I have no clue how to do this!

Devon always gets on to me (in a nice way) that I don't know how to do stuff, and refuse to learn (i.e. updating my ipod, using excel, anything that you have to put together, posting on blogs). SO, in an effort to show him that I can still learn new things, I'm giving a try at this whole "posting" thing. If this shows up all funky on our blog, you know why!

Devon wont see this until Saturday night because on his first Father's day, he (and some of our volunteer leaders) loaded up 50 high schoolers and took them to Sharp Top Cove for the week. We were sad not to be able to celebrate with him on that day, and I was sad to not be able to go on the trip myself! But, we find it sweet and special that He gets to love on so many kids that he loves like they are his own sons. We find it a privilege, joy, and honor to serve the Lord by spending time with high school kids and sharing "not only the Gospel of God, but our very lives as well", as they "have become so dear to us." We are praying that lives would be changed forever this week!

Cam is awesome these days! He's smiling at everything and loving his trips to the pool. He is a sleeping maniac, following in his dad's footsteps and making his mom very happy!

I feel like there is a lot to say about Cam, our lives, recent events, and our summer plans, but I'm gonna leave all that up to Devon. This whole post was simply an effort to see if I could even pull this whole "posting" thing off. Once I have the confidence of a blogger, I'll potentially be back with all of my creative/insightful/hilarious observations of our lives. HA! That's why I married good ol' Dvo!

I'm now going to attempt to add some pictures of Devon with some of the high school guys he hangs out with, and some newer pictures of Cam - we'll see!

                                                         Devon and Jose

                                          Devon and some of his campaigner group 
                                                    hanging at our house!

Devon and his boys at Frontier last year

                                                                                                                                          

We miss you, D-VO!

Happy 1st Father's Day!

Two Posts in One Day! (You've Earned It)

I couldn't count the number of people who have asked us lately, "When are you going to update your blog again?!?!" [3 people]. Because Erin, Cam, and I have such a global audience [global = East TN and Greenville, SC], we've decided to give you two posts today for the price of one. So what's been going on?

We are wrapping up our third school-year here in Anderson County. I was talking to someone the other day and they were wondering how long will we stay in Oak Ridge/Clinton. It's an honest question. But our honest answer right now is that we have no plans of leaving. We love our home. We love our church. We love our people. And we absolutely love what our job allows us to do. A couple of weeks ago, we pulled off our first annual Young Life Tacky Prom. Our hope was to give our high school friends a night of fun and laughing and dancing without the cost, pressure, and temptation that most prom nights present. It was a blast. Nearly 100 folks danced the night away and had a blast. Some pics to prove it...

Jesco, our dog,  has been in rare form lately. By rare form, I mean he's chewing everything. And by everything, I mean our new rug, multiple pieces of paper, an "unchewable" bone, and my debit card. That's right - my Visa debit card. He would probably say he needs some attention. I would probably say he needs his butt kicked...

In health news, we've begun a lifestyle change here in the Accardi family. Erin has been cleared to start working out again and I have begun to strike fear into the heart of every elliptical machine at the National Fitness Center in Oak Ridge. For the last 8 weeks, I've been participating in a weight-loss challenge with 4 other guys. When it ends on Wednesday, I'll have lost about 15 lbs. I have NO DOUBT in my mind that I could have won the whole thing. Unfortunately, for the first 5 weeks of the competition, I was living in Casserole Kingdom as some generous friends brought us some very delicious-but-not-always-healthy meals. The good news is that this isn't a diet...it's a lifestyle change. My goal is to get down to what I was in high school: 175... OK, that's a lie. The last time I was 175 lbs. I was probably 9 years old...

This week, we're going to the beach. To say we're excited would be an understatement. It will be a great way to wrap up the school year and the perfect way to kick off the summer.

Anyways, Erin just told me that no one wants to read marathon blogs. So, I'll shut up and give you all what you're looking for. Here are some new pics of Cam:

You better believe that we'll have some beach pics coming soon so stay tuned!

Smiles All Around!

We've been smiling alot here at 140 Georgia Ave. Cam turns two months on Thursday and continues to live up to his nickname: The Little Legend. Here's a short video of his infectious little grin. The song in this video is called "Stop" by Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame. It's Cam's favorite song right now. I know that sounds silly but its true. If he's crying in the car, we can turn this song on and he quiets down. Pretty wild. Anyways, enjoy!

