I love her!

Kim and George got Joe a face/butt towel as one of his gifts! George and I think it's disgusting that Joe and my sister reuse their towels so this is a perfect solution for them. If you're going to reuse your towel at least you aren't wiping your face with the same part you wiped your butt! I still think it's gross though. Not to mention, I HATE seeing used towels hanging in the bathroom, it looks messy. This is an on-going battle in our house! :)

Didn't buy that Subaru yesterday. Still waiting to get my special 'employee' price. I have a feeling they'd rather not sell it discounted and wait a few weeks until someone comes along and is willing to pay sticker. We shall see.

Happy Wednesday! 2 more days until the weekend!!

I'm going to be...

....an aunt again! Yep, that's right, my sister is having another baby. JUST KIDDING. Joe's baby brother is having a baby. He announced it when we were up there on Saturday. He didn't act too excited, kinda scared, but I'm sure it will all change when a baby is screaming in his face! Joe and I now have more time to sit back and enjoy being aunt and uncle before jumping on the baby bandwagon. Until then, we're savoring every moment as a family of 3. Life wont be as easy when we can't just pick up and take off for the weekend without having to worry about another human being. Anyway, congrats Matt. Hope you have a baby boy. We don't want you to disappear forever if it's a girl. :)

It's Tuesday! That means only 2 more days of work until the weekend. Oh how I love short weeks! I'm so excited for 2010---I have a feeling it's going to be a great year!

In other news, Joe really wants to buy this car:

Hideous, yes. Practical, almost too much. It's an 05 but fully loaded. Leather seats, heated seats---the whole shebang. It's pretty cheap and he wants a snow car. He can't take my car everytime he goes skiing or we'd be over our mileage even more than we are already. Oh, and it's a manual which is what we both want. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda like it........I'd like it even more with tinted windows which would be a must for both of us!

Happy Tuesday!

Christmas recap

Another Christmas here and gone---unbelievable! It was a wonderful Christmas, I'm sad to see all of the holiday festivities coming to an end. Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandma's house. It was our family as well as the Kamp's. It was fun! We had the best pulled pork sandwiches--yum! Then we had a gift exchange. We played the game where you can steal gifts from people, it was a lot of fun. Joe ended up with $25 worth of car washes and I got a $25 Olive Garden gift certificate. We had dinner with the Staple's and then drove around looking at lights. Actually trying to find grandma, but I'll save that story for another time. :)

Christmas morning we went up to mom and dad's, had breakfast and then opened stockings and our presents. It was so much fun with Sophie this year! She was so into opening gifts, playing with her toys---truly precious! Highlight gifts: I got a Snuggie that I'm currently wrapped in, Joe got private golfing lessons from my mom and dad, I got cooking lessons at Sur la Table and a bunch of other fun stuff. Joe got me a new netbook that I'm currently using to write this post. I love it! My old laptop needs to be trashed. Just last week I had to super glue the 'J' key on! This is a web surfing machine---and it's so compact I can fit it in my purse! His parents got us a big home laptop. We want to get rid of the office in case we ever need to use it for a nursery and we are tired of having a desktop. So as of yesterday, we are a laptop family. It's nice! We can both sit on the couch and surf the web now...one of us doesn't have to be away in the office!

We went up and spent yesterday and last night with the in-laws. It was a great trip and the best part was our 4 hour card game with Joe's grandma and grandpa. I love them! They are so awesome, it was great to be able to spend time with them. The best part was that I won one of the games. That NEVER happens!

Hope everyone had as good of a Christmas as we did. Enjoy your last few days of 2010!

Merry Christmas Eve!

I'd like to think I do a pretty decent job when it comes to baking but last night was a total failure. Pictured above are the lovely candy cane cookies I tried to make. My sister decided not to make them and since they used to be one of her favorites I thought I'd be a sweet little sister and make them. Like she pointed out, they look like big shrimps on a grill. What did I do wrong?! I didn't leave anything out but they're flatter than pancakes. Oh well, they still taste good. It will be interesting to see if everyone can overcome the ugliness and eat them. They don't exactly look appetizing to me!

Merry Christmas Eve! No work for me today! Grandma's house at 1 today, Christmas Eve dinner at 5 and Christmas at my mom and dad's tomorrow. Can't believe it's already here! Here's to hoping the next 4 days go by slowly! We'll be going up to the in-law's on Saturday. It's going to be a busy weekend!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Sophie!

