bitterSWEET.

A common theme in my writing for the past several months has been the joy of consistent life, settling into a routine, exploring what this “adult” non-student life is all about.

Well, God had other plans for me and our family.  I am so excited to share that I will be joining a firm in Ann Arbor!!  I am thrilled about this next step. I can’t wait to begin working and investing in the Ann Arbor community!!

Of course change is bittersweet.  This one-word oxymoron sums up my experience the past two weeks.  I will truly miss my former firm, my co-workers, and my friends, but the “bitter” doesn’t trump the “sweet.”

old friend, NEW friend

This post will not be written in Dr. Seuss style continuing “one friend, two friend…” But rather is a short tag-on to my last post.  I blogged a bit about our trip and July adventures, but didn’t emphasize the blessed time we have been able to spend with OLD friends.

People that have known us since before there was a Wixson family, when we were Wix and Sar.  When Matt bustled around Hope College with a FRO and I wrote short stories and enjoyed JP’s on an almost daily basis.  People who supported us while we were dating, stood up in our wedding, and who have rallied for us during the past 4 years of marriage.

For some reason, we have been able to see MOST of these beloved people in the past 2 months and it has been refreshing.

This post isn’t meant to discount the awesome community we have here in Ann Arbor, but is a reminder that lengthy friendships are important.  Solid.

It is so easy to let friends “slip away.” It becomes too hard, or too much work to keep in touch with everyone, or at least that is what I tell myself.  But the last two months have been full of conversations with people who truly know us.  After three years of being buried in books, it is heart-warming to know these people didn’t give up on us because it was “too hard,” but were cheering us on.

I want to be that friend.

On a lighter note, I can’t help but post a few pics of the MOOSE friend we met in the mountains (somehow he was left out of my last post):

We saw a few Elk too, but they weren’t as impressive as the MOOSE:

There’s No Place Like HOME!

This month has been crazy, crazy-fun!!  We have enjoyed a trip to the Rocky Mountains to celebrate Tommy and Kristy getting hitched; spent time with good friends and babies; celebrated our 4th anniversary; spent a happy birthday with my favorite sister; and relaxed with family at the Holland beach.

The highlight for us was celebrating 4 years of being married!  It was fabulously sweet.  The night before our anniversary we ate at our favorite restaurant in Ann Arbor, Pacific Rim:

I had the best meal of my life–Japanese Sablefish.

The night of our anniversary we dined at Sunnybrook Country Club, where our reception was:

Although it wasn’t quite the same as our reception, where we were surrounded by the 224 people we loved the MOST, it was good.

And we spent lots of “quality” time re-living the past 4 years through memories and photographs.  

But one of the best moments has been coming HOME, with my man, and my pup.

Because of this small house, I have learned a few NEW things about Matt in our 4th year of being married.  

Number 1: he’s handy!!  WHAT?1? I always knew he was “book-smart,” the whole medical school thing and all, but I had no idea that he would be able to re-do our entire house!! 

Number 2: he’s veryyyy patient.   I knew this, but not exactly HOW patient he is.  He has painted, repainted; stained, re-stained; and finished, re-finished numerous projects, all because of my indecisiveness.  

This house has been our project TOGETHER.  Our lives go in such different directions 80 percent of the time.  Matt spends most of his days at the hospital and I spend mine at the office, but this house is just ours.  A respite for which we are thankful.  It has been such a blessing to “invest” in this house with each other.  It’s not perfect, but it’s ours.

I pray that 50 years from now we will still have projects together (and that Matt doesn’t lose his patience).