potty training!!

This past Saturday we took the leap from occasionally sitting on the potty chair or toilet for fun (or an attempt at playing video games) to seriously working on making it a way of life.

After thinking about it for at least a month, I finally made the decision I think on Thursday of last week, when we were at Target and I decided to get some "prizes" and treats to help with the project, and also made a pretty big deal of getting underwear for Jo. She helped pick them out, and from then on was talking just about nonstop about her "undies".  We talked it up for the next couple of days, how she was going to learn how to use the potty chair and wear undies, and she was definitely interested. I had read The Potty Boot Camp: Basic Training For Toddlers by Suzanne Riffel and mostly followed her program, with a few other ideas I tossed in from other sources I've looked at along the way.

So Saturday morning started and, not for the first time in the last 2+ years, I was so thankful for the disposition that God has given my Josephine, she is very easy to work with, is quite patient and very compliant. I explained the situation and she took it all in cheerfully, I know she especially liked the idea of getting juice and pretzels all day long. No horror stories to report, she had 5 accidents in 5 hours, she cleaned all of them up by herself and withstood the cold bath water to clean herself and her soiled pants (mostly) on her own, she actually thought the drills of going to the potty chair, pulling down pants, sitting down, pulling pants back up to practice the process over and over were fun (the idea is that it gets really tedious and helps dissuade your kid from having an accident and thus incurring more drills), she maybe got tired of them at the very end of the day when she was just tired in general. She had no problem sitting on the chair and reading for 5-10min at a time which, according to Riffel, could be where bribes and cajoling could be quite necessary. She got through the afternoon and evening with only one more accident and actually deciding by herself that she needed to go, and she went!

In the days following, we've had lots of false alarms, she'll sit on the potty to pass gas, and we've had accidents on our hardwood, outside on the sidewalk, and on a bench at Grandad's work today (happy birthday, Dad!), but it's been very encouraging. I'm glad that the process is at least started, I was getting so tired of hauling her 35+lbs up and down from the changing table, and all those diapers! It'll probably save us $40-$60/month in diaper costs. We're still using Pullups for nap and bedtime, but hopefully that won't be for too long. She's been dry waking up from naps at least twice now, I think she's really getting the hang of it all.

I am seriously considering that we'll start this with Naomi by the time she's 18months. Right now she's working on pulling herself up on things, taking a couple steps with a lot of help, and turning 1; but the clock's ticking, and Mama likes the idea of 2 potty trained girls...

My Helpful Girl

Josephine has been at the age for awhile now where she likes to be involved and help do stuff around the house. Her favorite thing for awhile has been helping me unload the dishwasher. Then at Faithwalkers she was seen "cleaning up" with a burp cloth, wiping various spots on the auditorium floor. She has also started helping "wash" the dishes too, which coincides with her newfound love of our step stool. She'll happily move the dishes from one sink to the next as quickly as she can while I try to rinse things off and keep her from sipping grimy water from dishes left to soak or generally splashing water everywhere. I'm fairly unsuccessful, but it's only water, right?

Last week she came up with a new way in which to help out mama. She saw me sit down with a bowl of rice cereal for Naomi and instantly wanted in. We're slowly getting Naomi onto solid food, she's not taking to it nearly as quickly as Josephine did, but she's getting there. So I sat Jo on my lap, told her I would hold on to her hand while she fed her sister, and hilarity ensued.

I tend to try keeping things clean while feeding the baby, but you know, we're not all as well practiced with our gross motor skills.

My method with Naomi has been to wait for her mouth to be open with no obstructions in order to successfully get food into it - Josephine apparently sees no need for such strategy.

Toward the end, I think Naomi decided to start helping to get the food into her mouth too.

quickest of updates

because I really meant to post this last week, and haven't had time or wasn't feeling well.
So I took this test a couple weeks ago and I passed!

I am officially pregnant!!

We were telling people if they asked, but now I think everyone can know (or at least everyone that reads my blog, I know there are a couple of you.) There's so much more to tell and share and things I've been learning, but again, no time, since I'm at work. I just started with the "morning" sickness last week, which is more like "any time of the day or night if my body feels it needs food" sickness, which just makes it hard to get to the library after work or feel like doing much of anything.

