Ruth and I (Tom) have now been here for four months.  Most people ask, "How are things going?"  And, "what are you doing?"  And, "why is your wife so much better looking than you?"  With these things in mind, a little run-down on our Seattle experience for friends and family is called for:

First, we are doing pretty, darn well.  We have been again and again overwhelmed at how great things are for us here.  We love our church.  I (Tom) love my job and the staff here at Grace Seattle.  We really like our little apartment and our upstairs neighbors.  Really, the only thing that kind of stinks here is the parking in the city.   It is far too expensive and it is a little bit of a pain to have to drive around block by block to look for an open spot.  This, of course, forces us to walk a ton (which is good for me).  Gone, I guess, are the days when I want to go the the store and am able to drive right up to nearly the front door. 

Ruth's job has been a surprising blessing.  We have been amazed at how well the company treats their employees.  Unfortunately it is a rare thing when a company treats its employees with respect and dignity.  Ruth's company, Quotewizard, would be the rare exception.  Moreover, the job itself and the corporate environment there fit right up Ruth's alley in regards to mutual care, challenge, giftings and personality. 

We are playing soccer on a co-ed team.  One thing about getting older (there are a few new experiences that I am learning as the months slip by) is that my skills and fitness are pretty much in the pooper.  My body knows what it wants to do, but for some reason it just can't get there and do what it needs to do.  Just about every touch on the soccer ball seems like a miserable mistake in judgment.  On top of that, my speed is gone and so is my ability to run well for more than 10 minutes.  Sheesh. 

Ruth, of course, doesn't have to worry about the fitness part.  We are beginning to try and do something about it for me.  Gone are the days when I could eat whatever I wanted, sit around for weeks on end, and still run 3-5 miles when called upon. 

We have been pretty surprised by the weather here.  Frankly, we were expecting it to be rainy just about every day.  While it does rain a lot here, it is often times just a mist.  Moreover, on these rainy days there are many, many hours of such days that are not rainy.  And, there are a ton of clear days.  These clear days, make it all worth while.  Because it is here that you are reminding that there is water on both sides of the city (Lake Washington and the Puget Sound), with two amazing mountain ranges over looking.  Frankly, I think the weather reputation here is similar to the lie perpetuated by the namers of Iceland; ie. it is told to keep outsiders away.  Some of the pictures below represent visual landscape here that is often a part of our daily commutes and experiences.

We don't have any new pictures to post.  Sorry.  Below are some from a google search on Seattle to let you know the city a bit.

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure to attend a going-away party for one of our new, dear friends Susan.  She is heading to the London L'abri, with a few stops here and there on the way. 

Apparently, Susan is old friends with Rosie Thomas.  Thus we had the amazing pleasure of having a small concert with Rosie in the house.  It truly was a treat and we felt like we were able to look in on an intimate event, with Rosie's voice and songs taking us to ethereal, transcendent place. 

If you have not listened to Rosie Thomas, Ruth and I highly recommend it.  You will be thankful.  She is both hilarious when she talks and uniquely transcendent when she sings.

Thank you so very much to our anonymous benefactor who sent us money to go on a fancy date, with the above note/instructions!  We went to a movie and had a wonderful evening trying out a sushi restaurant here.  :)

No, not a fish but rather Ruth's sister, Mary Grace, came to visit a week or so ago.  The fish is from Pike's Place Market.  

We were pretty excited for her to come and thankful for the long-long flight out here.  During her short stay here we were able to do a few Seattle things that we haven't been able to do yet.  The pictures below are of her visit and of some the sights we went to.

Two bits of exciting news:  Ruth found a job!! She starts Jan. 4th for a local company doing "inside sales."  We are rather hopeful about it all and confident that it will be with a company and in an industry that she will flourish in (I, Tom, on the other hand is pretty confident that we'd starve if I were a salesman).  Secondly, we have moved into our own apartment.  :)  The pictures below are of our space and some of the neighborhood.

