Ryan wanted to share some news...

Ryan wanted to share our news with you.  Did you catch it? Did you read his shirt?  This is how we told Mom and Dad the news! That is right, Ryan will soon be a Big Brother!

We are happy to share that we are expecting a baby this fall. We are due on October 24, which means I am finally at the end of my first trimester tomorrow. Hoping that will mean that I start feeling better and/or some kind of food starts sounding good again.  Not too much seems different this time around, but we got the see the baby wave at us on Friday which was fun.  It seems like when I was pregnant with Ryan, our lives revolved around the pregnancy. Now, I am often reminding myself that I am pregnant, usually when someone orders a glass of wine or when I try to button my jeans. :-)   All in all, we are all really excited to add a new member to our family.

Andy's work is keeping him busy and my work is keeping me super busy.  The conference that I spend the year planning is in New Orleans at the beginning of June.  I think we all will be thankful when it is over. 

We celebrated Dad's 65th birthday today over at Mom and Dad's house with Jim and Sarah.  It was fun to have everyone together on such a beautiful day in Atlanta. Lots of food and great company.

Hope you all are doing well. We miss seeing you all.

Love,
Emily, Andy and Ryan

Weekend in NYC

Mary and I had a great time in NYC this past weekend. We went up there so Sarah and John could have the weekend off. We got there late Thursday afternoon. Friday the regular baby sitter was on duty, so we took off and wondered around China Town. Mary picked up some items for her book club since they were reading the Good Earth and she was hosting the meeting at our house. The Chinese Grocery stores were so much fun with all the stuff you have never seen before. Mary got some candy which when we got to the airport did not pass the scanner and had to go thru a second time. If it had been a month or two later I would have wondered if it was from the radiation from Japan. But now I am left with guessing what goes into the candy.

 We went to Queens for lunch with Joe.

Sat and Sunday we played with Evelyn with walks in the neighborhood and Central Park. There are musicians playing throughout the park and it is fun to sit on a bench and listen. We heard a sax player, Dixie land band, hammer dulcimer, jazz quartet, a bongo drummer, a high school orchestra from England, and a drummer playing pans. I would go there every day to hear the music.

Joe brought us takeout on Friday night from and Asian restaurant in Queens.

Evelyn was a champ, never a cry even when we had to put some drops in her eye for some pinkeye. Put her to bed and she just goes to sleep. Amazing.

She loves her bath, I took her out after 30 or 40 minutes as I was getting afraid the wrinkles were never going to come out of her fingers and toes.

We left Monday morning as the painters arrived. Sarah and John are repainting the whole apt. in anticipation of putting it on the market. The realtor said it would be sold by July. We have suggested that they throw in a NC mtn retreat house as a bonus.

Sarah and John had a fun weekend in Philly and we had one too.

Bill

Sibs & Rents

Taken on the back deck in Dothan

25 ways to wear a scarf

As a big fan of scarves I was super excited to come across this video today. Who knew there were so many ways to wear a scarf! My new goal is to try one of the different knots the next time I reach for a scarf. I'm a big fan of "The Wrap" because it feels like I'm cheating when I'm out somewhere, and that I'm really at home snuggled into a blanket, but it is time for me to branch out!

Her 'behind the scenes' post is a pretty interesting read too. The amount of work and time that went into that 5 minute video is very impressive.

http://www.wendyslookbook.com/2011/04/behind-the-scenes-25-ways-to-wear-a-scarf/



Rikki

Home safe and sound

Hello!

John and I had an uneventful trip home and arrived back in LA on Saturday evening. We had a great honeymoon in Thailand and Cambodia and will be posting trip stories hopefully in the next few days. We came home with a ton of mosquito bites, poison ivy and about 1,500 pictures. Once we sort through them all, (the pictures, not the mosquito bites) I'll put them up so you can look if you are interested.

Lots of love,

Rikki

Anna and Rex in Guatemala City

Anna and Rex left on Sunday with about 15 people from church to build a house in Guatemala City...

Please send to the family...we arrived last night safely.  We are
staying in a guest house.  We arrived after dark (7:30pm) so didn't
see much.
Today, we went to the ghetto.  The neighborhood looks like Slumdog
Millionaire.  Little alley-ways between shanty homes.  Flies
everywhere so you have to keep your mouth shut.  Children and dogs
running around.  Kids are only eating junk - loads of candy.  I guess
it is cheap.  We saw several men that sniff.  It helps ease hunger but
it also melts their brain.  They are dazed out with mucus coming from
their noses.
I have never seen anything like this - it's really mindblowing.  We
worked all day and went back to our house during rush hour - the
cars/vans/buses are Thick!  Traffic is congested and the smog attacks
your eyes.  There seems to be always something burning.  Not sure if
it is the trash heap or the traffic pollution.
We are building a one room house with cinderblocks.  They demo'd the
existing structure and right now there is only a piece of fabric that
seperates the home from it's neighbor.  The neighbor will hopefully
enjoy the new concrete wall too.
The work was EXAUSTING!  We stired by hand concrete mix, shoveled it
into wheel barrows and then poured footings.  Tomorrow we start
stacking the blocks.
The team is really fantastic and the Young life team is really warm,
kind and fun to be with!
Say a prayer for us!
Love Anna and Rex