A week or so ago I took a video of Eden at the park (swinging, of course). She wanted to say hi to all of her family and friends, so that is exactly what we did. (Sorry for the poor resolution - I accidentally set my camera to the wrong setting in my hurry to turn it on and capture what she was saying.)
As soon as Eden was finished and we turned the camera off, she realized that she had forgotten to say hi to Nell Nell's husband, Jared. So, at her insistence, we filmed a second video:
And, lastly, we have a video of Eden singing Old MacDonald Had A Cat:
We will not be winning an Academy Award (or a GRAMMY) anytime soon.
Okay, it's been a lot more than 60 days! Whatever! (Can I still say that? Do people still say that? What if I don't make the W symbol with my hands while saying it, would that mean it's still cool?)
Welcome to the I-just-can't-skip-over-a-couple-months-without-feeling-guilty post. Which might also be another glimpse into my OCD(ish!) leanings.
In short, here's what you've missed in the life of this crazy family over the last few months:
October:
Our good friend Shanelle visited!
For Halloween Eden dressed up as Curious George and Pete dressed up as The Man in the Yellow Hat. I was Professor Wiseman. We went to a Trunk-or-Treat at our church. It was kind of a disaster. (That is, our little family was a disaster - not the church event.)
November:
Pete and I had a quick get-away to Pere Marquette State Park. I think. I can't find any evidence of this on the calendars, but I seem to remember it happening...
Peter flew to California for about 5 days to speak at an ACSI conference. Eden and I were lonely but survived.
We spent another couple of days at Pere Marquette with the rest of the church staff and their families for a staff retreat.
Peter was the speaker for the Fall Renewal Weekend at our church, speaking 5 times over three days. He did a great job.
We spent Thanksgiving Day with Peter's family in Kansas City and then the following Saturday with my family in St. Louis.
December:
We made an ultimately-successful offer on a house! At some point in the previous few weeks we had actually made unsuccessful offers on two other houses, so this really felt like a reason to celebrate (and also a bit surreal).
A seemingly endless procession of house-related inspections, tests, decisions, and paperwork kicked into gear.
Eden got her first round of stomach-flu.
I spent 24 hours feeling pretty miserable myself (aches, fever, exhaustion) but counted myself lucky to have escaped the vomiting. Sadly...
I got the stomach flu on Christmas Eve. I did not escape the vomiting. I did, however, miss the Christmas Eve service at church, as well as Eden unwrapping and enjoying many of her presents. Boo. To. That.
We spent Christmas Day at my brother's house in St. Louis with most of my immediate family as well as my maternal grandparents. (I was in quarantine on the love seat.) I did get to see Eden unwrap an avalanche of presents from all her generous relatives. I think she may now own some version of every toy ever made.
We spent several more days at my other brother's house in St. Louis, generally hanging out and recovering from a busy month. It is so nice to live around family again.
We did a kid swap with my brother and his wife - watching their son for 24 hours so they could see a movie and enjoy some time to themselves and then leaving Eden with them for the next 24 hours so that we could do the same. We saw True Grit, ate sushi, and slept in. I cannot begin to express how wonderful this was.
We went to see Peter's family in Kansas City for New Year's Eve/Day. I left the party early to tuck Eden into bed but stayed up so I could see the ball drop on television. Unfortunately, I got distracted by a movie on another channel (true confessions: it was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants**) and didn't remember to click back over until 3 minutes after the ball had completed its descent. Perhaps as payback for this stupidity my body refused to go to sleep until 4 o'clock in the morning.
January:
We were delighted with a brief visit from some of our favorite people in the world, the Shive family.
I got the stomach flu again.
We closed on our house! Oh happy day!
The real work began as we decided to do a few, small renovations before moving in at the end of the month.
Our renovation project list went from 1) refinishing the bedroom floors to, 2)refinishing the bedroom floors, upstairs landing, and stairs, to, 3) refinishing all the floors in the house except for the kitchen and bathroom to, 4) refinishing all the floors except for the kitchen and bathroom and knocking out (and then partially rebuilding) a wall. Oh and we're also going to repaint half the house. And sell our stove so that we can have a gas range instead of an electric one.
