thanksgiving

We didn't get to travel for Thanksgiving this year, but the weather was gorgeous and we made the rounds first to Nelia's house and then to Marie's. We had plenty of turkey and stuffing and all the fxins...but we did have to miss out on the festivities in Providence. Here are Ariana and Alison posing at the Rodrigues family gathering, photo courtesy of Mom. Can't wait to see everyone at Christmas.

Justin, bless his heart, has taken it upon himself to finish tiling our floor. I came home last night rejoicing to find several more rows laid. The fridge will be back in its rightful spot eventually!

We did venture down to Canton on Black Friday to do some baby shopping at Ikea. We got a crib and some other necessities, and I'll be going back with Denise in a few weeks to pick up a changing table and rug. Today I'm starting to feel the baby moving around more persistently... she's starting to kick, no question about that!

she's coming!

So I had my 20-week ultrasound yesterday, and... send in the pink, it's a girl! It was so cool seeing her little hands and feet squirming around. She has all her fingers and toes and is healthy, praise God, currently weighing in at just 12 ounces. Justin is particularly excited as he was hoping for a girl. Stephen W. has already offered to buy him a shotgun for when she starts dating. :-) Now Auntie Alison will have a human niece in addition to her canine one, and Uncle Pork Chop will have yet ANOTHER princess to spoil!

Seeing her in there made me realize that she is going to have to come out sooner or later. Now that I'm halfway through the pregnancy I guess it's time to start thinking about the end of it. I'm getting more and more excited all the time.

I'll post an ultrasound photo as soon as I get them scanned.

weekend houseguests

On Friday night, as we opened the garage door on our way over to church, we heard the smallest little meow and in ran a tiny little orange and white kitten! It couldn't have been more than eight or so weeks old.I scooped it up and it was purring like crazy and so, so cute. We decided to leave her in the garage until we could run to Meijer for some kitten food. As we shut the door, we heard another meow... and her brother ran out from behind the bushes! We scooped him up too and brought him inside, where he and his sister promptly snuggled up with me. We eventually made it out, and looked for any more siblings, but it seemed like those two were the only ones.

Eventually we made it back, armed with kitty food and a litter box. They were quite happy to get that chow. Even Matt thought they were cute when he walked in, which is saying a lot for someone who is definitely not a "cat person." Anyhow, we couldn't leave them in the cold garage, so we put Chelsea in her kennel and brought them down to the basement where they had their own little room for the night. They snuggled up together in Scrappy's castoff bed.

The next morning I went around the neighborhood trying to figure out if they belonged to anyone, but with no luck. By this point Justin and I had been playing with them and of course decided that we wanted to keep them... Chelsea and all. Of course that was wishful thinking, especially when we decided to "introduce" them to Chelsea who promptly started shaking - from fear or self control I'm not sure - and then bolted after the brother (thank goodness I had her on the leash.) Being too small to fend her off, we knew they didn't have a chance in the house. So... on Sunday afternoon we sent them off with Gerritt and Marcy to a nice new home with two other kitties to keep them company... sigh...

a breather

The last few weeks have been some of the busiest I think I've ever had. This week the pace should slow a bit, thank goodness - it will be very nice when holiday breaks come around.

I made my bass debut last night for evening church! Garrett lent me his formerly closet-bound bass and I spent a few hours practicing yesterday afternoon. Nothing funky yet, I assure you, but I did manage to produce extremely sore fingers and the ability to play a very basic bass line in the keys of G, E, and D major by the time I was done. Yay! I'm on my way to becoming the new Immanuel Baptist queen of funk! right... We did have another very exciting addition to worship last night. We have a new family at church and it turns out that Karl, the dad, is a really great guitarist. He brought his electric and jammed with us last night at practice. It's amazing... we prayed for musicians for so long and had none, and now they are coming out of the woodwork! His wife Leanne is also learning bass too. In addition to all of that, due to a really generous gift, we were able to buy a basic electric drumset for Mattie to play, finally! He wasn't able to play last night due to some incident with cutting down a tree, but he is so excited as we all are. All of a sudden we're going to have a real band, it's like God just dropped it right into our laps! Leave it to Him to put together the impossible. Of course the band will play just on Sunday nights initially as we had a few suspicious stares at the drumset Sunday morning, but gradual is good. I'm just so excited I can hardly stand it!

I couldn't resist...

I've been at work since 8:30 AM and am running on fumes at this point... so for my last hour at the desk I've decided to see for myself why Justin is so addicted to YouTube. And I think I found my answer... this is the most incredible tornado video I have ever seen!

mom is flickr famous!

