Udderly Moooooved

I am absolutely exhausted and need a couple of days to catch up on sleep, but I'm really enjoying Dad and Kathy being here. We've had a fun week so far and tomorrow we're driving down to Mt. Ranier. It was a beautiful, clear day today and is supposed to be for the next few...we'll see. Anyway, I came home to the cutest card in the mailbox! Wendy sent me the cutest card ever!!!!! I just had to scan and post it! I was udderly mooooved when I opened it. :)
Is this not the cutest card you've ever laid eyes on?!?! I'm not exaggerating here, folks. The single cow is glittered and is popped out. This scan does NOT do this card justice!! This is one COOL COW! Thank you Wendy- You always brighten my day!

Snoqualmie Falls

The neighbors had another bash last night and were so loud, they kept me up until after 2:30 am. I was exhausted but sleep wouldn't come. We've been keeping the windows up which has attracted a swarm of mosquitoes into the duplex. I bought some citronella tubs and that seems to be helping a lot. So between the heat, the noise, and the skeeters, it was a rough night!

We slept in and didn't go to church. Lunch was at Brown Bag, a place that serves yummy homemade comfort food, and split a taco salad. Then we spent the beautiful afternoon at Snoqualmie Falls. We hiked down to the bottom and then had a nice talk while watching kayakers practice below the falls. It was a nice, sunny afternoon with a few white puffy clouds; a gorgeous day to enjoy the outdoors. We stopped at the store on the way back and picked up some groceries, then came home and watched "50 First Dates." That movie is so cute. :)

I'm already getting pretty tired and may head off to bed soon. Tomorrow is a fun day in the city.

TTFN

Fun times

Yesterday was filled with excitement with Eric, Shwa, Matthew & Mindy all flying in. Nathan picked up Eric and Shwa at about 8:30 in the morning. When they arrived, they were starving, so after breakfast sandwiches, they spent the rest of the morning in REI picking up some last-minute things. We had sushi for lunch at a place in the Bellevue Galleria and man, was it delicious! :) I've never liked raw fish so much. We chilled at the house, watching movies and preparing food until Matthew & Mindy got in at around 7:45. We all went to dinner at Royal India - again another tasty meal. It was pretty late by the time we got back home and the guys weighed and repacked their backpacks, trying to get them as light as possible. They wound up leaving quite a bit of stuff here. Mindy & I ran to the store to pick up some more last-minute things and then we came back to finish packing up all of the food according to days.

It was a very late night; I don't think I drifted off to sleep until about 1:00 am and I got up at 4:30 am to make a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, and hashbrowns with bananas and grapes. We had a frustrating search for our pack covers, which we never found. We had to stop by the store and pay $10 for a bag of big and hefty garbage bags so Nathan would have some cover if it rained.

They finally tromped off on the trail at about 8:00 am, a couple of hours later than planned, but we're flexible! :) They all looked pretty tired but I'm sure they were excited to be off. Mindy and I drove both vehicles home and she was able to nap for a while. I still haven't been able to doze. We've been lazing about watching the tube and just relaxing. Now we're off to see what kind of trouble we can get into. :)

TTFN

Crazy week

This has been a crazy week. We decided to start looking for houses on Monday and have already been to see several this week. It's fun being on the hunt again. We've also been preparing for our visitors this week. Tomorrow, Nathan's cousins Eric and Shwa, and our awesome friends the Merritts are coming in. The guys are going backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail from Snoqualmie Pass to Steven's Pass. The most difficult part for me has been preparing the food, but it's been fun. It has been a challenge to find food that will last for 8 days and is light in weight since they'll be carrying it. MREs make Nathan sick, so I've had to be resourceful. I made jerky for the first time, which has been fun experimenting. I came up with my own super secret marinade...I may share it if you're lucky! :-) I also had to make salmon jerky at the last minute...we'll see if it comes out. It's in the oven now.

I better get to bed...I still have some cleaning to do in the morning. YIKES. Just like me...waiting until the last minute...as always!

9 years and still counting :)

Happy Anniversary to my hubby of 9 years. It seems like we met at Joe's Crab Shack just yesterday. This is late, as our anniversary was on the 7th, but better late than never!! There is nobody else I'd rather spend my life with. You are my love, my support, my safe haven, my best friend. I love you.

