Fall leaves

Actually fall's way gone at our house by now.  I just had a mini crisis with not being able to upload my pics the past few days.  All is well now.  This is mostly a post for me so I can remember how our mantle looked during fall.  Weird to think it was the last one at this house.  sad!

adios fall.

I'm in love with a ......

bullet!

Homemade baby food couldn't get any easier.  This is by far the most useful and cutest thing we've bought in a while.  My convincing paid off......even the hubs digs this.  What does Judebug think?  Well, he loves him some sweet potaters!

Baby in a basket!

That is all.

Monkey doctor

Happy Halloween!

Dr. Daddy and Dr. Jude

And when it got colder, our little doc turned into a monkey!

 

Thank you to Caitlin's mom, Susie, for getting Jude these adorable baby MD scrubs.  He was the star of our neighborhood block party that we hosted in our driveway this year.  By hosted I mean we did absolutely nothing but hang out in our driveway.  Don and Susie (yes another Susie!), our awesome neighbors who we share our driveway with, did most of the work.  We have so many great people on our block.  We're really going to miss everyone when we move.  Needless to say, it was a great first Halloween for our Judebug!

The Lou

So rewind a few weeks to the last week of October.  Our little fam traveled south to take a visit to our new city, St. Louis.  The drive was quicker than I thought, probably because I was expecting the worst aka a screaming baby for 7 hours.  As it turned out, Jude decided to snooze 6 of the 7 hours (glorious!) which meant I had plenty of time to backseat drive (yikes, I'm really bad at this).

We left on a Wednesday and stayed til Saturday.  When we got there we didn't do much other than drive around a few different areas.  But on Thursday we spent the entire day with a realtor who took us around the city and through several houses so we could see what was out there.  I felt like I should be on an episode of House Hunters.  It was fab.  Friday we decided to walk to the Basilica, which wasn't too far away from our hotel.  It was amazing.  For a second I thought I was in Rome.  Not that I've ever been there. You wouldn't believe the mosaic artwork though.  Heads up, if you do come and visit us, there is a good chance we will end up taking you there.  But in case you can't wait, I did take some pictures.  Don't worry, it was totally legal.

These guys look familiar?

You really can't even begin to imagine the details.

completely takes your breath away

Saint Louis the King

had to get a close up of details

It really was something to see. I have no idea how you even begin to make something so beautiful.  Fun fact: it was the feast of St. Jude when we went to the Basilica.  Thought it was apprope!

So naturally after our visit to the Basilica, it was only fitting that we hit up the Budweiser brewery.  Gotta teach the little one the brewing process early!

He couldn't wait to get a tour

neither could he.

As you can see, Jude was upset that he wouldn't be able to partake in the last tour stop: the bar with 2 free drinks.

 To top off our busy day we ended up heading to dinner.  We had originally decided on this one place with a pretty good happy hour menu.  However, when we drove by, one look told us we would be waiting a while, so we kept driving.  We ended up seeing this place called 'Pie' but it was a lot cooler than that cause it was just the symbol for pie. clever! Do they even make that on a comp?  Anyway, we randomly headed in and were minding our own business when, like always, Jude started gathering the attention of a few middle-aged ladies sitting at the table next to us.  Such a flirt.  After several smiles back and forth they started telling us how cute he was.  Then suddenly one of them got up and came over and started talking to us and playing with Jude.  She was like, "Sorry, your table just looks a lot more interesting than what we're talking about at ours."  I thought that was a little strange, considering their table was huge and filled with tons of people.  Naturally I had to ask what was going on.  She replied, "Oh just a bunch of residents talking about medical things" to which I responded, "You've gotta be kidding me....that's the whole reason we're down here, Chris is going to be a resident at SLU next year."  She looked just as shocked as I did, "That's where we're from!"  Turns out they were having a pre-interview dinner for Eurology, which does an early match.  Seriously, out of all the restaurants in St. Louis we run into residents from SLU?  I love this kind of small world connection stuff so I was pretty excited.  This lady seemed to be on the same page and insisted that we join their table so we could talk more about St. Louis and Chris could talk to some residents.  We totally crashed the pre-interview dinner.  And I didn't feel an ounce bad about it; it was totally meant to be.....and Jude was held the entire night by that lady. He loved it. In the end, the Cardinals ended up winning the World Series and we ended up falling in love with St. Louis.  Huge success!  Now if only we could find the perfect house.......

Do your part

Last night was a life-changer, that's for sure.  And the weird thing is all I did was go stand (there were no seats left) and listen to Immaculee Ilibagiza speak to an overpacked auditorium at the College of St. Mary's in Omaha.  Who is Immaculee you ask?  Well, I can't even begin to tell you because I'm afraid I'm not a good-enough writer to describe her.  But in one word, she is Grace.  She is the most beautiful, inspirational, saintly person I have ever seen in person.  I immediately started crying when I saw her walk up the aisle to speak.  I just couldn't believe I was in the same room as her.  She just has that effect, you know?

You're probably really wondering who she is by now if you haven't already taken off and googled her name.  Immaculee is not only a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, she is an example of love, faithfulness and forgiveness.  She is a Catholic who turned to God, the rosary, and prayer to survive in a bathroom for 91 days with 7 other women who were being hidden from those that were killing all the people of their tribe.  Her story is in every sense of the word incredible.  More than just her story of survival, was her unfolding story of finding herself, God, and forgiveness. 

There were so many things I learned from hearing her speak that I could literally write for days.  But I guess the one thing that's made an imprint on me forever is the quote she kept saying......just 'do your part' and God will take care of the rest.  That is so true.  We forget sometimes that we're not the ones with total control of our lives.  Sure, we control a lot of it because we have free will, but ultimately God is in control.  After living through such a tragic experience, one of her friends told her she should write a book about her story.  She said she wasn't a writer and decided not to.  Her friend kept begging her to write and she prayed about it and then just decided to 'do her part' and God would help her finish.  She knew nothing about the writing process, but finished the 'book' in a few weeks, writing, as she said, like she was just telling a friend her story.  After many more steps in the process her book was finally on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, the one thing she said she would never believe until she saw it.

I have read 2 of Immaculee's books and they rank up there as some of the best books I've ever read.  Whether you're religious or not, Catholic or not, it doesn't matter.  The story she tells is universally remarkable.  These are the two I have read:

She has a few more that I can't wait to read.  

Immaculee is incredibly inspiring.  To find out more about her and to read her full story, go to her website.  You won't be disappointed.  And remember:

Do your part.

http://www.immaculee.com/index.php/immaculees-story

Out my window

                                        

 

Yes, it's snowing.  Jude's first snow!  At least it waited until after Halloween to grace us with its presence. Unlike that one year when we took our engagement pics in the middle of October with a nice coat of white on the ground.  Annoying.  But today I'm not annoyed.  You know what this means?  I have full permission to listen to Christmas music.  And yes, that's exactly what I'm doing right now......with a warm cup of coffee in my hand and slippers on my feet.  

So what does Jude think of snow?  Well, I think he already has the right idea....that's my boy!

But it didn't last for long.  He woke up which gave me the perfect chance to show off his new bib.  Isn't it cute?  I got the idea from pinterest.   I like it because it's functional and sentimental.  I used one of Grandma Helen's sweatshirts to make it.  I made a few others, too, because they were so easy!  I'm sure if she were here she'd love them.  Thanks GG!

Ok, so you wouldn't believe how much stuff we've been up to lately.  When I get the time I'll have to let you all know about our trip to St. Louis, Halloween, and pretty much everything in between!