Pleasure or Joy?

The other day I ran across this quote from C.S. Lewis:

I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy. vine.co/v/b3YLYpHLaQO
— C. S. Lewis (@CSLewisDaily) June 5, 2013

It really struck me, so I retweeted and kept it in the back of my mind. I've been thinking about it off and on for the past week.

The more I ruminated on it, the more I could see where this applied to many things, not just things we can easily label pleasurable.

First off, what is pleasure? Something positive, something that brings enjoyment.

What is joy? It's delight, it's happiness.

So, two very similar things, but joy goes a step further. It can be everlasting.

This is just a tiny snippet of something Jesus said:

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

 John 15:9-11 (NIV)

Real, true, complete, everlasting joy. That's what Jesus brings us. You can't have real joy without him.

Seeking pleasure demonstrates our desire for joy, but sometimes we use it as a complete substitute. We forget (or don't realize) where true joy comes from, and we run after pleasure to try and fill the gap. It's kind of like trying to fill the "God-shaped hole" that you hear people talk about. We have a desire and we do our best to find what satisfies that desire.

Pleasure isn't a bad thing. I think God created pleasure and experiences pleasure. But if we're not careful, pleasure can become a substitute for joy. And it will always fall short. It doesn't last.

So how do you seek out joy instead of merely pleasure?

Everything is a choice.

Example 1
I'm bored by what my friend is saying. Will cutting her off bring me pleasure? Sure, it helps end part of a boring conversation. Will it lead me closer to joy? No, not at all. I'm not exuding any of God's love by ending a conversation. Instead, I should invest in the conversation, work to be genuinely interested, and allow God's love to be a part of my interaction.

Example 2
I want to eat that piece of cake. Will it bring me pleasure? Of course. But I'm not treating my body like God's temple be filling it with garbage. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all cake is garbage. But there's a time and a place for that kind of enjoyment, and it needs to be in an appropriate balance to honor your body.

Example 3
Sleeping in. Of course that bring pleasure. And getting enough sleep is a necessity (I'm a fairly new parent - I understand this!). But if I'm allowing myself the rest that God sets aside for us, I shouldn't need to sleep in regularly. I can spend that time reflecting, getting a little cleaning done, making breakfast for my family, et cetera. And you know what? Accomplishing those things brings a little bit of joy.

Example 4
Quality time with friends or family. Sure, I could sit and catch up on all the social media, watch some Netflix, or read a book. None of those things are bad. But am I doing those things at the expense of spending time with my family? Community and relationships with each other are a huge part of experiencing God's joy. They are necessary for realizing His kingdom. I cannot neglect these things. Seek the joy.

As you begin to get through your day, try to ask yourself this simple question: Pleasure or joy?

This question allows us each to become mindful of our priorities and weigh the importance of each one. Even if you decide to enjoy a pleasure, acknowledging that it is merely a pleasure will give you deeper insight into your routine.

God is Gracious

Timing is everything, right?

Yes, our baby was 3 weeks early. Technically, he was a preemie (1 day away from 37 weeks!). But his timing was perfect.

1. We wouldn't have been any more ready by his due date, honestly.
We had just gotten the nursery painted. Beyond that, we still didn't know what we were doing. We knew nothing about babies. So the only plan was to have one more baby shower, then attempt to figure out what stuff we had in case we could think of something else we needed.

Somehow we had managed to get all of our canning done before the baby was born, but hadn't really gotten into making meals ahead of time to throw in the freezer. Honestly, I'm not sure if I would have gotten to that anyways. My energy and ability to move was very quickly disappearing.

Him coming early just meant we had an excuse to not be ready...

2. Chris got out of a bad situation at work.
There was a client that was creating a LOT of stress for Chris at work. The baby coming early gave him the ability to hand the project over and walk away from the stress. It was perfect timing too, because the situation was resolved in a way that Chris wouldn't have been able to do. There was less stress because someone else was able to look at the situation and just end it, rather than suffering through it.

3. Mom got to hold the baby.
My mom has been having hit after hit with the cancer, then pneumonia, then shingles, all on top of blood issues and other problems. With the baby coming early, she was able to get to the hospital and hold him a little. Now most of our interactions are through video chat so she can at least see him.

