congrats my friends!!!

over the weekend our good friend nate proposed to his girlfriend abi. he planned out a whole scavenger hunt for her to do, leading her to places they've spent time during their courtship. then the last clue led her to a park where they first met. that's where he proposed!! and she said: YES!
then they went back to her parent's place where chris had been all day preparing a special meal for them... chicken picata. (its his best meal...seriously!) they had a little candle-lit dinner just the two of them. our friend vinny was the "waiter."
i had to work, so i missed the actual proposal day, but i went down to kennewick on saturday afternoon. they had a big family dinner for them, and just included chris and i. it was so nice to be involved in such a special moment for our friends.
we stayed over saturday night and spent all day sunday with them too. they had meeting at 4 so we got the whole morning to hang out. we watched wall-e (so cute!!) and had family study. interestingly the watchtower was about marriage. rather apropos! ;)
they have also invited chris and i to be in their wedding party! we are so honored and excited!

love you guys!!
<3

it was a fantastic weekend.

*fresh beginnings*

so today, for reasons that elude me, i decided to re-do the design elements on my blog. felt like going back to my roots.... pink & brown & black.

i <3 it.

what do you think??

tagged....

this morning i was doing my usual read-through of all my favorite blogs and saw that my dear friend Dani tagged me!!

so here's the deal:
go to your pictures.
go to the 4th folder and find the 4th picture
post it
tag 4 friends

this is my photo!
this picture is from november of 2006. chris and i had just been at our friend (and best man) nathan's concert with the Wenatchee Valley Symphony. AMAZING. nate plays the upright bass. he's fantastic! after the concert chris and i, nate, and my cousin jen went to applebee's for late night drinks and appatizers. this was our first "get-dressed-up-and-go-somewhere" date. so i had nate take a picture.
this is why i love this man!!! he always makes me laugh. :)

now its my turn to tag 4 friends....
i choose:
1. Jamie
2. Brandy
3. Heather
4. Holly
alright ladies! have fun with this one. :D

thanks dani
<3 ya!

there are not enough words to describe how i feel about this amazing woman: my mother.

we had a spectacular weekend together. nothing out of the ordinary, but she was with me, and that made it perfect. we just hung out, played cards, watched comedy, made food, ate food, had chinese food!, looked at pictures, shared good real laughter, and TALKED. i feel so good when i'm around her.

next to chris, she is my best friend.

we didn't take pictures like i'd hoped, but this one of her is a new favorite of mine. it was from my mom and dad's recent vacation to the oregon coast. she looks so happy here.

she went to the meeting with me on sunday morning, got to see me interpret a meeting for the first time, and meet all the wonderful brothers and sisters in our hall. they were so excited to meet her! it was pretty awesome. :)

i'm so glad that she came.

*******************
so i realize that its been a LONG time since i've posted anything really scrapbook related...and that's cuz i just haven't created anything in just as LONG. :( we took the AC out of our livingroom window, and with no place to store it, its ended up on the floor in my my "scrapbook studio" which is about 8'x8'. tiny! i can't even get in there right now.
but.... the awesome ladies over at THe CrEative TyPe have knocked another prompt out of the park!!! head on over and check it out. you're bound to be inspired!! :D i'm just sad i had to skip this one. maybe we'll just put the AC in the trunk of the car... there's a though!! :P

have a great week everyone. :D

looking back...

i was going through some things last night and found these photos of me as a little girl. they warmed my heart with thoughts of childhood, innocence, memories, and life. i wanted to share them. :)
they're not the greatest quality, but they are special to me.

my mom used to have this one in a frame by her bed.

mom says that i knew i'd marry chris all along: tall, dark, and handsome! :D

this was my pose! i love that little curl on the side of my head... :)

in other news: my mom is coming for a visit this weekend!!! i am so excited. she will be here tomorrow night and stay through sunday. i have been missing her so much lately. i think it comes with being sick, and worried about life. she is such a comfort to me. i can't wait!
hopefully we'll take some pictures that i can share!

things to be happy about today....

last night i got 13 packages of Happy Mail ready to be sent for today. it makes me feel so good to give and make someone else's day. i've received so many packages, and now its mine turn to give back. :)

this was the face of my baby sleeping this morning.... god i love this face.

i have tons of good music to listen to. seriously: who needs this many cd's ? lol.

today i tried a new sandwich for lunch: turkey, cream cheese, and BBQ sauce. sounds weird i know, but it was seriously SO GOOD! that, my diet coke, and my fritos made me smile today.


i spent some time today looking through my old scrapbooks. it was interesting to see ways that my style has grown, changed, and evolved, and ways that its stayed exactly the same. i like that. :)

i found my favorite coffee cup this morning... i thought it was lost. it was just hiding: in the cupboard. imagine that! lol. so i used it for my orange juice. its one from starbucks with pictures from our wedding in it. it makes me smile. happy memories.

