Wednesday

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am loving Wednesday so far. I'm not really sure why. It has pretty much started out the same as every other day, but today is good.
This could be because we had our small group last night. I love our small group. I know I have said this before but I do. They are such a unique and special group of couples that God has brought together. Each person brings something so great to the group. I am so grateful that God answered my prayers for community and look forward to what He is going to teach us as a group this spring.
Oh, and I think I need to buy a calender. I keep thinking of random things that I need to keep track of and am afraid I am going to miss something major. Brandon and I were just printing out monthly calenders off the computer but I can't easily carry that around with me.
sorry for the pointless blog! :)

Sammy

I kept Sammy on Sunday night (i've been babysitting every other weekend). He is growing so much! He's even standing by himself now :) Here is a picture of him eating his dinner...too cute--i couldn't resist.

Finally!

hello patient blog followers. i'm finally back to show you all pictures of my fabulous valentines weekend. i was so blessed to have two of my dearest highschool friends come and visit me over that weekend. by no means is this all the pictures that we took last weekend, but it is a glimpse of all the fun had. i will try and keep my comments to a minimum so you can make it through all the pictures!
both girls got into town on Friday evening so that night was spent chilling at the apartment and catching up with each other.

I was so excited to show them everything that Portland/Oregon had to offer that we spent much of our weekend just like this! (Sarah had never been to Oregon before!)

this is our amazing breakfast that Brandon made for us on Saturday morning before the festivities began. notice the heart-shaped pancakes :) i have the greatest husband.

our first stop on Saturday morning: Cannon Beach. It's the most beautiful/famous beach on the coast.





classic

it was really cold, ok

shortly after this photo it started raining on us so we headed into town to find something to eat.



after that first 5 min. rain, we had the most beautiful day ever to explore the coast. here we are at Hug Point.

sarah has no body-heating-system :)

doing the happy dance!!!!!




our third stop/attempt to try and find a cool place to hike.



So sarah decides to jump that stone wall and find her own trail....luckily it did end up being some sort of overgrown trail. I tried to be supportive. Emily's face says it all! As you can see by my face in the following pics, i'm not really the "blaze your own trail" type of person :)




but look at the view that we found. soooo worth it!

that night when we got back from our adventures, we relaxed and ate fondue to our hearts content. what an awesome v-day!


the next day (sunday) we went to church, at lunch and then headed downtown on the Max (lightrail). here we are at our daily Starbucks stop :)

we walked all over and saw Powell's Books, REI, and the cutest little cupcake shop. here is what we got :)

Alright, so our third and last day was spent in the Columbia Gorge. It was insanely windy!!! literally, we were about to fall over taking this picture!


Multnomah Falls



Missing our Joanna!!!!!!!!! and laughing at ourselves because people are looking at us funny while we take this picture.

all of us at the falls. After this we drove back into Portland, relaxed as we got pedicures (Brandon's v-day present to all of us!) ate some lunch and said our goodbyes. it was an amazing weekend that i will remember forever. thank you, girls, for coming and visiting me! I love you!

I have a TON of pictures from this past weekend. Be patient with me as I try and find the time to post them for you :)

pretty much perfectly relaxing day

Woke up at 9...sun was shining!

quickly got dressed and met Steve and Lyndsey for our semi-regular Saturday morning coffee time (yes, this is the actual coffee shop and what my drink looked like this morning)


made some food purchases as the good ol'...

lunch date at our favorite pizza place and then on to see a movie at the theatre next door.

home...finished a movie we started last night...smallville episode with a friend including some yummy hummus and crackers.
Starbucks for dinner

and a night finished off with knitting/homework/more relaxing while watching more movies :) I am one spoiled girl.

breathe deeply

I am catching a quick breath after putting one little girl down for a nap and getting another one up from her nap. I have had to remind myself several times today to "breathe deeply", to not throw sippy cups across the kitchen, and that singing songs endlessly is part of repetition and it helps little girl brains to develop. Today is one of those days when I've had to pray over and over again for patience, especially when a certain 15 month old doesn't have any. Today is one of the days I question Brandon's and my decision to have lots of kids :)

I'm sure all of you have those days at your jobs too. The days when you say, "how could it only be Tuesday?". If you have had one of those days, just know that I sympathize with you and wish we could go get a cup of coffee and talk about it. And in talking, I'm sure that we would both realize how trivial our "todays" are in light of what other people are experiencing today. We didn't go hungry today, we had plenty of clean water to drink, and we are not experiencing moral or physical injustice as so many are.

I guess sometimes all it takes is sitting down for a quick 30 minutes of blogging to get my head right again. To put things into perspective. And to thank God for what He has given me today. I think this blog was more for me than it was for you today :)