27

John turned 27 on Sunday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN!!! To celebrate, Jack wore this hat all day. You can see how excited he was about it. Actually, we went to dinner at Mi Tierra's to celebrate, and John is the on who donned a sombrero. However, he happened to walk into the room a minute ago and banned that picture from being posted on the web, printed on any form of paper, or seen by anyone in any form whatsoever. John had a fun day: church, friends visiting in town, work out in the afternoon, dinner with friends and family that night, and some really cool gifts! The picture above was taken at Party Town where I was buying some birthday party supplies for Jack. They had a luau section, and somehow this Huck Finn-style hat made it into that department...and onto Jack's head.



The friends who were visiting over the weekend were Charles, Katherine and Caroline Gouch. Charles and Katherine attended UNC with John and me. We had such a great time with them. Their daughter, Caroline, is 6 1/2 months old. Isn't she a beauty? Not only is she beautiful, she's also very active and very advanced for her age. She's crawling, pulling up on things, and cruising. Amazing for such a young baby! She's basically doing everything Jack is doing, minus some of his babble and words. John developed a complex about Jack being delayed, but I think I finally convinced him that Caroline is just way ahead of the game.



Today is Tuesday, so that meant Kim, Shelby, Jack and I had our usual outing to Sippin' Cow Cafe. Yummy as always. I was telling Kim that I take virtually the same pictures of Jack and Shelby sitting in their high-chairs week after week, but they're so cute together that I can't help it. This photo is proof of what a camera hog Jack has become. I was trying to get Shelby by herself in the picture, but look who had to lean in for some camera action. Isn't Shelby such a cutie? It's funny the number of times that Kim and I are asked if they're siblings, or twins even. Makes me wonder what they think we are. Hmmm....



I just got off the phone with my Dad, and I was telling him how clingy Jack has been to me lately. No separation anxiety when he's with other people or anything. It's more when I'm around and trying to do things in the house that he seems to whine and want to be held. This picture was taken today after I finished walking Scout. When I left the house with Scout in tow, Jack immediately crawled to the door and started screaming. I turned around and instantly, he's smiling and okay. We played this back and forth game until I decided it was probably cruel, let Scout do his business, and came back to the door. This is what I saw. Cute little face, smiling, just waiting for me to come through the door. Don't you love it?!? Can you read his shirt? It says "Most Likely To Succeed". Maybe so!

John's packing for his trip as I type. He's taking our camera, so there may not be any postings for a while. Because he's taking the camera, though, he has promised (among many things) that he will post a blog of his own when he returns. Among the other promises were: cleaning out the garage, a trip of mine and Shannon's (Phillip's wife) choice next year, making a video of Jack, and hiring someone to clean the house once a week for 25 years. When he returns and denies that he ever promised the latter, we'll blame it on the persistent lack of oxygen he's experienced. Deal?

Baby Weight

As promised, here's proof that John has been working out with some extra weight strapped to him. Normally he wears his mountain climbing back pack with weights inside, which I'm sure is not the proper title, but this day, he opted for a different challenge. Since John is still smiling and Jack is not yet antsy, you guessed right if you assumed that they had just started their work out. Jack soon came out of his contraption, and the two of us took our interests to the pool while John kept going. John, Phillip and Chuck are leaving this Friday for France. Call and wish them well if you get the chance. That rhymed. Awesome.



The reason our blog has not been updated in a while is because we have been traveling lately. (I had just typed "as of late" instead of "lately" but decided that I would never say that in real life.) We traveled to Chapel Hill last week for a few days. Despite the thrill of returning to our college roots, our reunion was for unfortunate reasons. A friend of ours, Matt Cress, who was the brother of one of my roommates, Abby, passed away July 7th. We attended his memorial service with several other hundreds of close friends and family. People shared funny and inspiring stories about him that made us wish we had more time with him. Please pray for the Cress and Dunn families, friends, and Matt's girlfriend, Emilie, as they are coping with this huge loss. There is such joy, however, in knowing that Matt is in heaven and in the company of the Lord Almighty. He knew Jesus as his Savior, and we thank Him for that!

