Happy Birthday, Dad/Pappous!

Love,
Paul, Christina, Pavlos, and Petros:)

PS: photo is of yiayia and pappous with all four grandchildren

It's been a while...

Sorry, everyone, it's been a while since I posted. I'm even having trouble getting around to reading other people's blogs!!! We are quite busy, of course, with baby Petros and Pavlos and just lots of stuff going on. On Saturday we had a memorial service for Paul's father (Fr. Paul). It's been five years since he reposed. May his memory be eternal. So I spent Friday and Saturday putting together kollyva. I have a shelf in my cupboard that is dedicated to kollyva stuff.

Sunday was our church general assembly meeting. I don't particularly like general assembly meetings. And, since becoming co-chair of our sunday school program, we have to watch the children while the parents attend the meeting. AAAGGGHHH! Not my idea of a fun Sunday afternoon:) We were able to play outside and I brought Pavlos' newest game, Hullabaloo, and the kids loved playing it (it was a birthday present from yiayia and pappous).

Petros is now three months old. I cannot believe it. Pavlos went to his 4 year check up and we also weighed Petros... he's now up to 9lbs 7 ozs. Way to go!!! He is smiling a lot and making lots of cute baby cooing noises. Pavlos is a hefty (lol) 28.5 lbs.

I have started reading again. Finally have a little time to do that. I read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Oh Susanna by Kate Wilhelm (thanks, Kiera). Shadow of the Wind is kind of like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez book (are my sister and I the only people who like Love in the Time of Cholera better than One Hundred Years of Solitude? Just curious). The Wilhelm book was funny and entertaining and easy:) I have finally gone on line to the library to request some books to read.

Last night, I recorded the season finale of 24 so I could watch the DVD of Pride and Prejudice which we rented. After having seen the mini-series P&P numerous times and also reading the book many times, the movie went so quickly! It has beautiful scenery, wonderful editing, it flows nicely, beautiful score, but it just gets through the story so fast. If I had never seen the mini-series, I probably would have like it better... although I do like the movie, too... maybe it would be good to own for those times when I would like to watch P& P but just don't have the time to sit through the whole mini-series?!?! So tonight we will watch the season finale of 24... will Jack make it (of course, he does, Kiefer Sutherland has signed a new, three season contract). Will the president be exposed for the lying slimeball he is?

Ok, that's enough rambling from me... have to go work on baptism invitations (if you are a member of St. John's you will not be receiving an invite to the baptism as we are inviting the whole parish... but please, let me know if you can make it so we can plan on how much food to make:)

Save the Date... and if you aren't tired of the davinci code already, here are some links:)

Sr. Magdalen (the link on her name is to the monastery where she lives in England), author of "Children in the Church Today" and "Conversations with Children" (both excellent books if you haven't read them) will be the speaker at the St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church Annual Fall Women's Retreat. The retreat will be the weekend of October 13-15 here in Portland, OR. Just giving you all a heads up (since most of my five readers of this blog live in the Pacific NW). I am very excited to meet her!

On a completely different note... a priest friend of mine sent me the following links regarding the DaVinci code movie (and book, for that matter) and the gospel of Judas. These are websites that have been developed through the Greek Archdiocese. Mind you, I haven't checked out these sites, yet, just passing the info. on from a reliable/trustworthy source. And, on a side note, who has read the DaVinci Code? I did, and thought that it wasn't that well written of a story, aside from all the historical inaccuracies:)

Oops... happy birthday pavlos, update:)

Me and my sleep deprived brain forgot to add two things to my little happy birthday pavlos blog entry... First, Pavlos was and always will be my greatest mother's day gift... he was born Saturday evening, the day before Mother's Day!!! And second, I need to change the description of my blog... Pavlos is not 3 and he really doesn't say, "uhm" anymore like he used to... i will keep the title of the blog, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the description... thanks:)

Happy Birthday, Pavlos!!!

Pavlos is four today. Our first miracle baby. He's my little boy blue eyes:) He's loud, silly, and loves to sing and dance and play (especially with his little people). I cannot believe it's been four years... how much he has changed and grown up (especially in the last few months). We are celebrating his birthday party on Sunday afternoon (his cousins are coming down from the Seattle area and his god-parents will be over), but tonight, yiayia and pappous are coming over for some pizza and hot fudge sundaes (Pavlos' favorite foods). Happy Birthday, Pavlos, and May God grant you many, many years!!!

Pain-free visit to the dentist...

I went to the dentist today to have some long overdue dental work done. The dentist had to numb both sides of my mouth. When he inserted the needle, he said, "you will feel a pinch." I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. My body was poked and prodded so many times while in the hospital, I have developed a new level of pain tolerance! Whenever I have bloodwork done, it feels like nothing. No pinch, no poke, no feeling at all.

