The Great Goodwill

If you know me at all, you know I love to read. I also love to buy books. However, being that I'm now a stay-at-home mom and John's a student, I've tried (albeit not completely successfully) to harness that love of buying books. John's thing was that every time I came home with a new book he'd grumble about how that was one more book he'd have to move--and yes, with us moving three times over the next year, his grumbling was not completely unwarranted. But recently he gave me the gift of promising never to complain about having to move my books again, and even gave me $20 to buy books! What a guy! So I've been scheming about how I could get as many books as possible for my $20. You know, checking the internet for deals on amazon.com and half.com, etc. I knew what books I wanted--I keep a list of books I want to read.

Today Evan and I went to the Goodwill to see if they had any decent baby clothes--he's growing so fast we're running out of things for him! After a disappointing search, I thought I'd run back to the book section to see if I might find any books I was interested in. I've looked there before but have never gotten any--their selection was always pretty disappointing. But not today. Oh no. I left the Goodwill with FIVE books in mint condition--most still with the bookstore sticker on the back!

So here are my new titles to read:
The Red Tent
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Robinson Crusoe
The Rule of Four
The Catcher in the Rye

And I still have money leftover for more books! I called John and said I had a surprise for him. He handled it really well. Thanks, John!

Playing Ketch-up

Ok, it's time to quit being a slacker and post some of the things we've been doing lately. So here goes!

John had a lot more time at home during the last semester of his third year, so we tried to take advantage of it and do some touristy things. Here we are at the...

We had a good time, but Evan didn't like the room they put you in and show you a video of how fast a room catches on fire. It gets all hot and once Evan started crying we snuck out.


They had some fun old fashioned fire trucks that the city of Memphis once used.


Evan liked driving them.

Later we went for a picnic at a park. It was a beautiful day. Evan loved it. He's an outside kind of kid.

This was his first time on a swing. Though you can't tell with his hand shoved in his mouth, he was giggling the whole time!


We also recently attended John's Senior Sendoff for SCO. They had a dinner and awards, as well as door prizes. We won a gift card for Applebees. I was, however, very depressed that I didn't win one of the SCO bags or gold watches. Bummer.

And I promise, the girl behind us IS wearing clothes.

We also dyed Easter eggs with the Collins and Kents. Hey, I told you I was behind in blogging, right?

Chase dyeing an egg.


Morgan and Evan checking each other out.


This is about as interested in dyeing eggs as I could get Evan to be.



Whew! Well, that's definitely enough for now!

Redbirds game

We recently went to a Redbirds game with several couples. Recently, really? Ok, so it was last month. I'm way behind on blogging. I love going to Redbirds games. I confess, this time I didn't pay much attention to the game--not that I missed much. Nothing really happened till the bottom of the ninth. But it was fun to get out, and perfect weather to enjoy.

Here we are with Rocky!



Wonder where Evan got those baby blues!

My new favorite letter!

Is "P". That was the letter that was waiting for me at the end of my score for part one of national boards signifying that I PASSED. I am glad to have that out of the way. I never have to take part one again.

At least someone likes the Bumbo.

Update from the Mid-south

Since all of our posts have been about Evan recently, I thought I would just take a minute and give an update on what Jen and I have been up to since the beginning of the year. And of course I'll post some new pics of Evan.



So its been five weeks since I took part 1 of 3 of my national board examinations. It made for some intense months at our home. Just for some background info, every future optometrist has to pass all 3 parts of the exam to get a license to practice and part 1 is the worst. It was 500 multiple choice questions broken up into 4 different 3.5 hour exams over 2 days. It was not a fun experience. They can ask questions about anything having to do with optometry so it is extremely hard to feel as though you are actually prepared for the exam. I think the worst part though, is that they have 7 weeks to post your scores so I still don't know if I passed or not. I'm pretty sure that I at least passed, but I won't know for a couple more weeks. Through all of this, my wife was the biggest blessing. I got grumpy a lot, but she was great. I can't thank her enough for all her love and support.



Now that boards are over, life as a third year optometry student has gotten really nice. I have all day Tuesday and Thursday off and every other Monday, so I feel like I am home a lot. We have taken this opportunity to spend some time together as a family and visit museums, hang out at parks, do some shopping, etc. I am not looking forward to starting my last year of school from a number of hours being gone standpoint. I guess I will have to leave my fairytale world and start a 40 hour work week. Bummer.



As far as Jen is concerned, she is the rock of our family. She takes care of Evan, and is the bestest Mommy a boy and husband could ever ask for. He just loves her. And so do I. I had a chance to spend some time with Evan last night when Jen went to the temple and when he woke up from his nap, he was crying and looking around the room for her. Sorry Evan, its just dad. He got over it. I have really enjoyed being home a lot during this time of his life to watch him grow, which he is doing quite rapidy. He passes out smiles like a candyman in a candy store and we love every bit of it. I think Jen has enjoyed the time at home and not being at work. She told me yesterday that she just finished her 24th book this year. I don't think I've read 24 books in my entire life and she has done it in 3 1/2 months.

Well, I think thats enough of a post for now. I'm out.

Oh, and thanks to Sara Coyle for taking these awesome pics of Evan.

Sitting up!

Evan is growing and developing so fast I feel I can hardly keep up with him! He's doing really well at sitting up. And we tried his first taste of rice cereal this week--but I'm not sure he's convinced it's so much better than what he's been getting. Any tips or tricks to get them to eat it from you seasoned mothers out there?