tonyandkirsten.org

For the last four and half years we’ve been married, our music collection has been scattered and stored in variety of places. Some CDs in the car. Some CDs in old CD books, with their cases packed away in two different boxes. Some CDs in their cases in one of the boxes with the empty CD cases. Some CDs sitting next to the computer, in or out of their cases. A stack of cases in a corner in the basement. A stack of newer CDs in the bedroom. Some of our CD collection had been ripped (made into MP3s or other electronic files, for back-up and for use on our computers and ipod shuffle) but others had not.

Having gathered all the CDs and all the cases in the process of moving, I decided enough was enough. I took a detour from more necessary unpacking one day last week and organized all the CDs. Each one was finally with its case! They were all in one place for the first time! I went through the tedious process of figuring out which ones had been ripped and which ones hadn’t. Tony picked a small stack of his CDs to set aside and sell. I couldn’t bear to get rid of any of mine (Well, I guess I did throw into the thrift store box my WOW 1996 Christian Hits CD and a CD I bought in about 1995 of a local Christian band in MN. Those hardly count!) I got rid of some CDs in high school of jazz and classical music I now wish I would have hung onto…so even though I have CDs I probably haven’t listened to in 5-8 years…I just kept them anyway. Even most early/mid ’90s Christian CDs have at least one good song on them.

Then, while doing other unpacking last week I ripped all the CDs that had not yet been ripped. Next came the process of organizing them on the two main computers so that both would have a complete copy of our collection. The new files were easy…but some of our previously-ripped CDs were on one computer, some on the other and some on both…so I had to get that all straightened out too.

The end result? Our CD collection (along with some legally downloaded music from the free mp3 section of amazon.com) turns out to take up 12.5 GB of space amongst a little over 2800 files…with quite an amazing variety in genre when all of Tony’s picks and my picks are considered! Now all the CDs and cases will be stored in one box in our storage area, and backup copies will be used in the car so we don’t have to worry about them getting stolen. Unless someone wants to buy us a nice big ipod and some better way to connect it to our car stereo than the cassette adaptor we’ve used with our shuffle.

I’ve decided this is a universal truth about potlucks — never are there enough deviled eggs brought that everyone who wants one can get one. So, that’s why I brought deviled eggs to the Urban Refuge potluck on Saturday night. It was a good thing I did, because I was the only person that brought some! I wasn’t exactly watching, but I think they were all gone before even 1/3 of the church had gone through the line.

Since we are still trying to decide between the Rock and Urban Refuge (though we will probably be making this decision soon), we are doing a lot of church stuff on the weekends. We went to the Rock on Friday night, and Urban Refuge on Saturday night. The Urban Refuge service was particularly memorable. They are celebrating their four year anniversary as a church, and Andy Gray started a series called “Living for the City” — it’s a series about what God calls us to be living for personally, and what the mission of the church is corporately. A lot of the focus this week was on the priority of our personal connection with God. That’s a topic that can get re-hashed a lot without really saying anything new, but Andy’s message was really heartfelt and convicting. (You’ll be able to listen to it here after it’s posted — they’re still a week behind as of today in posting the messages. Scroll about 2/3 of the way down the page to see the link to Urban Refuge messages. Though this may not be as meaningful if you weren’t there, since part of the message was spent with each of us individually reading a handout.)

In the two months since we have been so caught up with the holidays, family celebrations, Tony’s graduation and moving, it’s been really easy for me to give my relationship with God a pretty low priority. I think it had been at least a month and a half, if not a lot longer, since I had gotten away for an extended time with the Lord. After the message on Saturday, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. I went out and did that Sunday afternoon and it was so refreshing — and I feel a lot more motivated for my daily times with God now too. I don’t know exactly why this is, but if I am not getting my weekly extended time, then my regular daily times with God either turn to being really irregular or not very meaningful. I’m looking forward to my daily and weekly spiritual disciplines of meeting with God to be present in a newly-refreshed way.

On Sunday night, we visited an Urban Refuge small group for the first time. Their small groups are organized a little differently than we’re used to in Ames — they are topically-focused and the groups meet together for a pre-defined length of time, then people may re-organize into somewhat different groups to focus on different topics. The group we visited is just getting started on the book “Premeditated Parenting” by Steve Nelson (a pastor of a Great Commission church in Colorado). I was honestly pretty surprised at how open and deep people were for it being a group that is just starting together (though I get the impression that most of the couples in the group know each other fairly well already). It was a really helpful discussion, and I think we got some good ideas both from points brought up in the book and from the discussion itself. It was a neat group to interact with, since almost everyone’s kids are about the same age as Madeline, plus a few kids a little bit older and younger — but the age of the parents in the group ranged from being about the same as us to about 10 years older.

It’s a great way to start the week, having had so much encouragement over the weekend!

