Seattle...Temperate???

So...on December 1st, it snowed in Seattle. I was at a Women's Training Day at church and came out to blowing snow! It was beautiful (and I'm glad I wasn't driving)! We went for a walk along the lake, took a few pics to share out in front of our house, sat by a lovely fire with our Christmas lights on and just enjoyed being here in Seattle. And then...

it started to rain...and rain...and rain. Oh, my goodness, y'all! You basically never see a real Texas sized rain drop in Seattle. However, in the past 72 hours, I have seen more than I ever want to see in Seattle again! Monday morning (my first day at the new job, which is going swimmingly...no pun intended) I stepped out of bed into water. The level was basically at the carpet...the kind that squishes over your toes when you walk...so not too bad. When I came home, the second bedroom had water. We moved to the living room to sleep on a blow up matress that night, only to step out of bed into water on Tuesday morning. We moved to the office to sleep Tuesday night. At this point, there are 12 piles of furniture, 11 carpets peeled back, 10 fires roaring, 9 dehumidifiers dehumidifying, 8 space heaters a heating, 7 thermostats cranked up, 6 windows closed to fresh (wet) air, 5 extension cords...4 feet to walk in, 3 places to sit, 2 more days in the week, and 1 big hope for no more rain. (Feel free to add music for effect and decrease the numbers for a little more reality!)

That's been out week in a nutshell! Fun times on this Seattle Adventure!

New Season Update

Well, as the Christmas season begins, I am starting a new season of my own. I have been offered and have accepted a full time position with Apex Learning, an online curriculum company and virtual school. I have been contracting with this company for about a year, now and designed and wrote for a reading course for secondary struggling readers that is now being used across the nation. This is a great opportunity and a wonderful provision while Danny is in grad school. And so...on Monday, I will join the Seattle bus commuters destined for downtown and begin a new job as an English Producer for Apex Learning.

I will not pretend that this decision comes with no regrets. There is a small (or not so small) part of me that has really enjoyed the freedom and flexibility that contracting has afforded. However, with three days in the office and two days from home, I really can't beat the flex (or benefits) of this job. I will also be working with an amazing team. In all honesty, this is a dreamy job. I will just trust the Lord for the time, energy and enthusiasm as I get ramped up and into the swing of things.

I also thought it might be nice to catch you up on what we are doing in our church, Mars Hill. Danny and I have been leading a newlyweds community group in our home since the beginning of the fall. It has been a wonderful group, and we look forward to walking beside them through the rest of their first year of marriage. What a blessing and a joy to be focusing on marriage! I have also been asked to head up Women's Ministry for the Wedgwood Campus (the campus we attend) and have been asked to speak at one of four sessions during the church-wide women's retreat in February. This is both humbling and exciting, and I look forward to being a part of vision casting for women's ministry, Wedgwood style!

In other news...Danny will finish his DTS degree this year! Praise the Lord! He will fly to Dallas once in January for a week long class and then 4 times to Austin for a weekend class. A rather intense way to finish things, but he will be finished, and that's the goal! Whew!

So...no new pics for this update. I'll be taking some shortly, I'm sure, and blogging away. I am determined to stay on top of this! :)

If you think about it, would you pray...
* that we will have enough of ourselves to go around in this season of working, serving, learning.
* that I will have great joy in this new job.
* that we will have wisdom in decision making as we go forward.

Love to you all!

Thanksgiving Visit

How fun it was to have all my family here for Thanksgiving. Danny and I enjoyed hosting, showing off Seattle, and just hanging out with my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and sister. What a blast! Unfortunately, I was a terrible photographer this weekend, so the pickin's are slim in the photo department. Here's what I did manage to capture.



My sister and I in front of the Troll...Jeana spent her fall break here...we managed to see some of the sights and eat some Pho!



Ashley (Jonathan's new wife...yea!) and Jeana in front of the Pike Place Fish Market. Strangely enough, they both had to watch a film for a training session at work that featured this fish market. The film was encouraging fun at work! I guess throwing fish is fun. :)



The newlyweds being a little silly at the Market.



Thanksgiving dinner prep...lots of hands...lots of mouths!

I didn't manage to get any shots of the actual dinner...maybe I was ravenous by the time the TWENTY-SIX POUND turkey finally came out of the oven! It was a lovely meal with family and friends. What a blessing to be where we are. Danny and I were counting our blessing out loud last night, and we have much for which to be grateful! Thanks be to God!

Oh, and I couldn't pass this up...little Bennet (the sweet pea I nanny for once a week) lounging all over my Mishka dog. What a cute pair!




Love to you all! Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Ashamed!

So, I am the worst blogger ever...ah, well. Here are a couple pics from the last couple months. There are so many more I need to upload and so much life I need to chronicle. I'll try to be better.

Miscellaneous Snapshots
Danny's parents and grandmother were here for a week at the end of October. Grandma B. is 91 years old and amazing! Here is one picture of us when we took her to Pike Place Market (Danny did not get to go, unfortunately). This is the famous pig (famous for what, you ask? And I must reply...I have no living idea.), and in the background are the famous fish throwers. I think they were throwing crabs in this pic.