Happy Birthday, Sophie! I love being your Auntie....I love you so much!

All I want for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas are two things I'm fairly certain I wont be getting. I want a Snuggie and a trip to Cedar Point. I've blogged about my love for roller coasters before and Cedar Point looks truly amazing. This is definitely one thing I want to do before we have kids, otherwise it will be many years until we're able to go. I also really want a Snuggie but I'm pretty sure no has really taken me seriously. I'm the perfect candidate though. I'm always wrapped up in blankets. It would be so convenient to be wrapped up and have my arms free at the same time! I might have to buy one during the after Christmas sales.

I would love to think that Joe has our trip to Cedar Point all planned out and is just waiting until Christmas morning to have me open the round trip airfare to Cleveland and 2 tickets to this amazing place. I know that's not the case either though. First of all, they haven't released the 2010 operating schedule so that makes it kind of hard to pick a time to go. Oh well, I would be sad if I wasn't the one to research the best travel deals anyway. :)

My biggest dilema now is figuring out whether or not to work on Thursday. We have the option of working all day, taking a vacation day (which I have none so this doesn't apply to me) or taking the day off without pay. No option is a good one for me. I'm thinking I'll just take a furlough day and call it good. It's Chrismas for goodness sake!

Weekend recap

It's Monday already? Say it ain't so! Once again the weekend flew by. I woke up feeling great Saturday morning after my episode Friday night. Can I have a re-do on Friday night?! I hope that never happens again. Everyone is convinced I need to call and tell my doctor just so it's documented. I probably will this morning but I don't want to have to go in. I really think I must have just blown a fuse or something. ;)

Saturday Joe took the day off from skiing and braved Portland with me. We first stopped at Toys R Us to shop for Sophie's 1st birthday present. It was the most chaotic place I've ever seen! We found (what we thought) looked like the perfect present and headed for NW 23rd. More relaxed but not by much. I guess I'm not used to waiting until the weekend before Christmas to shop. I didn't really have anything I needed to get, I just wanted to be out and about with a Starbucks holiday cup in my hand! Not the right day to do it! Too. Many. People. We had lunch at Rose's and then headed to Clackamas. Even worse than Toys R Us. I thought people weren't spending money this year? We got home around 7 and Joe was more tuckered out than he is after a day of skiing. Shopping is hard work!

Yesterday was the best day of the weekend, Sophie's 1st birthday party! It was so cute watching her open presents and be surrounded by other little kids around her age. She did SO good, didn't shed a tear the entire day. When it was time for her to dig into her giant cupcake, she daintily put her finger into the frosting and then into her mouth. Guess she didn't want to get dirty. She is so amazing.....it's been so much fun watching her grow and change. It's hard to imagine life pre-Sophie now that she's such a huge part of our family!

Happy Monday! Yay for a short work week!

My mind escapes me

Last night I had the weirdest thing ever happen to me. We were on our way to Joe's company Christmas party and on our drive I lost all of my short-term memory. I would ask Joe something, he'd answer and then I'd ask the same thing again. It was driving me (and him too) crazy. I remember saying, "Oh my gosh, what if I've permanently lost my short term memory?" He said it would suck, he'd have to start writing every thing he says or does down on paper so I'd remember. Hahaha. Anyway, it continued to get worse once we got to the party. I was talking to one of his co-workers and wanted to say something (in relation to the conversation) but totally forgot what I was going to say and what we had been talking about. I had 1/2 glass of wine (Joe spilled most of it) and started getting double vision. I can't remember anything I talked to anyone about at the party and after we left I told Joe I needed to go to Wal-Mart to pick up pictures. I kept asking him why we were going to Wal-Mart on our drive there and I forgot again once we got in what we were there for.

We made it home but on our way here I got the most horrible headache I've ever experienced. I was totally doubled over in pain and didn't think I was going to make it to bed. I remember thinking before I fell asleep "please don't let this be here when I wake up." I woke up at 6 and feel pretty much back to normal. Just a little freaked out by last nights episode. Has this ever happened to you? Made the mistake of telling my mom (partly because I needed to tell her how embarrassed I was to be in front of all of Joe's co-workers acting/feeling that way). Now she has me worried that I could've had a mini stroke or some crazy type of brain tumor! I'm still alive and kicking this morning to apparently it's nothing that bad. And even better, my mom just talked to Sue (who was at the party) and she said I acted totally fine and acted like I was having a great time. What the...

