wow, so much for posting more regularly

Alas, it's been months...oh well! This first trimester business has kicked my boo-tay in the sense that I have been sooooo tired. Tired way beyond reason for the amount of stuff I've been doing. I go to work and I come home and fall asleep on the couch...our house has been ridiculous to keep clean (partly because we've been letting the pups run around while we're home and can watch them and they carry an impressive amount of silt in their very short fur and partly because I am definitely not pulling my weight) and I hardly cook dinner ever. But, last Thursday was 14 weeks for this munchkin, which means I am officially in the 2nd trimester and energy should be arriving soon! Yay! In case you haven't seen on facebook, here's the cute munchkin:

He or she was kicking around and flipping like crazy throughout the ultrasound. That was definitely one of the most amazing things I've ever seen! A whole tiny person! Moving like crazy! And I can't even feel a bit! Pretty weird, but pretty amazing. Last week I read that this munchkin already has fingerprints and, if it's a girl, already has all 300,000 or so eggs in her little tiny ovaries...at a whopping 3 inches long from head to booty. Miraculous!

2 posts in one day? What?

Just wanted to put up some pics I took driving back home to Corinth through West Texas...

this is so WEIRD!

One week of freedom left...alas! I could find things to do for an endless summer break!

This has been a good one, although it's felt unbelievably short. I didn't get anywhere near finishing all the projects I'd planned to do this summer, mostly because of two little time sucks named Kya and Kajani! God has used them to spur some growth in me though, so I suppose that's more than an even trade (projects for growth). I have a newfound appreciation and respect for the moms out there - not that I'm comparing your children to my puppies at all, but I have realized this summer how much I took my freedom for granted! I could go anywhere, do anything, spend my day in whatever way I felt...and now I need to throw myself out of bed by 7 (if I'm lucky, that's late!) to take the puppies outside and to feed them and they really need to be walked every day which means that I need to get each one out for a walk (separately - together is total madness!) before it's 7 million degrees outside and I can only crate them for a few hours if I'm going to leave the house and I certainly can't completely ignore them, but they can't have the run of the house so that means I have to stop doing whatever I'm doing to go give some attention in "their room"... As I write it out, it sure doesn't sound difficult or time consuming, but I have struggled this summer to relinquish control over my freedom. I guess God is probably preparing me for actual children (as opposed to dogs who are currently considered the children). It's pretty crazy to realize how much He has changed my heart in that regard. Not that many years ago I didn't want to have kids at all and I didn't find babies or baby things all that adorable (and didn't understand at all why it seemed that all the rest of the ladies in the world were fawning over babies and baby things)...and now I'm the one oohing and ahhing and getting all weird about tiny baby clothes and shoes and baby animals. Still not entirely sure what to do with human babies (they're cute and cuddly but I still wish they could tell me what they wanted, just need a bit more experience with them), but my baby puppies sure make my heart squeeze on a daily basis. You know that feeling like you just can't get enough, your heart is over-full... that's the feeling that baby things bring of late. So weird! What happened to my old heart and how did it get replaced by this one so sneakily? I'm glad God did it though...I feel like He's growing me more and more into an adult day by day. I'll be 28 in about a week, and I finally feel almost like a grownup for the first time in my life. I like the young at heart part of me, but sooner or later maturity needs to strike and I find that I desire it more and more lately. Maturity to handle things in a godly way, maturity to be disciplined instead of lazy, maturity to pursue with purpose rather than be blown about willy nilly. Hopefully willy and nilly haven't completely abandoned me - I'd still like to be occasionally blown about, but I think my heart is finally settling and appreciating what God has given me in a new light. A deeper, more grateful light. I think.

My 3 favorites, wracked out after a long day : ).

Perro numero dos!

