Annika Joy

We had our 18 week checkup on the 15th of October, and learned that our wee one was of the lady-type! Annika Joy is the name we've decided on, pronounced Ah-nika, (not like Anakin Skywalker). Annika is the Swedish form of Hannah (my mom's first name) and Joy is all over the family, Keith's grandmother, sister, and my mom's middle name. They've all turned out to be quite joyous people and we hope that for our little bundle too!

She has been rather active in the last few weeks, especially while I'm at school, trying to concentrate in class, but its all a good sign that she is healthy!! The excitement is really setting in now and Keith can't wait to meet her, although he says he needs to purchase a few small firearms to keep away the boys.

Keith is in the Chinook course and doing well. We had family day on Friday; the short notice and minimal activities allowed only our adopted Uncle William (Griffin) and I to come. It was fun seeing those massive helicopters actually fly around! We camped last night at Uncle Will's farm and kept a nice fire going well into the night, then again in the chilly early morning while we had breakfast and read parts of the Laura Ingalls Wilder book, These Happy Golden Years.

We are headed to the dogs' favorite place in the world this weekend, Mamaw and Papaw's house (Keith's grandparents) down on the Mississippi coast. We'll be spending Thanksgiving in Atlanta and Christmas in Pell City.

Hopefully we'll get some real sweater weather soon, although these mild and sunny days feel great too (like summer in Vermont!).
~B

Check-up #2

I went for the 2nd prenatal appointment this past Wednesday. Not much, just a weigh in and a review of the last appointment's blood work and another chance to hear that ridiculously fast sounding heartbeat (which is apparently normal). The wee one should be around 3 1/2 inches long now and growing rapidly. I've yet to notice much growth myself, but Mom says I won't be so excited when I do, so not to be at all anxious about it. Our big appointment, the one where we will hopefully be able to name our kiddo, is on Oct 15. We are looking forward to knowing ahead of time and calling HeSheIt by some other name than HeSheIt.

We spent our afternoon with Mr Chick Griffen, our great friend and also a somewhat retired cattle farmer. Keith was able to help him get some things done to get the calves ready to sell this week, and we always enjoy our time with him. Its beginning to fell a lot less like summer.... but I've been warned not to become too excited about the cooler afternoons (in the shade).
~B

Middle Georgia Tour

This weekend (Sept. 8,9) we toured the excitement packed roads of middle Georgia; the home town of Jimmy Carter, the site Lindberg's first solo flight, and the Southside Baptist Church Freedom Fest concert featuring Starfield and Chris Tomlin. The first stop on our tour was the boyhood farmstead of Jimmy Carter. I recently read President Carter's book "An hour before daylight" which describes his life in the rural south during the great depression so this was a bit a treat for me to see the places described. The site has been restored to the way it was in 1928 when the Carter's arrived. The windmill works and pumps water into a wooden reservoir about 35 feet above the ground. You can turn on the faucet to get splash if you like. We saw the grounds keeper cutting collards from the family garden which is back in its' original spot. He was only cutting these for a school group talk, but said that the Carter's do know when things are coming into season and have first dibs on the produce. The house was smaller by todays standards but quite nice for its' day.

Our next stop was the town of Plains. The Carter compound is on the left just before the town. The title would lead one to believe that it is a grand and imposing place, with lots of grounds to put space in between the house and the outside world but that is far from the case. The house is a very modest dwelling for an ex-President, built with a stone exterior with probably no more that 2500 sq ft. maybe 100 ft. from the main hwy through town. The only thing to let you know it's special is the fence and guard shack at the end of the drive way. The town of plains itself seems to exist for the grain elevator (peanut elevators?) and Jimmy Carter/politically themed trinket and book shops. The peanut butter ice cream is good eats! There is also a shortline railroad that runs from Cordele to Archery (the abandoned town where the Carter farmstead was located).

After wiping the ice cream from our faces and prying our selves from the rather talkative cashier at the most westerly tourist trap in Plains we traveled on the Andersonville trail stopping at the prison site and new POW memorial and museum. I had a full day outing to Andersonville during Warrant Officer Candidate School where I learned all the details that Becky so eagerly heard on our visit. Leaving Andersonville we headed to our most easterly destination, the concert. It was way cool and I got to play dad to four and six year old boys who had come to the concert with their mother while their dad was deployed to Egypt with the Air Force.

We headed west after the concert and stopped for the night in a hotel in Perry. Breakfast was a cultural event. We seemed to be the only folks in the breakfast room who were not speaking Spanish and for most of the time Becky was the only woman.

