This Week's Yard Sale Finds

Yesterday, when I looked at the yard sales in the newspaper, I was none too impressed. I only found three around our neighborhood that were worth checking out, but one of the three did say "lots of brand new baby clothes." When you go to a lot of yard sales, you learn to take the ads with a grain of salt--sometimes people will say anything in their ad just to get folks to come out. Not the case with this one. When we walked down the driveway, we eventually found a huge bag full of baby clothes, all with the tags still on them. Turns out, the lady holding the sale used to work for GapKids and had a bad habit of buying all the cute baby clothes despite the fact she didn't actually have a baby. Now that she has decided to clean out her house, we racked up! We got everything that you see here for less than $1.50 an item, and amazingly it is all in a pretty good range of sizes from 0-12 months. (Now Shea is worried that no one will want to have a baby shower for us since it seems that we have gone a little insane--but I promise we have gotten it out of our system and will stop with the yard saleing--at least until next Saturday.)

Can you spoil a baby while he's still in the womb?

Somebody has been buying stuff for baby boy Patrick - and it wasn't me! Does the shirt give it away?

Pray for Beth

The girl in the middle is my friend Beth. We got to be friends through church when she lived in Bham. At one point, she and Michelle lived across the breezeway from me and Jules.

Everyone should have a friend like Beth. She is so much fun to be around, a really good listener, and has an amazing closet (I know that is not as important as the first two, but as the one who treated her closet as my own, I definitely enjoyed it!)

Beth lost her dad around 5 years ago. Her mom fought breast cancer successfully and then was diagnosed with brain cancer awhile back. Beth's mom went to be with the Lord Friday. Did I mention Beth is pregnant with her second child and due in late August? Please pray for Beth - that God would comfort her during this hard time. Her mom was amazing - I know that we all felt like Carol "mothered" all of us at one point or the other.

The Surreal Life

Yep, the alien looking thing up there is my baby boy. The ultrasound was one of the most emotional experiences I have had (not that everything isn't emotional these days due to hormones). Those of you who know me know that my excitement about seeing the baby was tempered with the equally frightening possibility that the ultrasound would reveal something wrong with the baby. After the technician began the ultrasound, it was about five minutes before she said anything. Five minutes of me trying to make out something human in the grainy images - five minutes of me hypervenilating as I thought that something was wrong and that's why she wasn't saying anything. Once she finally started pointing out things, she and JM start pointing and smiling while I am laying there wondering what in the world they were seeing that I was not seeing. It reminded me of those posters that used to be so popular, where you have to concentrate to be able to locate the image. I suck at the posters too!
So, then he starts moving. I start crying. I see arms - I see legs. He has a head, a brain, and a heart - my heart starts beating again. So then comes the moment of truth. JM said he saw "something" before the nurse even said anything. I still didn't see anything until she draws the big line around the little guy's man parts. The waterworks begin again. Out of all the images we got from the ultrasound, it turns out these are the clearest pics. But I just didn't feel that it was right to put his stuff out there for the whole internet to see!

A book I'll soon be purchasing...

Shea and I went to the doctor this morning for an ultrasound and 19-week checkup. I had planned on posting one of the ultrasound images on the blog, but in my excitement, I forgot to get the CD from Shea when I dropped her off at work. If there is a good image, I'm sure Shea will post that later (but if what we saw on the monitor is any indication, the pictures might not be so great). We got a great report from the doctor--all of his measurements are right in line with what they are supposed to be, and the doctor left the due date as December 17th (a mere 2 days after I am supposed to graduate from seminary!). Now it's time to get working on a name and the nursery! More updates to come...

No bombs--cheap eats

WARNING: this post contains information that may be upsetting to my wife and my mother. Read at your own risk.

After going to church here tonight (for a really great service), I headed over to Piccadilly Circus to try to find a couple of cheap restaurants that I had read about in a travel guide. I found them both hidden on a little side street and decided on West End Kitchen. London is an expensive city to begin with, but the expense is GREATLY compounded by the fact that the US $ is incredibly weak right now. To give you some idea, the quarter-pounder meal at Micky-D's is 4 pounds which translates to about $8.50 US. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with myself when I ate my largest meal in the UK for a mere 11 pounds (tax and tip included). It included an appetizer, a very generously-portioned entree, dessert, and a (small) glass of wine. I'm sure I will visit here again before my departure.

When I left the restaurant and walked around the block, I saw a sign that had INCIDENT in big bold letters and said something to the effect of "We are interested in information from anyone who saw a green Mercedes parked in front of this club on June 29th..." OOPS! I knew that the incident was around Piccadilly Circus, but I had no idea I was on the very street, in front of the very club. Weird.

Time to Relax

So what's a girl to do when her husband is on another continent for two a half weeks? Head to the parents' place for some TLC. It doesn't hurt that they live on the lake...

We went for a long boat ride yesterday down Lick Skillet (the local name for a creek close to my parent's house). We have been coming to the lake ever since I can remember but everything around my parent's house has gotten very big - nothing like the little cabins we grew up around. But down the creek not much has changed...

Bella jumped off the boat and swam for the bank while my Mom and I were out in the water. The bank was high and she couldn't get back down it and my Dad had to rescue her.

There are tons of great smells for dogs to sniff.

Eddie finds time to chill out.

Bella helps Dad navigate the boat.

A glider with a view.

Where all the bad priests go?

Some of us went here tonight for an evening prayer service. We went for the experience but also because it costs 10 pounds (apx. $21 US) to tour the Abbey. Worshippers get in free, but you have to agree to stay for the whole service. The service was a typical evening prayer service in the Anglican tradition (although it had a pretty strong Roman Catholic flavor to it). The service could have been nice if it didn't seem like all those leading it were about to gouge their eyes out from boredom. The lady who did most of the reading of the prayers could not have read them any faster--kinda reminded me of when the flight attendants give the safety talk before the plane takes off. Several of the priests were yawning; one had a painful scowl on his face. It made me wonder to myself if the Abbey Duty is given to the naughty priests as some type of punishment.

Greetings from the UK

Alive and well here in London. I have not posted since I have been here mainly because I have no idea how to shuck my experiences down into a simple post. I'm having an amazing time (but being away from my beautiful bride is even more difficult than I imagined it would be--fortunately we are able to talk on the phone a couple times a day without going into the poor house). I'm learning lots about ministry in an urban setting (not just any setting--in one of the global mega-cities of the world) and am being stretched and challenged in my thinking, assumptions, biases and every way imaginable. As for the pictures I've included, they're not the normal touristy fare (you all know what Big Ben looks like, don't you?) but I saw these colors today in a street market in Notting Hill and their intensity really grabbed my eye. Talk to you soon...

Poor, poor, pitiful me

So JM and Julie have both made it to their foreign destinations. Thanks so much to all of you that prayed for support for Julie and JM's passport and flights. The car bombs have had me a little concerned but JM assures me that security is tight in London. So, the puppies and I have been left alone for two and half weeks, contemplating the unfairness of my husband and best friend leaving the country at the exact same time.

As I sat alone eating at Waffle House yesterday, I was contemplating my pitiful state. It is hard for me to be alone. I always have had roommates and then I got married so I have never lived by myself. It is really strange not to have other people around. My default thing over the past couple of days has been to mindlessly sit in front of the tv. I was praying as I left church yesterday that God would use this time to strengthen my relationship with Him. Which means that the TV must be turned off and I make the choice to spend some time with the Lord.

Please pray for me. In the loneliness of the next couple of weeks, I want to turn to the One who sometimes gets crowded out of my busy, noisy life - not to the TV.