Mom made it onto the flickr Explore page today! Congratulations... she is getting more and more famous!

We had a fantastic weekend. Sunday we were treated to Matt Cobb's worship leading - and the best part is he and Jill are not going anywhere! Worship felt alive, exciting, real, and fun for the first time in I can't remember how long. It's exciting to see and feel like we are really turning a corner at church - we're ready for whatever God has next for us. We're continuing to have revival services this week through Wednesday. We haven't "done revival" since Justin and I have been at the church for that very reason - we didn't just want to do something traditional for the sake of doing it. It really felt like the right time now. I'm praying that God actually revives us and we're not just reminded that we like hearing good worship or maybe old-school preaching or whatever preference it is that one might have about church. We need God to do His work in our souls.

first of many, many pictures!

Welcome, Luke, into the world! Xiaolei had her baby last night. Not too many details yet but I'll post as I hear. I have a feeling that Luke will be able to compete with his peers Suri Cruise and Shiloh Jolie-Pitt for most (attempted) photos taken! Peng is going to have to buy another camera to keep up with them all. I don't think I could resist either though, he is such a cutie pie...

emerging

I finally feel like I'm emerging from the "sick" stage of things. Yesterday I actually had energy, which felt wonderful. It's been several months since I felt any "get up and go." Thanks all of you for listening to all my kvetching about feeling sick! Today begins my 15th week of pregnancy. I'm kind of at that in-between stage where I can tell that I'm showing but I'm not quite ready for the full-blown maternity pants yet. I'm actually looking forward to getting bigger so I can wear those without having to hike them up every 5 minutes!

It feels like we've had an abbreviated fall this year. The changing leaves are still on most of the trees, but last Wednesday morning we were treated to about half an inch of snow on the ground in the morning. And it was COLD! We usually don't see snow until November, but we had a surprise this year.

In other news, our kitchen floor is still tile-less. I did break down and manage to bake a pan of corn bread the other night despite the disarray. I haven't cooked or felt like cooking in months so it was nice to have that fresh baked smell at least for a little while. Justin and I are on one of our hare-brained house adventures again and couldn't resist setting up an appointment to visit this dilapidated beauty in the perfect spot in East Lansing. It's a real steal for the price, really... it's in just the right state of disrepair for us... and it never hurts to dream, right? ;-) The problem with our little house-hunting hobby is that REALISTIC is no fun! One of these days we'll find the perfect place and actually BUY it. Wouldn't that be something!

new arrivals!

Yes, it's true, our prayers have been answered and Matt and Jill Cobb are coming! I'm so excited. They are moving up to Lansing from Monroe as soon as they can find a place to live. It will be great to have a new, godly couple in church. Also Jill is pregnant and due about two months before I am, so more babies... and Matt is going to be our new worship leader! Praise God for that one. We badly need a fresh perspective on worship as well as a new sound and energy. I will get a break from leading every week, and since Matt is a guitarist I'll be able to just sing or just play and not have to do both... or either (sigh of relief). I'm also very tempted to fulfil one of my last remaining musical ambitions... to learn to play the electric bass! No way I can purchase one right now, so if you or anyone you know has one sitting and collecting dust in a closet that I could borrow, I would be happy to free up some closet space for you. I'm ready to get funky...

Mattie caught chilling...

So Dick Cheney came to Bath today, and guess who got to stand guard in case someone decided to set the golf course on fire! The Lansing State Journal caught these two basking in the"glow" of VPOTUS this afternoon. I was wondering if they were anywhere near the "undisclosed location."

In other news, I just got the most awesome computer I think I've ever used... a tablet PC. I'm currently handwriting this blog entry and the computer is turning it into text as I watch. I am completely hooked and I'll never buy a regular PC ever again! I didn't buy this one... it's my new work computer... but I cant put my stylus down. It's insane!

more wedding photos

The compilation of wedding photos links - updated!:

Proofs from wedding photographer (e-mail me for the password)
Alexa's pictures (Need to activate free Snapfish account)
Mom's pictures (on Flickr)
My pictures (also on Flickr)

tile?

