Adventures in preaching, Seattle and DIY haircuts

This weekend flew past me. It was spent packing and cleaning and running. We originally planned on heading to Spokane on Sunday afternoon, after Aaron preached at church. But, in a lovely turn of events, Uncle Mark was not able to go to the Sounders game. And we were. 

As I first said, Sunday morning Aaron preached at Abundant Life. (You can listen here). His message was titled "Redefining Giving" and I am so proud of him. I love the way that God speaks through Aaron. And not just to me, but to students and friends and sometimes even our whole church family. Anyway, listen and be challenged!

After church we spend the afternoon adventuring in Seattle. As I posted on instagram, I am trying to get better at taking pictures of us. Because I usually don't think about it. 

We went to Pike Place Market, a few really cool shops downtown, P.F. Chang's and coffee all before the game. We realized we hadn't been to Seattle together since before we actually started dating! LAME! ;) We had so much fun though. 

The game itself was good because we won. It wasn't a pretty win. But a win is always nice. (Fun fact: I've actually never been to Sounders game without them winning. No draws, no losses. I like it.)

Like two young, crazy adults... we decided to drive straight through the night to Spokane after the game. To clear any confusion, we left Orting at 12:45AM, and pulled into Spokane at 5:45AM. It was fun. We were delirious. We chased after wildfires. Aaron did not believe me when I said we had already passed Ritzville. Bottom line: I like making memories with him, even if they involve staying up all night playing copilot. :)

Now here we are, in Spokane, relaxing at home with the family. 

Sidenote: I've spent most of our relationship convincing Aaron that I can cut his hair. It may or may not have started with me seeing a post on Young House Love about DIY haircuts. Anyway, he promised that in the summer (this summer!) I could try. That way if I messed it up or cut his ear or something crazy, he had time to heal/grow back his hair. So today was the day. I rewatched the DIY video, I grabbed some scissors and BAM! Perfect haircut. So good in fact that Jake also let me cut his hair. (Not pictured, but also good.)

So handsome! :)

I promise my next post will have wedding photos. Maybe.

Our awesome wedding week and two-part honeymoon!

Let me start off this post by saying that this is going to be really long. And probably uninteresting. Unless you really love Aaron and me, in which case you might love it. But I feel like I need to somewhat explain my life from my last post up until my wedding pictures. You know? So here it goes.

When we set the date for our wedding, we kept in mind that it would be nice to have a couple weeks off from school before we had the wedding. That way we could relax, enjoy the company of our out-of-town friends and family, and do any last minute details without the distraction of work. 

The end of this school year was especially bittersweet for me. I was SO EXCITED for our wedding and to get a much needed break from all 35 of my crazy kindergarteners and first graders. But for some strange reason, the kiddos turned on the charm and sweetness for those last couple days of school. They brought me gifts and constantly wanted to be holding my hand or sitting next to me at snack. I'm telling you, they were NOT like this at all during the regular school year. Their shenanigans could fill another blog post, but I'd rather not give myself a migraine. Anyway, I snapped this picture on the kindergarteners' last school day. I was down to only 4 at this point, but this picture shows the personalities perfectly.

So, a week went by. It was filled with moving and having garage sales and 347 trips to our storage unit in record high temperatures for western Washington. It was a lot. And it was a lot of fun. (Mostly because our friends and family helped out SO MUCH.)

And so one week before the wedding, Aaron's mom Ruth and sister Alexis headed over from Spokane. I took this picture when we got home from dinner. They are obviously related. :)

Ruth and Alexis stayed all week and hung out with us, helped with wedding stuff, and just made our wedding week more fun and memorable. 

By the 4th of July, Phil (Aaron's stepdad) and his parents, plus Dave, David and his daughter Trinity, and my friends Kristin and Heather all made it in from out of town. (Spokane, Northern Ireland, Alabama...) My mom and Joe opened up their house and hosted us and all our out of town friends for the 4th. IT WAS PERFECT. 

We grilled, we did sparklers and smoke bombs and baby fireworks. We watched the neighbors practically blow themselves up. That is what I love about the 4th... watching other people literally blow up their money. :) If you haven't noticed by now, I'm a failure of a photo taker. I am working on it, so I'm sorry that I didn't get pictures of everyone at the party, or the food spread, or aftermath of fireworks littering the street. ;)

[Trinity and Alexis doing sparklers.]

[Aaron and the baby fireworks. They were buy one get one free, and we had a wedding two days later, so you better believe we weren't spending 100's of dollars. :)]

Now right here is where we skip the entire wedding in my blog post. I don't have the photos yet, and it kind of deserves an entire post. :)

The night of our wedding we stayed at the super fancy Hotel Murano in Tacoma before we headed out to Canada the next morning. Our summer has been filled with many, many firsts for me. Like my first room service order. Scrambled eggs, bacon, red potatoes, toast and orange juice. DELICIOUS. And I'm thankful I ate a big breakfast because it was a long trek to our resort in Canada. :)

Aaron took a ton of pictures of our place in Canada. (But right now he is doing sermon prep and has his super sonic headphones on, so I'm not about to bug him for the pictures.) We stayed at Point-no-Point, just outside of Sooke on Vancouver Island. IT. WAS. PERFECT. We had our own little cabin with a full kitchen (we loved that because we LOVE cooking) and a hot tub and fireplace. There was no cell phone service or wifi or TV. So we got to relax and read and what not. 

