baby ford turns 1!

i know i have talked about my creative/sweet/pretty friend Jen before, but this weekend we celebrated her son's FIRST birthday. I knew it would be super cute but I was completely blown away by how precious it was! I just have to share. :) 

 it was Brown Bear, Brown Bear (the children's book) themed. there was a photobooth...

where you picked out a mask of an animal from the story! (ps. yes, jen sewed all those masks :)

then when we left the party, we got these PRECIOUS keepsake photos! like seriously? Baby Ford says "Thanks for Partying with Me"

 and then the desserts. 

we had a musical parade. all the kiddos had a different musical instrument!

then auntie jes read the Brown Bear, Brown Bear book to us all :) 

of course the snacks all coordinated. yep. green frogs. genius. 

we all had a great time, but the real question is did Baby Ford enjoy his first birthday?

i think so ;)

i got some baby cuddles as well. 

before it was present time

thanks for inviting us to your party Baby Ford, you are one LOVED little boy. 

and Jen, I am starting to advertise your party planning services. so get ready ;) love u :) 

angels

We're all kissed by angels but some of us never think to pucker. 

 ~Terri Guillemets

mom: "i think next year we should all stay in a groupon and go shopping in seattle for a few days at christmas time."

 grandma's head spins around and glares at my mom: "WHY WOULD WE STAY IN A GROUP HOME?!?"

cue taco del mar spewing out of my mouth

thanks for the laughs grammy (groupon does sound A LOT like group home) and for the christmas decorations. I love them and will keep them forever and ever and then pass them onto my oldest granddaughter when she gets married :) 

never too close to christmas to start a tradition. what could you do? :) 

i'm sad

i'm sad.

the tv is on sports a lotttt in this household and that means when I get sick of watching sports my eyes go to the little ticker that goes across the bottom with "breaking" sports news.

just this week,

a 25 year old Kansas City Chiefs player killed his girlfriend and then committed suicide at the football stadium, leaving behind his 3 month old baby girl.

then on Saturday it was a Dallas Cowboy who has been charged with intoxicated manslaughter. He was driving drunk when his Mercedes crashed and his teammate was killed. His same teammate that he also played college football with.

Sometimes we get to watch non-sports related things and I get to see non-sports related news.

the story about the nurse that was at the receiving end of that prank phone call about Princess Kate and her pregnancy? She committed suicide. You guys. A radio station prank called the hospital and pretended to be the King and Queen and asked to talk to their granddaughter Kate. The mother of two nurse put them through to a triage nurse who gave them details.

Heck, while I was in the bathroom at the tennis club this weekend before our match started I heard a pre-teen girl (probably about ten) talking to her mom about how some other girls in her PE class told everything that they saw her the extra large tag on her t-shirt in her locker and they went and told all the boys.

break.my.heart.

it's so easy in this time of reality tv, athletes being paid INSANE amounts of money to throw around a ball, and when famous celebrities weddings cost more than I will make in my lifetime. (cough, cough Justin Timberlake + Jessica Biel. :) i get caught up in it too. Well that kicker for that football team deserves to be ridiculed, his ONLY job is to kick field goals and get paid millions of dollars. how dare he miss. and i also am not advocating drunk driving and being reckless. I think actually that is the problem. Too many of us think we are just too invincible.

i guess my heart is just sad. sad for the pranks that get taken just a smidge too far. sad for the young lives SO full of potential that end too short. Sad that is what our news has to be about.

i probably should have been nicer to that 12 year old girl from the locker room when she cut me in line for the water fountain. I guess I shouldn't be so envious of football players younger than me with bank accounts full to the tens of millions. we all have battles that we deal with, and I just wanna learn to approach everyone with love. i think the world really needs that right now.

whatcha want?

at church last week we talked about something so simple that seemed kind of like a "duh" moment.

i can't stop thinking about it, and realizing how complex I was making it all. 

"if you want God to bless something, you must give it to him."

well, okay there Sherlock, great realization. 

but really. 


you want to be blessed in your relationship with your husband? give that relationship to him.

your job? give that too. 

while the concept of Heaven is mighty fabulous, sometimes I must admit it frustrates me. Yes, it will be easy to pray and not worry and have un-nerving faith when we don't have bills to pay, jobs to go to that we may not LOVE, or just plain sucky things that happen in our lives. 

we can't keep seperating our "godly things" from our "worldly things"

my "I HAVE TO DEAL WITH" list?

