Tag Archives: family

celebrating greg’s birthday

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I mentioned earlier this week that Greg and I got away to Whidbey Island on Saturday night to celebrate his birthday. I worked with his boss to plan the surprise – it was such a nice gift to give Greg. Glad I got to partake, too! I’m thankful for in-laws who love our doodle and are always willing and happy to keep him for a weekend when we leave town.

We started with a Saturday morning ferry ride. I had told Greg we were meeting friends for brunch to get us out of the house and while we were “on our way” to brunch I told him we were going on adventure instead, so towards the ferry we went. I’m still fascinated by driving onto a ferry. It’s just so cool!

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We had lunch at a cafe in Langley after checking into our room. It was not the best service or food so I won’t bother mentioning it. After lunch we got coffees and wandered around the little town. We stopped in at a winery tasting room and found a great bottle of wine and a fun Spanish vintner to chat with for an hour or so. I love talking to people who are obviously passionate about what they do.

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It was raining a little so we headed back to our room and napped and watched HGTV. Because that’s just what we do when we travel. We’ve agreed we can never have the channel at home because weekends will be completely wasted zoning out to home shows.

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We got ready for the big event – the 13 course chef’s dinner at the Inn. Oh my gosh, it was so good. I decided I wanted to enjoy the experience, especially since it was Greg’s birthday dinner, so I didn’t take pictures during the meal (except for one course because it was too fun  not to). I’m glad I did. Most people were pulling out there phone every course and I think we enjoyed it more just chatting and enjoying the food and wine pairings.

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I think we ended up with the best seats in the house. We were seated next to each other and facing the kitchen so we could easily talk and watch the chefs prepare each course.IMG_4999_edited-1 IMG_5001_edited-1

This course was “sweet earth”; it hung in mini terrariums and the chefs came out and cut them down when it was time to eat them. (It was a beet with a crumble on top and something creamy. There were a lot of courses, hard to remember the details of each!)

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The last dessert course is cut off in this picture of the menu. We can’t decide if our favorite course was the lamb or the asparagus soup. The food was all delicious and served in such fun, invented ways. The soup came in beakers that we drank from, with a piece of pickled asparagus wrapped in lardo. It was amazing. The gin and tonic experiment was served in a petri dish and that we ‘inoculated’ with gin. Strange but tasty.

I didn’t pack any electronics, including charges, aside from our phones. They died in the evening and it was nice to be totally electronicless for a few hours. We ate brunch at the Inn, watched more HGTV and eventually made our way back across the water.

Just for fun, my TimerCam outtakes. I have a very patient husband. greg bday outakes

the 2014 winter bucket list: recap

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winter bucket list 2014_edited-1Seeing that we’re more than two weeks into spring territory, it’s time to recap winter. I made my list of goals weeks before I decided to jump into the NTP program, so they definitely did not take into account that I’d be spending most of my free time learning and studying.

1. Attend Barre3 five times a week. I went five days a week up until we got a few weeks into class. Then I cut back to three or four. Then I realized that with all the studying I was doing, exercising indoors meant I was never getting outside. I ended my membership and started walking Alfred a lot more. It was a great decision – I just feel so much better when I get outside everyday for an extended period of time.

2. Bring breakfast to work every day, bring my lunch to work four days a week, and eat a homemade dinner five nights a week. I did really well with this. Over the course of ten weeks I think I bought my breakfast at work only three times. There was probably a week or two where I didn’t bring my lunch four days, but I really improved on not eating in the cafe everyday. As for dinners, for the most part we stuck to going out/take out no more than twice a week and some weeks I think we even did only one.

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3. Redo our office. The major work is done, but I’m still finishing up some decorative aspects. Still loving our new set up and the additional light we are getting in our favorite room. I wrote about our overhaul here.