John and I did love our visit to Chapel Hill! We wished we could have stayed longer. One funny story: We arrived late on Wednesday night. As we pulled into the town, John rolled the windows down so we could smell the air and hear the sounds of our old stomping grounds. We started reminiscing about how this was where we met, started dating, and fell in love. How neat to be bringing our son here to such a special place. Jack must have heard us talking and decided to give us a gift. In his diaper. A big gift. When we parked at our hotel and unbuckled our little guy from his carseat, reality came flooding into our senses when we were hit with the nastiest poop wave we've yet to encounter. John and I were used to being awake at 12:30am in Chapel Hill. That wasn't the problem. It just never occurred to me that instead of studying, eating Gumby's pizza, or just hanging out, we would be bathing our son because of a massive blowout. Life changes, huh? But all for the better. The picture of Jack was taken after his midnight bath. He enjoyed the fluffy bedding. And a clean butt.



John and I also traveled to Atlanta to see Phillip, Shannon, and Carter. Jack enjoyed playing with Carter's toys (almost breaking them). Soon the two of them will be able to play together! We went to the pool, took a walk, took naps, and just hung out. It was so much fun! Shannon and I were promised a trip of our own since the fellas are leaving us for their mountain journey. Our criteria is somewhere warm, somewhere relaxing, and somewhere we don't have to train to go! We also went to see Jeffrey play 2 baseball games. He's so good! Can't wait to see him on the field for Georgia Tech! Again, we wish we could have stayed longer to see everyone!

Jack just woke up. I hear his 'come get me, NOW' noises.

FYLA

You're probably wondering what FYLA stands for, huh? FYLA stands for Future Youth Leaders of America. It's an organization that, as far as I know, is not real. But it was very real on Sunday when we took this picture of Jack in his new bucket hat. Now you're probably wondering how that makes sense in our (mine and John's) heads. See, we have this ongoing joke/story about how the youth leaders who had influence on our lives spent about 80% of their time wearing bucket hats. Probably strange and not at all funny to you, sure. But then the joke/story usually shifts to John's senior trip to the Dominican Republic, where I'm pretty sure he spent at least 80% of his time there wearing a blue bucket hat. At least the pictures I've seen depict this to be accurate. However, we let it slide because he was doped up on narcotics due to an extremely bad shoulder injury that happened on the eve of his Dominican departure. If the youth leader/bucket hat relationship offends any of our future or current youth leading friends, we apologize. Remember, we were in youth group during the 90's. We would be honored as parents if the youth leading shoe (or hat) fit Jack one day.




Maybe now you can see why we bought Jack a bucket hat in the first place. He looks like a devil child in this picture. As soon as the hat came off, WHAMO! He's a wild man. This picture was taken yesterday on Jack's changing table. We have to give him something to hold while we change him, or otherwise his hands end up places they shouldn't. Enough said. Yesterday, Johnson's Baby Lotion was the object of choice to preoccupy Jack.

Today was an unusual morning for us. We woke up to the sounds of a rustling Jack at 6:53. Pretty typical. Then the rustling stopped. Still typical. I fell back asleep, which is what I always do. Rustling starts again. Wake up and look at the clock. 9:00! Jack slept until 9, which John and I agree qualifies as a miracle. We missed our 5K stroller training, which was fine with me! Thanks, Jack! You're the man!



As you can see, Jack has been enjoying his books. He hasn't quite gotten the part about reading front to back instead of back to front, and he missed the part about not eating paper. It's okay though. He's good looking, right?

John's Workout Update: T minus 2 weeks (almost). John, Chuck, and Phil depart for France on the 28th to climb to the summit of Mont Blanc. John continues to train at least 5 days a week. He's still working out one day a week with his backpack of weights on. Sorry. Still haven't made it to the gym to get a picture of that. I'm so proud of him for sticking with it for 6 months now. John is also eating more and drinking more protein than I've ever seen a human ingest over the past few days. Today when I commented that his face looked fuller, you would have thought I had given him a $1,000,000 shopping spree for Patagonia. John's going to take my camera on his trip, so maybe he'll debut his writing skills on the blog with a recap of their journey.

