.: "is that your first tumbleweed, honey?” :.

what a weekend! dave and i worked on friday and hit the road on our way to idaho about 4 o’clock. i don’t think i was mentally prepared for the drive ahead of us. i was just so excited to be heading out to visit brent, ruth, lil’ brent, sarah, jake, penny and maralyn and robert. we hauled the whole way down there. few stops on the way and only if they were absolutely necessary. our last necessary stop was to get gas on this lonely highway just outside of hailey. it was a scene straight out of a horror flick. complete with tumbleweeds, and a vacant motel with the “o-t-e” burnt out on its sign. when the gas pump shut off it made this huge clanging sound and i’ve never jumped back in the car so fast as i did right then. pretty sure i tripped on the blanket i had wrapped around me. anyways- we hit the road and made it safely to brent’s dwelling at about 2:30 our time, 3:30 idaho time. we said quick hello’s to those awake enough to greet us and both brent’s who came home after doing a spot of cable work in the middle of the night. then we hit the sack. literally- the hope’s have this HUGE bean bag that dave and i both fit on. this thing was incredible! we quickly jumped on that and rapidly fell asleep.

saturday morning came quick, however we were ready to get up and see what sun valley (and brent) had planned for us. we ate a little breakfast, said hi to the sleepy heads, and hit the road for the first of the tours. brent, ruth and penny showed us around their town of hailey. what an adorable, quaint town. we stopped at a few places and headed home to wait for maralyn and robert to arrive. how great to see them! i had only met maralyn once last summer and had yet to meet robert. once they arrived we had a quick lunch and hopped back in the car for the big tour. we cruised through hailey again and in to sun valley. brent was sure to point out all the celebrity’s houses. felt like an authentic ‘star tour’. we stopped at this small shopping village that was simply delightful. dave and i picked up our commemorative golf ball there. we all splurged on some fudge and walked around in the beautiful sun. we snapped a few pictures and headed back to the car. once we got back to chateau hope that huge bean bag sucked dave and i in again and we took a quick power nap. brent woke us up to hit the slopes. i’ve never said that before! we rounded up all our gear and piled into the truck. brent, lil brent, dave, penny and i all headed to the mountain. tubing was SO amazing! we hiked up to the top and let ‘er rip. dave and i flew down that mountain so fast. i had no idea that was what i was getting myself in to! as we came to an adrenaline pumping stop we flipped and i landed smack in the middle of a huge mudd puddle and dave landed right on top of me! you would have thought we were in a romantic comedy where the two love birds accidentally fall down together and steal a kiss. we hiked back to the top even higher than the time before and we all went down at the same time. brent, lil brent, and penny all on one tractor tube, and dave and i on the other. what a blast! penny was the one to land in that nasty mudd puddle on this run- but what a great sport she was. you can tell she’s a tough cookie for being the baby of 7. we had an absolute amazing time! dave and i will try and get the video from brent and post it on here. we headed home and got cleaned up for a delicious dinner prepared by ruth. she made a scrumptious stir-fry that we all devoured.

saturday night was reserved for decorating eggs. some amazing talent at their dinner table. you can check out The Daily Item for the top ten eggs... and vote! i showed penny how my family blows eggs... bless her heart she rocked it out!

sunday morning came, and happy easter! we had a leisurely morning and then dave and i went and explored hailey a little by ourselves. we stopped at a cute little coffee shop and tried this cream cheese jalapeño thing that was a little goofy, but good. we walked around in the sun for a bit and headed back to the house. the whole gang rounded up to play some basketball, walk the dogs and a spot of bocce ball! it was brent, lil brent, dave and i who played. pretty sure dave and i won... oh wait... yeah, it was the brent’s who won. that was a way fun time and i know dave and i will be playing again and again. there was yet another feast prepared for easter dinner. the meat was amazing- well, i heard the meat was amazing. couldn’t tell ya from experience though. everything else was delectable. we wrapped up the night with a game of apples to apples (a schaeperkoetter/hope favorite).

