What I am Thankful for......

The OB said this one looked like it was waving to us.



I am currently 14 weeks along (the u/s images were at 12 weeks) and starting to feel much better! It was a rough 6 weeks there! The due date is 28 May 09. I think we have decided to find out the gender, but unfortunately, won't know until AFTER we are in MN. Oh Well. We have been pretty set on the name Colton Chet for a boy (Chet was Aaron's grandfather's name) and somewhat decided on Elsa MaryAnn for a girl (Mary Ann after my Grandmother)... I am convinced it is a Girl since we were having a hard time deciding on that name, but Aaron thinks it is a boy... My sister Lindsay has been pestering me to post a belly photo, but I am going to defer until it looks less like a post-Turkey day dinner belly and more like a pregnant belly. But, I am starting to show and my clothes are not fitting. I will soon be the "proud" owner of the military maternity uniform where the stretchy panels stretches up to my chest....definitely designed by a male.

We are so absolutely grateful for this miracle that has taken 2 years to create! it was a long, frustrating journey that strengthend our faith, but ultimately turning over our lives to God and trusting in his plan really saved our sanity! I came across this titled: Thoughts on Becoming a Mother...

There are women that become mothers without effort, without thought, without patience or loss and though they are good
mothers and love their children, I know that I will be better.

I will be better not because of genetics, or money or that I have read more books but
because I have struggled and toiled for this child.

I have longed and waited. I have cried and prayed.
I have endured and planned over and over again.

Like most things in life, the people who truly have appreciation are those who have struggled to attain their dreams.
I will notice everything about my child.
I will take time to watch my child sleep, explore and discover.
I will marvel at this miracle every day for the rest of my life.

I will be happy when I wake in the middle of the night to the sound of my child,
knowing that I can comfort, hold and feed him
and that I am not waking to take another temperature, pop another pill,
take another shot or cry tears of a broken dream.
My dream will be crying for me.

I count myself lucky in this sense; that God has given me this insight,
this special vision with which I will look upon my child that my friends will not see.

Whether I parent a child I actually give birth to or a child that God leads me to,
I will not be careless with my love.

I will be a better mother for all that I have endured.
I am a better wife, a better aunt, a better daughter, neighbor, friend and sister because I have known pain.

I know disillusionment as I have been betrayed by my own body.
I have been tried by fire and hell many never face, yet given time, I stood tall.
I have prevailed.
I have succeeded.
I have won.
So now, when others hurt around me, I do not run from their pain
in order to save myself discomfort. I see it, mourn it, and join them in theirs.
I listen.

And even though I cannot make it better, I can make it less lonely.
I have learned the immense power of another hand holding tight to mine,
of other eyes that moisten as they learn to accept the harsh truth and when life is beyond hard.

I have learned a compassion that only comes with walking in those shoes.
I have learned to appreciate life.
Yes I will be a wonderful mother.

Author Unknown


We hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving and you will all be in our thoughts and prayers. We look forward to seeing most of you in 2 1/2 weeks!

New House

Here are two pics of the front of the house. You can see in the second pic the church to the right.


Here is the back of the house. We have a set of french doors that open from the living room to the garden.

The church from the back step.

Our large garden with brick gazebo.

The front entrance

The foyer

The living room

Dining room


And, finally, the kitchen


We have so much more room than our previous house! Our kitchen has twice the space and American size appliances! There is a large office downstairs and three large bedrooms upstairs. In addition, there are two smaller rooms upstairs that we are using as a closet and a study.
The house, according to our antique dealer Bob, is 300 years old with a renovation approx 150 years ago. It used to be an old rectory for the Church, and is called The Manor House. Every hour the church bells chime with the time and on Friday nights and Sun mornings, they play a melody for over an hour (much to Aaron's dismay when he is trying to sleep after working until 4am). The village is really quaint and is approx 1000 people. I went for a run Monday throughout and around the village....along a field in which they were doing the fall harvest, to the marina and along the river, and up/down various other streets exploring our new home. It was a tranquil run of about an hour.

Aaron is going back to school part time. He is starting with a Macroeconomics class via the University of Maryland. At least I will have someone to study with this fall when I start studying for boards! He is also working part time at the sports bar on base. So, he is definitely keeping busy!

Work is going well for me and I continue to absolutely love what I do. The swim season started last week so I am coaching two days a week. All the families/kids are great and it has been a lot of fun to see how the kids have improved over last year. The team sent me and the head coach to a coaches clinic in Austria for a weekend...I know, rough...to learn how to effectively coach the kids. And, I am getting more involved with our Church on base. I started lectoring and am taking over as the liturgical coordinator this month. Keeping busy....and, now I need to get motivated to start studying for my oral boards in Dallas in February.

