Wkd Updates & Prayer Request

Thanks for bearing with me last week; since we got back from Ohio we were go-go and we finally had some "down time" yesterday to catch up on fun things like laundry, groceries, and reading.  Good times :)

Recently some other things have come up as well and I wanted to ask for your prayers.  Last week we found out that Dan's mom has cancer.  She had breast cancer close to 13 years ago so it was a shock to hear that it was back.  We were in Ohio last weekend while she was getting some tests done and we found out that it is in her hips, rib, and neck.  Today marks the first day that she will be doing radiation for the next 3 weeks.  Would you mind praying for her?  We would really appreciate it SO much as she goes through this treatment. Thank you :)

As far as the rest of our weekend went, it was pretty low key.  Aside from class all day on Saturday, Dan and I watched the movie Courageous (highly recommended) and Ides of March (since it was filmed at our alma mater's new business building).  Since we were running low on food until our grocery run at 9 on Sunday night, I came up with a healthy, grown up dinner on Saturday night: Bagels with Prego sauce and Mozzarella cheese.  It's amazing what you can come up with when you look deep into your fridge. 

This was all the reading I was doing at Panera on Sunday:

And this is my studly husband doing his quiet time and reading for his class:

Life

That is what I have been doing these past few days- living life with barely any breaks.  Well, blogging breaks that is :)

Since we got back from Ohio on Sunday night it has been quite a week- from writing papers and reading for our classes, to Bible studies, to work events, to a full day of class coming up on Saturday, we have been busy and it looks like we won't be slowing down for a little bit.  So, I decided to pop in and say hello real quick with the goal of being back with more substantial updates later. 

For now, I will leave you with some quotes that I have heard from the Elephant Room.  My church hosted this event for the 2nd year and since Dan is in a pastoral leadership training program at Harvest, he had the privilege of watching it all day yesterday.  Although there has been some controversy surrounding the pastors invited, I have heard some very encouraging quotes from the sessions and I wanted to share them. I hope you find them encouraging, too :)

"Inherently the gospel is urgency." - Crawford Loritts

"God doesn't use what we bring to the table, he uses what we surrender to Him." - Crawford Loritts

"As a leader, do I want to make a point or make a difference?" - Andy Stanley (said by Mark Driscoll)

On burnout - "We don't forget that we're pastors, we forget that we're human." Wayne Cordeiro

"We really don't want to pray, we just want the blessings of someone who did. Don't take shortcuts." Wayne Cordeiro

 

"The devil can't steal my ministry. He has no authority. So he just steals the joy of my ministry." Wayne Cordeiro

 

"The devil can't push you over the edge, so he will find ways to make you jump." Wayne Cordeiro

 

"A true preaching of the gospel is giving people a chance to respond, not "getting" people to respond." Crawford Loritts

Happy Thursday :)

Ohio

Dan's family was in Ohio (from Texas!) this past weekend so we drove there to see them :)

I had a coconut waffle- amazing. 

We visited a pet store :) Don't they look fake?

This reminds me of Home Alone. I will never let our child own a tarantula :/

We got lots of snow

Dan and Jeff joked around about the YouTube video with the line "Touch my screen."

We went to Dan's cousin's art show in Cleveland

We watched Dan's cousin coach his high school girl's basketball team

haha messing around at the game

Exploring Chicago

Our friends Luke and Brittany were in town last weekend and it was SO great to see them :)  We love it when they come to Chicago, and it gives us a chance to head into the city because we rarely do that. We need as many excuses as we can to get out these days.  What a better place to go crazy than the Museum of Science and Industry?

At Maggianos

They had a pretty amazing view of the city from their hotel!

Isn't it Ironic?

Is it ironic that by being an internet busy body I found an article that convicted me of that very sin - being an internet busy body? 

Most of you may say, "Surprise, surprise- for years I have said that Facebook is a time waster."  Yet I always tend to defend my hour or more internet browsing sessions by saying that I read a lot of devotionals and Christian blogs.  I'm not just gawking at Facebook or reading the latest gossip on Kim Kardashian (I get that by simply reading the covers of magazines when I'm checking out at Jewel), I'm reading articles that increase my faith and help me be a better homemaker, friend, and wife.  Or at least that's what I've been telling myself. Until recently I read this quote:

Sin is giving in to the temptation to be a busy-body by giving my attention to worthless and sometimes meaningless information that swirls around in my head, taking up mind and heart space that should be occupied by prayers and purpose.

