Mission Trip Update

A lot has happened since I updated everyone about Josh's trip. They stayed in Grand Junction for 2 days before heading out again. In Montrose, CO they prayed with police officers after 2 fellow officers were wounded and one was killed during a domestic violence situation. From there they went to Moab and were able to help several families who had car trouble on the way. After staying the night in Moab (where God provided a camp group with the exact number of spaces left at a discount for the night) they met a man named Warren who needed a ride to Fruita, CO. They gave him a ride, helped him fill a prescription and set him up with a place to stay.

That night the group ended up in Vermal, CO where they stayed at a local church. The next morning they went to another local community church to see if they knew of any service needs. The pastor immediately mentioned an elderly disabled woman who had lots of yard work that needed to be done. Josh and the group mowed her yard as well as her neighbor's yard. They also replaced part of the roof on her car port that was badly rotted. The woman was not home while they were doing this but they ended up meeting her later when a few of the girls went to a near by nursing home to visit with residents there. It turns out that the woman who owned the house was there visiting a few old friends for the day. The church that suggested this project to them was very welcoming and not only made the group lunch but the pastor stayed and worked with them and then insisted they stay at the building that night.

Today the are headed back east to eventually be home tomorrow night. I know the group (kids and adults) has learned several great lessons about trusting God, opening your eyes to the needs of others, and the support of the Christian community. They have been blessed with lots of free meals and places to stay wherever they have ended up. I will most likely do another post next week about how everything ended up etc.

Favorite Things

My friend Ashley has been blogging weekly about some of her favorite things and it inspired me. I won't be doing it on a regular basis but thought I would share a few today.

#1. Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lotion - I have used this after surgeries to help with scars and in the winters when it gets so dry in Colorado. While being pregnant I have loved it! I'm not sure if it does more good than a regular lotion would but I like to think so. Josh always tells me I smell like chocolate when I have it on.


#2. Pina Colada gelato - One of the things I have been craving is anything tropical (that does not include alcohol). Pina Colada gelato has been something I have been indulging in lately. It is super yummy and healthier than regular ice cream. Mine doesn't look this pretty though.


#3. Neutrogena Healthy Skin Tinted Moisturizer - This is my summer favorite. I have to wear a little makeup for work but don't like it to be to thick in the summer. This is a perfect tinted lotion!


#4. LemonHeads - Josh laughs at me because I ate a few lemon heads one day and have been wanting them ever since.


#5. Peaches - Yes, another food...Colorado's Palisades Peaches are so so yummy. I am gong to order a box from a local farm that I should get in August. I don't like to eat peaches like you would an apple because the fuzz hurts my lips so I usually cut it up and eat it with a fork. Random, I know.


#6. Presents - This is totally selfish but I have come to appreciate presents that are just for ME and not for Addison. I know that the stuff for Addison is really for me too but I have gotten a few smaller "grown up" presents lately that have really made my day.



#7. JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores - I like to just go in here and walk around to get ideas, dream up projects etc. I start thinking of things to make for Christmas presents each summer. This year I may have to get started sooner than I normally would on making things. This store can be a creative person's paradise.


That's it for now. Thanks for listening!

July 28th

Today would have been my friend Nathan's 28th birthday. Last year his sister Amy started a "Yo Momma" joke contest in his honor. This year she added a t-shirt to that contest. The link to her blog is http://ericswife.com/index.php/2009/07/and-the-winner-is-3/ Check it out if you get a chance.

I've shared Nathan stories before but this is another of my favorites:

Each year our huddle at Westover had a retreat at the beginning of each summer. We usually went to someone's lake house. This particular year the boys slept outside on the roof of the boat dock and the girls slept inside in nice comfy beds. In the middle of the night Nathan apparently had a dream and began sleep walking. He was standing up yelling "Get out of the truck, get out of the truck". This would have been funnier if he wasn't 10 feet about the lake with nothing between him and the edge of the dock. All of Nathan's yelling woke up two of our other friends (I think it was Cal and Hayden) who after realizing what was going on, tackled Nathan right before he stepped off the edge. He woke up totally confused. We absolutely never let him forget that night.

I've been thinking about Nate lately since two of my other friends from that huddle, Cal and Eric are getting married soon. I'm sure Nate would have been a part of both of these weddings - especially Cal since they were practically inseparable. One of the things that Nathan's family says a lot is that they are anxiously awaiting the day when they will all be reunited. This world is not our home and we should be living with eager expectation of the day that Christ returns.

One of the things that Nathan did to quietly serve others was to help send other Westover kids to camp on his small Marine's salary. Westover has a scholarship fund set up that helps to accomplish this very purpose in honor of Nathan. If anyone would like to contribute they can send checks to Westover Hills Church of Christ with Nathan Dodd Scholarship Fund in the memo.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Projects on my list

I have been feeling extra crafty lately and have lots of ideas but am lacking motivation. I really want to get some stuff done while Josh is gone this week since I am not allowed to do any of the "bigger" projects like rearranging furniture.

