Friday, July 23, 2010

"Bead's"

There is a little store near my home called "Bead's". I am confused; as multiple questions arise from its rendering. What exactly do the beads own? And, are they really "beads" at all? In response to the second question, yes, it is a bead shop, as opposed to a shop owned by a person named Bead, which would make more grammatical sense. It does not appear that the beads own anything, which leads me to believe that someone is an overzealous punctuator. And if we're talking beads and not "beads" (said with a mysterious, knowing tone), then the situation is even graver. The misused quotation marks are a bit amusing, but the spare apostrophe is painful. I scowl at it every time I drive by.

Involving another puzzling shop name:
There is a store in Kent, WA, called Seafood Etc. This leads me to wonder, what kind of etc. goes with seafood? Seafood is a category all in itself...what could the etc. be? Seafood and crackers? Seafood and fishing supplies? Seafood and deli meats? Hmmmm...

Monday, July 12, 2010

Mid-July Updates

Note: I'm terrible at formatting this blog, and apologize in advance for any unsightly gaps, indents, etc. I may get the hang of this one day...

Fourth of July FAIL!
I was so looking forward to the two BBQs we were set to attend. Then I got the 24 hour flu bug that was going around. Gatorade and saltines do not make for a nice Independence Day celebration. I feel worse for Blake though, since he gave up his grilled meat to stay home and take care of me. We watched Minority Report and Nacho Libre (my favorite) and I'm pretty sure Blake cooked Spam for dinner...we grilled the next evening to make up for it. One plus to the day: Rory had a stinking cute patriotic outfit!


July also means that Rory was introduced to her first bottle and pacifier...big steps for our baby girl!

 Dedication
We've done some more hiking and had visits from family, and this past Sunday, Aurora was dedicated at church, wearing a gown made for her by her grandma...it was a special day!

Blake and I are reading this book, Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham, which is really impressing on us how there is no substitute for the parental role in a child's spiritual development. Books, conferences, retreats, youth group, and even pastors cannot take the place of parents who prioritize raising "sons and daughters who walk with God." What a huge responsibility- thank God for his grace!


Anniversary!
Two years ago, we never would have imagined that we'd have a child being dedicated the same day we would celebrate our second anniversary...so much has changed! I'm blessed to be married to a man who truly loves me for who I am (cliche, but true). He also loves me for who I'll be one day, and he's excited to be along for the ride! If I were an angle of 32 degrees, Blake would be an angle of 58 degrees, because we complement each other perfectly. He is my favorite person to share a lazy Saturday morning with, my favorite world travel companion, my favorite person to make fun of dumb vanity license plates with, my favorite person to worship with in church, my favorite person to do just about everything with except watch chick flicks and go shopping. Here we are on our first date (August 24th, 2006), our wedding, and our two year anniversary (dinner at Josephine's and an adventure to Bearizona!):

Last Exciting News:
I had a recipe published in one of my favorite cooking magazines, Healthy Cooking! I'll post the recipe here one of these days...I submitted it over a year and a half ago and forgot about it, so I was pretty excited when I heard they were going to print it in the August/September issue!
Very Last Exciting News:
Monsoon season has started!!!(!!!!) I love the rain THIS much!!!!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Babycakes and Pondering Thursday


Some happy thoughts for today:
  • COLOGNE (Polo Blue in particular)
  • Barbecues (one of my favorite things about America)
  • Plane tickets purchased for Labor Day weekend in Seattle
  • $1.99 Ben and Jerry's ice cream
  • Wonderful grandparents (both mine and Aurora's)
  • Hymns like The Love of God and Come Thou Fount
  • South American World Cup dominance...will it continue?
  • Celebrating our independence this weekend (see second bullet).
  • Reading: (Family Driven Faith by Voddie Bauchman, The Baby Book by Dr. Sears, Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney
  • Plastic party cups that come in fun summery colors (sky blue, grass green, bright pink, and yellow!) instead of boring blue and red
  • Two fresh pineapples on my counter waiting to be cut up
  • A week from Sunday marks two years of awesomeness with my incredible husband...hoping to leave the wee one with the grandparents for the evening, assuming she'll take a bottle by then!
Today's frustrations:
  • I'm clumsy. I hate being clumsy. Especially when I drop something, pick it up, and drop it again.
  • The monsoons have yet to hit our house.
  • Rory appears to be in between diaper sizes...is that possible? Her newborn ones are too tight, but she leaks out of the size ones. She's still too small for her cloth ones too, so I'm in a bit of a conundrum...
  • Our water heater is broken.
The good far outweighs the bad, so I'm going to ignore my clumsiness, lack of cool rain and hot showers, and babycakes' awkward-sized hiney and write everything I've done today on my to-do list so I can cross it off! Happy Thursday, everyone!