Life has been keeping me pretty busy…

For Halloween Reuben, Teresa and I went up to JonTon’s for their annual harvest party. It was too wet to do the maze this year, but we still all had a good time. This year we dressed up in costumes for the event. Reuben and I went in 50s theme and Teresa dressed up as the peasant Belle from Beauty and the Beast. JonTon and David were cowboys. It was a lot of fun and the food was really good.





As for wedding planning, most of us went down on the 31st and tried on and then purchased the dresses. Megan couldn’t be with us, but it worked out well because this last week they called telling me that the dresses were all in that we ordered and I could pick them up whenever. Since Megan was coming down this weekend we went down and tried on her dress and picked up the other girls’ dresses. Since they had Megan’s size in the right color we went ahead and purchased it! So All five of the bridesmaids dresses and my wedding dress are in my room right now. Lol.

We got to see a few of our engagement photos that Deborah emailed me. We will hopefully be getting the finished copies of those and then we will order save the date cards and send them out.

My friend Rikki has moved into the apartment directly above mine. J It is nice to have a friend living so close. I kinda feel like I am back in the dorms at college. Lol. Yesterday she came down and watched Amazing Race online with me since we had missed it Sunday. It was nice to watch it with someone since usually I am just watching it alone on my computer. We have decided that we will pick a TV show we want to watch together and get the seasons through Netflix. That should be fun.


The Moving Crew.


Reuben, Mom, Rikki, and I are doing Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University through Northlake. Some of you may have heard of this class before. Gloria has taken it and is currently hosting it at her house. The class goes on for 13 weeks and we are only one week 2. So far so good though. I think it is a good class for Reuben and I to be taking at this point. J

This weekend we are doing gingerbread houses at Mom’s. There are 9 of us doing it this year, so it should be quite the event! I will be sure to post pictures of that when we get all done. J I think that is all I have for now. I’ll post more soon!

Wedding Planning

Life's been pretty busy since Reuben I got engaged. The time is really flying by! Teresa, Mom, and I went down to David's Bridal last weekend and after only 2 hours found my dress. :) I wasn't sure how long it would take me to find a dress since I am not really into dresses much. However, I found a very pretty one that suits me. It was the first one I tried on! I tried on about 8 other ones before going back to it.

Other than that I have been busy creating guest lists and deciding on colors (tulip pink and a green - kinda a spring green I guess). Deborah and Gloria are coming down next weekend to take our engagement photos. I am hoping the weather is good then. :( Then we will be able to send out our "Save the Date" cards and put a notice in the paper...

I'll try to keep you posted on all the wedding excitement! lol. :)

New Fav Song

I think this is one of my new favorite songs. They play it a lot on the radio right now. I think with a few adaptions to the words it could be sung about our relationship with God. Something to think about...



I Run to You
Lady Antebellum

I run from hate
I run from prejudice
I run from pessimists
But I run too late

I run my life
Or is it running me?
Run from my past
I run too fast
Or too slow it seems

[Bridge]
When lies become the truth
That's when I run to you

[Chorus]
This world keeps spinning faster
To a new disaster, so I run to you
I run to you, Baby

When it all starts coming undone
Baby, you're the only one I run to
I run to you

We run on fumes
Your life and mine
Like the sands of time
Slippin' right on through

[Bridge]
Our love's the only truth
That's why I run to you

[Chorus]
This world keeps spinning faster
To a new disaster, so I run to you
I run to you, Baby

When it all starts coming undone
Baby, you're the only one I run to
I run to you

Oh oh, oh I run to you

[Chorus]
This world keeps spinning faster
To a new disaster, so I run to you
I run to you, Baby

When it all starts coming undone
Baby, you're the only one I run to
I run to you, I run to you
Yeah

Oh oh, oh I run to you
I'll run to you girl
Oh Oh

I always run to you
Run to you
Run to

Engagement!

Today Reuben proposed to me! I knew that it would be coming soonish, but was actually surprised by him popping the question this afternoon. He did a good job of covertly talking to my Dad on Thursday afternoon and driving down to get the ring. I had no idea he had done those things so was not expecting the question quite this soon. :)

Apparently he had the ring on him all weekend hoping for good weather and the opportunity to ask the question during a romantic setting. We went to the beach Saturday evening to visit some friends camping at Ft Stevens, but to Reuben's disappointment the weather was pretty dismal. He was hoping for a nice sunset, but the weather was not helping him any. Then today he was hoping that the weather would be a little better. He was thinking of going to Rife Lake, or back to the beach or something, but the weather was still not cooperating. He asked me if I wanted to go down to Olive Garden or someplace else a little nicer/out of town, but since I didn't know what he was up to I told him I was tired of driving around this weekend and wanted to stay local. heh.

