Raising our family in Vancouver

Our new website is up and running!!

2011-06-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

Hey- We won't be posting here anymore, we've moved! Check us out at:

http://thegravesfamilyonline.com/

Thanks!!!

Michael, Stacey and Kaitlyn

Education

2011-02-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

Since I’m having technical difficulty with my photos, I thought I’d blog some thoughts. I haven’t done this in a long time and I was initially hesitant to do so, but I’m doing it. I’m not writing out of some passion nor out of some feeling like I need my voice to be heard. I just am so encouraged by reading other mom blogs about their thoughts that I figured it would be fun to sort out my thoughts online.

I read a lot of parenting books and family books, most of them written by moms who home school their children, so lately I’ve been thinking – what do I want to do for Kaitlyn’s education?

For the last few months, I’ve tried to answer the following question. Do I want to home school my kids? Needless to say, I could not come up with an answer, probably because there are so many pending circumstances that I just kept finding myself going around in a circle. It was really frustrating.

During this time I have taken up a personal study on Islam. I read everything that I can get my hands on regarding the Muslim faith. One of the lectures I was reading was comparing the large differences between Islam and Christianity and the lecturer made a profound statement (at least to me). He said something like ‘The vast difference between Islam and Christianity is that Christians believe in the separation of Church and State and Muslins do not.’*** The lecturer went on to talk about how devout Muslims want their religion to be the center of their lives, both personally and in governance of their country. (This lecture was written prior to the recent events in Egypt.) So in reading this lecture I changed my homeschooling question to this question. Do I believe in the separation of Church of state?

I don’t know. I think it’s a tough question to answer, especially for someone (like me) who considers herself a devout Christian. I’ll try to explain this but my current standing is that I am leaning more towards separation.

My first reason is freedom. I want Kaitlyn to have a choice about her faith. I don’t want her to feel an obligation to take the Christian faith on just because her parents have done so or because her friends have faith. I want her to understand the implications of becoming a Christian, that it doesn’t always just solve things nor is it a self improvement program, but that it is a continual relationship with God through His Son Jesus by ways of unconditional love and that is not always easy. Faith is a choice and she is free to choose as she wishes.

My second reason is democracy. I know, weird answer. I’m not a fan of dictatorship, unless I’m the dictator. Just kidding. Well, I’m not really kidding, but dictatorship seems oppressive and democracy, although not perfect, is something that allows people to choose what they want to do. And historically, when the Church is the dictator, things don’t seem to go so well for the people so I want Kaitlyn to live in democracy. And I don’t know how to have a democratic society without separating church and state.

I think that’s all I’ve got right now. I’m still leaning towards separation as far as where I stand on this topic but it doesn’t answer my initial question of Kait’s education, although it’s starting to direct a path. And I really don't have an answer, I'm just a blogger who is trying to figure out how to be a good mom and who is thinking out loud. My thoughts on this topic could change any moment and any action on this topic could change due to circumstance, but I wanted to share in hopes that it would somehow encourage you.

***I've been reading Father Zakaria's lectures on Islam and Christianity. He is a Catholic Priest who lives in Egypt. Of course, I can't find the quote that I used for this blog so I can't say if that was his or not, but regardless, his study is interesting to me.

time for a change?

2011-02-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

Michael and I have been wanting to have a family website for a while now. But a few events over the past few days have pushed us to need to have one. First, I lost 20,000 photos on my macbook. I have an external backup and the photos are on Michael's computer, so they are not totally lost, but I have to now reload them and organize them, something that I thought would be a simple connection of my external hard drive and that has not been the case. I use my macbook to upload our blog and since my photos are in such disarray, my photo time has been spent reorganizing that before I load any new photos to my macbook and hence to our blog! Second, we purchase our site name and now that we are paying for it, I'm super motivated to start using it. It's going to be a LONG time coming, so I'll try to get my photo's together to make a few more publications on this site, but right now that is why I'm stalled with blog entries.

Anyway! We'll probably try to have some sort of launching for our new site, but unofficially, here it is: http://www.thegravesfamilyonline.com/

Kait's First Swing Ride!!

2011-01-30T15:55:00.001-08:00

Our neighbors gave us their baby swing and today was the day for Kait to check it out. She LOVED it. She only cried when we took her out and she cried super hard then but her whole time in the swing, she was so happy.

For Michael - Go Huskies!

2011-01-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

I dressed Kaitlyn today in Michael's favorite. She can finally fit in her 12 month clothes! She looked great and gave some great poses for the camera. (Michael took these pictures while I was at work.)

She found the camera strap and started munching away.

She is so happy when she is with her daddy.

Such a sweet baby girl.

Dinosaur Parade!!!

2011-01-14T20:37:00.000-08:00

Something that Michael and I try to make a real effort at is to have a Family Time together on Friday nights and it is usually really relaxed, but tonight we needed to have a dinosaur parade! Kait got a riding dinosaur for Christmas from Grandma Ann and she loves it. Michael took down the streamers from the baby shower and tied them to her little dino. We drove her all around and she had such a great time!

She turned 8 months yesterday. Best 8 months of my life.

Melissa's Baby Shower

2011-01-14T20:26:00.001-08:00

I love to throw a good party and when I found out my friend Melissa was expecting, I knew that it was time to have one.

Michael put up perfect streamers for me.

Baked the cake from scratch. DELICIOUS.

Melissa (left) and Erika (right).

Congratulations Melissa!!

Christmas Morning

2011-01-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas with a baby is so awesome. We loved it!! Kaitlyn completely understand the gift part. She knew that if it was wrapped, it was for her. Here she is opening her first gift.

She got a Noah's Ark set, the boat, animals, the whole deal.

She was so cute in her MY FIRST CHRISTMAS outfit.

So cute.

2010 Christmas Letter

2010-12-20T22:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

You are holding in your hands our very first family Christmas letter! Many people write letters but this is a first time for us. We are excited to share with you everything that is going on in our lives. We have been so blessed this year that we decided to make a quick bullet point list to share with you.

Kaitlyn Taylor was born on May 13th, at 11:44 pm weighing 7 pounds and 14 ounces. By far, she is the biggest blessing in our lives! Stacey was exhausted after 44 hours of labor but our sweet Kait stole our hearts immediately. She bonded with us quickly and we came home from the hospital a family of 3. Over the next few months we were on a fast paced learning curve. Many parents complain about getting up in the night but honestly (and I'm not kidding here) that was Stacey's favorite part of the day! It was a time when Stacey could cuddle her baby, rock her, sooth her, and pray over her. We feel like we're going to blink and she is going to be grown up, so anytime that she wants us to hold her, we're all hands on deck!

Michael participated in a short term medical mission trip to help Haiti after the earthquake in January. Here is an excerpt taken from our blog, written by Michael about the trip: "I cannot even begin to tell you what it is like to watch a 25 year old man be told that he is going to lose his leg below the knee and then to have him genuinely thank us for being there and helping him. Over and over, everyday that I was there, patients would receive the devastating news that their leg, arm, hand, thumb or toe would have to be amputated. I never heard anyone ask 'why me.'" Back at home, Stacey assisted with this trip as well and was assigned the task of finding landing time slots for the plane to land at Port Au Prince. The airport was landing 12 flights a day prior to the earthquake and 400 flights a day afterwards with a demolished tower. By the time Stacey started calling, the US military had taken over the control of the landing slots and once Stacey got through she had to justify the reason of the landing with the controller. Both of us LOVE short term service trips. Michael enjoys helping with the medical aspect and Stacey with the logistics aspect. This experience brought us closer together as a couple and helped us remember to never take anything for granted.

This summer also marked something significant in Michael's life; he became a Clark County Firefighter! Currently, he is volunteering with District 6 and loves it. He does weekly training with the volunteer team and then serves one day a week at the station along with other various community involvements (last weekend he served pancakes at Applebee’s as a fundraiser for a local school).

We have been really lucky to receive many amazing gifts for Kaitlyn's arrival. One gift really stands out; a beautiful Magnolia tree to plant in our backyard! We took several pictures of Kaitlyn by the tree after we planted it and we plan to do so every year to watch the tree and her grow together over time. This was such a special gift!

Throughout this year, we have really seen God's hand in our lives, working and molding us to be who He has created us to be. Even though the most difficult thing for me (Stacey) this year was the physical pain of pregnancy, in some backwards way the pain gave me humility and gratitude. We are truly blessed!

Love,

Michael, Stacey, and Kaitlyn

Christmas Tree Hunt

2010-12-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

Michael and I have started a tradition to go to Thornton's Christmas Tree farm in Vancouver each year to cut down our own tree. It is super exciting this year because we get to bring our baby girl! They have an animal farm and tons of exciting things for kids. Kaitlyn was happy even in the car. It seemed like she couldn't wait to get there.

Kait sure loves the outdoors. She laughed and smiled the entire time.

Searching for the perfect tree.

This one daddy!!!

Mommy and baby at the tree before dad cut it down.

We decorated the tree when we got home!

Thankful 2010

2010-11-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving and there are so many things that I am thankful for this year. The first is obvious, my precious Kaitlyn. She has blessed me more than anything else in my life. Watching Michael with her honestly gives me tremendous joy! I'm also so thankful for Michael. He is a great husband who has won over my heart and whom I continually respect. I am also thankful this year for the peace that I have in my life. It's been a really difficult year for me professionally but through all the difficulties God has given me a peace that even I don't understand but it's there. I am currently reading Elizabeth Elliott's classic book Though Gates of Splendor and am studying Searching for Significance. Both of these books have led me to a closer relationship with God and have given me a lot to think about when it comes to the topic of forgiveness. I'm at a place in life where I feel really blessed and am genuinely thankful to God for the good and the bad.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving at my moms house.

Kyle and Jenny worked hard at making all of the food. It was super good.

Kaitlyn with her Grammy.

