Kelly's Korner: Show us your singles!

So I've resurrected my blog in order to do this post for Kelly's Korner:

Show us your life, Show us your singles!

And there is only one person in the world that I would do this for,

and that is my best friend, Teresa!

I've known Teresa since we were in elementary school - we were friends all through our teen years, and then we also went to college together, and still see each other regularly (even though we live in different states now). She was the maid of honor in my wedding, and we talk at least every other day by phone, so I think that I am qualified to provide a description of her and I hope that you will want to know more!

You can't tell from the picture, but she also has a great laugh that will make you start laughing just when you hear it. She's funny, a committed friend, and full of life. She is the most spontaneous person I know, and she is always ready for an adventure.

She loves to travel and has a passion for missions and working with children. She spends nearly every Friday night as a volunteer for a program that provides respite to parents of children with severe disabilities, and she also has gone on a number of mission trips to places both in the US and overseas. She spent a semester in Costa Rica and two years with the Peace Corps in Bolivia.

Here she is with two of my kids, who affectionately refer to her as "Aunt Teresa". Teresa recently ran her first marathon, and is thinking about doing it again - she also loves to read and cook, and has a great job that she really enjoys. She likes to eat cupcakes. :)

She would love to meet someone who shares her faith and also has the energy and joy for life to match her enthusiasm and passions.

if you would like to know more, just email me at kellefranklin(at)yahoo(dot)com or leave me a comment here.

thanks for stopping by!

The end of the pacifier

We had a goodbye pacifier (or binker, as Jack calls them) party a few weeks ago. We started off the evening by taking Jack to his first movie at the theatre (Madagascar) and making a big deal out of this being a "big boy" thing to do. We had been talking a lot about saying goodbye to the binkers and giving them to the babies because he was a big boy now.

When we got home, we collected all the binkers from around the house (or so we thought, as we have found at least 6 more in the subsequent weeks), put them in a bowl, and let Jack have one last time playing with them.

Then we closed up the bowl, and Jack put the binkers on the front porch. We ran around the house looking for the "binker fairy" while Corey snuck out and exchanged the bowl of binkers for a "big boy" present. When Corey got back in, we opened up the front door and the binkers were gone! The binker fairy had left Jack a new big boy truck:

He was very impressed that the binker fairy had come and talked about it quite a bit. He asked for the binkers a few times, but went to bed without any problems. Every time he asks about them, we remind him that the binker fairy came to take the binkers to the babies. He decided that the binker fairy took the binkers to one of Jack's favorite babies, Ella's little brother Matthew, and seemed quite happy to exchange the binkers for his new truck.

Next up: moving from the crib to his "big boy" bed.

Halloween

Day Out with Thomas the Train (otherwise known as how I spent my birthday)

On my birthday, Corey and I took Jack to Day Out with Thomas the Train. It was a lot of fun! Jack was a bit overwhelmed at first, but he quickly figured things out. They had lots of fun activities, and then the highlight of the day was riding on the passenger cars pulled by Thomas the Train.

Here's Jack getting ready to play air guitar with the musician

This was the musician just getting started - Jack was ready to dance!

Digging in the dirt (90% of the kids in attendance were little boys, so there were lots of little boy activities)

Riding the "little train" - the other train was the "great big Thomas train"
Here we are in front of Thomas! The professional photographer got a much better picture, without my arm in it, so I will have to scan and post that one as well

Getting on the train . . .


Watching everything out the window . . .

Admiring his new Thomas tattoo (for the rest of the day, Jack would hold out his hand every few minutes and say "see it? see it? Thomas tattoo"

School Halloween Party

Last Friday was the Halloween party at Jack's preschool - here he is in his classroom instructing everyone on the proper way to play bean bag toss . . . Oh, and some of you might recognize the "costume" from last year. He's actually going as a fireman this year, but I hadn't gotten pants yet that went with his fireman jacket, so he went as a baseball player to this party.

He was much more interested in eating the fruit loops than making a necklace, so Corey made the necklace for him - he ate all the fruit loops off the necklace in about 2 minutes.

Playing a halloween version of a cakewalk, with colored spiders.

Decorating Halloween cookies

In his classroom again, with his teachers - Miss Kerry Anne is mustard and Miss Jessie is ketchup

Pumpkin Farm

We went to the pumpkin farm with Scott, Amy, and Hannah - here are the dads and kids headed in . . . Jack instructing Hannah on how to drive the tractor

Finding a pumpkin . . .

Hanging out in the old firetruck . . .

With Hannah . . .

Going for a pony ride . . .

New furniture and a new . . .

We ordered a new couch and chair to go with the leather couch and chair we had in the living room. I didn't think we'd be able to match the leather with another piece of leather furniture, so I went for something different in fabric. I'm happy with the way it turned out, and the colors all work well together. We aren't sure yet if this is the arrangement that we're going to keep it in for the room layout - but it works for now.

So new furniture and a new . . .

BABY!

Due date is May 23rd, 2009. This picture was at 8 weeks - I'm 9.5 weeks now. We're all very excited, especially Jack who enjoys announcing "I a big brother!"

Pizza farm

Cristina and I took Jack and Ella on a field trip one day to an organic pizza farm about an hour from our house. The kids thought it was a lot of fun. The farm was set up as a large circle, divided into sections, with different things in each section. There were tomatoes, pigs, chickens, a goat, green peppers, herbs, different types of wheats and grains, and some other vegetable plants (mushrooms, onions, etc.). After a talk by the farmer, we went out to the farm to check it out. The kids enjoyed running around, and after all that we went back in to eat a pizza made entirely from items grown at the farm.

Dinosaurs

As a back to school treat, Jack and I went to the science museum. He really enjoyed the airplane and space shuttle exhibits, as well as the dinosaurs. Here's some photos of us reading dinosaur books while looking up at the big dinosaurs: