.life and times: unfortunate events

Life is made up of ups and downs and sometimes the ups last for such a long time you might start to believe that it's not so much an "up" as it is the "normal". We honestly thought our life was safe and steady for the past few years, and until a few weeks ago, didn't foresee anything drastic or terribly unfortunate coming our way.

When you've come so far and worked so hard for the things you have or the positions you hold, it is a harsh reminder to see that none of it truly belonged to you in the first place--because it can all be taken from your grasp in an instant. For no reason at all.

I'm not writing this post to complain or to make anyone feel sad for our situation, I promise. I'm writing this as a personal journal entry to document the dramatic twist that life has thrown in our path as of late. How unfair and harsh the world can be, and how sometimes we can be forced to make decisions that we don't want to make, or that we don't believe we should have to make. We do it anyway and try to keep a smile.

We have to take a few giant leaps backwards... and maybe (hopefully) someday we'll end up back where we left off. Many years from now.

As of right now, Air and I are completely lost and undecided as of where we need to go from here. He has unexpectedly lost his job (no notice), with a company we sorta thought we'd be with forever. Normally this might not be such a devastating blow--Aaron is a genius and could seriously do any type of work he wanted... but right now he is way too sick to reel in a new job. He needs to work from home because he's been pushing himself so much it's finally caught up to him. He wants to go back to school (and get that degree he failed to finish because of his last employer's demands). School is expensive and we have a family. He needs to get healthy again. Our house is half-renovated. We don't want to lose our half-renovated house. None of these things add up.

How about I write another blog post when we've figured this out... end



Ok, here's something positive. The post I wrote on instagram last week after I got home from an intensely spiritual and emotional night at the temple :

"Aaron and I are going through some hard times right now and we are working hard to stay afloat. It's been a while since our lives have been so shaken up or we've had to deal with so much difficulty at one time. Learning that good things can't always last forever and sometimes everything can change without warning. At the temple tonight I was blessed with the reassurance that this isn't our fault and everything is in the Lord's hands. At least we still have each other and our babies are happy."


***I also have to mention how grateful we have been to everyone who has thought of us and prayed for us and sent us messages and emails and comments in response to hearing we're having a rough time. I've cried through every single one of your messages of love. Seriously. Thank you--you know who you are.***

.10 years ago today

I graduated from High School... my my my…

Funny thing, I have a terrible memory because I can’t seem to remember much about my high school years.

I remember being very self-conscious walking around in the halls thinking the popular kids were surely laughing at me. I worried about dumb things. Were my shoes out of style or my hips too wide? Was I tan enough? Was my hair the right color? Please don’t let anyone look at me today?

I don’t think about those things anymore… and I am so glad to be free of that mindset. Holy WOW am I glad to be free of that!

Why did I care so much? I had all the friends I ever needed and my family loved me no matter what. So what if someone laughs at me for wearing the wrong brand of jeans? Why should they care what I was wearing anyway?

Life goes on… and in my case it gets better and better.

Now I wear whatever I like and I don’t worry about anyone else. I make friends with anyone and don’t hold back my personality in case they don’t like me.

I really do wish that I could go back and have a conversation with 18 year old me. What was she like? Did she know who she was and what her potential was? What were her plans for the future? Did she have any idea how many incredible experiences lied ahead of her? Did she know that someone so amazing as Air could love her someday?

I don’t think she did… fortunately she knows now.

I mean, I know now.

.cake

I finished another cake decorating course.

Also a friend of mine took it with me this time. Yay for not being alone!

So awesome to know someone in class.

This one was all about making flowers. We only made one final cake.

button flower:

apple blossom:

pansy (mine didn’t work out too well):

primrose:

violet:

daffodil:

rose:

lily:

basket weave:

And for the final cake we got to choose any design we wanted and we could use any of the flowers we made.

I loved the daffodils!

.3/4 cake decorator

Because I work at Michaels, I was given the opportunity to take cake decorating classes for free! Ok, lets be honest here, I wrote that backwards. I should have said: I work at Michaels because I get to take cake decorating classes for free!

I made it to the first three classes and LOVED IT!!

My decorating isn’t amazing or anything… but I definitely learned a lot and got some good practice in.

Sadly, I missed the fourth and final class due to Air’s pneumonia (I’m a good wife and sat at the hospital all day (he is doing so much better today by the way! Thanks for asking!)).

But lets just assume that my final cake would have looked something like this:

*photo found on the world wide web

Luckily I'm friends with the teacher, so I'll probably get to take that last class soon!

.indoor s'mores & good news

We like us some s’mores. Even when it’s too nippy outside to start a fire.

Some of us like them a little more crispy (burned) than others…

******************

In other {good} news!

1stly—Air finally got a check for his tuition from the U of A yesterday! This is both good and bad news… Since Air was too sick to complete the courses he was enrolled in we had to apply for a total refund of his tuition. It was a pretty long process (especially when the school ‘misplaced’ all of our doctor’s notes and we had to go get new ones), but I’d say it was absolutely worth it to get that money back! YEEHAW!

We’re trying not to spend it all at once.

2ndly—IT’S BEEN SUNNY AND WARM IN ALBERTA!! I got my first suntan (burn) of the year, and it feels great!

it also looks like I have sideburns in this pic. hmm...

.A few things lately…

Air is in school again. We went to the University the day before classes started a few weeks ago to get some things done. It was a little weird to think that it’s all starting over again. You wouldn’t believe the crazy scheduling the two of us have been doing with one car! We have seminary, Air’s in school and working odd hours, and I’m working even odder odd hours!

We know that we’ve been very blessed though, because Air was able to get his classes all back to back this semester! Also, he has a free train/bus pass from the school, and the train station is really close to Michaels! Awesome!!

********************

It’s been getting colder here, and it’s been raining a lot. Maybe these are the conditions that produced more slugs scooting around in our yard than I’ve ever seen! In my life! Awesome!!

********************

On Saturday morning we finally had some free time before I went to work… So we took our three-year-old couch back to Ikea and traded it in!

Goodbye to our old couch! You served us well… sorta

We picked up this beaut:

We are loving it! *Plus* it has a few bells and whistles that make me giddy with excitement! :)

This slides out…

And becomes a twin guest bed!

And it has this huge storage space! Awesome!!

What would we do without Ikea?

Also, what would we do without Air’s dad and his truck? Thanks so much for helping us out Papa Gusa! We love you!

.Campus

Yesterday I went to the University with Air again.

We loved walking around campus together.

It's such a beautiful place to be
I love all of the big old red brick buildings covered in vines.
But if you think they’re pretty outside, you should see them inside too!


I'm also absolutely obsessed with cute little old homes like these:



Lucky for me, they’re everywhere here in Edmonton!

.