~my finances
~my graduate school application
~my issues with eating
~when will we have babies? ("it can't be after I'm 32, but not before I finish grad school blah blah."etc. etc. 
blah, blah, blah

i can't continue to pray "Dear God, PLLLEEASSEEEEEEEEE let me be accepted into the WWU masters of school counseling program. PLLEEEASSEEEEE," but then continue to stay awake all night tossing and turning about how I haven't studied enough vocab words to get a good score on the GRE.

took this on my run today (after a guy told me that Seattle should have drafted Tim Tebow instead of our quarterback. I was wearing a seahawks shirt after a sad loss :( )

just a great reminder that God's grace and blessings can be around us ALL the time, we don't have to wait until Heaven. :) We just have to give Him the chance.  

“God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.” 

                                            ― C.S. Lewis

CF

the most exhausting hour of your life

 + 

the most crazy sense of accomplishment

=

crossfit. 

we had friday off because of the holiday.

here's to going back after a FOUR day vacation from squats and burpees :) eeeek. 

proud momma bear :)

i'm so proud of some people in my life right now doing just amazing things.

~little jessica paige who ran her FIRST half marathon today in Seattle!

photo courtesy of JPJ's momma and cheerleader. 

~my momma and her BFF katy who have started training for a 5k. 

if ya know my mom even in the LEAST bit, i betcha know she absolutely DETESTS running. yep, that lady can burn 12,344 calories vacuuming and cleaning the house, but she does not like forced aerobic activity. 

that being SAID, they run/walk three days a week and are working up to do the Jingle Bell run, I believe. 

I think my mom is onto one of the reasons I like to run. cute work out clothes/shoes and a dad/husband who is much more likely to purchase these if we actually use them. ;)

~my sweet friend who is 39 weeks pregnant and preparing for her c-section next week!

not only does she have her adorbs toddler to chase around all day, but she is going in for her second c-section next week. she is nervous, scared and it sure doesn't sound fun, but she is such a strong woman and I am praying for the healthy delivery of baby boy J and the healing of momma :) 

(looking good lady! :)

~my sunday morning Weight Watcher's meeting ladies.

We have been having our Sunday morning meeting for about 2 1/2 months now. Today the 15ish of them who regularly attend hit their 250th pound lost since our little meeting began. for those of you who have never struggled with food, eating issues etc. this might sound silly. but it can be just as all-consuming as drug and alcohol addictions.

not only have they combined to lose almost a quarter of a TON of body fat, one of my fav ladies ;) hit a big milestone in her weight loss. I got the honor of weighing her, seeing her HUGE smile and then hearing her tell me about how she can now shop at "regular stores" and just not the stores for fat people.

Could you imagine how life changing that would be?! silly and minute for some people, but really. imagine getting that control over your life back. and being able to get some cute work-out pants at Target :)

~and I mean really. who i am kidding? i would be lying if i said i didn't feel proud of my accomplishment from this weekend.

say hello to the newest Starbucks Gold Card Member. that means I have spent an absurd amount of money and calories on an absurd amount of shots of espresso.

:)

bring it on week, i got a pretty awesome posse behind me :)

novembers

i usually hate novembers. 

november means:

~daylight savings time. (umm. dark at 4PM? no thanks.)

~the love/hate relationship of Thanksgiving dinner. (love? mashed potatoes. Hate? the five pound weight gain that follows which gets up to 10+ by Christmas.)

~CHAPPED LIPS!!!!!

~baseball world series, NBA starts, college football, NFL. it is like the biggest month of the year for sports. wahooo. sarcasm. :) 

~usually a new video game is released this month. 

Call of Duty, Halo. you get the picture. add this to the forementioned month of sports? more wahoo. 

