Holly's Berries

Thirty-five, Thirty-six, Thirty-seven, Thirty-eight weeks

2012-02-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

Watch her grow:

Apparently, I am off on my weeks since I now have two photos called Thirty-Five Weeks. I will recount. Anyhow, Grace is continuing to develop rapidly. as of this week (thirty-eight weeks or 8.5 months), she can hold onto our ottoman and walk all the way around it in about one minute. Though she still doesn't really care to crawl (she'll go very short distances if she feels that she absolutely has to do it), she still LOVES standing and walking around with the furniture (more of a sidestep, really). She loves to say "DADADADADADAD" and "Ouu Gue", though she doesn't totally catch onto the connection between her words (Dada) and people. Grace also has been giving us a tad bit of a rough time at night by waking up screaming at least once per night. :-( For someone as happy as she is during the day, it's certainly disappointing (and tiring) to have that continue to happen, especially when she used to sleep through the night.

Grace also has two more teeth for a total of four now. She is eating a tad more solid food these days (pureed veggies and fruits) and loves to eat out of her "fruit masher" (as we call it, pictured above). We can shove a piece of fruit in there and she sucks on it until she can't get any more out. Grace loves trying out her new chompers on everything (furniture especially) and decided to try them out on my leg earlier this week. She actually left a bite mark on my leg after she bit me through my jeans. Ouch! Needless to say, I was not too happy with her.

One of the photos shows Grace looking at her fingers. During these past weeks, she has become enamored with her fingers and the ability for them and her wrist to move around.

Gracie is still the love of our lives and we're enjoying watching her grow each and every day!

What being a mother does to you

2012-01-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

As I was driving home from work today, I saw someone who looked like a mother two young children walking along the road. She had a toddler in a stroller all bundled up and was holding an infant all bundled up in a Baby Bjorn. Meanwhile, she was smoking, smoking right in her baby's face. While this would've always bothered me, today I nearly pulled over the car to tell her what for. It irritated me like never before.

Becoming a mother is like getting a pair of glasses. Yes, there are headaches and adjustments as you get used to your new lenses, but suddenly you start to notice things in ways you never did before. When I meet with parents for parent-teacher conferences, I suddenly start to think, "How would I feel if a teacher was telling this to me about my daughter?" When I look around our house or other places we go, I think, "What things will she attempt to stick in her mouth at this place?" When I have an hour or so to myself, I am far more productive than ever before. When I eat out at restaurants, I think, "Can I potentially eat this meal with one hand and manage getting the food to my mouth while avoiding the reach of the 7-month-old on my lap?" And, on a sadder note, when things happen to younger mothers, I feel for their families like never before. Recently, a relative that was 10 years older than me and mother to three young boys passed away from cancer. She battled it for a few years and losing her hit hard for many people. Like I said, being a mother does things to you that I would've never guessed.

I'm thankful for my baby girl. I'm thankful for my family. And although I can't protect my daughter from every danger and I can't play the "What if?" game with every scenario, I can love and treasure all of those moments we have and pray for God to help me figure out how to navigate this world with my new lenses.

Phew!

2012-01-01T11:06:00.000-08:00

November and December turned out to be quite busy for us. Matt was in China for about a month, we had lots of family Christmas time, I helped to host a double baby shower for two lovely women, we went to a roller skating birthday party for two of my 30-something cousins, we met my nephew for the first time, and I finished up a busy term of teaching. I loved all of the things we got to do in the last month, but am looking forward to more routine in this coming month. :-) Here are photo highlights (in random order, sorry) for you!

Grace received a vintage doll to play with from her great grandparents for Christmas.

Who doesn't love shiny presents at Christmas?

Too much fun was had at all of our holiday parties.

My little cousin came to visit and hang out with us for the day.

We did a painting project together, too.

Grace has a new Christmas sock at my parents' house and it's bigger than mine. :-)

Grace started taking piano lessons from her grandpa. She loved playing duets.

My sisters and mom and I had a fun girls' day out with pedicures...

...Kathy enjoying her pedicure...

....and me, too!

Roller skating party in our 80's-ish attire.

Melissa rocked this outfit.

One of the birthday girls (on the left with her ET cake) and her two kiddos.

What fun we had! My mom was on Team 70's that night.

Have you ever tried to exercise like a 7-month-old? No wonder they like to sleep so much!

Grace LOVES the rocking horse at her grandparents' house.

This happy girl also got a noisy dog from her dad at Christmas. She loves it. I'm trying to find the off switch for the sound. :-)

More baby exercise. Grace can do a push up position quite well these days.

Grace with her grandparents and cousin Rylend (just over one month old in the photo). We can't wait to see them again soon!

We had many more photos to share, but I think I'll leave it at that for now. Thanks for a fun month everyone! Now, back to reality.

Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, thirty one, thirty two, thirty three, thirty four weeks

2012-01-01T10:35:00.000-08:00

Watch her grow:

Apparently I forgot more than just one week (as I originally thought). Perhaps I'll track down the photos one of these days.

Highlights of these weeks: Two teeth arrived (and one more is certainly on the way!), we got to/had to visit the doctor twice for non-routine check ups (bleh), Grace is regularly up on all fours and it is itching to crawl, she LOVES standing up and holding onto furniture by herself, she can go from sitting to crawling stance and back to sitting, and she weighs more than 22 pounds now. Also, Grace had lots of bonding time with my family and Matt's family while Matt was out of the country and we were able to visit Grace's first-ever cousin.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to our friends and family spread out allover the world! This is our e-Christmas letter to share with you this year.

As we were thinking back over the many incredible changesthat have occurred over this past year, we can't help but be thankful for theadventures that God has provided for us every year. What a creative, loving,awesome God we have who takes care of everything we need!

During this past year, Holly worked as a fifth gradeteacher, a kindergarten teacher, a tutor, a product designer for teachingmaterials, and as a college professor for three terms. Though sometimes itfeels like spinning plates to keep up with all of these activities, itcontinues to amaze us how God has provided each and every opportunity, openingup doors to continue teaching in various capacities in the coming year.

Matt has been working hard at international studentministry. He graduated with his master's degree in Intercultural Studies at the end of April and he currently spends a majority of his time on support raising whilealso splitting time between two college campuses to share about Jesus withinternational students. Not only that, but Matt has had many opportunities tobe a "SAHD" (Stay At Home Dad) with Grace while Holly teaches. Wefeel very privileged to both be able to pursue various careers while stillspending lots of time with Grace. Matt has even had the opportunity to travelabroad this year to Chinato make various connections with students and he also continues to serve as ourchurch's intercultural ministries pastor.

Of course, one of the highlights of this year (and of ourwhole lives!) was the entrance of Grace Evelyn into the world on May 11th.Being parents has been the hardest, yet most rewarding task we've ever had. Ourlittle one was full of personality the day she arrived and takes on everythingwith such vigor, from laughing to jumping, from crying to dirty diapers, fromeating to wiggling. She has brought immense joy to our lives (and, dare wesay, a whole lot of other wonderful people in our lives) and she is finishingout this year with two teeth, on the verge of crawling (maybe by Christmas?),and weighing in at nearly 22 pounds at 7 months old.

We could go on and on about so many other incredible eventsand people in our lives this year, including our awesome families, the arrivalof our first nephew, our many international roommates, and the community offriends that continues to watch out for us, but we'd be here forever!

If you're in the area, we would love to visit and catch upwith you! In the meantime, we hope that you'll have a wonderful Christmasseason and we pray that God will guide you in the coming year.

Much love,

Holly, Matt, and Grace

These are a few of my favorite things

2011-11-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

Being as this is a month where we often reflect on things we are thankful for, I thought I'd highlight some of those here:

I'm thankful for my family. I realize not everyone in this world has such a stable, supportive, loving family and I'm quite thankful that I do. This includes both mine and my husband's families, too.
I'm thankful I have a job. In fact, not only do I get to teach lovely little kindergarteners, but I also get to teach about teaching to university undergrads and grad students. I love being able to both do and teach about something that I'm passionate about.
I'm thankful that my outside jobs still allow me a lot of time with Grace. We love spending time together: I couldn't do it, though, without Matt's willingness and flexibility in his job to watch Grace most days. She also has some other very loving people that watch her from time to time when both of us have outside obligations. Grace is developing a wonderful relationship with her dad:
I'm thankful for this cheerful face:

I love getting to kiss her little tushy when I tell this sleepyhead goodbye when I leave for work:
I'm thankful for God's love and grace and how He sustains me each and every day!

What are some of the things you're thankful for right now?

Our pink elephant

2011-11-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

Matt and I have never really been into Halloween much, but we decided to dress up our munchkin (and ourselves, to an extent) to celebrate a bit with some other friends. Grace was getting over having a cold, hence her very bundled up costume. It worked for us for this year. Here are some photos of the evening:

She's obviously unsure about dressing up. Perhaps she didn't like being called an elephant.

Matt was the zoo guard and I was a zoo keeper from the book Goodnight, Gorilla. Thanks, Matt, for playing along.

I'm pretty sure munchkin had about all she could take at this point. At least she was a good sport!

Twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, and twenty five weeks

2011-11-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

Some days I can't get over this cuteness! Highlights of these four weeks have been that Grace slept for over nine hours one night (and regularly sleeps 7-8) and she can now sit up on her own (as of this week). She's a big girl in her 9-month sized clothes (and a few 6-month sized items here and there). I love her so much!

A pirate's life for me

2011-10-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed celebrating Grace's second cousin's fourth birthday in September with a pirate party. Though Grace wasn't old enough for the treasure hunt and cupcakes, she got right in on the action with her costume!

Grandpa A stopped by the party to see Grace, too.

Pirate decorations for the balloons. Aarrrggghhh!

What fun times we had!

Hometown celebration

2011-10-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

At the end of September, our neighboring town celebrates an annual Heritage and Hop Festival each year. I do have to say that our community certainly likes their celebrations and they always offer a variety of events to see and things to do. Our local paper said that there would be a pancake breakfast at our small airport starting at about 6:30 a.m. It also promised that if you got up extra early, you would probably see a special showing of hot air balloons taking off sometime after sunrise (listed as 6 a.m. in the paper). We thought, "Hey, that could be fun" and woke up extra early for the special show.

