Tag Archives: Fun

Getting Snowed In!

Good morning!

I am not sure if you know this, but a good portion of the Pacific Northwest was snowed in this past weekend. Snow, in and of itself here is quite the novelty because it happens so rarely, and when it does it never lasts more than 24 hours at a time. Not this time however! YEAH!

1Our city was having such a difficult time keeping up with the snow coming in and clearing the roads that they put a ban on driving unless you had chains or studded tires, which we have neither. So we decided that it would be fun to go for a walk and see what was going on outside, and boy am I glad we did! 🙂

2Everything was just covered, and it somehow made everything extra especially beautiful! 🙂

3My sweetie and I instantly reverted back to our five-year-old selves and couldn’t help but play in the snow.

4Unfortunately the snow was very powdery and would not form a snowball if our lives depended on it, but we still managed to end up COVERED in snow!! 🙂

5

6Snow angels anyone???

7This snow was so deep and soft that when I fell back to start my snow angel it literally felt like a cold pillow – it was AWESOME!! I couldn’t get Jason to join me – he has such a hard time getting warmed up after being cold that he wasn’t willing to risk it!!

8This is a view of the creek by our place! 🙂

9It was so quiet out here, besides the random car that would come by maybe once every 5 or 10 minutes, it was just so peaceful to listed to the wind, and the creek burble by as the snow just continued to fall.

10

11

12I think I love the snow covered trees the best! 🙂

13This weekend actually saw two snow storms come through, one right after the other. This walk and all of these pictures were taken after snow storm number 1, so it even got much MUCH deeper than this the very next day!!! 🙂

14

15To keep warm, Jason and I had to put an obnoxious amounts of layers on, as neither one of us have proper snow attire!

16I am not sure how many layers Jason had, but in this picture I am wearing, leggings,  jeans (ones that are 5 sizes too large), a belt to hold all of this up, a tank top, t-shirt, long pajamas, sweater, jacket, scarf, another jacket (again 5 sizes too large), winter socks, galoshes, and two pairs of gloves! I felt a little like the kid on the Christmas Story – heaven forbid if I should fall down – I would NEVER have been able to get back up without some serious help!! 🙂

17Catching the falling snow on my tongue! (NO, not pulling a Miley!!) 😉

18Jason was getting some much needed movement, AKA running, in the snow! Between the two of us, he was the one who was getting the most stir-crazy!! There were moments I thought he was going to just pop right out of his skin!! Me being a homebody, I was in COMPLETE HEAVEN!!! 🙂

19Don’t we look happy???

We were pretty much not allowed to drive all weekend, which equaled 3 days in total, so we made due by trying to do as many fun activities as possible. We played Phase 10, Yahtzee, read books, competed against each other on Wii Sports, caught up on some Hulu, raced to see who could put an extremely colorful 500 piece puzzle together fastest, baked some goodies, made a big pot of chili – my sweetie’s favorite! I took a short nap – which is something that I NEVER get to do!! 🙂

All in all, this was a pretty AMAZING weekend, one that I am sure will not happen again for quite some time – the last weekend like that for us was in 2008, so I am going to have to revisit these pictures often and just remember what an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT stay-at-home weekend this was! 🙂

Here is to looking for the MAGICAL MOMENTS in every day life! 🙂

Signature Line

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

A Splash Bash Kind of Sunday!

Good evening!

WARNING: this is going to be a photo-centric post. OK, you have been forewarned!!! 😉

Today was our church’s annual Splash Bash, which by the way, just happened to be my sweetie and my first, Splash Bash!! and let me tell you…it was

SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!

So what is a Splash Bash? Well, it is a community get together at our church, where there are 5 large water features brought in for the afternoon. Then everyone in the community is invited to join us for some Summertime fun, getting wet, having a delicious dinner and some yummy desserts, spend some time getting to know each other, and generally just have a CRAZY-ZANY DAY OF FUN!!! 😉

The weather today wasn’t as hot as it has been this past week, which would have normally been a downer, but it turned out to be really quite a great day for our water-filled day!!! It was overcast, which meant it was not too hot to be outside, and there weren’t any sunburns to be had -YEAH!!

So, I took so many pictures of today, and really am excited to be able to share them with you, so let’s get this party started!!! 😉

There were these 5 AMAZING blow-up features that were brought in for the afternoon! 3 of them were water features and 2 were regular blow-up type rides, where kids could climb, slide, jump, and play!

