Weekend O' Fun

After debating for what seemed like hours, we finally decided late on Saturday morning to pack up and head east to the cabin with the Lucas three. We were very glad we went, although like most cabin weekends, it wasn't exactly jampacked full of action. That's what's so great about the cabin, especially when it's just you and the fam. There is always lost of restin' and relaxin', eatin' and drinkin', and nobody judges you for being too tired to walk down the street to look at the new development because you've exhausted yourself simply by being awake and eating breakfast. No judging! :)(at the cabin, even reading a book can wear you out!)

We arrived around 4:30 Saturday night and the rest of the fam was doing their thing in Leavenworth, so Petesie and I got to relax a little bit by ourselves. When the fam came home (fresh meat and cheese from Leavenworth in tow), we ended up hanging out and munching on quite a spread of meets and cheeses and wine. I may or may not have somehow opened the bottle of wine and caused the non-carbonated beverage to spray up in my face and burn my eyes. I may or may not have thought for a minute I was going to be blinded by Riesling. :)
We had a great spread for dinner on Saturday night - blue cheese salad, grilled pork chops, roasted asparagus and crunchy country bread. Of course, dessert was the best of all: Yes, that is animal cookies and an amazing bottle of wine. I thought it was a perfect pairing. I was alone in my thinking however, as all the other grown ups declared their hatred for the wonderful pink and white frosted pieces of heaven. Mom ended up having to wrestle the bag out of my hands and throw the rest of the cookies away for fear I was going to gain 15 pounds by cookies alone.

Saturday night we played a rousing game of scrabble. We threw out the rules and declared that you could use any word you wanted to use as long as the majority of players at the table supported your word choice. Obviously this led to some interesting choices:(In honor of our missing jet-setting auntie)

And moments after this word went down, someone at the table may have spelled out D-O-G in front of it:(inappropriate!!)

But the best word/phrase of the night went to Gabe, who put this together:That's right "I NEED A PEAR CURE"

We were getting pretty silly by that time and decided to let her have it... Really, who doesn't need a pear cure?

By the end of the night, we found Stan and Milo snuggled up like this: hmmmm.... those two really love each other.....

On Sunday, Gabe, Petesie and I went for a hike in the woods with our doggies. The sun was finally out and we decided we were all in need of a little nature.

Petesie proudly found a baseball:

We saw this sign on one of the trails:

And then we saw this:

Nope, not a bear, just Milo. :) After seeing the sign though, we started thinking maybe we should keep our "bear" on a leash, lest any other hikers with a shotgun see our "bear" and....

We walked for several miles through the woods and then we started hearing some strange sounds. Cheers in the distance. We walked further and started smelling some strange smells. Deep fried foods. Funnel cake, perhaps? And, then we hear music. Through the trees we hear fair music, and then lo and behold saw high in the air some trapeze artists! In the midst of our nature walk, we stumbled upon a carnival!

How odd.

Needless to say, we love the cabin and can't wait to go back, for more of this:

And, on a side note - today is this big guy's 7th Birthday:

Happy Birthday Monty, we love you!

Weekend! And Vacation dreams!

Long weekend is finally here and it is so much needed that I can barely get straight sentences together. Needless to say, it's been a loooong week at work and both of us Lacys are in need of a vacay. Unfortunately for me, that won't be possible any time soon, so I'll settle for a three day weekend, thankyouverymuch Memorial Day.

Speaking of Memorial Day... Some history behind this holiday:

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. Originally called Decoration Day as it was a day of reconciliation, when the graves of fallen soldiers would be decorated with flags, etc.. in remembrance.

It's a good reminder of why we have this federally recognized holiday. We watched Cold Mountain last night which is a movie set in the south during the Civil War, and talked at length this morning about the tragedy of this war and the hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Petesie read me the Gettysburg Address. Boy, are those 256 words powerful and important. RIP President Lincoln (we've been on sort of an Abraham Lincoln kick in the Lacy household lately... not sure why really...)

