July 4th x 3!

With so many to choose from and well, so many events and fun times that have been left behind, I thought I would grab a few celebration shots to represent each year! There are WAY too many for IN, so just chose a selected few :-) to share! Love fireworks!

July 4, 2013

July 4, 2014 Weekend

What a great job Lynette did in decorating!

Oh, the delicious food too ;-)

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Such a great time was had! Found myself reminiscing several times this year over last year's memories! 

July 4, 2015

We had a mid afternoon meal at Phil's BBQ with Tim's friend, Mark! It is by far the BEST restaurant we have ever come across for pulled pork! Believe me we have tried many.

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Happy Birthday to Me :-)

"Happy Birthday to Me."

 My husband is so good to me! Each and every day I feel more blessed than the day before! I love that he listens to even the smallest of things. Growing up, we always had a birthday cake or some other form of dessert of our choosing! It would be consumed by all, and all enjoyed. Since being away from home, desserts are a bit different with it just being the 2 of us. We prefer to not have tons of sweets sitting around waiting to be consumed, so on our birthdays for the last 2 birthdays, we would head to a delicious bakery/diner where on display would be TONS of options of delicious pies to choose from. We would each decide on what we wanted, buy a slice each and then sit to enjoy it together! I've loved it.This year though, for whatever reason I just wanted cake, my favorite chocolate with white frosting cake, and happened to mention it in conversation several days prior about craving it! To my surprise, Tim brought home just the cake I loved, and personalized for my birthday. I could have cried. After going out for dinner, we came home to this delicious dessert!

We certainly enjoyed this for a few days, but that was ok! It's not very often that we have it! 

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I thought I would share just a few of the items I received. Other gifts came in the mail afterwards, but don't have shots of them right now. 

I have been eyeing this at Michael's for awhile, with may things that it could be used for.

I thought it might be a cute option for transporting smaller crafty things home if I wanted or needed to work on a project, or had a shower to help decorate for! Love the quality and polka dots!

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Clear rubber stamps! YAY. 

I received some other clear rubber stamps and framelits from Mama too, which I have already so enjoyed! Thanks so much!.

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A small Gerber pocket knife.. This will be great to take camping!

It was a great day.

Today's the day :-)

Today is the day that I reach out and take on an opportunity that was given to me... 

One never grows without going out of their comfort zones, and as nervous as I am, I am willing to do just that! Life has so much to offer, but you will never know just what, if you aren't willing to go for it! I'm looking forward to first and foremost meeting up with my love in the "City of Love," and then taking on these countries we have chosen together! 

Here we come, Europe! 

The day before...

The DAY BEFORE has finally arrived.. 

I find that I'm nearly pinching myself when I think about the adventure I'm about to embark on...

Each passing moment brings on more of the nerves, but also pure excitement...For me, it's just crazy to think about. 

This WILL be a great adventure and a good learning experience for me! :-) Im frequently reminding myself of this... I have taken the advice of Rach to get a travel journal for this trip in particular. Growing up, I always had journals of sorts, more of ones that I shared between friends! I would have a notebook/journal for 1 week and give it up the next week! We wrote all that we wished to, whether about boy crushes we were having, "secret" conversations.. that clearly weren't that secret when written in a plain notebook, but ya know we thought they were! :-) I then felt really cool when I'd be able to get those lock and key journals, ya know the ones that you hardly needed the key to open the poor thing? Yea, those! So, I've had a few journals in my day.. and have in times past enjoyed opening them up to see just what was written back then.. what crushes or conversations were had with friends, whether in church or at camp.. Yup, I did that too. I fooled around in church :-/  I have a small notebook that primarily Tina and I had at Victory Grove Camp back in 2000/2001 when THE Montgomery family came into the picture for me :-) Yup, those were some good memories too, and I'm so glad to still have that notebook. They provide some good keepsakes. 

I have since then, the past several years, made digital entries off and on more of the fun times and activities that Tim and I have had so that we can look back and see just all that we have done together. For this trip though, after Rach mentioned about doing a journal, I thought a digital entry being saved in a file just might not cut it this time around. When I came across this travel journal with the magnetic cover.. I was sold! Just early this morning, I wrote my first entry.. and found it very fun and relaxing to do. Looking forward to capturing my thoughts, feelings and adventures over these next couple weeks in this "secure" magnetic journal. haha! I'm clearly not worried about the secure part. 

So, today I thought with things winding down... I needed some comfort food to get me through the day :-) Every gal needs her comfort food every once in a while! ;-) 

Pieology & 85 Degrees "Sea Salt Iced Coffee" it was! 

