the faro frenzy

Back in Grantham

2009-10-28T21:09:00.004-05:00

This may have been my longest blog slacking yet! So much has happened and is still happening that finding time to blog is not up there on the list of things to do. But tonight, Emma is sleeping, Aaron is away at a game, and I'm tired of doing homework...so here's the update...

We got up here about 2 months ago and it's going pretty well. We first moved into a MANSION a few miles away temporarily until we found a more permanent place. I can't describe the place so I'll post pics instead.

After about a month there we moved to a rental house right behind the soccer fields off campus. Can't beat the location! Aaron walks to work every day, I can walk over to games (or go home at halftime if its too cold!), and we barely have to use our cars. Talk about spoiled! On the other hand...we're sharing it. With our house still not sold we needed something CHEAP so we're splitting the house with someone else...a new bible professor at Messiah. She's really nice and easy to live with so its all good and fine. Of course, it'll be nice to have a place to ourselves sometime soon (hopefully!) but you do what you have to for a while.

Aaron's enjoying his time at Messiah. This is the last week of regular season and the team's doing well. He's also obviously gotten to spend time with Brett which has been great. His other roles have taken a back seat during the season which has been nice so he hasn't really felt overwhelmed. We also get to see so many of our old college friends being back here with the team!

My roomie still lives nearby so thats been nice for me to have someone to hang out with. Nevermind the fact that we now live close enough to see our families regularly. Can't beat it. The Faro's have come down for quite a few games already so we see them. We went up to Amy's baby shower last weekend, went to go see Ben's homecoming, my fam has come once and is coming again in a few weeks. Not much more you can ask for, especially when there's a little one involved. And we're even close enough that I get to meet up with Jillian!

With all those positive things...we still miss the people in Charlotte and have some loose ends there. Our house still being "our house" is a problem obviously because we can't really settle here until we are completely out of there. Makes things tough for now. But in God's timing something will happen...I just wish His timing were mine! But now at least we have a place to stay when we can go back and visit those people we miss!

Emma's handling all the transition pretty well. I would classify her as curious and busy these days. She's recently gotten two teeth, learned how to roll both ways, and can pull herself up on things. She still hates to be on her stomach so crawling is nonexistent. She's managed to bypass crawling by log rolling around the room to reach what she wants. Creative, I know. I'm fairly nervous about keeping up with her when she learns how to put all this movement together. I think I'm gonna have my hands full! She's so much happier now than she was in the beginning. We have tons of fun playing and going for walks...just love to see that little booger smile and hear that chuckle.

So I'm sure I missed tons of detail but thats all I got for now. Back to the books for me. Two months till I'm done with school and can get a little of my life back! Can't wait.

giggles!

2009-08-21T12:23:00.003-05:00

this little giggle-fest occurred while we were packing up the house to move to PA. another post about the past few weeks will be coming soon. for now, enjoy the comic relief :-)

Roll It!

2009-07-24T09:03:00.002-05:00

Well, Emma finally rolled over. It took four months to get to the point where she could be on her stomach without crying long enough to even try it!

Three in Six

2009-06-29T09:40:00.003-05:00

By the time Emma is six months old she will have lived in three different states. That’s quite the stat for such a little girl. She was born in NC obviously, we’re currently spending three months living in Chicago for the summer, and about two weeks after we get back we’re moving to Pennsylvania. Sheesh! I’m trying not to think of all the details and transitions because I basically get an anxiety attack when I think about everything that’s been going on.

The past few months have been very difficult for us. We’ve been in the midst of some big decisions and weighing the sides has been rough. But we’ve finally arrived at a decision and Aaron took the assistant coaching/assistant athletic director position back at Messiah. Parts of this decision are pretty exciting because we’ll be living near some close friends again and Aaron will get to be a part of Messiah soccer again from a different vantage point. He’s pretty excited to do what he’s been doing the past six years in a smaller, more personal environment. He’s also gonna get to be on the sidelines for Brett’s senior year which is pretty stinking awesome. It also moves us closer to be able to see Ben play more as well. He’s really missed so much of their soccer careers living so far away and that’s always made him crazy. Plus, we’ll be so much closer to both our families which will be great for us and Emma! AND Emma’s going to have a cousin soon so we’ll be closer to the little Keller Baby!!!! I’m going to be an aunt and that’s pretty sweet J

While we’re excited about all of that, Charlotte has become home in the past six years and leaving really stinks. We’ve made some really close friends over the years and they’ve kind of become our family away from our families. The thought of leaving so many of those people kind of makes me sick to my stomach. But we know that those friendships run deeper than location and we’ll just have to be intentional about staying involved in each other’s lives from a greater distance. I guess every decision has some bittersweet moments.

The little lady in our lives is doing pretty well. We’re starting to have more days when she doesn’t cry all day long. So that’s nice. I think maybe she’s been overtired because she hadn’t slept much during the day. But I’ve been putting her down in her crib these days and she sleeps longer which makes for more happy moments when she’s awake. Thank goodness. Her little personality is coming out more and more which is so much fun to watch! She smiles so much more and almost plays little games with you. I think we may have a little character on our hands.

Things up here in Chicago are going pretty well. It’s quite different than last year. With the addition of Emma my role is now very different and it’s been hard to adjust to that. I spend more time at home and have to miss so much of the down time that leads to the informal ministry moments. But my first ministry is to my daughter and she seems better off with a quieter environment. So, home we stay. Thankfully God’s provided some opportunities for me to minister to the girls in different ways which has been nice. But the group is great for the most part and some really powerful ministry has been going on. It’s hard to believe there’s just a little over a month left.

Some prayer requests if you remember…
That God sends whatever is needed to continue this Chicago ministry
That our house sells (we’re actually putting it on the market before we get home)
That we can find a house near Messiah that fits our needs as well as our budget
That we will be able to juggle all the details of this transition in the midst of all our responsibilities

Chi-Town

2009-06-13T13:37:00.004-05:00

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any sort of update. Things in our world have been a bit crazy. We’re now up in Chicago and have been for a few weeks now. We have been abundantly blessed to have our own housing this year instead of doing the host family thing and moving to a new place every week. Not conducive to the motherhood lifestyle. So our little house here was abandoned for a year or so and the people that own it basically said we can live in it for nothing all summer. WONDERFUL!!! So we’ve already had guests which makes it even nicer to have your own space. The Faro’s came up for a long weekend and basically to see Emma. My parents just left. They came to keep me company while Aaron’s been in Brazil and again, basically to see Emma. And today, Lani comes for the weekend. It’s been really nice to have company while Aaron’s gone.

I’ve gotten two e-mails from Aaron so far and it sounds like things are going great down there. He’s loving the group of players he has and says the ministry has been good. We’re hoping to hear more now that they’ve moved from the country back into the city. One week left to go until I get my husband back! The group was here for about 4 days before they all left and it seems like it is going to be a great group. Part of me wishes I could’ve gone with them but I’m looking forward to getting back into when they get back.

Emma update…she is getting more and more of a personality every day. And what a personality it is! At 11 and a half weeks she’s smiling more now which is always a treat. She also has become more and more verbal. She will make all kinds of sounds back at you when you talk to her like she is really answering you. It makes for such good conversation J. Maybe she’ll be like her dad and have the vocabulary of a 20 year old when she’s 3! As fun as that all is, she remains a bit on the fussy side. We are learning that she has opinions already (her mother’s daughter!). She definitely knows what she wants and doesn’t want. So far she wants to be held ALWAYS. There’s no awake time when I can put her down and she’ll be calm. She needs to be held, and many times, you need to stand up while you’re holding her. She also prefers to be outside (her father’s daughter!). Makes rainy days even more depressing than they were before! She wants to be held facing out so she can look around and see everything going on. She also does better when we’re out and about than when she’s home (also like her mother). Napping… where are these babies that take 2 and 3 hour naps???? We get about 30 minutes at home…tops. Do the math…30 minute nap, 30 minutes to eat, and a lot of time to walk around and try to keep her from crying! But we keep getting to know each other and hopefully I get better and better at figuring her out!

There’s been so much going on in our lives the past few weeks I’m sure I’m leaving things out but its hard to remember all that goes on these days! I’ll be sure to update again about Aaron’s trip when he gets back as well as other life updates!

Second Wave - The Faro's

2009-05-04T21:23:00.004-05:00

"Oh, I'm so tired from all my guests! Being a baby is hard work" Tough life.

Emma is six weeks old now and all the visitation is now over. We probably had a total of 10 days in the past six weeks when we didn't have family here to meet Emma. They were all a great help and it was wonderful to spend time with everyone. And now its time to learn how every day life is going to feel! The first Faro to meet Emma was Aaron's Dad. He was flying through for a conference and decided to make it a long layover. His visit was fast but still good. He walked in to Emma in a bit of a fit but at least he got to see her true colors :-)

The day after he left, Aaron's mom came for a few days. She helped us road trip down to FL for Aaron's triathlon. Emma was a great traveler and barely cried on the long drive down and back. We stayed over with the Faraci's and had good times with them too. Aaron's race ended up to be a bit of a bummer. The water was really rough so they cancelled the swim portion and just had them bike and run. Unfortunately for Aaron, the swim is what gives him an advantage so he was not happy. He still did well but it was a long trip for only part of a race! So I walked around florida with Emma is the Bjorn, asnwering lots of questions from people about how old she was. She's quite the crowd pleaser! And Emma got to see her dad's first race.

When we got back we traded at the airport for Amy. She was the last Faro to come. She spent a few days and was a huge help. She was great with Emma and gave me a chance to get some things done and take my last final for school. She also picked up on some tricks...like the fact that Emma stops crying if you take her outside. Really quite incredible...it works every time. Amy also threw out some great quotes. One of which has been repeated numerous times since she's left. In response to Emma whining..."Don't even. I will Bjorn your butt so fast..." Hilarious. Amy also brought a sweet present for Emma's room that I am super pumped about! Love them!

lovingly nicknamed "crankface" by amy :-)

Looking back on the pictures of the Faro's visits there appears to be a common theme (and Amy's only not pictured because my camera was MIA at the time)

And look how cute I am at six weeks!!!

Next on the agenda...pack up and leave for Chicago in less than two weeks. Just when life might get normal we go and change it up again!

First Wave

2009-04-17T08:30:00.006-05:00

Emma is now 3 and a half weeks old...it's hard to believe we've had her that long! I haven't written for a while purposely for a few reasons. First, most days I literally didn't have a spare moment to sit down and do anything else other than try to get her to stop crying. Second, because of the first reason, I didn't have much good to say and thats not fun to read so I opted not to write anything. Thankfully, things have gotten a little easier some days. Like right now for example, she's actually sleeping....glorious!

So the first wave of visitors has come and gone. My parents came down for about a week right when she was born, went home for a few days and then came back with Jen! They had actually planned on being here last week because it was their spring break from school. They were a huge help...I didn't cook a meal, pick up a dish, do my own laundry, or clean any part of my house at all because they were doing it all. What a blessing!!! Sadly, I needed to use that time to do my homework instead of sleep but you gotta get it done sometime! Most of the time they just fought over who got to hold her. They're a little bit enthralled with her :-)

Mid-week my grandparents drove up from florida and stayed through Easter. It was so good to see them and I'm really glad they got to spend time with Emma when she was so small. They too wanted to hold her all the time. Well, at first grandpa was scared to hurt her so he just hovered and stared but once he held her he got over it. He was hilarious...anytime she cried he wanted to cry too and couldn't stop thinking of the things that we might need to fix so she wasn't upset. Adorable. So poor Aaron...with all these people fighting for her he never got much time to hold her himself! He's making up for it now :-)

We had a good time all week and there was no shortage of picture taking of course. I'll just choose a few to put on here. We actually had a friend come over that has gotten into the photography business to do a little photo shoot. Emma was a mess!!!! Seriously, screamed bloody murder the ENITRE TIME. I think maybe she didn't like only being in her diaper...maybe she was cold or something. So every picture is of her screaming. Good thing Jen was the back-up photographer all week cause she got some great pictures.

my easter outfit :-)

4 generations!

The next wave of visitors is the Faro side of the family and we're excited for them to come! They come down in waves as well...first Dad, then Mom, and finally Amy. Not sure when the uncles will get to meet her but hopefully it'll be soon! We've tried to use the web cam to have some quality time a bunch but I must admit it can be a little awkward...Emma mostly just sits there and doesn't do anything so you try to make conversation while you just stare at her doing nothing. Better than nothing I guess! While Grandma Faro is here we're actually road tripping down to Florida for a triathlon for Aaron. This may be the stupidest thing I've ever agreed to because I have no idea how traveling 9+ hours is going to go. I'm really glad Grandma will be there to help! Maybe it'll confirm whether I should fly to Chicago or drive up with Aaron...we can look at it as a test run.

So two nights ago we gave Emma her first bath. Her cord stump finally feel off so now we're allowed to put her in water. We were told that babies hate the bath at first so we were expecting a scene. So she's already been screaming for quite a while before we were planning on giving her the bath so we almost didn't do it because we didn't want the screaming to last longer than it had to...but we did it anyway. And as soon as she went in the water she stopped screaming!!! She just sat in there and looked at at us...content as ever. Apparently, Emma likes the water. I guess with two lifeguards/swimmers as parents it was likely. Then she proceeded to sleep for 6 hours after that...what a night! I believe a nightly bath will be part of the normal routine.

So I'll finish this off with my anesthesiologist story for those that asked. Let me just put my disclaimer in here saying that I'm really glad the nasty things I said we at least not directed at my husband. I've heard women say some rough things during labor but my nastiness was directed at someone that really asked for it and deserved it :-) Lets paint the picture...I'm at 24 hours of labor at this point and I've finally decided that I can't take it anymore...I need drugs. You would think that someone that administers epidurals for a living might know what state the patient is in...utter exhaustion and rediculous pain. So she comes in and rambles off her consent paragraph like I'm bothering her by asking for the needle. She's completely monotone and annoyed. Strike One. So I give consent and agree to all the risks or whatever and she gives me the epidural and then I lay back down. Now, it hasn't kicked in yet cause its been about 30 seconds and I have another contraction during which my hands and face go numb and start tingling. And in my stupor state I'm wondering why the epidural is numbing the wrong half of my body. So I'm trying to ask why I'm going numb in the middle of this stupid contraction. To which she sarcastically laughs in my face!!!! Strke Two! Thankfully I knew I wasn't overreacting because Aaron actually turned around and said, "Actually, I don't think its funny". Thats how I knew I wasn't imagining this whole story...he never confronts people like that. Then she sarcastically adds, "maybe if you'd stop hyperventilating..." As if I should be in complete control of myself and my breathing at this point. She basically acted and spoke like I was rediculous for being in so much pain and not knowing what was going on. Strike Three! So, much to my dismay, I get really upset and now add crying to everything thats already going on. And I look at Aaron and say "Get her out of here!" So the nurse tries to get her out and when I think she's gone I say "She's lucky she's not here cause I would have kicked her in the face if I could" Then we find out that she's still there, she's just standing in the doorway. Oops. Aaron said she got a sly little grin when I said that which only makes me want to do it more. Oh well. So thats my story and as much as I don't ever want to be THAT person, I'm writing a letter about her to her practice. Why? Because she's an idiot and they should know.

