Safe and Sound

After a few long days of travel (we left for Spokane at 10pm Friday night, then flew out at 7am as planned on Saturday, and got to Virginia at about 7:30pm Saturday night...) we made it to North Carolina safe and sound! We've been having a great time with Bran's family, and have enjoyed getting to relax. We even got some more awesome Christmas presents! We'll be here tomorrow, and then will leave sometime on Wednesday for Maryland.


It has been so great spending time with the Antkowiaks, and we can't wait to see the Dwyers!

Love and Miss you,

Ashley

Horrible Weather!

Bran and I are supposed to fly out of Spokane tomorrow morning at 7 for Norfolk, Va., and then drive to North Carolina from the Airport... please pray for us - the weather is terrible! As you know from my previous posts, we've had lots of snow lately. Well, last night it snowed another 6 or 7" bringing our total to around 20". On top of that, it's been very warm today (around 33 degrees) which made the snow turn to mix, then to just rain! So there's a layer of icy junk on top of the snow now, which is going to make driving interesting. The rain is supposed to stop by 4pm today, but its supposed to start again tomorrow sometime. Our plan as of right now is to leave tonight for the airport, and then just hang out there until our flight. Everything is still on time at this point, which is good news. I've been studying up on winter driving precautions and tips, so we'll be set if we have any issues, and plus my husband might just be the best driver I know, so I know he'll keep us safe. As it is, we'll be able to really take our time and get there with plenty of time to spare, rather than trying to rush at 4 in the morning to get going.

We're so excited about our trip! I've got the bags packed, and I'm ready to go!

Merry Christmas!

This year was our first Christmas together, and it was wonderful. Karen sent us our stockings (the one bran has always had, and a new one she made for me, which is soo beautiful) and a squirrel ornament for our tree (!), along with the next snowflake ornament in the beautiful collection she started for me last year. It really made our house look like Christmas with the stockings and the new wreath Bran got from work for our door! For some reason, I couldn't sleep hardly at all Christmas Eve (I get really excited about things like Christmas...;) ) and so when I finally got up at 8 on Christmas morning, I let Bran keep sleeping for a few hours. Finally at 10 I couldn't stand it anymore and woke him up. We decided that when we have kids, we're not going to make them wait to open presents, so we opened them before we did anything else to start the tradition. I got him some truck parts, a dvd we both love (it's called Death Race - my husband lucked out when he found a woman who shares his love for action movies with no plot and lots of explosions!), and some Truck Money (money for him to spend on truck parts). He was very happy!

He got me a beautiful wood wick candle, and says he picked out the scent by picking one up, gagging at the smell, then trying another until he found one that didn't make him gag. He went with vanilla.

He also got me some snickers bars for my stocking, and really nice wool socks so i'll stop stealing his. My big gift this year was a beautiful pair of cowgirl boots (he said they were cowboy boots when he gave them to me, but i pointed to the flowers embroidered on the side and corrected him). I wore them all morning, and didn't take them off until we got home from a walk that afternoon.

After presents, we made waffles together and then took it easy until about 4, when we decided to go for a drive out by the mountain. After our drive, we went to see if any movie stores were open, and bumped into Kelly Rhine on his way to see Benjamin Button. We decided to go along, and had a great time hanging with Kelly and some other friends. The movie was great, but really long. Afterward, Bran, Kelly, and I went back to our house and made some spaghetti for dinner.

It was such a fun, relaxing day.

our biggest present this year is going to come from Bran's parents - they're flying us home to see them! We can't wait for our trip - it will start in the Outer Banks with the Antkowiaks, and end in Maryland with my family. We haven't seen the majority of our families since August, and it's been strange having Christmas without them. I miss them dearly, and am soo excited about spending time with them!!

this is a blurry one of me in my pajamas, wearing my boots

our stockings

still a little sleepy

our mantle

living room all decorated

sunset over the snowy hills

cowgirl boots

cute husband

snow up to my knees

National Lampoon's Christmas at the Antkowiaks

Bran and I will be having Christmas by ourselves in Moscow, then we're flying to Maryland on the 28th to see our families. Because we're having our first Christmas with just the two of us, Mom and I have been talking about family traditions and how much fun it is to make your own.

Well, today we had something happen which makes me pray that we don't have a National Lampoon's Christmas.

It all started yesterday afternoon when Jen, Rachel and I came home from Bucers. We walked in the front door, and Tyler immediately says "Don't freak out. There is a squirrel in the fire place, but I've got it under control." So, being the adventurous girls that we are, we all went over to look at the squirrel. So Ty moved the magazine rack (he had put it in front of the fireplace to make sure the squirrel didn't get out - part of his "under control" scheme), and there was nothing there! Ty immediately assured the girls that the squirrel must have climbed back out the chimney (which isn't possible, I'm pretty sure). As soon as the girls were downstairs, he looked at me with a flash of fear in his eyes and said "It must be in the house. Oh crap." And then he went and got a plate with peanut butter on it and put it on the floor. I'm not sure what that was supposed to do.

The night went on, I went to work and came home, and no one had seen any signs of the squirrel, so, I thought, maybe it did somehow get out.

