February

January ended and February began like a whirlwind. We ended January with Pastors' Conference and Jon out of town working. We took Jack out of school at the end of January and he has been staying home with my sister. I have been enjoying Mom to Mom on Wednesday night - it is always a part of the week that I most look forward to. My dad's 47th birthday came and I missed him terribly on that day. We spent a much needed family day in St. Augustine. My wonderful boss got to spend 2 weeks in Hawaii - I was a little jealous. Jack and I went to Luke's football game and it was wonderful! We had a wonderful family valentine's day. Jon and I spent a day with the Braig kids and had an absolute blast. We also patiently waited on the IRS to send us our tax refund (note the sarcasm). Got my Passion Play script!! The timing belt COMPLETELY went out on our way to Disney - thankfully we weren't very far from home. And to end the month off, we welcomed a new sweet little boy to our crazy family (not me but my cousin).

March is going to be great. Planning for the next trip to Israel is underway. Passion Play rehearsal will be beginning in the next few weeks. We are heading to Disney on Sunday night. Jon is getting ready to start travelling again.

For now.

What a crazy January!

I kind of had a feeling when 2012 started that it was going to be a busy year - and January hasn't proved me wrong yet. We were busy with school and a laundry list of "problems" that Jack was having. We have had him tested and after a few too many calls to me decided that it was best to just with draw him for the time being to see if that helped with his "problems." We think that he is still trying to figure out how to be 4 and are hoping that by taking some huge expectations off of him it will help his behavior.

Jon has begun to travel again. Last weekend, he had to fly to Mississippi for a whole 26 hours. On Sunday, he leaves for Arkansas for 2 weeks of school. So he will miss the last week and a half of this month.

As for me, January has been busy with work and different events going on. Next Thursday starts Pastors' Conference so it is going to be a busy weekend. Mom to Mom has also started back and I have really needed the time with the girls in my group.

See you in February!

A Farewell to 2011...

2011 was a great year. It was our first full year back together as a family. We took a couple of trips down to Orlando - Disney and IKEA were on the agenda. Pastors' Conference. A guinea pig. Passion Play - over 15,000 people watching in person. ISRAEL!!!!! A potty trained little boy. A 4 YEAR old little boy. Starting choir (Jack). Starting VPK. Starting Mom to Mom (me). Jon starting a new job - that is 15 minutes away from home. Jon travelling - A LOT. 4th knee surgery. 5 weeks later - a 2nd surgery for staph infection - thankfully not MRSA. Knee feeling 100% better - AMAZING doc. Pinterest. Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We are looking forward to 2012.

Merry Christmas from the Kees Family

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!! I will post tomorrow with pictures of presents and baked goodness from today.

Being the mom of an only child

Today, over at Kelly's Korner, she is doing a link of moms of only children. I do not know many parents of only children. We quite often get asked when we are going to have another child and have to explain WHY we are only having one. We were more than pleased that God allowed us to be the parents of this amazing little boy:

He has been such a joy these last 4 years. God has not impressed upon neither mine or my husband's heart to have anymore children right now. We feel that right now we love having the time to devote to him as well as to our marriage. Jon and I are in this until the end, through good times and bad we are in it together. Another reason why we are parents to our one and only sweet Jack is because we are a military family - a National Guard military family. I know you are probably thinking what is the difference. Well there is a huge difference. For the most part, the National Guard members live normal lives with normal jobs, except for Jon. He is an active Guard Reserve, which means he works full time for the National Guard for the State of Florida. He did a tour in Iraq and is now currently travelling 2 out of every 4 weeks of the month. It was hard enough to be a single parent to one the year he was gone and I can't imagine doing it with more than one. As people always say, God will not give you more than you can handle, and He hasn't.

Thanks for reading. Here is a picture of our family.

Look what I did!!!!

OK so I joined Pinterest and have found some really neat craft ideas on there. I am not the most craftiest person but I try.

I found on there someone made a prayer pot out of a a clay flower pot and some tongue depressors. I thought it would be something that Jon and I could use to teach Jack the importance and power of prayer. Jon was all for the idea so yesterday I made my first venture out of the house since surgery last week. We went and got all of the supplies for this project and another project that we are working on. Here is our prayer pot:

The other thing that I did tonight was make a tutu for my best friend's little girl for her first birthday. I finished it tonight and it looks so cute. Here it is:

That's all for now.

Kim

What a past 5 weeks!

These past 5 weeks have been interesting to say the least. 5 weeks ago today I had knee surgery to correct a problem that has been ongoing for the last 12 years. Everything went great with the knee except for a place down at the bottom of the incision. After keeping an eye on it and keeping it clean as I was told by the doc, he decided yesterday morning that it would be best to do surgery this morning. I do believe that if he could have gotten an operating room yesterday he would have done it then. He was very worried about it. I am now on an antibotic and a partial pain pill. The place that wouldn't heal looked gross but the wound now looks gross. I do believe that this will be TMI but you can see inside my leg. Yes I said that right - INSIDE my leg. Doc is letting it heal from the inside out. Should be interesting especially because I am having to change the dressing 3-4 times a day and it is awful. The first time I changed it I burst into tears - sobbing crying. Jon tried so hard to comfort me and it was so sweet but he had to leave the room because as he said "I'm a weenie." So needless to say I am having to change it out all by myself for the next week. Oh joy.

