October Already?

Crazy how time has flown on by since Caleb and I moved up to WA. Although, since I started my new job with Adventure Boot Camp (outdoor fitness for women), time seems to be slinking along at snail's pace...maybe it's the cold weather?

We have a couple things to be thankful about. One, I have a job (as mentioned above)! It's a draining job and one I have to take home with me and I'm not getting paid much right now, but I LOVE working with women. Second, Caleb took the GRE and is now starting the application process for grad school! Yay! Third, we have a roof over our heads for free...Caleb's grandparents and parents must be angels. Fourth, we SOMEHOW paid off our cruise expenses (with the generous help of our wonderful family...everyone must be angels in our families!) and we're leaving in less than 2 months for a 8 day vacation! SO ready for that! Fifth....we're still married and love each other more than ever! :)

Other things we have been up to since we moved up: Wed nights we will be involved in a young married couples small group, Thurs nights we are youth group leaders (they call us sponsors) for 4th-6th graders. Sundays I co-teach kindergarteners during 2nd service. Life is too short not to experience these things at least once in your life.

*Update*

Life since the move from Washington to Oregon:
Aug. 16: moved into the grandparents' basement
Aug. 21-24: coast trip with the Louvier fam in Grayland, WA
Aug. 30-Sep. 1: Labor day weekend in Ellensburg watching the rodeo!

I still do not have a job, but am praying for God's patience and guidance. Caleb has been working for his dad doing construction on our church. He has to take the GRE's by the end of this month and will start applying to grad schools by November. Life is stressful, crazy and we never know what the next day will bring. Who knows where we'll live in a few months or if we'll be able to afford anywhere to live. Life right after college is not an easy one...especially when graduate school is looming ahead...

2nd Anniversary!

Before I begin the actual topic of this blog, I just wanted everyone to see the gorgeous flowers my husband surprised me with when he got home from work on my birthday!

Yes, they are beautiful! Those weren't the only flowers I received from him these past couple weeks. He was home for his lunch break yesterday and there was a knock at the door. I thought it was the DHL guy bringing our package we were supposed to get the day before but weren't home to sign for. Caleb suggested he was thinking the same thing. Well, when Caleb opened the door, there was a delivery person...but the delivery person had a gorgeous vase of red roses! My initial thought was, "oh cute! Someone from our family remembered our anniversary!" But then when I saw the card it said it was addressed to only me. Then I thought, "Oh someone (probably my dad) is sending me late birthday roses!" Well when I opened the note, it was signed from my husband!! How cute is that! Instead of brining home roses on our anniversary, he had them sent to our apartment!! :) I love thoughtful husbands!

Later, after Caleb got off work, we "dressed up" and went up to Bridgeport Village in Tigard, OR (just a bit south of Portland). Bridgeport is like a University Village for all you Seattle-lites...except it's a lot bigger and nicer! Anyway, we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill...mmmmmm, I highly suggest that place! Here are a few pics:

(He's actually really enjoying his pasta and Strawberry lemonade...he's just making a mean face)

(Yum! Iced tea and Salmon with veggies! Notice the crayon on the table...you can draw and color on their "table cloths"! What a fun idea!)

(Happy couple...stuffed to the gills!)

After we packed our tummies with tons of yummy bread, food and drink, we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant to our next destination in the Village...Jared's! I got my ring cleaned and now it's all sparkly! Love it! We then made our way to the IMAX theater where we waited in line for about an hour then another 30 minutes in the theater for the great production of "The Dark Knight." Wow! What a great movie...very well done! I HIGHLY recommend seeing it on an IMAX screen! The only problem was, the theater was STUFFY because the A/C never got kicked on...totally unfortunate when your in a theater JAM PACKED full of people and when you're trying to enjoy a great movie. I felt bad for Caleb, he was sitting next to a guy who didn't have the greatest smelling body odor...let's just say he sat reeeeaal close to me! :)

We finally got home around 2 AM!! We went to the late showing of the movie and the drive is about 45min home. What a fun day!

