...dampness became all the little people.

Today has unbelievably 'moist'. Not such a pleasant word, but unpleasant things call for unpleasant words. At 87% humidity (see gauge at right), it feels like I just took a shower and didn't bother to towel off before putting my clothes back on. Tomorrow it's suppose to get up to 92 degrees. When it's that hot and high humidity, they should just instruct people to wear their swimsuits all day. It's like swimming, but without all the hassle of finding a lake.

Dan, I have to tell you... I love the little league story on your blog. It reminds me of the painful summer rec softball days. Picture the gangliest short girl you can imagine. Skinny little legs and scrawny arms with a batters helmet bobbling around on top of my matching little head. If it wasn't for being afraid of getting hit by the ball, I probably would've been able to be shortstop or something equally cool. But no, I was usually outfield or catcher. Thankfully I didn't have to be catcher more than a couple of times since I could barely manage to see the pitcher, let alone the ball, out of the ginormous helmet.
So picture this, gangly little girl trying to look cool in the outfield. One of the hottest days of the summer. I probably should've drank some water or told somebody I wasn't feeling well. But hey, I had to blend in. When I knew I was losing it, I started walking towards the car, where I knew my mom was waiting. Who cares that it was mid-play, I was about to blow chunks. As I was walking, everything started to go black and white polka-dotted and the ground disappeared.
I fell forward and did a face plant into my mit... on the ground. "I caught it!" probably would've been the cool, whitty thing to say, but I don't remember anything beyond that.
Heatstroke is always a crowd pleaser. Perfect for 'blending in'.

...fresh talent!

This post is dedicated to someone I haven't met yet, but have a bond to nonetheless. He is married to my friend, Donna. During our college days at Dordt, she studied a semester in Russia, there they met, and now they're married. Now back in California, John Jackson has become a talented photographer and started up a website to display a few of his pictures. Check it out at: http://johnjacksonphoto.com

Donna, I miss you, roomie! Even though you always ditched us for more exciting places, I loved being roommates with you. The numerous trips back and forth from the library carrying your mountains of overdue books back, waking up to you staring me in the face and sleeptalking some jibberish about bread, plotting to sneak into the library for all night adventures... those were good times.

Here is an explanation for the photos you'll see at the website,

as described by Donna (the Mrs.):

*The very top rows are of a fashion shoot he did for a designer in la (who he went to school with). She designed and made all of the clothes from decontructing materials she found at thirft stores and other places (one of the pieces was a 100 year old wedding dress). She also models here.

*The next section comes from some light and figure studies john has been doing with studio light.

*Next are various portraits (some include parts of my family). Some of you might recognize a few of the people :)

*The last ones are part of a series he did on Schizophrenia while he worked in Oklahoma (he majored in psychology).

... deep thoughts.

"I hope if dogs ever take over the world, and they choose a king, they don't just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some good ideas."

... or perhaps some terriers.

Maybe 'hamster dog' was trying to tell me something... like, "Quit your job, it stinks in here".

...the puppy lady returned.

Sorry to make you wait so long to hear the conclusion to last week's story. Here it is! Heather (pregnant, assistant manager) called Mary the night of the fateful poop trail. Mary answered and Heather told her that she is no longer allowed to bring her little terrier into our store. She explained that, though, Mary may not have noticed the insane amount of feces tracked through the store, it happened.
Mary then told Heather that her little hamster dog is a, get this, "service dog". Come again?
Heather then told Mary that the owner of the store witnessed the incident and was very upset. Mary responded, "You tell the owner that he is a service dog."
Uh huh.
Needless to say, I think she got the point... when she came in on Friday, she came in sans puppy.


The days following my last blog were packed full- but in a good way. Two of my roommates from college came to town. Kristin, who has been living in Hebron (Palestine) with CPT is now stateside and was visiting her parents that live here in Willmar. I always love it when Kristin is home. We have such wonderful adventures! Rebecca, from California, also came to town. I haven't seen her since Matthew and I got married, so it was SO GOOD to catch up. Kristin, Becky, and I went swimming two days in a row! We went in search of places we could float around and have a quiet relaxing place to chat. The first day we went to a public beach- it was a beautiful day... but we got yelled at constantly when we allowed our little raft to go past the 2 foot depth. Apparently we don't look like good swimmers? In any case, we decided to go out to a friends' pool the next day.
Also a hot, sunny day, we were looking forward to a relaxing place to float. 5 minutes after we got there, 4 kids showed up with their moms. I guess they promised the pool out to several people that day. We still had a good time, although it wasn't quite the quiet we were looking for, with kids doing canonballs right next to us. We did manage to work up a good burn, though! A few other fellow Dordt friends drove up Friday night, and we all went out to eat. It was such a good time- I miss having friends around like that. I'm grateful for the things I took away from the classes at Dordt, but the experiences outside of class molded me so much. For that I am most thankful.
I also had the opportunity to hang out with Rachel, a friend living in Arizona, that came home to be in her sister's wedding. I lived in my first apartment (outside of school) with Rachel. She and I did a lot of growing up that summer. We had our basement apartment broken into by skinheads... but we'll save that story for another day. She is another friend I miss having around.
I was telling Matthew that I feel a bit selfish right now. When I was a little girl, I would gather all of my stuffed animals and pile them around me when I slept. I feel that way right now with my friends. If I had my way, I would gather them all in one place and we would have a happy little world. Someplace in Oregon, USA would live Cristina and her 'Favorite People'. But everyone has their own lives to lead... different callings... different agendas. So I will continue to miss those people that have blessed and impacted my life- that live so far away.
The friends I met in school, YWAM, and ELIC...
the cousins and family waiting for us in Oregon...
the people I met overseas that probably impacted my life more than I did theirs...
the teachers that inspired me to allow my creativity to breathe...
the parents and sisters that did not snuff out my dreams...

