resolutions and family photos

Are you surprised to see another post from me two days in a row? Or does anyone ever read this blog anymore? I am leaning toward the latter. In case anyone is still reading, I will share my New Year's resolutions with you. I will preface them with this quote: As we reflect on the value of resolving to do better, let us determine to discipline ourselves to carefully select the resolutions we make, to consider the purpose for making them, and finally to make commitments for keeping them and not letting any obstacle stop us. Let us remind ourselves at the beginning of each day that we can keep a resolution just for that day. - N. Eldon Tanner (I specifically like that he points out to carefully select the goals we make and consider the purpose for making them. I am all about being minimal with my goals this year, therefore only selecting a few goals that I really want to commit to.) 01. Blog more often (hence blog posts two days in a row). 02. Read from the Book of Mormon daily with Wendel. 03. Write in my personal journal at least once a week. 04. Work on Oliver's book regularly. 05. Use my scripture journal with my personal scripture study at least one time each week. 06. Work out 3x / week.  That's it. Most of my goals are focusing on family history this year. It is too important to let it keep slipping.

One thing I really wanted to do before leaving Seattle was get family pictures taken with the Seattle skyline behind us. I mentioned this here before but the most frustrating thing about having a hobby in photography is capturing other people's family but not being able to capture our own. Luckily my friend Julie was willing to take our photos for us and actually rearranged her whole schedule to make it happen. Things were a bit chaotic - we were in the middle of packing for our move, I was finishing up my practicum, Wendel had a lot of work projects on his plate with deadlines that needed attention...but we went for it anyway. Of course we forgot the diaper bag in our rush to get there, including Oliver's shoes, so we had to stop at the mall on our way and buy new shoes for him. It's always something in our busy lives! Oliver was so happy all the way up to Gasworks Park but when we got there he completely fell apart. He would not smile and was fussy and difficult. So it goes. Nonetheless, Julie was able to get some good shots. She was probably wondering why she volunteered to do this for us but she was patient and we are so grateful for her willingness to capture our little family. Here are some of my favorites (edited by me).

I love this one.

And this one.

Oliver is 20 months old in these pictures.

And here is one of Julie and Me. 

 

goodbye washington

As we pulled out of Covington on Sunday afternoon, I did not allow myself to think that it was the last time I would be turning onto Highway 18. Instead, I made a mental list of things I will miss but also of things I have to look forward to.

Things I will miss:

• Our friends and our ward family. We didn't have the opportunity to say goodbye to many people but of those whom we did, I did okay for the most part (I think because it just didn't seem real yet) but saying goodbye to The Weeds the night before we left pushed me over the edge. Even though our stuff was all packed up before then, it wasn't until those tears fell in their front room that the reality of our move really set in.

Aleisa, Me, and Mel

Katie, Me, and Ashlee

Hugh and Wendel

Oliver and Christine playing on the floor. 

Crystal and Me

Me and Jenni

Carter, Amy, and Me

Cute little Oliver

Wendel and Jared

Karly and Oliver

Tracy and Me

Jared, Me, Wendel, and Oliver

(The pictures above were taken at our going away party, hosted by the Faulkners and Broadbents. Of course we forgot our camera that night but the Faulkners were kind enough to let us borrow theirs.)

