Let’s be honest here…

Four years ago tonight I married my best friend.  Clay and I had just come off of a two year long-distance dating separation, so we were more than a little anxious to settle down together.  It’s been a great four years. Not incredibly eventful other than having a baby and another on the way, but I guess that’s a good thing.  Surprisingly, marriage was a very easy transition for us.  We never had any of the fights and weird adjustments that most couples have the first year.  For some reason, it all just came very naturally and we felt like we had been doing it forever.  Of course things aren’t quite the picture of perfection now that they were in the beginning, but all in all, I would say that we’re blessed to have one of those relationships where, for the most part, it’s mostly pretty easy.  We get along great, we have fun together, we spend time together, and we are great partners in parenting.  We’re also the perfect roommates.  We have just about the same level of messiness, so rarely does one of us get frustrated at the other for something home-related.   Clay is an amazing dad and an incredible husband.  I honestly don’t know anyone else who would have the never-ending patience to put up with me, but he is very gentle and always ready with a listening ear to a rant or a sob from me.  There have been so many times since we got married that I am amazed that God created someone so perfectly suited for me.  So, Happy Anniversary, Clay, I love you!  

*And he found-out tonight that he passed his physical therapy boards, so he’s an official licensed physical therapist now!  Yay!!!

Laughing at our rehearsal dinner

So, things have been good lately, not too much going-on.  Clay was off all last week, so we got lots of fun time as a family together.  We took walks, we went grocery shopping together, we went out to breakfast, and we saw two movies.  It was great!  Probably the best part is that he was around to help me with Evelyne now that the debilitating tiredness that comes with pregnancy has totally hit me.  I don’t remember being this tired when I was pregnant with Ev, but nowadays about an hour or two after I wake-up in the morning, I’m about to fall over because I’m so tired and ready for a nap!  There were definitely a couple of days last week when I took two naps a day!  Whenever Clay’s home, we take turns getting-up with Evelyne and letting the other one sleep-in, so it’s been wonderful getting extra sleep! 

Here are some high points of the week:

*We saw Prince Caspian!  I loved it.  I haven’t read the book, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I really liked it and thought it was better than the first movie.

*We saw Indiana Jones!  OK, first I have to say that the Indiana Jones movies are so closely tied to memories of my childhood that I they’d have to really screw this one up for me not to enjoy it.  I definitely went-in with realistic expectations, and I thought it was a fun movie.  Definitely very unrealistic, several cheesey moments, not the best Indy movie, but for what it was, I liked it.  Something about seeing Harrison Ford’s little side-grin while wearing the brown fedora made me feel like I was 9 again, I loved it!  

*Clay, Evelyne, and I ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel one morning which is something way out of the ordinary for us.  We don’t eat-out much in general, much less breakfast, and even when we do we try to avoid taking Evelyne since it’s just not as much fun trying to keep her happy.  But even though she wasn’t all about sitting still and we had to take turns walking her around the gift shop, it was fun to have a family breakfast with just the three of us at one of my favorite places. 

*We saw a Redbird’s game (Memphis’ minor league baseball team) with lots of friends and family on Saturday night.  We sat on the grassy bluff, Evelyne played with all the kids and had a ball.  The weather was awesome, Evelyne was in a great mood, and it was a pretty perfect night. 

*We Netflixed an awesome movie called Into the Wild.  It’s about a guy who, immediately after graduating college, rejects society and goes to live in the wilderness.  He tramps around the U.S. making random friends and eventually heads into the Alaska wilderness to live by himself.  It’s based-on a true story, and he was inspired by writers like Walden and Frost, so there’s a poetic narraration of his journey.  It was a great movie, and Clay’s totally inspired to be a wilderness man, he’s already researching how to built fires!

*We had a great dinner last night with my family and Clay’s family to celebrate Clay’s graduation.  (He graduates this Friday from physical therapy school.)  It was so fun to have both of our families together and watch Evelyne enjoy both of her cousins.  Clay was given a joint present by both families—a new computer!  We are finally joining the sleek and sophisticated world of Apple, much to our families’ joy.  Our laptop is on its last breath, it’ll probably die any day now, so we’re SO excited about getting a new one!  Our parents mainly wanted to do it so we could use iChat when we move to Seattle and they can see Evelyne, so they said it’s partly a selfish gift—we’ll take it! 

Clay has to go to class today, tomorrow, and Thursday, and then after that he’s DONE!!!!  He studies for boards, takes those sometime in June, we move, and he starts work July 22nd.  Other than studying, he’ll be home for about a month and a half, and I’m SO EXCITED!!!!! 

I haven’t had any real grand ideas about things to blog about, so I thought I’d just give a few snippets of what’s up with us.

*Evelyne’s gone to bed later than normal a LOT lately due to special occasions, so she thought it’d be a good idea to start waking-up earlier than normal as well.  This morning was 6:15, so I’m just praying she won’t keep pushing it earlier and earlier.  (She woke-up at 5:30 every morning for months, so I’ve done my early morning duty with this child!  At least it’s not dark now like it used to be when I woke-up!)

