away rotation

Sorry for the lack of posting this past week, things were just a little crazy while we packed and prepared our townhouse to leave for four weeks. Josh is on a surgery rotation down here in Dayton and we are staying with my parents for the next four weeks. Always good to be home to spend time with family, see friends, and spend lots of time snuggling with sweet Nola. 

So far I've been able to rest a lot which has been wonderful because I've been finding that my energy level has been dwindling. I also think my I've been a little sluggish because Josh is going to have very long hours this month and I have been spoiled for the past eight weeks of getting to spend lots of time with him, it's only been two days and I already miss him. I'm also starting to have a lot of different  emotions and feelings that I'm really struggling to process and they're beginning to weigh heavily on my heart. Right now I'm just asking for the Lord to continue to give my heart peace and to show me more of Himself. He is faithful.

lazy sunday

I woke up this morning thinking that after church I was going to take advantage of today and be super productive. Well, I gave in and took a nap today (Sunday afternoon naps are just too enticing) and my productivity that I was planning on hasn't quite happened (yet).

My to do list that I'm currently putting off, I believe they call that procrastination:

1. cleaning off my desk because I can't even see the bottom of it.

2. posting pictures from our Michigan trip last weekend. 

3. planting some mums I got over a week ago that are still waiting to go into the ground. 

4. winterizing my pot by our front door and the ones on our back patio (we're leaving for Dayton on Friday for a rotation and when we come back at the end of October I'll be 34 weeks pregnant and will really not want to do it then. But there is a huge spider web in the back patio with a huge spider and I'm kind of scared to go out there at the moment.)

5. giving Josh a haircut, he's been asking for one for two weeks now, sorry babe. 

6. finishing all of my nursery project, mostly includes painting. This would require me to first go and get paint and actually have to make a decision on a color, that could take some time. 

7. of course...cleaning our townhouse. 

8. working out.

9. starting a new book, there are just so many books and I don't know what I should choose, any suggestions?

10. getting together my Operation Christmas Child shoe box to bring to my church this week.

11. ordering diapers from Amazon, I have a couple of coupons from my Parents magazine that can get me diapers for super discounted prices. I have until the end of the month to redeem. Crazy how fast September has been going by. 

I suppose if I am able to accomplish all of these (which there is no reason I shouldn't) before we leave on Friday then I'll be in pretty good shape. 

My weekend wasn't totally unproductive. Yesterday I went over to my friend Sarah's house for a little sewing get together. I really hadn't sewn anything since sophomore year of high school so she helped me sew fabric onto cloth diapers to use as burp cloths. And I am so happy how they turned out! Thank you so much Sarah for all of your help!

I suppose they weren't terribly difficult to do, I was just so hesitant to start because I'm a perfectionist and was afraid to mess up. Aside from the ones Sarah did, mine are far from perfect. I have a lot of left over scrap pieces that I want to cut out cute shapes like a tie or dog and apply it onto onesies. And for that I will be consulting my other good friend Brooke.

We have an new newphew!

Meet Max,

our new nephew!

Maxwell Christopher

born September 13 at 5:17am 7.7 pounds

He is healthy and beautiful! We are so excited and 

dying to meet him. He and his family live in North Carolina 

and I don't think Josh will let me 

get in a car and drive over 9 hours by myself to meet him.

I love that he is folding his hands in this picture, 

already a praying boy. So sweet!

He also shares a birthday with our niece Katelyn, 

which we just returned from MI earlier 

this week to celebrate her 1st birthday. 

I still need to upload those photos to my 

computer and post them. 

Congrats Chris, Aimee, Olivia, & Audrey! 

I know he is getting lots of love from his older sisters.

Hoping to meet him at Christmas time and good Lord's willing we 

will have our little one for them to meet too. I already know Max 

and our son will be good buddies.

Hormones & Truth

This past week I have been an emotional roller coaster. I'm pretty sure it's mostly because of my crazy pregnant hormones. It's like one minute I'm happy and feeling good and then *snap* I'm a crazy person. I can't figure out why I'm down, why I'm sad, why I'm crying, why I can't make a decision or complete a thought to save my life. And I feel so bad for Josh that he has to live with me while I'm like this. I truly have spent a lot of time praying about my attitude, asking the Lord for some serious help.

