California Trip

Chris and I have had a very busy week! Last Friday Neill and Natalie got married here in Jackson. Neill moved out here with the crew to plant the church. He heads up our music ministry and many other things. Natalie was our intern last summer and they started dating this past winter. Natalie is a good friend of mine; we usually spend time together at least once a week. When they get back from their honeymoon they are going to stay with us for a few days before they can move into their new home. Anyway, after their wedding we drove through the night to Denver and went to Chris' cousin's wedding Saturday night. It was at a beautiful home and had fantastic food! The next day Chris and Bethany took me to the Denver airport and I flew to LA. Chris and Bethany drove to Kansas from their. Chris dropped Frazier off at hunting school. Sad!! I miss him. He's going to be there until after the baby is born. Our friend John is training him since we don't have access to any birds. Hopefully he will come back an amazing hunting dog! So, Chris had to get a bunch of dental work done and he was able to get it done for VERY cheap if he did it at home in KS. It was another opportunity to see the Lord providing for us! We are super thankful for people's generosity.

In LA I was able to spend lots of time with family. Mom had to go back to work so I spent a good amount of time with Heather and the kids and then Debbie came out for a few days. It was a very relaxing trip. The heat was a little tough for this pregnant woman, but other than that it was great. My first baby shower was Saturday and I felt so very blessed! I got to see friends and family that I haven't seen for a long time and Chris, Noah and I were blessed with lots of baby gifts! I am slightly obsessed with the baby room. Debbie and Mike painted and reupholstered a BEAUTIFUL black and white glider chair. I LOVE it. I'll post pics soon. I have lots of little projects to do... washing baby clothes, cloth diapers, putting together car seat, finishing a mobile I'm working on, etc. I'm trying to hold off on doing too much of it before I stop working. I only have one more week left!

I feel like I learned a lot this past week and I'm thinking through a lot of things in my own heart and for our family. I was thankful for the time to do that! I will post about that sooner or later.

All is well!

We got all our test results back and my blood sugar levels are just fine. She said it may have been something I ate the day I did my first test. And come to think of it, I had very syrupy waffles that morning. Makes sense. Also, the test results came back about the painful contractions and all is well with that too. I'm super thankful because I want to be able to work the rest of this month. It will help out financially quite a bit... even though it is SO tiring. I'm setting aside Mondays now to cook meals for the week and last week it went so well! I only had to cook one other day and we were able to eat leftovers and frozen meals that I prepared ahead of time. I feel very organized and accomplished this way :o) Since we are on a tighter budget we can't rely on being able to grab lunch out or go to dinner if I'm too tired to cook. If I do the work on Monday than we don't need to worry about it all week. I did have to warn Chris that we will probably be eating a lot of the same meals for a while because I'm trying to do easy things that I can freeze (pasta, chili, meatloaf, etc.).

In other news, we officially picked our baby boy name. We are going to call him Noah Andrew. We chose Noah for a couple reasons. For one, we both love it. I like that I can picture a little boy with the name or a manly man cutting down trees in the forest. It seems versatile. Also, Chris has a great love for all things creation and flood-related in history. Noah is obviously a key player in that part of history. I love it also because of what is said of Noah's faith in the book of Hebrews. He really had such incredible faith! He built that boat for years and years and years when everyone else doubted him. Not only that, but IT HAD NEVER RAINED BEFORE! God said it would flood and there was no way for Noah to even reference what that meant, but he just really trusted the Lord. As for the name Andrew, I was listening to John MacArthur's series on The Master's Men on Grace to You and I was so moved by the disciple Andrew. If you haven't listened to these sermons, you must! Andrew was so humble. He was known as the disciple who was always bringing others to Jesus. He put aside his own preferences in a very Christ-like way. Church history tells us that after he shared the Gospel with the governor's wife and she was converted, the governor sentenced him to be crucified on an X shape cross. He preached the Gospel for 2 days as he hung on the cross! This just brings me to tears. What an incredibly gentle and passionate man. I hope our son grows up to have the faith of Noah and the desire to bring people to Jesus like Andrew.

a predicament

so i was laying in bed dreaming about this really big spider in our house, when i heard the door slam and frazier started barking. back story... Chris keeps waking up really hot in the night so he goes into the living room and sleeps on the couch with the front door open. i have "encouraged" him not to do this in the past because bugs come in the house. i can't confirm this is what he did last night (because it's 5:30 am and he won't wake up to answer my investigatory questions), but i think it is. so... i woke up to a loud bang, got out of bed to see what in the heck is happening and then i hear this little sound under the couch. what!? it's like a thumping or chewing or something. it moved from one side of the couch to the other and it stops whenever i move stuff around. so i'm almost certain that there is a creature living in our house now and i'm so very unsettled about this. i don't want to go back to bed because i feel like i need to babysit this creature in case he decides to relocate to another part of the house. what to do... what to do...

