Summer's End

Well, we made it through the entire twelve weeks of family camp! The last week was especially fun, as some friends of ours came up as guests - Pike, Andria and Nash Wisner from Dallas. It was my first experience knowing guests before their arrival, and it makes me look forward to next year, when we'll greet returning guests as friends. It's been hard to see our staff go home, since they've been the source of so much fun this summer. I've been amazed at the servanthood, leadership, and Christlikeness that we've seen in this staff - some as young as 17, and none over 25. It's the staff that makes this place special, and they've ministered to our guests in many ways.

I have a lot of great memories of this summer's staff, and this is my favorite:
For most of the summer, I worked with three lovely Tennesseeans in Kid's Club. I had a particularly rough morning one day, and I needed one of the other ladies to take the kids on a scavenger hunt for me. I asked one of them, Hannah Jo, if she would mind taking the kids on the hunt, to which she shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I don't care to." I was surprised that she turned me down so easily, since she knew that I needed the rest that morning.

Confused, I went on to Sarah, and posed the same question. Sarah shrugged her shoulders, replied, "Sure!" and took the kids out for me that morning. Later on at lunch, I overheard another staff member from Tennessee ask Hannah if she'd like some sweet tea with her meal, and I heard the same reply from that morning: "I don't care to." She then held out her glass and her friend filled the glass to the brim with sweet tea. That's when I realized that a Tennesseean saying "I don't care to" is the same as a Texan (or anyone else) saying, "I don't mind". Hannah was mortified that I'd thought she declined to take the kids on the hunt that morning. In fact, she didn't understand why I asked Sarah to take the kids out after she'd agreed to do it. We went round and round on the phrase, and I never could convince her that she was saying it wrong...silly Tennesseean.

We have just three weekend conferences in the month of September, and then we can settle down and get ready for the winter and for Levi. At 27 weeks, Levi is about two pounds in weight and nine inches in length. Now that he's bigger, I often feel simultaneous kicks and punches on opposite sides of my belly. He wakes up a little bit after meals and dances for me, but almost always settles down by the time his daddy comes near to feel him move. A good friend of mine sent some baby clothes and supplies in the mail, and the newborn onesies and diapers look unbelievably tiny - it's hard to imagine taking care of such a small person!

Now that things are slowing down, we're finally settling into our house. It's been challenging going from a three-bedroom to a one-bedroom house, because we have a lot of stuff! We're getting creative with our storage space, and I hope that we'll have most of the boxes emptied or stowed by the end of the day. I haven't been able to do anything with the nursery yet, and it's driving me crazy. I was thrilled when Rob found a nice crib in the ranch's storage room, but we still need to find a changing table and the nursery bedding. My mom is coming up this weekend(!) and we'll go hunting together for these things. I'm really looking forward to having this time with my mom, and I'm glad we're going to get to go shopping for baby things together, since I've had to share the last few months with her from a distance.

Before I go, here's the latest belly picture, taken a few days ago. Rob decided to sit this photo session out.


And on request, here is a picture of all the family's boots: Dad's, Mom's and Levi's:

The sad thing is that since Levi has two parents with large flipper feet, he won't fit in those tiny boots very long!

Lynda

More to See

It's been quite a while since I posted a belly picture, so I got Rob to take a picture yesterday evening. I'm about five and a half months along now, and Levi weighs about 1.5 pounds and measures about 8.5 inches long. I was surprised to learn that at this point, Levi is considered 'viable', which is to say that his little body could survive outside mine now (with medical intervention). Amazing. I've started to feel him move throughout the entire day now. He must have a favorite position, because most of the time he kicks and punches on my right side. I actually saw a wave of motion go across my belly yesterday, which was a bit strange, even though I knew it would happen eventually. Sleeping is becoming a bit uncomfortable - I'll soon have so many pillows around me that Rob will have just a sliver of room on his side of the bed.

Here's yesterday's belly picture:

It appears that Rob is showing a bit, too! I must admit to a little sadness that my tank top (kind of) fits him. Rob was struck with the idea to take a picture of him, too, when we were taking mine. Just the thought made me double over laughing. Okay, here's my picture:

A little more to show, huh?

Lynda

Trailer Fabulous

So, we've been living in an RV on the ranch's property for a little over a month now. The weekend we moved in, a couple of the men on staff built an adjoining deck for us. Once the deck was complete, we began to see the true potential of the RV and started planning some additional touches for our temporary home.