And here is our sweet friend, Louisa, who lives in the garage apartment of the Bugler Compound (our pet name for where we live). The precious little gal is Bennet, who I nanny for once a week. She is the daughter of our friends who are our landlords. We live in their basement apartment...the whole arrangement is such a blessing from the Lord! And of course, Mishka is looking on and being furry. :)

And then there is the shot our niece took of us in San Diego. Not bad for a ten year old. This was a great trip with Danny's whole family...minus Grandma B. We did the beach, Sea World, the bay on jet skis, lots of grilling, game playing, shopping and family time. It was a blast!

And my awesome mom out here for a little R&R (at least that's what it turned into when we sent Mishka to doggie boot camp...ahh, another story to be told). We hiked around Mt. St. Helens, and it was absolutely breathtaking! I never knew there were so many live volcanoes in this area...many due for a big blow-out. Y'all come visit! :)

And the one major hole in this catch-up post is my brother's wedding...I'll post more on that amazing event when I figure out where in the world I saved those pics. Yikes! I guess he and Ashley deserves their own post, anyway.

The Big Move

The New Place!!!

Well folks, sorry I've been remiss in keeping up with this blog. We have been in the middle of moving, having company, and going to my brother's wedding! Quite a jam packed month! I'll start here with our move.

So because of our wonderful dog Mishka, we have had to find a new place to live. The Lord has provided us with a perfect place. Truly, it is beyond our dreams. We are now living in the daylight basement (I had never heard of this before Seattle) of a home in the gorgeous Greenlake area. There is tons of light as there are regular windows all around the home. I look out at people's knees instead of their heads, but that is really okay. We have doubled our square footage, have three rooms (yea for an actual office/guest bedroom and room to grow), a huge living room and a kitchen with beautiful concrete counters. We are thrilled! We have a garden and yard that we share with our landlords/friends (more on them in a minute), our own driveway, and we can walk to the lake, restaurants, grocery store, coffee shop etc! Truly, this is amazing. In order to understand this, you have to know that our apartment had become unbearable in so many ways. We are praising the Lord for His provision!

Our landlords are amazing! Jon and Moira and their little daughter, Bennett (In the fall, I will start nannying for Bennet one day a week...so fun!), go to our church, Mars Hill, and contacted us through the members site when they saw our post about housing. They held the place for us, lowered the rent, and have generally been incredibly kind to us. Jon and Moira are fast becoming good friends of ours...what a gift to have believing friends right here in our home! Moira telecommutes most days, which is fun for me. We actually do similar work, so that is also a cool little connection. Jon and Danny totally connect over beer and a bonfire as you can see in the following pictures. :) The Bugler's also have an Alaskan malamute named Syska (who, btw, exhibits terrible separation anxiety just like Mishka), so Mishka has someone to hang with. Their cat Lucy is not quite sure about Mishka yet, but their relationship is forming (Mishka chases Lucy until Lucy has had enough and swats his nose. Mishka sits back and glares at her. Lucy licks paw and stalks off).

(Bennet---and Moira's hand...Danny, Jon and Stephen---beer and a bonfire...and Syska...
pics of the rest of the crew are awol at the moment.)

(Moving, Resting, Playing)

All in all, we are so grateful for this situation. Our move went smoothly...as we had tons of help from our community group, our friend Louisa, my Aunt Dorothy and Uncle David and our precious friends Jessica and Stephen. What a gracious God we have! Amen?

(And what move would be complete without a rousing 3am game of Settlers of Caton?)

And btw...we live next to a 7000 square foot organic garden...or should I say farm? It is unbelievable amazing!

Pacific Coast

One of the cool things about being here in Washington is that everything is so close. It takes 15 hours to get across TX, but here in Washington, everything is just a skip and a jump away (assuming the passes are passable...but more on that another time)! So, with that in mind, Danny decided to whisk me away for a quick overnight camping trip on the Pacific Coast.

Two and a half hours from our door, we were looking at the massive Pacific waves, digging our toes in the sand, picking up perfect sand dollars the size of my palm and enjoying the smell of the salty air.

We strolled along miles of empty beach while Mishka chased the sea gulls and tugged at the sea weed. We toasted bread and cheese over our awesome fire, watched the sun go down amidst smoky clouds, and slept with the sound of the rain gently pattering on the outside of our car (yes, we took a shortcut as we were going to be there less than 24 hours) and the ocean softly roaring in the background. It was glorious!

An added bonus was turning on the radio on the way home to hear try to catch a sermon and hearing, instead, a country music station out of Beaumont, TX! :) So funny...and Danny persevered masterfully as I got my country fix!

Oh, yes, and we stopped by Olympia on the way home. Just in case you've ever wondered about the capital of Washington...the Capitol Building was very handsome and well kept (how's that for a Jane Austen type statement)!

Tulip Festival

Danny, Mishka, and I tiptoeing through the tulips (actually, there were tulip bouncers to keep you out of the tulip rows...so we just hunkered down for a quick pic).

