San Diego

Friday morning, Elvis and Suzy and I hit the road for an overnight trip to San Diego! I can't remember the last time we did an overnight trip just the 3 of us! the first day, we checked out Ocean Beach, ate some good Cali-Mex food (fish tacos and surf and turf burrito with french fries inside), and grabbed some dinner in Little Italy. 

On Saturday, we took advantage of our hotel's pool, then headed to La Jolla Beach, famous for its seals! They were the cutest! And would swim right up near to you with no hesitation. Apparently they often sun on the beach where we played that day, but they mostly stayed in the water, on the rocks, and we watched them catching waves and rolling all around. Watching them wiggle and squirm their way up the rocks in the middle of crashing waves gave me a whole new respect for those animals and makes me wonder why God gave them such tiny little paddle arms and feet.

we hung out in this cove and swam all afternoon

little mermaid

i would want to just take a nap too after all that work trying to get on the rock!

So on the way home, we took a wrong turn and traffic was so bad, we decided to just get on the highway and get off at the next exit and turn around. Traffic was moving about 5 miles per hour, and right when the exit is in sight, BOOM! The Crown Vic behind us slams into us. Awesome. 2 minutes after I asked Elvis what we would do if we had car trouble in this town where we know no one, and it's well over 100 degrees outside. He told me to not say stuff like that or it would be bad luck. Hmm...

Anyway, of course as soon as we stop and start calling the insurance company, Suzy needs to poop. Fortunately, I had the emergency potty in the car, and since traffic was barely moving anyway, I let her go in the back seat in the potty. Of course, a police officer comes up right then, demanding to know why she is out of her car seat. He was not sympathetic to the poopy emergency, and it kinda made me want to show it to him and ask him what he would do. He also asks for our insurance card, which even though our insurance is up to date, they had not sent us a new card so that was expired. Policeman refused to talk to the nice insurance lady on the phone, saying that it could be my sister for all he knew. So now I'm worried that we are going to get two tickets, when the accident wasn't our fault anyway! I think the policeman of steel finally realized that I was on the verge of tears, and wrapped up the accident report and we were on our way, with just a little bumper damage. It's really easy to play the "what-if" game....what if we hadn't made the wrong turn, what if we had stayed at the beach just 5 minutes longer, what if the policeman weren't in such a bad mood.....but in the end, it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. And now we know what to do when you are in an accident, something we had always wondered about here in the US and thankfully up until this point, had not had any experience with. 

dance party!

Here are some videos from our trip to NC...there was lots of dancing going on...even Granny got in on the action! Most importantly, dad showed the girls how to do his famous shoulder dance. 

surprise!

You haven't heard much from us lately because we carried out an undercover op to NC to surprise the family! We found a super cheap last minute ticket for Suzy and i (Elvis had to work) and we were able to join mom and dad, marty, sara, and anna at Topsail Beach for Labor Day weekend and then go surprise the grandmas in Wilmington. Lots of fun was had by all...especially those cute lil' cousins! They had a blast together, on the beach, talking to each other down the hall during "naptime", dancing together, etc. Can't wait for them to spend many more special times together as they grow up.

this is how suzy spent 90% of the time on the beach...

and this is the girl that typically can't stand to get a drop of dirt on her???

Memaw!

granny!

fun at Nana and Granddaddy's house, washing her car

more fun in Wallace

We ended the trip on a very high note...getting to meet newborn baby Anderson and newborn baby Corban at UNC along with other really special people!

BFF's all around!

these two are officially my heroines and my two new favorite snuggle bunnies!

i love that Suzy likes catching up with her friends as much as I do with mine

UNC Reunion 2012, taking over Sakura restaurant!

it is officially impossible to get a great group picture anymore with no one flipping out 

this week...

...Elvis's schedule got changed again and we now have Fridays and Saturdays off together! Almost like a normal family! 

...so we went to the beach with our church for a fun day/bonfire

...Suzy was silly like usual with her friend while in the other room, all the toilets in our apartment were overflowing...I think they are imitating our faces when we realized they were overflowing...

