My God Is Greater!

I have a few questions that are specifically directed at fellow born again believers! It's not meant to be accusatory in the least. It's something that I've been pondering for a while and I pray that it will cause you to ponder as well.

The main question is -----What do you have to fear? 

Here are a few more questions...

1. Is the God you serve the Creator of the universe? Genesis 1:1

2. Did He part the sea to rescue the Israelites? Exodus 14:21

3. Did He save Daniel from the mouths of lions? Daniel 6:21

4. Didn't God say that all your days were ordained before even one came to pass? Psalms 139:16

5. Did Jesus touch a leper and make him clean? Mark 1:40-41

6. Didn't Paul write about how we've been given the Power of the Holy Spirit?  Ephesians 3:16-20

7. Didn't Paul also write how God doesn't give us a Spirit of fear? 2 Timothy 1:7

These Biblical truths are as relevant today as they were the day they occurred. Don't we sing songs in church that say...'Our God is greater, our God is stronger...God you are higher than any other'? Do we as Christians really believe those words? 

Again....what do you have to fear? 

I can honestly say I do not fear death. I know without a doubt, that I will not die one millisecond before I am supposed to. Not because of my own flesh and my own intellect! But because my faith is in the One, True God. He knows my days....they are written in His book. Why should I fear? Besides, to be absent from my flesh is to be present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8 

How I long for the day that I get to be present with my Maker! 

What a time to be alive! To be able to walk out our faith in action. To show those around us that we are different because we aren't fearful right now. We have hope and trust in God and they can too! He is our strength an ever present help in times of trouble. Psalms 46:1 

My absolute favorite verse in the Bible is John 16:33 - "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." What I love about this verse is it doesn't sugar coat it. You WILL have troubles in this world, but you MAY have peace IF you follow Jesus and trust in Him. What a beautiful thing! The God of the universe has filled me with His peace!  

Now don't think just because my days are numbered that I'm walking around like I'm invincible. I'm not going to decide tomorrow that I should climb Mount Rainer with nothing, but running shoes and a light jacket. I do not think it's wise to test God. In fact the only thing we are supposed to test God on is our money. Malachi 3:10-12

I say all this because us humans have this innate ability to worry about everything and sometimes we need to be reminded (me included) how big God is. Whether it comes to this pandemic, who the President is, your job, your kids, your health....etc! We love to worry! But the Bible also tells us to focus on whatever is true, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. Philippians 4:8 

I'm choosing to focus on Him...the One who holds the world in His hands. The One who formed me in my Mother's womb. The One who knows the number of my days. I trust Him fully and because of that trust I'm choosing to live fully! After all we only have so many days and we might as well make the most of each and every one!

New Furniture Saga!

At the beginning of the year my parents started looking for new living room furniture. They asked us if we wanted their old furniture. I say old, but it's not really that old at all. It's still in perfect shape! Normally we would have said YES right away, but Michael wanted to think about it. The thing is normal furniture sets just don't really work for our family and our living room. A sofa, loveseat and recliner will fit everyone, but then someone has to sit in the dreaded middle seat on the sofa that doesn't recline. Also the way our living room is situated the recliner has to be just to the right of the TV so you are so far over it's hard to see the TV for family movie nights. The other issue was my parents old furniture is powered and that's really not something that we wanted. The kids are terrible about putting down their footrest! I know they can learn and they will, but if they do happen to leave it up I like being able to go over and shut it with my foot. Also Michael makes enough money so we can be grown ups and buy our furniture for a change. :) 

The furniture we currently have was given to us by my parents when I was pregnant with Ella! We had actually just found out that Michael had been laid off and it was a welcome gift. My parents had already had this furniture for 5 - 6 years prior to giving it to us. 

For being at least 16 years old...it's really not that bad. Yes, the coloring has faded a lot in certain areas, the cushions are most definitely worn down and the mechanics have seen better days, but they've been good to us. 

  

This is how the couch looks most of the time! 

There is only one spot that is actually worn out. This is on the far right couch cushion. The seating area of the furniture is full grain leather, but the sides are vinyl so that's why this cracked and tore. 

On January 23rd, Michael and I went on a date day to go check out furniture. We went to Mor Furniture, Ashley, Macy's and The Old Cannery. We only found 1 couch set that wasn't powered and it was microfiber! No such luck, but it was still fun to get out and be with just my hubby. 