It snowed a gazillion inches and now isn't supposed to get above freezing for another week. This may or may not be causing the slow erosion of my soul. But Eden made her first (and second) snowman!
Renovations are only halfway completed and only three boxes have been packed, but in theory we're moving next weekend!
And now you're all caught up.
**The tagline for this movie is: "Laugh. Cry. Share the pants." Yes, I am serious. I am so ashamed.
We went on a 10th anniversary trip to San Diego. Then I forgot to tell you all about it.
The End.
Kidding! I guess I really did completely forget to post about it though, which is surprising because we had an incredibly fun time. I think, perhaps, that we had so much fun that I just forgot about everything else entirely, and then it was back to work and laundry and last minute trips and it just slipped completely off my radar.
I was actually downloading pictures off my camera in preparation for an entirely different post when I saw all the photos from our anniversary shindig, and it crossed my mind that maybe I had never actually done anything with those pictures or told anyone about our Great Adventure.
Well, for a short time many months ago we were planning a trip to Hawaii to celebrate the big event, but then the earthquake in Haiti happened just as I was beginning my exploration of what it could mean to live a non-consumeristic life - a life that was about giving, not taking. And I knew that if I wanted to even begin living a life like that there was no way I could spend a chunk of money just to go to Hawaii for a few days while one of the worst disasters in modern history was playing out right in front of my eyes. It really was an important decision for me personally at that moment. Sort of an are-you-really-serious-about-this-or-just-full-of-hot-air moment. Honestly, I knew that for my own sake I needed to put my money where my mouth is (er, was).
So, we donated the money we would have spent on/in Hawaii to the relief efforts in Haiti and that was that.**
Except that we have awesome friends. Friends who decided that 10th anniversaries should be celebrated in special ways, regardless of whether or not they are celebrated in Hawaii.
Thus in early April, at the end of Pete's spring break, we got to spend a night (just the two of us!) in a really nice hotel in Pasadena, and then the next day we got to pick up Eden and drive her down to San Diego where we spent another night in a hotel right by the harbor AND got to go to the San Diego Zoo (one of my favorite places) the next morning before driving home.
It was so much fun! We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and will we remember it for a long time.
And now for pictures!! I actually don't have any from the hotel that we stayed at on the first night, which is too bad because it was really beautiful. But I have a ton from our time in San Diego - so many in fact, that I might actually split this post up in two.
So, without further ado, here are photos from the first day we arrived (with photos of our trip to the Zoo coming tomorrow):
This is what our hotel looked like from the back. Isn't it pretty? It was right on a canal (or some sort of waterway) that led into San Diego Harbor. There were a lot of hotels in a row along this canal and there was a very pretty running/walking/bicycling path that ran in between all the hotels and the water. Gorgeous!
Looking left from the back of the hotel.
Looking right from the back of the hotel. It's very hard to see when the photo is this small, but can you spot the tiny bit of red next to the building in the very back, directly above the boat?
That is this - the tail of a cruise ship departing from San Diego Harbor!
The walking/bicycling path in front of our hotel also ran along the harbor, so we went for a little walk that evening before dinner.
Eden loved the boats and the water. Being a child, and just herself, she also greatly enjoyed throwing things.
Here she is looking for something good to throw.
Found some leaves - back to the water!
Good times.
But little did Eden know that heaven-on-earth was just around the corner...
Here I present to you A Playground. On a Beach. Next to Water with Big Boats. And (although you can't see it) within view of a freeway with Big Trucks and even the occasional Big Bus. Meanwhile, we are close enough to the airport that Big Planes would often be just overhead. I thought Eden was going to explode from happiness.
Unfortunately, there is a limit to earthly happiness. Especially when your mom is too busy taking pictures to be at the bottom of the slide to catch you. (She's gone down a slide safely 100 times before, people!)
This is probably a truly terrible thing to say, but I wish I could zoom in on this picture (like I can on my camera) so that you could see the perplexed look on her face right before she sails off the end of that slide, backwards and going at a nice clip, into the sand.
