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.