Autumnal Visit

Look who came to visit me last week!

EZRA!!

Autumn has been a friend since high school and a close friend since college. Life has changed a lot for both of us in the past year since our single days of galavanting together. With boyfriends, engagements, weddings, and baby boy all coming along, things are a bit different and yet so much the same. I'm so thankful for our long thought-provoking talks. We are so completely different and yet sometimes its uncanny the similarities that we DO share. Autumn was 6 months pregnant at my wedding and with a new baby and a busy schedule, this was her first trip to come see me in my new house. So glad you came down, friend! Thank you for making the trip and brining your handsome little guy too.

Autumn may love books more than anyone I know (even my husband who is a big fan) so I took her and Ezra to visit our favorite bookstore: Monergism. We both found some fun new books to read too! What have you been reading lately?

Autumn in Wright Park

20 years ago. Loving on my brother in the fall!

Same park 3 years ago. Somewhere in there he outgrew me...

Christmas Gift Idea

Photo by BEEHARR Photography

This is my niece giving her thumbs up before heading down the aisle to do her flower girl duties at my wedding. (Well technically she was actually a snowflake girl because of my winter theme but she did have flowers in her hair). Anyway, I bring this up because I thought I'd give a plugs in for my brother-in-law's business in case you are trying to come up with creative gifts for Christmas.

Brian took this photo and many other wonderfully candid shots at my wedding. Photography is a hobby of his and he is available for weddings or family photo shoots if you are in the Southern California area--But that is just a side-note of what I want to call your attention to. Brian has a side business of making personalized newspaper pages. Since he's made a career of designing front pages for the LA Daily News, he's quite good at it and if you are looking for a unique gift for someone who is hard to shop for, I know you won't be disappointed!!

photo source

Brian's Blog: http://beeharrphotos.blogspot.com/

Brian's Etsy Page: http://www.etsy.com/shop/YourFrontPage

Brian's Business Website (Still in the works): http://brianharrimages.com/

Long Distance Love

Photo by Sandra Cowan

I got to talk to my love today. He's doing well and although neither of us would prefer to be apart, we can appreciate some of the benefits. For example, when we talk for hours on the phone each night it is reminiscent of our long-distance dating days. There really is something different when you have to put in the effort to really talk about things. Today marks 9 months since our wedding day and while I forgot to wish Chris a happy anniversary on the phone, I realized later that we have reached the point where we have been married longer than not married. I'm not sure if that means those dating days will begin to grow hazy as we continue to add time to the married side of the ticker...but just for that reason it makes me thankful for these special times to just talk and write letters and be reminded of those sweet getting to know you days.

NC

My trip out east to see my husband brought me to North Carolina. I've never been there before--only heard about it from my friends who grew up there (hello, Dana!). I really loved everything about it though. The people were friendly, the weather was great, the scenery was green with a few trees changing colors, and I saw cotton growing for the first time! But best of all, I got 5 more days to spend with my love before he shipped outta here.
As soon as I flew in, Chris took me to the North Carolina State Fair which was huge! Definitely comparable to the Puyallup! We stuffed our faces with yummy fair food and checked out the animals and other events. The whole weekend was a special time together and we were so thankful for the surprise trip. God is good!

I flew home Tuesday night and Chris went overseas yesterday so keep us in your prayers!

Portlandia

Portland is definitely a unique place. In some respects it reminds me of Tacoma, and yet there are certain qualities that are so uniquely Portland. Like this "piano planter" I saw in someone's yard the other day while we were driving by. I wonder if they intentionally meant to grow plants out of it or if they moved it out of the house and it never got farther than the yard...We'll probably never know the answer to that...

Fall, Hat, & News

We've had some beautiful fall days lately which almost make it hard to stay inside. I've been trying to get into running more too so the dry weather is some extra incentive to get out there! On my last run I couldn't resist collecting some of the beautiful fall leaves that had already fallen. They are now cheerfully sitting with my pumpkins on the mantle along with our "Happy Harvest" card from the Katterman and Benevidez families.

I also finished the "Lemon Curd Slouch" this week. Doesn't it feel good to get a knitting project off the needles? I ignored it for quite a while because I ran out of yarn on my first skein. Thankfully I had another already...I was just too lazy to dig it out and continue for a couple weeks. Does that ever happen to you?

This is my friend Ali's pattern from her blog Knittybutton. It is one of her popular ones and I definitely think its really cute. However,  I don't think I have enough hair for this hat, Ali! I think if I were to knit it again for myself I would make the brim just a little smaller--or else I need to knit it up a little bit tighter which may be part of the problem. Anyway, I think it may need to go to someone with thicker hair than myself.

(Ali, I had to take photos of myself since famed-knitting-photographer Paul wasn't here to take them... ;-) This was the best I could do and definitely taking some from the back was impossible!)

My title promised news as well and I have some pretty great news: (no, not baby news...)

I get to go see Chris this weekend! We found out he has some days off before he leaves and since we had a free ticket from getting bumped this summer (which is actually a pretty crazy story that you should ask me about sometime), it was kinda a no brainer for me to join him for a few days. I'll be heading out Friday morning!! Some people have asked me if its worth a second goodbye, but I'm sure it will be! A good friend of mine always used to say: "It's not goodbye--it's see you later!" I'm just glad its sooner rather than later!