gettin furnished

i had a very successful shopping day yesterday, and i'm very excited about it.

i went with sarah parmer to ikea and bought the rug i had had my eye on for about a month now.  then john and i went back to the awesome furniture store that we got our couch from (still not here yet) and found 2 fantastic armless chairs in THE MOST fun fabric ever.  we also bought the bed that i had had my eye on at another furniture store...had no idea that this store had it, and i was ecstatic when i saw it.  and we got a mattress for it.

we are well on our way to having a fully furnished house.  merry christmas to us!

the past week

my ob appointment last week went off without a hitch.  i got to hear the heartbeat for a few seconds.  other than that, it was pretty uneventful.  i'm 14 weeks now.  i'm feeling okay...i really thought i was past the nausea, but i got sick yesterday morning...so i don't know what's going on.  i wish my body would decide to start feeling good and energized.

yep...still looks like i just ate a huge meal (although this is in the morning after only a small breakfast).


oleg came last monday and stayed through wednesday.  our first house guest!  we apologized for having no furniture for him to sit on.  he was cool. :-)


we were victorious in finding a couch.  we got a contemporary 11' by 8' sectional, chose the fabric, and will be delivered in january.  :-/  i guess it's good because it gives us a time frame and motivation to get the wallpaper down in there and the carpet up and the walls painted.  i want it all done by the time the couch gets here.  we've only got about 1/3 of the wallpaper left to remove.  saturday was a very productive day for john and me. 

the snow flurries have been adorable thus far.  they'll start sprinkling down, and they'll dance around in the air with the wind, and then they'll swirl together just above the surface of the road, and then they disappear.

i've been so weepy lately (not really in general but mostly at church services).  like the past few sundays the song lyrics have been cutting me to the core.  as everyone knows, i'm sure, the words on the screen so easily become just words that sound good singing.  one of the revelation song's verses gets me every time.  i can't sing it because i get so choked up.  "filled with wonder, awestruck wonder at the mention of Your Name, Jesus Your Name is power, breath and Living Water, what a marvelous mystery."  there is power in Jesus' name...that blows my mind.  and then the part 'in Christ alone' - "no guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me, from life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny - no power of hell, no scheme of man could ever pluck me from His hand, til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ i stand."

then this past sunday, i got choked up over watching people worship.  the deaf people sit in the front right of the sanctuary where the interpreter sits and signs, and i was watching all of them during one song.  it was so moving to see them worshiping with their hands while not having a clue of the beauty of the music that the rest of us are hearing.  the lyrics REALLY ARE everything to them.  during the chorus of this song, their hand motions got real big and exaggerated...o, the tears started flowing.  "living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified freely forever, someday He's coming, O glorious day, O glorious day!"

and if that weren't enough to get me going, judson, the precious red head 2 year old who i've babysat a couple of times who belongs to jim, our worship leader, came out and played a little drum set to the drummer boy Christmas song.  o my goodness.

Judson, the drummer boy

not a whole bunch to report on other than we've just been pulling down wallpaper and attempting to furniture shop.  sitting on the floor watching tv is getting a little old.  :-)

i asked john what we had to report on, and he said to tell everyone that we got a microwave.  haha.  it's actually wonderful not having to heat up food in the oven anymore.  i never knew how nice it was to have a microwave until we didn't have one.

john went to philly last night to see the legwarmers (80s cover band) again and took a bunch of young adults with him.  they all dressed up and had a blast.  since i'm not feeling well consistently i thought it'd be smart to stay home (and iron all night - UGH) rather than get stuck at a loud crowded concert while feeling like dying.

i'm sooooo ready for at least one room to get completely finished.  i can't wait to have some "after" pics to post.  (yes, ellie, i definitely took before pics!)

