A Year of Change (and I'm not talking about Obama)

Okay. I know, I know. I'm pathetic. I am utterly embarrassed at my lack of blog activity this month. I have no words.

Well, I have some words. Finally. It's day 20, and 2009 has already been an extremely eventful year. In fact, the New Year was exciting pretty much since the clock struck midnight. Beth and I hosted our group for the ball-dropping fun, and the countdown came and went without me noticing that Beth and Randy stepped out on the deck. Several minutes later, though, Beth ran back into the house screeching, "Nicole! Nicole! I'm engaged! I'm engaged!" And now they're getting married on March 13. Holy crap.

There has also been a wedding. Already. On January 3rd, Christina and Ted got married at the St. Paul Cathedral in Minesoooota. Matthew and I took the trip and stayed with Angie and Mike. It's always a good time in Chaska. The hills there, they go up... and then they go down (sorry- inside joke). The wedding was good fun. I enjoyed being able to start out the year with most of the B5 gang, and being able to introduce all of them to Matt was even sweeter. So, Christina is now Christina Ries. And by this point, it was only January 3rd.

And on January 4th, Tauna was baptized. It was a privilege to stand up with her, along with Staci and Greg, Angie, and Matt, too, as witnesses. Her church, Redeemer Lutheran, had a great energy to it. It was Lutheran, but with a bit of a southern Gospel twist. We got to sing "Shine on Me", which I haven't sung since my days at Bible Camp. The sermon was about light, and it was a bright and sunny day. I was glad we were all able to be there with her.

The changes continued when I returned to work and Elaine announced that she is pregnant with Baby Number 3. And speaking of Baby Number 3's, Matthew's brother and sister-in-law welcomed their third daughter, Jaeda, last Friday.

And that's not all. Just when I think this month has reached its change limit, I get an email this morning from Morgan, announcing that she and Justin are dating now, too. Love is in the air around here, I guess! I was so excited about this that I couldn't stop smiling all day long. Justin confided in me several months ago about his developing feelings for her, but I had no idea if she felt the same way. So when I found out this morning that she does, I was giddy with excitement. As Charlotte said just now, the more we think about the two of them together, the more we just say, "Good job, God."

So, an engagement, a wedding, a baptism, a pregnancy, a baby, a romance... and it's only Day 20!

This all follows a whirlwind Christmas season that involved Matthew and I traveling approximately 2,000 miles together to my family's in Amana, his family in Pella, the Faithwalkers conference by Lake of the Ozarks, back to Omaha for New Year's, and then up to the Twin Cities for the wedding. Whew! It was a good time, though I felt like I was in a time warp or something for most of it. Periodically I'd ask myself "don't I have a job or something?" This series of trips should've been a whole blog entry (or 2 or 3) in and of itself (sorry about that). I really enjoyed getting to know Matt's family better. I thought I'd be really sad to not be with my family in Ohio for Christmas, and I did miss everyone, but I was also very happy to be right where I was at. I enjoyed singing Christmas carols with Matt and his mom around the piano on Christmas Eve. And I loved playing with all of his little nieces. It was a nice time.

And speaking of little ones, one of the highlights of the whole trip for me was the day we spent with Aroea, Cainen and Jonas in Cedar Rapids. I enjoyed watching Cainen open his Christmas present, dancing with Jonas, and playing with Play-Doh. We started watching Kung Fu Panda. I was cuddling with Matthew on the couch, and then Cainen came up, sat on Matt's lap, and started playing with my hair as he contentedly watched the movie. It was pretty much the best moment ever.

So, that's all for now (and really, it's plenty). Here's to 2009! What's that saying? Something like, "The only constant is change."? Yeah, it seems like that's probably going to be the theme of this year. Stay tuned...