4. We skipped the stress that would have happened leading up to the due date.
Let's be honest. If your due date approaches, you stress out about it, wondering when it will happen, what's going to happen, will there be a mad rush to the hospital, will I be at work, will Chris be available, will blah blah blah... Chris and I can stress with the best of them. We got to skip that.

5. Both my mom and Chris' mom were unavailable, so we had to learn to ask others for help.
My mom has been sick. Chris' mom was going in for shoulder surgery the day my water broke. We had no idea what we were doing. Plus I was having headache issues and couldn't actually function very well for the first week.

We were forced to ask for help.

Luckily, there are lots of "moms" for us at our church. We had ladies come in and clean while I slept, hold the baby while I slept, make me lunch, make us dinner, and fill our freezer with some meals that all we had to do was stick in the oven.

We also had some friends on Facebook step up and volunteer. I've got more meals coming next week. I had a dear teacher from my middle school years come and hold the baby and even clean our bedroom and the bathrooms (WOW!). I've had people drop off things that they thought we might need (and we did, we just weren't sure when we'd get to the store to find it!).

It was and is fantastic. And humbling. And not easy. But we're learning to be okay with asking for help.

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So weighing all of these things together, we looked at the top few names we were thinking of for our new little boy. One name meant protector. One name meant fair. One name meant God is gracious. God is very gracious to us. So that's what we chose for his first name.

His middle name means beloved and is from one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament.

He will be our constant reminder of God's grace.

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gra·cious
adj.
1. Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy.
2. Characterized by tact and propriety
3. Of a merciful or compassionate nature.
4. Condescendingly courteous; indulgent.
5. Characterized by charm or beauty; graceful.
6. Characterized by elegance and good taste
7. Enjoying favor or grace; acceptable or pleasing.

An unexpected day...

Wednesday, September 12 - 4:30am
Water broke. At least I think that's what that is. Yep. Pretty sure that's my water... Well, this baby wants to come 3 weeks earlier than we thought...

Wednesday, September 12 - 5:30am
Well, I can't sleep. Doctor said not to call unless I was having contractions or hemorrhaging. Neither is happening. Guess I'll start to pack a hospital bag (because why would I have gotten around to packing it 3 weeks early?) and take care of those old bananas by making some muffins.

Wednesday, September 12 - 6:30am
Guess I should wake Chris up. How do I break the news to him so that he doesn't panic? Slide it into a very nonchalant sentence:
"How did you sleep?"
"Okay. I noticed you got up a lot again."
"Yeah, I couldn't sleep because my water broke so I made some muffins."
"Mmm... Muffins... Wait... Did you say...?"

Wednesday, September 12 - 7:00am
Well, doctor office doesn't open until 8am, so I might as well go to work for just a little while so I don't sit at home and get stressed out.

Wednesday, September 12 - 8:00am
Finally got a hold of the phone nurse. My doctor isn't in the office until 1pm. Yep, sounds like my water broke. They'll probably want to admit me in the afternoon unless contractions happen sooner, so head home and get a bag packed for the hospital.

Wednesday, September 12 - 8:30am
Break it to my department that my maternity leave is going to start today. Word spreads like wildfire. Suddenly 20 people are surrounding me, asking me why I'm not at the hospital RIGHT NOW. Regardless, they're all excited for me, so I wrap up what I can, hand off my projects and head home.

Wednesday, September 12 - 10:00am
Chris is also able to wrap up his day and come back home. We pack a few things in one bag for the both of us. Grab a pillow for Chris. Call our friends to see if they can watch Bree (the dog) for a few days. Pick up the house a little. Send Bree off. Sit around, wondering what to do next...

Wednesday, September 12 - 2:00pm
Phone nurse calls back. Yep! Time to head to the hospital to confirm that the water broke...

Now Chris and I are wondering if we got this all wrong. Crap. What if we have to go back and tell everyone it's a false alarm? Nope, we'd rather have the baby than be embarrassed. We are crazy.

Wednesday, September 12 - 3:00pm
All checked in, water confirmed broken. Now we give my body 24 hours from time of water breaking to see if labor will start on it's own.

