Changed Plans

This past week was going to be awesome. It was going to include scoring tons of adorable baby clothes at a fantastic price, dinner with one of my best friends and her husband, a baby shower, a visit from a friend from Jr. High and then a trip to the zoo. At least that was the plan...until I threw out my back hours before the baby clothes sale. It was bad. I could barely walk.

So instead my week was spent alternating between lying down and walking around, and disappointing a 16-month-old that kept running up to mommy, expecting to be held. Needless to say, I was disappointed too.

I don't know why this happened this weekend instead of one where I didn't have any plans. But I thought it might help to make a list of the positive things about the situation:

Nothing Extremely Profound

Well, it's been almost 7 months since I've updated this blog. It's funny, because the longer I wait to update, the more pressure I feel to write something really profound. But in the end, I usually just start typing and letting my stream of consciousness come out. And because I still have a tendency to fight bedtime, this usually happens when I'm tired and should be going to bed. Anyway...

7 months. Even though it's gone by quickly, when you live with a toddler, 7 months is a long time. It's the difference between struggling to maneuver your body to reach a toy that's just out of reach and running around the house, giggling as Mommy or Daddy chases you. Or being able to clearly communicate what you're curious about, excited by or want to have, even though words are limited to a single consonant and vowel.

Despite times I wish I could just leave her lying on a blanket or move something out of sight so she'd forget about it, I absolutely love this age! It's so much fun to be able to interact with her and catch a glimpse of what's going on in her head, like when she references a song we were singing earlier or starts pretend playing. Needless to say, I'm still really enjoying being a mom!

Okay, as a side note, as soon as I wrote that last sentence guess who woke up and started crying for me, reminding me that even "my time" isn't my own. Perfect timing, as usual :)

Anyway, I feel like we're in one of those moments where everything is perfect. Or at least as perfect as it can be. Of course there are days I feel drained or moments I get frustrated that someone isn't cooperating, but for the time being we're in a good place. I have no idea what's coming up next, so I may as well enjoy where we are now, right?

So besides having fun with our 16-month-old, what else is going on?

• Work is going well. I've especially been enjoying recording my first vlogs (video blogs). You can see some of them here, and make sure you check back on Monday. I'm really happy with how that one turned out. I'm also excited about a new account I just started working on. It's still in the very early stages, but once I can tell you more about it I will.
• Matt's job is going well too. His schedule has been working well with balancing against mine, meaning we're still fortunate that we don't need to worry about childcare. Even when his schedule switches around in the summer, we can still make it work without needing to totally change my schedule.
• And although our schedule is somewhat busy with the whole work and parenting thing, we've been able to find time for family nights, socializing with friends and occasional date nights, too. I think that's one big thing that's been particularly helpful for us.
• We're also still very active at church. It's so fun to see how comfortable the little girl has gotten. The last few weeks she hasn't even complained when I've dropped her off in her class! Hopefully that will continue, although I expect it will take some adjusting when she moves up to the next class in May (once she's 18 months).

So I guess that's all I have for now. I should probably head to bed - I do need to be up in 5 and a half hours. But I'm excited to see what comes next and think this summer will be really fun, with trips to the park, friends and family visiting, vacation in California for a week, etc.

On that note, here are a few pictures. Good night!

 

9 Months In...

There are moments when I can't believe my little baby is already 9 months old. When I think about how much she can already do compared with, well, 9 months ago she seems so big! But then at the same time I know we're just starting out and there's so much to this motherhood thing I'm still clueless about.

Sometimes when I think about what's coming, I start to get overwhelmed and have no idea how I'm going to handle the future, like:

• Having another one or two (which is hopefully still a ways down the road) on top of everything else going on.
• Actually needing to discipline, beyond the simple foundational things you can do with a 9-month-old.
• Balancing the desire to give her everything she wants with the knowledge that it's better she doesn't get it all, and picking and choosing which "wants" we let her have.
• How life will change and she gets older and starts walking, talking, expressing her opinions more clearly and often, going to school, choosing friends, learning how to deal with peers, experiencing pain...
• Knowing when to push her towards the edge of the nest and when to pull her back and protect her.
• Preparing her to be the woman God wants her to be.

Of course I could go on, but I don't want to get too overwhelmed here...

