Jamie and Catherine

My Meg-Meg at almost 2 1/2

2012-02-14T15:21:00.000-05:00

Poor Megan hasn't had a post about her in a very long time. I was working on one for a long time, but it just never captured everything. And then the craziness of Emma's separation anxiety happened...then colds, Christmas, family visits, baby showers, ear infections...and all of a sudden she's almost 2 1/2 and Megan is growing up so fast!

What to say about Megan? She's just wonderful. Really, everything about her...especially now that she finally sleeps through the night!

The first thing that anyone notices about her is her hair. Its crazy curly and beautiful and so cute. Its almost always a battle to brush it, so there are definitely days when I just don't do it and its wild. But she also loves her pony tails and loves to see what I've done to her hair in the mirror. Then she'll just look at herself with a sweet, self-satisfied grin.

After her hair, really the most striking thing on meeting Megan is her verbal ability. She communicates in complex sentences, picks up new words like candy, and is almost always very polite. Recently, when we suggest doing something, she has started saying, "Oh, yes. That's a great idea." Or, "That sounds like it would be FUN!" She is a pro at saying please and thank you and reminds us when we forget to tell her how polite she is. "Say, 'Good job being polite' mama." Oh, yes, she's very into telling me what to say. "Say 'no no Emma'", when Emma drops her sippy cup. "Say, 'your friends are coming over after your nap'" when we're pretending its nap time. And my favorite, "Mama, don't say 'no you can't have some chocolate'" or some similar request.

She knows a couple jokes that she likes to tell, if she's in the right mood. She knows the knock knock joke that ends in, "Boo who? - Don't cry. Its just a joke." She also loves the more juvenile, "Guess what. Chicken butt." Jamie taught her that one and she thinks its hilarious.

For a while there, Megan was getting a little jealous of Emma. After talking with my mom and others about how to address this, I decided that Emma's morning nap time would be reserved for Megan and Mommy time. It really is amazing how much of a difference this has made for all of us. Megan loves it. She knows that while I put Emma down, she gets to watch Elmo. Then, after Elmo, we do any of a number of things that are only allowed while Emma is asleep. For a long time, we would open up the ottoman, which is where all our board games are stored. We played with and explored each board game, building a house with boggle letters, using game pieces as people to ride in game card cars, and putting the scrabble letters carefully on their "benches" and then sliding them off into the bag. Oh what fun a 2 year old can have with grown up board games! Now we've moved on to making Valentine's "cards" with paper, glue, and a permanent marker (no crayons for her!), but we also play with a magnetic doll who has magnetic clothes that can be put on her, read books on the couch while completely covered with a blanket (yay forts!), play with dominos, and do puzzles that are way beyond her, but fun for her to stand on when they are completed.

It has had an amazing effect on Megan and Emma's relationship. Megan was always generally kind to Emma, but now I can really trust Megan to take care of Emma (well, as long as I'm nearby.) I now leave them together in the crib or the play pen while I do quick things like wipe over a bathroom or shower. They are (almost) always as happy as can be together. Megan hugs Emma, sings to her when she is sad, "helps" her up when she falls over, talks to her in a sweet voice with sweet words, and just really tries to nurture her little sister. Now, when Megan has a snack, she always breaks off small pieces for Emma. Even when Emma is napping, Megan will give me some little pieces to give to Emma when she wakes up. She knows that she has to bite the tail off her goldfish crackers "so Emma won't choke" and never fails to do so. She knows that Emma can only have the white parts of popcorn, not the brown. (Although, those are two snacks that I don't give them when I'm not right there, just in case.) And, of course, Emma laps up the attention. Even when Megan is napping, Emma goes for Megan's toys first and just tries to play with them like Megan does, even though she really has no clue what Megan does with such things as dolls and puzzles.

And, of course, I'm just learning more and more what a wonderful, sweet daughter I have in my first born. (Not that I've ever doubted it.) I love those times of play and conversation and cuddles.

Megan is really a little smarty-pants. She knows all her shapes (the other day she couldn't remember what a circle was called and called it "the round and round thing"), almost all her colors (yellow and white are so similar!), and can count to twelve from memory...and count up to three objects correctly...usually. :)

Most of her time is spent playing pretend...usually either that she is going to bed or she is putting us to bed or she is putting her dolls to bed. She can also be found "doctoring", "packing to go to California", going to church (after which you can hear her little voice raised singing, "Hallelooooyah. Pwaise the Lord!"), going to the grocery store, and going to Starbucks. Recently she's also been making little hide-a-ways for herself by enclosing herself with baskets, boxes, chairs, and whatever else she can find to make herself a "house".

I am often amazed at her memory of events. She remembers details of things from a long time ago that we have never discussed. And I'm loving that she is verbal enough to tell us what happened when she is away from us. Ha ha. Her stories about what happened in Sunday School often include something like, "Miss Jessica said, 'no no.'" - We ask why. - "Because I was talking when she was reading." Poor child. I haven't had the heart to tell her that its just a foretaste of school life to come. She also told us the other day that Walker took her pacifier at Sunday School and she shouted at him. Sorry Walker. I guess next time you won't take what's not yours. Of course, I'm not sure how much of the dialogue that she told me occurred actually happened, and how much of it was from the movie "Elmo In Grouchland" where Mr. Huxley (the bad guy) takes Elmo's blanket and Elmo has to get it back. I hear her imagining that (very tame) argument relatively frequently.

She's old enough now for books with real (simple) plots. Woo hoo!!! Her favorite currently is The Best Nest. She also loves stories about when Mommy and Daddy were little and when she was "a little little baby." And the most satisfying story for her is one that ends either in, "Then he said, 'thank you'. And she said, 'You're welcome'." or "Then he said, 'I'm sorry.' and she said, 'I forgive you'." Oh how she loves those two little dialogues. They really are the building blocks of her world in a lot of ways!

She often, now, thanks us spontaneously for various things. I tell her she can watch Elmo while I put Emma to bed and she responds with an enthusiastic, "THANK you Mommy!" Or she'll be eating her dinner and just pipe up with, "Mmm. This is yummy Mommy. Thank you for making it for me." It really doesn't get better than that.

We do work with her on saying I'm sorry and she can be spontaneous about that too. The other day she was crying because she didn't want to do what I told her. I ignored it while I finished up what I was doing and by the time I was done, she had calmed down. Then she came to me, "I'm sorry for crying Mama." Oh, what a sweet tender conscience she has. Of course, I told her that I forgave her.

In general, Megan is an amazingly thoughtful and spontaneously generous and helpful girl. Believe me, that's not parented in. (Or, if it is, I have no idea how we did it.) She'll run to get Emma a toy while I'm changing her diaper, or put something away that she sees out of place (and she's not really a neat freak - just likes to help when she sees something that can be done.) If she hears us talking about needing something, she'll go get it without being asked. She has always had a sixth sense about needy people, and still seems to know just who to hug, smile at, or talk to.

When Emma is crying in the play pen because she doesn't want me to leave her (so I can do something like clean a toilet), Megan will run to her, "Its ok Emma, Megan's here. Megan's here." Or, "Hi Sweetie. What's the matter Sweetie? Do you need your ba?" in a high pitched voice. Then she'll run to get her pacifier or a snack.

Yesterday morning Jamie was leaving for work and asked Megan if she wanted to feel his smooth face. She rubbed her cheek against his. Then proceeded to rub her entire face, both sides, over his cheek for several minutes. Then she looked at him and said, "Oh, THANK you Daddy for letting me do that." Jamie and I both about choked up at the incredible sweetness of it.

We're really working on obedience and respect with her. Often, if she doesn't obey my instructions the first time, I just have to remind her to "obey mama." If that doesn't work, I usually start singing a little Bible verse song, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord." That works almost 100% of the time. I'm not really sure why. But she does love that song and the others on the same album.

Trying to help her understand respect is a little difficult. She's just so verbal and so smart...and she loves to argue with me. For now, I tell her that respecting Mommy means saying, "ok mama" instead of arguing over every little thing. Usually that works...and keeps me from going completely batty when she argues with me over things like whether Daddy is home or whether its Sunday today.

On that same album of Bible verses that I mention above is a song "When I am afraid I will trust in you." I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Megan has always been kind of, well, scared. When she was smaller she went through a phase where she was VERY afraid of feathers and bubbles...like jump-in-mommy's-arms-screaming afraid. But the amazing thing about her is that she is also incredibly brave. Emma is fearless. Megan is very brave.

When we were at the beach in California in September she was quite scared of the waves and the ocean. But, after spending some time in Grammy's arms, she cautiously approached the waves by her own initiative. By the end of the afternoon, she was laughing raucously as the waves hit her little chest so hard she would have been knocked over if she wasn't holding Daddy and Uncle James' hands. Anyway, since the first time she heard this song/verse about trusting God, she has loved it. I don't know if it just resonates somewhere in her little heart or what, but she really noticed it above the other songs we listen to.

About a week ago Jamie was getting something out of the garage and had taken Megan with him. He didn't even notice that it was pretty dark and cold in there until he heard her little voice singing, "When I am afraid I will trust in You...in God whose word I praise."

I know I'm forgetting some things, but really, this is long enough. And I'll never post it if I don't do it now.

Megan, you are the most amazing 2 year old I've ever known. I'm so thankful that I get to be your mommy! I love you!

Emma at almost 8 months

2011-11-08T21:37:00.001-05:00

Time is flying by. How did my baby go from a newborn to almost 8 months old so quickly? Oh, but she is a sweet, sweet baby. And so different from her sister!
I guess we can start with developmental milestones.

She started eating solids at 5 and a half months and quickly made it known that she would like to eat 3 meals a day just like everyone else in the family. She eats peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potato, potatoes, corn, spinach, apple, pear, banana, oatmeal, rice cereal, cream of wheat, beef, chicken, turkey (but hated it), peach, pineapple, mango, blueberry, avocado, plain yogurt (hated it at first but has loved it the last couple days), onion (mixed in with other things), cinnamon (mixed in with other things), and probably more that I'm not thinking of right now. Oh, and I gave her cheese today after reading online that its ok for babies 6 months and up. Not sure what she thought about that! I've also started giving her finger foods. Mainly plain cheerios, peeled and cut up grapes (not often - so labor intensive!), banana (which she stuffed whole into her mouth), and baby rice cracker things. She doesn't really have the pincer grip down, but she's working on it really hard! In general, she eats pretty well but doesn't LOVE many foods. I think she loved avocado when I gave it to her, but I have to admit I haven't bought it much because its so expensive. And she likes carrots and most fruits, but apples and pears can give her reflux (that's my diagnosis - not a doctor's).

She has 8 teeth. Her two side top ones are just now poking through. Poor baby drools like crazy when she's teething. My brother James was totally grossed out by it when he was visiting. And I have to admit, I would probably think the pools of drool dripping from her mouth were gross if she wasn't my daughter. As it is, I think its kind of cute. And Megan goes back and forth between asking me to clean her hands when they get drool on them and dipping her doll's bottle in Emma's drool and pretending its milk!

Emma is one of the most agile babies I have ever seen. She started crawling at 6 months and 8 days old and by 7 months was pulling up and crawling really well. At this point she's almost cruising and pushing herself around the room, standing bent over the sit-and-spin holding on to the top of it! :)

For the last week or more Emma has been sick. Last Sunday, she was so sick that we didn't go to church. She spent pretty much the entire day with her head laid down on my chest. She's been better since then, but still wants to be held almost constantly. Today, after a couple hours in the moby, she finally let me put her down and crawled over the place, chasing her sister, experimenting with trying to walk, and putting everything she could find in her mouth.

She is just such a contented baby (when she's not sick), I am often amazed. If I take her out in the stroller, she sits in her seat happily sucking on her pacifier and looking passively around her. You'd never know that the minute you put her down she will be off, exploring, instinctively finding the MOST dangerous, non-baby-friendly items. I don't think Megan has yet really noticed the outlets or heating vents on the walls. Emma has licked both (thankfully the outlets are covered) and loves to explore the trash cans, the monitor receiver, and the fireplace cover. What an interesting personality! Into everything, but when you take her away from something dangerous she doesn't complain at all. And she will happily play on her own for relatively long periods of time.

Stranger anxiety is starting to rear its head, I think. (Although, it could be just sickness that makes her cling to me and me alone.) She is happy as long as I'm in sight, but if I am out of sight - even if Daddy has her - she starts to wail.

I always have to remind myself that Emma is still so young. She's (off the charts) big for her age (20 lbs 6 oz, 29.25 inches at 6 months and 20 days, well over 20 lbs by now, I would think, and in 12-18 month clothes) and so good with her motor skills. She also has this mature sense about her. She definitely has a sense of humor already and will laugh at the funniest things. The other day Megan had her fingers in her ears (testing whether she could hear that way or not) and Emma just thought it was hilarious. She let out peals of laughter. She loves silly noises and rough housing and has roaring contests with her sister. And she really seems to get teasing. When I'm feeding her, she'll grab for the spoon with a little eyebrow quirk and hold on tight. When I talk to her in mock exasperation, she just laughs and does it again.

Emma says several syllables: dah, cah and others. But I don't think there are concepts related to those syllables yet. (I don't think dada means Daddy yet.) But she definitely gets the whole communication thing too. She'll pull up to the computer with a twinkle in her eye when we're skyping with my mom and just start in with babbling as if she's having a conversation.

Oh, and she loved the beach in California, even though she was barely 6 months old when we were there. She loved the wind in her face, the sand all over her (oh, sand is a horrible thing), and the waves hitting her.

Other things from when she was younger: she loved her exersaucer, but doesn't like it now that she's more mobile. She used to hold onto her hair while she was sleeping or nursing. And she was so soft that I just wanted to hold her all the time. She still is soft, but for a while there I was just noticing all the time how extraordinarily soft she was. I would hold her for longer than needed when putting her to sleep or nursing her just because she was so soft.

Emma has always been a pretty good sleeper, but right now she really just wants to sleep in our bed. I've been letting her since she's been sick (and I've been exhausted) but soon I'll try to get her to stay in her pack and play through the night. (I'm not opposed to co-sleeping - I just have constant pain in my neck, shoulders, and back from holding her all night.) It is funny, though. Megan would always sleep cuddled up as closely as possible to me. Emma, once she's asleep, sleeps splayed out on her back, arms thrown wide. Ha. Poor Jamie almost gets crowded off the bed by a 7 month old!

We love you EmmaBemma!

Our little sunshine at 5 months

2011-08-09T19:52:00.006-05:00

Sweet Emma, our little sunshine girl. Honestly, if she can find something to smile about, she will. And her smile just lights up her face. At just a few days under 5 months, she is a drooling, chewing, grabbing, rolling, mouthing, laughing machine.

Oh, how she loves toys. And moving. You put her on her changing table and her feet are immediately up in her mouth and she's trying to roll over. You put her on her back on the floor and she immediately rolls over onto her belly and starts trying to get to anything that looks the least bit interesting. And she is SO frustrated that she can't get to it yet. Seriously, I think she'll be crawling very soon because she is so very motivated to get places. Much more so than Megan ever was!

Anywhere she is, she is trying to grab things. I've had a couple close calls with glasses of water, the computer, etc. almost being pulled over the side of our kitchen island as I sit with Emma on my lap. And Megan is getting quite upset with how Emma is always trying to grab her toys and, if I hold Emma too close to the high chair while Megan is eating lunch, her food, sippy cups and tray. (Although some of this is protective of Emma. Today Megan said, "No no Emma," as Emma lunged for her popsicle. Then she said, "Jus' pretend." And held the popsicle up close to Emma so Emma could "pretend" to eat it.)

She can sit up independently for a very short time...if you're right there to catch her when she topples over! If she's in a reclining chair or support (like her bouncy chair, the boppy cushion, or her bath tub), she almost always pulls herself to a sitting position and holds it for a long time (like all the way through dinner today).

Emma is quite the little dare devil. She loves a gentle game of "this is the way the ladies ride" and peek-a-boo...letting out peals of laughter if you can surprise her enough to make her jump. The other day she was belly laughing because Jamie was dropping her plastic chain on her over and over again. She's pretty much a 5-month-old thrill seeker. :)

Oh, and Emma has the best wide-eyed looks! She will just open her eyes as wide as she can as if to try to get everything in her brain all at once. So cute!

There is nothing she loves quite as much as her big sister. Emma watches Megan constantly and breaks out into a huge grin if Megan notices her. The love is mutual, though. Megan is constantly commenting on Emma's actions. "Emma talking." "Emma doing tummy time." "Good job rolling over, Emma!" Megan will back up to Emma and put her head backwards into Emma's lap. Emma will grab Megan's hair and for some reason they both think this is hilarious!

Emma's other favorite person is her daddy. When he gets home, she is all smiles for him and she belly laughs at the slightest sign that he might be being silly.

I really can't believe how quickly Emma is growing up. She's already in almost all 9 month clothes (and even some of those shorts are too skinny for her chubby little belly!) and she really is almost 100% out of the infant stage and into the baby stage...or whatever the different stages are called. She's coming into her own as a person!

She is a fantastic sleeper. She normally sleeps through the night from around 7:30 pm - around 5 am. And getting her to sleep is usually a dream. If I catch her at the right moment (and Megan is being quiet for long enough) she'll just drift off to sleep in my arms easily. Then I can put her down for a nap or the night. Just a month ago she was still grabbing her hair as she fell asleep. Now she barely has any hair (:-)) and she normally holds onto one of my fingers with one or both of her hands. She's still not on a daytime schedule. Believe me, I'm trying. But its proving more difficult than I would have thought just because Megan doesn't yet have the self control to stay quiet long enough for Emma to fall into a deep sleep and also panics if I leave the room for more than just a couple minutes.

And, although Emma falls asleep easily in my arms (she either nurses to sleep or turns her little face into my chest and just closes her eyes) and goes down easily, she doesn't yet fall asleep in her bed. AND she's been waking up after 30-45 minutes for every nap except when Megan is taking a nap too. Normally she's pretty easy to get back to sleep...it just takes patting her bottom and putting her pacifier back (and here's the kicker) without any distracting noise. But the couple times I've gone back to pat her butt and left Megan in the living room (even after telling Megan where I'm going), I start to hear panicked calls for me after just a minute or two. So, when Jamie is home or someone else is around to help, Emma gets great naps and is on a pretty normal nap schedule. When its just me, she gets a short nap that starts while Megan is watching Elmo's World (too late, really, but its the best I can do), a longer nap while Megan is napping, and one or two shortish naps later in the day.

Despite her sad lack of regular

nap times, Emma is a happy little girl. She loves her exersaucer and laughs at herself in the mirror. She breaks into a grin whenever anyone pays attention to her. (It makes me feel kind of guilty...like I don't pay enough attention to her.) She loves to "talk" and can hold her own well in screaming contests. :)

She loves to have her head stroked and, when she's had her fill of play, will just lay back in your arms and snuggle. (Or, if you are her Auntie Caroline, lay back in your arms and stare straight into your eyes for long periods of time.) And she has the sweetest puffy-eyed look when she wakes up. She almost always wakes up happy!

Finally, the stats at 4 months. (Yes, she's 5 months old now.)

Weight - 15 lb 5 oz Height - 26 in Head - 16.75 in

And she didn't cry at all for her first shot and just a bit for the second one (that stings when it goes in.)

Favorite nicknames right now: EmmaBemma, Emmaboo, Emma Baldy Brown, Emma Catarina

We love you sweet Emma. I can already tell that God has some amazing things in store for you. May you love and trust Him in everything you do.

The wild child at 21 months...ok, 22 by the time I actually finish this post!

2011-06-23T12:48:00.018-05:00

Disclaimer: Once again, this post is much too long for anyone to want to read unless they really love Megan. :) And the pictures are NOT well placed. But blame that on blogger.

Sweet Megan, my wild and crazy girl. She's really turning into a big girl. Jamie and I were commenting the other day that somehow, in the craziness of Emma being born, Megan made the transition from baby to toddler. Its true. She's a busy busy girl, emotional, sensitive, loving, and smart!