I snuck this picture while Michael was kissing her.

Family of 3.

Kaitlyn and her monkey. She was happy all day long and we were all gaga over her.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Halloween 2 of 2

2010-10-31T21:04:00.000-07:00

First we had to start with a halloween party. Ethan, Kaitlyn, and Abby all ready for the big day.

Then we had to come home and get ready for the trick or treaters. Our little bee is ready to answer the door!

Snickers break.

Happy bee with dad.

Halloween 1 of 2

2010-10-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

Our first Halloween as parents and we had a blast! Kaitlyn had a Halloween party outfit as well as a costume. She was so happy!

Grandma, Harley and Kaitlyn.

Daddy and happy baby.

Such a sweet little pumpkin.

PUMPKIN PATCH!!

2010-10-17T20:37:00.001-07:00

Sauvie's Island is the place to be in October. We had such a fun time going to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day, Kaitlyn even got a little color on her cheeks.

We went with Carrie and Mark and their daughter Millie.

Kaitlyn helped scout out the perfect pumpkin.

When we found it, she didn't want to let is go.

Family Pic.

Headed to the Pumpkin Patch!!

2010-10-17T20:21:00.001-07:00

We planned for months to check out the Sauvie's Island Pumpkin Patch with friends this year. We got K all dressed up and had a lot of fun just taking pictures before we left of her in her outfit and matching pumpkin hat (thanks to Grandma - the hat lady)!

This last photo she is laughing with (at) daddy.

Our Little Sweet Baby is 5 Months Old!!!!

2010-10-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

I dressed Kaitlyn up in a cute little skirt with her white tights and took a whole bunch of photos. Here are 5 of them:

Yesterday Michael was listening to Madonna's song Vogue. I think that song inspired this photo.

Michael is the best daddy in the world.

She's still trying to figure out her feet.

Sweet little girl.

A Laughing Little Girl!!

2010-10-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

Our Little Eater

2010-09-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

We broke out the baby jar with pears, thinking maybe Kaitlyn would like to try them. She ate the whole jar! She wanted more after the jar was done. We thought maybe 1 jar at a time.

She really did a good job of eating and managed to get most of the pears in her little mouth. GOOD JOB K!!

First Meal

2010-09-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

YEAH!!!! I figured out how to edit and post video!! Huge accomplishment for this evening.

Michael Dressed Kaitlyn

2010-09-24T22:10:00.001-07:00

Babe, I LOVE YOU. Next time, the onesie goes inside, not outside the pants.

K's New Hats

2010-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Grandma Ann went to the Octoberfest and came home with 3 new hats for Kaitlyn! They look so adorable. Each one is different and Kaitlyn loves to wear hats, so we had a lot of fun tonight trying them on.

Pink hat.

Kaitlyn is looking at Gloworm, which is strategically placed right below the camera.

Very serious little girl.

White hat.

K's just content, sitting on the couch, watching her daddy across the living room.

With daddy making funny faces, and then jumping up and down, Kaitlyn gives a shy smile.

Kitty hat.

Kaitlyn was in her pajama's, but started smiling and so I slipped this hat on and got this picture. So beautiful.

THANK YOU GRANDMA!!!! We love you!!

Klineline Park

2010-09-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Today Michael spent the morning as one of the Firefighters serving the triathlon at Klineline park. Mom, Kaitlyn and I went to go see him.

Grandma and Kaitlyn. K did not want to be in her stroller, she only wanted to be held; so my mom and I took turns, one of us would push the stroller and the other would hold baby K.

Me and my little girl.

She loves her daddy. She would see him and just smile and laugh.

We finally got a family picture!!

Kaitlyn's Hot Pink Chair

2010-09-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Grandma bought Kaitlyn an awesome chair! She loves it. She kept looking down at the black dots and touching them with her hands. I kept calling her my Calvin Klein model in her jeans and CK white onesie.

Ski Patrol Picnic

2010-08-23T22:08:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, Michael and I headed up to Seattle for the annual Ski Patrol picnic. It was good to see some of the other patrol people, although not a lot of them were there. Hopefully, we'll get to see them sometime this ski season.

One of the patrol gals made Kaitlyn this blanket.

I've been teaching Michael a little bit about photography and he really is catching on. This photo he snapped turned out great!

A Night in the Life of a Parent

2010-08-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Last night was suppose to be a really easy night. I was coming home from work at 6:00 pm. Michael had his firefighter graduation on 7:30 pm. We had been talking all week about how to make this happen easily for Kaitlyn. I was going to get home, kiss Kaitlyn, give her to Michael and make dinner for both of us. She cried a little while I was making dinner and Michael eventually got her to sleep. We woke her at 6:50 pm to try and give her a little more of her bottle but she didn't want it. She seemed happy from her nap and we put her in the car and drove to the fire station.

As the meeting started at the fire station, Kaitlyn was content, happy and the show of the party. After things got quiet, I thought, this will be easy. Then she farted and pooped really loud. Michael and I looked at each other and then we both smelled the smell only a baby can make. I got the keys, picked her up, along with the diaper bag and took her out to the car to change her, praying that she didn’t go again and spray poop all over the car and me. After her new diaper was on, I thought that I should make her bottle up in the car, so I could bring her back in and feed her which would keep her quiet. I ended up accidently spilling the bottle all over the car and all over her which caused her to start screaming. I had no other formula and now a crying, hungry baby. I decided I better nurse her. She had stopped nursing about 2 weeks ago but I thought she would sure pick it back up in a dire need as a time like this. She didn’t.

After getting my top back together (and hoping I wasn’t flashing any firemen in the process), I rocked Kaitlyn until she was calm. I had no idea how much longer Michael had to be in the meeting and couldn’t figure a way to ask him. (We had left my purse, with my cell phone, at home, thinking that we didn’t need to bring it, that we would have plenty of stuff to carry between the car cat, the camera bag, the boppy, and the diaper bag.) I eventually drug myself back into the meeting, whispering to Michael that I needed to run home to feed the baby and asking him to hand me the car seat at which point Kaitlyn starting crying. She screamed all the way home. I wasn’t sure at which point I would be able to make it back to pick up Michael if ever.

As I was driving, I realized I had no purse and therefore no license, which isn’t that big of deal until I got closer to the house and realized I had no house keys. I looked frantically at the keys Michael had given me, praying that one of them was for the house. One of them was.

I got Kaitlyn inside and she stopped crying, started giggling and was no longer hungry. I put her in her pajamas and asked my mom to watch her while I went back to pick up Michael. My mom came over and Kaitlyn smiled and talked to her.

After getting Michael, I was worried because Kaitlyn’s only pacifier was dirty, so I decided to stop by target and pick up some more. We had a gift card there so it was a good place to shop. I picked out two pacifiers, 3 new bottles and a bottle cleaning brush (something before becoming a parent I swore I’d never need). Since Kaitlyn had stopped nursing, I had to start pumping 8 times a day to keep my milk supply. I asked Michael, in the baby isle at target, what “we” should do… Continue pumping or go to formula only. He looked at me and said he thought pumping might be too hard on me if I have to pump 4 hours a day. I showed him the cost of formula and said I’d like his help with one last shot at pumping. He said he’d help me by feeding Kaitlyn at night, so I could pump and not have to do both. We went to checkout at which point I whipped out my credit card and forgot all about the gift certificate.

After we got home, Michael took Kaitlyn so I could go to bed before 11:00 pm. At 3:00 am, when she was hungry and wanted to eat, I couldn’t bring myself to wake Michael and fed her myself and then pumped, getting back to sleep at 4:30 am.

I LOVE my daughter. She has taught me more about life and more about God than anything else. She teaches me humility and grace, something I needed to learn more of. She’s amazing and the delight of my day. No matter how many days ahead are like yesterday’s, I don’t care, she is worth it to me.

Fire in the Park

2010-08-17T08:42:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday we went to the second annual fire in the park at Esther Shortt Park. Firefighters from all over the state come to do a chili cook-off to benefit Share. We spent the whole afternoon there and Kaitlyn did great!

We got K all dressed up.

My favorite pic.

We saw the competitions between firemen (hopefully I can convince Michael to do it next year) and played on the fire trucks. What a perfect day!

Svan High Chair

2010-08-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Carrie got this cool high chair for her daughter Millie. I loved it and got one for Kaitlyn. Michael put it together over the weekend and Kaitlyn sat in it immediately! We can now have her at the dinner table which is super nice. She can even stay in it while I make dinner. I love it!! I hope that it helps her to sit up on her own, as it did with Millie.

New Cushion!

2010-08-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is my baby rocking chair. My mom made the cushion for me and I loved it. Now it's in Kaitlyn's room and I made a new cushion for her to enjoy.

Dancer fabric. Super cute!

It turned out great! It took a little longer than I anticipated to make, but now it's done! I can't wait to see her rocking in it.

CHASE Retreat

2010-08-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

Every summer my mom's side of the family gets together for a family reunion. We usually go camping which is what everyone else did this summer, except us. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast with Kaitlyn. Next summer, we'll be able to camp again.

Carol, Mom and Harley

Little Miss K

We brought our swing to the bed and breakfast but thought it might be a little much to bring it to the campsite. We were wrong. Michael had to swing Kaitlyn to sleep every time before she napped. It was funny to constantly see Michael trying new ways to swing her to sleep.

Northwoods

2010-07-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

Michael and I went up to mom's Northwoods cabin with some friends this last weekend. We had such a great time!! We slept all 5 couples, 2 babies and 3 dogs in a 2 bedroom cabin. We walked down to the lake and stayed up late talking. A great way to spend a weekend.

Kaitlyn and I in her watermelon swimsuit. It was too cute.

Kaitlyn and daddy. He held almost the entire day and she loved every minute of it.

I snapped this photo of Sheila and her daughter Abby. Abby loved the water!