Baptism...

Petros' baptism will be on Saturday, June 10, time to be determined (most likely around 11am). If you would like to come or are in the area, please email me and I will keep you posted and send directions. The reception will be at my parents home in Vancouver, WA. We are very excited!!!

My email address is cdblankenstein[at]hotmail[dot]com.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that the baptism will be at St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church in Portland, OR:)

Holy Week, Pascha, and after...

I know that I have not posted in quite a while... I've been busy:) Petros had his two month appt. last week, you can read about that here. Maintaining two blogs at the same time can be difficult and tricky... I have to figure out where I am going with these two blogs, if I'm going anywhere!

Holy Week was beautiful and busy. I did not attend all of the services, but Paul and I rotated on a few services so that each of us could at least go to one service without children. We all went to Sunday evening bridegroom service. My mother in law and I went to the Monday bridegroom service. Then we all went to the Tuesday evening service because our Metropolitan Gerasimos made his first pastoral visit to our community. He seemed very genuine. Pavlos had a little "encounter" with him... Metropiltan Gerasimos tried to give him a flower but Pavlos became a little afraid so Paul picked him up to take him to the Metropolitan, but Metropolitan Gerasimos told Paul that it was ok and to not "force" Pavlos to go to him.

We all went on Holy Wednesday evening for Holy Unction. Let's just say that I spent the entire service outside of the service because Petros was really, really fussy! He cried almost through the entire service, poor guy. Thursday morning, Petros and I went to Liturgy and Paul was going to go to the Thursday evening service, but ended up taking his mother to urgency care because she thought she was getting bronchitis. Turns out she might have asthma!

Holy Friday was our Youth Retreat which Carrie and I ended up being "in charge of" because we are the Sunday School co-directors (I majorly stressed about the retreat but it turned out really well). And Friday evening was Pavlos' turn to have a meltdown in church so we ended up leaving the service early (after the procession). Saturday morning, Paul went to church and I took the kids to my parents home for an Easter egg hunt with their cousins (although Petros didn't really participate). And I didn't go to the evening service as I thought that I would really not get any sleep at all, even after the service, because the baby would still wake up for feedings, etc. So Paul took his mom and Pavlos to church. But we all went to Agape vespers on Sunday morning (minus Paul's mom because she wasn't feeling well) and then, the Pascha picnic at church where they roasted two lambs! Yummy! Very exciting Holy Week and Pascha! Christos Anesti!

This past Sunday, we were privileged to become god-parents to baby Athanasios. May God grant him many years! And we have god-parents for baby Petros so now we have to plan his baptism!

We are so busy... and then this weekend two friends of mine from high school will be in town and they are coming over for lunch on Saturday. Then we have a fundraising dinner at church on Sunday evening (complete with Greek dancing... woohoo!). We spent last Saturday planting flowers in our yard. And Paul bought a swingset kit to build Pavlos (and Petros) a swingset with slide in our backyard (a birthday gift to Pavlos from grandma). OH, so that means that Pavlos will have his birthday in 9 days... he will be 4 years old:)

Please keep Katina (Ekaterini) in your prayers. She reposed yesterday. I lived with her for a year in San Diego, CA when I was volunteering with Project Mexico. May her memory be eternal!

Sorry for the randomness of this entry... I will attempt something with more depth later on:)

Bridegroom Services or Famous Quotations of Pavlos...

Sunday evening, when we went to venerate the icon of the bridegroom, Pavlos said, "Jesus has an owie." Now, every service since then, he repeats, "Jesus has an owie." Last night, we were in the narthex and there is another icon of the bridegroom and Pavlos just stood in front of it, staring. There was a line beginning to form behind him and he just stood there, staring. I had to force him to move on because of the line up of people waiting to venerate the icon and proceed into church.

Second famous quotation... a catechumen was baptized on Saturday of Lazarus. As he was receiving his first communion, Pavlos wanted to know, "when is it my turn to receive Holy Communion?" Nevermind that we had just finished Liturgy for Saturday of Lazarus... he also thinks that every service in the church should involve communion...

Have a blessed Holy Week!

Church Sign...

Driving Pavlos to school, we pass a number of Protestant churches that have signs they are constantly changing... most are cheesy quotes or catch phrases or puns. Yesterday we saw the following on a sign...

Body piercing saved my life!

Uhm, yeah, ok. Wonder if that will increase search engine hits to my blog:)

Coffee and Cigarettes... (A Post on both Blogs)

It is one of those rare moments when everyone in the house is napping (except me). I drank a little too much coffee to take a nap right now.

