Memorial Weekend

My parents came for a visit over Memorial Day Weekend. Contrary to what you may be thinking...I actually took pictures of the kids with other people in them! Gone are the days of the same up close Jack and Finn poses with different backgrounds! On Saturday night, we had a cookout at our house. Before we ate, though, the boys made use of the golf course.


There were 3 other attempts to get all 4 of us looking in the same direction. Does it say anything that this was the best of them? My dad looked like a rodeo clown trying to get the boys to smile. Thanks for the effort!

Jack didn't seem to care that the point of golf is to get the ball into the hole. He enjoyed chasing the balls that John and Poppy hit and running them back to them. We're hoping that he doesn't settle to be the ball boy later on. Oh dear...

Finntastic enjoyed crawling around in the grass. He's usually not a big grass guy, but the shorter golf green grass (say that 10 times) was more like carpet I suppose. He took a good crawl every now and again to work off his latest Cheerio overload.

Get a load of Finn's face. Doesn't this picture scream brotherly love!?! More like brotherly torture, huh? Jack would have nothing to do with the hat unless it involved cramming it down on top of Finn.

Mimi and Poppy and their grandbabies

Poppy smooches

John tried his best to show Jack the object of the game. But...to no avail. He's still a ball chaser. (One heck of a ball chaser if you ask me:)

Remember earlier when I mentioned something about a Cheerio overload? Just kidding:) We've yet to experience the vomit-in-parent-mouth scenario. Whew.

Hope you had a great Memorial Day. Thank you to everyone who has served and is serving our awesome country! We are blessed! If this blog had music, you better believe you'd be reading this post to the awesomeness of Neil Diamond.

The Beach Boys

My Grandparents are staying on Hilton Head this week, so yesterday I decided it was a good time to conquer the beach. With the extra sets of hands and eyes, we managed to have an enjoyable afternoon. Jack loved seeing Mema and Deda, and Finn was happy to eat sand by the fistful.


The boys had on their matching swimsuits, which made them the hit of the beach. Everyone passing by would say, "Awww...look! Aren't they cute? They match." What is it about matching, anyway? This picture was one in a million, literally, as it's one of the few times that Jack has shared anything with anyone at anytime ever. I was a beaming mama to have caught it on film.


We realized that Jack's high level energy is not location specific. Yep, he was equally as nutsy on the beach as anywhere else. It was so nice to see him play in the water and sand instead of chase the birds which has been his previously preferred beach activity. Yesterday, he ran back and forth to the wagon, filling his buckets with sand and water and dumping them on me. That was a true "Mom Test" scenario. I would only allow myself to be covered in the gritty nastiness of wet sand for one of my boys. It was a beautiful day, and I'm so glad that we went. Hopefully we can join Mema and Deda for another day at the beach this week. I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

As a side note, to all you mother's out there...do you find that you have a heightened Freak Alert Radar since having children? There was a man on the beach who kept passing us by and I didn't know if he was just a man taking a leisurely stroll, a past stroke victim, a mentally challenged adult, a child molester, or what, but my alert was sounding! It's hard to know these days. We didn't know whether to feel sorry for him, or pray for him, or look at him like "Don't think we're not memorizing what you look like". Am I alone here?


Jack has taken an interest into holding Finn over the past few weeks. He'll get down on the floor with him and say very slowly in his best baby talk, "Comere, Fen...I hold yoooooou." Finn usually tries to roll out of Jack's vice grip, but on this particular morning, he enjoyed being with his big brother.

Now that Finley is crawling, he's discovered the book shelf. In fact, he discovers it at least twice a day, dumping the books into the floor. His favorite book is one called Baby Faces. It's a book where each page has a close up of a baby making a different face, and on the opposite page will be a word describing the face, like "Uh-oh" or "Stinky". He LOVES it. I think it's the only thing he loves anymore. John and I are so confused as to what has happened to our sweet Finn. Over the past week, he's been SO fussy. Very few things elicit the Finn Grin anymore. Like every other parent, we're chalking it up to teething, because we're obviously not capable of having a fussy baby by nature. No way!:) If you happen to be praying for other fussy babies around the globe, add Finn's name to the list.... and add our names to the list of parents who may very well lose their minds at any given point.

