Skip to main content

One Year Ago

 Last week was the one year mark of our move to the Tri Cities! It almost seems like ages ago because it’s been such an amazing change for all of us, despite the whole 2020 catastrophe and pandemic. It’s absolutely insane to think that Toddler A has lived half his little life here in Washington, and also lived about half his life in a Pandemic. In fact, he was crawling before the Pandemic and now he’s walking, talking, .....running at the speed of light away from Momma....



Austin is absolutely thriving here. He has found a firm that is growing constantly and pushing him in exciting new ways. There’s a ton of opportunity here and it makes us so excited for the future. It’s been interesting and sometimes rough in some regards because a move to a different job can take a bit to become stable, and then Coronavirus hit —but through it all the above is still very apparent to us that this will be our forever home. 

Just seeing the above photo of my boys a year ago makes me so proud of the decision to stay at home with them. They grow entirely too fast. I have already made incredible friends and can see God working constantly in my life. I feel so blessed to have met the people I have and am so looking forward to many years to come. I moved around a ton in my life and it’s insane to me how quickly and how much this place seems like home. Though difficult at first, this year has taught me so much about my worth outside of working and being a nurse. It’s made me absolutely appreciate the home building skills passed down from all the strong women in my family. 

The neatest thing about being able to have the boys at home with me rather than separate rooms in daycare (which was absolutely incredible where we were don’t get me wrong, and sometimes I feel bad they’re now stuck with me and not their old amazing daycare) is getting to see their brother relationship grow. On top of new places and faces, we’ve been trapped with only each other for the most part during this pandemic. It’s forced a strong sibling relationship between the two. I hope they remember they’re all they have. It’s been a blessing to get to help them foster their relationship.




From our first Festival of Lights, Lighted Boat Parade, first Christmas in Washington, Columbia River adventures, turning 30 in Port Angeles, waterfall viewing, various farms and farmer’s market picking, good friends, Olympic rainforest and ocean adventures, Blue Mountain foraging, pandemic shopping and Halloweening....

Really looking forward to more, and hopefully soon we will be open and able to explore the real Tri Cities and surrounding areas this next year!

(A month and a half after moving we began lockdown and the pandemic... and we still love it here despite not seeing what this place 100% has to offer!)




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Call Me a SAHM in Training

Stay at Home Mom (SAHM)  Besides a medical leave and two maternity leaves, I’ve always been a full-time plus on call nurse mom. I am now almost two months into being a SAHM and I would have to still say I’m training! A lot of you have told me routine is so important, and I’ve been trying my darndest to do that. We do library time or errands in the morning, naptime and quiet time after lunch, and art and outdoor/indoor active  play until dad comes home! Some days it blows up in my face, much like what we’d call a s-tshow at work, haha! Except these are my monkeys and my circus! But mostly because I am learning and loving it, too. I struggle with anxiety and depression. Ever since I was little. My post-partum depression with R was so difficult. I am so lucky to have an incredible husband and health team that honestly kept me alive during that time. Luckily, I was treated prior to giving birth to A too because a) it was known I get PPD and b) it’s better and easier to tr...

The Last Stretch

I am on the last little stretch before the surgery! It's amazing how in denial I can still be, thinking that I do not have anything wrong. But then you get a wake up call when your body does funky things you can't stop, and then you fall down the stairs twice. Once I popped my shoulder, and the second I popped a hip and broke my back molar coming down on my side. So I got that tooth fixed ASAP, thank the heavens it didn't damage any roots! At the dentist my mouth was opened for an extended period of time, and needles were involved. Just when you think you have this whole Dystonia thing under control.... another reminder! I got lock jaw while working as a floor nurse! My jaw had increasing pain through the week, and I revisited the dentist. Nothing wrong with my tooth. At work, it sealed shut (and not to be gross) but when you have an intense cramp like that, it causes immense pain. I do in fact throw up sometimes from the pain. Well if your mouth seals... and tons...

Second Time Around

We got a White Christmas!  It continued to snow and the boys had enough to play in after these photos were taken. They were able to build a snow man with Austin, too! Austin was able to take a full week and a half off, so our holiday time was amazing.  ^This last photo was actually Christmas Eve as my side of the family celebrates the traditional German way. Austin and I have managed to compromise so that Christmas Eve is a big celebration, nativity-reading, music listening-- and we open non-Santa gifts. Now, in the morning, Santa comes with stockings and their gift. Stockings were pretty amazing when I was a kid! It was a big deal too! Austin's family had very specific things in their stockings that were traditional with Santa like a huge orange, apple, a bag of nuts, etc. that we keep alive, too.  We successfully mixed our holiday foods as well. The Carmen family does scones, breakfast casserole, and other fun holiday dishes, and my family did a soup every Christmas Eve...