So Reuben says we should go walk the lake and I am pretty agreeable to that since it is cloudy, but not really rainy. So we drive towards the far end of the lake (the Ocean Beach end) and we walk towards the Japanese Garden. Fortunately the Garden is actually open (it seems like it hardly is anymore) and we walk around on it for a while. There are other people on the island and we sit on a bench for a while waiting for them all to leave. After we have sat for a while and enjoyed the scenery and had good conversations we finally have the island to ourselves and Reuben asks me to marry him. I of course said yes, but was surprised in my head since I was still processing how he could have talked to my Dad and gotten a ring without me knowing. lol. He got down on one knee and did the whole thing. :) It was a pretty perfect setting even without the weather he was hoping for. lol.

So we sat for a while longer filling in all the details he hadn't been able to tell me and then we went out to dinner at El Tapitito in Rainer. We hadn't been there before, but it was good. They had very fast service and their food was good too. :)

After dinner we ran some errands before spending the rest of the evening on the phone calling/texting everyone the news. I don't think I have talked that much on the phone...ever. lol. It was nice to be able to share the news and get everyone's congrats.

We are planning on getting married May 29th - so save the date! :)

Terry/Taylor Savenger Hunt Trophy :)

So Reuben fixed my printer issue, so I was able to complete the trophy from the 1st Annual Terry/Taylor Photo Scavenger Hunt. On the front I labeled the bottom with "Terry/Taylor Annual Photo Scavenger Hunt" and I used a quarter to cover the softball symbol.

On the back I noted that it was purchased 8/1/09 at the Terry/Taylor Garage Sales for 25 cents!

Then on the bottom I made it so we could record who won each year...til 2025. :)

Anyway, enjoy the pics below.

Family and Friends

This last weekend was pretty busy. On Saturday Reuben and I headed to Portland to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had a bbq and then all headed to a Portland Beavers game. We lost, but it wasn't too bad of a game. I haven't been to a Beaver's game since junior high, so it was fun to see one again.

Then on Sunday Reuben and I went to his family picnic at Lake Mayfield. It was a beautiful day out by the water. It was nice to see Reuben's extended family again. We went to a picnic earlier in May, and this is the final one of the year.

After the picnic Reuben I headed back to Longview for dinner at Andreas. It was a very full weekend, but also very enjoyable. See the pics below from the baseball game. :)

And the Sewing Continues

Well the sewing fests continue. :) This week Teresa, Rikki, Mom, and I made purses from dishtowels using our pattern from Susie's shop! :) It was fun. Unlike past times we didn't power through. We took two evenings and completed some amazing purses! :) Enjoy some pics below.

Rikki sews away. :)

The group pose


My amazing new purse!

Lost Trailers concert.

Today Teresa, Chauntel, and I went to the country concert at the fair. :) It has been soooo hot this week, but it was actually pretty tolerable tonight at the fair. It was perfect concert weather. :) We saw the country group "Lost Trailers." They have a couple of hits on the radio: "Hollerback!" and "How bout you don't" are probably the ones you have heard of.

We all had a good time. :) I hope that they continue to bring concerts to town. Lately, it has been pretty nice with all the ones KUKN are putting together.

Enjoy the pictures below....


The Lost Trailers up close. :)


Can you spot Teresa and Chauntel? - Kinda right by the head of the gal walking up the stairs.




View from our seats! :)


Teresa and I in the grandstands! :)


The sound on this video is pretty crappy, it was much better in person...stupid camera phone speakers....sigh.

Sewing!

Wednesday's have become our sewing days! It has been quite fun to get together with Mom, Teresa, and Rikki and sew our blocks together weekly. We have been working mostly on our monthly blocks for the saturday sampler at Susie's shop. :) We made one bag as most of you have seen and we have another bag in the works that will start working on next week! :)
I have missed sewing, so it it is nice to be getting back into it. I am enjoying the small projects and being able to complete them quickly. I have bigger projects in mind, but I am not sure I want to start them yet. :)

Enjoy some pictures below. :)

The 4 of us with our completed blocks!

