28 Weeks--Hello Third Trimester! And Hello New Home!

Wow! What a whirlwind! One month ago we didn't have any job offers on the table, didn't know where we were moving to (although we knew we'd be leaving Seattle, there weren't jobs available up there), didn't know how all the health insurance would work out/transfer so I could deliver our baby boy in a hospital here in LA, not in the northwest, and had no idea what we were going to do with our house. It's kind of amazing how God works sometimes. A job as a youth director literally fell into my husband's lap (thanks to some great friends who already work at this church and were looking out for us), we flew down, interviewed, were offered the job two hours later, and three days later had accepted. In the past couple weeks we have packed our entire house (except for the furniture being used to "stage" the house for potential buyers), moved all our belongings into our garage and out of cupboards, closets, and drawers, put our house on the market, loaded up what would fit into our car, drove down I-5 and made it from Seattle to LA in less than 2 days, and Charles has now started work at our new church. Phew! No wonder I feel a bit exhausted and disoriented! An older couple from the church has graciously allowed us to stay with them for a few weeks while I apartment hunt for us, and we have already been invited to dinner with a couple our own age in the congregation (we're excited to have friends!).

Our little man is now the length of a Chinese cabbage apparently--about 14.5 inches long I think? He's getting bigger!

Everything about our beginning here has felt different. Everything. Those overseeing the youth program have re-scheduled big events til spring to give Charles a chance to acclimate to the culture and people here before being asked to plan a talent show for the youth (which was on the calendar for Nov.) Which is pretty much the opposite of what happened at our last congregation. They've dialed their program calendar way back to give him time to get his feet wet here, I think our first big event is winter camp in January maybe? (And it's over the weekend of my due date, so I for sure won't be going, and we'll see if he gets to go for a day or something!) We haven't been met by any "threats" of "this is what we always do and you need to do it the exact same way" which has been SO refreshing. Last night was the first junior high youth group we experienced and from the beginning it kind of looked like it was going to be a bit of a disaster. He found out at the last minute that several of his normal volunteers who were going to lead the night couldn't make it, (and he'd never met any of these kids), and that the normal space they do youth group in was being taken over by the children's ministry program folks setting up for a giant Halloween haunted house. Our senior pastor wandered by, immediately acknowledged the chaos, apologized profusely for this being our first experience and said it was fine if the whole evening was a disaster, he wasn't worried, we'd get back into a rhythm next week. That kind of grace practically brought tears to our eyes--the lack of pressure we felt was amazing. And the night ended up going really well--the volunteers who were there said it was fantastic, the kids seemed to have fun, and we'll re-group for next week!

I've spent the week filling out health insurance applications, researching doctors, and apartment hunting. Which has been a bit of a long process, but I actually think I found a place for us last night! I'm taking Charles to see it this afternoon, and if he likes it we'll be filling out an application today. It's 1 block from the church, which is going to be SO helpful with only one car and a baby on the way (especially on those Sundays he needs to be at church for both services--I can walk the munchkin home for naptime and not have to worry about waking him up to go pick my husband up when he's ready to come home--same for bedtime on youth group nights that run late). So I'm keeping my fingers crossed this works out.

Anyways, I think that's about it for now--we have a full weekend of various Halloween related events (have I mentioned that I hate Halloween with a passion? I do. I seriously hate it). and our first high school youth group Sunday evening. We're SO thrilled to be here even though we miss Seattle friends (and I miss the Seattle weather!) already. We'll be back up there in about 2 weeks though to pack up our house and for my baby shower which I am super excited for! It's been so fun looking at little baby things and registering for some of them for this little man :)

And I'll leave you with some way cute photos that make me smile a lot :)

A pumpkin just Lily's size!

My mom finally headed home on Tuesday after 5 weeks in Providence being Gramma--I know she was tired, but I also know she loved the time she got with Lily, and then with Brooke! I love this photo!And my very favorite photo--I LOVE that they are holding hands :)

Have a great holiday weekend everyone! Hope you enjoy Halloween more than I do!

