Ready. Set. (:

Can you watch this with out smiling? I can't. (: I love. Just what I needed to kick off my day. I have so much to get done, Erik's family will be here to visit SO soon. If I get some down time from our updates around the house, I'll update you!

LOVE YOU.

Wishy Washy.

Good Morning Bloggers.

I've started a new morning tradition with myself. I just completed day two, so we'll see how long I stick with this. (: I've decided I absolutley need to get up every morning and do my dishes first thing right away. So far it's been the best idea. We don't have a dishwasher so we're really good at slacking. So. If I get up every morning and do them, then they won't consume our counter like they normally do! Ha.

I hope you're having the sweetest week. I'm so proud of my cross country team, and my legs. Ha. 7 miles last night at practice. Whoop. (:

WE LOVE YOU.

Success.

To laugh often and love much

To win the respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children

To earn the appreciation of honest critics

endure the betrayal of false friends

To appreciate beauty

To find the best in others

To leave the world a bit better

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition

To know even one life has breathed easier

because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

[Often attributed to Elisabeth-Anne Anderson Stanley]





To Make You Feel My Love.

My first year at Williston State College my roomies and I would have the most fabulous No Electricity Nights. Seriously, SO GREAT. We would shut off all of the lights, light candles all over the room, we would use electricity to play music and then we'd just hang out. We'd chill or chat. Bond and dance. We seriously had the best times when we had no electricity nights, it was the b-e-s-t way to relax and destress. I love those nights so much. Tonight I heard Adele's version of To Make You Feel My Love and it just brought me back to those amazing nights with my roommates. I feel like it would be a perfect No Electricity song. Do yourself a favor, give yourself a break and try it. Dare you. Love you.

Fall back.

Good morning bloggers. (:

I am kind of procrastinating getting to my house work this morning so I figured it would be a perfect time to recap our summer, yes the past summer that we slacked terribly at blogging about. I'm going to see how much I can cram into one post for you with out being over whelming. I seriously just grabbed my calander off the wall, sat down on the couch and I'm ready to share.

Memorial day to Labor day, here we go! ;)

My best friend Rhea's wedding. Rhea's been my best friend since preschool. She's an only child so I've always just been a part of the family. I was the maid-of-honor in her pink, blue and green wedding. Here are a few photos.

Their wedding was Memorial day, the last weekend in May, bringing us into June. I have three daycare kids that occasionaly come stay with Erik and I. They're turkeys. (: They're so full of life and we love them. Here are a couple photos.

 

My birthday was the first week in June. Erik bought me a hammock for my birthday, idk that I have any photos I'll have to work on that. It's fabulous and I love it. (: We had an auction at my grandparents house, my dad's parents, they're both..isn't it funny how we use nice words to describe death, if I say they're both dead it sounds bad, but it's the truth so we try to fancy it up with deceased or passed away..either way, you get it. They no longer live in the same world I do. Maybe that's why dead is such a harsh word, because really it's dishonest. They aren't dead, they just aren't living here anymore. I'm happy with that conclusion. SO. We had an auction to sell all of their belongings and their home. It was a hard day for our family, full of bitter sweet and memories. I took so many photos but they're on my dads camera so I'll have to share another time. I think they had 40 shovels and 38 bikes and 24 sewing machines. Seriously, that's how they rolled it. They didn't have just one of anything, they had 13. My dad and I signed up for auction numbers, I think auctions are fabulous, like large garage sales, if you don't know I live for garage sales now you do. We always used to go to auctions with my dad when we were younger, he always asks for number 52, I chose 21. I remember the first time I got to bid for something at an auction there was this old box shaped like 2 dice (I know, more than one is die, but I want you to know what I'm talking about. Ha) with a flip up lid on the top in with a bunch of other things and my dad asked the auctioner if he'd sell the die seperate for me. You can do that if you just want one thing out of the box and just bid for it instead of everything else. They come out with a higher number and if nobody bids they go down. I was so excited when he came out with $10 I bid right away and my dad was upset I didn't wait for him to come down to $5. Ha, but I won it at that and to this day it's in my living room. Back to our summer. I bid and won on a couple old wash boards, a bunch of my grandma's crafty/sewing things which came in boxes with some odds and ends jewelry and things like that. I also wanted A sewing machine as in ONE but came home with three. Ha, I bid on one and when I won it the auctioner said Katie, take those two with it. Either way they're old and fabulous, I just need to get to work on them. When they sold the house it was a sad moment for our family. Such is life, 'eh?

Next. I did wedding hair for a friend of mine Amy. Her and her husband Paul got married at a summer camp they met counsling at. It was a perfect weekend. I LOVE CAMP. If you didn't go to summer camp, find a way to do it. Love, love, love. The night before we had a bond fire and did some star gazing, it was the best. The setting was beautiful! Here are some photos.

I'm for sure not giving the events of our summer the credit they deserve. But if I don't zoom through this I know I won't get them done. The following weekend I went to Denver with my parents for a wedding, the daughter of my parents' friends. I had a good trip with them. Colorado was beautiful. I got to see where I was born, the apartment I first lived in and the house we lived in before we moved to MT. It was fun to see my friends Melissa and Brandon who I've grown up with, my parents' friends' kids!

We spend the 4th of July in Worland, WY with our friends Bret and Emily Younts. They're friends of Erik's from high school and I'm SO glad we got to spend the holiday with them. We had the best time, we always enjoyed visiting Bret before their wedding and this was the first time we've been to visit them since they've been married and Emily moved in. I'm SO glad I got to spend the weekend getting to know Emily. I seriously adore her and I'm so glad we got the chance to get some together time in.

 

In July I also did hair for a wedding of two friends of mine from high school. Curtis and Heidy MacGrady. I did hair for the bride and most of the bridesmaids. The bride and groom didn't want to see each other pre-ceramony so he's not in this photo.

Our summer was seriously loaded with weddings. And FRIENDS. (: I know I've missed SO much this is all I have time for this morning, in my next post I'll try and update you on all of our in home projects.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH.



Only the Good Die Young

I found this story today while browsing pinterest and just wanted to share, if you click the photo I've linked it to the original source. LOVE YOU.

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life – like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?”

The six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”