life is full

We've had very full weekends around here lately. As a house, we're hosting pretty often and love that it's cool enough for bonfires. And the most amazing cookies you'll ever know. Nutella, brown butter, salted chocolate chip... I always feel like I'm missing some other amazing ingredient.

Family, when we come home for Christmas everyone needs to block off some time for us to make these. (And I mean you, Grandma!) I'm convinced it won't be Christmas without them.

Our friend Aaron introduced us to the team called The Rooster Party here in Redding. They're committed to supporting creatives across the city that carry a message of hope.

The cause is close to our hearts. They hosted an amazing show that Aaron played in last month. He was amazing, the show was amazing. There is nothing more moving than being part of and/or witnessing someone fulfill a dream.

Shots from the concert

Saturday we helped paint a downtown gallery space for the next Rooster Party event with a local artist. The walls originally sported some crafty weed-paraphernalia murals. And when I say murals, I mean lions and tigers smoking weed. Really beautiful. So we covered them up. And can't wait for gallery opening next weekend.

I also wandered through an arts festival that happens twice a year in Redding called Roses and Rust. I was in love with that yellow trunk. IN LOVE. We really want one for at the end of our bed. Some day! I didn't get anything big but got tons of ideas.

There is something really therapeutic for me about decorating our home. It's a safe place for me and I'm learning how important being creative every day is to my own sanity. Jimmy's loving it too. He's enjoying building and is being really supportive when my ideas seem ridiculous.

We're still praying for a job for Jimmy. We're hopeful that the right one will come through. And in the meantime, life is full.

a rushing wind

I've heard before that sometimes when infants cry incessantly it soothes them to hear a sound louder than their own. A vacuum cleaner, white noise machine, music turned up. I've never, in all my years of nannying, babysitting and working in infant rooms, employed the method. But I believe it. 

The last few days have made me feel disheveled. A new job always means a new learning curve. We're still praying for a great job for Jimmy and our anxiety about finances seemed to grow a bit in the last two days. We're fine, we're really fine. Part of the process is having these moments - to express the frustration and anxiety and then find peace. 

Anyways, by the time I got to this afternoon I knew that I needed to do something that helped me take a deep breath - physically, emotionally and spiritually.

So we went to the lake with the girls. 

It was cold and it was windy - not two things we normally experience in Redding. Whiskeytown isn't normally full of waves but tonight it was.

The wind whipped all around us, sending sand into the air and our dinnertime picnic flying.

But in that moment I believed that the theory about infants is true because I experienced it. 

I needed something louder and stronger and bigger to surround me. Sometimes in my efforts to get everything in its place and organized and under control, I need to encounter something that moves in complete opposition to that effort.

The wind that could knock us over and chill us to the bone. The wind that makes you feel so small and weak and so surrounded at the same time.

It touched the deepest parts of my soul and reminded me that God is so much grander than me and yet is wrapped around every part of our life. 

I just needed something louder today.

And I highly suggest getting around children when big adult problems come your way.

You need Addi's decision to avoid the wind and lay on the ground. You need Grace's two verse song about a father watching his daughter get married. You need Addi's impromptu dance on the beach and admission that saying "occasion" is very difficult to say without front teeth.

You need the team and the wind. 

Something louder.

little bits of whimsy

Current task:
Figuring out where to hang this up in our new space.

Delivering dinosaurs for exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. Arthur Pollack, 1984. 

Strange, I know. But I think every space should have some little quirky or whimsical piece in it. Something that makes the room feel a bit lighter. Humor. Humor, my friends. 

And this really ridiculous print connected to that place in my little design heart. So I need it. To remember to be humorous. To remember to be a bit lighter. 

finally fall

Today was the first day that it felt like fall here. With highs only in the upper 70s to mid 80s, Redding is starting to make the shift that many others have already made. We're hoping for some pumpkin picking and carving in the future when it's actually chilly outside. We have heard reports of snow cones being served at pumpkin patches rather than hot drinks because it was just that hot out. 

I'd rather have no pumpkins than pumpkins with snow cones.

October has felt like a shift in more ways than just the weather.

Tonight we had a meal and bonfire at our house with some friends. 15-hour roasted barbecue, good company, lots of bread and balsamic, dinner outside and a fire that was actually necessary for us to stay warm. Pulling out a real sweater to wear outside was possibly the most comforting thing that happened all day. 

Redding is truly starting to feel like our home. 

creativity & good news

We've been staying busy working on creative projects during the last week. Having a blank space to do anything with is possibly the most exciting thing to me. Jimmy enjoys it too. We have more projects in the works, but here are a few we did last week: 

Jimmy & our friend Ben built this awesome oversized pallet coffee table for our new space. All wood from free pallets. A few hours of work. We LOVE how it turned out. 

Also in the living room, an inexpensive solution to a blank wall. $1.19 for wire hangers, free magazines that we already had. We can change them out with the months/seasons. That branch is not staying there. Hopefully it'll become a pretty gold and go in our room. 