In this internet age there is SO much information.  Tons of it.  Tons of great articles, great blogs, great insights.  Yet, at what point do I stop gathering information and start acting on it?  At what point does my internet Christian reading actually become a time waster because I'm not spending my time the way God wants me to.  What if God would rather me walk away from my computer and actually start living out my faith, whether it be serving my husband better, or writing a note to a friend, or talking directly to Him through pray rather than just reading about Him all the time?

During these past couple years of being a "blogger," I have found many blogs written by godly women who share what the Lord is doing in their life.   And can I be completely honest with you?  Recently I have found myself sharing more about what God is teaching other people and how interesting I find it to be, than what God is actually teaching me. That is pretty painful to admit.

On one hand I love sharing helpful articles and blogs written by other people and my hope is that people read them and are encouraged.  On the other hand, normally what I share just stimulated my thinking for about 5 minutes and that was it.  Very rarely do I take to heart what they are saying because I quickly find another godly article that stimulates my faith in a different way and soon enough I've forgotten the previous thought.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is a lot of great wisdom flowing into my mind from other blogs but I'm not sure how these things are actually changing my life.  I don't see a lot of the wisdom that I am reading about impacting how I actually live out my life for God.  And, I'm pretty sure it's because I'm an internet busy body.  Moving from one spiritual insight to the next.

So, here's what I've decided.  To keep myself in check, I'm going to wait sharing whatever it is that I find on line, until I have really taken in the information.  Until I have prayed about what God wanted to teach me through that article or blog.  Until I am seeing some type of fruit from what the other person shared. This doesn't mean I can never again mention an interesting article or blog that I found as an aside (that would just be silly).  And I am certainly not saying this is what everyone needs to do before they share an article.   But, right now, where I am, it is what I  need to do to keep myself in check.  I've seen my sin, I've repented, and I'm turning in a different direction.  This is me turning :)

Half Way There

I almost uploaded a YouTube video of Bon Jovi's Song "Livin' on a Prayer," (my mom is a pretty big Bon Jovi fan- let's just say we listened to this CD a lot growing up) but I assumed that 5% of you would get my humor and the other 95% of you would think I'm crazy.  Although, I have to admit I thought it was really clever that during the first half marathon Dan and I ran they played this song at 6.5 miles.  I looked over at Dan excitedly and exclaimed, "Get it Dan?! We're half way there!" I don't think he was quite as amused as I was.  

All right, enough Bon Jovi talk.  Onto our baby :) 

Dan and I were both a little nervous going into the 20 week appointment.  I knew that the baby had a heart beat (I check pretty much every day now :)  but, I also know that at 20 weeks they check the organs/ bones/ heart/ fluid, etc. to make sure everything looks normal... and thankfully everything looked great!  The technician even said she liked our baby already because he/ she was cooperating so well :)  Even though we weren't going to find out the gender, I was still so excited to see pictures of him/ her!  They took SO many, and we even have a DVD of our baby moving (I will spare you all that and not upload it on here)  But, I'll share some pictures!

I think our baby totally looks like Dan already lol

Taken from the back! This is my favorite one- it kinda looks 3D!  Those little dots are the ribs

Little skeleton arms.

Leg!

Ok, now before you have a heart attack looking at this next picture- I did look up on line that during an ultrasound, if you take a "picture" of the baby straight on, they look like a little skeleton. Unfortunately ours I think looks a little bit "Terminatorish" as well, but that's ok.  I'm sure s/he will be much cuter at the 30 wk appt.  I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed.  The doctor also said that our baby was quite "Hollywood" because the second the technician started doing the ultrasound, the baby turned and stared right at us for the rest of the time!  So, instead of those cute side views that most parents have, we have a lot of pictures of our baby similar to the one below.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

We did find out that the placenta is in front of the baby which could be why I don't feel quite as much movement as other moms-to-be at this point, and it may make it harder to find the heart beat.  But, the technician assured me that by 30 weeks that won't stop me from feeling it all the time!

