Day 13 of my 365

Refresher: The idea is to have the goal to post whenever it works best for me for 365 days - a list of five things that have graced my life, either on that day or at any time in my life. Simple pleasures.

1. Text messages - anytime of day, for any reason

2. sunflowers, someone once told me they always make you happy

3. a clean(er) office

4. mixed CD's from when Ry and I first started dating

5. Sunday afternoon naps


Hope is passion for what is possible. -- Soren Kierkegaard.

Day 1 of my 365

I don't know if anyone reads my blog and that's ok. A lot of things I write on here are just putting my thoughts on paper so to speak; sometimes for others and sometimes just for me. I have recently stumbled upon a project called "Grace in Small Things". The idea is to have the goal to post every day (or whenever it works best for me) for 365 days - a list of five things that have graced my life, either on that day or at any time in my life. I figured that this would be a good place to do this.

The woman who started the project explained why she did it... "The world we live in is loud and bright and demanding, and it is easy to slide into a less than thoughtful survival mode in which we do what we have to do to make it through the day with the least amount of strife possible. This robs us of the time and energy to be mindful of ourselves and those we love and to recognize the grace that exists in small things."

I can't promise that I will be able to post to this project everyday or even every week - but my plan is to post when I can; when I have something in my heart to share. Simple things. Small things. I need to take advantage of the grace in my life. "Cherish life's simple pleasures" - right Mom?


My Day 1 of 365:

1. A long hug after a long day

2. Help at work today from a new employee on his 1st day of work

3. A hot shower with candles

4. People having faith in me

5. My pair of OLD adidas sweatpants that I stole from my sister many, many years ago and she will never get back :)


"Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be."-- Charles "Tremendous" Jones

Oops...Forgot to post :)

We went to a good friend's wedding over Christmas break and I forgot to post pictures! Our family has been friends with the Fogle family for as long as I can remember. Their oldest daughter, Tasha, got married on December 28th and we were able to make it! Tiffany and Tasha were best friends growing up and they also had 2 other daughters and one son. We were all about the same age and Elizabeth and I were good friends as well. We used to make houses out of pine needles in their back yard :) Here are some pics:

The Tripp & Fogle Girls: Liz, Tiff, Tasha, Alaina, Deyna

Me & Liz. Liz is getting married on the 4th of July this year.

Me & Ry at the wedding.

With the girls :) They were really excited to see the wedding!

Keep Us

Anyone who knows me well knows that I couldn't live without music. It's on while I get ready every morning, while I drive into work on my commute, on my computer all day at work when I'm at my desk, then on my commute back home. The funny thing is Ry has a habit of watching music videos On Demand (it seems to be his favorite thing, especially lately) so really I just cant get away from it. It's not only that I just like to have the noise, I relate music to everything that is going on in my life. When I hear something I like, I write it down and look it up later. I am really into lyrics. I write them and have for many years. I appreciate others lyrics and like to find songs that mean something to me or help me through a particular thing I am going through. I post song lyrics on here from time to time, so I figured it was time I explained myself!
I am listening at work this morning and this song came on, a song I have never heard. It really spoke to me so I wanted to share it. I really like his sound. It is soothing and to be honest it just made me feel better. That is what music can do, sounds silly...but it's like a friend that always knows what to say at exactly the right time :)

http://www.myspace.com/peterbradleyadams

When the rain set in we had nowhere left to go
so we just stayed in bed while the thunder rolled
there's a comfort in the rain, one that love only knows
so we lay hand in hand while the water rose ...

Every season will turn til the world is upside down
rivers overflow then go underground
but in the eye of the storm, in the safety of this house
we lay hand in hand while the world turns wrong.

So keep us and keep us, keep us from the storm.

There's a lesson in the rain that change will always come
let us ride this wave and then greet the sun
and though the ground may shake and we’ll think
we’ve had enough
we must raise our flags for the ones we love.

So keep us and keep us, keep us from the storm.
Keep us and keep us and keep us from the storm.

random online siting!

I got a text this morning from one of my best friends saying..."Holy crap! Did you know one of your wedding pictures is on the front page of spokaneweddings.com"

I had no idea, so I checked it out....sure enough!

http://www.spokaneweddings.com/

Mal just got engaged on Friday night! So she said she was doing a little wedding planning and was surprised to see us on the website. Small world.

Summer vs. Winter

:)

Snow Day

We had quite a day in 3 feet of snow! It's amazing how much a little cold weather made me feel like a kid again :)

Christmas Eve in Colville

Christmas was in Colville, WA this year and Christmas Eve was spent with my Dad's side of the family at my parent's house. We had a great time and I wanted to share a few pictures. There were so many to choose from so I have just picked out some of my favorites for now!Adysen & Bayleigh with their curlers, getting ready for Christmas Eve! They look so grown up here! You should have seen when we first took the curlers out...they looked like Curly Sue. Me & Ady
Little man Parker. He has the sweetest smile.