If it makes you feel any better, I felt horrendously guilty.
That did not stop us from sending her down the slide again, of course.
Before you call the authorities, I would just like to add...
She had a really, really good time.
Thank you so much friends-who-want-to-remain-anonymous!! It was wonderful!
**Peter and I actually used our donated money to start a little competition with the kids at his school. Each class competed against each other and against the faculty to see who could raise the most money for Haiti - with the result that Peter was actually able to send a little over $10,000 to a large relief organization working in Haiti. That did my heart good. :)
My good friend Shanelle got married on Sunday. It was a beautiful wedding.
I was a bridesmaid, Eden was a flower girl, and Peter helped officiate the ceremony. Eden was actually just supposed to walk down the aisle with Peter, and then sit with him in the front row (except when I held her while he was speaking). No flower-petal-throwing required. But I was worried (of course). She's been known to have a mind of her own from time to time, after all. And when we held a "dress rehearsal" in our kitchen a few days before, she'd let us know her opinion about the dress by screaming and violently yanking on the collar.
So yeah, I was worried.
To my great relief however, things went really well. She wore the dress (and the hair bow!). She walked down the aisle, just stopping to look behind her a few times. And she let Peter hold her in the front row... for a few minutes. She had been away from me for most of the day, so when she saw that I was standing just a few feet in front of her, she kept trying to wriggle away from Peter to get to me. Which meant I held her most of the ceremony. This worked okay for the most part - while she sat relatively still. But toward the end, she decided she'd also had enough of mom and just wanted to get down and explore. I kept trying to distract her (quietly) and shush her when she started to fuss. And in the end, there were really only a few tense moments (for me) when she whined a bit. For the most part, I don't think anyone else noticed much. She ripped quite a few flowers out of my bouquet, but the damage wasn't that noticeable. Probably the worst moment (again, for me) was when she was trying to get down out of my arms during the exchange of vows, and upon discovering my resistance to this plan, started murmuring "no, no, no." Not the most ideal backdrop to two people communicating life-long commitment to one another. But again, I'm hoping most people (including the bride and groom) didn't notice. And I'm really hoping it wasn't loud enough to be recorded for posterity on the wedding video.
Unfortunately, after a few days off of her normal routine, Eden wasn't up to a long night of dancing at the reception. Peter took her home just after the dinner and ended up having a nightmare of a time getting her to bed. But we've taken it easy every day since, and apart from an on-going battle with some incoming teeth, she's had a good week.
The wedding was fantastic, and despite the normal difficulties of planning anything involving a 14-month-old, it went off really well. It was an honor to be a part of such a special occasion, and I'm so glad that Eden's first flower-girl experience could be with a couple that mean so much to us and have played such an important role in her life already. (Shanelle was Eden's babysitter for most of the time that I was working full-time.)
Here are some pictures (special thanks to Merlin F. for the actual wedding ceremony pictures!):
Eden's dress rehearsal.
Shanelle, and our friend Skip, getting manicures and pedicures the day before the wedding.
Out for breakfast with Shanelle the morning of the big day.
Skip, Shanelle, and Luz (the maid-of-honor).
Another good friend (and bridesmaid), Nikki, getting her hair done. She and I had a bit of a stressful morning as the salon goofed up her appointment and then had to try to squeeze us both in with the same stylist at the same time. They did our make-up for free to try to make up (hee hee) for the mistake, but Nikki ended up washing it all off later because they put it on so thick. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end.
Is anyone out there? Did the great blog migration of 2009 conclude successfully or am I now writing into a void? Truth be told, when I compose my posts I often feel like I'm writing into a void - and I actually kind of like it that way. It gives the process that cathartic "dear diary" feeling. I just always have to go back and make sure that I didn't write anything too embarrassing before I publish the post. I figure if what I write passes the mom-check and boss-check, I'm golden.
