Overdue for an update....Again!

If you look at my average number of posts since I started this blog, it's easy to see the trend of slowly losing steam at writing. I thought I would update more once Hudson was born, because I'd have more to talk about. The problem is, I have more to say, but less time to say it- Ha!

Anyway, I'm determined to revive this blog a little bit. I should probably set a goal and write it down, making me more likely to stick to it. So we'll say I'll aim for at least 1 post per month for now- sound good? I hope so! Anyway, here's a little about what's been going on in our world lately.

Hudson Update

Our little boy is growing fast! 8 1/2 months already. It's been so fun to watch each new stage, and to see his little personality start to emerge. One thing about Hudson- he is a happy boy! Mike and I think he's probably going to be more outgoing and social, as he really seems to thrive when there are lots of people around. He's always flashing smiles at people, and every time we leave him in the nursery at church, we are told what a happy boy he is! He is pretty laid back as well. He does get upset at times, but is pretty easy to comfort.

He is so close to crawling, and even though I know it's a whole new world once that happens, I'm ready for him to take off. Right now he rocks on his knees a ton, and he scoots himself backwards, which ends up just frustrating him.

We go to the doctor in a couple weeks for his 9 month visit, but so far he's stayed around 30th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. The doctor says he's "long and lean." I'm not sure where he gets his height from, maybe Uncle Chris and Aunt Nicole?

Hudson is a pretty good eater. He doesn't always eat a lot, but he enjoys most foods we give him, and we have given him some more unusual foods. A couple things that surprised me the most that he enjoyed was curried salmon cakes and pickles! He picked up the pincer grasp about a month ago, so he does really well feeding himself. The only things I spoon feed him is yogurt (which he LOVES) and oatmeal. It's fun being able to just pull him up to the table and have him eat with us.

Capanna

Mike stays busy as always with Capanna. Our new store in North Liberty got off to a really solid start, so that's encouraging. We always have things to tweak and improve on, but it's nice that things are going pretty smoothly. Unfortunately this summer, a lot of the Friday night concerts downtown outside the store got rained out, but with the heat this summer, gelato has been a big hit.

Other News

In August we were able to go on vacation again with my family to Galena, IL. This year was a little more crazy with 5 grandkids age 3 1/2 and under, but a lot of fun. It was really good to be able to get away and relax. After you have kids, sleeping in on vacation isn't so much an option, but naps are! We got family pictures taken while there, so I'm excited to see how those turned out.

I'm really enjoying working part-time. I'm still amazed when I think how God worked to set things up so perfectly to allow me to work part-time. There's no way I could have seen what He was doing, or planned it that way myself. My new position is in the dialysis area, so I work with the same set of patients month after month. I have enjoyed getting to know some of them better, and it's especially exciting when one of my patients gets a kidney transplant. The downside is that I'm more attached to the patients, so when someone isn't doing so well, or gets too sick and decides to withdraw, it's really hard.

After the hot summer, the cooler weather has been amazing. Hudson really likes to be outside. Last weekend we went out to Squire Point to hike the trails and Hudson enjoyed riding on my back in our Beco carrier. He was just laughing and bouncing himself up and down. We're looking forward to heading out to Wilson's Orchard for some apple picking and maybe visiting a pumpkin farm or two this fall.

Ok, I think that's enough for an update now. Look for another one within the next month. I'll really try to stick to my goal!!

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Blessings of 2010

Looking back on my blog posts, it looks like I let a whole year go by without a single post. We certainly had an eventful year, and I though it would be fun to review some of the highlights. It also helps to serve as a reminder for me of God's goodness as I record the ways in which He has blessed us in the past year.

1. Hudson Michael
Let's just start with the obvious. We are so thankful for our little boy. We waited many years for the right timing to start our family. Praying for a child has been top on my prayer list for a long time. There were times where I was not sure it was ever going to work out for us, but we decided to take a step of faith and trust that God would provide for us, and He has. I am so thankful that I finally get to be a mommy to my precious son.

2. A Healthy Pregnancy and Delivery
I don't know that all of you know, but one of the low points for us in 2010 was suffering a miscarriage in early March. It was heartbreaking to say the least, and when I got pregnant again with Hudson, I was in near constant fear that I would lose another one. However, God blessed me with a wonderful pregnancy. I had minimal morning sickness and felt pretty good through most of my 9 months. I got rear ended when I was only about about 12 weeks along, which was scary, but praise God, I wasn't injured and Hudson was fine.

3. A Wonderful Church Family
Last fall, we felt God calling us away from the church we've attended since we moved to Iowa City. This was a scary thing, as we really did not want to leave the friends we made. Especially for me, with a new baby only a few months away, it seemed like really poor timing. However, it was clear that God had something new for us.

We were able to quickly find a new church home in Veritas church, which is a new church plant to Iowa City from Cornerstone Church in Ames. Mike and I went to Cornerstone for the year we were still in Ames after we got married. We are really enjoying being a part of this community. We joined up with a connection group and met some really awesome people. We look forward to going to church every Sunday and always end up staying at our connection group later than we plan! We've been loved on by our friends making meals for us after Hudson's birth. I am completely confident that God has us where He wants us.

4. A Comfortable and Affordable Home
In the fall of 2009 we ended up leaving the apartment we'd rented since we moved to Iowa City after we had some flooding issues. We thought we had found a great place to move into, but I unfortunately it turned out to be terrible. We had the worst landlord and spent our entire time there battling with him to fix stuff (like the heat or the 3 missing kitchen drawers) with no success. We also had some pretty interesting neighbors, and I don't mean that in a good way.

We searched high and low for a new place to move to that had the space we needed and fit our budget, but we were not having much luck. But finally we found the perfect place for us. We live in a great neighborhood, we have a good landlord, and we have much more space- enough for Mike to have a designated office. We are very thankful to be living here.

5. A Free Piano
I have wanted a piano for so long! I learned to play guitar specifically because it was easier to play a portable instrument while I was in college, but I really missed playing piano. I would play at home or at friend's homes whenever I got the chance. Last spring I started looking at pianos on Craigslist, just to see what kind of deals were out there. We didn't really have the budget for a piano, but I looked anyways, just in case there was some sort of miraculous deal.

