Making Merry.

Just in case you hadn't already seen the tree in one of the other forty-seven pictures I've posted of it this year. This picture has lots of gifts in it though so that's fun.

Steven and I had an absolutely fantastic weekend filled with friends and lots and lots of fudge. Well, there was plenty of other food too but the fudge is what really made the impression.

On Friday morning I was already in "Christmas break" mode. When Steven got home from work we had a quick breakfast and cozied-up on the couch to watch Morning Glory together. It was a very funny movie by the way. We were both pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was.

I was so bummed to have to get up and drive to work but so so SO happy to come home Friday evening knowing that I have two full weeks off. It was a rather emotional start to the break as I had been a little on-edge all week long. And when I say "a little on edge" what I really mean is hanging-on-to-my-sanity-by-the-fingernail-on-my-pinkie. Yeah... I cried at about every other little sad or slightly frustrating thing Friday night but was ready to roll come Saturday morning. Phew, glad I got that out of my system in a hurry.

By Saturday afternoon it was time for our Christmas party. Steven and I had been looking forward to this for months -- literally -- and were definitely more than slightly bummed at how few people were able to make it. Not to say that it wasn't fun! Because it was a REALLY good time, but the scheduling just ended up being so crazy. We had planned it for Sunday afternoon but only Lena & Aaron said they could be there then and Tim & Annika said they would plan to come over around 8pm on Sunday... I figured Lena & Aaron would probably be gone by then so things weren't really shaping up into much of a party -- more like back-to-back double dates. Then Jeremy & Ronnie and Scott & Kristen all said they could come if we had it Saturday afternoon so that's what we ended up doing. And we kept the double dates for Sunday.

So at 2:30 on Saturday we were sitting in our lovely little dining area with two couples who had each driven 3 hours to come to our Christmas party, haha! It made me smile. Our friend Chase showed up a while later and then Lyle & Samantha came and brought Liam, who is now a year old and very very cute. 

Wow. Steven and Chase kind of really do look like a couple there. Isn't that sweet? Maybe I should have made Chase take the picture...

We played a game of Betrayal and drank rum slush and ate and ate and ate. We had cookies and fudge and crackers with goat cheese and hummus and chips and salsa and it was all slightly too much but completely wonderful.


The White Elephant gift exchange was a huge success. Steven snagged himself a Maglite flashlight, Jeremy managed to take home the coveted "trick switch", Samantha won a box of sweet-tart candy canes and Ronnie scored a VHS copy of Corky Romano. Scott was not at all pleased that he was unable to unload his Mickey Mouse top hat and gloves -- they ended up back with him by the end of the evening :)

I wish I had gotten a picture of Liam! He's SO cute! We dumped the dominoes out for him and he was trying to carry all of them at the same time. I think he managed to get three in each hand and was walking around with one sticking out of his mouth. It was really funny. I love babies. Want to know a secret? So does Steven. He was definitely loving having Liam over and hanging out with him. But I won't tell you that because Steven probably wouldn't want it to be public information ;)


Sunday was a total food day. We started the morning off right with a huge breakfast. We had French puffs and bacon and grapefruit and pomegranate seeds and satsumas and hot chocolate. (the boys had friend eggs too but Kristen and I don't eat those). Doesn't sound like much but I couldn't even finish what little I had put on my plate. I should have taken a picture. I left about a bite and a half of everything. It looked really silly. What really got us into trouble was when we discovered that everything tasted better with fudge... first Steven and Scott were eating fudge with pomegranate seeds. Then we started eating fudge with little pieces of bacon. Oh. My. Goodness. That is definitely where it's at. Always eat fudge with bacon. You'll thank me for this tip one day. I'm sure of it. After Scott and Kristen had started their long drive back down to Vancouver, Steven and I were out the door for a late lunch with Lena and Aaron.

It was so fun to see their home all Christmassy! They have 3 (three!!) nativities, twinkle lights all around the windows, and a pretty tree that they cut down while they were in Yakima last month. Lena even made stockings that are hanging in the living room. I just really liked it. It felt cozy. We spent the first few minutes making peanut-butter-cup-type-treats and then spent the next two hours eating them :) We also taught them how to play Cargo Noir. Steven won. I know, you're shocked, but it's true.

Sunday evening we had a quick dinner at home with Tim and Annika, watched Prep and Landing for the 5th time this holiday season and went to bed early, leaving a sink (and a couple of counter tops) full of dishes to be done the next day.