I told my mom this is how I would imagine someone to feel after receiving the date rape pill. My night, and even my day at work, has totally escaped me.

Here's to hoping for a memorable day. :)

P.S. If any doctors are reading this, feel free to chime in! Did I just have a severe case of chemo brain?

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my mom and dad's 38th Anniversary! Thanks to both of you for showing Kim and I what a great marriage should be like---I'm so thankful to have such wonderful parents! I've always loved telling people that my mom and dad lived across the street from each other growing up. What are the chances?! They started dating in high school and continued after. My dad went to UW and missed my mom so much they decided to get married on his Christmas break so she could go back to Seattle with him. Or at least that's my version of the story. :) 4 years later they had my sister and 7 years after that me! I know all relationships have their ups and downs but I can honestly say I only remember my mom being really, really, REALLY upset with my dad one time. It was when he surprised her with a new car for their anniversary. I think she was more in shock than mad, but she was still pretty pissed. Hahaha, other than that I never experienced any type of major argument or fight----in my eyes we all had the perfect family/life and I think that's exactly how it should be! ANYWAY, happy anniversary again....I love you!!

Today we're having a Christmas lunch at work and tonight we have Joe's company Christmas party at the Red Lion. Tomorrow we're going to do some shopping and on Sunday we will be celebrating Sophie's 1st Birthday! That will definitely be the highlight of the weekend. I can't wait to see her in all of her birthday glory. I can't believe she's been with us a year already on the 23rd. She's simply amazing. I love her more than I ever thought I could!

Happy Friday!

Fleas on a dog

Leave it to my dad to change the lyrics of "Feliz Navidad" to "Fleas on a Dog." Since he came up with this last weekend it's been stuck in my head ever since. Sing it---it actually really does sound the same! Thanks, dad. :)

I've been trying to figure out how I got so much shopping/baking/decorating/Christmas card writing done last Christmas. I was in the Christmas spirit and I really enjoyed every single day leading up to Christmas. I finally determined it's because I was only working part-time! Ahhh, those were the days. The only shopping I've done this year is online and I haven't done anything else. I finally mustered up enough energy to do order Christmas cards yesterday, they might make it to people by New Year's?

With that said, Christmas is less than two weeks away! We'll be spending Christmas Eve/Christmas in Longview with my family. Christmas is always fun, my dad loves Christmas and always has so much fun coming up with awesome presents for everyone, especially George and Joe. I think it must have been a little boring shopping for girls all of his life?! I think this years presents are the best yet---I can't wait to see Joe's reaction! I don't know if we'll be going to the in-law's or not. Jayne (joe's mom) is having surgery so she'll probably be out of commission....hoping they can come down for New Year's brunch after Jayne is better!

Hope everyone is enjoying the pre-Christmas madness. If only it would slow down a bit, I haven't even had a chance to enjoy the holiday cups at Starbuck's! Hoping we can do that this weekend. Saturday is the only day we have available so I'm thinking we'll trek down to Portland....I need a little NW 23rd in my life! It's so festive at Christmas!

Happy Wednesday!

December already?

Wow, didn't realize it had been so long since I last blogged! Thanksgiving was perfect this year. It was so much fun to have a new family member with us---Sophie! As always, she did great and enjoyed tasting all of the delicious food. Joe and I went skiing at White Pass on Friday on our way to his parents house. We got up there and stayed until Sunday. Our "Un-Thanksgiving" on Saturday was a blast!

Last weekend was the Clary Christmas Party at the Longview Country Club. It was definetley the best party yet, we had so much fun.

Hope everyone is having a good start to the holidays. So many fun things going on, every weekend in December is booked for us---I love this time of the year! And having a full calendar! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Just had a great pre-pigout workout and I'm ready to start cooking! I don't really have a lot to do this year. Actually, hardly anything at all. I feel guilty about not taking more but there's always so much food. There will be twelve of us at moms house today, me & Joe, Kim, George & Sophie, Grandma and the Staple's. Yet for dessert we have a pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, pecan pie, berry pie and peanut butter pie. Hahahaha, see what I mean? Oh well, I guess that's what the day is all about. I'm making my corn pudding. I made this for the first time a few years ago and we've been hooked ever since. It's so delicious!

