::the little pieces of our lives::

Monday, October 10, 2011

fAmiLy

I have been thinking a lot about family lately. I have an older brother with whom I am very close with. He calls multiple times for no reason at all throughout the day. Yes, sometimes it drives me crazy but when I think about it, on the days he doesn't call, I wonder where my phone call went. I think it would be really weird if he stopped calling every day! I talk to my mom almost every day and my dad once or twice a week. I don't know if that is normal or average but I like knowing that I am close to my family. My immediate family is who I have here in WA and almost all of my large extended family is in NY. I have an Uncle and two cousins in Texas. These two cousins are closest in age to my brother and I and yet I know hardly anything about them. I have four cousins in NY that are in the high school/middle school range. I feel guilty about not knowing much about their lives. It honestly makes me sad. We moved away from NY when I was nine. My extended family is very close to each other and I miss being around all of them. I always wanted to be the cool older cousins that they could come to and it is hard to come to reality and find that as much as I don't know about them... they don't know about me! I was so excited that two of my cousins came to my wedding last summer. I was crushed when the other four didn't make it. I was crushed when one of my second cousins didn't come because he and his side of the family were not getting along. I wish everyone could have been there but I understand that life doesn't always work perfectly.

Last weekend, we were in Wenatchee visiting our newest niece. This past weekend everyone came to Bellingham for our niece Avery's baptism. This coming weekend, we are heading to Sammamish for dad's birthday. The following weekend, we are going back to Wenatchee for a baby shower. We are surrounded by family all the time and I love it! However, it is hard sometimes when we are surrounded by sister in laws, brother in laws, mother in laws, father in laws.... yes, all the in laws... and not find myself thinking about my extended family and wishing they were closer.

Sometimes, I feel guilty that it has been two years and I haven't been back to NY. I think about all my childhood memories at each of my grandparents houses. At my mom's parents, we would run to the basement and play pool and drink orange juice and club soda just like Aunt Toni. We took our annual summer trip to Florida, all the girls and my brother. We had the big family bbq's in the summer and everyone was there. We would always go see movie's with my dad's parents and play uno out on the deck. On my birthday, my Aunt Kathy took me for mani and pedi's and my Aunt Tre and Uncle Gerard took us to all the cool places in the city and of course the Thanksgiving Day Parade! I miss being a kid but most of all I miss my family.

I am looking forward to next year. We are planning on making a trip out to NY over Memorial Day. My brother is getting married in August and we will hopefully see EVERYONE out then. I love my family and I miss them. I am so grateful to have inherited such wonderful in laws as well! The more family the merrier!!!

until next time...

Makes your heart melt

Emma

Avery

Mal

Emma Mallory Avery

Avery

Don't they just make you smile! I love being an Aunt!

until next time...

Thursday, October 6, 2011

I believe in God

I was on my way home from small group aka bible study tonight and my radio was on praise 106.5 per usual. The song that was playing was unfamiliar to me. I have realized in church that I really enjoy the music. It is what talks to me and the words resonate inside me. I repeated the lyrics to myself as I quickly pulled up youtube. Below is the song "bring the rain" by Mercy Me... have a listen!

It is catchy isn't it?!? I love the slides they put with it as well. It has a verse from Ecclesiastes below in the comments. The verse talks about how God has a plan for each and everyone of us. Although we may face many problems that seem to contradicts God's plan, these shouldn't be barriers to believing in him, but rather opportunities to discover that, without God, Life's problems have no lasting solutions!
The lyrics say:
So I pray
Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that bring you glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise you
Jesus, bring the rain
We should lean on our faith and God even more when curve balls are thrown at us. We should not ask why me? Why would you make me go through this? But rather trust in him that all things will be okay!
"Clouds in our lives are often sent to bring the showers of blessings"

until next time...

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Ch ch ch changes

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit

Recently, I have realized I am no longer in that in between stage. I have made it to the women's section. You know when you were younger and you started in the "girls" section and then you were forced into the "juniors." I did not want to go to the "juniors" section! Well, I developed a little faster than the rest and had to go to the "juniors" clothes first. Yes, before all my friends did and that was a tragedy! Then, I was very content in juniors and it wasn't that the sizes didn't fit any longer but rather the bright pinks and "little kid" style didn't mesh with me any longer! When I bought my first pair of jeans in POV, point of view for all you non nordy folks, I kinda cringed. But they fit and looked good and they said size 2, so I HAD to buy them! DUH!

