The Mixed-Up Adventures of the Merry Mederich's.

On Thursday Justin and I will leave early in the morning for Minnesconsin.  We hope to arrive in Osceola by about 6:00 p.m. and get our puppy settled in at the Wisconsin Mederichs.  Very early Friday morning we will begin our two-flight journey to Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Barring any major problems along the way, we should be on the beach by 3:00 p.m.  I can't wait!  We are definitely ready for this vacation.  I'm glad that our good friends, Jack and Stephanie, decided to have a destination wedding, because it is the perfect excuse to get away!  Getting through three days of work this week will be tough, because I'm definitely in vacation mode, but I have a lot to get done between now and Thursday morning.  Once again I feel my crochet skills have improved over the course of this week.  Using one of the books that Grandma Sylvia sent, I tried my hand at following my first pattern.  Previously I had just been using youtube tutorials,...

Today is Sunday, August 19, 2012, and I am now 30 weeks and 2 days pregnant.  It's hard to believe that we have a little less than 10 weeks left until the due date.  This week we had a doctor appointment on Friday and we thank God that everything continues to look good and Via appears to be healthy.   Here she is, in my belly.  I know that with 10 weeks left, I am going to get bigger, but I'm to the point where rolling over in bed has become a chore and I'm just not sure how much bigger I can get. This week we received a most precious gift from Grandma Sylvia.  For our wedding she crocheted a beautiful afghan for me and Justin.  We absolutely love and treasure it.  One time when we were gone, Mila had moved her kennel all the way over to our bed and had chewed the afghan through her kennel door.  The body of the blanket was in tact, but the fringe was a chewed-up and bloodied mess.  Justin was so mad that he even called...

I thought that I'd find out on Monday whether or not I got the job I recently interviewed for, but the official news did not come until Wednesday.  The bad news is, I didn't get the job I interviewed for, but there is good news too. My company is going to be rolling out a new position to 25 major markets over the next couple of months and Minneapolis is one of those markets.  There will be five positions filled in Minneapolis and to begin with they will only be hiring from the current Inside Sales group.  The panel members for the Field Sales position I interviewed for will also be involved in hiring for this other new position.  During my interview they asked me if I had applied for the new positon as well, and I confirmed that I had.  When the hiring manager talked to me on Wednesday, he told me that they decided to hire an external candidate that has over 20 years of Field Sales experience.  I can certainly understand that decision....

Last Friday I had an interview for a job in Minnesota.  I didn't blog about it last Sunday, because I'm sometimes afraid of letting a lot of people know about these opportunities.  If a bunch of people know that I've interviewed for a job, and I don't get it, then I feel as though I've let a bunch of people down.  Furthermore, the scope of my failure feels much greater in direct proportion to the number of people that are hoping for success.  I think I will find out tomorrow whether or not I got the job, but the big revelation came today in church when Justin was praying with me.  He humbly admitted to God that our desire to move to Minneapolis has become something of an idol in his life, and I'd have to wholeheartedly agree.  Sometimes he and I are so consumed with the idea of moving "home" that we forget to stay totally engaged in our present reality.  Right now we live in a great town, Branson; we attend a great church, New Beginnings Fellowship; we...

Justin started his new job this week which means my nights will be consistently more lonely; however, I'm grateful for a hard-working husband.  At the end of May Justin was told that his company was down-sizing and after six years of employment, June 2012 would be his last month on payroll.  That's a big pill to digest with Baby #1 on the way, but neither of us felt terrified or anxious about the situation.  We knew that we had been wise with our money and that this wasn't the worst possible scenario.  I also knew that Justin was out of a job, but he wouldn't be out of work.  He is a wonderful provider.  For a few weeks he hit the pavement hard looking for another job.  When he wasn't looking for a job he working at home doing chores around our house - such a blessing.  We typically have a pretty equal amount of house chores.  We try to do the chores that the other person dislikes.  I hate cleaning bathrooms, so that has a...

This week I overheard someone in the office talking about how this woman was crocheting these adorable little sleep sacks for her baby.  I thought, first of all, that's adorable!  Second of all, I am so not crafty!!!!  And third of all, maybe I could be crafty.  So the mulling began.  Oddly when I got home from work that day Justin said to me, "I know this is kind of weird, and you can totally shoot this down if you want, but I thought it might be fun if we learned to crochet together."  What?!?!?  If that's not crazy, I don't know what is.  The idea came and went early in the week, and although we talked about acting on it, we never actually did anything about it until....... ......Friday.  On Friday we met our friends Jack and Stephanie in Springfield for lunch.  We arrived a little early, so Justin and I stepped into a store next door called Bella Baby.  I was in some sort of baby coma and couldn't stop oohing and aahing o...

"Oh How He Loves Us" He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me. And oh, how He loves us so Oh how He loves us, How He loves us all We are His portion and He is our prize Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss And my heart turns violently inside of my chest I don't have time to maintain these regrets When I think about the way And oh, how He loves us Oh how He loves us, How He loves us so how he loves This song gets me every time.  Before I was a mom-to-be, I loved this song and was deeply impacted by the lyrics; however, now that I am expecting Baby Number One, this song absolutely wrecks me.  We sang this song in church this morning, and I took the...