Lately (by Jenny)

The last time I was posting regularly was August. To be honest, it's been a bit of a roller coster of a fall. Here's a summary...

My beloved Nana died in September. I miss her terribly, but she was 91 and ready to go. I will forever be thankful that we became close in the last couple of years and that I got to spend her last week with her, mainly sitting next to her bed, holding her hand, reading to her and just being there. If you still have a grandparent, give them a hug and listen to their stories.

Jason and I got a new kitten! But before I go on about that, I feel like I need to officially say on the blog that our wonderful kitty August died. The crazy thing is, he's been gone for almost 2 years now, and I haven't posted about it. I was SO sad when it happened, I just couldn't bring myself to write about it, and then, when time passed, it seemed too weird be like, "BTW, my cat died a year ago" so anyway, here we are. We still have Oliver and he seemed a bit lonely without August, so we'd been looking for a friend for him for awhile and I'm pleased to say, Oliver loves his new little mini me! As I type this, they are curled up together on the end of my bed purring.

We finished up wedding season, including a really fun one in New York. Fun wedding idea posts to come this winter.

I went to China! My parents and I flew to Beijing to meet up with my sister, who lives in Korea, for a family vacation. Long post on this coming later.

While I was in Beijing, Jason won an EMA! 

And in-between those things, we've been dealing with a few very hard situations that aren't mine to blog about. Overall, looking back at these last few months the emotions I'd use to describe them would be sad and overwhelming. I feel like I've come out of it now, but it was easier for me to not be blogging. And then of course, beyond my own life, people all over the world are living through things far worse than I could imagine. Collectively, it's been a heavy couple of months. Through all of this, I've been reminded that you cannot control what comes up in life, or when your loved ones go, but you can choose to learn and grow through the hard things. I feel stronger, closer to Jason and incredibly thankful for the people in my life who showed up, let me cry, offered advice and were there for me in so many ways.

OK, now that I've written this, I'm realizing it is feeling a lot like a super sad, somewhat introspective, family Christmas letter. Forgive me. I hope this was at least somewhat interesting to you all out there to know where I've been. If not, you should have stopped reading a lot sooner! This was long!