6/27: HOOPFEST!!! part two!

Hoopfest continued onto Sunday. Brand had to work Saturday so I made him come with me for a second day of festivities to watch Dylan try to win the car (sadly he didn't) but we did walk around the food court and had some delicious yummy egg rolls! It was beautiful out! We also saw a balloon animal making clown smoke. Wish I could have taken a picture of that haha.

6/26: HOOPFEST!!

Hoopfest is the largest 3 on 3 streetball tournament in the world. This was my first year enjoying the festivities and it was a good one! I was able to watch my great friend Dylan and other friends Tom, Aaron, and Derek play a pretty fun game (yup that's 4..gotta have the backup). They had lost their first game early that morning and easily beat the team I watched play (3 man wolf pack). Apparently this team was drunk, sloppy and overly happy, they were thoroughly entertaining. Apparently the first team were huge jerks so these happy drunks were a nice change. They unfortunately lost their 3rd game which put them out of the tournament but they all had fun. Dylan qualified for the Toyota Shootoff after making a half court shot. The winner won a Toyota Rav 4. Dylan didn't move on the next day but it was cool to see him sink that first half court shot. Oddly enough, there was later a real shootoff as two rival gangs fired shots into the crowd...we weren't there and everyone was ok just a few people injured but released the next day.
But I had fun. I think growing up with the Boise River Festival has made community events like this fun and nostalgic.
Here's a peek at the game I watched them win..

6/25: A sight for sore eyes, and an empty tummy

I LOVE new grocery days! Having a stocked fridge and stocked cabinets is wonderful. When my parents would get groceries and we helped fill up our small kitchen with yummy goodies...it was awesome! Us ravenous kids so excited about the new treasures would start eating what we had. I still do that. As soon as we unload the groceries I grab something that caught my eye in the store..pudding, popsicle, a fresh bag of cheetos, and a yummy coke to go with it.

6/24: Well now that's interesting..

Usually I don't take pictures in the morning. I'm just out of it yet focused on the task at hand..get up, get ready, get out. So when I saw this little guy I had to take a picture. Good thing I noticed because had I not..it may have hurt...

6/23: Pepper...not good in abundance

Word to the wise..just because the recipe calls for all that pepper..does not mean you should put all that pepper on. I made some grilled pork tenderloin. It was supposed to be coated in a lot of pepper. I definitely questioned the amount of pepper they were asking me to put on it..but I did it. bad idea! I was coughing and could not eat the meat because of the amount of pepper. The meat was nice and tender and would have been great if it wasn't for the pepper. Thankfully I had some delicious mashed potatoes to calm my mouth down.

6/22: A room with a view

I pretty much just sit on my butt all day. I sit on it at work when I'm not running around fixing everything getting this or that because a certain co-worker is lazy and not so bright. I sit on it in the car going to different home visits, I sit on it at the home visits (sometimes on some questionable recliners...who asks someone to sit on their pee pad?!?!) Then when I get home to relax, I sit on it again. I'm lazy. So here's the view from my spot on the couch. Comes complete with sun-like boob light in the kitchen :)
Welcome to my life...brace yourself it's a wild ride.

6/21: A manic Monday

Today wasn't great. Started out to a visit to the bathroom at 4. I just had a zombie dream and didn't want to leave my bed...but man I had to pee!!! So I did it. I braved the dark hallway, the cold bathroom, and the mysterious shower (I had to pull away the curtain to make sure none of those zombies were cleaning up before they turned me into the undead!). When I came back I was getting into bed when I scared Brand and he reached up and put his hand on my throat. Scared the crap out of me! He thought I was Dexter trying to get on the bed. It's funny now but not so funny when you're scared of zombies!
Also with this 4 am pee alarm...I realized I was feeling sick. A bad headache, congested, just not well. When I woke up for good it was still hanging around and in a daze I drove to work. After about an hour I was feeling better! Which was good...but work sucked. I came home and was EXHAUSTED.
So today was a bit lazy and cranky. But I did take a picture of the cute kitty again...because how can you be sad when you are looking at a cute kitty...

