Our First Thanksgiving

Me and my nephew, photo by Kathy Hall.

Matt and I had the *best* Thanksgiving holiday together. We set out on the morning of the holiday to make the four hour drive west of the mountains to my older brother and sister-in-law's place. We were blessed with light traffic going our direction, and light rain. The highlight of the drive was a fuel stop where a guy in a truck was yelling at his dog in the back for eating their pumpkin pie. That was one happy puppy!
Smiles and hugs greeted us when we stopped at mom and dad's first, and there I also picked up two siblings for the drive over to our other brothers' house. By 5pm we were all sitting around a huge table, grace said and a Psalm read and ready to eat! Little Daniel is a growing guy, and was all smiles. I held him a bit during dinner, caught up on stories and conversation and such - lots of laughs going around our table. Matt and I felt so blessed to be there - made possible by Rue and Annie (as well as my mother) treating us to gas cards (it costs about $120 in fuel down and back!). Home Alone played before the meal and after all the guys watched G.I. Joe and the ladies talked and cleaned. I was so happy and full. My cup runneth over!

Matt and I made the smart decision to just stay overnight there as a toll bridge nearby would be to backed up to get back to my parents on. We had restful sleep, and lounged around all morning on Friday. Soon enough we were packed up and spent the afternoon walking the waterfront along the Puget Sound. It was overcast and cold but I was warm and cozy holding onto Matt's hand. After the week of work that I have had, the slow day was just so delightful. Just what I needed - truly restful.

Saturday I spent the morning with my mom on a jog and a little shopping before she blessed Matt and I with a brunch fit for royalty. We were pleasantly full and from there went to a local museum to watch my brother work as he has a relatively new job at a cafe there. We would later learn that Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest ones that they have! Still it was fun to watch Taraz do such a great job doing customer service.

From there Matt and I went to his brother and sister-in-law's house and gave them a date night as a birthday gift for their little girl. It was delightful, but we were so exhausted when they got home at 8pm! We wrapped up the rest of the night all sitting and talking with family at my folks' place as the fireplace kept us warm. Another blessed day at home.

Sunday morning was another amazing meal from mom followed by an uplifting church service. We were so extremely saddened to hear about the police ambush that took place a few miles away. My brother had worked at that coffee shop a couple years ago - I was glad that they stopped the service to pray for the officers that were killed. After the service we went over to Rue and Annie's again for lunch. Matt and I are a fan of free food! We quickly packed up our car after that to get ready to drive home. Before we hit the highway, we spent a little time at our nieces' third birthday party. TOO FUN! Wooooo!

Matt and I had a great chat on the drive home and time flew by. We came home to freezing temperatures and made a quick turnaround with unpacking, making my lunch for work, and getting a couple things from the store. I had horrible sleep as I just could not gear down from the amazing weekend. It was a brutal wake-up alarm at 5:25am...

Matt is putting together some business plans - we would really appreciate your prayers as we try to start a business by faith. He is too intelligent, talented, and driven to go unnoticed by hiring managers. We can't allow any more time to waste by. If no one will hire this guy, he will hire himself! :) In the meantime, I have full time work at a local winery that is kicking my butt. Praise the Lord I got in on the office van pool a couple days a week.

That is all for now - I don't have much computer access during the day but I hope to visit your blogs soon. I still need to upload and edit my own photos from the trip, but am feeling a little under the weather. Bed early tonight!

Love,
Ruhiyyih

Thankful :)

Goodness. It has been a WEEK - well, only part of one, but it was hard. I am SO READY for a long weekend. Praise the Lord.

Work is...hard. I am away from home now for 10+ hours a day, and exhausted when I come home from the commute. It is a 45-60 minute commute depending on if I have to scrape off my car and deal with fog, semis, or cows in the road.

I am working at a winery doing mostly admin/data entry. I had NO IDEA that so much WORK goes into producing a bottle of wine. Someone has to design, order, ship, place, stock and count each and every wine label, cork, chemical, grape....you get the idea. Our company put out the #1 wine in the world this year - it is crazy.

Did I mention I don't like wine? It tastes nasty.

I am SO grateful for getting a job JUST when we needed one. I don't mean to complain about it being hard. It is just tough being away from Matt all day and he is spending all day looking for one. It is hard on both of us.

SO - I am taking my camera on an adventure across the state to have our first Thanksgiving with my brother and sister-in-law on the west side of the state. They and my mom blessed us with gas cards to make the journey!

Have the happiest of Thanksgivings, all.

Our Wedding: The Story

It was now two weeks ago, but it feels like yesterday. And, I wish I could redo the day over and over. It was wonderful in every way.

