spring break

This past week I have had a wonderful time off work in honor of spring break and Easter.  I think every work place should offer a spring break...a time for renewal and recreation as the seasons change.  I'm glad I didn't travel anywhere, so I could explore my neighborhood more and hang out with friends and family.

I took a bike ride to one of my new favorite places, Volunteer Park, and went into their Conservatory (it's only open during the day, so while I do walk to Volunteer Park quite a bit, it's usually in the evenings and I miss the Conservatory).

There's an orchid room, a cactus room, and a fern room.

And then there's the seasonal room, which rotates five times a year.

I so enjoyed seeing it full of all colors of hydrangeas (my favorite flower and not officially blooming til summer) and easter lilies.

Here is a view of the sunset from the top of the water tower at the other end of Volunteer Park.

I spent a lot of time with my friends Kara and Brandon (they're the ones who had the wedding on the farm last summer).  We went to a Good Friday service at St. Mark's Cathedral, which is a magnificent Episcopal church up a hill about a 15 minute walk from my apartment.  They have a big backyard we like to eat in.

I also went to a Mariners game with my friend Alana.  This night was a rare win for them, and it was a great game to be at with lots of action--15 hits.  We sat in the best seats I've ever had, on the bottom level near first base.

Alana and I went to Ben & Jerry's free cone day with my mom.

Mylee is now living at home with her best buds, Ali and Silas, while Holly finishes at PLU and packs up her apartment.

We had a nice Easter, going to church and the brunch there.  My mom and I played the bells at both services.  We went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner :)

Also this week I baked muffins and an apple pie, visited my mom and her special ed students at school, had lunch with a friend, went for a lot of walks when we had sunshine, ate at the Melting Pot and went shopping with Holly, and joined my mom and dad to pick up a new Miata.

This Thursday, my dad and Michael and I leave for our mission trip in Ensenada, Mexico.  We'll be going with 25 other folks to build two houses.

wall art + springtime

At Christmas I received a framed piece of art from Holly that has all the neighborhoods of Chicago graphically represented.

That inspired me to frame four old maps I have, and my dad found a print of Pike Place Market in our garage that he gave me.

So now my apartment has art on the walls, which really brightens it up!

As for the springtime part, it hasn't been all that sunny or warm lately, but I've still made it outside in between rain showers.

I went for a walk around my neighborhood and took pictures of what's blooming.

It's fun to explore and watch the seasons change in a new neighborhood!

Today my parents and Holly and I went to the Burke Museum on the UW campus to see a photography exhibit called The Owl and the Woodpecker.  Paul Bannick, the photographer, specializes in birds of North America, and his shots of a wide variety of birds are stunning.  You can see a slideshow of his work here.

We walked around the UW campus to their quad, where the cherry trees are full of blossoms.  Dad, Holly, and Mom are in the photo below if you look closely.

I can't believe in the almost 20 years we've lived here, this was my first time seeing this spring spectacle!  There are many other species of cherry trees on the campus that haven't even started blooming yet.  The place was crawling with people, taking pictures and picnic-ing and climbing up in the branches.

happy twenty-eleven

As we start this new year, I thought I'd share pictures from my new apartment, which after paying a couple months' rent, getting a leaky gas valve replaced, and putting all my things away, I am finally feeling settled.

This photo was taken at night but shows the table I found at Goodwill and refurbished with my dad.  The wood chair I also found at Goodwill.  The two wood bookshelves and the blue arm chair are from craigslist.

My dad built me a fabulous bed that doubles as a couch during the day.  It also triples as storage with the cabinets across the back that flip up.  At night I just wheel out the mattress.

Here's a shot of it with my bedding (bird pillows handmade by my great-grandmother Gigi!) and poinsettia (a gift from my school):

This is my closet, which is actually quite large with a good amount of storage space.  I found the dresser and the five drawer chest on the right both on craigslist.  Nearly everything I bought is originally from Ikea, but I just got it at Goodwill or from another person :)

I don't have a picture of my kitchen or bathroom with things in them, so I'll try to take those in the daylight and post them next time.  I also have some artwork to put up on the walls, so I'll take a picture of those once they're up.