As a list-maker, I thought a list of things I've learned first-hand would help calm me down:

• Maternal instincts definitely exist and kick-in when necessary.
• A lot of this motherhood thing is doing your best and counting on God for the rest.
• God gives us the kids we get for a reason. Yes, sometimes it's a challenge when my little night owl fights bedtime and naps (and I'm sure that's a battle we'll be fighting for years), but in talking to friends about their babies, I'd take that over their kids' personality quirks, and I'm sure it's vice versa too.
• There's no one right way to do things. Experts tell you conflicting things all the time, from how warmly to dress your baby to whether or not they sleep in your bed with you. Figure out what works for you and go with it.
• Moms come in all different shapes, sizes and personalities. Comparing yourself to other moms will only make you feel bad about yourself and self-conscious. Yes, you can always be a better mother, but play to your strengths and get help in areas you aren't as good at. 
• Life is in constant flux, but the changes come little by little so that by the time you reach the next milestone you're a little more prepared.
• 9 months ago I barely knew anything about babies. Now I know how to feed her, play with her, encourage her, soothe her, tell the difference between her cries...
• I'm not alone in this. In addition to each other, Matt and I have a lot of friends and family we know we can count on for advice, help, etc. Plus, you know, the whole God's hand being in everything thing :)

Yes, the last 9 months have been the hardest of my life. But I absolutely love where we are right now and am excited for what the future holds!

The Past 4 Months With a Baby

Well, it's been about 4 months, so I guess it's time for another blog post. As hard as it is sometimes, I absolutely love our life with a baby. Not so much in the middle of the night when she refuses to sleep in her crib. Or when I start to feel trapped, like I can't do anything I want to do. Oh, and the days when we're both exhausted aren't so fun. But I have a very understanding husband, an extremely flexible boss and all sorts of helpful advice from family and friends. Plus our little girl is so worth all of it!

Here are a few highlights from the past four months:

Dedication - In addition to having the opportunity to stand up and ask our church family to both hold us accountable and help us raise our daughter to know God (on Matt's first Father's Day, by the way), this was a fun chance to see family. My parents came up from California for a week, and Matt's parents are still in town so we'll get to see them for a few days later this week.

Matt's first Father's Day :)

Date night! Twice! - Over the last couple of months we got to go on two dates! Someone didn't seem to like the idea of us leaving her for a few hours the first time, which meant I didn't get to see all of Star Trek, but a nice relaxing dinner was more than enough for me! Plus I was able to leave her with Matt and go see the whole movie the next day. The second time she did a great job, and we made it all the way through lunch (below) and Man of Steel. 

Common Ground - While my parents were in town, Common Ground was on tour, so we got to go see them up in Kent. In addition to seeing my brother, it was fun to see the show and our friends that are involved as leaders.

California for my grandpa's 100th birthday - My grandpa turned 100! So we hopped on a plane for the weekend and attempted our first trip to California. Overall it was a success and traveling with a 4 month old wasn't so bad. We'll see how traveling with a 9 month old is during our next trip (I think that's how old she'll be?) Anyway, I totally spaced and didn't get any pictures with my grandpa (although other people did - they just haven't shared them with me yet), but here we are with my mom, grandma and aunt:

The church nursery - The baby has started hanging out in the church nursery on Sundays. Of the three times I left her there, she made it all the way through one service and a decent chunk of time through the other two. It's amazing how getting to listen to an entire sermon is such a treat :)

Visiting Portland - We had the opportunity to head down to Portland to visit Matt's sister and our awesome nephew a few weeks ago. We had a great time hanging out, scouring through Powell's books for board books and eating (a trip to Portland just isn't complete without delicious food).

Visiting Friends - We've had a couple of friends come and visit! One of my friends from college came down from Seattle for about half a day to catch up and hang out for a while, and another friend from California (who now lives in WA) came up to visit for a couple of days.

I think those are the main highlights for now. I'm probably forgetting something, but that's what happens when you're trying to remember everything off the top of your head while a baby sleeps on your lap. I have to say though, all in all things are going pretty well!

Happy New Year!

Ok, I know January is almost over, but blogging hasn't been quite as much of a priority lately (shocking, I know). Life has been busy, what with having a two month old that needs feeding, cleaning and interaction, both of us working (I went back earlier this month) and maintaining a household - or even just getting food cooked, putting dishes away and washing laundry. I seriously am amazed by single moms that are able to do it all, because with two adults we're still working on getting a system down that works.

