What a great weekend...

Brandon & I had one of the best weekends in 2011. It was so great! We spent so much time together having fun. We didn't take a trip or do anything outrageously exciting, but it was wonderful. :) We went shopping at various stores, ate delicious meals together, took naps, watched movies and drove around alot in the car together. We held hands & flirted all weekend... like we were brand new at dating again. So much fun... :)

Here are some pics from the weekend...





We also used our new air conditioner for the 1st time last night. It's great!



Click on the link below to see all of the pics. :) Some of them are silly!

Fun Weekend

County Fair

Brandon's family & I drove up to Longview to meet him after work Thursday evening for the first night of the Cowlitz County Fair. It was pretty small, but it had a few rides and attractions. We got to walk through the livestock exhibits. It's fun to watch Ethan look at the animals. He's 2.5 years old & very cute!

When we were looking at the rabbits, Brandon's dad put his hat on Ethan's head and the silliness ensued. :) Very cute!


Mohit and Ethan rode the Super Slide together. I took a video, but I'm not sure I can attach it to the blog. You can see it in the slideshow at the bottom of this post. Here are some pics before and after. Ethan was very brave!



Then, Brandon's dad & sis took swings at the strength tester & won inflated hammers. They had a fun time hitting each other in the head with those. Ha,ha. :)




After the fair, Brandon took me to see his new office building at the college. It's great!


Click on the link below to see all of the fair pictures.

County Fair

Have a good weekend! Love from Washington...

How did I get so old???

Today I am 37. I can't believe it. I have vivid memories of junior high and high school, even some from elementary school. Is it possible that I graduated from high school over 19 years ago? Time seems to fly these days.

Last night, I met Brandon for dinner at Red Robin. :) I got a free hamburger and sundae for my birthday. As I was driving home, I was listening to the 80's station on my Sirius radio. I was very glad to hear Journey sing "Open Arms" from 1982. Then, one of my favorite 80's songs came on... "Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister. Outloud I said, "YES!" and sort of laughed to myself. That song takes me back to 6th grade, in the Spring of 1986, when I used to spend the night with my friend Wendy Slaydon. Wendy had a 45 record of "Broken Wings". Ohhhh yes... we used to sit in her room and listen to records. Wendy and I ended up being roommates in the dorm at UT in 1992. Time really flies.

I don't know where the time goes, but I have been blessed with good friends and family and lots of happy memories. :) Love you all!

Mount St. Helens

Brandon and I drove to Mount St. Helens Saturday. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and drive. It took us almost 2 hours to get there. On the way, we stopped at a family restaurant for lunch. It was really good! I have some pictures in the slide show at the bottom of this post.

We see Mt. St. Helens from a distance all the time... from Portland, from B's parents house, etc. But, it was so amazing to get close to it and learn about the history of the volcano.

This picture is from the internet. This is a picture of Mt. St. Helens before the eruption in 1980.


This is what it looked like 4 months after the explosion. The blast & mudslides killed the trees and vegetation. It wiped out bridges and roads for miles. The devastation was unbelievable.


It's easy to see the terrain that was damaged by the blast and the terrain that wasn't. As we drove toward the volcano, everything was green. Then, everything became barren, with only dead tree stumps and rotten, downed trees. I took this picture as we were driving toward Johnston Ridge.



Mount St. Helens is so beautiful. It still has snow on it. I took this picture from the Johnston Ridge Observatory.


Here is interesting info about Johnston Ridge. It is named after the scientist who died there.

The Johnston Ridge Observatory sits on a bluff just 5-1/2 miles from the crater at an elevation of 4,314'/1,327m and offers grand views of Mount St. Helens and much of the 1980 blast zone. This visitor center is the closest you can get to the mountain by car when driving in from the west and is located 53 miles east of the town of Castle Rock at the end of State Route 504.

Here you can enjoy spectacular views of the lava dome, crater, pumice plain and the landslide deposit.

