Looking forward

I decided to make a list of eight random things I’m looking forward to. (I know, I normally stick to "high fives" but that just wasn't enough for this blog entry. Plus eight is great!)
Here’s what I came up with:

1. Getting our puppy

2. Giving soccer another go (fingers crossed that my knee agrees with this decision)

3. Trying to snowboard for the first time ever*

4. Learning a new job*

5. Becoming an experienced wine taster*

6. Driving across the country with my husband (and puppy – see number 1)*

7. Seeing Matt graduate

8. Getting a full size couch*

Notice those asterisks? There are five of them. That’s because five of the eight things I am looking forward to involve a very exciting change for Matt and I…a move to Sacramento, California! On November 25, Matt verbally accepted a professor position with California State University Sacramento (or Sacramento State if you’re hip). He has to be on campus on August 2 so we’ll move sometime before then. The moving details are very much up in the air but we are very excited for that day to come (especially for Matt because that will mean his dissertation is complete)! I’ve never been to Sacramento so feel free to tell me what you know, love and/or hate about it. For now, I’ll expand on the five things I asterisked above:

3. Trying to snowboard for the first time ever: IN TAHOE. It’s a quick drive from Sacramento. Feel free to visit us and ski/snowboard!

4. Learning a new job: I will not be bringing my current job with me to Sacramento. While a job search is daunting right now, I am still very excited to see what opportunities await! Know of any?

5. Becoming an experienced wine taster: in NAPA VALLEY! It’s just a quick drive from Sacramento too. Again, feel free to visit us!

6. Driving across the country with my husband: I’m excited for this adventure. Who knows where the drive will take us! We do plan on driving through Kansas to see Josh & Lacy, my Grandma and my aunt. We are open to suggestions on where else we should pass through.

7. Getting a full size couch: we only have a love seat as it is and it doesn’t make sense to buy furniture when a move is coming so soon. As much as we like to snuggle up on our love seat, I really look forward to having a couch that I can actually sprawl out on!

So that’s our big news. Sacramento here we come! There are so many other things we look forward to about this move, like living closer to and being in the same time zone as most of our friends and family. And we hope to get lots of visitors so feel free to start planning your trips now! I am so proud of Matt for going around the country interviewing with schools and landing a job with one of our top picks.

Excitement Abounds

Tomorrow Matt and I are boarding a plane to head West! I am so excited! We start off our visit home in Vancouver & Battle Ground to see my family.
And then head North to Federal Way on Christmas day to be with Matt's parents. After spending some quality time with our families, we'll be heading down to San Diego for NYE and a friend's wedding. I'm so excited for all of it! But I am especially excited to see the little ones because they can change so much in just a few months.

Stories of the South

When I first moved to Knoxville I was very observant of how the South is different than the Pacific Northwest. I blogged about it here. I still notice many oddities of the South but I sort of forgot to document and share them on my blog. Now that Matt and I know we only have 6-8 months** left in the South, I feel the pressure to note my experiences in the South.

At work on Friday, I was talking with a few people about our upcoming office move and the office dynamics. We work in the tallest building in downtown Knoxville, the First Tennessee Bank Building.

So we're talking and my coworker Michelle said something that was a quick reminder that I live in the South. Before I tell you what she said, you should have a picture of Michelle in your head. She is in her thirtys, dresses fairly trendy, has a pretty "hot" body, has fake red nails and often wears bright red lipstick. She comes across as a very girly girl. Are you picturing her? Something like this only with a little more skin showing:

Then somehow she slips this into the conversation: "Can you believe we can't bring guns into the office? I mean, if though I have a license to carry it, I can't have it here because of the bank. It's so stupid."

Hmm...Okay. Didn't expect her of all people to want to carry a gun. And why in the world would she think she needs to carry it around in lil' old downtown Knoxville? Definitely not something I would have heard at my old office in Vancouver, WA!

And then, to cap the day off, we had our Christmas party in the office and at least 4 guys pulled out pocket knifes at different times to cut open presents. Now I recognize that many guys carry pocket knifes so that isn't that unusual, but in combination with the gun comment, I was totally cracking up.

Home Sweet Home

I read this on a blog while back and it really resonated with me. It's something I plan to put up in the house some where. And since the holidays are a great time to celebrate love, family and friends, I decided I would also post this on my blog:

May your home be filled with laughter and the warm embrace of a summer’s day,
May you find peace and beauty,
Challenge and satisfaction,
Humor and insight,
Healing and renewal,
Love and wisdom.
May you always feel that what you have is enough.

I love it! I love the home Matt and I have in Knoxville. And I love going to my other two "homes" for the holiday (my parents' house and Matt's parents' house). Ever since I've been with Matt, my whole idea of home has changed . It’s no longer one apartment or townhouse that is home. Home is wherever we are. This of course, is top of mind as we are looking ahead to a move in the summer and will have a very different home than we do now. Plus, home just got a little more exciting now that we’re married. We just got our very first Christmas tree together and got to make new memories of decorating it while playing Christmas music and wearing holiday headgear! I tried new Thanksgiving recipes that could very well become part of our traditional Thanksgiving meal every year.

Happy Holidays! I hope your home is bursting with love, happiness and memories!

White men (and women) can jump!

This is another favorite picture from the wedding. I'm quite proud of how high I was able to jump in heels and a wedding dress. I love everyone's expressions and different jumping styles. I think I'll try to edit out the parking lines and then have this one framed.

Documenting the wedding

We officially have all of our wedding photos from our wonderful photographer, Nikki of Moxie Images. There are 745 pictures so it is a bit overwhelming. But I think this is our favorite. You can tell that we are both overjoyed to say our vows and make our lifelong commitment to each other. We are so thankfully for Nikki's photography and home video that captured this moment because it was so surreal that neither of us remember it that vividly. Stay tuned...I'm sure I will be sharing more pictures with you in the near future!

Darth Vader crashed our wedding!

As a gift to our two ring bearers (our nephews), we got them Darth Vader costumes since they both are VERY into Star Wars. It was getting to be the end of the wedding and we still hadn't given the boys their gifts. Trent started to have a slight meltdown. I don't blame him! It was a LONG day, lots of posing for pictures and he had all that pressure of bringing the ring pillow (sans rings) down the aisle! That's a lot for a four year old to handle! So he was in the back room, crying while Mark, my awesome brother-in-law, cuddled him up. I broke out the gift in hopes that it would be enough to cheer up little Trent. He tried to resist the excitement and continue to be sad, but that only lastest for about 15 seconds before he was ecstatic and HAD to get the costume on right away. Resulting in awesome pictures like this:

(thanks for the photo Josh!)

Corbin happily put his costume on too so we had two little Darth Vaders roaming around...a priceless memory from our wedding!