24 hr Salem trip

On Wednesday I decorated a bit for fall and made pumpkin cream cheese muffins, they are amazing, and even though they have three different parts you have to make, which usually is a turn off for me, I would totally make them again!  Other than cooking and a little decorating, we spent all day lounging in bed, enjoying the warmth of the fire, and relaxing.  I loved every minute of it. 

On Saturday morning at 7:45am my mom, Paul, and I left for Salem to go celebrate my grandpa's 90th birthday.  We had told him we are coming, but due to his dementia, he was surprised and quite happy to see us!  Paul watched the UW vs University of Oregon game while wearing his UW sweatshirt in Oregon with a bunch of 80 year olds.  The lady in pink said "there is an enemy in our midst!" and actually knew a lot about football and talked a lot of smack during the game.  Sam is the one on Paul's right, and he is an awesome artist, was a dentist, and used to fly planes.  He grew up in Rhode Island and has an awesome accent. Look at his artwork!  Sam turned the football game off when there was three minutes left, then turned it back on and said, well that still isnt the show I want!  Haha, Sam loves Spongebob.  

Paul and I get along so well with the elderly crowd, it's awesome! 

At 5:30  we had a birthday celebration of pizza and applesauce cake for Pop and it was oh so fun.  When he saw "happy 90th" he said "well that is an imposing number isn't it" But then he said he next goal is to make it to 100!  He was so happy to have us all there and said so many times, it was so sweet. :) 

We also went to go visit my Grandpa Bob who just moved into a retirement center because of how bad his dementia is getting.  He has a very nice one bedroom, and amazingly enough my two grandpas only live less than 10 minutes apart now. :) It's funny how different they are.  Grandpa Bob could talk for hours straight without a break and Pop only really talks when you ask him a question. Otherwise Pop prefers to just listen. 

Also we hung all those pictures in Pop's room and there is a lady across the hall who brags about how good her hearing is.  She kept saying there was way too much banging and that we were way too loud and complaining.  Apparently the nurses said this was good motivation for her to move back to her independent apartment. Haha, silly lady.  I was to be pleasant in my old age, not the town grump. 

Grandpa Bob!  If you think of it say a little prayer for him.  His dementia isn't pleasant like Pop's.  He is paranoid and struggling more with depression and it is so sad.  It was nice to visit, but we live so far away so visits are few and far between.  

I love me some grandparent time.  So crazy to think that next time I go visit I will probably have an infant! 

Two days off in a row with my love, there is nothing better.

I just finished my long work weekend, which I usually dread and feel so exhausted during, but this week I knew I was going to have tuesday, wednesday off with Paul once I finished, so it was like looking forward to a vacation.  Paul worked a lot of 3am-1pm shifts this last week which led him being gone from the house for even longer, and therefore we went to bed between 7-8pm this whole work weekend (friday-monday). Let's just say this preggo mama loves getting 10-13 hours of sleep a night! I also didn't pick up any extra shifts and just worked my scheduled 32 hours so when I came home on Monday instead of swimming I did 2 loads of laundry, vacuumed the house, cleaned three bathrooms and made dinner.  Then I had Kathy come over and we worked on baby shower invitations.  Getting all this done on a work day means this Tuesday and Wednesday have been blissfully awesome. 

Tuesday Paul had his final review and had to turn in his last few assignments for manager training.  It was in Des Moines, and I wanted to go to Federal way afterward, so I went with him and just found a cute coffee shop nearby to hang out while he had his hour long session with the district manager, which went super well!  The barista at the coffee shop was stressed out because it was super busy and she was alone, but she made a dang good decaf caramel machiatto and I sat and watched greys anatomy on my phone while staring at the awesome mug my coffee was in. :)  

After Paul was done we went and walked around the docks and piers down by the water before going to H-mart, our favorite Asian grocery store.  We spent $35 at H mart and got a cart full of fruit, well it covered the bottom of the cart quite well.  Gala and Fuji apples were 48 cents a pound! And peaches were 88 cents a pound and other stuff was super cheap too, I love getting fruits and veggies there!  I am going to miss that if we move. 

After food shopping we went to Pho Thai, my favorite, and had vietnamese sandwiches, then to ice cream which was THE BEST ICE CREAM EVER.  Not a joke.  Made from cream right in front of my eyes and frozen with nitrous oxide.  Um, best ever, I am addicted. 

