Kinda Sorta Spring Maybe Not Really

I realize I have not  updated on life in awhile, mostly because there hasn't been anything major to update on since I last wrote, but here it goes anyway.

I'm still working at my job, still doing the same thing, still somewhat bored most of the time but grateful I have a job with steady income and insurance, and I'm ever keeping my eyes open for advisor positions, which maybe one day I'll actually get. Cooper is still working his hospital bed delivery job, though it might be more accurate to say he is still on payroll because he rarely gets any extra hours apart from his monthly stipend. So he applied and got a security position at a golf resort/private ritzy neighborhood in town that has required him to work night shifts, which has been an adjustment but not quite as difficult an adjustment as I anticipated, so praise the Lord for that. He's almost working full-time with that, so it has been good to have extra income in that sense as well. He is considering going back to school in the fall to see about pursuing a computer science degree, but that has yet to be decided on fully. We will see!

Our new apartment/townhouse is great and I feel like I could actually stay in this place for a longer period of time. It's really feeling homey now, and having a cat is lovely. God really gave us a sweet kitty, and she's been a source of joy and entertainment and warm furry-ness for both of us.

We are both anticipating spring, but our town seems to not want to decide on a season, and when it does, it seems to like winter better. We are supposed to get a large snowstorm this weekend, and I'm praying it's the last of the season, because I'm really sick of winter. But I'm not holding my breath. We managed to take a short weekend trip south for a friend's wedding, and that was a nice change into warm scenery. I was also able to attend a book festival with the friend we stayed with and sit in on some author-led workshops about writing. That was helpful and enjoyable.

In two weekends we are planning a girls' trip to Phoenix and a night on a town, which I'm really looking forward to. In May, Cooper has planned a surprise early anniversary trip somewhere, I'm not sure where! I have some guesses, but I am trying not to think too much about it so I don't ruin the surprise! I am really looking forward to it though. We haven't had an actual vacation in a long time. The rest of the summer will probably consist of working for both of us, me auditioning for another musical (I really had fun with that last summer and would love to do it again) maybe some weekend jaunts here and there, and the arrival of two nephews in June (which will likely involve visits from out-of-town family). That will be good too.

As far as the God-walk, it has been going better. I've been reading my Bible more regularly. I have returned to Facebook because it's the way I keep in contact with so many people, but I've resolved to not start or engage in Facebook moral/political debates. I'm struggling a bit with loneliness and not feeling like I fit in anywhere at church, and dealing, at this very moment in fact, with some hurt feelings (mine) and trying to figure out what I need to apologize for and who I need to confront, if at all, and whether or not to remove myself from the situation entirely from here on out. We will see. I don't want to say more than that, but prayers are appreciated, if you think of it. Oh, and I'm writing again! Actually writing! I will probably not show anybody the draft (a general fiction novel) until it's completed (though I've already broken that rule with Cooper, but he can be the exception), but once it's done, I will show it to a select, gentle few, and then make it more available for feedback after that. But I'm excited to be writing something I'm passionate about again. It feels good.

Blessings to all of you!

Holiday Happenings

It's been awhile since I've blogged; the holiday season sort of bulldozed us with moving to a new place, family and friend commitments, and other busy fun. It was a good month and a half, but I'm glad to be able to take life a little slower now. I would include pictures with my rambling, but our internet has been down with no real hope from the company (they are really starting to annoy me), so pictures will have to wait. I hope you bear with me though!