Welcome Emma Jennifer Faro!

2009-04-01T14:24:00.004-05:00

Emma decided to grace us with her presence on March 23rd at 7:39am. Her due date was the 31st so she came a little over a week early. I'm not really sure how much of the labor and delivery details to share because I'm sure some readers don't want that kind of information. So for those that want more details feel free to ask and for those that think I already shared too much...sorry.

On saturday, we had a bunch of our friends over and we watched some basketball. That whole day I thought I was feeling some contractions but wasn't quite sure. Saturday night at about 1am I found out that I was having them for sure. I woke up with some serious back pain and thought I might be in labor. So Aaron and I were up most of Saturday night into Sunday morning. We called the midwife and she told us to call her back when the contractions were closer and more regular...that never actually happened. We timed them all day Sunday and they got closer and more intense but not very regular. Finally at about dinner time we called the midwife again. She told us to come in basically because she thought its what I wanted, not because she thought it was really time.

So we get to the hospital around 7:30pm on Sunday. At this point, we're at over 18 hours of labor. I wondered if they were going to send me home cause I wasn't ready but they said they thought it was real labor and told me we'd stay. They offered, and even pushed, the epidural but I told them I wanted to try and go without it. Stupid. After 6 more hours of labor (24 hours total so far) she told me I was still only 3 or 4 centimeters so I got the epidural. I REALLY should've gotten it earlier. From then on I slept off and on until 7am when they said it was almost time to push. There's a good story about my anesthesiologist but this is already long so that will have to wait...but it involves me telling her I was gonna kick her in the face...so if that interests you feel free to inquire further. :-)

The pushing part was really fast for me. I only pushed five times and she came right out. The midwife almost didn't make it into the room in time to catch her. It was really a surreal moment. They placed Emma right up on me and told me it was a girl. I was actually surprised since the whole time I thought I was gonna have a boy. Aaron got to cut the cord and went with the nurse when she cleaned her up and measured her and all that jazz. It was so sweet to watch Aaron's reaction and see him hold her for the first time. Special moments with our daughter :-)

We had lots of visitors in the hospital those two days and we've been home now about a week. Life sure is different. I do nothing I used to do, and I spend my whole day doing things I don't really know anything about. It's definitely hard. Everyone tells me the first few weeks are hard and it gets easier. Thats good cause I probably can't keep this up forever. As hard as they've been, they've been awesome too. Emma makes the cutest faces and sounds and sleeping with her laying on your chest is the best thing in the world.

I'm sure there will be more updates now that Emma is here. Although, I thought I was too busy to write earlier...now I really AM too busy to do anything so we'll see :-)

SURPRISE!!!!

2009-03-11T17:15:00.004-05:00

My birthday weekend held quite a few surprises. All I knew was that a few friends were going to come over friday night to hang out on my birthday. Allison and Mike were going to be up from Atlanta because the boys were competing in a duathlon on saturday. So I won't go into details because this is the unfortunate part of the weekend...but Friday I ended up feeling rather sick and ended up at the doctor to make sure the baby was still ok. Quite the scary day...but all is well! So I spent most of Friday laying around trying not to be in pain so I was not ready for the company to get here, hadn't gone shopping to feed anybody, didn't clean the house...nothing. I hate that. But Mike and Allison were understanding and the company ended up bringing over whatever food we ate that night which was nice (not that I got to eat any of it). So anyway, sometime during the night Aaron gets a text message. I pick up his phone and see that it was from Jillian...hmm. So I'm suspicious of course. And then, not an hour later...she walks through my front door to join the birtday party! Or so I thought :-) But we got to meet Ian and have some time to just hang out that night which was great! Aaron and I got a little practice with the little guy too :-)

Saturday the boys went and did the race (and did well of course, despite the cold rain!) The girls had a lazy morning and planned on going out to lunch after the guys got home. So we got dressed and started to leave for lunch. We had to drop off Lauren's coat at her house cause she left it the night before (mm, hmm). So I run up to the door (yes, its still raining) and as I knock on the door, I see balloons in the window and now I understand what's going on. I open the door to a house full of people for my surprise baby shower!!! Fun stuff. Lauren, Lani, Melissa, and Betty put together a surprise shower for me and had been scheming together for a long time! The house looked great, there were tons of people there, and I had a great time! I opened wonderful gifts (some of which were home-made masterpieces!), and basically got spoiled. It was so fun to have all the Charlotte friends as well as Jillian and Allison in town to join the festivities. Talk about feeling special :-)

Sunday, I actually had another shower. Aaron's Grace soccer moms put one together for me too. I was a little nervous because I don't really know most of them but it was also a great time. They told stories and we ate good food, and once again, I got spoiled. It was so thoughtful of them to do that for me and it basically shows how much Aaron means to them and their boys.

And then, the following Sunday the YMCA threw me another shower! Three showers in two weekends...what a celebration! Now, we are really set to go and have everything we need and much more for this baby to come. Now, it just needs to get here :-)

Had my 37-week appointment today and things are moving right along. I'm right we're I'm supposed to be I guess and the baby's moving down and "dropping" as they say. The next post will probably be a birth announcement unless something rediculous happens that I need to share!

Winter Happenings...

2009-02-25T14:49:00.004-05:00

this is going to be a bunch of random updates from the last two months or so that just never got mentioned. first story on the agenda...aaron has entered a few swim meets this winter. he joined masters meets with a few friends (mainly lani) and had two meets. as if competing in triathlons weren't enough, during the slow season for those, he still needs to compete so swim meets were the fill-in. he's done pretty well and seems to enjoy them so thats good. he also mentioned that he doesn't get nearly as nervous as he used to so the high school swim meet anxiety attacks are possibly a thing of the past :-). the first meet was pretty small and he did well, winning a few heats and races. the second meet was a lot of bigger and more competitive but he still did pretty well. this second meet was LONG though. we spent two solid days there. my poor parents were such troopers. they were in town that weekend visiting and spent the whole thing at a hot humid pool. they loved getting to se him compete of course, just like i do, but there's so much down time between his events it requires a lot of sitting around. so theres a few pics below of the meet and aaron swimming. hopefully the video will work too...the video is to serve as motivation for my mother-in-law to embrace the fact that she could indeed enter one of these meets...she would be WAY ahead of the game compared to the swimmer in the video...my narration of it also mentions that this lady doesn't help the time factor connected to this meet!

random preggo story for ya...i have a new hero and she is a manager at the local old navy. so i have one pair of maternity jeans that i basically wear every time i need to wear clothes that aren't workout related. (no, mom, i don't need more clothes....i just really like these jeans). its hard for me to find pants because most stores don't sell long lengths but old navy has a few and this one has worked out perfectly. so i notice that the stitching on the beloved stretch panel are coming out and then i notice that there's actually a hole in the panel too! scary because these are literally are my only pair of pants...can't have a pregnant lady with no pants! so i don't have the receipt, the tags are obviously off, etc. i go to see if i can just swap them out for another pair but they don't have any more left. so i go to the counter and ask if another store has them anywhere. the only other store that carries maternity is about 45 minutes away...boo. so my new hero asks me if i'm willing to drive there. now, granted, i would have because thats how much i needed this one pair of pants...obviouosly though, i didn't want to make the drive. so i told her that. she just nods and then picks up the phone. in the interest of shortening the story i'm just gonna tell you the result. she took back the pair i had for full price even though they were worn and i had no receipt. she then calls the old navy shipping place with the style number and has them send me a new pair to my house! and she didn't even charge me shipping or anything! so you may think that she'd been pregnant and understood the importance of a pregnant girls only pair of pants...nope, she was really young so she was just THAT helpful. so, bottom line, i am now a loyal old navy shopper! and you should be too!

other news...we've made some household updates. last week my parents were here so the new floor in the living room and entryway finally went in! it was a group effort at times including aaron, my dad, bobby, mitch and his dad, and jory (who was in town for a class all week). my dad worked so stinking hard to get it done for us and it looks great! i love it! the carpet was so old it made the house look old and dirty...now the house looks so much newer! i have already noticed however, you see everything on a wood floor. more cleaning necessary. oh well. i don't have a picture because we just finished repainting the molding and stuff so we're just now putting the room back together. i'll post some pics in the next few days. the other household change is the baby's room. the painting is done, the crib and dresser are in place, the glider chair is ordered and most of the clothes are washed and put away! getting closer and closer to being ready. again, i'll post a picture when its more put together. next on the baby agenda is getting the car seat and stroller out of the boxes and set up as well as packing the hospital bag. i have a little over 4 weeks left so i guess it can happen at any time now. what a scary thought!

we also just came home from the MAI staff retreat. it was a great time of connecting with people from the other offices. we don't get to do that often. it also served as a reunion for the chicago staff which was fun. we got a chance to plan a little in person, as well as meet the new couple that will be there with us this summer. they seem great and i'm really excited about them joining us!

well i guess thats all for now. aaron's got a duathlon this weekend and friends from atlanta are coming up to do it with him so we'll have company again this weekend. after that i think things will slow down a little...maybe. i always think that and then it doesn't quite happen that way :-)

Merry Belated Christmas

2009-02-06T22:29:00.005-05:00

I know its a little foolish that I'm blogging about Christmas in the month of February but this just goes to show you how far behind I am on life in general. Christmas for us was over two weeks of fun family times. We started the trip by stopping in Erie to meet up with some Academy kids from the summer. We all crashed at one girl's house for some winter fun. We only spent one night there but we got the chance to catch up, do some dangerous sledding, and relive some summer times. There were quite a few of us there and it was wonderful to see everyone and get excited for those coming back again next summer.

After our stayover we made the rest of the trip up to the Faro house. It was pretty snowy there. Amy and Mama Faro had planned a shower for me but the snow ended up keeping some people away. Who'd have thought??? A blizzard in Rochester! It was still a great shower. Sadly, the only pictures we have are of me opening presents. We didn't catch the cake before it got cut and we didn't get one of us together at all. Big oversight. I was largely blessed with sage advice, baby gifts, and good food. What pregnant lady doesn't appreciate good food?!? :-) The only drawback was some info that came out during the shower games (thanks Amy). First, we established that as a child I had no ambitions and second, we all got a chance to guess how large around I was. Hmm, good times. On a higher note, the games did point out that Aaron and I were both pretty amiable babies so I'm hoping that is genetic!

The rest of the week was similar to other Faro visits...games, movies, and laughs! Christmas took a different twist this year when the "oldest" (Aaron) and "bossy" (Amy) siblings planned our gift giving for us. We had a hoodie exchange where we each drew a name. We had a DVD exchange in which Dad concocted a sweet game using quarters, states, capitals, and stealing, and finally we each gave gag gifts based on some funny memory or inside jokes. There is no shortage of jokes between the siblings in that family so the gag gifts produced some good times! It took us forever to finish opening presents!

After the Faro Christmas, we drove down to my side of the family for the O'Flaherty Christmas. We opened our presents when we got there (web cams seemed to be a good idea for all) and had a good relaxing time there. I slept in, read a lot, caught up with some old friends, and opened lots more presents! Mom got the ball rolling with Christmas presents for the baby already even though it's not out yet to open them! The baby even got a stocking! Sneaky tricks. New Years Eve really showed our age...we watched a few movies, ate some food, played some games, and practically fell asleep before the ball dropped. Right before we made the trip home, I had another baby shower. Mom and Jen put a lot of work into it and it was a great time. I was spoiled yet again! We played some more games, ate some more food (which included a huge fruit salad in the shape of a carriage), and of course, opened some more presents. I made out like a bandit. Between Christmas presents and both showers we actually had to switch cars with my parents to get everything home. The boys actually loaded all the stuff into the car at the shower and we started the drive right from there! We couldn't see out of any of the car windows! Not safe but we made it.

Well, there's much more to blog about since Christmas but I'm gonna space them out. We've encountered many house changes, had a few house guests, and I've experienced many things to rant about...it's all still to come :-)

JAMAICAN BABYMOON!

2008-12-11T16:33:00.005-05:00

This vacation was blissfully uneventful. After all the stories that came out of our honeymoon I half expected to have a few more after this trip...not true. In fact, there's not too much to write because we did NOTHING and it was wonderful. :-)

The weather was pretty good but there were a few days of clouds and rain that put a halt on the tan I had hoped for. Even through the rain and clouds, it was still a great temperature and we were outside swimming or something anyway.

The first two days we basically lounged on the beach and went swimming even though it was kinda cloudy. We had a nice rotation of laying down, reading, swimming, getting a new fruit smoothie, repeat. The third day we took a catamaran ride to snorkel and see the famous Dunn's River Falls. It was a great trip...the snorkeling wasn't that great but the boat ride was fun and the the waterfalls were amazing! They were kind of touristy but you actually got to hike up in them the whole hour! Literally...up to our waists in the rushing water of the waterfall climbing up the rocks. Aaron was in his glory. A few minutes in, I was pretty sure this wasn't an activity for someone 6 months pregnant but I didn't know ahead of time and I wasn't about to get out...so don't judge me...Aaron had a good hold of me the whole time so I didn't fall or anything.

The next two days were good and sunny so we went back to our original plan and did nothing but lay on the beach...we added an afternoon kyack and tennis session though. For active people, we were remarkably still until that point. Funny story...so we're playing tennis...mind you, we haven't played in a while and I'm WAY less mobile than I'd like at this point considering my shifting center of gravity. So we're playing and some videographers come up and ask us if they cam tape us playing for the resort commercial!!! YIKES!!!! I was tempted to say they were better off looking elsewhere but we were the only ones playing. So somewhere Aaron and I will be in a RIU Resorts commercial playing some really bad tennis.

The food was good but not as good as it was on the cruise we took with the rest of the Faro fam last Christmas. But that goods cause if it was really good I would have eaten a whole lot more! As it was I was already feeling guilty because I consumed WAY more sugar than I normally do. The all inclusive makes getting smoothies and fruity drinks way too easy and we made good use of it. Poor baby Faro...on a sugar rush all week...it's probably going through withdrawal already. A plus of the sugar rush is that it was moving a whole lot more which made me feel better about being so far away from my doctor...a little peace of mind never hurts. And it's finally kicking hard enough to Aaron can feel it! And one night it was so severe that if you watched my stomach, you could see the kicks show though...a lot! And that's why I didn't sleep so much. It's hard to sleep when something on your insides wants to be on your outsides :-)

So hopefully the pictures have given you a look at our five year anniversary/babymoon trip...

