This is for all of you who like birth stories.  For those of us who have had them, you know that each one is special.  It’s amazing how a day can be one of the scariest days and one of the best days at the same time.  Strong emotions seem to run down the same pipe.

I woke up on Sunday, June 7 a little after midnight—only about an hour after going to bed.  Now, at this point my Braxton-hicks are pretty frequent, and I generally wake up about every 2 hours (at least) to go to the bathroom.  But when I woke up with painful cramping at 1:30, and lay in bed waiting for and experiencing more cramping regularly, I started to think “Today’s the day!”  I resisted the urge to wake Mike and tell him, and between trying to sleep and being too excited (or uncomfortable) to sleep, I made it to 8am, when I told him and we started our day of waiting and watching.

Contractions came and went for most of the day—between 8 and 20 minutes apart.  My doctor told me to come in at 10 minutes apart so they could check me; that is earlier than most people would go to the hospital, but since I was attempting a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) they wanted to monitor the baby early.  Mike and I tried going to the hospital a few times, but like my doula said, adrenaline can slow or even stall labor contractions.  We’d head towards the hospital, and the contractions would stop, so we’d kill time somehow to see if the contractions would pick up again.  We got hot dogs and sat at a park.  We ended up going home for a while, at which point I started to feel uneasy, so around 6pm we headed for the hospital again, stopping first to walk around a little pond across the street from the hospital (with baby swans and turtle eggs!)

When we arrived at the hospital, the painful contractions were few and far between.  Little did I know that we wouldn’t be leaving for a while.  We are admitted to “triage” around 7pm. I must admit, I felt pretty stupid walking into “labor and delivery” when I wasn’t really acting/feeling like a person in labor at the moment.  The nurse “checked me” and told us I wasn’t dilated at all.  Major bummer!  I was thinking I’d have to keep experiencing contractions like that—every 15 min.-ish for days, and not really getting any sleep.  The nurse told me they’d probably send me home when some freak thing happened with the baby monitor on my belly.  Some pretty rapid baby movements made it hard to tell if the monitor was picking up his or my heart rate (which is much lower) but at any rate, it looked like the baby’s heart rate took a dive.  After that, the nurse told me I’d be there for at least 2 more hours for monitoring.  Right after she said that, my water broke.  Pretty odd—all this happened in less than 5 minutes.  With the baby’s heart rate possibly dropping and me not being dilated, it looked for a few minutes like I might not even get a trial of labor—that I’d just have to have another c-section. But then my water broke (which is what really gets labor going.  Most babies are born (or helped to be born) by 24 hrs after the water breaks.) So I get wheeled up to a labor room.

My contractions pick up right away—every 2-3 minutes.  We called the doula and start laboring.  I had “thigh labor”, meaning I felt my contractions mostly in my thighs—my quads, mostly.  So with each contraction, Mike and the doula would sing a hymn (primarily "How Great Thou Art") and massage my thighs, which was a HUGE help.  It was neat that most of our nurses were Christians and the singing got them talking about church, etc.  By midnight, though, I had only dilated 1 cm.  This was pretty discouraging to me.  I had been up 24 hours at this point and labor was only beginning. I had wanted to try natural labor, but I was exhausted and discouraged; and although I had told myself that if I got an epidural, I wanted to wait until I was at least 4 cm dilated, I requested one at barely 1 cm. I was just too tired and I’d heard of people who got the epidural and then were able to sleep. At the rate I was going, it looked like there’d be at least 12 more hours of labor.

    That’s when things got interesting.  Right after getting the epidural, both my blood pressure and the baby’s heart rate dropped, which started some pretty frantic actions by the nurses (flipping me onto my hands and knees and trying to stimulate the baby to get his heart rate to go back up.)  So they gave me oxygen and blood pressure medicine after that.  They also switched from an external monitor on my belly to an internal monitor (which is attached to the baby’s scalp), to more accurately access how the baby was doing.  The monitor would go “beep beep beep…” at the rate of the baby’s heart.  So I would lay there listening to the beeps and when they’d slow I’d look towards the door to see if the nurses would run in.  If it got low enough, about 7 nurses would run in and do all sorts of crazy things with me to try to get the baby’s heart rate to go back up.   This was always really scary, but each time they thought the decel. was for a different reason and they let me continue to labor, which I appreciated--it didn’t seem to me that the baby was in distress.  If I moved onto my other side and the heart rate went back up, they thought that maybe the baby was pinching his cord somehow and it was a positional problem, rather than a fetal distress problem.  And if the baby’s heart rate was able to stay up for a while after the decel., they knew that it wasn’t that the baby was “giving up”, it was just more of a one-time thing.  The only thing I thought I could do was breathe deep of my oxygen.  When I get nervous I tend to stop breathing, so I was extra cautious to breathe when his heart rate would drop. 

I was thinking with the epidural I’d be able to rest/sleep and get my energy up for pushing, but with the blood pressure medicine and the decelerations, my heart was beating so fast I couldn’t sleep.  The doctor came after the first 2 decelerations and would watch the monitor to see how the baby was doing.  Around 2:30am I was almost 3 cm dilated and we were encouraged.  At 5:30am, however, I was only slightly more dilated than I was 3 hours ago and the contractions had slowed to one about every 7 minutes.  When you’re having a VBAC, doctors are hesitant to use pitocin to augment contractions, but my doctor was going to give it a few more hours then gradually try a little pitocin and see how things went. 

At 7am I got a pretty interesting nurse who started suggesting a few things I could do to pick up labor contractions.  I tried it and it worked—bringing strong contractions close together.  But around 8am, the baby had a gradual heart rate deceleration that lasted for about 6 minutes.  The doctor came in, got real close to my face and said, “Jackie, I think we should do a c-section.”  I asked if Mike and I could discuss it, and she, acting kinda stressed, expressed that she wished we didn’t need to take the extra time—that this needed to happen now.  So Mike and I looked at each other, both pretty shocked and scared and disappointed, and said, “Okay”. 

The nurses were moving really fast to get me ready for the c-section.  One shoved this liquid at me and said, “Drink this—it will coat your stomach.” She shoved the liquid at me so abruptly that it seemed like a bunch of it spilled out and it clicked in my head that they’re giving me the liquid so that I wouldn’t asphyxiate while under general anesthesia, which is what they’d use for an emergency c-section. This was one of the scariest parts of the labor for me; I really didn’t want to be knocked out and miss the birth of my baby.  As they wheel me into the OR, the nurses and doctors are still moving and talking quickly.  When we got there, I was relieved to hear that the baby’s heart rate had gone back up, and happy to meet the anesthesiologist who said he was going to ramp up the medicine in my epidural.

Pretty soon, 11 minutes after the decision to to a c-section, we heard the steady cry of healthy lungs.  He was born at 8:21am on Monday, June 8th, weighing 7 lbs. 15 oz., measuring 22in. long, with a 13 in. head. The doctors said our baby boy was very healthy—high apgar score—and that they didn’t know what was causing the heart rate decelerations.  Mike got to go with the baby while they stitched me up; I didn’t get to see the baby until we were in the recovery room.  We agreed right away to name him Caleb--the one name Mike and I were both excited about; we like the name and the biblical figure.  He is middle-named after my father, which is conveniently the name of his father, too.  Our baby Caleb just seems so beautiful to me.  I'm so happy for a healthy baby boy.

I felt like we saw God’s hand in and through the process, which is what I had been praying for.  It’s amazing to me how we got to the hospital right in time for my water to break, even though I wasn’t “really” in labor.  I am also really glad I got the epidural, even though it’s not the way I’d wanted to go initially.  If I hadn’t had the epidural, I probably would have been knocked out and missed the first several hours of my baby’s life.  So maybe God orchestrated the labor so that I would miss so much sleep and ask for the epidural. 

Part of me keeps wondering how the labor would have gone if I had continued through the pain and hadn’t gotten the epidural.  It probably would have gone a lot quicker, but I guess one doesn’t know.  I asked my doula if seeing the baby’s heart rate drop with contractions is normal and she said it isn’t.  Moreover, that if my baby’s heart rate dropped with the strong contractions under the epidural, that’s probably what would have happened without it, too. 