Monday we got meet Dad's new puppy. There were other things that went on that day (Ticket to Ride with Sam and Charlie Piehler, wedding planning with Annika, amazing phad Thai and pumpkin curry at Thai Ginger in Redmond) but I'd say the puppy was probably the most exciting. And definitely the only thing that I took pictures of.


This is Tebow. He is a 10 week old labradoodle and he is adorable! I want one. Not really. I don't want one in my house. I just want one that I'm allowed to play with and visit with whenever I want to. Maybe we should get one for Mom (not that we could afford one even if we wanted to). One of the best things about Tebow is that Steven didn't show any signs of being allergic to him -- yay for finding a dog that I'm actually allowed to pet and pick-up and love on!!

I might have put the puppy on Steven's lap just to watch him lick Steven all over his face. I thought it was a good game. I'm definitely looking forward to visiting with Tebow more over the weekend. Dad and his family are going to be out of town for Christmas so Amanda is puppy-sitting, which means he will be coming with her to all of the family functions. Rainier is not going to be pleased about this...

I had a shopping date with my friend Joy yesterday. She lives in Portland so we met at the Centralia Outlet mall. We finished up our Christmas shopping and then spent two hours chatting at Quiznos. I hadn't seen her since her wedding last July and even though we've talked on the phone a couple of times since then, it was so fun to catch up in person! I don't get enough dates with girlfriends. Lena and I usually see each other once a month but that's pretty much it. I love talking with Paige and Chelsea and Rachel on the phone every now and then and there are e-mail updates and the occasional facebook comments but I really miss just being around girls and having friends nearby. Dear friends, let's live near each other in the future. Love, Steph.

My little Tar-Tar Sauce and her kitty-cat peeking at each other through the window. So cute.


Tara, Mom and I went to Red Robin last night and then to Michael's basketball game at Woodinville HS. Michael plays for Skyline and it was nice to be able to go to a game so close to Mom's house.

Papa and Grammi came too. They're the best. They go to ALL of our games and concerts and plays and recitals and just everything. I'm always impressed by their dedication.

They even put Michael in for the last 47.5 seconds of the game! Woohoo!! His team won by 17 points.

We saw the new Sherlock Holmes today. It was FABULOUS! I loved it. Can't wait until we can get it on DVD. I wanted to watch it again as soon as it was over. You should definitely go see it if you haven't already (there's a very good chance that Paige and Steven are my only readers in which case this is completely irrelevant because I know you've both seen it.)

We have a busy week ahead of us, including many holiday celebrations and some slightly more serious family time. Steven's grandfather passed away a few days ago and we're attending a memorial service for him tomorrow. Steven didn't know him very well and I had never met him but this kind of family stuff is difficult and emotional for everyone just the same. Steven was fortunate enough to get some time off of work so that he can spend more time with his family than he had originally planned this week. He will be able to visit with them for most of the day on Christmas Eve. It will be nice for all of them.

We will be having 5 Christmas celebrations over the course of the weekend including our own little Christmas morning just the two of us -- have I mentioned that having a husband to spend Christmas with is the best thing ever? Because it definitely is. I highly recommend it.

We are also very much looking forward to seeing Chad and Whitney who will be arriving sometime Friday evening I believe. We already have a dinner date planned with the two of them and Jeremy and Ronnie next week. Should be a blast!

I still have some of my Christmas baking to do... okay, all of my Christmas baking to do. Other than that I've tied up most of my Christmas-related loose ends. The shopping is done. The cards have all been sent. Almost all of the gifts have been wrapped. The movies have all been watched (with the exception of I'll Be Home for Christmas -- love that JTT!! -- and It's a Wonderful Life) and I think I've listened to every Christmas song I own at least two times. Now it's time to relax and enjoy.

For now, I'm signing off to watch Muppet Christmas Carol with Steven before it gets any later and we fall asleep. Goodnight!

Decking The Halls.

Wow, wow, wow! The Christmas season is a bit crazier when you factor a job into the equation -- haha! This is the first year EVER that I've had a regular work schedule at Christmas time (yes, I realize that it's quite normal for everyone else to go to work everyday and that this makes me sound really lame but that's okay) and it's making everything else so much more difficult!