The week before the wedding was pretty crazy. Each day had a to do list to accomplish but I savored the time with mom and family. I had been on the other side of the state for over a month by the time I came home for our wedding.

Friday the 6th was the big day before. Matt and I had picked up our pastor from the airport at 7am - in pouring rain and hail. Poor Pastor Drake - he was soaked from the walk from the tarmac to the gate as he'd flown in a turboprop up from Oregon! We went out to breakfast and talked about all that would happen for the ceremony. It was a fun meeting - Pastor Drake is a hoot. He baptized me when I was in college, and Matt interned for him as well while we were both at CWU. It was so fitting to have him as our officiant.

We went from there to see the Edison House West - you see, all my housemates from DC had flown in for the wedding, and rented a house on the Tacoma waterfront to stay in for the long weekend! I wanted to make sure I could find it for the party there that night. What a hoot it would be!


I did my errands during the day and then we all headed to the rehearsal at the church at 6pm that night. It was pouring rain, a little chaotic, but overall a fun time of figuring out how we would do things for the following day.


From the rehearsal, us bridesmaids went to check into our hotel nearby before jetting off to the bachelorette party/comedy roast of myself. It was *the best* evening, I laughed my head off. The Edison Girls put on a "dinner theater" of sorts for me!
It was just the comic relief that I needed. I was stressed thinking about all the last minute details, and all that laughing and good food hit the spot.

My bridesmaids and I yapped the whole drive back to our hotel, in the pouring rain, and crawled into bed at around 1am. I got a text from Matt - who was staying in the same hotel with his groomsmen - that he had a fun night out with all the guys and that my three brothers had joined in on the fun. I was full of warm fuzzies thinking about what a great guy he was. He also mentioned that they were in the suite directly below us ladies. What a hoot!

I woke up at 7:45 am on the wedding morning. It was still pouring rain, and I did not care at all. I was getting married! I was the first gal in the bathroom and eventually all four of us made our way through before breakfast and checking out at 10am. Next stop: Starbucks!My photographers, the Halls, and Annie and her kiddos were there too - we took over that store! It is also the one Annie works at :)
I LOVED my brother Taraz' outfit - he looked like an Italian model!
Yes, I'm Taken!

Next: onwards to the church, about a mile away. It was still pouring, so I parked the Bronco (Matt and I just bought for a steal - it'll get us through winter here!) and unloaded all the wedding stuff and all us girls made our way to the Bridal Chambers.
Veronica got started on my makeup...
Fran, Matt's Godmother (who also made our cake) got to work on my hair...
My cousin Mel helped me zip up my dress....
Mom's hands were full of her grandson! :)
He was the only guy in the bridal chamber and a total delight to have around!
It was now time for my photos to be taken with Matt...11:30...and where was he? Still getting ready! They had a late start, so I ended up just sitting and talking with the ladies until I got word that Matt was ready to see me. I made my way over to the sanctuary...
Matt was facing the alter. I walked a few steps into the sanctuary, and said, "hey you...about time you were ready!" and he turned around and smiled. He later said that he thought "WOW" and that I was glowing. I think he was too :) He admitted to having a little nervousness and I felt so many warm fuzzies I could have floated away.

We took photos with our bridal party and all the groomsmen, families and a few friends for about an hour. We were cutting it close on time - now all I could do was wait until I got the prompt to make my way down the aisle.
Before I knew it, I watched as my bridesmaids - My sister, dear friend Melissa, best friends Bryn and Veronica, and childhood friend Renee - all walked down the aisle ahead of me. Little Maddie, Matt's niece, went in front of me. Then, it was time.
I was so excited.
...the exchanging of the rings...
...blending of the three sands...(representing me, Matt, and God)
...braiding of the cord ("a cord of three strands is not easily broken.." from Ecclesiastes)
...and THE KISS!
I became a MRS!

It was a blur from there. I hugged A LOT of people. Here I am with my dear friend Becky and her daughter, Jubilee, who came all the way from Montana!I also ate a bite of food, talked with old friends and family, savored the joy of the uniting of two families. There were toasts, tears, more hugs, more laughs, and more joy than I can write about here. It was our little recession wedding - and it was amazing.We have so many people to thank, but I will do that in a separate post, as I will need A LOT of room.

In the meantime, I need to go get ready for my first day of the new job! Your prayers are appreciated. If I left out any elements let me know what questions you have! Again, all the photos are on Kathy's blog. She is amazing!

It was ALL WORTH THE WAIT!

Have a great week, all. :)

Praise!

