Christmas

Christmas this year was super busy, since we had only been in Idaho for a few days, but like always it was a good day spent together. We spent the morning together doing our own Christmas, before heading to my mom's for Christmas and turkey lunch. Around dinner time, we headed to my dad's and had a delicious nacho bar before playing a few hours of Rock Band. No presents at dad's house until the next night at 5pm, when Cindy's girls got home. It was a bit rushed to eat dinner and do gifts that night since I had taken a shift at Banana Republic starting at 9pm, but we still had a great time. Marcel took pictures of that Christmas on Cindy's camera so I'll have to get those from her, but these are the pictures we have!

With the move so close to Christmas, we didn't decorate our Oregon house and thought it was silly to decorate this house so we (mainly Marcel) got super creative and hung lights over our lamp! I was so excited to decorate since it was our first married Christmas together and we got Christmas decorations/ornaments last year for Christmas and had Christmas lights like crazy from our wedding. Now we'll just have to wait for next year!

Not many pictures of just me on the blog, because I rarely like any of them, but this one I deemed decent enough for publishing. It was my reaction to our Christmas tree

in the kitchen Christmas morning, "making" breakfast

notice our delicious breakfast...nothing like Peanut Butter Captain Crunch! I love cereal every morning and Christmas is no exception :)

Marcel's QUEEN

Marcel got all clothes from me which I hated, but with our extremely small budget for the whole year and especially Christmas, I got him needed items: dress clothes for teaching. I liked this excited face the most!

Us and the tree!

Marcel wanted to head to my mom's in his pajamas but I made him dress up, just so we could take this picture. My mom and Don just moved into their new house and still managed to have such a pretty tree!

missing Hannah :(

they refused all weekend to take a decent picture together, but I guess finally Marcel won out....Emily & Matt, who are soon headed to Vegas & Arizona to watch BSU in the Fiesta Bowl

Marcel and I were spoiled like always, but some of our favorite gifts include: cartridges for my Cricut cutter (hopefully I'll get motivated to get creative), musical art for our hobby room, 5 sets of the china we registered for to finish out our collection at 8, Reba seasons 3 & 4, a Wii, and a TomTom...of course a few articles of clothing and socks were included in our stockings along with some movie tickets, Moxie Java gift certificates and tokens for a car wash!

Now In Idaho

There are a few new posts below this one!

We've been very busy since getting here Saturday night. We are almost entirely settled and out of boxes. The main room we have left is what was called "The Office" in Oregon. Now that our house has a built in computer desk area, now known as the "Study Nook", our office is now "The Hobby Room", as it holds Marcel's drums and guitars and all my scrapbooking stuff. I told Marcel he needed to take pictures of me doing something because I was taking pictures of him unloading the U-Haul and setting up our surround sound systems, but there was no pictures to show that I did anything. This is the picture that I have now!


We thought the closet was big until we started to fill it!


Monday, December 21st, Marcel had his interview for George Fox University to get his Master's of Arts in Teaching. It turned out to be a group assessment, not an interview, but nonetheless, Marcel was accepted. He had to stay in Boise after the assessment for the mandatory orientation session that night. He starts classes January 7th! We are very blessed by this opportunity and love that he'll be able to work too, as classes are only Thursday nights and a Saturday a month until November when he starts student teaching. I was scared about signing up for internet without knowing just exactly how much either of us would be working, but with school, Marcel will need the internet, so we stepped out in faith knowing that we would always have enough to cover our needs.


Marcel dressed up for the assessment!

Some of the things we are still trying to get used to about being in Idaho:

• TV--prime-time starts at 7pm, not 8pm, like in Oregon
• Sales Tax--although we are both originally from states that do have sales tax we have spent 4-5 years in a place that didn't. And when we went grocery shopping, I learned that Washington (where Marcel is from) doesn't tax food.
• Altitude--we have been living nearly at sea level, so being at a higher altitude means thinner oxygen. I liked the oxygen in Oregon!
• Recycling--after being in Oregon for 5 years I have become an avid recycler. We were able to recycle just about everything, even putting everything in the same bin. I know that we'll have to sort our recycling, which is something we've already started, but now I just don't know where to take it. We ARE going to find a place to recycle everything that we did in Oregon, just might take awhile, but we will be Idahoans who recycle!

I'll take more pictures of our house once we are finally out of boxes, have pictures up, and decorations placed!

