9 Years of Marital ________

Today is our ninth wedding anniversary! I can't believe that we are even old enough to say that. I only think of myself as 22 or 25 max. Oh well, at least it has been a great 9 years. It has been 13 years since we started dating on Friday the 13th of December in 1996. See? Good things can happen on Friday the 13th! One high school Christmas dance got the ball rolling.

Last night when we went to bed after getting Josiah to fall back asleep after waking up screaming, I asked Jacob to fill in the blank: 9 years of marital ______. It was kind of a trick question, but don't worry, he passed. I didn't know if he would try to make a joke or be too sappy in order to punish me for asking. However, he gave me a nice serious answer saying "fulfillment". When I asked him what he meant, he just said we have fulfilled so many of the dreams we started out with early on. I thought this was sweet, accurate, and a little funny seeing as how I was a half hour late coming to bed because of one of those little fulfilled dreams. Ironically, that little dream woke up screaming again right when we were both in a deep sleep an hour later. (FYI: that is not his norm, I think he is sick again.)

This year has brought so many changes, both positive and negative, as we have experienced the birth of a baby, job loss, another job search, and several other things mixed in there. I'll admit there were (and probably still will be) times that I have wondered if we would forget who we were as a couple, but each time I saw us emerge as an improved version of the "old us" and was encouraged. While we still hold out hope for some of the aspects of our life to change soon, overall we couldn't be happier with who we have become or the little family we have now grown into.

So Jacob, while I'm happy you are recognizing the fulfillment of our dreams, I hope you aren't feeling TOO fulfilled, because we have a lot more to look forward to! Like chocolate and cheese at the Melting Pot tonight.

Busy Weekend and Other Random Things

The question of the day for experienced parents: where can I get cheap pictures of Josiah with Santa? They are expensive at the mall, and I just want one to say I did it like any good parent should. Think about that while you read the rest of this.

This past weekend I didn't get anything done that I really needed to, but we did have lots of good times instead. After Josiah's morning nap on Saturday, we picked up Pastor Eli and his wife Silvana who are visiting the U.S. from Brazil this month. Eli coordinates the Brazilian side of things for Amazon Vision Ministries and has never been to the U.S. We took them to Sonny's BBQ where Annie and Chad joined us for a good ole fat-filled American meal. Eli was very careful to put just the right amount of BBQ sauce on each piece of meat individually.

Due to the weather, we racked our brains for something entertaining that we could do indoors. We ended up at the Florida Natural History Museum. Unfortunately, because of the rain and cold, the butterflies were not flying, so we didn't get to enjoy the butterfly garden, but the rest of the museum was good. They had never seen a mammoth skeleton or huge shark jaws, so they were amazed by these features. We visited the Amazon Adventures exhibit where Eli and Silvana knew one of the men in a video they showed. They quickly corrected all of the errors made!

This is my one and only picture from the weekend.

After the museum, we headed to the stadium so Eli could see "where the real Gators play". Keep in mind that the majority of Americans they are friends with are from Gainesville and are die hard Gators. They mentioned that they were disappointed that the Gators lost the one and only game they have ever seen. Later we took them to our sunday school class' Christmas party where we had a white elephant gift exchange and Silvana's fish scale nail files were a hit. By the way, I have some for you, Teri.



On Sunday, we went to church as usual (Josiah made it through nursery without crying!). After a quick lunch, Jacob drove Eli and Silvana to a church in our hometown to speak at the night service, while my brother, Caleb, and I took Josiah to the Gainesville Christmas Festival at our church to see my mom sing in the choir and play a peasant. Josiah did really well, but got excited during the crucifixion and screamed and laughed. Ooops! Afterwards we celebrated with Dairy Queen and then Josiah passed out in the car on the way home. It was a long weekend for him.

So, where's a cheap Santa to be found?

9 Months of Awe

Josiah tuned 9 months old on December 7th. It is no exaggeration to say that Jacob and I have been in awe of God over the last 9 months (18 months, really) by his amazing work as we watch Josiah grow. It is quite incredible how He creates each of us, complete and unique, in such a short time. Some may argue that it is just nature and God does not create each of us individually, but regardless, He created nature and that natural process and I am impressed! How can something that started off microscopic have 4 teeth and cause enough raucous to keep me on my toes just 18 months later?!?