Family Camp

We spent the weekend camping with our church at Lake Retreat Camp & Conference Center, somewhere over by Issaquah. We got there late Friday afternoon and got in our room, which was full of about 10 bunkbeds. We were delighted to find one that had a double mattress on the bottom. We had the entire room to ourselves, which felt a little awkward. :) We had dinner, then had the pleasure of hearing from Csaba Leidenfrost, a missionary to the Bakwe(sp?) tribe in Ivory Coast, Africa. He spoke to us a short while about the tribe and the location and then we had our Psalm sing. We wound the day up chatting around the bonfire and roasting s'mores. Saturday was full of activities and started off bright and early with a 7:00 walk. After breakfast, we got to listen to Csaba again and then they had a huge soccer extravaganza, with everyone on the field that wanted to play. Nathan played and pulled his calf muscle - NOT GOOD, especially since the backpacking trip is this Saturday! After lunch was the softball game, which I played in...except we only had 8 people show up, so after some batting practice and waiting to see if anyone else was showing up, we played 4 on 4. Nathan came down with the camera and got sucked into being all-time pitcher. Poor thing...he could barely walk as it was and during the softball game he managed to get smacked in the shin and smashed in the toe (while wearing sandals). He got all sorts of messed up, but he did a good job pitching! Despite our team losing (we lost a player so it was 3 vs 4), it was A LOT of fun. It had been a long time since I played and I was placed in left field, a popular spot to hit the ball! I got a full workout playing, as there was only one other person in the outfield. After playing softball in the hot sun for 2 hours, we cooled off in the lake. That's where everybody was...jumping on the trampoline into the water, jumping on the blob into the water, canoeing, and sunning on the dock. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was hot! We played until dinner, then had another session followed by cookies, ice cream, and coffee. We finished up the evening playing foosball, ping pong, and then board games. It was such a fun day! (This was also the day of our ninth anniversary.) It was very difficult to get up Sunday morning due to exhaustion and soreness. I could barely pull myself out of bed. We had breakfast then loaded up all of our stuff and went to church service in the chapel. After that, we hightailed it outta there to get back to the hot tub! I wound up being so tired, I plopped down on the couch and veged out in front of the tube. It was a fun weekend!

Another card for Adam

Another card for Adam, though it's not Challenge 3! Just a couple of SCS challenges- sketch and using ribbon in a different way than you normally do (SC131 & WT120). I rarely use ribbon on masculine cards, so this was a challenge for me. I hope it doesn't look too girly!

4th of July

Our 4th of July was lots of fun. We stayed up extremely late Tuesday night and slept in until 1:00! We putzed around making burgers then loaded our bikes into the truck and drove down to Blythe Park to ride the Sammamish River Trail (part of the Burke-Gillman trail). It's a paved trail that runs from Seattle to Marymoor Park, a little over 21 miles total. There were quite a few people out biking, walking, jogging, and roller blading, but the trail was nice, meandering through trees and by the water. It was ten times better than being on the road!! We road down to Redmond Town Center, then back to the turn off for Marymoor. On the way back, we happened upon a Bluesfest in some Woodinville Park so we stopped a bit and listened. That was a nice break. :) We continued on and Nathan got a great idea to have fajitas and ritas, so we stopped by the store and got the stuff we needed. We had a big spread of guacamole, chili con queso, and salsa...and got full before we could make the fajitas!! We biked about 25 miles (at least) in 3 hours and I was tired. That was with all of our breaks - water & Bluesfest. We were exhausted and very sore (and I'm not talking about just legs)!! I still wanted to see the fireworks, so we headed down to Juanita Beach Park and walked out onto the footbridge over the water. We were able to see lots of fireworks from many areas all around the lake. We could even see the huge show shot off of barges on Lake Union. They were spectacular! A beautiful ending to a wonderful day.

Adam challenge #2

I tried to watercolor the moose (the stamper's way) with chalks and a paintbrush. I'm really enjoying this technique. I admit...I love using my dp (decorative paper). I'm definitely more of a scrappy stamper.

Happy Independence Day

In thankful memory of all of those who have fought and fallen, protecting our freedoms, and those still fighting. Please take time to praise God for the grace He has given and lift up our soldiers stationed all over the world and their loved ones from whom they're separated. Please also remember the veterans of all of the wars.

To my Grannie B, Grandad, Pappaw, and Tina (my Grannie's good friend) who proudly fought for this country, I'm so thankful to you that I have this day to celebrate. To Adam, who is serving in Iraq, I thank you for the sacrifices you have made and continually lift you up in prayer. Thanks to BA, his fiancee, for understanding his desire to serve, and lovingly supports him. Please pray for her during this difficult time of separation.

May God bless the USA!

Chillin' Out

Summer is here and it's time to chill out. :) Wendy sent me some stamped Bella/Fella images and I thought I'd have a little fun with a SCS challenge to use something "unexpected." Hence, the bottle cap. :)

I've been doing quite a bit of stamping lately and really getting into the watercoloring effect - not REAL watercoloring, but watercoloring with my chalks, blender pen, and paintbrush. I can't post everything until friends receive their cards...don't want to ruin the surprise!

Happy Tuesday!

PCT Scouting Trip

On Saturday, Nathan, Bex and I drove out to Snoqualmie Pass to scout the Pacific Crest Trail, where Nathan, Eric, Shua, and Matthew will begin their adventure. There was still quite a bit of snow, which we hope melts within two weeks. The hike was beautiful, starting off in the trees and working its way up the mountain, passing a creek and leading to some incredible views. It was a lovely day, with soft, fluffy clouds sprinkled throughout the light blue sky and the sun shining brightly. It was absolutely gorgeous. I really hope our pics come out, but I'm not counting on it. We think that condensation built up inside the lens and it dried and became a big blurry smear in the middle of the lens. *Heavy sigh.* Even if they come out fine, the beauty cannot be contained in a single still-shot. It was my favorite trail we've done here, except maybe the Island Lake trail we hiked last fall with the beautiful fall colors abounding. The trail was surprisingly easy; I think we did around 10 miles in 6 hours...not incredibly fast but not poking. We stopped for about 30 minutes when we turned around to snack and enjoy the view. There were quite a few snow patches that Bexar loved. Once his feet hit the snow, he was off and running, bouncing EVERYWHERE, running up ahead and sliding. He was like a kid on Christmas morning. It was so cute to watch! You could tell he was having fun. :)

Well, off to walk with Anne. TTFN!