Just was playing with some editing tools and loved how this picture of brother and Laura turned out. It looks like it could be my mom and dad in the 70's...especially if you could see the beard on Z's face!

Similarities and Differences

Tonight was rather bittersweet. We said goodbye to our dear friends Laura and Justin Sleasman. They are moving to the Bay Area on their fabulous adventure!! They both got jobs with some small companies you probably haven't ever heard of....Stanford University and NASA? Impressive!!

The girls all gathered at Diggy's for some bonding, and the boys gathered at Drew and Emily's. In talking about the night with Nick after I got home, here were some of the similarities and differences in the two gatherings:

Differences: girls had a candle pass, boys played Dart Golf. Some of the girls dreamed of puppies, the boys party included dogs that were humping their legs.

Similarities: lots of yummy food, they ended at about the same time (Nick and I got home within about 5 minutes of each other!), lots of laughs, and lots of love for the Sleasmans!

You will be missed, but we know we'll see you soon. Good luck friends....we love you!

One of my all-time favorite pictures of me and Miss Loobie-Doo....twirling and dancing, what could be better?!

"Live-Aboards"

My second cousin Greg and his wife Nicole, live on their 40 foot sailboat and tonight Nick, Papa, Auntie, Peter and I all got to meet their beauty! Such a lovely sailboat, though I can honestly say, I don't know how they live on it. Makes me think that I should try to live more simply without so much stuff. We were learning all about some sailing terminology (to the regular Duck Dodgers this would have probably been repeat information, but I was pretty excited to learn the terms). Since Greg and Nicole live on their boats, they are referred to as "Live-Aboards"...so cute!

Found while "Blog Stalking"...

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

Try this fun little test...I think it turned out pretty accurate!! Michelle and Brad are going on their Italian adventure in a few months and I am SO wishing that I could tag along. Someday...

Somebody's ONE!

Happy Birthday Miss Adelaide! We celebrated Addie's first birthday party with an afternoon BBQ at Dave and Amy's...can't believe she is already a year old!

Pretty precious mom/daughter combo if you ask me!

Perfection

Saturday morning: Eastlake, Louisa's treat, bagel with cream cheese and a tomato, my girls

Saturday night: my girl Michelle, air-popped popcorn from the world's craziest popcorn maker, double feature movie night, Sour Jacks, slumber sisters.

These things, to me, are perfect.

Suprise!

Rothie planned a fabulous suprise party for Mike's 30th birthday celebration! The deck had such an amazing Seattle view! Jamie made the most delicious cupcakes...chocoate with peanut butter frosting, um....yes please!

And of course, crazy dancing! Nights with the girls always include some
wild and weird behavior!

I've discovered...

• A night spent in the kitchen with girlfriends, making yuumy food, sipping wine, chatting... is pretty much the BEST!
• When I am home alone, my sense of sound becomes much more acute
• I love when my love leaves me notes to find when he leaves town!
• I've been listening to the song "The Prayer for the Children" performed by the University of Wisconsin choir on repeat lately, and it makes me extremely excited for choir to start up again!!
• I am sleepy....goodnight! XO

Secretly...

-I don't mind that it is raining out. Of course, only if it is for a day...but I am kind of enjoying curling up inside tonight, candles lit, reading favorite blogs, helping Nick get packed for his hiking trip...

-I am looking forward to some "alone" time...I feel like starting a great new book (any suggestions?), having a glass of wine, sleeping in, just a relaxing weekend. As Carrie in Sex and the City said, she could return to her S.S.B....Secret Single Behavior. Michelle and I were discussing this tonight....mine will be to have corn niblets for dinner (Nick would NEVER go for this!)

-I want kids like these and these (not yet of course, but someday)....and I want to take photographs like their moms!! (More to come on these future goals/dreams of me and M...)

So weird

Why do I, instead of just taking a normal slice of cake, insist on taking many, many tiny slices? I start with just one tiny sliver, telling myself I just want a taste. But that one tiny sliver, turns into many tiny slivers, which in the end....adds up to a slice of cake! I will never understand the reasoning, or rather lack-of, as to why I do this. But I seriously do it ALL the time with "treats".

Am I the only one who has such crazy human behavior??

