Father's Day 2012

Jason is Drilling from home this weekend, so although he didn't have to travel and we (happily) get to see a lot more of him than usual Drill weekends, he's still putting in hours either at the office or at our coffee table in front of his dinosaur of a laptop. 

We - well, I - decided to extend Father's Day into Father's Weekend and began making special things happen yesterday, starting with a big ole chocolate cake.  Pretty darn good, too, if I do say so myself - and I do say so.  Goodness knows I've made enough chocolate cake recipes over the years (it's Jason's tried and true favorite dessert), and this Black Magic Chocolate Cake recipe is pretty darn good.

This morning I made a big breakfast-brunch and managed to time it perfectly to coincide with Jason's return from the office (*insert synchronized golf clapping here*).  After her little fingers were licked clean, Siennalee presented Jason with his cards and first gift: a nifty water bottle and mount for his road bike.  His second present is due to arrive next week.  The girls and I did a little photo shoot project last week, and since the one hour photo places in our area evidently belong to the devil, I ended up ordering the prints online.  But I suppose that goes right along with the theme of Father's Extend-o-Weekend.  Let's just pretend I planned it all that way, shall we?

Jason and Siennalee just enjoyed a bike ride and we've made plans to go on a walk later once Avonlea wakes from her nap and Jason is ready to take another break.  It's been a lovely, low-key day so far.  These are the priceless little moments that make our blessings so very, very sweet. 

8 Years and Going Strong

It's been 8 years now from this amazing life moment.

I've gone from looking like this:

to this:

And yet somehow, life and love have only just gotten better.

From our first date,

to our first child,

 

and all the wondrously precious moments in between,

it's been an awesome, inspiring, heart-stopping, breath-taking, beautiful and heartbreaking, miraculous, surprising, enchanting and enthralling, lovely, lovely journey.

And I'm so glad you asked me along.

I love you Jason.

Oh I Love Him

There you are standing strong,
I'm a leaf holding on
You believe like a child,
In this fire runnin' wild
Oh I love how you see
Right to the heart of me

You're a waterfall, washing over me
I'm a thirsty man let me drink you in
Well I am on my way,
You're a mountain top
When I reach for you, your love lifts me up
All that I want is to be
Where you are

I'm the frozen ground, you're the warm sunlight
Shining down on me, baby just in time
Well I have never been in a love like this
Oh, you move my soul every time we kiss
And I love how you heal;
I can't believe how alive I feel

                                                   Where You Are, Rascal Flatts

The Grill Master

When Jason and I got married, Jason - being older (for those of you who might not know, we were not the teen bride and groom) - came with a certain number of very desirable household goods which I termed "bachelor accessories."  Kind of like Bachelor Naval Officer Ken.  So not only did I get a great deal on a guy, but I got a fabulous leather couch and overstuffed chair, coffee table and end table, armoire, and basically an entire household.  Some stuff had to go, like his apple patterned Corelle dishes, but most everything else was exactly what I might've have chosen myself, so it stayed.  But there was one - one very special item that Jason came with that I would grow to love almost as much as him.  

The Weber Grill.

I had been made aware of the Weber Grill on countless occasions as Jason related his latest grilling feats to me in a boyish exuberance.  Never having been around a propane grill, I was at first quite afraid of it.  I mean, the thing can go POOF.  FLAMES.  HEAT.  POOF!  Slowly I grew to be comfortable around The Grill until several years later, I myself was out grilling even when Jason wouldn't be home for dinner.  

So, fast forward several more years and we now find The Grill to be getting along in years.  It's time for a new one.  When we moved our household down to Klamath Falls, we left The Grill for my mom - it still works beautifully, but the paint is starting to peel and, well, we're outgrowing it.  

Our time without The Grill has been kinda sad.  There's nothing like grilling, you know.  Food and fire were made to go together.  So we waited and waited, and then we felt the time was right.

The time for A New Grill was upon us.

Of course, we went with Weber.  It would have felt traitorous to stray. 

Jason undertook the overwhelming job of actually putting the thing together.  

