New Year New Adventures

Disclaimer: I am VERY bad at entering pictures into posts

Leffe beer at the thirsty monk

 

I have been meaning to post this blog for about a week, but the days get so busy and they run into eachother. So now I’m at the end of my only day off, knowing that I don’t have an excuse to not blog tonight. David and I were looking back on 2010 as I’m sure the rest of you guys did remembering the good and the bad the year brought. The year never ends as you think it will when the year starts. We thought we’d still be in Colorado this winter, but we find ourselves in Nashville (thank goodness there has been a lot of snow this season. It does us both good.) I’m reminded of the verse that talks about God being the builder of the house, and if he is not the builder is building in vain. We have been reminded again and again this year that God is the builder of our house, and we cannot build anything without Him. He has a way of surprising us and of knocking me off my high horse when I think I’ve got it all figured out and under control. He humbles me and it’s a beautiful thing.

David and I spend our new years in Asheville, N.C. and LOVED the city. We had no idea what we were getting into, but had so much fun looking at the blue ridge mountains, touring the grove park inn, and walking around downtown and eating amazing food at many restaurants. Yes, they have a plethora of GFCF places to eat and we experienced amazing food. (So amazing i shed a few tears at the connivence of it all.) We didn’t get to play in the mountains because it was pretty cold outside, but we drove around and found some pretty sustainable communities we fell in love with. Whole foods in asheville is a pretty sweet place too. Visit it if you ever get a chance. We slept in late (8 or 9) every morning while we were there, watched a lot of TV, read our books, david smoked his pipe, and we played some rousing games of scrabble slam.

On our way home we got to talking about the amazing way God had answered my prayers this year. I don’t think it really sunk in (the wonder of it all) until our car ride home. A prayer I had been praying since I was a kid… that my headaches would go away. And as they got worse and I got more and more tired and sick the prayer became more frequent. Last year and the year before that was filled with questions like, why am i so sad all the time? why can I not get over this hump of loneliness and constant sadness?, and it all came to fruition with a simple but grand realization- it was all rooted in food and all I had to do was take it away from my diet and I would be a new person. A person I have never been able to be my entire life because my thinking is no longer cloudy and I can breathe and see and experience life clearly for the first time I can remember since I was a kid in elementary school. God has been so good to me, and i would not be as thankful as I am if I had not struggled for so many many years. I know the journey is worth it, even if it is hard and often times you have no idea where it is taking you. Look at the Israelites wondering in the desert for 40 years. God is sovereign.

Kami is getting married!!! On march 27th to be exact and David and I are working hard hard to save up to be able to go to her wedding and celebrate with her. We are very excited, but it’s going to be a long 3 months working extra time to pay for the trip.

 

On a closing note- David and I made stew tonight. It was awesome. The base and thickener was dried porticillini mushrooms soaked in water. It also had winter squash, sage, an onion and some veggie broth. It was amazing.. and we made some GFCF cornbread to go along with it. We feel pretty awesome about ourselves when we can make a meal like that.

Outside the Laughing seed- and amazing vegan place in asheville

view from Grove park inn on a cloudy day

the front of the Grove Park Inn

the best, worst view of the mountains I got

 

 

White Christmas

This time of the year always makes me thankful for my family, and now my new family I have acquired through marriage. Since my love language is gifts, I LOVE giving gifts to people and getting them (not in a vain way, I just know that’s how I’m loved).

Top present of the year from David: getting my chaco’s re-strapped

Most creative present of the year: Victoria’s plastic I love Dishes apron/Sarah’s recipe book she made me  

Christmas was a wonderful weekend for us this year. We spent Christmas Eve Eve with David’s parents and woke up that morning and opened presents and went to a brunch at his grandparents house with the Newsom clan. Lots of surprises under the tree! We relaxed there most of the afternoon and then loaded up to spend the rest of our Christmas with my family in Alabama. Driving in it was about 45 degrees outside on Chritmas eve. We went to FBC for the Christmas eve communion, and then headed over to my parents house for the festivities. Dinner was wonderful which was followed by Taryn, Kirk and I sorting the presents in the den-like we have for the past 21 years. David is still amazed that I get so excited about something like this. I don’t know if I’ll be able to let my children take over this duty in years to come. Mom and Dad planned minute to win it games for all of us to play together which were very funny. Kirk has a pricelss video of uncle paul “dancing” to get the bells out of a pouch on his back. Later that night we made the treck to Waffle House to spend a few minutes with my high school friends. (I had taken a benadryll due to eating something bad and was falling asleep at the booth).

