowing it up and sucking the air out.... well, today it popped while he was filling it with air.

Oh the tears that his "favorite" toy was broken.

So, i told him that if he wanted to spend his money on a new balloon i had to go to the store anyway, he could bring his money and come with me and buy a new balloon.

Let me tell ya, it was excruciating to stand in the isles as he looked at each item and asked how much each thing was but so good because he realized that $6 doesn't go very far.  It was interesting because the package of balloons were $2 and he chose not to buy them.

That was a proud mamma moment....

...until we got to the checkout line for my purchase and the package of m&m's were too enticing for him to pass up. So, yes, he spent $1 on some m&m's.

He honestly thought it was the coolest thing that he was able to get his VERY OWN RECEIPT!

Its been great for Javan to have the freedom to spend his money on what he wants and really decide if its something he REALLY wants and great for me because I don't have to say no to him all the time when are at the store. I just have to say "You can save up for it" or "if you want to spend your money on that.." Its cut down on the Mcdonald's requests too...

In other news, baby Ferris is beginning to run out of any extra room she had in my tummy. She's pushing herself around in there like she owns the place. ok, i guess she rules the roost for the next few months but I have to say... the past few days have been beginning to get a little uncomfortable.

One week away from the beginning of the 3rd trimester!

I love my little boy

Javan told me today, as he munched on a juicy peach:

"Mom, I'm going to make a peach without any sugar, that way you can eat one with me."

He's always looking after his momma. :-)

I did explain to him that God made peaches with sugar in them because that's the way He wanted them and that it was good sugar for people to eat. Its just that right now mommy's body isn't working the way God made it to work and we keep praying that God will heal my body so that I can have yummy sweet peaches with my little boy.

Pictures from Alaska

The cruise to Alaska was great! We really enjoyed relaxing on the cruise and spending time with mom and dad.  I was surprised that there really wasn't much ice and snow. Since it is the end of the summer, most of it had melted. The towns along the coast don't get much more snow than we do here in Kansas but in the mountains they can get feet and feet of it (in the Fjord, they said it can get as much as 100 feet!!)

We arrived in Seattle late Monday night and on Tuesday our bus driver that we got to take us to the cruise ship took us on a tour of Seattle as well. We went to the Space Needle and walked around the city a little then we made a stop at Pikes Market which is a huge market with food and crafts. This is also where the first Starbucks is.

Once on the cruise ship we cruised for 2 days and on the 3rd day we went through Tracy Arm Fjord... it was pretty chilly there... about 48 degrees but the views were spectacular. The iceburgs in the water were really amazing because the tightly packed ice was a glowing blue color.

Pictures of Seattle, cruising, and Tracy Arm Fjord:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115639023178791141355/SeattleAndCruisingThroughTheTracyArmFjord

The next stop was an adorable little town called Skagway. Here we took a train ride up the mountains and into Canada. The train ride was very nice but it was quite foggy. Then, Lance and I took a bike ride tour for 15 miles down into the town of Skagway. Brrr.. it was still pretty foggy and misting so it was a chilly bike ride. I really enjoyed it, though. The views were awesome. Once back in Skagway, we had a tour of the town called "Ghosts and girls" tour where we learned about the history of the town, some ghost stories and how the women in the brothels had a lot of power back then.

Pictures of Skagway:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115639023178791141355/FirstStopSkagway

The next stop was Juneau Alaska. Another cute little town (although much bigger than Skagway). Mom went hiking on top of the Mendenhall Glacier (the famous glacier in that area) and dad took a float plane fishing. Lance and I went Kayaking at a lake about 9 miles away from the Mendenhall Glacier.

Pictures of Juneau :

https://picasaweb.google.com/115639023178791141355/JuneauAlaska

Then we make a stop in Ketchikan, Alaska. Here we hiked through one of the largest rainforests in the world. The tour ended at a Salmon hatchery where we were able to see a BEAR!  Then we got to pet a real reindeer, see an injured owl and eagle close up, and watch someone work on building a totem pole.

