august in review

maybe one day i'll actually make this month-in-review habit happen.

august - though i feel like i've tuned much of it out:

• went to summer camp. awesomeness. 8 girls. two cabin leaders. exhausting. rewarding. so worth it.
  
• hosted an awesome kids ministry leadership meeting.
  
• celebrated our 5th anniversary.
  
• got my piano - a complete and total surprise from matt - for our 5th anniversary.
  
• matt got a part-time job at city people's.
  
• picked summer blackberries. my favorite.
  
• prepared for launching another service, and an evening program, this fall @ creekside.
  
• caught a game ball at a mariner's game.
  
• celebrated my "license to preach" with mom and bob at teatro zinzanni.
  

the one where we caught a game ball

seizing an opportunity to use mom & bob's really great mariner's tickets, i planned a surprise date for matt. he knew nothing, except that he needed to be home and dressed at a certain time. (granted, he put the details together pretty quickly as we got on the road.)

i knew we were in the 100 level, but i hadn't considered that we were in row 3. *swoon*

this is how close we were.





we reminisced about our favorite dates of the past. i decided my favorite was our third date, when we went to the compline service at St. Marks, and then laid under the stars talking until 2a.m.

and then it happened. our date became our favorite date. a line drive hit into right field, hall dove, making an outstanding catch and bringing the inning to an end, nonchalantly hopped up to run back to the dugout and tossed the ball into the stands. it bounced off the tip of someone or something, and landed squarely behind me, between my back and my chair. and all i could do was giggle.



and take pictures with every camera-like device i had on me. and then text everyone i know.

well, almost everyone. but i also updated my facebook status, so i guess that counts as everyone i know...

and we decided it was officially the best date we've ever had. even if the mariners did lose, and the umps did suck.

our "wooden" anniversary

her story:

my grandmother had been hanging onto the "family piano" for years - waiting for us to get our own house, so she could give it to me... and i had been waiting just as long to have a home in which to put that piano...

so when we bought our house, i was ready. i knew what wall it would go on. i knew how it would look. i even lobbied for red on the walls in our living room, because i knew the piano would look awesome against it.

one day, in may or june, i asked matt about the piano... his answer was "i'm just not ready yet". this made me crazy. what's to be ready for? what does "ready" look like? how can i make you ready!? the conversation escalated into a major problem. finally i had to relent - if he's not ready, he's not ready... but it hurt. i couldn't help feeling a little like "if he loved me, he wouldn't withhold something that would make me so happy".

flash forward to our anniversary. matt has been toying with the idea of going camping the friday/saturday of the weekend, and we planned to celebrate sunday. as we near the date, he's no closer to planning a camping trip, but finally decides on a long day of fishing. we've even decided that though we'll have a nice dinner sunday night, we'll exchange our gifts saturday night.

i've filled up my day with activity... yoga in the morning, breakfast and shopping with the girls, blackberry picking with lani. everything goes as planned. as lani and i head to the blackberries, we pass our street and i happen to glance down, noticing a white car - matt's? - in front of our house. lani manages to persuade me nonchalantly that it was a neighbor's car... after all, matt has just texted me and told me he "caught a big one".

lani and michael are texting back and forth alot. i don't think anything of it. finally, the boys decide they're hungry - when will we come home? we finish up picking blackberries - covered in juice, stains, brush and having been picked and torn at by thorns - and head home.

as i open, i notice right away that michael is off to the side, holding my camera, pointing it at me. i give him a funny look - is he taking pictures of all these awesome blackberries we picked!?

i walk into the house, still thinking it's very weird that he's taking pictures of us - and then i really see it. my piano. i burst into tears, absolutely stunned. i hug matt, i get details about how it all went down - but most of all, i'm struck by the fact that "i'm not ready" really meant "it's not our anniversary yet". he'd been planning this for months.





best gift ever. every time i see it, i feel loved all over again. i love that man.

the value of the blog...

today i was reminded the true value {for me} of a blog. i made a hospital visit to a little girl who is under care for heart problems. mom is using her blog as a method of updating friends and family, but i see that one day, her blog will be a powerful testimony of the journey they walked together, and how God walked them through it. this reminded me of why i began a blog in the first place - to journal.

today i was looking at a picture from my 24th birthday, just 2 1/2 years ago, and unable to remember what i felt or thought or how i celebrated becoming 24. i went to my blog to look for a post, only to realize that in the emotional high of beginning ministry in the same season, my birthday was completely overlooked on my blog. so, i can't remember what turning 24 was like. huh.

so i'm back on the blogging bandwagon. let's see how it sticks. for now, at the very least, my goal is to post month-in-review posts. maybe one day, i'll have the focus to document life more regularly.