Still waiting

Well...we had an appt this morning and found out that I'm only 1 cm along, so we still have a ways to go! My next appt is January 3rd, so looks like a 2008 baby! Now we're off to the JV Christmas party and we're glad about that. We were kind-of hoping we wouldn't miss it, so this is great.
I feel good too about the appt because with Abigail I was dilated to a 2 and the doctor said, "let's induce...if you're ready." He was really great about it. But I started to wonder if that's just the way he does it. There were two other women there this morning who were being induced, so I was actually really glad when he said, "let's wait." I'm hoping and praying it all happens on it's own this time, so that will give it a chance to.
Okay...we're off to party! Josh said, "maybe we could have a snowball fight to get things moving along!" Uhh, no thanks! : )

More Christmas season

While Tony was here we had our Christmas cantata at church. Over 30 people in the choir! It was such a fun time. But let me tell you, practicing since September got a little old, but it sure made the difference. I am in the top picture right beside the young guy (Dave) in the front row. We were in the tenor section! Tony got to sit with his grandma and enjoy!

Believe it or not, I didn't think to take pictures of our holiday get together with church family. By the time everthing was put out on the tables, I forgot to take pictures. See the lady in the top picture right above the lady with glasses in the first row? That's Gladys. She came over early and helped me get all of the food out and ready by 1pm on Saturday, the 22nd. 52 friends from church came and I still could have had about 20 more people to make a GOOD dent in the food! We had meatballs, little smokies, quiche, chimichangas, cut up, salads, meats and cheeses with bread and crackers, and just all kind of goodies! It was a very nice day. This year there were several open houses! One on Christmas eve, one on Christmas morning, ours on the 22nd, and one of the 20th as well! People just enjoyed getting together! Each one was very well attended!! Merry Christmas to all, this time of year reminds us that the best present that we all could get was the one we NEEDED! A savior who would take our sins upon Himself so that we could be forgiven and live with Him for eternity! So, afterall, Christmas isn't about what we want, but what we need! Praise God for providing what we could never provide for ourselves~Salvation for our souls!

Christmas season

Tony came home for a visit and was so happy to see his kids. He got to spend a couple of hours with them. Their presents are here for the next visit!! He hoped he would be able to spend more time, but maybe the next visit will be longer. It is so sweet to see Cassandra hug her daddy! Alexander just seems to be getting bigger and bigger all the time. He is our sweet boy!

Snow!

Really, it was just a dusting, but is was fun anyway. We got Abigail some snow boots a couple weeks ago because we found some at a great price, but didn't know if she'd have a chance to wear them this winter. Some years we're buried in snow and others we're not, so it's hard to plan for winter sometimes. But she got to wear them today and loved it and the rest of the day, she kept going to the front door, sitting down and trying to get her boots back on. And the mittens....well, I couldn't get her to understand about the thumb being separate from the rest, so it looked pretty funny!

We're glad she enjoyed the fresh air though! Oh, and the last picture is how she walks sometimes when she's really excited--her arms straight back. It's so funny!

Baby Shower

My wonderful JV Sisters had a baby shower for me and the coming baby today. It was such a sweet time to be loved on and celebrated with by my dear friends here.

We ate delicious girl food, played "The Price is Right" for baby products, the baby and I were "blessed" by our friends and we were showered with gifts. The theme of the shower was "Christmas Traditions" and several of the gifts involved stories of what they as a family do now or did do growing up. It was such a sweet time.

Sarah Vuletic, who recently moved here from Croatia shared a devotional time and about how her and her husband write blessings for each of their children by pulling blessings from scripture. Joel and I are looking forward to writing one for Abigail and also one for the coming baby. So at one point during the shower, all the ladies gathered around myself and the baby and prayed blessings over us, mainly over the coming boy. It was so sweet.

During her time she shared from Psalm 20 and said that the Lord had given her those words to share with me today.

May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.

May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious
and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.

Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
he answers him from his holy heaven
with the saving power of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of our God.
They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.
O Lord, save the king!
Answer us when we call!

