if this isn't just ridiculous...

...then i'm not sure what is.

SERIOUSLY!?! JULY!?!?!?! where the heck has time gone? and who stole all the calendar months?

needless to say, i guess time has, indeed, passed. and in the meantime, a lot has changed for us. a lot for the good. a lot for the stressful and busy and work-filled and God-waiting and ....well, a lot has changed. and we are here, finally back at "home" in the Pacific Northwest. adjusting. settling. and enjoying.

it feels so so good to be back. to have full seasons. crispy fall leaves currently covering the ground. forecasted snow in the next couple of weeks. and the potential to skip through the mountains (real! mountains!) this winter just makes me giddy.

life has been too full to summarize. but like all our stories, they'll come out one way or another. and part of the beauty of life is that some stories are locked in little boxes that play music with dancing ballerina's when we open them. in the meantime, they'll rest safe inside our memories. and for us, that is okay right now. it has to be.

we've been busy. like really busy. but not any more busy than the rest of America, i'm sure. and right now, for us, busy is good. like, really good. we're soaking it in. and although i wish i had a few more hours in the day to read and blog and exercise and make wholesome, healthy meals, i'm taking it all with a grain of salt--knowing full well that life will change and a new season will be upon us shortly, waiting with its own musical ballerina box for us to open & enjoy.

shortly after our last blog post, we left north carolina. not without living in an apartment with only an air mattress, 2 spoons, 3 bowls & 4 plates for 16 days though. oh yes, and did i mention a broken air condition in 900-something percent humidity? (at least it felt that way...). the movers came, boxed up all our stuff and hauled it away. we were left with just us. a bottle of wine. a few bags of popcorn. a pantry to empty out. an airmattress. the aforementioned dishes. and a whole-lotta potential & excitement about what was coming 'round the bend next.

and you know, we had a reason to be excited. life, for the first time, was aligning for us. this was, of course, by choice. and brave, generous, ever-supportive jon make that sacrifice for me. which still boggles my mind each morning when i get up to trudge to the hospital once again. so he made that choice for us...which, for the first time in 3.5 years of marriage, is letting us be together.

jon stood in his last formation. and humbly accepted an award for working so so hard over the previous 12 months of deployment. he saluted for the last time as an active duty captain...and we walked away & into starbucks. where else would we have celebrated this crazy heart-breaking-breath-taking milestone?

we packed up the car. ehem...JAM packed the car and bid adieu to friends i hope cross our paths again (many, many times again!)...and we were off. i have a folder packed with photos. of landscapes. and red vines bags. and (disgusting, ate-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade) mcdonalds fries. and state signs.

for now, though, i'll just leave you with my feet. they've taken me a lot of places since i snapped this photo on our way in to new life.

we arrived in Washington and ransacked jon's parents house for about a month. before our own house was ready. i started work just 3 days after we pulled into the town we'd call home...and have been busy every since.

i guess they don't call it intern year for nothing.

but moral of the story is that i am LOVING my job. i'm loving my days. even the one like today, where the clock at this moment marks hour #18 that i've been in the hospital...with 12 more hours to go until i can finally roll down the windows of my car & hope i make it home in one piece.

so in summary, we are ALIVE. and we are loving life right now. loving being settled, close to incredible people, plugged in & involved at church, blindly making our way through the 24-hour-sequences God gives us to be salt & light...and fill up dancing ballerina boxes of memories.

more to come. more to read. more stories to share. more pictures to download. there is more certainly more.

and it will come. in time.

so don't give up on me. i'm still alive. out there.

and now if you'll excuse me, i have adorable sick babies to check on....