Us on our walk home from the lake.

We went for a Sunday morning walk and Kaitlyn looked like a queen in all her pink stuff. She was a perfect baby for her first night away from home and a delight to be around!

Kaitlyn's Tree - A Special THANK YOU to Kris and Mike

2010-07-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Our friends Mike and Kris came over to meet Kaitlyn last weekend. They brought her a few awesome presents! The first present that they gave to Kaitlyn was a Dwarf Southern Magnolia tree to be planted in our backyard. They said to take a picture of Kaitlyn each year with the tree and watch the two of them grow bigger together. We love it!

After much thought, we choose to plant it against the fence opposite side of the yard from the house.

Kaitlyn was having a difficult evening, so Michael was swinging and singing to her so that she would smile for the picture. I love this pic of him with her.

Another gift that Kris and Mike gave to her was these rain slickers. They're too big but she'll be in them quick! I can't wait to see her playing in the puddles out in the rain.

A special THANK YOU to Kris and Mike for these gifts plus the Rainbow Gobblin book and the princess wand. You gave us the perfect gifts and we are so grateful for them!

Fire Fighter Graduation

2010-07-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Michael has been training with Fire District 6 in Hazel Dell for the last 3 months. He passed with flying colors! He had the highest written test score in the class. I'm really proud of him. Kaitlyn and I made it to his graduation on Wednesday night. It was the first week back to work full time for me, so we were a little late, but we made it! Good job babe!

Happy 4th of July!!!

2010-07-04T21:37:00.000-07:00

With a new baby, we celebrated a little differently this year. First of all, it's still the fourth, 9:37 pm and I'm blogging instead of watching Fireworks. I guess life is different when you have a newborn. We spent the day at my moms house and had a great time. Here are some photo's!!!

Our story teller.

Our happy beautiful baby girl.

And when she is a little unhappy...

The gun show.

Mom and Harley - We had a great time!!

It's been a while!

2010-07-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while and I haven't been blogging as much. Honestly, the time goes by much faster these days and I find it difficult to get to everything. I've so been enjoying my time with my daughter and with Michael at home right now I certainly am living the dream. I spend all day, almost everyday with my family and it is fabulous. Here is an update on each of us.

Michael is working hard at Graveco Software (he runs it from our home office). He is constantly thinking of different marketing ideas so that we can serve more customers. He also just finished his fire fighter training and will be graduating really soon as a Clark County District 6 Fire Fighter. He's worked really hard at it and I'm super proud of him.

I am heading back to work soon. My mom, Michael, and my friend Mary will be watching Kaitlyn while I am at work. I look forward to getting out of the house but I will miss my days with little K. She is pretty special and already growing up so fast!

Kaitlyn is 7 weeks old today! She is starting to laugh a lot and smile all the time. She still sleeps most of the day and most of the night and is always dressed in some cute outfit. Here are some photo's of us:

Us and Carrie and Millie who is 7 months old.

One time when she was telling us a story and laughing and smiling the whole way thru.

Her favorite place to sleep - in the car seat.

Michael's favorite picture. He likes her dimples and I have to say that they are pretty darn cute.

Our first day at the market. I've been there several times now and she is an old pro at finding good produce with us!

Our One Month Old Kaitlyn

2010-06-15T16:39:00.001-07:00

Kaitlyn Taylor!!!!

2010-05-15T11:54:00.001-07:00

Baby Graves Room

2010-04-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

It's ready!! We've finally gotten everything washed and put away, all we need now is our baby girl. We LOVE the room. We both like to sit in it and are really comfortable in it.

Hester (our cat) thinks this is her room. She looks at us with such loving eyes, saying 'thank you so much for finally giving me a descent room to sleep in by the window.' Little does she know what we're about to bring home.

We love our princess book. It's this huge book that has very little reading in it and is really fun to hold and has great photos.

Her reading area:

Kris Clarke gave us this and we love it. Michael hung it over the crib today.

YEAH! We can't wait til she is here. Hopefully, only 2- 3 more weeks.

Michael's Mom Judy threw me a baby shower a couple weeks ago...

2010-04-17T09:49:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Michael's mom Judy threw me a baby shower on Lake Sammamish. It was a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy the shower outside on the deck of the boathouse. It was super fun to see Michael's family and to celebrate the pregnancy with them!

Renny, Suzanne, Shelana, and Marigale enjoying some good food.

Go dawgs!! This shirt is really for Michael to enjoy seeing his baby girl in it.

Camille, Judy, my mom, and Cindy.

Michael's Aunt Joyce made us this beautiful diaper cake! It had all sorts of goodies in it and was super fun.

Me in the boathouse with the cake.

Kris and Jenny threw me a baby shower

2010-04-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

My mom's best friend Kris Clark and my sister-in-law Jenny Dykstra got together and threw me a baby shower at Kris' house last Sunday. It was a small gathering of friends that I have known most of my life! What a fun time it was.

Here is Naomi and Tessa. Naomi was a high school student leaders when I was a freshman in high school at St. Matt's. I actually remember when Tessa was born. Some 12 years later, I worked at Sunset Pres and Tessa was in the youth group which was a lot of fun. I'm holding a card that they wrote for my daughter's 8th birthday. One of the games was to write a birthday card for her, I now have cards for the next 10 years!!

Jenny (Kyle's wife) and I.

Jenny made my daughter this beautiful baby blanket. I LOVE it!!! I guess she finished it the night before. Great job Jenny, you're doing much better than me. I am still finishing your Wedding gift and you guys got married in December. This pregnancy thing will has challenged my scheduling! The blanket is so girly and soft. I know she will love it.

My mom got me this pink chair. Isn't it awesome? It's so cute and trendy and just very princess like. I LOVE it!!!

Here is Kelly (Kris' daughter), me, Jenny, Kris and mom and of course I have Harley in my lap. What a great party! I got really wonderful gifts and truly feel blessed. I'm so grateful for everything that people gave us. My daughter will really be born into a great family filled with friends and lot of love.

2010-04-07T20:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had our last appointment with the high risk pregnancy doctor. We see a high risk pregnancy doc because I have a two vessel cord. 99% of pregnancies have a 3 vessel cord and I somehow only have 2. It’s not genetic and no one seems to really know why this occasionally happens, but the trouble with it is that it can be common to find various birth defects in two vessel cord babies. Our baby is healthy and we know that because we get to use the ultra sound sonogram with the high risk pregnancy doctor. The main concern for our situation has been that the baby would stop growing and so the doctor takes very specific measurements of the baby each time.

Our baby is growing very well. In fact, a little too well! Her little belly is in the 98 percentile! She is already 6 pounds, 6 ounces and is growing at a steady rate. In fact, the doctor recommended I eat less sugar because of her size. He says that she may turn out to be a 10 pounder!!!! That would be a big baby to deliver.

Here are some fun photos from our sonogram yesterday

The 'bubbles' are actually the umbilical cord.

This is a photo with the umbilical cord in front of her face. When we see the picture at the doctors office, it's actually a video and she kept pushing the cord around. She doesn't like the umbilical cord in front of her face and I don't blame her. I don't like things in front of my face either.

I love her lips.

This one reminded me of someone praying which I thought was kinda cool.

maternity pics!!

2010-03-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

Andie Petkus Photography took some great maternity photos of us. I love them. If anyone needs a photographer, she is fantastic!! Here are a few of the pictures:

what i'm learning thru pregnancy

2010-03-17T16:12:00.001-07:00

Pregnancy has been physically difficult for me. Every women experiences pregnancy differently and not every person has been pregnant, so here is what it physically has been for me.

· I have not slept for more than 2 hours at a time since the second week in January. I wake up every two hours because the hip of the side that I am sleeping on is either aching or has fallen asleep. I sleep with 5 pillows every night and each one of them has to be positioned very carefully or I will wake up with severe leg pain. Every two hours I have to turn over which requires me to move every pillow hence waking me completely up. There have been nights when I can’t sleep on my side at all and have to sleep in a sitting up position.
· In the first trimester, I was nauseous everyday and could not stomach most foods. In my second trimester, I was less nauseous but threw up a few times, mostly in the morning and once in my car on the way to work, and I ate everything in sight. In the third trimester, I have thrown up liquids in the morning but am back to being almost constantly nauseous with an almost daily spray of stomach acid (and whatever food I had just eaten) in the back of my throat. Also, I now cannot fit much food into my stomach and therefore am constantly hungry but with the most intense feeling of bloating I have ever known and it’s just weird to be hungry and bloated at the same time.
· None of my clothes fit and because I work in the professional world, I have been embarrassed at times with what I am wearing because my clothes look a little dorky and are either too big or too small. Every piece of my maternity clothing has stains on it; either on the boobs or on the stomach.
· I have been keeping up with most of the house work but there are some nights when I just can’t do it out of sheer exhaustion (I still work 50 hours a week) and feel very discouraged when I have to go to bed with things not done that I feel should have been done that day.
· I have to wear a belly band around my waist and if I forget to put it on in the morning, my lower abdominal muscles feel like they have each been ripped out, typically hurting so bad I walk hunched over. There is constant pressure on my pelvic bones (the doctor says she is in position to come out). This pressure doesn’t really hurt, it’s just pressure that I feel constantly. Occasionally the pressure shifts to my tailbone and then it hurts really bad and I can’t sit down.

I share this with you not to complain but to give you a realistic glimpse of what it has been like for me. I am still debating on whether or not I want to open this blog with something so negative but I think I’m going to keep it as it is. This constant physical pain is always at the front of my mind. I can’t ignore it or get around it, no matter how hard I try. This is what I feel first – the difficulties of pregnancy – so I think I’m going to keep it first on my blog.

So, here is what I keep thinking about in response to the difficulty in pregnancy. There’s several things and I am going to attempt to explain them. They’re not in any particular order, just random floating thoughts as I go thru the day dealing with whatever I am feeling at the time.

