19 days!

as you know, there are many exciting things coming up!

... 8 days till tom and i leave vegas and make the trek north to washington!

... 9 days till we get there, and soon after that i will get to meet tom's grandparents!

in between: many very busy but incredibly fun days filled with family (i can't wait to see everyone! even my brother and his wife are coming all the way from england! holla!), showers, appointments (with the pastor marrying us, our photographer, the church lady, me with my dentist up there, and more), picking up my dress from being steamed, etc.

... 18 days till the rehearsal and bbq at tom's parents house!

and most importantly and excitedly,


... 19 days till i become tom's wife- his partner, his helper, his friend, his love. out of all the things i've ever been in my life, this is the most important and most significant. this is the role God created me for!

how do we know this?

God told us in His Word (italics mine): Genesis 2: 18-24 in the NLT.
18 "Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him."19 So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one.20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening.22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. 23 "At last!" the man exclaimed."This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called 'woman,' because she was taken from 'man.'" 24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one."

so, 19 days till the wedding, which i know will be beautiful and fun and exciting. but more significantly, 19 days until the beginning of our marriage!! the beginning of our life together. a book that we're hoping to read soon is called sacred marriage by christian author and speaker gary thomas. he explores the question: What If God Designed Marriage To Make Us Holy More Than To Make Us Happy? can't wait to dig into this! sidenote: another cool thing about gary thomas is that he, like yours truly, is a western washington university and campus christian fellowship alum.

oh, minor detail: i finished making my bouquet last night and i couldn't be happier with how it turned out! it is made of silk flowers, even though i initially wanted to use all real. i decided to go with silks for my bouquets, the bridesmaids bouquets, the corsages and the boutonnieres for many reasons: i can save mine and display it somewhere in our home as a decoration (i'll make a smaller one to toss at the reception), i can prep them ahead of time, and i don't have to worry that they will be dead or ugly come show time (my cousin, a florist, told me that hydrangeas, the flower i am using for a majority of the things, are iffy in august). i am so glad i decided to go this way!

how can this be?

i really like cold cereal. now, i'm not one of those nuts that is obsessed with it, by any means, but i prefer it over hot cereal and sometimes i eat it at other times than in the morning. in fact, i would venture to say that more often than not you would find me eating cold cereal after 10 a.m. so i think i could classify that as really liking it.

well, imagine my shock and perpetual excitement when i saw what has happened to one of the classics. my absolute favorite cereal of all time, hands down, no kidding, cross my heart, is cracklin' oat bran, which i lovingly refer to as the COBs. but, alas, it is expensive-- even at the commisary! so i reserve it for special occasions and usual go for some honey bunches of oats (HBofOs). i love the stuff- once, when i was visiting my brother and emily in kansas, it was all i could keep down when i had a bout with a nasty stomach flu that hit while watching the movie spanglish (sometimes i think it is interesting-- the details you can recall about getting sick).

well, anyway, enough with the tangents. post (maker of honey bunches of oats) recently came up with the best idea in the recent history of cereal. check this out: honey bunches of oats- just bunches. i couldn't contain my excitement when i saw it and i shouted down the aisle to my sis, who was doing a really good job steering her kids around in an airplane-shaped cart. she was kind of excited too. well, we didn't get them, because, you know, how healthy could that be? i am saving them for a special occasion, i think.

two posts in one day?

yes. just to say- God is good, and amazing. all day i have had the lyrics to a song we used to sing at the church i went to through college, hillcrest chapel. and i kept singing it, when i was in the shower, brushing my hair, making dinner, playing dress up with my nieces, hanging out with tom. the words go like this (they are written, i believe, by tre sheppard, and the song is called taste and see):

i will love you, Lord, forever
my lips will always sing your praise
from deep inside i feel it rising
come glorify the Lord with me
come glorify the Lord with me

i taste and see that You are good
i hide myself within Your love
in Your presence i lack nothing
You're all i want and You are here with me

isn't that amazing, humbling, and crazy to think that in His presence we lack nothing. nothing! that line in particular just resonated with me today, and encouraged me. no matter how you feel about yourself, what you've done or not done, what others think about you... in His presence, and His presence alone, we lack nothing.

friday is my favorite! some ramblings...

only 22 more days!

fridays have always been my favorite day of the week, tied of course with saturday and sunday. reason? i bet you can guess.

