What Is Love???

Is it motivation to sculpt, paint, does it enable us to enjoy pancakes more? Whatever it is.... I like it. The simple joy of eating pancakes with loved ones is a great thing. I suggest that you all try it.

Maybe, just maybe, love comes from hanging your feet out the window of a speeding car?

That's all I got.

D.

P.S. Kristi is on the phone with me right now.....I gotta go.

.:a success indeed:.

so this year’s valentine’s day dinner was a success! the girls were absolutely thrilled and surprised. dave set it up to have me beat them home so i could get any last minute things set up and the dinner started. although i didn’t need to do as much as i thought because dave surprised me and had much of it done already! such a sweetheart. the girls first saw their cards and chocolate’s from my mom on the coffee table. when i told them it was from my mom they shouted “ah, she remembered us!” adorable. i then was surprised by lily and dave with a little present of my own. they surprised me with this wicked lightening bolt pin! i wore it very proudly on friday to work. that was a sweet, sweet surprise that i wasn’t expecting. i believe chloe spotted the kitchen table first and quickly hollered for her sisters to come check it out. now this whole time dave and i are frantically trying to find the camera, continue making dinner and get the girls settled. they spot their place cards, hair clips, cards, and the copious amounts of candy and sweets. as dave reads them their cards i add my special ingredient to the noodles and corn... a little red food coloring! at this point we have yet to find the camera. we tried to hold the girls off as long as we could while we searched high and low for a camera dave had seen earlier in the day. so i said, “forget the camera- let’s dig in!” and so it was... we enjoyed a delicious dinner (who knew that noodles, corn and strawberries could be so good?!) and ate some more sugar and decorated our Peeps (my personal favorite). we scattered from the table and dave and i stepped back to enjoy our successful dinner sans camera. i guess dave was a bit chilly because he went in our room to put his sweatshirt on and when he lifted it off the bed- what did he find?! THE CAMERA- after the table had been demolished, food eaten, Peeps devoured.

so, the important part of our whole evening was how much the girls enjoyed themselves and loved what dave and i had put together. we do have some photos for your enjoyment, but they definitely weren’t what i was thinking i’d be able to share. please enjoy.
dave and i had a very relaxing valentine’s weekend. we made almost no plans- intentionally. we knew we’d be taking my grams to church on sunday and had my ma’s valentine’s dinner that night. we kept friday and saturday unplanned, quiet and free to do whatever we wanted. we went to ikea and dreamt of what we could be doing to our place somewhere down the line... we went to the new kent station to walk around and see where the new hockey rink is. we got home early in the night and decided we would love to go out dancing if we could find some place free.... dave put his mits to work and found that the muckleshoot casino had the romantics playing saturday night! (i hope you’re all laughing to yourselves by now...) we got dolled up and hit the road. this place was packed! first time i had been to a casino that wasn’t in vegas! the show was cute, we caught a couple songs and headed to the smoke-free section of the casino; which just so happened to have a sweet shop in the back corner. HUGE ice cream cones for two and a half bucks. uh-mazing. it was entertaining to say the very least.
we had a great sunday too. church with grams was great as always. she even treated us to lunch afterwards! there is this great place called spuds close to my mom’s house. one of my grams’ favorites and something grams and i used to do a couple years ago after church. they have amazing tarter sauce. we dropped grams off at home, went grocery shopping for her and then hung out at my ma’s for the afternoon. we played cards with ma, carl and eric. ma had a few little gifts for dave and i. dinner was at 5 and it was delish! ma did three (wait, maybe four?) different pasta sauces, caesar salad and great bread- with cheesecake for dessert! chris, marc, esther, ryan and rowan were all there too. a great family time for all.
i’ll wrap up here. our weekend was great, and our valentine’s dinner was pretty amazing.

happy middle of february.

.:whoop whoop:.

so, tomorrow is the big night for chloe’s requested ‘valentine’s dinner’. i’m not sure she remembers she requested it, i’m not sure if she really knows when valentine’s day is. although we made cards last night for mrs. davis and ms. a - her teachers. i’ll will be sure to take pictures of the set-up, i’m hoping it will be cute, haven’t really planned it all out yet. well, a lot of it is... but i’m not quite sure how it will all come together. i’ll update on friday.

and now for the big news:

DAVE IS NUMBER ONE ON THE LIST!!!!!! hooray. i don’t use capitals for much but for that i sure will. we are scrambling to find care for the kids in the morning. he doesn’t know his hours yet, but generally he starts early and gets off early, so after school care wouldn’t be an issue- but the two mornings a week we have them, we need to figure something out. he could get called to go out anytime so he’s making some serious phone calls today to hopefully get something set up- at least for the short term. unfortunately katy just isn’t an option for the mornings... wish she could look at the big picture and do what’s best for the girls instead of trying to take dave for all he’s worth. enough of that. no one wants to think about her.

dave and i have been together over 8 months now. i know that probably sounds long to some of you and not so long to others. but it’s been the best 8 months of my life. we like to remember even our monthly anniversaries. is that cheesy or what? but we have much going on in our lives that isn’t exactly pleasant, so anything we can do to remind each other of how blessed we are- we do. although i’m pretty sure we do tell each other everyday how cherished the other person is.

i did some more cleaning and organizing at the ol’ chateau schaeperkoetter hope. and boy is she lookin’ good. i’m very excited for everyone to see it. the girls’ rooms are taking shape slowly but surely. we still haven’t painted or installed new carpet, but they are cute. and the girls are even cuter when they skip down the hallway so stoked to have their rooms. they are going to bed absolutely flawlessly... elle was such a doll last night; she was full of hugs and kisses and big smiles, and then just dozed off quietly. chlo claimed she wasn’t tired-but she didn’t seem to have any trouble sawin’ logs either.

a co-worker of mine won an office visit from the radio station 106.9- they come and bring treats and coffee and i don’t know what else. looking forward to that today at about 10:30ish.

i think that’s it for a quick wednesday morning update.

until next time...

kb

ps. i love you.

.:first place weekend:.

we started our weekend off with a bang. lily took FIRST PLACE for 3rd graders in the super stackers assembly. dave was able to see the whole thing, i was there right at the end. she kicked some serious super stackers tail. she was doing it in about half the time that the other kids were. she got this rad handmade clay cup that had a big “1” on the side of it and a super stackers sticker on the other. we’re super proud of this little super stacker.

saturday was a bit of a fun day too... we had a lazy morning and then dave and the girls got ready for lily’s soccer game. i curled all their hairs and they looked adorable. chloe’s ended up the curliest, ella’s was only medium curly and lily had pig tails for the game, so i curled her bangs and a few pieces in her pony tails. i was headed to amber’s wedding dress appointment so dave will have to fill in the details of the game, but i heard lily played like a champ.

amber’s dress appointment was fun, of course! what girl doesn’t love to be surrounded by beautiful wedding dresses, especially when it’s your best mate trying them on?! she was glowing in this particular dress- she had been waiting to try on this certain color of gown, and she looked absolutely stunning in it. her skin, beauty, hair color and tattoo were all greatly complimented by this platinum color. can’t wait for the big day, am-bone.

saturday afternoon we washed the cars, and then took a bit of a rest before we rocked ‘n rolled all night! dave and i had been planning a dance party of sorts. costumes, strobe lights and all. we’ll post pictures of our incredible costumes. we wrapped up the night with a little Disney screne-it. that was pretty hilarious. we all made a great team.

sunday was a blast too. i had breakfast with my other great mate, sonja. and then we all went down to the high school to play tennis with dave cox and davey and justin and sara. we thought justin’s girls would be there too, but they weren’t. we’ll have to set up another time when we all have the girls. of course davey would tag along... cuz he’s just that much of a ladies man.

dave and i continue to knock things off of our list. it feels amazing. our place is looking incredible. i’m assuming some of you who have been there but haven’t seen it in awhile wouldn’t recognize it. it’s great. dave’s pretty dang handy and he’s impressed me more than once. i’m very excited to post some pictures here pretty soon... give us a little longer.

work is absolutely exhausting. time’s are tough right now and our company is finally feeling it. i’m not exactly sure why it took so long, but it’s here now. the stress level of just about everyone is incredible. i know it’s not the time to change jobs, but i wish i could. L

dave is higher on the apprentices-waiting-to-go-out-and-work list! HOORAY! he was number 6 last friday and he just heard that one of his buddies was sent out, and he was 1 or 2 on the list... so the time is coming for him to be back out there! man-o-man will that be a great feeling.

i think i’ll wrap up here. almost done with the work day, the countdown begins.

hope all is well with everyone.

happy monday.
kb

BBBBBBBBATS!

