Birthday Weekend.

Friday the 3rd was my last day of my summer job and the first day of my birthday weekend. It was a pretty great day. Since it was the last day of camp we had a BBQ at the beach and Steven came down and joined us for the day. He mostly stayed near the slack line and helped the kids out but it was nice just having him there with us.

I only had one very brief moment in the evening where I thought to myself "aw man... I'm turning 25 in just a few hours and I'm unemployed again!" but as I've grown somewhat used to being unemployed over the course of, well, my life, and on account of the fact that I had a beer in my hand at the time that thought floated through my brain, I really didn't mind too much. We spent the evening at Eastlake (our church) attending the event of the year. Of the last two years really, considering it's been two years since the last time they threw this party.

Drinks 4 Drinks is an event designed to raise money for Charity: Water (their mission is to provide people in developing countries with clean/safe drinking water). I wish I had taken more pictures but I was wearing a dress and since I didn't have a pocket for my camera, I didn't feel like bringing it and my phone takes terrible photos. They had a huge beer/food garden set up outside with wine from Silverlake, beer from Redhook, and some pulled pork sandwiches that smelled amazing. There were donation stations inside along with this catwalk where people had the opportunity to car jerry cans filled with water to get an idea of what women in children in developing nations have to suffer everyday just to drink nasty dirty water that makes them sick. The entire event was completely paid for so that everything we were spending was going directly to Charity: Water. It's kind of fun to be like "well, might as well have another beer -- it is for a good cause you know..."

A cover band called The Herding Cats played for a few hours and I love love love them! Wish we had discovered them a few years ago and could have hired them to play at the wedding. They were so much fun! We sang along and danced and donated and had a blast!

Grand total for the night. Over 50,000 people will benefit from what was raised at this event alone.

You should probably check out the video too (we're in it!). Once you watch it you'll want to make sure you don't miss the next one. http://vimeo.com/47423478?action=share

Steven took me out for birthday breakfast at Jay Berrys Cafe on Saturday morning. I love going out to breakfast -- it feels like such a treat. I had a waffle and a mimosa and we played Cribbage and it was perfect.

We spent the beautiful (and hot!) afternoon with our inner tubes at the Cedar River.

It was a bit of an adventure... we had some trouble finding a spot to get down to the river and then by the time we got to the water one of our tubes had almost completely deflated - ha! Good thing we were just planning to float in a pool and not actually go down the river. We ran into our friends Joy and Cody, or rather, they floated past us, which was really funny. We shared M&Ms and goldfish crackers and just enjoyed the sunshine for a while.

Marvelous view of Mt. Si.

Steven & Steph looking sunny. I love it.

Lena and Aaron met us for happy hour at Ruth's Chris, which was great fun (Aaron's birthday is the day after mine so it's always fun to celebrate together when we can), and then Steven and I went over to my mom's house for a fire and s'mores on her patio. Steven made a perfect marshmallow roasting fire -- ah the joys of being married to an Eagle Scout! It was nice and relaxing to finish the day with Mom and Tara and the s'mores were delicious!

It was a wonderful weekend but I am SO glad to be out of that heat! It was a bit much for me. Thank you to everyone for all of the cards and phonecalls and facebook messages! It was a really special 25th birthday.

Welcome Home.

I love our new house! It was so weird waking up here yesterday morning. It feels like we're on holiday or something. Our bedroom is huge and our new bed is nothing short of luxurious. After two years in a full size bed, we feel like we could swim laps in this new king size one. I know we both woke up at multiple points in the night and were more than a little surprised to find that we weren't even touching. We actually each have our own side of the bed and can stretch out a bit without kicking the other. It's magical.

We're still tired and not feeling super motivated but we did accomplish one thing yesterday -- we emptied every single box labelled "Games." Steven has, for lack of a better term, a man cave. Tara and I tried to dub it The Cave of Wonders but I'm not sure that name really stuck with Steven. Oh well, we tried. We actually found a way, even with our limited shelving, for all of the "good" games to be out on display. You can see the tower of glory in the corner there. Those are most of the favorites. All of the "normal" games are on the shelf in the closet: Boggle, Clue, Monopoly, etc. Steven doesn't even acknowledge that we own those games, but I think it would be weird to be the "boardgame people" but not actually own any of the classic ones that normal people know how to play, so we keep them.

