Author: Luke

Good morning!
Its hard to believe its already June. There has been a lot going on- but at the same time, it feels like nothing has been going on.

It has been hard to get back to this corner of the internet to bring myself to writing about Family. It has been a hard year for a number of reasons, and out of sadness, it has been hard to write anything. It is hard to know whether it is better to process my thoughts and get them out in the open, or to hold off and not say anything at all? For now, there is much to be resolved, so sharing here would not be appropriate.

But, life here with my immediate people has been great! Taylor changed jobs after working for the Center for Creative Leadership for 7 years, and she now works at Aiir consulting- a company that does almost the same thing, for a more niche customer base.

I changed jobs the past couple weeks as well, and now work for Apple as a part of the Apple Pay team. Dreams do come true!

My mom just left on a trip to Europe where she will be for almost 2 weeks, on a trip that was planned almost 3 years ago but was delayed due to Covid. She will be in Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy.

Rosie just finished her first season of soccer, and finished out a win-less season. Now, she is looking forward to her recital this weekend, and getting some laps in as part of the swim team.

Long time no see! It has been a while, but there has been a lot going on since Rosie turned 7 on December 3rd. It has been busy, just like the rest of you- but it is very FULL of all the good things.

Christmas 2021

In the throes of the pandemic, we had another Christmas- and another, and another, and another… I say that tongue-in-cheek, but each year is a little different now than the year before, and with it, come different needs and joys. It was just last year that Mercy was a tiny 3 month old baby that could be taken anywhere and she would just fall asleep. This year, she is a walking and a talking (in her baby language) everywhere. And the year before that, in 2019, we were a family of 3!

This year, we had a marathon of some Christmases, and learned a few lessons along the way. Our celebrations included Christmas at the Register’s house on Wednesday the 22nd, my mom’s house (also known as Cici) on Thursday the 23rd, followed by Grandma Becky’s house on the 24th, and finally our own house on the 25th. Four Christmases in four days is a lot, and we learned never to do that much again. It was great, just tiring with Mercy able to walk around, Rosie being bright and full of energy, and the need to be a good guest for all of our awesome families. Here are some highlights of those days:

Washington

This was awesome. Taylor’s work closes between Christmas and New Year’s, and I had a stroke of good luck as well: our company is merging with another company, and my manager called a few weeks ago and let me know that I had too many vacation days to roll over to the new year, so I had to use some of them, so I took those days off as well. We looked around at some options: Atlanta, Asheville, etc, and decided a trip to DC would be awesome, because the smithsonians were free, it would be an inexpensive trip, right? Well, it wasnt inexpensive, but it was totally worth it.

A few lessons were learned:

• Smithsonians close on the slow days, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These were also the days we were there.
• The Omicron variant of Covid spreads easily, and Smithsonian employees are also subject to quarantine days. Which meant, without employees, many museums were shut down.
• When one of the popular museums is shut down, the tourists flock to the museums that are still open, and the lines to get in stretch over 1 hour.

So, we worked around that hour long wait the way anyone would: While taylor was waiting in line (with Mercy sleeping in the stroller), Rosie and I went next door to the museum of art (where there was no line), and had a blast. Ok ok, my compassion isnt the greatest with that move, but it worked. The trip was awesome, and we were all exhausted at the end, but not grumpy with each other. Highly recommend.

This was an awesome weekend- and exhausting. Taylor does such a great job of helping Rosie feel loved. Even though the work has to be put in during the (late) hours of 9 pm after Rosie is settled in bed, Taylor knew it was worthwhile to create a scavenger hunt for Rosie when Rosie woke up on her birthday. So we did, and here is the video:

Friday night (Rosie’s actual birthday), she got to do a sleepover with her cousin Anna Grace. I drove and met Anna’s dad, Matt, about halfway to Raleigh, and picked up Anna grace at around 4:30, and by the time the doors were closed, those girls were going 90 miles an hour. They were both wound up and ready to go. THe cool thing is, when we went to the “lighting of the Christmas tree” downtown, the two girls ended up getting their picture taken, and were in the local newspaper- FRONT PAGE!.

We celebrated Rosie with a birthday party for friends on Saturday night- and it was wild. In my selfish kind of way, that kind of situation was my worst nightmare- 12 screaming 7 year old girls.

This was her first birthday where it was all girls- and when I offered to her, she did ask that I make myself a stranger during the party (and stay inside). So, I happily obliged while watching some of the season closing games in college football that night. App state lost.

