The Musings of Mireya Browning

I’ve been MIA for a few days.  We’ve been taking care of the house and grounds as is inevitable for all homeowners.  We’re staining our fence, powerwashing the outside and patio, organizing our garage, painting and a few minor miscellaneous stuff.  Our little girl is so helpful.  She noticed me staining the fence and helped herself to a new paint brush and brushed along side me.  She also likes to help water the lawn and tomatoe plants.  I can’t describe or say enough about how cute she is.  Children really are a lot of fun.  She also likes to help me clean my floors.  I like to disenfect my floors every week, and I don’t use a mop.  It cleans up better with a little elbow grease.  Anyway, she gets down on the floor with me, on her hands and knees and scrubs.  Oh, and when I vacuum she follows me holding the cord, being careful not to tangle it.  I love my helpy helperton.

In honor of the day we are going to have our dear friends, the Bickhams over for a Browning BBQ dinner.  Our BBQ staples are potato salad, baked beans, chicken kabobs, carne asada or steak and apple pie for dessert.

We had a nice time with them and their children.  They are expecting another baby and we are elated for them.

After enjoying our meal and fun conversation, we watched Fool’s Gold with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.  It was a fun movie sans the nudity.

What better way to begin the summer season, than with friends, good food and fellowship.  Happy Summer.

In our home, Dan is the dental hygiene nazi. Everyone under the Browning roof must get their teeth cleaned at least twice a year, must floss twice a day and brush after every meal.  Dan prides himself on his good report from the dentist. Everyone must submit, even our little bundle of joy.  Our little girl has had to live by this law since she was 18 months.

We have been teaching her about dental hygiene.  She mostly learns from observing, so there wasn’t much to teach.  But before we began flossing her teeth I wanted to expose her to it first. I let her play with a 10 inch piece of floss.  She immediately knew what to do with it and she would thread it between her side teeth.  I must share that our little girl is the cutest,  not only does she like to floss but she also likes to pull her socks off and floss her toes.  It is so adorable.

I love where we live in the suberbs but I could see myself as a farmers wife.  Dan would like to move to the country someday and I would love to have cows, chickens and goats.  I don’t think we’re going anywhere soon.  Until we can afford acreage, I’m gonna have whatever country I can in my 20 by 15 foot back yard.  Thanks to my retired forester father-in-law, I have three tomatoes plants in the back yard.  Our tomatoes last year did really well.  We hope this will be another plentiful season.

I think farm life would be fun.  Raising farm animals, making meals from scratch with fresh ingredients from our garden.  No traffic, no smog and no rat race.  I could make our kids work to earn their keep.  There are a lot of benefits to raising a family on a farm. Although, I would have to sacrifice shopping, fast internet, local cuisine and things to do that only cities can offer.   Ugh, I don’t think I could live without fast internet. Maybe I wouldn’t be a very good farmer’s wife.

So we tried out Vancouver’s first Sonic restaurant.  We wanted to know what the hubbub was all about.   So we waited 45 minutes behind 15 cars to try the new fair.  People were everywhere.  It was madness, one would think the world was coming to an end and Sonic was the last food establishment.

Before arriving at the restaurant we had two choices to enjoy our meal.  One line of cars was for drive through ordering and the other, the most coveted, the drive-in. This being our first time we wanted to enjoy the experience to the fullest.  When we finally arrived, we parked in our spot, taking it all in we pushed the button to place our order of sonic cheeseburgers, tater tots, an oreo sonic blast and a hot fudge sundae.

To be kind and truthful the food held the same quality as McDonalds.  To say the least it was warm but an American meal it was not.  There were all kinds of pieces put together that someone might a hamburger.  I’m ashamed that so many people settle for such poor quality. Anyway, we’re not going back.

A few days later we visited another chain of restaurants newly opened on 164th.  Pollo Loco and South of the Border.  The only difference in the two is price.  Both provide the same terrible excuse for Mexican food, only one charges more for atmosphere and the other charges less.  I would put the two in the same category for taste as Taco Bell.  I don’t under stand people.  So misled. Food is better than this.  Every time we drive by Sonic with droves of people in line, I feel sad they don’t know better.  Making a delicious meal is so easy and economical.  It only takes a little effort and maybe some creativity.  People really should be eating out less.  There is great value in make a meal with your own hands.

I’m a meat and potatoes kinda girl.  I love a good steak or hamburger.  My favorite steaks are made by this really hot guy that I live with.  They are amazing.  He may be a technorati but the man can grill.  He’s a genius god with a grill.  Newport Bay makes an amazing guacamole burger.  I’ve also heard Portland City Grill makes a mean burger.  I may have to try it out.

Maybe I should open a fast food restraunt that actually sells food.  And the food will not only provide nutrition but will also be a pleasure to eat.

My husbands oldest brother, the last bachelor from the Browning clan has finally tied the knot.

It was held in my in-law’s back yard.  The weather was perfect. Congratulations to David and Mellisa Browning.

