Run the Gamut

 Our week has had it all.

Deer.

Snow.

Halloween costumes/parties/candy.

Additional work.

Graduate school.

Jury duty.

Jury selection.

Foreman Jury duty.

House selling/buying demands.

IEP meetings.

Tears.

Sweat.

Blood.

Laughter.

Yelling.

Hope.

and

Despair.

We've really run the gamut this week.

The best remedy for that is tomorrow with some R&R, family fun, Michigan football, and maybe a few cocktails!

Who's with me?

Not The Boss

 Our little Lee Lee is age three and one her way to three-and-a-half.  Because of that, she frequently tests the limits, boundaries, and rules of our home and our parenting.

Because she is our fourth child of five... truthfully, I am guilty of not always having the follow-through with her that I had with her older siblings... so last week I made a point to work on that.

I reminder her that Mama is the boss, Mama and Daddy are in charge, and when we ask her to do something, we only say it once and she is expected to obey -- otherwise there is a consequence for disobeying what Mama and Daddy ask.

She did well with my buckling down, and after a few trials where she wanted to know if I really meant it this time, she quickly became our sweet, relatively obedient little girl again.

One night, between dinner and dessert, she was given two choices of what she could do, and she wanted to to do her own thing.  After a little back and forth, she and I went up to get in pajamas, and she was having some really big emotions.

She didn't throw a tantrum... but she was crying, and then she just took a deep breath and said, "Mama.  It is so hard not to be the boss."

I was so proud of her ability to put that frustrating into words... it is so hard not to be the boss when you are a little one.

She went on to explain to me that she's just not big enough yet and so she's not the boss, but it is so hard to wait to be big to be the boss.

I love that little girls so much!

American Child

I am not always thrilled with my country.
I love America, but I don't always love Americans.
I would say, the past 5-6 years, I've been especially dissatisfied with the policy and direction of legislation in my country.

That being said... but a pin in that thought for a moment.
I have not been especially emotional throughout my pregnancy.  I think both my husband and I are surprised by this, because I am a very emotional person when I'm not pregnant.  Since becoming pregnant, some things still make me cry, but both Hubby and I agree, I cry less since I've been pregnant than I regularly cried before getting pregnant -- go figure.

That being said... one subject has brought me to emotional, joyful, overwhelming tears without fail throughout this pregnancy, and that is the thought of our child growing up in America.

I am not always thrilled with my country, but there is NO OTHER COUNTRY that has more opportunities for my child.  My child will be a citizen of the greatest country in the world.  My child will not be limited because of his or her culture, or religion, or income, or family history, or political opinion.  Our child can develop any interest, hobby, passion, career goal he or she can dream.

The fact that my husband and I are teachers does not determine what our child will be.  The fact that our child may fail kindergarten, or skip sixth grade doesn't determine his or her career path.  The fact that our child's grandparents were blue-collar workers, or white-collar workers, or congressmen, or jail birds does not determine our child's occupation.  Our child's drive, and intelligence, and hard work, and desire, and tenacity, and calling determines his or her occupation.  Our child will be born in a country without predetermined limits.  Our child will be born in the land of the free.

Our child will be an American child, and that knowledge fills me to with joy and goosebumps.  My husband and I may not be able to provide everything for our child that he or she wants or desires... but we can instill in him or her the value of hard work and the accomplishment and reward that comes from working hard in America.

Among others, these are two songs that have left me sobbing lately:

"American Child" by Phil Vassar



and
"Only in America" by Brooks & Dunn

God Bless America.

Lately...

I haven't really had much to say on this blog recently because, to be honest, there is SO much on my mind.  And, its not like my life has been in the past where "so much on my mind" means company coming, or work reports due, or a national certification exam on the horizon... that is a kind of stress I am used to.  I have had nearly 25 years of practice with that kind of stress.

On my mind these days is the magnitude of what's about to happen in our lives.
And the fact that I don't know when its going to happen.
And the fact that some days I am ready for it, and some days I am terrified.

Chris and I are about to be PARENTS.

Just the birth alone is full of decisions...

• natural birth or medication
• home birth or hospital birth
• obstetrician or midwife
• pediatrician or family practitioner
• spontaneous delivery or scheduled inducing
• vaginal birth or cesarean

 

... Then, the decisions are only just beginning...

