Updates

So I guess it's been a month since I last updated! Goodness! We've been gone the last 4 out of 4 weekends which just makes the weekdays very full trying to catch up and getting ready to head out for the next thing. I just feel behind on everything. So thank goodness we're finally home this weekend. Being gone every weekend Liv has gotten to see a lot of Grandma and Grandpa Jones. She's loved it. It's so fun to watch how excited she gets to see her grandparents.

A few things on campus: the students started a 24/7 prayer room which means every hour, 7 days a week, 1 or more students is in there praying. It's awesome. It's been incredible to see how much the students desire to meet with the Lord and be in prayer. I can't wait to see what God does through it. I've gotten to go a couple times - it's just in a garage with carpet on the floor, a couple couches, blankets (basically no heat in there), and prayers and scripture posted on the walls.

I'm leading 2 Bible studies - 1 with a few girls from the women's soccer team and the other with upper classman women. I'm really enjoying both. They're great women. I love my job :).

Liv is doing great. She keeps growing, it's unreal how fast time goes. We're coming up on her being home 2 years. Wow. 2 great recent moments - this weekend, Liv came up to me and says, "So do you remember my dance move?" Um, yes? But I have to say yes cause I want to see what's next. So I say yes and ask her to show it to me - which was a fun combination of a spin and kick. She's asked me this a couple more times and each time the move is different. I love it. My great parenting moment of the day came this morning when I was running around and Liv kept asking me to do things. To which she finally said calmly, "Mommy, if you play with me I'll take you to McDonalds." Stick a ribbon on me and call me super mom :). We're doing a little sticker chart for simple chores. So when she gets the page filled, we'll take her to McDonalds... I guess she's picked up on it. She still loves and sings High School Musical.

So I'll leave the update there for now. Happy March! Yay, the snow is melting!

And I'm Proud to be an American!

So last Saturday, January 30th, Liv became an American citizen! Yay! I was so happy - mostly because that means we're ALL DONE! Some have asked why, now that she's 2 1/2, is she just now becoming a citizen. It's because we had to send in all the paperwork for the application and we're slow :). We sent it in last May before we left to go overseas. Then they sent it back wanting us to resubmit some things. I sent that the end of August and for months heard nothing. Just recently I had been wondering if she was just a citizen, and I needed to check or if it got rejected and they didn't tell us or if it still wasn't processed... But then we got a notice that the ceremony was coming up. It was held in a rotunda at the Mall of America. People have also asked why there?!? The only thing I can guess is that the immigration office isn't too far away, and there isn't enough room there to have it. They had multiple ceremonies that day. Ours was just for kids - there were 20ish or so that became citizens, most of them adopted. A woman sang the national anthem, a judge precided over the ceremony and said a few words, they said the pleadge of allegiance, and then they called each child up (with parents) to get their certificate. All in all about a half hour. But I was so excited!

Here we are! And they gave her a little flag...

Uncle Cory, Aunt Cindy, and cousin Cai came over for the fun.

Cai not having as much fun...

What better way to say, "Go America!" than a ginormous flag!

I love this picture :).

Here's our certificate. Thousands of dollars wrapped up in that piece of paper, but the results are absolutely priceless!

They called everyone up front for a picture at the end. Lots of chaos.

So there's the big day!

And in other news, Liv went poopy on the potty the day before! A weekend full of memorable moments :).

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, I Have to Pee Pee

We got a little book about a princess potty training, and I laughed when we got to this line. But we continue to move forward in potty training. The first few days to a week I was getting ready to pull my hair out. She didn't leave the house for 5 days and didn't wear pants for 4. We had people coming over so we figured we should probably put something over her underpants :). Then we traveled back to my parents home for a few days while Aaron went to a conference. We ended up using pull-ups most of the time there. But I think cause she was in underpants for so many days, she didn't begin to depend on the pull-ups. So she's continued to make progress. Probably 70% of the time she now tells us when she has to go, and the other 30% I try to either ask her or put her on the potty. She went to church nursery this morning (with pull-ups on) and told the nursery worker she had to go, but I think wanted me to take her and so she held it until I got there. Then the next hour she told a different worker who took her and she went in the potty! So enough about the potty, all this to say we're making progress but will potentially need a "poopy intervention" as that's NOT happening on the potty at all.

