No pictues today....

Hello!

No pictures today...we carry our camera with us everywhere, but it seems like we always forget to take pictures - oh well.

We spent last week in Grand Forks - while Aaron was working, I stayed in the hotel and worked on scrapbooking - I'm almost done with our album of before we were married, so now I just have to finish it up, and do our wedding album before the baby is born :)

We also did a little shopping (got a few flowers on sale at Menards) and went out to eat a few times...

As for the baby, it's moving around a lot - I couldn't feel it as early as people say you should be able too, but there's no doubt now!

Also while we were gone, I read a book on childbirth - there's so much to know! Some of it I was familiar with, some things I'd heard of in dairy farm settings, and some things I'd never heard of in my life - so now I'm on a mission to become prepared :) So don't be surprised if I come asking you your opinions...

Yesterday and today we weeded/hoed/tilled our whole garden - it looks like a real garden now, not a swamp!

We're also preparing for the 4th of July - we're having a church service down by the lake (where most of the holiday activities go on) at 9:00 instead of our regular services, so Aaron is going to preach a patriotic message, and we're going to sing patriotic songs, and hopefully it'll be an outreach to the community, so please pray for us if you think of it!

I Thes. 5:16 - Rejoice evermore

Garden, VBS, and Baby News

I took this picture just this evening - we were out weeding and this is the nice looking part of the garden :) We planted the tomatos/onions/peppers about 2 1/2 weeks ago, the corn/beans/peas 2 weeks ago, and everything else just yesterday, so hopefully it'll do ok. We didn't exactly wait because we wanted too, but we've been gone a lot and the main reason is: water!! Our garden is sort of in a low spot and is very wet. Aaron ridged up rows, and hopefully it'll dry out eventually. Oh, and we're trying out okra and sweet potatos!

Aaron planting peppers - see the water :)

Last week was our church's VBS (not to be confused with Mom and Dad's church's VBS - that's this week...). We did a Western theme and it ended up being a lot of fun! Some of the church people brought sadles, bridles, things like that, to decorate and for a craft the kids decorated the straw hats you see them wearing...

I thought Aaron looked pretty good in a cowboy hat :) He taught all of the Bible lessons, led rally time and kept busy the whole time - did a great job! Here he's sharing the Evange-cube. I helped some with registration and the contest and just kind of did what needed to be done - we're both still in recovery....

We took the kids pictures one day - this is my cousin, Sarah. A few of my cousins came and even Priscilla did a couple days - she said she was going to take notes on everything we did to critique us!

Besides Bible study time, the kids had craft time, snack/verse memory time, and outdoor game time. In spite of a lot of forcasted rain, we only had to do games indoors one day - which was a real blessing! Things went ok, but that many people in one building for 3 hours gets kind of crazy!
We ended up with a total enrollment of 32 kids, plus half a dozen junior workers, so we were pretty happy with that.
Friday night was "family night" - it was supposed to be outdoors, but we ended up doing it indoors and it actually worked out just as well. Very noisy, but I think everyone had a good time.
One of the games - we borrowed a "Block Party Trailor" which came equipped with the games and other stuff. Overall we were very, very happy with how things turned out and we're looking forward to next year!
Me by the popcorn maker (it's Miriam's hat by the way!). In case you're wondering, I have gained weight....I had my first doctar's appointment this last week too - would have gone in earlier, but I was too busy and feeling ok, so I didn't worry about it.

Let's see - I'm at "20 weeks", the due date is October 28th, everything seems to be going well. Apparently I'm healthy, which is always good to hear. I'd never had blood drawn before (my hospital experience was limited to getting my wisdom teeth out at age 17 and stitches at age 6) and I didn't really enjoy that part! It left a huge bruise on my arm...Oh, and I've still been feeling well - I take naps once and a while now, which I NEVER did before, and I broke out it hives a couple days last week and still don't know why, but nothing to complain about!

No, we're not having an ultrasound - unless we have to for some reason or other. I was surprised at how many people were shocked by that :) Yes, we have talked about names - we don't agree on all of them, but there's plenty of them that we both like to last for all the children we're likely to have! We've picked out about 3 boy and girl names and you'll find out what they are when the time comes :)

Our Big Trip - part 1 of 5

This time I have a good excuse for taking a long time to post - we were gone for almost 3 weeks!
In spite of our good resolutions, we didn't take a lot of pictures, but enough to do a couple posts.

We left on a Sunday afternoon and drove to Souix Falls to visit my aunt/uncle/cousins there - Aaron had never been there and hadn't gotten to visit with them a lot, so that was nice for him - and it was great to see how much the babies have grown - and we got back some more wedding pictures which I'll have to show you someday.

