Thoughts of a twin

Maxwell's birth story

2010-11-08T20:08:00.003-05:00

This is long overdue, but for Max's one month birthday, I thought I'd post his birth story since a couple people have asked about it. It's probably going to be really long, so sorry about that.

I was on the phone with my mom on Friday night (10/8/10), talking about my non-stress test that I had that morning for the baby. She asked me if I was having any contractions or anything since I was a week and a half overdue (due Sept. 29th). I mentioned that I had what felt like menstrual cramps accompanied by the need to go to the bathroom. She told me that those are contractions. Nobody told me what they would feel like, or at least put it that way. They just said I'd feel my uterus contract and get hard. Well when I got off the phone with her, I started timing them and they were already about 5 minutes apart. I don't know when they started that day, but I was already in labor!

When I told Nate that I was actually having contractions, we both started our last minute packing and I was going to start cooking dinner to get my mind off of things. That didn't last long because my contractions started to hurt. So I cleaned up the kitchen, loaded the dishwasher and made the house look nice so we wouldn't come back to a mess. Nate packed up the car so that we'd be ready when we needed to go. Around 9:00 p.m., my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, so we made our phone calls to our families that we were going to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital around 9:30 p.m. and had to go through the Emergency Room because the main door was locked by then. The lady in Emergency, when I told her we needed to go to labor and delivery (while holding my overnight bag and a pillow), asked me why we needed to go there. Duh! I'm going to have a baby! So she called for a wheelchair and we headed upstairs. We got settled into the room about 10:00. I was only 2 cm dilated, but I was definitely in labor, said the nurse. Around 11, the pain was getting worse and I knew that I wanted an epidural at some point, so I figured why delay it too much, especially when they had to call someone in to do it. I knew it would take a little while for them to get in and get it started. They called someone and there was a mix-up over who was on call, so they didn't do the epidural till around 12:15 or 12:30. My parents arrived around 12:45, having driven from Ohio and left shortly after I called. I chatted with them for a while and eventually we all quieted down for a nap. I didn't sleep much, because my blood pressure monitor kept checking me every 15 minutes, but I was able to rest comfortably. My BP was low, so they put me on oxygen around that time too. Nate slept in a rocking chair next to my bed with his head on my legs. My mom slept in the chairs in my room and my dad went out to the waiting room where there were couches.

Around 1 or 1:30, I was about 5 cm and around 2:00, I was 6 cm. Around 3:00, I was 7 cm and just before 4:00, I was 9 cm. The nurse told me that we'd start pushing soon. My mom left the room and went to my dad. Right about 4:00 a.m., I started pushing. The nurse had to instruct me on how to push because I apparently wasn't doing right. Around 4:15, she turned off the epidural because I wasn't feeling enough how to push. I don't remember feeling any different when she turned it off, maybe it was wearing off gradually enough. My contractions were now 6-7 minutes apart, and they should have been 1-2 minutes apart. So, the nurse consulted with my doctor and me and they ended up giving me some Pitocin to speed up the contractions. Nate and I were joking about how it seemed like it was taking forever (it was maybe 4:30-4:45) and the nurse said she once had someone push for 3 hours. Yikes! I kind of rolled my eyes and wished she hadn't said that.

Around 5:00 or a little after, the nurse noticed the baby's heart rate would drop significantly after each contraction, so she called in the doctor. They talked about what to do and how close the baby was. My contractions were coming now, every 1-2 minutes for about 5 contractions, then I'd have a 6-7 minute break. Let me tell you, I lived for those breaks. Pushing is a lot of work!! I was getting pretty miserable at this point, not from the pain, but from exhaustion. I felt like quitting. But I knew it was one of those situations where I knew if I quit, things would not get better. I was ready to have them do a c-section, but I also knew that they would need to prep me and everything else and I wouldn't stop pushing in the meantime, so I didn't give up.

I'm not sure what time it was, but the doctor got worried enough about the baby that he was ready to do ac-section. Well it was early on a Saturday morning, maybe 6:00, and the OR team wasn't there. I was a little happy that they were planning the c-section because I had felt like it went on long enough. The baby was so close for so long, but not getting anywhere. But they had to call in the OR team and in the meantime, I'd continue to push. They also decided to try vacuum extraction while they waited. in order to do that, they had to perform an episiotomy, which I didn't know. They could not get suction on the baby's head, because he was too cone-headed at that point. They even tried a different machine in case the first one was broken.

During this process, someone must have come in and said the OR team was ready because I heard my doctor say to give him 5 minutes. The doctor and nurse both got a little more enthusiastic with each push. I heard the nurse say she saw hair. When the doctor's voice got a little higher pitched and he actually encouraged me using my name, I knew something was happening. (Not really sure why it struck me that he used my name, but hey, it helped me.) As miserable as I was, I found strength somewhere. After another contraction or two, I felt something pop. I didn't know what it was at first, but Nate made a whimpering/crying noise then, and I knew that the head was out, even though I had my eyes closed with exhaustion. The nurse told me to stop pushing and that is when I knew for sure. I guess the cord was around his neck, but I didn't know that until later. I looked over at Nate then and he was crying in his Nate sort of way. He was in total awe. I love that picture I have in me=y memory!

After my next contraction, the baby came out. I don't remember if I pushed him out or if he just came out. A few seconds later, I heard a cry. It seemed to take forever for them to say that it was a boy, but it was just a few more seconds. At that announcement, Nate let out another cry. I think the timing was a coincidence though, it was probably when he saw Max for the first time. I don't even remember looking at the baby (still exhausted), but I looked over at Nate again and rubbed his arm to tell him I love him and that I was happy. It was 6:40 a.m.

Max was then taken to the other part of the room where there was a warmer and where he got cleaned up and doing his APGAR test. Neither Nate nor I thought he looked like a newborn. They warned us that he wouldn't look great when he came out, that he would be wrinkly and not a good coloration, but he looked a few days old when we saw him. Nate stayed by my side when they were testing Max, but had his eyes on Max the whole time. I could see the love in his eyes already. :)

I delivered the placenta without even knowing it and the doctor started to put me back together. This was when he told me that I had a 4th degree episiotomy and it would take a half hour to finish stitching me. Ouch! My legs were shaking so bad, that I'm surprised that he could get anything done without me messing him up… I finally got Nate to go over and see Max. He was watching closely at everything they were doing and looked adoringly at Max. It was like he was the proud papa! When Max got his nose and mouth suctioned out, he hated it so much that he swatted with both hands at the nurse doing it. It was awesome, so funny!

When the nurse was done with Max, the doctor was still working on me, so they let Nate hold him. He brought him over to me and we had our first family moment. I really wanted to hold him, but didn't want to when I was being worked on and shaking so hard. So they took Max to the nursery after about an hour or so and I didn't see him again until after I had breakfast and was moved to the maternity side of the ward.

Nate kept telling me how proud he was of me. He obviously saw how much work I did and how hard it was. He saw how exhausted I was and was proud that I didn't give up. For me that was a compliment that was hard to take. How can he be proud of me when I WANTED to give up and would have if I could have? I wasn't proud of myself, but I was glad that everything worked out the way that it did and I didn't have to have a c-section. I never thought I was going to die, as someone told me she felt, but I did feel like I was going to pass out sometimes when pushing.

So now that Max is a month old, how do I feel? I feel pretty decent physically. I'm almost back to normal. My episiotomy still bothers me. My groin muscles hurt daily when I do anything, but not as much as pre-pregnancy usually. My actual incision site is good, I think, almost no pain from that. Occasionally I'll have some pain, but nothing unbearable like the first week and a half. I can do things for myself now and can walk around fairly normally, just not fast. I have another problem related to childbirth that nobody told me I got when I was in the hospital. That's going away, but at times, it's still difficult to sit. I'm looking forward to the day that I physically feel normal again.

I'm happy that Max is here now and I can be the one to nurture him. It's a lot of work, but I love him and I love watching him. It's amazing to just watch him. Even his breathing is amazing to me. He was inside my belly just a month ago and he's here now and has no idea how amazing that is to me. I hope he's learning who I am and who Daddy is and that we love him as much as we do already.

How am I feeling?

2010-08-24T21:16:00.003-04:00

Lots of people have asked me lately how I'm feeling with regards to my pregnancy. I'm not really sure how to respond to that. My usual response is that I feel great. I've been so fortunate throughout this whole pregnancy to feel pretty good and not have any major problems. I didn't have any morning sickness in my first trimester, I was just tired for a few weeks. I'm about 35 weeks now so that means I have 5 weeks left. I'm still fairly energetic and not super tired. So far the only thing the 3rd trimester has brought me, besides a bigger belly, is being a little bit short of breath at times. It all started the week or 2 that was really hot and humid here, but it hasn't let up since. That's when I know I need to slow down or do something different. I'm not huge, though you can surely tell I'm pregnant now. I've been hovering around the 10 pound mark for a couple of weeks now, in terms of weight gain. But, my doctor is not concerned because the baby is measuring right on schedule.