Every once in a while it's nice to have some time to each do our own things, though. At the moment the baby is napping (I expect she'll wake up and eat some more before going to sleep for the night), the husband is playing video games and I'm spending time playing on the computer. I've found I have a lot of time to browse Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. on my phone, but finding time to sit down at the computer is a lot harder.

All in all, life with a baby is going well. Yes, I need to find time to work at odd hours throughout the week, but my boss is amazing with all the flexibility she's giving me. Our daughter is pretty awesome. She's got the smiling down and has started laughing once in a while. It's super cute! I know, I'm biased, but my baby is so incredible. You have no idea (and I'm sure I'm the only mother that feels that way about her kids - haha).

I have found that with nursing I have a lot more time to watch TV. This means I've gotten into many more shows. In addition to Castle and Bones, I've started watching Ellen and the Price is Right (although it's not the same without Bob Barker). I also went through a few shows on Netflix's Instant Queue (Sherlock, White Collar, Once Upon a Time and Parenthood), but sadly Netflix only goes so far and I don't want to just jump into the current seasons in the middle. Maybe I'll have a chance to catch up at some point...? I am excited I just borrowed the second season of Downton Abbey from a friend; I'm sure I'll enjoy that over the next few weeks.

In addition to watching TV, I've been trying to learn how to be semi-productive during the day. I decided it's a good day if I can get at least one full chore done while the husband is at work, such as folding the laundry or loading the dishwasher. I'm optimistic I'll be able to bump that up as time goes on, but I'm taking the small victories (a month ago, I couldn't even do one chore during the day).

Hmm...I can't really think of much else to write at this point. Obviously my life has become all about the child, which I think is appropriate for me, but probably not quite as fascinating for you. Plus she's starting to stir so she'll probably decided she wants to eat soon (at least, I hope she wakes up soon so we're not up too late tonight!). So on that note, have a good one!

Crazy, But Good Crazy

We have now officially moved into our new house! The last several weeks have been crazy, so I'm excited that we've started getting back into our regular rhythm over the last couple of days. But things were crazy a few weeks ago for several reasons (all of them good):

• A lot of paperwork had to be collected and signed to get our house.
• We made time for a quick trip down to Portland to see Wicked!
• Within one weekend (actually, it was Easter weekend) we painted six different rooms in our house and moved everything in (a BIG thanks to everyone that came and helped - we couldn't have done it without them!)
• We hired 3 new people at work and I did training with them last week. I'm super excited the team's expanded, though, and all 3 of them are doing a great job!

It's amazing how much calmer I've felt over the last few days. I mean, I wouldn't say I was exactly stressed a few weeks (or even a week) ago, but more...overwhelmed? That doesn't seem like the right word either. 

I know this is a short update, but I don't really have much else to include at the moment. I'll leave you with the hallway in our master bedroom (perfect for my solo dance parties!):

This Month's Update

Warning: This post will be rambly. I just haven't felt like updating my blog recently. One big reason is once I get done with work I just don't want to be on a computer anymore. And blogging without a computer is kind of difficult. We've also been busy enough that when I do have downtime, I just want to veg out and turn my brain off for a while.

Big news in our life? Well, a few weeks ago we put an offer on a house! It was accepted and everything seems to be underway to close towards the end of the month. I'm excited to paint its rooms different colors (I've wanted to paint our apartment for a year, but that's not really allowed). The way the timing will work, it looks like we'll have our apartment for a couple months of overlap, too, so we'll be able to take our time moving out without a lot of stress. Yay for that :)

What else has been going on...? We went to a conference with our high schoolers earlier this month and learned about prayer. It was lots of fun! We also saw the Hunger Games twice this weekend: Thursday night at midnight and Friday night. I really enjoyed it. Yes, the book is way better, and there were a few things I would have done a little bit differently, but I thought they did a good job of capturing the book on film. Since the book is written completely from Katniss' point of view, it made parts of the story hard to capture (or at least her thought process and how she feels about things). Overall it was great, though!

Oh, and I wanted to mention my grandpa turned 99 this month! I was a little sad we weren't able to make it to his birthday party, but I did get to talk to him on the phone and it sounds like he had a good time :)

On that note, I'm calling it a night. Good night!