I had a Christmas tree decorating marathon last week -- three trees in three days. Then it was a mad-dash to design and make all 5 zillion of our Christmas cards (okay, only 65 actually, but still way too many for this early in our marriage), but I have since managed to get all of them in the mail. I've also done a bit of slightly frantic Christmas shopping (both online and in stores) and just a few moments ago finished making my first batch of fudge for the season.

 It's all been really fun but there were a few moments where it felt like business instead of pleasure. Like I have this big Christmas to-do list and I have to dutifully make sure that I watch every movie, and bake every type of cookie, and listen to all 53 versions of the same dozen or so Christmas songs. I adore Christmas and I don't want it ever to feel like a chore. I can't wait until school is out for a couple of weeks and I can really relax into the holiday season.

 The trees. Last week we did Mom's tree on Sunday, then Steven and I did ours on Monday evening and then Scott and I decorated Grammi's on Tuesday night. By the time I got to Grammi's tree I was starting to feel like a robot. I think this was the fastest we've ever decorated it. When we finished I had to just lay on the couch and stare at it for a quarter of an hour because I hadn't taken any of it in while I was actually in the process of decorating. It's beautiful, as always. Mom has a lovely tree and it is absolutely perfect, as always. Steven and I have an adorable tree that is packed full of ornaments. It's a bit chaotic but most of them have some kind of memory attached to them so that makes it more fun. I look forward to the day when I can start investing a little in our tree and purchasing matchy-matchy ornaments and all white lights etc. etc. but for now, I absolutely love the hand-me-down chaos of it.

The first Saturday in December Steven and I went straight out to find our tree. It was a very frosty morning, only 32 degrees. Perfect Christmas-tree-picking-out weather.

Look at that cute little tree! Last year was Steven's first time ever having a real Christmas tree, and this year, for the first time ever, Steven got to cut down a Christmas tree. I loved it. We had a nice time at the Christmas tree farm and topped off the visit with french vanilla hot chocolate.

Mom found a perfect tree. Taller than ours but with nice evenly spaced branches and a lovely shape.

Tara and I helped a little with the tree picking-out but mostly we just took cute pictures and ate kringle and wandered around the winter wonderland that is Molbak's.

Amanda wasn't much interested in helping to decorate but she was working on a little project of her own. I guess it was some type of art project... it's supposed to be a picture frame. I have no idea how it turned out but at this point it just looked like a stick-y little reindeer thing.

Santa! I love this Santa ornament. It was the first ornament I put on Mom's tree. I think I want one just like it.

Taa-daa! The tree looks better with the big lights off so you just see the Christmas lights but my camera doesn't do well taking dark photos so I have to use the flash sometimes.

Phew! This Christmas putting together is a lot of work! Mom's house looks so cozy and Christmassy! She has really nice lights on the outside of the house as well.



I don't think I deserved this look. Steven and I have been having so much fun enjoying Christmas together!!! I love it. Spending the holiday season with your husband is just the best thing ever. I'm so glad I'm married. Steven helped me with the lights and then mostly just watched Elf while I did the rest. He would get up every twenty minutes or so, put one ornament on the tree, and then sit back down. It was so funny, I couldn't figure out what prompted it. I think maybe he would just see an ornament that he decided he liked so he wanted to put it on. It was pretty cute.






One of my new favorite ornaments! I found that long red one (there is one more just like it and then three that are the same style but all gold) in the garage of one of the houses my dad recently purchased. I think they look really cool and kind of old-fashioned. The clock ornament on the right is from a little collection that my mom bought for me. She has the same ones on her tree. There are all kinds of cute little shapes. And the one in the upper right-hand corner was a gift from the Mountfords when I was visiting with them at Christmas time a couple of years ago.

Beautiful. See the record player in the background? It only comes out at Christmas time even though I have plenty of non-Christmas records. Steven has been playing the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas records non-stop. Glad we found some Christmas music that he actually enjoys :)


Here's the little wreath that I made. I think it's really cute. It has bells on it and it even lights up! I took a little bow-making class at the community college the week after Thanksgiving and then a couple of days later the same lady taught a wreath-making class. I wanted to make a Christmas decoration that I could keep for years and year and years because I love the decorations that Grammi made when she first got married and still brings out every year.

And Grammi's tree, it was the best photo I could get.

