lemon?

Well our cars have given us quite a bit of trouble this year. We had the transmission and the clutch repaired on Nate's car a week ago because it's the commuter car and he needs to be able to get to work in a reliable vehicle.
Yesterday on his way home it started smoking up and the gauge was all the way to hot. Not a good sign! He was able to park it in a business lot on the side of the hwy and got a ride with a friend the rest of the way home. We'll look at it this morning to see what's wrong. We're both suspecting the worst right now, but really hoping our luck isn't that bad. =) At what point do you stop putting money into a car and scrap it or just get another one?

Meanwhile we do still have my car, which is very comfortable minus the fact that it is the one that really needed a new transmission....mmmm....decisions decisions....

If life gives you lemons....make lemonade....well I think we now may be the owners of a lemonade stand. =) *So good and so refreshing.*

Brrr!!!

It's a cold 22 degrees out this morning. I was wondering why I heard the furnace on all night long. The ground is frosty....no snow yet, but I wonder if we'll see some before Christmas!

We have a few last minute errands to run today, but for the most part we are pretty ready for the long weekend ahead.

We decided to let Charlotte start opening her gifts yesterday because we realized she is going to be hit with a lot of things to open. And most things are small, but I don't want it to be overwhelming. I'm hoping she can saver them one at a time. Yesterday she opened up a new shampoo and was excited to use it in bath time. She just LOVES bath time! I have to be careful not to say the word "bath" all day long until we're actually ready to give her a bath or else she'll go squealing down the hallway and into the bathroom.

Stay warm!

And they're back...

The Blazers are back! Who would have thought it would take this long to figure out money in the NBA...
I'm glad they came to an agreement and decided to play basketball. They are much better at that anyway.

We got to watch the pre-season game online the other day. It looks like we have a good group coming into the year.
Sadly, Brandon Roy had to take off this year due to his knee injuries. He is now "retired." I can't imagine being retired at such a young age. I'm sure he's trying to decide what to do next for a career. Some retired players go on to coach or do commentary for games. Shaq will be a new commentator this year. We are very excited to watch him in that new role as he is a natural entertainer.

Another exciting event in the NBA...LA now has 2 great basketball teams. =) In the past Lakers dominated Clippers, but as shown in their first preseason game, the Clippers started this season off to take the Lakers 114 to 95. Both teams had their starters in the whole time. A friend of ours who watched the game said it had play off game atmosphere. I'm sure the Clippers and their fans are excited to finally show up Kobe. =)

Great Birthday

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a very relaxing 30th birthday last weekend. My parents came up for the day to watch C while Nate and I took off for a date day.

I started my day out with a pedicure....I decided I'm pregnant and 30 and gosh I need some pampering! Nate dropped me off while he went out to coffee to have some time to himself too.

Afterwards he picked me up and we went out for a Christmas tea at a local tea house. It was very quiet and restful. We enjoyed a long meal time with good conversation. And I might add...no interruptions. =) Although the meal was wonderful it did not fulfill our hungry bellies, so we headed to McD's to share a burger before hitting the mall for some Christmas shopping.

I decided it would be easiest to do our Christmas shopping without C there. Probably true. But the mall may not have been the best choice. Who knew other people would be at the mall too??? What are the odds.

Anyway, it was a long walk through the stores. Nate kept it entertaining. We passed through the perfume section of Macy's trying to find out way out of the store. I think his comment was, "oh gosh I think I just got cancer twice!" He's a funny person to shop with.

That was the end of our birthday celebration day. It was nice to have time to rest and hang out with Nate. 30 is off to a great start!

When it rains...it pours!

Today we had our Toyota sent to the mechanic to have the transmission flushed. Well, it turns out we need a new transmission for that car. Oh boy what an expense that will be! While we were there Nate had the same mechanic look at his commuter car because of some other issues. Looks like he also needs a new transmission and a new clutch! YIKES!!!!! Both cars need new transmissions and his needs a new clutch. Oh man....well, I guess after these are taken care of it's just light maintenance....right???

Oh boy...I think we may go back to the days of yore and walk into town or hitch hike to get to the store. =)


So until we get those things fixed, my car will be an in-town-only or In-case-of-emergencey only car and Nate will still be able to get to work (we will fix his next week). But that will really limit our activities this next year.

