{ One Year }

July 18, 2009

Happy First Anniversary, Sweetheart!

{ Paint }

"Feather Your Nest."

Doesn't that sound delightful? It's what I've been alternately doing, longing to do, and being insanely frustrated by my lack-of-talent-for-doing. We only have a little nest, and the fact that it's ours {we closed on this condo eight days before the wedding} is itself God's grace to us. At the same time that I'm tickled pink to have free reign over the look and feel of our home, I'm overwhelmed by the sheer volume of choices, in everything from "decorating style" {huh?} to the 9,683 different shades of yellow paint available for purchase. I've loved pretty homes since I was small, but I've never been one to pore over home decorating magazines and blogs, dreaming of my future home. I most certainly did not enter home ownership with a clear idea of what I want my home to look like. In many ways, that has been a blessing: you can't disappoint expectations if you haven't any! Perhaps that's why sifting through possible paint colors was an overwhelming task.

I set a deadline for myself: Memorial Day. We are going to paint our condo over Memorial Day weekend, I said to myself. Which meant: hurry up and choose paint colors! Piles of paint chips. Mounds of paint chips. Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa stacks of paint chips everywhere. Which shade of grey??? There are on 1,285 to choose from--at Benjamin Moore. If I include the paint chips from Lowe's, we're up to 2.64 million. And that's only for the bathroom!!! What about the living room? The dining room, which is continuous with the living room? The hall, which comes off the living room? And WHAT ABOUT THE KITCHEN?! Thank goodness I wasn't even interested in painting the second bedroom/office.

Memorial Day is a nice, three-day weekend, so we set out on Saturday morning with the blithe, innocent joy of Those Who Have Never Painted Before. Naivete, some would call it. Happy because we have no frickin' idea how arduous is the task before us, I call it now. But I digress.

Taping. A seemingly-innocent two-syllable word that I now detest.

Dear Mike. Two words, one syllable each, that I mentally caress with all the emotional gusto I possess.






That dear man not only taped, but painted, all the hard parts: The tops of the walls. The edges between wall and ceiling. That one dining room wall, in all its horrific twenty-plus-feet of height. The weird nook-y area above the kitchen ceiling-y part. See why I make up words by adding "-y" to the end? How else would you describe this above-the-ceiling-shelf-y area?

I'm so dramatic sometimes! In reality, our weekend of painting wasn't really that bad. It was physically exhausting, yes: Every single step of the process took much longer than we expected. We spent so.much.time. taping. We had to go back to Lowe's for additional paint multiple times--the poor-quality contractor paint already on our walls just soaked up the paint we applied, and we ended up using almost double the amount of paint we originally purchased.

Around 1:00 a.m. on Sunday night {Monday morning at this point}, we had completely painted the bathroom (two coats on ceiling + walls), had one coat on the bedroom ceiling, and were finishing up the first coat on the living and dining rooms. Though I had Memorial Day off, Mike needed to work, so after a few hours of sleeping like the dead, we rolled out of bed--Husband to work, Wife to paint the bedroom walls. Did I mention I had a killer sore throat and felt like death and had to go to Lowe's AGAIN to buy more paint?!

is, this project was harder and more time-consuming than we expected, but we did it {all! in three days!!}. More than a month later, furniture is finally rearranged, belongings back in their proper places, paint smell mostly gone. What do you think?

{ Living room - before }

{ Entry - before }

{ Dining room - before }

{ Living room - after }

{ Living room - after }

{ Entry - after }

{ Dining room - after }

I was not at all sure about this green when we finished. It seemed like miles and miles of bright, chirpy Easter green--but once we moved the furniture back into place, I liked it much better. It's still a bit overwhelming at times; I'm eager to hang art on the walls and see if that softens it a bit. I was going for a color that is bright and airy, and this certainly fits the bill!

{ Bathroom - before }

{ Bathroom - after }

{Bathroom - after - complete with prints waiting to be hung }

I was sincerely attempting a gray grey for the bathroom walls--not a blue grey. As you can see, I was entirely unsuccessful, but we both really like this color anyway.

