Today is Jimmy's first day of class at Covenant. I'm a tiny bit (OK, fine, exceedingly) jealous of him! The thought of going back to school and soaking in all of that theology and church history sounds really wonderful to me right now. Of course, that's because I've had five years to look back at college and only remember the fun parts and the good lectures...and forget all of the hard work! I also feel like I'm not using my brain anymore in the way I want to. Child rearing is difficult and challenging, but not in an academic way. I feel somewhat guilty that it frustrates me, but then I remind myself that there are all kinds of parts to my personality and interests and academics is one--and one that is seriously lacking at the moment. I will be auditing a class with Jimmy this semester called Spiritual and Ministry Formation, so that will be fun. I will have Isaac with me at least until he turns 6 months old and can go into the childcare offered, but even so it will be fun to be in a class again! I am really interested in taking as many classes as I can, since they're free. In fact, I could get an entire degree for free since Jimmy is a paying full-time student. There are a lot of classes I'm interested in and the thought of getting a Master's of Arts in Theological Studies has definitely crossed my mind several times. That's basically the Master's of Divinity (what Jimmy's getting) minus the preaching classes and Greek and Hebrew. The church history and theology! It seems like, though, with two full-time students childcare would be difficult and making enough money to live on even more so. I'm actually hoping that auditing this class with Jimmy will make me realize that I don't want to take class for credit because while I'm interested in going to lectures and learning a lot, I don't necessarily want to have to do all of the reading and assignments.
Anyway, it being Jimmy's first day of class means it's my first day since June with the boys by myself. And Jimmy's starting with a bang--three classes for a total of 5.5 hours of class! He won't be gone as long as when he was teaching in LA but it will be longer than I've been alone with the boys in a long time. Thankfully we have a wonderful community here and so we'll probably be spending a lot of time outside playing today! Wish us both luck with our endeavours!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Back from vacation
Well, we're beginning to get settled into St. Louis. So far, it's really great minus missing all of the people we love in California and Virginia. Though there's no way to replace our children's grandparents or the Iowans, I think we will make great friends here. The only problem is that people will be moving in and out all of the time when they finish degrees! Hopefully we can make some good friends with people who will be here a while. There are loads of toddlers in our strip of Gulf Drive and every time we go outside there are more little ones for Nathan to play with. It's a very communist setup with the sharing of toys and space outside, so that's nice.
This summer was absolutely wonderful. We spent the first part of the summer in Buckingham with my parents the second part with Jimmy's parents in Falls Church and then a few more days in Buckingham before heading out for St. Louis. Here are a few highlights from our time in Virginia:
Buckingham:
*Nathan watering plans every morning with GranGran (my mother)
*Visiting with Aunt Laura and Uncle Matt
*Playing with the cats, Gilbert and Leon
*Seeing cows on Grandpa's farm
*Nathan driving the truck on Grandpa's farm (in Grandpa's lap while mommy held Isaac in the back seat...not something you can do on the streets of Long Beach!)
*Going to Virginia Beach for a few days with GranGran, Aunt Laura, and Uncle Matt
*Seeing relatives at Nathan's birthday/Isaac's welcoming/Independence Day Party
Falls Church:
*Going to the pool with Brock GranGran and Papa
*Playing with Samuel (Nathan's cousin) at Papa/Brock GranGran's house and at Samuel's birthday party
*Going to the Baltimore and National Zoos
*Saying "Papa come" and Papa comes or "Papa play" and Papa plays (You can insert "Brock GranGran" or "GranGran" or "Aunt Laura" in for "Papa" and get the same result...if you're Nathan, that is.)
*Going to Luray on vacation for a few days with Papa, Brock GranGran, and Great Grandma
*Riding Great Grandma's chair up and down the stairs
*Playing with Aunt Sally and Ryan
There are probably lots of other things that we did that I'm forgetting, so please forgive me and at the same time remind me of what they are! Pictures will come shortly. Right now we don't have the best internet connection (borrowed wireless from a neighbor) but once we get ours set up it shouldn't take as long to upload them.