But thank you for all the prayers and encouragement, I have a feeling I could use more as the days and weeks go along. I'm pretty excited because I spent some time with God last night and found some new scriptures on endurance and seeking grace and mercy from God, which I will definitely need. It's hasn't always been the most real, believable thing, even with positive tests and a visit to the doctor last week, but it's slowly dawning on me that this is fo' real, and there is something growing in my belly. That's kind of cool.

More later, tho I can't promise exactly when, but I wanted to at least say something after being quiet for so long...

bathroom prayers

Today is day 28.

I haven't started my period. I haven't taken a pregnancy test.

I drink, on average, about 80oz of water during the work day. This means I go to the bathroom a lot. Each time I've gone today has tended to grip my heart just a little bit with the possibility of bad news. I feel anxious, but I don't. But I kind of do. I'm steeling myself against any bad news, understanding fully that it will hurt a lot if and when it comes, no matter what. So my only recourse at this point has been to pray. Every time I go to the bathroom. Every time. Nothing huge, just trying to remind myself to be thankful, that I gave this situation to God and He promised that His peace will guard my heart and mind if I just ask God for what I need and thank Him for all that He has given me.

I actually started praying last night, just in case it came early. I was actually thinking of taking a test when I got home today, but we're bringing dinner to Dirk and Kat and Nora tonight, so me being a wreck might not make for a fun time, just in case. I want to know, to get it over with, but I don't want to take a test tomorrow morning and then carry a negative result in to work, so maybe tomorrow after work. Maybe. I also have to get up the guts in general to even take the dumb thing.

I guess maybe I should focus on the positives here. If I'm not pregnant, you'd better believe I'm drinking a beer sometime soon (a good beer!). Also, if I not pregnant, then I can go to Valleyfair this summer and ride the rides. I love me some rollercoasters. I will not need to worry about being able to play ultimate or tugging up the bushes in my yard (at least for a couple more weeks). And I can also have coffee. Mmmm, coffee. This does give a little perspective.

Anyway, that's all I got. I have to go to the bathroom now...

Seriously? October 11th? Apparently no one's minded the hiatus...sorry about that if you did!

I haven't stopped running. That happens on Sunday, hopefully around 10:30ish...

Oh, to sum up the last 2 months...well, lots of running, much of it going much better than expected. That would include the dreaded 20 mile run, where Coach Dave had us running along the Mississippi River Road down into Hidden Falls (lived not 10 miles from there all my life and never knew about it? Guess that's why they're Hidden Falls?) we saw 2 deer (good eyes Kathy), ran around my old neighborhood in St. Paul, where I realized that it's really hilly over there (you don't notice much when you're in a car). We missed all but one of the 8 waterstops, but luckily my mom was home and she was the hero of the day with vitamin water and advil...right before that we had hit the low point in the morning, 15 miles down, lots of pain, some cussing, etc. But then the Advil kicked in I guess, because it got a lot easier not too long after that. (You'd better believe that Advil will be making an appearance in Honolulu this weekend)

Other than that? work is insane!! Right after I had finished training I was so bored I could hardly handle it, and now? Ummm, yeah, I don't need anything extra for awhile. I'm taking it as a good thing because it means that whoever is in a position above me thinks I'm doing a good enough job to keep piling stuff on...and I'm pretty sure that I'm still figuring out the learning curve and once that's all set, I should be just fine, and then maybe have time to take lunches and keep up on emails and blogs and things. In the meantime, the three people that check my blog will just have to wonder if I'm ever coming back again.

mmm, there's more happening, but I can't think of it, of course. We're leaving tomorrow for Hawaii (the rest of the team left this morning, but Seth didn't have enough vacation time) It's a direct flight, any ideas on what I can do for 8 hours on a plane?

Oh yeah, guess what happened last night? Well, not really last night, it actually started last weekend. Saturday I was being a good wife and doing the laundry while Seth went to go meet with guys for the childcare ministry. I heard the washing machine fill and start agitating, and didn't think about it much, but it seemed pretty quiet not too long after that. I looked in on it when it should have been done only to find a tub full of water and not cleaned clothes, and a washer that wouldn't respond to anything I tried. Checking the fuses, the knobs, etc. Nothing worked! So I called our nearby neighbors, who wouldn't answer their phones (thanks guys) and finally got ahold of my mom who let me track my wet clothes in the snow over to her house to spend as much time as I could doing laundry until we had to go to my office Holiday party that night. My mom was the hero yet again because not only did she finish my laundry, but she folded it up and everything! We picked it up on Sunday afternoon, and I have smelled like my mom all week long. It's a little weird.

