It's Been a While...

It's been quite some time since I've had time to write up a blog post. As my sister-in-law, Anna, so aptly puts it: "The activity of a blog is never proportional to the activity in the lives of those who write it; if anything, it is inversely proportional. A quiet blog is quite as likely the symptom of a life too full for writing as of a life with nothing to say."
That sums it up perfectly for us! These last several months have been filled with joy and sorrow, but always with an ever present reminder of God's grace and goodness towards us. Below are some updates from May-June.

The end of May John's paternal grandmother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. In God's providence, us, the other Pedersens, and the Wades (John's sister and family) were all at the other Pedersen's house that Sunday when we got the phone call from John's aunt about his grandma. We made plans that evening and the next day about what to do for specific family members' travel.
John's parent's flew up to Ft. Collins, CO the next morning to begin funeral preparations with Karen (John's Aunt). The rest of us left Houston that Thursday to make it to Colorado by Friday late afternoon/early evening. We had John's four siblings along with us for the trip up.

We made it to Clayton, NM the first day. The next day we left about 8am to continue our journey. After about an hour, our van's transmission went out on us. We waited for about an hour for a tow truck to take us to the nearest town (Raton, NM), so we could get a rental car to finish our trek to Ft. Collins. Thankfully the tow truck driver let us keep our van in his shop yard while we were gone. This was our second vehicle in one week to have a transmission out. John's truck's transmission went out that Tuesday.

 

Waiting...

 

James playing with some rocks while we wait for the tow truck.

 

We acquired a rental car, but the largest one they had sat 5 people, and we had 7 - including a car seat for James. Needless to say it was a very cramped trip. We met the Wades north of Colorado Springs to give them two passengers so that the drive was less crowded. Now with both cars maxed out, we were on the road yet again to make it to Ft. Collins.

 

The people in the front

 

The sardines in the back

 

We arrived at John's Grandma's house about 7pm. We ate dinner, brought luggage in, and mingled with old and new faces for the evening.

The graveside and memorial services were the next day (Saturday).  The graveside service was not without tears as we mourned our loss of Grandma Pedersen.  For myself, that's when it hit me that she was really gone.   After the graveside service, we made our way to the church for the memorial service.

 

Grandma Pedersen's grave site

With return travel arrangements made, we three left Sunday morning. We rented a moving truck with a trailer to tow our van back home. In Pueblo, we dropped off the rental car, and made it to Raton, NM to pick up our van. We pushed to make it to Dumas, TX for the night. We made it home late the next night. Praise the Lord we didn't have anything go wrong on the way home! It was so nice to be home, but we wouldn't have missed going to Colorado.

Shortly after we arrived home, we had both our vehichles towed to have both transmissions fixed. It was a very sad event to see BOTH our cars on a tow truck and being driven away! We were so grateful when we had them back a week later!

 

A sad sight to see...

 

On June 4, John and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary! To celebrate, on our actual date, I made a nice dinner - Lasagna Rolls, salad, and rosemary bread. Lasagna rolls is the meal I first made for John after we were married, and each year I make it. :)  That weekend, we stayed in a nice hotel down town, went to a nice restaurant for dinner, and walked around the city. It was an enjoyable and relaxing weekend! Below are some pictures.

 

The front of The Lancaster Hotel

 

Our room

Sitting area

 

James looking down at Buffalo Bayou from a bridge.

In mid-June, we had our 18 week ultrasound to check on baby #2, and to find out if it's a boy or a girl - It's a BOY! We eagerly look forward to meeting Ezra Michael Pedersen come November!
One interesting tidbit: When Ezra is born, John's parents will have 5 grandsons 4 and under! Still no girls yet. :-)

The end of June, we traveled to San Antonio to go to a builders show. This one was much smaller than the one we went to in January, but the learning sessions John went to were really good, and James and I walked around the show floor and played while John was attending the classes. The one night we spent in town, we spent at family's house who is a part of the A Candle in The Window Hospitality Network. They were such a sweet family, served us dinner, and we had a great time just visiting with them. Sadly, we forgot to take a picture of them before we left.
While we were in San Antonio, we stopped at the Tower of the Americas. The view at the top was amazing! And VERY windy!

James was quite amused by the windiness. :)

We have been making progress on our bathroom! I hope to get a separate post up about the updates some time after this one.