Please Pray

Up to this point, it hasn't been mentioned on the blog (for lack of time more than anything else); but as many of you know, my dad has been battling with alcohol detoxification and related ailments for a number of months now. From the first appointment with the specialist in May to now, I would have never imagined that things could have gone from bad to worse so quickly. The emotional roller coaster that this has put our family on has been indescribable. But to make a long story short, he was readmitted to the hospital over the weekend, and the kids and I will be driving to South Carolina in a few hours to check on him. His condition is not improving and we are needing to find a 24-hour care facility that will take him in as soon as possible (hopefully in the next day or two). That is going to be my primary purpose while I am there.

Please pray for protection on our trip . . . I am not looking forward to driving in these storms with a 1 and 3 year old in tow. Jerome will be staying back to work, since I could be gone for an extended period of time. Thanks for your thoughts, love, and support.

Kentucky Derby

Sadly, I don't even have time to give the story behind this one (because you know there's gotta be a story)... So to make a long story short, here's a gem of a photo for you. An instant classic for the family collection: A church picnic. A horse. And a fearless little jockey named Justin Alexander. These kids never cease to amaze me. What fun it is to be a part of their lives. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

The Barracks

We've finally realized that the only way to slow these two down is to contain them. With that, the play pen has officially come out of retirement and has taken on the new role of holding cell. You don't want to sleep?! Fine. Then hang out in here for about an hour. Read a book. Wrestle for an hour. Do whatcha like. But Mommy and Daddy have some napping... err... I mean... household chores to catch up on. See you in an hour.

Poolside Babysitters

Last week, my parents came down to Hampton Roads on what was their first vacation in way too long. It also marked their first extended stay with the kiddos, as we dropped Justin & Jasmine off at the resort in Williamsburg and ran like the wind back to Norfolk. With that, I'm happy to say that we came back almost 2 days later to find that everyone survived (btw, it's not the kids we were worried about). I think we need to get NaNa & PopPop some "Our grandkids crashed our vacation and now we need a vacation" t-shirts. In all, everyone had a great time. They were also here in time to witness Justin's first soccer practice last Thursday, which I'll hopefully address in another entry at some point. Anyway, thanks for the visit. The kids had a great time (and so did we) and one week later Justin is still asking about when we'll make our next visit to "NaNa & PopPop's hotel." I'll let you guys explain to him later that you don't actually own the hotel. Between "your hotel" in Williamsburg and the resort in Florida that he thinks is "Uncle Nick's house", Justin's gotta be thinking, "Why are we the only poor ones in the family?!"

Plan AAA57

I started back to work a couple of weeks ago, which is never a fun transition from summer vacation. However, I think things are starting to settle down a bit with my schedule. By next week, I should be fully adjusted to my new schedule and the norms of going back and forth to work, grading papers, prepping for class, etc. As for other haps in the past two weeks, V also started back at TCC this semester, marking her third semester teaching there (1 class in the Spring, 1 in the summer). LIke last semester, her class is online, which continues to work great with respect to the flexibility it lends her as a stay-at-home mom. And speaking of home, as a family, we've been through more back and forth over the past 2 weeks in terms of moving than I care to talk about (moving... not moving... renting... not renting... wait... renting again... no... not renting.... oh, wait... pack your bags, we're... nevermind). But the bottom line is that we're still here, we've moved on the plan AAA57 as V calls it (because that's how far we are from plans A, B, C, etc.) and everybody is still enjoying life.

As for the kids, I know I owe them both milestone updates, so hopefully those will come soon. But a couple of quick highlights: Jasmine Olivia still has 8 teeth, and her hair seems to have grown 2 inches in about 5 days. Her vocabulary and understanding also seem to have taken a pretty big leap over the past 2 weeks. Personally, I'm still amazed at how clearly she speaks (I felt like we spent forever trying to decipher Justin's lingo). She doesn't know how to say a ton of words, but the two dozen that she does know are clear as a bell. Her two new words for this week that come to mind are "luz" and "jabon". As for my favorite phrases, those are definitely "gracias" (I think she says that better than I do), "sesame street", and "that's justin".

Justin Alexander has picked up German as his third language... Just kidding. But in truth, he does start organized soccer practice next week. He's had a soccer ball since forever, but didn't really get into the swing of things until we bought him the goal (it's like the ball had no true purpose before then). We've been playing a lot at home, and I think it's safe to say that he won't be the kid at the first practice that picks up the soccer ball and tries to run home with it (because there's always one, isn't there?). Otherwise, Justin is Justin (i.e., Mr. Comedian). Not much has changed.