6/20: Happy Father's day!

I just wanted to say a little thank you and I love you to my most amazing dad. He has shown me what it is to be a women of Christ, to be faithful and obedient, to be hopeful and just, to be humble and thoughtful.
I miss my dad everyday and I can't wait to see him again. He is such a light in my life and such a remarkable man. I can't wait to go skydiving with him on his birthday! I think it'll be a memory I'll cherish until the day I die.
I am also thankful that he is such an example of a loving father because that is one thing I needed in my husband. As much as Brand is resistant to being a dad yet, I see him with kids and he is such a natural. I definitely see a lot of my dad in him. I don't think I could have found such a great guy without my dad's influence and more importantly his faithful prayers.
When Brand asked my dad's permission to marry me my dad responded with the sweetest thing he could've ever said "Her mother and I have been praying for you since the day I first held her in my arms" I don't think I could have made it through this life without my dad and his prayers. I'll always know that my dad loves me and my siblings more than anything in this world. And that means so much to me :)
I also wanted to say a happy father's day to my big brother Josh! Josh is such an incredible daddy to his little Ollie. Josh is a lot like my dad in that he is a kid at heart so Josh is full of imagination, play, and love for Ollie. Josh is also so involved with Ollie's learning and is always trying to teach him something new. Just like me, Ollie has been blessed with some incredible parents. It's great seeing my big brother in such a precious role.
I love you daddy and Josh!
And now to the other "daddy" in my life..Brand..he's the best daddy to our little furry kids. And they love him. He crashed out on the floor for some reason and Bugg jumped off of me and snuggled up to him.
I can't wait until he's a daddy to our un-furry kids. When will that be Brand!!!??

6/10: Once upon a time..

There was a princess in a tiny castle. Even though she was a princess, she worked all day. One day, she just came home and was more tired than she ever has been (except the day after her royal wedding to her prince charming, 4 am is far too early to wake up for a long journey to that tropical place).
"Man I am tired!" she would say all day. She'd yawn and yawn and dream of that fluffy red lounging chair that she would rest her pretty little head on as soon as she would step foot in her castle.
She thought after a nap and a good night's sleep this feeling of exhaustion would go away. But alas! It did not! It kept coming back! Even after a good night's sleep and going to her bedchambers at a decent hour, she was still tired!
Night after night the big hand on the clock would point further south and she would retire earlier and earlier. Nothing helped!
Then one night...after a day of relaxation and fun with her prince...she was able to see those magical clock hands tick past an hour she has not seen for days! 11 o'clock! 'Twas a sight to be seen!
She couldn't believe it!
Victory!
She then took her small victory and headed to her bedchamber for a good night's slumber....
just for the exhaustion to wake back up in her and take her over once again...
She may have won the battle, but she is still fighting the war...

That's right folks..I stayed up to 11:30 pm on Saturday night! But like the story goes...I'm still exhausted all the time....and will soon be heading to bed...again..

6/18: A toy's story

I have been waiting 11 years for the 3rd Toy Story. And Friday night, I finally got to experience a story that is one of the brightest lights in my childhood. And it was magnificent. Toy Story 3 is the best movie I've seen all year. Brand and I were discussing it and why it's so great and I think because it touches something that we all have. Toys became our friends and playmates when we were children (especially if you were an introvert like me) they represent a place that was supposed to be pure and innocent where we were allowed to be naive and where we were supposed to be taken care of and where we didn't have to worry about so much. The Toy Story movies show us a time when we were young and toys were our life and to think of getting rid of them is pretty difficult. Heck, I still have most of my stuffed animals and my dad still has a bin with all my Barbies. To think of getting rid of them just is not something I'm ready to do. I loved them, especially my stuffed animals. I slept with every single one of them on my bed every night. They were my students when I played teacher or gymnastics coach, they were my kids when I played house, and they were my friends when I played the mystical, magical high school. Oh and how can I forget that they were my colleagues when I played Homicide detective. I LOVED my toys. So yes, I cried during Toy Story when you put yourself in grown-up Andy's shoes trying to figure out what to do with your most beloved toys. So when I got home I took a picture of my favorite and oldest stuffed animals...my white fluffy bear that has gone through a few names (mainly because Stephen stole one of the names and named his white bear it). My bear has gone through two parent's houses with me, college with me, and now has moved into my new home with my husband. I cannot wait to give him to my first child. I really do love this little bear.

