.:life is like a rollercoaster:.

**disclaimer** i wanted pictures to go with this blog, but haven't uploaded them yet. time to just get the blog posted.

life’s been good... and slow. and fast. but somehow i haven’t been able to find time to blog.

let’s get the not-so-great news out of the way... dave is out of work still. and he’s not on the waiting list for the union. so there is no more counting down until he’s back on the job site. now we are allllll the way back at square one; looking for a job, looking for a new career. cop? trying to get back into the union? going back to school? the economy- as we all know- is making it increasingly hard for my boyfriend to find a job.

in other bad news, we lost time with his girls. while dave is unemployed we have them every other weekend from friday night to monday morning. and the weeks that it isn’t our weekend we have them overnight on thursday. once dave is employed it will switch to having the girls every other weekend friday night to sunday night, and every thursday for dinner... something ridiculous like 4 to 8.

i’m terribly sad for dave and the girls. chloe started crying right in the middle of dance class because she missed dave. you can’t tell me this is for the best. the schedule itself may be less stressful on the girls, but there has to be a better way. i pray there is a better way... and hope that everyone can make it through this with minimal impact.

on to the better and more exciting parts of our lives... dave’s birthday was last weekend! we had a blast. we kept absolutely busy and filled our time with family and friends. i surprised dave and took friday off of work (thank goodness for vacation hours) and so we played and were productive around the house. i had left my wallet in a shopping cart at qfc up in factoria by my work, so we had to make that drive in the afternoon (thank goodness for honest people who still will turn your wallet in to the lost and found). we had a green dinner for the girls on thursday since they wouldn’t be with us on dave’s birthday. i had qfc air brush dave’s lemon meringue pie green. it was amusing. we saw our great friend sonja on friday and met a new friend andy. saturday we headed out to my little brother’s bowling tournament. he was qualifying for the state tournament! and we’re pretty sure he did... his 3rd or 4th game he got a personal best of 200 and then the next game beat the 200 with a new personal best of 205! we are all so very proud of him. my grandparents (carl’s parents) les and judy came over from eastern washington for his tourney too, it’s always great to see them. they’re amazing people who have blessed my life time and time again.

we spent the evening of dave’s birthday with another set of amazing people. dave’s nieces and nephews. we cruised to jess and travis’ new place- which is way cute! their two sons were there, thomas and felix. absolute dolls, both of them. felix is the newest addition and was a sweet, sweet baby. lil’ brent was there too! what a great surprise, we didn’t know he was going to be there. i had only met him once before when we floated the river in the summer with elise and brett. it was rad getting a chance to hang out with him again! and last but definitely not least- AMBER! i finally met that sweet, rockin’ girl. of course it was great to spend time with everyone, but what a plus to finally meet her. i hope we get to see everyone on a more regular basis. i know how much dave loves his family... and i love them too.

we wrapped up dave’s birthday with his very first birthday dinner. for the longest time my grandmother susy would cook your meal of choice and the family would all get together to celebrate the special day. my mom has since taken over this tradition as it gets a bit overwhelming for my grams to cook for 13 to 19 people as our family as continued to grow. we had a great time and dave scored some rad gifts. a huge thank you to my generous and loving family. we stopped by my pop’s house on the way home and he had a little something for dave too. it was good to see him- we hadn’t spent time with him in a little while.

and then came monday morning. back to reality. the reality of a job and money and stresses. and the reality of job hunting. we’re hanging in there with the love and support of our wonderful families.

we’ve got the girls this weekend... i’m sure we’ll have much to blog about after our adventures come to an end sunday night... well, until next time of course.

i hope everyone is well. remember to love hard and hold fast- we’re all braving the storm right now.

kb