As it turns out, the sun doesn't rise at 6 a.m. Also, the parking lot where we were told to park was pretty much abandoned when we arrived:

We waited for the sun to come up and for the hot air balloons to arrive at the promised location.

To pass the time, Grace is playing a game of spit and catch where she pushes out her pacifier and expects us to catch it and put it back in.

Finally, the breakfast fundraiser opened up and we went to get warmer while we waited for the hot air ballons.

All filled up, but too foggy to take off. :-(

They offered free short rides to everyone who wanted one. Unfortunately, we had to go and couldn't stick around for one. Maybe next year when Grace is a bit older!

Twenty and twenty one weeks

2011-10-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Apparently we're going for the stoic looks these days in photos. That, or she's just a little sleepy by the time I remember to take her photo (hence the pajamas). Highlights these days include continued enthusiastic use of the bounce house, a rather entertaining lip trick, and continued smiles and giggles. She also likes blowing raspberries with her lips these days, perhaps thanks to Matt. In fact, when we were at a banquet recently, I had to take her in the back not due to being cranky but because her raspberries, giggles, and desire to jump a lot weren't exactly quiet. At least having a happy camper is not a bad problem to have!

First bites

2011-10-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Grace tried her first bites of applesauce and rice cereal over the past few weeks. The results were mediocre, but it was still fun to try this new adventure.

Probably more food ends up outside her mouth than inside it, but it was worth the try!

Crossing the bridge

2011-10-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

I read a great short article today on SimpleMom that reminded me of the tough times transitions can bring and how we can still experience a sense of closure by "cutting our bungee cords." Take a look: http://simplemom.net/are-you-wearing-bungee-cords/

Baby shower for a new cousin!

2011-09-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month we celebrated the coming of Grace's first cousin at a baby shower for my sister-in-law Natalie. Matt and I and Grace went over for the weekend along with Matt's parents, grandparents, and aunt. It was a lovely time to meet some of Natalie's friends and to celebrate the coming of their little boy this fall. Here are a few photo highlights:

Everyone wrote their wishes on this wish tree. What a cute idea!

Natalie received tons of adorable clothes. Their little guy is going to be the best dressed little man around. We can't wait to meet him!

I meant to get a photo with Natalie, the special lady of the day, but later realized I forgot. :-( Next time, Natalie!

There's an app for that [2]

2011-09-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share: I found another great app that I've been using for grocery lists. It's called OurGroceries (https://www.ourgroceries.com/sign-in). I like it because we can sync our lists and I can use the online website, too, when I'm doing menu planning. Fantastic!

[Great] Grandparents

2011-09-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

We feel pretty blessed that Grace can get to know one set of great grandparents. This video clip is of Matt's grandpa reading Grace a story. He and Grandma are pretty special to us! Here are a few four generation photos, too:

Eighteen and nineteen weeks

2011-09-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Highlights: Grace weighed in at her four month appointment at 18 pounds and 27 inches. This cutie also stuck her toes in her mouth for the first time at her doctor's appointment. She fell asleep several times without her pacifier, too, recently and only wakes up about one time between 8 p.m. and 7 or 8 a.m. That makes for a happy mommy!

There's an app for that

2011-09-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

In these days when e-mail arrives in my smartphone 24 hours per day and sometimes causes a bit of anxiety, there are several ways in which coordinating two work-from-home-most-of-the-time schedules with a kid in the mix and a limited budget has been made just a bit easier by technology. Here are three ways this has happened for us:

EEBA (https://www.eebacanhelp.com/login.php): EEBA is an online budgeting tool that uses an envelope system to help you budget. This is like using a cash envelope system (a la Dave Ramsey), but without having to carry wads of cash around. Also, if you like to using credit cards because of the rewards points and are responsible to pay them off each month, it can be a helpful tool, too. You can use this tool for free or sign up for additional services/more "envelopes/etc. This has been an incredible tool for us when we were living on 0.5 FTE last year and wanted to be especially careful that we weren't spending more than we had available. The app on our phones sync with the website every time you use it so everything is always up to date and the same on both of our phones.
Google calendar: When Matt and want to schedule pretty much anything, we use our Google calendars on both the computer and on our phones. This has saved TONS of headaches as I can instantly see what is going on those days. If Matt needs to be aware of a particular appointment that I have so that he can watch Grace, I "invite" him to the event to make him aware of it. Matt also schedules out his work daily on it kind of like a To Do list. I don't think we could have our work based from home if we didn't communicate in this way.
CardioTrainer: There are sometimes when I forget to exercise and need a little help in being motivated or reminded to do so. This free app has a pedometer setting that tracks your movement to record how long and what type of exercise you're doing. I use this often when I go on walks with Grace or running by myself because it helps me to track how often I exercise.

What are your favorite, most practical, or most helpful apps?

Sixteen and seventeen weeks

2011-09-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Accomplishments these weeks: Grace loves shrieking, giggling, and moving around like crazy. Notice her blurred feet in both photos. She also recently started enjoying her bouncy seat and can sit up in her Bumbo-like seat to touch things on her own.

A little vacation

2011-08-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

During this past week we took a little trip out of the Willamette Valley to join my parents in central Oregon, visit with some family and friends, and enjoy these waning days of summer. Among the highlights of our trip were spending wonderful time with my parents, visiting Matt's brother and his wife and getting to see their lovely preparations for Grace's first cousin arriving this fall, visiting with a couple of friends in the area, riding our bikes around the vacation destination for about three hours total one day (half of that with my youngest sister), letting Grace experience the pool a couple of times, and getting out for a date night with just the two of us. I'd love to share a variety of photo highlights, too, but after coming home, I realized that I pretty much only took photos of Grace and food. I'll work on involving others in the documentation a bit more next time. Enjoy the photos we did capture:

On this perfect summer evening we rode bicycles for about two hours total on some great bike paths. We took a break in the middle to have a picnic dinner and play a round of frisbee golf.

Here is Grace when she first put her feet into the kiddy pool

Grace was mimicking Matt as he stuck out his tongue

She has such a wonderful sense of humor and can't get enough of her dad's funny faces and sounds

The pool is so much fun!

All that swimming tuckered her out!

mmmmmm..... lunch. Greek burgers, fresh figs, fresh strawberry-banana smoothies with a fig slice on the side

Grace is test driving her cousin's swing before he arrives this fall

Around, around, around... she loves watching things go around

Goodbye houseguests

2011-08-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

During the past six weeks, we had the opportunity to host two young men from Taiwan. John is a high school student whom Matt had tutored in Taiwan and Rastus is his older (university-age) cousin. They enjoyed six weeks of classes, making new friends, playing basketball, playing games with us, and seeing tons of local sites. We said, "See you later!" to them this past weekend and hope that we can see them and their families when we visit Taiwan once again. What a great chance we had to share our lives with one another!

Rastus, Matt, Grace, Holly, John eating some Mongolian BBQ buffet--yum!

Matt, Holly, a very sleepy Grace, John, Rastus:

Fourteen and fifteen weeks

2011-08-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Highlights of the weeks: Grace is one giggly little girl and I can't get enough of it. She has also had several nights where she slept more than six hours in a row. Nothing like extra sleep to make parents happy! This little lady also seems to be eating more and more these days (is this even possible?) I think solid foods are going to make an entrance early this fall. Grace also enjoyed her first pool experiences during these weeks, she is regularly flipping herself from back to front while she sleeps, and she flipped herself from front to back a few times, too. Her personality is most certainly starting to shine through as she "talks" to us, giggles, shrieks, and tries to shove her fist into her mouth at the same time as her pacifier.

You look a little familiar... [Part 2]

2011-08-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law recently sent me a few more photos of Matt when he was little to see how he and Grace look alike. Since Grace was about twice as large as Matt was at birth, the ages in these photos don't quite match up yet (e.g. Grace isn't sitting up independently yet like Matt is in some of the photos). Here are some comparisons with the photos:

Grace

Matt

Grace

Matt

Thanks, Bev, for sending the photos my way!

Ten years later

2011-08-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we visited our hometown so that we could indulge in some yummy Scandinavian-type foods, catch up with old friends, introduce new friends to our hometown, and visit with some of our family that always comes to our hometown's Scandinavian Festival. Of course, we couldn't resist getting to show off Grace, too.

No matter which way the camera turned, Grace turned the opposite way. Too cool for the camera, I guess!

Grace and Grace: My longtime childhood friend Grace was visiting for the weekend. She's part of the inspiration for our daughter's name.

Prior to the reunion's bigger event, I got together at a park with several of my friends (and their little ones, too!) for a mini family reunion. With the people pictured below, I attended all grades K-12 with some of them, was an active part of our publications department in high school with all of them, traveled to several out of state conferences with all of them. Two of these lovely ladies also earned top academic honors with me in high school and we got to make some speeches together. All in all, I have some of my best high school memories with the friends shown here. (For my friend Colin, having you there would've rounded it out well. We'll see you another day, though!)

From left: Meghan and her daughter, Brittney, Me and Grace, Lauren, Matt and his son

All in all, it was a great weekend and I'm thankful for the time we all had to see one another. I hope we can all get together again soon!

Happy three months!

2011-08-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

Happy three months to my little one! We love you!

Thirteen weeks

2011-08-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Grace didn't want to stay still much for the photo at 13 weeks. Here, she is trying to roll over. She successfully rolled her entire self over two days later and took me by surprise when she rolled off her blanket onto the grass outside. Squeaking//talking is also among her new favorite activities (when she's not chewing on her hands). She sometimes spends long periods of time "talking" to herself, watching her mobile, or "chatting" with us.

Feeling creative? Try this freebie

2011-08-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

This past week I saw that Paper Coterie is offering a free $40 credit during their "Begin Anywhere" month in August. I'm feeling quite inspired to create a book or to get one of these beautiful memory keepers to keep some of Grace's things in. You could potentially get two projects for $40. Wow!

Twelve and eleven weeks

2011-08-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Grace is wearing her little Chinese jacket. Thanks Bill and Cathleen!

