Meara in Real Life

starting things up again...

2010-11-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

well, it's be a while.

hello, blogging universe!

let's see, since my last post i have: gotten married, gone on a fabulous honeymoon, moved into a new house, got a puppy, got a job, quit a job, and start my second year of grad school. quite a bit, right? no wonder i didn't keep up-to-date on this whole blog thing.

so it's baby steps. baby steps to re-enter into this world and hopefully this time do a better job. so, the news of today's blog is that i'm back, and that kevin got a job! woo hoo! he hasn't been working for about six months now, so we're both incredibly excited that he's going to be the new basketball coach at shorewood high. as for me, year two of the masters program has been a little bit crazy! i'm working on three research projects right now--that's right, three--and trying to get things done for my thesis too. on top of that, i've had to dig in to phd applications which are, as you can imagine, thrilling. but a busy life is, for the most part, a good life and i can't complain. i have things to do, an end goal, an amazing husband, and the best puppy in the whole world.

love it.

BAM!

2010-06-02T16:42:00.001-07:00

I am SUCH a legit grad student now!

My very first publication... granted, it's only a book review, but still! I am so excited :)

I only have one more day of class until I am officially halfway through my Masters degree--totally crazy! That shocking realization, combined with the fact that I am a mere 24 days away from becoming a Mrs., means I have been a totally crazy person lately. I'm so looking forward to summer and unplugging and unwinding and throwing away my to-do list. Of course, summer also means moving and a million different weddings to attend, so I'm sure it will be crazy in its own way.

Anyways, wish me luck and will me to survive. I'm so close!

a few photos from the past two weeks...

2010-05-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

ahh... another blog post. the past two weeks have been incredibly busy! last weekend, i spent time in spokane working on the wedding. kevin and i went down to the county courthouse and got our marriage license--yay! i have pictures from this exciting event... though, in all honesty, they aren't very exciting. we also met with the florist, the rehearsal dinner venue, and crossed a million other items off my still incredibly long to-do list! so great.

this weekend, i'm home in b-town for my final wedding dress fitting (!) and to spend some time with friends and my mom (for mother's day). none of these things are at all related to the photos i've posted, but i wanted to put them up anyway.

nosy nora! while babysitting nora a few weeks ago, she became fascinated by the activity in the neighboring back yard... she enjoyed peeping for a good five minutes before moving on... it was pretty cute :)

attempting to take photos of the gorgeous country sunset on my drive between seattle and spokane... this is somewhere between moses lake and ritzville, i think...

another attempt at capturing the beautiful countryside... somewhere on the road around the gorge area...

local heroes

2010-04-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

here's a photo of my local hero--the crossing guard who sees it fit to stop traffic for me every afternoon... he's so funny and definitely dedicated to pedestrian safety.

in other news, life continues to be very busy. the wedding is encroaching and i'm trying desperately to get things done! invites need to be mailed, plans need to be finalized--yikes. pray for my sanity... research is kicking in to high gear. classes are falling into their rhythm, meaning papers and presentation deadlines are approaching...

ah, grad school.

recipe for a perfect friday

2010-04-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

recipe for a perfect friday:

good weather: after such a rainy, windy miserable week, it was absolutely amazing to see the sunshine yesterday. couldn't help but have an extra spring in my step with the sun's beautiful rays beaming in my eyes. i went down to gasworks park on lake union and watched the sunset. it was truly beautiful. the pictures you see are of said sunset, though really my iphone camera does not seem to do anything justice!

good food: decided to explore a new area and a new restaurant yesterday. went to this little hole-in-the-wall dive called pacific inn pub. it was so tasty! kath and i both had the fish n'chips with a beer (it felt very appropriate) and watched the mariners play while we munched on our fare. not only was it incredibly tasty, it was also downright cheap by seattle standards! totally a winner!

good company: my friend kathleen drove in from her home (located just south of seattle) and we met up for dinner, drinks, a walk around gasworks park, and some dessert and coffee at barnes and noble. all in all, it ended up being about six hours of great conversation and catching up. it really doesn't get much better than that!

now i'm off to enjoy a perfect saturday... :)

three things that made me smile today

2010-04-05T16:49:00.001-07:00

so, today is monday. and, not only is it monday, it is a rainy, cloudy, cold, WINDY monday! it was all i could do to pull myself out of bed and head in to work.

that said, there were plenty of things to be happy about and plenty of things to make me smile. so, here's the list of the top three things (in no particular order) that made me smile today.

1. all the beautiful flowers. seattle is a flower-filled city. there's so much moisture over here, the plants just thrive! even though it's been cold and nasty and incredibly windy, the flowers are still in bloom and they're still hanging on! i can't believe that more of the trees haven't lost all the blossoms because of the wind... there is one house in particular that i pass on my short 10-block walk to the bus stop on my way to work, and this house has the most amazing flowers! its entire yard is covered in bright splashes on purple and magenta and white... it's pretty incredible. i'll try to take a picture of it during my walk on wednesday, but for today i have a picture of this really interesting plant right down my alley...