{ Bedroom - before }

{ Bedroom - before }

{ Bedroom - after }

{ Bedroom - after }

{ Bedroom - after }

Our bedroom is my favorite. :-) The walls are a rusty, orange-ish sienna, and the ceiling is just slightly more red than the walls. Lovely. Our Ikea lamps and the duvet cover {the only one of hundreds that we both liked} help round out the Moroccan feel. Don't worry about the white bedside table, I'm going to paint it some color soon!

Now, what colors should we paint the kitchen and hallway? ;-)

{ Farm Chicks...better late than never! }

One very unexpected-and-delightful "side effect" of being married has been the sharing and enriching of my friendships by the addition of Mike to these relationships. It's as though a deeper, richer element is being unearthed--an element I didn't even know existed, didn't know to miss. It's like discovering that your favorite books, dog-eared and tattered from years of loving and re-reading, have sequels that you knew nothing about! More chapters! More storylines and characters to love, every bit as good {or better!} than the originals!

Such was our road trip to Spokane last month. Chelle and I have known each other almost-forever, and her family's move 4+ hours across the state was such a hard thing to accept last winter. The Farm Chicks Antique Show in early June was the perfect excuse to spend a weekend with David, Chelle, Anniebelles, and Jack. Cooking the "Tumblr kitchen" David made for Chelle, sharing meals in the breakfast nook, playing with Jack and Annabelle, waking up in the blue-white-and-yellow guest room, roasting caramel-flavored marshmallows over a bonfire in the backyard...so.much.bliss.

Farm Chicks was great, too! It was sensory overload: So much beauty and creativity! I only took a few photos--I was too busy soaking in the gorgeousness. It was such fun to see Courtney and her sweet sweet booth {hers was definitely one of my top 5 favorites!}, to meet Jessica and Becca {Becca's booth was another top 5} and Jenny!



This is one of the only photos I took while at the show, and I don't even remember the name of the vendor! Don't you love love love this idea for a lampshade? I'll share photos of the goodies I acquired in another post...soon, very soon.

One evening David and Chelle took us to a park...oh darn, what was that park's name?! {several seconds pass} Thank goodness for Google! Manito Park, that's it. We had the loveliest evening there, complete with rolling down grassy hills and meandering through a formal garden and a pinecone fight in a little grove on the edge of a rose garden. Mike accidentally nailed me on the noggin once....but that didn't slow anyone down for long!

{Trying to see into the upper pool of the fountain, curious if there are any coins in it. I love how even Jack is trying to see!}

I am in love with these hedges. In spite of all the beauty that was at Farm Chicks, these arched hedges--three on each side of the fountain in the formal garden--may be my most favorite beauty of the weekend. They make my soul happy. They are so perfectly Hobbity/Narnia-esque/Little Women/fairytale/Alice in Wonderland, all at once!

I fell in love with Mike all over again, too. He and David spent most of Saturday and a good chunk of Sunday entertaining Annabelle and Jack while Chelle and I gallivanted about the countryside. And Mike loved it. I felt badly because he and David spent so much time babysitting and had very little "guy time," and that just didn't seem right at all. I was apologizing to Mike about that, and he interrupted me: "Babe, don't feel bad!! I had a blast! I love hanging out with Jack and Annabelle." Pause. "And David." He was completely sincere. He really, really loved spending most of the weekend with David and a four-year-old girly girl and a one-year-old grunting-eating-mischief-making baby boy!

This picture makes my uterus weep. Use me! Use me! it pleads. Someday, dear, someday.

