The New Routine is in Full Swing

We are almost completely moved.  It's only been going on for the better part of 2 months.  I'm nothing if not efficient.

Once all the moving is done, I can finally focus on life.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not checking out or anything, but it's hard to remember to search through magazines for a picture that starts with the letter "M" for Zoe's school project, sew a bear onto your daughter's AWANA vest, prepare for the story time at said AWANA, find a pair of ballet flats that you love and are somewhere in the stack of 5 boxes currently in front of your closet and remember to charge your phone. 

I know that sounds silly, I do always remember to charge my phone!  Life is a bit hectic still and the holidays are upon us.

I know what you're thinking.  I've lost track of time and my ballet flats.  We are 10 days into birthday season.  We have, at a minimum, one birthday a week until mid-October, plus our anniversary.  Honestly, I like the anniversary celebration a whole lot more than my birthday for several reasons, but mainly because I feel like we've accomplished something.  With a birthday you've been alive for 34 years.  Yeah, congratulations, you've been breathing for 34 years.  Yeah you!  Here's some cake!  Don't get me wrong, I love birthdays, but I just don't feel like they really represent anything great now. 

Unlike our girl's birthdays.  Zoe is super excited as her birthday is the next in line.  She always tells people it's her second birthday, but last night I told her it's her fifth birthday.  Now the word fifth is her favorite word.  She thinks it's so fun to say.  Really, she'll be a whole hand, so that's a huge accomplishment!  Plus she's no longer calling it her second birthday, so another accomplishment!  Yeah Zoe!

Anyway, as I was saying, I like the anniversary better.  I feel like that 6 on our imaginary anniversary cake means something.  I envision a cake with camouflage decoration, a bride in her gown with camouflage paint on her face pointing a gun off one side of the cake and the groom, dressed in a tux with a camouflaged painted face, pointing his gun off the other side.  In a kinda "I got your back" type scene. 

In many ways that's how our marriage feels.  We're both fiercely protective of our marriage and of each other.  No matter what, I know N has my back.  For the last 6 years, he's been keeping his post.  I've had friends come and go, but he's always been there in the trenches with me.  He encourages me, loves me inspite of my quirks, supports me and holds me accountable. 

That proverbial "6" that will be on our imaginary camouflage cake this year has more weight that I can fully describe.  It's the milestone in life that I'm most proud of.  In spite of all this chaos and moving and settling into a routine, he's my constant. 

Tomorrow we celebrate this milestone.  Our anniversary tradition is to attend a concert.  This year Switchfoot came to the Fair on our anniversary.  I have a feeling they did it just for us.  I wonder if I can convince N to wear camouflage paint on his face to the concert.  Maybe I will so when I eat my second elephant ear, they won't recognize me. 

A Mini Us

As N and I watch Zoe, we're fascinated by how she can be so much like me and so much like N and yet so much just herself.  As she gets older, I see much of me coming out in her, yet with a sense of adventure that is all N. 

Yesterday she had to call daddy.  She stood at the phone with her hand on her hip and proceeded to talk, nonstop about things.

Daddy, I wanted to call and let you know that I'm fine and I miss you.  Right now mommy and I are with the quilt ladies at the clubhouse.  It's only for girls, you know.  They are working on their quilts while mommy and I are playing.  Don't worry about us, we're fine, just having a girls day.  So Daddy, how are you?

The whole time she's either got her hand on her hip or she's winding the phone cord around her finger.  It's amazing to see yourself come out in such a little person.

It's also a little scary!

The Small Joys

My mom and I were talking yesterday and comparing notes.  Both of us are going through a transition right now.  She's having to give up some space and share her home.  I'm having to give up my home and reduce my space to a single bedroom.  What we found funny is that both of our friends come up and ask, "how are you doing with all this?  How's it living with someone?"  They're really concerned about our relationship and having to live in the same house with your mom/daughter.  Of all the transition hurdles we're facing, that's not even on the list.  The space, the clutter, the moving...all that is on the list.  Our relationship is the joy of this whole process. 

As I looked back on my mom's life, she is a woman of relationships.  Her motto has always been to collect people.  People are in your life for a reason.  Maybe it's to encourage you.  Maybe it's to challenge you.  Maybe it's to walk this journey of life with you.  That's been her life.  She had a great relationship with her grandma.  A good relationship with her mom later in life.  She had a fantastic relationship with me and Zoe. 

Of all the stuff going on, we are still good.  I couldn't help but say a little prayer of thanks for that. 

