Tis the season...

So I guess the Christmas countdown has officially started. Actually, Aaron and I started our holiday celebrations early this year. Over the Thanksgiving weekend we went out and got our Christmas tree. It has become a tradition for us to go to a local farm, pick out our tree and cut it down ourselves. Let me tell you it is such a fun way to start the holiday season. This year we took some friends along with us, which made it that much more enjoyable. Another change from last year - a 7' tree. Honestly we didn't realize how tall it was. It is hard to tell when you are under the big blue sky and not your house roof. Last year we went for the small 5' tree and ended up putting it on blocks to make it look taller. No need for blocks this year, it is inches away from the ceiling with out help. Good thing it wasn't any taller.

Anyway, just thought I would write a quick hello and hopefully get you all into the holiday spirit. Oh and I'm definately with Julie on the ORU stuff. I'm anticipating the next several years to be great for the University.

ORU stuff

Julie, great overview of the latest at ORU. I have also been following it but you did a fabulous job of explaining it in few words. I'm also very pleased to hear that there will be new leadership at the school. I don't mean to dishonor Richard and his family, but I strongly believe that new leadership is just what our school needs. I'm excited to see the changes (hopefully for the better) in the next few years. I want the school to survive for many many more years so that girls like us can form friendships to last forever, like ours!!
So I'm about to attempt a new post on the Akers blog, you should all read it if you have time, but the short of it is that we thought we lost Fujiko last night. But we found her. Anyway, it was a very scarry, but humerous event.
Kimmie! You're beautiful! Love the pictures!

ORU

Hi girls! Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend. Kimmy, your pictures are super cute! You're so pregnant! Can't wait to see Violet! Your house is also really nice. It looks beautiful. We had a good weekend with family. We all had a slumber party at mom and dad's house. Seth and Lilah had a blast playing with cousins. I wanted to touch base with you girls about all the happenings at ORU these days. I don't know if you guys have been following the situation as it unfolds, but it's pretty interesting. If you haven't been staying up on things, I highly recommend hitting the internet for the updates. Specifically, ORUs new Face Place for alumni has been pretty valuable and entertaining for getting up to date info and keeping a finger on the pulse of the campus right now. Quick overview: professors brought wrongful termination lawsuit against Richard and Lindsay after being fired abruptly when they addressed the board concerning a laundry list of allegations uncovered against the Roberts family. The news hit media and a private investigation was launched into the allegations by the Board of Regents. The faculty met to deliver a vote of "No Confidence" in Richard Roberts as president of ORU regardless of the investigation outcomes. Strong feeling that the Roberts had mismanaged funds and the university was ready for a change in leadership no matter what. Richard submitted his letter of resignation a few days ago and has stepped down permanently from position of president. Billy Joe Daugherty has been acting as an interim president in the meantime while the Board looks for a new president. Yesterday, the owner of Hobby Lobby and Mardels has promised 70 million dollars to ORU to relieve the university of its debt. The Board of Regents has now voted to accept Richard's resignation and also voted to completely separate ORU and the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association from each other. They will no longer be associated and ORU will be its own entity under completely new leadership. Wow. It's been a big week in ORU history. I am really excited and prayerful that God is doing something big at ORU to restore it to its original purpose and I really hope the board gets a quality leader in Richard's place now. It's an important time to be praying for ORU and supporting the university despite past irritations with the administration. Because, as it turns out, the administration is getting cleaned out. I am really hopeful that we are on the edge of seeing a new day and an incredible era at ORU that will set the university up to be a strong academic and spiritual institution. Anyways, not to rant. You may be able to tell that I am supportive of the leadership change. But I thought you might all be interested in case you weren't aware of all the new stuff happening. Love you girls! I'm passionate about ORU for a lot of reasons, but it is, afterall, where I met my sapphire girls! Lets fight and support the university that brought us together so that future ORU girls can make their own friendship clubs to get them through life!

Me again

Hey girls,

Hope you all had great Thanksgivings! Just because I'm so in love with myself, I thought I'd post some more pictures... :) But these pictures have some tummy shots, so you can see how enormous I'm getting. You know something's big when it makes my chest look small.

Here's the link to my Flickr photo set if you want to see all of our Thanksgiving fun: http://flickr.com/photos/kaylind/sets/72157603320787892/

Now someone else share something! :)

Quick hello

Hi girls,

Hope you are all having a lovely Thanksgiving week!

I just finished uploading some pics of our new house, so I thought I would pass them along in case you would like to see them. Don't judge me if you see clutter or mess -- it's still a work in progress.

If you click on the picture below, you should go to my Flickr page. If that doesn't work, follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaylind/sets/72157603251144942/

All is well here -- just counting down the days! We are getting so excited to meet this kid, it's unreal.

Love you all!

Yuck

Julie, I am so sorry to hear about the drama on your homefront! I am praying that by now you are all over that nasty stomach flu. I am also hoping God gives you the grace to deal with your mother-in-law during this trying time.