When I got home I started researching. Michael had already found out that they still sold the furniture we have right now albeit they are a bit of a newer design. Since we found the design name I was able to look it up and find it being sold at all sorts of places. A lot of them charged for shipping which cost a lot! They did sell them at Ashley on their website, but they were about $100 more than another online shop so I decided to get them from the other online retailer. 

We decided the best thing for our family situation was to get 3 loveseats. It makes it so every person has their own recliner and since loveseats are smaller they will fit nicely in the living room. I made an online order with 1StopBedrooms.com. 

While we were out we came across some other fun pieces. Michael thought it might be nice and grown up of us to actually have matching end tables and coffee table. We were specifically looking for pieces that had lots of storage for games, pillows and blankets. 

This was at The Old Cannery and I love it. It's a huge piece of furniture, but I loved the white mixed with dark wood. Also all that storage underneath would be nice. 

These end tables would have be nice to hid pillows in. 

This black one was at Ashley, but I don't really like blank and brown together. 

We loved this idea for the coffee table. Tons of storage for blankets!!! Although...again I don't like black and brown together. 

The reason we wanted all this storage is because we don't really like our current blanket and pillow storage. 

I love the blanket ladders, but they really aren't the most effective way to store all the blankets. In this picture they look all nice, but that's because I hung them up. The kids have a hard time hanging them nicely so most of the time they are pulled over a rung of the ladder or simply thrown into the corner. The pillows are actually stored in a Costco box behind the blank end table that you can barely see. It's just a bit messy and overwhelming to the eye. 

I liked those pieces that we saw at The Old Cannery, but they were just SO big. I felt like the living room was going to be crowded enough with 3 loveseats I didn't want to basically have a whole wall of furniture for the TV. So I started looking around on Ashley's website. That's when I found a TV console I fell in love with and it had other pieces that would match. I decided to check on 1StopBedrooms.com and sure enough they had those other pieces as well. Almost every piece I wanted was cheaper with them and since I already made one order I thought it would be nicer to just deal with the same company instead of buying a bunch of furniture from different stores. So I went ahead and made another online order with them. 

The next day I woke up and I felt funny...I hadn't slept good at all. I get like that sometimes when I spend a lot of money...buyers remorse! Michael and I talked about it and he said...yes it's a lot of money, but first off we received our stimulus so that helped, but also we live in our living room so it was going to be a good investment. That helped me relax and not worry about it so much. 

Fast forward to Wednesday, January 27th...I got a text from 1StopBedrooms saying that I needed to confirm my billing/shipping address by calling the number listed. I called the number and got ahold of Douglas. He stated that the issue was with my zip code and the system had already corrected it. He did want to confirm my order though. He stated that we were getting 3 loveseats with one recliner in each. That's when I was like...huh??? Who has ever heard of a reclining loveseat where only one side reclines. He told me that's how these come. I was shocked and so happy that we caught this before they were made and delivered. I would have been so upset with myself if they'd arrived and we only had 3 reclining seats. I ask him if my order could be updated to include both seats reclining. He said sure, but that there would be an extra cost of $299 per loveseat. I was totally flustered at this point and told him to go ahead and update the order. He also told me about their warranty and how much it covered. It only cost $199 for all 3 pieces and it was good for 5 years. He also said if we didn't have a claim in 5 years they would give you the $199 back. I thought that sounded great so he added that coverage as well. I did have a time period where I could take the warranty off so I figured I would talk about it with Michael and if I needed to I could have them remove it. 

Once I got off the phone with him, I still felt funny! I just couldn't imagine not paying attention to the fact that it was only a one sided recliner! I was specifically wanting a typical reclining loveseat. I went to the website and this is what I found. 

Do you see the wording right under Description....

Dual-sided recliner

At this point I was unhappy! I trusted that the loveseats were made the way he said with only one side reclining, but I felt that the website was misleading. I called up Douglas again and told him my concerns. I said that they should probably have the website wording changed since it wouldn't most likely hold up in a legal proceeding since the word dual means two! He told me he'd look into it and put me on hold. When he came back on the line he said that he would be able to to take $50 off per loveseat because of the misunderstanding. I was still a bit peeved about it. I'm a stickler for verbiage and I know that how things are worded can make a big difference in a legal proceeding. He told me that I wasn't required to purchase furniture through their company and if I wanted to I could cancel the order. I told him that I really wanted the furniture, but I was just taken aback by this obviously false verbiage on their website. He told me that they would go ahead and throw in the warranty on all the other pieces we purchases as well. I felt good about that and thanked him for listening to me and helping get to a solution. 