I Tapped Out For a Bit

Apparently when life gets a little chaotic, this blog suffers.  Honestly, I meant to keep better record of our life, but let's face it that was a pipe dream.

In the last few weeks, we've:

1) moved
2) started Pre-K
3) started AWANA
4) lost all track of time

The biggest happening that really feels like a month in the making is the move.  We had to do a three-point move.  My mom cleaned out her house and got ready for Zoe and I to move in.  I had to pack up our house for either my mom's house or for Oregon.  N moved into a duplex in Oregon.

It was much cleaning, packing, cleaning, de-junking, packing, sorting, packing, moving and moving.  We rented a truck for the big move last weekend.  In a sad commentary, the truck was too small, so not all our stuff fit in it.  We're having to do the remainder piece mail and it's ugly.  These last 48 hours have been the first of our new routine.  Because we're still unpacking, sorting, cleaning, unpacking it's taking a little longer.  This weekend is a big clean out of the old house and getting it ready to go on the market.

With the move has come some emotions.  We have a duplex that N's living in that has enough storage for all our stuff, so that's the great news.  It's a little place that's ours.  However, it's about 180 miles away from me.  That's been hard to lose my home.  I find part of my identity in my home and it's not a place that I live in daily.  I'm not complaining, this is just a stepping stone to a future where I can have a home that we hopefully build and then I can make up for these two years!

Zoe has adjusted quite well.  Her perfect place is where all her people are under one roof.  I honestly think if she could have a house that had rooms for the entire family, she'd be a happy girl.  She loves her new rooms, both at grandma's and in Oregon. 

In a nice blessing, Toby has also adjusted quite well.  He's come out of his shell and is total puppy.  We have a hard time getting him to come inside, which was absolutely NOT the case at our prior house.  Apparently Grandma's is also his happy place.  I can't even begin to explain how awesome that is.  We were worried he'd take several steps back and it's been a painful process to get him out of his shell.  Praise the Lord that he feels more at home at grandma's then he did at our home!
In the midst of all the packing and change, we started Pre-K.  Zoe LOVES it.  She's got 24 kids in her class and she's making new friends.  Zoe is a picky eater.  She only drinks water.  She isn't too keen on very many veggies or fruits.  She's stubborn.  After the first day of class she was SUPER excited because she tried something new:  a carrot.  She now claims them as one of her favorite foods.  Go Zoe!

In the midst of all the change, there are so many blessings.  N still loves his dam job.  He's making great friends and passing all his exams.  If we have to live apart during the week, it's such a blessing that he still likes what he does.

That's our life in a nutshell.  Nothing terribly exciting just terribly busy!

On a Scale of Grossness, This is a 10

I've had some pretty gross experiences in my life.  It was my 28th birthday and since my actual birth date is the 28th, it was my golden birthday.  I had gotten married to the love of my life a mere two weeks before that.  We were returning from our honeymoon in beautiful O'ahu. 

Seriously, for birthdays, this should be at the top-o-the list of the greatest ones of all time.  However, this birthday made a different list:  the grossness list.

We had a small lay over at LAX before heading home to Seattle.  It wasn't that big of a deal, we could get something to eat, use the restroom and then hit the remaining leg of our journey. 

Immediately upon arrival at LAX, N and I went to our respective restrooms.  That's where my birthday took a nasty turn.  You see, I assumed that there was a public code for bathroom cleanliness.  I will tell you, there is not.  I was in my stall feeling really sorry for the person who apparently was not feeling well in the stall next to me.  When I looked down and realized it wasn't coming from the stall next to me at all.  I hate stepped in human poop.  On my new Nike running shoes. 

I spent the next 45 minutes trying to get the poop off my shoes and to keep from gagging.  It was the absolute grossest thing that's ever happened to me.

Until last night...

You see Zoe and I went swimming at the YMCA because she got a new floatation device that had to be tested.  About 35 minutes into our swimming adventure, the lifeguards blew their whistle and ordered everyone out of the pool.  Oh yes, they found poop.

While we were swimming!

Fortunately it wasn't near where we were, but still, a couple, deep strokes and good kicks and it would've been. 

Zoe doesn't understand why we still couldn't play, but did agree that swimming in poop isn't a very good idea. 

All I can say is that I'm so glad for cholorine because I'm hoping it killed all that fecal matter before it came floating over to us. 

She's a Liberated Woman

For years Zoe has talked about getting married and being a parent.  If you ask her what she wants to be she always responds with "a parent and..."  Each week it's something new after "and".  This week it's I want to be "a parent and a pilot."  Last week it was I want to be "a parent and a dentist."  She's got loads of ideas.

