Anniversaries and such...

PS, last Monday was officially our nine month anniversary! Nine months together and he still likes being with me...so wonderful!

Alas, the beach...

So, here they are...the pictures from the beach! It was so sunny and warm and beautiful and relaxing (minus the slight emotional mood swings I experienced on and off throughout the weekend...oh, for being a woman). This is our view from the house - rolling lawns, trees, flowers, and sparkling water. And they have a hammock, and I happen to LOVE hammocks! The boys spent a lot of the weekend perfecting the potato gun Justin had built way back when he was in high school. I've never seen one before, so it was cool to watch how far the potato gun can launch into the water. I tell you what, it's fun to have boys around for these little glories. I can't imagine sitting around with my girlfriends for hours launching potatoes across the river for fun. Thank you, boys, for what you bring to our female lives. Isaac and I got to take the rowboat across the lake during the sunset (so romantic, I know) Saturday evening during which I discovered that I am not quite as talented as my man is when it comes to efficiently rowing us on the little boat. Another reason it's good to have men around. It was so relaxing to just be floating on the lake with no time restraints, no one but us around, no pressing agendas to take care of. There was fishing for the boys, campfires with roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, sleeping in, and lots of lying in the sun for Alex and me. Yep, there we are, sunning ourselves in the warmth. Monday was added excitement as Justin's extended family all came out for a Memorial Day picnic and they're a fun bunch to have around. We'll be out there again for the fourth of July with all of them, so this weekend was a nice taste of the coming fun in July.
On a completely unrelated note, we'd like you to know that our garden is flourishing! Well, at least it is flourishing as much as can be expected this far along. The peas are at least three inches high! And the other plants have all sprouted and headed up towards the sky as well. I'm still incredibly excited about it all even though all I really get to do now is wait. Okay, here's one last picture for you. What was Isaac doing? You'll have to ask him about it someday. It's a good story. Well, I'm headed to Arizona to visit my sister and her family for the weekend...so don't be jealous when you think of me basking in the 100+ degree heat! I'm pretty excited for that, as well as for seeing my sister and her family as it has been quite a while since I've seen them last. Maybe when I get back, we'll give you guys a sneak preview of the coffee table that Isaac's been creating. It's coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself. His plan is to work a lot on it this weekend so it shouldn't be that long until it's done. Thanks for listening to our stories...we'll talk to you all again soon.

Soon, my friends...

Hello, friends! I promise I will post soon, sorry it's been so long. We had a long weekend at the beach and I just haven't had time at work yet to post, and with no internet at my house, it makes it a little tricky. Nevertheless, if I can't post today, I should be able to tonight at Isaac's. So it's coming soon!

Ringing in the new summer...

Okay, so I lied. I have one more post before we're gone for the weekend. We had couples night last night, which if you don't remember, is dinner every other week with Justin and Alex, Morgan and Tommy, Isaac and me and we rotate houses. Last night was my house and we dubbed it our night to ring in the new summer! It was kind of cloudy all day, but at exactly 5:45pm, the clouds rolled out and the blue sky and sunshine rolled in...just in time. We ate outside for the first time this year, and it was beautiful. And for the occasion I made a berry pie, my very first homemade berry pie ever...strawberry rhubarb to be exact. I was kind of proud of it and only a little bummed that I couldn't taste it. But I made myself a mini gluten-free version, so I at least got the feel for what the real one tasted like :) Mine definitely was not as pretty, though, I'll tell you that much. Okay, gotta get some work done. Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Yay for the beach!!!

Happy Weekend!

We're headed to the beach with some friends for the extended weekend, so we'll talk to you all in a few days.

Happy weekend!

The beauty of Chlorophyll...

They're up! They're up! Let us introduce you to our little baby plants!!




Here are the carrots...









And the peas...









And the cucumbers...




Yay!!!

It's definitely summer!!

Well, we went from Winter to Summer this year and it was GLORIOUS this weekend! I do believe it got up to 88 degrees on Saturday. And when the sun comes out, we come out to play. It started Friday with a hike with friends up to the top of Oyster Dome, which overlooks the San Juans. We stayed for a couple hours so we could watch the sunset, which was definitely worth the wait...so beautiful! On the way up, we stopped to check out the bridge that Isaac, Mark, Justin, and Ryan built last winter and, lo and behold, it was still holding fast! And it looked as good as when they built it. Here's a couple views for you...I think I mentioned this in one of the very first blogs, but I am so impressed that the boys built this! They strapped all the material onto their backs and hiked at least two hours up a steep mountain. When I make that hike, it's with nothing on my back and I'm still pretty tired when I reach the top. I can't imagine hiking up with all that wood and tools. And then there's the amazement that they know how to create a solid bridge like that! Yes, I'm definitely impressed. And I'm sure hundreds of hikers are thankful that they don't have to cross that rushing creek in the ravine any longer. Wanna see the sunset we got to watch? It was a perfect example of a Bellingham sunset. Love them! Saturday provided the first sunburn of the season for me as we walked around downtown, played at the park, enjoyed the warmth. And Sunday provided about the same. I bake bread on Sundays while Isaac is at youth group so we have bread for the week, and it was an interesting experience this time with the heat. I had both the front and back doors open, as well as the living room and bathroom windows, just to try to keep the house cool enough to bake in. It's a nice experience since I've been constantly cold for the past six months. All in all, it was a great weekend. Oh, and my other roommate, Becca, got engaged on Friday, which definitely added to the greatness of the weekend!
Oh, sun, how I love thee.

