It was actually a lot more awesome (and bigger) than I expected. There was tons of food from gigantic turkey legs, to cones filled with candied pecans, to blackberry cobbler.  You could watch performances of Beuwolf, jousting tournaments, or life-size chess with actors playing the different pieces.  There were Reanissance carnival games to play (like archery and “Drench the Wench”), and crafters where you could buy anything from full Renaissance costumes, to swords and knives, to children’s books and adorable stuffed goblin dolls.  We payed a few extra bucks to go into a museum of midieval torture devices, which was absolutely horrifying and fascinating (a machine that pulls your intestines out while you are still alive, and rats that eat you to death).

And here’s a confession:  I always thought of people who were into stuff like the Renaissance Festival were kind of dorks.  Like the guys from The Big Bang Theory.  But after going to the Renaissance Festival, I kind of want to be one of those dorks.  I really, really, really want to make myself a costume and go back next year, all decked out.  I think Funnel might dis-own me.

- – - – - – - – -

Lately, I have felt like I am at a “in-between” place in my life.  Funnel and I will be celebrating four years of marriage this fall, so we aren’t newlyweds anymore, but we also probably won’t be starting our family for a couple of years either.    And now that we have the house and the Europe trip checked off our list, I sometimes feel like I am in a holding pattern, waiting for the next “big thing”.   But I don’t want to have that attitude.  I don’t want to live (waste?) my life like I am  only waiting for the next big thing to come along. 

I saw this in Carolyn Hax’s daily column a few weeks ago:

When I was single, childless and careerless, a friend said, “What are the things you won’t have time for, once relationship/child/job come along? Get busy doing those, and relish them. The day will come when you’ll realize what a gift this waiting time was.”

So I relished. I hiked, I biked, I sewed, I decorated, I read books, I played music, I danced, I hung out with friends, I cruised thrift stores.

It took a long time for the things on my list to come to me. And now I’m so glad I took the opportunities my “waiting time” gave me — because now, I don’t see it as waiting time, but time that I used to enjoy all those things that are now so hard to find time for now.

 Reading that made me realize how lucky we are to have this time to travel and work on projects and pursue a lot of dreams and hobbies we might not be able to once we are parents.   This is a really neat season of our life and I’m sure once we are parents we may miss the freedom and opportunites we have now. 

How I’d like to live this out in the next couple of years:
   – Take all of the Wilton cake decorating courses this coming year
   – Take one of CCAD’s adult art classes this winter
   – Finish up the quilts I started making for our quest bedroom
   – Become better at sewing and cooking
   – Grow vegetables in raised beds next spring & summer
   – Make and can jam, pickles, and tomato sauce
   – Go on another “big” trip in fall 2011
   – Have some fun weekends away with Funnel
   – Finish writing my children’s story
   - Take Yoga classes
   - Schedule “me” time every week, even if it’s just an hour at the coffee shop with a good book

I’ve been meaning to, but it seems like blogging gets pushed to the very bottom of my to-do list anymore ((beneath chores, working-out, church stuff, sewing, editing photos, playing Super Mario Wii with Funnel, etc.))   Sometimes life just gets in the way.

This evening, I was reflecting on some of the big things that stood out to me this year:

Funnel and I bought a house. Buying a house was one of those things that we desperately wanted from the time we got married, but it always seemed so far off and impossible.  I am so thankful that we were able to finally do it this year. And I have a confession: I honestly wasn’t 100% sure about our house the night we put in our offer.  It was smaller than I had hoped, it was neglected and beat-up and filthy, and that all scared me.   And now I’m in love with it.  I think it’s adorable and homey, and it’s ours.   I told Funnel, “I don’t know if I want another house after this.  I think I might want to live here forever. ”

We found our church.  It was almost a year ago that Funnel and I started attending Xenos Christian Fellowship.  I’ve never been to a fellowship like it: it’s basically a community of “home churches” and we were invited to a home church by our friends Joe and Michele (I photographed their wedding two years ago) and we loved it.  I love doing church in this way: enjoying a meal with our friends, studying the bible in someone’s living room, praying together.  And within our home church, I’m in an even smaller group of women that meet every other week to read the bible, pray together and really just share what’s going on in our lives.  I am so thankful to be around people who love the Lord so much, and I’m really starting to understand what “community” is supposed to look like.   I love our church and I love the people in it.

Loveletter Photography is growing.  I had so much fun with the weddings I shot this year, and I am encouraged to think that I am a little closer to the day when I can quit my “day job” and do photography full time.   I love weddings, and I love, love, love that we live in an age that there is equipment that can document forever the most fleeting and precious of moments. 

I was reminded of how fragile life is.    This year, so many of our family and friends and co-workers were bombarded with death, loss, tragedy, cancer, illness.  I think I am more aware than I ever have been in my life of how fleeting our time on earth is .  Tomorrow is never guaranteed – for any of us.  It’s something that is on my mind a lot now.  This is something I wrote after my cousin’s son past away in February:

- the counterpart -

i go through periods of my life where i am consumed with death. thinking about the ways people die, how it feels to die, the transition into the afterlife, heaven, hell, epitaphs and obituaries. i don’t mean to be morbid, but i am just being honest. i am very afraid of losing the people i love, and even dying myself, and i have to really fight away these thoughts so that i can think and behave like a relatively normal person.

this last bit, was brought on by corey’s death. the little four-year-old son of my cousin.

a child is the last one you expect to die. especially a child in your family. you hear about a child dying on the news, but that is normal, expected. it doesn’t happen to people you know, people you love.

but it does.

and i wonder, sometimes, what else is written in my life book. what other “unexpecteds”. what other sadness. what other funerals i will attend.

but you can’t live like that, worrying, wondering, fearing.

thinking about one of the people who spoke at corey’s funeral. he talked about the human condition. we are embodied creatures and embodiment gives us the freedom to run, and laugh and play. to have picnics and go on long walks and clutch the people we love close to us. but being embodied means that we will stumble, fall, break limbs, break hearts. die. we can’t embrace the good and reject the bad. we have to accept it all.

in the good times, we have to be aware of the counterpart. not dwelling on it, like i often do, but be aware of it in the back of our minds. and in the sadness, we must think of the joy we have experienced. and will experience again.

I am thankful for 2009.  And I am excited for 2010.

To make up for being gone for over a month, I’ll probably bombard you with posts for the next week.  Look for:
   -  2 wedding posts
   -  1 “best friends” photo shoot
   -  pictures of the renovation of the first floor of our house
   -  what I’ve been up to for the past month

Now I am off to a much-needed date with “The Mister”.  Sushi at our favorite Columbus sushi spot (which will probably include a visit to the little Asian grocery store right next to it for some movie snacks) and Harry Potter!

* * * I may or may not blog about these things in the future. 

I love this time of the year.  My window is open and in the hour or so that I’ve been sitting here, I’ve heard an ice cream truck circulate my neighborhood, a flock of geese take off from our pond, and a bunch of little girls shrieking and playing in the parking lot. 

It’s the little things.

. . . . . . . . . .

My cell phone rang.  Brentwood Lake Apartments.

“Is this Jen?” the girl asked.

“Yes…”

 ”We solved your mystery.  You’re apartment 2760, right?”

“Yes…”

“The model is 2750.  I just took a prospective client over to take a look at it, and I couldn’t figure out why the carpets hadn’t been vacuumed.  And then I put two and two together… “

So, the mystery was solved.  The maid got mixed up and thought ours was the model.  And since she always cleans an unoccupied apartment, there was no reason for her to put it in the log book.

The best part is that I have been in the model.. it was back when we were apartment-shopping and it is absolutely pristine. Minimal decorating and furniture.  Clean.  Mostly empty.  Obviously a model and not a “real” apartment.  And ours?  There were dishes in the sink, containers of recycling by the door to drop off, clothing on the floor.  I could go on and on.  I would love to know what was going through the maid’s head.

. . . . . . . . . .

{ Contest } 

First of all, my apologies for the delinquent post!  Easter?  Sheeesh.  It’s 10:10 pm Monday night and I am just now getting a chance to type this out. 

Second of all, thanks for all of the comments on the story, and the concern for our safety.  I was SO relieved that it was a little old cleaning lady (I don’t know that she is little & old, but I like to picture her that way).

Annyway, Funnel & I narrowed it down to the three closest answers.  We actually thought that Funnel’s Aunt Lisa had the best guess, but since she missed the midnight deadline, we decided to put the best two that met the deadline in the running with her’s.

Here our the top three:

We put the three names in Funnel’s beanie and the winner was Miss Sarah the Utahian!  Sarah, congratulations!  I will get your address and send you a surprise in the mail!

- – - – - – - – - – -

As I was getting ready for bed, I couldn’t shake the weird feeling of knowing an unwelcome person had been in our apartment earlier that day.

I decided we must do what I always did back when Funnel worked at his insurance job and was gone a couple nights per week: sleep out in the living room.

Funnel thinks this is incredibly irrational: “If you are worried about someone breaking in, sleeping in the living room makes no sense, because you are out in the open. You have a better chance of protecting yourself if you are in the bedroom – you can lock the door.”

My theory is that if I am in the living room, I can hear someone break in and run into the bedroom and lock the door. If I am already in the bedroom sleeping, I have a less chance of hearing them, and am more likely to be murdered in my sleep. It’s all about being prepared, kids.

Anyway, Funnel won this battle, and we slept in our bedroom, but I made him stick a chair up under the knob of our front door for extra protection.

We made it through the night. No break-ins. No murderers. No more phantom vacuuming.

Once I got to work, I called the apartment office to speak with the girls who work there during the day. I was hoping they could shed some light onto our situation, but they told me the same thing as the night manager: they always log any entries into any apartments in their book, and a note is always left.

I agreed to pay the $50 to have our locks changed, and she told me that I could stop by the office when I got home to pick up my new keys.

But then, a couple of minutes later I got a call that changed everything…

((to be continued)).

. . . . . . . . . .

{ Contest }

Funnel & I thought it would be fun to give away a prize to the person who comes closest to guessing who the vacuuming intruder was. Leave a comment with your guess by midnight on Saturday, and the person closest to the real answer will win. If more than one person are close or correct, we will draw a name out of Funnel’s beanie. Or we will play a round of double-fisted “rock paper scissors” with each of us representing a finalist.

Part 4, which will reveal who the intruder was, will be posted on Easter Sunday, along with the name of the contest winner.

Oh, and the prize is yet to be determined but we’re pretty good at picking out cool stuff, so it will be good. Promise.