In St. Louis news, we have visited New City Fellowship again (the church we visited at Easter) and we still love it. This week we sang two songs in Swahili. Pretty cool. Our neighbors are all so nice and it's really refreshing to be in a place where we know our neighbors and they don't just avert their eyes when they see us, like our neighbors in Long Beach did. Not quite sure why they did...maybe we smell and we don't realize it. We definitely love our deck here. Much smaller than the one in Long Beach but it has stairs down to where we have to keep our big trash cans (not all of them do...some people have to walk all the way around the building to get down there). It's big enough for a grill and faces southeast so there's plenty of sun for flowers and herbs! That's really exciting to me. Maybe something will live here. :) We have acquired two couches and a recliner thanks to my Craigslist addiction and Jimmy's willingness to haul furniture. We have bought a washer and dryer and are planning to get a portable dishwasher. I'm really excited to have my own major appliances. :) The boys are sharing a bedroom, and last night was the first night we tried it. It went really well! We bought a baby monitor so that Isaac will wake us up before he has to get loud enough to also wake up Nathan. I had no idea how sensitive to sound those monitors are so we hear him even when he begins to stir. He woke up twice during the night, which is pretty standard now, and Nathan didn't wake up either time. We are looking forward to being completely set up. Jimmy's classes start next Thursday so hopefully by that time things will be looking better! He will also be looking for part-time work, as will I, and hopefully it will be so that we don't have to pay for any daycare and that we can also see each other occasionally. I mean, we do like each other. :)
I will update soon with pictures...as soon as I need a break from unpacking!
This summer was absolutely wonderful. We spent the first part of the summer in Buckingham with my parents the second part with Jimmy's parents in Falls Church and then a few more days in Buckingham before heading out for St. Louis. Here are a few highlights from our time in Virginia:
Buckingham:
*Nathan watering plans every morning with GranGran (my mother)
*Visiting with Aunt Laura and Uncle Matt
*Playing with the cats, Gilbert and Leon
*Seeing cows on Grandpa's farm
*Nathan driving the truck on Grandpa's farm (in Grandpa's lap while mommy held Isaac in the back seat...not something you can do on the streets of Long Beach!)
*Going to Virginia Beach for a few days with GranGran, Aunt Laura, and Uncle Matt
*Seeing relatives at Nathan's birthday/Isaac's welcoming/Independence Day Party
Falls Church:
*Going to the pool with Brock GranGran and Papa
*Playing with Samuel (Nathan's cousin) at Papa/Brock GranGran's house and at Samuel's birthday party
*Going to the Baltimore and National Zoos
*Saying "Papa come" and Papa comes or "Papa play" and Papa plays (You can insert "Brock GranGran" or "GranGran" or "Aunt Laura" in for "Papa" and get the same result...if you're Nathan, that is.)
*Going to Luray on vacation for a few days with Papa, Brock GranGran, and Great Grandma
*Riding Great Grandma's chair up and down the stairs
*Playing with Aunt Sally and Ryan
There are probably lots of other things that we did that I'm forgetting, so please forgive me and at the same time remind me of what they are! Pictures will come shortly. Right now we don't have the best internet connection (borrowed wireless from a neighbor) but once we get ours set up it shouldn't take as long to upload them.
