Life With Donny

It's been too long since I updated you all with pictures of our growing boy.  Here he is at three weeks old with his Giraffe-er-roo:

Enjoying his first ride in the vibrating bouncy chair while we ate dinner:

Sitting at the table while we ate dinner (isn't it amazing how babies know it's time to eat!)

His least favorite past-time: the changing table

Donny arriving at his baby shower and Daddy serving cake:

Donny's favorite new toy, the Rainforest Jumperoo, recommended for babies ages 3 months and up.  But who can wait that long to try out a new toy?  Andy built it and put him right in it.  He was content and fascinated for over ten minutes - he doesn't really fit, but add a couple of phone books and he even jumped a couple of times!  We're going to add a product review to the website we bought it from recommending that 3 and 1/2 week olds love the jumperoo too!

One Week Old!

Here are a few more pictures of Donny and family.  His Grandma is a great photographer!  The picture with him and the giraffe was on his one week birthday.  I will post pictures of him and this giraffe periodically so you can all watch him grow with us!

We have a baby boy!

Donald James Earl was born on Friday, June 29th at 8:10pm.  He was 7lb 1 oz and 18 3/4 inches long. 

We are thrilled with him, and having a splending babymoon at home.  He's a little sleeper, letting us sleep for 6 or 7 hours a night.  And at one week old, he is just starting to make great eye contact with us sometimes - and I swear he smiles at us already!

Daddy can't keep his hands off Donny. Whenever he is home, he is hogging the baby.  He even changes most of the diapers.  Only one of them was too gross for him to handle.  Fortunately, grandma was close by.

Our New Arrival

We have been blessed!  Yesterday a group of our friends from our church community brought us a gift.  We have been struggling to make ends meet, and were feeling pretty hopeless about doing anything about replacing our 250,000 mile Toyota with lots of character (which I have been driving for ten years) - it won't pass emissions testing so we haven't been able to register it, and we felt like we were driving a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment. It needs CV boots, a transmission, a new door for the gas tank, air conditioner repairs... We were pretty low.

And then, last night we were surprised when a friend handed us a set of keys to a 98 Ford Escort wagon in perfect condition.  I've cried every time I've told anyone about it - I'm crying now.  I just can't believe how loved we are!  Our precious new baby will have an air conditioned car to travel in!  And I won't worry every day if my husband will make it to and from work!  Maybe now I will learn to trust God to take care of us! We have good, good friends!

Below is our new addition, complete with a big red bow.

Ready to Pop!

So I thought you'd all like to see pics of Bad Andy and his woman just moments or days before he becomes the father of a noisy little Shireling. We went out to my sister's home and had a photo shoot yesterday - almost exactly four years after the first time we had a photo shoot out there when we first met in person.  I'm a bit bigger than I was then... I think Andy is a bit smaller - how does he do it?

August 2006

Friday, August 04, 2006

Expanding Territory Well, I am headed out the door today to go see my Andy for the first time in like 7 weeks!  I am so excited!  okay...I'm a bit nervous.  I always get nervous about plane trips.  As a matter of fact...I am posting today in case I don't make it so that you all know I love you.  Morbid?  I know.  Anyway, I fly out at 7:55pm and end up in Tampa, Fl at 6:09am... A 7 hour plus trip with a 48 minute layover in Vegas (do you think I have time for the slots?  or the money?) Assuming that I make it safe and sound, my new map of the US states I've visited is here.  It now includes Kansas, Missouri, and Florida!  It's fun to add a state here and there to my concoured territories!   11:19 am

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

melting It's 92 here and I hate it.  Summer is for lizards and Satan who enjoy the heat.  7:24 pm

April 2006

Monday, April 03, 2006

Currently Reading Soup for President By Robert Newton Peck I'm Back! Well, I am finally back to posting...although this will be a short one.  Tomorrow I am moving into my first office!  I am now the artistic director of Christian Youth Theater Vancouver - a dream job for me!  I am currently packing my drama files and a few decorations and paper lanterns to take in tomorrow to settle in with.  I will post more from there (since it is a desk job for about five hours a week I think I will be more likely to post from there than I am to go up to our spare room and log in.) If you are interested in helping me out with my Johari Window follow the link!http://kevan.org/johari?name=Kim+o+the+Shire  to see how well I know myself... It's good to be back! 7:47 pm