Then, this morning, we all left at 4am to take Ty, Kenny, and some other folks to the airport. When we got home, I was the first one to go inside, and as soon as I opened the door, I saw something shoot across the living room floor and behind the couch. "Good thing Ty had the squirrel under control" I thought. It was about 8:30 and Bran had to work at 9, so we spent the next half hour trying to corner it and force it out the front door, get it with the broom and throw it out the front door, etc., until it finally decided that it liked our artificial christmas tree and refused to be shaken from its branches. At this point Bran was really needing to be leaving for work, and I was tired from the early morning, so he got his BB gun and proceeded to shoot it several times without getting it out. This is amazing, since it was at point-blank range, and Bran is an amazing shot from super far away (as in, he was the best when we all went to the mountain in Oregon and shot clay pigeons with shotguns). So he decided it was time to bring out the big guns. I'm not sure what the other gun was, but he pumped it a lot, which made me concerned for our walls, and then shot the squirrel a bunch more until it fell out of the tree onto my cute silver tree skirt.

A little blood got on the skirt, so Bran threw it in the washer for me. He reassured me, saying "if it doesn't come out clean, we're still keeping it - this will make a great conversation starter."


The confrontation with the squirrel was much like this:
*caution - there's some language.

The Long-Awaited Picture Post

Before I get to the topic of today's post, I would like to clear up a disagreement that has been going on for a few days: How much snow have we gotten? To end the discussion, I took a ruer outside and stuck it in where things looked least disturbed. The verdict: 7" and counting! At this point it is supposed to snow every day until next weekend. Rumor is that Spokane already has 30".... whew.

Ok now for what everyone (aka, mom and Karen) has been waiting for - PICTURES!! These date back from before Thanksgiving to just a minute ago - enjoy!

Me with my fall centerpiece of gourds, pumpkins, and corn

Jen in my bedroom with our afternoon tea

My pumpkin pies

Our Thanksgiving Feast

My hubbie and I smooching by the fire

Our neighbor's house, taken just a minute ago

Rachel standing in the front yard

My decorated Mantle and Christmas Tree

The End!

Computer Problems

**EDIT** Bran says we only have 3", but it feels like 6". Also, mom, I did change the font. *end edit*


Both my computer and Bran's have broken chargers right now, so posting might be sparse for a little while. Hopefully we'll get new cords and be back to normal shortly!

By the way, we have 6" of snow already, and it's only 10 degrees today! Talk about cold!

Love and miss you!

We're Back!

Welcome to my new and improved blog! I felt so bad for not posting in over a month (!), that I decided to completely re-vamp the look and feel of my blog. I'm loving the warm colors right now, especially since it is so cold outside. In my defense, part of the reason I haven't posted is that my computer's power cord died, and I've been sharing with my husband. I like mine better (his is a mac, which is fine, but i'm not used to it), and it has all my pictures and software on it. But fear not, a new cord is on it's way!

Here's the crash course on what I've been up to lately:

• Seattle was a blast - everything and more than I hoped for/expected. Canlis, the restaurant I mentioned, was fantastic. Possibly my favorite anywhere. Seattle as a whole is my current favorite big city, beating both DC and NYC. It was a big city, but it still had an approachable feel. Check out Jen's blog for pictures.
  
• Thanksgiving was wonderful - Bran and I made dinner for us and Jen and Rachel. We had so much fun cooking, talking, taste-testing, etc. It was a beautiful way to have our first Thanksgiving together.
• December has been a blur. I wrote our "Family Newsletter" which we're sending out in lieu of Thank You notes for our wedding. I decided that I deserved a break on thank-yous because of the move, etc. So we're going to give everyone a communal "thank you" and an update on what we've been up to. I love the letter, and hopefully will get to mail it soon.
• SNOW!! When Bran and I got married, he told me that if we moved to Idaho it would snow. So, I agreed that we could move on that condition - that there was snow. But, alas, there was NO SNOW for the LONGEST time! We got flurries for 10 minutes one day in November, and I was all excited, but no. Nothing. So I went to Bran about this little agreement we had about moving here because of the snow, and he said he'd see what he could do. Being the amazing man that he is, he was able to somehow convince the powers that be that we really needed some snow. So today around noon it started snowing! And it looks like its just starting to stick to the road and parts of the driveway. This makes me very very happy. We're supposed to get somewhere in the ballpark of 6-12" which should be easy at this rate, since it's not supposed to stop until Sunday. Yippee!!
  

So that's what my life has looked like for the past month or so.

I can't hide my excitement about the next few weeks. Jen, Rachel, and Tyler leave for home on or around the 20th. I'm so excited to have the house to myself, though I'll miss them! I realized that as much as I love having a house full of people, it makes it so hard to make time to do what I want, like sit on the couch and read, or even using the kitchen without being in someone's way. I'm looking forward to having a quiet house, but I know I'll be ready for them to come back when it's time.

Right now is one of those rare moments when I'm home alone. Bran is at work and everyone else has class. I have a load of laundry in the washer, one in the dryer, two waiting for their turn, and one folded next to me. I drank a cup of hot cocoa that my mom sent us with our christmas card (the really good williams-sonoma kind!), and got the new Real Simple in the mail. Right now I'm sitting on my couch, with my beautiful Christmas tree to my right, and the beautiful snow to my left. It's perfect!

