Baby, I'm back!

Anyone who actually reads this may have noticed a suspicious absence in new posts lately.  Not that I've ever posted very regularly, but I generally try to post more than 1x/quarter!  I'm going to "blame" my lack of posts on this little punk:

Yeah!  I'm at 16 weeks along today, and can't wait to meet this little guy/gal in late May!  In the meantime, while I can't truly complain about nausea, I definitely had a few months there when I wasn't feeling so hot, definitely didn't have much of an appetite, and was hardly cooking or grocery shopping.  So... no posts about good steals deals.  Cancelled a few Absolute Organics deliveries, so no post about that.  In fact, pretty much all I did when I got home from work was lay around on the couch and maybe throw in a load of laundry - so no posting about anything else either, since I didn't figure that my couch or belated laundry would interest even the most bored among you.  And when I did start to feel better, we weren't quite ready to "go public" with this great news, and everything else felt too inane to post about, with this shocker at the forefront of my life!

Other than growing a baby, cooking a bit less, and sleeping a bit more, the rest of life is about the same.  I continue to love my job, my husband, my house, my church and my friends (in no particular order).  Hopefully Baby will let me cook, shop and blog a bit more now, so until next time...

Incubating an infant... Soli Deo Gloria.

Pizza Party!

Since I love my sister-in-law and want to be just like her, I'm posting this a few days late, and a few pictures short.  My hubby and I had the privilege last Friday night of hosting a DiGiorno House Party.  If you've never heard of HouseParty.com, you're not alone - I just found out a few months ago.  Basically, it's a marketing gig.  Companies sponsor parties - Individuals apply to host parties - Companies mail cool stuff to the Individuals they select - Individuals host parties to show off the product - Everyone is happy.
I received a party pack that included:

• 6 coupons for FREE DiGiorno pizzas
• 15 guest coupons for $4 off a DiGiorno pizza
• a pizza cutter
• a chip clip
• some World Cup country flag bandanas
• some blow-up "bam-bams" (you know, those silly things people wave around at sports games)
• some soccer-themed whistles
• DiGiorno paper plates/napkins

Since the party was to be held on the 1st day of the World Cup, clearly the host pack was soccer-themed.  Unfortunately, they failed to take into consideration that the games were at 10 am and 2:30 pm - not quite party time on a Friday!  Oh well... so we didn't watch a game.  We still had plenty of fun!  We had a great group of our friends show up, so pretty much everyone knew someone but still got to meet lots of new people.  And we were a diverse group!  We represented at least 8 countries: Spain, Peru, China, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, New Jersey, and the good ol' USA - haha :)
We ate 9 pizzas (good thing most of them were free!), a bunch of chips & salsa/guac/spinach dip, and some ice cream.   It was the 1st time I'd ever tried DiGiorno pizza, and I really liked it - but my favorite part was definitely having 20+ of my favorite people around, hopefully enjoying themselves and getting to know each other better.  For those of you who couldn't make it... we missed you!  Maybe HouseParty will give me another excuse to host in the upcoming months - I'd do it again in a heartbeat!
I'll leave you with the one pic I remembered to take - BEFORE everyone showed up.  Oops!

Soli Deo Gloria...

Mmm... lunch!

Yeah for school being out!  I finished up on Friday, had a fairly relaxing weekend, and am (of course) loving being out for the summer so far this week.  Thankfully, I have been able to be rather productive so far - I even had the fleeting thought that I wasn't sure what I would do with the rest of the summer, since I'll probably finish everything on my list by tomorrow. 
HAHAHAHA.  And then I remembered all the non-urgent stuff that I haven't done for the past X months that really should get done.  I might need a few extra months of vacation to finish it all.
Anyway, since I can, I thought I'd share my fun, non-lunchbox lunch that I just enjoyed.  Really, it could work in a lunchbox, which almost makes it better.  I started with this recipe for Creamy Apple & Carrot Roll-Ups that I stumbled across this morning.  5 ingredients - I can handle that!  And I had them all on hand (organic apple and carrot thanks to Absolute Organics, of course).  Don't tell Nature's Own, but I used tortillas that I had on hand instead of their bread.  Even though it says "serves 4," I honestly figured I would end up eating it all... 'cuz that's how I roll.  But alas!  It was more filling than I thought.  I used the big tortillas, so it made 2 and I've got 1 leftover for tomorrow.  I ate the extra 1/2 carrot by itself, and the extra 1/2 apple I dipped in Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter that I got from EarthFare a few weeks ago.  Yummy!  Top it off with a Wild Berry Simply Tea that I got for free with a coupon at EF (with a little sugar, since tea is too bitter for my tastes) and I'm a happy girl.
Hope your lunch was as good as mine!  I'm off to be productive again.

