Humbled and Happy

I haven’t been able to blog lately because one thing has been on my mind.  One BIG thing!  We let the news out to the entire world today…. and we are super excited.

Nate and I have been together for over 12 years now.  In August we will have been married for 7 years.  It is a perfect time to finally add to our family.

What most people don’t know, is that we started trying in February 2011.  It was a long year of waiting for God to bless.  All of my friends got pregnant very quickly, so it was a shock when we didn’t get that positive pregnancy test right away.  We went through months of sadness, but overall we were positive and as patient as we could be.

It paid off because we have been blessed with this miracle and couldn’t be more happy!  After thinking that it may never happen for us, I am completely humbled to be able to fulfill my life’s goal of being a mother.  Waiting it out this last year has made me even more thankful and ready to face those sleepless nights.

From the beginning of this blog, I have had my future children in mind.  So get ready for lots of updates and “Baby Bliss!”  As of today, I am 14 weeks along.  Our due date is 12.5.12!

May the Fourth be With You and Cinco de Mayo

We made some strange purchases this weekend.  We are probably the cheapest people you will ever meet and rarely make impulsive purchases, but this weekend we went a little cra cra (that’s crazy for all you people that don’t speak a little youth-n-ese).

It all started with a trip to Target.  We had to get a gift for a birthday party, so I was having fun going to down every toy isle while Nate was planning his first impulsive purchase.  He comes back to the cart and doesn’t even ask my opinion…. he just chunks it in:

That’s right.  Star Wars R2-D2 Trouble.

It was a cute $10 to spend to see the smile on Nate’s face.  And it was pretty fun playing it that night.  We did just finish watching all six Star Wars movies again, so I guess something else Star Wars was destined to live in our house on this “May the Fourth be With You” day.

And, yes…. If liking Star Wars makes you a nerd, we are total nerds.  Unashamedly so! ha

The next day, we decided to go look at some trucks.  We have been thinking about buying Nate a new truck for some time now.  His single cab pick-up will be a problem when we have kids, and his poor truck is just slowly falling apart.  So, Saturday on Cinco de Mayo, we bought this:

I am so glad that Nate has a reliable truck with four doors just like he wanted.  It is worth every penny and we are excited to see just how long we can make this ol 2003 ford last.

The best part of the new truck is that by selling his old one, we will pay off our jeep!  I am beyond excited about that!  It will be another one of my “27 Things” to check off!

5K…. Check!

I have tried not to make a big deal out of getting my camera stolen in Nicaragua… even though it was a HUMONGOUS deal to me.  But I keep wishing I had a new one.  Someone at church even generously gave me some money to buy another one, but I was just so attached to the last one, I can’t commit to a different one yet.

Anyway, I keep having all these important things happen, where I would normally pull out my camera and snap a few great pics.  Things like Melissa’s gender reveal party of April 6 (It’s a boy!), Easter on April 8, the Ladies’ Retreat on April 13-14, End of the Year Youth Event on April 18, my great run on April 21, and one other thing that happened yesterday during our day to day life.

I guess it is better for you mysterious readers out there…. because there would have been a post about every one of those things. ha.  In the mean time, I am getting by with Nate’s phone and trying to put on a brave face about not getting good pictures :)

Anyways….. If you know me, you will fall on the floor when I say… I ran a 5K!  At least I tried.  I have a little problem that is TMI for the blog that kind of slowed me down, but I finished the whole 3.2 miles, so that is all that matters.

Nate plans on running a marathon in October… all 26.2 miles, so he ran the 10K.  I was proud of my sweaty, fast-running, active husband!

This is us before the blessed event ;)

I learned a few things about running a 5K through this first experience:

1.  Invest in a really good bra before the race.

2.  Don’t skip your training days, because you will feel like a loser when people pass you.  Like people that are 90 years old, severely obese or even 7 months pregnant.  It will happen, people!

3.  Check the time you have to check in.  Cause it bites when you have to get up at 6am to go run.

4.  Remember that 1 kilometer is different than 1 mile.  I was siked when I got to 2K and felt great because I thought I was over half way finished…. Not so ;)

5.  And last but not least… Celebrate your run even if your time was horrible, because by golly you put yourself out there and did it!

