Time with friends

Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time with three wonderful women. We had such a good time together that we hardly noticed the SIX hourse went by! From left to right: Anna Stepanian, Christina Stanton, me and Laurel Jenkins.


A few weeks ago I introduced you to Christina. She is back from Slovenia and was spending some time in the Portland area. Anna also lived and worked with Josiah Venture in Slovenia - in fact she and Christina were roommates over there for 4 1/2 years. She moved home at the end of the summer and just recently moved to the Portland area. You might recognize Laurel from our photos taken in Colorado. She and her husband were at the language training we went to there.

I first met all three of these ladies while they were students at Multnomah. They were all RA's while I worked as a Residence Director there. Anna and Laurel were both Head RA's and Christina served as a Head RA the year after I left Multnomah. So, we go way back and have spent a lot of time together over the years. So many stories I could tell. :-) While I'm sad that Anna and Christina won't be in Slovenia when we go over, I'm so excited for the doors that the Lord is opening for them here.

I thought about posting some photos from long ago . . . but unfortunately, those were the days before I owned a digital camera and most of my photos are in storage. Might have to save that post for another day. :-)

32 Weeks and counting. . .

It's been while since I posted a belly shot so here's a photo of me today:

Seems kinda surreal that in just a matter of weeks our lives are going to change so dramatically. I find myself thinking about all the things I hope to get done before our baby arrives . . . and then just trying to relax and enjoy the whole pregnancy process.

Staying Warm

One of the best gifts I got this season came weeks before Christmas. My wonderful husband made these for me to survive the cold winter nights:

A little background for you: Before we lived in Lithuania, I used to own a very nice bean bag type thing made by Bath & Body Works. I would heat it up every night before bed and it would keep me so warm and toasty. Matt's favorite thing about it was that eventually in the middle of the night I would let go of it and it became a "speed bump" between Matt and me. You see, I like to snuggle with Matt to stay warm, but he couldn't do this for too long cuz he'd get so hot. (tmi? :-) In my my sleepy state I thought the bean bag was Matt and I'd snuggle up. I'm happy. Matt's happy.

Soooo. . . since I no longer have my Bath & Body Works "Beanie" Matt gave me a couple of homemade ones. What a thoughtful guy!!

To make your own Beanie:

Buy some rice (flax seed works best but it's kinda spendy) and some cheap socks. Fill one of the socks about 2/3rds full of rice and tie a knot in the end of the sock. Then slide the rice filled sock into the second sock. Microwave for a couple of minutes, then put the sock in your bed a few minutes before you go to bed to get it all toasty warm. So nice! You can also put mix a few drops of aromatherapy oil into the rice before you put the rice in the socks for an extra spa-like experience. My fave is a couple drops of peppermint and a couple drops of eucalyptus. Aaahhh! So nice!