Life with Amy and Mark

When Mark opened our door yesterday, he said, “We may have trouble leaving our apartment.”  Because of the amount of snow coupled with the high winds yesterday, we had pretty impressive snow drifts for Bowling Green including the 2 foot snow drift leaning against our front door.  The main issue with the snow drift was the fact we don’t have a snow shovel.  So Mark sacrificed his comfort and made a path to the car using his legs and pathetically worn out shoes.  The upshot of all of this is that Mark had such cold and wet feet while we were doing grocery shopping that he was convinced of the need to actually go out and buy new shoes that have needed replacing for way too long.  You can’t really see it in the pictures, but the soles of his shoes were so worn out that they were actually gone in some places.  Fortunately for us, the shoe store we went to was having a really nice sale.  We found a pair of shoes that looked perfect for Mark and was more than half off (only $23!).  He now looks snazzy in his new and much more comfortable shoes.  Thank you snow drifts!

Yeah, so I have gallstones. Most pain I’ve ever experienced. They hurt. Really. Anyway…just letting you know. It’s 1:30am, I’m going to bed.

Yes, that new picture up there, it’s real.  Amy was in the hospital yesterday.  She blacked out at work and then threw up – she then proceeded to chat with me letting me know that it had happened and could I please get a ride up to Toledo to pick her up and take loving care of her.  I called the Shadle’s to get a ride up (they went with us to the hockey game in the arena connected to Amy’s school so I figured they might know how to get there) and Nikki agreed to pick me up.  Longer story shorter – we wheeled Amy on an office chair out of the school and down to the car (she was thoroughly embarrassed by being pushed in a chair but a school administrator was very firm with her about how necessary it was).  We then drove to the Wood County Hospital where the ER put her on an IV drip till she had 2.4 liters of fluid in her (plus two boxes of orange juice and a popsicle).

The important thing is that she’s fine and the baby is fine (I finally heard the baby’s heartbeat – sounds like a spaceship engine from Star Trek or something – coolest sound ever).  She’s home and sleeping (at least she better be!) and feeling better today.  Just wanted to let everybody know what happened, and that she’s ok now.

The Christmas season is a magical one, not only because of the gifts that we receive, but because of the increase we so often feel in our desire to serve and help others (beyond just giving gifts). Teaching my primary kids about the importance of service and helping those who come after us, we decided to prepare presents for the Russian and less fortunate American missionaries in the Russia Novosibirsk Mission. Russians don’t celebrate Christmas the same way that we do (they do presents on New Years) and often the missionaries from former Soviet Bloc nations are either estranged from their families and/or their families are too poor to afford to send much in the way of gifts. Sending them a stocking filled with some nuts and candies and useful writing tools seemed like a nice way of letting them know we’re supporting them and at the same time, let them experience the joy of gifts on (or around) Christmas. I know that several of you have pitched in and helped out (I’ve left our your names in case you would rather remain anonymous) and I’m very grateful for that. One thing that was pointed out to me was that often we want to help, but we don’t really know how to help. So, I’m going to use our blog (which has at most 5 regular readers) as a pulpit upon which to cry from for a moment.

Good charities are hard to find.  What I mean by that is, it’s hard to find a charity that contributes to something a little more specific that “relief aid” and doesn’t use 80% of contributions for administrative expenses.  With that and mind, and noting how much I enjoy ranting about stuff on here, I would like to introduce you to Child’s Play – quite possibly the first and biggest charity founded by gamers for children.  I enjoy a webcomic (which I cannot recommend to the majority of our reader base in good conscience since you wouldn’t get it and it is occasionally a little language rough) written and illustrated by gamers (and when I say ‘gamer’ here, I mean table top gamer, card gamer, video gamer, etc…) for gamers.  They get angry every time they see another op-ed piece about how the violence in video games is making kids into killers (which, if you recall a post I did, the per capita violent crime rate in the US has been on a steady decline since the 80’s despite more crowded conditions which lead to higher violent crime rates, typically).  After one such article they’d had enough and decided to start a charity to show this author that despite years of exposure to (and engagement with) violent video games the community of gamers could pull together for a noble and wonderful cause.  Child’s Play partners with Amazon to allow hospitals from all over the world to produce wish lits of things they’d like to have for their children wards.  To contribute to the charity you could donate cash (which will be used to buy the things on the wish list anyway) or you can go to a specific hospitals wish list and buy specific items (my preferred method).  Some of these items will be given to the patients (children) as gifts for them to keep, others will be kept by the hospital for use by all current and future patients.  Think about being a child stuck in a hospital, with nothing to do – and now think about the joy that child could have with a much greater number of books and games available to entertain themselves.

What I like is that it is a grassroots movement – 2 guys decided to start it.  It’s been around now for 5 years and their official collection drive of 2009 which started in November has already raised more than $1,000,o00 in cash and toys for children.  I don’t know how it was for Sam when he visited Children’s (because he was really young), but I do know that there’s kids in your state stuck in a hospital this Christmas season and they’d love to get a book or a game or something.

This morning we awoke to the most beautiful of sights – our car frosted over with the loving frost of winter. Crisp 17 degree air greeted our warm cheeks turning them a blissful color of rosy. Nature purified the air allowing us to smell the many wondrous delights of the holiday season. Warm coats cinched tightly around Amy allowing the blissful crack of frost to tighten her nose but leave her feeling warm inside. Tiny particles of heavenly clouds descended gracefully around us, swirling in the wake of our brisk walk.