In St. Louis news, we have visited New City Fellowship again (the church we visited at Easter) and we still love it. This week we sang two songs in Swahili. Pretty cool. Our neighbors are all so nice and it's really refreshing to be in a place where we know our neighbors and they don't just avert their eyes when they see us, like our neighbors in Long Beach did. Not quite sure why they did...maybe we smell and we don't realize it. We definitely love our deck here. Much smaller than the one in Long Beach but it has stairs down to where we have to keep our big trash cans (not all of them do...some people have to walk all the way around the building to get down there). It's big enough for a grill and faces southeast so there's plenty of sun for flowers and herbs! That's really exciting to me. Maybe something will live here. :) We have acquired two couches and a recliner thanks to my Craigslist addiction and Jimmy's willingness to haul furniture. We have bought a washer and dryer and are planning to get a portable dishwasher. I'm really excited to have my own major appliances. :) The boys are sharing a bedroom, and last night was the first night we tried it. It went really well! We bought a baby monitor so that Isaac will wake us up before he has to get loud enough to also wake up Nathan. I had no idea how sensitive to sound those monitors are so we hear him even when he begins to stir. He woke up twice during the night, which is pretty standard now, and Nathan didn't wake up either time. We are looking forward to being completely set up. Jimmy's classes start next Thursday so hopefully by that time things will be looking better! He will also be looking for part-time work, as will I, and hopefully it will be so that we don't have to pay for any daycare and that we can also see each other occasionally. I mean, we do like each other. :)
I will update soon with pictures...as soon as I need a break from unpacking!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Thoughts on moving
I don't know how many "Thoughts on moving" posts I'll have, so this may be the first of many. I am beginning to realize that there's a huge part of moving that I wasn't counting on: Nathan having trouble saying goodbye to his friends. What's so hard for me is that he knows things are changing (he can see the boxes start to fill the apartment and things like bookshelves and pictures come down) and I can try to explain it to him, but at not even two he's got a very limited understanding of what moving means. And tonight when I saw him with Katie and Kelly and Andrea I knew that when we have to explain why he can't see them anymore it will be about a hundred times harder than why we have boxes everywhere. He didn't want to say goodnight to them because he wanted to keep on playing so how much harder will it be next week when he has to say goodbye?
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Fatherhood and Motherhood
On Fatherhood:
These are the books that Nathan and Isaac gave Jimmy for Father's Day:
Jimmy reads stories to Nathan and Isaac before they go to bed so we thought it would be appropriate to give him bedtime books that he can read to them for Father's Day! Of course, Nathan approved the books. Isaac didn't have much to say about them.
Regarding Motherhood...
These are the books that Nathan and Isaac gave Jimmy for Father's Day:
Jimmy reads stories to Nathan and Isaac before they go to bed so we thought it would be appropriate to give him bedtime books that he can read to them for Father's Day! Of course, Nathan approved the books. Isaac didn't have much to say about them.
Regarding Motherhood...
I saw this under the signature of an email that I received recently, and thought it was 100% accurate:
Motherhood: The days are long but the years are short.
Motherhood: The days are long but the years are short.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Those pictures I didn't post yesterday...
Here are those pesky pictures that didn't cooperate yesterday. Just like in that post, the captions are below the pictures and as always, if you click on a picture you'll get a larger version of it. Enjoy!
Nathan enjoys sharing his toys with Isaac...he doesn't quite understand why Isaac doesn't enjoy it as much as he does.
My mom and Nathan and I went to the Santa Ana Zoo. It's a small zoo with farm animals and monkeys. Of course his favorite part was playing with (and hugging and feeding and kissing) the concrete turtle, lizard, and frog.
Strawberry picking! Too bad you can't really see Isaac. He's in the Mei Tai carrier on Jimmy's chest.
Nathan giving Gran-gran a piggyback ride!
When Isaac was two weeks old we went to Disneyland. Nathan got to meet Goofy! How exciting!
I spoiled him by buying him a t-shirt and stuffed Mickey. :) (And I bought Isaac a shirt and a stuffed Tigger!)
Gran-gran and "Baby I-ick." (That's how Nathan says "Isaac.")
The boys with their grandmothers in the 10 minutes that their visits overlapped!
More family visits! Aunt Sally and Ryan.
Visiting more relatives at a family funeral.
One of the benefits of going to Disneyland with my mom is that she bought the tickets (THANKS MOM!!) and since I'm a Southern California resident we could get the 2fer tickets. That means you pay the entrance price for one of the parks (either Disneyland or California Adventure--they're the same price) and go there that day and then come back another day within the month and go to the other park. We (Jimmy, Nathan, Isaac and I) redeemed our day at CA Adventure this past Friday with a couple of friends (which meant that Jimmy and I got to ride some roller coasters together, without children!!). Here's Nathan surfing.