A while later I was still thinking about it and it just bugged me...seriously have you ever seen a reclining loveseat where only one side reclines?!?!? I decided to find the furniture on Ashley's website and see how they had it listed. Lo and behold it was listed as a dual-sided recliner. I got on the phone to call Ashley and while waiting I decided to try to start a chat online as well. Sometimes it can take forever to actually get through. The agent on chat named Jessica answered me first so I started talking with her. Right after that Ashley answered the phone. I told her that it was adorable that her name was the same as the company and that she works for and she could help someone else since I'd just started working with the chat agent. I asked Jessica if this piece of furniture reclined on both sides. Her answer was yes! By this point I was getting so mad at 1StopBedrooms.com! Jessica also informed me of a coupon code to get 15% off my order. I decided that I would put everything in my cart....3 loveseats, 1 TV console, 2 end tables and 2 coffee tables and with that 15% off we saved over $700 and it ended up being cheaper than 1StopBedrooms by $2400 because of all those additional charges! I thanked Jessica for her amazing help!

My next call was to Douglas....of course he wasn't available. I was told he would call me in 15 minutes. I called back 30 minutes later and was told he still wasn't available. I asked if anyone else could help me since I just wanted to cancel my order. They told me that it had to be Douglas that helped me. I decided right then that I was going to call every 15 minutes if I had to, but thankfully Douglas called me back about 2 minutes later. I told him what I had discovered and that I felt his company had no integrity and I couldn't do business with a company like that. I'm so glad that I had said yes to the changes earlier because normally you only have 24 hours to cancel and it had been well over 24 hours, however, since I made those changes I received updated emails confirming the changes and on those emails it specifically stated that I had 24 hours to make changes. If he was going to give me a hard time I was absolutely going to get a lawyer. Thankfully he didn't give me any run around or issues at all. I think since I had said the word legal proceedings and lawyer earlier he was happy to see me go. I have since received emails stating that my refund will be processed in 72 hours. 

I honestly feel like this was all a God thing. I felt funny in the beginning for a reason and I feel like it was God trying to tell me not to trust them. Now that I've had time to think about it I highly doubt those loveseats are made with only one side reclining. I feel he was just trying to get more money out of me. I've since looked 1StopBedrooms.com up on the BBB (who knows why I didn't do this before)...they have horrible reviews. Of course on their website they only have 5 star reviews. On the BBB they have tons of 1 star reviews and that's only because you can't give zero stars! It seems this text and confirm your billing/shipping address thing is ploy to get you to call them and then they inform you about how since you live outside of the shipment zone you have to actually pay shipping. Or how there isn't certain part included in your order so you have to pay extra for it. They are a completely fraudulent company! 

I've since left a comment on the BBB, their website....which will most likely never get published and I've also commented on their Facebook page numerous times. This company is the worst! I can't believe I didn't do my research! I just wanted to try to get the furniture cheaper and in turn ended up with a lot of hassle and almost spending $2400 more! I'm so happy that I figured this out early and not months into the process like most of the other customers that I read about on the BBB. At least Ashley is local and they've been around for years and they have a good reputation. We are slated to get our new furniture around March 11th and I can't wait. 

Here is what our new loveseats look like. The only real difference other than the color being darker is the location of some of the seams are different. 

Here is our TV console. It's going to be perfect for storing all sorts of games.

This is our current set up. It's worked nice, but it's so cluttered looking with all the games stacked below. The cabinet on the left was painted by Michael's mom. I'm not getting rid of it, but I would like to move it. It is full of games so I'm hoping we can get most of them in the new console. 

I got two of these little end tables. I like that they are only 14 inches wide just big enough to set a book on, but not big enough to become a junk collector. It also has some fun features. The back part of the top opens up so you can plug in a lamp if you want and it has a USB plug for a charger. The little drawer comes out and is actually cup holders. In the back of the end table has a little nesting spot for you to store a book in. I love these!!! 