I'm still working, somewhat. I've been a substitute for the daycare on campus (and its after school program) for about a year now. The work ebbs and flows. I've worked every day for the last 2 weeks, but there will also be times that I won't work for 2 months at a time. I'm talking to them on a week-to-week basis to see if I'm able to keep working. So far, I'm doing pretty good. It hasn't been too bad working at a day care since a lot of the time is spent on the floor playing with the kids or just watching them while they play outside (which can be done from a seated position). The hardest time is nap time. We help the kids fall asleep by laying on the floor next to their cots. Sometimes we'll rub their backs or their heads, depending on if they need calming down or not. But my problem is laying on the hard floor. And it's hard to get up off the ground when you're laying on an uncomfortable floor to begin with, but add a pregnant belly to that one. Thankfully I can take my time and do it slow since the kids are all asleep anyway.

I do have to say that I've been getting pretty nervous about labor and delivery. I've talked to several people who have had babies lately, and that has helped a lot. I've been gathering as much information as I can, which has helped calm me. I don't know what it is that's making me so nervous, but my guess is just the unknown of how it's all going to play out. I'm not nervous about the pain because I don't have any issue with getting an epidural if I need it. If I end up

needing a c-section, I'm cool with that too. I think I just want to be in control and know what's going to happen and when. I've toured the maternity ward of the hospital twice, so at least I know a little bit more about that.

The baby's room is not done yet. In fact, we're still cleaning it out from being a spare bedroom. I know, I know, we need to get moving. I'm fully aware of that. We've both been so busy with the beginning of the school year, working a lot, and traveling for one reason or another. Now that work is slowing down a bit for me, at least for this week, I plan on spending a lot of time in there. I can't wait to see what the final product will look like. I'm excited to see the crib set up with everything else too. My sister-in-law made window treatments, a crib skirt, and some wall decor, so I'm really excited to see those up in the room. I guess that will be my motivation to clean it out this week.

I should also post some updated pictures. I've been posting them on Facebook, but I keep forgetting to post them here. Here are some belly pictures from week 34. You can see how much bigger I got.

Sorry for not smiling in the second picture. It's hard to smile when you're taking a picture of yourself. I've been using the timer function on the camera and often have to take several pictures before I get one where my head isn't cut off or I'm turned the wrong way. These are some of the better ones, but sometimes I get really frustrated before I'm done. I'll try to post more pictures as I go along, but maybe the next pictures will be of the baby.

I may not have mentioned this, but we do not know the sex of the baby. We are waiting till he/she is born to find out. Most people I have encountered have actually said something like "Good for you!" when I tell them we are waiting. Only a few people, including some family members are surprised and impatient to find out. But like Nate said in the beginning: life doesn't give you many surprises, but this is one that we can keep as a surprise.

Labyrinth

2010-05-04T23:38:00.003-04:00

Recently I created a labyrinth at my church for a retreat we did. This was a little difficult because we had no space to create on. So I got online and did a search for labyrinths through church pews. I found one diagram that was hand drawn and semi-hard to follow, but I created this drawing of my labyrinth that I think is a little easier to follow. I also had to flip the original drawing to make it fit my needs a little better. I thought if anyone was interested in this, they wouldn't have to re-do the work. To make it a prayerful experience, I added themed quotes throughout the pews and some occasional pictures and statues (if room allowed). It was a big hit! We had about 70 people at the retreat and probably 50-60 of them did the labyrinth.

Set up time was probably about 2 hours since I had to lay and tape down footprints. It was also the first time I was doing it, so I was unsure what was going to work and what wasn't. I had to re-do a couple of things because the aisle were smaller than I thought, but in the end it worked out.

Key: The brown are the pews, the blue line is the path they took through the labyrinth. I used paper footprints lining the path to show them where to go. The red lines are areas that I blocked off to help them figure out where to go in case the foot prints got messed up. I just used ribbons across the pews for this. In the middle is a gold cross. I made that my focal point in the center of the labyrinth. We had a nice crucifix propped up on the floor and benches for people to sit and reflect on their experience (the small brown objects above and below the cross are the benches).

I have lots of materials that I used for this, including quotes and instructions, so if you're interested in any of this stuff, let me know.

1st belly pics

2010-05-04T23:34:00.003-04:00

Shoot, I promised belly pictures and I forgot. I took them 2 weeks ago, so I'll post those. I don't think there's much difference from then, but I'll take pictures this week and if there's a big change, I'll post those too. Okay these are from Week 16. Note that this was in the evening after I ate, so my belly is pretty big from eating.

New News!

2010-03-23T22:06:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted in a long time, but it was probably worth the wait for this post, huh? Well, I'm happy to announce that Nate and I are expecting our first baby in October. Things are going well right now. I'm about 12 weeks right now and am due on October 2. I had my first ultrasound on Friday and my 12 week appointment today. Things seem to be going well and I only hope that things continue to do well for the rest of the pregnancy. I haven't started showing yet, being my first, but when I do, I'll start posting belly pics! I can't wait to introduce Baby Kropp to all my family and friends!

Always waiting...

2009-10-11T23:56:00.002-04:00

This has been on my mind a lot lately, as I have seen so many of my friends and family get what they ask for. Have you ever wondered when it's going to be your turn? Things in my life seem to have that reoccurring theme as of late. When is it going to by my turn to get what I want or need? I want to know what to do with my life, I want a good job, I want a family, I want to be completely happy with myself and who I am, I want to dream, I want to achieve those dreams, I want to be successful, I want to figure out what success means to me...

I've seen so many people get the things that I want, and yet, I'm still waiting. I've prayed, I've talked to people, I've worked towards some of these things, but I'm still waiting. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I'm still at the starting line and can't get my legs to move.

This makes me sad, but not depressed. I'm okay, but I want more with my life. I want to mean something and accomplish something. When is it going to be my turn?

I'm really not a selfish person. In fact, I think of myself as pretty self-less person. I'm almost always looking out for other people and understanding their decisions and positions. But this one thing in my life... it's okay to be a little selfish, isn't it? Is it wrong to want this for my life when I've been provided for in the important areas of my life (food, shelter, etc)?

When is it going to be my turn?

Text of Nate's speeches from graduation

2009-05-17T12:29:00.003-04:00

Invocation:

Let us raise our hearts and minds

to the Wisdom

that is beyond all knowledge,

to the Ultimate Goodness

that surpasses all our goodwill.

We gather today for ceremony and ritual,

for the most solemn celebration of the academy.

Here we will

remember our purpose as an institution of learning,

recall our ideals,

and rededicate ourselves to the pursuit

of all that is true, good, and beautiful.

May the Spirit of Wisdom and God

remind us of our grand vision,

which is nothing less than the transformation of the world

through the formation and education

of those who study here.

Today we rejoice in the successful preparation

of another class of graduates for this task,

and we honor them for their accomplishment.

May the same Spirit of Wisdom and Goodness

be with us today

as we repeat the centuries-old rituals of commencement.

Benediction:

We now beseech the Goodness at the heart of existence,

the Ultimate Reality who is finally nameless,

for a blessing for these our graduates -

a benediction , a good word spoken of them, and for them.

May a desire to Learn

be ever enkindled in their hearts,

and may they be humbled when they think

they have plumbed the depths of reality.

May a desire to Search

for truth, goodness, and beauty

lead them down the exquisitely winding ways of the road less traveled,

to drink from the streams of righteousness, peace, and justice,

and never be quenched.

May a desire to Serve

cause them to unblock their ears

and allow the cries of the poor and the vulnerable

to pierce them to the heart,

and impel them to give of themselves for the sake of others -

to live simply so that others may simply live.

May the poisonous dualism of black and white,

good and evil, us and them,

be purged from their hearts,

even as they are comforted

with the security needed to accept the complexity

May the energies of the universe that course through their veins now,

be not quashed by the quotidien routines of life after college.

May they be buoyed up by the vast ocean of beneficence,

which surrounds them today and always,

but which, like water to the fish, is seldom noticed.

May each one of them

know in the depths of their hearts

that he or she is worthy of benediction -

worthy of these good words spoken to them

in love

Graduation 2009

2009-05-16T18:14:00.010-04:00

Nate was honored today by doing the Invocation and Benediction and Fredonia State's graduation cermonies. In his first year as campus minister here, I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. I've posted videos of his speeches so you all can enjoy them. Text to come in the next post since you can't understand what he is saying all the time. All text copyrighted by Nathan Kropp, 2009 and cannot be re-written, reproduced, re-used or re-broadcast without the written consent of the Nathan P. Kropp family.

This was the best picture I could get of Nate during the ceremony. I could only see him during his talks since I was on the opposite side from where he was sitting. But there he is. :)

Initiation

2009-04-22T23:16:00.002-04:00

Last night was a mass that celebrated the sacraments of initiation for all the college students in the diocese of Buffalo. Nate had 3 students receiving sacraments. One student was baptized, one received her First Eucharist and Confirmation and one was confirmed. You should have seen these girls. I noticed it most in the girl who was baptized, but all three of them were amazing. They were on cloud nine. They were so excited to be fully received. One girl described a sort of energy that was alive in her. I'm looking forward to mass on Sunday to hear their testimonies and hear more about their experiences. Being with all the students receiving sacraments last night was just inspiring. Twenty-six students in the diocese have chosen on their own to confirm their faith by receiving the sacraments. Makes me think, what can I do to confirm MY faith if I've already made all my sacraments? Something I need to seriously think about...