• breast-feeding or bottle feeding
• breast milk or formula
•  bassinet or co-bedding
• cloth diapers or disposable diapers
• circumcision or not
• vaccinations or not
• swaddling or ... is there an alternative to swaddling?
• baby carrier or baby wearing

... and that is the smallest, simplest drop in the bucket or our decisions ahead...

Then, to add a huge dose of seriousness to this tremendous life event, childbirth is a dangerous business.  Women give birth to healthy babies every day... and I am thinking positively about how our birth and delivery will go... but tragedies happen during labor and delivery as well.  Giving birth is serious business, and is not without serious risks to both mother and baby.

Lately, I've had a lot on my mind that I'm lifting up in prayer.

If you think of me in the coming days and weeks, please pray for all the decisions ahead, all the things on my mind, the labor and delivery ahead, and the safety of our baby and me through it all.

Final Days... or Weeks

Hubby and I are in our final days before our little one arrives... and it is the weirdest place to be.

via

 We might be expecting our baby for another few days... we might be expecting our baby for another month - or more.  We never know if our more recent evening, dinner, or night together will be our last evening, dinner, or night before our baby arrives.  It is bitter, and sweet, and emotional, and exhausting, and overwhelming... and more.

We toured the hospital birthing center yesterday, and things are getting very real, very fast!  We had a number of questions and I was taking notes, and the nurse who gave us a tour said that we are her favorite couple of 2014 thus far, because we were so organized.  :-D  For her to say that, she clearly hasn't seen our house -- our house is not yet organized and ready for baby.

I feel like I could write for hours about the mixed emotions I'm having during these final days (or weeks) of pregnancy, but Hubby found an article that said it much better than I ever could.

From mothering.com, here is "The Last Days of Pregnancy: A Place of In-Between" by Melanie Mayo -- thank you for saying this so well.

"She’s curled up on the couch, waiting, a ball of baby and emotions. A scrambled pile of books on pregnancy, labor, baby names, breastfeeding…not one more word can be absorbed. The birth supplies are loaded in a laundry basket, ready for action. The freezer is filled with meals, the car seat installed, the camera charged. It’s time to hurry up and wait. Not a comfortable place to be, but wholly necessary.

The last days of pregnancy— sometimes stretching to agonizing weeks—are a distinct place, time, event, stage. It is a time of in between. Neither here nor there. Your old self and your new self, balanced on the edge of a pregnancy. One foot in your old world, one foot in a new world.
Shouldn’t there be a word for this state of being, describing the time and place where mothers linger, waiting to be called forward?
Germans have a word, zwischen, which means between. I’ve co-opted that word for my own obstetrical uses. When I sense the discomfort and tension of late pregnancy in my clients, I suggest that they are now in The Time of Zwischen. The time of in between, where the opening begins. Giving it a name gives it dimension, an experience closer to wonder than endurance.
I tell these beautiful, round, swollen, weepy women to go with it and be okay there. Feel it, think it, don’t push it away. Write it down, sing really loudly when no one else is home, go commune with nature, or crawl into your own mama’s lap so she can rub your head until you feel better. I tell their men to let go of their worry; this is an early sign of labor. I encourage them to sequester themselves if they need space, to go out if they need distraction, to enjoy the last hours of this life-as-they-now-know-it. I try to give them permission to follow the instinctual gravitational pulls that are at work within them, just as real and necessary as labor.
The discomforts of late pregnancy are easy to Google: painful pelvis, squished bladder, swollen ankles, leaky nipples, weight unevenly distributed in a girth that makes scratching an itch at ankle level a feat of flexibility.  “You might find yourself teary and exhausted,” says one website, “but your baby is coming soon!” Cheer up, sweetie, you’re having a baby. More messaging that what is going on is incidental and insignificant.
What we don’t have is reverence or relevance—or even a working understanding of the vulnerability and openness a woman experiences at this time. Our language and culture fails us. This surely explains why many women find this time so complicated and tricky. But whether we recognize it or not, these last days of pregnancy are a distinct biologic and psychological event, essential to the birth of a mother.
We don’t scientifically understand the complex hormones at play that loosen both her hips and her awareness.  In fact, this uncomfortable time of aching is an early form of labor in which a woman begins opening her cervix and her soul. Someday, maybe we will be able to quantify this hormonal advance—the prolactin, oxytocin, cortisol, relaxin. But for now, it is still shrouded in mystery, and we know only how to measure thinning and dilation.