So cute:)
Also one of the best things about seeing Toy Story is seeing all the kids not even born when the first two came out. When we left the theater we saw a little boy holding a Woody doll and a Buzz Lightyear. It was adorable seeing how Toy Story has a story that goes deep into every generation. I'm so excited to share these movies with my kids.

6/17: An Engaging Evening

Thursday was a celebration of an engagement of a friend to his girlfriend..and it also happened to be her birthday! So we got to meet up with old friends as we sat around quietly waiting their arrival to surprise her. It was pretty fun catching up with people we hadn't seen in awhile. Dani was one of the key people involved in the party and I'd have to say..she was my main enticement for coming. Dani is pretty awesome and I love hanging out with her. Our friends are leaving us behind this summer so we'll be hanging out a lot. I wrangled her up before we left the party to tell her I needed a picture of the day (she's gotten used to it with both me and Christie doing it) so we grabbed some balloons and got an idea! Get it..an idea?!?! Haha. Oh and I need to stop slouching..

6/16: A dog's best friend

Sometimes I just can't get over how cute Dexter is. He loves his little penguin and carries it around and snuggles with him. Sometimes he just licks it. I just had to get another picture of his loveliness...

6/15: Oh Crap!

Tuesday was a date with the Darrs. Sometimes when we have dinner with the Darrs it seems like a movie. We converse, eat dinner, and then Brand goes and talks shop with Jared while Amanda and I discuss woman things while playing with the baby. It's a bit surreal to do something that seems so grown-up. Dinner with another married couple. We do it monthly and we discuss our shared college years at Eastern, our jobs, the babies, the future babies, the dogs, food, and other grown-uppy things. I enjoy it though. It's still hanging out with friends we just have different things to discuss than stupid boys, stupid girls, celebrity fashions, and our deep dark secrets. The great thing is that we are still those people we're just a little older and married. For instance, Amanda was at the store and saw this magnificent cookie that she absolutely had to buy, it was big enough to split four ways so we enjoyed the awesomeness that was the cookie:

Cute little doggies playing on the grass with their bones...oh and chocolate poo piles. It pretty much does not get better than that :)
I love my friends, married, single, engaged, jaded, involved in the complicated relationships. I've never got why some married people think they can only exclusively hang out with married couples or they try to get their single friends married. I love marriage and I'm excited for my friends to experience it..but I'm excited for them now too. I'm excited for the lives they have now and the experiences they get to have. And I'm excited I have friends across the spectrum and that I get to spend time with all my friends and that I get to see all my friends live out their lives.
So even though the married couple monthly dinner date is a bit surreal, it's wonderful to spend time with friends no matter what the setting.

6/14: I am Iron Man!

Tonight was one of our favorite themed date nights we do once in awhile. "High School mall date!" We had some Orange Julius and Flaming Wok...Bourbon chicken and Sesame Chicken! YUM!!
Then we went onto see a movie we've been dying to see since the credits rolled on Iron Man. Iron Man 2!!! Both Brand and I are secretly in love with Robert Downey Jr and this time they rolled in some extra enticement in the form of Scarlett Johansson.
Such a great movie! It was so much fun, great lead into the Avengers and everyone was great. I especially loved the bad guys Sam Rockwell and of course Mickey Rourke. I'm so glad he's back in action. He was fantastic in The Wrestler and definitely deserved his Golden Globe for that performance. So it was great to see him on the grand scale (he wasn't even paid to do the Wrestler!).  We really really enjoyed the whole movie. And if you haven't seen the movie...stay until the end! So here is our version of Iron Man and Black Widow...in plain clothes of course...

