Happy New Year!

I can't believe a whole month has gone by! It is pretty typical to get uber busy during the holidays, so I will hide behind that tired excuse for why it has been a month since my last update! The first half of the month flew by in the business of working. My job keeps me busy and on my toes as I am faced with new challenges every week. Yet I must say it is nice because I feel as if I know more of what I am doing. I am getting into that routine in a job where I can begin to relax in the routine, but I also want to remain eager and ready to learn new things. I find my job very fulfilling, working with kids as a school counselor. But I also am very aware now of how it is just my job. I worked hard in school and got all this way to land a career in order to realize it is merely that...just a career. My life is more than my career and for that I am thankful. As my baby belly grows, I am reminded of how life is really bigger than any one aspect of our lives. I am a child of God first, before: wife, daughter, mother, counselor, housekeeper, friend.

The second half of the month was many things: ironic, disappointing, fun, trying, fulfilling. I finished up my last day of school on the Thursday before Christmas. Ahh...what bliss I felt having finished up the first half of the school year, and I was so looking forward to relaxing and enjoying my family's arrival on Saturday evening. Friday came and I had some youth girls over to bake cookies. I purposefully put off cleaning our home for Saturday, knowing a day would be plenty of time to make the house ready. Friday night rolled around, and so did a fever...and chills...and a headache. A midnight call to the on call physician lead to an after midnight run to 5 stores looking for a thermometer and tylenol. Matt had not slept well that whole week and was swamped with work because of the Sunday church festivities. Yet, there we were at 1 am searching for an open store. A rough night's sleep and a few hours later, I am throwing up in a trash can and completely miserable. For those of you who know me well you know of the drama of Christmas 2004. It began with throwing up and ended up with a 5 day hospital visit and 30 hours unconscious on Christmas day. So as I sat there unable to keep anything down and pregnant to boot, Matt and I decided to go to the ER for fluids and anti-nausea meds. I sat on the hospital bed angry and bitter that life was repeating itself 2 years later (family coming, Christmastime, me in the ER). It turns out I had strep throat (undoubtedly contracted from one of my students). Well, good friends and an understanding family helped us during this frustrating time. Brooke stayed with me at the hospital while Matt went home and sped cleaned the house. Our other friend Linda took me home and got prescriptions filled. My family doctored me back to health over the next week without showing too much disappointment over my condition. Really my family was so gracious, and it sure helps that they can be entertained by sitting around and talking for hours!

Around Wednesday I began to get some energy back. Thursday I took my family on a tour of Morro Bay. We saw the elephant seals, ate at an awesome outdoor fish market, and rode up the coast to the mountains. They loved the scenery, and I loved feeling alive again. On Friday we took them on a whirlwind tour of San Fransisco. It's always fun to take people to see the city sites. I am really thankful for the time I had with them, and I have even been a little depressed since they left. It is always hard to see family go. I am not good with transitions.

In baby news, I am 15 weeks now. My belly is beginning to pop and feel a little heavier every day. I am so grateful that the baby has seemed to survive my recent illnesses like a champ...it just speaks to me of God's sovereignty. He will grow this baby regardless of my condition or fears. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday. It is probably still too early to tell the sex but hopefully we will hear the heartbeat. I hope in another month we'll get to know if Mattalina will be wearing pink or blue. We have some names picked out, and I am pretty excited about them. They have significance to me. For a boy we are liking Asher Michael and for a girl we are keen on Karis Alina. Karis is Greek for grace (of which I feel it is only by God's abundant grace we will raise this human life) and Asher is Hebrew for happy or fortunate (of which I feel describes Mattalina's father, God's gift to me). So we shall see...these names are still in the works.

Well, that is all for now, folks. I just have to say the picture up at top was taken on Sunday. Matt and I came home from Church and realized we matched, even with our doggie. We don't normally walk around matching each other. Happy New Year!