We continue to appreciate all of your prayers with our desire to add to our family. My doctor recently diagnosed me with "unexplained infertility"---he is not sure why we are not getting pregnant again. I had several studies that showed there was no scarring from the D&C and that there is no tubal blockage; and, Aaron has good swimmers :) It has been a frustrating past two years and I think that diagnosis is more frustrating. If there was blockage, at least they could potentially fix it.... He ruled out polycystic ovarian disease since I am not over weight and don't have the other symptoms and ruled out numerous medical conditions that can decrease your chance of conception (diabetes, thyroid disease...). He said the chance of us getting pregnant (based on studies of women diagnosed with unexplained fertility) each month is 5%--YIKES! So, he started me on Clomid this month to see if that works. This raises my chances to a whopping 7% (although considered to be statistically significant, seems still low) The only downside is that there is a 10% chance of twins and a 0.5% chance of triplets....and, if you read Suz's blog to the right.....a chance of quads. But, at this point, we are putting it in God's hands and will welcome his blessing(s). Please continue to pray that we will have success with Clomid in getting pregnant.

Well, that is all for now. We are going to Bristol (near Bath) next weekend for my half marathon that I am not feeling ready for....
Oh, and we are coming home in Dec for two weeks and hope to see you all!

Aaron's b-day...a bit late

Okay, so my sister-in-law, Taunya is anxious to see pics from Aaron's birthday party.
Fortunately, the weather cooperated. Otherwise we would have been in a bit of trouble. Our home would not have accomodated the 25 people who showed up. We are truly blessed with some great friends over here.
Here is a picture of Andi, Marissa and I.

Aaron and Travis

Tony, Roberta, Jean and Jim are two couples we met at our marriage retreat in March. We do a Bible study with them twice a month, along with Stephanie and Antuan (not pictured)

Have you seen a 34 year old more excited about an ice cream cake??!!

My dear friend Jess and I

Chris, me, and Aaron

By the fire

Jim, Jean, Roberta, and Aaron


Last weekend, we went to the British Open at Royal Birkdale near Liverpool. It was awesome! Although, the weather could have cooperated a bit more, but this is England.... Saturday was in the 60s with 40-50mph wind gusts and rain. Sunday was still windy but at least the sun was out. We enjoyed seats at the 18th hole grandstand for most of the time, but were able to walk around the course and see much of the action. It was fun to see the players up close! At one point we could reach out and practically touch Phil Mickelson...which was not good for him because it meant he was in the rough and not where he wanted to be. And, on the last day, we were able to watch all of the players walk up to the final hole. Although the ending wasn't a nail-biter, it was fun none-the-less. I was rooting for Greg Norman, but was excited Padraig won.
There were 4 other dentists that went and we all had a great time (the only downside was returning at 3:30am on monday morning just to have to be in the OR for a 6 hour case at 7 am--nothing Starbucks couldn't handle)
We all checked into our hotel in Manchester and went out for a night on the town.



Well, I am having trouble transferring photos from Chris's email to this blog. My camera was confiscated on sunday at security...long story...so I will post more photos when I can. We will be without the internet for about a week during our move, so we will post pics when we get settled.

Greek Isles Part 3

Okay, so that was a bit of an extended break. Things have been extremely hectic here...will explain in another post.
Day 9 ( 12 Jun) Kusadasi, Turkey
This had to be my favorite stop! Not only was the Turkish culture fascinating, but it was a stop of profound Religious meaning! We did a tour to Ephesus. The apostle Paul wrote his Letter to the Ephesians here, St. John likely wrote his Gospel here, and it is recognized by the Vatican as the final resting place of Mary. It was incredible to walk among the ruins where such important people in Christianity lived! The first part of our tour involved a private, Catholic Eucharistic Mass. It was an outdoor mass, right outside of the Shrine of the Virgin Mary located in the Solmissos Mountains. The experience was beyond moving!
Here is me in front of the shrine dedicated to St. Mary

This is the marble-paved road that led through town. You can see by this photo how crowded it was. What you can't see is how HOT it was--over 95 degrees with little refuge from the sun!

This is the Library

The Great Theater that accommodates 25,000 people and is where St. Paul lectured to the Ephesians. We were able to walk up into the stadium and sit in the seats in which the Ephesians did thousands of years ago.

I really enjoyed this tour because I had just read the book of Ephesians and was able to visualize the readings by walking through the ruins. Turkey is also known for high quality rugs. We went to a carpet weaving demonstration and ended up buying a great souvenir -- 100% silk Turkish rug. It as the message of the Tree of Life and we were told it took a person 9 months to create it.


Day 10 (13 Jun) Greek Isle--RHODES
I elected to stay on the ship today and relax by the pool. I brought an incredible book on the trip The Pillars of the Earth. I finished the entire book (a feat of 1100 pages) and I highly recommend it! Aaron got off of the ship for a couple of hours just to walk into the town. Here are pics of his journey.