I suppose with a newborn you really don't leave the house much anyway. It may just work out in our favor that way. And I could use some more walking in my day. I just hope Char and the new one are up for it!

Photo catch up

I'm catching up on my photo posts. Here's a description of each...they will be pretty self explanatory anyway.

Bucket of new diapers!!! I am so excited about how they have been working out. We haven't had any problems with them at all. In fact, I really like them much better than disposables. Char seems to not care either way, so that's good. And they come in such cute prints too!

Pictures of Nate pulling Char in her little red wagon. She LOVES this. We have to hide it under her desk so she won't want to do this all day long. But when we bring it out she cannot contain her excitement. =)

Cream cheese face! Char loves her carbs...and her cream cheese. We've outgrown the high chair and are now in booster seats. I think she just wants to be a big girl now. She's also in her toddler bed and doing much better with that every day.

Our Japanese Maple tree. Isn't it stunning? I just love the reds. And this is not as red as it got towards the end, but it's still a great showing of color. We did finally decide to trim it up to look more like a tree than a hairy bush. I'm much more pleased with it like this.

It's now winter and we're getting ready to hang lights on the house and decorate a Christmas tree. I love this time of year!

New diapers!!

I know, who gets excited about diapers right? I DO!!! I just ordered my first batch of cloth diapers and they arrived today. They're in the wash right now, but I am SO excited to try them out. They aren't as sturdy as the ones we've been using for the past few months, but I think they will still do the trick. And I really like the new patters on these ones. I'll have to take a picture when they are washed.

Oh the little things in life! =)

Apples and shoes

Nate harvested the rest of our apples in the back yard. There are still a lot more in the higher branches, but it's just too high to reach. As you can see we really need to prune back these monster trees. They make great tasting apples though!

Charlotte likes to sit in her booster seat at the table now. She colors and plays with her little people while I do dishes or cook.

Today I found all of Charlotte's shoes on the toilet seat. I'm glad the lid was down!

Happy Mothers

I don't usually write about a book until I've read it, which honestly isn't very often. But I did just hear an interview with the author of this book: The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers by Meg Meeker and it sounded great!
She mentioned that the concept of her book was inspired by one of my favorite books, Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.
That definitely perked my interest in reading further.

From the interview it sounded like she is speaking mostly to mothers who feel pressure to be perfect, to raise successful kids, to give your kids every opportunity to be successful, to manage life perfectly etc...
One point that I thought was very convicting and so true...she said most mothers (most people) when they meet other mothers usually size each other up to see how you may compare as a mother/wife/healthy person etc.. "how smart are her kids? what programs do they get involved in? How fit is she? does she seem to have it all together?" etc... you get that picture. Anyway, she stressed in her interview that her book focuses on the core purpose of why we choose to be mothers to begin with. She emphasized the importance of using your time to be in relationship with your family members.

Like I said, I haven't read the book yet, but I'm intrigued to pick it up and give it a try. Those are the initial thoughts based on her radio interview. I hope the book is just as good if not better.

IKEA hackers website

I was browsing a local artists blog today and discovered an IKEA hackers website that was so inspiring! Basically people buy IKEA products and try to re-purpose them into functional products that fit their specific needs. Some of the ideas were no-brainers while others were pure genius!

It's fun to browse anyway: Ikea hackers website

Finding the perfect pumpkin

Of course it wouldn't be fall without going to a local pumpkin patch. And there are several in the area. Fortunately for us, last weekend had one sunny day open to enjoy the outdoor fall experience. We took advantage!

Here are some pictures of the Great Pumpkin Hunt of 2011.

Fall!

I'm very much looking forward to fall this year. I love fall anyway, but being pregnant and always feeling warm, I just really love the cool crisp air! Char and I have been trying to take early morning walks while it's still cool outside. Once the sun warms up we're indoors.

A lot has happened in the last 5 weeks! I just found my camera yesterday in Charlotte's room, so hopefully we can begin posting pictures again.

Nate's parents visited from Michigan for a week. It was great to see them again and to have Charlotte get acquainted with them again too. I've been showing her pictures of Michigan family on the fridge, but it's one thing to see a picture and then to see them in real life. She now waves at their picture on the fridge when I show it to her. It's very cute.

