My Wedding Book

I finally got around to putting together our wedding book.  I love it.  I researched all the major online photo book resources and decided on Shutterfly.  It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't terribly expensive either.  What I did love was how easy it was to put together.  Here are a few pages.

My mother has been bugging me about getting this done for her for months.  Better late than never than never right?

Did you make a photo book?  What company did you use?

*Did you miss my wedding recaps?  Check them out here.

First Kiss Revisited

Andy and I drove out to a small town in Eastern Washington to visit some family friends who happen to live on an orchard.  We had some amazing meals and picked a ton of fresh fruit and reminisced on our second date--when we had our first kiss.

Peaches

Rasberries

Pears

 Blackberries

Our second date was a bit unusual.  We actually drove to a wedding...a 3 hour drive...to a wedding...for a second date.  I knew this could be an amazing date or the worst date ever.  It was INCREDIBLE.  The wedding was in the same area that these family friends on the orchard live at, and because it was such a far drive, we stayed the night (in separate rooms of course) with this family.  When we arrived from the wedding we talked into the wee hours of the night and I really wanted him to kiss me when he walked me up to my room.  He didn't.  I was bummed.  But the next morning we had a romantic time walking through the orchards; at the very top of the orchard was an area that looked over the entire town--it was breathtaking...and then he kissed me.  A kiss that made my legs buckle beneath me. So when we came back to visit this family, we took a trip back up to the spot of our first kiss.

This is where the magic started...under this tree.

Where was your first kiss with your husband/fiance/boyfriend? 

My Personal Shopper

One of my best friends, Kyah, was in town on business to promote her new accessory line, SLEEVELESS.  She also happens to be a stylist so we made a date to go shopping!  My wardrobe has consisted of shorts, t-shirts and tanks for the past 6 months and I've wanted to go shopping SO badly since returning from our 6 month honeymoon.  Wearing the same 7 items day after day gets a little depressing.  I am not adventurous when it comes to fashion, so Kyah took my love of basics and just spiced it up a little.  Here are my awesome buys from H&M. 

 I love this white, lightweight sweater worn opened or closed.  I bought 3 racer back T's, the black leggings, those cute brown booties, and brown satchel. 

 I didn't think I'd like this poncho, but I LOVE it.  This is definitely one of those things only girls like...my husband was not a fan.  (He loved the tight leggings though!)

I love basics that are fun!

Do you have any basic must have's for your wardrobe?  Please

Mr. Fix It

I loathe when things go wrong with my car.  Fortunately, my man saved us $170 on new brakes.  Now that is SEXY. 

This Is What My Life Looks Like Right Now

While we were away, we stored a few boxes and about 8 trash bags of stuff in Andy's old roommate's attic.  The stuff here is this pictures is pretty much all we own including our cars.  I cannot wait until we find jobs, move, and have some basics....like drawers and closets.  It will be nice to not be in a constant state of wrinkled.

Squishy

There comes a point where you can't excuse your voracious eating habits on this rationale.  

"We're still on our honeymoon!"

I made a conscious decision before my honeymoon that I was going to truly enjoy eating.  I wasn't going to think twice about dessert our how much fat was in a delicious Thai curry....I was going to eat with the knowledge that I was going to gain some weight; and I was okay with that.   

 Fast forward to today.

While we are technically no longer on our honeymoon, we are still living the good life (not working, sleeping in, spending tons of time together). But, we're actively looking for jobs and I'm desperate to have some sort of routine in my life.  I'd love to be back in a kitchen, preparing meals and exercising.    

Although we're still in limbo and moving between friend's places, house sitting and camping,  I can no longer make excuses.  I am undeniably squishy.  My husband showers me with affirming words about my body, but I HATE it when I can't get my favorite jeans zipped up and my "fat" jeans are now barely fiitting jeans. I chose to really enjoy and eat whatever we wanted while we were honeymooning and traveling, but now I'm making the choice to live a healthier lifestyle and begin exercising again.  

I have no regrets; our honeymoon was deliciously wonderful, but now it's time to make some changes and get back into those jeans!

Did you put on "wedding weight?"  Do you care? 

Weekend Recap: Housesitting At The Lake

We woke up every morning to this.  

 Ate a lot of yummy meals like this. (That's Gorgonzola on top of that steak...so delish!)

 And spent time lounging around the lake like this. 

 It was a great weekend. 

How was your weekend?

I Hope Your Weekend Is As Fun As Ours

Can you see the gorgeous Mt. Rainer in the background?