It was such a warm day here (it got to at least 40 degrees), that Madeline and I were energetic enough to not just go out and return the video we rented last night to the nearest Redbox machine, but we also went to the bank and picked up a couple items at the grocery store.

Motivated by my need for greater iron intake, I bought some cream of wheat cereal. When we got home Madeline wanted to eat some for her afternoon snack. I was highly disappointed that this cereal wasn’t really what I remember cream of wheat being like! I have fond memories of what I thought was cream of wheat from my dorm days eating ISU Dining Service food. I remembered it as this pure white substance with some lumps. At least my third year (when I lived in Towers), this was usually for some reason served on the same day as lemon poppyseed muffins, so I often ate the two together.

This cereal I made for Madeline was, well, wheatier. It had a definite tan color with a few white speckles. I did manage to achieve the lumps though. I tried a bite and the taste, while not bad, wasn’t what I was remembering from my dorm food service days. It’s hard to explain the difference in taste.

Now that I’ve bought it I’ll be eating some cream of wheat…but does anyone know what that cereal in Dining Service might have been? I know it wasn’t grits, because the texture was less grainy and the taste was not that of grits (which I do also thoroughly enjoy, by the way). I noticed that they also had “cream of rice” at the store so that was something I thought of trying.

My experience taking the glucose test here was much better than my experience in Ames. I had assumed that the drink would be exactly the same as I had tried before (carbonated and syrupy — with a consistency almost like cough syrup). At the clinic in Ames they told me that this was the only way to do the test. Well, the clinic here had a drink that was still really sweet, but it was a lot more liquidy — just normal drink consistency and not carbonated. Granted I had to drink 10 oz instead of 6 or so…but this was much easier to get down. I can’t imagine why this product wouldn’t be a better choice for anyone taking the test — after all, who wants to drink a whole cup of something that is reminiscent of cough syrup?

After getting the drink down with no problems, they let me and Madeline wait in a small room with a recliner. Taking the test still made me feel a little sick, so it was really nice not to have to chase her around a waiting room! We sat and read books for almost the whole hour. I got my blood drawn after an hour, and they told me within a couple minutes that I passed. Anything under 140 is passing and my level was 100! Madeline was fascinated by watching the nurse draw my blood, and watching them put the sample in the machine to run the test.

They also tested my iron level, which turned out to be slightly low. I’m not surprised at all by this since I don’t eat very much red meat and I have had somewhat low iron levels on occasion even when not pregnant. A few years ago after giving plasma a couple times, I gave up trying because every time I went after my first two tries my iron level was always low. Since I was just a little below normal, it doesn’t sound like I’ll need to take any additional vitamins. I just need to try and eat a few more iron-rich foods. They gave me a list of suggestions — the item on the list with the highest amount of iron was actually cream of wheat cereal. Who would have guessed?

So, almost everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong this morning before I actually had my first OB (pregnancy) appointment here in Minnesota. The clinic I am going to here has two locations — When I called to make the appointment I thought I had made it clear I wanted an appointment at the location closer to our house. But when I arrived they didn’t have me on their list — somehow I had ended up with an appointment at the downtown location. So, we got back in the car and drove downtown. I was only about 10 minutes late, amazingly enough. Too bad that going downtown meant we had to pay a total of $8 for parking.

When I started talking to the women behind the desk at the downtown location, it became clear that the person I had been talking to on the phone the day I made the appointment really wasn’t listening very closely. Somehow they had scheduled me for a type of appointment for someone who is 8 weeks pregnant and just starting medical care, rather than for an appointment for someone doing a transfer of care at 32 weeks (like me). They said though that they would do their best to get everything taken care of at this appointment that needed to be done, I just would be seeing a nurse practitioner instead of an actual doctor.

Then they went to look at my file. Although I had mailed a form to my former clinic in Ames two weeks ago to get my records sent, the records apparently had just been put in the mail yesterday or today…so my new clinic had no information on the care I had received so far. They decided to call the clinic in Ames to get at least a few key pages of my records faxed over. Despite how easy this sounds, they were apparently having fax troubles on the Ames end and it took about 15-20 minutes to get four pages faxed.

Finally, about 50 minutes after my appointment was originally supposed to begin, I saw the nurse practitioner and got checked out. Everything is still looking really good with the pregnancy. I have to try tomorrow to take a glucose test that I tried to take in Ames before we moved. This test involves drinking a really sickly sweet liquid and then sitting for an hour, after which they do some kind of blood test to see how your body reacts to the sugar. Unfortunately, the sickly sweet liquid made me throw up the first time I tried to take it, so they couldn’t actually do the test. I guess it is important to get it done soon, so I will go take it tomorrow at the closer clinic location. I really hope I can keep it down this time! Then I am back on track for two appointments next month, and weekly appointments for the last 3-4 weeks or so until I deliver.

