The drawback of outdoor graduation........

The university always has outdoor Spring ceremonies because there is nowhere big enough on campus to have an indoor ceremony for all of the graduates plus their families.

Mark is sitting in the ceremony right now and I hear thunder in the distance.......Hmmmmmmmm

Back to work

I have been thinking this week about how much I take for granted. I had my orientation in Little Rock on Mon and Tues. On Tues, we had to go around the room and say our name, where we work, what we wanted to be growing up. I was surprised that there were so many women that had grown up wanting to be a nurse and, for some reason, got side tracked and were heading back to school to fulfill their dream.

I actually felt a tinge of guilt by the time we were done. Even though I went to school for nursing right out of high school, I was never one of those people that had always wanted to be a nurse. I confess that "getting my education" is something that I've taken for granted.

At the end of the day, I truly believe that I made the right choice at the time. Nursing is a good field and you really can get a job just about anywhere You may not like the job, but you can find a job - and I know I take that for granted, too.

I still feel like I'm trying to figure out what's next - I really don't forsee doing direct patient care when I'm fifty. But, I know that God will give me the grace for that if that has to be.

Right now, working nights is what's best for our family, I'm certainly not thrilled about it - but, I can choose to be thankful for it. I know I've mentioned this before - sometimes I just need to post it again as a reminder for myself.

God is faithful and good and worthy of my trust and worship

Got cereal?

I've been trying Matthew here and there on cereal. I haven't been trying every day - I don't know why, I just haven't.

Anyway, he did really well today - he took it all without much fuss - a few faces, though :o). I was actually quite surprised!

We do the "hands down" approach and he did well at that, too!

In this picture, he's looking up at Daddy. :o)

Slowly but surely....

We are building a stock of broken down electronics. Apart from paying for kidney stones and Matthew, we have had to buy a new computer, television, DVD player(still in that process) and now a stereo system - all since January! Either the stuff has been old or cheap(mostly old) - they all just decided to go kaput within a five month period.

We're not sure where electronics go when they die ;o) Can we donate them to our version of Goodwill or do they have to go somewhere else - also, do we need to take the hard drive out of the old CPU? If anyone has any input/experience we'd surely appreciate it.

:o(

I was informed this week that Grandma E. can't check the blog at work :o( That's one of the reasons why I was trying to post so many pictures - esp. some weekends. I am aware that there are many other topics than Matthew ;o)

We're so excited!!!

For all of you old Careerians - I'm sure that you remember Sean (I won't use a last name for privacy reasons). BJ grad - came to Purdue to work on his PhD in history, lived with George and Bev while he was finishing...........

Well, to make a long story short - he's coming next week to potentially fill a recently vacated position in Mark's dept!! Mark's dept only has five - which is small - compared to Purdue's 35.

What a blessing this would be for so many reasons! It's not a done deal, however - I won't bore you with the reasons why, I just ask that you would pray with us that this would be God's will, and if it isn't, that we would be content with that.

Growing like a weed!

Matthew had his four month checkup this morning. It seems as though we are finally coming out of the eating struggles - April was a rough month. With that said, I was happy to go to his checkup and see what his weight/height was - especially since it's been two and a half weeks since he was there last.

Anyway - his height is still over the 95% - 27". His weight is 17#2oz(around 90%). His head circum. was around 16 3/4 or 17". The doctor was pleased with his progress.

On the homefront - we are venturing into new territory. As a result of his 40 minute nap at church(not long enough!), he ended up eating three meals + his nighttime feeding. He has been eating around 7, 11ish,3ish, 6ish and then 10:30. Now it's pretty much 7ish, 11:30ish and then 4:oo/4:30ish and then 10:30. I've been testing out the rice cereal, too. He's not too impressed with it. :o)

The other new thing is that MTE is turning over more - while he is sleeping! You know what that means - he wakes up crying and mad because he can't figure out how to get back on his belly. In the long run it's a good thing - right now it's a "oh,no he's done it again" - especially in the middle of the night. I am thankful that he is progressing to more mobility - Mark and I think that he will be everywhere once he gets going! :o)