My little family

Last night, I worked swing shift and didn't make it home until 10:30ish. Joe's back hurts him from time to time, so he likes to sleep on our (firmer) guest bed. Upon gently pushing open the door so as not to wake him, I found him blissfully sleeping...with our two cats, Millie and Leo by his side.

Our cats are basically our children until we brew up some of our own and, like children, love to be by our side. Especially Leo; Millie is our more independent, outdoorsy one. They are with us in the dining room when we have dinner together at night and they are with us when we watch TV afterwards and they are with us when we make our way upstairs to get ready for bed. They curl up on our bed and wait for us to crawl in and attempt to wedge ourselves in between them. Soon, all four of us are nestled in bed and we all go to sleep.

Since they tend to follow us anyway, switching beds was no problem for Leo and Millie last night. After a long, tiring shift, I just loved watching my little family curled up together. Especially my husband. His mouth was partially open and he looked so precious as his chest rose and fell to each respiration. I usually don't like to sleep on the guest room mattress, but I couldn't bear to think about sleeping alone in our room. I kissed each one of them goodnight as I crawled in bed with them. The kitties purred and my husband murmured how glad he was that I was finally home.

I didn't want to ruin the moment by taking a picture; a picture wouldn't do it justice anyway. So here's some I dug up from our files.

Summer Recap

In between the last time I blogged and now, I took Organic Chemistry and worked about 3 days a week. At the end of June, I hit a wall. I just couldn't work full time and go to school part time anymore. I am now working "on-call" a few days a week. And now that summer quarter is over (the final for ochem was on Aug. 11th) that means I REALLY have no excuses as to why I am not blogging.

The day after I took my final for ochem, my in-laws, Paul and Kathy, rolled into town for a visit.



One of our favorite places to walk is Chambers Bay, a golf course just a few blocks from where we live in University Place. There is a trail that winds through the course. We always walk this trail when P & K come to visit. (This is a vista from the interior of the course.)



I've lived in the Northwest for 23 years and have never had the privilege of going boating in the summertime. We went boating on the Narrows (nearby Chambers Bay) and I cannot believe I waited this long to experience such bliss. Glad we got to do it with P & K. :) The boat we took the tour on docked at Anthony's in Gig Harbor, so afterwards we went upstairs to the restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful salmon dinner. I was the happiest girl!







We also went hiking at Mt. Si, nearby North Bend, and went to Snoqualmie Falls.



Even though we are hosting them in our home, they always make us feel welcome. One of my favorite things to do is cook for our guests; I just love pulling out all the stops.

Spring 2010 Recap

In a word, this spring has been hectic. (Hence, no blog posts, I'm afraid to say.) At the end of March, spring quarter at TCC started. Due to the morning section of Microbiology I got into, I had to switch my work schedule from working days (6am-2pm) to evenings (2pm-10pm). I also took Psych 100 online, which offered some flexibility in my schedule, but still taxed what little time and energy I had left. (I have never done so much busywork for a 100 level class!) My days went a little something like this: I get up and go to either Micro lecture or lab, come home, feverishly work on psychology until I had to leave for work, work until 10pm, come home, watch some late night TV to wind down, and finally crawl in bed with my husband whom I probably had barely seen in the last few days. Needless to say, I was spread too thin doing to many things. We've decided that it is best for me to take only one class at a time while working full time...and then I might even have to go down to working on call while I take A & P later on this year. At the top is a sample of some of the work I did in lab in Microbiology. (A culture of my lab partner's earlobe bacteria, Bacillus cereus, a microscopic view of my bacteria taken from my fingernail, Micrococcus luteus, and a pic of my lab partners inoculating various bacteria.)

Despite our stressful lives, we still maintained our sense of humor. We decided to dye beer green for St. Patrick's Day (the cashier at Trader Joe's gave me the weirdest look when I told her what our plans were with the amber ale we bought.)


This is our friend Gabri. We celebrated her birthday in March and celebrated her husband's graduation from PLU in May. We love John and Gabri and value their friendship tremendously.

Spring cometh! Around where we live, spring rears it's head in late February, then snows in March followed by weeks of 45 degree days and 75 degree days. I like to call it the adolescence of the year because it just can't make up it's mind about what it wants to do and who it wants to be on any particular day! The Curran Apple orchard nearby our house was in full bloom at the end of April. One Sunday after church, Joe wanted to have brunch outside so badly that he moved our little cheapy IKEA table outside on the patio. And I typically don't have very good luck with planting flowers (gosh darn things don't seem to know how to water themselves!), but I decided our drab little porch and flowerbox needed a little pick me up.