When we finally got home late last night, I was greeted by an early Christmas present from my thoughtful and crafty husband. I have had a few home projects in mind for a long time now but wasn't too keen on doing them myself. A few of those tasks included painting the ceilings, sanding and restaining the kitchen cabinets (they were a hideous orangey color), and redoing the living room carpet. So we walk in the front door and I say, "it smells like paint", and he gets this little grin on his face and says, "oh does it?" He had a bunch of our friends come in and paint the ceilings and redo the kitchen cabinets while we were gone so I didn't have to do it and I didn't have to live in the fumes! What a guy :-)

Sidenote, we also got home to a few early shower presents! I guess a few people have shipped them so we walked in to see our carseats and a stroller...not that I know who they're from yet!

The "JUST WAIT" Phenomenon

2008-11-19T13:04:00.002-05:00

This past weekend Aaron and I hit the road again. This time it was for two different things. We drive to Jillian's in Virginia and then he continued on home to meet up with the rest of the Faro family to see Brett's playoff games. It was a lot of travel again but well worth it. Brett won so they're still in it! While Aaron was there watching that all go down, I spent the weekend immersed in baby shower activities for Jill where I learned quite a few things...

Brace yourself, parts of this may sound like a rant against pregnancy...I assure you, its not. It's funny, once you are entering the next phase of life, everyone that has already been there assumes that you are just waiting to hear all the things they've learned and all the "wisdom" they claim to have. It was like that getting married and it's even more like that when you're pregnant! It's a lesson I'm trying to remind myself when my first instinct is to share my personal experience and oh so wise advice...think before you trap someone with your own story! Better yet, ask them if they want to hear it, don't just assume they do! I'm not saying you can't learn from others...I know that is quite false...learning from people that have already been down a certain road is wise...I just rather it be from people I know well, like family and close friends. People you barely know think they have the right to advise you on being a parent! P.S. - They also think that can touch your belly...they can't. It's weird and rude. I've grown to really appreciate those that say, "oh, can I feel your belly?" Merely asking makes it a little less invasive and awkward. Again, family and friends you know well are a different story...I'm referring to the people you barely know.

Pregnancy has also made me aware of another phenomenon...the one mentioned in the title of this post. The "JUST WAIT" phenomenon. Why is it that every single person asks you how you feel, and if you've had your ultrasound, and if you've picked out names and all that other fun stuff, but really, they are just waiting for you to stop answering so they can tell you about themselves...and inevitably...after you tell them things you're experiencing they say...you think that's hard, "JUST WAIT". It's really rude to minimize what is happening at the moment purely to tell someone what happened to YOU later on. It is not encouraging either! There are quite a few things that require lots of physical and emotional adjustment...and they do feel difficult sometimes. Why must you tell me that what I'm dealing with right now is nothing in the grand scheme of what's about to happen to me? You're not fostering the excitment that should be coming with each phase. Regardless of the strange things that are happening, each phase feels very different and I'm trying to enjoy the positives of each one without sprinting ahead to other things. So please stop volunteering all the negative of what I'm walking into and stop making me feel like what I'm feeling is trivial.

On to a more positive side of things...for those that are wondering...I'm between 21 and 22 weeks at the moment and yes, I have a belly and can't fit in my pants anymore. So those that will see us at Christmas will get to see a belly for sure. As far as how I'm feeling, it's up and down still. I've been having tons of headaches and dizzy spells and don't really feel as good as people told me the second trimester would feel like. My doctor told me I need to drink more water so I've been doing that but so far it hasn't changed much. I am feeling the baby move around in there...that is pretty surreal! It moves around a lot so its a fun reminder that something is actually growing inside me! Makes the headaches not seem so bad sometimes :-) Sadly, you can't feel the movement from the outside yet so Aaron has yet to feel it move. Maybe soon.

The baby shower plans are in motion which is also fun to think about...especially just coming from Jillian's. I'll have one with the Faro's right before Christmas and one on Long Island right after. The registry is up and running for the showers and I'm looking forward to them! Amy, great work on the invitations....they look great!

Little Faro Pics

2008-11-03T20:28:00.005-05:00

The pictures below are from today's ultrasound. This second one blew our minds! I didn't know that my practice did the 3D/4D ultrasound and had never seen one before. She started with the basic one shown first. Those are the only kind i've ever seen and that's kind of what I expected. She had some trouble getting the baby to move into the right positions to get the measurements and pictures she needed. She definately already pinned our baby as "stubborn". Not much of a shock...that one was pretty much a given. But the baby was basically on its head, and looked like it was doing crunches. My kind of baby...already doing abs :-) So we got quite a few printouts of pictures. In both dimensions. The two here are the only ones I've gotten scanned into the computer so far. I think they are the clearest. The doctor's report said that all is well and thre are no problems seen by their measurements. Good news! She also said the baby was measuring a little big. I immediately got nervous. I'm not up for delivering a 10 pound baby! Aaron of course thinks I'm overreacting. The baby can ether be older than the original estimation or just a big baby. I'm hoping its older :-)

Next on the baby agenda is registering. I've done a little research and made a long list of all the recommended items. BTW...babies require massive amounts of stuff! So after I check with the local moms, Aaron and I will be off to Babies R Us in the next week or so and get the registry up and running! More "stuff" to accumulate.

On a very different sidenote...I am so ready for this election to be over. Besides the commercials that just make outrageous claims and lie about everything, I got another unpleasant surprise Sunday afternoon. The doorbell rings and I answer it to see an Obama campaigner at the door. First Strike: He says, "hello Christine". How on earth do you know my name!!! I don't like it. I'm immediately annoyed that campaigners are at my door and calling me by name on a Sunday. He proceeds to tell me what he's all about while I ever-so-nicely inform him that I've already voted so he should move on. Then he asked me, "oh, well did you husband Aaron vote?" Strike two!!! How do they know our names and marital status and then proceed to think its OK to come to my door and talk as if we're close friends. After he finds out that I already voted he throws in, "well i hope it was for Obama". Strike three. To which I say nothing because its none of his business...instead I just stared at him waiting for him to get my obvious disgust. Then he asks, "well, do you mind me asking who you did vote for?" Strike four!! And I boldly say..."YES, I do! i mind you being at my door, thinking its ok to intrude on my Sunday, and ask personal information that some of my close friends don't even know...it's personal and none of your business". I must say, regardless of who I voted for, if I hadn't already voted, this little interaction would not have helped their cause. Lets just finish this election and get on with whatever is going to happen...and PRAY for God's mercy cause we're gonna need it either way!

Big News

2008-10-21T13:34:00.004-05:00

Well, most of you already know...but Aaron and I are gonna have a baby!!!! Yes, we've waited a long time to tell anyone but the secret is out. I'm almost 18 weeks (4 and a half months for those that are not familiar with the "week" system). I'm due on March 31st. Seems like it's right around the corner. We finally told people a few weekends ago. Well, we told the Faro family when we saw them all for the boys games and then we waited until we were gonna see my parents in person.

To tell the Faro's we give ben a package od Uncle Ben's rice to see who would be quick enough to get it. We knew John would be the first but the rest of the fam really stayed in the dark. It was hilarious to watch Ben...he thought we just got him some rice to make in his room and was trying to act so appreciative even though it would've been so random if it were true! Finally, after John prompted him with "Ben, what would make you an uncle Ben?", he and everyone else caught on along with him. Good times. For my parents, we wrapped up onsies that said Grandma and Grandpa on them and had them open them as a surprise gift after they picked us up from the airport. The Faraci's were there too which was fun. Mom was so stunned that she just sat there with her head in her hands for what semed like an eternity before she started to cry. It took Dad all of 30 seconds to go to the neighbors back door to share the news! All the while, Grandma was yelling and Grandpa wasn't sure what was going on :-) Classic.
the happy grandparents to be!

It was a good weekend to start spilling the news because we were going to see quite a few people that we wanted to tell in person. The whole reason we were up was for Chris Rosario's wedding so we got to tell him and Jillian (who was also there for the wedding and is also pregnant!). Those two are my oldet and closest friends and it was great to tell them. Now, little Ian Green and baby Faro will be close in age! Along with those two, there were quite a few old high school friends at Chris' wedding so they all found out too. After the wedding we flew up to Boston to see the Crowell's and their new little addition. Jory was the best man at our wedding and we're now the godparents to Sam so it was good to spend time catching up and sharing good news. We had a great time in Boston and got a little glimpse of life with a 5 week old! I was pretty relieved to come home still feeling excited...I was nervous I would come home shellshocked and scared to death to start this aprenting journey. Below are some pics of our time in Boston...I'm still waiting for Jillian to share some pics from the wedding so when I get those, I'll share.

celebration dinner with jory, laura and sam!

aaron and i getting a little practice wawlking around boston :-)

After that momentous weekend we came home and started spreading the news here in Charlotte. We told our Bible study people and then thanks to facebook, nobody else around here got to hear it directly from us. It's been so much fun to ask questions of the professional moms around here and have our friends share in our excitement. The Academy kids were amazing as well. I've never had as many phone calls or texts as I did that morning. I guess when you share so much of life with a group of people, they feel like they're a part of everything for you too :-) So we've received a few gifts from people...some shoes, a blanket, some cute little onsies, a pregnancy jouornal...a whole new world of presents. Crazy stuff!

Just a little warning, I'm not posting "belly pictures" like most people do these days. Especially not before there's a recognizable bump there. I really don't understand the fascination and draw of following how large you get. Maybe for all you out-of-towners, I'll post some pictures when it looks more like a pregnant belly and less like a huge lunch and a lack of exercise. I have my ultrasound in two weeks so I'll put thos epictures up when I get them. No, we are not finding out what it is...much to the dismay of those trying to buy us presents. We're going with the surprise route :-)

Weekend Travels

2008-09-22T16:10:00.004-05:00

True to our typical lives we've spent the last 4 weekend on the road. I;m not sure if that's by design or because we are gluttons for hours in the car and high gas bills. I'll start with out first weekend away. We went up to the mountains to get some solitude and try to work through some of our present decisions. We were finding it difficult to focus on seeking the Lord with our future in the midst of getting back into the swing of things here. So we went to Mitch's grandparents cabin about 2 hours away. They were gone for the weekend and were gracious enough to let us crash there for a few days. It was gorgeous weather and a great time to reconnecting and seeking. We would have liked to come home with some clariy on our decision but that hadn't quite happened.

The next weekend we went the other direction, down to South Carolina. Two of the Academy guys had games down there and two others drove down from school to join us. So the six of us got a hotel suite, had a guys room and a girls room and had our little southern reunion! It was a great time to see them again, catch up on life, and pray for each other. After being so entrenched in each other lives, its hard to do it playing catch up!

The next weekend we went way north. Ben and Brett both had home games on the same day so we drove up Friday night to see the Saturday games. Friday we went to Philly, got some dinner with Ben and Linds and then went on to stay at Hayden and Michelle's house. It was a really long drive but wortht it. It was great to spend some time with everyone on a smaller scale too. Saturday we went to Ben's game and met up with the rest of the Faro fam to SWEAT while we watched. It was rather toasty outside...one of those situations where you stop worrying about how your look because you're too focused on the sweat rolling down various parts of your body. After Ben's game we drove over to Messiah to see Brett play. We had a little family tailgate action and then watched the game. There were tons of people at the game which was a pleasant surprise. We saw Em and Linds as well as some others. That night we went out for some post game Friendly's...just like old times. That night we stayed at Emily's and got to catch up with her and Nick. We went to Church as a fam the next morning and then saw two more of the Academy kids before we hit the road! Bowser and Neil met up for lunch to hang out for a little bit. Good times.

This past weekend we went down to Wilmington. Aaron had another triathlon...and of course he did well. This one was a sprint so it was quite a bit shorter than his normal races. Out of 1300 racers, he came in seventh overall and first in his age group. They actaully made people stand on a podium for each age group which was hilarious because it made him the center of attention. I don't have pictures of it but when I get them, I'll share. So while in Wilmington we stayed with Dave and Annmarie Miller. OK...they live literally ON THE OCEAN!!! What a pleasant surprise! Our room opened up to a balcony that was one row away from the beach so you could sit out there and look at the water and hear the waves. It was so nice to fall asleep to the sound of the waves. As a former beach bum, there is nothing more relaxing. Sadly, the weather wasn't great. It was a bit chilly and overcast. Not great beach weather but we hung out there for a few hours each day anyway.

We got back about dinner time Sunday night. On our drive home we got a text from Mitch looking for a family dinner. So we got home and had the Charlotte fam over for dinner! Never a dull moment. It was so good though because we haven't been all together in a long time. So Heidi, Sam, Mitch, Klotz, and Melissa came over for a little grill and chill. And Now we're back to the work week.

Shockingly, we're home this weekend! What will we do with ourselves??!?! Perhaps cultivate some friendships we regularly ignore here. It's not too long lasting though...the following weekend we're back on the road, up in NY for a wedding.

one more reason i hate dogs...

2008-08-16T15:43:00.002-05:00

so i woke up this morning and my legs were really sore. i went for a jog yesterday but it shouldn't have made me sore so i was confused. then i remembered why i probably got sore from that run...i had a brief sprinting session. so let me tell you what happened. i went out for a run and was gonna go through our neighborhood before going across the street to run in theirs. i turn down the first cul-de-sac and get about one house in and i hear a dog go nuts barking at the end of the cul-de-sac. i keep jogging just thinking that it was barking...no, it was apparently furious with me for runnning on his street. so he is probably about 4 or 5 houses down and starts to book it towards me, all the while, snarling and showing his teeth. so i quickly realize that i'm about to get attacked by a dog and turn around and start sprinting back as fast as i can. it doesn't take too long to realize that much like most other people in this world, the dog is also faster than me. so i decide to run on someones lawn and try to jump their fence into their backyard. just as i'm about to hop the fence the dog comes to an abrupt stop about 20 yards away. at this point, i'm wondering why on earth he just sprinted the length of a football field only to stop right before eating me alive but i'm not staying around to figure that one out. what a way to start my run. i had already felt like i ran a marathon and it had only been a few minutes. so my brief sprint from death is why my legs are sore. and this leaves me with more hatred for people that assume their own dogs are friendly and think they can just go wherever they heck they want. all i wanted to do was get outside and get a workout...put your stinking animal on a leash!!!! or get an invisible fence!!! add this to the list of why i just don't like animals.

so sidenote, i tell this story to neighbors that came over to watch the olympics last night. and when they left to walk home, the same dog started to run afer them! so then some lady comes outside and says "oh, don't worry, i'm just taking care of him for my daughter, he'll be gone tomorrow". BULL...you are not "taking care" of him, you are letting him run loose and terrorize the neighborhood.

