Day 150: Fruits of the Spirit

We were praying about some of these today. I like having this old hanging as a reminder by the door. It's an oulde English version that this hanging was taken from, so a few of these are different from the verse I have in my head: "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

Day 149: Someone's in the kitchen with Mama

Zaria had fun joining me in the kitchen while I cooked dinner tonight. Jamin doesn't like her in the kitchen while he's cooking, but I enjoy letting her play in her tupperware drawers and lifting her up once in a while to show her how I'm making things.

Day 148: Serious bake sale

A few of the leaders at Mothers' Fellowship "demonstrated" how to make chocolate chip cookies for our annual fund raiser bake sale. I don't think anyone wanted to try out the dough after they mixed these concoctions up.

Day 147: Climbing and skettios

Zaria is now climbing onto the couch. I guess it was only a matter of time after the stairs. She's even gotten up without the aid of this box while I was in the office on the other side of the couch. I'm still not sure how she did that.
We also had spaghettios for lunch today from a bowl. At least I think we were supposed to be eating them from a bowl. It may be a while before she's really ready for the extra utensils, but I'm trying to break her in. I was also very glad she was wearing orange today already. (=

Day 146: Cousins and Car wash games

This evening Zaria met her cousin Gwendolyn for the first time, and the two enjoyed sipping from straws together. Zaria's a little more likely to dump her drink over or throw it on the floor still, but she enjoyed watching and mimicking her older cousin. But the day didn't start out with her so happy. . .

It was one of those really bad Sunday mornings where nothing seems to get done in time for church. Jamin was too sick to do anything but stay in bed, and try as I might, Zaria and I weren't able to leave until close to 10 AM, so I figured we could just skip Sunday school altogether and go get some gas and a car wash. But it was also a long line at the gas station. The first pump I tried turned out to be out of order, then each time I tried to get to one of the closer pumps (so I could pay inside and use my coupon) someone else would get in the spot, so it took a while just to get the gas. And then there were only 3 cars in front of me, but it took a full 1/2 hour waiting for the car wash. So not only did I miss Mars Hill class Sunday school, but I was late for the 10:50 service. Anyway, I had my camera with me, and Zaria and I tried to while away the car wash waiting time by blowing raspberries at each other and whining.

Day 145: Waffles

I enjoyed a lovely waffle breakfast with Dave and Mom today at their church, Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free. I've been at several of these, but this was the first one where we also fed Zaria waffles, as Mom is no doubt doing as she leans in this picture. I wanted to be sure to get Dave in the shot since he recently got Lasix surgery and now can run around without glasses! It is extremely strange to see him without glasses since he's worn them since elementary school and was nearly blind without them before. Jamin came a little later after dropping off our friends Corrie & John at the airport. It was lucky they called to remind us, because we had nearly forgotten we had two things going on this morning.

Day 144: Travis and Troy

At Friday Night Group we celebrated the duo birthday of Travis and Troy. Their actual birthday is Sunday, and I believe they've reached that 30-year mark this year. I've asked them before if they often got the same presents on their birthday, and they said they did, but in different colors. Travis liked red (and is pictured in red above) and Troy liked blue.

It's interesting with the FNG that there are 3 shared birth dates, but only the one set of twins. Kelly and Brenda share a birthday, as well as Zaria and Kelly's daughter Rebecca. And Kelly's due date for her second child is on Sam's birthday, so who knows if we might have another? Happy Birthday, Travis and Troy!

Day 143: Last milk

There was just one last bottle of frozen milk in the freezer, and today Zaria is officially weaned so I took it out to dethaw just in case she needed it. So today was a bit of a landmark day. I am a little sad to stop nursing Zaria, but I've got a cold this week and I'll be glad to take some cold medications without worrying about its effects on her.

Other landmarks noted today: She has another tooth coming out on top, is taking some steps (reluctantly) between items to hang onto, and we tried using crayons. It's still a little early for the crayons as she mostly enjoyed holding them and throwing them around, but I got a few lines from her to post the picture on our refrigerator.

Day 142: Microfishe

My mom joined the kids for Storytime at the library today while I did a little research on microfiche. I wanted to find out what some of the world news events were on Zaria's birthday to put into her baby book, and as long as I was at it, I looked up news events on my birthday. Unfortunately, their records barely went back 30 years ago for the New York Times, and it just so happens that there was a newspaper strike from August to November of my birth year. They had some rough AP stories to fill in the gap, but who wants to look through a bunch of AP stories when you've got a toddler starting to whine for lunch? Glancing though them did make me nostalgic for working with the morning news group at KBOO in Portland, but I still wasn't able to spend that kind of time.

