It's Green and Summery Outside!

Well the weather is getting nicer, yippee!  That means life is starting to spring out of the ground in the backyard.  We're planning to pull up the grass and make a patio with stepping stones, ground cover, and pretty Northwest climate-loving plants. 

Kitten has many window sills and perches in the new house that she can sit on and monitor the bird (or squirrel) situation outside.   

 

Here's a beautiful dahlia we just bought, isn't it lovely?

Aunt Cathy came over and did some gardening with Chelsea last week.  The above potted maple tree and planter is a birthday gift from her for Chelsea (the big 28 is this Sunday!). Chelsea picked out the surrounding plants and has been diligently checking them daily to note their progress.

We finally re-potted our evergreen trees, so now we have a nice little potted garden to see from our TV room window. 

Well, here's what a lot of rain and no lawn mower will get you--a meadow! Chels is working on pulling up the grass in this shot, meanwhile I was lounging on the chairs.  Someone has got to supervise,  ha ha! The backyard is Chels' domain and she's excited to create the perfect backyard oasis for us.  I can't wait!  Don't worry, I am helping with the labor :)

Kitten loves when we work outside.  She gets to explore and eat grass.  That is, until her privileges get revoked because she jumps on top of the fence.  It's taller than I am, what is she thinking?! 

Stay tuned for more pictures of our lovely plants and evolving backyard garden space.  We are so thrilled to finally have a yard! Now we just need more sunny days...

Happy 6th birthday to our sweet nephew Gavin today, hope you've had a great day buddy! We love you!

Being sick equals a wacky sleep schedule!

Well I would love to report that Chels and I have been enjoying this beautiful, long Memorial Day weekend doing something fun, but alas, I am sick!  So we have mostly been spending it around the house.  Boo-hiss, I hate being sick!  I've had this cold/stomach-flu thing for a week and I am ready for it to be gone.  I have been feeling better this weekend, thank goodness! I think the sunshine is helping. 

We have been having some fun, thanks to my regimen of Dayquil, Sprite, and Saltines. We had been planning on hosting a girls night at our place Saturday night with some friends for a few weeks now and we did decide to get together, after I disinfected the house... We had snacks, played a board game, and just hung out and chatted.  It was nice to see them!

This morning we ventured out of the house again for an exhibit we've been wanting to see with the cousins, Claire & Sean.  The exhibit is at the UW's Burke Museum called "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats". It's a series of photographs based on a book by two artists who travelled around the world documenting people's weekly meals. They photograph all the food items in the families home, surrounded by the members of the family.  The grocery items are listed, and there is a cost comparison between the local currency and US dollars.  It is fascinating! Find out more here: Hungry Planet. A few things surprised me: in many of the photos, the Coca-Cola label was recognizable almost instantly, and in many places of the world (like Egypt, for example) where I wouldn't have thought soda would be a part of the weekly diet as it is for so many Americans. Secondly, I was struck by how many more fruits and vegetables other areas of the world consume per week, and how much more of their diet it makes up--it seems there is more emphasis here on "meat and potatoes", with veggies playing only a side role.  Very interesting!

Last weekend we spent Saturday afternoon with Grandpa watching one of his favorite movies "The Man Who Came to Dinner". It was hilarious!  There were so many witty one-liners in the movie that Chelsea said she remembers her Grandpa say but she never realized where they came from.  It was great, we had a good time.  Afterward, we spent the evening at our friends Nick & AnnMarie's new place for dinner.  They have a cute dog Gus that we love, and it's always nice to have good conversation and good food with good friends!  Chels and I also went to Steph & Dan's for dinner on Sunday night--it was a girls night because Dan had to go out-of-town for work, so we watched "Puss-in-Boots", which was pretty silly and cute. We've all been so busy lately, it was nice to hang out with family and catch up.

Other than that, we haven't been up to too much.  Just trying to get healthy, and stay that way. Here's to getting back on a normal sleep schedule!

Yay for May!

Spring has sprung!  Well, in our backyard at least.  We are still wanting to take out the grass and put in a little patio of stepping stones and ground cover--it the meantime, our grass has been growing!  Now we just need to figure out what we want to do in the backyard and get started.  Aunt Cathy & Claire lent us a few books on small space gardens, so we have some ideas in mind.  Stay tuned for the backyard bonanza makeover! 