One day we ventured into Sooke and found the coolest coffee shop called The Stick. The coffee was delicous (and roasted on site), and their pastries were great too! The first day we were there, a man walked in (we found him to be the owner), and immediately looked at us and said, "You must be the newlyweds!" and proceeded to give us free cold brew coffee. From there on out (you better believe we went back everyday) he affectionately called us "Washington" and chatted us up about coffee and life. We loved it and I really hope we can go back there someday.

We also adventured around Victoria for an afternoon. The food highlight of our entire honeymoon for Aaron was going to Dim Sum in Chinatown. He has brought it up so many times since we were there. He said it was as good as the place he went for Dim Sum in Hawaii. I'm trying to be adventurous eating, and tried some things there, but it is not for me. 

We also walked through the Empress Hotel, which is amazing. It was funny to be in Victoria because the book I was reading at the time was a true story set in the PNW. The main women in the book had been staying at the Empress in 1912, just after it was built. I thought that was cool. 

So after our chill, laid back honeymoon part one in Canada, we came home for exactly 36 hours. In that time, we opened all of our gifts, returned multiples, did laundry and repacked for Mexico.

This was our second time together in Cabo, the first being when Aaron proposed! :)

We continued to kill the list of things we'd never done. We took an ATV adventure tour (okay, Aaron had done this before) that took us up a mountain and down to the beach. It was super hot and dusty, and they made us look like banditos with our bandanas. But it was SO MUCH FUN. Its definitely on the list of things to do in Mexico again.

At our hotel, one of the guys at the front desk told us how we could walk to this popular beach that most tourists only get to by water taxi. We had never been, and it was awesome. There were some spots where we had to scramble over rocks and wade through a foot or two of water, but we got the beach in no time. I definitely did not take my phone or camera on that trip for fear it would fall into the Sea of Cortez. :)

A favorite of Aaron's family is Mi Casa. Its a Mexican restaurant that has an open roof. It is really neat. And the food? Best fajitas I've ever had. This was my third attempt at a panoramic shot of the place (waiters kept walking through), so that explains the excited look on my husband's face. :)

Lastly, I just have a few quick shots from around our resort. Playa Grande is so beautiful, you wouldn't really need to leave the resort itself.

They offer a free breakfast if you tour the resort with a timeshare salesman. We did it, and our salesman, Steve, was super cool. We pretty much told him right away that we are teachers and newlyweds and a timeshare in not in our budget. He showed us anyway and told us of all the great features for future considerations. :) Below is the newer resort that we toured, which I believe is owned by Playa Grande. It's called the Grand Solmar... and it is beautiful! (Its the building off in the distance more, with the giant crane. Phases one and two are completed, and phase three is still under construction.)

This may be one of my favorite spots from our honeymoon. Our room at Playa Grande was bigger than our house. I'm not exaggerating. And while I laid in bed during the hottest hours of the day, I could see and hear the ocean. Talk about relaxing.

So that's all for now, I'll try to be a better blogger in the future and keep from having to do massive 3,497 word posts with 100+ pictures. ;)

210 #2

 Welcome to our home. Little lime green 210 #2. It is one of five little units in town and I have grown fond of the bright exterior. It was hard to get any pictures of entire rooms, but I tried. And if you're that curious to see the rest, come visit!

Above is our front porch, complete with a thriving strawberry plant that Uncle mark and Aunt Sarah brought down when I first moved in. I am really excited about it.

 These guys are the cutest succulants I've ever seen. Aaron's mom Ruth gave them to me after my bridal shower in Spokane, and I love seeing them in the kitchen everyday.

 Our kitchen table has had flowers on it since April. First from my Spokane shower, then lilacs from the alley (yes I cut flowers out of our alley...) and now from the bridal shower my bridesmaids and mom threw me this past weekend. They definitely add to the place.

This mixer is cool. I like it.

 

This is the view of our kitchen from the kitchen table. Can you see now why its hard to get pictures? Its tight quarters, but cozy. We have tons of cabinet space, but don't try to open the fridge and oven at the same time. And yes there are dishes in the sink. :)

 Now this is awesome. We are in the process of building a coffee bar. I will update when it is complete, but for now we've got a trusty drip brewer and a brand new shiny espresso machine. I want to add a shelf for some of our cooler mugs, and set our french press stuff up as well. It's a work in progress but quickly becoming one of my favorite areas.

The living room from the dining room table. The couch was Aaron's, and then at his parents' house for a long time. Now they are ours, and pretty nice for a first place! And yes, our living room is mint green. We did not pick out the colors and aren't allowed to paint, so we're just trying to go with it. :)

This is the other side of the living room. I want to paint or replace that dresser, but we need to storage space for clothes. This place only has one closet! Anyway, we have vertical blinds throughout the house, so making curtains is also on the must-do list. But thankfully all our furniture fits perfectly (so far)!