i've got my 2nd doctor appointment on tuesday.  i'll be 13 weeks.  i hear i'm supposed to start feeling better soon.  i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

also on tuesday, oleg will be coming to spend the night with us.  for those of you who don't know him, he's the ukrainian guy in charge of an organization called radooga that does mission work with orphans and lots of other stuff.  he's the one we spent 2 weeks with over the summer while we did mission work at the orphan camp in ukraine.  it's gonna be incredible to get to spend some time with him.

the good life

o my goodness!  where do i start?!  i have been overwhelmed by God's goodness and His love for us.  He truly knows the desires of our hearts, and as we align ourselves with his will, He blesses His people.  We prayed for quite some time for a young adult pastor job for john, a house, and a baby, but above all, we wanted God's will and His timing for it all.  The waiting game was really, really hard...continually trusting day after day that God was hearing our prayers but was waiting for the right time to answer them.  i caught myself a number of times doubting that God cared enough to answer.  i am thankful for a husband who challenges and encourages my faith to grow deeper and stronger. 

on monday, while john was at the closing, i was directing the movers where to put stuff in the house.  within 30 minutes of being at the house, one of our next door neighbors came over to introduce himself and gave me a couple of flowers.  so sweet!!  he actually came back again that night and brought a fruit basket.  jill tarr (who we were living with) came over and cleaned our 2 bathrooms, living room, and part of the kitchen from top to bottom.  she was a life-saver (i'm not a big fan of cleaning).   our other next door neighbor came over after her kids got home from school (they go to our church), and she gave us the spare key the old owners let them have (they'll probably be getting it back :-).  she also gave us the blooming glen mennonite family recipe cookbook, which apparently is a tradition in blooming glen to give your new neighbors when they move in.  so cute.  john spent the evening ripping out the nasty, old contact paper out of our kitchen cabinets.  we spent the night here because we had our bedroom room furniture all set up (which is now our guest bedroom furniture). 

waking up tuesday morning felt like waking up on christmas morning...i was so excited to see what i could uncover (unpack).  i started removing the wallpaper in the living room in between doing loads of laundry.  jay, one of the guys on the senior leadership team at calvary, stopped by and gave us some cookies.  so sweet!  one of john's coworkers and her husband came over that afternoon to help.  debbie helped me finish cleaning out the cabinets in the kitchen, and we unpacked as many kitchen boxes that we could find.  it was like a treasure hunt unpacking boxes of wedding presents (mostly serving pieces) that we didn't have room for in our condo.  i hadn't seen most of that stuff in almost 5 years!  rick's job was to break down empty boxes and packing paper and put it all in the attic.  john pulled down wallpaper in 2 rooms, which actually came down very easily.  another one of john's coworkers brought us dinner, as well as another friend.  like we've said before...the people here are incredible. 

my goal for wednesday was to find a home for everything in the kitchen.  i was successful, and let me tell you, it feels sooooo good to have my kitchen organized.  it actually makes me want to cook maybe.  :-)  i also organized all the boxes in the dining room into categories so that i have a relative idea of where stuff is located.

thursday, we woke up to snow.  it was awesome!  it stuck to the ground for a couple of hours.  it resembled louisiana snow.  it comes down, it sticks, it melts a few hours later.  we went to the grocery store to get appetizers for the thanksgiving meal that we were sharing with the Sparling family, and people were walking around in lightweight jackets while i looked like a freak in my huge down winter coat.  anyway, thanksgiving dinner was great, and the Sparling family was super welcoming and friendly.  the fuller rotel dip went over very well!  so did the cowboy caviar dip...thanks GB! we came home, and in about 30 minutes, john had all the wallpaper in the master bedroom pulled down.  i love the way he randomly gets inspired to do something and just knocks it out. 

today has been relaxing so far.  we got our cable and internet installed.  i had lunch with sarah parmer.  i, then, went 3 doors down to the ryan's house (they go to our church also!) to borrow their steamer to try that out on removing wallpaper. so, i think i'm gonna go try it out right now!!!

awesomeness.

