Lucky for us, it seems that as life gets crazier it also gets more exciting. Jeremy proposed to Ronnie on Friday evening and we were so blessed to be invited to the "after party," which, of course, was a huge surprise for Ronnie.
Yeah, I know, I can't believe Jeremy's engaged either :)
I know this picture is dark but they're just so cute and happy it doesn't even matter. I had to include it anyway. There were probably about 25 of us, friends and family, waiting in the dark when Ronnie opened the door to her house. I don't think I've actually ever been part of a flip-the-lights-on-and-jump-out-and-yell-surprise type of a party but it was so fun!! Ronnie just had this deer in the headlights look and stood there staring at us for a good three seconds.
There was lots of hugging and congratulating and then we all circled up for story time. They told us about their lovely evening and we all ooed and awed and laughed and it was just beautiful. Ronnie has typed up her account of the events if you want to check it out: http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/ronnie-glazner/slow-dancing-in-a-burning-room/507082641811
I think my favorite part was that both of their families were there. It made my heart so happy to watch Ronnie share her joy with her mom. There was so much love in that room.
It was a wonderful evening and I'm so glad we got to be a part of it.
Contrary to my personal nature, Steven and I drove down to Portland Friday afternoon with absolutely zero plans of where we were going to stay or anything like that. We spent the afternoon roaming around Powell books and having dinner at Sushiland and then to the party of course but when it came to the sleeping portion of the day... well... we just didn't have a plan. We had thrown sleeping bags and pillows into the car hoping we could just crash at Ronnie's but we decided that wasn't the best option for us and maybe we would sleep better in a bed. So at 11pm we booked a hotel from Jeremy's computer. I was a little nervous to be staying in a cheap hotel in Portland but it was actually quite decent. We had a two room "suite" (suite meaning that it has a smallish kitchen and is meant for extended stays, not meaning "fancy") because that was all that was left and it only cost $75 so that wasn't too terrible and the good news is, they had a complimentary deluxe breakfast in the morning! Oh wait, you mean, the monochromatic counter-ful of sliced bread, toaster waffles, cheerios and frosted flakes with the toaster, grape jelly and styrofoam plates? Oh, yeah, that deluxe breakfast. Haha! Good thing I LOVE frosted flakes and the toaster waffles were actually really yummy but watch out! They melt the styrofoam, which I'm sure causes cancer. That styrofoam stuff is a thing of the devil for sure.
We were up bright and early Saturday morning to enjoy that deluxe breakfast and hit the road! We were on our way to Steven's interview with the Hoquiam fire department and had a two and a half hour drive ahead of us.
Interview. Check. Change back into street clothes. Check. Tour the fire station. Check. Make bagel sandwiches for the drive. Check. Put gas in the car. Check. And we're back on the road again. When we arrived back home at 1pm Saturday afternoon we had barely been gone 24 hours and had driven approximately 450 miles. We spent the rest of the day laying in bed watching movies, eating grapefruit and drinking tea. We were both very near to falling asleep around 7pm but I knew that would mean we'd be waking up at 4am so we forced ourselves out of bed and made some bagelbites to enjoy while watching Backdraft.
Sunday was a very big day and one Steven and I are both very happy to have over with. The Stairclimb. I left home around 7:30, as usual, to get to church. I serve in the 12-16month room and I love it in there and we have really great volunteers so that makes it even more fun but recently all of our kids seem to have moved up to the next age group and we got a whole new flock of little ones. So all of the sudden most of our kids in there are just barely one year old and all they want is to be held. First service just happens to be nap time for pretty much everyone and it's just tough for them to stay awake...
... so sometimes they don't. I had these two little ladies sitting with me the entire time we were in there. They were both fighting sleep like crazy too. For the first half hour we were sitting on the floor but I just couldn't hold us all up anymore so we moved into the rocking chair. But every time Addison (on the left) got close to sleep, Grace (on the right) would touch her face or kick her or something and then they'd both start crying... finally we moved to the bean bag and by the time their parents walked in, they were both fast asleep. I could have done with a nap myself.
Steven was supposed to be sleeping in while I was at early service but I don't think that was very successful. He was feeling pretty anxious but for absolutely no reason because he did an amazing job!!! Steven climbed the Columbia Tower (all 69 floors) in 17 minutes and 49 seconds. He finished 298th out of the 1,338 finishers. I'm so proud of him. It was his first year and he's been so busy and hasn't had much time to train or anything and I think he surprised himself a little with that time.
When he came home Sunday night I expected him to be absolutely exhausted but it was quite the opposite. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders and he was in such high spirits. So we had dinner and watched Schindler's List, haha, not to bring him down or anything, just because it was due at the library the next day so we had to watch it.
I figured we needed to celebrate a little so I made lobster ravioli (okay, that bit is from Costco) with an absurdly rich sauce that my family is all too familiar with thanks to my genius of an uncle, Scott, he's the best with the food. And I even got out one of our bottles of sparkling cider that was left over from the holidays. And Steven brought me the flowers that were on the table at the stairclimb :) I was really touched that he had thought to bring them to me. Tulips and Gerberas are two of my favorites!
And now back to the work week and guess what, I actually get to work this week. I have a new tutoring job, so I've been training for that, and I get to sub at Westhill on Friday. yay! I think the tutoring is going to go well but right now it definitely feels like I'm trying to drink water from a fire hose. I trained for a couple of hours yesterday then did two training modules on the computer for an hour today and then they threw me to the wolves. I had my first two math students this afternoon. It really wouldn't be all that difficult except that you have two or three students at once and they're working on completely different lessons... I think it went okay but I wasn't too impressed with my performance. I'll get the hang of it though.
And here I am sharing my thoughts with you and waiting for Steven to get home from work while eating a ginormous bowl of pasta and broccoli. I made way too much but it's just so hard to cook for one. I think that's why I usually have cereal for dinner when Steven is gone. And now I wish I wasn't so full because cereal sounds absolutely lovely right now. So glad tomorrow is Thursday! Steven has the day off (as do I) and then Tim and Annika are coming over for dinner. Should be a much needed day of rest and relaxation and fun.
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