4. Create my craft closet. I got so far as to cleared out the closet and moved in a small desk. Between seeing what I was actually working with and knowing that the next year or more is dedicated to becoming an NTP and starting my own business (and if we’re lucky throwing a baby in the mix), crafting is probably not going to be high on my list for a while. I’ve decided to reorganize the closet (it’s about halfway done) to better store all my supplies. That alone is huge and with our larger work desk I have room to craft when I get a few minutes.

5. Finish closet and jewelry organization. Ha. Let’s just say it is not significantly worse than when winter started.

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6. Organize the spice jars. The supplies were purchased and the work is mostly done. There’s probably an hour left, I just haven’t got to it yet. Maybe this weekend? I went with small jars to organize my every growing spice collection. More details to come in a post when I finally finish the project.

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7.  See something new in Washington. We did! It wasn’t super exciting, but we had a fun family day down to Port Orchard.

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8. Go on a winter getaway. Phoenix was not so good to us in 2014, but we got a few hours in the sun and we had a good time together. Maui 2015 is on the books (in my head), though Maui for Fall 2014 needs to get booked on the real books ASAP.

9. Replace two of our dog-chewed blankets with homemade ones. I made progress on two blankets but neither are near finished. I bought the fabric for a quilt and I’m about 30% done with a new knit blanket. I’m LOVING it and will happily admit I borrowed the idea from Elise (of course). You can see her finished product here and at some point I’ll be back to show you mine.

10. Send five cards. I did not start a snail-mail revolution. The only snail-mail I sent was monthly anniversary cards to my sister and brother-in-law (from her shower), which totally don’t count since I did not write them.

the 2014 spring bucket list

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Per my arbitrary declaration, it’s time for the spring bucket list!IMG_4508_edited-2

On to the goals. I have a little notebook that is mostly always with me (currently its orange with gold circles from Target; highly recommend). The front part is my to do list and the back is random lists, plans, tracking sheets, etc. Usually once I post a bucket list for a season, I start a new list in my notebook for the next season. This way I can capture things throughout the months that I’d like to work on, rather than sitting down and coming up with ten random goals at one time.

I noticed a flaw in my system when I looked through what I had for spring. It was several hefty craft/house projects and some fitness goals. They are all fun and I’d love to spend my time doing them, but they don’t really reflect my priorities right now and through the next ten weeks. I decided to take another approach and first recognize what my priorities are, then make goals against those. Here’s what I came up with for priorities:

1. Family Time
2. Eating Real Food
3. Sleep
4. Work
5. Schoolwork
6. Exercise
7. Crafting/house

Having an actual list for how I want/need to spend my time was really helpful for coming up with a bucket list that will be realistic and not add stress. The point is to be intentional with my time and have fun, so adding goals that add stress is just silly.

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The dirt, weeds, and stone should be grass by summer.

1. Start on fixing up the backyard. This might sound like it falls under priority seven, crafting/house, but it’s actually a project that Greg and I will work on together through nice weekends this spring. We’re both really excited about it and looking forward to doing it. It will definitely be good quality time together. There’s more we want to do to the backyard eventually, but for spring we hope to: plant grass on half the yard, clean up the plants around the sitting area, spruce up our small table and chairs, create veggie boxes for the unused planter, and lay down a ground cover (small white rocks?) around the veggie boxes.

2. Deal with Alfred’s doorbell and stranger barking. This may not be the most fun way to spend family time but it’s seriously going to increase all of our quality of life.

3. Plan and have a fun Memorial Day weekend with my parents and the girls. We are loving all the visitors we have this year and my parents will be in town for Memorial Day weekend. Since we don’t typically have a five and three year old with us, I want to plan a few things that will be fun for everyone.

4. Render pork fat into lard. A new cooking challenge, a new item to use for cooking when it’s done, and creating freezer space! Win, win, win.