Finally, I don’t know why this didn’t “click” with me, but a few days later I discovered that the reason my doctor was pushing for the c-section so fast was because she thought my uterus may have ruptured.  (There is less than a 1% chance of uterine rupture when you try a VBAC, but the consequences of uterine rupture are pretty bad.)  The only reliable way to tell if the uterus has ruptured is that the baby’s heart rate will decrease and stay down. Moreover, the way the baby’s heart rate decelerated the last time was a gradual decrease, unlike the other ones that were quick drops—it definitely fit the picture of uterine rupture.  After uterine rupture, doctors only have minutes to save the baby’s life.   Praise God that’s not what happened!

Now, a week later, I look back on my hospital experience fondly.  When I think of those hours of watching the baby monitor, I would not relive those.  But afterwards, holding my baby, and all of the support and help I’ve had as I am recovering has been such a blessing.  It’s such a picture of God’s love for me.

Mike just took these--you can see what I was wearing on our Star Trek date. One of them is definitely more flattering than the other, in my opinion, but as Mike says, the purpose of these is to look big, right? :)

I feel like I look like:

Pregnancy:  How I'm feeling: big and hungry.  This is the biggest I ever got in my pregnancy with Joy, and I'm curious to see how much bigger I'll get--doesn't seem like there's much more room in my belly.  The little guy used to just take up one little lump on one side of my belly, now I feel like he stretches from love-handle to love-handle, kicking me in the ribs and bladder.  Less than 2 months left and doing alright.  I've definitely had to slow down for various reasons; one of which is that I'm just plain not as comfortable.  I don't remember slowing down before Joy was born--I worked up until a week before she was born and walked long distances quickly up until that point.  Not this time.  But I don't mind going slowly this time of year and looking at all of the beautiful flowers; I'm just probably not in quite as good of shape.

Joy:  Joy is talking a LOT.  She also has a strong preference for certain colors: purple and pink.  I've found this to be quite fascinating because we haven't had a lot of cultural influences making her girly--we don't have a TV or get girly magazines--we don't go to malls or even out very much except to the library, shopping trips and church.  But she's all about pink dresses and hearts and braids and painted toenail
One thing I've thought to be funny is recently she's started nodding her head after most things she says.  She's in this phase where when she talks, she pretty much wants to be affirmed that what she's communicating is being understood and seen.  (Joy: "White plane!  White plane!..."  -Me: "Oh yes, you're right; there is a white plane!")  But the nodding thing is funny because I've realized how much I nod.  I'm a head nodder. 

Anniversary: Mike and I's 3 year anniversary is coming up this Wednesday.  Our little family went to Saugatuck, MI for a little trip this weekend.  We rented a cabin and it was amazing.  Let's just say that there were 3 major issues that would have affected our comfort this weekend, all of which were outside of our control, for the most part (especially the prediction of thunderstorms all weekend...the other two were health-related). And in the end, none of them ended up being an issue.  I told God I would give Him the glory if He took care of these things and He did it--it was Him.  Thank You, God, for loving marriages and helping us to have fun.  Joy loved it so much she didn't want to come back--she cried when we pulled in the drive way and kept saying, "New place!  New place!"  New place came from me telling Joy that we were going to sleep in a new place for a few nights.  Ever since, she referred to our cabin as the "new place". 
Saugatuck is an interesting town.  It is about 20 miles South of Holland along Lake MIchigan and about a 3-hour drive from Chi-town.  I guess it has a reputation for being a gay/homosexual town.  Also, it's very artsy with lots of art galleries and no fast food.  It was very cute and we like it a lot--lots to see and do from olive oil tasting in the little shops to dune climbing, beach activities, old ships and mansions.
One of the more random events from our trip happened when we were walking around a spice shop.  A guy I used to work with in Estes Park, CO walked in--funny coincedence. 

Dentist: Don't go to the dentist late in your pregnancy, if you can time things better.  I had no idea--maybe my dental hygenist just wasn't very nice, or maybe since they know your gums are more apt to bleed when you're pregnant they just weren't very sensitive to mine, but whoo-ee, that was painful.  And I'm usually one who enjoys the dentist--I floss daily--it's usually a piece of cake.  Honestly, I had to keep my eyes shut to I wouldn't see the blood on my dental hygenist's gloves or the gauze she was holding in her hand, or the pink on her tools.  Torture!  Torture!  It might be my fault, too--it had been over a year since I'd had my teeth cleaned. 

Finally, we've gotten really into reading lately.  I've been reading Charles Dickens, now, and I really enjoy his writing style.  Mike enjoys reading history books and is reading about Canadian history.  And Joy still loves her Mimi the monkey books, and her books about animals, especially horses and bunnies.

I think kids really like having their bedtime routine.  At least Joy insists on doing the same things:
Brush teeth, then take one sip of water and pour the rest (slowly) into the sink.
Read at least 3 books.  She gets very upset if book-reading is cut or cut short, and usually insists on "mimi", a counting book involving a little girl monkey named Mimi.
Then, once she is in her crib and in her blanket-bag, we have to "pay" (pray).  We used to use this time to pray heartfelt prayers over her, but recently, she has gotten pretty involved in what she wants to pray for.  She has started calling out the names of things she'd like to pray for, which starts with family members, usually includes her stuffed pony, her extended family members, her grandparents pets, her extended family members, a bunch of random things like "bunnies" and "people pane" (people on planes) and "pink", and her extended family members, and her stuffed pony.
Then she wants kisses, for her and whichever stuffed animals are in the bed with her.
Finally, after we leave her in there, she continues to recite these things in the dark.  "Mama, Dada, Bubba (her pony), Doy (Joy), Ma (Grandma), Pa (Grandpa), Tine, Damie, puppies..."  One of my friends told my it's how kids often wind down from their day.

So cute!  And funny!  brings a smile to my face.

Ever since Design 183X, an experimental class at Iowa State about design culture, or something like that, I've been wanting to go to IKEA.  For those of you who know fashion, IKEA is like the H&M of home furnishing--trendy, european makings for very reasonable prices.  In class, I think we spent a week or 2 talking about it.  (We did a lot of weird things in this class--since it was experimental, I think the professors kinda talked about what they wanted, from IKEA to the airbus, to well, art around Iowa State.)

I've tried going to IKEA with Mike, and with him and Joy, and let's just say that they didn't have the same feelings about IKEA as I did. The trips were short and unfruitful.  So when my birthday rolled around, and people wanted gift ideas, I mentioned a babysitter and an IKEA shopping spree.  So, thanks to many family members, that's what I did today.  It was such a wild experience, I had to blog about it.

First of all, I had 2 dreams about my IKEA trip last night--weird dreams about taking a bus trip to Canada, or parking in the jungle and dropping my glass of iced tea.  Anyway, I woke up at 5:55am and couldn't fall back to sleep--too excited.  So, it was an early day for me.

IKEA offered FREE BREAKFAST, which I've noticed they seem to do a lot on the weekend.  So even though the store didn't open until 10, I got there a little after 9am (that's when the restaurant opened) and the place was hopping already.  Their big promos for the weekend were the free breakfast and these 400ct. sheet sets for $9.99.  Anyway, so everyone's walking around with piles of sheets (irregardless of the 1 per household rule) and is pushy.  Mind you, I'm eating this up--I got there early to take my time and watch other people be crazy.  I got my free scrambled eggs, bacon and homestyle potatoes and (decaf) coffee, eventually, (antsy people kept bumping ahead of the novice pregnant woman.) And I really enjoyed them, even though they might have been a step below normal food-service food (my eggs had these weird globs in it that almost looked like tapioca--I think just from sitting in the pan for a long time.  They probably had to premake tons of these things in order to accomodate all of the people--we're talking hundreds.)  As I sat there, the line for food kept getting longer and longer as people came in, and started winding around the hallway, and people kept packing in and packing in.  Eventually the workers told people not to go downstairs (where it "starts") because they didn't want too many people down there.  I tell you, it was nuts. 

The rest of my trip wasn't too noteworthy--just shopping...bought some nice decorations and plants...except that I also bought a lamp that kinda looks like a cross between medusa and a tree.  It's more of an art piece than a light-giving appliance.  Anyway, it's probably the weirdest thing in our house.

IKEA is a great store and has very reasonable, fashionable/functional things, but it's no quick-trip.  You couldn't "run in" to grab that gift for your friend...well, maybe if you hit it at the right time AND don't have kid(s).  But, I really enjoyed my IKEA shopping spree and free breakfast.  Thank you, family!