~the realization that the end of yet another year is upon us, and that list of New Year's resolutions that I SWORE I would do this year is once again not done.

negative nancy much? yep.

i think i am starting to become quite fond of Novembers. 

almost 20,000 acres of Wenatchee was burned by wildfires a few weeks ago. Drew's dad said that the air was filled with smoke and blah. 

i have never seen such beautiful fall colors in eastern washington. 

who knew apple orchards had it in them?

drew's dad was talking about how maybe that horrible smoke had something to do with it?

try changing perspective. 

plus, those horrible chapped lips? a great reason to get to buy new chap stick. :)

as of late:

some things I have been loving these last few days in October:

reminiscing about getting engaged to this hottie LAST october. and so0o happy for all my friends who have gotten engaged recently. this seems like a popular time of year to pop the question :)

pumpkin cupcakes. (umm... they did NOT turn out like the pinterest ones? story of my life. :)

 cozy breakfasts. 

I have never been a big breakfast eater on the weekends. I like to stick to my weekly staples of oatmeal or kashi or something. (cuz heaven forbid we know what happens when I strive off of my "plan")

oh man. not any longer. the waffle maker is one of the best things in the entire world.  

 THESE CARAMEL BARS!

so maybe they were supposed to be "salted caramel bars."

welp. I forgot the salt. 

soooo caramel bars anyone?

SOOOOOOO rich but seriously DELICIOUS!!!!

perhaps due to the pound of butter or heavy whipping cream? you must make them. 

and since we seem to be on the food theme, let's end it with another recipe, shall we? 

we had my parents over for din last week and we made pulled pork sandwiches. 

in the crock pot. 

put the pork tenderloin in the crockpot. 

pour over a can of rootbeer.

set on low for six hours. 

shred pork and mix in BBQ sauce. 

and then eat your pulled pork sandwich for dinner. 

and a caramel bar for dessert.

and then a cupcake for a midnight snack because it is taunting you. 

and then lie to the cute guy you got engaged to last year when he asks if you ate that cupcake in bed.

hehe. ;) 

cupcake wars

while i LOVE the big tiered wedding cake tradition, i just figured it would be easier and cheaper to do cupcakes. i still wanted drew and i to have something to cut, so we decided to go with cupcakes AND a little cake. 

i LOVED the little cake, but was kind of bummed that I had two different bakeries make the cake and the cupcakes. you can sooo tell they don't really match. whooops. 

we went cupcake tasting and it was SO fun. we had like 12 different flavor combos and then had a few months to pick our choices. 

since i wanted them all frosted with vanilla frosting so they could be dyed pink, I didn't really have as many cupcake flavors as I would have liked. 

so i went with vanilla, chocolate, strawberry lemonade and raspberry truffle. (the baker ran out of one of these, so she last minuted added some banana. BANANA?? had i known this BEFORE the wedding, we may have had a bridezilla moment. of ALL the flavors to add to an EVENING wedding? BANANA?)

i digress. 

well kind of. I used Katie Cupcakes for my cupcakes who is going to be featured in the season premier of CUPCAKE WARS on Sunday!!!!!!

how fun is that?!?!?!

Katie is bring her assistant Kelsey, who was sooo helpful to us during this process. 

so while I may not have been in LOVE with our desserts, they turned out and our guests seemed to like them :) 

and that's what matters right?

even though we did have LOTS of banana cupcakes left over. wonder why...

katie, if you are reading this. please don't make any banana cupcakes for Cupcake Wars. ;) good luck girls!!!!!!!

no timeline

i've always been waiting for something. especially when it comes to working out/eating healthy.

after the holidays I will start eating more fruits and veggies.

oh no. spring break is in two months. I have to run 5 miles a day every day until then so i can look smokin' in that swimsuit.

i have to lose x pounds by x date so that blah blah blah.

i am AMAZINGLY good at reaching these goals (i always told Drew that if they had a Biggest Loser for chubby skinny people I would SO win. :)

the problem? i reach them and then say okay made it.

that was my problem the first few times I did Weight Watchers. I LOVED weighing in and losing weight each week, but when I got to my goal I got bored.

I don't really know how to maintain weight. I am a PRO at losing and gaining. But staying the same? not so much.

these deadlines that I impose on myself are just setting me up for failure.

lose 20 pounds by the wedding.

check.

but this morning at weigh in? Not pretty. and i'm just sick of this.

so for the first time in my ENTIRE life, I have no timeline. 

I already got married and had 123,545 pictures taken of myself. I don't have to fit into a prom dress, impress a boy in my bikini during Spring Break or be a size 2 by the holidays.

i'm not setting a date in my planner when I want to be back at goal weight.

i am going to take one day at a time, and work on healthy life habits that won't come and go. :)

heard this conversation between Leah at Weight Watcher's and the members in her meeting:

leah: "so you guys have dropped your cell phone right?"

