…is a sleeping baby on your shoulder, breathing evenly on your neck, soft cheek against yours. It’s a feeling that just can’t be beat.

I highly recommend having children.

Our Blockbuster movie dealio has come to an end. And for anyone who’s counting—yes, we did the deal for two months because, ahem, we didn’t cancel it in time. No real surprise there. I think we’ve ended our two months with two winners: Man on Fire and Winged Migration.

Man on Fire was interesting, violent, disturbing at times and yet hopeful. Sometimes I get a little tired of Denzel, but he did a fantastic job in this one and I really enjoyed his performance. Both Jeremy and I agreed it was one of the better movies we have seen recently, for reasons that I can’t quite articulate right now. Sorry… My movie reviewer skills are failing horrendously.

Winged Migration was beautiful. Jeremy and I are PBS fans and tend to be fascinated by documentaries of the natural world, which thoroughly explains why we enjoyed this flick. The actual movie portion of the DVD was a bit long; we watched it in two sittings. I highly recommend viewing the featurette on the making of the film—very, very cool. I felt every inch the non-filmmaker that I am as I saw what took place behind the scenes and said, “Oh! So it wasn’t just dumb luck that they caught that scene on camera?!?” The movie is due back sometime this week. Hopefully I’ll get to watch the featurette on the film’s music before returning the DVD.

Happy birthday to two special guys in my life…

To Jeremy, my awesome husband: I wish you much joy in this next year as we establish our own little Tredway family. May the Lord grant us wisdom in the journey and an abundance of love and grace in our household!

To Andrew, my younger brother: How the heck did you get to be 23?? (That means Adam’s just plain elderly and I must be middle-aged!) I wish you a year that includes a fabulous graduation and, afterwards, a new path for you to explore, wherever the Lord directs you.

In honor of your birthday tomorrow (happy 23rd, old man!), I present to you: The Progression of Fussy.

Hmmm…

Can you get fired from your job because of your blog? Troutgirl and Dooce were.

Can you shame a major television network and their chief correspondent because of your blog? Yes, yes you can.

I have learned that the strength of a blog is also it’s weakness. On this page in the vast worldwide web I am allowed to speak freely. No editor to chop my chosen words or correct my grammar. No advisor to read it before it’s published and tell me to rethink rash statements. No guide to remind me that 12 year old cousin Bobby, an unknown pot-smoking college freshman, my highly respected pastor and my Granny are all reading my words. Nope.

The beauty is that in Blogland, I go it alone. The problem is, similarly, in Blogland I go it alone.

“We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”

– Robert Wilensky

Reader’s Digest, Sept. 2004 (p. 111)

Several years ago I seemed to hear quite a bit about “Girls’ Weekends”. Women who had been friends for years would get together once a year for a weekend o’ fun—they could travel to a new city together, rent a beach house, establish a theme for their time together, etc. I had lost touch with good friends over the years due to laziness and distance but greatly wanted to be a part of a girls’ weekend.

Thus began what my friend Haley calls the Horn Creek Reunion Tour. We just completed Year Three.

Nine years ago (ten for Autumn, Charity and I) we met at Horn Creek camp in the gorgeous Sangre de Cristo mountain range in southern Colorado. All PCA kids, we signed up for PYA and created memories to last a lifetime. In 1995 we were Cabin #2. Counseled by the fun-loving Amy Rathjen—very newly pregnant with her firstborn I might add—we grew to love each other. Cheesy letters of teenage drama and spiritual encouragement (ahem, Bryonie!) criss-crossed the nation courtesy of the United States Postal Service. Every so often one of us would be blessed with a package of Haley’s gourmet chocolate chip cookies. Within a few years we were college students—one year even saw four of us all at Covenant College. Haley, always the faithful correspondent, kept in good touch from Belhaven in Mississippi.

And then, three years ago, we took the plunge. A location was arranged thanks to the graciousness of Autumn’s family. A menu was planned. Plane tickets were purchased. And Charity’s mom’s SUV was procured for us Nebraskans who were close enough to drive.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say our girls’ weekend is highly cherished. I am extremely proud of all my friends—of their gentle spirits, of their constant encouragement, of their diverse achievements and, most of all, of their deep desires to glorify God. We plan to continue this tradition (afterall, who wouldn’t want to lay on a deck by a lake, eat, drink and talk with friends for two days straight?) for many years to come. Last year we decided that we’d bring our babies, when we had them, and so Livia was part of our deck-lounging this year.