Yes I'm aware it looks like I'm farting, you try doing a karate kick without flashing the camera what color of undies you're wearing.
In fact if my amazing great idea for my Halloween costume doesn't pan out..I may look into being Black Widow...heck yes.

6/13: A beautiful, wonderful, all around amazing terrific day

Today started out with a discussion as we were getting ready for church. At the end of the discussion we realized that with the winter and the lack of funds we had become comfortable in our hobbies. I love watching my netflix and Brand loves playing his video games. That's pretty much what we do. But now that the weather is nice and the funds are still low but a little more forgiving, we decided to break out of our little living room shell and just do whatever!
We did the good old Ekhoff picnic as I call it. It consists of KFC goodness and a park :) We decided to go to our spot in Manito Park. It's the spot we always go to, the spot we first said I love you, and the spot Brand chose to ask me to be his wife forever. It was the first time we've gone back since we got engaged and I did get a little choked up. It was so much fun. We discussed how we want to take maternity pictures there when the time comes, take family pictures, and just all in all bring our kids back over and over. It's a pretty plain spot compared to the rest of Manito but that works for us because we usually have it all to ourselves and just have to share it with some squirrels.
After a wonderful time we grabbed our tennis rackets and bought some tennis balls and hit the courts! I've been wanting to do this forever so I'm really happy we finally got to go. It was such a fun workout and it was cool seeing Brand do something he loves and is great at! He taught me how to serve and then we just played around. It was hot and the wind knocked over our water bottle but other than that it was so much fun! I can't wait to go back out there all summer.
Here are a couple of pics from the day :) I know it's supposed to be only one but I couldn't choose. I didn't get any tennis pics because I was too busy chasing the tennis balls everywhere.

The last view is the view of the three treetops. Our place is in the middle of three trees and this is what it looks like when you lie down. I like this because you can see the shining sun..finally!
I can't wait for many more days like this. I love summer :)

6/12: The life of the feline

I love seeing cats sleep. They're so peaceful. So..opposite..of how they normally are. They are usually moody, demanding, and completely on their own terms. But Bugg curls up all sweetly and looks like a little kitty angel. He was particularly comfy looking on Saturday. He looked like he was on the verge of falling but he slept there for quite awhile.

Seriously how comfortable does he look?

6/11: This is how we do

Friday was the official celebration of Mollie's birthday and graduation of a few of my closest friends. We rocked the house at Red Robin, laughed our butts off at Get Him to the Greek, and realized how old we were after being too exhausted to hit a second bar.
I had to miss the actual graduation ceremonies because I had to work. They moved them to Friday so they wouldn't have to pay any workers overtime for working on the weekend...very lame because then while I was busy doing work my friends were completing a very important chapter in their lives. I'm SO proud of them and wished I could have seen them walk that stage.
Like I've said before, it's crazy we're all out of college and moving on to adulthood. I graduated first out of most of my friends but it feels like we're all taking this step together, even though for me it began 2 years ago. Plus, now most of my friends are turning 24 with me (c'mon Alina, Dani, and Christie almost there!!!) and it's just weird that we're all growing up! But the thing about pretty much any of the people I choose to surround myself with...we might get older but sometimes we don't grow up.

And Mollie and I will lead the way to immaturity!

6/10: A very boring day...so here's my feet!

Rheanne might appreciate this post. Nothing happened on Thursday that I could take a picture of (confidentiality rules) so I decided to take a picture of my pretty pink toenails! I love summer because I get to wear my sandals and I love having my toenails nicely painted too. I'm hoping to get new colors. Mainly because all my bottles are really old and have crusted over, except my pretty pinkey orange that was bought by my bridesmaids for the wedding.

Man those are some ugly feet haha. OH well..at least the color is pretty :)

6/9: A sweet celebration!

Wednesday I got into the baking mood and baked 2 dozen cupcakes in order to help sweeten the celebration of two important events that actually took place on June 11.
June 11 was Mollie's birthday and also EWU graduation for class of 2010! Mollie also happens to be graduating this year...on her birthday :) So for Bible Study I brought some yummy cupcakes marking this important milestone in my friends' lives and to celebrate the birth of one of my best friends.

