Mercury’s Coffee Co.…I love you!

So…my friend, Megan, told me about Mercury’s a long time ago. Supposedly, their coffee was the BEST. The difficulty was that their locations weren’t super convenient for me. The drive-thru closest to me was the opposite direction from the direction I typically travel, and the one I drove by nearly every day was a walk-in only and I didn’t want the hassle of getting out of the car with my two little guys in tow AND hot coffee.

So, time went by and finally one day I stopped in. It was one of those GLORIOUS days when the kids were at the grandparents house and I had time to myself. I ordered a decaf americano, since I’m trying to reduce the money I spend on coffee these days. She asked if I wanted cream, and I thought, oh how nice, and said “Yeah, that’d be great.” Well…I got back to my car with my hot coffee and it was frothy. My americano with cream was FROTHY??? Why??? How??? What crazy world am I in????? Could she have?….NO…did she?…..OH MY GOSH she DID! She STEAMED the half & half. Not kidding. Steamed it! I took a sip and it was like the heavens opened up and the angels were gathered all around my piping hot frothy beverage singing “haaaaaallelujah”! The fact that she went to the trouble to steam the half & half totally blew me away. I felt so special. And yes, my excitement could have been based partially on the fact that I was without kids, (which pretty much means I danced out of the car like a little fairy, since I was responsible for ONLY myself. I may have been singing a little too), but it was still darned good coffee.

So, next time, I went to the drive-thru instead. Mostly to test this whole steaming thing cause I still really didn’t believe it. Sure enough, she steamed it and actually asked me if I wanted the half & half steamed (like, I guess, some CRAZY people prefer NOT to have it steamed??? What’s wrong with them?). What’s even crazier is that when I said “yes, please” she was SO happy to do it. There was no underlying “geez, this is some high-maintenance crazy lady wanting me to steam her precious half & half.” No. I could actually see the twinkle in her eye as she did it. Like when your Grandma makes you cookies from scratch. It’s a beautiful beautiful thing.

I know I am slightly deranged for being so excited about this, but you NEED to try it. They also give you a free chocolate covered coffee bean, and their espresso beans are shade grown, Fair-Trade, and organic, not to mention incredibly good. So, the walk-in location is in Redmond, across from Whole Foods, and there are drive-thru locations in Woodinville, Fall City, and Redmond by the Albertson’s off of 202. And if you don’t live on the Eastside. Sorry…you are seriously missing out.

Grass and God

Warning: Highly Christian post containing extremely spiritual content.

So, I was driving this morning with my Zune on shuffle and this Nichole Nordeman song came on, called “My Offering”. I’ve heard this song before and to be honest, it wasn’t one of my favorites, but today it struck me, in a major way. Here is the first verse:

If You made me like the grass that is green
Growing tall and covering the hills above me
Maybe I would pray for sunshine and a little rain
To fall now and then to make me lovely
I could be a place where sheep could graze
Or barefoot feet could play
And I would grow and grow and hope
You'd bend down low
To hear me sing my offering

It’s the last few lines that made me bawl…

And I would grow and grow and hope
You'd bend down low
To hear me sing my offering

This is why I was crying… The idea that the God of the universe, in charge of all things, great and small, would bend down low for ME! That Jesus DIED on the cross for ME! What on Earth!!! I’m stunned and amazed and overwhelmed. I sung the rest of the song in complete and utter PRAISE over his amazing love for us.

(Chorus)
Open up the heavens, open up the sky
All of Your creation wants to testify
I have a song, so let the earth sing along
'Cause I just want to praise You

I love praise and worship! LOVE it. Unfortunately I don’t realize what God can do through it every time. Sometimes I’m just singing the words. But today, it was amazing and I felt God’s Spirit fill me.

For you non-Christians out there….let me describe what it’s like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I’m not a poet and not very good with analogies, AT ALL, so bear with me. It’s like if you were a ding-dong and the cream was emptied…ok, no…that doesn’t work. (that’s pretty gross and a little sexual…heh) Ummmmm….it’s like if you puked and then ate something…..UGGGHHH…this is tough. Ok….I got it, it’s like if you were a balloon filled with regular air, then you were deflated and filled with helium that lifted you to the sky. woo hoo….look I’m a poet! I am totally addicted to helium!! haha. To be fully emptied of ourselves and filled again with the Holy Spirit like a river pouring into you like a waterfall. I’m not kidding people, a WATERFALL! Soooo awesome! And He lifts you higher than you could ever imagine. I’m am soooo floating right now.

Oh…and this is how the song ends.

And the sun every morning cannot wait to shine
And the stars every evening are all standing by
to light the sky
Give the rocks and the stones voices of their own
If we forget to sing praises to our King

So, that’s how my morning went. Let’s see how the rest of the day goes. heh.

NOTE: That is Ollie in the picture. hehe. Isn’t he the cutest little button?

Noah and the BANANA

Joe’s mom (the boys call her Amah) sent this story to us after they babysat the boys this week. I love it.

“While in Vancouver, I saw this cute pastry shaped like a banana, and it has big lettering: BANANA on it.  I bought a box of two for Noah and Ollie.

