Christmas Presents

Here is a picture of Julie cuddling with a blanket I made for her, well, for the new baby. It's the softest material ever! It's the kind that is so soft you can't really stop touching it! I'm determined that this will become the favorite "blankie"!!

Since September, I have been very anxious to give my mom this present! Every time she's at her cousin Penny's house, she comes back and talks on and on and on about the "Tree Poem" that Penny has a print of. She has looked for this print, wanted this print, and talked about this print more than anything else I can remember she's wanted. Well, thanks to the magical world of Ebay, I found it! I fought for a bid in September, and won! I have been especially proud of the fact that I didn't give it to her earlier than now, and that I never hinted at what I found for her. The tears in her eyes were worth it all!!


My parents gave Julie and David a new stroller, very lightweight, swivel wheels, and a lovely toile print that David even said he didn't mind too much. It has an adjustable handle so my tall Dad and short Mom will both be able to use it to take the baby for walks. As my Dad and David were assembling the stroller, I had visions of the next ten years of Christmases that will include lots of assembly of different toys, etc. We haven't had that for a while in our grownup Christmas celebrations!

It seems strange to be done with the main Christmas celebration since I was out at some stores today and they are busy with last-minute shoppers. It's nice to be able to relax now and think about the true meaning for this season. The gift of Jesus Christ truly is the best gift of all!

Family Pictures

I'm scheduled to work on Christmas this year, so my immediate family was pretty accommodating and we celebrated early. As is tradition in our home, there were lots of pictures! Here you'll see me and my sister, another shot including her husband, and then my parents.

Prego Julie

If you talk with me for even a few minutes, you'll quickly learn how excited I am to be a new aunt in a few months. I wake up each morning thinking about this new little one growing inside my sister, Julie, and I can hardly wait to meet him or her! I'm in the Twin Cities right now, and Julie has asked me to accompany her to the doctor's appointment tomorrow. Yippee!!! No ultrasound planned, but hopefully hearing the heartbeat! I can't wait! I thought I'd show the latest picture of how she's looking, this was just taken earlier tonight.

Quick Answer to Prayer!

I wanted to share with you an exciting answer to prayer that I had today! As I was driving home from work, zipping around Fergus Falls quickly, I was thinking again about how much I like living here. I've been excited to move to the Cities, but I also really like Fergus! Of course there are times when I want to be more anonymous than I'm able to be here, but deep down inside I think it's pretty fun to go to just about any store and see someone that I know. I'm a small town girl at heart!

All of this said, I spent my three minute drive home praying that God would again make it clear that I'm supposed to move. I know that moving will help me reach a few goals even quicker, and it really seems like now is the time to go. So, I asked God for some sort of confirmation that this is really HIS plan, and not mine.

I walked in the door, and listened to a message, returned the call and got my answer! It turns out that the realtor I bought my house from heard that I might want to sell next spring/summer and he thinks he has someone who will be interested in buying it!! After a ten-minute phone call we put a few things in motion! Who knows what will happen from all this, maybe nothing at all, except that I sure got an answer to my prayer! God is so great!

View from the Window

One of my favorite things about my house is the big picture window in my living room. Today I was decorating the Christmas tree and looked up and saw this incredible sunset. I've been all over the USA, and love lots of different parts of our beautiful country, but the Midwest definitely has the best sunsets! The colors can't be beat!

My Big Announcement

Well, I thought I'd take a minute, now that I'm officially blogging, to announce the news in my life. Isn't that what blogging is for? Here it is: I have decided to move to the Twin Cities! I've been thinking about this for a little while, but have been making it public knowledge this past week. My plan is to move there in the late spring or early summer, or whenever it works out as far as selling and buying a home is concerned.

I'll be based out of the Twin Cities to start a new position as a travelling nurse. There are lots of travelling nurse companies that contract with hospitals all over the country to fill a position for a certain length of time. My plan is to work in the Cities for a few months in a row, then go somewhere else for a while, then come back again for a while. With Julie having a baby I don't want to miss out on too much of that!

I sure will miss Fergus, along with my home, job, and church, but am also looking forward to the next chapter of my life. Being able to gain experience all over the country, along with probably paying off my school loans a little faster, both seem like great reasons to do this! And, I love to travel! I'm looking forward to being in places for a few weeks/months at a time, and not just the quick weekend trips that are more normal -and lacking for me right now!

So there you have it, the news that you'll probably be reading more about as this blog continues! Keep watching for updates!

Crazy Cousins

My cousins Mark, Jared, and Sara spent Thanksgiving with our family. We had a lot of fun enjoying each other's company, and also being silly together. I have a whole assortment of Mark and Jared's self-portraits on my camera. Thanks, guys! One of the things my fit and trim cousins used to do was see who could stick their belly out the farthest. We actually have quite a few pictures of that same pose from over the years! Well, I'm not sure if Julie had ever gotten in the mix before, but she definately wins the contest now!

In the bottom picture, I'm with Sara who is now planning on getting into nursing! We're all excited to have another nurse in the family -it sure goes around!

More Thanksgiving Pics

Okay, so that last post helped me learn that the "small" pictures are a little too small to see very well. I'll make these next ones bigger! Here are Julie and I at her house. I LOVE that she's having a baby! I can hardly keep myself from putting my hands on her belly to see if I can feel the baby move. I've done that a few times in the past to my friends, but with my sister it's almost uncontrollable! She's due the first week of March, and I can hardly wait!

Thanksgiving

Here is my family celebrating Thanksgiving. It was a quick holiday since I had to work the day before and after, but we were able to celebrate at my sister and brother-in-laws, and a few cousins joined us as well.

Links

I've really had fun looking at many other blogs. In fact, that's why I finally decided to join the blogging world! I'm going to add links to other people's blogs, but of course, if you want me to delete the link, just ask. No problem!

My First Blog

Okay, okay. I'm sure the title "My First Blog" has been used before, but it seemed appropriate! I've never even typed a blog on my MySpace account, I mostly used it to keep in touch with people. Since I'm new to the blogging world, I thought I'd take this chance to figure out just how to do it, and also to see about adding a picture:

Hey, it worked! That's pretty easy! The picture is one that my mom took a few weeks ago when we went to Inspiration Point Bible Camp for their fall Quilt and Sew Retreat. We had a great time together! On Saturday afternoon it was VERY warm out and we went for a walk. We were able to see some beautiful scenery and really enjoy each other's company. I love being at IPBC!