Thanksgiving was spent in the San Diego area with Cooper's parents and family. We had a really nice time while we were there, enjoying the mild weather. California really has that going for it. We attended a church service with Cooper's parents on Thanksgiving day, and then had a mid-afternoon meal with them and his brother Chad and his wife, Sarah. We spent the next day touring around the beautiful beach areas with Chad and Sarah, having good sandwiches at a little place right near the coast and then walking around on the piers. I was particularly fascinated by the old ship that was docked there and took far too many pictures. I just like old stuff, I guess. We also walked around on the beach where there were some tide pools, just slow hang-out time that we don't get much of. Another blessing we got was the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with our friends Ross and Jessica, who moved to the L.A. area this past fall and we have missed our regular game/dinner nights with them. They met us at Dana Point and we had a  nice catch-up chat over frozen yogurt (by the way, I'm officially a fan of these self-serve frozen yogurt places that are popping up. You get to pick your flavor and toppings and give yourself just the portion you want, which means I spend maybe $2 on the treat. Right on!) We also made a thrift store run (California thrift stores are better than ours), landed some nice lamps to replace the cheap garage sale ones that were quickly going downhill that we had before, but the trip turned into a car break down the day before we left. Praise the Lord, we found a mechanic that happened to be open on a Saturday on a holiday weekend, and we were set to leave on schedule as planned. Cooper's Dad helped us out a lot in getting us a tow and paying for the repair. We are certainly blessed with the family we have!

The weekend before Christmas, we moved out of our old tiny cramped apartment into a new not-so-cramped-with-lots-of-storage townhouse! I'm so happy with our new place! The move went off without a hitch; my parents helped, as well as our friends Blake, John, Alia, and Cooper's brother Caleb, so everything went really fast. The boys lifted all the heavy stuff, Alia got the rest, Caleb used his engineering skills to pack the truck just right, and my Mom and I were freed up to clean the apartment as everything got moved out. We were done by four in the afternoon! The one and only downside of our new place is that it is not close to the direct bus line to campus, so Cooper is now driving me to work (I'm boycotting NAU's ridiculous permit prices and lack of parking). But otherwise, I'm loving it and looking forward to getting everything organized. We even have a washer and drier inside the new place which wasn't something we were expecting. Praise the Lord!

Christmas Adam was spent with the Young/Vaughan/Lanting clan at the Kachina house. We had a nice dinner, read the Christmas story, sang carols, opened a couple gifts, and generally enjoyed each other's company. Kale'a took me for a lengthy walk around the house (me bent at the waist, holding her hands, while she toddled happily along; I'm crazy about my niece!), Peter beat me solidly at chess, and Anne had fun looking at Cooper's fancy touch phone. I was not brave enough to try eggnog and I don't imagine I ever will be (sorry Grace!). Christmas Eve we spent attempting to organize our apartment and running last minute errands, and then went to a Christmas Eve service at Christ Church of Flagstaff, where my brother and his wife attend. We then went to my sister-in-law's sister's house for dinner and visiting, and were entertained by the antics of her young nieces, Olivia and Claire. Christmas day we went to church (low turn-out, which was sad), then went to my parents' house, were we lounged around, opened gifts, tried to keep the dogs from getting into too much trouble, and ate a yummy dinner provided by my amazing Mommy.

On the 27th, we got up at the crack of dawn and headed to Phoenix to fly out to Baltimore with my parents to see my extended family. We barely caught the flight on time, which made the airport kind of stressful. Airports stress me out to begin with, and being rushed didn't help. Flying was smooth from there though, and I officially appreciate the flight attendants on Southwest; they made all sorts of jokes during their safety lecture, like, "If you would like to smoke, we have a smoking section the wings, where we will also show the feature film, 'Gone with the Wind'" and "If the cabin pressure drops, stop screaming, let go of the passenger next to you, and pull down on the oxygen masks...". Good times. The trip was generally a lot of driving around to get to various people and sitting around talking to various people, but highlights included a visit to Fort McHenry, where a battle was fought that inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner, lunch with my cousin Erin who is four years younger than me and her new husband, Ben (they are both professional musicians and love Jesus so it was delightful to sit and chat with them), a walk around my childhood favorite, Rehoboth Beach on New Years, a New Years party family get-together, and thanking God my sick Grandma made it to one more year and seeing her with my mom's step-siblings. All in all, I love my family, am grateful for them, and always leave wishing we lived closer.

