Yakasmack

This weekend I went to Yakima to visit my dad’s side of the family. I spent time with my Nana, Papa, Dad, and brother. We had a pleasant visit. Johanna rode with me over the mountains because she has family over there as well. I dropped her off at her aunt’s house on Saturday morning and headed over to my nana’s house. When I got there, my Nana greeted me with a big hug and smile. We went inside and caught up a bit. See, she just found out about 2 weeks ago that she had cancer… thankfully only stage one. (She went in for surgery on Tuesday and they think they removed all of it… praise God!) Then Dad came over and so did Darren (my younger brother). Nana took us out to lunch at my favorite burger joint in Yakima. Burger Ranch. I love their juicy, messy burgers and crinkle fries. After that she took us shopping. Nana loves to shower us with gifts. She bought me new pots and pans! The best part is that they are red and they match our kitchen! I’ve already cooked several meals with them and I’m very grateful for my gift! Thanks Nana!

Later that evening Dad took Darren and me out… we went to this “Fun Center” that Darren wanted to see and play Guitar Hero. Dad and I played air hockey a few times and he kicked my butt. We also played some hunting games and I had my turn in kicking his butt. =0) after that we picked up some pizza, took it back to Nana’s and played games all night with them.

The next morning I woke up, and while everyone was either at church or sleeping, I went for my “long” run. I drove down to a local school and jogged 5 miles on the track. It was a beautiful morning and it felt great to get out and exercise after pigging out the day before. When I came back Dad, Darren and I went over to my Grandpa Don’s house to visit him. He showed me his motorcycle… but would not give me a ride! But he at least let me sit on it and take some pictures… lol. I told him that next time he is definitely taking me out for a spin.

That about wrapped up my weekend with the fam. So I said my goodbyes and picked up Johanna on my way out of town. Like I said, it was a pleasant visit, and I had fun with my family. I will look back on this weekend and cherish it.

Catching Up!

Let's play catch up from January of this year...

January 1st: We started the New Year with a weekend at ocean shores. Anna's family has a cabin there. There was a large group with us. We spent the weekend eating, playing games, doing puzzles and relaxing.

January 16th: My roommate, Julie and I spent a week in Oahu. Our friends were gracious enough to let us use their time share in Waikiki. The weather was warm, and beautiful the entire time. We laid on the beach, read, relaxed, kayaked, hiked, parasailed and went to a Luau. Julie is the BEST travel partner! She is so laid back and relaxed.

February 6th: Anna and I went for a hike... it was a gorgeous sunny day, so we decided to head out to north bend. We hiked at this place called "Twin Falls". We packed a snack and ate at the "top".

February 14th: Jason invited some friends over for a Valentines day brunch! We were required to bring food, and a gift for a "V-day gift exchange". So we all gathered the most cheesy, mushy, love sick items that we could find, to wrap up and give to one another. It was "white elephant" style... so we didnt know what we were getting. I thought it was rather fun. I ended up with a country singing frog, a pound of coffee and chocolate. Other gifts recieved included a CD - Marvin Gaye's Hits, a mixed CD, a creepy little statue of a cherub-hippy that read "I love you this much" and much more.

February 26: We hosted a girls night. We chatted, fellowshiped, goofed around, ate lots of food, and watched a chick flick!

February 28th: I invited my family over for Justin and Kim's birthday. We had a barbeque and played games outside. The kiddo's are sooo cute! William and Annabell are getting SO big! Will has the best smile!

March 6th: The "Kelly Fasset Fan Club" gathered at the Kent ShoWare Center for a Thunderbirds hockey game. There were a group of 22 of us! We lost horribly. But we still managed to have a good time! They were giving out these free wrist bands... seriously? Who wears those these days?

Polka dot aprons!

Yes Ma’am! My fun-tastic roommate Anna MADE me an apron for Christmas, and I just love putting it to use! I was in the kitch today, and decided that I wanted to try something new. So I pulled out my favorite recipe book, "Sharing Our Best" it's one of those group made recipe books from a church in Plains, MT. I love it because they are all from real people with helpful tips... and most of the ingredients in the recipes, you can find in your cupboard! They are super practical.

I finally settled on Swedish meatballs. I followed the directions, thinking that they sounded a bit bland, but who was I to judge? I had never made them before.... Well it turns out... they were bland. And I had to hurry up and throw some of this and that in it before it was too late. I served them over brown rice and had steamed asparagus as side dish. YUM! I tried steaming veggies tonight for the first time in our rice cooker, and it worked out well! They were fresh, FAT free, and tasty.

I also made a yellow cake from scratch tonight. I like to make cakes for my coworkers when it's their birthdays... and I didn't feel very challenged about making a yellow cake from a box. So I rolled up my sleeves, hopped on the internet and found "Dave's Yellow Cake" recipe on Allrecipes.com. It had great reviews, so I decided to take the plunge and see how it would turn out. I guess I'll find out tomorrow when everyone is eating it! =0)

Fro Yo!

