Facts and Thoughts and Et cetera

Holy Moley! I'm blogging. Amazing.

I really didn't mean to take a blogging break. Life just really, really really got in the way. 

So, now I'm not really sure where to start. Because blogging material has been piling up while I haven't been blogging. Funny how that happens. 

We'll just start at the top, and go from there. Generally the best plan. I really hate it when I get out of my blogging groove... I blog first of all for me, and it feels like part of my life gets all off-kilter when I stop.

Anyhoo... so yeah. All the pictures in this post are from our first "west-side" hike on my birthday, back in the beginning-ish of December. 

The pictures and the post aren't going to always have anything to do with each other, because that's how I roll when I'm trying to cram in all the high points, low points, and important pieces. I'll caption them where necessary. It'll be a multi-layered blog post. Or something like that.

So, our hike took place on the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River. Being that it was December, and December pretty much sucks in every possible way due to the fact that my husband works insane hours and days through that month, we headed off to hit Rainier as soon as he left work on Saturday. Except Rainier has lame rules about even vehicles equipped with 4WD/AWD needing to have chains on board, and the chains we want to purchase are a mail-order-only-super-expensive type of thing, so no Mt. Rainier for us. The girls were ridiculously overdressed for the weather we encountered, but they already had their snow gear on when we realized we couldn't go to Rainier, and they miss snow so much they couldn't bring themselves to take it off, so they wore their snow clothes on our hike.

 The fact that we couldn't go out to Rainier ended up being a blessing in disguise, because about a half mile into the hike we realized that Garrett and I weren't going to make it very far. I was BEYOND nauseous, and gagging/almost puking about every 8 steps, and he was so tired with his crazy work schedule he was pretty much falling asleep where he stood. Our children of course, were blissfully happy, and bouncing off trees and rocks and running and yelling and soooo happy, we felt really bad about breaking their happy little hiking hearts and heading back for the car pretty shortly into the hike. I'm really glad they didn't go all drill sergeant on us, and insist that we carry on, as we've been known to do to them from time to time. :-)

Yes, not just moss, but ferns grow on trees here. So weird and wet.

 So let's see, what else?

I'm nearing the end of the first trimester... just a few more weeks, depending on when you figure your first trimester is actually over. Some people say 14 weeks, some say 16, some say 12. I usually think 12, only because I've never actually managed to carry a baby past 36 weeks. So, in theory, my first trimester should also be shorter, right?  Hopefully I'll be able to get full term with this one. Anyway, the first trimester was really bad at first, I was SO sick and tired. Then shortly before Christmas I got HORRIBLY sick... like I couldn't get out of bed for a full day. I thought it was some sort of dastardly flu bug from the very depths of hell, or something. Awful. And, in the midst of my sick Garrett bought me a bottle of vitamin water (the low sugar, more natural vitamin-ey stuff from Glaceau') I drank about a quarter of one of those bottles, and felt like a new person immediately. So, in retrospect I think a lot of my morning sickness and exhaustion stemmed from not being properly hydrated. Because I was drinking water constantly-like way more than was reasonable-and I could never feel satisfied... just sloshy and gross. It reminded me of when I had heat exhaustion one summer. Since then I've been drinking one bottle of Vitamin Water every day, and I feel so much more like myself, it's amazing. Still definitely have nausea and morning sickness, but nothing like before that little revelation. All my potassium, sodium, etc., tests show up normal... the only explanation they could give me is maybe I need more than the normal amount to function properly. Very strange. I need to get a shock collar or something to remind me to drink electrolytes instead of just plain water.

Am I the only person whose love of cheese, bacon and chocolate are not even in the slightest bit affected by the first trimester sickness? No? Ok, good. I swear, the first trimester turns my appetite into a 5 year olds--Macaroni and Cheese, Pepperoni Pizza, Spaghetti... etc. These are the only things that sound good. Glad to be emerging from that.

So. Other things that have left me feeling a little bit like my punching bag after it gets beat for a while... swaying, dizzy, canaries fluttering about my head...

We sold our house!!! Yes. Actually, more accurately stated it would be, God sold our house. Thanks to all our friends and families who sent up so many prayers on our behalf. It was a horrible, awful, no good, very bad process. Constant hiccups, horrible pain, not any sort of fun. That being said, it could have been SO much worse, so we're SO thankful for how it went.