Little known fact: The Grill box can actually be *more* fun than The Grill itself.  

(Especially when you're 4 and 3/4 years old.)

Our new beauty.

Our first meal on the grill was a thing of beauty.  Kabobs.  I think kabobs are quite possibly the world's most perfect meal.

 

I rejoiced at watching Jason back at The Grill.  He really is amazing.

To reiterate: kabobs, perfection, amazing Grill Master of a husband.

Poetry on a bamboo skewer.  Go ahead.  Shed a tear.  I might join you.

We are so happy to have The (New) Grill back in our household.  Somehow, the world is right again.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day 

to the very best daddy I could have ever hoped to have for my children. 

Thank you for working so hard for us.  Even when you'd rather be home.
Even when you'd rather be sleeping.  

Thank you for providing so excellently for us, so I can stay home with our sweet daughter, so we can (unintentionally) manage two residences, so life can be richer and fuller than I ever thought it could be.  

Thank you for loving your family so completely, so deeply, so powerfully that you continually choose
to set yourself aside
and focus on us.  

Thank you for making the hard choices
- even without really knowing that you are -
those choices that so many other men cannot or will not
choose to make.  

Thank you for being such a beautiful reflection of God and his perfect Father's Heart to our little girl.

Thank you for being that man, that wonderful, hero of a man that I prayed for so long ago.

We love you, Jason.  Happy Father's Day!

Daddy's Home

He's tired.  He's dragging.  He's slept all day.  He's been living in a tent camp in Virginia with his US Navy Reserve Unit for the past 2 weeks. 

But he's home.  Sleepy.  But home

Luckily his girls aren't too high maintenance.

Thank you, Jason, for working so very hard for us - your family and your country.  You help make so many blessings and dreams possible, not only for me, but for our great country.  I love you so.

A Valentine Confession

Confession:  I like Valentine’s Day,
I really like it.

Now, I realize this confession may really irritate those of my friends who are a little more hardcore than I, and I also realize this opens me up for some pretty antagonistic humor.  But I, being a lover of holidays, do embrace Valentine’s Day.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certain elements of the Happy Hearts Day which are, for lack of a better term, grating. 

A particular commercial comes to mind which (in all fairness, I should point out has been running since Christmas, but still) epitomizes the sappiness which the holiday hounds (card companies, jewelry hawkers, and yes, chocolatiers) force feed us every year:

Uncomfortably Sappy Jewelry Commercial

Seriously folks, it’s only natural to revolt against such drivel.  I mean, I get where Kay’s was heading, but sadly somehow they overshot romantic and landed solidly on creepy.  Honestly, when the lightning strikes and girl gives the expected female response – leaping into the nearest man-arms (c’mon girls, we’ve all been there; up in the caaabin, stormy niiight, potential aaaxe murderer outside with niiight vision goggles) – guy tells girl not to worry, reassures girl that he’s right there, then pulls back, smile fading, fixes girls with this stalker-sultry gaze and says, almost under his breath and to no one in particular, “And I always will be.”  Never mind that he’s pulling some kind of velvety box out of his sweater vest – any sane woman would be running, shrieking and arms flailing, down Restraining Order Road, axe murderer lurking outside in storm or no axe murderer lurking outside in storm.

And listen, I realize Valentine’s Days themselves can go awry; I’ve had my own share of bad ones.  The worst was when I spent the better part of a day carefully making homemade candy for a boyfriend (who really should have been let go months before) and he showed up with a lone red sucker in his pocket (in hindsight, it might have had some sort of Valentine’s Day emblem on it, so yeah, he should've gotten points for that) and shrugged that he hadn’t had time to shop.  (Ehh, I now chalk that experience up to learning; sometimes you have to know what stinks in order to not step in it again.)

But let’s bypass the unfortunate experiences of the past.  Let us ignore those vapid commercials for now.  And let’s do our best to block out the garish red and pink oozing from store aisles and looking like it just popped out of the belly of Christmas like the alien from Sigourney Weaver.

