Christmas quikie

I am leaving tomorrow for Guatemala. I just thought that I would post up some Christmas pics. (this site is STILL uploading them small. ..stupid thing!) We had a fabulous Christmas. It is sooo much fun being a parent during this time. I loved watching my twerps open up their gifts and I especially loved seeing Henry believe in Santa. Santa wrote Henry a letter and told him that he should eat more variety of food (read: fruits & veggies) and sure enough! He did! For Henry he got 12 die-cast cars characters from the self-same titled movie. Fern got some aprons and bracelets and dresses which has made her very happy. She is a clothes girl for sure. She saw a new purple dress and took it to Lyn and was all ugghh uggghhh. [put this on me!] We opened our presents in 3 different waves due to hunger or tiredness. We have had so much fun playing with all the toys to. One of the best things about Christmas was that we had a white Christmas just like the ones I used to know, where the tree tops glisten, and children lis... What? wait! oh, yeah it was snowing really good it just never stuck. But if you just looked just at the sky it was fantastic. We have received so many blessings and surprise gifts that we truly feel that God is watching out for us. We have had 2 different Doorbell Ditches done on us only to find generous gifts waiting for us on the step. whomever you are...thank you.

Well a happy New Year to all of you. I will be thinking about you when I am in the 90 degree tropical weather sipping a coconut milk under the shade of a palm tree and... I 'm just rubbin it in.... Sorry.
I love you all.

Edit: To all my friends near and far, in my self-pity I stated that I had only 1 friend, when in fact I have many. I was trying to point out that my very best friend lives in Guatemala.
Postforoosh: I'll still take you up on the mtn. trip though. :)

Henry's Birthday

Well here is a little update about our life in the last few days. Dec 16th was Henry's 4th birthday. We celebrated it on Dec 17th when Mom and Dad Nelson, Kaynie, Riley, and Micah came over from the other side of the state. It was a nice time, and we got to do some good catching up. Especially with Aunt Kaynie whom we haven't seen in 7 months. Henry wanted a "Blue Angel" cake. The Blue Angels are the Navy's elite acrobatic flying group. They fly in F/A 18's I believe. (for anyone who cares...) Any how if you go down to the pics you can see how the cake turned out. Henry was so excited to be 4, He kept saying "this day is my birthday". He was very cute. I have always enjoyed the excitement Henry has for the world as he opened gifts he would almost jump with excitement. Then to my extreme pleasure he would say thank you to everyone. He was also overwhelmed by attention during the Birthday Song, and he put his hands over his eyes. He is a sweet, quiet little guy. Thank you to everyone who gave him something and/or were thinking about him. I was a great day.

Lyn and I got to go Christmas shopping the other day and had so much fun. We discovered that it could be very easy to spoil a child with too many gifts. It seemed as if around every corner we found something that Henry would like. Fern is not quite to the age where things would be very interesting for her. I think next year dolls and the like will hold much more interest for her. We spent way more than we wanted to on Henry ($60 yikes [Thanks to a certain family that has been very generous to us and shown us much love]) But we found some things that will be memorable to him. We also got him mostly educational / artistic things. I am so excited for Christmas. I remember last year I could hardly sleep on Christmas eve. I think that it will be the same this year. I LOVE being a dad, so sweet.

As you know times have been hard for us lately. I have been going thru some difficult times personally. So that you can understand, I feel like my whole life is a mystery to me right now. For the past eight years I have been working toward being a Landscape designer. It was (is?) what I thought God wanted me to do. But the last 1.5 years has been miserable and after getting to my goal of being a designer, I failed after 2 months. You might be saying "what a loser!, only 2 months! He's been fired twice in a single year?!" That's what I'm thinking about myself at any rate. My employer said as she fired me that it seemed to her that I was "trying to be something that I'm not." So now after such a dismal professional failure, I wonder, "what am I supposed to be?" "Who am I?" "Why did I ever feel God wanted me to do this?"
I feel completely lost. I don't now what to do with my career wreckage, I'm afraid that it is not salvageable. I wonder where God lies in the planning and furthering of ones career. Does he even care, or is that something that is up to you?
Anyhow I have alot to think about. I have no real friends, just some acquaintances. Beside my wife, my only true friend is Hector who lives in Guatemala. Despite not having seen him for 8 years we are still tight.
Thursday Dec. 27th I will be taking my backpack and flying (buddyPass) to Guatemala. There I will be able to spend 14 days with my best friend. We will be taking a chicken bus to El Salvador, and we will be visiting our old mission area where we served together for 6 months. I hope to reconnect with people from my mission. I will have lots of time to talk with my friend. The time in my life when things made the most sense was when I was on my mission. Perhaps returning will spark some sense back into my life. Since I have a BuddyPass and don't have to ask for time off, I feel that this would be a good thing for me. (Beats sitting around at home watching the rain and getting depressed.) I also talked to my Bishop, He thinks this would be good for me too. He said "Don't just make this a trip, make it a spiritual journey" So that's what I am going to do.
I am not asking for anyones permission (except Lyn's) I just would like to, at least avoid any bitterness/Ill thoughts, and at most receive some support from the ones I love.

