The Mommy Test

As the days roll by, no wait sprint by, and as I watch my stomach reach proportions I thought unattainable, I am struck by the fear that someone will find me out. Some passerby will say, "Oh I see your pregnant. But have you passed the mommy test?" Seriously, I cannot believe there isn't a skill test for something of this magnitude. A diaper changing, baby holding, food preparing, patience bearing Mommy test. Because while I love kids, I'm scared of infants. They're, well, they're floppy and what if I feel as terribly awkward holding my own as I do other people's?

Happy New Year!

This was supposed to be a collection of images from Dave and I's year, however, I ran out of time to post them all! :) So instead a year end summary of a few things that have been going on in our lives! Have a blessed and joy-filled 2010!

Baby Updates

Hello all! Just a quick update on things with Dave and I. We're doing well, extremely busy, but well! :) The baby is growing like crazy and it still looks like it will get here around May 11. We're anxiously awaiting Dec. 29, when we will determine sex!

Listening to God

Job 37:1-18 (New Living Translation)

Job 37

¹ “My heart pounds as I think of this.
It trembles within me.
² Listen carefully to the thunder of God’s voice
as it rolls from his mouth.
³ It rolls across the heavens,
and his lightning flashes in every direction.
⁴ Then comes the roaring of the thunder—
the tremendous voice of his majesty.
He does not restrain it when he speaks.
⁵ God’s voice is glorious in the thunder.
We can’t even imagine the greatness of his power.

⁶ “He directs the snow to fall on the earth
and tells the rain to pour down.
⁷ Then everyone stops working
so they can watch his power.
⁸ The wild animals take cover
and stay inside their dens.
⁹ The stormy wind comes from its chamber,
and the driving winds bring the cold.
¹⁰ God’s breath sends the ice,
freezing wide expanses of water.
¹¹ He loads the clouds with moisture,
and they flash with his lightning.
¹² The clouds churn about at his direction.
They do whatever he commands throughout the earth.
¹³ He makes these things happen either to punish people
or to show his unfailing love.

¹⁴ “Pay attention to this, Job.
Stop and consider the wonderful miracles of God!
¹⁵ Do you know how God controls the storm
and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds?
¹⁶ Do you understand how he moves the clouds
with wonderful perfection and skill?
¹⁷ When you are sweltering in your clothes
and the south wind dies down and everything is still,
¹⁸ he makes the skies reflect the heat like a bronze mirror.
Can you do that?

First Doctor's Appointment

I finally scheduled an appointment, after much hemming and hawing...turns out indecision is a symptom of pregnancy...who knew?? :)

Dave went with me and we answered many questions, gave lots of blood (me not Dave), and got the officially official due date of May 11. First ultrasound in a few weeks, can't wait!

So far we are all feeling good, minus our cat Rufus who visited the vet today to be tutored (ie neutered).

First comes love, then comes marriage...

Yup, you got it...7 weeks gone, expecting our little bundle of joy and whatnot May 12ish.

Rough Country

The Country Wife

She makes her way through the dark trees
Down to the lake to be alone.
Following their voices on the breeze,
She makes her way. Through the dark trees
The distant stars are all she sees.
They cannot light the way she's gone.
She makes her way through the dark trees
Down to the lake to be alone.

The night reflected on the lake,
The fire of stars changed into water.
She cannot see the winds that break
The night reflected on the lake
But knows they motion for her sake.
These are the choices they have brought her:
The night reflected on the lake,
The fire of stars changed into water.

Rough Country

Give me a landscape made of obstacles,
of steep hills and jutting glacial rock,
where the low-running streams are quick to flood
the grassy fields and bottomlands.A place no engineers can master–where the roads
must twist like tendrils up the mountainside
on narrow cliffs where boulders block the way.
Where tall black trunks of lightning-scalded pine
push through the tangled woods to make a roost
for hawks and swarming crows.And sharp inclines where twisting through the thorn-thick underbrush,
scratched and exhausted, one turns suddenly
to find an unexpected waterfall,
not half a mile from the nearest road,
a spot so hard to reach that no one comes–
a hiding place, a shrine for dragonflies
and nesting jays, a sign that there is still

one piece of property that won't be owned.
~Dana Gioia (both)