...I certainly feel bigger, even though the pictures look pretty similar. Or maybe I'm just carrying a lot lower because I don't remember feeling all of this pressure (and going to the bathroom every half hour!) These pictures were taken within a week of each other, as far as my pregnancy timeline goes. I don't seem to change much in 2 years!

Today I had my 20-week ultrasound--yes, I'm about 20-weeks pregnant.  I thought everyone would figure it out at Faithwalkers, but then I didn't really see many people at Faithwalkers and I wasn't showing enough to be obviously pregnant and not just a little tubby.  Anyway, we go in and right away the ultrasound technician asks if we want to know the gender of the baby and we say, "Yes".  And pretty quickly into the test she finds a picture of the baby that looks like a baby, but then she moves the ultrasound wand just a little bit and takes a picture.  The image on the screen kinda looked like the silouette of a dinosaur to me.

"What do you think it is?" she asks me, referring to the picture.  Like it's supposed to be obvious or something.  I had trouble believing she was serious--it looked like a dinosaur.  But she didn't act like she was kidding.

"I don't know," I replied.

"It's a BOY."

So, we will enter unchartered territory and mix things up a little bit, throwing a bit of extra testosterone into the Biang family.  I'm due mid-June. Joy seems pretty confused about the whole deal and a little stressed out by it, but she's going along with it, too.  She wanted to lay next to me on the ultrasound bed; moreover, she kept pointing at the ultrasound pictures they gave to us and saying "baby" all the way back to our house.  She also points at daddy and says "baby" and points at herself and says "baby" and enjoys stuffing "Popo" in her shirt and walking around like that.  But when I hold a friends' baby, that is a stressful situation for her.  We are praying God prepares us all for the next little one and are thankful that things seem to be going well so far.

I read this passage this morning and thought one of the notes about it from my study Bible (Life Application Study Bible, 1991) to be really insightful. I just love hearing about and understanding the original greek--seems to unfold new meaning. So here's the passage and the note.

John 21:15-17 (New International Version)

A mommy friend passed me an article saying the prime time to potty train is between 18 and 24 mo.  Let's just say that potty training has hit me upside the head.  I didn't think kids were potty trained until they were 2 or 3.  But maybe that's just when they finally "get it".

So I just wanted to make a shout out to some mommies for some potty training tips:

1. Any books that you found especially helpful?

2. What kind of gear was helpful for you?  (I know there are little potties, seats that fit right on the toilet, dolls, toddler books... what worked best for you?)

3. Anything else?

Thanks for any tips!

Joy will be 1 1/2 this coming week and I realized that I haven't even posted pictures from her birthday. So here are pictures from the past 1/2 year, in chronological order. There are twenty-or-so pics, so get ready for a slideshow!

Joy's birthday at Hickory Park. She got a stawberry sundae. Yummy!

After Luke and Holly's wedding at the Golden Corral in Boone

Birthday cake with the Biang kids as we're moving out of the Beach Ave. duplex.

peek-a-boo with Daddy at our summer rental

Not sure why she's upset here. Gosh, one thing that's been hard for me is to not laugh or smile when she's upset because she's just so stinkin' cute!

Joy's first tent camping trip. Wisconsin. This was the beginning of our tour de Lac Ontario.

Mining for amethyst in Canada. That's her aunt in the purple, and you can see my back a little.

Stop sign in Canada, eh.

Driving around Canada

That's our car below the helicopter. A helicopter landed right by our motel room! Some people who wanted to drop in for dinner at the nearby Austrian restaurant. Joy thought it was kinda scary. The rest of us thought it was pretty sweet!

This is a VERY common sight. Joy smells her pony (Po-po)'s tail for comfort.

Joy is sharing some "tail" comfort with me ("Mommy, you can smell the tail")

We found this little red car between a tree and a fence in our new back yard. As soon as Joy spotted it, she fell in love with it. After scrubbing the whole thing (it was seriously covered with the stickiest caterpillar cocoons), I ended up having to bring it inside to get any unpacking done. Joy just didn't want to get out!

So happy. new favorite toy. (notice the pony in the back)

Oh the joys of moving into a kitchen with a toddler. Notice the basting brush? She was brushing the wheat thins around.

Joy decided to rub spaghetti sauce in her hair. I think that Mike and I's screams just made it more fun for her. (Ah!) We went outside afterwards and the neighbor thought she had had a head injury and needed stitches! Fortunately, no!

I'm willing to bet that all kids "really" use their toy dishes at some point. Here we're having a tea party with a little sweetened lemon tea. Yummy! Oh yeah, and this was definitely one of those days when I was inspired to wear my striped, cotton hoody because Joy wanted to wear her striped, cotton hoody.

Joy likes to sit on her rocker with her buddies

What's going on here? Joy's got her little hideout with her stuffed animals.

Here's a different view:

The end for now!

Oh yeah, I think the "comment" feature is temporarily broken.  Hopefully it will be working again, soon!

Greetings blog readers. Happy August. Can you believe it's August already? A lot of crazy stuff happened since I last blogged. I'm probably not going to blog about it, though. Here's some light and fluffy stuff.

Joy is growing up! She's getting more and more proficient at walking, stair climbing, and now...talking! Not too much talking, yet, but things like "uh-oh!" and "hi!" She'll take things and drop them over the edge of her high chair just so she can say "uh oh!" Kinda funny. Also, I haven't done baby sign language with her for a long time, but the other day I said "say please" and she just did the sign for that and I was like, "WHOA!" What a memory! I seriously haven't done that since we lived in Ames.

SALT is over today which means I have to start cooking again (dun dun dun!) I do enjoy cooking and having cooked food around the house, but I've also been doing a great job at avoiding using the oven, (just stovetop, toaster oven and microwave.) Let's just say that it's been hot. Like in the 90's in our house (and outside). Like the kind of whether where you constantly have a sticky layer on your skin. I'll probably keep doing my oven-avoiding recipes. I've really enjoyed eating with the SALTers 3 nights a week, too. It's been such a blessing to have the free time to try to meet people. It's made me realize that I can be happy with less extravagent meals. (I tend to get caught up in making sure everything's healthy and that all of the food groups are available.) Forget about it.

In a week and a half Mike and I leave for our whirlwind trip around Lake Superior. This is a Biang family vacation in which all of the Biangs excluding the second eldest (but including the grandmas) travel to Canada and then some. As Mike likes to say, we're using our government stimulus package in Canada. It'll be my first Biang family vacation, family cabin excluded. I'm kinda curious what it will be like.

We've been garage-sale-ing when we're around on the weekends. It's different here. No one really puts ads in the paper--they just put signs out. And, unlike the crazies in Ames, garage sales here start around 9 or 10am, not 6 or 7 (phew!) But, a lot of garage sales are a little expensive, or it's just a garage full of Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving-type stuff. erk. I went to this one garage sale at the beginning of the summer, got this whole pile of clothes for Joy, asked the lady what it would cost and she said "$68!" I was like "um...we're going to have to put some of those back". Oh well. There will always be more garage sales :) Something big out here are these estate sales--where you get to walk through the house and everything is for sale. Those are kinda neat, but also over-priced and mostly antique-type stuff.

Mike's been fishing some lately. He loves it. And I've been working on a mosaic and running. Good stuff. It's been a really good decision to try to exercise regularly--does wonders for my energy level and spirits. No jogging stroller, I just have to slow down for the bumps.

That's all for now--cheers-

Haven't blogged in a while. Busy with family reunions and such. I have a great family:)

I'm still trying to meet people. Joy and I have been going to "Tot Time" at the library. It's great because I realized that most of the moms go looking for a little adult interaction, or in hopes that their child learns english. More people go than would go in Ames, but maybe it's because they give the kids free things every week (like a toy car, a finger puppet, and a small flag, for example.) Just like story time in Ames, though, Joy does NOT want to sit still. She wants to grab the girl next to us' pacifier, push someone else's stroller around, pull the felt animals off the bulletin board...you get the picture. So, the majority of story time is me trying to hold a wriggly kid and towards the end giving up and letting her run amuck (or crawl amuck as the case may be.) BUT, the same moms come every week, so it's been good. Moreover, the library is only 2 blocks from our house (!!!) And there's this cool train that the kids can climb in and on that Joy loves.

