Pretty in Pink

I've been trying for quite awhile to get Annika to try her hand at a sport - any sport. She just hasn't been interested in sports, which just doesn't compute to me. I think I may finally have the solution. Annika now has a pink soccer ball, and she pulled it out tonight to kick with me. I was so happy to kick the ball back and forth. We even picked it up to play catch. She surprised me that she actually caught quite a few of my tosses.

Annika wanted me to take a picture of the occasion for her grandparents, so I'm doing what I've been told.

Thanksgiving - St. Simons Style

Having moved so far from our families, this Thanksgiving was a new experience for us. To begin with, we went to the beach on the day before Thanksgiving. I can't say that I've ever done that before - at least not in swimtrunks. Annika was able to bring a friend with her, and Sammy enjoyed his first prolonged exposure to the sun and sand. Jess and I just enjoyed being out of the house without much to do. I guess it's a different season in our lives.




We were invited to share in the Thanksgiving feast of some friends from church. We were very thankful to spend time with such wonderful people. Being with them took the edge off of not being with our own families this year.

Making friends

Jess posting here. So I had asked some of you to pray especially for Annika during the past months with all of the transitions she's had to make (becoming a sibling, moving, new school, new church). I've been especially hoping/praying that she would make some girlfriends because I hadn't been so good at helping her cultivate those while we were in seminary. Well, this is a thank you post for your prayers. I can say with confidence that Annika is making friends and she has one boy buddy and one girl buddy with a few more in the works. Here's a pic of Annika with her girl buddy over at our house recently for a play date :-) Thanks everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to adjust to southern living.

7 months on 11/17/07!!

He has grown so much since his 6 month photo!

30 weeks old, 11/13/07

Having fun helping mom and dad change the bedding :-)

Kirkin' O' The Tartans

Our church held its annual Kirkin' O' The Tartans (Blessing of the families) service this morning. I had the privilege of preaching at this service, and I somehow managed to preach about Monty Python and the Holy Grail, John Knox, and the Sadducees all in one sermon. If I learned nothing else, I now know that many in my church love Monty Python. They seem to be really happy with my preaching, so I hope that I can keep growing as a preacher in such a congenial place.

We wanted to post some pictures of the family at the service for your enjoyment. For those who have taken the PC(USA) ordination exams, you can enjoy critiquing the placement of the church decorations in the sanctuary. As for me, while I may not be thrilled with the implications of having such a "Scottish" service, it was interesting to meet so many new people who came to church just for that service. In the end, I guess that I'm more open to getting new people into church than I am about pulling off a perfectly Reformed service. So sue me.

One more note of interest, my second cousin from Erie happened to be on this island, so there were at least three people with the middle name "Kirkland" at our church today. That was fun for me.




Shhhhhh....don't show this one to Dr. Kay, Dr. Brown, or The Rev. Bill Heming ;-)

Some Sammy updates...

It's been some time since I've done Sammy updates so here's a rundown of the last few weeks...can't believe he'll be 30 weeks old this week! (sniff sniff)

26 weeks 10/16/07


6 months 10/17/07


27 weeks 10/23/07, Sammy is eating like a champ. He loves oatmeal and applesauce especially.



28 weeks 10/28/07



29 weeks 11/06/07, The day before this day, I was helping Samuel practice sitting up. The next day, Troy sat him up and it stuck. He's been sitting like a big boy ever since!

Southern Names: Our Minds are Blown

So, we realized that the move from Jersey to Georgia would take some getting used to. There are just some basic, major differences in culture that we would have never known without moving here. Well, tonight, we experienced a brand new one.

We had thought it strange that when I introduced myself as "Troy," many responded, "Oh, Trey, it's nice to meet you." I just figured that my northern accent just made my "o" sound like an "eh." It turns out that there are a lot of people named Trey around here. There are also people named Tripp and Dru.

Well, what we found out tonight was that Trey, Tripp, and Dru are not names at all. Rather, if your dad was John Smith Jr. and if you were named John Smith III, people will call you Trey or Tripp (short for Triple). If you're John Smith IV, then you get to be Dru, as in quaDRUple. I think being John Smith V would be pretty cool because you could then be Quint. (And I sure don't want to try to guess what you'd call John Smith VI.)

It's a pretty interesting system of names, I must admit, although it makes me wonder how many peoples' nicknames I know without having a clue that their real first name is something like Cletus Pepper III. I guess that knowledge will come with time.

Halloween is Crazy

Things have been quite busy lately, and so we haven't had much time for posting. We're sorry if you've missed us. In the last couple of weeks Jess and the kids made their way back to the Midwest to visit some family and friends in Chicago and Michigan. They also really enjoyed experiencing some good ol' northern fall - with changing leaves and crisp weather. They enjoyed themselves, but I'll let Jess give the details when she wants to. (I painted the remaining rooms in the house while they were gone. It's a relief to have that done!)

Before too much time passed, I wanted to write a little bit about Halloween on the island. It's nuts. Where I grew up, we would have a couple of hours of trick-or-treating, and that was about it. We enjoyed it, but it was not an event. On the island, people go all out. We took the kids to a nearby neighborhood where some of our church friends live. They were having a cabana party, as were many others in the neighborhood. We were treated to dinner, dessert, candy, and more. When trick-or-treating got going in earnest, there were hundreds of kids and parents roaming the streets of this neighborhood. We weren't the only interlopers. People were parked all over the place, many of them driving to the island from Brunswick to catch the party. Many of the adults were wearing professional costumes. (I know I felt underdressed and rather uncreative for not wearing one.) Many of the houses were decorated with spider webs, pirate themes, and disco balls. One house even had an inflatable haunted castle! (See the photo above.) I had heard about how crazy Halloween was here, but never did I imagine this. We even ran into several groups that dressed up corporately as characters from nursery rhymes, like Little Red Riding Hood. It was a lot of fun, I must admit.

Annika had a really good time. I thought she looked really cute in her mermaid costume. She really is measured in how she approaches events like this. Even though we walked through a good bit of the neighborhood, she would only stop at the best decorated houses. She came home with a few dozen pieces of candy, which makes me really happy. We can let her have it without quite so much oversight. (My parents are probably smiling when they read about my having to oversee candy intake. Whoops.)

That's all for now. Hope y'all are well.