Day 89: Golden Birthday Girl

It was Sarah's golden birthday yesterday (same age- 29), so she's wearing gold here. I guess there was supposed to be a prize or something for whomever wore the most gold. I missed that memo, and I wore gray and green. Sarah's an amazing woman, a friend from Cassie's dorm long ago that I don't see very often. It was fun to hang out with Sarah and her gang of friends, many of whom work with youth or missions. I also happened to find Jhonessa at the party, whom I haven't seen in about 2 years, and then it was a random meeting at a library. She was an old Bethel friend of mine, so it was fun to catch up with her and find out she's going to seminary these days. She's the one in this photo with the pink pants. I was actually attempting to get Sarah's feet in this shot and do one of those funny perspective photos, but after several tries I gave up.

Day 88: Rental car and cherry pie

I did a little editing on this one so there wouldn't be any phone numbers, but this was my rental car yesterday and today. It took a little extra time for them to finish the maintenance stuff on our Hyundai. We're almost at the 60k mile mark, which is when our warranty expires, so we thought it best to get that ol' timing belt and accessory belt replaced. When Jamin and I moved out to Oregon, it was the timing belt that broke on both of our cars on our way out there, so I hope to never have that happen again.

Below is the cherry pie I made to bring to small group. It turned out really well for my first try. Of course, I used canned filling and refrigerated crust, but it still looked really pretty. I heard it's supposed to snow a lot this weekend, so I decided to have fun with the snowflake cookie cutter.

Day 87: Sunlight on mobile

I love that they have fun artwork at the local libraries. While I was there I picked up some photography books to see if I find any fun ideas.

Day 86: Coats are in play

As you can see, we have a mass of pink coats that have invaded our downstairs coat closet. Thankfully, we also have a gold coat that is the major winter weather coat for Zaria, and it happens to be a very similar coat to mine, though mine is less shiny. So it's kind of fun to go around in our matching winter wear. Thanks go out to Mom for picking out Zaria's coat and my stepmom, Dawn for picking out my coat as a Christmas present last year.

Day 85: More Taiko, more happy

I put Zaria at the Taiko Drum Master game to see if she might get some of the hits *accidentally* but my scientific methods weren't very great because I helped her a bit. I'm sure at least 2/29 correct hits must have been from her! Anyways, it was a great exercise to help wake her up from her afternoon nap. In case you're wondering, she does wake up very happy most of the time. Unless she gets too little sleep because we have to go somewhere. It might be hard to see, but she is showing her two little bottom teeth in this smile. I keep thinking she'll bust out with more, and even dreamed that she woke up with a full set of teeth (which was a nightmare!), but so far only two with a whole lot of drooling and chewing.

Day 84: Jamin plays his horn again

Jamin played his french horn at church today, the first time he's performed for some years. I didn't catch him during the performance because I was up working the soundboard today. I found out that's a terrible place to take pictures from for lighting, and Zaria didn't help much by trying to grab the camera from me. I'm lucky I got this shot while they were practicing for the Christmas show.

Day 83: Moon rising

We took a little walk just as the moon was rising, which is insanely early these days. It was a beautiful big moon, but it looks so small when you actually take a picture of it. Jamin got more of the sky's color in his shot of me.

Day 82: Holidazzle

We went downtown today to see Macy's 8th floor holiday display (though I'll always think of it as Dayton's 8th floor) of The Nutcracker, and then went to the skyway to watch the Holidazzle parade. Towards the end, Jamin and I went outside so we could hear as well as see some of the floats. So behind us is Santa's sleigh. One of my old high school teachers was Santa Claus for many, many years. Mr. Jaegers actually allowed us to call him Kris Krinkle or Santa Claus in class, so it was a strong part of his identity. It makes me sad to know he's been replaced after his death, which was over 10 years ago now.

Day 81: Thanksgiving apples

I made some apple crisp again for Thanksgiving (after all those nice apples I got from Jenn), and spent time with my dad's side of the family today playing Apples to Apples. Zaria wanted to play as well, and was a bit of a star as the youngest family member present. We actually brought Jamin's dad with as well, so spent some time with the in-laws on our way home dropping him off.

My uncle Tim also gave us a tour of their church remodel, and it felt like we were looking at Extreme Makeovers Church Edition. It was really nice, done with a lot of volunteer work, and I think they tripled their previous space with the addition. Jamin took this photo, but it's a great group shot of us playing.