 

I did not get wet today – being a “Dry Girl”, and wanting to take pictures – I knew that getting wet was not going to be feasible without ruining my camera! Seeing this ride kinda made me second guess my decision to stay dry!!

You had to run, jump, slide, splash, and try not to fly off the end of the slide!!! That appeared easy for most of the people that were playing on this slide, however, when it came to the big guys playing on the slide – they really had some difficulty stopping and would occasionally go flying off the end!! There were between 3 and 5 adults standing at the end of the slide to try and “catch” the men before they went flying! It was quite funny for all of us bystanders!!! 😉

 

Jason patiently waiting, and wet, in line for his turn! 😉

There was no falling gracefully when it came to this slide!! It was also funny, because when a larger person jumped down the left-hand-side, and a small person was waiting on the right hand side for his turn to go up – the right hand side person sometimes got catapulted into the air! Kind of two rides in one, if you ask me!! 😉

Here is Jason and Bethany, trying to stop Zach from flying off the end of the slide!! Beware if you should happen to be standing behind this group because they splash created when the slider hit the wall was HUGE, and you were almost guaranteed to get wet!!! Lesson learned the hard way! 😉

See what I mean? This was Jason and his splash!! 😉

 

Here is the fearless BoobieJo!

She really impressed me with her ability to fly down this slide!! She had the most graceful slide out of most anyone who slid down this thing!! At least she was able to stay right side up!!! YOU GO MISS BOBBIEJO!!! 😉

 

They also served dinner, and afterward had a HUGE buffet of pot luck desserts!! It was soooo hard to behave myself and enjoy a treat in moderation!! Thankfully Jason was there, and was able to help me keep my dessert intake into perspective!! Thank you, Love! I couldn’t do it without your help! 😉

If the awesome rides were not enough, they even had these cool water shooters that, of course, my sweetie found and quickly proceeded to get into a water fight with these really little kids, who just thought he was the coolest adult every!!!

 

Jason even jokingly started to refer to this cute little guy as his “arch-nemesis”, and would feign pain and fear whenever this little cutie was able to figure out how to work his water shooter!! LOL!!! Jason is the cutest oversized ‘4-year-old’ that you have ever seen!!! 😉

 

Then the calvary AKA, Zach, came in to save the little kiddos! and Jason and him spent the next half an hour or so hiding amongst the large rides, and trying to ambush each other and douse the other with cold water!! I apologize to any innocent bystanders who may have been harmed in this afternoon of fun! I try to keep him check, but alas, there are times when he has the uncanny ability to just run amok!! 😉

This is the face of a man who knows when he has been beat!! LOL!!! 😉

 

and of course, just to prove that I was really there, I decided to slip this little pic in to the mix!! 😉

It really was a great day, and maybe, just maybe, next year I may even convert and become a ‘get wet girl’ instead of ‘dry girl’, but I am NOT going to make any promises!!! With that said, we are both pleasantly tired and ready to have a nice quiet evening at home!!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

 If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

My First Visit to Benihanas!

Good evening!

Today my sweetie and I got the opportunity to go up to Beaverton and spend some time with our family from up north! We met up with my aunt Alice, my Aunt Flo, and her sweetie, Ryan!! I was sooooo excited, because I knew we were going to have such a GREAT time!! We ALWAYS do!!

Anyway, a couple of months ago, I had contacted the aunts and asked if we could make a date to get together, it had been much too long. My aunt Alice suggested that we all get together at the Benihana’s up in Beaverton. Neither Flo nor I had ever been there, so of course we jumped at the chance, and today was the day of our get-together!!

After we all met up at Benihana’s , the hostess took us to our table which was dining room table height, and it was was built around a gigantic grill. Still not really knowing what to expect, we all sat down, ordered what we wanted and did a little visiting before our chef appeared.

Our chef’s name was Felix, and right from the get-go, I knew that Felix was going to be a character!! He had a hysterical laugh, some of the corniest jokes, was super charming, and he made our experience SO MUCH FUN!!! – OH, and did I mention he liked to sing??? Well, he did!! and he made sure to serenade us throughout the entire experience, it truly was SO MEMORABLE!!!

Here is a YouTube clip of our Felix in action:

Not only that, but the food that he prepared was SOOOOO DELICIOUS!! SERIOUSLY!! I had the chicken yakisoba, which I have to admit may have been the best yakisoba I had ever eaten. That came with grilled mixed vegetables, that had this AMAZING ginger sauce – YUM!!! Vegetable fried rice, which was PERFECTION! and a side salad with a ginger salad dressing, which was so good that Jason and I bought an order of just the dressing to make sure we had some in our fridge for our salads at home!!!

Jason and I got there knowing we were going to have a good time, and we really did!! I just love hanging out with my family, and add that to trying something new, like Benihana’s , it added up to a day of sweet bliss!! I just ADORE Saturdays like this!!!

It might have also helped that Benihana’s is located right next to a Nordstrom Rack! I had never been to one before so, after we all said our goodbyes, my sweetie and I went over there “Just to look around”. YEAH RIGHT??? I ended up leaving with two pairs of THE CUTEST shoes you have EVER seen, two cardigans both with uber-feminine details, and 3 decorative headbands, which you have to know I am just a SUCKER for!!! (I will share pics of these treasure tomorrow!!)

God bless Jason, he insisted on carrying everything, including my purse throughout the store, and was super patient and even gave me style advice for anything I looked at! Let’s just say, he earned HUGE, HUGE, H-U-G-E brownie points there!! Thank you, Honey, I really appreciate you!!! 😉

Well, that is all for now, I will leave you to go get ready for an early night to bed!

Here’s to a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

“If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!”

A Cute Surprise!

Good evening!
I got home this evening, and Jason told me that he could hear murmuring coming from under the Christmas tree, so on further inspection this is what I saw…

Closer…

Do you see what I see?

Isn’t that too cute???

You see, I collect Santas and usually they come from my sisters every year. This is a tradition that my mom started in 1997, 2 years before she passed away. Well, apparently Jason has been Mr. Sneaky and has gotten me one this year too. I can’t wait to see what he looks like, but apparently Santa is going to be sitting, er-uh, standing under my tree all season! It is a really good thing that Christmas is coming soon. I am just too antsy to want to wait to open my presents!! 😉

I am off to go spend some time with Mr. Sneaky!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

 

Another Short & Sweet Post!

Good evening!

I am going to keep this post short this evening! My sweetie and I have just gotten back from the play The Underpants, put on by the Pentacle Theater. It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! and we had an ABSOLUTE MARVELOUS TIME!!!

While I go off to dream about the amazing fun and laughter that Jason and I have shared tonight, here are some pictures from this play!

If you ever get the chance to get out to this little theater, I would highly recommend it!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

He’s Still Got It!

Good evening!

Jason and I had some lovely visitors yesterday while we were having our garage sale, and I had just happened to capture a few of the cutest pics that I wanted to share with you.

This is my nephew Morgan, and my niece Megan. I really miss these two cuties – we haven’t spent too much time together recently – their family has been SUPER-BUSY!! 😉

Here is our nephew, John. I took 5 pictures of him, and he was frozen like a statue – EVERY single picture was IDENTICAL!! TOO FUNNY!! 😉

This is our adopted free-spirited little sister, Cicily!! She is taking a break from helping with our garage sale to enjoy some rare Oregon sun.

Now, when these two get with their Uncle Jay-Jay hilarity ensues!! What you can’t see is that Uncle Jay-Jay is tickling them!! 😉

and here is little Miss Megan acting shy peeking out behind her mamma!! I definitely need to get some Auntie Time scheduled!! We need to go get some serious pampering time in!!!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures! Even though their visit was short, we made a swim date to get together again on Tuesday – I REALLY can’t wait!!! 😉

Until tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

The Best Kind of Naked Sunday!

Good afternoon!

I have had the BEST kind of naked Sunday ever!! One hanging out and playing with my sweetie, Jason!! We have spent the day so far, cooking, reading, writing, playing in the pool, and pretty much just having a PHENOMENAL day!! 😉

This evening, we are planning on having a special, healthy, grilled dinner that we are going to make together. He is begging to have a Eureka marathon – the tv show? I may have to give in, eventually! 😉 and I may give him the satisfaction of kicking my booty at a game of chess tonight – that is usually how that goes, and then I wipe him out at Bananagrams…well ok, almost. 😉

My goal is to practice extreme-self-care today: Eating healthy, exercise, rest, relaxation, play, and to bed on time, all the while enjoying some quality time with my sweetie!! THAT is my definition of the BEST kind of naked Sunday!! 😉

AND, Have I told you that I have my first intermediate belly dancing class tomorrow evening? I have officially graduated my beginner’s class and will be in this class for at least the next 8 weeks. I can’t wait!! I will keep you posted! 🙂

Well, I am getting back to my sweetie and our day!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Fearless!