Pictures of Ketchikan:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115639023178791141355/KetchikanAlaska

Our final stop was for just a few hours in the evening in Victoria, BC Canada.  We toured a gorgeous castle. Lance loved all of the detail of the woodworking and Mom was in heaven with all of the antiques!!

On our ride back we stopped at the parliament building which was all lit up with lights! So pretty!!!

Pictures of Victoria:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115639023178791141355/VictoriaBCCanada

The next morning we arrived in Seattle and began our trek back home. It was an awesome experience! :-)

Well, we are home - it feels like forever that we have been back in our normal routine and, um, its not quite normal yet... but we are on the way to getting that way.
We arrived from Alaska on Tuesday night around 11pm or so.... I think it was close to 1am before I actually fell asleep.
Alaska was awesome, by the way, I'll write an update about that in a bit but more importantly... i thought I'd write a little about Javan's first day at school.
So, i we didn't get to sleep until LATE Tuesday night and Wednesday morning I was up at 6 or so anxious and excited to see my little love. Wow did i ever miss Javan's little hugs and snuggles.
Javan spent the night at Shane and Shana's on Tuesday night so I headed on over there at about 6:30am and he was still sleeping. Oh it felt so nice when he woke up and crawled into my lap and snuggled for a while. :-)
Shana made some pancakes so he had a nice breakfast for his first day of school

Thanks Aunt Shana!!!



We took a couple of pictures at Shana's house before we headed to school

This is Javan getting a little nervous as we walked in the front doors.

Ok, mom.. enough pictures! haha. He's got his nametag on and ready to go.

I got out his box of crayons and told him to find a seat. He chose the empty table (no coloring sheets) all by himself. I encouraged him to move to a table that has some other kids at it and coloring sheets. He said he "just wanted to sit by himself". Well, with a little prodding I finally got him to sit with the other kids.. he was less than pleased and still VERY nervous.

When I picked him up, it sounded like he had a great day. His teacher said he did really "AWESOME". I'm not sure if she says that to every mom but she was pretty enthusiastic and believable that he really did impress her. Of course, I think he's an amazing child and would impress anyone who meets him ;-) He told me he had fun at the playground but I didn't get much more out of him. He didn't talk about any friends he made or anything but that's typical Javan... it was tough getting anything out of him about preschool too.

Today when I picked him up, he said "mom, can we go to the playground one day when my friend Luigi is there?" I said "Sure, how exciting you met a friend." and he said "Yeah, Luigi has been my friend since kindergarten round up" (kindergarten round up was on Monday, by the way) I guess Luigi didn't come to mind all the other times that I asked him if he made any friends. haha. I'm happy he's having a good time in Kindergarten.

When we got home today, the mailman delivered a belated birthday present from Aunt Kimi, Uncle JR, Ryan, Jeremiah, and Nathan.

What a fun day!!!

The longest hour...

In about 1 hour my computer will be shut down and Lance and I will be heading to the airport! I'm so excited to get away from work for a while.

We arrived in Kansas City from Puerto Rico at 2pm on Saturday. During that time we ran a whole bunch of errands AND put in new countertops in our kitchen!  Ok.. they aren't NEW necessarily, but they are refinished to look like they are new. The stuff we used takes 3 days to dry so we decided that this was the PERFECT time to get it done... giving it the entire week we are out of town to dry.  I will post pics when it is all finished. We still have to add a few layers of poly so it will be a few days after we get back (plus I have some other idea's a brewing to spruce it up in here..)

I had lots of extra time in Puerto Rico to fill my little mind with all sorts of decorating ideas to get excited about. Once the kitchen is all finished.... the kids room is next. I'm really excited sqeeeeeeee!!!!!

Funny things about Puerto Rico

i know there are things I have forgotten but this weekend Lance and I made a list of some things about Puerto Rico that are unique. So here they are:

1. They don't have crosswalks here. Nope. You just stand out on the edge of the curb like your going to just walk across and traffic just stops for you. Its pretty awesome actually.

