This Week

Not much to report...I exercised more this week, and it feels so good to be slightly active. I know I haven't lost any weight but I do feel like I'm skinnier and better-looking now, and I just feel a lot healthier.

We go back to Fallon again in a few days...another wedding!!! I'm excited to see Matt, Areo, and Serenity again (brother-in-law, soon to be sister-in-law, and adorable niece), and to spend time with all of Stephen's relatives. It'll be busy again, but should be fun!

My life feels pretty boring right now, though. I've just been working, taking care of the house, and watching movies with Stephen. I wish I had something more exciting to share...but oh well, I'd rather be boring than have all the stress I'm used to.

Oh...Stephen and I went and watched the college's summer play (each summer they do a Shakespeare adaptation and perform outdoors)--it was Macbeth. The adaptation was a little different and not really my taste, but they did ok...not great, but good. Stephen and I couldn't do it this year because we knew we'd have to be gone to the wedding during the performance dates. It was certainly different to not be involved this time, but I've really enjoyed the break. This is the first time since we moved here that I haven't been in whatever play is going on at the school--it's crazy to realize that! I've felt so much less stressed, though, not being involved this time. Even my boss noticed...the other day she told me how she'd been thinking I seemed really "rested" and relaxed, and she thought to herself "I'll bet she's not in the play." Funny how people can know us so well :)

Well...that's about all I have to say for tonight. Have a great rest of your Sunday evenings!

ugh...

migraine today...yuck! I've been laying around with all the lights off, but it's not helping much. I barely made it through all of work and then I made myself walk home (instead of the bus) because I needed to get my exercise in for the day...probably shouldn't have. I'm just bored and lonely and hurting. I guess I'll go lay back down.

Exercise

Little by little, I'm working on it. Yesterday I got up and did some yoga (and MAN, am I feeling it today!!) and today I walked home from work instead of taking the bus. Tomorrow I'll have to make sure I get up early and do another exercise video, probably yoga again (thanks to Janet for letting me borrow some videos!). It makes me feel better inside...more alive, more active, and much more optimistic and happy!!

Today was another day where I haven't gotten to see much of Stephen, just a little bit this morning and during his dinner break tonight. I worked all afternoon, and he's working all night...I hate these days, but I'm just grateful we both have such good jobs right now.

I guess that's about it...maybe I'll get up and vacuum the house before Stevo comes home :)

"Home Again, Home Again Jiggety-Jig"

(that's part of a cute little children's rhyme I remember)

It's good to be home again. We got back late Monday night, and it's taken me all week to get back into to swing of life and feel ready to get blogging again. It was sort of weird...I got home and totally felt no stress. I kept feeling like there must be things I needed to do, but then I started realizing that there really weren't. I don't need to stress!! It was a very liberating feeling (unfortunately I'm starting to feel it wearing off)! I'll just have to keep reminding myself that I'm not busy and there's nothing to be getting stressed out about (I tend to find things to worry and stress over when I don't need to).

We had a great visit back in Fallon. I loved getting to be with all my family again, and it gave Stephen a chance to get to know everyone better and grow more comfortable as a part of the family. I just LOVE family!!! I love my old Bake family, I love my new Achurra family, and I love my own little family with Stephen, Nellie, and Shadow. It's just so happy to be a part of families!

Anyway...this trip was very exciting and special because Nathan is the last one of my siblings to get married, so it's the first time everyone was together. My sister-in-law Heather was able to come too this time (she hasn't been able to come visit for several years), so she got to meet Stephen, Levi (a brother-in-law), Jackie (newest sister-in-law), and all the grandkids for the first time. It was so good to see her again, and get to know her better as an adult (most of my relationship with Heather was from when I was a young girl). Unfortunately, I just realized tonight that I don't have any pictures with her. All the pictures we took with everyone were by the photographer since, obviously, no one could use my camera and be in the picture at the same time. Bummer! I just have a few pics from when either Stephen or myself could use the camera. I'll share a few of my favs:

(me and cutie-pie Sarah)

(the happy couple)

(our camera accidentally got switced to a lower resolution for this one...bummer, because it's a good one of us)

(me and my sisters)

(after cleaning up, some of the boys and my dad tried to take care of some of the leftover lemonade)

(Stephen and John were the only ones who finished!! And Stephen probably drank the most...that's my Thirsty Boy!)

We spent most of our time with my family and just visited a little bit with Stephen's because it was busy wedding time for my family. But we'll be going back to Fallon in a week and a half for Stephen's brother's wedding, so we'll spend our time with Stephen's family then. It was very busy with the wedding and reception and whatnot, but I got in lots of nice relaxing time and some nice piano playing time. I really miss having a piano around to sit down and play whenever I felt like it. It was always such a soothing thing for me!


I helped my mom decorate for the reception, which I LOVE to do! It's so fun to figure out how to make spaces look beautiful and work well. Part of me still wants to go into interior design. I got to hang out with Robin at the reception (when she wasn't taking pictures for us) which was the best...I've been missing her! I also got to sit and hang out with good old Jo Horne (it was sooooo exciting to see him), and a little time with Mark Hubbard and a few of Nathan's old friends from high school (the boys of my freshman year!) Lots of fun!!!


