The past month

Wow, it has been awhile since we last gave an update on our happenings here in Indiana.

Well I always love lots of pictures so here is a little snapshot of what has been consuming our time the past couple of weeks....

Our new family of 3 (+1 in the works)

No matter what anyone says there is nothing like receiving love from a pet :)

His favorite place to be! Also, thanks Grandma Stonesifer for the quilt.

Just hanging out

Taking a snooze with his stuffed husky named Snowflake

He is getting so big.

He looks so funny when he sleeps sometimes. Also, love his speckled belly! haha

So sweet! Sleeping by Daddy's feet while he works.

And yes he does do more than sleep.  However, while he is sleeping is the best time to try to take pictures.

So much love!

Learned to Shake!

Well there you go in case you couldn't pick up on the theme. Our month has been filled with Sitka. There were some rough moments, but we have been truly blessed with a wonderful pup, who we are preparing to be a great big brother to the Little Miss.  It has also been amazing to see how having the new pup had enabled us to make friends in our apartment complex.  Our apartment complex is very dog friendly, so lots of the residents have dogs.  And, now that we have joined the crowd and are out and about walking Sitka everyday we have met so many more people.  It has been wonderful and we are feeling much more at home here.  Our neighbors that live across the street from us have a terrier mix who is about the same age as Sitka and they absolutely love to play with each other!  It has been great for the pups to run off energy and for us to get to know some people beyond just small talk.  We are looking forward to more months of training and progress before the Little Miss arrives.

In other news Theresa got a job as a part-time receptionist at an assisted and independent living home.  While it isn't ideal work it has been great to get out of the house, bring in a little money and meet more people in the community of Lafayette.  

Drew is still working for Data One part-time and plugging along with school and observations.  (He can update you more on this soon)

And lastly, we had quite the weekend back in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures, but some dear friends at Gordon-Conwell threw a little baby shower for the Little Miss.  It was my first baby shower and it was wonderful to catch up with some amazing women.  I felt so blessed and loved, and I know our little girl will too.  We were also able to reconnect with church friends and family, and got the chance to take some maternity pictures.  

We are now officially in the third trimester (ahhhh!!).  I think it dawned on both of us the past couple of days that this is gonna happen and she will be here before we know it. I would be lying if I didn't say we got a little freaked out combine this with the fact that we were exhausted from our whirlwind trip, and had realized how much we missed our friends back in MA, and the week has been an emotional rollarcoaster.  I also had to go to a breastfeeding class, and uggh I have to say when did it become ok to make future mothers feel so much pressure and guilt to make certain decisions about how to take care of their babies (and I am not just talking about choosing formula or breastmilk).  I left the class feeling discouraged and upset.  We could use some prayer as we learn to tune out all the noise of "advice" from the outside and begin to learn to trust each other as we enter this adventure of parenting.

Well I think that is all the updates as of now! I have been working on some more sewing projects, so I will share some pictures soon.

Much love from the Stonesifer fam!

Sitka's new family

So we had a big decision to make.  Friday night, we gave a call to the breeder, and though four out of five puppies had been claimed from her June litter, she just had a fresh one which is what all her customers were interested in, so Cisco was being sold at a lower rate.

This was the cool part for me.  We got to the breeder, and I feel like I learned a lot about huskies just in the time we were there.  This gal and her husband, both retired, had about 20 huskies, and probably more Corgis, and some Shelties.  We got to see Sitka (then called Cisco) being trained by his mom, Uneka, to fight back at attackers.  It was fascinating, while she and a bunch of the other dogs were playing and we were talking with the breeder, she had him pinned against a fence with his neck in her jaws, like completely, doing it as long as it took for him to learn to defend himself.  He gave a pretty serious yip one time.  We totally don't understand dogs and their behavior.  This was completely normal, but if someone in a pet store at the mall saw that behavior, they'd be terrified.