Anyway, on to the main subject matter…

Josiah’s 9 month visit to the doctor revealed something we already knew…our little pipsqueak really IS LITTLE, as he fell below his growth curve. There is no major concern since he is right up there on all other developmental measures, but we have doctor’s orders to feed fatty foods frequently. Meats and cheeses, here we come! He is apparently “one of those high metabolism babies that need lots of food frequently,” thus his unceasing appetite. I think he is gearing up to eat us out of house and home as a teen!

This month he learned to get into a sitting position on his own and he has started pulling up. Learning to sit came from out of the blue. One day I literally turned away from him when he was on his belly for a matter of seconds and when I turned back around he was sitting up perfectly. From then on he did it like he’d been doing it for weeks. Pulling up, on the other hand, has been a work in progress. Mostly, he learned how to do it on the laundry basket (he loves laundry day), then he moved onto people, and now he is learning to pull up on furniture, as well.

As for crawling…he hasn’t perfected that yet. He is doing a modified army crawl that I can’t explain, but is quite effective. He lifts up off the floor with each forward motion, but comes back down to his belly in between. He still likes to get up on his hands and knees to rock and play, but hasn’t figured out how to stay up and get from point A to point B. Maybe next month.

Josiah’s left upper incisor finally finished coming in and his right is not far behind. He likes to use his new little incisors to bite fabric and pull back on it. This is all fine and good until it is your shirt he is biting and he pinches a piece of skin, too. You really have to be careful when he's cuddling! It appears that he is working on 2 or 3 more teeth now. Thankfully he is pretty good for it. I wish his hair would come in as fast! He still has reversed male pattern baldness, which ends up looking like a mohawk. He’s cute, regardless. If only I can keep Jacob from shaving his head…

This month also brought Josiah’s first bout with illness. He had a mild upper respiratory infection with a low grade fever. Thankfully we caught it very early and he recovered within days with a short course of antibiotics. Between sickness, teething, and attention from lots of strangers over Thanksgiving, Josiah also decided to develop intense stranger anxiety this month. Thankfully that seems to be subsiding somewhat, but I’m expecting it to stick around to some degree for awhile.

One last thing...our cats like to meow a lot and I think they do it just to annoy Jacob. One of my favorite things that Josiah started doing this month is mimicking them when one of them starts begging for something. It is by no means a perfect “meow”, but he looks straight at them and lets out a short high pitched squeal.

Here are some pictures from the month. It is always so hard to pick just a few.

Josiah's first time driving. He "drove" from my grandparents new house to the old one, but dont worry, they are on the same property not far apart.

Lovin' bathtime! Now that he pulls up, he totally scares me in the tub.

My cutiepie in the Exersaucer the doctor banned him from (he was jumping inappropriately on his foot in it).

Having fun with Daddy and showing off his first upper incisor. You can barely see the second poking through.


Ok, this picture looks a bit strange, but it demonstrates the cute thing he does now where he tucks his chin down and picks up his right shoulder and looks at you. It's cuter in person. He also cocks his head to the right a lot. Such a charmer!

Hello!

Like any good kid, he loves laundry baskets.

My sweetie after finishing his Cheerios snack.

Thankful for Relationships

Be forewarned that this blog is full of randomness. I'll start of with Josiah's fall pictures in his not-so-Halloween costume, since he didn't wear it until 2-3 weeks after Halloween. We took these in our front yard in front of our split rail fence.

Thanksgiving weekend was crazy, to say the least. Josiah was teething and had his first upper respiratory infection (which later spread to me, and then Jacob’s eye) and was put on antibiotics early in the week. We waited until Thursday at lunchtime to travel to my grandparent’s house for dinner in order to avoid traffic, which turned out to be a good plan. We had a great time with my family and spent the night in my grandparent’s brand new 30 year old never-been-slept-in house (I know that doesn’t make sense, but it’s a long explanation). It was very nice!

Grandma rocking and singing to her very tired grandbabies in my great-grandfather's rocker.

Josiah and Uncle Caleb.

