The Great Net of the Inter...

Hoorah! We're finally getting internet in our apartment so I'll be able to blog again, hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Yes, yes, yes!

A Whole New World...

Last night, we got a fun call from Mo and To asking us to join them at a local coffee shop for what promised to be a hilarious musical performance by our friends Caleb and Pat. Before I tell you about the performance, let me give you a quick plug on the coffee shop. It's a non-profit coffeehouse smack in the middle of downtown. They've been here for a couple years now and their sole purpose is to invest into the people of this city, building relationships with them, encouraging arts and talents, offering classes on a whole range of topics, things like that. The owners practice loving like Jesus did, a lot of the baristas volunteer their hours to support the coffeehouse, and any profit over and above their bare living expenses is donated to other non-profits in the area. It's just a great, homey place for people of all different walks of life to come in, get a warm cup of coffee, and feel like they belong and are loved. Such a great way to devote one's life.

So it was at this coffee house that we got to experience the treat of Caleb and Pat's musical talents. I actually don't know Pat (although the rest in the group did), but I know Caleb and I think I can accurately describe him by saying he is a large, 26ish year old, manly man with some soul. So you can imagine our entertainment when the first song they played was a touching rendition of Stand By Me. And the night only got better after that. I tell you what, these guys could hit some high notes, and they sang with the emotion of all the past American Idols combined. Our favorite was a beautiful version of Aladdin's A Whole New World, which Isaac couldn't stop singing this morning as we got ready for work. They even had a little Justin Timberlake in there because, really, who doesn't love a little JT every now and then? I don't think we stopped laughing the whole night. It was a great way to spend the evening.

Originally I was going to do math...boring. Instead, we got ourselves some high class entertainment, thanks to our boys from college.

Finally...

It snowed! It snowed! We've been waiting and waiting and waiting and finally, accompanied by freezing cold temperatures, the snow started falling Saturday evening. We were at a Christmas party across town when it started, and by the time we left a couple hours later, there was a pile of snow about 4 inches high! I was more than happy to turn the wheel over to Isaac, and he was more than happy to accept. It's not that I'm scared to drive in the snow...having been raised in the back woods, I learned to snow drive almost before I learned to drive on bare pavement and I love it, I really do. It's merely that I've been dealing with one too many insurance companies as of late and I just don't want to go through the annoyance of another accident. So I'm all for letting Isaac skid around in his playground for my peace of mind. As soon as we got home, we bundled up (and I do mean bundled) and walked around town, surveying the sights of skidding cars, powerless against the pull of the ice. It was rather entertaining to see the people who thought their car was actually going to make it up some of the really steep hills...one winter in this town and you know not to even try some of them anymore. We were even able to help a guy push his truck through an intersection when all he could do was peel out. That was nice.

Did I mention that it's been freezing cold up here? I believe the thermometer read 11 degrees when we left for work this morning. So you can imagine our frustration when our heater decided to stop working Saturday night at, oh, about 11:30pm. That's about the worst scenario imaginable if you know me at all, as I do not do well under the blanket of freezing coldness. It made for a lazy Sunday morning, with me not getting out of bed until about 10am when our house was finally warm again. Our landlord (bless his heart) brought us two big space heaters early Sunday morning, and, surprisingly, they worked really well. And the maintenance guy should show up today, so hopefully all will be well again shortly, and until then, I will try to remember not to take our warmth for granted.

Oh, here comes the UPS truck. Nothing like unstoppable mail service, through the worst or the worst. Okay, today is not the worst of the worst, but it's still rather icy out there.

Well, friends, happy first day of winter! It's looking like it's going to be a beautiful blue-sky day up here in the 'ham.

We did something this weekend that I've been so excited for ever since we got married...we got our first Christmas tree! And it's an awesome one, if I do say so myself. We got up early Saturday morning, donned our rain gear, got it the baby blue and rode the 45 minute drive out to Mt. Baker National Forest where we acquired our permit to chop down a Christmas tree of our choice. You might have noticed that I specified rain gear. No, that was not a mistype. Unfortunately this winter season has been uncharacteristically dry, so there was not a flake of snow to be found anywhere near where we were at, which denoted slightly from the experience, but we managed to make it fun anyway. Last year, Isaac and Justin took their small group out to get Christmas trees and there were several feet of snow which led to many a snowball fight that day. Not today. But alas, we trudged on and spotted the perfect tree rather quickly - tall enough, but not too tall, filled in so it isn't too scraggly. Isaac cut her down, we put her in the back of the baby blue (you know you have a great car when your entire Christmas tree can fit inside of it) and brought her to her new home. We left her naked in our living room for a few hours until our little Christmas party that evening. Out of Tommy and Mo, Justin and Alex, we're the only couple getting a tree, so we invited the others over to basque in the glow and help their environmentally unfriendly friends decorate our
treasure (notice Tommy sticking himself with a needle and Morgan, his beloved wife, laughing at him). It was a great time! We strung lights, popcorn and cranberries and hung the precious few ornaments we have, and we love it! Our first married ornament came from Hannah and Mike this summer, and we made sure to put that one on first. (Thanks, friends!) And there we are with our candid first-Christmas-tree-as-
a-married-couple shot. We ended the night, as any Christmassy evening should be ended, with a viewing of the Polar Express. Sigh. I love Christmastime.

