Traveling Zoe

Hello friends! It has been a very eventful couple of weeks. Zobug and her daddy gave me a great first Mother's Day. They were very sweet. After church, they took me out to lunch. Since we were a party of 2 and a high chair, we got seated right away, as opposed to the massive families there to celebrate with their moms. We then went home and Zoe gave me the gifts that apparently she bought all on her own. I have a suspicion that her daddy may have helped her. She gave me the most wonderful card that was made on Shutterfly, that had a bunch of pictures of her and I and she signed it with her hand and footprints. I started crying. Now I get why my mom would cry when she read the cards we gave her. My complete transformation into my mom has now kicked into high gear since I am now a mom. (This isn't a bad thing. I have a fantastic mom.) Zoe also got me a Willow Tree figurine with a mom, dad and newborn. The last gifts she got me were the Best of SNL: Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Fallon's Thank You Notes book. She chose Jimmy Fallon gifts because we stay up late and watch him together. Also, she knows that I love Jimmy Fallon. I think that NBC making him the host of the Tonight Show was the best move since they finally cancelled ER. That show was good, but went way too long. They really needed to give it up once they played the Ukulele "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" when Dr. Greene died. Anyway...It was the best Mother's Day a girl could ask for. I am very blessed by my husband and my loving little girl.

She let me snap this pic on Mother's Day. It's my favorite so far.

The Monday after Mother's Day, we took Zoe on her first trip to the north. Yes, for us that is Austin, TX. We showed her what hills and trees look like. Nate was attending the Texas District Theological Convocation at Concordia University Texas. Since I'm not working, we get to tag along on these trips now. I love it! She did wonderful riding on the way up there. She really is a great baby. Right when we got into Austin we spotted a Steak 'N Shake. Zoe was very excited for her first experience at the Steak 'N Shake (Okay, may I was more excited about it than she was).

While Nate was doing the program the Bug and I were pretty much on our own. This gave me the time to eat at the places that we don't have in the Valley. The first night we found a Pei Wei, which was delicious. Tuesday morning we went to Panera to get Mama a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel. It was far too long. That day for lunch, we went to Noodles and Co. During all of these dining out experiences, it was like Zobug and I were having a little mommy/daughter date. Like a crazy person, I would sit there and talk to her the whole time, even if she was sleeping. The people around me probably thought I was crazy. During our time in Austin, I really started to feel like she was my little sidekick, going with me places and just really keeping me company. We were privileged to see a few of our good friends while in Austin. We were able to see our friends, Gabe and Melissa Kasper, who introduced us to Schlotzsky's Deli. Two Words: Thank you. All I can think about now is the bread that place uses.

During the adventures of Zobug and Mommy in Austin, we stumbled upon one of the most beautiful H-E-B grocery stores ever. As soon as I pulled up in the parking lot, I saw this sign.

I was so happy, it was chilly and rainy that day. It was also beautiful on the inside. We need one of these in the Valley.

On the way back Zoe met Buccee. She is clearly excited.

We returned on Wednesday. On Friday, because it was Nate's day off, I subbed for 3rd grade at St. Paul. I did alright being away from Zoe because Nate kept me updated and sent me pictures every once and a while. I did miss her like crazy, though. I came home and was like, "Oh my goodness! She grew!" I didn't like being away from her but, it was a nice day.

On Saturday, the three of us drove to Corpus Christi. Nate was preaching on Sunday to fill in for a friend that was on vacation. Our friends were nice enough to let us stay in their house while they were gone. On Sunday morning Nate fed Zoe in the early morning. When he came back he left the door to the hallway open, which was fine. Well, the Mylar balloons in the hallway were sucked into the ceiling fan making a big pop noise! It started me and I screamed, since I was sleeping prior to the noise. Nate comes running into the room thinking that I am dying and I point to the ceiling fan. He turned the fan off and cut the balloons down. Don't worry, there were no ceiling fans harmed in the making of this film. As soon as Nate turned off the fan, I looked at Zoe to make sure she was okay (she was in the Rock 'N Play next to the bed). Her eyes her open really wide and she was looking up at the fan. She then gives this huge smile like she thought the whole thing was hysterical.

Here are some more pics that I just think are adorable...

This week has been a little bit more low key, which is nice. We are just getting ready for the grandparents and the wonderful, Katie Lane to arrive for Zoe's baptism. I am so excited to have family here and for Zoe to become a child of God. It will be a fabulous weekend.

Stay tuned for the next blog post that will include baptism weekend highlights. I know you will be on the edge of your seat.

That's all for now...God is good!

Zobug is 2 months!

Yesterday, our little Zobug turned two months. Since I am proud to be that, obsessed with my child, stay-at-home mom, I am sharing this milestone with the world.

