Saturday, August 27, 2011

4 Months and Growing!



John Turner turned 4 months old on August 13th, the day Kelsey left for China. As you can imagine, I don't really have a great deal of time for blog posts with my new life.... teaching.... daycare.... tummy time... feeding time.... bed time. Before I know it, it is 11:00 pm and I haven't sat down! But I must admit and I am loving life, especially life with John Turner!

At his 4 month appointment John Turner weighed 14.3 pounds and was 25 inches long.
In the bouncey seat at Cha Cha's house! 
Chilin' in his PJs! 



John Turner got to meet my best friend, Hannah, for the first time! It was love at first sight! Now that Hannah and Will are closer to us, we will hopefully be seeing a lot more of them !

Hannah and John Turner

Dr. Barron gave us the ok to begin eating rice cereal. At first, John Turner wasn't too interested in it, but now he loves it and gets really excited when you feed it to him !
Rice cereal everywhere! 
His first experience! 

John Turner began rolling over a few weeks before his four month birthday, but on his birthday, he rolled and then rolled again. Now he is rolling from back to front and back to front. He loves tummy time! He especially loves an Elmo toy and Mom and Dad's neighbor, Amy, gave him! It makes noise and is very colorful! 


Playing with Elmo! 

We are still missing "Beefy" and wishing everyday that he was here with us! But having John Turner around helps to keep my mind off of him! 

Sunday, August 21, 2011

American Goodbye, Mandarin Hello!

It's official! Kelsey has left for East Asia. God has called her to go work with Campus Crusade in East Asia for the next 11 months. She will be taking Mandarin classes, learning the language, and most importantly building and forming relationships with the people she comes in contact with to lead them to Christ. On Saturday, August 13th she flew to Chicago for her training. Then on Friday, August 19th she made her way to East Asia. It was a rather long trip. But we just got word about 11:30am yesterday that she has made it! She doesn't have Internet yet, but is working on it!

Last weekend we had a sweet farewell in Birmingham. Mom cooked a HUGE dinner and we ate one last time as a family. It won't happen again for 11 more months :(

Kelsey could only take 2 - 50 pound bags!
This is one of them! 

Last family picture! 
Gunter had to stay at home and keep John Turner, 
he was being a sleepy head and wasn't awake yet!

I'll continue to post updates on Kelsey as I them! Please keep her in your prayers! 


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Teena

Wow! It's been a crazy last three weeks. I started school... John Turner started daycare... John Turner turned four months old.... Kelsey left for East Asia.... and we had a death in the family.

On Monday, my neighbor called at 6:00pm and asked if John Turner and I wanted to meet them to go for a walk. We always meet in the park near our houses. I changed John Turner's clothes and my clothes. Heath was so excited! He was following us around the house. He knew he was going on a walk. We had gotten in from Birmingham the day before and I wasn't sure where Heath's lease was. But that is ok, but he's a really good dog and doesn't usually walk with a leash.

I stopped by the car to get my tennis shoes, which were still in the car from our weekend trip. We headed onto the park. We have to cross a fairly busy road. So I looked both ways - no cars. We started crossing. Next thing I know here comes a white Camry flying down the road. I was in one lane with John Turner and Heath was right behind me in the other lane. I turned around and saw the car. I started yelling for the car to stop and for Heath to stop, but it was too late. The car hit Heath and I had seen the whole thing!

I ran to get Heath out of the middle of the road. Thank God there wasn't another car coming. Of course I was a nervous wreck! I called for Christina my neighbor. We called the vet to find out which emergency vet service was open. The lady that hit him turned around. She was older and I think a little shook up. She started yelling at me "What's your name? Who are you?" Finally Christina just told her to go on. Another lady pulled up and asked if she could help. She drove me to the emergency vet. Christina pushed her baby, John Turner, and walked her dog home. But it was too late. Heath died before we even got to the vet, which was right outside of our neighborhood.

On Wednesday I found Heath's lease in the car! I am just thankful that the lady did not hit John Turner or me or hurt herself.

A part of our family has been lost. Gunter gave me Heath the first Christmas that we were married. He was the best dog ever! He was so sweet, so well trained. It's just weird to walk in the house and he's not there to greet you.
This picture was taken when Gunter brought Heath home to me! 

Heath's birthday was on Halloween, so we decided to name him after a candy!  Originally, Gunter wanted to name him "Booger" and I nixed that, and I wanted to name him "Wilber." He was the runt of his litter at the Humane Society, and Wilber was the runt pig in the Charlotte's Web. But after much discussion, we decided on Heath. 


Heath had many names , which we were just laughing about last weekend in Birmingham! 
Heath, Teena, Beefy, Beefy Teena... just to name a few! 

He has been a part of our life for so many monumental things. I will am sad that he won't be a part of John Turner's life growing up. On Tuesday, the day after he was killed, we fed John Turner rice cereal. I just kept thinking how Heath would love to lick the leftover cereal off John Turner's face!

We buried Heath in the backyard. Mom is getting a marker to put back there so we'll always remember where he is. Yesterday Gunter said maybe something cool will grow where Heath is! Like in Where the Red Fern Grows!   I loved that book growing up and had forgotten all about it! 

Heath with his cousin Belle, when she was a puppy! 

Modeling his beach attire! 
One of Heath's many "outfits!"

Tailgating in Auburn!

Heath was there when we brought John Turner home.


Last picture taken of John Turner and Heath

Say a prayer for our family. We are still very, very sad. It will get better eventually I know. I am praying for a better week next week too.

Next posts will be about saying goodbye to Kelsey and John Turner's 4 months old pictures!