Belated Thanksgiving Highs and Lows

So I know it is already the 7th of December but I wanted to write about our Thanksgiving this year. We flew out to Kansas City to spend the better part of the week with Christian's parents and siblings. Here is a list of the Highs and Lows of our trip.

Lows

• Knowing firsthand the frustrations of missing our connecting flight and "almost" having to spend the night in Denver. (Because of weather delays, all the flights were delayed). They first told us that the next available flight was Monday evening but then we got on flying standby (I don't suggest it ever again).
  
• Spending 6 1/2 hours in the Denver airport waiting to get on a plane to go home
• Missing Maddie (we boarded her at the vet and had friends pick her up on Saturday
• Coming home at 10:30 on Sunday night, and waking up for work the next morning (now that's a harsh reality)

Highs

• Visiting and spending time with Christian's family
• Having out "own" Christmas with his family (they surprised us but decorating the house and letting us unwrap our presents early).
• Cheering on KU beating up on Mizzou in Football. For those who watched, wasn't that the greatest game? We scared a few people with our screaming, we were at a restaurant.
  
• Saw beautiful snow falling (it snowed all day Saturday and Sunday, 29th #& 30th)
• When I was there, I met former co-workers for lunch and caught up with them.
• Meeting my sister-in-law's boyfriend, and loving the fact that she was just so happy. (She has had a hard time and it makes us so happy to see her happy too)
• Talking to my mother-in-law about family history (she's a convert)
• In returning to Seattle, we met one of Christian's friends that was in the KUPT program. It was nice to have someone we knew at the airport to sit and talk to.
• Taking many family pictures (his sister is very good with photography, I wish I was)
  

How incomplete life would be with our Maddie!

Maddie is our spoiled and much loved 5-year old pug. You might have seen her pictures posted on my blog from time to time. :) She means so much to Christian and me. By the end of the post, I hope that you'll see how much.
We got Maddie in February 2005 when she was not quite 1 years old. Christian's mom is a veterinary nurse at an animal hospital. One of her patients had a young pug and he felt that he couldn't give her the best of care anymore. He was a truck driver and was gone 2 or 3 days in a row a week. He asked if she knew anyone that might want her. My mother-in-law couldn't say no. She brought her home and asked if we wanted her (at the time, she had 4 pugs and didn't want 5). We immediately said yes and now we wonder how life would be without her.
When we got home, we noticed two things. Her previous owner had taken her to obedience school and that she was house-trained. For example, as we were playing with her that first day, we say in jest, "sit" or "down" and we were surprised as she would immediately obey. Then later that day, we looked up from sitting on the couch and she was sitting by the wall by the front door. She was telling us she needed to go outside. We were so grateful that we didn't have to teach her those things.
All through Christian's schooling and the long nights that he waited tables, she kept me company. Every where I went, she'd follow. She was either cuddled up in my lap snoring or begging from me as I ate my dinner. When Christian would call to tell me that he was on his way home, I would look at her and say, "Maddie, Daddy is on his way home." She would yip and whine until he came home. Once he came home, she would say hello to him and then wait patiently while he took his shoes of, and then proceed to lick them clean. He worked at Carrabbas at the time and who knows the good tastin' stuff he'd step in!
In the first few years, that we had Maddie, we rarely let her sleep in bed with us. Now that has completely flipped. Ever since we moved from Kansas to Washington, she has always been in bed with us. Whether it is at the end of the bed, or under the covers, or even snuggled up to one of us. Maybe, it's because she started sleeping later (or at least until our alarm clocks go off in the morning). In the last month, she started doing something repeatedly that is so cute. At night, she'll be curled by the side of us or on the edge of the bed. Then about 4-4:30 in the morning, she walk up between us to the top of the bed and and paw our shoulders to be let in under the covers. Sometimes she also paws us while begging for some of our dinner or when she just wants to come into our laps to cuddle.
Maddie is so much a part of our family; we think of her as our little girl. I know it's related to the fact that we've struggled for so many years to have children and she's become that child to us. I have felt that even more strongly after my miscarriage in July that she has managed to fill that void and also comfort us with hope that one day, she will have a human brother or sister that will love her as much as we do.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Well, we've reached the time of year here in Seattle where it rains and rains and rains. Soon, the wind will come and knock over trees and the electricity. You'd think that we'd be used to it, now that we've lived here for over a year. However, it is nice and different to have just a wet and windy winter rather than a numb, and bitter cold accompanied with snow that I got used to when we lived in Kansas City and Idaho.
Maddie is less than pleased. She absolutely hates the rain. Last week, it was raining something awful, and Maddie dutifully sat by the door (her way of telling us that she needs to go outside). We put her leash on and walked outside. As we walked down the 3 flights of stairs to the grass, she locked up her feet and wouldn't budge an inch. I'm not sure if she doesn't like rain or doesn't like getting her feet wet. Then again, it was absolutely pouring that day. Soon, we picked her up and plopped her on the grass, waited until she went and went back inside.
As a solution, Christian and I decided that we should get a rain coat and maybe that would help a bit. Since it is always raining here in Washington, we thought it would be a good idea. Over the weekend, we found a orange raincoat at Target (only $2.50!) and today I got to try it for the first time. When I got home from work, it was raining so I grabbed her little coat and proceeded to put it on her so we could go outside. About 10 minutes later, with her coat on, we headed outside. For the first 2-3 minutes, her feet locked up and she wouldn't budge but soon, I think she realized how bad she had to go. Finally, she was walking beside me at a normal pace. However, if this rain keeps up, we'll have to buy her little boots to go with the rain coat. :)

Happy Halloween

Here is the picture, I promised. Aren't I cute? I'm not sure if it was the costume or the effort that I put into the costume but I really enjoyed Halloween this year. I'll have to remember next year to make a costume like this year. Our plans (Christian and I) aren't that glamorous tonight. I think Christian has to work late and we usually don't get many trick-or-treaters. Those that do come by get a nice handful of candy.

Last Weekend

Last weekend, it was just Maddie and I at home. Christian had a continuing education class that his whole work had to attend. Going into the weekend, I didn't have any plans but as it turned out, I had a lot of fun. Saturday morning, I cleaned for about an hour while Maddie kept sleeping on the bed. Then I ran to Wal-Mart to grab some things we needed and also the materials to make my Halloween costume. We were invited to a Halloween party with some friends that evening. When I came home, I turned on the BYU Football game to listen to as I made my costume. I spread out the red felt on the bed and walked into the kitchen to find a pair of scissors. When I came back in the bedroom, Maddie had plopped herself in the middle of my felt. I laughed pretty hard when I saw her. She was only trying to help. I decided to play with her for a little while and then I continued making my costume.
With my costume, I went for easy. I decided to be a lady bug. All I had to make was the red, spotted wings and some feelers on top of my head. I used red felt for the back and cut out black felt for the dots. Then I made the feelers out of pipe cleaners and a head band. For my body, I just wore a black shirt, black pants and black shoes. (I'll post some pictures of my costume tomorrow as I'm wearing it to work for Halloween.
Earlier that day, a friend from my ward had invited me to go with her to a Pet Halloween costume contest with out dogs. So I grabbed Maddie and her costume and met her at the store that was sponsoring the event. When we got there we couldn't believe what we saw. A nearby farmer has dressed up his newborn calf in a dress. Someone else had dressed up their pony as a very large black spider. Unfortunately Maddie didn't win the contest but everyone that participated won a certificate good for $10 of Doggy treats. After spending our $10, we took the dogs over to the off-leash dog park next to the store. The off-leash park is a fenced off area where dog owners unleash their dogs and let them romp and get to know one another. Maddie has always loved it but that day there were a lot of bigger dogs and she was quite timid. Towards the end she met a little puppy and they chased each other around the park for 10 minutes. One of the things I like most about these parks is how Maddie is so exhausted when she comes home. It also gives her the chance to interact with other types of dogs.

Musings for today

Ok, Ok..so I haven't been good about blogging once I started back in August. From the last time I wrote I've struggled with a couple different issues in writing again. The first one is that I worry aobut how much information to write and I'm a little afraid that I'll say too much. The other reason is that: Everyone I know that blogs do little updates on their children and the funny things that they do or challenges that they have. I guess I feel that there isn't any "big" thing about my life. In a way we do the same thing a lot of the time. We both work 40 hours a week, come home exhausted, play with Maddie, run errands and spend time together on the weekends. Perhaps, sometimes, we'll plan a trip or something "notable" on a Saturday but not often. Lately, it's been cleaning, shopping, watching football and going out for dinner in the evening. (it's not that I don't like that because I love a relaxing Saturday) Anyone have any suggestions on my two concerns??

For awhile, I have had this feeling like I need to do more with my life (with the free time that I have). We are still paying off our first attempt with IVF (in-vitro Fertilization) that ended with my miscarriage in July. With each paycheck, a certain percent goes to paying that sum off. I think we have a little less than half left to pay back. This is the ultimate goal/priority in our life so when we are done, we'lll start on a 2nd attempt with IVF. But in the meantime, what do I do? I know Heavenly Father has a plan for us/me in remaining childless for this long. I just wish Iknew what exactly He wants me to learn during this time of my life. I've active in my calling as a pianist for our ward choir and I have learned so much but I want to do more. In the past, I've have tossed up a couple ideas: going back to school for my Masters (but that would be less money to contribute to our IVF loan), starting different crafts, and working more with family history. It's the deciding that has me stumped: Each time I try to decide it comes to this: what is the thing or thing that I need to start doing in order for me to grow the way my Heavenly Father wants me to grow? If anyone has any comments, I would love to hear them.

I'd better quit for now, I wrote this at work because these were my thoughts at the moment and work has been so extremely slow.

Introduction

Well, I decided it was time for me to begin my own blog. You may be wondering about the name of of my blog. It came from a book from Karen Kingsbury. In the book, A girl that had down sydrome was scared of the rain. She was told by her friend that it was okay because there was sunshine just beyond the clouds. I see this phrase as a analogy of our lives sometimes. Sometimes our lives seem much different that what we imagine it would be. The important thing is to remember that even if your life isn't what you imagined it would be at this time, there is sunshine just beyond the clouds.
Yesterday, Christian and I went to Dash Point Beach in Federal Way. We were there 2 weeks ago and there were lots of blackberries. We went back yesterday to pick some for a pie. We got so many, minus the ones that were used for quality taste testing. Next time though, we need to remember to wear long pants and have gloves because the thorns were much bigger than we thought they'd be.
Last of all, I want to introduce our pug, Maddie. She is 5 years old and full of love. Yes, she does seem to get into lots of trouble but we love her so much. She is so much part of our family that we call her our little girl.