surprise...I'm home!!!

I was awakened at 2:30 p.m. from my eractic daytime sleep after working Tuesday night to the door bell.

Unless I am expecting someone I typically don't answer the door when I'm sleeping during the day because a) I'm trying to sleep, b) I usually look horrible, c) I typically don't want to talk to whoever is there.

So the doorbell rang & rang again so I'm working my way to the door (meanwhile, Sadie is flipping out).

I took 1 step into the living room & there, looking through our picture window, was my wonderful husband with a big smile on his face.

I was so elated to see him that it took me a few minutes to even ask him why he was home. Turns out, a transformer blew somewhere on campus shutting off power to his lab. He couldn't get much work done with no power, so he came home.

It was the nicest surprise!

Bible study & bean soup saga

I have been a member of a women's Bible study through church for almost 3 years now.
It's been such a good way for me to meet new ladies & fellowship with them.
When I joined our Bible study, we were having anywhere from 4-8 ladies each week.
Over the last year, we've had nights with just 2 or 3 of us.
Over the last month we have been blessed to see as many as 12 ladies at our Monday night studies!
It truly is a blessing!

Now...on to the bean soup saga...
I have been in the mood for bean soup (random, I know).
While grocery shopping a few weeks ago I found a bag of 16 bean soup mix & then bought some little soup noodles to add to it.
Chris & I decided we wanted it for dinner on Monday night.
Monday morning I soaked the beans & then started cooking Monday at noon.
The beans & water took up maybe a 1/4 of my big soup pot to start with.
I cooked & cooked & cooked them until they finally seemed to get more tender.
I added the pasta about 5 as the beans seemed to be near reaching optimum tenderness.
By this point, my soup pot is about 1/2 full with beans, water & pasta.

What we ended up with was 1 nearly overflowing soup pot of bean soup with too tender pasta & not tender enough beans.
I was so frustrated with how what was supposed to be a simple meal had turned out to be so difficult.
I asked Chris twice if I was a bad cook...lucky for both of us he said no!
All we could do was laugh.
There's a ton of soup left to eat!
Luckily the entire meal cost less than $4 so I won't feel bad having to throw some out when we grow tired of eating it.

Who knew bean soup could be so challenging???

101st post...

I just realized that my butterfly picture post was my 100th post on my blog!

This makes 101!!!

I love blogging.

butterflies!

Sadie & I ventured to our little local Northgate Park this morning to enjoy the beautiful day.

There is a huge butterfly bush there...the biggest I've ever seen. There were indeed butterflies hanging out close by & I snapped several pictures.

love it!

I am in love with this coffee table from Pottery Barn.
I love everything at Pottery Barn, but this is exactly what I've been looking for.
It's $299 there, so I'm hoping to find something just like it cheaper somewhere else.
It's definitely simple, but sometimes simple is what you need.

I love it!

falling leaves...

A sure sign that fall is here!

I love everything about fall.

I love the colors of the leaves,
the crispness in the air,
and the cool mornings & evenings.

It's truly my favorite time of the year!

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!