The next day we went to my Uncle’s house so that he could take some 9 month pictures of Josiah (a little early) and my mom’s annual Christmas pictures with her grandbabies. I’ll post those pictures at a later date.

After pictures we rushed to Jacob’s parent’s house to get ready for

night one of our 10 year high school reunion. We went to a small Christian school where we were with our classmates from elementary school through high school, so we were really looking forward to it. The first night was family BBQ night, so Josiah came along. We enjoyed catching up with many of our classmates and seeing what God was up to in their lives. It was actually kind of amazing to talk to some of them and see everyone’s kids. It must have been a wild night because we all came home with Josiah’s spit up stains on our shirts and Josiah came home without his pants (diaper leak) and zonked out.

Our old classmates and their kids. This picture is hardly worth posting since you can't really see everyone, but it is the memory that counts.

On Saturday we had another Thanksgiving meal with Jacob’s immediate family followed by yet more Christmas pictures of the grandchildren. Then we made the rounds to visit more with my high school friend, Laura, and her husband, Thadd (who graduated with my brother). It was good catching up with them since they are now missionaries in Germany and have also recently had their first baby, Lilli. After coffee with Laura and Thadd, we visited with Annie, our Cross Country and Track teammate. FYI: Annie and I were on a state champ relay team three years in a row! Then we had a fun dinner with several old friends and ditched the rest of the reunion due to the cold weather.

Laura and Thadd with Lilli.

Mikayla and Josiah in their Christmas best. Excuse Josiah's white socks - he has no black ones.

On Sunday, we had our annual Whitaker family reunion and Turkey Bucks Auction at my grandparent’s house. What is a Turkey Bucks Auction, you ask? We all bring our stuff we want to get rid of and we use fake money (turkey bucks) to bid on and buy it. I bought a pecan cracker, 2 electric edgers, and a 1x4 board (yes, I said a board. My mom is going to paint it to make something fabulous). I had to really fight for the pecan cracker!

I love this picture of Josiah with my grandparents!

Teddy, our auctioneer.

One of my cousins with the suitcase and cowboy hat he bought.

We finally came home on Monday and we were all so glad to get here – not that we didn’t have a great time, but it’s always good to be home. After being sick earlier in the week and then being rushed around all weekend and held by lots of different people, Josiah has now decided to have a bad case of separation anxiety. It is bad enough that sometimes Jacob can’t even hold him. It is a bit endearing to me, but mostly it is difficult since I can’t get anything done. Oh well!

Hiking on the AT

Well, Abby has been on me to write a post about my recent hiking trip. My friend Terry and I went to NC around the Franklin and Wesser area to hike part of the Appalachian Trail. We had planned the trip to end at the Nanahala Outdoor Center and we had to walk about 42 miles in three and half days to get there. We started out by walking a mile in the rain Tuesday afternoon where we spent the night in a shelter, and woke up to no rain and a long day of walking. I know it is weird to want to hike that much, but there is something about the challenge and being outdoors that draws me in.

It is very rewarding to me to have the physical challenge of hiking to the top of a mountain, but the privilege of having a mountain view to yourself is worth it. We planned the trip so that we could camp on the balds where we could enjoy the sunrises and sunsets. Our diet consisted of what we could carry in and cook in one pot and our water was purified mountain water. Before the trip, I packed and repacked to lighten my load and as it turns out I still took too much. Yet back at home, it seems we need so much stuff to make it through the day.

Along the way we met lots of “through hikers” who were hiking the trail from Maine to Georgia – a total of over 2,200 miles. Needless to say, we could smell them before we saw them! They begin in late summer to early fall in Maine and try to make it to Georgia before the cold sets in. And here I was proud to be hiking 42 miles! They can cover that in two days.

Our God truly is amazing. I didn’t even see some of His most spectacular works. I was only exposed to a pin point of this amazing planet, but even for that I was in awe.

An example of our water sources.

Camp at Wesser Bald with a beautiful sunset in the background.

We don't recommend the shelters on the trail!

This was one night's hunt in the shelter (but not by us).

Some scenery:

Breakfast view.


A great lunch of Ramen Noodles at Silver Bald.

The trail to the bald...we were too tired to take it.

The end of the trail for us.