Busy Week!

Whew, feels like we've been running around all week! Here's what we've been up to:

Wednesday night we went to a show at the Tractor Tavern to see Chris Pureka. Our friend Lindsay Fuller opened for Chris on Monday night in Bellingham, and Wednesday was Chris' CD release party. Good times! The music is awesome, check her out on iTunes. Lindsay's latest record (The Last Light I See) has just been completed and is also available on iTunes. We're all looking forward to her CD release party at the Tractor! :)

Friday night we went to dinner at our friends Nick & Ann Marie's for our first ever Lebanese food experience. It was delicious! Ann Marie is a very good cook so I knew we were in good hands :) We had fattoush salad, hummus and tabbouleh, falafel, pita, and baklava for dessert. Yum! Chels and I are going to try and make the recipes from our "It's Greek to Me" PCC Cooks Class next time we have Nick & Ann Marie over, so stay tuned... We also got to play with their sweet mini Australian Shepard puppy Gus, so cute!

Today we helped Chelsea's sister Stephanie out as volunteers for a yoga in the park session she put together for Street Yoga. Check it out at: www.streetyoga.org. Steph started working toward becoming a yoga instructor late last year and in January of this year she started the Seattle branch of Street Yoga (it is based in Portland). The goal is to teach yoga to homeless and at risk youth to help overcome trauma and create a safe, true home within themselves. Steph is now a yoga instructor and has been teaching classes around Seattle, with private lessons for me and Chels :) Today Steph put on a yoga in the park fundraiser for Street Yoga, and along with Lululemon clothing, taught 3 yoga classes to community members. And it was sunny in Seattle for the event, if you can believe it! :) Chels and I sold t-shirts for Street Yoga and passed out brochures and training information. I think we were pretty good sales girls! The event was really neat, good job Boo! We're proud of you!

California!!!

Chels and I were in California a few weekends ago to visit her parents and attend her cousin Jake's wedding. We had a blast! Friday night her parents hosted a get-together dinner for the Toby side of the family: us and Chelsea's dad Barry's brother and his family. Here is a picture of the cousins and new additions to the fam:

Megan & Jillian are close in age to Stephanie & Chelsea and they all grew up very close. We even got to watch fun family videos of them all on camping trips, very cute!

Here are the Toby's at Jake & Jazmin's wedding:

And one of the happy couple:

Jake is Chelsea's older cousin, the oldest son of her mom Cindy's brother John. Welcome to the family, Jazmin!

The three boys of the family: Joe, Jake, & Andrew

The Levy's, how cute!

Like father, like son:

Stay tuned, more fun photos to come!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day to everyone! Today is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, founded in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. Thank you, Gaylord! Some of you may know that I am an avid recycler, now that I have left the non-recycling Midwestern ways (that's not to say that no one recycles in the Midwest, it's just not nearly as prevalent and easy to do as in the Pacific Northwest). At the office, I started using recycled paper only in all of our copiers and printers when I was the office manager, and it made a noticeable difference in the amount of new paper we used. There is a rumor happening now at my work that recycled paper "sucks the moisture out of the paper" and causes the copier to jam, but I don't buy it! I'm the girl who relentlessly hounds everyone at work to recycle and digs through the trash to pull out recyclables. One person in particular at the office gets so fed up with my green ways that he threatened to compost me today in celebration of Earth Day! How rude! But I guess I call this person "Earth-killer", so we're even :)

I feel a little guilty that Chelsea and I will be on an airplane on Earth Day, but I'll be wearing one of my many "green" t-shirts to help spread the word, so maybe that helps? Today's shirt has a picture of the Earth and says "I'm too hot"--clever, right? Global warming is real, people! Happy Earth Day :)

For those who would like to find out what you can do, please follow the link to get easy, daily tips on how to be "green": http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/ .

Antiques Roadshow

I'm addicted...to Antiques Roadshow! I love it! :) Chels has gotten used to it and I think she secretly likes to guess the value of the items! I used to watch Antiques Roadshow in middle/early high school and talk on the phone with my best friends Emily & Joni and we would each try to guess the value to see who was the closest--dorky, I know. But super fun! Check out this awesome find: www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200101A48.html . Love it!

Hummus: Part Two

Tuesday I decided to give making hummus another try. Claire & Sean, thanks for the recipe! It's a Cook's Illustrated recipe for restaurant quality hummus. It actually turned out pretty well! I did notice that without mixing all of the ingredients in together and then blending made it a little more difficult to mix (the beans were spraying out of the bowl before I poured the tahini & olive oil in). Next time I might use the stand blender instead of the immersion blender, we'll see... All in all, pretty good! I think I put in a tad bit too much lemon, but otherwise it's quite tasty :) Next time I'll add in some roasted red peppers or roasted garlic depending on how adventuresome I feel.

Aunt Cathy, Steph, and I went for our ritual Thursday morning walk around Greenlake today. Great weather! Chels was at work so she couldn't join us, but we stopped in for a little visit to say hello to her. And now I am heading off to work, too, with delicious hummus for my lunch! (I realize hummus should be relatively easy to make because there are such few ingredients, but I've discovered it's actually easy to mess up! It's interesting how different it can taste depending on the ingredients and how you mix them together. I'm on my way to becoming a hummus-making expert!)

The Miracle on Ice

No, I'm not referring to the 1980 US Men's Olympic Hockey Team (though they were pretty great, too) but rather my face "on ice" after my wisdom teeth surgery Thursday. No swelling, yes! We're not in the clear yet, however...apparently it can still swell up to 5 days after the surgery. Five days, yikes! I'm feeling pretty good--getting used to chewing on one side of my mouth (I'd already gotten my wisdom teeth out on the right side of my mouth, so now it was time for the left).

Anywho, in more exciting news: Chels and I bought our plane tickets to visit Minnesota this summer! We'll be home Tuesday July 13-Wednesday July 21. The Hilliard Family reunion is Friday 16-Tuesday 20 in Wisconsin, so we'll be in attendance some of those days. We're also planning a trip up to northern MN to visit my Dad's side of the family with Ashley and Clarabelle, maybe Wed-Thurs after we get in. Chels has yet to visit "Up North" so it should be a good time! Maybe she'll get to do some fishing :) We hope to get a chance to visit with everyone while we're home, so let me know if you'll be around.

Gardening with Chelsea

Chelsea has taken up gardening and we're having a blast! Here are some pictures of her replanting, with Kitten looking on from inside. She desperately wanted to join her mom in the fun!

We're planning on planting flowers, plants and maybe some shrubbery in the area behind our place. Any suggestions on what to plant that will flourish in our climate?