After some time, Cisco became a lot more comfortable running to us and playing with us.  Not like it was some magical connection, but it was cool to see.  Some of the dogs were really calm (Cisco's dad), anxious, friendly, suspicious, or energized (Cisco's mom).  All of them enjoyed some bouts of wrestling, nipping, and tackling.  haha one time Cisco's dad bowled into his mom and completely sent her rolling around on the ground lol.

When we took him outside of the fence, momma's fears were confirmed, and she knew that her baby was leaving.  It was heart-wrenching to see.  She and her champion bloodline were running up and down the fence as we pulled Sitka out of the gate with his new and very unnatural leash.  We were told that after we took him away, especially after giving him a bath, he'd never be treated the way that he was among that pack of dogs again.  It's a tough thing to do to a dog.

I don't know if the little fella had ever been in a car before, but we had put a sheet down in the car and plopped him down on the back seat, and Theresa climbed in next to him.  He really didn't know what to make of it.  After a bit he sat his butt down, but was fighting the urge to lie down or close his eyes.  About 45 minutes later we stopped at North White high school for a water/potty break, and he was still lacking confidence in his surroundings (of course!) so we couldn't really pull him anywhere on the leash.  Eventually he was walking around and whatnot, and for the next half of the ride home, he was far happier, and actually laid himself down.

Walmart was next!  Theresa went in to get some things and Sitka and I went to a grassy spot in the back of the parking lot to hang out.  He showed some interest in other people while we were there, and when we got back to the car to get going he put his little paws up on the doorsill!  Awww... daddy's so proud!!

Then the pet supply store.  We knew this would be over-stimulating.  The guy was totally out of his element when we first went in, so I carried him around until we met another little 10 week fluffy mutt puppy.  Both of them had just left their old families!!  They were good for each other, and although he was really uncomfortable with strangers at first, it really helped him out when he was forced to interact with them.  By the time we left the store, he was a ripe little social butterfly!

It was quite a day already, but after we got home and had our first accident, it was off to a church picnic for dinner (mom and dad had been practicing foregoing their own needs all day.  This really is a foretaste of our little baby girl soon to come), where he did great eating dinner (dog food, fear not) and then it was home for a bath.  Goodness gracious, we didn't let him off easy, huh!

Sitka at the picnic!  He was a hit, and loved it!

Sitka, the little bathtime pro!!

Bathtime was, miraculously, a breeze.  Who's heard of Huskies that like water??  Well here's one.  He was totally fine and indifferent to the whole affair.  I'd even dare to say he liked it.

Needless to say, after a day like that, he slept great.  There was another accident in there, but while he was in his kennel he kept it clean.  Morning rolled around without him waking us up or whimpering or anything.



That morning we had to leave him for church, and I think we were both thinking about him the whole time lol.  There's definitely a new little Stonesifer!  If we keep telling ourselves that, we'll believe it happened.

Playdates and visits are welcome!  We'd love to get him meeting as many new people and dogs as we can.

Welcome to the newest little Stonesifer!

Though you may not have known it, there had been a competition between two opposing dimensions of Drew and Theresa's life going on for quite some time now - which would come first - the Husky, or the Human?  Really since we first started dating, the heavenly bodies representing the two fates started collecting followers and assembling for the inevitable battle, and in the past few months, they were in all-out warfare!  It looked like team Human would win out, but team Husky had apparently sent for the Riders of Rohan and swooped in for a swift and dominating win at the end!  After the whole battle, here's who we got!

Doesn't he look so grown up? :) hehe

a long day!

So, for the sake of chronicling and storytelling, the talk of Siberian Huskies began some time ago (like the over-analogized battle above).  To make a long story shorter, there was time when we were very seriously dating, and Theresa was facing inner turmoil because we thought I was allergic to dogs.  For multiple years, we thought there was a serious possibility that we wouldn't be able to get a dog (or deny ourselves and get a poodle or something).  After that, I began conducting scientifically rigorous experiments like burying my face in Theresa's husky, Klondike, at her parents' house, or letting him get into my clothes to make sure I brought as much of him back with me as I could.  The results were good!  We determined that I was allergy-free!

When we moved to Boston, we pretty much knew we wouldn't be able to get a dog.  Finding an apartment in the Boston area that allows dogs, let alone huskies, is difficult, and exceedingly expensive.  So we delayed.

Moving to Lafayette, a decidedly more dog-friendly area (or maybe less dog-unfriendly - sorry Boston!), we could afford ourselves accommodations that would allow for a puppy.  So we picked a place that had no breed restrictions (even though huskies are the friendliest dogs after pomeranians), relatively small additional expenses, and a dog park! what?! crazy.  Oh yea, and things for us like a bedroom and a shower.

For a few months, Theresa and I were too busy with classes for the both of us, so while we still talked about husky names as much as baby names, we put off getting a dog for a slightly more sane time.  She finished her classes a few weeks ago, and after hosting my parents for a lovely visit and some job applications and things, we felt we had a short window to housetrain a puppy before the baby came.  After all, we're not that crazy.  :)

Since the going rate for huskies in Indiana varies from $650 to Christmas-gift-for-my-princess, when Theresa saw a listing that met our qualifications - breeder, offered AKC registration, seemed as professional and clean as we could tell online - for $400, well, that was when the Riders of Rohan showed up, and team Human was ambushed and sent running with its tail between its legs (hehe), with little time to mount a counter-defense.

Part 2 about his first day will come tomorrow!

And it's a..........

Well the day has come!! We are halfway there (cause we are seriously praying that this little one arrives on or before their due date, so that Dad will not be back in classes at the time of the birth.) I know due dates are an estimation, but heck this little one is hearing from us everyday that we want a little December baby! And, well apparently this worked for my mom, haha.

So........we are at 20 weeks and we finally know if Baby S is going to be a little Miss or Mr.!! There was much excitement and anticipation that surrounded this news. I had always known that I would want to find out. I understand that there are different opinions out there about this and each to their own, but there is no way we were going to wait 20+ more weeks to find out if this little critter was gonna get our boy name or girl name.  (Oh, P.S. we are leaving the name a secret between the two of us, and we will announce that after the little one makes its appearance into the world. Gotta have something left to announce ;)

We decided to have a party to share the news, and so we jumped on the bandwagon and 

planned a Gender Reveal Party.  

There are so many cute ideas on Pinterest for how to share the news, but we loved the one of popping balloons that had confetti in them.  I must confess that we knew the news before the rest of the party goers. We debated about wanting to have the ultrasound tech tell us or have her write it down, but we decided that it would be fun to have her tell us. The little critter was shy at first and stayed in a little ball while the ultrasound tech took some measurements.  After some coercing the little one finally moved and we got a clear shot of between the legs, haha.

And, well here is the news....it's a ???????

Miss!!!!!!

Here are some pictures from the Party! (courtesy of the wonderful Bethany Shaw!)

Counting the Votes. Boy won the Vote, haha.

Oh my face! Can you tell we are excited?? :)

So much pink!!!

Also, since some people have asked we registered at Amazon.com (click here).

Much love!

A little Idaho, Anniversary and 16 weeks!!

The past few weeks have been mighty busy! Here are some pictures!

Jenn's Bacherlorette Party! This gal is no longer a Miss! So, blessed to have been able to be a part of this dear friend's big day!

Beautiful Bride!!

Love ya lots Jenn!! I am so happy for you and Chris and I hope you are enjoying married life and a little time away in Oregon!

