Aaaand breathe.
Life has finally settled down to a point where once again, I can blog. I don't think it's so much been that I have had so many many other things to do but rather that there has been so much going on that even beginning to get into it felt overwhelming on top of already having to get everything done. So yeah, maybe that's the same thing. At any rate, a 'Blue Norther' as we like to call big fat cold fronts around these parts has got us house-bound for the next day or so. That means the boys play a lot of video games and I get to do things like blog. Yay!
The sweetened condensed version of what we've been up to:
- September -October 2009 - plan and carry out the biggest event I've ever been responsible for with the open house for our new church building. I am thankful for people who pull through and also for a baptism by fire in getting our feet wet in our ward. This is where I went off the radar in blogging. I was so. stressed.
- October 12, 2009 - we put an offer in on a house. This was also the day after the Open House wrapped so it was sort of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire,' so to speak. We didn't think we'd be getting into a house so soon and the whole thing was a big, scary suprise. It was probably a good thing at that point that we didn't fully understand what we were getting into but I'm glad we did.
- November 19, 2009 - after much haggling, we closed on the house. OUR HOUSE! We have a HOUSE!!! Like, to LIVE IN! FOR A LONG TIME! Crazy. Oh yeah - we have three months left on our lease. Hmm.
- December 2009 - give thanks for having spent six months of the previous year painting a house so that my head didn't explode when I realized that I was going to get to do it all over again, but MOOOOORE. See? It's a good thing. I can edge a wall and pick a paint color without having a major indecision crisis. Plus I get to do the colors I wanted to do in the first place instead of trying to keep everything neutral (aka beige) to please the landlord. It's good, right? *twitch twitch* Right? I will say, however, painting your own house is a lot more gratifying than painting a rental. And I'm going to leave it at that.
- Christmas 2009 - Tom's off work for a week so I spend 12 hours/day working at the house and find that sanding ceilings is possibly even less fun than it sounds. However, being covered in drywall gives new meaning to a "White Christmas." I sand and paint and prime and paint and tape and paint until I have holes in my hands. (Literally.) Thankfully, my family gives me a wonderful gift and my mom, sister, and dad spend a whole day the week before Christmas working on the house with me. Misery does, in fact, love company :). (Don't worry - I took Before pictures and I'll post the whole thing once it's After, although I will say that the pictures don't do justice to the filthy, greasy, matte paint, lesser-known-cousin-of-the-black-hole, "Brown Hole" that it was. No offense to anyone who adores chocolate brown flat paint but I don't love light sucking chalk on the walls. Give me subtle shine, please. It's the magpie in me.)
- Move from painting the halls to decking the halls for Christmas!
- Get back at it.
- And then I turned thirty. It really was a fun birthday spent with the most enthusiastic birthday revellers possible (my nieces/nephew/kids) and got to pass on the 'family torch' - a love of fireworks. Thirty is a pretty reflective milestone, I think. You can't help but ponder where you were and what you were doing ten years prior. I was turning twenty - officially an adult, no longer a teen. Life ahead of me held so much possibility and so much unsurity. Who would I date? Marry? Would I go on a mission? (I was fighting this thought at this point. Getting hitched sounded like way more fun.) If I could send a fax back from Future Kellie, I'd tell myself to trust the Lord, trust my gut and be good. It'll all work out. Things may get pretty rough, but in the end, it'll all work out. If it hasn't worked out, it's not over yet.
So where to now? The house isn't quite done, but it's getting there. I can practically see Future Kellie ten years from now, smiling that 'Bless your heart' smile and patting my head for feeling like so much of this has been such a big deal, but it's that whole 'By small and simple things are great things brought to pass,' kind of thing. We are a sum of our experiences but whether they act as a positive or a negative in our lives depends on the attitude we choose to adopt. I have to remember that. My New Year's Resolution this year is to be good to myself. I've been so goal driven in the past (and I'm sure will continue to be) that often times, some things suffer that shouldn't have to. 1500 calorie workouts are great and all but if it leaves you too exhausted to do much for the rest of the day... well, slow and steady wins the race. I also need to be kinder to myself. I am so aware of my shortcomings and faults and tend to beat up on myself for that. I resolve to be good to myself this year - physically, emotionally and spiritually.
The movie UP has had a big impact in this developing self-philosophy, I guess. It's a really beautiful movie with a message that hits very close to my heart. Even since I came home from my mission, Denmark has evolved into something almost mythical. It's my Paradise Falls. I still dream in Danish sometimes. However, I've moved from strictly the "Adventure is out there!" camp to more of a "Bloom where you're planted/Adventure is where you find it" type of dream. I don't want to miss out on what's right in front of me in favor of some far off thing that I can't control. So then I guess it's pretty cool that this is the year when we set down roots.
Rock on.
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