On a side notes, we've gotten a little burned out this week. Lots going on at work and with family. We desperately wish our families weren't so spread out throughout the country and we miss everyone who we don't get to see on a regular basis so much. The family we DO get to see on a regular basis however is going up to the cabin for a weekend getaway and after reading the weather forecast, we've decided to get our act together this afternoon and head up ourselves. Weather forecast for Seattle is upper fifties and rainy for as far as the eye can see while tomorrow at the cabin it looks like we might get up to 78 degrees or so and cloudy. I'll take that over the crap we're dealing with now any day.

And speaking of vacays... there was a lot of talk about France at the office this week. One of the women I work with is taking two weeks to go to France and another decided to host a lunch on Friday where we talked about our trips to France. She brought in baguettes and madeline's from a local french bakery and even though I didn't make the lunch, it made me think about our amazing honeymoon in France. It was the best vacation ever for so many reasons. We spent three nights in Provence and three in Paris and even though it was way too short, we had such a blast together.

Petesie speaks fluent French and tried to teach me... (I was a good student).

The food was beautifuland I was in awe.

My favorite non-wedding picture of us:At the farmer's market in Aix. Gorgeous!!

Paris was picture perfect, even in the rain:
If we ever needed proof that Petesie used to live at 19 Rue De Something-or-other:Look no further. Here was his front door (see above!)

Even though it was our honeymoon, it wasn't the most relaxing of trips. We really tried to cram in a lot during our seven day vacation:
We were so exhausted on the last night, it was difficult to even get up and turn off the light: (he may kill me for posting that picture! soo funny...)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Story Of Us

No secret where I stand politically, so if my liberal pride may possibly offend you, I'd recommend you stop reading this post here.

Moving on. My blog = my soapbox.

I am so sick and tired of being told that liberals aren't patriotic. There are so many conservative pundits, figure heads, etc... who must either believe that they own the concept of patriotism, or they would like to own the concept of patriotism, so they stand with their podiums and loudly promote that their party is the only party that values freedom, that represent the values America was based on.

To that, I say this:

My friends, I believe it's time we take patriotism and rub our pride for our country in the face of anyone who listens.

Truly, it's a great marketing ploy with roots in the cold war. You say you love America? You say you aren't a communist sympathizer? You must be on our team then! We are the party that loves and values America and Freedom! Woohoo, come join our club! And really, who wouldn't sign up for that? At that time, nobody wanted to appear to be a communist sympathizer (for obvious reasons), so they all joined hands in support of "American values". And why not?

The problem is, that somehow, this thinking has become a politically divisive tool to separate the left from the right.

Where did this rant come from, you may ask? I suppose that pride in our country, pride for our values as individuals, family and country and respect for the American's whose minds and muscle in forming the country are a big part of our household values. I look around our living room and see so many history books, books written by great Americans, books about great Americans and a documentary (America - the Story of Us) playing on the television in the background. Petesie woke up early this morning to finish Lincoln's biography Team Of Rivals and read for hours on end, only to be moved to tears at the end. He choked up reading a passage aloud to me about the greatness of Lincoln (um, sorry honey for writing about this...).

So, friends. July 4th is rapidly approaching and I challenge each of us, liberal or conservative to embrace our love and pride for our country and wear it on our sleeves. At the core of who we are are the millions of men and women who came before us and gave their lives to make our country something that we should ALL be proud of.

The end. Climbing off my soapbox to go eat Poppyseed Chicken. Yum!

#116

It's been over six months since one of the greatest, defining days of my life. On this day, friends came from near and close and my family celebrated the addition of one more. My whole, crazy, big, confused and loving family all came together at one time to wrap us in their warm embrace and shower us with such love. It was literally overwhelming and to this day, I can't quite wrap my mind around all the hands that pitched in and everyone who showed up to tell us this:

We Love You.
What a wonderful day, which I have yet to recap in words that fully do it justice. I probably never will be able to tell everyone who was there how much their presence meant to me, to us. I know I'll never be able to give thanks to everyone who was there to help in their own ways. Hands that pulled weeds in the yard days before, friends who moved furniture, grandparents who fought battles to make it to our celebration, parents who lovingly contributed everything that parents can contribute. It was such a great day.