Last night we hung out with some dear friends in town. The weather was awesome and perfect for a little time outside. They have a great little hill in their backyard so we came to do a little sledding. My mom got this little snowsuit at a garage sale, and this is the first time we've put in on Liv. I laughed so hard at how fluffy it is around the middle. Poor thing. You'll notice on Liv an overall lack of enthusiasm. Not super thrilled with hanging out in the snow or sledding (this was her first time sledding). She's not being raised by a very "outdoorsy" mom...

Here's the girls all bundled up.

Again, this is about as excited as she got. Hopefully next year she'll enjoy it more.

AND I got a new camera for Christmas. This was my first chance to try it out - and by that I mean turn it on to the automatic setting and let it do the work while I just tried to get a few shots of moving targets :). I love how it can do the work for you though, and I'm looking forward to experimenting more.

A Few Christmas Pics

Now I know others may not think your kids are as funny as you do, but I just got a kick out of this when I saw the tree. Liv would pick up an ornament and move it to another part of the tree. This is the side of the tree that you can't see when you walk in the room, and I discovered a branch (bottom right) that had 6 ornaments on it surrounded by a huge bare spot. Always interesting to see what they'll do.


Here's Aaron and I with Liv on the Sunday before Christmas.

I love this picture of Grandma with Cai and Liv. It was so fun to watch them play together. Cai kept chasing Livie around and even gave her a few big hugs. Liv began to preempt his next move and run to take the toy he was after before he could get to it - ah, it's going to be fun as they get older... :)

Not the best picture of the 2 of them - keep in mind we're trying to photograph a 1 year old and 2 year old...

Our First Adventure of the New Year:

Operation No More Diapers! We got home from our conference with the students at about 5 on the first. Feeling tired from Christmas and the conference I was tempted to wait another day or 2, but Aaron and I knew we only had a few uniterrupted days available before life would gear up again. So on Saturday morning (the 2nd) we said no more diapers, rolled up all the rugs (we have laminate in the whole middle of our house), put big girl panties on Liv, and decided not to look back. We went through about 5 pairs of panties that morning. But she did great! She'd go on the potty and then next have an accident. But we're getting there. Yesterday morning was another shaky start, but at the end of the day she even initiated going to the potty a few times which is a good sign (she's also cried going to the potty a few times...). So overall I feel like we're making progress. I'm so proud of her. However, she will not go #2 in the potty. Any advice in this area would be appreciated. I currently have a pretty, wrapped present sitting on the counter as incentive for that first event on the potty.

In other news we had a great Christmas. It was fun to see the fam and watch Liv really get into the action this year. What a blessing to have her and to be able to be with our wonderful families. We always head out the 27th to go to Minneapolis for our Christmas conference with the students. We had an all-time high attendance this year with 1600+ students there. It was awesome to see their passion to honor and serve the Lord. And I always enjoy the chance to spend time with them. Hope you had a great Christmas as well and Happy New Year!

I did it to myself

I just love my little girl. She has 2 tu-tus - both of them on in this picture (thank you Teara!). She love's to wear them both and dance around and twirl. It's fun to watch her. In other news, she LOVES High School Musical. I checked out the movie from the library a couple months ago because she loves singing and dancing, and I knew it would be clean with no scary characters. So I thought, hey, lets try it. Now she's hooked. We checked it out a few times since then, and each time she's watched it multiple times. Now she actually knows the songs - or what's worse, I know the songs - and frequently requests to sing them. But I guess there's worse things she could like...

Also, Aaron and I went to see the movie The Blind Side last week - loved it! What a solid movie. I'm pretty sure it was only 5 minutes in when I started tearing up. It really is good. I highly recommend it as a good family or date movie. It's really gotten me thinking of (1) how many families in our country live like that, and it's just not okay and (2) how can I connect the gospel to that situation, what part does the Lord want me to play. It's got me thinking...

