Halloween

I've never been a huge Halloween fan. Maybe it was because of the tacky decorations or Christian culture's semi-ban of Halloween. You know how that goes...one year it's okay to celebrate, the next it's evil, and the next you are too cool to care. And I've never really been into dressing up, but when I do dress up I get all stressed because the costume must be ultra creative and outside of the box.

For example, my first year at grad school at Trinity Western, my classmates had a "Harvest Party" and we were to come dressed as farmers, harvesters, etc. Of course Aaron and I, being Aaron and I, decided that was too boring. We didn't want to be like everyone else, so we donned our Hawaiian Shirts and leis and went to the party as Banana Harvesters, toting Hawaiian Punch to share with our new friends. Well needless to say, we spent all night explaining that, yes, we did understand the instructions, and "no, we're Banana HARVESTERS, get it?!?" They certainly were not amused as we were.

Then there was the year when we were invited to a costume party and about 30 minutes before the party we were scrambling for costume ideas. Aaron had his old Starbucks apron, so I threw on a black shirt and pants and the apron and went as...no, not a barista, but a college graduate. And then Aaron found our Obama pin (the costume party was a few days before the elections) and decided he would go as a socialist, mocking all of the media commentary about Obama being a socialist. Again, we spent the evening explaining our "costumes" and on our way home realized that again, they were not as amused as we were.

This year, however, Halloween has been fun, almost magical even. Maybe it was my friend who LOVES Halloween. Maybe it was Montana being in preschool and needing a costume, maybe it was carving pumpkins once a week for the last 2 or 3 weeks. Maybe it was all of the parties this weekend. I don't know, but it was fun. I even dressed up and I didn't try to over think it, I just tried to get as close to a princess (per Montana's request and plea) as a pregnant woman can get. We dressed up last night AND this afternoon. Today we took Montana to Fairhaven with some friends where most businesses were passing out candy and there were so many people dressed up. It was an event. Then we came back to co-housing and trick or treated with the neighbor kids. Montana was in HEAVEN. She and another girl kept shouting "I LOVE Halloween". Who can blame them? You get to dress up and run around with your friends collecting candy.

So here's to many more Halloweens. I'm letting go of past negative feelings towards Halloween and embracing the day. It may still take awhile for me to embrace the tacky decorations, but bring on the pumpkins, parties, and costumes!! I have a feeling the next few years will be a lot of fun. So Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Book Club

The new chapter of a book club.

What possibly can be more fun than a group of ladies, eating snacks, drinking wine, talking about books and anything else that likely comes up?

Tonight will be the second meeting of our new book club and I'm excited. I don't know half of the women, but I like them. I think that we are a random group and we picked out some pretty random books, but I think it's great. The book we are discussing tonight is David Sedaris' hilarious book, Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Oh my gosh, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard reading a book. I read it in Mexico and I would start laughing and poor Aaron would feel left out, so I would read him a passage only to start laughing louder. You need a light read and a good laugh? Pick this book up! It's the perfect book to read before bed. My favorite chapter? "Big Boy." Why is it that I am 32 years old and I still laugh at all things related to poop? Will I ever outgrow this? I mean, seriously, it's ridiculous.

But thanks just the same to David Sedaris for giving me a good belly laugh. I needed it.

And for the record the book wasn't all about poop. There was other funny stuff too.

Mexico

I hate to make you jealous, but I'll tell you anyway, our recent trip to Mexico was Fantastic!! To celebrate 10 years of marriage and to prepare ourselves for baby #2 and a church plant, we went to Mexico for 7 glorious days...just the 2 of us! We had an intentional layover in Denver in which we dumped our daughter off on our parents and then made it to the Cancun gate with a few minutes to spare.

And what did we do when we got to Mexico? NOTHING. We woke up to the waves, walked a mile to Turtle Bay Cafe, lingered over coffee and breakfast, and got back to our condo where we sat on our little private beach the rest of the day. We would often interrupt our book reading with a snorkel and maybe a beverage. I read almost 3 books, Aaron and I had uninterrupted conversations, and I didn't get too sunburned. It was so great that we decided to stay married another 10 years just so we can do it again. Although I truly hope we will not wait that long for another vacation like this. We got home and actually felt rested.

Before we left for Mexico, we decided that it would be a completely "unplugged" vacation. No cell phones, no internet, no movies, and we didn't even listen to music. It was so good to be away from all that technology. However, we were missing our girl, so we found the condo managers and they let us briefly check email in their office twice. The first time we checked we found this email from Aaron's mom:

We have had a wonderful time with Montana so far. She is so sweet and innocent! And Friendly! Here are some highlights of Saturday and Sunday.