Highlights: Grace took her longest roadtrip to date and slept most of the way while we drove. She continues to add more chub and I had to say farewell to many of her 3-month sized clothes this week. It makes a mom both happy and sad to see her little one grow so well. Grace has a new obsession with watch her mobile go around and around, which was inspired by a visit to our friend's baby. Also, Grace has been incredibly slobbery lately as she tries to fit her whole hand in her mouth. Sometimes she spends the better part of an hour at this task. Finally, Grace's giggles continue, especially during her favorite time of day at bath time.

You look a little familiar...

2011-08-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist this cute little chubby face today:

And then I thought, hmmm, I wonder if Grace looks more like me or Matt as babies. Then I remembered that I recently found a CD with a bunch of our baby pictures. Check out the resemblance:

Grace

Holly

Matt (Now I know where Grace gets her double chin!)

Who do you think Grace most resembles in the pictures here?

On the road again

2011-08-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

We returned today from a week-long trip around Washington to visit friends and family and so that Matt could share about some of his ministry work. Traveling over 1200 miles and seeing several people each day was lots of fun. Grace did incredibly well, too, which made our trip that much better. She charmed dozens of people and only managed to completely soil three of her onesies. She also got into a small crying contest with a little boy six weeks younger than her and came out as a winner in the "volume" category. Overall, though, she did fantastically in visiting three states in six days. Also, if you do a lot of growing while you sleep, then I think our baby giant is on her way to gaining several more inches with the amount of sleep she had in the car.

Here are a few photo highlights of our trip (when I remembered to take photos!):

Grace enjoyed seeing some of her great aunties, uncles, and dozens of cousins

Giggle, giggle...our little girl spent a lot of this trip smiling her little heart out. If only I could capture it better!

Seattle's locks were one of our touristy highlights. We were able to see several boats actively using the locks and had a guided tour of the area, too.

Water level is down in the locks

Chub upon chub

Grace was armed with her pacifier, drool bib, little cap, and tons of cuteness for our walk through Pike's Market

Apparently she didn't find the market as interesting as we did....

....she slept and slept and slept through the whole market

Random people at the market jumped out of the crowds to tell us how cute they thought Grace was. Random as that was for us, I couldn't agree more, of course.

I wish I could take the fresh flowers home from the market.... they're my favorite!

We took a self-guided tour through Darigold's factory in the middle of nowhere

While in the Tri-Cities, we stopped by the gravesite where Matt's grandparents are buried. Grace was born right before Grandpa G's funeral and Grandpa G passed away on Grace's due date. I'm sad they never met face to face.

Grace Evelyn was named, in part, after Matt's grandmother Evelyn. I hope Grace will grow up with some of the same wonderful qualities that Grandma G. had!

All in all, it was a lovely trip. Thanks goes out to everyone we were able to visit. We had a great time! Thanks, too, to Matt for being our pilot for a vast majority of the trip.

Again? Really? You'd think we'd learn

2011-07-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

We took Grace to a minor league baseball game recently. Originally, Matt was planning to take some students. However, when the turnout was a tad low, Grace and I decided to tag along at the last minute. The game was great. The temperature was right. Everything was going well-- until Grace finished eating. She had yet another blowout. "Great," I thought. "At least I remembered to pack clothes this time."

Yeah. Right.

After getting her down to her diaper, I remembered that the clothes we had packed were accidentally moved at the last minute. Unfortunately, Grace had dirtied all of her clothes and her extra blanket. As bad as I felt, we had no choice but to take her home like she was and then give her a dip in the bath. I think she secretly plots these events for extra bath time.

.

Our ever changing "family"

2011-07-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

This summer, Matt and I are hosting two Taiwanese students as they attend an English program in our town. The two boys (front) are cousins. Matt tutored the younger one (center) while we were in Taiwan and we met his cousin when they arrived. We've been enjoying having them stay with us. (Admittedly, I also enjoy that all the males in our house clean the kitchen after dinner since I make dinner. Yay!) This photo was taken last week as we enjoy a concert in the park (about one block from our house).

The Taiwanese woman in the back of the photo will also be our housemate starting this fall. We met and became friends with her in Taiwan, too, and we're the reason she came to Oregon. She is full of energy and lots of fun to have around. She's holding Grace in this photo, too. We enjoy having housemates, even the most unique of people. We look forward to hosting our friends through the rest of the summer!

Smile!

2011-07-21T20:13:00.001-07:00

Grace loves looking in the mirror and the crib mirror fascinates her. Now she even spends time giggling at herself in it.

Ten and nine weeks: My baby is a giant

2011-07-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Last week, Grace had her two month check up. Our little eight pounder has packed on a whopping five pounds since was born and stretched herself out to 24.25 inches, four inches longer than she was at birth. This clearly explains why we're way into her three month clothes and will probably be out of them by the end of summer. She was in the 95th+ percentile for height, weight, and head size. I'm going to start calling basketball recruiters and modeling agencies now.

Other highlights and key events of the last two weeks: Grace still loves her hands and will spend long periods of time trying to shove them in her mouth. She also giggles and coos, sometimes to people and sometimes to herself. One of my personal favorites is how she has slept 5 hours in a row at night for three nights in the past week. The worst day was when she had her immunizations (one oral, which she loved, and three pokes, which she took like a champ).

Best game of Scrabble ever

2011-07-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

When we were married, a dear family friend made us the best game of Scrabble ever:

She framed it and did other crafty things that allow us to hang it on the wall. While in Taiwan, we had packed it away with most of our photos and I had forgotten we had this lovely memory until last weekend when a friend mentioned something about "that Scrabble game you used to have." Oddly enough, my mom called me the next day to say that she had uncovered this in one of her closets where we had stored things while out of the country. Apparently, it was masquerading as a diploma frame along with one of our favorite framed wedding photos.

After a five year hiatus from our walls, I'm glad to hang up this memory once again. Yay! I posted part of it here because I was so happy to find it once again.

Inspiration

2011-07-17T23:59:00.001-07:00

http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/07/the-happiest-people-dont-have-the-best-of-everything.html

Grace's faces

2011-07-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

I love watching how Grace changes each week and how she expresses herself through her face. Here is a sampling of what I see each day:

I love you, Grace, and all your faces!

Whoops

2011-07-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

This is Grace dressed in a blanket and her diaper. While out at a coffee shop visiting with one of Matt's friends, Grace decided to have a major blowout on our friend. Yup, our friend said he'd love to hold her for a little bit and she thanked him with a blowout. Matt took Grace to the bathroom to clean her up only to discover that I had failed to put any clean extra clothing into her diaper bag. Needless to say, we were a tad embarrased at our mistake.

Grace, on the other hand, was delighted to finally rid herself of clothing and remained quite happy until we got home. Once home, she ate a decent meal, belched like a man, and puked all over me and her. Overall, I give her a 10 on her performance for today.

Eight weeks

2011-07-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

I think Grace looks as surprised as we are that our baby girl is eight weeks old!

Highlights of the week: More smiling, discovering how her hands taste, participating in her first race, first trip to the coast, first Fourth of July

Happy birthday to the US of A

2011-07-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

Our little town and its next door neighbor have quite a great tradition of Fourth of July celebrations. We like to take full advantage of all that our small town has to offer and decided to stick around here for the holiday this year and let Grace experience it in her hometown. She got all dressed up for the occasion:

Mirror photo! Grace loves looking at the reflections.

After primping for the day, we were off to the Firemen's Breakfast, a tradition I always enjoyed growing up. Though we enjoyed the pile of food, Grace was indifferent:

Pancakes, scrambled eggs, ham, orange juice... what better way to start the day?

All that food couldn't live in our stomachs forever, so after a time of rest and household chores at home, it was off to the races for our family. We participated in the towns' "Mini Marathon", running from City Hall to (old) City Hall, 2.62 miles.

With all that black we're wearing, you'd think we're on the Black Knight's team or something. Grace is hidden under the cover from the sunshine.

Lots of runner and walkers at the starting line. So many people registered (late) that they ran out of numbers!

Go team!

I jogged almost the entire race (walking for 20 feet or so in a shady place). My time was rather slow overall, but I feel quite accomplished with the first race I've run in over a year and the longest distance I've ran in many months.

After crossing the finish line in the other small town, we hopped back into our car and headed home to see the remainder of the parade that was just two blocks from our house. I think everyone wanted to be in the parade this year:

Local tire company's float

Local carpet cleaner's float (with a real person on the top)

Local church's float

Someone's fancified car jumping around

We also enjoyed a lovely BBQ with some good friends and a BBQ with our international student friends as well. It was a wonderfully relaxing (and early to bed) Fourth of July for us!

Bathing beauty

2011-07-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

I received a super cute swimming suit for Grace that is a 0-3 month size. Since Grace is well into her 3 months clothes, I figured I had better give it a try:

She was great once we got the suit on and she finally was able to splash a bit in the water. I love that she loves bathing.

We were at a place with a pool when she tried on her charming swimwear, but I figured that without the proper diaperwear, we best stick to "swimming" in the sink. I look forward to taking her swimming in a real pool down the road. I think she'll love it!

Oh a hiking we will go

2011-07-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had our first hiking and coastal adventures with Grace. On our way out to the coast, we stopped at Drift Creek Falls to do a little exploring. There were some pretty spectacular views along the road:

What a huge fallen log!

We loved the refreshing views along the 2.5 mile (roundtrip) hike.

Yes, that is a burp rag in my pocket. Ahh how life has changed.

Our first attempt at taking our own family photo.

Drift Creek Falls

Grace enjoyed a little rear facing action on the way to the falls...

....but opted for the view on the return hike.

What a fun hiking day this was!

Handmade love

2011-07-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

We had a quick trip to see family this week (and to borrow my sister so we could go on our first date by ourselves since Grace). One of our quick stops was to see Matt's mom. They had a chance to let Grace model the dresses Bev (Matt's mom) crocheted for Grace.

Her pink dress is a pretty good fit right now and she still has a bit of space for her green dress. Grace has such a talented grandma!

Grace and grandma cuddling a few weeks ago while Grace shows off her pink dress.

Thank you Bev!