18 Days In!

So I've been wanting to update for a while. But my goodness - how am I supposed to sum up all that's happened in the last 18 days. Even as I write "18 days" it seems crazy. It's already felt more like a year. But these last 18 days have been some of the sweetest, richest days we've ever experienced. March 6th, 7:00am on the dot (already punctual - gotta respect that!) our boy Cameron Thomas Accardi made his debut into this world. It feels like we've told this story a million times but I'm not tired of it yet, so here's a summary of how it all went down...

Tuesday, March 2nd

Erin is officially "post-due." Cameron is cozy and doesn't want to budge. We go see the Baby Doc and he reports that there's been no progress. We decide to go ahead and schedule to be induced on Monday the 8th. We could've scheduled to go in on Friday the 6th but we have Late Night with Young Life that night - one of our biggest events of the year (100+ kids. An all-night traveling lock-out). Erin isn't planning on going, nor am I. But we figure from an administrative perspective, if we can plan to be around, we probably should. So, Monday it is. Erin is a little bummed - she was really hoping to experience that "it's time!" moment of heading to the hospital on our own (READ: Foreshadowing). The Baby Doc asks us to come back on Thursday for one more check...

Thursday, March 4th

We're back in the Baby Doc's office and - wouldn't you know it - no change. Monday continues to look like the day. On the way home, we talk about Late Night with Young Life and decide that I'll probably go for some of it and Erin may even come for a while...

Friday, March 5th - 7:30am

Erin wakes up to her phone ringing. It's the Baby Doc. He wants Erin to come in this morning and get an ultrasound to check her amniotic fluid. Since she's now 41-weeks, he just wants to make sure that the baby will be good to go until Monday. An 11am appointment is set. We debate on whether I should join or not (at this point, I've decided I'm all in for Late Night). I go. We hang out in the doctor's office and get an ultrasound. When our doctor sees the results he looks right at us and says, "So, you guys ready to have this baby." "Yep, we can't wait for him to get here," we answer casually. "All right, let's go," he says.

"Oh, you're serious?" Erin asks

"Yep, you're fluids are a little low and I don't think I'd feel great about waiting until Monday. I'm walking over there now actually, you guys can just follow me. Devon, where did you park the car? Is it -"

"Whoa, doc. Can we huddle up here for a minute?" I say, heart racing. "I mean, I don't have any of our stuff or anything."

"No problem, Devon you can go ahead and run on home to gather up everything you need. Erin, you can walk over with me and go ahead and get checked in."

So there it was - our "It's Time!" moment. We kiss, she leaves with the doctor, and I jump in the car. I'm completely frazzled. "Gotta get her bags...gotta PACK my bag...gotta hand off all of this Late Night stuff now."

An hour later, I'm walking into room 233 and it's go time

Checked in, ready to go, sending out the texts!

2:12pm

Our sweet friend, Diane, arrives. We're pumped. Diane is a labor and delivery nurse at Parkwest. From the beginning of all of this, Erin wanted Diane with her. Since everything happened so quickly, we hadn't texted her yet. Randomly, Diane shows up at the hospital off-duty just to check in with some folks and sees that Erin has been admitted. She goes home, gets her stuff, and comes back ready for a long night with us.

3:15pm

Water breaks. Game on.

Throughout the afternoon, our families arrived and the waiting game continued...

Waiting for our little man to be in here!

Laura and Sandy stopped by before going to Late Night

Waiting to meet her nephew...

Being patient

8:30pm

Late Night has officially kicked off. Biggest turn out we've ever had - 162 students from our two high schools. Including folks from Loudon County and Monroe County, it's the largest Late Night ever: 340+ kids. It was awesome to know that our Young Life leaders could handle the whole night on their own. They were rockstars.

March 6th, 2:20am

I can't sleep. Yes, I'm super-anxious but also Erin's blood pressure sleeve takes a reading every 15 minutes - yikes. Good news though - I realized that Cameron will share a birthday with the following people:

  

3:00am

The doctor comes into to check on Erin. It's been 12 hours since her water broke and no progress. He tells us that he's going to come back at 6:00 and if there's been no change he think we ought to do a C-Section

6:00am

C-Section it is. These next two hours or so filled with different emotions that its probably best if we let these pictures do the talking... 

                                      

So, March 6th, 7:00am - Cameron Thomas Accardi is born.

Lots of visitors over the next few days...

So now we're home and we can't get enough of him. He has been such a blessing to us!

More updates to come!