Christmas morning was truly a surprise for all of us. I woke up, brushed my teeth and then slowly went up the stairs to see that it had snowed about two inches (in Alabama) the night before. I went crazy!!  Waking up Taryn and David to see the beauty. It amazingly snowed for the entire day. We all loved it. We got some wonderful surprises for Christmas from Santa.. he is always so good to us. (I guess we are good all year). I’m excited about getting to do the zip-line ride and seeing young frankenstein with our familiy (plus Kirk). We also got a new lamp for our living room that looks AWESOME. We have a TON of new games we got over Christmas, so I feel a game night coming on soon. We also got 2 gluten free cook books so we will be testing them out soon to see how good they are. Any volunteers for dinner at our place?

Sunday morning I was not feeling too hot, so we stayed at home and listened to a podcast (my new favorite feature of i-tunes and my new ipod nano) from Midtown. It was so good to hear- about pride. And mom made me some communion bread and we drank some wine and celebrated Jesus’s birth and his resurrection. What a wonderful God we serve.

I made everyone’s Christmas presents this year. I started at the end of October sewing away and thinking of great gift ideas. I hope everyone liked them, even my friends far away in Colorado.

We are both SOOO excited about our get away this weekend to Asheville, N.C. We are staying in a cabin in the woods and have also found a place I can eat!! David and I have not had a good vacation since we moved back from Colorado. Seems like every weekend was a vacation there. I keep telling myself it’s only a year of this busy crazy schedule, and then things will return to a normal pace and we will be able to enjoy time together again. We are packing one of our most used christmas presents for the trip: our electric blanked from David’s grandparents.

I unfortunately did not take many pictures over Christmas- I think my mom took care of that job. I’ll try to get some from her to post on our blog.

AMAZING RECIPE!

We are so excited about this creation we made last night I had to share it. It’s completely Gluten free Casein free, but you can adapt it to whatever your eating habits are.

Gluten Free Vegan Squash Caserole

1/2 acorn squash

1 yellow onion

Garlic Powder

Rice Milk

Rice Pasta

G.F. all purpose flour 3 TBS

Vegan (earth balance) butter 3 TBS

Herb mary’s gone crackers brand

Prep:

Cook Noodles. Cut Squash into 1/2 in. cubes and steam in microwave 5 minutes. Saute Diced yellow onion until translucent.

Béchamel Sauce:

Melt butter in sauce pan and allow to heat until boiling. Add flour and whisk until golden brown. slowly add rice milk allowing to thicken between additions. Allow to thicken until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Add garlic powder to taste. Pinch of salt.

Casserol:

Add noodles to 9×13 pyrex baking dish. add squash, onion, and béchamel sauce.Mash the Mary’s Gone Crackers until crumbled and add to the top of the dish. Add italian spices to taste. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes to thicken.

Enjoy the most awesome food of your life. David suggests you eat it all.

YUMMY!!!!

its looking a lot like christmas in Tennessee!

Ben and Sarah at the Opryland tree

Sam the Subaru’s first Tennessee snow (he did great)

Once again, a little update via photos.

Extreme sewing

 So i’m trying to make everyone’s christmas presents for christmas this year- a lot of that involves sewing. I try to sew in all of my spare time so everyone gets awesome presents! However, this poses a problem at night because the bulb is out of my machine. So David fixed me up with his head lamp so i can see better and sew straight seams. We thought it’d be great if a new extreme sewing reality tv series came out.

