So Proud!

Just thought everyone should know that Steven made it to the top of the Columbia Tower (69 flights of stairs) in full gear in 15 minutes and 20 seconds at the Stairclimb last Sunday. That's two and a half minutes faster than his time last year! He finished 92nd out of 1550! How cool is that?? Pretty darn. I am SO proud of all of his hard work and more than a little impressed by his incredible performance.

Out of the snow...

and into the... sun? Please, please, please God let it be sunny and warm at Disneyland this weekend!!! There's rain in the forecast and even though I am absolutely thrilled to be going to Disneyland with Mom and Tara tomorrow, rain is the last thing I need in my life right now. I have to admit that one of the things I was most excited for about this trip was the chance that I might actually get a little sunny color on this winter white skin of mine. *sigh* But, I guess 60 degree rain beats the snow and freezing temperatures we've had in Enumclaw this week. I think I'll be praying for sun just the same. Feel free to join me.

It was so great to only go to work three days this week! I think Friday should come on Wednesday EVERY WEEK!!

I'm supposed to be packing right now -- guess I should get to it. So excited for girls-weekend in Disneyland! I still can't get over what an awesome husband I have. My heart melts a little when I think how sweet it was of him to send me on this impromptu vacation. I love him the most!

Hope you're having a lovely week! Stay tuned for Disneyland pictures (of me in a tank top, capris and open-toed shoes soaking up the sun!!!!) and what will probably be an excessively long blog post sometime early next week :)

Love,
Steph

p.s. Hope you remembered to celebrate Pi(e) Day today! Mom, Tara, and I bought a marionberry pie from Sharis (because it was almost 9pm and we didn't have time to bake one of our own) and it was DELICIOUS! What a great day. Too bad 3.14 only happens one day a year.

I Am The Luckiest!

One thing I know for sure is that I definitely do not devote nearly enough of my blogging energy to bragging about what an incredible husband I have. He is absolutely amazing and I am beyond blessed to have him. Anyone who can live with me full time (maybe it's a good thing he has that crazy firefighter schedule) and still be happy and fun and easy going is definitely a keeper (insert shout-out to Paige here, even though she's not the one I'm gushing about at this particular moment). Steven is kind and thoughtful and patient beyond belief. He is always looking out to do what's best for me or what would make me the happiest. He does dishes and laundry and cleans bathrooms and cooks dinner on his days off while I'm at school. He's always working hard and doing his best. He's always excited to take advantage of an overtime opportunity to earn a little extra money for us but has no problem passing up that opportunity when he decides that spending time together is more important. He indulges my obsessive planning and list-making and even plays along every now and then. He gives me back rubs and takes me out to dinner and he never gives me a hard time about spending money. He's always telling me I'm smart and beautiful and sweet, even on days when I'm sure I'm just the opposite. And the list just goes on and on. Honestly, I don't know what I did to deserve him (probably nothing, but let's not go there right now).

You will never believe what he did for me this week, really, you won't. We had been texting off and on throughout the day on Tuesday and he told me that he had a fun surprise for me and that I should prepare to be excited. So I prepared, but not to the degree that I should have. I was prepared for Tillamook mint chocolate chip ice cream, or a vase full of daffodils, or a candle-lit dinner, but he had something much grander in mind. He had made dinner, which is always so great of him even though that wasn't the surprise, and we sat and enjoyed it and had a really nice chat about our day. Then he cleared the table and asked if I was ready for my surprise. Guessing that it was maybe dessert or, ahem, bedroom related, I told him I was too full and asked if we could wait a few minutes. I think maybe he was a little too excited to wait. He laid two pieces of paper on the place mat in front of me. And I just stared unbelieving at them for a very long time.

The first was a 3 day park hopper pass for Disneyland and the second was the confirmation info for the plane ticket he purchased to get me there. He is sending me to Disneyland! I was speechless. I can't honestly say that I've actually been rendered speechless all that many times in my life but I really just couldn't say anything. Eventually I started crying and hugging him and saying things like "are you sure?", "really??", and "but it's so much money!" I just couldn't believe it!! The giddy phase was close behind all of this blubbering and I think I made it quite clear that I am VERY excited!