 This has been an interesting move. Interesting because it's the second move we've done with the company Garrett works for, and it's been so fascinating to watch it unfold, and see how God has worked based on what we need now, versus what we needed 4 years ago when we moved to Wenatchee. When we moved to Wenatchee, looking back, I feel like God specifically gave us a sense of His presence in everything--from the little details to the big details. From making it completely obvious that we were supposed to go, to facilitating a really quick (slightly painful, but nowhere near as bad as this time) sale of our house in a down market, to answering prayers before we asked them... really little (seemingly inconsequential things) like when we needed firewood for our 6 week campsite stay, and I (half-heartedly, I'll admit, who prays for firewood? was my thought at the time.) prayed for it, and not 30 seconds later Garrett called me to say that there was free pear wood on the side of the road to the airport (goosebumps!), and when we needed an extra 2 weeks at our 5th Wheel campsite and I procrastinated in going and talking to the office about it, because I dreaded it--I didn't know what we were going to do, as there were ZERO empty 5th wheel sites in the entire area... so I procrastinated until the last minute, and finally drug my feet all the way down to the office to see if they could do anything for us for the extra two weeks we needed. And, that very morning the guy who was supposed to be in our spot the day our month was up had called, and said he couldn't come for another two weeks. God's hand was even in my procrastination--saving me loads and loads of panic and stress. And, I can look back now, and see that these answers, and SO many more, all of which I could never list were what we needed at that time--Garrett was learning a new job in a really stressful environment, and I was going from being an employee to a stay-at-home-mom--not a very good one, I'm afraid. Constant floundering. And, although this move is more recently finished with, I can look back on it now too, and see that a more "silent" God who was simply moving behind the scenes in an equally loving, but not so apparent way (at first glance) is what we needed this time. I think maybe last time He needed to carry us completely, and make it obvious that He was doing so. This time (with the experience of His obvious work for us in our heads) we got a little bit of a kick in the pants--that prompted Garrett and I to take what we've learned through our years together, and apply it. To work together, to hammer things out, to trust even though we can't see, and hopefully make us stronger, and make our faith stronger in a different (and deeper) way.

 Shortly after we got married, it became apparent that moving was probably going to be part of our life. This was okay, even exciting. But, it's scary too. And, occasionally other opportunities would come up that we would explore, and pray about... and at that time--I don't really remember exactly when, but probably about two years after we got married I started praying very specifically about change. My daily prayers (for years now!!!!) have included this line... that God would help us be brave enough to leap when scary changes came along... and, I read that now, and I just laugh. Because I think when I started praying it I was (of course) only imagining only those cool, awesome, amazing changes--you know, take your whatever pie-in-the-sky idea and insert it here--those sorts of changes, not the tough ones or the tough details that are a part of those changes.

PNW Abbey Road :-)

 And through the combination of these two moves, I've realized that God has answered that prayer in SO many ways.  Through our experiences of constant answer to prayer in moving to Wenatchee He gave us the gift of knowing that His hand was in this change too and what felt like silence from God was simply waiting for His timing--some days I'll admit, I clung to this fact despite a lot of desperation in my heart. And, I will say that He is faithful, even when I am not. Because my husband has this freakish ability to just sort of bump along and trust, but I fret. Personally, I think it would be exceedingly handy if we could meet it the middle and maybe both just fret a little and bump along faithfully a little.

Regardless, somehow the sort of vague and continuous answer to that prayer that my eyes have been opened to through this move has comforted me immensely. And, as my husband says far too cheerfully, and somewhat constantly, "You don't have adventures until things don't go according to plan!" or "The best stories are the one's where everything fell apart and nothing went according to plan!" Or something along those lines. It's so very true. Above all else, the answer to that prayer has been an internal work within ourselves... a step-by-step development of our attitude about change and growth. It's not always pleasant, but it is ALWAYS worthwhile.

And, one more answer to prayer that I received during this process, that was a huge comfort, and is really kind of a funny story...

When I was between the ages of 5 and 7, I wanted a pair of red, high-topped Converse MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD. And, I prayed very desperately for them, for about two years.

I have ALWAYS been a shoe girl. And, it proves to me how much God cares about the minutiae of our lives, that he would speak to me through my lifelong passion for shoe fashion. (Awesome rhyme if I do say so myself!)

Because, being that I was the oldest of 5 kids, and my mom (wisely) ruled the budget with an iron fist, there was NO POSSIBLE WAY I was ever going to get shoes that cost that much money.

I was also REALLY impatient. (This is important.)

