Wondering how to make a bad day even worse?

Step one:  Decide to go to the mall

Step two:  Make sure it's on one of the busiest days of the year, when it will be a sure bet that all the good parking spots will be gone and there will be lots of screaming kids.


Step three:  Make sure a seagull poops on you right before you head in the door.

Family Christmas Celebrations

In Spokane:

Isn't my nephew ADORABLE?!

In Centralia:

Christmas Events

This year we planned ahead and made it to a few Christmas events that we've wanted to see for years!

We celebrated our sixth anniversary at The Nutcracker (the small local production in Bellingham), and continued celebrating the following week at Handel's Messiah.

We also visited Zoo Lights in Tacoma with Matt and Chelsea.

 
So fun!

Christmas Present Projects

 This year, instead of spending a lot of money buying Christmas presents for family, we talked through it ahead of time and agreed to cut back.  We don't need a bunch of "stuff" now that we're older, and we wanted Christmas to be about being together and enjoying one another's company instead of all the presents.  We set a price limit, and either made gifts or found them for cheap.  We did this with both sides of our family and it worked out GREAT!  It was fun to make gifts instead of spending a bunch of time at the mall, and receiving gifts was really meaningful because of the time and energy put into them.  Here are a few items I made this year:

Sundae Sauce with Toppings

Homemade Cards and Tags

Mulling Spices for cider and tea

An magnetic activity advent calendar mounted on decorative tin

Festive clothespins for holding Christmas cards

Homemade pillows (Thanks for all the help, mom!)

If you have two sides of the family to buy for, or even have a big family with mostly adults, we highly recommend doing Christmas this way.  On my side, we still bought presents for our nephews, but cut way back on purchases for the adults.  It turned out to be a very cheap, yet very meaningful, holiday!

23 Days Until Christmas!

Taylor and I spent last Sunday decorating for Christmas.  After six years of doing this I feel like we finally had a successful operation!  This year, instead of going to a tree farm in Bellingham minutes after they close, leading to us hurriedly stumbling around in the dark trying to feel our way to the perfect tree, and then me forcing Taylor to shove his nose to the ground and chop it down with our blunt saw, and of course forgetting twine to tie it to the top of the car so instead deciding to shove it inside the backseat leading to a sappy mess everywhere, we cut down a tree in Centralia and lugged it all the way up the I-5 corridor.  Much better!  Also, we have a holly tree across the street in the empty lot, and every year I cut a bunch and make a wreath to go around the advent candles on the dining room table.  If you've ever tried to make a wreath out of pokey holly you would probably never do it again.  Not me.  Every year I stuck it out and made that darn wreath because it was so Christmas-y.  This year, I have an unfinished puzzle on my table (yes, this is still the same puzzle from before Halloween).  Since there is no room on the table I bagged the idea of making a wreath and instead just put sprigs of holly all over my house in random places.  Genius!  It took all of five minutes and my fingers are oh so thankful!

Challenge Accomplished

Well, it's been a REALLY long time since I've posted, partly because I've had my nose stuck in four huge novels this last month and partly because life has been extremely normal!  As a follow up to my previous post though you all should know that I did it- I successfully accomplished my goal and read books 4, 5, 6 and half of 7 before Thanksgiving break.....and still haven't seen the movie.  I know, I know- that was the whole point of the challenge!  Instead of going to a movie over break though, I decided to spend my time with my in laws and invest in actual relationships.  I don't regret my choice one bit (we got in a few extra rounds of Hand and Foot and a nice football walk Friday afternoon), but I am really ready to see this movie.  I finished the rest of 7 last night, closed my book, and let myself be sad for just a little bit.  It sure is tough to end a good series.  Here's goodbye to peeking in on the trials and triumphs of the characters in Harry Potter.

Harry Potter Challenge

If you had told me I would be writing this six years ago I would've called you Crazy with a capital C, but here it goes..... I LOVE the Harry Potter series!  I realize that there is MAJOR controversy surrounding these works, but if you can get beyond all of the "darkness" and see what a literary genius J K Rowling is, you will be in for some extremely fun and engaging reads.  Her character and plot development blows my mind, and I honestly can't figure out how she made each book better than the last.  There is not another series out there that has kept me captivated through seven novels.  If you are a HP skeptic, you should at least give the first book a try.  It's only 309 pages (and this includes large fonts, big margins, and even a few pictures!), and if you aren't converted, it's only a couple of hours wasted.