Usually when we asked her who she was going to marry, she'd say "daddy."  She has been going to marry daddy since she has been able to answer the question.  There are times when she'll come out in her Cinderella dress, with a ring in her hand and tell daddy they're getting married.  N, being the good daddy that he is, will get his Fedora and a tie and marry her, then dance with her.  It's the cutest thing.

Zoe has moved on.  She's no longer going to marry daddy.  She informed me this past week that she's going to marry Ben, a boy at our church.  The good news is that this boy is her age, he's actually 3 weeks older than Zoe.  He's also a very sweet boy and his family is totally awesome.  Both N and I are okay with this choice, so long as they wait about 20 years. 

I saw Ben's parents at church on Sunday and told them that Zoe was planning to marry Ben.  His mom said, "he's planning on marrying me, so we'll see if he's ready to marry someone else.  Zoe's a great choice, she's cute and nice!" 

On Sunday they were both in the nursery together, helping me.  This was the conversation:

Z:  Ben, you know when we grow up, I'm going to marry you.

B:  Really?  Marry me?
Z:  Yep!  When we grow up, we're getting married.

B:  Okay, I'll marry you. 

Z:  Okay, let's go play house.  I'll be the mommy and you be the daddy.

B:  I'll help you make some food.  We can do it together!

They played together the rest of the day.  Ben found a fake dinosaur and when he realized it freaked Zoe out, he chased her with it. 

When Zoe found out that he thought that was funny, she told him that it wasn't funny and that he better stop it. 

They had their first betrothal spat. 

It ended well.  They were playing musical chairs by the end of the hour.  Apparently we gained a future son-in-law yesterday. 

The Way Back, Play Back

We are in the midst of going through boxes, cleaning out closets and the garage and getting ready for the big move.  Because Zoe and I will be moving in with my mom, she is also going through everything.  Apparently in my younger days I was a hoarder.  She has no less than 50 boxes of my memorabilia that need to be tended to.  Honestly, I have no clue why I kept pencils the size of quarters or shirts that neither of us have any recollection of me wearing.  It's mind-boggling all the junk I've accumulated.  Especially since I'm anti-save anything now.  I kept a few baby clothes of Zoe's, but that's it.  I have no problem throwing away her weird cut-out art project that has no meaning.  I did keep the paper where she's learning to write her name.  I'm not totally heartless, just more practical than I used to be.

I'm not going to lie, it's been absolutely fun going through all the boxes.  I've found several pictures that bring back old memories.  There are also a ton of pictures of me as a little girl.  When I show them to Zoe, she says, "I don't remember having that dress mom...oh wait, that's you."  I always knew we looked alike, but it's freaky how much. 

That's not all I've found.  N and I used to date in high school.  I use the term "date" very loosely.  Basically we went to two dances and a movie.  Considering that I wasn't a huge dater, that's quite a bit.  As I was going through my high school memory book, I came across a photo album.  This was the picture on the front:

Why yes, that is N and me at a dance our junior year.  The memories came flooding back.  He informed me that he had the perfect vest, it was a chili pepper vest.  That only played into my small crisis in that I couldn't find a dress that I liked.  Try and find the perfect dress that goes with a chili pepper vest and one that gives you confidence despite all the phobia of going to a dance with a boy you really like who also freaks you out because he likes you back.  Oh, teenage drama! 

Since it was semi-formal, I had to get a dress.  Sensing my huge mid-high school-life crisis, my mom offered to make me a dress.  N, of course, wore his totally awesome chili pepper vest.

We doubled with his sister and her date, Justin.  We all went to youth group together and thought it would be fun.  We drove out to Fairchild AFB where N's dad was stationed.  They lived on base.  I'll tell you, there's nothing more intimidating that driving to your date's house, having to wait outside the gate that's guarded by men with guns and have your date come pick you up and escourt you in.  Ah, teenage drama!

His parents made us a fancy dinner of chicken cordon bleu and then served us sparkling cidar in wine glasses.  It was all very sweet and totally uncomfortable.  Then they took no less than 100 pictures of us in a pre-dance photo shoot.  Looking back, it was absolutely awesome that they did this and that I actually kept it.  During the photo shoot, it was totally awkward. 

The dance was a blast.  N has always been a really great dancer and we always had a really great time together.  Even if he wore a chili pepper vest and my skin was bordering on being a Cullen from Twilight. 

I showed this to N this weekend and he said, "I still think you're beautiful...even with that unibrow."  He's a keeper!