Summer Stuff.

Well, we all know how I like for everything to have it's place and to be in it, so though I am dying to blog about our trip, I just can't bring myself to post things unchronologically (not actually a word, but I just made it one), and there are summer photos that simply must be posted first. So here they are, real quick like. I'll keep the descriptions to a minimum.

At the beginning of the summer, Scott and Kristen came up for a weekend to help us with a couple of home improvement projects.

We really wanted a granite bar out on our balcony. I was sure this was going to be a ridiculously expensive project but with Scott's expertise and trunk full of tools, it really wasn't bad at all. They found this 7 foot slap of granite for only $100 and the color matches our house perfectly!

The boys also installed a sink and cabinet in our laundry room, which looks great.

It looks AWESOME!! Now if only we could afford the barstools to sit at it...

I learned how to make baklava this summer thanks to my sister Amanda.

She requested it for a fundraising event before her trip to the Middle East this summer. She's been working on a documentary for a while now. See more here: http://withinbrokenborders.com/theyshallbecalled

I didn't even know that I liked baklava until I made it. It was incredible!! Steven asks for it on a weekly basis though I haven't made it since then.

Steven and I started doing a little picnicking this summer. We found that Lake Wilderness is a lovely, quiet spot to spend the sunny afternoons and enjoyed driving over there with snacks, our cribbage board, and a huge jar of homemade iced tea.

I hosted/taught a cooking class this summer. It was a growth group for our church and also kind of an experiment for me since I do want to actually start teaching cooking classes. It was a great experience. I learned a lot and, fortunately, so did my students! It was a very rewarding growth group. The only problem was that we had such a fabulous summer here in Seattle. I had to host my group in 90+ degree weather on more than one occasion, which is what sparked dishes like this one -- Sesame peanut noodles: no oven necessary, can be prepped ahead and served cold. Yum. We make these noodles frequently.

 We went swing dancing with Tim and Annika one night and had such an amazing time!

My goodness are we out of shape though. We were sweaty and exhausted less than halfway through the evening.

My mom got a puppy for her birthday. His name is Jameson and he is stinking adorable. And crazy. I don't ever want a puppy! Way too much work. He's awesome though.

Steven loves him. It's the cutest thing.

We also hosted a movies-in-the-park group with church this summer. We ended up skipping most of the movies and just having potlucks instead.

Paige stopped by for a quick visit over her cousin's wedding weekend at the end of July -- always a treat to see her!

And I learned how to make sweet potato gnocchi. With a sage butter sauce. I could eat this every day.

We celebrated Heather's 30th birthday with a Woodinville tasting tour that included Project V (Chai Vodka), Mac & Jack's, Woodinville Whiskey Company (the best bourbon, and vanilla vodka), Redhook, Sky River (mead -- we love honey!), and Silver Lake Winery. It was such a fun day!!

I learned how to char peppers -- not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. Just remember to wear gloves when you actually skin the peppers.

Lena and Aaron moved to Iowa for med school and it was the saddest but we're super excited for them. Lena and I did take advantage of the nice weather just before she left and walked around Greenlake together. We even stopped at Chocolati for a treat.

I discovered a recipe for browned butter sugar cookies. Speechless. I can't even describe to you how life changing this was. They're the best.

I also made crab cakes for the first time -- awesome! A little chipotle lime aioli, cheddar biscuits and some steamed green beans. Yum.

I also spent many MANY hours helping my mom move out of her condo and back into my childhood home.

This would have been much easier without the puppy, but he did make everything more entertaining.

Here's Jameson with his daddy, Guinness. They both love to ride in the car. In fact, Guinness was so freaked out about the move that we often could not get him out of the car.

I spent my 26th birthday being pampered by my amazing husband. Out to breakfast, new backpack at REI, a walk downtown, lunch at Red Robin, See's chocolates on the way home and P.F. Chang's for dinner. Um, we like food. A lot.

Steven worked at the Creation Festival one day this summer and got to hangout backstage while Audio Adrenaline performed -- pretty awesome!

Hilde came to visit! We just love having her around!! She and I picked blackberries and made ice cream with them.

Packing, oiy. This took DAYS and I was actually really stressed about it. I wanted to be able to pack everything I needed without overpacking. It was very tricky and I'm not entirely sure that I succeeded but it all worked out okay.

And then the quilt. I decided months ago that I was going to make a quilt as a wedding gift for our friends Laura and Alex. We couldn't attend their wedding this summer because it was about a month before our big trip and we simply couldn't justify the extra trip to England. Anyhow, in my usual procrastination fashion, I waited to start this quilt until about two weeks before we needed to leave. It was a mad dash to the end but it all got done. This quilt was much larger and more complicated than I had originally anticipated but turned out beautifully.

Pink with just a bit of green -- Laura and Alex's wedding colors.

Three different pink fabrics. This chevron quilt is made out of triangles, which are beyond obnoxious to work with. It has a green border and green binding and green flannel on the back.

And the day before our big trip, we celebrated our third anniversary a few days early with Mom and Tara at Purple.

Phew! I can't believe what an incredible summer we had and that I still have a month-long vacation to blog about!! It is going to be so ridiculously hard for me to choose which photos to post so this may take a few days but I'm excited to start working on it!

My First Quilt.

Well, I uploaded these photos a couple of weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting them. I've been wanting to get into quilting for quite a while now but have always been very intimidated by the process and lack of knowledge in the area of sewing in general. When I found out that a coworker of mine is due to have a baby this August, I knew that my gift to her would be a quilt. I just think that a handmade quilt for your new baby would be such a special thing to receive. When I told people what I was working on they would say things like, "Wow, what a labor of love. You must like her a lot." Huh, well, actually, we hardly know each other. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It was a HUGE project and I wish I had logged my hours because I am curious to know how much time I actually spent on it. Maybe should have started with an easier quilt...

 

The nine patch blocks (the small pile under the scissors in the above photo) weren't very difficult and were actually really fun to put together. That bad part was when I realized that somehow I was sewing 3/8 inch seams instead of 1/4 inch seams -- EEEK! I was losing 1/4 of an inch on every block! This caused problems later in the process.

The quilt pattern that I chose was, I think, rather difficult for a beginner such as myself. Around midnight the first night I was working on the quilt, I got to the appliqué portion of the project. I spent the next forty minutes on various websites and watching youtube tutorials before diving right in. That's right, I taught myself. No big deal.

So tedious!!! As I was tracing and cutting out the letters I thought to myself, "I will never do this again!" But, of course, as the project came together and started to look freaking awesome, I decided that I probably would choose to do something like this again at some point in time.

Putting the pieces together -- major problem: lack of floor space to lay everything out. Ha! I barely had enough room.

I had a major frustration when I first started laying out the pieces because the book I was using gave me the wrong measurements for the blue triangles -- they were ALL cut wrong!!! I frantically looked around on the internet trying to figure out if I had made a mistake only to find that the book is indeed wrong and the publisher has a spot for "corrections" on their website. Well it never occurred to me to get on their website and double check to make sure the pattern I was using didn't have any corrections posted online, but it will in the future. I sent them a (mostly) respectful but obviously irritated e-mail and received a prompt and apologetic reply with a $25 credit to their online store. I don't even think the measurements in the correction posted online were quite right so I trusted my instincts, did a little math and cut them the way I knew I needed to. I had just enough fabric to fix the error.

And now let's see if you can spot the error in the next photo... And I'm not talking about the fact that the "y & z" aren't quite centered on their square. (I'm so embarrassed, I can't believe I even included this but it's somewhat humorous and a mistake I will NEVER make again!!!)

Um, yeah, after a week of looking at this out on the floor (because I didn't have time to move forward with it just then) I finally looked down and thought to myself, "Wait, there's no 'n' in that part of the alphabet!?" Shoot shoot shoot!!! I had the "u" right side up initially but it somehow got flipped when I was piecing things together and I didn't even notice. Oiy. I had to get real creative when ripping it out and putting it back in. I hope Sue and Grandma Barb aren't reading this... so embarrassing.

