Catching snowballs

It is an absolutely gorgeous, peaceful winter day....perfect for taking Jack to the "park" to play. His preference: catching snowballs.

Holidays 2010, Part 1: Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Zrelaks!

Thanksgiving, as well as the other holidays celebrated this year was a little bittersweet. Having Joe home to spend this special day with was wonderful. Of all of the things I am thankful for, he ranks right up there in the top three (being edged out of the number one spot only by "Knowing God") so his presence made my heart glow a little brighter. However, being so far from our dear families and others we love made it a bit harder to cradle a thankful spirit. You'd think that after 11 years of being away, we'd get used to it, but that is just not how love works. We're resilient, though, and we did our best to remember the amazing blessings we've been given.

We have a warm, cozy home. Joe has a good, steady job. We both enjoy good health. Our marriage is balanced and forgiving and full of love. Every year, I get new, amazing, beautiful nieces and nephews. Our dog makes us smile. We make incredible friends every time we move and have a network of "places to stay" all over the country. Our bellies are always full. I feel deeply loved by my family, even from 3,800 miles away.

And those are just the big things. The little, everyday things could fill every last little bit of free space on my hard drive. I'm thankful that I realize this.

This particular Thanksgiving day was shared with friends. I spent the morning making side dishes for the meal with our neighbors Dana, Jen, Trevor, and Tyce. My contribution: cranberries, stuffing, green bean casserole, and festive broccoli (yes, broccoli has high amounts of festive potential). Dana fried a turkey. Yummmm. If you haven't ever tried fried turkey, I highly recommend that you do. It is not oily or greasy. It is tender and delicious. Trust me, I was hesitant at first too.

Our Thanksgiving spread

Our meal with the Cunninghams was delicious. We enjoyed each others company and stuffed ourselves silly. There was simply no room for dessert so we cut a couple of pieces of homemade sweet potato pie (courtesy of neighbor Roni Harden) and pumpkin pie and brought it home for later.

When "later" arrived, we had our very good friends, Ryan and Lindsay, over for dessert and wine. I had baked up a delicious apple pie (courtesy of Mrs. Smith) to add to our spread of tasty treats and we uncorked a bottle of Frog's Leap Zinfandel.

So thankful for good friends.

Also thankful for Ryan's festive sweater!

The wine was delicious and the conversation quite enjoyable. We filled our bellies with pie and had many good laughs.

While Lindsay and I enjoyed a good chat in the nice, warm house, Joe and Ryan enjoyed a good cigar on the back deck, huddled around a heater.

Smoking by the light of a propane heater

That evening just kind of felt the way life is supposed to feel. Relaxed, safe, connected, and fun. I'm so thankful for those moments.

Overall, the day went well and by the end Joe and I were ready to curl up together in our warm bed and simply rest in the thoughts of our blessings.

"Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name." 1 Chron 29:13

Snow Angels

Monday night, 10:52pm:

"It's beautiful outside....a fresh layer of snow three inches deep covering everything."

"Sounds nice...."

"Let's go make snow angels!"

"You are kidding me, Joe. It's cold out there! We're not dressed for it."

(Sexy grin)

"Ok, ok. Can I at least put shoes on?"

"Sure."

Joe has the coolest ideas. Literally. :)

Halloween

It's Halloween today. The celebration of Halloween is such a moral dilemma for me because it is SO much not a Christian holiday. Its traditions are steeped in superstition and pagan practices and don't glorify God. However, while I don't want to honor the foundation of the day, it seems to me that many of the roots of the traditions of Halloween have been forgotten. Kids (and most adults) don't realize that pumpkins were carved to scare away spirits or that costumes were worn to hide from evil entities. The traditions have morphed into more positive, family-connecting, neighborhood-gathering activities.

I love seeing the little kids dressed as ladybugs, firefighters, ninjas, and cupcakes. I love gathering with friends to carve big smiling faces into pumpkins and roast the seeds that we pull from them. I love the neighborly spirit that comes with filling all of our kids' pillowcases with candy. There is nothing evil left in these activities, so I do choose to take part in them. I don't go to haunted houses, try to scare kids, or decorate with webs, witches, and ghosts. That is where my line is drawn.

