MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Just in case I don't tell everyone...
Merry Christmas!!!

Introducing....

Our new puppies!



Meet Gnocci and Pork Chop. Gnocci is the sable colored one with red and white fur and Pork Chop is the dark tri-colored puppy.



This is just the beginning...

Baking Again

I can now say that I'm relaxed enough in our new home to be baking again. I had to arrange and rearrange many things in my kitchen to make working in there most efficient. Isn't it so hard to work in a kitchen where the flow is off? I'm still thinking of moving my toaster to a different counter, but of course, I have to ponder it.

It was great to have my hands in the flour again. I made chocolate chip, raspberry sugar cookies, white chocolate peanut bars, and chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. (Now I'm really thinking of asking for a Kitchen aide mixer for Christmas!) Then I put them all in little bags and forced John to come with me and deliver them to our new neighbors. And since we're the one's who just moved in, they are all new neighbors. It took almost two hours (allowing for lots of small talk) and then we ran home to my lasagna in the oven that was only slightly crispy!

Do they know me or what?

My birthday was a week and a half ago, and I had to show you this...

My mom and my sister gave me the same card! That is SO COOL!!! And since Amber lives in Santa Maria and she mailed hers to me, that makes it extra cool! I think this just shows how the women in my family really love me and know who I am. And I really love the card! They're definitely going on the wall in my office.

OUR NEW HOUSE!

Here it is. Our new house! John and I actually own this thing! Right now I'm still unpacking, but I'm feeling more and more at home everyday. Thank you Lord that you gave us a place to call our own and use for your glory! And thanks Jim and Nettie (our realtors) for helping us find the place!

WE ARE BUYING A HOUSE!!!

Yes that's where I've been for the last month, in the intriguing and unfamiliar House-Buying Land. (That would be an interesting board game.) John and I are still in the zone of limbo that lands between finding the house we want (which we found) and getting to move in. I heard that it's common for this waiting period to last around 2 MONTHS! It looks like we're lucky so far because ours should only be one month. I guess. We're trying to close in the next 14 days. The next thing that we're waiting on is our house appraisal, and I'm not quite sure what happens after that. There's so many things that I'm not entirely sure of, but I'm grasping a good amount as we go. John understands so many things better than I do. That's one excellent reason we have husbands!!!

I tried to learn some of what we might be expecting when buying our first house by watching Property Virgins on HGTV. But I've come to realize that a half-hour show consisting of people looking at houses, negotiating the price, and then happily enjoying their new home, isn't the best teaching tool. Actually that's not true. That show has many good things to keep in mind before anyone should throw themselves into House-Buying Land, and I learned from it! I just have to come to grips that it can't all happen in a half-hour!

At this moment it's actually pretty cool that buying a house isn't as unreachable and foreign as it felt a year ago, or even a month ago when we started looking at houses online. I mean, already so many people have said yes to us; the bank, our realtors, the seller, the inspector... now we just need a few more yes's and we'll be done!

Girl Trip to California!

Two weeks ago, Marissa, Daniella and I flew to California to visit my sister Amber and her family. It was a fun and unique trip because it was just us girls traveling across states together. Whenever John and I take vacations we always comment on how fun it would be to take some of our friends along, and now I've gotten to experience it! I can't believe how sweet and easy-going these two were as traveling companions! And getting to see Amber, Dan, Judah, Caleb, and all of our Santa Maria friends was wonderful, and I was really needing it! We love you Church for Life family!

Daniella and Marissa right before Marissa's first time flying!

Notice the bewilderment over the paper straws and biodegradable silverware at a restaurant in the SLC airport. We couldn't quite come to terms with being earth conscious while our straws melted into our drinks!

Amber took us shopping in San Luis Obispo. The boys did surprisingly well while we dragged them from store to store.

Girls in the West Coast sun!

Marissa and Daniella decided that In 'n Out Burger was the best thing to ever happen to fast food. And I must agree, the burgers were juicy, the menu is beautifully simple, and the fresh french fries were just perfect both of the times we ate there. (Yes, we ate there twice in 4 days. The girls had to see if their second experience was just as delightful as their first, and it was.)
Wow. Now I'm salivating!

Friends, Fun, Oh yeah and Music

What do you get when you add together the following;

• Free music from good bands that love God
• Friends from out of town
• Friends from in town
• And lots of rain?

DOWNPOUR!

It was great to introduce our friends from Butte to our friends here. (If they haven't connected already.) And it was awesome to spend some quality time with the Buttians and Lewistownites we have been missing. I especially loved hearing KJ-52, Lincoln Brewster, Sanctus Real and Plumb!

