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!

A rainbow of tulips

The other day I took a drive up to Skagit County to see the ever so popular "Tulip Festival". It was well worth the drive. I went by myself, and I'm so glad I did. It was a beautiful day and I had a chance to relax and to spend time with the creator, enjoying his creation.

I stopped and ate lunch at this cute little diner called "the coffee corner". I came in and sat down on a bar stool at the counter. There were a few other people there. Two old men were sitting in a booth playing cards, a couple of business men were obviously there on their lunch break, and another man also sitting at the counter reading the paper. I sat and chatted with the owner who was making my lunch on the other side of the counter. We talked about his life, tourists, and how his wife owned the restaurant across the square called "The lunch Box". I thought it was a very clever business move to own two restaurants right next to each other, both offering completely different lunch menus.

Anyways, I finally made it to the flowers, and this is what I found.

Annabell Kay Haaby

On April 13th my niece Annabell was born. She was 7lbs 11oz, and 21 inches long. She is a beautiful little girl and we are so very happy to welcome her into our family.

As you can imagine, Kim was exhausted from the day, but very happy to finally see her precious baby. "Big Bro" wasn't as excited to meet his little sister at first... but he is now very protective of her. The other day my sister took her children into the bank, and a woman went to pick up the baby and Brian Jr. said.... "Hey that's MY Annabell!!!"

Brian Sr. did a great job with taking care of his wife and new born. Kim said that he was very loving and attentive the entire time, and he had a hard time leaving the hospital a couple days later to go back to work. (Kim was in the hospital for a few days because she had a se-section)

This picture was taken a week after she was born. I absolutely adore this picture. It makes me crack up. I think this was the first time I saw her open her eyes. She sleeps ALL the time. Even at two weeks old, she is still sleeping for most of the day. So I was lucky to get a picture of her with her eyes open!