From Anxiety to Africa

We had been on the road for an hour and a half when we made a left turn off the 2 lane highway and onto a gravel road headed toward Kageyo. We were packed nine deep in a passenger van for this 3 hour road trip. Leg room was limited and the air conditioning non-existent. "How much further?" someone asked. "Around 30 minutes on this road, then an hour on the dirt road." our trip leader responded. I couldn't imagine a road worse off than the one we were on.

We traveled up and down steep hills on a dirt path covered with pot holes, mud puddles and other obstacles. The van miraculously reached the top of each hill and wound the tight corners on the small road. I gazed out the open window of the van- a herd of long horn cattle to my left and a swarm of African children following the van shouting "Muzungu!" (White people!!).

Stuck in the back of a van in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a group of people I barely knew and in a country I knew even less. Animals surrounding us. Hot. No air conditioning. No western toilet for miles. It was my worst nightmare. And yet I was perfectly at peace.

I thought to myself, "How did I get here?"

The answer is simple. God took me there.

I have lived most of my adult life governed by a spirit of fear and anxiety. Not the panic attack kind of anxiety, but a lingering anxiousness about everything. If you had told me one year ago that I would be traversing rough terrain in a van in Africa I would have called you crazy. But here I was.

The journey of how God took me to Africa is a simple one. It started with prayer. I sensed that God was calling me out of my comfort zone. He wanted to give me a global perspective- you know, show me what life is like for the majority of the world's population. I knew he was calling me to "Go" but I had no idea where. I shared my urge to "go" with my mentor and together we started praying that God would make a clear path for the "where." Central America, South America, Africa????

I prayed that prayer for over 6 months and through a series of events God began to make his way clear for me. He gave me a passionate heart for the people of Rwanda through a ministry there that we had already begun to support in an indirect way. Everything about the endeavor was God inspired and directed. I'm not someone who claims to hear God very clearly, but I had prayed diligently and he began to show me his plan.

But I had excuses.... trust me, I had plenty. Who would watch the children? What about work, I JUST started this job!? It is SO expensive! And I'd rather die than be stranded in the middle of nowhere without a bathroom.

Nevertheless I was there- in Rwanda, looking out the window of a van at what would be the pinnacle of my discomfort. And I was totally at peace. I can't explain exactly what happened, but I can tell you that God taught me so many things in that moment.

Here is what I learned:
God answers prayers
God is big enough for my fears
He will make His way known for those who seek to know it
He taught me how to loosen my grip on control and trust Him
Being obedient brings incredible peace and joy

So in that moment, in that van, I thanked God with all my heart. I thanked Him for showing me His Glory and for changing me in even the slightest way. I trust God to remind me of that moment in Africa when I struggle with doubt and fear. I will let this memory of God's faithfulness sustain me in difficult times.

God is good.

Babysitter Vacation

Last week our babysitter was on vacation- which meant that Weston and I worked out a way to keep Aubrey at home for the week AND go to work!

Spending time at home with Aubrey was simply amazing.  She is almost 21 months and is a bundle of energy and sweetness. Weston and I ended up splitting the days in half- Weston would work in the mornings while I stayed home with Aubrey and then we would switch at lunch time.  This allowed each of us to get a full 4-5 hours of work in at the office, plus a little work at home time.

Here's some of what we did:

Played outside (Aubrey's favorite thing to do!)

Aubrey spent some time looking at the trees

We drank out of a big glass

Spent more time outside with Chloe

Played pasta in the kitchen

Went to the park with Dad

and Aubrey spent quite a bit of time in her PJs- which I made for her of course :)

It was so neat to get to spend that time with her-- she is absolutely hilarious.  We've been practicing saying "Yes Maam" and "Yes Sir."  We have also been talking quite a bit about obeying mom and dad.  I try to get Aubrey to say "Yes Maam, I will obey."  We're not all the way there yet.

If anyone has advice on how to encourage independent play for toddlers, bring it on!

We're back!

After an awesome 6 days off from work and a nice little vacation it's back to the daily grind.  But-- we had such a great time on our little trip!

As a born and raised West Texas girl, I had never stepped foot in Louisiana until I was 26 or so. This trip to New Orleans was my first visit to the Big Easy and I had no idea what to expect.  It was far nicer than I anticipated, the food was just as good as I had heard, and I was completely enamored by the fact that 80% of this city was under water just 6 or 7 years ago.  Then we ventured over to Mandeville, LA (just on the other side of the HUGE Lake Pontchartrain) on July 4th and stayed one final night there before heading home. Highlights from the trip at the bottom of this post- for those interested.

We left Aubrey behind with Weston's parents while we made our little trip.  We thought WE were on vacation, but the daily photos from Weston's mom (all below) clearly indicated that Aubrey was really the one on vacation.  She looked like she was having a blast.  I was scared she wouldn't want to come back home.

