A City Life For Me

On August 7, we were blessed by a friend to be invited along on a sailboat ride.  She is a volunteer on the Pioneer , a restored 1885 sailboat that is part of the South Street Seaport Museum.  We joined the Friday evening ride, and it was a PERFECT night to be on a boat!  (I was a little nervous about motion sickness, but I didn’t have any problems).  We got to see the Statue of Liberty, several NYC bridges, and the Manhattan skyline – in the sunlight, sunset, and night skies.  It was beautiful!  Thanks Liz for an amazing experience! {Be prepared for picture overload} Preparing to board the Pioneer Girls Boys Brooklyn Bridge // Manhattan Bridge I had fun just watching the sails and ropes against a beautifully blue sky.  So naturally, I took lots of pictures of them! Liz let Nolan help hoist one of the sails Elaine // Nolan // Nehemiah // Liberty // Statue of Liberty The twins discovered what the “Statue of Liberty” is on this trip, and they s...

Today was my due date.  It has come and almost gone and still no baby.  This is the first pregnancy that I have gone late.  I “celebrated” this day by keeping active…trying to jumpstart labor…and some last minute nesting.  The bathroom got a thorough scrubbing, I did the laundry, took several small walks, got the oil changed in the van, and had an appointment with the midwife.  Baby 5 seemed content to sleep through everything.  They couldn’t even get him active for the non-stress test!  He is measuring an estimated 7 pounds 12 ounces (biggest baby yet), and my amniotic fluid is decreasing which often indicates labor/birth is near at hand.  The fluid in his kidneys is remaining stable and the doctor is no longer concerned about it very much. Here’s to hoping he arrives tomorrow or Sunday when my “favorite” midwives are on call! This poem was on the wall in the exam room…and I thought it was a little encouraging!

At the end of July Ben took me on a date.  {He spent his birthday cash on me…aren’t I special???}  We thought it might be the last for a little while with baby arriving soon.  We had planned to go to the 9/11 Museum.  However, the day turned out to be absolutely gorgeous so Ben decided to scratch something off my NYC bucket list – the Top of the Rock.  The Top of the Rock is an observatory deck in midtown Manhattan on the top of the Rockefeller Center.  The view was so worth it! Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, and Statue of Liberty (it’s bigger in the next picture) Looking Downtown Looking Uptown – Central Park Ben used Central Park as an illustration of holiness in a recent Gospel message.  To be holy is to be totally separate.  When you are in Central Park, you can so easily forget that you are even in New York City.  From the Top of the Rock, Central Park takes up a major part of the city.  It gives urban dwellers a re...

I had this all written up two weeks ago to share with you, but computer issues prevented its publishing.         We arrived back in Brooklyn on July 15, 2015.   This left us just two months as Brooklyn residents.   Realizing this is definitely bittersweet for me.   Around Labor Day, and until September 15 th , we will be moving into temporary missionary housing until our deputation phase is complete.   This will allow us to save money on expensive NYC rent so that we can better prepare for moving to and settling into the Bronx next spring.   We are making preparations to put all of our worldly goods into storage and then we will mostly be on the road until next March.   For my non-NYC friends, many times it is required to put three months rent down in order to secure an apartment.   We are estimating that an apartment to fit our family of seven will likely cost $2000+ per month, so that is a sizeable “down pay...

I have been very bad about posting updates for this pregnancy.  I guess that’s how it goes with baby #5?!?  We have been busy traveling and I really haven’t been focused on the pregnancy because there was so much that would happen before baby’s arrival.  Some days I haven’t noticed the pregnancy, because of my busyness with the other four kids.  Some days I can’t ignore the acid reflux, back pain, and inability to bend over and sweep up my dust pile! So now here we are with less than two weeks until due date, and I have finally unpacked some baby clothes, packed a hospital bed, and purchased a stroller.  Since we are moving about two weeks after the baby’s arrival, there isn’t much else to do or prepare.  There won’t be a decorated nursery or beautiful crib set up this time.  This baby will sleep in a pack n play for most of his first year of life, most likely.  We resume deputation traveling in September and expect to be at the temporary housing...