And if you want to know who these interesting people are just ask me.

Mom's Garden

My mom is amazing. And I hope many of those things that make her amazing will rub off on me. One of those wonderful characteristics that I aspire to learn and understand is her way with plants. She has the most unbelievable ability to make anything grow! Many people with sickly or dying plants have brought them to her for her plant-life-giving abilities. Another thing that I love about summer is that it's the season that her artistry can shine. I only have to walk out the front or back door of the house to step into beautiful colors and displays that immediately inspire and delight. This is no ordinary thumb on her hand, but ten green fingers!

The back yard in the beautiful dusk light.

The Mack Summer Update

Hola Amigos! I hope everyone is having as beautiful a summer as John and I are! I thought I would do a bright cherry update to match my summery background that John made for me. (It's definitely a perk to have a Photoshop savvy husband who's patient enough to sit through hours of me prodding, "a little to the left, can you try a different color?"
So here we go. I will do this in bullet form for ease of reading...

• I love Great Falls. John and I miss our friends in Butte but we are glad to be home. (You'd be surprised how many people ask the question, "So how do you like being back?" once you move to your home town.)
  
• John is still going to school. He is working on his MBA long distance through the University of Montana. He's such an amazing student!
  
• John works at the airport for a company called Comair and I work at Jakers. One of my most favorite places to eat!
  
• We live with my mom right now, which is enjoyable, even with it's little challenges.
• Oh yes! John just got hired on with Sears as an assistant manager! I'm so excited!!! It's a position that his college degree helped him get! Thank you Lord!
  
• We are having lots of summer fun including, floating, softball, hanging out with friends, weddings, picking fresh raspberries, lots of thunderstorms, beautiful sunsets and lots more!

I'll leave you with this picture of John and me at our friend's wedding in Big Timber. It was outdoors in the country on a beautiful day with many of our Butte friends. I forgot to take out the camera to capture photos of our friends, but I'll tell you it was a picturesque wedding. I had the honor of singing during the ceremony.

We love you Dylan and Anna!

Just for fun

I found this precious pothole shortly before we moved from Butte to Great Falls. Can you call a pothole precious? It greeted me so kindly as I pulled into the parking lot at our apartment. Then a few days after I had spotted it, a crew came and filled it in along with many other potholes on our neighborhood. I just thought it's heart shape deserved someone capturing it before it was gone. And this is a prime example of the strange little things that impress me.

I'M ALIVE!

It's okay! You can call off the search parties! I'm back! Or rather, I recall how to put my fingers on a keyboard and press the little buttons. That was a close call though, you thought I had disappeared completely, didn't you?! Well here's a super quick update about how spring went for me. I'll try this in list form so that it's easier to read.

1. I swimmingly made it through tax season at the accounting firm I worked for.
2. John and I decided to move back to Great Falls once he graduated. Hurray!
3. I finished training my replacement at work and started packing.
4. John graduated! Hurray!
5. We said our sad goodbyes to our amazing friends we have made in Butte.
6. We loaded everything into a U-haul and drove it to great falls.
7. We piled most of our stuff into storage and moved in with my mom.
8. And now we live in Great Falls again! Hurray!

(By the way, we did numbers 4 through 6 in 34 hours.)

Here's a pretty picture of the trail beside the river in Great Falls!


And here's John and our friends Anna and Dylan right after the
commencement ceremonies. That's a good looking group of graduates!

Me, John, Dylan, and Andy!

The Water Bottle

Ever since I saw a child's drinking cup years ago with a straw to the bottom I thought to myself, "Gee, I would like a bottle like that. Wouldn't that be nice to not have to lift up the water bottle to drink from and spill all over myself?" I thought that would be really nice! I mean, I never feel safe when I'm lifting a bottle of water to my mouth to drink. I think partially because when I tilt my head back I can't use the half of my eyes that are rolling heavenward to see if I'm about to be attacked by wild animal or ninja. Also I inevitably end up with water up my nostrils because my lip muscles aren't coordinated enough to keep water in my mouth. I'm not a super klutz though. This dribbling mainly happens when John drives over potholes or when I'm on a treadmill. (And the latter hasn't occurred for a while.)
I remember that moment though. When I thought of how handy a water bottle with a straw would be, and that they should make a version just for adults.
Then lo and behold, I came across one such bottle.

Was it in a sporting goods store, on display beside the biking and camping gear?

No.

Did the mailman hang it from his belt as he delivered our mail to the office every afternoon?

