It's Break. I don't have to write eloquently!

Merry Christmas lovlies. I hope you all had wonderful ones. I just had coffee with my dear Nicci and Stephanie and we even saw Rachel at Borders too. That doesn't mean much to most of you - but these are the 3 girls I have known since I was a baby and grew up with so it was pretty fun!

I am just now headed back down to Eugene to spend the night with sister and give Viggo the night off. We didn't see them yesterday but went down and celebrated Christmas with them on Christmas Eve. They are doing really well - still no baby! Praise the Lord! Apparently the first night she got to the hospital the doctor was so sure she'd have the baby that night that he stuck around till 2 a.m. now it's 5 days later and still no baby! Go God!
It's kind of a bizarre situation, usually when someone is in labor you're really excited when things pick up and wanting it to get over as quickly as possible. Usually everyone comes and visits AFTER the baby is born. But now we are wanting Daniel to stay in there as long as he possibly can and are excited whenever we hear contractions have stopped for a while! (which they have mostly, though it's still likely that she could start up again and have the baby any time).

In other news I've started developing all kinds of fun allergies lately. I am now apparently allergic to Christmas Trees and 100% wool - which is a bummer cuz it means I can't wear the lovely scarf my sister knitted me for Christmas and that I'm really excited for the Christmas tree to leave our house instead of wanting it to stay as long as possible. Who's allergic to flippin Christmas Trees? Yep, I'm weird.
I got 6 cds, 3 books, and a skien of yarn for Christmas. I'm pretty happy about it too. Does this mean I'm a boring person? Oh well.

My sister went into labor 3 months too early:

So on Thursday (which was incidentally my mom's 50th birthday) Julia (my sister who is here visiting from Norway with her husband) started having contractions three minutes apart. We thought it was false labor (since she's not due for 3 more months) and took her to the hospital. It turns our it wasn't false labor but real labor so she was transported down to Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene and has been given meds to slow the labor. So far so good, baby is staying in there, before the medicine she dialated from 1 inch to just under 5 in only a couple of hours. We think she's still at 5 and has been more or less stable the last couple days, though she's still having contractions off and on. I just got home to rest a little and I'll go back down soon.
The really good news is that since we've had a couple days they've been able to give the baby 2 steroid shots to help his lungs develop before he is born, this means he has a really good chance at surviving. Also Sacred Heart has a very good premea baby unit. The hard part is that the baby will have to be hospitalized until about his due date which is March 23. At this point they aren't hoping to stop the labor, just to slow it, so we will have baby Daniel joining us in this world any day now. Maybe any hour now.
Pray that he will stay in there as long as possible. Every day he stays in the womb is an day he doesn't have to be hospitalized. He's about 2.5 pounds right now.
Emotionally we're doing really well. We actually had a pleasant day at the hospital yesterday. Julia was allowed to eat and she likes that. I think the exhaustion of the last couple nights is starting to catch up with all of us though, but really just pray for Julia and Viggo and the baby. I think that we've all been as relaxed and cheerful as we have been so far mostly just because of all the people who've been praying.
I'll keep you updated as things progress as much as is possible. If I can't cuz I'm down there and you are curious I'll bet my dad will keep his blog very updated too.

Merry Christmas everyone! God sure does work in unexpected ways!

Happy Birthday Mummy!

Man... I hope I look that good when I'm 50!

I am so done!

Christmas In Chicago

It was the perfect December Saturday in Chicago. Friends. Ice skating at Millenium Park. Perusing the German Christmas Festival. Shopping at H&M. Delicious soup to warm our insides. And happy train rides.

Dan, Kenlee, Me, Laura, and John at Millenium Park.
The beautiful girls who live across the hall from me. Laura, Giesela, and Kenlee. Laura's leaving :-( I'm so thankful for this room of delightful Godly women!

John got bored while Kirsten was taking this picture and he fell asleep.

Ice skating!

(I didn't actually get to go cuz we were trading off skates, but I had a great time just watching my friends have fun... and Giesela and I amused ourselves by making fun of all the little kids falling down...)

Beautiful lights at the German Festival.

Mmmm... soup...

Mmmm... Chicago...

No more classes.

I will never take another class at Wheaton in the term of Fall 2006 in my entire life. And that is the truth.

But I will take some finals and write a couple papers (not to long, no biggie) in this term. So the one end has arrived, but the greater end is still a week away.

Newsflash:

I'm going to be an RA next year. Just found out for sure today. Thought you all might like to know.
I'm also coming home on the 15th for all of you who live within close proximity. It's going to be great.

Oh AND Justin Nanfelt turned 21 today! Give him a holla and tell him how much you love him.

I may not know much...

... but I do know that it is F-ING FREEZING OUTSIDE. No. Actually. It's well below freezing. I think it is likely that this is the coldest weather I have experienced in my life. Yes yes, Canadians, go ahead an make fun of me. But it's true. I don't care who you are 3 degrees Farenhiet is cold.

The good news? I still love this school. Take THAT pastor Jay! Pfsh. That's right.

Phillip, The Hyper-Hypo Kid

It's Raining in Love

by Richard Broutigan

I don't know what it is,
but I distrust myself
when I start to like a girl
a lot.

It makes me nervous.
I don't say the right things
or perhaps I start
to examine,

evaluate

compute

what I am saying.

If I sy, "Do you think it's going to rain?"
and she says, "I don't know,"
I start thinking: Does she really like me?

In other words
I get a little creepy.

A friend of mine once said,
"It's twenty times better to be friends
with someone
than it is to be in love with them."
I think he's right and besides,
it's raining somewhere, programming flowers
and keepying snails happy.
That's all taken care of.

BUT
if a girl likes me a lot
and starts getting real nervous
and suddenly begins asking me funny questions
and looks sad if I give the wrong answers
and she says things like,
"Do you think it's going to rain?"
and I say, "It beats me,"
and she says, "Oh,"
and looks a little sad
at the clear blue California sky,
I think: Thank God, it's you, baby, this time instead of me.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Remarkable! When the weathermen forcast snow around here it actually snows! We woke up to a lovely white blanket covering the west chicago suburbian landscape. My 8:00 class was cancelled - not in time for me to have a good lay-in, but upon discovring its cancellation I made my way to the cafeteria and enjoyed a large and tasty omlette and then proceeded to finish a Sherlock Holmes story I started yesterday by the fire in my favorite little reading room below the dining hall. Mmmmm.... snow is good.