Laughing with Sarah

In addition to my regular church stuff, this week I've been serving on staff at a high school leadership camp hosted by Luther College right here in town. I'm helping coordinate worship, which is way fun. Except that it's camp worship, which means that worship starts at 9pm, and by the time we're done and cleaned up, I'm not home until 11 each night. Which might not sound like anything, except that I've been reliably sleepy and even in bed between 10:30 and 11:30pm most nights this summer. So man, I'm tired this week. But having a blast. Other than that...feeling pretty good. Tired, of course. And I get stiff and sore from too much bending, moving, lifting, standing, etc. But nothing too terrible. Really, the only yucky part right now is that I've had crazy heartburn/reflux for the past few days, regardless of what I eat or drink. Big-time uncomfy. But God bless Tums. I'd say that the reflux is because hedgehog is hanging out up high and smushing m...

This morning, thinking that I haven't felt hedgehog as much as I'd like in the last day, I grabbed a regular coffee on my way to the office (and a bag of bakery cookies for the office to share!). I'm definitely that weirdo who is trying to provoke movement through caffeine and sugar. I promise I don't do this very often. Here's hoping for a few kicks and rolls... In the parking lot of the co-op, after buying cookies, I had a strange, unprovoked thought go through my head: "Life is never going to be the same." It's a neutral statement, neither good nor bad. Just the factual reality that I'm pregnant, and we're going to have a baby, and that everything we're used to is about to change. Now, every time we've moved, especially our latest move to a different state, everything has changed. And leaving one job to start another means that everything changes. So it's not like this is a new concept. It just hit me in a weird way this mornin...

This is what I look like today! Thank goodness for stretchy tank tops and skirts. And decaf ice coffee. And air conditioning. It's HOT out...

Today was another doctor day! Weighed in at a mere four pounds heavier than last time. Yup. Turns out I was fretting and stressing for no reason. My doctor asked me, point-blank, if it was hard to make peace with changing weight/body shape, because many women have that struggle. I definitely minimized my crazy and told him that it wasn't a struggle or concern, only that it is a strange place of unknown, since it's my body's first time putting on pregnancy weight, and I have no idea what to expect. And, to be honest, I think this is the root of my minor freak-out. Because I don't want to have a month where I gain too much or too little and get lectured because of it. But I have no idea how to estimate my weight gain in weeks between appointments, nor do I have any realistic sense of how size and weight correspond (or not). Anyway. My gain from the beginning until now is around eight pounds, and that is quite a reasonable number, and puts me well within my target range ...

Early on in this pregnancy, I pretty dutifully ate breakfast every morning. I did it on the defensive - many people say eating first thing helps fend off morning sickness. So I ate breakfast. Every day. (In my previous life, I only ate breakfast on select Saturdays, no earlier than 11am, or whenever I had opportunity to go out for brunch.) I'm pretty sure that my lack of morning sickness had nothing to do with breakfast and everything to do with VERY GOOD LUCK. Anyway, my interest in eating breakfast as since waned. My interest in drinking morning coffee (albeit decaf or half-caf) has skyrocketed. Back to my old habits, it seems. These last two days, I haven't eaten breakfast. And then, sometime around 10 or 10:30, while I'm sitting in my office, trying to be productive, I've felt myself crash. Not physically so much. But emotionally. Like...intense bouts of nostaliga. And self-doubt. And wishing to be anywhere but working, which is ridiculous, because I really do l...

Finally got brave enough to tell my story on my all-purpose blog. Thought it was worth posting here as well! For the last five years of my life, something has been happening in the background. You've heard a lot in this space about my journey through seminary and internship, and my first years of being a pastor. You've heard about my family and some of my vacations, my love for baseball and knitting, my thoughts on dialogue and division, and my crazy idealism for the world we live in. Recently, because I've been busy, you've mostly gotten lots and lots of sermon transcripts. But behind all of this, for the last five years, Matt and I have been on a long journey to try to start a family. It has been quite a journey. A journey that has included frustration and tears, losses and medical interventions, countless needle-stabs and blood draws, surgeries (major and minor), and through it all, enough peace in our hearts to keep stepping forward, one day at a time, witho...

Today is 20w2d. My sister and brother-in-law came to visit for a couple of nights (just left this morning), which makes me incredibly happy. When we were living in Chicagoland, my parents and two of my sisters also lived in Chicagoland. I was seeing family ALL THE TIME, which is a very good thing. I'm ridiculously family-oriented like that. Now that we've moved to Iowa, I'm five hours away from my parents and those two sisters. But I'm only two and a half hours from my other sister. Which, as it turns out, is not all that far. Close enough for impromptu Sunday evening to Tuesday morning visits, for no particular reason. Last night, my sister wanted to take a picture of me - proof that I have a belly and actually look pregnant. It was really hot and humid, and so my face is all red and sweaty, and the heat made everything on my body swell up. So I'm pretty convinced that the belly is somewhat exaggerated here (even though Matt says it isn't...which...well...y...

...this is what I look like right now! I'm 19 weeks as of yesterday, and maybe it's because of going on vacation, or maybe it's because I've started to sprout a little belly, but these last two weeks have flown by. We were in Key West during the crossover to week 18, and while we were on vacation, we (finally) announced our news to the general public: Jan 2005: We honeymooned in Key West to celebrate the start of our little two-person family. Jun 2013: We are vacationing in Key West to celebrate the END of being a TWO-person family... So, friends, we are rapidly approaching the halfway point of this pregnancy. I'm a week away from my mid-point ultrasound. It won't be the first picture of our little hedgehog - I have the ultrasound picture from embryo transfer day, where he/she isn't even a little dot, and I have a picture from 7 weeks, where he/she looks like a peanut. But it will be our first ultrasound where baby looks like a baby. And then a wee...