Testing-testing. Is thing on?

Wow-it's been a while! I finally figured out the whole sign in problem, so I am now good to go-at least until the new semester starts! Christmas was a whirlwind of activity. We drove over 1,000 miles in the course of a week, but it was good to see everyone. Justin and I enjoyed our last year of traveling light. Next year we'll be packing the extra trailer of baby things (or at least that's how it feels). That was the most amazing thing to realize. Next year at Christmas our SON (yes, we now know it's a baby boy) will be celebrating his first Christmas. How exciting!

We've decided to name him Samuel Peter. Samuel is from the Bible story. I had so many health problems it was doubtful that I would have children. The story of Hannah in the Bible brought me a lot of comfort. And then God blessed with now 2 children! Peter is from my Grandpa Kuch. He was a wonderful man. He loved his family and loved watching his grandchildren play. Going to his house and watching the great grandchildren run around and fish in the pond makes me miss him more-I know he would have been delighted by that.

Julia is thrilled about having a baby brother. This was a relief to us because she had been declaring that the baby could only be a "Lydia" (our girl's name). She now refers to herself as "Baby Samuel's big sister". And she talks about everything she is going to teach him. Justin and I will refer to him as "Sam" but she continues to insist-and correct us-that his name is Samuel. Four-year-olds are a hoot!

I guess that's something else that happened since my last post. Julia turned four in fancy fashion. Can you believe that my baby is four? I know I can't! Julia had a Fancy Nancy party complete with tiaras and feather boas. She had a couple of her daycare friends and a neighbor come (we were quite thankful for the small number). It was a really nice evening. The next evening she celebrated with her grandparents, Uncle Andy and his two sons, and Aunt Abbey. She received the bike she was wanting-Disney princess, of course. That was rough for me to see. She's just getting so big! Speaking of big, she is now wearing size 5 because she is so tall. I have accepted that she will most likely be taller than me. She has started the journey of learning to read and now has 2 little books that she reads to us. I'll have to post video of that; it's very cute.

Below are a few pictures of Julia's birthday. I'll post some Christmas pictures later.

New semester, big news

Sorry for neglecting the blog lately. The new semester started around the time of my last post and things have been hopping. Justin and I are both struggling to keep everything in balance. I am in two schools two days a week for practicum. I am so excited to be a part of the field! Justin has been working in the school clinics since the beginning of the summer. He has been really enjoying the experience.

The big news is that Julia is going to be a big sister. She is so excited! She has been asking and praying for a little brother or sister for quite some time. She has been calling the baby "Forrest". My due date is May 3, 2009-just in time for Spring semester finals! Thankfully, God provided affordable healthcare for me as I do not currently have insurance. We are a little nervous about how everything will work out, but we have been learning that God always provides for us-even in ways that we sometimes can't imagine.

The ultrasound showed that, as much as they can tell, things seem to be going well. I've been experiencing a lot of heartburn and nausea and have trouble staying awake past 8:30 (not good when I have class until 10:00). My professors have been supportive and understanding, which is a real blessing. And I could not ask for a better husband! He has been very patient with me-especially when I'm not feeling well in the evenings. Cravings so far have been cheese and frozen turkey pepperoni. Several of my friends think this suggests a baby boy is in our near future. While Julia lately has been asking for a sister, I think all three of us will be excited no matter what God blesses us with.

Hope everyone is doing well!

A friend of mine

Please forgive the “novelesque” nature of this blog, but I have to brag on God and I’ve never been very good at short stories. August is usually a very difficult financial month for us. The last two years, we’ve over-drafted and paid bills late but somehow God got us through to the magical date the student loans came through. We anticipated a similar August. But God wowed me.

My co-worker, Lisa (amazing day baker!!), is a single mom. She came in on a Monday morning and explained that the funding for her son’s daycare had been cut-three weeks before school started. She had scraped together some money over the weekend, but still had more than half to go for the week. I watched as she called around on her break, trying to come up with either money for daycare or someone to watch her son. I felt God telling me I needed to make up the difference for this week. So I did. But the balance for the next two weeks was $150-way more than we could manage on our own.

On the drive home, a voice that was almost audible said “Who says you have to do this alone?” And the idea came to me to e-mail some of our Christian friends. I tried to push it aside but God kept bringing it back to mind. It took me over 30 minutes to write a short e-mail.

Tuesday morning, one of my co-workers gave me some money for Lisa. I wasn’t sure how to tell Lisa what I had done or how she would take it. Wednesday morning, I was doing dishes at work and had this overwhelming sense that I needed to tell Lisa about the e-mail. So I did. By the end of my story, we were both in tears and she said she needed to tell me about a dream she’d had.

