Working from home

I was planning to take today off, but I didn't quite finish everything on Friday, so I am working from home today. Josh is also working from home since we thought it would be a bad idea to try to drive over to Seattle and back today. We are now firmly rooted to the couch and typing away on our various computers. Of course, we have yet to get out of our pajamas. I wish we could do this more often. Most of my job involves going to meetings which makes working from home difficult.

We went to the mall after church yesterday and bought a new dishwasher to go with our new refrigerator. We hope to have them both installed next Saturday. We had a list of things we wanted to do to our house when we moved in and then life kept happening so fast that we haven't done any of them. I'm really happy to start getting some of the things done to our kitchen since I spend so much time in there on the weekends.

This will be my last post of 2007 and the posts I've made in the last week have doubled my blogging for the year. I have been meaning to do more blogging and I can't say that I will blog every day in 2008, but I will be doing this more.

We have plans to go out tonight to a local bar that is having a comedian and dancing. Our friends, Kyle and Anna, own the bar and we have invited a bunch of people. I'm looking forward to having a few laughs and hanging out with friends. Happy New Year!

Football and Hockey

I bought a refrigerator yesterday. So exciting :) We have to wait a week to get it delivered, so next Saturday is delivery day.

It also started snowing again, which gave a nice fresh coat to our backyard. Things still look pretty. It might even snow a little bit more today. We have started figuring out how to drive around our neighborhood in snow and ice. I managed to only slide a little on the way home last night.

In the afternoon we went to see National Treasure. It was a nice movie, very similar to the first movie. After the movie we went to try a new Indian restaurant in downtown Bremerton. The food was excellent. Bremerton is the kind of place that has a lot of chain restaurants so it is great to find a local place that serves good food. I am sure we will go back again.

Sundays at our house are reserved for church, family, football and hockey. Today the Seahawks game is at 10, so we won't be able to watch it, but I can usually find another game in the afternoon to watch. On Sunday nights, Josh plays hockey at the Bremerton Ice arena. We are almost done with the season, there are just a few more games until playoffs. I love to go and watch because hockey is a fast, fun game to see.

Happy football and hockey day to everyone!

Another 4 day weekend

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday. I got up early to go to work and didn't get home until 10 pm, at which point I went straight to bed. I had a hard day at work yesterday. It was my last day in the office before I start my new job. I had to pack up my office (I'm moving to a new building). And, I had to wrap up some loose ends. My team took me out to lunch to give me a proper send off.

We still have tons of snow. It was a little tricky getting out of here yesterday, but my 6 years of Colorado driving experience helped out. If I could boil all of my driving in snow advice down to one sentence it would be "Drive slow". I can't believe how many people think that they can drive at the same speed in ice/snow and not crash.

Today we are going to get a new refrigerator. We have been meaning to buy one since we moved into this house, but we aren't particularly motivated. Now that I have been cooking more, I have recognized that we need to get one. I'm hoping for some year end sales so we can get a good deal.

Hope you all are having a good, happy, safe weekend.

Happy Pajama Day #2

It is the third day with snow on the ground here and it has just started snowing again. So beautiful. I stayed in my pajamas until 2:00 yesterday and I think I may do the same today. I have been playing with my new computer, transferring files from my old computer and doing a little bit of knitting. I am working on a scarf for my husband. He picked out the yarn on a recent trip to Leavenworth and I have been working on it ever since. It is strange for me to have more than one project going on at a time, but I also have a sweater that I have been working on and another scarf for me. All different patterns and different size needles. The past month has not left a lot of time for knitting with all of the holiday preparations, but now I am getting back into it.

I made my soup yesterday - a corn chowder with bacon. It was perfect for a snowy day. I did manage to go out and do a little shopping and then we went to see The Golden Compass. It was good, but not as good as the last two movies we saw. We've been trying to catch up on our vacation with all the movies we wanted to see before they left the theater. We saw Juno last Friday which was by far my favorite of all the movies we've seen. We also saw Charlie Wilson's War on Sunday which ran a close second.

I have to go to work tomorrow to finish up for the year. It is my last day in my current job. Next Wednesday, I start a new job within the same company. I like the idea of starting a new job in a new year and I am excited to have a new opportunity. But, for today, I am going to enjoy my life at home. Happy Pajama Day.

Merry Christmas

My mom and sister give me a hard time for not keeping up the blog regularly. This has been an exciting, incredible year filled with all kinds of new things that have used up lots of my spare time. I don't know that things will be slowing down anytime soon, but I will try to take more pictures and post more often. Perhaps that will be my resolution. It will be helped by the brand new MacBook I got for Christmas. :)



Yes, it was a great Christmas. Our first married Christmas and we had so much fun picking out gifts for our families and for each other. We had a really good time with my family on Christmas Eve at Robb and Rebecca's place. We got the kids laptops from the One Laptop per Child program and they were thrilled. We were thrilled as well since I checked the delivery date a week ago and they were supposed to arrive at the end of January. We considered it our Christmas miracle when the FedEx truck showed up on Christmas Eve with the laptops.