We're currently in the process of overhauling some side tables (that we bought off Craigslist - 2 for $5!), making a blanket and possibly some new curtains, and a side table to hold our TV. This is exciting stuff. 

AND THE BEST NEWS YET: 

I GOT A JOB TODAY! 

Finally! Such an answer to prayer. We are so relieved and excited. The position is awesome, flexible and I get to work from home. It's an awesome opportunity. We are so very thankful. 

welcome to the team

In 2008 I went to a concert with my new friends, the Wardles. Someone else tagged along for that trip - a rather funny girl named Mallory Eggebrecht.

There she is on the left. (Sorry Mal - not our most glamorous shot)

That night was memorable in more ways that one, and at the time we seemed like a pretty random group of people to attend a concert together. Eventually though, some of them became members of the team, one of them being my sweet friend Mallory. 

Mallory and I have been part of a group of friends that developed over my last three years at Ashland. Many of them are now here in Redding, but some are also still in Ohio. Mallory has been such a significant part of my journey and my journey with Jimmy. She was part of a group of people that became family, the group that walked with us through dating and engagement. She actually helped coordinate most of the happenings of the night we got engaged. She was there when wedding planning was difficult. She has been a rock and such a covenant friend.

Last January Mallory and I went to get dinner at Lyn-Way in Ashland, our favorite little comfort-food diner spot. She told me that the Lord was moving her to open her heart to being vulnerable in an unexpected way. She signed up for EHarmony. She was brave and courageous and although it was sometimes difficult she stuck with it. We admired her ability to risk for love and to trust the Lord.

Shortly after the most amazing, hilarious man came into the picture. Matthew Beres. We met Matt at Panera after having dinner for my birthday in Wooster. We laughed the entire time. We knew this guy was different. Mallory lit up around him. He challenged her. He treated her with amazing respect and honor and love. We felt like he was part of the team.

It didn't take long to know where they were headed. We shared some of the sweetest moments from our spring in Ashland with them. They brought us to Amish country. Matt introduced us to some of his amazing team there. Matt and Jimmy drank horse minerals together (don't ask). We laughed. A lot.

Today Mallory & Matt are getting married. It will be beautiful. It is so hard for us to not be able to be there. 

The hard part about moving across the country is the things that you can't be a part of. Grandpa's 70th birthday, my brothers on homecoming court, friends' weddings. Team is important to us. We hate missing out on team events. 

But we love the Beres'. From across the country we bless them with all the joy and adventure and deepening friendship that these next months, years and their lifetime will hold. Today we celebrate you in our hearts (and I try to hold back my tears). We celebrate your obedience and faithfulness to what God called you to. We celebrate your willingness to risk on each other, on new adventures, on moves and decisions to follow your hearts. 

We love you both.

Welcome to the team (officially), Matt. 

(This probably seems so overly sappy. It's mostly therapeutic. We mostly love to celebrate the team, even if it's through a sappy blog post.)

the time we went to pick up a uhaul

Last Thursday we & our housemates moved across town to a new home and decided to rent a Uhaul to transport our large furniture. I have not done this before. We moved to California with only the belongings that could fit in the Civic, although we packed a ridiculous amount of stuff into that tiny little gas-saving vehicle.

Anyways, Jimmy rented the Uhaul online and we went to pick it up before the move. I anticipated a massive fleet of white, boxy trucks lined up in a specific order in a well-maintained parking lot of a Uhaul-only renting facility. The Uhaul mecca of Redding. 

No, no. We carefully followed our trusty iPhone directions to a back-ish road toward this little building that looked like it used to be an automotive repair shop. There was the not-so-massive fleet, matched by the not-so-massive office of this little rental shack. 

What was massive was the dog lying on the floor of this tiny office:

Have you ever seen Balto? I think we met him that day. I think Disney came to Redding and based that movie off this dog. 

He was beautiful. And huge. I sheepishly went to pet Balto and pretty quickly he decided to stretch out. I sat on a chair. One of two in this tiny office. 

Then Balto got bold. He put his front paws up on the other chair right beside me, which I swear made him about a foot higher than me, put his nose in the air and then lowered it and stared at me directly in the face. 

That's when I got up the courage to ask what kind of dogs they were. 

"Wolf hybrids!"

Let me tell you, there's something really interesting about the sudden realization that there's a WOLF staring at you in the face. A REAL LIVE WOLF. And I love dogs. Dogs have never scared me. But this wolf was definitely establishing dominance, or so it felt. 

Eventually he got back down, laid down on the floor and the owner went on to explain how loving and caring and incredible these Malamute/Wolf hybrids are. 

Then two more crawled out of back corners. One was too shy to come near us. The other one (which was, I swear, the size of a small bear) mad ea brief appearance:

Apparently the owner used to breed them and all three were related. 

And did I mention huge? And really quite beautiful. I was almost convinced that one day we should have one. Then everyone that visited our future home could be able to walk away with the statement I was left with:

Today I stared down a wolf.

Not what I expected on a trip to pick up a Uhaul.