Halloween

31 weeks on the 31st of October:

And just 9 weeks to go!

Tonight we went up to Brent & Elise's. We also enjoyed the company of Jordan & Cherie, Erin & Graham, Colin & Lindsay, Steve & Joan, Levi (of course) and many others who dropped in for candy.

Here is the girls crew, with Miranda and Hannah popping in.

The gentlemen.

And Levi dressed as a monkey.

Diagnosis: Negative

Just so everybody knows, I don't have gestational diabetes.

7 days in a week

Okay, I'm feeling bloggy.

So, means has now come and gone. It was a really quick visit this time, but I stayed up way too late with them and Pete on Monday night watching a super old means2anend and goodsampark show (the one at a church in Weyburn with Stereotrap). Earlier that evening we met up with Marnie at 1415 Broad Street to catch means live and Peter and I were talking about how wierd it is to go to shows when you don't know anyone there. The music community in Regina is so connected. I'm sure it is here too, but it's hard to break into a clique. Anyway we were surprised to see Bretton and Jordan and Eric there, it felt like being in Regina again.

Tuesday I had to go sit in the medical lab for three hours getting tested for gestational diabetes. I had my screening test last Saturday and flunked it, so I had to go through the real test and I am still waiting for results. And trying to eat sugar-free of course.

Wednesday and Thursday flew by, Youth & Young Adults, lots of conversation and lots of soul searching. Friday was a party with the Youth, a bunch of them were dressed up and I felt like a party pooper because I had forgotten about the party and my fairy wings broke and by the time I rememebered the party it was too late to get a costume because I was so busy. So I was just Chelsey, scaring people with my usual-ness.

On Saturday Pete went hunting with Kirk & Jeremy and I hung out with Crystal and Hannah. In the morning we hung out at Central Baptist Church, helping out with a breakfast that they put on and then we prayed and hung out and hatched some great plans (well actually God hatched them, but we finally just realized them in our hearts) for some things we could do to help others in need. Then we ate tacos and watched Elizabethtown. I was tired all day. So I went to bed early and the time changed and I couldn't sleep in past 7.

So that brings us to Sunday, I went to church and before it started I hung out with Levi (Brent & Elise's) in the nursery and visited with my friend Sandy and her baby Grace. I borrowed "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction" by Eugene Peterson from Martin. We sang and sang and the whole church was bopping today. Seriously. Then I took pictures of a bunch of the families from church and then we went to Romeo's at Broadmead with Brent, Elise, Levi and their friend Chris.

So now you are updated in the crazy-busy life that I lead.

Spiritually now, I've been wrestling with some issues lately, about what I'm doing with my life, about what God wants me to do with my life. God keeps bringing up "the least of these" and I keep trying to figure out what I can do to express God's love to them. My way of doing that is to keep praying about it and taking small steps to see where God is leading me. In some ways I feel like Noah because God asked him to build an ark and that must have looked pretty crazy to every one around him and I keep thinking about the homeless and those who need so much and a lot of people seem to think I'm kind of crazy for feeling so strongly about it. I say they seem to think that, I don't know that they actually do.

I met this guy named Thane on Saturday and he was saying how he spent a whole winter in New Brunswick outside in -57 degree weather. He kept saying how there were all these really wealthy people around and a bunch of churches and they all knew that he was there and no one took him in or got him shelter. He kept saying how the God that they were worshipping couldn't be the same God that he knew because he knew that God was supposed to be love and love would've taken him in and gotten him warm. He kept saying that our beliefs are proven by our actions.

It was pretty convicting.

the most precious band you could believe

The Weekend

It's Sunday night and the weekend has come and gone.

Saturday morning to mid-afternoon was spent with this raking (and rockin') crew:


Then I went for coffee with Beth, Jeidy, and Lin, and we looked at some cute cats at the pet store. I sewed with Vivian for something like 5 hours. We finished the bedskirt for the crib and we are almost done the quilt.

Today I got to sleep in a bit and went to church with Elise & Levi. After lunch, Peter and I went to the park by the Christ Church Cathedral and took some photos.

After that we came home and I put on some sweats and enjoyed a Lindor chocolate and a chai latte before watching Click. I got to spend some time with my wonderful husband, and it was very, very nice.

Tomorrow our good friends from means will arrive on the island and they are going to spend a couple days with us.

They are very tough, as you can see.

Kristen will appreciate this one

So here we are, 29 weeks and growing. It's not the best picture but some of you were starting to get hostile, so this is what you get.

78 days to the due date.

But there's weekends in there, and they always go so fast, so it's more like 56 days. Plus the long weekend in November, so that takes it to 55 days and then of course there is Christmas, which is about 2 weeks long. So 41 days really. And this week is practically over, and work makes the weeks go by so quickly and so really its like 30 days.

And when you throw in schooling, eating, sleeping, hanging out with the youth, sewing with Vivian, Young Adults, taking pictures and my new-found hobby of knitting, the due date is basically 2 days away. A weekend really! Oh, and then there's getting the baby room ready and preparing the house for a little one. Really it's like 20 minutes away.