Ninja Warrior

2011-07-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

When I was about 20 weeks into my pregnancy, my sisters and I started referring to our baby as Chuck Norris since we weren't sharing the name (and hadn't yet shared the gender). Also, we knew that our baby had crazy kicking and punching skills, so the nickname seemed a good fit. Throughout my pregnancy my sister Melissa continued to ask me how baby Chuck was doing.

Then, she showed up to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning of Grace's birth with these:

Yes, those are baby nunchucks.

Grace finally got some (supervised) skill development time with her nunchucks today:

So innocent looking....but wait until you see her skills in action!

Maybe we'll make her code name "Mommy's Sweetheart" to trick her opponents. With enough training, perhaps she'll make her appearance here some day.

Thanks Melissa for Grace's fun toy!

Splish splash

2011-06-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

Grace has been enjoying her bathtime more and more lately. Last night she was even kicking her rubber ducky around the bathtub. Though her serious looks may not look like she's having fun, her contentment tells me things are getting better for her (especially compared to her first bath).

Grace is also keen now on tongue exercises. If she's not hungry, she's often indicating that she wants to suck on her pacifier for awhile. Or, like this morning's photo, she wants to just give her tongue some exercise.

I love these chubby cheeks!

Seven weeks

2011-06-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

Smiling is one of her new favorite activities and we couldn't be more thrilled! She started smiling last week on the first day of summer. Though she may flash a gummy smile here and there like she did for her seven week photo, her favorite time to smile is right after she gets a diaper change, particularly if she's sitting there mostly naked. I guess feeling clean after a bathroom experience should be enough to make anyone smile!

Six weeks

2011-06-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

Watch her grow:

First Father's Day

2011-06-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

Grace with her proud great grandpa and loving great aunt

We had a lovely time celebrating Matt's first Father's Day this year. Matt played on the worship team at church, where we also had a spontaneous women's choir where all the women were asked to come to the front of the church and sing a hymn. Grace was so excited that she started "singing" before it was even time, so we took a short break from the choir.

Afterwards, we ate a delicious meal with Matt's family at Bo Mack BBQ, one of the friendliest places I've ever eaten (and excellent food, too). What a special event it was to have three generations of fathers together.

One of the first reasons I fell in love with Matt was because he was so good with kids. Now that we have Grace, I know more than ever that is true. He's a great dad and I truly appreciate all that he does (especially how he changes the majority of Grace's diapers!). When Grace was born, he was even a trooper and caught her when she came out and was feeling brave enough to cut the umbilical cord. Pretty cool if you ask me.

In a little post-Father's Day celebration of Matt here is a lovely father-daughter song called, appropriately enough, "Gracie", as well as a few photo highlights of Grace's awesome dad.

Father's Day 2011

Grace loves napping like this

Grace when she was a few hours old

Our first walk as a family when Grace was three days old

This is how Matt celebrated the morning of his birthday and Grace's one week birthday :-)

My mom rocks

2011-06-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, I had the honor of seeing my mom graduate with her bachelor's degree. I remember being in Taiwan when she told me that she was going to go back to finish up her Associate's degree that she had begun a few decades ago. I was so proud of her for finishing up that degree. Then she took it one step further and transferred to a university to finish her bachelor's degree. I know it wasn't always easy being in a different stage of life than most of her classmates, but she made it through it all. Awesome.

What's after graduation, you might ask? Enjoying grandmahood, being a well informed traveler, potentially writing children's books, and feeling satisfied in accomplishing her goals are all things I imagine are coming her way.

Mom, you rock. I love you!

Grace's shirt says, "I love Grandma"

My happy mom at her department's graduation

After the ceremony

I can't wait to show Grace this picture some day :-)

Family photo: Matt, me, Grace, Mom, Melissa, Kathy, Dad

Weeks 4 and 5

2011-06-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here she grows!

Then and now

2011-06-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

We visited our friend Renee and her family last weekend. We were both due within a week of each other. Here we are in April when I was about 37 weeks pregnant and she was about 36 weeks pregnant.

Here we are with a 2.5 week old and her 1.5 week old son.

Co-worker love

2011-06-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

My co-workers threw me a lovely baby shower in late April. I'm happy I made it plenty far into my pregnancy so that I could enjoy the shower. :-) Thanks to all who made it so special!

Master Matt

2011-06-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Matt has his master's degree now! He graduated with his master's in intercultural studies on April 30. Congratulations on finishing that chapter of your life, Matt! I'm so proud of you!

Matt and his adviser, who also had lived in Taiwan for many years. We enjoy spending time with him and his wife.

Proud parents :-)

Happy and very pregnant wife

Matt and his grandparents

Congratulations, Matt!

Grandma love

2011-06-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Gracie's grandparents came for a visit last weekend so we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try out the handmade dress Grandma S. made for her. Here is Grace in her cute pink dress with her Grandma S. Doesn't she look lovely?

3 weeks

2011-06-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Grace is growing up fantastically! I'm going to try to take a picture of her each week to see how she changes week by week. Last week at her 2 week check up, she weighed 9 pounds, 2 oz and was 22.5 inches long (somewhere in the 98th percentile for her age). Here are her first three weeks of life:

Birth Day!

1 week

2 weeks

3 weeks--check out those long legs!

Pardon the slightly ill-fitting outfit in the third picture. It was my outfit as a newborn and my mom passed it along for Grace. I wanted to see how it would fit her before her chubby little cheeks outgrow all her newborn clothes.

I love this little lady! What a gift from God!

And... we're back!

2011-06-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Dear pre-pregnancy jeans,

It's good to see you once again. It's been quite a few months since we've had a comfortable relationship, but I'm glad we're resolving that. Pregnancy clothes were awesomely cozy for those months of the big belly, but it's nice to know I have more choices once again. Feel free to welcome back other skirts, dresses, and dress pants to join you.

Glad to see you once again,
Holly

Signs you're sleep-deprived

2011-05-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

Our daughter makes our heart melt. She has also totally transformed our ideas on sleep. While she does have many good stretches of rest that allow us to get enough other things done, there are a few signs that we've been lacking zzzz's.

When a friend said, "Okay, talk to you later Holly. Bye!" on my voicemail recently, I promptly responded, "Bye!"
Matt has woken up twice with a frantic, "Where's the baby??" and convinced my half-asleep body one of those times to frantically look through the covers of our bed for our daughter, only to remember a few seconds later that she was sleeping soundly in her crib.
When a friend came to visit us recently, I served her two-day-old coffee from the coffee pot, thinking it was the tea that Matt had brewed about 30 minutes earlier.
One night I asked Matt to come change the 3 am diaper. He usually very willingly changes diapers after I feed our little one. I wasn't surprised when he agreed to come change her diaper (and held a short conversation with me), but about 5 seconds later, he rolled over as if he had never been awake in the first place (which is likely that he hadn't been).

Despite the lack of sleep at times, how can you resist this little face?

Welcome to the world, Grace Evelyn!

2011-05-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Our daughter, Grace Evelyn, was born on May 11 at 2:43 a.m. Though I'll likely write up her birth story to keep for memories, I won't post most of the intricate details here. However, message me if you really want to hear how it went. The basic overview is that I went to see my midwife on May 10 after work to ask her about a minor pregnancy irritation (unrelated to being past my due date). While there, she did an exam to see how I was progressing in my pregnancy since I was three days past my due date. We had already established a "what if" appointment to talk about getting induced if my baby didn't show up after a week or so. At that Tuesday's appointment, my very experienced midwife informed me that I was only about 1 cm dilated and still had a rather thick cervix. Generally, that means you've still got some time to wait. As I left my appointment about 2:30 p.m., my midwife also informed me that I might have a bit of spotting later in the day as well as some "fake" contractions (e.g. the hated Braxton-Hicks, of which I hadn't had at all yet).

I went home, called my mom to give her an update, called my youngest sister Kathy (who works as a labor/delivery nurse at another hospital and who was planning to assist at my delivery) to give her my dismal update, and then told Matt about it right after he got home. I was a little bummed out and maybe had shed a few tears over the situation. I went ahead and called into work to say I wanted to start my maternity leave the next day simply because I was tired of people being surprised when I showed up to work each day right around (and after) my due date despite feeling fine at work.

Feeling rather tired, Matt and I decided to take a short nap. He had a lovely nap while I about jumped off the couch a few times when I had some rather uncomfortable sensations. A few hours later, after Matt got home from his dinner appointment, we decided to walk to Burgerville for a milkshake just for fun. I was still experiencing these "fake" contractions and Matt asked me how I would know if they were real or not. I told him there was no way that they would turn into real ones because I was so far behind in my measurements that afternoon.

We returned home and tried to relax a bit. I showered, hoping that would help me relax. I took a bath later on, too. I tried to lay on the couch while we watched a short TV program. Nothing helped. All I wanted to do during each contraction was take a lap around the house. Matt suggested that he start timing the contractions just in case. So, as he cleaned the kitchen and put away a few things, he timed my contractions. They got closer and closer together and then longer and longer.

Finally, around 11 p.m., we decided to leave for the hospital. I hated the half-hour drive because I couldn't walk around. At the hospital, I checked into the emergency department (standard practice for after-hours check in). Though I had preregistered, there were still a fair number of questions and a few moments where I couldn't concentrate on my own phone number enough to tell the receptionist. Finally, they wheeled me to the labor and delivery floor (which took about 5 minutes to get to!). I checked in there, they examined me and found I was just about 5 cm dilated. They said I could stay since I was making good progress. It's a good thing they said that because I probably would have hurt someone if they tried to send me home.

I was wheeled to a labor and delivery room while Matt called Kathy and the rest of our family. I had a bunch of ideas for the labor time, like having nice soothing music, but only ended up using the jacuzzi tub instead. Before I knew it, I was 9 cm dilated, my sister had showed up, and I was suddenly being asked to push. I'll spare the rest of the details, but in the end Grace Evelyn was born at 2:43 a.m., just about 12 hours after my midwife appointment the previous day. I loved the midwife who helped me to deliver (she goes by the name "Happy"... how fun is that?). I'm also thankful for a quick delivery because it helped me to focus intensely and I attained my goal of a completely pain med-free delivery.