Wednesday, September 12 - 4:00pm
Got an ultrasound. Baby is technically at 36 weeks, 5 days, but is measuring at 38 weeks. Position looks good!

Wednesday, September 12 - 5:00pm
Chris gets a really nice meal for dinner from the hospital. I get bread and broth. They promise another snack later if I don't go into labor.

Thursday, September 13 - 4:00am
No labor yet, so time to hook up the pitocin! It's what they use to induce labor. Your body usually makes oxytocin, but since mine wasn't kickin' in, they wanted to get things going because babies really need to be delivered once water breaks.

Thursday, September 13 - 10:00am
Absolutely no contractions yet... Turns out you can have multiple water sacks. During another check, my nurse moved baby's head and water broke! A LOT this time. And contractions were rolling by 10:15ish.

Blurry from here...
Contractions started. I asked for an epidural. Doctor came fast, but pain increased faster. Don't wait to ask for the epidural until your pain is at a 3 or 4 if you want it. I was up to a 10 with my pain very, very fast. Next time, epidural will happen sooner.

My doctor was in the hospital already delivering some other babies at the same time as I was ready. She had to wrap up delivering one, then go do a C-section, then she'd be back for me. So, no pushing until she was almost done with the C-section delivery for the other girl.

Once the nurse had me pushing, baby came pretty fast. Apparently I'm not only a good baby grower, but also a good pusher. Weird things to find out about yourself.

Baby boy, 7 lbs. 5 oz, and 18.5" long!

From there, you pretty much have to ask Chris. The next few days are quite fuzzy. Which is part of why it took so long to name the poor boy.

Since October

What has happened since October? Let me tell you...

November:
I can't remember. Thanksgiving was in there. We had some turkey. I'm sure it was tastey.

December:
I got two kitties. Tesni and Ziva. Tesni is my little cuddle-bug, she loves to find an open lap, especially if it's mine. Ziva seeks attention by doing everything wrong. She steals things and breaks things and gets into trouble. Turns out Tesni does that too, but she does it when we're not looking – most of the time.

January:
We got a puppy! Her name is Bree. She's a Bernese Mountain Dog. She is currently 50 lbs and will grow to be about 120lbs.

February:
About a week after getting Bree, we found out... I'm pregnant! We are very excited. However, getting a puppy right in the beginning of the first trimester is CRAZY and not recommended. I got hormonal (ie very moody). Chris left for Texas for a week to do some training for work. It was a rough week for Bree and I, since I was the only one around to deal with her, and we weren't ready to tell anyone I was pregnant, so I couldn't easily ask for help. Now we know how to avoid certain situations that can set me off as I continue to learn how to cope with crazy hormones.

March, April:
Not much here other than doctors appointments and training for the Tulip Time 5k (yes, I had my doctor's permission).

May:
We celebrated our 5 year anniversary by running the Tulip Time 5k (I was under 40 minutes!) and then attempting to eat 5 hot dogs together. Even with Bree's help, we couldn't eat all 5 hotdogs (baby did not pull his/her weight in this eating challenge...). We (let's face it, I) wanted to eat 5 elephant ears, but that seemed even more daunting than the 5 hot dogs.

So there's your quick life summary.

Today's Haul

Today's haul contained the normal stuff: change of clothes, lunch, snacks, computer(s), extra layers for warmth... But then when I left work I decided to take my bird feeder and it's hanging crook home. You can see the 6 foot pole hanging off the bike...

I love my cargo bike.

Check out more here.

Pets

Finally. We are getting some pets!

Puppies are due late fall, so hopefully there will be one for us to take home around Christmas.

I've been wanting a cat (or two) and I've convinced Chris that it would be good to get kittens and a puppy close to the same time so that they'll grow up together. This worked really well for my dog and cat when I was growing up.

We're getting the dog from a breeder. It will be a Bernese Mountain Dog. I don't have any experience with those kinds of dogs, but it's supposed to be a fantastic family dog. We're looking forward to it. Plus, it will be matching in size to the Rottweiler next door, so they can easily play together.

I'd like to get two cats from the Humane Society. Two cats cost the same as one, which is a nice perk. Also, the dog would probably come with us on trips, but the cats would stay home, so having two would allow them to keep each other company.