Tomorrow Joe and I will be bypassing all of the crazy shoppers and (most likely) head to White Pass for a day of skiing before going to his parents house tomorrow night. We'll have our
"Un-Thanksgiving" on Saturday night with his side of the family. I'm so lucky and thankful that his parents don't mind us celebrating on Saturday instead of the day of. I've never missed a Thanksgiving with my family and I don't ever want to! I told Joe eventually we'll just have them come down here and we'll all celebrate together. Perfect solution!

Saturday is also the Apple Cup, GO COUGS! Looking forward to a nice, relaxing 4 day weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Joe and I are huge fans of Papa Murhpy's. We love their delite pizzas, pizza that supposedly is low calorie compared to their other pizzas. I don't think it tastes low cal and I'm a huge fan of super thin crust pizza so I love it. Anyway, we got coupons in the mail and on the back above a picture of one of their 20 pounder pizzas, it says, "Belts have notches for a reason." HAHAHA. I laughed and showed Joe but started thinking about that tagline. If I were a consumer of this 20 pound pizza I think that would totally turn me off from buying it. It even made me resist going to get a delite pizza for dinner Sunday. It's like it's saying, "eat me and you'll get fat!" I guess the truth hurts!

FRIDAY!

TGIF! I'm so excited for the weekend. Tonight: making dinner for Kendra and Robby (I've been trying to play match maker for months)! Saturday: baby shower for Mandi. Sunday: SKIING! It's all I've wanted to do after last weekend! I still don't think I'll ever be as obsessed as Joe though.

Speaking of skiing, Joe is going today since he's off of work. Not fair! He just called after being on the road for 1/2 hour to say he forgot his season pass at home so he's on his way back. Dang. I called to see if they could look his pass up but I couldn't get an answer. I told him that the message said they got a foot of snow last night though so he's coming home and going right back...just going to be a super long drive to get there today! Lesson learned: don't leave home without your season pass!

In other news, I got an H1N1 shot on Wednesday! I was very apprehensive about getting it but Dr. Nichols said it was very important than I do, more so than the regular flu shot. I had to go to the health department since all of the doctors offices are out. As I walked in they asked who my primary care physician is and after I told them they said they were only giving to those who don't have doctors and/or health insurance. Serious? After talking to the lady and explaining my situation she agreed that I'm in one of the high-risk groups. I think it's pretty crazy that all of us who pay a lot of money for and have health insurance aren't able to get the shot but all of the people who don't have insurance/jobs get it. For free. Doesn't make much sense to me. Glad I was able to get it though. At least for now, hopefully they don't come out three months from now saying is causes major complications!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. It's almost Thanksgiving. YAY!

Perfect ski day!

Yesterday we went skiing at Timberline and it was an absolute perfect day. The conditions were great, the crowds weren't bad and best of all, the sun was out! I was a little apprehensive about going since I was going to be the only girl but I kept up with the guys and even out skied two of the guys that went with us. Definitely not Joe though. I finally tuckered out around 3:30 after skiing from 9 and only about 1/2 hour for lunch. He could've easily gone till closing......my legs just weren't having it. I've come a long way since last ski season. It's exciting to see how all of my working out has made my leg strong and (for the most part) back to how it was before cancer. Can't wait to go again soon! However after I get my 5 or 6 trips in for the season I'll be good.....Joe has already gone twice, I'm guessing he'll probably go about 25 times this season. I'm good with 5. :)

Today I'm making dinner for Kim, George, mom, dad and Sophie (she eats little bites now!). On the menu: Stuffed mushrooms, chicken with wild mushrooms and balsamic cream sauce and orzo, baked acorn squash and bread pudding with rum sauce. I'll post the recipes if they turn out to be good, they're my gophers! :)

Happy Sunday!

I love that shirt! It's so true! I saw Dr. Nichols yesterday and I had another perfect check-up. I have now been in remission for 1 1/2 years!! Such a great feeling. It's funny though, when I first started going for check-ups the cancer center didn't bother me. I could go into the infusion room (where people are getting chemo) and be fine with it. Now even the smell of the place gives me the creeps. I can hardly stand to even look into the infusion room let alone go say hi to the nurses. It's become more of a scary dream than a reality and I guess I don't want to relive it.

After the appointment we met up with Kim and Sophie! Sophie is changing so, so fast. She gave me a kiss!! At least that's what I'm going to call it. I was holding her and she got really close to my cheek and gave me a wet-slobbery-something. It's like she knows what she's doing she just doesn't quite know how to do it yet. We had dinner at Arawan and she tried Pad Thai....I don't think she's going to be happy with her puffs and organic mushed peas much longer. :)

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

And so it begins...