Oregon to Idaho

We have been in Idaho for 5 days now and have set-up internet already which will be explained later. Here is the recap of our big move:



December 18th, Friday
Marcel and I picked up the U-Haul at 7:15am. When we got home we loaded our washer and dryer, before our moving help arrived. We had help from some awesome people from church: Dave, the worship pastor; Jon, the administrator; and Brandi, the wife from our pre-marital counseling group. Jon and Dave helped Marcel load and perfectly fit everything into the truck, while Brandi and I cleaned. Poor Brandi picked to clean the shower and oven--I got pretty lucky there! As we were breaking for lunch after the U-Haul was loaded, Dave & Jon informed us that church was paying for us to stay in the local hotel that night because we had plans of crashing the floor of our apartment since our bed was packed. They decided we needed great sleep before making a 7+ hour drive the next day.



The U-Haul half loaded (Jon working his organizational magic)



Brandi & I giving the kitchen much love



Before heading to the hotel for the night



December 19th, Saturday
We got up at 5:30am to get ready for the big day, including an amazing continental breakfast at the hotel. We met our landlord at 7am for our walk-through and to hand over our keys. Our apartment was deemed to be in the same condition as when we moved in so we'll get our entire $700 deposit back! We headed to the gas station and were on the freeway by 7:45am! We stopped in Pendelton for lunch about noon and made it to Caldwell around 4:30pm, about 8 hours later. The weather was great. Some rain, but only snow on the side of the road, and pretty dry roads. We had planned to unload the U-Haul Sunday, but once getting here we felt very motivated, and so in just a blink of an eye the unloading began. My dad, Cindy, Stacey & Lisa (Dad's friends--Stacey used to work with my dad and a long time ago he called us his adopted children) came to help us unload. After we were done, Marcel and I treated ourselves to a dinner out at a sit-down restaurant: Applebee's. We had been talking about having to pay sales tax but it wasn't until we got the bill for dinner did we realize the time had come.

Marcel's self portrait while driving



Landscape we encountered



At our new house!


Marcel unloading

Pizazz

The first weekend of December (the first weekend of my girl's night out) Marcel had his last symphonic band concert. He had a percussion piece selected just for him.

It seems like forever ago so I'm short on words, but there are pictures to tell the story!


in his piece...Pizazz

proud wife

Marcel & Dr. B-P, his advisor

I tried to upload the video of his percussion piece, but after at least an hour of waiting for it to upload there was an error...maybe I'll try again later, but not for a few days.

MAT @ GFU?!?!

A long time ago, Marcel and I decided we were being called to Idaho because I was going to go to nursing school and he'd be getting his MAT. Then I realized I was far from ready for more schooling and just a few months later Marcel decided he wouldn't be able to start in January as originally planned because of some confusion from the Admission's Office, but after a lot of prayer we realized it was still the right thing for us to go to Idaho.

Fast forward to last week and things are changing: Marcel received a letter from George Fox University's Boise campus informing him that he still had time to apply for their program to start January 7th. It seemed impossible because before school can start he has to: apply to school, write an admissions essay, get 3 letters of recommendation, create a teaching experience resume, update his FAFSA, take the PRAXIS test, participate in a group assessment/interview, and attend the mandatory orientation session on December 21st, just 2 days after we're leaving Oregon! But with help with the wonderful people in the Career Center, a final schedule to die for and a wonderful wife, he has been able to get everything done! Plus, by using the Career Center he is eligible for their Grad School Application Fund--each student who uses them can receive $150 in funds for the application and testing fees. It has left us with just $20 to cover out-of-pocket. What a blessing!

The admissions counselor @ GFU told him there is still plenty of financial aid available and it is still the FAFSA using 2008 tax information, so we should be getting plenty of aid. And she also told him that pending no red flags being seen during the interview and the letters of recommendation he'd be an admitted student as of Monday, just in time for the orientation and he'll be on his way to getting his Master's of Arts in Teaching!

The program is part-time for the first 2 semesters, January through September, with class just Thursday nights and a class or 2 online, so he'll still be able to work nearly full-time! That's the reason he first thought this program was where he needed to be. So if he makes it through the rest of the process without any red flags, he'll be a licensed teacher in May 2011 and we'll be preparing for another big move to wherever he can find a job teaching music!

It feels good to be rewarded for our faithfulness and continually trusting in His plan, instead of following the path we set out for ourselves. It may be very uncomfortable at times, but it is ALWAYS turns out best when we allow Him to lead our lives!

