The greatness of me being a great uncle multiplied within a 3 day period… officially I am now twice as GREAT.
On early Monday morning, after a fairly long stint of labor… Stephen Maximilian Duffy was born! He weighed in at 8lbs, 3oz. I can’t wait to meet him!!
But in the meantime, enjoy this picture that was sent to me (is it just me, or is this kid ridiculously cute?)
Judah Barrett Woods was born this weekend!!
I was so excited on two accounts (only the first one really matters)…
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Who’s gonna have the next baby???
Wow, Brent Favre is back. Shocker. I am so sick of that guy… all I can really say is despite his age, he really lacks maturity.
For instance, my unborn son is more mature than him (nice segue, huh?)
We had another ultrasound on Monday… which I love. This kid is so rad. I am so excited for him to make his appearance (but can be patient for him to keep growing and developing). If I were to make a random guess of when his birthday will be… I am going to say September 21st (just over a month away!). That sounds like a good day, and it’s right in the middle of Alisha’s and my birthday.
Who wants to see a picture??
If you look close enough, you can see his face (he is a stud).
I know Alisha won’t be happy that I am blogging about this… but I think it is important.
Sunday marks the end of an era. For about 9 years, Alisha served as the program director of our church’s contemporary service- Quest. It is a ministry that has gone through a great deal of change and challenges throughout the years… there were times only a handful of people would be a part of the service, there were other times were there was no pastor to preach and no worship leader to lead, there were times that she was too sick to stand but was determined to setup and teardown the room just for the sake of a welcoming environment.
For whatever reason, God was determined to make this ministry flourish. It has grown to 400+ people on a regular basis, not that attendance numbers mean much of anything, but God has used her gifts to help build a community that has some unique distinctives and has seen some real life change. It has been an amazing experience for me to observe this in such close proximity.
Alisha’s health has obviously been an issue for quite some time, and the church has been awfully patient and kind to let her do most of her work from home over recent years. But it has become apparent the obstacle of her health continues to become harder to overcome… so she is going on sick leave. It would be great if she would be able to return to her duties, but as of right now there are no guarantees of that. (We are still praying for healing!)
It has been a long road for her and this decision could have made years ago, outside of the fact that she is most determined person I know.
I just wanted to recognize her for being a significant part of something that is significant to a good amount of people and is hopefully significant and consistent in glorifying God.
Here’s a picture of her rocking her wheelchair during service on Sunday… right where she plans on sitting for loads of Sundays to follow, just with less responsibility.
Yesterday was Paisley’s first birthday… and my camera was ready to practice taking kid pictures. I had some pretty good subjects to practice on, Paisley and her sister, Elle, are so stinkin’ cute.
I took a load of pictures and somehow managed to whittle it down to my 11 favorites. Incidentally, Paisley loved her Little Tikes Cozy Coupe… almost about as much as Elle loved the box that it came in.
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Today, I got to go to Six Flags with my sister-in-law, Angie. And because it was the hottest day of the year, there were absolutely no lines. We started off with a wooden coaster, then went to Mr. Freeze (which shoots off does a few vertical turns and then goes straight up the track until it stalls and then does everything again backwards), and then did the Tony Hawk ride (which the car turns around in a circle as the coaster makes turns).
That’s when I puked. I almost got out of the car when a load of vomit filled my mouth beyond it’s capacity. I caught most of it in my hands, but not all of it. The ride was closed down for about a half an hour until it was sanitary again. I caused the park’s first line of the day… awesome!
We sat out for quite a while and after I recovered some, and then we went to another wooden coaster. I managed to keep it in, but as soon as the ride was over I bolted out the exit to avoid hitting anyone if it did come.
So we did some tame water rides and sat in the shade until we gave up and left. I felt like such a wuss. Then I remembered that my brother Jeff puked his brains out after 1-2 rides about 15 years ago. Apparently Barnard men have a expiration date of 30 years old for amusement park rides. Truman needs to know about this disorder!
Anyways, I had a GREAT time with Angie despite doing my best impression of Alisha (she is a much more graceful puker though). It was so nice to get that one on one time with her. I hope she had fun too even though I am sure she kept getting stink waves of vomit hitting her… I give because I love.
Tuesday was quite a day…
First I found out that Brent Favre was retiring. I didn’t actually believe it, but it was fun to dream about. I am not sure if I have ever made my feelings clear about how I feel about that guy. It was probably that one press conference (see the side column of videos) that did me in.
So we ended the night going to breastfeeding class! What an experience!! I can’t even begin to tell you how interesting/weird/scary/funny/uncomfortable/informative the experience was. Our lactation consultant really did a good job, but I’m still not convinced that it wasn’t a strange dream that I should probably feel guilty about. Maybe it was just a right of passage kinda moment, but I feel more ready, yet more horrified, than ever for this baby.
The baby boom has officially started… 3 babies this weekend! And about 7 more to go over the next 7 weeks!
1. Baby Boy Foertsch (I don’t think his parents mind me sharing the name online… Dieter!) was born on Friday! And it was about the easiest labor I have ever heard of. Here enjoy a picture (that I stole off of facebook)…
2. The Drissell Grandson was born on Friday… and it was about the hardest labor I have ever heard of.
3. Baby Girl Retenais was born today… and unless I am overlooking anyone, this is the only girl coming in the August/September boom.
Other than that, I worked on some more baby stuff myself. There is a small chance that I will have everything ready in enough time for our little guy. I should post pictures… probably will over the next few days.