I took my 28 week pictures a day early this week because I was dressed and had make-up on, and I work tomorrow, so I knew neither would happen!  :)  This baby is getting big!  According to average size baby is 14.5 inches long and weighs 2 lbs!  Wowza. 

And here is the progression so far.  I am so glad I started this at 9 weeks to see all the little changes that have happened in the last 5 months.  Kinda crazy because it feels like yesterday we found out we were pregnant! 

Hope you all are having a great week, love you girls! 

A Post

Hello and hugs to all!

It has been too long since I posted, I don't even know where to start.  I feel like I constantly go through cycles in my life where I get too insanely busy and then I go through a recovery period and then I get busy again.  I feel like I'm in recovery period now.  I need to learn how to balance busyness...this is something I'm working on.  But enough of that.  Here I am.

I thought I'd post a picture of myself since it's been awhile since I've put one of myself on here or on facebook.  I'm just chilling on the couch this Sunday afternoon with Beatrix while Justin goes for a run.  I love a quiet house on a Sunday afternoon.

The picture on the wall behind me was new this summer.  I got a groupon for a 2x3 foot canvas photo, it was $50 instead of $300 and I had birthday money to use.   The picture is one  I took of a volcano near my house in the Philippines.  I'd been wanting to do this for a while, but it was out of my price range.  I am so happy with the results.  The first time I saw it I got all choked up because it was such a beautiful reminder of my childhood in the Philippines.  

I just finished reading all of your lovely posts.  Becca I want to especially thank you for your 'Morning' post and the verse from 2nd Corinthians.  Lately I've been getting very bogged down in the stresses and irritations that I sometimes forget that life is bigger than work.  The school I work for moved to a new location about a month ago (one reason for my busyness).  It has been super stressful for me because there were a lot of things not yet ready.  My classroom was missing a wall, so there'd be a lot of extra noise, and we didn't have proper erasers the first few days.   There are still some ongoing issues; the whiteboards still aren't working (they used a special paint), I started teaching a new class and have problems with errors in the material, I was given the use of an IPAD and am expected to use it for teaching (big learning curve), I've also been asked to maintain blogs for my classes and I've also been helping another teacher who is teaching the same grammar class as I do in the afternoon... and so I get a lot of questions during my breaks and lunch.  Plus there are some unpleasant office politics going on...  *sigh*  I don't want to complain, but after typing this all out, I can see that work has been a big drain.   

I snap alot at home and I get irritated easily.  I hate being this way and I want it to change.  I still love my actual work, being in the classroom with my students and talking about English is awesome, I just don't appreciate the extra stress around that lately. 

On a positive note, I had a great conversation at church today with a woman that was visiting (I had met her before, she knows Justin).  I was so blessed by our talk because when she realized that I was an MK, she totally got me.  We started talking about identity and she knew a lot about what it was like to have issues related to that.  Sometimes I still struggle talking about where I'm from.  A few weeks ago I was on a neighborhood tour with my school and our guide had everyone go around and say where we were from.  She accidentally missed me, but I was thankful because I had that indecision that I often get thinking about whether or not I should talk about the Philippines and try and explain myself or get away with saying Oakville.  Today I was so blessed to talk to someone who understood where I was from!  We talked about the missionary sub-culture too, it just felt so good. 

It also feels so good to be positing again.  I want to post more because I feel so much love and support from you ladies.  I love your understanding and that there is no pressure to post and that it's ok that I haven't posted in ages.  I love you guys!!! 

birthday happenings. More than you need to know, most likely.

I have had a wonderful birthday week.

On Thursday, Jeremy and I got a chance to go out on an early birthday date, since his parents were leaving on Saturday for Disneyland.  We went out for Mexican (the new Puerto Vallarta in Kingston has enough vegetarian options, so its one of our favorite places to go now) and each got a drink (I probably order two cocktails a year - one on my birthday, and one on our anniversary).  Then we went out to Poulsbo to share a coffee and run a few quick errands without the kids.  You can tell you are a parent when you include errands in your date night!