First Fourth

Sorry for not bloggin' since last Sunday. I'm a slacker. Jack has been on the move for the past week. He's perfected the act of pulling up on everything. Furniture, pants, baskets, entertainment centers, you name it. The child will find a way to scale up the side of it and probably pull whatever is in it or on it off. He's a master. Whenever he's not climbing, he's still crawling. He's in a phase where he wants me to pick him up every 5 seconds. This is a picture where he wanted me to pick him up, but somehow, I managed to get a smile and nose crinkle out of him. Adorable, huh?



Here is Jack standing up again. Either he's too tall for this toy, or the toy is too short for him because he now has to bend over to play with the stuff on top of it. Still one of his favorites, though. John and I especially enjoy the "Stir" song. Here goes: "Stir, stir, stir the soup. Stir along with me. We can learn the alphabet, right from A to Z!" I always picture the people who record those songs for Fisher Price and the like, standing with their headsets on in a recording studio. They had dreamed of Nashville, but here they are singing the "Stir" song. I bet that a fifth of the nation's parents know her voice, though, and carry it with them ALL DAY LONG!



The 4th of July was a hit! John was able to take half of the day off, which was such a nice surprise. The three of us went to the Usserys to celebrate with them. This picture was taken after our first boat ride. Jack enjoyed riding fast, but made it known that he couldn't stand his life jacket. We cruised around Calibogue Sound (probably spelled incorrectly). Jeffrey let Jack help him steer the boat (see pic below). After the boat ride, we ate burgers (Jack had a little burger just for him), and John, Jeffrey and Jack went for a swim. There were moments where Great Grandma Catherine got so nervous that I thought she may jump in after him. But she didn't. We cruised near Shelter Cove to watch the fireworks at around 9, and Jack LOVED the fireworks. He wasn't afraid of the noises at all. He just sat there with his eyes and mouth wide open (which is how he often sits). July 4th was such a great day for the Ussery clan.





This picture was taken this morning. I like it because it shows Jack's teeth so well. He now has 4 teeth. 2 up, 2 down.
Happy late July 4th to everyone! We hope you took time to celebrate our freedom and independence with friends or family!

Beachin' It

John, Jack and I have been out of town this past week to Surfside Beach, SC. That's right. We live and vacation at the beach. Different beaches, however. But it's all worth our while to see our family and to actually enjoy the sand and ocean, which we do way too little of at home. My family takes an annual vacation to the Surfside/Garden City area, and I'm pretty sure this was the Gazillionth Annual Trip. Jack enjoyed himself so much. He loved eating the sand, kicking his feet in the waves, and being picked up by any family bystander at the mere sound of a whimper. John and I were able to relax, read books, play Bocce, and get something we haven't had in two years: A TAN!!!!! It's a pleasure to look down at your feet and not have your skin match the color of your toenails, which is usually an ugly shade of purple/beige.



In between swimming, eating sand, and napping, Jack took some time just to chill. We didn't think it was possible, but his hair did seem to lighten even more, and he managed to get a tad bit of sun. Don't worry, no sunburn. What kind of mother/nurse would that make me? And for those of you who have children and like to take them outdoors, Aveeno makes excellent sunscreen for babies. It's 45 spf, but it's so thick it could be 4 spf and probably still work. It doesn't quite have the beachy aroma of Coppertone, but at least we're not slowly baking out child for a good scent, right?


Jack had his first carousel ride on Friday night. He enjoyed the lights, rotation, and creepy circus-like music that are staples of any legitimate carousel. John brought up a funny remembrance of riding carousels when he was younger. He said it taught him at an early age about discontent. He remembers sitting on a carousel stallion embellished with jewels and fancy designs wondering if he'd be happier on the ostrich or lion. And heaven forbid you mistakenly choose one of the stationary animals that does not bob up and down. Boy, those kids were big dorks, huh?



