Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Looking back

So it has be awhile since I posted anything and as I was looking back at what I wrote I realized that most of it was complaints! First of all I want to ask your forgiveness for complaining. Complaining get me no where and it is not glorifying to God. It breeds a spirit of discontent that is hard to do away with. Therefore I want to give a list of good things about our move.

1. Tom had a job.
          Because Tom is a carpenter and the way the economy is he doesn't always have work. Every job is a gift from God. We are very thankful for the times he has work because work is never a grantee for him.

2. We had somewhere to live.
        Tom was able to find an apartment for us to live in while we were down there. This was a good thing because it saved us money. If he hadn't found an apartment we would have been living in a hotel.

3. Our apartment was bigger and cheaper then the one we had at home.
        The apartment had an extra bedroom and we had a garage for storage and our rent was still $30 cheaper every month.

4. I got to come with Tom.
       Now you might think "of course she came with him. Why wouldn't she?" Well I didn't go with Tom to Niagara and that was awful! If he could have saved some money by having me stay at home sharing a hotel room or apartment with one of his coworkers. But instead he chose to bring me with him. This is one of the things I am most thankful for. I married him because I loved him and I wanted to be with him.

5. We grew closer together as a couple.
        When there is only you and your husband around and you don't have anyone you know in town you spend a lot of time together. I learned to trust him more and to rely on him as my husband as apposed to seeking out other's opinions on things. Instead of always trying to go hang out with my friends I learned to be content with just my husband as company. Because it was just us I had to actually make the effort to treat my husband with respect instead of just floating through our relationship assuming I would figure it out eventually.

6. I value the time I have with my friends and family more.
        I always assumed that my family and most of my friends would always be around. I took them for granted and wasn't super concerned with making time for them.

7. I realized that Missio Dei Fellowship is not the only good church out there.
      Ok, I didn't just assume it was but growing up in that church and having my dad be the pastor of it did make me biased. I also took Missio for granted. I just assumed we would always go to that church and that we wouldn't ever have to go find a new one. It is hard finding a new church! I didn't realize how dry and crackly you feel at the end of a sermon that said nothing after a week with no Christian contact. It was hard at first finding a church but when we found Highland Park Evangelical Free Church in Columbus, NE it was worth the wait. I am very thankful for our new church and I will be very sad to go home.

8. Norfolk is safe.
     Kenosha isn't crime ridden or anything but there are some areas that you shouldn't hang out in at night. We lock our doors and lower level windows at night. In Norfolk you really don't have too. In all our exploring of the city neither Tom or I couldn't find "the bad part of town". When the weather got really nice we left all of our windows open at night. If you didn't know, our windows are level with the ground because we live in the basement. Anyone could have gotten in. We weren't concerned though. During the day I would leave the back door open to catch the breeze.  We can take walks at night and I am not all jumpy waiting for bad guys to jump out at us. I wouldn't do any of this if I lived on the ground level of an apartment in Kenosha.

9. We learned to appreciate where God sent us.
       I am not saying that I got this part down but I think I am growing a lot in this area and I think that if/when we move again I will have a much better attitude about it.

10. I saved a lot of money on gas.
      When the city you live in is only 24,000 and the big thing you do every week is grocery shopping you don't much gas at all! When living in Kenosha I filled up once a week. Norfolk, once a month.

11. People are super polite.
       When we first moved to Norfolk I would take a walk most days. Older people I didn't know would wave to me as I passed and traffic would stop even though it had the right away so that I could cross the street. Almost no one speeds, it is most common to be behind some one going 5-10mph under the speed limit. People stop at a yellow light instead of risk running a red one. people use their blinkers. Even Walmart customers are more aware of whats going on around them.

I know there is more but this is all I have right now. Living in Nebraska was a very good experience for us and I am thankful that we were able to have it.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Well its been awhile...