I am about to live with a boy. Good thing I don't mind video games. (This is only the Wii, Xbox will be joining us in July.) We also use this basket for the few regular games we have... Yahtzee and dominoes! :)

 

Our bathroom is one of the surprising rooms in the house. Everyone who comes over is immediately like, "Whoa! Huge bathroom!" It's because the rest of the house is so tiny. :) I am just super thankful that we have a washer and dryer!

Lastly, the bedroom. And honestly, I can't get a good picture because the bed takes up the entire room. But this chalkboard... I want to do something with it. We're using it for something at the wedding, but I think it would make a cool headboard... maybe?

Dry hands and five important people.

You know what's really annoying? Dry, wintery hands. No, I'm not about to go into an advertisement about hand lotion... not enough people read my blog for that to make money. But seriously, my poor knuckles and nails and are all cracked and raw. SO annoying.

You know what's NOT annoying? The fact that Aaron and I are crossing things off our wedding checklist left and right.

One of the things that we actually squared away while we were still in Mexico was our wedding party. For me, this was such an easy decision because I knew right away who needed to be a part of our day.

First, my maid of honor, Talicia. She'd argue that she knows me better than anyone. I'd say it's pretty close. We met sometime in middle school... and I realize that sounds really vague for someone I am claiming as my best friend, but growing up in a small town means you know people before you really KNOW them. Does that make sense? Anyway, it wasn't until we were on a retreat with our youth group that we actually bonded (oh my gosh, such a cliche term but I had to do it) and we've been best friends ever since. She's the kind of friend that calls me to describe a shirt she just bought, while I am tossing a target bag into my car that contains the exact same shirt she's describing. We're in each other's head or something.

[Photo: Typical. Talicia's 19th birthday, sunburned, overtired and probably hungry because we had no money. 2009.]

Then there is my matron of honor, Katy. I've known Katy for a long time too. I'm trying to think of how to describe our friendship, but honestly, we just get each other. Katy always understands what I'm saying, which is a feat because I talk fast and don't always make sense, and she can usually finish my thought or sentence. And vice-versa. We've spent the last five years of our friendship living roughly 1,200 miles apart, dreaming and scheming of different business plans and dinner party ideas. Now that her and her husband live in Washington again, our business plans have not really taken shape and we don't quite have the set up for dinner parties yet, but I'm just glad to have her around.

[Photo: Me and katy sporting Auburn jerseys on a trip to Alabama in 2006 for a wedding. Yes, that is the men's section in Wal-Mart. How could you tell?]

Kelsey is actually my oldest friend of all my bridesmaids. My memories with her start in 8th grade when we were both TA's for the same class. I was pretty sure she did NOT want to be my friend. Obviously I was wrong. Or she changed her mind. Either way, I have been so blessed to have Kelsey as a friend over the years, through the awkwardness of middle school, many, many lunches in the yearbook room, school dances, Daffodil selection, her first time driving through a drive-thru (yes, Starbucks on our way to a meeting!) and to have been a part of her wedding. We've made some great memories and now I am excited for her to be a part of my wedding!

[Photo: Talicia, Kelsey and me on a trip to Snoqualmie to go tubing. We adventured up the pass in a chained up mini-van and were SO EXCITED to finally reach our destination, we had to take pictures. 2008.]

Now Sarah... oh, this is really funny. I think I've only really told Aaron this, but I was actually scared to meet Sarah for the first time. If you put yourself in my shoes, maybe you can see it. I mean, she is Aaron's cousin and actually more like his sister, and she is so stylish, and I think I love Aaron, and I'm having a bad hair day, and what if she doesn't like me... okay I was definitely over thinking, but I was nervous. In reality, I had nothing to worry about because Sarah is wonderful! There is something about her friendship that makes it feel like I've known her forever. And maybe that's just how God planned it. But seriously, I am so excited to have her as a bridesmaid and as a cousin and as a sister!

Like with Sarah, I know that God planned mine and Sophia's friendship to feel like we've known each other forever. Because as I sit here, I can pretty much count the times that we have hung out on one hand, but that doesn't seem right. Somehow we must just be able to cram years of friendship into a span of 3-5 days each time we see each other. Which, for the record, I think is actually possible. My bridal party would not be complete without Sophia, and I am so looking forward to having her in my wedding and in my life! (And Sophia, I'm still all for you moving to this side of the mountains, just saying.)

[Photo: Sophia, me and Sarah on Christmas 2012. We did not plan on basically matching, but it happened. Also, why did I not get the memo to fold my hands like that? Dangit.]

My favorite part of 2012.

It keeps hitting me... like I could forget. I get my marry my best friend.

Four days after Christmas, on a beach in Mexico, Aaron asked me to marry him. The sunset was fading quickly and a sneak attack photographer snapped pictures of everything. Aaron got down on one knee and I can't imagine a more perfect moment. Of course I said yes!

The rest of the night, and probably the rest of our vacation, I floated around with little hearts encircling my head. I am so blessed to have him and I couldn't be more excited to be his wife and spend our life together!