Essentials for life in the Northwest: A portable heater, Hot chocolate, Multiple umbrellas, A rain jacket, Multiple pairs of gloves (One pair will get soaking wet on a morning run. An extra pair is useful.) , Multiple pairs of shoes (Same wet concept as the previous item), Vitamin D (I have been told by countless people that this is a neccessity), A rain jacket, long sleeve shirts, an electric blanket.....and various other things that involve cold, wet and dark weather.

Non-essentials: Sunglasses
I miss wearing my sunglasses.

Actually, Life in Washington has been very good. I have enjoyed getting to spend time with the Turners. Most of the days the weather has been about 40 degrees and a bit drizzly. When you know to expect it- everyday- it is not so bad. You know exactly how many layers of clothing are neccessary to stay warm all day. We have had several very pretty days. When the sun is out and the sky is clear, you really appreciate the beautiful weather and the beautiful scenery.

I teach a step class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:45 AM here in Poulsbo. That has been quite fun. I had forgotten how much I enjoy taking and teaching step. I am working at another fitness club about 25 minutes away as a personal trainer. I enjoy the club and the people, but my schedule is not as full as I would like it to be. I have to continually remind myself that it took a while to build my business in FL, and it will take a while to build it here. The good news is that I have fitness consultants who are helping match me up with people who want to train. So I do not have to do as much of the sales part of the personal training business that I had to do in FL.

Tuesday, John will get here with the cat and we will get our apartment. John's parents will arrive with car # 2 around the end of January and the pod with the rest of our possessions will arrive in February. This move has made me realize exactly how much stuff we have. We have a lot of stuff. I did a lot of cleaning out and throwing away in FL and plan to do the same when the Pod arrives. It will be really nice not to have a lot of things. I have discovered that when I have less stuff, I have less clutter. I like less clutter. That means that there is less to clean. However, everything from the essentials list- and the sunglasses will stay.

Then we left and celebrated Christmas with the parents. Saturday was a semi-short travel day. We left the hotel around 11 ish after a morning run, breakfast at the hotel and the regularly schedule Starbucks stop. The ride through Oregon was pretty. John and I both saw the signs for Crater Lake and were tempted to stop. I didn't say anything, because I knew he was tired and wanted to get on with the trip. He didn't say anything because he thought there might be a lot of ice on the ground (I think he wanted to avoid the potential fall number 2). So neither of us found out til after the trip that we had each been tempted to stop. I guess we will have a good excuse for a road trip sometime. We stopped in Portland for lunch. He suprised me by stopping at Sweet Tomatoes. Sweet Tomatoes is a salad buffet restaurant. It is one of the places that we both enjoy. I didn't know there were any in the Northwest, but now I know we will be able to visit Sweet Tomatoes if we decide to take a trip down to Portland. Portland is 3 hours away from Poulsbo.
We enjoyed AM services in Bremerton, then made a mad dash back to Poulsbo to drop off the apartment application, and reorganize our possesssions for the trip to TX, GA, and FL. We took the Ferry across to Seattle, then took the light rail to the airport. We took a flight that got us into Houston about 1 AM Monday morning. We enjoyed a great visit with my parents. Now we are in Atlanta visiting with John's family. He was able to lead singing at Embry Hills this AM and his uncle preached. It has been very nice to enjoy a relaxing time with our families. We will fly back on Tuesday. This is when the massive packing (or throwing/giving things away) begins.

Day 7- Today was another well deserved slow morning. We just got on the road, after a good nights rest, a good breakfast and the regularly schedule AM Starbucks run. Now we are driving through the hills of Oregon. It is beautiful! It was very nice this morning when we were able to set Poulsbo as the final destination. Tonight the little white car will be in Washington. Although, at this point it could be the little gray car. We are almost there! Tomorrow, we will go to church in Bremerton and the fly out to Texas after evening services. It will be great to enjoy the holiday time with our families.

This trip seems to be never ending. John and I are both getting a little tired of living out of suitcases and constantly digging things out of the back seat. The back seat has so much stuff in it, that when we open either of the two back doors, we have to watch for falling items. We also have to make sure that we adjust the side view mirrors before we begin backing out- sometime you can see out of the rear view mirror, other times- not so much. I have noticed that as we drive the stuff in the back seat tends to slide so at the end of the day, we have more viewing space in the rear view mirror. But overall, it has been a good trip.