Things here have been pretty busy, but not with anything really important. The last few weeks have been a challenge - I was sick with a stomach bug at the beginning of last week, then Tuesday of this week I got a TERRIBLE urinary tract infection, and Wednesday I woke up with a nasty head cold (still dealing with that). In the midst of all this, my work put on a food drive on Halloween so we had to set up and work a "Spook House". Thank goodness, Shawn was involved a lot this year so I didn't have to do so much with the stomach bug hitting at the same time. We bought a 1997 Honda Passport from our friends Frank and Kori (photographers at our wedding), but before you get too excited, we still have to find a transmission for it. Shawn and a friend will be doing all of the labor since they work on cars regularly anyway, and they know the guy at the salvage yard, so we're getting a sweet deal, but we still haven't found a good one and time is ticking away. I would like to have it ready before it starts to get too cold.

We are celebrating our anniversary this weekend by staying home (yay!!!) and watching movies. We are going to dinner at Ti Amos on Sunday just because that's where we had our first date, and we may do some Christmas shopping, but other than that, we'll be at home. I would have LOVED to do something bigger, but money is still tight and with Christmas right aroung the corner, we just didn't think it would be smart.

Also, right around the corner (in 7 days to be exact) we'll be making the trek up to Minnesota to spend a long week with my family. I can't wait! We'll be exchanging Christmas gifts (but not opening them, of course) at that time too so we can all save on shipping costs this year. :-) This also means that I finally get to meet my niece, Madeline, for the first time! I can't wait to hold her!

I hope all of you are doing well! Liz, thanks for the email! I haven't gotten back to you yet, but I will soon! I'm glad to hear things are going well with the baby. Kim, we are counting the days with you until Violet Ann arrives! Take care of yourself! I miss all of you girls so much! Love you!

family intimacy over a barf bowl

So, we've had quite a week here at the Vicena house. It started out with a lot of promise. Josh took vacation from Saturday through Wednesday. Vicki (Josh's mom) was going to to come in Sunday and Monday to watch the kids for us so that we could do a couple things just the two of. We spent Saturday working on projects around the house. Then on Sunday, Josh's mom called on her way to our house... sobbing hysterically... because it doesn't look like it's going to work out with her and her husband, Paul. (Who, by the way, is a total and complete jerk ad always has been. Josh and I expressed our concerns about Paul's controlling, manipulative, and inconsiderate behavior from the very beginning and strongly advised Vicki against a relationship and especcially marriage with him.) Vicki stayed with us through Tuesday and will be back over the weekend. Josh and I did not get any time alone because she felt too fragile to be left alone. Other than a matinee we got to go see on Monday while the kids were napping. She's going to be here a lot because she can't really be home much with Paul. She looking for a job in the Columbus area. I may sound incredibly insensitive concerning Vicki's situation. The thing is, she has a tendency to make poor decisions based entirely off of feelings, and then expect josh and me to pick up the pieces and listen to her cry and whine about it for the next 2 years. We very specifically told her when she decided to marry Paul that when this marriage fell apart, we would not be sympathetic. We would help her make good decisions from here on to get her out, get a job, and settled into a new place. So this is going to be a long process that Josh and I are already annoyed with. She calls like 10 times a day about everything. And you all know how good I am at coddling people.... Surprisingly, Josh is actually more irritated and unsympathetic than me about the whole thing. It's just one more thing to deal with that takes time away from our time together as a couple. I guess the first divorce the first year of medical school just seemed fun enough that she decided to do it again the first year of residency. Each stressful new phase life just wouldn't be complete without a family disaster to pile on an extra load! Again, I know I'm sounding really selfish and nasty. I'm sorry. I just needed someone to vent to.

So, after Josh and I slipped away to see a quick movie on Monday afternoon, we returned to our beautiful children and were greeting them when Lilah crawled in my lap, hugged me hello, and then vomited like a scene from the Excorcist all over me. She then spent the next 2 hours vomiting every 10 minutes until we gave her a Zofran injection. The poor thing was so sick and every time she threw up, it scared her. I spent the rest of the night just cuddling with her and holding a bowl in front of her face. She's been sick since then, still throwing up and has had diarrhea for the last couple days too. Last night Seth started running a fever of 102 degrees and he's been acting like he feels pretty bad today. Josh woke up this morning with the flu as well and I'm afraid I might be getting it. It's gross and exhausting, but the kids have been so mellow we've just been cuddling all week. The cuddling has been nice. I watched Monsters Inc. with the kids this morning and we just made a bed on the living room floor to watch our movies and camp out. Unfortunately Josh still had to work with the flu. So, even though we've been sick, we've all just been spending time together as a family and cuddling. Josh's vacation is over now and we spent the whole time dealing with his mom and cleaning up sick kids. It really didn't turn out quite the way we'd hoped. Oh well, such is life. Sorry to dump all this complaining on you girls. Just needed someone to vent to for a few minutes. Thanks for listening. Also, if you girls get a second, please say a prayer for us that the flu passes quickly and we all feel better soon. Thanks!