My Newest System: Becoming More Domestic

It's 2am again and guess who's blogging...me! A lot of nights I fight sleep I really am tired, but once in a while I'm awake and productive. Tonight is one of the awake and productive nights.

I am my mother's daughter in so many ways. Yes, we have a lot of differences, but I love creating new systems and methods of organizing things. My most recent new system involves another one of our similarities: a love of food! Cooking dinner has become one of those chores I don't look forward to, and after thinking about why, I think it's because I want to be good at it without practicing (sounds like my years of playing piano and flute all over again...haha).

Anyway, numerous family and family friends that I consider talented in the kitchen have given me all sorts of cookbooks over the years. I should be using these resources! So, this past week I pulled a couple cookbooks out and thumbed through, writing down the entrees that I wanted to try (I intentionally skipped over the desserts). Then I did another one of my favorite things: created a spreadsheet! I organized the meals into two categories: "30 minutes or less" and "over 30 minutes." After the spreadsheet was complete, I had Matt pick out six meals for the next two weeks, created a list of groceries to buy and scheduled cooking into my calendar. I'm really excited about trying the following recipes:

• Balsamic-Glazed Pork Chops
• Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry
• Beef Teriyaki
• Big Beef Burger Stack-Ups
• Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry-in-a-Hurry
• Chicken Schnitzel

On a related note, another fun tool I'm excited about is an application on my phone: OurGroceries. It allows me to create a shopping list on my phone that I don't have to worry about losing, but the coolest part: I can share it with Matt so either of us can add / take off anything. That means if either of us goes to the store, we just have to pull the application up to see what's on the list. Isn't that fun??

Mom and Dad Come to Town

I've been intending to write this post all week but just haven't found the time. My parents came up and visited! We had a lot of fun with them while they were here.

The first thing we did was find the train station since they decided to ride it up as opposed to driving or flying. It's actually really close to where we live - only about 5 minutes away. They completely sold me on wanting to take the train down to California sometime, even though it takes longer and seems to always be behind schedule. It sounded much more comfortable than flying and more leisurely than driving. 

After hanging out with us for the night, they went up to visit some family friends on the San Juan Islands. It looks BEAUTIFUL there. I can't wait until Matt and I have a chance to make it up. Not only did they come back with gorgeous pictures, but my mom also found a really cute jacket and an extremely soft alpaca hat and set of gloves. Just from the way they told us about it, I could tell they had a lot of fun visiting.

Over the weekend they were here we did a few different things with them:

Visited Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. Both were pretty cool and worth checking out. I'm my father's daughter, so I liked the Science Fiction Museum better than the music part, although the room where you got to try different instruments was pretty cool, as were the band pictures we got to take!

Wandered around Pike's Place Market for a while. My mom even found this guy selling ocarinas and discovered her favorite ocarina back at home was made by his father. She talked to him for a while and even got to try out one of his flutes.

Finally at ate Ivar's. A few years ago when my parents were dropping me off at school, we took some time to head over to Bainbridge Island to see my dad's cousin. He saw Ivar's from the ferry and decided we should eat there. Of course, we didn't have time that trip since we ate dinner with his cousin on the island, but he remembered it when we were talking about what to do in Seattle, so we took them down to the waterfront so my dad could eat at Ivar's.

Played a rousing game of Scrabble. Back when I was in high school, my mom and I played Scrabble and I won. She refused to play with me again, which just shows how competitive she is. Apparently, she didn't know she was refusing to play with me again and the only reason we didn't play again was because we never got around to it...needless to say, my mom won, but only because I had so many Os. You can't make any good words when you have four Os, two Es, and a U.

Ate at Daddy O's, The Ram, Brewery City Pizza and Safura's  Mediterranean Cuisine. Yes I'm my father's daughter, but I'm also my mother's daughter. I really enjoy eating, so where we eat is usually a highlight for me. The four restaurants above are some of our local favorites. I would also add Koibito to the list - we just didn't have the time to take them there, too.

Took them to church. They decided to stay through the weekend so they could check Life Pointe out. I love how the week they visited, the sermon started with the play as an example of how something might seem over, but it's not. I would have been excited about that any Sunday, but the fact that my dad was there, too...there were two happy Cal fans sitting in that cafeteria.


Needless to say, Matt and I had a great time with my parents. We love it when people visit! Especially people that want to take us out to dinner...although that's not a requirement =)

Late-Night Ramblings

For some reason I like to blog late at night. I guess it's the night owl in me. I just don't like going to bed. Once I'm there I love it, and the rational part of me knows I should go to bed...but it doesn't always happen at a reasonable time. I blame genetics.

Tonight we went out to dinner and a movie with a friend from college. It was really fun! Good food, good conversation, good movie. We saw How to Train Your Dragon in 2D (I'm not a fan of movies in 3D). I won't give anything away, but I will say that it is definitely worth seeing. It's a solid story with the perfect amount of humor mixed in.

