Well! Two Four months later and I have finally finished adding pics to the (now backdated) road trip posts from our lovely trip this summer. It was WONDERFUL.
Links here!
Days 1-2: North Carolina: my Grandpa's house, Tweetsie Railroad
Days 3-4: St. Louis: Cardinals game, religious art, a riverboat ride, and did you know the arch is made of metal??? My mind was blown.
Days 4-5: Rural Illinois, including a prairie park (yes that's a thing), and then Iowa, all the corn, Field of Dreams, oh and also we slept in a caboose. And broke into a zoo. Days 5-6: Wisconsin Dells, yes it's a real place, yes for real, I know it sounds fake but it's real. Very waterpark. Many kitch. Much delightful.
Days 6-11: MinneEFFINGsota, Take Four: the one where I post pics of tractors and grain bins on my blog. And also Northfield, Another Nathan, popcorn and beer, St. Olaf, waterfalls, adults on swings, and Charlotte Booler's fourth birthday! Oh and saying goodbye to Marky. Sad face.
Days 12-17: Southbound! Including me drinking a beer on Hillary's Cincinnati porch swing, and the kids riding boats at Lake Wateree, with surprise appearances by my dad and also Emily! AND THEN WE MADE IT HOME.
Hey remember when I said I was all traveled out? I lied.
I decided a few weeks ago (at the last minute, because I am tacky, apparently), even though the rsvp date had long passed, to go to a ladies weekend slumber party at Amy's house in Illinois. I am super glad I went.
Picture from Sarah, whose superpower is getting tons of people in one selfie.
It was a weekend of drinking champagne in plastic cups, fun food, shopping, listening to heart stories from sweet friends, gabbing into the wee hours, watching Matt Bellasai videos on a projector screen, talking about Adult Things, and proving to myself that I can still sleep later than anyone else in the house, even on a shared air mattress, even when said house is full of more than twenty women and two babies. I... really enjoy sleeping late.
I also taught some more people to look at the dot. My evangelism continues.
And I managed to sleep all night without disturbing the Tums that Sarah thought should rest on the air mattress between us, because I don't even know.
I convinced a few ladies that I don't care anything about vampire television so if they could just show me the steamy parts that'd be great kthx. (They did.)
And I washed my feet in a bathtub with my friend Emily who I have known for years but only met in real life that very day, and who is delightful, and who apparently was only using our bathtub date to win some game of hoopla bingo that she didn't even fully understand the rules for.
1.) Reading outside. I make such a habit of sitting or walking outside for a while every day (sunshine is good for my soul, also it's my hippie Sleep Plan attempt at making the days bright and the nights dim, in my never-ending quest to sleep better), and often it's to read, that it seems the kids have picked up on the habit. On library day a few weeks ago when I chased them outside, they did... this.
I tried not to look at their pillows on the ground and just decided to feel happy they were all reading and quiet.
2.) Better swimming. I can't believe that this time last year, none of the kids would even put their face in the water happily, much less let go and swim on their own. Now Nathan and Anneliese are both little fishies, with endless energy and bravery, and Charlotte (with her puddle jumper on) will go anywhere in the pool too, for hours. Until she's exhausted, clearly.
when you're swimming with your thumb in your mouth, it's time to be done
Nathan has gotten to be a really decent diver, too! I'm legit impressed with this. Mad props to his teacher whoever that was. *brushes shoulders*
(If you can't see the video embedded above, click here to watch on YouTube.)
There was a time when I was worried about owning a pool, and now I never want to live without one again.
3.) Duck Donuts. We found a new (to us) donut place where every donut is made to order. Which means you pick your frosting or glaze, and whatever sprinkes/nuts/sugar topping you want, and they serve it to you warm and ooey gooey with a fork.
I'm not a huge donut person, but this is really excellent. RECOMMEND.
4.) Noemi. The fabulous Noemi came over (and we went once to her house) and, well, fabulous Noemi is fabulous. She is fun and funny and her kids behave and are polite and adorable and she's just generally excellent to have around, and she better watch her ass or I will smother in my attempts to conquer her friendship heart and she will have to awkwardly pretend she doesn't know me. Not that it will come to that.
5.) Yay marriage! Mark and I finally had that anniversary date we missed on father's day. And it ended up being on the same day that marriage equality passed nationwide. What a great day to celebrate marriage, amiright? Cheers, everyone! Everyone!
And happy dozen years to the best person I could hope to share this life with.
6.) Booler bruise. Charlotte fell off her bed, and apparently she landed on her... chin? I don't even know with this girl. She is my delicate flower who bruises and breaks and seems to fragile, or maybe just klutzy, or yeah I don't know. Another booler injury for the record books. It turned all sorts of colorful shades for several weeks before it finally went away.
7.) Paper chain. Anneliese made a paper chain to count down the days to Montreat. There are links on that chain with labels like "grandpa" and "Another Nathan" and "skate camp" to mark the time and plans for the month. I guess this is as good a calendar as any, when you're five?
When she and Nathan were at Grandpa's house, Charlotte took over tearing a link each day. She took her responsibility very seriously. (And yes I am aware of the irony of letting any of my kids, especially my breakable delicate flower stand on the very ledge from where Anneliese fell and smashed her face all those years ago.)
8.) Ice skating camp. Yes, Anneliese did a day camp for ice skating. We had her signed up for something different, and then it got changed, and then she reminded me she had liked skating when we tried it back in February, so she suggested ice skating camp instead. Um, okay.
It's the most random thing. We are not a people of ice. Or skates. But I do love about her that she is willing to try new things she knows nothing about, and assumes it will be fine. I like that she wants to do her own thing. And she did great, made new friends, and by the end of the week she was super proud of herself for being able to skate without holding on to anything.
On the last day, they had the option to skate a little "program" where they choose a song and skate around by themselves for the parents. She thought she was doing it, but apparently she didn't sign up in time, so she didn't, and was sad, but then when I saw how she "skates" I realized she could never have done a whole song:
(If you can't see the video embedded above, click here to watch it on YouTube.)
But! So proud! She is so proud, y'all.
9.) Two-piece swimsuit. Her best friend has a two-piece tankini, and she asked for one on repeat forever, so we found one that isn't triangle cut on top, doesn't have a skimpy back, doesn't show her belly, and comes in rainbow colors. It was a quest. She is now happy.
10.) Bee stings. One more about Anneliese, apparently. Mark and I went to dinner tonight and the kids were playing at Nick and Barbara's house, and apparently there were suddenly bees, and one of them got in Anneliese's shirt, and she came away with like ten stings or something. She was fairly traumatized. Apparently some of the the bees even followed them into the house! (They ended up eating pizza for dinner on the floor of Ali's nursery to hide from them.) Props to Uncle Nick who took a few stings himself trying to get Anneliese away. Oh man.
11.) Sardi's Den. A restaurant that Mark and I loved when we lived in Clemson just opened up a branch in Raleigh, and we took Charlotte there for dinner. Ribs and backyard punch! Was really fun and tasted like memories of our early months of marriage.
12.) VCS. We survived another year of vacation church school! This year instead of teaching my own class, I did a variety of a/v tasks to run the assembly each day, and compiled a slideshow video for the last session as always, and did a rotating science teacher thing where we taught about movement and reactions by building lava lamps and playing a catapult game. Was fun and also unbloggably annoying in some moments, but mostly it's a really great week every year.
I took our annual pic in the matching shirts, but before I could get everyone to smile, I got them to frown for a few tries.
Let's just take another look at Charlotte's face here.
Heeeeeeey want to know what December has looked like? Me too! Good thing I took gobs of pictures of the chaos!
Nathan and Anneliese both got random fevers on the one (ONE!) day we were all home and had time to go pick out a tree together. So Charlotte and I went alone, and it should have been fine but it felt oddly sad. Tree day melancholy or something. (She didn't care in the least, she loves doing stuff with a parent all to herself.)
I cleaned out Nathan's desk (he is a baby hoarder, it was quite a project) and I had this whole funny list planned of all the funny and quirky and Nathan-y things I found, but then I found this, and it trumps them all, so here you go. Baby's first boob picture.
Yes, he assures me that is a belly button.
Another Nathan flew into town the first weekend of December and we all drove to Greensboro for our friend Meghan's wedding, which was really fun. So lovely to be back together with all these friends for a night.
Mark got suuuuper fever sick at the reception, but he hung in there long enough to be hella excited when the Clemson tiger (THE Clemson tiger) made an appearance. So, yeah.
Also, I got to shop with Another Nathan at Crabtree mall, which is our favorite thing, and we should have bought lots more (this was before the month got away from us and Christmas Panic set in) but it was still fun and lovely to just wander and brainstorm on our gift lists, like old times.
Monday is the new Black Friday! Or something.
