We are officially beyond the baby days…Jackson is a toddler!!!   sniff  sniff

It is amazing to watch him learn and grow but it goes WAY TOO FAST!

Always living on the edge!

Ready for “school” with his snack bag ready!

looking quite calm and serious! he is actually VERY active and quite the comic!

Jackson is loving reading these days! He gets these magazine’s from Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Ryan each month. Their is a story each month about a family in the back of the book. During the election one arrived and featured an African American family.  We taught Jackson that the mom’s name is Oprah and the boys name  is Obama.  A few weeks ago he saw the yahoo homepage and there was an African American basketball players picture. Jackson pointed and yelled “Bama!!”.  Not sure if that is good or bad.

It has been a fun 19 months!! Not boring to say the least!

I am finally getting around to doing the tag from Sarah Maney…like you Holly! I guess life is just now starting to slow down.

The tag was to go to our pictures, the 4th folder, 4th picture and write about it.

Here is our picture…..

It isn’t a great photo but it is fun that it happens to be of Paul and Jonas since Sarah is the one that tagged us! This picture was taken when Paul, Sarah and Jonas drove ALL THE WAY from Lubbock for a visit when we were in Ft Worth! We had brunch with some of Seth’s college buddies so that we could catch up and meet each others new additions. Jonas and Paul are playing with Jonas’s plane that Jackson brought for him from Colombia!

I tag Leigh, Claire, Meredith and Margo!

I am thankful we are in Colombia because there are a zillion holidays here. Seth was home yesterday so that we could observe Ascension or something like that. It was so nice for him to be around because Jackson has been really sick since Wed. None of us have slept for days! Jackson had a fever of 103+ and had to be monitored all of the time. We were giving him a luke warm bath at 2:30 AM one night.  Although Jackson still isn’t 100% we are slowly catching up on rest. We are at least past the vomiting we hope! Anyhow, after a very long few days it was great for Seth to be home on Monday!

After being on vacation together and then having some sick days I have been begging Seth teasingly to stay home from work to be with us.  Seth and I were laying in bed yesterday while Jackson napped and we started talking about how amazing it would be if our society flip-flopped the traditional retirement schedule. Why not be home while your kids are growing up and then head to the work force when your kids go off to college and you are bored.  Obviously, we work when our kids are young to have the money to support a family but since the social security system isn’t working anyways why not do a “reverse retirement”??  Seth’s influence on Jackson is so different than my own. He just loves his daddy so much and learns so much from him. When Mondays roll around Jackson is looking around calling for daddy all day. Wouldn’t it be cool to invest hours in our kids when they are young! And then when we need something new and challenging we can do something new at retirement age! I like the sound of it!

On with the random thoughts, I love spring cleaning!! Seth and I got busy this weekend working on cleaning out our closets. We filled half of our guest bed with clothes to send with our maid to people in her church.  It was so much fun to feel like we made great progress in getting organized. Since we move alot their really isn’t time to let things accumulate. For this post we had lots of “maybe we will use them in Bogota even though we haven’t worn them in a yr”. We got rid of so much! I tried to go through a cabinet with boxes of old pictures today. What do you do with all of your old pictures from prom, youth group, trips, Christmas’s. I don’t want to throw them all away but honestly, my photography skills just were not worthy of using film back then. I printed way to many doubles! Sorting pictures will have to wait for another day.  We made it through our medicine cabinets and brought ourselves to throw away all of that old expired stuff….you know the tons of boxes and bottles that you are sure the doctor will prescribe tomorrow. So, even though it feels nothing like Spring here and will never feel like spring here we had some successful Spring cleaning!

some random pics from the week…

We had no idea that babies sometimes sit down and sit for longer than 5 mins until Jackson was so sick! He just couldn’t keep up!

Thomas the Train bubbles make any boy smile!

This random picture is in here specifically for Bonnie, Leigh and Stephanie. I found this cute dalmation shirt for Jackson…one of you needs to have a boy so they can inherit it!!! I was trying to get him to show off his shirt..this is the best I could do!

I’m wrapping up this random blog posting!

Coming off a tough 2008, I am evaluating our year to come. We are aware we will tread through some tough times as we did in 2008 but we are hopeful that 2009 will bring refreshment and newness.

What’s in store for 2009…

Seth began a new rotation this week in the Fraud Dept. He will be stepping away from the visa line to work more intently on uncovering fraud for the next while. This opportunity came up about a month ago and it seemed like yet another great opportunity.  I think I mentioned before that he is managing the organization of the big 4th of July bash here at post so he is already in to meetings for that. I am continuing to see patients and have added 3 new ones in the new year.  I am able to work two days a week and help financially while still being with Jackson so this has been a huge blessing. Jackson is beginning a new endeavor in the new year, he is going to be attending a “Mother’s Day Out”-type program for 3 hours two mornings a week. This will help to relieve his misery on one of the mornings I am working and give him some much needed run around time with other kids as now he is stuck in our apt. I am apprehensive about sending him but we visited the little school (with only 10 kids at a time) and he loved it! It is more like a little house with only kids his age, a garden with a bunny, special music times, etc.  Jackson is 17 months old and never stops surprising us. I really don’t know what life would be like without his joy and fresh excitement about new things.

Seth and I have started “Love Dare” that his sister and brother-in-law gave us for Christmas.  We are enjoying it thoroughly although I must admit it is already challenging us. It is providing a time each day for us to sit down together and focus on our relationship. It is a great catalyst for discussions about tough things and a great reminder to appreciate one another. I highly recommend it to every married couple.

In 2009, (Septemberish) we are wrapping up our time in Bogota and we are heading back to the DC area to start the adventure of learning German. Our first move to DC was tough because we didn’t know the area, didn’t have a church, and didn’t have any family of friends. DC oddly now seems like another home to us. While in DC we were embraced by our small group, made great friends, found a church and got plugged in. In addition to our previous connections we are thrilled that my brother and sister-in-law and my two nieces moved to DC this past summer. We have my aunt and her family in Maryland which was a treat but we need to see them more next time around! We can’t wait for Jackson to have regular play dates with his cousins and for us to get to have family dinners! We are looking at DC as a time to refresh and recharge before the next big adventure…Bern.  We desperately need spiritual growth and fellowship that we have lacked here. We took that for granted before being overseas and we are praying even now that Bern will provide a healthier church environment.

As we look to the next 9 months before leaving Bogota we are working to stay plugged in and build friendships. It is hard to do when we are so excited to be going back “home” for a bit. We are looking for places to live in DC, sorting out the old, preparing for the new and trying to keep ourselves grounded all the while.

My prayer for this year for our family is that we can truly have a year of health and peace. That God would strengthen us and “keep us grounded” as we prepare, transition and re-plant. This is the life He cut out for us for this time, we trust that he will provide all that we need to live it well.