• Living close to my brother, Tyson. I have loved getting to know him better. That was one of my very favorite things about living in Washington and I will miss him a lot.
• Covington. I really liked our little community. Strangely this also includes shopping at Fred Meyers. You know how you get to know where everything is in your grocery store and that familiarity makes it very annoying to shop anywhere else? The thought of starting over at a new grocery store makes me sigh right now. 
• I know it sounds a bit crazy, but I think I will miss school a little bit. Mostly for the people I met in my BASW and MSW programs (colleagues and teachers alike) but I will also miss learning. To be honest, I will also miss bettering myself in such a big way too. 
• Our photography business. It isn't over for good but it will be on hold for a while. I've known for quite some time that I have just had too much on my plate. Something has to give. Even though school is out of the pictures now (hallelujah!), I will have a new job and a new house and a family to take care of. Hopefully we can come back to it at some point. I will miss it immensely.
• Washington's beauty. The trees, the green, the fall leaves, Mt. Rainer, the crisp weather, Seattle's skyline, the water so close to the city, the beautiful overcast light.
• The seafood. Before we moved to Washington, I didn't think I liked seafood. I had only really had frozen seafood at that point, and there's just not that much to like about that. When we moved here, I told Wendel I wanted to try fresh seafood. We were living right in downtown Seattle for our first few months in Washington and decided to walk over to Anthony's for Valentine's dinner in 2007. My mind was forever changed about seafood that night. But, it has to be fresh and I really prefer it at a nice restaurant (as opposed to making it myself or having it at a semi-okay restaurant). We are already looking forward to going back to Anthony's in June when we go back for my commencement.
• Metropolitan Market. Their salads are divine and I know I will crave them forever more. 
• Along the same lines, the plethora of vegetarian options available. Pretty much every restaurant has a vegetarian section on the menu. Love that. 
• 97.3 Kiro FM Newstalk radio. 

Things I am looking forward to:

•  Our new house. I am pretty excited about it. I am also excited about the  city / community it is in, and the fact that there are two pools, sports courts, and a fitness center in our neighborhood. 

• Living near family and friends and getting to know them better. I am happy that Oliver will be able to grow up near some of his cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. 
• Seventy degree weather in the winter. Luckily, we are moving in the winter so we can acclimate a little before summer hits.
• La Grande Orange. As  you can tell, I am a food person. I have missed this place over the past five years and have thought of the Sonoma Garden salad fondly.
• Pita Jungle. A similar story as the one above.
• There is a lot of good thrifting to be had. I have found some amazing treasures at the thrift stores near our old home in Arizona and look forward to many more.
• The sunsets in Arizona are spectacular. I love the silhouettes of palm trees and cacti in a deep orange sky. It is a different kind of beauty than the beauty found in Washington but it is pretty amazing. 
• I love night time in Arizona. When I was in high school, I would sit on our driveway at night and lean against the garage door. I would write in my journal by the light of the street lamp and enjoy the quiet warmth surrounding me. I really missed that and I'm looking forward to many more beautiful, warm evenings on our back porch. 
• Warm rain. I love that when it rains in Arizona, it's warm rather than cold. 
• Having non-frizzy hair. My hair is so much more manageable without humidity. 
• The Mesa Temple holds a special place in my heart. When I was in high school, I was a youth guide at this temple. This was a program for youth (I believe ages 17-19) to be involved missionary work. We gave tours around the temple grounds to visitors, telling them about the significance of the olive trees, the carvings at the top of the temple, Jesus Christ, eternal families, and the Book of Mormon. At the end of the tour, we would invite the visitors to fill out referral cards, which we would then give to the full time missionaries. This was an amazing experience for me and helped prepare me for my own full time mission to Australia when I turned 21. I love that this program required us to read from the scriptures for 1/2 hour every day and get together weekly to touch base and uplift each other. I feel so grateful for this experience and for the friends I met in the program. I also spent a lot of time on the temple grounds when I wasn't giving tours, sitting on the grass, writing in my journal. It will be nice to take Oliver there, especially to see the Christmas lights this year.
• Being inspired in different ways with photography. 
• My new job / my first official job as a social worker. Actually, I am kind of nervous about it, but I am also kind of excited to learn something new. My new supervisor seems pretty great, which helps. It will definitely be a new adventure with a lot of new learning. 
• Meeting new friends in our community, ward, and jobs.

We will miss Washington. Our experiences there the past five years has been so great. It has felt like home to us and that makes it really difficult to leave. I mentioned this to a friend as we were leaving town and he said, "It's not home anymore." That was not easy to hear.