Oh I also have to tell you about my cooking experiences (this is for you, mom!). I only had to work Tuesday this week, which meant that I got to make dinner on monday, wednesday, thursday, and tonight. On monday I made spaghetti carbonara, which was fantastic and a hit with Bran. Wednesday I made my aunt Cate's recipe for Italian chicken which was also wonderful, and I think our favorite so far. Last night I tried my first Roast, with potatos and shallots. The roast turned out to be pretty tough, which Tyler thinks may be because of how we sliced it, but the potatoes and shallots were yummy, as were the baby carrots I made to go with it. I might try the roast again sometime.... Tonight I'm making baked pasta which should be yummy. As you can tell, I love Italian food, and especially any kind of pasta. But don't worry, we get more than just carbs! I'm hoping I'll get to cook lots next week too - its so much fun trying out new recipes!

Here are some pictures to hold you over until next time...



I took this photo just before I started to write this post, and I took the second one just a minute ago - that much snow in less than 30 minutes!




And finally, my Christmas Tree, Real Simple, and Hot Cocoa!

I'm still here...

Things have been mucho busy lately, what with the Seattle trip, followed by Thanksgiving, followed by Tyler coming home and Jeff visiting. I promise, promise, promise to post some pictures and do some real updates in the near future!

Flu season is so upon us....

My delay in posting this week was due to my husband's coming down with the flu, shortly followed by my own struggle against the nasty virus. I thought about just quarantining him and telling him that he was on his own, but being the good wife that I am, I was there for him, and then when I inevitably got it myself, he was there for me :).

Friends of ours (the Andersons - I babysit their daughter everyday) got it before we did and shared it with us, which actually turned out to be a good thing, because Michelle was sick at the same time that I was, meaning that they didn't need me to babysit when I was unable to. We're all feeling much better now.

Bran got it on Wednesday and was wiped until late that night. I got it at 3am on Thursday, and was on the couch unable to move except to puke into the bucket we had next to the couch until about midnight Thursday. It was a long day.

I'm so thankful that we got sick now, and not next week, because I'll be in Seattle! We leave Monday (the 24) morning, and check into our hotel at 4ish. I got us an awesome deal at a Best Western right downtown because of being a Best Western employee. So for $40 a piece we get a 2 night stay (it's $60 a night, and there will be 3 of us - Jen, Rachel, and myself). I'm so excited about the trip, as I have never been to Seattle, and because Domino Magazine just did a spread about some of the best places to shop and eat.

On Monday night, one of Rachel's friends (whom Jen and I don't know) is having a party, and so while Rachel parties it up, we're going to go out on the town for a fancy "just us sisters" dinner at a place called Canlis. It looks like the food will be amazing, and the Restaurant is beautiful. As for the rest of the trip, there will most definitely be lots of shopping and sight-seeing. I'll be sure to post pictures!

Chesterton on Women

Woman must be a cook, but not a competitive cook; a school-mistress, but not a competitive school-mistress; a house decorator, but not a competitive house-decorator; a dressmaker, but not a competitive dressmaker. She should have not one trade but twenty hobbies; she, unlike the man, may develop all her second bests. This is what has been really aimed at from the first in what is called the seclusion, or even the oppression, of women. Women were not kept at home in order to keep them narrow; on the contrary, they were kept at home in order to keep them broad. The world outside the home was one mass of narrowness, a maze of cramped paths, a madhouse of monomaniacs. It was only by partly limiting and protecting the woman that she was enabled to play at five or six professions and so come almost as near to God as the child when he plays at a hundred trades. But the woman’s professions, unlike the child’s, were all truly and almost terribly fruitful.

- G.K. Chesterton, from What's Wrong with the World.

Ashley's Recent Cooking Adventures

One of the "Marriage Requirements" my parents have for Jen and I is that we must be able to cook 20 meals before getting married. Being the guinea pig as far as the whole marriage thing goes, I was still burning microwaveable mac and cheese when Bran and I tied the knot. I baked a lot when I was little, and could read a recipe, but had little experience with actual cooking. I have since then taken it upon myself to cook from scratch whenever possible (which isn't very often right now, since I work until about 9pm three or four nights a week). On the nights when I don't have work, however, I spend hours in the kitchen.

My sister had a wonderful idea that has since helped me in my cooking endeavor. She knows that I love to collect and organize things, and so she suggested that I cut out any recipes that look good from my many cooking magazines (everything from Real Simple to Taste of Home and Bon appétit). My plan is to eventually make a sort of recipe scrapbook with recipes that I have made and ones I want to make, along with what Bran and I thought of them, and whether I want to make them again. Thus far, I have made several different kinds of pasta dishes (lasagne, homemade macaroni, etc.), lots of chicken dishes, salmon, steak, garlic mashed potatos, etc., and even more deserts (pumpkin pie, pumpkin cupcakes, cake, cookies, custard pie, and my absolute favorite, along with everyone else's, molten lava cakes).


Having my brother-in-law/culinary afficinado live with me has been a tremendous blessing in my own cooking adventure, as he often likes to comment on my uninformed cooking style. His advice is sometimes a little too late ("yeah I would have added the milk much slower and wisked while doing so, which would have prevented such and such and so and so"), but when it is given at the right time, I find it incredibly helpful.

I have once again neglected to upload the photos I wanted to post, but promies to make some grand efforts to do so either today or tomorrow.

I heard that my Parents took the Wilson article I posted to heart...