Weddings are a beautiful thing.  Especially when God is invited.  Today’s society has really misconstrued what God created.  Spiritually, marriage is more than feelings of love.  It’s a real commitment.  A covenant with God.  It doesn’t matter what people think or want.  It’s just you and God.  Marriage is a serious business.

On the superficial side, there is the planning.   And the planning all in all equals money.  Now, this is my own personal opinion.  But can you think of anything more wasteful than a $30k wedding?  Or even a $3k wedding?  You could get a down payment on a house, an education or really sweet computer lab for LAN gaming and fast internet shopping.  But seriously, you only need two things to have a wedding; a licensed pastor and two witnesses. The planning of flowers, decorations, location, and all the minute details that one would think makes or breaks the happiest day of their life, is lavish, unnecessary and useless.  A couple will be no less married or live in wedded bliss without these things.  Weddings are so overrated.  Girls who dream up this stuff from when they are nine are… silly.  Maybe it just doesn’t make sense to me.  As far as the planning is concerned make sure the pastor and groom are present.  Trust me, nothing else matters.  Not the dress, not the food or even the lingerie.  Am I right guys?  But what I do think matters most is the kind of man you are marrying and who you are making this covenant to.  The Creator of life and marriage.

It’s common for most couples to invest more time and especially money in preparation of the wedding day than the days after.  I feel bad for the couples who conjure up fluffy feelings and money for the wedding day only to live a few years as husband and wife.  IMHO, it would be worth more to invest whatever resources in each other in learning how to love and bless one another with marriage conferences, books and weekends away.

And another thing, a location doesn’t make a honeymoon.  It’s who your with.  You could be in the most beautiful tropical beach and still not have a good time with your spouse.  And then you could be on a rainy Oregon beach and have the best time ever.  It’s the company that matters.  Which reminds me, I have the best friend, husband and father for my children in the whole world.

No, not really.  More like sparkling cider.  We celebrated our ninth year anniversary with quality time together.

Dan took the day off and spoiled me with shopping and fine dining.   The shopping on 23rd is so great.  I love this boutique Sloane a block east from Papa Haydns, which is were we had lunch.  We had a simple meal of french onion soup, halibut cheeks and asparagus.  We meant to treat ourselves to one of their famous desserts but before shopping at SOHO boutique we had maple bars and coffee at the Bernhard bakery.

After lunch we did more shopping.  The weather was sunny and warm.  After two weeks of rain, the sun break came just in time for us.  The streets bustled with people of all kinds and a few weird Portland natives.

Once our daughter had her nap we dropped her off at her babysitters.  We had talked about what we would do with the three hours of independence but nothing felt right enough to decide just yet, so we resolved to play it by ear.  We so love our little girl but it was nice to share some quality time alone, just like before.  The day was so lovely we held hands and went for a walk near the LaCamas golf course.

On our walk, Dan noticed a freshly picked flower carefully placed in a branch above our head.  How it got there and by whom, we don’t know, but I like to think because of the perfect timing and moment, it was a simple momento from God.  He is so good.

“Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king.” Esther 2:12-13a

A years worth of pampering would be so awesome.  Although I don’t really care for the scent of myrrh.  I’m seeing my hair stylist at Dosha today and my aesthetician. YAY! Our ninth year anniversary is tomorrow and I wanna get myself all prettied up for my date.

I can’t believe we’re old enough to almost have a decade of marriage under our belt.  We met at 14 and it was love at first sight. It’s been fun.  Dan is my best friend. I think we have a pretty good thing going on.  After all this time, he still makes me laugh and swoon.

So I’ve decided to post more frequently.  That means I will be posting more mundane events and blah blah blah blah blah.  I’m boring myself just thinking about it.  I’m no writer and I don’t do anything particularly exciting so here it goes.

A friend from church and I just finished hosting a tea party for the church ladies this past Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.   The planning was fun, the cooking too but the most rewarding was the serving.  I enjoyed waiting on them and making sure they were enjoying themselves.  The food was fantastic.  From the lemon curd to the chocolate mousse.  I made the  chocolate mousse and cucumber sandwiches. I hope to plan another tea party soon.  Maybe this time it will be a father-daughter tea.  My husband would love that.

Our (Dan and I) love for afternoon tea or high tea began when we visited the Empress Hotel in Victoria Canada.  Politics aside, I love Victoria.  It’s beautiful and romantic.  Where you stay and what you see makes the difference in your visit.  So I wouldn’t recommend visiting on the cheap.  Camping would be out of the question but rather get a reservation at a nice Bed and breakfast or stay at the Empress.  Anyway, afternoon tea.  We made our reservation for 1:00.   We enjoyed 8 pots of empress tea and the full course of the delicacies they offered.  We were so captivated by our conversation, atmosphere and tea that we hadn’t even noticed two hours had gone by.  So needless to say we had a great time and hope to visit again. If anyone is interested I would be happy to make some recommendations if you ever plan to visit Victoria.

Oh and another thing.  I forgot to mention that prostitution and maryjane is legal there so I would avoid any night time excursions.   But yeah, other than that Victoria is great.