Week 15--Sweet Lil Apple

Week 15 is upon us! It's crazy how quickly Fridays roll around, how fast we move from week to week--from produce to produce! This past Friday marked week 15 for baby--who is now about the size of an apple--he's about 4 inches long (not counting his legs) and weighs about 2 1/2 ounces. Her little eyes don't open yet but rumor has it she can sense light now--so they say if you hold a flashlight up to your stomach baby will move away from the light beam. My brother in law Nathan tried this on me this week, hoping that it would help me feel movement but no luck. We'll have to try when she's a bit bigger!

We made it back from the east coast safely, and have just 4 nights here at home before leaving again--me for about 10 days, my husband for over a month. We head to LA on Wednesday where we'll be with friends there for the first time since moving north, and we also get the opportunity to chaperone our former church's annual houseboat trip for their high school students. So I'll be with 2 other leaders on a boat with 15 girls, and Charles will be with 15 guys. It's an amazing youth trip, we've loved it the past two years, and are super excited to go again. I do have to admit, I'm a bit nervous going pregnant--I'm sure things will be fine, but things like the bathroom situation on a houseboat and being hungry more and more are making me a bit apprehensive. I'll be packing a lot of my own food with me so I can eat when I need to, not needing to wait hours til the next meal! My hubby will be headed to northern Minnesota the first week of August for a 4 week youth minister leadership training, and I'll be in and out and traveling around while he's gone. I'll have a week here in Seattle by myself, then my parents come to town for a week (that trips been planned for awhile now), then I go to Spokane for 3 days for a meeting of my Company of New Pastors group, and finally, on the 24th, I'll be flying back to Minnesota myself to spend about 2 weeks there. So I am grateful I won't be sitting here by myself for a month, I'm looking forward to time with my parents, and friends of ours are getting married in Minneapolis Labor Day weekend so we were going to be heading back there anyways.

I'll be on a Houseboat for a good chunk of next week so I'll update again when we're back!

Week 14--When Life Hands You Lemons...

Hello second trimester! And hello vacation! Week 14 ends tomorrow & I am just now getting around to posting this week's update, it's been a full week! Baby K entered the second trimester last Friday and is now coming in at the size of a lemon--about 3 1/2 inches long from the top of his little head to the bottom of his cute little baby butt, and weighs about 1.5 ounces. Crazy to think that something still so small has caused me to gain more than 1.5 ounces! Our little munchkin is busy sucking his thumb this week, and practicing his facial expressions--and even though I still can't feel anything he's apparently busy moving all over the place in there! I got to feel my niece Brooke kick my hands this week from inside Megan, and that was super cool, I'm looking forward to feeling my own little one flutter around :)

Like I said, it's been a bit of a crazy week for us--but full of great people and good times! Last Wednesday we flew to Providence to get ourselves back to the east coast, and turned around to fly to Kentucky on Thursday to meet up with my husband's family for a long weekend at his sister's home. Our 9 month old niece was being baptized so both sides of Rodd and Carroll's family gathered to celebrate the event, which was very fun--it was great to finally meet Rodd's family!

We had a blast with the 4 kids--playing Wii, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, launching golf balls in their backyard with a catapault their dad made, and just hanging out.Us with our beautiful nieceSeriously, can you get any cuter??On Monday we flew back to Providence to spend the rest of the week here with Megan's family. We've been babysitting Lily while her parents work, and have been cracking up at her words and phrases she's been learning. She has quite the vocabulary for a 1 1/2 year old! Playing Dominion. I love how much they love playing games!Delicious homemade BBQ pizzas (or "pizzys!" as Lily calls them) that we enjoyed last night.We're here until Saturday when we head home for a couple days before heading down to LA next Wednesday. We'll keep ya posted as we travel the country this next month!

555!

I signed in to post my weekly update on baby and our travels and such but realized this is going to be my 555th blog post here on the good ole blog and I figured that required something special! I posted my first post October 21, 2005 when I had been at Fuller for about a month. I thought it would be kind of a fun way to update family and friends on the seminary experience, and it has been. It's kind of fun to look back over the past 6-ish years and see all the major changes and milestones that have happened along the way. The friends who have come in and out of my life, the things I've learned, the new hobbies, passions and interests I've discovered, getting married, becoming an aunt multiple times over, graduating, job hunting, moving, lots of traveling, and now becoming a mother myself. It's been a full half-decade! I now know why people often say "don't get married too early, you grow and change a TON in your 20s!" (Not to say if you did get married young that's a bad thing, it was just the counsel I received multiple times). I look back and realize yes, I have grown, a TON. My world view has changed, my political views have changed, many of my friendships have morphed and changed over the past 6 years, and while my core faith beliefs haven't changed the way I understand faith, God and their connection with our world has changed drastically. As I look back through these pages on this website, here are some of the highlights I've experienced--in lists of 5 of course :)

5 Biggest Life Events
1. Meeting my hubby and getting married (duh!)
2. After years of playing dolls and "practicing" with Megan, meeting Lily Abigail & watching Megs become a mom has been incredible. Being an aunt isn't so bad either!
3. Meeting my small group from Fuller. We spent almost 3 years together, walking through life, sharing the ups and downs. Some of us are still in better contact than others, but all of these women taught me many important things. Thanks, Jenn, Becca, Tera, Alethia, Christina, and Megan.
4. Passing my ordination exams and becoming "call ready." After years of work, studying, learning, asking questions, writing essays, and being examined in front of committees of people multiple times, in October of 2010 I was finally deemed "certified and ready to receive a call."
5. Hospital Chaplaincy--I loved it. I hated it. I learned a ton.

5 Fuller Classes That Shaped me (and my Theology) the Most:
1. Introduction to Family Ministry from Chap Clark
2. The Pentateuch from John Goldingay
3. Women, the Bible and the Church by David Scholer
4. Using Scripture in Pastoral Care from Gordon Oliver
5. (a tie) Ethics from Erin Dufault-Hunter or Perspectives on Christ in Culture by Richard Mouw

5 Favorite Recipes I've Loved Discovering in the past 6 years:
1. Thai Turkey Wraps
2. Double Tomato Bruschetta
3. Butternut Squash Quesadillas
4. Turkey Pesto Panini sandwiches
5. Pesto Chicken Pasta

5 Best Books I've Discovered (and probably raved about on here!)
1. The Poisonwood Bible
2. The Book Thief
3. The Hunger Games Trilogy
4. Harry Potter (the last 2 came out while I was in seminary)
5. Same Kind of Different as Me

5 Ridiculous Head-Shaking Moments (the "are you kidding me?!" life experiences)
1. My stalker my second year of seminary. Friends who remember this story will be shaking their heads at the insanity of the whole situation.
2. So many Thanksgiving cooking adventures. Thanksgiving is usually the holiday that grad students don't travel, since it's only 2 weeks before finals/Christmas break, so I got to celebrate many Thanksgivings with friends. When each person brings their own expectations and family traditions to a meal it provides some head-shaking moments that is for sure! So many messes, good times, and some food turning out more edibly than others (anyone remember the year of the green stuffing? Or the sweet potatoes that we baked without anything to catch the drippings in a borrowed house's oven? Or a certain someone's desire to stay up all night the night before dinner to make sure the turkey was perfect much to our dismay? Or the year we actually managed to simplify things and had an enjoyable time??)
3. 4th of July just about every year. So many crazy, somewhat disastrous experiences. Jenn and I got to experience them all together--including the year we finally got smart, and ditched the fireworks altogether. That was the most enjoyable :)
4. Too much travel. The Christmas of 2008 Charles and I attempted to do an insane amount of traveling to see everyone in our lives in 2 1/2 weeks. We flew to Minnesota, flew to South Carolina (spending a night in the Atlanta airport due to snow), drove to Jacksonville, drove back to South Carolina, drove to Kentucky, drove back to South Carolina, and then finally flew home. This was the trip that has led us to set a 2 state/stop limit on any vacation. We will never do this kind of trip again!
5. Taking this job in Seattle. We're still shaking our heads about the last 7 months. Insanity from day 1. Not sad to be away from this church in the slightest.