Anywho, probably won't get the cats until after Thanksgiving since we have to dog-sit for my parents a bit and then we'll be up north with Chris' family for Thanksgiving. It will be easier to deal with the cats after that. So they'll be a birthday present to myself. :)

Bike Rules

I think I've got another rule to add...

• If it's more than 10 miles away, it's okay to take a car (unless you have the time and are feeling ambitious).
• If you need to take family, friends or pets to the doctor, it's okay to take a car.
• If it's an emergency, it's okay to take the car.
• If the weather is manageable but miserable (ex: downpour), and someone else is already going where you need to go, it's okay to carpool with them.

Biking

Well, on October 7 I mentioned on Facebook that I was curious about a car-free year.

Starting October 10 I rode my bike to work. And the next day and the next. I haven't told anyone that I'm trying for a whole year, I'm just trying to consistently ride my bike.

I've received some push-back from concerned parents for night riding and we'll see how tomorrow goes (it's supposed to pour all day). My parents are already concerned and my coworkers will think I'm crazy.

Ah, well, here goes!

A few "rules" that I've started formulating, otherwise it's biking or walking for me:

• If it's more than 10 miles away, it's okay to take a car (unless you have the time and are feeling ambitious).
• If you need to take family, friends or pets to the doctor, it's okay to take a car.
• If it's an emergency, it's okay to take the car.

I still haven't figured out how to handle this with Chris. He'll support me riding, but he's not really interested in it for himself... So do I limit dates to the Holland/Zeeland area and just meet him there? Or do I just plan on going on dates in Grand Rapids so that it's okay to drive?

So, there ya go. We'll see how long this lasts!

Hrm.

Wow. It's been far too long since I've last updated. And it's been a whirlwind of a summer.

To give you a brief update on what's been going on in life:

• Chris and I started P90X. We did really good the first month. We did so-so on the second month. The third month, we pretty much stopped. But we'll give it another go this winter!
• We started leading a Financial Peace University class. That lasted all summer.
• My mom found out she had cancer. It was melanoma. We took her to UofM to have some surgery to remove what they found.
• I set up a Care Page for Mom & Dad to keep people up-to-date.
• Mom got set up with a doctor in Grand Rapids to continue cancer treatment closer to family.
• Mom & Dad moved out of their rental in Findlay, OH and back to a rental in Zeeland, MI to be closer.
• Mom had an MRI or PET scan and found out the cancer is everywhere. Leg. Groin. Possibly breast. Brain.
• Did you see the one above? That hurts. It's been a long summer full of fear, doubt, worry, appointments, moving parents...
• Mom has no fears, trusts God completely and feels the many prayers. She has minimal side-effects from treatments and is mostly just tired. She's amazing.
• Weddings. Both of my brothers. That kept us busy, in a good way. :)
• I did a lot of canning:
• Peach Salsa
• Chile Sauce (it's really just fancy ketchup)
• Thai Sweet & Hot Sauce
• Peaches (sugar free!)
• Stewed Tomatoes
• Peach Jam
• Zesty Salsa
• Pepper Relish
• Hot Pepper Jelly (frozen kind)
• We also went apple picking with friends and made hard and soft cider

Now we're into the fall and Pumpkin Patch start last weekend. Chris and I will be up there again this coming weekend to help wrap it up.

Then we'll have our annual Pumpkin Stew party.

And then we'll can some apple sauce.

I'll try to be better about updating, now that we've survived the summer...

Discipline

As usual, life is crazy and I forget to update this thing. There's nothing much new in our lives. We're wrapping up RIOT for the year and for whatever reason I decided that we shouldn't have downtime this summer so Chris and I offered to lead a Financial Peace University class this summer at our church. I'm excited to share the knowledge, I just know it would have been good to have some downtime. Oh well, you can't make an impact if you're just relaxing, right?

Speaking of relaxing, I've got Chris inspired to join me in P90X this summer.

I've started the program twice, but never quite finished it. The biggest frustration for me? Lack of discipline.

I want to make that time everyday to work on my spiritual health and physical health. I want to read my Bible (getting better at that) and spend time in prayer. Every day.

I want to eat better so I can not only feel better and play more, but also so that I can inspire my dad, so that he'll commit to succeed in his own weight battles.