Day 80: Dave's birthday

I won't say how old he is, but it was my stepdad Dave's birthday today. I went to his and my mom's church for their Thanksgiving Eve service, BPEFC. I went there through junior high and high school, so there are still many familiar faces there. It was a little far from our house, so I've found closer places since then. I took Mom and Dave bowling after the service, but it was sort of late so we only played one game so I could get Zaria to bed.

Day 79: Violet and Grace

I had the pleasure of meeting little baby Violet today, held by her proud mother, Emily. She is just over 2 weeks old today, and wearing her namesake color. (= Pat came home just as I was leaving, so I got a photo of him and their older daughter Grace as I went out the door.

Day 78: Helping at the in-laws

Today I helped clean at the in-laws for a little while, and found these lovely photo sets. None of these are real recent photos, but you can see our wedding photo on the bottom right and Jamin's brother Dan's wedding to Naomi just above us. Marla and Dave are thinking about moving and teaching English in a foreign country, probably Ukraine, and so they're starting to go through some old stuff and figure out what to do with their house.

Day 77: Nils' dedication

We enjoyed spending time with our friends at Nils' dedication today. Here you see Anders, Anna, Nils (in Anna's lap), Lena (who had a birthday today), Lars, and Jenn. I think you might see the top of Maria's head, next to Jenn. So we didn't do any babysitting for A & A's older son Emil tonight, but had a great time hanging out with the family after church. We also saw some familiar faces from a different church Jamin and I had been to in St. Louis Park.

Day 76: Class reunion

Today I went to my 10-year high school reunion with my old friends Cassie, Derek and Dave. We worked the crowd as a group, not really knowing the people that showed up all that well. It was a little expensive for both Jamin and I to go, so Jamin watched Zaria, and it was strange to be there without him. We found out about who had kids or was married, and what people had been doing. Michelle had triplets, Cheryl was a clinical psychologist in California, Matt was a carpenter and newlywed by one month, Katie was engaged. We were sad that many of the people we'd hoped to see and had lost track of were missing.

I talked to one woman who had been a friend in junior high and had discarded our friendship long ago. I was happy to hear she was successful and glad that she didn't pretend not to know me. So there were some good changes among the crowd. There were also a number of people happy to get drunk early on, but they were people we barely knew. Cassie, Dave, Derek and I were all on the Chemical Health Awareness Team in high school, our version of SADD, so we never really went to the drinking parties in high school. I enjoyed dancing a bit to the DJ's selection of 90's music, even once all by myself in happy Napoleon Dynamite fashion. It was an interesting night.

Day 75: Friday Night Group

Friday Night Group was down in the southern suburbs tonight, at Brian & Jill's place. There were a few kids that ran around, and we enjoyed some apple crisp that I'd brought along with some cider that Jill warmed up for everyone. Zaria is officially 11 months old today.

Day 74: Little Drummer Girl

Every once in a while, Zaria and I sit at the drum and play. She gets pretty excited about it and usually beats with both hands going at once. When I was pregnant with her, the first time I felt her kick was right after I'd been to a drum circle group, so I've wondered if she'll be a natural born drummer. Whether she wants to actually be a drummer someday or not, we'll sure have fun.

Day 73: Great Grandma Mary's hands

They picked out this cute little outfit for Zaria.And they did this lovely needlepoint, a study of a painting she saw in Scandinavia (I think Norway), that we have on our wall.

Day 72: Walking the trails

They keep saying it might snow soon, so I thought we'd better take advantage of the trails while they're still open. It was pretty cold out and got a little close to meal time for us to go very far, but there are some beautiful trails around this area by Palmer Lake. I'll miss those if we end up moving very far.

Day 71: Visiting Jen

Jamin was supposed to have a short day today, so I dropped him off at his truck and spent some time with Jen and Maria until the time to pick him up again. Jen and I picked up a load of apples from a local orchard, and I got a bunch of them for helping with transportation. Like us, they are a one-car family, though this month we've had use of Cassie's extra car which has been such a blessing. Now on to the apple recipes.

Day 70: Vikings vs. Packers game

This is the beginning of Zaria's reaction when she heard how bad the Vikings were losing to the Packers. Ha! She actually did put on a pretty good pout/cry after this, but it was time for a nap. She's on the lap of Deserae, who used to be the youngest Vikings fan at my Mom and Dave's football get-togethers.

Zaria wasn't the only baby in authentic purple in the FBC nursery this morning, although her friend Joshua ended up soiling his Vikings jersey with a major poopage. I knew that couldn't bode well for the Vikings game today, and sure enough, they lost 27-0 at Lambeau Field.