It's a cup of coffee!

Spooky the Spider

I thought that I would introduce you to our new spidey friend. He made his home on our railing about a week ago. He fashioned together this handy little web to catch his food and then he hides in a hole in the railing and waits.





I like him.

aitah!

Almost 4 years ago I prayed a little prayer. That probably seems pretty normal, but at that time, I wasn't the prayin' type. I didn't even know if I believed that there was a god up there listening to me. But I wanted a boyfriend and I was betting that if there was a god, then he could probably get that for me. So I was pretty specific. I really let God know what I wanted. And his response? "So you want a boyfriend huh? Well I'll show you what happens when you start a relationship with me..." He did lead me to a boyfriend, but what he really was doing was coming into my life and starting to change everything. God can be pretty sneaky you know.

I'm pretty thankful He did that.

I'm thankful for:
- Peter
- God's little person that He is growing inside of me and the honour it is to be able to teach this person and guide it through life
- my mom and her humour and her wisdom
- my stepdad and his humour and his love for hot sauce
- my dad and his own little ways of letting me know that he loves me
- my stepmom and her access to sweet travel deals
- my brothers and their little families
- my family-in-law: too much to list
- my friends that are close, my friends that are far
- laughter and tears
- the whirring and buzzing and aroma of coffee being made while sitting across the table from a good friend
- Amelie
- the book "Frederick" by Leo Lionni

You know, this would be a lot easier if we all listed what we were thankful for each day. I'm giving up on this list, I am blessed with too much.

Just shut up, shut up

You know those people who are real blabber-mouths? Of course you do, you know, the ones who are always talking and you have to do a lot of nodding and make a lot of listening noises and you can hardly get a word in even when they ask you questions because the only time they are even asking you questions is only so that they can just talk about themselves some more?

In my relationship with God, that person is me. I can't believe that I never really thought about it before, I mean I've obviously heard people talk about "listening to God" and having a "conversation" with God, but I never really realized that when I'm praying it's really all me, all the time, goinggoinggoing, just trying to fill the space and if I can't think of something to say I just find something to say so there's no awkward silence between God and I.

Remember how I said that God is teaching me about how our relationship should look a lot like my realtionship with my husband? What if all I ever did when I talked to Peter was just go on and on about things and thanked him for a bunch of stuff really quickly and asked him for help with things and then just said, "okay goodbye!" and got up and walked away?

"Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating."

- Joel [Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]

The wierd thing about God is that he actually does things for us even though we talk to Him like that. I can't imagine me talking to Peter like that and listing off a bunch of things that I'd like him to do for me and then just having him do them without even being able to say a word to me. (Although sometimes wouldn't it be flippin' sweet?)

Tonight at Journey, our weekly youth night, we watched the Rob Bell DVD called 'Noise'. One thing that really stuck out to me was all the passages that talked about "being silent" before God. Bell goes on to talk about how hard it is to be silent and how we are surrounded by so much audible and visible noise. I realized that I do get pretty uncomfortable with silence. I think we are all just so used to things beeping at us and talking to us and buzzing around in our ears that we don't know how to handle silence. I have to have the TV on when I am at home alone, even if I'm not watching it, or some music, or else I feel like the day just can't go on. I can hardly even meditate, I can't shut my brain off, it's going from one place to the next. I'm going to start working towards changing that. I'm going to start being a little quieter, a little more attentive, and "talk" with God like I'm actually in a relationship with Him.

Happy Wednesday

Well, it feels like it has been a while. I'm feeling the pressure to write something but I guess I haven't really had anything to say! It's October now and it seems like September flew by. Now that everything has gotten going again in the fall it feels like I have something going on every night between homework, husband, youth, young adults, and anything spur of the moment.

Our anniversary was on Monday the 2nd. Two years. We spent the evening together eating at a harbourside restaurant and then enjoying the Victoria Symphony... that is until my back said that we could enjoy it no longer. I am now 27 weeks pregnant, on the brink of the 3rd trimester, and my back and my ligaments are letting me know it. Will I ever feel normal again? Still can't complain, everything seems to be developing perfectly and according to "the norm" so that's good.

You know, I was thinking last night how the first and foremost thing that God calls us to do is have a relationship with Him. That's really all. But then I got to thinking about how we humans are actually pretty terrible at relationships; I mean, the most common comparisons of how our relationship with God should be is 1) Father/Child and 2) Husband/Wife. The single parent and divorce rate ought to tell us just how well we know how to keep those relationships healthy. No wonder we find it so hard to simply have a relationship with God! No wonder we felt like we should read the Bible like a sciencebook and reduce it to charts and graphs in order to feel like we are "good" with God. Anyway, God has me thinking about the whole Husband/Wife comparison a lot lately and He's helping me to see that having a relationship isn't some big flashy thing that I have to do, in fact, it should be more like how my relationship is with Peter. I felt a bit of relief there. I mean, marriage is tough sometimes, and I am still called to be selfless and serving, but this view of God sure beats the other view I had... you know the one where I think God is just waiting for me to screw up so that he can burn his rage against me?

Yeah, this one's a lot better.