New Hughes!

I don't have a lot of time still, but I figured I should at least let you all see the pictures of the newest member of our family! We had our first ultrasound on December 19th, when this little one was 11-1/2 weeks old. The measurement taken says he/she is due on 7/7/07. I will still keep the pregnancy ticker and such things dated for 7/4/07 just because. I have a pregnancy journal that has dates written in for each day of my pregnancy, and I'm just going to keep everything geared to the first due date. It's close enough that I don't think it will make that much of a difference.

Both pictures are front views. The one without words on it is a little clearer - the small dots on either side of the body and at the end of the body are his/her hands and feet. This little baby was really moving around! Doing somersaults and holding it's hands up. It's heartbeat was strong and normal - I have heard it a second time also at my regular prenatal check-up a few days ago. Our little baby is healthy and normal - that was a wonderful Christmas present for this first-time mommy!!!

"For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them."

-Psalm 139:13-16

Regrouping

So, those of you in the Santa Clarita Valley may have heard about this on the news or in the paper, but the building where the pregnancy center is, was burned on Saturday night. The office on the second story right above our office had a fire (probably electrically caused) and an explosion from the fire getting to an oxygen tank and the entire floor is completely burned and gutted and the roof is gone, etc.

Our office got extensive smoke and water damage, so we can't work there anymore. Pretty much the entire building is "totaled". Staff and volunteers got together Sunday afternoon and basically "moved out" everything but the furniture. All our files, records, computers, etc. We're setting up shop in my boss's house until we have another home. All the boxes and filing cabinets are in her garage right now.

So, you could pray for all the details with that. We will need either a temporary office or a different permanent office. We'll need a place to meet with clients - since that is the main thing we're here for. Thankfully we were able to salvage most of our stuff - even our computers seem to be working!!! Lots of things are wet and everything is displaced, so getting back to the business of business will be tricky for awhile. :)

This verse is one that we like to use to illustrate the hope we share with our clients in the midst of their crises. It applies to this situation as well. God has everything sovereignly in His control.

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Christmas Decorations

Here is the promised Christmas post! I did some experimenting with different settings on my camera to take these pictures. I wasn't happy with how the auto setting captured the Christmas tree - the needles were all blurry - no distinction at all. After trying all the settings (I'm not very sophisticated so I just try the preset settings on my camera!), I found that the "scenery" setting actually captured the tree the best. It didn't flash which kept the room in its natural light, but it also seemed to allow the twinkle lights on the tree to come out in all their colory brilliance. Even though the picture is kind of yellow, I prefer this one. Our living room doesn't have the best lighting. :)

I liked the auto setting better for my other displays though because they captured the detail better for some reason.

Here is an example of the difference between "auto" and "landscape" when taking a picture of the entire room all decked out in Christmas. The lighting is completely different!

Also, for those of you who are wondering - the vaccum cleaner is a necessary part of our holiday decor. Cinnamon, our cat, is deathly afraid of the vaccum, so we have it set up next to the tree to deter her from playing with the ornaments, branches, etc. We also have it on a remote switch so that we can turn it on from anywhere in the house - the "power" of the "evil vaccum" is maximized when it "punishes" her with its loud noise when we aren't in the room. This is particularly effective when we hear her playing with the ornaments in the middle of the night or morning when we're still in bed - we can turn it on from our bedroom and the loud noise is directly related to her bad behavior. :) It works pretty well. The terror wears off the longer we can't enforce it - so when we go to Oregon for 5 days, we'll probably have a few ornaments on the ground (and lots of pine needles!) when we come back. :)

Oh, and we have the tree lights on a remote switch also. One button turns the lights on, one turns them off, one turns the vaccum on, one turns it off. Pretty nifty - one of Nathan's techy purchases from when he was a bachelor. :) When it's not Christmas, we have the same remote thing rigged up to a motion detector in the garage to chime in the house to let the one of us who's home know when the other one arrives home (our garage is downstairs on the other side of the building). The silly little things technology lets us do. :)

Maternity Shirt

Hi again! I've been pretty busy, so sorry about the low volume of posts. Yesterday and today have actually been much improved as far as morning sickness goes. I haven't had the need to snack as often as I usually do. So, at 10 weeks, I guess the hormones are starting to level out some. I still need to eat first thing in the morning, but things are not as bad as they were.

Also, I wore my first maternity outfit yesterday! I am showing a tiny bit, but still not really big enough for maternity clothes for the most part. However, I was in our church's Christmas Concert last night in the choir. We needed to wear black on bottom and red, green, or white on top. Since white is boring, I hoped to wear red or green. But, I don't own any red or green (Christmas shades at least) - they're not really my colors. So, when I got some borrowed maternity clothes from Nathan's sister, this red sweater set was perfect! It was still somewhat big on me, but didn't look overly maternity. I wore a "belly band" over my unzipped regular black skirt that doesn't fit me normally anymore, so the long sweater covered that up. You can kind of see my little tummy in the picture. :) I've gained one inch in my waist, but have actually lost a couple pounds - wierd. Probably due to my irratic snacking lately. Oh yeah, and I'm wearing some drawstring maternity capris today that are from some borrowed clothes from a friend of Nathan's family, since my jeans don't fit anymore. I'm tired of wearing one of my two pairs of nice pants everyday since that's all that fits me anymore - especially on the weekend. :)

So, I've got a lot of projects to finish before we leave for Oregon on the 20th. I finished one yesterday - a doll accessory I made to complete an outfit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law bought to give to his neice for Christmas. I have Christmas cards to write, a Christmas present to finish, and, hopefully, an alteration job I got last week that would be nice to finish before the holidays get here. I've wrapped all the presents we've bought so far (which is most of them) and they're all stacked in the corner where the tree will go. No bows or ribbons, though, until the very last minute before we take the presents somewhere - Cinnamon can't be trusted with bows and ribbons! :) We should be getting the tree sometime today - I'll post again once it's decorated to let you all see it!

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." - Psalm 16:11