ColieAndBrenda.us

Sorry for the inconsistency… you would think I would have time to update this more often. We have kept very busy since March. Let’s see… in March Mac was 6 months. Now he is 9 1/2 months. He is moving – from one cheek, to the other (and no that is not the cheek on his face!!!) He gets on his knees and goes backwards, but has only gone forward a few times. He has 6 teeth and has taken his second trip to CA and first to OK. Some of his firsts… he is sucking through a straw, what a blessing (since I have been forgetting his bottle!) He turns over at night in his crib, and we finally had to lower it. He is going to be an older cousin in Oct and/or Nov. Of course his teeth have all come in starting Easter Sunday. Some of the days he has experienced for the first time, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day. I do realize he has no concept of that but we have enjoyed each of those days with him.

As mom I have kept really busy. I started selling Tupperware – can’t remember if that was on the last blog or not. I have 8 Piano students. I worked in Vacation Bible School at the beginning of June and Krystal helped me with the class. We had 1st & 2nd graders. It was fun and we had one student come to know the Lord. If you think about it his name is Owen Moore and his father died the Tuesday after VBS. We know that God brought them to TX from Las Vegas so that they would have this chance to hear the gospel. Pray for the family. Since then I have been spending a few hours a couple days a week in the office of Hill Country Plumbing, yes this is where Colie works. I have been answering phones, filing, and whatever else I can do to help. I have enjoyed that! But since those hours are spent in Wimberley I have been having to work extra hard to get things done at home!!

Colie is doing so well at work that people are asking specifically for him to the boss! That is good news!!! Of course it means he is extra busy too. But he still enjoys it and is doing a great job.

Before heading out to CA we took a long weekend and went up to visit family and friends in OK. We left Friday morning and got to Edmond at about 4:30 or so. We spent the evening with Janet Sokoff (AKA Aunt Nanny – even though she is really a cousin). Then on Sat we headed out to the Blackwells in Chandler. Matt’s parents have a beautiful place in a pecan orchard. Matt, Trina, Tim, & Kalyn came down so we had a wonderful visit with them. I also had a friend from my time in Chicago who lives in OKC who came up to see me (there at the Blackwells). We came back on Monday and on our way home we stopped for dinner. When we were done we were waiting for the bill and waitress came back to tell us that it had already been paid. We never did figure out who had covered it. Our California trip included Birthday celebrations (Heather turned 21) and also Mother’s Day. It was nice to be there. Colie worked with Brandon doing air conditioning, something different and challenging for him! He really enjoyed that. When we came home from CA (on Tuesday) Trina was here for a visit, she came in as a surprise for Mother’s day. On Thursday I picked up Tim and Kalyn from the San Marcos airport also for a surprise visit! On Sunday they left and Katie came in so there was a lot of family time right then! Since then my cousin and his wife came down from Dallas for their anniversary trip. We met them in Driftwood for dinner then went down with them to their hotel in San Antonio. They also came and spent the night at our house before they left town. After they left town another friend I knew from Chicago was here in the area so we got together with them for dinner. So as you can see it has been very busy, but we have had fun with the family and friends who have been around.

6-26-07 Mac is now Crawling forward as well as backwards…..

Mac is now 6 Months old. I looked at him yesterday and still couldn’t believe I had a son, and this after 6 Months!!! Can you believe that? We have been busy, but are enjoying life! Colie built me some shelves on Saturday afternoon… over the washing machine, in our future water softener closet, and a very NICE shoe rack in our room behind the door.

I have been making jewelery, a quilt, scrapbooking, teaching piano, and just started selling tupperware (want to have a party?). I don’t know what will work, but I would like to find something to bring in a little extra cash! With Mac and all the other things I have been keeping really busy.

Colie is studying for an upcoming plumbing test. It will give him a tradesman license. I will let him give you more info on what that will do for him!

