and the days go by...

Two things are keeping me from blogging consistently.

The first one is really simple, I don't have Internet at home. I'm not about to make a trip to Fox Hollow JUST to blog. Then I get writer's block and think everything I say is dumb.

The second one is that I literally do not have enough time. At all. I used to want to have a famous blog. How sweet would it be to blog all the time, and that be your job. Designing your blog, writing, taking pictures, talking to people all over the country... all from the comforts of your own home. I've come to the realization that famous blog writing is not in God's Will for me. :) Oh well.

That doesn't mean I won't blog anymore, I just won't really worry about it.

And that's okay, because you should see my fall line-up...

Opening at Fox Hollow. Volunteering at OHS in the counseling center [my favorite part of the day!!]. Work at the Business Solutions Center [learning how to run a small business, entrepreneurship, being able to pay my rent...]. Online classes at Liberty.

Did I mention that little schedule is 5 days a week? On top of that, I'll still be volunteering with YoungLife and at Calvary with their high school students. God has put high school kids on my heart for a reason. And I seriously can't ignore it.

So basically this post is to ask for prayer. Because if I'm not blogging, it means I'm doing all that crazy stuff with my time. And sleeping in between.

Here's a little bit of stuff from the past couple weeks...

I finally got around to getting a few NEEDED items for my house. A silverware organizer, hose and nozzle, tupperware, salad things [what are those called?] and... A SHOWER CURTAIN! :)

My WONDERFUL friends Justin and Heide gave us a firepit! So my dad brought over some pallets and we had a nice little fire in the backyard with our friends. Maybe someday when I'm not working we can do it again! :)

[Can I go on a tangent and say that I am SO THANKFUL and GRATEFUL for the people God has placed in my life? Okay good... I am SO THANKFUL and GRATEFUL for the people God has placed in my life. :)]

Lastly, it was my friend Carissa's birthday last weekend. She is allergic to gluten. Yes, yes... what a terrible thing, right? Well... wrong. I made these delicious gluten free cupcakes! They tasted great and the only thing I noticed was a slight difference in the texture. It was more like cornbread than cake. But it was good!

That is all for now my blog-reading friends and family. I'll try to keep you updated. :)

Summer Days

How have the days flown by so quickly?

June was a blur of moving, sunshine, trips to the ocean and coffee. July has been filled with camping, baby cousins, starry nights and new computers! :)

The following is the most unorganized grouping of pictures to sum up my summer days. From here on out... I promise I'll be neat. And that I'll blog frequently. And it will be awesome.

Pioneer Coffee Roasting Co. Cle Elum, WA. July 16, 2011.

Who would have thought that Cle Elum would have so many precious coffee shops? I can move there after all! ;) Pioneer USED to be my favorite, but we discovered a different one on the day we left... Coffee Cabin something? I'll get pictures of it soon. They are amazing! But Pioneer is great too, and so cute! :)

Greenwater, WA. July 3rd, 2011.

We went camping with Jeanette's friends. I thought this picture is so 'classic Washington'. Hipster TOMS [I'm not a hipster, though] and a campfire. I. Love. It.

LA Fitness. July 14, 2011.

I got a job in the Kid's Klub at LA Fitness. And this precious guy is one of my favorite kids in there. He is so cute! Look at that smile!!

Regal Tall Firs. HP 7p2 Premiere. July 14th, 2011.

My roommates and I went to the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 7p2 premiere at midnight on the 14th. IT WAS AWESOME. We saw it again on Sunday. :) It was like the closing of my childhood. Now I'm ready to be a grown up. :)

Draco. July 10, 2011.

Can you tell we love HP? We named our pup Draco! He is precious, mostly. And I must say... no matter how many times I've read Harry Potter and seen the movies, I ALWAYS hope Draco will turn out good in the end. Hmm... guess you'll have to watch it and see for yourself if my hopes come true or not!

Pacific Ocean. June 14th, 2011.

So we drove to the ocean at 9pm. It was lovely. Jordan MIGHT have gotten her car stuck in the sand. We MAY have had to call a tow. No big deal. It was a blast!

The Carbon River. June 7, 2011.