My dear friend Victoria told me that she wants to see more blogs which means I need to actually take the time to sit down and write about life, haha.  Like I said its been a little busy around here. We had a lovely 4th of July and got to go to a BBQ here at one of the pastor's homes, saw the fireworks in Lafayette. And, then since it will be our Anniversary soon we had lunch at the Melting Pot while in Indianapolis for the day.  Though we hadn't made reservations the hostess sat us in a special booth that was back away from the rest of the restaurant. (oh and the cheese course by itself is actually really reasonably priced fyi).  I can't believe all that has happened in the past two years but I am so grateful to be married to a wonderful man, and incredibly excited to see where life will take us! It is so much better to be on this adventure together :)

Happy 2 years my love!

I also just got back from a 10 day trip to Idaho where my mom and I went through a bunch of the baby stuff she had kept and accomplished other projects before helping out and being a part of Jenn and Chris's wedding.  Though IF doesn't necessarily feel like home anymore it is still so nice to be surrounded by the people that have known me longest and spend time catching up. Miss Kelley and Kyle's wedding can't come soon enough, so that we can go back and see everyone again and oh my that time we will have a 5 month old baby, haha!  My mom and I drove back to Indiana, and meanwhile Drew worked on his second class and I think enjoyed having the apartment to himself for a few days. He got to make a tuna casserole (since he knows that I despise all things tuna, haha)

Once she got back (Drew here) from that, I repaid Theresa for leaving me for a week by leaving her for a night, though the timing was more devious than I had hoped.  The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows from all over the stinkin nation converged, or rather, convened, in Chicago for a fancy Convening with a capital C.  It was pretty awesome to finally see how many people there are in this program!  There's hundreds in the 2014 cohort alone, which means we're going to be affecting tens if not hundreds of thousands of students in the coming years.  Wow!  That's pretty awesome.  Oh yea - they haven't taught me how to quote a conference, but I'm certainly getting conditioned for writing formally and academically and all that.  (But I informally and imprecisely quote that one guy who spoke and said a number approximately like 250,000 whose context I don't remember.)

We had a great time, as shown by India's goofy-too-early face below :)  I got to meet a bunch of people from around the country who have a passion for teaching, and listen to some great talks about teaching practice and such.  I know I'm in for a whirlwind when I actually start student teaching in the spring, let alone the real deal next fall, so it was good to hear about some practical stuff from real teachers.

The fellows all dressed up

Look at them!  So fly. #wwtf14 Back to school now, sort of.  First step, finally baking Amber's chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Second step, ... mehhhhhfine reading.

I (Theresa) have also been busy with classes which need to be finished in a little under a month from now (gulp)....it has definitely been harder to work from a distance and I am so glad that I only have these two left!  My time has also been consumed with taking advantage of my 2nd trimester energy by registering for baby stuff (fyi we are registered on Amazon) and working on projects for Baby S! I am already at 16 weeks...

My philosophy has been to recycle a few things (ie. I used a beach towel that we had and turned it into baby sized washcloths, used towels that we had and made cute little hooded towels, twin x-long sheets from college into crib sheets and then some left over fabric into reusable cloth wipes and breast pads).  I also bought fabric and made two "moby" style wraps, and swaddling blankets (like the Aden and Anais ones) (my wife is really cool). I have fabric to also make receiving blankets, burp cloths, and a carseat canopy.  My mom also surprised me with some homemade gifts when I arrived in Idaho! 

Here are some pictures of what I have been working on:

"Moby" style wrap

Washcloths and Towels

Hooded Towel

Swaddling Blankets (that's white, not pink)

And here are some pics of the gifts from my Mom:

Receiving Blankets, Burp Cloths, and changing pad carrying case

Travel changing pad and its little case

Well that is all for now :)

Much Love!

Life is about to Change!

This post was written 4/30/14....

If you didn't already know we moved to Indiana in May for Drew to attend Purdue for graduate school.

We found out on Sunday, April 27th that we were pregnant! After a weekend of feeling sick due to allergies and stressed from school this was a wonderful surprise to end Sunday evening!

