This is what our backyard looks like today... craziness...
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
We are having a ....
GIRL!!!!
On Tuesday we went for my 20 week appointment and got to see our healthy baby girl:)
Everything looks at it should which we are most thankful for- here are some pics:
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Nate and I at 19 weeks:
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20 Weeks Belly Photo:
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On Tuesday we went for my 20 week appointment and got to see our healthy baby girl:)
Everything looks at it should which we are most thankful for- here are some pics:
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Nate and I at 19 weeks:
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20 Weeks Belly Photo:
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Fishies!!!
For a week we had pets! We started Saturday with almost 21 fish- leftover from the Navigator barn dance. Nate ran a booth "Gold Fish Toss" and at the end of the night we took home the rest of the prizes:) Here is a picture of the Nate with his set-up- as you can see he also did a great job dressing up a like red-neck.
We gave away some fish to our neighbors, some more to students, and tried to keep the rest. Our favorite was Bob:
But we loved the rest too!
We even went out and got them food and drops to make sure they had clean water. By thursday all the fishies had passed away:( It was fun while it lasted!
We gave away some fish to our neighbors, some more to students, and tried to keep the rest. Our favorite was Bob:
But we loved the rest too!
We even went out and got them food and drops to make sure they had clean water. By thursday all the fishies had passed away:( It was fun while it lasted!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Baby Pictures
This is Baby Daman at 11 weeks... I have been meaning to post them for awhile- I am now at 16 weeks:)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Some great finds for our apartment
This is our FREE entertainment center we got from our landlords- they didnt need it anymore cause they got a big screen tv- which we enjoyed immensely as we stayed with them. But we still like our little tv too:)
This is our super comfy couch from Craigslist for $85!
This is our old couch with a new cover and pillows to match our curtains- we feel very coordinated!
This is the best deal yet and the first thing we have bought for Baby Daman- a $15 Rocking Chair! Moose and Roger are occupying it for now. And yep, we painted the babys room yellow!
This is our super comfy couch from Craigslist for $85!
This is our old couch with a new cover and pillows to match our curtains- we feel very coordinated!
This is the best deal yet and the first thing we have bought for Baby Daman- a $15 Rocking Chair! Moose and Roger are occupying it for now. And yep, we painted the babys room yellow!
Students are BACK!
Last Saturday we dove head first into student ministry at Penn State. At 8 am we headed about an hour away from State College to a camp for a leadership retreat. Almost 60 juniors and seniors from PSU joined us around 10 am who will be leading bible studies this year. The group is called "Oaks" from Isaiah 61 and will continue to meet for bible study prep and training on Monday nights. Each of us (nate and caroline) will help co-lead an "Oaks" group on Monday nights of about 8-10 men and women (respectively). This is an addition to the student(s) we will disciple and co-lead a freshmen bible study with. Confused yet? Its actually a pretty well organized system but I dont know how well I just explained it.
Saturday morning we spent time looking at Matthew 9- casting vision for why we want to lead new bible studies, especially with freshmen. This is the passage where Jesus talks about the harvest being plentiful but the workers are few. Despite there being SO many campus ministries at Penn State, maybe 4000 students are involved (generously) which leaves 40,000 students unreached. How can we tell them about Jesus??!!
Saturday afternoon we had some fun- and this is the only photo of the time I took:
Saturday afternoon they had a sweet time of prayer and personal reflection. I napped:) And Nate got to lead worship of a few songs for the time. Many people told me how great he was- yea! Way to go Nate!
Saturday night I got to connect with Anna and Tara, the juniors I am leading bible study with. Both are sweet girls who are excited to lead this year. I got to know them even better this week as we followed up with spiritual interest surveys in freshmen dorms. In just a little while I will grab dinner with them and hopefully some freshmen women who will join our bible study this year!
Saturday night we went over the monday meetings and some housekeeping items, but ended with smores and bonfire (again, i went to bed...)
Sunday we finished up the weekend with some funny skits about following up with people in their dorm rooms. Along with a devotional about evangelism and what it means.
All in all it was a great weekend, though a bit exhausting. Nate is leading with super senior Adam who is awesome. They spent time together this week in the dorm Tenor meeting guys. Last night they met up with some of them for ice cream and we will all try to start our bible study meetings on Monday night!
The rest of the week was filled up with manning survey tables where we give out candy and spiritual interest surveys for a raffle prize to find people who may be interested in bible study or learning about Jesus. Each night (mon-wed) we went into the dorms to follow up with those people. When we werent on campus, we trying to finish up things in our apartment- its really starting to feel like home- yea!
Tonight we are headed to our first NavNight- the large group meeting. It should be a great, if not overwhelming time!
