Fun in the Sun

I took the day off yesterday to take Jacob and Jonah to Wild Waves. It was the perfect day for it - sunny and 76 degrees. In the Pacific Northwest, we try to keep these days a secret by moaning about how much it rains here, but when they come, they are perfect.

I always get caught short by my own selfishness when I take my nephews for the day. It is amazing to me how many times I have to stop myself from doing what I want to shift toward their needs. I'm really glad I moved here so that I could have them in my life to learn this lesson over and over again.

Hannah came with me and we did our favorite - divide and conquer. She took Jonah and I took Jacob. Even though they are really close in age, Jacob is way more willing to take risks and go on "fast" rides/slides while Jonah will just tell you he is too scared. We all ended up wiht a tiny bit of sunburn, and we rolled into town exhausted, but it was a great day.

After dropping them off, I went with Josh and Jeremy to see Little Miss Sunshine. It was an absolutely perfect movie. Without trying too hard, it was funny and poignant and a perfect ending to the day.

Tomorrow we are going to the Fair so there should be more pictures. Today I am taking a break, doing laundry, working on a puzzle, listening to my iPod on shuffle, going out for a little shopping and then a nap. I still love Saturdays the most.

Mid Week

I have not been good about posting because I am having too much fun. Tonight, Josh's mom made ribs for dinner and they were great. This is really not mid week for me since I am taking Friday off to take Jacob and Jonah to Wild Waves. I keep promising pictures, and I will definitely have some then. I promised them at the beginning of August that I would find a good time to go and it looks like it might be 80 degrees on Friday. Wahoo!

Hannah has been driving back across the country and I've been thinking about travel and getting out on the road. I have some good trips coming up so I will post more pictures. Hope August is treating everybody well amidst all the chaos of our lives. Robb and Reba are going to start their renovation on September 5 and it looks like my friends, Toben and Joanne, found a great house in Denver.

So much joy for everyone. I couldn't be more grateful - it is really amazing to see what kinds of changes one little summer can bring.

Mid Week

I have not been good about posting because I am having too much fun. Tonight, Josh's mom made ribs for dinner and they were great. This is really not mid week for me since I am taking Friday off to take Jacob and Jonah to Wild Waves. I keep promising pictures, and I will definitely have some then. I promised them at the beginning of August that I would find a good time to go and it looks like it might be 80 degrees on Friday. Wahoo!

Hannah has been driving back across the country and I've been thinking about travel and getting out on the road. I have some good trips coming up so I will post more pictures. Hope August is treating everybody well amidst all the chaos of our lives. Robb and Reba are going to start their renovation on September 5 and it looks like my friends, Toben and Joanne, found a great house in Denver.

So much joy for everyone. I couldn't be more grateful - it is really amazing to see what kinds of changes one little summer can bring.

Legacy

Right before I moved, my Grandmother moved into an independent living apartment. She has had her own house for many years, but she felt like it was really time to go to a place that provided some meals and on-site medical care if necessary.

As part of her moving process, she gave up a lot of her furniture and other things that would not fit in her new apartment. I got these two great pieces of furniture and the crystal and china that now fills the china hutch. It is really important to me to have family legacy and I have loved these pieces of my grandmother's furniture for many years. I love having them in my new house and carrying on tradition.

The hutch needed a little work, so my dad fixed it and then my parents brought it over this week, but I didn't have a chance to unpack all of the china and crystal until today. This unpacking brings me to the dreaded "almost" finished state. Everything I have left to unpack is stuff I don't want to deal with. All of the little things. Therefore, because it is hot and I have done some work today I am going to go camp out on the couch in the basement where it is cool. Many happy weekends!

Why is it so hard to work on Fridays

As you know, I have been working on budgets and trying to stay ahead of the next couple of things that are coming my way at work. I have also been doing a lot of shopping lately. I must say that I am distressed by several of the trends as follows:
1) Really short skirts. It is very difficult to keep up professional respect by wearing a really short skirt. It makes it seem like we all should be going to nightclubs. And then there is the difficulty of sitting down.
2) No good jackets. I used to wear suits all the time, but now I can't find any good jackets. Either they are too short or too boxy. Why, I ask you, why?
3) I don't like enough of the shoes. I used to love shoes, but I walked through the entire shoe department at Nordstrom and only found one pair of shoes that I wanted. Am I just getting over shoes?

Here are links to all of the good stuff I have been shopping lately.

