He's here!

Weston Lawrence Uplinger arrived on May 18, 2014 at 6:25pm.

He weighed 8 pounds, 1 oz and was 20" long!

Playing catch up...

I haven't updated this blog in such a long time, I figured it was about time to get it done! I have a bunch of topics from the last 6 or so months of our lives to catch you up on :)

4 year anniversary!

Isn't this so true? I am lucky I found the one I wanted to annoy for the rest of my life at the young age of 16.  Happy 4th Anniversary to my amazing, wonderful, handsome and awesome husband! You make my life so much better, you support me, you make me laugh, you make me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world! 

Lopez Island Kayaking

In mid May we went on an excursion to Lopez Island with friends, and stayed at the Spencer Spit State Park. It was opening weekend so the campground was still quite overgrown and needed a lot of work to bring it up to it's prime condition. The bonus was that there weren't many other campers there (due to early season and semi bad weather) so we had the majority of the campground to ourselves!





Lucky for us the rain on Friday and Friday night paved the way for a cleared up Saturday afternoon just in time for our sea kayaking trip around Frost Island. Unfortunately I learned the hard lesson of sunburn even with gray skies and my face got fried! :(

After kayaking we came back to the camp and made our first (of many) Dutch Oven dinner. It was a simple stew, but boy was it delicious! It's super easy for camping as you can do all the prepwork in advance (chop all desired veggies & meat, place in ziploc bag with seasoning. Put in Dutch Oven, cook for 35-45 minutes and then open a can of refrigerated biscuits - place on top and let cook for another 15-20 minutes!)



We ate more than our own fair shares of dinner  and then we walked down to the Spit and had a huge driftwood fire while watching the sun set. It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful! There is no place like Washington!!

One word resolution?

I've seen a lot of hype the past week and a half from some of the blogs I follow about creating resolutions and how there is this new trend of not creating a list of resolutions you will never keep (I know I'm guilty of that!), but creating a one word resolution. I'm not typically a crazed follower of the latest and greatest things, but I did some research on-line and found this site. I am not sure if this is what stemmed the "one word" resolution or not, but it got me thinking...What one word can I take with me this year and make it a part of my daily practice to improve on?

I completed a Beth Moore bible study last spring with my mother-in-law at our church on the book of James. There is a verse of scripture from the book of James that has really stuck with me since the study. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. (James 5:12 ESV) 


Interestingly enough, the few verses before this tell us to be patient, establish our hearts before the Lord,  not to grumble, to be steadfast, compassionate, merciful. WOW. That's a lot to soak up at one time. How many times have I condemned myself for not sticking to my vow or promise (weight-loss, chores, goals, etc)?  And then, how many times have I lost patience with myself...grumbled...gave up...lost my compassion for what I was trying to accomplish? Sometimes, I think that if I make new promises to myself or others that it will somehow have a different outcome (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't). How many times have I condemned myself or others for not sticking to a vow or promise? Why can't don't I just do what I say I am going to do? 


I talk. I plan. I discuss. I want to do so many things (serve, travel, blog, organize, craft, clean, lose weight, garden, the list goes on...) but, I think the problem is that I often have the recognition of what to do and then get lost before the doing of it. 

But above all..let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no...

So that is what my one word for 2013 is:

recognize what I want to do > make plans to do it > actually do it > keep doing it