This is on the Monster's Inc. ride. You ride on a little train through what is basically a ride of the movie. It's cute and Nathan looked like this pretty much the whole ride. Isaac got to ride, too, in the Mei Tai on Kelly's chest! Too bad neither of them will remember the trip.
This past Saturday we had a party to say goodbye to some of Jimmy's friends from college. His IV staffworker was there and this is his ten-month-old daughter. She and Nathan had fun!
Looks a little backwards, I'd say!
Nathan enjoys sharing his toys with Isaac...he doesn't quite understand why Isaac doesn't enjoy it as much as he does.
My mom and Nathan and I went to the Santa Ana Zoo. It's a small zoo with farm animals and monkeys. Of course his favorite part was playing with (and hugging and feeding and kissing) the concrete turtle, lizard, and frog.
Strawberry picking! Too bad you can't really see Isaac. He's in the Mei Tai carrier on Jimmy's chest.
Nathan giving Gran-gran a piggyback ride!
When Isaac was two weeks old we went to Disneyland. Nathan got to meet Goofy! How exciting!
I spoiled him by buying him a t-shirt and stuffed Mickey. :) (And I bought Isaac a shirt and a stuffed Tigger!)
Gran-gran and "Baby I-ick." (That's how Nathan says "Isaac.")
The boys with their grandmothers in the 10 minutes that their visits overlapped!
More family visits! Aunt Sally and Ryan.
Visiting more relatives at a family funeral.
One of the benefits of going to Disneyland with my mom is that she bought the tickets (THANKS MOM!!) and since I'm a Southern California resident we could get the 2fer tickets. That means you pay the entrance price for one of the parks (either Disneyland or California Adventure--they're the same price) and go there that day and then come back another day within the month and go to the other park. We (Jimmy, Nathan, Isaac and I) redeemed our day at CA Adventure this past Friday with a couple of friends (which meant that Jimmy and I got to ride some roller coasters together, without children!!). Here's Nathan surfing.
This is on the Monster's Inc. ride. You ride on a little train through what is basically a ride of the movie. It's cute and Nathan looked like this pretty much the whole ride. Isaac got to ride, too, in the Mei Tai on Kelly's chest! Too bad neither of them will remember the trip.
This past Saturday we had a party to say goodbye to some of Jimmy's friends from college. His IV staffworker was there and this is his ten-month-old daughter. She and Nathan had fun!
Looks a little backwards, I'd say! Sunday, June 8, 2008
Some pictures of Isaac
Nearly 1.5 hours ago I started a post that included 22 pictures taken over the past six weeks of various things we've done. As you can see, that mission got aborted because Blogger and I engaged in an epic battle over the format of my pictures, and Blogger won. I didn't want that entire time to have been spent in vain so I decided to compose a post of the most pressing pictures: Isaac. Hopefully I will get another wind of energy soon and finish posting the other 14 pictures I originally intended to post!
(Just FYI: Captions go with the pictures above them, and if you want a larger version of the picture, just click on it and a larger one will come up in another window.)
Isaac's first sponge bath. He was rather indifferent about it, unlike his brother who hated sponge baths!
Nathan likes to share everything with Isaac (including food and drink). Here he has filled Isaac's swing with toys he thought Isaac might like upon waking.
Isaac's first tub bath! He really likes baths as long as we don't wake him for them. If he's already awake, he thoroughly enjoys having water poured over his head.
Again, Nathan giving Isaac a toy. I like how Isaac is looking at Nathan in this picture. :)
Isaac's baptism, June 1, 2008.
First smile! (Well, the first one caught on camera.)
This picture was included so you can see just how gigantic Isaac has gotten. He hasn't been weighed since he was about 10 days old, but I would guess he's around 11 pounds. Compare how he fills the swing in this picture (taken today) to the one above (the second picture)!
