Dinner + Sisters and Mom + Aunt Terri + Dessert with Megan and Dad = Fun Times

Last night Kristie, Stacy, Mom and I met Aunt Terri at Gubanc's for dinner. It was SOOO fun and we laughed quite a bit. It is always fun to meet up with Aunt Terri, especially since we don't see her all that often anymore. And the food was YuMmY! I had to take the chance to have a little photo shoot together after dinner outside the restaurant. I think we're all pretty cute.

Some nice, cute and funny man offered to take our picture
so all of us could get in

After Gubanc's, we had a little bit of a sweet tooth so mom and Kristie ran home to pick up dad and Megan and then we all met at Village inn for some dessert. Mom and I had the Brownie Pie, and I think we won. I was so good. It was close to Megan's bedtime (or maybe even past it) by this time, but she was so good. She did insist on using the big girl cup all by herself, and she did great. I don't even think that she spilled at all.

Such a big girl!

And then she decided that she wanted

to splash in the water and wash her hands.
Makes sense to me!

There's not really a point to this video,
but you just get to see Megan being cute!
You can hear Grandma in the background being
concerned about her drinking the water she was washing in. :)

Mamma Mia, and A Night Out With Stacy

Stacy and I went and saw Mamma Mia yesterday afternoon at Bridgeport. And I Loved it. It was very cute. It made you laugh and even tear up! Although, for the record, my eyes were much dryer than Stacy's! :) I would recommend it just because it is fun and the upbeat music makes you happy.

Then we headed downtown and ate dinner at Bridgeport Brewery and Bakery. This was the first time I had eaten dinner there, and it was good but not great. But it was fun! After dinner we headed to Rimsky's to get some coffee and dessert, and with the help of Stacy's cell phone navigation we made it there. It is a strange place, but fun somehow. However, after seating ourselves and waiting, and waiting and waiting....no one came to greet us and take our order. So we left. Too bad because I was looking forward to some berry cobbler! Anyway, we did take some pictures outside just for fun. Here they are:

I Missed These Pics

I missed this pictures as I was downloading my pictures from last nights dinner.

I Missed These Pics

I missed this pictures as I was downloading my pictures from last nights dinner.

Megan and her Grandpa, and his cell phone

Sisters, minus Kelly

And here is a picture of Kelly,
just so we are all not too sad that she
isn't in the one above :)

Megan being silly with D

More Birthday Celebration

Last night the family went to Olive Garden to celebrate my birthday. It is always fun for me when we can all be together. The food was great and the company was better. We even saw cousin Karen, who works there. She was able to take this picture of us for me.

Here is sweet Megan. If you look close, you can
see the spaghetti all over her precious face.

Megan coloring - she was very focused

Kristie and Megan outside Olive Garden

And now for a couple random pictures....

Here is Megan LOVING the empty Starbucks

cup Aunt Stacy gave her. She is such a big girl.

Cute picture of baby Megan and Aunt Stacy

Thank you guys for everything you did to make my birthday special. Thank you for all my gifts and my sweet cards. I love you guys.

Friends and Family - Proverbs 17:17

The Message version of the Bible says,

"Friends love through all kinds of weather and families stick together in all kinds of trouble."

I started a new thing, I am going to try to memorize one scripture a week. And the verse above is this week's verse. It was appropriate for this week, celebrating my birthday and all. Every year as my birthday draws closer I consider how I would like to celebrate and spend those all-too-short 24 hours. Which without fail, leads me to be reflective on the last year and count my blessings.

Families stick together in all kinds of trouble. How fortunate I am to have a family that resembles that verse. But it saddens me to think of all the people who don't take that to heart. They give up when it gets to hard, the trouble seems too much, things aren't going their way, or they think that they have already been through too much. What would the world be like if everyone had their families best interest at heart and not just their own? What would it be like if everyone made a DECISION to love, instead of leaning on their "feelings" to guide them? What if people responded in love, patience and gentleness to their family even through arguments and rough times? We would grow closer to each other. Trust would flourish and respect would blossom, and the family would become a dependable unit, the way it was designed to be. Family is one of the few things in this life that you can't change, even through divorce, and fights and years of not talking to each other. You can not change who your parents are, who your kids are, who your siblings are.

