Spring Break- Day 2

Day 2, does it feel like it's going by too fast already!? Remember that list.. it's staring me in the face as I type... I'll get right on that.

Day 2's adventures:

I started the day by waking up at the crack of dawn, literally, 5am. Who does that on a day off?! and when you have the whole bed to yourself?! Me. That's who.
Pot of coffee, 2 dogs fed and walked, let the cleaning commence.
Hubby arrived home in time to help finish up the cleaning, oh how I truly appreciate his help. And his understanding of my need to have EVERYTHING spotless whenever we have ANYONE over, even family. (Thank you for allowing me this insane trait Hubby!!)
Steve's mom and her boyfriend, Mike, showed up not too long after to get some help with one of their rigs. Stupid starter. I made creme brulee and chatted with Mama T while the men did the car thing.
After a lot of effort and man time, fixing the car turned out to be a failed effort. (Sadly it is at the shop with Steve this morning, hoping to be fixed)
Car, mom-in-law and boyfriend left for a few hours. Steve and I enjoyed lunch together and watched a show from our mass amounts on the DVR (Body of Proof.. Have you seen it?!?! Hooked! And can't wait for this weeks!!)
Steve and Izzy napped peacefully.
I started dinner, woke Steve up (hehehe) and prepared for Mama T's birthday dinner! Creamy Chicken Enchiladas (What a hit!!) and Creme Brulee (always a hit!)

Happy Birthday!!

Much of our time was spent chatting, laughing, telling stories and trying to figure out words to pay on the good ol' phone. Oh technology...

  Such Thinkers!

  

 Even Izzy enjoyed having the company. So much so, that she was a bit worn out from the whole event. 

  Such a pretty girl! (She appears very well behaved in this photo, don't let it fool you!)

Ending the evening with walking the dogs and an early night to bed.

Couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend and start to spring break.

Holy Spring Fever...

Yes that's right, me, the girl who loves rain.. is officially saying I'm Ready For Spring!!! I need a little sunshine in my life, and I need to be able to walk outside for more then 2 seconds and without getting completely drenched. In the meantime however, while it still decided to pour outside, I am on spring break. And instead of laying out sunbathing somewhere much warmer and sunnier, I have made a list of things to clean/clean-out. Can anyone say "spring cleaning"??

Let's see if I can actually stick to my list though.

Here's a few examples from my list (maybe it will help keep me accountable??)
-Clean out "cleaning closet" (makes a whole lot of sense right?!)
-Clean and organize office-- this is quite the task, believe me. Maybe some before/after photos? oooh that'd be so embarrassing to share..
-Clean out bathroom cabinet
-Make new coasters for living room (our current ones still have penguins dressed in scarves on them..)
-Make dog treats

If weather permits:
-Weed front yard
-Paint pots in back yard
-Replant house plants in different pots


I love making lists.. I love the feeling of being able to cross things off and see all that I have accomplished. Here's to hoping I get to cross a whole lot off!


On another note.. yesterday was day one of spring break, here's how it went down.

Day 1
The morning started off with saying goodbye to my hubby for 24 hours. (He was on shift at the fire station.) Then what's a girl to do?! Why go thrift shopping with her mom for the day, what else?! Although I'd love to be able to tell you that we found some great bargains, I however sadly cannot. We did, however, get lost quite a bit, had a lot of laughs, found some great books and a few other odds and ends.
I came home after our shopping excursion to an empty house and dogs that appeared and acted as if I had starved them for days before returning. I did my nightly duty of feeding them and taking them outside to do their duties. (by the way, I managed to do this in between rain storms!!! is it sad that that is quite the excitement and accomplishment lately!? Hence the spring fever I suppose..)
I then sat down to a piece of leftover pizza for dinner and managed to meal plan for 2 weeks and make a grocery list. Then it was time for me to head off to the ol' grocery store. While grocery shopping, apparently I managed to miss yet another massive rain storm. Yay me!
Then it was home to unload, put away and clean up the mess I had made. Is it time for bed yet?!
Remember when I said my day started with saying goodbye to my hubby?? Well that also meant that it would be completely acceptable to go to bed early right?! Wrong... I ended up finding other odds and ends that needed to be picked up or cleaned before hosting a birthday dinner the following day.
By days end, I was exhausted. I put the dogs to bed, got myself ready and imagined a restful nights sleep. Wrong again. I have such an issue sleeping when Steve is gone. I think the dogs do too. They pace, scratch, lick and anything else they can think to do to keep me awake. (Keep in mind, I write this as Steve and Izzy are taking a restful nap.. Nice huh? I kid... I know they need it and my mind is way too busy to nap..)

Quite an eventful day one. Day two holds a birthday dinner, massive cleaning of our house (before said dinner), and other various adventures.

Oh spring break.. you keep me so busy..

Happy Spring.. err... I mean Winter?!

That's right folks, here in the lovely Pacific Northwest we are not experiencing Spring quite yet. In fact, winter has decided to stick around for a while longer. When we went to bed last night, it was snowing a bit. The child in me wished so hard for it to keep snowing and pile up over night. The skeptic in me however knew that there wasn't a chance it would stick around, after-all it only snows at night right?!

