A Visit From Flat Stanley

Have you ever met Flat Stanley? He is a part of a wonderful children's story. Stanley was a normal boy until a bulletin board fell on him and made him flat. Rather than being sad about his new look, Stanley has taken advantage of it and has traveled (he fits very easily into envelopes, so traveling is inexpensive). Recently he was sent by a little boy named Colby, the son of some dear friends of mine, to visit us. He was lucky enough to arrive as we were heading down to spend a day in Seattle. After a quick stop to get Stanley some appropriate clothing, he came with us to see the Seattle Space Center and Pike's Place Market. Below are some pictures from his visit.

This is Stanley in front of the Seattle Space Needle.Here is Stanley in front of a huge fountain. During the warmer parts of the year,

children play in the fountain.

As a matter of fact, Flat Stanley's friend Colby has been to this very fountain and

played in it when he has visited Washington. Stanley was excited to arrive at Pike's Place Market, he'd heard that it was a neat place to visit, very busy with locals and tourists like himself.

This is Stanley in front of the original Starbuck's coffee shop.

He was amazed to find out that the huge corporation started in such a simple space.

Seeing the variety of seafood made Stanley hungry...

There was more than just fish, lots of yummy looking fruits and vegetables also.

Some of the produce was like none that Stanley had ever seen before. He was impressed.

Stanley was most excited when he arrived at the fish stall where the employees, called "fishmongers", throw the fish back and forth. In the picture below, there is a fishmonger standing behind Flat Stanley.

Flat Stanley would like to be a fishmonger himself one day.

Flat Stanley had such a fun day, he decided that he liked the Pacific Northwest.

A couple of weeks later, Flat Stanley drove with his host family to Mt. Hood in Oregon. The plan was for him to learn to snowboard, but unfortunately the temperature on the mountain wasn't very cold and so rather than snow falling, it was rainy that day. Both Stanley and his hosts felt that it was wise for Stanley to avoid getting wet. It was a bit disappointing, but Stanley did enjoy seeing snow for the first time.

Right before Christmas, Flat Stanley climbed back into his traveling envelope and made his way back down to California and to his friend Colby.

Happy 3rd, Baby!

Yup, we've made it through 3 years (yesterday)! It's been a very full 3 years, and in particular the last 3 months (or 3 weeks for that matter!) have been very full. We (or rather the husband mostly) are in the final stages of finishing a building project on our property. For my part I've been part of a couple of painting days as well as a day spent tiling floors and a day of tiling a shower. These are things we've done before which makes the work easier. A new challenge this time was learning how to do some rock/masonry work, it ended up being pretty simple once we go the hang of it. I've been reminded lately of how well the husband and I are able to work on projects together. I feel like I always hear how married couples can't work well together with remodeling or construction-type projects. So far we've been able to make it work, and we're no where near killing each other, if anything it's been good for us. In addition to all of that, I just signed the paperwork for a new brick and mortar teaching job which I will officially start next month. In the mean time though I have already been to some strategizing and planning meetings with other faculty - proving further to myself that this job is a great opportunity for me. I am still working part-time at the greenhouse supply store for a few more days until the end of this month, it's a bit torturous to be a short-timer there right now, it would have probably been better for me to give two weeks notice and call it there, but it will pass. We have also in the last week hosted a bbq for extended family and had some dear friends and their four great kids come from out of state to stay with us for a few days. I also got hit with a nasty summer cold that turned into an even nastier sinus infection. It's one thing to be sick when it's gross and rainy outside, it's a whole other game to get sick when the weather is gorgeous outside, summer illness is no good!

So here I sit, happily married for 3 years now. Life is full of joy and anticipation. I understand now when I hear people say that they love their spouse more after years together than they did the day they were married. Evolving as people together has been key, so has good communication and flexibility. I feel very lucky in life and love!

By the way, those flowers are my "wedding flower", liatris. They once again have blossomed just in time for our anniversary and making me think back 3 years to that beach in Hawaii. *swoon*

We plan to celebrate a bit more formally next month when our project is finished. I'll be done with my greenhouse job and there wil be a few weeks before I go to work full-time. We've talked about heading to the Oregon coast, which sounds very restful, and before the busyness of a new school year, I can go for that!