The Tradesman license will allow me to oversee all new construction plumbing except commercial buildings. The exam is on March 30th.
Studying up on three seperate codes in about 7 Code books has given me much more confidence in my own work. I can actually ask intelligent questions now.!!
A pay raise is also a great added benefit..
I’m now driving a truck and trailer for Hill Country Plumbing.
A crew cab Ford 3/4 ton and a 20 ft. gooseneck full of plumbing parts, sometimes hard to park and back down driveways, but always worth it. Having the parts you need when you need them is invaluable…

We had a GREAT week… Frozen in and all! It was nice to have Colie home on Tuesday and Wednesday. He enjoyed seeing Mac in his daily routine. I wasn’t in my normal routine because he was home! We just relaxed all day on Tuesday, did a little work on Wed. It made me wonder how Noah survived all those days on the ark? After only 2 full days inside we were ready to be out and about.

Mac has started squeeling (fun… it gets my ears sometimes!) I am trying to keep him from doing it as much as possible. Mac had his 4 month Dr. appointment on Monday before the freeze. He now weighs 15 lbs. and 5 oz. and is almost 25 inches long. I am really enjoying him! Yesterday someone smiled at him and he started crying… this is new. When he saw the person again he started crying again. I felt really bad because he has never done that before. Anyway I don’t know if he is starting to teethe or what because he has been a little fussy. But no matter, he is still sleeping well, and mostly happy. Boy am I grateful for having a good baby.

I am reading again “The Greatest Thing in the World” by Henry Drummond and here is a quote for you. “It’s the man who is the missionary, it is not his words. His character is his message.” If you haven’t read it I would highly recommend it.

We are home, and now it is time for the clean up… We took two suitcases out to CA and brought back 4 and are having a box shipped, unbelieveable. Mac had a harder time on our flights back because his cold was so bad. He could hardly breath at times, and then to have his ears messed up too was more than he could handle at times I think. We got in the car to drive home right about 12 AM New Years day. By the time we got to bed it was after 1 AM. We slept late and had a restful day. For dinner we went to Colie’s parents and then watched a movie. Last night Mac was really bad so he slept with us so that we could hear him breath, and take measures if we needed to. He is doing much better today, praise the Lord.

That’s our little update! Hope you are starting out your year right! May the Lord bless you and keep you this year. Our prayer is for wisdom in raising Mac and for a consistent walk with him. Now back to the clean up!!!!

Christmas has come and gone, but we are still enjoying California. After arriving here on Wednesday us girls went to get our nails (and toes) done. And I must insert here that they still look lovely, even the nails which is amazing. On Thursday we picked up both Grandma’s at the airport. On Friday night we had Pizza and then went to the ice rink where Heather was skating two exibitions. She did great of course and was absolutely beautiful. Saturday we went to a wedding, and our first ever Chinese Wedding Banquet, it was amazing. I tried jellyfish and several other things for the first time. We got our first look at Aspynn on Sunday at Church, and what a cutie. I got pictures with Colie and both the boys. We had Christmas with the whole family on Sunday. We exchange gifts with all the family members who go other places on Christmas day. We had a lot of fun with the whole family. On Monday we opened presents from Mom and Dad and Heather; Colie and I gave them their gifts as well. Then that evening we went over to have dinner with the Murphy family (Brandon’s in-laws). Brandon has been frying Turkeys for the last few major holidays, so this was our first taste of it. I really liked it. On Tuesday after the nursing home Mom, Grandma’s and I went shopping and to turn in pictures for some new Christmas/New Years cards… I didn’t get enough the first time. Wednesday Heather and I took off and shopped for about 7 hours!!!!!!!!! What a blast. Thursday we had an open house for people to come visit us and meet Mac. It was really fun, but during the afternoon hours it was hard to keep up with all that were there. I started losing my voice. It didn’t get totally lost though! Today a friend is coming for a visit and then this evening we are going to have the neighbor watch the kids and we are all going to a movie. Tomorrow is my b-day and I am not sure what we are doing, except for going to Honalulu Harry’s! One of my favorite restaraunts. On Sunday we fly out after church.

