A Few Random Things

We're still recovering from... whatever we've had, but we are doing better. We're at the end of this stuff and each day we feel just a little bit better.

Allie had a sleep over at her house this weekend and Sharaya made these cute pancakes!!

 

Diana got some great news about her job. 

I'll share details when I can. 

Chuck went back to work after a two week vacation. He said the passengers have been... interesting. One lady got on and immediately began yelling that the bus smelled like pot. She went to the back of the bus and opened all the windows, then sat in the front of the bus, complaining about the smell the whole time. No one else smelled it, just her.

As you can tell, there's not much going on around here. I hope your weekend has a little excitement in it! :)

While We Were Gone

We had a new roof put on our house! It's something we've been planning for months but getting the financing took much longer than we would have liked.

But it's done!!

This is the roof before. This doesn't show the moss that had just about covered the entire thing. And that lovely tarp? It was there to keep the rain from coming down the chimney.

Delivering supplies.

I just realized I don't have an after picture! I'll take one soon and post it. Now we have to decide on paint colors.

A Few Days Of R&R

We got to spend a few days up at Birch Bay, WA about 2 hours north of us. It's actually just a few minutes from the Canadian border and it's beautiful up there!

This was right after we arrived. We put everything in the condo and Beth, Sharaya, Allie and I headed down to the bay.

 

It was nice to just spend a few days relaxing, there were no responsibilities or deadlines. It was wonderful!

 

 Even though it was absolutely freezing, Sharaya and Allie braved the indoor/outdoor pool. It was so cold, the steam was pouring off the hot tub! For the most part I stayed by the indoor pool with my gloves and jacket and I was still cold. They had the pool to themselves and had a lot of fun but I don't know how they did it!

We took a walk along the bay and came across this small island that we wanted to explore. 

 

I saw a bridge that went to the island so we headed toward it but when we got to it...

Well bummer.

I was surprised at how many birds there were in the bay. We saw ducks and seagulls, terns and crows and geese. The waiter at the restaurant we went to pointed out an eagles nest. We never saw the eagles but he said they live there year round.

(Thank you to the patron who volunteered to take a photo of all of us!)

We had a corner room that faced East overlooking the Cascade Mountains, and South, plus we were on the top floor so we had gorgeous views!

Wednesday morning we packed up the car and headed home. Just a few minutes after we got on the freeway...

I hope you've all had a restful and relaxing week.

Did You Know Beth Was Getting Married On Valentine's Day?

Yeah, we didn't either.

Beth came out to the kitchen the other day and told me there were only a few more days until Valentine's Day! I asked her why she was so excited and she said she was getting married!

Her and Nick have been talking about this for a long time and we always tell them there's too much to do before they choose a date so I told Beth again that getting married next month is too soon.  There's just way too much to do before they can get married.

Then I went into a little more detail.

I got out a piece of paper and we started making a list. I told her that before her and Nick get married, he needs to ask Dad if he can marry her. That was the first thing that needs to happen. 

Then, maybe even more important than that, he has to ask her. (He's never asked her, he's just told her they're getting married.)

After he asks her and she says yes, then they can start planning the wedding.

Are they getting married in a church?

"I dunno."

She has to buy a dress.

I asked her if she wanted a bouquet. "Uh, yeah!"
So they'll need to buy flowers.

They have to order a cake.

She has to find bridesmaids.

She said she wanted Allie to be her flower girl and I told her she'd have to ask her.

Nick has to find groomsmen.
Do they want someone to take pictures of their wedding?

And I told her that each of these things can cost a lot of money. Your dress might be $200 or $300. 

The flowers could cost $400.

The cake will cost money...
We put all this on the list.

(Now between you and me, I know they don't HAVE to have all these things in order to get married but there is so much to do and think through, Loren and I are trying to figure out how this marriage would even work. We both know our kids would need a lot of supervision and assistance if they get married; would it be us? Is there a group home they could live in? Is it run by people we trust? They are adults so do we just let this go on, even though neither one of them know what they're getting into?) 

Then I asked her if she knew what it would be like to be married.

"No."

Course, no one really knows until after they've been married a while but I told her that her and Nick might live by themselves and if they do there's a lot of things that they'll have to learn to do before they get married.

We talked about how she would fill her prescriptions and get to the grocery store. I asked her who was going to pay the electric bill, she or Nick? She kind of frowned so I explained (again) about how every time we turn on the lights or the TV or we use the microwave or she plugs in her phone, that we get a bill in the mail, a piece of paper telling us that we have to pay money for all the electricity we use...

By the time we were done she was pretty reflective. I could tell she really was considering everything. So she took the list we'd made and took a picture of it and sent it to Nick.

Then she decided that her and Nick would live with us, where she lives now, downstairs in her apartment.

Let's just say we haven't sent out the invitations yet.   

Winter Wonderland Dance

Loren had called me about it a few months ago and it sounded great! Then came a short trip to San Diego and taking Sharaya to the airport and Christmas and picking Sharaya up from the airport and New Years and well, I had completely forgotten.

And Sunday morning Nick texted me and reminded me about the Winter Wonderland Dance that was happening that night! Ahhhh!! We rushed home from church, scarfed down our lunch and started going through her closet to see if she even had a dress to wear! 

Thankfully we found one but all she had to wear with it was purple tennis shoes. We curled her hair and headed to Payless. She found some cute flats and I noticed the socks she was wearing had holes in the back, up high, on her calf (it was a shorter dress) so we also got some nylons. 

Drove the 30 minutes to the Opera House and made it just in time! 

Nick bought her a beautiful corsage. He was so sweet putting it on her wrist.

 

These two are absolutely adorable together! 

 We had a delicious dinner of ham, mashed potatoes and broccoli. (All of this was free by the way, put on by a ministry called Eagle Wings.) Then... the dancing began.

They did a little slow dancing

A little jammin' 

Sorry these are blurry. The room was dark and we were in the balcony. This is the view we had:

 After about an hour of dancing and laughing Nick took Beth's hand and led her up to the stairs.

I couldn't figure out what they were doing but then I heard it. Obviously they heard the DJ mention it because they were standing right in front of him. Then everyone cheered and...

"Y-M-C-A!!

"It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A!!"

Nick told Beth he wanted to move to the stairs so they had room to move. :)

Loren and I sat in the balcony and talked about kids and life. When it was over we all put on our coats and got one more picture. It really was a fun night and I'm glad Beth and I scrambled to get there. It was so worth it. Beth and Nick kissed once more and we headed to our cars. After we got on the freeway, I looked over at Beth and she was sound asleep!

It Wasn't As Crazy As We Expected

A few days after Christmas Beth and I ventured to the mall. We both got gift cards for Christmas and we really wanted to spend them! I usually don't go anywhere near a shopping mall before or after the holidays but for some reason we decided to be brave and try it. 

It wasn't as bad as we were expecting. Maybe all the craziness of returning gifts and getting those after Christmas deals had worn off.

We wandered through JC Penney and Beth found some pajamas and I got a new bathrobe.

 

After we'd been out for a while we both got really hungry and realized neither one of us had eaten any dinner! So we went to the only obvious place to eat at the mall... 

Yummy!!

 

Before we left we stopped to buy some new calendars.

 

When we got home we pulled out last years calendars and filled in people's birthdays and anniversaries... do you do that too? Go month by month and write in all the personal dates that aren't already printed?

Beth pointed out everyone's birthday to make sure I didn't miss anyone. 

 

 We hope you all had a great time over the holidays!

Happy New Year!