As for this Halloween: It is rainy, windy, and cold outside and I'm a bit concerned that I won't be able to get rid of all of the candy I bought for the kids. It will then end up on my hips and that is bad news....a negative side effect of Halloween. We'll have to see what happens....I'll keep you posted.

The moment of truth:
It's 5:00 and the kids are trickling slowly to my door. They are bundled up and wet, but I see that some Kodiak kids are used to this kind of stuff and a little rain and wind won't stop them on their quest for exorbitant amounts of sugar. It is miserable out, but the sparkly little fairies and butterflies are wearing rain boots, the foil-wrapped tin man is sporting a heavy layer of long underwear, and the whoopie cushion is wrapped up in a beanie and warm scarf.  I'm rewarding their efforts with handfuls of goodies. I'm just so glad I'm not out there.

It's 6:20 and I think that all of the bold souls that were going to brave the weather have done so. The dark, wet street is empty and I have a lot of candy left. I think I'll just ding-dong-ditch my bowl on my neighbors porch and watch her hips expand. (Yeah right. Megan could eat the entire contents of Willy Wonka's factory and not gain an ounce. I'd hate her for it if she wasn't so darn likable.)

Thinking about how wet and miserable the trick-or-treaters must be makes me want some hot cocoa, so I'm off to make some. I leave you with pictures of a few of my favorite kids. I hope you all had a great (dry) Halloween!

Little Ladybug Alison

Dinosaur Tyce

Firefighter Trevor

Changes

Mmmmm.....a hot cup of coffee, a down blanket on my bed, a snoring dog curled up by my legs, blowing cold rain outside, a pink MacBook on my lap....it's most definitely time to write a blog.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written a post. The end of August was my last one. The end of August was also when I started working again (as a substitute teacher for the Kodiak school district) and when Joe left for a three month stint at law enforcement school in Georgia. I think I switched over from exploration mode to survival mode and that's why I haven't written in so long.

I ended up having a wonderful summer. In May, I couldn't say that I was very appreciative of Kodiak. I might have actually been pretty close to making one of those paper chains where you rip a link off every day to see how much longer you have before something special happens, like moving. By August, however, I was asking Joe if we could add a fourth year to his tour here. Great friends, a cozy house, a little bit of sunshine, and endless amounts of outdoor adventure had quite an impact on me in three short months. My heart just swallowed Kodiak up.
Side note:  By the time we actually have to tell the "higher ups" whether we actually want that fourth year or not,  it will be the middle of January. My opinion might be a little different again as I'm slipping all over the icy roads in 50 mph winds and starving for even just one little ray of sunshine to hit my face again. I'm wishy-washy like that. It's my parent's fault for raising me in beautifully sunny southern California, where my skin and my brain became addicted to those golden rays of light. I'm supposed to blame my parents for everything, right? So, while I'd love to tell you how long we will be living here, I'm afraid that I just don't know at this point. Ask me in February.

The shift to working again has gone smoothly, for the most part. I miss my freedom and friend time a little bit but have just learned to shift activities to the evenings. I guess this is what "normal" people with "normal" jobs have to do. It's been years since I've had a day job....it's a little surreal. The job has been fun, though, and I've met some great kids and great adults-who-work-with-kids. Being around kids all day alters the way I think and keeps me on my toes. It also makes me wish I lived closer to my nieces and nephews. Families sure do spread out these days, don't they?