Following their visit, we took a 2 week vacation!!! I love vacations!! The first week was just down time at home. We had a few house projects we wanted to get done to help winterize the house before the rains started. We did take a few day trips to the coast and to Portland. That was a nice change of pace for me to get out of the house.

The second week was spent with extended family. We took 3 days with our immediate Stuewe family at the coast. It was perfect weather! Carm wanted to cook gourmet meals for us...and we all gladly accepted! The boys went on a deep sea fishing trip and caught fish and crab for another meal. They had some good adventures to share when they got home.

The last part of the vacation was spent in Sisters with the Stuewe family. It was my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary weekend celebration. Everyone was in attendance. We even had most of the great aunts there too! The weekend was packed with great activities. Non-stop visiting and eating great food. We even snuck in a bike ride and stroller ride here and there. It's been a long time since everyone was together like this. I'm not sure how many years. It was great to be there and enjoy everyone's company.

We are back home now and slowly getting back to our routine...for now.
Nate made a decision to resign at his current job due to feeling burned out and needing a change of pace. It was just time for him to move on to something new. He had a great 5 years there and wonderful memories. I'm glad he is able to leave with good memories and good relationships. He will start at my parents business at the beginning of October. The commute will be longer than what he's used to, but it will be a good down time for him.

I'm rushing around going to some last minute doctors apts before we switch insurance. I'll find out the gender of the baby at the end of the month!! So exciting! Also, I found out from my doctor that they are planning on inducing me at 39 weeks due to my blood clot situation. So it looks like the due date keeps moving. We're looking at February as the due date now. I may even shoot for Leap Day. =)

That's us in a nut shell....like I said...a lot happened in 5 weeks. =)

Last week

Today is the beginning of the last week of camp. We'll be living at the camp this week with the summer staff. I always really enjoy the first orientation week and this last week because of the community time spent in the retreat center. It's sad to see it all come to an end, but at the same time I know everyone's tired and ready to move on to school or whatever else they are moving onto.

Speaking of which, our vacation days have just been added to the calendar and I CANNOT WAIT! We don't even know what we will be doing, but it is just so nice to see those days blocked out. I'm looking forward to catching up with Nate finally. Every summer is always a whirl wind for us, but this one has been especially busy. There were a few days in a row last week that we didn't even cross paths and that gets old really quickly. So needless to say, we are all looking forward to some quality time together.

If you have any inexpensive fun vacation ideas for us please send them our way.=)

encouraging day

Sigh...I needed a day like today.

It's been over a month since I've ventured out on a walk with Charlotte. The idea of leaving the house when feeling sick usually makes me feel even more nervous....and then sick.

But today we did it! I left bright and early in the morning while it was still cold outside. We made it all the way down to our past rental home (almost a mile away!) before I decided I shouldn't get too carried away. I felt invigorated! It was just what I needed to get going with the day.

Just now I ran through my typical blog reading list. One in particular is from some good friends who have just completed a stage in life that Nate and I are just now finding ourselves in. It was encouraging to read about their outcome and to be reminded that I may not see the answer now, but I know a God who knows the answer already.

an encouraging day.

ultrasound

Yesterday I went in for an ultrasound. Everything is looking good! Only 1 baby in there. =) I also had some blood work done...pretty standard. I'm back on my blood thinning shots to prevent blood clots during pregnancy. It's getting to be pretty routine now.

Nate took time off work to help me at the doctors office. That was so helpful! I honestly don't know how I would have managed with Charlotte running all over the room. She even had some blood work done too. The man did really well with her. He just stuck her once with a needle, got what he needed and was done. She was of course screaming like someone was killing her and I looked out in the waiting room and saw fear on everyones faces, but he did a good job. The doctor wants to test for lead in her blood since we have been living in older homes with her.

Well, that's about it! The new due date for baby #2 is now March 3.

Week 9 status

Well what a day! I had a hard time keeping food down all day. Char has been doing pretty good. She is getting good at entertaining herself while I lay down, but even today was hard on her too. I think she was a little fed up with me by the time Nate came home. It was good to have him take over for a few hours.
He is almost to the end of summer season. It's been a good summer at camp so far. I can tell he is completely exhausted! This has been a busy one that's for sure. He is out grocery shopping for me right now.
I completely forgot how immobilizing this part of pregnancy is. I guess it is good that I quickly forgot how hard it is or we wouldn't be doing this again. =) I'm hoping that it will only last a few more weeks and then on to the super woman phase!

p.s. I lost my phone again...so if you're trying to reach me just email. I have no clue where it ended up this time. Usually Char takes it, but I don't think she was the culprit this time.