· I watched a video on childbirth and pregnancy and they described that most Americans (physicians and the public) view pregnancy as an illness and delivery as surgery. The midwives who were making this video were trying to point out that pregnancy and delivery are spiritual experiences, normal to our race and essential for our survival. Thinking of pregnancy as a spiritual experience was a new concept for me and has really challenged me to think past the frustration with it and look at what God might be trying to do with it. I originally had felt almost certain that I would immediately get an epidural and pain medications once I reached the hospital, but now I am more open to the idea of feeling the experience (at least for a little bit). I have read countless stories of women who have homebirths and then share about the spiritual experience that it was for them. I’m not going to have a homebirth but I am a little jealous of the experience that these women had. Reading their stories has helped me to view delivery a little differently than I had originally.

· I’m not trying to be spiritual or anything but I keep thinking about Jesus’ language when he talks about being born again. Before I became pregnant, I thought that being born again was just becoming a new person- something easy and kinda magical, but there’s this whole process leading up to being born that is not easy and not for the faint of heart. It’s long, difficult and painful to be born, maybe not for the one being born but definitely for the one trying to birth. I think a lot of believers, particularly student ministry leaders, experience unforeseen pain in helping others (usually students) become believers or become born again. The birth is such an exciting time but the time leading up to the birth can be so painful and not many people share all the difficulties that there are before a birth. Don’t get me wrong, some births are easy, but not all are and when the leader or birther is experiencing difficulty, I think that for the student ministry leader the temptation is to give up.

· My friend Carrie asked we what I thought I was learning thru this experience, she asked was there anything that I thought that God might want to tell me. I think that this experience has given me more mercy and patience. I don’t have much mercy but this experience has really blessed me with more mercy and compassion on others and given me patience. I always thought that 9 months was a short time to prepare for a baby, but it feels like this has been the longest 9 months of my life and I’m only 7 months thru it.

· Despite all of the discomfort I still want to have more babies. I know I do. There’s no doubt about that. Especially when I hold my baby girl in my arms, I will know that I want to have more kids. Call me crazy but it’s something that I just know.

· I am so thankful that I will soon become a mom and that I helped make my favorite person in the world, Michael, a dad. We’re sooo excited!!! I truly am thankful for this opportunity.

Our Baby!!!!!

2010-03-05T21:33:00.000-08:00

The cool thing about having a high risk pregnancy is that you get a lot of ultra sounds. Too bad insurance doesn't feel that they need to pay for all of them. O well - We LOVE our pictures of our little baby girl!!!

Hands and Stuff

Little face :)

Sleeping Beauty

This is one of my favorites.

Scratching her forehead with her foot.

Still Gettin' Ready

2010-02-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

A girl can never have too many shoes.

Clothes just for the first three months.

Butterfly curtain rod ends.

Butterfly bedding for the crib.

Curtain, crib, and we're ready to go.

old school home theatre system

2010-02-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Michael (a.k.a. super great husband) set up a "home theatre" system for me tonight. We wanted to catch up on LOST episodes online and when we usually do that, we watch it on the computer in the office. Since we had gone to the Michael Allen Harrison concert on Friday night and Rob Bell on Sunday night my back was hurting from sitting in stiff chairs which is what we have in the office. So, I mentioned that I wished we could watch it in the living room and Michael got to working right away on fixing up a home theatre system. It worked!

Here is Michael setting everything up. Notice the 1980's boom box on the ground by his foot. Yes, we own that.

We bought a projector for work when we went to San Antonio last April for a training seminar for Michael's business and put it to good use tonight.

It took a little figuring out.

See it on the wall under the window? It was great and I got to sit in a comfy chair in the living room for the 3 hours of LOST we caught up on.

New Roots Retreat in Sun River

2010-02-02T20:04:00.000-08:00

Settlers of Catan. I was rooting for Michael the whole time, but Jen won. Jen plays it well. If I ever need to build a road or a settlement, I want her as my broker. We love Settlers, we're going to have to get our own copy soon.

Sunriver was beautiful. Not to icy, but snow covered.

Michael and I with Amy on the scavenger hunt.

Erika and Jen by the fire.

Michael and I.

Haiti Blog by Michael

2010-01-24T19:01:00.001-08:00

Our team arrived in Port Au Prince Haiti at approximately 4 am on Monday 1/18. Five days after the 7.0 earthquake devastated the city. Thanks to Stacey we were able to get a slot into the very busy Port Au Prince airport. There were 8 of us on the plane, including two pilots (Mike Cranor and Romer Brown), Huston Hedinger, 2 orthopedic surgeons (Todd Ulmer and Chris Achterman), a doctor (Tom Burry), a pysical trainer (Kathi McCoy), and an EMT (me). From the airport, we made our way to the building that we would be staying in for the next several days. It is fenced, gated and guarded by several trusted Haitians, one of which is a Haitian police officer. We unloaded our bags, met the other team members that had arrived earlier, and waited till daylight to go to the hospital.

Medical Teams International has vertually taken over King’s Hospital in Port Au Prince. Thus relieving the local staff, which has been seriously overworked the last several days, to tend to their own families and needs. It is a brand new hospital that was just getting ready to open. Although many of the walls in the hospital have large cracks, engineers from the UN certified the building as “safe” – whatever that means – the day before we arrived. We immediately set to work to organize the two operating rooms (O.R.s), unpack supplies and equipment and get the O.R.s setup for the surgeons by noon.

We roped off the front of the hospital to control access and triaged patients in the courtyard outside the hospital. Patients with minor injuries were treated and released from outside. Patients with more serious or critical injuries were prioritized and brought inside the hospital for treatment. Inside the hospital we ran 3 exam/ treatment rooms. Each patient came in with a piece of paper with their name, age, and chief complaints listed. We would remove their bandages, clean their wounds, re-examine their injuries and re-splint/ bandage their wounds. Critical patients would be “admited” to the hospital for surgery and the more stable patients would be asked to return in one or two days to have their wounds re-cleaned and dressed or return with an x-ray (if broken bones were suspected – and if the breaks were not obvious), as the hospital had no radiography equipment.

The injuries, in general, were extremely similar from one patient to the next. Crush injuries, multiple fractures, and full-thickness skin loss, paricularly to extremeties. Almost without exception every single patient had a severe infection (pseudomonas or gangrene) of their open injuries. Necrosis (dead skin) was not uncommon. The mechanisms of injury (MOI) were always the same as well. The language barrier (we were working with translators – some more skilled than others) did often make it difficult to determine exactly what happened or to get an adequate description to what exactly caused the injury (which is helpful to rule out other injuries). Out of habit we would ask, but the response was always: “A brick…, a wall…, a house… or something heavy… fell on me.” In some cases, they didn’t know what hit them.

The pain and agony that these people were in was very clear, and every one of them had been waiting patiently for care (for nearly a week or over a week in some cases). The vast majority of them never made even a slight whimper. There was an occasional scream or moan when a bandage was removed, or when an obviously broken bone was moved. But the strength and bravery of these hurting people was an amazing thing to witness. It was the same among young and old, no matter how severe their injuries were. One woman had both a clearly fractured humorous (upper arm) and a clearly fractured femur (upper leg) and yet she never screamed. Two children on the first day were brought to us by their mothers both with femur fractures, neither one even whimpered or cried. Very few had had any medications beyond an ibuprofen or Advil. Antibiotics were limited, but were provided to almost every patient.

I cannot even begin to tell you what it is like to watch a 25 year old man be told that he is going to lose his leg below the knee and then to have him genuinely thank us for being there and helping him. Over and over, everyday that I was there, patients would receive the devastating news that their leg, arm, hand, thumb or toe would have to be amputated. I never heard anyone ask “why me”. The abbreviation BKA was a common phrase used by the nurses and doctors all around the hospital. I learned that this stands for Below Knee Amputation. Once the orthopedics begin to finish their work, there is going to be a huge need in Haiti for prosthetics. It was also clear that the surgeons were doing everything in their power to not amputate unless it was the only option. If there was a possibility that a surgically debridement would clean out the wound sufficiently and that there was still hope of saving the limb, they would always do that first.

My role varied during those four days that I was in country and working in the hospital. Although I was typically only assisting one of the doctors or nurses, organizing medical supplies (which were arriving constantly), or serving as a “gopher” to go get something, I was really fortunate in that I got to experience many different aspects of patient care throughout the hospital. I learned techniques of removing bandages (as EMTs we are trained how apply them, and in experiencing how they are removed I have learned which applications are more humane). I learned how to debride and clean wounds. I assisted the doctors and surgeons in the operating rooms, and I assisted Kathi (the physical trainer) in teaching post-op patients how to walk with a walker or crutches (which were in very short supply – if not non-existent altogether). I was the scribe, writing down the patient’s vital information, as we attempted to develop some sort of patient charting system to document and keep track of the patient records and their care. I did whatever was asked of me and whatever needed to be done.

On Wednesday morning (1/20) our team was awaken at 6am by a significant aftershock. I was asleep at the time, as were many others. I was sleeping on a matress on the floor, but I guarantee you I have never gotten out of bed so fast in my life. When I returned to the room after the quake, I was puzzled that I could not find the sheet that I had been sleeping under. I found my sheet on someone else’s matress over halfway across the room. All I could think about while the building was shaking were the horrible injuries that we had been treating for the last several days caused by collapsing concrete buildings, like the one I was sleeping in. All of the bedrooms were on the second floor, so we all had to go down a flight of stairs to evacuate the building. When we got back to the hospital we found all of the patients outside in the courtyard. On Thursday we had a few more smaller tremors at noon. Ironically, I was in the process of trying to comfort a patient who was trying to flee the hospital because she did not want to be inside.