The girlies.

Me, Tiff & TJ...plus a little sneaker in the bottom left :)

The Christmas Eve fam. Grandma & Grandpa Tripp in the middle.

Me & this guy I know :)

This is one of my all time favorites!

Ryan with what I think was his favorite present...new spices - all his favorite kinds for BBQ'in!

The gang. We love you all.

Stay tuned for Christmas Pics!

I am in the process of uploading and posting about a million pictures from Christmas :) So, for those that have been asking...I will be working on them tonight and getting them up shortly!

Happy Anniversary Rollingers

Today (Dec. 8th) is Meghann and Trevor Rollinger's 1 Year Anniversary. I can't believe it has come already! They were married last December at The Old Church in Portland, OR. It was a gorgeous Oregon winter day and we all got ready together and headed downtown. Their colors were brown and pink which turned out so pretty and they had a cupcake tower, all made by the moms...lots of cupcake baking! It was a packed house full of Quinn/Rollinger supporters and for the record I still think the bridesmaids won the dance off during the reception :) Meg & Trev - I love you guys and I'm so grateful I was a part of your special day. I hope it has been a fantastic year for you two with many more to come! Here are a few pics of your wedding week that I have to share...

Jackie in Portland & Salon Hairsay

One of my best friends, Jackie, has moved to Portland! It's been a few months and I've been meaning to post this for a while now...but better late than never right?! Jackie and I have been friends since grade school in Colville, WA. We have been through a lot together and watched each other grow up and change...but have always remained close. After high school she moved to Bozeman, MT to go to beauty school and I headed to Portland. We didn't get to see each other as much as we would have liked throughout the last 6 years, but I never felt like we were more than a phone call away. We were always able to pick up where we left off. She was a bridesmaid in our wedding and her and Ry have also become great friends too. Like he had a choice :) I have to say that I never thought in a million years that we would actually get to live by eachother again but I am so thrilled that she is here....not to mention she only lives about 2 miles down the road :) Jackie has such a fun spirit. You never know what is going to come out of her mouth. She is goofy like me and many of my other friends. No matter what she can always make me laugh. Since she moved here that has come in really handy. She is working 2 jobs right now and our schedules don't meet up as often as we would like, but knowing she is close by is comforting. I appreciate her friendship.

Jackie works at a salon in Beaverton called Hairsay. It is a really nice, fun salon and they even have a fun playroom for kiddos. She had a large clientele when she left Bozeman but is starting from scratch here. Eventually she would like to work in the downtown area, but has found her home in Beaverton for now. Meg was her first client at the salon when she was able to be her "test" for her interview and her hair looks awesome! I would recommend anyone to check her out if you are in need of a stylist. She does my hair and I wouldn't have it any other way! I promised I would always help her out, so this is my way of spreading the word a little bit to my friends and family :) http://www.salonhairsay.com/

holiday cheer

I woke up this morning and all I could think about was how it "feels" like the holidays. I love that. There is just something about this time of year that makes me happy and makes all other problems seem to go away when I think about getting to spend time with family and friends. I have been home a lot this past week because of medical issues, but yesterday I was finally ready for a few hours out of the house (other than work). So, I did a little Christmas shopping! Even though I only made it to one store which was about a mile from our house (baby steps), I got a few good gifts and some good ideas. I LOVE seeing all of the decorations in the stores and hearing Christmas music everywhere. It can get overwhelming when there are SO many people out and about, but I loved how friendly everyone was and how happy people seemed. I don't know if this can be attributed to some good ol' fashioned Christmas spirit or if they were just happy about the good deals they got...either way, I liked it. I could have just walked around outside forever. I love outdoor malls...especially during the holidays.

I talked to Adysen (one of our 4 yr. old nieces) on the phone yesterday and she answered by saying "Hi Auntie Deyna. Happy Christmas!" I haven't been able to see my family in quite a while now and I'm definitely excited for the holidays this year! I can't wait to spend some quality family time in Colville and Tigard and hopefully play in a little SNOW :) So, with 2 weeks left until we're off on our holiday break...I'm anxiously awaiting everything that December and the new year has to offer.

Oh yeah and I think I've watched every Christmas movie that the Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and the Family Channel has to offer. I love the oldies the best! The original Rudolph made out of clay and the first Babes in Toyland are my all time favs :)

PGE Bowling Night

Last night was PGE's Monte Carlo Bowling Night. They put these bowling nights together every few months to get everyone together with their familes for a little fun. You bowl to try to win money (I only won $1..better than nothing right?). My claim to fame last night was that I beat Ry 3 games in a row! That is almost unheard of. All of the wives/girlfriends were beating the men! It was funny. I bowled over 100 all 3 games. I can't tell you the last time I bowled a 150! I was feelin lucky. I even got picked to spin the lucky wheel of prizes...but I only walked away with a free soda from the concession stand! I'll take it.

Me & my free soda :) PS- I got a hair cut. I haven't really seen anyone yet!

The whole gang. These are all men that Ryan works with at PGE and their families. I have been having fun getting to know everyone over the past few years. It's hard because they get together a lot and with my busy schedule I am not always able to go. Although lately I have been able to be there a lot more. They all get along so well and like what they do. It's really fun to see that because you can tell that they are friends as well as co-workers. I'm so proud of Ryan and happy that he has found something that he loves and a group of people that love and appreciate him too.

A Brown Halloween!

Last weekend Ry and I decided to throw a little Halloween party for some friends. We invited close friends, family and some friends from work. It was fun to get everyone together and to get dressed up! Ryan and I dressed up as Dorothy and the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. I had not put on a Halloween costume in a few years, so this was super fun! Ryan even let me put make up on him and I came down the stairs earlier in the day and he was sewing his costume...apparently costumes do funny things to boys :) I wish I had a picture of that! We played some rock band...ok a lot of rock band, sang a little karaoke (my favorite was the all girls rendition of "Goodbye Earl"...gotta love the Dixie Chicks, and hung out with a house full of friends! Here are some pics from the night:

Me & 2 of my best friends from high school (Jackie & Mike...AKA Ron Burgundy from Anchorman & Sandra Dee from Grease). It was hilarious because Mike's mustache kept coming off when he would laugh so he had to smile strategically all night :)

Me and JoAnna. Jo and I work together (we actually share an office) and her and her fiance were Fred & Wilma Flinstone. It was SO cute! I loved the oversized pearls. Joseph & JoAnna are getting married next July at a vineyard in Oregon and I get to be a bridesmaid! Needless to say, we do a little wedding planning during the work day every now and then :) shhhh.... Jodie and Kyle were hilarious. They wouldn't tell me what they were going to dress up as because they wanted it to be a surprise. I was definitely surprised! These costumes belonged to Jodie's aunt and they were made in the 1970's. It was so cute and I was very impressed that Kyle went along with it too. Kyle is Ry's old roommate from college. They played football together at PSU. They are getting married in December on Maui...I wish we were able to go!

Me & Meg. Meg was an awesome punk rocker and the rock band guitar added to her costume just right! She is a Learning Specialist at an Elementary School here in Oregon and she dressed up like this for school on Friday too! She has pics on her blog, it was really cute! She had her hair crimped (she was able to borrow the crimper from one of her cheerleaders from TuHS). I remember trying to crimp my hair back in the day :)

Like I said before, it was SO fun getting dressed up with Ry. This was the 1st time we had dressed up as a pair and I was so excited that he got so into it and wanted to make it the best it could be (aka sewing patches on his costume :)). Maybe next year we will pick out something a little less itchy for him...he would probably appreciate that -straw isn't exactly comfy!

Technology Recommendation!

Ry and I purchased a Webcam about a month ago and I am loving it! My sister in law and her fiance live in Hawaii with our 2 nieces and we have been able to see them a few times already online. My sister also got a webcam recently and we have been able to get online every few days and see what the Darnold family has been up to as well. It is so difficult to be away from family, but being able to see their faces takes the sting out of it a little bit and makes you feel like you are still a part of everything.

Just in the past few weeks...

From Hawaii: Kaley showed us her new shoes by sticking her foot right up on the screen and saying "new shoos, new shoos!", we got to see our new niece, Jordyn up close and personal and see how the two are reacting to each other. Kaley is a great big sis :) She is so full of energy and Tay would turn the camera on her so we could see her twirling around the room and talking so good! We also got to chat with Tay and see how she is handling 2 kids and finishing her nursing program at the same time!

From Colville: Adysen and Bayleigh have been SO funny on the webcam. The 1st time we did it they just kept saying "hi" over and over again and staring with these big smiles on their faces. I don't think they quite understood what was going on, but they sure liked it! Last night Adysen kept shaking her buns and laughing. She thought it was SO funny because we could see her shaking her bunsies :) Bayleigh liked to show us what books she was reading and they made funny faces back and forth with Uncle Ryan. I know Parker probably doesn't see us very well, but it seems like he smiles at us on the screen every now and then...maybe it's wishful thinking. It is so nice to be able to talk face to face with Tiff and see how the kids are doing!

I would recommend this to anyone who has distance between their families!