Unfortunately, because of these tight bonds that we share with our family, it is easy for them to be the ones that hurt us the most. I am by NO MEANS perfect, I get my feelings hurt and act badly, I respond impatiently and don't always say things that are kind. But what I am saying is what if we tried to live in such a way that WE are friends that love through all kinds of weather and WE are family that sticks together in all kinds of trouble. Ultimately, you can only control that way that you act. But you'd be surprised how the heart and attitudes of those around you would change if you acted and responded in love to them.

Just a thought.

Happy Birthday to Me! (yesterday)

Well, yesterday was my birthday. 25. I can't believe that I am 25, mostly because I feel older! Maybe it is because I didn't go away for 4 years of college and basically just started working, maybe it is because all my friends have always been older, maybe it is because I have a unique job and have seen way more than most 25 (or 85 ) year olds have, whatever it is...I just feel older than 25. But it also shocks me that I am 25. Someone said to me, you're 15 right? :) And I said, yep...plus 10. And that was weird. Because I vividly remember being 15 and it doesn't seem like 1o years ago. Anyway....weird.

My day was very fun. I probably would have changed a couple things, but nonetheless is was a fantastic day. I felt very loved and cared about. And my little sister even called me from Italy! 3 times, before she actually got to talk to me. It was fun to talk to her. And it MADE my day that she called. I loved talking to her and it made me feel special that she thought of me. But it sure made me miss her!

I spent a couple hours in the morning up at T.R.A.C. with my parents and then went and bought myself a couple new shirts! Then D took me out to lunch at Panera (one of my most favorite lunch places) and then we went to Bridgeport to walk around and go to Borders. I was kind of sleepy though so I took a one-hour afternoon nap.

OOOHHHH, and I forgot. Before we went to lunch, D gave my birthday card and gift. I was so proud of him and it meant so much to me. I love sitting in the park, whether it just be to take a nap or to read a good book, but what I really love to do in the park is have a picnic! So this was my gift from D.....

A picnic backpack from REI. I forgot to take a pic of mine,
but this is exactly what it looks like, except mine is a reddish color.

Isn't it neat? I LOVE IT. And will use it a ton!!!
We even used it last night for the first time.
As you can see, it has all the utensils, plates and cups
in the front...and even a mini-cutting board, which I think is so cute.
Then in back it has an insulated area where you put the food! and on the sides there are insulated drink holders!

And then he got me this picnic blanket.
It folds up small and can attach to the backpack.
And it is waterproof on one side so you won't get wet.
It's pretty handy.

After my nap we got ready to go to the park for a picnic with our friends to celebrate my birthday. The weather was perfect yesterday. We brought footballs and a frisbee and I think everyone had a good time. We ate pizza, soda, watermelon and ice cream! It was fun and I was thankful that my friends could all get together.

Here is a picture of all of us (minus me taking the pic).
And does the blanket on the right look familiar?
We used my new picnic blanket!
If you look really close on the left, you can see my picnic backpack!!

Jessica, Jason and Tony

I felt very loved yesterday and was thankful for all my friends and family. It's been a pretty good 25 years!

More Weekend Fun

Last night we drove out to Willamette Mission State Park (off the Brooks exit on I-5) to sit by the river. We laid out a blanket and just sat and read together and talked. It was pretty peaceful besides the extremely loud children who were playing in the river nearby.

Also, we went of the beaten trail a little and I had to traipse through the mushy, slimy and smelly mud of the Willamette river in my flip flops to get where we were going and I was not a very happy camper about it. But someone thought it was pretty funny and insisted on laughing at me in my disgust. However, HE WAS NOT WEARING FLIP FLOPS! And I know too much about the pollution of the Willamette River to feel okay about walking through the "mud." Gross!

Anyway, once we got there it was peaceful. And of course, we posed for some pictures. Please don't mind how dirty, disgusting and very exhausted that I look!