hey everybody!  this is john.  God is really, really good.  i've been especially overwhelmed this past week at how perfectly He works:  

emily is staying busy with pregnancy, and it's exciting!  she's feeling quite good today, actually.  pre-parenthood is pretty awesome, so i guess full parenthood must be even better.

friday night i had the chance to speak at the gap, a young adult bible study hosted by a family from calvary, and it was great!  wonderful people.  we have a great young adult community, and i'm enjoying getting to know them.

sunday, i got to teach in the main services at calvary, and it was a great experience!  lots of encouragement.  after church, we went to lunch with friends at a restaurant, then had dinner with friends at the home of another friend.  i really love the people here.

yesterday (monday), after a week of paperwork and preparation, we completed settlement on our house, and all of our stuff arrived from the storage facility, so we are officially moved in!  we spent our first night there last night.  it's a wonderful feeling to be settled...now we just have to unpack everything, take down wallpaper, pull up carpet, and enjoy!

thanks for reading!  we love you!

quite time for an update, i suppose :)

ok, where do i start?

um, first, the rest of the trip to germany was grand.   we went to giengen to the teddy bear museum, then we went to ulm to see the tallest church in the world.  getting back home to the u.s. was almost as much of a fiasco as it was getting there.  our flight from stuttgart left over an hour late, which made mom & dad & me miss our connecting flights.  so, i got home 2 hours later than originally scheduled, but it really wasn't THAT big of a deal.

all of our inspections and everything have gone through well on the house, so we are closing monday, november 22nd mid-morning.  then, my full time job will start - removing wallpaper.  haha.  i think it might be fun.  for the first 3 hours at least.  i don't believe i'll be posting any pics of the house til i get it updated to the 21st century.  :-)

and i guess the most exciting thing of all is that i found out that i am going to have a baby, which was something i was a little concerned might never happen.  how little faith i had.  i guess all it took was living under someone else's roof and moving over 20 hours away from all my family and friends.  haha.  whatever it takes, i suppose!  i had my first ultrasound on tuesday and got to see the baby's heartbeating and legs flutter-kicking.  it was adorable and totally surreal.

june 13th is the due date right now.  i can't wait!

for the past weeks i've been feeling pretty yucky.  constant nausea and very low energy.  just a couple of days ago, i started feeling better.  yesterday was interesting...

10:00 - bowl of fruit loops and milk
10:45 - slice of bread with butter
11:30 - 2 chocolate chip cookies
1:00 - pb&j sandwich
2:30 - 3 tomato slices with mayo
3:15 - vanilla ice cream with choc syrup
4:00 - vietnamese egg roll

i promise i won't post every day what i eat.  i was just totally weirded out yesterday by myself.

so, in a nutshell, for the past couple of years, we've been waiting for a new job, house, and baby, and we have all three in a 2 month period.  i feel so blessed.

austria

the hills were alive for sure.  :-)

we took a 4 hour train ride south to salzburg.  the train was nice, and we had 2 sets of 2 seats facing each other with a table in between and 1 more seat across the aisle (florian went with us).  we stayed in a hotel right there in the thick of things.  it was perfect.  we found random places to eat the whole time, all of which were very good.  we explored some gardens, some really old churches, and a massive fortress at the highest point in town.

the 2nd day we were there, we took a 2 hour train ride over to hallstatt, a small town nestled in the alps.  this town really just didn't even seem real.  it was like it was out of a fairy tale.  we took a ferry across this lake from the train track to the town.  we really just walked around & ate.  the scenery was gorgeous.  slept on the train ride home.

the last day in salzburg, we slept in, checked out of the hotel, did some christmas shopping, took a bus to the train station, ate lunch at burger king (at my request), and took the 4 hour train ride home.  florian, becca, mom, and i played kniffel for a good chunk of the time on the way home.

this morning, becca had to go teach some english classes, so we slept in then went shopping and met back up with bec.  we got some chinese for lunch.  i started feeling bad (and sleepy) so i took the train back to bec's while mom, dad, and bec shopped some more then took a short trip over to a big pumpkin festival.  i took a 3 hour nap that was much needed.  hopefully i'll be able to sleep tonight.

