Sunday, January 25, 2009

"HOME"

We've come back home to MN (my parents' house). "Home" is a funny word when you don't technically have one. Florida started to feel like home. Being back with my parents feels like home. Surrounded by our stuff feels like home. Matt misses his family, his "home". We looked at pictures recently of our old/first apartment and missed "home".

This morning Matty and I skipped church with my parents and did our own version of "church". No formula, no duties, no set up and take down, no countdown clock and ear buds, no pastor.

Matty prepared some songs on his keyboard and I barely got the first line of singing when i began to sob. (how i truly feel worship)
I feel like the "home" i truly miss the most is the "presence of God". In these last few months i've feared the distane and in turn feared God- coming to the conclusion that God is somehow mad at me. That the desires of my heart are sinful and self serving and therefore God is distant. And mostly that God no longer cares or loves me.

Satan is trying to to keep me from "home".

I am learning what the calling of my heart was in leaving Chicago for this year. It was to escape my "God routine".

Then we sang the song "God is Here". and i cried even more. God IS Here.

and when i leave MN - God is Here.
and when i get assigned to my ship - God is Here.
and when i am surrounded by doubt - God is Here.
and when i feel so far away from home - God is Here.

amen.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Our Early Retirement



We spent some MUCH needed SUN time in Florida! and basically played a hail mary by overpacking in the hopes that maybe just maybe we'd be whisked away to a boat job just BEING in Florida. Well... that was silly. BUT what ended up happening was still amazing!

We had a blast with Tutu and Grandpa. Period. Sun. Golf Carts. Flea Markets (with fanny packs, see above!) Strawberries and hand picked Oranges every morning. Playing cards and watching Wheel of Fortune. Strawberry markets and kitsch upon kitsch!! While playing phone tag with Carnival Cruise Lines we hit up Disney, Dinosaur World and Universal.

In serious reflection, i think everyone should get the opportunity to spend 11 days with their grandparents. I am so grateful for this time to just be with them and learn more about them.

When our trip was over we felt encouragement and readiness to face what will come next...

much love tutu and grandpa.
Art & Bev Thulson (aka. matt and kris!)

DISNEY


STRAWBERRY KING & QUEEN


MATTY IN HEAVEN AT DINO WORLD!


MATTY CONFRONTS T-REX @ UNIVERSAL!

Monday, January 19, 2009

The mighty seas beckon us!!

I am officially proud to announce that Carnival Cruise Lines has hired both me and my wonderful wife, Kris!!

An answer to prayers and a vote of confidence for the basket we put our eggs in last November, we still don't know the exact date of our departure but have been given the words we needed: "Welcome to our team."

This has been no short or easy venture for us. The idea started for us over a year ago in the fall of 2007. Planning for the wedding, we knew we wanted an adventure in the early stages of our marriage and doing some preliminary research found how possible it was to both travel (big plus for us!) and save money. We began calling it our "calculated adventure". We probably interviewed at least 4 or 5 people on our honeymoon cruise. We really wanted to get an idea of how it all worked. After a contact name from a guy I knew who played drums on Carnival, I had set myself up an over-the-phone audition for late July. Mind you, we were still in the dreaming phase and none of this required a lot of our worries or stress. Yeah...that didn't last.

The audition went terrible. I seriously played like crap. But somehow, the easy-going guy behind the entertainment band players thought I was good enough to keep. So there it was! He sent me the forms, I got my medical, sent it back in and I was set. Hired and ready for action in early 2009. It was Kris's turn to audition in the vocal department. What we DIDN'T know was that the guy who ran this department was flaky, unattentive and that the vocal group of cruise entertainment was insanely competitive. So we sweated out the fall, joined an online cruise company that sent resumes to all cruise lines (ALL OF THEM), waited, waited, ate/slept and waited some more. Without much more future knowledge we decided that we should quit jobs and home and become "gypsies" anyhow. Our family and friends supported us and we felt the peace of mind that God brings.

It was easy to keep our spirits hi amidst a super fun east coast road trip and the busyness of family holidays. But 2008 came and went and we still knew so more then the day I sent my papers back to Carnival. Kris eventually got the kiss off email from the vocal guy but was he kind enough to give Carnivals cruise staff contact. As our thoughts and mind began to doubt and wonder, we decided to visit her grandparents in Florida. No cold, no "sweat" (so to speak) right?? It worked for a few days. We continued to pester Chris, our cruise staff contact, to no avail. Amidst the warmth of Florida and the generosity of her grandparents we felt like our way was muddy and unclear. Then it happened. Chris called and Kris was charming as can be. The he called again (While we were at Disneyworld no less) with a promise to call the next day. Then he didn't call for two days and our collective nerves were fraying by the hour, like a high-school girl who waits for "the guy" to call. On a day when we resigned to enjoy ourselves regardless for the rest of the trip, Carnival Chris called, they talked and talked and talked. Then Kris got what she longed to hear since September....
"We think you'd be a great fit."