Anyhoo, the point of this post.  I have set a Harry Potter challenge for myself....  Back in the spring I began re-reading through the series for a third time, and made it through book three before I took what I thought would be a short break.  This last weekend though, I frighteningly realized that the 1st installment of the 7th movie comes out November 19th, and I had planned on reading through book six before it opened.  Yikes!  I immediately set a goal- to read books 4, 5, and 6 by Black Friday.  Yes, that is 734 pgs + 896 pgs + 652 pgs for a whopping total of = 2282 pgs in less than 4 weeks.  I aim to prevail though, because really, what could be better than spending Black Friday morning out with all the crazy shoppers and Black Friday afternoon entertaining myself with the epic end to this series?!?!?

 

Harvest Party 2010

Last weekend we hosted our sixth annual harvest party, although not much pumpkin carving took place.  After filling our tummies with chicken chili, champagne, and donuts, most of us decided that doing a puzzle and playing a game sounded much better than cleaning out pumpkin guts.  Here's to getting old!

Little Kyah was the best dressed- complete with a pumpkin hat that unfortunately didn't make the picture.

Mission Accomplished!

Last Sunday Taylor and I ran the Bellingham Bay 1/2 marathon. We trained for 3 months, carbed up the night before, and then ran for almost 2 hours. This was a HUGE deal for Taylor. Three months ago he would not have thought of himself as a runner. I'm so proud of my hubby!

Here are some highlights from the race:

1. Doing a downhill dance every time there was a noticeable downhill (which wasn't very often at all....good thing we didn't do uphill dances, we would have been REALLY tired!)

2. Being surprised by the Terps at mile 8 (with such fun signs), the Bowkers at mile 12.5, and lots of students along the way.

3. Witnessing incredible drive and determination from runners along the hill at mile 12.

4. Getting to tell Taylor at mile 10 that every step he took from that point on would be the longest he had ever run.

5. Taking it easy the first few miles of the race so that we had enough energy to pass people for the last 8 miles:).

After the race I asked Taylor if he enjoyed the shared experience of meeting goals, pushing through pain, and running alongside other people who had put in the long hours of training that he had. He replied that he just liked passing people.

To each his own!

Pre-Race photos

Taylor's hamstring really hurt the first two miles of the race....could be because he spent his stretching time doing this:

Sometime mid race

Also, I'm happy to announce that I have helped to inspire the inner runner in Taylor! He is not stopping- in two weeks we will begin an 8 week training program geared towards running a fast 5K. This will probably be a big challenge, because he doesn't really like doing workouts:)

Winding Down...

Well, this is it. My last night of summer. This one statement holds so many emotions. In less than 10 hours I will get to meet my new students and hug my old ones. I will have the privilege of working alongside my staff to create a supportive and welcoming learning environment for the families of B.C.S. I will get to sharpen my first pencils of the year, write out the day's schedule on the white board, and walk down hallways filled with anticipation and excitement. But....

Although I am extremely excited to start the new year, I am also a little bit sad that my days of freedom and creativity are ending. This summer has been such a blessing, and a big part of me is sorry to see it go. I am SO thankful for the time I had to slow down, finish projects, connect with friends, and spend time at home. So, as a tribute to moving on, to going back to work and a schedule, I wanted to take time to reflect on what I loved most about my summer and praise God for the time He gave me to rest.

Things I loved and will miss...

• sleeping in
• reading and tanning in the sunshine
• eating breakfast and doing my quiet time at the same time, for as long as I wanted
• running with Taylor and cuddling with Toby
• visiting and spending good time with friends
• picking fruit and canning for the first time
• shopping garage sales the whole summer
• finishing so many projects
• seeing family
• spending quality time with Taylor on the East Coast
• meeting and photographing new brides and grooms
• hiking the Tatoosh Ridge with friends

Thank you God for such a glorious summer!