{ A List, and a Request for Forgiveness }

1. In 15 days, Mike and I will celebrate one year since we became Mr. + Mrs.
2. I can't believe how rapidly twelve months have sped by! Didn't we just get married? A couple of months ago? It cannot possibly be one year...not yet.
3. How long does one consider a couple to be newlyweds? I vote for three years.
4. I'm on-call for the entirety of this three-day weekend, and praise the Lord, I haven't had to go to work yet!!
5. Apparently pressure makes me more productive: I've gotten so much done between last night and right now.
6. I kid you not, as I typed the last sentence, my pager beeped. I'm off to work!
7. Pioneer Woman, I sincerely apologize for not making your buttered rosemary rolls in a cast-iron skillet as your recipe directs. I don't have a cast iron skillet. I also have no self-control. My six rosemary rolls came out of the oven less than an hour ago, and I've eaten five of them. No joke. They are deee-lish-ous!!!

{ Baubles! }

There was giveaway a few weeks ago on Chelle's blog, and guess who won?

I did!

I'd have liked to scream, but I was too surprised. I've entered a few online giveaways, never expecting to win. C'mon, the internet is big, and I'm just little ol' me.

And what a treat of a giveaway it was, too: Any item--any item!--from a lovely little Etsy shop called Chouettes.

I nearly fainted from delight.

Vintage?

Vintage bridal?

Estate?

French inspired?

Old Hollywood glamour?

Kawaii?

All these are words that Lily, the lovely shop owner, uses to describe the styles of jewelry she makes. And let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, I would be thrilled to own ANYTHING in her shop!

When the package came in the mail, I knew that opening it and meeting my new baubles would be a delightful experience. I wanted to savor it. I wanted to have time to thoroughly enjoy our introduction.

Hence, the package sat first on the dining table, then on my desk, for a week. A week, folks!! When I finally had a moment to open it, this is what I found inside:

{Don't you love the bird motif on her card, by the way?}

Cherryheads were inside the pink package.

Isn't it comforting to know that they are a fat-free food?

These are the earrings I chose.
Don't they make you think of summer and sherbet?
YUM!

I have so much more to tell you...about Farm Chicks, paint colors, new recipes, knitting projects, and our upcoming {first!!} wedding anniversary. I'm still semi-buried under the chaos of painting--I decided that since everything was already out, I should sort and re-organize all of it. So there are still some enormous piles perched around our place; the fact that they are driving me crazy, coupled with not wanting to take photos till everything is put away, will hopefully be a good incentive! Lord willing, I'll have more time to devote to blogging in the very near future.

{ San Diego }

In which I describe the Events of my most recent Educational Pursuits, Air Travel, Long-Distance Marriage, and Geology

If, like me, you work in a medical field, you know that you have to get continuing medical education (CME) credits to keep your registry/license current. Registered sonographers have to acquire 30 CMEs every three years to stay registered. The company I work for is wonderful in that they pay for one out-of-state educational conference for every three-year period. I need CMEs this year, and thus I attended my first conference: The American Society of Echocardiography Scientific Sessions in San Diego.

{Mt. Rainier out the airplane window--we flew right by Mt. St. Helens too, but I didn't get a photo of her}

{My hotel room. Pretty snazzy. I slept in one bed the first two nights, the other the last two nights. Mike says that is weird.}

I am super lucky for several reasons: 1. I'd never stay in the Marriott on my own dime, but it was the official hotel for the conference, and my employer picked up the tab. I could totally get used to someone making my bed and cleaning my bathroom every day and leaving me brand new, deliciously-scented little bottles of conditioner, shampoo, and lotion daily! 2. I was assigned a corner room on the 20th floor, so the east and north walls were basically just windows. Incredible, almost wraparound views! 3. Being next door to the San Diego Convention Center meant I only had to walk 5 minutes to get to all the sessions. Pretty sweet, especially since my feet were totally in shock that I wasn't wearing Danskos. Everything gave me blisters: heels, wedges, even ballet flats. My poor feet have been totally spoiled by almost 5 years of Danskos!