Jack's cognitive abilities have apparently been affected by Finn's continual crying, too. The other day Jack wore his mismatched swimmies all morning. I never saw him pretend swimming or pretend zombie walking or anything. He went about his normal business but with flotation devices. Now that I think about it, he was really good that day....Hmmm...Do they make swimmies in adult sizes?

This past weekend I attended a Women of Faith conference with my gal pals in Jacksonville, FL. It was such a fun weekend. We heard from some great speakers who were all hilarious and so clearly doing what they have been gifted to do. Thanks to Leslie for the invitation, and thanks to all of you gals for making it such a fun time. And, as always, a HUGE THANKS to my hubster who kept the boys so I could make the trip.

Day-o-Mama

Mother's Day was the best this year. I've come to realize that for parents of smaller children, Mother's Day is kind of a 'make it' or 'break it' day for the dads, kind of like an anniversary in cognito. My husband clearly knocked it out of the park for 2008. He let me sleep in, gave me beautiful sunflowers, and made an adorable card that included a list of the little things I do for our boys under the title of "Not Unnoticed". John said double negatives were allowed when honoring a mom. He made an afternoon appointment for my mom and I to get massages, and he didn't care when I announced that I was not making dinner that night. (Not that he normally would, but it was still appreciated.) We had a great day as a family, and I felt completely honored as a mama. Thank you, John!!!!

Happy belated Mother's Day out there to all the mommies of the world, especially to our moms who mean the world to both of us. John and I speak often of our newfound appreciation and admiration to our own moms who devoted everything to us when we were small, and have bailed us out more times than we can count now that we're parents ourselves. We love you beyond expression!!! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!


Mother's Day was also special because Finley Matthew had his baby dedication at church that day. Even though the ceremony itself was nothing formal, we were happy to publicly commit to raise our son under the guidance and instruction of the Lord, with the support of our church body and family. What a huge commitment to live out day to day, but it's about the most important one we can make!

Last week was so exciting for Jack because his Aunt Jackie came home from college! He was beside himself when she got to our house. In anticipation of her arrival, he picked out a special cookie for her at the local cookie store. It was so cute, and honestly, very unlike Jack to think of others, especially in a bakery!:) Jack had picked out a cookie for himself, and then he shouted and pointed to this flower smiley face cookie and screamed, "JACKIE!!!". I thought because we sometimes call Jack Jackie that he had realized that the flower smiley face cookie was much larger than his original choice and therefore a better pick for himself. But I was wrong. I picked up the big cookie and he mumbled something about Jackie coming home from school. Of course I bought the thing because it was a selfless act on Jack's part, which is not normal these days. He held the cookie on the way to the car as if it were the arc of the covenant. All day long he'd point to the box and tell me how it was Jackie's 'cake'.


Jack's personality blooms day by day. He's very into hygiene right now, which is good. Other mothers of teenage boys warm me of the 'funk' that will permeate my household one day. So for now, we'll greet each frequent bath and shower request with a smile.

Another one of Jack's favorite things right now is monsters. Yep. Monsters. He has a Sesame Street book where Grover warns us on every page that there's a monster at the end of the book, so don't turn the page. But of course you turn the page and at the end is lovable, furry old Grover who is the anticipated monster, but not the scary thing you were expecting. Anyway, he's started calling all of the golfers that come play behind our house, Monsters. "Good morning, Monsters!" is what he said two days ago when we jogged past a group in golf carts. He seems to like the thrill, but definitely on his own terms. When John or I try to initiate a monster play, he'll look at us like we're stupid and say, "There's no monsters." On this particular day a monster was anyone with a coat on their head.

Unfortunately Scout was not scared, but rather excited by the blue coat on Jack. If you know our dog and his affection for the color blue, then you know what happened next. Needless to say, Jack has not played monster games with Scout since.


***Fungus Among Us Update***
John went to MUSC on Monday for another follow up. They are very pleased with the improvement that they're seeing. The doctors backed off of the eye drop schedule to 4x/day instead of every 2 hours, and the best part is that he doesn't have to do the drops through the night! They reminded him of how 'lucky' he is that they caught this so quickly as all 12 of the other documented cases either lost their vision or their entire eye. Ew. We're not calling it luck, but a blessing from God. Thank you all for your continued prayers.