Right after we moved in, we walked down to the river to this BEAUTIFUL sight. I love it.

Lions Club Fields. Orting, WA. July 4th, 2011.

I love fireworks and the fourth!

Lake Tapps. July 4th, 2011.

Dad, Cole, Pam and I went to the Qunell's house on Lake Tapps for the 4th. It was a gorgeous day, and Pam and I took the paddle boat out for a ride. How beautiful is Washington? Seriously??

:)

Afternoon in Seattle!

Last Tuesday, Talicia and I trekked up to Seattle for the afternoon. Puyallup was cloudy and cool, but the farther north we got, the nicer the weather was! By the time we got downtown, it was bright and sunny!

Our very first stop was the market, of course.
We looked in all the shops, stopped by the very first Starbucks and then headed up the hill towards one of our favorite restaurants: P.F. Changs.

Mmm mmm mmmm. I love P.F. Changs. I rarely get to go since it is so stinkin far away.
We had them make the sauce spicy. My taste buds sure have changed in the past few years!!

Lastly, our trip took us up to Capitol Hill, to a lovely coffee shop called Joe Bar. I am pretty sure this is the only picture we took together, but I love it!

I miss my best friend already!!!

Hackberry, LA.

Hackberry, Louisiana. My home for a week this summer. Here are just a few of my favorite shots that I think give a picture into how our week went.

We met so many precious kids at VBS! This is Olivia, Gunner and Genee. They came by one day on their dirtbikes to show us some tricks. Gunner cracked us up by jumping over a table [not on his dirtbike] and by exclaiming, "I'm not five, I'm six. Kids are five!"

We ran into quite a few rain and thunder storms. We didn't mind though, it cooled us off!

One of the junior high boys we met, Clint, showed pigs in 4H. So he invited us over to meet all of the pigs! They were so cute!

Silly bands are a serious epidemic in Louisiana. And now us Puyallup kids are hooked as well. I'm not sure which kid this is, but it could have been any of them. They all had at least 20 or more! And now so do I!!

This is Gunner again. The VBS theme was western, and he was so cute! We loved him! He dressed up like this every night.

Trips to the south are not complete without Chick. Just sayin'.

Some of the high school boys caught us an alligator! Of course they returned it, but they first taped its mouth and brought it to the church late one night to show us! Gators smell. Bad.

Lastly my favorite picture from the week, Hope and Tyler. They were so sweet. I have abotu a million pictures of each of them posing, but this was the only one that was really close to candid. Hope also was my little photographer. She took my camera and took about a million pictures.

Sunshine and Bro-ito.

Say hello to Brody. He is my job. And I love him.

I especially love his age right now: one and a half.

He LOVES exploring. A little too much, almost. He also loves to be outdoors, as do I. So we have fun together.

:)

Excuse me, Miss Meagan? Its bright. Can I have your sunglasses?

(He can't quite talk yet, but I can read him pretty well.)

Thanks Meg. These are so much fun!

I'm really sorry I broke your sunglasses.

I'll just walk away now.

Okay that was boring. What else do ya have for me to break--err... play with?

Please?? I love you.

Typical conversation with the little man.

And I love it.

Kabobs.

There was a time in my life when I was super picky. Beyond any picky you've ever seen.

I've grown up a little, and I now allow my food to touch, therefor, I eat kabobs.

Chop up some bell peppers. All colors for prettier food.

Marinate chicken in my own homemade teriyaki sauce.

Pattern them on skewers with pineapple...

Grill them. Enjoy.

These were so quickly enjoyed that I didn't even get a chance to photograph the grilled and finished kabobs! Darn.

Lastly, a sneak preview of the dresser I am about to redo. I couldn't get a full shot because its in the garage, and I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture. But this at least shows the wood color and handles. Oh just wait till its done. :)

'Tis the season...

For fruit!!! Pineapple, Tuscan Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Red Grapes, Blueberries, Blackberries, Fresh Strawberries picked THIS MORNING from the Farmer's Market...

It all started at the market actually. The strawberry stand was about to pack up. Sunday is their last day. And they had ONE flat of strawberries left. The lady picked them this morning.

You could smell them from our house. Its actually what drew us to the market.