It has been a busy trip, but we are enjoying it. Colie has been working with Joel, since he can’t just sit around for this long of a visit! They have been doing lots of things that Joel needed help with that he didn’t have qualified people to do.

Wow, can you belive that Christmas is JUST AROUND THE CORNER? We leave next Wednesday for CA. We have already had Christmas with Colie’s family here in TX. So here is what has been going on in the last month.

Thanksgiving was great with Trina, Matt, Kalyn, Tim, Katie, Grandma & Grandpa Shope plus Aunt Nanny were all in town. Not to mention many faces from the Curry side of the family who are here in town. We had a GREAT time! We have so much to be thankful for. On Saturday after Thanksgiving we had an open house here… no it’s not for sale, we just haven’t had one yet so that the people at church could see the house that Colie worked so hard on for so long! I got all stressed out trying to get everything clean, but Colie wasn’t worried at all! He did a good bit of cleaning. The house looked great.

My last day of work was on Friday the 8th of December. I enjoyed very much the time working for Beacon Fisheries. We had a Christmas party for Colie’s work that night, good food, great fun! I had been having pains in my back all week long, and they were really getting irritating by Friday night. We got home from the party and there was a big bump, looked like a pimple. As we were getting Mac ready for bed I thought, if more bumps show up tomorrow we are in trouble. Sure enough more did, and I called the Doctor to talk to him about Shingles. So I am getting over shingles. We had Christmas with the Family last Sunday, since they had already been exposed we figured it wouldn’t hurt anything. And it was going to be the only time we could get together.

Now we have to get ready for our trip. We are still praying that neither Mac or Colie won’t come down with Chicken Pox. That would really be bad.

Born at 12:23 p.m. on September 6, 2006
Weighing 7 pounds 12 oz. and measuring 20 inches long.

See pictures here

It is hard to believe that 1 year has gone by since Colie and I said “I do.” We went to South Padre Island for the weekend to celebrate. It was so nice to enjoy the beach!!! To see Palm Trees – even though there weren’t quite as many as you would see in CA or HI. We shopped, walked, ate, and had a very enjoyable weekend! Of course it is hard to get a good picture of both of us when there isn’t someone else around to take them, but we tried…

We did find someone who was willing to take one for us!

On our Anniversary we didn’t really get into the water we just played paddle ball, although Colie got quite wet!

As you can see from the pics “Mac” (our nickname for the baby) is getting close to joining us! He is due on Sept 25th, and my feet show it. They haven’t been normal in weeks We are doing everything we can to get ready for him! I washed some baby clothes yesterday and the little socks are just so amazing. Change is coming… it’s scary, but welcome!

We have had company, company, company since June! My parents were out for a month, and that was GREAT!

Joel and Melissa came in before 4th of July for 5 days.

July 5th kicked of the Baird family reunion, which brought Colie’s sisters from MO in for over a week. (They didn’t stay at our house most of the time, but we were always trying to get together!)

In Aug. Tracy (otherwise known as Kacy to my brother and sister-in-laws – the little ones) came for a 10 day visit. She is a friend from my CA BSF group.

I guess I need to make my pics smaller before I try to put them in… I ran out of space… So you don’t get a picture of Tracy unfortunately. This is the first time I have actually ever put pictures in so you should be really proud of me!!! Also in Aug our church moved back into our building – even though the big sanctuary is not rebuilt yet. So we are now holding two services. At the early service (and I do mean early), Colie is leading singing and I am playing the piano.

Anyway, We have been busy, but are doing well. Enjoying life and looking forward to the new challenges and blessings ahead.

“We enter into a most Holy Covenant, a union of our spirits with the Spirit of God.
He who has brought our lives together will make us One in Him.”

Ecclesiastes 4:12 – “A threefold cord is not quickly broken.”