So, I changed the blog name, url, and a little bit of the layout. What do you think? For those of you who normally read your blog posts like I do - straight from Google Reader - things might look pretty different from the last time you visited "in-person." I'm not too certain about the colors honestly - they seem a bit garish to me sometimes. But I also wanted something a little fun and upbeat. Plus, I can always change it later. (If you all hate it, let me know and that later can be a little sooner.)
I decided to change the name for a few basic reasons: 1) I'm starting a new chapter in my life which I'm partially celebrating (and recording) through renewed blogging endeavors, and I think new chapter+renewed blog=new blog name, 2) I decided I'd rather have a title that's a bit more anonymous, and 3) the old title was boring. I'm not the best at coming up with creative names though so I just scribbled down ideas as they came to me over a few days and then had Peter, and my friend Megan, give me feedback on what they liked best.
The chosen title comes from a favorite e.e. cummings quote, "The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful." Now, you should know, poetry and poets are one of the greatest mysteries on earth to me. Seriously. I never understand poetry. And poets seem even more incomprehensible to me most of the time. Their brains just work in very different ways or something, I don't know. I mention this because I have no idea what mr. e.e. cummings really meant by his quote. It probably has some secret genius significance or symbolism that went right over my head. And that's fine. Because I've developed a very egocentric approach to poetry (and with all other art): in my opinion, at the end of the day, all that matters is what it means to me.
I am a person who looks at the world and sees a lot of mud and puddles. I like to say that I'm like Eeyore. (Peter says I'm really a mix of Eeyore, Rabbit, and Piglet, but Eeyore is lovable in his gloominess while Rabbit and Piglet are basically basket-cases most of the time, so I think I'll just stick with Eeyore, thank-you-very-much.) I will never be an optimist. It's just not in my nature. But all the same, I have a certain fascination with optimism. And hope - dear, sweet, precious, hope - is one of my favorite forms of grace. So while I'm okay with my mud puddle tendencies (well, some of the time), I truly want to be a person who sees beauty and joy and hope in the world around me too. This world is not as it should be, not as it was meant to be, but there is still a glory in it - not just in the mountains and stars, but also in the mud and the puddles. And that's where I am most of the time, down here in the dust and the dirt and the mud and the puddles. And I just don't want to miss the wonder of it.
Ok, so the polls for voting on the spelling of potential baby names has ended and here are the winners: Annabelle, Adelei, and Laney. I agree with you all on two out of three - the first two that is. I must confess, I like the spelling Lanie best for the last poll, but that didn't seem to be very popular. I've decided to go ahead and make another poll for everyone to vote on which of the above three they actually prefer overall. Same rules as before: feel free to comment as long as it's relatively positive and, of course, we reserve the right to completely ignore the results and choose whatever name we want in the end (especially since we now have Shanelle's promise to personally defend our child against any bullies or mockers). But I really enjoyed getting everybody's opinion on the last polls, and I'm curious to see what everyone really thinks is the best name for our daughter (given the limited choices we've provided). I'm getting a lot of variety when I talk to people in person - no one name seems to be heavily favored so far, so again, I'm curious to see what another poll will show. (And, in case anyone's curious, we have no idea about middle names. Feel free to comment with a "write-in" vote on that if you'd like.)
In other news we went to our hospital orientation yesterday. It was fun and informative but also a bit surreal. We both had a moment of panic when, as we were walking to Labor and Delivery on our tour, we passed the nursery and saw 3 little brand new babies through the window. Hard to believe we're going to have one of those in about 8 weeks. (Well, you know, not one of those specific babies...) I also had another personal moment of panic when they were showing us the fancy beds in the Labor and Delivery rooms that can convert to chairs and then have the bottom of the bed be removed for actual delivery. I think they meant it to be comforting/impressive somehow, but it just looked like an instrument of torture to me. Even with the pretty, brightly covered bedspread. But overall I feel much better now that we're pre-registered and know exactly where to go, park, etc. when the time comes.
Things are pretty busy. My last class begins next week. (I should be doing the reading right now.) My college roommate, Stacey, is coming in town tomorrow with her family, so I'm really looking forward to that. Peter's enjoying his slightly more relaxed summer work hours. And we just celebrated our 8th anniversary on May 27th! I was feeling quite proud of us and thinking that that was a really long time until I remembered that my parents will celebrate their 40th anniversary later this year. So yeah, we're still just newbies in so many ways.
