One Year

It's hard for me to believe, but yes, we have now lived in Seattle for one year.  Has it flown by? Yes.  Does it seem like we've been here forever?  Yes.  Am I still homesick?  Yes.  Do I still cry?  Yes..but not as often.

Those first few hours & days here are, quite honestly, a blur.  Much of it was so raw that I think I've just chosen to forget details.  It's good, though, to reflect on the past and remember some of those hard-to-live-through details.

After a last meal at, you guessed it, Chick-fil-A, we flew out of Nashville on our non-stop flight to Sea-Tac.  Five long hours (plus a two hour time difference) with 3 small boys is enough to make anyone crazy!  But the big boys enjoyed most of the plane ride and were excited as we started to land.
I, on the other hand, was nowhere near as cute or excited.  As the pilot said, "We are now approaching Seattle.  Please return to your seats & prepare for landing", I was very close to having a panic attack.  I wanted to scream, "TURN AROUND!!  Don't land this plane. TURN AROUND NOW!!"  Thankfully, to Jason, I didn't and managed to exit the plane that had been a hell hole for the past five hours (non-stop flight with a 15 month old, need I say more?).

As we emerged from the airport, the boys got to see Seattle in all it's glory for the first time.  It was 50°ish & drizzling.  Since the raindrops were so light & large , Luke said "Is it snowing?"  Tears in check, I got into the van that was to be our vehicle for the next few weeks.  A church member had sweetly let us borrow his 1980s carpeted van.  It was fully functional and was big enough for all of us, but you can imagine it only added to my emotional state.

We had arranged to stay with 2 church members until we could find a place to live (that's right, we DID move across the country without knowing where we were going to live).  Mike & Nicolle, whom are now some of our dearest friends/almost family, were the ones that took us in during those first few weeks in June.  Luke later referred to their house as "our first house" here, which delighted Nicolle.

Nicolle had dinner ready for us when we arrived to their house from the airport.  We just sat down at the table when Luke said, "When are we going home?"  Yep.  You guessed it.  That's.When. I. LOST. it.  I ran to the bathroom and sobbed my eyes out for the next 10 minutes or so.  Jason later said that Luke wasn't confused, he just knew that Mike & Nicolle's house wasn't going to be our new home and wanted to know when were we going there.

The cake that was made for us at our "Meet Martha Lake" party.  When Jonah saw it, he said "Is it my birthday?!"

The next days and weeks were about the same as that night.  It didn't take much to set off the waterworks.  Our first Sunday at Martha Lake, I sat in the ladies Sunday School class.  About half way through the class, I looked around and thought, "This isn't MY class.  These aren't MY friends.  I'm supposed to be in Tennessee.  What am I doing here?!"  My now dear friend, Jennie, followed me out of the class and walked around the church with me, while I tried to get it together before Jason's first sermon.

Whew!  I'm certainly thankful to past all that drama.  Am I sure that this was the right move for our family?  Yes.  Do I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is where God wants us to be?  Absolutely.  Do I still cry?  Yes...just not as often.

Lakeview

Home. Haven. Nest. Refuge.

Today my maternal grandparents moved from their home of 40+ years.  Since Christmas, they have been looking for an assisted living facility that meets their needs & makes them happy.  They finally found a place a couple of months ago.  The wheels were then set in motion for them to put their house on the market & pack up to move.

While I was in TN earlier this month, I got to spend alot of time at their house with them.  I got to help my Murr go through dishes, sort through the attic & decide what to take to their new home.  About 2 days into the process, I realized how blessed I was.  I know most people had to do all the sorting, cleaning & selling after their grandmother passed away.  Not me.  Murr was right there beside the whole time.  I got to hear about the time that she & Grandpa picked out the same platter from an antique shop...on separate visits!  Or the time she went all the way to Japan looking for a new set of dishes, but ended up buying the set she had her eye on at home.