The color of the frosting was supposed to be red but I made do with pink since red would've painted our teeth. The frosting is homemade too..very yummy!

6/8 Don't Stop Believin

Today was the season finale of Glee. Pause for a moment of silence...
I know some people don't get Glee. They call it cheesy, unrealistic, and too happy. Well duh..that's the point! It's a musical..those are cheesy and unrealistic. And the point of the show is bring a positive show you can escape to you, where the losers aren't victims but can rise above the stupid high school politics to do what they love. Plus these kids can SING and dance! Holy cow! And they usually get me on the verge of tears each time. And the comedic writing is terrific. While the dramatic writing can be a bit PSA sometimes, they write Sue Sylvester's character perfectly (Jane Lynch is a comedic genius).
The season finale was great after a few very fun episodes but showing signs of lack of focus. The season finale was spot on and I'm so excited to get the soundtrack to it :)
So so long Glee for a few months..we'll see you in the fall!

6/7 Night drive

"Drive by night, never gonna get me, night by night, to get away from it all" All-American Rejects "Night Drive"
Date night consisted of Leverage season 2 (wicked awesome!), frostys, and an impromptu drive up to Arbor Crest Winery with the dog and a lovely view of Spokane Valley. By impromptu I mean "oh let's go up this steep road" quickly followed by "oh this is where Arbor Crest winery is at!". Nonetheless, it was fun and beautiful. I found that I could live out there. Close to the city but with some space for our doggies to run and kids to play.
Brand and I used to take drives when we first started dating. Cheney was good for that. A lot of country roads and it was pretty good weather for that. So it was fun to explore our little surroundings and I hope we can do it again :)

6/6 End of an era

EWU class of 2010 graduation is this upcoming Friday. And it is an end of an era. My last close friends are graduating this year. We will all be officially out of college. It's weird to think that now we are all in the post-college group, moving on to our adult lives.
Our lovely Marisa will be moving to Yakima to start a produce delivery service business with her husband.
Beautiful Christie will be doing her wonderful adventures wherever those may take her.
And my most awesome wonderful Mollie may be spending 6 months in Ireland nannying, or working in Spokane doing some pretty good work.
Though Mollie couldn't join us, we decided to get together for one last girl's night where we all live in the same town. It truly is an end of an era. While we may have been apart for summer, school always brought them back.
I'm truly going to miss my friends that move on and I'm not sure I'm ready for that part of my life to be completely over. Even though I graduated in 2008 I still had that connection to current EWU and that simplistic college life. Now we'll all have 9 to 5 jobs, vacation time, and weekends off..HA. One good thing...I won't have to go without my friends during dead and finals week..yay!
I just hope that no matter where we end up we can all work hard to make sure we stay in touch.
Because really...how can I go through life without these girls?

6/5 Taking care of our furry friends

At Meals on Wheels we noticed something about our seniors and their pets...sometimes they're all each other's got. A lot of our seniors feed their animals their own food when money's tight and the price of Purina One has gone up so they can't afford pet food anymore. I know if I were in their same position I'd do the exact same thing. So we teamed up with Spokanimal animal shelter and with some funding through Banfield Trust...we are now able to deliver dog and cat food to our vulnerable seniors as well as other seniors in the community.
As the new volunteer coordinator with Meals on Wheels I get to come in one Saturday morning to distribute pet food to our volunteers to go out on small routes around the city. I was able to do two routes on Saturday and saw how happy these people were. I even got a lipsticky kiss on the cheek from a lady who was so happy we could keep her fat dachsund chunky :) It was quite fun.
I was busy that I forgot to take a picture of all the dog food but I was able to get one of the bags I took out.

I brought Dexter along to keep me company. Hanging out in a non-profit meal site in downtown Spokane alone is not the best idea. So he was my little mascot for the day :)
It was a pretty fun day and it managed to stop raining for the day...yay!

6/4-What I would rather be doing most of the time...