***Blog Overhaul Update**
The blog needed a new look. As of now, there are 5 people who like it and 2 that don't. We'll see...

The Fungus Pool

Saturday was one of those days that I could relive 100 times. The weather here was incredible, and I just thoroughly enjoyed my job as Mama. It was the kind of day where you just feel overwhelmed with so much joy that you almost choke on it. You don't know if you're going to burst into tears or hysterical laughter. And there seems to be no apparent reason. Jack had a ridiculous tantrum over a lollipop, and I recall a certain fuzzy headed little one pooping on my pajama top that morning. But it didn't bother me at all that day. I was just so happy to be with them.


We celebrated the awesomeness of Saturday by purchasing this mushroom pool. We thought we'd honor John's recent fungal run-in with this inflatable effigy....sort of our Team Ussery 'we're not afraid' rally against Kingdom Fungi. You may have taken our entire 2008 deductible, but you can't damage our spirit!

We would have opted for Hampton Lake, seeing as how it's incredibly amazing for kids of all ages, but Finn had the snots, and we didn't want to infect any innocent swimmerby. We just made a our own little Fungus Pool.

Contrary to what this serious picture would have you believe, Finn had a great time in the pool. He loved chewing on all the toys and chewing on all the toys. No, that sentence was not a mistake. He did not, however, love the occasional face plant that he would take in attempt to reach his next chewing victim.

Jack is so bad to the bone. This is the 'bully response' face we taught him in preparation for preschool. Saturday did confirm two of our suspicions:
1. Jack is a splasher.
2. Swim diapers are a joke. Nuf said.

Mr. (or Miss?) Carebear had it coming to him/her. These were the few toys that Jack didn't have an interest in stealing that day. He's realized that his baby brother isn't a chubby little blob that just lies there anymore. Now he's a chubby little blob that has taken a shine to Jack's toys. Uh oh.

Jack has always loved Scout, but over the past 6 months, his love for him has grown. Whenever we are riding back to the house from somewhere, Jack doesn't say "Let's go home" or "Let's go to my house". He screams, "GO SEE SCOUT!" On Saturday, Jack and Scout played like this. Rather, Scout LET Jack play like this. I think they're buds.

***A Fungus Among Us Update***

John returned from MUSC with good news today. His infection is not growing which is great. Most of what we can see of the infection is actually not the infection, but corneal scarring left over from the infection. The white blood cell build up is retreating, and they want him to see a local opthalmologist for the remainder of the week. He'll follow up in Charleston on Monday. Also...the drops schedule has changed from every hour to every 2 hours and only twice through the night! HOORAY!

Thanks again for everyone's prayers and phone calls and emails and dinners....the list could go on and on. The Lord has blessed us, and continues to bless us, in more ways than we could ever count.

Oh, and for you nerds out there who want to know...the fungus is paecilomyces lilacinus (PIE-seal-oh-MY-sees lie-LACK-in-us). Kind of catchy, huh? I told John if we ever have a daughter one day we've got a good name...:) She could go by Pae or Cilo or Myces. Very Greek chic.

Meanwhile...

Despite John's corneal infection fiasco, life has continued in our home. Maybe not as organized or calm as normal, but it's continued nonetheless.

As you can see Finn has continued to grow in size and in cuteness. His bottom two teeth have emerged, but he remains the drooler and gnawer that he was before they arrived. He's still a great baby. Loves to eat, sleep, and play. His current tricks are doing the army crawl, and pulling himself up to stand. My parents lowered the crib mattress before we had another reason to visit the hospital.

Oh, yes, and Finn's other favorite trick is toe-sucking. He's quite limber.

This picture was taken on D Day. D Day being the Darn Day that John's eye infection first roared it's ugly head. We went to the downtown festival that night and walked a while around the banks of the May River. It was beautiful!

Last week the kids performed at CBS after the lecture. If you will recall, Jack's first performance back in December did not go so well. He cried and threw himself onto the floor into a fit of sorts. This time was a little different.

Out of the 25-30 children that were on stage, mine was one of the few who didn't stand still to sing the song, but wandered back and forth, jumping on and off the stage. At one point he found this microphone that he's holding and started singing into it. Too bad it wasn't turned on.

All in all, I was pleased that he stayed up there for the most part. He did come to me a few times just to say hi, but then returned to the stage again. This time without tears!!!

