Some roller-coasters aren't that fun...

June has been quite the emotional roller-coaster for us! In May, Jon was approached about a possible promotion opportunity in Salt Lake City. He interviewed during the first week of June and received an offer. We wrestled with the decision for quite some time. Jon and I discussed, prayed, asked advice, and finally came to the decision that he should take the position. So I am happy to announce that Jon will be the next Operations Manager for Ferguson Salt Lake City, which is a HUGE branch out west. It is a great honor, and I, along with our extended family, am very proud of him. We will be moving during the last week in August, so that he can begin work the day after Labor day. Ferguson will do all of the moving and packing for us, which is wonderful!
Speaking of packing, I am actually taking a break from that right now. We are heading up for our annual summer visit. All four of us are driving up to Smith Mountain Lake. Jon gets to stay for a whole week before flying home to work some more. The kids and I will stay on at Nana and Papa's for two more weeks before Jon flies back into Richmond. We will be heading to Williamsburg to Grandma and Grandad's before proceeding to the outerbanks for a Schumacher family beach week. This year, we will be staying at the new home of Jon's sister Wendy and brother-in-law Geoff, who recently purchased a vacation home in Duck. We are very excited about our vacation!!! We were almost afraid it wasn't going to happen.
Brighton has been sick for a couple of weeks. Without getting into too many details, her little stomach was very messed up. We took her to the doctor after a few days of not getting better. Her pediatrician sent her to a Pediatric Gastorentolgist on the southshore for more tests. He at once, suspected C-diff (a superbug that people get following a course of antibiotics). However, she tested negative for the C-diff toxin. After many many phone calls to the doctor, many sleepless nights, and hours of prayer, I am happy to say that our little girl seems to be getting better. She has been taking a probiotic, and the doctors seem to think that her body was lacking good bacteria causing inflammation in the colon. Thank you so much for all of the prayers. She has truly been wrapped in prayer, and it's so amazing to know that so many people have been praying for her--even people we've never met!
I have posted the only pictures that we really took in June. During the middle of the month, the kids and I participated in Vacation Bible School at our church. It was sad to think of this as our last one in Louisiana and with our church family. We have truly been blessed at Faith Presbyterian Church, and VBS was another huge blessing for the kids and me. I was given the opportunity to do some acting. I played Mary, and each day I was able to teach the children the lesson for the day by telling stories about Jesus and interacting with my neighbor in Nazareth, Eugene (aka Charles). It was a lot of work, but it was very rewarding. Brighton spend the mornings with her best friend, and favorite 84 year old, May May. She was able to participate in a few of the activities, but May May kept her and a couple other two-year-olds plenty busy. Will loved VBS! He learned so much, and he never gave away that Mary was actually his Mommy except once ;) On Thursday during the week, Ms. Pam had a reptile expert come to the church to show the kids turtles and snakes. Will and Brighton both got to join in on that fun. Will had some mixed emotions and seemed more scared of the turtles than the huge snake! This month has been full of ups and downs for sure, and we are sooooo ready to take a vacation!!!

Brighton LOVES her May May!

Brighton walked right up to the turtles to try and feed them. Will was more hesitant, so my friend, Nikki helped him find some courage.

But when the big ones came out, he was back in Nikki's arms!

The kids got to see how long an anaconda is by lying next to a real anaconda skin...gross!

Ms. Pam (children's ministry director) helped Will pet the python--I couldn't go near it!

Mary and Eugene (me and Charles) stayed very busy rehearsing and teaching the kids. In the next picture are some of my favorite church people, Flora Neff, and Frank and Lynn Fury. Charles Macgowan is in the background too.

There was a program for parents on the final day of VBS. I didn't get the best pictures since I was hiding in my Mary costume at the back of the church.

It was a very rewarding week, and we had a great time with our church family!

The Schus hit the beach!

For Memorial Day weekend, I convinced Jon that we needed to take a vacation with just the four of us to one of the gulf coast beaches. Other than a day trip to Biloxi, we had never been to a beach nearby. Last year, we didn't try to go because of the oil spill, and the previous year, it just seemed too difficult with our little ones. But this year we packed up and headed to Orange Beach, Alabama. Orange beach is very close to the Florida border, so it took about three hours to get there. It was an absolutely beautiful beach. The first day we just found public beach access, and settled in for the day, but the second day we found the State Park where there is miles of untouched beautiful sand and surf. It was such a relaxing time, and the kids have been asking to go to the beach every day since. :)

Brighton and Will played in the sand quite a bit. Brighton played in the water a little while we had to force Will out of the ocean for a break. Brighton had fun pouring water on herself as evidenced in the next series of photos I like to call "Brighton Rae: Beach Beauty and sandy bologna sandwich eater."

Splashface and Buckethead had a great time at the beach...and so did their parents!

Goals and Gators

This month, we have kept busy with a flury of activities, and now that June has begun, we are getting even busier. So I decided to take this afternoon and blog our goings on from May. Will finished his soccer season at the beginning of the month. He seemed to improve from the first of the season, and I think he learned some things about teamwork and not being a sore loser, although we have to remind him of these lessons occasionally ;). Both Brighton and Will took swimming lessons this month, and they did very well. They are both swimming like little fish, but I still keep their life jackets on in the pool because I inherited my Dad's David Hasslehoff-water-safety gene. I had a wonderful Mother's Day where I was waited on by my husband and sung to by my kiddos. Jon bought me a watch and the kids bought me flowers and made cards. We also got outside as much as possible this month. Besides going to the pool, we took a few hikes through the swamp to encounter as much of Louisiana's wildlife as possible (at a safe distance, of course.)

He may not have been the best player on the field, but at times, he was certainly the happiest!

Will was so happy to get another medal!

We are so proud of you, Will!!!

After soccer ended, the kids took swimming lessons together. Jon took this picture after their first lesson. You can imagine how tired the teacher must've been! They actually did very with the last few lessons. They are crazy about the water, so we go to the pool at least twice a week now.

This was our Mother's Day celebration at church. The kids sang "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho" and "When the Saints Go Marching In." Brighton was old enough to participate this year, and both she and Will did a very good job singing. I was a proud Mommy!

One Saturday afternoon, we headed to one of our favorite spots...Fontainebleu State Park.

It takes a little while to get to the wetlands because we move at Brighton's pace.

Will spots something!!!

Look closely, and you can see a little alligator. It was probably about three feet long and while we were there it slowly swam closer and closer to us and then CHOMPED down on an unsuspecting blue crab. Very cool!

This is Will's reenactment of the alligator eating the crab. (He's also wearing his alligator shirt, which he chose in the hopes that it would lure a a gator to us.)

On a different Sunday afternoon, we went to a swamp we had never been to before. This one had hiking paths that were much more narrow. We had heard that to hike the entire trail would be about five miles, so we decided to break out the double jogging stroller that we haven't used in quite a while. At one point, as Jon was trying to maneuver over a fallen tree, he fell and took the stoller with him. Other than some scratches on Jon, no one was hurt, but we were left carrying two shaken up little ones AND pushing an empty stroller for the rest of the hike! We still managed to get a few good pictures.

Cute baby gator--this one was not much bigger than a hatchling.
There's always something interesting to be seen in the swamp!