Howie In Photos

Announcing Jordan Howard Desch

Welcome to our world, Howie!!!!!

More to come... for now, click on this link to see some pictures taken at the hospital...
http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage.asp?UrlID=2O0G9S2B7Q

My Favorite Boots in the Whole World

These are my favorite boots in the whole world. Josh gave them to me in celebration of our frst anniversary last month, and I LOVE them. They are so comfortable, and they're also one of two pairs of shoes that fit right now (since my feet are swollen with baby juices). I've wanted cowboy boots for YEARS, and now I'm the proud owner of a pair. I wear them all the time. I now see why cowboys wear these boots. You can have them on all day and it feels like you're wearing your favorite slippers at home. Ahh.

I just returned from my most pathetic venture to the gym ever... I am trying to walk often to encourage Baby to come out, but it's gotten really hot in Augusta the last few days. So I was thinking, "Hmm, where can I walk that's cool?" The only place I could think of was the shopping mall (which is one of the most depressing places in Augusta if you ask me, and it's also really far from our house) and the gym. I haven't gone to the gym for a while since my running shoes don't fit and I only have the above-described cowboy boots and flip-flops to choose from. But today I bit the bullet and resorted to walking on the treadmill at the Omni for an hour and twenty minutes wearing flip-flops. I figured walking on the treadmill in cowboy boots would REALLY be strange. So I wore my flip-flops and plodded along as long as I could stand, until my feet felt like they were going to fall off. There's a reason that people don't normally exercise in flip-flops, and now I've experienced that reason.

I'm updating our flickr page with some new pictures, so be sure to click on the link in the side column if you want to see them!! Have a wonderful Tuesday!

The Stage Is Set

In lieu of baby pictures (since we still don't have any), we decided to post some pictures of places in our apartment that will be the most important to Baby Desch following his/her arrival. You can see that there is still a green monkey in the pack & play and a teddy bear in the swing. Hopefully they will be replaced with the real thing in just a few short hours, or at worst, days. At least we know that "weeks" is no longer an option.

We'll keep ya'll posted!! Pray with us for a timely arrival for Baby Desch!!

In A Holding Pattern

I am closing in on a week of retirement with still no baby in sight- I went to the OB on Wednesday afternoon to hear the quasi-depressing news that it didn't seem like I was going to go into labor any time soon. Everything was the exact same as last Wednesday. News I wanted to hear? No. But we did get some good news in that Baby Desch is not breech. The doctor couldn't tell if she was feeling his/her head or butt (the baby's, not the doctor's), so she did a quick sonogram to make sure, and indeed Baby is facing head-down. Praise the Lord for that!!!

Josh and I went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Salsas, after receiving the somewhat disappointing news to drown our sorrows in tacos. They were soooo good. Josh has been praying often that our baby would come "soon"- I think it was Tuesday night when I burst into hysterical tears and told him that he needed to plead with the Lord that our baby would come NOW. Poor Josh- that outburst came out of nowhere. So being the good husband that he is, he now prays that Baby will come NOW, regardless of where we are. At Salsas on Wednesday night he prayed that my water would break even then as I was sitting at the table. Funny? Yes. I really don't care if people think I'm peeing my pants, as long as this baby gets here!!

I want to make another quick observation that my brain is returning to full functioning after a solid 2 years off. I graduated from Covenant and my brain went on a long sabbatical, exhausted by the academic weight lifting required of it in 4 years of higher learning. After graduation I discovered the joys of cable television. I lived with my sister Carrie and had my first experience with real cable TV, and for a brain-exhausted, sleep-deprived individual (stupid job starting at 5 AM every morning), cable TV was a respite from the demands of school. I began watching shows like "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" and "How Do I Look?" on Style Network and even occasionally "Sponge Bob Square Pants" on Nickalodeon, which is actually a very clever and funny show. Josh and I unfortunately can't afford to have cable TV, so in this season of our lives we're forced to watch what is on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX, which is usually pretty sucky, meaning that we don't watch much TV (except for 24 and Lost, of course). But an interesting thing has been happening to me... I'm finding myself returning to reading books. It wouldn't take more than about 3 fingers to list how many books I read between graduation in May 2005 and a few months ago. But now I'm finding that I can sincerely enjoy reading again as a form of entertainment. Nothing difficult, but mostly stories about people's real-life experiences and things like that. I'm rediscovering the joy of reading, which was lost after reading so many textbooks and yawn-inducing things. Don't get me wrong- I still love watching TV!! But I have discovered too that I still enjoy reading, which I seriously doubted for a long time.