It was great! Ya, see.. I just found out about 85 Degrees less than 2 months ago, and if it weren't for being so invested in Starbucks with their Gold card and such... I probably would go to this coffee place a bit more! I guess for right now, I will just consider it a treat when I do have it :-)

And, no... I didnt have the full pizza in one setting. :-) I will have it in 2 though! ;-) It looks bigger than it really is.

So, now I better get back to finalizing the packing and binder with all itinerary, tickets, maps etc

and then finishing up the last minute laundry, mopping, vacuuming, scrubbing, and dusting, so that when we come back with little to no energy to do much.. we can just throw our things down, and not feel overwhelmed! 

I have this. 

Sunday Afternoon Coffee...

Making time to have a cup or two of coffee and chat with my love is quality time for me... The weekends especially are the perfect time for this to happen! 

So, today our conversations consisted of several topics, but one of them being about Europe. :-) During this time, excitement is in the air as we make preparations for a lifetime experience in my book, to Europe. Yup, we are making it happen this year, and I can hardly believe it! Having never been off this continent leaves much to my imagination of what I will experience, what sights I will take in, and all the stories I will bring back from this. I wouldn't be honest if I said that I didn't have any fears, but I know that with this great opportunity that, unfortunately not everyone will get to experience, will exceed and hopefully soften my fears I have. 

I have never been on a flight more than 5 1/2 hours and now will have to experience about an 11 hour flight one way. Sometimes, while here in San Diego, I feel like a minority due to the language barrier, but at least there are PLENTY of English speaking people around, still. It will be interesting when attempting to communicate within some of these countries we go to. Because so few people will be able to communicate with us at times, I guess I also struggle with "trusting" the people around us. We will be using several forms of transportation to get around too, which I am not use to.... Subways, trains, more flights, taxis, on foot.... I try to pretend I will just be traveling between the states here, but for some reason it just doesn't seem the same... I know that focusing on these fears will take away from my experience, so I'm trying hard to set those aside and make the best of everything. :-) I mean, it likely will be my once in a lifetime opportunity to go to Europe!

For so many reasons, it  makes sense to take advantage of this Europe trip next month! Our potential itinerary hasn't been fully planned out yet, but we are working on it... We will being going to Paris, France for sure, some possible cities in Spain (Madrid & Barcelona), Switzerland (Zurich & Murren) and Italy ( Venice & Naples)! 

It all kind of seems like a dream... a dream that will become reality soon!

:-) 

Sunday Afternoon Beauty...

I find when I ACTUALLY sit down to either blog or make a massive mess with my crafting supplies, it is medicine to my soul...but who has time to do this whenever they want to? Sometimes it's not always about the time, but the idea of actually making a mess or sorting through photos that I just dont feel up to sorting when I am so far behind with them anyways. I remind myself frequently though, that its not all about the mess etc, but surrounding yourself with things of interest that bring great pleasure, especially when it's been a tough week.. Sometimes, you just need to make a mess.. :-)

I plan on doing just that this weekend, while Tim dives in on some of his projects he's creating/working on.  I thought I would get a head start before Tim got home from work tonight with the blogging... I had intentions of posting Zoo pictures from a recent trip, but as I uploaded pictures, there was a folder with Sunday afternoon shots of when Ange & Steve were here in March... ( Yes, I still have all of the other ones to blog too at some point... Don't remind me. :-) ) and thought that I would start with these, as I love capturing the beauty of the ocean with my own eyes and my camera happy self:-) I chose a few to share!

We love going down to the ocean (not frequent enough) taking in the the sights and sounds of the ocean. Watching the waves crash up over the rocks with such force at times, feeling the mist, looking for crabs etc just brings great peace and joy anytime we go! Ange loves being near the water and finds that she would do it more often if she had that opportunity. We hadn't taken them to see the ocean or this specific beach yet this trip, and they wanted to go, so we thought this would be the perfect Sunday afternoon activity while they were here. 

Ange enjoying herself..:-)

....Just as much as we were too.. 

Having one of my sisters out here to visit was such a special time for me.. and it was far too difficult that same night to see her/Steve head home...

After we were finished at Ocean beach, we thought it would be neat for them to experience the "Sunset cliffs" attraction that happens each night, before leaving. Without fail, each night vehicles pile in along the cliffs  to watch the sunset and as soon as it's over, they all leave. The thing is, we ended up getting there about an hour early... and had toiled with the idea of just heading back to our place to fix something to eat before they left. We ultimately did just that, but got distracted in the meantime with THIS... 