Evidently, they bought lots of good candy with which to delight all the little Glen Burnie chillins. Bran and I hadn't talked much about whether we'd give out candy or not, but when I heard that my parents were influenced by the article I posted, I realized it was just not right for me to not take it to heart! Plus, there's really no better way to meet your neighbors than to give them candy on Halloween. So, in keeping with the article, I went to Winco and bought lots and lots of candy... not the generic lolly pops or hard candies, or even tootsie rolls - I went straight for the snack sized (not bite sized!) Hersheys, Reecees, Snickers, and just about every other chocolatey thing in the aisle.

Pumpkin Pies, Apple Cider, and Carving - it must be fall!

Once a week our house has what we call "House Dinner". We each take turns cooking, which we divide by floor. (I cook, then Jen and Rachel, and then Tyler. Bran and I count as one, so he gets out of it.) Friday night it was Tyler's turn, so I told him that I would make desert for him, because I've been dying to make Pumpkin Pie. Those pumpkin cupcakes just made me want more! I've also been wanting Bran and I to introduce ourselves to our neighbors across the street, and though that bringing them a pie would be a good way to do so. I also just got a new Taste of Home magazine that had a recipe for Spiced Apple Cider that I had to try, and everyone in our house had also been dying to carve some pumpkins, so we decided to turn house dinner into our "Fall Party" night. We invited Kelly Rhine (he was one of Bran's groomsmen) and Kenny Trovato (went to school with Jen) over, and had a total blast. Ty made some awesome chicken sandwiches and French Onion Soup. After dinner, the girls and Ty decided to practice Face Painting to prepare for the carnival they helped out with on Saturday night. They were awesome! Take note especially of Kenny's "Eyes" done by Tyler. The pies turned out great - I just used the recipe on the canned pumpkin, and then decided to do them in pre-made graham cracker crumb crusts. They were really good, and the cider turned out great! The only thing better than the pie and cider were our pumpkins - enjoy!

First, Rachel drew an elephant rear end on tyler's forehead, in exchange for him getting to help them paint at the carnival.


Then Tyler drew Eyes on top of Kenny's real Eyes.




Our Pumpkins! From the top step down: Kelly's little tiny music notes, Bran's demon (complete with horns! how Martha Stewart of him...), and Kenny's duck. Second step down is Jen's Bear holding a Shark, and mine, which had one angry face, one smiling face, and one face that is puking pumpkin guts. Then on the last step is Tyler's rabbit, and Rachel's awesome city-scape.



After a long night of fun and friends, Bran and I enjoyed the warmth of a fire in our living room.



Mom - I'll post pictures of the pies when I download them!

Everyone's home

which means my kitchen isn't clean anymore...

My house is still clean...

and the last time I cleaned was on Saturday! I'm beginning to realize the perks of not having a house full of people :)

This week has been really nice - Bran and I spent Monday and Tuesday getting some things done around the house, and then he had work on Wednesday, which meant that I got the house to myself all day Wednesday. There's really nothing else to do when home alone except bake, so I made these Pumpkin Cupcakes, which, as Bran and Kelly can tell you, were awesome.

It's been nice having the place to myself, but I miss house dinners and getting to hang with Jen all the time. It will be good to have them all here again :)

October Break...

Means that I'm home alone :(

I miss them already!

Doug Wilson on Halloween

As another Halloween approaches, and as many of us are working on building alternatives, I wanted to take the opportunity to offer a few thoughts and pastoral suggestions.

Here is the background. First, November 1 is All Saints Day. The All Saints festival was first established during the times of persecution in the early church when the number of martyrs accumulated to the point where it was no longer possible to commemorate them all. In the time of John Chrysostom, all the martyrs were remembered on the first Sunday after Pentecost. In 608 A.D., the Pantheon, a former pagan temple to all the gods, was dedicated in Rome as a Christian church. The date of that dedication (May 13) became the day of "all saints." The day was moved to November 1 in 741 A.D. with the dedication of the Chapel of All Saints.

Second, in the British Isles, the day was known as All Hallows Day. The "eve" of that day, the night before, was known as Hallowe’en. In the minds of simple people, the night before the day of the holy ones was thought to be a last ditch party on the part of unholy ones — devils, witches, fairies, imps and so forth. With this kind of superstition, of course, we have nothing to do. Obviously, the custom of kids dressing up in order to play trick or treat did descend from this view, but the thing that is objectionable here is not the dressing up in itself, or the consumption of candy, but rather the dressing up as wicked creatures.

Third, Reformation Day is on October 31 and commemorates the posting of Luther’s famous theses, which is usually regarded as the inauguration of the Reformation. It is frequently honored by churches on the last Sunday of October. As it happens, Reformation Day is also Halloween.

Fourth, and the bottom line for us, is that both of these two days belong to the Christian church, and not to the pagans. And the days have been ours for many centuries, despite certain pagan encroachments of late. We should keep the days, and fight off the encroachments. And so . . .