Here's a random picture for you...my dad and Mike putting up the Christmas lights:

We've been having gorgeous sunny weather (although really cold) this past week or so, and my mom and Holly came over to visit me one day.  We took a walk around my neighborhood to nearby park, which has an old water tower you can climb.  We had a 360 degree view of the area.  Here's a shot of Mt. Rainier:

And here's one looking east to the 520 floating bridge, Kirkland, and the Cascades:

In early December, I got a new car!  My dad has been looking on craigslist forever, and right around the time Michael got his driver's license, he found this 2004 VW Golf.  Pretty much the same as the '98--still a stickshift--but newer and blue!  The family had to sell it because they are moving to Holland, but they've been the only owners, it has low mileage, great condition, and great price.  I absolutely love it:

One last exciting piece of news is that Holly and I are going to Washington, DC for a week in February! We're going to see two of my friends from LVC, the Uncs George and Michael, and as many monuments and museums that our time and the weather allow.  Also our Senator Patty Murray gave us tickets to go on a White House tour, so here's to hoping that we spot some or all of the Obamas :)  I'm so looking forward to traveling...it's been too long.

I wish you all a happy new year!

snow-motion rules the day

I lifted this headline from this morning's edition of The Seattle Times...because it's so true!  Life slows down quite a bit here with any snow, as explained in this article.  Several inches fell Monday, and temperatures have been so cold (low 20's) that it hasn't melted yet, which is quite unusual for us.  My school had an early release on Monday, and then no school yesterday or today due to the slick, icy, snow-covered road conditions, since just about everyone lives on or near a hill around here.

Monday night I decided to stop my commute in Kirkland rather than drive to my apartment in Seattle, and it's a good thing I did, because it took some people 4-10 hours to get home Monday.  My dad left his office at 5:30pm and didn't get home til nearly 10:30.  His bus was stuck in the middle of 520, the floating bridge crossing Lake Washington, because another bus was blocking the upper part of the bridge with barely enough room to let cars pass.  So he got off his bus, walked to the next exit, and hung out in a gas station while I drove through Bellevue to pick him up.  The streets were empty of cars, but full of snow, and as long as I kept moving I was fine.

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day, although very cold.  Mike was out sledding with friends, so Mom and Dad and I walked down to our local Starbucks to use our "free birthday drink" certificates since our birthdays are all so close.  We could choose any drink, so my mom got a venti for the very first time.

Since it was so cold, I decided to break out my big blue down jacket from Chicago for our walk.

It has quite the hood.

When we walked by our local grocery store, Metropolitan Market, their outside display of "winter squash" was living up to its name.

And we felt sorry for these succulents that were a little out of their element.

This snow storm takes us right up to Thanksgiving break tomorrow and Friday!  We are having dinner just the 5 of us, and rather than cooking, my mom has ordered up our meal from Metropolitan Market.  She was originally thinking of us going to a restaurant, but getting it from this gourmet grocery store means we can have leftovers :)

A blessed Thanksgiving to all!

studio for rent

I am very excited to announce that I found a studio to rent in Seattle!  It's in an old brick apartment building on a tree-lined street, part of the north Capitol Hill neighborhood (just south of the University of Washington).  The building is on a quiet street next to a couple of parks and close to the 520 freeway, which is the one I use to commute to work.

The studio is definitely on the small side, since it doesn't have a separate bedroom area like a 1-bedroom apartment would.  But I don't mind because I'm just happy to have my own space!  The lease is for 9 months and I have the option of moving to another perhaps bigger apartment in the building if one opens up.

In my studio, there is a good-sized bathroom with a clawfoot tub and shower.  The kitchen has a big window, built-in shelving, and a gas stove, which is something I miss from Chicago.  There are three big windows that face north and a large closet.  It is full of character, with hardwood floors and molding.