I don't really even know where to start in talking about her. She's pretty much talking in full sentences now, although she still says, "hm?" when she doesn't know how to answer. She's almost figured out "or" questions, although she still will often answer "Yes" when you ask her if she wants this or that. Her language learning is still incredible. She'll pick up on something new that you say and repeat it over and over again until she has figured out what it means. Same with enunciation. Often she will repeat multi-syllable words to herself until they sound right. Amazing. Of course, she's still less than 2 and her enunciation is still baby-like. She can't say her "L"s or her "R"s, so she says, "de-yish-ous" and "I yuf you" and "watuh". And she really doesn't get personal pronouns. When she wants you to pick her up she says, "Hold you" and when she wants you to sit next to her, she pats next to her and says, "I sit wight he-uh". Or, more often, since we misunderstand her (because she's not using the correct pronouns), she'll switch to our names after trying with the pronouns. "I sit next to you...MAMA sit next to MEGAN." She's very deliberate about her talking too. She'll pause to make sure she's using the right word or pronouncing it correctly. Oh yes, and she thinks all babies are female. Or, I guess, just doesn't know the difference between male and female yet...although she does correctly point out "man" or "yady"...often asking if its a "mama" or "yust a yady". (I guess she can't say "J"s yet either.) But if she sees a baby she always asks to "kiss huh...talk to huh...touch huh yeg" even if its a boy.

And, boy, does she love babies! Emma, of course, is chief among them. She gets SO excited whenever Emma wakes up. She brings Emma toys and books constantly, and will now turn the book around as she holds it in front of her so that Emma can see the pictures. (That one amazed me. How did she figure that one out? I didn't teach her!) If Megan is sad, nothing makes her feel better like hugging Emma. If Emma cries or even complains, Megan starts suggesting things to make her feel better. "Emma sad. Kiss huh?" if she's crying. "Ah you bored? Wanna go in exuhsaucuh?" if she's complaining. And she willing runs to get me anything that Emma might need. A bib from the bib drawer in her bedroom, a burp cloth, a blanket...whatever. She even noticed the other day that I switched Emma to the same brand of diapers that she wears!

Other than playing with Emma, Megan's favorite things to do right now are "wite, wite, wite" (draw or write), read, look at pictures of Emma's birth (yook at doctuh pictchuhs?), put anything and everything "nigh night" including finding a blanket or paper or whatever to cover the object, play with the toy food and grocery cart that Mia got her, and generally transfer things one at a time from one container to another container on the opposite side of the room. And she loves playing with water and drawing with chalk outside.

She's also getting more and more imaginative every day. She'll scoot a piece of play food along the floor making car noises. Or put 5 purses on her arm and tell us she's going to "chuhch", walking into the other room and standing there singing "ha-yay-yu-yah" at the top of her lungs for a while.

Oh, and she loves to be "si-yee". She'll hunch over when she's walking or wrinkle her eyes up and look at you expecting a laugh. Sometimes Emma will make a noise and it will strike Megan as so funny that she will just burst into squeals of laughter.

She's definitely a toddler with all the drama that goes along with that. She cries to let you know she wants something or doesn't like something and laughs a hysterical sounding fake laugh when she's showing off. She definitely has her own will and lets you know it...but at the same time she is a very good little girl. She knows that she must "obey mama" and she usually does without even a complaint.

Honestly, she's better about cleaning up than I am! When we're going to move to a different room or a different activity, she often jumps up and says "keen up keen up?" and starts cleaning up the objects she has been playing with. I think it must be Jamie's mom's influence because I am totally not that consistent about making her clean up. Yay for grandparents!

She's trying to figure out what different words mean. Often in the car I'll hear her little voice from the back: "I have a kestion." But she has no idea what that means. :) She asks often if someone or something is "koot", "fun", or "funny". Ha. I feel bad saying, "No. Papa isn't cute. He's nice." But, really, I have to teach her language! :)

A few weeks ago she went to her first friend's birthday party...and LOVED it! Of course, she and 3-yr old Bailey chose to go inside away from the craziness of the party guests and play together just the two of them. She also chose that day to decide that she was big enough to go down a big girl slide all by herself (with Daddy to catch at the bottom!) She loved it SO much.

Oh, and speaking of things she loved, the Fairfax City Independence Day parade had to be a highlight of her summer so far. If she hears us mention a parade, she flaps her hands and eagerly says, "go to puh-yade? Yay!" And runs around to try to get ready to go.

Outing-wise, she also loves the pet store, Starbucks, Home Depot, Trader Joe's, "Unca Jon and Auntie Cah-yine's house", and the pool.

She's finally started going to the church nursery on her own. And amazed me a couple weeks ago by actually answering me when I asked her what she did by telling me that they blew bubbles, ate crackers, and drew pictures. No prompting necessary.

She does love church. She talks about it all morning on Sundays. "Go to chuhch. Sing songs. Hah-yay-you-yah. See friends?" and she talks about her "friends" all the time. She draws a picture and asks me to show Anna, or asks to talk to Becca on skype. This morning she has been asking to see "Annabeya" (she means Izabella) who does "bite choo bite choo" (a little back scratching rhyme) and sings "Jesus yufs me this I know for the Bible tells me so". She points out any young guys and asks if they are Caleb and, of course, talks about our extended family all the time.

She LOVES her friends, but is still super shy around people she doesn't know very well. In crowds she often wants to be held and, if I can't hold her because I'm holding Emma in the car seat or something, she'll cling to my leg. And if someone tries to talk to her she'll bury her face in my shoulder.

She can sing lots of songs *almost* word-for-word, and often refers to them as the entire first line or two (as above with Jesus loves me). She used to sing the alphabet "abcdabc, abcdabc...". But in the past week or two she has started singing, "abcdefghijklmnopqrsy and z Now I know my abcs next time won't you sing with me."

She can count to four and often will add the next number to your counting up to 9. She knows that she is one, although it did get a bit confusing when Bailey turned three. :)

And she's just started sitting still and paying attention to longer books (with simple plots) being actually read to her.

But, as much as she really is a smart, grown-up girl, Megan still has little hold-overs of baby-dom. When she waves, she shakes her head vigorously too, as if she can't shake one part of her body without getting her head involved. When she's happy, she still flaps her hands. And, in the middle of the night, when she wakes up, she still wants to be held and rocked "like a baby". (Although we rarely do it because we are trying to help her learn to fall asleep on her own...not very successfully!)

Megan's sleep has never been great. I work hard to keep her on a pretty strict schedule and routine for nap and bed times because sleep has always been difficult for her. She naps at 11:30 (unless she's slept very late because of very disturbed sleep the night before) and goes to bed at 7:30. Recently her naps have been lengthening a bit (to around 2 hours thankfully - it took a LONG time before she would sleep more than 30 minutes unassisted!) and she's been sleeping through the night more frequently. (Maybe around 50% of the time?) For a long time she had awful insomnia where, if she woke up, she would be awake (in her bed in the dark, no toys, no books, no conversation, etc.) for usually 3 hours minimum. Since she's been sleeping in her big girl bed, its been better. But still, this past Saturday night, she was awake from 11:30 pm - 4:50 am. Its no fun for us, but its not fun for her either, poor baby. We've tried everything and nothing works all the time, although we do have some things that seem to help a bit. Thankfully, most nights that she wakes up, it only takes an hour or two for her to get back to sleep.

An aside: Honestly, Megan's sleep has been something that has been challenging for Jamie and I. We pray for her to sleep well, and most of the time God doesn't do what we want. Ha. For me, its been a reminder that we don't trust in Him because He does what we want or makes life easy. (Believe me, its not easy when Megan has been up all night and then Emma wakes up an hour after Megan gets back to sleep!) But I've been reminded several times (most specifically through this blog post) that there are much worse situations in life than a sleepless child and I'm challenged that if I can't trust God through this, I will have much more difficulty when those other trials come. God doesn't always take away trials. But He does ALWAYS give us the strength we need to go through them. And He walks beside us through them. And, in all this, God is good. And I am thankful for that. Even when He doesn't do what I want. :)

One of the sweetest things about Megan growing up is seeing her learn about Jesus a little. She's still so young and I'm not sure how much she understands, but Jamie has taught her that Jesus will live in her heart if she asks him to. So she points to her heart when you ask her where Jesus lives. She kneels beside her bed to pray at night and, after listening to Jamie or me (or Grammy or Mia or whoever) pray, she says, "I yuf you Jesus" and then, when prompted, "Amen". She knows that the Bible is a book about Jesus and really likes her "Jesus books".

Megan has always seemed to have an affinity for those who society might cast away. Even from when she was a tiny baby and wouldn't go to anyone but mommy...except a lady who's husband was sick and a very overweight cashier and several others who just needed a sweet baby smile and snuggle. Now, she is very aware of others' pain. If a child cries, she rushes to "kiss huh" and if she hears about her uncle falling off of his motorcycle, she wants to kiss him to make him feel better.

Oh yeah, and she's potty trained!

Megan, you are sweet and tough and tender and smart. You are silly and lovely and a million things that I haven't remembered to document. Your daddy and I are so proud of you and love every part of you. And Jesus loves you more than either of us and He will never fail you. I pray you learn that above any other lesson we teach you.

Sweet Emma at 3 months

2011-06-15T19:08:00.012-05:00

From the start, the adjective that has seemed to describe Emma the best is "sweet". She's laid back and lovely.

She was born with long arms and legs, long fingers and toes, and extraordinary strength.

And, as a newborn, she would often sleep with her eyes open. We would joke that she was kind of like an alien.

A very cute alien, but an alien none-the-less. Long finger

s and toes, eyes that open in her sleep, and extra strength that enabled her to tense up her b

ody and struggle against what she didn't like. It usually went something like this:

Me: Is Emma awake? Her eyes are open.

My mom: No, she's just being an alien.

She is also prone to "man burps". It was amazing what huge burps would come out of such a pretty and teeny girl. Ha ha. She does it less now, but she still has skills!

Her hair is dark, but highlighted. Now its looking more red, but when she was first born it almost looked like she had had it streaked. Dark, dark hair with striking golden streaks.

And she's a great sleeper. At one month, 6 days old, she slept from 10 pm - 4:45 am, ate, and then went right back to sleep until 9 am. At two months, 11 days old, she went 10 1/2 hours between feedings. Now its unusual (and probably a couple-day growth spurt) if she wakes up before 4 or 5 am after going to sleep around 7:30 or 8 pm. And sometimes its closer to 7 am!

Ha. I'm glad we had Megan first or I would think it had something to do with my parenting!

Anyway, she's not just advanced sleep-wise. On her two-month birthday we were giving her tummy time on our bed. We looked away for a minute and, when we looked back, she was on her back. Since then, she's rolled over several times for us from belly to back. (Thankfully she's still pretty immobile on her back!)

When she's on her tummy she can lift up her whole upper body in a combination between arm and core effort. And she's just a little bobbly when we hold her in a sitting or standing position. I often put her in the bumbo while I'm making dinner or feeding Megan and she does really well in it. But her favorite is when you hold her by her hands in a standing position. How is it possible for a three month old to be proud of herself? But she definitely looks like she is!

She has been smiling since she was 3 weeks old, cooing since she was a month old, and has started really obviously laughing within the last couple days. She loves to talk and will coo and gurgle at you like nothing else. She especially loves when people coo and gurgle back at her and when they whistle.

She loves her sister and will smile when she catches sight of Megan. Megan will get right in her face with her, "Hi Emma. Hi Emma. Hi Emma." And if Megan is crying or feeling sad, one of her favorite things to do is grab Emma's foot or leg and hug it. Emma doesn't seem to mind at all.

Emma is often surprised, awakened, or shocked by Megan's loud cries, yells of excitement, or temper tantrums (yes, our firstborn is in that stage), so we've had some days and weeks where Emma is just a mess by the end of the day. She just hasn't ever been able to take a long enough nap during the day. But I think she's getting used to it and hopefully Megan is getting to a stage where she'll start to understand about talking quietly.

And just yesterday when Megan was screaming in anger about something and Emma burst into tears, Megan immediately stopped her tantrum and focused entirely on making Emma feel better. "Kiss her. Kiss her." Megan kissed Emma a couple times and Emma calmed down. And so did Megan. What a sweet relationship. I pray it remains so tender.

It does seem like in the past couple days Emma has just turned from a newborn into a baby. She's talking and cooing a LOT more. She's awake for (slightly) longer stretches. And she is enjoying looking at toys. I can now set her in a bouncy chair or her bumbo or on a blanket and she'll be happy for maybe 10 minutes before complaining and wanting a change of scenery. Of course, play that is that close to the ground only happens when Megan is taking a nap!

Emma loves taking a bath. She kicks and coos and has even had two baths now where she hasn't cried at all through the entire process. She doesn't seem to get as overwhelmed by it as Megan used to, which I guess is just another one of those laid-back qualities. She just thoroughly enjoys it. Sadly, she doesn't get to bathe as often as she would probably like because it is such a handful with Megan trying to help.

The poor baby often just doesn't get as much attention or play as Megan did because I'm busy with two. But she is amazing and wonderful and hopefully that relationship with an adoring big sister will make up for it.

The picture of her taking a bath reminds me, though, that one of the things that people always comment on about Emma is her wide eyes. Its true. Its like whenever she is awake she is just trying to take in the entire world with her eyes. Right now they are a beautiful blue and she looks so innocent and sweet looking out at everything.

While Emma is eating or sleeping, she likes to have her arms up. She also likes to grab things. I never want to forget her sweet innocence as she pulls her own hair while she's eating or sleeping!

Sweet Emma, you are loved. I hope you never feel neglected because your mama has two babies to care for, but that you always feel loved and cherished by Mommy, Daddy and Megan. We all love you so much!

Emma's So-Called Birth

2011-04-06T17:59:00.017-05:00

*Disclaimers: Blogger makes adding pictures incredibly difficult. Sorry there are so few. Also, this post is very long. Its for my memory's sake, so please forgive all the details you don't care about!*

My pregnancy with Emma went as well as my pregnancy with Megan did (well, until her actual birth day)...up until the end. No issues, perfect blood pressure, etc. Like with Megan, I didn't even get any stretch marks. Until 36 weeks. And then all of a sudden, my whole body was one big stretch mark, practically. Lovely. (I mean, who gets stretch marks on their calves?)

We had been told that I could definitely try for a VBAC, as long as everything went ok. No pitocin to induce, close monitoring because of the risk of uterine rupture, and at least an epidural catheter so that if I had to have an emergency c-section while in labor they wouldn't have to put me under general anesthetic. I was ok with all of that...especially if they let me do the catheter with no actual drug in it. I wanted to go all natural to hopefully help labor and pushing go as quickly as possible and to help breast feeding happen as easily as it possibly could (because Megan had such a hard time gaining weight at first).

At 36 weeks I had an ultrasound. The doctor who did it said that everything looked great. The baby was head down, the placenta was far away from my incision and high up in the uterus, and the incision area looked good.

At 37 weeks I was seeing the doctor who did the emergency c-section when Megan was born. I had been in awful traffic on the way to the appointment and was concerned I wouldn't get there in time. On top of that, I hadn't had anything to drink yet for the day. (I had some water with me but, with the traffic, didn't have the chance to drink it while driving in.) So, I went through my appointment. Baby's heart rate was fine. My belly was measuring fine. But my blood pressure was slightly elevated...for me. The bottom number was 80 rather than my normal 60. I also told her that my heartburn had been a bit worse. Like, I had woken up twice almost throwing up from it. (Yuck. I hate pregnancy heart burn.) Apparently that raised red flags because she decided to send me over to the hospital for possible preeclampsia.

So, we called in the troops. I walked over to the hospital (the dr's office is attached - its not as bad as it seems!) while Jamie waited impatiently for his mom to come from work to watch Megan for us. (The dr said that today could be the day if preeclampsia was an issue.) Once I got to Labor and Delivery, they had me sit down while they filled out paperwork. It made me feel kind of funny - especially because I was actually feeling pretty good except being thirsty. Anyway, they put me in a room and hooked me up to the baby heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor. I laid there and slept and read a book on the kindle app on my phone and generally relaxed. Oh, and texted everyone who had demanded to know when it was baby time to let them know where we were. The nurse kept telling me that I definitely didn't have preeclampsia symptoms that she could see. Then she asked about Megan's birth and when I told her about it she was like, "oh yeah, I think I remember that." Wow, I guess that was an eventful birth if an L&D nurse (who didn't actually work on me) remembers it from almost 18 months ago!

Jamie got there after an hour or so and we both just sat and waited and gave thanks for the iPhone. Finally after several hours the doctor came by for a long chat and then to release me. They were concerned even with a slightly high blood pressure because of my history. Apparently what happened to me (spontaneous placenta abruption) just does NOT happen to people unless they are using cocaine. (And I wasn't!) It does sometimes happen with severe preeclampsia. And, one of the symptoms of sudden preeclampsia is a very bad heartburn type feeling.

She was pretty concerned and almost didn't let me leave, but I told her that I had had pretty severe cramping before the big event last time, so she gave me a long list of preeclampsia symptoms, made me promise to come to the hospital and call on my way in (no calling first) if I experienced any of them, and sent me home. Ha. Nothing like being told to look for headaches and cramping when you're 38 weeks pregnant to make you paranoid! Oh yeah, and they told me that I had to rest and definitely not pick Megan up because she was too heavy.

Starting that night we had to figure out a way for someone to be with me all the time because Megan was little enough that she still needed to be held quite a bit (and lifted into her high chair and her crib and out of both, etc.) Poor Jamie ended up missing a lot of work...or working from home as much as possible.

Anyway, we got through the weekend with me reassuring myself the whole time, "No, that headache is tiredness, its not in the right spot....no, that's the baby moving, not cramps...etc." Then Megan and Jamie came down with the stomach flu. And it was bad. Poor Jamie was up all night Sunday night throwing up and then on Monday I started having stomach cramps....but I had promised to go to the hospital if I had cramps. Arg. So, I went. They monitored me. I walked around. All of a sudden I had to throw up so one of the nurses aides gave me an ice cup to throw up into. My cramps went away. I walked back to my room. The doctor finally came and released me. Hospital visit number two done. (After more time off for Patti while she watched Megan and for Jamie while he stayed with me.)

We had a monitoring doctor's visit scheduled for that Thursday, so there we went. I had been feeling itchy all over the night before so I told the doctor about it. She told me to get some blood work and schedule an induction for the following Monday. Then she looked at my blood pressure and had me go back to the hospital. I hung out at the hospital; was monitored. Jamie left Megan with his mom and came to be with me. Blood pressure and baby were fine at the hospital. They never took my blood. I never scheduled an induction. And the doctor sent me home. False alarm #3.

After the third false alarm and with my due date coming the next Tuesday, my mom decided to fly out to be with us on Saturday. Oh how wonderful it was to have her here for a few days before Emma was born. I got to see her delight in getting reacquainted with Megan. Emma was super active, but no cramps, no preecclampsia. I was feeling relatively good.

Finally on Monday, I thought for sure that would be the day. I had another monitoring appointment with the nurse practitioner. We brought our bags because I figured they would probably send me over to the hospital to be induced. I hadn't felt any contractions that I knew of, but the monitors had picked up contractions that I wasn't feeling before, so I was hoping I was progressed enough for them to induce without the use of pitocin (which they - and I - were reluctant to use.)

But the monitoring seemed to go well. My blood pressure was low. The nurse practitioner who was seeing us had the nurse come in and send us home. As we left, we caught our regular (paranoid) doctor in the hall and she told us to schedule an induction as soon as possible because of my history.

We left feeling weird. We were relieved on the one hand because I wanted to go natural and my body wasn't ready to be induced, but we felt weird because we were both sure today was going to be the day.

Then, as we drove out of the parking garage, we got a call from the doctor's office. In checking the records from the monitoring that morning, they had some concerns. The baby's heart beat wasn't as fluctuating as it should be. Normally a baby's heart beat accelerates and decelerates a lot within a certain range. Emma's was just staying steady. So, they sent us to another doctor's office in the same building for a kind of ultrasound that would check on her health. We were honestly quite relieved because we had both felt so weird about leaving.

The new doctor's office sent us out to get lunch and walk around. We got back at 1 and were immediately taken in for our ultrasound. The first thing the technician said was, "You know she's breach right?" Um, no. Last time anyone checked, she was head down. I guess all that movement over the weekend was actually her turning over. Other than that, though, she looked great. But then the doctor came in and kept going over a certain section of my uterus again and again. Finally she told us that it was thin which meant I was in labor and, since Emma was breach, we would need to have a c-section that day. Then she walked us out to the waiting room and told us to wait there. "Don't go anywhere." We weren't planning on going anywhere, but she was just kind of weird about it. Seemed more urgent than was warranted by a breach baby. I mean, I wasn't even feeling contractions. Labor obviously wasn't progressing very fast.

Anyway, we sat there for a while until they finally brought a wheel chair to wheel me over to labor and delivery. They assured me it was just protocol. Hmmm. It wasn't protocol the last 2 times I was sent from a doctor's office over to the hospital. I wasn't worried though. Just interested.