Happy Spring!

2009-04-13T15:47:00.010-04:00

The first half of April has been so busy and I've got the pictures to prove it. Okay, some of this is from the end of March, but the majority of this will be from April. So far in April, I've hosted girls' night, where we made Ukrainian Easter eggs and went to a Grease sing-a-long at the Opera House; the Triduum and Easter just passed us. We hosted dinner at the Newman Center for students who didn't go home for the weekend. We had only a few people, but it was a really nice dinner. April also brought us a freak snow storm.

The girls' night was fun. We started out making the Easter eggs, then ran to the Opera House to see Grease. Not that we've never seen it before, but it's a classic! They had a nice pre-show where they had some trivia and taught people how to hand-jive. I got up on stage and did the hand-jive against some guy, competing for the best hand-jive. The crowd determined that we tied, but my girls said that he didn't know what he was doing. I got a free movie ticket out of it and it was fun. :) We had to come back to my house afterwards and finish our eggs. Here's a picture of the finished products. All of the eggs started out as plain white, except for one. The dark green one started out as a really light brown egg. I didn't have enough white eggs for everyone to do two, so my second one was a brown one. I think it turned out pretty awesome despite that.

The next week brought the freak snowstorm. I know family and friends in Ohio experienced it as well. It was a bummer of a storm. We didn't get much snow, not nearly as much as forecasted, but the storm did prevent my sister and her kids from visiting for the day. They had never been here and I was looking forward to them visiting. They even started to come, but 15 minutes into the trip, they had seen 2 accidents and were experiencing white-out conditions, so they turned around. I know they were looking forward to visiting too, but I know they'll try to come again, probably over the summer. Here's a picture from that storm.

Back at the end of March, some friends took us to a basilica in south Buffalo. It was Our Lady of Victory. The church was built by Fr. Baker, who ran a pretty famous orphanage at that location. I've heard from lots of people that many families would threaten to drop their kids of at Fr. Baker's if they were being bad. Tim Russert also refers to this in his book "Big Russ and Me", which I am reading right now. The basilica was absolutely beautiful! We took some pictures of it, but plan on taking people there if they visit us and we're looking for something somewhat indoor to do. Here are a few pictures.

The end of March/beginning of April brought the beginning signs of spring! We have crocuses galore around here, all kinds of shades of purple and even some yellow. There's even a blue flower that I'm not familiar with. Here are some beautiful pictures of them.

I almost forgot! At the end of March, I spent a random weekend at my parents' house when my sister and her kids were there. My parents' also watched my other sister's kids for the evening as well. Here are some pictures of my nieces and nephews. They're all so cute!

I've captured Tyler and threatened to take him home with me.

Mommy and Gretchen laughing together.

Grandma and Gretchen.

Grandpa and Samantha.

Gretchen wondering what's going on...

Tyler the ham and Gretchen the model?

I LOVE this picture, can you get any cuter?

Mommy and Tyler time

This is the only picture Mikey would let me take of him, but I didn't want to exclude him from my post. Can you believe he's 10 already!

I always think I have nothing to write about in my posts, but as you can see this one is so long that I guess I was way overdue for a post. I am seriously going to try to post more often. Happy Easter and happy spring, Everyone!

Niagara Falls

2009-02-18T19:17:00.006-05:00

Happy Belated Valentines' Day!! Nate and I went to Niagara Falls for Valentines' Day last weekend. We were advised to stay till it got dark so that we can see when they light up the falls at night. We decided to span both daytime and night. I'll post some pictures, but first a video of the falls and the river to show the snow and ice. It's 3 videos spliced together, so if it jumps a little, that's why.
We got to the falls around 4:30 and hung out for a while. We walked around a bit and decided go get some food while we wait for it to get dark. Do you know that we couldn't find a single, decent looking restaurant open in the entire area? We were on the American side, and it was probably 6:00 when we were looking for food. We even drove around the town looking and everything was closed. We gave up and went back to the falls. It was just getting dark enough for them to turn on the lights. We saw them turn it on and thought, "oh wow. That's it?" So while we were talking for about 20 minutes, the lights started to turn colors! That was pretty cool. We saw a lot of colors. We saw red, orange, green, blue, and purple. The lights stayed on each color for probably 10 minutes. In the meantime, there was a couple next to us who were really giggly and a little annoying. They were behind Nate, so I kept peeking over at them. One time when I peeked, the guy was down on one knee proposing! No wonder they were so giddy and happy. I waited a few minutes till the kissing stopped and the initial shock wore off. Then I went over to congratulate them and ask if they had a camera so I could take their picture. I was going to offer to take their picture and email it to them if they didn't have one, but the girl did. I've never seen anyone (besides Nate) propose before! I was getting a little teary-eyed myself. Here are some pictures of the falls. I won't post all the colors, but I'll post some. :)

This picture is obviously taken in the daytime, so you can see what you're looking at in the next couple pictures. You're looking at the American Falls here and way in the background are the Horseshoe Falls.

The first night time picture, before the colors started. The humpy stuff you see in the water, underneath the falls is ice and snow. I think it's from the mist and some of the water freezing and falling from the top of the falls.

Orange... this is actually the second color we saw. I like it better than the red.

Green, obviously.

Purple! We were actually leaving when this one came on and had to turn around to go see it. We couldn't leave without a picture of the purple one!

On another exciting note, Nate and I found out that we have another niece on the way! It's the first girl on Nate's side of the family. Do you think she'll be spoiled??? Congratulations to Tim and Becky!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-10T00:07:00.007-05:00

I'm adding on to the beginning of my post to say that I'm semi-embarrassed about how this post turned out. It's all about Pugsly. I guess I have a better understanding of how proud parents are when they post about their kids and all the new things they've done. Oh, well. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

I don't have much to report since my last post, except that I had a great Christmas and New Years' holiday. Nate and I were gone for almost 2 weeks traveling around Ohio visiting one family member or another. Poor Pugsly, he got shuffled around from house to house and probably didn't know if he was coming or going. I think I enjoyed the holidays though. He seemed to recognize some family members and he got to meet a lot more. He stayed at my sister's house with me when I visited for a few days. My nephew, Tyler, just adored him. He called him "the best dog that he has" or something like that. Note, Tyler has no dogs. Pugsly took a liking to Tyler's little chair though and made himself quite comfortable after Tyler went to bed.

I think my sister really liked having Pugsly there too. We all went to the Toledo Zoo one night (but not Pugsly so he wouldn't get eaten by a tiger) to see the holiday lights. That was fun, I enjoyed that. My sister and I went shopping, which is sort of a ritual for us, that's always great. :)

Pugsly got his first taste of a fenced in yard at Nate's sister's house. Wow, he loved to be free! He wouldn't run around outside if we weren't out there. I tried letting him out one time to go take care of business, but he just sat on the porch, looking in the window. I guess he would get used to it if we had a fence. He was so good when we were there, except that he was curious about Elliott's toys. He and Elliott seemed to really like each other though.

Since being back, Pugsly has been great. He seems to be happy to be back and have his basket again. Though, it never seemed to phase him that we weren't at our house except when we left him alone at someone's house in his crate. Then he went nuts when we got home. I think he thought we'd left him for good. It's funny, he makes these cute little squeaking sounds when we come back. It sounds like he's crying, but his tail wags and he's so excited to see us. Another time that he makes noises is when he's out for a walk and smells or sees another dog. I don't know what he wants because he's afraid of the dogs that were at the rescue with him, but I guess he wants some companionship or something. This is a type of whining noise that's louder

and sometimes really deep and guttural. I managed to get a little video of this the other day. His actions aren't as exciting as his sound, so make sure your volume is turned up. Notice the wagging tail too.

Today, I had him tied him up outside while I was shoveling snow to get out of the garage. He's not used to being tied up, usually we just walk him since it's been cold since we got him. But I tied him up and he ran around trying to go where ever he wanted to. It took him about 10 minutes to realize that he was tied up and couldn't go as far as he wanted to. But I did capture a few good pictures of him in classic Pugsly pose and a video of him tromping through a snow drift.

Notice how all the pictures above he has his leg up? That's pretty standard for Pugsly. If he's standing still, he has one of his front paws up. It's not always the same one, but it's so adorable! I tried to get a picture of it here, but sometimes he'll dig in the snow with his nose and when he comes out, his face is covered in snow. I could only get it when his nose had snow on it, but you can see how cute it is.

I posted a video a while ago of him hopping through the snow, but this one is a close-up. He always reminds me of a rabbit. Again, he's so adorable.

Enough about Pugsly... :) Nate attended a conference this week for campus ministers and even gave a talk. It went really well, according to his standards, so I'm proud of him for that. While he was gone, I realized that I could never live on my own. I did absolutely nothing. I cooked dinner for myself and went to the grocery store, but that's about it. Well, I did get enough energy to shower every day, but for the most part, none of the housework got done, even though I made out a schedule for myself. I did take Pugsly out, but that was out of necessity. :) It's probably because I've never lived by myself, but in a way, I'm glad that I never had to.