Valentine's & Vacation

As of January, I had 60 hours of vacation at work saved up. As a birthday present to myself, I decided to take a few days off. With my regularly scheduled days off included, my little vacation turns out to be 7 days off. I am going to use my time off to reflect and REST this week. (Not to mention wait in line at the DMV for an hour to renew my driver's license.) Since last Thursday, I have already caught up with a few friends I rarely see anymore,
spent time with my family and I am looking forward to my hubby's surprise tomorrow night for my 28th birthday.
I have my usual chemistry class this week, although I am rejuvenated by thoughts of walks in the morning sunshine, reading a good book with a cup of tea, and sleeping until my heart's content.

My hubby and I celebrated V-day by going to dinner at one of our favorite hole in the wall restaurants in Tacoma.

The Upper Crust, on North 21st, is "Tacoma's Best Kept Secret", according to Joe. We got a gift certificate from Kris and Heather for Christmas and were only too happy to redeem it come Valentine's Day. We split a spinach pizza with Kalamata olives, pinenuts, and feta and a wonderful salad over a bottle of syrah. Grand Marnier creme brulee topped it off!

Fat and happy, we rolled on over to the movies, where we saw "Valentine's Day". The old dinner-and-a-movie valentine's date is a bit cheesy and cliche, but I am grateful for a husband who loves me and treats me to a fun date night.

The feathered headband is a stocking stuffer from my mother-in-law Kathy. (It doesn't take alot to pamper me when 90% of what I wear are scrubs!)



Joe knows my one of my favorite colors is coral, hence the roses he bought me.

Happy Groundhog's Day from Leo

Happy Groundhog's Day! I'm Leo. My mommy and daddy think I bear striking resemblance to Punxsutawney Phil, the world's most famous weatherman and the only one who is also a humble little groundhog. They thought it would be hilarious to humiliate me by comparing me to this fatty of a rodent who "predicts" the weather by "seeing his shadow" and miraculously draws thousands of people annually to the small town of Punxsutawney, PA to witness the event. I simply don't see the resemblance. Do you?

Rick-Rolled

I just got "rick-rolled". A few minutes ago, Joe called my cell phone. The ringtone that plays when he, and everyone else, calls is "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, a 1987 ballad that is pretty much one of the worst songs of all time. My mother-in-law, Kathy, told me that she used to do step aerobics to it back in the day. Now the song is used to prank people. Including me. Everyday. Every time my phone rings. Here's a Wikipedia link to the meaning and practice of "rick rolling":

And here's a You Tube video of Rick performing his song. It's pretty bad.

I'm too lazy to change my ringtone, just in case you were wondering.

The new BLUE vs. GRAY

So I blame not posting for a month on our leaving town for 10 days, me starting Inorganic Chemistry, and job hunting. And then there are those wonderful winter blues. Not exactly "post-holiday slump", but just putting the hand to the plow to face yet another day of gray skies. I've lived here in the Northwest since 1987, and I've become accustomed to the fact that we are famous for our rainy, gloomy days. In fact, I've even grown to APPRECIATE them because there are so many types of rain: misting, showering, downpouring, sprinkling... it's never just raining outside and it's truly a spectacle to watch the rain fall as one would watch snowflakes. But, like the Midwest has to face months of long, dark nights and days of freezing winds and blustry snowstorms, we have to endure the GRAY. Needless to say, I'll take the rain over GRAY any day. At least something's going on outside my window besides the GRAY that suffocates our atmosphere and blots out the BLUE.

I always forget that there is BLUE waiting to be beheld, lingering above the GREY. I am reminded of this when the plane I am in takes off and while gaining altitude, eventually has to penetrate through it. At that moment, my eyes are filled with the sight of golden SUNSHINE mingling with BLUE. While others are dozing off around me with their headphones in ears, it's a rush I look forward to every time. On GRAY days when I am not on an airplane and my feet are planted on the ground, I look up at the sky and close my eyes. I attempt to comfort myself with memories of the last time I saw BLUE and how it warmed my face and not GRAY when I woke up that morning. You really have to develop a good imagination and a whole lot of faith in order to even attempt this, because when you open your eyes again, all you see is what you started with, GRAY. (I do realize people from regions when sun is more plentiful might think this a bit daft. Even I do sometimes, I'll admit. But when it serves as a spark of hope when it's well needed, it's worth it. I generally loath to take things at face value anyway.) It helps to, if not subconsciously, transcend the environment around you even for just a few minutes.