Mom and Tara were already planning to be in Disneyland next weekend for some dance workshops and performances that Tara is doing. I had jokingly asked Steven last week if I could tag along. He got all serious and thought about it quietly for a moment and then said "Well, I'd really miss you, but yeah, let's look at plane tickets." I laughed and told him I wasn't serious and we shouldn't spend the money. I thought that was that, but I guess not. Evidently he checked in with my mom over the weekend, got all of the flight info, and booked the whole thing Monday night while he was at work. He said that I've been working really hard and he knows it's been tough on me that he has been working so many weekends lately and he just wanted to do something nice for me. Um, don't tell Steven, but flowers and ice cream qualify as "something nice." This was way over the top but made me feel so incredibly special! What a sweetheart! I'm really bummed to be going without him but he has to work all weekend and besides, I know that he truly doesn't care about going to Disneyland anyway. Plus, I absolutely cannot wait to come home to him! It's going to be so great :)

So, mostly, I've been waiting all week to share this fun bit of news and to just love on Steven a little bit. He is wonderful and I don't know what I would do without him. His generosity this week blew me away! What a great guy. I really am the luckiest.

A Challenge.

Believe it or not the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb is THIS Sunday!! Steven has done a really incredible job fundraising this year. He got really excited about raising money for the LLS early on in the process and has already raised double what he did last year.

I have not been so helpful in this process. I've been shy and embarrassed about asking people for money -- it's not an easy thing to do -- but with the actual event less than 48 hours away I want to do my part. My family has already stepped up to the plate (BIG thank you to my uncles and Papa & Grammi) and quite a few of our friends have also donated generously (we're so thankful!), but if you haven't had the opportunity to give, now is your chance!!

Here are 3 big ways you can help:

1.Pray for Steven! This is an exhausting climb. He's hoping to finish in less than 16 minutes this year but I'm sure those 16 minutes will feel like forever! He's supposed to start sometime around 1pm on Sunday afternoon.

2. DONATE. I have 256 facebook friends (many of which I'm not even in contact with, yes, I realize that) and if each one of them donated $5 (some of you already have--thank you!!!) Steven's fundraising total would increase by 50%! That's HUGE!! If you think you have a little something to give please click here now before you forget :)  www.llswa.org/goto/lentz no amount is too small!

3. Help raise awareness -- pass this on to. The LLS is doing great work and everyone needs to know about it. Check out Steven's website (above) for more information. Here is the homepage for the stairclimb as well: http://www.llswa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=FF_homepage


Thank you so much!

Another Knot Tied.

Seriously, I do not know why this has taken me so long!! It has been three weeks but I'm finally getting this posted. For some reason when I decide to write a specific post, I end up procrastinating so long that sometimes I never actually get around to it. But the spontaneous posts get posted really fast. Hence the spontaneity factor. It's ridiculous.

The last weekend in January was absolutely packed with people and parties and fun fun fun. We went to our first fire department party at the martini bar in Enumclaw, we attended Compline on Sunday night, which almost put me to sleep, we got Molly Moon's ice cream with a few YSSC friends (always good to see them) and, my favorite part, we celebrated with Tim and Annika and the rest of the Piehler/McInnis clan over the course of another wonderful wedding weekend.

Friday night I spent at the Piehler's house chatting with Annika about some last minute wedding details, visiting briefly with Ronnie, having heart-to-heart conversations with Sue and Mike, and tending to 120 stems of hydrangeas. It was a lovely evening that completely revitalized my soul and left me feeling a bit like Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady. There's something truly marvelous about being surrounded by buckets of flowers.