May 15.  I almost feel like someone has died.  Their house means more to me than my childhood home ever could.  Not that I didn't have a wonderful house or love growing up there, but there was something magical about 5042 Lakeview Drive.  Easter egg hunts.  Snacks under the arbor.  Picnics on the patio.  Eating chocolate bars out of Murr's "secret" hiding place.  Being sprayed from head to toe so the "chiggers" wouldn't bite us.  Popcicles melting down my arm on a hot summer night.  Sitting in my grandpa's lap on his riding lawnmower.  Hours & hours under the "Fun Fountain" water toy.  I could go on and on.

Thank you Josh and Millie
for sharing Lakeview with us, and
giving my mind a place I can always run home to.




5042 Lakeview Drive

 

The back patio (notice they are both eating popsicles!)

Murr & Gideon having one last snack

"Super Duper" grandpa sorting through an old cheese box from his shed

Snow

I'll take snow over rain any day, but SIX days?!  Yep.  We are on day # 6 of off and on snow.  And between the power going out & my three hoodlums blessings from above, I can't seem to get a decent blog written.  So I've decided to start this morning & just type what I can, when I can.  So if the following sentences sound like the ramblings of a half-insane person, rest assured, that's exactly what they are.

My boys climbing a tree in the field across from our church

I love snow.  Really.  I like to play in it, look at it, take pictures in it and of it, and listen to songs about it.  But when you add kids into the mix, it's a whole different ball game.  There is a "Family Circus" comic strip of the kids in the family running inside & screaming "It's snowing!".  All the children are shown having these visions of all the fun that snow will bring (sledding, snowmen, snowballs, etc.)  The mom?  Her vision is of putting on snow bibs, pulling off wet snow boots & doing extra loads of laundry.  That's how I feel right about now.  As much as I need to get out of the house at least once a day this week, I inevitibly know that's what the outing will bring.

Our church (notice how snow covered Larch Way in front of the church is!)

I know that this snow is unusual for Seattle, which does make it alot like TN.  "Big snows" are few and far between both here and there.  The main difference, that I can tell, is the temperature.  In Tennessee, it could snow on Monday and be totally melted by Wednesday.  The temperature fluxuates in such a short time period there (hence all the tornados).  In Seattle, it's 32° today, 33° tomorrow & 40° the next.  Drivers in Seattle & Tennessee (myself included, right Ang?) are the same, though.  They can't handle the snowy roads!!  Everybody that didn't go get their bread/milk/eggs HAS to get out in the snow & will, mostly definitely, end up in the ditch.



The view from our living room

It's 3:15 and still snowing.  The weathermen reported that it was supposed to stop snowing YESTERDAY at noon.  I guess they forgot who's still really in charge of it all. The God of Wonders who created the weather.



Same field as from above.  I ♥ snow pictures!!!



Stamps

One of the joys (ha-ha) of the flood (http://serving-in-seattle.blogspot.com/2011/12/hot-mess.html) is getting to move into our apartment.  Again.  There are boxes everywhere, my Hope Chest is still sitting in front of the fireplace, and I'm hoping that Jason doesn't leave me before it's all back into place (it's hard for a neat freak to marry a pack rat). 

Our move from a 1790 sq. ft. house (with full attic:  http://serving-in-seattle.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html -click on the first picture to see what I mean) to a 1250 sq. ft. apartment was a challenge.  We had a huge yard sale before we moved, got rid of stuff after we got here, and we still had so much that we had to store some at our friends' house (thanks M & N!).  All that to say, I feel like God used the flood to tell me that we I still had too much stuff.

So while I'm putting it all back into it's rightful home, I'm, yet again, getting rid of more junk.  One of my favorite finds of the week was my old stamp album.  Remember those?  I'm not sure how many years I collected stamps, but I know it helped me through those awkward preteen years.  In the process, I found over $25 in uncirculated stamps.  Woo-hoo!  I had forgotten what an art form stamps were and enjoyed looking at over the 200+ years of American and world history.  Those self-stick fakes they have now seem so tacky compared to the masterpieces of years past.

