Look at my cute grandparents...

Married for 60 years! I'm so thankful that my cousins Jeff and Mindi captured them in this way:

2010 Holidays

I've been meaning to post a few pictures from Thanksgiving with the Wallace side of our family and Christmas with the Cepek/Hart side of the family. Now it is the end of February and I am finally doing it! In Bend, OR for Thanksgiving I remember feeling overjoyed and the fullness of our lives right now. I really love my family members and was really happy to reconnect with my cousin Mandy that I haven't seen in over a decade! Mandy, Val and I are all the same age and were close growing up. Mandy also is a great cook and made amazing pumpkin butter, pumpkin roll and pumpkin ice cream!

This year was our year to go to PA for Christmas and we were fortunate enough to spend 10 days in snowy Western PA! We were spoiled by our parents (not a surprise), reconnected with some friends and really spent a lot of time relaxing! Here are just a couple of pictures:

Autumn

Life has been full! Lately Ron and I have been saying how good life is and how blessed we feel. So life is full, but it is good. Since the summer we have been embracing the transition to Ron being a full time grad student and our time spent together being a little less frequent. We are learning how to balance all of our priorities and how to support each other through rough days (although there haven't been many).

This fall has been particularly beautiful in Seattle. The days have been sunny, only slightly crisp and the colors of the changing leaves seem to just get more dramatic each day. On Wednesday evening after work, Ron and I walked around Green Lake with our new friend Morgan. We drank something hot from Starbucks and were amazed at the colors of fall and the sunset reflecting off the water. We really like Morgan. She is a beautiful person and so easy to be with.

Our most recent fall adventure happened this morning with our dear friends, The Henderson's. After picking up lattes from Q Cafe and Pumpkin Doughnuts from Top Pot (President Obama was here this week and visited Top Pot Doughnuts. It was on the news that he ate the Pumpkin Cake Doughnut and really liked it. I agree, it's good!) we went to a pumpkin patch and enjoyed a muddy walk through a very large farm. We took pictures with the pumpkins and played in the corn fields. We saw some big mean Emu who hissed at us as we got closer to them. We didn't bring a pumpkin home, instead we were more tempted by the jar of apple butter and strawberry rhubarb preserves.

Here are some pictures from our day:

This fall season never seems to last long. As for now, I am going to continue to drink spiced cider, eat butternut squash soup and make as many pumpkin baked goods as possible. Of course we are still going to be watching a lot of football (Go Steelers) and I really want to try to get back into journaling so that I can learn to be more reflective. Happy Autumn!

1 year!

July 10th (Yesterday) was our 1 year Anniversary! This has been the best year of my life and I am so thankful that I get to be married to the most amazing man I know. This past year has been a very full year with a lot of transition for us both. I find myself hoping that the years to come are less hectic and that we can keep a slower pace. But no matter what, I know that our love will continue to grow and that we will laugh a lot.

We are celebrating our Anniversary tonight because Ron had to work last night at a concert. Really it feels more like we are just drawing out our celebration and making it two days instead of one. I don't mind at all! So Happy Anniversary to us and thank you to all of you who continue to support us.

In early May, I went to the dentist for my 6 month cleaning...my first one in 2 years! I went in assuming that the results wouldn't be that great. I mean, I hadn't been in 2 years and I had detected a significant hole in one of my molars. The first step in going to the dentist, is finding a dentist you like. I had heard about a dentist that serves espresso from one of my co-workers and I thought that this sounded like an operation that I could really support.

My co-worker gave me the number for Espresso Dental and when I showed up for my appointment, I laughed to myself because after not going to the dentist in 2 years, I sought out a place that serves lattes and chocolate chip cookies in the waiting room. Does this mean I have a serious problem? Or like most Seattle-ites, am I just incapable of going anywhere that doesn't serve coffee?

Now, I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but as my cleaning appointment is coming to an end, the dentist tells me that I will need to come back to get some cavities filled. Not a big surprise for me. The big surprise was that I needed to come back 3 more times to get 10 cavities filled! I made appointments for the 2 weeks that followed and quickly became a regular at my dentist. I think that being a regular at coffee shop or breakfast joint is desirable. It's nice to walk in and be greeted by name. They've been expecting you and have your order waiting. I don't think that being a regular at your dentist is desirable even if they serve coffee.

The 3 appointments that followed were a bit stressful. I don't think I will ever be able to relax while having my mouth pried open for an hour and a half as a drill hums in my mouth. Let alone the fact that my first appointment, when the hole in my molar was getting drilled out and filled, the Novocain wasn't able to get certain nerves numb. I ended up sweating, shaking and crying in the dentist chair while I tried to talk myself in to holding it together. They ended up having to put a temporary filling in and I have to go back at the end of June to get it re-filled.

After my dental experiences the thing that left me feeling the most wounded wasn't any of my 10 fillings, but is the emotional damage that has happened due to my dentist telling me that I produce more saliva than most people. I believe her exact words were, "You're a juicy one, aren't you?!"

It's been awhile...

...and much has been happening!

After Ron was accepted into the Counseling Psychology program at Mars Hill Graduate School, I decide to end my 9 year streak of living on a college campus. After Spring Break, I notified my supervisors that I will be terminating my employment after this school year is over. I'm not sure what I will do, but Ron and I are excited to live in our own place and have a bit more privacy.

Currently I am deep in the job search. If you know of anyone who is looking for a dedicated, hard working, multi-tasker to bring a positive attitude to the work place, pass along my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifercepek

Thanks! :)

In the mean time, we have found a cute little duplex to move into in June. It's in Magnolia, a wonderful, quiet neighborhood in Seattle. It's only a few blocks from the local Albertson's grocery store and just a few more blocks to Seattle Pie Company! We are excited to move and are feel so blessed by our landlords. When we went to sign our lease this week, they just randomly decided to offer us a lower rent rate!

Also, Ron has recently taken a job at Q Cafe (also close to our new place) as a barista. I think he is really loving learning more about the art of espresso making. Our good friend Jake is the Cafe manager, so I'm excited that Ron will be working for Jake. I think this job will be the perfect part-time place of employment as he pursues grad school.

OK- I think this is all the big news that I have. At some point I will have to post about my new delightful discovery of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals and also my recent dental endevors... that will be a long entry :)

new TV show!

Besides March Madness (I think my bracket is doing a little better than Ron's), we have been watching NBC's new show: Parenthood. We really like all the characters and every episode causes us to shed at least a few tears.