Blog Slacking Again!

2008-07-10T11:15:00.002-05:00

Hopefully you have been tracking what we're up to on the Summer Academy blog instead of this one so you're not totally in the dark. We've had some amazing times here this summer and its hard to believe there's only a few weeks left. It's gone so fast...probably because we're so busy we can't even think straight. That being said, we'd like to make a public apology for all our loved ones we've been ignoring since May. We know we haven't been good keeping in touch with family and friends. Honestly, I don't see how we could've done it any differently, but I'm sure you don't know that. It's been pretty difficult here to even grab a few minutes alone for quiet time, forget about talking t people outside the ministry here! Please know that we do miss you and would love to be talking to you all if we could...a few weeks from now we look forward to catching up witha ll of you and filling you in on all you've been praying for...just know your prayers are felt and its been amazing!

Readers Digest version of our summer so far...

Brazil was great. The first half boys and girls were separated and did ministry in different cities. It was a great chance for me to get in deep with the girls and have some quality time before the boys came in and distracted them all (which was inevitable). Aaron had the same with the guys. In fact, we all loved that time apart so much we didn't want to reunite in Rio! While we were excited to see each other, we loved the places we had been at and didn't want to leave. With that, some people got in a funk in Rio and had a hard time adjusting. It was still a great time but it felt a little different. By the end of the trip, it was good to have spent time in multiple cities and do really different ministry in all three areas. The people there are wonderful and we were well taken care of!

We got back and had a few days rest and preparation for camp season. We had one week of inner city camp an then team week with no camp. Inner city camp was interesting because its the most unorganized thing we do. The neighborhoods and churches involved just operate under different life principles than we're used to in middle class suburbia. It was a great week overall and I think it was good for everyone to get a taste of what some people live like. One campsite was across the street from homeless shelter and had some drug paraphenalia present along with the homeless people sleeping onthe benches next to our field. Quite the picture of a different life than we know.

Team week was a great recharging time after that. We camped out on the dunes of lake Michigan for two days and had a great time of games, worship, campfires, devo's, beachtime, mission clarification, etc. Most of us didn't want to go home! Later on in the week we celebrated the 4th. People really do it up here. We held our own "amazing race" down in Chicago on the 3rd (which is when they do all their festivities). The race was a blast! It was basically like the tv show in that we were split in 5 teams and were given a scavenger hunt list of things to do and video's/pictures to take in front of various places downtown. So all 30-something of us were running all over chicago for about 3 hours taking random pictures and making rediclous videos, using people on the street to complete out lists. We followed the race with devo's by the lake and then the city firework show.

This week we're back to camp. Half of us are down town again and the other half are in a wealthy suburb up north. Both camps are going well and the staff is loving it! It's been so much fun to be living downtown. We're staying in the Moody college dorms which is right downtown. So after camp we walk down stairs and walk around the city to see the lake or get dinner. Good times!

Last night we all met up in the middle at the lake again and had small groups and worship. This small group was different in that Aaron and I were put on the relationship "hot seat". Our relationship has been on display for all to see this summer and it has been a major source of questions and discussion for all the students (both to us and behind our backs!). So we decided to put it all out there and let them ask whatever they want all together. It was actually a really great time to share all together and encourage them to seek God's best in relationships. They are all so concerned with this topic at this point in their lives and has probably been our greatest ministry to them.

Next week we go straight up to Wisconsin for two more camps and the following week we're back in Wheaton for the last week of camp. Then it's making the trek back to reality! Some notable moments to mention...Brett came by to visit for a few days and it was great to see him! The Sanfords have also been here and were a wonderful encouragement to us. Even though we're so tired, and haven't been alone in months, I can still say this is exactly where God has us this summer. Its been so much fun to serve side by side.

Looking forward to catching up with you all soon! Sorry I don't have pictures up here...I need to perform a mass picture steal from everyone and show you another time.

Praise the Lord

2008-05-31T13:34:00.002-05:00

Good News!!!! After an interesting day yesterday...the passports are in our hands! Yesterday was quite the rollercoaster. So I had been checking the tracking number all morning like the consulate lady told me to and the record showed nothing all day. I tried to call her again during the one hour you're allowed to call the consulate and wasn't ablt to get through the whole time. So now I'm freaking out again after having an encouraging day the day before. I checked at 7, right before dinner and it still hadn't been sent according to the internet so I went to dinner pretty shaken up. We had a time of prayer there after dinner for the 5 passports still missing and truthfully, I really wrestled with the transition from the good news the day before only to be let down afterwards. I was pretty angry (which presented itself in crying much to my dismay).

Anyway...we got back to the hotel at about 10 and I had a homework assignment due at 11 so I went to the room while everyone else played games downstairs. I felt like I wanted to check the tracking number again but talked myself out of it because I was tired of bad news. So I finished my homework and before I went down to join the group for the late-night games, I decided to check. AND AT 10:45PM THE TRACKING NUMBER SHOWED UP ONLINE AS BEING SENT! I can't even tell you the sense of relief. So I got to go down stairs with great news of answered prayer for those kids that had been praying for and with us. Now we just needed to see if it was approved. Rick wasn't at the hotel for our news and had the surprise of getting them at the post office this morning. He quickly drove over to the hotel to deliver our passports, with visas stamped in and approved. What a whirlwind!!!!!!!!!

Through all this, I'm sad to say I wish I had more faith. There was no other way this would've happened if it weren't for a string of miracles....all the way from our delivery date being posted earlier than we sent it, to the consulate actually bending the rules for us, to the late night post office update, and a one-day delivery back. I wish I could say I expected it instead of just hoping for it. Anyway, thanks so much for praying...you prayed us into Brazil!!!!!!!!!

VISA UPDATE

2008-05-29T15:25:00.002-05:00

well...there might be some progress. i'm trying not to get our hopes up but we got some good news today. as of this morning we were missing 8 visas (all of which were mailed to miami). we've been in serious prayer about it here corporately and other people have been praying as well. all week we've been trying to call and they were closed monday and tuesday, and yesterday "all circuits were busy" and we couldn't get through. the same was true today until about an hour ago. i finally got through and talked to a lady that appears to be really helpful. the first helpful/nice person i've talked to in the last two weeks. they weren't processing our mail day yet and she said she didn't think it would happen...so i started to tell her our situation and she actually listened!!! i asked if there was something she could do to help even though i know she didn't have to. she actually got off the phone and went to the mail room to find our envelope. when she got back on the phone she said she found it, she would process it today, and mail it out tomorrow!!!!! obviously, we still need her to follow up on her promise but i'm just grateful she took the time to listen and actually was willing to help. so when i check our tracking number tomorrow at lunch time i should know if she followed through on her word. please keep praying these visas through from the consulate to our p.o. box!!! we need this miracle to be completed!!!!

Visa Trouble

2008-05-22T10:03:00.002-05:00

Ok...

we need some prayer for our visa situation...badly. as of right now we won't get our visas back in time to go to brazil with the group, or even at all. based on some bad info about sending them out (ugh!) we didn't send them with enough time to process. apparently each consulate has different processing times. so at best, our visas might get to us three days after the group has already been in brazil. so we need you guys to pray that someone at the consulate gets tired of taking our phone calls and rushes our processing. at this point, i was told..."sorry, i don't think you're gonna make it". when i asked if there is some fee we could pay to rush it, they said no. thats not what i was looking for at all. at this point i'd pay a lot of money to have this resolved. so please pray that god wants us to go to brazil and he takes care of whatever needs to happen in the consulate to make that happen. thankfully, he's bigger than consulate formality and regulations. i'll keep you updated if anything happens!

Catching Up...Get Ready, It's Gonna Be a Long One!

2008-05-15T15:01:00.010-05:00

I know, I know...I've been a blogging slacker (as evidenced by the comments/guilt trips I'm hearing from others) There has been a lot going on in our lives since my last update on our California trip. And because this is a catch-up post, each event will not be given the proper amount of love it might've if I'd written while it was happening. Please don't take offense if your involvement doesn't get much press...it's not personal. Seriously, its been so long I have to look back in my calandar to see what I'm supposed to say!

We got back from Malibu on Monday and left for Chicago that Thursday. Pretty quick laundry turn-around! We went up for a leadership retreat weekend for the Summer Academy. It was a great time. We got to meet the kids from last year that came back to day hello and also spend time with the returners that are coming back to be student leaders this year with us. It was a real encouraging time to see how much the Academy meant to them and really fostered some excitement for this year. It's gonna be sweet to be a part of something so special. We had some classroom brainstorming sessions, played soccer tennis (ugh, the first of many soccer activities for me this summer), went out to eat, played games at the McKinleys, etc. It seems like a great group of college kids and we can't wait for them to get in town! Two weeks from today they'll be here!

The following weekend we had a visit from the Kellers! It was great to get some time with them and play games like we love to do. Unfortuantely I quickly became the most hated member of the family when I won most of the games (Dutch Blitz and Settlers)...and then they all accused me of rediculous things because they were losing. Finally, I started losing (in Family Feud) and all was well in the world again. We got to take them to McAlisters and Sonic, both requests of Amy. They also got to meet the Koontz and the Ross' which was fun to connect the two worlds like that.

Then, a week later, we went to a Carrie Underwood/Keith Urban concert! I must say, as someone that doesn't like country music, I loved it! Keith Urban was amazing and it was a great time. We went with Klotz and the Casey's and Nate.

The day after that my parents came down. And in Dad's true fashion, he did something for our house. We put a screen of the back door! As the Faro kids well know, the gift of cross breeze is unmatched. Aaron basically wanted to keep the back door open continuously until we left for Chicago. Apparently this should've been a present a long time ago. For the guy nobody can buy for, this idea should've hit me earlier I guess. Next on the agenda is to put one on the kitchen door that goes to the garage so we can have that door open when the game room in in action. Sadly, we weren't able to spend much time with my parents because of work and getting ready to leave again...

Aaron and I went to Tampa for the St. Anthony's Triathlon the next weekend. We signed him up for this in December because apparently it's a big deal...and it was! It was unreal. I'll describe a little bit but you won't really get a good enough picture of it. We drove down two days early and stayed with the Faraci grandparents the day or so before. They are adorable. We got many tours of the neighborhood and were VERY well fed. Of course. We drove the rest of the way to Tampa and met up with Buck and Ally the day before the race. Had to check in and drop off your stuff in the transition area. There were 4500 people in this race...it was an unbelievable spectacle. There were vendors all over and so many people walking around in their Lance outfits (good old tri gear). This race had some serious contenders...like the guys that won the olympic trials, and the world championships...so I guess thats why you need to sign up months in advance. He raced with the big boys this time.

There are few groups to register in...professional, elite, and age groups. We took a chance and registered him elite even though the competition was pretty serious. His goal was to prove that he belonged in the elite category and to beat one professional. And he did it! He placed in the middle of the elite group and beat a few pros! He came in 75th place overall out of 4500 and finished in 2 hours and 6 minutes. Buck did well with a personal best time too! I made the mistake of trying to take video insread of pictures for this race so there's not much to show cause I was pretty bad at it. Now, he needs to figure out if this hobby is gonna be around for a while....I'm not sure I'm ready for this...and neither is he (he almost missed the start of his wave of the race cause he took too long to set up in the morning...seriously, he ran to the starting point and just had enough time to take his clothes off and grab the goggles...nothing like preparing for months to almost miss the race!)

And we got back from the race with a week and half to pack up the house and leave for Chicago! It was a whirwind week for sure. My school was finishing up, I had to finish out my clients, I had all my "last hangout" dates, we had to pack up our stuff for three months, and get the house ready for other people to live in it till we get back. Craziness. Aaron had the brilliant idea of going to the mountains for a few days on the way up to relax and catch our breath before the next wave of the summer hits full force.

It was a great time...we had a day or so to relax and get ourselves connected which was apparently very necessary. I didn't even know how worked up I was till we got there and I had time to think. Then Brian, Lani, Andy and Lauren came up for Saturday and Sunday. That was so much fun. We went on hikes, played games, and jumped into freezing cold water :-) Lani has recently broken her ankle was such a trooper the whole weekend!!!! She went on all the outings and crutched her way around, or the boys carried her. She did not let that hot pink cast slow her down! We had a good time of sharing and prayer too before we left which was awesome. It was a really sweet time of getting to know eachother on a deeper level and praying for good friends. I really love our friends!

Highlight of the weekend....no question...Lauren jumping into the base of the waterfall without any warning. We went to this water fall that people jump off of. We talked about jumping and realized we were all too scared cause its high and you can't see where you're jumping to and the water is freezing right now. So we walk down to the base of the water fall and Aaron is talking about want to go swimming. Lauren walks down and says "I think I'll just feel the water". And then she proceeds to jump in with her clothes on! And it took all of 5 seconds for the Aaron, Brian, and I to do the same things after she did it. And the water was FREEZING! Andy and Lani stayed nice and warm on the rocks watching us all act like fools in the cold water. Good times.

After they left Aaron and I had one more night there before the 11.5 hour drive up here. The drive actually wasn't too bad (says the girl that drove less than 3 hours of it). We got up about dinner time, had dinner at Rick's house and then went to our host family's house. They live about 25 minutes from the office here. A bit of a drive but they are awesome people and the set up there is good. They are in their late 60's with all grown kids. We basically have the whole downstairs floor of the house which has our bedroom, bathroom, and den with a tv, and even a tiny kitchen! Not bad considering I was preparing myself to live in a tiny bedroom right next to someone's 3 year old screaming kid. Pleasantly blessed!

So far we've been getting organized here in the office, helped out with the annual golf fundraiser yesterday, and are getting our visa applications out. Please pray for that process as it is never smooth and we are concerned our's won't get back in time. Probably not a good thing to have the leaders stay home without visas for Brazil! We overnighted it today and hope it all works out well!

Other random info...I got all A's in school last semester (not sure its worth it, I might shoot for B's next time), we've had time at night to relax and play tennis and take long bike rides which has been nice. There are tons of nice trails and parks here. Umm, a board member heard me talking about wanting a summer gym membership and bought me one at the auction. How nice is that?!?! He redeemed it at pick up and turned around and gave it right back to me. What a blessing to have that for the summer! What else...I think that's it for now! Thank you for all your prayers for the summer and keep them coming. We have lots ot do and not a lot of time to do it (true Eagles fashion). And for all you blog stalkers out there...there is a new blog to stalk. We made one for the summer for all the families to check so we'll be putting pictures and stories up for the summer. So you can check that one to keep up to date on what we're doing with the Academy! The website is http://chicagoacademy08.blogspot.com/

Things to pray for...

safe travel for the kids here
visa applications
the boys staying at my house...and hopefully actually cleaning it!