Before he flew home, we also went back to our favorite post-choir beer place, for the first time since this summer. And half of it was boarded up and closed down. We couldn't even tell if it was open, and when we got inside it turns out that half of it (our half!) has been permanently shut down and rented out to a bakery, and it was all very sad and weird and It's A Wonderful Life, like Nathan moved and that whole special place for us is gone now. Weird. So weird. We did not take any pictures because... weird. (At least it protects those memories? It was a moment in time, those Draft House years.)
I took Anneliese to see Frozen on Ice with Andrea and her daughter, and y'all, it was delightful. Not even sarcastic. I don't know what I was expecting (more annoying? more cheesy?) but it was professional and fun and the sets were cool and the skating was amazing and it was full of Disney magic. I don't know why I was surprised. Disney... does things well. It was really fun. I would go again, in a hot minute.
Also, Anneliese wants to take ice skating lessons now. Raise your hand if you never could have seen that coming.
We did our annual Santa's Cookie Worshop™ and made a million cookies in one day, which is always fun and chaotic.
Charlotte colored all over herself with markers, and then didn't seem to understand she was in trouble, and DEAR SELF WHEN WILL YOU EVER LEARN WITH THE MARKERS FTLOG.
Ali wore pink overalls and looked supremely cute in them.
Anneliese wore alllll the colors. All of them. Some days she legitimately cries in the morning if she isn't wearing enough colors. This was not one of those days.
This worksheet about the Polar Express came home in one of Nathan's folders last week. SO LITERAL, THAT CHILD. *sigh*
It's September! I love September. It is still warm, hot even, but not opressively so. Feels like fall is coming but the chill itself isn't here yet. Kids are back to school and full of energy and smiles. Facebook is a dream of first-day photos, and very little arguing or stress. A routine is coming back. The whole lovely fall is still ahead of us, to look forward to. I like that.
I'm not sure what else I have to say about that besides... yay September?
So here, look at some pictures instead.
Nathan and I went to Starbucks with our library books and it was lovely. Often I am a chatterbox, and he can be one too, but sometimes when I want to be with someone, but also be quiet, he is just the best.
(Mark also gets millions of points in this department.)
Anneliese and Charlotte snuggled on the couch for a bit. This is rare. So I took a picture.
Also Charlotte and I took some selfies, because we just do that a lot.
Note the "I just stopped sucking my thumb for this pic" thumbs up that is the clear mark of a Goettsch child.
Aaaaaand here is a sperm whale wearing a onesie, because emu says I don't know how to blog without mentioning a sperm whale, so why not prove her right?
Also, I feel very sure no one reading this (THAT'S RIGHT I SAID NO ONE) is has ever seen a sperm whale wearing a onesie. So... you're all welcome. (Nathan also says you're welcome.)
Also heeeeeeeeey my sweet Montreat friend Liz was here last night. We went to dinner which was meh and got lost in an office building parking deck because I thought I knew I shortcut (spoiler alert! I didn't) but the drinks were good and the company was great, and here is part of our little dinner group and besides my adorable Marky, mostly I just want to say isn't Liz SO PRETTY?
I mean she is a wonderful human too, of course, but seriously so! pretty! She's my favorite thing about Utah. (I have never been to Utah but I can still say this with certainty.) Even the MoTab choir is only a very distant second. Yes, I get to call it the MoTab choir I HAVE A PRETTY FRIEND WHO LIVES THERE SO I CAN USURP THEIR COOL NICKNAMES. (Our other friend in that pic is Amy. She is pretty fantastic too.)
Here are some things I want to say about my very best friend, wonderful Another Nathan, who used to be just this guy who worked at my church, until he was more than that. Who asked me several months ago to not be sappy or say good-bye yet, who together with me has been fighting the urge for good-byes, prolonging normal life as long as we could.
our Angus Barn farewell dinner last Friday
But NOW, normal life is transitioning to the next thing. We've spent a week packing him up and waving bye to his moving truck and having a series of celebrations at church and with friends, and as this post goes up, we are driving his car north to the frozen tundra (Minnef@ckingsota) (no I do not want to hear one word about how it probably won't be frozen in August). I still have a precious few more days before a turrible good-bye (you can try to sell it to me as a "see you later" and yes yes of course, but it will still suck), but ANYWAY, in the meantime, I have things to tell about him. Things you might not know, from just seeing him in this corner of the internet and knowing he is a helpful friend who loves my family and kids. Which is great BUT OH THERE IS MORE.
For example, you might never know Another Nathan is a beautiful organist and conductor, and a creative and deep theological thinker. You would be smarter from having just one conversation with him. I know I am. He comes out of church needing to talk about energy and worship and theology and I have been honored to be the person those chats land on.