Post traumatic stress is clearly present in most of the patients, and even those not injured. The injured people are deathly afraid of being indoors or inside of a building that may collapse on them. Many would agree to come inside the hospital for treatment, but refused to remain inside. Those that are not homeless because their house did not collapse are homeless because they are afraid to be indoors.

Please continue to keep the Haitian people in your thoughts and prayers. They have a long road to recovery ahead of them. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for me and the other medical professionals that I went with. Please continue to pray for them as most of the doctors and nurses are still there and will be for the next several months.

The following video shows a tour of King’s Hospital given by Dr Dan Diamond the leader of our team with Medical Teams International: (If you watch the video closely, you will see me briefly at about 2 minutes and 47 seconds.)
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4127362

The following link is Dr Dan’s blog address:
http://www.powerdyme.com/dan-diamond-powerdyme-blog.html

The following link is Andy Davidson’s blog (his Day 1 post uses two pictures that I took). Andy arrived the day before I left:
http://orhospitals.wordpress.com/

Young boy with femur fracture in operating room.

One of many cracks in the hospital walls.

Triaging patients in the courtyard.

Treating patients after triage.

Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support.

Tonight's Plan

2010-01-21T13:24:00.000-08:00

Today (Thursday) the team worked a 12 hour day. They will head back to their place of sleep around sundown tonight (about 7:30 pm Haiti time). The team that Michael is on will try and get some sleep. They will wake up around 3:00 am Haiti time on Friday morning and drive to the airport. This will be the first time that they are out at night. Their flight will be waiting for them at 3:45 am to take them back to Fort Lauderdale. With so many aid flights coming into Haiti, 3:45 am was the only slot left for the plane to take. They are expecting a full day of constant flights in and out of Port Au Prince this weekend.

The team will then go back to Fort Lauderdale and after customs get some sleep before making the journey back to Portland. They will arrive in Portland late Friday evening.

email from Anne - One of the nurses on Michael's team

2010-01-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

"We got to the hospital this morning with every single patient that we operated on yesterday back outside in the hospital courtyard. Multiple repaired horrible injuries were lifted on their families backs and ran to the outside during the earthquake this morning. It was chaos. They were all so scared, as you can imagine. We all cried together - then we got back to work. All in all, it was a very good day. Chris Achterman - one of the pediatric ortho guys, had 2 kids in the OR and did 2 of the most beautiful spica casts I have ever seen, using sticks to support the 2 casted legs apart. What a team effort we have going here, supporting one another."

home?

2010-01-21T07:13:00.000-08:00

The team isn't sure when they are coming home. They were going to come home tomorrow (Friday) but now may stay until Saturday. The work that they are doing is making an impact and it's difficult on all of them to leave, so we're trying to figure the best plan of action.

The team is doing great!

2010-01-20T08:42:00.001-08:00

The earthquake didn't hurt anyone on the MTI team and they keep going strong. YEAH!!

update from Kathi McCoy

2010-01-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

Kathi is doing triage with Michael for the Medical Teams and she just sent me this update via her IPhone...

"Multiple crush injuries with full thickness skin loss, reeking of pseudomonas and worse, open fractures, partial amputations. No water, crutches or radiology at the hospital. Patients carried in on doors, gates or backs from the street. Haitians brave and grateful. So many lives saved today. Thanks for all of your help..."

It's just her and Michael doing triage for this station.

Dr. Diamond's Blog - You've got to read

2010-01-19T08:53:00.000-08:00

The below post is from Dr. Diamond's blog who is leading the MTI team in Haiti. It's amazing!! You can view his blog here or you can read the post below:

It was an unbelievable day! Before I tell you about it, you need to learn about the fine art of cup showering. That is how it gets done around here since there is no running water. You see there is just a five gallon bucket in the bathroom with a bowl floating in it. I'm not sure how water can be colder than air but, just like KY Jelly, it is. So my strategy is to fill the bowl then dip my hand in it and splash the water on a section my body. Then soap. Then I move on to the next part of my body. Then I go back and rinse each part. Now Bill, on the other hand, pours the water over his head while squatting and somehow manages to get his whole body wet. Then soaps. Then he rinses by pouring two cups over his head. Good grief. Three cups total. How does he do it? Mystery.
I spent the majority of the day at our hospital today. We had several breakthroughs. Today our other team arrived in two waves. It was great to see Dr Tom Haggard again. I haven't seen him since we were working at the New Orleans Convention Center after Katrina. He is a great guy with an amazing servants heart. We also added Dr Todd Ulmar (Ortho), Dr Chris Achterman (Ped Ortho), Kathy McCoy (PT), Huston Hedinger (all around good guy) and Michael Graves (EMT and all around good guy). The second wave of folks came as I was heading out so I don't have all of their names yet. Stay tuned.
Today the team worked hard and we were able to get our OR up and running just around noon! We were even able to treat the pastor's wife. The orthopods were able to debride her wound and, using external stabilizers, fix her leg so she can be transported to the United States so she can receive the treatment she needs to save her foot! Bill and I are taking her to the airport where she will be flown to Ft Lauderdale in a private jet. The use of the jet for one week was donated and we are using it to bring in supplies and volunteers. I am excited to see her someday with her foot still attached. I am celebrating today that she is still alive!! God is good.
Today I also worked on organizational structure and figured out department heads etc. This evening I went to the UN field hospital and I was able to find some supplies that we desperately needed. I got some morphine, demerol, antibiotics, disposable surgical gowns, IV solutions and more supplies that were very needed.
The new team is struggling with the fact that we don't have x-ray. For difficult cases we write what x-ray we want on a Rx pad and then the patients family has to go and find someone with a vehicle and painfully place them in the vehicle and take them around to find someplace with an x-ray machine that works. When I close my eyes and imagine transferring into a car (not a cushy ambulance), driving on horrible bumpy roads, transferring out to get the x-rays and then doing the procedure in reverse to get back to the doctor it makes me so grateful that I live where I do. My patients at home often put up with wait times that are embarrassingly long but these people have patience and gratefulness that would make Mother Theresa envious. I have much to learn from them.We are working on getting some intake forms up and running. They are installing a generator that should give us enough power. By the way, we ran out of fuel for the generator in the middle of a surgical case today. They had to finish without power. I was trying to get some forms downloaded from the Internet this evening and to do that in these situations we use a portable satellite link device. The fun thing was the dozen children that were hanging all around me while I was doing it. They sure are curious and full of smiles. I speak very tiny bits of Creole but I do speak fluent "Kid". It was really fun with special handshakes and all that stuff. There were lots of giggles, even in the midst of all of this.
Off to bed. I have to get up early to take pastor's wife to the airport at 5:30 or so. But first I have to get up early for my cup shower. Perhaps I will try Bill's technique. Please keep the prayers up. I could sense His strength throughout the day.

I heard from Michael!!

2010-01-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

Michael just called me (around 3:30 pm). It was really great to hear his voice. He was calling from a satellite phone and mentioned his cell phone doesn't work in Haiti. He didn't sound too tired, but said he was exhausted. He has been doing triage all day long for the 3 orthopedic surgeons. He is working with veteran natural disaster responders and is learning a lot. (I didn't know what triage was before I married Michael, it' a french word for sorting, which means he has been deciding who gets to go to surgery and who has to wait.) The phone line was cut off and I haven't heard back from him, but I know that the satellite phones haven't been working perfectly so it doesn't make me worry. I'm sure other team members needed to call their families as well. It's 7:30 pm at night there and he said that they would not be working in the dark, that they were all going back to the guesthouse to get some sleep and to be ready for a full day tomorrow.

update 2

2010-01-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

I heard from the pilots this morning. They landed safely in Port Au Prince this morning. They were greeted on the ground by MTI personal and were escorted to the make shift hospital that they will be working out of all day today.

The only trouble they had was that Fort Lauderdale customs wasn't open yet, so they had to detour to another US airport to go thru customs and then head off to Haiti. It took extra time that was a little frustrating but all in all, wasn't so bad.

The pilot said that they were doing some "really cool" work down there, so I'm sure that the team will be very tired tonight. Hopefully I will hear from Michael but I'm not sure yet. I haven't heard from anyone in Haiti yet (the pilots called after they had returned to the US, every plane only has 1 hour on the ground in Haiti, so that the airport doesn't get backed up, so the pilots could not stay there).

good night

2010-01-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a really long day. I'm headed for bed. Michael and the team will get a 4/5 hour sleep tonight and then are to be up again around 10:30 pm our time. They will then take a 90 minute flight out to Haiti and land in Port Au Prince around 6:00 am local Haiti time. They will work constantly all day long. I don't know if I'll hear from him again until Thursday night. If I do, I'll post it.

MTI blog

2010-01-17T15:43:00.001-08:00

The MTI team who is already stationed in Haiti, their leader, has a blog. This is medical team that Michael will be a part of when he lands tomorrow morning.

Update 1

2010-01-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

I was able to secure an arrival time in Port Au Prince for tomorrow morning at 09 40 z, which translates to 1:40 am PST. It'll be early for the team, but I am very grateful they are now have a landing code and will be landing in Port Au Prince. That will allow Michael to work for four days on the ground with the team.

Medical Teams International has been an incredible organization to work with. They have had good communication with the team and me and are organized within a chaotic situation. If you are still wanting to help Haitians financially, they are a good one to donate to. There disaster response to this situation is going to be expensive. Already, I'm helping coordinate what the current MTI teams in Haiti need to be bought and brought into country for them to continue providing medical aid. The list is very long and has very expensive items on it. Click here for the link to their donation site.

