I hate technology....

It should be easy, but I'm ready to pull my hair out. For the past two days I've been trying to download my videos of Maddie onto our computer. We got a nice new video camera with a hard drive for Christmas last year and I have a year and half's worth of videos on it. I want to put it on my Mac so I can download it on my iPod...but the software that came with the camera doesn't work with Macs, so it says you're supposed to pay $150 to get the version that does. Maybe I'm cheap, but that seems a little ridiculous! So I thought I'd just put it on Brandon's PC, but I couldn't find the USB cord, so I had to go buy one. blahblahblah, it's still not working. If anyone who reads this is any bit smarter than me about his stuff let me know what I should do! I want to try to get it done before I go to India next week!

It's official!

Brandon got his extern sites for next year!  This is his third year in optometry school, and next summer he does three externships.  Sooo....next summer starting in May we will be in Ames, Iowa until late August.  We will be living with my parents, and I know they are excited to have Maddie there all summer!  Then for the fall semester we will be back in Memphis until Christmas break.   Then we get to move back to Raleigh!!!! YAY!!! Yes I said move, permanently!  I don't plan on going anywhere else!  He will do his last externship in Raleigh and graduate in May of 2010.  It sounds like a long ways away, but it's been a loooong 2 years so far, and it seems like we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!  He has to pass the NC state boards before he can work there (and they are one of the toughest in the country to pass) and find a job, but I will be glad to be back.  

I knew when Brandon was looking at Optometry schools that Memphis was the right place for us to be, but after Maddie was born, I just want to  be back in NC where our family and friends are.  Maddie needs her BFF Hazel go grow up with!  

Summer 2008

Maddie enjoyed her first baseball game in May.  It would have been so much better if we could have seen the Braves, but it was a lot of fun!  We went to St. Louis to see a Cardinals game and do a little sight seeing. 

  

Then Brandon and I headed to New York City for a little vacation and Maddie had fun playing at the beach house with Nana and Papa. (I'll add some of those pics later)

Then we were back in Memphis to celebrate Maddie's first birthday!! I can't believe how fast the year went by! 

We had my Grandpa do the dedication service.  It was really neat to have our friends and family there to support us in committing to raise Madison in a Godly home, and even more special to have my Grandpa lead the service!

Maddie was a little hesitant about the whole cake thing at first....

But after digging her hands in it, she realized it wasn't such a bad thing!  I really thought she would have attacked the cake, but she was pretty subdued.

A few days after that we headed to the beach house to hang out and celebrate my birthday...no place I'd rather be than at the beach for my birthday!

Maddie LOVES the pool!  We couldn't keep her out of it!  She would look out the window and say "out" when she wanted to get in the pool.

She learned how to jump off the side of the pool with Nana, and it quickly became her favorite thing to do!

Thanks to Aunt Rebecca and Gina for the awesome pics!

crazy week

So here is what life has been for the last couple days:

After a couple glorious months of being illness free in our household, Maddie catches foot and mouth disease.  I had it when I was a kid, and I remember it being awful.  Your throat hurts so bad you can't eat or drink for days.  Now being a mother and having a child with it, I would gladly trade places.  She's had a fever since Thursday and has not been able to drink anything since then.  She will eat bread, fruit, and some frozen things, but shakes her head "no" vigorously if I try to give her a bottle or sippy cup.  She's also not a fan of sleeping either...I guess she's too hungry or in too much pain.  The doctor said the symptoms would last for 3-5 days and she'd have a fever, not want to drink, be pretty fussy and just want to lay around and cuddle....yeah right.  The doctor apparently doesn't know my daughter, she doesn't lay around and cuddle for anything!  She's been pretty busy playing and crawling all over the place until she gets hungry and we try to feed her and she screams.  AAAAAHH!  I feel like screaming too!  Hopefully she'll be over this by tomorrow and we can all get some rest!  

On another note, I am going to India in a few weeks and I'm totally stoked!  I went twice when I was a freshman in college (which feels like forever ago)  and I'm so excited to be going back.  We are going to the orphanage where I went the first time and fell in love with all the kids.  I think we also get to go to the Taj Mahal again, and ride elephants up to a palace!  I'm going with Hopegivers International...check out their website if you want more info, it's an awesome ministry!  We will be helping out at the orphanage by doing some heavy cleaning of the buildings.  My older brother Joel and his wife Rebecca are coming, and my good friends Shaun and Melissa Cross.  Melissa and I both have to leave our girls, and we're not so excited about that, but they are in good hands!  

Anyway, I'll probably post more about that as the time draws nearer for me to depart, but for now I would appreciate your prayers as we prepare to go!

I guess I should join the blogging world.  It seems if you're in your mid-20's and have a kid you're suppposed to post all about them.  I have the intention of doing so, we'll see how often it happens!  I'll try to get some pics up of our little fam and all the fun stories about our life !