the last 24 hours

The last 24 hours have been nothing short of emotionally draining. It all began yesterday afternoon when I got a call from Nic telling me to go look outside. I remember feeling really nervous to look because he never calls me on his cell phone during work. It had to be important. I saw a giant cloud of smoke filling the sky. It was coming from the direction of my mother-in-laws home.

A few minutes earlier Nic had been on the phone with her. She had heard about the fire and while it wasn't threatening her neighborhood at the moment, she felt the sudden urge to go home and check on her puppies just in case. Not two minutes after she got inside, a sheriff knocked on her front door. She had five minutes to evacuate her home. In a moment of panic with Nic on the phone with her, she had to decide what to bring and what to leave behind. She scooped up her dogs, some important documents, and some family pictures and left.

Fast forward about 30 minutes and she showed up on our doorstep with two confused dogs and a terrified look on her face. I felt completely helpless but I did what I knew I could do - I said a prayer and gave her a safe place to sleep. We spent hours into the night listening intently to any and all updates provided by all of the local news stations. We don't have cable so the updates came from either a phone or a laptop (which is pretty much the same these days). After getting very little sleep, we woke up to find that the news didn't have much more to report in the morning than they had the night before.

Finally by mid afternoon we were informed that 66 homes and 29 buildings had burned down. My mother-in-laws home was not one of them. They had contained the fire about a football fields length away from her front yard. I kept thinking in that moment, am I supposed to feel relieved? Because I was. For her, my heart was so happy and so grateful. But then my thoughts drifted to the other 66 families that lost everything and my heart sank and it has sort of stayed there ever since.

I wish I could take every single one of them in. We are lucky to live in such a wonderful community that so many businesses and people have reached out and have been providing places to stay and food for them to eat. While I'm grateful that no one was hurt and it is only possessions they have lost, I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a home. The one place that I go to feel safe and protected from the world. It makes me want to cry for them.

Just like with my mother-in-law, I feel helpless but I know I shouldn't because I can offer the best kind of help. The help that these families will need more than ever in the coming monthes and that help is prayer. I'm praying that families being effected by fires going on all over the United States right now feel comfort and safety. Communities can do great things. I'm grateful for the fire department and all of their efforts to put out these fires. Their service is our miracle.

all photos from The Idaho State Journal.

 

if it is a perfect 70 degree day outside,

Today I...

// went to visit this ^ handsome man at work on his lunch hour. (definitely my favorite part of the day)
// woke up to a clean house. (so glad I did that yesterday)
// entered to win a Nikon D3100 on GroopDealz here (Iwouldseriouslydieifiwon)
// still can't stop thinking about our upcoming weekend to Bear Lake.
// am looking forward to a picnic dinner tonight at the park!
// am learning how to use my new birthday present, Photoshop Elements!

Today I am a happy girl and I hope you are having a great day too. :)

snow cones on a summer evening

There is nothing better than a snow cone on a hot summer evening. You can imagine my surprise when we showed up to the little local shack only to discover they don't make my favorite flavor, Ocean Pacific. Bum deal. Instead, I had to trust my intuition about what flavors might go into that amazing mixture. It turns out half blue raspberry and half lemon lime was spot on. Mixed those flavors together and I had myself an ocean pacific.

You know what else was great about this summer evening?? Wearing those new blue Toms you see up there ^ and sitting on a grassy hill overlooking the city. Summer evenings are magical.

As for this week, I'll be spending too little time studying and working the dental hygiene board exams and a little too much time anticipating next weekend. We are going on a little romantic getaway to Nic's family cabin in Bear Lake and I can hardly wait. There will be birthday festivities, swimming, card playing, a local restaurant with the most heavenly huckleberry milkshakes you will ever taste, and a little r&r.

Cheers to summer evenings and weekends!

P.S. I took a step up in the social network world and got a Twitter account. Follow 2 Little Love Birds here https://twitter.com/#!/2LillLoveBirds if you wanna! I'll be working on some social networking icons coming soon. Also, leave me a comment if you have one too so I can follow along. Happy Monday! 

