WOW, it's been such a long time since I have written that I have to wonder - does anyone care, I mean.. I would understand if no one checked my blog... anyway, because I have a few minutes... here goes....
So Holly is now 7 months pregnant and we still don't know if we're having a boy or a girl, but... our little one has been very uncooperative everytime we have an ultrasound!!! That's okay though, because so far baby is doing well! Mom on the other hand has been sick the entire pregnancy with her latest adventure being gall stones... I firmly believe that after this pregnancy Holly's picture will be replacing the woman on the front of What to Expect When You're Expecting.... she has seriously had more than her fair share!! There is a woman pregnant at work who has had ZERO problems and life is well and merry.. I have fondly nick named her "Princess Perfect Pregnancy"...... Oh well, only a few more months to go!!!!!
Every Christmas Dr. Martin gives his staff the week off between Christmas and New Years.... I'm sooooo looking forward to the week off, unfortunetly Holly has to work that week... sooooo I will probably spend the week waiting to get back to work... but hey....
So I am putting out a plee to the cyber world, Holly and I have NO IDEA what to name our baby.... she has her list and I have my list, and that's where we end... so if anyone has any ideas, please tell me!!!
Holly woke up this morning and wanted to move - I'm blaming it on the pregnancy - she even started to look up the numbers for moving trucks.... it was getting scary.... haha
Besides that, it's life as usual...
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Good Times
Yesterday was a GREAT day! Our very good friends Mike and Christa came over for lunch.. my awesome awesome awesome wife made a.. well... awesome lunch! She is such a great cook... she made BBQ Chicken, BBQ Pork Ribs, new potatoes and string beans.. mmm.. and we had salad and rolls .... very yummy... I'm SOOO looking forward to left overs for lunch today! And, hats off to Christa for the yummy brownies she brought :) We had a really nice visit with our friends and had fun playing games and as always enjoyed our conversation ... It was such a slow day but filled with lots to do, those are the best kinds of days.. we went to Wal Mart after our friends left and walked around looking at baby stuff... then we went for a drive... it was getting dark by then and Holly was determined that there was some machete wielding mad man on the back roads I was trying to take soooo we had to turn around and head for home.... I love my wife, she has quite the imagination! The best part of the day though was that Holly was feeling well enough to do all that we did.. she hasn't been feeling up to cooking or going out she has been pregnant... I was happy to see her starting to get some energy back and that she is staring to feel a TINY bit better..... anyway.. that was my great day.. hope you all had one just as great!
Ah.... County Life
So I have to admit if I sat down 2-3 years ago and wrote about living in Aroostook County it would probably be filled with MANY negative things, but ever since getting married and moving back to Presque Isle in 2004 I have fallen in love with "home". Friday (8/10) my wife and I along with my Holly's sister and her family went to the Caribou Cares About Kids parade... it was REALLY nice, and nice to see how much work actually went into it - I'm a sucker for parades anyway...I love summertime here in the county.. I love the colors, and the smells. I especially love this time of the year with all the little vegetables stands... I love how simple life is here - Yesterday morning I went out in search of "new potatoes" for lunch that day.... It blows my mind when I stop at the stands, the prices are listed and that's it.. the farmer just trusts in you being fair and actualy paying for what you take.... I LOVE IT!! The stand I stopped at had an old tin Christmas can... I opened the can to put my 3.00 in and there was qutie a bit of money in it... and I just thought how awesome it is to be so trusting that the people who stop and buy your products aren't going to swipe a few dollars -- I'm sure though that unfortunetly this happens, but... I just loved it! It was about 7:45 in the morning, the air was cool and they sky was beautiful! My wife and I have recentely gotten into a love of "driving around" especially on the weekends (we're such an old married couple!) I just love driving around on some of the back roads in the area and looking at the scenery and the beautiful homes that are around. It is such a quite way of life here in Presque Isle and I just love it! I was talking with my cousin the other day who grew up in the Bangor area, but now lives in Florida and she was saying that sometimes she just really misses the little things... like the fair and farmers markets... It really is a different way of life here in Maine..especially Northern Maine and I LOVE IT and am so happy that for now God has called us to live and serve here, and that he had a county girl picked out to be my bride!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Hmmm
Okay, here's something random as I promised you could expect from this babbling fool..hahaha....
Last night I was doing the dishes and I reached in the water and got a cut on the tip of my right index finger from a knife.... now... I'm going to guess that the cut is about.. 1 cm long... how on earth can this be a crippling injury? seriously though.. why does it hurt so bad? I find myself babying my finger.. when I write I have to hold my hand differently....typing is dreadful, am I seriously such a wimp? Paper cuts and hang nails are the worse... I've had dental work without anesthesia that has felt better than this.. I've stepped on nails that have gone through my .50 wal mart flip flops and caused my feet to bleed.. right now i'd step on 10 nails instead of having this TINY cut on my finger. Seriously though.. it's incredible.. I had less pain when I was in the hospital last year with swollen parotid glands the size of cantaloupes (spelling??)... of course then I was on an IV drip of pain medication... so that doesn't count....