Zoe loves:

• Mommy and Daddy
• Her grandparents
• Snuggling with Aunt Victoria
• Her Uncle Andrew and Uncle Alex
• Mommy and Daddy's friends
• Snuggling
• Going to her snuggle spot (laying tummy down on anyone's chest)
• The owl on her play gym
• Formula
• Her teddy bear
• The Rock N Play
• To wake up when Mommy is washing bottles
• To smile
• To chat with Mommy
• Bath time
• Witchy Woman and other hits by the Eagles
• Duck Dynasty

Zoe doesn't like:

• When you take the bottle away in the middle of a feeding to burp her
• Getting two month shots
• When people aren't paying attention to her 
• Getting lotion put on her
• Being hungry (just like her mommy)
• Wet diapers
• Waiting for Mommy to make her a bottle

What people say about Zoe:

"She is so (insert a every synonym for adorable here)."

"She is so tiny."

"She's a big baby."

First Grade Girls: She's so tiny. It's a good thing you named her Zoe; Zoe's a tiny name. You should have named her tiny.

First Grade Girl: At least she has a head like a baseball.

"She looks like Katie."

"She looks like Nate."

"I can't tell who she looks like."

Mommy and Daddy's Nicknames for Zoe:

• Zobug
• Bug
• Baby Bug
• Bugaboo
• Little Bug
• Little Baby
• Mommy's Girl
• Daddy's Girl
• Little Snuggler

I realize this is a lot of names to call such a little girl. I might have a small obsession with nicknames.

Basically, she is the best and we love her.

Don't worry there will be more pictures to come. I am the mamarazzi. She was sitting on the couch today giving the camera the evil eye. I think she knows. 

That's all for now. God is good!

Zoe Katherine Wollenberg

Hi all! I'm reentering the blogging world! Now that Zoe is born, I want to write all about our adventures. I would like to use this post to give you all the back story on how our little miracle got here.

Back in July of 2013 I went to visit my parents in St. Louis without Nate. I was planning on having a nice, two week vacation visiting my parents before coming back to finish up my classroom for the school year. About three days into my trip I started to lose my appetite. I don't ever lose my appetite. Not long after that, I started to feel sick. The thought crossed my mind that I could be pregnant but I didn't really think I was.

One Saturday morning, my dad and I were going to have breakfast and then do a little shopping. We got about five minutes away from home and I just broke down in tears and told him that I felt too sick to go. By this point, my parents were starting to get suspicious. I was also starting to think I really might be pregnant. I decided that I needed to take a pregnancy test but I didn't want my parents to know. I am a twenty-seven year old, married woman trying to figure out how to buy and take a pregnancy test without my parents knowing. Ridiculous. I was supposed to have lunch with a friend that day, so on my way to lunch I picked up a test. That night, I took the test. I got a faint positive! I was so excited and shocked. The funny thing is that I was celebrating in silence in my parents bathroom. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love to talk way to much. I didn't want to tell Nate on the phone, but I needed to tell him first. To keep a secret of this magnitude from my parents was near impossible. I still had 5 days in St. Louis. The next morning I was getting ready for church, I wasn't feeling well but I was determined to power through it. I was ready to go when I realized that I just couldn't do it, I felt horrible. I went and told my mom that I couldn't go and then said "I'm going to throw up." I ran to the bathroom, I couldn't get the toilet seat up in time so I threw up all over the bathroom. My mom by this point is telling me that I have to go to the doctor. I keep telling her that it really isn't necessary. She asked me if I was pregnant. I responded with something like, "I don't know, maybe." So for the rest of the trip, there is this huge elephant in the room. We all know, but we can't talk about it.

When I returned home, I knew that I couldn't make it the 45 minute ride home without telling Nate that I was pregnant. When he pulled up to the curb at the airport, I asked him if he could get out and help me get my bags in the car. I was completely capable of doing this myself, but I wanted to tell him outside the car. I gave him a hug and just blurted out, "I'm pregnant." He looked at me completely stunned and speechless. We were both kind of stunned and excited. When we got in the car I asked what he was thinking and he said, "I was just picking you up from the airport."

I had a healthy, relatively easy pregnancy. I taught all the way up to the day Zoe was born. My middle school students were hilarious. They wanted to know everything about my pregnancy.  At least once a week they would ask me what would happen if I went into labor at school. They kept a countdown on the whiteboard for almost the entire pregnancy.

We had the 8th graders unscramble the words to announce it to the middle school.

30 Weeks 

35 Weeks

38 Weeks

On March 8, at 2 am we induced labor. After 16 hours of labor, Zoe Katherine Wollenberg was born. We immediately fell in love. We had to stay an extra day in the hospital because she was jaundice.

