Sunday, March 30, 2008

Washington, DC Shower


Drama.
People.
Theater.
More people.
And of course, what would a Jansen visit be without good food.
My mother and sister threw me a beautiful shower. In the front hallway, she had made a tree with curly willow and then pinned little booties with clothespins and tied cute ribbons all over the branches. We had a beautiful open house with all our wonderful generous friends. They all pinned money or giftcards onto the branches or brought a favorite children's book. I was overwhelmed by how my and my mother's friends still remember and want to participate in our new journey as parents.
We can't wait to return and show Daddy all the books and to buy something fun that we need!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

We've arrived!

The baby had it's second airplane adventure! We flew here to DC for the weekend festivities and arrived safe and sound. We are having our first party--my Mom and sister are hosting a children's book shower to start our library. We'll keep you updated on all our adventures!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Some spiritual encouragement

From a transcript of Jeff Purswell's podcast on devotions:
I’m very pragmatic in my devotions. I don’t feel obligated to continue along a track that is not bearing fruit. Because of how cold I am in the morning I am desperate in the morning. Obviously, I think that is a gift of grace. But I just have this feeling because I am so cold I must meet with God, I must connect with him, I must be addressed by him. I must reach a point of faith for that day, knowing I have indeed encountered his presence, that the flames of affection for God in my heart have been stirred, that I have brought myself under his sway, and under the control of the Holy Spirit.
I want to continue to view myself as a desperate sinner and to believe that because I am so cold, I too must meet with him every day as well. Apparently John Piper says that everyday it is as if the Devil is sitting on your face. I have felt that as the fatigue of pregnancy drags my head towards the pillow at the beginning of every week. I am starting to realize that this is a pattern. The truth is: I need God! And I need him more than ever because the battle against the flesh will only become stronger as a new mom. I am grateful for the Spirit. What would we do without that power to overcome??

91 days to go...

And we're under 100.
Check out this site to see how the baby is pushing around my insides.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Cupcakes


Once again, we had cupcakes for Easter...this time we had so many people over for lunch that I had to surreptitiously hide some of them for the guests who would arrive later :) Thanks to Becky we have a picture. If she hadn't gotten them out and photographed them before the hordes came through and demolished (...I mean relished) , it would have just been a sweet memory. The recipe is Yellow Cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated; I also used their recipe for the frosting, following their normal buttercream frosting recommendations.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Bored...and nothing to do...

Every read that Peter Spier book? One of the classics in our home about two boys who are grounded for their "ingenuity" around the home... like disassembling working machines and building their own airplane. Not a bad thing compared to the children these days who spend too much time watching TV.
I am bored with no more patients to see on a Saturday. This is my weekend to work. Only 2 more weekends after this...then I'll be free from working most Saturdays.
But I have to admit, I like the quiet. I like the way that I can visit all the floors and say hi to all my friends at work. Oddly enough, over the past two years I have come to really love the people here at the hospital. There are so many faces that I've come to know and appreciate, nurses especially.
The nursing profession is for the brave. I am not one of them. And thankful I didn't try to become one. I just don't have the patience for those special patients who say things like this:
"I have never followed a diet and I never will. You can just stop sending me food because I won't eat it".

Charming. Especially coming from a diabetic obese cardiac patient. It's their choice. Imagine having to take care of him for twelve hours. I'm grateful for my job.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Desserts

My friend sent this over email and I thought it was appropriate since I just finished licking the frosting bowl ... (I am making cupcakes for Easter again) Call it a preggo eating day or whatever, but I haven't craved desserts at all until Janis made a trifle yesterday with pudding and strawberries and yellow cake. Yum!

If all of the desserts listed below were sitting in front of you, which would you choose ?? Just go with your first instinct, the first dessert you choose. Pick your dessert, and then look to see what psychiatrists think about you.

Here are your choices:

1. Angel Food Cake
2. Brownies
3. Lemon Meringue Pie
4. Vanilla Cake With Chocolate Icing
5. Strawberry Short Cake
6. Chocolate on Chocolate
7. Ice Cream
8. Carrot Cake

------------------------


1 ANGEL FOOD CAKE -- Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm and fuzzy items. A little nutty at times! Sometimes you need an ice cream cone at the end of the day. Others perceive you as being childlike and immature at times.


2. BROWNIES - - You are adventurous, love new ideas, and are a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up you whip out your saber. You are always the oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You tend to be very loyal.


3. LEMON MERINGUE -- Smooth, sexy, & articulate with your hands, you are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher. But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time. A bit of a diva at times, but you have many friends..


4. VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE ICING -- Fun-loving, sassy, humorous, not very grounded in life; very indecisive and lack motivation. Everyone enjoys being around you, but you are a practical joker. Others should be cautious in making you mad. However, you are a friend for life.


5. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE -- Romantic, warm, and loving. You care about other people, can be counted on in a pinch and expect the same in return. Intuitively keen, and can be very emotional.


6. CHOCOLATE ON CHOCOLATE -- Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very creative, adventurous, ambitious, and passionate. You can appear to have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take chances. Will not settle for anything average in life. Love to laugh.