 

 

We’ve taken a lot of pictures lately, so I thought it’d be better to capture what we have been doing through pictures rather than words.

david's first day of work

the whole newsom family shot at thanksgiving

The Newsoms

Thanksgiving day at Jenny's

we are weird

they are weirder. the windblown look

trimming the tree

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!

my classroom at school and two of the girls in my class

 

U2

I hate that I have failed to mention the amazing thing my wonderful husband did for me about a month ago.. he is not even a fan of U2.  The conversation goes as follows:

the phone rings

M:Hello?

D: HEy, did you know U2 is coming to Nashville?

M: yeah, I know, but there is no way we could afford to get tickets.

D: Do you want to go?

M:well.. yeah of course I have always wanted to go to one of their concerts

D: Well, I got us tickets. My dad sent me a pre-sale thing where I got them crazy cheap.

M: (Freaks out) NOOOO WAYYYYY!!!!!!!! YOUR THE BEST.

D: yeah, I know.

(note, the whole conversation David is completely melancholy. I love it.)

So we now have 2 magical tickets to an already sold out U2 concert in July of next year. The tickets we purchased for 70 dollars (for both) are now being sold for around 1,000. No way are we selling them!!

On a different note, I found my dream place to live. Check it out:

http://frontrangeecotown.yolasite.com/

Maybe they’ll have started developing threeish years from now.

It seems like the weeks continue to pick up pace as each week passes. This past week was no exception. Wake up, go to work, go to second job, come home grab something for dinner and do whatever our MWF night plans allow. Tuesday and Thursdays are a bit easier on me because I have the mornings to study and clean up the house, and school that night.  Saturdays are busy with school which usually involves a test, and David has been working the past few Saturdays as well. We are thankful for Sundays where we are able immerse ourselves with the presence of one another.

We had the pleasure of worshiping with Taryn and her friend Jordan yesterday. We enjoyed our walk to midtown with them, and we all found the message reached us at our core. We have been going through a series of Joshua, and God continues to meet David and I in the journey the Israelites take across the desert into the promised land. The sermon yesterday was about the “sun standing still for one day” when the Israelites were fighting and God interceded for them by killing their enemies with hail. Russ (the preacher), posed a question.. why is it hard for us to accept that God made the sun stand still for a day (and interceded for the nation of Israel), but we accept that God created the earth out of nothing? The same can be applied to our days. Why is it so hard for me (or us as humans) to accept that God is miraculous and formed us from the dust, but we cannot trust that he will intercede for us in our daily lives. Often times this is a question of God’s sovereignty. He is always the same. His promises to His children is ALWAYS the same. We are the ones who are changing. We are the ones who fail to believe that God’s grace does not change depending on our circumstances.  It is always the same. Oh Lord, I believe.. but please forgive my unbelief.

Yesterday I got to take pictures of the ADHD Kylar. It was hard to capture good shots of her while she was running around chasing squirrels, leaves, and Victoria. She is always someone you can count on to bring a smile to your face.  Hopefully some will turn out as good as this one.

David’s new job in going well. He is enjoying being in a different setting (the hospital), and always comes home with interesting stories. He is feeling a bit more comfortable with his abilities now than he was a week ago. I’m so proud of him for stepping out on a limb and trusting God with this new job.

A few weeks ago, we carved pumpkins with Ben and Sarah. Below is a picture of Ben’s pumpkin he set on fire with leaves and lighter fluid. Needless to say he was extremely proud of his creation.

The weather is starting to turn cold, and it makes both of us long for the snow and adventures we were having last year in Colorado. I am thankful that the cold creeps in slower here in the south than it does out west.

climbing up

After a busy week, and a even busier weekend, David and I got a membership at Climb Nashville yesterday afternoon.We are so excited about being able to share this sport together! The beauty of it is it takes two people to climb, and you can climb at whatever level you want to witout holding the other person back. It’s going to be a long winter here, and this will be a great escape for both of us during our busy weeks! Don’t have any pictures to post (yet) of our awesome climbing skills, but you can expect some very soon.

http://climbnashville.com/

This morning David starts his job at Vanderbilt in the Surgical Pathology Lab. He has two days of orientation to get farmiliar with the system of Vandy, and later this week he will start his training. It’s only 1.5 miles from our house, so David will be able to start riding his bike to work again! He also gets to wear scrubs every day to work (which is awesome if you know anything about David and the way he likes to dress:).