Anyway, my finger hurts and I'm a big baby - guess that's the point of the post!
Last night I was doing the dishes and I reached in the water and got a cut on the tip of my right index finger from a knife.... now... I'm going to guess that the cut is about.. 1 cm long... how on earth can this be a crippling injury? seriously though.. why does it hurt so bad? I find myself babying my finger.. when I write I have to hold my hand differently....typing is dreadful, am I seriously such a wimp? Paper cuts and hang nails are the worse... I've had dental work without anesthesia that has felt better than this.. I've stepped on nails that have gone through my .50 wal mart flip flops and caused my feet to bleed.. right now i'd step on 10 nails instead of having this TINY cut on my finger. Seriously though.. it's incredible.. I had less pain when I was in the hospital last year with swollen parotid glands the size of cantaloupes (spelling??)... of course then I was on an IV drip of pain medication... so that doesn't count....
Anyway, my finger hurts and I'm a big baby - guess that's the point of the post!
YES!
I am so very happy to tell everybody reading this that my wife, Holly, and I are going to have a baby!!!!!! We have known now for about a month that we were pregnant, however we wanted to wait until our first appointment (which was today) before telling everyone. Our happy news comes at a time when friends dear to us are hurting because of a miscarriage - and our thoughts and prayers are still with our friends. It was difficult at first because we knew that the hurt and sorrow over the loss of their child was still so fresh when we found out. I'm so glad though that our friends were so encouraging when they found out. I never wanted to keep our news from them, but how do you handle a situation like that? It's like saying I won the lottery while someone you know is going through bankruptcy (although I've never won the lottery!) Even though I know now that our friends aren't upset or hurt by our news I hesitate to post this because my wife has friends who have been trying much longer than we have... the last thing we would ever want to do would upset our friends and families.
We had our first appointment today, and it was such a surreal experience - I mean... all of the sudden there we were in the examination room -- this can't be for real! The past month has been full of dreaming and long talks about what we want our child to achieve and also what we want to achieve as parents. My wife is a fan of the tv show "Friends" and there is one episode where Rachel is having an ultrasound and she breaks down because she can't "see" her baby... she doesn't know what she's looking at ... I have to admit I thought I would have a bigger reaction at first when I saw the ultrasound, but I didn't... I was Rachel... what in the world am I looking at.. what I thought was a head wasn't... and at this point in the pregnancy the baby looks like a shrimp.. all curled up... we were able to get a better view as the ultrasound went on... all of the sudden there was a tiny swirling on the screen to which we were told that was our baby's heartbeat ----- wow, how suddenly you can feel like you get a giant slap on the back of the head as if someone was saying "DUH"..... that moment wasn't an overjoyed/crying moment like I had planned for, I felt so peaceful in knowing that our baby was just "hanging out" while i watched its heart beat... I felt proud, almost like I can start a list of accomplishments my child has made... It is truly amazing how fast you can fall in love with something or someone, All I have to look at right now is a fuzzy black and gray photograph - but everytime I look at the picture my heart becomes overjoyed and all I can say is "THANK YOU GOD!". It's amazing to be chosen by God to raise really one of his children.
Please pray for my little family - Mommy is very sick right now (which we are told is a good thing) and also pray for my baby - that he or she will continue to grow stronger each day. And I guess that Daddy needs some prayer too --- no really LOTS OF PRAYERS!! It is a huge task and privelege to be called a father - I just pray that I can live up to all the expectations that come with my new role.
We had our first appointment today, and it was such a surreal experience - I mean... all of the sudden there we were in the examination room -- this can't be for real! The past month has been full of dreaming and long talks about what we want our child to achieve and also what we want to achieve as parents. My wife is a fan of the tv show "Friends" and there is one episode where Rachel is having an ultrasound and she breaks down because she can't "see" her baby... she doesn't know what she's looking at ... I have to admit I thought I would have a bigger reaction at first when I saw the ultrasound, but I didn't... I was Rachel... what in the world am I looking at.. what I thought was a head wasn't... and at this point in the pregnancy the baby looks like a shrimp.. all curled up... we were able to get a better view as the ultrasound went on... all of the sudden there was a tiny swirling on the screen to which we were told that was our baby's heartbeat ----- wow, how suddenly you can feel like you get a giant slap on the back of the head as if someone was saying "DUH"..... that moment wasn't an overjoyed/crying moment like I had planned for, I felt so peaceful in knowing that our baby was just "hanging out" while i watched its heart beat... I felt proud, almost like I can start a list of accomplishments my child has made... It is truly amazing how fast you can fall in love with something or someone, All I have to look at right now is a fuzzy black and gray photograph - but everytime I look at the picture my heart becomes overjoyed and all I can say is "THANK YOU GOD!". It's amazing to be chosen by God to raise really one of his children.
