It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Not only a popular Christmas song, but it is also what I woke up to this morning! I have been ready and waiting for the flakes for awhile, and here they are! Although they are very scarce. (It's only a light dusting). Here are the pictures from our porch door.











We had a fantastic Thanksgiving celebration this year. The car rides seemed longer than usual, but we made it! We managed to arrive only a few minutes before the food was on the table! Our brother-in-law wasn't feeling good, but made it to the table to eat, which was comendable! We celebrated birthdays and had a few good laughs. My nieces made some great turkeys out of oreo cookies, which were both nice to look at and yummy to eat! It was a great meal and evening, eventhough my sister and her family had to leave early.

When we arrived, there were Black Friday ads all over the table. We all looked through them, but didn't find anything that any of us needed. We thought that it would be fun to go, but decided against it. While we were eating breakfast the next morning, we quickly decided that we should go and just check out the good deals, so we left the boys to haul wood from the woods, and we (my mom and I) went shopping. We were victorious at our first stop. We found a doorbuster, at 9:30, that was sold out online and in other stores. What a deal! We also found some other good deals on clothes. Regardless of the deals, it was nice to spend the day shopping and bumming around with my mom.

Now we are back and starting the real countdown until our baby is born. Only 25 days!! When we returned last night, we also found out that our friends Nikki and Andy Becker from Seminary welcomed their first child this weekend. He was a week early and 7 pounds 1 ounce and his name is Nathan Andrew Becker. We are very excited for all of them!

My nesting feelings have kicked in, so I am going to scrub the kitchen from top to bottom right now. Sounds fun huh!?!

Don't Mess with Thanksgiving

So I was looking back at all of the pictures of me each month of pregnancy. What changes...here is month 8.



Steve and I have been quite busy these past few weeks. We somehow seem to get lost in the day-to-day routines, and get to catch up together on the weekends, which also go way too fast.

We have finally put together the baby's room, which means that I put away what clothes we have, and made the crib. My wonderful Mom sewed us a crib skirt and curtain valance out of fabric that we found. So this past weekend we found a curtain rod and long curtains to block out light. Here is what we have done so far.





The only problem that I have now is that the room looks very Green Bay Packerish, which is NOT what I was going for. If you know me at all, you will know that I am the anti-packer backer. How this happened is beyond me, but I am very distraught about this!

Aside from the baby, and the count down, we have been busy with church events. We finished up our big 50 Days Ablaze Bible study with an ethnic potluck which was very well attended. Steve preached at a different church on Sunday, which was fun to see another, more contemporary church.

I am gearing up to eat a feast this week, and I hope that you all are too! I am excited to go back to my parents house, see family, eat food, and relax.

I hope that you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving, and give thanks for all that is in your world. We owe it all to God, and Thanksgiving is a great time to remember all that He has done for us.

We Got a House!

Yes it is true! Though Calie and I are only here for one year on vicarage, we took the plunge and got a house. It really is a beautiful home with a two-car garage. It is in a great neighborhood, has a lovely backyard with a 3-season patio, and enables us to do free laundry whenever we want! OK, truth be told...we are just house sitting. For the past week and a half, Calie and I have been house-sitting and dog-sitting for our pastor and his wife while they were away on some well-deserved vacation. And I have to say, the concept of having a home and not renting an apartment is awfully nice! Direct TV has been an added bonus too! Plus I think we've done about 20 loads of laundry (We were storing up for awhile, though I'm exaggerating a bit...I think). Our time here at the house ends today, so as I await the buzzer to go off on the dryer I thought I would take the time to blog. Even though I should be memorizing my sermon for Sunday and looking over my Bible study material. Oh well...

This past Wednesday, we celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss. We went out and had a nice dinner, after much indecisiveness as to where to eat. But as always, we had a nice evening together and capped it off with our local favorite ice-cream place. Because as "G" always says, 'there is always room for ice-cream'! Of course, to Calie these first years felt like forever! Just kidding, but she does think it seems a lot longer and when you consider our moves from Hudson to St. Louis, seminary, new jobs, and now a move from St. Louis to vicarage it's easy to see how jam-packed and full of change our first 3 years have been. Oh, and then there's the small measure of having a wife who is prego!

Well, as Calie last blogged about, we did purchase our stroller/car seat. It has since been delivered, assembled, and now just awaits our little bundle of joy. Everything is still going very well. Calie feels great while she continues to blossom. The baby pretty much moves and kicks non-stop! Currently, we have doctor's appointments every other week, but pretty soon it will be on a weekly basis. Last night we had our first Lamaze class; these will continue over the next two weeks. It's always nice to see a little bit of what we're in for. However, I did learn that Calie is a bit to ticklish to practice some of the relaxing techniques we tried. The time is quickly approaching! We'll soon have to put some finishing (and starting) touches on our extra bedroom which is excitedly becoming the baby's room. Thank you to everyone who has sent clothes, gifts, cards, and all that fun baby stuff! Honestly, right now it's all still in boxes, piles, or stuck in the corner so we'll have plenty to keep us busy in the next 48 days. Ready or not, here baby comes!

