The road to a friend's house is never long.

I had visitors this week! :)

A very good friend was going to be in town and so another very good friend made the drive down from Seattle to be here, too!  Yay!!!

On Saturday night, Aimee, her husband Steve, and their daughter Jilly arrived.  We stayed up so late visiting!  Fun times!  But tiring. lol  We still made it to church in the morning but as soon as the kids were down for their nap that afternoon, so were we! lol  That lasted until Penny arrived with her three girls (Mayah, Malia, and Matilda), then the fun picked back up again.  We had such a good time; we gabbed, the kids played, we had good food - it was great!  Unfortunately, Aimee and Steve had to work Monday so they finally pulled themselves away shortly after 11pm.  I did not envy their drive back to Seattle after such a long night the night before and a late start that night!  But they made it safely. :)

Penny and I hung out and let the girls play on Monday.  I loved it!  And the girls continued to get along really well.  That night, we had Family Home Evening and took a nice little walk to the park.  We were really good and didn't give into temptation to stay up late again talking all night.  Instead, we made sure to get to bed at a somewhat decent hour so Penny would be rested for her long drive today.

It is so fun to have friends visit!  It's always fun to hang out with Aimee and it was especially fun to visit with Penny since it was our first time spending time together in person!  She really needs to move closer! ;)

Here are some pics from our visit:

Ryan sees clearly now (the pain was none)!

For the last few years, Ryan has considered having Lasik surgery. He almost had it done a year ago and for whatever reason, delayed. This year we decided to definitely do it. Last week, he went in for an appointment for a consultation. They scheduled surgery for five days later. Yesterday, he went in and let them slice his eyes open. The procedure was only about 5 minutes long - tops. At the end of those 5 minutes, he had perfect vision. He came home and slept most of the afternoon (they say that is the most uncomfortable time so it's best to just "sleep it off") and by the evening, he felt great! He wasn't even sensitive to light. He actually spent several hours playing computer games! lol
Today we went to his follow up appointment, he now has 20/20 vision. Everything looks great! He goes back in a week and again in a month. Now all we have to do is take her prescription sunglasses back to Lenscrafters to have the lens swapped for plain ol' tinted lenses. No more prescription glasses for him! :)

I'm sorry, what month are we in?

It can't possibly be June! Time flies!
And apparently, the weather hasn't gotten the memo yet. We are having quite cool weather. It isn't cold enough to turn on the heat, but it did get cold enough for me to close up the windows, at least at night. We do live in the Pacific Northwest so this has to be expected occasionally... but still, usually by now it's a little warmer than this. I'm really not complaining... yet. Like I said, it's not cold enough to turn on the heat and as long as it's cool, I'm not turning on the A/C either - good for our utility bills. :) And even though we've had some rain, there are plenty of dry days, too. And these temps are perfect for being outdoors; walks and yardwork are great when it's cool but not cold.

Plus, this weather has extended my soup season, so yesterday I made a super yummy soup for dinner and just had some leftovers for lunch. Mmmm. :)

Rori's Monster Teeth

Rori's working on cutting her "monster" teeth. I call them her monster teeth for two reasons. First of all, they are her "fangs". And secondly, they are making her act like a monster. She has been waking up at least a couple of times each night and when she wakes up from her nap or in the morning, she is a royal pain! She whines and cries and screams and fusses and it doesn't matter what I try to do to help make her happy, she is just NOT. I can see them coming down and the very points of them are almost cutting through... but not quite. Oh, I hope it's soon! For both of our sakes. ;)

The new set up.

We bought a new TV what?  A month ago?  Two?  It was a long time ago.  We set it up on our old entertainment center just because we had no other set up for it at the time.  It took awhile to find a new entertainment center that would work for us.  I wanted the TV up so that Rori wouldn't touch it.  But most entertainment centers/TV stands that were taller were either too tall or too narrow.  I wanted something about the same width as the TV so it would look balanced and "right".  I finally gave up on finding an entertainment center because I realized that most buffets were the perfect size.  It was just a matter of finding one with the right sized shelves to hold our DVD players and stuff.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, really) a friend of ours was moving and selling a lot of her furniture.  She had the PERFECT buffet and offered to sell it to me!  SWEET!!!  And so last night, Ryan and I spent - no joke - FIVE HOURS getting this set up.  We measured exactly where we wanted the TV, installed the wall mount, put up the TV, modified the buffet (had to cut out holes for the cables and such), hooked everything up, tested all the speakers, made some modifications and the end result is this...



It's perfect!  Perfect size, perfect color, perfect style!  I'd still rather our friend hadn't moved... but since that can't be helped, I am grateful that we were able to provide a new home for her buffet! :)

Somebody missed her nap!

ME! Not that I usually take naps, but I sure feel like I should have today. I'm so tired! And I'm not sure why, I'm pretty sure I slept well last night. :S

As usual, Rori was good and took her nap today. However, also as usual, she was picky about dinner. The dog is grateful.

Today is the first day of the rest of the year!

And it really does feel like that! I feel like this month is THE month. It is going to be fun and busy and full... and fun! ;)

*Takes a deep breath...*

Next weekend I have two friends coming to visit me for a couple of days - YAY! The week after that is Father's Day. Three days later, Cadi's birthday! The next day is the last day of school and also the day her "Twin Cousin" flies in to spend a week and a half with us. :D That weekend is Cadi's birthday party. The next week is Activity Day Camp for Cadi and her cousin. Ryan's brother's family comes up to pick up my niece at the end of that week. The very next day, our friend Landon flies in from Canada. He stays for a week - for the Fourth! WOOHOO!!! At some point, Ryan's brother's family comes back (they're going to go camping in Olympic National Park after they pick up my niece) and will also be here for the Fourth! Double WOOHOO... WOOHOO!!! ;) Eventually everyone will go home (but I really don't know when) and then it will be MY birthday. :D And more friends are talking about coming to visit in July (though, that is strongly dependant on gas prices... and I'm not sure where they stand now) and later, we're hoping to go to North Carolina at the end of July to see Ryan's grandma. It will also be Rori's 2nd birthday at the end of July. And finally, we've got a camping trip planned for August.

*Whew!*

Squeeze in finishing the shed and building our deck (I HOPE!!!) somewhere amongst all of that too, would ya? ;)

I'm so excited for this summer! Especially for the next month or so. I just hope time doesn't fly by too fast - I really want to enjoy all of it!