august in review, and my weekend ahead...

a new little blog tradition i'm going to start: posting a "month in review" post at each month's end. my blog is supposed to be a record and journal of sorts, so if the day-to-day blogging continues to suck as it has beem at least i'll have some sort of life summary to show for my time.

so, then - on with the show.

august in review

1. celebrated our 3rd anniversary.
   
2. took a mini-vacation to sequim.
   
3. saw hairspray, the movie. i'm in love.
   
4. kids ministry: went to the zoo.
   
5. set some goals.
   
6. didn't make a ton of progress on said goals (i'm asking for an extension, to see what i can accomplish tomorrow!!)
   
7. kids ministry: took a few of our boys bowling.
   
8. had a few photo sessions.
   
9. kids ministry: ended our Summer Olympics program, and celebrated with an awards ceremony.
   
10. relished the last month of my best friend's summer vacation at home, and said goodbye to her for the 6th time as she leaves to start a new school year.
    

and i'm super excited about some downtime this weekend (sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?) sunday is "family service sunday", so our kids will be in the "big service" (you know, the one with "big people" in it) - which means kate will be in the big service, which means kate has very little prep work to do this weekend. so if i run my church-related errands today, i can have tomorrow to do whatever i want. compound that with monday being a holiday, and i have the makings for a very nice little stretch of time off.

matt's going fishing bright and early (dark and early?) tomorrow morning, and i'll be stranded at home sans vehicle. i've got a couple of projects on my mind (hint: i'm already thinking halloween, but i have to buy some orange crepe paper.) and might even go for a walk.

speaking of walks (wow, when it rains, it pours, huh? i'm practically rambling.) - i found the perfect thing to coerce me into exercise. since matt started his new job, we've been carpooling, which means i don't listen to my mp3 player, which means i'm seriously behind on my podcasts. the other day, i decided to take a little walk at lunch, and got 15 minutes into this really long, really great podcast. since i wanted to keep listening, and walking seems to be the best way to do that without trying to "multi-task" and missing half of it, i've decided that i'll use my podcasts specifically for walking. i've walked three days this week. so far, so good. and there's always more where "that" came from, so it's not like i'm in danger of running out of listening material!

ok, that's it for me. off to do something productive. happy end-of-august!

last week was a busy week for me in terms of photography - and it felt great. a shoot on tuesday, and a shoot on thursday with expedited editing needs. the time-crunch felt good.

these are a few of my favorites from thursday's shoot:

i've known and loved this family "forever" - nearly 12 years anyway. allie is my best friend, we met in middle school. we've shopped together, scrapbooked together, vacationed together, grown up together. and we've been figuratively by each other's sides - even when more than 3000 miles separated us - through much more than a little blog summary could explain. it's hard to remember that we're "all grown up" now.

and her little brother - who's not so little anymore - will always be that 10 year old little punk who listened in on our phone conversations and then pretended he didn't know us at school. (sorry sean!) ;)

so taking these photos was especially fun for me, and reminded me why i love family shoots so much. even if i don't have these memories of the family i'm photographing - someone does. and i get to be a part of that little piece of documentation.

Summer Goal Check-In...

i realize i'm a less-than-frequent-blogger this summer, so hopefully this little blog check-in will give you a summary of what i'm up to. (or not up to, as the case seems to be...)


1. purge & organize our house. (i've thought about it.)
2. purge & organize my studio. (i've made some excellent purging efforts and some minor re-org efforts. now i need to get down to business and clean!)
3. eat at our picnic table again. (not yet. we did MOVE the picnic table to mow the lawn... does that count??)
4. have friends over to grill. (still no time yet.)
5. walk green lake. (right.)
6. go swimming at the lake once more. (still not hot enough.)
7. do some serious scrapbook-related shopping with allie before i lose her to boston for the fall, again.
8. go on a picnic. (again, no time.)

oh lame. that's not much progress at all... darnit.

charming...

she came prepared with her own poses. so beautiful, and loved every second the camera was on her. we had lots of fun together.

Sequim - Day 1 (Part 2) and Day 2 - or, "Who said it doesn't rain in Sequim??"