Again, I get an "F" in the family photo taking department. This time I'll blame it on the lack of sleep and stress due to the eye infection. Although, we all know I just forgot. Out of the days that my parents were here with the children and the times that Papa Johnny and Gigi had them, this is the only picture I got. Maybe one day ...

This morning the boys and I went to the grocery store before the rain hit. Jack and Finn were able to share a seat for the first time which would have made for a nice grocery outing had Jack not decided that both of the steering wheels on the cart were his, and that pushing Finn's head into the side of the cart was a good way to get him to share. After threatening to take his raisins and beloved toy boat away, Jack shaped up and we indeed had a good grocery run! They were mighty cute sitting in this buggy together.

Jack was a little confused this past Thursday when we headed to Charleston. I don't know if he confused it with Chapel Hill or what, but he randomly announced: "I watch Austin play tennis!!!" When we'd try to sell him on the USS Yorktown ("big ship") or aquarium, he's say, "No. I wanna watch Austin." So, Austin, Jack may be your #1 fan!

***Fungus Among Us Update***

John just called from Charleston. The infection is bigger, which did not surprise the doctor. He said it will probably worsen a little before getting better. However, the fungus is actually a different one than what he was told before. Therefore, the drops that he has been on may not have been helping. After more scraping, another culture (this time with a cotton swab and not a razor blade, yay!!), some photos by the residents because it's "so rare", and being passed on to another corneal infections specialist, they're waiting for the lab to formulate an eye drop specific to this fungus so that it will work. PLEASE pray that this works!!!! Pray for safe travels, too. John's required to be there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. The saga continues....

Stay tuned for more pictures, updates, and information on eye fungus!

There's a Fungus Among Us

It has been a while, I know. Usually long time gaps in between blog posts can be blamed on busy schedules, traveling, lack of good pictures, etc. This one can be blamed on an eye infection.

It all started two Friday's ago, when John started having eye irritation and light sensitivity in his left eye. Two visits to his local optometrist and two different antibiotic drops later, we found ourselves driving to MUSC in Charleston at 11pm last Sunday night after being told to do so by Dr. Kerry Solomon, the corneal guru at MUSC. The pain was unbearable and John's vision had started to go in the eye, which concerned the doctor most. When we arrived at the hospital, John was seen by a resident on Dr. Solomon's team. He informed us that John would need to have cultures taken of his eye to see exactly what type of infection was present. John has since spread the word that if you're ever told that you need to have a culture taken of your eye....RUN!!!!! The doctor (who was our age) basically took these small razor blade looking things and scraped his eye with it...8 times! It was so horrible looking, but thankfully they numbed him. From there we were told to treat it as if it were bacterial, which is the most common cause of eye infections. The other cases being either viral or fungal. To treat it properly, John had to do the eye drops every 30 minutes around the clock! (He was also allowed narcotics, thank the LORD!)

After doing that for 2 days, several trips back and forth to Charleston, the eye was healing well and John's vision began to return. All good signs, right? On Thursday John returned to Dr. Solomon's office only to learn that his cultures were finally back. The infection was not bacterial, but fungal. They had to scrape his eye again to permeate the first corneal layer so that the new drops, the antifungal ones, could reach the infection. No more drops every 30 minutes, just every hour. Around the clock. Plus antibiotic drops 4 times a day. Plus no contacts for at least 6 weeks. Plus...the potential for more scraping in the near future. John's going today for his 6th trip to Charleston in 8 days. He's become 'that guy' who all the interns and residents have to check out because we've been told that fungal eye infections are pretty rare. I guess that's just one more way that John proves to be on in a million.

Everyone wants to know how he got this. From what we're told, it probably started from a small corneal scratch that could have been caused by a piece of sand, dirt, etc. in his eye. It could have been so small that he didn't even notice it. Then, fusarium, the mold that grew on his fungal culture, found it's way into his eye. It's a common mold found in dirt and on plants in the southern states that if not in your eye is harmless. But, since John is a contact wearer, the infection had perfect breeding grounds once it was covered up by his contact. We're told it's not more 'difficult' to treat than a bacterial or viral infection, but that it just takes a lot longer. We're praying that he can soon space out the drops and not have to take them during the night. Waking up every hour doesn't exactly equal a full REM sleep cycle, so he's a little tired to say the least.

