Busy Bee (s)!!

Phew! Lately I feel like we have not even had a chance to breathe.. What does Steve look like again?!.. and the sad part is that for the next week and a half it's only going to get worse. We wrapped up a garage sale this past weekend, ended up getting rid of a lot of stuff (crap as I like to call it) and made a bit of extra money.. all in all I'd say it was worth the hard work and heat. We still have a few things left that I busily have been posting to craigslist to try and get rid of, and thankfully Steve's mom is having a garage sale in a few weeks so she is willing to put the rest of our stuff (crap) in her sale and attempt to get the last bits GONE! What a sigh of relief!!I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to walk out in to the garage and see the floor in areas that I was beginning to wonder if there even was a floor! Now let's get these last bits gone and get that garage organized!!

Steve's dad is coming to visit at the end of next week and I have been busily trying to get the spare room and office organized and cleaned, mainly so he has a place to sleep, but more importantly so he doesn't think I am a complete slob. My idea of cleaning some days is to just make piles and for some reason those piles just keep getting shuffled around and around.. hmm.. I think I need to figure out a better method.

August means only one thing in this house-- Clark County Fair-- Steve works A LOT of shifts and is gone A LOT and I tend to miss him A LOT.. it makes for a very long week or so and when it's over, every year I feel the same sense of relief. Like I said, I'm beginning to wonder if I even remember what he looks like. Most of the shifts he works allows him to come crawl into bed at some ungodly hour of the morning and then get up to work his day job a few short hours later. Like I said.. busy busy.

After the wedding, Steve and I invested in some canning tools. Since we've been so busy with the garage sale I haven't even had time to think about WHAT I want to can, let alone HOW to do it.. That is close to the top of my to-do list.

I have been searching craigslist for a sewing machine for probably months now, and I finally found one!! I bought it for $25 and the lady said it had never been used. I am dying to make some pillow covers, curtains, and aprons. (Do you get the sense that people are going to be getting homemade Christmas gifts this year?!) Steve also found a whole box of tiles in the attic.. YES!! I was planning on taking a trip to Home Depot to get some in order to make us some new coasters, but now I have a ton of them at my disposal!! I can't wait!! (again, do you sense homemade Chirstmas gifts this year?!) Now I just need to tackle my to-do list so I can have some fun, work before play..

It's official! Most of my things are changed over to Sabrina Thornton!! Who knew this would be so exciting and such hard work!! Lots of sitting on hold, lots of sitting in lines and lots of driving around. Thankfully though I think I am close to the end of this whole ordeal. and I just love pulling out a card from my wallet or getting something in the mail that says SABRINA THORNTON!! Makes me smile.

Remember that To-Do list I mentioned earlier?? ......... Until next time!

Cheers!

We're Married!!

Our photos will be coming soon (fingers crossed as the anticipation is killing me!!) But for now here is a quick collage of our mini-honeymoon. We stayed in Garibaldi Oregon and spent a few days traveling around the Oregon coast. We had a nice relaxing time, but sadly it ended too soon! We were both in agreement that we needed more time not only together, but away from everything. Oh well, I guess life doesn't exactly work that way..

We're trying to get back in to the swing of things and enjoying being husband and wife! Lots of love in these hearts!!

Happy Birthday Steve!

Here is the Photo- Collage I promised!{Let me tell you-- I can get used to doing this! What a fun time I had making my fist photo-collage!}

With All My Love. Cheers to MANY MANY more happy birthday's spent together! ♥

Lots of Deep Breaths..

...We're still here.

As humans we like to sit and make excuses about why we haven't called or stopped by or written and as much as I would love to do that today or to even say that I am going to go against human nature, I cannot. Instead all I can do is to give you one simple phrase:

~Wedding Planning~ 

Yes that is correct.. it has all but consumed our lives lately. Calls to the caterer,  trips to the craft store to pick up last minute forgotten things, numerous calls and texts to friends and family member's to try and get those last RSVP's back, and lots of moments of remembering what this day is all about-- FUN!

I can successfully say that we are pretty much complete with the process { that's right only 10 days to go!!}. We've got a few last things to tie up {downloading some music, finding some floating candles that don't cost us an arm & a leg etc.} but overall we are ready for the day to be here. Only one last detail-- WHERE'S OUR SUN?!?!?! 