It's definitely December

First, thanks for praying for me and for my visit with my friend. We had a GREAT time together, and it was awesome to go to her church and be prayed for there. I have a doctors appointment next week, and that'll tell me where my numbers are. I'm praying that there's improvement and that the Lord has brought some healing. But He did do a neat work on my heart and brought healing to some areas that I had been struggling with.

We had a busy Thanksgiving week overall. We went between both families and worked at home that week. Liv LOVES being with her grandparents. Now we're wrapping up the semester - it always amazes me how FAST the semester goes.

And I think most everyone we know got the same snowstorm - actually blizzard - last night. As one student posted on his facebook profile, "Where were YOU when you found out school was cancelled on December 9, 2009." All the UW campuses except 2 were closed! And as much snow as we got, I can't imagine what it's like south of us where they got even more snow! Well, definitely a white Christmas this year!

Prayer Request

About a year ago I was diagnosed with diabetes. They found I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with Payton, and my blood glucose levels continued to slowly climb in these past few years to the point that they just diagnosed me diabetic. My theory is that my pancreas was just worn out. Pregnancy is really hard on your endocrine system with all the hormones you're producing, then I underwent a LOT of stress the following 6 months with all we went through with Payton, and there's a few other things that I think could've affected it as well. So whether it's truly diabetes or my body just needs a long rest, I don't know. In January they put me on some long term medication. I decided that at only 30 (at the time) I was too young for that. So I started seeing a well-known nutritionist in town who's seen amazing things happen through diet. She's seen people cured of diabetes, IBS, and other conditions. She truly is a genius. She's not just a dietician, but she really understands the chemistry of food and what it does to your body. So now I'm on a very restricted diet that is intended to be pretty low carb to give my endocrine system a rest - eating a lot of sugar and things would stress it out to have to kick out the insulin to keep up with it. My blood glucose numbers have been good, and I'm trying really hard to stay the course to help my body rest. My nutritionist says it takes 18-24 months for your pancreas to recover. All that said, I was seeking the Lord a lot last winter through all of this and feel like He said a few times that He would heal me. And so I'm standing in faith for that. I dont' know if it'll be through this diet or through something else, but I believe He'll do what He said He'd do. So the prayer request is that I'll be visiting a dear friend this weekend and going to her church where a few people after are going to pray for me and pray for healing. If you'd be willing to pray as well that the Lord would heal me I'd appreciate it. It's been an up and down year with this. Sometimes I feel like I can keep going and others I just get so frustrated. Medications have effects over the long haul, and so I feel it's worth it to stick to diet if I can, but it get challenging when we travel (like this past summer) or am out and about. I have to plan a lot more.

I copied a couple sentences from Google health describing what diabetes is. My doctor is unsure if I have Type 1 or Type 2 because I don't fit the profile for Type 2.

"Type 1 Diabetes is a chronic (lifelong) disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels."

"Type 2 Diabetes is a chronic (lifelong) disease marked by high levels of sugar in the blood. It begins when the body does not respond correctly to insulin, a hormone released by the pancreas. Type 2 Diabetes is the most common form of diabetes."

If you'd like to see more about my nutritionist, her website is www.karenhurd.com. She's got a lot of great info there if you click on "health topics" you can see her input on so many things like high cholesterol or migraines... she's got a lot there. And she just added info on vaccinations which I'd like to read up on. If you click on the link "the poisonous rug" you can see how she got started in all this. It's really interesting. And she's big on beans cause they have the highest content of soluble fiber which is really good for you. People in town call her the "Bean lady".

So for some reason the Lord has me on a short leash for now. I just keep trying to trust Him in all this. He has been more than faithful in the past, and I know He'll continue to be even when I don't see in the "right now" what He's doing. I'll keep you posted :).

Saturday in the park...