I thought I would post a few ideas that I have had and then hopefully later, the finished projects.

#1. I am making blocks with Addison's name for a shelf. I haven't decided on colors yet but am wanting to branch out of the red, yellow, brown nursery colors. I am also coming up with words to put on the other sides of the blocks so there are lots of options of what it could say.


#2. This has nothing to do with the baby's room but I saw the idea and thought it would be easy to do so I will give it a try - coasters from old magazines.


#3. Braided Rag Rug - I have been saving old jeans to make a rug and thought it was a good project to start on since I can sit and do it while watching tv etc. This will most likely go in our kitchen and if it goes well I will do another for the nursery.


#4. This is for Addison's room although not in these colors. I have my old bedroom furniture from when I was a little girl. Several years ago I repaint the dressers but I never did the chest that goes with them. It is the size of a chest that would sit at the foot of the bed for blankets and has the hinged lid that opens up. I want to paint it but then use a cool fabric for the top. The hardest part is going to be deciding on the colors to use. I want it to be the same blue as the dressers but with added color. I plan on walking around JoAnn's for awhile today to see what I can find.



#5. Last but not least, I just got these two stamp sets and am itching to use them!

God is so powerful!

This morning Josh, 2 other adults, the intern Nicole and a group of the high schoolers left to go on an "As We Go" mission trip. If you went to ACU this is based off of Seek and Follow. They will just drive places, picking directions or destinations as they stop periodically. The purpose is just to see what God has in store for them and who they can find to help. They threw a dart at a map and decided to head for Northwestern Colorado. On the way they helped an older couple moving from Vermont to Califortnia. They got to Grand Junction this afternoon and had been struggling to find something to do. Josh called me about an hour ago and said that they may just find camp sites and turn in for the night because they were getting frustrated. They decided to stop at one more big community church whose Saturday service just let out. A few of the group went in to talk to someone and see if there was something they could help with. They talked to the Children's Minister who started crying because they had agreed to serve at a homeless shelter the next day and not one person had signed up to help! The church also needed a big multi purpose room painted and help working at a camp in the moutains! The group will stay at the church tonight, serve breakfast and lunch at the homeless shelter and then paint their room tomorrow. They may even stay in Grand Junction until Monday or Tuesday to help out. It hasn't even been 24 hours yet and they are already seeing how God's plans are so, so much bigger than ours.

I will keep you all updated through out the week but wanted to go ahead and share this story. Please pray for Josh and his group as they continue on this adventure this week.

Test results etc.

I forgot to mention that I did get the test results back and they were normal. What a blessing and a relief. Josh got home on Friday night from a middle school camp at OC. Saturday we spent time putting the crib together. Now I have to start working on organizing the room and picking out colors so Josh can paint. The paint colors are proving to be a challenge for a few reasons. Josh and I have different ideas and the room is kiind of a weird shape with a cubby/shelf space way up high that would be a pain to paint. Pictures are below.

Saturday night I started having a few contractions - nothing really painful, just like, well contracting. I called the after hours nurse line after a while and they said to drink some water, lie on my left side and call back if they didn't stop within the hour. I had another one or two but they stopped after that, or at least didn't wake me up anymore. So it was really nothing to be alarmed about, it just meant that Josh and I didn't get a lot of sleep Saturday night.

Today I went to my friend Jenn's baby shower. Lots of fun other than I didn't know many other people. It made me start getting really excited for my own showers.

Tonight Josh is planning on playing a game with the youth group where they put a panty hose with a tennis ball in the ends on their heads, swing their heads at each other and try to pull the other person's pant hose off. Sounds pretty weird and painful to me but I guess we'll see how it goes. That's about all the big updates I have.

Sorry this post was so completely random.

It's the little things

The past few weeks I have been noticing a lot of "little things" that have made my day so I decided to list a few of my favorites.
-really good fruit (I had a few awesome peaches and a great mango this week)
-hitting mostly green lights
-wearing my favorite flip flops
-finding a necklace I thought I lost
-hearing a song on the radio that I love and hadn't heard in a long time
-a good hair day
-ice cream
-funny text messages
-talking to Josh, even if it is only for a few minutes each night while he was gone
-seeing bunnies outside
-getting a baby present in the mail (thanks Sara!)

So many times, especially when there is a lot going on and I get stressed out I forget to pay attention the small stuff that makes me smile. Actually, today I had my last appointment cancel so I am going to be able to go to the pool and then probably drive up and go on a hike. It's great to be reminded of the small blessings that are a part of each day.

Glucose Test #2

After fasting since last night I went in this morning for the 3-hour glucose test. I drank the stuff fine but then right before the first blood draw it all came back up. I cried because now I have to go back in on Thursday and try again. I did learn that I can take my anti-nausea meds in the morning though. Today I didn't take them because they told me not to. I really think this is all more trouble than its worth.