We are now a two puppy household! We picked up Kajani this morning and, as you can see, he and Kya checked each other out and then wrestled themselves into exhaustion (or at least just a good ol' nap). Kya is about 9 weeks old and Kajani is just over 6 wks - and she (Kya) is like twice his size! It's amazing how fast they grow! Both are Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and we got them from two different breeders, so basically this is an arranged marriage... : ). We may try for one litter a couple years down the road, but we shall see. I know we're a little crazy for getting 2 puppies at once, but the good news is that I still have about a month and a half left of summer break, so I can try to work on things like housetraining and learning a few important words (like sit and stay!) before I have to go back to work. They'll also be able to keep each other company while Marc and I are both at work, so hopefully that will lessen any separation anxiety and hopefully any destruction (or will it be twice as much with 2 chewers?!). I find myself so grateful that God created a baby version of things lately (which is a little weird for me, I've never been much of a "baby person"). Even though they get themselves into trouble, they're just so cute and lovable and affectionate that I can't stay frustrated or upset with them. I guess we'll see if that changes as they get older, but the good news is that dogs always make you feel wanted and loved, and this breed is supposed to be pretty smart and pretty trainable. Yay for dogs!!

new music!

I think I've told you about this band before, but I just discovered that they have a full length album out... The Autumn Film has put out The Ship and the Sea and I like it A LOT! Check, check, check it out!

In other news, we named our sweet puppy Kiya (like k-I-a, not like the car) and we're going to pick up her buddy (who will be named Kajani) on Sunday morning! Kiya is pretty cute when she's playing. She likes to pounce on her toys and it makes me laugh EVERY time. Little by little she's getting the hang of going potty outside... yay! Babies sure sleep alot...I guess I didn't realize just how much! Speaking of which, I better go see if she's awake from her nap and ready for a potty break and a little lunch. Funny as it sounds, I think God is going to use this little dog to sanctify me...In the 4 days we've had her I've discovered that I am extremely selfish and pretty impatient...alas. Guess it's good we're practicing with a dog and not a baby!

We got a puppy!!!

She's a Rhodesian Ridgeback and is about 8 weeks old. Such a cutie!! We're going to pick up a little boyfriend for her next week (he was too young to take home, he's from a diff. breeder) so she'll have a little friend. We're still working on a name for her...
So far she's just getting used to us and the house I think, but she's super playful and is currently teething I think because she wants to gnaw on everything. So entertaining!

Baby Zoowon

I have a friend who is trying to adopt a baby from Ethiopia and his wife has started a company called Baby Zoowon in response to the need that she sees as they've learned more about adoption and kids in African nations. The stuff they sell is way cute and the mission they're on is pretty important. If you need baby gear, check them out!

JOY!

So I've been meaning to post about this concert we went to for awhile...maybe a couple months...ay ay ay, where does the time go??
Marc and I went to see a group called Bowfire a couple months ago and it was one of the best embodiments of joy I've ever seen. The music was mostly fiddle and the players (and there were a whole lot of them) played like they were doing the most fun thing they could possibly do. There were a couple girls who not only fiddled, but also danced, and that was amazing (and unexpected!)! One of the girls just whirled and tapped about the stage with such abandon and freedom...I just thought "that's what joy looks like" as I watched. It was amazing! I am a sucker for music, and I've always thought that our bodies were made to dance (even if I can't dance worth anything!) - so this concert stirred my affection for Jesus like nothing has in a long time. It just seemed like tangible, visible Joy up there on the stage. So if you ever get a chance to see Bowfire, do it!

The new hotness

Marc bought me an electric cello! It is short a string at the moment because we overtightened it while trying to tune for the 50th time (new strings take a lot of tuning and retuning), but we'll replace that A in the next couple days. It's way fun to play!! So easy to be loud!! I'm spoiled rotten by my husband!

In other news, we ran the Warrior Dash (http://www.warriordash.com/) this weekend and it was WAY fun! The Warrior Dash is a 5k (approx. 3.51 miles) race that includes obstacles throughout. The obstacles included running through "tornado alley" (aka a gigantic fan blowing hard right at you...was like running in slow motion, but fortunately we live in a green area so there was little to no dust stirred up by the fan!), slipping and sliding and trying desperately not to lose a shoe in a mud pit, sliding down a mud-slicked hill that launched you into a stream that you then had to walk up for several hundred yards including navigating some treacherous holes at the end, racing up a very slippery and very steep hill-o-mud with the help of a rope hanging down the center, running across some short balance beams that were over a shallow "ravine", swimming across a small pond and under a log that they stuck in there, climbing a mountain of hay bales and a cargo net, crawling through mud under barbed wire (the barbed wire was not super close to the ground so this wasn't a crazy belly crawl), and leaping over flames.... I think that's all.... All in all it provided a fun challenge and a whole lot of laughter. Unfortunately I'm a slow poke, and Marc and I didn't train very hard, so our friend Amber was seriously slowed down by the two of us. Or actually, Marc and Amber were slowed down by me, but they were nice enough to run a bit and then wait on me to catch up so we could do the obstacles together. We were covered in mud by the end and I think my shoes weighed about 10 pounds each! It was definitely the most fun race I've ever done, and we will definitely be on the lookout for it to come back next year. All of you should come do it with us!

