Go Cardinals!

I just wanted to take a moment to say 'Go Cardinals!' Today is opening day, and while the weather does not seem to be the best I am reminded of such special moments growing up in St. Louis and watching the Cardinals play baseball. As a young girl, I always had to have cotton candy at the ballpark. My mom would faithfully take me to the opposite end of the stadium to get that fluffy colored sugar. I also remember watching the great Shortstop Ozzie Smith do his famous back flip before many games. This was always a crowd pleaser. I also remember when I got to perform with my gymnastics team on the field. I think I did about 8 back handsprings in a row. All these fun memories get me excited for another fun season of Cardinal Baseball here in St. Louis. GO CARDS!

The Color Blue

We did some more home improvements this past weekend. Some of you may know that we have been doing home improvements since we bought our house in 2005. Some jobs are finished while others are still in process. Overall, I enjoy our house more each day. Our current project, was to paint the ceiling, walls and trim in Preston's room. We also installed a ceiling light/fan and cleaned out the area known as the closet. Enjoy the before and after pictures! Oh yes, this project was made possible by Grandma and Grandpa Dalbey who spent most of their Saturday helping us. We are very thankful.

Its a BOY!

After months of waiting and dreaming and guessing, we found out last Friday that we are having a baby BOY! I don't know if I want to put the picture up on the world wide web, but just trust me when I say it was very obvious that baby Dalbey is a boy! The ultrasound lady even said, "He has three legs". I hope you know what that means. So, not only are we finally able to starting calling our baby a 'he' but by his name. His full name is Preston Charles Dalbey. I think it sounds so cool!

A week later, I realized that I have been calling Preston by his name now on a daily basis. It brings me so much joy to talk to him and bond with him before he is even born. I even told Steven last night that I love him. This is truly a special time for all of us. I have even started being more purposeful in planning for Preston to enter the world. I have created a registry, starting thinking through how I would like his room to look, and I even signed him up for child care! Wow, things are really going to change!

Snow Day

On Tuesday, Steven and I had a snow day. We had a blast 'trying' to clear our driveway, taking our dogs for a long walk in the snow and doing a whole lot of nothing. We needed a break! I think this day was a great opportunity for me to rest. From my earlier post you may be able to tell that I have been thinking about that a lot lately. I need to rest, I need to find time to do nothing and I need to find time to do things that encourage me physically, spiritually and emotionally. Enjoy the pictures from our snow day!

Life

Today I am tired. I have a sinus infection and I am also trying to catch up on sleep from a long and busy weekend working at a retreat for the women in our Church. I have been able to take a little comp time off work, but life goes on and I must return to my job and the daily activities of life (letting my dogs out, going through the mail, keeping things clean around the house, etc...)

Despite being tired, I am thinking about one important word; sustainability. Why, you may ask, am I thinking about this word? I am thinking about sustainability becuase I believe this word captures the need we all have to take care of ourselves in order to sustain our physical, emotional and spiritual well being. I believe that if we do not do things to care for ourselves in these various ways, our personal sustainability will disappear as we burn out, dry up, or just plain crash and burn from all the demands of life. How, may you further ask, do I work on sustainability? I find that I can care for myself in many ways that relate to my own personal story. For example, I love flowers. I think having a vase of flowers around my house more often would create a more pleasant living environment and help me feel better emotionally. I also love to go for a walk with my dogs. I think taking a walk can help my physical body feel healthy and give me more energy. I also love to read. I think I need to spend more time in silent reading and pondering different aspects of life. This would certainly encourage me spiritually.

I hope my random thoughts for today encourage you to pursue sustainability in your own life. I am going to leave you with a picture I took a while ago. Whenever I look at this picture, I am reminded of how life is beautiful and exciting. I also think that our lives are similar to this flower. Without water, sunlight and good soil, this flowers life would not be sustained and such a beautiful image would never exist. May we find water, sunlight and good soil to sustain our own lives and produce beautiful images for the world to see.

~Katrina~