My very good friend Maria, who I've mentioned in my blog before (and, everyone, she is a total Rock Star, by the way), gave me one of those Ipods that hold about 10 CD's. It was a life saver in the hospital. After the nurses would wake me up at 3am to check vital signs (yes, I am alive, please let me get some sleep) I sometimes would not be able to fall back to sleep. So, I'd turn on my Ipod and listen to chanting or music and would then be able to fall asleep. And then there were times in the afternoon when I just couldn't read anything and watching TV would about drive me crazy... I would turn on my music and just lay back and listen. Rob/Paul uploaded about 5 CD's onto it for me to listen to in the hospital. He even put on two U2 CD's (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and the greatest hits 1990-2000). Ok, so I haven't spent a lot of time listening to the greatest hits CD... I really think that the 90's were not u2's greatest time period... they are sounding much better now. But two lines from two different songs have stuck with me...

From Electrical Storm (and this has to do with my sudden fall back into the world of caffeine (I had been caffeine free for 2 1/2 years... but lack of sleep will drive even the strongest of us to fall into the depths of caffeine use))... and this is really just one line from the song so here goes:
Coffee is cold, but it'll get you through...
OK, this totally applies to me now. I actually will drink cold coffee... because, hey, it's caffeine and it will "get me through" the day, the next hour, the next ten minutes. I need that added buzz to get myself going:)

From Stay (Far Away, So Close)... this has to do with my earlier post regarding cigarettes and times when I feel like I just need to smoke. I don't feel like I need to smoke right now... I think I can handle only one "drug" at a time and caffeine is it for now:)
Green light, seven eleven
You stop in for a pack of cigarettes
You don’t smoke, don’t even want to
I see you check your change
The whole idea of not smoking and, yet, buying a pack of cigarettes... although, in my post on smoking, I was writing about WANTING to smoke a cigarette, but knowing that I won't, ever. Maybe I can change the lyrics... Just kidding... wouldn't tough U2's lyrics with a ten foot pole:)

So, this post is not really that profound or that interesting. My forty days ends this Sunday. So Baby Petros and I will be going to church on Sunday. I have been trying to take this 40 days seriously since Petros has come home... he has only left the house to go to doc. appt. That's it. I'm starting to feel a bit of cabing fever... but I know that it is better for him (and probably better for me, too) to stay home. We have had a difficult few months. Go here to read about it, if you want. And I haven't decided if I'm going to blog here or on my other blog which is why I posted this on both blogs.

hagia sophia... check it out...

This is worthy of linking to... please pass this along on your blogs or through email."The European Union Parliament is pressuring the Turkish Government to restore Saint Sophia Cathedral from a museum into a Greek Orthodox Church. However the Parliament has set a requirement of 1.000.000 signatures on a petition before it makes this conversation a prerequisite for Turkey's admission into the European Union. You are requested to cast your vote by logging on to a link at www.hagiasophiablog.com. This is an opportunity for each of you to have an impact on world events. Get as many Greek Orthodox, other Orthodox and Christian friends of yours to sign the petition and make history."

New blog to keep people informed of my health stuff...

Ok, so I created a new blog to keep everyone informed. Hopefully, I will post to it everyday. Not sure if I am going to post to this blog in the meantime. New blog is at cblankenstein.blogspot.com. Feel free to pass this on to people who might be interested or are praying for us!

Thanks....Christina

Guess What, Again?

So I'm in the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy. I just finished up another blood transfusion, baby's kicking a lot right now. When they give me a blood transfusion they also give me an IV dose of benadryl to help in case I have a bad reaction to the transfusion. That makes me a lot loopy and a lot tired. But we are finished with this one, for now (please excuse my typing, spellilng errors, or anything like that... blame it all on the benadryl).

I was able to meet Presv. Elizabeth the other day. It was so nice to finally see her in person instead of just through cyberspace. A woman from church came by today and decorated my room a little for me. It now looks much more cheerful, cozy, as if someone actually lived here. Pavlos continues to poop on the potty. I am so proud of my little man. And hopefully my mom can get him enrolled into some sort of preschool or activity to help him have more in his life than just visiting his mommy in the hospital.

I am very thankful that they are keeping. I feel better knowing that both myself and the baby are being watched very closely. Still lots of up in the air things going on with my treatment. Will try to keep you posted (Paul bought me and antenna for the laptop and now I have great internet service in my room). Please contintue to pray for us.

Guess What?

I'm back in the hospital again. Hopefully for just tonight (Monday). I am right now waiting for them to give me another blood transfusion and another IV immuno globulin. I'll keep you posted, of course....