A must read...

"Time is all you have.

And you may find one day that you have less than you think."

-Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture

This is my favorite line from The Last Lecture which I finished reading this weekend.

The lecture & book are such open, honest accounts from a man who knows he has so little time yet wants to make the most of it.

It has certainly made me think a bit more about how I'm spending & enjoying each minute of each day.

It's a must read!

"date night"

Chris came home about 4:00 on Friday, which is soooo early for him to be home unless we're headed out of town.

It was a nice surprise especially since I had seen so little of him this week because I was working nights.

We decided to turn our Friday night into a "date night". We ran to Target for a few things, picked up a pizza on our way home, and watched The Departed (Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson). It was a great movie althought it was fairly violent. Hey, it managed to keep me awake running on 3 hours of sleep, so it was definitely good.

We enjoyed our "date night"!

2 years...

It's hard to believe that on Tuesday it will have been 2 years since we closed on our house. It's been such a fast 2 years!

We've made a lot of changes, and hope to have time to make some more changes to our house.

Here are some before & after shots...

Living room...

Hallway bathroom...

Bedroom, now office...

Guest bedroom...

Family room, now dining room (you can only see part of it)... Kitchen...
Dining room, now den...Master bedroom...

My cedar chest

This is my new cedar chest...

For now it's at the end of our bed.

I'm loving it!

The best of the Northwest...

A few of our favorite pictures from our Northwest trip...

Mt. RanierChris & I in front of Mt. Ranier.

Me inside Elliot Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA. We were there for more than an hour! Although it isn't as big as Powell's Bookstore (Portland, OR) which is the world's largest bookstore, I actually enjoyed Elliot Bay better. It's still bigger & better than any bookstore we have around here.
Sign outside of Pike Place Market (such an awesome place!).
Sea lions we saw floating on a buoy in Seattle's harbor. They were fighting here & the little one got thrown off :-(.
Seattle's skyline from the harbor
Cannon Beach, OR
Not the greatest of pictures, but it will always remind us of the frigid water temperatures (no swimming for us!)

Mt. Hood & Mirror Lake, OR

Columbia River Gorge, OR

"I hope you've had a good day"...

for whatever reason when I'm home in the evenings, I've taken to watching bits & pieces of the 6:30 Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Over the past few nights, I've noticed that I love how he ends each broadcast with:

"I hope you've had a good day"...

It makes me smile!

back on the east coast...

Well, we're back on the east coast after a wonderful vacation.

We're still recovering & geting back to our normal routines.

It's great to go on vacation, but it's always nice to come home again too!

I am so pleased to come home to fall-like weather too.

Fall is my favorite time of the year for so many reasons!

I was in such a fall-like mood Wednesday that I cooked beef stew in the crock-pot & baked cinnamon apples for dinner...yummy!

I'm planning to post some pictures & recap the highlights of our trip this weekend, so come back to check it all out.

Good night!

Pacific Northwest bound

We fly out to Portland in less than 48 hours...I'm so excited!!!

Here are some possible souvenirs to bring home that I'll be keeping an eye out for while we're gone:

1) I won't be bringing it home, but you better believe that I'll be having a cup of coffee at the 1st ever, original Starbucks! What should I have...hmmm?

2) Oregon has more than it's fair share of vineyards & wineries...a bottle of Oregon red wine would be a nice souvenir!

3) Powell's City of Books-the largest bookstore in the world is in Portland...I'll definitely be there (probably with a Starbuck's cup in hand!). I'll probably have to buy a book there just to say I did!

4) I have a new interest in pottery. Several stores in & around Portland have pottery made from the ash of Mt. St. Helens...how neat!

5) We'll definitely be hitting up Pike's Market while we're in Seattle. They apparently have great local crafts so who know's what awesome treasures we'll find there!

6) There is a lot of Native American history in the Pacific Northwest. We'd like to pick up another handmade totem pole replica to add to the one we bought in Alaska.

7) And best of all...I plan to take hundreds of pictures to capture all of the amazing thing we see. Pictures are the best souvenirs of all.

Pacific Northwest, here we come...

apples galore

Chris picked nearly all of the apples from our apple tree on Monday. It seems that there are about 30 lbs. of them thus far! We knew we had to do something with the ones he picked before we leave for Portland this-coming Tuesday. So, today we made 14 jars of delicious apple jelly. It was a lot of work, but it will be worth it!

On other random notes:

-We got almost 5 inches of rain from tropical storm Hanna in about an 8 hour time span!

-About 3 or 4 weeks ago I treated feet & my back to a pair of these Dansko clogs to wear to work. I cannot tell you the amazing difference it has made throughout the day. They were well worth $105!

-My parents wanted to buy me a cedar chest for my 25th birthday. It's something I've wanted for a long time. To make things easier as far as delivery with the distance we are from home, they gave me $ to pick one out. I went yesterday & ordered this beautiful chest. I can hardly wait to pick it up when we get back home from vacation!

-We leave for Portland Tuesday at 6 p.m. We're so looking forward to it!

-Last week I bought Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture. It's so inspiring. I think everyone should read it!

Think that's all for now. I'm off to continue the packing process!