Snacking on raisins and crackers after swimming

More swimming

Eating corn on the cob in her swimmy suit

Happy 4th of July!
I made this shirt for her!! :)

Her very own Icee-- in the car.

Morning stroll

Helping Cookie make cup cakes

Riding in the Barbie Jeep with Eli

Whoa- too fast!

Luckily she was happy to see us when we got home and decided it would be okay to come back home with mom and dad!

----A few highlights of my favorite things from the trip----

NEW ORLEANS

Hotel: Loews New Orleans - Great location near the French Quarter, Riverwalk, and Warehouse District.  And apparently it's one of the few NOLA hotels with a spa.

Spa: Balance Spa at Loews- We got an 80 minute couples massage-- I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Restaurants:  Restaurant August-  AMAZING.  One of the best dining experiences I've ever had.  We both ordered the chef's prix-fixe menu and enjoyed 5 amazing courses of gourmet food.  Drooling again. 

Restaurants:  Brigtsen's- Located in a charming Victorian cottage in Uptown New Orleans, this family owned restaurant specializes in Creole/Acadian cuisine with all locally sourced produce and meat.  If you're under the age of 50 you might be the youngest people there-- but I didn't mind it a bit.  Stepping into Brigtsen's made me feel like I was in on a little New Orleans secret-- a place truly only frequented by locals.  The food was fantastic. 

Attractions:  Magazine Street- A 6 mile stretch of retail and restaurants stretching through Uptown and the Garden District.  A far cry from anything you'll find in the French Quarter, which I thought was super gross and crowded, Magazine Street has charming antique shops, modern design stores, coffee, pubs... you name it. 

We also did some of the touristy things like visit Cafe du Monde, the Aquarium, and the WWII Museum-- all of which were nice.  

MANDEVILLE and MADISONVILLE

Hotel: Marvilla Guest House- Marvilla is a fully restored 1870's guest house in Mandeville, 1 block from Lake Pontchartrain.  Second time we've stayed here- it's quaint and charming. 

Restaurants: Morton's Seafood Restaurant- Set on the bank of the Tchefuncte River- a great place to grab a cup of seafood gumbo and fresh blue crabs and watch the yachts float by.

Shopping: Coquille Cottage- Great place to find refinished and repurposed furniture and accessories.  The prices were awesome-- we loaded the car up!

Music for the Soul

We've established that I love most things NPR.  Here's yet another reason- their Tiny Desk concert series is phenomenal.  Artists perform in the studio at the "tiny desk" of NPR's online music host Bob Boilen. It's a great way to see some awesome artists in a scaled back, intimate environment.

A few of my favorites- for your viewing pleasure.  You're welcome!

Glen Hansard Tiny Desk Concert (6/17/2012)

Wilco Tiny Desk Concert (10/18/2011)




The Civil Wars Tiny Desk Concert (6/27/2011)

Lazy Weekend

This past weekend was perfectly lazy!

1. I finished some sewing projects. Did I mention I'm in love with shirring?  It's so easy and makes for a cute outfit (dress, skirt, shirt, whatever). 

 Aubrey's festive 4th of July shirt! (shirred of course)  Excuse the crazy hair and grey sweatpants.  

We were just trying it on :)

Tee-hee! This just makes me smile.  Look at her hair and her elbow rolls.

4th of July Tank.  A good use of scrap fabric.  

I made a few flags for some of the other babies from my office. 

2.  Weston and I watched a LOT of Downton Abbey.  What a great show!  We just finished Season 1 and are getting into Season 2.  Thank you to Suzanne for recommending it!

3. We had a fun dinner with our LifeGroup.  I'm terrible at remembering to get everyone together for a photo!

We've been meeting for almost a year and have a really great core group of couples.  When you start a new small group from scratch it can take a while to really form those bonds that make you feel like family.  But we're getting there!  We have so much fun together and support eachother in prayer.  We've watched friends get married in this past year and our group will welcome a few new babies in the coming months.  That is what I call "doing life" together.  Last night, they surprised Weston and I with a sweet gift for leading and hosting the group.  We weren't expecting anything like that at all-- it was such a meaningful surprise!  Thank you guys!

Bag Toss Tourney

LifeGroup Dinner

LifeGroup ladies crafting 

Best Friend Visit

This past weekend I hopped on a plane to visit my best friend of twenty-seven years!  When you've been friends with someone for pretty much your entire life, you officially move past best friend status and more into "sister" status.  That's definitely true for Emily and I-- we've fought like sisters, we love like sisters, and we know each other like sisters.  When you're truly family, entertainment is not necessary and you simply pick up where you left off without much fuss.

Emily and I on my wedding day

So that's what Em and I did!  She's  34 weeks pregnant and I'm 13 weeks pregnant-- so we were just two (one very pregnant and one not very pregnant) peas in a pod. 


