November

I can't believe that the year is almost over. It took forever for May to get here and then the rest of the year flew by. :) Only a few short weeks until the year is over. These last weeks are pretty full though.
This weekend Reuben and I are looking for a couch. The one we have now is very uncomfortable. Hopefully we will find one we like. It is one of the things on our "to buy" list. We are slowly checking them off.
Next Thursday some of my friends and I are going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter. Since it gets out so late I am taking Friday off. Then on Saturday Teresa and I have a booth at the TRCS Bazaar. We are selling our crocheted items, sewn bags, and Christmas ornaments. :)
The following week is Thanksgiving! :) We are celebrating with Reuben's family at his cousins house in Portland. Looking forward to also celebrate Grandpa Larry's 80th birthday that weekend. :)
The first weekend in December Reuben and I are going to Lincoln City. We got a gift certificate for a bed and breakfast and are going to put it to use. :) I have only been to Lincoln City once, so it should be fun.
Somewhere in there we have to meet our new niece Lynn who will enter the world the end of November. :) Looking forward to meeting her.
Seems like there is an endless list of things to keep us busy and bring us into 2011. Can't wait to see what the new year brings!

A Day at the Beach

The family headed to the beach this last weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Riedesel rented their usual beach house for us all to enjoy. Mom, Dad, Teresa, Reuben, myself, David and Tonia were there with Grandma and Grandpa. Reuben and I were only there for Sunday night and Monday. We arrived Sunday afternoon to a beautiful view of the ocean. The weather really worked in our favor. It was nice to relax with the family and enjoy the view. We went on a couple walks on the beach and played a round of pinochle. :)

On Monday we headed in to Cannon Beach to explore the shops. David found a toy store with trains and was entertained for about 40 minutes. Midway through the shopping trip most of the family headed back to the house leaving Teresa, Tonia, and I to finish exploring. We found a nice yarn shop and a bead store that we had fun looking at. We each picked out some beads to craft together at some point in the near future. :)

We took another walk on the beach, and ate dinner before Reuben and I headed back to Longview. It was a good trip, but too short. We will definitely have to do it again sometime. :) Enjoy some pictures. :)

Country Concert: Jake Owen

Tonight, Teresa and I went to the county fair tonight and saw Jake Owen in concert. :)For those who listen to country he plays "Any 8 second ride", "Startin' with Me" and "Don't think I can't love you." It was an excellect concert. :) Two hours of country singing fun. lol Definately worth the $15! Enjoy some pictures:

Our view -- the pole wasn't in the way, we had a pretty nice view. :)

See Jake Owen walking on TOP of the stage!

Then he came into the crowd and was only 4 rows away from us! :)

There he is singing right in front of us. Fun times. :)

Married Life

We are settling in to married life. The house is feeling more like a home as we get more and more of our stuff unpacked and put away. Reuben has been working hard to clean out the spare room. I was able to set up my sewing machine in there the other day. Now I have no excuse as to why my projects aren’t done. Lol

We have been keeping busy with family and friends. We have had friends over a few times to help us enjoy our large back yard and our new tv. We need to set a few dates so that the rest of our family can see the house. I think it may finally be presentable.
We enjoyed 4th of July with family at the Lake. It was good to have everyone together. The lake never disappoints me with its activities. This year we once again enjoyed the cardboard boat regatta as well as the TRCS shaved ice and the evening fireworks. Good times were had by all.
The festival of Laura has pretty much come to an end. It was good to celebrate with family and friends. It seems weird to me to be 25. It might take some getting used to. Heh.
Anyway, that is the happenings with us.

Greetings from Ireland!

We are having a great time in Ireland. :) We have seen lots of beautiful scenery. I can't believe it is already Friday. Time is flying by. We have met lots of friendly people, both local and fellow tourists.

We left Sunday morning and didn't arrive in Ireland until early Monday morning. It was a long day of travel. We left the Dublin airport and headed south to Nire Valley. We admittedly weren't fully enjoying ourselves that first morning since we were sleep deprived and had dealt with a small amount of stress at the airport trying to figure out the best way to get foreign currency. Reuben was still adjusting to driving on the left side of the road (a task made more difficult by sleep deprivation and busy Dublin roads). However, we finally made it to our first B&B a few hours later and went straight to bed.

