We're back

I

On the left is Natalie at her dedication in Lenoir. Candy made this dress, it is beautiful. The bottom of the dress is lace that she took from my wedding dress. The picture on the right is Natalie before one of our church Christmas Parties.

We are back from our two week excursion to the east coast. We had a great time visiting family and friends. As always, we wish we could stay longer. I'm going to try and recap our visit by the following list of things I love. Enjoy!

I love:

God,

Jesus' Birthday,

Chris,

Natalie,

Family,

Cool foreheads,

Normal looking belly buttons,

Intestines where they belong,

Active bowel sounds,

ER Nurses who are nicer then the doctors,

Best friends who are pediatricians,

Pushing baby hernia's back into the belly,

Bubble wrap (so I can know what to feel for),

Calm husbands,

Calmer father-in-laws,

Amazing family,

Great family doctor to come home to,

Christmas,

New clothes,

A family together for the first time in years,

New in-laws,

Happy babies,

Easy airports,

Weddings,

Comfy hotel beds,

Good traveling weather,

And...

A snow day after we get home.

I think that sums up our last two weeks. I'm anxious to hear about your Christmas! Happy New Year!

Santa and Natalie!

Natalie enjoyed pulling Santa's beard. We should have explained that wasn't very nice. She had sweet potatoes today, I think they are a favorite. We got it all over her because she kept moving towards the spoon. We also celebrated our Christmas today since we are leaving next weekend. It's been fun. We love you all, have a Merry Christmas!

Allison

Christmas pictures

Natalie can sit up all by herself now...she is having lots of fun looking at the world from a new angle. Here are a couple of pics. In case anyone wants to know, she looks just like my mom in that first picture. She is looking more and more like my mom's baby pictures all the time. It's funny because I don't look like my mom much at all, but obviously I had some of her genes to pass on. :) I think my mom is beautiful so it will be more then fine with me if Natalie looks like her. You all have a great day!
Allison

More spoons please...

I was talking with a client today who pointed me in the direction of the following website. I think this is one of the best descriptions I have ever read for people suffering from life long diseases. Whether it be lupus or depression, from my limited understanding, this explains well what my clients often describe to me. I hope you all read it. The address is:
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/2004/11/the_spoon_theory.php

Here's to more spoons...

Carrots and Thanksgiving

Here is Natalie at Carole's for Thanksgiving. She had carrots for the second time and was fairly impressed with this new taste. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Much love!

A few more pictures

A sleeping baby, is a wonderful baby. She slept almost 11 hours last night, except for one quick 5am feeding. And when she sleeps, we all sleep. Night night.


Now let's see Dad, I need to think about this for a second.

My cool exersaucer

Hey everyone,

I'm sorry I haven't written for a while. Our digital camera was broken and I didn't think you would want any more of my ramblings without a picture of Natalie. :) We purchased a new camera this weekend and I think it is smarter then we are. But we are learning how to use it. This is a picture of Natalie in her new exersaucer that Papaw and KK got her for Christmas. Now, we know it's not Christmas, but she doesn't. And since she can use it now, she got it early. As you can see, she loves it. She is able to push the buttons to start the songs, she can roll the balls all around it, and every time she turns around she is captivated by this beautiful baby in the mirror. She grins and grins at this baby. She is starting to reach out for things and is trying to move forward. She can raise herself up on her arms and she can get her butt high in the air. She just has to learn to do both at the same time and we are going to have a mobile baby. She is giggling a lot now and thinks the dogs are the funniest things in the house. Mocha is getting a hair cut tomorrow because Natalie has started really pulling her hair and Mocha isn't smart enough to not get close to her. Never a dull moment in this house. :) Natalie gets to start eating vegetables this week. We figured we would start her on sweet potatoes on Thursday as we are thanking God for her life. I pray that each of you have a Happy Thanksgiving. I think of people around the world and know that I am truly blessed. More pictures soon!

