Jon and Nicole's Journey

Baby Will Be Here Soon!

2010-05-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

What a pregnancy this has been. I discover we are expecting and then have to lead a miscarriage ministry group for work for five weeks. The first ultrasound reveals a concerning pelvic mass. Surgery has unexpected results, and we continue to wonder and wait. My best friend calls me at 8am on Easter Sunday to say that she only has weeks left to live. On April 27, Annie dies and I am too pregnant to travel to attend her funeral. I wake up every day and remember that my baby won't meet his godmother until they are together in heaven. Another friend and mother of three at church shares that she has stage iv cancer. I can't even find the words to describe what it is like to experience so much sadness and yet so much joy at the same time. The world is full of death and yet I feel a new life kicking inside of me.

Jon and I are SO joyful and excited and feel as ready as we're ever going to be to begin our adventures as parents, but it's been hard to share much of that happiness here amidst everything else. We hope you understand.

One blissful Saturday, our friend Leya took some gorgeous maternity photos of us and captured our first two kids (Alley and Oscar Meyer) in true form too! You can see a slideshow of all the shots and jam to some Jack Johnson here: http://littlemonkeyphotography.com/slideshows/ColeNJonMaternity2010.html

Unfortunately, Jon can't make me look as good as Leya can! The professional maternity pictures were taken at 35 weeks and here I am just over 38 weeks...WHOA!

And I will leave with some updated nursery pictures too.

I was admitted to labor and delivery on Friday afternoon after some concern over the baby's heartbeat, but the fetal monitor and an ultrasound confirmed that everything is great and Baby V is totally healthy. The experience made the baby's arrival feel VERY real and close. Any day now he will be here!

Showered!

2010-04-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we had our second of three baby showers!

They really went all out with our theme. There was black, green, white, polka dots, and penguins everywhere!

Our amazing friends Gretchen and Colleen (who has the PERFECT party house!) were our amazing hostesses.

My best friend and college roommate, Anna, flew in from Minnesota for the weekend to celebrate with us. We had such a good time, especially on Friday when we pampered ourselves with coffee, pedicures, fancy lunch at the golf course, and a night out at the bar with some friends from church.

Of course there was a mountain of gifts that just left us feeling so grateful.

There were men and women and coworkers and friends and babies..oh my!

We played the "try to cut a piece of string the size of Nicole's belly" game. Lucas won, but my co-worker Dan used Pastor Kirby's belly to gauge his guess and it was almost exactly the right size. I thought it was hilarious!

Addi and Rachel checked out our new gigantic stuffed penguin. Luckily, it's not even close to as large as the giraffe we bought for Gretchen and Ryan when Addi was born.

We were REALLY excited that the highchair we registered for had come out in a new model...with PENGUINS!!!

Jon got a really sweet print about Daddy's to hang on the wall in the nursery from his BF Ryan and Addi tried out the Baby's new rocking chair. It's ADORABLE!

I just can't really comprehend all the loving, Seattle "family" we have accumulated in such a short time. We are truly happy and feel so lucky and loved. Thanks to everyone who helped us prepare for Baby V. We are so grateful. 33 weeks...7 to go??? Maybe?

Baby and I Say Good-Bye

2010-04-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here we are at 31 weeks and 5 days...

...standing in Annie's kitchen in Red Wing, Minnesota. On Easter Sunday, Annie called me just minutes before the first worship service started and told me in the most calm, unwavering voice that she was back at Mayo hospital and her test and scans had revealed that the cancer had spread tumor throughout her abdomen and had moved into her liver and lungs. The doctors had told her that it was not surgical and there was nothing else they could do, and she had decided to just go home on hospice care, with an estimate that she would only live for 2 days to 2 weeks.

I ended the call and sobbed uncontrollably and did the best I could to survive my busy morning with hundreds of kids and Easter festivities at St. Matthew's and then called my doctor to make sure it was safe to travel and booked a flight to Minnesota the next morning.

Baby V and I spent four nights and five days, in Minnesota, most of it in Annie's home town of Red Wing where we were put up by a stranger, an amazing friend of Annie's Mom. I had asked Annie a few weeks earlier to be our baby's godmother and I decided to break our silence and share the name with her (and only her!). Over four days, I was one of probably a hundred family members and friends that filled her home. It was akward and hard a lot of the time, but I did get a few precious moments alone with Annie. I was able to help her do some funeral planning, to dream about what heaven will be like, to accept some special gifts from her, and to say good-bye. I'm glad I went, but it was really hard.

The good in the middle of a lot of bad was that I was also able to see a ton of people that I don't see very often; sorority sisters and other college friends and Annie's amazing mom and Patrick her boyfriend. I had a nice dinner with my little brother and was in the Cities with Anna, Krissy, Amy, and Skippy for one night.

And now we're back in Seattle with Papa Jon just waiting and trying to take care of this baby and prepare the best way we can and waiting and trying to believe Annie WILL hold her Godson...someday.

The Nursery

2010-03-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

Drumroll please!!!! Here are the first official pictures of the nursery! It's not finished, but things are definitely well underway and we're really excited about the green, penguins, and polka dots for Baby VanderMeulen. From the doorway...

The Craigslist crib and mattress. We decided to go with black and are really happy with our choice.

The penguins turned out adorable too!

We also purchased our glider off of Craigslist for $20, then repainted it, had a co-worker of mine recover the cushions, Jon replaced the springs, and we added the ottoman from Ikea.

Check out the before and after shots.

We will use the dresser (also Craigslist!!!!) to double as the changing table

with a pad and a basket with supplies on top.

We've talked about adding bookshelves along the wall to the left of the dresser by the window that would display books with the covers facing out. What do you think? Go for it or would it just be too much? Jon will be installing a ceiling fan this weekend (even though I wish it was a chandelier!) and we have a lamp for the top of the bookcase that just needs a new shade. The walls will need some more decoration too...perhaps a few of our first family photos or

something with Guido's real name when we ready for it to be revealed.

While Jon is hard at work in the nursery this weekend, I'll be flying to Michigan for my first Baby Shower. I'm so excited and looking forward to having even more beautiful belongings to pack away in the nursery.

So, what do YOU think!??!?

Michiganders

2010-02-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

Our trip back "home" to Michigan at the end of January was a total success. We drove all over the state and were able to spend quality time with both sides of our family. We also met baby Esther, the four week old daughter of our good friends Jason and Erica. Isn't she sweet? It won't be long until we have our own to hold.

The weather in Michigan was FREEZING. WAY too cold for our warm Western blood! But the snowcovered beach of Lake Michigan was kind of pretty.

We made it back to Seattle and have been in major nesting mode, with lots of projects, shopping, and nursery renovations keeping us busy. More details on all of that soon!

This big red blob is me on Valentine's Day at 24 weeks pregnant. The bump is sure growing fast!

Winter in Seattle this year has been super mild and quite lovely. There have been many 55-60 degree sunny days! Look, the trees have started to bud in February! My Mom and Dad are here visiting this week and Dad took these pictures on our walk down the Cedar River Trail to Lake Washington.

Whoa! Pregnant Nicole!

Monday brought gorgeous weather too, so we visited the boat locks in Ballard and had a yummy seafood lunch at Ray's Cafe.

Grandma can't get enough of babies, and attended a baby shower for a co-worker with me on Tuesday night and then helped us entertain Addi, while Gretchen and Ryan had band practice on Thursday night.

Grandma and Grandpa were also a HUGE help with the pets. Our puppy has come a long way since they first met her last spring and they really do adore and spoil her just as good grandparents should! Alley and Oscar are going to be VERY sad when they leave tomorrow.

Ted and Terrie head back to Michigan tomorrow, but I'll be heading back in just two weeks for my first baby shower, so we won't be apart for long. I will post again soon with baby project pictures!

The Mass

2010-01-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

Today is a hard day. I was scheduled to have a second MRI and exam and consultation with an oncologist today, but we decided to decline and cancel the appointments. Our decision to go against the doctors recommendations were not reached in haste or without a lot of tears and passionate discussion.

"Isn't an oncologist a cancer doctor? I thought she was pregnant not sick!" If you're saying something similiar to yourself, I'll back up a bit for you. From what I've heard, almost no pregnancy goes without its own difficulty and complication, mine happens to be the mysterious mass that has been discovered in my pelivs.

At nine weeks pregnant, I had my first appointment with my OB/GYN, Dr. Miller. Through ultrasound, he discovered...1.Yes, I was in fact pregnant and 2. There was a large (5 cm) funky looking mass there too! After two more specialized ultrasounds and radioligist consults, it was deemed that the mass had consumed my right ovary and needed to be surgically removed to prevent complications. SURGERY WHILE PREGNANT!??!? Yep, that's what I thought and felt and said too...but at the "sweet spot" of 15 weeks I went through with it only to find out after I awoke from anesthesia that my right ovary is in place and perfectly fine and the mass is off floating somewhere else and could not be touched.

At this point, Dr. Miller and his cronies were pretty sure that "the mass" was nothing to worry about...but not sure enough, because after a few days of pondering, it was recommended that I see an oncologist, who insisted we do an MRI, which caused me to have to sign a scary waver that said, "We are pretty sure this won't hurt your baby, but we can't make any promises." The MRI did not return diffinitive results and Dr. Drescher, the oncologist, recommended we "keep an eye on it" with another MRI and follow up appointment in 4 weeks.

This is pretty much where I said enough is enough. Not only have I put my baby in jeopardy with surgery and an MRI, but now you are asking me to continue to go down that road, and it's getting us NOWHERE! Not to mention, even if they did discover "something" with this testing, the next step would be to explore options like terminating pregnancy or forcing a super early delivery of the baby, both of which suggestions make me want to hurl and in my mind are not an option. So, it might be better just not to know, ya know?

Dr. Miller was supportive when we spoke with him about not wanting an MRI, but after he consulted with Dr. Drescher, called to say he could not in good faith tell me it was ok just to ignore things and not do the MRI.

Well, as you already know if you read the first paragraph of this post, that is precisely what we decided to do. It sucks to have to go against medical recommendation, but at the same time my heart is very strongly leading me not to spend any more time, money, stress, or chance at jeapordizing this otherwise extremely healthy pregnancy at the moment. The mass can be monitored (although not with as much detail) by ultrasound and if any concerning symptoms appeared we would definitely investigate more at that point, but so far, that's not the case. After the baby is delivered, Jon and I are quite open to testing, procedures, evaluation...have at it! ...as long as it isn't at the expense of this baby. I believe God put this baby in my body (and without wasting any time I might add!) for a reason, so although my doctor doesn't agree, I have to have faith that both baby and me will be okay in the end, even if it means prolonging discovering the mystery behind this mass for four or five more months.

Today will most certainly end brighter than it began. Jon and I are finally traveling "home" to Michigan to visit our families and some friends and hold the "holiday" celebrations that were made impossible due to the surgery, recovery, and endless days in the doctor's office in December. I'll be blogging about our trip when I get back next week.

It's a...

2010-01-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

BOY!!!!!

