Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we travelled to Wisconsin to be with my husband, Marc's family. Before we could go to Wisconsin I had to work on Wednesday night at our Thanksgiving Eve service. It went fine - we didn't get on the road until 8:30pm which was the downfall. This picture is a picture of Marc, Lucy, and I with the church we were at's lectern - I just found it to be completely unique and unlike any I had seen before - soooo naturally we took a few pictures with it - because who wouldn't?!



After we left Brainerd, we headed down to my brother's house in St. Paul in hopes of cutting our drive a bit the next morning. We arrived late (10:30pm) and left early (6:00am) but Lucy was jazzed to get to see her Uncle Cubby and his crazy pup Nala. They got in some snuggles and we all stayed up late to chat for a bit.

Please note two years ago when we went to Wisconsin we literally took one duffle bag that we shared, two sleeping bags, and two thermarests. Oh how Lucy has changed the game. Also those two boxes up on the right hand side were the precious cargo (the cutout cookies).






While in Wisconsin Lucy got to meet lots of cousins, second cousins, great aunts and uncles, and got to snuggle great grandparents and grandparents alike. She did so incredibly well being passed around from person to person. I wasn't one hundred percent certain how she'd do. The only problem that she really had was that it was HOT in the house with the oven going, the stove going, and 25 bodies in the house - plus she was constantly being held. At one point I stripped her down to just her onesie because she was so warm.






While we were at Marc's Grandparent's house we were able to capture a four generation picture. We have one of me with my dad and his parents and now we also have one with Marc's side of the family. Such special people in Lucy's life.

Great Grandma and Lucy got in some good snuggles - we stayed at their house and so after lots of people had left Great-Grandma declared it her turn to snuggle and they spent a couple hours just like this and she wouldn't let any one else take Lucy from her. It was sweet.










One of Lucy's cousins is roughly three months younger than her and Sutton easily weighs more than she does.  It was a little funny to hold Sutton after holding Lucy. We missed a photo with all of the second cousins but here is three of them. Lucy, Stella & Sutton.








Also on Friday we had the GREAT FROST of 2014. We had about 18 people helping to frost the cookies. We had everyone in the kitchen frosting and then Grandpa Jack was in the basement organizing the cookies onto tables so that they could dry. We used just about 24 POUNDS of frosting. In the end we ended up with 1,399 cookies frosted. I know that there were many that went to what we refer to as "quality control" and were slathered with frosting and consumed before they got downstairs. I laughed that we were one shy of 1,400. Sooooooooooo many cookies. Grandma Gayle will eventually split them up and all the families will get some.









After the Great Frost of 2014 we headed down to Marc's mom's apartment between Milwaukee and Madison. Marc's brother Jon and his girlfriend Holly came over for dinner. We set up her Christmas tree for her as well as hung some pictures around her apartment and hung out for a while. We stayed until Saturday morning and then we hit the road.

In all reality Lucy did REALLY well in the car, really we stopped every couple hours to let her stretch, changed her diaper, and feed her. She would throw a fit for about fifteen minutes and eventually give in and go back to sleep and we would cover some good ground. We made it back to town with just barely enough time to pick up Dakota from the kennel. The drive from the kennel to our house was HORRIBLE - Dakota was jazzed to see us all and crazy and Lucy was OVER the carseat 100% but we just had to press through (20ish minutes) and get to our house. LONGEST 20 minutes ever.


Overall the trip was wonderful. Fun to see family and introduce Lucy to everyone. So much to be thankful for.



How was your Thanksgiving?

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from me to you!




My list of things I am thankful for is long and so today I focus on giving thanks and rejoicing for all that God has done and has given us this past year. Most of all I give thanks for Lucy as well as my family and friends. I give thanks for all of those who are such a gift and a blessing to my life. I give thanks for the ways in which God continues to work and move in the world around us and am blessed to be a part of it.

"Give thanks:

• for each new morning with its light
• for rest and shelter of the night
• for health and food
• for love and friends
• for everything thy goodness sends"

                              -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanksgiving Plans

One of the challenges of where Marc & I live (with really no great solution of where to move to lessen this problem) is that Marc and I live in the middle of our families (which is great), except that it makes the drive six hours to the east or six hours to the west to get to our families. So we started the tradition that we go to Wisconsin and South Dakota for Thanksgiving every other year. This year is our Wisconsin year.

The new challenge of course is traveling with Lucy.
In years past Marc and I have each taken our sleeping bags and a backpack with everything we need. This year, however, we have a lot more pack.
PLUS we have one JUMBO box of cutout cookies and one printer box of cutout cookies.
        Took Marc 11 HOURS to bake these things - now to not break them.