We were so glad to be away last week for a refreshing getaway, but it is nice, too, to be back home in our own beds. Jack has enjoyed the familiarity of his crib so much that he slept until 9:45 this morning! I'm considering vacationing for another week just so we can return and have one morning of sleeping in again! Hope all of you are doing well! Sorry it's been so long since we've written!

"Baw"

On Sunday June 11th, 2006 at approximately 11:00am, Jack Ussery said his first word: "Ball". John and I went to Walnuts after church, and while we were waiting for our food, Jack was paying special interest to his Dora the Explorer disposable placemat. He kept putting his finger on a picture of a beach ball that's on the mat, so in an effort to teach him what he was pointing too, I started saying "ball" over and over again. Jack started staring at me, specifically at my mouth, and after about five to six times of me saying "ball", he very deliberately said it back to me. It was more of a 'baw' sound. He did not perfectly say the "L" consonant, but he DEFINITELY said ball. John and I freaked out. He has yet to say it since because I don't think he knows what happened. He simply was repeating me, but it made us so happy! And what a great first word!


"Ball" is hands down a better first word than "bail," which is exactly what it took to get jj redick out of jail this morning. A DUI! A stinkin' DUI! Just when jj was out of the duke basketball program, and I had begun training my brain that I don't have to dislike him as much anymore, he goes and does something dumb like this. So I can't like him. Again. And before certain readers who say they are UNC AND duke fans start furiously google-ing "UNC basketball alumni who have been incarcerated", I already know who they are (at least most of them:) and that they, too, have committed terrible acts. But in honor of what this blog stands for (Jack loving and duke disliking), and how previous duke-bashing actually got someone to comment, I couldn't let this mug shot go unnoticed.

Onto a more sobering topic...Jack is not well today, so pray for him. He had a high fever last night and this morning. Dr. Thomas took a peek at his ears this morning for me, but everything looked good. He's got a virus that's been going around with symptoms of high fevers and a sore throat. Poor baby! John and I hate so much that he's not feeling well, but it has been nice to cuddle with Jack without him squirming all over the place. He watched almost half of the Brazil/Croatia matchup (see appropriate soccer themed picture above) with me today, sitting in my lap the whole time. It was sweet.

They're Baaaack

Jordan and Trevor arrived safely from Africa this past Wednesday. John, Jack and I had the pleasure of picking them up from the airport, and this is a shot of Trevor seeing Jack for the first time, EVER! Isn't that neat? I think Jack was a little bigger and a little more active than Trevor expected. If I recall correctly, Trevor said Jack was fat. And he is. We're okay with that. We're all so excited to have them back in the states, and especially thrilled about having them here for the summer! Welcome home!!!



Jordan and Trev were thoughtful enough to bring back a special present for Jack. Is this not the funniest thing you've ever seen? We keep referring to it as a "baja", but I'm pretty sure that's not what they're called in Africa. I'm not actually sure what they call it in Africa, but if it's not the word for "ridiculously funny", then it's a shame.



Jack went to a birthday party today for Justin, one of his buddies from StrollerFit. The little tike screaming is the birthday boy himself. All of this hoopla his parents went through just for him, and how does he repay them? By screaming! I'm sure we'll get ours at Jack's first party. No, I'm certain of it. And we'll post a picture. Just like this one. The little girl beside of Jack is Emma and the crawler behind him is Charlie. Just a few of Jack's posse.



Do you recognize these faces??? It's Tim McGraw and Faith Hill!!! I went to their concert on Tuesday with Ann Jacoby, a friend of mine from work. It was so much fun!!! I recommend seeing them if you ever get the chance or if you just ever have the urge to watch a bunch of rednecks mouth every single word "Red Ragtop" and start believing that the lyrics are their story. I actually have pictures of such folks. If it's a rainy day in the blog world, I may pull them out of the archives.

By the way, the UNC baseball team just beat Alabama 8-7. They hit a 2-run homer to win in the bottom of the 9th. Now I'm not the biggest baseball fan on the planet, but that kind of ending is awesome. GO HEELS!!!!!...and Jackets!