5. Buy amber glasses and regular alarm clocks. Sleep improvements! Since I’m usually on my computer until 9 and Greg sometimes later, we’re getting amber tinted glasses. (Yes, I’m aware I get weirder every day.) These glasses help block the blue light that comes from electronics, which throw off your body’s natural cycle of producing melatonin in the evening. Yes, getting off electronics in the evening would be better but right now that’s not going to happen. I’m also looking for some alarm clocks to use in our room instead of our phones.

6. Keep on top of NTP work. I’ve been both on top of my school work and a little behind (post Phoenix) and life is much less stressful during the on top if it phases. So I hope to keep it that way.

7. Get started on my community outreach project. It’s not due until October, but I don’t want to spend September scrambling to finish. My goal for spring is to outline the project.

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We did our first walk on Monday evening and got in 2.3 miles. I love you, day light savings time.

8. Walk 50 miles with the doodle. I had so much fun doing this last summer and I don’t have any other form of exercise going on right now, so why not go for it a second time. This will get us both outside and checking out new parks while we rack up the miles.

9. Script class. I signed up for this class, bought the supplies, then promptly started my NTP class. Haven’t done much else but the class is available to me still as it’s online so I hope to get to it soon.

10. Finish the office and craft closet. After careful consideration, the craft closet is going to remain a closet and not a room. It’s been reorganized partially and already that’s made a huge difference. With our new desk I have plenty of room to craft. With the cleaned out closet, I have a place to neatly store everything. It’s working. Virtually no progress has been made on the office since I shared our update, so I need to complete the finishing touches and also clean out the last few shelves in the closet. Totally doable.

Next week I’ll recap my winter bucket list. Which turned out to be not quite as big of a miss as I thought it might be.

sunday

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Sunday was supposed to be in the low 50s and partly sunny. I had grand plans for a fun family day to take advantage of the weather and everyone else in Seattle staying home to watch the Seahawks game. I did some research looking for a day trip to a new spot in Washington and came up with Port Orchard.

We drove into Kitsap County (a little over an hour) and our first stop was the Howe Farms dog park. It was huge – 4 acres of fields and trails. I typically hate the dog park but this one was fun. The scenery was really beautiful as well. It was only about 40 and super foggy – so much for the good weather. We were underdressed for the elements and stayed for only 45 minutes.

Next up we went into downtown Port Orchard. I thought we’d stroll along the main street, find a cute place to eat, and enjoy the afternoon along the marina. Besides the weather not being on our side, Port Orchard was a little sad. Most of the stores on the main street were boarded up. Definitely not what I had pictured.

We found a cute place to stop and eat though, the Home Made Cafe. It was a little breakfast and lunch spot in the basement of an old church. All the tables were dining room tables with matching chairs, very country kitsch. The food was good and they had hot coffee. We ate and headed back to the car. Trying to make the most of our adventure, we took the ferry home. I’m still somewhat in awe of driving onto a ferry even though this is probably my fifth or so time.

The day wasn’t really what I had imagined, but we still had a lot of fun and spent quality time together. And one winter bucket list goal is complete. portorchard

throwback thursday

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I thought it would be fun to go through my photos and try to find a picture from January from each year in the past. My digital photos start with 2005 and I really had no idea what I would find. I just skipped the year if I didn’t have any pictures from January.

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2006 – my first roast chicken! oh my gosh I totally remember this. i was living alone for the first time (in San Rafael) and always did new recipe Monday.

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2007 – around my birthday on the coast up in marin county.

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2009 – one of my all time favorite SF nights. the night before we ran our first Kaiser half marathon. soo many of our inside jokes came from this night.

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2010 – my birthday/girls night at julie’s. after many bottles of wine.

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2011 – so many great pictures from my 30th birthday, but i’ve always really loved this one. five great guys, i’m thankful to have them all in my life.

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2012 – sending out save the dates. started to feel really real!

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2013 – birthday trip to portland, before we realized puppy plus hotel room was a terrible combination.

