Finally, a real Purdum

For 8 years my husband has been telling me how wonderful his Vans are, how comfortable they are and how they are "the coolest"! For 8 years its gone in 1 ear and right out the other. He finally won me over. Jon will be marking today on his calendar because I bought my first pair of Vans this afternoon. We went to West Side Skate Shop and found a decent selection. I am clearly not a skater chick so I was slightly intimidated when we first walked in, but everyone was great. I ended up with a pair like Jons. I've actually already picked out my next pair! I'm finally a "real" Purdum.

Its been a while

When I was pregnant with Ben, Jon and I joined the mug club at Sullivans. Unfortunately, we haven't been there in a really long time. I think they forgot about us. Last night we headed up there to rekindle our mug relationship. As always, it was great food and fun.
In Sam news, we went to the doctor today for his 4 month checkup. Once again, the "p" word was used several times. We know he's perfect, but its nice to hear other people acknowledge that. He weighs 15 lbs 15oz (75%) and he is 24 3/4" (50%) That means short and chubby (AKA chunky monkey).


In bathroom news, can you say heaven?!? Our new tub/shower is amazing. The tile is beautiful. The bathroom and dining room are now tied for my favorite room in the house.

C'est finis!

It's done. The bathroom was finally finished yesterday. They were only supposed to be here for an hour and a half to put on some final touches, but ended up being here for 7 long hours! It felt like the longest 12 days of my life, but as expected, it was well worth the wait. The bathroom is beautiful. We have about 2inches less to maneuver in because of the larger tub, but the bathroom actually looks bigger. I love it. Here is the finished product:

Don't tell Jon

When you're stranded at home waiting for your bathroom to start coming together, it's easy to get bored. In an effort to keep the day moving, I decided to cut Sams hair. The sides were getting a bit long and he had the old man look going. I'm hoping that when Jon sees how cute he is, he wont mind. The first cut is normally something I would have discussed with him! Sorry baby.

Before:
After:

"How you doin'?"

I think we can take another inch off.....

Progress?

We are half way through our bathroom remodeling project. I know it will be worth it, but I have to say this sucks right now! I miss our heated toilet seat. I miss being able to take a shower when ever I want. I miss being able to leave the house in the middle of the day. I miss our upstairs. I miss being able to get into our closet room. I really miss Bens naps. I was so looking forward to having our bathroom back on Friday. The work will be done, but its just going to sit there teasing us for 2 more days. We can't use the shower until Monday. We have to wait to make sure everything is set and dry. 6 more days!
They are actually making a lot of progress. After gutting the bathroom, we now have a new glass block window, a fake wall, a dropped ceiling, the tub is in, we now have a light/fan combo in our shower with a vent out the side of the house, new wiring, drywall and new plumbing (part of which had to be moved to accommodate a larger tub).

Unfortunately, with all the noise, naps have been few and far between making Ben extra cranky these days. Luckily, he's been able to grab a couple cat naps here and there.
Sound asleep in bed, a wonderful sight!
Play time with Sam.

Women 2 Men 0

Last night we met up with some visitors from Arkansas for a game night. They are here to help Crosspoint Church celebrate our two year anniversary. We enjoyed some great fellowship and Todds favorite snacks of graham crackers topped with peanut butter and bananas. It's better than it sounds! We kept our game night tradition (can it be a tradition after two game nights?) of playing Battle of the Sexes and once again, the women came out on top. I see a trend starting! Ben did a great job. He stayed up way past his bed time and kept us all entertained with his sunglasses (he is still wearing them 24/7), and guitar. We had such a good time, I forgot to take pictures.

This afternoon, we had planned on heading to The Melt for lunch with some friends. We went a long time ago and weren't very impressed. However, since then, absolutely everyone we run in to tells us how crazy we are for not liking it. We decided to give it another try until we found out that the wait was 1hour and 45 minutes in the middle of the afternoon. We were hungry and impatient so we headed to Winking Lizard instead. After, we headed back to our friends house and had an excellent dessert. Ben was in chocolate heaven (so was I). Once again, we were having such a good time, I forgot to take pictures. I'll make sure to post some soon.

Wordless Wednesday

What have we done?

Bathroom remodel day 1.

More wordless Wednesdays here and here.