today i am watching the kids for the 4th time this week, and i'll watch them again monday-thursday next week. on friday, my sister and her family (from this moment forward i will refer to them as the family j) will be leaving to head up north! conveniently, her husband's family is having some of their own events the week before our wedding, so they are just heading up a little earlier than tom and i. plus, my sister would like to experience the wonder that is the clark county fair (up in WA state) since it has been a few years since she has been what we have come to believe is the best fair ever. i kind of want to go myself but i doubt i'll have time. i loves me some dairy women milkshakes and irish potato sundaes. about two years ago, carm and i went and pretty much all we did was shove our faces. it was gross, and good.

the family j just found out yesterday where their brand new house will be on base. we went and found it (or at least what we thought would be it, as the house number matched their papers but we weren't sure about the street name since the street name signs were yet to be posted). and if it is, in fact, their house, it couldn't be more perfect because there is a playground right in their backyard!! the two girlies, miss m. and miss o., got to play and even shed a few tears when we left. "but we moved!" they cried as they were slowly and reluctantly making their way back to the family j's van. they will actually get to move the week after they get home from the wedding.

the fish dinner turned out magnificently on tuesday! thanks to tom's family for the recipe! tonight, we are having hamburgers. but, these are not your typical burgers. last night i prepped the patties. first i caramelized some finely chopped onions, then i mixed the cooled onions, some bbq sauce, and some bacon bits into the ground beef before forming the patties. tonight tom will grill them up with some chipotle cheddar slices, and we will doctor them up on the buns with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and special sauce. tom is pretty much the master at making special sauces.

also, i'm going to try my hand at making hummus. tom and i have been talking about it for a while, and then, coincidentally, my cousin posted her recipe on her blog. so i stocked up yesterday on some chickpeas, sea salt, evoo and roasted red peppers. i'll let you know how it turns out!

you should check out our wedding webpage!

i put the link under my favorites list on the left side of this page. its kind of cool because it tells our story. it's a good story, too.

ONLY 25 days to go and i couldn't be more excited!

quick update

i've been an incredible blog slacker. but for good reason! we've been pretty busy around here. my mom came to visit, we went camping, becky's been working so i've been watching the little ones, and tom has been trying to get used to his new schedule. they've got him working mids, which means he goes to work at midnight and gets off around 8 or 8:30 a.m. poor guy! he is a hard worker though, and he'll get his new schedule worked out. today, he met me at the commissary (what the USAF calls the on base grocery store) when he got off in the morning so that he and i could pick up some supplies for the delicious dinner that we're making for everyone tonight, then he went home to sleep. on the menu:



-grilled salmon with a cajun spice and brown sugar rub
-fresh salad
-sauteed summer squash
-fresh strawberry shortcake or blueberry crumble (i haven't decided which one yet, maybe both if i get some free moments when the kids are napping)


i am hoping to get all caught up on here soon! i have a lot i could write about. i really like the idea of blogging, simply for the fact that it will serve as a journal for this incredible new adventure, and it will allow family and friends a little glimpse of what is going on in our lives. like i said though, it's been a little difficult with all the busyness around here! for instance, the only reason i have a chance to add stuff right now is that the girls are playing dress-up (hilarious, see photo below of chef, miss o and bridesmaid, miss m) and mr. t is eating some graham crackers at the table. we sure have fun! and it has been a wonderful arrangement that has helped out both of our families, since becky is able to work and i am able to help them while adding a little income to what i am still making from my teaching job (i'll get paid through the school district through the end of august!).

one last thing: if you could all be lifting tom and i up in your prayers as we look for a church home down here in vegas we would really appreciate it! we've checked out a couple, about four. we know that the Lord will lead us to where He wants us, a place to serve and be spiritually fed through a Bible believing pastor and church body. we are just asking for discernment, wisdom and opportunity to find that place! thank you!

hawaiian cobb

i am making hawaiian cobb salad for dinner tonight. i got most of the ideas for toppings from a similar salad i used to always order from anthony's homeport restaurant in bellingham. i got really into it so i even made up a little menu thing on the computer for tom, becky and chris to fill out so that i can make each an individual salad with beautiful presentation. yummy! their choices are (they can pick any/all):
Grilled chicken
Bacon bits
Hardboiled eggs

Tomatoes
Avocado
Mango
Grated carrots
Green onion

Blue cheese crumbles
Cheddar Jack crumbles

Homemade fresh basil vinaigrette
Homemade fresh basil raspberry vinaigrette
Other: circle one- ranch, Italian, French

Happy Independence Day!