I'm going back over to sign the lease this week, which I imagine will start Nov. 1--a great day for it since that's my birthday!  I don't know exactly when I'll be moving in, but I'll keep you posted and hopefully get some pictures of it up too.

Last weekend, I made a trip to Goodwill to look for my Halloween costume (which I did find...we get to dress up at school, and the kids have a theme this year of "who's your hero," so I picked Jane Goodall.  I settled on a pair of linen pants and a linen button-up shirt, both khaki colored, for a kind of jungle theme, along with a monkey stuffed animal or two from our collection.  I'd still like to find a safari-type hat to complete the outfit.)

But back to my Goodwill trip, which was wildly successful.  Every time I shop at Goodwill, I think "I should do this more often!"  I found a pair of pants for work, two blouses, a long coat, two nesting Pyrex casserole dishes, two other smaller dishes, a couple of glass bowls for the kittens' water dishes, a plastic Star Wars plate for Mike, and an old-fashioned school desk.  Plus I had a 20% off coupon, so I really got a steal of a deal on all that!

The desk is what I am really excited about.  It has metal legs, a pinewood top, and two cubbies underneath, like two students used to sit side-by-side.  When I first saw it, I thought, "well it just needs a little sanding and a new coat of varnish."  It has actually turned into a little bit more of a project than that!  I power-sanded the top, then realized some of the boards were loose.  So dad removed them (and in the process dismantled the rest of the desk) so that he could then use pegs and glue to put them back together more securely.  Today I put three coats of sealer on the top and washed and sanded the metal legs.  I still have to spray paint those, then my dad will put it all back together.  The finished product will be just the right size for my studio, so the labor of love is worth it!  This photo shows the table top getting clamped and the legs and cubby part over to the right.

In other news, the kittens continue to grow bigger.  They occasionally scratch us and constantly entertain us.  My dad built a "cat tree" from scrap wood and scrap carpet, complete with scratching areas and a rope dangling a toy.  They absolutely love it.  Both are lap cats (Silas is on mine right now) and like to curl up with us when we watch our shows or read or sit at the computer.

We have been having gorgeous fall weather, cool but clear and sunny.  Yesterday I met up with a friend from PLU who still lives in Tacoma but who I don't get to see that often.  We went shopping downtown, walked through Pike Place Market, and tried new flavors of piroshkies (delicious little Russian snacks, basically dough with different fillings--I had a potato, onion, and mushroom).  Then I went with my friend Alana to her parents' house on Camano Island for dinner.  Her parents just got back from a trip to Italy where her mom had taken a cooking class, so she homemade us the ravioli recipe she learned in Tuscany.

This upcoming week I am housesitting for a family from school who lives out in Duvall, which is a cute little town east of Redmond.  They have a sweet golden retriever hunting dog who is super well-behaved.  Then next weekend when Holly is home, I hope to do a little shopping for my new studio!

ps, my mom wants me to post a picture of Michael and his friend Jordan from their Homecoming dance last night.  Mike rented his tux, they ate at The Rainforest Cafe, and it sounds like they had a great time with their group:

a wedding and two kittens

First with the big news...we adopted two kittens over the weekend!  An article ran in our Kirkland Reporter newspaper on Friday on our local cat shelter having an over abundance of kittens brought in, complete with a front page photo of an adorable kitten.  So the next thing I know, we're walking down to the shelter (quite close to our house, just a few blocks) to "look" at the cats there.  Sure enough, the place is overflowing with cats, in cages and two "free-range" rooms (if they can get along with others).  Although I must say, the Meow Shelter is very well organized, very clean, all the cats have a bed and a litter box, and they have a good policy that when kittens are brought in, first they get fostered to get "socialized" before they are put up for adoption.  We briefly considered fostering, but then you know there's that giving-the-kittens-back part that sounded kind of hard.  If adopting kittens, they require you adopt two, so we settled on a brother and a sister who are full of personality:

Silas the brother is the gray one and Zoe the sister is the black one.  They love playing and wrestling together, and sleeping together too.  They're both lap cats...Silas was sitting on my lap while I was working on my computer, and then he decided to stretch out:

They are just so tiny and so stinkin' cute!  Easy to pick up with one hand too, and both of them don't mind being held.