My block for the "challenge block" project at Susie's shop. Teresa made a cool swirly one. with the same fabric. :)

Camping

Hey thought I would update you on our camping trip. It was definately a more interesting vacation for the Fergusons. lol.

We woke up for the 2nd day of the trip - Monday, David had woken up early, but Mom went for a drive with him. Once the rest of us got up we moved my parents tent to the new site that had electricity. It was a very damp morning... After we got settled again and ate breakfast we headed out on the road to Forks, WA. We did the touristy stuff related to the Twilight book series: went to Forks Outfitters and bought some souvenirs,visited La Push Beach, ate at a local restaurant. It was fun. :)

Then we headed to the Hoh Rain Forest. It was really nice to get out and walk around in the woods. They had well marked trails that weren't too strenuous. We went through the Hall of Mosses, and the Spruce Trail.

After the Rain Forest we went to Klalock beach. This beach is where Tonia's family often went camping when she was younger. It has something in the water that makes it kinda glow when it gets dark in the moonlight. We stayed there until it got dark, but the light wasn't right to see the glowingness.

Throughout the day we were dealing with some baby drama. David threw up a few times...At first we were thinking it was car sickness or something. We headed back to camp after the beach and upon arrival realized that our campsite 'closed' at 10:00....it was 11. Tonia was able to break in the gate for us though. lol. It was a crazy day.

We made it back to camp and put David down, but he threw up again. At this point JonTon decided to head back home with the baby. We quickly packed up most of their belongings (in the rain) and around midnight they left the campsite.

The rest of us went to bed putting an end to the fun, yet disappointing day. We woke up the next morning to some more rain. We decided to pack up and head home since we were all pretty disillusioned to the camping trip. We made it back to Longview around 5:30. We are thinking of going to the beach tomorrow or something since we still have time off work. Enjoy the pictures below from our brief camping trip. :)

The river by our campsite:





La Push Beach -- Near Forks, WA:





Hoh Rain Forest:






Klalock Beach

Day 1 Camping Trip 09

Day 1
We made it to camp! :) It was a four hour drive with a 1.5 hour stop in Aberdeen for dinner and walmart.lol. We found a nice camping spot...but at the moment no electricity. We will change 1 campsite tomorrow. We kinda expect to see a vampire anytime now. :) Anyway, that is all for now. Sorry about the double post. Working with a new phone to post the blog. Heh. :)

Kukn Country Concert

On Wednesday Teresa, Andrea, and I went to the country concert put on by KUKN. It was very similiar to the last one I blogged about. :) This time it was Aaron Benward, Brian McComas, and Brady Seals. They aren't as well known as last time, but they have been part of groups in the past that have had some hits. :) They have broke out on their own now I guess and have some albums coming out. It was really fun, the guys were pretty goofy and family friendly. It was a very good show. :) It looks like this is something KUKN will be doing every now and then I encourage people to check it out. It's cheap and super fun. :) See pics and videos below. :)

Sewing Party

This Saturday Teresa, Rikki, and I got together in the evening to sew. We had a pattern to make a tote bag out of a 'charm' packet of fabric squares. We set to work after dinner at around 6ish. The project was fun, but took a little longer than anticipated. :) We got done around Midnight! It was both stressful and fun. The evening was filled with the excitement of getting the project complete, and the annoyance that comes with sewing delays. Nothing like a needle breaking or the bobbin running out of thread at 11:30 at night to keep things interesting. lol. However, we persevered and all came out with a nice new tote bag to show off at church the next day. :) Not bad fore a mere 6.5 hours of work. Enjoy the pics below!

We would like to thank our instructions interpreter: Mom. :)


As you can see, I finished before Midnight. :)

Memorial Day weekend

Since no one else has blogged I get to be the first. :)
The fun began Friday evening with a game night at Aunt Linda/Tom's. We played "Rage," which is a fun card game our family has recently learned. We are still getting used to it. Aunt Linda won (mostly by luck...lol). JonTon met us at Linda's and we visited for a bit before heading back to mom/dad's. I finished up my laundry there and then headed home.