Friday we spent getting ready for the weekend.  I cleaned the house from top to bottom, caught up on all the laundry, had the kids take good naps, and got them in bed by 6:40 (almost an hour early) since we had to be up so early.  Jeremy and I spent our evening relaxing.  He worked on his sermon.  I listened to it while crocheting a baby blanket for a friend.  Then I practiced some of the worship set I am doing for church this Sunday.  We drank some tea, read a chapter of our book together, and headed to bed around 9:30.  We had to be up at 5am.  Neither of us really slept that well.  I don't know if it was the coffee in the late afternoon, the anticipation for the next day (we were so excited to see people and for our interview), or the strange dream of a dinosaur chasing me around Indianola (that went on FOREVER), but I was happy when my alarm went off and I could get the day started.

The kids were total champs all day.  Even though it was dark and rainy and cold out, they got snuggled up into the car and we were on our way by 6.  We stopped in Gig Harbor at Panera for a little breakfast (dear me, I had so much dairy and wheat this weekend, but I enjoyed every bit of it, even if I felt a little sick afterward) and got to Angela's by 8:15ish.  And you already know how that went.

snuggled up and ready to go!  Kids are snacking on some breakfast bars I made.

chowing down at Panera in pajamas

The interview went really well, I think.  The panel was made up of the district supervisor of Church of God Anderson, the pastor from the church in Yakima that the new plant will be closely linked with and working with for training/support, and another younger pastor we had met years before from a church up in Marysville.  His church is also shifting to a missional approach and I am really interested to hear more of their story and where they are at. Anyway.

It lasted about an hour and a half.  It was very fluid and laid back.  I don't know why it is always so hard to answer the "greatest strength and weakness" question, though? I don't like to talk about my strengths and then I have trouble identifying which of my many weaknesses is the greatest and then I'm afraid I look like I don't think I have any areas to work on, which of course is not true of anyone.
 
We felt a great weight off of our shoulders when we were done.
We are still convinced they aren't going to pick us and now we can get on with our lives.
Sorta.
Of course they could choose us.
We were the only interview that day, so obviously they thought we were important enough to interview to validate a drive all the way from Yakima and Marysville to meet with us on a Saturday morning.  That alone is very humbling and an honor to us.

Lloyd (the main guy) said we will know by the end of the month at the latest.  I think it will be sooner, because he was talking about having the person potentially relocate by December or November!  That seems really soon to us, and we voiced that...Matt, the Pastor of the church, piped in and said that he wouldn't recommend moving a family in December, and then Lloyd seemed to kind of change his tune about how soon it might really happen.  Matt came up to me at the end and handed me a business card with his wife's name on it.  He encouraged me to contact her and talk to her about what its like to have a family in this kind of a ministry position.  Both Jeremy and I  really liked him and thought we would work together with him really well.  I'm hoping to contact her and chat with her, because whether we get this job or not, I feel like it would be valuable information to hear from her experience.  It also made us feel like in some ways, they may feel like they have to "convince" us to take the position, which kind of scares us (because that might mean we would actually have to be the ones to make a decision).  But we will see!  Please pray for us to know if this is really the best direction for us to go.  It's easy if they don't choose us.  The hard part is if they DO and we have to make up our minds to go for it or not.

After the interview, we headed up to my sister and her husband's place.  She decided to make brunch food and my brother Josh joined us as well.  After our fill of pumpkin pancakes, coffee, and other goodies we don't normally have, the kids played and we chatted for a bit.  It was fun to seem them and to see their place again since they have been married.  The last time we were there, David was living there with two other guys, so it definitely has changed a lot.

Hailey was getting tired. ha ha.

Then we drove up to Redmond to see my other brother, Kit.  This was a nice, relaxing visit!  He made chili and the kids played soooo nicely.  Shea was up in a bedroom playing with his cousins the entire time.  No fighting or anything.  And Hailey just ran around the house playing.  I didn't have to worry about her one bit, so the adults just got to sit and chat and share some wine.

On our way home, we stopped in Port Orchard at my parent's house.  My mom made some cupcakes and my dad gave me a $25 giftcard to target (which I went out and bought an immersion soup blender thing.  I borrowed one from my MIL and used it every day and after I cracked our blender last week, I have been desperately missing having one of these around for soups and bean dips!).  We were so glad to finally get home at 8:30, pop the kids in bed, drink some tea, and then head to bed ourselves.

On Sunday, Jeremy had to go open up the church and he was in charge of the service and preaching.  It was a fun day at church!  Afterward, we put the kids down at his parent's apartment and snacked while watching the first episode of the final season of Breaking Bad on Netflix.  We have been waiting for over a year to watch it, I think!

from a walk last week.  If we move, I will miss our walks out on the dock desperately.  It is all peace and beauty and wild at once.

