Ruminations on '08 and '09

Yesterday, I put away all the Christmas decorations around the house. This is usually such a melancholy time for me. I play my Christmas music one last time and reminisce about the past year. This time, however, I played a mix of music and really thought about what was coming up in '09. I wonder if the difference is that now I'm seven months pregnant and really looking forward to having a baby to hold in my arms, rather than lugging around the extra weight around my middle! :)

2008 has been a great year for us. First of all (of course) we're pregnant! However, I also got to go on a Hawaiian cruise, visit family in the Middle East, and enjoy living close to my own parents once again. My second year of teaching at Camas High School has been great! I feel like I've finally grown into who I am as a teacher and am having a blast. I've always known I loved teaching, but there were always hardships and troubles before. This year, I actually feel like a real adult in a real career. (Pinocchio has finally become a real boy!) It's hard to describe, but God has definitely performed a great work in my life.

2009 promises to be great, but might hold it's own challenges as well. Our son is due on February 25. I'll take two months off and then return for the last six weeks of school. Mohit's project will be completed sometime in February (deadline is end of January), which will free him up some. However, we're praying there aren't anymore layoffs in March!

Just some thoughts as I'm sitting at home, slightly bored, and procrastinating doing any real work!

Let it snow! NOOO!

Ya know, I thought that when we left New Hampshire, we had escaped winter weather that included snow. Of course, with "climate change," you can never know what to expect. :) We started off with a few snow flurries and ice that shut down school the week before Christmas break. I thought it was a little over done until I realized they don't salt or plow the roads. In fact, chains are required here, whereas in NH, they weren't even allowed because they always cleared the roads.

Missing school wasn't the worst part of it all. Now, I'm stuck in the house, unable to go anywhere, because our chains weren't working correctly. It has been fun trudging through the snow with Mohit to walk the dogs, even though it's freezing with high winds. We're expecting several more days of this, but after Christmas it's supposed to warm up. I'm hoping things melt away quickly! Oh well, at least we'll have a white Christmas this year.

Braggin' Bout Hubby

I just have to brag a bit about the wonderful man to whom I am married. One thing you have to know about Mo...he likes to relax. Vacation time for him means no work, no lists, no chores, nothing! However, a vacation at home (for me) means being able to get all the stuff done that I've been putting off for weeks. Obviously, there is a massive difference between our two outlooks.

We decided to not go anywhere this Thanksgiving as we went to Dubai last summer, are hoping to make it to India this summer, have a new baby coming in February, which means we have to save TONS of money! With a five-day-weekend looming ahead of us, I made my list, and Mo planned on getting lots of TV watched and books read. What ended up happening was not what Mo quite expected!

I cleaned the house, decorated it for Christmas, completed some shopping, wrapped Christmas presents, graded some papers, and got a haircut. Mo was able to install a ceiling fan in the nursery, fix the vacuum cleaner that I broke while cleaning the house, painted a white spot in our bathroom, paid the bills and helped put up Christmas lights outside the house. We have also been able to watch plenty of hours of TV, and he has read his book every night before bed. He was such a good sport about doing everything I asked of him, even when every step of the way presented him with challenges and obstacles that took hours to overcome. What a guy!

Bathroom Blessings!

We had two friends who work as general contractors/plumbers come view our disaster area that we like to call our master bathroom. What an encouragement to find out there wasn't a whole lot of mold there, the bathtub and vanity don't have to replaced, just the toilet and the linoleum, and that it would all cost less than $2000! God is so good; I'm amazed that I forget it so often and need to be reminded again and again.

I also found out a couple of days ago that I don't have gestational diabetes. Now, usually I wouldn't even be concerned that I might have complications with things, but I have to be honest...I don't have the best of diets, even though I'm pregnant. I eat more fruits and vegetables than before, but I haven't been able to give up my daily sweets or bowl of ice cream. Needless to say, I was a little concerned, needlessly! :) I really do need to just rest in God and take each day as it comes.

Dogs, Babies, and Craziness

Well, I knew this would happen...I create a blog and then I don't keep up with it! Here's just a couple of snapshots of what's been happening in our lives right now.

Dogs:
We have two beagles, Snoopy and Rebel. There are two things you should know about beagles...1) they are ruled by their noses and 2) their stomachs are bottomless pits. Background info: I teach 10th grade biology. For one assignment, my students collect labels from products at home and identify different elements found in them. So I had a stack of these papers to grade this weekend in my school bag.

Saturday morning I come downstairs to find my living room floor covered with little scraps of paper that looked shockingly similar to my students' element projects. I guess Rebel had discovered them (there were food labels, and a Beagle's nose is very active) and decided to give me a break and grade them for me. He thought they were very good and deserved all As, so that's what I had to give my students! :) Needless to say they got a kick out of my explaining that MY dog ate THEIR homework!

Babies:
So I'm now 25 weeks along in my pregnancy. Our little boy is VERY active, kicking and moving nearly all day but especially for an hour after mealtimes. Sunday morning Mohit and I were sitting on the couch relaxing before going to church. The baby was kicking quite a bit, so I lifted up my shirt to see if I could see him move, instead of just feeling him move. Sure enough, Mohit and I watched my stomach do a wave and bulge in very weird places. It's cool, but also a little alien-like, ya know? I wonder how God ever came up with this idea of mammals giving live birth. Personally, I think the egg-thing works well, but He didn't ask me for my opinion!

BTW, we still haven't been able to think of a name for our baby. If you have an opinion, which I'm sure you do, you can vote for your favorite out of six choices at Baby Center.

Craziness:
Our master bathroom linoleum has been puffed up in mountains and valleys for nearly a year now. We had planned to replace it over Thanksgiving. Saturday we were going to head to Home Depot to check out our options. Before we left, we thought we should pull it up to make sure there was no extra damage underneath. Boy were we naive! The subflooring was covered in mold! We've had to move all our toiletries out into another bathroom, drag the dehumidifier up to the bathroom, and keep the door shut and the fan on for fear of spreading the mold spores throughout our bedroom and the rest of the house. We had a friend of ours who works on these kinds of things come in today and give us an estimate on repairs...$3000! At least it wasn't worse case scenario of $8000-$10,000! I just have to rest in God's security and know that He will take care of us.

So, that's our life right now. Nothing too new or exciting, just life moving along. God is still good and still in control; I praise Him for reminding me of that every day!

It's a boy!

Today Mohit and I had our sonogram done. We were able to see the feet, the hands, the spinal cord, the heart beating, even the brain! And, we saw the little indicator that we are having a boy! Mom and Dad got to go with us, which was very fun. Afterwards we went out to eat to celebrate.

Mohit, however, is having a hard time accepting the fact that he is going to have a son. He had a dream a couple of days ago that convinced him we were having a girl. Since then he's been calling the little lemon "Abi-mol," which is short for Abigail with the Malayalam word that means "daughter" attached to it. He still calls him "Abi" although now he says it's short for Abishek or Abinash (neither of which I'm partial to). Oh well, give him four months and maybe he'll get over it!

Beginnings

I have wrestled with whether I really have the time or care about posting my thoughts on the internet for anyone and everyone to read. Of course, who knows how many people out there are really interested in what I have to say. However, after being ministered to by another friend's blog, I decided to go ahead and try it. No one may ever end up reading this, but at least I will have a place to record my day-to-day activities and musings. Someday, God may use it to touch someone else. I may not write more than once a month, I may end up writing several times a day...we'll just have to see how it goes.