You might not know that he sings from the organ, like all the time, every hymn, every week, smiling the whole time. That for him to consider it a good day off, he can't leave his house before noon. That he both loves ironing and hates ironing more than anyone else I know. That he has an odd fear of scary animals in movies. That he is the slowest decision maker on the planet. That he keeps every card and note anyone has ever given him. He's an emotional hoarder and he is not ashamed. That he says bye on the phone three times, always three. That he never lets anyone touch his hair, ever, not even Jesus on the road to Emmaus. That he loves his coffee on ice, not too sweet. Has a secret affinity for diet mountain dew. That he loves legos just as much now as he did when he was a kid, and that the first Christmas present my little Nathan ever gave him, a keychain with a green lego on it, has been attached to his car key almost the whole time he has lived here.
You might not know that he has fully encompassed the word y'all as if he wasn't born and raised in Iowa and educated solidly in the midwest. That he loves grits and biscuits and fried green tomatoes and y'all, he has very strong opinions about barbecue. He is always going to be a bit North Carolinian, is what I'm saying.
And there are some things I didn't know -- when Mark asked him to dinner with us and some friends to celebrate my last day of work, it took us a long time to start realizing about each other that we share an affinity for diet coke and churchy blogs and beautifully composed music right alongside cheesy pop songs. We didn't know that would turn into a stretch of friendship made up of Wednesday coffee dates and blue moon Tuesdays, and Fridays patiently wandering the Gap, humoring me in shoe stores, tackling all our gift shopping together, even the inevitable moment every year when we both get overwhelmed with our holiday lists and need to cry in the food court for a minute. You know when you can cry over Christmas shopping lists in a mall food court, that is a real friend.
We didn't know when we met that several years into a fun and easy friendship, it would get hard, and we would learn hard things about each other, and we would feel frustrated and scared and then on the other side of it, we would guard those things for each other more fiercely and safely than I could ever say in a blog post.
I wasn't ready for the 1am phone call that on Christmas Eve, with sad news. And he wasn't ready for that one evening where I was so far gone crazy that all he could do was wash a sink full of our dishes and try not to cry. Neither of us were ready for how we've had to push each other to do brave scary things, instead of letting the other escape like we wanted to, and then crying in parking lots after the pushing. Our friendship has involved a lot of crying in parking lots.
But a lot of laughing too! Do you know that this is a friend who can find joy in almost everything? Who has the best pop radio sing-along voice ever? Who insists that any fleeting thought he finds pleasant is his new life motto? (His life motto is actually "that's my life motto!") Who can't go to Target without buying razors and starch? Who mixes cereals together in the same bowl, a habit which has rubbed off onto my own children (eye roll)?
Oh yes we did take a selfie in a security camera before we left town.
You might not know that when Charlotte was a colicky newborn, any time Mark was on night shift, Another Nathan spent those screamy hours with me on my couch, taking turns holding her -- not because he could do anything to help her any better than I could, but because he didn't want me to be alone in it. You might not remember that just two short years before that, Anneliese was the newborn he was scared to hold. Whoa, how fast that mindset changed. You might not know that he ended up pulling me back into church when I was over it, found me a new church family in my sweet early service choir.
He has been my friend in what could have been such a lonely season for me, these early years of parenthood, but... hasn't been. Nathan has no connection to me as an employee of anything, or any kind of professional, or any kind of "smart" or "successful" beyond just me. He is my friend who gladly sits on my couch with a glass of wine and some chocolate covered pretzels because I'm home with the kids in the evening. Who gladly drinks diet coke with me by my pool while the babies nap. Who plays on the floor with said babies when *I* need to nap.
He is a person who opens his wallet and hands out money to people in the street, not because he is naive enough to think some of them might not "deserve" it, but because he believes that how much they deserve it (or don't) is irrelevant to his willingness to give it. And he does.
And that, actually, might be his life motto. And it goes the same for love and friendship and helpfulness and joy.* It is grace come to life.
And that's sort of the best thing I can say about him. And since I might be out of words (you: "finally?!") -- here, watch this video and re-live some memories with us. Because once you have a Goettsch birthday video (even if it is five years of "growing up" instead of one, and especially if it's not technically your birthday) you know you're one of us for life.
(If you can't see the embedded video, click here to watch on YouTube.)
We love you, friend. No matter where you live and no matter what people call you, you will always be our Another Nathan. Be brave. Be great. We have your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and all that. Godspeed, sweet friend.