I know, I know I don't have much weight to lose. And I don't. I'm a healthy weight, but I can safely shed a few pounds (about 10) and still be very healthy.

It's a fitness plan. I don't want to just lose weight, I want my body to be fit, to be toned, to not limit me when I want to try new things. I want to keep up with my middle schoolers when we're outside running. I want to feel as beautiful as Chris already sees me. I want to climb Wall 8 at Geneva and not have to have my belayer pull me up...

Anywho, Chris has done his best to support me when I try to do P90X, but unfortunately, I just love spending time with him so when he stays up late to watch tv, I stay up even though I need to go to bed so I can work out or spend time in the Word. He likes to make me martinis and margaritas, even though I know it's not in the fitness plan... So how do I get him to stop being a stumbling block?

Ask him to join me.

You may be thinking, isn't Chris a landscaper? Won't he be too exhausted to work out?

Yes, it's true. If we tried to work out every day once Chris gets home, it won't work. The plan? Get up at 4am every day.

It's a commitment. I know it can work. A guy I know made it work. And his 0-30-60 day photos were the extra motivation Chris needed to commit.

I've set up the calendar so we'll start May 16. This way I can wrap up the running schedule I'm currently in, plus give us some time to get a few things done before we start...

So there you have it. I've structured the summer as a big test of commitment and discipline. Which made me appreciate even more one of David's most recent posts:

For Round 2, I wanted to be different. I wanted to be weird, crazy, completely committed, no hollow victory this time. Sure there are times when I want to give in. You can skip this move, you could just eat some of that. It wouldn't be that bad. Get behind me Satan! But really, temptation is temptation. Now I am not saying you are sinning if you don't go crazy and see if you can get absolutely ripped. What I am saying is, if you make that commitment, it is a one time thing. You never have to go back and recommit. You are going to workout for an hour a day, six days a week, for 90 days. You will eat only things that fit into your day and fulfill your macro needs. Making that choice once and for all, you remove the thought of breaking your own covenant. Decide, COMMIT, succeed. You can do it.

Pray for me this summer as I strengthen my discipline.

What's New?

Oh, I should try updating this thing once in awhile.

As I posted last week, my past few weeks have been consumed by working on building a website for Chris' company. I really enjoyed putting it together. Maybe eventually I'll go back to school and get some more official learning in that area... At the very least, I may be open to freelancing for small sites.

Now that things have calmed down with that, all of the other things I've put off have surfaced:

• getting taxes done
• making an end-of-the-year video for youth group
• sewing a quilt for church that they gave me back in October
• painting rooms in the house
• updating the budget (well, this is a monthly thing...)
• working out (woohoo! started this up again today!)
• Discovery Toys parties

This list could keep going.

So, I'm trying to tackle a little bit at a time.

Today I began what I shall call "Crazy Hour Mondays." Our company is gaining a larger customer following on the West Coast, so we need to start having customer service available in the evenings for them. For the next two months I'll be covering Mondays... So my hours will be 11am until 8pm. I'm wrapping up my first evening as we speak, hoping the phone won't ring in the next 10 minutes.

In addition to Crazy Hour Mondays, I'm also trying out some different "normal" hours for myself. I want to try working 7am to 4pm the rest of the week. I'm hoping this will help me to make time to exercise after work, before Chris gets home. Let's see how I do with the early mornings...

Sorry I don't have any cute, fun pictures to post. I don't carry a camera around with me and I don't ever think stuff I'm doing at home is worthy of pictures. But I should just take some anyway. I'll try to do that.

Website

I have not been on here in a long time.

I do not have pictures to update with.

Actually, most of my free time in the past couple of weeks have been upping my skills and html and css and putting together a sweet new site for the company Chris works for.

Check it out:

Blue Ridge Landscaping

Winter Camp

This past weekend we took our youth group kids to Camp Geneva for Winter Camp.

I think it's safe to say we all had a fantastic time. The weather was cold, but we all bundled up well and got lots of walking in.

Check out some of our pictures!

Now I've got a full week ahead of me, meetings for three nights this week, dog-sitting starting on Wednesday and hopefully a fairly open weekend to get a few things done.

Oops.

Wow. My last post was much too long ago.

