Continued...

This is going to be a really long post. I tell ya, Blogger is sometimes very difficult to work & our internet has been going out a lot lately. Just a few of the many reasons discouraging me from blogging more frequently.
Here's some highlights from our 2 week trip to GA!
First, we stopped in Cartersville on our way down to eat dinner with the newlyweds, Chris & Jennie! They made an awesome dinner for us including a funfetti b-day cake for me! (not pictured)

My 26th birthday was a couple of days later. My mom bought me beautiful flowers & my favorite cake from McEntyre's, strawberry marble pound cake. I went to Barnes & Noble all by myself & to pick out a book, The Kite Runner, very good. My husband had my car professionally cleaned inside & out & the 2 of us went to lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse. Yummy! That evening some family came over for dinner & cake. I also got some money that has already been spent, a Garfield DVD & a double boiler. Get ready for peanut butter balls this Christmas! Thank you, Dad! We'll save you some!

Christian also got a cupcake since that part of the family didn't get to see him on his b-day.

My dad has been wanting Christian to try a lemon for the longest time. I finally let him give Christian a slice one night at his house.

We also got a visit from some friends from Auburn including a new friend we had never met. Alex!

Christian is a little enthusiastic in his playing.

These are 2 of the most awesome friends ever! My college roommates, Wendy & Hillary.
We had lots of other adventures on our trip, including a trip to Auburn to visit our old church. We got to eat lunch with our former pastor & his family & watched Christian terrorize their dog. Andrew & I also went to the Deeper conference at 1st Bapt Woodstock the last weekend we were there. We also went to Andrew's old church in Canton, saw Fireproof with Jennie & Chris, visited with family a lot & ate dinner one night at Nathan & Courtney's house. I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures!

This past Friday Katie & I & the kiddos ventured out to the zoo for the annual Halloween party. A trail is marked off through the zoo for trick-or-treating & all the kids dress up. It was more for mine & Katie's amusement, but we had lots of fun taking pictures!

A dragon & a lily!
Christian has been making noises like roars lately & he started doing it half-way through the zoo. So appropriate & funny!

Apparently, dragons enjoy goldfish.

Mom, do I have to wear this hat?

We took this one just for Daddy since Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is one of his favorite movies. Yes, you can see the dragon arms cuz Christian was hanging on to the oompa-loompa's head.

What's Halloween without the Great Pumpkin?

Don't be scared Princess Fiona. I'm not one of those scary dragons.

Most of the animals were already put away for the night, but a few were out including this snow leopard who was patrolling the front of his cage.

This is Christian absolutely ecstatic to see such a big kitty.

Ok, now I'm going to finish up my year in review with my last 2 struggles as a new mom.

Struggle #4: Chores/Cooking
I've decided I don't like cooking, specifically chopping. I try to avoid chopping at all costs. In fact, I will not chop onions anymore. I'm way too sensitive to their odor. Andrew chops all onions in our home. Perhaps, it's not the cooking itself but the cleaning up I don't like. I dread cooking because I know all the clean-up involved afterward. Believe me, I'm hoping & praying for a dishwasher before we have another baby. Christian doesn't particularly like for me to cook or do chores either. He tolerates vacuuming. He likes to follow me around while I use our hand-held vac. It's like a game. Anyway, right after I had Christian my midwife told me that my only jobs over the next few weeks were to feed the baby & sleep. Hah! Little did she know that my husband had just started a new evening job & was taking FIVE classes at seminary (2 of them being language classes) & all our dishes have to be washed by hand (we've agreed that that will never happen again). No wonder I was a basket-case the first few months! Fortunately, as I burst into tears every time I talked to anyone from my family, they also decided I couldn't handle all that by myself, so we had lots & lots of company the 1st month of Christian's life. They cooked, cleaned, let me sleep, and cooked some more! Then Christian & I took off to visit them for 3 weeks. By the time all that was over I felt more in control of our situation, not to mention Andrew's semester was essentially over. In hindsight, I'm all for paper/plastic/throwaway products & not caring so much about the tidiness of my home. I also learned some tricks, like doing dishes while Christian watched Baby Einstein, sitting Christian in his highchair beside me & singing to him while washing dishes, letting him play with tupperware in the kitchen floor, keeping special toys in the bathroom & let him play in there while I clean it, let him crawl in & out of the dryer while I load the washer or hang up clothes. Chores get easier & easier every month, but there is always some amount of whining/crying involved from Christian. It's just gotten less.

#5 Living away from family
This goes along with the last one. I used to think that I wouldn't struggle too much with homesickness if I ever lived in another country. I don't think that anymore. Not that that's an excuse not to go (that's another post for another day), but I'm only 7-8 hours away from my family now & I would LOVE to live around Atlanta again. I think all my seminary friends are saying "Amen" right now. And that is why I'm a firm believer that we seminary wives must stick together. Andrew & I are paying our bills by both of us working part-time. I think that if Andrew worked full-time & went to school full-time we would never see him. If he worked full-time & went to school part-time that would only prolong our stay here, which isn't the worst thing in the world, but I really look forward to living without school. I have a very hard time understanding my husband's love of being a student because I don't like it at all. At this time, I don't care if I ever further my education. Anyway, since both of us work part-time we have to rely on others to keep Christian for a few hours on Monday evenings while both of us are at work. If we lived near family they would jump on this in a heartbeat, but friends have fulfilled this role for us. I find myself praying that as God provides others to meet my needs I might also be able to fill needs for others in this regard. And for some reason it's hard for me to ask others for help in this. It's like I want them to volunteer first. Andrew says that's not going to happen because people generally consider themselves too busy to volunteer for stuff, but if you ask them they don't necessarily mind helping. I'm getting over it.