We knew we couldn't keep our current coffee table because it's square. Since we will have 3 reclining loveseats we had to consider how much space they'd be taking up when they are in the reclined position. Because of this we knew we needed a rectangle coffee table. 

This is the one we chose. All of this furniture is from the same furniture line...it's called Bolenburg. It's gonna be so nice having everything match! We did consider possibly not having a coffee table at all, but I really like playing card games in the living room and it's much better to play them on the coffee table than the floor. This will still allow us to do that. Plus it has all kinds of storage! 

I've never really wanted one of those coffee tables that has the top that pulls up, but this was the one that matched the other furniture I liked. The more I think about it though I think it's going to be so nice for Ella to sit on the loveseat and use it as a desk. Michael says no eating on the new furniture, but we'll see how long that lasts. 

You might remember I said that we got 2 coffee tables. Remember this view? 

Where that black chair is off to the left is where another loveseat will be so this corner will be basically unusable. We are taking out the two blanket ladders, the Costco box that holds the pillows and the black end table and replacing it with this....

This is the only piece that isn't from the Bolenburg line. It's from the Aldwin collection. The other pieces are vintage white with grey tops. This is a gray finish so we are crossing our fingers and hoping they pair well. We aren't two worried because like I said this is going to tucked back in the corner between two loveseats. It's not going to be a focal piece. The reason we loved this coffee table is...

Look at all that storage! This is going to be such a great place for the kids to be able to toss in their blankets! 

I'm so happy that it all worked out. I can't wait to get all our beautiful new furniture! 

My Hammock!

In the past Michael and I have definitely differed in regards to spending. He's been okay with it and I've been a penny pincher! One thing this whole unexpected home renovation has brought out in me is my inner spender. Not exactly sure if that's a good thing or not. On one hand it's helped me to be more in the moment and fun, but on the other hand I could see myself getting a little out of control. Hahaha! 

My thing with the house is we might as well get it done at the same time. If we are going to have basically a new house we might as well spend a little extra money to just get it all updated. That's why we added the new lights to the front of the house...that's why we decided to get new gutters and so on. 

During this whole process I have been to Lowe's more times than I could count. As it got towards the end of summer I noticed that the summer items were going on sale. There's one thing about me and I would dare to say it's pretty common with a lot of moms...I don't normally get things for myself! This year has definitely been my year though to actually do things for me. I built my outdoor furniture for me and when I saw this hammock on clearance at Lowe's I thought it would be fun for the kids, but honestly I got it for me. It's my hammock! 

I don't know the original price, but I got it for $30! I was a bit surprised when I took it out and there wasn't a base do go with it. The picture shows it on a base. It wasn't until I got into the directions when it's telling you to attach it to the base that I finally in super small print read....base not included! Huh!!! That was a bummer. I actually almost took it back because it was one of those time I felt a little hoodwinked! 

I did do some research and the base on the Lowe's website that went with this hammock was of course not on clearance and it was $60! Twice as much as the hammock, but pretty crucial for the actual functioning of the hammock since we don't have trees we can hang this from. I also researched other websites and the cheapest hammock with a base I could find was $120-$140 so $90 total wasn't too bad after all. 

Once the base was delivered to the house it made laugh that I thought it might be included with the hammock. The box that the base came in was huge and so heavy I couldn't even move it! 

Only took me a little while and it was all set up and ready to enjoy! 

Of course kids came over shortly after and my peaceful oasis turned into screams of...."move over"..."he's touching me"...."that's my spot" and so on! :) 

Silly kids!!! 

Here's the view of the hammock from the deck. Later on I ended up moving the pillow to the other side so I was facing the other way and not staring into the sun when I was trying to read a book. In all honestly though I have only laid in my hammock I believe 3 times. We still had so much work to do with the house that I didn't feel like I had time to lay in it.

I just recently took the Enneagram test and found out I'm a One and it describes me perfectly. After getting the hammock I had suspicions that I was the kind of person that has a hard time relaxing....honestly it hadn't ever dawned on me before. After finding it hard to actually sit down and take time for myself...it became pretty apparent! When I read the description of a One it said it perfectly.

"The relentlessness of their pursuit of the ideal can make Ones tense people who have a hard time relaxing and who unnecessarily deny themselves many of the harmless pleasures of life." 