All in all, we're doing well here and trying to adjust to a change in our sleep patterns. Here are a few photos from Grace's first few days. Grace's name, additionally, was chosen for God's good grace and mercy that He always shows to us. Her middle name, Evelyn, was chosen for her two great-grandmothers (one of mine and one of Matt's). Also, my middle name and my mom's middle name is Lynn, so the -lyn part of Grace's name follows that tradition). Enjoy the photos!

Grace's first bath

My parents... super proud grandparents :-)

Our family of three!

Grace with her dad's hand

She didn't care for the initial car ride home...

...but did fine after spitting up about 10 minutes into the ride.

I love these long little toes!

We went for a walk when she was three days old.

She's so small in the stroller right now. I can't wait until this summer when we can go jogging together.

We sit and stare at her quite a lot :-)

Grandma... Matt's mom :-) First time grandma, too!

Grace's only living great-grandparents. They only have grandsons and are thrilled to have a little girl in the family.

Great Grandma and Grace having a little conversation.

Grace likes to look in the mirror sometimes when she gets a diaper change.

In-laws love

2011-05-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned previously, we were incredibly blessed in April by several baby showers. My sweet mother-in-law hosted a lovely afternoon affair for some relatives from my husband's family. It was a great way to spend the afternoon visiting with others and celebrating our little one.

Can you identify all of the "baby" foods? Baby carrots, baby Swiss cheese, baby muffins, animal crackers, and more! How creative!

My mom-in-law made this cute quilt for our daughter and she even stitched it by hand. Wow! Her dedication amazes me.

My mom "regifted" a few clothing items to me. These little cuties actually belonged to me when I was little, along with a sweet pair of pink Nikes with plenty of tread left on them.


Matt's grandma and grandpa gave us this precious dress. Easter 2012, here we come!

Thanks for a lovely time, Bev!

Church love

2011-05-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

In April, it didn't rain, it poured in love from other people to help get our baby started out on the right track. Our church hosted a lovely baby shower for us and I even had a chance to invite some friends from other places. Thanks to those who made that lovely afternoon possible!

This is me with my friend Carly. Her hubby was one of the best men in our wedding and I'm thankful to get to know Carly more and more, especially since we've moved back to Oregon.

A friend from church made this beautiful spring-time quilt and even hand-stitched it. What a sweet surprise!

I can't wait to put our little girl in this cute dress later in the fall/winter. It came from one of my favorite older couples at church.

My friend Cristina came to the baby shower. This was fantastic for me because we've been friends for probably almost 25 years and used to be neighbors growing up. We lost touch for a bit, but I'm thrilled to have her back in my life!

Renee, a friend from college, and I are due about a week apart. I loved getting to hang out with another pregnant friend, especially one who is due so close to my due date (just a week or so later).

Showered in love by my sisters (and others, too!)

2011-05-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

Early in April, my lovely sisters threw me a baby shower for our relatives and some close family friends. I had a fantastic time celebrating with everyone and am happy to finally share some of the photos from that experience. They had a book theme, which is very much appropriate for my chosen profession. Among the amazing food were lots of letter cookies, inspired by the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Some of the cookies were even "injured" as they are in the children's book. How creative!

If you want some good dessert, my sister Melissa is the one you want to invite over. Thanks, Melissa, for the fantastic foods!

Matt's mom came to celebrate with us, too. Here is my mom and his mom, the two grandmas-to-be!

My sister Kathy, who made such incredible invites and did so much to help organize this shower, also enjoyed Melissa's treats. :-) Thanks for everything, Kathy!

This big 'ol box was from my cousin Darci with her words of wisdom about little girls.

Cousin fun with Heidi and her daughter Sidney

I love this little quilt my great aunt made with the flowers and colorful bugs.

Our little lady will be stylin' with her fashionable jeans.

A Cat in the Hat quilt/blanket from another great aunt--perfect for the book theme.

I had lots of little helpers at the shower.

I love my sisters!

Rest assured I am the only one with the large bump. :-)

We also played a game at the shower where everyone was given some random letters and they had to create a book title about parenting. Here is what came to be:

The Gift of Children
Listen to what Mom Says
Boohoo: Cry Me a River--Self-help guide to colic babies
Diapers to Potty
Keep Calm!
X-ing into Parenthood
Really Old Relative Rules
Your Life will be a Zoo
Untimely Moments

What a great shower it was overall. A special thanks once again to my sisters for all of their work, thanks to my mom for hosting the location, and thanks to all of the family and friends that made it so special!

Homemade popcorn

2011-04-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

We love homemade popcorn at our house. In fact, we love it so much that we made a how-to video for anyone who wants to share in this yummy treat. Enjoy!

Tip-toe through the tulips

2011-04-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we enjoyed spending time with our international student friends at the Tulip Festival near Woodburn, Oregon. I always enjoy going to see these beautiful flowers and we were blessed with some decent weather (for having been so unpredictable lately) the whole time we were there.

Tulips and two lips :-)

Actual tulips :-)

Watch out--pregnancy REALLY swells up your feet!

We had a great time for such a brief outing and look forward to more activities like this one in the future!

One month until the due date

2011-04-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

A few more photos to share. Geesh, you'd think that all we ever take photos of is my growing belly! Some non-belly photos to come soon...

35 weeks and a few days

Sometimes I still surprise Matt when he sees me from the backside and thinks I look normal, only to turn around with an enormous belly!

One more photo from my good friend, Joy. I'm glad she was able to capture a few moments of this journey for us more than our little snapshots could!

Cantaloupe

2011-03-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Every week, I get updates on the approximate size of our baby girl. This week, she's a cantaloupe. Click on the link to see the various fruit and vegetable comparisons... I find them quite fascinating.

Only six more weeks or so to go until my due date... how did that happen so fast?

Crazy or adventurous?

2011-03-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was asked to teach an online university course again this summer, just like I did last year. I was thrilled to be asked back again for summer term and am happy to have this extra opportunity sans any commute whatsoever. After agreeing to teach the 4-week intensive summer term, and after explaining that I felt like I could handle it after our daughter is born, my supervisor asked if I would also teach the 10-week spring term version of the course online. She thought that if anyone could handle a new baby and an online course, I could. I'm thankful for her thinking so highly of me, but admittedly a bit nervous about being able to handle the teaching load plus being a new mom. At least there's no commute, I can respond to students whenever I like, Matt is available to help me out, and I think my students will understand if I don't get back to them while I'm at the hospital. :-) Also, I've taught this course before, so there's nothing new to learn for it. As with everything else, I'll be able to complete this by the grace of God!

There was a pregnant lady who swallowed a bowling ball

2011-03-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more maternity photos from my lovely friend Joy.These ones were all taken in front of our house.

Now and then

2011-03-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

My friend Joy recently took a few maternity photos of me and Matt. Here's the first one she sent. I think she did a lovely job, even using our living room as the setting. I'll share a few more later on. I'm 33 weeks pregnant in this photo. If it doesn't look like it here, it most certainly will in some of the other photos she took. This baby bump is going to tip me over one of these days!

Hey all your Portlanders... Joy is moving to Portland soon, so check her photography out. She is fantastic with kids, babies, and very pregnant women. :-) http://web.me.com/joybrett/truejoyphotography/Home_.html I'll miss her being so close!

And just for kicks I thought I'd throw in a memory of one of our first photos as a couple taken a little over nine years ago. :-) I may actually replace this photo from my wallet one of these days, perhaps with the cute ones Joy took. But for now, it never ceases to make me laugh. :-)

A pregnant woman's dream and worst nightmare

2011-03-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy has left me with a love-hate relationship with food. In the first trimester, I felt like eating was the only thing that really calmed my stomach (well, a good nap didn't hurt). Ironically, food was also the cause of nauseated feelings.

In my second trimester, I had some bad experiences with onions and have also started to dislike Subway, a place I previously enjoyed. On the other hand, I ate and ate a few too many holiday treats to my heart's content.

Now in my third trimester, I have this large-ish belly getting bigger each day and sometimes I feel rather hungry. However, when I go to eat, I go crazy for a minute, but quickly find myself out of space and usually with my baby doing some sort of wild celebration dance in appreciation for the meal. Afterwards, some of my favorite foods (garlic, bread, cereal, to name a few) leave the most awful taste in my mouth. Yuck.

I have had relatively few complaints during this pregnancy and am thankful for all the things that have gone well, but I won't miss this strained relationship with food one bit.

You know you live in a small town when...

2011-03-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

Though moving back to small-town Oregon has left me missing some of life's conveniences that you get in bigger cities, there are some moments that make you appreciate the conveniences of small-town life. Last night was a case in point.

We were in the back part of our house watching a movie (rather Matt was watching while I, as usual, fell asleep) and suddenly heard a huge crash. Matt ran outside, saw that an SUV hit a giant tree about 200 feet from our front door, right on the edge of the nearby college campus. He called 911, but the police must've already gotten the call and were there just seconds later. A rather belligerent, and perhaps quite drunken, man got out of his SUV and tried to pick a fight with some other guy who was standing on the side of the road. By this time, less than 5 minutes after the crash, the scene had already gained a few onlookers.

Moments later, the fire truck and ambulance showed up with enough volunteers to help about 20 people. Meanwhile, a second police car had also showed up on the scene. We live about three doors down from the police station, which is always convenient when something crazy like this happens.

As we were standing on the edge of the street talking to our next door neighbor and observing what was happening, our favorite police officer strolled by (he must've come from the police station on foot) and asked Matt if he had seen anything. I say he's our favorite because we've known him since all of us were kids and he's just a really nice guy. He and Matt played basketball together in middle and high school. Besides, at about 6'4", I don't think people really want to mess with him.

Then, as our policeman friend was walking away, he looked at me through the dark and with my fluffy jacket on and commented on how he noticed a bit of a bump. He continued walking towards the scene, congratulating us on our impending arrival. The whole crash scene was cleaned up and taken care of in 30-45 minutes and the only guy in the crash was taken away in an ambulance. Given that he was trying to pick a fight with a bystander, I would say that he wasn't too injured, but likely had something else in his system.