No.

Did I see it Jillian's hand as she shouted at her trainees on The Biggest Loser?

No.

Was it laying in the snow outside my door waiting for me to claim it as mine and forever have one of the coolest water bottles in the world?

YES!!!

I came home one day and saw this wonderful Camelbak bottle abandoned in the snow in our backyard, which isn't really a backyard, but some grass converted into a parking lot for us and our many freshman neighbors. I sat it upright by our door so no one would drive over it and told John that if it was still sitting there in the cold after a week, then no one wanted it and I would inherit the amazing bottle. And after anxiously waiting 7 days, I brought the bottle inside, John gave a it a good cleansing, and it's been filled with hydrating water ever since. And right after I christened it mine, Amber showed off her ultra-cool Camelbak bottle!
So needless to say, on the scale of little things making me very happy, finding this bottle makes it right near the top of the list. But seriously, if anyone is looking for their bottle let me know.

Hair Today

Don't you just love a fresh haircut? It always helps me feel a little better when I'm getting ready in the morning. Someone at church made the discovery that every time I get my hair cut, it seems like I get a different cut.

My secret is out, because every time I bring a different picture to my hairdresser!

The question that was asked of me a couple of weeks ago:
"What did you do this weekend?"

My answer:
"I went to California."

It was funny to see the reactions of people's faces when I told them that we drove 2,236 miles to a wedding and back, in one weekend. But when they heard that it was my mom-in-law, Patti, who got married, they congratulated me for her and didn't look at me like I was kooky anymore. And my, my, was it a wonderful wedding! Everyone there had so much fun and the best treat was seeing Patti and Wes (her husband) so happy to be married! I really love weddings as it is, but they're extra special when it's your family that's partaking in the nuptials. Sadly, it was such a quick trip that we didn't have time to do any extra visiting. (So sorry Amber!) I couldn't take any extra time off of work since it's the busy season. Since we just shot down I-15 like a steam engine, the one place we stopped for the night was Vegas. And that was only on the way down. We drove without stopping on the way back home. Aren't we adventurous? But Vegas has become my favorite desert pit stop because of the thoroughly intriguing weirdness and largeness. Here's a view pictures of the trip.

Here we are in front of the Venetian.

Here's John with the strip behind him. Maybe someday we will stop and take pictures during the day.

It's me! That's MGM Grand in the background. The next night there was going to be an awesome UFC fight with George St. Pierre going against B.J. Penn, but we had the wedding so we definitely couldn't stay and watch. And yes, I love watching UFC fights. And just for your information, George St. Pierre is a pretty unbelievable fighter! And he won!

Here we are at the wedding. About 12 people came up to me at the wedding to tell me how handsome John looks. And I, of course agree with them.

My Last Christmas Blog

Here's the last of my Christmas things for you to see until next year. Maybe all of you are groaning fun little groans of "Enough already, Elisha. It's almost February!" But I had to show these pictures of my decorations that I had up this year, since I feel like I didn't get to share them with some of you who appreciate a great wreath! So here's a little collage of my Christmas Decorations and a little hello.

"Hey there!"

The Mystery of Christmas...

Hello friends!

Here are some of the few pictures I took in the last two months. I'm glad that even though I kept forgetting to open up my camera I managed to take these wonderful photos. And yes, I have much more family to feature, but this is just a snippet of all the people I love and adore!
In the future I plan to take more pictures so I can better show you the many things that make the Christmas season everything that it is to me. I love Christmas.

I remember going into this house years ago and the lady that lived there had put a Christmas tree in every room! She even had 3 in the living room and a white, sparkly one in the bathroom! And this was a 4 or 5 bedroom house! So as far as Christmas spirit goes, she's helped me form some sort of meter that says it's okay for me to get as excited as I do about this whole thing. I'm not kidding! If you could read on my heart what it says when I sit under my twinkly Christmas tree and let memories ebb in and out of the branches, I think you'd cry with me. And I think most of you must agree... there is certainly something so special about this time set aside for families, togetherness, kindness, peace, and Christ. And even though I can't always put a finger on why my throat closes up when I hear the beginning three notes of "The First Noel," I know it has something to do with the mystery of how much God loves us.

I also know growing up in a family of all girls predispositioned me to be what some people might think is "overly silly" about everything to do with Christmas. But I think it's allowed. Because now I'm ready for a whole year full of new challenges, new faces, and new life. And I think it's perfectly healthy to take a whole month to reflect on some of my most precious memories during the sweetest, softest time of the year, and be rested up for what's to come.