I always wondered how a girl goes to sleep the day before her wedding. It's been a question I've literally thought of for years. How can you go to sleep knowing the next day is The Day you've been dreaming about your whole life? For me, it was a couple glasses of wine, a warm shower and two kitties who kept my company in my big lonely bed and helped soothe me to sleep. And my sister in the next room. We had been gifted with an amazingly generous and beautiful rehearsal dinner the night before by a dear friend who offered us her home and the night as a gift to us. Our view overlooked all of Seattle and as we watched the sun go down and sipped on Walla Walla's finest wines, we anticipated the next day with cheers and hugs for all our fabulous friends who had arrived to begin the celebration.

Saturday morning I woke up and - true to my type-A personality, had made a list the night before of every small detail I had to remember before leaving the house. With my big sister and our very oldest friend, we excitedly headed to Starbucks to get some breakfast before meeting up with the rest of my bridesmaids to have our hair and makeup done. And to take our youngest bridesmaid to get her ears pierced on my big day. :)
The day went by in such a blur, but I can literally remember every minute of it. The thousands of pictures taken certainly help with any details I forgot.

My wonderful friends and sisters headed back to the lake and dressed at Auntie J's house. We clinked glasses of sparkly champagne, danced to a little Bruce Springsteen and headed to meet my man and his crew at the clubhouse for pictures.
The clubhouse blew me away. My mom had not forgotten about a single detail and after working tirelessly for weeks before, had set up the room and created a masterpiece. Warm chocolate tableclothes, white chairs, magnificent handmade centerpieces, candleholders waited to be brought to life with flickering golden flames.
I was poised and arranged on the back deck. My girls spread my dress so it was perfect and I had a realization - "The pictures we take today will forever hang in our home and our grandkids will see these." I was blown away - this day had finally come and yet it was already going by so fast.
Petesie was beckoned and we greeted each other with enthusiasm and awe. Everything was in place. He says he's never seen a more beautiful bride, and it didn't hurt that this bride was all his, forever. My dress (lovingly donated by a great friend) was the perfect dress for Petesie's bride and every detail was perfect for him.
We flew through pictures, freezing cold on the last sunny day of the fall. We were ushered to the church, where we flew through more pictures. At one point I literally thought I was getting cheek cramps from smiling so much. When pictures were done, I was corralled downstairs with my girls and promptly removed my dress so I could breath just a little easier.

Eventually it was time to start the ceremony. I quickly got dressed. We crept up the stairs and sat and listened - like kids listening in on a grown up dinner party we overheard the music which I had dreamed would play on my wedding day. A piano version of Edelweiss filled the small church and I realized that this was actually minutes away from happening. And then I heard the familiar opening chords of Cat Stevens' Morning Has Broken and before I knew it was walking down the aisle on the arms of my Dad.

I must confess here - the one small, minute detail I have pretty much forgotten is the wedding ceremony. Yeah, the entire thing sort of eludes me. I remember being almost completely unable to breathe (me being such an easy going bride the week prior to the big day, I'd scarfed down a huge cheeseburger for lunch the day before... among other deep fried fatty foods throughout the week....) in my supertight corset and dress. Between the breathing issue and my feet which had chosen this moment to remind me that the heels I'd picked out were a little too high, I gripped Petesie's hand for dear life and repeated the words when I was asked to speak.
Then we were married! Yay!!
The reception went off seamlessly. Petesie's BIL John was our Master of Ceremonies and did a fanstastic job - so funny and effortless. I'm sure that all the beer and wine served encouraged our wonderful friends and family to forget if they were nervous and stand to give toasts. The toasts were great. Poignant. And sweet. And hilarious at times. And my fabulous big sister brought down the house with her perfect comedic timing and emotional rendition of Shakespeare's Sonnet #116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.
Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Our good friend Ricardo rocked the house all night with his one-man band and the whole crowd danced until we'd reached the time limit of live music. At which point (I think - this is where the night gets a litte hazy) we continued dancing and talking and hugging and kissing.
Old and new friends alike told us it was the best wedding they've ever been to. It was definitely the best wedding I've ever been to! (Didn't hurt that halfway through the night I'd decided I'd had it with my tight corset like contraption holding me together under my dress and did away with it...)
We left with such happy hearts that night, feeling so full of love and so darn thankful. It was without a doubt the funnest, greatest and most fabulous day of my life yet!

by popular demand....

