A quick hello...

Hello!  Well, around here it is the end of spring break week.  For teachers and students, this is great!  For the rest of us, well, it's just another week. :)  We wish Obama would focus on what is really important and make spring break week an official work holiday week - now that would increase his approval rating even more, right?  Ok, maybe a bad idea.

Anyway, a week ago today Caleb had tubes put in his ears.  It was a really quick procedure (officially a 'surgery').  A nurse took Caleb from our waiting room, a couple moments later we were taken to the recovery room, and right when we had just settled in they were already bringing him to us - done!  Pretty amazing how fast it was.  It all went really well and within a couple of hours he was back to his normal self - it didn't even seem to phase him.  The idea is that this will significantly decrease the ear infections he gets.  It was starting to get bad - getting ear infections without a cold, just the infection.  So we're optimistic that this will improve his overall well-being.  We seem to already see a difference in his behavior (not as cranky as often) and he hasn't pulled on his ears and said "owie" once since we got home.  That alone makes it worth it for us - no one likes to see their child hurting in any way.  Caleb has been a trooper and we're proud of the little man for hanging in there.  I'm so thankful that a little child is filled with so much grace to keep running back to parents who don't always do things right - aren't we all!?!?

We're taking this weekend off and going to have fun with some friends.  We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend.  Now, if the weather would just cooperate we'd be in perfect shape!  

Here are some pictures for you.  Love to you all!

Peace,

JJC

The fish in the doctors office - "ish, ish, ish, ish..."

Just woke up from general anesthesia - he was like, "Umm...what just happened?!"

Joye made play-doh for him.  Apparently he likes to throw it.

He's learned how to climb up and hang on...

...then he falls back on the couch and thinks it's the funniest thing ever!  This was a couple days after the tubes were put in.  We think he'll be okay. :)

Our big helper!

Hello!  We hope you are all doing well.  Things have been good for us lately.  We truly can't complain.  Life is always full of challenges but we constantly find ourselves thankful for the good people we are surrounded by.

Johnny finished his graduate work and is officially done...at least for a while. :)  He is enjoying relearning how to have a "normal" evening and has what he calls "phantom" moments where he feels like he should be working on something or reading something, but instead he can just sit on his keaster and relax!  

Joye is doing well being an amazing mother and wife!  She still works full time (well, she doesn't call it that, but she does) and manages to take care of us in the home.  She's had a couple of bouts with the crud that has been going around, but is doing better now and hoping it stays that way for a while.

Caleb is GROWING like crazy.  He is almost 21 months, wears a size 8 shoe, well over 30 pounds, and is a solid 35 inches tall - that's almost three feet people!  He is truly becoming more and more of a little boy every day learning new stuff as he explores everything.  We're t-minus three months from making the dreaded departure from the binki, but for now it is proving to be useful - at least Caleb thinks so! :)  We're close to be able to buy a video camera, so hopefully we can start capturing some classic "Caleb moments" for you all to witness for yourselves.  The kid truly is priceless quite often.  So, we're having fun watching him learn and grow and loving him all the while.  Oh, and before I make is sound too much like a fairy-tale, ya, the kid can be quite the handful sometimes.  He is definitely showing that he has a strong personality.  He test our parenting skills (or lack thereof) quite often.  But, we hear that's part of having an almost two year old.  There are more great moments that bad moments, so we're okay with where we're at right now.

Last weekend, we had a church wide local work and witness project in our neighboring community.  Part of this was getting our skate park cleaned up and ready for opening back up this spring.  Caleb showed up for a little bit and helped however he could.  Here are a few pictures of him working (sorry you can't see his face in any of these).

We love you all!  Hope to hear from you soon!

Peace,

JJC

This is my favorite one.