This was actually a picture from last weekend...but this weekend Andy and I are house sitting a home on a gorgeous lake...we look forward to some relaxing time on the water.  

What are your weekend plans?

Blessings Along The Way

After camp Andy and I knew we were going to basically be "homeless" for about a month.  We were trying to figure out where we would stay between the time camp finished and his best friends wedding which is over labor day weekend.  We were welcome to stay with his best friend for the month, but that is a LONG time to be in someones space.  We had planned to spend at least a week driving up and camping in Canada...that was until we got a massive ticket.  Fortunately, God dropped a couple of very timely blessings into our lap.  We've been asked to house-sit for two different couples.  How cool is that?  I cannot tell you how awesome it is to be in an actual home, with an actual kitchen and you know...couches and stuff.  We have been traveling ever since we've gotten married and it's so nice to unpack my clothes from a backpack, shower every night, cook meals on a full stove with an oven, and cuddle on the couch and catch up on all the TV shows we've missed. 

It's awesome to recognize the little blessings; they're just simple reminders that all the details regarding jobs, locations and our future are going to work out...in His time. 

How have you been blessed lately?

Birthday Nookie--Fail

After the Korean feast I made for my husband's birthday, we stuffed ourselves silly with brownies and ice cream.  (Days of gluttony are allowed for celebrations).  I was grossly full, but I thought for sure Andy was going to want some birthday nookie, so I was gonna rally.  We both laid in bed and I was giving him some non verbal cues that I was ready when he was.  Instead, he looked at me and said in a tone of 'please say no,'

"Um...are you wanting to have sex?" 

HA-STERICAL laughter ensued.  I couldn't stop...I couldn't breathe..I was rolling...I was snorting. 

Apparently he'd eaten a little too much and was in somewhat of a food coma.  I never in a million years would have thought there would be a time we're he hoped I wouldn't be in the mood!

A Week At Camp

I never had the opportunity to go to summer camp when I was a kid.  I honestly don't remember there even being camps to go to, but if there were, I totally wish I had gone.  I had the opportunity to go to camp for a week for the very first time because my husband was the guest speaker at Camp McCullough in Covington, Washington, a gorgeous lakefront camp.  Perhaps I'm a negative Nancy because I thought there was no way that a group of about 40 high school kids were going to be "into" christian camp stuff, i.e., talking about Jesus, doing arts and crafts, dressing up each night in costumes because there were themes, singing praise music, etc.  Boy, was I wrong.

 Cowgirls and Indians Night

 Arts and Crafts

I've never seen a better group of students.  These are the type of kids I pray my future kids turn out to be.  To see 14 and 15 year old boys love on each other without trying to be "macho," to see the "in crowd" reach out to the "outsiders," and most of all to see these kids with tears in their eyes as they worshiped Jesus was overwhelming. 

It was so fun to be able to jump in along side these kids and be a kid myself...to dress up and get to know some of their stories.  Camp was a blast...it was awesome to finally experience it for the very first time! 

Did you ever go to camp?  What were your experiences?

So You Say It's Your Birthday!

You are my answered prayer.

You make me feel like the most important person in the world.

You love me better than I knew I could be loved.

You wake me up with kisses and snuggles. 

You make me want to be a better person.

You are my spiritual leader.

You are my shoulder to cry on.

You make life SO fun.  

You make me feel like a supermodel.

You are my best friend.

And even though it's your birthday, 

YOU are MY gift.  

Happy birthday to the most wonderful man in the world. 
I love you Andy.

And Even More Camping--Eastern Washington

We had to cut our road trip short because Andy was contracted to speak at a high school youth camp in Washington.  I'll tell you about how much fun we had at camp next week, but in the mean time, we had another fun camping trip about 3 hours east of Seattle with our friends Matt and Kelly.  The camp site was on a gorgeous lake, so we rented a pontoon and the boys went fishing!

After camping alone for so long it was fun to be with friends...we even made some new ones (who introduced me to bocce ball!) They had the cutest golden retrievers.  I've been wanting to get a dog SO bad--like ridiculously bad--it's just impractical for the way we've been living.  But it would have been so fun to have a little pooch running around and hanging it's head out the window while on the road.   The pictures would have been so adorable!

My husband thinks it's strange that I talk about our future dogs more than our future kids. What can I say?  I'm a dog lover!

Portland

We got half way up the Oregon coast and then cut over to Portland to visit Andy's Aunt and Uncle.  I am SO very grateful for the friends and family along our road trip who have let us crash, eat and shower at their homes.  Sleeping in an actual bed is a nice little break from camping.

We arrived on a perfect day to go sailing--how convenient that Andy's Uncle has a boat!