Saturday was our annual trip to Dallas/Fall City, Oregon to put flowers on the graves. This year we had two new additions to our family tradition with Gabby and Reuben. It was fun to have "new blood" to introduce all of our quirky traditions to. :) heh. Always fun to share the "Turtle Bridge" with more people.
After we put flowers on the graves we went out to lunch at Murphy's Grill. We have been there before, it is a pretty cool restaurant. Then it was off to visit Teresa's college campus and see her new house for next year. It was good to see her campus with the family and her house for next year is pretty sweet! :)
After the tour we headed back to Longview. We all split up and made our way back. Once back at Mom/Dad's we watched a few episodes of the Food Network's show "Ace of Cakes" about a cake shop. It was one of Tonia's birthday gifts.

On Sunday I got to meet more of Reuben's family. His Dad's side has a bbq at Moses Lake every year. We arrived there at around 11:30 and spent a lovely day enjoying the good weather. We played a bit of badminton and celebrated his grandparent's birthdays. It was nice to meet more of his extended family. We left at about 6ish. Once back in town Reuben had to go do homework so I headed back to mom/dad's. The family played Teresa's new game "Munchkin Impossible"...which is like "Munchkin," but spy oriented. It was fun...mostly because I won. :)

Monday Teresa, Tonia, and I had a sewing party. Teresa worked on her shop hop table runner, Tonia was making an apron from the fabric she got from Susie's shop, and I was making a baby blanket. It was nice to sew again, I haven't been able to do it in a while. :) I was able to complete my whole baby quilt before 5:30! It is Raggedy Ann and Andy themed.
I left mom/dad's at around 5:30ish and headed off to dinner with Andrea, Tyler, Diane, Jacob, and Reuben at Azteca. We had a nice dinner outside and the decided to go watch Star Trek since the theatre is right across the parking lot. :) Diane and Andrea hadn't seen it yet. I enjoyed it just as much the 2nd time as I did the first. lol.

Anyway, that was my weekend. Packed full of family events, but it was all good stuff. :) I wish that all weekends were three day weekends....

Catch up

Okay, so I have been horrible about blogging lately. Sad I know. It is such pressure to start the blogging fad and then end up being the slacker of the family. lol

Let's see, here is a little of what I have done since I left off:

-Cousin Day-
On March 21st JonTon, Teresa, Gloria, myself, and Reuben headed down to the DaVinci exhibit at OMSI. We had a couple of free passes, which made it really cheap and totally worth it! It was a very good exhibit and showcased DaVinci's work well. After the exhibit we went out to a late lunch at Macaroni Grill at Clackamas mall. Then we came back to my apt and played 'Rage' and 'Munchkin.' It was loads of fun. We need to schedule our next cousin day....and make sure Deborah can make this one. lol.

-Seattle-
Early April Reuben and I took a day trip up to Seattle to see some of my Moyer friends. It was nice to see them again and hang out. It was the first time I had seen everyone since Bonnie's wedding I think. We got lunch at Chipotle which is always fun. Reuben had listened to me rave about it all the way up....I think it lived up to my hype. lol. We had a game night in Redmond that evening and then headed home. We got back to Longview kinda late, but it was worth it. I really like Seattle, but am always glad to get back to my little town. :)

-Easter/B-days-
For Easter and birthdays we went up to Port Orchard on April 11th. We had a wonderful ham lunch and celebrated Deborah and Mom's b-days. It was nice to get together with the extended family. We talked, played games, and took pictures of David at Deborah's studio. :) Good times.

Then on Sunday Reuben and I celebrated Easter out at his parents. We had another wonderful dinner. Reuben's cousin Brade and his wife Lorraine were there too. They have two cute kids, one of which is a few months old. She is super cute. :) Even though it was pretty wet outside the kids went out hunting Easter eggs...They hunt real eggs, which to me seems less fun as there is no hidden candy inside. lol.


-Visiting Teresa-
The next weekend Kristen and I went down to visit Teresa in Salem. It was great fun. I drove down Friday night and Teresa and I hung out watching netflix on my computer. Then on Saturday Kristen joined us. :) We went to the movies, and ate at olive garden, and got a slushy from In-N-Out Burger. We then watched movies and played scrabble on facebook until the wee hours of the morning (I think we completed 3 scrabble games online that weekend). On Sunday Kristen and I drove home before lunch.
Once I got home I hooked up with Reuben and his cousin Brad/Lorraine at Izzy's for lunch.