In a small town just North of us they have a little free zoo. Because the weather was so great on Saturday we decided to go up for a bit. Most of the animals were inside, but the mountain lion was out. He was fascinated with our stroller for some reason and kept following it back and forth.


I just can't get over how big Liv is getting. I think she's had another growth spurt - at least it seems like her jeans aren't quite as long on her... :)


Then we went to Culver's for lunch before heading home for a nap. I don't take weekends at home for granted. It was so nice to just be together.

Definitely a daddy's girl. I love how she'll put her arm around us for pictures sometimes. Such a big girl.

Small girl, big burger - she ate about half :).

My Marathon Man

Here's the loyal fans waiting for Aaron to cross the finish line.



Here's Aaron coming in - yellow shirt in the center.



Aaron just yards from the finish line!




Here's Jacob, Dan, and Aaron - the 2 students that Aaron ran the marathon with. They did quite a bit of training together. So proud of them :).

A few gems...

Liv continues to amaze me in what she says and comprehends. Here's a few things I don't want to forget:

• This one I heard from Aaron. I wish I could've heard it. Liv was talking to one of the students who was at our house one night. She was being a bit stand-off-ish; so the girl tried to engage her a little more in conversations and asked her, "What are you going to be for Halloween, Liv? I'm going to be a pumpkin." To which Liv replied, "I'm going to be.... right over there."
• When we were in FL, my mom had to stop somewhat quickly, and Liv said, "Oh Boy! That was close."
• Riding on It's a Small World with grandma and grandpa, "I'm happy."
• On Sunday night we were finally all together as a family, and Liv was sitting with Aaron and said, "I'm so happy to be with my daddy."
• Whenever she hurts something she says, "That hurts my little... (hand, tummy, etc.)."
• And in FL she kept replying yes to things, not yeah or uh-huh but yes. It was wierd to feel like I kept hearing proper English from a 2 year old.

I'm sure there's more, but those are a few that I can remember right now.

And you know how sometimes you're leaving the house and you feel like you're forgetting something? Well, about 75% of the time when I leave for a trip I feel like I'm forgetting something. And that means that I definitely have forgotten something. I just won't know what until I need it. Well, we left to fly to FL at 5 am, and I knew I was forgetting something. Turns out it was my camera. So we got lots of pics on my mom's camera, but my camera cord wouldn't connect to her camera to download them. All that to say that the FL pics will not be coming until Thanksgiving when I see my mom again. BUT I DID remember the camera for Aaron's marathon and will post those when I upload them. I was so proud of him, though. His goal was to finish in under 4 hours. He finished in 3:55. He crossed the line, gave me a hug and said, "That was hard." Needless to say, he won't be running for awhile.

Yay for 40 degree weather?

Well, we've arrived home safe and sound tonight. I didn't know if we'd get home in time for Liv to go trick-or-treating... we didn't. But we loved the warm weather in Florida. They're still having record degree heat. It was 92 on Thursday and upper 80's or even 90 pretty much the whole time we were there. And now we're back to leafless trees and cold weather :(. Even so, it's always so good to come home.

We haven't seen Aaron yet because he's headed down near the Sparta-Elroy trail tonight in preparation for the marathon he's running tomorrow! I haven't posted that, but he's been training since we got home this summer. So tomorrow is finally the big day. After 9 days apart, I'll finally see him when he crosses the finish line. He and 2 other students are running it together. I'll let you know how he does.

Yay for Sunshine!

I haven't posted in awhile so I wanted to say it'll be another week before I get a good post on because my parents are bringing Liv and I with them to Florida again this year! We went with them about a year ago as well and had a great time. I'm excited to see Liv this year cause she's really going to know what's going on! So when we get back I'll no doubt have some great pictures and maybe a story or two of our time in actual sunshine and warmth :). (Don't know about you but we've have a LOT of gloomy days around here). We fly out early in the morning and will be down there for a week. Hopefully we'll bring some warm weather back :).

