The way I see it #267

"Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity." Oliver Sacks



I love quotes and this was on the cup of my peppermint white chocolate mocha this morning, and since I'm all about music this week, I thought I would share.




My artist of the day today is Colbie Caillat. She is fairly new to the music scene but she already has atleast 1 hit single, Bubbly. I love her music, it's calming and fun at the same time. I first found her on myspace and now she is all over the radio. If you havent already, check her out.

Trace Adkins

I've always been a country music fan ever since I remember listening to music and I'm pretty sure it's because I always went everywhere with my Grandma when I was little and she only listened to country. When I started riding the bus to school, I was introduced to new music and I liked it too. I've always been a music lover and I can go from listening to Buckcherry and then go to Michael Buble and then some Rascal Flatts, I love it all. I especially love songs that have good meaning to them, and songs that I can relate to. Country music is pretty well known for having songs about heartbreak, alcohol, etc. but a lot of them have a really good message in them. Trace Adkins has a new song out called "Your gonna miss this" and this song hit me hard. I haven't cried that hard over a song in a long time. Every single word in the song is true and if you haven't heard it, I strongly recommend taking a listen. I love songs like these that really make me think about life and taking things for granted.

What a beautiful day!

Well Im heading over the Mountains to Ellensburg to see Travis, Rachel, Becca, Justin and Dailey!! We have our racing banquet for the ASA Northwest Tour in Yakima tomorrow evening, so I decided to go over early to visit all the people I've missed the past couple of months. It's been way too long since I've been over there, but the pass has just been too snowy to go over in my Jetta :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, I know I sure will :)

Where did the weekend go?

So I've been slacking on here, but not because I haven't wanted to write, I just haven't been home! I had a great weekend though and it was basically non stop since Friday. Kevin, Mandi and Grace Hamlin were in town since they didn't come home at Christmas time. We had planned to all go out Friday night in Snohomish so Jay and his friend Jeremy came up and so did Jenny. We all went to this bar in Snohomish and had a great time having some drinks, visiting with Kev and Mandi and taking lots of pictures. It was fun to go out with them.





Saturday afternoon everyone was invited over to Mandi's moms to see the baby and visit. I brought Campbell with me and she was so excited to see the baby, she just stood and watched her and every so often she would rub her leg. It was so sweet to watch. Grace has grown so much in a month, it's hard to believe!
After we left the Hamlin's, I took Campbell to the Olive Garden for dinner and that was fun. She was so good all weekend!
Sunday morning I got up and headed up to Shane and Shae's for the night. Shae's mom Pam was up for the weekend so we went to lunch, did a little shopping, built a dresser, and then just made dinner and hung out. Monday we just relaxed and eventually went shopping. It was the most beautiful day. It was really cold, but there were clear blue skies and you could see the snow capped mountains all around. They have the best scrapbook store that I have ever been to in Langley so we went there. I got tons of new stuff, mostly paper. After that we went to Walmart and then had lunch and then when we got back I headed home. I stopped at the Carter's outlet in Burlington. With a couple preggo friends, I need to start shopping now :)
I love when Monday's are a holiday because it makes the rest of the week fly by. I'm getting ready to watch the season finale of The Real Desperate housewives of the Orange County and I cant believe it's already going to be over.
This weekend will be another fun one with the ASA NW Tour banquet which means a trip over the mountains! Hopefully the snow will hold off until after I'm over the pass!
It was absolutely gorgeous outside today, even though it was only about 32 degrees all day, it still made it hard to be inside working when it was so pretty outside. The rest of the week is supposed to be the same so that will be a nice change from all the rain we have gotten lately.
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a great week ahead!

My favorite day of the week..

Every Wednesday I get to pick Campbell up from pre-school at 11:30. Every Wednesday she comes running out the door with her arms wide open screaming "BEEECCCCKKKYYYYYY" with a great big smile on her face. I look forward to that every Wednesday. She shows me her school work that she is very proud of and then I take her to get lunch.
It's our little Wednesday tradition and something I look forward to every week!

The rest of my day flew by and before I knew it, it was time to head to Puyallup. Wednesdays are a great day for me. Not only do I get to pick up Campbell at pre - school, but I also go to Jay's basketball game. Tonight Budah went with me, and they lost the game but we went to dinner afterwards and had some good laughs talking about old times. It was really fun!

Kevin, Mandi and Grace come in from North Carolina tomorrow and I cant wait to see them. Grace is now 2 months old, amazing how time flys!
A fun weekend is ahead!

