The coast

I absolutely love the west coast. I've been lucky enough to experience it from the Canadian boarder all the way to San Diego. I must say though my favorite parts are the Southern Washington Coast all the way though Oregon and down into Northern California. Okay yeah that is over have of the west coast of the U.S. but I really can't pick a favorite spot out of all of it, it is just that beautiful. Someday I would LOVE to live along the coast. The water is so calming and I LOVE LOVE LOVE tide pools.

I'm from the Midwest and we don't have such wonderful and amazing things. The Great Lakes don't have tides. I have been to Florida several times and NEVER got to experience tide pools. I could seriously walk along the beach forever during low tide and poke around in all these little pools. By poke I really mean poke, give this girl a stick and I WILL poke damn near everything living in the little pool just to see what it will do! Chef doesn't understand my fascination with tide pool, heck he grew up going to the beach and experiencing these wonders. This is all new to me. He got the biggest kick out of my first experience with tide pools. I loved the fact that he knew what all the little creatures were. I was like a three year old with all my questions about why, how, and what it this!

There is this AMAZING state park and beach just south of Seattle that we have gone to a couple times now. We had no idea what we were going to experience the first time we camped there. In the morning we got up to go see what the beach looked like at low tide and discovered that the WHOLE beach was COVERED in sand dollars!! You literally couldn't walk without stepping on a sand dollar. There were dollars the size of you hand to teeny tiny ones smaller then your pinkie toe nail. I tried to take pictures of this amazingness but they just don't seem to ever turn out well nor do the experience justice. We had been lucky enough to go and experience the beach two years in a row. It however doesn't look as though a third year is going to be possible :(

Click to enlarge the picture...and imagine the whole beach that full!!!

more fun

I'm beginning to realize that this blog is a bit to serious. When I first start this blog is was just going to be my outlet for anything in regards to MS. Today I browsed back through several of my post and realized that it has given me that ability but that there is way more to us then just the MS. I realized how I liked posting other things when I posted the pictures of the weddings we recently attended. My hope is to post more fun things about us, fun pictures that I or Chef have taken, and yet still vent when need be about how MS is impacting our lives. I also find this fitting that it has been almost a year since I started this blog and since Chef received his diagnosis. Here is to moving past the illness and seeing that life does go on!!!!

once upon a time

Once upon a time Chef was cooking and loving it. He chefed seasonally just after graduating from culinary school. He worked in Denali Park (Alaska), Mammanath ski resort in California, and then in Glacier National Park (Monanta). Then he met me and bent to my will in regards to not living in California, I just couldn't handle the SoCal life. One week and I had had enough. The only place the we knew we both knew and liked was Montana so we headed back and here we are. Chef has not had the greatest run of employment here. He has worked for a chain restuarant, a small cafe, a place that couldn't seem to keep their books and would bounce employee paychecks on a regular basis, a small hotel restuarant, an assisting living facility,a nice upscale restuarant on a lake, and then back to the same small cafe again. I tell you all this because "I" believe that my husband is very talented and this area has no idea what they are missing. I also tell you this because a month ago he made the "FINAL" decision to NOT under any terms go back to said small cafe...ever...ever...again! A day later the cafe shut its doors. He had a feeling that the place would close it doors soon but didn't realize that all it would take was him leaving.

In the last month he has found a new job at...wait for it...a call center for Bank of America. He HATES IT, however he is employed and we are very greatful for that. In this ecomomy you take what you can get and make the best of it. There are defently moments when he finds it funny say when he gets a call from a man who has "befriended" a call girl and she takes his ATM card and pin, or when he got the call from the man in Compton who didn't know where his bank was. The calls themselves can be tough but the rules and timeframes that he must work within are obserd! If you are away from your desk for more then 4 min you have to get the additional time you were gone approved...you actually have to be apporved to take a shit if it takes you more then 4 min!!!!

All that being said he doesn't really want to go back to working in the kitchen. He feels that he needs to gain experience in other areas so that one day he might be able to do sales or something that he would be capable of even with the MS as it progresses. He is continuly thinking about whatelse is out there and how he might qualify or learn what he needs to qualify to do the jobs he wants to do. For now though we just press forward, be thankful for what we have, and imbrace the day!

another wedding

September for me has been the month of weddings. My best friend, my anniversary, and then my friend Whitney's.
Whitney got married this last weekend. She gods showed much favor towards her. It had been raining for several days and COLD. We left home for the wedding on Saturday afternoon to undertake the hour and a half drive to the wedding. It was raining and awful here at home. On the way though the sky began to clear a bit but would cloud back up. When we got to the wedding it wasn't sunny but it wasn't raining! Not a drop of run fell the whole evening! She had an amazing outdoor location and the wedding was BEAUTIFUL. Enjoy a couple pictures from Whitney and Zac's big day!

2 years

Today is our 2 year anniversary. I cant believe that we have now been married two year and that we have been together for eight. The last year by far has been the hardest and I know that there will be many hard years to come. I find that these I am becoming stronger and more focused as time goes on. Marriage is an ADVENTURE this one having more rough then what I would have expected but I'm enjoying "the married life" and my husband. I'm optimistically looking forward to what the future holds for us.

my best friend's wedding

On Saturday my best friend got married. I must say I love weddings. Her wedding wasn't what I expected it to be in terms of ceremony. She is a very spiritual person but not a Christian per say. The couple that married her are her now husband's aunt and uncle. The ceremony was very traditional. I must say the message within this ceremony was the BEST that I have ever experienced. They talked about giving the couple everyday CHINA. Each letter of C.H.I.N.A. stood for something needed within a solid marriage. C stood for commitment H for humor, I for integrity, N is for Nurture, A is for affection. This was just the message that I needed.
We had a wonderful day not only was the ceremony wonderful but the rest of the day was wonderful as well. What better way to spend a Saturday then outdoors with a beautiful back drop but even more importantly with people that you love and care about!

counseling

I did the whole counseling thing...for three sessions. I thought the lady that I had chosen would be good for me. Her sister had MS so she knew about it and it's progression. She seemed really nice and didn't seem like she would be preachy with me (I didn't want someone preachy religiously or motherly like). I wanted someone that I could talk to who would offer insight into my thoughts and help me work though the maze of emotions in my head and heart.
I went to see her and the first session was just, okay. I chalked this up to the fact that I didn't know her and she didn't know me and that this is how these things usually go. You tell your story they take the info and then you get down the business next session. She kept telling me that I was on the right track and I knew what I needed to be doing. She didn't offer me anything I didn't already know about myself or methods to help with coping or insight. The worst part was the silent moments where she wouldn't say anything and would just stare at me. I would thus rack my brain for some other little nugget of info that she would again do nothing with! I wasn't going to do all her work for her. Yeah I know a bit about counseling heck I've been a social worker for 10yrs now. I think social worker is just a fancy name for counselor that deal with not only people's emotional messes but their daily living as well.
I'm a pretty easy going person and like to give people the benefit of the doubt. So I let her have a third session. This session was by far the worst session of all. I told her that I had started using a yoga breathing technique to calm my head and spirit. She thought this was great basically called me a success and sent me on my way. I was only there for half an hour that session.
Needless to say I will not be going back to her or recommending her to any one that needs any REAL therapy. The last time I saw her was over a month ago and I really realize that I need to find someone else that will really get me to open up. Sooner or later I'll find the right person.