James Benedict

Some of you who have been a clockster blog follower for a while might say..."hmmm...James Benedict....sounds familiar." Well, 3 years ago I delivered James Benedict (lovingly known as JB) while I was interning at a clinic in the Philippines. I visited him and his mom several times in their home, and they became very special to me. His mom, Eljoy, even asked me to be his godmother.

Since I left the Philippines, I have not had any contact with Eljoy, except that another midwife told me she was coming for prenatals with her second baby. There was no way to get in contact with her, as she lived in a small home up in the hills with no street address.

Well, somehow, some way, she recently got my email address and emailed me from a friend's computer. She sent this new picture of JB and his little sister. Hearing from her and seeing little JB made my week...no, it made my whole month. I am praying that she continues to be able to correspond with me over that email address. This makes my desire to go back even stronger!

Paynes Prairie State Park

This past weekend, we went to Payne's Prairie. We heard it was a good place to see Alligators, and so of course we had to try it out. We went on a couple of hikes and had an excellent day.

Here are Jon and Nick up on the lookout -- looking for wild horses. Little did we know, we'd get awfully close to the horses on our way back to the car.

On the second hike we saw a couple of alligators. Okay, we saw TONS of alligators. HUGE alligators. The biggest ones we've seen yet. And this is the closest we've ever been to them. It was a little scary at times.

Nick and his new pal, Al.

Of course, there were also wonderful birds. The music was amazing.

Check out this busy mama!

Cocoa Beach - The day after Christmas

Christmas

This Christmas, we all got stockings. You'll notice 5 stockings hanging from the door frame. That is because there are currently 5 family members: Jon, myself, Nick (jon's brother), Atticus and Fallujah. Now, I know there are some of you who want to puke at the fact that my cats have stockings - but keep your comments to yourselves. I love my cats.


Nick opens his stocking to find large cloves of garlic. Notice the joy on his face.
Jon opens his stocking to find a doorbell -- that he gave to himself.


Jon and I received coupons from Nick that we can redeem at any time to get him out of the house.
Here is Nick opening a present that his mom sent down. I think it is a package of undershirts.


The cats were each given a toy in their stocking to share. The bright blue and pink feathery boa thing was definately the cooler present. The other was a plain brown mouse.


Fallujah going wild over the boa....and then curling up for an afternoon nap...all worn out!

We had a great Christmas. Thank you to Mom and Dad Ippel for the packages full of goodies, and Mom and Dad Stelpstra for the calendars and clothes shopping spree.

We missed you all!

At the big mall

These are the two wonderful teenagers (Brendan and Brianna) I used to spend time with and tutor. I stopped this past fall, and went about 3 months without seeing them. But I called them up the other day to see if they wanted to go to the "big mall" and they were stoked. Actually, Brenden usually doesn't like the mall, but when I mentioned "lunch" he was in. They are funny because they know exactly what stores they want to go to in the exact order they want to go to them - the bookstore, then the toy store, then the candy store, then the Japanese characters store.... We criss-crossed that huge mall so many times, I was worn out at the end of the day! Anyhow, a lot of you have heard stories about this notorious pair, so I thought I'd give you an update. Notice the pink bandanna is STILL an accessory.

HALF MARATHON

So this is us...after we ran our half marathon. It was Jon's and my first race. Nick (in Orange) ran one a few weeks beforehand, and Tim (on the right) has run several. We were all pleased with the results to an extent...but all want to do better next time. The next race for Jon and me is in February in Jacksonville, which is kinda funny because while I was running (at about mile 8), I was thinking "I will NEVER do this again". Ya right. It's a little bit addictive, let me warn you. Anyhow...I encourage any of you and all of you to try one...at least once in your life. It's worth it.

An Ode

Jon was just recently promoted and is now the SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT MANAGER for the City of Orlando. Congratulations Jonny! So, in honor of him and all things green, try to reuse, recycle, and yes...even regift this holiday season!

Unplug those lights at night, folks! Save the wrapping paper. Recycle the cardboard from all the toy boxes. Consider giving canvas grocery bags to your friends. Buy fair trade and sustainable products if you can. The environment thanks you - and I believe the Creator does too!

We are thrilled about Jon's new position - he has been looking forward to this for a while. It will be a great career boost for him, as well as an excellent learning experience. He'll be challenged and busy...but best of all, working on what he is passionate about!

I'm so proud to have such an awesome husband!

ICE

One of the big and fancy hotels here puts on an "ICE" show every winter. People from all over the world come to carve sculptures out of ice. Another teacher and I took some students. It was great fun because some of them have never really been around much ice or snow, and they were definately not used to the chilly 9 degrees F! I didn't take my camera, but my student sent me a couple pictures. Doesn't it look lovely! The last photo is the nativity scene, but she took it from the side so it's kindof hard to see - notice the sheep down in front. Actually, I wonder if that was purposefully, as she is Muslim and just recently celebrated the sacrificing of the sheep. Huh. Anyways, we had a great time. There were also ice slides, which of course we all had to try. This is as close as I'm getting to Winter this year!