On nights when you know the police officer personally and can see a minor crash scene cleaned up so quickly from the speedy responders, it kind of makes you glad to live in a small-town.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of our first Valentine's Day together in 2002. We're celebrating our 10th Valentine's Day together this year--wow, time flies!

I'm so thankful for my husband and can't wait for many more celebrations with him in the years to come.

We don't usually celebrate Valentine's in any huge way, but I am encouraged to keep these ideas in mind this holiday.

How are you celebrating Valentine's Day? How many Valentine's Days have you had together?

28 weeks

2011-02-12T06:52:00.000-08:00

Here I am at 28 weeks. Things are still going well overall, aside from normal complaints of not sleeping totally well and needing to keep my feet up more than normal and my midsection feeling a bit squished. There are days when I feel like I'm getting so big, but Matt tries to reassure me that I just feel uncomfortable with it because I haven't experienced it before. My students, on the other hand, have no problem pointing out that, "Whoa, Mrs. Smucker, your stomach is HUGE!" Ahhh, pre-teens. Thanks for those encouraging words. Just wait until I'm three months bigger.

In other teaching, I spent an afternoon subbing in a third grade class that I've been in before, though the last time I was there I was not so large. This time around, I think 50% of the class felt the need to tell me about their mom/cousin/aunt/friend of the family that is expecting a baby sometime in the next year. At one point, as I was pulling down the screen to use the overhead, one kid commented that, "Mrs. Smucker can't do that... she's pregnant." At which point another student responded, "Shhh... don't say that! It's rude!" Perhaps I should remind them that though there are some things I can't do, pregnancy is not a disease or something of which I am unaware, so, no, it's not rude to say that I'm pregnant. There's nothing like students to humble you when you're pregnant. :-) Actually, there's nothing like students to humble you at any time.

Fatal ultrasounds

2011-01-29T19:15:00.000-08:00

Last night at our weekly international student gathering, a student from China was asking questions about my pregnancy and I was sharing my excitement about welcoming a little girl into our family. He looked at me with surprise and said, "You already know it's a girl?" He went on to explain that in China, it's illegal to find out the baby's sex before it's born due to the traditional view that males are more desired, a one-child policy, and the risk of a high rate of abortions due to this combination. Yikes! I'm excited to know ahead of time that we're having a girl for planning purposes, but was fascinated (and a bit thankful, maybe?) to know of such precautions exist in China.

Whether you've had kids or not, I'm curious to know, would you want to or did you want to find out the sex of your baby ahead of time?

No more taxis!

2011-01-29T19:03:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to connect my fifth grade students with real-life writing situations, I recently asked them to briefly write about how our school district should take care of its budget deficit in the upcoming school year. While most students said that Box Tops, carwashes, candy sales, "funraisers" (i.e. fundraisers), or Obama (with a $1000 donation) should be able to fix the situation, one student wrote in giant letters:

RAZE TAXIS

Do you think this is what he meant?

Photo from http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/09/03/nyregion/03fire-cityroom/articleInline.jpg

Did I mention that "raise" and "taxes" will be on next week's spelling list?

House guest

2011-01-29T18:51:00.000-08:00

We have a medium-term house guest staying with us for another month or so, which means I've put off any baby room decorating for a little while. Matt made some great observations about this cross-cultural experience on our other blog. Read it for a little smile. Enjoy!

Baby bump

2011-01-11T16:57:00.000-08:00

Here's the obligatory photo of my ever-expanding belly for all those too far away to tease me about it personally. :-)

Baby girl keeps growing and keeps measuring right on target. As previously mentioned, she's also an active one. She enjoys giving me a few goodnight punches and a few good morning kicks. Within the last few days, I've also felt her while in the middle of teaching. It still baffles me and makes me chuckle when a little limb meets my abdomen. What a strange and wonderful feeling! Someone please remind me how lovely it is when she's 6+ pounds and kicking with more strength than her little 1.5 pound body does now. :-)

Holidays wrap up

2011-01-11T16:49:00.000-08:00

After a four year absence from the U.S. during the holidays, we dove right in. Here are some highlights of our holidays:

Santa came to my dad's extended family Christmas. Where there are typically tons of kids under the age of 10, we only had a handful this year. That means ALL of the adults got their photo with Santa.

Matt's grandpa was thrilled about his wordfinds. We love him so much and are happy that his birthday and our baby's due date are so close together.

My mom and younger sister Melissa win the award for best recycled use of giftwrap. She has been using this same piece of gift wrap for so many years that I've lost track. Take a close look at the name on the giftwrap.

My sisters win the best-reaction-to-a-gift award, too. Contrary to what this looks like, Kathy (R) did not find this gift smelly...

...though Melissa did find her ice cream maker quite amazing. Anyone who knows Melissa personally should be knocking on her door for some homemade ice cream.

My mom put a lot of work into our family Christmas. Thanks, Mom, for making the day special!

Matt made his famous omelettes for breakfast....

... while Kathy made a flaming Scandinavian alcoholic beverage to share with extended family (myself excluded, of course).

We had a Scandinavian theme, can you tell?

Everyone in our generation and below on my mom's side of the family gets a Christmas sock. The age award for the socks goes to my oldest cousin, who is in his early forties, and his son, who is about six months old. They may never again have both the sock of the oldest and the youngest at the same time.

Christmas isn't complete without a reindeer dog, is it?

Nor could all the little cousins resist climbing into the same sleeping bag box at the same time. I think they could've fit one or two more in, don't you?

Post Christmas, we enjoyed a rare chance to visit with our lovely friends Colin and Sadie. They live in England and it had been far too long since we had seen them in person, particularly since we had been overseas, too, until recently. Thanks for the special visit you two!

Our holidays concluded with a visit to some special friends, including our friends Scott and Heather and their two sweet kiddos. This little guy is seriously one of the most polite little one I've ever met.

The holidays were lovely and we're thankful for all of our families and friends who made it so special for us this year. Thanks everyone!

It's a...

2011-01-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely time sharing Christmas with our families this year and particularly enjoyed sharing the news that we'll be expecting a baby GIRL in May! This was my prediction for most of the pregnancy, though about a week before the ultrasound I thought that maybe I had been wrong and didn't commit to much of a prediction after that. Here's her little profile:

Though difficult to see here, I think our little lady has got some long legs (anyone surprised?). Also you can't tell the gender in this photo, in case anyone was trying to see. :-) We did enjoy seeing her on the ultrasound, with her little baby brain, heart pumping, bladder, kidneys, feet, hands, arms, girly parts, and other body parts that were difficult for us to clearly see, but that the ultrasound tech seemed content to see. It's hard to believe all of that is in there and our little girl hardly weighs one pound.

Our families were thrilled to hear that it'll be a girl (though I'm sure that they would have been equally happy had we said that it was going to be a boy). While I have girls-a-plenty in my generation in my family, Matt's extended family is predominantly males, so I think the family is looking forward to shopping for dresses this time around. Also, on my mom's side of the family there are nine little ones under five, 5 boys and 4 girls (the most recent addition in June was a boy). This will round it out to an even 5 and 5.

We praise God for our baby girl and look forward to welcoming her in early May!

What does a baby REALLY need? A little help, please.

2010-12-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm at the halfway mark in this pregnancy, I've begun to think much more heavily about what we need to get and/or register for for our little one. Our baby is due to arrive in about four and a half months. Matt, who was a preemie himself, was not too reassuring the other day and said, "It could be just three months if it's an early baby like I was." Thanks, Matt. On top of that, I had a dream last week that our baby was born and I had nothing ready for it at all, not even a carseat to take the baby home.

So my question, and my appeal to moms out there, is what does a baby really need? I appreciate the simplicity of this list. I don't want to get too crazy with things. I have a catalog from a baby/children's store that recommended about 100+ things as "essential" for newborns. Um, somehow I think that might be a bit overboard.

Specificially, I'd love to hear your feedback about the following things. Leave me a comment with your recommendations about:

Things you feel a baby really should have
Strollers
Cloth or reuseable diapers

Thanks!

Naming a child

2010-12-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

My sister sent me a link to a Baby Naming Wizard tool online a few weeks ago. It's kind of fun to check out the trends of various names (although Chuck Norris, as suggested by my sister, wasn't listed on the site.... sorry Melissa).

We still plan on keeping our name choice a secret until the end (if I can hold it that long!), but it's fun to see the various names on the site.

My fifth grade students have been anxious to help me guess the gender of the baby and to offer name suggestions over the past month. Among their suggestions were Carl's Jr. (like the fast food chain), Holly Jr., Matt Jr., and a various combination of their own names. Being a teacher and interacting with so many kids in the past few years has given me a pretty good list of names that I wouldn't ever use, really. I think other teachers would understand that sentiment.

We look forward to sharing our name choice next spring! In the meantime, leave a comment and tell me what your name means. I've heard that my first and middle names mean a tree/bush by a brook/stream.

Ultrasound

2010-12-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

I had my ultrasound on Monday and thankfully our little one was cooperating enough to give us a shot to tell us the gender. While I won't reveal that yet (because it's part of our Christmas gift to our families), I think that overall, Baby is looking good. More than being thankful for knowing the gender, I was happy to see that when the ultrasound tech typed "4 chamber heart" on the screen, I did indeed see four chambers of a heart. A few other body parts showed up just as clearly and we'll wait to hear about the analysis in a couple of days. On the other hand, the tech said a few times, "There's your kiddo's face/nose/foot!" and I really had to look hard because I thought I was looking at one thing and it turned out to be something else. On top of that, we've got one active baby who preferred to do morning stretching and perhaps a little gymnastics, so we couldn't watch one angle for a super long time because Baby was on the move. The first time we tried to hear the heartbeat, our little one did the same thing. I think we'll enjoy our peace and quiet around the house right now since 2011 and beyond may be quite full of an active child.

Finally, I was also thankful for a very sweet ultrasound tech named Sunny (which I thought was appropriate for such a stormy morning) because she let me use the restroom after getting some initial measurements in the ultrasound. Three glasses of water in an hour and not using the restroom for two hours prior to the appointment, as requested, plus a moving baby makes for one very uncomfortable position.

All in all, it was a good appointment. Baby weighs 12 ounces and measurements reconfirmed our due date as the first weekend in May.

