Some Sweetness

We caved and bought a new computer this weekend (I believe I already talked about my immediate buyers remorse and technical difficulties). Needless to say, after a couple days and phone calls to BIL (that's brother-in-law, in case you're wondering), I found myself working some techie magic and behold, the world wide internet.

So that was pretty fantastic.

Even better, we are FINALLY able to use our little hand held camera in the way we always intended to use it - uploading actual video clips and sharing them with the whole entire world!

So, world, don't hold your breath any longer! Here it is, a sneak peak into the Lacy family life (and, btw, I'm a real Lacy now - changed my name at last!)
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(okay, just kidding. It turns out I need to somehow decrease the size of the files I'm attempting to upload for your viewing pleasure. Sorry to be such a tease!).

On that note, I can't believe the entire month of June has passed us by already. And, with like four sunny days. And three blog posts. I want to be a better poster, but more so I want to be a better writer and more expressive. I think I just have to find my niche. Not everyone can be a P-Dub writer and cook (lucky) or a Kelle Hampton photographer (just beautiful!) or a bakerella (despite how much we think we could be), and even though all of these women are great and their blogs are beautiful, I want to find the best way to be me. Opinionated, loyal, a little lazy, barefoot in the kitchen ol' me. My hope is that I can find a way to fit all those pieces together in a way that gives you, dear internet, a clear snapshot into my life.

Speaking of PDub, her chicken and garlic is singing to me in the oven. I must run. :)

Confessions...

How's that for a cryptic post title?

Truth is, there isn't much to confess right now. Obviously I've been absent from blog-land, which is thanks, in part, to the fact that we don't have a whole lot going on right now which warrants blogging. Aside from our mommies and daddies, I don't think very many people reeeaallly care that much about what we did on our days off, or what we had for dinner, or who beat who at Jeopardy that night (for the record, I almost always beat Petesie. And yes, we watch Alex and his team almost nightly). :)

Work is work, and aside from the fact that it's pretty mundane day in and day out (ie - not that exciting to read or recap), I don't really think a blog (ie, a public part of the World Wide Web) is an appropriate place to air work's dirty laundry. Not that there is much dirt on the work laundry in the first place. I generally like my job and the people I work with, and the best part is that almost directly above my head two floors up is the love of my life. It's pretty darn cool to accidentally bump into your hottie husband while making copies or heading to a meeting. We're pretty lucky like that.

Home-life is fun and happy, as always. We keep ourselves very entertained and when we get bored of entertaining each other, our critters do it for us. I swear, those three little pests are hilarious and give us endless opportunities to bust up laughing. Monty-dog especially. He has a new nickname "Chubalubs" and due to the fact that he is now legitimately looking more like a sausage and less like a fit golden retriever, we have purchased dog food "for overweight adult dogs." Yes, Monty is on a diet, as am I.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm starting a weeklong Lean Cuisine diet. Gross. We eat healthy frozen lunches for lunch every day and although they are cheap and easy, they are just not that good or filling. But, my waist line and thighs have had it with my weight gaining and I'm putting myself on a diet from now until the fourth of July in hopes that I will lose the same amount of weight in a week that I will inevitably gain whilst celebrating America's freedom. :) Yay America (see - I'm taking patriotism back!).

What else is new? We spent a glorious weekend last week at the Chalet celebrating Father's Day with Daddy and the fam. Dad calls Peter (yes, that's his real name) Petesie now, which is proof that not only does he read my blog (hi daddy!) but that I have given Petesie a nickname which is sticking around. He claims that he is un-nicknameable, that nicknames never stick for him. I'll show him, when the world is still calling him Petesie years from now...