7. ICE CREAM -- You like sports, whether it be baseball, football, basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like to participate, but you enjoy watching sports. You don't like to give up the remote control. You tend to be self-centered and high maintenance.


8. CARROT CAKE -- You are a very fun loving person, who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you. You are a very warm hearted person and a little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Meditations

My meditation the past several days as I wrestle with the realities of becoming a mom, being distracted in that process by Travis' school, our jobs and our uncertain future living situation has been from Morning and Evening by CH Spurgeon:

March 16th- Morning

But here is the sweetness of my lot: I am a stranger with Thee. Thou art my fellow-sufferer, my fellow-pilgrim. Oh, what joy to wander in such blessed society! My heart burns within me by the way when thou dost speak to me, and though I be a sojourner, I am far more blest than those who sit on thrones, and far more at home than those who dwell in their ceiled houses.

"To me remains nor place, nor time: My country is in every clime; I can be calm and free from care: On any shore, since God is there. While place we seek, or place we shun, The soul finds happiness in none: But with a God to guide our way, 'Tis equal joy to go or stay."

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Baby Update

Here's a funny story from our lives.
We are learning to limit our evening and weekend activities due to my energy (and Daddy's, too) levels. After several too busy weeknights and weekends, Travis has discovered the following about me.
He likes to joke that at 9:30 I "turn into a pumpkin". After we were out one night, we were driving home around 11pm and although I had felt fine up until 10:30, nausea and utter fatigue ensued as more minutes ticked by. It is like your body says "NO MORE. I will not be awake one minutes longer." All systems start to shut down.
My comment the next morning was, "If I turn into a pumpkin at nine-thirty, then I turn into the wicked stepsister at eleven"

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Baby Update

Baby is growing... and so is mommy :) Just this week people started asking me if I was pregnant. It is pretty funny to tell them I am a little more than 6 months pregnant. But thanks to Mom for the good genes... we LOVE having a long torso right now. More room for the two of us to share. But not quite enough to wear all my regular pants. Even though I fit into my small dress pants on Saturday night for a fundraiser dinner with the Nams, I could no longer clasp them and they were tight. All those new pounds we've gained together.
In the past couple weeks the baby has been continuing to harden and grow it's skeletal structure. It has also grown some hair-- it now has eyebrows and lanugo (a hair all over it's body for temperature maintenance). Lanugo will be replaced by the vernix, a moisturizing film that will coat and protect the baby's skin while it is swimming for the next couple months. Other functions are developing like the first bowel movement, called meconium. We are sure this will not be the last...

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Baby Update: Hooray for Six

Six months today. I can't believe how fast we've grown and how fast time has flown :)
Today, you might have a new friend as well, if he would arrive for his family: hopefully you'll get to meet Gavin Russell one day :)

Monday, March 03, 2008

A Sight to Behold...


While walking with Travis last night, we walked past one of his parent's neighbors, who was busy occupied mowing and trimming his yard.

He was dressed in old shorts, the standard freebie white shirt from some corporate event 20 years ago and old sneakers. He had his plastic eye-protection gear on while he was wielding his electric weed-eater. And of course, there were the socks: he had on white athletic socks pulled all the way up close to his knees. Now, if you have ever mowed or trimmed a yard, as my brother, Peter, and I will testify, along with every other lawncare aficinado, this is a neccessary fashion faux pas. A mower or weed-wacking blade can and will move dirt and small rocks at leg-injuring speeds. Socks are protection.
The entire sight of this poor man putting so much effort into his electric weed-eater brought back a very funny memory of our favorite lawn customer of summers past: Mr. Banjeolee. Mr. Banjeolee was a neighbor who employed our services at Jansen Lawn Services off and on over the years. Every spring as lawncare began, we would watch his lawn peak in its growth while we waited in dread for the call. For some odd reason, God ordained that his front lawn would grow at double the rate and thickness of the other lawns on his side of the street. Diane, the next door neighbor, had thinning grass under her trees. But, no, the Banjeolees was the thickest and deepest every year. And every year he tried to cut it himself.


He would step out of his door on a Saturday morning dressed in the same gear: the old tight t-shirt, the short shorts of yesteryear, the old sneakers...and the socks. He would pull out his 14-inch wide electric mower and go to work. Except his lawn was so thick that he had to cut it one square at a time, lifting the bed up and over the grass and bringing it down on top of the grass in an effort to conquer it's growth. You could hear it from our house, the "vreee...chunk...chachoonk..thunk". The grass was so thick it would inevitably clog up his mower, he would take a break, and it would sit in the front of his lawn, defeated, about halfway through the job. Every year he would get about halfway. Sometime, he would even accomplish the season's first cut.

Then we would get the call to finish up. And take over for a few cuts.


O, the memories it brought back the other night. I laughed so hard on my walk telling Travis this story I could hardly breathe. Thanks Peter for letting me in on your business (even though it was me who showed you how to make marketing flyers on Word). All those miserable summers were justified by the laughter last night.