It Was Great Until It Wasn't

We had friends come into town last week to celebrate my birthday.  It was great!.... until it wasn't.  I'll first cover the great parts!  :)

We had two friends arrive on Tuesday.  Which was when I made my birthday cake (yes I made my own cake... I like to make cake).  It was a raspberry lemon cake, though mostly just tasted like biting into a lemon!  I think next time I'll go with a less "lemony" cake.

Wednesday was my birthday and it was 12-12-12!  Our friend who lives in Abu Dhabi flew in that day and we had some local friends come over as well.  We had a lot of food and drinks, such as hot dogs, mac & cheese, chips, punch, soda, etc...

Thursday and Friday were spent checking out various sites in Seattle.  We did Pike Place and a lot of the food around there, the Fremont Troll, Fremont Brewery (for those who could have beer), Seattle Art Museum, and the Seattle Underworld Tour.

Our friend from Abu Dhabi left on Friday.  The rest of us headed to Vancouver, Canada for a day trip on Saturday.  We had a tasty lunch at a cafe there and then headed to Tellus Science World. 

Science World was pretty neat, though very much more for kids.  We had a lot of fun doing puzzles and brain teasers though!  We ran out of time there and had to leave before seeing all of the exhibits.

Upon leaving Science World was when things got... not so great...  We discovered that we had been robbed.  Both purses that were in the trunk were taken, my friend's laptop, a cell phone, and a couple other items were stolen.  Unfortunately, 3 of the 4 of us also had our passports in the purses...  It was a horrible evening, but we eventually gave up hunting for dumped items and figured out how to get back into the USA.  There are a lot worse things that could have happened... but it still sucked!  The next day our friends left to go back to NM.  Like I said, it was great... until it wasn't.  :)

November 2012

This month has been rather uneventful. 

We finally bought something for the baby!

We are waiting to buy other items until after our baby shower next month.

We spent Thanksgiving with a friend's family yesterday.  It was really neat to experience Thanksgiving with a family that wasn't our own.  It was a very traditional meal, and we had a really nice time.

I'd like to update more about what we've been up to since my last post, but there hasn't really been much.  We went to a friend's baby's first birthday party; that was cute.  We went to the movie theater and watched Skyfall (the latest James Bond flick; it was ok).  I probably haven't mentioned that I joined a book club that meets once a month.  This month's book was The Hobbit.  This month's host did a great job leading discussion and provided a "tea party" for us hobbits and dwarves!  Next month we will attend the movie together (which apparently is the first of three movies...).

Next month will be a lot more eventful with a date night, birthday parties, friends coming to visit, a baby shower, the holidays, and a trip back home!  It will be an awesome month!

Visitors and Halloween

My sister and her boyfriend came up to Washington to visit us!!  They arrived last Friday and are now spending time with Gabe's brother.  We had a lot of fun!  We went on a Halloween pub crawl, explored Pike Place, visited the Museum of Flight, the zoo, and Seattle Underground.  Here are some photos:

Lois and Brian from Family Guy

At Pike Place!

Enjoying Sushi!

For Halloween Carlos and I just had a Halloween themed dinner of Jack-o-Lantern Quesadillas and Bloody Mary Soup.

Feeling the Season

This past week I've really been feeling the season of fall!  The weather was much cooler, the trees are beautifully colored, and the rains arrived.  I made pumpkin parfaits, pumpkin smoothies, spaghetti squash and fresh baked bread!

The spaghetti squash I baked and then combined with onions, garlic, olives, feta cheese and tomatoes sauteed in olive oil.  It was a success!  The bread however, not so much.  We haven't turned the heater on in our house yet, so it's understandably quite cool in here.  Too cool, I think, for the bread to rise properly.  After about 4 hours of waiting for it to rise, I finally set it on the preheated oven, at which point it finally started to rise.  I only let it rise for about an hour and then just decided to bake it as is.  It's a bit dense, but it's still delicious!

Speaking of the house being cold, Carlos was pouring some hot water in some mugs for hot tea earlier this week, and one of the glasses just popped apart!  It's not that cold in our house, so we're not sure how this ended up happening...  Here is a picture:

Saturday, my husband and I were running errands all day, and I enjoyed some hot apple cider while we were out.  Sunday, we went to one of the local corn mazes.  It was a little less challenging that I'd expected, but it was still fun.  Next time we'll have to go to one of the larger mazes.

