Happy 2011

I can not believe it is the year 2011.
When I was growing up that seemed so far away.  You know, flying cars and such.  But, here we are in 2011 and I am exactly where I want and need to be.  It is definitely not where I thought I would be, it's even better.

How did you spend New Years Eve and New Years Day???  

How did we spend it, you ask?
Loren had to work both days.  Thus is the life of a manager in retail.  For New Years Eve, we had the morning together so we started a new tradition.  We all gathered around the computer and looked through every picture we took over the last 12 months.   We wrote down our favorite moments (some are listed at the bottom of this post).  We will put the list into a bottle or time capsule of sorts and store it away until next New Years Eve when we will revisit our list and do it all over again.  Grace and I also made a 2011 banner.  It's beautiful and simple and us.  We also played Candy Land, poked around Fred Meyer, watched "Robots" and just spent time together at home.   Grace was asleep by 8 and Loren and I were asleep by 10:30.  We are such PaRtY aNiMaLs!  This was the first year I went to sleep before midnight.  It felt odd to go to sleep so "early" but the fireworks did wake me up at midnight.  It was then that I rolled over and whispered "Happy New Year" into my hubby's ear and all was well.  I stayed drowsily awake until the fire works ended, making sure my sweet girl did not wake up in a panic.  And, praise God, she didn't!  She never heard one fire work.  I prayed specifically that God would cause her to not hear a thing (as they started at 7pm) and He graciously obliged.

New Years Day-Loren woke at 4am and walked to work in negative 4 degree weather.  What a way to start the year.  He is such a trooper.  Grace & I started our year by heading to a  "Funky" 1.5 hour Jazzercise team taught class.  It was glorious.  I pushed myself so hard, sweated buckets and am feeling it now but all is good.  It means I'm alive!  It means I am taking care of my body and staying healthy so I can be the best I can for my family and that makes this mama happy.  After the class, Grace and I headed to the Stahly's and watched Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade (they were kind enough to tivo it for us since we don't have television).  Grace loved watching all the floats and characters.  She was not too impressed when I told her that I worked there and danced in the parade but jumped up and down for Jessie, the Disney Princesses, cheerleaders, the marching bands and Tinkerbell.  Needless to say we can not wait to go to Disney in 52 days.  Yes, that's right-I am counting down and it's going by fast.  We bought our tickets in October and it feels like yesterday.  We will be basking in the Florida sun before we know it.

Tonight to celebrate the new year we all talked about what we could do to improve ourselves in 2011.  We each had a paper plate and wrote down our goals for improvement.  After they were all finished we, as a family, laid them before the Lord and prayed that God would help us achieve these goals knowing we could not do it on our own accord.  It was powerful and wonderful and I am so thankful that Grace is at an age where she can somewhat understand and be apart of these life changing moments.

And, that was it.  We didn't go to any parties, drink any drinks, stay up until midnight but we celebrated by being together.  And, togetherness is the best celebration of all.

What are some of your favorite moments of 2010?

Some of our "Favorite Moments of 2010"...

-Grandmas visit in April (Seattle Children's Museum, exploring Seattle, bowling, Easter, etc.)
-Summer.  Park trips, hiking, Dash Pointe St. Park, Puyallup wading pool, splash parks, etc.  It was the best summer any of us had ever had.
-Tropical 4th Birthday Party for Grace.
-Roller Skating and watching Grace race (age 3) by herself with all the big kids.  She had no fear.
-Camping out in Gracie's room by night light
-First time taking Grace to a movie theatre. We saw Toy Story 3-her current favorite movie
-Loren singing in a Choir Concert
-Reconnecting with Harris (Loren's Dad)
-All our time at the Turner's house (sprinklers, crafts, root beer floats, Gracie's princess party, Halloween party, sleep overs, make up fun, paint craziness, etc.)
-Ellensburg Young Life reunion
-Loren becoming a Starbucks Manager-moving in 2.5 weeks to Ellensburg, selling off all our stuff, finding the perfect place to live, finding incredible new friends and seeing God answer every single one of our prayers.
-Getting rid of TV completely.
-Turning 30-one of the best weeks of Melissa's life (Dinner w/ 21 friends at Roadhouse Grill, 4 hour Spa Day, girls movie night at Brooke's and a weekend away in Levenworth/Winter Wonderland).
-Sledding Christmas Day
.......just to name a few.

We are looking forward to what this next year will bring.  We are always surprised every year by what God throws our way.  We go into this year with hope and excitement.   This year will bring big things....our girl will turn 5, she will start Kindergarten, have her very first dance recital, go to Disney for the first time and so much more. This is going to be an emotional year for her mom and dad for sure.  And, for Loren and I.  Who knows?  I stopped trying to plan too far ahead for my future.  We leave our lives in God's hands and let Him lead us and we just go. I find so much peace in having no control-other than saying "yes" or "no" when He calls.  And, from many misses in the past we have learned that saying "yes" to Him is definitely the way to go.  We plan on being different from most of the world and will continue to pay off our debt and not spend God's money on things that don't matter or things that others find important.   We will continue to put family first and spend time together instead of getting caught up in the business of life and stressing over things we have no control over.  We plan of having enormous amounts of fun &  we plan to "suck the marrow out of life," as Kelly Hampton says in her blog "Enjoying the Small Things," quite frequently,   It's going to be a great year.

What are you most looking forward to in 2011?




I apologize if there are any spelling or grammatical errors. It's almost 1am and things are starting to go blurry.  Heading to bed so I can be a chipper person in the morning when my family awakes and needs me.   And, please reply to my questions. I promise I wouldn't ask if I didn't really want to know.