So, anyway, I prayed for two years for those super-cool shoes. And, my prayer was not answered as I thought it should. I still have never owned a pair of Converse... not even one. I'm okay with that now, a high-top pair would be cool, maybe, but it's my personal opinion that the low ones are unremarkable. And, I always wondered about that prayer--I mean, to a normal person this might not seem like a big deal, and most people would probably have forgotten about it. But, I am a shoe fanatic, and I always wondered at it--not exactly bitterly, but maybe close. I mean, would it really have been so hard for God to toss a kid a pair of shoes she really wanted?

I was also REALLY impatient.

When we left Wenatchee to live in hotels over here and start searching for a place to live, my darling Keira forgot her Keens at my Uncle and Aunt's house. Keira wears her Keens EVERY. DAY. She loves them like a fat kid loves cupcakes. Hence the reason when I told the girls to get their favorite shoes for our new baby announcement post, she got her Keens. So, she forgot them, and the only other pair of shoes she had that fit her were high-top pink Converse, hand me downs from a cousin. (Because I'm not paying that much money for kids shoes... hmmmm... sounds familiar. Haha.) So, for four weeks (while going in and out of houses, I might add) I had to wrestle those stupid friggin' shoes onto her feet, and wrestle them off, and deal with the laces, and THEY. DROVE. ME. COMPLETELY. BANANA. SANDWICH. I HATE THOSE SHOES.

And, I am SO much more patient about things like that now than I was when I was a kid.

I can guarantee you I would have HATED those shoes within approximately three days. Despised them. I was horribly impatient, did I mention that?

Huh. Between 22 and 25 years later, I realized that all along, God had answered that silly little kid's prayer. And, he knew why, even though she didn't.

And, He knows me well enough to know that if I'm straddling my kid's leg, and wrenching on her foot, and tugging laces, and muttering and He whispers, "remember... shoes... I know best..." I'm going to perk up and say, "I'm sorry! Could you repeat that!?! Shoes?!?!?! SHOES?!?!? Shoes?!?!? I didn't quite catch that! I'm listening! I'm listening!!"

Amazing.

This is possibly my weirdest post ever. Maybe not. There's been a lot of weird ones. But, to finish it off, I'll leave you with a quote from a book that I was reading as the final documentation on our house sale was closing. (If you're still here.)

It's by Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace, A Vocabulary of Faith. And, this is the second book of hers that I have read, and I always really appreciate and am encouraged by her writing. She's a poet, and comes from a more Catholic, liberal Christian perspective. I've wondered why with that background, I appreciate her writing so much, and I think it's because, 1.) She worships my Savior. I can meet with her on that level, first of all, and appreciate her path, and her heart for it very much. and 2.) Her story and her growth throughout it is fascinating to me, and 3.) I always find myself reading her slightly suspiciously--because her language of her beliefs is so different from mine, I really have to read slowly and process it as I read it, to pick it apart, and see what I agree with, and what I don't. But, I think that's good, because as I read her, I'm constantly re-evaluating what I believe, and I appreciate that challenge. It's always so nice to read something, and feel yourself mentally expand/grow as you read it. So I'm both challenged and encouraged at the same time.

The one thing that drives me slightly nuts about her books is that she almost never brings what she's talking about full circle to the finished work of Christ. I find my irritation at this slightly ironic, because I've always gotten a bit bent out of shape at those who can't speak knowledgeably about anything Bibical, other than to bring everyone else's scriptural insight BACK to the finished work of Christ. Haha. That'll teach me.

Anyway, this quote is lovely, I think, and I've returned to it many times in the past 6 weeks, because it encouraged me so much when I read it the first time.

She's speaking of Mary's reaction to the news that she would bear God's child, and speaking of the encouragement Mary's reaction has given her, 


"When a place or time seems touched by God, it is an overshadowing, a sudden eclipsing of my priorities and plans. But even in terrible circumstances and calamities, in matters of life and death, if I sense that I am in the shadow of God, I find light, so much light that my vision improves dramatically. I know that holiness is near. 


And, it is not robed in majesty. It does not assert itself with the raw power of empire (not even the little empire of the self in which I all too often reside), but it waits in puzzlement, it hesitates. Coming from Galilee, as it were, from a place of little hope, it reveals the ordinary circumstances of my life to be full of mystery and gospel, which means "good news"."


Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, p 31 Can't remember the proper way to cite anymore, but that'll do. Amen.

So, I think this oughta wrap up this post. I should be cleaning my bathrooms right now, but that's going to make me throw up, (my bathrooms aren't that bad, it's just my gag reflex is pretty bad right now. Ok, maybe my bathrooms are bad.) and I've been working on this post for a week now. I should publish it. I'll reward myself with catching up on my friends blogs after I scrub. Yep. Good plan.