Day 141: Post Christmas perspective

Day 140: Amazing Race finale

I haven't really followed The Amazing Race this year, but I've had favorites in past races and thought it'd be fun to join Cassie and Kami in watching this year's finale. I was glad to see it, since the racers ended up in Anchorage Alaska, where Jamin and my old housemates from Portland now live.

Day 139: Tuna fish Sundays

It was a tradition in Jamin's family to eat tuna fish sandwiches on Sundays. We don't do it every week, but pretty frequently. He wore his new lumberjack shirt to church today, too. I dressed up a little more and thought we looked an odd couple, but I ended up spending time with the 2-year-olds during service today anyway.

Day 138: Visiting grandma

Today was a tough day and I never did get a picture taken. Jamin worked an extra long day, and I went to Mom and Dave's house to play Mexican Train Dominoes, and then we got a call from my aunt Judy saying we should get to the hospital to see my grandma. She had surgery on her sciatic nerve earlier this week, and I guess it's a very tough recovery. The drugs they gave her to get off of the narcotics caused her to be apneic-- so we had to remind her to breathe and keep her up. I grabbed the above photo from last year for my picture today, with Grandma Victoria holding Zaria. Hopefully she'll recover enough to hold Zaria again soon. I've joked that she's bound to get better with all her out-of-town sons coming to see her, and it was fun to see some relatives at the hospital, though we sort of overcrowded the room. Judd came from Arizona, Jim from Colorado, John from South Dakota and Jerry from Virginia.

Day 137: Marla's birthday celebration

Happy birthday Marla! We had Jamin's folks over for dinner this evening, though her actual birthday is the 16th. Special surprise-- Jamin's brother Bill was in town, so we were also able to have him and his daughter Elena join us for dinner. Nice to visit with them, and nice to have less cake sitting around our place! We put candles on the cake for her to blow out (she said she couldn't remember the last time she had candles), and then had her cut the first piece. Elena said that was a tradition for the birthday person to cut the first piece so we went with it. We also attempted a timed family picture of all of us, which I think is pretty cute even if it looks like Zaria's ready to attack my head.

Day 136: Camera phone shot

Jen and I are trying to meet once a week and today we met a day early. Maria's definitely a 2-year-old and having trouble sharing things with Zaria, but right before this moment it was Zaria that didn't want to share her mama's lap. That was OK since I was able to find room for both to get this shot on my camera phone. Jen took it for me since I couldn't reach my hand out that far.

Day 135: Grocery shopping with Zaria

I usually try to go grocery shopping in the late evening when I can go alone or while my mom is watching Zaria, but I've taken her a couple of times recently and she really enjoys it. She talked to several people and had older people stop and make funny faces at her. She was really a joy to take-- until I got to the check-out line and she started trying to stand up in the cart to say hello to the little boy in the cart nearby while I was about to pay. Yikes! I just had to tighten that seatbelt strap before going on.

Overall, I'd say I'll continue to bring her unless she becomes a nuisance asking for things once she learns to talk. Then I might go back to waiting until she (and Jamin in some cases) are asleep for the night.

Day 134: Orthodoxy and second cousins

There's a cool-looking Russian Orthodox church near North Height Lutheran Church, where we have Mother's Fellowship. I went to Russia in college for a January term, and I still really have a love for the place. I also love the onion domes on their old churches.

My cousin's wife Melissa and kids came to Mother's Fellowship for the first time today, and the second cousins had a little fun when we all went out to eat together for lunch afterwards. They had almost-matching gold coats and Anja enjoyed pushing Zaria around in her stroller out of the restaurant.

Day 133: A walk to the park

I've done very little walking outside since the snow came down. Zaria's stroller just isn't made to go over all the bumpy snow that covers all the sidewalks, and it's not real safe to stroll in the streets. So Jamin and I took a walk to the park while Mom watched Zaria. I was glad to see they've replaced the slide that some vandals had burned last summer. There was still police tape attached to the playground, but I'm not exactly sure why.

Day 132: Snuggly feverish one

At the end of nursery time today, Judy checked Zaria's temperature and found she had a fever of 102 degrees (plus one if you count that for underarm detection). So Zaria was very snuggly today, wanting to play on her Papa's lap while we ate lunch and played Gin Rummy. She was feeling pretty well by the end of the evening, but we ended up calling off our babysitting plans for the evening in case she (or we) were contagious.