"and when you drop your precious iphone, you don't start kicking and stomping on it?

"you don't think, 'well since my cute case got one little scratch in the corner, I might as well smash the rest of the phone and just get a new one later."

yep. sounds silly, but this is the attitude I have with my body.

and i'm done with it. it's not about numbers on the scale or the size of my new jeans.

it's about being HEALTHY, and being healthy doesn't mean losing twenty pounds if you can gain it right back by reverting to old habits. :)

today: our 1/2 marathon training program said we had to do 4 miles. :(

instead of running the entire time staring at my iphone Nike App watching my mile times and cussing John Mayer every time one of his songs comes on my workout mix (when i am exhausted and need to run faster, Your Body is a Wonderland" doesn't help me much") I decided to look around

look at what I had been missing along my running course since I was so freaking focused on distance and time.

not too shabby :)

who knows what else I have been missing? I am gonna find out :) 

sunday night brain dump

my brain is so full.

~knowing that this little cutting cake is in my mom's freezer from our wedding (to cut on our anniversary) is killlling me. it was soooooo good and i drool just thinking about it. it is torture knowing that it will just taunt me for a year. and by the time I actually get to eat it, it will be gross. so i say the only logical solution is to eat it now, right? happy three week anniversary, time to eat cake! :)

~i love this. i am trying to make it my mantra for the week. i don't need to run a zillion errands to be a successful friend/daughter/wife. and it's like one of those things. I don't necessarily think the Kardashian's are the best influence on our society and I complain about their silly antics, yet I stiillllll tune into their show and I stilllll follow them on Twitter. I play into it. I'm working on that. :)

~so remember when I was painting signs for the wedding and this happened?

well. i still haven't been able to get it all off. yep. i got married, went to mexico and STILL have pink paint on my legs. (not near this much of course!) I don't know what to do. i have gone through like three bottles of exfoliator. oh well... ;)

~i got a new purse! I love it. but i did NOT love the lady who sold it to me. okay. i am a friendly person and i get that retail is a hard job.

look at cute display of bobby-pins with cute flowers. want one.

look at price tag prominently displayed with bins. $4 flower bobby pins.

buy one.

rings up as $6

i say, "oh was that not $4 in a polite tone?"

she says, "no, it rang up $6."

I walk over and say, "oh man, the price tag says $4, look right here!"

she says word for word, "that's too bad, the correct price is always in the computer."

rruuuuude.

i should have said I didn't want it anymore. but i did. so i paid $6. but still. that is NOT good customer service, when your sign clearly has the wrong price. right???

~i love these little pumpkins.

~decorating a house is HARD. it's like i want everything all new yet antiquey/ original yet pinterest all done NOW. but it doesn't work like that. it makes me mad. i have visions of what I want different rooms of the house to look like, but I can't actually FIND what I need. it is annoying. Drew and I had a fight in Target today because I compared me needing a desk area to him needing to hook up his video games. He said a desk isn't just something I should get to get, I should look around. I kindly told him that 2 hours into our moving extravanganza he said he NEEDED to hook up his video games before the night was over. That's how I feel about my desk area. I neeeeeed it. and i want it cute and chalkpainty with a cute upholstered chair and a cute rug. ugh. and i want it NOW.

have a great week :)

happy friday :) 

thankful

i could be annoyed that i have gained a couple of good ole lb's since the nuptials.

i could be annoyed that drew and i are training for a half marathon and 3 miles literally felt like a FULL marathon.

i could be annoyed that summer is almost over :( and the days of rain are settling in.

i could be SO annoyed at the darn mole that is digging in the yard. it's ugly AND it makes moving that horrid lawn even more difficult because you have to swerve around like a flipping obstacle course. (not to mention how freaking FAST the lawn grows in the first place.)

or i could be annoyed that i got kicked out of Drew's fantasy football league because the other guys thought it was "unfair because basically Drew got two teams."  rruuuudddeeeee, so what if i needed a little help sometimes.