I'm excited about Easter coming up on Sunday (I guess that's tomorrow, technically). I love Easter - it's my favorite holiday. Sadly, I won't get to attend the sunrise service and have french toast served to me by teenagers this year, but I did get to help fill Easter eggs and paint the backdrop for pictures earlier this week, and tomorrow I'll get to help pick up garbage and put sandwich board signs together. Plus, on Sunday, I get to help hide Easter eggs, assist with the toddlers and set up/tear down for church. I really like helping, which I've been having fun with. 

As much fun as I have with the annual activities, it's the meaning behind it that I really love. Easter comes but once a year, I wish it could be more. Maybe then we'd have more time to think of what it's for...wait, something about that doesn't seem quite right. Haha. Anyway...I think about the sacrifice Jesus made, and that he's alive and conquered death throughout the year, but I love taking time to recognize it once a year, too. It's really easy to get caught up with everything that needs doing to prepare, but I hope this weekend provides time to really think about why we celebrate, and time and energy to celebrate.

On that note, I really need to get to sleep. If I don't have a chance to blog again within the next few days, have a wonderful Easter - he is risen!

A Much-Needed Update

I know I've been completely ignoring my blog lately and it's been over two months. I've been meaning to post for weeks, but unfortunately haven't found the time. Here are a few quick updates, until I have a chance to really expand on my thoughts:

Matt and I got cell phones! I now have an HTC Driod Eris and completely love it. Last night I finally personalized a bit and made the Firefly theme my ringtone =D I missed having a cell phone during those months we didn't have them. Now with my smart phone I can use Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and Google Calendar right from my phone. I've also gotten into Foursquare and Yelp, too! My new challenge: creating boundaries for embracing social media and being connected online vs shutting it off and being connected with people face-to-face. The good part about that is Matt has no problem telling me it's time to put the phone down.

Side note on Yelp: it's been especially useful in discovering local places to check out. Last week we found a Mediterranean restaurant with Delicious gyros and reasonable prices. Win!

My new favorite board game = Talisman. Our friend Josh introduced us to it, and it's really fun! It's kind of like Dungeons & Dragons, but it's a board game and limited to a few hours (I don't have the attention span to actually play D&D, although I'm not opposed to the concept). We've played it twice so far, and both times were great - except for that part where I was turned into a toad...

It's fun using work skills for personal interests. I'm really excited that I get to help out with marketing at church and use skills I've learned for work to get the word out about Life Pointe. As with all marketing, it takes time, so we've put together a strategy that uses more of a slow and steady approach, but I've been having fun exploring options, and am excited to see how everything unfolds over the next year.

Okay, I know there is a lot more to say, but I also know it's getting late and I should start thinking about going to sleep...I'll try to update more regularly, though, and will include more in my next post.

Puzzle, Pizza and Playing

I finished the jigsaw puzzle! After I'd given up, I wasn't ready to put what I'd done away and Matt started working on it. His progress inspired me to give it another shot and, after a couple of days, we placed the final pieces. Yay for teamwork =) Sadly there was a piece missing even though it was brand new. Oh well, if we'd had it, we would have known where to put it. Here's the completed puzzle:

Every once in a while I crave BLT pizza from Peppe's Pizza (a restaurant I thouroughly enjoyed in Norway). This afternoon we ate at Brewery City Pizza, and I was delighted to discover that their Cool Ranch Chicken was reminiscent of the delicious flavor. Plus the crust on their pizza is amazing. I could really go for some more...

Today was fun! After pizza we hung out at the apartment with a couple of new friends and played Nine Card, a version of Skip-Bo (I won twice, thrice if you count our warm up), and Munchkin, a card game that "captures the essence of the dungeon experience...with none of that roleplaying stuff." I have to say, I personally have nothing against Dungeons & Dragons...it's just not my cup of tea. This game was really fun, though! It took me a while to get the hang of it so I'm eager to give it another try sometime soon. It reminded Matt and me a bit of Quelf, though - especially with the random cards that were really funny.

All in all, we both feel like we're settling into Lacey very nicely. It was fun to connect with a couple of people from church this afternoon, and they live pretty close - that will be nice. I'm also really excited about everything in our apartment being set up, including the pictures on the walls and all our stuff having a home. It's crazy how much more relaxed I feel when there aren't boxes all over and I don't see things that need doing as I look around. Now Matt's Xbox just needs to return from it's journey to Texas and we can enjoy watching DVDs and playing Rock Band again!

Puzzles, Pillsbury and Pictures

I'm not a jigsaw puzzle person. Amazingly enough, I felt like doing a puzzle earlier tonight so I pulled the one I hadn't done yet out of the closet to put it together. It actually entertained me for about 2 hours...and then I couldn't handle it anymore. It didn't help that one of the side pieces is missing. Don't you hate that? It was a brand new puzzle out of the box and there was one side piece missing. Grrr. Anyway, 500 pieces is too much for me...I should stick to the puzzles with bigger and fewer pieces.

You know what I do find relaxing? Baking. After going to the gym 5 days in a row, I felt like I was able to justify baking cookies, so I mixed up the Pillsbury funfetti cookie mix I received for Christmas - which was done much more easily with my brand new hand mixer (also a Christmas present). This was especially nice because my arms were already tired from the gym, so I really didn't need the extra workout for my right arm. I thought we did a good job of spacing the cookie-eating out over a couple of days, too, so we didn't gorge ourselves too much. We should probably reinstate the "no baked goods unless we have someone to share it with" rule, but as we don't know many people in our new town, I have no idea when I would get to bake again...and it's just so fun! If only I had self-cleaning mixing bowls and baking pans, too...