Hollie and I after the race.  She was super excited for me… and I was about to fall over.

“Remember the Ten” at OSU

April 21, 2012

Nicaragua ~ March 17-24, 2012

Warning:  This post is super picture heavy!  And my camera was even stolen… imagine if I had all my pics ;)

What a week!  God blessed this trip from beginning to end and our whole team was/is extremely blessed.  It was the smoothest mission trip that I have ever been on, and that is a huge credit to Mike & Sherry Hulsey and Vickie Cline at Voice of Hope Ministries.

We left bright and early on Saturday, March 17 and took two flights before arriving in Managua, Nicaragua.  Vickie was there to meet us and we quickly left the airport, heading to Leon.  While a man was helping put our luggage on the top of our van a bird flew into him, so that was funny.  We stopped by Tip Top Chicken to have dinner and drove the rest of the way to the mission house.

On Sunday, we visited the Rose of Sharon Church and Nate got to preach.  I am always so proud of my handsome husband and in Nicaragua it was no different.  He did great!

We went to a different church that night and then the rest of the week was full of awesome ministry where we boldly said the name of Jesus Christ to a ton of people.

We went through the streets of different villages telling people to meet us for a fiesta.  After a few minutes people would start showing up and we would sing and play some games before we shared the gospel two times.  We would do the “sin box” skit for everyone before splitting up into boys, girls, and adults and sharing the gospel again.

While half of the group did the skit, the others went door to door witnessing to people along the way.  One of my favorite parts was working with our wonderful translators.  I got the opportunity to go with Juan a few times and he was an absolute joy and help to me.  I explained how encouraged I was by his boldness.  I told him that in the United States we never just go up to a stranger and ask if they are going to Heaven or hell, and that I so appreciated how he was able to do that with his fellow Nicaraguans.

Here are a few pics of the fiestas!  Hollie and I were very convincing and funny drunks…

 

 

And street evangelism…

 

On Thursday I got the opportunity to go help cook at one of the feeding centers.  It was a great morning with 4 other precious ladies.  Margaret and I didn’t end up cooking very much, but we sure did entertain about 40 kids without an interpreter for almost 2 hours. ha

We also got to go see the Pacific Ocean and it was beautiful.  I have never seen waves as big as they were there, and the sand was black.

On our fun day… we had the greatest time.  We went to a great restaurant and ate the best steaks we have ever had.  Then on to zipline through the Nicaraguan forest (didn’t see any monkeys).  Next we went to see an active volcano… which was a little stinky but skinkin awesome!  Then after some shopping and some pizza hut we were back at the mission house to pack and get ready to leave.

 

 

 

It was also great to see some old friends from Rogers.  Everyone is growing up and it was awesome to work side by side, sharing the love of Jesus.

And, it is always great to be around one of my favorite people in the world for a whole week.  We kept each other positive and she kept everything under control so I could just relax ;)

Lots of wonderful memories were made and I think we are all thinking about when the next time we can go will be.  Maybe next year?  Who knows?

By the way… this post is purely for the pictures. Look forward to others about what I learned throughout the week in Nicaragua.

Sushi…is Good-si! Who knew?

Mark another one off the list!  I ate sushi!  I was pretty nervous about the whole thing but we went with an expert, my good friend Cassie, and she ordered some stuff I liked.  I have never liked fish, and I am a freak about food textures so I was afraid after taking the first bite… I would spew raw sea creatures all over the place.  But, it was actually really good!  I was so delightfully surprised and felt very cultured and grown up. ha

  My first bite. Ever.

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Our spread.

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It was Kaylie’s first time to try sushi too.

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And, Nate’s fist time also.  He probably liked it the best out of us three newbies.  He ate like 20 pieces or something. And he wants to find a place here to eat some more!

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I have learned lately that it is really liberating and fun to do things that I never thought I would do.  Making this “27 Things before 27” has been pretty great for me.  Once I make a list, I have to mark everything off.  I have found through this experiment (already), that I am becoming a tad spontaneous.  Nate will enjoy this new side of me…. and so will I!

I can’t wait to try something else new, and mark things off my list!