A Stream of Thought

Apparently this is one of those nights where I stay up instead of going to sleep. No, I won't make it to crew in the morning; 3 hours isn't enough sleep for me. Although at this rate I still might not get a full night.

I'm doing pretty well with my goal of at least one blog post per month. I know I don't have the most readers, but I still enjoy writing every once in a while, even if it's about nothing in particular. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have a couple of loyal readers that will read almost anything I write - my parents are dependable like that ;)

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, we've been pretty busy the last couple of months. Work has been insanely busy. The good part is we've been having a lot more clients come in. The challenging part is simply getting everything done. We did bring someone new in a few months ago, and she's been working amazing. That definitely helps!

But besides work, December is just always busy with getting ready for vacation, visiting friends/family in California (we had a blast, by the way), and then returning from time off. I feel like I'm finally starting to get a handle on things again - more than a week after getting home. Is that normal?

The good news is I've realized my priorities have totally shifted in a good way. I'm giving God the credit for that one, by the way. While we were in California I started seriously consider if I'd be able to make it back to crew after about 3 months off this past fall. I decided I wanted to do it, and despite being swamped with playing catch up, I've been able to make it to practice twice so far! Yes, I'm skipping tomorrow to give myself a few more hours of sleep, but I'm confident I'll be back on Saturday.

With spending more time working, adding crew back in, and taking care of various other tasks (weekly events with church, writing newsletters for a couple of different organizations in my free time, etc), I started trying to figure out what I would let go. As it turns out, that's a decision God seemed to make for me. I've lost pretty much all motivation to keep up with TV shows. Don't get me wrong, I still like my shows, but I'm not driven to watch them the same way. I'm happy to just wait and get to it if I get to it. Instead I'd rather spend the time doing things around the apartment, reading a book, hanging out with Matt or going out with friends. I'm still me, though. I seem to find ways to keep myself busy that don't include doing the dishes, housework, etc. Go figure.

We'll see if this shift in priorities lasts. I'm enjoying it while it does, though. I recently found a cute new photo album and printed out pictures from when we moved to Washington in 2009 to this past trip to California, and I'm almost done putting it together. I've also been wanting to eat food at home that's more healthy, although I haven't wanted to cook anything for a long time. It's more convenient if the healthy eating goes with a cooking phase...

40 Days

My church is doing the 40 Days of Purpose right now. I have to say I was intrigued by it when they did it at the church I grew up at back when it was really popular, but I was in college at the time and when they actually started going through it I happened to be studying abroad in Norway. I did get really excited when I saw a 40 Days of Purpose poster outside a church in Hamar, though!

So I was excited to hear my church was going to do the series. I also thought this might serve as a good time to reign in my sweet tooth, so while we go through the series I'm not eating any desserts. I figured 40 days is a good amount of time to let my body get used to less sugar, and this is an easy way to keep track of how long 40 days is. I have to say, a week in and it's really tough! I know the first week is the hardest and then I'll get used to it, but it seems like all I want is chocolate, cake, chocolate cake, cookies...I think I already would've broken down if it wasn't for Matt holding me to it.

Despite the not eating desserts, I've been enjoying the series so far. We're even hosting a mid-week small group for it, which is exciting as well. I really enjoyed our first meeting this week. It was fun to hang out with a couple of friends we've known for a little while and get to know a couple of new friends, too. Plus, in addition to our small group, we're going through the study with the youth - so Matt and I are going to know the material well!

Anyway, I'm excited to see where the rest of the 40 days go. On that note, I'm going to go eat a pear.

Recent Life Updates

I just realized I've posted more posts this year than last year...and it's not even September yet! Just a quick update on my life and random thoughts recently:

• We've started on going for evening walks. I don't know why, but this makes me feel like a grownup. Maybe because it seemed like there were always adults going for walks around dinner time in my neighborhood growing up?
• Last weekend our church had a baptism service at Black Lake. The weather was actually warm enough to play in the lake afterwards, too. Here are a few pictures I took:

• We saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes earlier this week. It was pretty good. By the end I was emotionally attached to the main ape (Caesar) and the main character.
• The other day I tried an ice cream substitute made out of coconut milk. It was really good! I'm excited to try their other flavors 
• This weekend looks like it will be a good one! Here are a few things I'm looking forward to (in no particular order) 
1. The Garlic Festival in Chehalis is this weekend.
2. Blackberry Blast this Sunday at church.
3. AND My mother-in-law is coming up to visit!