Well, crazily enough, there was a miraculous deal- a free piano!! It was in Des Moines, and I had no idea where we'd put it (especially since we didn't know where we were going to be living yet), but I sent it to Mike anyway, thinking that maybe there was a miniscule chance we could get it. Mike told me he thought it looked nice, but asked where we'd put it. I didn't know, so I resigned myself to the fact that the piano would have to wait. Later that night Mike and I were driving somewhere and out of the blue he turned to me and told me that we needed to figure out what we were going to do with our new piano! I was so happy I cried. Turns out Mike was the first of many people to call. The lady had tried selling it earlier without much luck, so decided to just list it for free. It is a nice piano, definitely not what you would expect for a free piano. It's in good shape, it plays nice, it looks nice, and we have a perfect spot for it in our home!! I play nearly every day, I just love it!

6. A Snowblower
Even though we rent, since we've lived in duplexes, we have been responsible for lawn care and snow removal. We've had our share of snowy winters and shovelling is really not all that much fun. We knew we were thinking about starting a family, so if I was pregnant, I would not be able to help shovel and Mike has a bad back.

So with that in mind, we decided to look at purchasing a snow blower. I found a great deal on a used, but in excellent condition snow blower at a garage sale that summer. Turns out that last winter we didn't use it since we moved and the place we moved to the landlord was reponsible for snow removal. So we kept ahold of it and moved it with us to the new house.

The first big snow we had this year Mike got up early to take care of the driveway. When he came inside I asked him how the snowblower was, but he told me he didn't know since it was no longer in our garage. That's right, somehow it was stolen out of our garage!! I was so sad. I just couldn't believe someone would do that, and I felt bad for Mike, as there was no way I could help him out at 8 months pregnant. Plus, I knew we did not have the budget to buy a new one this winter.

Well again, God is awesome because he provided a brand new snowblower for us. While we were still in the hospital after Hudson's birth, we got a big snowstorm. I worried how we would get it shovelled, but tried not to think about it. Mike had gone home to grab a couple things and told me that when he got there, someone had cleared our driveway for us! How nice! Well, when we went to leave after discharging on Christmas Eve, he handed me a card and told me the rest of the story. When he went home, he had found a note on the door with keys in it. And in our garage, was a brand new snow blower!! With a lock on it!! I burst in to tears and cried the whole way home from the hospital. We don't know who gave us the snow blower, but we are so thankful for our wonderful friends! This seriously was such an awesome blessing to us (especially after just going through Snowmageddon 2011)!


2010 definitely had some low points for us, but overall, we see God's blessings to us are far more than we deserve. He has been so good, and I know that we can trust Him for more blessings to come in 2011!

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Hudson's First Month

I have always heard people say that when you have a baby, the days go by so quickly. Man, they are not kidding!! I can't believe our little man is already 5 weeks old. I'm already forgetting what it felt like to be pregnant and forgetting what it felt like to go through labor.

We are having so much fun getting to know Hudson. We are blessed that God eased us into parenting with an "easy" baby. While he is a lot of work (he is a newborn of course!), to me he seems to be pretty easygoing. He has been nursing well since the beginning, usually about every 2-3 hours or so during the day, and sleeps anywhere from 3-5 hours at night. The first few days it was really easy to wake up at night when he stirred, but after the first week, it was getting much harder to wake up and get all set up to feed him. Fortunately we figured out how to nurse in the side lying position, so I just grab him from his pack n play basinet and pull him into bed with me and we both kind of half sleep for awhile until he's done. So, really I feel much more rested than I thought I might at this point.

One of the cutest things about him is his sneezes. The first couple weeks he would always sneeze twice and then would "sneeze" one more time, but it wouldn't be a sneeze, it would be like this cute little growl. Almost like he was preparing himself for a third sneeze that didn't come, so it just all comes out in his voice. But since we never know when he might sneeze, we haven't been able to get it on video. He's mostly outgrown it now (sad!), but occasionally it still comes out and is just so stinking cute!

His newest trick is social smiling. Right about 4 weeks he started smiling back at me. Let me tell you, when your newborn smiles in his sleep, it's the cutest thing, but when he smiles at you on purpose-- oh wow, it just melts your heart!! Mike can get him smiling really big, and I just love seeing the two of them "play" together :)

Hudson loves being worn, either in the moby wrap or my mei tai carrier so most afternoons he snoozes in the carrier while i get some laundry or cleaning done, it's a win-win! Car rides are another one of his favorite things most of the time, unless he is hungry! He usually likes his bath, especially having his hair washed, but doesn't like the getting in and out part. He hates to have a dirty diaper, but also hates to have his diaper changed, so that one is kind of a lose-lose. It's nice when Mike is around, because then we tag team and he usually sucks on daddy's finger to stay calm. He does take a pacifier, but won't take one during a diaper change for some reason!

Speaking of diapers, after Hudson's cord stump fell off (it took 19 days- they told us at the hospital 7-10!), we switched to cloth diapers, which is going really well. We are using prefolds and covers, and so far so good. I wash a load about every other day, so not too bad. Some of his diaper covers are so cute, I will have to take some pictures and post those sometime. The hard part about changing his diaper is not getting sprayed! I never really babysat for too many baby boys, so didn't have much experience with this before Hudson. At first, I would just forget to cover him, but now, even when I throw one of the prefolds over him, he's so wiggly that somehow he still ends up spraying himself or me! We'll keep working on getting that one figured out.

I just still can't believe that he is here. This little person that I longed for and prayed to God for for so long is now in my arms. We are so blessed!!!

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Hudson's Birth

Our little boy is here, so time to bring this blog back to life (if anybody is still reading it)! I thought I'd kick things off with recording Hudson's birth story. I've been told multiple times that it's important to write it down so I don't forget, because the farther out you get, the fewer the details you remember. This may be TMI for some of you, so if you don't like to read detailed birth stories, just skip this post.

Hudson's due date was 1/11/11, but I kept feeling this pressing urge to have everything ready by the time I hit 37 weeks (considered full term). It was a good thing, because at exactly 37 weeks, at 5 am, my water broke. Hudson had been very active that morning and I had just returned to my bed after a bathroom trip to try to get a couple more minutes of sleep before the alarm went off again. I felt this weird little pop and thought about how that didn't really feel like his normal movements. I just had this feeling that it was my water breaking, but didn't really think it could be that early. I got up to go to the bathroom, telling Mike I thought my water broke, and sure enough by the time I got to the bathroom I was soaked. There was no mistaking, my water definitely broke.