Our weekend pretty much went like this: 
Visit and talk about babies
Snack
Potty break
Visit some more
Take another potty break
Venture to Target for various items
Totally worn out from a walk through Target - snack and afternoon nap
Yet another potty break
Crafting
Dinner
Locate the Pepcid and the Tums
Watch a movie
Turn in early
......
Repeat

It was an awesome weekend!  Check out these ridiculously cute bow-tie onesies we made for baby William using some of Greg's old ties!  :)

Source: Me. Super cute bow-tie onesies

Source: Me. Super cute bow-tie onesies

Saying Goodbye

When the husband and I were first dating I would usually poke fun at him for listening to these silly "old folks" shows on NPR.  But then, while on a little roadtrip, we cruised along listening to what became three of my favorite NPR shows:

• Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me; The NPR News Quiz
• A Prairie Home Companion- which this blog is fondly named after
• Car Talk

Now I'm officially an NPR nerd, loving ALL THINGS NPR with the exception of what seems like a monthly pledge drive. The pledge drive is likely the only time my radio finds its way to any other station on the dial. 


With all that being said, I was really sad to hear that the guys from Car Talk will produce their last show and then hang up their hats.  I don't know the first thing about cars, nor do I really care so long as the car is in fine working order.  But I just love this show.  


The goofy brotherly hosts, Tom (age 74) and Ray (age 63) Magliozzi- also know as "Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers"- are simply hilarious.  They seem to know everything there is to know about cars, they tell funny jokes, conjure up a weekly riddle or puzzle and endlessly give each other a hard time. If I'm driving around in my car with a big smile on my face I very well may be listening to Car Talk.


You can listen to a little snippet of the show here.


My favorite part of the show is the funny credits they run at the end of each episode.  As any good NPR show will do, they run through a list of "staffers" that work extremely hard to put the show together.  I kid of course....


Here's an example of some of their "staffers" From the Car Talk Wikipedia page:
" Car Talk Statistician "Marge Innovera ("margin of error"), customer care representative Haywood Jabuzoff ("Hey, would you buzz off"), meteorologist Claudio Vernight ("cloudy overnight"), optometry firm C.F. Eye Care ("see if I care"), Russian chauffeur Pikov Andropov ("pick up and drop off")... and law firm Dewey, Cheetham and Howe ("Do we cheat 'em and how")."


So, I'm sad that they're producing their last show.  But then again, these guys are old so they've earned the right to retire and relax.  If you haven't listened to Car Talk before, you can listen online on the NPR site or also on iTunes (I would imagine).  Do yourself a favor and let these funny little radio hosts put a smile on your face.  Then you need to listen to the other two shows I also mentioned above!


Goodbye Car Talk :(

18 Month Check-Up

Just a short little post about Aubrey's 18 month checkup and some other stuff:

Luckily she’s over her ear infection and is back to healthy and normal.  She’s between the 25^th and 50^th percentile and height and right at 50^th percentile in weight. She weighs about 25 pounds and is starting to slim up a bit-- losing some of that baby chub and getting a little bit more tall and lean. (insert frowny face- baby chub is the best)  

The doctor seemed to be pleased with Aubrey’s verbal skills.  She told him things like, “Hey. Bye.  Thank You.”  J  She pointed at things in the examination room, something I’ve never seen her do before.  It was so sweet to see her point with her little pointer finger!

Lately she’s started saying “Bye…. See.”   I’ve determined that she’s saying “Bye… See ya.”  I have noticed that this is something that Weston and I say a lot when we say goodbye to her.  We didn’t teach her to say that, but she’s picked up on it (the first of many things she’ll pick up on I’m sure).  She's also gotten really good at saying "Uh-Oh."  She says it super loud so as to be sure everyone has heard that there was an Uh-Oh. 

The other night we taught her to whisper.  She thinks it’s real fun to whisper things.  She’s been giving lots of hugs and kisses as well, which just makes my  heart melt!  In the mornings she likes to sit at her little table and snack on some cheerios and drink her milk while we get breakfast ready.  She also has begun to let us read entire books to her.  Weston reads Olivia to her almost every night that he puts her to bed.  She actually lets us read the entire book without trying to turn the pages and close it.

In other news:

1. Gran comes to visit on Sunday!

2. Even though Weston and I spend a good bit of time talking about "parent-things" like diapers and spaghetti and humming the theme songs to Thomas the Train and Super Why... we try not to be totally lame and boring.  Occasionally we get a baby-sitter and do "cool stuff".  Like last night-we hit up a concert, which is one of our favorite things to do.

Welcoming The Newlyweds

Not too long ago, I came across this super cute Newlywed Front Door Surprise.  I was inspired- and as luck would have it, I knew some dear newlywed's of my own that I could surprise with this fun little welcome home gift!