{View of the Convention Center from my room, looking mostly south and eastish. It's gi-nooooooooooooooooor-mous!}

{Another look out my windows. See the trolley tracks? And the train tracks next to them?}

{I was in the south tower of the Marriott. This is my view looking--you guessed it--north at the NORTH TOWER!}

The Marriott is also right next to Seaport Village, a quaint-but-kitschy 14-acre outdoor shopping area. I found an antique carousel and fell instantly in love.

I was snapping pictures like crazy and totally feeling like a kid, watching the glee of the children on the carousel and hearing the carnival music. "I'm going to come back some night and ride the carousel," I says, says I. "Heck, why not ride it tonight?" I says. "I will!" says I. And so I did.

{End weird pirate accent. I have no idea why I started talking pirate in my head, or why it came out this way.}

{Incredibly unflattering self-portrait}

The conference itself was information overload in many ways. I didn't realize how long it's been since I've sat in classes all day--it was really hard to do! And I missed Mike like the dickens. Seriously, it was miserable. The longest we'd been apart prior to this was two nights. Call me a pansy, but I was the loneliest thing for four and a half days!

{Walking path along Seaport Village}

I'm not the kind of person who likes to go adventuring by herself. I also didn't have a car. The one afternoon I traipsed to the Gaslamp Quarter by myself, there were tons of cute shops I wanted to visit....but there was also crazy Petco Stadium traffic, tons of people, and a general vibe of "this probably isn't the smartest place for a girl to wander around by herself in the evening." Again, I'm probably a pansy, but cruising the hip, urban city center of the seventh largest city in the USA by myself after a day of brain overload...just not happenin'. So as far as sightseeing and vacationing go--I didn't do much!

This restaurant totally reminds me of Aunt Josephine's house from "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." I was just enchanted by the look of it. The food? Not so great.

{View of Coronado Island from my table}

There were several horses and carriages like this, tromping about the Seaport Village/Embarcadero Park South region. The little girl in me was delighted to see something so Cinderella-esque. The name of the company is prominently displayed on the back of each carriage: Cinderella Carriage Company. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks fairy tales when I see globular-white-wrought-iron-on-wheels being pulled by a horse.

{The south tower is on the right in this photo}

I have to tell you: I love the show "Dirty Jobs." It is flat-out hilarious and often disgusting. {Trust me, if you work in medicine, the line between these two becomes dangerously thin! But I loved it pre-sonography, so go figure.} Mike and I don't have a TV, and the only two shows I miss are "Dirty Jobs" and "What Not To Wear." I have valiantly searched the internet for full episodes of "Dirty Jobs," to no avail. My husband, the manliest of all nerds, hasn't even been able to find more than clips lasting a couple minutes. The Marriott doesn't have many channels, but when I realized the Discovery Channel is one of them, I was overjoyed. Surely there would be an episode of "Dirty Jobs" at some point during my 4.5 day stay in the Land of Television! Surely!

We've already established that I'm an old soul {or maybe just weird!} who doesn't take appropriate advantage of marvelous cultural opportunities {a.k.a. you may never be in San Diego again!!}, so it will probably not surprise you to hear that when I learned there was going to be a special "best of" episode of "Dirty Jobs" at 9pm on Monday night, I planned my entire evening around that program. I made sure I was all dinnered out and packed and laid out for Tuesday in plenty of time. The conference ended on Tuesday at 3pm, so before going to the first session at 8am I needed to check out of the hotel since I was flying home Tuesday night.

I had a grand old time, knitting away on a baby blanket for a friend whose shower is next week, watching Mike Rowe take a crack at all kinds of gross jobs that keep America running. I really wasn't prepared for the entire room to start shaking back and forth, halfway through the program. I had experienced the Nisqually earthquake and a couple tiny quakes in my nine years in Washington.

But an earthquake?

At night?

While I'm alone?

In San Diego?

On the twentieth flippin' floor?!

Not okay!!!

I didn't freak out, but I was really scared and I had no idea what to do. Get in a door frame or under a table, yeah yeah yeah. But are the rules different when you are on the 20th story? In a corner room? When you know absolutely no one here? I didn't know. I ran to my door, poked my head out into the hallway, and eventually {it seemed like an eternity} an Indian lady who was maybe 30 and wearing a sari threw open her door.