As she began reading, I remembered those words being read over me by my dear friend, Lori, several years ago after we lost Isaac, she also had sensed the Lord giving her those words for me then.

It was such a special gift from the Lord to have been given those words when he took one son from us and then to be given them again as he is giving us another...I listened with tears coming down my face as the Lord spoke His blessing over me and the little one I'm carrying, remembering the sacrifices and burnt offerings from before and silently praising Him for giving us the desires of our hearts and for making all our plans successful....such a tender and loving God we have!

Here's some photos to share our special time with you.

Translation please!

Hi Grandma Sorensen,

At a baby shower today I received a baby blanket from a French store here in Slovenia. The blanket says:
"Pour Capprendre a grandir"

Do you know what this means?

Settlers of Catan

Mom & Dad...when you come in March, I'm going to teach you how to play that game and we're going to be playing every night...just to warn you! You'll like it though. : )

Sveti Miklavž

Last week we celebrated Sveti Miklavž here in Slovenia. It's Saint Nicholas but in Slovene he's called, Sveti Miklavž. He died Dec. 6th, so that is his holiday. It's celebrated in many different ways, but the way Joel and I decided to do it with Abigail is to have her put her shoes outside her bedroom door the night before and then we put a Kinder-egg and an orange inside for her to find the next morning.

One of the legends we read online about him was that he would throw in open windows of families that needed extra money, bags of gold and "supposedly" it would land in the shoes or socks that were being warmed by the fire. So people often give oranges to symbolize the bags of gold. Also, chocolate is a big thing to give away so we decided on the egg. Actually...most of the stores sell those hollowed-out chocolate things you can find at easter in the states in the shape of bunnies, but in December, it's in the shape of Sveti Miklavž. We couldn't find one the night before though, so we'll have to do that next year!

So here's a couple photos:


And here's the sleepy girl, eating her chocolate first thing in the morning!

Dave and Malissa got married Saturday night. Dave Ben and I got ready at our house and Malissa and the girls got ready at Dave's.

Everyone really liked the look of the 4 Christmas trees on the platform so we left them there. Next Saturday night we are having a choir performance and the trees will make a nice background for that. I was best man in the wedding.

Steve & Emma's visit

Friday we met Michael and Heather in Bend and Steven & Emma came with us to spend the night. Julie and I had a wedding to prepare for, so the kids had to tag along for that on Friday. Before that though we went to Red Robin for lunch. When we got home Friday night we watched a couple of movies and had milkshakes. Saturday Steven and Emma helped me put christmas lights on some trees at the church for the wedding.
Later Julie and Emma made sugar cookies. Steven cleaned the bowls but the hard part was getting him to wait until the bowls were empty.
Video games on the computer kept him entertained enough to allow Julie and Emma to finish the cookies before he cleaned the bowls. It was fun having them spend the night and they were a big help to me.

Beach trip

Julie and I spent the week at Depoe Bay and had a very relaxing time. Most days she would work on jewelry in the morning and then we would go somewhere in the afternoon.
The weather was great! We had some storms and some clear skies all week.
The big deal of the week for me was the purchase of a new (actually old) M&M dispenser for my office. You work the recliner lever and the foot rest opens and dispenses M&Ms. We found this in an antique store and they had all kinds of these. Apparently Mars Co. makes new ones every year and people collect them. I thought they were for dispensing M&Ms, what do I know?

Thanksgiving Days

Well...our kitchen is now complete! The plumbers came this morning to hook up water to the sink, the dishwasher and finish our bathroom upstairs. Yipp-eee. Koncno! (Konchno) (That's "finally" in Slovene, and I just like the way it's pronounced.)

Here are a couple pics from before the sink was finished, but the cabinets are in. We are really enjoying all of it! I have to get used to having wood countertops, I'm not sure how much "wear and tear" they can take and feel really protective of them right now. I really like that 'old' look, so I really should just relax...

Even Abigail is enjoying the cupboards! (These pics are for you Dad!) This is her latest "fun" face. She makes it a lot, which we laugh at, and then she does it more. She's quite the little ham these days.

