weekend with friends.


this is greg and channa. they came for a visit this weekend and stayed till tuesday. we had a good time together. hanging out and junk. we went swimming in soap lake (FREEZING) and then channa and i rode on the hood of the car as greg drove around our little town. great fun! :P

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catching up. :P my mom says this project seems conceited... i think its is a valuable lesson in self-discovery. artistic expression and observation study. i'm enjoying it and having fun with it. my mom and i don't always agree...

this weekend is the NFL draft. chris is so excited! we got DirecTv so that he could watch it. then late tonight my friends greg and channa are coming for a visit. they are staying till tuesday. should be loads of fun!

here's to hoping for a good weekend!

true that....

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last saturday chris and i had our photos taken by my new friend Lisa. we got some really great ones that i'm planning on sending out for our anniversary to all our friends and family. but there are some not so formal ones i can share here. this is one of my favorites. :) we had a lot of fun taking pictures. i'm really fortunate that chris is so cooperative and enjoys doing things like this with me. he is such a good sport. and so photogenic. my handsome man....

sunday was our special assembly day in kennewick. chris, me, amanda, and cameron stayed at jon and mercades house. well actually its jon's parents place. they are there for awhile till they find a new house themselves. it was great. his parents fed us dinner and made our lunches for the assembly. i love them. and jon's little niece anna just loves me. she is 2 and has curly red hair. what a cutie!

the assembly was amazing...as always. it was focused on the thought of letting jehovah mold us like clay and being willing to follow his direction. the bethel speaker was especially good. i was just glad that i wasn't trying to interpret his talk cuz he talks really fast. i was glad that we were able to go on sunday because all of my old congregations were there...omak and spokane. so there were a lot of people there i had been missing. it was good to see everyone.

my beautiful friend amanda and her husband cam

my mom and dad

my beautiful mother and i

"our posse" salma, me, and summer

salma, me and amanda
(in the bathroom at the chinese restaurant)

all in all it was a great weekend. chris and i got sick monday, though, so this week has been a little rough. he missed work yesterday and today. monday night he went to bookstudy and conducted in ASL again. he is doing so well. i am so proud of him.

that's all for now. haven't really been feeling good enough about myself to take pictures lately so i haven't. will do some more later. :)

this is life...
i took this picture of chris this morning. LOVE IT!! he was driving though during work and stopped to say hi to me. i love him so much. these are some of the text messages he sent me the other day:

"i love you. you are my peace, my shelter and solace in this crazy world. my world is brighter because of you."

"you always seem to impress me...you make my every day better."

"thank you for loving me. there has never been a time when i regretted marrying you. every moment is a treasure."

need i say more? this man is amazing. i am blessed to get to spend my life and my every day with him.

here is my 365 for today. just in a grateful for love mood. its my precious ring and wedding band.

and i was playing around with the camera this morning (kinda becoming an everyday occurrence....liking that) and got this picture. i thought it showed my new hair cut really good. BANGS again. :)

recent adventures in shaina's hair

before....

after

so very red!! i'm lovin it so far. getting my hair done by hannah is always an adventure. i call it an "interactive hair salon" because everyone is involved. i'm pretty much in the tub doing rinse-out myself and the whole gang is hanging out in the living room with us. we had a lot of fun. got home at about quarter to one, but it was worth it. i'm hoping it stays good and red for awhile. its a good time for a change. :)

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what i've been working on...
this is a little 6x6 mini-album that i made as a present for chris. its got a bunch of pictures from when we were dating and stuff. i've had the pictures ready and the paper and everything together for months now, and just never got around to putting it together. now with the extra time i have at work, i could. :)
i'm going to give it to him tonight. hopefully he likes it.

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this is my fun 365 for today. perfect sunny day.

BIG NEWS: last night we had our very first ASL bookstudy here and the brothers asked chris to conduct!!! so he said his own prayer in ASL and then took the lead during the study. I AM SO PROUD OF HIM!! it was pretty amazing. jehovah's spirit was so there last night helping him. it looks like its going to be a regular thing now, so we will be doing some more in depth preparation. this is so good for him. to be needed and thus motivated to advance in his learning. :) we had a good night. he makes me smile.

Ty and Angela Johnson

chris and i went to tonasket for ty's wedding on saturday. what fun. it was a small simple ceremony but they look so in love. i'm really happy for them both.

i didn't end up getting my hair done. we didn't get to wenatchee in time before the store closed so hannah is going to get everything she needs and i'll go down there on wednesday night after work. that way i can get my hair done and chris can go to band practice. he is officially "back in the band!" the guys have missed him so much. so we're going to see how often we can get down there a month so he can practice and stuff. it will be good for him to have a creative musical outlet. i'm excited. it will be like old times!

today april started at work. she's great. its going to be fun training her. we get along good so far.