I wanted our first dinner at home to be something special. I'm tired of camping out and eating whatever's easy (frozen pizza, cereal, toast) so I wanted to make a real dinner with a real dessert. The menu for the evening: Tuna marinated in soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, ginger, oil, and vinegar, and then baked in the oven, white rice, salad, a glass (or two) of Moscato (we received this bottle as a gift a while back and have been saving it for something special. I think it is my favorite wine though and might be all we buy from this point on), and a browned butter raspberry tart for dessert. Carl, from the fire department, caught the tuna over the weekend and was kind enough to share it with Steven. I had never cooked tuna before but I just marinated and baked it like I might a piece of salmon and it turned out to be delicious! The tart was slightly more difficult as I was unable to locate my measuring cups... I did my best though and it was tasty too.

Hilde came over yesterday! She was our first house guest :) We had a pretty chill day including a walk to the store for dinner stuff and Jamba Juice (Steven and I love having Safeway -- with a Jamba! -- just a 4 minute walk away) and then a little walk and some frisbee at the park. We had salmon for dinner, and bread pudding for dessert, and then played a really intense game of Castle Panic, which Hilde and I barely won! I dropped her off at the airport at 4:45 this morning and she's on her way back to Norway. I wish Norway wasn't so far away. I would love to see it and I would love it if it were easier for her to visit us.

I went back to work today after a 4 day weekend. I really didn't want to go and thought it would be weird since I hadn't started the week with the kids but I was glad I went. Steven is working tonight but then he has a nice long break and we have a fun weekend ahead of us. It's supposed to be sunny and 80+ degrees all weekend and I turn 25 on Saturday -- woohoo! Happy August by the way. Can you believe it's August already?? Me either. July was both the fastest and most drawn-out month of my life as we prepared to move. I'm glad it's finally over but can't believe how quickly it flew by!

p.s. This is my 200th post! How awesome that it's about something so wonderful. I love it.

Stairmaster.

Did I mention that our new house is a tri-level? My legs are feelin' it today! I dont' even want to know how many times we've gone up and down all of those stairs in the last couple of days. I felt terrible every time someone pulled something out of the truck and then asked me where it was going and I had to respond with "all the way up." I think I sounded (and looked) pretty sheepish everytime I said it. Some people made dozens of trips up and down with boxes and other people (not me, thank goodness) had to make the hike with something obnoxiously heavy -- like our dresser.

We had a fun, productive, and tiring weekend, and everything went off without a hitch. Well... as long as you don't count me splitting my pinky toe open and bleeding all over the new carpet. That wasn't my favorite part but I guess if that's the only thing that went wrong, that's fine with me. I hit it on the edge of a dresser drawer that was on the floor but didn't look down before I continued what I was working on. A few moments later I said "Man! That really hurt!!" and looked down to see multiple bloody patches on the carpet and a little pool of blood under where my toe was. Chaos followed as I started yelling, "Mom, there's blood on my carpet!! Get it! Get the blood!" Then I sat on the floor holding my bleeding toe and saying "this is so ridiculous" while my mom got the blood out of the carpet. It all came out. This new stain-resistant carpet is pretty cool stuff. So that was the biggest excitement of the day.

We are so thankful for everyone who came out to help us move. At the last minute we had to switch to a smaller truck because the one we had reserved wasn't available. We seriously couldn't have moved all of our furniture and boxes without Steven's friends Josh and James from the fire department. It was crazy how well they packed that truck -- floor to ceiling with barely any room in between. Our friend Jon was a champion. He was with us all day from packing the truck in Enumclaw, to unpacking it in Renton, to driving to Costco with Steven to pick up our new furniture, and then hauling that all the way up the stairs too. Tara had spent the night on Friday (we kicked moving day off with Zumba -- woohoo!!) so she was there to help to, and my dad and his brother John came out with their pickup truck, which was expertly packed with our dining table and chairs.

While we were packing the truck (and my Prius, and Tara's van) out in Enumclaw, Mom and Grammi were in Renton supervising the installation of our new fridge. Uncle Rick and my cousin Michael also met us in Renton along with Tim and Annika! Annie, Nathan, and Tebow (the dog) showed up later in the day as well. Before I knew it my entire kitchen had been unpacked by Grammi, Tim, and Annika, my mom had completely set up the guest room, the guys had moved the new washer and dryer to the top floor (I tried not to watch this part, I felt so bad...), and there were already dozens of empty boxes making their way back downstairs.  I did my best to keep everyone well fed, since that's what I do best... we had cookies, chips & dip, a pasta bake (that I made and froze the week before) and garlic bread for lunch, and the Costco muffins and danish that were left over from breakfast.