Let's see what other news? Congratulations to my college friends L and P on the birth of their 3rd baby! All of you in Portland, have fun with the snow if it's still around. I heard you had about 17 inches of snow on the ground at one point. So rare for Portland, but I bet it was kinda fun. :)

Meeting the families

2008-11-26T22:39:00.003-05:00

Pugsly is enjoying meeting the family so far. He's a little weary of people at first and even growled at my mom! But after a while, he warms up a bit to everyone unless there are a ton of people around. Then he'll just sit on my lap.

This is a video of Pugsly tromping through the snow the other day when we got a foot and a half of it. It's so much fun to see him hopping through it!

Where did he go?

2008-11-22T22:53:00.008-05:00

In my last post, I mentioned how Pugsly likes to burrow in some of the blankets that we bought. This first picture is what I saw of him the first time I came out looking for him and he was burrowed.

Oh, trust me, he's in there. Just look at the next pictures.

Next we see him peeking out after I looked all over for him, calling his name.

He started to come out afterwards, but isn't this the cutest picture!

We went to the laundromat later in the day to wash all the blankets we bought, since some of them wouldn't fit in our washer. I was joking around with him and put him in the basket on top of the blankets. Look at this face! This is probably one of the best pictures we've gotten of him.

He decided to take a nap in the basket while we got the other stuff ready to go. He assumed the nap position, almost always curling up into a ball like this.

Handbells and horns

2008-11-21T11:58:00.004-05:00

About 2 weeks ago, I had my first concert with the handbell choir. The concert was more for singing choirs, but we got to do one song by ourselves and two songs with the choirs. It was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed playing the bells and I'm looking forward to any other concerts I might be able to join in on. Unfortunately, I'll miss playing at the Christmas mass though. I've got some pictures of us polishing the bells after the last practice.This is one of our high school students. He is a drummer, and he also plays some of the really large bells.

This is me at the beginning of our assembly line. I was applying the polish while the others took it off. By this time though, I was done with applying it and was helping with the final polishing.

One of the larger bells up close.

The whole group of us who stayed to polish. The other bell players were in the choir, so they're at practice here.

Six months in the waiting, our Toyota Prius has finally arrived! We picked it up yesterday and took some pictures. Driving it home was fun, and then it snowed a foot and a half last night. It's in the garage, but I don't know if I want to get it out! :) Our other car has to sit outside now. And of course, it's piled with snow. We have a carport that we found in the garage, but we haven't had the chance to put it up before the snow came. But anyway, here are a few pictures of it.

Odometer reading of 9 miles on the car. It was actually 7 when we got it, but we took it for a spin before we went home.

Under the hood, before it gets dirty. See how clean and shiny it is?!

Me, parking the car in the driveway when we first got home.

Okay, I have to mention Pugsly in this post, even though I was trying not to. We decided to collect some used blankets for the rescue where we got Pugsly. We went to Goodwill and bought some really old, cheap blankets and just threw them on the kitchen floor when we got home. Eventually we plan on washing them, but in the meantime we wanted Pugsly to give them a trial. Well, he LOVES them. He has not slept on his blanket since these arrived. At first, he was just sleeping on top of the pile, but now he has taken to crawling through the blankets and covering up with them. At first you could still see his head, but now he's burrowing so far in there that you can't even see him anymore. Last night I came into the kitchen to turn off the light and say goodnight to him, but I couldn't find him. I called his name and then saw the blankets stirring. Of course, we managed to capture some pictures of him doing this, but they'll have to wait till the next post. They aren't downloaded off the camera yet. But just know that you're in for a really big treat. The pictures don't do it justice. I wish you could see him. We've decided that he needs a new blanket now so that he can burrow all the time.

Doggie clothes

2008-11-10T14:48:00.003-05:00

Here you go Suzy. I took some pictures of Pugsly with his sweater on. He looks so cute, even though the sweater isn't the most attractive. The most important thing is that he's warm and doesn't shiver as much when he's outside with this on. Enjoy the pictures.

Giving Nate some love... this is his favorite pose when you pet him, he loves to climb on your legs.

You can't see it here, but he's actually kissing me at this moment. I try not to let him kiss me in the mouth, but that's where he always aims. He LOVES giving kisses.

More bragging about Pugsly

2008-11-05T21:45:00.004-05:00

I really like my dog, so I'm going to put up some bragging pictures about him. He's been so great. We've only had him for about 5 days, but I've grown to love him and I think he loves us. Nate does pretty good with him too, for not being an animal person. He always says hello to Pugsly when he comes home (and by hello, I mean he stops to pet him for a few minutes) and he brings his work outside with Pugsly on the porch when the weather is nice. Pugsly has gotten into this habit where he seems to think that we left him forever whenever we go anywhere or when we go to sleep. When he sees us again, he is sooooo happy that he doesn't know what to do with himself. He ends up jumping and running in circles, all the while trying to jump up on us as well. I took the camera when I left for a meeting earlier today and had it ready when I came home. Before I even opened the door, I heard Pugsly whimpering. Here's a short video of what greeted me when I opened the door. This is taken with me standing up looking down at him.

Here are some more random pictures of him:

Here you can see him enjoying our backyard. This is in the way back, so we haven't mowed it. He loves to hop through the tall grass like a rabbit and loves to chase squirrels. He could care less about the deer or the birds we have in the yard, but squirrels and chipmunks are on his list.

This one he probably just woke up and is wondering what's going on. I think I called his name so he would look at the camera.

This is Pugsly outside on our porch enjoying the nice warm weather we've been having. He's looking at me, who's inside trying to sneak a good picture of him. I love it when his ears are up like this. Since he's nervous a lot, his ears are down and behind his head. He looks so sad like that.

Sleeping beauty. I took this yesterday, but he always sleeps like this. You can even see him nuzzle up under his tail. It's really cute.

It's true.

2008-11-03T17:27:00.005-05:00

Yes, it's true, for anyone who doesn't believe it, or hasn't heard yet, we got a dog! Believe it or not, we did. He's name is Pugsly and he is about a year or two old. He is part pug and part pekingese. He's a rescue dog and he is so lovable. He's shy and scared of everything, including his shadow, which I found out yesterday. :) He LOVES being held and petted and is perfectly content watching the cars go by (as long as you are petting him while he's watching them). We sat on the front porch for a half hour today while he just watched the cars. Below I've posted a few pictures of him and I'm hoping to get a video of what he does when we first come home or wake up. It's so adorable.

Close up on his face. This is from when I went to visit him the first time, without Nate. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures of him, but he wasn't cooperating. He was just too scared of people.

Pugsly and his new family

Pausing while running around in the back yard. He loves the tall grass and to run, jump and sniff through it all. He's discovering that he likes to chase squirrels but the deer in the woods next door don't phase him at all. Notice the curve in the tail? I think that's the pug coming out of him. It's not always like that, but when he's in this position, it's obvious. He also has cute little wrinkles on his face sometimes that are characteristic of pugs.

Fall, birthdays, and more

2008-10-23T21:25:00.015-04:00

Last weekend, I visited my sister and her family for my nephew's 3rd birthday. I had a great time spending so much time with my sister and her kids since my sister was on maternity leave. This was her first week back to work. I took some pictures from the weekend. Here's some of the good ones. The first picture is Tyler blowing out his candles with Evee in the background. The second one is the birthday "cake" (cupcakes, really) that my sister and I made. I had a blast making it. The cupcakes were a mold that I bought. I was excited to be able to use it so soon! The third one is me and my two god-sons. Mikey is 10 now! He's growing so fast! And look at Tyler, he's such a ham!

I love fall, hence the next couple of pictures. I loved the leaves sitting in our yard and how they looked against the green grass. The panoramic picture is from the drive to the airport last week. The leaves here were at their Fall peak and absolutely beautiful. Today, I went to our back yard to take some pictures of the trees there in their fall colors. Unfortunately they are all still green. I stood in the middle of the parking lot and looked around. Out of the forest came 4 deer. They saw me, but saw that I wasn't moving and continued into the yard. They walked around and ate some grass for a while. I was there for a good 10 minutes before I looked into the woods and noticed a buck! It was the first buck that we've seen in the yard. I managed to get some great pictures of the does as well as a good video of them. I got a few pictures of the buck but only one of them was really good enough to see it.

Well, I'm having problems uploading the video, so I'll try to add it later. It really shows how close I was to the deer and how calm they were.

Family Time!

2008-10-09T00:26:00.006-04:00

It seems like September and October are Family months. I visited my sister for about a week in the middle of September. We had a good time being sisters (i.e. staying up late talking, going shopping, and loafing around). I'm glad I got to spend so much time with her (and the kids) while she's on maternity leave and not working. My parents came to visit at the end of September. It was the first time they were in Fredonia. From what I could tell, they liked it here. They seemed to enjoy themselves and even stayed till Sunday instead of leaving Saturday afternoon like originally intended. We visited the Festival of Grapes in Silver Creek and despite there only being a handful of grape-oriented things, we managed to come away with the fixings for a grape pie. Mmmm...