The first one was really faint, so this was test #2 and I also took a 3rd one just to be sure, and a 4th one and one at the doctor's office ;)

We had gone down to PA for the weekend, so that Drew could be a part of Dr. Payn's retirement concert and surprise farewell party.  After a dreary drive down in the rain, where I tried to no avail to do homework. We arrived at Dan and Alana's for supper and stayed up till almost 1:00am chatting! Needless to say we were all exhausted at church the next morning (but it was worth it:).  My pregnancy suspicions grew throughout the day as I was nauseous during the church service, and started to tear up during the farewell luncheon (which is strange because I barely knew Dr. Payn).  In between the luncheon and concert rehearsal we drove to the store and picked up two tests.  I wasn't sure if I should take one, but I have never been good at waiting, so I decided what the heck. And well there in Rooke Chapel we learned we were expecting!  That is after Drew convinced me that my eyes were not playing tricks on me and that the second faint pink line was actually there.

We are very excited and nervous for all the changes that will be happening in our lives as we live in a new state and town, Drew has started grad school and we are preparing for this new little life to enter our home.  Through all of this we know God will be by our side and guiding our steps.  

It was so early and the window of risk was not gone, but we wanted to tell family and friends in person, so in the next couple of weeks we did spread the news to a few people.


And now an update from this week.....

On Monday we got our first confirmation that all is going well! After some phone tag with the doctor and trying to figure out state health (woo the joys of being broke grad students...) we finally were able to make an appointment to visit the doctor for our first prenatal check-up.  The staff were wonderful and made us feel very comfortable through the endless parade of medical history questions, etc., etc.  And then after explaining how it was still early and we might not hear the heartbeat today the midwife found the little thing's heartbeat right away it was 160 and beating away happily.

I wasn't sure what to expect when hearing the heartbeat people kept telling me it was going to be amazing, but it was so odd it wasn't like anything I had ever heard before and my emotions were quite mixed.  I think if the midwife hadn't told us that is what we were listening to I would never have been able to guess.  The past few weeks have been an interesting time for me. I have been wrestling with what motherhood will look like for me.  It is still a time of discernment and thank God for giving us all a 9 month adjustment period :) So far I have learned that it turns out I am not a very sentimental person, I miss serving in a ministry, and I have a lot to think about as I finish up my degree this summer and what that means for me this upcoming Fall as far as work goes.  However, at the end of the day I am so relieved that all is going well with the little one's development and we will continue to pray for a healthy baby!

Much love! Oh and we are definitely willing to take any baby related hand-me-downs (wink, wink). We do want to find out what we are having, so hopefully sometime in August we will have an ultrasound for that!

12 weeks. The dress makes me look a little bigger then I actually am, haha.

New State, New Town, New Home

The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind of activity! Finished up finals and several papers, took a trip to PA for Dr. Payn's final Rooke Chapel Choir Concert, Red Sox game with Watertown Stonesifers, Gordon-Conwell graduation, packed up our apartment, bid farewell to so many wonderful friends, moved to a new state, and unpacked! Its been insane, however, thankfully not overwhelming due to our amazing family and friends! And my wonderful father who put up with us for two weeks to help us pack, move and unpack :)

Gordon-Conwell Senior Banquet

May 7th Red Sox game with Tim, Joanna and David. 

It was my first Major League sporting event. Glad we got to do it before we left!

Baccalaureate service at Gordon College Chapel. It was so wonderful to have both Mom and Dad Narus and Mom and Dad Stonesifer, PapPap and my dear friend Marie there to celebrate graduation weekend with us!

Shaking Dr. Hollinger's hand. (my diploma is not really in there since I have two classes to finish up this summer)

Congratulations Meghan! Love you and miss ya tons!

What a wonderful husband! Thanks for all your help and encouragement during this journey!

Our amazing church friends praying for us as we head off to this new adventure. We miss you all so much!

And finally our new home!

