Summer!

Yes, it's summer! Maybe not officially, but school ended last Thursday (June 11), which means SUMMER IS HERE!

Now I still work in the summer -- we run a summer program for all our clients at one of the schools in our county. That starts on June 29 and runs for 7 weeks. So I will have plenty to keep me busy in the daytime -- BUT -- at least it's summer!

It has rained all week. Not little rain either. I mean torrential rainstorms. Our grass is so long and in desperate need of a haircut. Alas, we are headed to Richmond for the weekend, though. We have a wedding and then Father's Day. So our grass will have to wait until next week. Let's hope the town of Blacksburg doesn't fine us! (That's no joke -- you can get fined if your grass is too long!)

Anyway, I will try to do a better job of blogging now that school is out. I'm going to aim for 3 posts a week this summer until the baby comes.

Speaking of the baby, everything is going smooth. We're entering week 30 and the baby continues to grow and move. We're now in the every 2 week doctor's appointments and so far, so good. There have been no red flags with anything, and overall I feel great. I am tired, but that's normal!

Well that's about it for now. Just wanted to give a short post. I'll try to post a pic soon so you can all see my growing belly! :)

Spring has Sprung

As usual, it's been a while and I have a lot to update on... my last post was on Easter and a lot has happened since then.

* April 24-26 we had a full house for the NLCF 20th reunion. I hope to post some pics soon. When I do, I'll put up a link. All in all, it was a great time to celebrate and catch up with old friends.


* The Bulls-Celtics first round series was incredible. It cost us a number of nights of quality sleep due to all the OT games, but being a Bulls fan, it was so exciting to watch. Of course it didn't end the way we wanted, but it provided us so much excitement and heartbreak for over a week. Definitely something to be mentioned on the blog, and hopefully, the Bulls are just starting to show their potential.

* We had our last HG of the semester on May 6, which included a night of fun and messy games down in the park. The rain caused the ground to be really soft, which meant the eggs didn't break right away in the egg toss game. Wade and Jon rocked that one out. The whipped cream-gum game got a little messy, and I confess I did put an entire plate of whipped cream in Jen's face. :) The group then spent time trying to jump the creek in the park, and Beth and Jess gave us some laughs for the ages when they kept shorting their jumps and landing in the creek!



* My mom and sis visited for a few hours on May 8/9 and brought us some furniture for the new baby room. They weren't here long but we did enjoy a dinner at Outback in an early celebration for Mother's Day.

* Speaking of Mother's Day, David took me on a surprise date to celebrate our first mother's day. He acted like we were going away for the night, so we got packed and left and we drove across town to the Inn at Virginia Tech. We then relaxed the rest of Saturday, took naps and played games and ate room service, and we woke up and had a yummy breakfast at the Inn and then headed to church. It was a great, relaxing surprise. Did I mention I have the best husband ever? :)


* May means SOL month in the public schools, so that's brought about a number of unique days at work. We, of course, had to have several days of 4th grade testing in there, as well as a number of days where we just had to be quiet for several hours because those around us (especially 5th grade) were testing. Made for some interesting days with my clients, who typically struggle being quiet and following instructions. I will be glad when SOL's have ended...

* The VT semester has ended, which means NLCF has transitioned to its summer schedule. We now only have one service on Sundays (9:30 @ Lyric Theater) and we'll start up summer homegroups and Bible studies the last week of May/first week of June.

* I spoke in church last Sunday, May 17, and my talk was titled "Jesus & Chocolate." I'll post a link when it gets uploaded online for any of you non-locals who may want to listen... I know its an intriguing title. :)

* We were in Loudon County this week for Anna & Ben's wedding... they got married at Meadowkirk Christian Camp in Middleburg on Friday night. David had the privilege of walking Anna down the aisle and giving her away. We got to spend plenty of time with the whole Condon clan, and on Saturday morning, David and his best-buddy Steve (married to Jorie, biggest sis of the Condon clan) took off on a man-trip to Cooperstown for memorial day weekend.


I think those are some of the highlights for now... as usual I'll try to get some pics up to show these events in more detail... and I'm really hoping the summer will allow more time for blogging!

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Luke 24: 1-12

1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words.

9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

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What else is there to say? Praise Him for He has overcome death!

This post, from Beth Moore, is worth reading. She states it better than I could.

Mini-Chinny!

Today we had our sonogram and 19-week appointment. We had a chance to find out the gender, but we decided to stick to our guns and stay surprised. :)

So we aren't going to announce if it's a boy or girl, but we do have some new pics. Our baby was really active during the exam, which is not surprising to us! Everything is developing well and looks great according to the technician and our doctor.

Here, you'll see a 4-D pic of the baby snuggling and a 2-D pic of mini sucking its thumb. :)

scroll down...