Mike and I had taken Bradley childbirth classes to prepare for a natural birth, so we were in no hurry to get to the hospital. I was hoping contractions would start soon, but as we went about the morning, I wasn't feeling anything. We tried some natural methods to help start contractions, but still, nothing. So about 11 am I was feeling a little tired so I took a nap for about an hour. When I woke up, I was feeling anxious about not having contractions. I didn't know what kind of timeline my midwives would have for me after my water breaking and I was worried that if we waited too long to get to the hospital, they would automatically give me a C-section. So about 1:30 we checked in to Labor and Delivery. Our friend/doula Dana met us there. When I got there, they hooked me to the monitors and I was having contractions, they were just mild enough that I didn't feel them much yet. The midwife on call was great and told me they have no timeline as long as I was not spiking a temp and that Hudson looked ok when they checked him on the monitors. She had us start trying to get contractions going using some natural methods and this time, it worked. I spent time in the shower and did a lot of walking. When I would start to get a contraction, I would just lean on Mike and relax my body like we had practiced in class.

In the midst of all this, I ended up getting skin prick testing for a penicillin allergy. Since I went early, I had just had my Group B strep test done the day before and the results weren't back yet. Because my water broke and they didn't know my status, that meant I had to get antibiotics. I had a questionable penicillin allergy, but the other antibiotic given is pretty nasty stuff that I wanted to avoid if possible. So I was having contractions, having to hold my arm still while they tested me for the allergy- it was kind of crazy. It was worth it though because it turns out I'm not allergic to penicillin, so they were able to use that.

So I labored for quite awhile, but in order for my contractions to keep going and stay strong, I basically needed to be walking or on my knees without sitting on my butt. Anytime I sat or layed down, the contractions spaced out. The problem was, I was getting tired!! So about 11pm they decided to check me for the first time and I was only at 2 cm. At this point, the midwife recommended that we needed to start pitocin. I really didn't want to as I knew this could make the contractions much worse and make it harder for me to avoid an epidural, but I still wanted to avoid a C-section, so I agreed to it. They started it and in very little time, the contractions became much stronger. I decided to try laboring in the whirlpool tub to help me relax. I was in there for a little while and around 1:30 or so, decided to get out because it wasn't comfortable anymore. When I got out, I got very shaky and threw up 3 times. I was also feeling a lot of pain and pressure, like I needed to push. So at this point everyone thinks I'm in transition, and my nurse even said that. So the midwife checked me again, and I was expecting to be at a 7 or 8, but I was only 3-4 cm!

At that point, I mentally gave up. I was begging Mike and Dana to let me have an epidural. They knew I didn't want one, so they were trying to encourage me and tell me how great I was doing. I remember Dana telling me to say one positive thing, but I just couldn't. Finally, Mike told me he would step out and talk to the midwife and review our options. I agreed, but in my mind I was getting an epidural. When he talked to the midwife, she told him I was doing great and didn't need an epidural, but that it would probably be about 6 hours before I was complete and ready to push. Mike didn't feel he could come back and tell me that, so they offered me Nubain. It's a narcotic drug that doesn't take away the pain, but "takes the edge off" they told me. The midwife thought it might help me sleep and get some rest. I agreed, still thinking that I was just humoring everyone and that in an hour or so they'd have to give me the epidural I really wanted. But, the Nubain worked and I fell asleep. I'm not sure how long I slept, but I remember laying on my side feeling really really painful contractions, but just breathing really deeply and telling myself I just had to get through one more. Mike told me later that often he and Dana couldn't tell I was having a contraction because I was so quite. They would just notice my breathing change and then see on the monitor that I was having a contraction!

At some point, I started to feel my body pushing. I told them this, but they told me not to push yet. They had me get up and try the tub again, which was awful. I got out and sat on the toilet for a little while, which was better, but the urge to push was getting stronger and stronger. I was trying not to push, but with every contraction I would feel myself pushing without me even trying. So finally they decided to check me and I was complete! Everyone cheered, but I was thinking, oh man, now I have to push!! I pushed most of the time on my knees with my hands resting on the head of the bed which was elevated, but then they made me turn on my side for some reason, which was probably the most painful part of labor because his head was partially out at that point. But I pushed a few more times after that and finally his head came out. After that, the rest of his body came out super fast. Mike says "he flew out!" They put him immediately on my chest and he was screaming. He was covered in vernix since he was early. I just remember feeling so relieved and so happy to have him out! I only pushed for about 30 minutes, so that was good. He was very healthy and got Apgar scores of 9 and 9.

Overall, I'm really happy how things turned out. I had wanted to avoid drugs completely, but since my water broke early, that kind of put a wrench in our plans. I'm proud that I was able to avoid getting an epidural and still stay mostly natural. Although it's still a bit early, I am looking forward to next time trying again to go complete drug free. It was hard work, but totally worth it!!

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5k Update

It's been a little bit, but I wanted to announce that I did complete my 5k! I ran it in 32 minutes (and some seconds, can't remember how many), which was better than I had expected! It felt really good to complete after having trained. I was a little nervous, because it was the Saturday after we got back from Spain, and I didn't run at all while in Spain. But adrenaline and motivation from my friends kept me going.

Unfortunately, unlike my friend Sarah, I did not run at all for 2 weeks after the 5k. :(
However, I am happy to report that on Saturday I got back into it and ran again tonight. I'm doing a training program called "Gateway to 8k", so it should get me to running 5 miles regularly, which I think I'll stay at for awhile. My main goal in running is overall fitness/health, so running ~50 minutes (or 5 miles) 3-4 days a week definitely meets that goal for me. My main challenge now is weather. It has definitely become cold a lot earlier than normal (we've even had snow!) and with the early sunset, I'm thinking I may have to move my runs indoors if I'm going to stay with it. I could handle the cold for a while longer, but I don't like running in the dark, it makes me nervous! We do have a nice rec center and I think I can run on the track indoors for free since I'm a resident. I have yet to check it out, but I need to give myself a kick in the pants and do it. It's amazing how much easier running is now that I'm in better shape. I don't notice a big difference in my physical appearance, but I feel a huge difference when I run and that feels really good!

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Spain Trip!!!

I've been meaning to type up a post to share about our recent vacation for a while now, but we've been pretty busy since we got back. Also, I always find it difficult to tell people about a great trip, because in some sense, it's not possible to explain how wonderful the sites were and what a great time we had. But I will try my best!

Mike and I have been planning almost since we started dating to someday take a trip to Spain. Mike had been there three times before and it is his favorite place to visit. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to cash in some flight miles and Mike was able to get away from the store for 10 whole days at the end of September and we set off for Spain. Because we had used flight miles, we didn't have the ideal pick of flights, and actually ended up with 4 separate flights each way (Cedar Rapids to Chicago; Chicago to Newark; Newark to Lisbon, Portugal; Lisbon to Madrid). We had great flights, but our time between flights was spent running so we didn't mix the next plane. When we got to Lisbon, we ended up having to wait in line for nearly 2 hours to get through customs. Also, we ended up in the line in the middle of a group of people who had just arrived from Angola. It was certainly an interesting experience because we did not understand a word they were saying and they seemed to have different ideas of what it meant to stand in line. But we made it through and got to Madrid in good shape.