Down on the farm...

We're back at home after a great Thanksgiving holiday. We were with my family for most of the time since we'll be with the Hurst's at Christmas, and it was incredibly relaxing. Lots of time to just hang out, talk, draw (for Isaac) and do math (for me). Then we stopped by Isaac's family's home for the afternoon on Saturday for our fix of games and energy and had a lot of fun getting a chance to see everyone. I realized halfway through our trip that my camera was out of batteries, so there is, unfortunately, no shots of our family times, but Hannah took pictures of our grand adventure Saturday morning, so I'll share those with you. We joined Hannah and Mike (pictured above) for breakfast on her parent's farm up by my parents' house and came just in time for chores, which Isaac was super excited for...seriously. Having been best friends with Hannah for the past 17 years, I have experienced my share of chores and, no matter how hard I try, I'm just not a huge fan of large, moo-ing, poo-covered, four-legged farm animals charging me as they waddle toward their feeding bin. But Isaac was ready to experience farm life, so we woke up early and got there just in time. Much to Isaac's delight, there were two four-wheelers they use to get around the farm on, and one of them was Isaac's for the morning. Talk about a little kid at Christmas. So off we went to the cow barn to feed the chubby creatures. Han's little brother John showed Isaac the ropes...aren't they the cutest little farmers you've ever seen? There's nothing like a man in a John Deer hat to start your morning off right. Mmmm, mmm, mmm. Being the country girl that I am, I have a deep appreciation for these sorts of things. Once the cows were done, we were off to the horses, which, if you've ever heard Isaac talk about those beastly creatures, you know that his distaste for them runs nearly as deep as his distaste for ranch dressing. And that's saying something. He did well, though, I was so proud. Awww, look at him out there with them. When the horsies were all fed, we headed back and John got the tractor out for Isaac to drive, just so he could have the total farm experience. Isaac's Christmas list is growing longer by the second: a four wheeler, pet cow, pet horse, and now a tractor. Great. Then came the best part...our four-wheeling adventure. The beauty of where I grew up is that it's filled with miles of backroads and woods that barely anyone even knows about, let alone travels on. So we hopped on the four-wheelers for a little backroads adventure in the mud. You can see back at the beginning of the blog what we looked like when we started. Then Isaac started out driving our fun machine and, accidentally I'm sure, went through a huge puddle deep with mud, showering us with mud like it was raining from the sky. And once the first puddle happened, I think he figured why not hit all the rest? So he did. And then when John took the wheel, he tried to hit every puddle that Isaac had, plus any one Isaac might have missed. Let's just say I've never been more muddy in my life. But it was so awesome! Ahh, the joys of country living. And there he is again, my handsome farm-boy husband, complete with a Carhartt jacket this time! It's a great look for you, baby.

We get a four-day vacation! We're headed home (to my parent's house) this evening for the Thanksgiving holiday, which is always a good time. There's no snow yet there, but often Thanksgiving brings in the first dusting, so we're crossing our fingers that we should be so lucky. Isaac, especially, is a lover of the snow. I could take it or leave it, but mainly just because it's painful (yes, painful) for me to be cold, and I get cold far too easily to be living in the Northwest. But the first snow is always exciting enough to help me look past the freezing temperatures and enjoy the piles of white stuff. Can I just insert here that last winter we visited my parents' house and there was at least four and a half feet of snow on the ground! It was insane! And so fun to play in! Naturally, I don't have pictures of that incredible event to share with you, so you'll have to use your imagination, but it was something. I've never seen snow like that in all my years there!

In other news, I registered at the community college up here yesterday for my first two pre-req classes...Nutrition 101 and Pre-Calculus. And I got into both of them, which is no small feat considering I was scheduled to register after every single other person at the college since I was a newbie. I know I've said this a dozen times, but I'm really excited to start the classes. I've been plugging away at the Algebra book I got almost every night so I can have it finished by the time Pre-Cal starts and I am still oddly enjoying the math.