**ok now on to the fun updates {not that wedding planning isn't fun.. I just could use a mental break this morning}. 

Our house is almost complete. We've painted the master bath and replaced the light fixture in the hallway. {photos to come soon} and now we are trying to get the spare room and office {which have become our dumping ground} organized. It's a much larger task then one might think. Who knew we had so much... STUFF!?!? Yes a garage sale is still in our near future.. just after all this wedding business is over with. One less thing to try and worry about right now.

We recently {as in Sunday/Monday} celebrated Steve's 25th Birthday! What a fun time it was! We started the celebration off with homemade spice cake {per the birthday boy's request}with lots of family and friends.We then headed out to Steve's favorite place to eat,El Tapatio with a few close friends.Steve was hurting a bit that night-- lots of good food and drinks always makes for a happy birthday!The following morning {Steve's actual birthday} he was treated to a professional massage and lunch.We made a stop over at the rehabilitation home to see Grammy and to drop her off some cupcakes since she was unable to join us. She was happy to be able to wish Steve and Happy Birthday. The evening concluded with a few rounds of Wii and the delivery of our new patio chairs! {I am going to try a new photo-collage program and hopefully get some pictures of the events to you later today.}

Looks like I should stop procrastinating and get to my errands.. Candles, cakes, music, money... it's haunting me in my dreams lately..

10days... 10 days...

♥

Engulfed

That's right folks, we've been engulfed... in what? You may be asking.... well let us tell you!

We had a great time hosting a Mother's Day lunch at our house. Keep in mind this is the house that hosts just us two on a daily basis with our lovely furry critters and at times THAT feels crowded. Add in two Mothers, a sister, a brother, and great grandmother and a nephew... Our kitchen table wasn't sure what to do!! We had a delicious pot of homemade baked potato soup with salad and bread too. Yum! {Recipe to follow}

Here are some pictures from our lovely event:

We also took a trip out to The Rusty Grape Winery to show off the venue of our upcoming vows. We took Sabrina's parents out there to see what it is all about. It was a fun night and we felt proud to show the lovely place we'd chosen.

We also celebrated Grammy's 98th birthday! Yes, that's right, 98! Wowza! She is one remarkable lady!

She was able to enjoy a lot of company that day, including her 3 grandsons, and some delicious (if I do say so myself) Red Velvet Cupcakes! {made by yours truly} Yum Yum!

Grammy with her 3 Grandsons.

We've also been busy setting up our spare room and hauling the rest of our belongings from Sabrina's mom's house to our house. Remember when I mentioned in a past post a remark about a garage sale this summer... Yep! Definitely in order! 

Work is slowing down for Sabrina, as the school year is coming to a close. We're keeping our chin up though and hoping for the best. In the mean time... she'll be engulfed in the house. .::Be sure to come check on me if I don't appear in public for a while!::.

Wedding Invites...

have officially been sent! And we are already getting RSVP's in the mail!! There is nothing more exciting then getting mail that is not junk or bills!! Keep 'em comin!


Sabrina has undertaken yet another painting project. She has started painting the spare room. It's tough moving around the dogs and all the "spare" stuff that has accumulated in there. However, once that room is complete that means that there is only one more room and a bathroom to go! We are making progress! Then it'll be time to move out all that stuff that has taken up storage at Sabrina's mom's house and sort through it... Can someone say Garage Sale this summer?!

Sabrina had quite the help and supervision while painting.

Easter is this Sunday. We've got a day jam-packed full of family. Starting with Brunch with Sabrina's family in the morning, Drake's Birthday Party in the afternoon and Dinner with Steve's family in the evening. Phew!

And... Spring is finally making an appearance around these parts! Welcome!

We've been to Texas and Back!

That's right ya'll we've recently been to the great state of Texas and back! We took a weeks vacation and flew down to Amarillo, Texas to meet and spend time with Steve's dad's side of the family. What a fun bunch! It was a great trip, considering they all had no idea we were coming!

While flying out from Portland, we had a beautiful view of the sunrise.

One of the first stops we made was a place called "Cadillac Ranch." There were literally Cadillacs sticking out of the ground. Only drawback to the visit... It was so windy!! Steve had to hang on to his hat the whole time to keep it from flying away! We attempted to find some spray paint cans with a little left to leave our mark, but didn't have any luck.