I just celebrated my birthday yesterday (26...what a boring age to turn). It was a lovely day, filled with not working (I took the day off), watching Pride and Prejudice (I did this before Cooper woke up so he wouldn't make fun of me too much), having a nice slow cup of morning coffee, and then we drove out to go buy a kitty! We ended up getting her from the Humane Society. Yes, we now have a new addition to our family of the feline variety. She came with the name Tuna but we thought that was horribly generic and boring so after some deliberation we renamed her Narnia. She's kind of tortoise shell in color with a black face, and she's very lovey dovey, which is exactly the kind of cat I wanted. For additional birthday celebrations, we went to my favorite restaurant, Oreganos, and then we went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which was really good. So it was a fantastic day, especially spending it with the bestest hubby in the world. :-)

I'm excited to see what God will do with us in the year to come. It's never dull.

Calvinism vs. Armenism

Nanowrimo update: 13,821 words. I'm not sure I'm going to make 50,000 by the end of the month!

And this article is fantastic. Short sweet, and answers a great question about Calvinism. http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2011/11/16/does-calvinism-make-god-a-moral-monster/

Fun in the Fall

So, although our lives mostly consist of work and crashing at home, Cooper and I have still managed to get out and have some fun these last couple weeks.

Cooper surprised me a couple months ago with a gift that caters to my nerdy passion (I firmly believe everyone has one, whether they admit it or not): Harry Potter! He got us school robes and wands and then to complete the costume, I ordered Gryffindor scarves. Except when we got them, we got a Gryffindor scarf and a Slytherin scarf, which I was just very offended by so I had to send  it back. How dare they think I'd want to associate myself with Slytherin?! :-P

So that was our Halloween costume, which we completed with British-style school uniforms and we wore them to a low-key party at the Lighthouse. See the pictures after the post (and thanks David for taking the pictures!)

(And if you are offended by Harry Potter, please see my post here before you comment on that! I've thought it through carefully!)

And it's nearly official...we are moving! In town, so no big exoduses away from here. We're moving two a 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath town home close to where we are now, though not nearly as convenient for the bus system, so I am going to have to get more creative with my commute to work. I'm excited for the extra space and a more house-like quality. Cooper's job is ending on the 19th, and he's searching for a new one. PLEASE PRAY. We're moving in December, so Christmas this year is going to be interesting. I will have to enjoy family and friends' decorations and not put up my own, I'm afraid. Oh well.

I love Christmas, and I'm starting to hear those silver bells. I keep wanting to play Christmas music but I'm holding back a bit because I don't want to be sick of it by the end of December. And we've already had our first snow; nothing catastrophic, but enough to stick and be cold and look wintery. I'm not really a fan of snow at all, but this one wasn't too bad, and it happened on the weekend so I didn't have to trudge to the bus stop in it. If only I would be so lucky all winter!

As far as for NaNoWriMo (or as Cooper calls it, Tiny Rhinoceros) ...I'm up to 8182 words. The goal is 50,000 by the end of the month, so I've got a loooooong way to go. I sort of cheated and am doing a novel I already started rather than from scratch, but I'm sort of okay with that. Now maybe I should go pound out a page or two rather than procrastinate here.

Cooper and I, with John in the middle.

Goofing off with Rob, aka Captain Jack Sparrow

Expelliarmus!!

Organization Attempt!

In an effort to be a good housewife even with a full time job, and channeling my inner elementary school teacher, I have made the chart below to keep myself organized. Tidy-up can mean anything, from cleaning the bathroom to vacuuming to general de-cluttering--I'm basically letting it happen on as-needed basis. For every job complete, I will put a sticker (I love stickers!) in the appropriate box. This will be placed on my fridge. Sunday does not have any chores because that day is for Jesus (though it's not like I won't do a devotion on Sunday). My goal is that if the whole thing is filled up for a week, I will treat myself to a reward; I'm thinking a new book. Prayers for this working for me are appreciated!