I just said goodbye to my husband. That's right, tomorrow is the opening day at Crystal and he just left me for the mountain. Tonight is the official start of my 'ski widow' status. He decided to leave tonight and drive up and stay with his parents so he doesn't have such a long drive tomorrow morning with his cousin. I want to go! Well, not really. You see, the first year I dated Joe I made the mistake of turning him into a ski monster. I'll never forget the first time we went. I took him to White Pass with my cousin Brian. If you need a confidence boost, all you need to do is take someone skiing that's never been before. I felt like a pro and he couldn't even hardly stand up for more than 2 minutes without falling down. He hated it. I remember him throwing his poles down at one point and saying how stupid skiing was. Fast forward a week and he's at it again, determined to get good. Two weeks after that he's becoming slightly obsessed. And loving it. Next thing I know he's going on all of his days off and wanting to go every weekend. Before the end of that season he was better than me and I've been skiing since the young age of 9 or 10. Not fair!

Fast forward another 4 years to today and he's 100% totally addicted/obsessed/in love with skiing. A double black diamond skiing phene. Needless to say I can't keep up.....nor do I have any desire to. Double black diamonds? No thanks.

Him and his cousin are even taking an Avalanche training course this winter. They're pretty hard core. Hopefully he slows down a little eventually and I'll be able to keep up again.........

My next car

Everyone who knows Joe knows his obsession with cars. He can tell you anything about any car, truck, SUV and van including what was included on specific years, etc. He even knows random facts (what year the headlights changed) on cars he could care less about. Anyway, we leased my Subaru Legacy and the lease is up October 2010. Joe's been researching cars since Day 1 of the lease and I think he's counting down the days until we get a new car. I'm pretty sure my next car will be the all-new 2010 Subaru Outback. I don't know how I feel about driving a wagon but it's functionality is really hard to beat. We went to Clary's last Sunday and sat in one and there's tons of room. The backseat is huge (car seats?) and I think there'd even be enough head room for my dad (that's hard to find)! I think 2010s look more like a mini SUV than a wagon. That's what I'll keep telling myself... :)

Whatever we end up getting, we'll definitely not lease. Worst. Idea. Ever. Although I know we'll probably be fine on mileage, I'm constantly worried about going over. I hate it! As of now we're about 1,000 miles over. Luckily it's only $.15 per mile if we go over 36,000 but still....it adds up!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Stay dry!

Weekend recap

Last weekend was great! Friday night Joe and I went to Parker's for dinner. We got a $50 gift card from someone at our wedding so we figured we better use it before they go out of business. Parker's always seems to be busy but you just never know in this town! It was delicious. And even better because we didn't have to pay for it. :) I had a glass of Riesling, Joe had a beer, we had an appetizer and both had Halibut for dinner. All we had to pay for was the tip. Thanks, Steve and Shaye! :)

Saturday, Halloween, we just enjoyed being home. We made pumpkin sugar cookies and then went up to my parents later in the day. Kim and George came up so we had Papa Pete's and just hung out. As usual, they didn't have many trick-or-treaters. Can't wait until Sophie gets excited about Halloween! She was a lady bug this year....so adorable! Sunday Joe's mom and dad came down for the day. I wanted to have them down for dinner the weekend before but Joe's dad had to work. On the menu: Beef Stroganoff, baked acorn squash, garlic bread, apple crisp and homemade vanilla ice cream. I had so much fun making/baking everything! This weekend: Tacoma for the Warren Miller movie. We're going to go up tomorrow when I get off and then come back really late on Saturday night. Probably wont leave Tacoma until about 11 or so. We would stay but Joe has to work Sunday night at 8 so he wants to sleep at home and not have to wake up and drive.....don't blame him! Joe sleeping all day Sunday = Sister Sunday hopefully!

Hope everyone is having a good November so far!

Sanderson for Mayor

Joe's Grandpa is running for the Mayor of Milton! Last time we were up there everywhere we looked there were huge "SANDERSON for MAYOR" signs around Milton. Pretty exciting to see! I hope he gets it. Click here to read his statement from the King County voters pamphlet. I made him promise to give us one of his big signs after he wins it.....I want it for our garage!

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! I'm sad to see that October is already over. I really think October is my favorite month of the year. I love everything about it. Even the rainy days---if only they weren't so frequent!

