60-day Notice

Two weeks ago Darren received the dreaded 60-day notice from Boeing which means he has 60 days to find another job within Boeing, or he is done effective October 1st. For about a week the future looked very uncertain for our little family, but fortunately, Darren was offered and has accepted another job with Boeing and he starts next Friday.

Darren is excited to be working on the wing-to-body of the 787 Dreamliner, but unfortunately, the job is in Everett and he will be working mandatory 66 hour work weeks. A long work week combined with school on Tuesday nights and scouts/young men's on Wednesday nights is going to make for a very tired Darren and a very stressed out Mindy.

But, I am trying to count my blessings, so here goes...

1. We will still have medical insurance
2. Boeing is paying for Darren to go to school
3. Trevor is a really good kid
4. ...on the days when he isn't so good I have lots of friends I can call and vent to
5. 26 hours a week of time-and-a-half means that I should get a pretty hefty "Help Keep Mindy Sane Budget" to use at my own discretion
   

Recently I have been drawing closer to Heavenly Father in prayer and learning to rely on the Savior to provide for me and our family. So far, He is keeping his end of the bargain and I have faith that He is mindful of our little family and that He is giving me a chance to step up to the plate and prove what a strong woman I really am.

So if you ever get a prompting to give me a call and see how I am doing, please do. I'm going to need all the help I can get so that I can be strong and supportive of my amazing husband who works so hard.

Darren's Surprise Birthday Cake

Making a cake takes a lot of hours and hard work, but it is a lot more challenging to make a surprise cake for someone who lives in your own home. Darren's surprise river rafting theme birthday cake was my first attempt at fondant modeling and it was so fun to make.

I started a week in advance modeling the raft and Darren. A couple days before his birthday I went to my Aunt Shelley's house to bake, frost and cover the cake. (I very well couldn't have Darren come home to a house that smelled like cake with nothing to show for it.)

Then the day before the surprise party I added the water, trees, rocks, etc. When Darren saw the cake he was in shock. It really did look SO cool! So without further ado....Here's the cake!

Spike & Dig Volleyball Tournament

A couple weekends ago we went to Spokane for the annual Spike & Dig volleyball tournament. Darren played on a team with his best friend Darin along with Darin's brother-in-law and his friends from Yakima. Their team name was..."Consentual Sets". So naughty, but very funny.

They all played very well but ended up losing in the semifinals of their division and bracket. Here are some pictures showing off Darren's mad volleyball skills!!

Darren going up for a Spike which ended up being a kill!

Look at how much air he has in this picture!!

I think this picture makes Darren look so cool.

You may be wondering what Trevor and I did while Darren was looking cool on the court... Well, for starters we watched.
Then it got too hot being in the sun (it was around 100 degrees all weekend) so we decided to have a refreshing drink of Powerade.

Then, later in the day the boys took a nap while I read a book.

It was a great weekend!

Torchlight Parade

Trevor loved the parade. Darren said that he sat in his stroller the entire parade transfixed on everything going on around him. Here of some pictures of him enjoying the parade and not caring a wink about the camera.
Where was I during all of this?  I was marching with my former drill team, The Ballard Eagles.

Such a Joy

Trevor is such a joy to me. He is smart and lovable and I couldn't imagine my life without him.

But he isn't perfect. He likes to scream and throw things and sometimes he drives me crazy. Here are some pictures of our adventuresome little boy.

Here is Trevor on the back deck with his helmet on (he insisted upon wearing it) shaking the car to rev it up.

There are few things that make me happier right now then to walk in a room and see Trevor sitting down reading a book. *sigh* It makes me feel like a good mom.

I love it that Trevor likes to feed himself a cup of yogurt or a bowl of cereal or oatmeal...so long as he uses his signs to tell me he is all done instead of throwing it on the floor.

Trevor loves water and I love this picture of him trying to drink from the sprinkler. Seconds after this picture was taken he ran off giggling because the water got up his nose. (Also, check out that cute little bum crack...Love it!)

Trevor hates it when I am on the computer and will do just about anything to get my attention, good or bad. Fortunately, this day he did something very cute and then held still long enough for me to capture his proud moment and handsome face.

I love you Baby Trev!

Happy Birthday Laura!!!!

Today is Laura's birthday and yesterday my sister-in-law Deborah and I surprised her with an amazing birthday cake! Are you ready to see it?!? Here it is!!

It's a Chanel purse complete with a tube of lipstick and a compact. Deborah and I had so much fun making this cake and I was so happy that we made it for Laura. She is one of my very best friends and she deserved an awesome cake.

Here are some pictures of the detail on the cake. It really did look just like a purse and makeup. I really couldn't have done it without Deborah's help. She is so innovative and pushes me to make everything bigger and better than I otherwise would have.
So here's to Laura. 1. because she is an amazing friend. 2. because she loves to play cards and talk trash until the wee hours of the morning and 3. because she is just sassy enough to appreciate a bright pink and leather purse birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Laura!

4th of July Weekend!

We had so much fun this last weekend. Lots of Darren's family was in town, so we stayed up way too late each night playing cards and just enjoying time together.

The morning of the 4th we took a trip to Snoqualmie Falls. It has been a long time since I was there and I have never hiked down to the water, so that is what we did. I revived my Moby wrap so that Deborah could use the Ergo carrier and off we went. As you can see in the picture, Trevor was not so sure about the water spray we were getting as we got closer to the falls. He kept burying his head every time the wind would blow.














That night we were party poopers and decided not to go anywhere to watch fireworks. We put Trevor to bed at a semi-decent hour and then sat on our front lawn playing a card game and watching our neighbors blow up hundreds of dollars in really good (probably really illegal) fireworks. The booming across the street stopped around 1 am. It was pretty awesome!

On Monday we made a cake. Stay tuned for more info about that....

Then yesterday Darren's sister Deborah and I drove into Seattle to go to the best cake decorating store ever, Home Cake Decorating. She needed to pick up a few things for a wedding cake she was doing. On the way home we stopped by Dick's and Trevor had his first ever Dick's cheeseburger. It is a right of passage and so I took some pictures. He couldn't be bothered to look at the camera.

This morning everyone left to go back to Utah and I miss them already.