Thanksgiving Weekend

Josh has let me know lately that I am an obsessive compulsive exclamation point user and I have to confess I feel like I could put it at the end of almost every sentence. So to keep the habit under control and refrain from needing to go to exclamation anonymous I am only going to try and use one in this entire blog. Although I almost put one on the title, ha.

We had a refreshing and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend, and even though we would have loved to be with our families we had a fun time anyway. And my body is grateful that we did not travel. Here are some highlights.

Wednesday - Josh finished a huge paper and I cooked green bean casserole and pumpkin pies. We had our good friends Drew, Shannon and baby Carsyn over to hang out. We used to play games and stuff but now all we need is Carsyn for entertainment and she was so adorable as she made cute little faces while she slept the whole time.

Thursday - Cooked a Turkey and enjoyed it with a couple from school and a family from GGA. The mom of the family had an emergency family crisis so it was sad to not have her with us but the rest of us decided to put on the spread anyway and it turned out really nice. We had a great time and got whooped at Operation and Wii by their kids, Zoe and Zander.

Friday - Slept in and missed the crowds and then did our Christmas shopping early, woohoo. (Just a period)

Saturday - Josh studied, I wrapped presents and decorated the house for Christmas, went tree shopping and found the perfect one, and watched the Beavers get crushed:(

Sunday - Great church fellowship, took a walk in the sunshine (more like a stroll but Josh is very patient), packed for the hospital.

We are so excited that it is December and have a lot of fun things in store with the end of the semester and all the Christmas festivities. We're mostly excited to celebrate the birth of our baby and of Jesus!

Here are a few pics of us and our little tree.

Random thoughts!

Ok we are officially some of the slowest bloggers but we always have a good excuse. I know that's lame. This month's excuse is that Josh has been working tirelessly on his papers for school and presenting at ETS (in Rhode Island). Only one more paper to go and I am soooo proud of him! And I was struck by the plague for about a week and a half. Thank you for all of your prayers!

While I was sick with strep throat last week it attacked my vocal chords and I could only talk at a whisper. Josh was an amazing husband and took care of the baby and I so well. But this prediciment sure did get me thinking.

I have to say that being pregnant around Christmas time and teaching the preschoolers about the nativity story I already have been doing a lot of thinking about Mary riding on a donkey and giving birth practically outside in a stable with hay as her comfort!!!! Yet the Bible specifically denotes her demeanor as one of pondering the reality of Jesus, the Savior of the world being born to her as a little baby, and God using this earthly little couple to be a part of His grand plan for all people.

Well, the whole strep throat business got me thinking about Zechariah and how he literally could not speak for the duration of Elizabeth's pregnancy. It must have been such a huge lesson on faith and humility for both of them and how what God says is what He means. I have to admit I was a little nervous that my voice wouldn't come back and thankfully it has but it is a good reminder to me that I cannot take anything for granted in this pregnancy. It must be the Lord and His strength to live this life.

Aside from my thoughts lately we received a wonderful package today from my sister Cynthia who graciously made a bedskirt, blanket, changer, and sheets for the baby's room. Don't you think that it is just adorable!!!! We are waiting with anticipation for the arrival of our daughter!

FYI

As you can see our blog got a facelift and we just posted three (four including this one) new blogs since we've been so bad about blogging lately. So enjoy and thanks for being here.

A visit from home

Josh's parents drove the crazy drive down from Portland to visit us and we had a wonderful time. The weekend was filled with scrumptious food, grand conversations, a tiny bit of sight seeing and even a few games of zilch.

On Saturday morning we all headed out for breakfast at the Dipsea Cafe for breakfast (a farmhouse style favorite in Mill Valley) and then dad and Josh went on a 20 mile bike ride from our place across the Golden Gate bridge and back. Mom and I went to a baby shower for me and another one of the teachers put on by the Golden Gate Academy teachers. The highlight of the shower was an adorable hat and poncho that mom made for our baby in the softest pink bubbly yarn (the ladies were ready to take orders from mom).

On Sunday, we had a great time at church and then took a beautiful drive out to Sonoma to visit our favorite outdoor garden cafe. We then finished off the night with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, mmmm. Thank you mom and dad for coming to visit!

Baby Moon 2008!

It all started when Josh was asked to recruit for Golden Gate's Seminary that he thought hmmm how can I make this into an adventure? So with Josh's creative mind he started planning how to combine recruiting at Moody and Wheaton while making it into a vacation, and here are the results. Josh spread the word about GGBTS and then we made a long weekend out of it! It was a really special time and we are so thankful that the Lord provided the time and airline miles to do it!

Here's some pics of Chi-town.

The Hancock building


The Sears tower and Trump's new building from the 96th floor of the Hancock.


Famous Giordano's pizza. Baby Mathews loved her first taste of real pizza.


The "bean" in Millenium park.


Three pumkins.

Wrigley field. Good to be there, sad circumstances this year. Maybe next year.

And some pictures of Wheaton and Josh's old stomping grounds

The Billy Graham Center and old Blanchard Hall

Tolkein's desk and Lewis's wardrobe at the Wade center on campus.

College Church

We finally did it!!!!

Since we are catching up on some blogs this might seem outdated from a few weeks ago. But we still wanted to share the news! Since we moved to Cali we have wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge along with the thousands of other tourists that seems to constantly tread the side walk. So, out of the blue one sunny Sunday aftrenoon Josh said, "Let's do it". I wish fulfilling all of our dreams were this easy. We walked the mile and a half or so each way stopping often for pictures and baby Mathews to rest. She is now officially a San Fransisco baby. (for now at least)

New Pictures!

So we have had many requests lately for a tummy update. Here are a few pictures to update on the past few weeks in our life.

And of course, my favorite, some baby facts.

She is now 15 inches from head to toe, she is learning how to blink, she is over two pounds, and growing fingernails, and she is starting to form features that resemble her parents. Hopefully her daddy's eyes and smile with huge smile lines. We sure are having fun bonding with her, especially as she is moving around all of the time. My favorite is when she pokes me when she hears her daddy's voice. I start my 7th month this week and third and final trimester so she will be growing rapidly and gaining about 1/2 a lb a week and forming important parts of her brain! I am struggling already to bend over and pick things up so I can already tell that speed of life is going to slow way down.

Labor Day weekend with Stacy's parents and oldest sister, Signe and her family (Jonah and 3 kids Caleb, Levi, and Kacy). What a special weekend!!!

Josh's last softball game with the Abiding Way League (our church).

Baby Mama's (Us girls are all 11 weeks apart with Shannon due in Oct, me in Dec, and Liz in March).

Baby Dada's (We are not sure who is due first Josh, Drew, or Josh:) we were having a game night at our new apt!)