Kitten and I taking a little afternoon snooze

Yesterday Chels and I took Grandpa to Macys to get a few kitchen appliances he's been wanting: we found a great 2-in-1 Cuisinart Blender & Food Processor, a hand mixer, and a panini grill.  Chels and I have a smoothies book, so we made a plan with Grandpa to go over to his place and test out the new blender by making smoothies.  Yum!  Afterward we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant Chels & I like.  It was a fun afternoon!  I always love to hear Grandpa's Navy days stories, there seemed to be some sort of adventure happening much of the time. 

Last week Chels was dog-sitting for a cute little French Bulldog named Cutter, whom we nicknamed "Le Pooh".  Here he is, he's so cute!

                   He loved sitting in front of the fire!

Unfortunately, Kitten was not as fond of Le Pooh as Chelsea and I.  She pretty much ignored him, staying upstairs and peering down at him from the top of the stairs.  I guess she doesn't want a puppy after all!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been helping one of our good friends pack and move--her and her partner, whom we love both of them very much, recently split up and it's very sad.  Chelsea was friends with both of them separately before they became a couple, and by the time I came into the picture they were together and became two of our very good friends.  We love them both and hope to support & be friends with both of them.  Chelsea and I are almost 30 (yikes!), so we're getting to that age where big life events are happening that we haven't seen before: friends getting divorced, friends getting diagnosed with cancer, friends' parents dying, etc.  WOW!  Life is really starting to happen--however, I don't want to sound like a downer because there is also plenty of really great things happening, too!  It's kind of cheesy, but it just makes you realize how fleeting and precious life's moments are.  We had fun last night at a goodbye party for one of Chelsea's old co-workers. It was at a karaoke bar, and unfortunately Chels and I did not get to sing our rendition of Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time"--Chels can do a Cher voice that sounds just like her, it's hilarious. We saw some old friends there and it was really nice to catch up! 

Today was a lower key day for me, I did a lot of cooking, laundry, and house stuff.  I made a new recipe tonight, here it is: Mexican Casserole .  It's from Cooking Light Magazine and was pretty good!  A couple of changes I made (and some I will make next time): I used ground turkey instead of protein crumbles; I also used a 9x13 glass casserole dish to bake in.  It was pretty good, but needs a few modifications--there wasn't enough filling to keep it all together, so it came out of the pan feeling more like nachos than a casserole.  Next time I will probably double the beans, and may even use half refried beans.  A little more cheese in the layers may help keep it together for a more casserole-like feel (you know how we Minnesotans love our casseroles!).  But all in all it was pretty tasty, I recommend giving it a try. 

We also got the paint supplies this weekend for our next room makeover: this time it's the half bathroom on the second floor.  It's a hideous deep burgundy color, way too dark for a small bathroom.  Thank goodness I married someone who loves bright colors just as much as I do--we chose a cool lime green that I think will be awesome! Hopefully it's not so bright that you need to wear your sunglasses in there :)  Stay tuned for pictures!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Today is Earth Day!  It was started in 1970 by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to bring about environmental awareness and teach the necessity of protecting the environment. I celebrated this week by wearing a different t-shirt to work each day with an eco-friendly theme, such as: "Hug a tree", "Give a hoot, don't pollute", "My white T is green" (made of organic cotton and eco-friendly dyes), "I'm too hot" (with a picture of the Earth, i.e. global warming), and "Global warming is not cool".  My co-workers know I am "green" and they were excited to see what the message on my t-shirt would be each day.  I like to try and help people be green in a way that is easy for them--if it's too hard or too crazy, they won't do it, right?  One of my co-workers used to use paper plates because she lived alone and didn't go through enough dishes to fill her dishwasher.  I told her I hand wash a lot of our dishes and it really doesn't take that long, so for one person after each meal it should be a cinch!  She used actual ceramic plates and then reported back that she was surprised, it really didn't take that long after all.  And voila, she was converted!  It really isn't hard for each of us to change a few things to be more environmentally friendly. Here are some tips:

1) Recycle!  It's so easy now, many cities and more rural locations have recycling options. You can make it a family-friendly tradition and get the kids involved.  Make it a guessing game, is this recyclable? Have them be the sorters!  What do you think this is re-used to make?  Recycling saves a lot of stuff that would otherwise be considered garbage and sit in a landfill unnecessarily. It's worth it, so why not?

2) Use cloth napkins at home.  Instead of paper towels or paper napkins at dinner, why not have some cloth napkins on hand?  Each member of the family can have a designated napkin, and then it gets washed with the laundry when it's dirty just like bath towels and wash cloths.  Cloth napkins don't have to be fancy, and you can even make your own!

