Wrapped around her little paw...

I was just about to get up and make me some Christmas Eve french toast, and my lovely Ella decided it was the perfect time to snuggle.

I can never refuse a good snuggle. I guess my french toast will have to wait....

Merry Christmas Eve and I hope you also get to enjoy some good eats. I would recommend french toast.

"Get Behind Me Santa..."

A few blogs ago I explained that while it seemed like everyone else was decking the halls and decorating the Christmas tree I was trying to figure out why I wasn't experiencing the same kind of yuletide joy.

A few things have changed since then.

1. I did get my hair cut, but that's irrelevant.

2. I purchased a Christmas Album and loved it. Sufjan Stevens - Songs for Christmas -

3. It snowed. A lot. And Continues to snow. A lot.

4. I did a little Christmas shopping. I had to be on top of my game this year since most of my purchased gifts required shipping.

5. My mom sent me tinsel and the most wonderful tree ornament ever. If I can ever find my camera cord, I will post pictures. Because it was so wonderful, I probably cried. And I probably have it sitting on my night stand instead of hanging on the tree, because then I can look at it before I go to bed.

I'm not quite sure Christmas Eve is actually tomorrow, but again, my calendar tells me it is, so I suppose it is appropriate to say, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"!

=D

IT'S SNOWING!

I mean, seriously snowing. Like record-breaking snowing. We've gotten 19+ inches of snow in the last 24 hours. It's the most snow Spokane has seen in 40 years ....

The goofy thing about Spokane is because they don't loads of snow very often, the road care is terrible. I heard it once said that my hometown of about 60,000 people has more snow plows and workers than the 200,000+ population of Spokane. So needless to say, the entire city of Spokane is shutting down. I love it.

Praise God for the BEAUTIFUL snow! It's totally uplifting.

I will post pics later

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... or not...

Today I went outside in a sweatshirt and jeans. It is 40 degrees on December 6. Seriously. What is going on. There are 5 things that usually let me know Christmas is coming. 1. Halloween - We drove for 15 hours on Halloween through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. No trick-or-treaters, no orange and black, no candy, just a car ride. 2. Thanksgiving- We left at 3:30AM to get to Seattle to see more of TJ's family, and nor was it a 'traditional' Thanksgiving. We ate 'Chuck-Luck', which included mustard crusted ribs, beets, celery root soup, braised turkey with mushrooms, citrus fruit salad, turkey leg cooked in duck fat...just to name a few. No football, no movie theater, no Grampa eating one plate in an hour, no pumpkin pie, not really Thanksgiving. 3. Snow - We had one day where it snowed. The next day it melted. No winter coats, no mittens, no scarves, no hats, no snow. 4. Finals - I graduated in May. No classes. No projects. No studying. No anticipation of Christmas break. Not that I'm complaining. 5. Christmas music- There has been a serious lack of Christmas music. Mainly due to the fact that since the previous 4 things haven't occurred, I don't really feel like Christmas music should be played. Which is sad. Because I really love Christmas music. So as far as I can tell, Christmas is not 3 weeks away. But my calendar keeps telling me it is. I think I'll get my hair cut today. Then maybe it will feel like Christmas.

How 'bout a revolution?

TJ and I are in the process of reading this book. (A very slow process, may I add...)

I am inspired by this book. The author-Shane Claiborne- presents a whole new way to look at what it really means to follow Jesus. I've really had to take a step back and seriously look at how I am following Jesus. Honestly, does my life look any different from those who choose not to follow Him? And I'm not talking morality. Morality does not equate salvation. It has to be deeper than that. What is it that makes me different? How has God transformed my life? What really does it mean to die to self daily and pick up my cross? Did Jesus really mean when he said to sell all I have and give to those who are in need? These are just a few of the questions this book has presented to me. It's definitely worth the thought.

a new way of thinking

TJ and I needed another car. Last night we found one. It was nearly exactly what we were looking for. A cute 86' Honda civic, only 161,000 miles, 5-speed, hatchback. Not to mention the seller of the car was a young married guy who just found out his wife was pregnant with their 3rd child (the first two were twins). We were pumped to find a car we liked and help out some people who really needed the money. It was almost perfect. ... except the loose clutch, squeaky brakes, broken rear defrost, no maintenance history ...

But. It wasn't over.


After we got home last night we received a phone call from somebody we had emailed earlier that had an 89' volvo wagon for sale. We agreed to look at it today, but in the back of our minds we figured after we looked at the volvo we would head over to buy the civic. Then, we sat in the volvo, we drove the volvo, we loved the volvo. The only thing wrong with the volvo was that there was thumping noise in the engine and the owner was positive it was a water pump which he would fix before selling to us. It was clean, well maintained, they had records for the last 10 years ... Exactly the same price as the civic ... except these people obviously didn't need the money

We sat in our car for over a half-hour trying to decide what to do. We even drew names out of a hat (3 out of 4 times TJ picked civic...), made a list of pros and cons for each, and thought about all the worst -and best- case scenarios.

TJ made the phone call. We chose the volvo. It made sense. It was well cared for, low mileage, great condition, super comfy, great for hauling things, it had less cons and more pros.

The hard part was letting down our civic friend. Oh my goodness was it hard. We wanted to badly to help somebody financially who needed it. There was something inside of us that really struggled with the decision we had made. I won't go into detail seeing as this blog is already way too long, but there was something in us that felt like the people are more important than the product. We felt selfish for choosing a car that we like over helping someone in need. Grace. Mercy. God has chosen us even though we definitely aren't the volvo.

We have prayed that if we should buy the civic, then the fixed water pump wouldn't stop the thumping noise in the engine. We will find out tomorrow. We also pray for our Civic family.

It's amazing how God changes things.

(here's a picture of our potential 'new' addition to our family)

uggghhhhh

No more T.V. Seriously. No more. One of the many great things about my husband is his lack of enthusiasm about T.V. That is something we definitely share. For the past year we've lived without satellite, without cable, and without bunny ears. Our T.V. had two purposes - movies and sega - and we rarely played sega. Unfortunately TJ's parents don't share the same view we do. Not only do they have a new uber nice T.V. , they have cable and shelves full of movies I've never seen. And I mean this with no disrespect to them. I just have no self control. Because the thing is, I can live without T.V., I'd prefer to live without T.V., but when given the opportunity to watch it, I will. Especially today. I applied several places, got an interview set up for tomorrow, and felt like I deserved a little R&R. 3 hours later, here I am, not only staring at a computer screen, but behind the computer screen is deal or no deal. I'm cutting myself off at 5.