Christmas day we spent with Josh's family. We had a really great, relaxed day opening presents and celebrating with family. We also got our white Christmas. The snow started falling around 1:00 and continued all day. It made getting home last night a little tricky, but we made it. This morning the backyard is full of snow and it is lovely to think about spending the day inside playing with all of our new toys and doing a little cooking - it feels like a day for soup.

Autumn On the Sticks

Happy First day of Autumn!

I've been knitting like crazy as the days grow colder and I promised Joanne I'd put some pictures up on the blog. Two years ago at our girls knitting weekend, we knitted shawls from extra yarn we had in our stash and odds and ends we picked up at various knitting stores. I've been wearing mine a lot lately and I thought I'd make a new one - with fall colors. The one above is all oranges and browns and greens. Perfect as the weather changes. The pattern for these shawls is really simple and can be found here.
A couple weekends ago, my mom and sisters and I spent the night in Seattle and we went to 8 yarn stores. It was great to get together and hang out. We watched a movie and worked on our projects. The shawl above was from the book Scarf Style. You can see it on the left - it is one of my new favorites.

Josh and I head to New York next weekend to hang out with our friends from the Daily Tube. I will be staying the following week for business. I get to go to New York once or twice a year and I used to be sad that I had never lived there. Then I moved to Seattle. I love living here so much that it makes me sad when I have to leave. It is so green and fresh here.

We have been full of activity lately and enjoying our new house. Our kittens keep growing and getting into trouble. We love them and they are a little bit like dogs. They follow us around the house and curl up with us while we are watching TV. I'm off to get things ready for tomorrow morning :)

Kittens!

We are all moved in to our new house so we got some small companions to run around and chase pieces of cardboard and yarn attached to a string. We adopted two kittens - a brother and a sister that we named Jack and Jill. We love having them around - they are fun and full of life.

Our new house is lovely as well. We are in the throes of unpacking and I suspect that will take the rest of the summer due to our work schedules. I must be off to unpack books :)

Happy trails.

Knitting Again

Two days ago, I noticed that one of the knitting books I wanted was on a super sale at Amazon.com. The book is called Knitting for Peace. I was interested in the book for two reasons. First, I liked the simple patterns in it. Second, I like the idea of knitting and donating or knitting for ministry. It seems like you get to a place with knitting (or any other craft really) where you can't make another thing for yourself. I love to knit and I've been stuck in a little bit of a time crunch lately so I haven't been taking the time. I was also uninspired by a lot of the projects I had available, so I needed some inspiration.

Eventually, I'd like to be able to spend more time knitting and I keep trying to think of a way to become independently wealthy so I can make my dream come true. Until that day comes, I will just have to continue going to work every day (where I am not allowed to bring my knitting to meetings).

Happy Father's Day

That's my dad. Doesn't he look nice in a suit? When I was growing up, my dad was a pastor and he wore a suit a lot and on Sunday he wore a robe. I sometimes miss the formal touches, I think they are very distinguishing. Now, he doesn't have to dress up as much since his office is at his house. He is now a missionary and works for the Antioch Network, putting people and churches and people groups all over the world together. Pretty cool.

Yesterday, we spent time with both of our dads. In the afternoon, we went over to Josh's parents house and hung out with them. We talked and played a game and had a grand time. Then we went to Robb and Reba's and Hannah came up from Tacoma and we had a great dinner with our parents. The kids were full of energy and we all had a great time.

Hope you all spent time with your dad on Father's Day and had a great time!

Yay! we got our wedding pictures

Blogging late, but I wanted to post a few pictures from the photographer :)

Happy Friday

Glad to see that both of my sisters posted comments on my last blog. I can't believe they still check the site. It is Friday so we are about to settle in for a movie, but I thought I would post a couple more pictures for your enjoyment.

Here is Josh windsurfing:



Here I am in a helicopter:



My view from the beach last Friday. Hard to imagine that I was there one week ago.


After all that, I still love to be at home. Happy Friday.

Long time gone

My mother may fall off her chair when she sees that I have actually posted something on my blog. I intend to be better about this although I'm not quite ready to commit to full time blogging again. I will try.

To be fair, I have been a little distracted in the last 5 months by all kinds of fun things - including my wedding on May 12. A wedding can take all kinds of time, but Josh and I managed to make it smooth and easy. Here we are at the wedding:

It was a small wedding with only 50 people at a beautiful place in Poulsbo called Molly Ward Gardens. Exactly what we wanted.