Tonight, I've been knee-deep in one of my "letter boxes."  These are large rubbermaid boxes that contain every tangible memory I've ever come in contact with.  That means letters, concert tickets, name tags, IDs, birthday cards...you get the picture.  I don't really know why I needed to keep them all, but here they still sit.  I couldn't bear to go through them before or after the move, so they just got shoved in the closet. 

Going through all these letters (and yes, I have to re-read each one before I put it in the "keep" or "toss" pile) has reminded me of how blessed I am.  Right now I'm in the Summer of 1997, a.k.a. "My Disney Summer."  So many of you wrote me letters, sent me packages, and kept in touch with me while I worked at DisneyWorld.  Thank you.  Seriously.  For taking the time to invest in me and love on me.  I am so blessed.

One of 3 (maybe more!) boxes of memorabilia I'm going through



My work ID for the summer I worked at Disney.  Miss that hair!





A hot mess

Happy New Year!  Here are the long & wet details of the past week in the life of the Smith family...

We had a VERY quiet Christmas here.  It was the first one that we didn't see family, but we still had a great day with our church family & our boys.  The next morning I woke up before seven.  "Wow!", I thought.  "Everybody slept through the night & I feel so rested.  I think I'll get up & read my Bible."  As soon as I stepped out of bed, I heard a noise I didn't recognize.  I made it all the way down our hallway before I realized I was walking in water.  "JASON!", I screamed (which he later told me made him literally fall out of bed).  We quickly realized the water was coming from the boys' bathroom.  Apparently in the night (i.e., the second after we feel asleep), a cheap valve broke off of the shut-off valve under the sink.  Our apartment was flooded with at least 200 gallons of water (enough to fill up this fish tank: http://allmypetsupplies.com/popup.aspx?src=http://allmypetsupplies.s3.amazonaws.com/images/Product/large/200-Gallon-Deep-Super-System-with-HQI-lights.jpg ).

As I scrabbled around like an idiot, Jason managed to call the apartment emergency number & figure out how to shut off the water.  I called and woke up our dear friends, Nicolle & Mike.  Nicolle came and got the boys (who were very upset that they couldn't stay & splash in all the water).  Mike came over and helped Jason start figuring it all out.  I stayed for a couple of hours, but finally left when I couldn't take anymore.

Over half of our furniture & stuff had to be moved to an empty apartment to let the carpets dry.  The rest of it was stacked & pushed to the edges.  We spent the next 4 nights with Mike & Nicolle (and because of God's perfect planning, they had BOTH taken vacation this week, so they really could take care of us all week).  We started moving back in yesterday morning with the help of some of the men from our church.  As you can imagine, the apartment looks like a "hot mess."  It really is liked we just moved in all over again.  We are in the process of going through all the boxes & make sure stuff isn't still wet & try to get everything sorted and back where it belongs.  I'm convinced it will take at LEAST two weeks to get things back to "normal."

Lows from the week:

• the apartment complex won't replace our carpet
• there's a nice, funky smell now.  Yipee!
• not sure yet if they will pro-rate our rent for the days we weren't here & all the extra utilites
• see above mentioned "hot mess"

Highs from the week:

• we're not dead.  Seriously.  So, the boys' have a small space heater pointed into their bedroom.  It was plugged in and running all night.  When Jason unplugged it from the wall, it had sitting water in it.  I try not to think about it too much, but I'm not sure who should have died first; me stepping into the water first, Jason unplugging the heater or the boys sleeping in their metal bunkbed.  Did I mention we're not dead?!?
• we had relatively little damage to our stuff.  We have renter's insurance, but there is that nasty $500 deductible.  Most all our our "stuff" and the boys' toys are in plastic rubbermaids.  Whew!
• we live in the bottom corner unit, so no other families were affected
• we're not dead

Thanks to my prayer warriors for getting us through this week!!!!!

Barf

(Any stalkers or axe murders, please don't read the following post)

So, Jason is gone to the NW SBC annual convention for 3 days.  We're just finishing day 2 and I'm hoping I can make it through tomorrow.  Let me just remind all you single moms how awesome you are (Julie, that means you, too!).  I don't know how you do it.  Seriously.