Weeks 25, 26, & 27! Lots of Life Updates!

The 3rd trimester starts on Sunday--that's crazy to me! The second trimester does feel like it was really long--a LOT happened in the past 13 weeks in our lives, so I know we still have a ways to go until we meet our little guy, but we also still have a lot of things in life left to get settled before he arrives, so I'm okay that we have another 13 weeks to go! I realize I haven't written each week in the past few weeks, but here's the scoop on our lives and baby in the past 3 weeks!

Week 25--our little dude hit the weight of a rutabaga. No, I don't know what a rutabaga is or how to cook/eat it, but I do know that a rutabaga is about a pound and a half, and apparently that's what Baby K weighed two weeks ago. This week was discerning week for us, as we headed home from our trip to Los Angeles with a job offer on the table. We loved the church, our new senior pastor, their vision for youth ministry (it actually looks like FUN at this place instead of so much work!), and the idea of being back with friends who know both of us really well. We weren't so sure about the financial piece of living in Los Angeles. We sat with it for a few days, we spent time together in the SPU chapel sitting in silence, separately journaling our thoughts and questions. We researched health insurance rates and rent rates. We received a super supportive email from my dad that week as well, reminding us that the first and most important thing to discern is the call itself. Is this a church and community we can see ourselves part of? Is this is a senior pastor we can work well with who actually will support Charles? Would we be happy living there? He reminded us that if the answers to those questions were "yes" then part of trusting God is trusting that the finances will work themselves out somehow, but probably shouldn't be the #1 reason to turn down an otherwise great job offer. He reminded us that once our little guy is a couple months old I can always look for part time work to help with the bills, something I'd love to do anyway (even if it's taking in someone else's baby while I'm watching ours too, or working part time for a church in the area or for Fuller again). There are ways to make finances work. We learned here that while our financial situation was stable, the church was not and that wreaked havoc on our marriage, our physical health, our emotional health, and even our spiritual health. Choosing a job based on financial stability doesn't seem to be the right answer all the time! We were definitely grateful for his counsel and words of wisdom & support, and after a couple days we accepted the job offer! After 4 months of not being able to answer the "what's next?" question, we were thrilled to share with people that we'll be heading back to a place that was so rich for both of us in our time there.

Week 26! This was a HUGE week for us! Baby has grown as long as an English cucumber (the long skinny ones!) He's busy working on his lung development and the maturing of his reproductive organs, and the little dude has reached about 14 inches long from head to heel.

Baby and I started the week off by spending Sunday afternoon enjoying a day with my girl friends up here celebrating Lynn's upcoming wedding! Seven of us headed over to Bainbridge Island on a ferry for a gorgeous afternoon of wine tasting (well some of us tasted!), wandering the cute town, and enjoying an incredible meal at the restaurant Hitchcock. Everything we ordered was to die for. Their menu is based on what's in season, so everything is ridiculously fresh and gourmet--my kind of place! I enjoyed the ricotta gnocchi (gnocchi are like dumplings made out of flour, and in this case, ricotta) mixed with pine nuts, yellow summer squash, blue cheese and parsley. It was amazing. (This photo is the 7 of us from Darbee's wedding earlier in the summer. I will miss these amazing women like crazy when we do move and have been so grateful for another season of life spent with them here in Seattle).

The other super cool thing we did during week 26 was attend a live taping of a radio show/podcast called The Kindling's Muse. Every month at Hales Pub and Brewery in the upstairs banquet room, a group of people come together to discuss a given topic in the theological world. This past Monday they were discussing Rob Bell's book Love Wins. Dick Staub, local guru of theology and pop culture hosts the show and has usually 3 guests on to talk about the topic of the night. This past week two were Seattle Pacific professors and one was our good friend Bryan Burton, associate pastor at the church we just left and professor at Fuller Northwest. Bryan invited us to come and we jumped at the chance. It was awesome! The audience of about 70 sits at tables and can order food and drinks as they listen (and submit questions to the panel) and the theologians discuss the night's topic. Food, wine, beer, theology, community being formed as guests interact at their tables...we LOVED it! If you're ever bored, check out some of their podcasts, you can listen right on line, and the conversations are fantastic and thought provoking.

Also up in week 26....the infamous prenatal glucose screening. Da da dum. I'd been hearing about this test for years now as friends of mine have experienced it, and I knew the day would come when I too would get to drink the kool aid. For those of you who either had kids way before they did this, or who haven't yet had the pleasure, allow me to enlighten you :) Everyone I've talked to did theirs a bit differently, but mine was a 2 hour process. I headed in to the doctor's office first thing Tuesday morning having not eaten anything since the night before. They drew my blood to see what my numbers were while fasting, and then handed me a 10 oz fruit punch flavored drink with 50 grams of sugar in it (a teaspoon you add to your coffee has about 4 grams of sugar). You have to get the drink down in about 4 minutes and then sit there for an hour when they'll draw your blood again, and then sit for another hour and get a third blood test. It's basically to see how your body is processing sugar while pregnant and to screen for any gestational diabetes. I was doing okay until I visited with the doctor half way through the test and she had me lay down to take the fetal heart rate. When I sat back up the room started spinning and needless to say I lost all the fruit punch in my stomach. Which means, I had to start all over again the next day with the fasting, blood tests, and drinking the kool aid again. Not fun. But day 2 went much better & I do not have signs of diabetes, so for that I am super grateful. I am also grateful to not have to drink that stuff again til baby #2 comes along some day!

On Thursday of week 26 we became Aunt & Uncle again!! Sweet Brooke Elizabeth was born to my little sister! She weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and is healthy and doing fantastic--praise God! Apparently her birth was a super great experience, exactly the kind of birth experience Megan wanted, and my mom was over the moon that they'd asked her to be in the room this time when Brooke arrived (she and dad were in the waiting room when Lily was born). Dad was on Lily-duty for the day at home and brought her up to the hospital to meet her "baby Brooke" when Megs was out of delivery. So grateful everything went well, and now I'm working on figuring out when I can get back there in the midst of our moving to meet my newest niece!

Lily meets her baby sister and gives her sweet kisses!

This picture pretty much makes me tear up every time I see it. We have an almost identical one of me "holding" Megan when she was born.

A baby sister can never have too many kisses!

Pretty much the happiest Papa in the world! We told him he needs to grow that 3rd arm between now and January for our little one!

Saturday was a day of celebration! We celebrated Lynn & Adam's wedding at probably the coolest venue ever! The top of the Columbia Tower (the tallest building in Seattle) is where their ceremony & reception were held--it was incredible! Such a fun time with friends that continued late into the evening after the wedding at a local bowling alley. This was later that night bowling--I learned that pregnancy can really throw off your ability to bowl. Not that I was great to begin with, but I am usually better than I was!

Also on Saturday was Lily's 2nd birthday! We video chatted and she told us it was "happy birthday Lily's turn!" She told me that she got to eat cake, and open presents and I asked what she got. Her response was "baby Brooke!" Not a bad birthday gift! She also laid down on the bed next to Brooke to show me who was the bigger sister :) Happy birthday sweet Lily, you've made all our lives more joyful and richer than we could ever imagine!

She got a bike for her birthday! And her special "bike hat" that she showed me how she puts on whenever she wants to ride. Such a big girl!

Papa helping her figure it out

Yum! Chocolate cake!

We spent the rest of week 26 packing stuff up and getting our house spotless and staged perfectly for it to go on the market this past weekend. We even have our own website our realtor made us. Wanna buy a sweet townhouse? Click here!

