Christmas letter 2011

Merry Christmas, friends and family! I didn't mail out a letter this year, opting instead to give people this blog address. I also didn't write a letter in 2010 so I guess I have a bit of backtracking to do...

2010 was a busy, difficult and blessed year for us. As many of you know, in 2009 I moved in with a woman named Dorothy to care for her while she battled ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Looking back, I'm sure I had no idea what I was getting myself into but the entire journey was such a learning experience for me. I was able to build incredible friendships with the people I worked with, not to mention the wonderful relationships I was able to build with Dorothy and her family.

 Dorothy and I at her 66th birthday celebration

Dorothy battled long and hard and didn't give up the fight until she was good and ready. She passed away on May 12th, 2010 and I was able to be with her. I was left with a beautiful view of what death is as she passed very peacefully in her own home.

Dorothy's family after her memorial service (including her 95 year old mother)

I continued living in Dorothy's home while they got it ready to sell and while Steve and I finished up some remodel work on the home that he owns in Albany (with the help of my sister's fiance, Cody!). I moved into that house in mid-June 2010.

The remainder of 2010 was spent getting settled into the Albany house and doing a bit of re-learning how to do things like sleep through the night. :) (To read a detailed report of what a day in the life of a caregiver is like, visit this link.)

We adopted these three cuties as well.

Shady, Tegan and Petra

Christmas Eve 2010 was probably the most exciting day of the year... when Steve proposed and we became engaged! That is a very fun story, which you can read here.

2011 threw us into the whirlwind that is wedding planning! To be honest, I don't even know what to say about 2011 because it went by so quickly! I turned 24 in April, Steve turned 37 in June and Jordan turned 10 in July. His birthday post is here. He continues to be our pride and joy and we are so thrilled to be his parents. He is extremely into Legos right now and spends hours and hours and hours (literally) on the family room floor. Sound effects can usually be heard coming from that corner of the house. He also spends quite a bit of time singing and whistling, especially while in the shower. This year he learned to ride a bike, which was very exciting for him.

Our summer was mostly uneventful as we mostly stuck around home, still preparing for our wedding! We spent lots of time playing outside and Jordan even got to go on a canoe trip with my brother, Colby, and his fiance, Caryn. The trip was a reward to Jordan for improving his reading skills over the summer during tutoring time with Caryn. He was so thrilled!

Steve started his 14th year driving city transit and continues to mostly love his job. He is a people person and enjoys the social aspect of the job, but struggles daily with back and neck pain.

I am still working at the Corvallis hospital in medical records. This year I hit a wall at my job and have started to struggle more with the feeling of being sucked in by the daily grind. Things are constantly changing in our department and if management isn't able to wisely keep up with the changes... the employees suffer. I do enjoy the fast-paced-ness of the job and the great working relationship I have with many of the physicians.

In October our big day arrived! To view some more of our favorite wedding pictures, click here.

We spent our wedding night in Albany and headed out the next day to spend 4 nights in Hood River. We stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast and enjoyed being the only guests that week.We were able to make day trips to Multnomah Falls, the Columbia Gorge Hotel and take a trip on the Mount Hood Railroad.

After our getaway we headed home for two nights to do laundry and re-pack and then loaded up the car and Jordan and took off for a week long adventure to Disneyland! We spent one day each at Disneyland, California Adventure and Universal Studios. At the end of the trip we all agreed that we didn't think we could choose a favorite park, just favorite attractions. Jordan and I are both huge fans of the roller coasters! The day we were are Universal it was 95 degrees so our favorite attractions were the ones that kept us wet.

I had thought that after the wedding and honeymoons life might slow down a little bit so we could regroup but that was wishful thinking. It seems that we plowed right into the holiday season with gusto and here were are, enjoying the heck out of it! :)

We have some big plans in the works for our family in the near future. Jordan has been struggling in school for the last several years so we are working towards me quitting my job and staying home to homeschool him next year. We aren't able to give up the income I bring in, so I am in the process of starting a home childcare business. I have started taking the required classes for this process and it's both scary and exciting! I'm thrilled at the idea of staying home with my boy (and future children, which are hopefully not too far off!) and helping him learn in fun and exciting ways. We think it may be just the ticket for him.

As we throw ourselves into new and exciting adventures, we hope you and your family find yourselves healthy and happy as well!

Wishing you a holiday season full of love and peace,

The Hanolds

The moment you've all been waiting for...

Wedding photos!!

I feel that I need to do a really long post all about that wonderful day (heck, I need to record it SOMEWHERE) but I think that may be a process. Here are a few photos to tide you over, in the hopes that I'll find some follow-through and actually write a big long post. I have several posts brewing in my head, along with some big news to share (we're not pregnant!) so I need to sit down soon and tap all that out!

And now, without further ado...

Big News

Last week was full of exciting things for us!

First, because I had a birthday on Thursday. Birthdays are always fun, no matter how you slice it!

But the previous Sunday, on Easter, we had a seed planted in our heads and we started talking and discussing. All of our conversation led us to the decision to get married... last Saturday! So on April 30th, 2011, I married the love of my life. :)

Despite many people left wondering why we decided to do it so quickly, we feel very sure in our decision. We did it for spiritual reasons, as well as family reasons, and after praying and thinking and talking with our families, we just knew the timing was right and we were very ready.

Our good friend Pastor Dave performed the ceremony for us. He will also be doing the ceremony at our wedding in October, which is still happening! We cannot wait to celebrate with all of our friends and family in five months.

It feels incredible to be married! Sharing our news over the past week has been really fun, and there is nothing more wonderful than coming home to my HUSBAND at the end of the day! (Saying "my husband" is still something I am getting used to.)