It's Summer!!!

It's Summer!!! At least it finally feels like it. It was gorgeous and super warm yesterday and today is supposed to be even better! They're forecasting 80 degrees...it's only 8am and it's warm already. Let me just say that we love summer. Yesterday, I went to Isaac's after work and sat in the sun in his backyard and read my book while he sawed and sanded away at his table. A perfectly relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon.
So, this is fun...I have decided to start riding my bike around a lot more because it's great exercise, pretty fun, and it's at least a little thing I can do to help our air stay clean. Our friend, Brian, gave me this bike last fall (thanks, Brian!) and it's going to be a blessing to me this summer. It's perfect because my work is close enough to ride to, Isaac's house is close enough to ride to, downtown is close enough to ride to...most of the places I need to go are close enough to ride to. I rode to work for the first time yesterday, then rode home, then to a store downtown, then to Isaac's. An entire day of getting around without my car is a whole new experience for me! I'm not sure riding to work will happen all the time, though, because it's hard to look presentable for the office directly after a bike ride, but I'll be working on that to see if it's at all possible. It's also nice because bikers are very prevalent here in our slightly hippie town of B'ham, so cars are really used to sharing the road with bikers.
Well, this evening's a big hike with a few friends a lookout a few miles up Chuckanut Mountain overlooking all of the San Juans...so beautiful! And we might even hit it at sunset. I'm sure you'll be seeing the pictures sometime this weekend.
Ahhhh, I LOVE the sunshine!

Three Cups of Tea and a Watered Garden...

Two quick things.

The first is that these last three days have been pouring rain and for the first time in my life, I have been able to see that as a blessing instead of an annoyance. God is watering our garden!

The second is that I have a book recommendation for all of you...Three Cups of Tea. It's the life of Greg Mortenson, a poor climber who devotes his life to building schools for the impoverished tribes of Pakistan. True story and so, so interesting. You should give it a try!

Happy rainy Wednesday, my friends!

How Great is Our God...

I have a great job. This week there is a group of College Campus Missionaries from all over the country here for a week long training and each morning of this training, they have an hour of worship together in the room right next door to my office. Where else do you get to come in to work and listen to a hundred voices praising the Lord? Seriously. I have a great job. And for those of you who don't get the privilege, feel free to hum along to yourself with the words echoing through my office...

The splendor of the King,
Clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice,
Let all the earth rejoice.
He wraps himself in light,
And darkness tries to hide
And trembles at his voice,
And trembles at his voice.

How great is our God,
Sing with me, how great is our God,
And all will sing how great, how great,
Is our God.

Age to age he stands,
And time is in His hands,
Beginning and the end, beginning and the end.
The Godhead three in one,
Father, Spirit, Son
The Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and the Lamb

A day in the life...

Yesterday was a great day! So great! Because we finally have a garden! I came home after work, got out the shovel, and dug the little 6'x4' plot for our garden. It was so satisfying to do all the work by hand and to get to see the progress with each shovel-full of dirt. Isaac came over when he had finished working on his latest project (the coffee table) for the day and helped me shape the rows and fertalize it all, since gardening is not very much my area of expertise...yet. But Isaac's more than willing to teach me what he knows and the rest we will just learn together. We planted peas, five different kinds of carrots (red, orange, yellow...I didn't even know carrots came in colors other than orange), lemon cucumbers, regular cucumbers, and chives. So exciting! The rest of the day was pretty great, too. We went to dinner with Tommy and Morgan at Justin and Alex's house and got to spend a fun evening with our friends. The boys played with their modded nerf guns (yes, modded is a word. It's short for modified for those of you who no longer play with nerf guns). Then we all went for a walk where I proceeded to accidentally throw the frisbee into the bay. No worries, though...Justin and Isaac merely saw it as a big adventure, found a huge log, rolled it into the bay, and Justin climbed onto it, paddling out to the frisbee with an old broken two by six. There he is on his log. He was in the water for at least 20 or 25 minutes, but he returned triumphant with his frisbee! Just another day in the life of our Bellingham friends. They'll do anything for the sake of adventure.

Happy Cinco de Mayo...