Week 27! Well, technically week 27 just started yesterday so not too much excitement has happened yet! Baby boy is now weighing in at about 2 pounds! (About the weight of a head of cauliflower) and is developing his little brain more and more each day. He's opening and closing his eyes, moving around a TON, listening to our voices, and practicing his sucking reflex by sucking on his cute little fingers. I am eating everything in sight--amazing my husband with my constant requests for seconds. It's our last full week in Seattle together, Saturday we leave to begin our trip south and once we get there Charles will begin work and I'll begin looking for a place for us to live. The church is graciously hosting us with a family for a few weeks until we have a place to call home. Also on the list of things to do immediately? Find a new doctor since we'll be delivering this little one down in LA now. So we're trying to clean out our fridge this week--eating random things for meals because that's what we have on hand, we're seeing some friends, continuing with our packing, and praying someone wants to buy our house soon. That's pretty much it for this week, we're getting more and more excited about our new church and community waiting for us in LA!

Phew! If you're still reading, congratulations! It's been a busy few weeks, but we are so grateful our little man is healthy, kicking around in there, and growing just like he should!

Let Us Be Women Who Love

I love these words. And want more than anything to let them shape my life and the life of my daughters someday. Grateful for the wise, passionate, beautiful & intelligent women writing over at SheLoves Magazine (an online magazine for women who are daring to dream and be the expression of God's feminine heart here on earth). This is their manifesto.

Let us be Women who Love

by Idelette McVicker

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women willing to lay down our sword words, our sharp looks, our ignorant silence and towering stance and fill the earth now with extravagant Love.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women who make room.

Let us be women who open our arms and invite others into an honest, spacious, glorious embrace.

Let us be women who carry each other.

Let us be women who give from what we have.

Let us be women who leap to do the difficult things, the unexpected things, and the necessary things.

Let us be women who live for Peace.

Let us be women who breathe Hope.

Let us be women who create Beauty.

Let us be women who love.

Let us be a sanctuary where God may dwell.

Let us be a garden for tender souls.

Let us be a table where others may feast on the goodness of God.

Let us be a womb for Life to grow.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us rise to the questions of our time.

Let us speak to the injustices in our world.

Let us move the mountains of fear and intimidation.

Let us shout down the walls that separate and divide.

Let us fill the earth with the fragrance of Love.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us listen for those who have been silenced.

Let us honor those who have been devalued.

Let us say, Enough! with abuse, abandonment, diminishing and hiding.

Let us not rest until every person is free and equal.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women who are savvy, smart, and wise.

Let us be women who shine with the light of God in us.

Let us be women who take courage and sing the song in our hearts.

Let us be women who say, Yes to the beautiful, unique purpose seeded in our souls.

Let us be women who call out the song in another's heart.

Let us be women who teach our children to do the same.

Let us be women who Love.

Let us be women who Love, in spite of fear.

Let us be women who Love, in spite of our stories.

Let us be women who Love loudly, beautifully, Divinely.

Let us be women who Love.

These are a few of my favorite things...

I'm not just talking about The Sound of Music (although thanks to my mom, that has always been one of my favorite movies!). I figured that some day I would want to remember the foods, drinks, and other fun things that I have been adoring throughout this pregnancy. I'll be interested to see if anything changes with my next one someday! (I realize this post may be of zero interest to most of you, that's perfectly fine, it's more for me to be able to look back on!)

First up on the strange craving (strange for me anyways!) were potato chips. I still like them, but my first few weeks of pregnancy I HAD to have them. Cheddar and Sour Cream, Hickory BBQ, Sea Salt & Vinegar...you name the flavor I had to have them. I never did venture into the world of Flamin Hot Cheetos though...sorry Becca!

About the same time I started wanting potato chips, I also started wanting more and more popcorn. My husband and I eat quite a bit of popcorn in our house. We make it from "scratch" (we pop it on the stove with just a tiny bit of olive oil so we avoid the chemical-y taste of microwave popcorn since we eat it so often). So I've always loved popcorn, but back in June, I REALLY loved popcorn. I was quite excited to see that 3 cups of popped popcorn was actually on my list of foods to eat while pregnant to count towards the daily grain total! (the potato chips on the other hand were not on the list...)

