The kindle.. aka "where to find me"

It's not quite my birthday yet, but Russ bought my present already: a kindle paperwhite to replace my dearly beloved old keyboard style kindle that broke forever back in March of this year (may it rest in peace.)

After 5 days of use I am now here to sing of my eternal and everlasting love of the paperwhite and all it's many virtues, and to also tell you: don't bother me.

I'm busy.

Reading.

Reading everywhere, because it's so darn small & light, reading for long spells, because there's no glowing LED screen, and most importantly, reading in the dark, with a built-in adjustable light that is super easy on the eyes and doesn't change the battery life of EIGHT FREAKING WEEKS.

(Changed my life, people. Also, my sleeping habits ;)

I could go on and on but this isn't a paid review or anything, I just really love the thing, and I really love my husband, who was so obliging as to get it for me early and give it to me right away because I could wait NO LONGER, DEAR SIR!

That is all.

For the love of reading,

Monday Confessional {And melted crayon art)

I have nine young teen girls sleeping over tonight for my daughter's belated birthday party and I think I'm having as much fun as they are.

Confession: I'm a sucker for a girls-only all-nighter. The planning, preparation, running of it, it's all fun.

So far activities have included, but not been limited to: swimming at the river, with rock jumping and rope swinging, spaghetti & meatballs dinner with cupcakes and ice cream for dessert, giant shrink-wrapped candy ball game (fun party game we found on pinterest), Pinterest-inspired melted crayon art, scorch (flashlight tag) in the dark, and as of 12:01 am (the time right now), a full on hair and beauty makeover session while rocking out to Pandora.

In an hour I'll send them all out to the huge tent set up in the backyard, and in the morning when they roll in around 10am, I'll make them cinnamon rolls for brunch and then send them all home.

And it will have all been completely delightful!

SUPER BONUS: Pinterest did not let us down.

We tried out melted crayon art without any real tutorials and were pleasantly shocked when it actually turned out to be as easy as it looked! I found the canvases in a multi-pack on clearance at Michael's, used hot glue guns or painters tape to affix the crayons either permanently or temporarily, depending on what the girls wanted, and then used an embossing heating tool to melt the crayons (heats much hotter than a blow dryer).

The girls were so creative and absolutely loved the process, and adding their own touches at the end.

Nope, I'm not minding this at all :)

Now please excuse me, it's Divergent time ;)

Children of the Corn

{Elijah, Hayden, Kendall, Lincoln, Cooper, Blake}

Do I even need to write anything in this blog post? I think these cute cousins speak for themselves.

 (Dressed and posed quite spontaneously in the field next to Kelly's new house, within hours of our Mum requesting a "grandkids" picture for her Portland-to-Coast relay team van window... because my sister and I are awesome like that.) 

(Yes, Mum is off on yet another amazing adventure, she's awesome like that too ;)

Four Generations

Today I am thankful for the precious memories made in the past month while my grandparents have been here from New Zealand.

I'm thankful for the strong heritage of faith that has been handed down through generations.

I'm thankful for the relationship my children have with their great-grandparents, one that they will be able to remember into adulthood.

And I'm thankful for my sweet, kind, and lovely Grandma, the truest epitome of a lady you will ever meet.

 

(Kendall felt all kinds of special today, being the first great-grandchild, first grandchild, and only granddaughter on my side of the family. It's only fair then that she got her hazel eyes from her Grandma and Granny, instead of from me :)

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awkward: When you're put in charge of making the church bulletin while your sister (graphic designer extraordinaire) is on maternity leave, and it takes you a painstakingly slow 3 1/2 hours to complete it, including no less than SIX calls to said sister for over-the-phone guidance. Printmaster ain't for no fools, folks.

Awesome: Being related by blood to the person whose job you're filling in for, so that you can call for help six times in one day if you need to, and you don't have to feel guilty about it.

Awkward: When you drive to your regular job, the one 25 minutes from home, only to discover you left not only your entire purse at home, but more importantly, the key to your locked office that's inside your purse. EMPLOYEE FAIL.

Awesome: When you call your boss and find out she is oh-so-conveniently only a three minute drive away, and has a key for you to use. GAS SAVER.

Awkward: Discovering that temporarily going from working two days a week to three is all that it takes for your house to fall into all-out disarray, mayhem, and madness. Madness, I say! (This is embarrassing because, guys, it's still only three days a week. Sheesh.)