Saturday morning we spent time looking at Matthew 9- casting vision for why we want to lead new bible studies, especially with freshmen. This is the passage where Jesus talks about the harvest being plentiful but the workers are few. Despite there being SO many campus ministries at Penn State, maybe 4000 students are involved (generously) which leaves 40,000 students unreached. How can we tell them about Jesus??!!
Saturday afternoon we had some fun- and this is the only photo of the time I took:
Saturday afternoon they had a sweet time of prayer and personal reflection. I napped:) And Nate got to lead worship of a few songs for the time. Many people told me how great he was- yea! Way to go Nate!
Saturday night I got to connect with Anna and Tara, the juniors I am leading bible study with. Both are sweet girls who are excited to lead this year. I got to know them even better this week as we followed up with spiritual interest surveys in freshmen dorms. In just a little while I will grab dinner with them and hopefully some freshmen women who will join our bible study this year!
Saturday night we went over the monday meetings and some housekeeping items, but ended with smores and bonfire (again, i went to bed...)
Sunday we finished up the weekend with some funny skits about following up with people in their dorm rooms. Along with a devotional about evangelism and what it means.
All in all it was a great weekend, though a bit exhausting. Nate is leading with super senior Adam who is awesome. They spent time together this week in the dorm Tenor meeting guys. Last night they met up with some of them for ice cream and we will all try to start our bible study meetings on Monday night!
The rest of the week was filled up with manning survey tables where we give out candy and spiritual interest surveys for a raffle prize to find people who may be interested in bible study or learning about Jesus. Each night (mon-wed) we went into the dorms to follow up with those people. When we werent on campus, we trying to finish up things in our apartment- its really starting to feel like home- yea!
Tonight we are headed to our first NavNight- the large group meeting. It should be a great, if not overwhelming time!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Behind the scenes update...
As I have been posting some of the general news about our move, alot has been going on behind the scenes for us as well. Yesterday we sent a postcard to many of you and tonight I sent an email sharing that we are pregnant and that I have Papillary Thyroid Cancer. Below is Nate's account of it from August 3rd. I also added a few more recent updates at the end, to not leave you worried....
August 3, 2009
Caroline and I are sitting in the office of an Endocrinologist at the Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA. This is our first appointment of many here in PA. I thought it would be good to write down some of what we’ve been going through, if for no other reason than to be able to look back at this point in our lives and to see what God has brought us through. In the moment this storm seems quite difficult. We are dealing with one thing after another and it just doesn’t seem real, but I am confident that God will see us through, and that regardless of the outcomes, we can know and rely on God’s love and faithfulness to us. I think we are on the path to shalom, to peace, but this part of the road is very difficult for us.
We moved down to Penn State just two days ago, on August 1st. About a month before we moved, we realized that Caroline was pregnant with our first child! This was unexpected, but our response is thankfulness, joy, and excitement. God’s timing is not our own, but his timing is perfect. Caroline says that it’s almost like God knew that we were out of debt and that he knew we were ready to have a baby.
Just a few days later, Caroline had a routine physical with her doctor in Lexington, MA. Her doctor noticed that her thyroid seemed large, and suggested they do an ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed a nodule a centimeter in diameter in her right lobe of her thyroid. The next step was aspiration, which ended up being a biopsy of sorts, and the lab work strongly suggested it was thyroid cancer—papillary carcinoma. I think we got the call that it was cancer on the Tuesday before we were moving.
On Tuesday night, Caroline showed me a bug bite she had. Over this past week, it has grown in size, and I happen to think it is Lyme Disease. It was the classic red and clear bulls-eye that you could see in images on Google. We delayed in getting it treated, because of our move and because we already had today’s appointment with the Endocrinologist scheduled.
On Thursday, we packed up the truck for our move to State College, cleaned up our apartment, and turned the keys over to Rebecca Daniels. The people who helped us move were: Rebecca Daniels, Paul and Katya Moran, Kevin and Martha Kohl, Rhiannon Baker, Hannah Daman, Rudy and Vicky brought food, and Dennis Lindblom.
On Friday, Caroline also began experiencing pain on her left side lower abdomen. This is the same side as her tick bite. We’re still not sure what it is, and I guess we’ll find out whether or not it’s our baby tomorrow at our appointment with the ObGyn. *We found out the next wednesday that it was probably soreness from moving or my growing uterus and nothing to be worried about. In order to check though we saw our first ultrasound of the baby- alive and well! Kicking and moving:) Absolutely amazing!!!!*
On Saturday, we drove down to Penn State, but it took a lot longer than we had previously expected. I decided we should both gas up in Sturbridge, MA, about 45 minutes into our journey. When Caroline went to start the car, the engine wouldn’t turn over. We called AAA, and they sent someone out to check the problem. After poking around and hitting on the starter with a hammer from under the vehicle, he concluded that our starter was dead. We called AAA again to see if they would send a tow truck.