Another reason for my total lack of blogging is my totally lame computer. So bad in fact, that it hasn't turned on for two weeks. So, despite the fact that I am so frugal that it hurts to buy two-ply toilet paper and that I get WAAY too excited about saving $.20 per pound on chicken, we decided to splurge today on a fancy new laptop. Yay!! Problem is, of course, that immediately upon leaving the store we both came down with a huge amount of buyers remorse (I was immediately plotting ways to stretch the food budget even further for the next several months to offset our purchase). We got the shiny new toy home, oohed and ahhed over its fancy graphics and turned it on, only to realize that our genius of a brother-in-law (no seriously - he's so smart!) set up our network for us and we have no idea how to connect to the internet now. Dylan, help please?!? :) He made it secure, and us technological dumb-dumbs can't figure out how to make it work. So, pretty new laptop perched on the coffee table, and guess what? For the first time in 2 weeks (literally) my old computer turned on. That's like, adding salt to the open wound of buyers remorse. I do love it though, and can't wait to figure out how to get online. :)

Mom's neighborhood is having a garage sale this week, so Petesie and I are finally going to go through all the stuff in the garage in hopes of clearing it out, and maybe making a couple of bucks by selling off our old crap. I mean, treasures.

So that's all. That's life these days. No pictures today because I don't think this trusty lil' computer could handle me opening up another program. It'd die for another two weeks.

Over 60 only, please!

We have only a couple hard and fast rules at our house.

1) no doggie on the furniture
b) have muffins for breakfast on at least one weekend day per week
3) only see rock concerts if the rocker is over the age of 60. Our only exception to this rule is if the rocker playing is covering a rocker who is over the age of 60 - that counts too.

In the last 10 days we've seen two such shows, both of which ROCKED OUR WORLDS!

So, I've been away from the blog for the last two weeks and for once, we've actually had quite a bit going on. Let's start with last Friday.

Our great friends John and Anja (who we have to thank for my wedding dress, Elton John [yep, he's over 60!!] and the great wine we drank at the cabin) asked us to come with them to Ballard to see an all female Led Zepplin cover band. It was John's birthday, so we met them for burgers and beers and then made our way to the show. Those chicks seriously ROCKED the house. They weren't 60, but Robert Plant is, so we figured it wasn't breaking our rule. So Much Fun.

When we got home from the show, we were greeted by Big Sissy!! She was up for the weekend for a bridal brunch on Sunday for one of her friends, which meant that I got to hang out with her Friday - Sunday morning. We had a great time with her, made even better by the sunny weather on Saturday. Petesie was at class all day, so we decided that we'd surprise him when he got back with a shiny new grill to do some summer BBQin on. We ran to Target and bought a grill, invited the fam for din, made a feast and celebrated summer. (confession - it was my first time EVER making burgers! I took some heat for this, as I'm not really a beginner in the kitchen)

The work week crawled by but then it was Friday away (funny how that always seems to happen!). We celebrated by hanging out at home and watching a movie and gearing up for a great weekend. Yesterday was the warmest day we've seen all year, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I am in love with summers in Seattle and never forget for a minute how lucky we are to live here - blue skies, snow capped mountains (including Mt Rainier, which made quite the stunning appearance yesterday) and sparkling water. Everybody is outside when it's nice out and everywhere you look you see families, doggies, etc... It's like everyone celebrates these days together.

After watching World Cup soccer (USA vs. England), we walked down to the village with Monty, got some fab Fish & Chips and iced tea, sat outside in the sun eating, walked across the street to a park and watched some little league action in the park and went home to rest up for what would be an awesome night - Crosby, Stills & Nash at Chateau St. Michelle winery.

We didn't have tickets but figured we could probably scalp some, which luckily we WERE able to do (for face value!). The night was perfect - beautiful winery, picnic style seating on the grass, copious amounts great wine and, of course, CSN rocked out (yep - they're over 60!!). Petesie LOVES LOVES LOVES CSN (especically 'S' who he lectures me is an incredibly undervalued contributor to rock & roll as we know it) and we sang along and danced barefoot in the grass(okay - I danced barefoot, Petesie just watched me and laughed). Such an awesome night and we were so happy to spend it together in such a happy place. Needless to say, we're a bit groggy today, our heads kind of hurt, but it's another gorgeous day and we're going love the ones we're with, all day long. :)

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!