tomorrow we'll take a train over to giengen.  teddy bears were apparently invented there by this woman, and there's a museum there (mom is a teddy bear fan).

going home in 2 days.  i'm ready to see my john boy.  :-)

makin' it to germany one way or another

despite the fiasco getting here, mom, dad, and i are here with becca in germany, and it has been wonderful (and cold - to me).  tomorrow we take a train ride over to austria for 3 days.  not exactly sure what we'll be doing, but i will soon find out.

so, my flight from philly was supposed to leave for atlanta at 2pm on wednesday where i was going to meet up with mom and dad and would jump on the plane together to stuttgart at 5:55pm to arrive at 9am.  seeing as how there were tornadoes in atlanta, my 2pm flight steadily got pushed back every few hours all the way back to 6:45pm (which would not have worked because the flight to stuttgart still left relatively on time - not sure how that happened???)  so i'm chillin in the airport all day (alone), and i get a call from mom who had gotten on the phone with delta and switched my flight to one going to paris then stuttgart, and i only had 5 minutes to get to the right gate.  anxiety!  long story short, the first woman i could find gave me the wrong gate, had a guy tell me that he heard it had been switched to a completely different terminal, all the lines were long at the delta desks, call mom and tell her i can't make it, she freaks, i grab a delta guy that walked out from nowhere (i think God sent him), and he looked up the info for me, it was on a completely different end of the airport BUT i still had an hour (the lady mom had talked to had not taken into consideration our time difference).  hallelujah.  i call mom back, and she chills out.  :-)  i get to paris and have like 4 hours to blow (alone), so i knit and take a nap on my bookbag and then knit again.  mom and dad get to paris and to our gate just as we are boarding (they somehow got through the atlanta airport).  we get to stuttgart at, i don't know, 2pm maybe, where we realize that our luggage wouldn't make it to stuttgart until the next day.  glorious!  i felt like crap and looked like it too.

we were going to a young adult bible study/worship service that night (thursday) that rebecca normally goes to, so we decided that it might be a good idea to go shopping for some decent pants for myself and would just borrow a top of rebecca's.  we found some pants, met up with florian (rebecca's boyfriend), went to quick dinner with him where we ate döner, went to fusion (bible study), we all were nodding off through the whole thing, so we decided to cut out early and go to bed.  we slept 12 hours (except i woke up at 3am and was wide awake - thought it was time to get up - mistook the street lamp for the sun and dad getting up to use the bathroom for rebecca's roommate getting ready for work - suck).

friday we laid around the apartment until our luggage got delivered at 3pm.  we showered, got dressed, ate some crepes, and went to a high point in the city with a tower that mom climbed up and took pics of stuttgart.  the rest of us were chicken.  then we went into town and found rebecca some boots (christmas present from mom and dad), then met up with florian again for dinner.  delicious.  got some gelato afterwards.  also delicious.

today, we got up and caught a train over to Lahr where they have the chysanthemum festival.  lots of mums!  very neat little town.  we walked around, took pics (dad took pics - i haven't pulled my camera out yet really), had potato soup at a cafe, slept on the train ride home (as best as i could), ate more crepes, dad bought a scarf at H&M, then went to the apartment of rebecca's friends where dad cooked bubba burgers and mom made jeanne beanies.  :-)  fabulous!

tomorrow, we get up early to catch a train to salzburg, austria.

the hills are aliiiiiiiiiiive with the sound of muuuuuusic, aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...

House

We made an offer on a house 2 days ago and found out yesterday that they accepted it!! Woohoo!!

We have the inspection tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly!

