Two days of SPRING!!!

Yup, that's right, over the weekend we were treated to two wonderful, sunshine-filled, warm, lovely spring days. We definitely maximized our time out-of-doors. Dan spent several hours washing, waxing and detailing his truck. We also went to the WSU Plant Sale and loaded up on tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers and had a perfectly lovely time filling pots and hanging baskets out in the sunshine. We took a long walk around town and it was warm enough that we were able to let Roxy play in the river for a while. She's a lab and a definite water lover. I think playing in the river is a Labrador's version of heaven.
With the perfect weather and the calender showing me that yes, Spring is actually here, I began to daydream about being able to walk to work more often, jogging with the dog in the evenings, riding my bike around town and planting flowers in the garden. You know, all perfectly normal, Spring-time activities. I wasn't even that discouraged when we woke up to overcast skies, after all, it's allowed to rain during the Spring. However, when the rain started really coming down hard and I needed to leave work to hurry home to put all the plants under the carport, I wasn't quite so forgiving. Then when I looked out the window at work and saw snow, I was far from amused. I guess I jumped to gun a little too early on this whole Spring-time thing. I'll probably get some garden plastic on the way home to cover all the little baby plants (sigh).
The two days of Spring were perfect and beautiful, yet now they seem a bit cruel.

Sunday Notes

I really enjoy Sundays. They're quiet and restful and allow for some time to catch up on forgotten tasks. In the 5 or so months since we've been married, Dan and I have developed our own Sunday ritual. Usually we'll sleep in 'til about 8:00 or so. We'll lie in bed and discuss who should get dressed and get the newspaper. Whoever doesn't get the paper starts a pot of coffee and we'll spend the next hour or so reading the paper and enjoying our coffee and breakfast. I'll clip coupons and Dan will read me bits of news or something from the opinion section. It's all very relaxed and comfortable. Eventually we'll look up at the clock and decide to get ready for church. Church is also one of the parts of Sunday that I enjoy. I like the warm greeting at the door and that I'll run into several people I know before we're even halfway through the foyer. I always really enjoy the praise and worship music and whatever sermon is preached. But most of all I love that I get spiritually recharged for the week. It's so easy for me to forget that God is God and I am not. I take on all the worries and stress of life when I really should just give them all to God; He does a better job dealing with them anyway. I remember on Sundays to take time to really reflect on my relationship with God. I take extra time to thank Him for all He's done for me in the week. No matter the day, I know God loves me, but in the quiet time of prayer in church, I let that fact really sink in. This Sunday we started on a new sermon series called "What We Believe and Why it Matters." I know I'm a believer, but it really is good to get a refresher on the beliefs that are easily taken for granted. Emmanuel Baptist Church has all their sermons available to listen to, so if you maybe need a refresher, click here.

After church, we'll have lunch and lounge around in sweatpants. I might scrapbook or blog or cook and Dan will watch sports or truck shows or something equally tough and manly on TV. We'll catch up on laundry and I'll usually make a big dinner. If the weather is cooperative, we'll take the dog for a long walk around town.

Last Sunday was Easter and we were in Lynden to spend it with Dan's family. It wasn't our usualy Sunday, but it was still nice. Sue is all moved into her condo in town and Dean and Lyndsey have done a ton of work to the house. All of Dan's stuff was stashed in the basement, so we spent hours going through it, boxing up some to save, some to yard-sale and some to trash. Sue made a big Easter Dinner and we got to catch up with Dan's brothers' families. We hadn't seen them since around Christmas time. Little Kenzie was just a bitty baby then, but now she's crawling and jabbering nand really turning into quite the cutie. She was adorable in her fluffy pink dress.

Even though we were pretty busy, I did get some scrapbooking done. I recently was invited to join the design team at Paper Pals, which means I'll create displays for the store and work on specific projects. I had some fun spring time paper that was so fun to play with. Here's my favorite card:

One of my favorite parts of being part of the design team is that I now need to make scrapbooking a priority. Yay! In fact, I'll probably work on some more pages once I'm done with this blog.