No, this is not about changes in my body. However, it is a little weird when things don't fit the way they used to. I'm only 26! What happens at 46? Oh don't tell me!!! Anyway, it is about a switch in my brain that turned on. I used to be the Western Washington College student. Now, those students drive me bonkers! They have taken over Fred Meyer, attend and host LOUD parties at all hours of the night, act like their shit doesn't stink....news flash it reaks...etc. I have realized that I do NOT like living in a college town! I can't change the fact that this is a college town but I can move or change my thinking on it. I do not have a problem in the summer with changing my thinking on them or this city. Because, in the summer most of the student are gone and I love what Bellingham becomes! However, the rest of the year I could do without the town being clogged up! Ch ch ch changes... maybe a move? But I love my new job, so I guess I better learn to think differently about it!

I also need to think about something else differently. Sometimes I don't give myself enough credit. At times, I feel like I sell myself short. I graduated from high school with a 3.8 gpa and 85 college credits. I worked hard to achieve my bachelors degree. I spent a grueling year with crazy girls to receive my cosmetology license and I feel rather silly saying I was valedictorian...but I was! But right there, is where I don't give myself enough credit. Beauty school valedictorian sounds funny, but it was hard work that I need to be proud of. Why do I let what society had deemed hair stylists to be or lack as a reason to not feel good about my accomplishments? I think about Western and how I went there to be a Bio major and came out Comm. Why, because I didn't think I could pass the Chem series that Bio majors had to take. Did I sell myself short? Should I have tried harder? I still wish I had done Bio and not Comm but we cannot change what is already done. Then most recently, I went for dental assisting and not hygiene. Why? Because it as a shorter program! Did I sell myself short because I didn't want to spend another two years in school for another degree? I feel like hygienists are looked at more highly than assistants but is that just me needing to change my own mindset?

I was assisting with a composite filling yesterday and the patient wanted to be on nitrous. Of course I am like a little kid that must know everything, and I started asking the Dr. about the gas. We began talking molecules and how their characteristics affect the way the gauge on the tank goes down. When you read the oxygen tank, the arrow gradually goes down and then at zero you know it is empty. The nitrogen arrow goes from full and then empty and nothing in between. I LOVE this kind of stuff. I LOVE science! The Dr. looked at me and said, "Are you sure you don't want to become a dentist?" And for a split second I thought about it. This is where my thinking change happened. I know I could do it. I could be a dentist and get through all the schooling and even come out on top. However, I do not want to start my own business. I do not want to deal with growing client/patients, been there done that with hair! I do not want to worry about law suits! Although I know I could be a dentist, I do not want to journey down that path. I decided I am not selling myself short but rather choosing the jobs and education that I find pride in. Where my best is highlighted and I enjoy what I do! I need to remember it isn't about climbing the ladder to VP CEO or what have you... for me it is about loving what I do and being the best at it!

until next time...

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Loving Pinterest!!! I can get ideas for recipes, diy ideas, future home ideas, etc! How funny is this idea!?!?!

What fun ideas do you have?

until next time...

Thursday, September 15, 2011

One year down

Yes people, we did it! We had our first anniversary August 21st, 2011. Seriously, has it been a year already? I could have sworn we were just getting married! It was an amazing and wonderful year for us. It was simple, easy, and filled with love! We thought it would be fun to go to breakfast with Pastor Randy, he married us, and his wife Pam. They are two of the most inspirational people I know. We had so much fun with them at our 2 hour catch up breakfast! We are going to go to breakfast with them every year on our anniversary... maybe we can make it more than that!

On our actual anniversary weekend, we had John and Mandi's wedding to go to on hood canal. Why not make a weekend of it?!? We did VRBO.com(If you have never looked at that site you need to right away! So cheap to stay anywhere!!!) and stayed at an awesome house on the ocean for two nights. It was simply amazing! The owner lived in the house next door. She stocked the pantry with pasta, all the baking goods, waffle and pancake mix, tons of teas, fresh coffee beans, etc. The fridge had 12 dozen organic eggs, cheese, 2 types of milk, bagels, cream cheese, etc. The best part was the dock! I could have sat on the dock for hours and hours and been content! It was gorgeous to look out at the water and have the Olympic mountains peeking in over the top. The first night we sat down on the dock. The lady who owned the house set out two chairs and a bottle of wine in a bucket at the end of the dock. Then, she came down and brought appetizers for us! It was like having your mom around when you needed her and then she would disappear! She gave us all the stuff we needed to pull muscles off the dock and this amazing recipe to cook them up in! Yes, she even gave us 90% of the ingredients to make it too! We don't get to relax often with both of us doing school last year and working. This was the perfect ending to a busy busy year... the good kind of busy! Before we left on Sunday, we went out kayaking in the ocean. It was very warm! How cool is this, we got to see seals out there popping their little heads out of the water! We are for sure going to go back... who knows maybe we will have to make that a tradition too once a year!