Most of you have already heard the big news. Thank you for being SO excited for us. We're excited too, mostly to know that the baby seems happy and healthy and to be growing right on schedule.

The best part was the look on the ultrasound tech's face. She was showing us the heart, and lungs, and bladder, and hands, etc. and then all of a sudden she just cocks her head and gives us this look like...you know what THAT is! I said, "It's a boy?" and I was right!

Here are some pictures to share! No wee wee's in these shots, just the most adorable little feet and a side profile shot of the head. We're SO happy!

The Bump

2010-01-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

I talked to my Mom last night and told her I am finally looking pregnant and she insisted on seeing a picture, so here I am in all my glory. These shots were taken last night on January 11, 2010 and I am 19 weeks and 3 days along at this point!

The slippers are especially awesome, huh? I had on cute red flats earlier in the day; use your imagination!

This Friday, we have our big 20 week ultrasound where they do a full anatomy scan of the baby. If we're lucky, we'll know boy or girl then! Hopefully, we'll share the big pink or blue news with you very soon!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

Here we are on New Year's Eve!
My resolution is to keep this Blog CURRANT! Aren't you excited??? It's embarrasing that I last updated in September. My excuses included life changes that I wasn't quite ready to put on the internet (We're pregnant!) followed by surgery and a mysterious mass in my body that has made me worry endlessly, as well as caused us to live at the doctor's office.

Anywho...it's all out in the open now, and I'm back! I have big plans to do a little review (like share the photos from our Labor Day trip to Orcas Island that I have already uploaded) as well as look forward; I'm SO excited about my big plans for our nursery decor! Stay tuned...I promise there will be something to see this time!

Miss McKenna Seattle Style

2009-09-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Our favorite little sister, McKenna, traveled to Seattle all on her own to spend an entire week with us! It was exhausting, yet totally awesome! We did so much, including tons of shopping (McKenna is TOTALLY my thrift store buddy and she splurged on the COOLEST PURSE EVER at Nordstrom Rack. She said if she dies I can have it. :) and eating, with a tour of our favorite ethnic places including pizza, mexican, chinese, and indian food! The biggest adventure (and only thing we photographed) was an overnight camping trip to Mt. Rainier. Camping was FREEZING! But the next day was PERFECTLY gorgeous and sunny. Here we are having breakfast. Flat Annie came along too! We stopped to check out this waterfall...

How could you NOT want to live in the Pacific Northwest? It still takes my breath away...

Alley and Oscar ADORE McKenna and all the attention she gives them. She actually succeeded at tiring out Al, a miracle in itself. Al and Osc REALLY miss McKenna and hopes she comes back to see them really soon!

Thanks for visiting McKenna! We had a great time and hope you did too! You are welcome ANY time!

Prom!

2009-09-17T16:52:00.001-07:00

On August 15, we attended the Jensen High Prom! Our good friends, Colleen and Justin throw some mean theme parties. We've attending several other shindigs at their place including, the ugly Christmas sweater and Halloween parties. With a disco ball, DJ, and lighted punch bowl fountain, they didn't dissapoint and we went all out to join in the fun! I even asked my friend Joan at work who is a florist to make a corsage and boutonniere for us! Pretty fancy, huh?

I purchased this lovely frock for the occasion at Value Village for $13 the day before the party. It's covered in glitter and left a trail all over Jon's car and Colleen's house! Whoops!Jon even treated me to a fancy steak dinner at the Melrose Grill before the party! We got LOTS of good stares at the restaurant.

This is Justin and Colleen's baby, Helen! Isn't her flapper outfit awesome!??

Just another day along the journey of Jon and Nicole!

The Olympic Peninsula

2009-08-12T08:50:00.001-07:00

It was our fabulous four day *mostly* camping trip and our first real vacation alone since our honeymoon. The Olympic Peninsula made the perfect destination. The variety of landscape that occurs within the span of just a few hours drive, is truly amazing. We saw mountains, lakes, rivers, rainforests, waterfalls, oceans, beaches, and so much more! We hiked and biked and camped and as always, enjoyed good food and wine along the way.

The journey began with a ferry ride from Seattle to Bainbridge Island.

All good waits at the dock involve eating take out fish n' chips from Ivars, and so did ours!

Okay, so we left Wednesday evening and didn't arrive in Port Angeles until about 8pm, so our first night of camping was spent in this really nice hotel. Of course Flat Annie came on vacation with us too!

Our first adventure on our first full day of our trip was Hurricane Ridge. After a scrumptious breakfast at a little local place called Olympic Bagel, we drove from Port Angeles 18 miles up into the mountains. Here we are outside the visitor center. It was rainy and cloudy when we left, but we traveled above the clouds where there was bright sunshine!

Then, we assembled turkey sandwiches in the parking lot, put lunch in our backpack, and began a pretty difficult climb up the mountain even further along the Hurricane Hill trail. This shot shows some of the trail we traveled.

Even though the Olympic Peninsula had lots of 90 degree weather the previous few weeks, we still found one patch off snow left!

Hiker Jon was sweet enough to carry the pack for us! Check out the view. I wish the pictures would do it justice.

Another shot from the top! The clouds were pretty cool, but if it had been a clear day you could see the ocean, the Straights of Juan De Fuca and all the way to Canada.

Once we were off the mountain, we headed farther out onto the peninsula to Lake Crescent. This picture was taken at our campground, Fairholme, part of the Olympic National Park, where we befriended Ranger Jim and got lots of free firewood!

After setting up camp, we took our first bikeride along an almost deserted back rode with gravel, and lots of exciting hills, and a view of the lake through the trees.

Unfortunately, our bike portrait was the last picture we were able to take before my camera battery died. Not only were we camping without electricity, but I didn't bring the charger either. Lesson learned. We had to buy two Kodak instant cameras and pay quite a bit to have film developed, all which resulted in not such quality pictures. Sorry!

On Friday morning, we packed up camp and headed for a hike to a waterfall!

So many GINORMOUS trees everywhere we went!

One of the two log bridges on the way...

Prepare for a horrible picture of Nicole. Focus on the waterfall!
After the waterfalls, it was time for the beach, so we traveled on to the coast. We camped in rainforest territory very close to Rialto Beach. It was very rocky and smelly, with lots of big waves and driftwood logs.

Then we traveled to LaPush onto the Quinault Indian Reservation and hiked to Second Beach. GORGEOUS and sandy....

We also stopped at First Beach, which is easily accessible by car, and THERE IT WAS the Twilight Tours bus! The tiny towns of LaPush and Forks, WA have become major tourist attractions for teenage (mostly female!) fans of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight book series. I caved and have read two of the four books so far, and will admit that I actually like them.

I didn't pay to take the official tour though. Why would I do that when I could make Jon be my guide and drive me around to all the Twilight hot spots? I did have to put up with his teasing and eye rolling, but I know my fellow Twilight fans will enjoy these shots. Here's Flat Annie posing at First Beach where Bella first learned about "Cold Ones" aka vampires from her friend Jacob. It was really great to see that most of the people and businesses of Forks have really embraced the Twilight phenomenon and are really welcoming and encouraging fans and making it fun!
The sign outside this hotel said, "Edward Cullen Didn't Sleep Here!"

Here's Forks High School where Bella met her vampire boyfriend, Edward in Biology class. Go Spartans!

We swung by the police station for a picture of Chief Charlie Swan's patrol car.

This family has agreed to let their home represent the Swan's house. There were definitely teenage girls knocking on the door when we drove by!

I posed with the replica of Bella's truck outside the Forks Chamber of Commerce.

At the hospital, we spotted Dr. Cullen's parking space.

...and that's where the Twilight tour ends. Back to the camping trip! We spent two nights at Mora National Park Campground. It was pretty moist most of the time, and definitely rained the last night. I suppose that's to be expected in the rainforest, huh? Jon didn't mind at all, and I only whined about it like 24 or 27 times or something like that. :)

Camping and rainy weather weren't excuses to forgo fine dining! Kabobs were on the menu our last night.

I had been DYING to buy a deck of UNO cards to play with on our trip, but even after going to several stores couldn't find them, so on our last rainy evening in Forks, I was determined, so Jon patiently traveled to four different Forks stores until we found the prize! If you could see the score sheet you would know that I was totally whomping him!

On Saturday, we drove the 18 mile long road to reach the Hoh Rainforest. Our first short hike was through "The Hall of Mosses". Incredible!

The size of the trees in the rainforest is truly incredible. You could really see just how huge they are when you walked beside the fallen ones. The information we read said many trees grow to 300 feet tall.

After our hike, we ate BLT's for lunch that we had made at the campground earlier that morning. We almost decided to leave, but then changed our minds and took one more hike on the Spruce Nature Trail. There were signs posted everywhere with warnings to stay at least 100ft away from Elk, because they had been charging people.

Can you find the elk in this picture!?!?!? We stumbled upon two elk feeding just off the trail, and we were definitely only 10 or 20 feet from them as we snuck by! I had been complaining about the lack of wildlife we had seen, so this was very exciting for me!

We headed for home on Sunday, stopping on the waterfront in Port Angeles for one more bike ride, and after driving to four different restaurants only to discover they were all closed, we found this awesome little fancy place at the Sequim marina. We looked pretty rugged after not having a shower for three days, but they gave us great service just the same, and we ate an awesome last meal of wine and seafood pasta.

Here's Jon back at home; showered but not shaved! He had a lot of work to do unpacking all our gear and spreading everything out to dry in the backyard.

I hope some of our family and friends want to come visit the Olympic Peninsula someday! It's a truly awesome adventure and we definitely plan to go back.

Seattle Seafair 2009

2009-08-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Seafair occurs for a week each summer in Seattle and includes a parade, fireworks, concerts, and most importantly hydroplane races and flight shows by the Blue Angels. Here we are last Sunday getting ready to watch the planes at a park with a beach on Lake Washington. It looks like one plane in the sky, but it's really six. I couldn't believe how close they can fly together. I love the loops and tricks and the trails of smoke they leave behind.

Alley got to come along too! She did really well, actually.

It was REALLY hot, AGAIN. Alley (and Jon?) went swimming at the dog park beach.

Look at that cute, hot, wet, puppy dog!

I put up a whole bunch of posts today to make up for my lack of updates lately, so make sure to check out all of them! I promise not to be gone so long this time. I'll be back with stories and pictures next week after our big Olympic Peninsula camping trip! We're heading out right now!

My Shiny New Green Bike!

2009-08-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

Da, da, da, DA! Here it is...Nicole's shiny, new, green bike! After talking about getting me a bike for years, Jon and I finally made the purchase. It's a hybrid (commuting bike, a cross between a road and mountain bike) Norco, purchased from a local bike shop, special ordered with a custom short size frame for me...and IT IS GREEN! I LOVE IT! We've ridden to Red Hook Brewery twice. Last weekend, Gretchen, Ryan, and Addi joined us. This shot of me and my new ride was taken AFTER beer consumption!

And Nachos...

Addi doesn't like beer!