In even more other news, Isaac and I have discovered the secret to amazing food...are you ready for it?? Shredded chicken. Yes, shredded chicken. I apologize in advance to all of you who might find this portion of the post rather boring, but it's fresh on my mind from a meal we made yesterday, so bear with me. We tried it for the first time in a Thai recipe a few weeks ago because Isaac loves being as authentic as possible when it comes to cooking and he had noticed that in all the Thai restaurants he'd been to, they always tear their chicken instead of chopping it with a knife. So we tried it and are hooked! There's such a difference in flavor, it seems to soak up so much more of the goodness when it's shredded. And not only in Thai dishes, but in any style of food. We've had it in soup and Mexican dishes as well and it's been phenomenal in all! Mmm, mmm, mmm. I sure got lucky when I married a chef.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!

Winter is here...

Today marked the first day that I had to warm up my car for a substantial amount of time before I left for work so that the sheet of ice could melt before I needed to drive.

Winter is here.

Boo.

It happened...

I finally did it. I gathered my books, notebooks, calculator, and pen, kissed my husband goodbye, got in my car...and went to Starbucks to study last week. Now this may not seem like a significant event to those of you who haven't chosen to reside in the sprawling metropolis of a college town, but to those of us who have, it speaks volumes. Loud and clear, it shouts to all the world that I am officially a student again. Or a nerd, depending on which of my friends you ask, I suppose. Either way, I never thought the time would come when I would wholeheartedly embrace that title again, but, lo and behold, that time did come and I am actually rather excited to bear that name...of student, not of nerd, thank you. I probably should have waited to post this until I was actually a student since there's still a week before I get to register, but it's close enough. Presently I am taking myself through an Algebra textbook to make sure I'll be up to speed in the Pre-Cal class that I'm hoping to get into in January. I can hardly believe I'm even doing that to be honest. My last thoughts after graduating from Western all centered around the incredible joy I had of finally being done. You couldn't have paid me to open up another textbook or step foot in the library again. I dreaded even going back to campus because I just wanted to be separated from the schooling aspect of life; I was done with it and busy fully embracing the high life with my newfound free time. And here I am, two years later, buying textbooks to study for hours each week for a class I'm not even in! Okay, my friends are right. I am a nerd. But the moral of this story is that I am really, really enjoying being a nerd, and that's all that matters, right?

In other news, Isaac and I have been married for two months already! This is the most celebrating we're going to do because my dear husband said that now that we're married, we don't get to celebrate every month anniversary like we did in dating. Sigh. Oh well, we'll at least be home together this evening to snuggle up and watch some Simpsons or read our books. We do enjoy being married to each other, that's for sure.

Watching Grass Grow...

Remember when we started to grow our grass a couple of weeks ago? Well, the wheat grass has just taken off! Check out it's growth! I'm not sure the roots have any room left to grow, but generally this stuff grows at least half an inch a day, if not more. We never would have thought that watching grass grow could actually be entertaining. And Isaac's green thumb is turning greener every day. He's been reading all about our plants and what each individual one likes best, how we can keep them happy and healthy, and what would be the best new plants to add to our little family. He loves it! The sound of the water bottle misting the plants has become a constant in our house. And it makes me smile every time I hear it.

Come and listen...

Come and listen, come to the water's edge, all you who know and fear the Lord.
Come and listen, come to the water's edge all you who are thirsty, come.

Let me tell you what He has done for me.
Let me tell you what He has done for me,
He has done for you,
He has done for us.

Come and listen,
come and listen to what He's done.
Come and listen,
come and listen to what He's done.

Praise our God for He is good.
Praise our God for He is good.
Praise our God for He is good.
Praise our God for He is good.

He has done for me,
He has done for you,
He has done for us.

Come and listen,
come and listen to what He's done.
Come and listen,
come and listen to what He's done.

These words by David Crowder say it so well. One of the things that has brought me so much peace, in most of my life, I'm sure, but specifically in these past few years living up here has been how many people around me are open and willing to share the deep details of their lives with others. They share their struggles, their joys, ways they've seen the Lord work, times they've felt the Lord wasn't there, deep heartaches, everything. There have been so many times that I have been in the midst of a struggle and one of those people in my life has pulled me aside and invited me to come and listen to what He's done in their life. The power of sharing those things is incredible because the temptation for me is to think that I'm all alone in my struggle, that I'm never going to be able to get out of it, that things will never be okay again. But because the people around me have been so open with their lives, I've learned that struggle is so often a mainstay of this life. There will always be points of deep struggle, but they won't last forever. There will be points of deep joy as well. There will be times when the Lord feels so close, and times when it feels like He's nowhere to be found. It's in those times that people come to me and share the truth that what he has done for them, he will do for me. And you know what? He really has. And what he has done for us, he will do for you.