2. People drive like maniacs here. Seriously. maniacs. Its not unusual to see someone just drive right up onto the sidewalk if they want to...there is no organization to their driving... if you are at  a 4 way stop and the lights go out, every body just drives up to the middle and pushes their way through instead of taking turns.

4. Speaking of their driving.. police drive around with their lights on for no reason  - so you never know if you are getting pulled over or not.

5. As my momma quickly learned... they ARE Americans... so do ask if they are American. I did NOT make that mistake, for the record, I learned from my mother's example.

6. It rains every day. Nothing really stops for the rain though (except for the occasional big storm) because usually 10 min later its sunny and warm again.

7. Its this interesting mix of incredible wealth and incredible poverty. If you stand on the corner and watch the cars go by, it wouldn't be unusual to see some fancy ridiculously expensive car drive by (or 2 or 3 of them) YET the streets surrounding this city (outside of the 3 major streets that are all nice hotels, restaurants and shops) are just run down streets with graffiti everywhere.

8. Speaking of cars... when I say ridiculously expensive, I'm not referring to BMW's and Lexus's here.. I'm talking about $200,000 Bently's and other cars that I don't care to remember the names. However, I'm afraid Lance might suffer from whiplash from staring too hard as they zoom by. I frequently have to wipe his drool ;-)  We noticed that most of the cars end up in the same place (this weird parking lot near a restaurant). Lance's theory is new money=flaunting it (as opposed to old money in kansas city who could care less about the latest trend in cars)  or that restaurant is a drug dealing hotspot. MY theory is that these people are wealthy in the US, have a summer home here and instead of purchasing a car that would just sit in the garage while they aren't here... they just RENT these fancy cars when they are here visiting. WHO knows.. it doesn't really matter.

9. The homes are deceiving. They are all surrounded by (usually rusty) metal fences and completely gated in...usually doubly enforced with a heavy metal chain and a padlock (in case the gate wasn't enough) and the window all have bars on them. BUT... if you look inside the gate you may find a huge gorgeous house. Everything is on the lockdown..even our apartment you need 3 keys.. one for the front entrance, one to use the elevator and then one for our apartment. Once in our apartment there are four locks on the door JUST in case you weren't already safe enough.

10. lizards lizards everywhere. Lizards are like our squirrels...seriously. When I first came here I thought it was awesome to see a couple of lizards crawling up a wall when we went for a walk... over time I realized that its more unusual NOT to see any lizards at all that day. Hey, at least they are pretty cute :-)  I must look ridiculous to them taking pictures of lizards.. it would be like a tourist coming to ks and gawking and taking photos of a squirrel. haha. THAT's a funny image!

11. The puerto rican's like to party!! Its quite funny, actually. For example, when we were driving to the airport at 5am on a saturday morning... the bars were still packed!

Anniversary

Yesterday was our anniversary!! It has been the most amazing year and I can honestly say I love Lance more now that I did a year ago.

We had a really awesome weekend regardless of the fact that Lance openly admits he's not the "super romantic type".  I've learned to accept and love that about him and he's learned to pick up on hints ;-)

Saturday night we went kayaking (on a group tour) through a narrow dark channel (it was more than a mile kayak trip). Throughout the channel were twists and turns lined with huge trees. The branches of the trees created a canopy above us and many of the roots of the trees were above ground winding around each other. It was a spectacular site! We chose not to bring out camera for fear of dropping it in the water but so much of me wishes that I had.

 On the other side of the channel was the most beautiful bay. The view was spectacular. The sky was perfectly clear and you could see so many stars and constellations. The bay was lined with trees as well and was absolutely gorgeous. But, what made the bay SO amazing was the WATER. When you put your hand in the water GLOWED! The water was filled with the same enzymes that make a lightening bug glow so when you move it... it literally glowed. It was so cool to pour the water down your arm and watch the glowing drops drip down.