Then summer really hit, and with it came the beautiful, fresh, delicious summer produce I live for every year. I could not get enough heirloom tomatoes, mango, pesto, bruschetta, zucchini and watermelon. Oh the watermelon. And beautiful spinach salads. I hate the heat, but I could live with summer produce year round. I really could!

I don't keep it a secret. I love red wine. I've never really wanted more than a glass in a given night (maybe 2 if we're celebrating something special) but I knew that when I got pregnant the red wine would be hardest for me to give up. And it has been. But I found an alternative that is working quite well! Izze Sparkling Fruit drinks! I rarely buy them because they are pricey, but when we have something fun to celebrate and I can't join my husband in the wine drinking I splurge on these. A great alternative! (I will say we already have our bottle of wine picked out for when the baby is born and I can partake a bit, friends gave us a bottle when we went to their home for dinner last week and the taste I had was delicious--so we're saving it for January!)

This one is a relatively new product on the market that I discovered and it is delicious. I am pretty sure it is gluten free, it's healthy (it was featured in our Nutrition Action magazine two months ago as being a great side dish with low sodium and calories) and I am a bit in love with it. Alexia Saute Sweets is what to look for in the frozen food aisle. It's a saute made from frozen sweet potato cubes, black beans, corn, onion and diced red peppers. You saute it in a flavored olive oil that comes with the package until the veggies are cooked through and then can serve it any number of ways. We've tried it with eggs and bacon mixed in to make a breakfast scramble which was pretty good, but my very favorite way of consuming this delicious and satisfying fall side dish is in a tortilla, as a burrito. I put a bit of shredded cheddar on top and use this as my burrito filling and voila! A delicious and easy meal, full of fall flavors and the nutrition from vegetables!

My only craving that is very strange to me (and my husband, he thinks this is amusing) is french dip sandwiches. If you know me, you know that I really could pass on meat most days. I don't ever choose a meat topping for my pizza, I'm happy to pick around the chicken in my salads, every so often I'll want a good hamburger, but for the most part, I've NEVER voluntarily chosen to order a giant stack of meat for a meal. Until now. This baby boy either loves the salt from the liquid sodium they give you to dip the sandwich in, or he wants the protein (I'm guessing the salt, because other meat doesn't sound great usually). I've now ordered 5 during this pregnancy, which is exactly 5 more than I have ordered in the past 10 years combined.

Otherwise, my main go-to foods these days involve ice cream, lots of milk, and LOTS of apples with peanut butter. I have probably had one almost every day of this pregnancy--this kid better not be allergic to peanuts, it is literally my daily snack! Cereal before bed is also climbing the list (or sometimes at 5 AM as has happened a couple times now when I wake up starving!)

So far no weird combos like pickles and ice cream together, or anything too out of the ordinary! I'm intrigued to see what else starts sounding good as the days go by and we head into the holiday season filled with my favorite holiday meals! We won't be traveling anywhere for either Thanksgiving or Christmas this year (by Christmas I'll be way too pregnant to fly) so I'll have to try my hand at cooking some of my favorite family recipes to introduce our little man to their flavors! And now, after posting all this about food, I am shockingly enough, hungry again. Off to raid the cupboards again!

The Best of my Pinterest...so far

Have you jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon yet? If not, you should. Really, I was skeptical, but it's pretty fun. Especially if you are ever looking for cute, creative, easy ideas for anything related to any area of life. It's a social networking site that allows people to share things they've come across on line and allows others to browse these ideas and "pin" the ones they want to save to their own personal bulletin boards. So you can create a bulletin board for recipes, decorating tips, party ideas, packing techniques, cute quotes, inspirational photographs etc. Then when you do need an idea for something, you have a bulletin board full of suggestions/solutions to any problem. I scroll through about once a week and repin the ideas that strike me, and today went back through the ideas I've collected over the past couple months. Here are a few of my favorites that I thought I'd share with those of you not yet on the bandwagon :)

A great family code

A fun idea for newborn photos

A family memory jar--write down memories throughout the year and then read them together on New Year's Eve. Love this!

A fun before and after baby photo

Need to turn a famous painting into a cake?