Finally, we were all settled in my labor and delivery room and hooked up to the monitors and my doctor came in (the one on call at the hospital for the day) and, yay!, it was my favorite one at the practice. She explained that it wasn't just that the baby was breach, but that the ultrasound doctor had seen some concerning things on the ultrasound. Apparently she couldn't see the wall of my uterus near my bladder on the ultrasound. That could just mean that it was really thin...or it could mean that my incision had opened up and the only thing holding me together was the pressure of the amniotic sac on my bladder. Not good! Plus, if the baby kicked or was distressed, or my water broke, she could do real damage to the bladder.

So, that was why this was such an emergency. We had to wait until 7 pm because we had eaten lunch at 1 (at the ultrasound doctor's request - it helps to see baby movement if blood sugar is up). So, we sat around and waited and watched the monitoring equipment.

Finally it was time and they had me walk to the OR. (That's a weird experience.) Once they were ready they had me sit on the operating table (much skinnier than I would have thought) and lean forward while the anesthesiologist stuck the needle in my back and asked me if it was in the center or to the left or the right. Ugh. Yucko. Finally he got it in the middle and then had me lay down quickly before my legs got numb.

What a weird experience a spinal block is. You can't feel pain, but you can feel pressure. You have awareness of where your limbs are but you can't move them. Ha ha. All I wanted was for my knees to point up to the ceiling so my legs were straight. The nurses moved them a little for me, but not quite enough and it drove me nuts! Plus, the medication made me dizzy and nauseous so the anesthesiologist had to give me some anti-nausea medication. And then I started panicking. I JUST wanted to be able to MOVE MY LEGS!!! I wanted it over. I couldn't reason myself out of it. I was freaked out. (Later my mom explained that the anti-nausea medication was probably epinephrine and it probably gave me a medically induced panic attack. No wonder I couldn't control my emotions in the moment!)

Anyway, it seemed like it took forever. Jamie came in and sat by my head stroking my hair and trying to help me calm down. I could feel them pushing aside muscle (not sure they found much!) to avoid cutting it. Then, after what seemed like 30-40 minutes to me, but was probably not more than 15 minutes, they pushed down hard on my belly and out came Emma. She screamed and everyone was happy. They whisked her away to be suctioned and weighed and cleaned and then brought her for Jamie and me to see. Honestly and sadly, I was still freaking out on the inside and it was hard for me to focus on her.

But she was so sweet and one of my prayers was definitely answered. Even from that first moment they put her next to me, she started rooting and licking my cheek. Unlike Megan, she came out wanting to eat!

Another anesthesiologist had taken over and she kept making us do stupid poses for the camera and kept wiping Emma's spit bubbles away from her mouth for the pictures, which made me mad. If Emma has spit bubbles, I want to see them in the pictures! I just wanted to tell her that I love my baby the way she is, spit bubbles and all!

After the pictures, they took Emma away and Jamie went with her. And, to my relief, they gave me some more medication to put me to sleep (not like unconscious, just asleep.)

I vaguely remember having to scoot onto another bed to be wheeled back to the room and then being able to use my legs well enough to be able to help as they scooted me into the bed in the post partum ward.

Then, almost immediately, I was able to hold Emma and try to nurse and she really got it! I mean, not that we never had any feedings where she wouldn't latch or never had moments of frustration, but THANKS BE TO GOD she really knew what she was doing from the start!

Honestly, most of those first couple days are a blur.

I was amazed at how quickly I recovered. By the next morning I could stand up.

And it was wonderful getting to know this precious baby girl without any monitors or really even much help. When Jamie had to be gone with Megan I would just hold her and if she needed her diaper changed, I would lay her down between my legs and change her on the bed. What a difference from Megan, who I didn't even see naked for the first couple days of her life!

On Emma's second night of life Jamie had to go home to be with poor little Megan, who was pretty unsettled by not having mommy or daddy home with her. (Although Grammy and Mia made good substitutes.) It seemed like as soon as Jamie left Emma started screaming. And she just kept screaming. I tried nursing her but that didn't comfort her for long. I tried holding her close. Nothing. I tried changing her diaper, swaddling her, unswaddling her, swaddling her again, singing to her, feeding her...I mean, how much can you really do less than 36 hours after abdominal surgery? After hours of this, a nurse came in to give me more meds or something. I told her that Emma was just screaming and screaming. She said, "yeah, its the second night syndrome." I looked it up on my iphone and, sure enough, it pretty much described Emma. Here is my facebook status update from 2:50 am that night:"Apparently there's a thing called the second night syndrome where the baby wants to nurse constantly, won't sleep especially in bassinet, and cries a LOT. Well, at least we're text book. Poor Emma is not very happy tonight. :-(" It did make me feel better though, just knowing that there wasn't something wrong with her! Finally, after a long night of crying, Emma fell asleep snuggled inside my hospital gown with me with her head against my heart. So sweet! I loved the thought that she was finally comfortable being as close to inside me as she could get.

After that, the days went by relatively fast. Mostly we had to wait for me to be ready to go home and as soon as they let me go, Jamie and I wanted to get home. It was hard being away from Megan for so long. She was a trooper and had a great time with Grammy and Mia at home...and she did come in to meet Emma, but at night she would get unsettled and it was breaking our hearts to be away for so long. I think it was especially hard on Jamie. I was still in that new mom stage where everything revolves (rightly) around the baby. I missed Megan like crazy, but I had to focus on Emma and couldn't focus on how Megan was doing as much.

So, after a second night where Jamie had to go home to be with Megan around 2 am, we packed up and left.

As much as it was great to be home, being home was another kind of torture. Emma was so good. She ate and slept and was as easy as a newborn baby could be, but I was hating the recovery. For some reason, this time around, recovery (after the first couple days) seemed much worse than it did last time. Maybe last time there was just too much going on to be able to focus on my recovery. I had to worry about how to get Megan to eat, where everything was from the move, etc. This time, Emma was eating and gaining so well that, after her 1st day home appointment, we didn't have to go back until she was one month old. Crazy!

But my incision was sore. Nursing was at that painful stage where you dread every feeding and just want it to be over. Megan just wanted me to hold her and I couldn't even have her on my lap for fear that she would kick the incision. Megan was also having a lot of trouble sleeping at night and would call for me (who had always been the one to get up with her at night), but I couldn't even lift her out of her crib. I would lay in bed and cry while Jamie went for her and she cried for me. I had just been told that I would never be able to have children naturally...any further kids would have to be by c-section too. And I was remembering the awful panic that I experienced during Emma's "birth". I was thinking a lot about how I really didn't ever want to go through that again, which meant that I never wanted to have more kids. But I've always wanted more than 2. But I didn't ever want to go through a c-section again. (Actually, if I think about it too hard, it makes me feel slightly panicky even now!) Those baby blues kicked in and kicked in hard. I tried to remember that it was hormonal. That it was temporary. That recovery would be over in 6 weeks. That the hormones would calm down. That nursing would become enjoyable in a few weeks. And that the memory of the c-section would fade. But it all seemed like it would take SO long.

And then I felt better. I'm not sure when. Ha. I just know the depression ended, as I knew it would. The pain (except the back pain that is my constant companion from carrying babies) went away. And I can now carry Megan around to my heart's content. (And Emma, of course, but that was never an issue...although she did weigh over the 10 lb limit before I got to my 6 week "recovered" date.)

I had help from my mom, then my brother James, then my Dad, then James again...and from Jamie's mom...for the entire first 6 weeks of Emma's life. What a blessing! What would I have done if they hadn't been there?

But I have to admit that, although I was sad to see them go because I would miss them, it was such a relief to get to that 6 week mark and finally be able to take over being a mom again! It didn't take long to adjust to being home with the two girls. And it was wonderful to be solely responsible for them during the day.

To start to be able to pay attention to Emma's eating and sleeping patterns instead of relying on whoever has been holding her to know when she's tired. To get into a routine and figure out how to get both girls dressed in the morning...and, more difficultly, how to get ME dressed in the morning!

We've had plenty of crazy days, plenty of times where one or both girls are screaming as I try to get two poopy diapers changed, spit up mopped up, and pee cleaned off of the couch or our bed, but those times are not often (thankfully!) and we're all pretty contented most of the time. Megan is such a fantastic big sister and Emma is such a sweet, good little sister that now, at three months, I can't imagine life without two!

Megan at 18 months

2011-03-31T13:48:00.007-05:00

Megan is 18 months and 9 days old today. Yesterday we had her 18 month appointment and I thought I should write about what she's like at this age. She's growing up so quickly and we are so proud of the wonderful little girl that she is!

First the statistics. She's 26 lbs, 33 1/4 inches long, and her head is 19 3/4 inches around. Ha. That's 75th percentile for weight, 92nd for height, and over 100th for head. Oh well, at least her head doesn't look huge...at least to me.

She is a smart one. The sheet the doctor's office gives you says she should be running (check - and dancing like a mad woman), turning 2-3 pages at a time (usually only one), know 10 words (um, definitely), know one body part (more like pretty much every one), and copy parents (check). Megan is talking constantly. Mostly still one word at a time, but just today she has really morphed into using two quite a bit. She knows pretty much all her animals and sounds, almost all her body parts (her favorite is "belbow" or elbow) including things like forehead, eyebrows, etc., most foods (today she was asking for goat cheese and meat at lunch), and lots of the characters on Sesame Street. (Hey! I was pregnant and exhausted for half her life. Give me a break!) She loves butterflies (buh-fye), can tell you what a piano, guitar, and drums say, and can now name most family members and friends. And this week she has started referring to herself as Mee-mee (Meg meg) or Megs. Because of having my mom here, she has also started sometimes referring to me as "Cash" or Catherine (I can't remember how it sounds) and she points to her Daddy when you ask her where Jamie is. We skyped with her great grandparents in England on Sunday for the first time in months and on Monday she asked about them by name.

Megan has loved books and music for pretty much her entire life. She'll sit and look at books or listen to them read (if shes in the right mood) for a long time. She's now starting to really look at the pictures and notice things like the toy elephant on the shelf in Goodnight Moon or the mess the ball made when it broke the window in her Bible verse book.

And she loves to sit at the piano with Daddy and play along with him. Now she'll often sing along, although not necessarily the right tune yet. Her favorite songs are "ABCDABBB", "Bah bah bah bah", "Woe woe woe" and "Up uh buh buh". She also sings along with her lullaby by singing "peesh, peesh, peesh." (Translations: ABC, Baa baa black sheep, Row row row your boat, and Twinkle twinkle little star - or "Up above the world so high". And I will lie down and sleep in peace.) She also likes a Dutch song that my mom and Oma sing to her "dei dei dei" and can do the actions to the eensy weensy spider, round and round the garden, and jack be nimble jack be quick.

And don't get me started on her dancing. Her favorite is dancing around the kitchen with her daddy. She'll push the button on her Leapfrog fridge farm thing to make it play its hick music (can't think of the name for the genre - sorry: baby brain) and dance round and round the kitchen.

Speaking of her daddy. She loves to rough house with him, play "hide" with him, and generally chase and be rough with him. Her little eyes sparkle with mischief and she loves to run up to people with a growl to try to scare them. But despite her love for roughness with Daddy other people she knows, she is a super sensitive tender little girl.

She jumps into your lap if she hears a scary noise or a door opens unexpectedly or even if a stranger talks to her sometimes. She is quite shy with strange adults most of the time, but if she sees kids (even complete strangers) will almost always run up unafraid with her playful growl or scream to try to invite them to play. Yesterday the entire doctor's visit was traumatic. She found everything scary, from being measured to the doctor listening to her chest to the shots (of course!) On the way home my mom and I heard her little voice from the car seat, "Huht. (Hurt.) No, no no! No huht." And she talked about the docdoc and the nuhs all evening, only really feeling better when Jamie told her in a naughty voice that nurses say, "rahr". Then she could say that with a sparkle in her eye and she felt better.

Other things about Megan at 18 months?

She loves coloring, or "wite, wite, wite"-ing. She even carries her crayons around the house with her, although she is very good about only writing on paper.

She is and has always been very obedient. If she sees something that is a "no no", she will quickly point it out, shake her finger and say "no no". This happened today with an outlet that didn't have a cover on it and a knife on the counter (it was out of reach, but she could still see it.)

She loves her baby sister. This could be a whole different blog post. She constantly wants to kiss her and look at her and be with her.

She gets obsessed with things. There are times she will not stop talking about the breast pump and the noise it makes and the milk it makes, etc. If there is a glass of water in her sight, she will almost always point to it and say "han" (hand), meaning that she wants to stick her hand in it and either "splash splash splash" or "wub wub wub" (rub water on someone's knee or hand or arm or whatever). And if she is told "no" she is NOT happy about it.

She loves looking at pictures and videos of herself and other family members. First thing in the morning, she almost always points to one of our phones and says, "pic pic".

She is a very non-picky eater. Or maybe just a non-traditional eater. She loves spicy food. Chili or jambalaya or buffalo chicken nuggets or whatever. She will scarf down food that makes her Mia's eyes water. Today she tried goat cheese and loved it! Her favorite food is cheese and her favorite kind of cheese is pepperjack. She also loves applesauce ("appa"), spinach (usually), milk, juice, chocolate ("toc toc"), cookies ("cook cook"), mandarin oranges, banana, strawberries, plums, peaches, black beans, rice and lots of other foods.

She loves Elmo and any youtube video of Mahna mahna and frequently asks to watch them. I usually try to limit it to 30 minutes a day or less.

She is so tender hearted. She loves to kiss people and when her friend Bailey across the street fell down, cried for her because she was crying.

If she falls she usually says, "ok" in a pathetic voice and then comes over for a kiss.

Last night was the second night in a row that Megan has ever slept through the night! Praise the Lord! It has been a sleepless 18 months for me!

This morning my mom decided to try to write down everything Megan said to try to get a count of the words she knows. After half an hour she gave up, but this is what she got in half an hour:

wawa (water)

bubub (light bulb)

aha!

yes

uhoh

ba (pacifier)

poon (spoon)

roll roll

yid (lid)

eat

moh (more)

Dada

sing (thing) - in response to "I don't know what that is"

write

mik (milk)

plum

walk walk

keen (clean)

een (in)

bed

egg

dadaub (strawberries)

tur (stir)

mess

watch

yook (look)

MeMe (Megan)

Me egg (Megan's egg)

bye bye

poop

bread

uppa (up)

fork

cut cut cut

see

toe toot (I'm so cute) - Jamie taught her that that is what princesses say

cold

han (hand)

mor han

neck

mama

bebe (baby)

ABBBB (ABCD)

down

hurt

cream

toctoc (chocolate)

open

closed

hide Dadda

Elmo

kiss

tay-pee (toothpaste)

Well, I know this isn't very neatly ended and is probably incomplete, but Megan is home from Starbucks with her Grammy and I have a feeling that if I don't finish now, this will go the way of all my other half-finished, never published blog posts.

15 months

2010-12-22T15:24:00.004-05:00

So, that makes it 8 months after the last post? Ha ha. Oops.

Well, I was going to post about beautiful Megan at 15 months, but she's waking up from her nap, so I'll just copy and paste a comment that I wrote to someone who asked me about her talking.

She says SO much that I can't tell you all the words she knows. BUT I don't think the average person would be able to tell that she's using real words, not just babbling. :) Some of her favorite words: wawa (water), moh (more), cah cah (cracker, cookie, chocolate, quack quack, cereal, etc....they all have a slightly different vowel sound or inflection. :)), mih (cow's milk), nuh (nurse), dew (juice), Plbee pee (cheese please - the plb is like a raspberry sound), hi, bah bah (bye bye or pacifier), bah bee (baby, belly, etc), nigh nigh (night night), mehmoh (elmo), bahbop (grandpa, papa, opa), dada, mama, dah doo (thank you), bah (ball or pacifier or sometimes block), nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh(no no, or Christmas tree or wreath, etc...ha ha), cack (jacket)....I dont know. There's tons more...and she surprises me every day with more words or with the relative clarity with which she speaks them. :) Oh, and her favorite thing of all is imitating noises. Any strange noise, she'll point and imitate. She knows almost all her animal noises (cow, horse, elephant, dog, cat, squirrel, rabbit, deer, bird in general, crow, lizard, mouse, fish, lion, bear, etc.)...or at least what we've taught her they say which may not always be accurate. :) And lots of other noises too (drum, bell, clock, toaster, microwave, etc.)

Mommy-hood at almost 7 months.

2010-04-16T20:33:00.004-05:00

I'm a rule follower.

I know, I know. "Women who behave rarely make history." But I kind of don't agree. I think that following the RIGHT rules - the ones God made for us - frees us to be exactly who He calls us to be, gives us confidence sometimes to break other rules when necessary, and keeps us on the best path while avoiding all those ugly bunny-trails that can so screw up our lives, our hearts, and those we love.

But that's not really my point here. My point is: being a mommy is hard for me because there are no rules for me to follow.

Well, ok, there are some. Love my girl. Teach her about God and His Word and His faithfulness. Remember that God alone makes her dwell in safety. (We sing Steve Green's rendering of Psalm 4:8 as Megan's lullaby every night.)

But, lets be honest, the day-to-day of these things are really left up to us. And, while she's still an infant and not understanding language, its even more obvious (than it will be when she's older) that teaching Megan about God and His faithfulness does not merely (or at all right now) mean talking to her about God and His acts throughout history and in our lives.

At one of my baby showers, the women pounded into my head that I need to rely on my instincts as a mom. (Ok, it didn't feel as bullying as that, but they were definitely pretty encouragingly insistent.) And when Megan was a newborn, those instincts seemed pretty strong (most of the time). But the thing about instincts is you can't point the finger somewhere else and say, "This solid, firm, always right thing says to do it this way so, even if you don't agree, that's how I'm doing it." Its all on you. And your "instincts". Which could easily be mistaken for whims, feelings, or sleep-deprivation induced ravings.

In our family, Jamie is the naturally instinctive one. I'm all reason, rationality, and argument. Jamie is the one who's likely to say in a conversation that he just doesn't feel right about something, or that he feels like God is saying something to him. And, because he's been proven right over and over again in his "feelings", I tend to listen and trust him in those instincts. I, however, will ALWAYS try to reason things out, see the other side, and make sure I can argue that my way is the right way. I drive Jamie crazy with my devil's advocate stance on every conversation topic and decision.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the decision making of being a mom is not an easy thing for me. I want rules. "When Megan wakes up at 4 am for the 5th time that night, here's what you do. Period." Ha. And even reading parenting books doesn't really help. The Bible doesn't weigh in on Baby-wise vs. Attachment Parenting. Oh how I wish it would. :)

Most of the time I'm really pretty good at the physical demands of parenting a baby. Yes, I get grouchy and zombie like with sleep deprivation, but I don't mind it too much. Yeah, my knees hurt every time I get up or down with her in my arms, but I can get over it..until I think I'm doing it WRONG.

That's when I start to freak out.

Because there are no rules by which to measure my parenting. And no ten steps to ensure that Megan will grow up secure, loving the Lord, and healthy.

And maybe that's why its important that we sing to her every night:

"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." (Ps. 4:8)

Because only God's hands are big enough to hold Megan's future. No matter what it may hold.

Beautiful Megan at 8 weeks and younger

2009-11-18T20:42:00.005-05:00

When I talked to my friend Adriel for the first time after Megan was born she asked me what were the little things that I loved about her. Here are some of them:

- She has this

super cute curly cowlick on her forehead. Since she's lost most of the downy hair that covered her when she was born, you can't see it very well right now, but if she gets hair there when she's older its gonna be super annoying to her. I think its super cute and really hope she does get hair there just so I can see it. :) (You can kind of see it to the left of the hair that is hanging down over her forehead in this picture.)

- When she was born her ears seriously looked like they were on upside-down. So cute. They were wider at the bottom and narrower at the top. They're starting to be more even now, but I loved that my girl had upside-down ears for a little while.

- I think every newborn does it, but she totally snores...only it sounds like a purr. Its so sweet to have her on your chest and hear her purring her contentment. She also sometimes sings with every breath. I love it.

- When she was born, her big toe nails were pointy and I was kind of worried that she would get ingrown toenails. But they grew and the points broke off. But it was such a cute little thing that showed that she wasn't quite "cooked" when she was born.

- When she finishes eating and you pick her up to burp her, she arches her back with her legs curled up (her little butt sticks out in a very cute way) and purses her lips. (It reminds me of that Full House episode where Michelle gets in trouble for calling that boy "duckface". Except Duckface looked weird and was annoying and Megan is super cute.)

- When she's asleep her little mouth is locked shut. Its impossible to get her to eat unless she wants to!

- She's just started smiling in the last couple weeks and more frequently more recently. Yesterday I discovered that she LOVES when I whistle for her. I start whistling "twinkle, twinkle little star" or "Jesus loves me" and she just lights up.