: Playing with Madelyn and Will and some fighting...Tomorrow Madelyn in school so Will gets his chance to play.

: A Picnic and popcicles.

: A fun bath

: Successful pooping after many tries. Again on Sunday. Is she done for the week? Who knows?

: Strawberry Shortcake movie

: Decorating a birthday cake for Papa with Madelyn and Will. Fun and sweet!

: Quiet time with Grandma and Papa

Montana quotes!

: I'm so glad to see you! ( Love it!)

: I love you Papa. Let's all go and hug Papa!

: I love co-housing!

We are having fun! and I know you are too.

Love, Mother"

After this wonderful update, we were able to last a few more days before checking email again.

What a blessing this trip was. I am reminded of what good friends Aaron and I are. I thoroughly enjoy spending time with him and it was so good to just hang out with my best friend for one week. At home we so often act as business partners. We negotiate schedules, childcare and budgets, we entertain guests, and we make lists and plans and preparations, but we don't make a lot of time to just hang out and laugh or talk about silly books we are reading or good music we've discovered. I am so grateful to be reminded that my partner is a really fun person to hang out with. Here's to 10 years of marriage to my best friend. And let's go back to Mexico soon! Who's coming?

...and so it begins

Montana started preschool last week. I know she isn't 3 yet, but we felt that she would love going somewhere to play with kids and we want to get her some structure before the baby comes in December and her world is turned completely upside down. I have to confess that a couple of hours at home to myself before the baby comes was rather appealing as well. She was so excited to go, although she was not very happy about us trying to take her picture every 2 minutes and was even less thrilled with the video camera. We did manage to capture a couple of good ones, however. We got to school and she ran right in and started playing. I had to walk over to tell her good-bye and and "Montana, look at me. I love you. Have fun." Yeah, mom, whatever. See you later. I got a little teary and the teacher assured me that it's usually harder on mom than the kiddos. She deals with parents leaving their kid for the first time every year, but this was MY first time. I never experienced it before. Aaron and I got back in the quiet car and we realized this was the first day of about 20 years (give or take) of school for Montana. Wow! Maybe we are getting her started too early, maybe we are speeding things up unnecessarily...but when I walked into my house by myself, I thought, well she's gotta go to school sometime!! :)

We are so proud of our little girl and so excited for this new chapter for her.

25 week comparison

25 weeks pregnant with Montana in Michigan

And exactly 3 years later (in the same shirt!)
25 weeks pregnant with "Junior" in Washington

From Montana's Mouth

The other morning, Montana was full of cute quotes. I had to write them down before I forgot.

Monday on Labor Day, Montana said, "let's go to the library." I replied, "I think it's closed today, but I'll check." Montana then said, "I'll check my phone." She held out her hand, looked at it and said, "It's 30 o'clock and it's open."

Ahhhh...technology.


The other day I was wearing a sweatshirt and Montana told me to take it off. I told her that I was cold and wanted to keep it on. She then goes on to say, "Take it off, mom. God will keep you warm."

How's that for a spiritual lesson?

Bad Timing?

Did I tell you? The church started. The Table is what we call it. We've gathered for worship about 6 times or so. It's a new season. And it's exciting to see it start after almost 2 years of prayer and preparation. So at the height of reaching out, building relationships, gathering a community of worshippers who serve their neighborhoods, I find myself pregnant. When momentum for the church is high and our focus is outward and Aaron is excited and motivated, my energy and emotions aren't quite there. My energy is going toward growing a life inside of me. I want to stay at home more. I am tired much more easily by people and events. This seems to be such terrible timing. I don't want to hinder the momentum of this new season, but at the same time I don't feel in the space to ride the wave either.

I was reminded by a wise friend, however, that maybe this isn't terrible timing. Maybe it's God's way of helping our family establish boundaries early in church ministry. Maybe it's a way for me as a "pastor's wife" to maintain my identity and not get wrapped up inappropriately with church life. Maybe it's a way to protect my children and give them space to grow and be instead of always doing things, going places, and being with people. This reframe of what seems to be bad timing has encouraged me immensely. It's a reminder that God's way is the best and most times I have no clue what He is up to. Maybe that's why it took us over a year to get pregnant again. So perhaps this timing isn't so bad. Now the next step is just to learn how to balance it - to know when to give and reach out and to know when it's okay to stay home and just be. Ahhhh....balance....the secret to this life! When I finally figure out the formula to balance, I will write a book!