After a too-short visit, we drove down to Warrensburg, MO where Aaron's brother and his wife live. I had been to Warrensburg twice for ACE conventions, so it was funny to go back for a different reason :) It was nice to get to know them a little better...then the next day, we left for Clarksville, TN to visit Aaron's parents.
We drove through St. Louis...
Aaron's parents have done a lot of landscaping and have a beautiful backyard - Aaron helped out with a couple projects there. We also went to their church a couple times, Aaron met with some pastors, and I got to meet a new Grandma, Aunt, Uncle, Brother-in-law, and other family friends. It's a little late now, but I'm still glad I like Aaron's family :) I met so many people on this trip, it's going to take me a while to remember them all! Also, we helped Aaron's mother help with a lunch after the funeral of someone from the church's deaf ministry. That was a new experience for both of us!
Beautiful countryside in TN.

Our Big Trip - part 2 of 5

Over the first weekend we were gone, we went to Union City, TN - about 2 hours west of Clarksville - so Aaron could preach at his "home church" and meet with some pastors there. He showed me around some too - I enjoyed getting to see the places where he's been so I can picture them.

This is the house where Aaron's family lived from the time he was a senior in highschool, until just a couple years ago.

This church is actually just one that Aaron's sister went to, but it's pretty typical of all of the churches we visited - red brick with a tall steeple!
On a Thursday, we drove from TN to Maryland to visit Aaron's brother, Nathan - Aaron helped him out with some yard work and church work and they got to go fishing one evening. I got to meet another Sister-in-law and an adorable niece and nephew!

Above is just a senic view - there's lots of those in the mountains. Personally, I think they're beautiful to look at, but not meant to be driven through! Actually though, we were blessed with great weather for traveling and it went as smoothly as you could hope for.
Yes, we did drive through all of that fog!

We drove to Avon, IN (near Indianapolis) on Wednesday to visit a church there where Aaron was an intern, then the next day, we left around 8 in the morning and drove all the way home! It took a little coffee and a few breaks, but we made it by 3:30 in the morning! It was a great trip, and now we're glad to be home and working on planting our garden...which you'll here more about next time - and hopefully it'll be sooner than 4 weeks this time!

Our Big Trip - part 3 of 5

Aaron's brother in Maryland lives about 45 minutes from Washington DC, so one afternoon we went up there to look around. I'd always wanted to go there, but never had - and we really didn't plan it before we left, so it was a nice surprise!

Unlike the rest of our trip, we did take pictures that afternoon, so the next three posts are pictures from Washington - The pictures may bore you, but it was exciting to see the things in person.

We were able to park right in the mall, but it was at a 2-hour-meter, so we walked pretty fast the whole way there and back - we had to have put on over 3 miles throughout the afternoon!
The Washington Monument - it's very tall!!
One of our favorite things was the relatively new WWII Memorial - it was large and very impressive - just like the war it represents.
There were two halves - one for the Pacific and one for the Atlantic theaters. Also, each of the "pillars with wreaths" that you see, have the name of a state on them. Of course we found MN and TN :)
From the other side. There were some current Marines there assisting WWII veterns to see the place.

Our Big Trip - part 4 of 5

As we walked along, we saw the White House to one side, but we didn't have time to take a closer look.

The Lincoln Memorial as viewed from the WWII Memorial - I forget exactly what they call this pond, but it was pretty and there were ducks with ducklings swimming around in it.

It doesn't look like it, but there's a lot of steps to get up there! We were visiting on a Tuesday, so there weren't tons of people, but there were some - a lot of highschoolers (probably on Senior trips) and I was really surprised at how many foreigners there were!

Abraham Lincoln himself - his Gettysburg Adress was on one wall and an inagural speech on the other.

The view from the top of the steps -

Our Big Trip - part 5 of 5

On our quick walk back to the van, we went by the Vietnam memorial. Unlike the WWII one, this memorial seemed almost like a graveyard for all of those people who were unable to be buried here in their homeland.

After a quick break at the van, we added a few more minutes to our meter and walked the other way towards the Capitol. This is Aaron by part of the Ulysses S. Grant memorial.

These are sort of all the same, but I couldn't decide which of them I wanted to use, so you get to see the Capitol building from 3 different distances...We talked about several other things we'd like to see and do if we go back to Washington someday, and one of them is to tour this building.

As you can see, it was cloudy when we first arrived, which was much nicer than if it had been really warm, but it cleared up not long before we left.