If you still want to guess the gender, leave me a comment! I love reading your guesses!

Christmas adventure

2010-12-11T10:38:00.000-08:00

This year, we decided to get our Christmas tree up in Oregon's mountains. We did this during our second Christmas together (right before we moved to Taiwan) and thought it would make for a fun adventure once again.

Though we didn't have any falling snow, we did get to walk through a bit of it on our quest to find our tree.

After walking around a clearing for a bit, we found our tree. It's impossible to find a perfectly well-groomed tree in the forest, but we thought this one would do us just fine. Our Chinese friend Danny came along, too, for a new experience.

Danny had never been to the mountains, let alone cut a Christmas tree, so we enthusiastically volunteered to help us out. I was thankful he wanted to help!

Us with our tree!

Time to get the tree home, thanks to some rope securely attaching it to our van.

Here are the lights on the Charlie Brown tree.

We put a few lights on our front porch, too.

The tree had weak branches, so ornaments are randomly scattered on the tree. That's okay, though, because the tree is not for show, it's simply for the adventure of it!

Growing

2010-12-11T10:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a brief photo update of my expanding waistline. I think it's about time for a mini shopping spree for work pants because stretchy pants are definitely more comfortable than other pants when I'm at home!

Matt and I then had a competition to see who could stick out their belly the furthest. He did well this time, but I think I'll soon have him beat every time.

In other news, we have our first ultrasound in about a week! Yay! We'll try to find out if it's a boy or a girl at that ultrasound and then save the surprise for everyone at Christmas. At my appointment last week, the baby's heartbeat was at 150 beats per minute and you can see in the photo what I look like. Leave me a comment and make your guess on if it's a boy or a girl! We don't have any other clues either, so let us know what you think!

Pre-winter snow

2010-12-11T09:59:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've seen snow in November in a LONG time, and it appeared at our house! Not a lot of snow, but it was a fun treat for a day or two (especially since we didn't have to drive anywhere at that time!)

Our backyard

An American Thanksgiving... times two!

2010-12-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving, I think we were making up for skipping American Thanksgiving the last few years and we enjoyed not one but two celebrations with our families. First, we enjoyed a smaller gathering of adults with Matt's family.

Matt's dad is carving the turkey for us.

Our little family gathering

Then we went over to my aunt's house where we were entertained by four kids under five and a whole different set of Thanksgiving foods.

My cousin's two children and my first cousin are in the picture. Originally this box was full of all sorts of dolls, which were then dumped out and the box became more fun than the dolls, I think!

Thanks to our families for hosting two lovely celebrations!

Lingo

2010-11-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my sister Kathy, I am learning the latest parenting lingo. As a nurse who works with mothers who just delivered babies, you'd expect some technical jargon. Instead, she sent me this:

Thanks for making me laugh, Kathy!

Growing

2010-11-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

I've been considering this post for a long time, trying to think of some creative way to say what I want to say. When it comes right down to it, though, I guess I just will say what I need to directly:

I'm pregnant.

At about 16 weeks along, I'm feeling good, everything seems to be healthy for me and the baby, and I have a bit of a bump to show for my avocado-sized baby. (Most of my regular clothes still fit for the most part, though I'm really enjoying a new wardrobe stretcher like this at the moment. I think everyone should invest in one so that they can safely indulge in holiday eating.)

Here are the answers to a few FAQ I've had:

Due date is May 7th.
Yes, we will find out if it's a boy or a girl. I lok forward to our ultrasound during the week of Christmas.
No, we will not be sharing the name we've picked out until the baby is born.
Yes, I was nauseated during my first trimester, but I pretty well avoided major sicknesses that a lot of women get.
Yes, our front bedroom will be the baby's room.
Yes, we are still planning on adopting in the future, preferably from Taiwan. I guess it probably won't happen in 2010/2011 like we originally thought since someone else insisted on coming first.

We are thrilled, nervous, happy, worried, and so much more at the same time! I'll post periodic updates on my blog here.

A mini escape

2010-11-16T15:35:00.000-08:00

Last week I had some time off of work and Matt had a flexible schedule, so we jetted out of town for a little change of pace to see the local scenery. After Matt visited with a friend, we stopped at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, about an hour west of Portland. They have a bunch of little cabins to rent for very moderate prices and it makes a great place just to get away for a little bit. Each cabin sleeps at least five people, just like the yurts available in many Oregon state parks. This is my favorite cool/cold weather way to camp (see the heater in the background?).

The futon

A bunk bed that sleeps three and a nice solid table and chairs

Our little cabin

Though it rained most of the night, we woke up to a GORGEOUS autumn morning overlooking the coast range mountains.

We took advantage of the dry, sunny (yet still cold) weather to do a moderate hike. Check out the highlights below!

Green leaves on the ground? I think they were beat down prematurely by the rain.

The coast range mountains are behind Matt

Up, up, up... to some pretty views and lots of trees. The coolness made it worthy of my thick jacket, though!

Have we mentioned that Oregon is well known for its trees?

I would love to return to this area in the summertime or late spring and hike on the Banks-Vernonia Trail (at least partway, if not the full path). I think this 21-mile trail is open to bikes, too. Any takers to come along?

Since it had been awhile since we visited the Oregon coast, we made a little trek out that way, stopping at the Tillamook Forest Center. It's free and there's some pretty knowledgeable volunteers who can tell you how the whole forest burned down in the last century and was replanted primarily by land.

Here I am in the lookout tower replica. They still use these kinds of towers throughout Oregon in the summertime. I also have heard you can rent some of these out. I think it's out of the picture this year, but next year I may be crazy enough to want to snowshoe into one of these forest areas for a little overnighter.

The suspension bridge at the forest center. At this point I was FREEZING cold!

A trip to Tillamook wouldn't be complete without a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, home to some of our all-time favorite cheese.

The company celebrated their centennial recently, so I tried their Centennial Grilled Cheese sandwich. So good, yet SOOO unhealthy.

Hey! It's Farmer Matt!

These people are slicing giant blocks of cheese for the normal two pound loaves.

Cheese sampling line... I went way over my normal cheese intake on that day. I'd say I ate more cheese that day than I had the entire two months previous.

And of course we couldn't NOT sample their yummy ice cream. Yum! (P.S. We had to cleanse our systems out with a lot of veggies and whole wheat the next few days after this milk and cheese extravaganza!)

With a little more time to spare, we ventured out to the Cape Meares Lighthouse just outside of Tillamook. What a beautiful autumn day at the coast!

Such a short lighthouse!

What a beautiful day at the coast!

We had a great adventure and were glad to enjoy the dry weather, especially when we returned to the Willamette Valley's rain. Hopefully we can do something like this again soon!

Family weekend

2010-11-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we enjoyed a fun time visiting Matt's brother and his wife. We got to go to the pumpkin patch and take a few photos. Here are Matt and I as well as Matt and his brother:

This place was also shooting off pumpkins out of this gun. There's so much empty space around this farm that they can shoot pumpkins a significant distance (1/4 mile? 1/2 mile?). The "boom" made me jump the first time and I spilled my drink all over me!

Thanks, Mike and Natalie, for a fun weekend with you! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Colors of fall

2010-11-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed a lovely walk to the library today and attempted to capture the brilliant colors of fall on my camera photo. It's not such a lovely picture, but when you haven't seen the leaves change colors like this for about four years, it does my heart good to see it. Today was a perfect autumn day!

Our new crop

2010-11-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

It appears that our mushroom patch in the front yard is ready for harvest. It came on with such enthusiasm that it took us by surprise. Enjoy your time now, giant mushrooms, for soon you will find a new home in the yard debris bin.

Time consumers or what I've been up to

2010-10-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

Celebrating my aunt's birthday

Watching my cousin try on wedding dresses for the first time

These past two months since I posted have kept me fairly well occupied. Here's a rundown of some of the things happening in our lives--I'll leave more details for next week or shortly after.

Friday night international student Bible study

Teaching--Though I just work a half day, there are some days when I'm thankful I go home at lunch. For multiple reasons, including adjustment to a new job, I spent about six or seven of the past eight weeks absolutely wiped out nearly every afternoon. If you were responsible for teaching 29 ten-year-olds, most of whom couldn't read anywhere close to grade level, but whom mostly struggle with bigger societal issues that impede their learning (attitudes, poverty, gangs, abuse, etc.), I imagine you'd be tired, too. Praise God that though the craziness continues, I am getting more adjusted to it and find myself positively challenged at how to reach these kids.
Family: Though we don't spend as much time together as we always want to, I am enjoying seeing my family more often. It means I get to do special things like the photos above.
Supporting Matt's ministry: Matt is working with international students on our local college campus and is raising support for this position. That's a tough job (the latter, not really the former), so I'm trying to be helpful to him as I'm able. We get to go to fun gatherings like this international student Bible study (pictured above).

Mini house projects: We cut almost an entire tree down by ourselves. We're installing a new heating system very soon. Our house is looking and feeling more and more like a home. The list is ongoing.

More updates in the near future!

Chinese church--locally!

2010-10-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, we had the opportunity to take some Chinese students to church for the first time. They're here studying in the U.S. and we heard about a local Chinese church where a friend was speaking this past week. I didn't realize how much I actually missed stumbling through hymns in Chinese and listening and being with Chinese speakers. Needless to say, Matt and I had an awesome time. The students seemed interested in returning, too, being impacted by seeing Chinese Christians, some from their hometowns!

The service was great, fellowship was awesome, I loved practicing listening to Mandarin, and as an added bonus, there was a potluck with homemade Chinese food. They do it every week, as I've often seen in Chinese churches. I may use their invitation to return to enjoy some of that delicious food again. :-)

Truly, I enjoyed the whole experience. I can't wait to see our new friends again and to bring more students to church!

This Old House

2010-10-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in previous posts, our old house has its fair share of creaks and cracks. Since we hadn't lived here in four years, we didn't realize how icky some of them had gotten. Last spring, when our rental management company said there was some leaking from our bathtub in the pipes (which, we later learned, was not actually true), we figured that it would be better to gut the whole bathroom than to pull apart and patch up just a little of it, still leaving the problems unaddressed. Here's a little math:

damp Oregon air + cold/cool winters + a 90-year-old house + lath & plaster walls + a weak, weak fan =

These bathroom walls have had at least four layers of paint and one layer of wall paper since we first previewed the house in 2004. The blue (which I don't care for) was the rental company's attempt to cover a horrible mold problem that needed a bigger fix.

