One of My Loves

One of my loves happens to be work, or maybe more accurately my career. I love to work hard. I love what I do. I love the field that I am in. I love responsibility. I love to learn from brilliant executives. I love to be under pressure, at high demand, and to over deliver. I haven't always done a good job balancing everything, but I've tried to. I'm often critical of what I could be doing better, accomplishing more, etc., but this week I heard something that made me pause and really appreciate what I've accomplished in my twenties. And, it also reaffirmed that now is a good time to start a family. Selfish as this may sound, (okay, not "may", but "does") I had a lot of soul searching to do regarding starting a family and the potential impact it could have on my career. My work is what has gotten me through the tough times of my twenties. It has been the place that I've buried my head in the sand in hopes of when I pull it back up I will be able to breathe again.


Then I changed jobs, and I've felt like I've been on a sabbatical from my career ever since.


Then I got a phone call from a health system in Oregon.


They brought me in for an interview last week. I was with the same health system for over 6 years before starting with my current company. I didn't interview for my current job, it was more like a series of coffee shop chats. That's just how our small company works. Very informal. So, this new situation was very different. I don't know anyone who really likes to go on interviews, but after being on site for four hours Friday afternoon, it felt more like an afternoon at work than an afternoon of interviews. At the end of the day I was referred to as a powerhouse.


I have no idea whether I will get an offer for this job or not. I have no idea if I do get an offer whether Jake and I would really be able to pack up and move away from our lives here in Idaho. We've been here for almost 8 years! I feel more equipped for becoming a first time parent then I do for making this decision. In fact, I would joyfully take a newborn in my arms tomorrow. I could not, however, make this decision tomorrow. Good news is I don't have to worry about it yet. I won't hear back for a couple of weeks.


I swear our lives have been pretty status quo (in a good way) until we decided to become parents. I'm on the fence on whether to consider all this new stuff as "pieces falling into place" or "all hell is breaking loose".


Either way....my mantra for the next couple of weeks (nothing like a little positive self talk) is that I'm a powerhouse and I have failth it will work out the way it is supposed to. :)

Mel & Her Boys +1

I've been begging Jake to let me get another puppy. I want a girl. She will be little. I will call her Penelope. She will be mine. Then we'd have Petey, Pate & Penelope. Cute, right? Jake has refused to agree to this crazy puppy dream of mine now for years. I think I'm starting to break him down; with the help of a very cute little person. The last time my older sister and her family were here visiting there were white lab puppies for sale at Cabelas. Of course my little niece Amelia needed to see the puppies. They were so stinkin cute, I completely understand her desire to see them. My sister told me later that Amelia was convinced that we had gotten one of those puppies and named it Grassy Field. Jake was so close to agreeing to go get one after Amelia smothered him in her puppy-loving-sweetness and the expectation that we would have said new puppy with us next time we came to visit. Who could possibly disappoint such a sweet little niece? However, now probably isn't the best time for a new puppy. The boys are finally calming down, there is a lot less chewing of household items. Petey is all healed up and happy after his knee surgery. Pate has finally learned how to stop without running into something to stop him. The latter being a pretty monumental development (you should have seen the bruises this dog could inflict).

...And, we are going to have our hands full as we are expecting via adoption! That's right, a B*A*B*Y!!!! We are so ready to have a little "+1" and are blessed to be growing our family via adoption. We are excited, our families are excited, we are excited. Did I mention the excitement? For Jake and me, after being together for over 10 years, it is a pretty awesome thing to look at each other and make the intentional decision to become parents together. Jake is going to be a great dad. I can't wait to watch him.

We've started to share the news with friends and family, and then were quickly overwhelmed by how many people we ought to be calling. Enter the blog-o-world and its awesomeness. Responses have been mixed (I guess adopting at our age is a left-fielded-curve-ball of sorts), but once our news translates to the fact that we are becoming parents there is a lot of excitement and support. The most surprising reaction to date of our news was from my boss. Keep in mind I'm working for a small start up company and have only been there for 9 months...and on some level Boss scares the heck out of me. He's intense. I'll get you up to speed on Boss in another post, but his genuine excitement was awesome! It was such a relief to tell him, feel the energy of his reaction, and get to be outwardly excited myself.

Adoption is this amazing, awesome and humbling, yet quite foreign, thing to go through. Imagine becoming first time parents, but not really know how it all goes down. We are technically still fairly early in the process, have much more of the journey to travel and have much more to learn. To date the journey has been kind and gentle on us. I've chosen to be faithful, positive, and patient in my approach and mindset to this journey. It might get bumpy. In fact, I should probably expect it to.

This is not only an adoption story, this my journey into motherhood....Yay!!!

I hope to share information on the process, how we are handling it all, the funny awkward things that you have to talk about and figure out along the way, and most importantly the joy of growing a family!

Ok Blog

Ok Blog, I'm really going to write you...

There is a lot of exciting stuff going on in our world and in hopes of keeping everyone up-to-date, it is about time to share via a blog.
I'm excited to share my world, my loves, my fun stuff with everyone and hopefully have some fun pictures and stories to regularly share.

Welcome and happy reading!

Here we go...

I've been following a few blogs for awhile now and have decided to finally start my own. Why? Well, maybe  a few reasons and with slight uncertainty still. Will I keep up on it? Will anyone find it interesting (other than my mom of course)? What will I write about?

This blog is for me and anyone who stumbles across it and finds it worth their while to read. I hope it to be what I love about other blogs. I'll likely write about various topics, but at the end of the day this is about life unfolding. About my loves. Love of family. Love of work. Love of fun. Love of life in general.

Most would categorize me as having a type A personality. I'm pretty sure tests would also validate this. My husband constantly jokes about the touch of ADD I likely have as well. He loves to point out when I'm "multitasking" watching a movie with him, thumbing through a magazine, checking my work email, and playing around with a craft or sewing project all at the same time (doesn't everyone do this?).

I figure I might as well add to that list and start writing things down.....so, here we go...