peace corps makeovers.

so this post is hard-hitting, heart stuff. okay, not so much... lots of that is happening, but this post is all about our new looks :)

michael first.

before...



and after...





he was a sad guy to cut his hair....but this will be a whole bunch easier!

okay, me next. my natural hair color is sort of dark blonde, and i thought i better try and dye it back to a more natural color instead of letting my roots just grow out and have a big line. when they dye it, my favorite hair gal said, they go two shades darker than your natural so that it fades to match your natural color, but WHOA was it dark.

before...




and after... me making a weird face.




so, now we are spiffied up and ready to go! if only we were packed...

:)

we visited mike's parents and grandparents this weekend, and we had some very quality time and ate his mom's amazing cooking...we were spoiled rotten. :) here's another cute grandparent pic:



less than one week to go!

Well, this is officially my first post and since I figured I just sent out a mass email annoying people to come look at our blog, I had better put something on here and not just coast. Making Jana do it all sounds nice but my parents want to hear from me once in a while so this is the start of many rambling notes about my side of our story.
Please enjoy and be aware that I have a documented aversion to capitalization and punctuation but I do like long drawn out sentences that can usually be said in oh... about 4 words.
mike

14 days.

So I tried not to freak out too much when the count went down to the teen range...but we're about to hit single digits and I have to say it again...whoa. I've been keeping up on some Peace Corps adventures online (specifically Lindsay's Life on My Own Time and Clare's so it goes, in addition to some others, and when reading about others packing up and leaving I remember feeling like I just couldn't wait. Now that it's here, it's all happening so fast!

The goodbyes have started, and it's been amazing and awful. I think I mentioned before that this change is wonderful opportunity to take intentional time to appreciate the quality people around us. But that just makes it so much harder to say goodbye! I finished my job yesterday, and was given the sweetest going away book and a good old-fashioned sloppy joe lunch (we did the official going away out to lunch last week...this was just another good excuse for a party.) :) Yes, I cried. I was honored to be honored by the strong, wonderful women of the N.I.P Community Clinic. You couldn't ask for a better group of role models.

Last night my cousins Melissa and Ben were in town from Oklahoma City and Chicago, and it was perfect to be able to see them and my aunts and uncles and a cousin who lives nearby. This morning we said goodbye to my grandma (we call her Bestemor (Norwegian for grandma)) and my uncle...



(The cutest lady you ever did see!)

This is hard!

Mike's got 3 more days of work, but I'm glad we're to the part where we can begin to focus on getting ready to go. We've moved. We've sold 1 of 2 cars. Work's (almost) done. Time to get our ducks in a row.


The New York Times had a piece on Morocco today, and you can check it out here if you are interested!

One other picture of the sleepover cake from the Flip-Flop girls. If I were smart, I would have taken a picture before we ate it, but it's still darn cute.



Chelsea found a Moroccan proverb -- "You can't catch two frogs with one hand." The frog in front was to the right of the Moroccan flag on the cake. So, he shall be travelling along on our adventure. :)

Lastly, here are the nominees for Bloggies for 2006. It's a great list of great blogs!

Whoa.

We are down to 27 days...

A month can seem so long and so short at the same time! Things are becoming more and more concrete, and therefore more and more exciting...and scary! My car has been sold, and we are moving out of our apartment and storing all of our belongings this upcoming weekend. My replacement starts this Friday at work, and will train with me through the following week and then I'm done! I'll have 3 days the week after to run some errands and do some shopping while Mike works three more days, then we are up to visit his family ...we come home and finish up and rest up for 4 more days and then...

we leave.

I had a going away sleepover, reminiscent of our college days, with the Flip-Flop girls this weekend...and it was wonderful to just soak in quality time with them before we go. Saying goodbye, as darn hard as it is, is a break in the status quo, and, yes I'm getting cheesy here but bear with me, and that break has allowed me to look at things in new ways. It's been cool to take stock of the quality people around me and take intentional moments to appreciate them. Cheesy, right? But important anyway.

Time for more packing.... :)