. the royal wedding .

I definitely need to mark this moment in time, so if you’re royal wedding-ed out, go ahead and skip this one.

Mom & I got up at 5 this morning to watch the wedding before we went to work. I recorded the wedding hype beginning at 1am this morning on NBC and TLC (gotta get the legit news and the gossip too!).

We got to see most of the wedding and then a little of the journey from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace before I went to work. Throughout the day, I was checking Twitter to keep up on it and now, home after a long day of work & a trip to the Tri-Cities, we’re watching all the recaps.

Here’s my personal commentary!

I loved her wedding dress. So simple and perfect for a royal wedding. And her sister’s dress – I loved the shape of it. Beautiful!

I really liked seeing all the guests – their hats & headdresses, dresses, and royalty & dignitaries from around the world. The British just do hats like no one else can…why can’t American’s embrace that tradition??

Well…maybe not… :)

(Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice)

More pictures to remember the day…

Did you see William lean over to Kate’s dad and say “This was supposed to be a small family gathering…”?

My other favorite part was after their vows & after William gave Kate her ring, the crowd outside the Abbey cheered and Kate smiled. So cute!

How great was this – that William drove their getaway car! Loved that surprise!

I think her second wedding dress was as beautiful as her first – definitely younger looking and more fashionable that the first. That will be copied for sure.

And finally, their new official portrait – which I think really shows them as a normal couple. “They” (who’s they?!) say that William and Kate are the beginning of a “modern monarchy” and I think this more casual portrait points to that.

I’m pretty fascinated with most things royal…British and otherwise, so this was pretty exciting! I wish it wouldn’t have been in the middle of the night on a Friday – otherwise I would’ve liked to have a royal wedding party! How fun would that be?!

. busy week .

I’m sure this has already been used as a blog post title a time or two…but it definitely describes this past week!

Jennifer & I have been working hard to move forward on master schedule building…we still have a ways to go, but we’re getting closer every day!!

We’ve had cheer tryout practice this week, culminating with cheer tryouts tonight. Here’s our group of girls that were trying out!

We ended up with a great group of girls for our 2011/2012 squads. I’m so excited for football season to start! :)

I found out today that as of Monday, we have exactly 6 weeks left of school, which means 7 for me! Wow – that is definitely manageable, but there is so much left to do between now and then! Priest Lake on my mind….every gosh darn day between now and then!

. happy birthday jennifer .

Today was Jennifer’s birthday. We celebrated it up big by working on scheduling ALL stinkin’ day in my office.  What a day, right?! That’s how everyone would want to celebrate!  :) haha

I made this bag for her gift…it was a challenging undertaking, but I like how it turned out. I think I’d try to make the top and bottom more even next time. I love the “Make Life…” fabric by Sweetwater!

I HOPE (hehe) she enjoys it!

Happy Birthday Jennifer! I love working with you and you make coming to work fun – even doing mundane tasks! :) I learn so much from you and I appreciate all the little & big things you do to make my life go more smoothly. I don’t know what I’d do without you! Hope you felt celebrated today!

. catching up .

Since last week,

• the Europe vacationers came home! It has been fun hearing their stories and seeing some of their pictures. Kate Hawk brought me this mug from Starbucks!
  
  It was so sweet of her to think of me. She didn’t even know that I have a small collection of similar city mugs from around the US. They’re packed away, so I can’t remember if I have an international one or not. I’ve been using this one the last few days for my morning coffee. I feel so special! Jennifer brought me a beautiful green pashmina that I have on the back of my desk chair for now. I can’t wait to wear it!
• I’ve spent the weekend at the Palouse Divide Lodge scrapbooking with my Mom, Melissa, Amy Kleinbach, and about 20 other ladies. I got 18 double page spreads finished in a little less than 48 hours. There was a lot of snow left up there, but it rained most of the day on Saturday some melted. It was a fun getaway to a cozy lodge with good friends!
• We came back on Sunday afternoon and headed straight for Johnson’s to celebrate Kamryn’s 1st birthday (already?!) and see the Vissers. Melissa kept saying, “the Swiss are here!” We spent a relaxing afternoon with them, catching up and helping Kamryn celebrate! She liked the tissue paper part of her presents best! I gave her this cute swim suit, so we had her model for us. She is definitely on the go, so no still shots!