There were 2 young guys that seemed to be at a special someone's home waiting for 2 special ladies to arrive to surprise them. It was soo funny watching them for the next hour... Putting out the banners, pacing back and forth from being inside to checking for the girls outside. We watched them pick up their bouquets of flowers and carry them around, put them back down, go over to their banners and figure out how to pose for when they arrived etc.  This happened for 1 hour at least!! Ange and I sat chatting in the car about how we had to give them credit for trying and being creative about it... as not everyone would do that! I would have preferred being asked personally, if it were me... (it wasn't though nor did I even go to my prom.)  In the end, I actually think they missed the pose or seeing them come down the sidewalk and all... as they were probably too nervous inside. I'm pretty sure they both said yes though, as they giggled and screeched with delight. It was interesting to hear/see walkers pass by interpreting these banners and their comments they had for them.  I think I would have hated to be Lauren... :-) Thats pretty terrible to be known for or have something like that written, even if it were a joke of sorts.. 

Watching everything unfold, brought us to the beautiful sunset we went there to see.

This day tied together the great week we had together. It always seems to go too quickly.

He's a Keeper!

If only I could express how blessed I am as a woman to be married to this man... :-) It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone, but let me tell you..... each day has been filled with so much joy, laughter, and love! I realize more everyday just what a gem I have been given! 

I look forward to many more years of growing closer, learning together, dreaming and living life's dreams, and loving each other. <3 Life is truly a blessing when shared with him.

So, one would think that we would bring our cameras to capture our 2nd Anniversary date, but neither of us did. :-( I always bring my phone wherever I go, and sometimes seem more attached to it than need be, so I even left that home this time too, in order to take in each moment of our time together. :-) I say all this to say, these pictures were NOT taken on our date. The above shot was taken at Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Bill's house the previous weekend, and the ones below were swiped from the restaurant's website... shhhhh! :-) The thing is, it was in the evening anyways, and I'm afraid our attempts at capturing the beauty wouldn't measure up to these. This way, we also didnt have to have "random" people in our shots either. :-) 

Reservations were made for the evening and I was taken to a beautiful restaurant on Harbor Island overlooking the WHOLE city. What breathtaking views we took in...and to be out on the waters' edge. 

We had such a great time celebrating our 2 years together. :-)

Such fun...

:-) :-) :-)

It has been a dream to have a 2nd room for our project room, and now we HAVE it :-)

We spend so much of our time in the evenings in here working on our hobbies! I decided to share some of these shots again all because of a NEW item I got last weekend, which helps tie it together!

I know Leah & I have chatted about storage cubes and finding just the right ones for my corner! I've gone back and forth between green, orange, or green & orange! I really would have preferred originally to alternate the colors with the cubes to tie in the photo, but I was having a hard time even finding the right shades (or something similar) that I felt I could deal with. I know they say that it isnt necessary to have the SAME color, but different hues of that color.. Most of the cubes in green were more of a true green and that's not at all what I wanted. I would read reviews of products I thought might be what I was looking for and even in reviews they were warning about the color difference, so I thought maybe orange would be a safer bet seeing I already had a few "hues of green." :-)

I love these orange storage cubes! They are very sturdy, have nice handles and also lids to help hide even the slightest of items! I have sense been working on trying to organize all of my items... thus the reason for a "not so updated shot!" :-) Between organizing and actually crafting.. well, you know ;-)

Now THIS has also played into my fun moments in my craft corner! I have been eyeing this Sizzix machine for some time now, and hoped to be able to get one soon! Some of my family gave me gift cards to put towards this at Christmas! I have since been watching the sales and was able to take advantage of a GREAT one! I'm telling you, they didn't play their marketing games right on this one! I would have thought they were smarter than myself, but I seemed to play the game just right! Makes it that much more worthwhile! :-)

Several of you helped contribute to my Sizzix wants this year and so I received  some pretty fun gifts! Not at all saying that all my other gifts weren't fun, either! I loved all of them:-) 

I have been trying to figure out how best to organize them all, and not have all these smaller plastic cases that all the individual pieces would just get thrown into and then have to fish out when needed. I went to pinterest and watched you tube videos on certain products and was able to get some great ideas! I purchased a "We Are Memory Keepers" Binder ( thanks to Becky's gift card :-)  ), as most of the fillers for the binders and sizes Id need for my embossing folders, framelits etc were recommending 12''x12''s! Standard binders are NOT anywhere's close to that! Actually the binders that seem to fit the 12''x12''s are more the size of 15'' x 13'', so its more of a specialty binder! :-) (I know you all know this too...)

 I ultimately need to get some other specific sizes of protective sheets for my other larger embossing folders etc, but this is a start ":-)

This was one of the you tube/ pinterest ideas for my Sizzix framelits! 

This has been an absolute lifesaver and I find it provides for some neat organization too!!

VENT COVERS at home depot for less than $5.00!!! 

I know none of you are into sizzix items, but if ever you need some magnetic force with some larger area, keep these in mind! They work wonders, and after slipping them into a filler protective page.. it adds that much more protection and organization!

Looking forward to growing my collection of sizzix products and expanding my creativity, as I learn more about this machine and all that it can do!! :-)