we hit the road monday morning about 8:30. hugged and kissed our family goodbye... tears rolling down our cheeks as we drove away. okay, no tears, but almost! we had sun almost the whole way home, hit a tumbleweed- oops, my bad. and about 10 and a half hours later dave and i were pulling in our driveway. home sweet home. and back to reality.

what a wonderful trip we had. it was so great to visit with everyone. next time we’ll be taking the girls out there to visit this magical town and phenomenal family.
we’re celebrating easter with the girls on sunday. chloe has ballet tomorrow and lily has baseball games both tomorrow and saturday. we’ll just be dragging ella along to all the activities- she keeps us entertained.

until next time...

kb. aka zoe.

*photos courtesy of brent hope*

.:just thursday:.

dave and i are headed to idaho for the weekend. his mom and her boyfriend are headed out to brent's from utah. we thought we could make the trek to idaho and crash their party. dang, maybe we should have planned to surprise maralyn and robert... only have brent and ruth know. dangit! oh well... maybe another time. we are very excited to see everyone and brent's house. we are leaving tomorrow after work, i get off at 2:30 as usual, but we're not sure what time dave will get off. we'll just be ready to head out whenever he gets home.

we get to hang out with the girls tonight... only until 8. this 'visiting' thing feels pretty weird. they're not supposed to just 'visit'... they live with us. this is their home. i'm still adjusting to it and don't really care for it too much. which leads me to wonder how the heck the girls are doing with this.

ella called dave upset the other morning. she wanted to know where we were, and she wanted to hang out with us. she wanted to spend the night... broke dave's heart as he had to just power through and tell her we loved her and would see her soon. when he told me, my heart broke along with his and ella's.

you can't tell me this is best for everyone.

the schaeperkoetter/detert/leonard/lago/schroeder/levesque/bibbons annual easter is happening this year at ma's- sans my fruit pizza. easter is one of my most favorite holiday's at my ma's house. it seems so relaxed and chill compared to the others (not that the others are in any way filled with undying traditions and schedules and routine and must-haves and must-do's). easter is just easter- in a good way. so we're a little bummed we'll be missing easter at mom's, but so incredibly stoked to spend a holiday with the hope's. maybe someone could video-tape the easter egg hunt so dave really believes me when i tell him he needs a helmet and shin guards. anyone? anyone?!

chris- don't give in to ryan's pleas.

i think i'll wrap up here... can you tell it's a slow week at work? someone should tell me to quit writing.

i hope everyone is well... seems a bit like a relative term these days. i wish everyone the best, and a great holiday weekend.

shall report more later...

xokb.

.:tea time at work:.

my great friend jenny and i at work share the quotes on our tea bags when we feel they are worthy to share... we’ve had some great ones. including the one i keep in my wallet that states “truth is everlasting”.

the one she sent me this morning- right after i finished the below blog... was so appropriate. i know i’m not biologically a mother, but i do now have three bonus girls... dave and i were able to make this weekend incredibly beautiful with the great chaos that is three girls under 9.

“Mother-love is not inevitable. The good mother is a great artist ever creating beauty out of chaos.”
--Alice Randall
Novelist, The Wind Done Gone and the first black woman to write a #1 country song.

enjoy a cup of tea today... maybe iced thanks to the sun!

.:happy birthday lily:.

what a weekend! the weather, lily’s birthday, dave and my anniversary today.

friday we picked the girls up from school and headed home to change our clothes and go back to AJ to play basketball and on the big toys. we were going to spend as much time in this beautiful seattle spring sun as possible. we wore ourselves out and headed home for some grub. eventually chloe asked to go to bed, so we tucked ‘em all in and dave and i continued to do some work around the house. lily’s birthday was on saturday... and she requested eggs and bacon for breakfast. really? really?! well, it was her birthday not mine, so i touched the bacon (i know, right?) and layed out the gnarly pieces of “meat” and dave handled the eggs. i really couldn’t do both. thankfully we had some cantelope to round out the meal... we had chloe’s ballet class on saturday morning and then lily’s first baseball game right after. lily smacked the baseball pretty dang hard the one at-bat she had. she was the mvp this game... i think. what a busy, exciting morning. chloe continues to learn her recital dance. lily looked adorable in her pink baseball tee-shirt and hat. and ella just goes where she is told. and does it just about flawlessly.

