although it’s belated, frank and i wanted to say “congratulations!” to tim and carrie here on our blog. we enjoyed being a part of your wedding week and especially loved the bbq at gasworks park, your sweet and sentimental ceremony, and the fantastically fun dancing at your reception. we wish you the best throughout your future together!

below are a few pictures from the wedding. to see more, please visit their photographer’s site.

tim and carrie before the ceremony:

the lovely couple during the ceremony:

the best picture of my parents EVER:

my family:

my brother, sister, and i:

my mom, frank, and i have been working since last friday to unpack, organize, and arrange our new place in seattle. frank and i are excited to now have the living room, dining room, bathroom and bedroom complete and ready for visitors. we’re hoping to finish up the guest room and storage unit on friday.

we had a few bumps in the moving process, but overall things are well. we’re liking our new place and enjoying our neighborhood. everyone that we’ve met on our walks and at the block party have been friendly. i think it’ll just take time for us to get used to living in the city again; we both still can’t believe that we live here now.

schmoo was a little nervous when exploring his new home at first, but likes the apartment now. i think he enjoys being able to see us better as we move from room-to-room.

here’s the outside of our building. it was built in 1930 and recently renovated.

we love the vintage details, like the art deco doorknobs:

frank found the perfect place for his family’s clock in the entryway:

and i appreciate all the extra space for our frames and treasures.

our cozy living room looks out into the garden…

…where we found a home for our bird feeder, wind chimes, and pug buddha.

the living room has a pass through and a walkway into the dining room and kitchen.

i’m still amazed that my mom was able to find a place for everything in the kitchen. thank goodness for tall cupboards!

i don’t know if we’ll get all the way to ten (or maybe even past ten) – but i know you get the idea.

washington’s coast is beautiful too, but it’s just not as close or as familiar as oregon’s. below are a few photos from our last trip to the coast, and schmoo’s first visit.

the view from our room:

the first day it was really stormy outside, so we worked on a puzzle.

we were lucky that the sun came out our second day and we were able to take a couple walks along the beach. schmoo loved eating sand, drinking ocean water, and playing with the other dogs!

below are a few pictures to help you see what our place in seattle will look like. the building is from the 1930′s and is being renovated now. we just love the mix of vintage and modern features!

here is the entryway – or what you see when you walk in the door. straight ahead you can see the guest room, the archway leads into the living room, and the door on the right leads into the kitchen.

here you can see the kitchen with the dining room in the background. the contractors kept many of the vintage features – like the built ins and old icebox – but added modern amenities like a dishwasher and granite countertops.

lastly, here’s a picture of the living room. it has about 5 windows, all of which look out onto a garden.

amazing transformation.

the job:

i’ll have my own office, a document camera, an LCD projector, a lap top, two desktops, three whiteboards. when the other history teacher told me i might want to switch the direction of my room, i asked her if i would just move the whiteboards and screens. she looked at me like i was nuts. apparently, teachers don’t do that kind of stuff at my new school. there’s a maintenance tech for that. when i told her all the things i had to do at my last school (assemble desks/tables, hang whiteboard, screen, take out the trash, etc.), she was incredulous.

i’ll be teaching two sections of pacific northwest history/pacific rim and two sections of world history. we actually have class sets of books, including sherman alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. i have a lot of freedom in developing and delivering curriculum.

the staff i’ve met so far is very friendly. since it’s a small school (under 180), the community is close knit.

i decided to teach high school history in 1992; clearly, i’ve taken a few detours and finding such a job has been challenging. i am so happy to be using my degree doing something i’m good at and enjoy.

the new place:

our new place, in the east lake neighborhood, is in a recently renovated vintage brick building with views of downtown seattle, the needle, queen anne, and lake union. it’s a block off the main road with its bus service, around the corner from several nice restaurants, and just a few blocks from lake union. it’s a short drive or a quick ride on the SLUT (South Lake Union Transit) to downtown and seattle center.

after searching hundreds and hundreds of housing ads, exploring dozens of seattle neighborhoods on google maps, and touring several buildings yesterday, we are relieved to have secured a place that meets our needs. it’s close to the freeway for my commute. it has a dishwasher and a washer/dryer. it has lots of charm. we can have the dog, and there are plenty of places to take him on walks. it has a nice neighborhood feel but is close to a lot of great places. oh, and it’s right behind Sandra’s brother’s apartment building.