Well, after having the repair guy cancel on me because it was snowing yet again on Tuesday night, he came out on Wednesday and promptly figured out my problem. the outlet that the washer was plugged into had broken the circuit (it has one of those Test/Reset buttons on it) and it just had to be reset. Doh. Thanks, here's $49 for making me feel kinda dumb.

But since he was there I had him look at things a little more closely because it's been making this awful squeak whenever it starts up and it leaks from the bottom (I knew it wasn't good, I just didn't know HOW not good that is) apparently the seal in the tub was bad, which caused the leak, and it pretty much rusted the whole transmission. This was what caused the squeaking, AND also caused it not to actually spin, which was why my clothes seemed to never be very spun out and always sopping wet right from the washer...Yeah. It's also what caused the circuit to break from it being overloaded, so I did the right thing by checking the fuses, but didn't think that the actual outlet would have done the trick...

So it was just cheaper to buy a new one, which is what I told Seth when I called him. He was at the MOA hanging out with a friend, who was kind enough to let appliance shopping at Sears serve for the evening's entertainment. (you're the best, Ryan!) So within about 2 hours I went from having a washer that doesn't wash (we're gonna try it again tonight, tho!) to having a new washer delivered on Tuesday when we get back from Hawaii.

And that's how Seth and I decided what to get for each other for Christmas....actually, we haven't, but between that and a trip to Hawaii...I can't think of much more that I need!

Anyway, back to Hawaii...Kathy forwarded me an email this week from a mutual friend who had sent out a list of time slots for when we'll be running to have our friends sign up and pray for us during the marathon! How unbelievably humbling and encouraging and wonderful and touching. I've been a little overwhelmed by how supportive people have been, so many think this is just an amazing thing to even attempt (I suppose I'm one of them) I'm still not quite sure how it will go, but I'm really excited to try it. We'll get sent off with fireworks, how cool is that??! And we're running along the ocean, and it'll be warm with no snow in sight. I'm telling you, it can't be beat.

On the not-so-fun side of the marathon, I haven't made my fundraising goal. I'm a bit farther back than Kathy, with just over $1700 left. If you need any Christmas pies, I think I'll be doing a fundraiser with Bakers Square, along with working at the Metrodome and anything else I can think of. There's still time to donate, and my donation website is still up if you're thinking of it. I've got until January 9th, and I plan on continuing to work for it.

Well, it's not exactly 2 months worth of news, but it'll do.

Oh yeah! There was a pageant in there too. It made news across the country, and even internationally, I believe...

I'm still not too bright about embedding Youtube videos, but here's a link and another one

this week in running

If there was a theme to this week, it would be "educational"

On Saturday, Kathy and I learned that we really need to ask questions if we're not sure of the route we're supposed to be taking (it's probably a good idea to ask questions even when we think we're sure too). Sunday's run was supposed to be 14 miles. Because of misunderstandings, however, I rounded it out right around 16 miles. And actually felt really good afterwards. It may have helped that miles 11-13 or so were walking, but really, who cares? I came into Saturday with a bad attitude, not wanting to run 14 because 12 was so rough, but now I'm excited for this Sunday's 15 miles.

On Tuesday I ran 3 miles, and learned that I don't necessarily hate that length anymore. The weather is cooler, so that made it nice, and I had a strong backwind on the way home, that helped too. I also learned that even though I haven't used my inhaler in probably 8 months, the cold still bothers my lungs, and it's good to have on hand. I was actually supposed to run 4 miles, but thought I would do 3 outside and 1 on the treadmill (since it was getting dark). While running, I was having some problems breathing, and after stopping, I couldn't find my inhaler. So the 4th mile turned into a trip to Walgreen's to get a prescription refill. On a side note, I found out that my old inhaler was apparently propelled by CFCs and is no longer on the market, so I had to pay $33 for a "brand name" non CFC propelled inhaler. Gotta love it. =(