My mom was our first helpful visitor; she was here for about 3 weeks. Nate's mom was our next visitor and she was here for about the same amount of time. My sister, Victoria, was just here for about 5 days.

I hope to keep up with the blog to tell you all about how our little girl grows. We are so in love with her.

That's all for now. God is good!

Youth Gathering, Trip to St. Louis and Preparing My Classroom

I have come to the realization that summer is quickly coming to a close. August is in two days. For people that work in education August means early mornings are coming soon. Before I talk about getting ready for school, I will give you a little recap of the summer.

This summer was busy! First we had VBS, which I wrote about in my last post. Nate took a trip to Kansas City with his dad. They golfed and saw some Kansas City Royals games. They had a blast.

Almost right after Nate got back from Kansas City we left for the LCMS National Youth Gathering in San Antonio with 11 of the high school youth from St. Paul. Before the gathering, we did some activities around the city. We went to Six Flags, did some caving and zip-lining and saw Man of Steel in 3-D. The first night we were there, we found ourselves in an interesting predicament. One of the girls came over to the room where I was and said, "Mrs. Wollenberg, we have a situation." I asked her what was going on and she said, "It's better if you come look, it may have been a ghost". I was thinking that the toilet was clogged or the lamp was broken. No, the ceramic soap holders that were cemented to the wall in the shower had fallen off of the wall, broken, and cut one of the girl's toes open. The hotel staff was less than helpful at first, but the next day we got someone who took the situation more seriously. While the manager was taking the accident report she asked me if there were any witnesses. I looked at her strangely and said, "she was in the shower." The manger then said, "So, no witnesses then?" No. No witnesses. Anyway after some adventures to urgent care for the sliced toe, we had a far less dangerous trip.

One of the best things about the National Youth Gathering for adults is that it is pretty much the best college and seminary reunion. We must have seen 50 people that we knew. It was so great to see our friends. Everyone is spread out all over the country and its nice to be in one location for a change. Some of our friends were even in the same hotel as we were. It was really a great time altogether. We had a chance to bond with the youth, see our friends and strengthen our faith.

On our way!

Introducing the Valley youth to Culver's

CUW Alumni Event with my friends Rachel and Emily

CUW's Mass Event Promo Night! Free glow in the dark shirts!!

Our youth, a little sleepy and ready for worship on Thursday morning

Photobooth pic from the CUW/CUAA Superbooth

My friend Betsy and I...So happy to see each other!

Shortly after we returned from the gathering, I made my way up to St. Louis for two weeks to visit my parents. I had a very relaxing time. My mom and I went to see the Budweiser Clydesdales at Grant's Farm. We did some shopping and watched season 3 of Downton Abbey. We convinced my dad to watch one episode of Downton Abbey but I don't think he could quite get into it because he hadn't seen the others. I'm sure he'll get hooked one day. We did some other stuff too but those were definitely the highlights of our time. I was able to see my friends Ashley and Rachel. Lutheran World Relief was kind enough to fly my good friend Katie Lane into St. Louis for the LCMS National Convention to represent GEO missionaries. She was tied up for one morning and then she was able to spend the rest of her time in St. Louis hanging out with me. This was fabulous. Her first night in St. Louis, we went to dinner and then people-watched convention-goers in the lobby of her hotel for a few hours. You would be surprised at how much fun that was. The next night, the seminary hosted an event for the convention-goers. Because Katie was part of the convention and because my dad is a seminary student we decided to attend. We ran into some of our friends there and got in some more quality people-watching. Katie was a minor celebrity because she was featured at the convention. We had an excellent time. All in all, my visit to St. Louis was a great success. I had a good deal of quality time with my mom and dad which is just what you need sometimes. I was very happy to return to my husband though; two weeks is a long time. Below are some pics from Grant's Farm.

Now my focus is working on getting my classroom ready for the school year. St. Paul decided to call me to be a teacher in the school which is exciting. This is my first call out of Concordia. Due to Nate and I moving around because of seminary, I wasn't able to take a call before this. I will be the 7th grade homeroom teacher and I will be teaching other various middle school classes. I am excited and working like crazy to be as prepared as possible. 

Nate just moved into his new office and is still settling in. He is also busy preparing for Confirmation and all the programs that start up with the school year. 

That is all for now! God is good!

It's June already!

Hi Everyone! Where to begin?? So much has been happening with Nate and me. Nate confirmed his first confirmation class in April. There were eight confirmands. Confirmation gave me the excuse to give gifts and I love to give gifts. This is partially because I love to see people's faces when they open them and because when I can make the gifts it gives me a reason to be crafty. For the confirmands, I made frames that state their names and the date of their confirmation. I think they turned out pretty cool. I also have been channeling my inner craftiness to make gifts for our Youth Director and his wife, who is also our school's Music teacher, because they are having a baby. I made these very informative burp cloths that say, "burp". They turned out really cute but sewing around rounded applique letters is maddening.