Here’s to good friends, good food, good conversation and one great weekend a year!

(Check out Charity’s blog for more photos.)

I’ve survived a crazy weekend, one full of obligations and fun. Friday evening saw a large group of Zion ladies at The Leadership Center in Aurora, Nebraska, for our annual Women’s Retreat. It was this same evening that I learned that “extrovert” doesn’t mean that people cannot drain you of every ounce of energy in your being! The combination of work responsibilities, mommy responsibilities and multitudes of friends exhausted me and I wondered how I’d finish out my busy weekend! But one night of fairly good sleep (only fair because Livia decided to chat it up at 3am in our hotel room) gave me a reprieve and I woke up to enjoy the rest of the retreat Saturday morning. By the way, Pam Benton was our speaker and I enjoyed her immensely. Between her wise words and the night away, I felt refreshed and encouraged.

Saturday night was a family wedding out at The Columns in Pioneers Park. After six years of marriage I am still amazed that another family welcomes me with open arms. I love being a Tredway and it’s great to be wholeheartedly included in family festivities. Congrats to Megan & Marc on their nuptials! (And nice work to Anne and her quartet! You sounded wonderful!) The reception was in the Apothecary building in the Haymarket — awesome location.

Sunday morning the weekend adventures continued as fall Sunday School classes began for Zion kids. We handed out balloons to all the little ones in another practice of I’m-an-extrovert-but-this-drains-me activity. All our volunteers were warned to NOT give away untied balloons (helium-suckers beware!) and to NOT give balloons away to kids who hadn’t yet been to church. I could just imagine Pastor Stu preaching amidst bouquets of yellow, green and blue balls! The kids at our church are completely adorable and I felt like a very cool person for providing them with something as wonderful as a balloon. Who knew a round, colorful piece of rubber containing gases could be so fun?

The weekend was rounded out by a family dinner celebrating Chelsea’s 21st birthday. Happy birthday, Bean! It floors me that Chels could be 21… How did I (and Jeremy) get to be so old? I remember her being a little 14 year old at youth group. Next thing you know I’ll be pulling out my bifocals to read my mail. Sigh…

Today is my Monday breather. And now that I’ve fulfilled all blog duties, I think I’ll go take a nap.

Too bad she doesn’t appreciate Snoopy bandaids!

Yesterday Livia and I picked up Jeremy from work and visited Dr. Brabec for Livia’s four-month checkup. It’s a unique thing, visiting your child’s doctor. I have seen family doctors, dentists, endocrinologists, chiropractors, orthopedists and ENTs over the years and now even a rheumatologist. I’ve been around the block, so to speak, when it comes to visiting doctors, but it all changes when you take your child to one. All of a sudden, you become much more aware of “bedside manner”, much more concerned with growth and development milestones, and much more pained by shots and blood-draws.

I repeat, much more pained by shots and blood-draws.

Okay. So we pretty much cried with her at her two-month checkup.

Yesterday it was just a little bit better. For me at least; I made Jeremy hold her. Laugh and scoff at us soft-hearted parents, if you will, but beware! Someday it will be YOUR baby visiting the pediatrician. YOUR baby being held down for shots. And YOUR heart being wrought with thoughts of How can I be such a cruel parent? This is for her good, isn’t it? Fortunately, Livia calmed down fairly quickly and fell asleep in the car immediately, ouchy thighs replaced by sweet baby dreams. The fun part of the appointment was that our kiddo is growing and developing beautifully! She’s gone from 9lb, 15oz to 12lb, 9oz and from 22.75 inches in length to 25.75 inches. Yup, she’s our long baby; 90–95 percentile in height and only 25–50% in weight.

For now, we’ll continue to parent as we’ve been parenting: feeding her 5 bottles a day, giving her “tummy time”, and playing with her and cuddling her to our hearts’ delight. In a few months we’ll start feeding her solids and our routines will be slightly altered again. At that point she’ll go, once more, for a check-up and, ugh, shots. Maybe then she’ll be glad for bandaids featuring Joe Cool.