I really don't think we would have been able to leave if we didn't feel so strongly about our decision to move back to Arizona. I am so thankful for answers to our prayers. It was such a difficult decision and one we could not have made on our own. Here's to many more wonderful experiences and adventures in our new home. To those who have blessed our lives in Washington, we love you and will forever be grateful for your friendship.

i didn't know

It's funny how you have expectations and plans for you life but then things don't turn out the way you expected at all. It's like that quote, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." One thing that has completely surprised me lately is how much I love the work I'm doing at my practicum. Before I started, I didn't know I would like it and was giving myself pep talks to get through it. I didn't know that I would fall completely in love with it and feel incredibly sad as it is coming to an end. So sad that I have to give myself pep talks to convince myself that leaving the families I've been working with, leaving my mentor and my supervisor whom I have grown to love, leaving a part of myself I always knew was there but hadn't yet fully realized, is okay. I guess I should have known that I would love these families that are struggling to make good choices and reunify because when you serve others and think about them and do all that you can to help them, you love them. You just do.

I didn't know that I would be able to advance my practicum by going full time rather than part time (definitely an exception to the rule). That means I will be done on November 7th! It has flown by. At first, I saw a lot of sadness and it was emotionally exhausting. I still see some of that, but my focus has shifted from how that sadness affects me to what I can to help. It really feels like this is a good fit for me. I can hardly stand to think about leaving.

Speaking of not wanting to leave, we are moving to Arizona at the end of the year (possibly as soon as the end of next month). I thought I would like Washington when we moved here but I didn't know how immediately it would feel like home to us and how I would not want to ever leave. People complain about the rain, lack of sun, chilly weather...I will take it all for the beauty, the green trees, the fresh smell, the ideal photo shoot cloud coverage and beautiful locations, the four seasons but still with a fairly mild winter, the amazing people we have met. Don't get me wrong, Arizona is great and we really liked it when we lived there. We went to high school in Arizona. We met in Arizona. We have family and friends in Arizona. It's warm and there is a pool in our neighborhood and our winter will be spent in 70 degree weather. But to me, it's no longer home.

I think whenever you put your heart and soul into something, you leave a piece of yourself behind when you leave. I felt that way about my mission. I feel that way now. School has been my life since we moved to Washington (let's be honest - since we got married, but really all-consuming since we moved to Washington). I studied hard and jumped through hoops and our marriage was strengthened as we worked through the hard stuff together. Wendel edited every last paper in both my BASW and MSW programs, helped me jump through those hoops, was right by my side through every part of my application process for graduate school, and even drove down to my final presentation in my final gradate class to sit in the back and listen (which was a huge surprise to me). We've done the hard things together, which has stretched us and brought us closer. This makes it all the more difficult to leave. I didn't know school would have such positive effects on our marriage.

I kind of want to curl up in a ball and cry (if I wasn't so busy, I probably would). I am taking courage from Katie, who reminds me that "I can do hard things." Life keeps surprising me, so maybe I will fall in love with Arizona again and I will find a job there that I love and our ward will be amazing and I will meet awesome people and I won't be able to imagine not living there. Right?

alki beach

We had heard how cool Alki Beach was but never made it out there until recently. A couple of weeks ago, I picked W up after work and we went exploring. We took a few pictures while we still had some light and then ate dinner at Salty's. It has such a gorgeous view of the Seattle skyline.






Our camera remote came in handy for these shots.

Salty's is really good and it was fun to eat by the water. The atmosphere was perfect. I had Lavendar Honey Caramelized Wild Salmon Salad, which had Strawberry Vinaigrette, fresh local berries, chevre cheese, and honey cornbread croutons. It was delicious (and yes, that is a real flower on top of my salmon). W had Halibut with a garlic mashed potato crust around it.


Then we took some night shots. It was mostly W taking the shots and me shivering beside him. He got some good ones. Here are two of my favorites.








I think this picture of the Space Needle looks cool in black and white too.




















































Ron and Britney (W's sister) came to visit last weekend so we took them there as well. They also enjoy taking pictures, so we set up our tripods and snapped away.




Alright, I know what you're thinking. Enough with the cheesy kissing pictures.

In conclusion, we LOVE Seattle. I think Arizona will always feel like home in a way to us, but strangely it does here as well. We're happy and feel grateful to be here.