We headed right away to our hotel. In Spain, and especially in Madrid, hotels are different. It's not a huge building run by a chain like Marriott or Comfort Inn. Instead, people open up small hotels, maybe on one floor or 1/2 a floor in a building. So we found the hotel, but even though there was a sign on the door, we could not find the button to buzz the desk to let us in. A man stopped to help us figure it out and Mike turned to him and said in Spanish "Tenemos reservaciones", which means "we have reservations." Mike didn't get to complete his thought when the man interrupted and said "No, no, no....no hablo ingles", which in Spanish means "No, I don't speak English"!!

Mike and I looked at each other kind of puzzled and Mike began again more slowly. Eventually we got it figured out, but for the rest of the trip kept laughing about Mike's accent being so bad, his Spanish sounded like English! Fortunately, our Spanish improved the longer we were there.

We stayed most of the nights in Madrid, except for two nights in Segovia. In Madrid we visted parks and museums and saw the bull flighting ring. At the museums we saw some really great famoous works of art, including a very large painting by Picasso called "Guernica". Because we used our handy Rick Steve's guideobook, we were able to visit both the Prado museum and Reina Sofia museum for free! We spent our evenings on the Plaza Mayor, a central square, where we sat and listened to street musicians and watched all sorts of interesting people walk by.
Segovia is a beautiful city with winding mideviel streets, an ancient Roman aquaduct, a grand cathedral, and a wonderful castle "El Alcazar". Visiting castles was high on my priority list and this one definitely impressed. We also visited a royal palace called "La Granja" near Segovia, which had a HUGE garden. We thought it would be fun to visit the part of the garden where they had a hedge labyrinth. I've always wanted to walk in one of those in person. Because it was fall, the hedges weren't very filled in and we could see through pretty well, so thought we'd have no problem. We easily found our way to the center, but then struggled to find our way out. We started to get a little nervous and then increasingly nervous as we visioned being stuck in this park overnight (seriously it was so big, I'm not sure anyone would have found us for awhile). But we did eventually find the exit and decided we won't try that again unless we have a ball of yarn!!! We had a very relaxing time in Segovia, even though we did clock in over 22,000 steps on the pedometer one of those days!! But we needed the exercise considering our daily breakfast consisted of a chocolate croissant, espresso, and fresh-squeezed orange juice :)

We also took a few daytrips from Madrid, one to Toledo which is another medieviel city with a very strong Moorish (Arabian) influence. It has a very large magnificent cathedral and is also home to a smaller church that houses in the original spot a very famous and beautiful painting by the painter "El Greco". It was beautiful and we loved getting lost in the winding streets. We took picture after picture because around every corner seemed to be one more beautiful street scene.

We also took a trip to Manzanares el Real. This was our most adventurous, since it's not listed in any of our guide books and we weren't exactly sure we'd be able to figure out how to get there, but I am soooo glad we went. The trip was smooth and we were able to communicate well enough in Spanish to find the bus we needed to take and where it would pick us up to go back to Madrid. Let me tell you, this castle was amazing!! It is considered one of the best preserved castles in Spain. I wanted to stay there forever! Plus, we happened to go on some sort of national tourist day, so we didn't have to pay to get in!

Overall, we had a fabulous time! This was the most time we've spent together continuously since our honeymoon and our first/longest major vacation since we opened the store. It was a great way to belatedly celebrate our 5th anniversary!!!

Check out more of our pictures here.

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September News

I'm happy to report that I have continued with my couch to 5k training program. I completed week 6 today, which means I am able to run 25 minutes without stopping! I have never run that long in my life, even when I was in better shape in high school. I am definitely starting to understand why runners love it so much. I'm not completely in love with running yet, but I do love the feeling I get after accomplishing each day in my training program. I am definitely planning to sign up for more races next spring/summer because I think that is the biggest thing that has helped me to stick with it this long.

In other news- Mike and I are gearing up for another exciting adventure. On Friday we leave for a belated 5 year anniversary trip to Spain!! We are so excited! (or should I say Estamos tan entusiasmado!) We were able to cash in some flight miles and we plan to be gone for about 10 days. This is way longer than we have been away from the store, so Mike is working extra hard this week to make sure everything is in place to run smoothly in his absence. Fortunately, we now have a great managment team in place, so the store should be in good hands! We will fly into Madrid, then spend some time in Segovia before heading down to Malaga to use as a basepoint for exploring southern Spain. I am very much looking forward to this trip and Mike is very much looking forward to taking me on this trip. He has been three times before, and this has been the one place Mike has really wanted to take me since we met. We did decide to take Mike's laptop, so we'll plan to give some updates along the way, probably mostly on Facebook.

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5k Training Update

I told you I would update my running progress on the blog, mainly to help me stay accountable to my commitment to train for the 5k by running three times per week.
The first couple weeks went really well. Amazingly, I was able to do most of my runs in the morning before work. I am REALLY not a morning person, but I do find I enjoy running in the morning much more than I ever would have imagined. It's peaceful, there's not too many people out that early, I get to see the sunrise, it's cool (temperature-wise), it gets exercise out of the way early, and it makes me feel more energized at the start of my day.

The last couple weeks I have not been doing quite as well. My runs are getting more spaced out then they should be, so I'm not as far along in my training as I should be. It's been more challenging at times to get up early, but the weather has been warmer, so it does not appeal to me much to run at night. Fortunately, I was able to muster up enough motivation to get out and run tonight. I finished day two on week 3 of the couch-to-5k training program. I am still really enjoying the running podcasts. It makes it much easier to know when to run and walk and I love the music while I'm running. Overall, I really like the Couch-to-5k training program. The idea of alternating walking with running and slowly increasing the length of the runs makes it so much easier for me. I don't feel so awful, so that helps me want to go out and run.

I signed up for the Couch-to-5k group on Facebook, so I'm getting to read where other people are at in the program and read encouraging stories of success. I was reading tonight about some possibilities once I've completed this program for going on to run 10k or half-marathons. I can't believe I'm even thinking about that!! Crazy!! Although I'm pretty sure I said once that I had a goal of running a marathon. That would have been sometime while I was in Boston and after watching the Boston marathon. There is something very inspiring about seeing people commit to something so difficult.