As a brief complaint...it was SO HOT!!! I've been so spoiled up here with our perfect medium climate that I forgot how incredibly hot and nasty it gets down in Nevada. We spent a lovely afternoon in a little pool with the kiddies, but it didn't help too much. I was so relieved to come home to my Washington rain (I haven't seen the sun all week)!! I read a book this weekend...started it Thursday and just kept reading until I finished last night. I really love lazying around reading and reading (another relaxation like playing the piano). It was another Michael Crichton book ("Timeline") and now I'm all caught up on reading and owning all his novels!! It was loads of fun...and now I think I'm going to start reading all the Harry Potter books (believe it or not, I haven't read any of them...but I like the movies). That's enough for tonight, I suppose...have a great week everyone!

Continuing On...

The last post and its pictures were driving me crazy!!! I just can't get them to sit where I want them to, and I keep ending up with unnecessary space. So I gave up and figured I'd just keep talking in a new post.

So yeah, the 4th of July was a blast! Stephen had work off on Friday and I only had to work until noon, so after work we decided to drive to Silverdale and go to the mall and other shopping places...just for fun! We didn't buy anything, but we had fun browsing and walking around (especially in Barnes and Noble). Unfortunately I was a bit sick that day, so I wasn't in the very best of spirits.

Today I finished Sarah's blanket...I think it's one of my favorites I've made so far. I let Shadow have the leftover yarn to play with, but he wasn't nearly as exctied about it as I'd hoped. He played with it, but not much. I was able to snap a few shots of him with his mess, though...

FIREWORKS!!!

It's been a really good week and a bad week. That sounds a little strange, but there were things that were really great and some not so great.

Let's just get the bad out of the way...so, believe it or not, I got sick AGAIN!!! I'm so tired of getting sick! I've noticed I've been getting sick a lot and it just doesn't seem fair. This time was especially frustrating because there was no reason for me to be getting sick. I'm not stressed or busy like I was during school, I've cut down on my eating-out habits and I've been trying to fix good, healthy meals here at home, plus I've been drinking bottles and bottles of water each day which has drastically cut down on my soda intake. So WHY am I still getting sick!?! At least it wasn't too bad this time...just an icky head cold that only lasted 3-ish days. I guess I must just have a really weak immune system. My mom pointed out that I've been prone to getting sick my whole life. Why must I be so weak!?

Besides that, I had fun this week. We had a great 4th of July!!! Stephen and I slept in late and then just sort of hung out and drove around town until he had to go to work (he only had to work a couple hours because they decided to close early). On the spur of the moment, Jenny and Clay and Stephen and I decided we wanted to hang out that night, so we had a last-minute barbecue. Jenny and I went shopping for items of food we didn't have (and lots of candy!) while Stephen and Clay worked at the store together. The food was delicious (and the candy, even yummier!). There is an empty little grassy area at the end of the street here (just a couple blocks away) that sits on the bluff and overlooks the water where the fireworks were going to be, so we had planned on taking blankets down there and playing games until it was dark. But it took longer to barbecue than we'd expected, so we just had to hurry over there in time for fireworks. We thought it wasn't a well-known place (we thought it'd be our little secret) because we'd checked it periodically and there wasn't anyone saving spots or anything, however by the time we got over there it was PACKED!! Luckily we found a little space to lay down a couple blankets and enjoy the short fireworks show.

Afterwards, we came back to our house and Clay shot off all the fireworks they'd bought. Us girls just watched and Stephen took some pictures and video clips. All in all, it was a fun night!


This one's just really cool!!! We have some cool video clips of the fireworks we set off, but I don't think I can put them in here.

Here's Clay the Pyro!!!

This was one of my favorites of the firecrackers. It was a little thing that spin around and around on the ground, and then at the end the top popped up into this cute little Chinese tower!!

And here's Jenny (with her baby belly!) and I watching from the sidelines.

So Close

I'm so frustrated!!! I'm trying to finish up the blanket I'm making for my niece Sarah, but I ran out of yarn (again!). I was soooo close!!! Just a few more inches would have been enough.

All I had left were two more of the little ripple things on the border--2 or 3 inches total. So this means I'll have to pull out the whole border and redo it differently so that it doesn't take as much. I already pulled the border out and took out a couple rows of blanket to give myself more yarn...I thought I'd gotten enough extra, but I guess not! And of course I'm too cheap to just go buy more yarn, plus I don't want to buy a whole skein of yarn just to use a tiny bit of it. I hate having extra yarn laying around. I was just hoping to finish it tonight, but now I'm too frustrated to do it. I just can't get over how incredibly close I was!

Here are some other pictures I took of it tonight. I realized I've made so many beautiful blankets and things and given them away without ever taking any pictures, so I'm trying to make up for that.

My favorite part of this pattern is the cool little ripply border. I think it turns out so cute!! This is the second time I've used this pattern.

You can't really tell in the pictures, but the color is so gorgeous! It's this really bright pinkish-red (more red than pink). I guess it's sort of like a neon red...and I love it!!! I get so tired of the usual pastel pinks and blues for babies, so I try to branch out a bit more. And this color just seemed to fit Sarah...she seems like a red type of girl, not a pink. Here are some pictures of cute little Sarah...she just turned one year old last week (and actually, I think that little dress she's wearing is the same color as the blanket):