Farewell to Friends

A few years ago when I worked at the hospital I met a girl (woman?) and we quickly became very good friends. We don't actually have a whole lot in common, but she is from the same city Narasimha is from (in India) so we kinda had that to go on.

Over the few years I have known her we have had a lot of fun together, and I fell in love with her little boy during the time I spent with him. I got to babysit him almost every day for several months, and we learned a lot from each other :)

Anyways, she has decided to move to the East Coast so she and her husband can both pursue professional opportunities. I am so happy for them and this step, but I do wish I'd still be able to see them whenever I felt like it.

For dinner we went to this great Indian restaurant, with this booth that had a table very close to the floor (eastern). It was cool and the food was delicious.

Best wishes to Sirisha and her family - Narasimha and I will miss all of you :)

Narasimha and I, and Sirisha and her family.

Me and Sirisha

A Wedding, "Old" Friends, and Good Times :)

The wedding I referred to in a few earlier posts was that of a girl friend from high school. She and her new hubby live in Kansas City, so I rarely get to see her. Narasimha and I did get to go to the wedding, which was very nice, and to the reception which was held close to where I grew up. It was a lot of fun, not only to go to the wedding and see her, but also to see all my friends and some of their significant others, and catch up in what seemed to last a very short time but actually went on for at least a few hours.

At the reception most of us sat at a few tables that were next to each other, so after the meal we all morphed into one big group and sat around telling stories and laughing and chatting about what several of our friends who weren't there are up to, and of course sharing stories about what all of us are doing.

It was fun to see everyone - in the group we had a few farmers, a few teachers, a few med students, a law student, an engineer, a couple of business people, a doctor, a few coaches, and probably others I'm forgetting. And me, a "homemaker."

I really did have a good time seeing everyone. I wish it was possible to see people more often, but maybe not seeing them is the way to appreciate time when we do get together.

9 of us from our graduating class.

A Season Complete

Yesterday I had "my girls" over for a pizza party to celebrate our season. Our season actually ended a few months ago, but we didn't get around to the party for a while. It was a lot of fun - we had pizza and ice cream sundaes, and played games and chatted. I gave (or will give, when they are finished) each girl an 8x10 paper I am scrapbooking with a personal note and a pic of the team. I asked each of them their favorite color, and will use a background paper in the color they chose. All but one of the eight girls could come, and we had a good time together before some of them leave for the summer, and then some next year will leave for college. We had 3 seniors on the team this year, who we will miss next year. I am hoping to have enough girls to make a team. Thanks to those who made it possible for me to coach my first season - it was a great learning experience and a whole lot of fun.

Congrats Grads!

My "baby" brother graduated high school today. He will be following my footsteps and going to Iowa this fall (making me proud :).

Narasimha and me (front with brown hair) and my 2 sisters, with my brother the graduate.

Also, 3 of the girls from the volleyball team I coached this last winter graduated high school as well this weekend.

It was fun to spend time with family and friends this weekend, and to even see lots of family (aunts and uncles mostly) that we don't get to see very often.

Congrats to all who have graduated, and best wishes to you as you start whatever that next step is!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I'm back - after somewhat of a blogging dry spell. It wasn't really intentional, but a combination of being busy around the house, and not a whole lot going on that I felt worthy of writing about.

So first off, Happy Mother's Day!!! To all the moms out there of course, but a few specifically on my heart today are: the mothers in my life (my mom, mother-in-law, grandmas), those mothers celebrating their first Mother's Day as mommies, and especially those who waited for any length of time to be able to celebrate Mother's Day as a mommy (Loraena, thinking of you), and finally, a group of women dear to my own heart - those of us who want to be mommies with all that we are, but for any number of reasons aren't able to be at this time.

For those of us in waiting: if it is meant to be, it will happen when the time is right - of that I am sure.

I don't think I was as "bummed" today as I was a year ago with this same occasion. Read about last year's Mother's Day response here (skip the first 6 or so paragraphs of the post to get to the point). This is probably a combination of factors: more time passed getting used to the "wait," and hope for the future - by next year I certainly hope to either have a child by adoption or maybe even biology, or to know of one on the way. I guess I don't have a lot to say (quite contrary to last year and the link above) - I am in a phase of waiting, and I am doing what I can to be proactive with the situation and working on being "ok" with all of what that entails, and that's really all I can do at this point.

Plus, we had visitors last night, which was super duper fun :) Friends from our old town/church came to spend the night on their way through town. It was so much fun to talk and reconnect. I feel like we haven't even missed a beat with them. And actually, we found out on Monday (a week ago) that they are expecting their first child in December, so in a way, we got to spend their first Mother's Day with them. And, it was also Erin's birthday today, so that was fun too - all sorts of celebrations! We weren't as good of hosts as I would have liked - the guest bedroom is the one with the flooding so they had to sleep in the family room, but they seemed to have a good time anyways :)

And finally, we and our doggies get the pleasure of their dog Muffin's company for half of the week as they are on vacation in Minneapolis - they are picking her up on the way back through town on Wednesday. She's used to things being a little different than they are here I think, being accustomed to a 1-dog house, but is getting along just fine for now :)

Christ the Lord is Risen Today!

Yesterday was the day that we set aside time to specifically remember Christ's resurrection from the grave. What an exciting thought! Something that really stuck out at me from the service we attended yesterday was that Christ chose to go to the cross. He wasn't manipulated or tricked, and was in fact all-knowing, so when He made His way toward Jerusalem, He knew that what was ahead of Him would not be pleasant for Him, but was absolutely necessary and was actually the whole reason He came to live among us here on earth in the first place. He knew what He had to do - what His calling was from God the Father, and he willingly and wholeheartedly went to the place where He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what awaited Him there. It certainly was an act of selfless and unadulterated love for us that He was willing to do what He did, and suffer as He did as a result of no fault of His own. I love to celebrate and meditate on the love of Jesus Christ, directed toward me, during the very special Easter holiday.

Another reason yesterday was so great was that we actually attended church at our old church in I-town. We still miss everyone there a lot, and just love it when we are able to see all of them. We got to chat with some of our "forever" friends, and see all the kids shooting up like weeds. It has been several months since we have seen many of them.

May I encourage you that if you don't know what I'm talking about above - you can't get excited about Easter because you don't understand what's the big deal, please contact me at the email address listed at the very bottom of the page. I would love to share with you my excitement and thankfulness for this special day, and all it means to me as a free and priceless gift from my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And, I hope that no matter what you did yesterday (and Friday) to remember and celebrate what Jesus did for you, it was meaningful and enjoyable for you and your family and friends.

Our First Visitors

This has been an exciting week for me. My sister decided to take a break from college and told me last week that she would come stay overnight with me on Tuesday night. I was very excited to see her (and do her laundry of course), and then just a little before she got here, my other sister called and told me that she was on her way too. So one planned and one sporadic visit ended up being a very fun Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. We didn't do anything special - just chilled, watched TV and went to Chinese buffet as per the request of my sister with the tape worm. Then, Wednesday (yesterday) a few of our friends from our old church in I-town came and spent the afternoon here. Besides family, they were some of the first visitors we have had at the new house. I was so thankful that they could come, even though the house is still embarrassingly messy. It was fun to get to see them again, but it was also reassuring that even though I haven't seen either of them since like July, we got together and talked and it felt like we hadn't ever been apart. I guess if I am going to be in M-town, I feel better knowing that I still have my friends from before, even if I don't see them much. I guess didn't lose anything in the move - I just gained the new friends I have made here in M-town and I am now more thankful for the time I get to spend with those friends I maybe don't get to see as often as I'd like.