Day 131: Sledding and Brian's girlfriend

Jamin and I went sledding today! We bundled up a little too warm because you really get hot climbing those hills. We also had my stepbrother, Brian, and his girlfriend Mindy over for dinner this evening, and Mindy brought her little boy Aidan, who is pictured below. It was fun to finally meet Mindy and her son, and of course Zaria enjoyed having a playmate for the evening.

Day 130: Mai and Isaac come to play

I didn't make it to FNG this week, and last minute decided to invite Cassie over for dinner and games, who then invited our old friend Sarah and her two kids, Isaac and Mai to come over. So we had a full house! Isaac helped watch the girls a little bit, but Mai and Zaria had fun playing with various musical toys while us grown-up girls played a game of Hoopla. Good food, good fellowship, and a fun game even though we were often distracted. Earlier in the day I took Zaria, Jen and Maria to see the Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul-- today is Jen's birthday! The museum was really cool and kid-friendly, one of those free museum pass places you can check out at the library. Next time I need to remember to bring my camera.

Day 129: Alphabet

This alphabet floor puzzle/pad was a birthday gift to Zaria that I put together recently. It said ages 3+ which I somewhat discounted since just about EVERYthing says that so that the manufacturers can save their hides in any lawsuit. Just to be on the safe side, I did take out the nasty smaller pieces that were inside letters like the P, B, and R. And Zaria has been chewing on the pieces, so I guess it was needed. The pad is also nice because Zaria can walk on it with socks without slipping, like she does on the wood floor.

Day 128: Doc ZJ

"C'mon, Mama, this won't hurt a bit."

Day 127: Card Making

This shot is actually after most of the clean-up. I managed to get quite a few cards done-- through April, even. Cassie worked on some too, and I definitely had a lot more to do. I guess that should be expected when you have blended families and in-laws.

Day 126: Wall of Christmas love

I'm fairly sure we've gotten all the Christmas cards we're going to get. I like to post them all on a "wall of love" each year. I'm actually really impressed with anyone that's been able to continue sending us cards each year. Since Jamin and I have been married, we've had a different address EVERY Christmas, so we've been rather difficult to keep track of. Let's see if I can remember all the nicknames of the places in the last 7 Christmases: the Highway House (an apt. in St. Louis Park), Downtown Ritz (in Portland), The Tree Fort, Isengaard, Casa de Cassie, Bag End, and now the Rocket Cave.

Day 125: Christmas with Dad and Dawn

Oh no, Christmas is not over yet. We were still sick on the 23rd when we were originally going to meet with Dad and Dawn, so today was a make-up Christmas day. Zaria had already opened all her presents at previous get-togethers, so she helped her Uncle Jason open one of his presents tonight while Great Grandma Wilma watched. It was a fun afternoon and Zaria was in a fabulous mood, even with just a short nap in the Pack-n-Play.

Day 124: Christmas for ACTS group

It's January 5th, and we just had our small group Christmas party. I grabbed a couple of nice action shots. The one above has a couple of individuals that weren't around last Christmas party, and one that missed this Christmas, but is due soon. Standing are Angela and Barry (the expecting parents), grabbing a present is Scott, with Gia-Hue holding their little Claire, then we have Pat holding our youngest groupie present, Violet, little Grace enjoying some food, Emily, and just a bit of our hostess with the mostest, Mandy.

Below is Asher, who is just a week older than Zaria and very cute in his pajamas, his mom Chloe, and Janet and Rick. Last year I didn't make it to the small group Christmas party because I had just given birth to Zaria and was still recovering in the hospital. I had visits from a few of these folks, though, some on their way to the party.

Day 123: Sledding

We went to visit Jen and Maria again today and decided to try taking the girls sledding. Zaria's still not too crazy about being immobilized in her snowsuit, but she went down the hill with me a couple of times. She liked being pulled around with Maria a little better, I think. I imagine it would be a little scary to go careening down a hill when you're bundled up like a mummy and can't move. I had fun, and the girls were ready for a nap when we were done.

Day 122: Blinky lights.

Blink, blink.
The lights I put around our back patio window blink on and off.
I hope it's not been too annoying for our neighbors.
I've kept them on 24/7 since the week before Christmas.
They'll probably come down this week, before the others.

Day 121: Grinning

Day 120: Happy New Year, happy birthday

This is actually the sun setting, not rising for a New Year. I was way asleep when the sun rose. It's a nice view of Minneapolis from my grandparents' place. We went there today to help celebrate my Uncle John's 60th birthday today. My mom decided to stand on her chair to help direct us in the singing of the happy birthday song. Zaria was also quite an attention getter for the evening.