Look at those long, curly lashes that she inherited from her Dada. Lucky girl!!

And speaking of her Dada...
He took our cheapy Ikea table that we bought 4 years ago and which we had stained with a white stain finish and sanded the top down and then re-stained it with an oak stain to match the counters. He was disappointed at first because the white stain wasn't coming off, but in the end, it really turned out very cool! He has been doing so many projects around the house, it's so fulfilling for him and especially nice for me! He's enjoying having a "work area" out in the garage and has his eye on new tools at the Home Depot type store now that he has a garage and work area. He has several other projects in mind now that he feels so confident after doing the table.

So on Thursday after the cabinets were finished being installed we headed to that new mall, which was super-packed with people! I guess they didn't care that it was a holiday in the US. : ) It was fun to walk around and see all the new stores. Mom, I can't wait to go shopping with you there in March!

Then on Friday we had our own little family Thanksgiving which was fun to fix in our new kitchen even though we had to wash everything afterward in the bathroom sink. Our turkey was huge for just the three of us...15 pounds and cost over $45!! But it was the only one available so we'll be eating turkey for the rest of the month probably! Turkey soup, turkey pot-pie, turkey sandwiches...

Then today we headed to our friends, the Jackson's house to have Thanksgiving with a bunch of other American & a few Slovene friends. There were 19 of us all-together, 7 of which were kids, so Abigail had a blast! At one point, there was a "talent show" for the kids and Abigail loved watching it all. Then one of the girls, Meagan, played a song on the piano and Abigail started dancing to it. It was really hilarious. Stevo, our teammate in Croatia was video taping it, so we hope to get a copy of it and if so, I'll post it for you. Oh my! It was so funny!

So here's a slideshow from today! Enjoy!


So Happy Thanksgiving dear family....we love you all!

'Shooter' the puppy-what a cutie

This was Shooter, the little puppy belonging to one of the caregivers. Mom really liked it, wanted it for her own, of course! We went to the doctor on Monday, Savannah's last day with us, and her and mom were coming in her car. She told mom to take the puppy out to the grass, instead mom put the puppy in the closet!! Really trying to make that dog her own!

Thanksgiving 2007 supplemental

These pictures actually go with the post below but for some reason Piccasa didn't post them.

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving 2007
Tony was able to come down from Fort Lewis and Mike, Heather, Steven and Emma came from LaPine.
We all went to Frank and Vicky's for dinner. All total there were about 20 people there.
Frank and Vicky changed there garage into a dining room and they finished the project about 2 hours before the dinner. The room really came out nice and there was plenty of room for all of us.

Almost!

They come back tomorrow morning at 8 to install the counters and all the hardware, shelves and I think that's it. Yippee! We love it!

1000%

That's what Domen (the cabinet guy) said on Monday about the cabinets being ready to be delivered and installed on Wednesday. He's already told me "100%" a couple times without delivery so maybe 100 meant 10 and 1000 means 100???

Then he called tonight and said they're coming for sure, just not sure what time yet. On Monday he said 8 or 8:30, tonight he said, 9 or 10. But at least they're coming! Joel scheduled the plumber to come tomorrow afternoon to hook up the sink and dishwasher and finish installing the bathroom upstairs.

Wow! We can't wait!

And it's all just in time for Thanksgiving. We feel like we have so much to be thankful for this year!
Oh...and a fun thing (well, for me, not so much for Joel) is that a new shopping mall is opening here in Kranj, 9am on Thursday morning. It's going to have two great new stores, one of which is my favorite over here, H&M. The other one, C&A is sort-of like a smaller scale JCPenney or maybe a Mervyn's and they're offering the first 100 customers a game piece where 10 people will win a 100Euro gift card. I told Joel "it's like Day after Thanksgiving Shopping! Yippee!!" He said, "oh yeah, yippee...."I need Mom over here!!

He said he'd go anyway. There is going to be lots of fun stuff going on and Abigail will really like it too. So fun, fun, fun!