Also this weekend, I went to the Mariners' game with my friend Alana.  They aren't doing too well this season, but we love going to games plus it was fleece-blanket giveaway night!  Here's us visiting the Moose (by the way, one of my co-workers is the Mariner Moose's girlfriend :)

On Sunday we took a hike near Mt. Rainier to Mowich Lake.  It started off well for all of us, but then I got stung by a bee on my leg.  That hasn't happened in forever!  I'm kind of sensitive to bug bites, so it swelled up and hurt pretty bad, so my mom and I turned back to go to the first aid kit in the car while Dad, Mike, Holly, and Dustin went on.  When we met up again later, both Holly and Mike had gotten stung too!  Not quite sure why bees were out since it was fairly cold and rainy, but what luck for all three of us.  Here's me crossing a creek with my bee sting:

So two weekends ago I went to the wedding of my friends Kara and Brandon.  I met them through Lutheran Volunteer Corps, and now they live in Seattle.  They got married on Kara's family farm in Carnation, a small town about a half hour east of us, out in the countryside by the Snoqualmie River.

They had the ceremony under a large oak tree (which provided shade!), with all the colorful flowers from a neighboring flower farm.  They put them in old-fashioned mason jars:

After the ceremony, we each carried our folding chair over to the tables under the big tent.  While the wedding party took pictures, we could walk around the farm, drink lavender lemonade and sun tea, or pick blackberries from the bushes growing along the perimeter.  My friend Juliana (whom I also met in Chicago from Lutheran Volunteer Corps) flew out from Washington, DC to stay with me.  Here we are with our bounty:

Putting on the wedding was a community affair, with many of the bride and groom's family and friends contributing everything from food to decorations to painting signs to giving a hay ride shuttle from the parking lot at a neighboring farm:

For my part, I made two pies and a watermelon-pineapple-mint salad.  They had barbecued chicken, rolls from a local bakery, and then six kinds of salads that folks made.  Holly created the signs for each salad with her graphic design skills, placed in frames found at Goodwill:

Instead of wedding cake, they had wedding pie!  I was the pie coordinator, and about a dozen people made two pies each.  The variety was amazing and hard to choose from:

The two kinds I made were Shoofly, which is a brown sugar-molasses combo (on right), and Apricot Amaretto, which is apricots with almond flavoring (on left):

After the food and toasts and such, a bluegrass band played while a caller led us all in square dancing.

That was my first time square dancing, and I loved it!  It was a lot of fun to switch up partners and learn new dance sequences.  And the band was a hoot.  Here's the bride and groom and others dancing...sorry it's a little blurry, but it's dusk and I didn't use my flash:

That night Juliana and I camped with a couple of other friends at a nearby campground.  The next morning a small group of us went back to the farm to help clean up.  We brought all the flowers to the front porch of the barn for a photo (the bride and groom are at the top of the stairs):

What a wonderful weekend, and I was so glad to be part of it all!  Summer feels like it has ended because this past week, the students came back to Bear Creek.  I went back to my regular school year schedule of 7:45am to 4:15pm, and man oh man was it a busy week!  There was a packet of forms due in early August (emergency releases, sports forms, etc), which a lot of parents decided to bring the first day of school instead.  The next day, a bouquet of flowers showed up at the front desk, and when I looked at the tag, they were for me!  What a fun surprise from my supervisor, and she even included my favorite flowers, hydrangeas.  The nurse gave me an orchid too, for helping her over the summer with many things, and I've always wanted one of those.

Here are two last photos, from when I took a day off work to hang out around Seattle with my visiting friend Juliana.  We rode a ferry to Bainbridge Island and walked around Pike Place Market: