Hubbard Squash Soup

I'm spoiled rotten. I left Coupeville with tons of fresh Hubbard Squash (Thank you Aunt Marilyn)! We had it as a side dish for a couple of dinners and I used the rest to make, what I think might have been the tastiest squash soup I have ever had! It was a little bit more complicated than recipes in the past and involved roasting the squash with a delicious herb rub, and it also required toasting hazelnuts for a garnish, but it was SO Worth it!!





Yummo!!!

The best side trip EVER!!

After Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Bill and I had two days to take a side trip. I Love my cousin Alix and have wanted to see her again after having a great trip to Coupeville last Christmas. She and Brandon were both so gracious and welcomed Bill and I into their home.

We started our side trip by driving North, with a small side trip to Bainbridge Island. Bill lived there for 3 years. There is always time for a trip down memory lane.




Seattle skyline from Bainbridge Island.

We continued north to Port Townsend. I thought I had been to this town, but after driving up mainstreet, it was apparent that I had not. This town was so charming. I was ready to move there! We caught our ferry to Whidbey Island and had some photog fun on the brand new Ferry!



and the photog fun begins.....




Alix and Brandon: Thank you soooooo much for the fantastic authentic Indian food and West Coast Beer tour!! Your home is amazing and Bill and I had a great time hanging out with you! Please come to Portland, Oregon and visit us!!

How cute is their pup, Max?

We played a mean game of Taboo!



The Roos Family!

View from the car driving to Ebey's Landing. Coupeville is an amazing place!! I hope to go back very soon!

Thanks again Alix and Brandon for being the bests hosts ever!! Love you guys!

11.26.10. I loved this day.

The day after Thanksgiving. We started the day off by going to the OR outlet's Black Friday gear sale(I go EVERY year) and picked up some new items that have become cherished winter clothing items. I LOVE that sale!

After that, we drove through my old neighborhood at Alki Beach, and made our way through the downtown area and up to Capitol Hill where we had brunch. Then, B took me to a place I had never been, which is funny since he's the one from the east coast. I saw Volunteer Park for the first time and loved it!

It felt like we were showing each other Seattle. It was a great day!

Pics from Volunteer Park-


I love this pic. the pic above that is-




Pike Place Market fun-



and... a little bit of photog fun.

Thanksgiving 2010

This past Thanksgiving was fun. I took B home to meet the fam and it was a great day. There was snow on the ground, which was fun for riding my brother's ATV in the neighborhood. Angie- Your food was AMAZING!!! Thanks for such a perfect day!


Megan's official Turkey Hat!

Carrie and Mathew

Cutie Pie!

Mom and Megan

Bill and Christian talking techy stuff.

My bro carving the turkey.

My sis-in-law Ang and I.

DE-LISH!


Will and his Pumpkin Pie!

on the water

I uploaded these photos a very long time ago! Bill bought a boat with his buddy Joe, and we took it out on the Columbia in North Portland. It was a cold, wet, rainy day, but fun! When the sun comes out, there will be crabbing and fishing! Looking forward to it!

Pics from that day(which was ages ago!!!)

first day off

Monday morning... not a vacation day or holiday and I'm at home. It feels really strange! I started to try and think about things that stress me out, almost like I was making up for stress that I usually experience right now, and then I decided I didn't want to be preoccupied with useless stressful thoughts. I want to experience this day! I hate it when I'm at work and all I want to do is wish the day by, so I can go home. What is that about? I think that will be a new goal. Striving to work a job for the rest of my life that doesn't feel like work...... Working less will be an experience for me. I have been working overtime every week for the last year! Who knew this adjustment would be like this? I bet it gets easier next week. I look forward to finding out.

I was going to celebrate this day with snowboarding, but apparently homeownership had other plans. Bill and I spent the entire weekend working on straightening the garage. I will post pictures soon, but basically the old girl was leaning and on her way down. The most amazing thing (which I'll blog about later), is that my neighbors saw us working on this and all came together to help us complete this crazy job. I felt so much love from all these guys yesterday. It was the equivalent of 80 years of experience, consulting and working as a team with Bill and I to get ol' Bessy straightened.

I'm super excited about the whole thing. I mean the garage itself will be a shop, but there are plans for a kayak building area and ceramics studio off to the side. Of course, this is WAY down the road, but the thought of having MY OWN CERAMICS studio makes me speechless.

Here's a teaser photo of the old girl: (ha! and my old man!)


Luckily, both B and I have the next 3 Mondays off. We will snowboard then. I WILL enjoy today though. Going to fit in a run, and end the day watching the Ducks hopefully win the National Championship. I'm feeling the football these days with the Seahawks amazing game on Saturday.

Happy Monday all!

I can see the light....

This week was a big one for me! I had my last day at my Alzheimer's day program job yesterday and it still doesn't feel real. It was strange to wrap things up there and think about how my life has changed while working there these past 4 years. I can say I was definitely ready for the change, but will miss seeing my clients and friends regularly. I also started teaching 3 new classes this week, while also keeping my 20 hours at the county. Working too much(60+ hours) is totally overrated!!!

My new schedule will start next week with a full day of snowboarding on Monday! I will also have time to exercise and eat right again.... catch up on my blogging....and finally use some of the art supplies my boyfriend bought me for Christmas.... and take my dog for a W-A-L-K.... and on an on....

**sigh**

Life is good!

ps. nice spelling Fred Meyer!