3)  Instead of paper or plastic bags at the grocery store, bring your own canvas or cloth bag.  We keep ours in the trunk of the car, that way we don't have to remember to put them in the car on the way to the grocery store.  I also keep one rolled up in my purse for those times you didn't think you would need a bag.  I use a canvas bag to bring my lunch to work each day, and if I pick up some groceries or stop at the drug store on the way home, I just put my purchases in there instead of getting a plastic bag. 

4) Here's one thing I feel a little guilty about--I love magazines!  I have a few magazine subscriptions, and instead of recycling them after I'm done with them, Chels and I bring them to work for the lobby or break room for others to enjoy, too (don't worry, they will get recycled eventually!).  You could also see if there is a local art group or non-profit that may collect them to use for collages.

5) Stop your junk mail.  Many cities have websites where you can get taken off junk mail lists.  This also goes for phone books.  If you don't use phone books anymore, get your name taken off the list to ensure it doesn't go to waste.  You can Google "junk mail removal list" to get started.

6) Unplug appliances you don't use every day.  We don't keep the toaster or coffee grinder plugged in on the counter top, we just plug it in when we go to use it each time.  It may sound annoying, but it takes just an extra second or two and saves energy (and might save you money on your bill, too!).

7) Shop local.  Does your city have a farmer's market?  If so, check it out!  You'll feel good knowing your are supporting your local farmers and that the food you are getting is fresh and didn't take a lot of energy travelling to get to you.  I'm not saying you have to buy all your produce at a farmer's market, but why not supplement your regular grocery trips during farmer's market season and support your local economy!

8) Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.  CFL bulbs save energy and last longer than regular incandescent bulbs.  Also, they have come a long way since they were first introduced--I wasn't a huge fan of the initial blue-ish, street light glow they gave off.  But now you can get "soft light" versions that look just like incandescents.  They may cost a little more up front, but they save energy and last longer, so you really will be saving in the long run! 

9) Compost.  Okay, I know not every one has compost options in their city.  But if your city does, why not participate?  Chels and I have so much more recycling and compost than garbage each week, and it's nice to know we won't be clogging landfills with stuff unnecessarily that can be re-used.  If your city doesn't have compost options, speak with your waste management company or write a letter to city council to see if you can get people talking about it.  If you have a garden, you could start to compost and use it for fertilizer later.  You may need to get a worm bin to work through the compost before it's ready for fertilizer, and I understand that's not an option for everyone (Chels and I do not have a worm bin under our bed, contrary to popular belief from our MN relatives!). 

10) Use a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water.  We're lucky in this country to have good tap water, thanks to federal regulations, so there should be no reason to have to buy bottled water.  If you tap water isn't tasty, consider getting a filter for your tap, or a water pitcher with a filter for the refrigerator.  Using reusable water bottles saves a lot of plastic waste that comes from bottled water.  Also, think of the savings!   


If each one of us chooses one thing on the list and makes a change, think of the great impact that will have on the environment!  I think it's good to be aware of, and it's not "too hard" to try and be a little greener than we are now. We will enjoy the benefits when we still have fresh air to breath when we're old, and when our kids and grandkids can get outside and enjoy nature that we helped to preserve. Give it a try, and happy Earth Day!

Book Review: What We've Been Reading

Chelsea and I have been doing a lot of reading lately.  Our book club with the cousins started up again recently, and our first book back was very interesting! 

Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong is about Chinese students sent to work on the Mongolian grasslands in the 1970's.  I had never read anything about Mongolia and little about China, so it was interesting to read about the cultural revolution happening in the 1960's and the effects it had on the people living in Inner Mongolia.  The students come to the grassland with ideas about modernity and what that means in Chinese cities as well as for farming across the country. They are under the impression that farming and increasing the volume of fields and crops is the answer for feeding the increasing demand of the Chinese population.  However, as they begin to live the lives of a grassland herder and learn the "ancient ways" from Papa, an elder in the community, they soon discover a symbiotic relationship between the grasslands, the wolf pack, and the Mongolian herders. They hear mythic stories of wolves and learn to respect and revere the wolf pack.  This book tells the often unheard story of the effects that modernity has on a people when they are told their old way of life is no longer relevant and are forced to assimilate into a new way of thinking and living.  Folklore and storytelling are discussed as a way to teach the students why the herders live the same way their ancestors did, dating back to Genghis Khan, illustrating the importance of respecting nature and preserving the ecosystems to maintain their way of life.  It was really fascinating! 