(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)i was thrilled to find out last week from two of my closest "advisors" that "it never rains in Sequim", especially since forecasts for Seattle called for 5 very rainy days. we were definitely looking forward to some sunshine.

my well-intentioned advisors were wrong. (see photo.) it spit gently most of the day on saturday, and then certainly more heavily on sunday. i think the locals were looking at me funny. "why is that girl wearing capris and a sleeveless shirt? doesn't she know it's raining?" i felt like i should be wearing a sign: "it's ok. i'm from seattle." but the sun did indeed show itself - at approximately 1pm on sunday, just as we were leaving Sequim.

so, where did i leave off... ah yes - after the lavender farms. we had lunch at a little cafe with zero atmosphere that served a mean reuben sandwich (not as good as matt's, but still, pretty decent). then it was an obligatory stop at the local scrapbook store, and a walk through the saturday farmer's market and some of the local shops before heading back to our hotel to nap before dinner (it IS a vacation after all).

the local casino was smaller than expected, but i'm easily overwhelmed so it was "cozy". matt got to try his hand at real poker tables (scary), and we played a little roulette. their buffet dinner had a fabulous salad bar, and a chef cooking made-to-order pasta. he whipped up a tasty crab in alfredo on penne for me, and even taught me that you should never use parmesan on seafood because it can taste "foul". instead, he used lemonjuice and tarragon. it was fabulous.

you know it's a bad sign when the girl at the coffee shop in another part of the state says "you guys are here alot. would you like a punch card?"... (for the record, we'd only been their twice - but she was there both times.) sunday morning, desperate for something other than the meager fare served in the hotel continental breakfast, we headed out to hurricane coffee co. to try a lavender latte. very sweet. not at all what i was expecting. not as good as the lavender ice cream. but at least i can say i tried it.

then it was back to the hotel to mollify matt's need for one more dip in the pool. we found ourselves wishing we had one more day - not having had a chance to drive out to the nearby Hurricane Ridge or Lake Crescent on our little trip. oh well, it was raining anyway...

we packed up, checked out and headed back into town. i needed to buy myself something pretty (other than scrapbook supplies) to remember our weekend by. after wandering through a few stores, i finally found it - a soldered pendant with an illustration of a lavender field on one side, and lavender blooms on the other. perfect. the storeowner told me that the artist makes these especially for Sequim gift shops, so i wouldn't find them anywhere else in the world. yay!

we knew we needed lunch before we left town, so we stopped at another cafe that, one would assume by it's name, appeared to offer seafood dishes. nope. not unless you consider a caesar salad with little salad shrimp to be fresh seafood... eeehh.

so we determined to make up for lunch with a stop at "coneheads", the most unusual little drive-through ice cream and espresso stand i've ever seen, and then thoroughly embarrassed ourselves by stopping to take a picture. (how could we not?!) then it was time to get on the road and head home...

Sequim was certainly a lovely place to spend the weekend. it was nice not to have any obligations - we were free to do what we wanted, which is not something we often get to experience these days. more than once, we caught ourselves saying "i could retire here." but then, i say that about every little place we visit. the way matt figures it, we'll have to spend 2 years "retiring" in every little town we've enjoyed just to keep up with ourselves...

back from sequim...

had ourselves a nice little weekend away in sequim, wa. very relaxing, very quiet, and a nice change to not be on a schedule.

went to the dungeness state park and admired the sand bluffs...

saw the cutest, fuzziest little fawns with their mama...

got as close to the lighthouse as the lookout point and dad's 200mm zoom lens would allow. (thanks, dad!) it was really hazy that day, so the picture isn't very clear - and this is after being "clarified" in proofing.

visited a lavender farm, tried a lavender latte (overrated), lavender white chocolate (very sweet), and lemon-lavender ice cream (the best thing ever)...

and ate more ice cream than should be allowed... (no photos!) ;)

Sequim - Day 1 (Part 1)

after a 2 hour unexpected wait for a ferry last night, we were pleased to arrive in sequim (that's pronounced "skwim" for you non-locals) a little earlier than we feared. we settled into our hotel room, chose a restaurant, found the supposed address on a map, and then ventured out and off the beaten track. that restaurant was not located at that address. disappointed, but yet adventurous, we returned to said beaten track and began to look for something more local to our hotel, using the next-door mexican restaurant as our backup. we spent about 20 minutes venturing back and forth down the main drag of sequim, looking for something interesting to eat, and finally decided on our fall-back mexican restaurant. sadly, it closed just minutes before we arrived. we were out of luck and facing mcdonalds. thankfully - it didn't come to that. we found a little sports bar called "tailgate pizza" and enjoyed a fabulous, unusually topped pizza while catching the last inning of the mariner's game on giant HD screens.

we were up at a very decent hour this morning, had breakfast at Hurricane Coffee Co., and then ventured out to Railroad Bridge Park. we wandered for a bit, then headed up to the Dungeness Spit, intending to get out to the lookout, photograph the lighthouse from afar (walking the 4.8 mile sandy spit takes the better part of the day, and we simply had too much to see). still being early in the day, it was very foggy. the view of the lighthouse was less than ideal, but it was a nice walk anyway, and the bluffs were gorgeous.

sequim prides itself on, and is known for, it's lavender. there are at least half a dozen lavender farms in the area, and you can't swing a cat in any store without hitting a jar of lavender honey or a bar of lavender soap (not that i'm doing a whole lot of cat-swinging in sequim, but that's neither here nor there). it just so happens that lavender is on my top-5-favorite-flowers list, so when we planned this trip, i talked matt into a field trip. (heh.)

so, we headed back to town and stopped at the Purple Haze Lavender Farm. the fragrance of lavender hung heavy in the air and i drank it in. a quick snack of lemon-lavender ice cream (yes before lunch - but it was amazing!!), and we headed back to our hotel room for a little rest.

we've had a swim in the pool and now* we're off to get a late lunch and do some wandering around town. tonight, we'll have dinner at the casino, and i insist on at least one serving of Dungeness Crab before we leave tomorrow. Wink

more later.