And then yesterday, I learned that apparently my shins are like swiss cheese. I had a little shin pain Tuesday while running and meant to ice them down, I really did. But it didn't happen. Yesterday they were a little sore during the day, I thought after running a mile or so they'd loosen up, like they usually do. Ummm, no. In fact, after about 4 miles, I wanted to cry (and almost did) because they hurt so badly. The route was to be around Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. I ended up running alone, and decided that Lake of the Isles was not a good idea because it was getting dark, I don't know it as well, don't know how well lit it is, and in general hate running that lake because it's so long and skinny it seems to take forever. Running alone for me is hard enough without adding perception problems into the mix...

So I was the last one in again (other people had started before) and Coach Dave came to find me and run me back in. I told him about my shins, and that it was the bone that hurt, not the muscle, and he said that they have to get weaker before getting stronger (hence the swiss cheese analogy - they break down and then build up), so I should probably take it easy, ice and ibuprofen, etc. otherwise I could get stress fractures. Which gives me a perfect excuse for not running today.


Awww, darn. (actually, kinda!)

update

ok, I'm totally off track on my mapmyrun page, but hopefully that will be fixed soon, in case anyone cares.

Sunday was 12 miles. OHMYGOODNESS that was hard. I think there's a bit of a difference between Kathy and my running styles, and we'll probably have to figure out what to do with it.
I fully acknowledge that I like to stop, take waterbreaks, stretch, etc and then keep going, my pace can vary, and it's a little annoying, but somehow it helps me cope, especially toward the end. Kathy can't stop running or her knees will die. Hopefully her knees in general will become better as time goes on and she gets treatment, because really, that sucks a lot for them to hurt that much. And really, she's never been as much of a stopper as I have, and I've always appreciated how Kathy pushes me to do better running, this is probably just another one of those things that I'll appreciate later. 12 miles was definitely the hardest yet (also my longest run EVER! I'll be saying that a every week or so for the next little while) and somehow we made it, somewhere around 2:48, minus waterstops and bathroom breaks. And I was actually able to walk afterwards, it's amazing.

Last night was a 4 miler with the group...but there was a bit of a problem. As I was driving to Calhoun, I heard Paul Douglas on the radio saying that Minneapolis would be getting some heavy but brief thundershowers in about 60 minutes. I was figuring that would be about the end of the run, not too bad. So we started going, and I felt alright, not great. Kathy's on vacation, so I was all alone, and my mp3 player's battery died after about 4 songs, not even a whole mile! Ugh. Good thing it was Calhoun, and I had things to pray about, and it was getting dark and there was lightening to watch, so I wasn't horrifically bored. But I still feel like running alone makes me slower than I should be, I can't keep pace with myself very well.

Kathy and I also decided on Sunday that we are the "Queens of the Slow People" out of our running group, we are nowhere near the fast runners, but there are still a few people slower than us.

It makes us feel better, shutup.

I stopped to use the port-o-potty probably close to 2 miles, and when I came out, noticed I was being passed up by people I had started out ahead of. I thought I would catch them easily...but no, I did not. In fact, at one point, they disappeared up ahead to where I couldn't find them again. Of course, they might have started sprinting when the rain came in buckets, but I did not.

I was around the south side of the lake when it started raining. When it was just a slight sprinkle, it was quite welcome. Then it started looking like the lightening was striking right over my head and the rain started coming down sideways, and it was a lot less fun. By the time I got finished with mile 3 I was done, there wasn't really anything that could have convinced me to go the last mile. I was absolutely soaked, so I just went home.

still running!

In more than one way, as in I'm also running like crazy with everything else in the world and don't have very much time to update this thing...

I've missed updating on my 9 and 11mi runs, I'll ignore the little baby runs in between them for now. They went really great thanks to Kathy and some praying and praise and worship, sung poorly and only during exhales during the last mile to mile and a half of each run. I've noticed that's where things get pretty rough. I even brought extra jelly beans (JellyBelly makes a SportBean that works as an energy supplement and tastes pretty good - nice!) to try and get a little extra push at the very end, but no luch. Around mile 9 of 11 I felt pretty great, but still ended up quite rough, my legs just didn't want to work so well. An extra special thanks to Kathy this weekend for the 11mi run as I couldn't make the group run on Sat. morning (turns out neither could she) so she ran with me on Friday morning instead. I got over to her house a little after 7am, and a little over 2hrs later (only 1 1/2hrs actual running time!!) we made it back there, much relieved, and I've completed my longest run ever. I'll be saying that a lot coming up, seeing as they'll just keep getting longer...

