Joy and the Emergency Room

This season of life has been very full. Full of joy, community, school, food, changes, discoveries, laughter and lack of sleep. There’s been little time to reflect, but time seems to be replaced by a feeling of fullness as we fill our home with music, a pine tree and lights or Asher starts standing or Tom staying late into the night to write a paper or Theresa remaining a strong constant for family and friends in the absence of her husband. Christmas was especially full when we took Asher to the ER as he was having breathing troubles resulting from a cold/flu. All is fine and he’s recovering well but it made for a storyteller of a first Christmas.

We thought we’d put in some pictures from the last month. We feel the fullness of the season, rejoicing in and remembering the light that is already here.

Chicago and Iowa and in-between

So, I want to tell you a bit about Chicago but I don’t want to give the impression that we only want to write about our trips (that we don’t often take) on the blog. There is so much more life in between! Lots of new-ness going on in our house as we transition into more busy-ness and imbalance. Tom is not home very much between work, 2 classes, and a busy social calendar that I seem to keep filling up. I, on the other hand, am home a lot; often looking for reasons to leave the house and get out to enjoy the outdoors with Asher! That is the imbalance I am referring to. Both Tom and I (and Asher too, I think) are feeling the weight of this schedule. We very much look forward to the weekends like most of America.

Little update on Basher-boy. He is squirmy and happy and spontaneous and kind of a little rascal at times. He is a mama’s boy but LOVES playing with Tom and feeds off his energy. I think it pretty great that his name means happiness and he is usually found laughing or smiling. I love watching him make little discoveries throughout the day and Tom loves seeing him smile and bounce when he gets home.

Our trip to Chicago was great. Tom got Friday off because he won a vacation day (in a work lottery!). We had really good conversations on the way there and back while Asher slept about 4 hours each way.  We had a chance to really hang with our good friend Justin Feinberg and stay at his new home in Algonquin, IL. Justin has great taste in food and brought us to this place in Barrington, IL called something egg where they served amazing food and strawberry orange juice! We got to go to downtown Chicago and see a few sites (Including Intelligensia coffee which Tom and I kind of geeked out about). AND, the reason we went in the first place, we got to attend a GREAT party hosted by Nick and Karrie! aka, their wedding!! Such a grand event and great time with the CF crew. Everyone looked pretty fly that day. Then drove back to on Sunday and crashed.

Also, a good friend of mine, Madelaine came into town that week for another friends of ours wedding. So great to see her and have her meet Asher! That next weekend (Halloween weekend) we went to Annie and Jim’s wedding! It was simply beautiful and special. They have been through a lot in the last 10 years and seeing them so happy was truly a gift.

I know I am writing a lot. So if you have made it down to this paragraph, thank you for reading. I want to say one more thing before posting pictures. A lot of our social calendar is filled with sharing meals with friends and community. I find this to be an important rhythm of our life. A value that I hold dear and near to my inner self. It is quite a joy to be able to share food at a table with friends. And this holiday season that is what I want to fill our calendar with-meals with friends and family.

Oh, and one more note, we are traveling to CF, IA for Thanksgiving! I am very excited to see family and friends and of course, some good Morty time:)

reflection in the "bean"-downtown Chicago

Engineer hat!

Flannel friends

Weeee!!!

Ok

September has not turned out to be a transitional month from summer to fall in Minneapolis – it went straight into fall. No complaints here though… we love our sweaters and enjoy drinking coffee on cool mornings. Also Tom is a little less sweaty after his bike ride into work. Before we settled into our new fall way of doing things we took a trip to Denver to celebrate our friend Laura’s marriage and see our good friend the Dow’s. Staying with the Dow’s, Asher had a great time with Huckleberry, the newest arrival to the Dow family.

Our fall way of doing things has also brought on school for Tom. He’s really enjoying being in class again and working towards his licensure as an elementary school teacher in Minnesota. Theresa is also working again. She’s networking with some great folks around the country to represent a friend and mentor of ours. She’s promoting Doug’s new book Church in the Inventive Age for the publisher and booking events for him to speak about. Working 10 hours with Asher makes for unique lots of funny interruptions.

We both feel Asher has changed the most this past month than any other time in his 7 months of life. He’s scooting around in the floor, mastering the army crawl and his personality has really come out. He loves laughing and making others laugh, he’s very social and likes to be around people and he’s making new little discoveries every day. It’s even amazing to see how he gets frustrated when he can’t figure something out or his mouth hurts from his teeth. He’s very determined. We’ll put a few more pictures in here – including our trip to the Twins game for Tom’s birthday (thanks Hans!)