I'm a Bridesmaid!

Last night Court, Chris, Hans and Mary all came over for a little birthday and engagement celebrating! Courty asked me to be a Bridesmaid for their upcoming nuptials! I am so excited and so honored. I love my in-laws!

Best Yardsale EVA!

So today when Nick and I were coming home from church and breakfast, the neighborhood was just packed with activity! We noticed a sign for "HUGE Yardsale"...which it was, but that wasn't the best part. In addition to selling items they didn't need anymore, they also had pony rides AND a psychic! How cool is that?! $4 out of the $5 it cost for the pony rides, and all $15 for the psychic went towards Animal Rescue. They were trying to rescue some poodle puppies from a puppy mill. So creative!! Check out my finds...a cupcake displayer, a frame and a belt...all for the price of...$2.50! I have got to get into this yardsaling business...deals galore!

Juno you're going to like it...

Tonight we celebrated Nick's birthday just the two of us at a new Seattle restaurant, Juno. It was new on the Passport Card so we thought we'd try it out. It is located in the recently renovated Arctic Hotel which is a gorgeous old Seattle building. The originally building was built in 1917 I think! Everything was delicious, but I must say my favorite was my appetizer of roasted beets, herbed feta and bacon....and the panzanella salad pictured here, amazing! It was a lovely evening, and even as we walked to our car at 10:30 it was still 82 degrees out. Doesn't get much better than that!

I heart Seattle

It was another perfect day on Lake Washington! Me, Nick, Michelle, Brad, Kim, Mike and a couple of Mike's friends went out on their fabulous boat to enjoy this wonderful summer weather we are having. We hooked up with Steve, Coffey, Carrie, Eric and Scottie and the Knot Perfect and played the afternoon away. Our favorite is to lounge in the water with our "diapers" a.k.a. life vests worn in a diaper fashion!Michelle is about to take the plunge!

Me, just being super happy....I love moments like this. When we were boating around yesterday, it was one of the times where I was completely aware of how lucky I am, and that there was absolutely no where else in the world I would rather have been. I love when I am able to be so present and in the moment like that.

The Future Rinabarger's!!

WOW! What an engagement party celebration for Steve and Coffey! "The people that Coffey nannied for" threw them THE engagement party of all engagement parties. It was held at the Seattle Aquarium...super fancy and super fun! Here we are on the Pier for cocktail hour...gorgeous!
They had a portion of the aquarium open for us...AJ and Jamie are getting a Sea Urchin hug here...careful, only one finger!
Nick didn't measure up too well to Mr. Shark...Look at all those colorful dresses....good work girls!

Such a beautiful night to celebrate a beautiful couple....Coffey and Steve, can't wait for the wedding in Hawaii!

"They say it's your birthday..."

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband Nick!! Boy, am I thankful you were born! :) I am so proud, blessed and happy to be your wife...you fill my life with laughter and joy! I love you so much.

We started out the morning with a fun new tradition I thought we should start...on your birthday, you get to eat cake for breakfast in bed! The great part is, not only the birthday boy/girl gets to eat it...everyone does! I made him his favorite six layer cake from his childhood, which, truth be told...turned out better last year. But, it was still tasty!

We have such a fun weekend ahead of us....can't wait for all the celebrating! One of my all-time favorite pics of Nicholas as a little boy...

Summertime!

Kenny Chesney's "Summertime" is my pick for the quintessential summer music! It has been played numerous times in my car this past week...it just makes me so happy!

"It's a smile..."-- Lots of them today
"It's a kiss..."-- Got one when I got home from work
"It's a sip of wine...."--About to go get myself some
"It's Summertime!"- YAY!

"Pet" Peeve

Oh how I wish I had my camera on me today on my drive home from work.

So, one of my biggest pet peeves of all times is stuffed animals lining the back window of cars. I just think it looks so tacky! Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of stuffed animals in general...but combined with an array of them lining the back window of your vehicle? Bleh.

Today's viewing took the cake though. Bobble head pets of all assortment, mounted in the rear view window. All sorts of dogs and cats, just staring at me, bobbling. It was kind of creepy actually.

In tune!!