I then proceeded to jump a plane to Vegas for a wedding. For anyone who knows Lizzy Alexandr, you should be pleased and excited to know that he's now married to a really great girl, and looks pretty fantastic in a preppy tennis outfit too (I'll maybe be able to post some pics soon). Outside of time spent with the wedding party, Seth and I didn't care for Vegas much. It was going to be an entirely other post, but I'll just say it and get it out of the way, thinking that I might not have the time to dedicate much more online time to it than that, but feel free to ask me directly if you care and have the chance.

So for all the praying types - I need a lot of money to keep this up. I've gotten some (and thanks to ALL who have given so far) but it's nowhere near the $2350 needed by October 1 to recommit, and there's no way that I could make up the difference myself at this point. That means I would have to drop out. I've got some ideas cooking, some opportunties that I haven't gotten final word on yet, so there's still a chance, but I'll need some divine intervention to make up about $1750 in 2 weeks.

On the praiseworthy side of things - I haven't had problems with shin splints for a couple weeks now. Which actually works out nicely, since my knees seem to be taking up the slack....I've been stretching out my IT band and trying to be extra careful. We'll see how it goes, but I'm pretty pumped about my shins being back to normal, that is definitely an answer to prayer!

Alright, consider yourselves caught up....I'm supposed to be running 4 miles today, hopefully the weather will cooperate.

hills are good for the soul

whew! Last night was kind of rough. Kathy and I decided to be brave (read: Kathy decided to be brave and I thought it wasn't a half bad idea) and run hills last night. I've run hills before. For the Twin Cities 10 mi, Erica and I made a point of running a particularly nasty hill many times because it would be right at the beginning of the race for us, and the more practice the better. That began my inherent dislike of hills. It was never easy, never fun, never seemed to get any better. On race day last year, that was my one big slow down point, and it took a lot out of me for awhile in the miles that followed. I could do without hills!


But I'm pretty sure that Honolulu is not flat, and I know it's good for strength or whatever, so it'll have to be done sooner or later. Might as well start sooner, right?

With a one mile warmup, we started downhill. Definitely easy. Then Coach Dave gave us some tips on running hills (which were effective in showing me that I've done it wrong every other time I've ran) and we were off. We started with "Bounders, " which is pretty much what it sounds like, we bounded up 1/2 the hill. It was fun to start out, kind of felt like I was in a video game to jump that high and get propelled, but my poor legs got tired quickly. That is to be done every odd hill (the schedule said 7 hills for the intermediate folks). By the top of the first hill, I had already been reminded to keep my head up and my arms straight....but there were high fives waiting and smiles all around.

The jog to the bottom didn't quite help me catch my breath all the way, but at least we didn't have to bound again. By the top of the 2nd hill, I needed a quick water break. That was better, but then more Bounders!! My 3rd time up, I felt so spent! Kathy went ahead and I started stretching to cool down. After a few minutes tho, I did feel better and ended up meeting Kathy a little less than 1/2 way down and finished out 1 more hill, so I guess I technically did about 4 1/2 hills. But running up the 5th time, I think I figured out the form of it, I could keep my body still and hold my head straight and keep my breathing even, and I actually didn't want to die when I got to the top! So I sorta want to do it again (I know I'll get a chance before too long).

Kathy and I rode back to her place exultant in our performance, feeling on top of the world for being able to conquer such an intimidating thing. I've decided that I should maybe always have a marathon that I'm training for, I'm to the point where I look forward to every run.

in training

Have you noticed the new additions to my sidebar?


I'm training for a marathon!

Anyone who also reads KG's blog or has talked to me within the last 3 weeks or so already knows, but here's the big official announcement - YAY!

I've never run anything more than 10 miles in my life, and that was more like walking with some running breaks after awhile...I'd been telling myself since last fall that I would maybe work my way into a 1/2 marathon and then maybe one day, MAYBE, I would consider running a marathon. There were plenty of times when I laughed at the thought of 5+ hours of running. Why would that be fun??

