Super 8

Can you believe I got Jeff to do something so cheesy?

Jeff and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary today, or will on Friday, depending on how you look at it. See, when we got married there was so much we didn't know, like that we had to go down to the court house to get a marriage certificate. So we rushed downtown the day before only to learn the certificate is not "effective" until three days after you pick it up. Therefore, our anniversary is actually a few days after our wedding day. Whoops!

To what would I attribute our success thus far? Number one; God. The truth of His Word and through the power of His Holy Spirit we are able to be a strong unit. His Word tells us how to live and His Holy Spirit helps us live it out!

It breaks my heart to see so many give up on marriage. I think part of the problem with young couples these days may be the willingness to reap the rewards of a relationship before committing to one another; hugs, holding hands, having inside jokes, sharing a special bond, living together, doing things as a unit like taking lovey dovey pictures... I believe those things are to be reserved for one person after committing to spend life together.

Number two; my wonderful husband. He is forgiving, like His heavenly Father, and in marriage you need a lot of that! We are all married to sinners (even my husband is married to one...). The best thing we can do is forgive and truly release any wrath to our heavenly Father. He is a just God and deals rightly with wrongs done to us so we don't have to! And in marriage you will wrong each other...


That being said... I am very blessed to share life with this wonderful person! Looking forward to many more years - challenging or rewarding, the Lord is our strength and our refuge!

Souper!  Breaking bread together at Steamer's in Tacoma.

Portlandia

It's always so exciting to have visitors. Last weekend my friend from college flew in and we had an awesome weekend of talking, hiking, movie watching, and eating.

That's right, girl night!

Jeff and I were headed to Portland before she announced her last minute visit so we told her to just come along! We were going to visit family, and she was roommates with Jeff's sister, so it made the perfect reunion.

Waiting for her flight to come in.

Desserts at a french cafe, Petite Provence

(left to right) Jeff's sister Jenae, me, Victoria.

Portland is a very hipster, DIY, foodie kind of a place where CD stores still exist and everyone bikes to work. To understand Portland better, check out this clip from Portlandia...



They're free spirits; you never know what you'll find, like shoes sitting on the side of the road.

Downpour. Not normal.

They have a stellar food scene in Portland. There are really good restaurants on every corner that offer unique combos like omlettes with cream cheese, sweet potatoe pancakes with sourcream, and lobster on egg. We had some fantastic meals that, unfortunately, I was too excited to eat to photograph!

In front of Gravy during our 45 minute wait for breakfast.

Wild berry brioche at Seven Virtues cafe.
Victoria was amazed at how much coffee we require. It's good for you!

We had a wonderful, long weekend visiting family and spending time with Victoria. She was so patient when at Jeff's other sister's house she was instantaniously mauled my their youngins, pulling her wrist demanding, "Jump on the trampoline with me! Can I braid your hair? Lets play Pretty Pretty Princess!" (I mean that in an endearing way, we love those kiddos).

Monday my mom took us out to breakfast at yet another show stopper, The Original in downtown Portland. We are thankful for our family and friends! God is so gracious!

Awesome and Awkward

(my niece, Sunny)

Awkward:

• (this one was a couple weeks ago) The cashier at Costco asked, "Do you mind if I say... you are very pretty?" I blushed and smiled big, "No." I got back to the car only to discover there was something stuck between my teeth.
• My co-worker who is a blusher introducing me to another blusher, and we're all standing there beet red for no apparent reason.
• Chaotic photoshoot with kids and parents looking miserable.

Awesome:

• Getting a new work bench!!
• My dear friend, Victoria, coming to visit this weekend!
• Getting my first ever smart phone tomorrow!
• Waking up to an already risen sun and hearing my husband listening to worship music downstairs. Warms my heart.

Becoming Beautiful...

I'm sorry for the delayed response on the conference in April! It turns out it was real and everything was as advertised! We got there and had no problem parking. We were greeted with warm smiles, lovely programs for the day's events, blue grass worship music playing softly in the sanctuary, and a lovely spread of fruit, nuts, pastries, and coffee! I know I'm a little too excited about the details, but I kept wondering what the catch was!

