Great Reads

I think I may be the worlds worst reader. Meaning that I just don't make time to get a good book and finish it within a reasonable amount of time. Blake laughs at the fact that it can seriously take me 6 months to finish a book. I just don't make time to read, and the time I do make is right before bed and then I seem to just get sleepy. This summer since I'm not working I've made it a goal to read one book a month. Last was the first month and I read "The Shack" by WM. Paul Young. My grandpa recommended it to me, and now I'm recommending it to you. This month I'm reading "Always Looking Up; The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist" by Michael J. Fox. I'm almost half way done, and it is REALLY good. I didn't know very much about what he's gone through since he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, and all the remarkable things he's doing for people with this disease. I haven't read his first book "Lucky Man" but I'm guessing it's just as good. Happy Reading!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Monday was my "28th" birthday! Most years I'm really excited for my birthday and if I had it my way it would more like a week long celebration, rather than just for one day. This year it was a little different for me. Things have been so busy, and I think all of my extra time has been focused on getting ready to move into our house in the fall. I've been extra good about budgeting, and I'm not a huge fan of that word (BUDGET). I don't even like to say it out loud. But since we've moved back to Washington, I've been really careful about how and what we spend our money on. So this year I came up with the idea of no gifts for my birthday. Blake was not happy about that and fought me until the end. So instead of gifts he decided to take the day off from work and spend the day with me doing whatever I wanted. The morning started off by being woken up to Blake giving me his homemade birthday card. Priceless sums up the card! He drew zoo animals on the front with colored pencils and then on the inside he wrote a message on one side and then on the other side were pictures of guys and girls that were cut out of a Kohl's newspaper add, and they were wishing me a Happy Birthday in little conversation bubbles. First stop of the day was a pedicure, which I did allow him to get for me. Who can resist a pedicure! Then off to the Woodland Park Zoo, which was a blast. Then after seeing all of the animals and our picnic lunch at the zoo we headed to the theatre to see "Julie and Julia." I would highly recommend that movie to everyone. It was really cute and it inspired me to want to take cooking lessons. Then back home for poor mans spaghetti. You're probably wondering what the heck that is; I know my parents were when we told them. It's just spaghetti noodles with marinara sauce and then we put some shredded cheddar cheese on top. I don't know how we came up with the name, but it's easy, and it tastes super good. It was a great day all around. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect birthday. Thank you to everyone that called, sent a text, and emailed me to wish me a happy birthday.

Moving Right Along

Well our house is looking more and more like a house every time we go out to Bothell. Blake and I made a trip over on Saturday and learned what colors they had selected for the exterior paint. The trim is a cream color, the front door will be a chocolate color, the main portion of the house will be a lighter brown color, and then the accent color will be a blueish-grey. The colors of course were named something more extravagant than brown, cream, blueish-grey, and light brown. The name of the color of the door is actually Bon Nuit, which actually means goodnight in French. I thought that was a perfect name for our front door. Blake just agrees and laughs.







So a funny/ironic thing happened this past week. Blake and were talking about how we hadn't received a calling in church yet, and we just thought it was because we'd only be in Enumclaw for another 6 weeks or so. Boy did I open my mouth too soon. Not only did they ask us to be the ward missionaries, but they gave me an additional calling in Relief Society. They asked if I was willing to be the choruster. I wanted to cry when they asked me. I know that we are supposed to be grateful for the callings we receive because they are given to us at just the right time, for a good reason. Let's just say this calling wasn't God inspired at all- the girl that normally does it is now playing the piano because the girl that was playing the piano went back to college. For those of you that don't know, I'm not musically blessed at all!! I can't sing very well, I don't play any instrument-that includes playing the piano, I don't know how to read music, I don't even know all the hymns in the hymn book, and I definitely didn't know how to conduct when they asked me. Needless to say I told them I would give it a try and I spent 2 hours practicing with the online tool on lds.org. Oh my gosh, there is so much to learn about conducting music! Blake just laughs at me and tells me that I will do fine, and that no one will even notice if I mess up. I'll keep you posted on how this Sunday goes. Hopefully the older women don't eat me alive.

Exciting Find

If you're looking for a really cute dress, that's perfect in length, for any occasion check out shabbyapple.com They're based in Salt Lake City. I found a couple dresses that I liked and ordered them online and two days later they were at my door. The quality of the dresses was great, the sizes that they suggest are perfect, and they're really cute on!

Also one other side note, for all of you that are familiar with how slow my hair grows...I can finally put it in a pony tail with no bobby pins. Blake says the pony tail part looks like my parents dog tail because it's so short, but it's a pony tail. Yeah!

Big News!

Okay so no we aren't pregnant- sorry to get your hopes up. The news is that we bought a house! We haven't really told many people outside our immediate family, but we've decided to let the secret out. It's in Bothell and it's in the process of being built. The estimated time for us to close on it is the middle of October. We're really excited, but I'm really nervous. Blake's just really excited. You know how guys are, they don't sweat the small stuff- if only I was like that sometimes. My biggest worry is that we can't lock in our interest rate for our loan until September so I'm just a little worried it may skyrocket between now and then. It is going to be a roller coaster ride until we move in, but we're excited. Below is a picture of our lot. It's not looking too much like a house as of yet. The other picture is of what our house will look like once it's all done, but with maybe a different color. The colors are preselected, but they haven't chosen our house color yet.





Other than buying a house, Blake and I have been super busy on the weekends. My family and I have been getting Blake cultured with all of the exciting things in Seattle and Enumclaw. For instance last weekend was the King County Fair which is in Enumclaw. It used to be really fun with animals, rides, food, games, entertainment....but now it's just mainly 4H animals. Blake, my mom, and I decided to check it out anyways, and boy was it lame. This past weekend we decided to step our entertainment up a notch so we went to a Mariners game. That was really fun! My dad was given some tickets for all his hard work in Utah on his last project. Little did the guy know that my dad doesn't really like baseball, so who better to give them to but to Blake and I. Blake was in heaven! The first thing we had to do was get him a hotdog-he said it was for the experience. The Mariners lost, but we will still remain faithful fans.





After the game we met my parents for dinner down at Pike Place Market and then we walked up to 4th avenue for the annual Seafair Torchlight Parade. For those of you that don't know what Seafair is, it's starts the last weekend of July and goes through the first weekend of August. The first weekend of August are the hydroplane races and the Blue Angels Flight Show. It's a pretty big thing in Seattle and fun to check out all the festivities.

Family in Town

For a week before the 4th of July my brother and his family were able to come visit from Colorado. It was so much fun to see them and hang out for a week before they went on there way to California and then back to Colorado. Our nephew, Hunter, and niece, Payton are getting so big. It's funny to hear the things that Hunter has to say, and see the funny facial expressions Payton makes. Here are some pictures from the vacation here.


My brother, Justin with Payton


My sister-in-law, Kim, Hunter, Payton, and Justin


Isn't this picture precious?!

"It's the Little Things That Count"

I've been tagged by my friend Jess. The game goes as follows: List Six Unimportant Things That Make You Happy.

1. Going for a jog or a hike first thing in the morning before the sun comes up, and the only sounds around you are the birds chirping and the cows walking around in there pasture.

2. Seeing Blake kneel and pray before he goes to bed.

3. The sound of Sierra (my parents dog) snoring in Blake's and my bedroom at night.

4. Seeing Blake come home from work and getting a kiss and a hug hello.

5. Having FHE with Blake, my parents, and my sister (they call it family game night)

6. Sitting on my parents back porch and reading a book or magazine.