For our Family Fun Night during the Easter season we had an Easter egg dying night. Now, what we didn't realize when we planned this is that they don't dye hard-boiled eggs down here at Easter. When we started to tell people about the event they were confused as to why we would dye hard-boiled eggs and then just eat them. The typical thing to do in this culture is to hollow out eggs, put confetti in them and paint them. On Easter morning everyone breaks these confetti filled eggs over each other's heads. No wonder they didn't understand why we just dyed the eggs and later ate them, it simply doesn't sound as fun as chasing people around and breaking eggs over other's heads. Despite the confusion the night was a great success and the people who came LOVED dying the eggs.

May went by in a flash. There were many events. Nate and I were able to sneak away to South Padre Island one day. It was a great day to sit at the beach, relax and watch people. It was even a little chilly. We had a nice little date. After that day, things went into hyper-drive. We had the spring musical for the school, a middle school trip to Austin (which Nate attended), 8th grade graduation and planning for VBS.

During May, I did get the opportunity to go visit Missouri because my sister, Victoria, was graduating from the University of Missouri and commissioning as an officer with the Army. It was a fast but great weekend with my family. My sister was a little annoyed with my excessive picture taking of her but I think she got over it. :) Just call me the sisterazzi. Here are some of the pictures...

I love my sissy!

Victoria with her Godfather, Rick 

I think it's funny that it looks like one of us is running for office in this picture. 

Our Aunt Melissa, Uncle Mike and cousin Abby came down for the weekend too!

Steve and Victoria

Victoria taking her oath

With the close of May came the close of my time with the first graders. I will miss them so much! They have made me (and many others on Facebook) laugh so much this year. Here are a few of their gems from the end of the year.

First Grader: (Holding a button) I found a button.

Miss Schultz: Honey, it's yours.

First Grader: (As he checks his shirt) No, it's not.

Miss Schultz: Check your pants.

First Grader: Oh!

First Grader: What's a flying saucer?

Other First Grader: A tortilla?

First Grader: Mrs. Wollenberg, when I put my hands in my pockets, it feels like noodles.

First Grader: (Sweeping the concrete) I hope this isn't my future.

First Grader: Sometimes the vet has to kill the dog.

Teacher: Sometimes

First Grader 1: With a dart

Teacher: No

First Grader 2: With a gun

Teacher: No

First Grader 3: With a pickaxe

Kindergarten Girl: That boy just asked me to marry him!

Me: What did you say?

Kindergarten Girl: No! I'm never getting married so I can live with my mommy and daddy forever! I'm not going to kiss any boys so I don't get germy!

First Grader: Are we supposed to pray to God?

Me: Yes

First Grader: But, we'll distract him.

Me: No we won't it's okay.

First Grader: The whole world prays to him?

Me: Yes

First Grader: Doesn't he get confused?

Me: Nope

Different First Grader: Does he know Japanese?

Me: God knows every language.

Different First Grader from across the room: He even knows French!

First Grade Girl (to Nate Wollenberg) Is Mrs. Wollenberg your mom?

Nate: No, she's my wife.

First Grade Girl: OooLaLa

First Grade Girl: Do you love her as much as ice cream?

Nate: I love her more than ice cream.

Last week was VBS at St. Paul. Nate had worked on VBS for months as the director and it turned out great. We had over 100 children attend VBS. It was a great success for the ministry of St. Paul. I think we all had fun. There are more pictures at the St. Paul Lutheran Church, School and Childcare Facebook page. Here is a link to a video of a look at our VBS: Click Here!

Nate is leading opening on the closing night of VBS in this pic.

Now that VBS is over, things are beginning to slow down. Nate is going to go meet up with his dad in Kansas City for a short vacation. When he gets back we will be taking the youth to the National Youth Gathering in San Antonio. When we return from that trip, I will be going up to St. Louis to spend a couple of weeks with my parents. Things will quickly get busier again after the Youth Gathering because our senior pastor will be leaving on July 7th to be a full time chaplain. Nate will be busier throughout the senior pastor vacancy, but he is eager to see what God has in store for the next chapter at St. Paul.

In the meantime, I am taking golf lessons! I have clubs and Nate wanted me to learn how to play so that I could play with him. The city of McAllen offers a summer golf lesson program at a GREAT deal, so I decided that now was the time. I am terrible right now but having a lot of fun! If nothing else, I got new shoes out of the deal. :)

That is all for now! God is good!