July Update

Braden and I at Holiday World

Hello, its me again. Sorry to be the author again. I know we promised you some Braden, but we believe it is best for his sanity that he not have any more responsibilities on top of work and leading the family. So you are just going to have to deal with me for another few months. :oP

As for life, it is starting to attain the nice, steady rhythm of reality. This is home now, and it is finally starting to feel that way. I find myself really beginning to find balance with my time (except somehow the past 2 days I have been pathetically lethargic - everybody fail sometimes, right). But on the whole, the Lord is teaching me SO much about redeeming the time that I have! I have begun to embrace and enjoy a love for freezer cooking. No more leftover carrots, green pepper, celery, bananas, or apples rotting out before I have a chance to eat it! Frozen apples make great pie apples and applesauce! I can use my leftover veggies to freeze in a stir fry or have on hand to make soup. Bulk, I am discovering, is my new best friend. And there are so many dishes that can so easily be frozen to make a hard night super easy (and delicious!). I have a book called Once-a-Month freezer cooking. Now this woman is super awesome, though. In a single day (about 8 hours time) she makes enough freezer meals to cook dinner for a whole month! I don't know if I will ever be that dedicated, but I know that I will find this technique more and more helpful as the children begin to pile in (Lord willing, as we have no intention of stopping with this one!) Even now, fatigue from the pregnancy leaves me less and less enthusiastic about what side dish will best complement our meatloaf that night. (Thanks to my brother-in-law, Jace, this has become increasingly important to me over time, haha).  Its nice to just have something already cooked, fresh, and ready to be warmed up.

Things are great with Braden and the new job. Sadly, his old boss, Samantha, recently quit due to difficulty working with another staff member - leaving Braden without a real mentor. It has been a bit of a sink or swim situation for him, and I am happy to report that he has been doing excellently -  though I know he is down about losing Sam (they had been friends from back in their old Holiday World days). One of the things he is in charge of is creating and executing events for the seasonal staff over the summer. I recently got to see one of these events in action. The annul Holilympics. Surprisingly cool, actually. There were around 250 people there and they all were competing in 5 different events (all of them a little crazy!) to be named the winner. Each team was named after a country and lots of them got really into it. The team from Zimbabwe had a guy dressed in a loin cloth with a huge walking stick that had stuffed animals climbing on it. It was pretty awesome - though I not really sure it is an actual depiction of what living life in that country is really like.

Mom and Braden on Pilgrims Plunge

We have been so blessed as to see so much of my family this past month! My mother came up one weekend and we were about to spend the day at Holiday world with her! It was loads of fun, despite my inability to actually ride anything. There really wasn't a big crowd that day so we were really able to enjoy some short lines. For the most part, I waited in lines with them and they rode the rides (I would hop out of line right before they got on). But we spent most of our time in the lazy river, or the wave pool so that I could actually do something! Oh man, after packing on an extra 15-20 pounds in a short time,being weightless in the water is just a little bit of heaven - not to mention a HUGE relief from the back pain. Dad came and visited for a weekend as well - finally making it to the new house, and my sister, Jenny, and her husband, Jace came with their son just this past week to visit from Pennsylvania. My sisters belly is getting so big! Just like mine I suppose (our due dates are only 13 days apart). What an encouragement in life and faith they always are! We got to take little Joshua to Holiday World as well and it was so cute to see him riding down those little slides with his mom and dad! It makes me feel so impatient for our son to be with us as well.

Joshua after a dip in our kiddy pool

At the Baby Shower

 Speaking of Baby G, things continue to go very well! Insomnia takes its tole on me occasionally - one night I woke up at 1:45 and could not get back to sleep until near 4:30 - and back pain is the ever present reminder that my work is not finished in the least in this pregnancy, but I feel very healthy and I baby is growing and moving like never before. I feel like I grow an inch out every week! Haha. My beautiful inny belly button has all but disappeared and I am quite confident that I will acquire the staple pregnancy outty before the end of the month, hehe! What funny and beautiful changes your body goes through to accomidate a baby!

Diaper Cake 

My baby shower took place this past week as well! What surpassing gratitude I have toward my 2 mother in laws who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to make it a fun, pleasant, and beautiful experience for me! And the generosity I saw from people (some woman came whom I had never even met!) was overwhelming. I have diapers, wipes, and onesies coming out of my ears, along with toys, bottles, baby gear, books, bath tubs, and so much more! This baby will have more than enough to get by and we could never have done it for him ourselves. Praise God for his goodness to our family! The whole party had a frog theme that was SO cute and Shannon really ran with it. We had cattail centerpieces with plastic frogs all around. The food table looked like a little creek with lily pads, and there were frog beany babies for all the kids at the shower to take home (though I think that one little girl may have hijacked all of them). It was a blast! Great food, games, and fellowship.

It has been so much different to live here than I thought it would be, but I am learning to really enjoy the coziness of a small town, although, I have yet to embrace the heat and humility of southern Indiana (I think this summer may kill me - I picked the wrong summer for pregnancy!). I am not sure if the high has dropped below 90 in weeks and it is always above 100 in that "feels like" category of weather. Though I talked to a woman at my church yesterday who says she hasn't had an air conditioner since she was married! (She is in her 30's). Talk about shutting me up and making me realize how pampered and unthankful I can be for the things I have. I am also finding that, while making friends is slow, it has been steady. There is a family from our church who has been such a blessing to Braden and I in making us feel welcome. I really do not know what I would do without them. They are been such a spiritual and emotional comfort in this time of transition. And what a picture of spiritual fruit they have shown us through how they have raise their children. Each one has a strong relationship with Jesus Christ and lives it out on a daily basis. It gives me so much hope and delight at the thought of raising our own. The church as a whole has been quick to integrate and accept us into there community. Braden and I are helping with their VBS all this week! We really like it.

I suppose that about wraps up July for us. I feel like it is a bit spotty, and there is so much I could elaborate on, but, I suppose I should post more often instead of choosing to write novels, haha. Perhaps, one day I will give it a try... :o)