Here are a few things to do: We are encouraging parishes to hold Reformation Day/All Saints Day parties and gatherings. The mood should be festive and filled with rejoicing — an exhibition of our gratitude for the faithfulness of the martyrs of the early church and the martyrs of the Reformation. This obviously can (and should) include kids dressing up and getting boatloads of candy, but I would strongly urge that no one have their kids dress up as members of the other team — witches, ghosts, devils, imps, or congressmen. We do want to urge a high level of celebration, but we don’t want to take our cues from the surrounding culture. So if you take your kid around to grandma’s house dressed up like a red M & M, or like Theodore Beza, don’t have them say trick or treat the same way some ghost or witch would. Of course, repent or perish or sola fide probably wouldn’t work either. Let’s do this differently, and intelligently, and still have fun. So have them say trick or treat the way a cute M & M would.

What to avoid. We want parish parties, not pious parties. So when neighborhood trick or treaters come to your door, I would encourage you to give them more candy than unbelievers give, as opposed to a glare and/or a tract about the fires of hell. We want to behave during this time in such a way that their celebrations are revealed as far more anemic than ours (not to mention twisted and gross). We do not want our parish parties to be a cheesy alternative, a sort of faux-Halloween. It should be a true All Hallow’s Eve, a true Reformation Day blow-out.

On a related note, there is no way to do this without kirkers differing among themselves about what is appropriate. This is reasonable — up to a point. We know the general direction we want to go, and we want to get there together with unity of spirit. This means learning to lighten up on details. So don’t freak out and rebuke someone if their kid goes over to an aunt’s house dressed like John Knox, but he cackles evilly instead of saying soli Deo gloria. But feel free to be concerned if someone from the Night of the Living Dead shows up at the parish party.

Fall is my favorite season.

I love everything about it - from pumpkin pie to the cool weather, it is amazing.

How the Antkowiaks clear their heads.

Bran and I decided that we needed to give ourselves an actual day of rest after the eventful start to our week. Normal people would hang around the house and just take it easy... maybe watch a movie or something. But those who know us know that we're not normal. So we decided to head out of Moscow and do an afternoon trip to Spokane. This thrilled both of us. For Bran, it meant that he would get to go pick up an engine for his new "toy" (a buddy of his gave him a jeep for free, and he's gotten it running and converted it into what looks like an army vehicle). It's like matchbox cars for big boys. So he traded this guy two guns for an engine, which means that as far as I'm concerned, he got it for free. I was excited to go because for me, Spokane means shopping. So after we picked up the engine, we headed into downtown Spokane and hit the Gap and Williams Sonoma. Yes, we only went to two stores. Those that know me know that I'm not a shopper.. I get what I call "light hearted" which means that too much shopping makes me dizzy. I'm not kidding - ask my mom.

So since things have been so rough recently, we decided to treat ourselves by going out to dinner. I can't tell you how excited I was when I found out that Spokane's newest restaurant is The Melting Pot!! So that's where we went, and it was wonderful.

We had a great time, and got to enjoy spending lots of time together. It was wonderful.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

As most of you know by now, I lost my baby Sunday night. We went to the doctor on Monday and they confirmed that I was having a miscarriage through an ultrasound which showed that my baby had not grown after conception.

As hard as this whole experience has been, I am thankful for so many things. I have found comfort in the Lord and his providence, and the fact that our baby is with God now, singing his praises. I have found comfort in the fact that my miscarriage was not a "difficult" one, meaning I was not far enough along for it to be physically painful, and I'm thankful for the emotional strength of my husband, who has encouraged me and been like a rock for me through this whole thing. At one point he even told me that he wanted to make sure that I knew he was sad and grieving, but that he has his own ways of coming to grips with things, and these involve making sure that I'm ok.

When Bran and I were reading about the causes of miscarriage, we found out that one occurs when the baby is not healthy. It is the body's way of preventing an unhealthy pregnancy and birth. We believe that it is also God's way of protecting our child. He knew that our baby was not developing here on earth so he brought him or her up to heaven where he could care for and protect one of his children. We have faith that our child is with the Lord in a beautified state and will be waiting for us.

Trials like ours make me so thankful for the Moscow community. It was very hard not being near our families (and the difficulty went both ways - us wanting them to be here, and them wanting us to be there), but our Moscow family has been here for us every step of the way. I babysit for the Andersons, a young family who were friends with Bran before we moved out here. They went through a similar experience with their first baby, and were able to relate to our grieving, and also encourage us to look to the future and the blessings God will surely have waiting for us. They now have a beautiful 4 month old named Evangeline. They brought us dinner and fellowshipped with us on Monday night.

Other friends have been just as supportive, bringing meals and flowers and encouragement. I am so thankful for everyone we have gotten to spend time with.

I am doing very well, and can talk about what happened without crying finally. Bran and I both took today off to spend some time together, and to get some actual rest, since Monday, which is usually the one day we both have off, wasn't restful.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Morning Sickness?

I went to the doctor on Friday afternoon to schedule my first prenatal appointment, and make sure that they'll accept my insurance. They said that since I'm about 6 weeks, my first appointment will be in the first week of November. I'm so anxious for that to get here! Not because I'm worried about anything, but simply because right now I don't feel very pregnant (no morning sickness, very few noticeable changes to my self as a whole, etc.) and I'm hoping that by then I'll start "feeling pregnant". Not that not having morning sickness is a bad thing; trust me, I'm fine without it! Yes, I realize that it may only be a matter of time before I begin to worship the porcelain god.