Red Carpet Night...

Let me first say that the nerf war Isaac and the guys held for the youth on Friday was a HUGE success! Seventy rowdy youngsters (and not so youngsters) gathered, gorged themselves with a couple dozen pizzas and a load of soda, and then pulverized each other for four hours straight. And the layout Isaac made was so creative. The youth room was filled with obstacles made of cardboard and duct tape, construction fencing, butcher paper, huge boards, and plexiglass shields. So awesome! I wish I had a picture of it for you guys, but I, believe it or not, chose a girls' night over attending the warlock. What was I thinking?

I do have pictures for you, however, from the Red Carpet Night we had for the youth this past Sunday. We made it like the Academy Awards, and everyone came either super dressed up or dressed up like their favorite person of fame, then everyone got an award for things like "Most likely to take over the world." I, of course, chose to represent all my brothers and sisters in the world of country music and came as Carrie Underwood. However, I tell you with great sadness that country music is sorely under-appreciated up here in the land of the 'ham, and some people didn't even know who Carrie was! Unbelievable. My handsome husband went for the 70's look, and our youth pastor mistook him for one of the Beatles. I've never been more proud.

In true Academy Awards style, we had some famous artists performing songs, one of which was the Isaac/Justin duo. I have no idea how Dan ended up booking them, but I'll tell you what, the girls were in for a treat. So fun. There were screaming fans flooding the mosh pit as soon as these two took the stage. The girls were going crazy! I just leaned back and smiled with pride that, yes, this handsome rockstar was mine forever. Sigh.

This was my first time back at youth group since this summer and it was so nice to get to see all my girls again. I know that I needed to rest and I needed to take a break from youth ministry for a while - it was the right thing to do - but my heart still yearns to love these girls. Maybe someday I'll be ready to get to be in their lives full-time again. I can only hope...

A little morning intrigue...

I've been part of a Bible Study at my church for the past month or so, and we've been going through 2 Samuel and the life of David. Chapter by chapter, just reading it as it is written and discussing what his life would have looked like, what his thoughts might have been, things like that. The thing that sticks out to me the most is the deep consequences of his sin...it's almost overwhelming. The short of it is that David desired another man's wife and slept with her, got her pregnant, and then killed her husband so she could become his wife. In those days, I think the punishment of murdering like that was death, which God spared him of, but the Lord made it very clear that there would be intense consequences for this sin. And there were. It's sobering to read through his life chronologically and watch the results of that sin affect him in so many tragic ways. It really makes me think about the actions and thoughts of myself; how many of those sins will I live out the consequences for?

But there's another aspect to David's story that is intriguing. Throughout his whole life, he is a man who puts his faith in the Lord, he knows God is the true God and worthy of his praise all the time. And even when tragedy after tragedy strikes him and his family after his choice of Bathsheba, he does not turn against the Lord. He does not curse God and tell God that if he loved him, he would prevent these hurts from happening. Some of the Psalms are labeled as to what time in David's life they were written, so we get even more of a look into David's heart, and whatever happens in his life, David still trusts that the Lord is walking with him. He seems to just know that these hard things are a result of sin in the world, both his and those around him, and that the true way to overcome is to turn to the Lord and praise him and trust him.

It's a good example, and so encouraging to see a man who was plagued with intense hardships, yet he knew...really knew...that it doesn't make God unloving if he doesn't prevent hurt from coming into your life. Rather because God is loving, he will be your strength as you walk through the hurt of sin in this world.

And that, my friends, is a beautiful thing.

Like little boys at Christmas...

Why, you might ask is an arsenal of neon yellow nerf guns piled against the far wall in our bedroom? Why is the living room littered with dozens of nerf bullets shot from a gigantic, automatic Vulcan EBF 25? Why did we just buy 19 more nerf guns last night at Target? One might look at this situation from the outside and think it strange, seeing two grown men (that would be Isaac and Justin) glowing like little boys at Christmas at the sight of their stash of weaponry. However, to the women in these guys' lives, it is no surprise whatsoever. Little in this life bring Isaac and Justin, and Tommy for that matter, more joy than ambushing one another with their nerf artillary. But alas, the arsenal is not for them. Well, not fully for them anyway. Isaac and Justin are hosting a youth event this Friday that involves four hours of nerf warfare, and I dare say, this might be one of the best attended youth events thus far. Apparently I, J, and T are not the only ones in this town who find nerf guns exhilarating. So think of my husband this Friday night with a smile on your face as you picture him racing through the dark sanctuary attacking poor, innocent middle and high schoolers with hundreds of bright orange bullets. He'll be having the time of his life!