*Her favorite thing is to dance.  And I do mean dance.  That girl can really shake it!  I don’t know where she picked this up, I certainly didn’t teach her, but all it takes it a little, “Go, Evy, go Evy!” and she starts droppin’ it like it’s hot.  (actually I haven’t taught her that yet, but it’s next.)  She also likes to spin in circles, get dizzy and fall-down, get-up and keep spinning.  It’s hilarious. 

*Her other favorite thing is to sit on my lap, facing me, and blow raspberries in my face until I’m covered in her spit.

*Clay’s on his second-to-last week at his last rotation and will graduate physical therapy school at the end of this month!  Hooray!!!  In three months we will actually receive a paycheck!

*I’m starting to notice more and more humidity in the air every day, and I’m growing increasingly resentful about it.  I HATE Southern summers.  Hate them. 

*Evelyne’s starting to get really heavy, and carrying her down two flights of stairs and across a parking lot every time I want to leave my apartment is getting really OLD.  And climbing in the backseat of my two-door car to strap her in the carseat really isn’t so fun either.

*I’m contemplating if I want to go pale and subtle or bold and vibrant for my first application of summer toenail polish.  Decisions, decisions. 

*I’m loving the new episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost, The Office, and Grey’s Anatomy.  Thank goodness good tv is back!!!!

*I’m a little more tired lately.  I’ve been napping when Ev does in the afternoons, had a great long nap today.  I’m pregnant!   

You know you’re getting it when you start tearing-up just listening to a woman on tv talk about how special it is to bring her newborn home from the hospital.  Ok, I admit it.  I was watching A Baby Story.  There’s another sign–You know you’re getting baby fever when A Baby Story suddenly becomes interesting to you again. 

You know you’ve already forgotten the pain of childbirth when you cry at any and every tv birth you see. 

You know you’re getting baby fever when you look at old pictures of your 16 month-old when she was 6 months and you can’t wait to have another little chubby baby to drive you crazy.  Oh yeah, and you forget how all you did at that stage in her life was sit on the floor with her playing in-between your legs because if you sat one foot away or even–heaven forbid–went to the kitchen for a drink, she’d burst into tears at the thought of you not touching her. 

You know baby fever is very contagious when your husband says, “I really can’t wait to have another cute little baby!”  You know it’s really hit when you hear him say, “I’d love to have another girl next because girls are so sweet.” and you know it’s just because he loves the 16 month-old so much. 

You know you have baby fever when you try to have sex all the time so you can MAKE A BABY!  (no announcement, give us a dang few months, people!  I can’t work under such pressure!) 

  Clay and I have been talking a lot lately about the life that’s awaiting us in Seattle.  The job is officially settled, and we’re officially moving come July.  I’ve been apartment-hunting and checking-out the real estate scene online, and my GOSH, the cost-of-living blows me away.  After over a year of living on a loan, we are very excited to receive an actual salary, and a pretty decent one at that.  However, the difference between what can be done with that salary in Seattle versus if we were to stay here in Memphis is dramatic. 

   If we were to stay in Memphis, our money would go much farther.  When we get ready to purchase a home in the next couple of years, we would be able to buy into a pretty great neighborhood and have a decent-sized home that we could stay-in for many, many years.  Hypothetically, in a few years we might be able to afford a house like this:

  In Seattle, for the same amount of money, this is what we would get:

A 900 sq. ft., 2 bedroom condo that, let’s be honest, is really just an apartment that you own.  Two bedrooms to last us through several years and who knows how many kids.  Sigh. 

This has definitely been something I’ve wrestled with as I find myself at times getting bitter and covetous of the things we will not be able to enjoy while living in Washington because of the cost-of-living.  Part of it is practical: Seriously, how cramped and annoying will it be to live in 900 sq. ft. with two or three kids?  Part of it is simply the fact that I enjoy living a nicer lifestyle and am tempted to feel envious of those who can do that for much less money here in Memphis. Dangit, I want a big house with a yard! 

Thankfully, my wise husband has tempered my angst about this issue.  We’ve talked lately of what it means to not be enslaved to your possessions. To hold everything with an open hand before God.  To NOT buy everything you can afford simply because you can afford it.  To resist the temptation to work longer and harder to purchase luxuries that serve no godly purpose and end-up rotting your soul.  What would it mean to reject a lifestyle that consistently seeks upgrades and pursue missional living through all the time we have left-over? 

Perhaps living in 900 sq. ft. is God’s way of keeping us humble.  Protecting us from the bigger-is-better sprawl of rich suburbia.  Forcing us to deal with the problems that will arise when you have lots of people together in a small space…keeping each other and our children close to us at all times and not giving us the option of watching tv in opposite rooms of the house. Protecting us from unwise and unnecessary purchases that we literally will have no place to put, and forcing us to continually purge those things we do not need any longer and someone else can use. 

One day we’ll own a tiny piece of land (or building), I certainly hope we won’t have to rent forever.  And I pray that God will grant us contentment and joy, because 900 sq. ft. is probably more than most people in the world have to call a home. I pray that we will never live our lives in excess and slavery to riches and possessions.  We have such a responsibility to serve the poor in the world and in our city, and I pray our lifestyle will not be a slap in their face.