In the meantime, I haven't been doing very preggy-related things... the way I see it, I'll be pregnant for the next 8 months or so, so I may as well save things like looking for blankets and baby clothes for when things get closer. Most of the holding off on maternity clothes shopping is due to the fact that I don't know the first thing about maternity clothes... all I know right now is that my clothes still fit, but that I'm going to need to buy a new pair of jeans before too long... Do you buy them in the size you were before you got pregnant? So since I'm a 12, would I just buy size 12 maternity jeans? And how big is "big enough" for pants with elastic in them? It's like shopping for dish detergent - i'd rather they just give me one option without the bells and whistles than have to sort through and compare all the different ones. But, then, I guess every pregnancy is different, and different styles work with different bodies. That still doesnt explain why there are so many kinds of dish detergent, though....

One thing I'm very thankful for are places like Lilliput on Main Street - it's a really cute maternity botique with lots of cute-not-frumpy maternity clothes. I suppose I'll just drop in there when I can no longer button my jeans... :)

I'm Pregnant!

I haven't posted in a few days, because there hasn't been much on my mind other than the new baby that's on it's way! Bran and I found out on Monday, and it looks like I'm about 6 weeks along. We couldn't be happier, and are so excited about sharing our news :) You can expect lots of posts about the whole preggy thing, and my ideas for how to convert part of either our bedroom or living room into a nursery!

Please pray that God keeps our little one safe and sound over the next 9 months.

Fun in the Sun... er, rain.

Yesterday the women of the house decided to go to Spokane to do some shopping and just get out of Moscow for a bit. The weather up until yesterday had been beautiful - sunny, mid to high 70s, slight breeze... you get the picture. Yesterday it was cool (50s) and cloudy, and threatening rain. This happened to work out perfectly, though, because the three of us (me, jen, and her roommate Rachel) decided that cool rainy weather is the best for being in a big city. We had an amazing time - we finally got to do some decent clothes shopping (Moscow isn't exactly the fashion capital of Idaho....), and enjoyed some excellent coffee and sandwiches at a small cafe downtown. We were all excited when we found that they just put in a Melting Pot restaurant, but evidently everyone else in the city was as well, as they were booked until 9:30pm with reservations. So we opted for the old standard instead.... Outback Steakhouse, of course. We ate and the girls did some more shopping while I tried to get the car to start. I had accidentally left the headlights on while we were eating dinner, and came out to a dead battery. While I was on hold with AAA I was able to get it to turn over, thankfully. I called Jen as soon as I got it working, and her response was, "would it be bad for you to turn it off again? cause we just found a really cute store..." ... duh it would be bad. So I stayed with the running car while they shopped in the super cute store. Which was fine with me - I get shopped out pretty easily.

We had a wonderful time, and can't wait to travel together somewehre else.



Note: We didn't take this picture. It wasn't rainy enough to need umbrellas.

An Eventful Birthday

Yesterday was Bran's 20th birthday, and it started out great. He worked in the morning and then got off at 2 so we could go to the Storm-Blakey wedding. While he was at work I made his "birthday dinner" that his mom made for him every year (a yummy taco salad) and I baked him a cake. When we got back from the wedding, we ate dinner and then went to help the Blakeys take down some of the reception stuff. Bran and Kelly had to move Austin's photo booth to the Tollefsons garage, so the three of us drove over there to drop it off. Austin had borrowed Bran's ladder rack for his truck, and it was at the Tollefsons, so Bran decided that he and Kelly should grab it and take it back to our house. While attempting to get the huge piece of metal up on the back of Kelly's truck, the guys dropped it and it cut Bran's toe really badly. We drove him home and Kelly was able to clean the cut out with peroxide, but it wouldn't stop bleeding. Bran wanted to just super glue and duct tape the cut, but Kelly and I were able to convince him that we needed to go to the emergency room. They had to take an x-ray of his foot to make sure that the toe wasn't broken, and it turns out that it had broken at some point, but wasn't from this (he's broken all of his toes at one time or another). The doctor put 8 stitches in him and sent him home.

When we got home, we invited Sean, Tyler, Jen and Rachel to have birthday cake with us :)

It was quite eventful, but Bran is doing well. He's so tough - I think mostly so I won't worry about him. I'm hoping we don't have to do the whole emergency room thing again for quite a while!

My stuff arrived yesterday...

...and I was hoping to use the new decorations as incentive to get me to clean our upstairs living room. The plan worked for a little while, and I was able to subdue the mess quite a bit and get some much-needed organizing done, but the excitement of having new things to put around faded pretty quickly. When I get another burst of that must-organize-right-now energy, I'll hopefully "finish" the living room and be able to put up some pictures for you all to enjoy. I put finish in quotation marks because at this point it feels like the room will never be finished - still needs some paint touch-ups, and the bookcases need to be built the rest of the way, but some day it will actually be finished, and it will be awesome.

While the excitement of having new things to organize for faded, I still totally love the stuff I got. The lamp shade is beautiful, and looks great in the room, and the orange pillow adds a much needed splash of not-green color. The vases are super cute and will add some pizazz to our black bookshelves.

some things I love

An awesome online store with all kinds of cute office supplies:


And some more decorating inspiration:




Bran and I have decided that we want to save up for a new couch (we got ours for free from some friends in Maryland, and while the size is perfect for our living room, it would need some serious over-hauling to be comfortable again). We'll probably have ours for a few more years, but when we do get a new one, I would love something like this from Williams Sonoma Home.

collage from our house's park picnic

Thanks to Tyler for making the collage!

me and my sweetie

If I had a million {or even a thousand} dollars...

