Welcome Home Party

To help keep me sane during the past few months of patiently waiting for Mark to come home, I decided to plan a big homecoming party for him. I had special invitations printed up and made arrangements to have the party at the church in the cultural hall. Mark had missed bbq food so much while he was gone we had it catered by Famous Daves. My friend Jen Bishop made her awesome baked beans and I had one of our young women make these fantastic cupcakes for dessert. We had just over a hundred people come out - friends from Northern Virginia to Winchester. My friend Tammy Nixon made the gorgeous flower arrangements for me and helped me get everything set up. It was a lot of work but, I enjoyed doing it for Mark. Unfortunately we had so much fun visiting ... the camera got put down early on and we don't have many pictures from the great evening. Welcome Home Mark!

First Two-Wheeler ... with Training Wheels!

For preschool graduation Max earned himself his first bicycle! He has actually been waiting for dad to come home to help him learn how to ride. Once assembled Max had a great time riding circles in our little apartment parking lot. A couple other little kids in our neighborhood have bikes too - they have a blast together. It will not be long till those training wheels come off!

Preschool Graduation

Dad got home just in time for Maxs' preschool graduation which was on Saturday, June 18th! Although Max was going to continue going to Chester Brooke Academy for a few more weeks many of his friends would be taking the summer off. The graduation took place at the local Elk Lodge and lots of families and friends came out to see the kids and hear their performance.

Ms. Roxanna - Teacher for entire year

Miss Misty ... Maxs' morning teacher

Max laughing ... his friend next to him looking like he will puke!

Spencer, Colin & Max

Max E ... Lina ... Max B

Daddy's Home Hooray & His New Sleigh!

Mark arrived home to the states and we were able to pick him up out in Winchester on Thursday, June 16th. Max and I were so excited to load up dad's new truck and take it for a drive! When we arrived at the hotel to pick him up we had very exciting news to tell dad! Not only were we driving his new truck, happy to see him ... but, there was a job offer in his email from the Air Force at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, NE! With a tentative job offer in hand, we also drove directly from Winchester down to Roanoke, VA for another job interview with VDOT on Friday the 17th! We were all so excited we could hardly contain ourselves. We also had a phone interview on Friday after his interview with VDOT for a job in Texas with Air Traffic Control. Three great job opportunities all within 48 hours of Mark landing on US soil. I know prayers are answered! So much hard work had gone in to applying for so many jobs (thanks to Grandpa Tippets) along with Mark's experience and so many people praying for us. We were truly seeing the blessings. After all the consideration and interviews, Mark accepted and finished doing all that he had to do for the job in Bellevue, Nebraska! Before we knew it, Mark had a start date of August 1, 2011! What a miracle!

Here is Mark and Max checking out the new truck! By the way .... mom did an AWESOME job finding and buying the DREAM truck for Mark! After nearly two years in Afghanistan ... this man deserves his a new truck! Welcome home honey!

Patio Tomatos

This year Max and I decided to grow our tomato's on the patio and we had two different plants. It was fun to plant them, water and watch the plants grow. Here is our first ripe tomato and Max had so much fun watering them and even eating them! The skin was a little tough but, they were hardy and we enjoyed many tomato's from these two little plants. We also attempted growing Rosemary from seed but, one too many over watering episodes made that a bit impossible. We may try again with Rosemary once we are settled in our new home.

Teacher Appreciation

Chester Brooke Academy had their teacher appreciation week in May. Each day the students were encouraged to do something nice for their teachers. Max has three teachers in their classroom and several of them have rotated through the past year. This was our idea to say thank you to all of them by celebrating the alphabet with a sweet tooth! Notice how Max spelled love and his name. It was a fun challenging project and the teachers all seemed to love it.

Surgery Day

Ear Tube Surgery .... Oh boy! After much thought and deliberation, we decided to have Max get ear tubes to help stop ear infections. Max has had to suffer from ear infections for years and finally I just insisted on getting more information and bringing it to the doctors attention. After we took Max in for his 5 year checkup, his pediatrician noticed that his hearing was not perfect. I told him I had several concerns and had inquired about getting tubes on several occasions. Each time I asked, the doctors told me that if he was not having 8 to 10 ear infections a year, he was just normal. Well 4 to 6 ear infections along with strep throat, and not passing a hearing test for kindergarten was finally enough to get a ear nose and throat doctors name. We met with the doctor back when grandma and grandpa were in town and surgery was scheduled for May 6th.

We had to see the pediatrician a few days before his surgery date to make sure his heart and lungs were good to go. During this visit, the pediatrician questioned me why I was not having his adenoids removed as well. This of course got me all stressed out and questioned my thought of just having ear tubes put in. Since Max was 5 the doctors told me that he should be done having the ear infections and having both removed would solve the problems for sure. Ear tubes would most likely solve the problem and is much less invasive than tubes and adenoids. In the end, talking with Mark in Afghanistan and my folks, we decided to just stick with the first thought of only getting the ear tubes put in. These pictures show Max getting prepped for surgery. The hardest part of the whole day was the fasting! Max could not eat or drink 4 hours before surgery and he was a trooper. His surgical time was 9:10 am but, he did not go in until 9:30 or so.

The doctors called Max back, but he quickly corrected them by saying, "Call me Dr. Bridges!" So the doctor and nurses called him Dr. Bridges ... we walked back to the surgical room which was rather cold. I lifted him up on the table and the nurses put blankets on him. He was strapped down and the big "elephant mask" came up to help him go to sleep. I sang him a song and he was sleep really quick! After he was out, the nurses showed me out of the surgical room. By the time I got changed back in to my clothes and to my waiting room, it was only 5 minutes or so when the nurse came and told me that surgery was done. Very quick! A few minutes later, they came and told me he was waking up and I went to meet him in the recovery room. I held him as he woke up and was quite groggy. He ate a frozen popsicle and about 30 minutes later we were in the car and heading home. Besides being super sleepy he did really well. We were at the park by 4 pm that day and thank heavens things went really well.

Although Mark was not there to see us through this, we did have a wonderful home teacher come and give Max a blessing prior to surgery. With so many prayers and a resilient little boy, all went well and since the surgery no ear infections! Hooray!!