Better late than never, right?

Helloooooo!

Sorry I haven't been on here at all. At my new job I'm settling in still and I've just finished organizing my apartment (finally--there are altogether too many pictures in this album of my place). Life is going on and it is good. I've been going through a period like the one described by C.S. Lewis (one of my heros) wrote this in Screwtape Letters:

Imagine yourself a a living house.
God comes in to remodel that house.
At first, you can understand what he is doing;
he's fixing drains and making minor repairs,
but presently he starts knocking you about
in a manner that hurts abominably...
He's knocking out walls there and adding on rooms here.
It hurts awful...what on earth could he be up to?
Adding on extra wings here, putting up towers there...
The answer is quite simple.
you thought you were going to be a quaint little house,
But God has another purpose in mind.
He's building a palace.

Learning faith. Trust. Just pretty grateful (even when I've felt so overwhelmed lately).

Here are some pictures for you (because I know you've been waiting in high anticipation).

November--I can't believe I just moved a few months ago, it's been crazy.


December--I got to go home for Christmas, though not for NEARLY long enough.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I love Christmas.

I love seeing my family. I love singing Christmas songs. I love everything about it.

Especially this year.

So, update on Boston... we'll start with the bad news:

When I moved, I put all of my stuff in a storage locker for a month (starting November 5) until I found a permanent place (plus, I was going to be visiting family for a week). They didn't save the contract. So, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, after Church, I asked Ian if he would drive me by the place so I could grab my little Christmas tree--which I'd left by the door of the unit. Thought it would be 5 minutes tops, in and out.

When I got up to the (very secure, I miglht add) unit, the lock had been changed. The manager was called and he told me that the locker had been mostly empty when he saw it but there were a few things left if I wanted to see if they were mine. In the janitor's closet there were a few garbage bags of my clothes and about half of my books. My Christmas decorations and other decorations were decorating the janitor's office. Awesome.

I bawled.

A lot.

And still do sometimes when I think of everything that was in there. I hate having to purchase everything over again when it comes to furniture and that kind of stuff. But mostly it's just sad that all of my stuff from Africa and most of my stuff from Japan and almost all of my pictures were in there.

Then the police had to come and the locker people said that they found record of the locker and the guy hadn't hit save after printing me a copy. Okay, but why not dig first?

They also weren't very honest as his story kept changing. First it was that only a few things were left in the locker, then it was that everything was loaded up into the locker and then thrown away... uuuummmmm... right. Because anyone with half a brain wouldn't throw away a road bike, new snowboard, solid oak furniture... Also, the stuff that is left was obviously picked through and it is my least valuable stuff.

I'm sure they DID throw away my personal pictures. So. Yeah, it's been rough. Violated.

Anyhow, yes, I'm working on getting compensation. The rough part has been that almost every night after work and with Ian on weekends, I've had to shop. I am not a shopper. So. HA. Anyhow. I know it is just stuff. I really am happy. I love seeing Ian a bit more (though he's not living in the city anymore, he's in a suburb).

It's just been a really interesting little bit.

But yesterday was such a good Christmas. I felt so loved. Most of my gifts I bought in France this last summer, so those were gone too. I bought a few little things, but because I was stuck spending so much time trying to get enough stuff to have an orderly place (oh, and a bed! so nice!), I didn't get out shopping much.

In my family, we draw names and everyone gets one member of the family. This year everyone gave stuff to ME. I'm crying just thinking about it. And I'm not a crier generally. I have the best family. Best friends. Best Christmas ever. I don't think I even know how to explain to them how much it meant to me.

To add to the general insanity of this last month (the year was so good--this last month has just been rough), Ian flew out to Utah with me and less than 24 hours into our trip, he found out that his uncle had died. We knew it was coming, he'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer a while ago. Because his uncle is Jewish, the funeral was to be held the following morning. Ian thought he wouldn't be able to make it back, but I called around and we got him on a redeye. He just barely made it.

I've always known that life has ups and downs and I've decided that all in all life really is good.

This sounds like a depressing post, I'm sure. I'll have fun pictures and everything later. I just am going to keep playing with kiddos so I'm not even going to read through this.

Merry Christmas! :)

Ohhhhh, life.

I'm moving to Boston.

I just gave three weeks notice.

And I'll be working at Boston University starting November 14th.

And I'm only slightly freaking out.

My Boston Pictures

(Just in case anyone reaaaally wants to see a million shots!)

Boston is beautiful.

Beth's take on Boston

So two of my favorite people came to Boston for the weekend with me and we all stayed with my FAVORITE person. This is the view from Ian's place (all of these are Beth's--I'll put mine up later).


And THEN, we went sailing. None of us had ever gone. My face is because a huge wave had just soaked our bums.

Earthquakes and hurricanes and doom, oh my!

Let's hope once this thing blows over (ha! macabre humor! so funny!), this isn't me.

It's been a slightly surreal day. Apparently all the stores are out of everything.

Fortunately, we had a lesson in church last month about hurricane preparedness (all the churches in the east were given the same fifth Sunday lesson--talk about inspired!) and so I am prepared with water and Cliff bars and lots of books (well, okay, I didn't actually PREPARE books, but that is how I intend to spend the weekend).

Wish us all luck!

UPDATE: Survival success! :) No real damage. woohoo!

Balloon

Well, I finally uploaded this but the music didn't go (something about copyrights, say what?) (ha)... so maybe listen to this: http://youtu.be/Euci0_BBmNE while you watch this:


(It is not super gorgeous or exciting, but I thought it was cool how it filled up. And that is all.)