My Gold Medal

I went to AIA tonight with Aaron. He had a speaker come in, a guy named John Peterson who's been on staff with AIA for 35 years AND who also won silver and gold medals in the '72 and '76 Olympics in wrestling. You could just see the students respect and awe for him, and it was fun to hear him share a little of that experience. He actually brought the medals and passed them around so we could hold them (so cool to hold something like that and feel the weight of it). As he was getting ready to pass around the gold medal, I fingered the little charm around my neck and thought, yeah, this is my gold medal. It's a necklace so very precious to me that I don't wear it on trips for fear that I'll lose it. It's a small charm, the size of a dime, that has a replica of Payton's footprint on it. I got when she was still in the hospital and wore it everyday after I got it - it was something that I had with me in the hospital with her and has a small piece of her on it. Yeah, this is a gold medal to me. I got to be Payton's mom. 3 years ago today she left her broken body and was made whole in the presence of Jesus - who I'm sure had the biggest smile and hug ready for her. Time really does heal the pain, but I'll always always miss her. But what a treasure to be the mommy of such a remarkable little girl.

And then today I kept looking across the table at another remarkable little girl. I think I've posted this before, but awhile ago I counted back from Liv's birthday and found that she was conceived (at the very least) the week we lost Payton. I believe it was the same day we lost Payton cause that's just what God would do. And so as I remembered Payton's healing in heaven today, I also marveled that this is when my sweet Liv's life began. What precious girls God has given me. I'm so blessed to be their mommy.

Almost Fall...

If I remember my science lessons correctly, tomorrow the 21st is the autumnal equinox - one of 2 days a year where there's equal parts day and night (I've also heard people say it's the 22nd...). And so now we begin having shorter days. Not to be such a bummer, but I'd enjoy fall so much more if I knew winter wasn't right behind :). But this has been just a gorgeous September so far, and with that I can't complain. I'm still wearing sandals and leaving windows open. Sorry to not have been posting much - due to part busyness and part just-not-having-much-to-say :).

Here's a few pictures from our first event of the fall - gathering surveys from freshmen.

Liv helped get the cups ready.

We had a beverage, info, a small gospel pamphlet, and a free cup!

We passed out about 1,000! Exciting opportunities to meet some of these new students! This is Anne and Lindsay. I have the joy of working with Lindsay this year. I'm looking forward to it!

Yesterday, my sister-n-law and I got to see Mary Poppins in Minneapolis. It was FAN-TAS-TIC! We both just loved it. We didn't know where our seats would be, but we ended up having 3rd row (?!?!?!?!!!) seats! And at the very end, Mary Poppins flew directly over our heads. But truly, it was a great show. The story is a little different than the movie - some of the stuff in the movie would be really hard to recreate on a stage, but it's still really fun to watch. And just to be that close, you can see so much detail or maybe catch a glimpse of a stagehand. It was fun :).

This week I starting working with my students on campus. I'm so excited for the semester ahead. I also speak this Thursday. I'm speaking on the story of King Ahaz in Isaiah 7. It's not a story I really knew until we were studying Isaiah in my church Bible study. What happens is that King Ahaz and his kingdom are about to be attacked, and he and the people are really afraid. God tells Isaiah to tell Ahaz not to worry but that they'll be fine. Instead of trusting in the Lord, Ahaz goes to make an alliance with Assyria (bad news). I remember reading this and thinking, "What an idiot! The Lord offers you a sure thing and you turn it down!?!" So it's easy to think of Ahaz as an idiot until you look closer. How much more has Christ offered me numerous promises of His faithfulness and care and presence and provision, and yet I can still make an alliance with so many other things instead of trusting in Him. So yeah, I'm a little less zealous in calling Ahaz an idiot :). I love the end of the story cause that's where God promises the sign of Immanuel (which means God with us, another name for Jesus). Despite Ahaz's refusal to trust Him, God says, "Okay, but here's the sign that will be a sure thing for all people of all time." We keep turning from God, but He never turns from us. He keeps after us until we come to Him. So I'm almost done writing the talk and will give it on Thursday.

Well, I think I'll stop there for now. Have a great week!