Steven and I slept on the floor in Enumclaw Saturday night since our new matress hadn't been delivered yet and he had to work Sunday morning anyway. I spent the morning cleaning our apartment, which took about 3 hours longer than I expected... and then met Mom and Tara at our place in Renton. Lena and Aaron stopped by and we all spent the afternoon unpacking more boxes and breaking down boxes and organizing the linen closet and waiting for the new mattress and making the beds and so on. Aaron even helped to move some of the furniture and things that hadn't made it past the garage on moving day. He put our futon together and moved a couple of bookshelves and some of the bigger boxes. I was so glad he was there!

It was a surprisingly productive day. Since Steven was at work I spent the night at my mom's. We got takeout from La Corona and had a very fun dinner at home (we were all feeling a little silly) and then fell asleep watching the Olympics.

There's still so much to do! I'm putting off organizing the kitchen, I'm just too overwhelmed by that right now so I'm trying to do the easier stuff for now. But Steven will be home today and we get to spend our first night together in our new house! Yay!

We Are The Most blessed.

SOLD! To Steven and Stephanie Lentz.

On one of the many trips between Enumclaw, Woodinville, Bothell, Redmond, Kirkland, and/or Covington over the Christmas holidays, Steven and I decided it was time to move out of Enumclaw and back into civilization. We felt like we were spending half of our lives in the car. Our time here was always intended to be temporary and it was getting to the point where our "temporary" time in Enumclaw needed an expiration date.

Our house hunting experience was discouraging at times as our budget didn't exactly match up with our dream house ;) We even stopped looking at houses for a short time when I found out that I didn't have a job lined up for this coming school year. We soon lost patience with that wait-until-Steph-has-a-job plan and decided to start looking at houses again -- just in time to find this gem.

Six months after our house hunting journey began we have purchased our very first home and we get to move in tomorrow! We are beyond excited. This house is absolutely beautiful! We hadn't even considered looking at townhouses until about 5 weeks ago when we finally gave in and took a peek at this listing. It turned out to be a huge blessing because I think those shared walls are what really helped to make this home available to us at a price we could afford. We feel incredibly blessed to be living in a brand new house! Everything is neat and clean and new new new! And guess what -- it even has a garbage disposal!!! I know, right? Best news ever! It also has a fireplace and a beautiful kitchen. With 2,000 square feet, 3 bedrooms, and 2.5 bathrooms it is a serious upgrade from our Enumclaw townhouse.

It is absolutely amazing how neatly everything has fallen into place. I have stressed and whined and complained and worried and cried at many different times of the process and tonight, as I finally hold the keys in my hand, I know there was never anything to worry about. Uncle Barry took care of every step of the process from finding the listing to ordering the window coverings -- we never had to worry about all of the things we're totally clueless about as he had it all under control. The funding and paperwork all came through in the last possible hour earlier today (Someone is definitely testing my patience and trust...). The appliances that were not included in the house have been provided by our incredible family. Thanks to my little summer job and the extra money it's bringing in, the new mattress we've been pining for for the past 2 years will be delivered on Sunday (yay for a king size mattress - no more sleeping diagonally!). A lovely set of bedroom furniture to accommodate that king size mattress just happened to show up at Costco this past month, so we'll have a brand new bedroom and we can use our old bedroom furniture for a really nice guest room (come visit!!). We get to live across the street from this awesome park. The grocery stores, post office, and Starbucks at our new place are actually even closer than the ones in Enumclaw were to our apartment. We get to have a brand new refrigerator with a freezer that freezes and a fridge that doesn't. The new house is within a few minutes of 405 (in the Renton Highlands, our target location). And, as usual, the whole family is coming out for moving day tomorrow. Blessed beyond belief. God is so good.

I have a few fun photos from the packing process that I'll share in the next week or so along with some moving day photos (if I remember to have my camera on-hand). We can't wait to share our new home with all of our favorite people! Hope you can come visit soon.

Birthday Party in the Sky.

We celebrated Mom's birthday last week with a trip on the new ferris wheel in downtown Seattle.

I've been excited about the wheel since I first saw it a month or so ago. I think it's a lovely addition to our skyline. It adds a playful sort of touch.

It isn't a cheap trip but I'd say it is pretty impressive. Check out this view!

The ride lasts 15 to 20 minutes and we made it around 4 full times (yes, they dropped us back off at the bottom). The wheel takes you 175 feet in the air and 40 feet out over Elliott Bay. Definitely something worth doing once on a sunny day such as this and will also be a great spot to bring touring friends to in the future.

We had lunch at Ivar's (always a good idea) where Mom fed about half of her french fries to the seagulls...

... and then wandered around the market, along with the rest of the Greater Seattle population.