Saving

My savings account and I have a love-hate relationship. Love because I have always been a saver and this habit has never let me down. My momma taught me that. When I was in high school my parents never made me get a job during the school year. They wanted me to focus my time and attention on getting good grades and excelling at extracurricular activities, which I did. Then in the summers I would get a job and save every penny I earned. I loved saving it and watching my account grow as I worked hard for it. Here comes the hate part - when you watch that account tank in one fell swoop. A lot of times it can be for just one thing. That is exactly what happened after saving those few years of summer jobs and I paid for my first semester of college. Don't get me wrong, I saved it for exactly that purpose and I have never taken my education for granted because I worked hard for it but it still isn't enough justification to take away that little twinge of disappointment that follows watching the numbers drop to practically nothing with one check and realizing you have to start all over again from the bottom.

Since I've been a college student, the only thing I have ever really saved for in my life is school. Now that Nic and I are both in school, we continue to use our savings towards education but we also decided to save for something else, our first home. And while I love saving for that next step of our lives I also hate saving because that is where that twinge of disappointment creeps back up on me when life happens. For example, needing a new set of tires for a car. $600 for new tires isn't exactly a fun way to spend savings. Another semester of school isn't so fun either.

I've never really gotten the opportunity to save for something fun. Like a trip for example. Nic and I have dreams of going to Italy or on a cruise somewhere tropical but the savings are usually needed elsewhere. I know we are young and have our whole lives to travel but I'm not naive enough to know that there will always be something more important to save for like a house or a baby.

While my relationship with my savings account is partly hate, it is mostly love. It helps take care of Nic and I and provide for our needs which is more than many people in this world can say. For our age, I think we are doing pretty darn good if I say so myself.

But seriously, I'm pretending my savings are taking me here today instead of a new set of tires mmkay! ;)

via

A day at the zoo

I'm about 99.956% sure that we were the only people without little kids in tow at the zoo last weekend but that did not stop us. The Boise Zoo may not be quite as fantastic as lets say, the San Diego Zoo. I don't know though considering I have never been there. But since the last time I have been to the Boise Zoo, they have made some serious renovations and have added so many new animals! 

The butterfly exhibit was amazing! It was probably Brendan's least favorite part and his face when they landed on him speaks for itself. We figured out they must be attracted to white because anyone inside the exhibit who was wearing a white shirt was covered in them. At first, my  mom would freak out whenever they landed on her, and then the longer they stayed the more she eased up. 

They also had a brand new wallaby exhibit and one of them had a baby in its pouch. Cutest thing I've ever seen! Brendan was fixated on seeing the lion until he found it lazy in the shade. I learned that his future plans involve catching/stealing a baby lion and raising it himself. Good luck with that one Bren! My mom's favorite were all the monkeys and Nic's favorite were the penguins!

As for the rest of the experience, I'll let the picture overload speak for itself...

 Biggest bunnies I have EVER seen. 

And naturally they are all huddled around the food bowl.

This little boy marches right up to Brendan out of nowhere announcing that HE wanted to ride the tiger and wanted Brendan to get off. It was too funny!  

 

 

Over the weekend we

Took our second trip to Boise in the last two weeks!

Went to my friend Angelina's Baptism.

Had lunch at TGI Friday's with one of my best friend's Brooke who is leaving in two weeks to serve a mission for our church in Scotland and Ireland. 

Asked our waitress to take our picture and after exclaiming "perfect!", this is what we got. I am telling you that is some serious quality right there. Perfection was definitely the word to use. Lovin' the silhouette look. {which then proceeded with several minutes of laughter}

Followed lunch with some shopping where Bren decided to dress up in everything he saw.  

 Saw Snow White and the Huntsman and had an early birthday dinner at McGrath's Fish House. I love seafood. 

 Had birthday dessert at a new ice cream shop called Yogurtz. Seriously they have at least 20 different flavors and 60 different toppings to choose from. This girl was in heaven. 

 Went to the Boise zoo, it was a blast!
{more on that tomorrow}

 Visited our darling little nieces. 

 Finally said some teary goodbyes and made it home just past dark. 

 Now it is Tuesday and I'm wishing we could just do it all over again!

Hope you all have lovely week!
 xo,

 

the smolder.

When we took a few pictures on our anniversary a couple weeks ago, I learned something new about Nic.
If you have seen the movie Tangled then you know exactly what the smolder is. 

If not, you are about to find out. 

Because you see, Nic has the smolder DOWN.

It looks something like this...

and this...

I realize that I am partial but woah. 

The smolder may not have worked on Rapunzel but it sure works on me.

In fact, he has more than the smolder going for him.

Like the infectious laugh...

and the handsome grin.

Me on the other hand, I don't have it.

yeaaahhh about that,
better go work on my smolder now kbye.