Monday evening (at about the exact time I was writing the e-mail), Lisa said she had gotten down on her knees and poured her heart out to God. While she slept, she said she heard a voice telling her to go about her day and know that everything would be OK.
Wow. It still gives me chills.

Lisa is touched and overwhelmed at the thought that people she didn’t know would be so generous. She received all that she needed for her son’s daycare. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who participated through prayer and giving.

I just received an e-mail from one of the friends who contributed detailing how God in turn blessed them. And I know that it is no accident that none of our bills were late and we haven’t over-drafted. God is continuing to teach me valuable lessons about looking to Him for provision and the power of His family working together. How awesome our God is!

Lisa’s dad had suggested that the devil was trying to bring her down. But God took this victory! And best of all, Lisa and her son have started coming to church with us. Please pray that God will continue to soften her heart and that she and her son will truly join our Christian family.

Anniversary and Talents

Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary. The weather was much milder than it was 6 years ago. Justin and I spent Friday morning at the St. Louis Art Museum and then headed into Alton, Illinois for burgers at Fast Eddy's and a slice of pie at Pietown (both featured on Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt). Sunday, Julia got to hang out with one of my coworkers and her son while we went to the City Diner for dinner and checked out Tower Grove park. The evening ended very romantically with folding laundry and watching the Olympics. It was a really great weekend. Oh, I also made a little two-tier cake (the bottom layer is 6" in diameter). The basket weave is what we had on our wedding cake.

Julia's latest talent is the subject of the following video. It took us a few days to realize that she could whistle. We would just hear these random whistles and try to figure out who was doing it. It never occurred to me that the 3-year-old was behind it!

She has also figured out her left from her right. We had an amusing conversation about it the other day. I asked which hand she wrote with and she said "Left!" I thought I would be tricky and asked which hand I wrote with. Her response was, "Right, but I still love you!" I love how she makes me laugh! Hope you all are doing well!

Heroes and Friends

Julia is in love with the Food Network-especially Rachel Ray and Paula Deen. (Whose shows thankfully come on when mommy is trying to cook dinner!) Her favorite thing to do when their shows come on is to host her own cooking show. Enjoy!

Following are some fun pictures. I can't believe how big my little girl is! In the first one, we picked her up from one of my coworkers' house looking like a little movie star. Julia is very excited about going back this evening while we celebrate our anniversary. The next one is Julia showing off her "alphabet" (outfit). The last one is with one of her favorite little buddies-the sweet son of two of our friends. (Don't worry, though she still plans to marry Zane.) The adults were playing Farkel and the kids needed dice of their own. We had so much fun!

Wait-I'm not ready for fall!!!

That's my feeling right now. I am not nearly far enough on my thesis and I still haven't registered for fall classes! And I had a number of other projects that I wanted to get done before things really got crazy. Oh well, I guess that's life!

We spent last weekend in Middlefield, OH, at my grandmother's house. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip. The flights went really well. The return flight was so uneventful, Julia slept through the whole thing! As our family is rapidly outgrowing my grandmother's house, we slept in a tent in her side yard. Julia thought that was very cool-until the Amish buggies went clip-clopping down the street blaring their music. We had trouble getting her to sleep Friday night. The fireworks the Amish neighbors were setting off didn't help either. (Saturday we put her down in my grandma's bed and moved her to the tent-worked MUCH better.)

We spent Saturday morning fishing in the pond and the midday at a nearby waterpark. Austin (my nephew) and I both caught fish. Justin, Julia and I made a little side trip to Mesopotamia to check out the oldest general store in Ohio and the worlds largest Amish buggy. (We also indulged in a little pre-dinner peanutbutter-fudge homemade ice cream.) Their website is on the right. They have great spices, AMAZING maple syrup, and incredible root beer. In the evening my uncles and their families joined us for a cookout, catered by an area chef. It was so much fun to see everyone! We're already looking forward to next year.

Hope everyone is finding a little time to relax this summer!

June

Wow, what happened to June? I've got a lot to do before the fall semester starts-including register for the fall semester! We hope all the dads out there had a great Father's Day!


Justin had a nice Father's Day. It spread over three days because Julia was too excited about the "too-prises"! It was a lot more fun this year because Julia was much more involved. She wanted to give Justin a baseball (and we got a Julia-sized glove so they could play catch). I must say I felt a little ripped off. The right-handed gloves were $9.99 and came with a soft-centered ball. The left-handed gloves were $19.99 and had no ball! Julia also wanted to make him a "tie cake". And she picked out a caboose for my dad's model train set.

And here she is wearing my new Cakery apron.

I frequently hear her radio come on in her room. I've even had to tell her we needed to turn it down. I thought I had more time before that happened! Here she is singing "Picture to Burn". (We've had a few talks about the word "stupid".)