Tired and sad

I'm home early today because I needed to get Natalie from day care. She's fine, she just woke up early and needed to eat early which meant I needed to be home early to feed her again. She woke up early because my parents needed to leave. Chris is coming home today, which is wonderful. My parents had to go home today, which is sad. I miss them so much more since Natalie has been born. I grew up next door to my grandparents and have an amazing relationship with them. I absolutely hate the fact that all four of her grandparents live half-way across the country. We will do everything possible to ensure she knows them well and they know her. I'm also sad because whenever Chris (or any pastor) leaves town, someone will die. I think it's Murphy's law. This weekend, two people did. He is coming straight home to meet with a family, doing a funeral tomorrow and attending one on Thursday. He will be tired too. We need to get some food made for the family and to be honest, I'm not sure when that's going to happen. Hopefully Natalie will cooperate with bedtime tonight, and after Bible Study I can cook. So you ask yourself, why is she sitting there typing a blog instead of cooking now? Well, for one, I'm sad. And for two, I need to go to the grocery store, but I can't do this until she wakes up...so I have things to do, but can't do any of them...yet. I know this is scattered, but such is my life right now. I hope things in your part of the country are calm...have a great week everyone!

DSL

Ahhh...We no longer have dial up at our house. :) We have spent most of today playing on-line and watching how fast all the pages come up now. Of course, now that we can send pictures faster, our digital camera isn't working. Such is life. Everyone here is fine. Natalie had more shots this week, but she handled them better this time around. And, she started cereal a couple of days ago. Tonight was the first night that she swallowed more then she got on us. She has learned to "spit" things. She finds it quite entertaining. If she spits up a little, she holds it in her mouth and then spits it out like a fountain all over everything. It's quite a deliberate act which brings laughter from her heart. Mom, however, is not so enthused or impressed with this new trick. But, there isn't much rationalizing with a four month old so I just carry a burp cloth. She especially loves to spit the cereal back out and watch it fly. Real food should be interesting.
We are also in process of teaching her to fall asleep without our help. She is getting much better, we aren't bouncing or rocking her anymore. We have our routine and when she hears her favorite song, My Wish, by Rascal Flatts, (a whole other story) she starts settling down. We lay her down and right now, she is letting me just stand beside the crib and she eventually goes to sleep, usually after grabbing my finger. I'm slowly moving further from the crib. If anyone has any other advice, we'll gladly take it. I think that is most of our exciting news for now. We'll chat more soon. Remember God loves you and has amazing plans for you today, ordinary day or not. :)

Halloween

We had a good halloween at our house. It was fun to get dressed up and pass out candy. Of course, we have candy left, which I have been munching on all day long. I'm just hoping Natalie doesn't mind me eating it. She slept well last night. It's the first night since her cold that she slept all night again. I never knew how much I loved to sleep until having her. Now I think I could make it a hobby. Anyways, I need to keep this one short, just wanted you all to see us dressed up. Have a great week!
Allison

Sunday Picture

Here is a recent picture of our cute Natalie. We love you all!

Neighbors

You know I grew up thinking Halloween is a "bad" day that shouldn't be celebrated. My thoughts on this day have changed significantly the past year. Chris read a book called Fearless Faith last year. It suggested we should embrace this day as a time to get to know our neighbors, not isolate from the world. I thought about this and it makes sense. There is no other time of year that adults and children show up at your door. Last year I was newly pregnant and still quite sick. Looking at chocolate made me nauseas. For those of you who know me well, you know this was cruel for me. Anyways, lots of beautiful and scary children came to our door with big smiles. They laughed at our dogs, who were dressed up like a clown and an angel. Their parents talked with us and we gave them all candy. I tried not to look at the chocolate as I passed it to them. I can think of one particular relationship with a neighbor that started that night for me. So I'm looking forward to this Tuesday. We will open our door wide and welcome them into the warmth. We'll give them candy and smiles. We'll tell our dogs to stop jumping on them, and hopefully have a happy baby dressed as a pink leopard for them to laugh at. We'll get to know more people and be a safe place to stop. We'll love our neighbors, not shut them out. We'll take back October 31st for God's kingdom, one little devil at a time. Happy Day!