I have been feeling pretty good overall but had a little meltdown yesterday. I was just so tired and worn out! I've done "ok" with all the crazy hormones so far (although I'm not sure Josh would agree) but yesterday afternoon I guess I just needed to cry. I don't do that very often. Part of the stress was that e
very time I look around our house I am aware of just how much there is to do and I just don't have the energy to do it. Josh keeps telling me to make a list this week while he is gone and he can work on it when he gets home but I don't think that's fair. He will only be home for a week and then leaves for mission trip for a week and I don't want him to get worn out before that.

It will all be so worth it in the end so I just have to get through about 2 more months!

Blood Sugar Testing

Yesterday I had the regular blood sugar test. This morning the nurse called to tell me that the levels were elevated so on Monday I have to go in for the 3 hour test. Gross.

I really did not mind drinking the orange soda stuff very much and may actually enjoy the time to sit and read on Monday. But, I am now worried just because I don't know a lot about the whole gestational diabetes thing. I'm kicking myself and analyzing everything to see if there is anything I should have been doing or not doing. I know gaining a lot of weight can be a risk factor. I have gained more than average but I am also eating healthy and exercising so I'm not sure why. Addison may just be a big baby but that also creates its own problems and worries.

I'm really hoping that this next test will come back normal. Pray that the results are fine and that the elevated levels could have just been what I ate yesterday! I tried looking up gestational diabetes but didn't find a lot of useful information. Most of what I read was long-winded, scary and did not give any practical suggestions. Has anyone else failed the first test? Any ideas, info etc would be helpful! Thanks!

Summer pics

These are a bunch of pictures from the summer so far. The first hiking pictures are in Rocky Mountain Park where Josh and I went last week. Then there are pictures of Rockies game on the 4th with the youth group.








The pictures of my brother, sister-in-law and I are from the Sunday before Kadesh.



These last two pictures are this morning at 27 weeks!

Baby Question

Hi everyone - I have a question for any of you that have either had kids or will have one soon.

I have been really stressing (most likely unnecessarily) about having all of our family come visit when Addy is born. I don't really want everyone here at once because I want everyone to have their own time with her and I don't want to be overwhelmed. But, I also don't really want to have company back to back for a month either since I know its important to settle into our own routine. With 3 sets of parents that this is the first grandbaby for all of them it is becoming a challenge, especially because everyone wants to come as soon as she is born. I'm glad they all want to come to celebrate with us, it's just making me a little anxious.

I have requested that no one actually stay with us since we don't have a lot of space and that way everyone has a place to go if they need to. I'm sure Josh's mom and my mom will sleep at the house a few nights to help in the middle of the night if I need them to though.

So my questions are really: am I worrying about this for no reason? What did you do or have you thought of that was helpful?

I am sure that I have absolutely no idea what the transition will really be like and I am ok with that, I'm just nervous about it too. I know that with my personality I will want to make sure everyone else is ok but I really don't want to be worrying about that with a new baby. Thanks for your help!

Kadesh

The theme this year was Revolution. It was a new theme and admittedly hard to deal with for those of us who have been campers, counselors or group leaders. The biggest change was that the rhythm and the schedule of the week was entirely different. Typically the climax of the week is on Thursday night with some kind of big "experience". This week there was no Thursday night experience. Instead all day Wednesday was similar to a retreat and very busy. The week as a whole is always exhausting - physically, mentally and spiritually but it is also a lot of fun. I was worried about going and being pregnant since I am more easily tired than usual. For the most part I did ok and there were times that I was able to get away and rest.

Changes and frustrations aside, I enjoyed and got a lot out of this theme. It focused mainly on the church and how the church needs to change so Christians need to change. We talked about how we have gotten away from the original intention for the church - so often we say we go to church or just attend church rather than thinking that we ARE the church and should belong to the church. We also had a lot of discussions about how we should act as representatives of Christ in order to bring about the Revolution that our world so badly needs - things like be caring and Christ-like to those around us, really worship honestly, and to live a truly revolutionary life that scripture calls us to.

It was good for the teens and they were challenged more than in past years to actually go back home and make some changes rather than just learning what they should do. As a University Church of Christ youth group we came up with some great ideas that the kids are trying to implement now that we are home. Some of those are things like asking the people who live around the church if they need any help with physical things (mowing yards, painting etc) when we go around every few months to ask if we can pray for them. Another idea was to make more of an effort to make our church a "safe place" where people can come and be real and know that they will be loved and accepted where they are at - hopefully this will spill over from the youth group to the church as a whole. For our group, a lot of this theme was stuff that Josh has worked with them on before, this week of Kadesh just took it one step deeper. For a lot of other youth groups I think this idea was entirely new.

Either way, I'm excited to see how God will work in the weeks, months, years to come from this experience.

The first picture below is the University group outside of Highland on Sunday morning. The second is the group of college freshman that Josh and I lead during the week.