still kicking

(pictured above: parker and two of his best friends, asher and avery)

time for a new post, if for no other reason than i am sick of opening my site and seeing the title, "somber night."

it's been a crazy couple of weeks for us. some of you already know, but last week i got the stomach flu and then 3 days later ended up in the emergency room in overland park because of a kidney stone. i am 96% better now, but they did a catscan and i have 5-6 other stones in my kidneys that will probably pass in the next few years. glorious.

a waterbottle is now tied to my hand and i'm trying to drink at least 4 bottles a day, plus at least 8 ounces of skim milk. maybe this will help me lose those last 7 lbs of baby weight that.just.don't. go.away! the first 25 lbs were so easy, and then the next 7-8 came off after a few more months, but the last few, grrr. blame it on the milk-engorged breasts. or the fact that i gained 40 lbs while i was pregnant, but oh well. i'm at 137 and what is that magic formula? 100lbs + 5lbs for each inch over 5 ft. tall, so since i'm 5'7" i should be 100+(5*7)=135. 2lbs can definitely be blamed on the milk.

in other news, james and i got a new rug today!!! i have been looking for a new rug for a couple of months, and lowe's had this 8x11 rug on sale for $105! here is a quick pic from our upstairs nook (please ignore the fact that i did not stage the room at all as evidenced by the exersaucer among other things):

i was kind of impressed by lowe's selection of rugs--i would've never thought to shop there. love yall! hope everyone is having a great week.

somber night

Before I post more pictures of Florida, I wanted to share a few things that are heavy on my heart right now...

Last week I received an email informing everyone who worked at Kanakuk's K-Kountry Kamp that Pete Newman, one of the Assistant Directors, got fired for sexual abusing young boys. This just makes me sick to think about. James asked me if I saw any warning signs while working with Pete. There really wasn't anything that he did that caused me to question his relationships with the kampers. The kids loved him. Pete's wife, Katie, and I did Bible Studies together and my heart breaks for her. How do you respond to something like this? The confusion of this seemingly out of the blue event makes me think how much people don't share with loved ones, friends and the world.

I'd like to think that James and I have the kind of relationship that we can share temptations and struggles with each other. When we were out to lunch the other day with 4 of James' guy friends, one asked me if I missed getting hit on now that I was married (a better question would've been did you miss getting hit on while you were pregnant because that's when the attention really stopped, although pregnant women are lucky enough to get other attention). I love answering questions like these and feel that it is important to talk about topics like this with your spouse. Even if we don't feel comfortable telling our spouse that we're attracted to certain qualities or whatnot in others, I'd hope everyone has a girlfriend they can share these thoughts and struggles with. When we are transparent with others, it's almost like we are subconsciously asking them to help keep us accountable for handling thoughts in the right way. Anyway, I'm completely off on a tangent now...

Another thing close to my heart right now is the twin brother of the baby whose funeral I attended two weeks ago. The baby boy got transferred to the Joplin NICU when he was born and weighs 1lb 12oz. He is four weeks old now, and we are praying so hard for his survival, but we know that even if he lives he is going to have serious brain damage and other difficulties. Life is tough sometimes.

In a little happier news, my next door neighbor got to bring her 5lb premie home last week from the Mercy NICU! He is absolutely precious. I can't wait for Parker and him to be friends. That's it for tonight. In good form, I will end with a couple of pictures.

Grandma Betty and Parker (peace!)

Love yall!

it's a party in the usa!

ahhh. home sweet home.

we got back from florida friday night at 11:30pm and went out to camp war eagle saturday (it was jbu's breakaway--nice to see old faces and friends). sat. night our neighboors had a bbq to watch the hogs (sad day). sunday we went to church, took some c.w.e. counselors out to lunch, went to community group and celebrated brittney's 30th birthday out on beaver lake.

so much for trying to take it easy and not plan any social events while james is in rookie school (and his midterm tomorrow). we are tired and need rest. hopefully we'll have some down time during the evenings this week. more pictures to come (and when i have time i will edit out that stupid black spot that appears in all of my pictures...grr...)

love yall!

embarrassment

after months of pumping in many random places fearing that someone may walk in on me, the inevitable happened. friday night i was pumping at 10:30pm in my room at camp war eagle and i heard the door open. assuming it was james, i turned around with a big smile on my face to greet the visitor. only it wasn't james, it was runks, the youth minister c.u.m.c. flew in for the weekend. his room was right next door and apparently he mixed up our numbers. "ahhhoh eek wrong-ahh gawley sorry!" he spatted as he quickly exited. i cracked up for a solid 3 minutes after he left. what else can you do?