The other major plus for me now that I'm running is that I can feel better about encouraging my patients to exercise. I have always followed my own advice with my diet, and I do feel I am fairly active with my daily activities. Since my office and the Nutrition Clinic where I work are on complete opposite sides of a very large hospital, I get a decent amount of walking in at work. However, I am proud to now be doing exercise "outside of my daily routine" like I encourage most of my patients to do. So overall- so far so good! I just need to continue to keep up my commitment so I can reach my goal in October!!

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A Little Too Much Excitement

Sometimes I find myself wishing for a little more excitement in my day to day life. It would be nice to have more to blog about than just "we're here, things are the same, here's some pictures!" But after what I went through yesterday, I don't need any more excitement for awhile now.

Yesterday was my Grandma's birthday, so I planned to travel with my parents up to her house to have a birthday dinner with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Mike had some things he needed to get done, so decided not to go. Sunday morning my parents and I headed out in their van and stopped by to pick up my sister, brother-in-law, and my two nieces to ride up all together. I was having a good time playing and reading books to Teagan when we started to notice that the sky was getting really dark. It wasn't too suprising since we knew we might hit some storms that day, but thought the worst would be later in the afternoon/evening.

We were talking about how dark it was and Nicole commented that it would make great napping weather. But it just seemed to be getting darker, so my mom suggested maybe we should try to turn on the radio to see about the weather. So my dad turned it on, but we couldn't really get anything in. I was starting to get just a little worried and as we passed by an exit, I had a passing thought that we really should have pulled off there. Next thing I know it starts raining. And then starts raining very hard and is very windy. By this time, we are really on edge and trying to figure out how to check the weather on somebody's phone. Unfortunately my sister, the only one with web access on her phone, left her phone at home, thinking it wouldn't matter since everyone else had phones.

Then out of nowhere we heard a loud CLUNK. It didn't register at first what had happened, but then we started hearing CLUNK CLUNK CLUNKCLUNKCLUNKCLUNK and Teagan started screaming. Somewhere in the middle of this we realized it was hail. We're really scared at this point and then the next thing I remember, Nicole, who is clear in the back, yells out that she's getting wet. I look back at the window, but no cracks, then I look up front and realize there isn't a driver's side window anymore and the windsheild is completely cracked. The wind was blowing so hard and it was so loud we thought there was a tornado. I quickly get on my phone to call Mike to ask him to look up online to see if there is a tornado in the area. He couldn't hear what I was saying and I was shouting with my voice shaking badly with fear. We ended up finally getting to an overpass, which was completly lined with cars on both sides, so we just had to park in the middle of the interstate. Mike has finally figured out what I was asking and realizes that there's no official report, but someone has reported that they think there is a tornado. So he's wanting us to get out of the car and up under the bridge. But with two babies and 5 adults, we have no idea how to manage this.

While I was on the phone with Mike, Nicole had called 911 and got disbatched to a police officer who was not the most compassionate guy out there. All he said was that we needed to get our car out of the middle of the interstate and that if we could get under the bridge to go for it. The whole time the wind was blowing so hard and I could see debris from the fields flying across the windshield. Plus, I'm getting soaked with water and we have golf-ball sized hail littering the floor of the van. Quick thinking mama Nicole threw a blanket over Teagan and hovered over Harper's carseat in the back.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, it seemed to be letting up. At this point, Nicole and Mom are really pushing Dad to pull forward to get off the road. This means we're going to get even more soaked, but we can't risk staying on the road and having someone bash into us from behind. Right after we pulled over a semi-truck came barrelling by at full speed. We still didn't know if it was over, or if there might by a tornado or more hail on the way, but we decided to make a run for the next exit. We ended up being farther north than we thought, so drove longer to get to an exit that actually had somewhere to pull off to without having to drive 10 miles to the nearest town. I was freezing in the car- we looked at the temperature on the van and it was only at 56 degrees even though just before the storm it had been in the 80's! My hands and legs were shaking so bad because of being cold and because of the adrenaline.

When we pulled off and got to the gas station, my Dad got out and had blood running down his legs and on his arm. He also had a huge welt under his chin where he had gotten pelted by hail. We met lots of new friends (most of them bikers on their way back from Sturgis) who were amazed to see the damage to the van and the glass all over. Then we headed to Kmart to get some new clothes for Dad and me and to get plastic and duct tape to patch the window. When I went to try on pants at Kmart, glass fell out of my shorts as I took them off. We got patched up with the help of some strangers in the parking lot. Nicole became Dad's personal nurse and got him all cleaned and fixed up with ice to put on his chin and finger.We rode the rest of the way to Grandma's house in shock and on edge, as the clouds ahead stayed ominously dark. Thankfully rain was all we encountered.

After a great afternoon at Grandma's, we headed back home. The whole way it was raining lightly and lightening all across the sky, but again, fairly mild weather compared to earlier. When we passed the spot we got hit, we were amazed to see the corn and bean fields just decimated. We also noticed a couple big farm houses with all the west side windows boarded up due to busted out windows, and saw a line of trees in the middle of a field knocked over.

Apparently, what I gather from news reports it that after it hit us, the storm continued straight east to Eldora, where it did some very serious damage and released hail even bigger than the golf ball sized chunks we were hit with. There were reports of 70 mph winds- and I believe it!!!

The good news is that Dad really only had minor injuries, and we all came out shaken, but safe and healthy. We were amazed at how God had worked things out for us. We could easily have had both babies up front, or Teagan's car seat could have been on my side and she would have gotten soaked and cut with glass. If Mike had come with us, Nicole and Brandon would have been in their small car with both girls in the back and Nicole would have had much more trouble getting them covered. We are praising God that he kept us safe through the storm. I am praying though that this is the last of my excitement of that sort for awhile!!

I have some pictures, but didn't get them loaded to our computer yet. In the meantime- you can check out Nicole's pictures here.

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Some Pictures and a Side Trip Story

So after publishing my last post about our trip, I realized I left out one of the funniest and craziest parts of our trip. I think for most people, when you hear "Waco, TX", your mind automatically thinks of "Wacko Waco" and David Koresh. Or at least that's what I tend to think about. So on Thursday before our trip, I read up on Wikipedia about David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and the Waco Siege. Crazy stuff!

Mike had it on his mind too and Friday night he spent some time figuring out where the compound was located. We weren't really seriously thinking of visiting, but more just thinking of it as a joke. Well, we ended up getting to Waco a little early, so we first visited the Dr. Pepper museum gift shop (the soda originated in Waco). We still had time left so Mike decided he really wanted to try to find the location. We didn't really have exact directions, mostly a vague explanation, but we had time and thought it would be something funny to do.