I was caught!

My friend (first) and sister-in-law (second), Angela, tagged me for this little questionairre. I am supposed to tell you seven random or fun things about me that you might not already know. So...here goes.
1. About an hour ago I was thisclose to either pulling my hair out or shredding my nearly-complete Easter dress into tiny pieces. I have been sewing for years and could not for the life of me figure out how to attach the neck piece. I read the directions a million times and couldn't make sense out what they were saying, so I just ended up doing it my own way. So take that! Stubborn pattern.
2. I'm getting my hair cut and colored on Wednesday. I'm very excited and I'm seriously thinking about getting bangs.
3. I am quite possibly addicted to reality TV. I love me some Top Chef, Project Runway, American Idol and America's Next Top Model. I'm actually watching The Bachelor right now, although it is starting to make my stomach turn, so I'm not sure how many episodes I'll be able to put up with.
4. My friend Tiffany and I are going to do the Campus on the Run 5K at the end of the month. We're keeping our expectations at a fairly reasonable level and know we'll be walking at least part of the way.
5. I have the best husband in the whole world. He just spent the last hour or so organizing all our tax information and all our insurance stuff. Neither one of us really likes to be responsible for all of that, but he knows how much I really really dislike it, so he just took the bull by the horns and did it all. Thanks Dan!
6. I'm very much looking forward to May. We've got a whole slew of family members coming for my brother's U of I graduation. There will be grandparents, cousins and my sister and her little baby girl. That reminds me....anyone have a play-pen I can borrow for a couple of days? Apparently those things are a pain to fly with.
7. This is the first time I've ever been blog-tagged. Yay! This was fun.

Okay, now I'm supposed to tag others. After checking out my friends' blogs, I think Leslie needs to be tagged. You're it!

Things that make me smile.....

There's never a shortage of stuff out there that brings a big smile to my face. Here are just a few:

-My pretty blue Easter Dress fabric. Easter wasn't a big deal when we were kids (except hunting candy-filled baskets), so as an adult I probably get a bit too excited for a new dress for a special day. Oh well, it makes me smile anyway. I am making my Easter dress this year and got the pattern cut out last night. Hopefully I can get most of it done this weekend.
-All the fun pictures of baby Sandy I've been receiving lately. The only time I have actually seen little Sandy-bear was in October when my sis and her family came for the wedding, but that was over 4 months ago! I am glad that we all get photo updates as we all like to keep up with the saga of her wild and crazy and beautiful blonde hair.

-Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy, Willoughby (boo...hiss), Elinor, Emma, Knightly and the great Fanny Price. Who are all these people? Characters in Jane Austen books! I have been on such an Austen kick the past month or so. She wrote seven books and so far I've read three of them. I am pacing myself because one they're done, they're done. It's not like Jane Austen is hard at work on a new novel and I need to savor the words she left.

-Who knew dirty boots would make me smile? Check out the collage. Those are all signs that our apartment is really ours. It's not longer my apartments and Dan moved his stuff in; it's really ours. See the guy DVDs? The tractors? The beaver pelt on the wall? Yeah, those are things that would never be in my apartment, so it's a good thing they're in our apartment.

Take time to enjoy the little things that make you smile!

Randomness.....

Okay, so nothing really monumental to report, but I haven't posted in a while and thought I'd write a little update. Here's some random things I'll share:

1. Dan suprised me on Valentine's Day with a beautiful boquet of red roses delivered to the lab by the Red Head Delivery Service (Allison and Grant). They were so cute and loved having a secret with their Uncle Dan and I loved my husband's sweetness and sneaky suprise.

2. We discovered a new favorite Restaurant. BBQ & Blues in Clarkston has definitely made it to the top of our list. We shared a combo rib/brisket platter that came to us on a sheet of brown butcher paper. The BBQ sauce was phenomenol and the sides and dessert were reason enough to stop in. We need to go back to Clarkston again, soon!