And we're finished! Oh man that was a lot of work! And machine quilting in the middle of the night when you have no idea what you're doing and have just been hit hard with a terrible head cold was just no fun at all. I only quilted on the diagonal lines just to hold everything together. Basting was stupid. I'd much rather baste a turkey. I will use pins next time.

And blue flannel on the back. I LOVED the Berenstain Bears fabric -- it was hard to part with. It turned out really cool but I didn't actually want to keep it because I know where every single mistake is and that would have made me crazy. I hope the new momma and baby love it though, if not, I want it back :) It was a great process to go through but I really want to do my next quilt right. I want a real quilter to hold my hand and walk me through the process. Steven has a coworker who is having a baby at the end of the summer. I would love to make one for them to but we'll see if it actually gets done in time.

What an accomplishment!! Glad to have the first one out of the way.

Retired at 25.

I have just completed my first week of intentional unemployment. For the very first time in over four years I am choosing not to begin the frantic search for a teaching job for the next school year.

I have had some weird jobs and worked at some crazy schools but this last year did me in! I'll be honest, it only took me the first few days at my new (first-ever-full-time-teaching) job last fall to realize that I was in the wrong place. If you have been in contact with me over the last 10 months  you will remember that I was somewhat miserable: grumpy, irritable, and frustrated, but trying my best to finish out the school year on a positive note. Early on in the school year (uh... halfway through week 1), I really didn't think I was going to make it and seriously considered quitting right away. I hated the idea of quitting and really just wanted to prove (to myself!) that I could teach a full year of school and that my education, teaching certificate, and years spent filling out applications weren't a waste.

The teaching wasn't the difficult part -- that I loved -- but the rest was a bit of a mess. A few months into the year I knew I would survive until June, but Steven was begging me to pursue other employment opportunities. That poor husband of mine has suffered just as much as I have through the ups and downs of my terrible teaching jobs these past few years. I told him that I just had to finish but promised that I wouldn't sign up for another year once it was over. From that point on, I made a real effort to keep work at work and cut my hours back to my contracted hours instead of my I-just-feel-obligated-and-overwhelmed-and-how-the-heck-will-all-of-this-ever-get-done hours, because everything always gets done in the end anyway. We did finally make it to the end and last Thursday was my last day of work. I celebrated with an evening in the kitchen, feeling happy and free.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Overall, I count the experience as a blessing. It provided an extra income during our first year as homeowners. It introduced me to Heather, who has become a very dear friend. It made me so stressed and anxious in just the first two weeks that it sent me back to Chris's zumba classes in Enumclaw where I have found great happiness, friendship, and an even smaller waistline -- though it did nothing to diminish the size of my ridiculously wide hips ;) It also gave me the chance to speak into the lives of some very special kiddos (most of them anyway) and their families for a short period of time. And when it was all said and done, I finally came to the conclusion that I am not meant to be a classroom teacher right now. That might change, who knows, my life plans tend to change especially where jobs are concerned, we'll just have to wait and see. It was somewhat heartbreaking to let go of teaching and I still want to cry just thinking about it. I mean, come on! A teacher and a firefighter, how adorable are we?! But seriously, teaching is so much a part of my identity that the idea of removing it from my life has been rather painful. I believe I am good at it and there are many aspects of teaching that I love but it just hasn't worked out for us the way it was supposed to and I need to stop trying so hard to make it happen. I suppose I will always be a teacher, just maybe not in the traditional sense.

So, here I am. I have decided not to seek full-time employment for two reasons, 1) that schedule doesn't really work so well for us if we want to see each other (don't know how the other FF wives do it!) and 2) I really can't think of anything full-time that I'm interested in doing right now and I am definitely not just going to run out and find a job for the sake of having a job. I've had enough of that. I'm hoping to be self-employed and to focus on things that I am truly passionate about. This will include food, zumba, singing, blogging, and probably much more. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted as usual.

Hope your summer is off to a spectacular start!

Cheers,
Steph

May Days.

I can hardly believe that tomorrow is the last day of this month. It went by so fast!! We are down to 6 days left of school. The kids' last day is Friday, June 7th, and then we have a full week of in-service days, so I will be working until 4pm on Friday the 14th and then I am a free lady! Wahoo! I'm so excited.