Speaking of running/walking/crawling, tonight Joy took about 3 consecutive steps on her own. I about died laughing. She's close! She's just such a speedy crawler.

This weekend we go see my family in Estes Park, CO. Mike and I haven't been there together since we both didn't give one another the time of day. When we first met in Estes Park 6 years ago, Mike thought I was a hippy freak (I had a buzzed head and ran around wearing fake old man glasses) and on first meeting him, Mike reminded me of a co-worker who really got on my nerves. We didn't really think our paths would cross so we didn't really worry about it. Guess we were wrong! It'll be really fun to be out there again.

That's all for now...

When I was a new Christian , if I felt myself feeling fearful, I made myself do that thing.  I didn't want fear to lead my life. 
I don't live like that anymore .  Maybe I'm just not as in tune with my emotions.  Anyway, after moving into this house, there are several things I have just turned a blind eye to.  Like the fact that the basement i s spiderland.  Okay, most of the house is spiderland.  Today I felt a little itch on my arm and what was it?  A spider. 

Yesterday I decided to face my fears and de-cobweb the half of the basement where I do laundry. (Seriously, I'd be pulling laundry out of the washer and if I pulled it up too high...cobwebs eve rywhere ...all over my ex-clean clothes...sick!)  It was interesting, but I'm glad I did it.  The paper towel kept ripping off my broom.  At one point I thought I got a spider with a big egg s ack only to realize it wasn't an egg sack, it was the spider's body.   eee....

When I was a camp counselor, I used to have to squash spiders all the time for my campers--big re d spiders.  And I would have to act like I wasn't afraid--have to set an example, right?  Now I scream like a little girl.  Joy's picked up that scream, only not from me, from the other kids at the pool.  Anyway, now every time I squash spiders I think of things like Harry Potter, and there must be some other movie with a huge spider (again)...I guess I let my imagination run away with me.

This morning, in my quiet time with God, I read Psalm 127. Verse 1 says,

"Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain."

It got me thinking that in my efforts to meet people and make friends, (I miss all my old Ames buddies :( ) I had been trusting God kinda in blips, but really not walking with Him moment by moment. So I made it my goal to stop scrambling to build something, but to let God build and rely on Him more--moment by moment--at least for today, and hopefully it's something I can grow in for the rest of my life. I don't want to be building in vain.

It was an eventful day. My small group didn't meet today so I decided to try a Mom's Meet-Up group--it would be the only time I could make it since I'm usually busy with small group. So Joy and I rushed out the door and over to the park for this group. Turns out the only people there were me and the lady that organized it and our kids. The woman was very friendly, and we sat and talked for a while, then I took Joy to the sandbox. She loves the sandbox; only problem is sometimes she tries to eat the sand. She loves practicing walking, too, so I took her hands and tried to hold her really lightly so it's almost like she's walking by herself, but she crashes forward, headfirst into the base of one of those sand crane toys (metal.) At which point I freak out. Her mouth is all bloody and she's very upset. I'm trying to calm her down a little bit, but all of the blood and being a little dehydrated (sometimes I just forget to drink!) made me really light headed and I could feel myself starting to pass out. Fortunately the lady took Joy so I could put my head down for a while. And then we eventually made it to our car, where I threw Joy in the car seat and had to put my head down again. Then I'm starting to leave and feel myself blacking out again so I pull over and call Mike. I'm so thankful for his voice of reason when I'm freaking out. Anyway, Joy and I eventually made it. We were going to go straight to the pediatrician but she stopped crying and seemed okay, so we just went home so I could try to wash things off a bit and assess the situation, or more like have Mike assess the situation since I felt completely out of it and was a wreck. Joy seemed okay, besides an oober puffy lip that makes her look like a different kid, a scratch in her lip, and a little bit of blood around her front teeth. We put her down for a nap and when she woke up she had a mouthful of blood so we rushed off to the doctor to see if we needed to get stitches. The nurses said she didn't need stitches. Praise God!

Anyway, throughout all this, I'm definitely having to lean on God. I don't know what happened to me, but I was a crying wreck. Only God could get me to stand up and take her to the doctor when I felt sick. I was wondering if Joy's teeth were going to fall out, or if she was going to have to get stitches, both made me very sad to think about. And she was so scared. But, as it were, I really think God was watching out for us. I was watching out for Joy, and she fell and hurt herself. But because God was watching out for her, she was able to come away with some bad wounds, but no permanent damage. (If she would have hit the metal base differently, she could have broken something or knocked out her teeth.) I was really thankful to experience God's watchfulness.

So I sent an e-mail to the lady from the park--she was really worried. And I mentioned the Bible verse and how I thought God came through for us. And she wrote back thanking me for sharing the Bible verse--saying she has been wanting to read the Bible again--that she hasn't read it since Catholic school and that hearing from me gave her encouragement to do it. She also said she's been really wanting to figure out what she believes. I think that's pretty cool; God took one verse and touched us both in a scary situation. That this scary situation ended up with us talking about God. Be praying this woman finds God!

Okay, switch gears...

this is completely different.

I really like beans. High in protein, iron and fiber. And cheap! So I've been looking into a lot of bean recipes. I found one that was supposed to taste like indian food, so I decided to try it. Moreover, this grocery store I now shop at (the one that sells cows heads for $24.99) also has a row of indian food, so I bought some masala. Word to the wise: if you are cooking foreign food, read the directions completely. I made chicken tikka masala to go with our beans and mustard greens, but what I didn't see is that the recipe only called for 2 T of the masala mix. I thought it was like mac'n'cheese and put the whole packet in with the chicken (the packet is about 4X the size of a mac'n'cheese cheese packet.) Needless to say, Mike said it was the hottest (spiciest) thing he's ever had. I know this one will go down in family history--the day I made extremely hot Indian food. The curry mustard greens and kidney beans turned out really well, though. Thankfully! We had something to eat. Yum! And I am going to try again with my chicken tikka masala.

Today, I logged in to a certain website to update my contact info. After navigating around for awhile, I was surprised to see the following message:

How depressing!!

I guess I forgot to blog last week.

What's new?

Well, it was kinda cool--I went outside with Joy two weekend's ago just in time to see the neighbor coming over to bring us some of her rhubarb. So we chatted for a while. She asked why we were here and I mentioned the church and Mike's family. She gets all excited, "You are an answer to prayer!" She exclaims. She says she's been praying for christians to move in this house. I told her that the guys who will be here after us will not let her down, (Mike's brothers and a few other guys from this church.) I thought that was pretty cool. Then she started telling me all about her favorite Moody Bible radio stations, Chicago brush removal, a little about her church, and her sons, her house, our house...it was actually quite informative. She knew all about our washer and dryer situation because they used to be hers!

I walked to the library with my Hannah Montana fan tonight. She told me her family is moving back to Mexico at the end of the summer. Kinda sad, but I can see how they'd want to be closer to family. She has told me that her little 2 yr. old brother is crazy about Joy and stands at the window saying, "I"m here Joy! I'm over here! Hi Joy!" from the window (only in Spanish.) Pretty cute!

Mike's been working pretty hard lately--almost constantly. Trying to finish up Markup Factory, his big project with Cramer Dev. I didn't know what to do with myself last week, so I decided to get a pool pass. We don't have AC right now--our's broke--so it seems like the best way to meet other moms and stay cool. Poor Joy's been all sweaty. Anyway, I contacted the park district, which happened to be a person who goes to our church. And she got me all registered. When I went in to pay, the worker told me it was already paid for--she thought by a specific person, but when I asked that person, they knew nothing of it. Kinda interesting, but somehow I got a free park pass! ($60!) And the waterpark/pool is pretty sweet. That was a blessing.

I took Joy to the water park and she was really scared--crying almost the whole time. Then this past weekend we went to the family cabin, and Joy did great in the lake.  We'll have to try the pool again this week.

Mike and I just came back from the coolest party I've been to in a while.  I knew it was going to be a good party when I looked out the window around noon to see one of those blow-up bouncy rooms in the neighbor's yard.

Here are the highlights:
-the Strawberry Shortcake bouncy room
-the DJ playing loud hispanic polka music
-the strings of balloons and streamers
-huge, beautiful sheet cakes, one with Hannah Montana, the other with Diego (Go Diego Go!)
-and last, but not least, THE TACO TRUCK!

This was a party for an 8 yr. old and a 2 yr. old.  This was almost as cool as some Iowa weddings.  I asked a woman at the party if she had a party like this for her boy who is a day younger than Joy and she said "yes".

Here are a few things that are different about hispanic parties and the parties I grew up going to.

1. Parties are a family event.  I was expecting a party with a bunch of 8 yr. old girls and a bunch of 2 yr. old boys...no, whole families were there, including white-haired grandmas.  I think that's really cool.

2. THE TACO TRUCK!  This was awesome--they just hired a taco truck and parked it in their back yard and they'd make anything you want, free for the guests.  They also had pop and snacks and beer.  Mike and I had spicy chorizo tacos.  They had these peppers you could put on them, which we didn't add, but the lady sitting next to us seemed to think they were very very hot.

3. everyone gets dressed up.  Mike and I went wearing cargo shorts and t-shirts...no one else was wearing shorts.  All of the little girls had elaborate hairdos.  Everyone else seemed to be wearing "clubbing clothes" and looked very nice.

4. people just kinda seem to sit around.  The kids are going crazy (like in the bouncy room) and the adults sit and eat and/or talk/stare.  I noticed not a lot of jabbering or even smiling.  Everyone seemed quite content and secure to sit there and people watch and talk occasionally. 

We had a good time.  I'm glad we went, even though it was a little awkward.  Most people did not speak English and we were the only white people there.  Joy was a hit, as always.  We made a few friends.  I hope we see them around town.  We'll have to figure out some way to treat the neighbors some time because they were very hospitable!  I hope this is not my last fiesta!

This afternoon, I was hanging laundry to dry (found out our dryer doesn't work) and the MONSTER mosquitos were coming after me. Seriously, I've never seen mosquitos as big as they are out here. They're at least twice the size of Ames mosquitos. I've gotten bit about 20 times, Joy 0 and Mike 2. It's questionable whether all of my bites are mosquito bites since there are TONS of spiders in our house. It's a war between me and the mosquitos--I'm trying to kill them even though I know they only live for about a day. Right now, the mosquitos are winning. Anyway, as I was hanging laundry, I got bit on the forhead and I saw two going for my back so I grabbed Joy and was screaming and running inside when I saw out of the corner of my eye that the neighbor girl was crossing the street to visit. (How crazy did I look? Probably pretty crazy.) I decided that I could endure the loathed mosquitos for this long-awaited chance to interact with my favorite neighbors. It's been cold so people haven't been outside. We were talking a little--mostly in English since her English is very good--and she asked invited me to her birthday party and asked to see Joy's room. So I gave her a tour of the house. Then she got her friend's chihuaua to show to Joy, who loved it, of course. (Joy's crazy about dogs.) Then she asked to go on a little walk, so we walked to the end of the block and back.

So...Mike and I are going to a Hannah Montana birthday party this weekend. Su-WEET! I guess it's a birthday party for her (8yrs.) and her younger brother (2 yrs.) The little guy will get Cars or Winnie the Pooh birthday decorations, I guess. I'm excited, but a little nervous. She speaks english very well, but the rest of her family doesn't. This will be a test of my spanish speaking abilities and I confess I haven't been studying much lately.

So, it looks like I will get my fiesta experience! Whoo hoo! Hannah Montana!

I've been amazed by the power of prayer lately. Prayer has been somewhat of an enigma for me. And I think I've had this fear and doubt when it comes to prayer. God has been building my faith.

After a long stretch of living by sight and living within our means and meager strength, God asked us to live by faith. I'm referring mostly to moving to W. Chicago for the summer. As faith test after faith test came up, it seemed like nothing would happen until we got people praying. I was so desperate to find a subleaser...and we needed to find one fast (within a month and a half) and it seemed like it wasn't until after we asked a bunch of people to be praying for us that we found a subleaser. Same with finding a place to live in W. Chicago; where that is concerned, God gave us everything we asked for, (because of Mike's dad's faith, I think.) And then at the end of last week, I had this health concern that I asked for a bunch of prayer for--mainly for my state-of-mind that I would not worry. Before I asked for prayer, I was a nervous wreck. Afterwards, I have been happy and peaceful, and I didn't even know how this health concern would turn out.  (Praise God everything seems to be fine.) 

But those are 3 things that have happened all within the past month or two--three pretty big things in my mind, where God has really come through, I think because of prayer. Because we had righteous people praying for us.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise...And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up...Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:13,15-18, ESV)

Elijah was like you and me--"a man with a nature like ours" and he "prayed fervently that it might not rain, and...it did not rain. Then he prayed again," and it rained.

I still think I have a long way to go, as far as faith and prayer go, but I guess I'm just excited about God and excited about what He's like.

While I have your attention, please pray for two friends of mine. We'll call Joe and the other Jane. Two separate stories of two people who are getting desparate and really need God in their lives.

Adjusting to a new move is hard.  It's interesting how life can change so much just by moving a few hours. 

I still haven't found my fav grocery store, yet.  I'd like to find one and be a regular to make some friends and such.  So far I've hit the Carneciera Jiminez and Springbook Market.  The mexican grocery store has some great things (like 5 mini avocados for $1!) but mexican's aren't really into soy milk and I need soy milk.  Springbrook Market is okay, but kinda weird.  When I went there last week, there really wasn't anyone in there.  Moreover, they sell weird things like cow's head.  No joke--cow's head.  Mike saw it.  Produce, milk and eggs are decently priced here in W. Chicago, but meat and ice cream--whew!  It's like over $6/box for ice cream.  Yeesh.  I've been wanting to have some good ice cream on hand since it's so tempting to go out all the time--there is a Tastee Freeze about 2 blocks away and the ice cream guy comes by every evening.  I got some cheapee ice cream and I've eaten it every day since. 

So, Mike and I are learning what it means to rent a house that's on the market.  Unfortunately, we have this habit of totally destroying our place over the weekend.  We just get really sloppy.  So today we go to the park and come back and there's a realtor's card on our coffee table--they'd showed the place while we were gone...oops.  Again, I've been telling myself I'm going to take it easy and slowly unpack, but it's time to get this place in shape.  Those poor people who had to see the house like this.  It really is a weird place, though.  Spacious, but quirky.  Like the bathroom off of the master bedroom only gets hot water for about 20 seconds.  We thought it was the whole house that wasn't getting hot water and, after several days of cold showers, realized the other bathroom gets hot water just fine.  Moreover, there are all of these closets that you have to have the door to the room shut to get into, slanted floors, CATerpillers in the backyard (I think that's what they're called--the yellow and black construction vehicles)--seriously, when I look out the back windows, I see semis and CATs, when I look out Joy's window I see a train, and when I look out my front window, I see a fiesta.  Literally--mexican polka music, guys doing wheelees up and down the street on ATVs...kids running around with popsicles.  (Honestly, I hope to be a part of it one day!)

That's all for now.

Today I met the neighbor lady and her two youngest boys.  I must say it was like the Tower of Babel because we both wanted to say so much but didn't really know how to say it--I know a little Spanish and she knows even less English.  So I'd say something with mixed Spanish-English-French and she'd sometimes nod, but looked confused, and she'd say something in Spanish and I"d understand about 1/3 of it.

I'm getting more and more fascinated with hispanic culture.  I'm going to try to get a Spanish book from the library today so I can communicate better.  When I try to speak in Spanish, a bunch of French comes out with my Spanish making me really confusing to talk with.  (I took one semester of Spanish and 8 years of French).

I just love how family-oriented the hispanic culture seems to be.  Everyone (mixed generations) hanging out together a lot.  Everywhere I go hispanic ladies compliment Joy--I think they are just excited about babies. I need to learn spanish so I can compliment their babies, too.

Hi everyone. As I write, I am reclined in our new living room in West Chicago. It's been a while, so I'll try to give an update.

Early March, Mike and I felt it would be a good idea to spend some time in West Chicago. We are planning on being out here just for the summer. Trusting God to provide a subleaser was hard for me--we'd signed our lease for 827 Beach thru summer of '09. But we both figured if God really wanted us out here, He'd provide. (Rent is about twice as much for less space in Chicago compared to Ames, IA). And some time in April, we found a renter-it really was the perfect situation-she wanted to move in 3 days after we wanted to move out.

