Good Times!

A week ago Saturday we went to a hockey game for the local Seattle Thunderbirds team and it was awesome! It's the first hockey game Chelsea has ever been to and she had a blast. For 2 years in high school I was one of the girl's hockey team managers--I was convinced to quit basketball and join by some of my friends on the team. Glad I did, what a fun sport! Bonnie was also captain of the cheerleading squad for the varsity boy's hockey team, so we spent a lot of time at the arena. I tried to help Chels learn the ropes of the game, but even for those who don't know the rules, it's still awesome to watch. The fights are especially entertaining! :)


We actually had pretty good seats! It's good to see all of the ice--too close to the boards and you lose sight of the puck...


That face says she's excited!


Face off!

Definitely makes you want to go ice-skating (and watch D2 again)

Refs breaking up a fight--boo!

It was great to be at a game again--can't believe it's been 8 years since I've been, yikes! Maybe this winter I can teach Chels how to skate at Seattle Center :)

With Halloween just around the corner, we thought we'd get some pumpkins. Chels picked out a pumpkin that looks like each of us, including one for Kitten.

Here she is hard at work

She loves digging out the pumpkin guts!

She was the master carver, meanwhile I decided to bake the seeds with some seasoned salt, yum!

Here's Kitten's pumpkin

Spooky Kitten

Not sure about it... Maybe she doesn't see the resemblance!

Good News!

I have good news to share--I got a new job! Well, sorta--I'm still at the C&B, but I just got a new position, design trainee! :) I'm very excited! It begins in January and I will be training under our 2 store designers, with the ultimate goal of being designer of my own store someday. The training process takes a few years and I will be learning design for both sides of the business, housewares & furniture. The designers do the product merchandising at the store, create floor plans & execute seasonal floor changes, create & change window displays, choose color palettes for areas of the store, and teach the department managers & other staffers design concepts & merchandising for their areas. And a bunch of stuff in between :) Whew! It's a big job but it's lots of fun and lots of hard work. I'll get to practice hanging on to a 12 foot ladder with my feet, while I have both hands over my head, power drill or spotlight in one hand, screw or sign in the other. YAY! And one of the perks? Weekends off!!! Woo-hoo! It's a M-F, 8-5 job in retail, can you believe it?! Wish me luck, I can't wait!

Way to go, Mama!

My Mom is building houses for Habitat for Humanity this week in Minneapolis, yay! She works for Lowe's, who is sponsoring the project and are paying their workers to volunteer with the organization. How awesome! She's having a fun time--Mom is no stranger to hard work, having been raised on a farm and having raised three girls :) Today she worked on re-siding a house. Another awesome thing about the project is that at my Mom's site, it's an all-women team! :) They have experts on-site and the volunteers get to choose what projects they want to be on at the house, they get trained on how to do it, and then get to try their hand at it. Very cool! I did a project similar to this in college called Rebuilding Together Seattle and it was great! I highly recommend this type of volunteer work to anyone who hasn't tried it--it's very gratifying to see your hard work amount to a new/remodeled home for a family in need. Way to go, Mama!!! I'm proud of you! :) Learn more at: www.habitat.org or www.rtseattle.org.