Eventful Weekend

We had a busy and fun weekend!  Friday we had a bunch of people over to celebrate our new house!  We made red and green enchiladas, beans, and rice.  Saturday we went to a LEGO's expo (called BrickCon).  It was definitely interesting, especially thinking about the time and money spent making all of the exhibits.  We had some fun walking around and eating at Seattle Center while we were over there.  That night we were going to go to the Everett Sausage Festival, but we ended up going Sunday instead.  I was just too tired.

Here are some pictures from Saturday:

Sunday was pretty fun.  Carlos and I did a lot of looking for Halloween costume stuff, and then hung out for quite a while at the sausage festival.  We heard one local band that we really liked, but mostly we enjoyed a lot of edible treats!

Settling In

So we haven't been up to much lately, mostly just still getting settled into our new house.  There's a lot we needed (and still need) to buy, things like closet and shower curtain rods, shelves and a pantry for storage, and equipment for cleaning and treating our wood decks.  We have quite a few projects either going on or on the back burner.

This coming weekend is my 10 year high school reunion!  Crazy!  However, I will not be attending.  It just wouldn't be financially responsible for us right now.

We had our mid-pregnancy ultrasound!  It was great, and baby was great!  We found out that... IT'S A GIRL!!  :)

New House

My husband and I closed on a house here in Washington!  We got keys on Friday and moved in on Sunday.  It was sort of a chaotic move, but all in all successful.  We are still doing some cleaning up and packing of misc items at the apartment, but we will be done by tomorrow afternoon.  Here is an image of the new home:

If you'd like to follow the progress on us unpacking, settling in, etc.  you can do so on my other blog here.

We're Having a Baby

Yes, the title is correct!  We our expecting our first bundle of joy in February! I am 14 weeks 1 day along today, and all is going well!  The first trimester was rough, but it could have been worse.  Most of my posts related to pregnancy will be on my Home and Body blog located here!  Feel free to follow.  :)

Seafair and Deception Pass

This month has been full of recreation: game nights, hiking, a new book club, and the Seafair.

The Seafair was basically a big air and water show with lots of people and lots of booths selling stuff.  I didn't manage to get any photos of the planes but here is an image from the hydroplane race.

Last Saturday we went to Deception Pass, and like most places around here, it was beautiful!

July 2012

I really really keep wanting to get back to blogging more often (at least once a week), but if I'm not going to do that, I may as well update when I do think of it.  I last updated about June; I will now summarize July 2012.

We spent the 4th of July here in WA.  It was cold.  That's my first recollection, haha.  We did have fun though.  We had a friend invite us over for an all day affair complete with day time fireworks, a cookout, and an incredible evening firework show.

On the 5th we headed to NM!  We spent the weekend in Albuquerque for a family reunion.  Then Carlos went back to WA and I headed down the state to spend over a week with my parents and sister.  My brother also drove down to visit.  We did a lot of things:  cookouts, camping, bingo, played wii, etc.  I got to see my parents' and sister's new houses.  It was a very nice visit.

Carlos and I at the reunion at the zoo.

 On our way to NM we got some great news.  The offer we made on a house was accepted!  So since I've gotten back to WA we have been working through the process of purchasing the house.  We've fit in some fun times as well such as volleyball at the beach!

June 2012

After that sunny weekend in May we still haven't had too much sun.  Supposedly with June was supposed to come mostly sunny days and temperatures in the low 70's.  We've been lucky if it gets to the high 60's.  I don't mind that though.  It's more comfortable than the 100 degree temperatures I'd be getting in NM.

In the first week of June my parents came to visit.  It was a nice visit and we fit in plenty of fun stuff.  Some of the things we did were a food tour in Seattle, a whale watching tour, hiking, and a red enchilada night!

My dad at a lighthouse park.

My mom on the hike.

Fun things we've done since then include a Washington Brewer's Fest and a Pro Wakeboard Tour.  Soon to come will be a trip back to NM.  I'm looking forward to being back there.  Not looking forward to the heat, but looking forward to being able to wear dresses and shorts.  :)

Fun in the Sun

This weekend was so sunny and warm here (and by warm I mean 75 degrees).  We spent most of the day at a park/lake on Saturday.  While our friends were playing volleyball I jogged around the lake.  Most of us got sunburned (oops).  We then got food and relaxed at a friend's place while watching the Sounders game.  This weekend also included watching the Avengers and Skyping with my mom on Mother's Day.

