5th Anniversary Getaway

This past weekend Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary.  Our good friends from church watched the girls for 2 nights and we just spent 48 hours enjoying each other's company.  It was great to be able to talk without interruption.  To be able to eat dinner without having to coerce a young child to eat hers or have to cut up someone's meat.  It was fantastic to watch TV without concern of content.  We put our cell phones down and just focused on each other (it helped that we forgot phone chargers so were on minimal use mode until we got home).

The best part of the entire weekend, though, was seeing my daughters' faces for the first time on Sunday.  Audrey running through the worship center to jump into my arms.  Annie grabbing my neck and giving me the biggest hug a 2 y/o could muster.  Hearing their stories and adventures.

Many thanks to John and Heidi for watching the girls for us.  We really appreciate it.

We went to Santa Cruz.  I've lived in the bay area for 10 years and have never been to Santa Cruz.  Amusement parks hold little interest for me, and the best times to go to SC are when it takes 3 hours to get there due to the insane traffic.  So I've just never been.  Our anniversary was a perfect excuse to go.  It was Friday, so there was little traffic and few people.  We could just enjoy the scenery and each other without chaos.

We stayed at a quaint bed and breakfast within walking distance of the touristy spots, without being in the touristy spots.  And we had opportunities to check out the local areas too since we walked quite a bit.

I took a few pictures.  I love the ocean; it just captivates me and all my attention.

This particular photo is a rare event.  Me and Josh together - alone.  I'm not proud of this photo from a technical standpoint.  The focus is wacky, the camera was too low, etc.  But I love it because it's a photo of my husband and me on our anniversary.

To see more photos from our trip, visit my flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/biochemtine/)

My Joshua

See this man right here to the left?  The goofy guy trying to juggle?  The one with the bald head?  Mouth wide open?  Oh .. and a ton of tattoos!?!?!?  

I love him.  He's pretty awesome.  And guess what - he loves me too.  :)

He is goofy.  He's super goofy.  That's part of his charm.  And part of what makes him a good dad.  He's also caring.  He genuinely cares for people and hurts when they hurt and laughs when they laugh.  And he's a godly man.  He loves God and is training his children up to love God too.

Today is our 4th anniversary.  Not many years.  But that's OK.  Cause ya gotta get through the single digits before you hit the double digits.  Someday we'll hit 40 or 50.  I'd love to hit 60, but don't know that we'll be around that long.  

I love you Joshua.  Happy Anniversary.

Yard Work ... ugh........

Hello three-day weekend.  The first weekend in awhile with no real plans.  My Diaper Party  got canceled and Josh only had his drum lessons.  We had the teenagers so we were looking forward to a great relaxing weekend at home.


6:30 Saturday morning Josh wakes up and hits "go" on the coffee.  He went outside to feed the dog. Where's the dog?  Umm ... she's not in her kennel.  She's not on the side yard.  She's not in the corner.  Sheila?  Hello!?!?!  He heard her.  Oh ... there she is.  UNDER THE DECK!!!  Keep in mind last summer the deck was redone and constructed in such a way that she wouldn't be able to dig under the deck again,




She used to crawl under the deck regularly, but was able to get herself out pretty easily because of the nature of the deck.  But this new deck was built lower, had better cement anchors, and was put together with construction adhesive and nails and was not coming apart easily.


We were not happy.  We figured she'd come out when she was hungry and let her be.  A couple hours had passed and she didn't come out.  She was truly stuck.  We dug out a little bit and managed to get her near the hole, but she still wasn't able to get out.  THREE hours later, lots of mud, deeper holes and some serious frustration, she was removed from the deck.


We found ourselves needing to fix things so she wouldn't do this again, because we can't spend 3 hours every other day getting her out.  We made our way to Home Depot and picked up some paving stones, 12"x12", so make an edge around the deck.  We hoped this would deter digging just enough.

And as long as we were dirty and at Home Depot, might as well have our annual yard work day.  This is our 4th summer in this house.  Each summer we've taken on one or more massive yard work project(s) in an attempt to make the yard prettier.  It's not working too well.  One summer we added pretty bark to the back corner that didn't grow anything.  The next summer we took the bark out and planted grass seed (the weeds were growing and it was impossible to keep clean).  One summer we took out the previous year's annuals from the front planter box and replaced the bark.  Last summer we removed a bunch of dumb bushes that just killed the grass.  This summer our project was to get rid of the weeds in the front planter box, replace the bark (again) and plant something.  We decided to do it right and lay down the fabric weed block stuff.  


Rip out the weeds (and let the neighbor lady play with the toddler)

Trim back the rose bush 

Lay down the weed-block and figure out placement for the new plants

Lay down the new bark

Let the toddler pick up what spills

yes, she's wearing knitted mittens

Whack the weeds that are growing in the sidewalk (and mow the grass)

And then stand back and bask in the satisfaction of a job well done.

The stones are vacation souvenirs from Pike's Peak (the big one on the left) and Crazy Horse Memorial 

Baby its HOT outside...........

When it's 95* outside it's well over 100* inside our house.  We have no A/C (not even a window unit), and not enough fans for our gigantic uninsulated room.  So after dinner the other night we went outside in the shade to play with a ball. What started as a simple game of catch between a father and his two daughters turned into a great summer memory.

It started out sweet and simple.  Audrey came up to her daddy and then would get sprayed.  See how curious she is?  Then the water starts moving toward her and she runs away.

Just when she was catching on, her loving big sister would drag her up to the sprinkler to get sprayed again, and then stand back and cheer her on.

Sunday Fun

What do you do with the boxes after you put the new bed together???


Make a clubhouse of course!

37 years ago...

God saw fit that this man be born. And I'm so happy he was.

Happy birthday Joshua. I love you.

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