Mali-beautiful!

2008-03-31T15:36:00.014-05:00

So its been over a week since we got home but due to other travels (Chicago leadership weekend) the California vacation update is late. The trip was AMAZING. First off....let me just plug Sky Bus Airlines. Not sure who knows about them but the first 10 seats on every flight are 10 bucks and then they go up from there. You basically need to be waiting at your computer for months to get those but you can still get them really cheap if you are only moderately addicted to checking the website....which is what mitch was doing. So we got roundtrip tickets direct from NC to LA for $150. We were pretty happy about that. We went out to visit and stay with Randy a Christie who are at Pepperdine for law school. Geography lesson: Pepperdine campus sits in mountains and on bluffs over looking the beach in Malibu.

So we get there tuesday and actually go sit in on one of randy's classes. And I feel asleep in my first law class. (so probably my last) Law school is not for everyone. But before I fell asleep I noticed a few things that are way different than I remember from college. Nobody uses paper. Everyone had a laptop in class (i mean everyone) and thats how they take notes. And i only saw two or three people on you tube, facebook, etc...there's no way i could be in a boring class and actually only takes notes with my computer in front of me. So the ticking on the laptops was a little hint as to when the professor was saying anything important. Crazy.

We did a bunch of stuff there and I don't really remember what days now thats its been a while so it'll be a summary through pictures including the beach, hikes, beach bocce, beach bike tours, etc...

a little hiking on the bluffs over the beach and the rich people's houses...

and some beach bocce...

randy and mitch had tickets to the anaheim march madness games and christie had work so aaron and i spent some time on the beach and hiked back behind the campus while everone was gone...

this monument was built cause one of the people that dies in the pentagon plane crash in 2001 was a student at pepperdine...it was a neat place with bible verses, flowing water, and flowers up overlooking campus and the mountains and beach. we hiked up to up one morning.

the next day we were all together and went to go do the hollywood hike...it was a pretty lame hike cause you basically walked up a gravel or paved path but it was cool to go there. can't go near hollywood and not go see the sign i guess. that day we also drive down rodeo drive, through beverly hills and saw the stars on the sidewalk. again, things we weren't too interested in to spend a whole day but took some time to drive through. poor randy....they're right when they talk about LA traffic...it took way too long and all he wanted to do was get home to watch the games. :-(

a redeeming factor to that day was diddy reese....my personal heaven. you walk in and pick two homemade cookies, and a flavor of ice cream and they make you a ice cream cookie sandwhich for a dollar fifty!!! yup, we went twice.

this was definately a highlight of the trip. saturday the boys went back to the basketball games and aaron, christie and i took a sweet bike ride. there's this path that runs from the santa monica area all the way down the coast. it is literally a path in the sand on the beaches. so we started near the santa monica pier and rode down about 10 miles to marina del ray and then came back. during thse travels we saw some amazing scenery. the beach of course...

the santa monica pier...

the rowing and sailboats area in marina del ray...

and then....the mayhem also known as venice beach. this picture doesn't even come close to showing the strange things that go on at venice beach. the picture is of a roller skating dance crew. weird but kinda cool. we saw a pogo stick jumper with an audience, lots of burnouts on the lawns, the outdoor gym, etc. There was so much going on and so many people milling around it was incredible. we didn't stop so i don't have many pictures because i don't think we qualify as being strange enough to be there.

one night we went to eat dinner at a place called dukes. dukes has half price entrees between four and six so we hit that up and sat out on the deck looking at the water. it was kinda cod outside for me but it was better than being inside with the random hula dancers.

and sunday morning we had a sweet easter service. we walked from campus across the street to the church. they lost their building in the fire and set up a huge tent to hold easter service overlooking the ocean. it was beautiful and a gorgeous day.

and we had this nice idea of going on a hike sunday after gorging ourselves on easter dinner. christie cooked up a storm (and had been all week) and we ate a lot of good food. then we went on a fabulous, yet terrifying hike. we hiked for a while and reached a waterfall. but there were other, better waterfalls higher up so we kept hiking higher. the hike got harder and even got pretty scary at the top. i hope my mother doesn't read this cause she will never stop worrying. there was a point that if you slipped on the gravel) like we had been doing on the way up) you could fall off the side of the mountain. and die. seriously. we were trying to hold on to bushes and brush to give ourselves more stability. there were points where it was not as bad and then times i really as nervous. poor aaron...he had his running flats on with no tread left s he was sliding all over the place. obviously we didn't exactly have hands free to capture these life changing moments but mitch caught a picture from behind us on one of the more stable travels down.

all in all...this trip was amazing! as aaron mentioned one time during the week. "best three hundred dollars we ever spent". and he was right. it was a great time of being active out in nice weather with friends we haven't seen in a while. love it.

next update to come...chicago leadership update from last weekend....and then the keller visit this coming weekend!

playing catch-up

2008-03-04T16:45:00.005-05:00

FIRST OFF.....I'M 27 NOW! :-)

once again, its been a while since i've updated the blog. that should give you a clue as to how much homeowrk i've been doing :-( too much. but its been a good few weeks. my parents were here in february and we got the tile floor down in the kitchen! good times. i love it!

we celebrated our birthdays a little early while they were here too. went to maggiano's for dinner and then back to their house for presents. i got some clothes and movies and aaron got socks (of course) and an odometer for his bike.

then on my actual birthday aaron and i went out for dinner and then he had friends show up at our house for dessert. the harveys, the koontzs, the caseys, and mitch. we seriously celebrated my birthday for days. with my parents being here early and then celebrating late with the ross', i've been eating "birthday dessert" for an entire week. i'll be paying for that in the gym for a while. but its worth it i think.

we also had a bridal shower for molly at our house last weekend. molly and ross are moving back to dallas this week and are getting married in may. we're sad but it was a really nice way to say goodbye and get her "ready" for married life. we had a lot of good discussion and encouragement for her and it was a really nice time. of course we played some scandalous games...the pictures from which are not blog safe so they will not appear here. but it was good to have a girls night like that.

then the ross' were nice enough to take us out to dinner for our birthdays saturday. we went to a nice place called brio (thanks to charlotte christian coaching) :-) and as you can see below....i ordered a whole chicken, thats right a whole one. didn't really know what i was getting myself into. i've already eaten three full meals out of it and i'm not done.

and then on the flip side for dessert the ross' shared something so small they couldn't even get both their spoons in it at once. who was the pig at the table??? yup, the birthday girl! :-)

and on another surpise note...T-Money came into town saturday morning! josh had a game down here and they were staying close to the mall so i drove out and got to see her for breakfast. what a sweet surpirse visit that was!!! the only problem was that it didn't seem long enough...gotta plan some longer visits soon!

aaron had another race last weekend too. this was a duathlon. run 5 miles, bike 33 miles, run another 5 miles. this was the longest bike race he's done yet. he did pretty well of course. he came in fifth overall and won his age group! (and got the cheesiest medal i've ever seen)

then on sunday we went on a little hike with mitch and sarah. sarah's up from atlanta since her school is out for spring break. its been so fun to have her here! imagine how much fun mitch thinks it is :-) sunday was a gorgeous day so we took advantage and got some outdoor activity.

well, i think that about covers it for now! next on the agenda is our trip to california later this month and then the leadership weekend in chicago right after, and then a visit from the kellers after that! more good times to come!

School Woes

2008-02-11T22:42:00.000-05:00

so i'm in full swing with school these days....let me give you more of a mental picture of what that means. i get up and go to work at 7:30 and get out about 1:00 each day. at that point, i work out and then come home and sit on the couch doing homework until i go back for more clients at dinner time. thats basically every day except friday which has more time devoted to homework.

doesn't sounds that bad does it? well, some days it is. i'm taking three classes and two of the three are very manageable. i would really only have to devote one full day to get it all done for those two. but my third class is a nightmare. its about managing non-profit organizations...i know, you can imagine how boring that is because it sounds insanely boring. well, it is.

i do not have a business or corporate background at all and thats making this class harder. i'm acting as a consultant for the YMCA for our project, doing all this analysis. well, i don't even know what all the business terms are and i definately don't know how to do anything with them. this is the first time i'm hearing things like swot anlysis, internal and external environmental scans, strategic planning, capacity building, etc. and i don't care. i'm not interested in managing a non-profit organization...i don't want to manage anyone or anything. i rather be the one doing the hands on work.

all that to say...i'm spending hours a day trying to figure all this out...post 3 page papers about it on our discussion boards, and then write 8 page papers about it each week. ugh. not to worry though...if you even have questions about managing non-profit organization, oh, i'm your girl!

if it wasn't for this class, i'd think getting your masters was easy!

Heck Yeah!

2008-02-03T22:27:00.000-05:00

this post is purely to express my joy on the giants underdog extravaganza! there's some sweet satisfaction in the upset and sweet justice that the team caught cheating did not win it all in the end. love my giants :-)

Cococay, Bahamas

2008-01-19T18:13:00.000-05:00

Our last day was spent at this paradise. It was basically a small island, owned by Royal Carribbean. There was nothing there except our cruise ship and the people tha run the fun there. You walked off the boat and all you saw was endless beach chairs, ocean, and the best yet...hammock's between palm trees. Amazing. We didn't do much but that was the point I guess. We all camped in this little hacienda with padded chairs, and sheers for privacy. Why would you shut those though...I mean really, you're overlooking a very blue ocean!

Anyway, Aaron and I rented snorkel gear and went out pretty early. We saw some pretty sweet fish of course along with some sting ray. Aaron really loved the snorkeling...and proceeded to pass around the other set of snorkel gear providing guided tours for the rest of the family. When he finally came in I think his body temperature was a few degrees colder. So I took Ben out after that and then Brett and John went out together. Unfortunately for them, John planted his hand on a sea urchin and had to seek a little medical advice. Looked pretty nasty. Had me reminiscing back to my jellyfsh debacle last fall. Other than the snorkeling, we read, laid around in the hammocks, and bought cocoloco's from the guys walking around selling this tasty frozen drink. Oh Sweet Paradise!

After our relaxing day at the beach, we got back on the boat to enjoy our last formal dinner, shows, and music.

This vacation was amazing...I mean at this point after all you've read I'm sure that's not a surprise to you. It was just non-stop fun. We came home pretty high on cruises, telling everyone we know that they have to go on one in their lifetime. After some reflection we decided that the vacation was fantastic but it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if we weren't there all together. The company makes the experience.

Cruisin' Key West Style

2008-01-12T21:23:00.000-05:00

well, its taken a few days for me to get back to blogging but i'm back...with more stories to tell!

so our first full day was "cruising" as they call it. we spent the day out at sea and took advantage of the fun the boat had to offer. hit the trampolines, took a salsa class, hung out at the pool, hit the casino (with only the change in the bottom of my purse for the slots), and had our "formal night" for dinner. the boat had more than enough options to keep us busy.

So after a full day out at sea waiting out the weather, we port at Key West the next morning. aaron and i had signed up for an excursion called "snuba" in the afternoon so we went walking through key west in the morning. we had fun just the two of us walking to find the beach. the town's pretty cool looking. lots of beach-town-looking shops and boutiques and stuff. i mean, don't get me wrong, i'm not gonna go to key west and waste my time shopping, but it was a cool atmosphere to walk through.

after about an hour of walking, aaron and i got to a beach. it was fairly sketch though. a bunch of homeless people loitering around and such. but we walked past this guy who gave us a coconut that he had peeled and stuff. apparently he was a chef in new orleans until katrina hit. now he sleeps on the beach in key west. as he put it, "i guess i traded up". quite the outlook after losing everything. we tried to take it back on board with us but they wouldn't let us so we had to have some fun with it before we got back on for lunch.

after lunch we found our excursion spot...only to have it cancelled!!! such a bummer. but it was nice of them to cancel it cause they had taken people out in the morning and i guess they couldn't see anything so it would've been a lot of money and time to not see any cool sea life. i was pretty impressed that instead of taking our money and saying "oh well, sorry we couldn't see anything", they just told us not to waste our money. so we ended up hitting the beach (a not so sketchy one) for the rest of the day it was a nice afternoon on a pretty beach!

random side note for you...and on our walk back to the boat we saw these dogs that had legit dreads. weird.

so back on the boat. ben, aaron and i hit the rock climbing wall before we got ready for dinner again. i'm sure many of you will not balk at this story but i'm telling it anyway. i forgot socks for the climbing wall. picture going bowling, getting the shoes that the rest of the world does, and having to put bare feet in those publicly used shoes. i'm still hoping i didn't catch some gross fungus from it. i still have a hard time believeing i actually did that. i mean, my mom did raise me to fear all germs, especially in public places. i wish i had pictures of this cause it was cool but along with my socks i forgot my camera.

and the next and last update to come...cococay, bahamas. let me just warn you, i just let out a whimsical sigh just thinking back about it :-)

BING-BONG! Faro Family Christmas Cruise!

2008-01-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

"bing-bong" is what the cruise director, mark, said everytime he concluded hosting something or making an announcement on this cruise this past week. sounds like it might be annoying, yet it wasn't...i grew quite fond of it by the end of the trip. for those that don't know wha i'm talking about, we just got back from the faro family christmas vacation today. they took the family on a royal carribbean cruise to key west and the bahamas for christmas...and it was amazing!!! we had such a good time!!!!

this post would be redicuously long if i talk about everything tha was amazing about it so i'll go in stages in the next few days so keep tuning in! :-)

we flew down to florida on tuesday (yup, the day they had that cold snap and freeze warning) it was cold and we were wondering if we would be that cold on the cruise too. regardless, we were still too excited to be let a little cool weather stop us....i mean really, we're new yorkers. so wednesday we board the boat and waste no time getting in the hot tub. we were one of the first ones on and the whole rest of the day people were boarding the boat with their sweats and coats on while we're outside in bathing suits in the hot tub. we got lots of "you're not from florida, are you?" comments. obviously not. we were glad we flew in the day before and got on early cause we basically got a whole other day on the boat.

we spent the rest of that day scoping out all the boat had to offer. 11 decks, climbing wall, bungee trampoline, pools/hot tubs indoor and out, lots of different lounges and bars, a sweet fitness center, and of course lot of places to eat...whenever you want. so it was pretty cold and cloudy but we didn't care because we were excited to get started on all this fun!at night we all got dressed up nice for our fancy dinner. our waitress for the week was from lithuania. her name was inga. we learned lots of stuff from inga...like they work six straight months without ONE day off! how crazy is that!?!? and they work all day long. they must have crazy standards for service because all the people working there (and there was over 800 of them) were so helpful. you could tell they weren't american as sad as that is for us to say. the international feel with all the people from all over was really sweet. it made you feel like you were far away even when we were still docked in fort lauderdale.after dinner we went to the orpheum theater for the opening night dancing/singing show. they were really good! just like sitting in on a broadway show. and then it was on to karaoke. good times. we were supposed to head down to key west the next day but weather changed our plans so we spent thursday "cruising" as they call it...just out at sea on the boat all day. i'll write about that another day!