Cool Wool dress from Banana Republic - I bought it in the darkest of dark browns.
Sweaters from the Gap - Vests and long sleeved and cable vest
Jeans from the Gap
Shoes from Aldo

Have a great weekend everybody!

I am still alive

Just so nobody thinks I dropped off the face of the Earth, I am writing to say I am still alive. Right now, we are doing budgets at work. This means that I am poring over spreadsheets all day long and by the time I get home, I no longer wish to look at a computer screen.

I love budgets, I really do. When I first moved to Seattle, I intentionally took a job that had no budgeting responsibility (after 5 years, I needed a break). My hiatus did not last too long and now I am back into the fun part of planning for the year ahead. When I was a child, this was not what I imagined I would be doing with my life. But, to be fair, when I was a child, I had absolutely not idea what I would be doing with my life. (See, all of this craziness comes from staring at spreadsheets).

I took a break last night and did some shopping. I have a business trip to NYC in a couple of weeks and I am trying to find good clothes for my meetings. It was much needed retail therapy. I liked it so much, I think I am going to do it again tomorrow night.

But for tonight, more budgets. Happy Tuesday!

Books

Last night, Josh asked me "How do you decide which books to keep out of all the books you read?" I don't have a good answer for that question. I am now finished opening up and unpacking boxes of books, but I still have several tote bags full and (again) no shelf space. A couple of years ago, I weeded out my books and I keep doing that, getting rid of books I will never read again, galleys I thought I would have time to read, books I can't remember bringing home. But, it is an enormous task to go through all of them and decide what to give away.

One of the reasons I have a hard time getting rid of books is that I keep thinking I will have time to read them one day. Case in point, two books I just pulled off my shelf as I was unpacking, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson and Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham. I started reading Case Histories when I first got it and then got distracted by another book. Now that her new novel, One Good Turn, is coming out, I want to read this one so I can get a basis for all of the characters.

I was a big fan of Michael Cunningham's The Hours. My senior thesis in college was on Virginia Woolf and I loved the idea that he was going to follow an interwoven story involving Woolf and her novel Mrs. Dalloway and characters in two different eras. I loved it and I was intrigued by the idea of this book as well, I just didn't get to it last summer.

It is such a nice day that I am now going to sit in my backyard and read. Sunday afternoons should be time to recuperate and slack off just a little. Hope all your Sundays are lazy as well.

I have reached an impasse with my books where I need another shelf. I have unpacked everything save two boxes and there is just no more room left. I am about to head our to buy shelves, but I thought I'd sit down and write up a quick update first.

I haven't been blogging due to having no progress to report on the house. Today was my day to get things done, so I tackled the big job first - the errant plumbing. It was not as difficult to fixed as I feared it would be. I unhooked the elbow pipe underneath the sink and drained out all the water. Then, I ran a snake down the pipe and it pulled out a rubber glove that I had used during all of the painting madness. Once the glove was removed, the pipes functioned perfectly and I am now able to do laundry. Yay!

Now I am undertaking the task of moving things around and unpacking. It always surprises me to see how much stuff I actually have. It makes me want to simplify more. I keep throwing things away, but never seem to get on top of knowing what to keep and what to toss.

Off to pick up bookshelves. Happy weekend!

Bookshelves

For Hannah's sake and for the rest of you that know me, here is a picture of books on shelves in my new house. It has been said that I have too many books. But, really, can you have too many books? I'm really happy to be working in the book industry and around books all the time. I'm pretty blessed to have an hour every morning on the ferry where I can read my book. And, I get to work with a lot of other people that like books as well.

I got home too late to post last night after a business dinner in Seattle. Seattle has some of the best restaurants. I grew up near San Francisco and there were always great places to eat there, but since I get to sample a lot of the great dining in Seattle, I am of the opinion that this is one of the best places to live if you like food.

Speaking of liking food, I've also gone back to the gym this week as I mentioned in my last post. It was nice to take a break for a while, but I am really enjoying getting back into the swing of it.

I'm already thinking about weekend projects, even though it is only Wednesday. Since the laundry sink won't drain, that will probably take priority. Wish me luck. Happy Wednesday!

Quick Post

We came back from work and went to the movies tonight with a bunch of people. We saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. I would love to be the kind of classy person that didn't find any of these movies funny, but I laughed really hard. It was the right kind of way to kick off a week.

