~A walk in the park~

The other night Josh and I decided to take the 3 block walk down to Pioneer Park to check out the snow. Josh decided to get all "artsy" on me and got a few pretty great pictures! Unfortunately, there wasn't anybody other than us at the park, so we had to utilize the garbage cans and the timer mode on the camera!

I give you the Griswald Family Christmas Tree!

~Josh wanted to show this off~

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

~Heck yes, BOWLING!~

Last Sunday night, Josh and I met up with my cousin Alyssa and her boyfriend Tyler for a couple crazy frames of bowling! We had a great time! Life gets so crazy, that we had to really work to get this time set up to hang out together, and let me tell you, it was worth it! They are such fun people to be around, nice and down to earth, and unconcerned about whether or not they look "cool".

Tyler getting ready to give it a shot!

Alyssa's feeling good about that one!

Josh, the most competative man IN THE WORLD....

And me, hoping I'm as good with regular bowling as I am playing it on the Wii!

~ O is for October ~

The month of October turned out to be quite the crazy month for us! We planned our trip to Texas, which included me leaving my position at Puyallup Pediatric Dentistry, and unfortunately, we are here in Puyallup. The entire trip fell through, and though part of me was REALLY frustrated with the situation, we're here, we're home, and we're getting to focus on ACN, and I have actually been offered a position working for my cardiologist! It is such a blessing, because our whole point in leaving for Texas was to find a way to pay for my pacemaker. So, now it not only looks like I have a job with full benefits, but I'll be working FOR my cardiologist, who will make SURE I get the time off to have the pacemaker "installed" and there will be no out of pocket expense! HALLELUJAH!!!! And, with us not being gone, I got the opportunity to spend a fun afternoon at the pumpkin patch with Lindsey, and Josh and I dressed up and headed up to West Seattle on Halloween for a costume party at Lindsey's! We had a great time, and I still can't believe Josh agreed to dress up!

~EEK!!!!!~

I've spent the last 2 days thinking entirely TOO much about things, and it's to a point where I need to just let go of it... there's nothing I can do, you know?

Most, if not all of you who read this know that I have a heart disease that is now requiring that I get a pacemaker. I'm not scared of HAVING the pacemaker. I can't wait to have something that isn't synthetic, such as a beta blocker, to regulate my blood pressure and heart rate. I will get the pacemaker, which will in turn speed up my heart rate, and raise my blood pressure (my regular blood pressure averages 80/50.). I will know for the first time in my life what it feels like to be "normal". To have the energy that most of you have everyday. I don't know what it's like to NOT be exhausted regardless of what I'm doing. I can't wait to be able to jog across a room and not feel like I'm going to pass out. The scary thing to me is the actual procedure that goes along with getting a pacemaker. It's not even all that invasive. It's nothing like your typical heart surgery. I won't have a huge scar, they won't break open my rib cage, etc. It's a simple procedure that requires the Doctor to make only a 2inch incision in my chest, where they would place the pacemaker over my muscle, and string small wires down and rest them on my heart. In just a few weeks' time, the wires will have completely attached to my heart... and VOILA! I feel like a normal human being! But geez, I have to spend the night in the hospital, and regardless of how "un-invasive" it is, it's my HEART! Josh and I were watching a show on the Learning channel 2 nights ago, and they were doing surgery on the Tree Man. I panicked. Outside of BEING BORN.... I've never stayed in a hospital! EEK!!!!

~I WAS TAGGED~

So, I got tagged by Michelle to post Josh's 10 favorite things... like Michelle, I don't think these will exactly be in order, but here goes!

10~ Basketball.... his FAVORITE! he has spent countless years focusing on perfecting the sport. When he's not in some sort of rec league, he's found ways to have it on television, whether it's pro ball, college, street ball, and this year... lucky me!... the OLYMPICS!

9~ Real Estate. I know the market is horrid, but even when Josh is working with nothing in escrow, he's loving what he does! He loves to meet new people, and get them excited about buying or selling. He has invested time and money into trying new and exciting things in the real estate market, and goes to national conferences to make sure he is on top of his game!