This is the bathtub. It's cast iron, which means it's extremely cold in the winter time (and summer, for that matter, too). It was gross when we moved in, so we (mistakenly) tried to recoat/paint it ourselves five years ago. The result was a still-gross bathtub.

Some parts of the bathroom had three+ layers of molding materials, such as the plaster, lath (wood), and 2x4's here.


This is a side view of the window. I always though my lungs would be poisoned from the chipping, molding, peeling lead paint.

Undertaking a bathroom project is not much fun. Undertaking a bathroom project when you only have one bathroom is awful. When it needs to be done, though, it needs to be done. Thus, the entire bathroom was gutted, down to the lath and plaster (pre-sheetrock, like most homes use today in the U.S.)

We even pulled off the lath and plaster, getting down to the bones that hold up our house. Thankfully, we did do that because we found some rotten boards that had to be replaced. The guys helping us with construction also found some interesting surprised when they (by themselves, somehow) pulled out our 400 pound bathtub.

Apparently, a rat other animal of a past winter used this as their leaf storage. Thankfully, nothing was living in the pile of leaves (equivalent to one huge plastic bag full). Perhaps the leaves served a second purpose: bathtub support. Needless to say, we were all shocked to know that our heavy tub (400 pounds!) didn't fall through the floor when someone was showering. Here's the only support it had:

Actually, we added one of the boards before the picture was taken. I think the tub was held up by a single, rotten board.

After ripping EVERYTHING out of the bathroom, the tub was put in, the sheet rock was hung, and progress was made.

Then we had the wall textured, eventually put in a window instead of the temporary garbage bag, and moved on.

A little paint, some great tile work by our friend Peter, and a few finishing touches later, we had a renewed bathroom.

This week, awhile after the project was started and mostly completed, we're finally finishing a few itty bitty details that needed to be completed. Yay! If I ever see an old bathroom that needs remodeled, I think I'll think twice before tackling that project. But for now, we're thankful to have a well-functioning bathroom.

Hired!

2010-08-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

Great news this week: I was hired for a teaching position in Salem, one of the largest school districts in the state. It's a halftime position teaching fifth grade literacy (reading, writing, spelling, speaking, etc.) in the mornings. I'm soooooooo relieved because I applied to well over 100 jobs, probably half of which were in this district. I had had one interview for a job I thought I'd get in another district, only to find out after three weeks of hearing nothing that I had been a finalist, but the person to whom they offered the job is transferring her license to Oregon and they have to wait until that's finalized before calling me.

I'm a tad bummed it's only a halftime position, but I guess that means we'll have to trust God to provide all the more since I'll be the sole income earner, at least through the fall and winter. However, the great news is that because it's a morning position, I can still sub for my huge district in the afternoons, I could teach an online course again (when the opportunity comes) or do one of many, many other things for work.

I'm now off to take a tour of my school. The job starts officially on Monday!

Just call me Bob

2010-08-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Anyone remember the public television show This Old House? (I think it was a Saturday night favorite of our family growing up, second to this show.) It appears that we've got our own mini version of the show in our home, sans cameras, Bob, and Norm.

Our little old lady turned 90 years old this year. Relative to houses, say, in Europe, the east coast of the U.S., and many other places in the world, it's a youngin'. In west coast U.S. terms, we've got an old time "charmer" on our hands.

I absolutely love the character of our house (aside from the back 1/3 of the house, but more on that another day). However, you can't be 90 years old without your own set of aches and pains. Thus, as we complete some transformation projects of sorts, I'll post them here.

First on the docket to be displayed is the most relaxing room in our house--our bedroom.

When we rented out our house, the tenants asked if they could paint the bedrooms. I reluctantly agreed, as long as they did a neutral color. Apparently, their definition of neutral is MUCH different from mine. Thus, this bedroom went from a soft, airy shade of Scandinavian Sky Blue to grapefruit orange to tutti fruity pink to electric blue, as the layers of paint (and leftover paint cans) showed us. Here's what it looked like when we moved back in:

Looking at the south/east walls. The door leads to our office and a bizarre part of the house design.

This is the south/west walls, with a little closet. You can see it leads to a short hallway (and the bathroom and other bedroom) with the living room in the back (and our piano, too).

Here are the north/east walls, again adjacent to the office (which they also painted blue). I love the style of these old windows--I just wish they were better insulated!

After a helpful tip from my always-creative friend Joy (check out her blog--you'll laugh, cry, and laugh 'till you cry!) we picked up some Metro Paint at Bring Recycling. This paint is recycled through the state of Oregon and resold for MUCH cheaper than regular paint. It comes in at least 16 charming colors, with more coming out all the time. So, we went "green" and saved some "green" in the process and loved it. (Seriously, if you're in Oregon and you're repainting, go buy Metro Paint. It's quality paint.)

Thanks to our renters' love of all things fluorescent, I primed over the paint first.

Then, I painted in a rich paint called Carmel. (Is it wrong to paint your room based on the fact that you loved the name of the color?)

And.... voila! This old house is charming (and a little more classy) once again!

Did you know that the second hand store Goodwill actually sells new curtains, too? I found just what I wanted there!

The scroll on the wall is one of our favorite Bible verses about how we can love because God first loved us. It was a gift from our school in Taiwan.

We painted the picture in the middle during our trip to Malaysia in 2009. The ducks on the shelf up top are handcrafted in Taiwan. They are a male and female pair and, I believe, are a kind of duck that stays together for life.

I did repaint our dresser, which was an awesome find from Bring Recycling as well. I wasn't too thrilled about how the spray paint worked out, but I am happy with the black color you see in some of the photos above.

Next, as our time and finances allow, we'll be adding a white trim between the wall and ceiling (to match the other parts of the house). I also hope to tackle this project some day, too, but in black.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll need to take a break from being Bob Vila to teacher extraordinaire as I tour my new school at my new job. :-)

Feelin' crafty

2010-08-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to take on a few craft projects this summer, both of which were quite fun. First, I transformed a picture frame into an earring holder with a little leftover spray paint, scrap window screen from a local hardware store, and my glue gun. Now, I just need our bathroom to be 100% completed to have a place to put it!

Next, my friends Carly and Heather showed me how to make these beautiful flower petals. They can be glued to a bobbypin for your hair (though it gets lost somewhere in the middle of my curls--better for straight-haired friends), sewn onto a dress, or made into a little headband for little girls. The finished project looks like so:

Here is my friend Carly demonstrating the process. First, you take leftover ribbons and cut circles from them. They don't have to be neat circles and its best if you cut several of varying sizes.

Next, melt the edges of the ribbon. We found out that not all ribbon melts easily--some just burns. Also, a tall candlestick will be easier to handle that this jar candle (though the scent was amazing!).

Layer all of the petals together and take some beads, thread, and a needle and sew on the middle part of the flower.

Then, there you go! Beautiful decorative flowers!

The state of life at the moment

2010-08-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

After about six weeks back in the U.S.,we're still in a continually state of transition. The good news is that we're able to live in our house that we lived in before moving to Taiwan. Here is our living room at the moment, with things scattered throughout as they trickle in from storage:

And our kitchen...

We're painting most moments that we're not unpacking or out visiting with family. We painted our kitchen cabinets first...

We are thankful to have this place to call home:

More updates as we get settled and regular internet access!

Drink coffee. Do good.

2010-07-22T12:49:00.002-07:00

If you love coffee and like the idea of fair trade products, check out this group I met today: Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee. With 100% Rwandan Arabica beans freshly roasted, this organization gives micro-loans to widows, bikes (instead of walking) to farmers for product transport, God's word to citizens of a country that suffered so much, and a solid living wage for workers, among other things. In addition to buying whole or ground beans, you can participate in their 12 for 12 program. For $12 a month, you get a bag of their fresh roasted coffee per month AND you help 12 people make a sustainable living.

So if you like good coffee and you want to do good, go to www.drinkcoffeedogood.com today.

My love remains constant

2010-07-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

Matt and I celebrated our sixth anniversary a few weeks ago and I really love this guy. So much so that I tell him how much I love him in cards at holidays. In fact, my love is apparently so constant that I write nearly the same exact thing to him in his cards each time without even trying.

About one month prior to Matt's birthday this year, I thought I would be clever and prepared and I bought his birthday card. I took it home that night, wrote a lovely note in it, and put it in a "secret" place where I would know where to find it, but he wouldn't. This secret place (which was actually right next to the bed) was apparently such a good hiding place that when his actual birthday rolled around, I couldn't find the card. Geesh.

So, in a slight panic, I found another card and wrote another sweet message in it. Matt opened his card later that day and put it out on the table. As it would go, I was cleaning our house a few weeks later in preparation for our move and, lo and behold, found Matt's first birthday card. I thought, "Who wouldn't want two birthday cards?" and gave him the second card.

He read it. Then reread the other card. Then reread the second card. Then I realized, as he read them aloud, that I wrote nearly the exact same message in each card, a month apart.

Perhaps this explains why I didn't bother getting him a card for our anniversary last month. After all, if I said it well twice in a row, why say the exact same thing again?

So, for our anniversary, I expressed my love for Matt by letting him BBQ hamburgers for me. He loves grilling stuff. I love eating it. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

We spent this year's anniversary enjoying a lovely summer evening BBQ in the countryside (a.k.a. my parents' house since they were out of town) and it was a huge improvement on last year's quarantine and our separation across continents two years ago. Matt BBQ'd some Korean kimchi-style burgers, we enjoyed a lovely cake from my mom, and we attempted to watch our entire wedding video, which is kind of a tradition for us. It would be more of a tradition if we could actually watch the whole video since the video runs into some issues just before the part in the ceremony where we say our vows and "I do." This year, at least, we made it past me walking down the isle. One of these years, we'll actually get married on screen.

Matt, happy anniversary once again to you, my best friend. I love you. There's no need to say any more since the rest stays the same. :-)