After the wedding we jetted off to Fiji for our honeymoon. We arrived with no luggage 15 hours later, but my wonderful friend Joanne had told us to pack our bathing suits. We did and were very grateful to have them. Here is Josh after we arrived at the resort:

Very happy to have a swim suit as you can see. We spent a week there just resting and enjoying the sun and the water. I read 5 books and will find time to blog about them eventually . . . we also took a helicopter ride, a jet ski tour of the islands, had a couples massage and one of us tried to wind surf. And now, the pictures:

We took this picture using our fancy new tripod. It can cling to anything and we used it on the table at the restaurant.

Josh took this picture from the helicopter. The islands of Fiji are really beautiful and this captures the color of the water.

My absolute favorite picture of the trip - Josh's parents bought us a waterproof camera for our wedding and Josh took this picture of himself while we were snorkeling.

On the last night of the trip, there was an incredible sunset. I took this picture 5 hours before we got on a plane and came back home.

Exciting events lie ahead. We put an offer on a house 5 days before our wedding and it was accepted. Now, both of our houses are for sale and we are getting ready to move into a new place. We wanted to find a place we could live in for the next 20 years and we are really happy that we found it right away. There will be more pictures and more posts, but for now I am signing off to print pictures for my office.

What happened to the end of 2006?

I've found out that my mother is addicted to checking our blogs and it has been ever so long since I posted. I'm going to take this opportunity to give you some peeks into my life over the last month.

December was cold and wet which was perfect winter weather. I got all my shopping done early and had a chance to enjoy my Christmas tree (which is still up - I know, I know, I'll get to it). We got to spend a lot of time wiht both of our families playing games and eating and eating and eating. We spent Christmas Eve with Josh's family and Christmas morning at Robb and Rebecca's. The boys were especially fun - they were full of energy. Christmas afternoon, we went to meet Josh's dad and brother for a movie - the Pursuit of Happyness. The next day we saw We Are Marshall. It was great. I love to stay in and watch movies, so we got all of the Star Wars and started watching them. We are almost done and have only #3 left to watch.

I've been knitting for myself since Christmas and enjoying this fabulous yarn. I'm making a sweater. I've finished the body and I'm now working on the collar.

End of year is always crazy at work and January is my second biggest month, so things here have started off in a hurry.

Our latest adventure was attending the NFC Wild Card playoff game on Saturday at Qwest field. It was exciting and loud and cold and fun. I love going to football games and I can't wait for my nephews to start playing just so I can go see a game every weekend.

That is all for now. Pictures from the football game here:

Winter

While everyone else was playing in the snow last week, I was down for the count. I spent 2 days at home coughing like an old man. I am still recovering even a week later. We are at the point of winter when it gets dark early and I want to go home and curl up in front of the fire. Unfortunately, I have not had the chimney man out yet to certify that a fire is a good idea. I've put it on the list of things to do when I have a few days at home after Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I am really excited that I have (mostly) finished all of my shopping and I am counting down the days until I can give the gifts. I love Christmas and my favorite part is watching people open the gifts. It is such a fun and surprising time. I have been loving my Christmas tree and I have it set up to turn on automatically so when I come home at night it is on and when I get up in the morning it is on. So pretty.

I hope all of your holiday plans are shaping up nicely, too.

Snow and Holidays

I think I may be averaging 10 days between posts. I don't know where the time goes . . .

I moved away from my hometown right after high school, so I never had the experience of going home and visiting with old friends. Now that I live closer to the place I went to college, I am experiencing that here. I had two visits with old friends yesterday and it was really great to see people and reconnect.

We spent Thanksgiving with Josh's family. It was a great, traditional day with football and good food and knitting. Okay, the knitting might only be traditional for me...

Friday, we went with my family to cut Christmas trees and because I was entertaining on Saturday, I was inspired to get my decorating done and I am pleased to say that I am ready for the holidays.

Here are two views of the tree. One is slightly blurry and taken without the flash to show you how beautiful is all lit up.

Of course, I now have Christmas music playing which is why it was such a joy to wake up to snow this morning. I sat in my chair, reading, watching the snow and drinking my coffee. It was a real treat.

Tomorrow may be more of a challenge. Seattle in the snow is always interesting. Since it only snows here once a year, people are quite baffled by what to do with it. We have it a little easier as long as I can get my truck down to the ferry. I'm in charge of the driving since I have the 4WD. So I will slide down the hill and pick up Josh tomorrow morning.

Have a lovely and happy Monday and a great week!

Quick, before the site goes down

I just logged in for a brief post. I've been having a great week of getting back into the swing of things. I really love my job after being away from it for a few days. I think we all get a little strung out if we work for too long without a break. Vacations can really serve to show you how great your life is - and I am really grateful for everything in mine.