I'm not sure if they look happy???? What do you think??? Look at the way their cheek bones are ready to explode out of their faces......if you can ......just for a second, try and smile as big as they are. Hold it.....tense up your stomach muscles and smile huge. This simple thing....this simple little thing that we call happiness. Does it come from knowing the love of a friend or family member? Does it come from being surrounded by silliness? What ever it is. Where ever it comes from. I am a huge fan.

I was enjoying the night when I heard the girls down the hall with Kristi......she was helping them do pull-ups. The laughter and excitement was to much for me to ignore. I had no choice but to investigate. Sure enough.....here were three little girls giggling like crazy, being lead of course by their fearless leader....Krazy Kriss. If you look close you can see Kristi's hands behind Ella.....just in case, she was there.

That's all for today. Just a peak into Planet Hope/Schaeperkoetter.

Tune in next time....same Bat time same Bat channel.

D

P.S. When you spellcheck Schaeperkoetter....one of the responses is spaghetti.

Cheer 09'

Please Pass The Good Times.

It was an interesting night....... Chloe had her first cheer leading experience. She had the routine memorized and the crowd mesmerized. Kristi was in charge of hair and make-up, smashing job she did. The band was loud. The game was close. It was a boys high school basketball game. The Mountain View Lions were defeated by the Enumclaw Hornets. (Go Mickeys) The Halftime show was AMAZING .................Chloe Rocked It!!!

Fun times continue to plague our nights..... as if we paid a ransom to Karma. Things are well. No complaints today. Outlook bright, no shadiness in sight. If the smiles stop I will be the first to let you know. Enjoy your days......... they don't last forever.

D

P.S. I Love You.

.:progress is a wonderful thing:.

happy tuesday everyone.

well, it’s the first week of february. my older brother’s birthday month, and valentine’s day!

chloe was concerned about when the next holiday was, so i told her we could celebrate valentine’s with a special valentine’s dinner. i’m going to do the whole thing pink and red! i can’t wait. goodies, candies, candles, cards, and pink and red food! it’ll even match our new kitchen. i’ll get better at posting pictures so you can see the goofy things we do.

dave did a little demo in the kitchen yesterday... there was this awkward overhang of cupboards above the sink/bar area and on a whim i suggested that it just be gone! it wasn’t cupboard space that was necessary really, and it just seemed like a big blockade or something. it has opened up the house in such a fantastic way. i am in love with it! and the man who ripped it down.

wayne and marsha are out! dave and i spent our evening last night cleaning and getting the girls’ rooms set up. we have plans of painting and new carpet, but for now it’ll just be the way it is. i picked out a radical pink and orange that i want to do big circus stripes on an accent wall or two in their rooms- i think it’ll look wicked. again, i’ll take before and after pictures this time. we also got the guest bathroom a little bit put together. we would still like to make it less ‘mature’ and more girly for the little ones, but for now it looks a-okay. can you tell i’m just a bit proud of dave and my progress last night?

chloe is cheerleading tonight! she gets to cheer at the high school basketball game’s half time. i am SO stoked for her. i remember being a lil ‘reb and cheering at the big games. again, i’ll get better about this whole picture thing. i’ll let you know how it goes...

robby’s birthday is on friday. i miss my brother. he’s doing great down in california. dave and i have such a list of people to try and visit... we’ll make it all happen sooner or later.

dave and i were treated to a pretty rad weekend by my dad. he took us and ana to a hockey game on friday night- it was the thunderbirds and the silvertips. for those of you who don’t know, that is a seattle team and an everett team. everett is about half hour north of seattle. talk-about-rivalry. it was amusing to say the least, and we had a blast- thanks pop. he also treated us to the international dinner at seattle university. it’s an evening of culture, entertainment and food from all around the world. the entertainment was wonderful, the food was okay and the laughs with pop were pretty great. dave and i thought it would be something the girls could enjoy, maybe next year or the year after. (anytime i am talking to the girls and refer to dave as their “pop” they get so confused and it cracks me up. i’ve been calling my dad “pop” for so long that it almost seems as natural as “dad”. just thought i would share.)

we cruised over to me ma’s house for superbowl sunday. what a spread she put together! grams call dave and i the night before and told us that she wanted to come upstairs and party so we wouldn’t be going to church. grams can get a bit tired if there is too much going on in one day. grams enjoys her church but we all know how much she loves her football. see you in two weeks for church, grams.

i think that’s about it for now. i am going to go brainstorm some more ideas for a pink and red dinner- that actually tastes good together. spaghetti sauce and strawberries just isn’t cuttin’ it.

hope you’re all well. love to everyone.

kb