My Favorite Space

Some of you have been asking for pictures of our new place, and since almost ALL of it is chaos due to my ability to be distracted 90% of the time.....it will remain in chaos for at least a little longer.
I DO though, have a place in our apartment free from corrugated cardboard and clutter. I breathe a sigh of contentment every time I enter that space. Although most of my visits there are brief.

It's our stairwell. Yes, I admit here that I am only finished putting together a total of 15 stairs in our entire apartment. Yes, I know that I have NOTHING else really productive to do with my time and I've been 'working on it' for almost two weeks. 

Remember what I said about being distracted?

Jaymay. I have rediscovered my love for her music-why did I forget....um....I don't know but she's SO GOOD. Check it out right now. 

And then know she was invited to sing at a corduroy convention. She's THAT awesome.

Have a wonderful weekend.
Jen

Athletic Adventures In Idaho

So we've been in Boise almost two weeks now and we've been settling in really well!
We have a place to live-YAY!!-that's really nice and spacious (read: extra bedroom-> come visit).
Our community here has really made us feel welcome and has tried to help with all the weirdness of transition. They have had us over for dinner, taken me out to coffee so I don't spend 12 hours with out seeing a human, and really let us dive right into being church-which is wonderful.
Yesterday, the girls decided we needed an adventure.

SNOWBOARDING!
This is a picture of Bogus Basin (at night). We went during the day to turn our collective awesomeness into learning how to board. One specific girl in the group actually KNOWS how to snowboard and so she become our fearless leader showing us how to put our boots on, locking them into the board, and then showing us how to stand up....which for almost the whole time I majorly FAILED....I couldn't even stand up! I had to like, roll over (which has to look hilarious when you have a board almost as tall as you are attached to your feet) and back it up like a dump truck to be on my feet.
Once I was on my feet dump truck style I was able to after an hour or so rocking the bunny hill actually move around with BOTH my feet attached to the board on a slight incline! It was fun and scary and really hard but totally worth it....me and my slight incline were alright.
We were out there for almost 5 hours and all of us were able to make it down a 'real' hill and some girls were total heroes and went down the BIG hills where you had to ride a scary lift.

Guess which one of us knows what she's doing

As I reflect back on yesterday, here with my coffee and incredibly sore muscles mostly my biceps from bracing every time I went to wipeout....which was a lot -everyone had a great time and I'm sure we'll get out there again. Mr. Gill is sure he'll love it and now after being out (BEFORE him) I know he will and he'll be totally awesome at it and leave me behind on the one-step-up-from-bunny hills while he shreds the face off Bogus......because  he has a way of being great at almost everything he does. Not to mention he'll be learning from a dude who (in addition to being married to our wonderful teacher) may have gone pro-snowboarding if life had turned out just a little different. 

This is just the beginning of what I'm sure will be many adventures we'll have here in IDAHO!! 

~Jenny

Packing

The Gills are moving in 4 days.

Which means we are packing.....which means I'm getting really distracted by all the things I'm finding that I had once lost so long ago or just things I want to play with and now....not packing. 

Example #1 of distraction: I found my veil-DRESS UP!

But we're super excited to get to Boise and start our new adventure and re-unite with our friends that are already there.

It has been a rough couple of days though around here, trying to get everything wrapped up to move across the country, finding time to pack and get Christmas stuff together....and saying good-bye or see you laters to all the ones we love. 

Indianapolis has been a beautiful place for us and we love all the wonderful friends and our amazing families that have been a huge part of our lives here. And, we know that these relationships may look different once we move but will still be important part of our lives as we're kickin' it in Idaho! Please continue to pray for us as we move and get settled-specifically that we'll find a great house/apartment to live in, and that jobs work out  well. Keep checking the blog because we are excited to post as Idaho-ians! We love you all and truly will look forward to our continued friendship! 

The next post will *most likely* be from the other side of the Rockies! 

Love, 

Jenny and Michael

In Honor of Thanksgiving

So, in honor of thanksgiving I'd like to share a story of traditional thanksgiving food.

Pumpkins.

I kind of love the little sugar pumpkins-they are so cute and little and full of squashy goodness ready for harvest. I bought two of these lovelies and decided after a couple of days to set them on our stoop the day before Halloween thinking they'd make us look festive and hopefully get some children to come and ask for the candy we'd purchased to give them.....yea-well, they were cute pumpkins but we had a big bowl full of candy and only 1 family of trick-or-treaters come to our door.
But anyway, as I was setting out our  pumpkins-Michael objected saying, something is going to eat them! Eat Them?!? No-wild things do not just come up and eat pumpkins! Plus, we live in the middle of the city-what on earth would munch on a raw pumpkin....a cat? That never happens-look at all our neighbors and their cute pumpkins on their steps-we'll be fine.
And we set them up on the stoop.

And then, a few days later......
Something
ate
them.

Moral of the story?


Michael is always right.


and the chipmunk that lives under the house is on his side.

Just a little crazy

So in an attempt to become healthier Michael and I have signed up to do a half marathon. We've done one together a little over a year and a half ago, so we were very much like-we totally know how to train for this, we'll be golden.
And then....
we didn't train.
At all.
Maybe we ran once a week.
For three miles.
Six at the most.

Our half marathon is tomorrow.


And we might just die.




Ok-so I'm being a little over dramatic.....like always. But honestly.
I can feel the blisters now.


But we can't quit.
Well-really...the motivation is not finishing something we (kinda sorta) started but it's because we've already paid for it.
lol-so it might be just a little crazy to do it because you've shelled out $60 a pop to run and be sore but, I hear there is free food at the end AND a t-shirt involved ;)







Pray for us.

The IMA

The aliens have called him to the mother ship

So one beautiful fall morning Mr. Gill and I took a little visit to the 100 Acres. It's a new outside art/park area from the IMA. I had been stressing out about life because, well-because sometimes I don't trust that God is good and He's got our backs. Which, by the way-He's ALWAYS had our backs.....I could tell you like a million different ways just last week He's been amazing and provider. I just forget sometimes. 

Anyway-I had been stressing out and so we took the morning off and slept in, got coffee and the most amazing pumpkiny iced thing ever! 

So we wandered through the museum/park and enjoyed the sunshine.

Standing on the knee cap and pointing at my knee cap....get it?

It was nice to connect outside too. I think Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons. All the going back to school (I LOVED SCHOOL), and new friends, new adventures, football games and bonfires and chili....and leaves. It is like the trees decide its time to put on the last show. 

He's being EATEN!!

So one last thing before I get to cleaning my jewelry (I'm a dork and using my night off to watch tv on the computer and clean my jewelry and jewelry box that hasn't been cleaned in like....3 years. Don't judge). 

JOHN MARK MCMILLAN

He will blow your mind. I promise! Ok, well-I guess I don't really know what will blow your mind-maybe your skull is a little  bit thicker than mine BUT this is amazing. 

CHECK IT OUT!

oh and this one too :)

Love, 

Jenny 

Marching Band

So this past weekend Michael and I went to the District Marching Band competition for some of the Indianapolis high school bands.

Avon High School Marching Band

I LOVED IT! Seriously I almost started crying it reminded me so much of all that was good and beautiful for me in high school.
Yes, I was a band geek. I wasn't any good-for real-I think I pretended to know what was going on most of the time, but I made beautiful friendships there that continue on today. AND I learned what is was like to work hard for a common goal-what teamwork and community looks like, if only in baby-form because we were after all only high schoolers.
It was freezing!

We would both tell you though, that Avon had the best show of the bands we saw....which we were late to the Class A competition because Michael was applying for a job in Boise-(YAY!!!) and, well we are late for almost everything in our lives that doesn't result in a direct punishment-like being fired.
Anyway-Avon was great. The show was a mix of Beethoven, Led Zeppelin and REM. It was fun and exciting and moving.
Michael specifically was really impressed by the xylophones, and how many there were-and told me if he was ever in marching band he would have played those. Um-right....have you ever seen Michael play on the drum kit? No way-he might be off the field for one season...you could bet your bottom dollar he'd want to be in the line asap! He is -for those of you who know marching band-a line drummer through and through. He wouldn't want to miss out on all that loud sound making. 
lol. ok-maybe I'm going over the top a little bit here BUT we had fun talking about all that and watching the show. Next up for us-a month of a million weddings :)
ok-not a million but 5. That's more than I went to the last 2 years combined! We have good luck at weddings though-Michael and I met was at Richard and Feanne's wedding. Now-we're looking for jobs in Boise people-invite all your friends who leave west of the mississippi and introduce us! :) Just kidding. 




But really.....