Jon and his friends Ryan and Addi. He's wearing his green Guinness shirt, but not his FAVORITE green Guinness shirt. He spilled coffee on it earlier that morning and had to change! :)

Nickel (that's what she calls me) and Gretchen, Seattle Besties!

Here's Daddy, Addi, and the bike trailer. Addi did NOT enjoy her ride and SCREAMED most of the way. Maybe bumps, 90 degree temperatures, and age 5 months were all factors in her displeasure.

Gretchen adores her blue Cruiser, but discovered it's not really the best for long distance!

Addi and Auntie Cole! What summer fun! I'm hoping to have more adventures on my new bike during our Olympic Peninsula camping trip, so stay tuned!

Vacation Bible School at Discovery Canyon

2009-08-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

St. Matthew's 2009 Vacation Bible School with the theme, Discovery Canyon, was July 13-17. VBS is one of my very favorite parts of my job, but also definitely the most work! It's pretty all consuming, especially the weekend before and after. Ask Jon! He definitely got drafted to help with decorating, trasporting, engineering, and more!

I'll leave some pictures for a peek into the big week, but if you really want to sample the music, fun, and faith we shared, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JosA1t_2X-Q

With 125 children participating and over 45 youth and adult volunteers, I say it was a huge success!

Bad Blogger! Bad!

2009-08-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, fine...I haven't updated our blog in over a month! It's summer, so I don't really have a great excuse, but being a newlywed (does that expire on September 13?) is still keeping me busy. Between our family lake vacation in Michigan, a last minute trip to Minnesota to be with Annie, Vacation Bible School, a visit from Anna and another from Skippy, dog class and training with Alley, Seafair and preparing for our big Olympic Peninsula camping trip, which starts TODAY...there hasn't been tons of extra time for typing! Here are the highlights from Michigan and Minnesota the last weekend of June and the beginning of July...

This is the beautiful cottage we rented through http://www.vrbo.com/ on Lake Fenton in Michigan. Jon and I convinced both sides of our family to join us for a long weekend of reunion and relaxation. EVERYTHING was red, white, and blue. I thought it might drive me crazy, but it was actually cute for a cottage.

We spent lots of time drinking...which the rest of the pictures will reinforce! Flat Annie and Ted tried out the deck together with a cocktail.
We also read a lot. Here's my beautiful little sister-in-law, McKenna.

The Meyer's taught Jon's family how to play Euchre. HOURS OF HILARITY insued!

We didn't have keys to use the jet ski, but I thought I'd try it out anyway. It was pretty windy, rainy, and cold to be in the lake much, but it didn't really damper our fun at all!

Jon was trying to convince everyone that I think his neck is ugly.

A group photo!

And another...Lorie was in love with the neighbors' pontoon boat, "Cinnamon Skin", and finally convinced the rest of us to sneak over for a photo. Silly!

It was SUCH a fun weekend and we have unanimously agreed that this needs to be an annual event for our families. Hooray! Now we just need a name and a t-shirt logo. Any creative ideas out there?

During, our trip home, Annie got REALLY sick in Minnesota and asked me to come see her, so Jon flew home to Alley and Oscar alone and I extended my vacation another 5 days, detouring to first Mayo Hospital in Rochester and then Annie's house in Red Wing, Minnesota.

Annie is SUCH a good sport. Her hair was beginning to fall out, so she just wanted to shave it off again. Anna was MORE than happy to take care of that, and the rest of us were really happy to be a part of the big moment. Me, Annie's Mom, and some other friends and sorority sisters made it Spa Night, and I got to give Annie a pedicure in her hospital bed!

Luckily, Annie was released from the hospital while I was there and I got to spend three days with her in gorgeous Redwing, MN. She took me up to Memorial Park, one of her favorite spots, to see the bluffs, Mississippi River, and the beautiful view.

I also got to meet Annie's amazing new boyfriend, Patrick! LOVE HIM!It was just amazing to see the outpouring of love and support for Annie and her family from so many different friends. It seemed like fun surprises were there to greet her every time we came to her front door.
I spent the Fourth of July with Annie. Here's us at the Farmer's Market in the morning and she was able to have a bonfire with some family, friends, and neighbors that evening. I can't imagine a better way to spend the holiday.

My favorite part of the trip was on the last morning when Annie woke me up before anyone else was around with a cup of coffee, and we had two hours just to ourselves, to chat and cuddle and laugh and cry. Amazing. I love my Annie. Keep fighting, Girl!

The Adventures of Oscar and Alley

2009-06-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

The baby gates have been removed, and Oscar is now left to fend for himself against our ridiculously playful and persistent puppy. He's been doing pretty well, and I would by lying if I didn't admit Oscar doesn't enjoy being chased a bit. Like any good older sibling, he does his fare share of instigating too.

Two weeks ago, we gave in to Oscar's demands that he be allowed to venture into the great outdoors, and fastened him into his harness and tie rope to prevent tree climbing or other heroic escape and instead enjoy Friday evening appetizers and cocktails in the backyard with Jon, Alley, and me.

We've started taking Alley hiking on Sqwauk Mountain, about 15 minutes drive from our home, on Saturday mornings. I get Starbucks in hand and we when nobody else is around, and it's pretty quiet, we let Alley run off leash. She does a great job staying close as long as she isn't distracted by people or other animals, and it's a great way to get her tuckered out. Jon and I can't really complain about the beautiful scenery either!
Last weekend, we spent Friday night learning to play Pinochle with our new friends from church, Rosemary and John, and on Saturday the Stefanski twins turned two! They had a crazy, over the top celebration as usual, and we were honored to be included.Tomorrow night we fly to Michigan to reunite with our family at a lake house. We're looking forward to seeing everyone, relaxing, and getting a much needed break from our menagerie.

Up next: Stories from our big trip home! Stay tuned!

My Best Friend Annie

2009-06-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

...has CANCER. AGAIN. It's devastating and all encompassing. She is 24 years old. WHAT!?!?!?

This is Annie with me at our rehearsal dinner. Who's the cute guy smiling at us in the background? ;)

After finding a cantaloupe sized tumor named Harold in her abdomen last July, Annie was finally diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cellular Cancer.

This happened JUST before our wedding, but she was still able to stand by us on our special day before she began treatment. It was incredibly special. Isn't she STUNNING?
She went through 6 rounds of preventative chemo, which she was assured would leave her good as new. Her scans were clear in April and she started to rebuild her life again, Cancer free. She even came to visit Seattle. She LOVED the fish (and the guy selling them)! But Annie seemed to know that things weren't ever quite right.

The first week in June, Annie rushed to Mayo hospital in Rochester, MN in horrible pain, which finally led to the discovery of 5 new tumors. Chemo season two, round one is scheduled to begin this week.

It's sad and scary and extremely stressful, all emotions which are multiplied by the fact that I am so far away. Luckily, I am just one small part of Annie's HUGE support system and group of amazing family and friends. We've come up with some fun ways to support her as she beats Cancer again.

Meet the Flat Annies! I helped to create and organize a Flat Annie program, inspired by my Flat Friends program that I used at church this winter. People all over the place are sharing their adventures with Flat Annie, taking pictures for proof, and then sending them along with notes, cards, and letters to REAL Annie. Cancer may have knocked her Flat, but Flat Annie will keep living it up, until real Annie bounces back!

So far, I've taken Flat Annie to the Ministry Faire at church and with me babysitting. No, I was NOT a Disney Princess. It's a Renaissance costume!
Here's Annika. She made her own Flat Annie, and her baby sister Rachel and I posed with her.

We're also selling Team Annie T-Shirts like the ones the Flat Annie's are wearing. Let me know if you are willing to buy one; all the proceeds go to Annie and her family.
The best way to keep up on all the news and information about Annie and how to help is to join the Flat Annie Facebook Page and read her Blog.

There are many more ideas to show support and love for Annie in every way in the works, so stay tuned.

Newlywed Weekends

2009-05-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Isn't this just the cutest picture ever!?!?!? Awwww.... Sorry, we're just so not photogenic that there's reason for excitement when we actually have a success! This shot was taken on Memorial Day overlooking the ocean on West Beach in Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island.

We left after church on Sunday, and took Alley on her first big overnight trip. She loves riding in the car and spent a lot of time hanging out the window, sleeping on her seat, and scrunching herself into a ball on the floor when it got too windy!
Alley experienced sand and ocean for the first time! After we took the ferry over to the island we stopped in Langley for gelato, and the puppy began her exploration.
We stayed overnight at a hotel, and Alley took a nap in her crate while we ate an absolutely fantastic meal at The Oystercatcher in Coupeville.

On Monday, we took a two hour long 4-5 mile hike around Deception Pass and then ate lunch on the beach.

The weekend before, Jon graciously helped me babysit for the Stefanski three all day long on Saturday. I have stopped working as their nanny on a regular basis because I have a puppy to attend to now, so it was so nice to see them again!
Kaitlyn was going to town with their new kitchen set.
That's Jenna! She REALLY loves Jon.
Andre offers Jon a piece of cake.
On Mother's Day weekend, we spent Saturday hard at work in our yard. Jon modified his railing planters he made for our deck in West Bloomfield to work on the railing in front of our house here, and I filled them and this big round container with flowers. So far...I think they are looking good! Summer flowers have to stay in the front yard this year to prevent Alley from eating them. :) We also dug out a bunch of dead/overgrown/weedlike plants in our backyard, spread things out and added a few new things. It looks great!

May was full of sunshine and adventures! I'm hoping a rainy June doesn't seek its revenge. Not a lot of excitement for us here on the west coast, just a lot of love!

Ted & Terrie See Seattle!

2009-05-11T17:02:00.001-07:00

You read that right, Folks! Mom and Dad finally made their very first trip to see our home on the West Coast! My baby brother, Neal, came from Minnesota for part of the time too. He had made one brief visit on a business trip in December of 2007, but there was a lot more for him to see.

This time around, Neal arrived first on Wednesday night, and I took the day off on Thursday for some sibling quality time. Neal wanted a massage, so we tried out this new franchise, Massage Envy, that has opened up in Renton. My expectations were low, but I have to say, it was awesome! It was a super nice place and one of the best massages I've ever had. I liked it so much, they sold me on a year subscription, but the first massage was only $39. I recommend you try it out too! I took Neal to experience the best Mexican food ever at La Fuente, a favorite local spot of ours, and then we went to Fremont to explore. Neal loved The Troll and all the funky vintage shops. Check out his new duds!
We finished our first fun day together with Jon, Gretchen, Ryan, and Addi at a sushi restaurant for dinner and then had Dairy Queen for dessert. Finally, it was off to the airport to pick up Mom and Dad.

Can you guess where we spent the first day of the Meyer reunion Seattle style? Of course! Pike's Place Market. We introduced the fam to one of our very favorite parts of the city; fish, fruit, flowers, and much more! Mom did some shopping of course, a great new purse for her, a great bottle of wine for Jon, and the most beautiful bouquet of flowers for me!