One other "trusting God" challenge was finding a place here in West Chicago. West Chicago is not a college town, so there aren't really any subleases or short-term leases available. I just wanted to find a place and lease it--just whatever would work, but Mike's dad challenged us to have faith. He had us come up with a list of things that we would believe God for--ranked from "must haves" to "preferred" to "selfish desires". We looked into several places and no place wanted to do a short-term lease except for this one place that Chris thought wasn't that great. So as of a week ago, we still didn't have a place to live.

Rewind about 2 weeks ago. Joy's birthday was May 8^th. She's now one, and is she as curious as ever! She's getting into everything. She loves taking things out of boxes/shelves, eating popcorn, making a little babbly sound by sticking her tongue in and out of her mouth really fast, and tearing up paper. She's not walking, yet, but is getting closer every day. She's not talking, yet, either, but is pretty good at non-verbal communication (waving bye-bye, flapping her arms when she wants something. And recently Mike taught her how to high-five and to kiss. Cute!)

But I want to express how crazy our lives have been lately. So Joy's birthday was May 8^th, Mike was in Luke and Holly's wedding the next few days. On May 10^th, we found out my sister was getting married on May 14^th. We moved half of our stuff out on May 11^th---packed and moved almost all day. Same with Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we drive to St. Louis, getting in town just in time to put Joy down to bed and go to my sister's 11pm wedding. (Which was AMAZING for a wedding thrown together in 3 days!) We drive back to Iowa Thursday. Right before we leave to head back to Ames, we find out that we have a place to live in West Chicago. Phew! (At this point we had 2 days until our move and we had JUST gotten a place to live. I'll tell you more about it later.) We pack some more on Thursday night and on Friday...and move out Saturday.

Saturday was a crazy day. Here were two crazy things that happened. 1. A robin made a nest in our garage above our car. It's pretty cute-she must be incubating some eggs because she's always there. Anyway, she decided to give Mike a piece of her mind...er...body, and Mike ended up with brown goo on his forehead and shirt. I'll get to the second crazy thing. We finally head out of Ames at 4pm-ish. Joy gets hungry so I stop in Williamsville while Mike goes on to run some errands in Iowa City. We go to Arby's and Joy is just smiling and waving at everyone and eating a ton. We didn't get out of Arby's for 45 min! Then another series of setbacks occurred. Around the I-80 truckstop we pulled over to feed Joy again. At this point it's after 9pm. Mike and I are driving separate cars full of stuff. Mike gets out of his borrowed van, and somehow it locks with the keys inside. (That's crazy thing #2). He calls AAA and they can't come out for about an hour. We're in the McDonald's parking lot, and right next door is a Days Inn. So we just get a room there for the night. Let me tell you I was excited not to have to drive another 3 hours! We'd both been up since 7am and were so tired.

We end up getting to W. Chicago around 1pm on Sunday. And soon after we get there, all of the SALTers get together to help us move in. We had 4 vehicles full of stuff, and the stuff was unloaded and in the appropriate rooms in about a half-hour. What a blessing! As we're moving in, I'm seeing this place for the first time. This is a huge house with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, dining room, living room, newly remodeled kitchen, and a nice sunroom. HUGE! I keep getting lost. Part of the reason why we got this place for our price range (half of what the owner wants for it) is because the owner is still going to try to sell it for 60 days. If he sells it within that time, we have to find a new place to live. If he doesn't, then Mike's brothers will rent the place out in the fall. As I've been sitting here I've learned that one of the perks is that he is paying people to come and mow the lawn (to keep it looking nice.) Sweet!

We go to bed really early on Sunday. Just exhausted. Joy wakes up 5 times that night. Yeesh. I'm thinking it might be because it's freezing in here. I just hadn't figured out the whole radiator thing just yet. So on Monday, I'm still pretty exhausted. Right when I lay down to rest, I get a call from the realtor that they're showing the place that afternoon. AAAH! We had boxes EVERYWHERE. So Mike and the guys come over around lunch time and help make things look presentable. What a day!

One of the weird things about this place is that just about as many semis drive by out front as cars, if not more, and this is a "no outlet" street. I was not expecting that. On Monday I watched this utility truck drive up and down our street, coming to a complete stop every 100 ft. and then continuing. He did that several times and then I got tired of watching him. I guess this place is zoned for commercial use as well as residential and if I look out one of our windows I see a while bunch of semis parked in a lot.

One of the cool things about this location is that there is a Tasty Freeze about a 5 min. walk away. Su-WEET! We are also just about a house or two away from "the prairie path"-a bike/foot path that goes throughout the county. Joy and I took that to the library yesterday (about a 5-10min walk.)

Anyway, God really provided for us with this place. And I've enjoyed getting to know the area. I went to a Mexican grocery store yesterday. It's now one of my goals to learn a little Spanish while I'm here so I can communicate with people. (W. Chicago is a little more than 50% Hispanic.) I think the hispanic culture is pretty cool. I'm hoping to meet our neighbors accross the street some time soon. They have a little boy about Joy's age.

That's all for now. Thanks for your prayers and support! God's coming through for us.

Hi everyone. As I write, I am reclined in our new living room in West Chicago. It's been a while, so I'll try to give an update.

Early March, Mike and I felt it would be a good idea to spend some time in West Chicago. We are planning on being out here just for the summer. Trusting God to provide a subleaser was hard for me--we'd signed our lease for 827 Beach thru summer of '09. But we both figured if God really wanted us out here, He'd provide. (Rent is about twice as much for less space in Chicago compared to Ames, IA). And some time in April, we found a renter-it really was the perfect situation-she wanted to move in 3 days after we wanted to move out.

One other "trusting God" challenge was finding a place here in West Chicago. West Chicago is not a college town, so there aren't really any subleases or short-term leases available. I just wanted to find a place and lease it--just whatever would work, but Chris Biang challenged us to have faith. He had us come up with a list of things that we would believe God for--ranked from "must haves" to "preferred" to "selfish desires". We looked into several places and no place wanted to do a short-term lease except for this one place that Chris thought wasn't that great. So as of a week ago, we still didn't have a place to live.

Rewind about 2 weeks ago. Joy's birthday was May 8^th. She's now one, and is she as curious as ever! She's getting into everything. She loves taking things out of boxes/shelves, eating popcorn, making a little babbly sound by sticking her tongue in and out of her mouth really fast, and tearing up paper. She's not walking, yet, but is getting closer every day. She's not talking, yet, either, but is pretty good at non-verbal communication (waving bye-bye, flapping her arms when she wants something. And recently Mike taught her how to high-five and to kiss. Cute!)

But I want to express how crazy our lives have been lately. So Joy's birthday was May 8^th, Mike was in Luke and Holly's wedding the next few days. On May 10^th, we found out my sister was getting married on May 14^th. We moved half of our stuff out on May 11^th---packed and moved almost all day. Same with Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we drive to St. Louis, getting in town just in time to put Joy down to bed and go to my sister's 11pm wedding. (Which was AMAZING for a wedding thrown together in 3 days!) We drive back to Iowa Thursday. Right before we leave to head back to Ames, we find out that we have a place to live in West Chicago. Phew! (At this point we had 2 days until our move and we had JUST gotten a place to live. I'll tell you more about it later.) We pack some more on Thursday night and on Friday...and move out Saturday.

Saturday was a crazy day. Here were two crazy things that happened. 1. A robin made a nest in our garage above our car. It's pretty cute-she must be incubating some eggs because she's always there. Anyway, she decided to give Mike a piece of her mind...er...body, and Mike ended up with brown goo on his forehead and shirt. I'll get to the second crazy thing. We finally head out of Ames at 4pm-ish. Joy gets hungry so I stop in Williamsville while Mike goes on to run some errands in Iowa City. We go to Arby's and Joy is just smiling and waving at everyone and eating a ton. We didn't get out of Arby's for 45 min! Then another series of setbacks occurred. Around the I-80 truckstop we pulled over to feed Joy again. At this point it's after 9pm. Mike and I are driving separate cars full of stuff. Mike gets out of his borrowed van, and somehow it locks with the keys inside. (That's crazy thing #2). He calls AAA and they can't come out for about an hour. We're in the McDonald's parking lot, and right next door is a Days Inn. So we just get a room there for the night. Let me tell you I was excited not to have to drive another 3 hours! We'd both been up since 7am and were so tired.