Other than that, things are going well. Vicarage continues to be a great learning experience for me. I love the church staff and all the congregation members. It has been a very good place for me to learn about different types/places of ministries, as well as affirm and fine-tune some of the gifts and passions God has given to me. Over the next month or so I'll have the opportunity to preach at some small rural churches. Also I will be able to lead worship and preach at an area LCMS church plant, very contemporary and full of young families. I also continue to try and figure out the art of ministry with our area college campuses. Campus ministry takes a special type of person and passion; I'm not sure if that's me or not yet but it has gotten me to move out of some of my comfort levels and try new things. Thanks to the inspiration of a good friend and classmate, my next project is trying to figure out how to record, create, and post weekly video devotionals on YouTube for my college students. This way a Gospel message and invitation to church is only a click away while they sit in their dorms and classrooms.

That's more than enough for now. So much to say, so little time. I always get too long-winded when I start rambling and blogging. Perhaps that just another affirmation that I'm going into the right vocation! God's richest blessings to you all...

Long awaited pictures

So I am sitting here watching morning TV, sipping on my Carmel Reindeer drink from Caribou, and enjoying my morning. It's true life is good.

The thought is become more and more real that we will soon have a little baby in our home. This weekend we ordered our stroller system. I am super excited to get it! Here is the picture of what we ordered...


So I think that we only need to buy a few more things before the baby comes. We have started to make a list, but I think that most of the "big" things are already purchased. I am probibly missing something obvious, but for now, I think that we are ok.

So some people have asked for the following pictures, so here they are... enjoy my bump!


4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

It's been too long

So first I must say that I found my camera cord, so this blog is full of pictures...hope you don't mind. I must not have looked too hard, because it was in the most logical place ever...the drawer next to the computer! Who knew?!

So here are the pictures of our crib and dresser puting together days:

We also enjoyed the fantastic wedding October 4th of a friend from our old church in Hudson. THe wedding was beautiful. In between we had the chance to visit Minnehaha Falls in St. Paul, since 10/4 is the anniversary of our "offical dating". We didn't have that much time to spend there, but it was beautiful.

After the wedding and reception, we drove to my parents house for the night. We were blessed to have a baby shower on Sunday. I know that this isn't going to be a hit, but we forgot to take any pictures. We had wonderful food, laughs, and fun. Thanks to all who came!

Steve and I also were fortunate enough to get away for this past weekend. Steve took me on a birthday/last-time-away-before-the-baby-comes getaway weekend trip to Alexandria. It was SO nice to spend time together. He also surprised me with a 3 1/2 hour spa treatment ... pedicure, manicure, pariffin wax, and massage. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Here are the pictures:

Quickly

I should be walking out the door to church, but I wanted to take a few minutes to update you quickly... here are the cliff notes:

+ Last weekend we assembled our baby's dresser
+ This weekend we assembled our baby's crib
+ In between our week was filled with ministry, meetings, and work
+ This week our niece also celebrated her 1st birthday
+ We had a nice day on Saturday walking around the Red River

We look forward to another week, of meetings, ministry and work. We also look forward to our friend's wedding, and a baby shower with family!

So I was told to Blog tonight, but I am not sure where to start. It seems that nothing much has happened in our lives these past few weeks, just regular life.

Last weekend we were privileged enough to share a weekend with our friends the Friedrich's. We met up with them at the prayer service of Leonard Dryer, where we got to hear about a man who lived his life as God would have wanted him to, spreading His word to everyone. The Friedrich's invited us to their cabin to spend some time fishing, relaxing, and eating. It was wonderful to get away, even though it was only overnight, and see friends.

We also made our first big baby purchase, actually I think that it really is our first baby purchase. We bought our crib and dresser. We feel lucky that we ordered it when we did, because both pieces are back ordered. We should get them in time for the baby though. Little Jesus will just have to wait until after the first week of November for the crib to arrive.

We also were able to receive our first visitors over Labor Day weekend. It was a short trip, but Calie's parents came to trade vehicles and enjoy (at least I hope they did) Steve's first sermon as a vicar. We toured the Fargo-Moorhead area, enjoyed some good food, laughs, and free mini golf.

After church on Labor Day weekend, we all headed out and Steve and I went to the Greatest State Fair in the world, yup folks, we went to the Minnesota State Fair. We ate our way around the streets, took in some lasso-ing in the coliseum, and walked a ton! It was great to be back at the famous Great MN Get-together!

By the way, I have not yet located the cord that connects my camera to the computer, so there has been a lack of pictures here. I hope to locate the cord as soon as I get back to my parents house to look for it.