Sorry I don't have pictures at the moment. I'm on my lunch break at work with about 7 minutes left, so I'll have to make this quick...

November and December were jammed pack. There was very little breathing room. But we enjoyed time with our middle schoolers, we enjoyed time with family. We didn't really have time for just Chris and myself, but we survived.

January has been MUCH calmer. There is a little more breathing room, so I've started up some fitness training again. I have plans in my mind of how to build a nice home gym in the basement that will include a bouldering wall (Chris and I purchased the pieces to put up a bouldering wall back when we were still dating, so I'm excited to finally have a good idea of where to actually build it). Meanwhile, I work out among boxes with a tiny TV that my parents no longer needed.

In other news, we finally bought a flat screen tv. Chris is pretty happy with it, I can't get over how big it is compared to our old one (which wasn't that old, just big and clunky since it was right before flat screens). Not sure what to do with the old tv at this point - I don't think we can get much money for it and I think a cheaper flatscreen would serve better in my dream home gym... Anyone interested? Here's some info I gleaned from one of my older posts (prices negotiable at this point):

Samsung TV
($250 for TV, $100 for stand, $50 for HD Antenna)
I belive it's this model: TX-P2670WH 26-inch wide Premier Series DynaFlat HDTV w/ Built-In Tuner

In the world of our youth group, we've started memorizing the Shema. I'm excited to start having that as part of our way to transition into lessons or prayer time. We also have a winter retreat at Camp Geneva this weekend. Should be fun!

What else, what else... I've signed us up for this year's Apple Cider Century (I was bummed last year for not going, so I set aside a little of the Christmas bonus so we could go this year). Chris and I had a good time when we went before and would love to invite some friends to join us this year. Let me know if you're interested in coming with us! If I can drum up a little bit more extra cash, I might also sign us up for the River Bank Run again.

Okay, lunch break is over so that's all I've got for now!

SO. AWESOME.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

Geez, I need to start posting more.

I hope to have the ambition to take a few pictures of our house and post them up here.

Big news of the month is that my parents are moving. To Ohio. Bummer. Not a huge fan, but I'll do my best to be supportive.

The one positive is that my parents are down-sizing their living space, so they suddenly need to purge some stuff. So... early inheritance of family furniture for my brothers and I!

We are now proud owners of a family grandfather clock, a family cedar chest WITH clothes from my grandparents and mom, a table saw and some other saw thing (temporarily storing until my parents move to a larger space someday), a washer and dryer (yay!), a good, hefty car jack, a leaf chomper machine thing (looks like a lawn mower, not sure what it does, but Chris was excited), canning supplies, a sewing machine and some food for our freezer. And we already had my piano.

So our house feels even more "homey" since those items are starting to fill in some more of the gaps.

In other news, Major Pumpkin Patch (this is the pumpkin portion of this post) is going on for the next two weekends. Come visit Chris and I up there! Great photo opportunity and some fun games for the kiddos (or parents, if you want). Food is available (homemade by Mom (Karen) Major!). The hayride is my favorite - Dad (Mike) Major has been making some REALLY cool scenes the past couple of years. Can't wait to see what they added this year! I think I heard there was going to be a Wizard of Oz scene...

Then we'll be having our Pumpkin Stew party and then we can relax.

Also, we are starting up with RIOT (our middle school youth group) this week. So tonight I hope to bake some cookies to bring on Wednesday!

Oops.

I have neglected this yet again. I blame it on my job putting me in front of a computer all day... I just don't feel like sitting on the computer when I get home! Oh well...

What's new? Well, let me tell you...