Our family is growing and we are so excited about it!

(And despite rumors and assumptions, nobody is pregnant. ;) We hope to expand our family, possibly in 2012. Right now we are relishing our new marriage!)

The 500th post

It has been a BUSY two months since I last posted!

Let's see, I had just gotten engaged...

Since then I have been living in a whirlwind of wedding planning and life. We have booked our location and photographer, asked our wedding party to, well, be our wedding party, I chose a dress and this week we are working on cake, flowers and food. There is SO much to planning a wedding, I tell ya. It can get so overwhelming and I'm trying to pace myself and only work on a couple of tasks at a time.

We also had a parent/teacher conference yesterday. Those can be stressful for us because Jordan is on an IEP (Individualized Education Program) and visits several different groups during the day to work on different skills (math, reading, speech). His teachers keep close tabs on his progress and do a lot of different testing to determine where he's at and what his needs are.

Yesterday we decided to have them do some more testing in the next couple of weeks to get a better feel for his current needs. He is operating way below grade level and that can be very discouraging. Yesterday's meeting also made us think about some changes we can make at home and different skills to work on. The first thing we're going to try is a chore chart, in hopes that it will help Jordan keep himself on track and be able to follow multiple instructions in a row without getting off track. We talked this morning about different chores that we can put on the chart and different rewards he can earn when he follows through. He seems excited about it.

I'm also hoping to decrease cartoons and video games and limit those to a time of day AFTER he has completed some schoolwork and we've done reading together. They get so distracting for him and once he's started watching a show it's really hard to pull him away and keep his focus on another activity, especially if it's something that is difficult for him. I've been really impressed with his hard work lately on vocab and spelling and other schoolwork so I hope this is a positive change.

Another thing we have been talking about is homeschooling him when he hits 6th grade. In a perfect world, we will have at least one more child by then and I would be able to stay home with the kids and teach Jordan during the day. Financially I'm not sure this is realistic but it's kind of a dream we have and one that we haven't ruled out.

Other things we've been up to:

READING!
Anticipating a trip to the snow to go tubing
Playing with kitties
Laughing
Having consistent date nights/family nights every week
Spending lots of time with my family
Talking about goals and plans of action
Avoiding dishes
Trying to go to bed earlier! :)

The Proposal

This is my 499th post... And let me just say that it would have been super cool if it was my 500th, but I have to tell this story!

The Proposal

As some of you know, Steve and I met about 5 1/2 years ago. He is a city transit bus driver and he drove me to work every day for almost a year. :)

As a little side story, I remember the first time he talked to me and I remember thinking, "WHY is this bus driver talking to me?? Bus drivers don't just strike up random conversations with random passengers..." I found out later that he had noticed me (and the cross necklace I was wearing) the very first time I got on his bus and he had said a prayer and asked God to bring me into his life.

After riding his bus for several months, my work schedule changed and I no longer took his route every day. When I told him this, he took a used bus ticket out of his pocket, scribbled something on it and told me, "Here. In case you get bored." As I walked away, I looked at the ticket and saw that he had written his phone number.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, 2010...

We have been together for more than 5 years and we've done things a little backwards, in that I've started some of the wedding planning already and we have a date set. Because of all that, I knew a proposal was coming and I even had a hunch that it might happen the night that it did.

But he still managed to make it a surprise!

Jordan and I were spending Christmas Eve at my parents' house while Steve had to work until the evening. We had all finished dinner and my mom had read Jordan a Christmas book and we were all sitting in the living room together, basically waiting for Steve to get off work. My phone beeped and I had a text from Steve, telling me to come out to his bus in two minutes.

I was a little confused because his route doesn't go down my parents street, but I put my shoes on and headed out to the front porch. As I was waiting, I looked over and saw my whole family sitting on the couch, watching out the window.

Steve drove around the corner and there just happened to be about 4 car lengths worth of parking on the street (this never happens on my parents' street) so he pulled over and I ran across the street to his bus. As I stepped on he told me, "Go to the back for a second."

I walked to the back of the bus and when I turned around to see why I was back there, he was right behind me and got down on one knee. That's when it hit me for sure, "He's going to propose!"

He said that he figured since we met on the bus, he thought it would be neat to bring it full circle. He said some other sweet things to me and then asked me to be his wife!

And of course I said yes!

My mom told me later that after he slipped the ring on my finger, Jordan was sitting on the couch saying, "They're kissing... Ok, MORE hugging and kissing!" He is very excited, too. :)

When I went back in the house, my sister jumped up and exclaimed, "MY SISTER IS ENGAGED!!!!" My dad told me later that evening, "Cheer up, would ya?" ;)

We have been on cloud 9 ever since and are having a wonderful time telling people our good news! Thank you all for your love and good wishes! :)

Ryan and Meagan, 9/12/09

You know, I wish I was one of those funny bloggers that just make you laugh every time you visit their blog. You know, the witty type, like Dooce. But (sigh), I am not. Ah, well.

Steve's best friend got married last weekend and he was a groomsman in the wedding. Here are a few pictures from Ryan and Meagan's beautiful day.

L-R: Michelle, Nola, Olise, Meagan, Ryan, Shane, Tuan, Steve




Just after their first dance started, HUGE thunderstorm raindrops started falling. They finished their dance but the sound system had to be taken down because of the rain so there was no dancing to follow (which was actually ok because the dance floor got dangerously slippery which the kids all thought was a blast). But I was a little bummed because Steve had promised to dance with me for the first time. (Can you believe that we're celebrating 4 years in just a couple of weeks and we have never dance together? It's disgraceful, really.)


And one of my all-time favorite photos of Steve and I. :)