Another book I read recently about forced cultural revolution (unfortunately again at the hands of the Chinese) is Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan Family's Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom by Yangzom Brauen.  This is a story about three generations of women in a Tibetan family, told by the granddaughter Yangzom.  She tells the story of the family fleeing Tibet after the Chinese invasion and subsequent occupation in the late 1950's.  Yangzom's grandparents and their two children escape across the Himalayas to India, where only her mother and grandmother survive.  The story begins in Tibet prior to the Chinese arrival, when Yangzom's grandmother is growing up, discussing Tibet prior to the invasion and what happened after the soldiers arrived.  She portrays her mother's and grandmother's difficult lives in India and their longing to return to their homeland.  Her parents meet in India, fall in love and their journey now continues to Switzerland where they move with Yangzom's father.  As a young woman, Yangzom becomes involved in the "Free Tibet" movement, and her story picks up from the threads of her mother's and grandmother's memories and love for their country.  I had also not read nor knew much about the Chinese occupation of Tibet and found this book very informative and interesting.  Another great pick by Chelsea for one of my Christmas presents! 

Chelsea also bought the next book for me that we both recently read: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder.  This book is about the life's work of a Boston doctor, Dr. Paul Farmer, an infectious-disease specialist and anthropologist. He travels to Haiti as a young man and is devastated by the crushing poverty and illness he sees.  The Haitian people he meets don't have even the basic necessities and are suffering and dying of curable diseases.  He vows to help them and creates the organization Partners in Health, which raises money and ultimately builds and runs a hospital in rural Haiti.  After his successes in Haiti, Dr. Farmer expands his organization to help in other developing countries.  He also works diligently on the global scale with the United Nations World Health Organization to bring global attention to the issues of making preventable disease and illness a priority.  He is very inspiring, tirelessly working to help strangers around the world survive and lead a better life.  It opened my eyes to the struggles of others I did not know much about--I went on to read three other books about Haiti and have enjoyed them all.  All Souls' Rising by Madison Smartt Bell is a historical fiction novel about the Haitian slave revolution of the 1790's. I had no idea that Haiti was the world's first Black republic! Shouldn't I have learned about that in school?!?  I had to find out more. This book is 500+ pages and very informative, graphically violent and hard to take at times (but what revolution isn't violent?), but overall well done.  Different characters throughout the book narrate the story, from landowners to slaves to soldiers, so you see a multi-faceted view of the events of the revolution.  It lends a background to the roots of problems Haiti faces today, showing how colonialism wrecked havoc on native lands around the world.  All of these books have a similar theme--a more powerful nation coming in to destroy culture and the native people's livelihood in the name of modernizing the country.  What a mistake!

We have more books coming down the pipe, so stay tuned for more suggestions :)

April April April!

It's been a beautiful weekend in Seattle! Yesterday afternoon Grandpa Jack & Aunt Cathy came over for a visit. Cathy and Chelsea were discussing the possibilites for our new backyard. I'm excited to figure out what kind of sunlight we'll have back there and get started planting. It will be so nice to have a relaxing little space to spend outside this summer, yay!

Chelsea made us a delicious dinner Friday night, from her "This can't be tofu!" cookbook. Yum!

She's so cute in her kitty apron, made for her by Aunt Cathy. We finally have a great place for our aprons, hanging right in the kitchen, so we actually get to use them. I have one made by Aunt Cathy as well (with little peppermint candies on it) and three aprons my sister Bonnie designed for Target a few years ago. They are all super cute!

Here is the final product, yum yum! Those of you who are afraid of tofu need to try this recipe before you judge it, it's delicious! It has a peanut sauce over udon noodles, with green onions and tofu fried in soy sauce.

We've been doing some more work around the house this weekend. We've almost finished our new tv room! After painting over the last few weeks, we were lucky enough to get a floor sample sofa at a screaming deal at my work, woo hoo! And it fits perfectly in the space. We also got the wool rug from a friend of Aunt Cathy's for free--it nicely matches the side table we had and the new curtains. We have a few more pictures to hang on the wall over the tv, and then it will be complete. Stay tuned!

We hung a few more pictures on the second floor. One print in the landing, coming up from the first floor before entering the kitchen.