This was so much fun, I’m going to try to remember to do it again next month.

birthday recap

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I turned 33 on Sunday. Greg and I decided that mid-thirites is really 34, 35, and 36 so I have one last year in my early thirties. I have no words of wisdom for this new year and I’ve never set goals for my birthday. Not that I don’t love goals, but I think because my birthday is twelve days into a new year I’ve always had a fresh set of goals to work on anyway.

All I really wanted for my birthday was a weekend with nothing we had to do and the ability to get back into our routine. We haven’t had a weekend without an ER trip, illness, or travel since the weekend before Thanksgiving. I totally got what I wanted. On Saturday we spent the day both relaxing and getting through piles and piles of laundry and cleaning the house.

Then it was on to my birthday. We started the day with a lazy morning of local news and coffee followed by a long walk around our neighborhood. We love, love the new park that is right across the street from us, especially Alfred.

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In the afternoon I picked up my final meat order – half a pig. Our freezers are both packed and my grocery store trips are so easy. I’m slowly getting back into my cooking routine. Last week we only ate dinner out once and it was for my birthday.

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We finished season 2 of The Newsroom in the afternoon. I was so sad to read today that season 3 will be the final one, but at least we get one more.

Then we were off to our traditional steak dinner. We’re not huge on buying each other presents (though Greg add to my Jo-Annes gift card collection) but we take each other out to a different steak restaurant for our birthdays.

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I’m obsessed with TimerCam photos but need to work on more flattering angles.

The restaurant was very slow so we got our picture taken while we waited for dinner. I’m looking forward to the year ahead with this guy and all the big and small adventures that are waiting for us. IMG_4113_edited-1

 

 

mr. and mrs. maciol

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My baby little sister is married! We had such a fun weekend celebrating Becky + Arek’s wedding with family and friends. I didn’t take many photos, and even fewer good ones over the weekend. I was too busy enjoying the family (and herding cats at times).

Friday we landed in Long Beach and it was WARM. I immediately asked Greg why we don’t live in Southern California and he had NO GOOD ANSWER. Even his usual “taxes” didn’t quite work when it was seventy something degrees in January. We headed straight to the rehearsal and dinner. Polish food truck for the win. rehersal

Friday morning we woke up after 9+ hours of sleep to overcast skies. Not cool, LA. I headed to the boat for the first time as it was girls’ day at the spa. We all got manicures and pedicures, and those of us who have been to kindergarten already also enjoyed champagne. The littles definitely took to a day of pampering just fine. Anna was on top of her technician like it was her job.

nailsAnd then it was time for the big day. We started getting ready sometime before the crack of dawn. Literally. Meeting my new nephew for the first time and holding a 16 month old in a tux well made up for the early wake-up call. Another champagne toast and we were off… only to wait for the limo bus that was an hour and fifteen minutes late to arrive.

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Greg managed to track the limo bus down and get him oriented and we were off to the church. They had a fun ceremony that was traditional with a light-hearted priest. Maks decided he had no interest in me holding him down the aisle, so his mama did instead. I think I definitely saw Arek wipe away a tear seeing his two loves walking down the aisle towards him. 

The reception was so much fun. We ate, we danced, we caught up with friends and family. I managed to make what is hopefully my last wedding toast ever and survived. I’m a billion times happy for Becky and Arek and so thrilled we got to take part in their happy day.

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a quilt for grandma janet

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My grandma Janet recently started chemo. Since she is in southern California and I am not I wanted to do something special for her in lieu of being able to visit.

I’ve heard (okay, I’ve seen on TV) that it’s usually freezing in the hospital during chemo treatments. I’m not sure if this is true, but I decided to try making a quilt. I wasn’t entirely sure it would come out well enough to give as a gift but dug in anyway.