Monday, October 31, 2005

Currently Reading Church without Walls: A Global Examination of the Cell Church Happy Halloween!  It is raining hard today in Portland.  That will make for a long wet day for Andy who is working outside all day with delivering mail and then picking up inflatable bouncers for Clowns.  I will stay nice and dry unless the roof of the theatre leaks.  We have our first dress rehearsal today for Godspell.  I am so excited 12:47 pm

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

I'm currently listening to 3 versions of Godspell nonstop. Unfortunately the browser I am using on a school issue iMac isn't good enough for Xanga, and it won't let me search for the icon. Now who says Macs are always better? Andy and I had a great weekend. On Saturday morning my cast members presented me with a birthday cake at rehearsal. That night Andy took me out to California Pizza Kitchen. I had a Thai chicken pizza... YUMMMMMMY! On Sunday we drove up to the Adna Grange for my grandmother's 90th birthday party. Her birthday was actually the 8th like mine, but we could get everyone together on the 9th, so that was what we did! It was nice to see family, and to give Andy the tour of Grandma's place. Afterwards, since we were already halfway there, we drove up to Seattle for a mini honeymoon. We stayed at a hotel near the airport then drove on up to Seattle in the morning where I gave my husband the 8 hour tour. He got to see the Fremont Troll, my college (SPU), and then we took a bus to the Seattle Center (we ate at Dick's) and the monorail to the Pike's Place Market and an elevator to the waterfront and Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. Later we went to an antique shop and the Space Needle where we watched the gray skies darken into night. I asked Andy what his favorite thing had been...is anyone surprised that his answer was food? He loved the sourdough bread bowl with clam chowder from Ivar's. We sat on the dock to eat and fed the seagulls what we didn't want.  While we were sitting there an alarmed lady from down the pier asked us if we thought that man laying on the next dock was dead or alive. I looked over and right next to a fire and rescue boat was the inert from of a man. I could only see a bare foot sticking up over the rescue equipment. Quickly I realized that the "man" was really a dummy they had used for a rescue drill...but it was thrilling for a moment. 11:29 am

Monday, October 03, 2005

Currently Watching Catch Me If You Can (Widescreen Edition) By Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken I am doing pretty good this Monday morning.  I was scheduled to sub, but received a call this morning cancelling that job...so I will run errands, clean the house, block scenes for the weekend.  I am waiting for a transfer to go through with my Starbucks store.  I have a friend who asked if I would transfer to her store in order to help her out.  She has a lot of new partners and needs someone experienced to help reinforce Starbucks standard.  I willingly agreed...but now my current manager is not returning my phone calls.  So I will try to track her down again today.  Pray that this goes through without a hitch! I also received an email this morning from my aunt regarding my cousin Holly.  I wanted to pass this email on to you so that you will better know how to pray.  Here it is: The truth is that Holly and I are both feeling quite overwhelmed, dismayed,  and defeated. We can reason and know that God is still there, and He has a  plan. We may have moments of things being okay, but the next thing we know, nauseau, pain, or some other "crisis" is upon us. The majority of the  time life is so painful. Not even the tiniest fragment of our lives seems to be  "right", anymore. It takes away from our time with Holly's daddy,  siblings, extended family and friends. It affects everything. The head surgeon at Doernbecher Children's Hospital does not give us any  hope for life to get better anytime soon~many months of the same to come. He also feels her abdomen is "inoperable"...making it impossible to fix  the original source of nauseau.Consequently, we are checking to see if it is at all possible, feasible, reasonable to get a second opinion at the Mayo  Clinic. There are many hoops to jump through, and they might come to the  same conclusions as Doernbecher's. I know that I don't want to do this if it  only means more painful tests, lots of extra (immense) bills, and more  separation from our family if we won't be finding something positive for  Holly. We are praying that God will lead us. Our other concern is that Holly's liver function has not been good for a  while (with the IV TPN...Total Parenteral Nutrition), but is getting worse.  Also, her little face is quite puffy (to the point that she doesn't want to  see anyone she knows), and she is jaundiced. We are trying to straighten all  of this out, but it is a process, and she is not able to get off of the IV  nutrtion at this point, or anytime soon. I pray that things will get better, somehow. I spend each day just "getting  through", and wishing this battle could end. My heart is heavy for my family.  I don't know how to help...   2:11 pm