Merry Christmas to all.

More catch up, Dec 17

Well I haven't been really fastidious about updating my blog lately for a couple of reasons: 1) my shoulder hurts immensely. Thats where I store all my stress. My chiropractor said my back is so tight he almost couldn't adjust me! 2) This website has been uploading my pics fuzzily, I check back every 2 days and it is still fuzzy until today. My shoulder doesn't feel too bad so I'm going to give it a try.
So first off in everyones mind I'm sure is : "Has Caleb found a job"? NO! no one is looking at this time of year. I don;t just mean outdoor stuff but everyone. Nobody wants to do complicated things during the Christmas season. So Ill just wait till Jan. and try some more. I did put in my resume for a city planning job in Redmond, which is right next door to us, but they won't start reviewing till Jan 7th.
Next, "What have the Nelsons been up to"? Well we spent a lovely Thanks giving between mom & da nelsons and my friend and mentor Terrie and her husband. They have a very nice ranch on 35 acres out in Okanogan near the Canadian border. Henry and I helped them with some of their farm chores and had a wonderful time. Pat and Terrie are some really awesome friends. We meant to be gone for 4 days but ended up being gone for14! It's not like I had to get back for work. So after Pat and Terries it was back to my parents house for several more days. One of those day Me, Riley, Henry, and Cedar went up into the mountains above Leavenworth for our traditional Christmas tree hunt. Riley and I found a new place to go and found ourselves (me) a nice little tree. (8 ft) We had a very fun time. Except for Henry who got a little too cold. After the Tree hunt we went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant, for my favorite food. Reuben Sandwich. This restaurant has the best and biggest Reubens. Yes they do contain meat, but for THAT sandwich ONCE a year I can put being a vegetarian aside. (although my stomach felt lousy the next day)
"What else have you been doing" Well we have been enjoying a festive Christmas season. We decorated out tree, we put up the Christmas Village. And Lyn and Henry have been baking like mad. We had our annual Christmas Open House. We had 38 people come by to visit with us. many people told us how nice it was to simply have a party where all you did was have treats and visit. I don't think anybody visits anymore. One person told us that parties like this were a dying art. I never thought of them as an art before, but I think that there is a lot of truth to that. It takes some skill and knowledge of people to create an atmosphere where they feel comfortable enough to simply chatter away.
I don't like posting "catch ups" because they are entirely too stripped of details. They simply function as an overview. There have been some beautiful moments and some terrible moments in our lives but It is simply to difficult to recall them and write about them effectively so long after their occurrence.
There is more that I would like to tell you but I will do so on another occasion, as mom & dad Nelson (and Kaynie, and Riley, and Micah) are coming over today. Yesterday the 16th was Henry's Birthday. He turned 4. We are going to have his party today. I can't believe that I have 4 year old. He, as I have said before is the joy of my life. To me there is no little boy who is more fun nor more sweet than my Henry.

Talk to ya later.

Craaazy weather

Hey did you hear what is going on up here in WA? Well we just experienced the second wettest day EVER!! The Gov just declared a state of emergency. Pretty exciting, luckily we live towards the top of a hill.
We had 3.56 inches by 3 pm yesterday. Here is a newscast from our town of Woodinville.
Aerial video: Floodwaters flow through Woodinville*

I don't have time at the moment but I suspect that tomorrow I will have time to update the blog for December.

Halloween

So this Halloween has been a very fun time. I enjoyed living thru Henry's eyes.
He has long had a group of imaginary friends, actually several groups; the chickens, the rabbits, and the penguins. I think that the penguins are his favorite. Often he will knock on the wall and say "I hear someone at the door", he'll run over and open it up and exclaim "Hi penguins, come on in" Then he proceeds to play with the penguins. So any how making a short story long, he wanted to be a penguin for Halloween. So between $3 in felt and some black sweats we made him into a penguin. He was cute. We didn't do anything for Ferny because she is too young and it's not worth the effort. Any how you can see the pics of our penguin Henry below. Also I have posted pics of our funny pumpkins. Henry carved his own pumpkin this year. The Saturday before Halloween our ward had a Fall Harvest Festival with a Chili cook-off. I am very proud to say "Now do you understand why I'm a bit heavy?"... NO! Oops I meant to say that MY wife won first place by a landslide for her Limon Blanco Chili. I has been the talk of the ward since and she has had maybe 20 people come to her for the recipe. I am really amazed at the natural cooking talent that my wife possesses. She really does take good care of us.