Please pray for my little family - Mommy is very sick right now (which we are told is a good thing) and also pray for my baby - that he or she will continue to grow stronger each day. And I guess that Daddy needs some prayer too --- no really LOTS OF PRAYERS!! It is a huge task and privelege to be called a father - I just pray that I can live up to all the expectations that come with my new role.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Angered
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/30/mother.charged.ap/index.html
This story completely outraged me. To me this is always one of the hardest parts of being a Christian - by reading stories like this one and not letting my mind and heart become engulfed in hatred. It breaks my heart to see children hurt, and I just get so disgusted in how people can live with themselves knowing what they have done. I know that this woman's sin is no greater than mine, and that God loves her as much as he does me... I always try to think of this when I'm presented with situations like this and even those of less caliber... I know that holding disgust and hatred is not right. One of our pastor's sermons awhile back struck me and really made me think. Now this is so simple and I was aware of it before this sermon but something just clicked inside my mind and made me think "Oh yeah, duh" My pastor's point was how can we expect forgiveness from God when we do not forgive others. I'm sure some people are thinking "you're just now realizing this?" and to that I say, no -- I always knew this but it really made sense at the time I heard it.. it's funny sometimes how you can go through life hearing the exact same thing week after week and then all of the sudden it makes sense... I guess it just all goes along with getting older and more mature in my spritual walk and my everyday encounter with people... forgiveness is sometimes so hard to do, but necessary. I am always impressed when I see on tv or read about a family member forgiving a murderer... I admire the strength that person must take... I hate sounding so super christian and cliche in saying "trust the Lord"...I know that this is the best advice to give, and truly the right thing to do in situations that require thought and in the end trusting in the Lord to give you strength and direction will always give you the best result. Ah, I'm rambling on here... and don't quite no where I'm going with this point.. maybe nowhere... maybe it's just one of those life long struggles that I will have to deal with... one of those situations where there is no good answer... and no simple solutions... now that I have gotten my frustration out, I'm starting to think clearly... and my heart is breaking for this woman, I don't know her situation or even where she stands with God, I truly pray that she sees her sin for what it really is and can ask for forgivness, not from the courts or her family but from God.
This story completely outraged me. To me this is always one of the hardest parts of being a Christian - by reading stories like this one and not letting my mind and heart become engulfed in hatred. It breaks my heart to see children hurt, and I just get so disgusted in how people can live with themselves knowing what they have done. I know that this woman's sin is no greater than mine, and that God loves her as much as he does me... I always try to think of this when I'm presented with situations like this and even those of less caliber... I know that holding disgust and hatred is not right. One of our pastor's sermons awhile back struck me and really made me think. Now this is so simple and I was aware of it before this sermon but something just clicked inside my mind and made me think "Oh yeah, duh" My pastor's point was how can we expect forgiveness from God when we do not forgive others. I'm sure some people are thinking "you're just now realizing this?" and to that I say, no -- I always knew this but it really made sense at the time I heard it.. it's funny sometimes how you can go through life hearing the exact same thing week after week and then all of the sudden it makes sense... I guess it just all goes along with getting older and more mature in my spritual walk and my everyday encounter with people... forgiveness is sometimes so hard to do, but necessary. I am always impressed when I see on tv or read about a family member forgiving a murderer... I admire the strength that person must take... I hate sounding so super christian and cliche in saying "trust the Lord"...I know that this is the best advice to give, and truly the right thing to do in situations that require thought and in the end trusting in the Lord to give you strength and direction will always give you the best result. Ah, I'm rambling on here... and don't quite no where I'm going with this point.. maybe nowhere... maybe it's just one of those life long struggles that I will have to deal with... one of those situations where there is no good answer... and no simple solutions... now that I have gotten my frustration out, I'm starting to think clearly... and my heart is breaking for this woman, I don't know her situation or even where she stands with God, I truly pray that she sees her sin for what it really is and can ask for forgivness, not from the courts or her family but from God.
The Official First Post
Well, here I am - after being persuaded by Mike and Christa to start a blog (just kidding) I'm here... now what do I do? Seriously... I've been wanting to start a blog for quite sometime now, but often wonder - do I have anything to say? I believe that everyone has a story to tell - mine just might take a little long to tell get into to!! I'm definetly worthy of the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover" I know people who really know me, and have known me for awhile would never belive that I'm shy and quite at first - but it's true. I take alittle while to warm up to.. and I know how depressing and boring this first post must seem -- but bare with me... You can expect a lot of random posts on here...I hope that you enjoy them, and hey if you don't... well that's great too!! I feel like I'm standing up in one of those embarrassing circles that teachers made us form and tell our names and something interesting about, so I'm going to get this awkward first post over by muttering "I'm Zack" and quickly sitting back down in my seat while waves of redness run across my face.
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