"I would trade him places"

She said to me, "I would trade him places." "You mean the man on death row?" I said. "Yes, him, he was whining that they were going to kill him and all I could think is how fortunate he is that he gets to die so nice and all. I'd like to be him, except I don't really want him to be free." I asked if she were suicidal, she denied this saying she wouldn't kill herself, which is why she is envious of him. It was a long day in the mental health field. A morning full of ethics training and an afternoon full of hopelessness. Chronic depression is a cruel, unforgiving, unrelenting disease. We can treat, but rarely cure. I took care of my client, tried my best to ensure her safety, and prayed for her in my heart. I laughed to myself as I rolled around my new "title." Iowa is revamping everything these days. Since I am a licensed master level social worker, Iowa says I am now an "LPHA." I had to ask what that stands for. It means I am a licensed practitioner of the healing arts. I giggle because we call this the healing arts when I can heal no one. I know the One who can, but I'm not really supposed to bring Him up unless they do. I play that one by Spirit. So I can diagnose and write orders for rehabilitative treatment, and I feel terribly inexperienced. I'm coveting everyone's prayers as our agency figures out what all of this means. I'd also love for you to pray for our clients. It is so interesting because all of us will struggle with some type of mental illness at some point in our life. And we know so little about it. I try to dialogue about it as much as possible just to help people get educated. If it were cancer we'd encourage treatment, seek it out, and fight hard, knowing it is possibly terminal is scary. Depression is more scary because we can't wrap our hands around it. It doesn't always show up on an MRI. But, it can be terminal too. To me, suicide just means the mental illness killed them and treatment didn't work. I hope and pray we can help each client. We are learning so much more, but there it a ton to learn. We all know someone affected by mental illness. Reach out to them this weekend. Offer them Hope. They need to know Him and we need to share Him.
On a much lighter note, our family is doing well. Natalie is still growing and has just learned to "scream." Not out of frustration, just because she can. There is a lot of noise at her house these days. Chris and I are going on our first date tomorrow night since she was born. I'm so excited for it and a little nervous to leave her too. I know she'll be fine and we will have fun. I love you all, have a great weekend!
Allison

24 Hours

Funny how most days blur together into months and years that whirl around our minds. You know those days I'm talking about. Ordinary, routine days of normal life. Nothing special. Then, suddenly, one of those ordinary days is interrupted by a different minute. It is made up of sixty unique seconds and the entire day is changed, sometimes, your entire life is. September 11th did not have any significance to me in 2000. When I awoke the same day in 2001, I had no idea I would be able to tell you every move I made that day for the rest of my life. I know you can too. There are other days that are "planned" special. I call them normal, special, days. Christmas, Thanksgiving~holidays throughout the year. Most of us have our traditions on these days, big or small. There are also days we make special. December 13th is what we chose for our wedding day. I'll remember it and celebrate it forever. What is impressive is that all of these days have twenty-four hours. Didn't 9/11 feel like it was at least a fifty-two hour day? My wedding day felt like a quick three hour day. The actual seventeen hours I was in labor with Natalie feels chopped up into a day every two minutes and a life I can't remember~the one before we had her. And yet, regardless of the days circumstances, night is inevitable and the moon will rise. Sometimes, it is welcomed. Other times we are at a loss with what to do because we had spent months preparing for the preceding twelve hours. God, in His graciousness, keeps giving us more hours. More ordinary days then marked ones. It makes me think I should put more energy and thought into my ordinary days. Maybe He has an actual reason that we live in the middle of cornland. Maybe He actually wants me to establish a relationship with the co-worker I see everyday. Maybe He orchestrates our regular days to be extraordinary in His plan~ maybe He is going to come today and interrupt us all.
Until then, make today count. Be aware of people around you and intentionally become a real character in the story of their lives. Start really living the ordinary days. After all, how can it possibly be ordinary, how can I not think of something amazing to work on knowing today could be the day Jesus returns? Talk about an interruption in our day! Our time will cease. The sand will stop~ so will the earth. The month will be over...Not because the calendar was turned, but because the trumpet blast shredded it to pieces. Every eye will look up and see and every second hand will lose it's significance. Old will be turned new. Eternity will start. Forever will exist. Life will be given. Death, the ultimate interruption, will lose it's power. The day will end. Jesus will take His people home.
Maybe He will come today...