I posted the massive update, but it posted it when I started it, so it's not the top thing... scroll down two posts to read.

And another post will come later today after our next doctor's appointment!!!! :)

Chicago Heaven

The mega-update really is on the way... I have it halfway done. But first, I wanted to post quickly about the joyous feelings we are feeling as Bears fans.

If you don't follow sports or have been under a rock, you might have missed the big NFL news of the week. The Chicago Bears, who haven't had a pro-bowl quarterback in 50+ years, have traded for Jay Cutler, a 25-year-old pro-bowler from Denver.

Even though baseball season is upon us and opening day for the White Sox is Monday, and the Bulls are (hopefully) about to lock up a playoff spot this week in the NBA, we've been focused on the Bears this weekend!

We can't wait for the first game of the year -- Bears vs. Packers -- on Sunday Night Football, Sept. 13, 2009.

Bear Down, Chicago Bears!

The Massive Update!

Here are all the updates I can think of...

Mini-Chinny:
I'll start with the exciting news! Everyone loves baby news! :) We had our doctor's appointment March 4. We ended up having to wait for over an hour for our appointment. Because of that, and since we were the last ones of the day, the doctor offered us the opportunity to have a second ultrasound "off-the-record." (That means free!) So below is our second picture of baby Chinn. We were able to see the baby sucking its thumb and moving around a bunch! It looks like boy or girl, it's an active baby!


Job Situation:
I know some folks are curious about this. I did get a second interview for the school counselor position at the school where I currently work. Basically a second interview in our county means you're one of two finalists. That being said, typically the superintendent goes with the committee recommendation from earlier, so you go for an interview knowing that you may or may not really be up for the job. I went for my second interview with the superintendent and it went well, but I found out a few days later I did not get the job. I was stunned at first since I had basically been waiting 15 months for this job to open and felt like God was steering me towards it. That being said, I realized that I had told God that I trusted him, and if he wanted me in it then he would provide it. Therefore, since I did not get it, I had to move my faith into the reality of believing God is good and that he is the reason I did not get the job. I have developed a deep peace about the situation since then, and even though it does not make sense why I was not chosen compared to the person who was chosen, I trust that God has a different place where he wants me in the future. I could write more about this later, and probably will...

Women's Retreat:
We had our annual NLCF women's retreat on Saturday, March 28. I was "in charge" of the event, meaning I was the head delegater. Seriously, the ladies I work with are AMAZING and there is no way I could have done it without them. Our theme was "Can You Hear Me Now?" and we focused on hearing God's voice. Kati, Terri and I did the main sessions, and we had several ladies (Suzanne, Stacy, Lisa & Lina) do breakout sessions. We enjoyed an Olive Garden lunch and delicious cookies and tea in the afternoon and had an all-around lovely time. Hopefully we'll have the talks up soon online. When we do, I'll post them.

ACA Conference:
The weekend before the women's retreat, I was in Charlotte for the annual American Counseling Association convention. I went by myself this year, and attended a number of really good sessions. I learned a ton from other professionals in the field and enjoyed my two full days (7am-6pm) at the conference. I rode down to Charlotte with my friends Jesse and JD and we stayed with Jesse's parents for the weekend. It was nice to have company for the ride and to have a gracious host to let me stay. While there, the Jesse's mom gave David and I a gift of a wonderful quilt for the mini. I'll post a pic of it soon with some other things we have already been given.

Visit with Family:
We have made several trips to Richmond the past month to see my family and some of David's family. We've worked to help my mom clean her attic and my parents clean their garage out. We met David's brother Mike and sister Lisa for Dim Sum in Richmond to remember and David's father's passing away in March '07. We also grilled kabobs in Charlottesville with Lisa at her place on our way back through from seeing my family. All in all we've gotten to spend some time with family in March and it has been very nice. I have pictures from some of these things, too, and will likely do a picture update later!

Well, I think that's it for the massive post. It's shorter than I planned but still way too long. I really will try and do better at updating this thing! :)

Too Long... I know

It's been way too long since I posted... there is so much to update everyone on.

I am working on a longer post I hope to have up in the next 24 hours. I just wanted to say, hold on... it's coming! :)

sick day

well i'm home from work today on a sick day -- came down with a stomach bug. i have some pictures to share from this past week/weekend, and i plan to do so soon. more to come.

S-N-O-W!

Yay! Just like the rest of Virginia (and the South), we got a huge snowstorm yesterday and last night! Okay, we didn't get as much as some folks, but they were calling for 1-3 inches here and we got 6. I'll take that anytime!

Below are some pics from this morning... as you guessed, I have a snow day from school! :) David also had a 2-hour delay -- a rare thing for VT.