• My older brother Chris got engaged
• My younger brother Sean started dating someone
• My parents sold their house
• My parents are moving to Ohio
• Chris' job has gotten quite stressful, but he's doing a great job with a huge project right now
• My job is more enjoyable in the IT realm as I continue to learn more "IT" things and "make IT look good" ... as my supervisor keeps telling me.
• We didn't sign up for Apple Cider Century this year and I'm regretting it. I'm already checking the website daily to see when I can sign up for next year's... Since we're not setting aside any vacation money, I was thinking that could be my birthday present...for Chris and I to go. That then takes away getting tickets to Wicked in Kalamazoo (I've never seen it)...so...not sure. I'm definitely doing the ACC next year though. Wicked may or may not happen.
• We're going to sell the LeSabre and go down to one car. That's really all we need. I can walk or bike to work, plus Chris has his motorcycle. Once winter hits, he'll most likely be driving the plow truck anyways, so if I want to drive to work, I can take the Jetta.
• I read "Hunger Games" ... the next book, "Catching Fire" is on the hold shelf at the library. Must get soon... I enjoyed the book, I'm thinking the trilogy is very closely entwined and you can't read one without the others... The first one kind of leaves you hanging, wondering what's next.
• Chris started another wine batch. We might have messed it up. Hopefully it turns out okay...
• I want a pet. But not until student loans are paid...
• RIOT (our middle school youth group) starts very soon. I should get some lesson plans together...
• Pumpkin Patch is coming up soon... I need to try and make a t-shirt design so I can get those ordered.
• Pumpkin Stew party will be at our house, not my parents house, for the first time... I'm ready to start planning, Chris said it's too early since it's over a month away. *sigh*

So there's a quick little hit list of my life. Not too exciting, but good enough for me!

Connecticut

Here's just a few pics of our time in Connecticut. Most of the time was spent with family, so there's not a lot ot share unless you know all the relatives. :)


Chris' parents having lunch with us at a Friendly's.

Chris at Friendly's.

Chris driving. We did this a lot.

Most of the group after the funeral at the luncheon.

Drive to Connecticut

As some of you know, Chris' aunt Gail (his mom's sister) passed away last week. She lived in Connecticut. Chris and I planned on going to the funeral, so we packed up my dad's car (better for traveling than the cars we own), drove to the farm to get Chris' dad (his mom has been in CT with her sister for the past 3 weeks) and headed out early Sunday morning.

Chris and I planned to leave the farm at 6am. At 6:15am...we had been ready for 15 minutes... Our third passenger was still in bed... Oh well. We hit the road at 7am.

I tend to get motion sickness, so I prepared for the trip by taking Bonine. It's a "less-drowsy" formula than Dramamine. I am one who tends to fall asleep in cars. Growing up we would drive to Pennsylvania to visit my relatives and my natural defense against car sickness was sleeping during the trip. Now that I'm an adult, it's still a natural habit that I can't seem to break - I just get drowsy in cars. That paired with my body's inability to cope with drugs (normal Tylenol knocks me out for crying out loud), I was VERY groggy the whole trip. I took a turn to drive and couldn't figure out why I was so tired. As we neared the end of our 17 hour drive it dawned on me that the Bonine was a "LESS" drowsy formula, not a "NON" drowsy formula. So...I won't be able to take that on the return trip, because I'll need to be able to help Chris with the driving, since it will be just the two of us on the way back (Chris' mom and dad will take his mom's car home).

Luckily I have several other methods to avoid car sickness. We'll see how well they work. It involves those old pressure-point wristband things and ginger snaps. Ginger is good for nausea, so I'll see if the ginger snaps help me out in this.

Anyway, we made it safe and sound to Old Saybrook, CT late Sunday night. About 12:30am. That's better than I expected, given one traffic jam, a late start and plenty of food/bathroom stops. Definitely doable in one day. But I may just feel that way since I slept through most of the trip.

Yesterday we slept a lot due to the exhaustion of the trip (and I still had the less-drowsy Bonine in my system). We had lunch in a little pub downtown and then spent the rest of the evening with family. Gail had a husband Peter (from England), a daughter Sharon (a little older than Chris and I) and a son Kevin (a little younger than Chris and I). Kevin is recently engaged to Liz.

So we hung out with them. This was my first time meeting Kevin and Liz. I think I meet Peter at our wedding 3 years ago. Sharon I've met a couple of times in Michigan and in Florida (where she used to work).

Today's plan is to go to the town of Avon. Apparently it's quite a cute town with cute stores and such. Chris and I have been ready to go and awake for the past few hours. We have yet to see his parents. It may be a quick drive there (er...1 hr drive), eat lunch and then head back, because we'll need time to get ready for visitation tonight.

So that is my update so far. Hopefully everyone back home is holding down the fort okay with the responsibilities we left behind for the week!