So a few of us put a little something together for the Newlyweds to greet them as they returned to their home to start a new chapter of life together.  I hope it brought a smile to their faces!

To my friends, Susanna and Brian: wishing you guys a lifetime of happiness and fun surprises!

Flower Vase: Empty pickle jar from my fridge.  I soaked the labels off and covered it with a burlap fabric scrap.  You can also mod-podge the jars to give them an antiqued look.  Cool tutorial on how to do this here.
Flowers: Hydrangeas from our front yard
Funny looking bow:  Crepe Paper I had laying around the house :)

Sewing

At long last I have discovered a hobby- something that I love!  I initially wanted my new hobby to be photography, but I'm terrible at taking pictures.  So on to the next thing....

This past November (2011) I decided to take up sewing.  It all started with a hunt for the perfect Christmas stockings.  I couldn't find anything I liked so I decided, "Well, I guess I'll just make some."  I bought this cute little sewing machine on Amazon, watched LOTS of youtube videos and got to work on my stockings.

 The "Lil' Sew & Sew"

I was really pleased with the final product-- after all, I didn't know the first thing about sewing and this was my very first project.

Christmas Stockings

Rumor got around that I had been sewing and Weston's parents gave me a sewing machine for Christmas.   I'll have to admit that the big fancy machine was REALLY intimidating compared to the Lil' Sew & Sew.  But I got used to it and have been sewing and monogramming like a mad woman ever since.

To date I have:
Sewn the curtains in our living room out of painter's drop cloth
Helped a friend sew almost 40 burlap pillows for her wedding
Made several pocket squares for Weston
Helped the ladies at the church sew little pillows and positioning tubes for babies in the NICU
Created pillows for my office
Monogrammed dinner napkins for a wedding gift
And have started making dresses for Aubrey (and a few of her cousins)

Teeny Tiny Valentines Day Pillow for the NICU Babies 

Today the Lil' Sew & Sew will go to a new home and I hope the new owner (my college roommate) will  discover a love for sewing as I have.  I still have much to learn- and I look forward to it!

Lindsay

Finished Origami Mobile

Earlier I posted about making an origami mobile for Aubrey's room and I finally finished it! Aubrey was really pleased with how it turned out. :)

Total Cost:

About $5-$10

She loves it!

Steps:

1. Fold your paper cranes. I used origami paper and scrapbook paper. The scrapbook paper was harder to work with because its thickness.

2. Gather your supplies (needle, thread/floss, 1 pack of small beads, 2 dowel rods, paint, hook)

3. Cut your dowel rods to the desired size and paint them whatever color you want. I painted mine white. *I wish I had used flat dowel rods instead of rounded ones. You can also use wire.

4. Thread the floss through the paper crane and secure both sides of the crane with a metal bead (picture below).

5. Secure the dowel rods in a T-shape and hang the paper cranes from the rods.

6. Balance the mobile by moving your paper cranes farther in or out on the rod.

7. Cut excess string and hang from a hook on the ceiling.

Here are the instructions I found online and followed.

Supplies

Crane with the floss threaded through

Finished product

The Big Move

Hello world, I'm finally back! After a few weeks without internet and a crazy busy work schedule I've finally found the time to update the blog.

We had a LOT going on leading up to the move. The week before we left for Louisiana I had to travel to the UK for 4 days for work. I was worried we'd never get everything packed and ready in time!

We hired a moving company to come pack up our house for us and it was the BEST THING EVER! Seriously, next time you move have someone come pack you up. It eliminates about 90% of the stress of moving. They packed absolutely everything in a matter of 3 hours and they packed it really well. I came home from work to find our whole house in boxes. Then two days later we left for Louisiana!

Our house in boxes / Making the big move

Welcome to Louisiana!

Living in Shreveport has been a welcomed change for us for a few reasons:

1. It only takes about 15 minutes to get ANYWHERE!
2. We actually live close to people we know and they stop by and visit. So different from life in Dallas where we lived a good 30 minutes from all of our friends and family.
3. Southern hospitality and generosity. Neighbors and colleagues greeted us with "Welcome to the Neighborhood" cookies and a friend came and mowed our yard for us our first week in the house.

Cookies from our neighbors.

Jordan Smith mowing our yard. Now that's a good friend!

I love our new house and we're slowly but surely getting unpacked and settled in. My favorite thing about the house is our back yard, and the Spring weather has been wonderful for enjoying time outside with Aubrey and the pups. The dogs don't know what to do with all the open space! They chase each other around the yard and then take a break to sun themselves on the grass.

Enjoying time with Aubrey outside / Beautiful flower in our back yard

All in all life in Shreveport in Shreveport has been wonderful! We feel so blessed that this is where God brought us and we're excited for all the new experiences we'll get to have in this place.