A Bit of Southern California

A recent weekend trip to Southern California provided a chance for walking on the beach, enjoying beautiful sunsets, celebrating a friend's birthday, meeting another friend's new baby girl, enjoying good food and drinks, and remembering that spring brings pretty blossoms everywhere.

Ornament Exchange Goodies

I mentioned last month that I was participating in an ornament exchange hosted by Sarah of Small Fox. Well, yesterday was the day that some very lovely ornaments arrived in the mail for me. The husband and I are going to be down in California for a couple of days, visiting some family and friends, so I thought I'd share pictures of the lovely ornaments I received for you to enjoy while I'm gone. I've decided that participating in the exchange was a blast, I'll definitely do it again. It was fun to make ornaments and to have the anticipation of receiving ornaments handmade by other ladies all over the country. The best part was that I made my owl ornaments out of materials I already had, so my only cost was postage and time, not bad!

Between 31.5 and 32 I want to...

Today I am 31 and 1/2 years old...six months from 32.
In the next 6 months before I turn 32, I want to:

Learn the words to the song "I'll Fly Away" by heart
Learn to knit
Get my seeds started in the greenhouse and in the ground on time
Plant even more sunflowers than last summer
Keep my home neat and organized
Read six books (or more!)
Find (or possibly start) a local book club
Continue to work out 5 out of 7 days each week.Continue to weigh myself on Monday mornings and watch that number go down!
Master a really good creme brulee recipe (now that I've gotton my "creme brulee toes" wet!)
Make bread from scratch (at least) twice a week
Sign up on time to be a vendor for one really busy farmer's market
Try one new recipe every other week (at least)
Continue to sell my handmade items in local shops
Make 2 new friends

By the way, this is my 200th post...wow! That went fast! I am thinking that after New Years I'll have a celebratory give-a-way...stay tuned for that! For now I'm still up to my eyeballs in preparations and gift-making for Christmas. We are heading down to California tomorrow morning in fact for a short but sweet visit to my family. I still have a few more things I am working on for that - yikes! Hope your week is treating you well so far!

Weekending

The weekend was full of many great moments.

The first snow of the season began to fall on Sunday morning.A family dinner party to renew friendships with the lost and found.

Their little chicken feet prints in the snow made me smile.

The hens continue to lay, though four eggs a day is now more typical than six, I blame the cold.
Snow makes pretty things prettier and ugly things a bit mroe attractive.
Feels so good to get packages taped up and off to the post office.

Delicious wood fire oven pizza on an afternoon date with the husband.

Zumba on Saturday morning, making for my 6th day of working out in a row!

Cozy, romantic, accomplished, contemplative, accomplished, grateful, relaxed, tired, intrigued...yep, it was a good December weekend!

Quick Update

This week is an odd one, my work hours are reduced (company mandate), but I still feel like I've got lots to do. I'm tackling those inevitable piles and messes around the house. This morning I made great headway on the laundry hurricane in our bedroom, only to be stopped by a shortage of hangers, that will be fixed after a trip to Target tomorrow. The goal is to get a house clean enough to be worthy of decorating for Christmas, it would depress me to decorate over a mess. I also did a deep cleaning in the kitchen, my stovetop hasn't been so clean since we let our cleaning lady go way back in February. A dear friend of mine may possibly be visiting for a few days later in the week, this will mean lots of fun catching up, snowboarding (she's the one I learned with), and I'll get to meet the new man in her life. Thanksgiving is going to be mellow, the husband's parents are hosting, grandma, an aunt and uncle and a cousin's family will all be there, I believe there will be between 12 and 16 of us. I'm in charge of yams and pumpkin pie, though I plan to possibly also make a pecan pie. It's my favorite and I found a new recipe. Berkeley is still crowing, but he is no longer doing so in my garden, there's a story there, but I'll share some other time. I'm fitting in a bit of sewing here and there, but I'm also trying to work on our Christmas letter and a suprise for the husband. (I can't go into too much detail about the last thing because he's been reading the blog lately). By the way, the picture above is from our trip earlier this year to Oahu, I like the picture and have never shared it, so since I didn't have any other pictures, today was it's day! That's all for now.