I've even managed to squeeze in a cookie-baking session with Mom and the girls. We were feeling really, really silly! We were cutting little shapes out of all of the bigger shapes so the Christmas trees had stars cut out of the middle and then Tara cut the little girl cookie cutter out of the big girl one and said that cookie was pregnant and I said she should have used the boy cookie cutter so that it could be Mary and Jesus and then Amanda cut the boy cookie cutter out of the bell shaped one and made a "bell-boy" and mostly we were just laughing a lot. I think the camel is still one of my favorite shapes. Do other people have Christmas camel cookie cutters or is that just our family?

Three more days of work and then I plan to spend the weekend cuddling with Steven on the couch, eating satsumas and drinking hot chocolate with Bailey's. And, of course, there's still more cookie-baking and gift-wrapping to be done. Hope your holiday season is off to a phenomenal start!

50 Years.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of a very special couple: Larry and Rita Jordan. Larry and Rita are the grandparents of our cousins Demi and Keegan -- so... like our grandparents-in-law on my dad's side of the family. I haven't spent much time with Larry over the years but I've enjoyed Rita's company at many family gatherings and parties and I count her among my favorite people. It was such a special event and I'm very glad we were able to share in the festivities.

It was a beautiful party at Salty's on Alki. Everything was decorated and Christmassy and it was just lovely. It was our first dressy date of the holiday season so we had fun taking lots and lots of pictures. Many of them can be found on facebook if you're interested. 

Fifty years is a very long time. I was feeling a little sappy about the whole thing really. I was just sitting there eating my piece of cake and watching the slideshow (how do you choose only 15 minutes worth of photos out of 50 years??) and I found myself fantasizing about the fancy 50th Anniversary party our kids are going to throw for us some day :) I just got really excited about it. Not just about the party or reaching that milestone but about living the 50 years. We have 48.5 more years between now and that party and after our first year and a half together I can already tell you that I know we are going to have the best time ever. I'm the most excited.

(with Grandma Fran)

Plenty To Be Thankful For.

Isn't Thanksgiving just the best? I love it. It's all just about food, friends and family (not necessarily in that order). No materialism, nothing really to be bombarded with by the retailers and the only thing you have to buy is stuff you're more than happy to have leftover for the following week. We celebrated multiple times this past week. On the evening of Tuesday the 22nd, our tiny little apartment was crammed full of some of our favorite people for a little Friends Thanksgiving gathering. Steven and I made salmon, as usual, and everyone else brought their own favorite addition to the holiday meal. We had some incredible sweet potatoes, salad, pie, cheesey cauliflower, sparkling cider and two or three very intense rounds of Catch Phrase. It was so fun just visiting with everyone. Steven and I love hosting and it's always a wonderful feeling to have a full house.

My school was closed on Wednesday and Steven had to work so I had the pleasure of spending the day with my family. First I spent a few hours at home doing a little baking. I made chocolate chip walnut cookies and some cinnamon rolls, which I put into small pyrex dishes and delivered to my mom's house, my dad's house and Papa and Grammi's house. I left some for us, of course. We all had fresh cinnamon rolls Thanksgiving morning.

I visited with Grammi and helped her make mashed potatoes then spent the rest of the evening with Tara and my mom. We went out for Mexican food and just kind of hung out. I was mostly just trying to stay awake long enough to pick Paige up from the airport. Oh my goodness, it felt like ages since we had planned her trip up here and I just couldn't comprehend that it was actually happening. I was the most excited. It was a late night and we were exhausted but still managed to stay up chatting until late late late and then I stayed up until even later (3 o'clock-ish) so that I could finish reading The Help. I paid for that one. Oiy, not the smartest way to start a busy weekend.

Thanksgiving morning it was up early to get the cinnamon rolls baking. It was so much fun to have breakfast on Thanksgiving with Paige and Steven! It was cozy and the house smelled yummy and the three of us were together and I loved it. The rest of the day was busy busy busy. We started off at Steven's parents house for a game of Shadows Over Camelot and an early Thanksgiving meal. Then it was over to Papa and Grammi's for a huge dinner and some Catch Phrase. We laughed a lot and I had a blast but was beat by the end of the night. The drive home felt particularly long.

Friday morning Paige and I were up super early for the Macy's parade in Downtown Seattle. We were both feeling a little apprehensive about the whole thing. It had been pouring down rain all week long and the idea of wearing a costume, walking down the streets of Seattle in the freezing cold rain was not at all appealing to us. We seriously lucked out. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a prettier day. It was cold but clear and sunny.

Lucky us, we got to be trees. What do you think? Pretty cute, huh? I almost freaked out trying on the costume and having to put the head-piece on but I survived. I think it was probably a good thing for claustrophobic little me to see that I can still breathe even when I have my head stuck in the fuzzy top part of a tree costume.

Most of the time this fabric was in our faces and we couldn't really see much at all.

Paige trying to keep warm while we were waiting for our turn to walk in the parade. She's the tree that's sitting on the ground. I heard one lady walk by and say something about the tree needing to be watered because it looked a little wilted :)


I've already put dibs on these costumes for next time. I think the blocks are so super cute and they spell things out too. Like "Happy Holidays" and I don't really know what else, but they're just cute. I also suggested that we could be the people who get to just bundle up and walk around with baskets of Frangos and throw them at people. As long as we get to eat them along the way.

What a perfectly beautiful day for a parade! We had a marvellous time. We were dancing around and Paige was giving "high-trees" or "high-branches" or something and we were "tree-chest-bumping" every now and then and it was just really silly.

Oh my goodness. We were a total disaster by the end of it. On the last leg of our walk I discovered that I had lost an earring, broken a nail, sweated through every layer of my clothing and that my shoulders were bruising (possibly blistering) from the weight of the costume. Paige really was wilting by the end and had gotten so hot dancing around in her costume that her glasses fogged up and she couldn't see anything at all. Pretty hot, huh? Our hair was all super messy and we had both tucked our gloves into our waistbands to try to cool down a bit.

Pacific Place looking all pretty and Christmassy. We had lunch with Paige's aunt, uncle, cousin, Lindsey, and loads of her cousins friends. Paige's friend Beth was in town and was able to join us for lunch as well.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Robert. We bundled up and walked over to the Fairmont Olympic to see the Christmas tree display...

...and then stopped in Starbucks for our first holiday drinks of the season. Paige and I shared a pumpkin spice latte and a peppermint mocha. Yum. We aren't really into the whole black Friday thing but we mustered up enough energy to stop in Anthropology, Urban Outfitters and Forever 21 before heading back to Enumclaw. We were on the couch in our sweats by 6:30pm. And I'm pretty sure we were in bed by 9.

Saturday we had a quiet morning of games and tea and breakfast and then it was off to the Peihlers'. One of my favorite places to be.

We played Castle Panic and made Christmas cookies and ate turkey soup (so good!!) and then cozied up on the couch and watched The Polar Express. Definitely not my favorite Christmas movie, in fact, I'm really not all that fond of it, but I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the Christmas movie experience with the Piehlers. Parts of that movie are just beautiful and so, so well done. Tom Hanks is fabulous, as always, I just think the character development is a bit weak and I don't like the depiction of the North Pole and the elves. They're kind of creepy. Those are my thoughts on that.

And finally, Sunday. We picked up Tara from my mom's house and then met up with Nancy and Lindsey at Red Robin for lunch before going to see the new muppet movie. It was really cute! I just love the Muppets.

Then back to the house where Tara rekindled our love of knitting -- she taught me how to purl, showed us how she makes fingerless gloves and helped Paige remember how to start a scarf. It was so fun hanging out on Tara's bed. It reminded me of the weeks that Paige was living there with us before Steven and I got married. It's a silly thing really but we just felt right at home sitting there chatting and relaxing on that bed. Quite possibly one of the best moments of the weekend.

Then we dragged Mom out to the car with us and it was off to see The Help.

This was fabulous. Read it. Watch it. Love it. Back at Mom's we had dinner and watched Eloise at Christmas Time. Can't say I was too excited to go home that night. I was already sad that it was my last evening having Paige in the house. It felt so natural having her live here and it just didn't seem right when I looked in the bedroom the next day to see that the futon no longer resembled a bed and Paige's clothes and books and jewelry were all gone. I couldn't believe that it was already Monday and time to drop Paige off and (gasp!) go back to work. The work thing still hasn't settled in yet. I think it's just going to take some getting used to.

Did I actually mention anything that I'm thankful for? I'm thankful for a pretty glass kettle that makes me hot tea as many times a day as I like. I'm thankful for turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy. I'm thankful for sewing dates with Sue Piehler. I'm thankful for M&Ms. I'm thankful for pomegranates. I'm thankful for satsumas. I'm thankful for rice-socks and a microwave to warm them in. I'm thankful for my slippers. I'm thankful for my Grammi and my Papa and my uncles who laugh with me and show a genuine interest in my life. I'm thankful for a new job and learning opportunity. I'm thankful for singing and music. I'm thankful to finally be healthy again**. I'm thankful for sunshine. I'm thankful for cinnamon. I'm thankful for a husband who never fails to show me the true meaning of unconditional love. I'm thankful for my dear friend Paige who understands me better than almost anybody (maybe almost the best actually). I'm thankful for my mom who reminds me that it's okay to laugh at myself. I could continue but I'm getting tired and rambly... this could go on for ages :)

It was a fantastic weekend and the most fun kick off to the holiday season. We can't wait to have Paige back in Seattle with us again sometime in the very near future. Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was as great as ours!!

** Health update: the sinus infection (yeah, the one that started back in September) never actually went away. I started feeling really poorly again on Monday before Thanksgiving and even stayed home sick that Tuesday. I couldn't believe I was taking a sick day after only two weeks on the job but I just felt miserable. I was able to fight off the headache with ibuprofen everyday over the holiday weekend but decided not to take any on Monday to see if I was doing any better. Bad idea. I was fighting tears for the first two and a half hours of work and finally lost the battle and burst into tears around 3pm at which point my co-worker forced 4 advils on me and I called the doctors office and tearfully made an appointment for the following morning. My head hurt so bad I thought my forhead was going to explode. I think I was channeling Harry Potter. Anyhow, the doctor was great. I pulled my list book out and explained all of my health issues since September the 16th and told her that I'm certainly not the type of person to call the doctor for just any little thing and I was worried that after two rounds of antibiotics over the course of two and a half months that maybe something was just wrong with me. She suggested a CT scan and I'm certainly glad she did! She called me the next day to report that I have (had? this was on Tuesday morning) a very severe sinus infection with lots of swelling and stuck fluids, which would explain the unbearable pressure. SO, she prescriped me a much stronger antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory and I am feeling so much better! I haven't had to take any pain medication for my head for the last two days. I'm looking forward to a healthy holiday season after what has been a rather difficult stretch of unhealthy days.

'Tis The Season For Giving.

Hello Friends!

Just wanted to type up a quick post about the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb (coming up in March) and the fundraising Steven is doing for it. Please start giving some thought to how much you think you would like to donate and remember that NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL! Honestly, if everyone who is asked to donate and doesn't plan to do so just gives $1, we will be thousands of dollars ahead of where we would be otherwise. Get creative with it! Steven will be climbing 69 flights of stairs, that's 1311 stairs, and 788 feet of vertical elevation and Steven's time last year was 17 minutes 49 seconds. So... you could donate $6.90 or $13.11 or $17.49 or even $131.10, makes it more fun that way, don't you think so?

Here's Steven's website so you can read a bit about his goals for this year and how he's making this experience more personal. http://www.llswa.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1514008&pg=personal&fr_id=1220

A photo from last year's climb -- Steven passing another firefighter in the stairwell.

Thanks so much for reading and giving this some thought. We'll keep you updated on the exciting things Steven has going on with fundraising and training.

Happy giving,

Steph

Prepare To Be Amazed!

***no I'm not pregnant, don't even think that, you'll know when I am because the title of the post will probably just be "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" just wanted to clear that up real quick before you get to reading.***

Are you prepared. I have big news. Big. Huge. Huge news actually and it might come as a real shock to some of you. Ready? This might be hard to believe but I finally have a job. I do, it's true! I know you were starting to think it would never happen, I certainly was. It has been a very long time coming but in a way I feel like I finally "made it." Not really, I mean, it's no dream job but it is something that my resume will actually benefit from, so that's exciting. I'm going to leave out certain details when I blog about my job, including the actual name of the school I'm working at. I wouldn't want my blog posts to show up when people search for the school online or anything. I'm also going to try to be as positive about the job as possible on the blog which means that more often than not, you won't be getting the full story from just the blog :) As with most jobs, chances are, my reflections won't always be positive.

I am working at a private school in Bellevue. It's right off the freeway so it's convenient but I must say, it's one heck of a commute! Last night it took me nearly 2 hours to get home. Ugh. Anyhow, my first day was last Tuesday. I have a part time position as an office assistant during school hours (from 12:30 to 2:45) and as the after school program director during after-school hours (2:45-6:00). I've been doing a lot of data entry in the office. It's amazing how you can spend hours and hours on facebook and e-mail on a daily basis and not be at all bothered by it but after only an hour of data entry all of the sudden your eyes are tired and your back is sore. It's pretty silly. I've been liking it though because it's far less stressful than spending my entire work day learning how to do a new job. I can't really mess up data entry.