But here's the thing:

- I could use the motivation to get into shape. Nothing much else seems to be working lately, so this might just do it.

- I'm supporting Kathy, and she's supporting me. I know she can do it (she's done it before, and all alone, to boot!) and she seems perfectly convinced that I can do it too.

- It's for such a great cause! Honestly, my heart wasn't too involved at first, I don't know anyone who's been affected by blood cancers. My grandma died of lung cancer, but I was 8, it didn't make the biggest impact. But even in the last 3 weeks, I've heard stories of family members lost and little boys and girls bravely fighting for their lives. They deserve a chance to fight, and their families deserve all the help they can possibly find while they're fighting. If I can do something small like this to show them some support and help find them a little hope, it makes everything all the more worthwhile.

- I've never committed to any one event this big in my life that will cost me so much. I'm looking at this as an opportunity to give more of myself to God. To trust him to help me with planning a schedule and balance home, work, raising funds, and training, and life in general. I know for a fact that I don't have the personal motivation or the organizational ability to pull this off, but my God is so much bigger than me, I have to let him help and guide me.

So what I'm planning is to turn this temporarily into my training blog - crazy stories, a running tally of blisters, anything that God is teaching me through this process. You name it, it may just show up here. Please feel free to check frequently on my little sidebar links; see how much money I've raised, where I've been running (make sure I have been running!), or learn more about LLS and their programs.


If you feel so inclined, please donate! I'll take contributions of any amount to get me to the race. Did I mention it's in Hawaii? Yeah, that's another motivating factor I guess...=)

And please add your comments to my upcoming posts. Encouragement from anywhere and everywhere is most definitely welcome.



Here goes nothing!

stalked by a goose

On Wednesday, as always, I met up with Christine for a rousing game of Skip-Bo, as always. (Congrats on pulling ahead, now it's on...) There's this nice little pond outside that we like to go to. Usually the wind is our only trouble, but apparently now we need to worry about the wildfowl.


There were two geese that were hanging out near our table. One was eating, the other was staring. At me. Intently. Without moving.



He was kinda close, and making me nervous. I literally turned to face him while playing so that I would at least be able to watch him out of the corner of my eye.

Then he started moving closer! No matter how many times I tried to shoo him away or make mean faces or noises, he kept coming! Christine started liking him (probably because he was distracting me from the game) She thought he was kind of cute, with his beady little eyes and his drooling beak.

He ended up moving around to the back of the seat I was in, I really didn't like the idea that he was right behind me, still staring.

I don't know if this shows the true closeness of the goose to me, I literally was inches away. Not that he was doing anything, just drooling and staring, but it was still really creepy.

The whole drama lasted probably 20-25 minutes, and was deeply unsettling. He ended up walking toward Christine and behind her, and then off to do something else, but he was just a creepy little bird! It's not that it could have done much more than bite, and it's not like that would hurt very much (well, it might have, he had something like teeth on the inside of his beak,) but maybe it was just the thought of an animal sizing me up, staring me down, calculating something that I couldn't decipher that was the part I was most uncomfortable about.

what am i doing?!!?

I did it. I wrote a check for $75 and signed up to run a marathon.

what??

Even before I signed up I realized that I will be running probably hundreds of miles in the next few months, some of them really long distances in one shot. And yet I still decided to do it.
Kathy seems to think I can. Seth seems to think I can. I seem to think they're right. I guess we'll all find out on December 9.

Earlier this week I was trying to decide what my motivation would be. Raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society is very important, and I think by the end of it all I will really gain an appreciation and greater compassion for all the people who suffer from all the different types of blood cancer. Kathy originally talked me into the idea with the promise that running this much burns a crapload of calories, and you're guaranteed to lose weight. I still don't know that either of those will be enough. That's mostly because I know that I'm inherently unmotivated and no matter how good something might be for me and how exciting, I'm kind of lazy at the end of the day and prefer leisure to hard work (it fits right in to my profile, right?).