Some exciting news today..I finally got my grandma's baby-grand piano, that I suppose now is considered mine, tuned! It made it the long journey from Louisiana all the way to Washington, sat in storage for 6 months, and has made it's home in our living room for 5 months now without a tuning. I feel horrible that I have waited this long...BUT, I am hoping that it gives me inspiration to play more. One of my goals (full post on goals to come later via Krissy challenge from a few weeks ago) is to play the piano more, to learn more new music, and to possibly take lessons. Here's to a challenge!

Out of the city...

It was so wonderful to get out of the city this weekend and head over to Leavenworth for my cousin's wedding. The weather was perfect, the wedding was lovely, and it was just so great to get to spend time with my relatives from the South again. They all came up for our wedding, but it was just so busy during the wedding happenings, that I didn't get to spend as much time with them all as I would have liked. We are on a three month cycle right now of getting to see each other, and I just love it!

I love living in Seattle, but I have to admit that one of the things I miss the most about not living in a small town are seeing the stars. I was commenting last night on how dark it gets at night when you don't have the bright lights of the city to compete with. The stars were all out (such a funny saying, as I'm pretty sure they are always technically there), and it was such a peaceful feeling. It always helps me to put things in perspective when you can see the stars and know that people all over the world can see the same thing.

On our little deck outside our hotel room- I love the way it smells in the mountains! We were cozy...it was mom, me, Nick, Z and Laura all together in one room. It was a larger, suite type room and we actually had plenty of space, quite fun.
"This place is so cute...I would totally live here!"- Laura when we got in our room. She is, by the way, the most genuinely happy, energetic person I have ever met in my life!

Nicholas and his buddy Teddy on our hike the next day...they were pretty much inseperable the whole weekend!

Congratulations!!

Courty and Chris are engaged!! YAY! I am so excited for these two...talk about a perfect match for each other! They will be getting married next August in Leavenworth at Mt. Springs Lodge (same place Mike and Erin got married...gorgeous!) I can't wait for the planning to begin...I'm hoping that I get to help a lot!

So true...

Quote from Jessica Schroeder's blog:
"Good guy vs. Bad guy? NO. its the Funny Guy that always wins."

Couldn't agree more! My funny guy has me in stiches every.single.day. Seriously! Nick does something that funny every day that my stomach hurts from laughing so much. Yay for laughter!

Thursday=Friday

YAY! Today is my Friday this week! We are heading over tomorrow to Leavenworth for my cousin's wedding, so today is my last day for the week. What a treat!

Loving it...

A few days ago when I read Sarah's post about the sometimes overwhelming feelings that you have when owning home...I could completely relate. Nicholas and I are definitely still in the "getting used to a mortgage" phase. At times it is easy to feel sorry for myself: wishing we could buy more new clothes, treat ourselves by going out to eat more, go on more trips, save more.

But then, I remember how fortunate we are to live in our house, together, and what things are truly important in life. I am thankful that I have daily reminders of how thankful we should be.

Today, it was my hydrangeas. They are just so darn beautiful! And to be honest, I really can't take much credit for how lovely they are looking. Mom and I spent a good amount of time this late winter/early spring cutting them back, and from that they have opened into the amazing plant! I was so completely happy making dinner for Nick, sipping a glass of white wine on this hot summer day, arranging my hydrangeas....is this domestication??

I don't know...but I must say, I'm loving it.

"The play's the thing..."- Hamlet

What a perfect afternoon today was! If you haven't been to see any of the Greenstage "Shakespeare in the Park" performances, get yourself there! Dave, Amy, Addie, Nick and I headed over to Discovery Park for the afternoon performance of "Hamlet".
Every summer, Greenstage and The Seattle Shakespeare Company offer free performances throughout different Seattle parks of some of Shakespeare's most famous plays. Last year we saw "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and it seems perfect that this year we got to see Dave's all-time favorite Shakespeare play- "Hamlet".

We brought blankets, laid on the grass in the sun, had delicious morsels and enjoyed the play...I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I have read many (not nearly all however) of Shakespeare's plays and I always forget what great lines there are in each of them! "Hamlet" is chock full of them!

Sidenote: Although the plays are free, they actors rely on donations to keep these performances going. So, support the arts!