Okay I'm kidding. But they looked amazing. So we bought them.

Then we went to Fred Meyer and went on a fresh fruit frenzy. Ahh alliterations.

Anyway, 7 billion dollars worth of fruit later [not really], we had this.

So I cut it all up.

And to note, this is not all of the fruit from the first picture. There are six various sized Tupperware containers in the freezer with blueberries, blackberries, grapes, and strawberries.

Perfect for smoothies. And strawberry shortcake. And strawberry lemonade. Which is where those random lemons come into play. But not until tomorrow.

Then layered it for my dinner party tomorrow. Ahh. I'm in love. I also made a smaller [but not much smaller] version of this for Jarvis and took it to him. And a mini version that I will take with me to work tomorrow. And there are a couple bowls of cantaloupe and watermelon in the fridge as well.

Is this making your mouth water?

Lastly, I have about 12 of these cute little fruit baskets and I don't know what to do with them. I wan to do something fun, but I don't know. Any ideas?

Paging summer...

Come in summer. Where are you?

Yes it is 62 degrees here in Washington.

Yes tomorrow is the 4th of July.

[My favorite holiday, bbq's, hot weather, friends, family, fireworks, late night... I am a night person. Its my favorite.]

And its 62 degrees. Where is the sun?

Where's the warmth?

I mean, yeah western Washington isn't known for extremely hot summers, but I know we usually break into the 70's. Especially in July. Right?

Anyway, I'm over it. Maybe we'll have a super nice August and September. :)

On a completely different note... I am about to start my first restoration project! Yay!

I have been searching for the perfect dresser. I have a picture of it in my mind, but its hard to explain. Anyway I have been searching craigslist, garage sales and thrift stores with no success. Until yesterday.

My brother moved into a house, and the previous owner left my dream dresser! It is perfect. The exact picture in my head. And you know what Jarvis said? Have it!

So not only did I find the perfect dresser, but its free. Score!

The process begins this week. I will definitely post pictures.

:)

Entiat!

I never went to summer camp when I was in high school. My church always had it the same week in August, and I was always camping or on vacation.

So now that I am a leader, I am just as excited as the kids!

I drove myself to Jr. High camp this past weekend since I had to work. And after I got over the pass, it was BEAUTIFUL.

This picture is after I went through Wenatchee, looking back towards the Cascades. God is good!

At the campground, there was a hammock set up. I took advantage of that.

On Saturday, we went to SlideWaters in Lake Chelan. The boys insisted on being in the picture since it would turn into a Twitter update.

We made breakfast and lunch for all the kids, and ended up with a GIANT pile of sandwiches. Thats a lot of turkey, ham, peanut butter and jelly!!

The campground we stayed at had a huge field and the kids just ran around out there. Beyond those trees is the water. Ahh, so pretty!

Lastly, some of the girls brought stuff to make friendship bracelets, and I joined them to make a purple one to match my swimsuit!

The joys of camp!!

Summertime and the livin's easy.

Summer is right around the corner. Since winter here has been so nice, I cannot wait to see what it will be like in the summer months.

I love every season for different reasons. There really isn't one I love more or less. I won't go into detail about fall, winter or spring... but I will about summer.

Growing up in Washington, the majority of the year is gray. Not always rainy as movies and TV make it sound, but it is usually gray. Spring begins to show signs of color, but summer is when the blue sky is best.

The nights are long, the days are warm. I just cannot get enough of the sunshine. Not to mention the smell of freshly trimmed grass, the sound of the various rivers splashing throughout the valley, the taste of BBQ smoke in the air, the feeling of warm pavement under bare feet... should I go on?

So this summer, a few of my wonderful friends and I have decide to make lists. Have I ever mentioned that lists are my favorite thing in the world? No. Okay well they are.

Anyway, summer lists. Stuff that I [we] want to do/accomplish this summer. Together, by ourselves, whichever. It is an amazing list, which I will most likely add to. But, starting Memorial Day Weekend, I will begin crossing off items as they are completed. I will also TRY to take pictures of said items, and blog about them. Can't wait!

You can see the list on the little tab towards the top of the page titled '100 Days of Summer.'