Next week is my 6 weeks post op appointment so I am praying the doc will allow me to take the brace off. I don't know if I could go even just another week with it on. I've also been "forbidden" to bend my knee and take a proper shower - that's almost as bad as having a gapping whole in my leg.

That is all for now.

Kim

First Day of School and an Announcement

Today was the first day of VPK for Jack. He was very excited about starting "big boy school." I know that we still have a year until kindergarten but it is still big. He had a wonderful day and made some new friends. No I didn't cry - I guess because he has been in daycare since he was 18 months old it's not really a big deal for us. Now next year will be a different story.

Next week I will have my 4th knee surgery to realign my knee cap and a couple of other things. To be completely honest, I am looking forward to having this surgery if for nothing more than the down time from work. Work has been monster crazy and I am finally going to get a few days off in a row. I am not looking forward to the cutting and what not but I will deal. The only other thing that I am not looking forward to is that Jon is leaving for at least a week on September 6th.

Last week, we received some news that we haven't shared with many people because we are just not sure what is going to happen in the upcoming weeks. NO, I am not pregnant. We found out that as of right now Jon might be deploying with his unit that leaves for mobilization at the first of September. He has a 50/50 chance of being deployed. We have no definite answers as to whether or not he is going but we have to begin packing everything that he might need for a deployment. I am not sure how to react to this because we were not expecting this when he got this new job. We will manage but we are adjusting to this new possibility.

Here is a picture of Jack today:

A Change

Since I have returned from Israel I have seen the Lord moving in my life and in the life of our family. It has been hard for both Jon and I to completely turn everything over to Him and let Him show us where He wants us to go. It started when I answered His call to go to Israel. I didn't know where the money for the trip was going to come from. I knew that I just needed to trust God and He would provide and He did. As my trip was drawing near Jon told me about a new job that was opening closer to our house. We had been praying for God to show us the direction He wanted us to go with our car situation and my job situation. Many of you know that I work only part time for the church. We only have one car as that is what is feasable for our budget. Jon was having to drive back and forth to St. Augustine everyday for work and back and forth to Tallahassee for drill once a month.

When Jon began to tell me about this new job the first thing he told me was that this was a deployable job. By this point God had given me a peace about the job and the possibility of another deployment. I told him to apply for the job especially because it is only 15 minutes from our house. We were hoping that he would hear something before I left to go to Israel or even while I was gone. He didn't hear anything and began to worry. A few days after I returned home we learned that he DID get the job. Such a huge answer to prayers! He started on the 18th and he doesn't have to deploy with the unit at the end of August.

Another answer to prayers was that once I returned from Israel, we began to aggressively work on potty training Jack. Up until just recently he has shown NO interest what so ever to go to the potty like a big boy. It took about 2 weeks for him to be out of pull ups and into underwear and then another week or so for him to be completely in underwear and completely potty trained. I am so thankful for amazing teachers at the Junior Academy that didn't pressure him to be potty trained and that worked with Jon and I to accomplish this huge goal. I am also thankful for Shelly Taylor and Amie Shields and that they had the forethought to realize that every child is different and not making it a requirement for children to be potty trained by a certain age.

I have also been feeling a pull to go back to Israel. There is so much work to be done there and I don't feel that God is done with me there. The people that are working in country are amazing and we were able to form some amazing bonds with them. I was able to share with some coworkers and it even looks like some of them are wanting to go and that makes my heart happy. I throughly enjoyed my time there and can't wait to get back.

We are looking foward to going on a short trip to Orlando in a little over a week. Jon will be down there for a work conference for a week. Jack and I will be heading down on Thursday afternoon after work/school and staying until late Saturday afternoon. We are all excited to spend this time together since in the weeks following we are going to be super busy with school, choir and Mom to Mom starting.

For now,

Family Pictures and a 4th birthday

The Saturday before the 4th we had our annual family pictures with the amazing Sarah Orgunov. We included our dog in them as well assome in Jack's room. Here are some for you to enjoy:

A certain little boy also had a FOURTH birthday on the 7th. I can't believe he is 4 years old. He had a really good birthday. We took cupcakes for his friends at school - in Iron Man colors. After school, my mom and step dad took us to Chuck E Cheese for dinner and for him to play games. We had such a good time. He got quite a bit of wooden parts for his wooden Thomas the Train set. He had his 4 year check up on Friday. He weighs 36 pounds and is 40 inches tall. He is growing like a weed. Next year I will have a kindergartner. It was just like yesterday that he was born. I love you James Alan!