Family

This video is about a month and a half old, but I thought you might like to see it anyway. It's pretty cute. Enjoy!

Hard at work

That's me!

Just waiting for the new baby. I'm getting pretty excited about this new one. I've had several dreams lately about him. One where I was at the hospital, having an iv put in and then next thing I know I'm in a room with several other women and one of them is being handed her baby and I'm thinking, "oh, yay! When will they give me mine?!" If only it was that easy, huh?!

Last night I organized all of Abigail's clothes (2 1/2 Rubbermaid tubs worth!@!! for just 1 year!) It was so fun to look through it all again and remember her wearing the different outfits. I must say though, that I truly hope we have another girl someday just to get some more wear out of all those clothes!

I took out all the plain white onesies and other yellowy-type clothes that the Baby Boy could wear too. Then I organized all the new things we have for him and got them all sorted. He's got one whole Rubbermaid tub as well! Although, there is a large bag of infant-age toys in there too that I set aside from Abigail's things.

With us still waiting on the kitchen, we haven't even thought about getting the baby room ready yet! He'll be sleeping in our room for the first 4-6 months anyway, and then we have to get Abigail her own bed and closet, then we'll move him to his room. Hopefully it'll be ready by then! : ) At this point, it seems like it's pushing it!

So I heard...

...that Grandma (and probably the whole clan!) was laughing at us (me) for complaining that the kitchen is taking a month to be finished because theirs took 6 months. I'm sure Uncle Bob and Aunt Jackie have some stories of waiting and working too that make ours pale in comparison.

I just want to say that while "yes" I am complaining...I am still very, very grateful for all that is happening around here. It's just all new to me. We're never even experienced this sort of thing in the states to compare it to.

The floors and walls are finished and Joel's been painting the past couple days. He's pretty tired at this point. We "think" the plumber and electrician are coming back on Monday to finish up their work and then the cabinets are going to be installed on Nov. 5 or 6th.

We were set for them to be installed on this coming Thursday and Friday, but forgot that there are two holidays in Slovenia on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Day of Reformation and the Day of the Dead. Thursday is the Day of the Dead and everybody! goes to the cemetery and puts candles on the graves of their relatives. It's a Catholic holiday, maybe Grandma did that in France when she was younger. It's a big deal here.

All the stores are selling grave decorations, candles and silk flowers. The other day I was at a store and a lady behind me was buying a beautiful (what I thought) table centerpiece made out of pine tree branches, pine cones, red beads and a candle in the middle. I thought, "oh, that's nice, but isn't it a bit early to buy a Christmas table centerpiece?!" And then I saw them advertised a couple days later as grave decorations. Oops! Wouldn't that have been a cultural blunder to have it on my table when neighbors come over for coffee?!

Trip to Fort Lewis

Julie and I went up to see Tony right after I got off work on Friday. We arrived around 6:00 and on the way we called Robert and Annie. We met them at the main gate then went in and picked up Tony and went to Applebees for dinner. It was a great time. After dinner Julie and I checked in at the Rainier Inn. It is a hotel accomadation on the base. It is pretty new and a very nice place to stay. We got a regular room for $60 and found out the next morning that they have have a 1 bedroom unit for $70. They had a continental breakfast in the lobby from 7-9:30 and it was one of the best I've seen. We went to the chowhall with Tony for breakfast though. It was a great deal $2.00 a person for Julie & me and the food was really good. The look on my face was just how the picture was taken and not a commentary on the food. After breakfast we went to the motor pool. This is where Tony goes to train on artillery. You can see the cannon that Tony is training on in the background. Unfortunately it is pretty much hidden by the motor pool sign.
Afterwards we went to the commisary and PX. Julie was impressed by the statue across the street. Then we said good-bye and headed home.

On the way back we stopped and saw Monte and Jolie for awhile. We left at 4 instead of 5 because from the time we went over Mt Hood on Friday and Saturday it had snowed between 1-3 ft on the mountain. Going over at government camp there was about 2-3 inches of slush on the road.
But we arrived home safe and sound.