*written around 12pm on saturday.

friday check-in...

if i can just do two posts a week to get through the summer, maybe life will slow down a little in september, and i'll be able to post more. (i'll just keep telling myself that, huh?)

this week has felt slow - but probably because of that "vacationitis" issue. it seems that having something really fun planned for the weekend always makes the week go slower, and the higher the degree of fun, the slower time passes.

our anniversary on wednesday was fabulous. we had dinner at a new restaurant that just opened in our area called stanford's. there were some kinks - running out of the appetizer we ordered (twice) - but we knew to expect some problems because it's still so new. the service was excellent - despite missing appetizers, they were very apologetic, comped us dessert and otherwise waited on us hand and foot. the food was delicious, and i'd recommend it to anyone. but either wait a few weeks, or plan for a leisurely meal.

so, we're off to sequim this weekend. i'm looking forward to some wandering, some photo ops, and of course, the food and our jacuzzi suite.

since i only have two weeks left of my definition of summer, i thought i'd do a little "goal" check-in:

1. purge & organize our house. (haven't started.)
2. purge & organize my studio. (have made some very basic "tidying" efforts. certainly not enough purging yet. in fact, i did the opposite of purging. see #7.)
3. eat at our picnic table again. (i'd have to cook to do this, wouldn't i?)
4. have friends over to grill. (no time yet.)
5. walk green lake. (hah.)
6. go swimming at the lake once more. (not hot enough.)
7. do some serious scrapbook-related shopping with allie before i lose her to boston for the fall, again. (ta da!!! i guess i was serious when i said "serious" because i did some ... serious ... damage on our adventure last night. there goes my spending money. oops!!)
8. go on a picnic. (again, no time.)

ok, so i haven't accomplished a ton. hoping to do some of the purging next week. weatherman says we're in for rain several days of rain, so that knocks the other 5 of my goals off my list for next week... hmmm.

happy friday!

a big week...

i'm looking forward to a big week this week.

wednesday marks our 3-year anniversary. can you believe it? i can't.

friday will be our first "vacation" since i took this position with our church. it's hard to steal away for a weekend. but we made it work. i couldn't do it without my fabulous team of volunteers that agreed to work a little "overtime" so i could have a day off. so grateful for them.

one of the things i love about anniversaries is the traditional gift "suggestions". we've always let that list be inspiration for our gifts, but we definitely let our creativity run with it. (i wonder who created that list, anyway? probably hallmark...) and usually, for matt, i get a small gift that stays true to the tradition, and another gift that is something he'll actually want/use.

so, the mighty list says that year 3 should be commemorated with leather, crystal or glass. i found him a nice leather tri-fold wallet with a cross burnt into the front, (no, he doesn't read my blog.) and then paired it with a cool t-shirt from a collection of funky T's with Christian messages that he's been into. what i'm most proud of is not the gift itself - but the fact that i had purchased and wrapped it 5 days before our actual anniversary. yay. go me!

and when he said "wow. leather, glass and crystal. sounds painful. any suggestions?" i reminded him that the list is for inspiration, not a requirement: "go with something sparkly. stay away from leather."

8 things i want to do before summer is over...

ok, let me preface this by saying i consider 8/31 the "last day" of summer, even though - seasonally, speaking - the actual last day of summer is 9/22 (or so). the end of august feels like the end of summer, because 9/1 always brings this onslaught of back-to-school feelings and preparation, not to mention "september" just sounds more "fall" than "august". so there.

so anyway, once again, summer has snuck up on me, and is now threatening to sneak by me altogether. i thought i'd make a list of a few things i want to do/see/accomplish before the "end" of the summer. here we go:

1. purge & organize our house. (it seems this needs to happen quarterly.)
   
2. purge & organize my studio. (this gets it's own line because it's that big a project.)
   
3. eat at our picnic table again. (i'm surprised how little we've grilled this year, in contrast to last year, and thus, how little we've used our new picnic table.) :(
   
4. have friends over to grill. (that sounds funny.)
   
5. walk green lake.
   
6. go swimming at the lake once more.
   
7. do some serious scrapbook-related shopping with allie before i lose her to boston for the fall, again.
   
8. go on a picnic.

well, now that i went and posted that publicly, i guess i have to make good on it, don't i?

guess where i went yesterday...

i'll give you a hint: