I used to be fairly regular about updating this thing. Hmm... maybe I stopped because I felt people weren't reading... but wait... I started this as more of a therapeutic release... and... of course people aren't reading if I am not writing anything... so... what's the deal then?! Life gets so busy sometimes, I guess.
So here's a snapshot of my busy few months!
We found a new home for our big dog Ella. She was so high energy and with my long hours at work, she wasn't getting the attention she deserved. It was a very hard decision, but we know she is in a better home. Her new "mom" is a teacher and works shorter days. She lives on over an acre of land now, and gets to run around during the day. From what I have been told, she is very happy now. I still miss her, but I don't miss trying to give her a 1-2 mile walk after being away from home for 12 hours at work!
I started a new small group at my church. I love this group of women. We just finished up a Beth Moore bible study on the book of Esther. It was really interesting to fully dive into a bible study by a woman, in a book about a woman, with a group of women in different stages of life. I learned a lot about myself by studying the life of Esther.
Ivan & I also attended a 13 week financial class at our church called Financial Peace University. The goal of this course is to help people become better stewards of their money, reduce debt, and save money. Every week, we watched an hour long DVD of Dave Ramsey (a well known financial advisor) and broke into small groups to discuss the information we learned. There was a lot of homework, but consequently, we learned a lot. In those 13 weeks, Ivan and I reduced our total debt (including car loans) by almost $7,000. We are on a strict budget that can sometimes be very frustrating, but seeing the numbers is worth it!
In October, we had a pumpkin carving party with a great friend of mine, Sara, and her boyfriend. Sara has 2 Chihuahuas also, and they are really good friends with our Nigel & Twiggy. All 4 dogs ran around while we carved, played games, and chatted. Good times all around. I carved a zombie-girl, Ivan carved a "scary face," Sara carved a vampire, and Tim... well, Tim carved Greg Oden. The Blazers player. It was a ton of fun.
(Sara's Vampire, Ivan's Scary Face, my Zombie-girl)
(And Tim's Greg Oden )
(everything looks, well, brown... but trust me, it was super tasty!)And here we are, at the end of December. December brought even colder weather. Multnomah falls froze over. And we are just at the beginning of winter. This So-Cal girl still isn't used to this kind of weather! December is always a busy month for us. Ivan just turned 38 on the 7th. We spend almost a week in Southern California visiting my family (can I just brag at how cute my niece is?). We also got to spend the day at Disneyland with our great friends Nate & Nikki. The park was practically empty so we got to do every ride more than once. So much fun! Christmas came and went very quickly this year. Ivan and I didn't buy gifts for anyone this year. Instead, we gave that money to a family we knew that was unemployed with 2 small children. Along with a few women from my Bible study, we were able to give this family food, necessities, gifts, and even a gift card for a night out to dinner. I have to say, even though I missed seeing all the shiny wrapped presents under the tree, it was so rewarding to know that we made a difference in someone elses life this year. Plus, we didn't worry about the shopping rush!
There you go. A highlight reel of the past few months. Hopefully I can remember to carve some time out for blogging in the new year! (The year 2010? Really?!)