Friday's weather was almost 70 degrees, sunny, and so clear that the mountains were out in all their glory. A day this beautiful is a bit rare around here, so Jon and I were so happy our visitors were greeted this way! After the market and lunch with an amazing view at Lowell's, it was to the top of the Space Needle. We normally wouldn't rate this attraction as a must do, except when the weather is good...and it sure was! We could see Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, the Olympics, the Cascades and everything in between. Gorgeous!
Mom decided on Saturday that she wanted to check out the Woodland Zoo. This was a first trip for Jon and I too, so we were happy to go and explore. It started out pretty rainy, but in the end we saw the sunshine once again!

My family's visit wasn't all about the tourist traps. Our friends Gretchen, Ryan, & Baby Addi joined us for a couple home cooked meals ala Chef Nicole. On Monday night, Addi came over all by herself, while her parents had band rehearsal. My Mom also made a special guest appearance at my church Moms' Group with me on Tuesday morning, so when it was all said and done, she had chalked up HOURS of blissful baby holding time. I'm hoping this helps my case for persuading the grandparents to be (no not yet, eventually!) to move a little closer!
Neal had to head back to Minnesota Sunday afternoon, so we said good bye to him after a yummy steak dinner at The Melrose Grill on Saturday night and a visit to St. Matthew's Lutheran Church on Sunday morning to see what my job is all about.

Mom and Dad spent lots of time getting to know the grandpets, spoiling Alley and Oscar with tons of attention even when Jon and I had to work. They said they enjoyed just lounging around our house, which we hope was true. I snuck out of the office a few afternoons for some more fun. On Monday afternoon, Mom, Dad, and I did the Underground Tour and had lattes at the cafe in the basement of the Elliot Bay Book Company. Did you know that Seattle streets and sidewalks were built up around the buildings leaving lots of crazy history in its dust?

On Tuesday night, the rain stopped just in time for a trip to Bainbridge Island on the ferry. You HAVE to ride a ferry when you visit Washington! I love them SO much! Here's a few shots from the trip over. Then, we had dinner at the The Harbour Public House and then saw the beautiful lights of the Seattle skyline on the boat ride back.

The grand finale and most important part of this adventure to note is the Euchre game that occurred after an amazing dinner of fabulous wine and crock pot pork tenderloin when Jon and I WALLOPED my parents two games straight. Woohoo! Go team VanderMeulen.

Mom and Dad and Neal...thanks for an amazing week together in our world here in Seattle. We love you so much, and we hope you'll come back much more often, or stay permanently. It's ok if you want to decide this is the best place in the world too!

Alley's Adventures

2009-04-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yell0oo! It's Alley here. We had a little situation yesterday and my Mama and Papa are still a bit upset, so I'm here to tell you the story. This is the downstairs laundry room/bathroom at our house where I stay at night or when Mom and Dad are away. See my big bed? It's pretty nice. They leave me lots of toys and bones too.
I miss Mama and Papa so much when they are gone. I sit at the door to the garage and wait. Sometimes when I get too lonely, I just chew a little bit on the door frame.I've also chewed a bit on the cabinets. YUM! Rental houses are extra tasty.

Saturday I woke up at 4am. I really had to go potty and I was feeling really lonely again. My Papa was nice enough to let me outside, but when he put me back into my room because he wanted to go back to sleep, I was not happy. I wanted to play with them! I was sad, so I chewed a huge hole in the wall, and then I pawed at the doorknob until I had locked myself into the bathroom. Mom had to use a butter knife to get the door open and was mad when she found me.

This is my new crate. My new doggy babysitter gave it to me. Theresa is a lifesaver! Mom took me to meet her yesterday. She runs a dog sitting company out of her home. http://www.lepetconcierge.com/ She has an awesome backyard and was so much fun to play with! I can't wait to visit her again. I get to stay with her when Mama and Papa go on vacation and maybe some other times too. I'm not sure why Mama and Papa didn't buy this crate for me sooner. I like it so much that I go in there and sleep even when they are home! I also get to sleep in my crate in their bedroom at night now and I am MUCH happier.Last night, we all watched the movie Marley & Me together. I was really well behaved and took a long nap on the floor. Mama and Papa cried a lot at the end. I think they have forgiven me for now.

Until next time...woof! Woof!

Long Time No Type!

2009-04-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Five weeks since my last post! That's embarrassing. My apologies everyone! It's been a busy month, and I've spent most of it fighting off one illness or another, so that's my excuse. What have we been up to? Here are the highlights...

The end of April brought the beginning of our onslaught of visitors. My dear friend Annie made Seattle a stop on her cross country road trip in celebration of kicking cancer's ass! We spent five fun days exploring, chatting, shopping, eating, and drinking. It was so wonderful to be together! Two more college buddies, Abby and Broghan, also ended up bunking with us the very same weekend. They were very busy meeting with chiropractors as part of Broghan's job search, house hunting, and looking at grad schools for Abby. They will be getting married in June and we are very excited to see where their next adventure leads them. We'd love to have them here with us in the northwest!

Annie and Alley

Broghan and Abby

Unfortunately, I experienced a sudden, horrific bout of the stomach flu in the middle of our guests' visit, causing me to vomit repeatedly for two days, spike a fever of 101, and be stuck in bed missing out on work at church Sunday morning and a lot of the fun. I think the highlight was when I puked in the trash can on the ferry.

As if house guests and the stomach flu wasn't enough, this weekend was also the first of two baby showers I helped to organized for Gretchen, Ryan, and Baby Addi. I helped their friend Colleen host a private shower at her home, and the last weekend in April we celebrated at church with over 80 guests and a mountain of gifts.

The Private Shower at Colleen's House

The Church Shower

The mountain of gifts. This might have been half...maybe...

After I recovered from 48 hours of hell, it was back to work. Lent is a super busy time for me at church. I spent six weeks of it coordinating the Flat Friends and Big Buddies Program at St. Matthew. I was inspired by the Flat Stanley book to spice up our annual pen pal program a bit, and it was a huge success. We had 34 child/adult pairs participate, and ended with an awesome party complete with pizza, ice cream, pictures, crafts, and a slide show. I'd love to email all my plans and documents to anyone who thinks they might have a group of kids at church or elsewhere that could would enjoy doing this too!

Each child made themself into a "Flat Friend" which I gave to their secret adult "Big Buddy". The Big Buddy took pictures of their Flat Friend in all sorts of places and sent them along with letters back and forth to the child for six weeks. Here's Annika at the space needle!

Baby Addi is growing so fast and Jon and I are really enjoying the opportunity to be part of her village! We had the great privilege of hosting her birth mother Cassandra and her daughter Chelsea who came from Portland for Addi's baptism at the Holy Saturday service on April 11. Cassandra is one amazing woman, and her presence made the service all the more powerful. Of course Gretchen and Ryan rocked the music too!

Addi and her beautiful birth mother, Cassandra; look at that tongue!

Cassandra and her oldest daughter Chelsea at our house before the baptism.

The stomach flu was just the beginning of my spring sickness and two weeks later I was blessed with a virus that included a horrible sore throat that morphed into ear pain, a cough, congestion, exhaustion, and pink eye that spread into not just one, but both of my eyes. Easter was right in the middle of this debacle, and I led hundreds of children in Sunday's festivities with no voice at all!

Easter Sunday. Do I look deathly ill? I was!

After a miserable two weeks, I'm almost better. My right ear continues to be a bit plugged, and my eyes are better, but still red. Jon bought me a new pair of glasses out of the deal, so at least I'm enjoying sporting my new specs! Oh there's more...

Last weekend, Jon's good friend Andy and his wife and two children stayed with us for three nights of their Spring Break trip to the Northwest. They are hardcore tourists and kept us busy hiking at the waterfall, visiting the Olympic sculpture park, traveling to the top of the Space Needle, spending hours in Pike Place Market, and playing in the arboretum at the University of Washington. The kids also spent lots of time playing with Alley in our backyard.

The Christensen Family: Andy, AJ, Jen, & Shelby at Snoqualmie Falls

Jon with the kids after our lunch at the Crab Pot. He's holding AJ and Shelby's cousin Ania, who came with her family from Bellingham to explore Pike Place Market with us last Friday.

Speaking of Alley...she's doing well! Look how big she is! Over 40 lbs now! I really hated her for awhile, but the I believe the worst is over and I really have fallen in love with our adorable dog. She graduated from puppy kindergarten a few weeks ago, and we just made her first trip to the off leash dog park, where she did remarkably well. She's also learned to jump over her baby gate that holds her in our laundry room at night and when we are away. Alley really seems to listen and respond to Jon and I most of the time...now we are just working on getting her to get along with Oscar Meyer and not pounce every guest who comes to our home.I think I can leave you at that for now. I promise to make an effort to avoid epic updates in the near future and post much more frequently. Our love to you from Seattle always!!!

Meet Addi!

2009-03-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Our dear friends Ryan and Gretchen have a new baby girl!!!

Advent Evangeline MertesThey are calling her Addi. She was born on Tuesday, March 3 at 4:28pm in Portland, Oregon, weighing almost 7 lbs and 20 inches long. Addi has been adopted by Gretchen and Ryan and here is the Mertes three with the birthmother, Cassandra. She is one of the most amazing, strong, and brave women I have ever met. Gretchen and Ryan began the adoption process back in October, and after one other situation that didn't work out, were connected with Cassandra in December. She graciously allowed the proud parents to be a part of the pregnancy, attending all of her medical appointments and being present for the birth. Unfortunately, Ryan was unable to always get time off from work to travel to Portland with Gretchen for Cassandra's adoption appointments, but fortunately, that meant I was able to accompany Gretchen on the adventures three different times, and get to know Cassandra up close and personal myself! It's been a crazy, emotional, joyous up and down adoption journey for sure. Gretchen and Ryan did their best to keep all of the details private until the adoption was finalized, which finally happened Friday afternoon. This is pretty difficult when you work for a church! Jon and I have been absolutely blessed to build such a close relationship with Gretchen and Ryan and we truly are "family" now.

A tearful Gretchen called me on Thursday night, looking for comfort and support and asking that Jon and I join them at the hotel in Portland! We scrambled to wrap up loose ends at work and find an emergency pet sitter, but by lunchtime on Friday we were on the road. I cannot find the words to describe how special it was to be able to hold Addi at just days old, and to give Gretchen and Ryan some much needed reassurance and opportunities to rest. Don't we look good holding babies? So sorry to all of you who thought I was going to say I am pregnant, because I am not, and we're not even trying just yet, but let me tell you, I am very anxious and excited for our time to come! We have been very wrapped up in the Mertes adoption journey, and although it's been crazy, it is truly a joy, and we are so very excited to be Uncle Jon and Auntie Cole for precious little Addi. It feels so good to finally tell you all about the adventure that has been consuming much of our time, energy, and emotions over the past week and even months.

One more picture....here are Gretchen and Ryan with the 5 ft tall stuffed giraffe Jon and I gave to them for the nursery the night before they left for the birth in Portland; another special evening, sharing dinner and spending final time together before we were a party of 5 instead of 4! This is just the beginning of the presents. Jon and I will be busy helping to plan and host both a personal and church baby shower for The Mertes Family over the next few weeks. There is MUCH to celebrate!

