Dr. Adieu

Today was our last prenatal appointment in Dallas and it went great!!  My blood pressure has maintained normalcy, my weight gain is right on target despite my incessant need to eat every five minutes, and the baby’s heart beat is racing at a  strong and steady 145 beats per minute. It was great to see that our Dr. had to raise the doppler to just below my belly button to find the heart rate instead of lower…it means we’re growing!!!

Our next appointment we’ll be back home in California and finding out the sex of the baby with our families together!

Stormy Weather

You can see why my hero of a husband came and picked me up from work in the car even though I live across the street. I have the best husband in the world….I didn’t even have to ask. He just came!

Austin Trip

A couple weekends ago we spent the weekend in Austin with our friends here at DTS. We had a jammed day that began with eating a picnic lunch on the State Capital lawn, then to the UT strip for some window shopping and interesting people. After that, we ventured over to the original and biggest Whole Foods in the country, which was the personal highlight for me. After, we took a hike in the park downtown and ate some BBQ at the famous Stubb’s just past world famous 6th street (personal highlight for TJ since it’s Stevie Ray Vaughn’s stomping ground). Once done with dinner, we drove out to Sarah’s parent’s house in the country to spend the night. We woke up in the morning ( I discovered I was really in the middle of nowhere for the first time in my life), had an awesome breakfast and devotional time and then drove home! Whew!

It was an awesome time together with our great friends here laughing all day, car dancing with the girls, and having Ricky and TJ defend our cars from the crazy people trying to break into them on the streets! It was a packed, fast, and fun mini vacation!

Date Night!

Despite our weekend being eaten up by responsibility (we hate being adults), we got out to see Chris Tomlin on Saturday night. We almost didn’t make it though…

Lately, every time we have used Google maps to get directions, it has led us to a completely unrelated location. Saturday night was no exception. We were driving on MacArthur Blvd. for about 15 miles when we realized that Nokia Theater just wasn’t going to come. Luckily some friends of ours has a GPS system in their car. They told us where we were and how we could get to the concert. Luckily, we got there 10 minutes after the concert started. If we didn’t make it, that would have made for a REALLY bad date night.

Moral of the story- we’re saving for a GPS system since we can never find the place we’re trying to get to and we’re sick of wasting so much gas & time trying to figure out where we are in this city of non-labeled, one way, poorly paved streets.

Chris Tomlin was awesome! He played all our favorites! We had amazing seats in the front section! I love date nights!

South Padre Island!

We did a very last minute trip 10 hours South through Austin and San Antonio to South Padre Island for 3 nights with our amazingly awesome friends Anthony and Ashley this past weekend. Let me just say that splitting a vacation with another couple you like is THEE way to go when it comes to being able to actually afford to go somewhere without breaking the bank. We shared a hotel room, which made laughing all night absolutely necessary and getting to know each other outside the throws of Seminary a lot of fun.

We spent both full days on the beach at the end of the Island and made a lot of great memories with who TJ & I now consider very close friends.

More to come….

Highlights from Home

Here are the top 10 highlights from our trip home in no particular order:

1. Our nephews jumping on our bed to wake us up in the morning for coffee and cinnamon buns.

2. Running to the ocean at Laguna followed by time on the swings with our niece, followed by an amazing meal at Ciao’s on Balboa Island by pure luck, followed by real cannollis from Ferrera’s in Little Italy in New York (my favs), followed by the boat parade.

3. Celebrating Hanukkah with the family.

4. Watching Jed learn how to express “Oye Ve” in his high chair….seriously the funniest thing I have ever seen.

5. Dad buying In ‘N’ Out as our first meal back home.

6. Waking up insanely early to go shopping with Dad & Kay and then spending a perfect day in La Jolla with the beautiful water, sleeping  seals and more shopping thanks to Dad stealing a parking space from a BMW.

7. Apple butt! Only you know what I mean!

8. Walking the old neighborhood TJ & I miss so badly.

9. Shopping at my beloved Trader Joe’s.

10. Going back to Calvary and LOVING it.

No place like home for the holidays…

I’ll have many ‘o blogs about our trip home for Chanukkah & Christmas, but I wanted to give a little snipit while I was oozing with satisfaction at finally being back home after six long months away.

Yes, ladies and gentleman…this is my beloved backyard in Orange County, California:

More to come!

TJ’s almost done!

It’s hard to believe, but in one week TJ and I will be on a plane going home! He will be done with his first semester of his Th.M. with only 6 more to go!

All he has to do is write one more 5 page paper, one gospel paper, and pass his Greek final (along with his other ones).

All I have to do is finish the Christmas Project that has been underway, put on the Sing-a-long with Chaplain, finish planning Spring Orientation, and prep for the Financial Seminar!

Pray for us to have the stamina to get through the next week and for TJ to finish strong!!!

TGIF

This week has been all about money. Every second of every day this week has been crunching numbers.  I can’t really blog about what life has been like for me at work this past week, or how it ties in to the miracle that happened to us, but I can say that I am so thankful I have a job right now, that I was able to save someone else’s job this week, and that God’s hand has been so evident in keeping us “safe” for now.

In the midst of the unknown, something amazing happened. TJ went to his campus mailbox where he gets his graded papers back and found an envelope only with his name written on the front full of $20 bills…$400 worth of $20 bills. The timing was astounding. We still don’t know who possibly could have done this, why they chose us, or how they could give at such a bad time financially for everyone. But that $400 means we can pay for TJ’s health insurance, or we can pay for his textbooks without having to touch a loan, or we can put that money towards tuition for next semester. There are a million things that need money in our immediate future that we now have a little bit of the burden lifted. I cannot thank God enough for sending someone our way to help us.

Please pray for people who were not as lucky as I was this week as they have a very difficult road ahead of them, and that my luck continues so we can stay here.

I am beginning to see that when God places you out of your comfort zone, He has the opportunity to show you things in your life you would have taken for granted before. I am seeing that God has placed us here, has worked in TJ’s heart, and has a plan for us both. This is a time of preparation for something amazing to come.

HAPPY 26TH BIRTHDAY TJ!

Today is a special day! TJ is 26 today! He’s extra special because he gets 25 hours for his birthday since we switched the clocks back…lucky!

For his b-day last night, we went to Lake Ray Hubbard. Originally, I was going to take him to this restaurant called Zanata’s because it looked like it had a nice atmosphere on the lake. It wasn’t on the lake. We wanted to be by the water. So we got back on the freeway and found a shopping center on the harbor of the lake right as the sun was setting. I let TJ go a little crazy taking pictures for a while, and then we had a really good dinner at Gloria’s instead.

It was sooooo good to get out of downtown Dallas and see something other than the usual 5 mile radius of concrete jungle around campus.

Happy Birthday to the best hubby in the world…you’re an amazing man and I love spending special days with you and making good memories!