We've also added a few pictures to our family photo gallery. It's coming along nicely. We also hung pictures in our bedroom, and a mirror over my dresser. Maybe we will actually be ready to host a house warming party before the end of spring!

What We've Been Up To!

We've been busy lately! Here's what we've been up to:

Our friend Lindsay has a new CD out and we went to her CD release party in March. It was at a local pub in Ballard and it was awesome! She played with Amy Ray from the Indigo Girls, and there was also a surprise guest appearance by Dave Matthews! It was really cool--it's great to see her music getting a lot of exposure, and awesome to hear other famous musicians singing her songs. Find out more at: http://www.lindsayfuller.com/. Great job, Lindsay!



We also went to another concert in March (almost as awesome as Lindsay's show)--we saw Kelly Clarkson with our friend Danny. Chelsea and Danny love her (okay, I might a little bit, too) and have been to a few other of her shows in Seattle. Chels & Danny used to work together and they would sing her songs together at work...they have also been known to sing her songs at karaoke. Matt Nathanson opened for her, and we got to meet him after the show!

Here we are with Matt Nathanson. He was pretty good! His most famous song that you've probably heard on the radio is called "Faster". That was fun!

Chels and I decided to paint the room on the ground floor of our townhouse. It's going to be our TV room, and it was this hideous shade of orange when we moved in. Kind of between peach and salmon, not a color I love... Last month we happened to discover that Ace hardware was giving away free quarts of paint on Saturdays. How lucky! We were able to get 4 quarts and paint the whole room (well, it's maybe 10'x7', so not huge).

We painted the ceiling and two walls a silvery-bluish grey color.

And the other two accent walls are a shade of aqua. It matches an accent color in the curtain panels & matching throw pillows we have!

Here it is, nice & new and not orange!

I think we did a pretty nice job!

Here are the curtains. The room isn't totally done yet, so we'll post some pics once it's complete. I really like it! It's fun to have a room that we decorated completely ourselves, paint and everything. Our next painting project will be the half bathroom off the kitchen--it's a deep red that is not commonly found on my color wheel :)


Last Friday, Chels and I got to spend time with Grandpa Jack. We went over to his house after work and made dinner. Then we just hung out and relaxed--we got to look at more picture albums, this time the late 90's were featured. We got to see cruise trips that Jack & Cynthia went on, high school pictures of Chels & Steph, Steph's high school graduation & Andrew's graduation from middle school, and other fun family pictures. It's so neat that Chelsea's Grandma Cynthia had made all of these photo albums over the years--it's a nice way to put a picture to all of Grandpa Jack's stories!

We've been doing some work in the backyard. Well, mostly Chelsea has been--the backyard is her domain to decorate. She first started pulling up ivy that's wrapped all around the big tree we have. What a project! She dug a big hole at the base of the tree to cut out the roots, and got all the ivy off the tree as high as the top of the fence. Our yard waste bin has been full each week!

Kitten has been getting braver in her outdoor adventures. She's mostly an indoor cat, but we let her come outside with us while we're in the backyard. However, yesterday she jumped on top of the fence, so we'll see how much freedom she gets in the future...

Here are two little evergreen trees we got for free from my work. We have a gardening service that comes and brings plants according to the season--after the holidays, I was able to get these because they were switching to spring plants. We've yet to decide exactly where we are going to put them in the backyard yet... Chels is thinking of planting ground cover in the backyard, and Claire suggested stepping stones to make a little patio. Between Chels, Barry, Claire, and Aunt Cathy, we'll have plenty of ideas and advice for a great-looking backyard!

Kitten also likes to eat the grass, silly cat!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and Chels made a little display for our house. It started out with real eggs she had dyed last year with Aunt Cathy. Then she remembered all the beanie babies of hers that Cindy brought up last time they were in town. How perfect!

We all went to brunch at Aunt Cathy & Uncle Sandy's house--we were there, Boo & Dan, Claire & Sean, Miranda & Matt, Grandpa Jack, Cathy & Sandy, and their neighbor friend Jerry. It was delicious as always! After brunch, we walked down to the pond to see the ducks. Here we are in front of a really pretty cherry tree.

Here's Sean & Claire checking out the ducks

Me & Aunt Cathy. It was such a beautiful, sunny day! We had a lot of fun :)

A turtle sunning on a rock

Ducks in the pond

It's so funny the way they dive down in the water looking for food!

Pretty daffodils

Happy birthday to Barry & Dan last week, and to our sweet little niece Delilah this week! We love you all!