I ended up deciding that if I really go through with it and do all the training work and do a good job running the marathon, the only reason that it will possibly be is God. All the Bible verses that I've been trying to memorize or meditate on have been about Him working through me. If I really believe them, this is a piece of cake. My friends and family can encourage me to no end, but if I don't make the final decision to put the effort in, then I'll fail. I don't trust myself to make that decision, but I know that I can with God's help.

I guess to me this all sounds sort of cheesy, but I think this is going to be something of a defining effort and it could be something that will force me to trust God with parts of my life that I haven't let Him have full control of yet. I'm super scared, but kinda pumped about it too, I guess.

who wants to go to a concert??!?

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals

September 27 at 8:00 P.M.
State Theatre
Ryan Adams, one of the most inventive and eclectic singer-songwriters in rock today, has just announced a Twin Cities stop on his 2007 tour. Touring in support of his highly anticipated new release "Easy Tiger" Ryan Adams returns to the Twin Cities!

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, I don't know how much they are or if they will sell out quickly. You must enjoy country/alt-country music (Kimmie??). I would bother my dear, sweet husband about it, but he just wouldn't enjoy himself...

Anyone interested?

"R" day

This is it!

About 4 weeks ago, the process started. I had a phone interview, and then scheduled an office interview in the same week for a new position, new company. Then about 3 weeks ago, I got a call saying they were going to start checking my references. 2 weeks ago I checked with my references and they started getting phone calls. Just after that I got a phone call that the references checked out really well and they wanted me in the office again to meet someone new. That was a week ago tomorrow. They told me at that point they expected to have everything set by early this week and be able to give me a call.

On Thursday afternoon last week, I got a phone call. I called back after work and was offered the job position. I asked to have a couple of days to think about it, talk to my husband, etc and call them back on Monday.

Today is Monday.

Today is the day where for the first time in 7 years, I'm going to accept a new job offer, and hand in my resignation; it is R-day.

I'm a little nervous, not scared, tho. I'll give 2 weeks notice, because that's nice, and then I'll start learning something really entirely different. I'm mostly excited. I have been feeling quite done where I am for a number of reasons and it's good to feel like I'm moving on. I will have to purchase probably at least a new outfit or two, I haven't worn business casual to work in over a year now. I also did find out that between Memorial Day and Labor day my Fridays will end at 1pm, which is pretty cool. Other than that, I'm excited to be doing something new. I've had the same job since graduating college, and that was kind of a long time ago.

Oh, and they need people who speak spanish, sounds like I'll get quite a bit of practice, so that's SUPER bonus for me, tho I'll have to learn all new vocabulary. Who doesn't love that?

Anniversary!

As of today, my husband and I have been married 3 years. To say it doesn't seem like it's a big amount, not like 30 or 50, or even 10. But we've been through sufficient goods and bads, relative to our time together, and I still think it feels like we've been together forever.

He's pretty great, and I wouldn't trade him, and I think that our anniversary might soon be one of my favorite holidays alongside my birthday, because it's fun to think about being married to my husband.

taking it personally

While in peru, I found myself feeling very much like God was dealing with me personally. There's history between Peru and me, and there are things that I felt God was showing and speaking to me with regards to that. I can't say I understand it all or know the end result of anything just yet, but I came away with a really big sense that it was quite an important event.

Part of what I felt God was showing me was that he cared very much for things that are on my heart. From something as simple as Daniel bringing over fried yucca (which I was so looking forward to, but was never served in our house) to some things that Pastor Arturo shared with me, I couldn't get away from feeling that God had interacted with me directly, in some ways more than I had ever felt before.

It's hard to explain this, because I've obviously seen God work in my life many times, seen his fingerprints on different areas, especially being able to look back and pinpoint what he was doing to lead me a certain way, etc. But this was different. Maybe it was my own attitude. I had been praying before we left that as a team we would be obedient to God's guiding and follow with boldness and without fear. The very first night we were there we went to a church service where Pastor Arturo spoke about Abraham, and how important it is to obey without reservation and go, even when we don't know where God is leading us. Then it was a theme that Pastor brought up throughout the rest of the week. He takes a lot from Abraham's life, and it shows. They go where God sends them, with or without money, maybe without the most firm plans in place, but they go. And God provides for them. So I was listening to this, and sort of laughing internally about God's sense of humor and how he will bring things up over and over again as an answer to prayer, or something that he wants you to focus on.