So one of my personal goals for myself is to try to enjoy relaxing and this is the most important part....not feel guilty about it! That will be way easier said than done for me! 

Lice Is Not Nice!

Okay this is quite a story and since this is my online scrapbook I want to document it. Let me start with....we made it over 12.5 years of having kids without getting lice. I'd say that's pretty good! 

There's some backstory so bear with me. Since June I've been having this allergic reaction to something. I actually ended up having to go on three rounds of steroids and then I finally figured out what I was allergic too. 

When my parents watched the kids while we were in Maui they stayed at our house. My mom went and bought one of those thick foam covers for our bed since she can't stand to sleep on our bed. When we got back from Maui she left it on our bed since they already have one and they don't need a king size one anyway. We figured we'd give it a try and see if we liked it. I loved it!!! Michael not so much, but he could deal with it. About two weeks later I started having the allergic reaction. I thought it might be the foam and I mentioned it to my doctor, but since it wasn't coming directly in contact with my skin....it has a mattress cover on it and the sheets we figured it couldn't be that. 

My dermatologist thought it was most likely one of the many supplements I was taking so I went off all those and went on the steroids to get my body to stop freaking out. Even being on the steroids I was still itching...not as bad, but still itching. It also seemed like the itching was having to work it's way through my body. It would move from my thighs to my knees, from my forearms to my wrists. From my shoulders to my scalp. I was itching everywhere. 

Fast forward to the end of July and it finally dawned on me it has to be the foam. So Michael takes the foam off our bed. The kids saw the foam all wrapped up in the playroom and asked if they could sleep on it. Even if I'm allergic to it doesn't mean they will be too so I figured why not. The boys room is big enough for the foam to be on the floor. Jack, Ella and Zeke decide they all wanted to sleep on it. During this whole summer Ella has been all about having sibling sleepovers with her brothers. A few days later Ella starts complaining about itching. I tell her she's probably allergic so she shouldn't sleep on the foam. Then the next day Zeke complains of itching so I tell him he's probably allergic to it as well. Jackson is completely fine! 

The next week Ella is still complaining of itching on her head. I check her for lice, but I don't see anything. Then I remember she went swimming at the lake with Rachael and her kids and didn't shower. I tell her to go bathe and she'll feel better. Later that night she says she's still itching because she thinks she didn't get all the soap out of her hair. She takes another shower and all is fine. 

Fast forward to the day we go to the movie theater and bowling and she's complaining again about her head itching still. She's been itching it so badly she's actually scratched herself. I check her again for lice, but don't see anything. That's when Michael tells her to come to him and he gets a flashlight and really looks. Yep....lice!!! For some reason I thought the eggs or the lice were black so I didn't see anything. Plus they are so tiny they are hard to see...the flashlight really helped. By this point it was 8:52pm on a Saturday night...the night before the bigger boys leave for camp! I grabbed my purse and drove to Bartell Drugs and got there just in time. The checker was actually standing there waiting to lock the doors. I bought a couple lice kits...thankfully they were buy one get one free...and I got two combs as well. 

When I got home we started treating the kids. Oh and we had Hansi at our house since he was also going to camp. Michael brought down all the kids bedding and clothes. We were each combing through the kids hair after they showered...it was a crazy mess! Poor Michael had to comb through Ella and my long hair which took forever. We ended up not getting to bed until midnight. 

The next morning Michael went to check us to see if there were any stray eggs leftover....yep! It was a nightmare and something we really didn't want to spend days dealing with. Plus the boys were supposed to go to camp and we did not want them bringing lice with them to camp. Michael looked online and found Lice Clinic of America in Kent. He started texting back and forth with the guy and he was able to get an appointment for the boys at 11am. The boys were scheduled to leave for camp at 12:45pm. 

All 5 guys...Hansi included ended up getting treated. Michael and Owen didn't actually have lice they got checked and got treated with the Active Rinse, but they didn't have to be treated with the special hair dryer. They use this super heated specially designed hair dryer to dehydrate your scalp and any lice or nits on your scalp. Then they comb out all the lice and eggs and then treat your scalp with the Active Rinse. It was around noon when the boys got home. Michael jumped in the shower and then each boy did as well. I ran to MCD's to get everyone lunch. I had called my friend who was picking the boys up to take them to camp to find out if she was okay taking them. They had officially been cleared and deemed Lice Free, but I didn't want her to feel like she had to drive them. She was totally fine with taking them. 