I can't believe this is all happening!!!!  Pray this all gets settled without any hang-ups!!

we have clothes!

today, john and i drove over to where our stuff is being stored and picked up our "early out" boxes, which included alllllllll of our clothes and shoes and coats and my guitar.  woo hoo!!! 

one of the wardrobe boxes blew out of the back of the truck as we were driving down the highway.  after a momentary freakout (on my part...i was fine after i noticed it was on the side of the road),  john pulled over at the next exit and ran back along the shoulder and got it.  the bottom had popped open, but all the clothes stayed hanging up on the rack.  we then decided that it was necessary to strap everything in (duh, right?).  we got the boxes in the house and not a minute later it started raining. good timing, thank you, Jesus.

yesterday, i got my hairs cut a little bit shorter, then we looked at about 8 houses.  really liked the last one we saw...an old farmhouse.  i seem to be drawn to those.  we'll see what happens...anybody wanna buy a condo???

house hunting marathon

wednesday, john and i looked at 13 houses!  then went straight to calvary's midweek service where john preached about miracles (specifically the blind man).

thursday, i went to visit erica, who just had her baby and got to play with judson a little bit.  afterwards, i found the greatest yarn store ever in doylestown.  i could've spent hundreds of $$ in there.  we looked at 5 more houses that afternoon.

friday, i drove on the turnpike alone for the first time to an exit that i had never taken before.  i was nervous but confident and made it just fine.  i went shopping at michael's for some yarn (cheaper than the cool yarn store), went to sonic for lunch, and then scoped out the neighborhood around our most recent favorite house that's on the market.  then i timed the drive from there to the church to make sure that it was reasonable (one of the good things about back roads - you can avoid trafficy main roads).  i, then, made a grocery store run, then talked to jacob and sarah maddox on skype, then went to the friday night bible study at the sparlings early, and we all watched the phillies play-off game and ate dinner.

today, i had lunch with sarah parmer.  both times that we've had lunch together have been the most beautiful days to sit out on the patios of the restaurants.  just gorgeous and refreshing.  john and i drove by 5 or 6 more houses today and were able to eliminate a few of them.  tonight we have dinner with the scardino's (john's coworker).

so where do we stand on houses?  good question...we liked ~6 of them.  not sure what our plan of action is at this point...but we are planning on making a move pretty quickly. 

18 days til germany!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pinky promise

i pinky promised john that i would update tonight.  :-)  here it is.

monday evening, i had coffee with a friend and had worship team practice for the midweek service while having a massive headache.

wednesday, john and i took a mile and a half walking tour of philadelphia churches/ministries along with our main teaching pastor's seminary class.  the highlight by far was lunch...

pat's & geno's are the competing cheesesteak places right across the street from each other, so we got one cheesesteak with cheese whiz from both places and split them.  john ended up being a pat's fan, and i was a geno's fan.  it was a looooooooooooooooong day, and all i wanted to do was sleep after i ate that fat cheesesteak.  we had to go straight from that tour to church that night (without dinner).  the moment we got done singing, we were outta there.  john was sweet enough to drive me 20 minutes up the road to quakertown to go to sonic.  i needed some comfort food.  :-)

thursday, we looked at some more houses.  all strikeouts.  we had calvary directory pictures taken that afternoon.  that turned into a disaster.  well, not really.  that was a little melodramatic.  i thought it was going to be a disaster when i spent time straightening my hair just to walk outside in the rain and wind and had my umbrella flip inside out and break.  stupid.  the picture turned out just fine.  i just had a little added wave and frizz on my head. :-(  we went out to dinner with the lorusso's that night where i had a spectacular filet mignon.

friday, i got the privilege of hanging out with joni boudreaux who was in town from louisiana visiting stephanie allison.  our plans were to go to the king of prussia mall, but due to the enormous amounts of rain we had gotten which caused road closures and sinkholes and backed-up traffic that we sat in for an hour, we decided to surprise john at the office and then go to another mall that was closer.  my only purchase was 2 long sleeve thermal shirts from the gap which have come in handy over the past few days!

saturday, john and i went with joni, stephanie, and sarah to take a tour of qvc's studio park in west chester.