While we were waiting for the tow truck, Caroline, seeing the camera in my hands, decided it would be safer in its case. The camera slipped from her hands and hit the pavement pretty hard. It doesn’t work anymore.
AAA did send a tow truck, and we left the truck at the Mobil station in Sturbridge. On our way (the opposite direction) back to Auburn to Firestone for a new starter, we were stuck in traffic for about a half hour. Turns out we were waiting for people to clear what remained of a fatal car accident. It’s amazing how short life is. I can’t imagine how devastated any remaining survivors from the crash might be. Life is so short.
We ended up at Firestone Tire, and they gave me a quote for $380+ dollars to replace our starter. I refused to sign the work order. Our AAA tow guy wasn’t allowed to leave our car. I went over to AutoZone next door to price starters. Firestone was going to charge me $220 just for the starter, and AutoZone told me it would cost $185 or so. Went I went back to Caroline, who was just eager to get back on the road, she asked if I wanted to check with Sears Auto, which was across from the parking lot. I ran over to check their prices, they quoted me installed for *around* $200. I decided to go with them. It turned out to be a lot more than they thought, but they took off about $40 for us because of their misquote, and they got us back on the road a whole lot faster than I thought they would. All in all, our delay took from around 9AM until around 1PM. We got lunch at Arby’s across the street from Sears (and across from the Auburn Mall), and were there when Sears Auto called to let us know our car was ready.
We went back to the Penske truck in Sturbridge, and soon after that we were on the road again. I think our delay cost about 4 hours and just over $310 for the tow and the repair.
We arrived in Penn State with no other incident on Saturday night, and were greeted by other Nav staff. Our truck was unloaded in minutes! It’s amazing to move into such an amazing community. They all are so friendly and kind and serving and loving. It’s a great place to be in such a crazy time.
Today we had our first appointment with the Endocrinologist. It went OK. They gave Caroline a prescription for antibiotics to treat her possible Lyme disease. They seemed concerned about the pain in her abdomen and told her not to lift anything. We’ll find out how worried we should be tomorrow at the ObGyn appointment.
Our Endocrinologist was also able to get us an appointment this afternoon for an ultrasound for Caroline’s thyroid. He wants to monitor it himself, and thinks that the best thing to do is to postpone surgery until after her pregnancy, and the second best thing is to have the surgery in the second trimester. We have another appointment with him 8 weeks from today. He’ll be monitoring her nodule for any changes.
That’s where Caroline is at the moment—getting her thyroid ultrasound.
Next up: 2 hour drive back to State College, then more painting or prep for painting???
We went to Hershey’s Chocolate World in between. *We still have been able to laugh and have fun through the midst of it all- Praise God!*
Back to Caroline, just to update. The cancer seems to NOT be growing right now- Praise God. Please pray with us for it to continue NOT to grow ever, but at least till after the baby is born. We are due February 21st. My thyroid is functioning normally so although there is cancer on it, it should not be affecting the baby. I'll be going back to the endocronologist in about five weeks to see if it has changed or not and we will go from there.. And our next baby appt is in September.
Thanks for being in this with us!
August 3, 2009
Caroline and I are sitting in the office of an Endocrinologist at the Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA. This is our first appointment of many here in PA. I thought it would be good to write down some of what we’ve been going through, if for no other reason than to be able to look back at this point in our lives and to see what God has brought us through. In the moment this storm seems quite difficult. We are dealing with one thing after another and it just doesn’t seem real, but I am confident that God will see us through, and that regardless of the outcomes, we can know and rely on God’s love and faithfulness to us. I think we are on the path to shalom, to peace, but this part of the road is very difficult for us.
We moved down to Penn State just two days ago, on August 1st. About a month before we moved, we realized that Caroline was pregnant with our first child! This was unexpected, but our response is thankfulness, joy, and excitement. God’s timing is not our own, but his timing is perfect. Caroline says that it’s almost like God knew that we were out of debt and that he knew we were ready to have a baby.
Just a few days later, Caroline had a routine physical with her doctor in Lexington, MA. Her doctor noticed that her thyroid seemed large, and suggested they do an ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed a nodule a centimeter in diameter in her right lobe of her thyroid. The next step was aspiration, which ended up being a biopsy of sorts, and the lab work strongly suggested it was thyroid cancer—papillary carcinoma. I think we got the call that it was cancer on the Tuesday before we were moving.
