... YODA best ...

Our Valentine's Day this year was pretty low key! I had to work so we couldn't really do anything out of town, but we did manage to have a wonderful evening!

Nate woke up to these Valentine's all over the house (can we agree that they're awesome)?!!?!!

Nate picked me up for lunch and we went to Tap Rock, which was delicious as always!!

Instead of being super fancy and cooking all night we opted to grab a pizza at Papa Murphy's and then make dessert to go with it! While the pizza was cooking we made homemade Baklava, and it was SO delicious!!

We had a lovely evening and I am so grateful be married to my Valentine!!

Quiet Thoughts ...

For some reason I'm feeling quite introspective this morning ... It's a quiet morning at my house - Nate is at work, Talia (our roommate, in case you missed my last post) is rehearsing for her Worship Service - which I'll be attending later to hear her sing, and I'm feeling like it's the perfect time for me to dig deep!

It is really hard to believe that we have only been in Oregon for just over a year .... life here has gotten very comfortable and it seems like we have always been here. As I was coming back from driving Nate to work this morning I had to drop off a few pieces of mail and while I was stopped at the mail drop, I took this picture:

 

I remember back when Nate told me that Grants Pass was a possibility for his transfer and when I typed it into Google, this sign was the first thing that popped up. I remember feeling so intrigued by the sign and the scenery behind it - the town is definitely not perfect, but there are days when I cannot believe that I am lucky enough to live in this beautiful area where it truly Is The Climate.

Every time I get to drive down 6th street, or over the Parkway, or to Medford or Eugene I am struck by how completely beautiful it is here! Cache Valley is beautiful too - I mean no disrespect to where I come from - but there is something about this area that tugs at my heart strings and makes me feel like I'm at home! (Not to mention the fact that we are only two hours away from the ocean, and that the ocean calls to me every single day ...)

We have started developing our 'family' out here - people we work with, friends we are making, children we are adoring, and it is making life so much sweeter for us. It was really hard for the first couple of months to be away from everyone and everything that we knew, but now that we have settled in and have started living our life out here, we know this is where we are meant to be.

That being said, however; it is still really hard to be away from our families and our friends and the things and people that we love so much! We have so many loved ones that are struggling with so many different things right now and it would be so much easier to be able to give physical and helpful support if we were there. It's hard to feel responsible and compassionate for so many people but to be so far away from them - I really feel that this is my challenge right now. Where do I draw the line between supporting them, loving them and praying for them and feeling like it's up to me to help them, save them and be there for them?

I suppose that is the true reason for this post. Yes, life is good here for Nate & I in Grants Pass - we have our struggles but we are also solid enough that we can work through those struggles together to make sense of them and to handle them, but what about the rest of the world? What about those that I know personally, what about those in Grants Pass who need help that I can't touch, what about those throughout the Country and those throughout the World. I've never understood the concept of certain people being born into privilege and other people being born into poverty - there is so much hurt and sorrow in the world that sometimes it threatens to suffocate me. My eyes have been opened so wide since we have moved out of sheltered Logan, Utah and I have seen so much pain in the eyes of the Children that we serve at the Club.

I'm not really looking for a specific response, I'm just putting my thoughts down because they seem to be flooding my mind - I need to sort them out and work with God on adjusting my perspective and the things that I am feeling ... I'll keep you posted.

God Bless and Happy Sunday.

Random January Fun {2014}

January kind of flew by, as they all seem to do these days ...

Aside from the Barn Party that I posted about below

it was a pretty "normal" month for us - which was good -

from August through December last year it seemed like a

mad rush to take in everything that had happened ...

Anyway, here's what we did:

I was able to join in on a Girls Day and go to Medford with some of my new friends -

we ate at Panda Express (YUM), went to Target and stopped by the mall as well!

This was my FIRST Girls Day since we moved to Grants Pass and it was fantastic!

Nate also took this very awesome picture of the moon behind the big tree by our house!

I CHOPPED my hair off! I woke up one morning and decided that Iwas

ready!! When Nate picked me up from work I asked him to take me straight

to the salon and this is what came out ... At first glance and before I knew how

to actually style this cut, Nate told me that I looked like a 10 year old girl:

Luckily I figured out some tricks - I'll post the better pictures in another post ...

I was able to tag along on a field trip to the local Fire Station with our Torch Club -

as they were giving us the tour they showed us this piece of a beam that was

brought back from the Twin Towers. It moved me to see the beam (especially after

seeing Ground Zero several years back) and I had to get these pictures of it ...

SELFIES!!

We have/had an extra bedroom and at the beginning of January our friend Talia

started renting it out! It has been fun for me to have company in the evenings

when Nate is at work and Nate has a "fun" time trying to explain home field advantage

to her when he is watching the Broncos play!! She was so kind to draw this picture

on our white board (btw, the person taking the nap was me)!!