Once we rested for a bit we were able enjoy a cup of potato bacon soup. We went to bed early and woke up the next morning well adjusted. We went for a beautiful walk around the countryside of our B&B (Glasha Farmhouse). It was located in Waterford County in the Nire Valley.

We took a trip into Clomnel nearby and toured the town. We found an internet cafe since we had to go online and pay the toll road fee before 8 p.m. (we made use of the internet time other ways as well. lol)

This first B&B was pretty amazing. We had a nice room downstairs kinda off to itself (there were more rooms upstairs, and only one other one downstairs with us).
:)

We had a small jacuzzi bath, which was especially nice after 24 hours of travel. The hostess, Olive, was very kind and her B&B had tons of awards she had one (best B&B breakfast, 5 diamond accommodation rating, etc.) We spent three nights there. We went down to Waterford, one day and toured a museum that had some interesting Ireland historical information. The place we wanted to go there had delayed their opening by a few weeks, but we made the most of it.

The food at the B&B was amazing. The breakfast left you content until dinnertime. :) It was kinda sad to leave, but we knew we were on to more Ireland adventures.

We left Glasha House to head to the Kerry Peninsula. Along the way we went through Lismore and saw the outside of Lismore Castle.

It is very impressive and has nice trails for walking by it. Then we headed on to Blarney Castle.

This castle allows for complete tours and the option of kissing the Blarney stone at the top of the castle. The castle was really cool. It looks like they are in the state of repairing it so there was some minor scaffolding around it, but not enough to block it's beauty too much. We climbed all through it and made it to the top.


We watched a few people kiss the stone, but neither Reuben and I really felt up to it. It is rather an intimidating process (see pictures below).

They have you lay down on your back and then a man helps support you while you suspend yourself and lean over and kiss the Blarney Stone:


This is the view from the bottom of the castle:


This is how tall it is. Not a view I want to see hanging upside down:


After the Blarney Castle we headed onward to the western most point of Ireland. We arrived at the Beach Cove B&B at about 8:30 p.m. last night. It is beautiful as well. The B&B is right across the street from the beach and we have a nice view from out our window.


Today we had a pretty restful day. We got up and ate breakfast at our B&B. Not quite as amazing as Glasha House, but still very good. Then we headed across the mountain pass (a very narrow two lane road that cuts across and over the hills) to Portmagee and Valentina Island.

We toured the Island by car, driving around its perimeter. It is very beautiful.


We also drove into a slightly bigger town to get gas and use the ATM. We bought some Irish wool yarn so I can make a scarf or hat out of it. We ate lunch in town before returning to our Beach Cove B&B. We are taking it pretty easy. We walked around the beach and looked at the local sheep (so cute!).



We plan on having a restful evening before we pack up and continue our travels tomorrow. We are headed to the town of Dingle. Dingle is pretty authentically Irish and we hope to be able to soak in the local pub and music scene while there.

Not sure if I will be able to blog again before I return. Thought I should do so while I had the chance! :) Reuben is going to post our pics on Snapfish...we will post the link if we get a chance.

Mr. and Mrs. Powers

Today we got married. :)

A few pics

Here are a few pics from my Seattle Shower for those that didn't see them on Facebook. :)


A picture that shows most of the attendees. :)


Me and the presents. :)


Signing the wedding quilt


Janelle and I...and the food. :)

New House

Here are two pictures of our new house. Reuben moved into it this weekend! :) It is nice to have the keys and begin to settle in...but it isn't helping the next month and a half pass any quicker. lol.

It is a cute 2 bedroom house with nice attic for storage. It has a covered parking area and a big back yard. :) I like the front porch. It is cute. We hung up the bird feeder yesterday that JonTon gave us. It looks super cute. :)

It is located off of Westside Hwy. It the turn right before the carnival market. We will have to get it all cleaned up and then host some dinners or something so that people can see it.

Anyway, Enjoy the pics!

An Old Bet...

Tonight I made good on old bet. :) A long while ago (either late high school or early lcc years) Megan and I made a bet. The one who got married first had to buy the other one dinner. So I finally paid off my debt tonight. lol. Megan and I went out to dinner in Seattle. The restraunt was called "Crow." It really good food. I made sure I paid my debt to the fullest and went for drinks, appetizer, entree, and we split a dessert. :) It was fun to get together and eat good food. We have both come a long way since the bet was made. It's nice to see how far we have come.

