I Love Moving!

It’s true, I love moving. I could do without the chaos of living among boxes for weeks but the newness it brings outweighs that for me. I love purging, I love selling, I love reorganizing and I love the challenge of decorating a new home.

We get the keys on Wednesday the 30th and will move most everything on that day (hopefully). This will be our first time moving with a baby. She’s still not mobile, so that is a plus for sure. We don’t have to pin her up because she’s just now figuring out how to roll over. No crawling on her near horizon. Next will be figuring out that after she rolls to her tummy she can actually roll back instead of crying! Can’t wait for that one

So here is a picture of what used to be our dining room but is now the “staging” area for boxes and things. More updates to come!

My First Mothers Day

It’s a special day! Today is the first mothers day that I can celebrate as a mom. Because its a Sunday we can’t do a whole lot today, but we have had a great weekend. We had family fun Friday which is now our favorite tradition, starting with going out to breakfast at Stacks, one of the best pancake restaurants around. In case you didn’t know I LOVE pancakes. Then we spent the day at Ikea trying to find some reasonable space solutions for the duplex we are moving into in 3 weeks!

Then yesterday we had a picnic at Vasona County Park in Los Gatos. It was a really great afternoon, David (and Ella) planned for all the food and everything. He even planned some reading time for me which I was so excited about…and then I left my book at home! Grrr! But it turned out fun anyways because we talked about lots of things including parenthood and memories of elementary and middle school.

Mothers day is so special. I have 4 friends who have lost their moms in the last year and it makes me so thankful for every day I can pick up the phone and talk to my mom. I don’t want to take it for granted ever! There’s no one quite like your mom. It’s a one of a kind relationship. Thank you mommy for your love and all you have sacrificed for me over the years. There is a place in my heart that will always be only yours!

Today we will stand before God and our church to dedicate Ella back to Him, just like you and daddy did with me and Boot. It’s a special day!

First Sunday in South Bay’s New Building Tomorrow!

Oh my what a week it has been! Tomorrow is our first Sunday at our new north San Jose campus! We will have 4 services at 9:00, 10:20, 11:40 and 1:00. I am going to try to be at all of them because I simply don’t want to miss anything!

Our staff and volunteers have been stretched to the max this week. Some have been putting in like 15 hour days just to get everything finished. Some volunteers even took days off work to serve by painting, assembling furniture, running cables, mopping, you name it. We have the best team ever!

My prayer is that there is NOTHING that distracts us from truly worshipping God tomorrow. All of this is for Him. Every single nail and shovel and paintbrush. Every LED light, every computer and every musical instrument is for the one who died a sinners death so we can be alive! Even as I write this blog my heart is remembering again why we are here. South Bay Church exists to lead people to say YES to Christ and live passionately for Him.

Jesus take center stage tomorrow. You can capture the hearts of people anywhere…you don’t need a pretty stage with smoke and lights. But we want to use everything you’ve given us to turn people’s eyes on you! When we see you we are changed!

I want to post some pics. I took all of these tonight (Saturday) between 6 and 8pm. There were still a bunch of people there when I left.

A Work in Progress

This coming Sunday South Bay Church will have a new home! We have been working this week into the wee hours to put the finishing touches on the auditorium and BayKids areas … less than 48 hours to go now! So many volunteers are sacrificing their days and nights to make this thing happen. It’s so exciting to see it come together! Every day it looks so different because the progress is happening so quickly.

Here are some pics I took this week, more to come of course as we get closer to the big day!

God use this building as a tool to turn hearts toward you!

More Pics

I have so many pics I have to post some! Friday we spent the afternoon in Santa Cruz and had a great time together just hanging out. Me and dad have also had a great time just hanging out at home with Ella.

Yesterday we picked David up from the airport and went to the city and it was the most beautiful warm clear day I have ever experienced in San Francisco! Here are some pics from the past two days…

My Daddy is Here!

My mom has been fortunate to come visit us in CA a couple of times already, including this January for the labor and delivery of my firstborn. She and my dad can’t take off across the country together because they take care of my moms dad who is elderly and quite full of dementia. He is a handful to say the least! (That’s another blog for another day) But this time she and I schemed to get my dad a ticket to fly out here to the bay area and meet baby Ella for the first time. He got here last night.

We are having a blast. Today we took it easy and ate breakfast here at the house and then did some driving around. I showed him downtown San Jose (specifically the house we might rent, more on that later) and we went by Babies R Us and also got some Philz coffee.

Then we met up with Stacie and Andy and the boys, Stacie’s parents who are in town from South Carolina. Stacie and I were college roommates and so our folks know each other too. Dad also got to see South Bay’s new facility. First Sunday in there will be May 6th! (More on that coming too! Lots of things to blog about!)

Then we took off to Santana Row and got some yogurt and enjoyed the beautiful day. Took some pics of Ella and her Doowah (that’s baby for Durwood). We topped it all off by grilling some pork chops at home and doing bath time which Ella now quite enjoys. Here are some of our pics from today…

Tune In: Late Night Nursing with Ella Hibiske

I’ve had a couple of emotional days lately . . . feeling somewhat hormonal. Its funny how especially after having a baby I can tell when my hormones are influencing my emotions more than usual. (For any men reading this- it doesn’t make it less significant just because it’s hormonally influenced!) I’m much less of a roller coaster now than I was the weeks after giving birth, but it still hits me every once in a while.

The other day I got so tearful over the fact that Ella is already three months old and I don’t have very many pictures of just me and her. I know we can still do it now, but I just wasn’t intentional enough about it so far. So my sweet husband has started snapping pics anytime he gets a chance! Here are two that I love . . .

Last night the thing that made me tearful (it didn’t help that we had just finished watching Pearl Harbor) is the idea that Ella is starting to outgrow the need for her late night nursing session. She is so drowsy it’s almost impossible to wake her up. Then once she gets going she falls asleep before I can switch her to the other side and we have to wake her up again to keep eating. She goes right back to sleep afterward for the night and sleeps until like 7:00am. It is so cute, and it’s really become a treasured time for both David and I. We put her down after we feed her at 7:00 and then we have time to get showered and watch some of a movie or hang out. Then we go in together to get her at 10:00pm and it is the most precious thing you can imagine. I had to post this video so you can see for yourself!