• I went to Delt Clark’s T-Ball game yesterday. T-ball is just something you have to go to each spring! It was fun to watch – and it cracked me up when the kids kept asking if it was snacktime yet!

The next few days are full with Senior Parent Night, Masonic Junior Achievement Night, Stunt Certification Training for Cheer, and Easter on Sunday! I think I’ll be ready for a big nap on Sunday afternoon!

. double dip .`

I’m excited to share this one with you!

This is part two to the Double Dip pattern by Thimble Blossoms.

Here’s a reminder of part one:

I love love love this one…the zig zags are so adorable! It’s been on the back of our couch since I got it done.

Drumroll…..Part Two!

I did some straight line quilting – which I’m getting more adventurous with and loving the results.

As I was piecing this together, I wasn’t so sure I liked it. The colors weren’t jiving to me and then I put the border on and I was afraid it was too busy. Once I quilted it, I liked it more…it’s growing on me.

Pattern: Double Dip by Thimble Blossoms
Fabric: Bliss by Thimble Blossoms
Quilted & Pieced by: Marcie

. make a funny face .

We had another family dinner tonight at Mei Lings – a family favorite!! We always make it a point to go when Lisa is in town!

Frances entertained us all with her antics throughout dinner. She knows her colors, animal sounds, can do “cheers” with her juice box, give “knocks”, “rock on”, and this new cheesy face!

Doug was doing it to her as we were trying to take this picture:

We were all cracking up at Frances, the mimic. She is too much!
She and Melissa had a mini dance party in the restaurant. So adorable!

These girls are going to have grown so much by the next time we see them, in August. I’m glad we got to spend so much time together while they’re in WA – but always wish we lived closer. Hopefully one day….soon!

Frances: 23 months
Louise: 4 months

. you’ve been egged! .

(Thanks Mikaela for this idea!)

Tonight for youth group, we ding-dong-ditched…Easter egg chocolates!
We went to three houses, hid 12 Easter egg chocolates in the yard, put this sign on the door, rang the doorbell (or knocked), and ran.

 

They were supposed to be stealth, but it’s hard to keep 11 giggling teenagers quiet!

Look at that! You’ve just been EGGed!
But do not be alarmed.
We came, we dropped, we ran away…
Your house, it was not harmed.

So what is this before you now?
Just an early Spring surprise.
Be quick and look around your yard…
Twelve EGGs lay in disguise.

A secret friend has just dropped by
To share some spring time cheer.
So now you’re it! It’s now your turn
To Egg a house that’s near.

Select a friend, or two, or three…
Gather a dozen EGGs for each.
Be sly and hide them, knock, and flee!
Leave this message at arm’s reach.

Hang a poster at your door
And now your task’s complete.
Days ‘til Easter aren’t much more…
Aren’t surprises sweet!

We hope the families had fun with our little surprise. My apologies to the family who’s eggs were not so much hidden as thrown in their yard. Somehow 11 teenagers didn’t quite get the concept…

. bellingham/seattle spring break getaway .

Mom, Melissa, and I got away for a few days at the beginning of our Spring Break week. We headed up to Bellingham on Saturday to visit Melissa’s college roommate, Jennifer Zaremba. She showed us a great time around Bellingham, shopping, great food, and seeing the sights. She and Melissa wanted to take these pictures with the Bellingham sign!

She hosted us in her cute house looking over the water. Thanks Jenn!

On our way back toward Seattle, we detoured through Marysville to see the flowers in bloom. The tulip fields weren’t in bloom yet, but we got to see some striking daffodil fields. We all said for not even liking daffodils, it was beautiful!

We stopped to shop a little bit at the Seattle Premium Outlets and then found our hotel where we’d stay for the rest of our time in Seattle.