I was praising God for how everything had worked out thus far then shortly into the program they showed a video that I had been wanting to see with "my girls"! Now we were going to see it! It's not like these videos are real well known, so what are the chances?! God is good and the video ended up being the highlight, if you ask me. So what is this video? It's called Return of the Daughters. You can check out the trailer here. It features 4 (real) girls who have chosen to serve their fathers in various ways at home as opposed to working for a secular employer or getting a secular education and living a typical, single, American lifestyle.

There are many benefits for them and their families in what they are choosing to do, although it is counter cultural. They are helping their father in his life or business, furthering his ministry and goals and they are learning to submit to a godly man, observing godly leadership before potentially becoming a wife. It makes so much sense when you consider what it is God wants us to value; not our independance, acquiring riches, gaining accalades. We are to please God, not man, and what better way to practice than at home with the man whom God entrusted with your well being in the first place? Isn't it funny how Satan works trying to tear apart the fibers of family? Even Christians become numb to certain things and accept them as the norm.

Other than the fabulous video the conference was a blast and guess what? They are having another Becoming Beautiful in the Eyes of Our Heavenly Father conference July 7th in Gig Harbor! For more information go to this link.

At the jewelry making class.

At the hair styling class. Someone help me, please.

Lunch time!

Sweeeet!

Good news, fellow sweet tooths! You can have your cake and eat it too, according to this study from Tel Aviv University (the news article says it was done at Hebrew University, but it was actually done at Tel Aviv University, unless they both did one!). More importantly!... They found a sweet dessert for breakfast facilitates weight loss since in the morning your metabolic rate is higher. It also reduces cravings during the rest of the day! We're talkin' like 600 calories of dark chocolate (which is what their subjects consumed for the study). I typically have either a Clif bar or egg whites and vegetables for breakfast, I am so going to have my SWEETS in the morning instead of after dinner!

7-eleven Free Slurpees May 23, 2012

We have had such beautiful, warm weather here in Washington! Sadly, for some of us the heat and sun is a bit too much. Jeff and I were walking around town and I was squinting, feeling absolutely drained! I just wanted to go inside and sit down! Pathetic. Fortunately for me, the planner and smarty pants Jeff is, he brought along a cup of ice, so I chomped as we walked and it really revived me!

Surely I will take advantage of this deal I saw on Moneysavingmom!

Mark your calendars!

On May 23, 2012, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. all 7-Elevens locations are offering a free 7.11-oz. Slurpee. No purchase is necessary.

A Rosette by any other name is still as beautiful!

Starting projects is fun! It's the post project clutter that is cause for trepidation. Do you ever start something and think, "That was fun. I'll probably work on this more over the next few days, so I won't put everything away just yet." Then a few weeks squeak by... and well, it's still sitting there but you haven't picked it back up? I think I've started ten projects in the last month and finished... three? As I type Jeff is folding laundry and shook out a pair of my pants only to have two nails fly out... Whoops!... Stuff everywhere! Sorry! Anyway, here's to starting a finishing a project!

I wanted to use decorative rosettes for headbands, as that is all the rage for little girl portraits, but I didn't want to spend money. It is fun to have various props for taking portraits, but the more money you spend the less you make... So I decided to try to make some and it turned out to be very simple!

I used:

1"x12" strip of an old cotton t-shirt

super glue

scissors

You can tie a knot at one end as a starting point and begin wrapping the clothe around it, but to be honest I don't think the knot is completely necessary.

Begin wrapping the clothe around the knot to shape your flower.

Twist the fabric, like above, as you go. Put dabs of glue under each fold to hold it together, for instance, I would put a dab of glue right under where my thumb is in the picture, hold it there for 30 seconds. 

You really can't go wrong with how you wrap your fabric around. You can twist in different directions, as you would like, to form the pedals.

When you reach the end of your fabric just put a dab of glue, tuck the end behind one of the folds, and hold it in place until the glue sets. Be careful when using super glue not to get it on your fingers. I tried using my finger nail to hold it in place as it dried.

I added a few pearl beads for embellishment. With a safety pin you can attach it to an elastic headband, a t-shirt, shoe, throw pillow, or whatever! Experiment with different sizes, too!

I made tiny rosettes as earrings by wrapping the clothe around studs. You will start to realize you can use strips of clothe or ribbon from just about anything! These tiny rosettes took about 3/4" of clothe. Just be better about cleaning up the post project clutter than I am ;)