The tour guide told us that there are only 5 bio-luminescent bays in the world. 3 are in Puerto Rico. One of the bays in Puerto Rico was destroyed from pollution. There is one "biobay" in Jamaica and that one, too, was destroyed from pollution. The only other biobay is in the Bahamas. It just made it all that much more spectacular to know that we were literally sitting in one of the natural wonders of the world.

Sunday we slept in, watched movies, did some grocery shopping, read our "bradley birthing" book ... ya know normal stuff... and then after dinner we went for a walk on the beach and talked about highlights from last year and goals for this year. :-) The little park by our apartment had a music festival so we hung out and listened to music and pretended that the festival was in honor of our anniversary ;-) haha.

CHECK out my awesome earrings that Lance bought me on Saturday at the biobay!  Are they not the coolest EVER! They are actual butterfly wings. The pic is a little hard to see... you can see them really clearly on the same pic that is posted on facebook (I have no idea why it doesn't want to cooperate for me here.

pictures

Its no secret I'm way behind on uploading pictures these days.

Soooo many pictures so little time. tee hee.

Usually I try to go through and at least weed through the duplicate (or at least similar) photos and some of the ridiculous ones but this time...I decided to just uploaded everything and leave the weeding to whoever wants to look at them.

psh.. i know i'm mean. Maybe one day i'll sort through them. In the meantime, here they are. Enjoy.

I forgot to mention all of my pictures are mine AND mom's combined. And (speaking directly to mom here but whoever would like to benefit from this tidbit of knowledge) if there are any that you like and would like on your computer (for making prints or just a digital copy) just right click on it and click "save image as" and put it where you save pictures on your computer. ALSO (again talking mostly to mom here) if you want prints just look above the picture there is a tab called "prints" you can just click order prints and it will put it in your shopping cart and voila.

Javan's birthday party and Mom's visit

https://picasaweb.google.com/Merriettgrace/JavanS5thBirthdayAndMomSVisitnJun2011

Old San Juan

https://picasaweb.google.com/Merriettgrace/OldSanJuan

Puerto Rico pics (I realize there may be duplicates in another album but better to have duplicates then to be missing some)

https://picasaweb.google.com/Merriettgrace/PuertoRico

There hasn't been much to blog about these days when I don't have the little buster to say adorable things that make me smile and I don't have a house full of projects to entertain me...

Its been nice here in Puerto Rico...quiet with out Javan... but nice.

Its so funny how I am always begging for a moment, JUST ONE moment of peace and quiet during the day and I have a week of it and I'm not really sure what to do with myself.

I've done a lot of surfing on the net, reading books, praying, and listening to sermon's online and I haven't really had much "catching up" to do with work at all since i get it all done on the spot... its been quite relaxing :-)

Puerto Rico is beautiful and I love going to the beach and walks with my husband... there is a part of me that wishes I was home  (even though its 112 degrees there - I know, I'm crazy, right?) but seriously there are moments that I sit here and think...IF I was home there are so many projects I could get done.. people I could see etc, etc... So silly, really, when I think about where I am and how LUCKY I am to be here. But, that's human nature, right? Always wanting what you can't have. haha.

Saturday, we are going on a kayak tour of a bioluminescant bay that glows when you touch the water. It glows in the same way that a lightening bug gets its glow. I'm pretty stoked about it :-)

My first try at a garden and considering I've been gone for the past 2 weeks...I did pretty well. These are my cucumbers...putting the fact that they didn't turn green aside....they are HUGE!! AND there are a lot of them. My zuchini didn't survive...it was too hot and I wasn't here to water them but my tomato plants are full of green tomatoes! Maybe when I get back they will be red and ready to eat!

Guess ill be making some pickles today! :-)

Merrie
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Merriett Ferris
267-625-6401

My camera phone wouldn't let me rotate it... You have to look at it with your head tilted to see how she is laying upside down. The words "women's Healthcare" should be at top.

Our baby girl doesn't look comfy laying upside down with her feet over her head...kind of reminds me of how I often find Javan when he watches TV - upside down on the couch. What is it with kids' love for being upside down? Haha