Good evening!
I thought the word “Fearless” would be an appropriate term for this evening!! I just got done with my belly dancing class, and I am feeling TERRIFIC!!! Tonight was the last class of a three month session, and we are now off for a 3 week span until the next round of classes start. That is a little bummy, but I MUST tell you, that I just CAN NOT BELIEVE that I DID IT!!!

pssst…Let me divulge a HUGE secret to you right now, I am a 320 pound woman, and I am

BELLY DANCING!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!?!?!

I still have to pinch myself to make sure that I am ACTUALLY living my life and not just dreaming all of this!

Within the past 3 months, I have found a confidence that I NEVER thought possible, and NOW I REALIZE NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!! My momma was right, I CAN do anything I put my mind to, if I am willing to do the work to earn it!! Man, she was ONE SMART COOKIE!! It is too bad that it took me 35 years to learn that she was telling me the ABSOLUTE truth!!

Something happens to me when I am dancing! Time flies, I feel like a child again, and even though I am sweating and starting to get sore, I push through because I am having such a FUN TIME, and for one brief moment, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and say, “WHO IS THAT WOMAN? I WANT TO BE HER!!! and I look again, and realize IT IS ME!!! LOL! 🙂 THAT, my friends, is called GROWTH!!

I think I realize that THE KEY, for me is to find the FUN IN FITNESS!! Dancing, swimming, hula hooping, skating, bike riding! These are the things that I NEED to be doing to get healthy, but not doing them to get healthy, but just for the act of bringing more fun into my life – fitness will come, if I can play in this kind of way!

So, for now, my word is FEARLESS! I can do it! I just have to be FEARLESS to take that first step, EVERY SINGLE DAY!! FEARLESS!! I can do it, and I know that you can too!!!

Something to think about: What is something that you can do to add a little more FUN back into your life???

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

Megan’s Last Soccer Game of the Season!

Good evening!

This weekend we got the opportunity to watch Megan’s last soccer game of the season!!

Here is “Coach Lynette” AKA our sis!! and I just love that in this pictured John and Christopher are wrestling in the background – I hadn’t realized that when I took this picture!! LOL! 😉

This is how we found Morgan, hanging out with Michael, taking pictures – just like Michael!! HOW SWEET!! 😉

Here is my sister, Trina, watching the game!!

 

Trina let me do her hair that morning, and she even liked it enough to wear it for the day!!!! I LOVE BRAIDING HER HAIR!!! 😉

 

Go Pink Panthers!!

Megan’s tongue out is for balance!! She is very AERODYNAMIC!! 😉

Jason and Trina watching the game!

“Hey coach, my shoe keeps coming untied!!” 😉

“Michael, let me help you “Fix” your hat! Can you see now??”

Here are the ‘boys’ playing to get a wooden egg that Uncle Jason has under his foot!

I know it is hard to tell in this picture, but Uncle Jay-Jay is actually spinning Morgan all the way around!!! WATCH OUT CHRIS!!! 😉

This is what the kids call “Tunnel”! Whenever you finish a game, the adults make a tunnel with their hands and the kids run through while everyone is whoo-hoo-ing!! I think the next day I have a bad day at work, I am going to request a tunnel too! That will cheer ANYONE up!! 😉

Here is the entire Pink Panther team!!

Megan and her Uncle Jay-Jay!

Jason and his sis, Nette!! Aren’t they cute?

Here is Megan after her awards ceremony! She won the “Dazzling Defender” medal!! and she is A DAZZLING DEFENDER!! I am just so proud of her – it is always amazing to me to see these pictures of her and realize just how grown up she is getting!!!

Well, I have waaaay more pics of our time together – her soccer game was just the beginning, however it is getting late, so I have decided to share some more of our pictures tomorrow!!

Until then…

Have a FABULOUS evening!

SLUMBER PARTY!

Good evening!

I would LOVE to write this evening, but my sweetie, Jason, my youngest sister, Trina, and my niece, Megan, are all in the middle of a very happening slumber party, and I just can’t stop the party now!!

I have take a TON of pics today, and I am sure that I will have more tomorrow, but they will all have to wait until tomorrow!!

I am soooo blessed! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!