A Very Happy Birthday

So after the age of 12, usually birthdays aren't that eventful. The older you get, the less big of a deal it is. But this birthday was wonderful! Especially after last year (I was working in a bakery in target- right after Thanksgiving is the worse time, especially when you have to be there at 3:30 am) I had a wonderful day this year. It started the day before my birthday, Sam gave me a new pillow! A memory foam contoured for side sleepers! He also gave me 14 pink roses! Oh, come to think of it, I guess the fun really started 2 days before, Sam's parents came and gave me some fun napkins and things for the b&b, Katie gave me a beautiful scarf. Then on my actual birthday we celebrated! I did have to clean 4 bathrooms, but that was it! It was the first night since we've been here that we've had the place all to ourselves. So we took advantage and used the hot tub and the fireplace! I got to sneak into town and do some shopping. I got a sweet card from my grandma. A great package arrived from my parents, money for a lamp! (Which we really need, it's so dark down here!-we did get a chance to do a little shopping on our day off, I'm torn between a few that I like) And a great travel book, some scrapbooking things, and my mom made the cutest felt star ornaments. (I haven't taken a pic of those yet) So it was so relaxing, and Sam kept surprising me! He even made me the most wonderful chocolate cake. He completely surprised me and made it while I was gone! He cleverly wrote my name in red sprinkles!


He made us a great pasta dinner! And I'm totally excited to get a subscription to Cloth, Paper, Scissors. It's such a fabulous magazine. You just have to click on the image to see it larger to read what Sam wrote on the little print out he gave me to tell me about the mag.


Sam found a gift for both of us here, it's a book for keeping our appointments, it's so fancy. It's so funny, I do feel like I'm a cross between Laurelei and Suki, taking care of The Dragonfly Inn! It was such a fun birthday! So thank you everyone! I didn't think birthdays would be that fun again!

Thankful

Sam and I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. God is so amazing! Everything is going so well here we have been truly blessed. I can't believe it. The transition is pretty good. We sometimes have to work really hard, but we do have a lot of free time to spend together which has been great. Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves to realize that we are here, living in a 6000 sqare foot log cabin with gorgeous mountain views! We are finding time to do the things we love. (Well, we're really working on the unpacking, but we take little breaks and we're anticipating how great it will be) We got most of the unpacking done, we rushed so that we could enjoy Thanksgiving. Cooking was a nice break from all the unpacking. I baked an apple pie on Wed. I had to get that done quickly before the group came on Wed. (I don't have an oven in our downstairs apartment.) I cooked the turkey in a big roaster oven that was here. I made everything else in a two burner plug-in makeshift stove. It worked out just fine. Sam was the photographer. Usually I'm the one who wants to take a million pics, but Sam surprisingly insisted on taking them and I had to convince him to stop or our food would be cold! We had a quiet meal, just the two of us. We had a really cool group composed of friends and family staying here at the lodge. A lot of them were young, mid to late 20's. They invited us to their Thanksgiving dinner. I had spent the day cooking, so we wouldn't have a pathetic Thanksgiving, and then these nice people invited us, so we decided to have our own meal, and then we joined them for dessert. It was so much fun. The great thing about this job is all the cool people that we are meeting. Some of the people flew here from out east- Rhode Island. We met a couple who owns a ski shop in Seattle. Another couple who lives in a houseboat who have traveled all over. I can't wait to explore the area we are in and get our place all fixed up in time for the holidays.

Sam's parents came and stayed with us on Friday night. We had a reheated thanksgiving leftover meal together! That was nice. On Sat. some relatives were visiting family and stopped by on their way to Seattle. So surprisingly, we've already had some visitors. We gladly welcome more! We can't wait to have a family get together of our own here! Soon I will post some pics of our place. I do want to do some painting, we'll see!

Moving Day

So we packed all weekend. Said our goodbyes, headed to Chaska Sunday night. Sam did a job for his dad Monday morning and I met him around noon to leave. We drove and drove. We had to drive so slow. 55-60 mph the whole way! So it took us till Thursday to get here. Wed. night we stayed in Spokane and then we got here around 7 pm. We had great weather the whole way. No snow on the road, but snow all around! We didn't hit bad weather until Thursday evening going down the mountain from Spokane to Goldbar. Can I just say that I have so much more respect for truckers now! We have definitely driven across the country before, but we usually do marathon trips and get it done with in one 24 hr period. And that is driving at a normal speed. But this was miserable. It dragged on and on. So I really hope that truckers get paid really well, they deserve every penny! So we have been unpacking. Right when we arrived here we had the surprise of Stephano, a man from Venice, Italy. So right to work when we arrived. We had to cook breakfast the next morning! It was rainy at night when we were unloading.




The video shows all the stuff Sam packed into a 5'x8'x5' trailer. So all that stuff was simply in the trailer, not the back of the truck or the car! I don't know how he did it! Mike and Sam worked hard and got it all in. It was crazy, you should have seen the 3 of us trying to get the mattress to fit! That was crazy! So I just have messy unloading pics. I'll get some other pics up on here as soon as we get this place settled. There was a group here this weekend. Luckily we didn't have to cook for them, so we have been able to focus simply on the unpacking. We do have space for once, yeah! Although we need to get more furniture. It's nice to finally have a place of our own. A place to call home. It's been 3 months since we had to leave our other apartment. So it's about time! I've been noticing people already going crazy about Christmas. I found a few radio stations already dedicated to 24-7 Christmas music! Everyone tends to forget all about Thanksgiving and head straight to Christmas. People move it up earlier and earlier each year, next year we probably won't even talk about halloween, it will be Christmas starting in October. I love Christmas, but I love this fall season so much, we need to enjoy it while it is here. I didn't realize that Thanksgiving is next week already! Crazy! I thought for sure I had 2 more weeks. So we'll have 2 different groups here, and we'll be stuck in the basement, but I think we'll try to have a Thanksgiving meal for just Sam and I. We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Thank you to everyone who helped us move, or gave us a home, and all the support through this little crazy adventure.