Day ?- Thursday. I can't keep my days straight anymore. Trying to keep up with what time zone we are in is almost a lost cause. John has been very patient in helping me remember. Thursday we woke up in Sedona, AR. I went running before the sunrise. As the sun rose, I was able to take in some of the amazing scenery, but I did not get to enjoy it completley until John and I began the days drive. We enjoyed the drive through Sedona and the back roads on the way to the Grand Canyon. To me, the scenery was amazing, but also amazing was the lack of towns and people. The towns were very few and far between in Arizona. This made bathroom/food breaks a little difficult. Dad's cooking saved us for lunch. We were able to eat the Bar-B-Que that he had provided earlier in the week. The Grand Canyon was nice, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other places John and I have visited. I was more impressed with Mount Rainer, Niagra Falls, and the Northeast and Northwest coastline than the Grand Canyon. Arizona is pretty, but not my favorite place. It didn't help that I slipped on the ice at the end of the day. Poor John was looking forward to sunset at the Grand Canyon. I fell so hard, it is a wonder that I didn't break anything. That put a damper on the rest of the evening so neither of us enjoyed the sunset. We drove to Bakersfield, CA after we left the Grand Canyon. We had anticipated a late night, but we didn't expect to get in at 2:30 AM, and that was after gaining an hour for moving into the Pacific time zone. It was very odd to see Al Roker on the early show at 3 in the morning and realizing that the east coast was waking up at 6 AM when John and I were just going to sleep.

Day 6- I think. We got a late start this AM. The late night made it hard to get moving. Both of us are a little sleep deprived. I am a little sore. Moving is possible, but much slower than my normal speed. The internet connection was a little slow as well. It took John a very long time to book tonight's hotel online. We finally left around 11 AM, stopping at Quizno's for brunch. Every day we have tried to find a Quizno's for lunch or dinner, and this was the first time that there was a Quizno's on our path when we were ready to eat. The tomato basil soup was great in the cold weather. Now we are driving through California. So far, I like California. Restaurants are required to provide nutritional information. :) We drove through several different kinds of produce farms this AM. We got to see Almond trees, lemon trees, orange trees and some other unidentifiable plants. We also saw a crop dusting helicopter. John and I both were a bit suprised by it. Now we are driving through the hills of California, there is still some produce as well as a bunch of cows and some fog. Today we are going to stop at a video game store in San Francisco for John, and drive through a bit of San Francisco before heading up to Medford, OR tonight. We had planned to go over the Golden Gate Bridge, but at this point that is going to take us 3 hours out of the way, so we will have to save that for another day and another trip.

Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers and well wishes so far. I have been going though all of our stuff in preparation for the move and realized that pictures and cards help to spark memories of certain events, but I can't remember everything. It made me wish that I had kept a journal over all these years. I realized that pleo is a great way to journal the what id going on in our lives and document what we are thinking and feeling at the time. I plan to keep a copy saved on my laptop so I can look back at it. Today I am writing from the car. My Dad loaned us his wireless internet card. John has just declared "We are in New Mexico."

Day 2 and 1/2: John preaches Sunday night in Destin. Afterward, Dave Campbell's daughter presents John with a picture. John says "Oh how nice, What is this?" Dave promptly turns the picture so that it is correctly up and down instead of on its side. Then he explained...."This is the potted plant, this is the podium and that is you." It was very funny. I don't think we saved that, so I will have to remember to get Dave and Heather to save it or mail it to us.

Day 3: I got up early and ran the bike trail next to the coast, and even ventured down to run on the packed sand of the beach toward the end of the run. John and Dave started the day at Starbucks, we met up with Bekah and Nathan for lunch. This was a suprise for me, and I loved it. We met my parents for dinner in Houston. It was great to see them, as I have been a bit homesick lately. We ate at Ruby Tuesday's, one of my favorite restaurants. My dad loaned us the internet card, and presented us with grilled steak and chicken to snack on for the rest of the trip. Mom brought me some magazines to help keep me entertained. John drove the rest of the way into San Antonio. I slept the whole way. I was out. I woke up when John pulled into the hotel parking lot, amazed that we had arrived so quickly. :)

Day 4: I got up early and took advatage of the hotel's fitness center. John and I walked the riverwalk for a good portion of the morning, and found a nice Starbucks on the riverwalk. The place we ate at for lunch didn't look very promising, but had some of the best smoked turkey that I have ever eaten. We arrived in Lubbock about 7:30 and had a nice dinner and visit wth my sister, even though she was sick. While we were out at dinner, her dog found 1/2 of the chocolate vitamuffin that I thought had been safely sipped away in my backpack. Aparently not. So last night there were some frantic calls to the parents and the vet clinic. As of now, the dog has not suffered any ill effects from the chocolate.

Day 5: The day began with a very cold early AM run, then a trip to Starbuck. I ventured away from my normal order for a Skinny Vanilla Latte. This was neccessary to help warm up my hand. As of now we are driving though New Mexico, where we wil be for a good portion of the day. Tonight we will stop in Cottonwood, AZ for church, then tomorrow we will head for the Grand Canyon. Thanks again for your thoughts, well wishes and prayers.