Family life is Great. Professional life SUCKS right now. I lost my job. Yes, My dream job as a designer is Kaput. I didn't see it coming. Apparently I'm not corporate material. I really don't feel like explaining it. But I thought that I would let you know. We could use all the prayers we can get right now. We will probably have to move and several months of tough times lie ahead. In the Landscape industry virtually Nobody is hiring at this time in the year. April is when hiring picks up again. But I don't think that I will return to landscaping. It has been a miserable 1.5 years (professionally) since I graduated. I think that perhaps I am meant for something different. I have been attracted to organic farming for many years now, and I think that will be what I go into next. I mean carrots and potatoes don't really get too involved in Corporate Ladder-climbing politics. Oh sure theres a couple of the really high-strung ones that you need to watch for, but as a whole vegetables are pretty mellow, and for once in my life I could be outstanding in my field, or rather: out, standing in my field. Once again Farmers don't hire till March or April either. So Hey maybe we'll drive around the country and visit all of our friends and family.

Well, until next time.(I should have PLENTY of time for this NOW)
Take care.

Catch up.

My new Job is very demanding and along with the commute is taking a lot of my time. Also as the weather is cool and rainy there is not as much to do that is noteworthy. This week I am just making some retroactive comments and some things that have happened during the month. The coolest thin that happened, OCT 13 (I've got pics) is that noticing that there was to be a break in the weather, arranged to have my Bros Riley and Micah come over and we went for an overnite backpacking trip in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness to a lake named Lake Dorothy. After a month of cool and rainy this 65 degree weekend seemed like heaven. Indeed I hope heaven looks something like this. The fall colors were pretty awesome and of course it always feels good to have warm sun shining on your face while a cool breeze is blowing. It was about 4 miles to the camp at the far end of the lake. On the way to the camp we found several big thickets of Huckleberries (Wild Blueberries) so we spent some time munching down on them. We could've eaten them all afternoon, but we needed to get to camp and set up before nightfall. (Next time we do this hike (we are hoping to make it an annual event) we are going to bring pancake mix and have wild blueberry pancakes in the morning!) We got to camp, explored a bit, got the tent up, found a nice, high limb to tie our food up in to keep it away from the bears, and made a good diner with our backpacking stoves (No fires allowed) Just as we finished dinner it was dark, and I mean dark. Since there was nothing to do outside but freeze we hopped into the tent and yaked a while. I was exhausted from a long week of work so I didn't last long and by 8:30 ,was out. That night was cold. I was OK in my 20 degree bag, but was just cold enough to be uncomfortable. I even had all my clothes on and a heating pack too. What I lost in quality of sleep I made up in quantity, I slept for 12 hours which is more tan i have slept in several years. The next morning was gorgeous. We just stood on this log at the edge of the lake and watched the sun come up and the mist float across the lake. I could have stayed there the entire day, but we had to pack up camp and get back down. Next summer I am going to take Lyn and the kids up there and we are going to stay for several days. There were some nice shallow areas of the lake that would be great for swimming in, in August. We had a great time and think that we got to know each other better as Bros and hopefully formed a tighter bond. In my Sunday School lesson today we were talking about the purposes of life. One of them was to form solid family bonds. If through Christ we live for eternity, who else would you want to spend it with? Maybe if heaven looked like Lake Dorothy and we can be together as family forever, Maybe forming solid HIKING bonds is a good step...
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When Riley and Micah were here the night before the hike they helped me purchase my new, old refrigerator. It is to the best of my deducing a 1949 GM Frigidaire. (see pics)
It is in pristine condition. It looks as if it rolled of the assembly line a year ago. What a beaut!
We absolutely love the Art-deco styling of Mid-century design. It is quite the addition to our pearlescent turquoise kitchen. Every time I see it I just fall in love with it allover again. Now if I could just get it to run correctly...
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On the family front, we are all doing well. The kids are healthy. Lyn is keeping sane (relatively). And I am enjoying the creativity of being a designer. Henry is his usual sensitive and caring and imaginative self like usual. He is the joy of my life. Fern has been walking for about 2 weeks now, and it is very cute to see her waddling around everywhere. Right now she has FOUR molars coming in. I have to say she is NOT gracious when it comes to pain. Her already sassy/spunky attitude really gets magnified. It is hard to deal with sometimes, but hey whatyado?
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As and update to the family gift exchange: We will still be doing it, but IF you feel specially inclined to give someone else besides, in addition to, your chosen person, you may give them a gift too. Just don't feel obligated to. and don't feel entitled to a gift from everyone. We are doing gift EXCHANGE.