Cute.

A little 5 mile hike up Green Mountain near Boulder yielded not only some beautiful views, but also some cute little flowers and some cute little deer! So thankful that hiking season has returned!

 

 

 

Wrapping Things Up.

It's my last week with the Polar Program, and I have so many mixed emotions about it. I am so thankful for what this job has done for me, yet I feel deep down like it's not the right place for me to be.

This job allowed me to move to Denver, which has proven to be one of the biggest blessings in my life. I am in love with this city, with this state, and I feel that there is absolutely no better place for us to be than right here. We have experienced so much beauty here -- not only in the mountains and breathtaking landscape, but also in the friends we've made and the relationships we've formed. We're so blessed to have found Denver Pres, and we just cannot believe how incredible the community is there. What we love about it is that it is real community made up of real people. People who aren't afraid to talk about the hard stuff in life, and who aren't afraid to expose their failures. People who really desire to pursue the Lord, and who desire for us to know him better too. People who will go out of their way to help us, like our friends that picked us up from the airport, bought us groceries AND made us dinner the night we got home from New Zealand. Plus, it is a community who likes beer and wine, which makes retreats and get-togethers really fun. :)

This job also allowed me to establish a career, which is something I'm so thankful for. I've always been envious of those who know exactly what they want to do or be when they grow up, because I've never had an inkling of what I wanted to pursue as a career. I've had lots of ideas -- everything from a physical therapist to a lawyer to an architect -- but nothing in particular ever emerged as my "calling." While that has been frustrating, it has also been a blessing in disguise. You see, I'm a Type-A person who needs to control every aspect of my life. Usually a good thing, because it makes me really organized and very disciplined. However, not having control over my career has been a difficult exercise in faith, and I think God's used it to teach me about trust. Did I ever want to work in HR? Nope, not really. But after being in this line of work for a year and a half, I actually see how it is a really good fit for me, and how God kind of just plunked me down into it because I'm good at it. I'm a people-pleaser (again, sometimes a fault), but I love helping people, I love the customer service aspect of HR, and I love the challenges that HR can bring (read: employee relations). Who knows what will happen, but I'm really glad that I landed where I did!

This job also got me on a sweet trip to Antarctica and New Zealand. I don't really think I need to say much else about that. :)

I'm so grateful for my experience with the Polar Program. But, I do feel like it's time to move on, and I'm so thankful that God opened up a door with Arcadis. Can't wait to begin the next leg of the journey!

Peace, Love, and NextSteps.

One Year.

This past Sunday marked our 1 year anniversary, and I just couldn't believe the way the past year has gone. All the twists and turns and promotions and travel -- it is just crazy what can happen in one little year.

Even though Mike and I have been together for a (really) long time, this past year has made me even more thankful for him. I'll keep the mushiness to a minimum, but I am amazed at the tenderness and grace he shows me on a daily basis. He loves me when I am most unlovable (usually any time after 10:30pm, when I start getting crabby and mean). He loves me when I am insecure and scared (like when I decided to go to the bottom of the world for 2 months). And he loves me when I get super emotional (like when I started bawling after our entire stack of dishes came crashing down off the shelf). And I'm so thankful for it.

Mushiness is over now.

So, where are we after one year of marriage?

Six months after landing his new job in property management, Mike got promoted to Asset Manager and now gets to experience the joys of being the "Go-To" guy for any and all issues a tenant has with their apartment! Everything from leaking roofs to bed bugs to heat issues to broken appliances to "my apartment smells like Pine-Sol" -- property management is always exciting!!

Obviously, I deployed to Antarctica and got the chance to travel New Zealand; experiences I'll never forget. With Raytheon's contract ending on March 30, I shifted into job-hunting mode upon my return to the States, and in a few weeks, I'll be starting off on my next adventure: working in HR for a company called Arcadis. I am SO excited about the opportunity!

We've gotten involved in the Children's Ministry at our church -- teaching the K-1st Grade Sunday school classes once a month. We definitely enjoy teaching the kiddos and coming up with creative ways to occupy them for 30-45 minutes, but our favorite part is the hilarious things the kids come up with. Somehow, they manage to work in Star Wars or "I Know More Spanish Than You" competitions into our Jesus-focused activities. Very amusing.

Other than that, we've just been doing the usual snowboarding, hiking, and exploring Colorado! We are so blessed to be where we are, and we are so amazed at the life God's given us. We can't wait to see what the next year brings. :)

Peace, love & mawwiage. 

