7 Quick Takes Friday-- First Seattle Edition!

**1**
Yesterday I had the opportunity to enjoy some of the most delicious food I've had in quite awhile. For lunch I went to pick my friend Missy up from a Dr. appointment and a block away was this new cafe. It didn't even have a sign on the building, just a little one out front pointing into the cafe. If you're in the Seattle area, you HAVE to try the Ridge Back Cafe on 65th in the Ballard area. Oh. My. Word. Best random walk in place I've ever been. We shared a salad made of spinach, carmelized red onions, avocado and goat cheese with a pear vinaigrette and a wrap that was crazy healthy and unbelievably tasty. They filled a grilled whole wheat tortilla with black beans, sweet potato, spinach, onion, red peppers, a bit of cheese, and other amazing veggies. We were in heaven. They also serve Stumptown Coffee and Espresso which we also partook of. Seriously, go there. Last night Charles was at the church til 9 (I'm thinking this is our new normal, with youth events 4 nights a week...) so I made a meal that looked delicious to me. I found this recipe on Cooking Light.com and oh man was it healthy and incredible. Orzo, feta, artichoke hearts, red onion, (I also added red pepper and cucumber), sun dried tomatoes...it was amazing. Hooray for healthy food--after a lot of eating out my body was super excited about the fresh veggies!

**2**
For the first time in a very long time I am living in a space that is SO quiet. Our house actually has insulation in it (what a concept...one that California apartment builders should take into consideration...), so actually sitting down and attempting to be quiet before God seems do able. Yesterday I curled up in our oversized swivel chair for quite awhile and let myself journal, broke out my gratitude journal which had somehow disappeared from my life in the chaos of moving, and kept reading in a devotional book I am almost finished with. It was so needed, and while quiet times are always something I've struggled with (read more about that here), I am finding myself re-excited about falling back more into a routine of connecting with God.

**3**
Something else I'm realizing even with Charles only being in his job for about 10 days now, is how important it is going to be to constantly be praying for him, for this ministry, for wisdom and guidance. Ministry is a tough job, anyone who wants to disagree with that hasn't seen how exhausted my husband has been every night coming home at 9 after a full day. Learning to pray intentionally for him, for the students he's serving, for his volunteers etc is going to be one of the main disciplines I want to develop. Prayer has always been tough for me, I can admit that, but I'm seeing after only two weeks, that prayer is truly the only thing that can sustain ministers long term. If anyone has a basic book on prayer they'd recommend, or tips for how to further develop a personal prayer life, I'd love to hear about them.

**4**
Look who came out to say hi this week!! It's funny, but here in Seattle the mountains almost take on a personality--and when they appear, it is crazy what it does for people's moods. We LOVE our mountains around here and in the whole time I lived her previously I never never tired of seeing their peaks appear. Thank you Lord for this beauty!

**5**

Tonight is our official welcome party at the church which we are very excited about :) We're having pizza with the high schoolers before hand, and then dessert with the whole congregation. I know they've been asking us trivia questions about us, are having us bring an ipod playlist of our favorite songs, and I'm not sure what else they have planned, but we're so grateful for the warm welcome we've received and for the effort the search committee is making to introduce us to everyone!

**6**
Comcast is here hooking up our TV, our internet is up and running, and our furniture comes tomorrow--we're almost fully in business around here! We ended up getting a new TV for our living room that turned out to have some amazing features that we didn't even really know we were getting. It automatically hooks into our wireless internet so we can watch our Netflix on the TV without hooking up a computer to it. It's pretty sweet, and we're not really that big of TV people.

**7**
At the recommendation of many people we've started watching season 1 of Friday Night Lights. Apparently it's one of the best depictions of teen life and culture around, so we'll have to see what we think. Any other fans out there?