It has been a very busy month full of birthdays (Papa, Canyon, Tim, Mandie, Barry, Rick, Andrea, Grammi, and - tomorrow! - Chad), family dinners, house guests, report cards (a 5 week work in progress), crazy weather, and quilting projects.

This particular project is actually on hold right now. I've been spending most of my time on another one which I will post very soon. 

We have had some beautiful weather this month, followed by some cold, dark, rainy days in recent weeks. Fortunately, the first week of June looks promising weather-wise and I think our sunshine will be back for a bit.

On one of those spectacularly sunny days (we had a weekend that was in the 80's followed by a Monday that reached 90!!) we met up with Jon and Caitlin at Houghton and the next day went to Newport Beach for a picnic with Tim and Annika.

What a beautiful weekend that was!! I was sort of hoping that it was the official start to summer but I should've known better. What's Memorial Day weekend without a little rain anyway? Besides, it's always tough to finish out the school year strong when it's just one warm sunny day after another. Believe me, there's a reason even people like me start skipping class at the first sign of a little Seattle sunshine :)

Steven and I hosted family dinner that weekend for Steven's and Papa's birthdays -- it's way more work than I thought! We had fun though and it was really great to have the whole family over to our place. We had fish tacos and German chocolate cake. Yum.

The first full week of May brought teacher appreciation week. I think my favorite part was the beautiful bouquet that showed up on my desk on Monday morning. All of the families brought in bunches of flowers and then they worked together to piece them into bouquets for each of us. One of my students, who regularly announces that she wishes Mrs. Lentz were her mom, special ordered my flowers and I definitely had the prettiest bunch. She told her mom that I like orange and she worked really hard to keep mine coordinated. Loved it. My other favorite thing was the tin of Paris tea that was in my gift basket. Spot on. I know that same student picked that gift out for me as well -- glad to have her on my team! A few things to note in the picture above: the potted lily is now dying on our balcony (I'm not good with plants), that walkie-talkie is our PA system (no joke), one of my students painted that horse for me and brought it to school with a little adoption certificate that says it's an Arabian even though she painted it just like an Appaloosa, and Paige, my pen cup is the SF mug you brought back for me from a Quest trip many years ago.

This was also the week that a parent of one of my kids came up to me and said, "I don't understand. At the beginning of the year we couldn't get [him] to pick up a book and now he gets in the trouble all of the time because he won't put them down! What did you do to him?!?" Haha! Such a big compliment! It made me feel so good. It's true, that student gets in trouble everyday for getting too distracted by books and not doing his work, but it makes me so happy to see how he devours books that I just don't really say anything.

We took a little trip to Century Link (can I still call it Quest) Field for an early Mothers Day celebration.  Steven had to work and I felt terrible going to a Sounders game without him, but we did have a really good time.

Aren't we cute? Oh my gosh. So grown up. I can't even handle it. Weren't we just a mom and three little girls a little bit ago? It's crazy.

Um, wow. Coconut cream pie in a jar. Perfection. And not only did it look incredible, it tasted amazing as well.

We also shared a gluten free cherry pie and a slice of peach pie.

You should probably check this place out.

Following a Sounders win and a little pie, we went back to Mom's to help Tara get ready for her senior prom. Doesn't she look great?!

Mother's Day we, of course, spent playing board games with my mom and then had dinner at Uncle Scott's house. Jeremy and Ronnie were in town for the weekend and spent the night with us that night. This is what I woke up to the next morning:

Yes, it's true, the boys had been up until 3am with board games, an xbox, Jameson, and the quesadilla maker.

We had more houseguests the next weekend when Paige, her boyfriend Rob, her friend Katelyn, and Katelyn's friend Teresa came to stay for a few days. We kicked off the weekend with a Sounders game (another victory!). We split up for dinner prior to the game and Steven and I got to celebrate Tim's birthday with a big group of friends at Red Robin on the pier. Tim and Annika went with us to the game as well.

It wasn't a warm day but the sunset was incredible!

What a view!

Normally, the cranes are not my favorite and I try to steer the camera away from them, but I thought they looked pretty cool silhouetted by the bright clouds.

Paigey!! I still think we take the best "roommate photos." We could certainly do without those three in the back though... I so loved having Paige here! It was exciting to finally show her our new house and to get to meet Rob. I love hosting anyway but it was really such a treat to have my bestie in town for a few days. I even took Monday morning off work for a little date at La Reve with Paige. It was wonderful. Very grounding. There's something so assuring about spending quality time with a girlfriend who really knows your heart.

Friends! We love those two.

Last weekend we had dinner with Scott and Chloe. The food was absolutely incredible (nothing new there!) and the company was even better. Scott made pork enchiladas and I brought a flourless chocolate torte. It was a lovely evening. Always love a good dinner date with the Vegas. Steven worked most the rest of the holiday weekend but I did get to go to the Mariners game with Papa and Grammi and Uncle Barry on Monday. It was really cool to be there on Memorial Day. They honored veterans many different times throughout the game and we got to hear some really interesting stories. Baseball has that "all-American" kind of feel and I always think the field looks beautiful with big bright American flags everywhere.

Steven and I have taken a bit more time to start planning our big vacation. I'll have to make more time for planning once school is out because there's still so much to do!

Other than that, I've just been scrambling to finish the school year. We have a lot of fun stuff coming up next week including a French themed day, field day, and the year end celebration, which is a formal event! I will be wearing my dress from Ashton Ball freshman year :) Ha! Always fun to dress up!!

Other random highlights from the month:

> Scott's homemade hot sauce. Changed my life.

> Iron Man 3 - loved it. Pepper is my favorite.

> Ellen Degeneres's Clumsy Thumbsy. Freaking hilarious. We laughed so hard we cried.

> We got a new MacBook Pro -- I felt like a traitor doing it but, I secretly love it. Shhh! Don't tell. I am endlessly grateful to Microsoft (and my Dad, duh) for all it (he) has provided me over the years. He no longer works for them so that makes me less of a traitor, right?

> One of my students announced the other day that this is the 1st year she's ever not wanted summer break to come and she wishes this school year could just keep going. It made my heart happy.

> Dark Chocolate Coconut Almonds from Costco. Holy cow!

> I am planning to use my crockpot for the first time tomorrow.

It has been a crazy spring and I am ready to welcome the summer months! Have a great weekend! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD!!

The Laundry Room.

My husband is too good to me. We already know this, of course, but I had a very fun surprise for me when I came home from work today. One of the first things he said to me when I got home from work was, "Hey, can you move the laundry from the washer to the dryer while you're upstairs? I forgot to do it earlier, sorry about that." Ummm... okay. I wasn't offended or anything but I was a little surprised. I mean, I had just gotten home from work and as far as I knew he had been home all day. He could've at least put a beer in my hand before sending me upstairs to do chores! But then I opened the laundry room door and saw this:

If you've never done laundry in my laundry room, you have no idea how awesome this is. In fact, it probably looks pretty stupid to you because you will quickly notice that I still haven't purchased any shelving or even a proper hamper for my laundry room... oiy. But what's really awesome is that the washer and dryer used to be on the long wall (the left-hand side of the picture) and it always seemed so silly to me because the room is just narrow enough that if you have the washer door open, you can't get between it and the wall to get the hamper or reach the detergent or anything. It was all squishy and inconvenient and uncomfortable. Our next door neighbor Andrea and I have been complaining about the ridiculous design since we moved in and have talked about making this switch many times. We just weren't sure how it would fit or how it would work out since all of the hook-ups are on the long wall. When Canyon and Andrea told us that they had switched their laundry room last weekend I gave Steven the puppy-dog eyes and said, "Oh please can we do that?!?" I knew he liked the idea but was shocked that he took the initiative to do this all on his own while I was at work today!!

Now I can take full advantage of my incredibly spacious laundry room -- I can't wait to do laundry! Next step: get a sink and some cabinets in there so it is really organized and functional.

I'm also super excited to start organizing my craft room over the summer. I've been waiting since JANUARY to get the craft table I've had my eye on, which should be in stock at Costco sometime in early July. We sold our rolltop desk on craigslist last week and I have all of my sewing stuff down in the "craft room" now on a folding table. It was nice to get it all moved out of Steven's room - finally! I felt like such a terrible wife allowing all of my girly crafty stuff to take over his mancave space. It's nice to have it all situated downstairs. Now if only I can get my craft room to look like Lissy's studio: http://hugsandpunches.net/studio-tour-organization-tips-with-lissy/ That girl's got style! Her home is so beautiful and I'm not sure if I'm talented or creative enough to decorate on that level but I'll just have to keep working on it.

What a Weekend!

Steven's birthday weekend was packed with fun events, though very few of them were birthday related.

 

Our weekend started on Thursday with a ceremony in the Tower Club to recognize the top racers and fundraisers of the 2013 Scott Firefighter Stairclimb and Big Climb. We felt so privileged to be there. This is Steven's second year in a row as both a top racer and a top fundraiser and, as I've mentioned before, I am the most proud of him. Look how handsome he is!! It was a beautiful night to be out on such a special date and we had a wonderful time!

Of course the view was amazing, as it always is, and this was the first time that Steven was able to enjoy the view without having to climb the stairs first. The elevator is quite a bit faster : )

We had the opportunity to visit with someone who is on the Leukemia Lymphoma Society board. She was very curious about Steven's job and his efforts in the stairclimb. We also met the oldest participant in the Big Climb. He is 88 years old and he climbed all 69 flights in just 22 minutes!! He is adorable. And there was a doctor there who talked all about blood cancer research and the progress that has been made. It is truly amazing. They have made very rapid progress in a short time and have come a long way. It was so motivating! Made us both super excited to start fundraising for next year.

On Friday night we had dinner at Chipotle and went to see Jersey Boys at the 5th Avenue -- our Christmas present from Papa and Grammi. I love that show!!! Franki Valli and the Four Seasons have such great music anyway but I think their story is pretty interesting too. I was glad to finally get to share this show with Steven.

The next morning we were off to spend the weekend in Lynden. Neither of us had ever been there before but we liked the idea of a two hour drive for our getaway as opposed to the eight hours we had driven to MT earlier in the month. We stopped in Bellingham before driving into Lynden and, thanks to Hilde for the suggestion, stopped at the Boundary Bay Brewery for lunch. They were packed! But it was well worth the wait. I had maybe my favorite beer ever, a Scotch Ale, and Steven and I both had enchiladas. His were chicken and mine were yam with cheddar cheese and caramelized onions and mole sauce. They were fantastic! I don't know who ever thought to put yams in an enchilada but it was a brilliant idea.

From Bellingham, it was just a short drive out to Lynden. This place is really nice! It is definitely a newer building. Everything was nice and clean and the shower was tall enough. No fireplace this time and the hot tub was a ways away but we enjoyed our cribbage board and the TV, which sounds ridiculous, but we don't have cable so it's totally a vacation thing for us. We watched a few episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives -- loved it!! I want his job! Not only does he get to travel around and eat all of that amazing food, but he actually gets to go into the kitchens with the chefs and learn how to make the food. What a great idea.

The condos are right on a golf course. I wasn't super excited about that part but it turned out to be gorgeous! The sunset the first night was definitely the best.

Tim and Annika came up to spend Sunday with us and it's a good thing they did because apparently Lynden is completely shut down on Sundays and there was almost nothing to do or see. It was so fun to have friends with us and we wished we had thought to invite them earlier! It would have been fun to have them there all weekend. We went wine tasting at a winery called Samson. We must have tried 10 or 12 different wines! Most of what they had were fruit wines. I particularly liked the black currant dessert wine, but the all around favorite was the hazelnut wine. Wow. So tasty. We definitely came home with a bottle. Tim and Annika came back to the condo with us for dinner, games, and ice cream before heading back to Seattle and Steven and I left for home in the morning.



We stopped at Red Robin for his birthday burger and then came home to unpack (well, actually I think Steven and Chad were probably playing Halo at least part of the afternoon). Our next door neighbors came over for dinner last night and we had one of Steven's favorite meals: flank steak, fettuccine, and strawberry rhubarb pie. He's at work tonight, so I don't get to spend his actual birthday with him but I think we did a pretty good job celebrating already.