Oh Baby!

2009-03-03T20:40:00.000-08:00

Jon says we don't need to have a baby because we already have one. She's on the hairy side.
I owe you all a thank you and an apology. I am so grateful to have heard several reports this week that our blog is being read, enjoyed, and appreciated, and I am so sorry that my posting has been so sparse. There's something pretty huge and fantastic and exciting that's been building in our life over the past few months, weeks, and now days, but unfortunately, it's not quite time to release the breaking news to the world wide web, so stay tuned. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true, there's bigger news than our adorable new puppy...
Is it just me or is Alley HUGE already!!???! You can even tell from pictures how big she's grown! I took her to the vet on Friday for her required second set of shots before our first day of school the next day (Is it just me, or is a puppy eerily like a child?) and she has gained 7 pounds in the last three weeks, weighing in at a whopping 30 lbs.

Here we are on our first day of Puppy Kindergarten...

I'm unsure about one dog, so you can imagine that an hour and a half in a room with 30 dogs was just a party for me. We sat around the edge of the room, and each dog was given a bone to preoccupy themselves with while the proud parents were loaded with a lecture, mostly focused on housebreaking. Praise Jesus that Alley hasn't had an accident in days. *crossing my fingers* The first lesson was a bit anti-climactic, but hopefully things will liven up in the weeks to come. We did learn what the absolute most important thing for a dog to know is; do you know? Guesses? It's their name. Alley almost always responds to me when I call her name, but unfortunately has gotten used to my high pitched tone, and doesn't seem to understand Jon as well. We learned a game to practice her name for homework. I must give Jon absolute props for being puppy Daddy of the year. He scoops the poop, and dutifully walks the dog every morning at 6am, usually after being out of bed once before at 4am to let her outside. What more could a newlywed wife ask for? Tonight he even walked Alley in the pouring rain! I missed a great picture of the dripping wet duo. Darn it! Another school assignment accomplished; get your dog used to the rain...check!

All is well on the West Coast at the VanderMeulen's. Alley is still a puppy, but has finally become "real" and not just what at first felt like a figment of my imagination, clumsily bounding around our house.

I promise to fill you in on our secret great joy very, very soon...hopefully within the next week. Peace and love...always!

Damn It! I think I kind of like the dog.

2009-02-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

I believe I actually uttered those words last Saturday, while I was cuddling with Alley on the kitchen floor. She thinks she's a lap dog, but already doesn't really fit into mine, and I'm curious about how this will pan out when she weighs 70 pounds. We had a lovely Valentine's Day, up at 6am with a whimpering puppy, but a lazy morning on the couch filled with phone conversations with family and a yummy waffle breakfast. We took Alley to Greenlake, a popular area to walk in Seattle. It was VERY busy with people and lots of other dogs, sensory overload for a puppy, but everyone just thought she was so adorable and kept stopping us to ask about her. About 2 miles into the 2.8 miles around the lake, I felt a sudden strange tug on the leash that was trailing behind me, and turned around to see Alley LAYING DOWN, back puppy paws sprawled out behind her, in the middle of the busy trail, with everyone else giggling at Jon and I hysterically. I guess she was tired. Jon had to carry her 25+ pounds the rest of the way! The good news is that she was pretty tuckered out after that, so we were able to enjoy making an artichoke appetizer, beef wellington, squash, and chocolate fondue and strawberries, plus a great bottle of wine from our Napa honeymoon to celebrate our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife.

We've had a good couple of weeks. Alley is truly a sweet dog. She loves to cuddle and has beautiful puppy dog eyes and droopy ears that when she cocks her head to the side will just melt your heart. She is asking to go out and pottying in the backyard almost all the time. She settles down and doesn't cry through the night, and she definitely has "sit" down, even if she doesn't know any other command. A Sprite can filled with coins has been the noise that has helped us get her to stop biting us, which may have saved her from getting kicked back onto the streets last Thursday when I was pretty fed up. Alley loves to play with all of her toys, and she's pretty good at fetch in the backyard already. Many areas still need improvement, like walking on a leash...in one direction, without lagging, pulling, stopping. etc. Alley will be goind to her first day of Puppy Kindergarten, a six week obedience class, next Saturday. I can't wait!

Today's my day off, and we were up at 5am with the whimpering dog, and we were out of coffee beans. I'm hoping for a nap before the weekend begins with a ski trip with Jon's company tonight, dinner with a family from church tomorrow, and work on Sunday morning and then guests at our place for the Oscars.

It's quiet...I gotta go see what the puppy is destroying!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

DOUGHNUT make you want to be her valentine? She's ours!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Love,
The VanderMeulen's
Jon, Nicole, Oscar, and Alley

We're Parents!!!!?!?!?

2009-02-08T20:54:00.001-08:00

Puppy parents!!! Meet Alley!!! She is the newest member of our family. Bored? Did I utter that word in my last post. Hmm...I should have known that would come back to kick me in the ass. That was fast!
Last Thursday, Leya (the woman I nanny for) stopped by church with this GORGEOUS, SWEET puppy in their van. She had found her in the alley behind Goodwill, drinking her own pee. Leya has a heart of gold and couldn't possibly leave her, but the Stefanski's also already have two big dogs, and three small children, so she knew she couldn't keep her. Leya put up posters and sent around pictures on facebook and through email and took the dog to the vet to check for a microchip, but had no luck. The puppy immediately befriended her babies and her dogs and was nothing but sweet and loving, but she was still going to need a new home.
I don't really like dogs. I've never had dogs, and I really prefer cats. I know dogs are a ton of work, especially puppies. I totally prefer cats, especially Oscar, who is loving and friendly, but also quite self sufficient. I want a baby not a dog. Jon wants a dog and isn't quite ready for a baby. The problem is, I met the dog, I listened to her sad, sad story, and I caved. I emailed Jon the pictures and of course he was interested. He met the puppy Thursday evening when we were invited to Grandma Rita's house to celebrate Leya's birthday with their family. We are SO grateful to be included by them! Jon was holding her just like a baby. We asked Leya to keep her for the night so we could think about it, but we were only home minutes before we were brainstorming names for our new puppy, and we knew we'd have to have her. On Friday morning, I convinced our landlord to alter our lease agreement and allow us to have a "small" dog (not so much!); one more hurdle overcome.
Alley (because she was found in an alley!) came home with us on Friday evening, after we promised the Stefanski's that I would be bringing her to visit when I come to babysit ( a win-win situation for all of us I think!). The first night was a little rough with three potty accidents within the first few hours, but she slept through the night in the laundry room without crying, and on Saturday we really started to fall into a good routine. We go out to the backyard after we eat, after we drink, every time we sniff the carpet, and sometimes in between. Last night she slept eight hours with no accidents. Hooray! Alley is also learning to "sit" and "come" quite well, and we've found that if we shriek when she play bites with her baby teeth that she stops because she really is so sweet she doesn't want to hurt anybody. We've gone for walks, and are already practicing not tugging on the leash, and tonight we met Nina, Gretchen and Ryan's dog. Alley also plays independently with her toys on the floor from time to time, and she desperately wants to be friends with Oscar Meyer. The kitten is assertive, which is good, but still timid. He has spent the last few days in the safety of our upstairs, mostly under the guest bed. The way things are going we think they will eventually become friends. We hope!

The last piece of the puppy puzzle fell into place yesterday with a trip to our veterinarian (who randomely is from Grand Rapids, MI, lived in Ann Arbor, and worked in Saline for years!). Alley is completely healthy! Alley weighs 23 pounds and our guess is that she is three or four months old. Basically, everyone who talked me into taking this puppy for Jon lied to me when they said she would be a "medium" sized dog. Remember, I don't like dogs, especially big ones! The vet things Alley is a boxer, pitbull, "something else" mix, and the "something else" may be Mastiff, which if you're not familiar is a HUGE dog. The current guess is that Alley will eventually weigh 70 or 80 lbs. Luckily, her sweet, obedient temperament should not change, and knowing how large she could grow has made Jon VERY devoted to making sure she is trained really well.

I have to admit, Alley is a gem, completely adorable and has already made wonderful strides toward earning her spot in our family. No doubt, we'll be posting pictures and updates here often. Now it's time for these exhausted, new puppy parents to get to bed! Come see Alley soon. She can't wait to meet you!

No News Is Good News

2009-02-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

Go ahead call us lame, but it's true, we are just boring newlyweds now. People keep calling and asking me what's new and honestly, we don't have much to report. Since our holiday guests left and we survived our cross country beach trip, our lives have really settled down. We've had two weekends in a row with no real plans or obligations. It's been heavenly, actually; out for sushi, dinner and a movie with Gretchen and Ryan, small Super Bowl gathering, leisurely grocery shopping, new shelving for the garage, a walk in a new spot, and sleeping in! I'm already beginning to feel "bored". I know I should not complain about that...but Jon and I have really never experienced calm, leisurely, drama free time together. It's strange!

Our Oscar Meyer kitten remains the light of our life. And while he is consistently adorable and cuddly....see?He also seems to have come down with a sudden naughty streak. What you see below is a picture of not just one but two ziploc bags containing two leftover pieces of cornbread that Oscar removed from the counter, drug all the way upstairs underneath the far corner of our guest bed, and then chewed through the both bags and ate half of each of the pieces of bread.
The cat has NEVER bothered food on the kitchen counter before. Two days later, I was attempting to make turkey sandwiches for lunch, but the loaf of wheat bread was mysteriously missing. HE DRUG THE ENTIRE LOAF OF BREAD UP THE STAIRS, UNDER THE BED, CHEWED THROUGH THE BAG, AND ATE THE TOP HALF OF EVERY SLICE OF BREAD. I'd have a picture to share as evidence, but Jon was so angry he threw the bread in the food waste before I had a chance to capture the moment.

Needless to say, we will not be leaving ANY food on the kitchen counters anymore.

Happy Inauguration Day!!!

2009-01-20T11:58:00.001-08:00

The Beach

2009-01-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

My parents were unable to join us in Seattle for Christmas as we had originally hoped, so instead Jon and I took a long weekend and made a VERY long trip to South Carolina to join them on the beach. We stayed with them at their rental house aka "Black Magic" right on Folly Beach. We felt right at home with mostly cool, cloudy, and even rainy weather, but definitely enjoyed the sunshine the days it showed up. We ate a lot of good food, played WII, read a lot, slept a lot, finally beat my parents at Euchre (two games in a row!), took a carriage tour of Charleston, and walked on the beach. It was SO good to see my parents and we can't wait for them to visit us in Seattle for the first time this Spring!

This is how you look after flying overnight to Detroit, sleeping in the airport on the floor for four hours, waiting for maintenance to fix your tiny plane, and then finally making it to the beach that afternoon.

Mom and Me.

Downtown Folly Beach; quaint? hicksville?

Black Magic

Dad being naughty at the Crab Shack. See all the garbage in the bucket?

We missed you, Neal!