The wedding day is approaching quickly. Only 1 month 20ish days! Tomorrow I have my Seattle shower. Megan is throwing one for my seattle SPU friends. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. It is has been a while since I have seen some of them. Bonnie, my old roommate will be there, I haven't seen her since Reuben and I first started going out. I will have to post pictures or something later.

Anyway, that is the update for now. :) ~Laura

Jeremiah/Sarah Wedding 2-13-2010

Yesterday was the wedding for Reuben's best friend Jeremiah. The wedding was at The Villa. It is located at Little Cape Horn near Cathlamet. It is a really beautiful space for small weddings. I didn't really take any pictures that display this though.

It was a really nice simple ceremony that was filled with excitement after the groom almost passed out. lol. However, with the help of the groomsmen he recovered and the ceremony continued without much of a hitch. I think that is the whitest I have ever seen anyone....I told Reuben he wasn't allowed to do that at our wedding.

Here are the pictures I promised, we clean up pretty good. lol. :)

3 mo 21 days

3 months 21 days to go and things are looking good! We have officially finally asked all of our wedding party including the ring bearers and flower girls. Mom and I have been looking into invitations and are really close to ordering them. Then it will be getting busy with addressing them. Yikes! Although I have a vague idea on the rest of the wedding stuff there is still a lot on the to do list. We are getting closer though. :)

Other than wedding stuff my life is going pretty well. I have decided that since there are only a few months left I should really start packing my apt. So, I am slowly working on that process. Slowly being the key word there...Some of my boxes are still sorta packed from moving to my apt – the knick-knacks that are more keepsakes. I need to go through everything again. Sigh.

Reuben is the Best Man in a wedding this weekend on Saturday. We haven’t had an excuse to see each other dressed up all fancy, so that will be fun. I will try to get a few pictures to post. It will be nice attending a wedding that isn’t mine. :) I’ll see if I can steal any ideas. lol.

Reuben only has 2 more weeks of classes left and then he is done! Hallelujah! Lol. He is pretty stressed with the 12 papers he has to finish before then though. I am looking forward to him having more free time and not having to do homework and missing out on all the fun stuff that goes on. The question remains: How will Reuben use his spare time? lol.

Guess we'll have to wait and find out. :)

New Year

I've been delaying blogging as if I am going to come up with some profound writing for the new year....however, nothing has come to me. Guess I will just go for it.

2010...wow. I can't believe it is already here. This year marks another milestone in my life. In 4 months and 22 days I will be married! Crazy. The first part of this year should be pretty exciting. Don't have much planned for the second half, but that will be good. Just settle down and get used to married life I guess. :)

Items I get to cross off my 'bucket list'
-Attend the Olympics (I am going to see Speed Skating in late February)
-Get Married (...May 29th for those of you who haven't been playing attention)
-Visit Foreign Countries (Canada in February and Ireland in May/June)

Goals for 2010
-Exercise more
-Stick to a budget w/ Reuben
-Plan a successful wedding without becoming stressed out.

Looks like it is going to be a great year! Can't wait to see how it all plays out. :)

December Already?

Less than 6 months to go until the big day. Everyone keeps asking me for updated wedding plans. I don't really feel like I have done that much yet. I have asked all my bridesmaids and Reuben has 2 more groomsmen to ask. I have my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses hanging in my closet. I have reserved the location, Northlake Baptist. We had our engagement photos taken and we made Save the Date cards. I am in the middle of addressing and sending these out. Mom picked up the form to get the announcement in the newspaper. So maybe in a week or two we will see that. I am still trying to collect addresses and get our official list together. :)

Reuben has been really busy these last few months with school. He had two classes this last quarter instead of the regular one. So, we haven't really had much time together recently. However, he is back down to one class so that should be nice. Last Sunday we went out on our first date since the engagement. It was nice to actually be able to have a conversation face to face. We went out again Friday to see "The Blind Side" and ate at Red Lobster. Two dates in a week! Whoo!

Kristen and I went down to visit Teresa on Saturday. We had a fun filled day of games, food, and marathon tv watching. lol. It was nice to see all her roommates and get to see her in her college element. :) I can't wait for her to be back for Christmas break.

Christmas is quickly approaching. This last year has really flown by. I keep hoping the next 6 months go by just as quickly. I am looking forward to all the holiday festivities this year. I need to catch up on some Christmas shopping though. I am not nearly as on top of things as I have been the past two years.

Anyway, I guess that is the update on my life. Not much more to say. Hope to see you all soon! ~Laura

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!