- There're so many sweet things when she eats. But especially when she was just a week or so old she would just get so panicky, rooting around for food, that it could be right in her mouth and she'd be frantically shaking her head back and forth with her mouth wide open. Gah. The cutest (and most pitiful) thing ever. Now she sometimes does it when she's trying to get her pacifier and its just plain cute. (Not pitiful because she's getting plenty to eat and she knows very well how to get it!)

Six weeks ago today...and the next couple days

2009-11-03T15:57:00.001-05:00

Warning: This will be long because I want to document this for myself as well as give you info. And you might not want to know all the info. :)

It was a Tuesday morning and Jamie and I had spent Monday night at the new house working on the nursery until late. I had finally got some of Megan's clothes washed, folded, and put into her dresser drawers. The crib wasn't built yet, but the bassinet was up and ready. And I had taken several pictures of my swollen ankles, knowing that I needed to rest and that I would need to put my feet up at work the next day.

So, Tuesday, I put my feet up on an upside down trash can and got to training my replacement, Brandie. But I was feeling pretty exhausted and, I guess, just weird. I had one of the hygienists take my blood pressure...just in case because of the ankle swelling. But I knew that I had just worked a bit too hard and that I just needed to rest. I started to feel some cramps...but again, I knew I just needed to rest. I knew it wasn't contractions because, well, there wasn't any interval between them. It was constant. But the cramps were getting worse and we weren't busy at work, so I asked (and they encouraged me) to go home and take a nap around 11 am(?). I told them I was pretty sure I would be back soon after lunch, but I thought this would be a good short amount of time to leave Brandie to get the hang of some of the tasks without me watching over her shoulder.

So, I drove home and called Jamie to let him know what I was doing. But when I got home the cramps were just getting worse. But still no intervals, so obviously no labor. So I called my Mom and Jamie again and they both encouraged me to call the doctor just in case. (By that time the cramps were making me tear up and I was starting to worry that I was too wussy to do the whole natural childbirth thing if I was having such a hard time just dealing with a little bit of cramps.) The doctor said to go to the hospital just to have them check to see if I was having contractions, so Jamie drove home to get me. We brought a hastily - and half-heartedly - packed bag with us, knowing that this was not labor, these were not contractions, but...just in case.

Jamie drove me to the hospital as quickly as he could, singing to me to try to distract me from his fast driving, short-cuts through parking lots, etc. When we finally got to labor and delivery they had no rooms available so we stood at the counter filling out paper work until I couldn't stand any longer from the pain, so Jamie grabbed me a wheel chair. When the paper work was all filled out we walked over to another area (maybe the PACU?) that was being used as overflow. Just a room with about 5 beds separated by curtains. Arg. Getting that hospital gown on seemed to take forever! All I wanted to do was lay down.

Finally, I laid down and the nurse put monitors on me, asked a bunch of questions, and after monitoring me for a little while said I had no contractions (isn't that what I'd been saying?) but a little bit of irritability in my uterus (what?) and that the baby's heart rate was good. She suggested that I go home and wait, since this was probably just pre-labor and I'd be more comfortable there. It was about that time that I thought I felt my water break...until the nurse checked and it was blood, not "water". Starting then, everything sped up.

The nurse called our doctor who was there very quickly, checked me, and declared that she needed to do a c-section. Jamie asked "when?", to which she replied, "now." He asked if he could be there (no) and if they ever made any exceptions (no). I think my primary thought at this point was feeling so bad for Jamie.

They called some kind of a code that caused nurses to stream in to start getting me prepped for surgery. At some point in there, I threw up all over myself. Lovely. (I guess shock from blood loss?) They tried to get an IV in each of my hands, then gave up and ended up putting one in the vein on the inside of my elbow. Then the anesthesiologist was there asking me what I'd eaten today (but remember? I threw it all up) and what medications I was on and all of a sudden my bed (and I on it) was being run down the hospital halls. So cool! Just like on TV!! Right before we went through the OR doors, Jamie ran up and gave me a kiss and told me he loved me. Then we were in the OR and the anesthesiologist was yelling for some kind of medicine he wanted me to swallow before I got the general anesthesia to keep me from throwing up. He finally got it, I swallowed it (nasty), and they started prepping my belly.

Next thing I knew, I was groggily seeing a baby.

Jamie had brought her to see me. I really only remember hair and lips and incredible softness. After that, the day is blurry but pleasant. I was on morphine and I remember they told me to push the pain button whenever I felt pain. But then when they came back they were shocked at how much I had pressed the button, so they gave me something stronger. I guess I was in pain, but I don't remember it. Megan was in the nursery and at one point they came and told us that they were going to take her to the NICU because she was having some minor breathing problems. Jamie asked if they could bring her to me so I could see her before she was stuck in the NICU. They did that and I got to hold her a little bit.

Then they took her to the NICU. Eventually they moved me from the PACU (where I had been taken back to) to a Post-partum room.

Ha ha. I have so many memories of that day of just being so content (hello, morphine!). They told me they would move me to a more comfortable bed and I said that the bed I was on was super comfortable. They they moved me to the other one and I was amazed at how much more comfortable it was. They told me they would take the plastic sheet out from underneath me. I wasn't bothered by it at all. But then they took it out from underneath me and wow! It felt good!

Throughout this whole experience, but especially that first week or so, Jamie and I were so aware of God's provision and care for us throughout. In so many ways.

1) Just the fact that I was at the hospital when my water broke/I started bleeding so profusely. Placenta abruption is serious and could have been very dangerous if I had been somewhere else when it all happened. As it was, there was no harm to either Megan or me other than surgery for me and the consequences of being a few weeks early for her. Her apgar scores were 9 and 7!

I could easily not have called the doctor, the doctor could have told me to wait at home, or we could have left the hospital before the bleeding started. Jamie could have taken his time at coming to get me (neither of us thought the cramping was ANYTHING), but instead he rushed home from work and drove like a crazy man to the hospital even though he *knew* this was just a false alarm. Thank you Lord for putting urgency in his actions, even if not in his mind!

2) The nurse we had was amazing. And her name was Sarah Lee. In my morphine induced state, I thought that was super cool and told her about my sister-in-law who has the same name, although different spelling. :-P

3) The post-partum room that we got was amazing. One of the biggest in the whole unit! There was plenty of room for my bed, a couch for Jamie, and lots of visitors!

4) We were at Virginia Hospital Center. When we were first picking an ob, we thought we'd be living in Arlington/Falls Church, so we got a recommendation for a doctor who practiced there. We had heard it was a great place to deliver. But we didn't even consider the NICU or anything like that. Our baby would have no trouble at all, right? When we finally moved to the other end of Fairfax and super close to Fairfax Hospital, it was just a bit inconvenient to be delivering in Arlington. But what a blessing to find out that VA Hospital Center is the only hospital in the area with private NICU rooms! A private place to learn to breastfeed, have friends and family visit the baby, and sleep on that last night when I had been discharged but Megan hadn't! On top of that, the unit only has like 12 babies on it, so the nurses had plenty of time to spend with us during those late night feedings, helping me figure it out, talking to us, and encouraging us.

5) The particular NICU room that we got: all the way at the end of the hallway so that we had maximum privacy. No one ever peeked in our room to get a look at the baby. The nurses let us have more visitors than we were supposed to because no one would see. It was great!

So, back to the story. Once I was settled in my room on Tuesday night, Jamie went out and went back to our apartment to begin moving everything over to the house. He knew that we would need to go home from the hospital to the house, not the apartment. He was gone until probably around 3. Then he went to see Megan, and finally came and crashed on the couch in my room around 4 am. On Wednesday morning we woke up to some guy knocking on the door at 5:30 am and coming in to ask me all kinds of questions like whether the birth was vaginal or a c-section, whether I had an epidural, etc. Eventually I asked why he couldn't just look at my chart. He told me that it was his first day. Ha. At 6 he came back asking if he could take the dressing off my incision. I was like, "um, my doctor hasn't even done that yet. no." I"m thinking, "its your first day, you haven't even read my chart enough to know what kind of birth I had, and now you want to start messing with the incision that you didn't even know happened? NO WAY!" Finally at 6:30 the resident came in and took the dressing off, took my catheter out (much to my disappointment - I was enjoying being able to drink water without having to constantly pee - oh morphine), and took me off the morphine. Soon afterwards, a nurse came in and helped me get up and walk to the bathroom. Ugh. It was awful. I was so dizzy. And then she told me I should sit in a chair rather than getting back in bed, so she put me in a chair and left. Jamie was down in the NICU with Megan at that point and I didn't know what to do. I was so dizzy and sick feeling that I was sure I would faint if I just moved my head, let alone tried to get to the bed to lie down again. Eventually my doctor came in to check on me. She must have been able to see how miserable I was, so she helped me into bed and then told me that they were going to have to do 2 blood transfusions because I had lost more blood than normal during the c-section. (Hence, the dizziness!) I just remember asking her to call Jamie and explain it to him because I knew I was too dizzy and out of it to understand what she was telling me. The rest of the day I spent in bed trying to at least eat the liquid diet tray the kitchen brought me (yum.

Beef or chicken broth was the only thing that tasted good to me.) They came in to teach me to pump. (It had already been 24 hours since Megan was born - she needed sustenance.) And finally at 3 or 4 they started the first blood transfusion. Ugh. I know it was such a long day for Jamie. Back and forth between my room and Megan's room. Waiting for the blood transfusion to get started because I couldn't leave the room to go see Megan until it was over. (I was so sick for most of the day that I didn't even mind that I couldn't see Megan. :-( Thankfully Patti came and sat with her for like 6 hours on Tuesday so she wasn't alone the whole day while I was sick.)

During that first blood transfusion my Mom got here from California. She came to see me and then went to meet Megan for the first time.

Finally, after the first transfusion and before the second, the nurse let Jamie wheel me down in a wheelchair to see Megan. Finally, I got to hold her and try to feed her. I was feeling about a million times better by this point.

Then it was back up the elevator for the second transfusion. After that one, we went straight back down to Megan and thus began our trips down to the NICU every three hours for the rest of my stay. Ah. The empty halls of a hospital at night. Jamie practically running with my wheelchair because he was so impatient to get back to our beautiful baby girl.

For the rest of my time in the hospital, Mom and Jamie pretty much traded off. Jamie would stay with me and Megan through the day and then leave in the late evening to go spend several hours getting things moved from the apartment to the new house. He'd get back between 1 and 3 in the morning, sleep on the couch in my room, then get up every 3 hours to wheel me down to see Megan. Mom would spend the night at the new house, spend all day either at the apartment or the house, packing, unpacking, cleaning, and organizing, and then come hang out with me and Megan for the evening while Jamie was gone.

The blood transfusions did wonders for my strength. I felt better immediately. But then there was Megan to worry about. The doctor in the NICU was concerned that she wasn't getting enough food. She had been on an IV for a while, but she needed to be fully feeding and gaining weight from nursing before she could leave. And the doctor was not nice about it.

Jamie and I were determined to give Megan only breastmilk, knowing that its best for babys' tummies if they have only breastmilk at least for the first couple months of life. The doctor was not happy about it. Jamie had to be super firm about it when she first went into the NICU. Then the doctor yelled at me about being 10 minutes late for a feeding (I didn't know the 3 hour thing was such a strict thing until that moment!) And of course, the ever difficult task of helping a baby figure out how to nurse along with waiting for my milk to come in. At one point the doctor said that we had to be able to supplement Megan's nursing with a 1 oz bottle of either breast milk or formula at each feeding. No pressure, Mom! But, thankfully, my milk started coming in just in time and we always had just enough from pumping for the next feeding.

God was so faithful in all of it. The timing of my milk coming in was perfect. I was also so thankful for the wonderful ladies that He put around me. Of course, Jamie was there and I don't know what I would have done without him to fight my battles for me, call the doctor funny names behind her back, and encourage me. But in that moment, the women made a huge difference. My mom was there fiercely angry at the doctor for upsetting me. And encouraging me. And then Sarah, Matt's wife, came. She had picked up some supplies for me and, along with the supplies, brought a Mrs. Field's cookie illegally into the NICU. Ah. The comfort of her nursely reassurance that I was doing the right thing along with the delicious sugary comfort of a chocolate chip cookie covered in frosting.

My "baby blues" were banished (for the moment)!

Plus, there were all the nurses. Jami, who warned me that it could take my milk longer to come in because I had a c-section, lost a lot of blood, and didn't get to nurse immediately. Her and all the other nurses who taught me how to breastfeed as I sat there trying every three hours. One of the nurses who stood behind the doctor as she strongly pressured me to supplement with formula and made sympathetic faces that helped me stay strong and realize that the doctor might be exaggerating the necessity of formula supplementation. (In fact, as I'm reading reviews on VA Hospital Center, I'm seeing that they are somewhat known for pushing formula supplementation on everyone - even people whose milk came in within 24 hours of birth!)

I was discharged on Saturday, 4 days after coming in "just to be checked." Jamie and I rushed "home" to our new house where I got to see how homey my mom and Patti (Jamie's mom) had made it feel. I took a shower, ate some homemade cookies, and then we rushed back out the door to make it to Megan's next feeding. That night we slept in the NICU. (Thank God for the wonderful nurses who had kept bringing us more and more comfy chairs. By that night we had one super comfy sitting chair, plus two of the chairs that pulled out into "beds". Ha. Not very comfortable, but at least we could both lie down.) Jamie brought his church clothes with him so he just had to change in the morning and head over to church to lead worship. (At that point it was less stressful for him just to go and do it than to find a sub and prep them.) That night we had a male nurse. At first I was nervous because, hey, I'm breastfeeding and I'm kind of a modest kind of person. But he was great. He would come in before every feeding time, change Megan's diaper, get her and her supplemental bottle all ready, and then just hand her to me in the chair and leave. It made a huge difference! And I was thankful that he was the nurse on that last night, not the first, as by that point I pretty much understood the basics of nursing and didn't need the nurse's help. (God's provision again!)

Oh, that night Megan was also on a billiblanket because her billirubin (jaundice levels) were a bit high and they wanted to make sure they were going down not up so that we could go home the next day.

Finally, on Sunday morning, we got the ok for Megan to leave.

Our nurse came and unhooked her from all her wires (praise the LORD!!!) and we just had to wait for Jamie to come and get us.

We came home to our new house and slept in our bed for the first time with Megan next to us in her bassinet.

So many things to be thankful for. We felt God's provision at every turn. Every time I would start to worry about something, we would pray (and others would too) and all of a sudden it would be fixed.

It was the same when we got home from the hospital.

Megan wouldn't nurse because she was so used to the bottle. We prayed and took away the bottle and she started to figure it out.

She wasn't gaining any weight. We prayed and went to a lactation specialist. We decided to go back to supplementing with a bottle of breastmilk(thinking that we'd just have to give up on nursing until she was bigger). From then on she took both the breast and the bottle with no problem...and gained almost 2 oz a day.

I am so thankful for all of your prayers and for God's amazing answers to them...and for His provision of blessings we didn't even know to ask for and far beyond what we need.

God's good provision

2009-07-11T15:40:00.005-05:00

Some of you know that this has been kind of an uncertain time for Jamie and me. We have always agreed that when the time came for having kids, we wanted me to be able to stay home to care for them. But we've also always known that that would be difficult financially in this area. On two salaries, we are able to live pretty comfortably, but one salary really seems almost impossible. It was a step of faith for us when it was the right time to start having kids because we still had no idea how we would make it. We really had to come to terms with the fact that we might have to move to a place with more affordable housing - but that would mean a new job for Jamie, new roots to put down, etc. And really Jamie's job is pretty ideal for him at this time.

We were continuing to explore different options, praying for God's provision and guidance, praying for openness to whatever God had for us, cutting costs and looking at ways to cut costs even more once I wouldn't be working.

Its been a good (and humbling) process for us, but some of the options we had were starting to fall through and a couple Sundays ago we really prayed, "Lord, make the way clear. It doesn't look like you're going to provide the way we thought, so please just show us what you DO want." (Its not like that was the first time we prayed that prayer, but it was another time of surrender.)

Then, Monday, July 6th, Jamie got an email from John Yates. (We were both home from work because it was the day our jobs chose to give off for July 4th.) The email included a forward from a family in the church who had a home available that they were willing to rent for an extremely reasonable rent. (Actually, its pretty UNreasonable for them. Definitely below what they could get.) In fact, as Jamie and I had discussed it in the past, this was the sum he had named several times as the sum we would probably be able to afford monthly in order for us to survive on his salary alone. So, we wrote back and went to go see the house that Tuesday evening.

Its beautiful. 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, lots of living space, etc. It would cut at least 20 minutes of Jamie's commute and allow us to be closer to the community of The Falls Church. The upstairs is all newly redone hardwood floors, everything is brand new paint, and the bathrooms, kitchen, and appliances, while very old fashioned, are scrubbed immaculately clean. The neighborhood is quiet and well-established. We met the across-the-street neighbor the other day - she's a Christian and has 2 small children - and just the short conversation we had with her showed me how friendly and neighbor-ly the neighborhood is.

Of course, that Wednesday night I had a lovely pregnant breakdown thinking about all the work involved in moving and how overwhelmed I felt in going from an amazing but small 2 bedroom apartment to a large house that will need to be somewhat furnished, made to seem home-y, etc. Ha ha. Jamie wisely assured me that he will do all the work and my pregnant self will just have to tell him where and what to clean. And then he put me to bed early. And since then I've felt incredibly peaceful and relieved. And also very surreal and blessed. And maybe a little guilty that God has provided such abundance for us.

But I'm also aware that God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. And, hey, this house will definitely give us space to have even more house-guests. (If they want to stay when we have a baby up at all hours of the night!) And the living space is huge enough that we will definitely no longer have to announce that we have a maximum capacity of 7 when we invite people over!

We've been scouring craigslist for furniture to help furnish this amazing home. Already, we found a dining room table for a great price that will seat up to 12 (maybe could squish more) if we put both leaves in it. I'm so excited for hosting family dinners and having the neighbors over and even having worship team dinners at OUR place! ...Now to find chairs to go with that table!

We definitely see the hand of God everywhere in this. We're so thankful for His truly undeserved kindness in gracing us with such an amazing home - and with the beginnings of furniture to fill it. Our prayer now is that we will be faithful in generosity with the gifts He has given us and that He will be served in our home.

And some lovely pictures from our phones.

Front. Makes Jamie think of the Wonder Years every time he sees it!

Living room. I love how sunny the living spaces are!

Our official move-in date is October 1st, but the family we're renting it from is very kind and is allowing us to start moving some things in starting today (or, actually yesterday). Hopefully this way, the actual moving in (2 days before my brother's wedding and 13 days before Baby Girl Brown is due to show herself) will not be too traumatic! Ha.

God is good!!!

Its July Already?

2009-07-02T18:35:00.003-05:00

How does a whole other month go by with no update? Sorry to anyone who keeps checking this thing. I'm thinking that's probably no one by now! And its not like there's nothing going on in our lives to update about.

First, Baby Girl Brown. She's doing well. I'm 26 weeks (just over 6 months) along and really feeling pretty good. A little back ache when I sit or stand or lay on one side too long. But not too bad. Oh, and heart burn. But that's about it. Definitely maternity clothes only from this point on. No more squeezing into my biggest pre-pregnancy clothes with just a belly-band to help me out. Ha ha. I'm loving the same black pants for work every day. It sure makes things easy. :)

This past Monday I had my glucose test. That's kind of the big one for our pregnancy, I think, because gestation diabetes is the one complication I'm at highest risk for because of family history, etc. But I'm excited to be at this place where we can find out if we need to do anything about it and act on it if we do. So far, no word, but I think that means everything is ok, since they told me they would get a hold of me by the end of the week if there was a problem.

As far as I can tell, our girl is very healthy. She has been super active. Yesterday I really don't think she went more than half an hour the entire time I was awake without kicking and squirming and somersaulting. Today she was a bit more subdued. But I think its because I didn't snack between breakfast and lunch and she was HUNGRY!

Other things that I think are fun? She loves to kick my seatbelt and the computer. She can actually make the computer move! And, I'm not sure if its just been a coincidence, but there have been several times when she's been pretty quiet but when Jamie started talking to my belly, she started squirming and kicking again. I hope its because she recognizes his voice already! He loves her so much.

Work is still good...although a little more difficult. I think one of the main things I've noticed in pregnancy is that I am more easily annoyed. It used to take a lot to even make me feel annoyance. Now, I feel it all the time at work! I'm really working on not giving in to it, but trying to maintain a "not easily angered" loving attitude toward everyone. After all, if things don't annoy you, its no virtue not to react, right? There have been a couple times when I've really been convicted to act with patience and pray for peace. (Jamie's encouragement over g-chat helps a lot with this!)