A Much-Needed Update

I know I've been completely ignoring my blog lately and it's been over two months. I've been meaning to post for weeks, but unfortunately haven't found the time. Here are a few quick updates, until I have a chance to really expand on my thoughts:

Matt and I got cell phones! I now have an HTC Driod Eris and completely love it. Last night I finally personalized a bit and made the Firefly theme my ringtone =D I missed having a cell phone during those months we didn't have them. Now with my smart phone I can use Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and Google Calendar right from my phone. I've also gotten into Foursquare and Yelp, too! My new challenge: creating boundaries for embracing social media and being connected online vs shutting it off and being connected with people face-to-face. The good part about that is Matt has no problem telling me it's time to put the phone down.

Side note on Yelp: it's been especially useful in discovering local places to check out. Last week we found a Mediterranean restaurant with Delicious gyros and reasonable prices. Win!

My new favorite board game = Talisman. Our friend Josh introduced us to it, and it's really fun! It's kind of like Dungeons & Dragons, but it's a board game and limited to a few hours (I don't have the attention span to actually play D&D, although I'm not opposed to the concept). We've played it twice so far, and both times were great - except for that part where I was turned into a toad...

It's fun using work skills for personal interests. I'm really excited that I get to help out with marketing at church and use skills I've learned for work to get the word out about Life Pointe. As with all marketing, it takes time, so we've put together a strategy that uses more of a slow and steady approach, but I've been having fun exploring options, and am excited to see how everything unfolds over the next year.

Okay, I know there is a lot more to say, but I also know it's getting late and I should start thinking about going to sleep...I'll try to update more regularly, though, and will include more in my next post.

Puzzle, Pizza and Playing

I finished the jigsaw puzzle! After I'd given up, I wasn't ready to put what I'd done away and Matt started working on it. His progress inspired me to give it another shot and, after a couple of days, we placed the final pieces. Yay for teamwork =) Sadly there was a piece missing even though it was brand new. Oh well, if we'd had it, we would have known where to put it. Here's the completed puzzle:

Every once in a while I crave BLT pizza from Peppe's Pizza (a restaurant I thouroughly enjoyed in Norway). This afternoon we ate at Brewery City Pizza, and I was delighted to discover that their Cool Ranch Chicken was reminiscent of the delicious flavor. Plus the crust on their pizza is amazing. I could really go for some more...

Today was fun! After pizza we hung out at the apartment with a couple of new friends and played Nine Card, a version of Skip-Bo (I won twice, thrice if you count our warm up), and Munchkin, a card game that "captures the essence of the dungeon experience...with none of that roleplaying stuff." I have to say, I personally have nothing against Dungeons & Dragons...it's just not my cup of tea. This game was really fun, though! It took me a while to get the hang of it so I'm eager to give it another try sometime soon. It reminded Matt and me a bit of Quelf, though - especially with the random cards that were really funny.

All in all, we both feel like we're settling into Lacey very nicely. It was fun to connect with a couple of people from church this afternoon, and they live pretty close - that will be nice. I'm also really excited about everything in our apartment being set up, including the pictures on the walls and all our stuff having a home. It's crazy how much more relaxed I feel when there aren't boxes all over and I don't see things that need doing as I look around. Now Matt's Xbox just needs to return from it's journey to Texas and we can enjoy watching DVDs and playing Rock Band again!

Puzzles, Pillsbury and Pictures

I'm not a jigsaw puzzle person. Amazingly enough, I felt like doing a puzzle earlier tonight so I pulled the one I hadn't done yet out of the closet to put it together. It actually entertained me for about 2 hours...and then I couldn't handle it anymore. It didn't help that one of the side pieces is missing. Don't you hate that? It was a brand new puzzle out of the box and there was one side piece missing. Grrr. Anyway, 500 pieces is too much for me...I should stick to the puzzles with bigger and fewer pieces.