Our Saab REO Speedwagon arrive at Maranatha Baptist Church at 0810. Doors opened at 0830 for the 1000 sunday school lesson with Jimmy Carter. We were about 12thish in line. By the time it started there were about 50 visitors in attendance. The secret service rummaged through purses and such as we walked in never ceasing to adjust their earpieces, an obvious attempt to look cool which I'm sure worked with some folks just not Becky, as we walked in. We had good conversation with folks around us while we waited. The pastor of the church explained the rules; no getting up and approaching the president or the SS will eat you!, no autographs, how the picture line after the service works, this is church and we are here to worship God... not the President... or Jimmy will direct the SS to eat you! Mr. Carter walked in at the conclusion of an opening prayer by the pastor and asked his standard comical question about which the pastor had warned us to laugh at,"Do we have any visitors to day?" He went around and asked folks where they were from and then asked if there were any ministers or missionaries. He then asked a pastors wife to open us in prayer making the point that a pastors wife was an active partner in ministry. He then spoke for a moment about his week, opening new construction on the Panama Canal and teaching Sunday school at the request of one of the prime ministers relatives. Also a conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta on human rights. That was the point at which he made his only pointed political statement that Americas leaders have abandoned our country's leadership in the world on the issue of human rights citing torture and the prisoners held at Guantanamo without accusation or trial.

The lesson was on the latter portion of Genesis 1 starting with verse 26. This was a treat for me because Mr. Carter has always been an environmentalist and put forth a strong case for Christian stewardship of the earth. He also addressed the use of plural pronouns referencing God and tied it to the John 1 also using the subject to segway into a brief explanation of the gospel message of slavation. He also put forth his belief as a Christian and as a scientist that religion and science need not contradict but be understood as what they are respectively and that no scientific discovery should shake our faith but merely add to the mystery and intrigue of the creator. When he went on about our expanding understanding about the dimensions of our huge rapidly expanding universe Mrs. Carter piped in from her left side pew "But God still made it all!" He then asked her if she would like to teach. Everyone laughed, she declined, and he went on. The service was very traditional. It included a children's sermon where all the kids came to the front and the preacher told them a story and asked questions to which he got some rather adorable answers. Mr. Carter did a lot of smiling and laughing. After the service we exited out the back and lined up for pictures with the Carters. Everyone had been told ahead of time that this was not chat it up about politics time so exchanges were mostly limited to hello, how are you. We got our picture and took off. We stopped at Mom's Restaurant down the street where most of the visitors ate and the Carters occasionally visit. It was packed and there was no sign of the Carters. We went west, stopped at another soul food buffet, headed to Enterprise and grabbed our dogs, came to the house, took a nap, I studied for a couple of hours, Becky napped more, returned emails, then I started writing this blog at her request.

My impression of Mr. Carter is based on what I feel to be fair open minded grounds. Mr. Carter did not take lightly his Sunday school lesson and did not come unprepared. He did speak with recall of vocabulary that only hope to one day possess. His political remarks could make him be perceived as an old man who is using his small bully pulpit to spout off at the mouth to a few willing listeners every week. This is not at all the impression that I got. I am sure that the right sensationalist writer could make most people sound as evil as they wish. For some reason Americans love to tune in to hyper-partisan news anchors and talk show host on both sides of our two party culture. These people make a living by not letting the full story or the full council of reason be heard. In my opinion Mr. Carter respects the people who come to see him speak and gives them a real, studied, quality interpretation of scripture and application. He does not encourage or tolerate fan fare but gives of himself by speaking to every audience as though they were worth his time and full intellectual efforts.

~K

Dancin' from the get go!

At 9 weeks 4 days (approximately) Aug. 16 Little baby phil made his/her first appearance shakin' what his/her momma (and daddy for that matter) gave him/her.
~K

We learned of this exciting change in our lives on July 22, although we'd been praying for such a change for a few months. So far (now 13 weeks along) all has gone quite smooth, very little sickness, although I've been rather tired. I told Keith today that its probably just fine that I sleep a lot now, considering that will all change dramatically in a few months! We are very excited to see what God is going to do in our lives and in the life of this miracle that He is currently knitting together (He's a lot like me with knitting, it takes me at least 9 months to get any project done!) .

Our first prenatal appointment was at 9 wks, and not only was Baby dancing, but the heartbeat was strong, and it was amazing to see what God had already done in just a few weeks. It is currently a mystery where we will be when the time comes, our move should be happening anytime between the beginning of Feb to the end of March, more than likely the first week of March would be our schedule now. We'll see how it all works out, we're not yet sure where we'll be moving and how the Army will deal with a case such as ours.

