I painted the table BLUE!

Wow, sometimes I have a thought for a design in my head that turns out so different outside of my head. BUT, I love the surprise outcome of the project you've been working on.

Yes, my breakfast table is blue and I have to say I love it. It makes me want to eat Mexican food every night. I call it my fiesta table! Everything looks good on it including my white plates.

Project completed, successful.

Yes, he's an MK

This is such a hilarious picture to Thomas and me. We told Thad to smile for the pic and he shows us the peace sign. We both about fell over laughing. Neither one of us told him to do this or showed him how. He has seen kids at school do it and he actually said he saw it on some pictures at school. Only an international kid would do something like this. Such a reminder to us that he is definitely a Third Culture Kid. That or he's been around too many lovable Koreans :)

Corn eatin' fool

I cannot believe I'm going to have another BOY! Where will he fit in a picture like this? I love taking this type of picture and can't wait to have the new one... maybe he'll fit under my chin?

Mamas of boys know that there is nothing sweeter than the love and loyalty of your boys now and the promise of strength and leadership for the future.

I'm in my 20th week today and of course that means I'm halfway to the end. We cannot wait to welcome our new boy and see what laughter he brings to this family!

For the Grandparents!

The Good Ole Summertime

I must note this is a gift from our Director, Ken, before he left. A soccer grilling set.... how funny and appropriate!

CRIBS - Vienna Summer Addition

Summer in Vienna has its perks. See, there are people who own cool stuff that you don't and they leave for the summer and need someone to take care of their cool stuff. This is where you come in, assuming you can bite the bullet and be apart from friends and family back in the states for over a year.

The Gardner family is currently experiencing our own version of MTV CRIBS. We currently alternate living in an apartment, a home in the city with a great backyard, and what we have dubbed our "vacation home" in a small town outside of Vienna. We have also had access to at least 3 different cars at various stages of the summer, and I really feel the only thing I'm missing is some bling so I can feel like the white chocolate rapper I am on the inside.

That's better. In the words of 2pac, "Picture me rollin'..."

Just like living the high life as a rapper comes with a price (you're on the road all the time...you can't go anywhere because you're famous...you have to have major dental surgery to fill your mouth with platinum, gold, and precious jewels...and you'll probably be shot at least once), so does our Vienna Summer.

We wanted to stay home this summer so we didn't have to live out of a suitcase for 2 months and move from house to house. Oops. That's exactly what we've been doing for the last 3 weeks. Maybe we've become subconsciously nomadic as a result of how we've lived the past 4 summers. It certainly seems that way since we've chosen the same type of life for this summer.

Despite all of this, we really have enjoyed our summer and we are truly grateful to those who have blessed us with homes and cars for the summer. The boys have loved having backyards to play in and Wii's to play with. Thad is actually pretty good a Wii bowling. I'm also Tiger freaking Woods at Wii golf...err...maybe not Tiger...how about Phil Mickelson. Less off the course drama with that choice.

You can pray that we will settle in a bit and that I'll be able to get some work done with some things. What you can pray for specifically:

What to teach through in chapel this year as well as a chapel theme.

That the visa situation for Mollie and the boys will be worked out by the end of August.

For Thad's summer work to be ready for school in August.

For a 4 week series I am planning for our church's youth group that will begin next week.

Of prepping sermons, gluing heads, and fighting birds.

I'm assuming that, having read that title, you are sufficiently interested in hearing about my weekend. See, most people just ask you how your weekend was so that they can then tell you about theirs but, I'm smarter than that. So here goes.

Preparation is great. I love it. I especially love prepping for sermons because I get intensive times of studying the Word. The last several times I've preached, I have done most of my prep work at school and things have gone fine. Now that school is out though, I do my prep at home which apparently exists in another dimension filled with Thomas the Train DVD's, apple juice, and small creatures that constantly scream when bitten by one another, throw things, and announce the success of their toilet trips to all who are in hearing distance.

After spending some time writing a general outline for my sermon on paper I decided to sit down at the computer and hammer out the specifics. It was right then that I heard the all too familiar thud of a little boy falling off Mommy and Daddy's bed. After the fall comes the few seconds of silence where they gather up the scream. That eventually came, but then came another one...from Mollie.

Cue the freak out. After falling off that bed once a week since he could walk, Ian picked this time to bust his head open. And I mean open. I didn't see skull, but there couldn't have been much more between us and it. So we headed to the hospital and got him all glued up.

CONFESSION: I'm cheap and so I got Mollie to at least attempt to braid his hair around the wound to hold it together and avoid a trip to the hospital. It didn't work and, truth be told, I felt a bit bad about it.

And now to the next morning. I got up early and really got things going. I was typing out my notes and outline and generally feeling good about life. Mollie and the boys got up and I was still able to work. Then, Mollie screams again. This time I ran wondering to myself who it was that was seriously injured this time. I found her in our foyer with the kitchen door shut looking terrified. She then informed me that a bird was in our kitchen. Here I am almost done with my sermon and now I have to go and get an animal out of my kitchen.

ANOTHER CONFESSION: I hate nature, and I'm kind of a big girl when it comes to nature invading my home. So, being the big, tough girl that I am, I armed myself for battle as you can see below:

I used Thad's grabber thingy (do those things have real names?) to subdue the beast. I wanted to kill it, but Mollie likes nature and I wanted to be sensitive...plus I didn't want guts on my floor. So I picked the bird up with the grabber and put it in a bag. I was convinced it had a broken wing because it didn't try to fly, but that didn't stop me from deciding to dump it out of our window eight stories high. Mollie again protested, noting that if it did in fact have a broken wing it would'nt be able to fly. I offered a retort by telling her that if it had a broken wing it was going to die anyway and at least this way he'd experience flight one last time.

I confess, I didn't really say that last part about flying one last time, but I should have. Anyways, I threw the bird out the window and, miracle of miracles, it started flying. And so all was well with the world.

I eventually finished my sermon which can be heard here if you really care. Ian's head is fine and as far as we know, the bird is also doing well.

Thomas' Blog

...is going again now that he and his friends actually have time to think and write. Here it is if you want to check it out again.

www.thelayzmen.wordpress.com