It does seem like we've been pretty busy recently. I think we've had guests sleeping in our guest room almost every other weekend for a couple months now. And the weekends we (or more like I) have off, we spend recovering! But it is a blessing to have this place where we have room for people to stay. We were just discussing yesterday how it really makes a place feel like home when you can have people you love come stay with you. We want to be hospitable.

Speaking of busyness, I need to go clean....busy weekends mean that the house has not been thoroughly cleaned in several weeks. I think it might be time to clean that scuff of something off the kitchen floor. :)

Email to my Mom

2009-05-28T20:20:00.002-05:00

Well, we haven't updated this in forever, but you gotta start (over) somewhere, right, so here's an email I wrote to my mom just now about some fun recipes I've used in the last couple days.

Hi Mom,

I just finished dinner and thought I'd email you with the recipe for what I just made, since it was absolutely delicious!

Last night I was looking at all the fresh chicken you bought that I had thawed and realizing that I REALLY needed to use it before it went bad. So I made two separate chicken recipes that I'd never made before. (I know...its like the first time in my pregnancy that I've actually felt adventurous in cooking!!!)

Both recipes were breaded, so here's a simple way to make yummy bread crumbs. Just take a couple slices of whole wheat bread, toast them thoroughly (mine were browner than I would normally eat and even a teensy bit burned in places), put them in the food processer and blend. (I couldn't find my chopping attachment, so I used the shredding attachment and fed half slices down the chute thing that i normally put the cheese down.) - Sheesh baby girl is kicking the computer. - Then I mixed them with a seasoning that Jamie's mom always buys and that I really like on buttered pasta or in some italian dishes or whatever. Its called Mixed Up Salt. You should be able to find it in the weird salt section. I probably used maybe 3 tablespoons of the mixed up salt to 4 slices of bread. But not sure, since I just sprinkled it in.

First recipe (for what we ate last night).

Ingredients: thawed chicken breasts, block of cream cheese, chives or green onions, parmesan cheese, breadcrumb mixture, melted butter.

Directions: Take a chicken breast, and butterfly it. (You could pound it to make it thinner but I didn't have a pounder thingy, so I didn't.) Then put a slice of cream cheese (I used half a block of cream cheese divided between 4 small breasts) and some chopped chives or green onions on the chicken and roll it up, securing it with a toothpick or two. The cream cheese doesn't need to be totally covered by the chicken. Roll the rolled up chicken in the bread crumbs, then put it in a greased casserole dish or something to bake it in. Do that with all the chicken. Sprinkle the tops of the chicken things with parmesan cheese. Drizzle it all in melted butter. Bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes. And be sure to eat the goop. This is the first meat that isn't cut up very small that I've had any desire to eat in a very long time. But I had seconds of this last night!

Second recipe (for chicken nuggets).

Ingredients: chicken, butter, breadcrumb mixture.

Directions: Cut up the chicken into maybe 2 inch cubes. Eh, the size is approximate. Dip the chicken in melted butter (or just dump a handful in the melted butter like me). Coat each nugget with bread crumbs. Put in a single layer on a foil-covered cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. When they're baked you can also freeze them and rebake them at 350 for 10 minutes when you want to use them. That's what I did for dinner tonight. Yum!

Well, just thought you might like some (relatively) low carb recipes to add to your repertoire. I especially love the chicken nuggets cuz they're super easy, all ingredients that I normally have around, and they're freezable!

Hope you're having a great time at Dad's party! And that Dad is very surprised! :)

Love, Catherine

Autumn's "Best" Weekend

2008-10-12T18:56:00.001-05:00

We spent the weekend in Canaan Valley, WV for TFC's fall retreat. It was gorgeous weather, beautiful surroundings, and crazy busy with set up and take down in two different venues. Not quite such a retreat, but still nice to be there for their peak color day...and to drive back home and realize that we're nowhere near our peak color day so hopefully we'll get to experience it twice this year! :)

West Virginia is definitely a different culture from northern Virginia.

Anyway, here are some representative pictures from our weekend.

Wow. Once you get off 66 there is barely anything. This was the gas station where we stopped. There were people eating breakfast in the gas station. :) Yum.

I don't know if you can see it, but the restroom key was a picture of a man with "women" written under it. Further investigation revealed that the woman's skirt was colored in.

It was a really pretty drive.

The surroundings were really pretty!

This is Jenny. She and I are in small group together. And yes, this is AFTER the summer. Kind of scary to think about how pale I'll be AFTER winter.

Ah yih. Its amazing how exciting it can be to drive a golf cart. Ha ha.

Finding out that the guitarist for the Saturday service back at home forgot to show up.

I watched the 3K race with Brian and Doug. :-)

Jamie passed the young girl just in time to win 3rd place in his division. I was proud! :)

And there's Florence, Doug's daughter and our friend!

One of zillions of pictures of them setting up or tearing down or something with all the equipment.

My husband the rockstar. After the evening's entertainment, the guys in the band stuck around to jam. It was super fun.

M Bizzle.

Steven Law. John Yates called him Liberace on steroids. Ha ha.

Dancing. :)

Bill on electric, Jim on bass

This is such a classic Bill look, I think. :)

Jamie and Mike sharing keyboard space.

Later, some relaxation in the lobby.

On Sunday morning we had probably 10 minutes practice time, total. So, we sat down to talk through who would sing what.

FLORENCE! :)

And then began tear down. This doesn't look so bad, right?

Not too bad.

OK. This is why I spend my time coiling mic cables.

This is Sophia. She belongs to our friend Aaron and Amy.

This is Olivia, her older sister. It was such a nice diversion to hang out with their family for a few minutes before we all left.

This is Joshua, the youngest of Amy and Aaron's gorgeous children. Isn't he snuggly?

This is Aaron and Amy. They have one other boy - Caleb, who comes between Olivia and Sophia. He's the dancing boy if you scroll up a bit.

Don't you love the protective big sister-ly arm around the younger sister?

Can you say gorgeous? Then I asked her to smile...

Ha ha.

I asked Olivia which Disney Princess she wanted to be. She said Jasmine. I can actually kind of see a likeness here...just pretend Jasmine got super pretty blond hair. :)

so, then we drove home. We stopped at this restaurant...which was VERY, um, rustic. But they hadn't even taken anyone's order (the restaurant was full) after about 20 mins, so we left because we were HUNGRY and figured we could be driving while we waited and then eat at approximately the same time, just further down the road.

So, we stopped at a Pizza Hut and ate. And then we drove home. Yay!

The end.

Vacation Pictures Finally

2008-09-28T22:53:00.001-05:00

We've already put 180 pictures (60 per album, right?) on facebook, but just in case anyone reads this who doesn't have facebook, here's a sampling.

We spent the first 4 days of vacation at Deep Creek Lake with the Minns. A couple from church has a home there that they offered to us for our time away. It was beautiful, fantastic, a super fun time!

Waffles!

Rosemary and chicken pasta

2008-09-22T18:02:00.001-05:00

Normally when I make meals up they turn out, well, edible. :) But yesterday I made something new that I loved! (Jamie didn't really like it, but I'll put it on here so you can try it and vote which one of us is right.)

I started by heating up some (like maybe 1-2 Tbsp?) olive oil in a frying pan. The first time, I left it a little too long and ended up with flaming oil, a very loud smoke detector going off, and an adrenaline rush. But no harm done (other than the smoke detector not being on the ceiling anymore and a pan that might be a little blackened).

The second time I used a non-burned skillet thingy and heated oil again but at a lesser heat this time. I put in probably around 5-6 frozen chicken tenderloins and sprinkled McCormick's Chicken seasoning on it...and then added probably 1 Tbsp of dried rosemary (I think that was the key). I let that cook for a little bit and then turned the chicken. After that (and once the oil started getting kind of burny) I decided I needed to add white wine to get rid of the burny-ness. So, I added maybe 1/4-1/3 cup of white wine and let that cook for awhile.

Meanwhile I was trying to think of what else to make with the chicken and realized I had some bow-tie pasta that was left-over from a meal the other day. It had a little bit of seasoning on it, but I was afraid it would dry out in the microwave. So, I microwaved it for two minutes and then added 1 can of diced tomatoes and the pasta to my wine/chicken mixture and stirred it up. I let that boil for a while until the pasta was thoroughly heated (and the chicken was done...I'm always paranoid that it won't get done) and then served it in bowls.

Yum. Except Jamie didn't really like it.

So I made him monkey bread out of Pillsbury-type biscuits later.

And we both thoroughly broke our no-carb diet. :)

Why did I say that?

2008-07-14T19:16:00.005-05:00

Last Wednesday, I had the privilege of playing the formerly paralyzed man (see Mark 2:1-12) at TFC's kids camp. I was told that after a few songs, I would come out and surprise the 120 kids who would be gathered in the Fellowship Hall, and tell my story. I had a busy Monday and Tuesday so I hadn't given much thought to what exactly I would say until the night before.

I figured I would tell them what my life had been like when I was paralyzed, how I had heard my friends talking about Jesus, how Jesus came to my town one day, how my friends brought me on a mat to see him, how he healed me, and how amazing it is to be able to finally scratch my nose, etc.

So Wednesday morning came, I put on my paralyzed man costume, and hid in the kitchen while I waited for my cue.

Once I was introduced, I came running out, did some jumping jacks and push-ups, and began to tell my story. Here is a rough, condensed transcript of my opening words:

Me: Hi Kids!!
Kids: Hi!!!!!!!!!
Me: I'm so excited to be here. I can't believe it!! I can walk! I used to be paralyzed.
Kids: Wow....
Me: Can you say "paralyzed"?
Kids: Paralyzed.
Me: Can you say it LOUDER????!!!!!!
Kids: PARALYYYYYYYYYZED!!!!!!!!

Kids say the darndest things.

Rainbow and whipped cream

2008-06-29T22:22:00.001-05:00

Last Monday night we had Julianna and Larissa over for yummy kabobs on the grill. We (the girls) worked diligently to get them all made and were rewarded by two things.

1. A beautiful view from the balcony where we keep our Indoor/Outdoor George Foreman Grill.

Can you see the top one?

As we sat and looked at the beautiful rainbows we were reminded of God's faithfulness to keep His promises. It was actually really encouraging....which I think was the point of rainbows in the first place anyway. :) (Although we did also discuss going to try to find the pot of gold at the end of it!)

And the second reward for diligent cooking:

2) Delicious food. It was SO yummy! And for dessert we had strawberries with icecream and whipped cream.

What?!? LOL.

A weekend away

2008-06-29T22:12:00.001-05:00

Last weekend Jamie had a weekend off, which doesn't happen very often. We had been trying to plan ahead because, more often than not, when we have an extra day off (like I'm off on a Thursday or he has a Saturday off or something) we don't have anything planned and end up frustrated that we didn't use our time off more productively. So, we (read: Jamie) had been looking at different places we could go. We looked at Ocean City, Virginia Beach, New York, even some places in Florida, NC, Montana, etc. Ha. Its summer. Anywhere we could drive or get cheap transportation had expensive hotels. Anywhere with free or cheap places to stay (like Rebekah and Ryan or my grandparents) was too expensive to fly to. We kept looking and hoping and contacting our Marriott friend. :) But nothing.

It got to Friday and we still hadn't found anything that was really affordable. So, we finally decided to stay in town. BUT, Jamie had received an email from Marriott that they had specials on DC hotels. So, we spent Friday kind of how we normally do. Just hanging out, running errands, etc.

On Saturday, we slept in, packed, got ready and drove all the way to the Westfields Marriott, where we spent the night before we left for our honeymoon almost 2 years ago. (Ha. Its like 20 minutes from our apartment, but we tried to imagine that we were just arriving from a long drive as we got there.) We checked in, ate lunch at one of the on-site restaurants, and then my lavish husband had signed me up for a facial and a massage at their spa. Ahhhh. While I was enjoying that, Jamie sat by the pool where I joined him when I was done. It was perfect weather. Beautiful, hot, but not too hot. And best of all, it felt like vacation: a different world.

After the pool we went to Legal Seafoods for dinner, which was also quite nice. (We justified it to ourselves by reminding ourselves what it would have cost to go to New York or Florida or even Ocean City.)

And then after dinner Jamie ordered chocolate covered strawberries and champagne delivered to the room as a surprise. (I know. I don't blame you for being jealous!)

On Sunday morning we had a rare opportunity to visit another church on a Sunday, so we went to our other favorite DC area church: Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, where our friends Julianna and Larissa (and Julianna's new fiance, Jason) go. After church it was out for sushi with our friends (although neither of us dared to actually get sushi!) and then home from our mini-vacation.

It was wonderful. Refreshing, relaxing, and just a great time to be together. It was one of those weekends when I just couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

Johnny at 28.5 months old

2008-06-02T17:59:00.001-05:00

We visited PA again this weekend. Its such a different place from DC. Everyone is so hospitable and friendly. I mean EVERYONE. Even people who you just meet on the street or just happen to live nearby. Plus, we stay with Jon, Celeste, Izabella, Caleb, Joshua, and Johnny. Pretty different from the way we live right now with just the two of us. Oh, and there's no traffic. Yup, its a great place to get away!

So, we didn't take very many pictures of actually doing stuff, but we do have some fun ones with the kids...or by the kids.

Sitting in the living room talking, playing on the computer, etc.

We took Johnny to a play ground while the kids were at school. Most of the time it was just Johnny and me while Jamie went running. Every once in a while Johnny would ask, "Where Jamie?" I'd tell him that Jamie was running. After a while he decided that he wanted to go running too so we ran from tree to tree around the playground. Ha ha. He loved it!

Somehow Jon got a hold of Jamie's camera.

Like father, like son.

I promise they don't drug him.

On Friday night we had yummy chicken salad and the boys and I made delicious dessert (from Celeste's recipe). Johnny loves to wash his hands with the "blue soap" and, after soaping up, stops to smell it saying, "Mmmm. 'mells good!"

On Saturday we went for a long walk with Johnny and Celeste. When we got back we hung out on the porch for a while.

And played with "Bob-kitty" who lives next door.

Before we left we went to Bella's piano recital. Here's the view in the car on the way there.

And here's beautiful Bella playing beautifully.

Aw. I miss them already.

Recent pictures

2008-06-02T17:26:00.001-05:00

For some reason lately we've been taking less pictures. I'm not quite sure why. We have been doing fun things. But Jamie is our main photographer and he has really been wanting a better camera than the point-and-shoot that we have now. I think the quality of pictures that we can get is not what he would like (and its not like I wouldn't love to have better quality pictures too...) anyway, that's just my theory - but I haven't checked it with him.

A couple weeks ago we went to the new(ish) Air and Space museum. We stopped right outside it to watch the planes flying over. I took this one with Jamie's iphone.

Our memorial day weekend was crazy busy - but also a ton of fun. Andrew was in town, so we hung out with him a lot. Rebecca Romaneski and her fiance Deric were also in town, so I went to their wedding shower while Jamie was at church on Saturday. Then on Sunday we went out to lunch with them. On Monday the MacGowans came over for burgers and hotdogs. It was fun to actually host them here! Here are a few pictures, again from Jamie's phone.

Tim with the glasses that we love so much.

Jamie laughing at something.

Yum. Food.

Benjamin looking cute getting his back scratched. Me looking weird.

This one probably should have gone first, but here it is. A few weeks ago Jamie and I caved and got crocs. They're actually very comfy, but I don't recommend wearing them for long fast walks. You'll see why later.

This past weekend we went to visit Jon, Celeste, and the kids in PA again. I'll put that in a separate post.

Looking back.

2008-04-29T22:13:00.003-05:00

Today I got out all my scrapbooking stuff (which is mostly just dumped with no rhyme or reason in a plastic bin) and started working on our engagement scrapbook again. :) I know...I'm behind. Its been a while and I've forgotten some of the more detail-y things (like whether the Stupe or the bookstore picture comes first) so I opened up my old xanga and found my entries where I talked about getting engaged.

Its crazy looking back on my old entries. And fun. And makes me want to blog more. Ha ha. The major problem is that once I get started I just write and write and write and don't end up being able to finish my entry. And then I don't publish it because its not done. And then I don't come back to it until its really too out of date to publish. (You'd be amazed how many unpublished entries I have.)

Easter at Our Church

2008-04-15T12:35:00.003-05:00

Babysitting Eli

2008-04-12T22:52:00.005-05:00

What a great way to spend a Friday night!

Introducing Matt and Sarah Brown

2008-04-07T21:54:00.001-05:00

Home Style Cookin'

2008-03-12T20:16:00.002-05:00

Tonight I got home and Catherine had made delicious chicken fajitas. Mmmmmm... Grilled chicken, red and green peppers, onions, salsa, etc., etc. So good.

Then for dessert I just had some girl scout thin mint cookies along with fudge tracks ice cream. Yummmmmy.

I didn't know when I married Catherine what an amazing cook she is. We've now been married a year and a half, and so far there's only been one meal we couldn't finish. That would be the time she made a half-portion of meatloaf with a full portion of salt and seasoning. When you took a bite you could literally hear all the moisture being sucked out of your body. Not so yummy. But other than that meal, I have been a well fed (and loved) man.

If it were up to me to cook, here is what we would eat every night:

Pennsylvania for Jamie's birthday

2008-02-18T17:36:00.001-05:00

We took off early from work on Thursday and went out to PA to see Jon, Celeste, Izabella, Caleb, Joshua, and Johnny. Bella and Joshua had been diagnosed with strep by the time we got there, but I think we got away un-infected, although I did keep feeling slightly off today...probably more a symptom of hypochondria than strep.

Anyway, it was definitely a good trip...we got to see our godson looking like a boy again, discuss camera options (Jamie wants a better one for his birthday), and spend more time than normal with Joshua and Bella because they were both home from school due to possible contagiousness.

Johnny is now communicating a lot, but really not stringing any words together except a very rare "light on" or some such thing. He knows that he is "two", and can almost get his fingers to show you that. He says "up" for up or down and likes to repeat the last word you say...which makes him always right when you ask him difficult math questions like 10-5 or 4/2.

We slept in Joshua's room, while Joshua bedded down in his mom and dad's closet. In the morning we played with the karaoke machine in his room.

That's Johnny with the microphone.

We drove into Pittsburgh with Celeste, Bella, Joshua and Johnny to shop for Jon's birthday and just go out together. We also went to what is apparently a Pittsburgh classic, Pamela's diner, for lunch.

Oh yes, she definitely looks too sick to be in school!

Johnny hiding from the camera on the shelves of Banana Republic.

Poor sick kids and their sprite. :)

Should I get the banana chocolate chip stuffed pancakes or the grilled chicken, spinach, and feta pita?

A real dog in a store full of fake dogs.

I forgot to mention that Johnny LOVES school busses, so when we saw this really cool one in the variety store, we had to get it.

On the way back we stopped by Ambridge to take a picture of the place where Jamie's Oompa grew up.

We made dinner for them that night. That gross looking white stuff is cook-in-the-bag rice, the REALLY lazy way of making rice.

Studious girl.

"Studious" dad.

The next morning we spent some quality time watching Hannah Montana on Jamie's phone. Johnny LOVES Hannah Montana. Like, he knows the last word of all the lines in her songs and immediately shouts "Hannah" and grins when he hears the opening beats of her songs, or even her picture on a package at the grocery store.

We went for a walk and Celeste told Johnny that if he took his gloves off he would have to come right home. He was SO careful about his gloves. If one seemed to be slipping off, he said "uh oh" and tried to get it back on, or have me help him.

And then it was back home again, which also held some joy as we had lunch yesterday with some families from church and had a great time! CUTE kids and adults who I really want to be friends with!

Cambridge for my birthday

2008-01-25T00:24:00.001-05:00

On my birthday (Dec 29th) Jamie gave me an itinerary for a trip to Cambridge, MD January 16-18. I left early from work on Wednesday and we drove out there in the afternoon. Once we got out of SE DC (we detoured a little...) it was a beautiful drive with all the bridges.

We stayed at a Hyatt right on the water. Once we were checked into our water-view room, we walked around a little bit. (And again Jamie was the one with the camera which means almost all the pictures are of me...sorry!)

That's the hotel behind me.

It was so peaceful and beautiful...the water and the grounds of the hotel. (There was even an outdoor hot tub - not that we ever used it, but it was nice!)

With the room, we got $40 towards hotel food each day. So, we took the opportunity to order room service for breakfast. Ah. It reminded me of our honeymoon...except colder.

