What a Weekend!

I had been planning a surprise birthday party for Brian for the better part of two months...and this weekend the planning came to end and the partying began:) And boy did we have fun.

Backing up a bit I will tell you that I may never plan a surprise birthday party ever again after this but it was all worth it when I saw Brians reaction to the whole thing. He was so in the dark the whole time that it actually made the whole process harder...I am not sure how many arguments we had as result (nothing serious just disagreements).

I told him we were having a family reunion at my parents Saturday night, he totally didn't want to go for a number of reasons(couldn't blame him). Plus our friend Jordan is home from Med School right now and all Brian wanted to do was hang with his friends. So we settled on him coming for dinner and then he could hang with boys later on. This took some convincing and came with a bit of questioning and a lot of comments such as,"you are never like this about this kind of thing." Little did he know I was acting like this for him.

In the process of planing I got a catering call for the same day, a wedding for 40 people. Brian overheard it and insisted I take it even though I was trying to make up every excuse not to. I mean when you are planning a party for that number of people already taking a wedding doesn't seem that appealing. But since he didn't know all he could do was question my judgement and I broke down and took it. So on Saturday I catered a wedding for 40 at 3pm and threw my husband a surprise birthday at 6pm. On my way to my parents he called and said he was almost there it was 5:15pm ummmmmm....not cool. So I told him I needed him to go to the grocery and proceeded to call him every two minutes with something else he needed to pick up...we also staged my brother in law running out gas and made Brian rescue him. Lets just say at this point he was more than a little annoyed with me. But when he pulled in the drive and saw everyone standing there all of my craziness became clear and think he was thrilled.


All of our friends and family were there, along with a ton of yummy food. I can tell you that the place was decorated and set up perfectly, thanks to my mom and my sister they really saved this whole party for me!!! I couldn't not have in any way shape or form have done this without them.


And what do you know? Jordan was there.
Thanks to everyone who lied, stretched the truth or fibbed a bit to pull this off! Its not easy when the honored person is trying to plan their own party for the very day the surprise party is planned.


I love all of these guys....they are like brothers to eachother and to me! Brian has gone to school with most of them since Kindergarten.


This photo totally personifies my mood for the evening, it was amazing that it actually worked and it was even more amazing to be surrounded by all of our family and friends in on place. It was more than fun!


Critter and her friend Andrea hung around for quite awhile.


Dave and Treasa...probably the sweetest couple we know. Not only are they our neighbors, they have become family!


Some of the menfolk shootin the breeze.




We were so blessed to have such great weather!! More about my wonderful husband later on his actual birthday!

My Girl Rah

My Girl Rah and I are pretty tight. Last week she joined me and turned the infamous age of 29. She asked me the day before if I thought 29 was really as good as it gets and I told her not for us:)

Rah is the kind of friend you need...you call her to vent and her classic response is, "Its going to turn out great." I love it! She is a constant encouragement to those around her and I know I am not the only one to benefit from her cheery spirit. Something else I love about my girl Rah is that she stands up for things she believes in and there is no getting her to back down. This is something that you would not expect from her sugar sweet demeanor, but its true. As a friend she calls you on crap...shes doesn't let you get away with being a jerk or having a bad attitude and that is something I could not live without. Honesty rules!
She is the kind of friend you can sit at a table with for hours and talk about 30 different subjects and laugh tell you cry and cry tell you laugh and do it all over again...shes the best!

So we celebrated (the only way I k now how) last week with a quiet outside meal for four the other two being our husbands. While our husbands talked about their lastest inventions (we love our geeky husbands..because geeks are cute) we sat at the end of my parents dock in the dark and fed the fish and talked about our upcoming stardom on our voyage to 30. Its going to be a big year I just know it:) Sarah also took her inaugural trip down the zipline, at trip that she has been avoiding but that new found bravery in 29 gave her the push she needed and she rocked it!

I am so glad that Brian and I have Sarah and Justin. They are the kind of friends that you know will be your friends until the end. They bless us with their presence in our home at least 2 if not 3 times a week. They steal our kids so they can go see the latest animated movies. Sarah steals my kids and does science experiments and art projects. There really is no question why my kids call them Auntie and Uncle. They are a blessing.

So heres a little shout to my girl Rah!! Happy Birthday my Friend!! You are the best ever.....no jokin!

By the way I changed the song on the blog just for you Rah....I may lose readers....all complaints will be directed to you!

Peaceful sleep where art thou?

My son, my Elliot ... I love this boy more than my heart can handle sometimes. He is my child that is most like me. We have similar hearts and similar personalities. He has never been my sleeper, naps were never his thing, falling asleep has always been difficult. Although as a baby and toddler once he was asleep he would sleep through the night no problems. Lately though we are in a strange cycle and I am at a loss.

