We Love Fall, and Vermont!

We had the chance to visit Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine this October once again, and we just love it! It was a wonderful and relaxing time. We still were not able to see a moose, but we did get the chance to see a bear and a fox! We also used it as a chance to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary! God is good to provide the means and opportunity to go, and to witness his masterful design, he is truly amazing!

First Weekend of Summer

We had a great first weekend of summer! We had Kimmie, Jared, and Caleb come and visit for the first swim of the year.

Mark and Kimmie discussing the comfort of the lounge chairs in the sun...

We also had the opportunity to celebrate Kimmie's birthday and Father's day. It feels like old times again seeing the Herbert's this often!

Caleb couldn't get enough of Jared making a big splash with repeated cannonballs!

The water was very nice and warm... lucky for Jared.

Mark and I also saved a baby birdie that was abandoned. We left our ladder leaning up on the house under the patio cover in the backyard and within hours it became the home of a couple of Mourning Doves. They made a nest on the top, and then there was tragedy... the neighborhood cats began harassing the birdie family. We made a few saves as we shooed the cats away, but one morning, the birds didn't return. Mark looked and saw an egg still in the nest. A few days passed and the egg hatched!!! But we were sad that there was no mama bird to take care of this little bird. So Mark called the local wildlife rescue and they told us to bring the little one in... So we carefully put the nest in a box and drove him to the rescue. We don't know if he made it yet, but we are glad that we did our part to help our new neighbor.

This is the little birdie as Mark was trying to feed him, but was unsuccessful.

We hope he is ok!

Sara's Surgery...Successful & Serendipitous

Mark was a visitor at the hospital on Tuesday 4/7/09. So was Sara, though she was visiting to have a more qualified professional than Mark remove some unwanted visitors from her insides.


As you all know Sara, she was smiling even while having an IV stuck in her arm. I passed out twice just looking at her.

Sara is allergic to hospital food, so they put this orange bracelet on her just in case some nasty old nurse tried anything foolish.

After many hours of controversial experimental surgical procedures, Sara emerged triumphant over the cysts, Demitri and his sidekick Estevez, that had been plaguing her for the past year. So to all you cysts out there with any grandiose ideas about preventing the McAvoys from having children, I have one thing to say to you: Don't even think about it. Christ is victor.

Many thanks to those who sent flowers, cards, and prayers. Or who came to relieve me of my male nurse duties (thanks Judy). And if you haven't called Sara to wish her well yet, you should. You better. She's off all this week. No excuses. Cell phones have free long distance, for cryin' out loud.

Spring is here!

We are very excited that Spring has sprung! We have planted some new flowers in our front yard and we feel that it looks awesome! Mark has some wonderful ideas to plant a few more fruit trees in the backyard in the near future, he sure loves to care for his trees! Sara has enjoyed the daylight savings time as she can resume her walks in the evenings after work. It is a great way for her to unwind after a busy day at work.

Work is busy for both Sara and Mark, but we are surviving and having fun watching seasons of The Office after work to just laugh! We happen to love that show!!!

We had a great time celebrating St. Patricks Day this week, as we both have strong Irish roots! Mark made a wonderful corned beef roast with potatos, carrots, Irish soda bread, and a traditional Irish whiskey cake. We celebrated with our friends Alicia and David O'Brien, who also have Irish roots. We even listened to radio Ireland which was playing on the XM radio. We had a blast!!!

Hope you are all well, God Bless!

Time, where does it go?

Hi everyone! It has been too long since we have let you in on what is happening with us. I have been waiting till I have time to put in pictures and all that stuff to create nice blogs, but I just don't have that time, so I thought I'd fill you in without pictures.

Since our last blog entry, we had a successful surprise party for Mark's birthday on December 16th! The Andersons came from Portland as well as friends from Fresno and Mark's family made quite a full house for us to celebrate Mark. He was surprised! yay!

We traveled the California countryside for Christmas, including all of our families homes. We celebrated 4 Christmases! All because we love Jesus soo much!

We celebrated New Years with Kimmie and Jared in Fresno playing the Wii Olympics... very fun!

Oh, we also went to Chicago with Kimmie and Jared to see the beautiful snow and sights of Christmas decorations too! We were there in the beginning of December.

We just recently visited Sara's sister Kim in New Mexico, Las Cruces to be exact. Sara also traveled to Southern California for Lisa's baby shower! Lisa is Sara's stepsister who is going to deliver baby Molly Hennessey sometime in late March... we are excited for her arrival!

So, this is a real brief description of our last few months in which we have neglected to include in our blog lately. I hope to be more in depth and include pictures in our upcoming entries.

Love you all!!!