Our refrigerator is now sitting in the midde of our living room next to the stove, which is strangely disconcerting. We finally finished tearing up the floor in our dining room and kitchen. We had a bit of a history lesson.. instead of just pulling up a carpet and pad like we thought we would be doing, we ended up finding a layer of flooring from each decade, one on top of another! We started by ripping up the 90's berber carpet, underneath which we found a very 80's patterned carpet (country blue and mauve, of course, like everything else at the church). Under that carpet was a sticky pad, which had cemented itself to some very red, very 70's "faux brick" press-and-stick tile. We attacked that mess with roofing tools and finally putty knives and hammers to reveal the original green 60's linoleum underneath. Phew. We went out and bought our new backer board and slate tiles, had them delivered, and then the tile guy didn't show up. I am hoping that our new living room decor (ie the fridge and stove) is very, very temporary.... oy vey!

clouds have lifted

Finally, the rain has stopped here after a solid grey, wet week. September is here in all its glory. On the right are some type of lily that is planted frequently in the gardens all over campus, and they turn these beautiful shades of orange and yellow. They were especially striking by the Natural Science courtyard fountain today, where the benches are in danger of being gloriously overrun with vibrant, robust vines. The trees are starting to show signs of turning also, but still have another month or so to go.

Along with the sunshine I've felt God's peace returning today. It feels so awful when we drift into such relentless self-centeredness for a time...When the understanding that it's really about more than you comes back, it's such a welcome relief, like a glass of cool water. It's so hard sometimes to just let Him care about you instead of wasting your own energy on yourself. I'm sick of me. I'm glad He's still there.

Our grand, baby-inspired house project is about to begin! Justin, Matt and I began clearing out the basement last night to start preparing for its transformation into our master bedroom. I am especially excited, though, to FINALLY tear out our stinky, nasty, stained, doggy carpet in the dining room and re-tile that and the kitchen floor. This weekend, Justin and I are deciding on tile (or slate, or brick) for our floors and will get the material to start on Monday.

This weekend is also Jake's 2nd birthday, which gave the "boys" an excuse to go toy shopping earlier this week. With the amount of enjoyment that Dad and Uncle Mattie get out of toy shopping, our child is never going to lack for things to play with I can tell you that! :-)

the big event

Alison and Taure's wedding was beautiful. I have a bunch of photos here at my Flickr site. Tropical Storm Ernesto decided to show up and make us forsake the outdoor gazebo, but the room where we had the ceremony and reception had a panoramic view of the stormy waves. I was so glad to finally meet the bridesmaids, Alexa, Tracy, Antonia, and Cheryl. They were all gorgeous in their pink and green dresses, but no one was as beautiful as the bride!

Justin performed the ceremony, and even in spite of a mix-up with the pianist everything went smoothly. Everyone seemed to have a great time and was dancing the night away. It was great to connect with family and friends that I havent seen in years as well as meet my new ones. It was especially fun to hang out with our new niece and nephew, Mercedes and Dalton. Mercedes had to know ALL the details of how Alison and I misbehaved when we were kids!

On Monday we went up to see Nana and Dudley in New Hampshire. It has been far too long since we have been to see them. Nana took us to a farm to get ice cream and a beautiful apple orchard... and I forgot my camera. Of course. Nothing can capture the smell of fresh, piney, mossy New Hampshire air though.

After a long drive back to Michigan, we're catching our breath and gearing up for the rest of the month. It's going to be a rough one at work for me as I am very busy with the returning students. School's back in with a vengeance!

what a month can bring

First of all, my apologies for my lapse in posting! August and September have been so full of news and trips and work. I think I have filled most of you in personally with the events of the month, so I will now go ahead and put them up here.

Yes, it's official... I'm pregnant! I found out a week after I got back from Alison's shower. After a flurry of doctor's visits and worrying that everything was OK, an early ultrasound confirmed that the baby is in the right place and growing normally. As of today I am 9 weeks and 3 days along, and my due date has been bumped up to April 9th. If Murphy's Law is in effect, I will be having the baby on Easter Sunday and the preacher will have to miss church. :-) It is too early to tell if it is a boy or girl, but we will find out as soon as we can. Justin is already making grand plans to renovate our basement and move his office into the house.

I have been feeling pretty sick for the past few weeks but hopefully will improve once my first trimester ends in the beginning of October. I never though Indian food, Thai food, and chocolate would sound disgusting to me, but just typing them makes my stomach turn! bleeeah!

Also since my last post, we've had a visit from Jeanette, and just got back on Tuesday night from a trip to Connecticut for Alison and Taure's wedding. Lots and lots to write about. I will put up details and photos in other posts soon. I'm still trying to get my suitcase unpacked and house put in order from the past few weeks. We'll see if that gets accomplished tonight!