Dakota is spending the holiday at one of the pet boarding places here in town.

I have to help with the Thanksgiving Eve service here in town at 7:00pm tonight, soooooo we aren't leaving tonight since it wouldn't be until after 8:00pm. We are planning on leaving tonight to head down to the Twin Cities to stay with my brother - we probably won't arrive till 10:30ish or so but it will be massively helpful in the morning - I would MUCH rather drive late night than have to get up and leave by 4:00 or 4:30 tomorrow morning. Lucy is a wildcard. She HATES riding in her carseat and six hours is a long ways for her to ride. We figure we will have to stop about every two hours to feed Lucy and to let her stretch - stopping at my brothers will definitely help some. I wish we weren't going so late but with work I don't really have many other options.

I am going to have to use disposable diapers on Lucy which I am not thrilled about - they just don't hold everything in as well as her cloth diapers. However, we don't own enough diapers to make it through the trip and won't have any access to washers and dryers.

We will be returning home on Saturday because I have to work Sunday morning - which while I am a little sad the trip will be ridiculously fast I am glad that we shouldn't be in the madness of fighting a ton of people who are returning from other places on Sunday. Plus this should give me Sunday to get caught up on everything: laundry, clean out the car, and get prepped for the next week without having to run around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Random fact that you don't care about:
I have discovered that (when possible) it is easiest to pack for Lucy, Marc, and I all in one Rubbermaid tote rather than having three separate bags. It makes it easier for us to only have to carry one bucket that fits everything we need: diapers, bottles, and clothes for the three of us. Since we know we will be sleeping on the floor we also are taking our sleeping bags and airbed as well as a pack n' play for Lucy.


What are your Thanksgiving plans?
Are you traveling for the holiday?
How do you feel about traveling during the holidays?

Thanksgiving

While some have opted to post their daily thanksgivings on Facebook I have been building a list all month here.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Nov 1: for a day of rest- to get caught up on laundry, house cleaning and to be able to get rolling on packing up our house

Nov 2: for a day with Marc - we packed up the entire upstairs of our house and got it moved to the storage unit along with the rest of our furniture ( we saved our mattress to sleep on but the rest is gone) & for a date night to one of our favorite places in town, Black Bear

Nov 3: for a wonderful remembrance of all the Saints, for a fun afternoon hiking around a local park with Marc and Dakota, for warm coffee cake, and a clean kitchen

Nov 4: for a call/job I love and for carpet shampooers

Nov 5: for my colleagues who I love and adore - for conversations which challenge and enlighten - for small children (2-5) who are eager to learn to swim

Nov 6: for children and youth who ask big questions - for families who take an active role in raising their kids in the faith - for a church that pays me to do full time ministry

Nov 7: for vacation - for Walt Disney World and the magic it holds

Nov 8: for friends to travel with

Nov 9: for runDisney - LOVE all of there events

Nov 10: for sleep - after last night's late night I am thankful for the chance to sleep in

Nov 11: for delicious food and people who are able to create delicious recipes, for wait staff and dishwashers, for clean plates and too much to eat

Nov 12: for fireworks and relaxation

Nov 13: for phones with the ability to talk to people all over the world, for text messages and photo messages, for twitter, for instagram, for blogs, for social media, for facebook

Nov 14: for laughter, for honesty, for fun, for adventures, for travel, for the sense of all things magical, for the ability to dream big

Nov 15: for my husband, my sweet puppy dog, and for my own bed

Nov 16: for Saturdays with nothing on the calendar

Nov 17: for the congregation I serve alongside - for the 134 years of ministry and mission they have been involved in

Nov 18: for plenty of food to eat

Nov 19: for youth who ask big questions

Nov 20: for outdoor ministries

Nov 21: for the freedom to worship and pray openly

Nov 22: for great books and movies, for movie theater popcorn, for diet coke

Nov 23: for a synod who truly invests in their youth, for a congregation who assembled many thanksgiving baskets (baskets full of food for Thanksgiving) to be shared with out neighbors

Nov 24: for shutterfly, for photography, for my Nikon D300, for the gift of memory

Nov 25: for the ability to run

Nov 26: for colleagues who I love to work alongside

Nov 27: for the opportunity to be home for Thanksgiving, for a dog who travels well, for a husband who loves to drive

Nov 28: I am ridiculously thankful for sooooo much, it was wonderful to wake up this morning in my parents (new to them) house, surrounded by my husband, Dakota, my brother, Nala (my brother's semi nutso dog), and my parents. And soon, my grandparents (who I adore), my Aunt and Uncle and a couple of my cousins, along with another uncle, will be at the house for a feast fit for royalty. I love holidays and the ways in which it pulls together family.