Saturday morning I was frantically searching for some flowers to add to the hydrangeas to help spice up the bouquets a little. I was getting incredibly anxious. We had stopped at five different grocery stores and florists on our way out to the Pickering Barn for the rehearsal and I finally decided I was just going to have to bite the bullet and drive up to the Metropolitan Market in Kirkland where I  knew I would find exactly what I was looking for. And I did. 15 white tulips, two bunches of green mums, 2 bunches of white spray roses, and some fun yellow-ish green spray stuff, and all of the sudden my heart rate returned to normal. Well, mostly normal. It was a crazy weekend and Steven reminded more than once that maybe I'm a little too high-strung and maybe, just maybe (no, I don't think it's "maybe" at all, I do believe he was quite certain about this particular point) I let myself get a little too stressed out. So, now that I was breathing a bit easier, I drove back to the Piehler's where everyone had gathered for the rehearsal dinner. We had such a great time!! The food was wonderful -- phad thai, chicken satay, and coconut ice cream -- and the company was even better. We met and chatted with a few new people and visited with Annika's parents a bit and got a healthy dose of Piehler love and it was just lovely.

Insert Fire Department party here. It was fun, you don't need to know the details, except I might mention that I learned first-hand about that whole "beer before liquor" thing. Basically, not a good idea. I can tell you what is a good idea though -- mudslide martinis. Oh. My. Goodness.

Sunday morning my alarm went off at 5am and I got straight to work. Well. Sort of. I was exhausted (I was maybe more than a little bit anxious slash stressed all night long and might have woken up every ten to fifteen minutes thinking about the flowers and wedding stuff and worrying about not getting everything done...) and it definitely took me a few minutes and a cup of tea to get moving but I came around.

Isn't this exciting? Look at all these pretty flowers I got to play with!!

Yes, those are kitty litter buckets. For some reason my mom and Grammi both save them -- there are towers of them in their garages -- and they just happen to work really well for holding fresh flowers. They're deep enough that the water doesn't slosh out and they fit perfectly wedged into the back of my car so they don't tip over while I'm driving. It's a trick we (really, my mom) discovered when we bought all of my wedding flowers at Pike Place Market.

I all of the sudden started to feel super nervous and worried that I just really didn't know what I was doing, but I decided the only solution was to get started. So I did! The bridesmaids bouquets came together quite quickly once I had completed the first one and knew what I was doing. Then there was Annika's bouquet, which took me a full hour but, I must say, I was pretty darn impressed with the end result. (Quick note, much better photos may be found here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150501210337890.367799.65760432889&type=1 my camera definitely does not do these flowers justice.)

Next up: Corsages. Eeeeeek!!! I'd been nervous about this part for a while. They turned out pretty cute though. I used a hot glue gun for the twine and wired and taped all of the pieces before putting them together. I wish I had taken more photos but I was in a bit of a hurry. I am SO GLAD that I bought the mums! They were especially perfect for this part.

Five hours after I had woken up, the bouquets were finally finished, I was showered and packed, and Steven and I were on our way out the door. It was pouring down rain, which complicated things a bit, but once I had wrestled everything into the car, we were all set. I used the car ride to wrap and pin the bouquets. The bridesmaids bouquets I wrapped with strips of lace and Annika's I wrapped with a navy blue ribbon that matched the bridesmaids dresses almost perfectly!

Thank goodness for all of these pickle jars I've saved! They're so useful.

Bridesmaids bouquets all ready to go.

(Yet another slightly out of focus photo. My camera can't handle dim indoor lighting. It only really does well with sunshine. Sorry about that.)

And the Bride's bouquet. Lookin' good!

And the corsages. Phew -- I did it!