Soli Deo Gloria...

Ode to the GV house

It's only fitting that it's a rainy evening... that's pretty much how my heart feels right now after taking my last walk through what has been my family's home for the last 7 years. With the official "closing" and key hand-over tomorrow at 9am, obviously it's completely empty now, but the rooms are somehow still terribly full of memories.

• The entryway foyer and circular staircase where we took countless family pictures and my sister's prom pics.
• The dining room that was initially painted a hideous Pepto pink until Mom corrected the painters and they made it a much nicer shade of red.  Tons of buffets were served in there, as were huge family/holiday meals.  And more recently, our first non-wedding picture as a family of 7.
• The "powder room" with the sink cabinet that I picked out at Transit Damaged Freight... my one claim-to-fame in the whole building process.
• The hot tub where my boyfriend asked my dad for permission to marry me.
• The "crawl space" that we had to wake up at the dreadfully early hour of 8:30am one holiday (Memorial Day?) morning to paint, and where a few years later we did P90X together as a family.
• The basement guest bedroom that hosted several of my former youth leaders as they were in stages of transition, as well as my fiance when he first moved to the USA.
• The funky angled section of the ceiling in the living room where Mom's friend painted "Soli Deo Gloria" in a beautiful calligraphy - only to later admit that she was dreadfully afraid of heights.
• The amazing stone fireplace that served as family-Christmas-picture setting for us and at least one other family over the years.
• The custom-made "picture frame" out of moulding in the entryway where we deliberated for the whole building process and at least a year after we moved in as to which Bible verse we should have put there (we found another friend/artist to paint it though, since it was even higher up!) and ended up with a sword and shield from Toledo, Spain.
• The closet at the top of the back stairwell that was always full of extra school supplies, random fabric bolts for the curtains mom always wanted to make (and eventually did, mostly) and the pictures and albums that were always in a state of disarray.
• The Media Room that inevitably ended up 10 degrees warmer than you wanted it by the time the movie was over.
• The closets in my sister's and my rooms that were supposed to be square, but then had to be L-shaped because the architect had originally forgotten to include room for the ductwork.
• My room - purple, because I love it - where I was sitting when my cute friend from Spain finally found a program that would work for us to audio-chat (Skype - before the video years), and the intercom system that I used to refuse to come down to dinner immediately that night because I was actually TALKing to him.  
• The built-in bookshelves that still didn't actually hold my entire collection.  
• The huge picture window that looked out onto the street (with no panes or screens, so the view was always crystal-clear), and the side window that overlooked the neighbor's lake.

Clearly there's no sense bemoaning the end of an era - it certainly wasn't perfect, after all - but it is a reminder that we only walk through life once.  Goal: to make sure it was a life worth living, full of love and honoring to the Lord.  My prayer is that the house can continue to be used to minister to others in the future, in the same way it did in the past.

Now, I must look forward to the Lord's "plans to prosper [me] and not to harm [me], plans to give [me] a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11b).   If only those plans included calling in sick to work tomorrow... ;)

Soli Deo Gloria.

in the midst of the mire

hey guys! life has been crazy and i know i haven't written much lately, so i figured i'd take a few minutes before heading off to class to update you on what's been going on lately.

work.

ok, that's all i really need to say.

what? that's not exciting enough? tell me about it! i'm the one who's been living it!

alright, fine. my grandparents came to visit one Sunday afternoon about 2 weeks ago. it's not normal for g'rents who live in New Jersey to come visit their g'kids in North Carolina just for the afternoon, but they did. it was fun to see them.

