So I have been tagged by Amanda to list the top ten songs I am listening to these days. But first I need to show off my niece, Lexy... isn't she absolutely adorable? I hadn't seen her since January and the two times I held her she threw up and cried the whole time. But now she is walking and laughing and I wanted to take her home with me! I'm such a proud aunt and a lot of people tell me that she looks like me when I was a baby. She will be one on September 1st. Which picture do you think is the cutest? I don't know how to label pictues, so let's say that the top picture is #1 and so forth.

And here are my songs.... in no particular order:
1. These Days- Rascal Flatts
2. I Want to Hold Your Hand- The Beatles
3. My Tree- Chris Rice
4. Whatever is True- Rescue
5. Walk Down This Mountain- Bebo Norman
6. Wasting Time- Blink-182
7. Gotta Get Up From Here- Ellie Lawson
8. Beverly Hills- Weezer
9. She Said- Brie Larson
10. Don't Phunk With My Heart- Black Eyed Peas

If I had a cd with these songs on it I could listen to it for a few months. But I don't believe in cd's anymore. I have 2,444 songs on my iTunes. That's 6.3 days of music. 8.83 GB for those of you who like to think that way as well. My Shuffle selection has 114 songs on it right now, but I like to change it up every now and then. If you could suggest ONE song to add to my list, what would it be? And no meaning to list one song and listing five!

Sorry I was gone for a bit...

I know it seems like I have dropped of the face of the blogging planet, but that's what I pretty much did. Last wednesday Eric and I got our in our truck and made the 18 hour drive to Rifle, Colorado. We were there for one purpose, my sisters wedding and it was absolutely beautiful! One of my cousins told me that I was the first to cry during the ceremony. It was just such a wonderful day. I love seeing my sister so happy and I think it's so cool that we got married in the same summer. For those of you who were at my wedding you would recognize a lot of food (the meatballs and the mints were a hit here too!) There were father/daughter and mother/son dances that brought tears to my eyes again! I heard I made a good matron of honor speech and my cousin Joey and I sang a Def Leopard song and when it was Karaoke time! The real adventure began when we were headed back to Oregon and we had one more person in the cab of our pick up truck. Coleen, Eric, and I lasted over 20 hours and have all been brought to a higher level of friendship. There wasn't a single moment when you weren't touching the other person and since I am the shortest I was always in the middle! I got a little cranky somewhere in Oregon, but I just slept (or pretended to sleep.)

When we got back to Oregon (at 9:00am) Eric and I got to sleep in our bed until 1:30pm and then he had to take me to Astoria so I could be part of the youth mission trip. That is where I have been until today. Eric came out to Astoria yesterday because he had the day off and we spent the night camping out with the youth group near Saddle Mountain. We woke up at 5:30 this morning so he could be to work by 9:00 and I went to sleep until noon!

Right now I am just catching up on the blogging scene, reading e-mails, and figuring out how we are going to pay bills this month. Does anyone know anyone who is looking to buy a car in the next few weeks? Eric is trying to sell his. It's a 1998 (I believe) Ford Tempo (black.) I can give more details to anyone interested.

So I am back now for a while. Events coming up: Faith Quest and another trip to Colorado for my counsin T.J.'s wedding. I am sad that summer is coming to an end. I barely even have my long awaited Chaco's tan line! But this has been the best summer in a long time... yes this statement has everything to do with the fact that I got married just three months ago. What about you? What has been the highlight of your summer?

I have a lot on my mind right now... so much that I couldn't even come up with catchy title for my post. So I'm just going to write and see if my mind will let my fingers express what I am thinking right now.

The picture above is my cousin Jenny. She is one of my best friends and we grew up together in Rifle, Colorado. Jenny came to Portland a few years ago to attend Cascade and that was where our friendship really started to grow. Well, we had always been FRIENDS, but this was our first experience when we weren't surrounded by family and familar things. We went to coffee a lot. She stayed the night at my house on Saturdays to do laundry and go to church and we would stay up late just talking and laughing. There are some stories about my childhood that I can't even say out loud with out almost peeing my pants! One of them is the story my sister told in her speech as my maid of honor. But let's get back to Jenny. She went to Cascade for one year and then went back to Colorado to work and figure out what she wanted to do with her life. I was sad to see my friend go. I remember when her parents came to pick her up and when they were getting in the the car I started crying. When I hugged her I didn't want to let go. Her mom joined in the hug, but I think it was just to pry me off of her. I miss Jenny very much. She joined the Army a year ago, or very close to it. I got to see her graduate from basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood (that's in Missiouri.) She is right now stationed in South Korea and has been there for 5 months. It feels like she has been gone for years. I don't e-mail her as often as I should... in fact I am terrible at e-mailing anyone! I am a jerk like that.