30 Weeks!

I have made it 30 weeks in my pregnancy and I'm very thankful! So far so good. Last week my parents were in town and they were able to come with us to our ultrasound appointment to see the little guy. That's right, little GUY. It was so precious! We were really thinking we had a baby named Grace in there, so to find out we were having a boy was quite a shock. But, after packing up the girl clothes, I am now super thankful and excited for our baby boy. I can't believe that in 10 weeks we are going to be parents. I can hardly wait!

Pregnancy is going just fine. I had my blood work done last week and my iron levels are a bit low and my sugar was a bit high. Now I'm sitting in the hospital waiting room doing my 3 hour glucose test to be sure that I don't have gestational diabetes. I've been having braxton hicks contractions since about 18 weeks and in the past 3 weeks they have gotten super painful when I am at work or on my feet for too long. My midwife wants to do a couple tests to be sure that labor is progressing at all and that the contractions aren't doing anything. In the meantime, it is SUPER hard to work while I'm having them. I only have one month more of work so I'm very thankful for that and praying for grace to get through the shifts that I do have. It's hard work waiting tables when your pregnant! I think there should be an automatic 20% tip for all pregnant waitresses. In other pregnant news, we met with a doula a couple weeks ago and we are decided that we are going to hire her! I'm really excited. She is really sweet. Her name is Jenna and she spent two years in the Peace Corps in Africa assisting a midwife in delivering babies. Because she is not DONA certified yet she is giving us an amazing deal on her services and she will use our birth as one of her required 3 births to become certified. I'm really set on having a natural birth and I know it's going to be a lot of hard work so I'm glad that Chris and I will have the help we need to get through it.

Our baby room is coming along nicely. My parents helped me set up a guest bed, clean out the closet, and set up the crib. The Mumma's are letting us use an adorable bassinet that the girls slept in. Mike and Debbie repainted and reupholstered a glider chair and hopefully we will be able to get that in the room soon too. Chris and Dad built some shelves in our small storage area and I had Dad help me use the scrap wood to make some decorations for the room. We painted lots of birdies for the room! When spring first sprung in Jackson Chris and I bought a bunch of bird seed and we would sit by the window in that room and watch all the cool birds hang out on our lawn. We would pull out the computer and try to find the names of the different birds. It inspired me to do a bit of a bird theme in the baby's room.

I started reading Baby Wise last week. I have always heard mixed reviews about this book because of a lot of drama that happened with "Ezzo Kids" years and years ago at GCC. I wasn't thinking I would read it because of all that I had heard about it, but Sera Mumma encouraged me that it would be really helpful in understanding how to set up a schedule if that's what we decided to do. I must say, I really love it. I don't want to be dogmatic about anything here because I know that we need to be super flexible with our plans for baby, but I have been so informed and encouraged by this book! He seems to be really flexible with feeding and sleeping, but still structured enough that there is some sort of schedule set up. What I had always heard is that the whole point is so that baby is not running the house, but in reading the book I don't think that's his point at all. His point is that you would have a healthy baby who is getting full meals and plenty of sleep. I love the idea of a baby of 10-12 weeks sleeping through the night too. But again, I want to be really flexible. We might meet the little guy and then throw all those plans out the window.

I feel really blessed that I get to have three baby showers in the next month! My mom and Debbie are putting one together for me in CA on August 21st. This one will be mostly for stuff off of my registry at BabiesRUs. The girls at church are having a cloth diaper shower for me the next weekend. We are going with FuzziBun diapers... the best in my opinion. And my sweet friends at work are going to have a "White Trash Baby Shower" for Chris and I. I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but I am excited that they would want to bless us in that way. Also, they love theme parties so it's just as fun for them. Apparently they are going to get a root beer keg and we will be eating things like tater tots and pigs in a blanket at Erica's trailer in town. Sounds like a blast!

Oregon Family Vacation Part 2

We are still enjoying the time together in Oregon! Chris spent another day surfing on Father's Day and he was able to get up on the board this time! I think this is pretty great considering he's never been and he had no teacher. We spent Father's Day browsing the shops downtown and ended up at the marina. We watched 30 sea lions fight and play near the dock and tried Mo's "famous" clam chowder. It was delicious!

Yesterday we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium for the first part of the day. Chris had never been to an aquarium before and apparently he had no idea what they were. On the way there he said, "Wait, we're not going to the beach?" I think he thought you ended up out in the ocean at some point when you visited an aquarium. It was pretty small, but they had a shark tunnel and a touch pool which were both very cool. The weather is has been SO beautiful and the rest of the day we spent down at the beach laying out and playing in the surf. Chris and Brad went all the way in, but in order to avoid hypothermia they immediately ran out of the water. It is such cold water! Last night we went to dinner to celebrate 30 years of marriage for mom and dad.

