Memorial Day Weekend!

Its here! I live for four day weekends like this...and they only come around a few times a year. So today I am celebrating! Its Friday and I don't have to go to work!

We will be heading to Eastern Washington for a little rainy camping trip. The last couple of days have been full of preparations...list making, packing, buying food etc. Our house was already a bike shop before this (Ie: 5 bikes on the premise...seems like bikes in every room). So now we have camping stuff AND bikes and its just a lot of FUN chaos! Hopefully we will get on the road pretty soon. We just have some last minute packing and have to load the car.
I thought I'd post a photo...Even kitty is excited about Matt's new bike!

This photo really captures a piece of our life, even though the lighting is terrible! We tend to not get very much light in our place because our few windows face South and have lots of trees outside. You can see our yummy fruit in the photo (we eat TONS of fruit) and Matt's lap top on the floor with his bowl of soup (empty). We both love lying on the floor in front of the computer and almost every day Matty eats his favorite lentil soup.

Well have a great weekend! I am sure I will be back with lots of photos! I think last Memorial day Weekend I took 300+ photos. Yeah...I'm a little crazy. ;)

As promised (yet late)

Mountain biking photos!

Every year I have promised myself that I would join Matt at one of his XC mountain bike races. Yet every year I fail to follow through!

My nice friend Ellen let me borrow her bike. On Wednesday Matty and I did some practice riding at Duthie Hill in Issaquah...
(These photos were taken with my cell phone...not bad eh?)

Then today I entered in my first race as a beginner! There were only three women that entered in the beginner race, so I got to be on the podium! Even though I was last, I had a blast. I rode with the women most of the way and just got behind at the end when I had to walk my bike through most of the tricky stuff. The important thing is that I finished and had fun!
We did a little bit of camping the night before at Dungeness Spit, between Sequim and Port Angeles. We had a blast this weekend! We will be camping next weekend and the weekend after that as well, and this will be a great kick start to our summer.
Can't wait to go back!

A Scrappy Post

Beware to most of my readers who are not scrapbookers! This post is all about scrapbooking. Ha!

It all started when Leo woke me up VERY early on Thursday morning and I was not able to return to sleep after I had gotten up and emptied his litter box.

After breakfast and coffee and some internet perusing I decided not to waste my time!

So I started to scrapbook.

This may sound impossible to most of you, but now that I have my new phone I have been taking MORE photos. Yes, like 50 in the last two days. And my phone was next to me as a scrapbooked, so I took a few photos of my process. I did some fun misting and used my typewriter.

This misting technique I am copying from April Foster...got the idea *here*. April's Insider Tips

This is my fancy paper bag misting system! Funny...but now all I can think of is how I can use these misted white circles. Yes I am keeping them. (I am a little obcessive)

This is my mess.

I used my typewriter to make my own "stickers."

I used my phone to try out different options for the title. (These chipboard stickers don't stick AT ALL, so this wasn't hard.) I took photos two different ways to see what I liked better. I didn't like this option:

Here is my completed page! I have noticed since getting some papers from Five & Dime, that my pages have recently been very vintage! I am okay with the new look.

I used some of my favorite products. Sassafras Border stamps and KI Memories stickers.

http://store.scrapbook.com/ki-4935.html (this is the website for these stickers) Not sure how to link it, sorry!)

Here is my room, even more messy! Don't worry, its all cleaned up now.

Thanks for looking! Non-scrappy people, if you survived this, Congratulations! I will be back tomorrow with some MOUNTAIN BIKING PHOTOS!!! (Yes, I just said that.)

The Perfect Tuesday

A nice day in Seattle! This means that the entire city gets outside! I love seeing all of the activity. On my way home from work I was lucky enough to just park my car on Green lake way (which is my route home) and run around the lake. I used my awesome phone to track my run...3.2 miles in 26 minutes. I ran an 8.15 mile. And then I did 4 chin ups at the bar which is at Green lake park.

There were tons of people. I saw people running, walking, canoeing, kayaking and biking. This is my favorite time of year in Seattle! It is almost always gloomy and we Seattle-ites totally APPRECIATE every minute of sunshine when we can!

Love this day. Love the smells and sun and light and energy.

Another Rainy Sunday

After just two days of semi-nice weather, the rain is at it again!
Fortunately at least my morning plans involve some indoor activity. Matt and I are headed to Pete's coffee where we will relax a little before the meeting. I have to finish all my children meeting planning. We are learning about James and John today, who followed Jesus when they were mending their nets. Since there is a conference, there will be twice as many kids!

My other plans for today include:
Cooking lunch and dinner (no eating out today! We did enough of that yesterday!)
Maybe meeting the girls for coffee or another such get together
Swimming and hot tubbing at the gym (my legs are toast!)
Possibly watching Matty put together his brand new bike! Its now a box in our hallway.
Using my awesome new phone!This is my phone, except mine is prettier. It has a pretty pink flower background. ;)

I will try to appreciate a rainy Sunday. Maybe I will even find time to scrapbook!

Happy Weekend!

Photos from my weekend: May 6-8

Its been awhile since I uploaded any photos...I am pretty behind. I am also behind on scrapbooking since I have not done it in a few weeks! Actually tonight I managed to make one page and I am so proud and happy about that. :)

Sometimes when my life gets crazy and stressful I forget to be creative. Only it turns out that creativity is actually an OUTLET for my stress. I feel much better after playing with paper, paint, ink, stamps and stickers.

So quickly I thought I would share a few photos from my weekend. Matty and I traveled to Pullman where we watched my wonderful brother and his wonderful wife GRADUATE from college. Even though we sat through TWO graduation ceremonies, we actually had a great time. Here is me with James' awesome hat! He got the idea when Josie was bedazzling her own hat with a sequin shaped cougar footprint...and then he went crazy engineer on the hat and made a "Tassel-Castle."
And here is another shot of the hat as I also capture James downloading his air horn application. Funny guy!
Congratulations James and Josie!
And meanwhile Matty is filling up on stale pretzel! I shouldn't give him a hard time...he deserves a break. This is what happened to him on Friday...
Yes, that is right. My poor husband rolled his ankle at Cross fit and it swelled to twice the size.

But on a happier note to end this post...a mother's day photo!
Here we all are at James and Josie's graduation party. We thought we would give Mom the spot light for about 2 minutes. ;) I love how we are all wearing pink.

My favorite things...

Since I don't have my awesome weekend photos uploaded onto my computer yet, I thought I would update my blog with my new favorite things!


Almond milk...I love this stuff! Its delicious and only 40 calories per cup, which is half of regular milk! It doesn't have a lot of protein but I usually get my protein from other sources.
My favorite shoes! They are the barefoot shoes by Merrell and I LOVE them. I use them for all my runs except my longest runs. I have to break them in, but so far I have run four miles in these guys. They are awesome!
Tall Starbucks Americano...only costs $2.15! I have the barista add steamed soy on top and it always tastes delicious! Someone at the Green Lake Starbucks told me this tip and I am so grateful. No more lattes for me!

Studio Calico is a kit that I have gotten recently that I really love. This month I will be getting October Afternoon 5&Dime papers, which is another favorite and I cannot wait!
Sorry for such a silly post! I will be back soon with some real content, especially photos and Bloomsday update!

By the way, my time was 1:05 for the Bloomsday 12k. Not so bad!