Saturday, November 24, 2007

The busiest week of the year

The third week of November will always be a crazy one in the Archibald family, it includes our wedding anniversary, Mark's birthday and Thanksgiving. Fortunately, this year we have a week to recover before Advent begins. Though crazy, the past week has been a blast!

We celebrated our anniversary prematurely by spending the night of the 16th in Hudson, WI and wandering around Stillwater, MN, the oldest town in MN, that evening and the following day. The weather was stunning - beauty and temperature...stunningly chilly, as you will notice from how bundled we are in the pictures.
Mark and I bought fancy travel mugs for each other as our anniversary gift. Mark wanted a picture that included his new mug. :) The St. Croix river, which divides MN and WI, is behind him.
This is a picture of very cold Betsy, with a quickly blossoming belly. Behind me is downtown Stillwater and the St Croix river. Mark and the (in)famous Brandy-soaked, marzipan-covered fruitcake. This is the cake Mark has every year for his birthday and feastday. My faithful blog readers may remember the last one, from a post around April 25th, Mark's feastday. The side of the cake reads "I love you Daddy!" I couldn't resist adding that touch on his first birthday as a Dad. :) It's hard to believe I'm married to a 28 year-old. Mark was a mere 24 when I met him, though only for 2 months; where does the time go?!

My mom was in town for 2 days, earlier this week! It was great to have her here, and show off the ole' homestead...er, dorm apartment. She happened to pick an incredibly foggy day to visit us, so the skylines of Minneapolis and St Paul were both completely enshrouded in thick gray fog; I was particularly dissapointed about St Paul, as the Cathedral overlooking downtown and dwarfing the Capitol building, is a sight to see. Oh well, I guess she'll have to come back. :) On a different note, the guys in our part of the hall behaved themselves, through no influence of mine or Mark's, and not a peep was heard during her visit, unlike when Kate and her friends were here.

Speaking of which, Kate is due to arrive for another visit in a couple days! We're so thrilled that she's coming back to see us, and for more than a few hours this time around. :)

That just about gets us up to speed. Of course, Thanksgiving was in there as well. We had a WONDERFUL celebration with friends, food, some praise and worship, and lots of laughter. It really was as perfect as Thanksgiving could be, away from family. We are very blessed!

Baby Archibald is growing, growing, growing! He definitely had a growth spurt last weekend, and doesn't seem to be showing signs of slowing down...not that I necessarily think that he should, but I'm beginning to think that my fears of birthing a watermelon aren't unjustified. I am 26 weeks along, going on 35 (in my humble and medically unsubstantiated opinion). Mark is incredibly eager to meet our son, and watching me get bigger by the minute is only adding to his impatience. Obvious signs aside, it's still hard for me to believe I'm pregnant, let alone that I'm going to hold my son in my arms in 3 months...STRANGE!!! All that to say, I'm excited, but glad that I have these 3 months to continue to prepare myself for his arrival...please Lord, may he not come more than 2 weeks early (but 2 weeks early would be great!) :)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone we love, and if you're in Michigan, we hope to see you in a month!!! Hurray!