We end up getting to W. Chicago around 1pm on Sunday. And soon after we get there, all of the SALTers get together to help us move in. We had 4 vehicles full of stuff, and the stuff was unloaded and in the appropriate rooms in about a half-hour. What a blessing! As we're moving in, I'm seeing this place for the first time. This is a huge house with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, dining room, living room, newly remodeled kitchen, and a nice sunroom. HUGE! I keep getting lost. Part of the reason why we got this place for our price range (half of what the owner wants for it) is because the owner is still going to try to sell it for 60 days. If he sells it within that time, we have to find a new place to live. If he doesn't, then Mike's brothers will rent the place out in the fall. As I've been sitting here I've learned that one of the perks is that he is paying people to come and mow the lawn (to keep it looking nice.) Sweet!

We go to bed really early on Sunday. Just exhausted. Joy wakes up 5 times that night. Yeesh. I'm thinking it might be because it's freezing in here. I just hadn't figured out the whole radiator thing just yet. So on Monday, I'm still pretty exhausted. Right when I lay down to rest, I get a call from the realtor that they're showing the place that afternoon. AAAH! We had boxes EVERYWHERE. So Mike and the guys come over around lunch time and help make things look presentable. What a day!

One of the weird things about this place is that just about as many semis drive by out front as cars, if not more, and this is a "no outlet" street. I was not expecting that. On Monday I watched this utility truck drive up and down our street, coming to a complete stop every 100 ft. and then continuing.  He did that several times and then I got tired of watching him.  I guess this place is zoned for commercial use as well as residential and if I look out one of our windows I see a while bunch of semis parked in a lot.

One of the cool things about this location is that there is a Tasty Freeze about a 5 min. walk away. Su-WEET! We are also just about a house or two away from "the prairie path"-a bike/foot path that goes throughout the county. Joy and I took that to the library yesterday (about a 5-10min walk.)

Anyway, God really provided for us with this place. And I've enjoyed getting to know the area. I went to a Mexican grocery store yesterday. It's now one of my goals to learn a little Spanish while I'm here so I can communicate with people. (W. Chicago is a little more than 50% Hispanic.)  I think the hispanic culture is pretty cool.  I'm hoping to meet our neighbors accross the street some time soon.  They have a little boy about Joy's age.

That's all for now. Thanks for your prayers and support! God's coming through for us.

Ever since Joy was born, someone in our house has been getting "Working Mother Magazine". That's person's name is Michae Biang. Totally confusing.

April 14th: mystery solved!  I contacted Working Mother and got and e-mail in return saying:

"This order is a complimentary order. You received it when checking out at art.com website."

Mike got me a poster of Antelope Cavern for our anniversary (late April).  The fact that Michae's subscription started when Joy was born is amazing.  And would anyone and everyone get Working Mother magazine? Art.com didn't know we were having a baby... ? ? ?

With Valentine's Day coming up soon, I've been reminiscing upon valentine's days gone by. This one has to be one of the best...

A few pics: Mike playing the guitar for Joy while she bounces. The Decorah ice cave. Joy loves Zwiebeck. and a cute smile and crawl position. Sorry no pics of me--I'm usually the photographer.

It's my birthday in a few hours. Moreover, it's my night "alone". So I spent some time reflecting on the past year. Whew! It's been quite a year. God's definitely shown me a lot of steadfast love this year. Anyway, after reflecting I really wanted to go to the MU Workspace and play with clay--I've been thinking about it all week. But I get there and they are full--no room for me. I almost cried--tears in my eyes. Then I got to my car and got a text message from a friend saying she needed prayer. I'm not a big text-messager--Mike and I don't have it in our plan, but I do it sometimes anyway. I recently discovered "T9word" (What does that mean, anyway? What it does is finish the word for you, as you type in the letters.) I think it's the coolest. I type in "I'm praying for you..." and I tried to write "sis" but in T9 it comes out as "sir"...hmmm...that won't work. "Sister" sounds very formal. So I tried "sista", even though that's slightly cheesy (mind you I won't just change out of T9 cuz I LOVE T9)...but if you type in "sista" on T9 it comes out as "shrub". So I tried to backspace but hit some random button and it sent. HA! Ha ha ha ha. I about died laughing. How awkward and funny at the same time. I guess that was God's way of helping me turn my attitude around quickly. I bet T9 gets a lot of people in trouble. Why is shrub in there anyway? I wonder how many times people say "shrub" in a text message.

I re-tried making hummus today. Joy loves hummus. I wonder if it has to do with me having lots of hummus cravings when I was pregnant. Regardless, Joy loves hummus and if she sees Mike or I eating it she flaps her arms and says "mmmm!" I don't quite have the right recipe so now we have a huge tupperware full of funky hummus. But I still kinda like it. Hummus is so good--creamy and exotic. Yum!

A little secret: if you hit "archives" up top and scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's this cute, short video of Joy. 

It's been a while since I blogged about explicitly spiritual things. With the closing of 2007 and praying through the year, I realized God had taken me through some new and different trials. One of which was sleep deprivation, and walking with Him when I couldn't connect with Him or anyone on a deep level because I was simply exhausted. It was really hard! I had grown accustomed to having time with God whenever I wanted/needed, and now with baby, I do not get to do what I want when I want. Moreover, when I have free time (i.e. Joy goes down for a nap) I often would have to nap with her. These things have been good for me in lots of ways--challenging how I see myself and find worth--but it's definitely shaken things up a bit.

Quick baby update: Fortunately, Joy has been sleeping a lot better lately. It was rough for a few weeks, due to her two little teeth that popped up on the bottom around the end of the year, but now she only gets up once a night. She is getting very close to crawling and gets around quite well by rolling and pivoting on her belly. She can scoot backwards on her belly, and she'll rock and lunge in the crawl position, but hasn't figured out how to coordinate her arm and leg movements. Needless today, we are busy baby-proofing our home. Joy has also started babbling--saying ba-ba-ba-ba, wa-wa-wa-wa and ma-ma-ma-ma. It's pretty funny.

But I was talking about explicitly spiritual things. (I believe that everything is spiritual and even the little mundane things are spiritual and have spiritual ramifications, but we'll save that discussion for another time.)

Mike and I have been talking a lot about obedience lately--specifically, obeying God. A dear friend was praising the Iowa City church to me--rejoicing in how God has blessed this church for their obedience. I mentioned this to Mike who mentioned how they are getting to the basics--spending time with God and looking for something to obey that day, (Mike heard it in one of their podcasts). I remember Rick Whitney sharing that at one of the first Faithwalkers. Reminds me of something one of the teachers at Faithwalkers this past year was really pushing for: obey what you know. "Knowledge puffs up..." but if we obey what we know, we grow. When I heard that I thought it sounded like something that would be really good for my life, so that's something I've been really trying to do. In the past, for my daily times with God I just spill my guts, pray over ugly things that pop up (like anger, impatience, etc.) and try to plan my day with the Lord. I'd try to find a verse that "speaks to me" at least on some level, write that down, and then try as I might to be full of the Spirit that day, I usually get wrapped up in things and forget what I had read earlier that day.

So I've found it really refreshing to my daily Bible reading to look for something to obey that day. When I find my eyes glossing over the Bible, I remember "I haven't found anything to obey today." and it makes me stop, pray, and seek what God would have me read and obey that day. It's been refreshing to have something specific to try and do rather than try to do everything I've ever learned I'm supposed to do to be like Jesus. How far we fall short in so many ways!  Good thing that if we've accepted Christ, our actions don't really affect our standing with God or His love towards us--those are secured.

Last night I listened to Hershel Martindale's teaching on Love from the other Faithwalkers conference. One of the parts that struck me was his talk on walking by the Spirit. He compared it to getting drunk, very humbly. I'm not going to be able to say this as well as he did, but I'll try to recount it: To get drunk, one must make a choice to drink alcohol, then one feels the effects and walks in them. Similarly with the Spirit--one must make a choice to be filled with the Spirit, and then one feels the effects and walks in it.