Thanks to everyone for all of your prayers and phone calls. A special HUGE thanks to both of our parents, Jason, Lauren and Leslie who helped out tremendously with Jack and Finn, rides to and from Charleston and meals. We could not have survived this far without you.

Though the past 10 days have royally stunk, we absolutely realize how blessed John is to be going through something so minor compared to what a lot of other people are going through. (Although...after having a beetle perforate his ear drum late last year and now this, John is kind of a walking freak show now.) We have managed to have some funny stories emerge out of the all the eye drop administrations and eye scrapings. Despite Johnny's urgings, I refrained from taking any pictures of the eye scraping. If John didn't appreciate me posting goofy pictures from our in house date night, I doubt he would have approved of those. I also went ape on a lady at Arbys for making my sandwich wrong on the day that we found out that the infection was fungal and that more scraping was needed. We made the poor decision of taking the kids to Charleston that day, thinking we were going to receive good news and would be able to enjoy the day. Instead, I harassed the Arby's chick, John found himself yet again needing Hydrocodone and we forced both sets of parents to make really inconvenient scheduling decisions for our benefit. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

But today is another day! Hopefully we can post some awesome news on John's improvement soon!!!

Have a super day!!!

Warming Up

The weather has been warming up in the lowcountry over the past few weeks (although the past few days have been cooler setbacks...), and since the daylight lasts longer and we have babies to entertain, we've been taking the party outside.



We decided to break the 9-36 month age range on this red car ride and give 7 month old Finn a spin in it. I thought he would be way too small to sit up in it and actually enjoy it without his upper body swirling around in circles the entire time, but I was wrong. He faired quite well in the 'wed car' despite the wheelies that Jack attempted while pushing him.

Finn loved the joy ride. He kept standing up while riding and putting his hands on the wheel. It brought me back to days of riding my bicycle, and how awesome it/I felt when riding standing up. Why is that? It's really not that awesome. Finn has such a devilish grin on his face here. He may have some inner thrill issues that we'll have to address in the future.

The teething saga continues, and it's only the beginning!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! The second bottom tooth is working it's way through now. Hopefully tomorrow it will arrive safe and sound.

Finn is already so chill. He is truly a baby stud.

The older Ussery studs were busy "mowing" the yard. John said the whole time Jack was sitting in his lap he was yelling "Digger MAN!!" Digger Man is a book Jack has about a little boy who loves back hoes, frontloaders, etc. and whenever we see any piece of like machinery, he yells "Giggaman!" John was Jack's hero tonight because as he watched his dad mow the yard, he saw him transform into a real life digger man.

Here's Jack doing his shy thumb to lip move. He continues to rub his lip with his thumb whenever he feels shy or scared or is in a new situation. Whenever I asked him to smile, he seemed to get embarrassed and do this. What a funny boy.

And here's the FinnMan's latest thrill in life: JUMPING! Check it out. (Jack is in the background asking to be on the 'tamra' (camera.)

Airing out our laundry (John's turn)

During the last 4 (nearly 5) years of 'marital bliss' a number of things have evolved. If our marriage were a film, then I've undoubtedly written, directed, and starred in a romantic tragedy (with an emphasis on tragedy). And by tragedy I of course mean tacky gestures of affection such as a breakfast burrito and spanish card on Valentines, passing gas in the car and blaming one of our boys, and the occasional high five at the front end of what could have potentially been an intimate moment.

Romantic husbands quote poets or musicians with lines like: "I've got an angel, she doesn't wear any wings. She wears a heart that could melt my own. She wears a smile that can make me want to sing..." I, on the other hand, have an unfortunate tendency to announce that I have a great butt and suggest that she should grab it.

That said, in spite all of my missteps along the way... and in spite of all of my failings to even 'step' when it's apparently obvious to everyone but me that flowers are a nice gesture on mothers day... (etc) for Erin to post these (clearly distorted and photoshopped) images of me from our in-house date is nothing less than cruel and unusual punishment. I'm fairly certain that our Constitution prohibits such treatment, and in the honor of this highly partisan political season... I demand a retraction.