Josh and I started learning Manadarin Chinese in the car last night. I downloaded the lessons from iTunes and we are using the Pimsleur Quick and Easy version. It is 8 - 30 minute lessons. So far, we have listened to the first lesson about 2.5 times. It will take us a while, but we will soon be able to say "Excuse me, can I ask you a question? Do you speak English?" - I've found this to be the most effective phrase in all of my world travels.

We are having a fantastic, cold, crisp, sunny day in Seattle. Unbelievable. Hope everyone is enjoying the weather :)

Back to Work

I survived my first full day of work and even had a good time. It was good to get some time for restoration and now I have a lot more energy. I might try this vacation thing more often. I'm definitely taking Josh on the next one.

November and December are my favorite months of the year. It has been interesting since I started working in a business that goes crazy during these months. I find that I have to be really intentional about taking time for family and friends and it makes the time even better.

It was a good week to take off - now that I am back, I have a four day week this week and a three day week next week. I wish I could take credit and say that I planned it that way, but I only realized it this morning when we were making the uphill trek to work. Yes, that means we walked on the ferry. We have been much better about that this month.

I mean to get to the picture uploading soon. Have a great week!

Colorado

I am sitting here in the living room of Joanne's house watching the Sunday night football game and catching up on the world. For the last 5 days we have been in the mountains for our annual girls weekend. It was a weekend devoid of computers and full of knitting. I took a picture of all the projects we worked on and I will post it tomorrow.

It is really good to get away from work for a couple of days. We get together for one weekend a year to have time away from our jobs and lives to talk and knit and maybe do a little shopping. The weather was beautiful - swinging from warm and sunny to cold and snowing. I lived in Colorado for six years before moving to Bremerton last year and it was nice to come back for a visit.

I can't believe that it is almost time for Thanksgiving. I'm starting to make my lists and check them twice. I love this time of year and I am already itching to decorate my house. Maybe we will put the lights up Thanskgiving weekend. Pictures to come. Happy Sunday!

Dearth

I have been having so much fun reading other people's blogs that I have been neglecting mine.

I took the day off last Friday and I meant to update at that point. I spent the day cleaning out my closet, reorganizing my downstairs, cleaning out my refrigerator, baking, grocery shopping, knitting, making dinner and watching movies. It was great. I'd like to do it every week.

My favorite new baking book is Buttercup Bakes at Home. I made Orange Coconut Raisen cookies and Marshmallow Crunch Brownie bars this weekend (you can see both prominently featured on the cover). They were a hit.

Robb and Reba were in Chicago last weekend so Hannah and I took Noah and Jonah to Jonah's soccer game on Saturday morning. We had so much fun - I promise to add pictures from the game. In the afternoon, Josh and I took Noah and Jonah ice skating. They boys are loving skating and they love hanging out with Josh. He got Noah to skate on his own and then pulled him around the rink "weally, weally fast".

Mom and Jacob went to pick up Dad who was just returning from two weeks in Africa. We all reconvened at Mom and Dad's for dinner. I had thrown together a beef stew in the crock pot, so we had that with a salad and corn bread - true comfort food.

We are having a tremendous fall. The colors are amazing and the air is so clear. We have just been through a couple of really cold, sunny days with amazing sunsets - at 4:45. I have a really hard time adjusting to leaving work in the dark - it makes me really tired.

All of the kids have just come around trick or treating which reminds me to say - Happy Halloween everybody!

Sports Sunday

Today was a sporty day and I am wiped out, but I thought I'd post some pictures before I collapse into bed. . .

The Bremerton ferry! It was such a clear, beautiful morning. Cold, but sunny and on the way to church we had to go through a strange patch of fog.

After church, we went back to Josh's house to pick up his brother, Jeremy and his dad, Mike.









Qwest Field has such a great view of the Sound. Our seats were at the top of the stadium, so we had a great view of the field and the Olympic mountains.









The game was a little disappointing - the Seahawks lost, but I loved being there and actually seeing them play live. The cheering in the stands was incredibly loud. I have been a football fan for a long time, but I had only been to one other professional game. My dad took me to see a 49er game when I was in high school. I'm going to try to see more than one every other decade. :)







On the way home, the sunset was incredible. this is what the sky looked as the ferry docked in Bremerton. Incredible. . .











And, finally, we went to Josh's hockey game. Jeremy came with me to sit in the stands and cheer and I took pictures so Josh can see what he looks like when he is playing. His team played really well and won their game even though they were down a couple of people tonight.

A great day! Now I am off to get some sleep before heading back to Seattle in the morning.

Sleep well everybody.