Another surprise visit!

At first I thought this would be a pretty boring week, but as it turns out we've had visitors almost every night!

Yesterday some good friends from Idaho stopped by with their cute little boys. Char enjoyed playing with the oldest boy, Coen. He is almost 3 and of course can walk anywhere he wants to. I think Charlotte aspires to do the same sometime soon. She was showing him her toys and following him around. Very cute!

It's been nice to see friends this week. So glad you guys stopped by Reid and Kim!

surprise visit!

Our friend Emily, from Pennsylvania, called us on Sunday to see if she and Sarah could stay the night last night. "of course!" we said! It's not often that we get visitors from out east. It was so great catching up with both of them. I'm so glad they included us in their "out west" road trip. They had a lot of fun stories from their past 2 week adventures. We had the map laid out on the dining room table checking out all of the route options for the way back to PA. It made me a little hungry for a good road trip. I love those big long road trips!

I think our next one will need to be a southern route that includes a lot of states I've never been to like Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, the Carolinas etc... That would be a fun adventure!

Who moved my cheese?

The book, Who Moved My Cheese, is very appropriate for this summer in our lives. A lot has changed in the past 2 months and it looks like change may still be occurring.


1. We bought our first home
2. Our car died, we bought a "new" one
3. We found out we are expecting baby #2 in the spring
4. Things at work are changing drastically for Nate

I think change officially covers every aspect of our day to day life.

I have the book Who Moved My Cheese on my dresser right now. I've been reading it and actually really enjoying it. I'm not an avid reader, but this one is a quick read.

anyway....more to come....

Pickles and Icecream

Yep it's true! We are expecting baby #2 in early March. I'm already feeling the affects of this one too. Charlotte has become used to finding me laying near the bathroom door. In fact, she now drags her toys down the hallway so we can still play. She is a good sport about it already. I'm sure she will be a great little helper and a great big sister.

This has already been a crazy summer for transitions...new house, different car, change in job structure for Nate and now a new baby. I think we're ready to call it quits on new things for a while. =)

We've enjoyed getting more settled into this house. Routines are starting to form and I like that a lot. Also, We're getting to know our neighbors one by one. We have a very nice young family that lives across the street. They have a little boy about the same age as Charlotte. I'm hoping to get to know them better soon.

Summer is going well for Nate. He has a terrific staff. They are all so responsible and great with the kids. That is a huge plus for him. It definitely makes his job a lot easier.

Last weekend we had our big family summer birthday celebration. It was a great time! I enjoy getting together with the fam! My mom has several pictures posted on her FB from the event.

That's about it! Just wanted to share the news!

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Charlotte is 1 today! We put up a big tent in the backyard last night and today we will put all of our pillows, her stuffed animals and any soft blankets in there for her to play with. I think she will LOVE it! It will be her very own bouncy house in our back yard. I'm also going to set up her little pool to play in when it gets warmer.

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Quinoa

I'm really excited about quinoa as one of our new protein staples. I bought a large batch of it in the bulk section of the grocery store today. My hope was that C would just love the stuff...but no such luck. She is kind of a texture kid. If the food is a strange texture, it ends up on the floor. I even tried blending it until it was smooth and adding her favorite food to it, but she could see right through that plan. Oh well, it was worth the try. I will try again tomorrow.

Thanks John and Marilyn!

Here are some pictures of our new riding lawn mower given to us by John and Marilyn! Nate was so excited when they brought it over that he just decided to mow the whole lawn that night. Surprisingly it only took him an hour to mow the lawn! I'm thrilled to have this. I think it will be a great help. We do have a push mower too that my Grandpa Stuewe gave us as a house warming gift. It's a really nice Honda and it runs just great! I think it will be good to have both each for their own uses. This is a huge yard and needs to be mowed at least once a week. We have already had the summer staffers over a couple of times and we've had some fires in the "fire pit" out back. I'm looking forward to 4th of July. I think we will just hang out in the back yard and watch fireworks by our fire.