Sailors and Witches...

As you all know, Friday night was Halloween and, as you all probably don't know, every year up here we ring in Halloween with a community-wide Harvest party at our church (recall the Star-Bellied Sneeches from last year). It's a huge event where we clear out our sanctuary and fill it with super creative decorations and dozens of booths of games that the kiddos can come play in exchange for more candy than they could ever eat in a lifetime. Well, close to that anyway. This year's theme was Narnia...as in the Chronicles of Narnia...so Isaac and I dressed accordingly. Isaac, as you can see, is a sailor straight out of Narnia. It is tradition for Isaac, Justin and their small group to create a booth out of the pvc pipe cannon they made a couple years back. Every few minutes, they stuff the cannon full of candy and set it off, shooting piles of candy across the room. It's definitely the hit of the Harvest Party every time. If you recall, one of the books is about the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (a ship), so this year, they built a little ship, strapped the cannon to it, and put on their best sailor attire. So handsome. As for me, I was positive no one was going to want to be the evil character at the church party, and someone was going to have to do it, so I selflessly volunteered myself for the role and exuberantly began putting together my best White Witch costume. So fun! Don't worry, I wasn't glaring all night, I only scared a small handful of children, and I got to wear my wedding dress a second time! What more could I ask for? All in all, it was a success. There's nothing better than spending Halloween with hundreds of the cutest little bumblebees, princesses, cowboys, and firemen.

Our bench...

We finished an awesome project last night! Our living room seating was rather limited with the furniture we had, so a few weeks ago Isaac (of course) came up with a creative idea of finding an old bookshelf, turning it on its side, and then getting a combo piece of furniture that served as both a bench and a bookshelf. Then off we went, searching for our perfect piece to work with, and after a few trips to the ReStore (one of our favorite stores in the 'ham), we found the perfect piece this past weekend! I should have taken a before shot of how the shelf started because it was originally a section of a cupboard that had been torn off the rest of the shelves, so it had random strips of molding around parts of the edges and it had a huge cupboard door on the front of it. Not exactly nice living room material, but nothing phases Isaac. He's always able to see the treasure no matter what the original product looks like. So he sanded, stripped the molding off, took off the door, primed and painted it while I made my mom proud at the sewing machine. We wanted to make a cushion that was more than just two pieces of cloth sewed together...we wanted thick edges and good corners so it looked more rectangular. So we bought some fun fabric, and spent the next few hours trying to figure out how we were going to make this work. But we did it! And we even sewed a huge zipper into the back so we could get the foam in easily! Now this is probably not that big of a deal for you seamstresses out there, but you have to remember that this is only the second time I've used out sewing machine and the first was only for simple pillows. So we were really proud of our creation. And last night, the paint was finally dry so we filled it with books, placed it in it's new home by our front door, and took a picture to share with you guys. Our little home is coming together! PS...that's our little Kumquat tree next to it in the big yellow pot. And it's growing!

Stalks of green...

Remember way back several months ago when I posted a picture of the huge stack of books I was currently reading? And they were all entertaining novels, or books on living life with the Lord, or fascinating nutrition books? Well, here is my latest stack of books...even more interesting, I know! My first classes will hopefully be Pre-Calculus and Nutrition starting in January, and then on to Chemistry 121 Spring quarter. In order to prepare, I have a Pre-Cal textbook, a Chem textbook, and an Anatomy and Physiology book that I'm studying from. I want to make sure I learn this stuff well, and since I haven't taken math in six years and I've never taken Chemistry before, I've got some studying to catch up on. The awesome thing, though, is that I am so excited to do it! I can't wait to get home and spend some time with my Chem textbook or my Pre Cal textbook. On Sunday, I finished the first chapter in the Chem book, took a ton of notes, and did all the practice problems at the end of the chapter, and I actually understood everything! It was so encouraging! I know it probably sounds about as boring as one could get to some of you, and believe me, there was a time I would have agreed with you. But the joy and interest that is welling deep in my soul is in itself a testimony to the fact that this just might be a good path for my life. We're meeting with an admissions representative from my top schooling choice tomorrow evening, so that should help us get more of a feel for what this whole process could look like. We really are excited to see how the Lord opens the doors for this if He thinks it is a good path for me.

