Sunday, September 21, 2014

Hello Seattle.

Every summer I head back to the place I will always call "home." I grew up in the greater Seattle area, just north of the city. I look forward to it every year for a million reasons, but mostly because I love to be at my parents home and you just can't beat summers in Seattle. You just can't. They live on five acres with lots of trees, horses, chickens, a bountiful garden, and a huge yard with a trampoline and play space. It's basically paradise for a two-year-old. They also live on something called the pipeline where pipes run underground. It's a dirt road that can't be driven on and it stretches as far as Seattle in one direction and just as far in the other direction. It is the perfect place for blackberry picking, finding secret trails, and meeting beautiful dogs and horses (also paradise for a two-year-old.) Within an hour of being home Olive had fed the horse about 50 apples, threw old raspberries to chickens (they go crazy for this,) gathered eggs, picked fresh tomatoes, beans, and berries from the garden, jumped on the trampoline, and ran up and down the whole length of my parents long and beautiful driveway. And then it was time for bed. She was in heaven (and as you can imagine bedtime did not go down so well.)

I think I only took Olive from the house a couple times in the whole 8 days I was there! There was really no reason to leave the house, especially when she was so happy there. Everyday was a new adventure. Olive finally got to drive a riding lawn mower (she has been pretending to drive one for 30 minutes every time we go to Home Depot or Lowes,) my mom took us for a ride in the dump part of the tractor, she rode horse with me, grandma, and by herself and got to stay on for as long as she wanted (I kept asking her if she wanted to get off just to hear her say Uh-uh,) and we took long walks on the pipeline so we could talk to all the dogs and horses, pick berries, and just enjoy being together and watching the hot air balloons pass by every night. Olive and I did one day out at Mukulteo Lighthouse Beach with my sister where we went out on the dock and watched fisherman come in, practiced our balancing on driftwood, took a short ferry ride, chased lots of seagulls and pigeons, and ate fresh fish and chips from Iver's near the pier. Next time I'll be better to go at low tide so we can also catch all the beautiful starfish and marine life in the ocean. 

As for me it was just what I needed at 34 weeks pregnant. Rest, relaxation, and my Mom. I slept 8 hours straight, which I don't think I have done since before Olive was born, and I spent lots of time talking to both my parents about life. It was a good change of pace. My sister and I normally head up to Seattle in July when her kids get out of school, but this year there were lots of conflicts at that time and besides it was my TEN YEAR REUNION this week so I came home in September instead. I think I need to start coming back around this time every year because it's the best time to be in Seattle. My ten year reunion was a blast, loved seeing and talking to everyone there. Kc flew in for the weekend to come with me which I loved. We got to take Olive to Gasworks park during the day and watch all the hydroplanes take off from the ocean, and it was fun to have him get a glimpse of my high school days and meet everyone and have him by my side the whole night. I also started my last year of my 20's while I was there! A little surreal, but not really feeling any different today than I did a week ago at 28. :) 

All in all my trip was oh so lovely. I will be reminiscing on it for a bit, especially since it was my last trip before baby comes and we all have to adjust and learn how to have an extra person in the home. So scared/excited for that transition! As always you can't have a blog post without some pictures! Here is what I caught on my phone while I was home. One day I am going to hire a photographer to follow me around my house to capture all the beautiful things I can't capture myself. 
One day. 









All in a day's work.









 Olive rode the horse by herself, with mom, and grandma. Is she the luckiest kid ever?


My mom hand in hand with Olive makes my heart happy.




 Around this house the tractor rides come from the grandma (I mean this grandma's been riding a tractor since she was 5, so she's pretty legit.)


Is it ok to wake surf at 8 months prego? Welp... did it anyways! (Don't worry I was fine.)


Miss bossy pants checking to make sure I am following her lead.




At Gas Works Park. These ducks quickly left after they realized Olive was throwing rocks, not food at them.



Our friend Tomiko let Olive have control of her dog, which made Olive think she was the Queen of the world. You can't quite make it out but the above picture is her taking the dog to the swing set where she eventually gave up control of the dog when she realized he could not climb up the stairs to go down the slide with her.
 






This sweet old man was feeding pigeons out of his hand, it seemed to be something out of a story book. It made me think about how every one brings some small good into this world in their own way. 



What Olive did when I told her we were leaving the beach.


Guess you are a true Seattle native when you pass up the fish and chips on the wharf for some delicious oysters and chips mmmmm mmmmmm.


