a life beyond running shoes.

here is a new family photo...new baby, new hair color. did you expect anything less?! actually, it is more out of necessity to have darker color....less roots to show up in six weeks when my hair starts falling out. fun, fun!!! of course, come spring when we have sort of figured out how to manage two kiddos, i am sure i'll have new color again. well, micah is sick today. he had a fever yesterday and while i might have opted to leave him w/ my mom and take asher to church (because i am dying to be out and see people), asher himself had a rough night and was awake from 2 - 4:15.... which means we were awake as well. i opted to take an easy morning in pjs. mom and i caught some of father of the bride II in between thomas the tank engine on pbs and baby einstein's meet the orchestra on dvd. overall though, i think we are adjusting fairly well. mom managed to slip out and get me my decaf vanilla latte from down the street leaving me with both boys by myself!!! i think ...

micah is definitely taking more to asher these days. this morning went and got asher's pacifier when he would not stop crying...what a sweet big brother (literally - HA!) thursday i walked home from the pediatricians office. that was okay. at one point i was going to wait for the bus and sat down for awhile, but it was getting cold....so, i walked the rest of the way home..... still okay. then, i helped make dinner. roast pork and vinegar and bay leaves (page 419 - for those who have missed the occasional cooking from marcella hazan's book).... i was skeptical because of the way the vinegar burned my eyes when i went to turn the tenderloin half way through cooking, yet i was nicely surprised. it was tender & tasty. the plan is to use the left overs for salad today. then i whipped together a risotto with parmesan cheese. it was an effort to impress my mother with my culinary skills...but i stood too long. silly me. yesterday, i walked home from getting my hair done and ...

micah at one week (on left). asher at one week (on right). can you tell that they are brothers? they both have what i fondly refer to as the "johnston double chin" which they get from their mother. thanks johnston genes; we are so thankful for that hand-me-down. we had asher's one week appointment today. he is perfect. his weight gain is awesome. he was born at 7lbs 8oz and is now 8lbs even. that is awesome!!! it means he is eating like a champ. i had a stretch of 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night.... wow!!!! we are sort of settling in.... only a few minor melt downs from big brother who is getting sweeter and sweeter with baby brother. here is a pic of the boys w/ "mimi" (she whose name is yet to be solidified, but was formerly known as marmie.... or we could always try as symbol and just call her "formerly known as...." :)

i am having trouble getting my pictures uploaded.... sorry that it will have to wait. we are doing great. he is sleeping and eating. micah is enjoying having a little brother as much as i can see. we have had a few melt downs here and there but i am not sure that it has as much to do with asher as much as it has to do with the changes in his universe. john has been around all week and my mom has been a HUGE help. she is on task with micah and has taken him on errands, to the playground, and even tackled barnes & nobles to play with the train set downstairs. she is a brave woman.... i'll try and get some photos up tomorrow.

wednesday: this was around 4 am. i woke up around 2:30 with contractions and started to time them. they were around 7 - 8 minutes apart. i kept wondering at what point i should wake john up and clue him into the fact that we were going to have a baby that day. he rolled over around 3:30 and got a look at the clock. so, i asked if he was awake and calmly informed him that i was in labor. he sat straight up.... "really, are you serious? what do we do now?" since there is really nothing to do at that moment... he got in the shower and i labored on. then i showered while he made me some oatmeal. this picture was post-shower, in between contractions (obviously). we called our friends the galts around 6:00 am to come and get micah for the day as labor was getting more intense. at some point my contractions slowed down, so i started walking around the apartment....that really helped get them going. by 8 am the contractions were between 4 - 6 minutes apart but were REALLY intense...i...

just thought i would throw that out there..... baby may be an hour away or much, much longer. and by the way, contractions hurt. :)

we had our annual christmas dinner date last night. a friend was kind enough to take our kid and let us get to the restaurant by the time it opened at 6pm. al di la . scrumptious, and there was not an open seat by 7pm. we were probably the third table there and one of the first to leave. we were home before our toddler was.... what does that say about how pregnant i really am. we started with salads. their house vinaigrette is so simple and yet one of the best i have had. it makes my mouth water. then we shared our primi course: red wine risotto. it takes 20 minutes to make and so you have to order early. it was rich, creamy, and worked well with my glass of wine. our secondi was the braised pork ossobucco (ankle shank). it literally melted in my mouth and feel apart on the plate. YUM!!! while the evening was not as long as we would have liked, we enjoyed getting some time out just the two of us before we become a family of four. speaking of which, our wonderful dinner tur...

who would think that a church worship band could do up christmas carols so well. our music team, which is comprised of professional musicians, did a littney of rocking carols - a few traditional, some stylistic arranged by bruce cockburn, and some by sufjan stevens (who i have mentioned before). some of my favorites happen to be "mary had a baby" and "go tell it on the mountain." kelly & rachel had some amazing harmonies..... rumor has it that rachel made a guest appearance two years ago, but i fail to remember. of course the evening was long with the nine tradiational readings and matt's homily (even though brief) but the highlights were some of steve elliot's arrangements. the potluck afterward needs to have a few shout outs - carolyn, thanks for my favorite cake...although it is a toss up with vanilla frosting. rotisserie chickens..... love 'em!!! can't get enough of 'em. could it be the pregger stomach talking?! less than a week ti...

i actually stayed up past 11pm last night.... i know you are in shock and don't believe me, but it is true. i actually crawled into bed at midnight still quite chatty. last night we had dinner with all the brooklyn pastoral staff.......plus a few kids thrown into the mix (except the galt twins who got a babysitter). we had so much fun... part of the fun was exposing jamison's hidden talent for high school show choirs. he was such a good sport letting us laugh at his most enjoyable high school moments. perhaps, i should bust out the dance routines from my heyday just to make him feel better..... naw. we had great conversation about the challenges of raising kids in this culture and the challenge to balance that with biblical standards & character, the difference between vocation and calling (if there is one), and what it means to encourage and challenge our children to pursue excellence in their lives in obedience to god. all of this with no conclusions or resolution ...