So we set out and we're heading east out of Waco on a country road with little traffic. There's lots of houses with big fences and gates, and run down ranches with animals that are way too skinny. Next thing we know, Mike announces the gas light came on! Great! We don't even know where we're going and it's super hot and humid! But if we turned around and got gas first there's no way to get there and back before we needed to meet Lisa and Cini. So Mike promises me that we'll turn around if we don't find it in 10 miles (we know we can get at least 30 miles after the gas light comes on).

We did find it, but when we got there, I was totally freaked out. There is a big sign warning the US government to keep out and gates at the drive. There was a small house and a church-like building on the grounds. There was a mail box with "Branch Davidians, Mount Carmel" written on it and a big stone memorial. Of course, Mike and Marge wanted to get out to take pictures, but I'm just worried we're going to see someone come out of the house at any minute with their guns (it is Texas you know!) We had thought we might eat our picnic lunch there, but on seeing the place, there was no way I was staying there to eat lunch!!! So they quickly took some shots and we headed back to find a gas station. I breathed a sigh of relief as we pulled up to fill up the car. It's funny looking back on it now, but at the moment, I was not laughing so much! :)

Here's some pictures from our adventure:

This is a picture of Mount Carmel with the stone memorial reading "The Branch"

A shot of the mailbox reading "Branch Davidians, Mount Carmel"

Arriving in the great state of Texas!

A shot of the chandelier at Paciugo Gelato- it's made out of gelato spoons! The other light fixture has a printed picture of gelato spoons on the bottom.

Mike and Marge enjoying the gelato.

There's more pictures from our trip on our Picasa site if you're interested.

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2000 Miles in 72 Hours...Are we Crazy??

We might be crazy, but our trip to Waco, TX this weekend was totally worth it. We spent probably around 30 hours or more in the car to spend less than 24 hours in Waco. Why would we do such a crazy thing?? Easiest way to explain it is---it's a God thing :)

About a year ago, a friend Mike had met through Capanna came to him out of the blue and said
she felt she needed to tell him about her friends in India and put them in contact. Her friends, Lisa and Cini, were Christians who own a coffee shop in India. For a number of reasons that would take awhile to explain, this was very interesting to us. So Mike took the contact and they have emailed sporadically over the last year. Lisa and Cini recently returned to the US with their two children for a short furlough. We had a strong desire to meet with them in person to hear more about what they are doing in India and to see what connection might be made between us. Lisa is originally from Mississippi (Cini is from India), so we thought we would be heading down there. However, the weekend we wanted to meet, they were going to be in Waco, where they have connections with a church and mission group, so we decided we'd plan to meet them there. It also worked well, as the mission group has a coffee shop that needs a little help, and Cini had been trying to help them and thought Mike would be a good connection to help them out as well.

So Thursday night we set out. We headed down to Oskaloosa to pick up Mike's mom, as she was interested in joining us on our road trip. It was a big blessing to have another driver, since I hate driving. At 6am on Friday we set out for Texas. The trip down was fun, we spent alot of time laughing at various billboards (especially one for a restaurant claiming to be home of "El Farto Grande"). Since Lisa and Cini weren't going to be in Waco until Saturday, we decided to spend Friday night in Dallas. We got a close up view of downtown due to accidentally leaving out a zero in the address of our hotel on the GPS. But that was easily fixed and we found our way to the hotel. Then we set out for the gelato shop where Mike was first trained in how to make Gelato. It was good, but I still think ours is better. One highlight of that trip was Mike taking pictures of the case and the girl inviting him behind the counter to get a better shot! Mike's words after that were "If one of my employees ever did that, they would be fired!"

Saturday morning we headed to Waco. We were a little nervous about meeting Lisa and Cini and just hoping we weren't completely crazy to drive so far to meet them. We met up at the World Cup cafe and pretty instantly hit it off. We got to hear a lot about what they are doing in India and how owning this business as Christians is a strong witness to a community in which bribery and unethical business practices are the norm. Lisa told us about her five ladies who work in the bakery- 2 christians, 2 hindus, and 1 muslim lady. God has really blessed their efforts and they are having up to 1500 customers per day!! By the time we went to dinner with them later in the day, we felt like we were good friends and had known them forever. We are still not sure what God has for us, but we are glad to have made this connection. And of course we are now dreaming and praying about a trip to India to visit the store in person!

Another really great part of this trip was learning more about the church and mission in Waco that Lisa and Cini are connected with. The church is called "Church Under the Bridge" and the mission is "Mission Waco". These people are doing some crazy and awesome things in their work with the poor and marginalized in Waco. It was really inspiring. We were sad that we couldn't stay longer to go to church with them, but since we had a 15 hour drive ahead of us, we needed to hit the road early. One of Lisa's friends generously put us up for the night and we got a little sleep before leaving Sunday morning at 6am to head back.

Overall it was a great trip. I have not been able to stop thinking about it since we got back, and just praying and contemplating about what role we are supposed to play in all of this. When I first met Mike, the thing that most attracted me to him was his spirit of adventure. He promised me when we got married that I would never be bored and that life would always be an adventure. This has definitely been true, and I am so glad to be his partner in these great adventures, even when it means I get to drive 2000 miles in just 72 hours :)

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Garden Update and a New Adventure!

My container garden is coming along quite nicely. I have lots of green tomatoes and a few that are turning red, I'm finally starting to get some beans and cucumbers, and I already got two zucchini and one yellow squash. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be one of those people with ridiculous amounts of zucchini. For the second year in a row, my plants succumbed to the squash vine borer. From what I read online, there's not much you can do to avoid this pest and once you get it your plant is doomed to death :( I think the best you can do is just plant enough that hopefully some avoid it, but since that's not really possible in a small container garden, I think this might be the last year I do zucchini until I can plant in the ground.

In other news, I decided to train with some friends from church to run a 5k this fall! I'm not too crazy about running (well, actually I really dislike it), but I knew I needed to start getting some exercise and this way I have something to train for and people to hold me accountable- no excuses! It does feel nice to know I won't have to feel like a hypocrite when I'm telling patients to get 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week! I'm planning to follow the Couch to 5k plan, which has 9 weeks of 30 minute runs where you alternate between walking and running. In the beginning you run for only 60 seconds at a time, but then in later weeks you start running more and walking less. It's a good plan for me, since I get discouraged if I try to run too long when I'm out of shape. I got new running shoes this weekend and finally got motivated enough to break them in tonight. And I'm happy to say I made it through all 30 minutes of my first run! I had a hard time knowing exactly when to switch to running or walking without a stop watch, but I found some podcasts online for each week which have music that changes beat so you know when to walk and when to run. Mike said he would let me borrow his iPod. That should make things much easier. I'll try to document my progress on the blog. The more people to hold me accountable the better!