PS: Can I also be excited that I figured out how to save my chart as a picture to include on the blog?? :-)

Just Keep Swimming!

Well, I still have my job. Thanks for the prayers. I did not get the letter of reprimand, so now it's just a matter of keeping up the good work and improving where I still have weaknesses. One of those is developing more friendly working/social relationships with people, which is something I am not good at it. I tend to approach a job, sort of keep my head down at it, and then go home. It just doesn't work in this office, and makes people think I'm stuck up, and then a know-it-all if I do end up saying something, particularly if I express an opinion. Maybe I just shouldn't express any opinions. Sigh. Now, how I balance that without participating in conversations that I know I shouldn't participate in as a Christian is the big question. We'll see how it works out.

Cooper is job-searching yet again; his internship ends on November 19. We are praying for something full time so I can eventually be the stay-at-home wife/potential future mom. It may be out of the state, which is sort of scary but exciting at the same time. But God has brought us through this sort of thing before so I know He can do it again.

Otherwise, life moves along and we do our best to be obedient and faithful to the Lord, even if that's not in any flashy way. We're really pretty boring. But I trust the Lord is using us. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Musicals and Mayhem

I've been a long while in updating...sorry about that! As Hello Dolly approached opening weekend, we had non-stop rehearsals. It was pretty intense. But now it's over (sad/happy thing), and some pictures of the fun (thanks Alia and Cooper!) appear below. I would like to audition for something else in the future, though maybe not with FLOC; not super interested in the doctrinely-weird Jesus Christ, Superstar that they're doing next.

Another reason I haven't written much is because I've been really stressed out with work. Without getting into too much painful detail (though many readers may already know the circumstances as I sent out family/close friends an email about it), I've been given a letter of warning, which is the first step in deciding whether to fire someone. I've been working my tail off and praying to correct what I'm doing wrong (not a big sin issue or anything, I'm mostly just not very cut out to be a receptionist...which reminds me of a great Pam quote from The Office: "I just don't think many little girls grow up dreaming that they will be a receptionist!" ). Needless to say, I need prayer to do well at my job and be Christ's example in everything I do. If you think of it, please pray for me.

In general, life is a bit difficult at the moment. I'll just be real about that. It seems like one of those seasons fraught with little trials and little frustrations that sort of add up and can be overwhelming, but I'm comforted by the grace of Jesus, His unconditional acceptance of me, the knowledge that He is in sovereign control and has ordained these trials, and it doesn't hurt to sing to myself a verse of my favorite hymn now and then (Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken):

Man may trouble and distress me
'Twill but drive me to Thy breast
Life with trials hard may press me
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest
O 'tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me
Oh, 'twere not in joy to charm me
Were that joy unmixed with Thee
  
And crying on my sweet husband's shoulder always helps too. :-)

Me after the show, in my flapper-like ensemble. These photos are in no particular order.

Sunday Clothes! My dance partner, David, was really nice and kind of reminded me of my Pop-Pop.

Heather and I, as Harmonia Garden entertainment, carrying a large boar's head on a platter. Mmmmm.

My tango partner, Kevin. We really deserved that trophy all along. :-D

The cast on stage for the finale ultimo/bows.

It takes a woman/all powered and pink/to joyously clean out/the drain in the sink...

Before the Parade Passes By

Dancing waiter blurs! I'm one of those blurs, getting to resurrect my ballet skills (or what little ever existed of them)

The courthouse scene...It was all Mr. Vandergelder's fault.

My dear friend Alia and I, old roomies, and we got to be "twins" in the show.

During our first attempt at this shot, Brian, aka Cornelius Hackle, added himself to the picture.

Alia, Brian, and Suzy (Dolly) got a funny bit.

My favorite dance partner, Cooper.