La Casa

I can't seem to get these pictures to format the way I want them to...but, the Before are all brown pretty much - warm, cosy, and boring (for us) and the after are blue and green... Still some work to do, of course, but we definitely like it better! I love living in a house!

Hello Blog, It's been awhile...

Seeing that it has been almost a month since I said I would post more...ahem, clearly I am a blog slacker. So here's a rundown of the UpT life of late:

Thoughts:

1. I heard on the radio the other day part of a phone call with a mom who said she was going to start buying her 9 yr. old daughter lingerie...apparently there is a new line of lingerie coming out that is aimed at 9 - 14 yr old girls. Mind boggling, right? So the DJ, who is normally crude, obnoxious, and offensive (to me at least) was clearly in total disbelief of this mother (he said that the only time his daughter will be receiving lingerie will be when she is old enough to move out of the house and buy it herself) and just kept asking her why she thought her 9 yr old needed lingerie. The mom said that she thinks that her daughter needs to get in touch with her sexuality early - the earlier the better in fact, as in her opinion, this will lead to her daughter making better choices in the future. Huh? So opening the world of hookerdom to her elementary aged daughter will result in her daughter making wise sexual choices in the future... I feel like I'm missing something here. When I was 9 I didn't even know what sex was...it was so far outside of my realm in fact that my friends and I weren't even giggling about it yet...heck, we didn't even have the sex-ed puberty talk at school until 5th grade, which is when I was 10! I feel sad for this lady's daughter and all the pieces of her heart that she's going to give away to boys in order to get in touch with her sexuality. What is wrong with the people who are going to make this line of lingerie too? Makes me angry!

2. Ugh! On a completely different note, our pastor is Matt Chandler who is suffering through brain cancer very publicly right now. I have been very impressed with Matt and his family and the apparent level of complete ease with God's purposes and plans that they have. He's been preaching for the last few weeks and something he said early on has really impacted my heart. He said that his wife Lauren asked one of the doctors what his prognosis was time-wise and that the doctor told them the best-case and worst-case scenario, and then said something along the lines of "but you could also have a car accident on the way home and die today." Kinda puts life in perspective for me - brain cancer is a terrible thing (cancer of any sort really), but truly we have the possibility each day of dying. So what am I doing with this moment? I am completely at ease with what will be at the end of death - I know Heaven is coming - but what about life in the meantime...God has given me (us) SO much...how am I using it to further his kingdom and glory and my joy in Him?

3. On another completely different note, I love living in a house! I need to do a few more after pictures (we did the befores and durings, but I don't really have any afters), and then I will post them. Space is so nice! In lieu of house pics, here are some others that we've taken in the past few months... from our Christmas pic, from Marc's 30th birthday party, and from Thanksgiving (my parents and Marc's came to our house for Thanksgiving dinner! first one we've ever cooked!)

Holla!

It's been a long time! Moving (and redoing much in the casa) has taken over my life and brain, but we finally got internet at our house last week! Yay! I will put up pics and such of the house and life in general soon, but for now I thought I'd just tell you of two extraordinary observations I made last week during my final week of lunch duty for this year:
1. I saw a genuine side pony tail. Not a pony tail that had fallen to the side, oh no, a fo-rizzle side pony tail, done on purpose.
2. I also saw fo-rizzle acid wash jeans. Not a light pair of jeans, oh no, a pair of pink jeans that had been acid washed...tapered ankles (I know, "skinny" jeans...aka: tapered ankles) and all.

This is the greatness that the cool high school kids of today are walking about in. Ah, entertainment : ).