I ate corned beef and cabbage for the first time last night at our friends’ Eric and Linda’s house. Linda is a church planter here in the Bay Area and Eric runs the Page Street Center. Linda’s boss was in town and she had invited several people who are starting churches in the area over for dinner. She invited us as well.
We met some neat people, including a couple about our age who moved here this week from guess where? Dallas. Another couple had lived in Dallas while in seminary at DTS - they actually lived right at Ross and Greenville, and another woman there was from Dallas as well. She actually might be related to us, we figured out. I think Rudd is her mother’s maiden name?
We also has our first BART experience. It reminded Joshua of being in France and reminded me of living in Boston. Judah liked it and kept almost falling because she wouldn’t hang on. Then she would purposely sway back and forth and say, “whoa!” over and over.
On Wednesday night we had dinner at Maverick with our friends Jill and Shane. Jill is Brent’s sister, who we stayed with for a week when we were two years ago. We had a great dinner and enjoyed getting to see them. Hopefully we will get to hang with them more often. The restaurant was nice and had great food. Jill also gave us a 2003 bottle of Rudd cabernet sauvignon. When we stayed with Jill during our visit, she watched Judah for us and lent us her Vespa a few times so Joshua and I could tool around the city. We had stopped for coffee in the Castro and while Joshua was securing the Vespa, I was window shopping a wine store next to the coffee house. I saw a bottle of Rudd wine. Apparently there is a winery in Napa started/owned? by a man named Leslie Rudd. The bottle will be the way we celebrate our first anniversary of the day we arrived in the city. Great gift, and many, many thanks go to Jill and Shane.
In other news, I haven’t felt as sick since we moved. I think it’s a sign. The last day I threw up was the day we moved out of the garage apartment, which has been over two weeks now. I’ve had some bouts of nausea, but once I get up and moving and showered and doing stuff, I’m feeling better, rather than worse, which was how it used to be.
I also started feeling the baby move sometime last week. Joshua felt it move for the first time a couple of days ago. I don’t remember exactly when I first felt it, but I feel it every day now. Also, usually in the morning, before I am fully awake and realizing my urgent need to pee these days, I can feel the baby form a hard spot somewhere on my belly. The first time it was on the right side. Just right there, my abdomen was hard as a rock. I guess the baby was doing stretching or yoga positions in there or something. It’s not very comfortable.
People keep commenting that I don’t look four months pregnant. Part of me gets worried, thinking there’s something wrong, part of me remembers the guy who didn’t know I was SEVEN MONTHS ALONG with Judah until I turned sideways for him (you couldn’t tell I was pregnant at all from the back), and part of me wants to smack the person upside the head and pull a Sydney Bristow on them (”funny thing about pregnancy… hormones…” she says right before she kicks a guy in the neck and sends him flying out a window), cause I’m FEELING pregnant.
But it is fun to feel the baby move. In some cultures, women aren’t considered pregnant until the “quickening.” What do they think the nausea, vomiting and fatigue are from, then?
Here’s a little something to get you started on the family tree:
http://www.ruddwines.com/story_leslie.html
I won’t tell anyone about your family’s jaded liquor-distributor past if you won’t.
what is it with moving into our dreams and birthing there? i knew when i saw you i was in trouble. so here we are 2 months prego and getting ready to move to orkney island. crazy. you are not alone anymore though. i have been puking consistently for a week now which i suppose is some sort of “good” sign people say. your post gives me hope though. we love you guys and i will be prayin for ya especially since i feel so connected now. hey we are growing our own church!!!!!!!