I would remodel my kitchen and make some of the cabinets like these:



In an attempt to comfort me when I found out I would be the only girl in my 9th grade class, my mom told me that maybe God was preparing me to have 5 boys when I have children. If that is the case, I want Bran to build bunk beds just like these for them (how awesome is the nautical theme??)


I was given several gift cards as wedding gifts, and finally got around to using some of them today. I bought these vases from Crate & Barrel, which will go up in our "Green" living room/library. I also bought a replacement lamp shade for a pottery barn lamp that was given to us. I bought a shade at Target a few weeks ago, but it wasn't the right kind and would only go on upside-down, so hopefully the one I bought from Pottery Barn will actually fit it. And as those of you who know me know, I love organizing things, so I also bought myself a cute set of leather pouches to help organize my purse.

A Beautiful Night for a Wedding

Brian and Morgan Points got married on Saturday night. The wedding was beautiful, and the reception that Morgan's parents threw for them was even more gorgeous. We had a fantastic time, and can't wait for Austin and Laura's wedding next weekend!

I didn't realize how badly I missed reading....

...until I started again. I'm currently reading That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis. I read Perelandra and Out of the Silent Planet a few years ago, but never got to the third one. So far, I'm loving it.

The Pantry - We're not at Outback Anymore...

My first day at the Pantry went really well. Because I'm familiar with the whole hostess thing, that part was really easy. I'm also a cashier and barista (only because we have an espresso machine up front that I get to use). The cashier part was also a piece of cake, and I'm sure that I'll figure out the whole espresso thing sooner or later. On the whole, working at the Pantry is very little like working at outback. At Outback, there were at least 15 servers on hand at all times. Between these 15 servers there were 15 sections of the restaurant. At the Pantry yesterday, there were at most 3 servers on hand with 3 sections. We're just a tiny bit smaller than Outback..... oh and there were only about 10 tables seated in the 5 hours I worked. Not exactly the hustle and bustle I'm used to! But sometime slow and easy is a good thing, so I'm sure I'll adjust. My hope is that I'll move up to serving quickly, since that would give me more to do. I work the late shift tonight (5pm to Close at 10), so maybe things will be different.

I got it!

The interview yesterday was great, and I start work as a hostess/cashier on Monday. If they think I'm a good fit for serving, I'll move up to server quickly. My only concern at this point is that my schedule would permit me to keep watching Evangeline in the morning. We're so thankful this has moved quickly!

Interview!

Bran and I have decided that it would be good for me to have another part time job (along with babysitting Evangeline) so that we can put some money into savings. I applied at a few places a while back, but didn't hear anything. The Best Western in town posted a sign saying that they are hiring, so I applied yesterday and have an interview today! I applied for a position at The Pantry, which is one of the hotel's two restaurants. If the interview goes well, I'll be working as a hostess until they decide I'm server material. Pray for me - I'm pretty confident that I'll get the job, what with my experience hostessing at Outback, but I'm nervous about how much time I'll spend working. Pray that God will extend my days, and that I'll figure out how to cook dinner in the morning when Evie is there.

House Dinner

Since all of those that will be living with us this year have moved in, Bran and I decided it would be nice to do a weekly "house dinner" where one of us cooks dinner and we just get together for some good fellowship. This was especially important to us because of our unique living situation. Jen and Ty are both living with us, and we have another border named Rachel living with Jen in the basement. Since four out of the five people living with us are related, we want to do everything we can to help Rachel feel welcome, and not like she's invading our family.

Tonight was our first dinner, and I was elected to cook, since I'm the "woman in charge". I think it went really well - I had fun cooking, and no one has died yet from the chicken pasta dish I made, so that counts as a success in my book. It was fun to just hang out and get to know Rachel - I think she's going to be a perfect fit.

The idea of not starting school right now is so strange to me. I realized that I've been going to school my whole life (obviously not including the toddlerish years), and this year I'm not. I love the beginning of the school year, when the newness of the school year hasn't worn off yet. I'm so jealous of everyone going to NSA (I went to Convocation last night with mom - the speeches were fantastic). I've decided that one of my goals while I'm out here is to either actually attend the school, or, at least, audit some classes. Hopefully that will work out in the near future.

Where's the good stuff?

Being so busy with school/work/wedding planning last year prevented me from keeping up with the music scene. The most exposure I've had to newer music videos was the hour of MTV I watched before leaving my apartment for our wedding in May. Now that we've settled into our house in Moscow, I decided it was time to see what's going on in Music World. Moscow isn't exactly known for it's awesome radio stations (I can't tell you how thankful I am for stations that stream live online) so I jumped on yahoo to check out their current top 100 lists... The number 1 song right now is Katy Perry's "I kissed a girl", which pretty much sums up my frustration with what I found on yahoo. Where'd the good music go? All of the top music videos are either hip hop, or, my personal favorite, Jesse McCartney pretending to be hip hop (see "Leavin'"). The top video that surprised me most was Enrique Iglesias' "Hero", which came out in 2001. Have there really been so few good videos since 2001 that Enrique is still at the top of the charts? I'm going to continue my search for good new music and hopefully won't be entirely disappointed. By the way, I know that Yahoo isn't the best place to find good music - i've never had the same taste as the masses...