You know what I do find relaxing? Baking. After going to the gym 5 days in a row, I felt like I was able to justify baking cookies, so I mixed up the Pillsbury funfetti cookie mix I received for Christmas - which was done much more easily with my brand new hand mixer (also a Christmas present). This was especially nice because my arms were already tired from the gym, so I really didn't need the extra workout for my right arm. I thought we did a good job of spacing the cookie-eating out over a couple of days, too, so we didn't gorge ourselves too much. We should probably reinstate the "no baked goods unless we have someone to share it with" rule, but as we don't know many people in our new town, I have no idea when I would get to bake again...and it's just so fun! If only I had self-cleaning mixing bowls and baking pans, too...

I must say, now that our apartment is 95% complete (all we have left is hanging a couple pictures in the bedroom, although we did put some up in the living and dining room), I feel very accomplished. Within a week, we made more progress than we did in Bremerton (we never got around to hanging our pictures up). It's amazing how a little extra space and a better laid-out floor plan can help. It's kind of fun to move into a new place and reorganize everything again...although I'd like to hold off on moving again for at least a year or two if possible =)

Christmas, New Year's and the Move

It’s been a super-long time since I’ve posted anything. Things have been busy! We decided to move to Lacey on November 30 and got our new apartment December 1. After two weeks of shuttling our smaller stuff down to our new place, we rented a truck for our bigger furniture and loaded/unloaded it (with a HUGE thanks to those that were able to help). The day after we moved the big stuff down, Comcast came to set up our Internet and phone, and we drove down to California for three weeks.

While we were in California, we had a great time celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with family and a few friends. I have a lot to say about the last month, so I’ll break it into chunks for your skimming convenience ;)

Dead Laptop
Isbjorn, my most recent laptop, died this past month. Apparently computers don’t work when they can’t find the hard drive. Despite the frustration, a part of him lives on in Matt’s laptop as the battery was able to replace his broken energy source.

Joe’s Crab Shack
If you have a chance to go to a Joe's Crab Shack, I definitely recommend it! We went to the one in San Francisco with a few friends even though I can’t eat crab or shellfish. Their burger was good, though, and the servers dance. Ours even got up on the table to get her groove on! She also convinced half our table to get up and dance with her (and the other servers).

Family Events
We had a great time seeing family for a variety of Christmas activities including:

• Christmas Breakfast at the Claremont Hotel with Matt’s family.
• Decorating Matt’s parent’s Christmas tree to the Oak Ridge Boys.
• Christmas Eve with my family.
• Christmas day with Matt’s family.
• Indonesian Chicken Curry in Woodland with my family.
• Disneyland with my family.
• Traveling through Redding and Portland to see Matt’s grandparents and Moses (our nephew), Cara and Dustin (his parents). Okay, that’s not really Christmas...but it was fun.

Other Fun Stuff
Here are the other exciting activities we were able to experience while we were in California:

• We had a chance to see a few friends in the area that timing worked out with. Activities included Spades (yay team Women!), hanging out in San Francisco, various dinners and watching movies.
• We saw Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. I really liked Avatar, even though I’m not a huge fan of 3-D. I actually forgot it was 3-D while I was watching it. Sherlock Holmes was fun, too, although it wasn’t the best movie ever. I would recommend renting it instead of spending the money on a movie ticket.
• The Browns won the last four games of the season! Even though it was a rough year, ending on a good note was nice.
• We got a free cake for our 1st anniversary! The baker that made our wedding cake included one free cake for the first anniversary, and she agreed that it would be easier to pick it up a month late instead of shipping it to Washington. As we expected, it tasted delicious =)
  

Disneyland
Just for the record, Disneyland is really busy on New Year’s Eve. I’ve never seen lines that long. Especially in the ladies’ room. I really appreciated that Disney knows how to handle crowds, so we were able to get where we wanted to go. That was very convenient. A few more comments about this trip to Disneyland:

• The new dragon in Fantasmic! looks really cool. WAY better than the first one.
• Certain foods just taste better at Disneyland. Like churros. And corn dogs. I’m pretty sure Dole Whip tastes good everywhere, but I’ve only had it at Disneyland so I can’t be sure.
• If you lose an Indiana Jones hat on Grizzly River Run, there is a chance you’ll get it back. It just might not look the same. Chris’ hat decided our raft wasn’t good enough for it and jumped out on a drop...and then sat in the water for a while before Disney mailed it back. Sadly I haven’t seen the recovered hat, but I can’t wait for pictures (hint, hint Chris)!
• Disney’s merchandise this year is really cute! I was very proud of myself for not giving in to temptation and buying something.
• I won a Dumbo! The boardwalk area of California Adventure was completely re-themed to include Disney prizes. We played the clowns running up the ladder game (where the water shoots out of the cannon and you hit the target to make them go) and I won =)

Our New Apartment
We love it! Not only is it bigger than our last place and include a pool, hot tub, gym, sauna, etc...the rent is the same price! As much as I love that there’s a gym on-site, that also means I have no excuses not to use the gym on site. We’ve been really good about going over the past week. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it up!