A night to remember

Crosspoint Church supports several missionaries, two of them are Moises and Talsidia Vega. They came into town last week from Panama and we had the honor of having them over for dinner last night. It was so wonderful to talk to them and hear their story. They have made great strides in bringing the gnobe people to Christ and helping to plant several churches in Panama. It was easy to see why they are so successful. When they tell their story, you automatically want to hear more. I could have listened to them for hours. They gave advice on how to strengthen our relationship with God. Most of it was so obvious and so easy, but we never thought to do it. They encouraged us to strive for more and be better disciples. We're excited to put some of their suggestions into practice! We're so grateful God brought them into our lives and gave us the chance to get to know them.
Corrie came over yesterday afternoon for some adult time and a game of scrabble. It was a much needed break from Mickey and baby talk. Unfortunately, she kicked my butt! She managed to pull out a 58 point word. We had a great time coming up with some crazy, but real words. I declared Corrie the official winner when we were each down to 5 or 6 letters left. Our desperation was getting painful. Here is what we accomplished:


This morning the kids and I met up with some friends for a play date. Ben and Oren walked from the car into the restaurant like this:
Congrats Debbie for your first solo outing with baby Paisley!

Just a cute pic of Ben and Sam.

Duke 78 Miami... who cares

Most of you know of my love for Duke basketball and Coach Krzyzewski in particular. You can imagine how excited I was when my little brother got me tickets to a game for Christmas. We started the 9 hour drive to Durham, N Carolina Friday morning after dropping the kids off at my parents house. While it was tough to leave the boys behind, I know they had a great time (I called constantly just to make sure)! We got there around 8:30pm and did a quick drive though of the campus. Its was just as amazing as I imagined. We headed over to Cameron Arena a little early on Saturday and took in the sights. It was even better with day light. The arena is right across from the football stadium which is next to the la cross stadium and tennis area. Its quite an impressive sports complex.

All around the arena, are rows and rows of tents. Students camp out in order to get first dibs on student seating. Its a first come, first serve basis. No tickets, just an i.d.

When we headed inside, we were given a special treat of being allowed on the court. We had to stay off the actual playing surface, but got to stand right there on the very surface Coach K has walked thousands of times!

The Amazing Coach K.

We checked out the rest of the arena including the Hall of Fame area and got a history lesson on the team and their accomplishments. I found a little something special that I would like to dedicate to Seth:
Once we got to our seats, and took it all in, we started to see why Duke and its fans are so popular, or is it crazy?!? From the minute the students are let in, the taunting begins. The opposing team is beat down emotionally from start to finish. They couldn't even practice in peace. When the team is announced the entire student section says, "Hi (insert name here)" in the most condescending way possible. When the game started, every time Miami took possession, the students jumped up and down and let out a distracting "Ooooooohhh" or did the extended arm finger wave for lack of a better description (see video). The students were in their face every second Miami had the ball. They didn't let up once. They even did an air ball chant accompanied by a tomahawk chop when appropriate.

The cheers for Duke were deafening and it was such a shock to hear a huge silence fall over the crowd when a free throw was being made. A loud, "whoosh" followed each successful free throw with arms going from over your head down to your sides.

The game started a little scary. At one point Duke was down by 16 points. The first period and half of the second was sickening. However, the band tried to lighten the mood with every time out. Here is an example of some of the fun:

With brilliant leadership and amazing stamina, the Blue Devils came back and even took the lead for a while. Unfortunately, a miss by Duke at the buzzer sent the game into overtime. After an intense 5 minutes, Duke came out on top 78 to 75. It was definitely the game to be at.

I can't thank my brother enough for the tickets. We had an amazing time. It definitely ranks in the top 5 best experiences of my life so far! Thanks to my husband for being such a good sport.

This is the first and probably last time you will see Jon in a Duke shirt!

More pics on Flickr.

Happy Birthday

It's the big 30 for Jon today. Unfortunately, he has to work, but the boys and I are ready for him to come home and have a quiet celebration with his family. Ben and I made a birthday cake this morning. Ben used his new stool and apron and helped with every step of the cake making. Sam was a prefect supervisor.











Last night Jon set up a coloring castle that Ben got for Christmas. Ben spent half the morning coloring it, but has saved plenty of castle for dad to help with.

Sam has been trying to sit up the past 2 days. He spent part of the morning mastering his skills for a little b-day present for daddy.
Just have to work on those stomach muscles a little bit more!

Happy birthday baby!

Surprise!

Tuesday is Jons 30th birthday. Last night we had a surprise party at Put-In-Bay Lakewood, a local bar/bowling alley. Corrie played a huge role in the plotting and preparation. Thanks for all your help. It was so hard to keep the secret, but it was so worth it to see the look on Jons face when he walked in to see a big group of family and friends waiting for him. He was truly surprised! We had a lot of good food (especially Corries truffle cupcakes), good bowling (although I think the lanes are slanted) and great conversation. My parents took the boys home half way through the night so Jon could concentrate on his bowling moves, but Ben managed to get in a few rolls before they left. Thanks to my parents for babysitting.

I'm so glad we could celebrate the big event with our friends. Its all down hill from here. Sorry baby! Here are some highlights:

Yes, Jon has cupcake in his teeth. Check out all the pics on Flickr. So do several other people--they were that good!

Jon demonstrating his split!

Corrie demonstrating her spare!