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A Long Overdue Update

Sometimes life just gets busy, and sitting down to write a blog post is the last thing on your mind. Then, life slows down, and you have plenty of time to write, but feel overwhelmed by all the things missed during the accidental blogging hiatus. I was discussing this dilemma with my friend Leah and she suggested to just leave the past in the past and post only about what's happening now. Since it's been a good six months since my last update (and a million things have happened!!), I'm thinking that sounds like pretty good advice, and I'm going to take it!

Summer has brought an increase in business for Capanna with all of the gelato sales. It's really nice to feel like we are just part of the local Iowa City culture now. Mike is busier at times, but we are really blessed to have managers at both stores, which helps tremendously. We were able to get away to visit my brother and sister-in-law last weekend in St. Louis and we have a Kennedy family mini-vacation planned in August, which is awesome that we can do that. We are also planning a longer vacation this fall, sort of a delayed anniversary celebration.

While I'm on that note, I guess I will look back just slightly and mention that Mike and I celebrated five years of wonderful marriage on June 4th! It really is amazing how quickly time flies. We had a fabulous date which included a movie, dinner, and coffee/dessert afterwards. It was fun to reflect on the last five years and realize how much we've grown together.

One of my biggest projects this summer so far has been my gardens. I have another container vegetable garden, which is so far still thriving. My lettuce and radishes are done, but I'm starting to get some tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and summer squash. Hopefully those will be ready in the next couple weeks. We also worked out a deal with our landlord to be able to do some landscaping at our house, which was long overdue. He payed for the materials if we kept it under a certain amount and we did the work. I've enjoyed working in the dirt and picking out my hostas and shrubs. I'm not quite finished since I sort of went on a break with the recent crazy heatwave, but it already looks much better.

And of course, it really would not be an update post if I didn't end with some recent pictures! For your viewing enjoyment:

This is my container garden in the very beginning stages. It's much fuller now and I've moved it from this spot since landscaping here (notice all the weeds!!). But in the back row I have four tomato plants, and a royal burgundy bush bean. To the far left, positioned vertically, is a window box planter with radishes (waiting to be thinned). Then in the front row there is a cucumber, a summer squash, and a zucchini. Next to that in the window box planter is my lettuce (also waiting to be thinned).

First harvest of lettuce from one of the thinnings. We got about 4 good sized salads from that tiny box!

Some of the radishes I got. Unfortunately, most of them stayed really tiny. I'm going to try planting them again this fall, but do two rows in my planter with more space between each radish. We'll see if it helps.

This is Mike and I with my brother Chris riding in the tram up to the top of the Arch in St. Louis. That thing is so tiny!! Definitely a weird, but fun experience.

A nice shot of my brother Chris and his wife Dorothy at the Penguin House in the zoo. St. Louis is awesome because many of the museums and other public places are completely free to get in, including the zoo. However, it was ridiculously and stiflingly hot the day we went, and I don't think I've ever felt as good as I did once we got inside the Penguin House!!

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A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

and since it's been way too long since I've posted, rather than write out a lengthy update, I thought I'd give you an overview of the last few months for the McCain's in pictures.

In September, I sang in a wedding for a good friend of my sister's. Overall, it went well and I had a great time at the reception hanging out with Teagan :)

Mike and I did a lot of hiking this fall at our favorite spots. We took a camera out every week to track the changes, but I think the leaves changed very quickly, since most of the pictures are green and then the last week they are yellow.

In November, we got to take a quick trip to Chicago to go see one of our favorite bands, Relient K. I got a great deal for a nice hotel downtown on Priceline- this is a picture of our room. We had a great time hanging out in the city and then the concert was lots of fun, even if we were some of the oldest in the crowd. In our defense, we are no younger than the band members themselves! We also spent lots of time scouting out locations for a Capanna in Chicago someday- big dreams :)

Also in November, Capanna Coffee and Gelato number 3 opened up in Ames, IA. Our partners Dave and Pam own and run this store, and so far it has gotten off to a great start.

We had a great Christmas at home and got to celebrate with both Mike's family and my family. It was fun getting to see all of our family and eating lots of delicious food while we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.


My niece, Teagan, turned one on January 1st and I got the pleasure of making the cakes for the big celebration. I was nervous about how they would turn out, but I think it's safe to say...

It was very much enjoyed!! :)

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Oops, Sorry Honey!!!

I thought you all would appreciate this funny story......
So, Tuesday night Mike had to go into work to train one of the employees how to close the store at Oakdale. Since we don't close at Oakdale until 10 pm, I knew that I'd be going to bed on my own. So right around 10, I put on my pj's, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and locked the door before heading to bed. I fell asleep pretty quickly, and did not wake up at all until a little after 5 in the morning. As soon as I woke up, I realized something was wrong. I was still in bed by myself and I couldn't remember Mike waking me up when he got home (which he usually does).
For a few seconds I tried to reason through, thinking he must have just fallen asleep out on the couch, since he's been doing that lately. I still couldn't shake the feeling though, so I got out of bed, expecting just to open the door and see Mike fast asleep on the couch. But, as I opened the door, I realized my instinct had been right, he was not there. Immediately, my stomach just dropped and my mind started racing. I invisioned all kinds of horrible situations to explain the absence of my sweet husband. Scrambling, I searched for my cell phone and realized I'd missed several calls. I was just sure he'd been in an accident, and was stranded in his car, unable to move, and he'd tried to call me so I could come find him and bring the fire department to pry him out with the jaws of life.
Mike answered after only two rings. "Where are you, I asked" as my heart was racing. And Mike replied, "in the parking lot out back." Since I was still partially asleep, my brain was slow in processing this information. "What?!?" And Mike replied "you locked me out." Again, "What?!? I locked you out?" "Yeah.....you turned the deadbolt." And then it hit me. Oh, did I feel terrible. In absentmindedness, I had turned the deadbolt when I locked the door. We don't have a key to unlock that one from the outside. Mike had been locked out of the house ALL night. He'd tried banging on the door, and called my phone about a dozen times. He told me initially he had gone back to Capanna to try to sleep on the couch, but then thought that maybe I would wake up in the middle of the night and realize what had happened, so he decided to come home in case that happened so he could quickly come inside. Unfortunately, that didn't happen until after 5am, so he got to sleep outside in his car. Did I tell you, i felt REALLY bad.
Fortunately, Mike was gracious, and just came straight inside to fall into bed, not being even remotely upset. I asked him why he didn't bang on the window, but he said there was no way he would have done that, because he knows how much he would have scared me. He didn't think to ring the door bell though! :)