It's been really great to spend time with my niece and nephew. I don't get to see them too often so it has been a sweet time to get to know them better and be an auntie. Amalia is really close already with Chris and I because we have had a lot of time with her, but William doesn't really know us. He is seriously such a cute boy! He's super busy all the time and quite the little bruiser. Ami has me wrapped me around her little finger. I just can't handle how cute she is! She is a super sweet and sensitive girl too. Chris and I love them so much.

Today we are off to the Tillamook Cheese Factory! I'm pretty excited to try some fancy cheeses and get ice cream at their creamery. We are going to play it be ear, but we might drive the extra hour to see Astoria where The Goonies was filmed. Brad and I really want to see Mikey's house.

Oregon Family Vacation!

We are on day three of our big "Newbold Family Vacation" on the coast of Oregon and it has been wonderful! Chris and I packed up after work on Thursday and set out for Oregon. I was very proud of myself for driving from 4:30 to midnight. I got to talk to my very good friend Molly for almost 2 hours on the way there. What I really love about our friendship is that when we have the chance to catch up it doesn't feel like 4 months have passed since our last chat. Chris slept for the first shift while I drove across boring eastern Idaho. A point of contention in our relationship when we are on road trips is that I fall asleep constantly. I cannot stay awake to keep him company and it seems like every time we switch driving shifts, I get immediately exhausted. When I am able to drive for 7 straight hours that is an amazing accomplishment! I felt so proud when he woke up and I got to announce that we had made it into Oregon.

From there Chris drove the red eye shift while I tried to sleep in the little bed we made in the back of the Element. At 6 am we arrived in Eugene, OR! I enjoyed a tall skinny cinnamon dulce latte at Starbucks while I read the Word and did some preparation for teaching small group when I get back to Jackson. After that I used our incredibly handy iPhone to navigate my way to all of the maternity shopping in Eugene. I have been struggling to think rightly about my expanding figure and I know that the issue really is contentment. I want so bad to value what God values as beautiful! I know I don't need to be distracted by the fact that I don't fit into my pants anymore, but I can be encouraged that my body is showing signs of this new and blessed season of life. But, the reality is, I don't fit into my pants anymore. So, I was able to go shopping for some very cute new maternity clothes and I was so thankful for the opportunity! Later that afternoon we met up with my parents, Brad, Heather, and the kiddos in the parking lot of Ye Olde Pancake House. What a joy to see the family and start this vacation together!

Distracted by the lush green forests and winding blue river, we made the hour treck from Eugene to the coast of Oregon. Once in Florence, OR we were greeted by sheer cliff edges and the never ending Pacific. What a beautiful coast this is! Around dinner time we made it to our condo in Newport, OR. It didn't take long for us to jump into the rock shower with DOUBLE SHOWER HEADS!! I will say, the idea of two shower heads made me a lot more excited than the actual experience. In truth, I felt like I was on a water ride the whole time and kept getting splashed in the face. Our condo is so very beautiful. I will post pics later.

Our first day here we woke up and spent time hanging out, drinking coffee, reading, playing with the kids. Chris was able to get a solid 8 hours of sleep (which rarely happens at home) and he woke up super rested. We all set out for a walk to the nearby Yachina Lighthouse that has been in use since 1872. We explored the tide pools nearby. Brad and I were astounded that Chris had never been to a tide pool. He had never seen a starfish and didn't know the joy of sticking your finger in a slimy sea anenome! What a Kansas boy. From the lighthouse we walked to a nearby restaurant and enjoyed fish and chips... in my case shrimp and chips because I didn't want to waste my allotted mercury consumption for the week on halibut fish and chips. I'm trying to pace myself as I fully intend of indulging in sea food while I am here. After lunch we walked down the sandy beach and Chris surfed for almost three hours! I was so proud of him. He is the type of guy that picks up athletic things very quickly. When we went skiing this Christmas he hadn't skiied for close to 10 years and he jumps right on the black diamonds. I can't say he took to surfing so readily, but he did a great job for having never done it and having to teacher in the water with him. He has the board today too so hopefully he is able to get up and ride for longer.

It has been a joy to spend these last couple days with my family! The Lord has really grown all of us in the last year, and even in the last month. I am thankful for a family that loves Jesus and wants to share fellowship with one another. Excited for the rest of the week with these crazy people!!

What I was trying to say...

" Fruit-bearing is not a matter of being strong or weak, good or bad, brave or cowardly, clever or foolish, experienced or inexperienced. Whatever your gifts, accomplishments, or virtues, they cannot produce fruit if you are detached from Jesus Christ. Christians who think they are bearing fruit apart from the Vine are only tying on artificial fruit. They run around grunting and groaning to produce fruit but accomplish nothing. Fruit is borne not by trying, but by abiding." -John MacArthur

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. " -John 15:5