Collage

It's been many moons since the last blog...well...almost 1/2 a moon anyway. Here's a picture collage of what has taken place with the Usserys. Jack and I went to Greensboro two Fridays ago and stayed until this past Wednesday. Unfortunately, on my rush packing job, I forgot to take the camera charger, so...not many pictures from Greensboro. John and Scout held the fort down at home. Here are some fun pictures from the past 12 days.






























Explanations of Photos (Top->Bottom, Left->Right)

About two weeks ago, John and I were standing in our living room when we turned and there was Scout, sitting just as he is in this picture. The 'cape' you see on his back is a bathmat that he has decided to tote around the house like Linus does his blanket. We have no idea how he got the mat on his back like this. These past nine months of deferred attention have taken it's toll in the poor guy. We surely do love him though. Scout continues to be Jack's #1 play buddy.

On Friday, my Aunt Lisa, Uncle Tim, and Cousin Adam (along with Adam's friend, Tanner) stayed overnight as a pitstop on their way to Disney. John and I got a preview of what it will one day be like to have a 9 year old boy in the house. 24/7 nonstop energy! (We could use a boost of that ourselves.) Jack enjoyed watching the whirlwind of activity, but enjoyed his breakfast even more! Adam was so sweet to feed his cousin.

Papa Johnny came to see Jack on Friday after work. Jack got a kick out of the belly tickling. John and I were waiting for a post-dinner vomit disaster, but fortunately Jack inherited his mother's stomach and was able to hang on for the ride.

This picture was taken yesterday after discovering that Jack has a thing for brushing his tooth. Aunt Lisa was brushing her teeth with a battery operated toothbrush and Jack was mesmerized. Thanks for sharing your brush with Jack, Lisa! I think we got all of the formula and drool residue washed off!

Also yesterday we headed to Savannah to watch Jeffrey play baseball. Their team won 6-1 and it was great to get a taste of what next year's trips to GT will be like. Jack behaved so well at the game! He sat in Gigi's lap for most of the game (see next picture) and played with his red ball and her necklace. Necklaces seem to be a huge help when trying to entertain a child.

This next picture is kind of a big deal because....drum roll......Jack is crawling!!!! Like foreal crawling. Not that crazy crawl, crawl, face plant pattern anymore. He'll crawl all over the place and he seems to be picking up speed! Jack enjoys the sound and feel of the tile in our house unfortunately. He's no longer a carpet dweller.

Last picture...Jeffrey and his #1 fan at the game yesterday!

Sorry to all 3 of our blog readers for such a slack display of blogs over the past while. It's hard when you're out of town! Oh, and by the way....Trevor and Jordan are coming home this Wednesday! Pray for safe travels for them. Toodles.

Creepy Crawly

Announcement: Jack is the weird kid in our StrollerFit class. Yesterday during the floor routine where we let the little ones run/crawl free, Jack sat in the middle of the floor and made this strange sound that was similar to a growl, but had a tad bit of scary mixed in. It was so creepy! Occasionally he'd pause for a moment to crawl around and find something disgusting to put in his mouth, but then he'd resume making the scary growl noise. I could see the other mothers giving each other knowing looks, taking mental notes as to why they would never schedule a playdate with Jack Ussery. He can be creepy afterall. On the drive home I thought about how completely normal John and I are, and how strange that we would produce an abnormal child. Then I started recalling some recent snapshots from an ordinary evening in the Ussery household, and it hit me! If Jack is a goofball, it's because his parents are insane! We're nuts!






First of all, we dress Jack like an animal. See here, he's dressed like a duck. He's looking at his feet as if he's thinking, "What happened?!?!?!?!?!" Maybe his creepy growl is his interpretation of one of the animals he has been dressed as. Maybe? Secondly, I act like Scout is one of us. I have been known to kiss him on the mouth and of course I kiss Jack, so maybe something was passed on. Last, look at John. Nice form, huh? So, Jack, we're sorry buddy. You are your parent's son.

Before anyone gets angry, of course we don't think Jack is strange. We just wanted to post these funny pictures. The StrollerFit story, however, is true, and the pictures were from a pretty typical evening in our home. We surely do have fun!!!