the best part is that we found a two bedroom, not an easy or cheap thing to find in seattle. so when you come visit, you’ll have a place to stay!

i follow a lot of blogs online simply for crafty inspiration. one of those blogs, party perfect, linked to a baby shower hosted by little dash. little dash’s friend created a baby scattergories game to play at the shower she was hosting. i saved it in my “crafty ideas” file for later.

one thing my family likes to do during the holidays (and other get-togethers) is play games. so when i was thinking about our holiday plans i thought it would be fun to try a custom scattergories game for us to play together. i’ve attached my version in case you’d like to play.

i also encourage you to try this yourself. scattergories can be edited to fit any event or get-together — or even based on the people who will be playing. michael motta provides some good directions and suggestions here.

have fun!

Christmas Scattergories

a few weeks ago we took schmoo schmoo to the pumpkin maize on sauvie island. this was his first visit and he loved it! we went through the corn maze, walked through the pumpkin patch, and checked out the farm animals — but his favorite was going on a hay ride. he sat contently throughout the ride and loved looking around at the fields and trees. the pup joined me at another farm in vancouver for monica’s 21st birthday and again he loved the hay ride. who would’ve guessed?

you can watch a video of our first trip here.

this past weekend we walked schmoo down the street to “trick or treat” in his pumpkin costume. he received many compliments from adults and many children stopped to pet him. he would’ve been happy just to lick some faces or chew on his costume, though.

with the temperature getting hotter everyday, frank and i wanted to get out of our stuffy house to somewhere cooler. today we headed to the gorge where’s it’s quite shady. first we visited bridal veil falls using a secret shortcut that we discovered. we had visited here before with the pup but this time he was much braver. he enjoyed splashing in the water and even went down the stairs (in army crawl position!)

we planned on hitting up some of the other waterfalls in the gorge but they were too crowded. we decided to visit the bonneville fish hatchery and i’m so glad we did. It was such a treat — large grassy areas for the pup to play, fish to watch, and a nice breeze blowing. we plan on returning another day to have a picnic and hike a nearby trail.

for lunch we headed across the river to stevenson, washington, to visit walking man brewery. we hadn’t been there before so frank was excited. the restuarant had a nice shaded patio area which i appreciated.

all in all it was a great day. frank, the pup, and i all had a lot of fun. it was a great reminder of how lucky we are to live in the northwest.

two weeks ago frank and i drove to hermiston, oregon, to pick up the newest member of our family. he is a 3 1/2 month old pug puppy that we’ve named mr. “schmoo schmoo” magoo.

we are VERY happy to have schmoo schmoo, but definitely feel like new parents. we worry about him when we’re not with him, get up with him in the middle of the night, and wake up at 6 AM with him every morning. oh, and we can’t get over how ridiculously cute he is!

schmoo schmoo is growing and learning every day, though. so far he’s experienced his first hike, learned to sit and fetch, and is getting better at potty training and walking on a leash. he’s also met my parents’ dogs, sugar and angel, and some of our friends’ dogs, millie and tosh. we’re so thankful that he “plays well with others,” although angel and sugar are still a little afraid of him. we still figuring out why, though, since angel and sugar are at least 3 times as big as he is.

we’re also getting to know schmoo schmoo and his quirks. so far we’ve learned:
-he snores when he sleeps
-he loves toys with strings on them
-our shoes are especially tasty
-he’s scared of heights
-he likes eating yard debris like rocks, sticks, bark, leaves, and rose petals
-his hobbies include sitting on the couch, chewing on toys, and sleeping
-he doesn’t like to be left alone

since we’ll be home-bodies (instead of world travelers) this summer frank and i have finally created a garden. we’ve been thinking about this for awhile now, but now have the time and space.

first we built raised beds so we could use the square foot gardening technique. (more about that here.) in short, you divide your garden into square foot sections. then you plant a different plant in each square foot section in a grid based on the size of the full grown plant. so a tomato will take up one square foot while there’s 16 radishes per square foot.

we decided to plant starters for our peppers, tomatoes, zucchini and broccoli. you can see those in the picture below. we planted the bush bean, radishes, green onion, basil, and carrots from seed.

we’ve already harvested some radishes and lettuce, and are looking forward to eating some tomatoes soon. yum!