I am grateful.

...there was a lady and her puppy.

I took home a great story from the furniture store today!

A few months ago, this woman came into the store with her tiny little puppy. I thought it was a bit odd, but hey, the dog was the size of a large hamster. Who cares. It was strange- almost like she had no clue she was dragging this little terrier behind her on a leash. Anyone could tell that this woman, Mary, had minimal social skills- maybe a little lower functioning than most. It was like this was her visible, invisible puppy. Does that make sense?

Then she came in about a month later, again, with the puppy. Only now, the puppy is bigger and yappier. She came in to make a payment on a clearance sofa she picked out the first visit. This time the dog pooped right on the mat in front of the counter. Yuck. Guess who got to clean it up.

So yesterday she came, in again, to put a payment down on the sofa. She was second guessing her original purchase and wanted to try it out again. She proceeded to lie down on a few sofas, which is totally fine, and her dog kept jumping up on all of the furniture- not fine. Especially since the owner of the store (think stern-faced man, to be avoided) and the manager were both there. The dog kept barking and got quite a few looks from other customers. I didn't know what to do! I'd already allowed her to bring the hamster version of her dog into the store 2 other times! So I let it pass.

Then today, she comes in AGAIN, with the dog! Mary saw in one of our ads that we had $33 rugs for sale and wanted to see them. She looked them over with the assistant manager (think kind hearted, pregnant girl) while I was with another guest. Mary told her that she would have to come back, though, because she doesn't have $10 to put a downpayment on the rug. There was a different twist on today, though. It seems, the dog pooped in the back of the store where the rugs were, and Mary stepped in it. She then proceeded to walk out of the store, leaving poop footmarks the entire length of the store.

Needless to say, that was most certainly the dogs last visit to our store. Stern-faced Owner was here again today, and very unhappy about the situation. Heather called her tonight and told her that puppy is no longer invited to shop with her in our store.

We'll see if it lasts. She's coming into the store again Friday to put the $10 downpayment on a rug.

...a homemaker was born

Matthew and I have established horrible eating habits. We've become so lazy that if it takes longer than 5 minutes to make something, "There's nothing to eaaaaaat" even though we have a cubpoard full of cans and boxes. I suppose there is some merit to that. You can't really make a meal out of cream of mushroom soup.
Today I'm going grocery shopping for meals. I should've done this a long time ago, and I'm ashamed to admit that we've been living off of ramen noodles, mac&cheese, sandwiches, and fast food. We make meals every great once in awhile, but the ratio of good homecooked meals to fast food is embarrasing. We have an excuse, that we both work long hours (I don't get home till 9:30 a few nights a week), but busyness is not worth having poor health.

I have a theory why young married couples generally gain weight in the first few years of marriage. Like I just described, time is huge. If there is little time to cook a meal, you fall into 'date mode'. Plus it's almost less expensive to walk over to BK (literally in our back yard).

My second theory I think is even bigger. The first few years of marriage are not easy. You have to sacrifice a lot of stereotypes about marriage you've carried around your whole life, as well as horrible habits you've established over a lifetime of gaining independence. It's depressing (especially with little arguments that DO happen), and easy to resort to comfort foods. The daily question "what sounds good to you?" is usually answered by a comfort food. After months of bad eating, you notice a belly where there wasn't one before, thighs rubbing together as you walk, and clothes fit a bit tighter. Self confidence declines, and exercise isn't what jumps into mind. Food... and at 10 pm, you find yourself saying "Should we go have 2 for 1 appetizers?"

So today I'm going shopping for meals. We're going to have lots of tasty chicken meals (Matthew will still have to cut off all the white stuff that makes me gag). Chicken with veggies and gravy, green bean hot dish, enchiladas, burritos... I may even shop for a crock pot!

I need to take better care of my Honey. Not that I'm going to cook all the meals, but at least he'll have better choices than running out for fast food when I'm working late. If anyone has any good recipes that don't take a million ingredients and an hour to cook, please pass them on to me!