Here is a funny video Taylor took, to put it in context. This is Mercy, just having a great old time eating a little bit of pizza, while all the craziness unfolds around her:

And here are a few other pics of the weekend

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It was a little sad too- Saturday was my uncle’s funeral. Uncle Gordy- my dad’s older brother- passed away earlier this year, and his funeral was on Saturday. I was pretty torn not being able to go, but with Grammy passing away earlier this year, going to visit Grandma Sue, and Rosie’s birthday this weekend, it just didnt seem like I could make it work to head to PA for this event. I was able to stream the funeral though, and everyone did an excellent job reading, and sharing about Gordy’s life.

Why there?

Way back in March of this year, the pandemic seemed to be letting up. There were rumors of “Life going back to normal” and things seemed to be opening up.

Taylor and I were feeling bored. After the rush of being pregnant with Mercy, the pandemic, having the baby, and getting through the holidays of 2020, things seemed slow around March.

Brian Maness was with me at Tumblebees around that time, and shared with me about their upcoming trip to Charleston, and that got me thinking- we need a trip to look forward to. That very night, I went home and looked up some destinations: Washington DC, Charleston, Wilmington, where could we go?

Taylor had the idea of going on a big trip, and asked my thoughts on having some friends join us, and since no one in the world had plans that far out due to the pandemic, we picked a date that worked from some friends.

And because looking at destinations is overwhelming, our friend Julie Cook helped us decide on a destination, and recommended Secrets Maroma Beach.

Some highlights

• Houston. Had caramel apples as his carry on on the flight to the beach.
• Sarah. Was able to plan childcare for the whole week the day before the trip when she learned that her own parents had covid. AND, Sarah’s visit to the “Rock Show”.
• Chad. Was very good at making friends at the pool. And very good at supporting Rachel.
• Rachel. Really enjoyed the sand. And rolling in said sand.
• Taylor. We have used the phrase “Mexico Taylor” to capture ALL of the fun we experienced on the trip.

Why so special

Back in Kindergarten at Irving Park, Houston and I may have been in the same class. We were however, in the same small group with Jimmy Renslow from 6th grade until we graduated, meeting every Tuesday.

Taylor was friends with us from 11th grade on, after we became christians, growing and striving together.

That small group I mentioned? Rachel was the younger sister of my friend that hosted the group.

Chad was a year behind us in college, but virtually lived with us his freshman year. He moved in his sophomore year.

Houston met Sarah in grad school. And Chad and Rachel got serious right after college.

That history is just a 25 year web of relationships and inside stories, all built on solid faith- through divorces, college, weddings, children, proms, graduations, girlfriends, jobs, houses, and a whole bunch of other junk in life.

We all live in the same town, but for whatever reason, it is near impossible to get us all in the same place at the same time between work, and keeping all of our kids without something contagious that would jeopardize a backyard hangout, for example. So this trip was something special.

what did you do?

Honestly, not much. We ate and drank a lot. Side note: on our last trip to Mexico, in the pictures it looked like I had a bit of a belly, and Taylor was looking GREAT! And since pictures are so long lasting, I didnt want to have pictures where I thought my stomach was too big- so I slowly lost a few pounds over 6 months- 12 pounds total. And, I gained 8 back that week 🙂

We just sat by the pool, sat by the beach, sat in the pool, ate by the beach, and basically mixed up variations of this over and over through the week. In the evenings, the resort had a few shows (see clip below). We went to dinner together around 6 each night if everyone was up for it, and had marriage time. Played beach volleyball. Taylor and I had a massage. Basically, we just enjoyed life without being parents for the week, and I forgot how nice it was to connect with people like that.

Alright, here are some pics of the week:

I have never seen so many kids trick or treating! Perhaps this seemed so shocking on the heels of covid, but building on the success of having the roads shut down to help facilitate trick or treating for our neighborhood, the road was packed!

We had a lot of fun meeting up with some neighbors, and having Zippy, Aunt Mallory, and my mom join us as we had dinner with the Swarengen’s before trick or treating. Here are some pics:

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At the last minute, we got the chance to come down to Ocean Isle Beach for the weekend, and it has been great. The weather was beautiful, and we got to sit out on the sand and play in the water- the week before Halloween even!

Mercy and Rosie played so well together. They are such different kids- but NO ONE makes Mercy smile like her big sister does. They played on the sand and just laughed, and got along so well. It was a great weekend, and their relationship just brings me so much joy.

Honestly, there isnt much new to post this week. We are just excited about going to Mexico in 12 days, and trying to lock ourselves down so no one tests positive for Coronavirus, and derails our trip.

Here are some fun pics of the weekend:

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The past few weeks have been busy with good things.

• Mercy is closer to walking
• Taylor did a retreat last night
• went to Waco, TX to see Grandma Sue
• Looking forward to Mexico in less than 2 weeks

Mercy is (almost) walking

Its wild how two siblings can be so incredibly different. Rosie, at 1 year old, was all smiles and excited about people. Some could argue that she still is that way. Mercy is a bit more reserved. If you are not mom, dad, or her sister- she might have an eye of suspicion about you until she warms up.
She is almost 13 months, and just this week started walking with her toy walker. (Rosie was walking at about 11 months?). Here is a quick video from yesterday, she is so proud of herself!