....I'm back.

Sorry I went MIA for a little while there. It's just because... we'll.... I don't have too much to say right now. :) Our lives have been blissfully quiet and happy and simple for the last couple of weeks. It's especially great because it's FINALLY Spring in the good ol' Pac NW, and boy does it feel good.

We've both been really busy at work lately and I am anticipating it will stay this way up until the Summer is over. It's crazy to think about the holidays already, but in my department we are ramping up for the holidays right now, so it's just a busy time. Add to that new projects and developments and it's kept me very busy during the days.

Our nights at home are spent unwinding, doing chores nightly to avoid having a pile of cleaning or laundry to do during the weekends, cooking and working on projects. Petesie FINALLY finished his "booth project" - he has had a couple of old diner style booths for years now and has dreamed of renovating them since day one. Slowly but surely (in Lacy fashion) we (okay, just Petesie) reupholstered them piece by piece and then stained some wood panels, mounted them and decorated them with some great brass tacks. He did a great job and we'll love on our booth for years to come, I'm sure.

I've been pouring myself into cooking and my garden. Both hobbies are developing nicely. Last night I made Pasta e Fagioli, which considering I don't think I've ever tasted this dish, turned out quite nicely. Sorta like gourmet Campbell's Bean w. Bacon meets Chicken Noodle. My little garden is slowly sprouting and changing, and I still have no clue what I am doing in that respect. I am totally clueless. HA.

We've decided Monty is getting really fat so have committed to taking him for daily walks. After work we walk around our neighborhood and down to the lake, and on the weekends we have been seeking out new parks in Seattle, which is really pretty fun. Lots of parks and picnics. This will hopefully do good things for my thighs as well (the walking, not the picnics). :) Mostly, we are just enjoying our home and each other and the spring and although that might not be too fun to read about, it's great fun to live, and for that we are very thankful.

you should see the other guy....

Petesie tells me that's what "athletes" say about their competition...

Yesterday, our director at work took his team of about 12 to an offsite team meeting for the first part of the day, followed by... whirlyball. For those that don't know or have never played, imagine 10 grownups who are used to seeing each other at our professional best in bumpercars with lacrosse type sticks, throwing a whiffle ball down the court trying to get it into the basket at each end. Bumpercars meets lacrosse meets basketball. Only we all work together, so naturally feel the need to rev up our little bumper car engines as fast as we possibly can and hit whoever we can hit (whether or not they have the ball) as fast as we possibly can. Then we get pleasure watching the look on each others' faces when they do a slow-motion whiplash moves and make some hilarious sounding gutteral noise.

We were brutal. No second chances, no pauses for thought, "is hitting my director so hard going to come back to bite me come Monday?" shouting out at each other and generally taking any and all work agression out physically on each other.

The funny thing is, generally Monday - Friday we all pretty much get along. :)

Today I woke up feeling like I've been in thirty car accidents. Holy heck. But, as Petesie said, you should see the other guys. I show no mercy on the whirlyball court.

i didn't want her to worry...

So my mom emailed me earlier this week and asked how I was doing. She explained, "I'm a little worried about you."

I responded "why worry? I'm happy and healthy!" She wrote back that it was because she hadn't heard from me in two days (yeah, my mom and I have that kind of relationship. Two days is pretty much forever with us), so I wrote her back a detailed explanation of my past two days.

I even took some pictures of the events of those two days, and had them uploaded to my computer, when it died for the umpteenth time, only this time, I can't turn it back on again, so this post will be pictureless. :(

So, to please my mom, who needs more updates on the mundane details of my life, here goes... warning - nothing exciting is about to happen. NO, seriously.

What I've Been Up To Lately. By Sweetie Lacy.

