Westin Meets Balloon

This makes me so happy every time I see it! My father-in-law entertains my son. Or.... I guess I should say a balloon entertains my son.

He Graduated

Jeremy graduated from nursing school on May 1, 2009.

I'm so proud of my husband! Here are a few pictures from his graduation. Jeremy was one of two class representatives, so he got to do the invocation at the ceremony. It was a truly beautiful prayer and he got many comments from his classmates afterward on how touching it was. Congrats, my love.

So Much.

Wow, it has been forever since I've blogged. A whole has happened since I last wrote.

Here is a brief list:

- Flew to Dallas, Texas with Westin to visit my sister Jennie who had her 2nd child, Luke. I've never been able to be in town when either of my sisters had their kids, so this was special. I also spent time with my girlfriends for our annual Posse Reunion. It's a group of 9 women who met at a Christian sports camp called Kanakuk about 15 years ago. We've had a reunion every single year since then. It's an amazing group of women, and I am blessed each year when I see them.
- Hosted Jeremy's parents for his graduation.
- Planted flowers in our front yard, with the help of Jeremy and his parents.
- Attended Jeremy's graduation and got to finally meet some of his classmates and instructors. (He gave the invocation at his ceremony, and it was a beautiful prayer.)
- Played tennis with Jeremy's uncle and aunt, who also flew in from California to attend his graduation. They're in their late 50s and kicked our butts, but it was a blast.
- Threw a party for Jeremy with about 40 people in attendance. We had a good 'ole southern barbecue with all of the fixins'. Good stuff.
- Worked intermittently and somehow still put a whole lot of mortgage loans in process, in spite of a crazy schedule.
- Got a babysitter and attended a birthday dinner in North Raleigh for my friend Stephanie's 40th birthday. I also make a "book of blessings" for her, with letters from about 25 of her friends wishing her a Happy 40th. It turned out pretty good, considering this is not at all a strength of mine.
- Observed a rash grow on Westin, and finally took him to the doctor on Wednesday when it has spread over most of his body and he had a temperature of 101.8. The doctor thinks it was "contact dermatitis", which probably came from laundry detergent. We switched back to his old detergent, and the rash is going away (and fever is gone).
- Rode my road bike for the first time in about 11 months. It felt GREAT!
- Bought a new desktop computer and set it up. It's a MUCH nicer one than we had, and will let me work from home much more efficiently.
- Finally caught up on my favorite TV shows, Survivor and Grey's Anatomy. I was several weeks behind, due to our crazy schedule.
- Pressure washed our entire house (okay, Jeremy did this, but it's still list-worthy).
- Mulched our entire yard (yep, Jeremy did this one too. Looks great, honey!)

Whew. We have a lot more on the horizon too, with Jeremy taking his NCLEX (national boards for his nursing license) and us getting our house ready to sell. Busy, busy.

Getting close...

In 2 weeks from today, at this time of evening (5:40pm), Jeremy will have graduated from nursing school. WOW.

The Shack

The Shack is one of those books that I knew I'd eventually read, because it's one that so many people have been talking about. It has been on the best seller list for nearly a year. I first heard of it about 7 months ago or so, when some women from my church Life Group were discussing it. Ever had an experience where you hear of something once, and suddenly you feel like you hear about it all the time? The Shack is one of those experiences for me. For a while it seemed like it was coming up in conversations everywhere I went. My in-laws kindly gave me the book for Christmas, both of them having read it and loved it. But with a newborn, my time for reading books has been, well.... absolutely non-existent. Until now. Westin is finally in a great sleeping pattern and I actually have some evenings with free time.

In case anyone hasn't heard of it or doesn't know the premise, here is what the back of the book says: "Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book."