we headed home for a quick snack and power nap before heading out to meet carl, debby and eric at southcenter. lily’s (reasonable) birthday wish was to have a shopping spree. my wonderful parents, carl and debby and dave and i were able to team up and give lil a bit of a spree. ma, lil and i headed to the girls section at macy’s and the boys took chloe and ella out to the play area in the mall. the spotlight was on lily. she had a hay-day just grabbing different outfits to try on and different pieces to play with. she was really amped on these pink and black acid wash punk rock jeans, but the 7 was too small and 8 was way too big... c’mon macy’s! so she voted those jeans off the island, and picked some other phenomenal items. she got two pairs of jeans, both quite cute, but the first pair has these rockin’ pockets on the bootie and are so very cute. she also got this long shirt/dress that has lace, a silver belt and a couple necklaces attached. she also picked out a tee, a vest, scarf, hoodie, and leggings... oh.my.gosh. she scored! the leggings are adorable and will be worn quite a bit. ma, lil and i all picked stuff out and ma picked out some really rockin’ things. so we tallied up the ‘yes pile’ and lily had to play ‘total drama island’ and vote some things off. she ended up with items she adores. thank you so much for your time and generousity, carl and m<3mma.

after meeting back up with the boys, chloe and ella, we headed to red robin. ma and carl treated us all to a wonderful birthday dinner complete with “cherry temples”, balloons and ice cream. we saw pictures of their trip to san antonio, laughed and some of us (okay, lily) almost had ice cream come out our noses! what a wonderful brithday celebration for lily and us all. here is the first of many HUGE thank you’s from the schaeperkoetter-hope’s to the schaeperkoetter-detert’s. we love you all so very much. thank you from the bottom of my heart.

saturday night dave and i stayed up super late baking lily’s cake... putting together the goodie bags for our guests on sunday, scrubbing the house, painting... what else? hanging doors back up, painting a bit more, dishes, dusting, and talking. well, i do most of the talking, but dave’s a wonderful listener. *wink* we finally crashed out and woke up bright and early to get our birthday party day started. i headed to grocery outlet to save a few coins and have a few bits for people to nibble on. the girls were absolutely amazing and helped out all day long. i stepped outside to go to the store at about 8:30, and as i was leaving the girls were already asking dave what they could do because they were bored (haha)... i stuck my head back inside and told them to come outside because it was already so warm. they were outside when i got home enjoying this glorious break from the rain... we all rallied and got the house in tip-top shape for lily’s birthday party. we had our great friends over to lily’s celebration complete with candy, a pinata, sprinkler, and melt-down’s. we ran ourselves into the ground from all the partying but i think lily had quite the birthday weekend.

the girls were picked up at 7, and just like that they were gone. that was the worst part of the whole weekend. we look forward to spending some more time with them on thursday. deep breath.



dave and i met 10 months ago today... we try and say an extra ‘i love you’ on the 6th of every month. i don’t think we have missed one yet. i’m more excited to see him when i get home tonight than i ever have been... so i think we’re doing something right. or we’re just dang lucky. either way... i wouldn’t want to be anyone else’s first mate.

storm is calming? that may be wishful thinking, but the break in downpoor is nice. just hold fast for the next spell.

love....kb.

.:so accomplished:.

so, my older brother robby was asked to guest teach at a design high school in california.

i am so incredibly proud of both my brothers. robby’s talents exceed much that i’ve seen out in the world.

i’m stoked to continue to hear about his amazing accomplishments.

love you robby. congratulations.

.: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