3. We're having trashy reality tv show night. Yup, we're flipping between American Idol and America's Next Top Model. Drama Drama Drama. I know tomorrow we'll need to watch something very tough and manly for my tough and manly husband : ) However, I think he has given up watching Project Runway with me...yeah, that's just really too much for him.

4. We are in an AWESOME small group at church. It's called Financial Peace University and it's a 13 week course on applying Biblical finacial principles to our personal finances. It's really been good for us as newlyweds (but would be great for anyone, married or single) to have a plan and shared financial goals. See if there is a class starting up at your church. You will thoroughly enjoy it and learn a ton.

5. Here are some random pictures to go with all the rest of this randomness. See the pretty flowers from Dan? Sadly the petals are starting to fall off. The other picture is of the pretty red brocade fabric of my Jr. Prom dress. Okay, I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but earlier this week Dan helped me to photograph all my prom and bridesmaid dresses. I decided they were just taking up space and getting dusty in the closet, so I put them up for sale (way cheap), although if you know of a girl who might not have the resources to purchase a prom dress, send her my way and I'll see what I can do ; )

Okay, I think that's all for now. I hope you're doing well and are doing fun, random things.

When the weather is frightful.....

I thought last Sunday it couldn't get worse as far as the snow and weather were concerned. I got up early to go buy a newspaper and promptly slid down the hill in my pick-up backward, even in 4-wheel drive. Part-way down the hill I wondered if I would even be able to stop at the bottom, but fortunately, a pile of snow in the real-estate office parking lot helped me stop and I was able to get turned around and head the rest of the way in the right direction. Since then, we haven't had any more instances with driving.
On Wednesday night, we got lots more snow. It was so bad on Thursday morning that Dan couldn't get to Garfield to go to work and WSU was closed, so no work for me either. It was really nice. We slept in, ran a few errands locally and visited Dwayne and Angela and their kids. We spent a very fun few hours sledding and playing in the snow. We turned a sidewalk into a luge track and had a great time hurling ourselves down as fast as we could go. We were sure to have some good wipe-outs into snow banks and Dan and I woke up Friday morning with sore shoulders, backs and hips (yeah, apparently we both have the body of a 70-year old). Angela took some great pictures and she has put together a really neat video on her blog. You should check it out.
Friday was more of the same weather-wise and once again WSU was closed, so no work for me. (I feel like I'm a kid again with all these snow days.) I think cold weather=scrapbooking weather, so I have been able to get some pages done. I've been getting caught up on wedding and honeymoon pages, although I still have more to do. Here are some of the most recent ones I've completed:














I'm in a monthly scrapbooking club at Paper Pals (check out there site) and it's great to be challenged and stretched and try new things.

Well, the Superbowl is on right now and I'm blogging while watching (sort-of). Right now the Patriots are up, but there's still a few minutes left, so who knows how it'll end up. Stay warm and stay safe out on the roads. Winter has to end sometime, right?

Dinners and Movies

When Dan and I joined the club of Old Married Folk, we decided to keep a regular "date night" and so far we've stuck to that. Because it's cold outside, our dates have mostly been of the dinner-and-a-movie variety, but we have made it a point to stretch ourselves and try new restaurants and we take turns picking the movie. We are pretty limited with restaurant choices in the Pullman and Moscow area, but so far, our favorite has been Suchada's Thai Restaurant. The atmosphere is certainly lacking, but the food is so good. We've also been pleased with Tucci's Italian in Moscow, Fireside Grill, Sangria, Swilly's and Basilio's. Those of you who have dined in the area, please feel free to leave us some suggestions. It might take us years, but we want to try every restaurant in the Moscow-Pullman area.