American Idol!!

I am so excited for this, I love the audition part of the show and that starts tonight! I hope they show some good talent tonight.

There was some excitement last night with the snow fall. At about 4:00 it started with the mixed snow/rain and I went to the grocery store and when I came out it was like a blizzard! It snowed about 2 inches at our house and then it was cold over night so the roads were terrible this morning.

Not much going on today but I did get some exciting news that Brandon & Lynsie are having a little BOY! So exciting for them. I had a feeling it was going to be a girl, but I was wrong, so now there will be a Brandon Riehl Jr. out there, look out racing world haha

I hope everyone has a good night!

Well that was fun!

"There are not enough days in the weekend"

That is pretty much my feeling after this weekend. If only we could have been at the ocean longer. It is so pretty and I love just watching the waves and hearing the sound of them crash on the beach.

Saturday it wasn't very nice. It rained most of the day and was cloudy and cold so we just stayed inside and watched the Seahawks game which started out great but turned out to be a disappointment. That's the way it goes though, so I guess we will just have to wait for next year. I know that I will not be cheering for Green Bay next weekend, but I'm a poor sport like that :) We had a nice dinner Saturday night and then I read my Sandra Lee book and ended up finishing it this morning. It was a really great book and I would definitely recommend it. She is a great example of what hard work and motivation can do for a person. She is very inspiring to me and although she didn't have the best childhood, she didn't let that bring her down. I found it interesting that she was born in California but moved to Sumner, WA. when she was 6 and lived here until she was 16.

Today was much nicer and the sun was out with mostly blue skies. Grandpa cooked us a nice breakfast and then my sister, brother and I went down to the beach and played in the water (even though it was freezing!) We took some pics and just enjoyed the view.

Here are some pics we took:





We left Ocean Shores at noon and I headed to Shelby's. We had planned to hang out since Jeff is in NC so we went shopping in the afternoon and then went to the Olive Garden for dinner.

I was looking forward to a new Desperate Housewives tonight, but I guess it wasn't new this week. The work week awaits tomorrow and more rain is on the way (surprise, surprise). It is an exciting week in TV with American Idol starting on Tuesday. My favorite part is the auditions, I just hope they show more real talent instead of all the sillies just trying to make it on TV.

I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing weekend!

Off to the Ocean I go..

Although it wont be nice enough to sit in pretty chairs like these and enjoy the scenery, it sure does make me happy looking at them. I am heading to Ocean Shores for the weekend and you may be wondering who would want to go to the Ocean during Winter in Washington, well that would be my wonderful family for you :) My grandfather is part of a time share and there are some condo's in Ocean Shores. He loves to go at this time of the year to watch the storms coming in, and trust me, there are plenty of them. I love going there, the scenery is pretty, it's relaxing, the condos are nice and it feels like I'm far away from home when really it's only a few hours.

So off to the ocean I go, my family is already there so it's just me, myself and I going on a mini road trip, and oh I do love me some road trips :)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend doing whatever it is you plan to do! I will be:


And I will be cheering for the...

and sporting my..

jersey! Go Hawks :)

Finally Friday!

Well who would have thought that I would ever be seen with one of these

definitely not me! I think it is hilarious when I see someone who appears to be talking to themselves, but I guess now I will be one of those people :) Shelby got one for Christmas and she convinced me to get one and I figure that since eventually it will be the law, I might as well get used to it now. And let me tell you, it is so nice to not have to hold the phone! Although, it may be dangerous for me as now I have two hands to do more things with while I'm driving, maybe not such a good idea for me!

Anyhow, last night didn't exactly go as planned for me (surprise surprise), and most people that know me, know that I always make plans but rarely follow them. I intend to, but I always seem to get detoured. On my way home last night I stopped at Staples to grab some things for the office. I have been on the quest for a new desk for my room since the one I have from Ikea is pretty large and just a waste of space. I was looking through the furniture at Staples and seen a desk that was on sale for $79.99 and it came with a chair. It is black wood and looks sort of distressed. It is perfect and a good price, too good to pass up. So I got it and the way home I went. The bad thing is, I had to build it. I don't have the a lot of patience for building things but I figured it couldn't be too hard. I started with the chair and had it all put together until it was time to put the seat on and I realized I had the front bar and back bar on wrong, so that meant taking basically the whole chair apart! I was so frustrated. Melinda came up to help me and we just could not get it to work. We took a break and had dinner and came back and I built the desk in about 15 minutes, and Melinda got another screw for the chair and it finally worked.