“You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you, Peter Pan. That’s where I’ll be waiting.”        -Tinkerbell

I believe that this is more than biological. It is spiritual. To give birth, whether at home in a birth tub with candles and family or in a surgical suite with machines and a neonatal team, a woman must go to the place between this world and the next, to that thin membrane between here and there. To the place where life comes from, to the mystery, in order to reach over to bring forth the child that is hers. The heroic tales of Odysseus are with us, each ordinary day. This round woman is not going into battle, but she is going to the edge of her being where every resource she has will be called on to assist in this journey.
We need time and space to prepare for that journey. And somewhere, deep inside us, at a primal level, our cells and hormones and mind and soul know this, and begin the work with or without our awareness.
I call out Zwischen in prenatals as a way of offering comfort and, also, as a way of offering protection. I see how simple it is to exploit and abuse this time. A scheduled induction is seductive, promising a sense of control. Fearful and confused family can trigger a crisis of confidence. We are not a culture that waits for anything, nor are we believers in normal birth; waiting for a baby can feel like insanity. Giving this a name points her toward listening and developing her own intuition. That, in turn, is a powerful training ground for motherhood.
Today, I am waiting for a lovely new mother named Allison to call me, to announce that her Zwischen is ended and labor has begun. I am in my own in between place, waiting. My opportunity to grow and open is a lovely gift she gives me, in choosing me to attend her birth."

Anticipation...

One week from today, I will be in Austin, Texas ready to start my final Orientation and Mobility practicum experience.

As I think ahead at this week, I am completely torn.  I am trying to be excited for all that I am going to learn, and the fun I am going to have.  I am trying to be excited for a few weeks off of my normal job, and in a completely new place.  I am heartbroken at the idea of being away from my husband, and it is A LOT of work to prepare my students and my job to be away for that time.

I go from being sort of excited about some things planned, to bursting into tears.

Points About 3 Weeks in Austin That Make Me Burst Into Tears:

1. Three weeks AWAY from my hubby -- this is going to be the longest we have ever been a part -- even longer than we were a part when I was in Tucson.  I leave on a Saturday, and return on a Saturday -- so its 3 full weeks away.  Tucson was a Sunday to a Friday.
2. Three weeks away from my critters.  No dog, no cat, NOTHING to greet me when I walk through the door.  Nothing to cuddle and pet at the end of the day.
3. A new school to learn; new teachers to work with; a new area to learn
4. More grad school assignments to do
5. No vehicle in Austin -- if you're reading this and you have a car I could borrow for three weeks while I'm in Austin, PLEASE let me know.  I would be very grateful.
6. Trying to keep track of my Colorado job WHILE I'm in Texas and working full time as an O&M teacher.
7. Austin is hot right now.  Not quite as hot as Tucson, but I don't have very much summer maternity gear... and Austin is really hot right now.
8. Hubby and I have a hard time finding time to talk on the phone when we're both working.  When we don't talk on the phone frequently, I start to make sure that when we do talk, we have arguments instead of conversations.
9. I will miss the physical contact of marriage -- holding hands, a hug hello, a kiss goodbye, and hubby rubbing my belly as it grows.

Points About 3 Weeks in Austin That Make Me Excited:

1. My best friend and maid-of-honor from our wedding lives in Austin and will be less than a mile from where I'm staying.  Kelley and I have not lived in the same town since her Sr. year (my Jr. year) of college at W&L
2.  THIS IS MY LAST, MY LAST PRACTICUM PLACEMENT!!!
3. When I am done with this placement, I AM DONE WITH THIS CERTIFICATION!
4. Kelley and I are making arrangements to see a University of Texas football game, and possibly a Baylor football game while I'm there.
5. Kelley has a church home in Austin, and so I will be able to jump right into her fellowship instead of having to attend church without anyone I know.
6. The school where I will be studying and teaching in Austin produces the majority of the research in this field, and I will have such an opportunity to learn while I'm there.
7. I have friends that live in Dallas, Texas, which a few hours away from Austin.  I will not have a car, but I am hoping they might come see me while I'm just a few hours away.
8. Austin is such a fun city, and I will get a real chance to enjoy three weeks there, with a real local before I have a baby.

I am really trying to focus on the exciting, positive parts of my time away, but it is really hard to be excited to leave my husband.  We're not talking about a long weekend, or a week -- three weeks is a LONG TIME.

I know this is a wonderful opportunity for me.  And I know that Hubby and my marriage is strong enough to survive three weeks a part... but there is a reason I married him.  Life is better WITH him than it is without him.