This past weekend my twin sister and her family came to visit.

It was the first time for them visiting Fredonia also. My sister is on maternity leave from having her second child. She has a (almost) 3 year old boy and a 10 week old girl. I got lots of baby time and toddler time in this weekend. Here are some great pictures of the kids and some of the things we did.

Next weekend, we'll be with Nate's family at their annual clambake. I feel like I haven't seen them in forever, so it'll be good to see them. We'll be celebrating the many October birthdays in the family.

Then the weekend after that is my nephew's 3rd birthday party (as well as my other nephew's 2nd birthday party, but I can't make it to both) so I'll see my sister and her family again!

Somewhere in there, we're squeezing in a short visit to Chicago to visit some friends. It's going to be short, but we'll see as many people as we can. I'm hoping to see my co-worker who had a baby at the beginning of September.

Ding-a-ling!

2008-09-24T21:24:00.002-04:00

This is really exciting. I got a call from the music director from church last week. She asked me if I wanted to join the handbell choir. How cool is that! We had our first practice yesterday. I had no idea how difficult it could be. Imagine taking a difficult piano score, with lots of notes on both treble clef and bass clef and playing only one or two notes at a time. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but it's so weird. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to playing some more. Our first concert is November 6th, I think, whatever that Sunday is. Thankfully she gave me a part in the bass clef so if I mess up, it's not part of the melody and it probably won't be as noticeable, or at least I'm hoping that's the case. This is just what I was looking for, something fun to get involved in. I just wish there were a few more people my age there. The director calls us her ding-a-lings. Ha ha!

I can't believe I did it

2008-09-15T00:04:00.002-04:00

I tried really hard not to do it. I was curious, but I let everyone else tell me about it. I didn't want to jump on the band wagon, but I couldn't hold out any longer... I joined Facebook. I tried joining LinkedIn, a professional networking site, hoping that would not only help me find a job, but to quench my thirst for social networking sites. I decided that there were too many people for me to keep in touch with that are all on Facebook. I found more people than I expected! As of right now, without even doing much, I have 31 friends already! It's only been 2 or 3 days. I can't wait till I have more time to be able to check out the features of the site and see what cool stuff I can do. If you're on Facebook and not my friend yet, look me up and add me.

Funny YouTube video

2008-09-02T23:02:00.003-04:00

This video is hilarious! The first time I saw it, I watched it over and over and laughed so hard I cried. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do. I can't resist laughing every time I see it.

Wedding picture

2008-09-01T21:15:00.004-04:00

I couldn't resist posting this picture of me and Nate from the wedding we went to this weekend. I think we both look so cute, aside from the fact that we're looking right into the sun and I had a migraine. I love the color coordination and I think Nate looks stunning in that shirt. He went out on a limb buying this shirt for himself and I think he looks awesome in it! The visual effects of our reflection in the car hood is a nice touch. :)

Friends, marriage, and cars

2008-08-31T23:27:00.000-04:00

This weekend we got to see some friends from Chicago when we went to a wedding of one of them. It was great to see them again and catch up in person. It reminds me how good I feel when I'm around friends. Congratulations to JE and T on their marriage. Many blessings for your years together.

The best part of the weekend was staying with my sister. I stayed up talking to her till almost 2 A.M. Friday night/Saturday morning. It was great to be around her again. I just wish we could get together all the time. I loved talking to her. It was great that my month-old niece was able to hang out with us too. I can't wait to see them again at my niece's baptism in two weeks.

The best feeling in the world happened to me when we arrived at my sister's house Friday night. It was after my nephew's bedtime, so I didn't expect him to be awake or to see him till the next day. When I pulled in the driveway, my brother-in-law was in the garage and peaked in the house to say we were there. Out runs my nephew, who's almost 3 now, arms wide open, yelling my name. He ran into my arms and gave me a giant hug. It was the best feeling ever! I obviously don't have any children, so I'm not used to kids being attached to me. I melted when he did that. He's the cutest nephew too, he always wants to talk to me when I'm talking to my sister. The other day she called me to ask me a question and then hung up. The phone rang a few seconds later and it was her again. She forgot to let my nephew talk to me, so she had to call back. He asked me to come to his house. Thankfully I was able to tell him I was coming that weekend, so as not to disappoint him.

So, while waiting for our Prius to arrive (it's been 4 months now and at least another month to go) it's been harder and harder to get around without a car. Yes, we have our bikes and that's been really handy, especially since my parents gave us their kiddy trailer so we can carry our groceries home, but we had to rent a car anytime we wanted to do some major traveling. Last weekend we decided to buy a car in the interim. We had great luck when we went out on Monday. We picked up our car on Wednesday. It's a maroon ' 95 Buick Century with onlly 82,000 miles on it! We really lucked out. We got a good deal and a great car. We drove it to the wedding this weekend and got some great gas mileage too. We're falling in love with the car and will have to seriously think about if we want to keep it or not. :) Here's a picture of our girl...

Oh, Deer!

2008-08-10T22:35:00.001-04:00

We really do have deer in our yard, and we finally got a good picture of one before it ran away. I was taking out the compost yesterday and I turned around after dumping it in the pile and it was staring me in the face. Okay, it was down the hill, but it was so close! It stared at me for a while, then I left to go get the camera and Nate. We went back to look at it and it was still there looking at us. I took this picture of it, then it started to walk away. It snorted at us a few times, but it left before I could get another good picture. Anyway, I enjoyed getting this one and I'm glad we finally got to snap a picture of it.

7 years, a niece, and Niagra Falls

2008-08-07T23:14:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, Nate and I celebrated out 7 year anniversary. He was really sweet, this year he bought me a framed picture of Multnomah Falls and hung it in the bedroom while I was still sleeping. Then he took me to a local inn/restaurant for dinner, a night in one of their rooms, and breakfast. It was an awesome place! We had a really good time playing cards and reading. He even planned a short prayer service. I think I'll keep him for at least another 7 years. :)

So a lot has happened since I last posted. My sister had her baby! The baby girl's name is Gretchen Kristine (middle name was chosen after my sister's middle name). She's a doll, she look just like her brother did. Here are some pictures of my new niece and her big brother.

Look, she's smiling at her mom already. Mom looks happy.

This is what you get when you try to get Tyler to smile. I thought it was so cute, I couldn't resist.

We had some family come and visit us last weekend, which was really awesome. It was nice to be in a place where people want to come visit and to be close enough for them to come. Friday night we had the most spectacular storm I had ever been through. It was scary! There was lots of thunder and lightning, which sounded like it was right above us. There was even some loud ones that woke everyone up and brought almost all of us to the kitchen to see if everyone was okay. We took our turns in the bathroom and tried to fall asleep afterwards. I checked the time, for a full half hour after we got up, it thundered constantly. Not just one here and there, but it was a rolling thunder that didn't stop. The craziest part of the night was the electrical noise we all heard. It was a loud zap that shut off our electricity. Some people saw sparks outside and we got up to make sure nothing was on fire. We were about to call the authorities in case something went wrong, when our electricity turned back on.

Saturday, we went to Niagara Falls. I talked to my mom and she said that every time we've gone there, we've been on the Canadian side. I know that when my sister and I were there about 10 years ago with friends, we were also on the Canadian side. So this was my first experience at the falls on the American side. Here are some more pictures:

It was a beautiful day to go up there. It was sunny, breezy, clear, and comfortable weather for a picnic. We were exhausted by the end of the day but the ice cream we had at the end of our walk around the falls sure helped re-energize us for the ride back, well some of us at least. After dinner we had some great games of Twister. I haven't played that in ages! The whole weekend was great. We had lots of laughs, great food, and shared experiences that will last a lifetime. Thanks again to everyone for visiting!

Town pictures

2008-07-01T20:46:00.000-04:00

I actually remembered my camera when I was going to church this weekend so I got some pictures of the downtown area. This picture is of the Opera House. They have a lot of different event going on throughout the year.

This next picture is just a view of Main St in one direction.

This one is a bummer. It's an inn whose 200 year old tree fell down this week. You can see the tree here. There were 2 large trees flanking the walkway up to the front door. The one on the left is still there. It has a plaque on it saying when it was planted.

This is our church, St. Josephs, just a couple of blocks away from downtown, on Main St.

This is a common area in downtown near where they hold the Farmer's market and some other summer events. There's a fountain and a gazebo and some park benches.

So that's your sneak preview... hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Weekend alone

2008-06-29T00:21:00.000-04:00

So, we've now been in our new home for a month. This weekend I had the opportunity to spend the weekend by myself here. I hate being by myself, but I surprisingly had a great time. I got my bike fixed up a few days ago and today I rode all around town to the market and to get a hair cut and to a couple of garage sales. It was great to not be coped up in the house and not be able to go anywhere without walking. I need to work up to biking longer and longer each time though, because tonight my legs ache. It's really strange because I've been walking up a storm ever since we moved here. But I guess biking is so different on your body.