we had some time to blow before the tour began, so john and sarah played mother-may-i? with joni...

 they're neck 'n neck...

 sarah forgot to say mother-may-i....john won.  haha.

 joni vs. sarah in father-may-i?

other than the tour guide being extremely irritating, it was a really interesting tour.  we got to peek in the studios as they were on-air and see all the behind the scenes stuff.  i decided that it'd be awesome to be a set designer.  and then i decided that olivia should move up here and be a product photographer.  and then i decided that david should move up here and be a liaison/translator between the u.s. and german qvc locations. 

 life-size cardboard cut-outs of all the hosts on qvc

sunday, we all went to church, then minus john, we went to a craft fair in skippack (obviously john was more than happy to go home and rest).  the weather was nice (maybe a little on the cool side).  i wasn't too impressed with anything i saw there.  it always seems like craft fairs are geared toward "old-lady" taste.  

i spent yesterday doing laundry.  2 of my 3 loads i forgot to use detergent.  genius.  ups delivered my birthday present from mom and dad...

i wore them all day with my pajama pants tucked in them.  thanks, mom and dad!!!  later that night, john and i had a young adult research team meeting (Y.A.R.T...how catchy.) (i wore my boots to that, too)  :-)

today, john and i drove over to lancaster to have lunch with mary demarco!

good good times!  totally worth the drive over there!  we love you, mary!  :-)

the weather is officially getting colder.  we took the window units out of the windows today, stored them in the basement, and turned on the heat.  our first radiator heating experience.  john had to go to care & share (a thrift store) to buy a jacket.  must i remind you that we still only have our 2 weeks of clothes that we originally came up here with?  i'm going to want to burn these clothes by the time i get my hands on the rest of my wardrobe.

29!

we celebrated the day of my birth by....going to church!  john taught at family fusion (the service for families geared toward their kids) and steph and sarah allison came!

john and i went to a sushi restaurant for lunch.  i took a nap that afternoon, then we went to dinner with the allison's at a chinese restaurant.

john bought me these rockin winter boots for my bday!  (thanks for the website, bec!)

i came down from my nap that afternoon, and jill had made me a cake!  so sweet!

it was an all around great birthday weekend!

surprise trip today

well, first, i thought i'd recap the last few days before i get to the "good stuff."

wednesday, i went to joann's fabrics with bonnie (i had coffee & pop overs with her one morning not long ago) and i finally found the perfect fabric to line the inside of my knitted laptop case.  bonnie knows how to sew and has a sewing machine, so i'm pumped about getting this thing finished.

that night, the student ministry at calvary videoed an interview with john answering questions about what he loves about me.  aww, right?  :-)  they are putting on a conference in november for girls ages 14 - 24, and it's all about de-emphasizing what the world's standards are for being beautiful.  so they are putting together a video of married men talking about what attracted them to their wives.  after that, we went to the midweek worship service for the first time.  john will be on the teaching rotation and i will be on the worship team rotation for that service.

thursday, we looked at another rental house. uck.

friday night, we went over to the parmer's house (i had lunch with sarah on monday) and had pizza with them and the dougherty's.  jim taught us how to play monopoly deal (monopoly card game) and then learned how to play settlers of katan, which is apparently pretty popular.  we had lots of fun.

SO, today...we sleep in til 10, i throw on a tshirt and gym shorts, eat breakfast, start knitting, and john suggests that we take a trip. so i throw on some tennis shoes and grab my knitting (thank the Lord - it was a long drive) and we get on the road.  an hour later, we pass this sign...

on this stretch, john got flipped the bird by someone for the first time.  hahaha.  we responded like anyone would...we prayed for him.  hahahahaahahaha.  i love my husband!

the nj turnpike has really neat service areas every once in a while that are just like rest stops but have a gas station and some food places, so we stopped and got lunch...

nathan's is the hot dog place that puts on the eating competition every year in coney island.  it was delicious (and EXPENSIVE).

we continued on our way...me still having no idea where we're going...