After that was done I had to take my other desk out and rearrange the new one and it was about 10:30 by that point, so I decided to make a couple more thank you cards and call it a night, no real scrap booking after all!

I did start to read my Sandra Lee book though and probably stayed up too long reading it, but once I pick up a good book, I cant put it down.
So far so good, and I cant wait to read it again tonight.
I hope every one's Friday flys on by!

Happy Thursday!

I can see the light of Friday and that's always good :) Another weekend awaits.
I don't have much to share today but I felt I needed to blog after being inspired by a fellow blogger thanks to Karen :)
My week was simple. My sister came over on Tuesday to cut Campbell and Kevin's hair. Campbell's bangs grow so fast! Afterwards sis curled Campbell's hair and she loved it.

Last night I went to Puyallup for Jay's basketball game. It was the 4Th game and they finally won. They got new jerseys last night and I think that was the trick. Final score was 68-65. It was a close game and everyone seemed to step it up tonight, making most of the shots, making good passes and working well together. It's fun to watch them since they get so into it. After the game, Mike, Susi, Jay, Jay's Boss, and I went to Mexican. We had a few Margaritas and had a good conversation. I stopped at Shelby's on the way home to deliver her new boots to her and she loved them.

Tonight I plan to get busy making scrapbooks from our recent trips to North Carolina. I have been wanting to make these for awhile now but I never get inspired enough to do it. Tonight that is definitely my main goal. Go home, get in my sweats and scrap..sounds like a good plan to me!
Thanks to my new bedside lamp, I now read for a few minutes before I go to bed and tonight
I plan to start reading this:
My mom got it for me for Christmas. It is Sandra's autobiography and I have been wanting to start reading it for awhile but I wanted to finish this first:

Paula Deen "It ain't all about the cookin" her autobiography. I love reading autobiographies and I strongly recommend Paula's book! I have gotten to love Paula from watching her shows on Food Network but her book is just great. It really gives you a look at her life and she has had a very interesting one so far!

My Bathroom!

Lately I have been in the mood to redecorate things and I didnt forget my bathroom. Im very in to the earth tones right now complimented by a little blue :) I have slowly but surely changed almost everything in the bathroom and I think it looks great. Here are a few pics..

Lazy Sunday

I love Sunday's, especially when I don't have any plans and I can do whatever I would like. Today I slept in, until almost 2:00 :) I never do that but the house was so quiet today and apparently I was pretty tired!
I like to make pot roasts on Sundays and I had one to make today. I use a different recipe every time and today I decided to use Paula Deen's recipe. I also made her macaroni and cheese and it was about the best pot roast Ive ever had. So tender you could cut it with a fork and it just fell apart. I think this recipe is definitely a keeper!
Tonight I just plan to work on my scrapbook for a bit and then watch a new episode of Desperate Housewives and I cant wait for that! It hasn't been on for a few weeks so it should be a good one tonight.

All in all it was a great weekend. The Seahawks won their first playoff game, I got to hang out with Shelby and go shopping and have a great dinner and then today I got to relax and cook a nice meal. I hope ya'll had a great weekend too! The first full work week of 2008 awaits :)

Seahawk Saturday!

Well the Hawks made it into the playoffs and today is the first big game and it's at Qwest Field. I could have went with Mike, Susi & Jay but I decided I didnt want to spend that kind of money for a ticket and the weather hasnt been to great lately. I still dont fully understand football, but Im learning more and more. Now that I see the game on tv and it's sunny out, Im wishing I was there, but hopefully they will keep advancing through the playoffs and I can go to the next one!
This morning I went and got my nails done, nothing better than a fresh set :)
Today I plan to watch the game, then head down to Shelby's to hang out. We might do a little scrappin or do nothing at all!

Out with the old in with the brown & blue!

Well this weekend I decided that I was going to completely clean everything out, throw away old things and organize everything else. I had way too much stuff for the amount of space I had and I pretty much had it when I tried to get something down from the shelf in my closet and all my bags came falling down on me! So, I decided to do something about it. I got a new dresser at Ikea to put in my closet for storage and Jenny built that for me on Saturday along with my new nightstand. I spent Friday night, Saturday and Sunday doing all of this and it was no easy task! Saturday night Jenny and I went shopping and to dinner and while we were out I decided that I was going to get the brown & blue bedding that I have wanted. I'm so glad I did because it looks great. It is just perfect and it makes me so happy when I look at my bed now, it's just so calm. Here is a pic and I will post some more pics later on when I get everything finished.