It's taken me a few days to learn the ropes of the after school program but I think I've finally got it down! Today went really smoothly. Basically I just manage the whole thing. Shuttle kids around from here to there, coordinate with the teachers, choose the worksheets and make photo copies, supervise indoor recess, listen to kids tattle, help parents find their kids, clean up and then complain a bit with my coworker before starting my drive home. I was a little bit bummed that the job is only part time and more than a little bit bummed that I didn't get hired as a teacher but I think this is really setting a good foundation for next year. I'm hoping I've significantly increased my chances of maybe having my very own classroom for 2012-2013! Wouldn't that be so cool?? Sigh, what a nice thought.

Oddly enough, I wasn't too excited after accepting the job. I was really excited during slash after the interview when I was offered the job but then I started to have mixed feelings about it. It felt like it was just too easy after all the failed attempts to get hired over the past couple of years. Then I started thinking about the schedule and how I wouldn't just be home to hang out with Steven on his days off and about all of the driving and all of the sudden I wasn't too keen on the idea of having a job. Haha! After all these months of complaining that I don't have one then I get one and I don't want it. That's just part of being an adult though, right? Fortunately, Steven was excited. He felt like it was a big deal and something that needed to be celebrated so celebrate we did.

We still had a Melting Pot gift card so Steven made a reservation and we went on a date a couple of weeks ago. It was an amazing experience, as always. The last two times we've gone there we've chosen to share one entree and we still leave feeling uncomfortably full. We decided this time that we definitely only need one salad to share instead of each getting our own. We chose the current Big Night Out menu. It was incredible! We had Boston Lager cheddar cheese fondue, and an entree plate that included shrimp and a lobster tail and then PB&J chocolate fondue for dessert. AND Steven made it really special by ordering the wine pairing flight for me and the beer pairing flight for himself! It was so much fun!!! It felt like a super fancy date and we just had the best time. We were so full afterwards though that we literally had to take the drive home in shifts. I'm not even joking. He took the first leg since I drank all of my wine and a good amount of his beer, and then he pulled over in Maple Valley and I drove the rest of the way so he could lean his seat back and just relax. It was an incredibly special evening.

Then last Thursday we had another big date night (totally unrelated to the first and not meant to be a celebration of the job). I surprised Steven with tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Micheal Jackson Immortal world tour. He had no idea, which made it that much more fun! I paid for cheap seats way in the back but there weren't that many people there so we were able to move way up before the show even started. We had a great view and the funny thing is, it seemed like everyone in our section had done the same thing. We overheard most of them talking about having moved up from their "cheap seats." Though I must say, they don't really sell a "cheap" seat to any Cirque du Soleil show. It was amazing! Completely different from any Cirque show we've seen but oh so much fun. Here's a very small taste of this phenomenal performance. It's an indescribable experience. I hope you get to go see it for yourself someday.

 

Steven has been wonderful about the whole new job thing. On my first day of work he surprised me with a super yummy dinner when I got home. He made salmon and rice and he was real sneaky about it too. That morning he told me that someone at the station wanted to know how I cooked my salmon. So I explained the process, he asked a few clarifying questions and that was that. Then on my way home Steven called and asked how to cook rice. He said he was thinking about making stir fry but I told him that probably wasn't a very good idea since the only vegetable we had was cabbage and maybe he should make potstickers instead. Then I came home and there was salmon in the toaster oven! Salmon is like our splurge dinner so it felt like a real treat and dinner was really tasty. Then last night I came home to a toasty house, glass of wine, mug of hot tea, and a pan of sloppy joe casserole fresh out of the oven. Isn't he the best?? I'm just so lucky.

It made me a little sad because I've always wanted to have dinner ready and the house smelling good when my husband comes home from work and I won't ever get to do that because he works 24 hour shifts and sometimes I'm still in bed when he gets home in the mornings. So it's really sweet that he's been making dinner for me but my heart breaks a little thinking about the fact that I won't ever be able to live out that little dream. It's one of the only "house-wife" type things I've ever been truly excited about. I'm planning to get up early tomorrow morning and make waffles before Steven gets home though. I hope that kind of feels special and fun and wifey. Guess that means I should stop typing and get to bed. Signing off. Goodnight!