Our little baby pumpkin

Today has been a super busy Saturday. Chris ran in a 5K this morning. He did well and I'm very proud of him. He's been training hard, despite it being allergy season. Then we decided to take this picture of Natalie. One of my clients told me about doing this picture, and I thought it was a cute idea. Natalie rather enjoyed being in the pumpkin, which made it funnier for us. Thanks for all of your prayers. Her cold is getting better. She is still not sleeping well at night, and since she had been, that is making it hard for us. Both she and Chris are napping right now. It seems they are always napping when I'm typing this. Probably because it is the only time I have to type.
God is doing amazing things here. I am a part of a women's Bible study, which is great. Several of my co-workers have started attending. God is always so creative. We are studying the book Pam told us about, For Women Only. I'm learning a lot about you men, some I knew but didn't understand and some things I had no idea about. It's just been really good to be a part of a group and have more friends. I'm going to sign off and do some laundry and then maybe take a nap myself. I love Saturday's!

Babies like to breathe...through their nose...

So we have our first cold at our house. Unfortunatly, Natalie caught this cold from her mom. She had a fever and was fussy last night so we went to the doctor. He confirmed our suspicisions about it just being a cold and went on to say that babies like to breathe through their nose so they are quite fussy during their first few colds. She looks sad and confused. She expects us to fix it when she cries and does not understand that the more she cries, the more stuffy her nose becomes. And she certainly is confused by us sticking something up a hole on the other end of her body that has nothing wrong with it. Our first time taking her temperature could make another blog entirely. Anyways, this picture is of Natalie wearing her outfit from Uncle Brock. We'll send more pictures of this cute outfit later. This is just one of my favorites. We hope that everyone has a great weekend! Lots of love, grace, peace, and clear noses...

one maid a milking

This may be more information then you want to know, but as I am typing this, I am using my breast pump. I'm telling myself that I am not a cow, although at this moment it's how I feel. I'm praying I can keep up with Natalie's increasing hunger and demand for more milk. I'm in awe at my body's creation and somewhat disturbed by it all at the same time. I know that breastmilk is "natural and best" but there is nothing natural about placing my boobs in a cylinder and plugging them into an electrical outlet. And, it is one thing to feed her in my car in a parking lot. It is another thing entirely to plug into a cigarrette lighter and pump milk in a car, in a parking lot. I do not like it Sam I am, I do not like it in a car, I do not like it in a house, I do not like it right now, I do not like feeling like a cow.
But, I'll keep pumping. It is good for her and it is free. She does drink it up like there is no more coming. She's worth it though. She slept through the night again last night. That's two nights in a row. I feel like a new person after two nights of uninterrupted sleep. The fog is slightly lifting off my brain and I'm able to have a more regular thought pattern. Thus, my ramblings this morning. Last week, I was too tired to feel like a cow. Today, I can think it through. Yep, definetly a cow.
Moo

Rockin' and Rollin'

Hey everyone,

I just have a minute to write and tell you that Natalie rolled over for the first time tonight from back to belly. She was with her Daddy and her pacifier fell out of her mouth. She tried to get it and ended up rolling over. Now that she discovered she can do this, she has rolled over five more times. No more laying on the couch for this baby. :) I was in my Bible Study when she did this and we were wrapping up so Chris brought her in and laid her in the middle of all of us. When she rolled over again we all laughed and clapped, which scared her. So she rolled back onto her back and started crying. I'm hoping she'll do it again without the audience. Her daycare worker is in my Bible Study and was almost as excited as I was, which is always a comfort for mommy. This picture was taken on Sunday. She is in a six month dress...growing like a weed. We love you all! ~Allison

Cigarretes, Diesel Fuel, and Love was in the air.

