to find beauty

On the Move... Meow

Next month will mark three years of living in the Troutdale apartment. It seems like yesterday we moved in, but it also feels like a million years.

Three years ago, I wrote about moving to the apartment and the craziness our life felt back then: newly married and excited to build a home. I vividly remember Moving Day... packing the U-Haul. My muscles sore, and Dave cranky at me for shoving boxes  in the truck disorganized. I remember driving the U-Haul to our apartment and thinking that my whole home was in that truck. I remember un-loading the truck with some amazing friends of Dave (heroes!) and taking them to a Chinese buffet afterward to say thanks. Oh, and it rained the whole time. The whole flippin' time. We were soaked.

Next month we are moving again. The actual date, we don't really know yet except it will be in October and we will need help. And it better not rain.

We will say good-bye to Troutdale, my favorite grocery store and gas station, to our favorite best-ever Chinese restaurant (where, I swear, the lady has a crush on Dave) and to Kings Meadows apartments. We will say a huge hello to a new home on the outskirts of Portland. On a dead-end street technically in Lents (but close enough to Happy Valley to feel a little snobby), we will be renting a home. It's not much bigger than our apartment (and Dave and I will share a bathroom - oh the horrors!) but its a house with a yard. And we couldn't be more excited. Dave will have a man-cave. I've been obsessed with pinterest and ideas to decorate the guest room, the kitchen, the master, oh, about everything.

The Mt. Scott House is pretty close to being smack dab in the middle of the two churches Dave and I serve with... which is great. Already, I am meeting people who will be my new neighbors. People I attend church with! People I like!

Oh yeah, and we are getting another black-and-white cat named Pepe. Pray that Elwood will like him and not want to eat him or bat him around like a new toy.

So there it is. The Unglert's are on the move. And we are getting another cat. Whew!

it just so happened...

The word is out! I'm getting married.

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

Wow.

It's really real. 29 years of waiting, feeling hopeful and wondering (a lot). Of purchasing books like How To Get a Date Worth Keeping (which I might add... was the last book I read as a single person) and watching boy-gets-the-girl movies.

Of course, about 12 of those 29 years, boys had cooties and were really great to play soccer with... and that's about it.

So, 17 years. That's a whole teenager (and one who drives.) 17 years of writing in my diary angry/sad letters to God: "When Lord? What's wrong with me? Why not this guy? What do you want me to do? I give up. No more, well, maybe one more. I trust You."

17 years of wondering who this guy is going to be. Not really understanding how anyone will understand me or think I am beautiful even when my eyes are red and my hair is a mess. Or who would be as silly as I am. And as serious. Or would love the Lord. And love people. And be so patient. And...

I just couldn't picture him. And then, it just so happened I responded to an ad that he was just about to pull off from view. And it just so happened he knew friends of friends. And felt a calling to serve in Nicaragua, just like me. It just so happened that despite his crazy spelling, I continued to write to him. And it just so happened I sat with two friends over coffee in my church lobby (when I was thinking of ending email communications) who told me give him a shot because I was just scared. And I did. And it just so happened we had actually met a year or so before, but our friends didn't introduce us... It just happened we fell in love.

At church, we are going through a message called Defining Moments. It's a series on Esther, but what I love most about the messages is when Pastor George reminds us that God is always at work. Even when we don't see Him, He is behind-the-scenes, the master coordinator of all the it just so happeneds.

I remember the night before I was supposed to meet Dave for this first time. I was so nervous and excited. Everything with Dave had felt so different, even when I was so scared. It's hard to explain. But it was like I could do anything, and it would work out. If I bought a lottery ticket, I'd win. If I went jeans shopping, I'd need a size smaller (and they'd look fantastic.) The night before I met Dave, I remember feeling this intense call to worship. So, I got out of bed, and turned on a worship compilation CD. And waited. 

And as I listened to the words of the songs, I wanted to sing too.  I needed to bow down on my knees. God broke my heart. And prayers intermingled with flowing tears. I let everything I could out. Everything that had been holding me down. Emptied, I went to back to bed and to sleep.

As Dave and I have dated, I've learned many things about me. And about boys (they are still so weird.) And relationships. (You should see all the new books about being engaged I have!) I am learning about trust and getting over fears and in enjoying life. I learned to take a chance, and adventure can be a new relationship.

I didn't write during the holidays. I don't know why I didn't, becase it ached not to. So many happy things happened. We made Thanksgiving dinner. We are building our ministry together for the youth at My Father's House. We talked about marriage (a lot actually), and he "had the talk" with my dad. We celebrated Christmas and I got Sharpies and diamond earrings. We kissed at midnight on New Year's Eve.

It was wonderful.

Now, there is the most beautiful engagement ring ever being resized for me. For me. And I just spent the last couple hours snuggled with this man who loves me and wants to marry me. Who I wish I could snuggle with forever... but we have to wait 174* days for any of that.

My husband-to-be.

Who, on January 28th stood beside me at Seaside beach, overlooking a beautiful sunset and told me that he loved me so much. I remember looking up at his face as he spoke and he looked nervous. But I felt calm and at peace. He said he knew exactly five months prior, on the same beach, watching me across a bonfire on my birthday that he loved me and someday would ask me to marry him.

And so he did.

Will you marry me?

And it just so happened...  I said yes.

  

*The coundown until the Big Wedding Day as of 2/6/2010.