Taking a Deep Breath

Sometimes we find ourselves at a place in life where we realize we have forgotten how to breathe. We have run so hard and so intensely for so long that we forget how to sit still, how to ignore the to-do list, and how to take a few slow, deep breaths. I find myself in just such a place this morning, my first morning since arriving here in Seattle two weeks ago with nothing I "have" to be doing, no major house projects, not really any more unpacking, no family members or company in town--I find myself with time to just sit. I think I need it too. Part of me says "you should be calling friends who you've ignored during this time of transition," or "you should be grading papers," or "you should go up to the church to help your husband out with some things." But I know I don't have energy for any of these things this morning. I literally haven't stopped running since we arrived here two weeks ago today, and I am exhausted. I made it to a local coffee shop, and here I sit, watching the sun peek through the clouds enjoying a comfortable couch (since ours haven't arrived yet) and am reflecting on the past few weeks.

Moving and life transitions are always stressful, and while we are so excited to be here, and are confident that this is the place God has called us, we still would like to be able to get to a grocery store (or the church for that matter) without getting lost or reaching for the map. It would be awesome if somehow all the names of the new people we're meeting could be miracled into our memories and we didn't have to ask people for the 5th time "remind me what your name is again!" It would be great if the rest of our furniture would arrive so we'd have something to sit on in our living room! (Saturday--it's all coming Saturday...) Transitions take patience, and those of you who know me well know that patience might not be one of my strongest virtues.

Yet at the same time, we already love it here. We love the random coffee shops that pepper each neighborhood (having an Uptown Espresso near my house could end up a dangerous thing for me!) We love the location of our home--we can be at Target/Bed, Bath, and Beyond/Barnes & Noble/and a host of other stores within about 7 minutes, we can be at the church in 10 minutes (when we don't make any wrong turns), the West Seattle Bridge in about 5 minutes, downtown Seattle in about 15 minutes, the airport in about 15 minutes, and Uptown Espresso in about 5 :) We both absolutely LOVE our house--really really love it and feel ridiculously blessed to be living in a space we love so much. We've met some of our new neighbors and have already shared a meal and a game of Ticket to Ride with them which was delightful. We love that I already have some friends and community here outside the church who know me really well, and want to get to know Charles--we shared a meal with Darbee and Reagan Monday night, are going to get together with the youth director and his wife from my "home" church here, and I am cooking dinner with Missy tonight. Next week I hope to see Heather and Jen, and begin rekindling friendships here in addition to making new ones at the church. We are SO SO grateful for all the hard work my parents, sister, brother in law, and aunts and uncle did this past weekend helping us decorate our home. Charles was launched head first into an insane first week of work so he was gone almost all weekend, but was able to come home to walls painted, pictures hung, window shades hung in some of the rooms etc. He was able to take some time off on Saturday afternoon to bond with my dad over building storage shelves in the garage (and a pantry for me in the garage--which I am very excited about--even more excited that my parents took me to Costco on Sunday to fill it for us). We've worked really hard, and all but one room is pretty much done, and we love how warm and cozy our house feels to us. We hope to use it to bless others, to share hospitality with those who need a good conversation over a hot meal. Last night we had our first youth leader staff meeting at our home, and had about 20 people there, which was a bit crowded but so fun for us (and proved to be quite motivating to get rid of the last of the boxes--or at least throw them in the garage!)

It really has been an incredible couple weeks. We miss friends in Pasadena, but we are confident that this is where we are to be. Charles' parents come on Saturday for 3 nights, but after that we're looking forward to having a bit of time to settle in to our new weekly routine, to have a weekend to go play and explore together, to see what our "normal" life might end up looking like here. We are looking forward to taking a few more deep breaths, returning some of the phone calls from friends far away, exploring this new city we find ourselves in.

For those who are curious or who care, here are some of the highlights from our last two weeks in photos--time with my family, new photos of my adorable niece Lily who came to "help" as well, and some photos of the work we've been doing around here.

We were SO blessed to have such an amazing moving crew help us haul our stuff in and reassemble our furniture--made up of friends from college and friends from the church it was very fun to see our two worlds intermingle.