22nd Bday

So, my dad came down to Salem to celebrate my 22nd birthday! He took Caleb and I out to PF Chang's...I highly recommend that place if you like some good chinese food! Yum! My dad got me some fun clothes...including the dress I'm wearing in the pics! Fun fun!

Caleb, Dad and me

Daughter and dad

This isn't the greatest pic...we tried like 20 billion times but Caleb's eyes just wouldn't open! And I look drugged, but oh well!

2 Year Recap

Most of you know that Caleb and my 2 year wedding anniversary is just around the corner (23rd). I thought it would be fun to show pictures and describe events starting with the engagment and ending where we are now: graduated!!

It all started in Biology class in 10th grade when Caleb and I sat next to each other for part of the year. I was "interested" in his best friend and he was...well, some say he was interested in me, he says he wasn't yet, either way something began to develop because of our time in that class. He saw every my every emotion in that class: stressing, crying, laughing, being spastic, sleeping, etc. I am surprised he didn't ask the teacher if he could move! I thought he was WAY too smart, and who knows what he thought of me. He gave me answers to extra credit questions to help me out...what a sweetie. Anyway, summer eventually came and a large group of us friends were all going on a mission's trip to Mexico through the school, including Caleb and I. This trip is what really brought us together! We didn't start "dating" until Valentine's day of our Junior year and from that point on, we never separated...well I DID break up with him for a week our Senior year and we were separated our Sophomore year of college due to distance...other than that our relationship kept growing.

It was March 4th, 2006 (3 days before his b-day) when Caleb James Louvier proposed to me on Alki Beach in West Seattle:

We had a speedy 4.5 months engagment then got married on July 23, 2006:

The first year was a rough one. We got sick a lot...more than either of us have ever gotten! Lots of hospital visits...yes, we're still paying off all those medical bills! It was a long year, but we did make it to our first anniversary!(Anniversary; out to eat at Bentley's in Salem, OR)

Our second year has gone MUCH better and we are more in love than ever! We had a great time getting close to friends and going to functions with them, like the Senior banquet:

(Caleb, me, Kayla, Aaron, Mallory, Josh, and the random head of a guy named Rick)

(With the hubby)

We all were so excited to graduate, but as the BIG day drew closer my heart started to melt a bit...I knew I wouldn't be seeing or hearing from many of these people I claimed as friends. Everyone was moving on....some were getting married over the summer, some were moving far away, some just weren't good at keeping in touch.

Caleb and I are very glad to be done with school...for now...it's just difficult realize that now we have to face reality: real jobs (also known as careers), kids to come, thoughts of buying a house, saving money, paying off loans (mostly for school), starting a retirement plan, etc.

(With the babe...the cutest nephew ever!)






(Nats, the babe, me and Nickers! I am blessed to have siblings like these two...and a sweet, bubbly nephew!)

(Us at dinner with the fam, after graduation)

For now I feel like we are living the cliche American life...go to school for a million years, get married, go straight into your career, plan out your life til you die...I think I want to change things up a bit. I don't know how and I certainly don't know when, but I am going to start praying for ways. Maybe a little bit of traveling, maybe a month long mission's trip, maybe living in a different country for a year, maybe take up painting or something artsy...who knows. All I know is I want to live life to it's fullest, I want to serve God in all I do, and I want to be a light! Reality...here we come!

New Beginnings

So, I figure since my hubby's and my life are about to go through serious makeovers of change, I thought I'd throw in another change by owning an actual blog, other than facebook and myspace. I figure our generation is slowly steering from the crazily colorful and scarily stalkerish sites with superfulous amounts of applications and ads, to calmer, more realistic pages of cyberspace blogging. I am excited for you to learn of the Louvier's adventures in life and see what the Lord has in store for us. If you are reading this, then you are most likely a friend or part of the fam...we would love to get comments from you! Please tell us how you're doing and add any comments (hopefully nice ones) to my (our) page.

To the beginning of many blogs to come! Here, here!