When you husband is a pastor you find yourself in all sorts of unique situations. Tonight was no exception. Chris was performing an outdoor wedding. The couple proclaimed to him several months ago that it would be a "redneck wedding."
The evening started with us bundling up Natalie to be outside in fairly chilly, rainy weather. We got out of the car and my eyes settled on the groomsmen. All of them wearing camoflauge shirts with hunter orange ties. Immediatly behind them, at the "altar" were five deer antlers with orange flowers interlaced around them. That's about when I saw two groomsmen carring an elk antler up to the front to join the party. It was so big that I was afraid it would poke Chris in the butt. I had visions of trying to explain such a medical bill to workmens comp. The mood was fun and lighthearted as people trickled to the park. I listened as the father of the groom explained he would not wear any tie, but he was nice enough to wear his camo shirt and orange hat so he matched the wedding party. I saw the bridesmaids exit the camper where they got ready. They were wearing bright orange spaghetti strap dresses. One of them had jet black hair on half her head and platinum blonde on the other. After the groomsmen and bridesmaids walked up I kept searching for the bride. And just when I thought it couldn't get more entertaining, her mother drives her up in a LARGE chevy diesel engine truck. Mom gets out first and opens the door for the bride. She was wearing a beautiful wedding gown. But, I couldn't see her face, it was covered by her camoflouge veil. It looked like a bad movie. It was a mixture of wedding and funeral. When she got closer to the crowd, her mom lifted her veil off her face. She was indeed a pretty girl. Pretty interesting. And the regular pretty. She walked up the isle with her mom while her brother played here comes the bride from the picnic shelter on his electric guitar wearing his Ted Nugent hat. The ceremonty itself was uneventful. Chris didn't get poked in the bottom with any antlers and they got married. After the wedding I kept searching for a spot where Natalie wouldn't be breathing in smoke. I couldn't find one. Remember, this was an outdoor wedding. :) They rode to the reception on a flat bed pulled by a truck. They sat on hay and drug beer cans behind them. It was beautiful. The reception was complete with pork barbeque and a wedding cake where the top was the bride dragging the groom. There was orange and camo everywhere. Since the beer was flowing freely we decided to leave with Natalie before the party got too wild. We couldn't find the groom, but we were able to say bye to the bride. She stopped smoking long enough to talk. I must honestly say I wasn't listening to her becuase I couldn't stop staring at her cigarette pack. It was tucked nicely in dress right between her breasts.
If you will now join us in prayer:
Dear Father,
Please don't let Natalie remember any of this wedding. And please be with the starving pigamies down there in New Guinea. Amen.

bittersweet

We've had a bittersweet night at our house. It is pouring the rain and the wind is a constant howl. Natalie is sleeing soundly in her daddy's arms and the satalite is out. Daddy is sleeping too, so here I sit. I am somewhat sad because tonight, Chris and I packed up most of Natalie's 0-3 months clothes. She is so long that she is just one inch from nine month clothes, but so slender that her weight is still 0-3 months. But alas we can't snap the clothes any more so we must go with her height. Everyone said she would change quickly. I believed them. And she is. She is smiling now and crying louder. She recognizes us and her two dogs. She is a Daddy's girl and likes her Mommy's milk a lot. She has captured our hearts in unimaginable ways. My mom always told me that I would not be able to understand her love for me until I had a daughter of my own. It amazes me that she loves me this much. I ached this week for that mom in Missouri whose daughter was kidnapped. I cringe at the news when they speak of daycare abuse and parental abuse. I wrap her up in my arms and pray for her. I never paid much attention to the news or world events until a few months ago. Now I find myself hoping and praying she can grow up in a free country, not in fear of terrorists or sterotyping a group of people because of similar religious beliefs. I see everything differently and I'm trying to wipe my eyes because right now it's all foggy. I knew our lives would never be the same. I just had no idea that unconditional love would be so easy and would trigger so many other emotions. Every day I give her to the God who created her, named her, and loves her mom and her more then anyone else ever could. He can take care of her far better then me. I'm just so grateful that He allows her to live at our house. Hopefully she will love it here and love us. But more then that we hope and pray she loves Him.

I blame Megan

So I blame Megan for this blog site. I have resisted it, but after reading her many posts, I have decided to try it. I miss her and I check her site all the time to feel close to her. She is one of those friends that you are always close to, no matter how long it has been since we talked. I miss my friends, Iowa isn't a place crawling with people in their twenties. God has His reasons and I cannot be of use to Him where I am not. So He must have a use for me here. I'm keeping this short because it is my first blog and because Natalie is crying. Here is to a great day and to a God who loves us despite ourselves!