Oh How I'll Miss Thee

The time has just about come...the boxes have been packed, the apartment has been cleaned, the jobs have ended, the education has been achieved, now all that's ahead of us is the move.

In memory of my over 5 years, and Marcel's 4, in Forest Grove here is everything I am going to miss...

• MAKA--I never called us that before but as I was making a list of everything that had to get done before I could leave this place, a party with MaryBeth, Amy, Kelly and Allison was on the top of the list. My handwriting is large, but my planner isn't, so it became the MAKA party...I could go on and on about why I'll miss these girls. People say that high school is the best years of your life and I believed them...until I went to college, where I made the friends I'll have forever. They were there for me through everything. When school, home, Marcel, or just life in general was getting the best of me, they helped me see the bigger picture.

• Pacific University--I'll start by saying this was not the school's logo the entire time I was a student, but now it's undergone a much needed facelift. Pacific was my home away from home for a year, and then finally became my home when I started spending my summer breaks here too. I can still remember the first time I called this place my home to my mom! It gave me more opportunities than I ever thought I could get out of college. I met some of the greatest people ever here, had the coolest bosses ever (even the President!), and had more fun than I could ever try to recall.
• Sonrise Church--It reminds me of my first semester at Pacific, trying so hard to find a church that wasn't just a college group; we all wanted a family church, one that had kids, young adults, adults and even an elderly crowd. With the help of Whitney's pastor at home, Sonrise became just that for us. I started attending there January 2005, and teaching in the Preschool Sunday School Class (the same class I taught up until moving) in October 2006. It gives me hope to know that if I was lucky enough to find a church that would help me grow spiritually once, I will be able to do it again, as Marcel and I search for a new church home together.
  I don't believe luck actually had anything to do with it! It was more like a God thing :)
  

• Meadowlark--Our first place! How could I not miss the place we spent our first 6 months of marriage? While we were stressed about having a place to live, this place practically found us. It provided us a safe place to live close to school and close enough to work. I may or may not miss the actual apartment, but the time spent in #34 will be cherished forever, and I know that we will always look back on the days spent here.


• Bailey Avenue--I drove by this road every day I drove to the gym from Forest Grove and have no recollection of it until my first day back to work after my honeymoon—when I was finally a Bailey. For reference, I had been working at the gym for nearly 7 months at that point! In a book we got from Marcel’s mom, I read about the importance of prayer cues, having something to remind you to pray specific prayers. This street served as my prayer cue to pray about my marriage, my husband, my life as a wife, whatever was on my mind and heart about our marriage. While I hated the 30 minute drive through the city, this sign slowly earned a place in my heart and started me praying about the most important thing in my life. Now that I have dedicated time to continually pray those things early in our marriage, I can continue to follow the same pattern even without my prayer cue.

• 24 Hour Fitness & Banana Republic--I started working at both these places, hoping they’d be very temporary until I could find something more practical for my using my education. I soon felt very discouraged when job searching was going nowhere so I was happy to take a month or two off from looking. Then the economy happened and I was simply grateful to be working at all, when at 1 point, 14% of people in Oregon weren’t. I spent probably way too much time complaining about these places, but looking back now they were awesome. At both places, I met great people and learned great things about myself. Plus, as I recently told my mom, the gym has taught me more about parenting than I ever thought I’d learn before actually becoming a parent.
  
• No Sales Tax--When I went to the dollar store the other day to buy Christmas wrapping paper, I took in a single $1 bill. After the move that is something I'll no longer be able to do. It seems so little, but still something I'll miss!

Girl's Night Out

A few weekends ago (really I have no idea how long ago it was--time is running together with everything we have to get done!), we had a reunion. Amy, Kelly, and Allison were all at my house for a girl's night. We kicked Marcel out of our apartment--he had a party of his own--and had one of the best girl's night ever. We stayed up entirely way too late, which we expected, and then headed to Woodburn for shopping at the Outlet Mall...

We didn't take many pictures, but this is my favorite:

Allison, Kelly, MaryBeth, Amy

Oh, and if you click on the photo to view it larger, you'll notice a big scratch right between my eyebrows. I did it to myself during a nap. I guess that is what I get for sleeping when I should have been packing or cleaning, or really anything else productive. Because of it Marcel has added a new nickname for me to his collection: Harry, because it resembles Harry Potter's scar!