.:our kirkland get-away:.

another fun weekend has come and gone.

ma, carl, eric and rc all flew to san antonio, tx for the weekend. they left bright and early friday morning and don’t get back until this evening. dave and i held down the fort in kirkland for them while they are soaking up the rays that we’re not seeing here in seattle. darby, grams, dave and i managed quite well. we invited ryan and esther over on friday for dinner and guitar hero... it was nice to spend some time with them. rowan crashed the party as usual with her big eyes and giggles. saturday morning dave and i attempted to make crepes... i called my dad and he rattled off his recipe and dave worked his magic. i thought they were pretty dang good, but dave being the perfectionist cook he is wants to try, try again. i’m looking forward to those attempts.

sonja cruised over for a bit on saturday for lunch and rummikub. i’m pretty sure we were clocked at a solid 4 hours of play time or something crazy like that. that was the first time i’ve played and i got the hang of it pretty quick. we had a relaxing time listening to paul simon, the beatles, phil collins, star wars soundtrack- whatever was on top of the pile of records. and then dave put the new metallica cd in with hopes of livening us all up a bit, but the competitiveness and intensity shot through the roof- we quickly turned something else on. pretty sure dave sent sonja home with the score card... so she could forever witness the beating she endured. LOVE YOU SONJA.

we grocery shopped for grams on saturday night... made french toast sunday morning. dave had helped my parents with a broken pipe earlier in the year and the drywall never got finished, so dave had the wonderful idea to have it finished for them when they come home (did i luck out with an amazing man, or what?!). dave did a great job and we got that all wrapped up yesterday (okay, okay HE got that all wrapped up yesterday). he explained to me what he was doing as he worked, sharing how his dad would have been able to do this project in the blink of an eye... i think dave takes after clive quite nicely. we also walked around downtown kirkland for a good portion of the afternoon. the weather was gorgeous and chilly. we spent most of our time at an antique store. we found a rad old pepper grinder, and a silk scarf for me. antique stores are one of our most favorite places to explore. the tales and treasures they hold is fascinating. we wrapped up our evening with a little pasta, dave made cookies and a quick dip in the hot tub.

what a get-away this was. how simple it is to stay at my parents house while they are out of town... but driving 35 minutes north of auburn can feel like another world. it felt great to ‘go home’ for the weekend. we had a wonderfully relaxing time together.

dave is working today! he starts training this week... we’re not really sure what he needs to be trained on because he’s done more than he’ll be doing at this job, but it’s work! i hope there will be some sales training, just as extra for him since he hasn’t realllly done the sales side before. regardless, he’s stoked to be working and can’t wait to get out there. i’m so proud of him and excited to hear how his first day goes.

it’s lily’s birthday on saturday so i’ll have more to report after we celebrate.

i purposely didn’t share about our trip to sur la table. dave got a gift certificate from my aunt robin and uncle paul for his birthday and he was able to shop a bit. i’m hoping he’ll hop on here and write a bit about our stop there. he’s awfully excited about his new toys. thanks ar. and up.

love you all... keep braving the storm. and remember to lift it up.

k.e.s.s.g.h.

.:life is like a rollercoaster:.

**disclaimer** i wanted pictures to go with this blog, but haven't uploaded them yet. time to just get the blog posted.

life’s been good... and slow. and fast. but somehow i haven’t been able to find time to blog.

let’s get the not-so-great news out of the way... dave is out of work still. and he’s not on the waiting list for the union. so there is no more counting down until he’s back on the job site. now we are allllll the way back at square one; looking for a job, looking for a new career. cop? trying to get back into the union? going back to school? the economy- as we all know- is making it increasingly hard for my boyfriend to find a job.

in other bad news, we lost time with his girls. while dave is unemployed we have them every other weekend from friday night to monday morning. and the weeks that it isn’t our weekend we have them overnight on thursday. once dave is employed it will switch to having the girls every other weekend friday night to sunday night, and every thursday for dinner... something ridiculous like 4 to 8.

i’m terribly sad for dave and the girls. chloe started crying right in the middle of dance class because she missed dave. you can’t tell me this is for the best. the schedule itself may be less stressful on the girls, but there has to be a better way. i pray there is a better way... and hope that everyone can make it through this with minimal impact.

on to the better and more exciting parts of our lives... dave’s birthday was last weekend! we had a blast. we kept absolutely busy and filled our time with family and friends. i surprised dave and took friday off of work (thank goodness for vacation hours) and so we played and were productive around the house. i had left my wallet in a shopping cart at qfc up in factoria by my work, so we had to make that drive in the afternoon (thank goodness for honest people who still will turn your wallet in to the lost and found). we had a green dinner for the girls on thursday since they wouldn’t be with us on dave’s birthday. i had qfc air brush dave’s lemon meringue pie green. it was amusing. we saw our great friend sonja on friday and met a new friend andy. saturday we headed out to my little brother’s bowling tournament. he was qualifying for the state tournament! and we’re pretty sure he did... his 3rd or 4th game he got a personal best of 200 and then the next game beat the 200 with a new personal best of 205! we are all so very proud of him. my grandparents (carl’s parents) les and judy came over from eastern washington for his tourney too, it’s always great to see them. they’re amazing people who have blessed my life time and time again.

we spent the evening of dave’s birthday with another set of amazing people. dave’s nieces and nephews. we cruised to jess and travis’ new place- which is way cute! their two sons were there, thomas and felix. absolute dolls, both of them. felix is the newest addition and was a sweet, sweet baby. lil’ brent was there too! what a great surprise, we didn’t know he was going to be there. i had only met him once before when we floated the river in the summer with elise and brett. it was rad getting a chance to hang out with him again! and last but definitely not least- AMBER! i finally met that sweet, rockin’ girl. of course it was great to spend time with everyone, but what a plus to finally meet her. i hope we get to see everyone on a more regular basis. i know how much dave loves his family... and i love them too.

we wrapped up dave’s birthday with his very first birthday dinner. for the longest time my grandmother susy would cook your meal of choice and the family would all get together to celebrate the special day. my mom has since taken over this tradition as it gets a bit overwhelming for my grams to cook for 13 to 19 people as our family as continued to grow. we had a great time and dave scored some rad gifts. a huge thank you to my generous and loving family. we stopped by my pop’s house on the way home and he had a little something for dave too. it was good to see him- we hadn’t spent time with him in a little while.

and then came monday morning. back to reality. the reality of a job and money and stresses. and the reality of job hunting. we’re hanging in there with the love and support of our wonderful families.

we’ve got the girls this weekend... i’m sure we’ll have much to blog about after our adventures come to an end sunday night... well, until next time of course.

i hope everyone is well. remember to love hard and hold fast- we’re all braving the storm right now.

kb

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.