Solid!

…well maybe not so much solid as non-milk foods are making up more of Asher’s diet lately. It’s a lot of fun for all of us and Asher enjoys sitting at eye-level with mom and dad. So far bananas are his favorites. Tom also enrolled in a Masters in Teaching program at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis starting in September.

This starts the peak of the wedding season for us, with our good friend Dan & Amber (Danber) getting married this past weekend and we’re heading out to Denver, CO in a week and a half for a wedding that Theresa is in.

We’ve been laying low lately with all the movement and change we’ve had this summer and in particular after Theresa’s hernia surgery this past Friday. It went well and she’s feeling healthy and almost fully recovered. Part of our laying low has been listening to some good music in our home and dancing with our son.

Time with Family

Most of the summer we have been enjoying time with our community in MPLS. Tom and I both have confessed that it feels really good to home for the summer months. There is so much to do! We have kept busy most weeks and this month have taken a few trips to see family and spend quality time with those we love. Here are some pictures from those trips as well as a quilt that my aunt Ruth and Grandma Selness made for Asher babe.

Quality Time with G-G-Jo

Muah!

Asher loves grandpa.

Solbakken Resort-Asher's favorite spot

Me and Grandma

Playing at Temperance River

Fog on Lake Superior

Playing with G-G-Joyce

First Time at the table

Let me get those for you

Smiling at Dad

Dad and Nina

Sunset on Duck lake

Quilt made by Ruth and Grandma

Asher and his Papa

Reading on the Floor

Naptime

Best ever

Hanging out and hanging on

New Video

For Tom’s first Father’s Day I put together a video of Asher for him. Well, it turned out to be ten minutes long so we shortened it and wanted to share it with you all. Click here

Blog Update

We, well actually, Tom, decided that our blog needed a new look. So, we got rid of a few things we don’t use and added some more new features. Hope you like the new look!

T&T&aPaRks

The tale of two coffee shops

kisses

Moby Wrap

oh fun!

Moby on the go

lovin' it

not too long after...

In our neighborhood there is a quaint little cafe called the May Day. It is near the park where we had our wedding reception-one of our favorites-and continue to visit for one reason or another. The May Day is by definition a local, independent coffee shop. It is small space with mis-matched chairs and tables, posts local art-including greeting cards, a small stash of children’s books and games, a small bakery case with delightfully simple choices and the local paper is always found on any random table(s) and never still in one piece. Tom and I know most of the baristas by name and they recognize us and our son. All of these characteristics (and more) are reasons why we love this place. Most of all,we love all the  friendly, smiling faces we see when we walk in. These pictures(above) are taken on one of our many walks there.

Cup of Joe

The McCartys

Rock on Asher

moment before dozing off.

Downtown Cedar Falls proves itself a changed place with the many little boutiques and cute store fronts that continue to pop up. I am not from there, but have visited many times and can honestly say that it has changed my previous perception of Iowa cities. Anytime we go to visit family and friends, Cup of Joe, located just at the end of downtown CF, is always in our plans. It is also visited by many locals (many of whom know Tom and always stop by to say hello) Most times, that is where we meet up with our dear friend Rachel, who is always up for great conversation and a good (expensive) cup of coffee. This trip was our  first with Asher so we made sure to meet up with Bryan and Ashley. They posed as Asher’s parents for folks who walked in. It was a grand time, Full of laughter and catching up on life. If we lived in CF, I am sure that Cup of Joe would be a favorite local spot.

tummy time with grandma

reading with grandpa

(Here are some pictures for you Ron and Denise). Some of the more tender moments of our visit were at Tom’s parents house. It is quite something to see our parents become grandparents. It makes them seem older to me, but somehow younger at the same time.

These two coffee shops add a lot to our neighborhood(s). I hope that throughout my life, I always make time for sitting in coffee shops. Whether alone, with a friend or with my little family.

At home with our boy

holding my cup for me

uh?

love those cheeks

Loves the mirror these days

while Tom is getting ready for work...

I love his baby wrinkles!

tummy time

significantly larger head

I have really loved having the ample amount of time with Asher. He is teaching me a lot of things in small and big ways. Like when I have something to get done on my mental list and he just wants me to hold him. Or when were late for something and he decides to let it all out in his diaper, allowing me the chance to see him face to face on the changing table (or when I am trying to write a blog post and it takes 4 separate attempts over the course of the morning!). These examples and many more are parts of my day when I am forced by Asher to take life in slowly and not let moments pass by too quickly. Seen in these pictures are some of those moments.