Seattle Snowstorm 2008

Seattle is having some crazy weather this week! I guess Johnny and I brought with us Wyoming's winter weather or something! :D

first, though, here's our Christmas tree.
Originally we planned to go out into the forest and chop our own down (we had the permit and everything!) but the snow came and hasn't left, so we ended up getting a tree at a farm instead. Hopefully next year we can go out into the forest! (the permits are only $10!)

Harley enjoys rolling around in the snow.

Looking up the street near where we live.

We walked to the beach. It was REALLY windy and snowy!

Harley liked the snow, though!

We were bundled up, too, so we had fun

Back home, we had a snowball fight and then built a snowman.
We had limited supplies on hand, but at least he has a carrot nose!!
Here's Harley posing with him. :)

awww, Harley is giving the snowman a kiss!
(actually, he's going for the carrot!!)

It's been snowing nonstop all day and is supposed to continue until tomorrow morning. I'm not sure Johnny is going to be able to get to work tomorrow! We'll see!

winter vacation

December 6 was our 7th anniversary of being together, and I had just completed the Fall quarter the previous Thursday, so we decided to go away for the weekend. We booked a cottage in Long Beach, Wa, right on the beach and spent the weekend in the area, going to Cape Disappointment, Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (highly recommended), Fort Columbia, a few lighthouses, Astoria, Seaside, and Canon Beach. I highly recommend going in the winter. There were no crowds, the weather was really nice, and we felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves! Very neat. :D Oh yes, we took Harley, and are pretty sure that it was his first trip to the ocean. He loved it! So, here are a few pictures from the trip!

you can see more pictures here: 7th anniversary weekend







Also, today is Johnny's 24th birthday! Last night we made a chocolate cake from scratch and tonight we're going to The Ram tonight for dinner with friends. I got him an espresso machine, coffee bean grinder and a mug from the Burke Museum's upcoming exhibit on coffee, and family got him a UW travel mug and a bag of Tully's coffee beans. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

oh dear.

oh my. It has been a while. I'll try to get around to updating about our summer someday and getting some pictures up on the site.

Basically, it went like this:

• My parents came to visit in June. We showed them around the area and went to a Rockies baseball game.
• At the end of June, Johnny and I drove to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park to meet up with friends Kaylynn, Hannah and Chris, and go camping, hiking and nearly eaten by bears and other wild animals for a week (true story).
• In July I enrolled in a weekly pottery wheel class and spontaneously cut my hair to my collar bone.
• On the 28th, we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary with cheesecake and a weekend long camping trip near Laramie, at Deep Creek.
• At the very end of July, Jason and I traveled to Washington to attend a wedding and tie up some loose ends for our move back to Washington.
• My bell pepper plant that I bought in May started sprouting peppers out of nowhere! They are about 3 inches long right now.
• In mid-August, Harley was diagnosed with Central Diabetes Insipidus after several visits and tests at CSU Animal Hospital in Fort Collins, CO. He was drinking 21 cups+ of water per day prior to medication!

and now we're to today. The next week will be hectic. I'll be wrapping up my time at work, dropping Jason off at the airport while at the same time picking Meghan up, and then Meghan and I will begin our roadtrip (U-haul and dog in tow) to Seattle! I'll get settled in and prepare for graduate school and my new job (at the Pacific Science Center as a Science Teacher on Wheels! (look at the awesome van I might drive! heh!). In late September, Johnny will arrive with his dad (who is flying to Laramie to drive back with Johnny) and with our cat, Atari.

Both Johnny and I are going through a lot of changes on Sept 25: I start graduate school at the University of Washington in Museum Studies and he'll begin his first day of work at Vintage Customs in Auburn! Shortly after that day, we'll be able to move into our new apartment!

Things are a'changin' and are going to be busy so I'm not sure how often this blog will get updated. My goal is at least monthly. Or at least to be less wordy and post pictures instead. We'll see. :P

Give us a call if you want to get together, we both have 3 day weekends!

and check out my 101 Things to Do list! *points to the right of the screen* I've gotten quite a bit done this summer, although I've definitely failed on the repetitive tasks. :P

Mt. Rushmore pics - finally!

Here are a few photos from our Memorial Day weekend trip.

leaving Laramie

Johnny in the Oregon Trail ruts

Yours truly in the Oregon Trail ruts

next we went to Register Cliff

an example of the hundreds of inscriptions

onward to Hot Springs, SD!