Next weekend we're going to Tacoma to go to the new Warren Miller movie with everyone. It's always fun to do---gets even the not-so-hardcore (me) skiers excited about the season!

Happy Friday!

Sister Sunday

Last Sunday Joe had to work so I spent the day with my sister. No Sophie, just the two of us. I think it was a much needed break for Kim! We timed it so that Sophie was taking a nap so George could babysit and it ended up being a perfect afternoon. We went to Vancouver Mall and started with coffee at Starbucks. While we were waiting for our coffee we noticed a massage place next to Starbucks. They were very eager for our business and practically ran out to show us their services. They had big comfy over sized chairs that they used for 1/2 hour foot massages. That's all it took to have us hooked! We went to Nordstrom so I could return something and then we headed back to Lao Shau Massage. It was heavenly! I don't know if we'll ever be able to go back to Vancouver Mall without getting that done everytime!

We finished the night with dinner, George and Sophie joined us for that, and then I headed home. It was a great day!

I'm pretty sure that's the last fun thing I've done the past few days.....and probably why my blogging has become few and far between. I need more excitement in my life! Maybe one of these days I'll get a surge of 'blog motivation' and do a Honeymoon recap and post some pictures? We'll see....

Happy Wednesday!

TGIF

SO glad it's Friday! Don't know what our plans are but it's the weekend so that's all that matters. Joe might have to work on Sunday, 12 hours of overtime. YAY! I'm so glad he likes working and has such a great work ethic. It's hard to not be motivated by time and a half though!

We're hoping Joe's mom and dad will come down tomorrow for dinner. I've been on a cooking spree lately and I want to make dinner for them. It's so much fun using all of my new kitchen stuff! If they come down, I'm making Beef Stroganoff. Joe's aunt made this for us a couple of years ago when we visited them in Seattle. I remember always complaining when my mom said stroganoff was for dinner but this is the best I've ever had. Here's the recipe....definitely worth a try!

Beef Strogonoff
2 lbs meat, sliced into thin strips (best is filet Mignon)
4 cloves of minced garlic
Salt and pepper
2 onion, small sliced
4 tomatoes, pureed (DON’T use salsa or ready tomato sauce)
2 tablespoon butter
½ cup ketchup
½ cup cognac
1 cup fresh mushrooms
1 ½ cup heavy cream (Try to use Creme de leite)

Mix the meat with garlic, salt and pepper. Saute the onions with butter and add the meat until golden brown. Add the tomatoes, cook until the meat be very soft, add water if needed. Add the mushrooms, ketchup and cognac. Add the heavy cream and turn off the stove. Taste---might need more ketchup, cognac, salt or pepper.Serve with hot white rice and garnish with shoestrings.

And last, one of my favorite pictures of Sophie and I. She's 10 months today!
I love you, Sophie Marie!

King of the Bed

When we got our new bed and bedding, I decided that I was tired of having Subie sleep with us. It would be ok if he stayed at the foot of the bed but he likes to be up in our face. If I turn to the other side to avoid him, he walks over my back and goes to the other side. Some nights are worse the others, he's especially bad about this in the morning. Our alarm clocks going off is his cue to come cuddle. Anyway, I bought this dog bed a few weeks ago and thought I'd give it a try. And to our surprise, he LOVES it! His body takes up the entire thing but I think he really likes how tight it is around him. It's still on our bed but it's a step closer to being off. We started a bad habit!

This weekend: Matt (Joe's little brother) wedding reception. Him and his now-wife got married two weeks before Joe and I at a drive-thru in Vegas. They're totally anti-wedding anything but her parents really wanted something to celebrate the two of them. Don't blame them one bit, can't imagine not having anything! Anyway, it's tomorrow at 7:30 pm. It will be interesting to see how it turns out considering how much they hate all things wedding related! Joe has to work Sunday night so we'll be coming home tomorrow night after it's over.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A Perfect Fall Weekend

This weekend was perfect! Joe had to work 12 hours yesterday so I headed down to Vancouver to spend the day with Kim. I got to their house right as Sophie was going down for a nap so we took advantage of her sleeping and went for coffee and to get pedicures. So relaxing and so fun to have some sister time. After we got back from our pedicures Sophie was up and we all headed to the pumpkin patch. We went to Bi-Zi Farms in Vancouver and it was the coolest pumpkin patch I've ever been to! Sophie had major sensory overload but I think she really enjoyed it! She loved all of the farm animals. It's so amazing to see how fast she's changing! We'll definitely be making the trip to the pumpkin patch a yearly tradition. I can't wait to see how excited she'll be next year when we go!

