When Things Are Hard

I haven't posted much since the move. Life in Texas is a lot less unique than our time in Alaska and frankly it's been pretty tough too. It's been hard for me to find the words to write. 

Nathanial lost his job a little over a month ago. It wasn't completely unexpected given the current climate in oil and gas but that didn't make it any easier. I have been looking for a position since we moved and nothing seemed to be working out. We suddenly found ourselves both out of work. In the midst of that, some serious health stuff came up with my dad. 

At the end of last week, I accepted a job offer, so things feel like they are looking up.  While I wouldn't volunteer for more hard stuff, I am thankful for the growth that I have experienced through all of this. 

Here's what I learned about when things are hard:

* Have Faith

Even on the hardest days, I had knew I could trust in my relationship with God. Certain scriptures really spoke to me and gave me comfort. 

"Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." Lamentations 3:22

"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you." Isaiah 26:3

Above all, I was able to trust that God's ways are better than my ways and that His plan was beyond anything I could imagine.  Drawing closer to Him gave me peace and hope. 

* Look for the Blessing

This situation has shown me that no matter the circumstance, you can find the good in it. Not working meant lots of free time. I was able to spend more time with family and friends and lots of time practicing hobbies. N and I have perfected the art of cooking ribs and my calligraphy has really improved. 

* Surround Yourself with Good People

It hasn't been easy for me to talk about what has been happening. Regardless of how anti-social I was, some incredible people poured into me during this time. Countless calls, texts and prayers occurred. It was such an encouragement to know we weren't facing anything alone. 

* Attitude Matters

Bad things will happen. How you respond is what shows your character. 

Flourishing (Learning to write pretty)

At Christmas, Nathanial and my mother-in-law teamed up to surprise me with a calligraphy class I've been wanting to take. I've been following a professional calligrapher on Instagram for a few years now but couldn't take a class because we were in Alaska and her classes were mostly in Texas.  She books up pretty fast so Nathanial scheduled me for a February class and last week it finally happened. It was such an incredible experience!

The class was during the evening in Fort Worth so we took the opportunity to explore a bit during the day. We stopped at the Perot Museum in Dallas on the way.  It was easily the most fun museum I've been to. It was chock full of interactive exhibits - my personal favorite was in the sports hall where you got to race an animal or athlete. Both Nathanial and I are faster than a t-rex :)

After fun exploring and a great dinner, it was time to head to class. I was a little apprehensive about what to expect. Would I be good at it? Would I be the only person attending alone?  I had no reason to be nervous; the teacher was incredible and the ladies at my table were so sweet!  The class lasted over three hours and a new hobby was born. I've been practicing several hours a day since.

It's been about a week and I've already gone through:

6 nibs, 1 pot of ink and lots of paper.

I've written the alphabet, names, song lyrics, random words and lots of Bible verses.  

For a few days, I kept writing "pickle" over and over again because my p and k needed some work. 

Want to help me practice? Leave something in the comments I can write for you. Favorite verse, movie quote - name it and I'll write it!

I'm a Survivor

Everyone is complaining about how much food they ate yesterday. Not me. I guess that's one benefit of the Whole 30. I survived a Super Bowl party with plantain chips and La Croix. 

Want to know what else survived the weekend? My flash drive. I had a major freak out on Friday afternoon when my laptop got knocked over with my flash drive inside. The tip of my flash drive, which happened to contain important and irreplaceable files from my career, broke off. 

Brilliant husband to the rescue. 

Nathanial mentioned it could be salvaged with some quick soldering. A trip to Radio Shack and Lowe's later and we were in business. 

Of course Nathanial didn't tell me until after he was finished that he was never very good at soldering. 

I don't think many things exist that he's not good at. I'm happy to report the files were retrieved and backed up. 

Two Years Down. A Lifetime to Go.

Nathanial and I celebrated our SECOND wedding anniversary on Sunday. We opted for something a little more low key because I'm doing the Whole 30 (more on that in a future post) and Nathanial's arms still have a ways to go from last weekend's accident. We'll take a trip to further celebrate in the next few months after things calm down work wise. 

The traditional theme for the second year gift is cotton.

I stuck with the theme and opted to make a basket. I had an item for each letter of cotton (t is for tickets) along with some actual cotton items. 

Nathanial didn't really embrace the theme at all but got me something that's been at the top of my wish list for a while- a ladder bookshelf. 

I love it! It's the perfect addition to my office/ craft room. Now all that room needs is a new paint job. 

Nathanial fixed an incredible dinner. Lamb isn't something I eat often, but if it's always that good, I may need to add it to the rotation. 

We capped off the evening by watching our wedding video and then Rambo because marriage is all about balance. 

Here's to many more years of married bliss and adventures! 

When A Good Weekend Goes Bad

The weather this weekend was beautiful so we decided to head up to the property in Huntsville. It's always a welcome change to spend time outdoors soaking up the sunshine and Nathanial is able to let off some steam by doing manly things like ripping down fences. 

There are several large piles that needed to be burned so we figured that would be a good way to kickoff the day. 

Nathanial got the area ready by cutting up a huge dead tree, mowing the grass, etc. 

I loved seeing him and my dad together.

The fire started pretty quickly but some of the larger parts weren't going. Nathanial headed over to add some gasoline to the fire. 

What happened next is a blur. I remember a large whoosh sound and seeing a big fireball.

Nathanial took off running amid screams from my dad and I. At first he seemed to be fine but when he started pouring a case of bottled water on himself, I knew it wasn't good. 