I know, I know...it's actually May 9th today, but it was a happy Cinco de Mayo. My parents came up to visit! They've never seen my little place up here yet this year, so it was fun to get to show them around my latest little rental. As you can see from the back of it in the picture, it's definitely a little rental of a college house, but the front is way cuter, don't worry. And so is the inside. We painted the entire thing inside when we moved in because it was painted HIDEOUS colors...bright purple, mustard yellow, salmon. Gross, gross, gross. Anyway, we had a really good time with the folks. Isaac made his infamous Pad Thai, which was fun because my parents had never had Thai food. And they loved it! Lucky for us it was a beautiful, sunny day, too, so we got to sit outside and talk with the sun streaming it's warmth on us.
And how about that lawn, huh? Isn't it beautiful? Yeah, we don't have a working lawn mower, so we've got a little wild meadow growing outside the house. I love it, but our landlords aren't as much of a fan. I think it's getting cut tomorrow.
And last but not least, our garden got approved yesterday by my landlords! Yay! I know it's been a little bit since we said we were going to plant it, but we realized we should probably ask permission first since it would mean digging up a portion of a lawn that wasn't ours. They said yes, though, yesterday, so construction is scheduled to begin this afternoon after work. And it's a beautiful day, so hopefully that will stay as well to provide good working weather. I'll have pictures to share when it's done, don't worry.

My apologies...

I'm starting out with an apology to all of you...I have no pictures for this post. I've been forgetting to bring my camera around as of late, but I'll try to do better. It's not like there was a ton of stuff to capture on film, but we did have a few fun aspects of the weekend. The first one was Saturday morning when Isaac, Justin, and I joined several other men and women from the church and went to work on weeding and tree-chopping for this woman at church who needed the help. We rolled up to the house and to the boys' joyful surprise, there in the middle of the yard was a bright blue Genie Lift. (For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing a Genie Lift, it's a monstrous machine that lifts you up in a bucket a couple dozen feet off the ground so you can chop tree branches.) I've never seen them look so happy on an early, rainy Saturday morning! The both went up, chainsaw in hand, and did considerable damage to the unwanted tree branches. I was really wishing for my camera at that point.
As for the garden that was in store for this weekend, we ended up staying at this woman's house for several hours and I was gardening the entire time, so I wasn't exactly feeling the 'let's go home and garden' idea that I had been excited for earlier. So we rested, read, cleaned, made dinner, just the normal Saturday affair. Yesterday became more of the garden day instead. After church we headed out to Bakerview Nursery and purchased our little seeds...carrots, lemon cucumbers, regular cucumbers, and shell peas, along with these beautiful sunflower seeds that I couldn't resist. Then we picked up our mulch/compost/good dirt blend and off we went to Isaac's to transplant our basils into the good mulch. We'll see if they perk back up with this healthy soil. The next step of digging the little outside garden in my yard will come this week, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. Not today, however, because my parents are coming up to visit! They haven't seen the house I'm living in yet this year, so I'm excited to get to see them and have them see where I live. Isaac and I will make them dinner and then they'll head back down to Seattle, but it'll be nice to see them for a little bit at least.
There's one more thing I wish I would have taken a picture of...well, two things actually. Yesterday evening was sooo beautiful outside, pretty warm, blue skies, a gorgeous sunset, and Janelle (my roommate) and I were able to sit on the porch for a long time and read without getting too cold. That means summer's on its way! The other thing that was beautiful that I wish I could have shared with you was the view Isaac and I saw on our walk last night. He got home from youth group and we went on a night walk around this part of Bellingham that's up on a hill. We got to the top of the road and looked back to find all of Bellingham laid out below...pitch black except for the stars and the lights of the town. So cool!
Well, friends, 'tis time fo rme to start my day here at Hillcrest Chapel. And it's going to be a good one, I've decided.

Our friends...

We wanted to take a second and introduce you to some of the people who are near and dear to our hearts up here in the 'ham who we will probably mention throughout our blogging days. This in no way is an exhaustive list of all of those we love, it is just a small list of some of those people who show up often in our lives (and it is limited, of course, to those I have pictures of...)


Here's Justin and Alex, our dear friends. Justin has been Isaac's best friend and roommate since freshman year of college until he married Alex, and Alex has been my dear friend for the past few years and roommate before she married Justin last summer. It worked out well...



Tommy and Morgan are the other main couple in our lives, and our dear friends as well (although I'm sure Isaac, Justin, and Tommy would adamantly refuse the use of 'dear' describing their friendship, sorry boys). Tommy roomed with Isaac for a couple years, Morgan and I lived in the dorms together and have been friends ever since. The two of them married last summer as well...


Here's Chris and Ryan, Isaac and Justin's small group boys. They're juniors this year in high school, but are already full time at the Community College and will be next year as well. Their idea of a good time is to meet with up Isaac and Justin and shoot off the cannon they built. Such boys...


This is Katy, one of the loves of my life. She's graduating from high school in five weeks and is off to Western Washington University in the fall! her involvement with the youth has given both Isaac and I a chance to get to know her really well. This is her and her senior prom date, Graham!!! So cute...



That's all I have for now, but I'll keep giving pictures for whomever we talk about in the blog so you can connect names with faces.

The slants of the table...

Unless it's pouring down rain, I think we get to plant my garden tomorrow! It's just going to be a little square of a thing, but I'm sooo excited! And Isaac started his next building project a couple days ago by cutting this big coffee table he has in half at an angle. He's going to put it back together so there are some cool slants. I wish there was a better way to describe it with writing, but we'll just have to take a few pictures tomorrow to show you all.

Sorry it's short, but I'm at work with a list of things to do today. So fun, I know...But it's Friday, which means that after four, we're free to relax all weekend!