In other news, we have a new plant! Isaac is growing grass now as an accent to the rest of our little green jungle. He sprouted some wheat berries and they started growing so quickly! I swear the grass grew half an inch taller while we were gone at work yesterday. The grass in the larger container is a different kind of seed and it appears to be growing slower, but it looks a lot more like real grass (smaller stalks, closer together). Give these guys a couple of weeks and they'll be lush and green and five inches tall. So fun!

Blue? You're sure?

Here's a fairly typical scenario from our life. Isaac will come home with a brilliant new design idea that he has formulated throughout the day and will be brimming with enthusiasm about, and, quite happily, he recounts to me exactly what he is planning to create for our house and why it's going to be amazing. The look on my face at this point usually involves a slight squinting of the eyes coupled with several brief nods as I attempt to visualize the new product being described to me. I like to think the squinting helps me, but most of the time, I'm left as lost about the whole thing as I was before Isaac started. This is not because I can't understand what he's saying, it's just that what I visualize from his descriptions are usually not what he's visualized in his head, and the things I visualize are not very attractive things. You can imagine the dilemma that might create. It's actually become quite the humorous thing between us. The great thing about Isaac, though, is that, tried and true, I know whatever he ends up making is going to look awesome whether I can picture it or not, so I'm learning to just let him go with it, no matter what the idea is. The bookshelves are a perfect example. The coffee table, another example. The couch...same thing.
A couple weeks ago, though, it happened again, and regardless of the assurance past experience has brought me on these things, I just could not for the life of me picture how this one was going to work. We have a beautiful wood kitchen table and have been collecting chairs to go with it. This is a very purposeful thing - Isaac wanted six different chairs that shared some of the same characteristics, but would all be slightly individual, brought together by the final paint job that would blend the chairs as a complete set. Well, a couple weeks ago, Isaac came home with the perfect color he had chosen...bright blue. Can you picture that working? Yeah, I couldn't either, but lo and behold, Isaac's artistic side won me over again and now I love them! This I know, my friends, life is never boring when you live with an artist.

A kumquat for our living room...

I'm alive! For a while there, we were wondering...three days of intense body aches and a fever did not make for a very fun time, but I woke up yesterday with hardly any traces of the little invaders whatsoever. And today I still feel great!

So, friends, guess what we did? We bought our first tree! First of many, if all our dreams come true. This one is a kumquat tree for our living room (yes, our living room) and it's so fun! We bought a huge yellow pot for it to go in and soon, the fruit should be a bright orange to compliment. The running total for plant life in our house thus far is somewhere in the range of 16-20, with lots more to come! They're in our windowsills, hanging on hooks in every room, on tables, cupboards, even the refrigerator. I'm fairly certain I've talked about this before, but Isaac's dream is to bring as much of the outdoors inside, and the most we can do in a rental house is have tons of plants. Eventually, we'll buy ourselves some land and build some amazingly interesting house that Isaac designed specifically to accommodate an enormous cherry tree in the living room, but for now we're settling with our little kumquat tree. And it will go in the living room as soon as it's done basking in the light of the kitchen window during its recovery from the shock of being transplanted. In other news, we got ourselves a rabbit ears antennae for our television so we could try to bring in the channels with football games on game days for Isaac, and it has brought our little family some high quality entertainment these last few days. Not entertainment from the shows it broadcasts, mind you, but entertainment from the many different ways Isaac can find to hold the antennae so it displays a better picture. If you've ever had the ol' rabbit ears, then you know exactly what I'm talking about, huh? It's pretty hilarious. Yesterday afternoon, I walked in on his latest genius to get better reception for the game he wanted to watch. Cute, isn't it? Yes, that is a PVC pipe he is holding with the rabbit ears duct taped to the top. He was a little embarrassed that I might publicize this picture and then everyone would know how much work went into trying to watch one football game, but the truth is I'm actually quite impressed with Isaac's talents at creating the best picture. For one station, he even duct tapes the antennae up to the heater next to the tv. Ridiculous, but it works! Yes, my husband is a technological genius. Ooo, and you can see another one of our hanging Pothos plants above the tv! Here's our other Pothos on top of our cupboard, crawling all over the wall. I would picture all of our plants here for you, but something tells me that not everyone would find that as fascinating as Isaac and I do. It's probably better to hit you with them one or two at a time, and then you can get the full effect the next time you come to visit our place. Mmmm, we just love our plants!

Boo...

I (Becky) have the flu.

Boo.

A good path...