We'll keep this updated better than anything, so for news concerning the happenings in the Phillips' lives, tune in here.
~B

New England Adventure

Katherine, Sam and Eden on East Rock



Hiding in the raspberries... I uh... didn't eat them all (O:


Quechee Gorge, VT




One of Keith's classic face shots at Quechee Gorge, VT

Keith and Sam out on top of East Rock at our picnic


The "Keiths" attempting to look studious at Yale


Keith had a few weeks of break from class, just as I was between summer and fall courses at Troy, and we decided to go give Grammie a visit in Sharon, Vermont. Keith, Katherine, Sam and Eden Blake, happened to be moving from Georgia to New Haven Connecticut to be full time missionaries with YWAM in New Haven, particularly with Axiom. We had planned originally to take Amtrak from Atlanta to NYC, then a local train to New Haven to visit the Blakes, then rent a car to get to Vermont. It worked out that they were actually moving the same day we were planning to leave, and it only made sense that we rode with them (they were in their car and a moving truck) and we helped them move in when we arrived.

Our stay in Connecticut was brief but fun! We spent a day exploring the downtown area and seeing Yale and all the other interesting things New Haven has to offer. Keith's favorite was all the cool restaurants that were full of culture and walkable from the Blake's new house. We left a few days later, and actually took their little Honda Fit to Vermont rather than renting. I tried to insist that it was unnecessary, but they don't need it too much because everything is walkable from their house.

We set out for Vermont and spent most of our days lounging around Broad Brook, cooking for Grammie, working in her beautiful garden, and taking long walks up and down Broad Brook. Keith had visited and was impressed with the area back in December, but was even more excited to see how beautiful it was in the summer! We were able to visit with a few of the Amsden siblings and a few cousins, as well as my dad's sister and her husband in Hartland. It was an extremely relaxing trip, and addicting, therefore going home wasn't easy.

We drove back to New Haven to deposit the car and say goodbye to our wonderful friends, then hopped on a train to NYC. We had about two hours to get from Grand Central to Penn Station, which is where the Amtrak left from, and brave Becky decided that it was walkable, It was only a few squares on the subway map after all! So an hour later and shoulders sagging with the weight of our bags, we made it into Penn, sat and had lunch, then got on the train to head home.

Amtrak was new to both of us, and both our first impressions were very good. Compared to all those transatlantic flights cramped in little bity seats with too much noise, the spacious economy seats that reclined almost into a bed seemed heavenly. Keith enjoyed all 18 hours of the ride, while I shifted and wiggled all night long never quite finding a comfortable spot (which... in the next blog, I may explain why). It would have been about $200 more for a sleeper car, and that defied the point of making it an economically transportation choice. All in all, it was a good experience, until we arrived in Atlanta, expecting to be very near a Marta station (right? Trains go in the same places, why would'nt there be a connection between Marta and Amtrak) and being that we arrived at 8:00 am I didn't want my mom to try to drive into the city to a place she wasn't familiar with, at 8 am!

Unfortunately there were no Marta trains nearby, and only buses with drivers who didn't understand how to get to the Marta trains. On a hunch, I called my dear brother Adam, if for no other reason than he understands Atlanta and could point us in the right direction. Ironically, he was less than a block from where I stood, on his way to work, which was a building within my line of sight. He picked us up and drove us to the closet station, where I thanked him and hugged him and hopped on a train to the finally point of the journey where Mom would be picking us up.

Good times.
~B

The Return of the Jill

Jill "STAND GUARD" on the entrance to our neighborhood, and her proud trainer.

After a month or so of missing the little pup that we'd grown so accustomed to having around, circumstances changed in a few ways (new home and ours), and somehow, I agreed to having two dogs. Jill was returned to us and is now a permanent member of our family. Santiago was probably the happiest when she got back, and they now live and play like the bestest pals in the world.

Her breed is still in question because we aren't certain that she is 100% pit bull. She is still pretty small for a pit, and most think she's a lab, but that would only make her bigger. She does resemble some pictures of pits, but she also resembles a Patterdale Terrior in many features as well, particularly in skills and mannerisms. Thats probably what we'll call her in public, but it is mostly a cover!


Puppies love!