More Parade

Dancing with a tray...I am twice the age of the rest of the corps de ballet. :-)

My Parade moment

Zion Adventures

Well all, Cooper and I are back in one piece from our camping adventure in Zion National Park with our extended-ish family: the Lanting/Vaughan/Young/Fitt clan. All in all, it was a successful, fun, and (mostly) relaxing trip. I had a lot of fun, though I am very glad to be home, showered, and looking forward to a soft, comfy bed tonight before reality commences again tomorrow. Here are some highlights of the trip:

As soon as we got into the park (for FREE, I might add, since Cooper works for the park service), we happened upon this big horn sheep...

...and its baby!

Cooper and I at the trailhead for Angel's Landing. We are hiking to the top of the rock that is sticking up behind us. GULP.

The views were great the whole way up. It was very hot though; we started the hike too late. Here is one of my many breaks in the shade.

Cooper has a tendency to go off-trail and explore.

Walter's Wiggles, the name for the crazy-steep switch-backs right before you get to the saddle, are notorious for how strenuous they are. I had the idea of wiggling at the end of each switchback as a motivational tool.

They frequently warn people not to do this hike if you are afraid of heights. There are good reasons for this.

A lot of people stop here. The sign reads: Strenous climb. Narrow route with cliff exposures. Hazardous during thunderstorms, and ice/snow conditions.

And in case you weren't deterred by the previous sign, this one a few yards ahead says that since 2004, 6 people have died from falls on this hike. The number six was changeable. GULP again. We were not deterred.

Cooper got this shot of me contemplating my insanity.

One of the drop-offs. I'm feeling a little vertigo just looking at the picture.

Praise God, someone had the brilliant idea of anchoring chains on the trail to the summit in the worst spots. I held onto those blessed chains for dear life. Seriously, if you don't know where you're going after you die, don't hike this trail!!

Cooper, of course, my hiking hero, cool as a cucumber for both of us.

The summit! We made it!

Picture proof that we survived.

Back on the lower ground the next day, taking a short trail with my adorable 7-month old niecey-poo, a cheerful camper.

It's gorgeous there.

We spent lots of time in the river near our campsite. This is Aimee pushing around one of the two-year-old twins in a floaty toy.

4-year-old Elijah on the crocodile.

Anne, my favorite 6-year-old.

The rope swing that both adults and kids tried.

Daring Peter!

I eventually tried it too. I was worried I wouldn't have time to plug my nose before the plunge. I'm not good at that breathing out of my nose thing under water. Fortunately, I did.

Crazy husband.

Anne splashing Cooper

Caleb, my brother-in-law, and wonderful Kale'a!

Grace and 2-year-old Ransom.

Aaaack! She's so squee-worthy!

Julie, Laura's (my sister-in-law) mom, and 2-year-old Berea, one of the twins.

Aimee with her nephew and youngest camper, Judah.

Anne is a good big sister.

We ran out of coffee and had only whole beans, so Andy and Aimee (Laura's brother and sister), grind them up. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Evening at our campsite was just lovely...it finally cooled off!

A last hike the night before we left. Me, Caleb, Laura, and Mike (Cooper took the picture).

Zion sunset.

The only thing we did that I don't have pictures of is tubing down the Virgin River outside of the park. I went on this trek thinking it would be a gentle float, but the minor rapids caused me once to lose my tube, and the second time to get dunked under for a few seconds, coming up coughing and sputtering and very bruised. According to those who went with me, I fell off backwards and head first, so apparently God was keeping me safe as my head was just fine. In fact, both my hat AND sunglasses stayed on through the whole ordeal! I really ought not to worry that He is watching out for me, and yet I do so often. Ed Young, awesome guy, suggested I end the trip there, walk with him up to the road, and wait for the rest of the party to finish up. I agreed, and despite some epic leg and knee bruises, I had fun tubing, and hope to try it again with more realistic expectations.

PS: To those readers of this blog who were on the trip and would like pictures, you are free to steal them from here, but I have many more that I have not added for the sake of space that I will send to you all in an email.