I got accepted to Whatcom Community College today! Not hard, I know, but it signals the start of some dreams beginning to turn into a reality. I've talked about it before, but I have this far-off desire to possibly become a Registered Dietitian and work with people, teaching them the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, natural medicines, whole foods, that type of thing. Holistic health. Now, like I said, this is just a far-off dream, not something that would happen for a while, and not even something that is guaranteed to happen at all, just a dream that I am slowly beginning to pursue and see where it takes me. A dream that starts, rather practically, I might add, with fulfilling the prerequisites at our local Community College for a potential masters program. And so I applied to WCC, got accepted, and am in the process of figuring out precisely what all of those prereqs are that I would need. One baby step at a time.

I've been thinking a lot lately about this potential path for my life (our life, I suppose, now that Isaac is my husband), especially about how I should go about praying for the doors to open. I mean, does the Lord really have just one path that is 'his will' for everybody's life? Should I be praying for all the doors to open only if this is 'God's will' for me? Is that how it works? Is it enough that I have the desire and that my husband is incredibly supportive of this potential opportunity? How would I ever know if this path was the one God chose or if I used my mind and heart and chose it myself? Or are there actually many good paths I can choose based on my desires and interests and the Lord will come alongside my decision and bless whichever path I choose? Or maybe, in the end, either of these ideas of God's will lead to the same ending...a life that the Lord is present in.

Well, I suppose we would just ask you to pray for wisdom about whether this is a good path for Isaac and me to venture down. And we'll just see how things go, I guess. I mean, if I can't even make it through my prereqs, then we'd know that this wasn't a good path for me, right? It's like I said earlier, one baby step at a time. It does make life a lot more exciting with so much unknown ahead of us, though, I'll tell you that much.

Making mom proud...

So, my mother has had two dreams for her children since she gave us birth two decades ago. One, that we would learn to play piano, and two, that we would learn to sew. After hating the practicing that went into piano all growing up, I had a change of heart a few years ago and decided to teach myself some piano. I fell in love with the instrument, bringing my mom immense joy, but unfortunately I still had little desire to sew. Well, I'm proud to announce that that day has finally arrived...I sewed something, mom! Mom and Dad got Isaac and me a sewing machine for our wedding and we broke it out last night and figured out how it worked, how to thread the bobbin, how to put everything together. And then we sewed pillows! An easy start for the novice seamstress, I know, but you have to start somewhere. And you know what? They didn't turn out too badly! Isaac put his handyness to use last night, too, after we figured out the sewing machine, and made us a window box for a couple of our plants. I tell you what, that man can build anything. I'm a lucky girl. Also, here are a couple more pictures from couples' night earlier this week with our married friends. Oh, the cute couples...now that we're officially a real couple!!
So, married life. It's been three weeks now, and I still wake up every morning amazed that Isaac chose me. It's such a different experience getting to share so much of your lives together...you're together when you wake up, together when you're working on projects, together as you cook dinner, together in the evenings (at least the ones we're home for), together as you go to sleep at night. For me, it's extremely calming to have Isaac be such a constant presence in my life. I love it. I love him. It's wonderful to be married. But you know one thing I've learned in the past three weeks? I, unfortunately, didn't get any less selfish once I got married. Which is a bummer, because I think some small part of me was hoping that once we got married, I would immediately become this perfectly loving wife who always put her husband first and became completely selfless. All the wise counselors in my life had been telling me up to this point that marriage actually brightly highlights one's selfishness instead of reducing it, and I would always smile a confirmation of agreement, but it isn't until now that I feel like I'm getting a clearer picture of what they were actually saying. And so we learn. We love, we fall, we disagree, we talk things out, we take baby steps toward loving each other the way that God loves us. My incredible blessing is that Isaac is a man of grace and patience and he continues to love me with his deep, committed love through my selfish times. And you know what is really fascinating? The ups and downs, the laughter, the love, the selfishness, the grace, the frustrations, the forgiveness, the memories, all of these are what make up marriage. They're what make up life. And the intimacy that comes from walking through this life together is so, so worth being faced with my own selfishness - as long as I choose to take that selfishness and work to change it into God-honoring love for my husband. And so, we approach the end our third week together with excitement and anticipation of how our love will grow and mature in the next fifty years.

The Raining and the Pouring...