A wide-screen theater presentation and interpretive displays depict the sequence of geologic events that changed the landscape. The video is a "must see". Be sure to stay for the curtain finale!

We watched a short film about Mount St. Helens in a medium-sized theater. At the end of the film, the screen went up and they raised the curtain to expose a wall of windows facing Mt. St. Helens. It was breathtaking! Very nice touch...


There are pretty purple and red flowers blooming right now. It was such a beautiful day. I think the temperature was 80 degrees with a strong, cool breeze blowing.




The Sunshine Rays! :)


On the way home, we stopped at another local restaurant for dessert. The restaurant was one of the only ones on the road to Mt. St. Helens. They had a sign in front advertising riverside dining and homemade cobblers. Yum! We got a cherry/peach cobbler. It sounds weird, but it was delicious. Also, I drank the best sweat tea I've ever had in my life. And Brandon got a stawberry lemonade. He said that was the best staw/lem he'd ever had! :) We scored! Ha,ha...


It was a great day. Click on the link below to see all of our pics! :)

Mount St. Helens

Sweet Ray...

I was going through some of my photo files and came across these. My honey is so super-sweet. I think you can tell by his sweet smile and the twinkle in his eyes. I love my Ray. :) That's what I call him most of the time... just "Ray". And sometimes "Ray-Ray." :)



He has never liked the pictures with our winter hats on. I think they are cute! It was New Years' Eve and we were hiking. I have pics from that trip in an old post. We went to Silver Falls and hiked in the beautiful, winter wonderland. It was a special day! I love those pics!


My chubby-cheeked angel... If you think I don't squeeze 'em sometimes, you're mistaken. ;-) Love 'em!


I have a little song I made up that I sing to him all the time. A couple of nights ago, we were up late & Brandon was working on papers & a project for his masters class. All of a sudden, I started singing his song. I said, "Wow, I haven't sung that in a while." And he said, "I know. I was thinking that on the way to work this morning." I thought he was teasing me. I said, "Really? You were actually thinking about me singing your song?" And he said, "Yeah, I was thinking how sad I would be if you weren't around." :) That made me feel special!


I wrote this on the dry erase board at his old office building one night when we were there alone. Brandon was wrapping up some things and was in and out of his office. We had been there for about 30 minutes when he finally passed the dry erase board. He burst out laughing and said, "When did you write this, silly girl?!" :) Love my boy!

Last night, we were laughing & talking before we went to sleep. As I turned out the light, Brandon said, "I don't know how we found each other." And I said, "It's 'cuz the fax machine didn't work, Baby!" :)

Heat dome

I just read these articles on Yahoo news:

http://news.yahoo.com/heat-dome-traps-much-us-pressure-cooker-093241732.html

http://news.yahoo.com/heat-wave-wintry-states-wish-december-083604332.html

We don't have cable tv, so I haven't seen weather forecasts for the nation. However, my mom keeps me informed. Also, on my iPhone, I check the weather app every morning for Camas, WA (where we are), Huntsville, TX (my parents) and Raleigh, NC (where Candice lives). I know it's been hot.

My parents say that the Pacific Northwest is the only portion of the country that hasn't been affected by the "heat dome". I'm thankful for that because we don't have central air conditioning. Brandon bought a really neat portable air conditioner for our bedroom, but we haven't really needed it yet. It's only been 80 degrees 2 or 3 times this year. And when the sun goes down, the temps drop and the house cools down.

Every morning when I wake up, our lows are between 53 and 56 degrees. I have one of those indoor/outdoor thermometers on my nightstand. I like knowing the temp! :) We sleep with the windows open upstairs. In fact, we leave the upstairs windows open all the time. I usually have the downstairs windows open during the day.