I love sleep. I really do. I want kids but I know I'd have to give up something very precious to me..sleep. I love sleeping in and napping. The past two weeks of work have left me mentally exhausted. So much drama and getting used to doing a new job while still trying to pay full attention to my first job. I've had two jobs before...but they were at different places, two totally different jobs. One was at a sushi place and the other at Maurice's clothing store. That was pretty easy going back and forth to those even if they were in the same day and I was usually working from 8 am to 11 pm with my only break being in my commute from one to the other (took about 30 minutes to get there). But having two different jobs at the same place is a challenge. I know it may seem weird for my boss to offer me another job on top of my first one, but my first job was only allowed 25 hours a week per the grant that funded it. The second job gave me an extra 10 hours a week. So I'm still not doing a 40 hour a week job but it's definitely hard going back and forth. I'm hoping after a couple of weeks I'll be in a good routine and will be able to switch gears back and forth. So after two weeks of this and the frustration of the drama that's been going on in the office...I'm spent! I'm so glad it's Friday. Even though I have to go into work Saturday morning to meet our volunteers that hand out pet food to our clients once a month. So when I get home tomorrow I will be crashing...

I can't wait :)

6/3 The rain stopped...for today

It's been raining...a lot. We haven't had to water our lawn at all because we've had so much rain. But we had a bit of a break today so we decided to fire up the BBQ and have some yummy BBQ chicken. Brand is an amazing BBQer so these drumsticks were delicious :)
I'm so excited for summer BBQing

6/2 The gas arrow

Ok, I write this with the risk of looking like a complete idiot. However, I have it on good authority that I'm not the only one who did not know of this awesome invention. Sometimes car manufacturers have an epic win.
I recently found out after reading the 1000 awesome things blog that there is a trick to always remembering what side your gas tank is on. Now, I'm pretty good about it but I still second guess myself. We have two vehicles and the gas tank is on the opposite sides of each other. But apparently, some cars have a little arrow that points to the side where you fill up at. Now if you don't have an arrow apparently the trick is which side the gas pump is on the little drawing. Well the next day after I read all this I hopped in my car and had to gas up, and wouldn't you know but there was that sweet little arrow looking right at me :)
So here's to the gas arrow! cheers!

So..did anyone know about this? And if so, why have you been holding this secret?

6/1 A Lan gathering

Our dear friend Jay is heading to Africa for two years pretty soon and we thought we have to send him off right. So we BBQed up some brats, ate some chips, and the boys played video games.
They had fun I'm guessing because Brand crawled into bed around 3:30 am. I didn't want to bother the boys for a picture so I just took a pic of their piles of shoes. We have a sign from Maui that says "please remove your shoes", it's not a rule I just like the sign :) My Hawaiian friend has a sign that says "mahalo for removin' yo slippahs" and though I couldn't find one of those I still wanted one similar. I like that in Hawaii they take off their shoes...in fact Hawaii makes you want to walk around barefoot all the time, and I'm never barefoot.
So I thought the shoes could symbolize the boys that joined in on the fun, Jay, Drew, and Brian.
We're gonna miss Jay but he'll be doing great work in Africa and we're so excited for him!

Ahoy! Mine eye has seen a mount so sweet!

I realize that title could be taken the wrong way but it is not my job to clean out your mind gutters....so shall we continue?
I woke up today and thought OI my eyes are FRAKKIN blue today! so I took a pic...a little blurry and not the official Allison Adams sponsored picture of the day but I wanted to include it..

But onto our regularly scheduled program...
DATE NIGHT! We decided to splurge and go to IHOP for our date night. With my promotion and Brand's super duper amount of hours delivering the best sandwiches in Spokane, we thought a little international house of breakfast delights would definitely fit into the budget:)
They've been advertising pancake stackers. Two pancakes with mounds of cream cheese in between topped with strawberries, cinnamon apple, or blueberries. Um delicious! So I chose the strawberries (so did Brand...copycat) and chowed away. For 5.99 you get hashbrowns, two eggs, and either bacon or sausage (or one of each...duh!) and of course the pancakes. That's a pretty good deal.
So here it is..that sweet mount :)