Beach Bums

We all had a busy week, so we decided to end it with a nice, relaxing day at the beach. But really...taking a 8 month old to the beach proves to be a challenge! I got some practice earlier in the week when I took Jack to see his Mema and Deda (my grandparents-Mom's side), who were visiting for the week on Hilton Head. He got to show them all of his new tricks, and they enjoyed being with him so much. Unfortunately, I was a bad picture taker and only got pictures of Jack with a Mema or Deda arm or leg here or there in a picture. We'll be sure to get some better pictures when we see them again, which is this coming weekend! Memorial Day in Greensboro. At least for Jack and me. John's busy with work and his training. Still no pictures of the pack on his back, but he's continuing to train pretty fiercely!



So, yesterday was spent on the beach with Jack, John, Genie (Gigi) and Jeffrey. Trying to be good parents, John and I slathered (is that a word?) sunscreen all over Jack. But, he ended up getting some of it in his right eye, which set the afternoon off to a poor start. If that's ever happened to you, you know it hurts like the dickens, and we all know how badly 'the dickens' hurts. We tried putting him in the water. He cried. We tried letting him play with his stacking cups. He cried. Finally, the burn must have worn off and Jack seemed to enjoy himself. Gigi had fun with him in the water (see above pic). Jack kept making these high pitched "ahhhh" sounds. We interpreted that as positive feedback.

We've realized recently that Jack is very protective of his hands. He does not like anyone, not even his mother, touching his hands. Maybe he's a germiphobe. By the way, that is not a word. I looked it up. Hope everyone reading is doing well!

You Scream, I Scream

As promised, here are some more of the great Jack pictures that Susan Jones took. These are just a few of our favorites. (Out of 300+, it's hard to narrow it down.) This profile shot gives a good look at Jack's cheeks. Believe it or not, there has been a significant decrease in their size. By the way, Jack's dinner last night included: an entire Lil' Entree, small jar of veggies, large jar of fruit, bits of a chicken breast and bread. Maybe the cheeks will be back in full bloom soon?

Mother's Day was a hit in every way. Jack had his baby dedication at church in the morning. He made us proud by being the loudest baby on stage. About two minutes into the dedication, Jack eyed the bottle that the baby girl beside of us was drinking from. It was all over from that point. Jack stretched his arms out and tried to leap from John's grasp and began to cry/moan. Even his favorite light up ducky toy could not soothe him. We had lunch at Truffles with both sets of parents and my mom's parents, Jackie and Jeffrey. The day concluded with a trip to Outside Hilton Head (Jordan, the workers asked how you were doing and were excited to hear that you would be back soon.) and dinner at the Old Oyster Factory with John's parents, Jeffrey and Grandma Catherine. We gave her a picture of Jack for Mother's Day. I don't think I've ever seen her smile so big.


Jack's latest trick is screaming on command. The command is that one of us will scream first. Then it becomes a contest. We'll scream. Then Jack screams. So on and so forth until something else catches his attention. Poor Jack doesn't have a chance when it comes to competitiveness. He's just got it. Not sure if competitive drive is a dominant or recessive trait, but we're pretty sure that John and I both passed on whatever it is. Hope all of you reading are doing well. Happy late Mother's Day!

Awesome

We took Jack to Susan Jones' house this week, and she took some awesome pictures of him! This is just a taste. I'll post more later. My parents just pulled in the driveway! Gotta run!

Wet Laundry

Doesn't Jack look like such a big boy sitting there on the lawn chair, sipping from his cup? It's amazing to John and me how quickly Jack is growing and changing. Tonight we dropped his crib bed from the high, baby position to the low, too big position. I know it sounds crazy, but changes like that make us sad! We're thrilled that Jack is growing and developing on track, but we hate to see him leave that baby phase. Same thing goes for his teeth. We think we've broken some ground (or gums) on that front. Sunday we were able to see white, calcium filled teeth tops. Today all we could see were swollen gums again! What's the deal? Can they retract like that? Anyway, back to how the appearance of teeth are sad....I was telling my Mom the other day that my crazy brain was thinking, "Once Jack gets teeth, he'll never not have teeth again". And in my 1st time mom brain, that was a real tragedy. What gives?