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yesterday was a good day.

the batteries on my camera died or i'd have other pictures and a new 365. oops. charging as we speak!
last night after work chris and i decided to head to moses lake for dinner and a movie. we also called a few friends to meet up with us. our friend ben from moses and allan and tonya wavaday (the other couple that moved into the ephrata hall when we did). we went to the golden coral for dinner. yum. good steak. and then we went and saw the movie "leatherheads" with george clooney and renee' zelwiger. i really liked the movie. it is a romantic comedy with football!! the cinematography was great. beautiful shots and great lighting. i laughed out loud a lot. but that's nothing new i suppose. :P here are some fun shots from the movie.

in other news: tonight at 6:30 one of my really good friends is getting married in tonasket. his name is Ty and i used to work with him at the omak wells fargo. all of his family is in california and can't afford to come up for the wedding, so chris and i are going as his supporters! should be a good time. hopefully i'll have some pictures to share later.

on monday the other lady that got hired here at instant cash starts. its gonna be pretty crazy in here for a bit. my boss has to go to court for some things with her other job so i'm going to be mostly training the other new lady. cool eh?

i'm also planning on getting my hair done this weekend. we are going to stay at my parents place tonight in omak and then go home through wenatchee and stop to visit there. hannah said we could get together for her to do my hair. you'll have to wait and see what we come up with!!

hope you all have a great weekend!

adventures in horseback riding...

yesterday after work i went over to my new friend jamie's house to go horseback riding with her. its been awhile since i had been, but i was so excited. i rode the horse above...his name is Reno; and jamie rode a horse samed CeeCee. it was a perfect evening for a ride. the sun was going down over the hill and the wind wasn't blowing too bad. we had a good time together talking about life and just getting to know each other better. i really enjoyed myself. i'm hoping to go again as soon as possible. it does my soul good to be back on a horse. :)

here is my cool 365 for today. fun shadows during the ride.

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the words are part of a poem chris wrote me on the fridge a couple days ago. thought it matched the picture. :) he is so good to me.

missing these girls today....

channa, me, jessie, and kimi

salma and me

me and amanda

these pictures are from Lori and Josh's wedding a few weeks ago. these are some of my really good friends from Spokane. i really miss them a lot. missing my old life a bit today. i called the scrapbook store that i used to work at and talked to all my "wednesday girls." a group of older ladies that i got to know really well in the time i worked there. it feels good to know that i am missed as well.

speaking of scrapbooking....

i've got a couple of projects in the works right now. two wedding albums (for my cousin jennifer and friend lori) and an "everyday life" book about chris and i and our life together. i've got the perfect paper for jennifer's album. really excited to get started on that!

well that's all for now. i've got a picture to post later to add to my 365. i'm having fun playing with my photo editing program. :)

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feeling good today. it is my first full day at work by myself. really slow day...but that is ok. i'm having fun playing with some of my pictures. there is a thing on some other blogs i have come across that is a self-portrait for every day of the year. thought it might be fun. took these ones yesterday. so here is my first few portraits for this series.

so much to share!!!

wow. what a weekend.

friday night was great...just like i had hoped it would be. this is the only picture that i got. :P sorry. got so caught up in laughter! but we had a lot of fun.

then saturday morning i went in service and when i got home my husband had decided to shave his head again! woohoo! what a handsom man. i love how spontaneous he is. luv this guy!

saturday afternoon we watched the movie DAN IN REAL LIFE. one of the best! i laughed out loud (nothing new) cried (also nothing new). my suggestion: watch it!

on sunday we had the special talk...also given around the world. i was privileged to be able to help interpret it for the deaf ones in our hall. i have been doing a lot of interpreting at our meetings lately and getting more and more comfortable with it. jehovah has blessed our move i think...we feel wanted and needed in this new congregation.

....to our new home.


here in beautiful Soap Lake, Washington
this is our livingroom. lots of chairs...i know. but comfortable and livable. we were allowed to paint the walls here! yay! so now i have brown and green walls to match all my brown and green stuff. the view of the lake above is from these windows. "lake view property" ;)

this is my new wall of clocks! its funny how used to having them i had gotten...so that while they weren't up i missed them.

this is our kitchen and my perfect green canisters i searched for months for. finally found them at World Market in Spokane. love them!
of course we have word magnets on our fridge. we are always writing little notes and poems to each other.
the clock in this room is one i have had for awhile. the other day i took it apart and added green and brown polka-dot cardstock to it so it matched the house. have i said how much i love green and brown? :)
this shelf is in our dining room. its for all our magazines and stuff and my Nancy Drew book collection. and beside it is our wedding present from Kelly. its four pieces of canvas covered in scrapbooking paper and pictures of us. then one of the squares has a clock on it. does that girl know me or what?

well, that's all the pictures i had time to take this morning. the bedroom isn't quite finished and my scrapbook room/closet is just about organized. can't wait to get that started again. i miss scrapbooking. :(

one bad thing about our apartment is that the bathtub in plugged....really bad. you take a shower and by the time you're finished you could take a bath too. :P not good. we have tried so many different things. drain-o and the plunger and some natural enzyme thing from chris' mom. nothing has worked. so i called our manager yesterday and hopefully today when we get home it will be fixed.

tonight chris and i are going out. i have a surprise planned for him. there is a little comedy club in ephrata that is putting on a show and buffet tonight. chris loves that sort of thing. i told him to come pick me up from work tonight and to be dressed up. he has no idea. i'm so excited!

let you know how it goes and hopefully have pictures for you too!