its been about 10 days of no sun. which has been really hard on chris and i. its been very depressing for both of us. its amazing how much that can truly effect a person. hense the need for my "happy list" today.
now i'm praying for a hint of sunshine....but i hear its supposed to snow. :(

so sick i can't think....
which is never a good thing when working with money.

chris and i are SO SICK. been feeling sickish since the assembly, but its really hit us last night and this morning. but he gets to stay home in bed... :( i have to work. thank goodness its a slow day, cuz i don't think i could handle much more than that. its to the point where my head feels like its in a balloon. every breath echos and i'm constantly wiping my nose.
pouty face. :(

i got a text from my brother micah this morning. he lives in grande prairie alberta and THEY HAVE SNOW! sucks to be him. (or vaccuums as we used to say :P ) i do miss him though... glad he said hello.

my class is going well. i'm working on root words, suffixes, and prefixes of medical terms. i have a bunch of flashcards that came with the coursework. chris helps me by quizing me with them. we have a lot of fun coming up with ways for me to remember what they mean. :) i'm enjoying it a lot. kinda having a hard time concentrating on it today though with the head space i'm currently in. that's one good thing about it being a "work at your own pace" course.

i've signed up for a couple more cool ATC swaps over at SIS. one is a "post secret" swap. a cool fun concept for a swap. the other is the general SIS swap focusing on thankfulness. i'm excited to get started on them. :) if you read my blog and haven't stopped over at SIS (Scrap In Style) you really need to. its a wonderful, supportive group of women who love to take pictures, scrapbook, and create. there are message boards, a place to post your layouts and things you create, awesome classes, group activites, and webisodes full of scrapbooking how-to's. come on over! :D

well, i think that's all from me today...
sorry i don't have any pictures or pages to share. i'm kinda sad about that. i wish my camera was better; then i'd do more for sure!

in need of some inspiration....

these artists move me,
they stir my soul,
they make me want to create & take pictures,
they make me feel alive,
and in wonder of the world we live in.

i am grateful to the art of real life,
and so glad that i can be an observer.

1. Watch the Time, 2. Mmmmm. Sighpants., 3. Pink Gerber, 4. feet in the mirror, 5. Paisley (low resolution), 6. a long way from home., 7. He loves me! He really really loves me!, 8. Lucy, 9. A heart, for a ♥, for a heart, 10. our.dreams, 11. possibility, 12. Road to recovery..., 13. just a touch. (110/365), 14. What would we do with out coffee?, 15. Untitled, 16. ...pale dress...

the circuit assembly and a crazy kitten

that about sums up our weekend!!

chris and i already had been to sunday of the circuit assembly in omak at the beginning of last month, but we were still so eager for our own. i took tons of notes! the theme for the assembly was from Rom 12:21 "Keep conquering the Evil with the Good." it was full of thought-provoking parts, encouraging experiences, new perspectives on things that we know, and for our little family, direction towards some new goals.
here are some of my favorite points:

• we can be "fortified" against evil with 4 provisions (like the 4 walls of a "fort") from God. 1) his word the Bible 2) holy spirit 3) the congregation with its "gifts in men" 4) prayer
• nothing we face in inapropriate for prayer...when we don't know what to do, really we do know: we pray.
• we can recieve power to conquer evil today through genuine godly devotion.
• the goals that we set need to be smart: S= specific, M= measurable, A= attainable, R= realistic, and T= time-bound.
  
• true permanent relief from evil is promised. Matt 19:28 in speaking of the paradise calls it a 're-creation.' things included in this re-creation: 1) a global cleansing 2) any extinct species can be created again 3) every human resting in God's memory will be resurrected.
• all Jehovah asks of us is our best...he knows that our best is not the same as anyone else's and that it might now even be the same as it was before because life changes.
  
• we can strengthen our faith by improving the quality of our personal Bible reading. it needs to be reverent, unhurried, and worshipful reading.
  

the district overseer was and incredible speaker. i could listen to him for hours. his closing prayer touched my heart....
it was a beautiful assembly.

now on to the kitten!.....
we were able to stay at derek and nina's apartment in kennewick for the weekend. they were out of town, so we had the place to ourselves...and their kitten. oh my word!! CRAZY CAT!! he is so spoiled and not trained very well. needs a lot of attention. i'm not really a big cat person, and apperently he realized it because he felt the need to attack me whenever i walked by him. we went to bed and just closed the door to let him have free range of the rest of the apartment. but NO....he wouldn't have that. he sat outside the door and literally wailed for 2 hours straight. so then chris gave up, got up, and opened the door. then all he did was attack our feet, crawl all over us, play in my hair, stand on our faces, drink water from my cup on the nightstand, claw at our fingers, and make noise. we got NO SLEEP!! needless to say it was a rough night. i'm cured...i don't want a kitten! :P

so how was your weekend??

tonight we start a new book in our American Sign Language bookstudy. i'm so excited. we're doing the new learn from the great teacher book. we just finally got our DVD copies of it this weekend so we can have our study. we were worried! i'm so excited. and proud of my hubs for the job he does taking care of our little group. :)