Me: "Is it an earthquake?" {Like, duh. Does the Marriott routinely sway to and fro on Monday nights, and I just didn't know about it?}

She: "I think so!"

Me: "So what do we do?"

She: "I don't know!"

Me: "Should we go downstairs?"

She: "I think so!"

I was so glad I hadn't put on my pajamas yet. I grabbed my purse and flip flops and literally catapulted myself down the nearest stairway. I'm pretty sure that by the time we finished our little conversation, the earthquake had ended. I had visions of being trapped alone in my room if the building collapsed; at least if it collapsed while I was in the stairwell, there was the chance that I'd be trapped with other people. I met a group of ladies {in their jammies!} at the 14th floor, and by the time we got to the lobby, it was all over. There were fire trucks in the roundabout, the manager was announcing over the intercom that the building would not be evacuated, all the elevator alarms were screeching and there were quite a few discombobulated people. I called Mike and my mom to tell them what had happened and that I was okay, and ended up milling around the lobby for about an hour before heading back up to my room. I was pretty shaken, and as if I hadn't wanted to go home already, I could hardly stand the thought of another 24 hours before being home.

And I missed the last half of "Dirty Jobs." It was a crying shame.

{The entire 2.5-hour flight, San Diego to Seattle, was flying into the sunset. It was beautiful.}

I used to be the most enthusiastic traveler you've ever seen. From childhood to the present day, I've dreamed of the faraway places I want to visit. I love to fly, explore new places, and have adventures. The key is that I love to do these things with someone else. I just don't like doing these things by myself. I realized, after a few days of being baffled by how homesick I was, that all my travels thus far have involved a companion. Coupled with the fact that this is the longest I've been separated from Mike, I guess it's no surprise that I was glad to see it end.

That, and getting only half an episode of "Dirty Jobs" is totally, totally unfair.

{ Mike Dear }

Do you remember the Disney cartoon "Lady and the Tramp"? As a child, I must've watched it dozens of times. I loved Lady, though those wicked Siamese cats and the slut-mutt in the pound who had a crush on the tramp kind of scared me. {Slut-mutt!! Well, I never! Who comes up with these kinds of phrases to describe innocent childrens' movies? Certainly not me...} Anyhow, another of the things I love about "Lady and the Tramp" is the interaction of Lady's human owners. A young couple in love, we never see their faces, but they always refer to each other as Jim Dear and Darling. I thought that was so romantic. I dreamed of my husband calling me Darling.

Well, I don't refer to my husband exclusively as Mike Dear, he doesn't usually call me Darling {unless Babe is the 21st-century equivalent}, and we haven't got a Cocker Spaniel puppy. But he definitely makes my heart go pitter-patter in a most undignified manner. Earlier this week while I was in San Diego, I scrolled through the photos on my camera and found so many good photos of my husband, it made me miss him more than I already did. As if that's possible. Take a peek for yourself:

See? Even while waiting for the Triple XXX burger of his dreams, he's happy. Content. Dreamy. *sigh*

I kid you not: His profile literally gives me a lump in my throat, and sometimes my heart skips a beat too. I had the biggest crush on Mike from the first time I saw him. It was awfully inconvenient 'til we started dating: I'd practically fall over at group events when I looked at him.

I call this Thoughtful Entrepreneur Pose.

{Why am I writing a blog post and not sitting on his lap right now? Why?}

Those eyes. Oh, those blue, blue eyes. I have married a handsome man, yes indeedy I have!

He is also a very mischevious man. This is the grin reserved for pranks and goofiness and all manner of highfalutin' shenanigans.

{Seriously...where IS he? Mike? Babe?}

Somehow, on my birthday, Mike ended up wearing the wig and margarita glasses.
He is still so stinkin' hot.

I've gotta go find him!