Ok, obedience.

I don't know when I stopped chuckling inside and really paid attention. It could have been after Miguel asked me to give the last lesson for VBS on Thursday night. And was sure that I could do it in spanish since I spoke so well. And then told me that he wanted me to share the Gospel that night too at the end of the lesson, making sure that it was aimed both at the kids and their parents.

GULP.

I didn't so much chuckle at how God answered that prayer, it was more of an inward scowl at him. But I had prayed for it, so I might as well go along with it. 24 or so people prayed to receive Christ for the first time that night. I know it wasn't me, because the first couple times I invited people to pray, no one responded. Miguel talked them through it and had me still lead everyone in prayer, but it definitely wasn't because of anything I did. And now the church will follow up with them and visit them and hopefully help them begin to walk with God.

And so, maybe for this reason, maybe for another, it's more personal to me now. Jesus is more personal and close than he has been in awhile, maybe ever. And tho it's not showing up in every area, I'm trying to let that sink in and affect other parts of my life. I want to learn more of his word so that it's easier to remember and obey. I want to know what God's will is for my life, not just assume that it's some generic "good life". I want to have the Gospel written on my heart so that anytime an opportunity presents itself that I can share. Usually big "Mountaintop Experiences" have a way of fading over time. I'm thinking this might actually be something that sticks, at least that's what I'm praying for.

favorite?

Christine asked me at lunch today for a favorite story from Peru. I shared a couple that I really enjoyed (not really ministry related at all) but then was thinking that most of my favorite things came from just being there and experiencing in general, not just in snippets of stories.

One quick story: on the night when the deaf were performing (was it Tuesday? I'm so off track!) I was telling Jodi and Leon about yucca and how awesome it is. I was having a hard time explaining it to them, the best I could come up with was "more like a potato than a potato". Yeah, that makes sense. I asked Daniel, one of the translators to help me out, but he really couldn't. He likened it to me trying to explain a cranberry to him. Even if I could verbalize what a cranberry was like, he wouldn't know because there are no cranberries in Perú, he has no frame of reference.

Fair enough. Leon and Jodi laughed at me for my pitiful explanation and Daniel made a phone call. It was either the next morning or the morning after when Daniel came by around breakfast time to start the day. He had a rubbermaid container and a plastic bag. He gave me the plastic bag which contained an unprepared yucca, and then opened the container and allowed me to sample his mother's homemade fried yucca, still warm. Oh, it was so good!! I never did get to thank his mother for the wonderful gift, but I did get to share with the rest of the team who did agree that it's really awesome.

I was also vindicated in my defining yucca as "more like a potato than a potato"; Leon agrees with me now.

hemos llegado en casa

phew! That was an adventure.

By far the worst part of the trip was coming home, at least for me. Thank you to everyone for praying and updating and meeting us at the airport, what an awesome family! I'll be posting more, this time I'm actually up to date on my journaling, it won't be like last year when I let Jodi tell the whole story...=)

I'm going home now.

¡aqui estamos!

We`re here in Peru now, and it`s beautiful, much like I remembered it. We`ve been doing very well, except for some bouts of tummy aches. If you`re interested in more details, check Jodi`s blog she`ll be doing more than me, prolly. I`ll just summarize everything else at the end, very likely, unless I get a large chunk of downtime (Jodi`s quicker at condensing things than I am, I guess).

Anyway, if you`re praying for us, thank you! And if you`re not, you should! =) See you in a few more days!

I was looking back over my first couple months of posting the other day and noticed that I used to post a lot more about God and what I was learning. Granted, I was newly married, and learning something every single day, but I was also really into my quiet times and even though things weren't always great, I was in a very good place a couple years ago.

I had totally forgotten that I used to read My Utmost for His Highest every day before work. I forgot what it felt like just writing for myself, thinking that no one was reading, so it didn't matter if what I wrote made any sense to anyone else but me. I felt like I could see God working everywhere, he related to everything that was going on. Those posts are really encouraging, and I feel challenged to get back to that type of posting. I definitely will be putting my copy of My Utmost back into my car to start reading again before work, I've been slowly getting better at my quiet times and journaling again, I'd like to see God moving in my life again like he was back then.