On Thanksgiving Thursday we were thankful to be invited over to Matt and Edna's house for a feast with many new friends and their 26 some kids.  Of course the food was amazing--and I ate too much.  We brought a slew of homemade T-day cupcakes.  Our prep pics are below.  Ruth made the nicer ones, I (Tom) made some of the crazier ones.  :)

On Thanksgiving Friday--also known as Black Friday--we began to move a few things over to our apartment!  On Saturday we finished the move with the clothes, etc. that we've been living out of for the past 3-6 months.  Sitting on camping chairs in the evening and sleeping in our new-to-us bed was pretty great.  Yesterday, Monday, we finally received our things from storage.  Thurman, our amazing driver/mover was super helpful.  His company was not.  We were surprised with a bill that was 2.5 times more than we expected and budgeted for.  Needless to say we were not happy and ridiculously stressed out.  Ben came to be our salvation that day with his help and sun-shiney attitude.  Also, I was able to haggle/complain for probably the second time in my life and was able to reduce the bill by a couple hundred dollars.  Not great, but much better.

We will post pictures of the apartment here soon after the boxes get put away.

While Ruth was away with the ladies, I (Tom) wen to the MLS Cup that was being hosted here in Seattle.  The game was amazing.  Real Salt Lake beat the LA Galaxy in penalty kicks after a tied over time.  Beckham played well, so did Landon Donavan and Beckerman.  However, Donavan's shank during the penalty kick over time proved to be the fateful blow by which LA lost. 

The Seattle soccer fans are by far the best in the country.  They came out by the thousands to support the game and make it all that more exciting.

Thank you also to Jonathan for the free ticket.  :)

I got a few sweet pictures and for the first time uploaded some video as seen below.

Ruth spent the weekend with the women of Grace Seattle at a lodge about an hour outside of Seattle.  As the pictures evidence, there was a lot of snow.  She had a wonderful time snow shoeing around and spending some quality time with the ladies.

I have not posted on here in a long time.  I apologize to all (8 of you) who read this little blog of ours. 

A lot has happened since we moved up here to the great state of (rainy) Washington.  It of course has rained a ton.  These past two weeks, in particular, have been especially yucky.  Cold, wet and rainy.  One of the things I've been surprised by, however, is that a rainy day here doesn't mean it will rain all day long.  While this is often the case, many days consist of rain in the morning, a good 5-6 hours of no rain, and then rain at night.  Thus it isn't as bad as it could be.  We've been told in all of this that going outside and being active is the key to surviving the wet winter months.

This weekend Ruth heads out of town to go on a winter retreat with the ladies of Grace Seattle.  I will be home by myself living the bachelor life for a few days.  More than likely I will have an inability to feed, bathe and clothe myself.  I will probably stay up late every night with a Doritos high.  And on Sunday night I will be heading to the MLS Cup being played here in Seattle!  (A friend has given me an extra ticket that he has.)  If I remember to take photos, I'll post them next week.

Other news:  We've signed a lease on an apartment!  This means we will hopefully be moving in within the next week or two.  We are super excited.  It is a small basement apartment, extremely well built and well taken care of.  Our landlord is a kind lady who is also a pretty well known photographer (without her consent, I won't post her name here).  It is also about a mile away from the church office.  This will be great to give our lives a some rhythm and routine.   

Ruth has applied for about 150 different jobs of various levels of interest.  Most recently she has been offered a job at a law firm in town to function within their support staff.  It is a good job, in a quality firm, with kind and generous lawyers (not meant to be an oxymoron).  This weekend we will be praying through whether or not she should take it.

We've flown across the country to see my cousin Lauren get married to Andrew.  It was extremely nice to see family, both immediate and extended.  The flight, however, was a bear.  Thank you Dad Galpin for helping us do that.  We are greatly appreciative.

I think that is all for now.  Please keep us in your prayers and do not hesitate to call and/or email.  We would love to hear from you.  Below are some random photos from the last few weeks.  And again, I will try to do a better job taking more pictures and posting them on here.

Ruth and I arrived in Seattle just a little over two weeks ago!  We have been working hard to get our feet on the ground in the church (Grace Seattle) and the city!

David and Brenna--friends of ours from seminary and St. Louis--are our gracious hosts for the next month or so as Ruth looks for a job and thus we can afford to rent an apartment in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle, near the church.

So far I (Tom) have enjoyed meeting many different people in the church.  Our pastor, Michael, has been an amazing mentor/guide through my apprenticeship.

Please remember us in your prayers as Ruth looks for a job and we get settled into the city, the church and the community.