(Just FYI: Captions go with the pictures above them, and if you want a larger version of the picture, just click on it and a larger one will come up in another window.)
Isaac's first sponge bath. He was rather indifferent about it, unlike his brother who hated sponge baths!
Nathan likes to share everything with Isaac (including food and drink). Here he has filled Isaac's swing with toys he thought Isaac might like upon waking.
Isaac's first tub bath! He really likes baths as long as we don't wake him for them. If he's already awake, he thoroughly enjoys having water poured over his head.
Again, Nathan giving Isaac a toy. I like how Isaac is looking at Nathan in this picture. :)
Isaac's baptism, June 1, 2008.
First smile! (Well, the first one caught on camera.)
This picture was included so you can see just how gigantic Isaac has gotten. He hasn't been weighed since he was about 10 days old, but I would guess he's around 11 pounds. Compare how he fills the swing in this picture (taken today) to the one above (the second picture)!Sunday, June 1, 2008
Long awaited update
Hi!
Well, it's been a month and a day since my last post so I figured it was time for a new one. I'm sorry that this post won't have any pictures. :( It's more to let you know that we're still alive and doing quite well. Isaac is, so far, a very easy baby. Nathan loves him, sometimes loves him a little to eagerly and scares Isaac. Isaac has been sleeping a lot and eating even more. I'm not quite sure how much he weighs right now but he's definitely gaining weight rapidly. Jimmy has been taking off a few days a week so I've only actually been home alone with the boys two days. They went very well. Nathan was a very good boy those two days which was somewhat of a nice change (he decided to "show off" the first few weeks Isaac was born but was back to his more compliant self on Tuesday and Wednesday). This week I'll have three days without anyone else (well, any other adult) so we'll see if we're able to keep ourselves busy!
On a sadder note, we'll only be in California until June 26. We'll get to visit Bakersfield one more time and then ship up and fly out on the 26th. Actually, Jimmy and his dad are driving to Virginia and my mom is coming out to fly back with the boys and me. We'll be in Virginia until about August 14th or 15th and moving into our new apartment in St. Louis August 16, at what I'm assuming will be the heat of the summer! At least we'll have central air there (that was a shock when I moved to So Cal--that there are places in the US without air conditioning).
Anyway, once I get some pictures off of our camera (there are plenty, don't worry) I'll upload some of them here. Most of the ones of Isaac look pretty much the same since he's not really doing much yet, but we've got some cute ones of Nathan at least!
Well, it's been a month and a day since my last post so I figured it was time for a new one. I'm sorry that this post won't have any pictures. :( It's more to let you know that we're still alive and doing quite well. Isaac is, so far, a very easy baby. Nathan loves him, sometimes loves him a little to eagerly and scares Isaac. Isaac has been sleeping a lot and eating even more. I'm not quite sure how much he weighs right now but he's definitely gaining weight rapidly. Jimmy has been taking off a few days a week so I've only actually been home alone with the boys two days. They went very well. Nathan was a very good boy those two days which was somewhat of a nice change (he decided to "show off" the first few weeks Isaac was born but was back to his more compliant self on Tuesday and Wednesday). This week I'll have three days without anyone else (well, any other adult) so we'll see if we're able to keep ourselves busy!
On a sadder note, we'll only be in California until June 26. We'll get to visit Bakersfield one more time and then ship up and fly out on the 26th. Actually, Jimmy and his dad are driving to Virginia and my mom is coming out to fly back with the boys and me. We'll be in Virginia until about August 14th or 15th and moving into our new apartment in St. Louis August 16, at what I'm assuming will be the heat of the summer! At least we'll have central air there (that was a shock when I moved to So Cal--that there are places in the US without air conditioning).
Anyway, once I get some pictures off of our camera (there are plenty, don't worry) I'll upload some of them here. Most of the ones of Isaac look pretty much the same since he's not really doing much yet, but we've got some cute ones of Nathan at least!
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