part of me wants to blame all of this on simply being pregnant, but since my mother-in-law did something very similar perhaps we should just blame it on the season..... i ordered my husband some christmas gifts on-line because i found some free shipping and i was not sure the local store would have it in stock. easy enough.... click, send, finished with hubbie. not so fast. got my confirmation email that it was being shipped three day and only then did i notice that in fact the package was being sent to florida. i had forgotten to change the shipping address from when i order some florida destination gifts two weeks ago. argh!!! well to throw my mother-in-law under the bus, she sent me some hand-me-down clothes for micah from my sister-in-law.....of course she was just as excited as i was to click, send, be finished with that package until she realized (the next day) that she had shipped it to my other sister-in-law in st. louis who is not expecting a boy but in fact expecting a gi...

sparing you most of the unnecessary details of it all, i would like to say that dilation has begun....all of this is very exciting considering i am already further along than i ever was with micah in this whole "pending labor" thing. now, this does not guarantee any sort of on time arrival but the chances of me actually going into labor on my own this time are looking very good. i am encouraged and just a bit freaked out at the idea that i could go into labor at anytime. wow! i guess we really are having a second kid. my prayer is that segundo will wait for my mom's arrival. in case you have lost count, we are sub-two weeks to due date. my guess is that he will come after christmas. we'll keep you posted.

say cheese! is this some hair or what.... we love bath time. one more side note about our xmas party thursday night - i made some killer homemade eggnog. never had it before, never made it before, but it was tasty! jordan is here....pictures to follow.

okay, not really. we had all of our small group leaders over for a christmas party last night, and everyone was gone by 9:30. i got someone to snap a picture to capture the belly as the end is drawing near. i have also been trying to keep up with my blogging as my brother (who is stationed in japan) has commented that he actually reads it with some regularity and looks forward to it. he is my motivator.... bud, i will wane in my consistency at some point but i am working hard to keep things interesting. micah was a real trooper as we just kept him up to enjoy all of the people. he woke up this morning asking for a cookie - as was one of the treats he was allowed last night. when he was told no cookies, he negotiated, "two cookies?" how is the possible to negotiate at 20 months?! crazy kiddo. weather update - yesterday: 50 degrees, sunny. today: 32, windy. winter is here. shout out - ms. nut - www.silverjeweleryclub.com - my earrings in this photo (which you probably ...

we just got a new point and shoot digital camera. it is what we are asking our folks to contribute to for christmas but decided to get it early just in case segundo decided to make an early appearance. our current camera was on its last leg....the display finally went out this past weekend. we really could not wait until after the holidays to get a new one. it was time anyway. it was a hand-me-down camera that was probably three years old when we got it two years ago. so, we were due for a new camera. but don't get me wrong, we are still saving up for an SLR....my dream digital camera...okay NOT my dream version cuz that would cost us over a thousand, but a beginner version of that. john was playing with the settings last night and took this picture in the pitch black. impressive. side note, we were going to ditch the pacifier come november 1st. we didn't. i think john was out of town and then micah got sick and then we just forgot to toss the thing. i think we are ...

where does one find glue sticks for a mini-glue gun in this neighborhood? where can i get some buttons for a craft project? how can i get to target to get one more packet of christmas paper to mail out my christmas letters with a toddler and a belly the size of a house? all of the frustrations of living in brooklyn without a car...... answers: glue sticks - save on fifth (a local version of a mini-target...sort of). they have everything one could need on a daily basis from shipping boxes, christmas decorations, cake pans, and light bulbs. buttons - have not found yet.... still hunting. may have to call in the overnight express from california. target - you take the bus and then take a car service home and load up on diapers, toilet paper, and just now realize you forgot paper towels -ARGH!!!! there are frustrations, but then again - i got someone to drive me home....door-to-door service; he even carried my bags to the door. then i walked around the corner to hit my tot-yoga class...

i got our tree on saturday - not totally a charlie brown christmas tree but close. we decorated today after having a bunch of fun yesterday at church making our advent wreath. we even did the little lighting song & prayer last night with the galts. but today, we cleaned up the house and decorated. we put the tree up, added the ornaments (micah is really into snowmen right now... apparently i am too but didn't realize it until i starting taking out all my xmas decorations and had a TON of snowmen), and added some tinsel around the house. we have had the christmas music going for almost a week now since i have been doing some sewing for the holidays - now, don't confuse me with some crafty person.... just trying to be cost-efficient. in terms of holiday music, might i highly recommend sufjan steven's xmas albums. we had an early copy last christmas but have been listen to it almost exclusive this year thanks to rhapsody.com (on-line music). it is actually two cds......

well, my book group decided that none of us really liked the book all that much. we all agreed that the characters were pretty stock, flat, and single-dimensional. there was no one to connect with or even like. as a character-driven book, it was lacking. while all the reviewers loved it, we did not. onto the next big adventure.....happy reading!!

well, i have to say that i am still trying to figure out how i feel about this book. i am posting about it before my book club because if history is any indicator, i usually like our books significantly more after our discussions. so, i am sure that i will post again tomorrow about our discussion tonight - but for now i will download. i have to say that i read her other book white teeth and don't really remember it. it was not memorable; i think this book will be the same. it was not engaging, did not have characters i really liked, nor did it have a story that was compelling. i can say that i think it was well written and did deal with the reality of multi-dimensional characters (although, john thought they were all flat) that are neither saints or sinners completely. it was not a story that i really enjoyed reading but did not hate at the same time. i can't wait for our discussion tonight. happy december!!!