I experienced Menchies last night for the first time. It was, to say the least, FABULOUS! It's a frozen yogurt shop, and you basically build your own treat. You start out with a cup, choose your flavor(s), add your candy/fruit toppings and finish it off with syrup if you like. Since it's a build your own desert, it's all paid for by weight. So you can have as many flavors as you like as well as toppings. It's truly delightful. If you have kiddos, this is the place for you! Actually, it's great for every age...

I forgot about "The Great Divorce"

All day today I was looking forward to going out and spending a bit of my tax return on new running clothes. I had read in my training book that the second most important thing, besides actually training for a half marathon is using the right gear. Almost everything I own is cotton, and that is a big no no in the running world. I have the right shoes, just not the right clothing. So after work I ventured off to Kent Station to take a look at the sales racks in Road Runner. As I was pulling into the parking lot I received a phone call from Anna... it went a bit like this...

Kelly: "Uhm. Hello?"
Anna: "Hi!"
Kelly: "What's up?"
Anna: "Are you excited for tonight?"
Kelly: ... tonight... crap whats tonight? what is she talking about? What did i forget about now?
Anna: "Where are you? Are you on your way?"
Kelly: Suddenly I remember... The PLAY! "Oh yeah! The play, of course I remember, I'm on my way, I went out of my way, but now I will turn around and head up to Seattle! I'll see you in a bit!"

OK, so i TOTALLY forgot that i was going to dinner and a play with Anna and her friends tonight. It was at the Taproot Theatre in Seattle. It was on my calendar, but completely out of my mind. All week I had been planning to go shopping on Wednesday, and every day I looked at my calendar and saw "Taproot, 7:30pm Wednesday". I guess it just didn't click.

Anywho, I got to Seattle, found Anna in a coffee shop around the corner and then we went to Romio's for dinner. The service was awful! I'm not kidding, we were there for an hour and a half... we had to ask for the menu, our silverware and our checks. The food took an hour to get to us and service was very slow. I guess I wont be going there again. But the company was good. We had a whole 3 minutes to spare before the play started... it's a good thing that taproot was nearly next door to the restaurant.

The play was very interesting. We saw "The Great Divorce" which is a play based off of CS Lewis's book. I haven't read it, but I'm sure I would have understood the play way better if I had. The actors were quite good, they were able to play multiple characters and transition into them easily. I was impressed by their talent. I always enjoy Taproot's productions. And the theatre is nice and cozy... there isn't a bad seat in the house.

Over all, it was a good evening. I'm so glad that Anna called me when she did... otherwise this would have been a completely different blog.

Good night!

Goodbye Facebook, hello blogging!

I gave up facebook for Lent this year.... (this year, as if I have ever given up anything for lent before.) And the funny part is... I'm not even sure what Lent is all about. My church doesn't "support it" nor do they mention anything about it... So all I know is that some people "sacrifice" something for forty days... some make it without stumbling, some don't. So I thought that I would try it out... you know, "sacrifice" something for the next 40 days... and see if any good actually comes out of it. The reason why I'm doing this, is because I feel that I waste a lot of time on facebook. Time that could be directed to strengthening my relationship with the Lord. So in place of FB, I plan on reading and studying scripture, or when feeling tempted to sign on, I'll use that time to pray. See the goal is to refocus... to cut out some distractions.

So here I go... on my forty day journey to cut FB out of my life. Will I succeed? We'll see.

Crazy Aunts, Mariners games, and bowling

My Aunt Lorrelle, Uncle Mike, and my Cousin Megan came up for a visit last weekend. They drove up from Portland to go to a Mariners game and they stayed with me while they were here. They arrived on Saturday around 2pm and we all went out to lunch at "Bahama Breeze". After that we went bowling at Acme Bowl.... Mike kicked out butts... and Megan just gave up after a couple of frames. Then we drove up to Seattle for the Mariners game. We were playing the Red Sox. I am not exaggerating when I say that the stadium was filled with Red Sox fans. It was probably 80% RS fans VS 20% Mariners fans. It was a sad day. We lost 3 - 5. But it was still a fun game and we had a good time rivaling against the other team.

Sunday we woke up had breakfast and went to church. Mike had seen Pastor Mark down in Portland and he wanted to check out Mars Hill. So we drove up to Ballard for church. On the way up there we nearly had a horrific accident on I-5. But God graciously saved us from death. It was SCARY! I wont go into details, but trust me when I say that God was and is with us! Amen! After church we went out to lunch at the "Rain forest Cafe" in the south center mall. The food was fantastic and we all left very, very full.

It was a great weekend with the fam. I'm so glad that they came up for a visit!