Michael's Take Off to Haiti this morning

2010-01-17T11:47:00.001-08:00

It's been a really busy 48 hours! I finally got to send Michael off this morning with a kiss and he is currently in the air traveling to Fort Lauderdale. He will spend the night tonight in Fort Lauderdale and the head to Haiti tomorrow morning. The hope is that they can land in Port Au Prince, but so far I have not been able to secure a landing spot in Port Au Prince for early tomorrow morning. If I cannot get them a spot they will land in Cape Haitian, normally a 3 hour drive from Port Au Prince, but currently an 8 hour drive with the only option of driving in daylight (meaning if they don't have 8 hours of day light of ahead of them, they don't get to leave Cape Haitian) so we are working around the clock to get them a spot to land in Port Au Prince.

I realize some of you may not know what's going on, so here's a little back ground: I work for a company that works with NGO's. One of those NGO's is Medical Team International. The company I work for is sending the company plane to Haiti with 7 personal on board: 3 orthopedic surgeons, a physical therapist, a company representative, and my husband (serving as an EMT). It's my job to handle the logistics of the flight, communication for the team, and to assist with Medical Teams International with anything that they need. While putting this together on Friday, it grow more and more obvious that they needed someone who had the Michael's skill set and could leave Sunday morning for a week so the team asked Michael to join them and both of us thought it was absolutely something that he could do. MTI currently has 2 teams already on the ground and this team and another team from Seattle will arrive tomorrow making 4 MTI teams serving in Port Au Prince.

Here is Bas explaining the team situation which is currently that everything changes every hour in disaster response. We make decisions with what we know at the time and then change them as needed.

Michael and Bas before take-off.

Me and Michael. :)

The medical response team taking one last photo before take-off. Good luck!!! We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

our new bedroom furniture

2010-01-10T13:02:00.001-08:00

Michael and I have been using his old dressers in our bedroom for the last few years and we recently moved them into the kids room (we're only having 1 baby, but we already have 2 kids rooms...). We found what we were looking for at IKEA and Michael worked hard to put it up. They look great!

Hester was a very important part of this process. She wanted to be in everything and know exactly what we were doing. It was pretty darn cute.

22 Weeks and Counting

2010-01-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

I’m thrilled to be 22 weeks along and over half way there. We’re getting more and more excited every day. Michael and I have started to ‘ready the house’ for the baby. We’re putting in a much larger dresser/bookshelf/storage thing in our bedroom that will hopefully allow us to use our space better. After that, we’re concentrating our focus on the baby girls room. Her room is painted a soft green and I am thinking that the theme I would like for the room will be butterflies, but haven’t decided yet. I can imagine pink and purple butterflies on the drapes and dresser and for the bedding, but I’m still thinking about it. I haven’t found this design on any children’s websites yet and am trying to figure out if I want to create and paint all these things or if buying them would be the better option (hopefully I can find them somewhere because right now I don’t have the option to buy them).

We’re also starting to collect the baby items. We have had incredible generous friends who have given us already so many things. We’re making a list of all the things that we need to get and the list is getting longer and longer. Honestly in a house that is already completely furnished, it’s a little overwhelming to think of where we’re going to put this stuff. I’ve been taking several trips to the Goodwill lately to try to empty some of the space, so that I can put some new things in. We’ve also rearranged our living room so that a glider rocking chair can fit into it better.

Mom got a new dog last week and he is only 2 pounds and SO darn cute. We’re excited because we know that a baby/little kid will love dogs and will now be able to play with one. Michael is excited because our baby can enjoy a dog and he doesn’t have to have it (the dog) in his house all the time. Harley (the little dog) runs around my mom’s house and when she brings him over, Harley likes to chase our cats. It’s pretty hysterical to watch a 2 pound dog chase a 10 pound cat, although I don’t think that Hester or Jaguar appreciate it very much. We’re trying to get them to be friends so that we when one of us is out of town, the other can watch the animals. We’ll see how it goes.

There is so much to do in preparing for your first baby and even more to think about. I think that’s why I haven’t been blogging as much. When I’m not getting something done around the house, I’m resting (Michael is very encouraging about the resting thing for me). So, it leaves little time to blog, but I know I’ll be back on here more and more soon, especially with pictures. Many people have asked me to show them a picture of my pregnant belly and it’s coming soon, I promise.

It's a girl.

2009-12-23T17:35:00.001-08:00

getting more ready everyday

2009-12-21T17:51:00.001-08:00

OK - I totally get that people are not that interested in the baby clothes that I am gathering for my baby. But being a first time parent is so exciting and the clothes make it so much more real that I love to share them. It's exciting to think that we will have a little one that will soon fit into these clothes.

Our friends Nate and Melissa gave this to us. It has cute little dogs up the right side of it and I love it.

It even has little dog feet:

Since we went to the Blazer game last Friday night, the baby started moving so I wanted to have something memorable about that night and got this cute baby sleeper. I love it! I guess he/she will be a Portland TrailBlazer fan.

quilt and a pair of new converse shoes

2009-12-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest quilt I made and gave to Kristin. It's a flannel Christmas quilt. I'm making more flannel quilts! I loved it and it is so comfortable. Here's the print on the back of it.

Some of the front blocks had writing on them:

Lap quilt. Each individual block is 6 inches by 6 inches.

When I gave Kristin her quilt, so had brought me a baby gift!! I loved it. They are so cute. Black converse shoes.

rehearsal dinner for team jk

2009-12-12T11:53:00.000-08:00

Last night we had the rehearsal dinner for Kyle and Jenny at the Venetian in downtown Hillsboro. My mom did a great job choosing a good, classy location and made sure we had wonderful, yummy food! It was great.

Stacey's cousin Sam and Uncle Bill.

Stacey's cousin Cam and girlfriend Stephanie.

Me and Michael.

The stars of the hour: Jenny and Kyle. They looked so happy.

Christmas at the Graves'

2009-12-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

Michael worked hard at putting up the lights outside. I want lights on the top of our house but so far we haven't really figured out how to do that safely and Michael walking around the roof doesn't seem like a good idea to either of us.

Our beautiful wreath from the Festival of the Trees.

Michael cut our tree and then put all the ornaments and lights up. It looks great babe!

Yes, we already have enough stockings for 5 children.

We put garland around out stairwell and I love it! And here's this years' Christmas quilt.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

finding the perfect tree

2009-12-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we headed out to Thorton's Treeland. It's a family operated Christmas Tree farm in Vancouver. They have three generations working there and it couldn't be a better place to take the family (even if your child is still inside you). We've gone there every year since we moved here and it's become a tradition.

A small part of the tree farm:

Michael standing next to our tree of choice. It was a very cold morning!

Getting the gloves on.

Last year, we picked a tree that had long branches at the bottom and was rather difficult for Michael to saw. This year we found this one that had no branches at the bottom and it was much easier and Michael stayed a lot cleaner!

In the car, ready to head home and decorate our house.

our first gift

2009-12-04T19:24:00.001-08:00

It was really exciting to get a baby gift, although we totally don't expect any. I was surprised at work and given something fun.

The spoons each weigh a couple pounds, so they might just be for decoration but they are sooooo cute!! Thanks to Chris and Chris Dudley for our first baby gift!!

starting do to the firsts

2009-11-25T20:23:00.000-08:00

With a baby coming, we're about to do all the 'firsts.' It's pretty exciting for us. Here's our first baby purchase.

Since our baby will be 5 months next October, we thought this was fun.

Since we had something that talked about mummy love, we needed something that talked about daddy love, too.

We don't know the sex yet, so, so far, everything is unisex.

Fall Pics

2009-11-21T16:57:00.001-08:00

Michael's Early Birthday Gift

2009-11-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

Michael got new ski boots for his birthday this year. They cost a pretty penny but the last ones he got lasted him 15 years and he skis in them all winter. He likes them!! It's so fun to give your spouse a nice gift for them to enjoy. We've skipped out on giving each other gifts for the last two years of our marriage, and this year we got serious about gift giving! Since my birthday is on May 9th which is Mother's Day this year and my due date is May 14th (which could end up being 5 days early) I keep telling Michael that I will need a big gift on that day! I wonder what he will get me. Here he is with his boots.

They were a little tight at first.

Lookin' good.

The boots are "walkable" which means with one flick of a strap, they become easier to walk in. It was one of the things that sold me on them when we heard about them at the patrol banquet. So when Michael comes up on a scene, he can just pull the strap and be able to walk to the patient. Michael has mastered the skiers walk, especially inside a building and with patients, so I don't know if he'll even use this feature, but I (the non-skier) thought it was cool.

And they are off as fast as they are on.

Happy 35th birthday babe. I LOVE YOU.

We're expecting!

2009-11-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

Michael and I are excited to share that we are expecting out first little one on May 14th, 2010!! We will post some pictures soon.

Jenny's Shower

2009-10-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Kyle (my bro) is getting married to a wonderful girl, Jenny. Last Sunday, I got to throw her a bridal shower at my house. It was a blast and fun to meet Jenny's friends. We did the typical shower games, ate some yummy appetizers, had some cake, and opened gifts. It was fun.

Top Row: Bernice (Jenny's mom), Ann (my mom), me

Sitting: Jenny, Nana (Jenny's grandma)

Mary's Shower

2009-10-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

I feel really luck to have such good friends. Erika (second from top right) and Melissa (bottom right) threw Mary (second from top left) a baby shower at my house on Saturday. We had about 15 girls come and got to shower Mary with lots of love. The shower was really fun! We all (the book club girls) stayed and talked afterwards for a while. Mary is expecting her first baby boy in mid-December and Sheila (top far right) just had a baby girl, Abby, who was 4 weeks old that day. Congratulations Mary!!

Thinkin' about my adventure that took me to Africa.

2009-10-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

We haven’t been up too much lately, which is why I haven’t blogged in a while. Today I was trying to think about something to blog about and thought about sharing my Africa story. A lot of people who read my blog won’t know it and it’s something that I’d like to rewrite and put it in a file because I’m sure someday I’ll forget it. So, here it is.