I get overwhelmed with joy on days like these.  It's still hard to believe that 5 1/2 months after our wedding we're still honeymooning.  We don't need the all inclusive resorts, or even the sail boats; it's the sunsets on the water and going to bed and waking up with kisses from my husband that has made our travels so phenomenal.

Top 3 Places I Never Thought I'd Shower

1. A truck stop
2. A river
3. In the mens room of a closed community center

With the exception of stopping to visit friends or family, Andy and I have camped every single night of our road trip.  However, we've only "camped" at a campsite once.  The rest of the time Andy found a dirt road, parked and and set up camp--which meant no toilets or showers.  For the non-outdoorsy, city girl, this can be quite the dilemma.  When wet wipes just didn't do the trick and I had to wash my hair, the most preferable place to stop was a truck stop.  Surprisingly, truck stop showers are immaculately clean. They cost anywhere from $7-$11 and came with a towel and a wash cloth; I definitely considered truck stop showering luxurious compared to my other options.

Truck stops are more common on major freeways.  Along highway 1, I could chose to smell like a baby's bottom or jump in the freezing cold river to get clean.  (Keep in mind it is not blistering hot on the west coast...I was wearing a fleece the majority of our trip!).  I never, ever imagined myself butt naked in a river out of necessity.  But there I was...baring it all...oh how I pray no one was able to witness it. 

There was one leg of the trip I had gone almost 3 days without a shower.  We searched for a campsite but each one we passed was full.  Andy suggested we stay at a hotel, but out of sheer pride and cheapness I said no...(ladies, if your men ever suggest a hotel over camping--take it!).  Just when I was grossed out by the thought of one more showerless day, we ended up driving past a community center and figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if we could use their facilities.  It was a Sunday evening, and apparently it was closed...but the mens bathroom was unlocked and there was a shower.  I was a little nervous about using it...it was in a wealthy area and I thought some alarm would sound and the shower police would show up and we'd be mistaken for a homeless couple and tossed into jail.  But I was dirty and desperate...and to my surprise, no alarm went off; so Andy and I continued on, clean and ready for our next shower adventure!

Where is the strangest place you've ever showered?  Have any fun camp stories to share?  I'd love to hear them!

Continuing Up The Coast

I was excited to continue our drive north because I had never driven along the coast passed San Francisco.  The drive through the Redwood National Park was breathtaking.  I had heard about the enormous trees, but it was so cool to actually stand amongst them.

 There were definitely some interesting towns along the way...with things like this.

I was stoked to finally make it over to Oregon.  The coastal drive is spectacularly beautiful...and surprisingly very different from the coastal drive in California.  What was really surprising was how dang cold it was...it just doesn't seem right to be wearing fleece in August. 

 Our Vanagan has been serving us well.  It's so easy to set up camp anywhere. 

One of my favorite games to play while camping is Bananagrams...it's like Scrabble but faster and much more fun!

Do you have a favorite travel game? 

Nor Cal

 Gray day along the Hwy 1

Quick evening in San Francisco

Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge

Redwood National Park

Andy and I LOVE Northern California; to us, it is the ideal place to live.  Unfortunately, it's also one of the MOST expensive places in the US to live.  There was a pretty great job opportunity for me in San Jose; Andy and I seriously contemplated just moving to the area where he would have taken a vocational job and done ministry voluntarily.  I was excited when we finally got to drive through the area...for some reason I thought I would just get this feeling that we were supposed to move there.  Instead I got a lot of anxiety...and just had this intuition that this wasn't where we were supposed to be.  

I fretted a lot about taking the job--it paid really well.  Then, Andy got a call from a potential employer--he has a phone interview set up next week.  It is a job we would both be really excited about for him; it would be a huge geographical change, but we both think it would be a great adventure to pick up and move across the US.  So it was settled, I didn't take the position in San Jose.  We have no idea if this job for Andy will work out, but I feel peace about my decision to let go of a great job opportunity.

As much as we both love Northern California, we didn't have a peace about moving there.  Maybe we would have had peace if we had $700,000 to put down on a house.  Darn.

Pickles

We were at a grocery store stocking up for the next leg of our journey.  I went to pick out the produce, Andy went to go pick out the meat, and we met in the middle both carrying a jar of pickles.  It was one of those serendipitous moments I can't explain, but we both cracked up and smooched in the middle of the aisle because of it.  I can't help it...this is such a fun memory and I don't know why!

Do you have any serendipitous moments that you love?

Yosemite

There are no words.

What's your favorite National Park?