Part One - Sweetie's Tune Up.

Petesie named it The Sweetie's Tune Up. I decided I needed to get some of my annual doctor visits out of the way and because I don't have much time during the week, I used one of two more vacation days I have from now until October to get four doctors visits out of the way. Yep, four appointments in 24 hours. I took the day off Friday and between Thursday afternoon and Friday I visited the dermatologist (she said I have many dysplastic moles she hates and she'd like to chop all of them off my body. Only problem is, I have about 1000. Our compromise was that I'd come in at least twice a year for the rest of my life. Luckily, I LOVE my dermatologist! No, seriously, I do.), the eye doctor (he said that I have very accomodating eyes and I had to laugh. That seems like such an affliction for women - constantly accomodating for all the crap around them.), the dentist (he said I need to floss more. No surprises there) and the.... um.... girl doctor. She said I'm good to go. Whatever that means.... So, that was Friday, and in between all these visits I planted a little flower garden on the side of my house. Yay. Friday night we went out for Pizza. Petesie's pizza had a termite or something crawling around on it, so we pretty much got the whole meal for free. I'll take bugs on my pizza for free dinner anytime!

Part Two - Our Lazy Lacy Weekend (phrase coined by my mother)

Saturday was one of those days when you don't want to get out of bed, and especially don't want to get dressed in real clothes, wash your face or brush your hair. Luckily for Petesie, I always want to brush my teeth in the morning thanks to some not-so-subtle teasing from my mom and sister when I was growing up about my morning breath. Needless to say, I'm very good about brushing first thing in the morning.

So, we finally get up and had some "hash" for breakfast - diced yukon gold potatoes, onion and eggs with toast and then dinked around the rest of the day. Petesie worked on a project, I... um.... did nothing. By 4:30, we'd had enough of our familiar scenery and decided to make a trip to target where we purchased bandaids, vitamins and much needed fruit snacks (I just had to have them). It was the least exciting Target run of my life. We got home and I made delicious Spaghetti Carbonara and Ree's Mocha Brownies, which were.... um.... amazingly rich. She says that there must be at least the same thickness of mocha frosting as there is brownie, and her frosting alone has two sticks of butter in it. I cut back and only used a stick and a half - how's that for a diet? The brownies were pretty darn incredible, but truthfully we could only realistically have the tiniest square (think one square centimeter) before falling into diabetic shock. Last night I ended up doing something so shocking that you might want to sit down to read this:

I threw the rest of the brownies away.

I know. I'm a terrible person, I wasted food, etc... BUT, those brownies kept calling my name, and before I knew it in three days I'd eaten a third of the pan all by myself. I am not someone who can handle things in moderation. Abstinence for Sweetie, not moderation. So I chucked them. They were great, but I'm glad I did it. So are my thighs, which are slightly larger after the many tiny bites of brownie I've allowed myself to enjoy over the last three days. Anyway, I digress - back to Saturday night.

We watched Lord Of The Rings and then we went to sleep. The end. Sunday we took a leisurely drive to and stroll around Ikea, picked out the cabinets we will eventually use to give our kitchen a face lift and snuggled up at home. I invented and then made Chicken and Rice Curry casserole which was quite good and totally easy. My recipe is as follows: mix up uncooked rice, raw chicken legs, lots of curry powder paste, tumeric, ginger and garlic, add in some chopped carrots and onion, mix together with plenty of chicken broth and bake. Not too bad, actually.

So, that was our full weekend. There you have it. Nothing to worry about except the state of our wastelines.

Sorry to keep you all reading this whole time, for such an exciting post. But I didn't want my mommy to worry, and Petesie's at class and I'm simmering some tomato sauce for pasta for my dinner and thought.... I should get back to my neglected bog, just in case anyone other than my mom is worried. But, I doubt it. :)

Happy Wednesady night people! I'm off to enjoy a glass of wine, Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce (which is apparently The Simplest And Most Amazing Tomato Sauce Ever according to my sister and I just HAD to make it) and some angel hair pasta. I think it's going to be good evening. :)