And just for fun, here is a picture of our cats. I'm always amazed at their size difference. Hard to believe they are from the same litter!

Hope everyone is having a nice day!

The Journey

Our church here in St. Louis tends to end up in the news from time to time. Here is the latest, an article appearing in the New York Times. If you read the article, I encourage you to read my friend Letitia's blog regarding the article (she's quoted at the end). Her blog link is on the right, under "The Wongs". I would also invite you to check out our church's website (a link is also on the right).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/us/01evangelical.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

We have been incredibly blessed by The Journey. We have been challenged. We have been supported. And we have been encouraged. And I really believe that through our involvment at the Journey, God is not only maturing us, He is causing our marriage to become stronger and healthier. Praise God for the work He is doing in us and in St. Louis!

Memorial Day Weekend (Part 2) and Cake

Sunday evening we found a nice quiet part of the Buffalo River to attempt a little fishing. I got a few nibbles but nobody caught anything. Here is Julia's first fishing attempt. She actually cast into the water! Here she is just after falling into the river. At this point, Julia decided she was done fishing and splashing in the water was the thing to do.
On the way home, we saw lots of elk, including a number of elk that crossed the road right in front of the car. It's amazing how big they are up close!
On the way home on Monday we were able to stop and spend some time-and lunch-with our good friends the Goodwins. We ended our trip by stopping by my parent's Memorial Day get together. It was so nice to get home!

May 31st, one of Justin's classmates got married. I was asked to do the groom's cake. I was so relieved when we got it to the reception site and set it on the table! The irony is that it was a surprise for the groom-and he was the first person we ran into when we got to the hotel! Luckily, the bride said it'd be OK if he saw it beforehand.

We are now full swing into our crazy summer schedule. Justin asked that I take some time off from cakes. I agreed-May was another busy cake and cookie month! I am having fun developing recipes and flavor combinations for my "Smammiches" (Julia's word for "sandwich".) I am also actually using my Fridays for working on my thesis. And taking an occasional day date with my sweet husband. Last week we went to see Prince Caspian and ate lunch at Pei Wei, a Chinese bistro operated by one of our favorite restuarants P.F. Chang's. Excellent food!

Julia was very excited today about her "tuprise" for daddy. She couldn't wait for Sunday to give Justin the gift she had made for him at day care. We are starting to work with her on reading and continuing to work with her on writing. She is learning so much! I can't believe how fast the time is going.

Memorial Day Weekend (Part 1)

Here it is, the first installment of our past week, starting with Memorial Day weekend. We drove down on Friday and stayed through Monday. Boy, we were roughing it. I wasn't sure how we would survive the weekend in the cabin. It was hard to get by with queen beds, a jacuzzi tub, 42-inch plasma with satellite, and full kitchen.

We spent Saturday morning on a hike at Lost Valley. Absolutely breathtaking. I am always amazed at how being in God's creation is so rejuvinating to the soul-even if the body is exhausted. And our record holds-it poured! Luckily, Justin found a nice ledge for us to sit under while we waited for the worst of it to pass. Below is a picture of Natural Bridge. Justin and his brother climbed through from the back.

This is Eden Falls, a series of four waterfalls flowing from Eden Falls Cave. The bluffs are 170 feet high. We unfortnuately didn't make it to the cave this time. Here is Justin and Julia at the end of our hike. The cave to their right is Cobb Cave. They are facing Eden Falls. Here are the three of us in Cobb Cave. We were still soaked from the down pour and Julia was ready to be done. Not bad considering we had hiked about 2 miles. (Total hike was about 3.5 miles.) But what a glorious place! Here is Julia with Grandma Elaine and Grandpa Bill (Justin's mom and stepdad). They were swinging her over every rock and root that crossed the path. She was having a blast!

The whole time I was hiking, I just kept thinking, "wow, God, that you would create such a beautiful place. And You want to share it with me." He could have made the Earth a dull, colorless place to live-and we would never have known. How incredible, how glorious, that he gave us a world of color, a world of awe-inspiring landscapes. And then He said, "Enjoy, I made this for you." I am moved to tears when I am reminded of the wild, creative, amazing, loving God who calls me His.

We ended Saturday by driving up to Springfield for Andy's surprise birthday party. It was so refreshing to be there with everyone! And it is yet another reminder of God's love in our lives.

A fine day

I love cake baking days at our house because the whole house smells good. Today there is an aroma of chocolate. I am working on a Greenbay Packers football helmet for a wedding tomorrow. I really hope it turns out!!

I'm having trouble deciding which pictures to post of our Memorial Day weekend trip. We had a wonderful time. North Arkansas is just too beautiful! Makes one go a little "shutter happy". I hope to get pictures of our trip up in next few days.

