Mt. Gilead (Gi'-yid)

John, Jack and I took a fun trip this weekend to Lake Tillery! For those of you who don't know where that is (which may be most of you), Lake Tillery is located in Mt. Gilead. Okay, so that probably doesn't help much either....Mt. Gilead is a small town in North Carolina. It's close to Albemarle, the home of Kellie Pickler, for you American Idol fans out there, and about an hour from Charlotte. John's parents grew up in Mt. Gilead. He has relatives that still live there, but unfortunately they were out of town so we couldn't visit:(

On Saturday night, Brian and Jenny Fox joined us for some relaxation and water sports. Brian, John and I attempted the Air Chair. I don't think I lasted more than 5 seconds on any of my attempts. The nice wipe out picture is of Brian. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of John, the Air Chair master of the day. Jenny, Jack and I went for a float in the lake. It was so nice to swim/float without the fear of jelly fish or sharks (or stingrays, poor Steve Irwin!) Scout obviously took part in the swimming as well. He fetched a football over and over, and whenever we left him inside, he would cry to be let out. He loves the lake. Scout is currently experiencing post-lake depression.

After Brian and Jenny left, John and I took a little venture around the town. We stopped at the local playground, which was incredible. John's uncle, Jack Jordan, had it built there for the kiddos to enjoy. The castle like picture above is it. Jack enjoyed the swings, as always, and we managed to take one run down the slide. We then found John's grandmother's farm house which is on John Ussery Rd.! How neat. John and I briefly thought about stealing it, but then decided that we didn't want to spend the night in the Montgomery Co. jail house. And we didn't think stealing was a good lesson for Jack to learn. Not at this age, anyway:)

Hope yall had a fun Labor Day weekend!!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, JACK!!!!

50 Cent's (pronounced 'Fiddy Sent') lyric, "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" may have a lot more meaning to you after seeing this picture. Jack turned one on Wednesday the 23rd. Incredible! John and I are in shock at how quickly the last year passed. One day we're picking out cribs and carseats. The next day we're playing rock-paper-scissors to see who has to change a blowout diaper. The stuff in between is just a blur. But a good blur. Jack has been the greatest joy to us. We are amazed daily at our love for him and how cool, funny, adorable, sweet, feisty, and wonderful he is. Thank you, Lord, for blessing us and so many others with our son. We're undeserving but eternally grateful!

Jack celebrated his birthday with family and friends. On Saturday, he had a party at Berkeley Hall with a lot of his StrollerFit friends and a few others. My parents were able to make it, along with my brother, Matt, and sister-in-law, Melissa. Jordan, Jackie and Trevor came, too. It was so much fun! The room was packed full of little children, crawling, walking and lying around. There was a lot of sippy cup sharing going on which probably accounts for half of our StrollerFit class being sick right now. Oops. Sorry guys! Jack got so many awesome presents. Thank you everyone. Some of his favorites are his red wagon and his John Deere hayride. He obviously enjoyed the cake experience. Well...we actually enjoyed it more than he did. Jack never took a bite of the cake. He just played in it. He played so hard, in fact, that John had to take him to the showers mid-party to clean up. The coloring came out, but it took several baths to get the grease out of his hair. Jack not only discovered icing that weekend, but he discovered his nose and booger eating as well. It was a birthday present to himself.

On Jack's actual birthday, we went to Gigi and Papa Johnny's house for supper and another party! They were unable to make it to Jack's Saturday party because of moving Jeffrey to college. After dinner, Jack had his 2nd cake experience, which was thankfully mild compared to the first. Several of their family friends came over to witness the event and to sing to him. It was so much fun and so nice of everyone to come! Thank you!

Jack's birthday events were a lot of fun and a lot of excitement. We look forward to many more parties! We just dread how quickly they'll get here:( Here are some pictures from the festivities:

Much

Thanks for hanging us with us, faithful readers! Finally the Blogger site has allowed me to post pictures again! WHOO HOO!!! A lot has happened since our last blog. Here are some pictures to show what all we've done. The explanations will match with the pictures working from top to bottom, left to right. Which is always the case, right?

1. These are some of my college roomies who came to visit while John was on his trip! From L->R starting at the top row is Erin Hall, Erin Coltrane, Amanda Mestler, and Megan Clarke. On the bottom row is Melissa Beahm and Jack and me. The girls were kind enough to come down Friday through Sunday, and we had a blast! Saturday we were all able to go to the beach and get sunburned:):):):) This picture was taken at Truffles, which is the restaurant of choice when they come.

2. I woke up Sunday morning while the girls were here to find that Jack had discovered how to take his pants off. This is exactly how I found him that morning. The blue pile in the floor is his pants.

3. Jack finds a way to immediately get disgusting again just as we finish bathing him.

4. Jack aboard the Dolphin Head Shuttle at his friend, Emma's, birthday party. There's a park here right on the Port Royal sound that has such beautiful scenery (and bucket swings).