Thanks John and Marilyn for our new riding lawnmower!

our "new" car

We woke up at 6:30am and headed out the door to start what we thought would be a VERY long car search day.

The first car we looked at had only 64K miles on it. But it really was pretty beat up and had some other issues with it. We offered a lower price, but the seller had others lined up to see it that same day and said no.

Our second car we looked at was really more of our dream car, but way out of our price range. We let them know right off the bat what we could afford and they were a little hesitant, but still let us test drive it.

Well...long story short...they took our offer and that's the car we bought! Here are some pics of it!
It's a 1998 Toyota Avalon. It's very comfortable and has a lot of extra perks that we really could live without, but they are fun to have. We were on the road home at about 11:30am! I'm so excited to have that chore out of the way. Now we can relax and enjoy this 3 day weekend!

Now we know

It was still in question until 2 days ago as to whether or not we were on city sewer or a septic tank.
Our recent water/sewer bill came in and yes we are on a private septic tank.
Good news- our water/sewer bill is the lowest I've ever seen it.
Bad news- a genius had poured a cement pad right on top of the septic access... Leaving us without access to have it pumped should we need to do so.

Project to add to our house list: remove cement pad and create a safe access to the septic tank.

BEACH!

Our 5th anniversary celebration. We made it to the beach where we had spent our honeymoon 5 years ago. It was great to take Char with us. She's at the age where she likes sand and seagulls. The water was a little too cold for her, but we did bring her little pool to play in at the house.

We couldn't have asked for better weather! It was just so nice!! And it made it harder to come back home. What a restful place to be.

And we discovered a new restaurant thanks to Carmen and Leo. They gave us a gift card to the Beach Dog Cafe near MO's. It's great! I highly recommend their food, coffee, service etc.. It was great!

Home at last

We knew this weekend would be a tough one because it was going to be a whirlwind trip up to our friend's wedding at Whidbey Island and back in 1 day....but we weren't expecting the extra delays of our car breaking down.

Here's how it happened.

My friend Liz was carpooling with us up to the wedding. Nate couldn't leave Oregon until after work (around 6pm). It was a late night getting up to Seattle because of traffic and multiple stops for Char.

We finally got there at midnight. Char didn't sleep well all night = we didn't sleep well all night.

Saturday morning we drove out to the wedding and just made the ferry in time for the ceremony. It was raining and we were all sick with colds, so we stayed indoors as much as possible.

The wedding was gorgeous! We got to talk to the bride for only about 2 minutes, but it was good to see her so happy. It was a great wedding ceremony and a great venue.

Knowing we had a long drive ahead of us, we took off early from the reception. On our way out of Seattle we were in the middle lane of a 5 lane hwy. The car made a horrible noise that sounded like a motorcycle with muffler problems=). Then it just quit working. Right in the middle of Seattle traffic in the middle lane.
Power steering went out. Nate could just barely get the car over to the far left shoulder before it completely quit. Then engine was smoking. The car wouldn't turn over.

I called a tow truck and gave them our location. Turns out we were at my Uncle's exit. We called him too to see if we could crash at their place that night. As luck would have it, it was also his anniversary night. I felt so bad that they canceled their dinner reservations to get us. But we were so grateful to have a comfortable place to stay and rest.

It took over an hour for the tow truck to find us. I was stressed out that we would get hit by a car while we were sitting there, but that didn't happen thank the Lord.

Car got towed. The blue Crown Victoria was loaded up and taken to a car place. I really think she took her last drive that day. We're still waiting to get a diagnosis, but it's not looking favorable for her.

We stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's place while they went out to a different restaurant for dinner. I'm glad they did that.

We rented a car the next day and headed home. We got home around 9pm...long weekend. My parents are letting us use their car for the week as a loaner until we find a new one.

Things are working out.

I really liked our Crown Vic. She was a comfortable ride, but she was on her last leg and we knew it would be soon.

We are grateful to be safe. God protected us. And we are grateful for family who took care of us.
Here are some pictures of our adventures.

pictures

Looks like someone got into some stickers!

And these are some flowers that Grandpa Roy gave us on a walk through town. He is always giving people flowers as they pass by his place. They smell so good too! I was excited to see a very old pink peonies plant hiding in the corner of our yard.