Big News!

We attempted to make a cute, probably rather annoying vlog, but YouTube decided we had to restart every time we finished recording, so a normal blog it is!

Jess and I are  moving! Where? Oregon. Why? Health problems. Whose? Clearly mine (Jamie). When? September 30th. That's right, less than a month. How? Road trip! We will be visiting Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Yellowstone, basically all those cool places you see on the back of quarters. If you have any ideas of anywhere else we should stop, big or little places, let us know! Because we are seriously out of other ideas... We will be going through Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, bottom of Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho. If you live in any of those, we'd love to see you! Especially if you have free coffee.

Why Oregon specifically? Because of my vasovagal syncope, I need a milder climate than Cincinnati. (AKA I'm really sick of passing out simply because it got over 90 today and humidity was terrible as usual.) We tossed around several places, but ultimately decided that if we have to move away from one family, we might as well move to where the other family is instead of starting 100% over in a brand new state. We're excited for the awesome coffee Portland seems to have in spades, and one day would really like to have a house on a mountain.

What will we do once we're there? I will be a stay at home wife/writer and Jess will be in the IT field, similar but different to what he's doing here. We're hoping to find a nice two bedroom apartment so we can have as many visitors as want to come experience the craziness of Portland!

What happens if it doesn't help my dizziness? It's basically impossible for it to not be an improvement from Cincinnati, but if it's not good enough we'll pack up and move again in a few years. (We really, really would like for this not to happen.)

Am I excited to be moving? I'm super excited for the road trip, but I can't imagine what it's going to be like once we're actually *in* Oregon, so it's hard for me to say! I have a lot of optimistic expectations, but it's hard to say I'm excited, when I don't know what exactly will be happening. I am looking forward to finding out though.

Am I sad to be leaving? I'm sure I will be once I've left. Now and then it feels bittersweet to know that it's the last time we'll live in this apartment, last time I'll live in Cincinnati, etc. But it's hard to be sad when I'm so incredibly excited for this cross-country road trip my husband and I are *finally* getting to take!

For those of you who are DYING to know about our trip, we hope to be able to vlog about it while we're on the road. If that doesn't work, we'll at least have a decent amount of Facebook posts and hopefully some blogging!

In Love With Love

As humans, we seem to have fallen in love with love. I get it, I think love is great. I happen to love love myself. The problem is, people think that falling in love will complete them or fix their life. Visions of roses and candies and the perfect wedding day dance through our heads. Many women begin planning their wedding day as little girls, and see it as the highlight of their life. (I suppose that would explain why some ladies turn into bridezillas. If I had grown up believing my wedding day would be the pinnacle of my life, I would be a bit angry too if it didn't meet all of my exacting expectations.) Things can get messy if you think one romantic day will guarantee a successful life together. The first question everyone asked us after we got married was, "Is it everything you dreamed it would be and more?" Well, actually, no. It definitely has been "more", though.

New Beginnings

There's nothing quite as satisfying as finding and doing what you really love. Escaping the typical dread of Mondays and coming home excited to share what you did instead of counting down the ticks as the clock creeps closer to quitting time....
I love seeing people's faces light up when they talk about their passion. Most people daydream about making it their life's work and maybe even make plans to do something about it. Then there's the trepidation that inevitably follows. Is this really able to work? So many people stall here.

We Came, We Saw, We Drank Chocolate

 Over Jess' Christmas break from college, we visited family in Oregon for a belated Christmas. On our second day, we went to Portland with his sister and brother-in-law and finally did some proper tourist nonsense that we hadn't managed to do on previous trips. We may not have quite conquered Portland, but gosh darn it, we certainly drank chocolate.

Giving Yourself Grace

Over the past year I've had to come to terms with what my "new normal" is. By that, I don't mean that I've had some dramatic shift in my life that's taken me by complete surprise. I've had to accept that my myriad of health problems aren't going away. I don't have a "someday" that I've been planning on for so long. "Someday" my feet will be as good as there were when I was a kid. "Someday" I'll discover a magical medication that doesn't currently exist that cures my dizziness. "Someday" I'll finally outgrow my insomnia and feel well rested. "Someday" I'll have the energy to come home from work and do the dishes immediately. I'm not going to get my someday. And you know what? That's okay.