Today I made the familar trek over to the Wagners' house to do some laundry before Eric and I leave for Colorado tomorrow for my sisters wedding. I went inside the house and my friend Shauna immediately says "come with me" and we go to Starbucks. When we got back to the house we chatted for a bit.... Shauna and I go way back because I lived with the Wagners for four years and now that I am married I live just one block away. Shauna had to leave the house and before she left she said, "if my kitchen is clean when I get back there will be ten dollars for whoever did it." I laughed.... then I cleaned the kitchen. But while I was doing it I got this funny feeling. I had unloaded the dish washer many times before this, but this time it was different. I remembered where every thing went, but I couldn't describe what my mind was trying to tell me. Then I started crying. That's not really out of my character, being a girl and all.... I just think that I missed living at the Wagners' and all the experiences that I had there.

I've been married for two months now. It seems like longer than that, but I don't mean that in a "man, I've been married for SOOO long and this guy really gets on my nerves" sort of way. I love everything about it! The way we still spend every moment together, getting up at 6:30 to eat breakfast with him before he leaves for work, going to the store to get milk and tooth paste, working on having a Christ-like relationship, commenting on the crazy garden lady in our apartment complex (who seems to be watering every time we go in our out), the intimacy, the silliness, and always taking up the entire bed when Eric comes in after brushing his teeth and turns off the light. We have such a wonderful support system. Great friends and parents who continuously tell us how happy they are for us. What more could a girl want? Well, there is the whole baby thing, but I am patient and will wait as long as I can!

A few days ago I was unpacking some things and realized that I have a lot of musical instruments. They are (in no particular order): Two flutes, a clarinet, a green acoustic guitar, a keyboard, a didgeridoo, a tamborine and various other percussion type instruments. So I think I need to start a band! Will you join me? Pick an insturment from my collection, or bring one of your own! What will you play in my band? What will be called? Will we have costumes?

Weekend stuff...

First I have some exciting news (exciting to me anyway)... My truck is FINALLY registered in Oregon! I couldn't drive it for the month of July because the plates were expired and Eric couldn't register it in our name until we could afford to get his Oregon's drivers license. Could we REALLY afford these two expenses? Hardly! Did we sit in the DMV for three mornings in a row? You bet! Is our account in the red and there's nothing we can do about it until friday? Well yes, but we have each other (and that's all we really need, right?) Here's my truck (in case you were wondering what it looked like.)

On friday Eric and I drove our newly registered truck up to Camp Yamhill for our church's anual retreat (aka "family camp"). It was two days full of climbing the rockwall, swinging off the rope swing into the mighty Yamhill river, having my stomach lining tampered with by camp food, singing silly campfire songs, and stuffing my face with smores and popcorn made on the campfire. This is me (on the right) climbing the rockwall. It was my first time and I didn't really know what I was doing (and my legs and arms were SO sore the next day!)

And this is a picture of Eric and David at family camp. It's the first picture I can remember where Eris is making normal face and David is the one who is goofy! It's Eric's dimple so cute? I love family camp and Camp Yamhill!

I might start a business...

So last month I made my debut as a birthday cake maker when I got a request from my favorite 8 year old (Makinna.) She really wanted a pony cake, specifically a pony head cake she saw on-line with pink frosting, red sprinkles, and licorice hair. Eric and I accepted the challenge and took well over two hours to come up with this:

Yes, I know it looks like a wolf, and strangely like something you might see in "The Godfather", but it was the hit of the party!

One month later my favorite 7 year old (Lydii) came to Eric and I with the same request. She wanted a really cool cake for her birthday! At first she wanted a monkey party, but at the last minute changes her mind and has a fairy party instead. Eric had to work that day, so I had to be creative and use MY VERY OWN CAKE MAKING SKILLS. Two hours, and one container of frosting later I come up with this:

I think it's my best work yet!

In October my favorite 4 year old (Cole) will have a birthday. He wants a Harry Potter cake and I am already thinking of ideas.

And this has nothing to do with birthdays, but I was curious, what are the presets on your radio? Mine include 102.7 (Air One, a Christian station), 94.7 (Alternative) 101.1 (Rock) and 98.7 (Country, because I have to go back to my roots.)

My new(er) addiction... and my new frustration

If you're looking for a way to strengthen a marriage (or any relationship), try this: find something you're really good at... I mean it's so simple you don't even have to think about it, and try to teach it to your spouse. The results can be very rewarding, or you might end up throwing something at the other person.

I have been studying music since I was in third grade, so it's very natural for me to clap on the right beat to any song. It's a curse to me at times because I often RESTART the clapping at my church because it's very natural for some people to clap on 1 and 3 and NOT 2 and 4. Over time I noticed that Eric did not have the gift of clapping so I thought I would teach him, a very simple process, right? Teaching music to someone who doesn't speak the language is a challenge, but we are making process.

Well I got a taste of my own medicine last week when Eric found an old toy of his... a Rubix Cube. I thought, "Hey that would be cool if he could teach me how to solve it!" So we bought a second Rubix Cube so we could work on it together, and I found the challenge more difficult than I expected. Solving a Rubix Cube is second nature to Eric, but when you have to explain to someone why you moved a certain piece a certain way it's hard to hear, "that's just the way you do it."

So I'm looking for a website, or a book on how to solve the Rubix Cube. I need pictures AND explanations.

Also I need examples of anyone else who tried to teach something to someone and had a hard time, or maybe you were trying to do the learning and you found it difficult.