Where Has 2011 Gone?!

I can't believe June 1st is tomorrow! Where has 2011 gone? This year is flying by. I realized this morning that we have lived in Moses Lake for 3 months already. Crazy.

As the summer swiftly approaches, Tyler and I are gearing up for a crazy busy summer of youth ministry. We have a short mission trip to Spokane, a week of service projects at George Fox university in Portland 5 days of VBS, and a camp all within the next two months. We also have a few pool parties and other activities planned for our youth throughout the summer. It's going to be busy! Although it's going to be jam-packed, we are excited about our first Washington summer!

Tyler just got back from the C&MA general council in Kansas City. He had a great time and enjoyed some Kansas City BBQ! He also got to eat at Chipotle and Chick Fil-A twice! Yes, I was and still am a jealous wife!;) He got to see old Simpson friends as well as friends from The Grove, so it was a refreshing week for him.:) Tyler is continuing to get settled into his new job and is loving it. He feels very blessed to be working with an incredible group of people at Moses Lake Alliance Church.

Over the past few months I have been feeling incredibly fatigued. I knew something wasn't right so I contacted my specialist in Redding and let her know what was going on. After some blood work, it was discovered that my thyroid is actually functioning too slowly. There's the answer to my fatigue! I have struggled with a lazy thyroid in the past (it's a pretty common effect of the syndrome I have) and have been on medicine for the past few years, however over the last couple months it's decided to slow down more. My doctor upped my dosage of thyroid medicine and also had me start on a high dosage of vitamin D as well since Vitamin D deficiency often occurs with a slow thyroid. I am thankful I have an answer and will hopefully start feeling better in the next couple of months. I get frustrated when I am not feeling 100%. I just have to be patient, take good care of myself, and get plenty of rest.

I have been blessed to be able to stay home and not work since we moved to Moses Lake. I know God knew exactly what I would need after moving. It would have been pretty stressful to make such a big life change, finish up my Masters, and find and start a new job all at the same time. I have been enjoying the stay at home wifey gig, and it's been wonderful to focus on supporting Tyler in his new ministry role. I am so thankful that I will be able to be at every summer event this upcoming summer. I am praying I get a teaching job for the Fall. I have a couple leads, so we'll see what happens.:) It feels wonderful to have my Masters done and to now look towards the future. I know God has a plan for me, and I am anxious to see where He leads me.

On July 17th Tyler and I will celebrate 2 years of marriage. I can't believe how fast these past 2 years have flown by. In some ways it feels like we just got married last week, but in other ways it feels like we have always been married. I love spending my life with Tyler and I am looking forward to celebrating our anniversary! Our actual anniversary falls in between two youth trips, so we will celebrate on our actual anniversary with a date night, but just a couple weeks later we will celebrate our anniversary and my completion of my Masters program with a trip to Orlando! We get to go to Disney World!! I can hardly contain myself! We are both very excited! The Disney World tickets are a gift from my parents for finishing my Masters. My parents found out we were thinking about going to Orlando and figured a perfect graduation gift would be Disney World tickets...yeah, they were right!:) We are actually blessed big time because we have free plane tickets to Orlando too! Over the past 2 years, Tyler and I have both flown enough to earn free plane tickets. We knew we were going to save them for our anniversary vacation this year and I am happy we did! We have booked a beautiful resort hotel in Orlando and are counting down the days until we are lounging by the pool and hanging out with Mickey Mouse. :)

God is good and we are blessed. We miss our family and friends terribly, but have never been more thankful for Facebook, Blogging, Email, and Skype. Technology is an amazing thing and helps up keep in touch with our friends and family no matter how many miles stand between us.:)