Courtesy of Allison....a little Christmas fun!

2007-12-14T14:06:00.000-05:00

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper to open but gift bags to give out....selfish i know, but i still like to tear open the paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial? real but we don't have one this year cause aaron will be home all of five days

3. When do you put up the tree? couple days after thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? whenever my laziness subsides and i'm ready to vaccuum needles up for days

5. Do you like egg nog? eewwwww...sick. i rather get the 2000 calories from lots of good food instead of one glass of nastiness

6. Favorite gift received as a child? hmmm, probably a lolly at some point :-)

7. Do you have a nativity scene? yup...a sweet willow tree one from the in-laws

8. Hardest person to buy for? the man that wants nothing...my husband

9. Easiest person to buy for? myself...since i apparently do more of that while i'm supposed to be shopping for everyon else. or jen.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? don't e-mail christmas cards...thats awful

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? something from an attic of someone i know...some of you will have a sweet memory of that! :-)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? "Herbie doesn't like to make toys!"

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? whenever i see something i think they'll like...could be july for all i know

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? mom's christmas cookies out of those tubs she "hides" behind the dining room table :-)

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? clear...no contest

17. Favorite Christmas song? mariah carey...jen, i'm doing the dance in my head!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? we always travel...and this year we're going tropical!!!!!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? donner, blitzen, comet, cupid, dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, rudolph...is that too many?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? i would rather an angel but they're always so freaky looking that i go with a star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? christmas morning... stockings first right jen?!?

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? dumb drivers out all over the place shopping

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? there's no need for a theme when you have the kermit ornament

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? good ole italian 7 course meals...salad, sauce and meatballs, many kinds of meat, lots of dessert, etc...

second hand african greetings!

2007-12-08T09:06:00.001-05:00

just thought i'd pass on some news from africa for all of you. i've been fortunate enough to get two e-mails and a quick phone call!!! things there are good...he said the group of guys is really solid and they are hanging in there with any tough conditions. the african leaders they are working with are apparently amazing...soaking it all up and really bold in an oppresively muslim territory. he said those leaders have been so amazing to work beside and such an encouragement. really reminding him of how blessed we are here in our freedoms, no matter how "bad off" we think our country is spiritually.

not so much success in the soccer department though...two losses. but that's not really why they're there so its good to have that in perspective. he hasn't mentioned his face/head much...which is not surprising at all. but no news is good news in that department i guess.

they are up in the north now which seems to be a different environment the jos was. definately more spiritual heaviness so you can pray for walls to be broken down while they are there as well as safety bringing an unwelcome message.

on the homefront, i've been well taken care of! my parents were here for almost the whole first week and now jillian flew down from DC to be here this weekend. i've been so busy and have had lots of company. it's been a great distraction....not that i'm not ready to have him home...but it sure helps. all us girls are getting together and keeping each other company so we're hanging in!

African Farewell

2007-11-28T22:24:00.000-05:00

well...just a request for prayer here...sent aaron off to africa this afternoon for the next few weeks...for those of you that receive our newsletter, there's a prayer calandar on the back for specifics. but if you could pray for safe travel there and back, safety driving through dangerous territory there, good health, and of course that the message will be heard and received by those there! on a personal side...he has the remnants of a concussion and a broken face so avoiding injry during the games is on my mind! thanks!

Pirate Incompetance

2007-11-27T11:28:00.000-05:00

well, after more problems, i am officially an ECU Pirate for grad school. and i learned a valuable lesson of more incompetance. i sent the applcation off the end of october and asked when i would hear back. to which i received the reply..."there's no set time limit" ok, i took that as..."stop asking questions, we'll tell you when we're ready" and here is the lesson i learned...be annoying anyway because nobody does their job well enough to make sure everything happens correctly.

so i called yesterday (cause i was tired of waiting) to find out i was accepted on november 2nd (about a month ago)...that's 4 days after i sent it...very quick, i know. BUT NOBODY FELT THE NEED TO TELL ME! apparently the admissions office forgot to send the letter and in that time period, class registration came and went and all the health classes are full!!!!!

so now i'm accepted but have no classes to sign up for so i might as well have waited till next fall. so i'm gonna try to call and bring my "new york" out and get myself into some "full" classes since it was not my stupidity that made this happen. sheesh. sometimes i wonder why people are so dumb. why is it so hard to do your job? i hate to think i'm the only smart and capable person left in this world, but sometimes it feels like that.

Thanksgiving in Disney

2007-11-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

well...the group shot above is the latest faro sibling pic from the final four thanksgiving weekend. messiah once again made it to the final four so of course, the whole faro clan packed it up and followed them there! we had thanksgiving at our house early in the day and then we drove part of the way down that night. we did the last few hours friday morning and made it in time to see the girls beat tcnj in the semi's. had some time to check into the hotel beore the next game...unfortunately, the boys lost in the semi's that night to trinity. it was a good close game but couldn't quite seal the deal. i don't think any of us considered what we would do if that happened...but we made the best of it and had a good time anyway.

regardless of the outcome, we were there to be with family and support brett. and thats what we did. friday night we tried to hit the hot tub but it closed so we played games instead. during that time we learned some important things like ben's lack of geographical genius, and aaron's unappreciative nature. the conversation started by talking about collecting bottles or caps or something at the rhino's stadium to earn pepsi gear. we brought our dvd's down in a travel case that apparently came from that history. and the following convo came out...

aaron: "yeah all that time there and you get crap like that" (referring to the case)

ben: "hey! i stood out there for hours collecting those to get you that. and i got amy a towel and got nothing for myself!"

aaron: right, yeah and its awesome"

open mouth, insert foot.

anyway, we took some time on saturday so hang out at bretts hotel with him and took part in the fairytale called disney. the pool was pretty incredible and the boys had a good time there.

we then went to the girls game. they lost in the finals. and we hit the road from there...all the way back to charlotte by 1:30 am. it's lots of driving but its also lots of quaility family time...and we're looking forward to the next few years of thanksgiving trips to continue the tradition. we don't know what we'd do on thanksgiving without it!

Battle Wounds

2007-11-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

so aaron played in a 6v6 soccer tournment yesterday. i get a call on his drive home that went something like this...

me: "hey! how'd it go?"
aaron: "well, pretty good...we lost in the finals but...blah blah blah...soccer"

me: "oh man...oh well"

aaron: "well i just want to warn you, i got hit in the face pretty good"

me: "seriously? how bad?"

aaron: "pretty bad. i have a concussion"

it went on a bit from there but i'd like to draw attention to the fact that he went on for a while about the soccer like it was the main agenda. look at the pictures of his face again please...how did that not make the top of the list of things to tell me?!!? the pictures don't really even show how bad the swelling is...i couldn't get a good camera angle. as far as the signs of concussion, he was rough last night but its feeling a little better today. good thing he's tough. but he did cough up blood today so thats probably not a good sign. feel free to shout up a little prayer about that.

so we're gonna try to convince people that his face is the result of the pita slaps from the night before (if you don't know what i'm talking about see the previous post)

Left-Right-Center!

2007-11-17T12:07:00.000-05:00

well...we had some good times friday night here at the Faro house! we had the casey's, the koontz's, and the ross's over for a night of games. we love games. we started out the night with krokinol...i have no idea how to spell it. and that was fun but then we pulled out the left-right-center dice....always ready for a good time. in the pictures below are the consequences for being the one left with a chip. let me just say, if you haven't played this game...you need to. it is so much fun if you play with good sports and people that know how to have a good time. so for your viewing pleasure...

the first consequence went to lani downing a tablespoon of texas pete without anything else allowed to subdue it for the next three minutes.

and the next...heidi getting sprayed at close range with the cold hose for five seconds

andy having lauren rub peanut butter all up in his hair

me having to give every player a free shot with the ping pong ball at my bare stomach (luckily i didn't get hit much)

aaron had to let everyone hit him across the face with a pita..yes a pita (apparently one of the more humiliating ones of the evening)

then aaron again got an egg broken on his head (which dries similar to cement if you didn't know)

then andy comes up short again and had to get his bare feet soaked with the hose and then run to the front of the neighborhood sign and back with no shoes (i still would have hypothermia if i lost that one) no picture though :-(

and then lani again...had to brush her teeth with the electric toothbrush with dishsoap on it...for a whole 2 minutes!

well, notice you didn't see sam, lauren, or brian getting the brunt of the consequences...they lucked out this time but their turn will come!

blog-stalking

2007-11-06T11:40:00.000-05:00

so once again, i've been scolded for not blogging since my puking incident. i'm not complaining...i'm glad that there are a bunch of people that look forward to the updates...i just unfortunately don't have much to write about these days.

i'm still waiting to hear back from ecu admissions. i was trying to get ready ahead of time if i get accepted...so i've been researching a bunch of scholarship opportunities through the school. in doing so, i've encountered lots of imcompetance and that is probably my biggest pet peeve. (p.s.- i don't know how to spell that and its probably wrong) the website lists a bunch of scholarships but doesn't say ANYTHING about them other than the name of it and the amount. So i e-mailed them asking quite a few questions so i knew which ones were still available, i was eligible for, blah blah blah...so three weeks later, (and more phone calls and e-mails) someone finaly e-mailed me back and says, and i quote "i can't help you with this" and thats it. mind you, that was the scholarship contact person listed on the website. you can't help me, or you won't help me...that was my question. so i ask someone else...and he e-mails me back a week later with the link to the scholarship page that started this whole debacle. so now, about a month later, i still don't know if i'm accepted or if i can even apply for a scholarship. there's probably nothing more annoying to me than people who either can't or won't do their job well. ugh.

but other than that, there's not too much going on. aaron and i are just trying to log a lot of working hours to get ready for later when he'll be in africa and then we'll both be gone for the holidays. makes for some long days, but thats life, right. on a good note, my parents will be down here for the beginning when aaron's in africa and the jillian is going to spend the last weekend down with me! its gonna make those three weeks way easier to handle! gotta love being loved!

on another side note...joe torre has gone to manage the dodgers...and he took don mattingly with him. as sad as i am that he's gone, there are way worse teams he could have gone to. i might have to become a secondary dodgers fan. so joe girardi is the new yankee manager and i was a fan of his when he was a player so it could be way worse. and in recent yankee news...more confirmation on why i hated rodriquez as a yankee. is a recent interview he names the red sox as his prime option for after the yankees. if there are any true yankee fans that like a-rod, they have now been set straight. no true yankee wants to go play for the red sox. i hope he goes...they deserve eachother. sorry john.

well hope this satisfies you blog stalkers until we have more news worthy things to write about!

not my favorite part of the day!

2007-10-17T17:18:00.000-05:00

let me just preface this by saying...if you're squimish, stop reading. for the iron stomachs, get this! so i had a meeting uptown this morning for the Y. we got out around 12:30 so i met a friend that works up there for lunch. mind you, i was feeling fine before lunch. so we get lunch and sit and chat for a bit and i still feel fine. i had nothing weird...just a chicken wrap and a fruit cup.

so as i'm walking out to my car my stomach starts to feel weird. (which, for any of you that know me well...this is no new phenomenon. i'm very accustomed to feeling sick to my stomach) so i start to drive home and it gets worse. i start to realize that i'm gonna throw up at some point. i'm just hoping it can wait until i get to my house. keep in mind, i live about 25 minutes away. about 2 minutes later i realize there's no way i'm gonna make it...

i get the sweats that inevitably come with throwing up so i'm taking off my layers while i drive, hoping that will stop the sweats and lessen the nausea. nope. the mouth starts to water. then you know you're in trouble cause its on the way up. so i quickly have to pull across two lanes and turn down a side street to get off the main road...

i round the corner into a driveway (i feel real bad about this by the way) and open my door just in time to puke out the car door instead of in the seat next to me. sheesh. talk about awful. after more heaving than i would have thought possible for the amount of food i'd eaten, i actually look up and people are giving me all sorts of looks...but they keep driving of course. i feel so much better almost immediately...still nauseous, but not in dire need of throwing up anymore....

so the poor people that live in that house! there were no cars home so i couldn't go up to the door to ask where a hose was, i couldn't find one on my own, and i didn't know what to do...so i left. i still don't know if there was a better plan than that, but thats what i did. i wanted to get home before the next wave hit.

moral of the story...throwing up is bad enough...forget about doing it while driving alone on a main road and thowing up out your door in a stranger's driveway. yikes. and for those that will inevitably ask this question...no i'm not pregnant.

em's wedding

2007-10-01T13:35:00.000-05:00

well we made the trek up to jersey a litte over a week ago to em and nick's wedding. its a day us roomies have been excited about for a while now! emily benson...let a man take her heart. notable news. but when you see them together you know why she was so picky all those years. God had something better! they seem wonderful! its so good to see! i still don't feel like i know him well enough but he seems great and i'm pumped for them.

mitch, aaron and i all drove up together. we went up to virginia thursday night and stayed at jillians nice new house. that was about a 6 hour drive. then we went the rest of the way up friday morning. another 4 and a half hours i think. lots of driving...but i'm glad we got to go. and luckily for me, with two boys in the car, i don't have to drive! cause i hate driving long distances. (john, you'll be glad that there was one less dangerous female on the road)

anyway, we gathered at em's and had lunch before we went to decorate the church. then we all got ready for the rehersal and dinner. the dinner was at the church and was a real nice time of memories and such. a lot of people had the opportunity to say some things about them. good times. then it was back home for a restful night before the big day! aaron and mitch split a hotel room so i could crash at em's and knock out another hotel room purchase. they opened a few presents that night and then it was time for girl talk. me, em, carrie and allie (her sisters) had some time chatting about marriage, helping her pack for the honeymoon, and getting excited for the next day.

wedding was at 10 so it was an early morning! hair apointments at 7 for some while the rest of us wrestled with our own at home. pictures at the house by nine and then off to the church! ceremony was great and then we got on to the reception. it was at a place just a few miles away. there were quite a few messiah people there. three tables at least. it was so good to see everyone and have some time to catch up. we needed to hit the road pretty quick after so we drove back down to jillians after the reception at 5. got there in time to spend some time with her and chuck which was nice. played some Wii tennis, ate, chatted, etc. Nothing crazy, just good relaxing time together. We went to church with them in the morning, grabbed lunch and then started the rest of the drive back! so much driving in just 4 days. but it was great to see so many college friends and others on the road. i unfortunately don't have many pictures but i'll post some when i get them from others.

other life updates...

1. i'm done with the GRE!!!! that is a nice feeling. now i'll finish the application this week and hopefully be ready to go come januray!

