Birthday & Busyness

Wow! What a weekend I had. On Saturday my cousin Tammy and I spent all of the morning and some of the early afternoon at the huge Portland Bridal Fair. It was well worth it in terms of getting referrals and resources for my business. We had a blast! She pretended to be renewing her wedding vows and I was her wedding planner.

I then raced home to host Drew's afternoon birthday party. How can my little boy be 5 already??? He invited 2 friends from school, along with one of their little brothers who is Nick's age. Of course Jordan (my cousin's son) was invited too! We also had Tammy, Amanda, my parents and Michael. Oh, and one parent of Drew's best friend (here next to him in this photo).






I think the party was a great success. Drew and all the boys had a lot of fun. We kept it very simple... Pin the Tail on the Donkey, the "drop the clothespins in the jar" game (which Nick won!), and a homemade birthday cake. See, you can have a great party without going overboard! Although I was very blessed to have help from Matt and my family in providing many of the birthday necessities.


Drew had an awesome time and that made me so happy.


On Sunday Michael & I played hookie from church out of necessity. We spent the entire day cleaning/organizing his shop and his property in anticipation of the appraiser coming this week. (We planned to do his home upstairs too, but pooped out after tackling the kitchen.)




Here's just a pic of my man. He's been a tremendous blessing from God in my life.










His side of the shop is 2000 sf (not all of which is pictured here), so it took us quite a while to get it all done. Good thing we didn't have to do his dad's side as well!

We tackled the outside storage also. OK, mostly that was Michael while I played "fire girl"... taking things over to be burned. I had a rip-roarin' bonfire going! All we needed were some hot dogs and marshmallows.



After lunch at a cute little, old-fashioned diner, we tackled the outside until it got dark.

I will admit that there were times when I took a break and simply took pictures of the beauty on the hill.

As darkness approached and we went inside, all of my muscles were screaming. I cleaned the kitchen and then Michael had me sit on the couch with a blanket and a book while he made us dinner. I tried not to feel guilty. We then ended the evening with a little dip in Craig & Vickie's hot tub. I think that was a lifesaver for me in terms of not feeling as much of the pain today.

It was a great weekend, from start to finish.