Endings, Beginnings, and Change

Today begins a new chapter in my life. In our lives as a family. Yesterday was my last day of full-time employment.

It is a decision I made - it was not forced upon me - but if you know me at all, you know how much I hate change. (Strangely, I rather like change of the coin-sort. Go figure.) It is the right decision for me, right now. I do not regret it, but I will miss my coworkers, my friends, my family... those whom I've worked with for over 13 years and love, whom I've celebrated with and cried with. I will still have a connection with them, working part-time from home, but it won't be the same. 

But it's the right decision.

And my reward is to see this sweet face each day.

tmm

Final Weeks of My Pregnant Life

Here are the final weeks of my pregnancy. (I didn't realize how big I was until I looked at these pictures.) As you can see, I didn't make it to 40 weeks. But I thought it'd be fun to continue the pictures to the end. Annabel "Annie" Wren McMillan was born May 22 at 10:12pm CT. She weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 20-1/2 inches long.

Weeks 37-40

tmm

Maternity Pictures

In our cooler-than-normal spring, we took advantage of the first almost-warm-enough-to-be-outside-without-a-jacket day and went to the Chicago Botanic Garden to take some maternity pictures at 33 weeks. It was a fairly casual shoot since it was just the two of us (three of us?). I was even able to convince the father-to-be to join me in a few.



 

 

 Warming up inside one of the tropical greenhouses also provided some good shots.

Our attempt to have a picture of me with a bird nest

tmm

More Prego Progress

It's way past time for another pregnancy progress visual update. I will be 37 weeks pregnant tomorrow so we're down to the final few weeks. I'm still feeling pretty good, just a little more tired than usual.

The second half of pregnancy (mostly): Weeks 21-36

tmm

Progress

We have been taking weekly progress pictures of our growing family. For your viewing pleasure--and if you're interested because you haven't seen me since I've "popped" or find it hard to imagine what I look like--here are belly pictures from the first half of my pregnancy. (And we are taking them in front of our porch door to watch the changing seasons.)

The first half of pregnancy: halfway there - and no more morning sickness!

tmm

Grandfather Clocks

When Nate was in his early 20s, he and his dad were talking about grandfather clocks and how they both liked them and would love to own one someday. Nate said, "I'll tell you what. When I make you a grandfather, I'll get you a grandfather clock." Thankfully he had told me this early on in our relationship so it wasn't a surprise. But I did wonder if there was a creative way around it -- would a miniature grandfather clock work? What about a calendar of grandfather clocks? How about a grandfather clock kit? Nope, it had to be the real thing. We hadn't seen any around, but kept our eyes out (because how common are they?), even though I wasn't pregnant. 



At the end of September 2012, we found out we were pregnant! But since we're not very good at keeping secrets, we had to figure out how to announce it to our parents creatively yet obviously - and quickly. And there was the situation of the grandfather clock.

We stopped by a resale shop to see if they had any nice, affordable grandfather clocks. They had one that was beautiful, fairly understated, and affordable! After doing some measuring of it--and our car--we decided to get it. Hooray!

We decided to tell our parents in person by getting each of our moms Gerbera daisies to represent their grandchildren plus a red rose for their new grandchild. We gave a quick call to my parents to make sure they were home (they were) and to make sure Nate's parents would be home later that afternoon (they live about 2 hours away - they were planning on it). We stopped at my sister Lisa's and told her, then swung by my parents'. When we got there, we handed the bouquet of four flowers to my mom and told them they were to represent their grandchildren...all of their grandchildren. They counted the flowers and realized what it meant and were thrilled!

My mom with her flowers

We didn't stay long since we had to drive down to Nate's parents' still. While driving there, we called my other siblings to tell them the news (they were all thrilled).

In the meantime, Nate's family (his parents and sisters) had been pondering whether us coming down rather unexpectedly with "something to drop off" meant we had a grandfather clock with us...translating to another grandchild. Or maybe they were better off assuming it was puppy so they wouldn't be disappointed if we showed up with something not nearly as exciting as an announcement of an expected birth some nine months away.

While on our way, Nate's sister, Amy, called to tell us that she had to leave for church. We told her and she was thrilled to pieces to be an aunt again. When we arrived at Nate's parents', we got out of the car, went to the front door and were met by expectant looks of anticipation. Nate said, "You need to come outside to get it." Nate's dad hurried out to see what we had brought with us. Nate's mom quickly followed. Nate's sister, Karen, looked at me and asked, "Is it a grandfather clock?" "Yes, it sure is!" Hugs and tears followed. I also handed the bouquet of one dozen to Nate's mom.
 
Then the assembly of the clock commenced.

It looked like it was made to sit against their brick fireplace. And it has the most lovely chime.

Thankfully, Nate's comment about the clock only applied to his first child...because who really needs more than one grandfather clock?

Nate's mom with her bouquet

Nate and his dad with the grandfather clock

tmm

December Live

On Friday, September 21, we did a Moody Radio event in Elmhurst, Illinois, called "December Live!" It was our third year doing one of these events, but the first time it wasn't on Moody's Chicago campus. It's a lot of fun to do the event because 1) I love Christmas; 2) we get to work with a great group of creative people in ways that we don't always get to at work; and 3) it's always great to meet listeners, many of whom are avid fans of Moody Radio. We recorded two hours, one for December Live and one for Valentine's Live with a focus on love in general and, more importantly, God's love for us. The one-hour specials will air in December and February respectively.

Here are a few snapshots of the event (L-R):

Row 1: The Segard family read Luke 2 beautifully; Musicians: Doug Hastings, Jon Hemmer
Row 2: Musicians: Larry Shackley, David Gauger; Tricia keeping time during rehearsal
Row 3: Bill Davis and Jon Gauger tweak scripts; Lee Rugen (as Carl) and Nate in the Laugh Box; Running through "Pew Zapper" (Jon Gauger, Heather Segard, Lee Rugen, Bill Davis, Dan Anderson)
Row 4: Meg and Clara Segard; Practicing the commercial for "Pulpit Cam"; Musician Ken Rothaker


tm