I'm looking forward to getting a car though, I'd like to explore the area a lot more. Not just our town, but the surrounding area and doing some hiking or some outdoor summer activity besides weeding the yard. By the way, people coming to visit is a great way for us to learn more about the area, so one at a time, let me know when you want to come. We're looking forward to visitors!

New Home

2008-06-11T22:40:00.000-04:00

I promise I'm trying to post more than once a month. I'll get better at it, I hope. So, we're out of that dreadful big city and into our new home in rural New York. How do I like it? So far it's good. It's so hard to say because we've spent the first two weeks unpacking and hardly anything else. We've got a LOT done. If only we can keep the unpacking messes to a minimum... The town is great. It's a small downtown that's actually pretty active. We went to a classical music concert last weekend and there were a lot of people there for the size of the town. It was really nice. They offer a lot of programs and festivals. We also found a special place already. It's an ice cream shop. Those are always good, but this one has Hershey's ice cream and it also sells tacos! Strange combination, but it works. :) Since it was so hot our second week, we went there a couple of times.

This week is a mixture of stuff. I'm visiting my sister and watching my nephew for the week. In between that, the two weekends are busy visiting other family for Father's Day and my niece's baptism. It's so great to be closer to home where we can just drive for the weekend if we wanted to. We're still waiting on our car though. I don't know how long it's going to take, but I'm predicting the end of July. I guess Toyota still can't keep up with the Prius demands.

Maybe next time, I'll post a picture of our new town. I'll have to get a good picture of something that's representative. I'll think about that one...

I'm an aunt again!

2008-05-20T16:04:00.000-04:00

I'm so blessed to have so many nieces and nephews and I was blessed again on Friday. My sister-in-law (husband's sister) had a baby boy on Friday morning. Congratulations to her and her husband and welcome to Elliot! You are coming into a wonderful family who will take good care of you and love you so much!

Awesome-est website

2008-04-22T19:22:00.000-04:00

If you're ever stuck on presents to get me, just check out this website. I'd be happy with just about anything from here.

www.thepurplestore.com

It's awesome! Everything is purple, everything! I can't get enough purple!!

The Countown begins!

2008-04-16T17:26:00.000-04:00

It's official! We'll be moving to Fredonia, New York. I hope to have a movie posted soon for people who haven't seen the video of our house yet. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and living in a neighborhood where there isn't anything but houses. Okay, the university is nearby, but I don't think you can see it from our house. Houses, that's all you can see, and there's trees in the neighborhood, lots of them. I counted today, there's 37 days left till we move. Our stuff will be leaving the city before we do and I'll work for a few more days so I don't know the exact day we'll be leaving the city, but it'll be around then. There's a lot to do between now and then, but I cannot wait!

Happy Triduum!

2008-03-20T11:40:00.000-04:00

This week is the most important week in a Christian's year. It celebrates the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, our Savior. As we enter into the most holy days of our year, the sacred Triduum, I wish everyone a blessed and meaningful celebrations. May the experiences of the Triduum this year bring you understanding of the sacrifice that was made for us and the joys of the Resurrection.

We will be celebrating on Saturday, by making Ukrainian Easter eggs. This will be my first experience delving into to this form of art and I could not be more excited! My thoughts are racing with patterns that I'd like to try. Looking up the meanings of all the symbols and patterns has filled my mind with so many ideas that I'd like to try. But, I will probably go with something really really basic since it's my first time doing this. After the Easter Mass on Sunday morning, it's off to brunch at a friends house in the early afternoon. If time allows, we may head over to another friends house for an early dinner, but I'm not sure if the timing will work out for that one.

Again, I hope you all have a wonderful Triduum and I look forward to hearing about your celebrations. You will all be in my thoughts and prayers this week!

Done, done, done!

2008-03-14T10:30:00.000-04:00

He's done! My husband is completely done with school! He passed his oral comprehensive exams and now we're just waiting for graduation. In the next two months while we wait for the official ceremony he'll be looking for jobs. He's already got a couple of interviews lined up and I'm sure many more to come. I'm so excited to be moving out of the city, and I can't wait to figure out where that will be and to settle down some where.

Sick of the City

2008-03-07T17:35:00.001-05:00

I'm so sick of this city. I'm ready to get out of here now. This morning on my way to work, I actually stayed awake on the bus. I was looking out the window as the bus rode alongside the railroad track embankment. This embankment was cleaned up a few months ago from trash, but already, there's more trash than there was before it was cleaned up. You can't look a few inches without seeing bottles, chips wrappers, or newspapers. It's disgusting! Any other place I have lived, nobody would put up with that. I even saw a guy last week drinking out of a paper cut and when he was done, he threw it in the road. There was probably a trash can less than 20 feet away because he was working outside an apartment complex.

The other day, I was on the subway platform waiting for the train. I was reading a book I just bought, and there were about 3 or 4 teenagers yelling really loud, just talking to each other. They were the type of people I wanted to stay away from, so I purposely got on a different car of the train. When the train stopped at a station, they got off and started yelling and laughing at somebody who was "different" in my car. They were arguing back and forth with this person. It was so frustrating, I just want to be in a normal place where everyone is happy and friendly.

Random flying notes

2008-01-31T15:30:00.000-05:00

In the past two days, I've randomly come across some websites that have to do with flying. They're interesting enough that I thought I should share them with you guys. The first one is from the TSA. They have developed a blog that their own employees will use to address concerns by flight passengers. All are welcome to post comments to the blogs and after the first blog entry (yesterday), they received over 700 comments! Today's blog was informing the commenters that they are working on different ways to allow flyers to voice opinions and ask questions. What a great forum! I'm looking forward to checking that out once the blog gets going in full swing. Here's the link: http://www.tsa.gov/blog.

The other webpage I saw was talking about airline rule 240. Apparently this was a rule created back when airlines were regulated. After deregulation, the airlines don't have to follow this, but some still do. So what is it? It reads that if a flight is canceled or delayed, "caused by anything other than weather, the airline would fly you on the next available flight — not their next available flight, which might not leave for another 24 hours." What? They never do that anymore. But check out this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22900119/ This guy has tried it several times and it worked. The key? Be nice when you're asking about it, know what you're talking about, and just know that they are doing you a favor if they do this for you because the rule is not so much a rule anymore. I say it's worth a try, at least.

Mac magnets

2008-01-28T12:17:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I posted, but here hasn't been a whole lot going on. The thing that has kept me the most busy is my new computer. I bought a refurbished MacBook and I love it! I've almost got everything tranferred from one computer to the other, so I'm almost running at full capacity. I'm still learning more and more about the Mac OS, but it's so much better than Windows. It's so intuitive, I'm not sure why anyone would want a Windows machine, who THINKS they know what would be intuitive. I've loved Macs since since I worked with them in Portland, and I've finally got my own. I couldn't be more excited over it. I feel like such a geek being this excited, but what can I say, I work in the IT field. :) If anyone knows of job openings for Mac lovers, let me know. Ha ha!

I hope everyone is doing well. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone sometime!

Christmas holiday

2008-01-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

I just want everyone to know what a great Christmas holiday I had. I'm blessed with a job that allowed me to take a whole week off to celebrate with family and friends. After the week I felt refreshed and happy and realized how much I love spending time with family and friends and how important that is to me.

Thank you to all the people in my life who help me feel this way. I had a great time with everyone I saw. I never had a dull moment the entire week, from all the little kiddies (and kiddies to be) to parents, siblings, and in-laws we visited. Thanks for making my vacation a great one and for making Christmas meaningful for me being surrounded by so many loved ones. I hope you all have a great new year and that this year brings lots of joy and great memories!

One nice thing about Chicago

2007-12-13T13:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday on my way home, I left work accidentally in time to catch CTA's Holiday Train. It's a tradition here for almost 20 years I think. I didn't even know that it was going to be on my train line. I wasn't even thinking about it, but it pulled up with all its festivity and joy. It was one of the coolest things that's happened to me here. You couldn't help but smile and be in a good mood when you rode it. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride for very long, I could have rode it all the way to the end, it was great. I looked up pictures today and this site probably has the best pictures for it http://iconeon.net/blog/2006/11/27/cta-holiday-train/ and this is a good picture of the exterior http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1524252119048480006MlMzGx so check it out and make yourself smile. I even got to see the big man
in red himself!

Niece pictures

2007-12-10T09:53:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of my new niece!

Proud papa and new baby, already wore each other out.

Wide awake and ready to greet the world. Hello, world!

