It is always so wonderful to go to Houston! It's the perfect vacation. There are few places more welcoming and home feeling than my future mother-in-law's house. She came to know me so well in such a short amount of time. I think by the second time I visited Jason at his mom's house she made sure to have the kitchen stocked with cereal and milk. I know this is a strange marker for how well someone knows you, but for me it is a loving gesture. She has done and continues to do so many little (and big) things for Jason and I. Anyways, as always we had a great and relaxing time. Highlights of the weekend: seeing Paul and Tracy: we haven't seen Paul since New Years Eve; going to the beach with mama Fry; going to dinner with Cody, Jason's brother.
Multi-tasking Rebecca is back in full swing. On July 5th I became a working member of society once again. I forgot how work + school often = exhausted Rebecca. After I left Green Oaks I continued to wake up before 7 on a regular basis. I had just recently begun to sleep until 9am when work rolled around. It was a rude awakening (literally) having to wake up early again. But I'd say it's well worth it. I'm a job coach for students ages 16-19 with visual impairments in a summer program called REAL. My two "kids" are 16 and 18. They are just wonderful. Of course there are plenty of stressful moments; they're high school aged so there's lots of drama to go around. But as a whole I'm enjoying work. Job coaching is mostly me sitting in an office for 4 hours, so my favorite parts are when I get to just talk and hang out with the participants (breakfast, to and from job sites, after they get off work...).
Along with work, I started my new workout program on July 5th. As I said in my last post, I received Insanity in the mail. It's pretty awesome. Insanity is for the most part centered around the idea of interval training. Most of the workouts are under 60 minutes, which is great for my constricted time schedule. These DVDs are not joking, not that you need or want to know this, but the best way to describe my state at the end of the workouts is to say I feel like I'm melting. I finished one complete week of the workouts when my first week of "real" work hit (the previous week was training). I was so tired! Also, I had a total of 6 papers and one test due that week. Needless to say, there was very little working out. So I had to start over this past week, and have done much better with getting a workout in despite time constraints. In addition, I reconnected with a friend from my graduate program and we're going to start running together once a week. For some unknown reason we decided to run at 4 in the afternoon last Tuesday. It. was. HOT. I about died...not to mention he's an excellent runner so keeping up with him was a bit of a challenge, but challenges are good. Since then we have decided 7pm to 8pm is a much more appropriate time to go running. He assures me I'll be ready to dominate the December Dallas half marathon.
On the morning of July 7th at 6:56am, in the middle of doing my Insanity workout for the day I received this text: "@ the hospital...6 centimeters" I flipped out! Nancy was in labor! Baby Brooklyn was on her way! I started to get things ready, thinking how fast can I shower...how far is the drive to the hospital...oh wait, I have my last day of training for work today and then I have class until 9:30pm. Ugh. I knew I couldn't miss training so I asked J Wag and my mom to keep me updated. I was pretty upset. I wanted so bad to be there taking part in the anticipation and watching my brother as he became a father. I appreciate the moments of life and I was missing out on these. Around 12:45 I received another text message saying Nancy was starting to push. I became extra antsy sitting in the conference room. I was expecting a "SHE'S HERE" text any minute. 1:00 came and went...2:00 came and went...3:00 came. I got out of training an hour early and had to make a tough decision, speed my way to Baylor Hospital in Downtown Dallas or be a good student and go to class. I hopped in my car and set off down I-35. About half-way there, at 4:18pm I received this text:
8lbs 13 oz 21 inch
Sidenote:....yes, that is almost 4 hours of pushing. Every time I thought "oooo I want a baby now!" I thought about 4 hours of pushing and decided I could enjoy a few years of married life sans children.
A flooding of emotions hit. I was so excited! Brooklyn was here! Bryan and Nancy are parents! I'm an aunt! I'm not there. But I would be soon. I arrived about 20 minutes later, got lost trying to find the correct building, and then finally got to see the new family! As soon as I walked in the room I went to Bryan and gave him a giant hug! It's hard to fully describe how happy I am for him. He's a father! It still makes me all emotional. He is the most amazing brother: protective (although sometimes more than I thought necessary), loving, funny, encouraging, etc. Brooklyn is a lucky young lady to have him for a dad. And then I saw Nancy, holding her precious little girl, 100% in awe and in love. Nancy has also been a huge blessing to our family. She has to be one of the sweetest and most self giving person I know. And then there was Brooklyn.
Beautiful. My heart leaped. I thought back to just a couple weeks ago when I felt her rolling around in Nancy's tummy. I thought back to when my cousin Gus was born, the first time I realized the miracle of life and child birth. I thought of a talk by Christopher West when he described the intimacy of a mother and child's bond; how the child spends nine months under the beating heart of her mother. And here she was, bringing a family together. I will cherish this moment the rest of my life. Sharing this moment with my brother and sister, the three of us standing together in the delivery room, my brother a father. We've spent countless hours, and my brother tolerated countless hours, of playing house. Planning our future lives, and here we were watching it all become reality. So yes, I am overflowing with love for my little niece Brooklyn. I wish I lived closer so I could see her more :)
Jason met Miss Brooklyn last weekend. As my sister said in her blog, it's really awesome to see my future husband holding and falling in love with her in his own way. I can't help but think of our future together and building a family with him. And then, I can't help but smile.
We have made it to today...whew. Longest blog post ever. We went house/apartment hunting today! Yay! We have been toying with the idea of renting a house instead of moving into a new apartment lately. But each time I find one I like and contact the agent, they already have a contract in the works. So we decided to get serious about it today. Our first stop was Coppell. We like the idea of Coppell because it's still somewhat central to UT Southwestern and Denton. More importantly it's close to our church, where we'd both like to become more involved. We drove around multiple apartment complexes and townhouses, and condos, and such. Saw a couple of "maybes" and some "absolutely not's" and then we came to St. Marin Apartments. I had seen this one online and knew it would be a top contender. This was the only place in Coppell we actually went inside and talked with office about renting. The amenities are un-real for an apartment...at least compared to the places I've lived. It's kind of like a resort. When apartments go on the market here, they get snatched up real quick so I'm hoping we can make a final decision soon, cuz I want to snatch one of the openings up for us. The plan is for Jason to move into the apartment when his lease ends and then I'll join him in January, you know, after we get married. We also went and looked at some townhouses in Farmers Branch. The big draw here is 1) they are close to Addison: we figured if we live in Addison maybe people will come visit us, 2) they have a little patio/yard area where Boots could go out for a little while and 3) they have pretty good prices. We liked most things about these, but the living room was very small. So if people did come visit us, they may not have a place to sit. Also, after all the amenities at St. Marin, a tiny pool didn't do it for us.
And there you go. It's been a very busy July! But filled with so much joy and blessing! If you made it to the end of this I'm quite impressed. I had to take a break in writing it (to do laundry no less. domestication? I think yes.), so I can't imagine reading it. Thanks for stopping by I hope you have a fantastic week!
"For You formed my inward parts ; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth ; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance ; And in Your bookwere all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them." Psalm 139:13-16
