Shall we sing together?

"I'm singing in the rain,

just singing in the rail;

What wonderful feeling,

I'm happy again." - Arthur Freed

Who doesn't want a kiss like this?

Living in Seattle, we're blessed, according to my mother the word to use here would be cursed, with about six months of rain. Keep in mind my mother lived most of her childhood in Nebraska while I grew up in the middle of the Tongas rainforest in Juneau and then transplanted to the Seattle area. So, it makes sense that our views are a little different on the vast amount of rain our area receives. My views are that it's a very strong blessing, and recently coming from a small farming community, that just happened to have a college in it, on the Eastern side of the state, I know the importance of the rain. But the importance of the rain to crops and livestock isn't what interests me about the rain.

There is nothing, in the world, more intoxicating than the smell of the air after a fresh rain. The water you breathe in. The dampness of the wood. The smell of wet grass. The fresh, crisp taste of it all. Rain nurtures the earth as it nurtures my soul. And after a great rain, the feeling of being renewed is all over. The rain has washed away all of our troubles, concerns, and questions about life...until Monday at least.

The months that bring the rain are, by far, some of my favorites. It was quite disappointing to move to the Seattle area in June and find that our summer was extremely dry and our Fall quite slow on the uptake. But the current weather is more than making up for the summer now. And thank goodness for that.

My life needs GPS so I can find it

Beautiful Seattle in the Morning

Sometimes a kick in the butt is all you need to realize you need to change yourself. I suppose my kick in the butt came yesterday. My husband has been trying to get a job that was pretty much tailor made for him. He'd been in for two in-person interviews and one phone interview. He was a finalist. And instead of choosing any of the finalists, they contracted out. It's been heartbreaking because I know my husband is angry. Angry at the company for not saying that was an option, at the general health of the world and nation's economy, at himself for not getting the job. And it's heartbreaking. Because none of it is his fault.

Marriage is a confusing thing. We all see our parents and their successes and utter failures. We assume what marriage will be like and once you're in it, you realize it's not at all what you imagined it would be. But you cope. And you try. You give everything of yourself to the marriage and to your significant other. And I know it's cheesy, but the saying "If you bleed, I bleed" couldn't be truer. And with that sentiment and disappointment, I have received a kick in the butt.

Today I woke up at five in the morning, a time that is unheard of, and managed to drag my sorry butt as well as my husband's cute butt out of bed and to the gym. I read somewhere that exercise will improve your mood and outlook on things. I hope it does. For him. For me. Because we're in this together. And if waking up at an ungodly hour is what it takes to help both of us through one of the worst economic disasters since the 1930's, I will do it everyday. 

I love my life. I love our opportunities. I love the family that has so kindly brought us into their homes and taken care of us. But most of all, I love my husband. And always will.

Mama Shower

Below are the pictures that were taken of the Baby Shower. As you can tell, it was a beautiful party and I am happy to say that the Soon-to-be-Mommy was very happy with with her swanky party.

Recovery and Restarting

"Where thou art, that is home" - Emily Dickinson

It has been a busy time for our little family. My friend's baby shower was beautiful. In the next few days I'll upload the pictures that we took and post them on here for all to see the decorations that came out just as beautiful as a field of lavendar swaying in the breeze. Okay, maybe not that gorgeous. But pretty damn close.

Our life, as I mentioned, has been pretty busy. Last weekend we had the family baby shower in Olympia. The drive wasn't too bad to Olympia, the food at Vick's Pizza was scrumptious (I always love pizza), the family members that I met were very sweet, but taking my husband to the city of his Alma Mater is always worth it. He always has this wistful...aura, which is a new age word I'm not fond of using, around him. Though, much like Ellensburg for myself, he has out grown the town and both the town and the man have moved on to bigger things to worry about. But I still love our occassional trips to that city as we do have some family there.

As mentioned earlier the baby shower that I was planning was wonderful. I didn't make cupcakes, thank goodness. I was running out of time on just about everything. Planning a baby shower and working and living a sane life do not go together. It reminded me of that joke diagram for college where you can only choose two options of three with the three options being good grades, social life and getting plenty of sleep. Thankfully, the end has been found and we are past the insanity that was baby shower planning.

This coming weekend has baby birthing classes, which exhaust me just to think about!

Today, though, I have been suffering from a bit of a cold and stomach ache (too much stress!). And have been in recovery mode. This week is also the beginning of what I hope to be a much needed self improvement start. My intention is to work out in the morning, eat healthy and wholesome foods, and overall take care of myself in the long run. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it. Thankfully this bug is mostly gone it feels like. Now I'm going to take time to relax and hang with my husband.