Lately it seems we go a few weeks just fine and then we have 3 or 4 day stretch of nightmares...I would actually classify them as night terrors because when i get to him he is still sleeping yet able to talk to me a bit once I get him calmed down. The dreams are horrible and are often about him dieing, being left alone or him being hurt...I can't say the boy hasn't had a bit of a traumatic summer in the injury dept. so I am not sure if that is related. The nightmares seem to be consistently waking him up every couple of hours and I would be lying if I didn't say it wasn't beginning to shake me a bit.

Things we have tried, flipping his pillow to the good dream side, talking about good dreams or things we could dream about before sleep, praying specifically for dreams before bed and talking about Gods ultimate care and comfort for us.....I feel as if we have tried it all and I am starting to think maybe there is a bigger issue. I also pray over him out loud each time he wakes up hoping that God will make it stop and that Elliot will feel comfort...I know He is there.

So this is my plea for help, tips, advice whatever....I am at a loss of what else to do:(

Just not sure how much screaming of death I can take in the middle of the night and I so badly want to help him.

Vacation is Over and Reality is Here to Stay...

I am back from my two weeks of "vacation." One week we were on actual vacation and the second week we were housesitting for my parents. Both weeks were great buy boy am I happy to be home in my own little nest.

School is starting soon and with all of that comes stress and the outpouring of cash. School clothes, school supplies, shoes.....blah blah blah:) I am happy to say that aside from a pair of shoes for Grace that I am ordering online I am finished with the school shopping.

This year brings new chapters as well, beings that I accepted a teaching job through the Meridian School District in the fall. I am working as a community professional and will be teaching K-1st graders about Food and Nutrition. Should e right up my alley and if it goes well this year hopefully next year I will be able to offer the class to more grades. I have been spending a good deal of time writing a curriculum for my class. This has been something new for me but I have enjoyed the challenge and I am so excited to "start school" on the 12th.

I feel like prepping is the theme as I am prepping the kids for new grades, prepping for my class, prepping food for an influx in catering over the next few weeks, prepping for a new year of Children's Church and prepping for a new year of fundraising for school as Eagle Booster President. This all takes time and patience and the latter part of this statement has been difficult. I will say it helps when I can compartmentalize things and deal with single tasks at a time. Looking at the big picture is a bit more than terrifying.

I will say after much anxiety over it all I have realized it doen't matter what happens at the end of the day as long as my heart is in the right place and my faith is strong there is always tomorrow to finish what I didn't complete today.

Instead of flooding the blog with the 100's pf pictures left from vacation I would just post some of favorites. You may recognize some of them as the last few days of vacation we spent enjoying the sights close to home.


When we got to our campground two kids from school were there. The kids were so excited and the four them hung around a lot. Elliot and Sean are in the same class at school.

I kind of like these two...even if they are missing more teeth than have left at this point:)

Elliot made a ball out of his rubber band gun ammo.

I really like this guy...hes turning 30 soon you know.

The kids loving making sandcastles and love watching them do it.

Elliot read Grace this entire book of Garfield comics on vacation. She loved it and so did he.

WE took the plover to Semiahmoo one day...that was so much fun.



Best Ever....How can you not love those little faces?

The boys were doing so sort of physics science experiment.
And there you have it....vacation recap done...check!

Oh! Dinner

I am planning on coming back to the blog tommorow after being on vacation for two weeks. But for now why don't you head on over to Oh!Dinner and check out what they have going on. I was featured on their blog today.

Oh!Dinner is a meal Planning service complete with grocery lists and varied meal options for busy moms. Being that I am all about the home cooked meal I am very excited for these girls and wish them lots of success. Let them know if they can help lighten your load.

How it works..
-Subscribe to Oh!Dinner
-Choose from 10 dinner options for the week
-Shop with your instant grocery list

Vacation 2011 Photodump

For now i am going to do a photodump of pictures that on took using my phone on vacation. Tomorrow I will try and do a proper post of reflection.

Here goes:)


you can now by smore ready graham crackers....genius!


Chelan State Park

Graces attempt at wearing Elliots nose clamp for diving.

Just plain old beautiful Grace and her blinged out fashion glasses.

My handsome heartbreaker.

Beach/Swim Area Chelan State Park.

Tan Tan Tan.


Best Snow Cone Ever. Hawaiian Shave Ice is the bomb!

Enough Said......

Graces has never had a brain freeze in her life....ice cream is the reason she lives sometimes!

And thats that for phone photos. Wrap up to come tomorrow with more pictures taken with my real camera.

Hard To Imagine

Can it be that the same hands that created this....

Also knit me together in my mothers womb.

Can it be the same hands that place each needle upon these trees also knows each hair upon my head?

Is it the same hands that painted these clouds in the sky?

While driving the passes in our state I am always amazed and caught in complete wonder and bewilderment as I look upon all of the beauty this world has to offer and I catch myself wondering how could you not believe that only a God as big as our is the one who created it.

I can not help but wonder on the 4 mile downhill stretch of Stevens Pass how big our God really is. As you look out over the beautiful lush green trees and the gullys and ravines filled with who knows what is it not even more amazing to think that our God knows of each tree and each squirrel and each broken branch. Much as he knows about each smile, each tear, each hair lost from your head.

