I'm getting MARRIED

On Christmas Day 2010, Blair asked my parents for their blessing.
On February 5th, 2011, Blair asked me to be his wife.
On July 23, 2011, we will both say "I do".

AND I'M REALLY EXCITED!!!

I love you, Blair! <3

Are You Asking For Something Big?

I'm on the email distribution list for the local Christian radio station...I'm also an avid follower of my favourite DJ's (Sarah Taylor) blog. I received this email from her from the station, and I really liked it. So I thought I'd share. :)

Hi Sarah, Remember being a little kid and dreaming about gifts you'd get on Christmas morning? Those 3am wake-ups on Christmas morning because you were so eager for the day to begin. Do you still have a child inside? Are you asking God for something big this year? The Bible says, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask for anything according to his will. He hears us. And we know that if He hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have the requests which we have asked of Him." ( 1 John 5:14-15) Like kids in our pajamas let’s wake up with this full expectation of God’s willingness to bless us. Hugs,

Merry Christmas!!!

My song/prayer for today

The house that built me

I was driving to work one day, and a song came on the radio that I had heard several times before. It was Miranda Lambert's song The House That Built Me. It's all about returning to the house you grew up in and the impact that location had on you. Here's the video...



I definitely like this song and the lyrics, but I hadn't really done much thinking about it. That morning though, I got to thinking about the words...and how I didn't have a house like that. Being in a military family, I moved every few years. There wasn't one place that I considered to truly be HOME. Boo hoo.

And then I realized that yes, in fact, I did have a place that really shaped who I am: my grandparents' cabin on Marrowstone Island. I spent many a summer vacations at that cabin, fishing, beach combing, geoducking... It was where my Grandpa Boyd (an OB/GYN) taught me about the reproductive system (we were fishing and caught a pregnant sand shark). Where I fed apples to deer with my bare hands in the front yard. Where I would catch baby flounder with my hands in little tidal pools. Where I learned how to find and catch Dungeoness crab. Where my sisters and I got chased down by wild seals while we were in a row boat in the middle of the Puget Sound. Where my parents used to call me in for dinner by the sound of a conch shell.

Grandpa Boyd and me in the small swamp area in front of the cabin. He used to row us around.
Best.tree.swing.ever.
Grandpa Boyd and me, with our sand shark catch of the day.
Same tree swing. Fabulous times. (minus the time Mary broke her collar bone on it. Sorry, Mar)
I love catching sand shark. They put up a decent fight for a junk fish. And you can turn their eyeballs into superballs.

The cabin was the house that built me....Taught me to love the outdoors. Gave me a great bond with my family. Made me fall in love with the Pacific Northwest.

Even though my family had to sell that cabin several years ago when my grandfather passed away, it still remains my favourite place in the whole world.And when I realized that while I was driving to work, I burst into tears. Tears...on my stupid commute. I felt like an idiot. But it was "a moment." hehe
I recently had the privilege of going back. I was technically trespassing, so I didn't stay for longer than an hour. :) But it was a good hour. An hour of rejuvenation and good memories.

I love and miss that place!

Geoducking

I had to introduce Blair and Jessica to an extremely Pacific Northwest tradition: geoducking. It was an absolute must.

A geoduck (pronounced "gooey-duck") is a really big clam, with a shell that's typically 5-8 inches long. They can be down in the sand about 3-6 feet, and they sure take a lot of digging.

One technique is using a caisson. A caisson is a metal or plastic tube that you shove into the sand around the geoduck to keep the water and sand from collapsing in on the whole that you dig. So we made our own caisson by chiseling off the bottom of a basic sturdy metal trash can. And of course, we decided to do this in the middle of the night so we had to do it by car headlights. heheFinished product. :)Now that we had our supplies, we headed out for the fun stuff. There were a lot of rocks, so we had to dig on the outside of the caisson too, in order to get the rocks out of the way so we could shove the caisson down farther. But it worked!Our goodies. :)When we were done digging (which only happened because the tide started coming back in. hehe), we decided to just play. And I caught a fish with my bare hands!!
It may be super small. But yes, it really is a fish. lolAnd then I caught a crab with my shovel. Normally, I just pick them up from their back legs. But this poor guy (yes, it was a male crab) was missing one of his back legs. :(To celebrate our success, we decided to get our smores on.
YUM!Such a FUN day!!