Day 69: Hooray!

We had Mom and Dave over for lasagna before looking at a few houses this afternoon. It is so hilarious what a baby can make mature, grown people do. Zaria likes to do the sign language cheer, sticking both hands up in the air and waving them around (this is not something we've taught her, but apparently we've reinforced the silliness). So she got all of us doing it around the table!

Day 68: Brief play date

We met up with Christine, who was watching Rebecca as well as her son Aidan today at the Maple Grove Community Center play area. They're all part of the Friday Night Group, but we only saw Christine later in the evening. The community center play area's not a great place for a crawler, but Zaria will love it when she starts walking. Rebecca happens to be exactly a year older than Zaria, which is kinda fun.

I'm actually amazed we got all the kids to sit in one spot. Rebecca and Aidan were pretty tough to keep track of. This is what I have to look forward to in a year!

Day 67: The Flowers fade

The mums from my mum are just about done. I've loved turning the corner from the back looking into our yard and seeing the purple and orange. Orange has been my favorite color since just after high school, when I first visited Oregon and fell in love with the brightness of orange flowers peeking through lots of greenery. In college, I did a show called Orange You Happy with my orange-loving roommate, Karin. Radio became a passion back then, and it's still in my blood a little now. Perhaps someday I'll find my way back to it. Before orange, my favorite color was purple, and I think it's fun Jamin wanted to paint our white lawn furniture.

Day 66: Swimming in books

I love that they actually made a pool of board books at the library. This is the first time I've let Zaria in with the books like this, but it's really pretty fun.

Day 65: Special delivery

What a nice surprise! There was a package from Zaria's Great Grandma Mary when we got home, so I opened it today and let Zaria have fun playing with the card that was with it. And then she wanted to play with the rest, so she pulled down the outfit from the blue bin. She was getting around everywhere today-- I needed to nap with her this afternoon.

Day 64: The long journey home

We left at about 9 am EST and arrived home at about 11 pm Central. For those of you that aren't math wizes and are as confused as I get about travel time changes mixed with daylight savings time changes, that means we spent about 15 hours in the car. With a baby. Long, long day. But we had this short respite in Milwaukee by Lake Michigan. We took a short walk by the beach, wondering why there weren't more people out on such a lovely (if cold) evening. We sort of figured it out when we smelled the dead fish nearby. It was still very beautiful. We bundled Zaria up in this cute little bundler that looks a bit like a starfish. I had almost gotten rid of it because I thought she wouldn't fit in it this year, but my mom rescued it and it was nice to have along.

Day 63: Dressed alike cousins

Mom and Dave bought outfits alike for Zaria and Tricia that we opened at our early Christmas yesterday. I love the fact that these two cousins are just 5 weeks apart. Now that they're both more active, they both wanted to play with the same toys and see what the other one was doing. Soon after Zaria was done with this pretend mixer, Tricia had to try it out, and then they both slid into the kitchen in their tights. So adorable.

Day 62: Early Christmas

We celebrated an early Christmas and birthday for Becca after a nice shopping trip with all us girls. Renee bought a few things she needed and a bunch of clothes for Zaria for her birthday and for Christmas (both Becca and Zaria have December birthdays). Mom and I had fun watching the girls open presents. Tricia had the most fun trying to eat the wrapping. She was getting a head start in this photo.

Day 61: Visiting a cousin once removed

This is my cousin-once-removed Carol, in front of her newly sided house. Her tree was so bright and gorgeous, I told her I had to get a picture of it. We had a discussion about how cousins get to be seconds and removeds, and I explained how she was my cousin-once-removed because she is my mom's cousin. We stayed overnight at Carol and Tom's place and then drove through the morning to arrive at Renee and Kurt's.

Day 60: Dinner in Chicago

My mom, Zaria and I piled into the car today to go visit my sister and her family in Michigan. We took this journey last February and visited my friend Anne (pictured above), but this time she was in a new place and had a roommate and a residency student living with her. It was a very cute place, and we enjoyed getting to know her temporary resident, Natalie (in the background). We came a bit early, but were fortunate enough to have Natalie be home when we arrived, so she let us in and welcomed us while we waited for Anne to get home. Anne's been working as a regular physician's assistant for just over a year or two now in Chicago, at one of the clinics where she did a residency training.

I've known Anne since junior high, and the fact that we're still friends after living through those years is a true blessing from God. Anne also knows my sister Renee and her husband and has even seen the house that we're on the way to see in Michigan.