I'm in a tired/grumpy mood, but I'm hoping that blogging about it will make me feel better.  Here are the highlights of the last 36 hours:

• I'm still sick.  I've been sick since I got back from my AWESOME weekend in TN with my girls, but being sick while Jason's gone just feels worse.
• Jason insisted on getting me a new phone this weekend because my other one was almost dead.  Great, except it didn't transfer all my numbers.  I can't figure out how to get the back off of the phone so I can get the SIM card out to put back into my old phone to get the numbers out of there.  And I'm SURE not going to take 3 boys to the AT&T store at the mall...
• Gideon started getting a cold about the minute Jason walked out the door.  He's snotty, fussy, coughing, etc.  Good times...
• Luke woke up last night crying in pain.  He said his waist hurt & couldn't stop crying b/c of the pain.  I was about ready to text Nicolle out of bed & head to the ER, when the pain finally passed.  Just gas I guess?!?  He ended up sleeping in my bed with me.
• There have been 2 men to knock at our door tonight.  I think they were both evanglists, but it still unnerves me when Jason's gone.  And no, mother, I did not answer the door.
• Luke & I were at each other all day.  He seemed to be especially irratating to his brothers & disobedient to me.  Always makes for a fun evening.
• I had just finished getting everyone's dinner (real dinner!: chicken pot pie) on the table.  Christmas music playing in the background.  I sat down to the table with my plate and said "Ahhh.  Great music, great food & great boys."  As soon as the words were out of my mouth (I KID YOU NOT!), Gideon pukes out the entire contents of his stomach.  He turned out to be fine (?!?), but needed an immediate clean up, bath, etc.

So there's the exciting wrap-up.  And I do feel better.  I'm headed to put my pjs on, make some Godiva hot chocolate & watch "Pride & Prejudice."  (Right after I do a load of puke clothes.  Yipee!)

The little things

I want to go ahead & put one of those movie ratings on this post.  This post is "MA"-for mature audiences only.  What do I mean?  Well, if you're not a Christian or if you're even a new follower of Christ, you just won't get what I'm blogging about today.

That being said, I was reminded this week about a quality of God that I had forgotten.  I've found that no matter how many times we read about it in the Bible or hear it in a sermon, there are still things that we forget.  For me, it was Matthew 7:7-11; asking for something we want.  Let me explain.

I've been DYING to get some new furniture (by new, I mean "like new" off of craigslist.com) for our living room.  We brought our couch & loveseat with us from TN, but have realized it's not the best fit for our apartment.  We plan on having lots of people over, at different times, and want to optimize our seating for their comfort.  So 2 chairs, in addition to the tan loveseat we already have, seemed like the best option.

I listed our red sofa (which Jason just recently told me looks like it's from The Wizard of Oz!) on craigslist several weeks ago & expected the offers to come flooding in.  At night, I would pour over craigslist looking for the perfect pair of chairs for us.  Days & weeks passed.  No sale of the couch.  No perfect chairs.  On Tuesday night, it dawned on me "Why don't I ask God for a pair of chairs?"  Duh!  The quiet answer I got was "Sell the sofa first."  Duh again!

Yesterday morning, before I really had time to think about what to do next to sell the sofa, I got a text from a girl wanting to see it.  An hour after that, I got another call from a man who wanted to see it.  Now remember, this sofa has been on craigslist for WEEKS.  I hadn't lowed the price again or changed the picture since that prayer to God.  No change on my part!  Well..you guessed it.  The girl came last night & bought the sofa.  :-)  Wow!  Is that awesome or what?  Within 24 hours of my initial prayer, the sofa was gone!!!  I can't wait to see what chairs He has picked out for us to find.

This is where the "MA" rating comes in.  Mature Christians know that God is not a genie in a bottle.  We can't just wiggle our nose & expect to get our wishes instantaneously.  BUT sometimes He does just that.  My lesson learned was not to forget to ask God to take care of the little things.  What little things are you not turning over to God?

Our living room, before last night