So I started this blog after the Tulip Festival, but this experience is to gorgeous to skip!

In April, our sweet friends Jessica and Stephen (our amazing friends from Houston who moved to Vancouver just one month before we moved to Seattle...Praise Jesus for His kindness!) came to visit. Now secretly, Jessica and I had discussed the possibility of driving an hour to the Tulip Festival. The boys, we felt, would not be thrilled with the prospect, but with a Settlers of Caton marathon as part of the deal, we felt we had a good shot! :) Danny and Stephen graciously agreed...and off we went. I must say there were many a round of "tiptoe through the tulips" from our teasing guys.

But oh, when we got there. Y'all, I have never seen color like that. It almost looked fake! And you could see the color in stripes from miles away...it was as if the ground had been painted. Unbelievably beautiful! I think I am justified in revealing that even the guys were impressed. We kept on turning to one another and saying "We live here!" The mountains made a majestic backdrop and we did manage to get several great shots...a few of which I will now share with you. Enjoy! :)

Our friends, Jessica and Stephen, and their Sadie dog

The painted earth

A little bit of Holland?

Precious Friends!

Just the pic to go with the post below.

Precious Friends!

What a joy to share time with sweet friends! This past weekend, while Danny was gone, my precious friends Lisa (Day) Ulrich and Victoria Szabuniewicz came to visit. Lisa has recently moved to Spokane (I'm telling y'all...the Northwest is the place to be...if you can't be in TX!), so when Victoria came to visit her, a trip to Seattle seemed fitting.

How fun it was to show them the sites. You know, you never really see your city until you show someone else around. What a blast! Between walking to our favorite organic food store, hanging out at the dog park, taking in Pike Place Market, taking pics of the awesome skyline, playing in the rain...and the sun, roasting garlic, talking and talking and talking, we did manage to get a little rest.

What a joy it is to walk with friends through this life on earth. I am sometimes amazed at the simple but so crucial blessings our gracious Father gives. Friends are definitely one of those blessings...refreshment to the soul and encouragement to the heart.

March Trip

Well, since Danny is gone this weekend (back to Houston for a data collecting trip) and I am not so sleepy, it seemed appropriate to download all my pictures from this spring (after I unearthed my new camera cable). Now that I am looking at them, I find that I have at least four posts from trips and such. So why not start now?

In March, Danny and I were blessed by some precious friends with a weekend getaway specifically to have some time away to remember our little son Treye. What a blessing to be away from everything for that time...to read and pray, to journal and talk with one another, to remember, to continue to heal. The Lord has been so faithful to walk with us through this year's journey, and this unexpected weekend away was just one more instance of His mercy in our lives.

We stayed in a little mountain cabin near Snoqualmie...and it snowed. Oh, did it snow! That was a gift for me in particular as the snow is such a part of my memory of our memorial time for Treye last year in Ruidoso, NM . We hiked a bit, although most of the trails were closed due to this unexpectedly large snowfall. Mostly, we just marveled at the beauty the Lord has created, His mighty power in holding it all together, and His grace in leading us through it. We are indeed without excuse...even for doubting Him or His perfect plan.

Hope the pics above inspire you to trust Him and marvel at all He has made! I think my favorite is the pristine and unmarred beauty of the snowy clearing against the backdrop of strong pine trees and clear blue sky. Enjoy!

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Rom. 1:20

Back from Texas

Well, after my whirlwind trip to Texas, I think I could sleep for a week. I managed to see just about everyone and spend some serious quality time with my fam while preparing for and attending a shower for my bro and his fiance'! Can't wait for their wedding! And can you believe, that in the midst of all those memories, I did not take a single picture. I am ashamed (picture head hanging and eyes downcast)!

Ah well, here is a pic to make up for my lack of photographic initiative this past week. Just one of our many hikes. Y'all come on up and visit!

The Culprit

He looks innocent, doesn't he? Alas, looks are deceiving! This one is the reason we are moving. With too much bark for our buck, we are leaving our apartments and moving to the daylight basement of a home in Greenlake (a beautiful neighborhood in Seattle). There is much for which to be grateful... plenty of light, full windows, three bedrooms, huge living room, gorgeous kitchen counters, incredible garden space, dogpark nearby, restaurants and shops nearby, and not least of all, amazing landlords along with their precious daughter and a sweet malamute named Syska with separation anxiety (Mishka will have a sympathetic shoulder)! We can't wait! More pics to come.

Just getting started

Well, it is probably time to start blogging again and be diligent. So, here we go...a quick start before I hit the hay.

For those of you who do not know, we are now in Seattle...and loving it! Danny is in the doctoral program at University of Washington and Amy is currently designing and writing curriculum for Apex Learning, an online curriculum company and secondary school.

We are definitely in the right place and are continually awed by God's faithfulness and provision as we follow step by step on this path. Our last year has been a journey...fairly rough in places...but we continue to look forward to the next part of this adventure, whatever that may be.

We are always game for visitors, so...y'all come on up and see us!