Jack continues to try his best to gnaw his way through the toothless state that he's currently in. He's given up on his thumb and has taken the 'more is better' method by sucking three fingers instead. You can see his Peek-a-Blocks in the background. Those are one of his favorite toys right now. The others being the ceiling fan (only for observation of course), stacking cups (he likes to knock them down), and Baby Tad (the hermaphroditic frog that sings and talks).

Now...here's a really good picture. Jack had gotten out of the pool on Sunday, and after I finished drying him off, I looked down, and there was the most pitiful butt shot I had ever seen. His rear looks like a bag of wet laundry. So what did we do? We recorded it of course! This is future rehearsal dinner ammunition. But isn't it the cutest little booty you've ever seen?

Hope you're all doing well! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas out there!

Kenya Come Home Soon???

FIRST PICTURE:

JACK: Hey, Mommy! Aren't Aunt Jordan and Uncle Trevor coming home soon?

MOMMY: Why, yes, son. They'll be home in June. Are you exicted to see Jordan and meet Trevor?

JACK: YEEEEE!!!! (see picture)




SECOND PICTURE:

JACK: Wait, Mommy. You said they're in KENYA?!?!?!?!?!

MOMMY: Well, yes. That's where they are now. Since you're obviously the most brilliant child in the universe, would you please place your slobber-drenched hand over Kenya so I can know that you understand what I'm telling you?

JACK: ok.


Just an ordinary day in the Ussery home. Tomorrow...quantum physics.

Back to Africa...Check out www.starfishafrica.org. Trevor and some of his college friends started the organization. Yes, we're proud!!! Can't wait to see you two!

Worthless Aside: Since the Africa geography lesson this afternoon, I've had Toto's song "Africa" playing nonstop on the radio in my head!

Elemonater

Nothing particulary exciting to divulge in this blog. We had a great weekend. Saturday, John worked and Jack and I worked out. Jack and I also went to see my friend, Marianne Dean, in Savannah. She and her husband, David, are moving to "SOUTHEAST ASIA" (some of you are laughing at that for good reason) in August. They'll be there a minimum of three years, so I don't know when we'll see one another again! She was heading through Georgia and decided to give us a call. So glad that she did. Unfortunately, we yacked the whole time and didn't stop for any pictures. Jack was in Marianne's wedding last May, in utero. We joked that he was the only bridesman.

Sunday was such a relaxing day for us. We went to church at the "late" 11am service because Jack slept until 8am! The sermon was on child-rearing and how to love your children biblically. Here are some points/pledges that we really took note of and pray that we will incorporate into our parenting:

1. I openly accept my child, giving her/him a sense of security. (Psalm 139:14-15)
2. I express appreciation to my child, giving her/him a sense of significance. (Matthew 3:17)
3. I show affection to my child, giving her/him a sense of acceptance. (1 John 4:7)
4. I make myself available to my child, giving her/him a sense of importance. (Hebrews 4:16)
5. I provide accountability for my child, giving her/him a sense of responsibility. (Ephesians 4:16)
After church, John watched "the man" while I went to a baby shower for Jamee Reed (the wife of John's ex-business partner and buddy, Rich Reed). They're having a girl, Abigail, in July! Another for Jack to choose from!!!! WHOO HOO!!! We then had small group at our house last night where we discussed marriage. So, after a day of tackling how to be a good parent and then a good spouse, we hit the hay! Jack was a trooper through the entire day. He got a little rowdy during small group, but we think that's because he enjoys a crowd. He's a showboat. Just like his Dad. :) Speaking of Papa J, he's officially started training with the backpack of weights on! No pictures yet, but maybe I can sneak one of him someday soon. John says he feels ridiculous wearing the pack in the gym. For those who don't know he's training for a climb, I'm sure he does look a little strange. Then again, there are gym attenders who bring their pet parrots while they're working out. Strange, I know, but it happens.

The posted pictures were some from the weekend. Apparently Jack enjoys lemons!!!