God is good! And we're more then ready for the next step...

Friday, January 9, 2009

the EAST COAST travails...


The road trip begins!!!! …..or so we thought……

Somehow along the way we failed to think of how much still awaited us in Chicago to tie up or just how annoying and irritating it could be. Allow me to play out the scenario we had in our heads:

We wake up at 9:00, rested and ready to leave soon. We put the last of our small things in suitcases and call the building company to come over and inspect the place as Kris leisurely gets us Starbucks. In the meantime I would run the cable box back to Comcast and take a load to the storage unit, and come back to help finish cleaning the place before the management comes. After they give us the full approval, we set out at a quarter to noon, drop off the last couple things at storage and officially hit the road.

So, yeah, heres how it really played out:


Get up at 9, still pretty sleepy from an eventful but late night. We both shower and Kris grabs Starbucks as I start patching up the place. So far, ok. But somehow this takes us all the way to 11 and I haven’t even left for Comast yet, which is apparently almost in Iowa. Oh, and Saturday traffic REALLY sucks, Like seriously. And much to my chagrine when I arrive 40 minutes later, everyone else who ever signed up for Comcast was returning their stuff too. After calling Kris to inform her of the 5 mile line, I in turn am informed I do not have storage unit keys and therefore all the stuff I packed in the car in advance didn’t matter. By the time I got back it was already 12, the building had already stopped by and our stuff wasn’t even all packed up nor was the place that clean. Luckily the person they sent could have cared less and signed our papers anyhow. So you can see the rest of the picture: 2 hours later, after we cleaned a place far more then we probably needed to, after Kris had done mortal damage to a set of hangers and our car had nearly done mortal damage to my head and we threw the last of crap (which is what it felt like by then to be sure) in the insanely packed storage unit we set off at 2:30. Alas we were in one piece and more then ready to fly the coop.

Honestly the drive itself went off without much of a hitch. Gas was cheap (sweet!) and actually free for us because of gift cards from Kris’s wonderful boss and friend beth (even sweeter!) We more or less gave ourselves the constant guilty pleasure that is Christmas music from the Lite, Deliah and all. There is nothing like Bing Crosby to croon you through the vast nothingness of Northern Michigan, central Pennsylvania and particular strips of Canada. We actually saw some signs of habitats. Apparently these people didn’t get the memo….awkward….

To keep this thing only somewhat long I’ll break down the trip into people, places and food. Because of course, food is the one constant of a good road trip.


PEOPLE:
This category is all good. We had an amazing array of different friends and family all in different life stages. From our young hipster Brooklyn friends to the soon to be awesome moms and dads of Lewiston and D.C. to the recent awesome mom and dad of New Jersey and a little bit of everything else, they all treated us like royalty and fed us like such! ☺

PLACES:

GOOD: Niagra Falls (For an afternoon. Seriously why would anyone spend more then a day there?? Its water!), Segways in D.C., Central Park, Brooklyn and Manhattan, Christmas Spectaculars at Radio City, Letterman and Mr. Elways bust in Canton, Ohio (That one was for me)
NOT AS GOOD: Hmmmm, can anyone figure out the NYC bus system?? Why is the Football Hall of Fame still rocking a severely outdated building? Do Segways turn on their owners?? Does anyone enjoy driving through Indiana?

FOOD:
GOOD: Chili, Fajitas, Stroganoff, Chicken Parmesan, Middle Eastern food, killer bagels!!! These are all good. (Digestive track begs to differ)
BAD: $60 at Ruby Tuesdays in Time Square….WHAT?!?! No need to explain here. We got trapped, I swear!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

the journey begins... again.

it's january 7th... almost 2 months since we moved our belongings into our storage unit, or as we like to call it... our timeshare.
we left our jobs... our church... our chicago friends & our boxes of hardly used registry items and hit the open road.

our "adventure" started with a trip EAST
no drive was longer than 8 hours a day and each home we stayed in provided meals, beds and conversation rent free! we saw Niagara Falls, the Washington Monument, Time Square and the Football Hall of Fame... not to mention some incredible sights and people too.

then we had a 5 week hiccup in our adventure known to many as "the holidays". it seems odd to blog when you're doing what most people are doing. eating too much. family-ing too much and freaking out too much over what is to come with finances, weight and resolutions.

as we slowly leave chicago for the second time since we left... we felt it was truly the time to... BLOG... what a better time to write then when your calendar is empty, your pockets are running thin and you feel like you might be going crazy with childlike wonder? (kris is the crazy part) (matty is the childlike wonder part)

so enjoy the nail biter that is to come!!!