I don't know if this pasta place is new or if I've just ignored it in the past but it is so cool! They have all different flavors of pasta including chocolate!! It was actually tasty and they have a recipe on the package for a chocolate pasta salad with fresh fruit, meyer lemon olive oil, and cream. We plan to go back and splurge on both the lemon oil and chocolate pasta one of these days. We also tasted many of their aged balsamics including blackberry and raspberry. Also delicious.

Pike Place flowers are the prettiest! Wish I lived close by so I could have a fresh bouquet every week!!

We finished the afternoon with a couple of fancy little cheesecakes and some ice cream. Aren't birthdays the best? Oh! And Mom loved her necklace, so that was good too. We had a wonderful family dinner too -- picnic food on Grammi's back patio. All in all the day was a great success!

Transformation.

I found this necklace at Coldwater Creek a couple of months ago and haven't been able to take my mind off it since. Actually, it wasn't the necklace I couldn't stop thinking about. It was the beads. I needed them. This happens to me occasionally where I want something so much that I continue to think about it for weeks and weeks, and drop into the store every chance I get to make sure it's still there and to see if the price has improved at all. I kept tabs on this one for a little while. I was making plans to purchase and dismantle it to make a necklace as a birthday gift for my mom. I was finally able to purchase the necklace just last weekend and then I made a trip to a bead store in Bellevue to get a few extra supplies.

This picture doesn't really do it justice but the beads are a gorgeous color and I love the shape and facets. They're definitely some kind of stone but it isn't something I recognize and I haven't been able to figure out what they are yet.

A sunny Saturday morning in Enumclaw seemed like the perfect time to work on my little project. I haven't worked with beads in quite some time. I think the last time I made jewelry was at 6 o'clock in the morning the day of my wedding when I couldn't sleep and decided it would be a good idea to get up and make earrings for all of my bridesmaids.

I had to sneak over to my mom's house the other day to "borrow" some supplies: pliers, crimps, fishing line, tiger tail, bead boards, etc. Then I took all of my beads to Starbucks and sat in the sunshine for a couple of hours to work (also discovered that I like decaf iced americanos with one pump of vanilla and a little bit of half and half -- yum). I purchased some little orange beads (love love love blue and orange! couldn't resist...) but they weren't really jiving with everything else I had going on so they got left out. I did, however, use some bone beads and almost an entire string of these great little bronze rondelles. Check it out!

I think we can all agree that it's a huge improvement form the original :) I'm decently proud of my work on this one. The beads are heavy, which made me feel oddly important and somewhat glamorous wearing it. I admit, I sort of wanted to keep it for myself but this one had Mom's name on it before I even created it.

Love this sweet little bronze clasp that I found -- lock and key.

Ta-dah! I'll have to make her some earrings to go with it as soon as I can find some bronze head pins. I set aside 4 of the blue beads and a few of the others as well. Now if only I could afford to keep up this lovely little hobby...

Sunny Days.

Summer is finally here!!! And I have been loving this warm sunny weather! We celebrated the 4th of July on Lake Lucerne. I made magic cookie bars (coconut, walnuts, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips... need I say more?) and jalapeno poppers. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product but the jalapenos were stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar cheese, wrapped with bacon, and coated with BBQ sauce. They were pretty fantastic if I do say so myself.

We took the paddle boat out on the lake for a while. The yard was really shady so it was nice to be out in the middle of the lake enjoying the sunshine.

These little girlies are at the 4th of July party every year. There are 6 sisters all under the age of 10 -- more than a little overwhelming. I think I'll space mine out a little further. They started out all clingy with me and sitting on my lap but quickly switched over to Annika. Can't say that I minded too much.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the lawn playing board games and eating. Milo invited us into the kitchen for a couple rounds of Spider Bites (tequila and red bull) and Tim and Steven found their way inside to watch the second half of the Sounders game. Fireworks were going off all day long but officially started with a string of 16,000 firecrackers around 9:45. We stayed long enough to watch the full moon rise over the lake. It was big and bright and orange and it provided the perfect backdrop for the fireworks. It was a very impressive display.

I had a lovely visit with Paige this evening since she was in town for a friend's weddng. We definitely made the most of the beautiful weather. Happy hour at Duke's on Lake Union, a drive along the waterfront to see the new ferris wheel, a trip to Cal Anderson Park, and ice cream from Molly Moons. It's always so much fun hanging out with Paige and it was such a treat to enjoy the Seattle sun and visit some of my favorite spots with her tonight.

We are celebrating my mom's birthday tomorrow and then camp starts on Monday -- these next few weeks are going to be very busy but loads of fun. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it!