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.

Week 1

Week 1 of camp is almost done. I can't believe how fast it's going.

We are all sick now with head colds and sore throats. Nate has had it for almost 3 weeks and Char and I are just now catching up with him.

This weekend we are headed to a friend's wedding in Washington at Whidbey Island. It will be a short trip - back on Saturday. I'm looking forward to visiting a new place. And we get to take a ferry.=)

Next weekend is our 5th anniversary! Our first big milestone year. It's been a good 5 years, more to come.

That's what's happening with us lately. July is starting to fill up on the calendar already too. And for some reason we have a wave of friends getting married this year. I had several friends get married right out of high school and then again right after college. This seems to be the third wave of friends getting married.

I will post pics of our trip later

life without a microwave

Our new kitchen is much smaller than our old one. It's hard to downsize in kitchen gear, but we managed to do it...or at least pack it all in there. Things are not as accessible as they used to be, but they did manage to find a home in the kitchen.

One item that did not claim real estate in the kitchen is our monstrous microwave. It was far too big to take up any prime counter space, so we threw it in with the garage sale lot. Now we are without a microwave. And we plan on staying that way. I've never lived without one before, so this will be interesting. I have a few friends who have been without a microwave for a while and they still seem to live/breath and seem happy too. So I guess we can live without one too. =)

Top 10

These are the top 10 things I love about our new house:

1. Air Conditioning!!!
2. The HUGE back park...I mean yard
3. a fire place! (I hope it works...haven't had it looked at yet)
4. Quiet neighborhood...cul-da-sac
5. Deep kitchen sink! (thanks Dad and Nate!)
6. Spare room with a real bed
7. fruit trees/berries/lilies/snowball plant/calla lilies
8. our oven that heats water up in 2 minutes! thanks mom for cleaning it!
9. our lights...I just can't say enough about these new lights!
10. Wood floors. Nate did a great job of refinishing them. I think they look great.

There are many more things I enjoy about this place, but this is a good start for now.

We feel very blessed that we get to live here. I'm looking forward to spending this summer here.

House updates...the lights

We just added two new lights to our kitchen/dining room area. I just love this style. I've been checking them out on the school house electric sit, but they are just too expensive if you buy them from this company...so we made our own! Nate and I went to Hippo Hardware in downtown Portland and found the parts to make the pendant light. My mom took Charlotte on a walk a few weeks ago and found the smaller light at a garage sale! What a great find! So we were able to complete the same look for MUCH less than the great school house electric site. =)

Here are a few pics of Charlotte too. =)

and it begins..

Summer has begun. In fact, we are into week 2 of our summer now. Nate has been at camp almost 2 weeks now with his summer staff for training. It's going to be a great staff. They are bonding already. Tonight they will continue with the old tradition of giving each staffer a camp name. The names usually come from a funny story or experience that happens at training or from their life story. I'm excited to hear what comes up.

Charlotte is enjoying getting to know the staff too. They just love her. She wasn't used to all this attention at first, but now she is starting to like it. =)

I am looking forward to this weekend. It will be a weekend of rest and a time to catch up with Nate. We have missed seeing him.