I got a temp job assignment! It is for two months, and it will carry us through the holidays. We are so grateful! Funny thing: it is doing admin work at a Winery. I live in Washington's Wine Country - vineyards everywhere - but I don't like the taste of wine at all. Oh well!

I hope to do my wedding story post this weekend...stay tuned!

Thanks for cheering me on!

Love,
Ruhiyyih

Hopeful and Happy!

Matt and I have hit the ground running in our job searches. I spent some time yesterday on a promising opportunity for a local non-profit that makes me feel hopeful. Matt fixed his laptop and now we can sit side by side as we do our research. We are truly so happy right now - even in spite of the storm in our life that is unemployment. We used our wedding gift cards to get a few things for the house. Matt did a great job getting our living room all organized, and our digital movie collection going :)
With some Target cards we got bookshelves, a mirror, photo frames, and bathroom stuff. Matt worked so hard to put everything together while I cleaned and organized. It is fun to put together our place.
I am still trying to find the time to sit down and write a post that pulls together well enough to tell the amazing story of our wedding. I mean, how do you come up with the right words to explain photos like THIS?
Obviously, it was from our rehearsal, and we were thinking we are all that and more. Too funny how we have the same expression on our faces...

I hope I can sneak in some time this weekend to do the post, as we take a break from the job searching. Thank you SO MUCH for all of your helpful comments on how I can create my own childcare job opportunity. I am looking into many options right now and feel really encouraged!

Back to the searching, to-do listing, and spending time with my husband :)

Happy Thursday, all!

Mom Advice?

Hey Moms out there, I need some advice.

After a day of job searching, I started thinking about something. I was thinking about my education and experience so far - I majored in Family and Consumer Sciences and Social Services. I did the social service thing with a family agency right out of college, then also went in the direction of teaching and doing fitness education as well. Next, I wanted more experience working in the nonprofit sector, so I landed a great job doing finance administration support for a professional trade association for the past three years. As much as I would love to do social services out here in Southeastern WA, it is tough because most positions require that you speak Spanish, which I don't do so well.

I was talking with Matt over lunch about things that I love to do. Take care of and play with children (I learned a lot in my degree program). I love to organize and clean (one of my favorite jobs in college was a housekeeper at an Inn at Yellowstone Park - I was the best of the best!), and I love to help others. It got my brain going...

I started to think that maybe I could look into being a nanny or something similar. Even if the pay is not great, I know that I would enjoy it and really be able to help a family out. My question is, how do you find a family without going through something like Craigslist or other advertisement? I am just thinking out loud here on this blog, but any advice is helpful. I can't be picky in this economy, and I am just not finding suitable employment. I worked hard to get my degree and build the experience that I have for the past decade, and I want to be a good steward of that.

I am soo good with kids. I mean, look at how happy my little nephew is with me!
Oops I meant to use this one:
My dream job is to be a mom. But until we ready, I want to do something meaningful. Any ideas and thoughts are helpful!

And a special thank you to my nephew for being my blog model today :)

All photos by Kathy Hall

New

This was the sunset that Matt and I saw on our way home from our honeymoon. It was so gorgeous!
Now this is a great picture :) My husbands' hand!
OK, and a couple fun pics - Matt and I got to do a "Christmas" day with his family during the week before the wedding, and I got some fun pictures of him at play. He is hilarious....
...and handsome... :)
Him and his precious niece...

SO. Today is Monday and Matt and I spent all weekend setting up our house. We are now hitting the ground running with job searches. We were blessed with wedding money to see us through this month, but we need to get the ball rolling with income. Prayers would be appreciated as it is hard work just looking for work. Discouraging too - ten million Americans are without employment, so it is a hard time in the midst of a lot of joy. We are choosing joy!

I am not able to blog as often as I would like right now due to the job searching, new marriage, new place thing - please forgive me! :) I am thinking of you all!

I will keep you all posted. God is good! I feel like with a new marriage and a new place I am living in, the next best thing is a new job. I can feel it...

Married!

It was beautiful. Poured rain, but wonderful. I am still so amazed by how all the elements came together to make the most perfect day.

A lot of photos are on my photographers' blog page. Until I am back again, enjoy! :)

Almost There....

Trying hairstyles...
And the veil...
Sugar flowers drying...
My lingerie gifts too...giving the neighbors something to talk about!
Neice getting fitted for her junior bridesmaid dress...
Matt's mom and godmother hard at work....
Matt and his brother going over the exciting features on their cell phones.

I am soon off to the rehearsal. Pray for me!

What an amazing journey...

I will be back online...sometime next week :)