Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 I have hit the 6-month mark in gestation. I'd like to say that means I'm two-thirds of the way done, but actually, * psych! * pregnancy is 10 months, not 9. I don't know why we say pregnancy is 9 months; maybe it averages in all the preemies. So far, I have to say first trimester is the worst. Constant nausea, and too early to tell people why you feel terrible. Mark likes to point out that I never threw up, but nausea is terrible all on its own, so I didn't find that comforting. Second trimester has less nausea, but also less energy. Like, I was running 2-3 miles a day up until 2nd trimester. Now I'm running 1 mile a couple times a week, but as of this week I think even that is going to stop because the 2 times I ran this week left me with such pain in my pelvic area--and that's even with a belly band thing to try to support the extra tummy weight--that changing positions hurt all day. Also, I'm not a fan of the nighttime leg cramps. These are charley-horse

  On May 10, we began the move into our new apartment.  It is in the same building as our old apartment.  In fact, it is just down the hall on the same floor.  Our lease renewal was coming up on our old apartment and the rent on our old apartment was going up significantly.  If we were going to pay a bunch more for our old apartment, why not get a bigger and refurbished apartment for slightly more than what our new rent was going to be?  The new apartment would still be a one-bedroom, but would have a study and would also have a half-bath by the front door.  The big draw for us is the study, which is too small to be considered a second bedroom but will be big enough to have a crib [because SPOILER! pregnant].  The half-bath is unnecessary (except for if we have guests over who want to use the bathroom without going through our bedroom, but we almost never have guests) and is actually a hindrance as it takes away from kitchen space. Our lease on the old apartment did not run out until t

 May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so when it came time for my turn to come up with an activity for Senior Primary (ages 8-11) in our congregation, I decided to teach them mindfulness activities. I thought it would be one of the hardest activities to do, because teaching someone to still the mind or to tune into their bodies is rather a tough concept. And I wanted to do it in a way that made it seem normal--so no crystals, no burning incense or candles, no divining rods. What I ended up doing is coming up with several different mindfulness activities, and assigning each to a random object I placed in a bag so that the children could select an object to determine what mindfulness thing we practiced.  We did Guided imagery--I had them close their eyes while I told them to imagine walking on a beach, feeling the sand beneath their feet, hearing the crash of waves, coming up to a fire where Jesus had fish and bread for them, and imagining what their conversation would be. Body scan--I

 There are times when I read the news about this or that religious group deciding that what the world needs is not more freedom for faith but more coercion into obedience; and I think that they have misinterpreted the meaning of "force" in the call to be a "Force for Good," and overlooked the strength in faith. You see, there are plenty of times I question how literally to take the Bible or how much to trust in human attempts to direct the focus of our faith, but I keep going in these struggles of credence Because I believe in Jesus. There are times when I read my social feed seeing how this person or that friend seems to have life figured out, goals met, accomplishments catalogued, and I think perhaps on this test drive of experiences I must have been given  a manual engine while everyone else has automatic; and I have to learn how to drive it  as I go at highway speeds while also trying to figure out where I am on the map and how to get where I want to go, which e

I think a lot of our Norway vacation was a compromise between our physiology, Norwegian weather, and/or our expectations. We signed up to go snowshoeing with a guy from Finland, and soon discovered that his pace of snowshoeing, coupled with his desired trip duration, was beyond our capabilities. I, for one, learned that without the heat provided by my battery-powered gloves [and coupled with the sweating from our high-energy-output pace], I could no longer keep my fingers working. I truly was unable to feel my fingers, which made it really difficult to have any hand dexterity--if you can't tell where your fingers are , then you can't properly direct them to where they need to be . I think I may have freaked out our guide, because after seeing how stiff and red my hand digits were, he not only gave me his gloves, but also the keys to the car so that I could warm back up [which, btw, is painful] while he continued with the rest of the group. Mark accompanied me on the trek back,