Hannah came along as this was her last night in town before returning to New Jersey to pack. Afterward, she called and shared great news, but if you want to know what it was, you have to read her blog.

I'm beat. I went back to the gym after letting myself take a break during all of the house prep and moving. It was great, but now I need my sleep. Happy Monday!

Sunday, Lazy Sunday

It was absolutely beautiful today and I couldn't help but take advantage of the lovely day to forget about unpacking and just have a nice day. After church, there was lunch on the docks with the kids playing in the fountain. Then, I took a brief Target run. Lately, I have been forgetting what I need when I go to Target so I end up not buying anything, but wandering aimlessly, hoping that inspiration will hit. Today was no exception. So, I came home and took a nap.

I am a big fan of Sunday naps. It seems like the ultimate luxury to me. I think it would be nice to have naps every day, but I don't know if corportate America agrees with me.

We headed to my parents for a barbecue and after dinner, my dad gave my nephews some pointers on baseball. All in all, a lovely day and one that makes me wish for much longer weekends.

I must now pay the piper by unpacking 3 boxes of books. It shall be my concession to unpacking today. Happy, lazy Sunday!

Washing Machine

One of the joys of having an old house is that hooking everything up here involves a lot of time, patience and wrenches. Fortunately, Josh was able to get the hoses hooked up and I now have a functioning washing machine. Okay, almost. Everything works, but the drain is currently a little overtaxed which means it is time to get the plumber back out here to install a new utility sink. Otherwise, I have to wait 24 hours between loads for the sink to drain.

I got a lot of pictures hung and some books unpacked and I put a lot of stuff in storage this morning. Things are starting to come together, so maybe there will be more pictures tomorrow.

The rest of the day was reserved for sun and fun and it was a beautiful day here - 81 and sunny. Sorry to all my friends who are suffering through the record temperatures everywhere else. It is time for all of you to move to Seattle.
I love Saturdays.

Friday - finally

I'm trying to put in more pictures to keep up to date on what things look like. Tomorrow I have good intentions to unpack, so we'll see how far I get.

I'm going to pick up the washing machine in the morning and then I plan to have a little bit of fun tomorrow as well.

I don't often write about the opportunities my job affords me, but I want to recommend a couple of books by Rory Stewart. He came and did a talk/reading for us at lunch today and I think his narratives about life on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq are really insightful when it comes to getting a clear picture of what is happening over there. Too often, we get caught up in the political rhetoric and lose sight of the more interesting discussion of what we can really expect next out of everything that is happening there. His writing is great and he uses stories to illustrate and depict the history and current lives of people living in these countries and cultures.

The books are The Places in Between (about Afghanistan) and The Prince of the Marshes (about Iraq).

Good day. A very happy Friday indeed. As usual, I am writing at 1 am, so I will say it is time for me to sleep.

I keep trying to upload this and having no luck, so I will just write a little in hopes that it will survive. Hannah arrived yesterday and we had a nice dinner downtown with Mom. She is job interviewing right now and it is really good to see her here. Because this is the summer of moves, she will have to move back here in the next month. I think our entire family is required to move at least twice more before we are done. :)

I am told that I am not including enough pictures, so here is one of my breakfast nook. It is great to be moving in and feeling cozy in little places like the entryway. I will do more unpacking this weekend - including some books unpacking. I'm still attempting the relaxed approach - not killing myself by unpacking everything at once. I hope to be done with everything by the end of August.

I am up way beyond when I wanted to be since it took me so long to fix my internet connection. But, now, all is well with the world. I am going off to bed, content.

Sweet dreams and happy Thursday!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

It's Noah's third birthday today and we had a barbecue at Robb and Reba's to celebrate. Reba made a car shaped cake with Oreo cookie wheels. My mom and grandma came and Robb's parents and sister and brother in law were there as well with their kids.

Robb's dad built a sandbox for Noah since he loves the sandbox so much. He was very excited about all of his presents and the kids had a great time tearing around. It was a truly beautiful afternoon and I was really grateful, once again, that I moved up here so I could be here for events like this.

A note on the comments on my last blog - my mom finally read the blog AND left a comment. She gets the big award for the day. And, I promise I will post more pictures of the house as I progress on the decorating. I have big plans to unpack boxes this weekend, but I'm trying to be reasonable during the week and give myself some time.

That's all for tonight. Sweet dreams everybody. I'm going to turn on the TV and go to sleep.