New home for the next 6 months

Well, if you've been reading this blog you know our housing situation. I was getting a little panicked we weren't going to find anything for a few months and we'd been be living in an RV somewhere (those would make some awesome blogs though).

I think I shared about that teeny tiny apartment the other day. Well I called and they only are renting it out to one person and get this! If you have guests over they can only stay for an hour!! So weird. And who is monitoring that?

Well, we lucked out. We found a 2 bedroom, pet-friendly, 6 month (what we needed) lease on a place that is nice and spacious. We will be moving about 10 minutes from where we are now and it's just an all around better situation. It's not fancy or especially charming, but I will make it another 'temporary' home. Maybe it was good that I was able to envision ourselves in the tinniest of apartments to make me thankful for the large one we now have. 

So let the moving begin again! We will be in our new place February 1st. There will be LOTS of photos to share after she's all beautified. God is always faithful. In only a few days time we got a new home and for now, it's rather perfect.

Baby shower redux

One of my oldest friends is having a baby this March! This is the season for it I guess. Is it me or does anyone else still feel like their 15 a lot of the time? It's so strange for me to realize that, oh ya, we're old enough to raise children of our own, start a family and begin that next phase. Eek.

Megan, myself and Alishia (and with the help of Husband!) threw Jessica a baby shower a few days after Christmas. We were going for a winter woodland themed shower, but after looking at the decorations, I think we just tried to make everything look cute. Here are the photos!

 

We had fun making all the food. I attempted 'pie pops'. Because we were running out of prep time, Husband stepped in and made the caramel apples. Thanks love! 

 

Hot Chocolate Bar. Nom nom nom.

 

So we knew that Jessie didn't want those terrible baby shower games people play, so I thought we could make some iron on onesis. I cut out cute shapes and people simply peeled and ironed. She was left with 10 onesies with varying sizes for baby.I was also happy with my re-use of all those mason jars I had for my wedding. Threw some doilies and bakers twine on with cute paper straws and voila! 

 

Hooray! Iron on worked! 

  

This is Sadie. Megan's beloved beagle Sadie. They have a special bond.....

 

Hi Jordan! Megan's brother came by not knowing a shower was taking place. We forced him to stay and take a picture.

 

 

 

 This photo is a bit of an inside joke. It's kinda hard to see, but Jess is holding baby mittens made by our dear friend Sara. Back in High School Sara really wanted to sew us mittens for Christmas. Instead of using a pattern so told us to place our hands on a piece of paper and trace around it. The result was hilarious. Jess ended up with two right handed mittens, I ended up with some weird shaped thumbs etc. It was funny but it was so sweet and so kind. We remember that memory fondly, so it made me laugh when Jess pulled out baby hand made mittens by Sara. Funnier if you were there??? ha


Baby showers are fun to plan and I actually do have more photos of the cute gift bags we gave guests so I'll have to remind myself to post those. I love my friends and I love that I get to go through life with them...be it breakups, boyfriends, weddings, marriage or babies. Congrats soon to be mommy Jessica. You're going to be amazing.

feeling homeless

Wow. Two posts in one night. Obviously there are things on my mind and I'm finding this blog to be a good outlet.

So, renting. It is not my cup of tea. I can't wait to have a home of our own. I realize there will be challenges with home ownership, but at least you get the comfort of being able to LIVE in your home. We have been blessed with our current apartment but our landlords are having another baby and want the extra space so that means we gots to go. Sigh. We spent so much time making that places 'ours' and since we aren't planning to live in Canada for much longer we will have to continue to rent.

Trevor's grandparents go to the states for the winter and we were able to house sit for them last year. We are hopeful that we will be able to do so again next winter. That said, who is going to rent to us for such a weird amount of time? We live in such a tiny area that apartment buildings aren't anywhere and homes rarely are for rent. Trying to find a place in our desired budget that take pets isn't easy either.

God has never once left me homeless and I know this shouldn't be a big deal. I think it's the desire to feel at 'home' that I crave. I don't want to unload and move again! With that said, we are willing to live anywhere and it doesn't matter how old, small, weird, or gross it is. I have my family and I will learn to be content with whatever we find.

We found a little apartment above a store front. Have you ever seen the movie Julie and Julia? Remember Julie and her hubby's apartment over the pizza shop? That's kind of like this apartment. It's over a sandwich shop! It's pretty charming and I think it could be pretty awesome to live over a store in the middle of downtown for a few months right??

I've been in love with apartment therapy.com and I love their teeny tiny home contests. I've actually never been one that's liked a lot of space or needed a big home. The apartment that I saw for rent has the same layout as this amazingly cute tiny apartment:

Would it be a HUGE downsize? Yep! But it's temporary and we get to save a lot of money! I'm not trying to get my hopes up because I don't even know if it's still for rent. They 'consider' pets but I think they'd prefer none at all. I also don't know if they'd do a short lease. The property manager is also listing another little home for rent too so lets hope for some choices!

I always get anxious that God isn't going to come through...even for silly things like renting a home. I don't know why I get so fearful of not knowing the future. He has always provided. He has saved me from the worst of times and yet I still doubt. A father would not give his son a stone when the son asks for bread. I have a terrible time viewing God as a GOOD and loving father. In this weird time when we don't know where we will live, I'm going to choose to believe God knows EXACTLY what He is doing. We could use your prayers though in either hopefully getting the rental I was talking about or something better!

a zoo and a wedding.

This is a two part blog. First half is our trip to the zoo and the second half is all about one of the best weddings I've been too.

Trevor and I have an addiction to the Zoo. We really love animals. I'd say we love them more than the average person. Not to get all weird and spiritual on you, but animals are such a wonderful reflection of the creativity of God. I might not be working for Peta, throwing red paint at your fur coat, but I believe we are to love, care and respect animals. Ps...if you are a recreational hunter, we probably won't be friends. Gross.

Anyways! Trevor and I had one of our first dates at the Calgary Zoo. We have since gone to the Seattle and Vancouver Zoos together. When we found out we'd be going to Southern California we thought it would be a perfect time to go to the mecca of all Zoos. The San Diego Zoo. They do some amazing work on the conservation of wildlife. We spent the entire day looking at every exhibit and every animal. We were also joined by my good friend from my Kona days, Dave. Dave and Trevor enjoyed the fact that you can buy/drink beer in the zoo. Boys. Here are some animal pics. Hooray!

I LOVED this guy. Deep in thought

 I loved his feet too.

 Santa just happened to be at the zoo and he looks angry. Maybe it's because it was 5 days past Christmas and he still had to dress up like 'Santa'. Just a guess.

                                                    Thank you Dave for hanging out with us.

                                               Husband. So happy to be at his favorite place.

Hippos. My FAVORITE animal in the world. Minus my kitty and puppy that is. 

Wedding time. So I was stupid and didn't get to take lots of photos at Jered and Amanda's wedding. Blarg. I just didn't want to miss anything. I took a few photos. Some on my camera and some on my good old iphone. Their wedding was wonderful to be apart of. Creative, beautiful, simple, fun, and full of LOVE. Lots of happy tears on this day. I can't say enough wonderful things about this couple.

Here is an example of how great Jered is. He let us in on a secret he wanted to be revealed during the reception. He asked a bunch of his musician friends (some artists that you'd  know and some you wouldn't) to write a song about Amanda, Jered and marriage. My favorite person to contribute was Tom Wilson. You'd know him as Biff from Back to the Future. Yep. Biff wrote a love song and it is awesome. Jered also wrote a song which was perfect. He presented his surprised Bride and guests with the CD and we all got to take a copy home. Nicely done Jered. Nicely done.

 LOVED their programs. Their invites had more of the same graphic print of them.

I didn't get many photos of Amanda walking down the aisle, but I got this one thanks to my tall   Husband. I                                                 just died at how beautiful she looks here.

O iphone. You did your best... Jered looking handsome. Um, can you tell that's his dad? They look like carbon copies of each other.

One of the best moments. The wedding party gathered around the couple and sang along to "In Christ Alone" (I posted the version they played below). They did this instead of a traditional prayer and I loved it.

lonely

Husband had to head back to Canada today. Due to immigration issues, our first year of marriage has been fairly hard on us. To keep it simple and not to bore you, we've had to be apart from each other (myself in Yakima, Husband in Alberta) for a lot of our first year together. Immigration, when done legally takes lots of money, time, patience and for me... loneliness. When I am in Canada, I'm on a visitor's visa which means I can't work. When I have to come down to the states it's usually for an undetermined amount of time so working is still out of the question. It's a bit hard to come back as a married woman to her parents house at almost 28 and not working...just kinda sitting around. Luckily, we are on the last leg of my immigration. Just waiting for my passport to be stamped with a special visa stating I'm a permanent resident of Canada! I wish that was that, but since our main goal is to live in Yakima, we have to work on Husband's green card. Blarg. We just threw down another $1500 (the initial fee) and are starting the annoying process of paperwork and trying to convince another government that Husband and I are in love and are a real couple. I realize this is a really boring post, but as this blog is about our lives and as this is the main thing going on I kinda thought I should share. I'm learning about patience and about God being in control, even though I'm getting fairly annoyed with the process. I'm learning to appreciate my Husband more and more. When we're apart I see that I'm a much better person WITH him than without. He brings out the best in me. I dropped him off at the airport at 5AM today. It's been almost 12 hours and I feel so lonely. I miss my best friend. I don't know when I'll see him next. Maybe tomorrow or maybe 2 months. Sigh.

Wanted to share this wedding video that Husband created. We were blessed to shoot our friend Jennifer and her husband Thomas' wedding this summer. If any of you are getting married and want a wedding video that captures your special day, let us know :) Enjoy the video
Sudbury Wedding from Trevor Barritt on Vimeo.

The most magical place on earth

One of my best friends Jered popped the question to an amazing lady named Amanda and decided to get married on New Years Day. There was no way I was going to miss this wedding. Husband and I booked our tickets to LA for a week and had a BLAST. I'll have to post photos of the wedding later. I'll also post pics of the rest of the trip...which included the San Diego Zoo, Cliff's birthday etc.

This post will be all about my favorite place on earth. Disneyland. For some reason I keep having friends that work for Disney and keep letting me go for free. Pretty fantastic generous friends. Thanks to Alisha Brown, I was able to go back to Disneyland for free with Husband and another best friend Cliff. We were joined by JL and Carina later in the day. Cliff and I share a common love of Disney and it surprised us we hadn't been to Disneyland together before. It was a magical day. We arrived at 8am and didn't leave till 12am. My perfect day. I'm almost 28 and I act like a 5 year old when it comes to Disney. I don't care. It's awesome. Here are my iphone photos from the day!

                          So excited! My hubby and one of my best friends at the best place ever.

Carina and JL made the day even better. Thank you JL for your love of Dr. Spaceman. Made standing in line for rides actually fun. 

 Going to Disneyland the day after New Years is insane. SO many people. I don't really understand why parents bring their kids under the age of 6 to Disneyland and infest the place with strollers. And then keep their crying and tired babies up till midnight. Sorry for the rant.

 To have another friend share my love of pickles and sodium is nice.

Tower of Terror. Everyone had a great time, minus Husband. Look closely at his eyes. Sheer terror/fear. 

Cliff. My friend. He has mastered the art of friendship. He is one of the best people I know. Couldn't do life without him. 

The castle!

                                      World of Color water show!! It is amazing. Really. It is.