i also had Homecoming at Furman. have i told y'all about that yet? it was so much fun to catch up with people again, even though i stilled missed seeing quite a few. Homecoming is one of those times where you just have to make sure that your expectations are reasonable and you'll have a great time. since time on the FU Mall is invitably made up of interrupting someone's "catch-up" time with someone else so that you can hear their update, only to be promptly interrupted yourself by someone who either wants to talk to you or your conversation partner. thus, one rarely finishes a sentence, let alone a complete thought process. but, like i said, as long as you realize that going in... you're bound to have a blast.

since then, i've pretty much made myself crack down on work. as you fellow students can relate (and even you recently graduated folk), the end of the semester tends to be rather miserable. everything is due at the same time, and it's all stuff that either you were procrastinating or couldn't actually do until the last few days/weeks. this is made even more exciting when you are teaching (meaning you have to try to cram the last chapter into 2 days, write exams/compositions and then grade them) as well as studying (involving term papers, lots of reading). thankfully (the Lord is good, so thanks for your prayers and keep them up!), i have been able to nearly finish 1 of my 3 term papers. i'm still relying on Him to pull me through the last 2, but at least i've got one class that i'm fairly guaranteed not to fail!

part of the pressure, of course, is brought on by the fact that my beloved Isaac is coming to visit me in precisely 1 week :) i'm thrilled! maybe it's just the excitement that's somehow getting me through paper-writing madness. who knows. his time here will be short (just under 2 weeks, and lots of travelling), but we're gonna live it up.

ok, it's time for class. a bit of business translation craziness... let's see if we get our last exam back?!?!

Soli Deo Gloria...

on the move again

I think I should be traumatized. Every time I write in this blog, I either have nothing interesting to say... or way too much interesting to say. Interesting, of course, being a very subjective word.

Interesting news for this week: I was (more or less) kicked out of the house with the family this past weekend. Long story made somewhat less long, the mom got Salmonella(sp?) Poisoning, and after discovering that her 14-yr-old had failed 3 classes, was in quite a bad mood. It was at this point that she decided to come into my room and tell me that she didn't need me anymore and that I "could" leave as soon as possible.

That was Tuesday. On Thursday, I came home from my last day of school to find that she had been admitted into the hospital at least until Sunday. On Saturday, Isaac and I went to get my bags. This morning I went by to, theoretically, say goodbye to the whole family. However, the mom is still in the hospital and only 1 daughter was there. Oh well... I turned in my key and I'll send them all emails later.

Isaac's wonderful parents have been kind enough to let me stay here, facilitated by the unfortunate delayed arrival from the U.S. of Miriam's best friend. Hopefully Jessica will be able to join us later this week, at which point I will likely go stay with some other friends who live close to the church.

In the meantime, I'm here trying to help out as much as possible, while tying up loose ends and saying goodbyes here in Spain. I leave for home early next Wednesday morning, July 5, and (Lord willing) will make it there by early that afternoon. I'll get my cell phone number to y'all as soon as I have it (although I'll send it by email, so if you don't get it, let me know).

Soli Deo Gloria...

good news about the new house

Gonna keep this short, but just wanted to let y'all know that things are going well in the new house! The girls are older and more mature, and understand why I'm there. I say it's time, and they immediately begin discussing who goes first. We sit down, do homework, and when we finish, play games (with the 8-yr-old) or talk (with the 13- and 16-yr-olds). After an hour with one, I move on to the next. They are nice, the food is good, and I already have a key (which I never had in the other house!).

In addition to all this, it takes me less than an hour to get to work, when before I was averaging 1 hour and 10 mins. And not only do I have weekends free, but it seems as though I'll be able to leave early (I usually work 5-8) on Fridays -- this weekend I left just before 6!

Isaac's brother, sister-in-law and niece were supposed to come up from Sevilla this weekend, but in the end they weren't able to. We missed them, but with all the craziness of 9 visitors from Northern Ireland on Sunday to celebrate Jonathan's ordination as Deacon, it maybe is better if they come on a more calm weekend.

Ok, gotta get dressed, make the bed and head off to work. Have a great week!

Soli Deo Gloria...