All of these thoughts and more are running through my head this week, as I prepare for, and anticipate my departure.

 

How Are You Feeling?

When people (especially women) learn that I am pregnant, the most common question to follow is, "How are you feeling?"

I'm never really sure how to answer this.  I suppose they are wondering if I am suffering morning sickness or other common aches and pains of pregnancy, but I am really unsure how to answer.  And really, who wants to hear my complain about physical pregnancy challenges -- believe me, I have them, but when these woman ask how I'm feeling, I don't think they really want the answers.

How am I feeling?

Emotional.  Excited.  Terrified.  Overwhelmed.  Ecstatic.  Nauseous (physically and mentally).  Tired.  Hungry.  Sick.  Scared.  Womanly.  Wifely.  Large.  Blessed.  Burdened.  Prayerful.  Amazed.  Full of disbelief.  Shocked.  Unprepared.  Hopeful.  Petrified.  Motherly.

And about 1000 more emotions every day.

How am I feeling?  You REALLY don't want to know.

Treasuring the Present: Jimmy V... Don't Give Up! Don't Ever Give Up!

 
This week is Jimmy V. week in the sports world.

via

If you do one thing for yourself today, PLEASE take the 12 minutes to watch Jimmy Valvano's speech as he accepted the first ever awarded Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award.  My thoughts are below, but my thoughts are not the important part of this post.  WATCH HIS SPEECH.



This speech was given on March 3, 1993 at the ESPY Awards when Jimmy V. received the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award.  Jimmy V. was actually the first ever recipient of this award.

Many expected that Jimmy V., whose body was riddled with tumors, who impressed many simply by being present, in person to receive the award, would stand up at the mic... if he could even get to the mic, say "Thank You" and sit down.

On that night, in March, Jimmy V. gave the world a gift by accepting the Arthur Ashe award.  He bestowed wisdom that outlived him and offered advice, which has been immortalized.

In addition to a speech that will never be topped, Jimmy V. announced the creation of The V Foundation For Cancer Research.

I do not remember a world without cancer, so it is hard for me to believe that in 1993 (my lifetime) that money for cancer research was not a high priority.  The V Foundation has lived on... a college basketball tournament occurs every year (Jimmy V. was a great college basketball coach) to raise money for cancer research.  The tournament is happening this week.

This speech will give you such a gift.
The enduring tag line of the speech -- Don't Give Up!  Don't EVER Give Up!
So much said, with so much heart.

via

For all the emotion, the advice, the stories, the humor, the meaning of this speech, my favorite part, I'm sure, was not in Jimmy V.'s original version.

Seven minutes into the speech, Jimmy V. looks at the camera and acknowledges that the camera is flashing at him saying "30 seconds to wrap it up."  No one in the audience knows that this message is occurring, but Jimmy V. does not oblige with the 30 second warning.  Neither does he ignore it.  He acknowledge the warning.  He says,
"That screen is flashing up there '30 seconds' - Like I care about that screen right now, Huh?  I got tumors all over my body, I'm worried about some guy going '30 seconds' Huh?"
Then he throws in an Italian phrase, which I don't know what it means, but you can take a guess for yourself.  :-D

What a moment of true honesty.  His speech begins with this same honesty.  He says, "Time is very precious to me. I don't know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say."

I am starting to border a document the length of a dissertation on this speech, but before I close, I want to clarify -- Why did I post this speech today, under Treasuring the Present, when Jimmy V. is no longer with us?

Did you listen to his speech?
TREASURE THE PRESENT.
Don't Give Up! Don't EVER Give Up!

Three things we should do every day:
1. Laugh
2. Think
3. Have your emotions moved to tears

Treasure the Present:
LAUGH, THINK, CRY

Jimmy V. died less than two months after this speech.
God Bless Him.

Are you treasuring the present?
Have you Laughed, Thought, Cried today?

For a little more on the Jimmy V. speech:

Dream Wedding: The Charm

The day before Chris and my wedding, I received a very unexpected, very memorable, very meaningful gift.

It was the day of my rehearsal dinner.  I had many friends in town from across the country that I had not seen in years.  I had not had a moment alone with my groom-to-be for three days.  I had been on the go for nearly three weeks, and I was on top of the world as I was watching Chris and my dream wedding -- the beginning of our life as husband and wife -- the wedding I had spent the last six months planning -- all coming to fruition...

