What has been going on...

So I have been really bad about keeping up with my posts and will try and do better. So besides the retreat that I posted about earlier, what else has gone on. Stan taught a class up at Lindenwood during our J-term and loved it. He really does miss the classroom and will be teaching a few more classes over the summer. Supper excited about that. My cousin had her baby boy on January 11th...Grayson James. He was 9lb 6oz and 21 1/2 inches.

Very big boy, but not the biggest that day. There was a boy born the same day weighting 11lbs. I could not imagine, it would be like having a 2-3 month old.

What else, oh yeah...I'm pregnant. I am just over 12 weeks and very excited. We have had our 2nd appointment last week and got our the blood tests results. Everything looks good so far. We got to hear the heartbeat last week and that was pretty cool. As of right now, the due date is Sept 19th. So I'm sure that I will be updating my blog more often now.

Look what I found this morning...

Riley sleeping in my laundry basket.

Luke 18

Well I think I have recovered enough to share my awesome weekend. I little backround, Luke 18 is a retreat for 8th graders and is put on/lead by high school juniors & seniors(called disciples for the weekend). I was part of the adult team, more specificly helping the disicles get ready for the weekend. This would include training for share groups and preparing their talks in a nutshell. I have been part of this retreat for quite some time and actually went on the retreat when I was in 8th grade.
I am constantly amazed at the faith that I see in the youth and saw this yet again on the weekend. I won't go into great detail, but the disciples will give talks on various topics including how you see God, hurting & making up, and our gifts & talents. After each talk, the lukers (8th grades) go back to share groups with the disicples and discuss. Now of course there is fun stuff in there like relay races and a scavenger hunt.
The most powerful part of the weekend for me has always been Saturday night. This is when the hurting & making up talk is given and then if they choose, everyone writes letters to someone that has hurt them. If they want, they can then burn the letter and give it up to god. I did not write a letter because I had to make sure the fire did not go out of control. But just watching the letters burn was emotional for me.
Well that is all for now, and I will post pictures later. As I still need to upload them from my computer.

New Year's Resolutions

We all have made resolutions and never followed through with them. Well I know I have. They usually consist of eating better, losing weight, getting a new job. So how do we follow through with these goals? In my case, I think I try to go too big and can't follow through for more than a month or so. So this year, I am going to start the 30 day shred. What is the 30 day shred, you may ask? Well it is a workout DVD made by Jillian Michaels. It is a 20 minute circuit workout that works your whole body. 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs: repeat 3 times. So I started this workout last night and it kicked my butt, but in a good way. So now onto day 2 and we will see tomorrow how I feel.

Christmas 2009

It was a great Christmas in the Ponder household. I finally was able to hang the stockings on a fireplace and had plenty of room for the 7ft tree we got.


Christmas Eve was spent with my extended family and the grandparents. Grandma used to always make chicken & dumplings on christmas but we have not had then the last couple of years. Well some of use older cousins/grandchildren decided that we would make the dumplings this year. Sarah, Charis, Ellie (Charis' daughter) and myself went over to grandma's earlier and made dumplings. I think we did a pretty good job and everyone seemed to enjoy them.


Then it was present time. This year we decided to play Let's Make a Deal, which was fun for all.

Then on Christmas day, we went over to Stan's parents house. We had a blast with the nieces and their was much fun by all. Especially when Jeff decided to put all of the cloths that he got on.


Well Santa/Stan/Mom were very good to me this Christmas. From my mom/Stan, I got a new Nikon P90. And then from my super awesome husband, I get to go on my 7 day cruise. Let me explain a bit. As Stan states, this is his way of making it up to me for the past 2 years of him working on his dissertation. So it is my x-mas, b-day, pretty much being a single wife present. So we are going on a 7 night cruise to Western Mexico over my birthday. I guess I will celebrate my birthday this year.

So Cold

So it is now the middle of December, 21 degrees outside and 2 windows in my office are open. And I have to add, that they are not opened because of me. No, my office mate is going through menapause and is hot. She won't admitt that she is going through this, but I have to suffer. So I am sitting here with my heater on and 2 sweaters on and still cold. This would be the second winter that I am going through with her and wondering when this will end.

Our Christmas Tree

We went out Saturday morning to cut down a christmas tree for our house. It was a small group as it was just myself, Stan, my mom and Riley our dog. So after some searching, we were able to find the right tree.

Of sorry, that was Stan trying to be funny. That is the extra feet that we cut off the bottom. Here is the tree.

Now to get it home and decorated.