I was at a Youth Specialties convention somewhere in California and decided to sponsor a Compassion kid. I wanted to choose one in Central America because I had traveled there a lot and because I knew I would travel there in the future. I went up to the booth and noticed a girl from Tanzania. It was one of those really odd moments where there were probably 50 pictures of kids on the table and all I saw was her. I kept thinking, no, this isn’t right, I shouldn’t sponsor her, I want to visit the child I sponsor and I can’t see myself ever going to Africa. I’m a 'Mexico Mission Trip' kind of a girl. But, oddly, I didn’t really see any of the other kids on the table. It was all about the Tanzania girl. I walked away very frustrated. I decided not to pick the girl from Tanzania and just forget the whole experience. Maybe if she was still there the last day of the event, I could settle for her, but I wasn’t interested in choosing a child who I would never visit.

I really frustrated over this at the time because I had decided to sponsor a compassion kid so that I wouldn’t give the devil a foothold in my life. That’s just a fancy way of saying that I wanted children, wasn’t married, wasn’t dating anyone, had ZERO prospects, and didn’t want to get sucked in the “I want a family and can’t have it” type of attitude. So, my response to the depressing state that I was in, was to make lemonade out of lemons and sponsor a compassion child who I could correspond with and visit occasionally. (Of course this was 8 years before I met my wonderful husband.)

The Tanzania girl's packet was there the next day at the Compassion booth and she was still the only one that I noticed on the table. I still remember the picture of her. It’s so clear in my head. So, I threw what I wanted out the window and picked her packet up (not very willingly) and told the Compassion person, something like, 'I guess I’ll take this one.' I opened her packet and found out that her name was Judith and started writing letters to her and praying for her and Tanzania. They weren’t especially great prayers because I didn’t have a lot of time to pray for a child that I never thought that I would meet, so they were something like, "I pray for Judith and Tanzania". Amen.

You guessed it, I ended up in Tanzania a few years later. Some relatives of one of the families that I knew at my church were traveling to Tanzania and leaving 8 weeks from the day that I met them. They offered for me to tag along, and I said, no, not interested. 8 weeks is not enough time to prepare for missions/aid of that magnitude. I left them and didn’t expect to see them again. And of course, even without my willingness, everything worked out. 6 weeks before the leaving date, I thought maybe I wanted to go, but really didn’t see that it was possible. So, I thought I’d just check a few things out and see if the doors were closed or open. First, could I afford it? Yes, I had the $2,500 cash so I could send the check the next day. Second, did I have all my shots? Yes, I just had gotten back from Guatemala and it was mostly the same shots only needing to take a few other pills and they were covered by insurance. Third, did I have 3 weeks of vacation? I talked with my boss at the time and he decided I should go and that it wasn’t vacation, therefore they were still going to pay me my paycheck and I didn’t have to use any vacation time for it. So, the next day I sent in the check, got my malaria medication and blocked my work schedule out for those three weeks.

My time in Tanzania with Judith was really amazing (and another story). This time I thought I would just share the journey that got me there. Anyway, it was an interesting time in my life and I just wanted to write it down for memory sake.

Rojo the Llama

2009-10-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

This summer I got to meet Rojo the Llama. (Click here to see his website) He is a DoveLewis certified therapy llama. How cool is it that he gets to walk thru children's hospitals! The kids go crazy over him.

He doesn't even spit. He travelers in his owners minivan to visit the sick and the elderly. He is just fantastic! And very well behaved.

Kathy and I with Rojo.

carrie's quilt

2009-09-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends Carrie is having her first daughter. I made her my latest quilt. It's a friendship quilt for her and she can give it to her daughter one day if she wants. I based the design off of Proverbs 8 which is called "Lady Wisdom." The proverb talks about God's wisdom being found in the busiest of life (I thought it would be applicable to a new mom.)

Cheetah Conservation Fund

2009-09-16T21:20:00.001-07:00

I don’t usually share on my blog a lot about what I do at work but yesterday I had an amazing experience and I wanted to share it with my friends, family, and blog readers.

My boss and I went to a house in Lake Oswego to meet Dr. Laurie Marker. Dr. Laurie is American but has lived the last 19 years in Namibia (just above South Africa) where she manages a staff of 150 people and a land mass of 100,000 acres to keep the Cheetah population from going into extinction. We learned that 100 years ago there were 100,000 Cheetah’s and today there is around 12,000. The main reason for this is that farmers are shooting and killing Cheetah’s because Cheetah’s are eating the farmers livestock. Dr. Laurie has developed a program that trains certain types of Turkish dogs that she raises and then gives away to farmers. These dogs bond with sheep and goats and become somewhat of a mother figure to them and will fight a Cheetah to the death if a Cheetah comes close to one of the livestock. The dogs protect the farmers and then the farmers don’t kill the Cheetahs. She has had huge success with this program and was a remarkable person to meet.

Tainai was the at house for a photo op and we got to see her too. Tainai was born in captivity but her mother only had her, no other cats in the litter. When a mama Cheetah only has 1 baby, the mother abandons the baby because they don't produce enough milk for the 1 to survive. So the Wildlife Safari adopted Tainai and she has become a really beautiful Cheetah. Her handlers treated her with so much ease, respect, and care that I asked if I could pet her, but the answer was a very quick "no." She's still a wild cat and that is not allowed.

For more information on Dr. Laurie and the Cheetah Conservation Fund click here

PIE SEASON!!!

2009-09-16T21:07:00.001-07:00

I love to make pies. We made our annual (well, second year) trip to Hood River and picked up 22 pounds of peaches for my pies this year. I can't wait to have one. We'll probably have our first one on Thanksgiving. YUM. The secret I found to freezing pies is to only freeze the inside of the pie (not the crust). Freeze it in the shape of the pie pan, remove the pie from pan after frozen, and then seal it for storage in through the Fall. When you're ready to cook it, put a bottom crust down and then place the frozen pie on top of the crust, add butter, and then put the top crust on, adding sugar. Bake for 30 minutes longer than if the center was thawed.

Our Time on Lake Sammamish

2009-09-16T21:01:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we went up to Mercer Island for a family event with Michael's family. Michael's uncle Pete had lost his battle with cancer. Here are we looking at a photo album of Pete.

Canoeing on Lake Sammamish.

We had the lunch catered and this guy showed up with a BBQ hooked on the trailer of his truck and he had the ribs and chicken grilling in there. He was pretty impressive to watch.

My fave pic of the day.

Anniversary Get Away

2009-09-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

Michael and I have been married 2 years. It's been the best two years of my life. We decided to head up to Government Camp and then to Hood River to buy some fresh fruit to celebrate our marriage.

We had lunch at Charlie's Mt. View at Government Camp. Michael had been there before with ski patrol and I had looked the place up online. It was one of the best burgers I've ever had. Here's us sitting across from each other, in love with each other.

Our Mt. Hood pic.

We stayed at Huckleberry Inn and our room had crazy spiral stairs in it. The bed was upstairs in a loft and the living area was below.

Me in front of our favorite fruit stand in Hood River. It's on Graves Road and has the best peaches we've ever had. I make my pies out of these peaches. They are good every year.

We loved getting away for the weekend.

Spontaneous Boat Ride

2009-08-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

Mom called tonight and asked if Michael and I wanted to join her and Dave on the boat. Heck yes!! We scarfed the rest of our dinner, jumped in the mustang, and drove as fast as possible to the marina.

Obviously not really driving the boat here. We were just waiting for something.

Me and mom.

We sat up in the front of the boat for most of the ride.

Dave and mom.

Sunset heading back to the marina.

Hiking near Mt. St. Helens

2009-08-24T22:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Erika and Eric and Michael and I (and Coby!) went looking for trails around St. Helens. We headed out to Lava Canyon but it was closed. We found another trail and walked around the lava rock dried up river bed and them up to a tree stomp perched on a hill.

Thanks Erik and Erika! It was so much fun - great idea to check out some trails.

Mom's Cabin at Northwoods

2009-08-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

Nate, Melissa and Max

Erika, Erik and Coby

All of us hanging out on the front porch.

Grilling steak for dinner.

Playing battle of the sexes downtstairs.

We had such a great time with everyone! Thanks for coming.

Lake Cougar

2009-08-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

We went up to mom's cabin last weekend with friends. We had such a blast! We just spent 1 night and played around the lake and played board games and went hiking the next day, but it was so good and so much fun.

Erika and I on the dock. You can see Mt. St. Helen's in the background.

Michael, Erika, Erik, Max & Coby (dogs), Melissa and Nate swam out to the logs.

Me, Shelly, Erika and Melissa rafting away. Who knew? It actually holds 4 adults.

Melissa and her baby Max. The dogs that were there totally stole my heart.

Michael on the tube.

garden fun

2009-08-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

The killer tomato bush (it tried to take down our house).

The third watermelon. I think they are so cute when they are that small.

I have a pumpkin plant that I accidently planted with my watermelon. It is really aggressive and so I keep cutting off arms of it and replanting them along our fence. I don't plant the root, just a long arm that I hacked off the original plant. Each arm replants with ease and starts growing new leaves. Pumpkins are really amazing plants.

My tomato picker with Jaguar. He's really good at picking them on the right day.

Our peppers. When do I pick them? They are beautiful but not very big. I don't want them to rot but I also want them to get a little bigger.

Summer Book Club

2009-08-14T22:01:00.001-07:00

A couple friends and I just ended our summer book club. A few months ago we decided that since we all loved to read, that we should start a summer book club. We found The Potluck Club and read 50 pages every week for the last 7 weeks (350 pages total). We’re all readers and thought that it would be fun to do. We downloaded some book club questions for the book and each girl hosted dinner every week and then we met at a restaurant the last time.

It was really fun to get to know everyone a little better. Our husband also started a film club (because guys don’t read books) and got together each week to watch a guy movie. (I have no idea about the spacing on this blog entry. I couldn't get it to be normal.)