I had had a few rough moments -- especially two weeks before the wedding.  Two weeks before the wedding, I REALLY missed my sister, Tracey.  Two weeks before the wedding, I wanted my sister who would have had her own "To Do List" and "Wedding File" and she would have remember the things I had forgotten on my "To Do List" and "Wedding File".  I wanted my sister who KNOWS how to handle my parents the way only a fellow sister knows how to handle your parents.  I wasn't sure how to handle the feelings of missing a sister I hadn't seen or talked to in 9 years.

Then, Mom and I unexpectedly had an hour to kill in Spring Lake.  Spring Lake, which is where my sister lived for her last two years of life.  We had to kill an hour while the dress shop finished mom's dress and it was too far for another trip... we would wait it out at the coffee shop next door to the dress shop.  I walked to the coffee counter and looked up at the menu of drinks and I saw it:  Raz-Ma-Taz.  The coffee shop served a drink called Raz-Ma-Taz.  Raz-Ma-Ta was the name of my sister's favorite bird.

Tracey had a BUNCH of tropical birds.  She had WAY TOO MANY tropical birds.  At one point she had as many as 12.  Raz-Ma-Taz, or Tazzy, for short, was Tracey's favorite.  A big green-winged macaw named Raz-Ma-Taz.  

I stopped in my tracks and had to catch my breath.  We had an hour to kill in Spring Lake and the coffee shop serves "Raz-Ma-Taz".  Mom and I both drank a Raz-Ma-Taz that day in the coffee shop and it was like Tracey was there having coffee with us.

When I needed to tell someone this story, I called Tracey's best friend, Mimi.

Mimi and Tracey didn't meet until the last few years of Tracey's life... they met through their birds.  Mimi is the one Tracey asked to look after her dad for her (our dad).  Mimi always remembers to call my dad on his birthday, on Tracey's birthday, on the anniversary of Tracey's death, and on Christmas.  She has a very special assignment from Tracey and she takes it very seriously.

Mimi and I talked the Monday before the wedding and I told her how much I was missing Tracey and how it felt like God gave Mom and me time at the coffee shop to remember her and include her in the planning time leading up to the wedding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flash forward back to the day before my wedding... I was on top of the world as I was watching Chris and my dream wedding -- the beginning of our life as husband and wife -- the wedding I had spent the last six months planning all coming to fruition...  Friends and I had just returned from a day-before-my-wedding bridal shower and things were wonderful.

With my parents' house full of close girlfriends, and my parents' yard FULL of Chris' family and friends setting up the rehearsal dinner furniture and decorations in our yard, the day was flying by until I saw the package.  My day screeched to a halt and my heart began hammering like a jack-hammer when I saw the package.

Overnight priority mail, addressed just to me, thick envelop, from Mimi.

Chris and I were to the point in the wedding events where wedding presents that were continuing to arrive needed to wait to be opened... this present from Mimi was not a normal wedding gift.  This was addressed just to me.  I knew as soon as I saw it, this was something Mimi wanted me to receive before the wedding.

I took the envelop into my parents' family room.  The family room where Tracey and I grew up -- 20 years a part, but where both of us grew up; The family room where we celebrated birthday dinners for years; The family room where our parents hosted both sets of their future in-laws two days before their daughters weddings (23 years a part); The family room where Tracey lain in a hospital bed and where we made our last memories; The family room where Tracey died... now it was my parents' family room full of six of my closest girlfriends from different stages of life -- closest girlfriends who knew I had a sister, but never met my sister -- closest girlfriends in town for my wedding -- the girlfriends who became the sisters God gave me after my sister went to be with Him.

I told them who the package was from and why I thought it was significant and I told them I wanted to open it with them.

I opened a handwritten note from Mimi and a small snapped pouch.

The note said how much Mimi enjoyed talking to me the other day and how after we spoke she remembered something.  Soon after Tracey died, nine years ago, Mimi had lunch with Tracey's mother back in Minnesota.  Tracey's mom had given Mimi a charm that Tracey's dad (also my dad) had given her (Tracey's mom) after Tracey was born.  On the charm was engraved Tracey's name and birth date.  Tracey's mom then gave it to Mimi at that lunch 9 years ago.  Mimi was now giving it to me to have with me on my wedding day and to know and trust that Tracey, my big sister, was looking down and with me on my wedding day.

Tracey Lee
3-12-63

The charm was strung around my bouquet and secured with a pin that belonged to our grandmother.

As of Late: May

Where do these months go?