Now it's only been about half a week since I've tried doing this, and I liken it to Hershel's teaching because he was saying that most people deliberately try to walk in the Spirit for a while, but soon forget about it. (In his example, he told some people to try walking in the Spirit for a specific amount of time (days) and for the first week people were okay, but by the second week days had gone by when they forgot about it altogether.) Anyway, I know that with anything we do, that we are weak and I'll be forgetful. But the more I can be aware and make choices to walk towards/with God, the better. I know there's no formula--it's all about walking with God, but the more I can put into practice that I read, the more I'll be like Christ and have His peace.

Anyway, today I was reading in Philippians where Paul shares, "Convinced of this, (that it's better for his brothers and sisters that he is alive and with them than with the Lord), I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith." (Phil. 1:25 ESV). I was struck by how Paul is concerned not only with their progress in the faith but also their JOY. And this morning Mike was sharing a verse with me about how joy and obedience are linked.

John 15:9-11 NIV 9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Anyway, this different way of trying to find something specific in God's word to obey that day has brought me joy, and I thought I'd share it in hopes that it may encourage you in your progress and joy in the faith.

Allison (my friend who now lives in Saudi Arabia) used to always tell me to get my party pants on.  Here's a story about my party pants. 

Mike and I made pies last night.  I've been experimenting with different ways to make crumb-topped cherry pie, and I really think you need to boil the juice to thicken it, but since I was using frozen cherries, there was no liquid to boil, so I just hoped for the best.

When it was time to go to the party, we got in the car--all decked out in our Christmas best, Mike in a sweater*, Joy in a cute jumper and her patent leather shoes, and me in my party pants and faux bling earrings--and we headed to the Heerema Helser party, me with the one big pie on my lap.  They were cooked--hard, crunchy crumb topping.  Anyway, halfway there, I notice that some of the liquid had oozed out and was on my gloves, keys (that were in my lap) and splashed on my thigh.  "Ooh," I thought...undercooked pie...runny.  I just sat in the mess until we got there--not much else I could do.

Mike pulled in the Heerema's driveway.  I thought I'd just use some snow to brush off the sticky cherry runniness.  So I jump out and notice...that...the mess...was bigger than I had thought...I was actually sitting in a puddle of sticky cherry goo, and my pants reflected that--cherry goo from my lap to my back.  I didn't think the chances were that great that someone would be looking outside so I just real quick wiped snow all over myself.  Then Katie runs outside laughing and it turns out everyone was watching.  Hmm...I didn't have any extra party pants on hand.  I ran around in my sticky pants for a while, trying to take care of my tired baby--putting her in the Heerema's pack 'n' play for a nap.  I sat down on a paper towel to see it turn pink.  Fortunately, Nancy let me borrow a pair of pants for the rest of the party. Good thing because by then, the goo had dripped down to my ankles!  Hopefully our other Christmas parties go better...I can't say that this incident didn't throw me.

*side note--Mike really wanted a tacky Christmas sweater so we went to the thrift shop yesterday, but we couldn't find anything of the sort! What we did get was a wagon wheel.  no joke!  We put it out front.  I think it looks sweet--definitely livens up our lack of bushes.  It was only $5!  That would have been a sweet white elephant gift, but I couldn't part with it.  We're still on the look-out for a tacky men's Christmas sweater, though.

6 month pic of Joy...I love this one--she's getting such a cute, fuzzy head! 

and guess who thinks the Christmas tree is pretty cool? 

Because I love my husband, I bought phyllo dough and we made baklava.  

It did seem like quite the endeavor at first (you have to butter layers of dough that are as thick as a piece of paper), but look at his face, how could it not be worth it ? :)  So, the wikipedia adventure ended in a calor-ific treat for the Biangs. 

What do you want to do tonight? I asked Mike. He's on Wikipedia looking up how to make phyllo dough.

-->We're going to make this..."Homemade phyllo takes time and skill. It requires progressive rolling and stretching of the dough to a single, thin and very big sheet, with continual flouring of its surface, which tends to break apart. A very big table and a long roller are used. Once finished, the phyllo is floured, folded, then used as desired..."

We are not going to make that, I said, or something like that.

-->Mmm...puff pastry!...Beef Wellington!...

-->Awwww! Baby salmon!

?

I shouldn't be surprised that my husband went from phyllo dough-->puff pastry-->beef wellington-->salmon wellington-->salmon, all on Wikipedia, of course.

Mike loves Wikipedia, in addition to phyllo dough and salmon.

what to blog about? It's been a while since I blogged...

Joy is 6 months old. She's sitting up and eating rice cereal very well. I tried feeding her some mushed up pears but she would have none of it (absolutely none.) Any suggestions for making homemade baby food very smooth? I think that might have been the problem. Mike is now 317 months old, and I am 320. That's a lot of months. We are also eating our cereal very well; although, sometime we dribble. I eat the mushed up pears that Joy won't eat (tastes good! Why doesn't anyone make pearsauce? (like applesauce?)) Mike only eats pears if I put them right in front of him, but he really really likes soft, sweet, Biang Christmas pears. We've been sitting up for a while, but we're more slouchy and scoliotic than Joy is. And we don't flop over like she does, occasionally.

We're also all a little bit bald. (Ha ha ha...it's true!) I've been losing chunks of hair due to post-partum hormones; I thought it might be stopping, but I still lose hunks and hunks of hair every day. Joy has a nice bald spot from turning her head a lot when she's laying on her back. It looks pretty goofy. In general she's growing hair (lighter than when she was born, for sure;) She has the cutest little fuzzy head, but she has a very distinct bald spot. I was thinking about drawing an eye on it. Don't think I'll do it, though. And Mike's losing hunks of hair because his favorite activity with Joy is to put her on his shoulders and let her eat and pull on his hair. She really likes to put it in her mouth.

Joy's favorite toys are ribbons. She gets really intense when she has one--LOVES sucking on ribbons and tags. She also has a toy horse she's absolutely in love with. And she loves being read to. Mike and I don't really like sucking on ribbons or tags. We like being read to, too, but we don't reach out to gnaw on the books. Mister Collins, will you come over and read us some of Fordyce's sermons?

Speaking of Mister Collins, I just adore the new Pride and Prejudice movie. Mike says that if I can figure out the dance steps, he'll do some of the old dances with me. Ooh, sounds great to me!

Time to pack for New York! Fun fun!

Micah 7:18-21 

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
   and passing over transgression
   for the remnant of his inheritance?
   He does not retain his anger forever,
   because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
   He will tread our iniquities underfoot.
   You will cast all our sins
   into the depths of the sea.
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob
   and steadfast love to Abraham,
   as you have sworn to our fathers
   from the days of old.

We went trick-or-treating at the mall last night with friends Alyssa and Alona.

ha ha ha. I found this pic while looking through my computer. It is the only pictoral record, (taken by my sister) of me as a trolley driver in downtown Chicago, (summer 2004). This was the summer Mike caught my eye...not while driving, of course. As you can tell from this picture, I got kinda uptight while driving. You would, too, if you drove a trolley-disguised bus around downtown Chicago during rushhour!

Super baby!  (Doesn't she look like Mike here?)  Check out our cupboards...er...see if you can find the wheat germ :)  

Joy loves scooting around in her walker.  She just kinda stiffens and that scoots her backwards.  Can't go forwards, yet.

sooo cute in a bonnet!   

Joy meets Aunt Joyce in St. Louis :) 

Mike and Joy were hopeful during the Cubs playoff run.  Maybe next year.

We got out Joy's high chair.  No solids, yet...just so she can sit with mom and dad at dinner time. 

ready for church! 

Joy doesn't like all of the cold weather gear. 

For the last couple of days, I've been wanting to come up with a good way to display our Flickr photos on our website. You can now see our latest 60 flickr photos here: Photos

Now for the technical details (if you aren't interested just ignore the next paragraph):

The photo gallery uses some pretty cool tools. Apparently, you can obtain image data from the flickr API in JSON (JavaScript Object Notaton) format. This allowed me to access the flickr API using some simple javascript. Fun and simple to work with, and doesn't require any server-side code. However, when trying to display 100+ images, it starts to run rather slowly. That might be my poor coding though! I also got an excuse to mess around with Lightbox, another really cool unobtrusive javascript that overlays images on the current page. Try it out by clicking on the one of the photos. Pretty cool stuff.