So, Montreat. It was once again a spirit-fueling week volunteering at youth conference and hanging out with dear friends and baby Nathan (and no one tell me he is almost seven because no, he's a baby). It's kind of amazing how far from real life it feels up there (and, on the flip side, how obtrusive real life feels when it comes crashing back in).
This year was so much the same as last year and also so much was different. The youth in my small group this year were so easy, so chatty, so smart -- they connected way faster than I thought they would, to me and to each other, and leading through those sessions made the week fly by. The conference leadership was different, of course, which made keynote talks and worship and music all take a new feel, which was fine -- even better in some cases, and some felt lacking, all of it completely normal as the experience of one year morphs into the next.
I roomed with my awesome friend Liz from last year, and little Nathan stayed in an adjoining room with Another Nathan, and our little family suite (with another friend Nick, right next door) ended up being really fun and sweet. It took a few nights for the Nathans to adjust to sharing a room, but it ended up just fine, aside from a few spells of kicking and a few spells of sleep-moaning.
We kept a cooler full of snacks and drinks in our rooms, and we spent our nights, once everything had died down for the day, laughing and crying and feeling our feelings all together. Dorm life at its best! It was lovely to have a handful of people I love so much all in such close proximity for a few days. Especially knowing that Another Nathan is moving in just over a week, we were glad to all hold each other close for a bit, in a faithy place, a beautiful place.
It could have been a really sad and emotional week, and it totally wasn't. I mean, well, yes, emotional -- the good-bye tears stay really close these days. But being in the busy and the joy of a huge conference was distracting and friendship-affirming at the same time.
Nick (who was formerly an intern at our church and now lives a few hours away) was hired leadership for the conference, like Another Nathan last year, and seeing him up there leading energizers and being a warm face and smile to a thousand youth every morning was a super way to start our days. Hanging out with him all week was a really fun reunion.
Also, can I just say, sometimes things/people in life are not as awesome as nostalgia wants to convince you they are, but after a week of fast friendship last summer, and a year of emails/texting/calling, I have to say for the record: LIZ IS. She is as awesome and kind and funny and sassy as I remembered, and maybe gets me even more now than a year ago, and being friends with her is just... really good. Really really good. Great actually.
How does Montreat make her hair so very good, and mine so very very bad?
And sweet little Nathan loved Montreat this year as much as last. He insists that his favorite place there is the dining room (um, wuuut?) but actually didn't eat much this week -- all while being insistent that we eat every meal there, and crabby at the times we went into town for real food. (I don't even know.) But he loved the big auditorium, he loved getting ice cream at the Huck, and he loved creek hopping again (with Mark! who came to visit for an afternoon! after him traveling last week, and not crossing his path on our own way out of town, we missed him terribly).
Nathan loved his club/camp (he was a Peanut Butter this year! super cute), which met in the infamous Montreat barn. And he made new friends -- one of whom invited him to dinner during the week at his grandparents' Montreat house, one of whom will be coming to his birthday party here in Raleigh next weekend, and one of whom is the son of one of my childhood church friends, because sometimes this presby world is small and awesome.
He picked out a new Montreat hoodie at the gift shop that I could hardly keep him out of all week. He had fun playing with my mom (who came to visit one morning, and see how Montreat has changed since her own childhood). And he proclaimed the view of the inn (from the paddle-boats on the lake) to be "the most beautiful building in the whole world." So, yeah.
(Side note: because Nathan's feet didn't reach the paddles, and because Nick didn't want to steal little Nathan's front-seat ride, Another Nathan basically paddled all three of them around the lake for the better part of an hour. He was hot and tired from a workout when they came back to shore, while Nick and Nathan were all smiles and relaxation, and yeah -- I was amused.)
More pics:
Marky! At Montreat with us!
A thousand people playing with beach balls, nbd.
Someone leaves their phone on a pew, you steal it and take selfies. It's the law. (That's Ann back there behind Nick. She is also delightful.)
This pic was really awkward like they were shaking hands with a giant check. So I cropped it. But apparently am describing the pre-crop anyway?
My *awesome* small group #51!
Oh yes I did buy a Montreat TERVIS. I am not sorry.
Another Nathan was on the conference planning team and wore this headset to call production on the keynote talk each morning.He wore it well, but there was much hair-messing angst.
My sweet boy before worship one night.
My most bestest friend, who makes Montreat even better.
So yeah, it was a week of reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, thinking and praying well, singing loudly, and hiding from the emotional weeks of real life that are now staring us down. And it was wonderful.
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