What does she think about?

I watch Evangeline Anderson every weekday morning. She's 2 months old, and just about the cutest baby I've ever seen (we all say she looks like a little monkey). It has been so much fun getting to play with her and pretend to be a mommy for a few hours every day :). One of her favorite things to do is just sit in her bouncy chair and stare... This morning she was exceptionally happy and smiley, and also pretty sleepy. We played for a few minutes, and then she started to drift, so I put her in her bouncer and she just sat there, looking off into the distance and smiling and laughing every few minutes. I always wonder what's going through her head when she does that! She's so sweet, and content, and sooo easy to take care of. Michelle (her mom) says that everyone keeps warning her that they won't all be like her - I sure won't mind if mine are!
She's much prettier than this picture would lead you to believe - it's hard to look good when you're somewhere between asleep and awake!

it's been a while...

but we finally have internet again!! One of Bran's friends, Jordan, came over tonight and helped us install our wireless internet... we're not sure how he did it, but now we are all able to access our wireless anywhere in the house (we think he used magic...). Things have been pretty busy. The Antkowiak family came out to visit around August first, and they stayed until the 7th. My family came out the 8th, and my dad and brother left yesterday. Mom is staying until the 20th, after Jen starts at NSA.

Bran got a job at Moscow Building Supply, which could not have come at a better time. He likes it, and the fact that he gets to wear his favorite hat and a pair of jeans to work helps that a lot ;)

Our border, Rachel, gets here on the 16th, which has given us some extra time to finish up the last-minute repairs that needed to happen in the basement. We're all eager to meet her!

I'll give some more updates later on....

House

Our room looks like a page out of the JC penny catalog! I love our new bed set.


Things are going well. We're both happy to have carpet in the house, and we're finishing up the last touches. Would post more pics, but the computer is being weird. Love!

My Husband can Cook

And he's good at it, too!

We went to Sangria (an Italian restaurant in town) the other night, thanks to the gift card from the Schingecks... i'm pretty sure i spelled that wrong. But yes, we went to Sangria and I had some mediocre Shrimp Scampi. I never finish my meals when I eat out, and since Bran and I have been on a pretty tight budget, i decided to take it home. Bran decided he'd heat up the leftovers for lunch the next day, and the result was incredible. He added red wine, balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese, and then some "random spices". It was so good! He was very proud of it :) I took a picture, but don't have it uploaded yet, so i'll post it when i do.



On an entirely different note, the house preparations are coming along really well. We painted the main stairwell yesterday, and have been making a lot of progress in the basement. We get carpet tomorrow, which we're both really excited about. Once that's in, I'll post some more renovation pictures.

We love and miss everyone at home, and would like to give a shout out to the "O' Dwyer's" - you guys rock.

<3

More Oregon Pics

Here are the pictures i promised of Oregon! Enjoy!

Imnaha Day of Rest (aka Weekend of Camping)

Whew this week went by so fast! Time flies when you're workin' hard...

After throwing ourselves into the house so hard last week, Bran and I were quite burnt out by the weekend. The timing was perfect, though, because we had planned to go camping with the Tollefsons and some others. We needed to get away from the house for a while, and camping was a wonderful way to do it.

We left early Saturday morning and headed out to Imnaha, Oregon. Jon Tollefson's family is from out there, and once a year his father's church (his dad is a pastor) has what they call the "Imnaha Day of Rest" (it's just like what CREC does at Conquest Beach). Friends of theirs own a beautiful cabin that's on a piece of property way back in the mountains along a river (the river bends right around their property, so there's water on three sides - it's beautiful). It took us about 5 hours to get to the cabin (Jon wanted us to all stop and get lunch, and it ended up being about a 2 1/2 hour lunch stop......) Bran and I hate taking forever to get places after the cross country trip, so we were very happy to finally arrive a few hours later.

The weekend was full of good food, good friends, and lots of babies! We took our dogs with us (Duke, the lab, and Moose, a border collie/blue heeler mix) and weren't sure how they would do with all the kids around. Duke was wonderful - he's 3 and 1/2 and has really mellowed out (he's a lot like Mercedes... he let the kids pull on him and all kinds of stuff, and he just sat there!). Moose was a little bit of a different story. He's only 7 months old, and so really he's still a puppy. He didn't like the kids so much, but did his best to avoid them rather than bite them. The one time he did snap at one of them, Bran put the fear of God in him... i don't think he'll do that any more.

Bran and I decided to stay an extra day (making the best of our unemployment). We were really glad that we did, because we were able to help make sure everything was cleaned up at the cabin, and could take our time packing up. We tried to swim in the river, but it was so cold and so incredibly strong that we changed our minds.

The weekend was so much fun. I absolutely love having so many friends that are couples!! I know none of you know these folks, but in case you meet them, i'll tell you who went: The Antkowiaks, the Tollefsons, the Dowers, the Wolfs, and the Stevensons. And then Sunday morning a bunch of people from the Tollefson's Church in Oregon joined us for the Day of Rest.

It was a wonderful weekend. Oh, and Oregon is astonishingly beautiful.


My computer is taking a long time to upload pictures, so i'll try to do a follow-up post with more!