The barn looked absolutely beautiful! All of Annika's ideas came together perfectly with the help of her creative team :) There were so many people helping that everything was set up and ready to go by noon and the wedding didn't even start until 3:30! It was crazy. Everyone had time to go home and shower and change if they wanted to. Steven and I stuck around (as there are always more details to help with) and actually ended up walking across the street to Costco to buy polish sausages for all of the Piehler boys  :)






There were hydrangeas everywhere!!! And twinkle lights and books wrapped with twine and lots and lots of really sweet photos of Tim and Annika. Their guest books were really cool too. I wish I had gotten a picture of them (also wish I had remembered to sign one of them.... oops). They were two vintage books that had all of these paper doilies glued onto the pages for people to sign alternating with photos of Tim and Annika. Such a fun idea! One of the front covers had been cut out to look like a picture frame so you could see the photo on the first page. It was adorable. I was kind of jealous of them. Trying to figure out how I can fit that idea into my life :)

The wedding party at a point in the photo shoot when they had been told not to smile. Not sure why I chose this moment to take a photo, since it was the only moment all day that I caught a single one of them NOT smiling, but it's the only photo that I took so I have to include it because they're so darn good looking.

Cake Table! Isn't it beautiful? A friend of Annika's made the cake. I was really impressed. I want to learn how to do that too. 

Me and my hot date :) He is the BEST person to bring to a wedding! Seriously. He is incredibly helpful and thoughtful and an excellent dance partner. I was in charge of coordinating the reception and he was right there with me the whole time. He checked in with the bride and groom periodically to see if he could get them anything, then made his way over to their parents to see if he could get them anything, then reminded me when there was nothing to do for a few minutes that I needed to just sit down and drink some water, and he danced with me and made me feel beautiful and sexy and fun -- which is no easy task let me tell you. But really, what's more fun that swing dancing to Like a G-6? Pretty much almost nothing at all.

We are so incredibly happy for Tim & Annika!!! They are two of our favorite people and we are the MOST excited to be married friends with them :) We are so blessed to have been a part of their big day.

Adventures with Flowers.

When Annika first asked me do the flowers for her wedding, I went straight to kcls.org and put every floral design book I could find on hold. I had these great plans to do a bunch of research and take notes and then go out and buy flowers and practice practice practice. As is somewhat typical with me, there was a lot of procrastination involved in the process and only about half of the "great plans" ever came to be.

To be fair, I did go through every single one of the books that I brought home from the library and I took some really good notes. I learned all about the treatment of flowers and wiring and taping and about how I need to invest in a better pair of floral sheers etc etc. I even went online and sifted through hundreds of photos of hydrangea bouquets and watched a few youtube videos on how to put bouquets and corsages together. It was all very informational but in the end I knew the only way I was going to get results was if I actually had the flowers in hand and could really feel and visualize everything for myself.

So... in the week before the wedding I made a stop at Metropolitan Market after work and picked up some flowers to practice on. I knew we would be using hydrangeas and that was about it. I hadn't decided what I wanted to use with them so I just picked out a few extra things that I thought might go nicely with them. Gladiolus, eucalyptus and some yellow stuff that I was particularly fond of.

Bouquest I can handle, what I was most worried about was the corsages. In fact, I was somewhat terrified by the idea. It was one of those things I knew I could definitely handle but needed to prove it to myself to boost my confidence a bit. So that was what I spent my practice time working on.

Left: First attempt.           Right: 3rd or 4th attempt. Much better

The first one I did was really just to get things moving. I wanted to make a corsage as quickly as possible so I could just kind of get a feel for the technical aspect of working with the tape and wire and putting things together. Then I calmed down a little and allowed the creative juices to flow.

Just playing with the flowers... thought it would be funny to see how large and ridiculous I could make the corsage.

Of course Charlie was helping. He was very curious about all of the flowers and string and ribbon and other things he was finding on the floor. Until he discovered Tara's knitting and took to chasing the ball of yarn -- turns out he is a cat after all. All this time we were worried he might be some strange looking puppy dog.

Tara.

The final products! I think by the end of the night my mom and I had really figured out the whole corsage thing. Mine is on the left, hers is on the right. I decided the process was lots of fun and not nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. Having "mastered" the art of corsage making, my butterflies about the wedding weekend and my short stint as a pretend florist seemed to calm down just a bit.

**Wedding post to follow! Stay tuned.**

Coconut Thumbprint Cookies with Salted Caramel.

I would have to say that this is definitely one of Martha Stewart's better ideas.

Oh. My. Goodness.