May has been wonderful, and SPEEDY!

• As of late, I am preoccupied by wedding details most every waking hour -- and I'm LOVING every minute of it!
  
• As of late, I tear up over the smallest, silliest things!
  
• As of late, I look forward to my daily email from my mom reporting which RSVPs have arrived for the wedding. I remind myself of a child excited over Christmas presents.
  
• As of late, my routine is as follows: Exercise, Work, Pack, Pray, Sleep, Repeat.
• As of late, I was praying with my roommates, and I literally fell asleep during the prayer -- my turn to pray came, and there was an awkward and LONG silence
• As of late, God has provided a sufficient portion of motivation and energy for me to keep working, keep packing, keep exercising, keep planning the wedding and keep rejoicing in the whole experience
• As of late, I am more in love with Chris every single day and my anticipation and joy for becoming his wife increases daily!
• As of late, I am in prayer more and more about becoming Chris' wife and what that means and petitioning for help with ALL I HAVE TO LEARN -- because I have so much yet to learn
• As of late, I'm getting a little apprehensive about living with a man... I am incredibly excited, but realistically nervous. How does a couple go from two separate kitchens to one combined kitchen? Or two separate bedrooms to one combined bedroom? I'm in prayer over this as well
  
• As of late, I made my first ever blog button and began my first Blog World exploration called: Examining the Vows of Marriage based on the book, "A Match Made In Heaven"
  

For more As of Late updates, visit here.

My Week In Review May 15

This week has certainly had its highs and lows for me... in fact, just the weekend itself have had highs and lows for me.

LOW

Last weekend, I did not get to see Chris at all. Its official, if I don't get to see Chris on the weekends, for me, it might as well be another work day.

My roommates and I had some pretty serious prayer requests this week (we pray together every night) and this week was just such a reminds of the EVIL that we fight and how helpless humans are without the Lord.

Lastly, my wedding dress was a low of this week. My mom brought it out to Colorado for what we thought was going to be the FINAL try-on... and found... the dress still needs work. MAJOR WORK. The trouble has been the seamstress is in Michigan and I live in Colorado so fittings have been limited. Mom and I realized in no uncertain terms that we needed to find a different seamstress in Denver to help us with the dress IMMEDIATELY.

The whole thing was incredibly stressful and we won't be able to meet with her until today. As of late, I am exhausted and emotional and easily overwhelmed and so the situation has been a big low of the week.

HIGHS

My highs this week have been numerous as well (Praise God!). It has been wonderful to pray with my roommates every night about these HUGE and life threatening situations and trust that these requests are best kept in our Father's hands.

Friday evening, my roommates and I were blessed to host a Mary Kay pampering party that I won at a bridal show. We had friends over and sampled products and had a lot of fun!

All our beautiful faces after the pampering

Not only did I get to see Chris this weekend, but I got to see my mom this weekend too!

There was a bridal shower for me in Eagle on Saturday and it was a BLAST. It was so much fun, but I think it was made even MORE fun given that Mom and I spent Saturday morning rushing too and from Denver (4 hours round trip) to deal with dress drama... by 2:00, a relaxing, fun celebration with friends and family was EXACTLY what I needed. A huge thank you to Chelsea from Adventures In Colorado for hosting this beautiful and enjoyable event.

Here is the beautiful Chelsea and me
She went on to facebook and printed all sorts of pictures of Chris and me and created this beautiful bouquet of "Chris and Brooke"

We are now the proud owners of an Iron Skillet!

Jon and Chris drove around in the mountains during the shower and Chelsea specifically had a gift for Chris -- a baseball serving tray!
This was the gift bow from my colleague in the vision department -- a bow made of protective safety glasses!
My roommate, Maggie, even found this awesome University of Michigan tumbler glasses for us (in Colorado, no less). Chris and I were REALLY excited to get these! Thanks, Maggie!

LESSON of the Week

I think my lesson of the week was the reminder that God is the keeper of my emotions, keeper of my time, keeper of my sleep... and faithful in all of these things. He is trustworthy in all things large and small and He is keeper of all the tears of an exhausted and emotional bride. There were as many tears of joy as tears of frustration.

For more weeks in review, visit Amy.

Premarital Hormones?

I've heard plenty about prenatal hormones... are there such things as premarital hormones?

I could make quite a case for them.

Have you guys seen this clip from the Regis and Kelly show? I was smiling and crying through the whole thing...



Are you suffering from Engagement Emotions like I am?