Happy Birthday to me!

I had a birthday (shout hurray!) at this beginning of this month.  I wouldn’t blog about, except that my husband gave me flowers…and that’s blog worthy! 

Here he is with them:

And here I am:

The nice thing about digital cameras is that you can take as many as you want until you find a good one.  This wasn’t the best.  But, I sure look happy!  I’ve never been happier!

He also got off at 5:00 (during busy season!) to take me to dinner!  And he bought me some fake limes and lemons that I really wanted for center pieces.  Oh…and a golf book (that’s the book displayed by the flowers).     

If only I could patent this.

My friend, Bonnie, stopped by yesterday with a huge bunch of lilacs.   My house smells just how I hope heaven will smell.

                                                                                   I put a big bunch on kitchen island.

And some on my window sill in my little vases.

And then I smelled their divine smell and started thinking…you know how advanced computers and cell phones are these days.  You can talk to someone through the computer and see them…what if you could smell what they were smelling.  Imagine!  I want to be able to send the scent of lilacs to everyone I know and love.  Today, I would send a whiff of these lilacs to my friend Andrea.  It’s her birthday and I love her!  She is a good, good friend!  One of my very best.  I’d also send a whiff to my sister’s, sister-in-law, Nicole.  She just had prenatal surgery on the little baby inside of her.  She has a lot of faith and strength.  I’d also send a whiff to my mom—because I adore her!

April 15th.

Today is a big day for many reasons. 

First of all, my little sister (8 years younger than me!) left on her mission.  She was called to the England Birmingham mission and will serve there for 18 months.  She was supposed to fly straight to England, but because of visa problems, she is going to the MTC in Provo first.

Here she is last night with my parents being set apart as a missionary.

Here she is with her companions:

She will be a fantastic missionary!  She is faithful and bubbly!

When I left on my mission, she was only 13 years old.  She wrote me almost every week.  I loved her letters.  I told her I would write her every week…what was I thinking?!  I’ll do my best!  I’ll miss you, Annie! The other reason I’m loving today is because my husband is officially done with busy season for accounting.  Woohoo!

It actually wasn’t too bad.  He has been going into work quite early every morning for many months.  But, he hasn’t had to stay too late.  Even this week, he came home by 7:30 or 8:00 every evening.  Still, it will be nice to have home a little earlier, and nice for him not to have to get up so stinking early!  Yay, Bri!

And the final reason I’m loving today is that 29 years ago one of my favorite people was born:  Jill. 

Jill and I became close friends at BYU and were roommates for several years before she got married.  She’s a good friend!  She’s thoughtful, generous, a good listener, and funny!  I remember many nights talking in bed until we fell asleep.  I may have been a little depressed when she got married.  We don’t talk much anymore—neither of us really like the phone—which is another good reason to be friends—we deserve each other that way.  But, I talked to her today, and was reminded of how grateful I am for her friendship.  I’m glad you were born, Jill!

Andrea, Jill, Juli, Holly, and me (Yellow House roommates)

And to top it all off the weather is amazing today in Troutdale!  So many reasons to celebrate today!

Somewhere that’s green.

This is the view from our kitchen window.  We love it!  We have a pretty good size yard-- this picture doesn’t quite do it’s size justice.  Right in front of this window is a pretty long and deep patio, and the length of the entire yard is about twice what the picture shows.  Our favorite thing about this yard is the gate that opens into the park.  You can see that right beyond the gate is a play set—we’ll never have to set up our own, and once they’re old enough we can just watch them from the kitchen window. 

The little vases along the window sill are from our wedding luncheon in Utah.  One week while I was home in CA, my mom and I spent an afternoon hunting for old vases and jars for centerpieces.  These were a few of my favorites.  I love green and blue glass jars!   

Sometimes I pinch myself.  I didn’t need this much.  I just wanted a nice husband.  I got way more than I asked for.  We’re so grateful, and so deliriously happy.  What a wonderful life!

Closet organizers.

Who doesn’t love a man who can build anything? 

There’s just something quite attractive about this:

And here’s cute Brian, looking quite proud of his accomplishment:

We’re getting so close!  Closet organizers—check!  I’m excited to hang things.  Do you think we’ll have enough room?  Probably.  But, I think Brian is planning on each of us only using our half of the closet…

Blazers game.

 

Last Friday night, Brian’s company treated us and the rest of his coworkers to a Blazers game.  Having grown up in Portland, Brian is real fan of the Portland Trail Blazers—and I’m planning on being one too! 

I got all gussied up (translation: I actually did my hair and makeup) and took public transit downtown.  Before the game, we all met at a bar, where I was able to meet Brian’s coworkers.  Brian is rather new to this company, so this was my first time meeting everyone. 

After a good deal of drinking (root beer, for us, of course) and a little bit of pool playing, we all headed over to the game.

The game was pretty ho hum until the very end, when Washington started to get some points.  They were tied going into the last minute or so, and in the last few seconds, the Blazers made a great shot and won.  (I think that’s about what happened.  For a more accurate and exciting report I think I’ll leave game recaps to Brian)

Here we are right after the game:

Note:  I wrote this entire post about the Braves instead of the Blazers.  Brian happens to love both the Portland Trailblazers and the Atlanta Braves.  With all of those B’s, a girl can get confused!  I’m glad I decided to look at the Braves website for a (blurry) logo before posting this, and realized that we, in fact, went to a Blazers Basketball game Friday night rather than a Braves Baseball game. 

Always one step ahead of me.

I want to tell you story about a generous mother-in-law.

A few weeks ago, on my way back from picking up a toilet seat (a wood one-- painted white, of course-- I say, 'of course' only because it wasn't actually so obvious to me.  I had fought the wood toilet seat for some  time because I was picturing an oak colored lid.  I never knew there were painted ones...) I saw a thrift store and decided to look around for a few things our little house needed.

Among other things, I found a $2.00 white plastic little silverware tray.  Brian and I had seen one we loved at BB&B a few days earlier, but it was at least $26.00.  Well, this was nothing fancy, but it would work.

So, I drive back home (after calling Brian a few times at work because I get lost easily).

I washed that silverware tray so nicely, dried it, and went to go put it in it's drawer.

This is what I found:

A beautiful, wood, expandable cutlery tray! (just like the one Brian loved)

My mother-in-law saw our need and bought one before we could.  I'm embarrassed that it had been there for a few days without me noticing it.  Thank you, Mom!