Memorial Day with Great Friends

We spent our Memorial Day weekend first in Lithia Springs for Danielle's graduation (congrats Danielle - sorry about the phone calls.... it was the BOYS, I promise!) then we met our friends we knew in Germany, the Kelly's at their church in the Huntsville area. John Kelly was in Iraq with Keith and they went to a Bible study on the roof a building together there. I met them when I came to Germany just after Heather was overcoming thyroid cancer. They have 5 awesome sons, awesome with a hint of wild, Ian (17), Sheamus (14), KJ (12), Decklan (7), and Aiden (6). We spent a lot of time with them in Germany, and are excited to be close enough to visit with them now. We went for a Geo Cache on Monday, romping through the woods on a quest for a buried treasure. We piled into the Kelly's suburban (only a little illegally) with the dog, and had a great time wearing ourselves out. We did find the treasure, and had a blast doing it. Here are a few of the pics from our days with them.

Jill the Pet Bull Frog

She's not really a bull frog.... just a pet bull + frog. If you could see her frolicking through the pond, you would understand completely!

Jill arrived at our house one Thursday evening just before I (B) got home from class or somewhere, and Keith had put her in the house and rushed out to Bible study. Needless to say, I was surprised at this thing in the house when I got home. She looked a lot more like a pot-belly pig when I first took her to the bathroom, she was very bloated and mangy. She seemed very timid and scared for the first few days. She was found in the Enterprise area by a neighbors' relative who knows Keith volunteers at the local shelter. It was too late to take her that night, so we had to wait it out until morning.

Keith swore she was a pit bull from the beginning, but the rest of us (the Somerset crowd) agreed she looked more choco labish. The next morning, as soon as they were open, I took her to the shelter, and low and behold, there was no room in the inn. We didn't know exactly what to do, so we planned to go to the vet to have the mange checked out and figure out the rest from there.

Keith was working of course, so these responsibilities fell to me! I was anxious to get her to the vet, fearful that we'd all caught scabies already, or fleas or whatever. We arrived at the closest farm vet, which was crowded, busy, smelly and full of annoyed clients. The little booger and I were equally nervous, she just did all the crying. She was so scared, and I felt bad for her, but I was still afraid to touch her too much. It was clear she needed to be cuddled though. As soon as the vet took a glance and gave me hope that it wasn't scabies, we stuck really close together, both trembling a bit, and stood in that little bitty cell of a room waiting for the rest of the story on this pup. We had a moment....


The rest could get long, but basically, the shelter doesn't take pit bulls (ridiculous American fear of one of the best dogs out there - ANY DOG can be trained to fight... pit bulls will fight well when trained to... but will more likely be very obedient when trained to be!) and we had to find a family for her ourselves. We named her once we were convinced of her being a pit, Jill (a descendant of Laura Ingalls' brindle bulldog Jack.) She took to the name quickly. A friend of mine in the Atlanta area found out about her, met her briefly and will be adopting her into their family this weekend. We've had Jill since early March, and it will be difficult to say goodbye to her, particularly for Santiago. The two have been the best play mates in the past few months, he has taken to her better than any other dog we've seen.

Jill has learned to sit, stay, lay, jump, "go get it", "walk with me" without the leash, "go to bed", and many other commands in this short time. She is very eager to please and has done well at pleasing us! We hope she will as much of a joy to her future family as she has us!

The Now

Keith - In Instrument training doing GREAT, playing electric at both services for Wings Chapel, reading up on getting a private pilot's license (thanks Ike) and buying an airplane, attending awesome men's Bible study on post, awaiting our cow for the freezer - it is hanging to age for two weeks, training Jill (the "Pet Bull" Frog - Frog being our endearing name for all dogs Santi-frogo, Bull Frog... ), fishing and visiting with Mr. Griffen, in Acts, enjoying fresh milk from friends, loving the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), wishing to be in Switzerland Becky - beginning 15 credit hour summer semester at Troy University-Dothan, reading Alton Brown's baking cookbook (like a book... not a cookbook), beating Santiago as necessary, Bible study with few girls in Enterprise, cooking for Keith and apparently Santiago(Mr. Griffen when possible), moving through Leviticus and John, brainstorming political critique novel, watching tomatoes, basil and peppers grow, watching our flowers die in the drought, wishing to be in Switzerland Sanitago - Eating everything when left alone for 3 seconds or more, getting to know a huge fire hazard in the living room called a training crate, being treated like a puppy for his incessant disobedience, wearing out his welcome with Becky, being babied by Keith, looking for a job to start contributing to the grocery bill, wishing to be in Switzerland Jill - learning to "walk-with-me" without the leash across the street, growing rapidly, giving Santiago a challenge in combat, going to bed when told, having a few potty training relapses, looking forward to her move next week to Crystal's, what is Switzerland? WE are praying for: rain, complete healing for Papaw, a family, excellence in schools, a spot to fit into ministry here.