Sorry!!!

Wow... I can't believe I went through Aug & Sep without a simple blog update! So sorry!!!

Quick summary of August:
1st week - Stopped having morning sickness - hurrah!!! :)
2nd week - Jr High (6th - 8th "grades", as in 6th - 8th year students or similar to) Retreat ("camp") from 7th - 10th.
3rd week - Sr High (9th - 12th "grades") Retreat from 14th - 17th.
4th week - High School Registration period for two brothers so lots to prepare (forms to fill in / check, cheques to write, classes / teachers to confirm, buy uniforms, back-to-school stuff, etc). Mum finally returned from Korea after her stay was unexpectedly extended from 2 to 4 weeks. Peter started using Facebook!
5th week - Korean School Teachers' Orientation on 26th, Peter had to preach for the Wed night Korean service on 29th. Started packing our stuff and on 1st September...

After living at mum's in Almaden for months, we moved out on 1st September back to our place in Sunnyvale. My morning sickness was gone, I was able to eat, cook, etc and mum was over her jetlag so we moved out. I cried the first night. :)

Quick summary of September:
Really busy with Korean School - Had to quit though 'cause it was so exhausting physically and mentally. My heart wanted to teach 'cause I love the kids and I love teaching but I wasn't able to cope with the workload so found a replacement and quit. I also didn't think it'd be fair on the students to have a fatigued not-as-well-prepared-as-she-should be teacher. I was still involved with a lot of the more exec stuff as mum's Headmistress ("Principal") but my workload was much less than when I was teaching.
Really busy with church Youth work - We started having two-hourly(-ish) gatherings with parents and students from each grade. It took a lot of coordinating, preparation, asking very nicely for "favours" and a lot of energy too. It was the first time we'd tried this kind of meeting so the first meetings in particular were very experimental but the outcomes for all of them (so far, they're still going on!) have been really positive. Only a couple more left! A lot of additional work has come out of it but it's all good stuff and stuff I'm excited about doing! :) My only worry is about possibly letting the parents down and not being able to get things done as quickly as they'd like. A lot of parents seem to think that pastors & wives have superhuman powers and have more hours in the day than everybody else. If only! :)
Really busy with my Permanent Residency / Change of Status US visa docs - So complicated and so expensive! The fees for the forms came to a total of 1,365 USD but that doesn't include the cost of taking passport photos (paid 40 USD for 8 passport photos and that's a bargain!!! average 10 USD for 2 passport photos, funny size too!), blood tests & vaccinations (about 200 USD), medical examinations (about 100 USD), printing, photocopies, etc... I'm very happy to be able to say that on 4 Oct I finally sent everything (all labeled and in order of course :)) so I'll hopefully hear back from them with good news very soon! There are a couple more medical things I need to have completed once I've had baby Sara(h) but otherwise, they hopefully have everything they need. It should take 3-6 months for my Permanent Residency approval to come through and then approx 2 years thereafter for my Citizenship to be approved - I think.
Other things that kept me busy (not in any particular order) - trying to organise / make more home-ly our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo; dad visited for a week; sister's boyfriend visiting for 1 day from Dallas, Texas to ask dad for his permission to marry my sister; 2-hourly quilting classes Thurs mornings (bit of sth for myself), 2-hourly Childbirth Preparation classes Mon evenings; met with a rep from the IMB (International Missions Board) re Peter & I going out on long-term missions soon, application, etc; Peter sick for a week; usual cooking, cleaning, etc.

We've had a busy start to October too as I set up appointments with various carpet companies so we've had people around to measure and sell us their stuff! We've narrowed it down to two of four options now and so hopefully we'll be able to get our new carpet soon so it can settle before Miss Oh arrives. :) Weekend just gone was packed with a wedding, chauffeuring my brother around, two grade-specific gatherings, and two PTA (Parent Teacher Association) meetings involving all of the parents with children in the Youth group. Monday (yesterday) we just vegged! :)

Quilting classes are almost over now (so sad... :() and our Childbirth Prep classes are almost over now too (birth's getting closer - eek!) but I think this month's going to be pretty hectic with the new carpet coming in, trying to get rid of as much of our stuff as possible to make room for lots of baby stuff & prepare for our eventual move abroad, finishing the Korean School yearbook, producing a directory / phone book for the Youth group, getting the ball rolling on the Youth yearbook, organising Miss Oh's baby shower in mid-November, starting to look at all far-too-many options for all the things we need to buy before she's born or soon thereafter, pick photos for our wedding album (still haven't done it so still don't have an album!), send last remaining wedding thank you cards (appalling I know...), etc. I think I've covered most of the big things.

I've started interpreting (real-time!) on Sunday for the non-Koreans who attend our Korean service at church. It was really scary the first time but I'm starting to get used to it and am hoping to start enjoying it soon too. :) They've asked me to do it until Sara(h)'s born with the hopes that they'll be able to find someone else by then. The lady who's been doing it apparently wants a break which is perfectly understandable as it's adrenaline-rushing brain-numbing high-concentration work!

In terms of the pregnancy, I was able to eat with no worries for a few weeks and then started experiencing heartburn, indigestion, nausea, feeling "gassy" (problems with wind), and breathlessness so I've started being more careful again about what and how much I eat during each meal. I hadn't had any vomiting for about 10 weeks but then I vomited today so... :( Hope it's not the beginning of another bout of vomiting!

Miss Sara(h) Oh is healthy, very busy kicking mum when she's not sleeping but a bit on the small side. According to her size, at last measurement during our Sept appt, her due date is 2 Jan, nearly 2 weeks later than the original due date of 22 Dec. Apparently 1st babies are usually born late too but we'll see... Peter and I are both hoping for mid Dec for various reasons. :)

It's such a nice feeling updating my blog! :) Will definitely have to do it more regularly now that I don't need to worry about being kicked out of the US or having to do more work 'cause I didn't get my application in on time.

Love you and miss you lots,
Jenny