he did apologize to me in the chow hall the next day which might have been even more awkward. the only reason (i think) that he recognized me was because i was carrying around parker. "are you in room 4?" "yes." "oh good i have been looking for you all day, i'm so sorry...blah blah blah." thanks i guess.

i'm not sure if was more embarrasing to be walked in on by a christian preacher or by room service on our honeymoon. hopefully this annual trend will end soon.

love yall!

it's fantasy time!

tonight kicks of fantasy football season--love it! minus the fact that i somehow always get lendale white on my team and he is good for nothing unless the titans get in the red zone. he is making me very nervous tonight. i am in 3 1/2 leagues this year and james is in 4 1/2 (the half is one of those silly "pick the winner of each game" leagues that his cousin sent us and i wouldn't mind it except you have to pick confidence points for each game, boo).

anyway, 8 minutes until james gets home so only time for pictures tonight. here are a couple shots from parker's 5 month photo op. don't mind my silly picnik edits. can you guess what this month's theme was? haha. james is eating it up.

love yall!!

duggars, weddings, FROGS!!

updates from the kehrli klan:

1. parker met baby jordan duggar this morning (see picture above). love at first site? hopefully not.

2. 3 day weekends are my favorite.

3. james got asked to be a groomsman in wedding # 9324789374. the wedding is on new years, though, so that should be kind of fun (and it is local, yay).

4. molly's wedding is coming up in 3 short weeks! i am looking forward seeing my beautiful friend get married in the gold dome in kc and eating an elegant dinner the sawyer room.

5. florida is only one week away! since james can't go now because of rookie school, my mom is going to join parks in me in our little adventure to jacksonville and the beach.

6. we are currently in discussion about parker's 1st halloween costume. i want to do a family theme because j and i are going to walk around the neighborhhood with parks (and eat his candy). currently atop the leaderboard is a cute football bunting from a local shop. we could dress up in our jersey's and throw around the "ball." haha j/k (kinda).

7. i am also making super early plans for parker's first birthday party. the theme is 90% likely to be FROGS!! since parker's birthday is in april, it will be too cold for a pool party, but everything will be starting to turn green, so frogs is the perfect theme. i imagine both james' and my family will come down to arkansas for the event, plus all of our local friends, and we'll have a big celebration. (james' birthday is friday and parker's is saturday, awesome. yes, i have already looked at the 2010 calendar). i have a cake decorater picked out to make a huge frog cake, and then i am going to try to make these cupcakes:love yall! hope everyone is having a relaxing labor day!

5 months

dear parker,
today you are 5 months old! wow. daddy is at crabby's right now for their happy hour ($2.50 premium drafts, 1/2 priced wine and $4 appetizers every day from 4-6pm and after 9! it is definitely one of our fav. spots in nwa right now. along with metropark dental! just went there today and loved it! free whitening for life! i've been meaning to write a list of places i love in nwa, but these are two of the best) so i have precisely 22 minutes to write you a letter before dad comes home.

you are such a delight, parks. we are still basking in your glory months filled with smiles, squeals and immobility (well except in the pool). so sad pool season is almost over.
i went to my first infant funeral this week and bawled the whole time. the 1lb. 7 ounce baby only lived 5 days, and it made me so, so thankful for you and your health. parker, you are such a blessing. you are a precious gift miracle from God. at the funeral i finally realized how much i love you. for some people giving birth yields an overwhelming love, but those emotions didn't fully hit me until this week. parker, i love you with all of my heart. you are my sweet baby boy.

you are so active! you kick your legs all day long wherever you are, especially when i am about to swaddle you. speaking of the swaddle--it is definitely getting too small but you still sleep better with it so i have yet to wean you from it. i'm hoping one day you just stop needing it kind of like your pacifier that you ditched when you were 2 months old.

you put EVERYTHING in your mouth. your hands, your FEET! (ick!), your toys, your books, everything. at least 10 people have asked me if you are teething, but i refuse to say you are teething until you cut a tooth. we still haven't given you any solids either, but i think we are going to try rice cereal this weekend!

time to hit the hay. you are awesome. love ya little guy!!
love,

momma

p.s. you weigh 19lbs!

p. p.s. i think my boobs are still bigger than your head, ha!

james is asleep before 9:30pm again

the fire department is sending james to "rookie school" for 8 weeks to complete firefighter 1 & 2. thankfully the school is local (rogers) so james is able to come home every evening, but that does not make his 7:15am-5:00pm schedule any better (and working at camp every weekend). we are pressing on to get through these super packed 8 weeks and looking forward to a much more relaxed schedule in november. parker turns 5 months tomorrow (yes, 5 months already!). hopefully i'll find time to write him a litte note. love yall!