On Tuesday night, Caroline showed me a bug bite she had. Over this past week, it has grown in size, and I happen to think it is Lyme Disease. It was the classic red and clear bulls-eye that you could see in images on Google. We delayed in getting it treated, because of our move and because we already had today’s appointment with the Endocrinologist scheduled.
On Thursday, we packed up the truck for our move to State College, cleaned up our apartment, and turned the keys over to Rebecca Daniels. The people who helped us move were: Rebecca Daniels, Paul and Katya Moran, Kevin and Martha Kohl, Rhiannon Baker, Hannah Daman, Rudy and Vicky brought food, and Dennis Lindblom.
On Friday, Caroline also began experiencing pain on her left side lower abdomen. This is the same side as her tick bite. We’re still not sure what it is, and I guess we’ll find out whether or not it’s our baby tomorrow at our appointment with the ObGyn. *We found out the next wednesday that it was probably soreness from moving or my growing uterus and nothing to be worried about. In order to check though we saw our first ultrasound of the baby- alive and well! Kicking and moving:) Absolutely amazing!!!!*
On Saturday, we drove down to Penn State, but it took a lot longer than we had previously expected. I decided we should both gas up in Sturbridge, MA, about 45 minutes into our journey. When Caroline went to start the car, the engine wouldn’t turn over. We called AAA, and they sent someone out to check the problem. After poking around and hitting on the starter with a hammer from under the vehicle, he concluded that our starter was dead. We called AAA again to see if they would send a tow truck.
While we were waiting for the tow truck, Caroline, seeing the camera in my hands, decided it would be safer in its case. The camera slipped from her hands and hit the pavement pretty hard. It doesn’t work anymore.
AAA did send a tow truck, and we left the truck at the Mobil station in Sturbridge. On our way (the opposite direction) back to Auburn to Firestone for a new starter, we were stuck in traffic for about a half hour. Turns out we were waiting for people to clear what remained of a fatal car accident. It’s amazing how short life is. I can’t imagine how devastated any remaining survivors from the crash might be. Life is so short.
We ended up at Firestone Tire, and they gave me a quote for $380+ dollars to replace our starter. I refused to sign the work order. Our AAA tow guy wasn’t allowed to leave our car. I went over to AutoZone next door to price starters. Firestone was going to charge me $220 just for the starter, and AutoZone told me it would cost $185 or so. Went I went back to Caroline, who was just eager to get back on the road, she asked if I wanted to check with Sears Auto, which was across from the parking lot. I ran over to check their prices, they quoted me installed for *around* $200. I decided to go with them. It turned out to be a lot more than they thought, but they took off about $40 for us because of their misquote, and they got us back on the road a whole lot faster than I thought they would. All in all, our delay took from around 9AM until around 1PM. We got lunch at Arby’s across the street from Sears (and across from the Auburn Mall), and were there when Sears Auto called to let us know our car was ready.
We went back to the Penske truck in Sturbridge, and soon after that we were on the road again. I think our delay cost about 4 hours and just over $310 for the tow and the repair.
We arrived in Penn State with no other incident on Saturday night, and were greeted by other Nav staff. Our truck was unloaded in minutes! It’s amazing to move into such an amazing community. They all are so friendly and kind and serving and loving. It’s a great place to be in such a crazy time.
Today we had our first appointment with the Endocrinologist. It went OK. They gave Caroline a prescription for antibiotics to treat her possible Lyme disease. They seemed concerned about the pain in her abdomen and told her not to lift anything. We’ll find out how worried we should be tomorrow at the ObGyn appointment.
Our Endocrinologist was also able to get us an appointment this afternoon for an ultrasound for Caroline’s thyroid. He wants to monitor it himself, and thinks that the best thing to do is to postpone surgery until after her pregnancy, and the second best thing is to have the surgery in the second trimester. We have another appointment with him 8 weeks from today. He’ll be monitoring her nodule for any changes.
That’s where Caroline is at the moment—getting her thyroid ultrasound.
Next up: 2 hour drive back to State College, then more painting or prep for painting???
We went to Hershey’s Chocolate World in between. *We still have been able to laugh and have fun through the midst of it all- Praise God!*
Back to Caroline, just to update. The cancer seems to NOT be growing right now- Praise God. Please pray with us for it to continue NOT to grow ever, but at least till after the baby is born. We are due February 21st. My thyroid is functioning normally so although there is cancer on it, it should not be affecting the baby. I'll be going back to the endocronologist in about five weeks to see if it has changed or not and we will go from there.. And our next baby appt is in September.
Thanks for being in this with us!
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