i noticed how close we were getting to the airport and then my mind starts running like - o my gosh, did john fly a family member in or something?!  he didn't, but that's okay.  :-)

that would be the statue of liberty, ladies and gentlemen.  i was freaking out.  all i could think was - I CANNOT BELIEVE WE LIVE UP HERE!

view from a bridge we were crossing.  i was still freaking out.  and really did when we passed a sign welcoming us to hoboken (i couldn't get my camera ready in time - i was so mad).  the only reason i've ever heard of hoboken is because i watch cake boss on tlc and their bakery is located there.

 this is us driving by - looking for somewhere to park.

this is us standing in line to get in the doors.  we were there in line for about 20 minutes.  wasn't nearly as long as i expected.  once inside, it was sooo crowded.  we only recognized 1 person from the tv show.  madeline, buddy's sister, who is married to mauro and has the terribly irritating son also named buddy.  so, we got our order and walked 3 blocks down to the hudson river to find a bench on which to eat our goodies.

i got a cupcake, and john got a vanilla and a chocolate cannoli. delicious!

the view across the hudson of new york city from left to right...

 tomorrow's my 29th birthday!!!

2010 Dinner Tour comes to an end

Tour dates and locations
Tuesday, Sept. 14 - The Krikory's (young adult couple in charge of the young adult abf)
Wednesday, Sept. 15 - The Peazzoni's (John's admin. asst.)
Thursday, Sept. 16 - The Bauer's (Stan helped with the young adult Sunday night service)
Friday, Sept. 17 -  The Lorusso's (along with their young adult small group)
Saturday, Sept. 18 - Pig Roast @ Quakertown Memorial Park (put on by our young adults)
Sunday, Sept. 19 - Brian Schmoyer & friends (John's co-worker in charge of campus services)
Monday, Sept. 20 - The Ashby's (Jamie is Brian's asst. & Tom teaches the young adult abf)

it really was great fun, but there were so many nights that it was so hard to make ourselves leave the tarr's house because all we wanted to do was lay around and relax and not have to be sociable.

i had a pretty eventful week during the days too.  wednesday morning, i went over to the fink's house and drank coffee and ate pop overs (i think it's a PA thing) with bonnie and we talked til noon.  thursday morning, i helped a friend organize her closet, then john and i looked at a rental house, then i babysat judson again.  friday morning, i talked to becca on skype for 3 hours. 

saturday, john and i went shopping for 80s outfits for the concert that we were going to that night.  we met up with ted (for those of you who don't know him - he lived in covington for 3 years working with habitat for humanity, and the week we found out that we got the job at calvary, he told us he was going to grad school in philly!).  we went to the pig roast where john ate pig brains...

yes, this pig that was obviously crying as it was slaughtered...and john had a fork full of his brains.  excuse me while i barf.

that evening, we met up with 8 more people and went into the city to the trocadero to see the legwarmers play, an 80s tribute band.  john, ted, and i were the only ones in our group to dress up (although majority of the crowd was indeed dressed up), but we really only dressed up the upper halves of our bodies.

i didn't have the guts to wear my high waist pleated acid wash shorts with my black stirrup pants and scrunch down socks.  i'm kinda mad at myself for not doing it. john's undershirt was sleeveless, and ted's jacket was umbro.  pretty 80s sweetness.

they were really good.  john made a friend next to him named john who had to be almost 7 feet tall.  he was enormous, drunk, and a very emphatic dancer.  his long arms were like a wrecking ball being swung around.

before friends

after friends

we got in bed at 3 am.  sunday, we had lunch at the hange's house then went to see another rental house.

yesterday, we peeked in the windows of another rental house (we are going today at 4:30 to actually see it).  i had lunch with my new friend, sarah parmer.  she's adorable and awesome.  then i went grocery shopping and then jill helped me make a chocolate chip bundt cake (thanks for the recipe, julie trauth) & took it over to the ashby's, who we were having dinner with last night.  we came home and caught the saints game just before halftime, and i stayed up all by myself watching it til the end.   that's what you call a true fan.  :-)

slow couple of days...sorta

i'll tell you what...in the month we've been up here, we've had more nice weather days (70s with low low humidity) than louisiana has all year long. loving it!