And, she said that we are right on track- May 28th is still the due date.  She said that happens in 5% of pregnancies- normally the due date fluctuates a week shorter or longer, but ours was the same.  She said we should buy a lottery ticket.. Dan and I don't do that, but maybe we should?  Hopefully that's a sign that he or she will get here right on the 28th!  I won't have my hopes up for that, though :)

Now the fun part- the weight gain.  I laughed out loud when the technician said I gained 7 pounds in 4 weeks.  I know that my last appt was before Christmas, a major food splurging holiday... but really?!  After our appointment Dan and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch.  Our waitress probably thought I was crazy because as she was taking our order, I was googling on my phone "Average weight gain at 20 weeks" and telling Dan I couldn't believe I gained that much, while simultaneously asking for a side of nacho cheese sauce with my fries.  Ha. I guess I'm not that concerned, right?  So what if I may be on the *high* end of how much weight I should have gained at this point... that's ok.  It'll all even out in the end .. I'm sure...

Aside from all of that, we are soo excited to meet this little baby.  Right now I have mixed feelings.  Part of me cannot believe we're half way there, and the other part of me is thinking "we're only half way there?!" I'm sure it will go by fast, but seeing those pictures made me want to meet our baby right this second!  However, I know that this baby (and me!) have a lot of growing to do.  So until then, I'll just lay on our bed and listen to his/ her little heartbeat and talk their little ear off :)

Day off + a mix of other things

I know I've said this before, but one of the reasons I LOVE working at a University is because we get so many days off, including today :)

After running some errands and meeting Dan for lunch at Kraft, I am left staring at this:

But, instead of doing anything about it right now, I'm going to do some reading with some hot apple cider and some leftover Christmas chocolate:

I think I've made a good decision :)

On a completely other note, I've taken some random pictures and am pretty sure I haven't posted them yet.  So enjoy those for now and I'll have weekend updates up soon!

A picture I took of the first actual snow here in Chicago. Winter has arrived. 

I've been enjoying Frosty's and chocolate milkshakes lately :)  Mine was the "small" on the right. Dan's was from the $1 menu on the left- I think there were seriously 3 bites in there. Don't worry I shared :)

Thank you Jewel for your amazing bakery.  Dan and I need to be careful with this around our apt.

Dan and I re-watched this movie this weekend.  I want to name our child (If it's a boy) Liam ONLY because of how sweet Liam Neeson is in this movie. That's not weird, right?  Dan isn't sold on the idea yet.

 Annd our baby must want to say hello because s/he is kicking up a storm right now.  Either that or he/ she is enjoying the Christmas chocolate. And I don't blame them :)

Green Monster Smoothie

I'm not sure how many of you are on Pinterest, but just last week, I had my first pin go viral.  Ok, maybe that terminology is a little extreme...but after having hundreds of emails flood my inbox the night after I posted it- I thought it was going viral!

I actually was ashamed to post the recipe at first.  It's really green, and it's such a weird, healthy smoothie that I thought people would think I was crazy.  So, I sent it to myself in an email.  The next day, I didn't know what to do with the email, so I just decided to pin it.  (I hate having unnecessary email in my inbox!) Low and behold lots of other people apparently thought it looked good because everyone went crazy pinning it!

So, last weekend I decided that I needed to make it and give it a try. So, I put everything in the blender:

Started blending...

And prepared myself to drink it...

 

And, it was actually REALLY good.  Not just decent, but good! And I'm getting my fill of veggies for the day.  It doesn't get much better than this, people.  You should try it :)  

Some pictures I've been meaning to post...

Life lately...

First craving: Vanilla pudding (stove top made)

Our frozen lake 

Geese on the lake.. I was kind of hoping they fell through.. just for my entertainment :)

Solid ice! I couldn't believe how thick it was- I threw a rock at it lol 

First run outside in a couple months- I am LOVING our January weather so far (aside from the snow storm we are expected to get today...)

Belly bump pic mid run

Fondue time!

I. love. cheese.

quick 20 wk baby bump shot :)