***Attention!!!*** This is a VERY IMPORTANT public service announcement: My lips and the corners of my mouth were severly chapped, cracked, and bleeding during the first three days of this trip. Not putting anything on it so my body could try to fix itself was a HORRIBLE and PAINFUL idea. I called my dermatologist and the nurser recommended using THIS... It's a MIRACLE cure. I will never put anything else on my lips again!

Flood Warning

2009-01-08T13:45:00.001-08:00

Is this blog about the life of Jon and Nicole or the crazy Washington weather? It's beginning to be difficult to tell! As you may have heard on the national news, Washington is dealing with major flooding issues due to the unusual heavy snowfall followed by days of pouring rain. Luckily, we live in the Renton "HIGHLANDS" on a hill, so our home will not be affected, but many others very near by are being devastated. Our luck continues, because we will be FLYING to South Carolina to spend the weekend at the beach with my parents tomorrow night. ALL roads through mountain passes are closed due to avalanche danger, and many, many other roads are flooded and closed, including Highway 5 , the major road between Seattle and Portland. You can't get very far by car right now!

This picture was taken this morning in Maple Valley, a town about 10 miles from Renton.

The church I work for, St. Matthew's Lutheran, has been activated as a Red Cross shelter and is filled with flood victims. We will be housing 70+ people indefinitely, which should make the three funerals we have scheduled over the next three days and Sunday School and worship interesting feats to accomplish. I probably won't be much help from the East Coast! I'll do what I can until then. Right now. I am at home washing and drying clothes for a man who was pulled from the river. Earlier this morning, I was handing out play dough and crayons to entertain the little ones taking shelter at church.

May God pull the flood waters back and help these people find safety!

Skiing into the New Year

2009-01-05T10:57:00.001-08:00

A few days before Christmas, Jon was told at work that he would have New Year's Day through the weekend off. It's very seldom we have the gift of having more than one day in a row off together, as I work on Sundays. We decided we should take advantage of the time and head away for a few days. Jon LOVES to ski and his face lit up immediately after we both uttered the word, Whistler!

So we reserved a tiny hotel-like room that had a kitchenette for two nights within walking distance of the mountains, and on New Year's Day set out for our adventure. We had an awesome, relaxing trip north to British Columbia, grabbing Starbucks, having lunch in Bellingham at a cute little cafe, stopping to do some quick exploring in Vancouver, finding a pub in the tiny mountain town of Squamish with the most amazing yam fries ever, and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous scenery of mountains and water as we drove along the Vancouver coast up the mountain. We spent the first night at Whistler settling in, wandering the bustling village full of restaurants and shops, and then enjoying some chili and wine we had brought along back in our room.

On Saturday morning we hit the slopes together. It is a BIG mountain, in fact, there are two mountains there. Even the green hills were challenging and it was a new experience for me to ride in the gondolas. In the afternoon, I took a lesson and Jon got a chance to actually ski rather than stand on the mountain and wait for me. My Swedish instructor, Jacob, said, "Good workings!" a lot and when we skied again on Saturday morning before heading home, Jon said it really looked like the lesson had helped. I'm SLOWLY getting to be a better skier, although my confidence is still lacking. Other than getting plowed over by a stupid snowboarder on Friday morning and rolling down the hill in tears leaving my equipment in my dust, I did pretty great!

Here I am waiting for lunch at an Irish pub shortly after my accident with the snowboarder. I was not too happy! Can you tell?

On Friday night, we sat in the outdoor hot tub and then had a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant just across the street.

Our drive home on Saturday afternoon after another morning of skiing, was slightly less perfect. Faced with an hour wait at customs and horrible road conditions due to heavy snow, our 4 hour trip took almost 7. It was a wonderful trip overall, and Jon remarked that Whistler has certainly earned its distinction as the largest ski resort in North America. At least now I know...IT'S ALL DOWN HILL FROM HERE!

Holiday Hiatus

2009-01-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the absence, friends! It's been a crazy, wonderful, exhausting, joyful, unexpected, relaxing, yummy, and adventurous few weeks for Mr. and Mrs. VanderMeulen!

All Christmas Eve worship services were indeed cancelled at St. Matthew's. Christmas canceled!?!?!? What!!! Full of unexpected events, strangers, improvisation, and of course great joy and celebration, our evening ended up being an excellent reflection of the night Jesus was born. My good friend Gretchen and I concluded that as "hard core" Midwesterners, there was no way we were going to let a little snow and ice keep us from church. She called her friend and colleague, Scott Kramer, pastor of a little Lutheran Church just blocks from their house, and asked if we could join him. Pastor Scott did marriage counseling for us last summer and it was actually exciting to not have to work and have a chance to see him at work! Lakeridge Lutheran Church had decided to cancel their 10pm service, but persevere at 7pm. Jon and I got dressed up in our holiday best, and then ventured to Gretchen and Ryan's house for the pot roast that had been unearthed from their freezer and transformed into a luscious feast just hours before.

Christmas Eve in front of our tree. Isn't Jon a hottie in that vest?

We exchanged small presents and drank hot buttered rum and enjoyed possibly the best Christmas Eve possible without our family, instead our dear friends filling in quite nicely. After Jon and Ryan pushed a car out of the snowy church parking lot and parked the truck in the middle of the street and Gretchen and I waded inside to change into our cute red heels, it was almost time for worship to begin. We were gathered with about 30 other random guests, neighborhood catholics who couldn't make it downtown for mass, two black preachers and their dozen adopted kids who couldn't make it to their church either, a few tried and true members, and even a couple from Ethiopia who couldn't speak Eng lish at all. Gretchen filled in as the accompanist putting her excellent musical talent to work and Jon and I were readers and communion assistants! Pastor Scott through his sermon out the window, and the crowd was asked to share stories of "new life". It was simply lovely. We stuffed ourselves full of bundt cake back a t the Mertes home, and then headed back to celebrate our very first Christmas Eve together and alone as husband and wife.

Jon, Nicole, Gretchen, and Ryan at Lakeridge Lutheran Christmas Eve Worship

Christmas mo rning brought time for Jon and I to exchange gifts and continue our traditional Christmas breakfast of mimosas and holiday french toa st. Moms x2 and McKenna arrived at the airport around 3pm, and our family holiday celebration ensued with another feast. Unfortunately, due to the week and a half of ridiculous snow, Seattle pretty much halted in it's tracks, and UPS just gave up. We JUST received the packages Jon's parents had shipped ahead full of presents to unwrap together on Friday...that's Friday January 2, along with the Honeybaked ham that was intended for Christmas Day dinner. Moldy, $78 pork anyone? We're STILL waiting for the Christmas packag e from Monroe.

Our six days with Zsa Zsa, Lorie, and McKenna were wonderfully relaxing and fun! We made two trips downto wn to Pike Place Market, lounged around the house, ate amazing food again and again, especially when they treated us at Wild Ginger. They were able to see me in action on Sunday morning during the rescheduled performance of the Sunday School Christmas program at church. We also did some new things together, visiting

the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and taking the Boeing "Future of Flight" tour in Everett. Maybe the fam will send me some of the pictures to add to th

is post! Thanks for traveling so far to be with us, guys! It was so special.

McKenna at her favorite French bakery.

Watching glass blowing in progress in the "Hot Shop" at the museum.

The Whole Gang at Tutta Bella, the most awesome pizza place ever!

Are you tired just reading this? Just wait!!! That's only half of our holiday adventure...

I Don't Want A White Christmas!

2008-12-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh! Seattle doesn't deal well with snow. Some things you just don't really believe until you see it. So, last time I blogged, I was smitten by the romance of being snowed in and ecstatic to have a white Christmas. Um, not so much anymore! Between last Thursday's storm, and another one on Saturday, we had accumulated at least a foot of snow, if not more. That was enough!

The weather caused us to cancel the kids' Christmas Program on Sunday, rescheduling for this Sunday. Jon and I made it to church along with the 10-20 people who were crazy enough to come to each of three services. We usually have hundreds of people at each service! They pulled two rows of chairs up into the alter area, and we just sang carols on request with the piano, and the pastor gave a sermon from his chair, wearing his jeans, holiday sweater, and wool socks. It was intimate and memorable, at least.

Although the snow stopped after Sunday, only the main highways and roads get plowed here. What does that mean? Well, we haven't gotten mail delivery, or UPS packages including gifts from our families and a honeybaked ham for Christmas dinner. The garbage guys just quit and didn't pick up. NO ONE has a plow or shovel, so driveways and sidewalks and parking lots are a nightmare. I got up the huge hill to work, only to get stuck in the driveway. Last night at the grocery store, some poor woman took pitty on me and helped me pull my huge, heavy cart through the snow and ice to my parking spot.

Here are the Stefanski twins Jenna and Kaitlyn. A high point of the week was that I was able to be at their house on Monday to give them their Christmas gifts. Check out their new outfits. Mom said they look like candy canes! They also each received a princess phone. See the Ariel one in Kaitlyn's hand? It was nap time for Andre, but before he went to sleep he opened his Candy Land game and Spiderman sweatshirt.

Ok, so none of this is really the end of the world, but it started snowing again today, on Christmas Eve! It's been coming down like crazy all morning. I tried to go down the hill to Target this morning. When I was driving down the Sunset Hill cars coming up were sliding back down, so I hurried through Target, and got on 405 North to get off at Exit 6 to try to get home, but the hill up Edmonds was complete ice and no one was making it. I turned around and tried to get back on the highway, in the meantime sliding off the road on the on ramp, but by miracle alone straightened it out and got back on the road. Everyone was INCHING up the Sunset Hill and it is by sheer luck that I actually was able to make it home. SCARY! Ok, this is enough for me. Apparently, it isn't snowing in Redmond, because I can't convince Jon it's bad and he needs to come home!

Christmas Eve Day: Our Street

The other bummer in all of this is that I plan and lead a Children's Christmas Eve Worship service. We're scheduled to present a program called, "The Very Opinionated Chrismas Tree" tonight. We made an awesome tree costume, and several teenagers have learned and rehearsed the show. I'm pretty sure barely anyone will make it to church tonight, and we are already discussing just canceling church; on Christmas Eve can you believe that?! So once again, all our work and preparation will go to waste. BOO!

Gretchen and the Very Opinionated Christmas Tree! Trevor is inside!

All will not be lost if Jon actually makes it home from work for Christmas Eve and if his family makes it into Seattle from Michigan safely tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, I'll try to look on the bright side and find the romance of being snowed in with my wonderful husband on our first Christmas together as husband and wife.

Our House 10am Christmas Eve Day

Next time you see a snow plow or a shovel. Thank God! Merry, Merry Christmas to all near and far. Our love to you today, and always!

Snow Day!

2008-12-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

Jon and Nicole here, coming to you from our first official SNOW DAY in Seattle! Yesterday, almost all schools were closed and there wasn't even a flake of snow in the sky, but the warnings were worthy today! We woke up to freezing rain pelting our bathroom skylight, and soon after the snow began to fall. There's probably only a few inches, but ice underneath no doubt. Jon takes two major highways to work, one is closed, and the other is at a standstill. Everyone is abandoning their cars in the middle of the road! We're both staying at home. Jon never did figure out a way to get to work. I probably can make it up the hill to church eventually this afternoon. I have SO much to do! We've enjoyed lounging in bed, a french toast breakfast, working on Christmas cards, laundry, and making a pot of chili for dinner tonight so far today.