I must say, now that our apartment is 95% complete (all we have left is hanging a couple pictures in the bedroom, although we did put some up in the living and dining room), I feel very accomplished. Within a week, we made more progress than we did in Bremerton (we never got around to hanging our pictures up). It's amazing how a little extra space and a better laid-out floor plan can help. It's kind of fun to move into a new place and reorganize everything again...although I'd like to hold off on moving again for at least a year or two if possible =)

Christmas, New Year's and the Move

It’s been a super-long time since I’ve posted anything. Things have been busy! We decided to move to Lacey on November 30 and got our new apartment December 1. After two weeks of shuttling our smaller stuff down to our new place, we rented a truck for our bigger furniture and loaded/unloaded it (with a HUGE thanks to those that were able to help). The day after we moved the big stuff down, Comcast came to set up our Internet and phone, and we drove down to California for three weeks.

While we were in California, we had a great time celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with family and a few friends. I have a lot to say about the last month, so I’ll break it into chunks for your skimming convenience ;)

Dead Laptop
Isbjorn, my most recent laptop, died this past month. Apparently computers don’t work when they can’t find the hard drive. Despite the frustration, a part of him lives on in Matt’s laptop as the battery was able to replace his broken energy source.

Joe’s Crab Shack
If you have a chance to go to a Joe's Crab Shack, I definitely recommend it! We went to the one in San Francisco with a few friends even though I can’t eat crab or shellfish. Their burger was good, though, and the servers dance. Ours even got up on the table to get her groove on! She also convinced half our table to get up and dance with her (and the other servers).

Family Events
We had a great time seeing family for a variety of Christmas activities including:

• Christmas Breakfast at the Claremont Hotel with Matt’s family.
• Decorating Matt’s parent’s Christmas tree to the Oak Ridge Boys.
• Christmas Eve with my family.
• Christmas day with Matt’s family.
• Indonesian Chicken Curry in Woodland with my family.
• Disneyland with my family.
• Traveling through Redding and Portland to see Matt’s grandparents and Moses (our nephew), Cara and Dustin (his parents). Okay, that’s not really Christmas...but it was fun.

Other Fun Stuff
Here are the other exciting activities we were able to experience while we were in California:

• We had a chance to see a few friends in the area that timing worked out with. Activities included Spades (yay team Women!), hanging out in San Francisco, various dinners and watching movies.
• We saw Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. I really liked Avatar, even though I’m not a huge fan of 3-D. I actually forgot it was 3-D while I was watching it. Sherlock Holmes was fun, too, although it wasn’t the best movie ever. I would recommend renting it instead of spending the money on a movie ticket.
• The Browns won the last four games of the season! Even though it was a rough year, ending on a good note was nice.
• We got a free cake for our 1st anniversary! The baker that made our wedding cake included one free cake for the first anniversary, and she agreed that it would be easier to pick it up a month late instead of shipping it to Washington. As we expected, it tasted delicious =)
  

Disneyland
Just for the record, Disneyland is really busy on New Year’s Eve. I’ve never seen lines that long. Especially in the ladies’ room. I really appreciated that Disney knows how to handle crowds, so we were able to get where we wanted to go. That was very convenient. A few more comments about this trip to Disneyland:

• The new dragon in Fantasmic! looks really cool. WAY better than the first one.
• Certain foods just taste better at Disneyland. Like churros. And corn dogs. I’m pretty sure Dole Whip tastes good everywhere, but I’ve only had it at Disneyland so I can’t be sure.
• If you lose an Indiana Jones hat on Grizzly River Run, there is a chance you’ll get it back. It just might not look the same. Chris’ hat decided our raft wasn’t good enough for it and jumped out on a drop...and then sat in the water for a while before Disney mailed it back. Sadly I haven’t seen the recovered hat, but I can’t wait for pictures (hint, hint Chris)!
• Disney’s merchandise this year is really cute! I was very proud of myself for not giving in to temptation and buying something.
• I won a Dumbo! The boardwalk area of California Adventure was completely re-themed to include Disney prizes. We played the clowns running up the ladder game (where the water shoots out of the cannon and you hit the target to make them go) and I won =)

Our New Apartment
We love it! Not only is it bigger than our last place and include a pool, hot tub, gym, sauna, etc...the rent is the same price! As much as I love that there’s a gym on-site, that also means I have no excuses not to use the gym on site. We’ve been really good about going over the past week. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it up!

We’re also almost completely set up. We have a few more pictures to hang up and need to find spots for a few more items, but all in all it’s starting to feel like home. It’s nice how quickly we were able to get settled. So far the only thing I don’t like about the apartment is the lack of counter space – both for cooking and for stacking dirty dishes. Haha.

Of course, I can't possibly include an entire 3 weeks that were full of activities into one blog post, but that's pretty much the gist of what's been going on in our lives lately.