I need all the help I can get.

...Tuesday followed.

I should definitely have brought my leotard to work today for my manager.

He had a horrid display of manager's elbow right away this morning.
I won't go into the long drawn out details, but I got yelled at again for something ridiculous. It seems he only has 2 volumes: 1)nice salesguy tone 2)mean manager loudness.

But this will not steal my joy. I am determined!

...Monday ensued.

So today was Monday, as you know. Why do people behave so differently on Mondays? Maybe without us knowing it, every Sunday night between midnight and 6am, there is a full moon. I've heard from many a nursing home and hospital staff that people are not normal during a full moon.

This morning I had my weekly one-on-one meeting with the manager of our store. I casually mentioned to him that he should think about scheduling a meeting with our warehouse guys because while he was gone for a week, we heard some rumblings that they are unhappy about a few things. He got this crazy look on his face, saying they are, indeed happy, and that I need to not worry about it. Reading it in a sentence doesn't seem as long and painful as the 15 minute lecture I received.
What's that about!?

Meeting aside, today was not so bad. It was incredibly hot and humid, but I had a song in my heart. Right after I woke up, I read a bit in Romans about not living under the power of darkness that constantly fights to overtake us. So true... and so easy to have a physical feeling of it on a Monday... and on a day when it is hard to take a breath outside because the air is so thick and sticky.

Tomorrow I think I'll package up one of my gymnastics leotards and bring it to my manager.

...my sweeties

While Jennelle and Matt were at the hospital ('hostapul' as Jake says) we decided to make them a present. The two of them got all dressed up and I took pictures of them out in their yard. The dress Zoey is wearing is one of the two dresses my Grandma made for us when we were little. She fit perfectly into Jennelle's!

When we brought the pictures to Jennelle in the hospital, she cried, she was so happy.

What an amazing day.

... Kyla Joy!

My sister, Jennelle, had her baby on Friday afternoon! Kyla Joy was born at 8lbs, 19 inches long. What an angel! She has big blue eyes and a head full of brown hair.

Matthew and I drove out on Thursday night so we could be there to look after Jake and Zoey while Mom and Dad went to the hospital at 5:30am Friday. Jennelle was being induced because she is so small- it was hard on her last time when Jake went to full term.

It was a good thing, because Kyla was already 8 lbs and this was 2 weeks early! Jennelle did great with the labor. It wasn't until after the birth that she had problems- one of the nurses gave her some pain medication without telling her what it was. If she had known, she would've told the nurse not to give it to her- it made her really sick last time. So there she was, all happy and smily after delivering Kyla and THEN she gets sick. Poor thing.

Jake and Zoey were really excited about their new little sister. We took them to the store on the way to the hospital so they could pick out a balloon to bring their baby sister. Zoey picked out a massive horse (we're talking 4 foot by 3 foot!) and Jake brought her a sunshine balloon. The nurse was really sweet to include them in giving Kyla her first bath- they had big blue doctor's gloves on while they wiped her down.

Kyla has a very mild, sweet, temperment from what we can tell so far. She seems to know Mommy and Daddy's voices- it noticibly soothes her. She loves being wrapped up and cuddled.

What a miracle she is!

... stand still for a moment...

...living on a prayer!

Today Matthew and I were once again reminded, with a big slap in the face, that our US government doesn't want him living here. That's right, I married an alien.
Originally from Canada, we've been going through this struggle for him to be a 'permanent resident' since we got married 2 years ago. Even though we've seemingly done everything right: filed all the papers, gave them an arm and a leg (from each of us) in $'s, and waited 10 times longer than they've asked, it feels like we have gotten nowhere fast. Thankfully, he has been able to legally WORK for the last year, but that may all be ending next month.
The INS changed the process for renewing his work card, without telling us. It takes 30-90 days to renew his card and we have to pay them between $175-250. Funny thing is, his card expires August 1st. Good thing we happened to call them today and get someone who would actually talk to him. That typically is not the case. So he may have to quit his job for a few months while they are deciding if he can stay and work here. We've already been down that road when he was forced into unemployment for 6 months last year.
I am amazed at the difficulty of getting through this process.

We are doing everything they ask, so why won't they help us?
Is it really too much to ask, to be able to live in the same country as my husband, and want to contribute to society by holding a job, going to church, and to start a family?

If anyone reading this knows a few tricks about getting through the naturalization process quickly, please share.

If you are reading this and you don't know anything about it, please pray for us. God has done much bigger things... I know He can take care of this one too!
I sincerely believe it's a matter of Matthew's file falling into the right hands. Once they get us past this step, at least we can sigh a breath of relief that Matthew can come and go without worrying. Right now, if he even steps foot outside of the US, he can't get back in for 3- 10 years.

What a crazy world we live in.

Did you guys know the government in Minnesota shut down last week? Sure did.