Later that night it was time for Ella and I to go to our appointment. We both had lice, but Ella's was worse. I had what the guy would deem not even a mild case. 

We got got treated with the hair dryer, combed out and they put the Active Rinse on. They put a shower cap on you and then basically a belly band that wraps around your head to keep everything all nice. While we were at the clinic it dawned on me that when Zeke got home after being treated he rode his bike. Meaning he put his helmet on! So I bought the take home kit and we retreated him once I got home. 

The clinic was NOT cheap....not at all, but it was worth it! It was worth it so we could be sure we were lice free and the boys could go to camp. It was worth it so we didn't have to spend weeks and weeks trying to get rid of these things. Now here's hoping the boys don't bring lice home from someone else at camp. We will most definitely be checking them right away! 

As for the itching....I do still believe that the foam was the cause of my itching especially since I had such a mild case of lice. I'm not 100% sure if some of the itching for Ella and Zeke was the foam or if it was only the lice. Needless to say we've moved the foam out to the garage and we are going to be throwing it away. 

As for where we got lice my best guess is that Jack picked it up at Riverview Camp earlier in July. The timeframe fits since it takes nits 7-10 days to hatch and they only live 30 days and Jack was the one with the adult size lice on his head. The crazy thing is he never itched at all. That kid!!! As for why Owen didn't get lice well he's not a joiner. He did not want to sleep with the other kids on the foam. He was happy to be in his bed so he wasn't exposed. Me on the other hand I snuggle my kids so it was bound to happen. As for Michael not getting it we found out from the guy at the clinic that 90% of the time people with grey hair do not get lice. Something about how grey hair isn't hydrated enough...so yay for more grey hair!!! 

As for the cost we were told it would be covered by Michael's VEBA account...think Health Savings Account, but they have denied the claim. A lot of times that's due to just needing more documentation so we'll probably just need to get a more itemized receipt from the Lice Clinic and then they'll cover it....hopefully! If not like I said...it was worth it to be over and done with it so quickly! 

Skamania Lodge!

Twice a year Michael gets to go to the WASWD (Washington Association of Sewer & Water Districts) conferences. Last April, Michael's Dad watched the kids for us so we could go to the one in Yakima. This year He and Ruth watched the kids for us and it was such a blessing. Plus they had a great time with the kids. This time the conference wasn't in Yakima though it was down south in Stevenson at Skamania Lodge. 

I had never even heard of it before so I looked it up online and once I saw it I knew I wanted to go! Gorgeous!!! It's so fun that I get to tag along with Michael. He still has to go to conferences and meetings and such, but that doesn't bother me at all. I enjoy the alone time! 

We left on Tuesday, April 16th right around noon. Our first stop was in Tacoma to eat lunch at Red Lobster and then we made a quick stop at the Dollar Store because I forgot floss picks. I'm only addicted to two things...chapstick and floss picks! There are worse things to be addicted to though! The drive to the lodge was quite curvy, but nice since you follow along the Columbia river. 

We did drive right by the Bonniville Dam, but we didn't stop or go on a tour. 

Welcome to Skamania Lodge! 

Here's the view of the lodge right when we drove in. 

This is the picture from their website....it really is gorgeous!!! 

The lodge has so many amazing things to do....golf course, driving range, spa, zip line, ax throwing and an aerial course. 

That first night Michael and I went to the main conference room where all the booths were being set up. We met some people he knows and just stood around chatting. We then got invited to go to the bar onsite for drinks and appetizers. It was so nice! 

The next morning, Wednesday April 17th, Michael headed off to play in the Golf Tournament while I slept in a bit. Around 8:30am I got a call from Ruth...they were locked out of our house! It was a bit nerve-racking/funny, but we figured it out and her and Papa were able to get in the house. It was actually nice that they called since I didn't want to sleep in too much, but the black out curtains were amazing so who knows how long I would have slept for! 

My main goal this trip was to blog! I have been so horrible this year with taking the time to sit and write, but I've been trying harder! 

I ordered room service for myself and got a Steelhead BLT. It was SO amazing and so were the fries! 

