THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for a chance to sit on the church lawn last night and watch a gorgeous sunset while eating cake. What's something that you're thankful for?

TIME WITH LAURA

Laura was the first friend I made when we moved to the Portland area almost 14 years ago. Her family headed to another state last summer, but she came back for a visit and last night a group of gals were able to spend the evening with her. While everyone knew at least one other person in the group, no one knew everyone. That made for a fun evening of getting to know new people as we all chatted about trivial things, delved into some more serious topics, laughed, and ate good food.

Not only am I thankful for a chance to see this sweet friend, but also that two other friends were there - one who's moving out of state this weekend and one (another who was one of my first friends here) I rarely get to spend time with. It was a great four hours!

BIRTHDAY BAGS

I got a BMoff package in the mail yesterday!! I knew it was coming, but happy mail is fun even when you're expecting it.

I think this card and sticker that were in the package are so fun! 

Happy (early) birthday to me!! My sister said she wanted to make a cinch bag for me as a birthday gift. She let me choose the design and she stretched the comfort zone of her artistic spirit to satisfy her Type A sister's preferences. I love it!! 

Not only did I get the custom cinch bag I wanted, but she surprised me with a zippered pouch! I already have one with fir trees on it, which I just started using in place of my wallet this week, but now I have her mountain design. 

I love BMoff's OR/PNW art!

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful I decided to spent twenty minutes sitting alone in my back yard, relaxing with a hot drink in the cool morning air, before tackling the responsibilities of my day. What's one thing you're thankful for?

TWO SIDES OF DEVON

We saw a couple sides of Devon last week. 

First, the classy side. 

Devon's the most casual dresser of all the little Ws, but he chose to wear a buttoned shirt and tie for the completely low-key Memorial Day ceremony we attended at Belle Passi last week. His reason? It's Memorial Day! Of course, that's never been cause for him to dress up at all before, but whatever. He was in tennis shoes and had his shirt untucked, but still. A dress shirt. And a tie. Of his own accord.  

Second, the sweaty side.

He swapped the dress shirt for a t-shirt as soon as we got home from the ceremony and promptly started splitting wood.

He warmed up, changed into shorts, got a new tool, and kept at it.

His face is covered in the next picture, but something about his stance just makes him look so grown up to me.

He's thoroughly enjoyed this new opportunity to split wood and I'm really thankful for all the time he's spent doing it!

TIM'S A KEEPER

I was working in the yard on Friday morning when I noticed some flowers I'd never seen before. They were in a little patch of dirt that someone had roped off quite a while ago, but I'd assumed the area was just another one of Devon's wheat crops. It wasn't wheat that I saw there on Friday, though. It was irises. We already have some huge irises, but these were small like wild iris. In case you haven't caught this little tidbit along the way, my mom loved wild iris. 

I was on the phone at the time and interrupted the conversation to say I thought one of the Ws may have planted a bunch of iris bulbs as a surprise for me. Curious, I asked each family member about the flowers in person or via text until the process of elimination proved Tim had planted them. How sweet is that?

But it gets sweeter.

Not only did he plant them, but he attempted to bury the bulbs in a way that would spell out "mom" when they bloomed. That's a somewhat lofty goal that didn't work out the way he hoped, but the fact he tried is neat.

But it gets even sweeter.

He planted them in January, which was the 27th anniversary of my mom's death. 

Seriously awesome.

The purple one is my favorite because it looks the most like all the ones found growing in the wild.

But there are also yellow ones.

And white ones.

Such a thoughtful thing to do!!

Later that evening he asked if I wanted to go on a date. If so, we'd go. If not, he was hunkering down for the night. We were both pretty wiped out, so it was tempting to just lay low at home. We haven't had a date in a while, so we opted for going on a short, mellow date. 

We decided to walk downtown for ice cream at Paleteria El Paisanito. It was our lucky night because I found a dollar bill on the sidewalk, then he found one just down the block.

Then it was ice cream time. This dairy-deprived girl was pretty excited for this gluttonous treat! Cappuccino and coffee for Tim, lime and raspberries and cream for me.

The weather was dreamy, so we sat on the plaza to chat while we enjoyed our ice cream before walking back home.

We're human, so our marriage is definitely imperfect, but I'm really grateful Tim consistently works at being a good husband.

MEMORIAL DAY - 2019

We have a tradition of going to a Memorial Day ceremony at Belle Passi each year. It's a beautiful cemetery, so I usually take a picture of some part of it before we leave.  

Gabi came along this year, so we also took a group picture for an album we keep of things he's done with us.