Hope you all are doing well! Keep us updated on your lives!
Well, I still can't believe I'm actually doing this, but I've decided to start a blog. The reason for this decision is that, as many of you already know, we are expecting an increase in our family soon - and since basically all of our family and many of our friends live at least halfway across the country, I thought it might be nice to have a spot where they could all go for updates on our little one (as well as our lives in general) and maybe see some pictures, etc. Surely a blog will be easier, more accessible, and better in general than constantly sending out mass e-mails. And wouldn't you rather just have a blog to check whenever you felt like it than a bunch of e-mails floating around your inbox? That's what I thought. Plus, you can't send many pictures over e-mail anyway - and I anticipate the grandparents especially wanting to see a lot of baby pictures.
So, anyway - there you have it. I have joined the blogging world - something I never thought I would do. The timing may be extra appropriate though since yesterday I bought a cell phone, which was also something I never thought I would do. But after locking myself out of the house several times in a row in the last month alone (as a result of pregnancy-induced scatterbrain, which I'm sure you'll hear more about later), a cell phone started to seem like a good idea. Since I already have an i-Pod and enjoy my share of beverages from Starbucks, I guess the cell phone and blog might just officially cement my status as a twenty-something American consumer. Well, there's no going back now!
Additional thoughts: I shamelessly admit that I am totally copying the idea, layout, theme and everything else for this blog off my friend, Katie Hardee. See The Hardees for a look at what I'm talking about. Although, on second thought, maybe you shouldn't go there because that may set your expectations a bit too high for what this blog will ever turn out to be. Also, Stephanie and Somebody is still in existence and not going away anytime soon (that I know of)! So no worries on that front. I just didn't want to invade Peter's space or in any way diminish that blog's reputation for humor+deep theological insights. While I'm sure I'll relate some funny stories here from time to time, the deep theological insights will be kept to a minimum - or maybe just non-existent. Mostly because I don't have any (that's why I married a theologian, people - to do my thinking for me).
Okay, well it's time to see if I can make this posting thing actually work. Tune back in for more updates soon!
This is what our hotel looked like from the back. Isn't it pretty? It was right on a canal (or some sort of waterway) that led into San Diego Harbor. There were a lot of hotels in a row along this canal and there was a very pretty running/walking/bicycling path that ran in between all the hotels and the water. Gorgeous!
Looking left from the back of the hotel.
Looking right from the back of the hotel. It's very hard to see when the photo is this small, but can you spot the tiny bit of red next to the building in the very back, directly above the boat?
That is this - the tail of a cruise ship departing from San Diego Harbor!
The walking/bicycling path in front of our hotel also ran along the harbor, so we went for a little walk that evening before dinner.
Eden loved the boats and the water. Being a child, and just herself, she also greatly enjoyed throwing things.
Here she is looking for something good to throw.
Found some leaves - back to the water!
Good times.
Here I present to you A Playground. On a Beach. Next to Water with Big Boats. And (although you can't see it) within view of a freeway with Big Trucks and even the occasional Big Bus. Meanwhile, we are close enough to the airport that Big Planes would often be just overhead. I thought Eden was going to explode from happiness.
This is probably a truly terrible thing to say, but I wish I could zoom in on this picture (like I can on my camera) so that you could see the perplexed look on her face right before she sails off the end of that slide, backwards and going at a nice clip, into the sand.
Eden's dress rehearsal.
Shanelle, and our friend Skip, getting manicures and pedicures the day before the wedding.
Out for breakfast with Shanelle the morning of the big day.
Skip, Shanelle, and Luz (the maid-of-honor).
Another good friend (and bridesmaid), Nikki, getting her hair done. She and I had a bit of a stressful morning as the salon goofed up her appointment and then had to try to squeeze us both in with the same stylist at the same time. They did our make-up for free to try to make up (hee hee) for the mistake, but Nikki ended up washing it all off later because they put it on so thick. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end.