After a night of (much needed) rest, we set off to find Steve's dad and surprise him. They still didn't know we were there! It took a bit of driving around, but after stopping at a local gas station in Clarendon we soon found out that Ann, Steve's dad's wife, worked there! Fortunately she wasn't at work that day, so the lady called out to the house asking Steve's dad to come quickly, saying she had something to give him. What a fun time seeing his dad's face when he walked in! After sitting around talking for a while, we headed around the town. His dad showed us around and took us to his bait shop. We finished our tour just in time to surprise Lora and Carl  by picking them up from school. Their faces were priceless! Let's just say they appear to be well trained in the "stranger-danger" department. But they soon saw their dad in the front seat and hopped on in! After picking them up we headed out to the house to see Ann and spend some time doing one of our favorite past times-- shooting. Lots of fun!!

The view from their house was amazing! Such a beautiful place! Unfortunately it was quite windy so Steve's dad's boat took a bit of a tumble in the lake. He had to spend some time in the following days trying to un-sink it. We took a nice walk down to the lake and stood out on the dock for a while taking in the beautiful day. 

Later that afternoon we headed over to Pampa, Texas to surprise Steve's aunt Janet. She just about knocked him off the deck in a happy hug! After sitting and chatting with her for a while, we decided to surprise Steve's grandma and Don by heading out to dinner and inviting them to join us. It was great to see how excited everyone was to see us!

After all the excitement of seeing the family, we decided that a day of exploring Route 66 was in order! Although there wasn't a whole lot to look at (sadly), we had a great time stopping at a local biker stop and having some lunch in the sun. While we were sitting there, we got to witness some serious cop action! well not really, we actually spent the whole time wondering what what going on as the cops kept circling us over and over again. After a few hours we decided to take a drive around the block to see if we could spy anything else that was going on. With no luck we headed back. The next day we were telling Ann about what we saw and she said that she had read in the paper that there was an armed robbery. She was thinking maybe it was us and we were trying to pay our way through our vacation! Luckily they caught the guy so Steve was off the hook! 

This was one of Steve's favorite signs throughout the whole trip. Unfortunately Sabrina was driving most of the time so when Steve gave up trying to show her the sign, he took a picture of it so she could check it out later.

Steve's family suggested that we visit the Palo Duro Canyon if we wanted to take in some beautiful sights. We had a great time driving through the canyon.

As we approached the exit to the canyon, we came upon these big guys. Some good ol' Texas Longhorns! My they are massive! We stopped along side the road and watched a lady (a very brave lady with a very long poking stick) feed the longhorns. It was fun to watch how each of them went to their separate feeding dish and ate, and if one happened to be in the wrong place, they were sure to tell him to move along!

Steve's grandpa lives on a large ranch in Oklahoma. Unfortunately the drive out to his ranch would've taken us about 7 hours, we decided that if we were going to head out that way we should probably make a couple days out of it. Unfortunately again, we didn't have that much time. So instead his grandpa was willing to meet us halfway at a restaurant called The Cherokee Trading Post. We had a great meal (with some delicious onion rings!). It was fun to sit and chat with Steve's dad and grandpa, as well as Lora and Carl. When we finished eating we wondered over to the gift shop to look around and then outside to check out the buffalo. It was their nap time, so all we found them doing was laying in the shade. One of the favorite things from this day was being able to get 3 generations of Thornton men in a picture.

Steve's Dad, Steve's Grandpa, Steve and Carl

As we left Oklahoma we stopped at Route 66, but this time in Oklahoma.

Unfortunately the museum wasn't open, but we still had a great time looking around the outside of things and Carl sure had a great time climbing on everything. He even struck a few poses for me up in the tree.  It was such a beautiful day!

As we were driving back from Oklahoma Steve was able to capture this breathtaking picture of the sun setting. I think we're going to have to find a place for this one in our house!

Up the road from our hotel, there was a restaurant called The Big Texan. Their advertisement was a free 72 oz. steak... the catch.. you had to eat it faster then anyone's previous time record. Yikes! Some people had eaten it in as little as 9 min! Steve decided not to take an attempt at that one.

On one of our last days, we decided to take a drive and look at some houses. First we went around and looked at "realistic" homes. We drove around some beautiful neighborhoods with beautiful brick homes and even found some massive ones right on the golf course! (dream on Sabrina!)  Then we decided to take a drive and find the historic part of Amarillo. The photos above are the treasures that we found! Aren't they beautiful!?

Sadly our trip had to come to an end... We spent the last afternoon having pizza and sitting around with all of the family.  It was a very nice, laid back way to spend time with them before we left.

On our drive back to the hotel that night, this was watching over us giving us a great view.

Thank you Texas for being such a great host to the future Thorntons. We sincerely appreciate it and we'll be back soon!