We usually can agree fairly easily on where to dine, but choosing a movie is definitely harder. Since we have a hard time agreeing on this, we decided to take turns, so one week I'll pick the movie and the next week we'll see Dan's choice. The differences in our personalities certainly were evident when you look at the most recent movies we've seen. Two weeks ago, my choice was 'Juno,' a sweet and sad independent film with a funky soundtrack and some hilarious one-liners. Last week, Dan's choice was 'Cloverfield,' an intense and scary monster movie. Just because our tastes are so different, doesn't mean we didn't enjoy the others' movie. I was glued to the screen during every bump and weird angle of 'Cloverfield' and Dan laughed as hard as I did during parts of 'Juno.' So I guess it's good that we have some differences. We can share them with each other and help the other one grow and appreciate the things we both enjoy.

What a Year!

2007 was quite a year, wasn't it? I made this little photo collage on Picasa and it kind of sums up the year for me. I was excited for the births of little nieces, Sandy Fugal and Kenzie Louise Lenssen, the 50th anniversary celebration in Montana for my grandparents, Bob and Ree, visits to Utah and Las Vegas to see family and friends. There were also several dinner-and-a-movie dates with Dan, long phone calls with friends, miles and miles driven across the state, a diamond ring, a wedding, a husband and a new life together : ) There were grand adventures and hum-drum every-day life kind of days.
I'm sure 2008 will have even more in store for us. Who knows what all we'll have to reflect back on this time next year. This time last year, I would not have thought that half of the stuff we've gone through would have happened. I guess that's the way it goes. We try so hard to have our lives planned just so, but fortunately for us, God has better plans for us than we could ever imagine for ourselves.
Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2008 brings more than you ever thought possible!

Merry Christmas to All!

I'm posting this on the 20th of December, which means that Christmas is in 5 days. Dan and I (with our hitch-hiker, Kasey) are making our way to Oregon to my parent's place for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities. For New Year's we'll be in Lynden and will hopefully be able to catch up with friends and family there.
Every Christmas and winter is different and every year there are new things that make my 'favorites' list. Here's a brief (and incomplete) list of my favorite things for winter and Christmas 2007:
1. Going to the Palouse Chorale concert with Dan. We have so many amazingly talented singers in the area and hearing them sing very old carols in Hebrew and Latin was a real treat. The songs that were done in English were sing-along songs with the audience, so we all go to participate.
2. My new miniature church that goes with my little Christmas village. Dan suprised me with it early. Now the little village has a church, a candle shop and two houses.
3. Baking cookies and making treats. I sent out 4 boxes with goodies and had a ton of fun making them. I made my stand-bys (fudge, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies) and added some new ones to the mix (magic layer bars, pumpkin bread, chocolate truffles and lemon star cookies).
4. Spending cold evenings trying out new and fun techniques with photography and scrapbooking. I've never been very good at taking pictures of inanimate objects, so I've been working on getting better and also playing around with my photo software to make my pictures prettier.
5. Sunday walks with Dan. Even though it's cold and has been rainy, we try to go for a long walk on Sunday afternoons and I love it. It's nice to spend time outside with Dan with no distractions to interrupt our conversation.
6. Our wall of Christmas cards. I can't believe how many super-cute cards we have from family and friends decorating the wall. Those of you who sent cards - thank you, they warm our hearts and brighten the apartment.
7. Christmas Carols! Those of you who know me well know that I am a really bad singer, but I don't care. I thoroughly enjoy singing Christmas carols and have been all season long. Our small group has been studying hymns and their origins and in December we switched to Christmas hymns. The stories behind some of the songs are very inspiring and have really led to a deeper appreciation of the hymns. I think my favorite Christmas hymn changes everyday.
8. My absolute favorite things, aren't things. They are my family and friends and the true reason for the season, the birth of Jesus Christ.

Yes, the above list is certainly incomplete and I know I'll think of other things that should have been included, but I hope you take some time to put your list together.

Have a happy and safe holiday and we wish you all the best in the New Year!

Web Album Now Available

After several attempts at this, I think I finally got it. There is a picasa web album now online of wedding and honeymoon pictures for everyone to check out. It's located here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Dan.Shelle/WeddingAndHoneymoonAlbum

Can you believe it's the middle of December already? Time certainly flies when you're having fun and keeping busy!