Retreat experience

2007-12-09T22:26:00.002-05:00

Almost a month ago, I went on a retreat with a group called Charis. The topic was "Decisions... and the transitions that follow." I went into the retreat thinking about getting advice on how to make decisions, particularly with my career or where we want to live. That's not all all what came out of it. This retreat was a life-changing event for me. The second talk that was given was about letting go of the things that hold us back from making transitions in our lives (internal change of how we view our identity, as opposed to a tangible change). The woman who spoke gave a testimonial about herself, something she never talked about in public before. She was bipolar and had to learn how to live with her major ups and downs. She wondered if she would ever have a "normal" life with someone who loves her for who she is. What she had to let go of was the feeling like something was missing in her life and the attitude that this was a debilitating disability. It hit home with me and my depression. After she talked, we were all given index cards to write a few words about the things that are obstructing us from moving on in transitioning. Since her talk really struck me, I felt it was my turn to let go. I wrote about how I don't always like who I am or where I'm at in my life and all those bad things that are not helping me be happy. Then we went outside and when we were truly ready, we ripped up the index cards and threw them in the fire.
     After that, we went into the church and gathered around the baptismal font. We talked about how we were all God's Beloved. They transformed the church into a labyrinth afterwards. We all took different journeys through it. We ran into obstructions along the way, but we also had people encouraging us, just like our journey through life.
     The whole experience for me was life-changing. I felt so free afterwards. I've had a positive outlook ever since. I'm seeing things more positive, acting more positive and I've found myself saying things I normally wouldn't say in that way. It's been a month now and I'm coming down off the excitement high of the retreat, but the experience is so close to my heart that I know that this is the real thing and it will stick with me. I'm hoping that this experience and the transition I'm going through now will eventually carry over into my depression and help me with that.
    During the retreat, after the labyrinth, we wrote letters to God about the things we wanted to let go of. In response, we had to write a letter from God to ourselves. Both of my letters flowed out so easily when I wrote them, that I truly believe God had a hand in those letters. I keep those letters with me and and pray about them often. I am contemplating ways to make the letters pocket sized to have readily available throughout the day when I need a pick-me-up. I hope someday, I can share those letters with you guys because the power I feel in those letters is unlike anything I've ever felt.

Expanded family

2007-12-06T17:01:00.000-05:00

My family has expanded! My brother's wife gave birth today to a baby girl. Addison Jayne is 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches. This all happened less than 2 hours ago, so I haven't even seen pictures. I'll post one when I get one, but seeing that she comes from my family, I'm sure she's gorgeous.

Aveda facials

2007-10-31T16:49:00.000-04:00

Last week I went for a facial at the Aveda Institute, that someone gave me as a gift. I've never had a facial before, but it was a great experience. Here's what I expected. Basically, I'm sitting in a chair and somebody puts a mud-like substance on my face and it sits there for about 10 minutes till they walk me over to a sink and I wash it off. Now this wouldn't be bad, but it was what I was expecting... Nope, that's not at all what this was like.

First, they take me to this room and tell me to undress from the waist up and they give me a towel to cover myself with. In the meantime, my girl left the room. She came back and soaked my feet before the facial. Then she used an exfoliating cream on them. It was nice. So I crawl on to the bed/table and lay down. She covers me up and tells me that during the facial, I'll be getting a foot and leg massage as well as a neck and shoulder massage. Aaaaahhhh, perfect. She shined a light on my face to study it, found all my pimples and blackheads as well as explored my skin type. (According to her, my skin elasticity is great and my texture is amazing.) So from that she chose the clay mask. Somewhere in here, she did some manual extractions, which means she squeezed my pimples. :) She applied the clay mask, then put something that blew hot steam on my face so it would sort of dry. In the meantime, I got my foot and leg massage. The only problem was she tickled my feet! I still managed to relax though. After she wiped that one off, she put another mask on, some rejuvinating thing, I don't remember exactly. That's when I got my neck and shoulder massage. It wasn't anything great, since I like my massages hard, but it still felt nice. After the actual facial, she used a tinted moisturizer for my face and used a lightly colored lip balm to brighten my face.

Overall, I loved the facial. It was so relaxing to have someone do that stuff for you and take care of your beauty for you. I would totally do it again and would recommend it for anyone who wants to pamper themselves a bit. My face didn't feel too much different, since my skin is pretty smooth to begin with, but I was really relaxed afterwards. I was glad I didn't have to go to work afterwards. :)

P.S. You know who you are, but thanks for the gift!

Next year is our year...

2007-10-22T14:02:00.000-04:00

I am totallly convinced that I jinxed them. The Cleveland Indians lost the last 3 games of the ALCS and a chance to go to the World Series. My last post, I said I wanted them to win the World Series for my birthday and that did it. I jinxed them. But I'm not giving up, I'm pretty sure next year is the year. We'll do it then, I have confidence in my boys... and I won't jinx it again.

Good year boys! Everybody in Cleveland is proud of what you've accomplished, especially for such a young team.

Wahoo!

2007-10-10T11:53:00.000-04:00

Wahoo! Way to go, Indians! Those are my boys. Okay, I know I say this every year, but I'll say it again since this year is a big year. For my birthday, my 30th birthday this year, I want the Indians to win the World Series. And hopefully I didn't jinx them. :)

Baseball playoffs

2007-10-04T19:57:00.000-04:00

So we're at the start of the baseball playoffs and my team, the Indians, are in. I found a place online that I can listen to a Cleveland radio station. I'm SOOOO excited. In the past, I could only listen to games when the Tribe was in my city and the announcers here are awful. You can't tell what's going on in the game because they talk about so much other stuff for most of the game, and they have no enthusiasm. Even for their team, if someone gets a homerun, it's so blase and you can't even tell it was the home team! Well, it made me realize how great the Cleveland announcers are... Tom Hamilton and Mike Hegan. If you ever get a chance to listen to them, they get so excited, even for the other team. I'm so glad they're in Cleveland.

Right now the Tribe is winning 4-2.... Go Indians!

Bathroom Etiquette

2007-10-01T16:54:00.000-04:00

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a long time. I'm sick of people not following proper bathroom etiquette. I work on a floor of an office building that has part of a major corporation on it. We share the bathroom on the floor. There are 8 stalls, so no shortage of them. Most of the time, the bathroom is empty, but there are times when it fills up. Here are a few items of concern that my co-workers and I are absolutely disgusted with and want to demand women of the world to change. I can't vouch for the men's restroom, but it could be the same with them too.

1. Please don't choose a stall next to someone else if there are other stalls available. Let us have our privacy, as much as we can.
2. Do not talk on your cell phone in the bathroom, and especially not in the stall. Again, let us have our privacy and not be forced to hear your conversations. I WILL flush the toilet...
3. If you have bodily functions that produce noises you cannot prevent (and I'm not talking about blowing your nose) please use the "courtesy flush" technique to drown out the noise.
4. I know most of the time you can't help it, but if something is upsetting your stomach, don't eat it every day.
5. Please, please, please... wash your hands... with soap! It doesn't work to turn on the water, wet your hands for half a second, dry them, then touch the door handle that we all have to touch to leave the bathroom. My bathroom doesn't have disposable towels, we have the cloth ones on a roll (which is another pet peeve of mine by the way), so I've resorted to using toilet paper to open the door, especially when I see something like that. Gross!
6. Wait till you're in the stall to undo your pants. Close the door before you sit down. (Yes, I've actually seen this, it's disgusting! We've deduced that this woman has a bladder problem or something, but I don't think that's much of an excuse to not close the door.)
7. Eating your lunch in the bathroom is just nasty. Yes, there are couches separate from the stalls, but that's still nasty.
8. A bathroom is for just that, going to the bathroom, not napping. We've had people sleeping consistently on the couches, even bringing up an alarm clock to wake them up in time. These people are just weird.
9. Please keep your legs to yourself. If you need room to sit down, please don't put your legs into my stall. Use the bigger, handicap stall.
10. Don't make a mess for everyone else on the sink. When your hands are wet, shake them into the sink before grabbing the towels. If there is a puddle on the sink, grab a towel (if the bathroom has one) or toilet paper and clean it up. A lot of people on my floor are very well dressed and don't want to lean into a puddle and ruin their clothes.
11. If the bathroom has paper towels, make sure they go into the trash can when you leave. If it is full, use your paper towels to push down the rest of the pile as best as you can. I'm not saying to flatten the towels to the point where there's a dense brick at the bottom, but enough for a few people to throw away their trash. Don't leave it on the floor either, if it falls. That just creates more work for the person cleaning the bathroom. Would you rather they refill the toilet paper or pick up your towels? Think about it.

Fun-filled weekend

2007-09-24T15:34:00.000-04:00

We had a busy weekend this past weekend. We wanted to do something fun on Friday night so I went to rent a movie that my husband's uncle had been recommending. It was called Without a Paddle. He said one of the character's REALLY reminded him of my husband. Well Blockbuster only had it in stock to buy previously viewed. Not being a big movie couple, I didn't know what to do. Since uncle had recommended this to everyone in the family, I took the risk and decided we could pass it around the family. The movie was pretty unrealistic, but I laughed a lot. I thought it was good.

Saturday composed of us volunteering at a local park getting rid of invasive species. We were cutting down mulberries and buck thorns and hauling them to the trailhead. We spent about 4 hours doing this. It was a lot of fun and very rewarding, though, very hard work. It was great to see the progress we made. When we got home we both collapsed. The rest of the day consisted just of us playing some "new" Nintendo games I bought for us on eBay. I bought the Legend of Zelda and Ms. Pacman. They were so much fun, but I don't know if it was a good idea or not because we both got Nintendo magnets and didn't want to do anything else.