5 Ways I've Grown or Changed in the past 6 Years:
1. I recognize my tendencies to be passive aggressive, and have been working on being much more direct in how I'm feeling and what I need in a situation or relationship. I'm nowhere near finished growing in this area, but I am SO much better than I was when I began this blogging journey!
2. I am 100% in favor of women being in ordained, full time, equal ministry to men. When I began seminary (and thus this blog) I wasn't positive what I thought, but my study of scripture has shown me that this is a theological hill I'm willing to fight for and "die on" so to speak. I am SO grateful my husband is just as passionate about this as I am and has promised me he would never even apply at a church that does not fully support women in ministry. When we got to West Side we realized there are still a lot of people there that don't agree with the Presbyterian Church's stance on this, and that made both of us really uncomfortable, one of the reasons I am relieved to be gone.
3. I am much more confident than I used to be--in my knowledge of things, my concept of myself, and in my gifts and abilities.
4. I am a lot more comfortable with gray areas in my faith and in the world. I'm okay with some mystery, with not fully having "the" right answer for situations. I think one day we will know and understand much more fully the ways of God and this world, but for now, I'm much more comfortable sitting in the sometimes-awkward in between.
5. I value my family and the way I was raised even more than before. I took for granted that everyone's family was like mine, and I've learned as I've developed close relationships with friends and with some of their families that this isn't the case. Every family is unique and different, and I am so grateful for the ways that my parents raised me and the family system they created for us.

Week 13--Sweet Summer Peach! And the not so good part of the week...

So depending on which baby book/website you're reading, we've either just entered the 2nd trimester, or it's coming next week with the beginning of week 14--either way, we're close! Baby K is now the size of a sweet summertime peach, which ironically I've eaten quite a few of in the past few days. The coolest developmental milestone this week is that her little fingerprints are forming! How sweet is that?? He's almost 3 inches long even if he does only weigh about an ounce. For quite awhile both of us were convinced this baby is a boy, but in the past week or two I am starting to think "girl"--so we'll see, we are anxious to find out next month! We'd be super excited with either (at some point in life I'd love to get to parent both) so whichever gender God chooses to give us for this first one is just fine with me! (Like I have a whole lot of control over this!) We're having fun playing with baby names--I will say if it's a boy we're pretty set, if it's a girl it might be a long process in finding a name!

The not so great part of this week is that I came down with what every pregnant woman fears...a good ole bladder infection. Yup, I haven't had one since I was 6.....I'm not sure I'd care to repeat this experience. I didn't realize what was wrong until yesterday when the on call nurse made me come in for a test--glad I did, they were able to get me a prescription right away and rumor has it by tonight I should be feeling better. That hasn't happened yet, I'm still pretty miserable, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the magic drugs do work, and quickly! So for now I'm camped out in my bedroom--well and bathroom--with my book, a movie, my laptop, and heating pad. And water bottles, lots of water. SO grateful that we had such an empty schedule this week and I didn't have to be anywhere or leave home.

What have we done this week? A whole lot of nothing! We went wandering in Discovery Park with Missy on Tuesday which was gorgeous, and for dinner Thursday evening at the newlyweds (Darbee & Reagan's house), but otherwise we've had a mini vacation at home. Before we got married my husband would admit that he's never been a huge reader, and when he was working he didn't have a whole lot of free time to read, but it's been fun to see him start to pick up some books this past year. He's read all 7 Harry Potter books, and this past week started in on The Hunger Games trilogy, which he has been obsessed with. He read book 1 and 2 earlier this week and is part way through the third book now--I'm sure he'll finish today knowing the pace he's been reading them at!

Other than that, not much is new here. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be feeling a bit better--we leave Wednesday to visit family for a week and a half, so I really really hope by the time I have to spend 5 hours on a plane I'll be back to normal! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, friends!

Well hello there little plum! And happy 4th of July!

It's been a fun week around here in our household, definitely a different pace from the past 7 months! Baby K has hit the size of a plum as he or she is starting his 12th week of life (almost done with trimester #1!), and is starting to make me look a teensy bit on the pudgy side. A friend of mine said about two weeks ago "if I didn't know you were pregnant, I never would say anything, but since I know, I'll just say you definitely are getting a tiny bump! If someone didn't know you well they'd never know, but to those of you who know you well, we can see it!" I had the realization the other day that I have the world's shortest torso. I thought the only problems this was going to cause in life was shopping for jeans (they are never long enough for my legs!) but on Wednesday I realized "umm....where's this baby going to grow?? There is nowhere for it to go but straight out!" I told my good friend Missy I wasn't sure how I felt about this and her response was to jump up and down and squeal "I feel very cute about it!!" So we'll see over the next few weeks how this little bump starts to form!