These pictures of Shea just crack me up.  He was trying so hard not to smile, but he just can't help it!

How can I have my house perfectly clean on Friday night, be gone all day Saturday and most of Sunday, and wake up to THIS on Monday morning?  I don't even know what happened.  I did finally get up the energy to clean this all up.  But phhheeew.  I needed coffee to get motivated.

Bonus of my in-laws being gone: we got to pick the rest of their tomatoes!  HELLO salsa!

Life has been a good busy.

I have been trying to take advantage of every moment before this baby comes, which means I have been kinda tired lately with everything I have been trying to fit in!  I was able to meet up with two different college friends, one for coffee and one for ice cream in the same day.  I hadn't seen either of them in well over a year and it was wonderful to catch up.  Then I got to hang out with Gabe on Tuesday after working my long 4 day weekend (with a double and being a witness to a bad wreck thrown in).  We went shopping at ikea and the tukwilla costco and got some awesome kitchen stuff.  Then Wednesday I had my midwife appt where she said everything is looking good, baby is growing well, though I was measuring 24.5 weeks and I was almost 26 weeks...those measurements can't be that accurate anyway... That was my last 3-4 week appt now I will go every two weeks till 36 weeks, then every week.  

I had a gift card to ikea and didn't know how much was on it. I ended up spending the whole gift card and only 2.43 of my own money, I couldn't have planned better.  It was an awesome trip.  While at costco I saw the biggest nutella I have ever seen in my life!  And the day before I ate the biggest glazed donut I have ever seen.  Its a season of big. :) 

                                     

Then today I got to watch Becca's kids for a few hours while she and Jeremy went to an interview.  Hailey was quite sad when they left but ended up calming down and falling asleep in my arms after 10-15 minutes.  Shea on the other hand was excited to play with toys and watch a show on netflix and wasn't the least bit concerned about his sisters crying. :) While Hailey took an hour long nap Shea and I played planes, trains, and automobiles on our home drawn track in the kitchen.  

                                      

And now for some belly pictures.  I have been good about taking pictures with my good camera every week, sometimes they are a few days late, but hey, if they are done within the correct week I call that success.  I don't get dressed into regular clothes on a daily basis, so it's a special occasion in these pictures. :) 

25 weeks. 

26 weeks!  

 I have a countdown app on my phone that says 96 days till baby's due date.  So close yet so far!  We are more than ready to meet little munchkin, but definitely don't want to meet too soon! Keep on growing baby :)

Opportunity

So, here is a funny thing.  My mind is totally in a manic period right now.  So I'm sleeping maybe 6 hours a night, and it's very light sleep.  Not taking any naps.  And my mind is always racing.  It's an interesting adjustment being manic while trying to keep still all the time.  But it sure keeps my mood happy, and I'm seeing this as an opportunity to work on projects I had been avoiding because of my other responsibilities.

Every day (well, so far just yesterday and today) I pick five things from a list of projects or things I want to spend time on, and I've been setting a timer and spending half an hour on each one.  The list includes:

• Concentrated Bible study and prayer
• Go through old Facebook messages
• Go through emails
• Catch up on blogs and/or write blog posts/comments
• Organize files on computer
• Current writing project
• Study Spanish
• Read something educational
• Plan Christmas

 In addition, I write down all my other little things, like stuff I have to order off Amazon or phone calls to make!

And I have a "coping plan" so I don't zone out.  I haven't followed it completely but they're really just guidelines to strive for:

1.       As able, change positions and activities often.  This mentally punctuates my day so it doesn’t feel so long.

2.      List small sitting-down tasks (email, writing, planning) in between watching TV or playing games.  This keeps my mind sharp.

3.      Be near a window and focus on something far away occasionally.  This gives my eyes a break from all the close-up stuff I’m doing, and calms my spirit with a bit of nature.

4.      Do one thing at a time.  If watching TV, don’t do computer at the same time; I have all day, so savor each thing that occupies my mind, however simple.  Drink tea while just sitting.

5.      Discipline myself with a routine as much as possible.

6.      Discipline myself by setting a schedule with times, and using an alarm or a timer.

7.      List my accomplishments.

8.      Discipline myself by doing some things I don’t feel like doing, like reading something educational.

9.      Encourage others selflessly.  Seek out hurting people so I don’t think about my own hurt.

10.   Be spiritually fed.

This is really helping me not to get too doldrummy.  Except I think it's not really so much my willpower and fantastic planning, as much as the manic state of my hyperactive brain.  Oh well, it sure beats depression.  And I'm feeling very accomplished - as well as getting a lot of Grey's Anatomy in!  Turns out I was two seasons behind, not one, so I have been watching a lot.

Anyway, I'm doing great, hoping you ladies are too!  Any of you can come and visit any time - one of my daily "to do's" is to do something social, and it's much more fun to have an in-person social date than a cyber one!

 

morning

#1 a clutter free counter
#2 my every day staples: coconut flour (needs to be refilled), flax seeds, tapioca flour, honey.
#3 my favorite piece of furniture, which was in the house when we moved in.
#4 our loft bedroom.  Shea pulled out all of his clothes looking for his "mario" outfit (overalls and red shirt)
#5 loved ones framed.
#6 clean floors (mostly) and clutter free view.
#7 folding and stuffing cloth diapers - a moment of peace in the mundane
#8 tea in my favorite cup.
#9 slipper season.
#10 girl eating noodles
#11 french press.  I broke ours a few months ago and just found this beauty at the thrift store yesterday.
#12 my kitchen windowsill.  Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist, as I always have things floating in glass jars.

Some mornings start out on the wrong foot.

This was one.  I have been feeling tired and edgy since I woke up.

Inspired by my landlord being in town this weekend, I was finally able to get some of the clutter and chores done that have been piling up all week.  Finally vacuumed and picked up all the odds and ends around the house, I even swept behind a few pieces of furniture and cleaned up the bathroom.   

This took some time, as Hailey has been extra needy this morning.  Shea has been in a “be mean to little sister even though she did nothing to bother me” mood.  She didn’t get very much sleep last night either.   She never really does.  She has always woken up and cried several times during the night.  It’s just that now, she goes back to sleep without me doing much other than giving her a reassuring pat and reminder to go “night-night”.

But last night, she woke up screaming like she was scared to death. Jeremy even hopped up out of bed to check on her before me, and he doesn’t usually even seem to notice when she cries at night.  I’m not sure if children that young get night terrors, but that’s what it was like, because it took a while to calm her down.  She is napping now.  And Shea is patiently waiting while I have some mommy time before we play and do school work.

I’m glad to have some time to restart my day.  I made myself a cup of tea.  Black peach tea with a drop of honey and my homemade almond milk.

Mmm. 

I opened my devotional and it was basically exactly what I needed to hear at this moment.  It was a challenge and reminder for me to try and see things through God’s perspective and to let the little things go.  The passage it took me to was 2^nd Corinthians 4:17-18:

 “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 

When I think about this in the context of parenting, I see how it is so easy to get stuck obsessing and fretting about the seemingly constant negatives that I see in my children’s behavior (and my own!) each day and forget about the bigger picture.  The part I don’t see is what I am instilling in them each day that will come to fruition when they are older – whether that be good or bad.  

Yesterday, I read a preschool devotional to Shea and we talked about planting seeds of good words and actions, because what we plant comes up.  It was helpful that we had planted some seeds together in the garden and harvested vegetables as an illustration.  I constantly am wondering, “What things am I planting in my children?”  I suppose a tree is known by its fruit, and someday, I will see.  I know every parent has regrets, but at least if I am actively pursuing a fruitful harvest (not perfection) in my children’s lives, then I can trust God to fill in the gaps.  

I am trying to remember that these “momentary troubles” are nothing in light of God’s glory and grace and are in many ways, what causes us to grow.  Discipline becomes much easier when viewed not as a chore, but as an opportunity for growth (and not just me disciplining my children, but when I am being disciplined also!).  And when we display patience and love and peace and encouragement and tenderness in these moments, a seed is planted.  In the same way, when I react in frustration, annoyance, inconsistency, and unkindness  I am planting another kind of seed.  Many times, the reason for this reaction is selfishness.  I am too busy to properly "deal" with (insert situation here).  It is simply my “ME-centeredness” that keeps me from being the kind of parent and person I know God would want me to be.  Oh, that I would learn the kind of servants heart to drop everything for the people around me!  It seems an impossible task.

And maybe that is precisely the point.