Cinco de Mayo

We decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  We had some friends over at our place for tacos, beer, and margaritas.  Then we headed to a block party in Seattle, followed by more fun and a pinata at our friend's place.

Here are some photos:

Megan and I at the block party.

Spinning Carlos before he swings at the pinata.

Earth day weekend (Apr 20-22) was very nice!  Friday evening we met up with some friends for some drinks and snacks.  Saturday several of us all headed down to a park to do some clean-up for Earth Day.  We spent about four hours pulling out weeds and grass.  Other people at our location were removing other invasive plants (like blackberry plants), placed mulch, and removed a fence that was no longer needed (the fence previously kept geese from eating the newer plants that were placed there).  After we finished up there, we headed to our friends place.  He lives on a popular lake in Seattle, and it was a beautiful day!  We had some seafood, walked around the lake (which was very active with people, it was so fun people watching), and then enjoyed some ice cream and a movie.

This past weekend was fairly uneventful, but very nice.  We met up with friends for sushi and a movie on Friday.  We watched Puss 'N Boots... Carlos and I were having trouble staying awake, so we had to leave before we got to see the movie we really wanted to see (the latest Mission Impossible film).

We are in the process of house hunting, so Saturday we spent some time doing that.  We didn't really find anything that stood out for us though.  Unfortunately, around here, the market has already become more of a seller's market, although prices still haven't gone up much yet.  So wish us luck and blessings during our hunt!  :)

March Through April

I know, I know, it's been too long since my last post.  So I'll have to sum up.

The time with my husband's family in town was a lot of fun.

A couple of weeks later we celebrated Carlos' 28th birthday by, once again, playing laser tag.  This year I made a tiramisu layer cake.

The weekend after that we went camping/backbacking!  It was my first time camping out of NM, and my first time ever backpacking into the camp site.

Last weekend we went to a party in the space needle and then went to the Seattle Sounders game (soccer game, for those who don't know).  The party was neat, particularly because of it's location.  The game was a lot of fun, and the crowd had so much energy!

 This Sunday is Earth Day, so we will be volunteering on some rehab/cleanup down in the Seattle on Saturday!

Family Coming to Town

There hasn't really been much of interest going on over here lately.  This past week we had a couple of days of beautiful snow.  It snowed thick and fast enough to accumulate, but since the temperature was above freezing, as soon as it stopped snowing it all melted.  It was wonderful to watch though.

Next week we have some family coming to town!  It is going to be very fun and interesting.  My husband's mom, aunt, grandma, and 3 year old cousin are all coming.  I don't think I've ever had so many people stay in my home at once, and I've never really had to provide meals for so many people.  So, this will be a new and perhaps challenging experience, but definitely fun!

Where have I been??

I know it's been a while since I posted.  So... time to get back into the swing of things!  A couple of days after we got back from NM, we left again for the UAE and India!  It was an incredible and overwhelming experience.  My husband and I decided that the best way to describe the trip in one word is: WHOA!  So, that's it.  It would take far too many posts to describe all the things we saw, did, tasted, smelled, etc.  I will soon be putting together a dvd of photos and video from the trip.  I will try to upload what I can to youtube.  If it works out then I'll make another post with a link to the video(s).  Until then, here are a few of my favorite pictures.

At the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

At the Burj Khalifa

The Persian Gulf with the Burj Al Arab in the background.

Taj Mahal

Animals were abundant in India.

We have been home for about a month now.  The jet lag of a 13.5 hour time difference took me almost 2 weeks to get over.  So, like I said, we're getting back into the swing of things.

Christmas 2011

I was very pleased that my husband and I were able to make it down to our home state of New Mexico for the Christmas break.  My parents and sister picked us up at the airport, dressed to impress and complete with blinking lights.  They even made it on the local news with their garb.

We spent Christmas with them for a total of 3 nights in at my sister's place.  We then went to my mother-in-law's house for a night.  Then we took a 2 night trip up to Albuquerque to see more family, and then back to the southern part of the state for another 2 nights to see friends.  It was fun trying to fit in visits to so many people.  I'm pleased with all the people we got to see and look forward to seeing those who we didn't get to see next time.

Video footage of our trip can be seen here.