I'd also like to remind everyone that I did win best eyes and best dressed in high school - graduating class of 24 - word. Now that my dignity on the web has been restored I'll turn the blog back over to Erin for future posts. I'd also like for the world (or just the 10 of you who read this blog) to see what our date night really looked like.

Loco en la Cabeza

With a less than booming real estate market and a more than full daytime schedule, John and I decided to save some money while spending some time together. We had our first in house date night this week! And I have to say that it went really well. We put the kids to bed, cooked dinner together and ate without having any interruptions of ketchup finger licking or vegetable avoidance. However, after reviewing the pictures that I took of our date night, I realized that we are a really, really strange couple. Here's what we've got...

John giving me the 'A-OK' finger symbol to show that our dinner was good. For those of you interested in what we cooked...we had pecan coated orange roughy with a white wine and orange sauce, sauteed zuccini, bread and dessert. John was very helpful in the kitchen, and I think he may have enjoyed himself.

Apparently the chocolate chess pie was laced with some sort of crazy pill. I chose this dessert because John ordered it at the Angus Barn the other night, and he NEVER orders dessert or seems to care about yummy, calorie rich foods like I do. So...I found the super easy recipe online and whipped it up for him. He said it was so good that it may be better than the 5th best chocolate chess pie in the world. (Our server at the Angus Barn said their chess pie won the #5 best in the world....strangest award I've heard of in a while.)

Here's where I lost my mind and thought a picture of me lusting after the pie would be a good idea. As my friend Jen said, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife nor they huband's dessert." I broke that one for sure. It was hard to pass up a whole piece, so I settled for a bite. Or three.

So you can see why our sons are not normal, and why our photo books may be the oddest collection around. These pictures below are no different...

Jack received this sombrero as a party favor a few weeks ago at our neighbor's birthday party. I never imagined a sombrero would be so much fun! Everyone has worn it.

Jack insisted on Finn donning the hat as well. "Fen wear hat, Mommy...Fen funny!"

Jack even forced the insanity onto the only normal member of the whole bunch. Scout is the best dog in the world for putting up with our antics. As I'm sitting here typing, he's lying at my feet and making heavy sighs occasionally. I love him.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Back in Action

Yes. We're alive.

Last week the little boys and I traveled to Greensboro to see my family. We had a great time seeing everyone and hope that our next trip goes just as smoothly! Instead of posting a gazillion pictures and risking carpal tunnel from excessive scrolling, the pictures of our trip are below in the form of a slideshow. Apologies to many of you that I yet again failed to get any pictures of. My issues with photo forgetfulness continue. Next time, please remind me, because kicking myself time and time again doesn't seem to be working.


Here's how our trip went:

Sunday-Friday afternoon: Greensboro. Visits to many family members and several friends, a meeting to plan my 10 year high school reunion in 09 (I'M OLD!).

Friday afternoon-Sunday: Chapel Hill/Cary. John joined us. Jordan, Trevor, Jackie, Luke (Jackie's boyfriend), Jeff, Gigi and Papa were all there. We watched UNC/GT Baseball game, went for a Chapel Hill drive (due to the rain), watched Austin play tennis, Dinner with family, Watched UNC get mutilated by Kansas. Vomited multiple times after watching UNC's mutilation. Another baseball game. Headed home.

When we returned home, we had the great opportunity to see one of my oldest childhood buddies, Lucas Pierce, and his wife and daughter, Casey and Presley. They were visiting the Bluffton area and swung by after dinner to say hello. Jack loved Presley and had fun referring to her as 'Baby'. How endearing! She was such a little cutie and so well behaved. I shot John the "See...we COULD have a girl and not lose our minds" look several times throughout their visit. Hopefully he caught it.

Jack even shared his prized duckies with Presley which means business. He doesn't do that with anyone.

The boys were excited to return home to familiarity, Scout and their other toys.

Jack must have been a little confused with all of the short naps and confined space travel because after we got home he tried to put his underwear on outside of his shorts.....Good effort though!

Just a fun picture of Jack while playing in our bed the other night. He was hiding after I discovered how badly he destroyed the perfect pillow placement.

Finn cut his first tooth while we were gone! It's on the bottom and it's so cute!!! He loves using the sippy cup for chewing. Every once in a while he'll surprise himself with a gulp of water. He's a little unsure about it.

Hope everyone is doing well!!!!