It makes my heart skip and beat and my breath catch in my chest. It makes me shudder a bit. I am caught up in it all. I am thankful. I am blessed.

Camping translation #2

Exercise while camping includes

Walking to the pool

Walking to laundry to take care of laundry from child who was to scared to get out of her said tent to get her mom to take her to potty

And raising ones ice cream cone to mouth

I guess you could count swimming to but it seems much to enjoyable to be counted as exercise.

Vacation...we are still enjoying it!

Vacation is a place where

Air conditioning means rolling down your windows

Happiness is being together

And love is something you find by just taking time to look from one person in your family to another

I am the queen of the campsite this week. If you are a mom and you camp you know what that means. I love my job it's the best!

The Most Random Outing, As Of Yet.

About a week and a half ago, Brian got word that there were going to be 4 tickets for a Soundgarden concert up for grabs at work. Now Brian and I both listened to this band heavily in jr. high and maybe even into our freshman year of high school. Before I go further you should know that my taste in music spans all genres and I know the words to way to many songs for my own good its embarrassing sometimes.But further more he heard about these tickets that someone was trying to win through work but it didn't look like the guy was going to meet the requirements to obtain his goal. Well to bad for the poor dude, he didn't win. Lucky us Brian snatched them up.

So woohoo we won the tickets. The catch was the concert was at the Gorge on that Saturday and we found out about the tickets on Thursday. To further the interesting situation, we couldn't leave Lynden until 2pm on Saturday and the concert was at 6pm. And further yet we had to come back home after the concert because we needed to lead worship at church and I needed to teach Sunday school. But we went. In fact Brian wasn't going with out me he said, and beings that I have made him do 100's of crazy things in the span of our relationship (and I did actually want to go), we went.

The tickets themselves were part of the reason we couldn't pass up the opportunity, Brian's employer actually sponsers the concert producers of the Gorge so they have a box there. So we had four VIP Box seats, which included a waitress and VIP parking, which means no field walking for us. This was a pretty kush situation, how could you say no.

The concert was great there were some bands that I had never heard that opened for Soundgarden and the overall feel of that was a bit harder than I would go for, but sometimes live music makes everything that much greater and it was. Plus it was about 98degrees out and the Gorge is absolutely beautiful, I don't care what music is playing.

On another note the people in the box next to us were totally into the concert and seeing that made the whole trip worth it ten fold. This guy had this dance move that resembled what one looks like when riding a Harley....it was great. We took our friend/neighbor Dave with us and he asked me on the way home if that guy made me uncomfortable and went on further to tell me he would have traded seats with me. That was kind but I can appreciate the culture around me. Most people are beautiful in their own way...and this guy was that in his unbridled abandon:)



By the way we got home at 4:30am and had to get up at 7am:) Yeah we aren't as young as we think anymore...it was mighty painful!

Mommy Staycation Recap...

My Mommy Staycation ends in about an hour. And I must say as lovely, wonderful and fun as it has been I have wanted my kids back horribly for the last three days.

So lets recap a l ittle about what has happened over the last week.

Monday...kids left, Brian and picked blueberries, installed my grandmas AC, repaired the new lawnmower, and went for dinner in Birch Bay.

Tuesday....I played with Josh, wrote curriculum, went shopping with Emily and canned my brains out

Wednesday...I slept in, went for a walk with Brian to Second Chance, took a dress to my grandma to be tailored, walked to my in laws, walked with Sarah to coffee, went to my sweet sisters, and went to dinner with Lea (10 shout outs for Mom dinner dates with no little children)

Thursday...I was fingerprinted at the Police Station, went to a coffee break get together, babysat my kids(haha), went to Semiahmoo for a lovely meeting witha new client....all of my clients in Semiahmoo refer to me as the "child chef"...I don't care what they call me as long as they keep calling, sat in the pool with lawnchairs with my hubdub, walked to the Bajemas for dinner, ate a lovely BBQ meal with the Bajemas and watched mad Men, walked home with the hubdub at 11pmish...this was hilarious to me



Friday...participated in Brain Jagers take your wife to work day and stowed away with him on a ferry boat to none other than Friday Harbor.....insert love and smiles here, window shopped and shopped while the hubdub worked, was rewarded with ice cream for being good while he was working, played two new games on the docks until dinner, went to dinner at a fabuluos restaurant the serves local and fresh fare, took the ferry home and played more games until we got back to the mainland, snuggled up and passed out next to the hubdub after a long day, final fodo recap of that day...breakfast at Old Towne, Ice cream not once but twice, and dinner out at Cask and Schooner



The book I am currently reading.





Saturday...slept in, freaked out because we are leaving on vacation in two days and my house is a disaster...apparently mommy staycations translate into no cleaning.....the house has to be spotless when we leave for vacation because I hate coming home to a messy house, so I mopped all of the floors and started some laundry

Thats, that...I am sure you were all dying to know what I did with my week "off."
Oh and P.S. Instagram is my new favorite I phone App I can't live without it.