Let’s examine the fun parts of Valentine’s Day.  When I was single and in college, one of the best Valentine’s I had was spent with two friends at a local Shari’s (borderline decent Denny’s-like restaurant of the Pacific Northwest).  We talked, drank super cheap, barely drinkable coffee, made each other laugh til the coffee came out our noses and had a great time.  For Jason’s and my very first Valentine’s Day, he flew in from Stockton, CA (where he was living at the time) and I had dinner for him – I’d ordered a heart shaped pizza from Abby’s Pizza (great local pizzeria).  I found this terrifically funny, I mean, a heart-shaped pizza!  How corny can you get?  I could hardly stifle the giggles enough to place my order to the unimpressed Abby’s waitress.  (I guess when you spend an entire work day dealing with heart shaped pizzas, the novelty dies, right?)  Then for dessert I made him a homemade white chocolate banana cream pie.  Hey, I liked the guy, okay?  (By the way, he did manage to do better than a sucker; besides flying in to spend the holiday with me, he'd got me a whole mess of flowers and other fun surprises.)

Now that we’ve been married 6 years and change, my husband and I still enjoy Valentine’s Day.  We don’t really do much that would impress the Valentine's Day purists, although he will send me flowers (I confess, I do like that) and then we’ll try to go out to dinner and hit a movie (c’mon, like we aren’t going to use any and every excuse we can get to do dinner and a movie?).  Yesterday I got a new pink shirt at Costco (try to hold back the envy, ladies) and plan on wearing that out for the big Valentine’s Day date.  I may even wear those new brown pointy-toed shoes I scored from my sister-in-law Anne.  Since I’m writing so much about the Happy Hearts Day, I may even get a corny oooo-they’re-heading-out-on-a-date-gag-me-with-a-spoon Valentine’s Day picture of Jason and me to share with you (that way you can see my new pointy-toed brown shoes).

Bottom line: Valentine’s Day can be fun.  Whether you have somebody to smooch with or not, embrace the corny, get some friends together and indulge in too much coffee and laughter, buy a shirt at Costco, score some new shoes from your sis-in-law, indulge in some chocolate and avoid the overpriced roses - and be happy!  Life is good.

Happy Hearts Day: Our First Date

I realize Valentine's Day is often deservedly maligned and overrated.  A source of guilt and disappointment.  A reminder of things lost or things not yet arrived.  I well know all the reasons to avoid the day of red and pink.

But I, as I may blog on later, do like the day.  Lord knows I waited long enough for THE guy to come along before I gave my own heart away for keeps.  During the long wait, I did my share of solo Valentine's Days; hung out with girlfriends, bought my own chocolates, watched Meg Ryan movies.  Result: I'm pretty balanced when it comes to the big Puffy Hearts, Over Priced Roses, One-More-White-Teddy-Bear Day.

So that being said and my qualifications out there, I welcome the holiday.  And to celebrate its coming arrival, I post a picture of the very first date of Jason Kantola and Jessica Nunn.

Alas, my legs were so tan.  ...sniffle.

Sometimes You Just Can't Wait to Go Back...

Ahh, Cannon Beach... the crisp, cool, coastal morning of my 34th birthday, and a rockin' mug of  Thundermuck.

Jason's 33rd Bday

September 7, 2008 - Catch Up Post

We had a small family party to celebrate Jason's big 33rd birthday.

Here's a menagerie of shots of our partying fam:

And Siennalee managed to get in some one-on-one time with family:

And here Sienna has managed to talk Uncle Mike into her tent.
This is no mean feat, just ask my inlaws!

Jason's awesome parents (who live in Pennsylvania) joined us via Skype (which was, unfortunately, a bit patchy-er than usual due to some irritating computer issues)

We grilled some marinated pork loin for lunch and had a couple favorite sides.

Jason's requested dessert was Costco's All American Chocolate Cake.
I added 33 candles to his birthday slice.

Lighting this bad boy was no mean feat; Jason's sister Cheri assisted me. She was also close by so as to douse me with water in the likely event I became a fireball while attempting to light and deliver the birthday boy's cake.

Happy birthday, Jason!
Your two girls simply adore you.