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

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

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!!!

The Beach

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

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

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

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...