2. my jellyfish wound is making some great headway...fading by the day

3. it's official...we'll be spending about 10 weeks in chicago for this coming summer, helping out MAI with the chicago academy. we're pumped!

4. aaron's next triathlon is this saturday...up in the tenessee mountains

5. we're about to make a trip up north to see some people from school and home as well as see the boys play soccer. can't wait!

i'm sure there will be more on those things to come!

kiawah island triathlon

2007-09-24T11:36:00.001-05:00

well...its a week late but i got the pictures to help tell the story of aaron's dominance :-) so we (us and the casey's) got down there late friday night and had a lazy saturday morning. once we finally got our act together we hit the beach on saturday. unfortunately, we forgot the camera because the whole day was like a scene from animal planet! when we first got there we saw a bunch of dolphins jumping out of the water. it was prett sweet...there were a lot of them and they were just frolicking, having a great time. so we hang, play some beach bocce, etc before we go in the water. standard beach agenda.

then we went in the water. and it all got a little crazy. this is going to sound a little dramatic...but i don't care. it was both dramatic and traumatic at the time. so we're swimming and all of a sudden i feel some serious pain in my wrist. it felt like something was biting me and i needed to shake it off my arm. yeah, it hurt that much. so i whip it out of the water and start yelling and shaking it around. great visual i'm sure. i never saw the beast but i imagine it was a very hungry jellyfish/man-of-war thing. i've been stung before but this was pretty different so i think it was something else. so it immediately gets huge, red and swollen. so right now you're probably thinking..."i saw an episode of friends once...i wonder if that works"...well we thought the same thing cause at that moment, you don't care how gross that is, you just want the pain to stop. let me educate you for the future if this should ever happen to you...it doesn't work. so the rest of the day we watched my injury spread and morph. i had swelling, redness, strange spots, lost feeling in my arm, the whole deal. at one point, i got nervous because pain was moving from my wrist, up my whole arm, down the armpit, and all the way down my side till my waist. i'm thinking, ok, i think traveling pain is probably a bad sign. but that went away in a couple hours. and since then, it has morphed more times. the picture below in on the day it happened but it kind of hard to see so its not a very good representation. but it gives you an idea i guess. a few days later, the swelling had gone down and it started to itch instead so i'm thinking it'll be gone in a few days. but no...just a few more days later the thing flares up! now i have hive-like things spreading further than the actual sting, dark red spots where i'm guessing the tentacles hit, and the swelling it worse than at the beginning! sheesh! so everyone keeps telling me to go to the doctor, probably as some of you are thinking....but i have a physical on thursday so i'm waiting till then. and please don't try to convice me otherwise cause i won't listen.

so after that whole experience some people near us (who had their fishing lines in the water all day) started to make a commotion. we think its a huge fish so a crowd starts to gather...and it was a huge fish...and then it rolled over on the sand and we saw the fin...the fin of a shark that is! yup...they caught a 3.5-4 foot shark! oh my goodness...at this point we're all looking at eachother thinking...great, this is the water we're swimming in for the traithlon tomorrow morning. at that moment i was so glad sam was our swimmer and not me. and then, they let the thing go! so we're watching the water and we see this shark swim back out and see the fin getting smaller and smaller. not a very comfortable feeling so needless to say, we didn't exactly spend lots more time in the water.

so after brief stint on national geographic, we showered and went into charleston for the evening. got dinner, hit the market, hung out at the pier. good times. and got to bed to get some good rest before the race! it was at this point that i realized that i forgot an important item. yeah, who goes away for the weekend...to run in a race...and forgets underwear! that's such an important item when you run! i'm an idiot. so after a quick k-mart run, i'm back on track...but pretty mad at myself cause i'm picky about what kind i run in...and k-mart didn't exactly have any good options.

so we get up real early and drive to kiawah for the race. its an eerie feeling cause its early and still dark, you're nervous, and so is everyone else. so we get there, check in, get your number, set up the transition area, etc. time to get going!!! we walk a mile down the beach to start the swim. the swimmers swim out and them swim across back the way we came for a mile. it was pretty choppy so i'm sure it was tough. (sidenote: as one guys gets out he's telling his friend that a jellyfish "lit him up") i wasn't the only one! but aaron was third out of the water! off to a good start!

then comes the bike. heidi was awesome and aaron was good too. except that he coudn't clip out of his bike pedals when he got back. he's still got a little learning to do on the bike :-) then the run. now i have the unfortunate position of the last leg so i've been up since 5, and waiting at the race for a least two hours since it started just letting the nerves build. when heidi came in and finally passsed me the timing chip i was so ready to go that i took off. and quickly realized that was not smart. the first mile of the run was through sand. tough. not a good idea to wear yourself out running on sand when you still have 5 miles left. but i made it to the road and passed aaron on my way (yeah, he was already on his way back).

so you wait and eat after you're done until they announce the results. aaron won his age group! there's a picture of his sweet plaque below :-) he came in sixth overall. so good. team rodrigo (me sam and heidi) got third in the mixed relay category. don't get too excited, there weren't very many in our category. but it was a ton of fun!

and this is for your viewing pleasure...yes, someone actually wore this to do the swim. and we had to capture it!

and i will leave you for now on that note. next on the agenda...updates on emmy's wedding!

back blogging!

2007-09-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

well, enough people have called me out on being a blogging slacker...so i'll get on it and start where we left off. we spent labor day weekend day with allison and mike. they treated us to a wonderful weekend of fun! we got down to atlanta on friday night and then continued the trip over the Auburn. Allison and Mike are both Auburn alumns and now Mike's sister goes there too...so we met up with her and went out to a nice dinner down there.

So the special thing about this weekend was that it was opening weekend for Auburn football. And if we learned one thing from that weekend, its that Auburn students are OBSESSED with Auburn football. people tape off tailgate spots the night before the game and there's an unspoken rank system within that too...as far as where you're allowed to tape off. and people obey it too! weird. so saturday morning, the tailgating begins. i've never seen such elaborate tailgating...far cry from messiah chessy dogs i'm sad to say. they have entire entertainment systems set up with satellites to watch all the other college games that are going on all day. serioulsy, i walked around with my mouth hanging open the entire day. the entire campus is busting with people (who had driven in as early as tuesday to get spots)...wearing a sea of orange and navy. it was a really amazing atmosphere...really opened my eyes to what a different college experience people have. not that i'd trade my messiah days for anything...but it would've fun to be a part of something like that.

so the game starts at about 7 and they have a huge spectacle going on... armored cars ushering in the refs and the real live eagle that flies in to start the game... a "tiger march" of the players marching campus into the stadium, etc. nuts. also, the game experience is just soooo different in the south. i couldn't get over it. i was probably one of the only females not wearing a sun dress (and an innapropriate one at that) who gets dressed up to go to a game?!?! what happened to painting your face or chest or something??? no, we have to put on as much makeup as we can, and get dressed for a summer party in our best little dress. and the guys...polo's and khacki's at the very least. really strange. but all in all...it was a rediculously fun day...so much energy and excitement. aaron and i came out yelling auburn cheers as if we'd gone there too...allison and mike were glad to claim us as honorary alumns :-) so here are a few pics of the 87,000+ people in the stadium...

so we stayed over that night and then drove home sunday. we took sunday to relax and lay around all day cause the big race was monday morning! it was a nice day to relax. aaron and mike went and drove the 10K course while allison and i shopped fo some carbo loading dinner materials. i was soooo nervous about this race. i don't really know why...maybe cause i heard it was really hilly. so they came home and didn't calm my fears at all...saying that it was the hilliest course they've ever seen and whatnot...nice of them huh? the race was great though. they weren't lying...it was all hills...and mostly uphill too. but it went well (mostly for aaron). there were 12,000 people in it. i've never run in an environment like that...its great cause it distracts you a bit when you really don't want to be running anymore. also annoying cause they didn't take waves of people to start the clock. they said go and we were at least a few minutes back from the starting line, walking with the 12,000 people to get there and start but the clock had already started!!! so annoying. so i think our times aren't right. but either way, we did all right. i finished in about an hour and aaron finished in way less :-) he ran the whole thing in a 6:20/mile pace. which i think was actually faster cause of the starting issue. but he did well and won a lttle medal....i think he finished 48 out of the 12,000. no doubt beat by all the kenyans there...all three top finishers for the men and women were kenyan or ethiopian. such a monopoly on this sport! so after the race we went to the water park (the race finished there and we got free admission for running in it) hit a bunch of rides and then head out. it rounded out a great weekend! here are the three racers after it was all over....allison didn't run cause she doesn't like heat or hills...and now i totally understand :-)

so, next on our calandar was the kiawah island triathlon with the casey's... i have to get pictures from sam and heidi because i disgraced all females by forgetting to bring my camera to this adventure...but once i do i will continue this life update! lets just say it was an awesome weekend again and i'm married to a freak of fitness nature :-)

aahhh transitions

2007-08-30T11:59:00.000-05:00

so there have been some recent developments in our lives in the past few weeks. for one, i have applied to some online grad programs. i think we've come to the conclusion that its a good time to get on with that plan considering the lack of full time job. i have to take the gre to apply to the one i really want to go to though. so back to the books! its been a long time since i've taken any test, let alone a standardized one. i've realized that all my reading has not helped my vocab in the gre book. and i've been reading a lot since i've had some annoying time on my hands. at one point (yes, a low point) i think i read three books in 2 days. that should tell you how productive i've been with my life the past two weeks. i did manage to paint the bathroom though. amy, pictures are not far off but i need to finish putting it back together first. the cabinets are now espresso brown, the floor is like slate looking ceramic tile, the walls are now a greenish-blueish-gray i guess. looking good. but i hope to be able to start school stuff in january. we'll see if i can take the gre and get it all reported and applied in time. as long as i know this down time is short, i ca handle it i think.

on another note, aaron and i had a meeting with pat and got some things out in the open about camp. things are going to change! the meeting went pretty well and we have some more decisions to make but we're pretty excited. now that camp all summer is not going to happen for us, some doors are now open for some other things. exciting stuff. so in the mean time, our fall is shaping up to be busier than ever. 10K races, triathalons, soccer game travel, a trip home perhaps, emmy's wedding in jersey, etc. i'm not sure why we seem to think the fall is down time for us...its just as busy but we do it to ourselves! on that note, i'm off to hit the gre books once again!

Ceramic Tile

2007-08-09T13:53:00.000-05:00

so we've had a lot going on here for the past week....family in town and whatnot. my dad is here and i wanted to put ceramic tile in the bathrooms so we decided to do it this week too. makes for a messy house...lots of guests in and out plus the remodeling. i wouldn't suggest it for others...so the first bathroom goes down without issue....but the masterbath is another story. so i've had a few million sample tiles in and out of this house planning for this. i finally pick one for our bathroom that looks like of like slate...a little different, i know. but i really liked it. so i go back to lowes to buy it all and tell the guy what i want. he comes back with the boxes and loads them in the car. that was two weeks ago. they have been on the floor of the garage since then. unlooked at. (you might be able to see where i'm going with this now)

so the first bathroom is done so i go to bring that stack of boxes in the house. and while i'm carrying them, i think...wow, these look a little different. open up the boxes and realize....they are different!!! they're not the same tile!!! so dad's ready to start putting it down...slaving (and sweating) like and animal and i tell him that i have the wrong tile. talk about feeling like an idiot. so back to lowes i go to fix it...

i bring home boxes of the right tile this time and take it out of the box.....and again, it doesn't look the same! its the same tile name now, but the coloring is really different from my sample tile. so i go through the whole set of four boxes and take out the tile that look more like the sample. this new dye lot of tile has WAY more orange-ish color swirling in the slate look. the orange cannot happen in my blue bathroom so now i'm picking tiles out of the boxes to keep and have to go back to lowes to buy more boxes to pick and choose out of!

needless to say, this better look good when its all over cause i feel like its been more hassle than its worth. and my poor dad continues to slave! the moral of the story goes back to a line from my dear friend bryan regan..."its just gonna be a big hassle, thats our policy"

Winding Down and Getting Ready for Change

2007-07-25T12:06:00.000-05:00

so i get back from vermont, work for two days, and then head up to join aaron at high school team camp. he'd been there since saturday. i wanted to join them for a few reasons....i hadn't seen him since friday and now it was monday. he would be there till wednesday and i work wednesday night. and he leaves for the ohio road trip from thursday to sunday...so basically if i wanted to see him here and there i needed to be there at camp when he had a few minutes of down time.

it was actually really relaxing to be there. the camp ground was about 45 minutes north of us and they had 5 high school boys soccer teams staying there. they'd have training sessions and devo's in the morning, team building activities in the afternoon, scrimmage in the evening, and have bible time speaking and small groups at night before bed. this is really something aaron has a passion for so i wanted to see him in action. it seemed to go well so thats good considering it was the first time he tried to pull it off!

team building activities were paintball, low ropes, high ropes, and lake time. i wish i could've done it all but that would have required me jumping in with a team of boys...yeah, don't think so. so that leaves one week of local camps left and then the college pre-season event (aaron's other baby). then, the camp program goes into wrap-up mode. when its all said and done, it went pretty smoothly this year...

now on to some interesting news...the night before i left for vermont i received an e-mail from school that my classes were probably not going to be offered again this coming school year. they kind of gave a reason, and i have some more of my own that i believe are probably part of it too....but either way, it looks like some changes will need to be made. john, i'm in your boat now, and yes, its annoying for sure. so if you guys remember it in your prayers, please keep us in mind. there might be some big changes coming soon. we'll just keep trusting god to open doors and lead us...thats what he does best so i look forward to when he decides to let us in on his plan. until then, i'll be spending a little more time on my knees :-)

Vermont!

2007-07-25T11:47:00.000-05:00

Oh man! T's wedding was on Lake Champlaign in Vermont. It was gorgeous! Really makes you want to consider taking a vacation to the New England coast in the summer. Great temperature and very pretty scenery. It was a real quick trip so I wish i coulda been there longer but no such luck. Got in friday night and left at 4am sunday morning. I bunked in with the bridesmaids in the next door neighbors house. sweet view overlooking the lake, with a screened in porch with rocking chairs. it was good to have some time to catch up with em and jess being with the girls. i've been the classic "plus one" this summer for weddings. not in it, but there early for various reasons. makes for some awkward situations like...do you ride to the church with the wedding party? no, but how do you get there? do you join the hair dresser party? no, but what do you do instead?....and other random things like that. so i helped out when i could with placecard stuff, cleaning up, marriage licence, etc. not a bad role...keeps you busy.

the wedding was nice at a nearby church and the reception was back at the house overlooking the lake. really nice setting. very t as well. she's still the same...good to see. this was the first time all five from mellingber B103 were all together since graduation...we've seen eachother but not all at once. and we'll get to do it again for em's wedding in september! good times.

new york trip

2007-07-11T08:25:00.000-05:00

i had a great time up in new york this last time. got up there thursday morning. drove out to jersey friday to hang out with emily. she thought i was here for my grandpa's party, and had no idea that saturday morning was here bridal shower! so we caught up and i slept over friday night and then left for the shower in the morning. she was really surprised which is fun. there were lots of people there and most of the roomies too! so good to see everyone even though it was quick. i had to leave early to get home in time for grandpa's party so i didn't ruin that surprise. it was supposed to take me and hour and half....it didn't. good ole fourth of july traffic i guess. it too me 2 and a half hours to get home!!! i almost missed grandpa's surprise! but that party was fun too. lots of extended family on the faraci side that i just never see. lots of good times. he was surprised too and so cute when he realized. :-) well i'm home now and leave again for vermont in a week and a half. that concludes my flights for a while i believe. i hope so anyway...i'm sick of airports!

more denver pics

2007-07-11T08:20:00.000-05:00

i just got the camping night pictures online so here they are! beautiful!