His arms turned red and then gray pretty quickly, so he agreed to go the emergency room. They got us right in and began the process of trying to stop the burning. His face and arms were burned pretty badly. 

I'm not a great crisis wife to begin with and when the nurse started talking about the worst case scenarios, I lost it. I was crying so loudly she asked what she could do for me. I wanted to say stop terrifying me, but instead just pulled myself together. 

We spent the next few hours at the E.R.  Once his skin was cooled down, they applied burn cream and bandaged him up. They gave us some supplies for the rest of the week along with good instructions on how to care for the burns. 

It is evident God protected Nathanial given the amount of hair burned off around his head and his complete lack of eyelashes. We are so incredibly thankful. 

It could have been so much worse.

Nathanial has handled everything extremely well. No whining and minimal wincing when the burn cream is applied. He's a trooper. He has even managed to make it to work all week. Today has been  his highest pain level because parts of his skin are really stiff and other parts are raw. Please pray for his continued healing and that there will be no complications or infections. 

The Big Easy

It's a good thing I didn't resolve to blog more this year since I've gone 10 days without posting. 

Hope your year is off to a great start! 

We rang in the new year from New Orleans, from the comfort of our "boutique" hotel room because we're an old married couple and still jaded about large crowds. 

As Nathanial puts it, our trip to Louisiana was great minus the few hours we spent at the Sugar Bowl. Ah the life of an OSU fan. 

We got into New Orleans the afternoon of New Year's Eve. We drove around the French Quarter for nearly an hour trying to find a parking spot so we could see the parade. We finally decided to check into our hotel and then ride the street car over to the parade. There wasn't much in the way of signage so we were lucky to hop on the right route. The street car was jam packed with people. 

The parade was short but so fun. My favorite parts were the local bands. They definitely had swagger. 

After the parade, we met up with some of Nathanial's college friends to catch the end of the OU game. 

We headed back to our room after dinner. We used Uber for the first time and it was a great experience! We even missed the surge pricing because we headed back so early. 

Our hotel was labeled as a botique hotel but apparently that just means super tiny room. It was fine for the short time we were in the city but I wouldn't recommend it for a long stay. 

We tried to do all the touristy things before the game Friday. We had beignets at Cafe Du Monde. 

We walked around the shops of the market and surrounding French Quarter. Our best finds were a Sugar Bowl ornament and some yummy beef jerky. 

We had lunch at Mr. B's as recommended by my brother who frequents New Orleands for work. 

I had the shrimp. It was so messy.  

Nathanial got the bourbon pork chop and had a much better dining experience. 

We spent time after lunch exploring the city and then it was finally time for the game. 

It was raining pretty hard so we used Uber again. There was a pretty long line to get into the Superdome. Nathanial forgot he had his pocket knife on him and got scolded and had to throw it away before we could go inside. Criminal. 

Our seats were on the 50 yard line. Despite the blowout, it was still a fun game. 

We didn't get back from the game until after midnight so we had a pretty leisurely start to the day on Saturday. We decided to stop by the Oak Alley Plantation on our way home. It was my favorite part of the trip!

The tour was fascinating. I was especially impressed by the cedar wood surround that was painted by French artists to look like marble. 

Nathanial also took Monday off so we rounded out the weekend with some time outdoors at the family property. 

Some Mondays aren't so bad!

2015 - The Year of Alaska

I can't believe it's New Year's Eve. This year has flown by! 

The last few years, we've gotten in the habit of finding a word or phrase to characterize the year. This year was definitely the year of Alaska. When we moved there, I had no idea what to expect. And when we suddenly moved back to Texas, I had no idea how much I would miss Alaska. It has a piece of my heart. And always will. It's no surprise that my best memories of the year came from living in Alaska. 

I thought it would be fun to do a short recap of fun happenings from each month this year. 

January - 

We celebrated our first anniversary at the Hotel Alyeska. Nathanial pulled out all the stops and had so many surprises for me during the weekend. 

February - I ran my first freezing 5k. Let's be honest, I did it for the scarf. 

March -

So much happened in March. We got to experience the Iditarod and all the events that went along with Fur Rondy. My favorite was running with the reindeer. It was incredible! I also ran a St. Patrick's 5k. It was -3 at the start and my hair froze. The sunroof on my car randomly exploded as I was going down the highway. 

April - We celebrated Easter, Nathanial's birthday and I ran another 5k. 

May - The lights went out while we were attending a performance of Sister Act. This is also the month my running training group started. 

June - This is the month we got the most sunlight. We took full advantage by replanting our flower bed at midnight and watching a baseball game that didn't start until 10 p.m. I ran a 12k. My parents came to visit in the midst of a heat wave. 

July - Nathanial's grandparents came to visit us. A story I pitched at work got picked up by all the local outlets so I was on the news quite a bit. I ran a half marathon. 

August - I had the best birthday ever when Nathanial surprised me with a behind the scenes tour at the Wildlife center. We got to feed the animals! Nathanial's parents came to visit and we all ran a 1 mile race (complete with Alaska shaped medal). 

September - We attended the Alaska State Fair. We picked vegetables at a farm over Labor Day. 

October - This month it snowed for the first time this year. We found out we were moving and moved two weeks later. 

November - We started adjusting to life back in Texas. We closed on our house two days before Thanksgiving. I ran the Route 66 Half Marathon with my father-in -law. 

December - We got the house in order and spent the month with friends and family. We hosted our first (and second) Christmas. 

What a year!