Cheers! We survived putting together Ikea bookshelves!My unpacked kitchenLily is here! She's all ready to help paint!First we'll start by climbing the ladder with PapaAunt Patty and Beth paint two walls in my stairwell a warm brown color--it was everyone's favorite color by the end of the painting day--this lighting isn't the best, but here's the finished product:Uncle Bill, Aunt Patty, my mom and Aunt Beth painted one wall in my kitchen a shade of greenHere's that finished product (with the window blinds my dad installed, the photos my dad took that my mom hung, and the table runner Megan and Nathan gave us as a house warming gift)Megan rolls blue on our living room walls while my dad entertains his granddaughter--he was trying to convince her to take a nap with him in this chair, but she would have none of it. He laid his head back to close his eyes and opened them to Lily trying to shove her pacifier in his mouth. If Papa wanted to take a nap he needed her pacifier, and she will share!So I had this vision for what I wanted on one of my living room walls. I had no idea this vision was going to be so complicated to execute, but Megan and Nathan were amazing and without complaining got to work. I wanted a family and friends photo gallery. The mathematicians of the family took this job very seriously and it is one of my favorite things in my home, it is exactly what I wanted! It involved calculators, sketching, levels, and a lot of measuring. Lily "helped" by playing with her mommy's cell phone while mommy worked on the calculator.The finished product--it makes me so happy to look at!
The reading nook of our family room, Lily and I sharing early morning snuggles in the swivel chairI love this baby girlOur entry way was a mess. We want people to take off their shoes in our new house but we didn't have a bench or anywhere for them to go. So yesterday I finished up that area:Welcome to our home! The guest room door is closed at the end of the hall because that room is an absolute wreck still!Friday was painting day. Saturday Aunt Beth and Aunt Peggy came back for wall decorating. They stretch fabric over painters canvases to create 3 wall panels that I love.Megan made us throw pillows out of leftover fabricLily tests out the pillows for us--you can see the one green wall behind her, we did the one wall green and left the others, but did the purple and green panels on the opposite wallOne of my favorite new items--mom and dad bought us a wine rack with a space to hang our wine glasses and a case of wine from Costoc (where they sell my very favorite red wine, Menage a Trois) Lily isn't the best at sitting still for stories yet. Here's grandma trying to read her a story:and here is Lily climbing the stairs instead of listeningMy dad ended up hurt the first night he was there, so he wasn't able to use his right hand very well. Instead he was given Lily-duty, which of course Papa didn't mind very much! He and Lily are already ridiculously good friends--she follows her Papa everywhere which is quite adorable. She found my mini muffin tin one night in a drawer, and they found the scrabble tiles, so they spent the weekend making "muffins" together. They'd fill the muffin tins with the tiles, and using one of my spatulas they would "stir" the muffins (which really was whacking the tin and banging on it).
He even taught her to "bake" them in the oven (the bottom shelf of the end table).

7 Quick Takes Friday--The Moving Edition

Yup, that's right, it's moving week around here, which means CRAZINESS! The jet lag has not completely disappeared either (almost, but there have still been several nights we've been wide awake eating fast food at midnight because we are anything but ready for bed), which had added an interesting dimension to the whole packing process. This is a pretty random list, but here are the high lights from the past week...

**1**
Becca and Mike's wedding was last Friday night and thanks to our jet lag I was WIDE awake throughout the party (which went til midnight). Dancing at 11 PM? Not a problem for us! We probably could have kept going another couple hours, as it was we didn't fall asleep that night til about 2:30. But to be honest I'd love to be able to just lay down and fall asleep like a normal person at 10:30 again, it's getting closer, I think last night was midnight?

**2**
In order to move all our stuff we decided to go the "pod" route instead of driving a moving truck ourselves. They deliver an empty pod, you have a couple days to fill it, lock it, and then they come pick it up and drive it to your new location. We went with the ABF moving company instead of using the specific "pod" company because they were a little cheaper. ABF has been awesome. If you have an upcoming move, we would highly recommend them. Our only problem is that we didn't really do the math on the cubic feet of storage space each pod has, so we way underestimated. They brought us our pod on Wednesday exactly when they said they would. We tried packing some of the furniture Wed. night and quickly realized there was no way. We even taped it out on the floor and tried stacking boxes to see how far we could get. (okay, first we ate a midnight Taco Bell picnic in our "pod")

(Yeah this doesn't include our furniture either...)

