Four Years

Four years have gone by since my tiny, hilarious, scrappy, amazing mom went to be with the Lord. I'm excited for the day we'll be reunited. She is so missed.

Lookit Lookit Lookit!!! Or, how we spent our sixth anniversary

This weekend we celebrated our sixth anniversary, and our last just the two (and a half) of us. We stayed in our favorite hotel, the Bellevue Westin,

I went and got a maternity massage (thanks to a gift card) which can be translated as 160 minutes of delight and relaxation), ate a delicious dinner at Z'Tejas, and went off to see Despicable Me. It was cute, there was a lot of laughing out loud to be had. I don't however, think you need to splurge for the 3D - it didn't add a whole lot to the experience.

There's a scene in the movie where a little girl gets a huge stuffed unicorn, and she yells, "It's. So. FLUFFY!!!!" I had a similar reaction to my anniversary present this year.

A little background. For about two years now, I have had a slight obsession with a little Etsy store called MadebyHank. You who are familiar, know that she makes the worlds best purses, and that they sell out, literally in seconds. So, last year for my birthday, when Tim surprised me with this little number:

which I have used as a wallet ever since. Then, I treated myself to this one a while back:

and I love it, oh how I love it. But Tim knew that what I really wanted was one of her coveted shoulder bags - impossible to find, but breathtakingly pretty. So, imagine my delight when he quietly placed this little number on our living room chair:

My reaction was something like, "What's that? No. How?!" (remember, sells out in seconds), followed by immediately putting everything from above tote into new and improved tough ruffles shoulder bag and announcing that it's name was Purse-Face (cause it looks like it has a mouth when you open it.) I love it. I couldn't be happier. Tim's gift has yet to arrive (I may have been a little slow on the ordering it process) but I think he'll be pretty happy too. Anyway, all in all it was a great last hurrah before the baby joins us.

Three Years Ago Today...

...was the last time I spoke with my mom. Today is my parents anniversary - I believe it would be their 33rd. At this point we knew that she was dying, although the doctors had given us hope that she would be with us for a few more months. Tim and I headed down to Kent after work that day to drop off an anniversary gift - tulips, See The Morning CD by Chris Tomlin, and Lady in the Water by M Night Shymalan. Tim (the other Tim) and Chie had cooked dinner for my parents and when we came in they were eating in the dining room. Mom seemed to be doing really well that day. She was walking, talking, even eating a small amount - something that had been getting more and more difficult. We stayed only briefly, wanting them to have time together, and headed out. Three days later she went Home. By the time I got to her she was unresponsive. The whole family was there, which could have only been by the hand of God, and we held her hands and tried to comfort her until she was with Him.


I really miss her. The silliest things set me off, like not being able to remember a recipe at the grocery store and knowing that she'd be able to tell me what to get if I could just call her. I know that she's finally well, and happier than I can imagine, and that we will one day be reunited, but it's hard. I still cry myself to sleep every so often, but the pain is becoming less sharp, and I know it will continue to lessen as the days go on.


I apologize that my first post is ages is so unhappy, but that's just what I'm feeling right now, and this seemed like as good a place as any to get my thoughts out. Signing out.

Eating and Shopping and Shopping and Eating

So, when we weren't watching Wicked, playing board games, or taking pictures of our amazing view, we were either shopping or eating (we'd been planning for months for this, so we went all out.) Here's what we ate:



First we went to Jaks, a famous burger place in Issaquah. Tim got the burger, I got the steak sandwich.

After Jaks we went to the Bravern, a new mall in Bellevue that has a Neiman Marcus, Jimmy Choo, and Anthropologie! We got dessert there:

Mine was lemon strawberry,

Tim's was triple coconut. We also ate at Specialty's Cafe and Cheesecake Factory (Thanks, Chris and Michelle, for the gift card!) but, evidentally I was too hungry to think to take pictures there.

Onto the fun part! The goods! Well, it shouldn't surprise you that most of our time (and money) was spent at Martin and Osa. There was a employee promotional weekend going on, so we got almost everything half off! Here's what I purchased:

Super pretty navy silky blouse

Gold nugget long necklace
White flare jeans

Azure blue tuxedo henley

Bright teal T-shirt ($7 by the way)

A brilliantly yellow sweater

Adorable golden earrings

I also made my first trip into an Anthropologie! I wanted a lot of things, but found this for $20 and contented myself with only buying this.

And lastly we went to DSW.
I'd been on the hunt for a good red heel for a l-o-n-g time, and we finally found it! The pictures don't do them justice, they are a burgandy color in real life, not brown. But so shiny and pretty!

And here's a happy us, after a long fun day.

Our Stay in the Westin

We love the Westin Bellevue. We've stayed there twice. Both times we've reserved a standard King Suite, and both times we've been upgraded to a corner suite with panoramic views. Check it out.

From our room we had views of the waterfront, the city and Mt. Rainier. It was fun to see it in all lights, daylight, sunset, night time, and sunrise. Notice the cloud cover under Mt. Rainier. That was at about 6 am. It was a great place to stay for our 5th anniversary celebration. Next post will show you how we filled our days.

And we're off

to our (belated) 5th anniversary celebration!
Tonight: Wicked!
Tomorrow: A stay in our favorite hotel!
Friday: Shopping!
Saturday and Sunday: Just spending time together. Yay!

Needless to say, I won't be posting any time soon. Have a great rest of the week!

Fourteen Days till...

Our (belated) 5th anniversary celebration includes:

4th row center seats to Wicked (!!!)

Two nights in a high end hotel

Shopping (of course)

Let the countdown begin!