This Season's Favorite

Well, for me anyways! But he should be your favorite too! He is Kevin Gillespie, one of the final chefs of this season's Top Chef. I love that show! So why do I love Kevin? He cooks food the way he wants to. He doesn't worry about if it's fancy-schmancy enough for everyone else. If it tastes good, it works for him. He is an Atlanta boy who also lived in Portland. Sound like familiar roots to anyone?! Hmmm?! He is very kind. In fact his entire face and demeanor just seems very kind to me. I like him. A very nice guy. Also, and I mean this in the nicest of ways, he kind of reminds me a of a nice, sweet pig. Which I'm sure he'd be okay with because he loves pork. I love him like Charlotte loves Wilbur. I can tell I'm losing you, it's okay, my imagination can be a complicated thing. But anyways, yes, he has a restaurant here in Atlanta called Woodfire Grill and I think before we switch coasts, as Liz Lemon would say "I want to go to there!"

Well, it's all official!

Everything for the move is in place, now it's just a waiting game. I gave my notice at work today. It was sad, but they understood. Saturday we met with the person we are renting our house to and he signed all the papers for a three year lease. The moving company is scheduled. We got a smokin' deal last week on our plane tickets out to Oregon. We turn our house over to our tenant on Dec. 21st so he can get his family situated while his kids are on Christmas Break. Then we'll spend the week before Christmas with Phil and Jody. Then the week after Christmas all of Justin's family and us will be chilling at a sweet cabin up in North Georgia compliments of Phil and Jody. We come back from there on Dec. 30th and fly out to Medford, Oregon at 6:30 a.m. on the 31st. It's crazy how well everything came together. All the pieces seem to just have fallen into place. It just has reconfirmed to Justin and I that this move truly is what we are supposed to be doing right now. Now it's just time to de-junk and pack up. I know the next month and a half will pass by before we know it!

Take a Moment...

Fridays are for Pillow Parties. After a long week of school and comings and goings, I let the girls celebrate the start of each weekend by pulling out all their favorite blankets, animals and pillows. We clear the floor in front of the t.v., spread out, pick out a movie and just relax. Usually the girls do this right after Maryn gets off the bus on Fridays. But tonight we waited until after dinner and made it a whole family affair. It was one of those moments you wish you could have live in your memory forever. Maryn and Brynna snuggled together on the floor, the glow from the television screen in the dim light illuminating their faces. Lauryn in Justin's arms at the end of the couch laughing at every funny moment, old enough now to truly be part of the action. Justin and I sharing glances and smiles at each other every few minutes as if to say, "Can you believe it? They are ours." There were moments while the movie's plot unfolded for each one of our nuggets to let their personality shine through. Whether it was moments of Maryn chatting away through the whole thing, moments of Brynna begging and whining for someone or thing to stop, and a moment when Lauryn mischievously turned off the dvd player just as it was getting suspenseful. After the movie was over there were moments of snuggles, whining, kisses, fighting, wrestling and touching family prayers. Moments of ordinary things that I don't ever want to forget. Moments that make my life complete.

What's New...

You know how I had mentioned awhile back that Justin and I had finally come to a resolution on the direction of our life and were finally seeing eye-to-eye? Well, this was the resolution. We are taking the big, giant leap and moving to Oregon so Justin and hopefully myself as well, can go back to school and finish our educations. We had thought about it this past summer too, but just couldn't pull the trigger. It just didn't seem to make sense. We have awesome family and friends here in Georgia. We love our ward, where we attend church. We love the girl's schools. I enjoy my job and have said many times that if I have to work, it is a great place to be. We love our little home. We just love the South as a whole... but between this past summer when we decided not to go, something has been off. I couldn't put my finger on it. Life was not progressing and moving in the direction it needed to go. I was feeling very stressed that I would forever be a working mother and Justin would forever be an unemployed Mr. Mom because of the limited opportunities in his chosen profession. But Justin and I had gone over it before, that a move to Oregon just did not make sense. So we didn't discuss it any further and kind of forgot about it. After a particularly rough period for me, I prayed and prayed that our lives would find some direction. It was that next morning we both woke up, looked at each other and said "We need to move to Oregon." Justin has had some great years covering Basketball Recruiting. But it's no longer what is right for him or for our family. So he is going to get his degree in Education and hopes to teach High School once he's graduated and I am hoping to get my degree in Dental Hygiene. We know without a shadow of a doubt that Oregon is exactly where our family is supposed to be. We fasted and prayed and have had our choice confirmed to us. So now we're off on this next great adventure. Packing up, downsizing, and heading off to be poor, little students again... and I couldn't be at any more peace with it. We know in the long run we'll be better for it.

Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween 2009

We came, we saw, we got candy!

Maryn wanted to be a wicked, rotten witch...

Brynna wanted to be a cute, nice witch...

and Lauryn just wanted a sucker!

(she used her cute, Tinkerbell get-up to score the goods!)

Hope you and your little ghouls had a very Happy Halloween too!

...and I couldn't resist posting a little baby dancing!

My Dirty Baby

I love this little booger.

Yeah, yeah, I know! It's facing the wrong way. Just tip your head a little bit!

Just what I needed...

The kids are asleep and my time is officially my own. I am supposed to be finishing up some things, but got sucked in by the computer instead. Don't you hate it when that happens!? I used to do it all the time and well, I actually kinda like it because it feels normal. I came across this in my skipping through cyberspace and was so grateful for it. In fact it made tears well up in my eyes. We are never alone in this journey of life. Some mounting obstacles others can't even imagine. But no one is exempt from the speed bumps of life. They are meant to be. But we all work it out. Our path, our journey, our learning. It was really, really nice to hear an experience from someone else's life that echos my own. Despite place or circumstance or bumps in our life, when we look at what matters, I think we all will find that we are blessed beyond imagination.