On Monday, we did some shopping around our hotel: Ulta and Nordstrom Rack. We’d spied a Blue C Sushi the night before and were excited to try out conveyor belt sushi!

I’m not a fancy sushi connoisseur, but this wasn’t the best sushi I’ve ever had. It was a fun experience to just pick out what we wanted off the conveyor belt. Fun concept.

Each color plate was a different price…

And, our favorite: California Roll.

From there, we went to our favorite little stamp store in Greenlake – A Muse. It’s a must stop whenever we have the chance. Then we went on a little Seattle tourist adventure. Melissa wanted to see the Fremont troll, so we put the address into our iPhone map and went on our way (thank goodness for the iPhone maps – we used the heck out of it!).

This troll was crazy huge! It’s holding a Volkswagen Bug in it’s hand!

Melissa got to check an item off her bucket list!

The next stop on our tourist adventure was Gasworks Park…

Melissa wanted to take her picture jumping in Gasworks park! Check!

It was raining and kinda foggy looking at the Seattle skyline!

Our next destination was a quilt shop in Ballard that I’d found online. On our way there, we passed a group of statues that we’d seen last year on the Ride the Ducks tour. Melissa got a picture with them (of course! ).

The quilt shop: The Quilting Loft: was a successful find! It was a cute shop with lots of current fabric lines, patterns, kits, and samples. It was a little overwhelming! I got a fat quarter bundle and a pattern. I would definitely like to go back there next time we’re in town!

And bonus – there was a cute boutique right next door, so Melissa was happy too! (and pretty happy about her first Starbucks birthday cake pop!)

We went to see “Black Swan” that night at a $3 theater….and wasted our $3. I can appreciate the acting and see why Natalie Portman won the Oscar for Best Actress, but the movie as a whole was not our style at all. Way to pick them, Mom!

Tuesday morning, we a little earlier start and headed straight for Pike Place Market.

First stop: the Flagship Starbucks, of course!

We walked through the Market, found a delicious doughnut, and found the golden pig:

I showed Mom & Melissa where the Gum Wall was and left our mark!

So gross, but so intriguing!

We headed straight for the flagship Nordstrom from there. Melissa and I had been planning to buy TOMS shoes there and it was a great day to buy them! TOMS was sponsoring a day of no shoes in honor of those that don’t have shoes. There was a walk around Nordstrom that was just finishing up while Mom & Melissa were trying theirs on.

Melissa found some black sparkly ones and Mom got gray.

We went downstairs to the men’s section so I could get mine (embarrassing!) – I got gray and red. I couldn’t decide!!

We went to lunch at the Nordstrom Café and had delicious salads. We’d never eaten there, but had heard how good it was…and it was great! We shopped around Nordstrom and each left with some fun finds!

We headed to U Village from there to stop at Sephora, Anthropologie, Victoria’s Secret, Brighton, and H & M.

Melissa stopped for a photo op with her new black and white houndstooth wellies.

We got pedicures that evening – so nice after shopping all day! – and picked up pizza to take back to our hotel. Perfect ending to a great day!

The next morning, we loaded up and headed to the UW Medical Center for Mom’s appointments. She had a CT scan and then met with her surgeon, Dr. Mokadam, for him to explain the results of the scan. Two years after her emergency surgery, everything still looks great! We are grateful that her doctors take such great care of her and stay on top of everything.

We began our trek home – a little later than we’d expected because we had to wait for Dr. Mokadam to get out of the OR. Melissa had wanted to go to The Cheesecake Factory in Bellevue, but I didn’t want to get home so late….well, jokes on me because we were stopped on Snoqualmie Pass for over 2 hours for avalanche control. We could’ve definitely had lunch in that time! Even after waiting all that time, it was slow going the rest of the way. Bummer!

Look how much snow there was! We drove through rain, sleet, snow, and sun…yuck!

Next year, I totally want to go somewhere with warmer weather – no rain, NO SNOW!

We had such a wonderful time exploring new sights and experiencing old familiar favorites…and with great company, who could ask for more?!