So apparently I haven't updated this in almost a month! I'm sorry! So here is whats going on:

As you all know I am pregnant. I have had two ultrasounds so far. The latest one was on January 3rd. I almost didn't get to have an ultrasound because the reason for the ultrasound was to test for Downs Syndrome. When they asked me if I wanted to take the test I said no because that would be one less thing to pay for. The doctor then informed me that I would not get to have an ultrasound that day if I didn't have the test. Now, I had asked Tom to come with me to the Dr's office that day so that he could see the baby so I really wanted the ultrasound. Another reason I wanted the ultrasound was because the first one I had had the baby was only 3mm long and all I could see was a dot on the screen. I quickly changed my mind about the test when I was informed that there would not be an ultrasound that day. It was really cool to see the baby on the screen! Our baby has a face and arms and legs!!!!!!
You can't really tell from the picture. It was a lot easier to see the features and arms and legs on the screen. Our baby has a strong heartbeat and it is moving around already! As we were listening to the heartbeat our baby did some sort of flippy thing :) It is crazy how much our baby grew in 4 weeks!

On January 5th we left for Texas. I tried really hard to get everything clean and ready to go before we left. It didn't work out the way I planned it. the night before we left we packed everything up and had it waiting by the door. Unfortunately that took all of my energy and then some. I still had to get the living room and kitchen cleaned so we wouldn't come home to a mess. Tom told me that I needed to go to bed and get some rest. We both thought that I would be able to do it in the morning. Boy were we wrong! I was so sick the day we were supposed to leave! Tom was so gracious about it. He did as much as he could but we really had to leave. He worked a half day that day and came home with only enough time to shower, change and go. I was still in bed when he got home. I was trying so hard not to be sick. He took good care of me and was very patient with me. He did a couple things and told me not to worry about the rest. I a wonderful husband and I am very thankful for him.

The trip to Austin felt like the longest trip ever and even though I took my prescription and Dramamine I still felt sick the whole way there. We got to Tom's parent's house around midnight. We did our Christmas with them then. I felt bad because I could not show as much enthusiasm as I normally would because I was very tired and still not feeling well. They were very kind and gracious to me. The next day we got everything ready for Tom's brother's graduation party. John graduated from Texas A & M with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering (I think) and is going back to get his Master's. It was a fun party. Some of the extended family that I didn't think we were going to be able to see this time were able to come. It was nice to be able to see them all and show them the picture of the baby :)

The next day we left for a cruise to Mexico. It was a very nice cruise! We had a lot of fun with his family and checking out Mexico. The motion of the ship didn't get to me until the last couple days. All around it was a nice experience. We stopped in Progresso and Cozumel. Cozumel was prettier. We took a bunch of pictures and some videos. As soon as I get them loaded on my computer I will try to upload them.

After the cruise we just spent time with Tom's family. We had a very good time. We both wished that we could have stayed longer this time.

Yesterday we came home. It was a rough day for me. I have been having trouble sleeping lately because I can't seem to get comfortable. We got up around 8. I was pretty mad when my alarm went off :/ The first flight was from Austin to Denver. The flight was completely full and I made the bad choice of taking the middle seat. The guy who sat next to me was in his lat teens I think. Oh man! I had to give him the nickname of Sir Wiggles-alot! He was dancing to his music, took all of his room and half of mine! He was so skinny! How come he needed half of my room too? I kept moving over so that I would touch him as he was dancing, I guess he took that as an invitation to take up more space because every time I made a gap he promptly filled it. He even started rapping out loud near the end of the flight. The worst part of that flight was the descent. It was the bumpiest descent I have ever experienced! I was already not feeling to good and hoping that I wouldn't have to get up and run to the bathroom. Getting up would have been hard because Sir Wiggles-alot was blocking me. When we finally landed and were taxiing to our gate I told Sir Wiggles-alotexperienced leaving! I kept praying that God would keep us safe. It seriously felt like we were crashing. It was pretty scary. We were glad to be in Omaha when we got there! After that we drove two hours to get back to Norfolk. Oh my goodness was it cold! We went from 80 degrees in Austin on Thursday to 12 degrees in Norfolk yesterday! At that point i was really wishing we could go back to Texas :)

Today we are cleaning up the apartment and unpacking and getting everything ready for Tom for Monday.