2 presents and 2 big ol' kids

This is the story of 2 presents and a couple of big ol' kids.

When Eric and I were dating/engaged, we didn't get to see each other much. He was living in Seattle and working noon-10PM and I was living in Enumclaw (an hour away) and working 9-4:30. It was not an easy time for us. A couple of months before were married, Eric's cousin Pamela came back from a mission trip to Mexico. She brought us 2 finger puppets as a gift- a boy and a girl. Since we didn't get to see each other very much, she named the boy Eric and gave it to me and named the girl Paula and gave it to Eric. That way, we could carry each other with us at all times. I kept Eric in my purse in a special zippered pocket. This was present #1.

Present #2: Julianne and Zeke gave us a digital camera as a wedding present. They made sure to give it to us before the wedding so that we could take pictures on our honeymoon. We didn't have a camera, so it was the perfect gift.
Big ol' kids: My husband and I refuse to be boring grown-ups. Sometimes that causes us to do things that some might think are stupid or weird. We don't care. Hence, our honeymoon pictures. Most people would take pictures of scenery, have someone take pictures of the happy couple, etc. Not us. We took pictures of Eric all around Victoria. That's him above by a fountain outside some government building.


Here he is listening to a piper when we first got into town.


Here he is holding a Canadian flag outside of one of our favorite pubs in Victoria- Irish Times

We had so much fun taking pictures of Eric in Victoria that we continued the tradition once we got home.


Here he is watching the sunset with Paula from the lifeguard chair at Pritchard beach.



And here is the happy couple and their pet giraffe, Perry, nestled in amongst our nativity set at Christmas time.

Hooray for God for being able to have fun in life, and for a husband who doesn't stifle my child-like spirit!

Crazy Times and a God who Provides

What a crazy couple of weeks this has been! We went to Portland for the big Cascade reunion. They did a really great job putting that event together. If anyone missed it, next time, don't! Seriously-- it was great to see everybody and hear old groups sing together again and have chapel again. Then, my hubby had a crazy, CRAZY week at work. He worked almost 80 hours. Gross. Then on Friday, Rebecca came to visit us. We had a great time with our good friend! She got to stay all the way until Tuesday morning. It was so nice to get to spend some good quality time with her. We went to dinner, went shopping, took her to some of our favorite restraunts, read magazines, took naps in the shade, ate and hung out with the fam, went to the races, saw a fireworks show... it was great! (thanks for coming, friend!) I mean, we stayed with her when we went to Portland, but seriously-- she was so busy with the Cascade event that we didn't really get to see her much at all until we took her out to celebrate when it was all over. This week is going to be crazy again... Eric's sister is getting married on Saturday and Eric is in the wedding and I am doing the flowers. Tonight is the bachelor party, so Eric will be out late for that, and then he has to go do a job for work before he can come home. Then tomorrow is the rehearsal and dinner all the way out in Enumclaw. Then Friday I have a Dr. appointment, then I have to run into Seattle to pick up the flowers, then spend the rest of the day putting all of the arrangements together. Saturday is the wedding. It's hard for us to be so busy because we really are just so in love that we want to be together all the time, and a regular work day is quite enough apart-ness, thank you very much. But do you know what is great about God? He gives us just what we need. Yesterday for the 4th, Eric and I turned down all invitations and just stayed home together all day. We needed that so badly. I think the last time we did that was probably on our honeymoon. If it wasn't for that time together, I would have been crying when he left for the bachelor party tonight. But even though I would prefer to have him here, I was able to smile and sincerely say "have fun!" when he left. Having that time together yesterday will help us get through the rest of this week. God is so good to us. Hooray for God for meeting all of our needs and a lot of our wants!