Awesome: Husbands who email you out of the blue with these kind (if not slightly humorous) words: "tonight I'm going to boss the kids around in helping with some cleaning around the house. With you having to work a little more with your sister gone, it’s too hard for you to keep up with the house on your own. Them and...I...mostly them, should help." Well hallelujah to that! 

(Not that our kids don't have regular chores and help out, they do, but apparently I have still been doing the lion's share... and by the looks of things, am the only one who cares about cleanliness and order of any sort.)

Awkward: Planning the majority of your summer trips for back-to-back extended weekends because the dates just worked out that way, and belatedly realizing you won't be at church for a whole month. AND THEN GOING TO WORK FOR THE SENIOR PASTOR. 

Awesome: Back-to-back trips that make you feel like you're away on vacation all summer long! Woohooo, Summer!  

(I guess I'll work on feeling more guilty later ;)

No. 4 (vacation)

Vacation number four of the summer is in the bag.

Last Thursday we headed to Sunriver with our friends the Haddens for five glorious days of Eastern Oregon sunshine and relaxation. Coming home today (Monday night) was hard... I get the "going home blues" whenever trips are over and I especially didn't want this one to be over.

So now I'm going to relive it through pictures! So many pictures! 

(Truly. I'm sorry about all the pictures.)

So Sunriver has the best water park, and the house we rented came with passes we could use daily, and also happened to be a two minute bike ride away, so off we went every day to bask in the sun, float in the lazy river, and water slide, etc. to our hearts content. I read a whole book there. A WHOLE book. 

Friday night we went to the outdoor movie in the park. It was the Princess Bride! Obviously the night was magical. 

My parents and grandparents just happened to be in Bend (20 minutes away) for a little getaway so came over to join us. This thrilled me to NO END. It was so fun to enjoy one of our family faves with them. 

Our trip also included meals and hot tubbing on the back deck...

bike rides to Fort Rock Park...

ice cream visits at Goody's...

And a good old fashioned street dance party in the Village. (Seriously, Sunriver is 100% awesome.)

 {Emily & Blake getting down}

Even Walter, TJ & Jana's dog, got to join in!

On the way home today we stopped in the town of Sisters for a late lunch and discovered the Depot Deli Cafe. I would like to move into their outdoor eating area, it was that cute. 

And the food wasn't too shabby either. 

And can you believe I'm going to stop the pictures there?! (You're welcome ;)

This was our 5th (I think?) year going to Sunriver with TJ & Jana and their kids and every single year we wish we could stay longer. Here's crossing my fingers for 2015!

Celebrations

What I Wore Wednesday has been postponed, folks.

I'm too busy celebrating the birth of my new nephew!

 {Lincoln James Hernandez. Born Aug 5th at 3:01 pm}

{Congratulations, Dave & Kelly!}

{So blessed to be able to witness his entrance into the world!}

Annnnddd... today we are also celebrating the 13th birthday of my firstborn child.

Who I'm pretty sure just looked like this yesterday...

{Don't you sometimes wish you could just command time? "Freeze, I say!"}

Life is abundantly good!

The Lakehouse {2014}

This past weekend took us back to the Lake House in Pacific City for another annual Halverson family getaway - the most precious of all our summer trips. The cousins are all still living at home and we know it won't be too many more years now before things change as the oldest head off to college/get married/start families of their own.

BOO HOO HOO HOOOOO!

It was a wonderful trip, and like every other year, I didn't want our time together to end!

This year will be remembered for:
- NON-STOP Settlers of Catan by all the boy cousins (whenever they weren't in the lake)
- an ACTUAL sunny and warm day at Cape Kiwanda! (with no fog! Miracle!)
- kayaking and swimming and fishing galore
- Qwirkle madness
- home movie watching
- my father-in-law's amazing fish feast
- my mother-in-law's amazing white chili that was, in retrospect, although the best chili I've EVER eaten, perhaps not the wisest dinner choice for a group of 20 people staying in one house together. Ahem.

It will also be remembered for hearing the sad news of a very dear family friend's death, and relishing our time together even more because of it, though we mourn his loss deeply.

(Multiple pictures ahead. Stick it out for my very favorite at the end!)

{All the cousins} 

{Ben & Miranda are going to be seniors in high school this fall. Don't leave us, Ben & Mandy!} 

{Us in our entirety!}

{I wasn't kidding, right?}