Brandon & I sat on our patio/deck one evening this week and I sat out there a little while this evening. I told him, "I love this weather! This is like November in Texas." He knows this is true because he lived in Texas from 1996-2004. He also lived in San Antonio when he was a child when his dad was stationed at the Air Force base there. So, he appreciates the nice weather like I do! :)

I went to downtown Portland today to have my hair highlighted & cut. I walked around a little and ate lunch. Our high today was 70. I think the high yesterday was 64 degrees here. It's wonderful! In fact, as I type this, there's a cool breeze blowing through the house and I've been cold most of the day.


Never fear... the next time I wash it, it will be curly again. It's just nice like this for a change.


My stylist always fixes my hair straight (like my great, longterm stylist Shannon in Texas did). I LOVE my new stylist! I am so thankful that I've found someone good up here. Melissa did my hair for the 1st time before I flew home for the wedding. She is a great girl. She's super-sweet and her parents are the pastors at the church where Brandon's parents have gone for years. And I LOVE the salon in Portland. It has a great atmosphere. I really enjoy going. It has a spa-like environment and they really pamper you.

Hope you all are staying cool... Love from Washington State :)

Another dish

This is turning into a cooking blog, I guess! :) I made another new recipe today. Brandon likes chicken pot pies and shepherd's pies. I am blessed to have a husband that will eat anything. But he seems to like home-cooking, comfort foods especially.

In my healthy cookbook, I have a recipe for Homemade Turkey Pot Pie. So, I decided to try it today. We will have it for dinner. It looks delicious!

Here is the pot of the filling...


My crust looks a little pitiful, but I think it will be deelish!



I forgot to take a picture of the pre-cooked pie until after it was in the oven.


Here it is!

Wok on over here...

Do you remember the Asian chef who used to cook on PBS? Maybe he still does, who knows. He used to wear aprons with funny "Wok" phrases on it. I have ALWAYS wanted a wok! I bought one with our Kohl's wedding giftcards. Thank you for my wok, friends! :)

I have a recipe in my healthy cookbook for chicken stir fry. It turned out really good and delicious. I have made the healthy orange chicken recipe for Brandon in the past. He really likes orange chicken and cashew chicken when we go to Asian restaurants.

Anyways, I made the homemade orange sauce and then I started wok-ing everything else, one thing at a time. I love carrots and broccoli, so I added more than the recipe called for. YUM!

Just the veggies...


With the chicken and sauce...


At the end, I asked Brandon if he wanted me to throw in some cashews and he said sure! Here is the masterpiece:

Not much to report

Things have been pretty low-key this week. I have a few random pics to post.

It's hard to see, but there is a rainbow between the pine trees. I was following Brandon home from a restaurant Wednesday evening. It was so pretty, but the iPhone camera didn't do it justice. If you click to enlarge and then click again to zoom, you can see it.


Brandon & his dad have mostly finished the rock project. The next step is to buy & plant the landscaping for the new flowerbed.


I made some DEELISHous chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies this week. We don't need them, but they are good! :)


Brandon & I went on a date last night in Portland & Clackamas. We ate dinner at my favorite mexican restaurant. It was sooo good. On the way to Portland, I snapped this pic of a jet/airplane flying over us. The 205 bridge crosses the Columbia River. If you look to the left you see Mt. Hood and if you look to the right you can see the airport. My family loves looking at jets! (We call them "jets" even though most people call them "planes"). To each his own! :)


The last pic is of my pretty hutch at night. I didn't realize until about a week ago that it lights up! :) Brandon was talking about how much he likes our new furniture tonight. He said the furniture is amazing and our house is "transformed." That was nice to hear, since he mainly got the furniture for me. :) I'm glad he likes it. The house DOES look totally different. I am thankful for a loving, giving husband. We are blessed. :) Thank you, Lord!

Dinner with my honey

Last night was the first time we ate dinner on our new dining room table. I made marinated pork fillets & seasoned rice with low-fat, buttermilk cornbread muffins. It was good! Tonight, I tried another new recipe from my healthy cookbook. It turned out great! My honey was very complimentary. :)

Before we topped it with parmesan...




Cookbook picture...


My picture! :)