That’s right – winter is finally here. And I’m loving it! As we walked to Walmart I couldn’t help but burst into song and want to dance! Also Amy is feeling good for the first time in months which is also great (that might have been the real reason I was signing and wanted to dance). Our apartment is great because it stays so warm with us in it that we haven’t had to turn the heat on yet.

Our Christmas tree is beautiful and there are many presents carefully wrapped under the tree (and some more sitting in the box from Amazon under our coffee table, a box which Amy is not allowed to look in). And to top it all off, Amy got her big birthday/Christmas present 2 weeks early – an electronic piano/keyboard (keyboard sounds weird, like it’s for a rave or something and I’m worried that calling it a piano is technically wrong to the musical community and I don’t want to upset them). Amy has been brightening our home with the sound of lovely classics and silly sounds (it’s one of those fancy ones that has 400 different sounds it can make and about a dozen other features that we don’t understand yet). Also, thanks to another early Christmas present (my new smartphone) I have reinstalled the Flickr feed so that I can post pictures from the phone to our blog quick as a wink! You can already see a picture of Amy playing the piano (I’ve decided I’m just going to call it a piano since that’s why she wanted it – to learn to play the piano) that I took this morning.

Happy Holidays everybody!

Wow, this is a momentous year for Amy and me – moving to a brand new state, Amy teaching in an inner-city school, me starting grad school… and now we’re doing Christmas (and our [hopefully] traditional New Year’s gift exchange) on our own – forging our unique brand of traditions and what have yous.

An essential part of the Christmas celebration is the tree and the decorating of said tree.  So we went to Walmart and bought ourselves a $20 artificial tree that’s just the right size to feel traditional but small enough to fit comfortably.  And we decorated it.  All in all I think we spent less than $40 on the tree and decorations (it’s not terribly fancily decorated as you’ll see) and a wonderful evening together assembling and decorating it.  Enjoy the pictures below!

Mark and I had the wonderful experience of spending this last Thanksgiving in New Jersey with family.  I had never been to the big citites of the Northeast (or just the Northeast in general) so it was definitely an eye opening experience.  Mark and I have decided that we are not big city people but rather the type that would be happy and content to live out our lives in the country, suburbs, or small town.  Basically anywhere but a big city.  Given how neither of us really goes for the big city life style, I cannot stress enough how grateful we were to have such gracious hosts as our family for getting us around and making us feel comfortable in an environment that was (for me mostly) completely new and a little unnerving.

Our first day in New Jersey was spent with settling in and going grocery shopping to make sure that we had everything ready that we needed for the feast of the next day.  It was quite interesting to see how space was much more limited in a big city grocery store.  Afterwards, Mark and I were pretty tired from driving (Mark did all the driving–I was just done sitting a car for that long) so we ordered some fantastic pizza (taco pizza and cordon bleu pizza) and just hung out as happy, pregnant couples.

Thanksgiving Day was unlike any other that I have experienced.  We started off by going to the Macey’s Day Parade via several forms of public transportation.  Imagine the New York subway with Macey’s Day Parade traffic.  Now imagine me on that subway.  Mark was pretty proud of me for not freaking out or passing out or anything like that.  Anyway.  We had the awesome experience of getting off of the subway right behind VIP lines and getting to take pictures of the floats right up close as the parade was getting ready to get started.  We probably would have been able to enjoy really nice views of the whole parade, but it didn’t start for another hour and half, which is a little long (considering that we had just commuted to New York) for two pregnant women to go without snacks or a bathroom.  So we went and enjoyed some delicious steamers (peppermint, egg nog, and caramel) and hot chocolate from Starbucks before going back to see several floats.  We also took a mini tour of New York (again our family were terrific guides) featuring Ground Zero (sort of), the Manhattan Temple, and Grand Central Station.  We didn’t actually go inside the temple so I’d have to say my favorite thing to see was Grand Central Station.  It truly was breathtaking and worth the trip.  On the way back to New Jersey, our family had the really cool experience of riding the train sitting next to one of the state’s senators and having a lively conversation.

For Thanksgiving Dinner, we had turkey (duh), Al’s mashed potatoes, Lauralee’s sweet potatoes with marshmallows, cranberry-walnut gravy, cranberry rolls, butternut squash soup, two types of wassail, cranberry green beans and carrots (yes someone in the group really likes cranberries), pumpkin pie, and cherry pie.  It was sooooo good.  And we all pretty much had just one plate before saying we were finished and wimping out in front of the T.V. to watch Rocketeer.  Such a good dinner.  Such a good movie.

The next day, Mark and I embarked on our way too long journey to get cell phones with Sprint.  Family had studying and work to do in the morning but then spent the afternoon and early evening driving around NJ as we tried to convince people that I really was who I said I was.  We still didn’t get it resolved until we came home, and I was able to show my social security card to Best Buy.  Seriously?  You need your social security card to get a cell phone now?  But that’s a whole other story… So after the cell phone escapades, we enjoyed a truly stellar game of Killer Bunnies followed by an equally awesome game of Missionopoly.

Saturday we were blessed with fairly good weather for the trip back with no worries about snow or ice.  We also got the cell phones.  Now the next I time I leave my keys in the ignition, Mark will be able to bring up the spares

All in all, one fantastic Thanksgiving.  (Pictures to come later.)

Well, we still don’t know the gender (won’t know that for a while yet) but the image we have here on the blog now makes the baby look like an evil madman or something. The giant head, the stubby limbs, it all reeks of a power hungry megalomaniac. I’m hoping the proportions smooth out to being ruggedly handsome rancher by month 6 …