As far as the Joe-being-gone-for-three-months (for which we still have a month to go) situation goes: not loving it. We've been apart for three months before. We've been apart for nine months before! In all honesty, we're just pretty used to him being gone a lot. That's just the way our life is. But, I still never get over being lonely for him. Me and him....well, we're just one. Intertwined. Stronger together. A single entity in two bodies. It's just a little bit harder to do your best when you aren't all there. There's no question that we both survive, and we do it quite well, but it never really feels right. To make things worse, Joe pretty much hates the school that he's at this time and wishes every day that he didn't go. I'm so glad he's not a quitter, though......it makes me proud when he accomplishes things, even if he hates them. Makes me feel secure. He only has 27 more days to go and he'll have another great thing to add to his already excellent resume.
My friends are doing an amazing job of taking care of me during Joe's absence. I rarely have to cook, I have workout and bible study partners, our lawn and vehicles are taken care of by their husbands, and I always have a cozy couch and friendly conversation available to me. I feel loved and can only hope to be able to do the same for them when they need it.

Hope this little update helped. Again, please forgive me for my lack of posts. I'll try to realize that they don't always have to be amazing adventures.....maybe you just want to know how I'm doing. And me, well, I'm not so amazing all the time. But that's ok. The fact that I'm surrounded by super cool friends and family who love me tells me I'm doing something right. And that's amazing.

My coffee is cold now...but I finished a post and it was quite enjoyable to write. It's going to be a good day.

Two days in a row?

It was simply amazingly gorgeous again today. I'm still energized from all of the sun that warmed my skin for the past 8 hours. It was a day where we did everything we could to avoid being in the house. Or any covered place, for that matter.

I started the day with a nice 2.5 mile run, which almost killed me because I'm not used to warmth anymore and my internal ventilation system didn't want to work properly. I basically didn't know whether to sweat or not and my body chose not to when it should have. No worries, it didn't kill me.

Jack and I then examined the new flowers that bloomed this morning....they are finally responding to the good weather we've been having. Aren't they beautiful? I'm so excited that we grew them from seeds.

We then played fetch. I sit on the back steps and toss the ball down the hill, he scrambles down for it, then he bounds back up to drop it back at my feet.

Jack is not so good about knowing when he should stop playing fetch. He got so tired and hot! Although it was technically only 72 degrees out, it felt much more like 90 or so. The atmosphere must be thinner up here.

The rest of my afternoon was spent hanging out with friends and spending as much time outside as possible. We got some color on our skin and caught up on the latest news while we lounged around on the grass and our dogs found shady spots under the trees.
My neighbors and I ended the day with a BBQ on our back porch. Chicken Kabobs, pasta salad and a wonderfully sweet and delicious watermelon.

Dana cooks the Kabobs on our grill

It was a perfect evening to be on the deck

Tyce loved the watermelon

As did Alison

We couldn't get enough of that melon....such a rare treat to get a good one up here!

Everything is cleaned up now, Jack is tucked under the dining room table, recouping from his day, and I'm looking forward to a nice bath and a cup of tea. Again I'll say it: Life is good.

Simple Things

It was a gorgeous day today. The weather could not have been more perfect...the temperature hovered in the low 70's, there was a gentle warm breeze, the bugs stayed huddled in their little holes (or wherever they live), the sky was as blue as blue could be, and I got to wear a tank top and capris. Jack and I spent the morning sleeping in, then we played ball, played with Megan and Kloe, watched Jake mow our lawn, and discovered new blossoms in our flowerpots. I got to spend some time video chatting with Joe, who is currently at the police academy in humid-hot Georgia, and phone chatting with a good old friend from Marquette. I had a great dinner with the Lindsleys (which included chewy chocolate chip cookies) and then Jack and I joined Megan, Alison, and Kloe for an evening walk around our neighborhood. Jack even got to be off-leash and he and Kloe frolicked around the fields, darting back and forth aimlessly but having a ton of fun. The day ended with a few hours of quality hang-out-friend-time with Megan and Alison. It was a day where nothing went wrong and everything was comfortable. There were no huge adventures but instead lots of little things that reminded me how good my life is and how much I have to be thankful for.

It's off to bed for Jack and I now. I hope tomorrow is just as amazing.

Megan, Alison (in stroller), and Kloe on our evening walk

Jack and Kloe frolic in the fields