Since my husband is now finding himself with copious amounts of free time on his hands and since Bethany Pres (the church we're now going to, the church I am a member of from my college days) needed an extra male chaperon on their mission trip, he spent the past week helping them out. He had a fantastic time, and said it was a really healing experience--seeing a very healthy youth ministry, a ministry and church that cares about depth, not just entertaining kids. The youth director there is a friend of ours from Fuller, and the group he helped was led by Missy, one of our dear friends and bridesmaids from our wedding. They stayed at a church here in Seattle and during the day the 44 kids were split into teams of 7 or 8 and served at various spots around the city. His team spent the week at a retirement home doing landscaping and yard work for them.

Friday he flew down to San Luis Obispo for a job interview which was Saturday morning. He comes back super late tonight, and has had an incredible time. He loves the town, really enjoyed the committee, got to rent a board and surf yesterday and today, and said that even if we don't get this job it has been such a healing and life-giving weekend for him. It was so encouraging to see a church doing youth ministry the way we've been trained, and just to know there are still churches out there that would be willing to have conversations with him is always encouraging. His voice on the phone last night sounded happier than I have heard him in 7 months. So I don't know what this means, but I am so grateful for this time he's had in California.

I spent the week here, visiting with a couple different friends, putting the house back together after company last week, going on walks every day (you're right, Mom, they do make me feel better!) still napping, helping a friend wedding dress shop, and just enjoying the house to myself for awhile! My best friend from Portland drove up Friday to spend the night with me, and took me to get pedicures yesterday which was a fantastic treat :) Yesterday I video chatted with Miss Lily and she was cracking me up--that is a kid with a lot of personality! I am still "jah-jah" (or however you would spell her rendition of "Sarah") and I am very excited that Auntie Jah-Jah and Uncle Ca-ca (her name for "Charles") get to go play with her in person in about 2 weeks. Her newest obsession is mommy's heels. Except she wants mommy to be wearing them, not her. Megan said that she was eating breakfast in her boxers the other day and Lily brought the heels to her saying "mommy, shoes!" You can never be too stylish. Even in pajamas. She's also learned the word "no" and now everything is "no" even when it's really a "yes." Not sure how I feel about this particular stage! This kid is part fish--she started swimming lessons last week and LOVES the water. Even sprinklers. Seriously, how cute is she?? (this is after her first experience with the backyard sprinkler).

After so many people recommending it, I'm finally reading the book Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I'm still not entirely sure what it's about (only on chapter 2) but the writing is so beautiful it makes my heart ache. The way words are used, sentences formed, images employed--I am in love and almost don't care what the story is about.

I've also been in LOVE with summer produce and colors in my vegetable drawer this week. I cannot get enough of this beautiful food! I started buying mango for the first time, and am quite enjoying it (it's on the lists of things that are great for baby's development, so I figured I should try it). I've been going through strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, pesto, basil, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, and artichokes like nothing else these days. Here are a few of the meals I've been making with these ingredients--I'd highly recommend any of them!

Double Tomato Bruschetta
Mediterranean Orzo Salad
Turkey Pesto Paninis

Okay, that's enough rambling for the day--you're probably sick of reading this anyways! Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Most Recommended Books

I was recently asked for my list of books I most frequently recommend to people, and that question made me think for about a week! It was a fun one to reflect on, and while I couldn't limit it to 10, I did limit it to 15 books :) I tried to pick books that somehow changed me, inspired me to think differently, or act differently after I finished reading them--books that "stay with you" over time as you think about life. Then below is just a short list of my all time favorite fiction books, that I loved and think others will too but didn't necessarily make the list of "15 books I think everyone should read at some point in their lives!" :) Enjoy, and happy reading!

1. In the Name of Jesus or Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen

2. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

3. The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

4. Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

5. The Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith (really all 3 books in this series)

6. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

7. Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

9. When the Kings Come Marching In by Richard Mouw

10. The Great Divorce by CS Lewis

11. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

12. Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner

13. Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell

14. Sabbath Keeping by Lynne Baab

15. Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Favorite Fiction/Vacation Reads that I'd absolutely re-read:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

anything else by Jodi Picoult :)

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Shack by William Young

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shafer

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd