10 (long winded) reasons that Seattle is a great city

1. It is nice enough year round to always be able to exercise outside. Today I went running in the 55 degree weather, mid January!
2. Coffee is delicious and plentiful. Espresso of any kind can be found only minutes away.
3. There are many Ethnic food restaurants that are AMAZING; our favorites are Korean food, the authentic taco place and Taste of India.
4. It is so scenic! On a clear day you can see gorgeous mountains in every direction.
5. It is close to so many out door activities, including lots of skiing choices and endless hiking and camping opportunities.
6. There is fluoride in the water! :)
7. People here seem to value exercise. Especially at Green lake (where we are a lot) there are always people jogging or walking, and in general every one looks fit.
8. Trader Joe's is here! Which is my favorite store!
9. The church in Seattle is great, lots of awesome and enjoyable saints.
10. Matt and Jenn live here. And we are incredible people; definitely worth living close to. ;)

Some more photos...by request!!!

James, here are some more photos of our lovely gingerbread party/gathering. I don't have a ton, but a few!
Okay, this next one isn't from the party, but it is our own little version of an awkward family photo!


Hey mom! How are you doing on your photo a day? Keep it up and it will be great. I have started to do a little mini version of that where I take a photo a day and keep it in a 4x6 album. It is my attempt at not scrapbooking EVERY LITTLE THING! (Matt says my books are too fat and Renae recently counted them and there are ELEVEN. I am getting the drift.)

A few photos from the weekend...

...Sorry for my bad attitude on Saturday. Things have been looking up a bit.

The gingerbread party was fun. Even Matt liked it!

We got to have a little mini date at Rockwood bakery...

And the first thing I did in the New Year was run at Bowl & Pitcher with Rachel. I am so glad that I started my year out right!

A few thoughts...

1) This blog is pretty silly, why do I write here?
2) I am in Spokane and I miss Seattle.
3) I miss my kitty Leo.
4) I miss my sis & bro in law.
5) This is the first year that I am not looking forward to the gingerbread party.
6) I also miss Joy.
7) I like chatting with my parents.
8) I like sneaking into North Park.
9) I am having a hard time liking my life or myself right now.
10) This is the first year I don't have any resolutions.

Sorry to be so gloomy.
Tomorrow will be a better day.

Fun Weekend!

I am hanging out with Renae at the moment...we are watching friends and I did some scrapbooking. Overall today has been pretty chill; not too much going on around here.

But this weekend has been crazy! Of course there was Christmas eve with the Ussery's, which turned out to be a lot of fun. We spent the night there on Thursday night and then rushed home to make a quick fruit salad for Annie's lunch/dinner. A lot of people were over, which was a lot of fun. That night I ran stairs with Peter and then we hung out at Pete & Hannah's for the evening. Hannah's brother John is in town and Renae & Joe showed up as well. We had a slight fiasco with a pizza collapsing at the bottom of the oven!

Saturday was fun, we went to snoqualmie falls, then to Hans' for TONS of food and stayed there talking for hours. It has been a very social weekend and its nice right now to just sit here and poke around on the internet while Renae finishes her last scrapbook page. I can't believe this long weekend is already over and I have to go to work tomorrow, AHHH!!!

Christmas Eve Eve

Technically today is Christmas Eve Eve, which means that today was my last day of work and I have FOUR DAYS OFF! Tonight I finished making some gift tags and tonight when Matt gets home I will wrap the remainder of my gifts. I made gift tags with some Christmas paper from Heather and I cut out shapes with my slice and embossed the "to/from." I added stickles of course; a project of mine would not be complete without glitter. Here is a photo (although not the best):
My kitty Leo was very involved in the process. His head was probably about one inch from mine while I embossed. He is a very crafty cat.

I am so excited for the weekend! We have friends coming into town as well as family get-togethers, honey-baked ham on Friday, snowboarding Saturday and hopefully lots of relaxation and fun. :)

Sunday Blues

Almost every week I get what I consider the Sunday Evening Blues. Basically it is dread of another weekend being over and another week of work beginning the next day. There is absolutely nothing to look forward to on Sunday nights, so I usually do pretty much nothing. Today I did a few things, none of them memorable, although some of them mentionable:

1) I finished my lousy 2-pager. It isn't as lousy anymore, I used some cool two sided ribbon that i twisted around and I also used some awesome chipboard swirlies from Renae.
2) Matt & I found a new Asian Market, complete with a Pho place & frozen yogurt place inside.
3) I reorganized my scrapbook room (yes, again.) Renae, I may be more like my mom than I once thought!
4) I have drank two cups of Winter Blend coffee from TJ's.
5) I watched a cute video online about how to make some cute gift tags: http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=2677

And I have a few photos from a more memorable yesterday:

Tiffany & Ryan in Seattle for Dim Sum:
Christmas Day party at Aunt Marie's (it was a little early!)