Bucket List

Last weekend, Michael and I went to see the Bucket List. It's about an old couple of friends who write out a bucket list. A list of everything that they must do before they die. So, of course, we made our own list.

Have children.
Ski Dive. (Michael's)
Pay off our mortgage. (Stacey)
Go to Egypt.
Spend a weekend in luxury in New York (we're going in April).

It's kind of a starter list. We're still working on it. I'd love to hear yours.

grammar, inheritance, and the law

I took a grammar class last week and learned something new. When I was in school one could choose if they wanted to put a coma before the word 'and' when listing things. So, a sentence would be correct either way:

I like the colors green, read and blue.
I like the colors green, read, and blue.

I guess a few years ago there was a legal suit over an inheritance. The will said "I leave my entire estate to Tom, Fred and Janet." Well, apparently Tom sued over the fact that he should get half and Fred and Janet should split the other half (as oppose to everyone getting a third) because there was no comma after Fred. Tom won. And now the rest of us have to use a comma before 'and' when making lists.

I don't know how this is relevant to my life or why I find it so interesting, I guess it really showed me how important grammar is when I usually don't care so much about grammar.

This Diet/ Food Thing

I usually want to loose weight but the problem with that is that I love food. I love to eat all the time and then I usually feel terrible after I have a huge meal or when my jeans start to feel tight. It's this constant battle that for me goes a lot deeper than simply just food. It can get emotional. So I have started to read this diet book. It's the one the Oprah likes called "Your Best Life Diet". It talks about how emotional eating is and how a lot of diets don't work because the person on the diet doesn't ever get to the emotional part figured out. It lists 3 questions for a person to answer at the end that I have listed below. The author really pushes its readers to not give shallow answers but to really dig deeper into what is going on with our need for (comfort or pleasure) food and our strong desire to loose extra weight. Here's those questions:

1. Why are you overweight? 2. Why do you want to loose weight? 3. Why have you not been able to keep weight off in the past?

My answers to these questions have been very insightful to me.

Blogging

I am a little new to the blogging world and am still working out what I want my (our) blog to be about. As I read other peoples blogs, I see that a lot of people just write about the details of their lives and/or some sort of deep thought. So, tonight I am going to give you both.

Life in the Details.
Michael and I love to be together. We were just married in September and we love to do everything together. Here are some details of the different things that we do together.

We shop together. This past weekend we shopped at the Goodwill and the Salvation Army. We found some great things- different decorations for our house and I found an old quite that someone actually gave to the goodwill. I bought it and love it. It is a hawaiian print and really fun.

We eat together. Michael and I make every effort to have dinner together every night (rarely missing) and every meal on the weekend. it's been a great time for us to catch up and just talk about our days and our thoughts and what we are doing and feeling.

We clean the house together. Michael knows that I don't like to vacuum so he does it every week!! He's great. While he does that I do all the laundry and clean the rest of the house.

We do a Bible study together. We're studying the Foundations of Faith and the basics right now. One of my favorite recent conversations was when we talked about the Holy Spirit and how he is God and yet he is his own being and how he is this major resource for us and we often forget about him and how ridiculous that is. It was a great talk.

We go to the mountain (5.5 hours one way) on some weekends. We drive up to the mountain and we hang out at the ski lodge, Michael skis (I attempt) and then we head home together. The drive has given us great talking time.

Deep Thoughts:
I have been thinking about how I want to be happy when I have children. I can only imagine how hard it is to be a parent but I want to be happy when I become one. I look around and wonder how I will make ends meet when I am a parent (how will we afford everything?) and how I will teach my kids about Jesus and yet let them know that they will have to decide for themselves what they really think about him. I just know that I want to be happy when I have child. Happy enough with each child that I would be willing to have another one if that happens.

That's my life and my deep thoughts. Have a great night.

a patrol wife

I skied this weekend!!! I know that is not a big deal to most of the general public but it's big for me. I have tried the sport before and never much liked it, so when the option became available last Sunday, I decided to try it and it was OK. Michael is on ski patrol so he is an amazing skier but I am really awkward at it. I tried it and just fell a lot. I am not that sore and I actually am looking forward to it again in 2 weeks. Maybe someday I'll be able to ski down a hill without constantly thinking that somehow I am going to get hurt- or worse- hurt someone else, which is doubly bad when your a patrol wife.

The Right Time

Once one gets married, the next question is, 'so when are you going to have a baby?' It seems that everyone asks me that and I have to admit, I ask myself that everyday. How do I determine when the right time is? I can look at my finances and talk with others and pray, but after all of that, how do I know? And if I determine that this particular month is going to be the right time for me, what if at that time I can't get pregnant?

I don't know how to determine it. I do know that I feel like preventing pregnancy is not for me, not that I want to have a child each month until I go into menopause. It's just that who am I to determine when is the best time? I am healthy. I am married. My husband and I want lots of children. We are financially stable. We even have children's room in our house full of toys with bunk beds. And when I think about all of this, I think, yes I am ready and then comes in the questions like- how will I keep a full time job and have young children? Is that right for my family? For my husband and I?

I think about this a lot. I don't have an answer. I just am hoping to have faith about it. When I speak to older people, it seems the greatest joy for each older person (or the greatest pain) is their children. Life is all about family.

My life right now is all about my husband. I can only imagine that having children will be the greatest experience in life and it is something that I must give over to God. There's too many questions that I will not be able to answer and to many concerns that cannot be guaranteed. I am going to continue to think about it and continue to pray.

thanksgiving

We had such a great Thanksgiving. My mom and Michael's parents were with us. We spent the whole weekend eating and laughing. All of us had so much to be thankful for. I cooked my first turkey (it was a little dry so next year I am not going to stuff it). My mom is back in the house I grew up in and it is so beautiful. Michael's parents are doing well on Mercer Island and are thankful for their new daughter in law. I am in such a great time in my life and am so excited to have someone to share everything with.