The really good part in all of this is that everyone I talked to at both clinic locations were nice and extremely helpful and understanding of my situation. Despite the fact that everything took over an hour and half instead of 45 minutes, they did get done everything that really needed to be checked at this stage of my pregnancy. While the person who took my appointment information was probably either having a bad day or just didn’t understand my unusual situation of moving and transferring care so far into a pregnancy, I think overall the people at this clinic will be very competent and helpful.

Means I caught the 7:30 express bus and was here at 7:45! Awesome!

This weekend was actually pretty cool, even before the Bears and Colts won. First off, since we haven’t actually picked a church (deciding between The Rock and Urban Refuge), we’re doing double duty, and that means I got to hear two sermons instead of just one. Mark’s on Friday night was on the importance of time. It’s not online yet, but it was a good one. I found myself nodding in agreement throughout. Of course, that’s easy when he’s doing the math on how our time gets spent, and I’m a big numbers geek.

Saturday night’s message was on Grace, and how that fits in with the topic of “Breaking the Chains of Religion”. Chad (the speaker) had us do something experiential to get the feel for what to do when the grace we’ve experienced doesn’t seem to erase the guilt we feel. At the end of the message, he had us take bread (for communion), dip it in horseradish, and eat it, to fill our mouths, noses, and eyes with bitterness. The we were to take the communion wine (actually juice), and drink away the bitterness. They made lots and lots of juice, so that if the first drink wasn’t enough to wash away the bitterness, we were to drink more, and more, until the bitterness was gone. Cool, huh?

In addition to church, we’ve been making some serious progress on the moving-in projects and unpacking. Another week, and I think we’ll be mostly done (at least with the things that make a home feel stressful, like disorganization and not finding stuff). Saturday morning was a fun trip around the cities (70 mile loop going to Lakeville, Edina, Brooklyn Park, and back home) to pick up cheap stuff we found on Craigslist. Just some tires, fenders, and some lights, and my bike’s ready for the frosty commute!

As always, life is full! Please be praying for our house in Ames to sell, for us to find a good renter for our basement apartment here, and for us to figure out which church to be a part of.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on all kinds of goings on (including some tech posts in the next couple of days).

XOXO

Question and answer between Madeline and Daddy.

I had the question, Madeline the response!

Amazingly enough, it’s a little after 10am this morning and Madeline is still sleeping.  She slept in this late on Monday too, and in general has been sleeping a lot later here than in Ames.  I think she might be sleeping off the stress of being in a new house and new surroundings.  She roused somewhat a little after 9am, and I went in her room and told her I had pancakes ready if she wanted some.  She just said “pancakes?” and kind of whined a bit and rolled over to sleep some more — incredible, since she really loves pancakes.

She might also be trying to hibernate through the cold weather. We’ve discovered that Madeline has a very strong dislike for cold weather, and for being cold in general. She unfortunately ended up with the coldest room in the house — even five layers of blankets and warm pajamas is barely enough to keep her warm.  Lately upon getting out of the bath tub, one of the first things that she tells me is that she needs socks because her feet are cold.  And of course being outside, she reminds us often that she is cold, and that she doesn’t like walking across the snow, etc.  I’m sure she’ll get used to it eventually.  I like to think that Minnesotans are not more resistant to cold than other people, they just know how to dress for it.

On an unrelated note, I found my local Aldi yesterday. It’s about a mile and a half away and very easy to get to.  Much to my delight, the prices on most items were the same as in Ames.  I only noticed 10-20 cent higher prices on a few items, and who knows? Prices may be rising on those items in Ames too.  The most confusing thing about the trip was the store layout.  Some things are in the same place and some things aren’t.  Interestinly, the layout makes less sense.  Canned soup is in two totally separate places, while Ramen noodle soup is way across the store.  Other things that you might think would be together are not.  Though in a true sign that this Aldi is in Minnesota, when I finally did find the cans of cream soup, the stack of cream of mushroom soup was at least twice as large as the stack at the Aldi in Ames.

Madeline finally just woke up (about 10:15am), and seems a lot more excited about the pancakes and “purple juice” (grape juice) now…though it may continue to be a slow morning since she is now sitting at the table staring at her food and not eating it.

So, I’ve now been here for almost two weeks, and am just finishing my first week of work (if you can call it that — MLK holiday and filling out new employee paperwork). The good news is that I’m finally at work early enough to blog before starting my day!

This morning I happened to miss two buses to campus, and I still made it here by 8:15. So, instead of a rushed but warm QT, I had a more leisurely but cold stroll through the Word this morning. I’m not sure which is better ;-). (I know, I know “One day in your courts….”)