Jon insisting that I don't help him with the laundry. I have the best husband EVER!

Looks like more snow/ice/freezing rain for Saturday night and Sunday, which I am sure will make for a dramatic and stressful Sunday School Christmas program performance, which is scheduled for 11am Sunday morning. If you want to meet a state full of people that have no clue how to handle winter weather, move to Washington!

Oscar Meyer's First Snow

Yes. Those are people sledding in the STREET, just a block from our house.

A Painting Project

2008-12-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

Look what I found! Pictures from the day the moving truck arrived at our new home in Washington. We were so excited to have our belongings so Jon's mom could start helping us unpack and settle in and we could all stop sleeping and sitting on the floor. Unfortunately, our gigantic dresser that Jon packed full was quite a challenge for even the strong, experienced moving guys to move up the stairs to our bedroom, and two holes were punched in the wall in the process. I couldn't blame those poor guys and was just thankful they managed to get the dresser upstairs to the bedroom. The moving company even paid us to cover the damage. In the midst of wedding craziness, we didn't do anything about the holes for the entire first year we lived in the house, but finally this fall I asked Jon to fix them, which turned into a much bigger project then we expected! Patching was no problem, but we soon realized we didn't have extra paint and we have no idea what the color and brand is to try and match it. You can see our effort to buy something similiar was pretty poor! I decided rather than try to match the color, which in the end would probably still be obvious that it wasn't quite right, that we should just paint the entire wall a new, bold complimentary color, so it looks like it was "on purpose", plus it would add a little pizazz to our little rental house. We decided to go for a warm, light, caramel brown, which we hoped would compliment the other earthtones used throughout the house. You can see our first choice of paint here. It was more peach, gold, baby poop brown than we had hoped for, so back to Lowe's it went. I would totally recommend buying paint from them! We hoped they would just be able to remix the paint in a darker shade, but instead they just took the bucket back and mixed us a whole new gallon. Awesome! Our second try was right on! I absolutely adore our brown wall, which sounds funny, but it's warm and bold and cozy. My wonderful husband was kind enough to tackle painting the most challenging wall in the house, balancing on a two story high ladder on the staircase. Hooray! Finally the patching and painting project is complete! You'll have to come see it in person to really appreciate how it turned out. We made a yummy homemade dinner of parmesean chicken with a nice bottle of wine to celebrate, and then it finally snowed for the first time this year! Look how beautiful! Not me, the snow! It was definitely a lazy day without a shower or contacts, our favorite! What a productive, fun, and romantic Saturday, although we wished we could have been with our families at Jon's parents' holiday open house! We're expecting another huge snow storm tomorrow, which will most likely bring chaos to our Wednesday night Advent activities and Christmas program rehearsal.

Meet The Stefanski's!

2008-12-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

Last March, I received a phone call at work from a member of the congregation looking for a referral for a babysitter. Unfortunately, for liability reasons, I cannot suggest people to offer private childcare. Just because I think someone seems like a nice person and they hang around St. Matthew's, doesn't mean they aren't a child molester in their spare time; a sad, sad truth. The caller was Leya Stefanski. She and her husband Jason were looking to hire someone a few hours a week to act as a mother's helper and occasionally babysit their children, which include Andre who is now 3 years old and identical twin baby girls, Jenna and Kaitlyn, who are 18 months. Leya who was staying at home alone with her kids everyday was looking for some extra support and someone who would give her a little extra time to devote to her (amazing!) family photography business, Little Monkey Photography. She wanted someone experienced and competant, but also someone who wouldn't judge her parenting style or her messy house.

With moving debt and wedding expenses beginning to pile up at this point, I decided that although I couldn't refer anyone to Leya, that maybe I would be a good addition at the "Ski's" house a few hours a week. I would help her, get my baby fix, and make a little extra money. The rest is history! Ever since, I have spent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon falling in love with the Stefanski children. Jason, Leya, and their extended family and friends have warmly welcomed both Jon and I including us in family birthday parties, summer bbqs, and even the kids' baptism. Leya even took some fantastic pictures of Jon and I for Christmas. Watch for your card in the mail, and we'll reveal more of her shots after the holidays!

On two occasions, Jon has helped me babysit for the family overnight. The last of which occurred last Saturday night. I'm so lucky to have married a man who is both skilled and passionate when it comes to little ones. Doesn't he look like he's having a great time? Despite the look on Jon's face, he really does enjoy it. We're playing parents for the evening again this Sunday, while Jason and Leya go to the ballet! The baby girls, Kaitlyn and Jenna, especially love to bat their beautiful blue eyes at Jon and cuddle in his lap. They are very identical and Jon struggles to tell them apart. Jenna wears gold earrings and Kaitlyn has silver, but he says he can't tell the difference! Luckily for him, they weren't dressed identically last weekend and Jenna had the barette in her hair. Andre also reported that, "Jon smells good". My hubby even tackled caring for the three kids on his own Sunday morning for a few hours after I left for work at church. From what I heard, he reasoned with a difficult three year old, made oatmeal, and changed diapers like a pro!

The Stefanski family is has become our family, and they are truly one of the things about Seattle that we enjoy the most. You will most definitely be hearing more about them!

The only downside is that both times we have babysat overnight, we seem to both catch horrible colds that leave us under the weather for the next week. Thus, we have gone through boxes and boxes of kleenex and spent the past week looking like this most evenings... Great birthcontrol, RIGHT!?!?!

Bundt Cake Bake-Off

2008-12-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

St. Matthew's is having it's first annual "Bundt Cake Bake-Off" tonight as a part of dessert after the first Wednesday night Advent meal of the season. The idea was born by a woman who volunteers in the church office and brings a bundt cake for the staff every Tuesday. I'm not a big fan of baking, but someone signed me up anyway. I'm especially not a fan of bundt cakes! Too much pressure to keep it in one piece! I decided if I was going to do it, I might as well do something fancy and FROM SCRATCH! So I tried a recipe for Heavenly Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake with raspberry orange sauce.

"Was there a murder in here?" -Jon

See the chocolate splatters everywhere, the wall, the trivets, the bread bag? I was really proud of myself for keeping it to a minimum. :) I told Jon the problem is that we don't have the fancy stand mixer, so I have to use the hand beaters.

The finished product!

So, the pan was too full and it rised higher than the edge, so when we turned it over it did crack in places, but luckily the fancy topping disguises the flaws well. The recipe said to bake for 75 minutes, and I only left it in for 60, but I still think it was too long. Maybe I'll make this again...with a chocolate cake mix! I'll let you know if I win first prize!

The beginning of Advent not only means baked goods but also the beginning of rehearsals for the Children's Christmas Program that I direct, which means the beginning of my insanity! Stay posted...

Oh Christmas Tree!

2008-12-03T08:42:00.001-08:00

Here she is in all her glory! The VanderMeulen's Christmas tree. It really has been fun to blend all of our ornaments and decorations together. Jon has so many meaningful ones from his past. I'm hoping my mom will pass down some of my childhood favorites soon too! I love that our tree can be seen from outside through our big front window. Hooray for the holidays.

Moving On

2008-12-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

My initial intent with this blog was to make it somewhat of a complete record, the story of Jon and I from our first beginning together and the details of everything from our first date to our big wedding day and everything in between. However, as I try to document how far we've come, I seem to be missing the breaking news of our every day life. Jon has encouraged me to dive in and just start typing about where we are today, trusting that most of our family and friends who are far away, our primary intended viewing audience for this blog, already know how it all began. So moving on...you can see the first update of our most recent adventures below!

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we con only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

A Day of Thanks a Weekend of Fun!

2008-12-01T17:08:00.001-08:00

Turkey Day festivities began on Wednesday night with my debut performance as the "desert flower" in St. Matthew's Thanksgiving Eve Worship drama. I SEWED that cactus costume myself, and I don't sew, so as you can see, I was pretty proud. Jon recently took the time to be trained on the sound board church and did some research on his own to figure out the fancy light board that no one new how to work, and was able to help run the lighting for the play.

We have SO many thing to be thankful for this year, like our beautiful wedding and officially becoming husband and wife! One of the other things on the top of our list of thanks, is our kitten, Oscar Meyer. We adopted him from the Humane Society almost exactly one year ago, the day after Thanksgiving 2007. Jon absolutely adores the cat, but he swears it's only because he's really a puppy. I have to admit he does have quite a few dog like qualities, including letting us tie him to a post out in the backyard, coming when he's called, and always looking for a lap to cuddle on. We feel so blessed to have his affection and companionship.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with our dear Seattle friends Gretchen and Ryan. Maybe you heard her sing at our wedding in September! We stuffed and roasted a 21 pound turkey and provided the wine, and they brought tons of yummy side dishes and dessert.

There was so much food it barely all fit on the table! With only four for dinner, there were a lot of leftovers, but we like it that way! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, red cabbage, asparagus, crescent rolls, and cranberry salad, plus the best pumpkin pie I've ever tasted. It was exciting to use our beautiful new dishes, silverware, and table linens too. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games, Catch Phrase and Cranium, and we watched the movie, Wal-E. It was such a tasty relaxing day with such wonderful friends. We definitely missed family, but if we couldn't be with you, this wasn't a bad way to go!

Jon and I rarely get two days off in a row, so we decided to take advantage of the time and made a short overnight trip to Yakima Valley, Washington. Our Mission: wine tasting! We got to drive east over the mountains, which I had never done since I flew to Washington when we moved, and it was neat to see the different landscape, very desert, desolate, and bare compared to the lush coast. We visited ten different tasting rooms in two days, turned our teeth purple, and purchased 11 bottles of wine to bring back. Success!

Above you can see "Wine Glass Cellars", one of our favorite stops last weekend. The tasting rooms are either literally in barns or strip malls in Yakima. The wine industry is really starting to tap into the tourist industry in Washington, but you can see compared to what we saw in Napa on our honeymoon they still have a ways to go to catch up.

Here I am in front of the fancy buildings, fountains, and gorgeous vineyards of Robert Mondavi Vineyards in California. Look at his barrel cellar where he insists everything is lined to perfection creating a beautiful and impressive photo opportunity for guests!

Wait...there's even more! Our weekend fun wasn't even over. We came home on Saturday night, and found enough energy to put of the Christmas tree. Hooray! It was work at church for me as usual on Sunday morning, and then our usual Sunday afternoon nap, and more work at the decorations. On Sunday Evening, we went to see a band in concert, Over The Rhine with Gretchen and Ryan, one of there favorites. The show was great and the venue was fantastic! The Triple Door had dinner theatre style seating and we dined on yummy Asian fusion food. I think we'll be back someday!

Phew! We did make it to Monday, and it was back to the grind. Definitely not fun to get out of bed and go to work after such a wonderful weekend!