Last night we were able to spend time with our Midtown friends, Stephanie and Pierre. We love spending time with them and are thankful for their friendship. We made AWESOME popcorn that had caramel on it. They were nice enough to tweak the recipe to where I could enjoy it too! David and I are going to be making ALOT of this stuff because it is soooo yummy.

I got my machine and my bed at school on Saturday! It was so much fun getting to learn about the instruments I am going to be using on clients and being able to clean my little space. I made a 103 on my Anatomy test (thanks to the studying help of Miss. Sarah Clayton), and am so excited about starting hands-on learning!

Today is Monday, so it’s the start of another busy week for me. I still have not adjusted to this crazy schedule.. but David and I are lucky we still have Sundays to spend together.

Nashville

Obviously we have not been very diligent at updating this blog, but want to become more so because neither of us really enjoy talking on the phone updating people on all of the crazy things that are going on in our life together. Seems like the most viable form of communication is blogging. In a short synopsis (and if you want elaboration we can write a more elaborated post), we are back in Nashville and have been for four months. How time flies in the city! Several things have happened since we moved back, and things have been a roller coaster for both of us. To make things easier I will list them below:

1. Meg has Celiac’s Disease and is also highly allergic to Casein. Her migraines and sicknesses have subsided since we started our new CFGF diet!! Praise God!! It’s been (and will continue to be) a learning process, but we are starting to get the hang of this new way of eating. You can check out more information on her condition at this site:  http://www.celiac.org/

2. I was working 2 jobs, one at the Center for Living and Learning, and the other at Lipscomb elementary. However, I was let go from the Center because of financial reasons, found an interim job at Lipscomb University and… Got hired to work in the Surgical Pathology Lab at Vanderbilt Hospital!!! I start next Monday (Nov. 8).

3. Meg has worked a TON of jobs to try to make ends meet since we have gotten back. We both know how hard it is to find a job in this economy and are both so thankful for the way God has provided for us during the past 4 months. Now she is working at Gray Line Transportation in the mornings, and for the Gupta family in the afternoons. She really enjoys both of them, and is enjoying getting to for a relationship with Nisha (10) and Priya (14).

4. We are going to Midtown 12th South church when we are in town (we always love a quick weekend road-trip).We do love it and are excited about getting more involved in that community. The best part about it is that we get to walk there together every Sunday morning.

5. Meg has started Esthetics school at The Salon Professional Academy in Nashville. She is really enjoying it, and will be there until next November. She’s there Tuesday and Thursday nights and all day Saturday. If you want an awesome facial for cheap, come see her!!

We are trying to adjust to life back in the south, but are still having a hard time. Everyday we miss the mountains, the adventure, and the simplicity of life that Colorado brought us. We are thankful for the healing Meghan has found in Nashville through so many wonderful friends that have helped her, which is only possible through the Grace of God.

We promise we are going to become much more  frequent in blogging about our adventures, and our struggles. More to come soon! Just wanted to put a quick update on here.

a photo documentary of 1-9

if you’re wondering…

that lamp is made out of a retro hairdryer.  we picked it up at the ARC thrift store and ripped up an old lamp to make it.  yeah it’s pretty sweet.

the boys are mckinsey’s and they’re riland (10 months) and kaden (2 and a half) and they’re AWESOME.  except kaden was in a very sour mood today.  they came over for breakfast and we made our world famous pancakes.  they really are good they’re from scratch… sub apple sauce for oil or butter and honey for sugar.

went grocery shopping too.  pretty excited about the very full and colorful fridge!