Updates from a slacker blogger

Well, it is finally here...moving day.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that we announced that we were leaving to go back home to Kansas.  It was almost 5 months ago!  I am currently sitting at home waiting for the movers to come and Jeff to get back with breakfast after taking Kayla to the "spa" for the day.  Thanks to a lot of help from wonderful friends, we are all packed!  We have a few areas designated for things to go in the cars with us.  Although the movers come today, we won't get our stuff until the 7th.  Ah, and it's raining now.  Yippee.

Here's a recap of the last few weeks:

Memorial Day week - I went to New York City with my mom and sister for a girls' trip--lots of fun!  I had never been before.

May 31 - Jeff was ordained!!  This ended a process that he has been going through for many years since he first perceived a call to ordained ministry.  Our families made the trip to Lafayette, IN, and there was a big group from Ridge Church that made the trip as well!  Much celebrating ensued.

sometime early June - we made an offer on a house in Olathe that was eventually accepted!

mid-June - I was offered a job at First UMC in Lawrence to lead worship at the contemporary service on their west campus.  This is my "home church"--the church where Jeff and I met, were in youth group. and got married.  I'll be part time starting on July 15!  So excited!!

June 16-20 - Jeff had Middle School Mission Week at the church, in the midst of which we started saying our farewells and were trying to finish the packing.

June 18 - Baby shower at the church.  There was a really great turn out (Jeff was disappointed he was the only guy...not sure anyone else was.) and we got wonderful gifts!

June 19 - The youth had a going away party for us, and gave us a memory book and other fun road trip gifts.

June 20 - Our young adult friends from Dalit had a going away cook out for us.  Kelly made a wonderful slide show of the time we've all spent together over the past two years.

June 21 - Our Dalit buddies came over for a packing party!  What a great group of friends!  They were fantastic, and worth more than the pizza we bought for dinner.

June 22 - Our last Sunday at Ridge.  There was a combined service at 10:30, which was packed!  The choir sang, the band played, and Jeff preached his last sermon there.  After the service there was a lunch in the Fellowship Hall.  Everyone formed a "receiving line" as they came in, so the folks at the back were waiting for a while to sit!  It was a wonderful day, and we all shared great memories with each other.  We will miss our Ridge Church family greatly.  We have been so blessed by everyone for the time that we have been a part of that community!  Many of the farewells were hard, but we really hope to see folks out our way and when we come back to visit in the next few years.

Looking forward...

Tomorrow we will close on the house in Highland, pack up our cars and head west.

Jeff starts at Church of the Resurrection on July 1st.

We close on our new house in Olathe on July 2nd and take possession July 3rd.  Our stuff comes on the 7th.  I just hope the rain stops today so all our stuff won't get wet before being stored for 11 days, but it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon....

Shalom,

Heather

Mothers-ish Day

Yesterday I had a very nice Mothers-ish Day.  Saturday the florist tried to deliver flowers, but we weren't home.  When we found the note, it was after their business hours, so I had to wait until today to find out who sent them, although I did have my suspicions.  (I was right, they were from my mom!  I got them today.)  Sunday morning, there was a lovely card from Jeff on my dresser promising lunch after church.  

We had lunch at a place called Theo's.  It wasn't quite as good as we had remembered from eating there once before, but I still had a good time.  It was cold, rainy, and windy all day yesterday, and the weather combined with the big lunch added up to an afternoon nap.  After the nap I called my mom to wish her a happy mother's day, then got ready to go to youth group.

Over lunch Jeff and I commented that next mother's day we will have a six month old.  We can't really imagine what that will be like.  We're pretty sure it will change our lives in unimaginable ways, and we're pretty excited about that!

We're Pregnant!

For more information, click here.

Oh, Give (so)Me(one) A Home

The latest news is that our house is officially on the market.  It was listed Saturday, and we've already had one person look at it yesterday, and someone else is scheduled to come tomorrow.  Since Jeff is out of town, I've been playing the dog shuffling game.  Some friends from the church have watched/will watch Kayla while there are folks in our house.  It's pretty neat that there are people who want to look at our house.  Kinda creepy and weird in that there's-someone-I-don't-know-in-my-house-and-I'm-not-there kind of way.  Kind of a vulnerable place to be.  But exciting to know that we could sell this house!

Chat Back

I use GoogleTalk to chat with my mom and sister since they both have gmail addresses. I found a way to be able to chat with other people via my blog. It's called chat back. You'll see just under my picture a little talk-balloon that says "Chat with Me." It shows you my status, if I'm online or not. I'd love to chat with you if you're on at the same time as me. Just click the link and it'll open a chat window. The only drawback is that you appear as "Guest" if you aren't logged with with Google, so don't be offended if I ask who you are. :-)

Happy chatting!

Thyroid

The results from my blood test and ultrasound came back.  Turns out I have an underactive thyroid, hypothyroid.  And they either found thyroid antibodies, or found something in my thyroid antibodies, I don't remember exactly how the nurse said it, but it is genetic.  So, I have medicine that I'll probably have to take for the rest of my life.  But the good news is that it's not as bad as the worst case scenario that was playing through my mind.  I'm very good at imagining worst case.

So this explains a lot of things.  Feeling tired, being cold all the time, dry skin and nails, voice and throat issues (I actually lost my voice for the first time ever right before Christmas Eve--no pain, just no voice--not cool for the singing worship leader), losing more hair than usual.  And it means that the weight I've lost over the past year or so is unusual, since most people gain weight with an underactive thyroid.  It makes me wonder if the depression I was diagnosed with in college and the migraines I've had since junior high are related, but really I'll probably never know.  

So that's the update.  Thanks for your prayers and kind words! 

"There's no place like home..."

...except maybe northwest Indiana.

Jeff and I made the decision that it is time to head back to Kansas, and we will be doing so at the end of June, at the changing of the appointment year. In various ways over the past days and weeks we have let the members and staff at Ridge Church know our intentions. It hasn't been easy, and people have reacted in their own ways. Some people are happy for us, some people are sad, and some people are mad. Probably lots are some combination of the three.

It was a difficult decision for us to make. We knew it would hurt and that people would be hurt, but we know that it is time for us to be closer to our families. We are so thankful for the time we've had in Indiana, at Whiting and Ridge, and especially thankful for the people who we've come to know and love these past years. As a favorite song of mine says, "This is not an ending, it's just a bend in the road."

In the meantime, there is a lot of ministry to look forward to in months to come!