Our First Visitors

2008-11-22T12:10:00.001-08:00

We've only been in Seattle for a little over a year, but we've already had lots of visitors to our new home!

My best friend Anna planned a trip to Seattle before Jon even made it out or we had rented a house yet. She came in November 2007 for a long weekend and brought along a big surprise that included three other Minnesota friends; Jill, Amy, and Tonia. We had the best time ever exploring the city including Pike Place Market, the Troll, Space Needle, Ferries, Bainbridge Island, and lots of great food!

My little brother Neal had the chance to come to Seattle on a quick work trip last December, so he spent a night with us and explored downtown with me for an afternoon. We did lots of shopping!

Our good friends Jason and Erica made a trip to Seattle to surprise Jon for his 30th birthday!

Jon's moms and little sister, McKenna joined us for 10 days in April! We showed them Pike Place and all the other downtown highlights, plus spent a day taking the ferry to Whidbey Island. You can see us here at Deception Pass. Such a gorgeous place, just an hour from the city!

We hope you'll be our next visitors!!! Hotel VanderMeulen always has vacancy!

The Story of Seattle

2008-11-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Some of you know where Jon and I have been, and where we are now. Some of you know every detail of our adventure to the West and some of you probably still think we live in Michigan. Some of you have visited our new home for yourself, and many of you are wondering about our new pad. So here it is...an update about where we've been and the news that we've made our wildest dream come true, plus you can check out some pictures of our new pad.

Our new home.

On our fourth date Jon told me that it was his dream to move to Seattle, Washington. I was upset at this, until shortly after, Jon asked me to come with him and of course I agreed. Ever since that day in January of 2006, we have been working to make this dream come true. After a lot of hard work, drama, emotion, pain, time, effort, money, and more we are finally here, but it was a long road.

We took a week long vacation to Seattle to see if I liked it in July of 2006. I did!

Jon began job searching in the Fall of 2006, and through the winter I obtained my Washington State teaching certificate, and then in the Spring began applying for teaching jobs. I thought I was through working for the church, but St. Matthew's seemed to be different, it seemed to be about what I believe in and what I want to work for, and they seemed to mean it, not just say it. So I accepted an interview with them the first weekend of June, and they flew both Jon and I out to visit. It was a great fit for everyone, and about a week later I accepted the position. This was a tough decision for us, but we really believed it was worth the risk, and a job would come along for Jon. We started making preparations...had a garage sale, resigned from my job at St. James, spent lots of time with family and friends. Jon job searched 24 hours a day and that's not an exaggeration. It was miserable. Our engagement on July 12, was truly the highlight of our summer, and I was elated to have something happy and certain to look forward to. Mid-August arrived. We put our condo up for sale. I finished my last day of work, and I sold my car. We frantically started wedding planning, taking advantage of the days before I had to leave. Panic set in, and we started to form plan B, which we were dreading having to put into place, but we had no choice. Jon leaving Michigan without selling the house or having secured a new job wasn't an option.

On August 30, I packed three suitcases, and flew to Washington, where I started my new life in Renton, Washington, a suburb just southeast of Seattle. My new roommate, a stranger I found on Craigslist who agreed to rent me a room with a futon, picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at the car dealership where I leased a car. I began working at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church (www.smlc.cc) on September 1st and some how managed to survive my first three weeks in Washington without Jon. Life was not complete without him, and although I knew I liked it here, I knew it would never be right without him. We feared he would never be able to come and I would have to quit, come back to Michigan, and start over. Jon came to visit the last week of September, and mentioning that he'd be in the area landed him three job interviews, one of which came through with an offer. Jon accepted a position with Sound Ocean Systems Incorporated (www.soundocean.com) as a project manager and engineer designing custom marine equipment. We had to say good bye one more time as he returned to Michigan to work two last weeks at Nissan, pack our entire house, and then make the drive across the entire country. Jon's mom graciously helped with packing and accompanied Jon on the long drive. I feverishly searched for a new home for us. It was so nice to know Jon was really coming, but didn't make the wait seem any shorter!

We took Jon's Mom to the stop of the space needle.

Jon finally arrived in Washington for good with his Mom on Friday, October 12. Luckily he approved of the house I had found to lease. It's really a steal of a deal, and we totally love it. Our condo in West Bloomfield finally leased in mid December, so we are out from under double house payments. Hooray! We spent the first four nights in our new home sleeping on the floor and awaiting the moving company's arrival, doing the tourist thing with Jon's Mom in the meantime. Jon began his new job on Monday, October 15, and the truck finally arrived on Tuesday. Jon's mom worked incredibly hard helping us clean and unpack like crazy, and our new home was set up in no time.

The kitchen.

The Backyard.

The Living Room.

This was a truly risky, long, and painful journey, but we've already almost forgotten how difficult it was. Jon and I absolutely love Washington. The city, mountains, oceans, and lakes are everything we hoped for and more. We feel like we fit in with the slower pace of life out here, and we love having so many places and things to explore together. We think our home is beautiful and already feel like it's ours. We are both getting settled into our new jobs and overall feel like they are full of good opportunities and new challenges. We are making new friends and have become a valued part of the church. We have even hosted our first guests, as my best friend Anna showed up with three of my other favorite friends last weekend for three days packed full of Seattle fun. Jon and I are happier than we have been in a very long time.

We hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing that your life is full of the same joy, love and adventure that we have found here near Seattle. Please make plans to come and see our new life and Seattle for yourself soon.

Forgive me for being cheesy...but don't give up on your dreams. It may be a risky, long, scary road, but from what I've seen, it's totally worth it in the end.

The Proposal

2008-11-19T22:06:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, July 12 at about 7:30pm Jon dropped to one knee in St. Paul, Minnesota overlooking the Mississippi River, told Nicole how much he loved her, and asked her to be his wife!!! If you want all the juicy details from Nicole's perspective, keep reading...

I spent the entire week in Minnesota visiting my little brother and catching up with college friends, and Jon joined me on Thursday morning so we could attend my good friend Erin's wedding on Friday evening. He arrived Thursday morning and after a nice lunch with Anna, I forced him to stop by "Wedding Day Diamonds" where Tonia, a good friend, is the manager, not knowing that he already had an engagement ring for me in his pocket!!! After that, we headed to the Crowne Plaza Riverfront hotel where we were staying for the next two nights, and on the way I said, "You don't already have a ring do you?" but with his sunglasses on and me driving, I couldn't determine the true answer!

Before heading to dinner with my little brother and his girlfriend, Meghan, at Loring Pasta Bar in Dinky Town, Jon suggested we take a walk by the river, unfortunately, we couldn't find an easy way to get down to the river and the scenery was a busy road and big bridge, until I spotted a fountain and some pretty flowers and we strolled in that direction. Jon and I stood chatting, and he said, "Well, you showed me what kind of ring you want, are you going to tell me how you want to be proposed to? I said not in front of family or a bunch of people not on a holiday, just a Tuesday morning or something...I said I was confident he knew what to do.

Then Jon whips out of his pocket the "Bling Bling Diamond Ring", which was a gift from his friend Andy that he had brought home for me about a month ago. I hadn't liked the styrofoam ring that is supposed to expand in water packaged in bright pink plastic too much, and it had just left it on the kitchen counter. It wasn't good enough! I kiddingly punched Jon and asked him why he brought that all the way from Michigan. Jon said he brought it to practice the proposal. I still hadn't quite caught on, and finally asked him if he wanted me to put the stupid ring on. Jon said, "No, I want you to put this on." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the most beautiful, perfect diamond engagement ring, dropped to one knee, told me how much he loves me, and asked me to marry him. I was shaking and crying, and as he stood to put the ring on my finger, he still hadn't heard my quiet "Yes!", so I had to repeat it.

We smiled and hugged and chatted a few minutes longer, and then turned back to walk to the car and head to dinner. A nice looking man with his cute red-headed and pregnant wife approached me and said, "Maam, may I take your picture?" and I said, "Yes! We just got engaged!". His wife said, "We know and we took pictures of the whole thing!" Basically, this kind stranger captured our engagement from across the beautiful fountain in about 30 pictures, and then took some great still shots afterward. He had already written down his website for us and everything! If you want to see all of the pictures (they are in reverse order) visit "Ryan's" website at http://www.thestahlhouse.com/ It would be great if you left kind comments and let him know how much this means to us, our friends, and our family.

It was so wonderful to be able to share my excitement with my brother and best friends in person. I called my parents first, and Mom screamed unlike I've ever heard before. Apparently, she was so excited for us that she didn't sleep at all Thursday night, however, Dad said he was so relieved he slept like a log. I was predicting that Jon might propose to me earlier this summer during our Beaver Island vacation, but when that didn't happen, I was sure it wasn't going to happen until after we made it out to Seattle. I'm very proud of him for keeping it a secret and actually surprising me!

The ring is palladium (silver in color) and just over 1 carat with a beautiful, sparkly, deep round cut center diamond, and two small round diamonds embedded on each side. Between the small diamonds Jon included a pattern of custom engraving, sort of modern flowers, and the edges of the band are millgrain. A description could never do it justice. It's the perfect ring for me. It's modern but classic. I will never take it off!

How It All Began

2008-11-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

The VERY early days during a trip to Greenfield Village with The Christensen's.

In December of 2006, Nicole was asked to attend "The Gathering", a Christian youth event, as a chaperone with her childhood church, Christ Lutheran of Monroe, MI. There she met Dan Lebeck, master matchmaker, new member of the church and fellow chaperone, who asked if he could set her up with a friend of his from work. Jon and Dan were both employed by Nissan in Farmington Hills. On Saturday, January 7, Jon picked Nicole up at her apartment for their first date at Fishbones restaurant in St. Clair Shores, MI, followed by coffee at Starbucks. It was not quite love at first sight and who knows why Jon agreed to let Dan set him up again after several previous attempts had failed, but things progressed quickly, and they are so glad they did!

Who are we?

2008-11-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

Jon is officially no longer a twenty something, but predicts his 30's may just be his best years yet. He currently works as a mechanical engineer designing custom marine equipment for Sound Ocean Systems in Redmond, WA. Nicole just turned 27 years old and is the director of children's ministry at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Renton, WA. Together we enjoy good food, fine wine, live jazz music, skiing, watching Grey's Anatomy, camping, traveling, exploring, and cuddling with our kitten, Oscar Meyer. Along with planning our wedding, we also spent the end of 2007 making our dream of relocating to Seattle a reality. Keep reading to hear the rest of the story...

Drumroll please...

2008-11-19T17:21:00.000-08:00

If you loved our wedding website and it's scintillating content left you craving more..yearn no longer my beloved family and friends. Welcome to the debut of Jon and Nicole's Journey, a virtual memory book of our life together and an intentional connection between us and those who are far from here! First we'll go back to document and then move onward to update.

Just sit back and hold on, but hold on tight
Prepare for the best and the fastest ride
And reach out your hand, and I'll make you mine
Everything, everything's magic
Everything, everything's magic