Another great family set of rules to live by:

Need large ice cubes for a punch bowl? Try freezing lemon slices in muffin tins of water to make large pretty, flavorful ice! Genius!

Seriously, how cute is this? Way cuter than a veggie try! Next time you serve veggies, break out those vases and martini glasses for the veggies and dip!

Yum. Seriously, Yum. Mini-Caprese bites--tomatoes, mozzarella and basil on a tooth pick for parties.

Need an easy way to store canned goods? Try magazine holders.

Cupboard feeling over run by spray bottles of cleaners? Try hanging a tension rod and hanging the spray bottles to free up space:

I want these sandwiches. Like, now.

And these. I really would love these too. Nutella Pretzel Chocolate Bars.

Did I convince you yet? Pinterest is where you need to head when you're in need of ideas. Seriously, check it out!

Weeks 23 & 24--Happy October everyone!

What better piece of produce to kick of fall with than an ear of corn? (Okay, pumpkin would probably be even more authentically fall, but I am not ready for a pumpkin-sized creature to be residing in me!) My little dude has reached the length of an ear of corn in there & is now weighing over a pound (the weight of a mango apparently). He definitely is an active little guy, keeping me awake sometimes late at night or early in the morning practicing his karate kicks. I gotta be honest, I don't mind in the least, I love feeling his movements and flutters and jabs (he's doing aerobics as I write this in fact). We've been calling him by his name as much as we can, which has definitely helped me feel even more connected to him, and I'm just starting to experience the pregnancy phenomenon of wanting to eat around the clock. Seriously. He must have just gone through a growth spurt because I can pretty much set my watch to every two hours when my stomach will start growling. I'm doing my best to choose healthy growing food for him most of my meals, and then leaving room for something purely enjoyable that I'm craving (mainly, ice cream). It's been fun though, to think through "okay little man, what haven't you had yet today? Calcium? Protein? Enough pieces of fruit or veggies?" Kind of like my own little dietary puzzle--what pieces are still missing. (I will say I am one of the lucky ones for whom food, shopping, cooking and eating all is still very appealing, this is probably a bit harder to do when the thought of food or menu planning sounds terrible!) Last night my husband and I went out to dinner and I had the most incredible vegetarian tacos--grilled zucchini, peppers, onions, mushrooms over black beans and a bit of melted cheese with fresh salsa topped with avocado. Oh my gosh. Heavenly. I want them again, right now. But then I of course had to balance the health of the veggie tacos with a side of french fries, because the particular restaurant we were at happens to make some of my very favorite french fries ever. Oh well.

In other, non-baby news of the past 2 weeks, we've been seriously starting to get ready to move, at least to sell our house. We don't have an official destination set in stone yet, but there is a very real possibility that we will by early next week. We flew somewhere this weekend & are spending the weekend interviewing for a youth director position, and will return to Seattle on Tuesday. We'll say more about that later, we learned after our last interviewing/discernment experience that maybe it's best to not let everyone know the cities/churches we are considering. It opened us up to lots of opinions as to what people thought would be best for us, and made it hard to really hear our own voices in the midst of the discerning. So stay tuned, when we have an answer as to what's next for us, we'll let ya know! I think wherever we do go, it will be a pretty quick move, at least for my husband--so we are definitely doing a lot on the house now while he's around--packing up everything we don't need between now and moving somewhere, moving some furniture around that our realtor asked us to, taking down photos from the walls and spackeling/touch up painting the holes etc. We have made progress, and in the midst of just waiting around to hear from churches it has been great having projects to work on to keep us busy.

We celebrated my 30th birthday last weekend with an incredible dinner at the top of the Space Needle--something I had always wanted to do, which was beautiful. So so beautiful. Incredible views everywhere you looked, delicious fancy food, good conversation. It was perfect. I came home to a house full of friends, a great surprise party my husband and girl friends had been scheming about that I knew nothing about. It was a fantastic celebration weekend!