I’m finally getting a feel for my commute and the system of things on campus. While I still have no official employee number (which means I have no U-card, or benefits, or access to university intranet stuff), I am figuring out who gets things done. I have logins to computers (good, when working on computers), I have figured out when the express bus leaves for campus (though I’ve only caught it once), and I also figured out when the DTC (Digital Technology Center) weekly coffee hour (more like half-hour, you workaholics) occurs.

City life is, well, city life. I realize why most city dwellers don’t do much outside of their house on weekday nights. By the time you get home and have dinner, the thought of spending another 30 to 45 minutes of your short evening traveling and wading through crowds is not appealing. I’m glad I have a short commute, and am not attached to any nightly TV shows. It shouldn’t be too hard to make it to small group and house church (though we have yet to make it to either). Most of my evenings thus far have been spent whittling away at the ever growing to-do list around the house.

Our house is still filled with unpacked boxes, and thus far I’ve been kept busy with fixing little things around the house. Let just say that the house is beautiful and the landlord is sweet, but he’s not mechanical and the house is old. I could call him about every little thing, but then again, I kinda enjoy tinkering around the house. Thus far, I’ve taken our shower drain apart to find the bottle cap that was plugging it, shored up some shelving, installed new outlets, and am in the process of insulating, among other things.

Well, it’s time for working, not blogging, so that’s that. Perhaps I can make a more regular habit of blogging in the morning.

I’m really liking more and more the area of Minneapolis we have ended up in. On Wednesday, the three of us went to the near by commerical area where there is a Target, Cub Foods, Rainbow Foods, a Savers (thrift store), and many small shops and restaurants. There’s also a library branch in this area, though it is closed for rennovations until March. This area is only a mile or so away, so it’s a shorter drive than Target was for me in Ames. We did some grocery shopping that day at Cub (I can already tell I am going to miss Fareway!) — It was really cool to see the diversity of people who live in the area. There were people of many ethnicities, and people speaking a number of different languages other than English. This is the first time in my life I’ve lived in a really diverse area.

Today Madeline and I went on an adventure to Wal Mart. I had collected a list of a lot of miscellaneous items we needed, and I had a gift card to spend, so it seemed worth the six mile or so drive to the nearest Wal Mart location. On the way I noted that we are about a six minute drive from a decent sized lake with a park around it (Lake Nokomis) and only a little over 10 minutes away from Ikea (oh, and the Mall of America). The airport is also close by, so if you ever want to fly out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, you can come stay at our house before your flight.

Wal Mart itself was another story. It was both arranged differently and seemed much more disorganized than our Ames Wal Mart, so it took me forever to find what I was looking for. One item (some adhesive strips that come off the wall with no damage to item or wall) turned out to be impossible to find at Wal Mart. Two clerks both thought it existed somewhere in the store, but they didn’t really know where, didn’t really want to take the time to help me find it and gave unhelpful suggestions on where I might go to look. Wandering around and even looking with other similar products produced no results. After church at the Urban Refuge tonight Madeline and I ventured to a nearby Menards to find those same strips. It took a total of four clerks to find it, but at least one passed us off to the next, and then to the next…so it seemed like they were really trying to help, and we did eventually find them.

Our postal carrier was nice enough to ring the doorbell and introduce himself today, and to point out that our mail would not come in the little slot directly in the house (sadness!) due to its small size, but that instead we had a mailbox around the side of the house. I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to figure that out if he wouldn’t have told me! He also gave me a little card with the address and hours of our nearest post office — also handy, because it is maybe half a mile away, while the nearest post office I had found (and already visited twice) was a little further away.

On a related topic, I’m finding that living in a really old house has lots of interesting quirks. When we walked through it, we noticed mostly surface beauty — wonderful wood floors and other woodwork, built in buffet, fireplace, etc. You never notice the small things until you actually live in a house. On the plus side for me, the shower head must have been installed by someone short, because it is at a perfect level just above my head. Unfortunately for Tony, he has to duck several inches to get his head under it! The kitchen has lots of cupboard space, but it is arranged in interesting ways. The kitchen must have been done either by someone tall or someone who had lots of things they didn’t plan to use very often, becuase I think I will need a step stool to reach at least 1/3 of the cupboard space! Another funny thing about this house is the outlets. For one thing, there aren’t a very large number of them (to be expected in an old house, I guess). But what is really funny are all the types of outlets. There are a couple different designs of pretty normal-looking three prong outlets, a number of two-prong outlets (including one place with three, two-prong spots), and also some really weird looking outlets, like one that is three prong, but rather round. I’ve also learned that beautiful wood floors are also very cold, so I’ll be getting a lot of use out of my slippers (which I almost never wore in Ames).

Those are my random thoughts for today…Thanks to everyone in Ames who came over to help Tony out with the house. Tony told me he had lots of help…I don’t think he could have gotten anywhere close to getting it done in time with out all of you!