Okay, so looking back I probably should have broken this up into several posts - good on ya if you actually read this all. I am off to hang out with my family.

Thanksgiving blessings to you all!


What are you doing this Thanksgiving day?
What are your Thanksgiving traditions?
What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? pumpkin pie, homemade whip cream for me

Thanksgiving Weekend

I had an interesting Thanksgiving weekend for sure. I went to Marc's family for the first time. I always find going to someone else's house strange, partially because there is a certain degree that I was the outsider and it was weird to not know who everyone at the table was, to know the traditions, or what is what. His family was marvelous and very hospitable but it is always that strange moment when you have nothing to contribute to the conversation as family recalls holidays past and you have no clue what is going on. It was great to meet many of the people who mean the world to him.

It is a strange transition getting use to the idea that I can no longer function totally on my own, there has to be give and take. We did have a marvelous time in Wisconsin, while I was physically there, I couldn't help but have part of my heart and mind in South Dakota.

I must admit I was happy to return back to my house and have my sweet puppy back with me. I missed being around her. I missed being with my family this Thanksgiving [yes, I am fully aware that this kind of stuff will become more normal the longer we are married, but it doesn't take away the fact that I missed my family and my mom's cooking].

Yesterday we went out and got a Christmas tree (the branches are still settling from being bagged up) so we haven't decorated it yet, but I was loving digging out all the Christmas decorations. I also had a little photo shoot with my sweet puppy, Dakota, who was way more tolerant of it than I thought she would be.

Traditions

As many of you know I got engaged this past summer and am getting married this coming June (whoop whoop). I couldn't be more excited (seriously, I am jazzed to begin this new journey). I recognize that this also comes with all sorts of new challenges and all of that good stuff, I am not living in utopia for sure. The first major transitional piece for me comes this week. I have spent every Christmas and Thanksgiving with my family since I was born, literally, they have either driven to be with me or I have driven to be with them. Family is ridiculously important to me. Given that my call is a little strange in terms of hours/holidays and what not, I don't get to travel on the weekends much and will never have Christmas off. My fiancé suggested since my family will come up for Christmas that we should head to Wisconsin to see his family over Thanksgiving. The brilliance of this plan is that we get more than 24 hours with them and don't have to rush back so I can work Sunday morning, the crappy part is my family will be 12 hours away. I know that it will be great and that his family is jazzed to have us coming back and all that wonderfulness it is just another one of those transitions and change is always hard, even if we deny it.

I am processing the fact that I won't be with my family and that it will be just fine - just one of those things I need to think through, pray through, recognize, and embrace the new beginnings.

In an unrelated topic, for those of you who are praying people I would ask for prayers for my friend Katie and her husband, Andy, as Katie has some medical issues putting her in the hospital. It is moments like this when it is so hard to be so far away from home and to not be able to run up to the hospital and be with her. It is moments like this I curse not being able to be by her side. I cling to the promises of God in the midst of this all and know that it is God who holds them both close and is working in and through the medical staff as they figure out what is going on with one of my most favorite people in the whole wide wor

November's Dream List

Here is a list of things I hope to get accomplished in November:

• have a clean house when I leave for vacation so I can return home to a clean house
• Have a marvelous vacation
• Register for the Fargo Half Marathon
• Run at least 55 miles
• Participate in at least 6 Group Power Classes
• make dinner reservations for Disneyland in January
• Clean & Organize my loft space
• Make cutout cookies (a tradition on Marc's family that they always decorate Christmas cookies as a family the day after Thanksgiving, it is apparently Marc & I's turn to make the cookies for everyone to decorate)
• Thanksgiving Trip to Wisconsin
• Middle School Gathering
• Mail Christmas Cards
• Get curriculum written ahead of time (I am writing curriculum for our Family Faith Journey at work and I would like to be more than a week ahead)
• buy new running shoes (yes, I am finally committing to it)
• Keep 2012's 366 project life up to date
• Finish my 2011's (yes, you read that correctly 2011, yes, yes, I am way behind on this one) shutterfly book
• Make progress on 2012's shutterfly book
• Finish 2011's (yep way behind on this one too) Disney trip photobook
• drink at least 100 ounces of water every day
• walk at least 15,000 steps a day (I have gradually been increasing this, when I began in September my goal was 10,000 steps, October 12,500 steps - some days these goals are totally easy and other days they take some serious commitment to getting my steps in - will be an interesting challenge while on vacation)
• Begin working on summer 2012's mission trip photo book

What's on your November dream to-do list?
Has November arrived ridiculously fast for anyone else?
Do you have any fun projects you are working on?