After the pumpkin patch we headed to the Screen Door for dinner. YUM. I was gone a long time....Joe beat me home! It was great to spend the day with the three of them. I'm glad they let me tag along. :) Next year Uncle Joe will have to go with.

Today was an equally fun day. We got our new bed! A King size bed and I can't wait to go crawl into it and spread out! It was so much fun putting all of our new bedding on that we got for our wedding. It's the 'Hotel Collection' from Macy's and it really does look like a hotel. So clean, so sharp. Simple yet elegant. Love it!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I can't believe that tomorrow is one month since our wedding. Where did the month go?! It doesn't even seem possible!

A perfect day!

Wow, how fast the time went! Our wedding was one of the best days I've had so far. Everything was absolutely perfect. I've never been on such a high, everything was simply amazing! I wish I would've trusted everyone when they said to not sweat the small things. In the end, they went unnoticed and we both had such a blast! And the weather was perfect. Beautiful, no wind and about 90 degrees.

Our Honeymoon was amazing as well. We stayed 10 nights in Maui, 6 in Kaanapali and 4 in Wailea. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime. We went zip lining (so fun!), snorkeling, hiking, kayaking....it was great. We also wined and dined like never before and enjoyed ourselves immensely. And surprisingly, I'm not quite as bummed about being back home as I thought I would be. I guess I'm still on that high, SO much to look forward to in our new life together! Thanks to all of you for making it an unforgettable day for us.

I'll be a Mrs. when I write my next blog!

This, my friends, is my last blog before the big day. Today is my last day of work until the 28th, therefore it's my last day of routine. And when there's no routine, there's even fewer blog posts!

I'm SO excited for Saturday! And it's supposed to be 90! That's a huge relief after the crappy weather we've been having.

I'm so full of so many different emotions at this point. I have butterflies and I feel like I will start crying at any moment. Anytime I hear any of our songs I start tearing up. And I've been having really weird dreams this week, one on Monday was about my Grandpa Gaston. It was so real---nothing about him had changed. He was exactly how I remember him. In my dream I had gone down to Grandma's for something and Grandpa was sitting on the patio. I was so excited to see him to tell him I was getting married and tell him all about Joe. I know he would definitely approve of Joe! Maybe that's a sign that he'll be with us in spirit on Saturday. I sure hope so.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week! Be back to reality on September 28! :)

A perfect day

Yesterday my mom, sister and I had a girls day. It was a perfect day! It was the first time Kim had left Sophie for more than an hour or two so it was really a treat for her! We started our day with brunch at Mother's in Portland. We had to wait an hour for a table but it was well worth it. It was delicious! We each ordered something different then shared. Kim had fresh raspberry pancakes, mom had 'Crunchy French Toast' and I had biscuits and gravy. If you're in Portland, this is a must eat place. Even if you have to wait, wait. You wont be disappointed!

After breakfast we headed to Bridgeport Village to our spa appointments at Coldwater Creek. It was so relaxing, felt like we were on vacation. Our only regret is that we only had one spa treatment. We weren't ready to leave!

It was a great day to relax a little before the big day. We got back to Kim's house at around 5 and George made us Roast Beef Po Boys.

It was truly a perfect day! I love my mom and sister!!

FRIDAY!

Happy Friday! I can honestly say this is the first Friday that I've actually been not excited for the weekend. I needed this past week to go just a little bit slower. Actually, a lot slower! Tomorrow when I wake up the, "Oh my gosh, 1 week" feeling will hit me big time. Ahh! Not nervous about saying 'I do' just a little stressed about all of the last minute things that we need to get done. They'll get done though. And if things don't turn out exactly like I had visioned, no one will know. Right?! I'm getting so excited! I feel like I'm already on a high, hopefully it keeps up as the day gets closer! I'm also feeling a little sad about how fast it will all be over but then I remember that we're going to MAUI. That's a huge detail I haven't really had time to think about. So exciting!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Labor Day Weekend!

Impressed!

I came home from work tonight to the wonderful smell of Blackberry Grunt. And it's delish. And even better, it was made by Joe! He even made homemade vanilla ice cream to go with it!!