So you might ask "Betsy, what have you been doing with your time as a retiree?" Well, I'm glad you asked that question. I have been enjoying my retirement, though I do miss my job. In this in-between time as I prepare to transition into a different position, I am taking advantage of the down-time and doing whatever the heck I want for the most part. I've discovered in recent months that I'm somewhat of a baking junkie, so I baked like crazy yesterday... a batch of muffins here, a batch of muffins there, a couple of loaves of bread, etc. It was baking heaven. I love getting the kitchen just crazy messy with dishes up to the ceiling, glumpy piles of watery yeast that didn't make it into the mixing bowl, spatulas caked with batter, used bread pans and muffin tins, and then attacking it, bringing order out of the chaos. I've discovered since Josh and I moved to our new apartment that I am really quite anal about cleanliness, but didn't know it before. Now that we don't have much room and definitely don't have a dishwasher, Josh and I work hard to keep clean, and that starts in the kitchen. Despite all of the mess-making that went on yesterday, there are currently only 2 bowls in the sink from breakfast this morning. Ahh. In my former life I would have left the dishes from yesterday for today when I had more energy.

Well, Friends, happy Friday. We look forward with great anticipation to the day when you will see a little baby picture posted here!! Have a wonderful weekend!

Before & After

I don't know about ya'll, but I always love before and after shots. Especially of house renovations or makeovers. How about this before and after? The first one was taken in the first trimester at the end of December, and this last one was taken on June 1st. Whoah!! Before not much of a bump, after it looks like I swallowed a whale. I will be soooo excited to get back into my normal clothes and be able to sit close to the table, actually stand next to the sink instead of really leaning over it to compensate for the huge bump, be able to get out of bed without herculean exertion, tie my shoes without all of the fluid migrating to my ankles/cankles and making them look like you could pop them like a balloon, etc. You get the point.

Let me give you an update on the music we've been obsessing over as of late. Seeing as we're getting ready for the birth of our child, we've been preparing some "labor mix-y-poos" to enliven the hospital room. We want our labor nurses and doctor to have a blast in our room, which is destined to be the party room if we have anything to say about it. Yeah, labor is a really tough thing, so if you can make it a party, why not do it? So to that end we've compiled a few CDs to keep the party (and the contractions) moving. Our latest acquisitions from i-tunes include the following 80s classics: Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and "Rock With You," Madonna's "Vogue" and "Holiday," and Janet Jackson's "Escapade." And of course we included our old favorites, such as "I've Had the Time of My Life," Cher's "Loving on a Rooftop" and "Still In Love With You," Lionel Ritchie's "All Night Long," (no playlist is complete without this classic) Jamiroquai's "Canned Heat," and many others. So if you've got nothing better to do and you're looking for a party, come on down to Augusta, GA, and come to the hospital with us. We're hoping to model our labor and birth experience after Personal Boogie Time (those of you who are Covenant College grads know exactly what I'm talking about here).

I'm currently enjoying a nice hot cup of Paul Newman's Almond Biscotti Coffee, and it is phenomenal. We haven't gotten this kind of coffee since sometime last summer, and I remember thinking that it should have tasted better with a name like that, but since then I've fallen more and more in love with coffee, and now it tastes like a piece of a heavenly cookie. It's just the right temperature- hot, but not scalding. Yum.

Well, speaking as a person two days into her retirement, let me tell you that retirement is a strange but good thing. I really miss my co-workers and I keep thinking about what I would be doing were I at my job right now. But this brief holiday is just a transition into a different type of work. Less faxing, more laundry. Fewer phone calls, more diaper changing. Less payment taking, more baby feeding. Hopefully this holiday will be VERY brief... Josh and I are both praying every day and every night that Baby Desch will make his/her decision to enter the world!!

"Click Fraud" and Free Books

Some of you have perhaps noticed there is a new link on our blog. If you look to your right, you will see a link to Westminster Theological Seminary's online bookstore. For every 50 clicks from our blog to the online bookstore, I get a $10 free dollars to spend on books. First - and this just goes to show you how sinful people are, including myself - Westminster seminary has said they will be monitoring "click fraud." Yes, I did just write that: "click fraud." Click fraud is where someone repeatedly clicks on the link over and over again just to earn free book money. The fact that they even have to monitor click fraud is just sad. I mean, this is not Barnes and Noble we are talking about, its the bookstore of a reformed seminary! Probably the only people who are particpating in this program are people like me, future pastors or current pastors. I mean, who else wants to earn $10 free dollars to use toward items like Herman Bavink's Reformed Dogmatics? That being said, did I think about commiting "click fraud" for a few minutes after I first read about this program. Yes I did. Sinning to get reformed books, is there anything more sad than that? Anyway, that temptation passed without me giving in and I am now fully past it. I would love it if you would click on the link, but please do so because you are genuinly curious, and not just to help me get free books. If I might make a quick plug. In my opinion, this is the best online reformed bookstore out there. I believe it is worth a look. But that's up to you. Have a great day, and remember, no "click fraud"!