yesterday from 11 -1, i watched judson for erica while she went to have an ultrasound.  i shocked myself with how well i played with him.  i don't make believe very well and don't have much of an imagination when it comes to playing with kids, but with him, all i had to do was push a truck around and make noises as i ran it into his truck and he just laughed and laughed.  then i chased him with his toy vacuum cleaner, and he was laughing so hard he could barely breathe.  it was so cute.  i, then, went to michael's and bought some yarn and a big button to go on this one scarf that i just finished knitting.  i'll have to post a pic of it if i can remember to do so.  i got stuck behind a big rig carrying pigs on the way home.  it literally smelled like the inside of my car was smeared with feces.  never in my life...o my.  anyway, had dinner with the tarr's then watched the season finale of 'the closer' and 'rizzoli and isles'.  i have a feeling we'll be making a habit of staying up later being the eastern time zone with shows we like coming on at 10 at night.  the news comes on at 11!  insanity.

today, i stayed home all day working on the computer and doing laundry.  we had dinner at a young adult couples' home tonight along with another couple.  we actually have dinner plans for every night through monday.  pretty crazy!  i'm telling you...the people up here are amazing!

i'm working on taking pictures to make a picture post about "things that you don't see in louisiana."  it should be interesting, as long as i can get pics of everything that i want.

in a nutshell...

wednesday - i hung out with becka (the one from dallas).  we went shopping for paint and cabinet hardware.  it was fun, of course, for me because i love that stuff.  i also hung up the remainder of john's office art pieces. 

thursday - i hung around the house during the day and did a little reading.  that night i had worship practice for 2 and a half hours then came home and caught the 2nd half of the saints game.  go saints! 

friday - i went into the office with john, and we wrote letters to the ukrainian kids who had given us their addresses and printed out pictures of us and them (mostly john and them).  that night, we went to the young adult bible study.

saturday - we were originally planning on going with some people from the young adult abf up to the pocono's to go rafting, but when we realized that it was literally going to be an ALL day thing, we decided we'd rather take it easy instead.  so, i got up and went to the peach festival in harleysville with erica and her 2 yr old, judson.  we stayed for about 2 hours.  it felt great in the shade but was hot in the sun.  the only thing "peach" there were peach pies that were for sale for $10.  kinda anti-climactic.  ha.  anyway, we tried to get judson to jump in a spacewalk for kids 5 yrs and under, but he wouldn't budge an inch once he was in there.  he was so stinkin cute (i think his blazing red hair has something to do with it - the cuteness, i mean...not the being scared to jump in the spacewalk).  then as erica was going to climb in with him (let me remind you that she's 8 months pregnant), a little girl jumped and fell over on him which in turn knocked him out of the spacewalk and into erica's arms.  THEN, at the petting zoo area, an enormous turkey tried to take his fingers off.  haha, poor guy couldn't catch a break.  we took a hayride, got some chick-fil-a, and left.  john and i relaxed for the rest of the evening.

today - john preached in the main service and did a fantastic job.  i got to play and sing with the worship band, and i had a blast!!  seriously, they're some of the most fun people i've ever met.  i love it.  after the service, we had a little reception thingy for young adults to come and meet john and eat pizza.  can i just say that i am so tired of meeting people?!  i mean, i'll keep doing it cuz that's what i gotta do, but man, i'm worn out!  we were invited by 3 different groups of people to go watch the eagles football game with this afternoon, but we were way too exhausted to even think about going so we declined.  however, we did go with the tarr's just down the road to eat dinner with some people from the church who cooked burgers, so that was nice but came straight home afterwards and relaxed.

there ya go.

john's office pics

before

after

some closer-ups...