"shet da dough"

At the beginning of the summer, I wrote about my hunt for a home. Somewhere I can host friends for late-night movies, paint my walls a shocking white (yes, white) and re-do my room HGTV-style, and well, not live with my parent's anymore. Honestly, I was spurred mostly by the fact I was turning 29 and not sure of the coolness factor of facing 30 and living with the folks.

(I think that's a pride issue more than anything...)

It has been an interesting journey. As I look around my bedroom, stacks of boxes piled high... my desk emptied and the normally-very-crowded space under my bed completely empty... my room is no longer a living space... but a shell of the last five or six years of my life.  I've spent every precious spare moment over the last couple months, sorting over 20 years of stuff. Photos. Journals. Tax statments. Every receipt for anything I ever bought (really.)  I am not even close to being done. But, I've stopped packing for now.

The plans to move keep changing.  At this moment, I honestly don't know where I will be living in two months. The current plan is in a bit of "limbo land." Meanwhile, the boxes around my room, are becoming shelves for random bits of mail, laundry, and nap sites for my cat, Elwood. I wonder if I should just unpack, so I can have some semblence of normalcy...

I started fall term of school this week. My week nights will be packed with lifegroup- starting up again next Monday, studying in New Seasons or Borders, dates (with Dave, of course) and trying to catch a One Tree Hill episode... and I'll be honest, I am a little hooked on Gray's Anatomy right now. I barely have enough time and energy to do these very important things, and add worrying about moving, painting parties, trips to IKEA (which will be dates with Dave, fyi)? Am I crazy? Maybe I need to just stop and slow it all down.

I wonder if I am being really selfish. I don't need to move out, I want to move out so I can host parties, cook in my own kitchen, and generally be a mature adult. Even though I have budgeted the new housing expenses, maybe those funds should be re-routed back to the Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball plan? Maybe I am pushing something that God doesn't have planned for me right now.

My junior year of high school, we got a new kid- he was from Viriginia and all the girls were mesmerized by his good looks and southern accent (I confess, I was one of the girls.) I remember he taught us a new expression (not sure if there was a deep meaning attached or not) and I don't recall the proper spelling, but it sounded like "shet da dough." Shut the door. I feel like I keep hearing the sounds a door shutting. Woosh.

I've spent the last several Sundays volunteering with the youth at a local homeless shelter. These kids just want a home. Well, they also want a fancy cell phone, but they are teenagers! Give 'em a break. Is a home something fancy and perfect for hosting parties? No, its place where people live together, hopefully happily. Home is where the heart is... and there is heart at this shelter with these kids.

I want heart where I live. Whether its with room mates, on my own, or with my parents. And as I navigate this season of uncertainty: I will let go and let God. Even when He shuts the door... and eventually opens a brand new one...

six hundred and ninety one miles

That's how many miles two girls with the same name (spelled different) drove last weekend on a quest for a story to share, an experience to remember forever. Remember how not too many posts ago, I posed the question, "I wonder what next Sunday will look like?" Well, it had me driving home from a spontaneous trip to Canada with my friend Kori.

Yes, its 691 miles to drive to Vancouver BC and back-- adding in some city drive time and a some loops around Stanley Park. 691 miles and about 53 hours. 53 hours of laughing, reminiscing, analyzing, brainstorming, plotting, thinking, looking, walking, eating, taking pictures, designing tattoos. 53 hours of time spent living life. LIVING LIFE.

Kori and I are going to put together an official write up of our adventure... but not yet. Now, you can peruse the photo album on the side and sit and ponder why and how in the world two reasonably sane girls (both with adventure streaks!) decides to leave Gresham, Oregon at 1am, sleep in a rest area outside of Seattle, and the LEAVE THE COUNTRY for a night!

Think about the times in your life when you just need to do something wild and crazy... to experience life and the world outside the normal. I feel like the Cori inside me that for so long has felt comatose is waking up and seeing and feeling the LIFE God had intended for her along.

my first night in southern california

I know the picture is probably a bit dark... but it looked so cool in real life! The ferris wheel was lit up and round lights were strung down a corridor. It would be the perfect date place! It was amazing all lit up.

We landed at Santa Ana around 6:30pm, and I was very excited to see palm trees! I refused to take a picture of me with them at the airport thought, in fear of looking ridiculous. So far we have experienced Jeff's California driving and some amazing fish and shrimp tacos at Wahoos. We strolled the mall (can't remember the name!!) and talked a lot of about small groups at church. I think this will be a great conference!

Flowerdust.net in Uganda

Always willing to support a mission for God! Check out my fav blogger Anne as she takes on Uganda (and the world) with her flowerdustin' prowess.

walla walla

i just had a most wonderful weekend with some dear friends. Newlyweds Ang and Jeremy and I drove to Walla Walla to stay with Dave and Audrey, friends of Ang and I from college. Dave and Audrey were perfect hosts and made delicious meals for us! BBQ pork with broccoli salad, steak with red potatoes and advocado and garden grown zucchini, and blueberry pancakes and homemade apple sauce. Oh, and can't forget the sparkling creamcicle jello! Thanks Mr and Mrs Black! I will be longing for real food again after being so spoiled!

Also... I went wine tasting for the first time-- although I believe I might be a bit of a redneck because after all the syrahs and cabs and merlots, I really just wanted a beer. :O Or a diet Coke. Haha.

And I won a very "non competitive" gave of Scattergories. Go Cori!

Stay tuned for more about my walla walla weekend...

texas bound

Today I leave for my "business trip" to Frisco, Texas for the FellowshipOne conference. We leave for the airport in about a half an hour. I am all packed, and ready to go! YEE-HAW!