Otherwise we're waiting. For job offers, our house to go on the market, and our sweet baby niece to come into the world, which should be relatively soon! Hopefully in next week's update we might have some news to share on all those fronts!

Thankful Tuesday

Life feels a bit overwhelming right now. I'll be honest, we have a lot going on, a TON of unknowns (more than I can count), many things up in the air that all kind of depend on other things also out of our control right now, and when you add a fresh batch of crazy pregnancy hormones to the mix...well it's kind of a recipe for disaster. And a lot of tears. I've spent time begging God this week for a crystal ball--something that will help me see what is next for us, because the months of living in the unknown are starting to wear on me big time. As of now, that crystal ball has yet to arrive in my mailbox, but in its place have come numerous other gifts and surprises that have left me reminded that God is still good. Here are just a few of the things from the past week that I am grateful for.

*My sweet baby boy kicking away in my belly--I LOVE feeling him move, I love knowing he's in there and growing and getting to call him by name when I talk to him.

*Time each morning in prayer with my husband. We've been using Shane Claiborne's book a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals each morning for about a month now and are in love with it. I'll write more about this later.

*My soon to be born niece is growing like she should, and my sister's health and blood pressure seem to be doing fairly well. We're all waiting to find out if/when they will induce her as they watch her pressure levels, but we are so grateful baby Brooke is gaining weight like she should.

*My sweet niece, Jane, turns 1 this week! What an absolute gift this adorable girl is to our family!! Praise God for her first year!

*A beautiful breakfast in bed on my 30th birthday--homemade strawberry/nutella crepes and fresh brewed coffee made by my dear husband. Delicious!

*Dinner out at one of the best pizza restaurants in Seattle with my good friend, Heather, on the night of my birthday.

*Lots and lots of birthday love on facebook and in my inbox and mailbox this past week.

*Dinner at the Space Needle Saturday night--the most beautiful restaurant I've ever eaten in (okay the most beautiful view for sure!)

*A fantastic surprise party when we got home from dinner--my sneaky husband and great friends pulled off a party that left me feeling so blessed and loved.

*Worship Sunday morning--I never ever get tired of hearing Pastor Heidi preach--her gift is incredible.

*Craig's list. We recently discovered this amazing invention--we've now sold several items that we don't want to move with us and have used it to buy a huge supply of moving boxes and packing materials from someone--more than we will need for our house for $30. Can't beat that!

*Video chatting and telephone chatting with sweet Lily on my birthday--hearing her yell "happy! berfday!!" over and over again (knowing she has no idea what it means), and watching her play always brightens my day. Also hearing that she has learned somehow to "tease" people and will now hand my mom her shoes, take them back, giggle and proudly exclaim "Teasing Grandma!" That cracks me up :)

*Compline Sunday evening. We've started going back to Compline--a 1/2 hour prayer service held at St. Marks Cathedral here in Seattle every Sunday evening. The compline choir chants the office for the day, as hundreds of young Seattle-ites sit in silence. Such a gift to have time to just sit and hear the ancient words sung so beautifully.

*Lots of phone interviews for jobs, even an in person interview coming up soon. We are grateful there is movement on the job front, and are praying for some answers soon. That's all I'll say on here for now--stay tuned...

*Coffee with Missy on Saturday morning--discovering a delicious new coffee shop in West Seattle--I enjoyed a frothy decaf latte with toffee nut and nutmeg. So fantastic.

*A long conversation with my grandma on Friday morning--she was so encouraging and so confident that God will work everything out for us this fall. She is also VERY excited about baby boy (we were able to share his name with her which was also fun) and has already been thrift store shopping for him and has a box in the mail to me. Grandma's favorite thing to do (besides quilting) is thrift store baby clothes shopping--that's pretty much where mine and Megan's wardrobes came from as babies and the rest of the grandchildren have experienced the same! Knowing our little boy has a box of grandma's finds coming his way for me to wash and at least start his wardrobe with makes me smile :) Something tells me that between her and other relatives our baby boy won't have to go naked after all!

How about you? What are you grateful for this week?