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New Adventure

I have been considering for awhile starting a specific nutrition/food related blog. Since it's my goal to be a stay at home mom when Mike and I have kids, I am considering ways which I can make sure I stay up to date on current nutrition to help me maintain my registered dietitian status and make it easier for me to get back in to the field if/when necessary. Blogging would help accomplish some of these goals, and possibly even bring in a little bit of income if I got really popular. However, as you've noticed, it's hard for me to regularly post in this blog, let alone adding another one!
Fortunately, some friends of mine have decided to create a food and nutrition related group blog, which I will be contributing to. I'm excited to be a part of this and have all kinds of ideas how I might best use my education and background to contribute. Look for me posting under the username Wysteria on the blog Lovely Ladies Dish on the Dish. (We all are supposed to choose My Little Pony names as usernames- don't ask me why! :) )

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Garden Progress

I am so excited about my garden- I am actually getting food that I can pick and eat! It's so amazing! So far I've had lettuce, one tomato, and just tonight I picked some of my beans.
I've been keeping a pretty close eye on the progress, but I was amazed to find that the beans were ready to pick today, I thought it would still be a week or so. I probably got somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 a pound. I can't wait to cook them. They are a beautiful deep eggplant/purple color right now, but apparently will turn green when I cook them. I would love to show you some pictures, but sadly we don't have a camera currently. We're thinking we might be able to get one next month, so maybe I will have some fall harvest pictures for you!
There's definitely more to come. I counted 17 tomatoes on my tomato plant! I also have one decent sized red bell pepper, with about three tiny ones just starting. And the cucumber, zucchini, and summer squash are blossoming right now, so I'll expect to see some fruit pretty soon from those. The funniest thing is that my lettuce is still growing. I planted a mix and didn't use the best container so I didn't get much. I had some of it bolt, so I thought it was finished and I stopped paying attention to it and even stopped watering it. However in the last few weeks it has made a comeback and I've got some nice leaf lettuce that I probably need to pick.
I'm really glad things have worked so well in containers. I have a few things to do differently next year, so I'll make sure to keep a list and give you all my best hints for vegetable container gardening. I don't think I have to weed as much as I would with a garden in the ground and I don't have to worry much about rabbits getting my plants, since they're raised off the ground in the containers. It was kind of an investement due to having to buy all the potting soil, but I think if I can do it again next year and reuse some of the soil, it will really pay off!

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Bad Idea, But I'm in One Piece!

Getting to work on Friday was a not so fun 2.5-3 hour deal. Today, I had no idea if the situation would be better or worse, so I began thinking about alternative ways to get to work. I had planned to get up very early to catch the earliest bus from the Oakdale campus, however, that plan did not work out so well. I just could not get up at 5:05 am. I contemplated driving in, wondering if that might get me there quicker, but then thought about all the gas ($$) wasted if I sat in stop-and-go traffic for 2 hours like I did on the bus Friday. So I had the brilliant idea of riding my bike to work. It didn't seem that far and a lot of it was down hill. Surely it had to be quicker than it was on Friday!
So I got dressed, packed work clothes, a water bottle, and some granola bars in my back pack, and got my tires all pumped up with air. Off I set down the North Liberty-Coralville bike trail. It was breezy and nice and I thought to myself "this isn't bad". However, when I was already somewhat tired by the time I actually got out of North Liberty, I knew it wasn't good. But my decision had already been made, I had to press forward. So yes, I rode my bike approximately 11 miles into work this morning, and rode it those same 11 grueling miles back this afternoon. It took me about an hour and a 15 minutes on the way in and about an hour and a half on the way back.
This was not a good idea. Maybe if I was one of those people who biked and worked out all the time, it wouldn't have been so bad, but I'm pretty sure I haven't ridden my bike for at least a year. To make matters worse there was NO traffic this morning. Seriously, none! I might have had more satisfaction if, as I was slowly cranking my way up those hills with my bike in the lowest gear, I was passing cars just sitting in traffic, but this was not to be. Instead cars and buses quickly drove by as I became more and more exhausted and way more sweaty.
Here's some things that I learned in my journey today:

1) There must be A LOT of "non-essential" workers at UI. These people have a week off (paid) and it made a SERIOUS difference in traffic.
2) I sweat, a lot when I'm working out. Really, a lot.
3) Riding ~20-22 miles in one day when you haven't ridden a bike in a year is just asking for pain.
4) There is no shame in walking your bike up some hills on the way home.
5) There is no shame in being passed by fellow bikers, even if they appear to be 50 year old men.
6) Capanna makes a really nice place to rest and recuperate before completing those last two miles. And my iced vanilla latte tasted really, really good!
7) There is an amazing sense of satisfaction when you finally complete the task!
7) Always, always take the bus to work!!!

If nothing else, at least my adventure resulted in approximately 950 calories burned today!!!

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Freaky Coincidence or Divine Guidance?

So on my 2 hour bus ride into work this morning (which is usually only a 25 minute ride), there was a woman reading the daily devotional from the Methodist church (the Upper Room). And she had to announce to the bus that today's verse was from Isaiah 43:2-3:

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;...the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you...For I am the Lord your God...your savior."

Seriously- check it out: http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/ (make sure you look at June 13, 2008)

Yeah, that was weird. But not too weird if you know God. :)

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Notes from the Floodlands

Just an update to our friends and family not in Iowa City- we are ok! However, Coralville and Iowa City are most definitely not ok. Mike and I have helped sandbag three different times this week. There are millions of sandbags filled, and we are praying they will hold back the waters. However, it seems that there will be many places where they will not.

Fortunately, we believe that both of the business locations will be safe from the flood waters. However, we are still at risk for losing power or water at both spots and as you might imagine, a 500-year flood is not good for business. Also, given the fact that there is now only one main way in and out of Iowa City from the north, the news is just not good. We are praying for our neighbors just to the north in Cedar Rapids who are experiencing unbelievable flooding. It is beyond description.

Please pray for us in the Iowa City area- many parts of town are already badly flooded, and the river may not crest until Friday next week (June 20). As I type this, we are getting slammed with yet another storm. So pray that it stops raining, and that the sandbags do their duty. Also pray for safety for the residents who are having to evacuate their homes. I would also urge you to give to the Red Cross if you can. With 55 of Iowa's 99 counties currently declared disaster areas, they are sure to need donations!

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