Oh, How I Love the Ocean: Part 2 (pictures)

More pictures from my beach trip. They are all pretty self-explanatory, plus I am tired of typing! Read the post below for more details. :)

Oh, How I Love the Ocean

The house we stayed at this weekend was AMAZING. It was right on the beach, and I mean RIGHT on the beach. You could not have gotten any closer. We had a great time. The weather was so nice, it was actually warm on the Oregon Coast, imagine that! Friday night we enjoyed the drive over because it was a beautiful drive thanks to the weather.

The house was kind of between Lincoln City and Depoe Bay. When we got there, we unloaded our stuff and then headed out to the beach. We watched the sun go down and then just hung out on the beach til it was really dark. We had tons of fun playing with with D's nephews and running away from the waves. They thought that was the best thing ever and just so fun.

On Saturday morning we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and besides the admission prices being a little steep, it was great. It cost us $28.50 just for D and I to get in. After the aquarium, we went to look at this lighthouse in Newport. It was really cool, and we were able to go inside and look around and everything. The view was pretty amazing too. I love stuff like that, so I was having a fantastic time. Oh, and there was tons of people all around painting and sketching the lighthouse and the view, that was neat to see. After the lighthouse and lunch, we headed home. But on the way to the house D and I saw this pretty amazing park/observatory spot so we pulled in to look around and take some pictures! It was pretty cold though because the wind was blowing like crazy.

I have lots of pictures to share. It was a FUN weekend.

Quite the view out your living

room windows, don't you think?!

D and I when we were SUPER sleepy on Friday night

D and his nephews

At the OCA. We were laughing pretty hard, because we
were making fishy faces to the fish behind us

It won't let me post any more pictures to this post, so I will put the rest on a new post.

The Beach, My sisters, My Job and More Camping Pictures

1. So I have no real reason to post today, but I am bored. I am going to Newport this afternoon after work and am really excited. A little nervous, but mostly just excited to be going to the ocean! We are going to the aquarium tomorrow morning and then maybe to see the two lighthouses in Newport (hopefully).

2. It is FrEe SlUrPeE day at 7-11! Cuz it's July 11th....get it?! lol. So go get one! Especially if you live in Arizona where it is 1,267 degrees outside!

3. Only 5 days till my big sister comes to town and I can't wait! I really miss my sisters! I can't wait for Kelly to get home from Italy and I can't wait to see Stacy and I can't wait til I have enough money to drive the 30 minutes out to Cornelius to see Kristie (and Megan) whenever I want. If you have sisters, you know how truly blessed you are to have "built-in" best friends. You may have close girlfriends, but it is hard for them to rival your sisters. Sisters share your past, your secrets, your memories, know your dreams and hopes as well has your failures. They are the girls that will always love you if for no other reason than just because they have to.

4. I think that I can officially say now that the schools have hired an Assistant Superintendent. I am very sad/anxious about this because the process has begun to phase Bob out. This will be Bob's last year as Superintendent. I know the man they hired and have actually even worked with him a little in my previous position at the church. I like him, don't get me wrong. But I have LOVED working with Bob. He's is so great. The atmosphere he creates is very calm and laid back, but with expectations of course and we get our job done. I like that. I have never done well with someone who is demanding or high strung. I am good at my job and do what I am told, but never need to be "yelled" at or spoken down to to get the point (example....my Tualatin all-star basketball coach, Steve. He tried to motivate me by yelling and being mean....and that just DOES NOT WORK for me, never has and never will). I am not saying the new guy will do this at all, I am confident that he won't, but I am just saying that working with Bob has been such a good fit for me. I respect and admire him so much. And I have come to love both he and his wife. So I am very sad about this. The other change at work is that the position of "Chief Development Officer," has been "eliminated." Which means that I no longer will be working for him. LOTS of things changing, and I am anxious to see how everything turns out. I don't do well with change, but I am just trying to go with the flow. At least Bob will be here through this year.

5. I am feeling an abnormal amount of stress these days, and I can't really figure out why. It's weird. Maybe it has to do with work stuff, who knows. But I get to stare off into the ocean for the next 2 days, so yay!

6. Let's see....do I have anything else to ramble on about? I don't think so. But I do have more picture of camping to post, so here they are:

April burnt her self making dinner :(
I actually like this picture, and that doesn't happen too often :)