I'm looking out my window right now and it is bucketing down outside...so cool! I was just remarking to Isaac how every season I am convinced that that season is my very favorite (with the exception of winter of course, which is a tad too cold for my liking), but then the next season starts to bud and I remember how very much I love the next season as well. And this year is no different. I love the sunshine and warmth of summer, but this past week has been gray and blustery and I am now so excited for the falling leaves, the rains, the brilliant oranges and yellows, the cool, crisp, clear days that only fall brings, the sweaters and mugs of coffee. God did a good thing when he gave us seasons that change all year long. The rains of fall are bringing even more adventure to Isaac's and my lives as we have decided to continue biking everywhere until the snows fall and the roads become icy, which means we'll be riding through a lot of rainy days on our way to and from work. Not a problem, though, as the drowned rat look is one of my personal favorites :)
Well, we're home! And it's great to finally have the same home. The wedding was a wonderful, intimate gathering of family and a few close friends at a beautiful old historic home up here in the 'ham. It was just what we wanted and so much fun! We won't have all the pictures for a while, but when we get them, we'll be sure to share them with you guys. We headed down to Ocean Beach in California for our honeymoon and spent a lot of time just relaxing on the beach, exploring on our bikes, taking walks, and playing with the animals at the zoo. Isaac made a couple pretty incredible sandcastles and succeeded in wowing the under-seven crowd with his masterful designs. It was fun to see the little tykes ooohing and ahhhing and dragging their dads over to let them play with us and our sandcastle. Interesting fact of the day for you - Southern Californians apparently really, really like the single-speed bicycles. Up here, road bikes and mountain bikes are huge and the more gears you have, the better the bike is. But down there, everyone (literally everyone) was riding these one-speed cruisers around. It was a nice touch to get to bike around while we were down there, and the cruisers turned out to be a lot of fun, but going up hills is definitely more of a challenge when you only have one gear. The week away was nice, but we were ready to be back in the northwest by the end of it. No more hot, sticky days and smoggy air for us...we love the trees and fresh beauty up here! We came home and opened presents, and then spent the rest of the afternoon and the entire next day putting together our house, unpacking Isaac's things, putting away the new gifts, throwing away all the wrapping paper strewn all over the floor (as you can see, that was quite the job on its own), running errands, things like that. And the best part of it all? Isaac didn't have to go home to sleep at the end of the day. He already was home. And that, sigh, is a wonderful advantage to married life, my friends. Well, there will be more tales to come, but work is calling my name right now. Happy weekend!

Here are a couple pics from our friend, Ryan...

We're back...

...and happily married!! Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Hurst. Mmmm, that sounds good. As you can imagine, after being gone for a week and a half, we've come back to lots of craziness at work and lots of business at home putting our house together and starting our lives as a married couple, so this is a blog saying that there will be blogs starting soon, it just may take a couple days for everything to settle. But we're happy and in love and loving life! Talk to you all soon!

How far is a century?

It's 136 miles if you're on a bike, apparently. Part three of Isaac's bachelor weekend is a noteworthy accomplishment, I must say. Parts one and two included mostly large balls of flame and testosterone-filled entertainment, but for the last part, Isaac, Justin, and Tommy donned their ever so flattering bike shorts and joined hundreds of other adventurers on the Century bike ride. It's supposedly only 100 miles, but the boys ended up riding a grand total of 136 miles all around through every little town up here...nine hours of riding! And they loved it! Us proud wives (almost wife, I know) went to meet them at their half-way point, which was conveniently three blocks down the street from my house where we were filling a few of those nine hours being artsy. That's one of the great blessings in our lives, by the way. Two of my closest girlfriends up here happen to be married to two of Isaac's closest friends, so when the boys are off doing their boy things, us girls get to spend that time with each other. It just works out really nicely. So, here's the artsyness that we created...we bought a few old cupboard doors, covered them with canvas, then Lex and Mo painted over their canvas to make wall art. I just covered mine with three different prints of fabric. But they all turned out so cool! Here are Mo's...fun, huh? Want to know what else I got to do while the boys were riding the day away? Laundry! Which is only significant because our new place doesn't have any laundry on-site, so we get to go to the laundromat every couple of weeks for the next year. I've never been to a laundromat before, but I'll admit, I was kind of excited to get to go this weekend. Why, you might ask? I really have no idea other than there's something kind of romantic, independent, and adventurous about the whole thing. You know how your parents and all your friends' parents talk about how they barely got by their first years of marriage, or they only had two pots and pans their first year, or they only had $200 in their pockets when they married...things like that? Those stories always held a certain romanticism for me...life wasn't perfect or necessarily the ideal for them, but they were in love and they made a life for themselves together through whatever hardships came. Now, don't get me wrong, the laundromat is not a hardship, but it's just a little thing that has always been an easy convenience for us, and now that we're married, we get to spend our first year together going to the laundromat instead of having our own washer and dryer. Sigh. Isaac says my excitement about it will wear off rather quickly, and I'm sure he's right, but Sunday was my first time and it really wasn't that bad at all. It was just me, though. Next time it will be us because we'll be married (yes!yes!) and we'll get to make it a date.
Today is my last day of work which means no more internet access until we're back from the sunny beaches of California. Talk to you all then!