To let Noah practice his alphabet, I said, "Noah, what does it say?"

Noah ran his pointer through the letters, and read without hesitation, "not a hot dog".”

(Joe took this picture by the way. Pretty great, huh?)

Day at the Dentist

I never thought I would say it, but we had a GREAT day at the dentist today. I’m not sure what our dentist has pumping through the air ducts, but WOW, the kids’ LOVED every minute. So, here are some pictures. (the pictures were taken on my phone…just had to add that)

Noah was first up and did very well. Ollie watched the whole time and was eager for his turn.

Ollie was so great! He did everything they told him to do.

How cute is this!!!! Dr. Thomas actually told Noah to stay on the chair and Ollie could put his legs over him. I’m thinking…haha, yeah right, that’s gonna work, but it TOTALLY DID. This is what I mean…something crazy is pumping through the air there. You HAVE to go to this dentist, he is MAGIC!!!

 

Then if that wasn’t enough, they were SOOOO excited to get their toothbrushes, they couldn’t even wait until we got home to open them and start BRUSHING!

This cracked me up. Noah had such a tight grip on, yes, dental floss & toothbrushes. And he’s so serious! haha. I was totally laughing at him. In his mind he’s saying “Mommy, proper oral hygiene is no laughing matter.”

Then we had lunch with Daddy and they got to spend the night at Amah & Yeh Yeh’s (Joe’s parents). All in all, a pretty great day for everyone. Who knew?

Valentine’s Day Chocolate

 

Just heard about a great event taking place this Saturday, February 14th near Union Square in Manhattan, organized by a newly formed network called the Global Giving Circle. They support innovative solutions to alleviate poverty. Cool, huh?

It is a Valentine’s Day chocolate tasting fundraiser benefiting Project Hope & Fairness, an organization which supports African cocoa farmers and their families. The event funds will specifically go towards helping the farmers purchase weighing scales, as well as towards building a well in their village. I’m really excited about this because, of course, I LOVE Project Hope & Fairness, and I really love when people realize the extreme poverty that chocolate farmers are in AND care to do something about it. The poverty is one reason why there is slavery and human trafficking in the chocolate industry. This has to be stopped people!

It sounds like a cool event, so if you are in NYC, please GO! You won’t miss out on your sweet Valentine’s dinner because it’s from 3-5pm in the afternoon. Good planning, Global Giving Circle.

It’s being sponsored by some great chocolatiers, including Seattle’s own Theo Chocolate. To see more sponsors, details, and buy tickets, click here.

So, since Valentine’s Day is coming up, and if this wasn’t enough of a reminder, PLEASE buy fair-trade certified chocolate, or at the very least, organic, to ensure that it is slave-free. If you need some help on which companies are good, (and bad), click here. There is a list at the bottom of the post. (Keep in mind, the list is not all inclusive.)

But why, Mrs. Meyer?

So, I never thought the day would come when a dishwasher detergent would cause me emotional heartache (or even make it onto my blog). But the day has come and I can probably call myself a full-fledged homemaker now. (ugh…let’s not actually call me that, okay?)

Yesterday, Joe went out to buy more of my lovely, wonderful Mrs. Meyer’s Dishwashing Powder. It took me many brands before I landed on this brilliant product. The problem with the other brands was either all the sippy cups would smell like nasty fake citrus, or there would be detergent residue and speckles on the dishes. Seriously, every time I opened the dishwasher, you would hear a loud, disappointed sigh, or sometimes even an “aaaargh.” Then, Mrs. Meyer’s saved the day. Her dishwashing powder gave me beautifully clean dishes with no residue or nasty smell. In fact, the smell as I put it in the dishwasher ACTUALLY made me happy. (which is amazing, given that I was doing DISHES…ha)

Sadly, Joe returned from his trip yesterday without my precious dishwashing powder after going to THREE different stores! I went online to see if I could order it, and OH NO!!! It’s not there! But WHY, MRS. MEYER????!!!!!!!  I almost cried. Why would you discontinue this wondrous product? So, my question is…now what do I do? My dishwasher needs powder and not liquid. Oh so sad.

Anybody have a good recommendation for a environmentally safe but efficient and sweet smelling dishwashing powder? PLEEEEASE?

New Look

Okay…after several days of searching through pretty much EVERY blogger template known to man…I have settled on NONE. I am going with the standard blogger template and its’ limited customizability (do you like that word? nice, huh? I know I am brilliant…and I’m sure I got that apostrophe in the right place too). I downloaded about a dozen templates which caused me to feel every emotion you can think of (delight which quickly turned into rage), so now I’m exhausted…and my super picky perfectionism is just going to have to deal.

Although, I realize the current option could cause some trouble. I understand that the picture of my eyes STARING UPON YOU as you read my thoughts may be slightly annoying and/or terrifying, perhaps. I’m sorry. For now, it is staying. Ofcourse, tomorrow it may change. If it causes a major problem and you find yourself having nightmares of “the squint”, then please let me know and we’ll see what we can do.