Sunday I meet with my Sunday School teaching partner. I start teaching kindergarten next weekend. I'm so excited and scared, but I think it'll be a good experience. After that, we went home and did some house work a little
bit, then played some more Ms. Pacman. That game has a feature where you can play 2 players cooperatively instead of competetively, so you have Pacman and Ms. Pacman playing on the screen at the same time.
That was so much fun, I couldn't believe how much we played. We didn't do much after dinner, just grocery shopping and research
on a digital camera since ours decided to stop working.

It's also been nice to have our dishwasher working now. We bought a portable dishwasher on craigslist last week and have run it 2 or 3 times. We cleaned it and fixed it up a bit and it works
like a charm. It's got a little leak that we're exploring where it's coming from, but I think we'll eventually find it and take care of it. The only thing left we'd like to do now with it is to find a splitter for the kitchen faucet so we don't have to unscrew the water filter everytime we want
to use the dishwasher. Not a big deal, but a minor in convenience.

Over the weekend, my baseball team clinched their division title for the first time since 2001. Congratulations, Cleveland Indians. I know I say this every year and I don't want to jinx it again, but for my birthday this year, I'd like to see you guys win the World Series, okay? I'm turning 30 on October 24th, so see what you can do for me... I've been surprised how well they have been doing this year. I thought for most of the year that they were just decent, but in the past few weeks I've been keeping an eye on their record and that of the rest of baseball. Today they have the best record in all of baseball by 1/2 a game. They can definately go all the way. There's a few players who have World Series experience and there's a quite a few veterans on the team who have been there for a while even if not in the post season. I think they've worked together long enough to be able to do it.

2007-09-12T11:55:00.000-04:00

I saw some pretty crazy things this week outside my window at work. I have the good fortune of having a great view down the river. Walking past the window earlier on Monday, I looked outside as I normally do. There was a barge floating on the river, that was in the process of turning around. It wasn't an ordinary barge though. Imagine a barge with a lid, so it had a flat top. On top of this lid was, of all things, a boxing match. It was complete with a boxing ring, two fighters and a ref (or judge, whatever you call them in boxing). They were promoting the 2007 Boxing Championship that must obviously be coming up soon. Strangest, most random thing I've ever seen.

So that led to conversations of REO Speedwagon giving a concert on the river. I LOVE REO Speedwagon! Lots of people at work were joking about those old-timers, but I still enjoy listening to their music. In fact, they are on my Ipod. :) The concert was for the radio station in the building next to mine and it was set for this morning. I heard it was going to be crazy. Well, I walked over on my way to work and checked it out. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't a wall-to-wall crowd.
I actually got a spot on the wall of the river where I had a pretty good view. The sound wasn't so
good where I was, but I did get to hear some good songs. The first one they played when I was there was a new song. I did get to hear "Time For Me to Fly" and "Keep On Going" and part of
another song I recognized, but didn't know. I was already late for work, so I had to leave.

So to commemorate this event, I tried out my new camera phone. I finally activated it this weekend and am still learning it's features. I took a couple pictures of REO Speedwagon. The pictures are pretty poor quality and you can't even tell who is in it, but you can see the boat they are on and some of the crowd on the boat. I'm proud of myself that I figured out how to take the picture, then somehow transfer it to my computer. That was an amusing experience. :) But here's the picture. It's "time for me to fly".

September 11th

2007-09-11T11:12:00.000-04:00

Today being the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, I can't not write some thoughts about it. Six years ago today, life in the US was good. People were going on their daily life not knowing what was coming that morning. I was in bed, living on the West Coast and totally oblivious to the fact that life was going on around me. My parents had decided to take a trip on Amtrak to New York City. I heard from my parents on Saturday, that they had made it to the city and were having a great time. A phone call around 6:15 on Tuesday morning from my sister woke up me and my husband. He got up to answer it and came back to tell me that it was my sister. Somebody had flown a plane into the World Trade Center in New York City. I was shocked, but a few seconds later, it hit me: my parents, they're in New York! He said my sister hadn't heard from them yet. I now realize that we didn't know the extent of what was happening at this point. We didn't know there were 2 planes and both buildings would crumble. The reality of my parents being in the city and not knowing their fate hit me and I started crying. My husband suggested I get up and shower, and he was going to get ready for work. I didn't want to go because I didn't want to miss any phone calls, no matter what the outcome. He told me he would wait till I got out of the shower to get ready. In the shower, I cried more. He came into the bathroom halfway through my shower to tell me that my sister had called. My stomach shot into my throat; good news or bad news? Thankfully, good news. My parents had called my sister's house and left a message that they were okay and were going shopping. They had not realized the extent of what was going on either.

I was not working at the time, so I spent the rest of the day glued to the TV, watching as news unfolded and events started falling into place. The country was starting to learn what happened and who was behind it. Why is it when bad things happen, you can't tear yourself away from the news, even though it hurts more to watch it?

I'm not a very patriotic person. I don't cheer "yea for the US" or "God bless America". I think more of God bless everyone. But today, I can't help but pull together with all the people of America and the other countries who are affected and ask God for strength and hope to get through tough times like today. Life is tough, people are often heartless or misguided. Help us to do our part to be strength to others and be an example of peace and love to the world. I truly believe that everyone can make a change in this world, however big or small. Ever read the book "Pay It Forward" or see the movie? Excellent concept! When someone does something extraordinary for you, don't pay it back, pay it forward. That's how we can make a difference.

I recently met someone from the Philippines who plays guitar and sings. She just moved to the US to go to school, in the past month. So she was not physically close to the terrorist attacks 6 years ago. However, from the other side of the earth, she was affected nonetheless. Ten minutes after meeting her, she sang a song she had written after that horrible day. It was a beautiful prayer tobring to God and to us. It was unbelieveably touching to know that someone
who was so far away and so uninvolved, could be so affected by the events of the day. God bless her and fears.

And now my prayer for today: Loving God, source of hope and love, give us the strength to love and support those people who are hurting today. Many people lost loved ones. Be with those people on the anniversary of the day when their lives changed forever. Give them courage to carry on without the physical presence of those they lost. Other people were deeply affected, even if they did not directly lose a family member, friend, or acquaintance. Their lives were changed forever as well. Heal our hearts. Help us to ease the fears we live with now and turn those feelings into hope and peace in our world.
-Amen

VMA

2007-09-11T10:56:00.000-04:00

So the talk this week has been the flop performance of Britney Spears at the Video Music Awards. I watched the video, yeah, it sucked. She had no enthusiasm and looked like it was the first time she was performing. She looked so nervous and her moves were done so conservatively compared to the people dancing in the background.

But what bugs me most about the talk about her performance is the criticism on the way she looks. Everyone is saying how fat she is. Yes, she had 2 children in the past 3 years or so. What do you expect her to look like? She's still beautiful and she's DEFINATELY not fat. She's a little larger than she used to be, but I think she looks healthy. From what I could see, she didn't have any fat flopping around as she danced, so it wasn't disgusting. She looked a lot better than I do! Okay, she didn't have the most flattering outfit on, since she has gained some healthy-looking weight, but if she wore something that covered her up, she'd be criticized for that. No matter what she wore, it was a lose-lose situation. I commend her for going out there and doing her thing and trying to make a name for herself again and forget the whole K-Fed time of her life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Britney Spears, but I think people are WAY to critical of her and it's those things that prompts her to lose it and do crazy things like shave her head or go to Vegas and marry a childhood friend. Hollywood life is tough and the people of America are harsh on our "icons". Give her a break.

Weekend affairs

2007-09-10T10:37:00.000-04:00

This weekend was pretty busy. Got to see a lot of friends. Saw some friends from hubby's school on Friday night at our place for dinner. We had a lot of fun there, we laughed a lot! Saturday night we saw some old friends from undergrad. It was nice to catch up with them andwhat's going on with them. Sunday morning was a half marathon that started a block from our apartment. We rolled out of bed to meet a friend there who was running. We saw her off for the start and we also waited about 20 minutes to see her in the crowd the second time past the site we were waiting at. That was fun to see her and cheer her on. She said it was great to have people cheering her on because that's what motivates her. This is the friend we knew in Portland. Right before last year's half-marathon, she emailed people for donations to support the school she was running for. We were so surprised to get her email and to know that she had moved here. So we went out to see her last year too. Since then we have seen each other a couple of times for dinner and at parties of mutual friends.

These mutual friends... it's kind of ironic how it has worked out. This Portland friend invited us over for dinner a few months ago and we met her roommate and her roommate's boyfriend. A few months after that, hubby took a class at Loyola and met some great people who have become friends. One of these guys is the Portland friend's roommate's boyfriend. We figured that out because he has a unique name, but it's ironic because now we all have these mutual friends who seem to have a lot of parties and we often run into each other at them.

First post

2007-09-06T16:26:00.000-04:00

Everyone has a blog nowadays. Since everyone's doing it, I'm going to try this out and see if I can come up with anything interesting for my blog. I'm hoping to stay in touch with people better these days and maybe this is the best way to tell everyone what's going on with me. Let me know what you think of my blog and what you may want to know about me.