We’re also almost completely set up. We have a few more pictures to hang up and need to find spots for a few more items, but all in all it’s starting to feel like home. It’s nice how quickly we were able to get settled. So far the only thing I don’t like about the apartment is the lack of counter space – both for cooking and for stacking dirty dishes. Haha.

Of course, I can't possibly include an entire 3 weeks that were full of activities into one blog post, but that's pretty much the gist of what's been going on in our lives lately.

We're Moving!

That's right, we're moving again. It's kind of funny, I've lived in 4 different cities within 13 months. Haha. So the scoop is that there is a church in the Olympia area that said they'd be happy to have Matt help out, and while we were trying to decide whether or not this was God guiding us to move, Matt found an apartment in the area that was having a great deal on a complex that was much nicer than we expected to find. We applied a couple of days ago (on our way back up from Thanksgiving in Portland) and just found out that as of today the apartment is ours. We took that, in addition to a couple of other instances of convenient timing, as God making his direction a little more clear for us. We have a little bit overlap with our current place which will make moving a bit easier, too.

Thanksgiving was great! We headed down to Portland where Matt's sister and brother-in-law live with their son - the cutest nephew I've ever had and my current favorite (above with Matt, below with Matt's parents). Matt's parents and brother also drove up from California, so it was fun to get to see them, too. The food was delicious, and we had a great time hanging out, shopping, playing Apples to Apples and watching The Fantastic Mr. Fox. 

And, just for fun, here are couple of links. Enjoy!

• The Geekiest Wedding Cakes EVER - http://is.gd/59GHU (my favorites are the TaunTaun Cake and the Star Trek Cake).
• The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody - http://bit.ly/800ulO.
• A cool way of making music - http://tinyurl.com/cqkc8l.
  

Life Then vs. Now + What Change Means to Me

Happy October! It's weird to think that Matt and I have been living in Washington for almost 3 months already...and even stranger to think that we've been married for almost a year (it'll be a year mid-November). It's odd to think of how much my life has changed in just a year. This time last year, I was working 40 hours/week plus a 30 min commute each way 3 of those days, involved in a variety of weekly activities (i.e. Bible study), planning a wedding, driving about 2 hours a week to spend time with Matt, finding time to hang out with family and friends and, of course, keeping up with a few of my favorite TV shows. How did I do all of that?? Now I work closer to 30 hours/week with a daily commute to my living room, spend time with Matt (which requires no drive whatsoever), try to go for walks at least 5 days/week, and keep up with a variety of TV shows. I guess I could add the Bible study we've started going to since we've gone twice and plan to continue...but even still, my activity level has significantly dwindled. As someone who enjoys having a lot going on and keeping busy it's been a bit of an adjustment, but I know it's a part of moving to a new place where we don't know many people, and it will take time to get plugged in to the community here.

I guess one of the things this change is teaching me is how much I need to depend on God every single day. I consider one of the gifts God gave me to be faith, and I've only really doubted God once in my life (I know that's not typical of most 25-year-olds). I think a lot of it has to do with how God made me, but also with how my mom encouraged me to look at events in my life from an early age. I don't believe in coincidences. There have been too many things in my life that have just "worked out" for them to be a random chance. It's easy for me to see God working in my life, but I lack the self-discipline to regularly pick up the Bible and spend time focused on him without distraction. A year ago, when I was much, much busier, I justified my lack of discipline through everything I had going on. Looks like God's not letting me use that excuse anymore...

I was reminded of all of this when a former neighbor and friend from elementary school posted a link to a skit by The Skit Guys on YouTube. It's a great reminder about how God never said life would be easy, and that when things are hard it's for our own good. It's also a great reminder of how we should find our value in God, and not from the media or society we live in. Check it out at http://bit.ly/148Etz.