I followed a very similar color palate as the one from the tutorial I used. I was going for “cheerful” and these colors seemed perfect. I loved that orange fabric with the leaves but ended up cutting it the wrong size twice, and only had enough to use it twice.IMG_3778_edited-1

Action shots. The ratio of sewing to ironing is pretty much 1:1 in quilt making. I think I should probably upgrade to an actual ironing board for my back’s sake.quilt

I was super proud of finishing the top. I don’t know what happened with the red, but the seams on the other four colors actually line up much better than I was expecting.IMG_3820_edited-1

I worked on the project for three weeks, usually just an hour or two at a time. Quilting projects are made up of a million steps. It might seem daunting, but I actually like that there are so many steps to break up the work into. It makes it much easier for me to work on it for an hour after work versus clearing a whole weekend to complete one from start to finish. IMG_7643

 

I love the back. It’s really simple and definitely far from perfect, but I think the colorful striped thread is so cheerful.

IMG_7675_edited-1This was the second project I tackled from the Get Quilty eCourse, so again I’m not posting any of the specific steps. It was very easy to follow and I made a few improvements over my winter table runner. I learned how to use a seam ripper to rip only the seams, not fabric. I also didn’t have to stop every five minutes to fix something with the sewing machine. That was huge. I am guessing that is just coming from practice.

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Project: 4/35
Time: 12 hours (?)
Tutorial: Get Quilty eCourse
Cost: $72.17 ($65.77 fabric, batting, thread; $6.40 1/5 eCourse cost)

This sounds quite expensive, but it’s mostly ‘start-up’ costs: I had to buy three more colors of thread ($10), to get all the different patterns I bought 1/4 yard of 19 fabrics and probably used just over half of each, I started with a gray fabric for the binding but ended up going with creams so that went unused, I got lazy at the last minute and bought the final backing and binding fabrics from a local shop without sales or coupons. My guess is once I collect thread in most colors and build up a collection of scrap fabric, a quilt will cost between $30 and $40.

closing out christmas

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We had our last Christmas celebration on Saturday night with Don and Roberta. I suppose it’s a sign of a good night of laughing and chatting that I don’t have any pictures of the evening. I managed a few food ones, but that’s it. We brought out our Waterford wine glasses and used two more wedding gifts (gold napkins & the white casserole dish). I think the only thing left that hasn’t been used is the cupcake tree. Maybe Greg was right about that one. IMG_7638_edited-1

I’m trying to not just collect cookbooks but actually use them, so for the dinner I dug into Gather, which I’ve had for probably a year and never opened. It’s arranged by seasonal meals, with four or five for each season. It’s a great concept and makes it very easy to plan a dinner party.

I started with the Winter Holiday meal and adjusted it some. I made the Pomegranate & Walnut Salad and the Yorkshire Pudding Muffins from the menu. Instead of prime rib, which we had had twice this week and turns out my in-laws had had it as well, I made a Balsamic Marinated London Broil. (First meat from our quarter cow!) The menu included two veggie dishes (candied yams and roasted cabbage), but I wanted to use veg I already had so I went with roasted beets and acorn squash. Overall I think it was pretty tasty. I had never made a London Broil before so it ended up being a little under cooked. I threw a few slices back in the pan for those that prefer more well done meat and it worked.
gathermealI can’t believe Christmas is over. It came so fast this year, but with hitting three families all in a week it seemed to last a little longer than usual. I’m ready to get back into routine and see what 2014 has in store for us, but first it’s NYEE and a wedding.

christmas in colorado

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To continue or family Christmas celebration, we headed to Denver very early on Christmas Eve morning. It was a relaxing trip with lots of down time.

We ate (not too much), we drank (some of us too much), we played, we broke and improved wireless networks, we attempted to go to Mass, we walked for an hour in the Colorado sunshine.

I missed having Joey and Brittany and their kids with us, but am excited we get to see them next week for the wedding.

After fighting with my computer and photo shop all morning, I’m just posting a few of the family photos we took. Imagine lots of pictures of kids playing with toys and you have the rest. IMG_7500_edited-2 IMG_7502_edited-1 IMG_7509_edited-2