Fresh Cut Flower Friday: First Day of Riding for the Season!

So it seems that my "Fresh Cut Flower Fridays" have kind of morphed lately...I guess it turns out that they aren't just about fresh cut flowers. Maybe it's more about intentionally looking around my life at least once a week to notice what is bringing me joy...right now it is the light dusting of snow on the foothills that I can see from my back porch, it is the beautiful warm shades of yellow and red that the leaves have turned to, it is the fact that TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY I GET TO RIDE MY SNOWBOARD THIS SEASON!!! (Okay, I'm actually writing this on Thursday evening so I should really be saying "tomorrow", but you get the idea, I'm stoked!) The Jeepster is making her maiden treck up to a ski resort - Mt. Baker specifically - she is all ready to go with the Thule mounted. As soon as that Thule was on her, she became an infinately cooler vehicle, now she's not just a "run errands around town" kind of SUV, she's a mountain bound, snow sport serving kind of car.
Am I being dramatic?! Let me just explain that I love to snowboard. This will be my 6th season of riding, and every year I appreciate the sport more and more. I didn't grow up in a skiing family, we didn't have money for that kind of thing. So when I got out of college and was in my second year at my first teaching job, I decided that I wanted to learn. It was one of the first investments I made as an adult for myself that was purely for fun...everything else had always had a sense of responsibility tied to it, car purchases, pursuing degrees, paying student loans, it all was tied up in what I "should do". With snowboarding there really was no obligatory "should", it was pure, joyful "want". Well, maybe joyful is a stretch when describing some of what I went through, I had a hard time learning initially, I feel alot and bruised my tail bone (very painful by the way!), but I had a dear friend learning with me. She and I committed to learning together and we have both continued to ride every year since. When I moved to WA from CA, I initially was thrown off by the differences in riding conditions. In CA I'd been able to get away with lighter first layers, in WA the cold is no joke, and sunny spring conditions are not as typical.



My first winter in WA was rough for other reasons as well, I dealt with some seasonal depression from the lack of sunlight (and also because of all of the crazy transitions I'd just been through). It took a while, but eventually it sunk in that I was very close to some amazing places to ride, snowboarding helped me get through a difficult period of my life. My snowboarding went to a new level my first year in WA, I made a very stubborn decision to no longer be just a mediocre rider, I wanted to improve. With a ton of work, lots of falls, and many grouchy days (the poor husband had to deal with me through those - sorry honey!), my turns became cleaner and tighter, I learned how to carve with the edges of my board, my stance became stronger, I gained the confidence to ride in sometimes less than ideal snow, I stopped cursing everyone and everything when I unintentionally ended up on a cat track, I had the chance to teach the husband the basics of riding a snowboard (he's a great skier), last January I even got to teach my oldest friend in the world how to ride when she was up for a visit. The picture at the top of this post was actually taken that day at Mt. Baker. That was also the day that I began to seriously consider trying to become a snowboarding instructor.



Now this Saturday I will begin a course that will allow me to become a certified instructor and possibly even get a job as a part-time instructor this winter at a nearby resort called Steven's Pass. I am proud of myself for sticking with snowboarding even on the hard days...it is not a difficult sport to get the basics down, but to really ride with style requires tons of commitment. Snowboarding is something that I've shared with many of my students over the years. They always looked at me suspiciously if I missed a day during the winter...especially if a storm had just passed through and left fresh powder in it's wake.
Since I started to ride, I have had the pleasure of riding at some of the most amazing moutains in the world, I have riden in California, Nevada, Washington, Canada, Colorado, and Utah...some of the best days of my life have been up on a mountain, strapped into my board. So maybe to some, this all sounds silly and dramatic, but one day when my body is old and tired, I am going to be glad that I made a point of enjoying the beauty and thrill of mountains covered in snow. Time to go shred!