Visit to Grandma Sue’s house

Grandma Sue has always been healthy. She grew up in the countryside, has always been active, and never had many health issues (at least, no health issues I have been made aware of).
Almost three years ago she moved to Texas after her third husband died. She was living in Myrtle Beach at the time, and decided that she didn’t have any reason to stay there, so she looked at her options: Move to Greensboro to be closer to our family, move to MO to be closer with Sherry, or move to Waco to be closer to Margie. She opted for the third choice since Margie is a hospice nurse, and now that Grandma Sue is 88, that kinda of thing is important.
Earlier this year, Grandma Sue had a big fall. It wasn’t noticed until Sherry called her one morning, and did not get a response from her usual daily check-ins. So, Sherry reached out to Margie, and told her something wasn’t right, she needed to go check on Grandma. Margie rushed over, and saw the most horrible site: Grandma slipped in the bathroom, hit her head, and there was blood everywhere. In the fall, she also suffered from a broken femur.
The past several months have been in rehab, learning to walk and manage around the house again.
After getting mostly better from that incident, she had a stroke that affected the right side of her body, and this is where I stepped up to make the trip to visit her. Not sure of what to expect, I found her fully capable and in great spirits.
My job at Levvel is remote, so I found a direct flight from Greensboro, and visited from lunchtime on Monday until lunchtime on Thursday.
During the trip, my mom had the idea to get a video of Grandma Sue sharing some of her life story. So I did: I prepared by buying a cheap tripod for my phone, and found a set of questions from a website that is all about this kind of thing. I am not a great film maker, and the video starts and stops at the wrong places, but here is the final result:

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What else?

Also, I passed my AWS certificate. This is a useful certificate stating that I know how to build web applications using Amazon’s web services (or, the Amazon cloud).

Taylor stayed the night st St. Francis retreat last night and is taking the day off of work today to do a personal retreat (along with a few ladies from her Bible study at work).

In less than 3 weeks, Taylor and I will be going to Mexico! We are beyond excited, as this will be our longest trip since our honeymoon. This is our delayed, 10 year anniversary trip- because our real 10 year anniversary trip was less than ideal: it was in the midst of a Covid lockdown, Taylor was VERY pregnant with Mercy, and we went to Blowing Rock for only 2 days.

We will be going to Mexico with two other couples- my best friends and their wives, who Taylor sees regularly.

Mercy turns 1.

Its hard to believe its been a year. And as Mercy gets older, it is so evident to see how much different she is than Rosie. One example was their 1 year checkup at their pediatrician (they both go to the same pediatrician).
When Rosie went to her 1 year checkup, she was an ideal patient- all smiles, happy to see the doctor, and waited patiently on my lap in the waiting room. When the doctor came in, Rosie was all smiles- until he brought the needle out for her shots, to which she DID have this in common with Mercy- she only cried for a brief minute.
When Mercy goes to see the doctor for her 1 year checkup, she was not content to sit on Mom’s lap- she wanted to tear up the paper coating the exam table. Then, when the doctor approached with the stethoscope- she batted it away. Again, not sure how to read the tea leaves here about what this will mean as they get older, but they sure are different, and man I love them both.

Mercy Highlights.

One of my favorite things about Mercy is this: her response to worship music in church. Ever since she was REAL small, and we were allowed to get back into church as a congregation and worship together, Mercy has REALLY responded to the music. I love to hold her during these times- and she wiggles her legs, tries to sing along- and she just gets happy in a way she rarely does.

She loves her older sister. I know this blog is filled with that statement, but it is a source of great joy to see how she follows her sister with her eyes wherever she goes. My favorite thing is when they are in the backseat together, and I can look in the rearview mirror and see Mercy’s eyes as she is staring at her older sister- and giggling.

Birthday

One thing I love about Taylor is how she is content with who she is. She had a simple party for Mercy- without any undue stress of trying to have things a certain way to be insta-perfect. No, we just had a simple party with family to honor our girl. No need to get crazy with decorations. And it was sweet. Mercy- in true form- didnt smile hardly once through the whole night.
The party was filled with her favorite things- her sister, balloons, pizza- and thats about it.
Here are some pics of the night:

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Because I am a nerd, here is a time-lapse video of getting a few of the leaves up before the party. We have several large oaks, so getting the leaves during this season is a weekly process if you want to stay ahead of it. r

Thats it for now. Currently I am at the airport in Greensboro flying out to see Grandma Sue for a few days as she recovers from her stroke last month.