More snuggles on the couch - I'm pretty sure we could get a gold medal in snuggling ...

We had a SUPER yummy breakfast at Ma Mosa's, where they let you draw on the table ...

Nate made a super yummy spinach alfredo pizza with some leftover alfredo sauce

that made earlier in the week - yum, yum, yum!!

As you can see, it was a pretty chill month - which was perfecto!!

The Barn Party

I can't believe that it is the middle of February - I've been a little MIA

because I spend my days at work building a website and the last thing

that I want to do when I get home is stare at my computer screen ...

however; it is Saturday and I've gotten A LOT done today that

has nothing to do with being on the computer, so I'm ready to do a few updates!

After the first of the year Nate & I were invited to attend our first Barn Party!

It is traditional for everyone to bring their dead Christmas trees to the pary

for a bon-fire, eat chili and square dance! Nate wasn't crazy about the idea,

but he obliged to my puppy dog eyes and my sweet, charming smile (hee hee)!

We ended up having a WONDERFUL time! They had prepared several

different types of chili, among bear and elk, and Nate had fun trying them out!

Here is the Facebook post and discussion that followed after he ate the bear ...

I talked Nate into trying out some square dancing and as much as he 

hates to admit it, he did have a little bit of fun dancing with me in the barn,

you know ... do sa do style!! We danced through a couple of the sessions

and then we spent some time sitting out by the fires ... it was pretty

fun watching those Christmas Trees go up in flames ...

It was a really fun night and big step towards our induction

into the hick life that comes with living in Grants Pass!!

Random December Fun {2013}

December was a busy, busy month and it flew by (like they all seem to do)!

Here's a little look into what we did:

We decorated for Christmas and watched 'Elf' - our FAVORITE Christmas movie!

We went to my work Christmas Party!

 

Nate saw this BEAUTIFUL sunset!

We got a big snow storm (the biggest one that they've had in Grants Pass for YEARS)

and it turned into ice ... not so fun to drive in but it was really pretty!!

(This is one of the bushes outside our front window.)

My Dutch Bros chai whispered sweet nothings to me ...

I attended The Nutcracker Ballet with some of our Club Kids! My date was Brooke - my 'adopted' little sister here in Grants Pass (she is the daughter of one of my co-workers and I adore her!!)

Nate's store 'lost' a couple of lights on Christmas Eve ... luckily no one was hurt ...

We gave our garage a good cleaning and organizing ... it is now beautiful and organized!!

We also had a WONDERFUL Christmas, which I will post about later!!

Merry Christmas!! {2013}

We had a very wonderful Christmas this year! I was happy to have quite a bit of time off work and Nate had a couple days off as well - so it was great!! This year we were really low key and relaxed about it all - in fact, all our packages that we sent to family and friends were sent several days AFTER Christmas because even though we had them ready to go long before the big day, we weren't in the mood to stress over getting to the Post Office!! Plus now this way Christmas for them will last just a little bit longer - and than can never be a bad thing, right? ;)

Anyway - here's what we did over the course of several days ...

On the Saturday before Christmas we met up with Talia for a tasty pancake breakfast

and a wonderful walk around the City Center and the Christmas Square!

On the Monday before Christmas Santa visited the Club - I even got to sit in for a picture with him ...

Ooh, here's the proof that all your packages and cards were ready on time ;)

Nate had to work on Christmas Eve Evening until about 7, so I joined Talia & her family in attending the Edgewater Christmas Service! It was a wonderful service and it was a great way to feel the Christmas Spirit and to truly celebrate the Season!

When Nate got home from work we jumped in the car and drove to Riverside Park so that we could see the "Lights In The Park" that we kept hearing about ... it was a fun little drive with some cute Christmas scenes!!

This year we added a few ornaments to our tree: 

The ornament on the right is made of sand that we brought home from our trip to Bandon in October - it has Bandon 2013. In addition to the sand it has a few small shells & rocks from the beach!

These ornaments are extra special to us this year ... we made the one on the left through Shutterfly and the one on the right was made for us by our nephew Scout years ago - it has always been in my 'special' box in our room but we pulled it out this year and will now hang it on the tree from now on!

Happy Christmasing!!

Our traditional Christmas cereal!

And our traditional Christmas Gooey Rolls!

On Christmas day we headed over to my friend Renee's home and had breakfast with her sweet family! It was a fun morning with lots of laughs and yummy food!

We spent the rest of our Christmas Day (and the following day) Skyping with family and playing video games!!  It was a really restful couple of days and we had so much fun just being together!

We had a very blessed Christmas this year and we have much to be grateful for!