And that about sums it up.



Monday, September 15, 2014

Life Lately.

This past week has been filled with laughter, tears, and lots of contemplation. Currently I am spending some time at my parents home in Seattle, and since I feel so relaxed and free here I felt it was a good time to jot down some of my thoughts.

Last Friday I attended the funeral of my brother-in-laws brother. I didn't know him well, but I went to support my sister whom I am close with and her husband for whom I have deep respect and love. His brother had lost his long battle with depression and mental illness and in the wake left behind his wife and five children. On the tails of the death of Robin Williams I think the world is slowly beginning to understand the damaging effects of the brain turning on itself, but I think no matter what the circumstance it's hard for people to understand things they are not experiencing themselves. Through personal experiences and a lot of deep thought over the years, I myself feel that have come to understand how painful and difficult mental illnesses are and how very real. I've learned how desperately the people plagued with them wish they could somehow fix what they often see as weakness or inability to control their emotions- and how deeply this pains them. Mental illness is so complex, and it's not something that you can measure or put a band aid over, and yet it's real. It's so real.

I think the biggest lesson I have learned, and was strongly reminded of when I attended this funeral, is that as difficult as it is for us to deal with being around someone with these issues it is infinitely more difficult for them to live in their own brains and deal with it themselves. They would give anything to be or feel something different. It's not something they have control over and I think this is an aspect for which we can all try to understand and show compassion, because we all have things in our lives that we can't control. 

To be honest I didn't really want to attend the funeral because I had already been an emotional wreck for most of my pregnancy, and I knew it would be so hard to sit and listen to friends and family speak of a man they loved so dearly and to see pain and anguish on all their faces. And while the tears I shed there left me with a pounding headache, I was also so grateful to have heard about his beautiful life and to be reminded that we are all human and we are all good, and we all struggle. This man was so so good. He deserved to be honored and to have his story told in a way he could not tell it himself. I felt that the mark of his struggle left little in comparison to all the wonderful things he did. It felt good and right to be there, and I left with such a strong desire to see the world and those around me through more sympathetic glasses. We can not know everyone's struggles, but we can be kind to one another. We can try not to be harsh to others who seem harsh to us, we just don't know what people are going through- so be kind and show love and mercy. Forgive of those around you what we would want to be forgiven of yourselves. This is what God hoped for us to do.

The rest of the weekend was filled with festivities and fun because My husband turned the big 3-0. I decided it as an appropriate year to throw him a little shin-dig and invite all his old close friends. Being the typically overzealous person that I am (seriously working on this problem) I made fresh salsa, guacamole, pico de gallo, salad, 2 homemade pizzas from scratch, and two homemade cakes from scratch (whew!) All the food turned out really well, but I don't think the boys needed so much food! (I don't have any pictures of the party because I was was to preoccupied with everything else... typical.) Luckily Greg, kc's brother (who I absolutely adore,) surprised all of us and came into town and we had a big party at his parents the next day and polished off the leftovers! I felt bad we didn't know Greg was coming and were scheduled to come to Seattle a couple days later, but we had some good conversations and quality time together before he left, which I always try to sneak in with Greg when he's around. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately- and I'm sure you'll get an update after we leave Washington! There's always lots of exciting things to share when we get home. :)






I canned my first set of tomatoes, here is the before and after. My mom is an EXPERT canner but I never learned the trade secrets from her so I had my momther-in-law come help! My husband helped a lot too and with the three of us we were a little tomato canning factory with lots of sorting, boiling, peeling, and chopping! It was a success and the second picture is the result! Look at those colorful jars! 


Little Olive gets to open a bag of popcorn on almost every grocery trip! It makes both her and I two happy campers.



And Then I woke up from a nap with this in my living room! Mother-in-laws rock! We rearranged our whole living room to accommodate this new piece of furniture (and I think I am quite happy with it.) Hope Olive like taking piano lessons :)






Spent some time in Heber over labor day weekend. We hit up Swiss days, Olive ran wild with her cousin Callie, we took little walks around a lake and made a big bonfire for smores, and as you can tell from the picture above Olive took lots of advantage of all the treats that were frequently left on the kitchen counters. It was everything a holiday weekend should be.


Olive taking full advantage of Greg. We showed him all her favorite things to do at the library.






Lazy summer days under our favorite tree in our front yard, frequent trips to the aquarium, and a 32 week baby belly shadow. Summer we'll keep drinking in every last drop you give us.