We went to The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD. VERY cool!
The arrows here show where the weight of Mammoths compressed the mud and left their mark!

one area of the excavation

at that point, we headed towards Custer, SD

the next day we went to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. It's huge!

next we went to Mt. Rushmore


then to the Cathedral Spires



we thought this was a huge rock and had to pose by it


Afterwards, we went on a tour of the Jewel Cave National Monument.
I haven't sorted through those pictures yet, sorry!

Flower Power

You'll all have to forgive me because I'm still sorting through pictures from our trip, but I wanted to share photos of flowers Johnny surprised me with yesterday. I had gotten home from work and was in the kitchen eating triple chocolate cake (maybe quadruple is the right word since it also had chocolate frosting...) and reading my Runner's World magazine (how appropriate, I know), waiting for Johnny get back from getting his hair cut, when he snuck up behind me with a huge bouquet of flowers!

(click to make the photos bigger)

ps: There's Harley for those of you who haven't seen a picture of him yet. :)

and, the culprit. He was mighty proud of himself. :P

Nothing too eventful has been going on around here. Calm weather and nothing crazy happening, I guess that's a good thing.

The gala at work is over, and now they are gearing up for their Festival of Trees event. I am helping to design and decorate the governor's tree, which is pretty exciting! I won't be working at the museum anymore when it comes time to actually decorate the trees and hold the event, but I'm going back to volunteer, so I'll post a picture of "my tree", as I'm calling it, later on! (it's not until November 29th!)

Yesterday Johnny had a day off work (his first weekend-day off work since we moved here!!! aka the first day we could hang out together!!!) and so we drove to Fort Collins and Loveland, CO. We met up with the guy who sold us the Honda Accord, and he gave us snow tires for the car, horray! We wandered around some outlet stores and I bought a few clothes for my new job. I got a pair of Nine West heels, retail $75, for $15! sweet!


I've been cracking down on studying for the GRE this past week, too. I've become more motivated since I have finally received confirmation from 3 people that they will write me letters of recommendation for graduate school. :) A lot of the studying for the GRE is brushing up on middle school math skills and memorizing some very abstract vocabulary, and but the bulk of the studying revolves around learning HOW to take the GRE, and what to look for in questions and in possible answers. I've bought a study book that is very enlightening in this area. I am a bit worried I'll be thrown off because it is a computer test, you only get scratch paper to work out problems, and once you have submitted an answer you cannot go back and change it. Also, you don't get to use a calculator! oh, the horrors!! At any rate, the test is Thursday so we'll see how it goes!

Meghan and Nick arrive in Denver this week, and we are going to see them, meet Nick's family, and see Aunt Sherry & co. (haha) for Thanksgiving!!! I'm so excited! It had BETTER not snow!!!

some photos from the past week.....

here's my little wild child


me yeseterday


a going-away present my boss at the art museum gave me (it's from the art museum's store!)


some fabrics that were used for the gala that the art museum gave me. Johnny, the expert of the two of us, says I have enough to make a quilt, so he is going to help me with that.


and........*drumroll* the inspiration for our Christmas tree. We figured, 1.) Christmas trees in Laramie are apparently very sad and defeated looking, and 2.) we have low ceilings with hot pipes running around = fire, so we've decided to do something sort of funky this year, and get a white tree and decorate it with some colorful balls. Should be fun....


well...until next time!

Long time, no update! :)

This week has been very busy, as the Art Museum prepared for the annual fundraising gala. Friday night my friend Lauren and I worked at the VIP Reception selling raffle tickets for a diamond necklace, and then last night we worked the actual gala! It was really fun, and very hectic, with over 400 people attending. The theme was "Safari".

Here's Lauren and I before the craziness began. (we worked the check-in table and later worked the check-out table, which was even more hectic!!)


the ballroom


tables


Johnny and I (he stopped by for a bit after he got off work)


I bought a raffle ticket for the diamond necklace (but didn't win! :( ) but for each raffle ticket you get a wine glass. I bought one but someone at checkout didn't want his and gave them to me, so now I have four! They were each wrapped in animal print tissue paper, and Atari has claimed them as her hiding places.

I spy a little kitty!




Today I worked some more for the gala, as many people wanted to pick their items up today. There were extra favors, so I was given one! It's a little basket woven with telephone wire by Zulu weavers!