After breakfast it was time for the day of luxury that Jamie had planned for me: a haircut and a pedicure in the morning, lunch with him, then a massage and a facial in the afternoon. It was AMAZINGLY relaxing! (Although slightly awkward because there were NO other people in the salon except the hair dresser and the front desk lady.)

While I had my haircut and pedicure Jamie took a walk and captured more of our beautiful surroundings...plus the snow that we had prayed for since my birthday.

This was Jamie at lunch with me.

And then in the evening we ate out at a restaurant that Dr. Sellers had recommended.

Friday morning, we played some pool, walked around one last time, and then came back home.

Trying Windows Live Writer

2008-01-24T23:54:00.001-05:00

You may have noticed that Jamie and I rarely update the blog. Ha. Its partly because, after an entire day on the computer at work, I'm just not in the mood for staring at a computer screen some more. But, its also because whenever we have pictures to post it takes extraordinary patience to get even five of them uploaded. I usually wait until I have an entire day to be home cleaning and cooking and coming back to the computer ever 30 minutes to add pictures. Quite annoying. So here's hoping that Windows Live Writer can end at least the picture woes. I'll add some beautiful pictures as an experiment and then a real update will be up next if this works.

James Goes Back to the UK

2008-01-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

Tonight, James flew back to England, to begin a new job in Cambridge. Happy for him, sad for us... We'll visit him soon, we hope.

Christmas 2007

2007-12-28T20:23:00.000-05:00

:) I thought you might be interested in some of Jamie's artistic shots of Christmas morning at our apartment...and the rest of the day.

We're not big fans of the huge angel on the top, but I got it at TJMax for cheap just in case it looked good and we didn't get a chance to take it back before Christmas.

Jamie gave me like a bzillion amazing gifts. I was so excited! And just one of them was this beautiful glider/rocker bench for our balcony. :)

Unfortunately, Jamie was the only one taking pictures, so there are none of him. And we didn't get the camera out at my parents' house, so there aren't any of our time there. But we had a great time there, as well as at Jamie's parents' house. We were at Jamie's parents' house first to give them the scrapbook I made for them, then we went to my parents' house. We opened gifts with them and ate a delicious dinner! Then back to Jamie's parents' house for dessert and opening gifts there.

Matt and the virgin Mary.

Matt and Jesus.

Patti in the cute hat and scarf that Sarah made for her!

Christmas Dance

2007-12-18T22:21:00.000-05:00

In case you're bored...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1549587556

A video from the Christmas Tree lighting

2007-12-07T14:35:00.001-05:00

President Bush beginning his speech.

An evening with the Bushes

2007-12-07T13:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon we drove into DC to meet up with Doug and Jeanne, our friends from TFC , and members of the worship team there. Doug works for the Department of the Interior and invited us to attend the lighting of the national Christmas tree along with them. We got very close seats (thanks to Doug's job) and had a great time. We got to see the president and first lady up-close, and the secret service were everywhere. Oh, and it was also freezing cold. Catherine told me to wear two pairs of socks but I thought I was manly enough. Nope. Oh well.

Here we are outside of Doug's office, on the "ledge." Amazing. You're looking west, towards the Capitol building, Washington monument, etc. To your right (you can't see it) is the tidal basin, Jefferson memorial, Pentagon, etc. So cool.

Sitting on the elipse, looking towards the Washington monument. Notice the snipers on top of the white trailers.

George and Laura.

How cool is that?

The closing sing along.

It was so cool to sit there and watch the President. He would turn and elbow his wife, joke with her, laugh, etc. He was seated next to a little boy who had been chosen to press the button to light the tree. Since we had binoculars, I noticed at one point the President took off his left glove and gave it to the boy (since it was in the twenty's.) He never took it back. The President went the whole night with only his right glove on.

Cool Picture

2007-11-12T16:47:00.001-05:00

This was taken last month at our church retreat at Shrine Mont. So cool. A parent's example in worship works.

New York

2007-11-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

Last week, I was in New York City to lead worship for an Alpha conference. These conferences train churches how to run the Alpha Course. The conference was held at Trinity Baptist Church. We stayed at The Pod Hotel. Interesting place.

On Thursday afternoon, during one of the sessions, I took a walk to 53rd and Broadway to check out the Ed Sullivan Theater, and to see if I could get my picture taken with Rupert at the Hello Deli. Any Letterman fans will know who he is.

Here's a picture I took the first morning. It's the 59th street bridge.

Here's one of me and Rupert.

The Ed Sullivan Theater.

Lots of lights.

A four course dinner for four

2007-11-01T21:23:00.000-05:00

Jamie is out of town right now doing an Alpha Conference in New York. When he's gone, I always know that I'll need to give myself some time to be alone (its a great time to clean and do projects that I normally wouldn't think about doing)...but also to arrange time with other people so I don't get too lonely.

Tonight, because my mom is out of town, I invited my Dad and brothers over for dinner. Stan couldn't come because he was going to DC for something, but Dad and Jon and James all came over.

They came around 6:45 pm with baguettes, cheese, and wine in hand. It definitely gave the meal an extra dose of class! :)

So here is the augmented menu:

Homemade cream of mushroom soup (with baguettes)

Chopped ceasar chicken breast on top of ceasar salad on top of whole wheat pasta. (It was supposed to be just ceasar salad with chicken, but then I found that 3/5 heads of lettuce were frozen in the refrigerator. I ended up just putting the whole thing on top of pasta, which James said he liked, although I wasn't as enthusiastic!)

I also had bowls of different kinds of chips and sliced red bell pepper to add more food in case there wasn't enough.

Cheese course - a goat's milk gouda, a blue cheese, and a soft round cheese, all with baguette pieces

Chocolate chip cookies that James made

The yummy white wine went with the first three courses.

I think my favorite part was definitely the mushroom soup. I had been wanting to try to make it for a while (since I went to a restaurant with my grandparents and had really yummy mushroom soup there) and I was so happy with how it came out! ...and the fact that I guessed the ingredients perfectly when I was at the grocery store! :)

So, we ate around the table for the first three courses, then moved to the couches to watch the Office and Scrubs while we ate the hot cookies.

It was fun to be with my Dad and brothers again. There's something about laughing with your siblings that is different from laughing with anyone else. Maybe its just that your senses of humor are so familiar to each other that the familiarity adds sweetness and depth to the laughter.

Moving pictures:)

2007-10-31T22:11:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures from moving. (We did it so suddenly that we didn't really think to take many pictures.)

Old apartment:

New apartment:

Old apartment:
View from old bedroom:

Shrine Mont 2002, 2006, and 2007

2007-10-31T21:08:00.001-05:00

On Columbus Day weekend, The Falls Church had our annual church retreat at Shrine Mont. It was our last time (that we know of) at that particular retreat center because of our disconnection from the Episcopal church. This is kind of sad because TFC (as well as many other of the Anglican churches around here, e.g. Truro) has been going to Shrine Mont for around 25 years. Its a HUGE tradition for many families!

Some of you may know that Jamie and I have quite a history at Shrine Mont too. In the Fall of 2002 my parents were invited to be guest speakers at the church retreat of a couple teeny tiny churches from the part of Virginia that is not Northern. (Isn't that an egocentric version?) They invited Jamie along to lead worship for the same retreat.

Around that time Jamie and I both knew that we were interested in each other, but we hadn't decided whether to date. So, my parents, who knew about all of this, invited me along so that Jamie and I could have the weekend to discuss what to do. We spent the entire weekend (other than when we were leading worship and talking with the super cool people from the teeny churches) trying to decide whether to date. We sat in the porch chairs and talked. We walked by the lake and talked. We sat by the lake and talked. We sat in the porch chairs again and talked. It was a big decision for us because neither of us had dated before and I thought that it would be a big deal in the church such that it would be especially difficult to go back on. (I think I've heard stories about Angela Minns and Herb McMullan sitting in the kitchen of the Minns' house matchmaking us with each other...while we weren't there, thankfully!)

That Saturday evening my parents took us both out for dinner after the evening session. I guess it was the official grilling by the parents, but I don't think my parents really knew what to do! We sat eating and talking until my dad asked Jamie, "Are your intentions toward my daughter honorable?" LOL. He said "yes", of course! Then my dad pointed to the asparagus left on Jamie's plate and asked, "Are you going to eat your asparagus?" Poor Jamie! Asparagus is his least favorite vegetable, but he choked down the asparagus to please my dad! :) And that was the end of the grilling.

On Sunday, we left the retreat still not knowing what to do. (If you're interested in why it was such a big deal to us, we can talk about that some other time.) Then that night I called Jamie while he was helping out at youth group and told him I wanted him to come over after youth group. He came over as soon as he could, picked me up, and took me to Wendys. On the way there I turned to him and said, "I don't think you've ever actually asked me out." So, when we got to McDonalds he asked me out and I accepted. And it was the beginning of happily ever after! He he. :)

Then, in 2006, our church retreat to Shrine Mont was the very first trip we took as a married couple, other than our honeymoon...and maybe a short trip to Jon and Celeste's house!

And this year (2007), even though it was a crazy time to go to Shrine Mont - we had just arrived back from England the Wednesday before the Friday we had to go to Shrine Mont - it was such an amazing time! The speaker was a pastor from Nairobi Chapel in Kenya, and he brought these amazing musicians from his worship team.

It was such a wonderful weekend of relaxation and worship and teaching.

The main thing that I remember from the teaching is something that the pastor said. He said that as he gets to know Christians from around the world, he realizes that different regions seem to be gifted in different parts of the "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength" command. He said that we (in the West) are especially good at loving the Lord with all our minds. He and the African people tend to be very good at loving the Lord with all their strength (through dance). And he said that whenever he has been with Asian believers, he sees in them a special gifting for loving the Lord with all their hearts. FASCINATING! And such a good perspective! I think if he hadn't said that I would have struggled with feeling like being encouraged to dance for the Lord, while worthwhile, is not nearly as important as understanding the words we were singing. But because of that perspective, I think I was able to see more clearly how we can both learn from each other - and that understanding is only ONE part of loving the Lord wholly. And that loving Him physically is just as important as loving Him intellectually.

I think Jamie's favorite thing was playing with the Kenyan musicians. He said that he was playing, thinking, "These are probably the best musicians I will ever play with." They were SO good!

Here's a video that typifies the weekend. It was so amazing!

We give up!

2007-10-31T20:58:00.000-05:00

Ha ha. Putting more photos of England on here just isn't going to happen and, in the meantime, we're getting waaaay behind on blogging about other stuff - and probably losing any readers that we had because there's never anything new when (if) they check.
So, here are links to our England albums on facebook:
Jamie's camera 1
Jamie's camera 2
Scotland - my camera
Scotland - Sarah's camera

England Pictures

2007-10-17T22:28:00.000-05:00

We're trying to put pictures up from our time in the UK, but blogger is not making it easy. So until we can get them uploaded or figure out a better way to do it, here are a few...

Us with my Grandparents outside of their building in Birmingham.

Us outside of Buckingham Palace.

Sarah Harkin and me with the first female beef eater (tour guide at the Tower of London.)

Us at the Thames River, with the London Eye in the background.

Me and Adriel in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Hopefully more to come!

In the UK

2007-09-29T14:06:00.000-05:00

We're here in London, updating our blog from an internet cafe in Piccadilly Circus (sort of like the Times Square of London.)

We flew in on Thursday morning, and caught a bus and a train to Birgmingham, where we met Catherine's grandparents. It was great being with them and then more of the family later that night. On Friday we took a train to London, and we've been here ever since. We've seen a lot of the sights, and walked an awful lot! Today we met Sarah Harkin here which has been great, since she knows her way around.

Tomorrow we'll go to church here at Holy Trinity Brompton, and head to Oxford. I'll be there for a worship leader's retreat at St. Aldates. While I'm there, Catherine will head up to St. Andrews in Scotland and spend time there with Sarah and her friend Adriel. We fly home Wednesday.

We're having a great time. We'll post pictures and stuff next week. Cheers.

What to do with a free weekend

2007-09-22T15:43:00.001-05:00

This month has been a busy one.

The weekend before last we drove to the PA/NJ border so Jamie could sing for someone's wedding. It was a nice place, but we literally drove up, went to the rehearsal, ate at the rehearsal dinner, went to bed, got up, went to the wedding, drove back for the Saturday service.
Last weekend we went to PA to visit Jon, Celeste, Izabella, Caleb, Joshua, and Johnny. We were seriously considering NOT doing it because of the burn out from driving to NJ the weekend before, but decided last minute to do it and were SO glad we did! We had a great time hanging out with the family, taking Johnny to the park, helping the kids with homework, going to Caleb's birthday party, etc. Here are some pictures:

This coming Wednesday night, Jamie and I leave for England. We'll get there on Thursday morning and immediately go to spend the afternoon, evening, night and Friday morning with my grandparents (and maybe other family members?). Then we'll go back to London, see some sights there (with our friend, Sarah Harkin, who is flying down from Scotland to be with us), and visit Holy Trinity Brompton on Sunday morning. On Sunday afternoon, we will all travel to Oxford, where Sarah and I will leave Jamie. He'll be at a worship leaders' training retreat run by Martin Layzell, Tim Hughes, etc. (This is also the reason why we can go, because half the time we're there, its work for him.) Sarah and I will then fly (back) to Scotland where I'll get to see Adriel, one of my best friends. On Wednesday morning I'll fly back to England and go pick Jamie up in Oxford. From there, we'll travel together to the airport and fly back home. We'll be back Wednesday night. I am so excited to show Jamie my home country, introduce him to my grandparents and cousins, and see so many people and things that I love!

Anyway, in the midst of all that, this weekend was the free weekend. Or at least that was my plan.

Celeste and Izabella had been talking about coming back to Fairfax for an ortho appointment and were going to stay with us...on our couches...in the living room. We were excited to have them come stay, but were a bit concerned about how it would work with us having to be up early for work, traipsing through the living room where they were sleeping, etc. So, Jamie started talking about how it would really be nice if we had some more storage space, and maybe even a second bedroom, just so that if people came to stay with us, they could have some privacy...and wouldn't have to come through our bedroom to shower.

On Wednesday he called our rental office and asked about prices for 2 bedroom apartments in the same complex. Ha. They said they were about 300-400 more than we currently paid for rent. Well, that wasn't do-able, or worth it, so we sort of gave up on that idea. Except that night he saw an ad on craigslist for a 2-bedroom apartment in our complex (offered by the complex, not a sub-let) for just $50 more than we currently paid. He called on Thursday morning and found that the price had gone down $50 (yes, the rent would be exactly the same as what we currently paid).

So, at lunch time we went to go see the 2-bedroom apartment. It was fine, overlooked the noisy interstate, had a galley kitchen and some weird aspects, but overall more space for the same amount of money. We'd have to pay $550 in fees to switch leases, but we thought it might be worth it. So, I went back to work (a little late - oops!) and Jamie went to the leasing office to talk about renting the apartment. He just happened to ask if they had any others for the same price, and they did! The other one was a very similar floor plan to our one-bedroom, except with an extra bedroom and a full second bathroom. Oh, and less road noise even than our one-bedroom. Plus a fireplace and 2 balconies. Score!

He went back to the leasing office and asked about the fees. They said they would wave them (well, most of them) if we were out of our old apartment by Saturday. SATURDAY! And this was Thursday afternoon!

So, we both rushed home from work on Thursday to sign the lease for our new 2 bedroom apartment. I hadn't even seen it! And then went back to our one-bedroom to start packing. In the midst of the craziness, I had a phonecall scheduled with our British friend to book flights to Scotland. So, I booked my flights while friends started showing up to move things.

Twenty-four hours after Jamie saw the ad on craigslist, almost all of our furniture was moved in to our new apartment. By 2:30 am, all the furniture was moved in, with just all the little stuff left to move over. Props to Andrew who stayed to the bitter end, Matt who stayed till midnight or so, even though he had to work on Friday, and Jon and James, who helped a lot with the living room furniture and other stuff.

At 2:30, I realized that we hadn't cleaned anything in the new apartment, and it wasn't left particularly clean. Ugh. Cat hair all over the bathroom floors (even caulked against the base-board). So, I cleaned the minimum possible to feel comfortable (the toilet, sink, and half the floor!) and we went to bed.

Yesterday we started work again at 9 am, just hauling boxes over, emptying them, taking them back, filling them, and hauling them back over. Who knew 2 flights of stairs could be SO tiring? I also worked a lot on cleaning the new and the old apartment. Jamie's Dad had lunch with us at Potbelly and helped us move Kitchen stuff. Larissa came over for a while and helped clean and carry clothes over. My Mom and Matt both came at around 5:30 (after work) and helped get everything else done.

I was so thankful for my mom! How stressful to have an apartment full of boxes (or piles of stuff from boxes) and not be able to unpack or put things away because the cupboards aren't clean yet! She came and helped me clean. She showed me how to pack glasses in boxes so they won't break or chip. She packed and unpacked boxes from and to the kitchen. And she just helped me feel not quite so overwhelmed.

Matt was also amazing. I think on Thursday and Friday he spent every waking moment (except when he was at work) moving box after box after bag after box. And he packed and unpacked as much as he could too. He was really tireless in helping us.

After a long day of work, we (Jamie, Matt, Mom, and I) went to PF Changs for a very late dinner. It was so yummy and it felt so good to sit after a day of moving. Then we came back and finished getting everything except cleaning supplies out of the old apartment. (I have to admit that we almost cried when we thought we were done, but opened a cupboard to find all the pots and pans still there!)

Today has been pretty much a day of cleaning. The old apartment is now completely cleaned. (I scrubbed that oven so clean!) My dad spackled the holes made from screwing all those holes in the wall trying to get our shelves on straight! The keys are ready to be turned in once Jamie gets home from work. And I'm taking a break to tell you all about it.

There's still a whole lot to be done on the new apartment. The kitchen cabinets are all cleaned (I found cat hair in the freezer - what were they doing?), but the floor still needs to be cleaned. The master bathroom is still only half cleaned and the other one needs to be completely cleaned. Laundry needs to be done (hey, we brought the dirty with us, I didn't have time to wash all the laundry before we moved!) Everything is in the general vicinity where it should be (closet, kitchen, bedroom, etc.), but really nothing is organized and put away like I would want it, except the kitchen, which Jamie stayed up late last night doing.

I guess the only thing left to say about it all is that I am so thankful for Jamie in all of this. He has worked harder than anyone else. I'm sure he'll be sore for weeks. Everytime I turn around, I find something that he's done to make the new apartment feel like home already. He put our mirror up in the dining room and put the picture Jon and Celeste gave us up in our bedroom. He put the coffee table back together and put the decorations on it. He found places for all our kitchen stuff in our newly smaller kitchen. And I'm sure a bunch of other things that I just haven't noticed yet. Plus, he's the one who found this place, bargained us into not having to pay fees (most of them), and took the lead in making the decision to move. I am so proud of my husband!

So, give us a couple weeks (hey, we'll be out of the country for one of them!), but then come visit. We'll at least have a private floor for you to sleep on!

Marriage Advice

2007-09-11T21:41:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. We've only been married 1 year, 2 weeks and 2 days. What could I possibly have to say?

Well, its not from me. I just found it in someone else's blog. A series of advice on marriage (and how to pick a marriage partner) from people who have been married for 25 years. I think that qualifies them a bit more...and its good.

:)

http://www.xanga.com/PaPaTevia/602290716/25-years-of-learning---marry-your-best-friend.html

Labor Day in DC

2007-09-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

Before we get into the whole labor day thing, here are a few pictures from our anniversary dinner. :)

Um, this was my salad. It looked amazing. And tasted...well, if I'm honest, I like Outback house salads better. But this was very exotic tasting.

Feeling fat. :)

And on to labor day.

We had booked tickets to England for a week (half of which Jamie will spend in Oxford at a worship leaders retreat.) So we spent the morning thinking and talking about that. Then we drove into DC to walk around for a bit.

I have to admit that normally when Jamie wants to go into DC I'm a bit reluctant. My image of it tends to be of awful traffic, crowds, and darkness. (Maybe because when we have gone into DC its usually been after work.)

But this time, I was regretting how few times we go there. It was beautiful. Hot weather, but not unbareable. But the sky was deep blue and the sun was bright and it all looked so clean and beautiful.

Look at the amazing view! ;-)

We walked around the Washington Monument and through the mall area. I LOVE the WWII Memorial. Seriously one of my favorites, or my favorite, memorial.

The view from the WWII Memorial of the Lincoln Memorial. And a duck.

And me with that same view. :)

This duck, and several others in a row with it, decided that bottoms up was the way to go. :)

Then we walked around the White House. I couldn't stop thinking about the similarities and differences between the White House and Buckingham Palace. I am so excited to be there in 3 weeks! :) In all the comparison, though, I was struck by the simple beauty of so much of DC. It really is a great city and I can't wait to go back.

One Year

2007-08-26T22:30:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrated our one year anniversary! In some ways it feels like it's flown by, and in other ways, it seems like we've been married for so much longer.

To celebrate, we came home after church and watched our wedding ceremony on DVD. It was great to look back on it and remember what an amazing time it was. It was helpful also to listen back to Kim's sermon, and hear it through the ears of seasoned marriage veterans :) Seeing all of our friends and family who were there was a reminder of how blessed we are. We also saw some people that neither of us recognized! We hope they enjoyed our wedding, and didn't eat too much of the cake...

We drove out to the Fire Hall where we had our second (smaller) reception and tried to get in. The doors were locked so we just looked through the windows at where we had celebrated last year with dinner and dancing. Then we went by Truro and were able to get in, and we walked through the Sanctuary for a few minutes.

For dinner tonight we went to Ruth's Chris steak house. Great food. Great atmosphere. Great service. Great way to spend nearly your entire paycheck :)

And then, to give you an idea of what we're really like, we returned home and ate dessert while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. You'll be glad to know that Jean Luc Picard was successfully rescued from the Borg, and Earth was spared assimilation thanks to Data's quick thinking and Commander Riker's unorthodox strategies.

So thanks to all of you, our friends and family (and maybe some strangers who went to our wedding and ate some cake). We are so grateful to know you.

Lunch in DC

2007-08-13T22:08:00.000-05:00

I drove "downtown" today (Washington, DC) to have lunch with one of the piano players from my church, who is also a good friend. He works directly across Pennsylania Avenue from the White House. I was supposed to meet him at 12:30, but I got there a bit early, so I sat on a bench in Lafayette Park. I watched all of the tourists (a lot of them had fanny packs around their waists), and some of the people in suits to see if I recognized anyone famous. I also noticed how incredibly well guarded the White House is when I walked up to the gate. I suppose that makes sense...

It's still crazy to think that from my office at the church, to this spot where I took this picture (taken from my cell phone, which is why it's a terrible picture), is only 9.8 miles.

Gatlinburg, TN

2007-08-01T20:13:00.000-05:00

I think Jamie and I have already written quite a bit about our time in Gatlinburg, but here are some more photos and maybe a little more info.

We set out from Fairfax at about 3:45 pm. MUCH later than we had intended. But it was kind of worth it because we got to have lunch with Andrew...and his help loading our car up with everything we needed for 2 weeks of roadtrip!

Here we are riding along. This was how we looked a lot of the time. :)

The road in Virginia. As you look through these pictures check out the different landscapes we travelled through. I actually think its kind of cool to look at.

A storm that I'm sure was more beautiful in person, but still looks cool as taken through the windshield.

The hotel where we stayed in Gatlinburg. I have to admit that we actually never took advantage of that super sweet slide.

The morning after we arrived in Gatlinburg. My whole family gathered on the porch and Oma and Opa presented us with copies of their (abridged) life stories. Fascinating stuff. I'm so glad we have it! (L-R) Stan, Jon, Francis, Oma, Peter, Matthew

Matthew, Theresa, Zachary, Michael, Opa, Christopher

After chatting with my grandparents on the porch for a while, Jamie and I took a walk down the street to see where his family had vacationed when he was younger. This is the creek he remember playing in. :)

That afternoon the two of us drove around. We found this in a parking lot of a church nearby.

And this up the mountain a couple miles. (Maybe like 30-40 miles of road.)

And when we drove down one road we found this spot. We stopped (in the middle of the deserted road), opened the windows, and there was absolute silence. It was amazing.

The next day we walked around downtown Gatlinburg (pretty tacky) and found this wonderful poster.

And this store that reminded me of Julianna.

Then we went go-carting that night. This is Stan, Bobbi (my cousin), Jon and me.

This is Bobbi, Stan, and Jon getting ready to start.

After go-carting on at least 3 different tracks at least 4 times (altogether, not per track), we headed home and made quesadillas for pretty much all the adults. (They were all up even though it was like midnight.)

The next day was our day to leave. I was sad. We sat and chatted with everyone. Francis made the rounds giving shoulder rubs.

Johnny built a card tower which Jamie photographed while I was out grocery shopping with Oma, Jody, Mom and Jessica.

Jamie and I finally left around lunchtime on Wednesday. We stopped by the creek again.

And then headed out along the back roads to find I-40. Those back roads were cool. One of the major things that fascinated me was the crazy good infrastructure in this country. Look at these power lines heading out into the forest. I can't imagine getting power to all these backwoods places. Jamie and I were trying to figure out whether they were put in during Roosevelt's presidency. Of course, we didn't get far in that discussion without the help of wikipedia or google.

Savannah, GA

2007-08-01T20:12:00.001-05:00

Well, I already wrote about our experience in Savannah. We loved it! But, unfortunately, I left the camera in the hotel room when we went out. Jamie has some videos of the performers on his cell phone, but I haven't figured out how to get a video from a cell phone to a blog quite yet.

Orlando, FL

2007-07-31T20:23:00.001-05:00

On Thursday we were headed to Orlando.

You might not be able to see it in this picture, but that white stuff under the row of trees says "Daytona Beach". How funny to be driving by all these places that I have heard about other people going to! We also passed Boca Raton, better known as "Boca" by Kate Philpott and E-beth.

The exit off of I-95 (finally!) to Orlando.

Once we got there we checked into our hotel (right across from the entrance to Universal Studios) and then headed over to the time share resort where Jamie's parents were staying. Before we went to see them Jamie showed me around the place. He and his family have stayed at this place at least 10 times in 14 years. Its like a second home. Here I am with sweat dripping down my back waiting for the boat to come take us across the lake.

Matt and Sarah were finishing up their stay in Orlando with Marshall and Patti as we got there, so we went out to dinner with everyone (including Tim, Jamie's oldest brother, and his wife Sarah, who live in the area). Waiting to be seated at the restaurant: (L-R) Sarah McTrusty, Tim, Sarah Brown, Matt, and me.

Eating at the table.

A beautiful one of Sarah and Tim. :)

Everyone who went to dinner (L-R): Sarah M, Matt, Patti, Marshall, me, Jamie, Sarah, and Tim.

Afterwards the boys (and Sarah M) played in the fountain while Sarah Brown and I had some great conversation time. I sure wish we lived closer together.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel (so we could go stay in the timeshare where there was now room). This was one of the sights we saw right outside our hotel.

Before we headed back to the time share, Jamie took me to Kissimmee to see where he used to live. One of the things that struck me, as we drove around the Orlando area, was that this is what a lot of British people see of America. When I was in elementary school in England I remember several friends who would take their "holiday" in America at Disney. Its funny to think that this crazy tourist town is a lot of Brits' only impression of the US (well, other than in movies and TV.) Here was one sign we saw that seemed funny to me, having been to the real thing.

In Kissimmee we took quite a while to walk around the church and house where Jamie grew up. He showed me where his "Carman concerts" were and also where he first learned to lead worship.

Then we went to see his old elementary and middle school (there's a water park right across from it - how cool is that?) and then went back to the time share to spend the rest of the day by the pool. After dinner we went to the recreation area of the resort and looked at the games.

We were trying to figure out what pieces were what. Its not as easy when its that big. We decided to play shuffle board and pool instead of chess. Jamie played his dad and I played Patti and they were very good match-ups. :)

One of my favorite things in Orlando was the walks Jamie and I took later at night. A couple times we walked around and then settled on this little "beach" type place right off the lake to talk. They were good, deep, helpful conversations and I was so glad we got to have them.

The next day we also spent by the pool, but ended up getting pretty burned. Here's my sad face.
But we changed around 4:30 and headed out to pick up our tickets for Cirque du Soleil! (Jamie got them for me as a surprise, although I accidently found out ahead of time.) After we picked up our tickets, we walked around Downtown Disney (where all the restaurants were very expensive and not that good looking) and ended up going back to Celebration (where we ate the first night) and picking a Columbian restaurant. Oh man, it was delicious! And a great atmosphere.

After dinner Jamie bought me some chocolate for dessert and we went to Walgreens to get an umbrella (it was raining) and then we went to the show. It was amazing and gorgeous and sensational and all those wonderful things. We especially liked the little chinese girls with their wood things...although they did mess up. I hope they didn't get in too much trouble!!!

The next day we spent by the pool again, but this time in the shade...which meant we were right by Jamie's parents. Here are some pool-side scenes that we enjoyed!

That night we went to PF Chang's with Jamie's parents and met Kellie and Eli Buffington there. It was fun to see them again. Eli is so cute and seems to be doing so well! He was great during dinner!

After dinner we walked to a nearby fountain (that wasn't on) and Jamie fished pennies out of it for Eli to throw back in. Oh my gosh, he loved that! Eli did a little dance after every throw.

Tim and Sarah B stopped by to say goodbye one last time and it was good to see them again. Then we were back to the resort for the last night there.

The next morning we checked out of the room and then went paddleboating on the lake.

Then we played a quick game of pool (Jamie beat me soundly...) and got in the car to head to Miami.

Pembroke Pines, FL

2007-07-31T19:30:00.001-05:00

On Monday we left Orlando and drove down to Pembroke Pines (a suburb of Miami, I think) to stay with Jamie's aunt and uncle and cousins. Jamie's grandma (we call her Nonnie) lives very nearby and his Aunt Paula and cousin Paul are staying with Nonnie. When we arrived, Matt and Sarah were there just long enough to take a picture of most of the grandkids and Nonnie. (But it was on Matt's camera, so I don't have it yet...but you can check for it on facebook!)

That evening we had a yummy meal made by Nonnie (it reminded me of Oma's cooking - delicious!) and dessert made by Aunt Paula. It was all delicious, especially the "crack sauce", so named because its so sugary that it supposedly gets you high (I think, that's why its named that anyway.)

Dinner with the family was amazingly fun. Then I went with Kelly to see where she lives with her husband Drew (he was gone for training) and Jamie stayed with Uncle Randy to watch the YouTube debate. Then, when all the "grown-ups" had gone to bed, we hooked up the Wii and had our first Wii experience. Here are Craig and Jamie playing baseball. I think Jamie is batting and Craig is pitching.

This is Craig and me boxing. That game is hard.

The next day Craig, Kelly, Jamie and I went to Las Olas, the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. We pretty much parked, walked to a restaurant for lunch, and then walked back to the car. But it was a great time of conversation and laughter...and the restaurant was fun. The tables and benches were all joined together and were like a giant table-wide swing. This is Kelly.

This is Craig.

This is me and Jamie and Florida palm tree. Patti, this is for you! :)

We drove back via Cold Stone Creamery, ate some yummy icecream, while chatting some more. Then we got back, hung out, played some more Wii...this time with Paul. He's a fun kid. :)

Then yummy dinner made by Aunt Paula and then a rousing game of Apples to Apples. Jamie said a little about that. This is (L-R) Aunt Mary, Paul, and Aunt Paula.

Craig, Uncle Randy, and Kelly.

Me, Craig, Uncle Randy, Kelly, Aunt Mary, Paul, and Aunt Paula.

The next morning (Wednesday) we left with a large bag of snacks from Aunt Mary (pumpkin muffins, brownies, oatmeal raisin cookies, YUM!) It was sad to say goodbye. I wish we lived closer to the family. They're such an amazing family and I felt such a connection with them. I felt like Kelly could have been one of my best friends from college or something. Honestly, I think its the God thing. They so clearly love the Lord, and I love that!

That day was our longest day of driving. We drove all the way from Miami area to Rocky Mount, NC in just about 12 hours. Well, actually Jamie drove all that way. But it was probably one of my favorite days. (Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, although I can't say they would have been very interesting.) We talked for a long time, listened to music, sang along, listened to 2 sermons (both excellent) and talked about what we thought about them, and just in general had a good long together time.

The only bad part was the bathrooms along the way. Ew, ew, ew. I hate public restrooms. We stopped twice. The second time we stopped I went to use the restroom in the gas station and it was crowded with people so you could barely move. I decided I could use the KFC next door. Walked in there to find it literally overflowing with, um, dirty water. Ugh. Make me barf. :-P So we went across the street to the McDonalds where the floor was covered with water. Hopefully from the sink, but I'm doubtful. I gave up, walked gingerly through it, and used it. Then I tried to wash my hands, but there weren't even any paper towels to dry my hands - and no napkins in the restaurant. I came out pretty traumatized to Jamie waiting in the car and immediately took my flip-flops off and put them in the back seat. He, being the hero he is, promptly got our germ-x hand sanitizer from the trunk, let me drench my hands in it, and then used a couple napkins from the car to clean my shoes with it. That made me feel a bit better.

When we finally got to the hotel (around 9:30 pm) we checked in (finding that the toilet seat in our bathroom was up and not completely clean - ew again! - but it got us the room for free that night thanks to Jamie's negotiation skills...) and then went immediately out to the Outback across the street. It was Jamie's reward for driving so far. And it was great to relax together after a really very good day (except the grossness). Ahhh.

Corolla, NC

2007-07-31T17:59:00.000-05:00

I've decided to post blogs about our trip starting with the last thing we did so that, as you scroll down the page, you get it in chronological order.

We left Rocky Mount, NC and drove along beautiful roads.

Beautiful bridges between islands in the Outer Banks on the way to Corolla.

After we checked in, we spent an hour or so on the beach,

then went to the grocery store. We picked up microwavable food and some salad and ate out on our balcony. It was almost like eating breakfast on the balcony on our honeymoon. Only not as yummy and not as pretty. But still wonderful.

We took some pictures by the boardwalk. And we played mini-golf in town. Jamie won by like 23 points. Or maybe I won. I had more points.

Next day, we spent the day on the beach. and got sunburnt even though we wore a lot of sunscreen.

That night we decided we wanted to see a movie, so we went looking for the "stadium seating" movie theatre. Ha. Google maps is on crack in the outer banks. This is where we ended up, following their directions:

See how crazy green that pond behind the trees is?

We finally found the theatre, bought tickets and then got dinner at a nearby place called Mako Mike's. Oh man, I got this herb crusted chicken which had a white sauce on it. I hadn't had a meal that yummy at a restaurant in a very long time. And then we went to see the late show of Harry Potter. Definitely a fun movie. Not for kids, but also not evil. Jamie and I walk out of movies, and there weren't any walk out moments that we could see. :)

Next day spent on the beach again. That's the view with our back to the beach, facing the hotel.)

A little after lunch, a storm brought thunder and lightning over the ocean and cleared out most of the people on the beach, but it ended up not touching the beach. It was just very cool to watch the clouds and lightning over the ocean.

Oh, and there's a crab. Can you see its camoflauged self?

That afternoon (after the storm) we rented boogie boards and tried to "catch some waves". It was a super-fun time, even if I did get flipped by the waves a couple times and start to wonder which was was up (follow the bubbles right?)

After cleaning the sand off, we took more pictures.

And then headed out to a really nice (but not super outrageously expensive) restaurant that Jamie had found online. It was pretty yummy too...and VERY fancy. (Like leather couches to sit on while you waited and bread and oil so good you'd never believe it...oh, and my meal was salmon with a truffle honey glaze. TRUFFLES!)

We took more pictures of the beach at night.

Then the next morning we left for home. The traffic was completely awful the entire way. And I was sad to be leaving days where I got to spend all my time with Jamie.

It wasn't a great last leg of the trip. But then, to unlock the door to our apartment...oh, it smelled like home and it felt like home and the bathrooms were CLEAN and it felt exciting like when we first walked around our apartment and realized that this is where we would live and set up house. And, even though I wish we could spend all our days together, its good to be HOME!

Home

2007-07-29T22:26:00.000-05:00

Over 3,000 miles on the car in two weeks. 7 different beds over 14 nights. Lots of great time with friends and family. Lots of good time for us to be together. We had a great vacation, and now we're home and ready to get back into the swing of things here.

A few pictures. I'm sure Catherine will post more later.

Us seeing the sights (?) in Gatlinburg, TN. I had just finished my chocolate milkshake from Ben and Jerry's. I think I had about 20 more of those during our vacation. They're quite healthy.

Catherine with (L-R), her Aunt Jody, her Oma, and her Mom.

Catherine with her Oma and Opa, on the deck of the Mountain Lodge the whole family stayed in, right on the border of the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Riding go-carts in Pigeon Forge, TN (the home of "Dollywood" which we unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit...)

That's the "Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers" in Gatlinburg. Again, our schedule seemed to be too full to accomodate a visit to this museum, affectionately known to Salt and Pepper shaker fans as "Mecca."

Catherine sitting next to my parents at dinner in Orlando. We were all together for dinner that night (Tim and Sarah, and Matt and Sarah are across the table.) What you can't see is the jalapeno pepper that my Dad had just spit out, while my brother Tim and I succesfully ate them.
Us in Pembroke Pines, FL, with (L-R), my cousin Craig, Uncle Randy, cousin Kelly, and Aunt Mary. Just wrapping up a quite competitive game of "Apples to Apples." I believe Kelly won. It's because she's a teacher and teachers love apples. To apples.

The view from our balcony in Corolla, NC. To native Corallians, it is pronoucned "Cor - all - uh." To Northern Virginians vacationing in the Outer Banks (most of whom have the obligatory "OBX" sticker on their cars), it is wrongly pronounced like the car. FYI.

Us. (L-R), Catherine, Jamie.

The last night of our vacation - looking past the dunes at the ocean with the full moon shining on it. It was beautiful!

Georgia on my mind

2007-07-18T22:53:00.001-05:00

Well, the first leg(s) of our journey is/are now complete. Tonight we're staying in a hotel in Savannah, Georgia - and its great. But more about that later!

We left on Sunday quite a bit after church and we finally got to Gatlinburg around 11:45pm after a very pleasant experience getting directions from some native Sevierville residents who seemed to be washing their dogs in the car wash. Southerners are nice! We stayed in a Fairfield Inn very near the lodge where the rest of my family stayed. It was a great idea! We spent a lot of time with family, but also a lot of time together exploring Gatlinburg.

The family reunion was great! It was in celebration of my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Almost as soon as we pulled in on Monday morning, Oma and Opa presented all of their 5 children with a spiral-bound copy of their memoirs. Very cool and fascinating! I've read the first couple chapters of my grandpa's life already and am learning so much. I knew a lot of it, but not all. And as I read it I am reminded of the silly stories he used to always tell us about his childhood when we were little.

It was good time with the family. I met some cousins who I hadn't met...and some of them met me for the first time in their memory. My cousins (and great cousins - or whatever you call your cousins' children) range from age 5 to 13 (except the one who is the mother to the 4 great cousins of course!) and they are all boys except poor 9(?) year old Jessica. But she managed well. :) But it was interesting to be relegated to the same ranks as the aunts and uncles.

We had some great times of laughter and conversation...especially after we gave our gift of a scrapbook of tributes from each of us and pictures from their years of marriage. Then some of us laughed till we cried at different people's memories of my grandparents. That's one thing I realized about my family. They laugh easily and hard and at themselves! :)

Jamie and I also had some fun times driving around the mountains around Gatlinburg on the first day and walking around touristy Gatlinburg the second day. Wow, Gatlinburg is a tourist town! And pretty hickster too. But we had a great time and ate Ben and Jerry's while we walked around - which of course made it even better.

Then last night we went out with Jon and Stan and Bobbi (our other cousin our age) and went go-carting. Oh my gosh, it was SO much fun! I'll post some pictures when we get a cord to upload our pictures. :)

So, then, we left today around 1 pm to drive down here to Savannah. (It was sad to leave, for sure.) Just to get to the interstate was like a picture of mountain America. Houses tucked into the mountain side with huge piles of scrap wood and a couple cars under the bushes (like the bushes are growing through them). It was so interesting and a great drive!

And Savannah. Ahhhh! The hotel room actually smells good. You know how hotel rooms usually smell neutral in a way that can smell yucky like putting your ear up to a sound proof wall sounds yucky? Well, this one doesn't and I love it! Plus its just a nice hotel, so that's fun.

Then, the best part, Jamie and I went into the waterfront area of Savannah for dinner tonight. We got seafood at a restaurant with a view of the river. The clam chowder that Jamie got was delicious! (And the rest of the food was good too.) But then after that we walked along the water front and heard a little threesome singing on the riverside. They were so good! One of them was playing guitar. One was dancing. We sat there for probably 30-45 minutes listening (with a whole bunch of people) while they sang (kind of jazz style) "Brown Eyed Girl", "On the Dock", and "New York, New York", and tons of others. They also asked for other to sing for them when their voices got tired from singing all evening, so this kid (like late teenager) steps out of the crowd, says he's from Alabama and proceeds to sing two songs beautifully! I couldn't stop grinning for most of the time.

So, that's it so far.

On Vacation

2007-07-15T08:11:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, after church and after lunch, we're headed out for two weeks for vacation. According to Google Maps, we're going to be traveling 2,633 miles. I figure we'll go more than that, going over 3,000 miles. We're so excited to get away for a while, see family and friends, see the mountains of Tennessee, see Florida (I grew up there), enjoy the outer banks, and enjoy everythig in between. Here's a look at where we're going:

We'll see some of you along the way!

Go to this link

2007-07-11T21:04:00.000-05:00

One thing that was always so frustrating to me in youth ministry was figuring out how to help these kids that I loved so much understand and experience the presence of God. I really truly believe that knowing God is life-changing and empowering for that change. I so often recognized a need for that power in "my kids" but couldn't quite figure out how to lead them into an empowering relationship with the Lord. So, when I read this article it was helpful in a way. I know its technically about worship leading, but I think its for any of us who long to help others experience the goodness of the Lord in the same way we have....and long to continue to experience it for ourselves!

So, here's the article. Its at www.worshipmatters.com under July 6th. The guy who writes it lives nearby and is a guy who Jamie really counts as a role-model. I think we both love Bob because he is enthusiastically in love with the Lord and uncompromising in his commitment to the Bible and good theology especially in congregational worship... and he is uniquely humble among Christian worship leaders - or even Christian leaders in general.

The Nats

2007-06-23T19:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Jamie and I went to see a Washington Nationals baseball game. Dr. Sellers has shared season tickets with some other people. Last night he had 2 tickets and he was out of town, so he gave them to me and Jamie. THANK YOU!!!

So, we left at about 6:15 for a 7:05 game. Ha. At 7:05 we were driving through DC listening to the starting pitch on the radio. Sad, but next time we know better.

We finally got there at about 7:25 or so, parked, made our way in, and found our seats. It had been a stressful time, but hearing the sound of the crowd roaring from outside the stadium put a smile on my face that I couldn't wipe off. (Well, I got it off relatively soon - I didn't just have a silly grin on my face the whole night!)

When we found our seats we couldn't believe it. I mean, Dr. Sellers told me they were good seats, but these were amazing. Probably 12 rows back (the first row behind the super-important-people-who-get-their-snacks-brought-to-them) and right behind home plate. We could practically see the expression on the pitcher's face as he threw the ball. I've never paid attention to a baseball game in my life, but this was exciting and fun!

(Plus, there was the human interest aspect because I knew something about the pitcher. One of the ladies at work is married to the Nats' chaplain and this pitcher is their player rep and a REALLY good guy with a really cute kid who is known as "gwand swam boy" at work where we like to hear stories about him.)

So, anyway, we stayed for the whole game, got ice cream, popcorn, and the souveneir coke, and sang "Take me out to the ball game". We also enjoyed all the between inning stuff, like the "Presidential Race" where 4 "presidents" raced to home plate...and then walked out via the aisle right by us. We loved the whole thing!

The moral of the story? If you have a friend (or boss) who offers you 2 $50 tickets to a major league baseball game, DO IT!

Rainbo

2007-06-23T19:41:00.001-05:00

I just got off the phone with my best friend from junior high and high school. We talked for THREE HOURS! Now I remember what it was like in junior high and high school when we would talk on the phone for that long every night. (Of course, that phone time also included lots of algebra, geometry, etc.)

We met during the summer after 6th grade at some meeting for talented and gifted kids. Then, in junior high we were in a lot of the same classes and things progressed from there. I'm not sure how we moved from classmates to best friends. Maybe from when our algebra teacher told us to exchange phone numbers so we could call each other for help with our homework (which we definitely did for almost all our math for the next 6 years). Maybe from the Odyssey of the Mind team that my dad coached and that we both poured our lives into. (We won a prize that year because our entire script was a "poem". "It was long ago and the years have gone. The creature is dead, but the story lives on. 'I am Maerona of this ocean place. I wonder what that is in front of my face?'" Ha ha. I can recite more if you're interested... It might even be from the shared experience of seeing our 7th grade English teacher cry for no apparent reason or from getting an "F for the day" almost every day from Mrs. Wymore - and then an A for the semester. (Don't ask me how that worked.)

So, it was a good conversation filled with catching up on each others lives from the past 10 months, discussion of how healthy churches should look and how this generation is going to pot (we're so old!), and sympathy and encouragement for living Christian lives even through our sinfulness. Ahhhhh. There's something good about a long conversation with an old friend...even if it does give me a headache and make my ear hurt!

I love the bond in Jesus that keeps us together even after so many years. Friends truly are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them. (That one's for you Rebecca! :) )

Barbacoa Follow-up

2007-06-10T21:51:00.000-05:00

So, we finally got around to eating my concoction tonight. Last night we ended up going out to dinner with some friends, so the "barbacoa" actually cooked for more like, oh, probably 6 hours. I then stuck it immediately in the refrigerator minus some of the "juices" (ie southwestern flavored coke).

Oh, and the "meat" was beef.

Tonight, I heated up part of it in the microwave for 2 minutes. I had also stir-fried a red bell pepper and an onion together with some garlic (but so little that it couldn't be tasted). And I made up my own corn salsa type thing to replicate Chipotle. Mine had:
Maybe 10 cherry/grape tomatoes cut in quarters
Some green onion (chives type) cut up
About 1/3 small can of green chili peppers like you put in Patti's low-fat chicken enchiladas
1 can of corn (yum)
Pepper and salt
I mixed it all together and, waa-lah. Well, I didn't try it on its own, so don't blame me if its not that great.

Anyway, I put all the different things in different bowls, added some grated extra-sharp cheddar, sour cream, lettuce, regular salsa (in case Jamie wasn't a big fan of the corn type), and warm tortillas to the table, and we were ready.

I think it tasted ok. The meat's texture wasn't the greatest, but I think it was flavorful enough. The texture probably would have been better if it hadn't cooked so long, maybe? It could have been a bit more spicy, but the mixture of everything tasted good together. (It was like a fajita burrito, I suppose.) Mostly, I couldn't taste the meat because there were so many other flavors. But it can't have been too bad because Jamie ok'ed having the left-overs for dinner on Tuesday. (Monday is too soon for me!)

Barbacoa

2007-06-09T16:08:00.001-05:00

My goal is to make barbacoa like they have at Chipotle. The problem? When I look it up online all I can find is special cooking methods like baking underground or something. (Ok, I looked it up awhile ago and don't remember the details - but I do remember it wasn't practical for me, an apartment dwelling suburbanite with not even a balcony to my name. :))

I decided to try it anyway.

Ingredients:
About 2 ziplock baggies full of stewing meat - mostly defrosted.
One can of coke
A little bit of butter
1.5 packages of dry southwest marinade
1.5 Tblspns of garlic

Smear the butter around your crock pot so stuff doesn't stick.
Put the garlic on the bottom
Put meat in
Pour marinade powder over top
Pour coke over top
Cook on high for 3-4 hours. (Lets hope, because that's when dinner is!)

I'll let you know how it goes. (And if you have a better way, please, please let me know because I kind of think this will fail! :))

Pennsylvania Mania

2007-06-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

Here is the long awaited update on the Friday before last...and unexpected bonus information on this past Friday!

The Thursday before last, we drove down (up?...yes, up) to PA to visit our super wonderful friends. (Those of you reading on facebook might have already seen the photos. Just skip em if you want!) We arrive on Thursday just in time to eat dinner before Celeste and I headed out to see Izabella's orchestra and chorus concert. We were late (quite a bit:-/) so we missed the orchestra part, but we had a blast watching the chorus. What fun it is to watch 4th-6th graders sing the oldies! We laughed and sang along and generally got almost, but not quite, annoying.

The next (FRIDAY) morning, we intended to wake up in time to take the older kids to school, but accidently slept right through it. But Jamie did still get some cuddle time with Johnny in his jammies! And I showed Joshua how to make a photo book online that can then be printed. Ha ha. The only pictures he picked to be in the book were the ones of himself. Ugh. I think thats what I can be like on the inside too. Praise God Who is changing my selfishness to selflessness (slowly.)

I wish this one had better lighting because I think it is SUCH a cute one! ->

Here's Jon and John.

For a lot of the day we just played outside in the back and front yard with whatever kids were home. Joshua wanted me to pitch the ball so he could practice his batting. Oh man, I was bad...I couldn't even get it from the pitching mound over the plate. But he was a good teacher. He taught me how to throw the ball (under not over) and encouraged me ("I'm not that good at baseball either, but I practice so I can get better.") and let me step closer. :) It was really sweet and humbling in a way (but not at all humiliating - maybe because we were the only two over the age of two in the backyard.) The boys played in a bucket of water and the dirt, and a good time was had by all!

One of the major things that I learned by example from Celeste this weekend was that it is ok to let boys play in the dirt - and even eat it! And to just let them have their freedom within safe boundaries.

We also took Joshua to kindergarten and picked all three older kids up from school.

Jamie played catch in the front yard with Caleb while I took pictures of Johnny crawling on hands and feet (no knees) because he doesn't want to scrape his knees!

After a yummy dinner we went to Caleb's baseball game. It was dusty, small-towny, and wonderful. Johnny amused us all by "cheering" in a babble and clapping whenever we did. And Caleb's team won, of course!

The next morning we woke up early to leave and finally got a picture of beautiful Izabella.

And I'll leave you with one last cute one of our Godson.

And the bonus news:

Last Friday we painted Jamie's office "green tea". It looks great. He loves it. We don't have a picture yet.

Two not-the-main points

2007-05-26T13:54:00.000-05:00

Jamie and I spent this "weekend" (Thursday afternoon until around 8:20 this morning) driving to and from PA and spending some time with our friends there. It was a great trip. Full of family life, smallish town community, laughter, and good conversation. We'll update with some photos and more info later. For now, here are two things from today. Not particularly meaningful, but still...

First, a bit of excitement. The fire alarm in our apartment complex went off a couple (maybe 20?) minutes ago. At first I thought it was just in our apartment. Oh my goodness, I was only reading blogs on the computer. What could have set off the fire alarm? Oh yes, I did have the oven warming up so I could bake some chicken, but it didn't seem like that could be it. I turned the oven off, checked for fire in the apartment, and tried to turn the smoke detector off (it was very loud and piercing). Then I went outside and it was even louder out there. I called Jamie to see what he thought: should I call the office or 911? He opted for 911, so I placed my first (that I remember) 911 call ever. I felt cool. But I did have to collect myself before I called long enough to try to remember our address.

Then, a couple people started to emerge from the buildings next to ours. I met Jenny, Kim and Jose. Seemed nice. They all thought it was their fault too, but it definitely wasn't any of us. Jenny had called the office, so we had both bases covered. I was wondering how come there was no one else out there. Either EVERYONE in our apartment complex is out on Saturdays, or we have a lot of people who think they're invincible and like loud piercing noises. Anyway, eventually the alarm went off. We still weren't sure whether we could go back in, so we went around to the parking lot side of the buildings. Then, the fire truck pulled up. And the maintenance man came out and told them that a fire alarm got pulled. Wonderful.

So that was my adventure for the day.

Second not-the-main-point is this. This weekend is some kind of memorial day rally for motorcyclists. They come from hundreds of miles away to converge right between Jamie's old house and my old house and then drive into DC together. So today is a gathering day and there were lots of motorcyclists on the road between PA and here.
I have to say that my least favorite people on the road are motorcyclists. But I especially am peeved (to put it lightly) by those who don't wear protective gear. I saw one guy with no helmet, countless people in jeans and leather jackets, and many in t-shirts, teeny helmets, and other forms of less-then-protective gear.

My brother and uncles ride motorcycles. I don't like it. They are definitely endangering themselves if they get hit by cars, trucks, etc. But at least they wear the full amount of protective gear: huge well-fitted helmets, some kind of teflon/fiber glass type material covering their whole bodies, crazy amazing gloves, and tough boots. One of them (who shall remain nameless) fell off his bike swerving to miss a car and totaled the bike a while back, but was barely scratched. But these people who don't wear protective gear. Ugh. i've seen road rash. Its not pretty. REALLY not pretty. And that's from a crash going very slowly and wearing leather and denim. Yuck, yuck. Their arm will be scraped off their body if they fall of the bike on the interstate wearing just a t-shirt.

Ok, so there is some concern for them, but I also have to share the road with them. And they don't all drive so safely either. I HATE being near them when I'm driving because I'm so afraid I might not see one in my blind spot or they might stop too quickly or whatever and I'll be responsible for their death by road rash.

So, here's my thing. If you ride a motorcycle, be responsible. Don't be stupid and scare the other drivers. Drive extra carefully and wear the most protective gear available. And don't ride near me, please.

Melting Pot

2007-05-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday, Catherine and I went to the Melting Pot to celebrate our one-year Melting Pot anniversary. We went there for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. But it is a ton of food - and also a ton of money. So we told ourselves we'd come back in a year.

I remembered. So we went back and it was fantastic. Here are a few pictures of our splurge. They're pretty self-explanatory.

Oh, that last picture... That's my "I feel sooo fat" face. That's after the bread and cheese fondue, the salad, the steak, chicken, shrimp, tuna, veggies, potatoes, drinks, and dessert. Oh, the dessert. Wow.

Johnny

2007-05-07T20:38:00.000-05:00

I know we just posted a photo of him the post before last, but I just wanted to say that, even though I'm biased, I'm still right in saying that our Godson is one of the most beautiful babies in the world.

We got to see him (and his parents and brothers and sister) yesterday and he just gets more gorgeous everytime we see him with his dark curls, dark eyes, long eye-lashes and chubby flushed cheeks. I miss him today. Yesterday we realized that 2 months is too long to go in between seeing him. He didn't recognize us, which meant that, because we love him and didn't want to cause him distress, we didn't get to hold him really at all. Today I feel that lack of baby-cuddle.

But it was good to see his brother and sister and parents. I've known those kids since they were tiny. So we wrestled with all the kids (except Johnny) for a while, and then Jamie went out to play "soccer" with Joshua while I sat inside talking and rubbing Bella's back. There was lots of other conversation and play and ice-cream eating, but you don't want to hear all of that.

I miss that family. Why can't all my friends and family live within a 1-2 hour driving distance from us so we can see them all more often?

May at work

2007-05-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

I'm at work...
I know, I shouldn't be blogging. But its after 5 and I'm just waiting for them to finish with a patient who was late because of traffic. Yup, that happens pretty much every other day. :)
Anyway, May is a fun month in the office. Dr. Sellers opened his office here 25 years ago in May of 1982. We're doing all kinds of things to celebrate. We have a banner and silver dangly 25s hanging from the ceiling.
We're doing daily, weekly, and a monthly drawing for special prizes. We're going out to dinner as a staff on May 31st. We're giving away chapstick that is a yummy "shamrock" flavor.
And now the patient has left so I'm leaving pretty soon. Just have to do the final stuff... :)

...

Ok, so I wrote that on Thursday and now I'll finish it.

Other things we're doing in May that make it just a bit more interesting:

- each bringing in a photo of ourselves 25 years ago. He he. Almost everyone except me has those really beautiful "wings" in their hair.
- playing music from the 80s - we have some wonderful old Michael W. Smith and Phil Keaggy (its hard to find cds of 80s Christian music) and then we extended it to just oldies, as long as its appropriate. So Phyllis, who works at the front desk with me, disappears into nostalgia whenever the "Best of the 60s" instrumental cd comes on.
- displaying a photo of the dentist 25 years ago.

I guess thats it. But if you have ever gone to Dr. Sellers, come by and say hi sometime during May. Its really amazing me how many people have come in just in the past week and said that they have been coming to him since before he moved into his own office 25 years ago - 4 in the day that we counted! The first person to come in last week brought us a beautiful plant with a "Happy Anniversary" balloon. It makes me realize how much our practice is really very small community like even though we're right in the middle of the DC metro area. People love us and are attached to us and its kind of fun to be a part of that. People drive from hours away every week just to come get their teeth cleaned or get fillings or something....

If you need a dentist, come on over!

What's Happening

2007-04-28T18:40:00.000-05:00

One of the cool things about this blog is that Google lets us see what parts of the country are looking at our blog. There are the obvious locations like Miami (my family), Texas (Catherine's grandparents), Virginia (most of our friends), and scattered locations like Missoula (that's in Montana...), Chicago, and even England. One of Catherine's friends is in Japan so we see that too. It has been weird, though, seeing that our blog has been viewed once in Russia (we don't know anyone who lives in Russia) and once in China (we think we know someone who is traveling around China.) Anyways, hello to all our friends and family around the google map who read our blog.

We both just got home from the Saturday service at TFC. Tonight, John Yates preached on God doing new things, both in our local church, in our national and international Anglican church, and in our lives.

Tomorrow after church I'm flying to Atlanta, where I'll be leading worship for an Alpha Training Conference. I always enjoy these conferences, but it's never fun being away from Catherine. All of you who are married know how this feels, I'm sure. The conference is being held at the Atlanta Salvation Army Temple. I was talking with their sound engineer this past week and he told me that on Sunday mornings there, in addtion to their worship team, they have a 30-piece brass orchestra. I had no idea Salvation Army churches had bands like that. Unfortunately at this conference, it will only be me. Sure would be a blast (no pun intended) to play with their band though.

I'm off to go help with dinner. Catherine's cooking (thank goodness...)

Funny Picture

2007-04-24T18:31:00.000-05:00

Us with our godson, Johnny Minns, in Pittsburgh back in January.

This week

2007-04-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

This has been a busy week - maybe one of the busiest Jamie has had since we've been married. For some reason every evening was filled with one-time meetings or events. It was all great stuff - but too much. Most nights he didn't get home until 9 or 10 pm. I know that's semi-normal for some No VA couples, but I'm glad its not the norm for us! It was especially yucky on such a strange and heavy week. The VA Tech shootings definitely seemed to define the week (and probably much longer for most people) and the weather seemed to reflect the sadness and chaotic feeling of the moment.

It was so good to have Friday off together (especially with the nicer weather!). We got to rest, spend the day together, and have friends over for dinner. We laughed till we cried playing a board game called "Loaded Questions". I highly recommend it - especially with friends that you know pretty well!

Saturday was back to the grind - at least for Jamie. It was a long day, although in the end the big CANA ordination service was good. I think we were both struck by the powerful image of probably 10 priests/ministers crowded around each ordinand praying with laying of hands. We loved that each man's wife was included in the prayers and got to put his stole over him. And that Angela (the bishop's wife) blessed each of the wives with the words, "Be an evangelist. Love your husband through the power of the Holy Spirit." I think most pastor's wives struggle at some point with the fact that, even though their husband is the one employed by the church, they are expected to be a huge part of their husband's ministry. (I think both Truro and TFC are good at not expecting this as much.) But either way, ministry is a pretty life-encompassing job. Of all jobs, it has to be one of the hardest to "leave at work", partly because if you're in ministry, it doesn't feel like its just a job: it is a part of who you are. I loved that at this ordination service (not sure if it is the same at every ordination service), they took that role of the spouse seriously. It may not be a paid position, but it can be a full time job to be a pastor's wife.

Today was good, but busy too. TFC is a good place to be for both of us. Its taking a while for me (Catherine) to feel at home there, I think mostly because I felt SO at home at Truro, but the people are wonderful, friendly, and definitely reach out. I'm starting to make some good friends there. Today after the 11 am service, something fun happened that made me feel more at home! Jamie and I were standing talking to a friend and I felt a little body crash into my leg. The 2 yr old son of another friend is a sturdy little guy who loves wrestling and other such physical activity. I guess he had decided to make me the target of what I can only call one of his "love crashes". I'd seen him do it to others, but I felt very privileged to be the recipient of it myself! (Oh the little things in life!)

After church and lunch we headed over to Truro for the program they put on for Martyn's last Sunday there. The program was fun and it was great to see so many Truro people. We ended up staying for about 2 hours after the program ended just talking to people, etc. We saw our pregnant friend Meghan and our friend Molly's new baby. (I don't think we even saw Molly pregnant this time.) And tons of youth group kids and parents. We felt loved! One thing I said to Jamie as we left is that I love the way Truro is the kind of church that kids grow up at. Ricky and Nik brought out a chair for Martyn during the program and it struck me that before them it was Peter and Jake and after them it will probably be Ethan and Anthony. There are always those kids/teens who have been at Truro forever and step in to help out with stuff, as well as new students who are grafted in to the community. Anyway, it was good to see everyone there.

Well, it was a weekend full of church, and tomorrow its back to work! But tonight we're spending the evening vegging: watching tv, blogging, etc. And its good to get to be in it together.