Tomato's

2009-08-10T21:15:00.001-07:00

I'm really glad that I love tomato's. We've got a ton of them. They taste so good, I eat them by the handful. These are just today's pick.

Family Reunion Part 1

2009-08-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Every year my mom's side of the family has a reunion and this year we went to Ike Kwinsa State Park in Washington. Here is Michael and I after swimming on Lake Mayfield.

Michael on the boat before the tubing started.

Cameron and Kyle.

Roxy, Carol and my mom.

Cooking hot dogs in the fire. Brian, Kyle, Cameron, Michael, Roxy and mom.

Family Reunion Part 2

2009-08-03T22:04:00.001-07:00

There was a Blueberry Festival going on in Mossyrock and we went to check it out. Michael and Cameron raced up a Rock Climbing Wall that they had.

There was going to be a piano smashing contest at the Festival and we found this funny piano that they were going to use to smash. Here is Jenny pretending to play at it.

Group Shot at the Lake: (left to right)

Heather, Michael, Ann (mom), Alexis, Jenny (sister), and Stephanie.

Michael and I. My mom snapped this quickly and I love the photo.

Kyle, Jenny, Dave and mom in front of the boat. Kyle, Michael, and I are now all trained to drive it. We had a great time learning over the weekend.

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic weekend!!!!

Jaguar

2009-07-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

Jaguar has been wild her whole life. She was born to wild cats (as wild as outdoor cats living in Suburban Beaverton can get) in the tree area by my parents old house somewhere around 1988. All of the other kittens in the same litter as Jaguar were sold immediately but our neighbors kept Jaggy. They liked her, but Jaguar had other plans. For 6 months, Jaguar kept showing up at our doorstep and hanging around our house. Finally, my mom called our neighbor and they said we could keep her.

Jaguar seemed to know all along that she would end up with us and made herself at home right away. She stayed outside all day and most nights, but came inside the house whenever she wanted. I have memories of Jaguar with middle school friends, high school friends, college friends and after college associates. (This is starting to sound like a eulogy but she hasn’t died, I just didn’t have anything else to blog about.)

Now Jaggy lives with Michael, me and Hester. She loves Michael and sits between him and the key board everyday all day long. She gets to go out in the backyard whenever she wants and a few days ago we found a dead headless snake. I don’t know what she did with the head, I just hope it’s not in our house somewhere. I think Jaguar is about 21/22 years old and she looks great. She’s healthy, chases Hester around and loves catnip. (And I’ll try to come up with more creative things to blog about… We just haven’t been doing much but hanging out and there’s only so many blogs I can do about my garden.) We LOVE you Jaggy!

Kyle and Jenny are engaged!!!!!!!!

2009-07-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

I feel so lucky to have a soon to be sister-in-law like Jenny. She rocks.

I am so happy for them.

a downer

2009-07-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

I am sad over one of my best friends divorce. I never saw a divorce possible for such an amazing couple. They were so in love for 8 years but the last year was too hard, and now he is leaving.

I keep thinking about William P. Young's definition for grief in his book The Shack. He called it the great sadness. Obviously, I don’t know the first thing about losing a child (like in the book) nor do I know anything about the personal pain of divorce, but I am sad.

Michael says to look at the good things that are happening in my friends life and to see God’s hand in it. I do see that, I am just struggling with the typical (and somewhat annoying) why question. Why??? I’ve tried to think positively about how much depth sadness brings to a friendship; a depth that joy doesn’t reach but that doesn’t make it much better. I’d still rather have joy. I want my friend to be happy. Even I have sadness coming at me from different angles over this situation so I can’t imagine the sadness that is attacking her.

Anyway, it’s not as bad as it sounds, it’s just since I heard, I occasionally get overwhelmed with sadness for my friend.

boating with the Williams

2009-07-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

Mike and Naomi took us out on their boat today. Total blast! Michael likes to ski instead of wake board and of course, he was amazing at it because of his snow skiing ability. Seriously, it was impressive to watch. We were going over 30 mph and he was flying back and forth to each side of the boat with one hand a lot of the time.

His last fall was pretty brutal but he managed to still smile. I love that about him.

Jordan and Tessa in the front of the boat.

A special thanks to Mike and Naomi!!! We had a wonderful time today. Love hanging out with you guys. THANKS AGAIN!

10 things I love about the Couv

2009-06-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

10. Our church. I LOVE going to the main church service. I haven’t felt that way about church in a couple of years, so it feels nice. The message always speaks to me and I feel convicted without feeling guilty about whatever I am trying to get away with that week. The service also usually fills me with hope.

9. My mom’s house. My mom lives across the street, two doors down. When I am outside, I usually get to see her working in her yard or returning in her car from somewhere. I get to borrow kitchen items and we’ve always got someone eyeing each other’s houses. It’s nice to have her that close.

8. Esther Short Park. Michael and I got engaged at that park. He proposed on one knee, holding out the ring, and I said absolutely. We also got our first set of photos taken down there and every time we walk thru the park, I remember those things.

7. Clark County CASA. I am a CASA and have been trained in Clark County. I love volunteering at the YWCA. CASA’s office are in the building and that is where I go to meet with my mentor and supervisor.

6. Craig’s List Clark County. I know that this is everywhere, but we’ve met some pretty cool people thru Craig’s List. We’re remodeling our St. John’s house and have a met a great contractor who lives in our school district and gave us the 411 on the local schools.

5. Our small group. Throughout the last year, we’ve been part of a small group that met on Thursday nights. LOVE IT. It just has very cool, down to earth people in it.

4. Vancouver Father’s Market. The best tomato’s in town and we buy all our veggie plant starters from there. I like it rain or shine on Saturday mornings.

3. St. John’s. We’re almost ready to rent it out. Michael has painted most of the inside of the house and we hired someone to remove the mold. Michael also found some great kitchen cabinets for the house and the floors are finally in. Hopefully it will be rented on August 12^th.

2. Our house. It is really has become our home, cheesy as that sounds.

1. Our ‘married with no kids’ group at our church. I LOVE this group. I look forward to it on Saturday nights and I miss it when we cannot attend. It’s so fun to enjoy church. I feel like’s it been years since I’ve felt that way.

my two babies

2009-06-24T21:12:00.001-07:00

While I was in the kitchen making apple pie, Hester got into the garage and fell asleep on top my my mustang. She woke up when I got the camera out and her eyes kind of glow, but she was so cute.

I love my two babies.

quick garden update

2009-06-23T17:06:00.001-07:00

Things are growing! It is much better than last summer, even though there is so much I will do differently next year. Here is my cantaloupe. It has a few flowers, but nothing growing on them yet. I have watermelon too but no flowers on the watermelon. I also have pumpkin that I bought by accident (I thought it was honey-melon darn it). It's growing and we should have our own pumpkins by Fall.

Here are my raspberries. They are delicious, although I don't have a lot of them. The strawberries aren't doing as well. I think they might be a lost cause.

And then there is my tomato plant that is taking over my yard. The plants are 4-5 feet high and I have about 40 tomato's growing. That includes my mini sweet tomato's too. Last year my plants never got bigger than a foot, so I'm feeling pretty good about my tomato plants this year. I also have onions, peppers, and cucumbers. I would have taken pics of them but the camera died. I'll try to get more pics later of those. Maybe when I actually get the fruit...

the cutest kid in the world

2009-06-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

We finally had Marla and Lucas over for dinner tonight. It's been too long and we really enjoyed their company. They made it to the Couv in 17 minutes from Beaverton. Owen just turned 1 and he is adorable. I totally fell in love with him.

Stacey and Owen

Stacey and Owen 2

This was the first time that Hester (upper right corner) actually preferred being in her aquarium. She wanted to be let out until she saw Owen and then she made it clear that she was quite comfortable in the office with the door shut.

latest quilt

2009-06-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

I LOVE to quilt! I finished my latest one and I think it is my absolute favorite. It didn't photograph very well so your going to have to use a little imagination, but here it is. For those of you who don't quilt, here's quick lesson.

This is stippling. There's no start or end to it, just a large quilted curvy circle. I used the light thread on this dark color so so it stands out more. Also, this color was the only bold color on the fabric and I needed to calm it down a bit.

Here is my star. I got almost all of my points perfect on this quilt. They look good! This doesn't usually happen, so it's kind of a small miracle that it happened.

More stippling...

Here is the full quilt. It's a lap quilt for Sarah Dougherty. She is the Valedictorian at Centennial High School and this is her graduation gift. CONGRATULATIONS Sarah!!!!! You rock.

New Roots

2009-05-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

Our church has a group for 'married with no children.' (No comments that the title sounds just like the tv show that included children.) I was a little skeptical to join at first because it can be intimidating to approach a group of people who know each other and the only thing you have in common with them is your life stage. Michael and I joined about a year ago and throughout this last year we have attended the Saturday night meetings (at the church, usually with a speaker and discussion on some marriage topic) and the Bible Study (in a home, during the week where we follow a book study and talk about our thoughts and theology).

The group has been a huge blessing to us. We have met fantastic couples. Everyone in the group is going thru something different, but we'll all discovering how to be married and how to make the marriage the best it can be. None of us are alike, but we can all understand the ways of marriage and can help each other with whatever we happen to be going thru.

Last night, we had 14 people (7 couples) over to our house for dinner after New Roots. I grilled salmon (marinated in soy sauce and lemon juice) and we had fresh veggies and watermelon. I baked all morning making chocolate chip cookies and honey cookies with frosting. We all sat outside on our back patio because the weather was perfect. It was a nice evening. There was nothing formal about it or too spectacular. I think that's what I liked about it. It was just a group of married with no children friends who enjoy each others company. I got these flowers at the market yesterday to have on our table. The black flowers really stand out and really looked beautiful. I feel really lucky to be part of New Roots because it has been such a blessing to Michael and I.