More pictures to come once we finish setting up the apartment! Thankfully though I can say that all the boxes are unpacked and all that is left is decorating to make this place feel like home. So far despite the heat and humidity we are enjoying exploring the town and campus. Drew got his Purdue Student ID and we trying to navigate the ginormous campus.  We also visited a church on Sunday and really liked it.  Several people gave us their contact information and we felt so welcomed! We actually ended up calling one of the couples later that day to help us move a desk we bought at Goodwill into our apartment.

We are both in full swing starting to work on classes and finishing up all those obnoxious things you have to do when you move (ie. change of address, driver's license, insurance, etc.)  Once all of this settles down I know that it will truly sink in that we live here and it is not just a vacation. I must admit that I miss the Gordon-Conwell community and the immediate, strong bonds among neighbors.  Thank you all so much for your love and support! We will never forget that season of our lives. And, we do plan to come visit!!!

Feel free to call, text, email, etc.! 

Thankful!

Well its that insane time of year again, where one barely leaves the library and feels glued to their schoolwork, :( uggh I love learning but I always forget about how awful this part of the semester feels!! Prayers would be appreciated to get through the next couple of days.

In the midst of all this craziness I thought I would take a moment to stop and be thankful for all the ways that God has provided for us while we are here at seminary.  Today was the Honors convocation at chapel and I was awarded an honor for excellence in Christian Education. I am not one who takes compliments well, and most of the time I feel I don't deserve them and I get really embarrassed with all the attention (and yet I must admit that I like hearing them and appreciate the feedback afterwards). However, it was so odd realizing that this would be the last time I would sit in the chapel surrounded by the people I work with and study with.  I will miss those people so much and all the ways that they have helped shape my faith.  Its been an interesting ride through seminary life being a female married student, but I feel no doubt that God placed us here for a reason.  We have had so many incredible experiences with the people who live around us and have been able to experience the ups and downs of life together.

We probably don't say thank you enough to the people in our lives here, as we rush to prepare for the next adventure.  I wouldn't say that living in Massachusetts has been my favorite (it's terrifying to drive around here and winter is definitely under-appreciated, haha) but I would say wholeheartedly that we love our church and GCTS families!

So, I just want to say thank-you to God for providing Drew with a job and providing the funds for me to go to school. I also, want to say thank-you to our church and small group who have made us feel welcomed and loved and have trusted us to teach and serve in the church.  Also, thank you to the Admissions Office for providing me with a job I have loved and will definitely miss! Also, thank you to all the people in our building and in the GCTS community who have become amazing friends and confidants.  

Please come visit us in Indiana :)

Well I need to return to those papers....

Much Love,
Theresa

Home Sweet Home

Well as promised here are some updates!

We found a place to live in West Lafayette, IN!!!! This was a bit of a task since we had never been there and weren't going to have the chance to visit to look at apartments before moving in. But, I think we will like the one we found!!! We were basically going off of reviews from online and steering away from places that seemed to have very unhappy tenets.... 

We started off with a pretty long wish list (we had some wishful thinking since Indiana is cheaper than the Boston area):
-close to campus
-quiet neighborhood
-washer/dryer in unit
-dishwasher
-puppy friendly
-good reviews
-2 bedrooms (we had our fingers crossed...didn't happen but that is ok:)
-storage space

-flexible lease length
-available for a mid-May move-in date

There were probably some other things in there too.  Needless to say the list shrank as we started our search, but our new apartment looks like a wonderful place and we also got a fenced in DOG PARK on the property!  How wonderful is that? Yep, hopefully we will be getting a puppy sometime in the near future!!!

We are feeling incredibly blessed and very excited! Can't believe we will be moving in to this place in just a month or so!!! (please be praying that I can finish my classes well!)


I will leave you with pictures of the new apartment and maybe a future little furry Stonesifer!

Dog Park!!

The apartments!!

Awww :)

P.S. (we will  send out an email with our new address sometime end of April beginning of May; if you don't receive that please message, text or email us)

Have a wonderful day!