...we went to Kelly and Brian's to make yummy sushi!!...

...we ate aforementioned sushi and loved it....

....I finished up my World Vision practicum and Elvis took us out to a Cuban bakery to celebrate! Nothing says "a job well done" like carbs!!

...guess who took that bite out of the pastry you saw in the last picture!

...we went to IKEA and Suzy tried out alllll the kiddo beds and all the toys

It's been a week full of excitement! 

this birthday wish is brought to you by a mermaid

Today I want to give a very special bday shout-out to Mom and also to Anderson who is a little new to the whole birthday thing, being that he was born this morning!!! Congrats Tyler and Chris and happy birthday Anderson! We can't wait to meet you. 

On this special day for many loved ones of ours, Suzy went to her last swim class. Here are some highlights below....She was the only of her class to volunteer to jump off the diving board at the end of the class! But after standing up there for a few minutes, decided it wasn't such a great idea. But I'm so proud of her for even getting up there! 

beach day

In addition to swimming classes for Suz, we have been looking for other ways to beat the heat this week. It's the hottest it's been all summer this week- up to 100 degrees on Sunday. Thankfully our apartment has central air, so i basically haven't left the house other than absolutely necessary, partly because of the heat but also because I have been sick for almost 2 weeks now- non-stop fever and terrible coughing and now 4 days of random hives that I can't figure out what it's coming from.

Anyway, despite feeling pretty bad, we decided to head to the beach on Friday b/c it was one of those few days this summer where both of us were free all day long. Elvis dropped me off right on the beach, and I sat in my chair in the cool shade of the pier alll day long while Elvis and Suzy played in the water and built sand castles and other more active activities. It was a perfect day, despite being sick. 

We got really excited when she acted like she was actually going to take a nap on the beach. This lasted for approximately 2 minutes. 

Suzy learned to really throw a frisbee!

swimmin' suzy

today was Suzy's first day of swim classes at the nearby community center! I thought they were going to be one-on-one, but turns out the professor had a handful of kids which to be honest, made me pretty nervous at first. I was the worried mom lurking by the poolside while Suzy waited patiently on the steps for her turn to kick around the pool with the professor. But Suzy did not want us hovering...she wanted her space! She would tell us to go wait over on the steps with all the other parents, then shoot us assuring thumbs ups and huge grins and wave hello to us from her pool perch. And she did great! She kicked and moved her arms like the other kids and wasn't afraid to put her face in the water. So proud of her! And proud of us for relaxing a little too =)

a juicy nugget of wisdom from Henri Nouwen

"I say this with great compassion: we are living in an upwardly mobile society, a society in which making it to the top is expected in some degree of all of us. And aren't we tempted to use even the Word of God to help us in this upward mobility? But that is not the way of God, the Father, the Son, and Spirit. God's way is not the way of upward mobility but of downward mobility. You know, as well as I do, that they question we will finally hear is not going to be: "How much did you earn during your lifetime?" or "How many friends did you make?" or "How much progress did you make in your career?" No, the question for us will be: "What did you do for the least of mine? What did you do for the lonely in your cities, the prisoners in your country, the refugees within and below your borders, and the hungry all over the world? Have you seen the humiliated Christ in the faces of the poor?"

                                           - Henri Nouwen, "Prayer and the Jealous God"

conversations with suzy...

A: "Come here and snuggle with me"
S: "Mommy, I a peacock...I didn't know peacocks snuggle..."

This is a popular answer (just like the "No, it's my favorite" answer), and it applies to many situations...

A: "Hey Suzy let's paint your fingernails"
S: "I a peacock, I didn't know peacocks have fingernails"

S: "Mommy how you?"
A: "I'm good"
S: "No you're great!"

on the toilet....
A: "Suzy you all done?"
S: "Not quiet" (not quite yet)...."I'm working it..."

(Me pretending to cry for some reason...)
S: "Mommy no crying! You not a baby, you a person!"