The Art of Working the System

I absolutely love a good deal...I would say that finding a good deal gives me more of an adrenaline rush than finishing a race. Now finding a FREE deal- we're talking about heart attack quantities of adrenaline. Check out this picture. Every bag of cheese you see here was FREE NINETY NINE! You too can score this deal! Here's how to do it-

1. Click here to download two of these $5 off coupons
2. Go to Albertson's and purchase 5 bags or bricks of 8 oz cheese at 2 for $4- I'm not sure when this deal expires...
3. Use the coupon when you purchase the cheese to get $5 off $10 of cheese
4. Now, Albertson's has a killer deal going right now where if you purchase 5 Kraft products you will get a $5 off your next purchase coupon after paying.
5. Go back and "purchase" 5 more bags or bricks of cheese, use the $5 Kraft coupon and also use the Albertson's $5 coupon to pay $0 for this round of cheese.
6. After purchasing this time around you will get another $5 Albertson's coupon which is free money on your next visit, basically rendering all this cheese FREE!
7. This is a LOT of cheese! I'm throwing it all in the freezer to use for recipes later this winter. It should freeze OK (I know people who do this and the cheese defrosts just fine), but if it doesn't it's OK because most of my recipes will involve melting the cheese anyways.

I found this deal on http://www.couponconnectionsnw.com -they do all the work to help you save big money!

The Case of the Missing Tent

Last week, our tent went missing from our backyard. It seemed strange that someone would steal a tent from our super safe neighborhood at 10 am in the morning.....

Taylor bought this tent for me our first Christmas together. We had only been dating 3 months, and it was a gift that won my heart over! He set it up in his tiny apartment room and we sat in it and listened to a c.d. that he had personally recorded for me. From that moment on, we used that tent on every backpacking trip we took together. We loved that tent. It was simple to set up, and pretty lightweight. And then it went missing.

We made every effort to get that tent back. We filed a police report. We walked up and down our alley looking for that tent. We went on a few "Operation Find Our Tent" runs to see if someone had sneakily put it up in their backyard at night. We missed our little tent.

And then, lo and behold, while typing away on my NCY blogpost I heard a knock on the door. "Who could it be?" I wondered aloud to my cat. None other than a neighbor, who reads the police report section of the paper because SHE'S AWESOME, and found out that we were the couple missing the tent. Apparently, since Taylor didn't stake it down when he aired it out the day after our trip, it blew WAY up the street. She figured she would find out who it belonged to sooner or later.

Case closed!

New York City: I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!!!

It's been over a month since our trip, but I've been busy and haven't had time to post. So here it is, just a wee bit late.

After Boston we took a quick bus ride to NYC for four of the greatest days of my life. Now, my opinion may be biased because I was a tourist during the most wonderful part of the summer, but I do believe that NYC is the greatest city in the world. Taylor mocks me for saying this, but I stand my ground because that city is awesome and it has something to offer everyone! I loved that there were people everywhere, all the time; I loved that I felt extremely safe; I loved that the city was so light at night; I loved the pace, the culture, the architecture, the mood. Loved it all.

During our super short stay we ended up spending most of our time between Lower and Midtown Manhattan, and since we had City Passes we ended up doing A LOT of activities to get our money's worth. Our hotel was one block away from Central Park and about 10 blocks away from Times Square, so we walked EVERYWHERE! We spent time Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and NBC studios (where we tried really hard for two days in a row to get standby tickets to Jimmy Fallon but sadly failed). We took a boat tour around Manhattan, went on a walking tour of the Financial District, and spent a moving morning at Ground Zero. We saw Phantom of the Opera, rode bikes around Central Park, toured the Brooklyn Bridge, and hit up some museums and 5th avenue. And we visited lots of other places along the way. We crammed it in- and were completely exhausted every night when we fell asleep and then again when we woke up in the morning, but it was worth it. New York is amazing, and we didn't waste a single second!

I will go back- that's a promise!

Central Park

From the top of the Empire State Building

Taylor was in heaven with all the photo opportunities.

Before Phantom. P.S. This was my favorite part of the trip!

Times Square at about 7:30 in the morning

Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade

Pardon the blurry photo- apparently I took it in night mode:) Taylor celebrated his 30th birthday in the city. We partied all day long!