I can't forget to mention that he also grocery shopped and mowed the yard today on his day off instead of riding his motorcycle everywhere. I'm impressed. And a little surprised. And I'm not going to lie, I don't really know what to think! All I can hope is that he keeps this behavior up! :)

Here's the recipe for Blackberry Grunt. So good!

Sick!

The pictures above are from a house that's for sale in Longview. Are you kidding me? The marketing remarks say it's a "bit of a fixer upper." I think it would look totally different if these people took a day to clean up all of their crap! Do people really live in messes like this? It makes me stressed just looking at it!

I was stressed about not having energy to clean as much as I would've liked tonight until I saw these. Our house looks spotless compared to these!

Think the owners of this 'fixer upper' should take a little time to clean? Make it a little more marketable perhaps? Geez.

Camping extravaganza

This past weekend we went camping at Cresap Bay at Lake Merwin. It was a perfect weekend! Sophie was a great little camper. It was so much fun spending the weekend with her. Her personality is really starting to shine through. She makes my heart melt!

The only real complaint she had was when we went boating. She was not happy with her life vest. We couldn't blame her though, it was like a straight jacket. Needless to say she didn't last on the boat long!

Can't wait for next year!

I love her!

One month!

One month from today I'll be a Mrs! I'm trying to stay cool, calm and collected but waking up this morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck..........ONE MONTH! I'm so excited, it's just the fact that I feel we have so much to accomplish between now and then. How will we ever get it done!? When Joe proposed last September and we picked a date, I felt that I had so much time to have everything totally perfect. Now I feel like I'm scrambling to get everything done. I've always worked best under pressure but I wish I wasn't feeling so stressed right now.

And for any soon-to-be-brides out there, take my advice and don't spend hours looking at pictures on sites like projectwedding.com. We've made most of our decisions already, but after looking at some of these amazing weddings, I start to change my mind and over analyze everything. I'm getting ready to put Joe to work on several projects. He's more than willing, I just hope he knows what he's in for... :)

If I don't blog much between now and September 12, I think you'll all know why.

4 years!

Four years ago today, in the parking lot of Safeway in Pullman, Joe and I "officially" started dating. We had gone for our nightly McDonald's ice cream run and decided that we really liked each other and should probably put a title to being our together 24/7. It's hard to believe it's been four years! We've been through more than most people will ever have to go through and he's been by my side and been supportive throughout everything. He's amazing. I'm so happy that a month from tomorrow we'll be walking down the aisle. I love you, Joe!

Almost Friday!

TGIF!

We had a wonderful weekend in the San Juans last weekend. It took us 6 hours to get to Anacortes on Friday but once we got there Jack picked us up on the boat and took us to the island. The island was very quaint. No stores, no paved roads.....only way to get there is by boat or airplane via the grass runway. :) It was great to spend time with everyone though. They caught about 80 Dungeness crabs and I'm proud to say I cracked my first ever crab. I think everyone was in disbelief that I'd never done that before. First time for everything! Then Uncle Jack made the best crab cakes EVER. He is an amazing cook!

Today we had our tasting at the golf course. The food was amazing and it was fun to be able to get a sneak peak at what our meal will be like. Can't wait!

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend. The calm before the storm! Kim's birthday is tomorrow, Joe's going to his brothers bachelor party on Saturday (he decided to get married in Vegas 2 weeks from now) and I plan on getting stuff done here. Can't wait to mark more stuff off of the list!

Have a great weekend!

That's right. According to my car, it reached 106 today. A little too hot but I'm not going to complain.

We're going to Decatur Island this weekend with Joe's family. They rented a house and there will be about 20 or so people there. You can only reach it by boat so Joe's Uncle Jack is going to pick us up at the marina in Anacortes on Friday. Can't wait for a fun weekend!

Just pictures.

My flowers have gotten huge!
Another flower shot. Oh, and GO Cougs!

My first red tomato of the year!!

Last but not least, an early wedding gift, our Kitchen Aid Mixer! In my favorite color, lime green. It looks GOOD on our counter. I think I'm in love. Thanks, Camping Group! :)

A wonderful weekend

This past weekend was my second and last bridal shower. It was simply amazing! My sister and mom did an awesome job putting everything together. There were probably about 30 people. The menu included chicken salad sandwiches on crossaints, stuffed apricots, pasta salad, tons of fruit, tomatos with mozzerla and balsamic vingegar---everything was so good!

Thanks to everyone who was there and made it such a special day. It will be a day I will always remember!