Reading to Know

I have to give this its own post instead of leaving it tucked away at the bottom of my last post.

My friend Carrie is hosting some amazing giveaways this week over at her blog, Reading to Know.

These giveaways are to celebrate her upcoming birthday this weekend AND to celebrate her newly announced pregnancy! I'm so excited for her and her family.

Click over and see what she has to give away this week! There are some truly awesome books.

Ever tried to write a blog post when your significant other is BEYOND tired and his tiredness is making him incredibly loopy and INCREDIBLY annoying? And because of it your son is laughing hysterically at all the stupid things his dad is doing? And you have cats trying to win Olympic medals in the speed category for Hallway Running?

Welcome to my life. :)

We have done so much in the last couple of weeks!

We spend an afternoon floating on a river with my mom:


I took a 4 day camping trip with one of my coworkers and had a perfectly fun and relaxing time:

(her boyfriend, Scott)



Steve and Jordan came for one fabulous afternoon on the beach. It was gorgeous!


Jordan and I enjoyed the hot air balloons at a local annual festival. Neither of us had ever seen a hot air balloon "in action" before so it was extremely fascinating and cool for us (even if it meant leaving the house before 6:30am on a Saturday).



We even got to go to Night Glow and see them lit up! So pretty...

Jordan finished up summer camp for the year... He told me he will really miss his counselors. They were wonderful! (L-R: Oppie, Dandylion, Goose and Number 5)

And most recently, we took family photos down by the river:

I'm not quite ready for summer to be over but when I woke up to rain yesterday morning I realized I'm also ready for fall. We are gearing up for Jordan's third grade open house this week and his first day of school next week. This will be the first time I've ever DONE a first day of school, so we'll see how I do.

Steve had told Jordan he could grow his hair out for the whole summer and last night he FINALLY took him to get it cut.

Before:
After:
I love it!

And finally, hop on over to my friend Carrie's book blog and check out all the amazing giveaways she's hosting this week! It's all in honor of her newly announced pregnancy and I'm so excited for her and her family!

Simply Summer

We are absolutely sucking the life out of summer around here. We are LOVING IT. Our weekends are full, our evenings are packed, our cheeks are sun-kissed, our bodies are not getting enough sleep, our cars are dirty and our laundry is never ending. Pure fun.

One of mine and Jordan's new favorite activities is River Rhythms here in town. Free concerts once a week at a riverfront park! Last week my coworker and I packed a picnic and off we went. The band that night was a Neil Diamond cover band and the music mixed with the atmosphere of the crowd (plus the great friends!) made for a really awesome night.




The other big thing we did recently (you know, besides going flying and having a birthday and all the OTHER big things we've done!) was the Willamette Celebration. There was a crowd of 13,000, how could that NOT be fun?? Our little group turned into a bigger group of great friends and family and we played and sang and danced along to big-name Christian bands until it was way past our bedtimes.

(It was purely coincidental that I wore the same outfit to both events! Haha.)








And we're not done. August holds even more awesome, fun things for us! In 2009 I didn't get much of a summer. 2010 is SO making up for it. We are not letting this one pass us by! =)

Where I've been

Well, there are some obvious answers as to where I've been...

I've been wanting to post photos of several activities over the last month but I hadn't taken any of them off of my camera yet. Then Doozie took a bunch of pictures of Dorothy on the day she passed away and I haven't even been able to put the card in my computer because I just wasn't ready to see them.

I'm still not ready but I made a folder buried at the bottom of my photo files and moved the pictures into the folder so I don't have to see them all the time. One of these days I will put them on a CD and save them as memories.

So jumping back a whole month... here is what I've been up to. :)

First, I did some experiments with my mad scientist.


Then, Stacy and Madre (and another old friend who happened to be in town for the weekend and is the one taking this picture) took me out to dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant. Delicious.

The weekend after my birthday Steve and I went to Portland for the MUCH anticipated Cirque du Soleil! This is the view from our room:

The big tent

Kooza!

The show was INCREDIBLE! I went with the intention of letting it take me away to another place and it totally did. I was mesmerized. I loved the entire thing. Over the course of the weekend we walked, rode Max, the streetcar and took a bicycle taxi. :)

And when we got back to our hotel we asked a lady at the front desk if she would take our photo. She happily obliged, then knelt down and took the picture looking up our noses. Um, thanks.

In the morning we decided to do the whole VooDoo Doughnut thing. We stood in line for 30 minutes and bought ourselves (and our friends back home) the most interesting doughnuts I have ever seen. And now I can say that I've had the experience.

The inside of that place is PINK!

Then we returned home and I spent some time snuggling with my boy.

After church on Mother's Day we went with my sister and her boyfriend to the Thyme Garden in Alsea and walked around in the beautiful gardens and took photos.


And visited with chickens.

I spent some time planting my own herbs and produce to enjoy later this summer.

And a couple of weeks ago we celebrated my cousin earning his Eagle rank in scouts and then debated long and hard over a very interesting croquet game.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Dorothy.

(I hope this photo doesn't bother anyone. This is the one picture I did want to get off of my camera because I find the daisy so sweet in her hand and I always loved her hands.)

Her memorial service was beautiful and we took this photo of her family afterwards. Her son and daughter-in-law are in the blue and green (tall and short) and her mom is the amazing looking 97 year old in the middle. Her three brothers are in the picture, her daughter Heather is behind Grandma, and Doozie (Heather's roommate) is on the far right.

Heather and I (I've officially gained another sister through all of this).

And my goofy, goofy dog, who moves to Portland tomorrow to live with Heather, Doozie and Blu.

What a handsome, funny boy. :)

(Diana, you will love this part.) I found out yesterday that this pretty girl will be mine in just a few short weeks! Oh my gosh, I can't wait.

And this brings us to today. Some good friends of ours had their first baby together this morning at 11:11! We were hoping to visit them tonight but Steve works until 7:30 and visiting hours end at 8 so it's just not feasible. We will go see them at home tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait to get my arms around this precious babe. Baby Boston Ryan.

Things have kind of ranged from both ends of the spectrum for me over the last week and a half but I'm in a good place. I've found that I CANNOT deal with sad things right now (like scenes in movies) but I know that's probably just in light of the last couple of weeks and will get better as time goes on.

A favorite cousin of mine comes to visit next weekend and I'm super excited about spending several days with her.

Work on the house is SUPPOSEDLY almost finished (tomorrow is the fourth deadline they have been given) and I will be spending my weekend over there painting. If I can crank out the rooms I'm hoping to tomorrow then I will just have the kitchen and family room left to do. Moving day is June 12th. (Kitten day is June 18th!!!!)

I'm hoping to be around a bit more now. :)