I'm pretty sure most of this craziness is attributed to my hormones because most of the time I can't figure out what the problem is. The other is probably because I've been trying to find a time when I can go visit my friend Libby in VA who has cancer and we haven't been able to coordinate our schedules and my window for traveling is closing soon. I'm just really struggling with the fact that she has to go through so much and I feel like a bad friend for not being able to visit her. Of course I'm praying for her every day and thinking about her all the time, I just wish I could do more, you know?

I also realized earlier this week that I hadn't really talked with my mother in a while. I mean we've chatted briefly on the phone but not a real conversation. She called earlier this week and was so great to just listen to me while we (I) talked for over an hour. The amazing and wise woman that she is reminded me that my hormones are not what's true about me. She told me when I start feeling down to remember truth. I have an amazing husband (who has been nothing but accommodating and comforting to me during my craziness) who loves me and who has worked so hard all throughout med-school and works hard to take care of our family. And also remember who I am in Christ. I am a precious daughter of the King who cares for me and whose love for me is endless. I also remind myself that I have seen God's grace in my life every day as He has been so faithful to meet every single one of my needs (physical and emotional).

After talking with my mother, remembering these truths (plus many others), a good night's rest, and after a great night at girls' group I'm actually feeling a bit normal. We're also going out of town tomorrow morning to visit Josh's family in MI and I'm sure that will help too, being with family always helps.

Karyn's Wedding Weekend (disclaimer: long post)

Disclaimer: I just realized this is a really long blog post. Sorry it's so long, it was a really long wedding weekend....

Finally getting around to posting pictures of my girlfriend Karyn's wedding from last weekend. The entire weekend (started on Thursday with the bachelorette party) was really fun and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. It pretty much was impossible for this wedding to not be beautiful consider the location. And from the end result you could see all of the time and energy Karyn put in the meticulous planning of her and Dan's wedding. I'm was so blessed to be able to go and celebrate with her and I am so excited she and Dan are married after dating since freshman year of college (almost eight years!).

First, here are pictures of Glen Lake where both Karyn and Dan's families have cottages. Probably the most beautiful lake I have ever seen, and you certainly wouldn't see me complaining if Josh and I ever owned a cottage on this lake.  

My girlfriends and I have a tradition where we try to get together the Thursday before wedding to have the bachelorette party and personal shower. For Karyn's we drove to Traverse City from Glen Arbor (about 25 minutes) for wine tasting. This particular vineyard, L. Mawby, only produces sparkling wines. Kind of sad I didn't get to sample the wines with my girlfriends but no worries, they got me a sparkling juice to sample.

 From left to right:

Beth, me, Karyn (the bride), Britt, & Ruth

(we're missing my girlfriend Libby who sadly couldn't join us. She actually had her first round of chemo on this night. The weekend just wasn't the same without her.)

 After wine tasting we had a nice dinner in Traverse City overlooking Lake Michigan. 

But I had to leave dinner early with Beth and Ruth to check into my hotel 

and set up for the personal shower portion of our evening.

 Waiting for the bride and the other girls to arrive. 

I absolutely LOVED Beth's bangs the entire weekend! 

She totally rocked them!

After we played a game and Kar opened up her fun gifts, we met up with the guys who had been having the bachelor party all day at a karaoke bar. I have many pictures from this part of the evening but they are kind of embarrassing so I will spare my friends.  =)

On Friday, Ruth and I enjoyed the day by having a late breakfast and shopping with her husband John in Glen Arbor, laying out, and then meeting up with the bridal party to get mani/pedis complements of the bride's mother. From the salon we headed to the groom's family's cottage for a bbq for all of the guests who had already come into town for the wedding. Getting to the bbq was a bit of an adventure and much longer drive due to some poor directions, but we made it in plenty of time to eat and to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