Oh, Sweet Denver!

2007-06-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

well...we just got back from Sam and Heidi's wedding out in denver. it was awesome! it was basically a 4 day party....now of course, i have some stories that go with it because whenever aaron and i travel, there's an issue! so we drove to greensboro tuesday night and saw the giordano's and the new little luca.
we slept there and left at 4:40 am to fly out. if only that was the hardest part of that day. so we find out we're flying a different airline than is listed on our tickets and finally get what we think are our boarding passes. the security guy stops us and says that they're not valid (eve though, they had all the info...including the tear off portion with our seats and gate and stuff) anyway, after some deliberation, he let us through. we fly to our 1st layover in atlanta and had a bit of a layover until we left for minneapolis. thats when the issues began. so in minneapolis, they were overbooked and asked people to bump to another flight, and they'd give us free vouchers for another flight. sounds pretty tempting! so we get on the list to do it since we were gonna have to wait for fish to land in denver after us anyway. but we weren't put on the next flight, we were put on another later flight...with an additional layover. so our first 3 hour layover, turned into a 5 hour layover....and now we're going to kansis city before we get to denver. so we get there and our next flight is yet on another carrier...we've been switched now to united. unfortunately, united had a computer crash in the morning so all their flights were even further delayed! so now we wait an extra 2 hours in kansas city.....we finally got to denver around 10pm mountain time, midnight eastern time...after leaving before 5 am eastern time. so needless to say we EARNED those free flights for sure! below is a picture of my boarding passes for our trip out there...keep in mind, these were just for one person to get from NC to denver...should give you a good picture of how crazy our trip out there was!

so we missed out on all of wednesday in denver. thursday, we had a bridal brunch in downtown at this place called snooze. mostly with bridesmaids and other family in town. the boys were going up to the mountains thursday and camping there thursday night for their bachelor evening. so they left in the afternoon and the girls bachelorette started with dinner at a mexican place. we went back to someone's house and toasted and told stories about heidi, played a wild game of spoons and then headed back to downtown denver. we started the evening at a piano bar that has these two guys that use real songs but make up their own words. i guess its a real common bachelorette place. so heidi got pulled up there a few times to join the festivities. the concept was pretty neat but the words to the songs left much to be desired. pretty dirty. :-( so we stayed about and hour and then moved on to the dancing. we took a city bus to some other bar that had a small dance floor. we danced probably until 2 and then started to head home. heidi had a GREAT time...she really lived it up all night. so while we were doing the city thing, the boys were camping out in the most gorgeous place up the mountain i guess. hopefully i'll pictures of that later to add. but they played rediculous games, ate a lot, etc.

friday, we switched to the reception hotel and laid out by the pool for a little bit before the rehersal. i had some work for the eagles to do and i got that done while sitting at panera with annie. (we spent a ton of time together while the boys were all busy) did the rehersal thing and then went to maggiano's for the dinner. really good food, and a lot of toasting. apparently everyone in sam's family likes to talk! people said some real great stuff about the two of them and sam spoke about heidi too. there was some great mention of the Lord and His role in their lives which was awesome because there were a lot of unsaved people there. it was really was very obvious all weekend that they were intentional about using their wedding as a window to their faith.

saturday morning aaron and i got up real early and drove out to the mountains since i still hadn't seen them yet. imagine being too busy to see the rockies when you're in denver! that wasn't an option we drove out. it is so beautiful! i'm really glad we did it. it was also good to spend some time with aaron because most of the weekend we were staying with and hanging out with tons of other people. we got back and then left for the wedding!

the ceremony was great, and aaron even got to play a little prank on sam there, and then the party began. these people love to have a good time! the reception went till 10 and everyone was dancing the whole time! my kind of party! there was the usual, toasting, cake, garder, etc events and all that good stuff. after the wedding all us young folks stayed up and hung out outside playing some games and eating some pizza. good times. then it was time to go! a very busy, fun, sleepless trip to denver!

there was a fairly small messiah crew there...only the ones in it pretty much but it was great to see the ones that were there! anyway, the trip back was much less eventful....saturday i had to switch everything around cause our tickets were still all messed up, but once we got to the airport it was smooth sailing! it took us like 10 less hours to get home. craziness! so now we're having fun brainstorming where to fly with our vouchers!

June Madness

2007-06-13T08:22:00.000-05:00

well i'm sitting here looking at my planner, trying not to have an anxiety attack. june is a crazy month for us...aaron's traveling a lot with the team and i'm traveling to lots of weddings and family birthday parties. just got back from long island for my grandpa's 80th birthday. while i was gone, aaron had games in baltimore and bermuda (i know, nice life). now i have a wedding this weekend, flying to denver a few days later for sam and heidi's, then a few days later...back to new york for my other grandpa'a 80th birthday. my poor clients...i can only work a few days at a time so i'm trying to fit them in all over the place. that would be why i'm going to the Y 2 or 3 times a day while i'm home...oh well, at least i have the flexibility to go to all these events and keep my jobs, even though i think i'm losing my sanity!

we've had some long island friends in town the past week...they're moving down here so he's looking for a teaching job and doing a housing search. its been so long since we've done that, i forgot how much work it is. but he's found a great teaching job and now they're focusing on the housing!

camp season is going well so far...this is the first week of local camps and the third week of away camps, and so far so good! even with all this travel it seems that we've stayed on top of things. i guess the real test will come when i try to work from the laptop for the 5 days we're in denver. i'm gonna get a taste of the business world in that way i guess. being all important on the plane...looking at everyone else thinking i'm better than them because i'm still working. "bring me the head of a pig!" and "i'm making money right now"...how far from the truth that really is :-)

well training's going well for me. i've hit the point where i have a lot of clients and actually don't want to take on anymore for now. i've started to have to take notes after each session because i mix people up now. so it's good i guess!

so i'm still trying to get aaron to do some posting but he's still resisting at the moment...he'll get there. i'll put up some pictures when i get my camera back...hopefully i can get you a look at his bermuda trip and other stuff going on down here.

Camp Season!

2007-05-28T19:19:00.000-05:00

well...camp season is off and running! we just sent our first away camp staff off to south carolina to start tomorrow. it seems like we've gotten everyone ready and it should go smoothly...but of course we'll have our phones on to solve any last minute issues that may arise. so getting ready to send these folks this past week has not been easy...

the pro team had a road trip this past weekend...they left for it on thursday morning. the whole camp admin staff (except for me) made the road trip this time. wonderful news for all of them, interesting situation for camp! so we all worked all day (and most of the night) to finish writing the bible curriculum and make the manuals for away camp training. so i worked in the eagles office from 9-3, from 4-10 at the Y, and then back to the office till 1:30 in the morning! craziness!!! but we got it all done...we think so anyway...

so the boys were all gone until sunday night...but my parents were in town so that was nice. somewhere else to sleep and hang out and keep me company. their new development is pretty sweet so we laid by the pool, played a little tennis...good relaxing stuff. i worked at the office and the Y a bit each day but it was still nice...

also had some time out with all the girls which is always fun when the guys are out of town. unfortunately this time, we picked the worst movie i've ever seen in my life! word to whoever reads this...DON'T GO SEE GEORGIA RULE! it was horrible in so many ways i can't even start to explain it....but we did have some fun before the movie started. sat outside with the fountains and music in the nice weather...good stuff. should've just stayed there talking the whole night instead. no, seriously.

so aaron got back sunday night, had dinner with my family and then went home to relax. monday morning...(a memorial day holiday for most) back at the eagles office! had to finish up making the reports to send down with the staff. not too much time in the office though. so i found out last night after dinner that the whole camp staff was coming to our house for lunch today. the moments you'd like to strangle your usually fabulous husband. so we had to do some quick clean-up and host about 15-20 people here today... but it all went well. and now it all flies by with some controlled chaos untill august!

coaching woe's

2007-05-16T08:19:00.000-05:00

last weekend aaron's youth club coaching came to an unfortunate end. they were in state cup and so far had been overachieving, giving themselves the chance to make it to the final 4 with just one more win. they were ranked 11 of 12 and had done really well...but prom reared its ugly head. about 10 of the boys had their senior prom saturday night night before the game. needless to say, the team got off to a slow start and didn't quite have enough left to get the job done. they lost 2-1.
even though it didn't end on a great note, they had a great season and aaron really enjoyed these boys even though he only coached them this one season. after the game so many of the parents and boys told aaron that this was their most memorable season and they were sorry it was over. the parents were so grateful for aaron mentioning his character and moral leadership for their boys. of course, i'm not surprised, but its great that there was still such a positive impression at the end!

ugh, cars

2007-05-02T09:51:00.000-05:00

well i think we've finally reached the end of our car troubles from the past few days. technology continues to frustrate me (although i am sitting in bed on my computer posting my life on the internet for the world to see)...but anyway, just like computers, cars are great when they're working and beyond frustrating when they're not! you really don't realize how dependant you are until there's a problem. so a week or two ago, i put the key in the ignition and it wouldn't turn. totally stuck. after trying lots of stupid things and trying to jump it, later on that night it finally jumped and worked. then, this past sunday it happened again. good thing we know people at church or we would've been seriously stuck. so we come out after church and it happens again. only we can't wait for hours there because we had a wedding to get to. so dan gave us a ride to sam's and then we rode with sam and heidi to the wedding. came home and drove back to the church parking lot to try and jump it again...p.s- its pretty hard to jump a car when the key won't turn. so needless to say, it didn't work this time so we call aaa. over two hours later, (now that we're sitting in aaron's truck in the dark all alone in the church parking lot) we're told that we need a new battery cause its totally dead and un-jumpable. wonderful. so the next morning aaron gets rides everywhere he needs to go from his teammates (you know, like you did when you were 13) and i took his car to go to sears and buy a new car battery. pick him up and go there to install our new save-the-day car battery. after much wrestling with the old corroded battery, we finally get it installed (not that either of us had done that before and knew what we were doing or anything) so we go to put the key in again, and lo and behold, the key still won't turn! so the aaa guy was full of crap. apparently, the battery power was not what was locking up the ignition...but we now had a brand new battery...and a dead car. so aaron' goes home and does some research and finds out that the fabulous ford focus is notorious for this problem, and it has nothing to do with battery power. they just decided to install the worst quality ignition they could find and 75 pages worth of people on the internet had this same problem. but ford says not enough people have reported it to be considered a recall item. in the meantime i'm getting rides places and getting stuck at the y for hours because i can't get a ride so i just keep working out for lack of better things to do. walked around the shopping center across the street aimlessly for an hour...rented a movie i didn't want, just because i had too much time on my hands. anyway, so through those postings we learned to call a locksmith instead of towing it to the dealer or another car repair place. apparently, it would have cost hundreds of dollars to do it that way. so yesterday morning i call around a lot and talk to a locksmith. we meet him at the church parking lot at 12...and proceed to wait there for 3 and a half hours while he tries to fix it. after calling his partner, having another guy come out and help him, and lots of waiting around, he got a new ignition in it and got it started! so an unnecessary new battery, and slightly less than a few hundred dollars later...we have a crappy ford focus that now works again. all this just goes to add to my frustration in always owning the lowest possible level of fords ever made...it just might be time to look into something that doesn't fall into the toy car category!!!

Deloach Wedding

2007-05-02T09:38:00.000-05:00

well...another wedding! went on sunday out to dennis vineyards in albermarle for lauryn and aaron's wedding. it was a gorgeous day and really pretty setting for a wedding. the whole eagles crew was out there for the fun. anytime the group is all together, craziness is bound to happen. and obvious from one of the pictures, i really enjoyed the punch at the reception :-)

heidi's shower

2007-04-24T10:12:00.000-05:00

this past weekend we had a shower for heidi drummond (soon-to-be casey) at our house! this was the first time i'd hosted a real planned party and stuff so i learned a lot about what all goes into it. we had some good food, fun decorations and lots of presents! we outfitted heidi properly for marriage as well as for our nite out after the shower! she was not a fan of the attention it could draw but it's all part of the deal! we even gave her some eagles iron-on undies so she could be a good fan for sam on game days :-) good times.

the faro hotel

2007-04-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

well, no pictures to go with this post, just ramblings of my head. we've recently had insane numbers of people staying at our house on a regular basis. bear with me here while i recap a few. we had a new teammate and his wife during tryouts, some friends of aaron's from high school (who also brought more friends in a quick surprise event), another couple from aaron's old days, my parents, then my sister, and now another family (mom, dad and baby) that has recently joined the team...they will be with us for a few weeks. all this has transpired in the last month. needless to say we are blessed with tons of people that are willing to drive and visit us which is awesome! we also have been blessed with spare rooms (though small) for people in need to stay. so it makes for the perfect combo for perpetual hosting. that said...i now know that there is a limit to how much you can pack into a short month! so when all is said and done...i'll need to sleep for a long time to recover! and of course, aaron is not nearly as weary from it all as i am...figures huh..being laid back and all! good thing we have some balance in this house!

ally's wedding!

2007-03-30T21:41:00.000-05:00

had a great time at the betchley-buckelew wedding last weekend! it was great to have the b's and the o's back dancing together again like old times :-) 4 of the 5 kids are now married off with one in the military...we've come a long way from playing jump over the stick and making up new years dances!

Birthday surprise!

2007-03-20T09:13:00.000-05:00

true to my husbands reputation, he surprised me by bringing my roommates into town for my birthday! it was the greatest surprise ever! we unfortunately were missing jess but it was the closest we'd been to being all together since graduation! lots of changes since then: two engaged and one with her first baby! new phase of life but still the same great time!

getting started!

2007-03-20T09:07:00.000-05:00

this is my attempt to catch up to the rest of the world...this way i can post pictures here and possibly stop people from asking me to get on facebook! we'll see how it goes!