Anyway, here are a few miscellaneous pictures. The first is a great picture of Justin and his little princess. The next one my sister-in-law shared with us. Tim is receiving an award from the governor of Indiana for work he did prior to being deployed. Tim says it's no big deal, but his expression seems to indicate otherwise. I am so proud of my baby brother! The last two are of a recent trip to the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is an amazing (and relatively inexpensive) place to go. The picture of Justin and I is from inside the skull-part of the Niki special exhibit throughtout the garden.

Hope you all are doing well. It was really nice to see some of you guys last weekend. It's always like coming home again. Can't wait until we really do!

Fishing Rodding

A momentous occasion occured this morning.

Justin taught Julia how to cast.

We went to Cabela's Friday evening. In preparation for our upcoming trip to North Arkansas, Justin wanted to make sure his family was ready for fishing. I think he was a little bummed that Julia picked out a Disney Princess fishing rod. But that lasted only a moment. I'm not sure who was more excited about the fishing rod-Justin or Julia.

Here are pictures and video of Julia's first fishing rod. (It's my first attempt at a video clip, so I hope it works!) In the first picture, she caught a 21-pound gray catfish. In the other pictures, Justin is showing her how to cast in the backyard. Julia told me she really likes wearing her "boat jacket" and can't wait to go "fishing rodding" in the water.




And now, for the video. Enjoy!

Finals, White Coat & Cake

That's been our week. My brain is fried, but everything is finished. I couldn't stop smiling this morning after I e-mailed my stats final to my professor (after about 8 hours of work over the past week). I almost cried when I got the e-mail from my professor saying he opened it with no problems. Boy, has it been a week.

Justin completed his finals on Wednesday. He wasn't sure what to do with himself today. He had no homework and it was raining, so he couldn't get anything done outside. The White Coat ceremony went well. I am SO PROUD of my husband. His mom and step-dad and my mom came to the ceremony. (My dad was able to join us for extremely yummy hamburgers at Seamus McDaniels afterward.) Julia was very good during the ceremony. When she saw Justin putting his white coat on, she whispered loudly "Now my daddy's a doctor". I explained he wasn't just yet. Her response was "But he has a white coat!" She couldn't wait to get to the stage at the end. She is also very proud of Justin. He is looking forward to (and anxiously awaiting) his first day in the clinic-next Thursday.

The cake part is the sheet cake I just sent with Justin to one of his co-workers. It is for a baby shower. It is also the first time I copied the design from a picture. Overall, I'm pleased with it. I'm still rather amazed that people actually pay me for the cakes!

We are now the proud owners of a new fuel pump. We found a great little repair shop within pulling distance of our house. (Thanks again to Dad for helping us save on towing!) I think I'm cursed when it comes to cars, though. The van that our friends loaned us wouldn't start yesterday! Luckily, all it needed was a new battery-which wasn't exactly unexpected.

This last picture is Julia reading a new favorite book-"Pest Fest" by Julia Durango. I just thought it was cute.

Now we are looking forward to a leisurely summer break. OK, maybe without the leisurely part. Hope everyone is doing well! We miss you all!

The End is Near!!!

No, not the end of the world. I don't claim to have an idea of when that will be. I mean the end of our most difficult semester here in St. Louis. But the end of finals is on Wednesday for both of us. After Thursday I will have pictures of Justin's white coat ceremony. He received an official invitation and a letter saying he passed his proficiency. He is very relieved but feeling a little under-the-weather as we approach finals week. Please pray that he finishes strong, and takes time to rest to combat whatever it is he has.

Here are a few more pictures. The first I call "bliss"-husband and daughter washing dishes together. What could be better? The next three are pictures of a cake and cupcakes I did for a birthday party yesterday. My first real attempt at cake-carving. (Big thank you to Justin for drawing out the pattern!)

Crowe Bed and Breakfast

The first couple of pictures are from Easter. Julia helped me make cookies for the staff at daycare. The second is Julia showing off a couple dress-up things from her Easter basket. She's not actually wearing her Easter dress in the picture-she had that one on before we were up!

The second couple of pictures are from a trip to the science center. Justin had a lot of fun and Julia and I did, too. We were curious to see how much it would cost to launch Julia to the moon. $175,000 really isn't too bad! Just a thought...

The last set of pictures is from our guest room. I spent time throwing away a lot of junk. Justin had to haul our dumpster and two large trashcans to the curb! When I came home from class one Thursday night, Julia proudly announced that they had painted. (It took several days to completely rid her hair of the paint!) They had primed the room in the basement-covering over swimming-pool blue. The room is now put together with furniture and a cool bamboo rug. We are now accepting guests-and I can personally guarantee a great rate (free) and a yummy breakfast.