It started with the pink flamingoes that I found on Ebay. I would have loved to purchase a whole flock, but settled for two. They arrived in a few days and joined the cheap, plastic, blue lawn chairs that we found at Wal-Mart for $5.95 apiece. A few days went by, and some unexpected items appeared on our deck, apparently gifts from staff that enjoyed our decor: an Igloo, a toilet plunger, a gnome, a fan, and a plant. We were well on the way to trailer fabulous, but there was still one thing missing: lights! A trip to Hobby Lobby remedied the lack of lights, which we put up last Saturday night. I present to you our RV home, in day and night:


Yes, that is an 'L' you see on the side of the RV. We're so proud of our decor, we wanted to be sure everyone knows this is the Luttrull (temporary) home.

The latest accessory I could have done without. I was watching a movie Tuesday night when a mouse ran through the living room! He ran out from under one of the chairs and straight into a space under the oven where a screen protecting the electrical 'guts' of the trailer had come loose. I shot out of the RV looking for Rob, who was finishing up the Tuesday night devotional. He quickly came to the rescue with a screw gun and made sure that no mouse would ever get through the screened space again. We slept with our bedroom door closed (with a t-shirt wedged underneath) just in case Mr. Mouse had any remaining family members in the living room, but after one night, we felt confident that he was visiting alone.

All is well here - we're in week 9 of 12 weeks of family camp. We have week 13 off, and then have three weekend conferences in September to end our season. We can't believe how quickly the summer has gone! We'll move into our permanent house either this weekend or next, giving us plenty of time to get settled before Levi arrives. This will be our first house to settle in together, so I'm looking forward to moving in our things and making this our home.

That's all for now...

Lynda

One Week Later

It's been a little more than a week since I took the last belly picture I posted, and I can see a significant difference. I wore the same clothes again so that you could see how much more pronounced my belly is this week.

Levi's kicks are more pronounced, too. In the last week, I've seen a kick move my belly, and Rob was able to feel a strong kick yesterday. I've noticed, too, that Levi is most active at night. I'm hoping that he doesn't continue this nocturnal routine after he's born!

Rob and I went to a baby resale store last week to buy a stroller for the ranch. The boy's clothes section pulled me in like a tractor beam and I'd picked up five little sleepers and jumpers before I came back to my senses. I've got several months to go and I need to pace myself! I let myself off the hook, though, when I got the to the register and paid only $13 for the whole lot of them. Hooray for resale! I know you've all seen baby clothes before, but are these not the most adorable clothes ever? In case you were wondering, the odd little character on the right is a giraffe driving a car.

Feel free to admire the awesome RV upholstery, too. That's all for now - we hope you all are doing well. We miss you!

Lynda

My Growing Belly

This picture was taken Sunday, the start of my 20th week. I'll post another picture next week, since yesterday I realized that my belly had grown bigger since the picture. In fact, I had a little bit of a hard time bending over to tie my shoes. It must have been a significant difference, because yesterday several people commented that I really 'looked pregnant' for the first time.

By the way, these pictures were taken in the 'hallway' of the RV Rob and I are living in this month. We moved into the RV because we have so many guests that our cabin was no longer avaialable - good news! The staff has really enjoyed reminding us that we live in a 'trailer', and they built us a really nice deck outside. We have plans for our new deck, but I'll keep quiet for now and just post some pictures when all is complete.

Stay tuned...

Lynda

Kicky McKickerson

During yesterday's ultrasound, I saw Levi kick at the same time that I felt a bump in my side, which confirmed that all the little bumps I'd felt over the last week and a half were kicks, as I'd suspected. Now that I know what they feel like, I am aware that Levi is fairly active. I am happy that his hands and feet are little right now, because I know a time is coming when his movements will feel like karate chops and roundhouse kicks.

I scanned the ultrasound images today, so here are a couple of pictures of little Kicky. The first, which we refer to as 'Levi the Alien Boy', shows Levi looking at you straight on, with his head on the right. The second is a profile of his head and chest, again with his head on the right. He is laying on his back and you can see his nose, lips and chin pointing up. We think that one of his little hands in near his face, which made the image fuzzy around his mouth.

Isn't he cute?

Lynda

Baby Luttrull...Boy or Girl?

Boy!

We had the ultrasound today that can determine gender, and we're happy to tell you that we'll welcome a baby boy in November. We'll name him Levi Ramage Luttrull.

I (Lynda) couldn't be more excited, since I've hoped for a boy since we learned of the pregnancy. Actually, I've hoped for a boy as long as I've dreamed of having a family of my own. It was amazing to see our baby kicking and swimming on the computer screen - we both feel as though he became real to us today.

We left the doctor's office and decided to go to Estes Park to buy something fun for our little boy. We perused a couple of stores before we found these:

Now, our baby is going to be ranchy.

Rob and Lynda