Memphis Memories...

We have had a great time in Memphis...we arrived rather uneventfully in Little Rock, Arkansas on Thursday afternoon to 90+ degree weather and lots of humidity. It took about 2 minutes to confirm that neither Matt nor I could be long term Southerners...we would simply sweat too much!!

Matt's brother Mark picked us up in Little Rock and drove us back to Memphis where he lives with his wife Paula and daughter Sarah. We have had a blast exploring all the sights and sounds and partaking in the Southern cooking extravaganza.



Near Mark's house there is a huge farm that has been turned into a park & rec area...where we got to get out of the car and see cotton growing up close...it is amazing that something so soft can come from such a prickly little plant!!



We had the opportunity to go to church with Mark & Paula & Sarah. Their church worships in a former country club and so we were able to take a family picture outside just after the service. For the record, I insisted that we bring "church clothes" so that we would fit in, and in fact, they prefer to worship casually (much like St. Paul's)...but the TN Millers agreed to dress up for this photo opportunity!



And a picture of Mark & Matt & Mateo...if you ever wondered if the brothers look alike, I would say they do...

Our plans have changed a bit...we were headed home on Tuesday, but got a phone call yesterday from Matt's mom to tell us that Matt's father's brother (and his godfather) had died in CT. It was not unexpected as he had been sick for a long time, but no one was sure when he would die. Well, after a ton of phone calls, we have rearranged our schedule and are now flying to Connecticut tomorrow for the wake & funeral...then we will spend a couple of days with Matt's cousins on his mom's side. It will be a nice opportunity for them to meet Mateo after supporting us with love and prayers for so long. We will fly back west on Friday and split in Las Vegas...I'll go to Boise because my little brother Joe will be in from West Point for a recruiting trip. Matt will head home from Vegas.

Then on Monday, October 15th, I am due back to work...so we go back to a more normal lifestyle at our house.

The boys are off to the Memphis zoo today, so we will have more pictures to post soon. Hope all is well with you.

Hugs from Tennessee...Sarah & Matt & Mateo

spoon training...

The pictures tell the whole story...

I forgot...

The best news of all about last week was that yesterday, Mateo finished his more than 9 month course of antibiotics for his TB exposure. He is officially free and clear of medication crushed up each day in baby yogurt (at least for this particular disease). And now he can have all the utensils he wants. We had not been letting him have them so he would take the medication each day without a fight...Matt did aggressive spoon training last night (which translates into helped Mateo learn to use it by trying lots of different things on the spoon).

Praise God that we live in a country where we can prevent serious disease simply by a $4 per month drug!!

Mateo is getting so big!!

So this week was a busy one...on Monday and Wednesday, Mateo and I trekked over to the middle school to watch our friend Sean Murphy play soccer...if you remember the pictures from this summer at the Fronza/Kelley/Petrik soccer game, many commented that he is the next great soccer player...must be in his genes.



He had so much fun playing with a soccer ball. Sean's mom Angela and I were sitting at the top of a short slope and the ball would roll down the hill, Mateo would chase after it, he would carry it back up and set the ball down just before the crest of the hill...and it would roll back down and the cycle kept going and going and going...



Mateo is a big animal lover...and with the lack of furry friends at our house (both the cats were adopted to other families)...he loves to play with pets. This is Max Martinson (of the Jamie & Val Martinson Family fame). Mateo kept trying to feed him some snacks...



This is my favorite picture in a long time...he keeps trying to do bigger and bigger things. He loves to try to walk in any of our shoes...but this picture of him in my slippers makes me smile!!

Other activities this week included: canning 30 half-pints of apple butter and 8 quarts of applesauce (and getting to put the canning stuff away for the year); cleaning the craft area; watching Kyle Murphy's football team play; hanging out with the Murphy boys while Greg & Angela took a motorcycle ride; baking brownies, cookies, and making chocolate covered pretzels (thanks Sean for your help) for a fundraiser at work; saying good-bye to the summer sun and hello to the winter rain.

We are off to Tennessee this week to visit Matt's brother Mark, his wife Paula, and the original Sarah Miller. We fly on Thursday morning to Little Rock, Arkansas (SWA flies there cheaper than any other airline flying into Memphis directly). I have never been to Arkansas, so I am looking forward to seeing a bit of it.

We'll take lots of pictures...thanks for all the emails lately. Hugs, Sarah

Home for a Year...and Picallili...lots and lots of Picallili

We have officially been home for one year now...of course, on September 21st last year, I think we slept most of the day, trying to recover from the hours of travel. I remember sitting in the living room with Matt looking at each other going,"I can't believe it is real now!"

Thanks to all the people who remembered and sent well wishes.

So my friends say "Martha" should have been my middle name...I have been a canning fool while I have been home on medical leave. Today, I made 31 pints of picallili which is relish made from green tomatoes. It is great on brats (fresh off the Traeger, of course)...and on other BBQ'd meats in a bun.

So all that is left is applesauce and apple butter. It's a good thing. I'm almost "canned" out for this year. But it is a great opportunity to learn many things from my mother-in-law, and a good chance to hang out.

Mateo is currently in the living room playing with his new LeapFrog Phonics Bus which has all the sounds of all the letters of the alphabet. He has taken to playing with puppets and other stuffed animals. He loves to put diapers on his bear. He has many new words, and each time he says one we try to get him to repeat it and he looks at us with a smile that says, "I don't perform on command...don't even think about it!!"

That's all the news from our neck of the woods. Hope all is well with you. If you haven't checked out my sister Rachel's blog in a while, you should use the link on the right...she's got some great pictures of my nephews on it now.

Hugs from Oregon, Sarah & the boys