After Michael got back from Golfing we went down to the visit all the booths. I  really enjoy seeing Michael in his element. Last year the conference was all new. He hadn't even started doing the job of General Manager yet. This year was completely opposite...he knew what to do. He got to talk with so many people and even if you think that it might all be messing around at these types of conferences...it's not. He got some great information on products they might use in the future and he got to meet people he'd never met face to face. It was really great! 

That night one of the engineering firms that Michael works with took us out for dinner and drinks. I especially enjoy getting to put faces with names so these events are great for me. I really do try to understand Michael's work as much as I can and I enjoy talking and getting to know the people he works with. I have always thought that I can be influential to a degree in Michael's career...whether it be painting or at the Water District. I try my best to be a positive presence and I engage in what he's doing and it doesn't go unnoticed. There were a few people that were impressed and even said..."Wow, you know about that!" Yep I listen and I learn! 

On Thursday April 18th, Michael had more conferences and meetings he needed to attend. So again I got to blog and I worked on my yearly online scrapbooks through Shutterfly. I didn't order room service though I just ate the bag of chips from the previous days lunch. I was starving by the time the booths opened. Thankfully they put out a bunch of appetizers so I was able to munch a bit. They also have an open bar and they give you drink coupons so I was able to get a couple of my favorite drinks...Cranberry Press! 

It was a gorgeous day outside so we decided to head out and look around at the grounds. 

Right outside from the bar where was a nice patio. 

We ran into some of Michael's fellow General Managers. These 3 guys call themselves the under 40 Club! 

There was this strange piece of art down by one of the trails so Michael and I went to look at it. It ended up being a different version of a sun dial. It was so cool and I don't know why it surprises me, but it was accurate! 

The view looking back at the lodge! 

Selfie....poor Michael was trying not to snarl, but the sun was SO bright! 

Later that night we attend a buffet that was headed up by another engineering firm that Michael goes with. It's always the highlight of the trip for me. I really enjoy the guys from the firm that work with Michael on a regular basis. In fact one of the guys even leant us the Maui Revealed book to use for our upcoming trip. 

On Friday April 20th, it was time to check out. We wanted to eat lunch at Joe's Crab Shack on the way home, but we weren't sure if we could eat there and get home in time to pick up the kids from school. We had originally told Michael's Dad and Ruth that they could go after dropping the kids off at the bus, but thankfully they were able to stay later. Again we are super blessed! 

Once we left we drove into the town of Stevenson to see if there was anything interesting. We didn't see anyplace that we had to stop at so we turned around and headed back on the main road. It was fun getting to see the lodge from far away. 

When we drove in we noticed this bridge called The Bridge of the Gods and we knew we wanted to cross it and drive back on the Oregon side. 

The view of the Columbia right before going over the bridge. 

The Bridge of the Gods...such an epic name! 

It was one of those open slatted metal bridges....I did not like it one bit! Thankfully it wasn't a long bridge. It did have a toll when we got to the other side....a whopping $2!!! 

Since we were on the Oregon side I thought it would be fun to stop at Multnomah Falls. We haven't stopped here since 2003! 

During that 2003 road trip we were with Michael's parents and my parents. We were originally supposed to fly to Washington DC, but then the terrorist level got increased to level yellow and it kind of messed with our plans. Instead we decided to head down the Oregon coast. It was a great trip....we went to Astoria and climbed up the tower, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, stayed at The Inn at Spanish Head, went ATVing on the Oregon Dunes, saw family in Coos Bay and hiked up to the top of Multnomah Falls. And by hiked I mean Michael basically dragged me the last 10 minutes!!! 

The weather was gorgeous when we stopped on our way home. Nice and warm! 

We did end up walking up onto the bridge which was as far as I was willing to go this time, but we were sad to see that the trail ends right after the bridge now. Last year there was a major forest fire in this area and the trail has been ruined due to all the water and fire damage. I do hope they reopen it someday...it was really nice to get to the top of the falls even though the hike was brutal! 

After our little hike we went to Joe's Crab Shack and then headed on our way. We got home around 4pm and were able to chat with Papa a bit about his time with the kids. Everyone had a great time!!! I do enjoy these working trips with Michael and I'm happy that I got to go with him. There is another WASWD conference in September in Spokane and hopefully I'll get to go with him for that one as well. I do enjoy getting to be a part of his working world plus it's so nice for us to have that alone time together!