**3**
Bright and early Thursday morning we called ABF to see when we could get a 2nd Pod delivered. They were there by 11:30 AM, which was amazing because our helpers were all still there packing the first one. We had asked a few of our high school students and they came and were awesome--one of their dads even stayed to help too--we are SO grateful!

**4**
Here is the best thing about the Pods. They take about a week to get to their destination (at least they do to Seattle), so I had wanted them to get a head start since it will only take us 3 days, which is why we had them delivered Wed. and picked up on Friday--we want them delivered next Friday. We didn't anticipate this, but the bonus of this whole arrangement is that we're left with an empty apartment and not much to do for our last weekend in town--which has been amazing for both of us! How many people do you know are eating Pinkberry and browsing the cookbook section in the local bookstore two days before they move? We ended up with loads of time to spend with the people we love and that has been awesome. Friday I enjoyed a long leisurely lunch with a dear friend from college who now lives down here, then wandered Old Town Pasadena by myself one last time (yes eating Pinkberry along the way!). Friday night I went to my favorite Thai restaurant with Jenn and Alethia, then had a delightful sleep over with them at Alethia's house (all our husbands were gone for the night). Saturday Jenn and I got coffee from Zephyrs (favorite local coffee shop), walked around the Rose Bowl and ate more Pinkberry. Today is cleaning day. Charles and 12 of his guy friends went to the beach Friday afternoon, camped overnight and surfed Friday and Saturday afternoon. Last night he helped me with the "manly" cleaning jobs (removing screws from the walls, using Spackle etc) :) He's at the beach again this morning and then gets to bottle beer with a friend this afternoon before our goodbye party tonight. Seriously, next time you move out of state, send your stuff 3 days early and just enjoy time with the people around you guilt free!

**5**
For Christmas my in laws are buying us a new washer/dryer which is truly one of the best gifts I could ever possibly receive! My own parent's washing machine was breaking so they had to shop themselves, so they did all my research for me (which was great since I had zero time to do that) and on Wednesday night I ordered our new ones which will be installed next Friday! THANK YOU Ed & Audrey!! (and thank you mom and dad for all the hours of research you did!)

**6**
We said goodbye to my car last night (yes I might have teared up a little while driving away...). She's been a great car, and I'll miss her, but we are going to save SO much money in Seattle only having one vehicle. We also know she's going to a great home, a family from church bought her which is fantastic. We had to put most of what we made into Charles' car, getting it back to tip top shape but we did that this week and it drives SO well now, it is amazing!

**7**
Our drive begins tomorrow morning! If you'd like to pray for no snow over the Siskiyou Summit that would be fantastic---we definitely don't want to get stuck! We're spending tomorrow night in my home town of Roseville with our old neighbors so I can show Charles where I grew up and grab a sandwich from my favorite deli (Beach Hut Deli) where you can get the best sandwich on earth:This, ladies and gentlemen, is called the Surfin Bird. It is an amazing combination of turkey, avocado, tomato, cream cheese, bacon and pickles. I've been craving one for about three months now. This will be dinner Monday night :) Tuesday will be our long driving day--about 10 hours weather depending. We're hoping to make it from Roseville to McMinnville, OR (outside Portland) to stay with my best friend and her new husband--I can't wait to see their place all set up, and to have the husbands finally meet each other! (They don't have a choice, they have to become good friends!) Wednesday we should arrive at our new place around 1 :) We'll run errands on Wed/Thurs to get some basics, and then we have a crew of friends coming Saturday morning to help us unload the pods that should be (fingers crossed!) delivered Friday. We are also so grateful to be moving to a place where we know people! Next time you hear from me I'll be back in the Northwest--missing CA friends but excited to set up life in a new place.