On the day of the wedding, Ruth and I got up early for a walk and were planning on a relaxing day by the pool. Before we went to the pool we went to hang out with the bridal party as they were getting ready. There was a bit of dress drama when we got there (thankfully not the bride's, we kept her out of the loop so she could enjoy her day and not worry about anything). Since a few things weren't going exactly as planned, I volunteered Ruth and I to help (we had actually been offering to help all weekend long but Karyn, her mother, and my friend Britt (the matron of honor) were so organized they didn't really need any help). I started by curling my girlfriend Beth's hair, which is usually what I do at my girlfriend's weddings. We then headed back to the resort (The Homestead) to get things all set up in the honeymoon suite. This didn't go as smoothly as we had planned since they wouldn't let me check in since I wasn't the one paying for the room. When we figured this all out I forgot what room number they told me and thought it was their fault the key wouldn't work in suite 1 when it was actually suite 3, totally my fault.

By the time Ruth and I got back to our room to start getting ready for the wedding it was 3pm and we needed to be at the chair lifts by 3:45 and we both still needed to shower. And the matron of honor wanted me to do her daughter's hair since she was the flower girl and she was busy with pictures. Bella wasn't too happy about me doing her hair.

But with the craziness of the day, Ruth and I managed to get to the chair lifts on time and I think we cleaned up pretty nicely.

the Hope Street girls

(we lived on Hope St. in college)

Karyn was stunning!

I loved her dress, she looked so beautiful.

Again, the ceremony site, beautiful view of Lake Michigan. 

Centerpieces from the reception:

 Parts of birch trees, which I believe are local to the area. Kar used a lot of things
that were local to the area, and I was actually able to bring some home with me.

Lastly, the reception was so much fun and so many people were dancing. I'll leave you with these two  pictures...

I can't even remember the name of the song that made us all put on our sunglasses. I have so many dancing pictures but those are a bit too embarrassing....for me. Baby and I were really shaking it out there.  I would go and sit down and rest but then I'd here a great song and I just couldn't resist.

The happy couple for their last dance of the night. You could tell they really enjoyed their reception. Congrats again Karyn and Dan! Love you both!

Hudsonville Fair

Before I made my way to northern Michigan for my friend's wedding last week, I was able to attend the Hudsonville fair with Josh's family. I was really sad Josh wasn't able to be with us since this has been a fair he has always enjoyed going to. I definitely look forward to bringing our children here someday.

 Weston was pretty unhappy that his siblings got to go on most of the rides 

while he was contained to his stroller. Kate on the other hand, 

was super chill the entire time at the fair.

 Trying to escape so he can join his brother and sister.

 Kate's first time at the fair and all of the excitement has worn her out.

 How can you just not fall in love with this sweet boy with those eyes?!

 Face painting...Holden chose a lolly pop and Addie chose a horse.

And then it happened....

 As we were talking through the cattle barn we told him to not touch anything....

 But as we were walking out I heard him scream and yell, "I touched it!"

That is what you think it is...cow poop...GROSS! We still have no idea why he did it. I guess the temptation was just too great.

 He is quite the little stinker....no pun intended.

Addie wasn't quite as brave as Holden was when it came to some of the rides.

I think she was just as happy playing the games.

And Weston finally got to ride a couple of rides with his mom and Josh's dad.

Sorry no pictures of me but you can be assured I enjoyed my time at the fair. My favorite of course is the fair food. I did break down and get an elephant ear (a huge piece of fried dough with cinnamon and powdered sugar) and I almost ate the entire thing. Not that I couldn't but I was thankful Josh's brother Aaron was there so I could share it with him. The Erie County fair is going on this week in I think in Wattsburg. I think Josh and I are going to try to go to that so he doesn't have a whole summer go by without going to a fair. If they have them there maybe he will split an elephant ear with me.

And sorry for such a long post but I just found these pictures and I couldn't resist posting them too. These were taken at my very first trip to the Hudsonville fair in 2006 (just a couple of months before Josh proposed to me). 

 Addie and her dad watching a tractor pull, or something like that on a dumpster. 

Such a cute picture of the two of them.

One of my favorite pictures of Addie. I think she's about 1 and a half here. 

Hard to believe she is already five years old and had her first day of kindergarten just yesterday!