So, I've started reading it. But... I'm stuck for some reason. I'm only about a fifth of the way through it. You see, I am not an overtly emotional person on the outside. I'm pretty even keeled, and I don't get too excited or too angry over anything. No one would describe me as especially expressive, and most of you have probably never seen me cry. But - I AM emotional on the inside, and for some reason it really comes out in books and movies, and heck, sometimes even commercials. I internalize the character's plights, struggles, emotions, etc. and fully engage in the story. In fact, there have been a few movies that have flat-out wiped me out emotionally, and they're not even movies that you would think would have that effect on me. ("Girl, Interrupted " is one of them... so is "Love Actually". I wept during both of them, and the weeping even continued long after the movie ended. Odd, I know.) And I don't like scary movies at all because, well... they scare me. Bad. So, knowing this about me, I've been very apprehensive to read about an innocent little girl getting brutally murdered and a father dealing with his grief. I have a small fear that it will be too much for my frail heart and that it will mess me up. I'm sure I won't regret reading it, and I'm certain that I WILL read it... just in tiny bits. I just recently got through the girl's abduction and the proof that she was murdered. And then I stopped. Gotta take a breather. I'll come back to it again another night.

So, if The Shack comes up on conversation, and I'm asked if I've read it, I probably won't be able to say YES for a while. We'll see. If you've read it and loved it or hated it, feel free to comment. I've heard lots of opinions on both sides. I'll let you know what mine is once I'm done with it.

To be (in Texas) or not to be (in Texas)?

I think it's common knowledge by now that Jeremy and I are considering moving to Texas this fall, once he graduates from nursing school in May. We've always known that we would not be in North Carolina forever. In fact, when we moved here in 2003, we didn't know how long our "stay" here in the state would be. We committed to giving it a year, and then to reevaluate things from there. The reason for our move here was for my career, so I could give the mortgage business a shot. My dear friend Stephanie had been trying for years to convince me that I would love this business, and so finally in 2003, the timing seemed right (we fully believe God led us here), and we made the move from Colorado. Fortunately, she was right: I love the mortgage business, and I can't imagine doing anything else for pay. And now, it has been close to 6 years that we've been in the good 'ole Tarheel State.

When you live somewhere for 5+ years, you grow roots. And our roots here are deep. We have some fantastic friends, and the most amazing church community. We live in a perfect location - I am less than 2 miles from my office, and less than a mile to restaurants, grocery stores, Westin's pediatrician, and the list goes on. The weather is nice, the scenery is pretty, and we're just a few hours away from the ocean AND the mountains. When you put that all on paper, it looks like we truly have it made here. So why on earth are we considering leaving?

In a word.... family.

The fact of the matter is, we love our families, and we believe the Lord wants to use us to encourage and serve our families as much as we can. And that will happen much more effectively if we actually live somewhat near them. Right now, my closest relatives are 1,200 miles away, and Jeremy's are 3,000 miles away in Oregon. We could practically fly to Europe in the same amount of time it takes us to get to Oregon by plane! So, if we live in Texas, we'll be within a couple hundred miles of most of my relatives, and a short plane ride to Oregon for Jeremy's relatives.

Moving will not be easy. Quite frankly, we're choosing the harder road by leaving here, even though we'll be going where we want to go. Again, it's that roots thing. We are settled here, and when we move, we start over. And I don't love the thought of starting over. But.... in my life, I've grown the most when I've been stretched, challenged, and uncomfortable. So in light of that, if I truly want to grow, I should welcome this change.

I do look forward to being back in my home state, and being closer to my family. And I REALLY look forward to going to a Texas Longhorns football game, among other things. A girl's gotta have some priorities, right?

More thoughts to come on this subject.

My rock star

My sister recently gave me her old jogging stroller. (She sent it on the airplane with my other sister who came to visit me.) When we opened it up, we found a few presents that were accidentally in the stroller: an old towel, a burp cloth, and a pair of kiddie sunglasses. The other day, I was goofing around with Westin and I put the sunglasses on him. Here is the result. I was so tickled at how mellow he was that I was literally crying with laughter!