5. We discovered that Jack loves to swing! The other day he stayed put in one for over an hour without whimpering. For those of you with children, I don't have to explain why that's a miracle.

6. Week before last, we had a Hilton Head vacation with the Ussery family. All members were present for several days of activity. We beached, golfed, cooked, cleaned, laughed, played and uh...tennised? It was a lot of fun. Jack was surely the center of attention. John and I had to break him of his "I get held every time I whimper" routine once we came back home. Here, Jordan is leaning in for a Jack kiss while Jeffrey's holding him. This was a good chance to hang out with Jeff. He left for Georgia Tech last weekend. We miss you, Jeffrey!!!

7. This picture was taken at Sante Fe Cafe. Jackie, Jordan and Gigi took turns playing with a cranky Jack so John and I could finish our dinner. THANK YOU!!!! We were definitely spoiled having so many extra sets of hands.

8. Jack getting a bath in the sink. He enjoyed turning the water off and on. How do you like his hair?

9. And speaking of hair....here's Jack's latest do. The Usserys have a closet full of fun dress up clothes. This wig seems to always make an appearance if I spend anymore than 5 minutes in their rec room. Jack was probably upset at his parents' performance in the family ping pong tournament. Seriously, Jackie crushed me. I was happy to just hit the ball at all. John did much better than I did, and he was still pretty bad. Congrats to Trevor on his victories!

10. Gigi introduced Jack to the piano. He finally warmed up to it and began banging the keys with his hands and feet. A real Mozart. Gigi and Jordan played a duet of "God Bless America" which was great. We were impressed!

11. Another funny bath picture.

12. Trevor and Jeffrey playing in the sand with Jack. He's so fortunate to have such cool uncles.

13. Storytime with Papa Johnny. Special, huh?

14. Jack supporting Georgia Tech and eating sand. You can always expect a little 'roughage' after a beach trip with Jack.

15. Jack and Shelby's usual Tuesday date to Sippin' Cow. I know I have 64 versions of this picture, but they're so cute, I can't help it.

We've had so much fun over the past few weeks. It's been a great ending to an incredible summer with family and friends. Thanks for the memories, everyone!!!

Technical Difficulties

Have no fear! We haven't forgotten to blog. We haven't stopped taking pictures of Jack. Nor have we suddenly decided to keep our lives private from all of our faithful blog readers. Nope. We're still the capturing Jack's life in every way possible. But for some reason....this DADGUM website won't let me post pictures. And what's a blog without pictures? It's sorry! That's what. Hang tight, readers. Hopefully we'll get the glitches worked out soon and you'll be able to view Jack in all of his ONE YEAR OLD glory! Today's Jack's First Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Altitude

Phil, John, & Chuck - male models, or just studs?

Phil & Chuck - the very definition of manliness

John (me) at 12,000 ft wishing the clouds would lift

Erin has requested that I post a blog referencing my recent mountaineering “expedition” in the French Alps. Having tapped into my somewhat shallow well of marital equity with this trip I’m going to do everything she asks to avoid any Harry Chapin “Cat’s in the Cradle” references. Brevity has never been my strong suit, so on the front end I offer my apologies for any excess verbiage.

The mountaineers (we use this term very loosely – so loose in-fact that it includes anyone who’s ever seen a mountain) in this adventure were Chuck Barrier, Philip Galbreath, and me. Our initial objective of summiting the Alps tallest peak, Mont Blanc, took us to Chamonix, France this past week. Aesthetically the town is as enchanting as the surrounding peaks are breathtaking. Functionally, it’s French. Body odor is a national sport, water costs more than beer, and fuzzy cheese seems to be the fungus of choice.

Our expectations collided with realty in short fashion. I believe Chuck put it very well when he calmly noted “each day is the scariest day in my life.” Ultimately we should probably chalk the “un-assent” of Mont Blanc up to an intense desire for self preservation as it has apparently taken more lives than any other mountain in the world (due in large part to the fact that it’s incredibly accessible for the novice climber). That said, we climbed, hiked, crawled, and ice axed our way through some of the most spectacular mountains in the world and we couldn’t be more proud.

Some brief highlights:

 Traversing the Valley Blanche – An enormous, crevasse laden glacier that marries the Italian and French sides of the mountain.
 Climbing the Arrete du Panne (or as Phil calls it, the “Arc of Pain) – an insanely dramatic 2 ft wide knife edge ridge with 1,000+ ft drop offs on either side in high wind and white-out conditions.
 Crossing crevasses and climbing the ice wall and ridge of the Petit Agi Verte and then getting back down in one piece.
 Eating pizza ¾ of the time… the other ¼ consisting of ham/cheese
 Lamenting the waste of our high school and college French classes as we found ourselves simply using French accents with English words.

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!