Well this is what we woke up to this morning:

Now I know it's not a whole lot, and  most people around here are complaining that it's almost the end of March and we're still getting snow. But this girl could not be happier! I love the snow and for once it stuck around long enough to allow me to enjoy it for a bit in the morning before it disappears. Plus, a 2 hour late start.. this girl can't complain!

I'm off to drink a cup of something warm, enjoy the beauty outside my window, and savor my last few minutes before heading into work. Cheers!

Words

Recently I started reading The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts, little did I know how much it would apply to live and my everyday living. Don't get me wrong, I've only just begun, as in I'm on page 55, but I have just finished reading about the first of the five languages.

Words of Affirmation, a simple concept right?! Wrong... especially if you are not used to speaking in such a manner.
Now I know that according the the title of this book, and the many examples that is uses, it is supposed to be directed at spouses. And don't get me wrong, I fully intend to make sure my hubby feels and hears my words of affirmation for him. But I had a sneaking sense that this book would open up my eyes to all parts of my life.

There was a great example stated in this section of the book. It involves a husband and a wife and a room that needs to be painted. The wife has been trying to get her husband to paint this room for 9 months. Nice days come and go and her husband seems to always find something else "better" to be doing with his time rather then painting that room for her. The wife is then quite frustrated and reaches out to the author of this book (Gary Chapman) and asks what she could possibly be doing that is causing her husband to not want to paint this room for her. Gary then asks the woman "Are you sure your husband knows you want the room painted?" Stunned by the question she assures Gary that there is no possible way he could not know what she wants from him. She has told him over and over and over again. Then Gary asks her "Does your husband ever do anything good?" Surprisingly it takes the woman a while to answer, so much time that Gary even needs to give her a few examples of things he might do well. She agrees that he does do some things that she likes (such as taking the garbage out, paying certain bills, etc) and Gary then asks her to never mention painting the room again. The woman is stunned, again, wondering how on earth this is going to help her situation. Gary then asks her to do one more thing. He says, "next time he does anything good, give him a verbal compliment." He gives her a variety of situations that could happen and compliments she could be giving her husband. The woman is quite reluctant but agrees to give it a try. Three weeks later she returns to tell Gary that his advice worked, the room was painted!
Now keep in mind the point of this story was not that we need to give verbal compliments in order to get something that we want from our spouse, but that we are willing to do nice things for the ones we love when we are truly feeling that love. When we receive those affirming words we are far more likely to be motivated to reciprocate and do something our spouse desires.

What a concept right?! Well, like I said, it's not always as easy as it looks. And I also said that I took this as a great life trait, not just for my marriage. It made me think of my adorably cute kindergarteners that I work with day in and day out. They teach me many things, all day, everyday. However, patience is not one of them. I am always wondering "why are they not hearing me ask them to clean up and move on to the next task? Am I not speaking clearly? Loud enough? What is it?" I end up with a sense of frustration everyday (yes, this takes a lot for me to admit that I could ever get frustrated at such tiny humans, but I'm human, we all do things we aren't proud of..) After reading this section of the book, I caught myself wondering... Am I giving them words of affirmation enough?? Am I building them up so that they will want to show me their 'love' and appreciation and do what I ask?? I'm afraid to admit that my answer might be no most days. Kind of breaks my heart a bit.. but like I said, I'm human. I'm going to make mistakes. And today is my vow to change.

Words of Affirmation, this round is on me!

Long Story, Short.

I forgot my password that allowed me into this lovely blog of mine. In order to obtain said password, I needed to re-open my already deleted old 'SabrinaHunter' email address that I thought I was rid of for the rest of my life. Not so fast I suppose. Once all is said and done, months and months later.. here I am, back in business and ready to type type type.

There's so much to catch up on, and frankly I'm far to tired (after teaching, report cards, taking care of dogs, picking up the house, laundry and cooking dinner for a hubby who is at drill all evening) to even type out what all has happened in my (our) lives since I've last been on. If you really want to know, I'll find a way to tell you one of these days but for now, I'm going to give you  the shortened version:

*Married.
*2 day honeymoon to the Oregon Coast.
*Planned a week long honeymoon to Mexico- Happening this July.
*Teaching Kindergarten- maternity leave.
*Trying new recipes all the time.
*Still have a messy office- not sure if it'll ever get clean (Spring break?!...)
*Became a part of the smart phone world.. already needed to get a new phone. Happier now.
*Celebrated another birthday- 26 now.. Wondering where the time is going? Still feel like I should be playing house, not actually taking care of one.
*Spending lots of time with Grammy- now in a home. Learning how precious life truly is.
* Reading a lot more this year. 5 books down already.
*Learning to relax. Still learning...
*Laughing and enjoying being married.
*Spending lots of time wondering where life is going to take us and what it's going to offer in the coming years.


That about sums it up.
I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things- now that I have my password... don't think for a moment that I'm going to let this bugger out of my sight ever again! Oh technology... We will probably always have a love/hate relationship. For now.. it's love. Thanks for giving me my blog back. Much love.

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!!