i might just SCREAM if i get one more political phone call on my cell phone. i always answer weird numbers thinking I may have won the $5,000 Target shopping spree but nooooo. it's always "Dominic from Minnesota wanting to talk taxes." Vomit.

i could be annoyed that when i was getting my blood drawn today they asked if I minded if a medical student practiced drawing my blood. I smiled and said "of course not" when really I wanted to scream, NOOO." I could have been annoyed when he poked me like 6 times and then started mumbling, "Mr. Veiinnnnnn, come out and playyyyyy." needless to saaaay, "Mr. Vein" did not like him apparently and we had to have another lady give it a go. ;)

these things actually really annoyed me today. and at one point, I was complaining about what a bad day it was, after I dropped the last bite of my m & m cookie on the floor at work.

i am thankful for:

~the taxes I pay because it means that I am employed.

~the clothes that fit a liiiitle too snug because it means I have enough to eat.

~a lawn that has to be moved, windows that have to be washed and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.

~the spot I find at the end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking. 

~all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech. 

~the lady behind me in church who sings off-key because it means that I can hear. 

~the HUGE pile of laundry because it means my loved ones are nearby. 

~the alarm that goes off in the early morning because it means that I'm alive. 

~pinterest

such a great way to get a little perspective. :)

lovely things from the week:

mason jar drinks by jen. mine was the the sparkling lemonade and vodka. jen's? the red wine and the boys? whiskey and coke :) 

drew's first time in lake whatcom for summer 2012. travis' first time in washington water EVER.

love this. 

and i love this view from the breakfast nook window. 

:) happy friday :) 

taking notes

my mom was in Seattle friday so i got delegated to go with my dad to my grandpa's sister's grandson's wedding :) ya with me? :)

it was the first wedding i have been to since i got engaged and started planning nuptials of my own.

and i don't think a wedding will ever be the same. :) i intricately studied the color of the chairs, wondering if maybe i should have gone wood instead of white.

i about fainted when i realized what a cute flower girl they had, actually THROWING flower petals. Hmm... pretttyy sure I didn't order any petals from the florist for Evs to throw.

i couldn't find my dad at one point and my uncle pointed over to where the cupcake tower was. my dad was literally behind it (where you aren't supposed to go) looking under the top tier to see how it was attached. screws or nails if a VERY important decision, ya know.

the flow, the timing, things I LOVED and things that I had never even thought of. Like a microphone for the pastor to use? Brilliant. :) I pretended like I was checking my email on my phone but really I was typing a note to myself about all the things I had realized I had forgotten. At one point I was talking to my third cousin while I was googling on my iphone under the table "unique wedding favor ideas that AREN'T food." low point. :)

PS Bryan and Ashley your wedding was beaaauuttiful :)

I was even taking a picture of their precious utensil wrappers (you know you are going a liiiiitle wedding planning crazy when you even know what a utensil wrapper is) when I heard the bride's dad say something that caused my head to jerk up.

It was almost time for cake, and speechs and toasts were being made. (apparently, i wasn't really paying attention. I was trying to figure out how many different salads they had.)

what got me? the bride's dad had the microphone and was standing up. all i heard?

"She is so happy when she is with you, and I never have seen her laugh so hard."

ya know what? that's what it's all about. it doesn't matter if the line to sign the guest book gets a little backed up. it doesn't matter the wording that goes in the programs. i wasn't even ENJOYING the wedding because I was sooo obsessed with all the little details and getting more ideas for my wedding.

I almost started feeling ashamed of myself. I hadn't even said hi to my relatives that were there or taken a picture with the beaming bride and groom. I was missing the ENTIRE focus of the celebration.

"she is so happy when she is with you." if you have that, the rest is history.

in that case? my wedding will be perfect. i'm not promising cute utensil wrappers or tossed flower girl petals but I am soooo happy when I am with that boy of mine, and all i can hope is that our wedding shows that :)

who are we?!

in the last week we have gotten:




a marriage license (which you have to pay for?!?! and we had to take an oath in the middle of a quiet office where we promised neither of us have been married before, have a sexually transmitted disease or are related. ) 

a new couch (i wanted lighter, he wanted darker. we compromised. :) go us. :) 

and a picnic basket. (there are no words to describe how much i love this thing.)

my life is NOTHING what I would have expected it would be,

but SO incredibly better. <3

"we must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. ~joseph campbell