8~ ACN. Seriously. In September he went to an International meeting in Detroit. He came back so spun up on the whole idea and possibilities that come along with ACN, that I pulled his sister aside and asked her to keep energy drinks away from him, and told her he may need a nap. He has kept this excitement for it since, and LOVES learning every aspect of it and sharing the enterprise with everybody he comes into contact with!

7~ Cooking. He is my very own "Bobby Flay" and I love it! He can take just about any recipe and make it his own, and have it taste like absolute heaven! He even BBQed our turkey for Thanksgiving last year! He watches the Food Network, and gets a ton of great ideas from the various shows!

6~ Fishing. He doesn't get to go enough. When he was studying to get his real estate license he would go out to Ohop Lake, sit on the shore, fish and study. His goal is to have a stocked pond on his ranch so he can go any time of day, just down the way and bring back dinner.

5~ Dreaming. Josh can dream all day long. He's got 8,000 different ideas as to what he wants in life, and loves to talk about what he could do and how he could do it. From ranches, to traveling, to cars he would drive, homes he would build, he reaches for the stars and refuses to let speedbumps get in the way. He just keeps on smiling and getting excited for his next big dream!

4~ End Times. Josh is such a multi-level thinker, which is rare for a man. :-) His knowledge of the End Times to me is absolutely incredible, and he is continually searching and studying to learn more, so he and his loved ones can be prepared for the days ahead. I know that to some of you that my sound crazy, but a man who is looking to protect my eternity is pretty stinking awesome to me!

3~ Energy Drinks. The man has an obsession. He drinks them daily. The thing is... they don't do much for him. He can have one at 10pm, and go straight to bed. I'm sure that there are plenty of other drinks in the world that taste similar and don't put all that extra crap in his body, but he sticks to his energy drinks. And, honestly, it doesn't really matter which brand he has. He's not particular at all!

2~ Walker, Texas Ranger. For real. Chuck Norris has become a staple in his home. It's on several times a day, and though Josh doesn't watch much tv at all, outside of basketball, somehow I've managed to see at least 1/2 of all episodes of Walker. He likes the character so much, that he has decided that the name Cooper (after Walker's alter ego, Hayes Cooper) will be the name of his first son. I wish I was kidding.... it's a good thing I like the name Cooper, huh?

1~ Loved Ones. Josh cherishes his family and friends, and loves to spend time with them. He would give his right arm to make sure that the people he cared about were taken care of and happy. I love that he loves MY family also, we spent many an evening over at Derek & Michelle's hanging out with them and Owen. Watching him play with Owen absolutely warms my heart!

OK girls! Your turn!

Brittany Harney

Alyssa Christensen

Nicole Wytko

Lindsey McKinnon

Brianne Hamel

~Sad circumstances, Happy reunion!~

So I got the opportunity last week to see a friend of mine who's been around as long as i can remember. Her grand parents lived next door to me when we were in kindergarten, and her grandfather passed away a couple weeks ago, which sadly was what allowed me to spend some time with Amber. You know you have a friend for life, when after literally TEN years of seperation, you pick up right where you left off! As unfortunate as the circumstances for her visit were, it was SO great to see her, meet her beautiful children, and spend a bit of time catching up!

~Jumping off~

So here it is... we've officially made the decision to make a go for it! We leave for Houston Texas somewhere between October 15th and November 1st. Right now we're looking at being gone about 3 months. When we're down there we have the opporutnity to process insurance claims for homes hurt by Hurricane Ike. The idea of the experience in itself is completely sureal! Neither of us have ever "jumped" like this before, and it's both exciting and scary! This is giving us the chance to get ahead financially, and be able to start planning for our future!

We're going to try to take a few extra days on the trip down, and see a few places along the way. We've yet to map out a real game plan, but we'll be sure to keep everybody up to date with fun stories and pictures!