We ended up hearing how great the beaches were here....after we sailed away. Maybe next time....
The ship had several dining options available. We made a reservation at the Crown Steak Grill and enjoyed the best Filet Mignon and Lobster we have ever had. Unfortunately we needed a wheelchair to leave. Here is us at our table.


Day 11 (14 Jun) Santorini--a Greek Island of the Cyclades.
This was one of the more enchanting islands of Greece and was a place Aaron and I have wanted to visit for years. All of the towns are situated on the steep rim of the volcanic crater. To get to the top to the villages, you can take a cable car, take a donkey, or walk up the switch back (used by the donkies and covered with their you-know-what). We were feeling up for a bit of an adventure.....


I wish I could include the video Aaron took during his ride. It is hilarious! His donkey decided to race another donkey around a curve, almost sending Aaron over the brick wall.
Here is a pic of Aaron and I at a Greek restaurant that overlooked the village of Fira and the sea.

The scenic village of Fira.

We took a bus to OIA and were even more impressed. The bright blue domes atop of the whitewashed homes were beautiful.

All throughout the villages, you would be walking along the cobblestone streets, and see these doors. Due to the steepness of the rim, you would open the door and just look out over the sea. This door led (via extremely steep steps) to a cafe.


Day 12 (15 Jun) At Sea
Traveling to a different port was exhausting, so we enjoyed some much need down time on the Lido Deck. We had chairs near the couples we dined with and enjoyed live music, ice carving demonstrations, etc.
We were invited to a bridge tour that evening. You can see the Senior Captain in the first pic and then the second one is of Aaron and I with the First Officer. It was interesting to see the bridge and listen to how the ship's navigation system worked and how they embark/disembark in each port. The Bridge is manned 24 hours a day by 2 Officers working 4 hours on, 8 hours off in a 3 watch system. Whenever we are coming into a new port, a pilot from that port will embark on the cruise ship (while we are sailing at approx 17 Knots) and assist the crew members in anchoring or docking.


Our 2nd (and last) formal night.

A pic of the people we dined with.

Day 13 (16 Jun) Naples, Italy
Naples in a word....DIRTY. They have not had trash collection in over 6 months. They said that in some of the suburbs trash is stacked up 3 meters high for miles. Our tour guide said that it is due to a corrupt government and the Italian Mafia. Here is a little sample

We hiked to the top of Mount Vesuveus. An active volcano that erupts every 50 years. The last eruption was in the 1940's...you do the math.


It provided some amazing scenery of the Almafi coast and the town of Naples.


Next, we went to Pompeii. One word: AMAZING! Pompeii was buried by a volcanic eruption in 79 A.D. When it started to erupt, many people fled. However, those that didn't were either initially killed by the fumes or buried in 8 meters of ash. The initial excavation of this town began in 1748 and is currently, only 30% excavated. They did the plaster casts of people during excavation....the excavators saw many voids in the ash and they decided to pour plaster down into the voids. The result was a mold of human bodies buried in the ash. The first is one of a villager who is believed to be pregnant. It was sad to think that over 2000 people were buried in the ash and suffocated to death.


Some pics of the village of Pompeii. It is interesting to think of the how the people lived over 2000 years ago...perfectly preserved!


The amazing part was preservation of frescos!

Aaron and I on the cruise deck with Mt Vesuveus in the background.

Day 14 (17 Jun)--Rome (final day)
Well, our trip concluded with a stop in Rome. Since we did not fly out until early evening, we did a final excursion through our cruise. A whirlwind tour of the Vatican and the colosseum. We definitely want to go back to spend more time at The Vatican (we only spent 1 1/2 hours there) and sightseeing in Rome.
Here are some pics of St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square.








So, there you have it. We have a ton of more pics....
I will post more pics later of Aaron's b-day party we had here last weekend. 25 people ended up coming over, so it was a lot of work to prepare for it, but we ended up having a blast!
Aaron found out he got a job!!! He will be bartending at the sports bar on base. It was one of the few part time jobs that gave any flexibility! A lot of the other jobs (ex. working part time at the grocery store on base) would not let you take any leave for 6 months....
I have been busy running (I signed up for a half marathon in Bristol in Sept with a friend), doing a Bible study with four friends from work, and packing. Yes, we are moving. Our friends are moving back to the states and we decided to move into their home. It was an old Rectory and is HUGE!! For those who have seen our current house, know that our "4" bedroom house is anything but. One room is the size of my old walk in closet. One bedroom has a queen bed in it with 1 ft on each side. So, when we do get to adding to the family, there is really little room to spare. This new place has 4 large bedrooms (each would easily accommodate a king bed), a kitchen with lots of storage space, lots of character, a huge backyard with a brick gazebo and large willow tree...and, being next to a Church, we get Church bells. The Church is what the Brits call Redundant, so it is no longer used for services, but the bells go off on Friday evenings and Sun mornings. We move Aug 1st, so I will post pics when we get all settled.