Couch Potato.

I had no access to movies or television in Antarctica, so I have been a total couch potato lately, catching up on favorite shows/movies, and discovering some new ones. 

Our most recent obsession is a show called Coal, which documents the successes (and failures) of a start-up coal mining business. It's pretty much a man show, but it's really interesting to see how hard the coal miners work, and how dangerous the conditions are. Being claustrophobic, I admire those people for crawling into a dark hole underneath a mountain. I would just start crying, I think. The show is extremely entertaining, with the thick country accents and hilarious personalities. It's also heartbreaking though, as the Appalachia region is extremely poor (check out this site). There is definitely a need out there, and after watching the show, I'm really interested in opportunities like this one to help meet the needs of those living in rural Appalachia.

We also watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That book is one of my all-time favorites, but the movie was pretty good. I cried. (Go figure).

...and that's about all that's been going on lately in the Wall household. Pretty exciting stuff.

Ship Offload.

One of my fellow McMurdo-ites made this awesome video depicting the annual ship offload. I wasn't there for this event, but I'm glad I get to see it on here! Check it out.

Home Sweet Home.

I have been so terrible at writing since I left the Ice! New Zealand was an absolutely incredible experience and I just wanted to enjoy my time there, without worrying about my cyber-life. :) 

I spent 5 days by myself on the South Island, which was a wonderful time of relaxation and rejuvenation. I stayed with a wonderful family who was so gracious to me, feeding me fresh veggies from their garden (I think I almost squealed when she set fresh cucumbers down on the table!) and driving me to the city center to catch my Arthur's Pass shuttle when I looked at the wrong bus timetable. 

I had some great conversations with random people. I spent two hours on a wharf in Akaroa talking to a "pom" (the Kiwi term for British people) about life and travel and currency...? I talked to a tiny Kiwi woman at a bus stop about the devastation from the 2011 earthquakes. My favorite conversation though was when I sat next to two highly entertaining Kiwis on the flight from Christchurch to Auckland. They were so excited to go to the System of a Down concert in Auckland that night, invited me to go drinking with them before the concert, and were delighted with the fact that I went to Antarctica and insisted that I show them all my photos. Also, they bought me a Diet Pepsi. I liked them a lot.

Auckland was wonderful as well, mostly because I got to see people I hold very dear to my heart! Mike and I spent our week on the North Island with Brooke & Travis Scott, and their adorable little girls. For the past three years, Brooke and Travis have been working towards establishing a church in central Auckland. It was wonderful to talk to them about their experiences ministering in a different country to a different culture -- especially in a city where prostitution and abortion are both legal. We are so excited about what God is doing in them and in their community. We even got the chance to go to a Sunday service and chat with some of the members of their church; it was so encouraging to see their ministry in action and to meet some of the cool people that go to there. Brooke and Travis are pretty stellar people, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. (Mike really liked it because Travis also loves Lord of the Rings and allowed encouraged Mike to watch all three EXTENDED versions while we were there.) I was dying to get home by the end of the trip, but I couldn't help but shed some tears when saying goodbye to Brooke, who has been a huge part of my life. I am so thankful for her. 

I think my eagerness to get home cursed my long flight from Auckland to L.A., however. It was bumpy -- really bumpy, to the point where I couldn't even fall asleep because I was practically jumping up and down in my seat. Also, tuna salad was an option for our in-flight meal. I'd like to meet whoever came up with that idea, given that tuna reeks and that the plane is full of recycled air. I was already having trouble sleeping, and the tuna burps/coughs from the woman behind me didn't help. So, I arrived in L.A. a zombie, had a super short 6-hour layover in Cali, and...

....now I'm in Denver, with my husband who is sitting on the couch, shirtless, trying to convince me that I would like Celebrity Death Match while wearing a blanket as a cape.

Sounds like home.

Musings.

I leave the Ice in 5 hours, and it's a bittersweet feeling.

Much more sweet than bitter....like 99% sweet and 1% bitter...but I do feel a certain sense of sadness to be leaving.

I have words for this sadness - lots of words. But right now I don't have time to write them all down, or to eloquently compose the emotional insanity that I am feeling right now: Excitment. Stress. Nostalgia. Eagerness. More excitement.

I'll be on the South Island until the 22nd of February, then I'll be in Auckland until March 3. I will post when I can, update when I can, but mostly I am taking this time to relax. To decompress. To re-insert myself into normal society. To think. To enjoy. To simply be.

Can't wait. :)