-Etc-
Since then it has been basically just work, family, friends, Reuben, and sleeping. That is pretty much all I do in life in general though. Teresa moved back from college. It is nice to have her back around. We have hung out quite a bit already. :) We went and saw a movie last night - "Ghost of Girlfriends Past" - it was cute. Susie's shop opened so Teresa and I went to visit. It is super cute, I could spend hours roaming it. lol. Teresa starts work there next week, so maybe I will get a chance to bug her. :)

Reuben and I celebrated 7 months on April 29th. Hard to believe that much time has passed. Although writing this blog about the last month and a half has proven to me how quickly time passes.

Anyway, I guess that is the update for now. Sorry I have been so bad at keeping you all up to date on my life. I will attempt to be better at it, but I make no promises. :)

Work Annoyances

My copier at work has been giving me trouble. Generally we are on pretty good terms, but it is a very special machine and likes to be treated well. It doesn’t like paper from the back of a binder that is slightly curled and it thinks staples are the bane of its existence. Also, I think it has poor eyesight or something because occasionally it “cannot detect the size of the original.” When it jams it likes to play hide and go seek with the crumpled paper, ensuring that I check every single door and move every twistable part in order to find the unruly paper piece.

Lately, it has been giving me error message SC545. This message makes it impossible to do anything. Apparently it is having a temperature problem. All I know is that our copy guy (who isn’t as good as our old copy guy) called and walked me through how to get it to go away. …You know how in the old video games there was bonuses if you pressed the right combination of buttons at the right time. Like Sonic had one that was up, down, over, over, a, b. Well that is how I feel with these copier commands. In order to get the error message to go away I have to press the clear button, type 1-0-7, hold down the cancel button for 3 seconds, wait for the menu screen to appear, turn off the copier, wait a few moments, and then turn the copier back on. ….I feel like I would accomplish the same thing if I just turned off the copier and turned it back on…but I will admit this way is more fun. :)

Anyway, I have been doing this for a while and now my copier is beginning to catch on. It has decided that when I do all the steps and restart it that it will just refuse to come to the right temperature and gives me another error SC545. Rude!

Guess it’s time to call the copy guy again…

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day Reuben and I headed to the Oregon Coast. We ate lunch in Cannon Beach and walked along the sand. It was a nice day, but the wind on the actual beach was pretty cold.
We then headed back to Seaside and toured some of the shops. We played mini golf and each of us got a hole in one once! :) Reuben ended up beating me by 1 point though... We walked along the boardwalk for a little bit. And then decided to head back to Longview since it was starting to rain.
Back in Longview we got Chinese and a movie. We played a little Wii and watched a pretty good movie: Eagle Eye.
A very good Valentine's Day. :)
Enjoy the pictures below.

More Pics! (updated)

Here are the pictures from the concert that I promised you! :)


Andy on the left and Rhett on the right.


Gotta love the camo guitar --can you say redneck?


Diane at the meet and greet. :)




Whoo hoo! I have touched a country star! lol.

Rhet Akins and Andy Griggs Concert

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last blogged! It has pretty much been life as usual in Laura Land. I went up to Seattle last week to finally celebrate Christmas with Megan and Veronica. I had a good visit. :)

Reuben and I hit the 4 month mark today. It is hard to believe - the months have sure flown by. Reuben had class tonight, but that is alright I found other ways to occupy my time. :) KUKN the local country radio station hosted Rhet Akins and Andy Griggs in concert at the new LCC performance center. It was really cool. I went with Andrea and Diane. We got good seats thanks to Andrea and Diane staking out our spot in the line early. :) We were 3 rows back in the center section.

For those of you who are like "Who are Rhet Akins and Andy Griggs?" let me enlighten you. If you listen to country music at all you have heard some of their songs. To name a few:
-That ain't my truck (Akins)
-She thinks she needs me (Griggs)
-Put a girl in it (written by Akins, made famous by Brooks and Dunn)
-If heaven (Griggs)

It sounds like KUKN will be putting on more concerts like this in the future, which would be pretty sweet! Tickets were only $15 and we got to have an up close personal concert plus they signed autographs/took pictures afterwards. Very cool.

Here are a few crappy pictures/videos from my phone. Andrea's friend Shayna who sat with us had her camera and took better pictures (including Andrea and I with the stars). I hope to get a copy of them soon and I will post them. Until then you will have to make do with what I have. Enjoy.