Sounder's game

I finally got to see my very first pro soccer (football) game! Blair was kind enough to give me a tutorial the couple of days prior so I had some knowledge of what was going on. Definitely helped.

It was so much fun! First of all, the Sounders FC has become HUGE in Seattle. So it was really neat to be able to partake in a new Seattle tradition. Secondly, it was the Sounders vs. Celtics game. So, as you can see from the picture below, there were Scots all over the place. I LOVED that part. The announcer had a Scottish accent (and that sure made listening to him much more enjoyable, even if I didn't understand exactly what plays he was talking about. hehe) and the band was a group of kilt-wearing bagpipe players. *joy*

We had to get a shot at the beginning of the match, in our newly acquired Sounders gear. :)

One of the best parts of the game: I knew what was happening half the time. AND I was able to explain plays to my parents. Oh yeah.

The lot of us, enjoying our first, of hopefully many games.

GO SOUNDERS! (we didn't win, but it was still fun! and I even got to see a player get red carded. unfortunately, it was OUR player. but still, a rare treat)

Mariner's game

I grew up going to Mariner's games during my summer vacations. To me, Ken Griffey, Jr. WAS the Mariners. I miss him. But I still love going to the games. Yay for fun Mariner's games!

Not the best seats in the world, but at least they were in the shade for this super hot and sunny game.

Having fun!

I love this stadium. :)

The Mariner's may not win very often, but at least we always have a good time!

God's cake

My co-worker, Dick, shared this with me the other day. I really liked it, so I thought I'd pass it your way....

Sometimes we wonder, 'What did I do to deserve this?' or 'Why did God have to do this to me?' Here is a wonderful explanation! A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, 'Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.'

'Here, have some cooking oil,' her Mother offers.

'Yuck' says her daughter.
'How about a couple raw eggs?' 'Gross, Mom!'
'Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?'

'Mom, those are all yucky!'

To which the mother replies: 'Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! '

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.

Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

I hope your day is a "piece of cake"!

Other pics from my time in Arizona

As if I have to prove that I actually have a life, I take pictures. It's just what I do. Here are some (okay, more than some...) from my fabulous trip to Arizona.

One of the things I REALLY wanted to do on my trip was take my nephews fishing. So we went to this beautiful lake not too far away from where they live. I had no idea it existed. And boy was it pretty. I love this photo of all of us.

Marc-Andre is pretty good at casting. He knows how to get the line out pretty far.

Luc had so much fun!

The Broussard bunch waiting for the hooks to be baited.

Photographic proof that Mary broke the law. Neither of us had a license, so only the kids were supposed to be fishing. *tisk*tisk*

I really like this one too. :)

At the end of the day, we still had a few minnows leftover. So the boys decided to throw them overboard. Before:

After:

We had no luck. That's pretty typical though...for me at least. But I was so glad to be able to go fishing with them! Had a blast!

On the way home, we decided to take a bunch of pictures of the beautiful scenery and then go check out this old ghost town.

Then on another wonderful outing, we decided to take the boys to the Arizona State Fair. It was a lot more expensive than we expected, so we just had the kids go on a couple of rides. But at least it was fun!

On our way there. Can you tell they were excited?!

We started with the car ride. Luc drove and was concentrating SO hard the whole time.

And then they went for a nice boat outing. This time, MA got to do the driving.

Then they rode the train. It was kind of lame. The boys even looked a little bored...and that's hard to do because they like trains. Oh well. haha

After the transportation rides, we decided to change things up a bit and let them do the obstacle course "ride". This was great because they could just run, climb, jump all over the place. They LOVED this one.

Later in the trip I decided to make cupcakes with them. It was my duty to show them some of the better parts of life. ;)

And then just some random shots:
Rob and Mathieu. Obviously father and son.
Playing on the airplane in Babies R Us
Don't they just make you happy? :)
I'm such a proud Aunt!