 Happy Birthday to Mark, and he wrote this post.  One of the benefits of traveling to snowy northern Norway is that there are a plethora of winter activities to do.   Besides the usual skiing/snowboarding, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling, there are also things more unique to Tromsø, such as reindeer sleigh rides and dogsledding.   We went dogsledding twice during our Norway travels.   This is the story of the first of those adventures.   The dogsledding company of our first experience is located at the Tromsø Golf Club, the northernmost 18-hole golf course in the world.  Buried in snow in the winter, it becomes the perfect place for an amazing dogsledding experience.  The dogsledding company runs shuttle busses from Tromsø city center to the dogsledding camp.  It takes about an hour to get there and the views along the way are spectacular. The noise on arrival was also spectacular.   They have well over 100 dogs there and they all want to talk to each other at full volume. The dogs

 A lot of days when we were in Norway, some tour we had scheduled was cancelled due to weather, which meant we went around downtown Tromso checking out what indoor  activities they had. Being the nerds that we are, we chose the museums over the paintballing. somewhere in downtown Tromso cod tongue Our first night in Tromso, after our first Northern Lights excursion was cancelled, I convinced Mark to go to a museum down the street from our hotel instead of turning in super early [we were jet-lagged]. It was actually a hybrid restaurant-museum called Full Steam, with a self-guided [via QR-codes] tour of the owner's private collection of Sami and Arctic paraphernalia on the top floor, and a guided tour of sections of the restaurant. The building was originally a fish warehouse, so we learned more about the historic fishing industry [while eating caviar and cod tongue] and how fish were processed from the net to the drying racks. Considering I never would have eaten cod tongue or drunk

 When I told my mother I was going to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights, she thought I would die of cold. This was more from her knowledge of my poor cold tolerance than from a belief that all the people who live in the Arctic Circle are dead. While I myself was worried that I would freeze, and Mark was convinced I would complain frequently about how cold I was, I insisted we go because I saw great beauty even in the concept  of the Aurora Borealis. The Northern [and Southern] Lights exist because of solar wind's interactions with Earth's magnetic fields, which protect us from the harmful charged particles. The "weak" area in our magnetosphere is at the poles, so that's where we see the Auroras. Basically, one of the most beautiful nature displays on Earth is due to vulnerability. I find that profound. What I did not realize is that seeing the Northern Lights is more of a chase/hunt than something you show up and see. We saw the aurora our first night h

Random Fact: My FIL likes to sing "Northward! to Alaska!" whenever it seems appropriate--which means whenever North is mentioned.  Well, Mark and I went North. This is the library. While the main goal of this (finally successful!) Norway trip was to see the Northern Lights, and we theoretically could have done that in Alaska, Norway is more exciting. Any out-of-country travelling is exciting, because you get to see a much different culture, lifestyle, and maybe even foreign-language use that really makes the experience more memorable. For example, neither Mark nor I could pronounce any of the towns we went to, or read any of the road signs we passed. [Important note: while basically everybody in Norway speaks English, the road signs--at least in Northern Norway--are exclusively in Norwegian, and most museum exhibits/menus/library book collections have limited English translations/options].  I've been to Norway before, but it was southern Norway and 10 years ago, so I didn

For some reason, in the past 4-5 months I have really struggled putting together coherent blog posts. There are 3 unfinished entries just hanging out on my homepage, and many more in my head. The only thing that convinced me to try again is the new year as a time to reflect on the old. So, in the past year: I have run approximately 10 miles every week, mainly because I discovered my insides function better if I run I fought for a salary raise, which took about 4 months to implement I watched the Barbie  movie 6 times (oh, wait, that was Mark. I've only seen in 4 times...) I got a new nephew (which required zero effort on my part) I shaved the heads of 2 patients, with their permission, because of a lice infestation I learned to knit with 4 needles I started growing mini bell peppers in my office, and basil in my kitchen I cooked with collard greens for the first time I got to interact with penguins I finally met up with my friend Tammy (last time was about 7 years ago) I joined a g