Birthday Celebrations

So August 16th we celebrated my birthday (which was actually on the 4th). My sister, Krista, was in charge of the decorations (with some help from Mom), and she did an awesome job. We ended up with leis and a flip flop "door curtain", a palm tree centerpiece and more.

After people had arrived, all the kids and many of the adults jumped in the pool. Here's me with nephew Koen.

Later, I got to hang out with his big sister, Emmaleigh and help her get warm after her dips in the pool.

My dad very kindly agreed to be grill-master for the evening, and the chicken breasts and beef shishkabobs came out great!

Our friends Edward and Mollie came, too, and their son Ben got a turn with his feet (legs?) in the water.

Add to all that great family some delicious cake and my favorite potato chips, and it was quite an affair. :-)

Just this past Monday Krista, her friend Emily, and I went to the California State Fair! For Krista's birthday (back in July), Matthew and I gave Krista a coupon to take a friend somewhere, and she chose the fair. :-) The guy at the water preservation booth convinced us to wear trout hats.

We had fun looking at all the expensive "You need this to make your life better!" sales booths, the county exhibits, the cattle and goats, and the quilting and youth art exhibits. Krista and Emily also did a few things at the Midway carnival.

And today is Matthew's mom's birthday! It's been a great two weeks.

Hallsten Family Reunion

So, last weekend (the 8th through the 10th) was the Hallsten Family Reunion (31st annual, or something crazy like that). Matthew and I hadn't gotten to attend since we were engaged, so it was fun to catch up. I think I know the family relationships better than ever after attending this year. Basically, my Grandpa Hallsten and his five siblings (four still living) and all of their children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren are invited. We gather in Kingsburg, CA, the center of all things Swedish in the state, and, they like to think, in the country. My grandpa's family came over from Sweden to Kingsburg (after living in Chicago for a little while) in 1912 (?) in a modified Model T Ford. Grandpa wasn't born yet - he's number 5 of the 6 siblings.
It was nice to get to catch up with my Uncle Mark and Aunt Kathy who live in Orlando. The two youngest of their clan of 6 kids were in attendance as well.

The next day we gathered at the family farm (the original property, now operated by one of my dad's cousins) and a traditional sibling line-up picture was taken. They are, oldest to youngest (counter-clockwise from bottom right) Eileen, Bertil (passed away), Milton, Ted, Harold (my grandpa), and Ruth.

The Harold Hallsten cousins who were in attendance also had a group photo. (Two are in Spain this summer, four more stayed in Orlando.)

After the reunion, Matthew and I got together with some of our closest friends from Portland, Luke and Virginia. We all like Starbucks. :-) Luke is a teacher and the head football coach at Emmanuel, a Christian high school in Reedley. (Reedley and Kingsburg are both outside of Fresno.)

And, on our way home, we stopped in Turlock to visit Great-grandma Jessie. She played her harmonica for us, and we dined with her (at 4:30pm!) She's doing very well physically for a 95-year-old -- her hearing and sight have gotten worse in recent years, but she still walks as fast as I can!

P.S. A special thank-you to Nick and Jody who hosted us in Fresno on this weekend! Apparently we enjoyed their company and their daughter Ashlyn's antics so much that we didn't take a single picture while we were there! We did, however, play Cranium on their Wii, watch Kiwi (the dog) and Ashlyn play tug-of-war, and sleep very soundly.

Em's Birthday, etc.

This past Monday we went to Emily's parents' house to celebrate her birthday. Krista made super yummy brownies. Mom tried to put some candles in the whole pan, but the brownies were still warm so the candles started to melt. So I had an individual brownie with a candle in it. (I'm having the last one tonight for dessert).

On the same evening, we took our first "family portrait". I'm officially 33 weeks pregnant now. Baby Naomi's latest tricks involve putting pressure on my ribs and lungs. Her movements are more like pressure being increased and released than real "kicks". Tonight was the first night I could clearly identify a foot - that was fun!

This Wednesday we started childbirthing classes - we had mixed feelings about that. I have not been sleeping as well since then - my brain is turning different tasks and pieces of knowledge over and over in my head. For example: Oh yeah, my kid needs a pediatrician before she's even born! Oh shoot, how do I find a pediatrician? And they gave us more reading material - because all I need is more pages to feel guilty about not reading.

Matthew also finished training at work this week, and he's looking forward to really being on the job starting Monday. He's struggling to figure out how to balance working full time with a long commute, working hard to find a "real" job, contribute to ministry, and participate in all the family events we're surrounded by. It's a challenge! We're feeling blessed by God to have to provision we do, and that we have so much family around us. One of the main reasons we decided to move to Roseville instead of waiting it out in Portland was to have the proximity to family that we have here - we're soaking it up!

All of our nieces and nephews (except the 1-week-old) know who we are and like hanging out with us now that we've been here a month. That's been special to us.

After this weekend we're going to post some pictures of the giant Hallsten reunion. We're in the Central Valley, with friends (Nick and Jody) right now... tomorrow the whole clan gets together to celebrate being Swedish and a descendant of my great-grandpa Richard (who I never met). My grandpa and his four siblings, and all their kids, spouses, etc, meet in Kingsburg, the Swedish center of California every year. We haven't gone for four years, so I'm a little nervous about knowing everyone's names... It will be nice to see my grandparents and some of my cousins and aunts and uncles who I haven't seen for a long time!

Good night! Enjoy the Olympics. :-)

The Search Continues

On Thursday Matthew had a very positive phone interview with the search team at Peter's Creek Baptist Church for their Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries position. This morning the Sr. Pastor called to let us know that they had reached their final decision. He said that everyone was really impressed with Matthew's application, sermon samples and interviews but that ultimately they had decided to go with another candidate who had some significant experience in a similar position. He said Matthew was their 2nd choice out of 45 candidates and that the only thing that set their first choice apart was his experience which they thought would be helpful in getting up to speed quickly.

While we were excited about this possibility because of the job description and what we knew about the church trying to start a new job within a few weeks of Naomi's birth would have been quite challenging and the location was not ideal for us. So getting the call this morning was a little disappointing but not devastating. Over all it was an encouraging experience. We appreciate your continued prayers as we wait for the right time and place to begin vocational ministry. We are confident that God will provide a special opportunity in his timing but not knowing where or when can be a little hard some times.

Also a quick update on our niece Elizabeth. She is home with her adopting parents Dane and Shandela Brooks (Matthew's brother and sister-in-law) and is doing great. Please pray for the adoption to go through without any problems and also for the family's housing situation, they need to find a new place to stay now that they have 3 kids and are in a tiny 2 bedroom condo with no yard. Thanks for your prayers.