2. the crossing guard. while i was walking back from work this afternoon, and little old man dressed in traditional crossing guard garb (complete with a reflective sash and sporty cap) decided that, though i am no longer a child and certainly capable of ascertaining when it is safe to cross the street, i needed his assistance. so, he ran out into the middle of the road waving his neon orange flag, and he stopped traffic for me. it was pretty great. i aspire to be an overzealous crossing guard like him when i'm older...

3. eating leftovers for lunch. when you're a kid, leftovers are not really prized. in fact, you kind of despise them for some reason. there's just something so horrible about eating something that wasn't cooked within the passed hour or two that makes any and all leftovers repulsive and intolerable. not so as an adult. right around the time each person begins to become responsible for creating their own meals, leftovers become a treasure! let no scrap of food go to waste--save any morsel so that you won't have to worry about cooking something tomorrow. thus, as a person who could probably in most circles be classified as an adult, i rejoice in eating leftovers and circumventing an occasion to actually make something.

so there you have it. take joy in the simple things, right?

2010: the year of the wedding

2010-03-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

and not just my own, mind you! i feel like 2010 is the year of the wedding for the entire United States population of young adults ages 22-30. i know so many people getting married this year, it's crazy! every time i try to count all of the weddings, facebook alerts to a new engagement and i have to start counting all over again! oh well--mazel tov to all!

to start the kick of the year of the weddings, i travelled down to houston, texas to witness the marriage of my cousin greg to his fiance (now wife) candice. weddings with the hall side of the family are always so much fun, because we don't really get to see each other often, and it's nice to have (almost) everyone in the same room, even if just for a wedding reception. kevin got to make the trek with me, and here are some pics of the festivities:

in what became our standard weekend pic, all of the hall girls in front of the hotel lobby fire place ready for the rehearsal dinner!

kev and i enjoying some awesome mexican food and hall family time at the rehearsal dinner!

like i said, the traditional fire place pic: the hall sisters all dressed up for the wedding!

a look at the fam hanging out waiting for the wedding to start...

after the wedding, my two second cousins (or first cousins once removed? i can never keep these complicated family relations straight) both climbed on me... their so cute! the one peeking out of the back is savannah (savvy for short) and the cutie in pink is alexandra (or sasha for short).

leigha stepped in and took sasha off my hands :)

hanging out at the reception with kev, enjoying some appetizers.

seriously, i would not be at all terrified to think about having kids if my kids would be: a. this cute, and b. this well-behaved! these girls are angelic!

almost the entire gaggle of hall cousins! we're quite a good looking crew!

sunday brunch with the fam before taking off for the airport. the entire boise hall/faw family!

looong time since my last post...

2010-02-23T14:10:00.000-08:00

and a lot has been going on! so far, winter quarter has been quite full with lots of good things: a visit from kevin (complete with a trip to the zoo!), a trip to houston for a family wedding, and a visit from one of my best friends--not too shabby! on top of that, i've been busy with three really great research projects (one of my own and two in conjunction with my research team). my personal project is continuing some work that i did as an undergrad at whitworth, while my other two projects involve physiology and communication--my favorites! we have officially filed for IRB approval and secured funding for one project. if you are at all familiar with the research process, you know that that's kinda a big hurdle to actually doing research. for our second project, we have just finished compiling a pretty extensive grant proposal, so now it's fingers crossed to see if we get it! finally, one last big thing to have happened thus far during winter quarter: i am officially a published author! yay! i had a book review accepted by the scholarly journal, mass communication and society. it was pretty exciting, and i can't wait to actually see it in print! even though book reviews are actually not a big deal, i'm still excited!

so, in general, winter quarter = good times. with only a few weeks left in the quarter, it's hard to believe that i'm more than halfway done with the first year of my masters program--meaning that i'm more than 25% done with the whole thing! yikes! this time next year, i'll be anxiously awaiting to hear back from doctoral programs. seems like it's going by super fast! but, before i get ahead of myself and start worrying too extensively about the future, i'm going to enjoy today.

here are some pictures from our very awesome zoo trip, which occurred on a very wet, rainy saturday in january. enjoy! and i promise i'll post a houston wedding blog and a laura visit blog before too long... you definitely won't have to wait another month this time!

at the zoo entrance, hanging out with some monkey friends. note the warm clothes and the hood--it was definitely not the best of days (weather-wise) for a zoo visit.

leigha and i with some more primate friends.

kevin bonding with the king of the jungle! this exhibit was so cool! the lion came and stared kevin down. it was awesome how close we were. fun fact: when kevin was a little boy, he wanted to be a lion when he grew up--pretty cute, huh?

kevin, the lion tamer!

those two snow leopards look shockingly familiar....

play with the penguins. they are such cute, friendly, and playful birds! they would chase our hand along the ice, following it in whatever crazy circular patterns we made up. this was a HUGE hit with the little kids, of course!

a california christmas--and other things, too

2010-01-07T23:45:00.000-08:00

after a fabulous three-week holiday break, i'm back in seattle and falling back into the swing of things. classes have started, and it's shaping up to be a pretty good quarter (hopefully). i only have class on mondays and wednesdays, which means i have a lot of free time--which will hopefully be filled with research and writing lots of good stuff for future publication! we'll see!

here are some pictures from my christmas holiday in palm springs. it was such a wonderful escape! i enjoyed the sunshine and, even though it wasn't quite as warm as i expected it to be, i really enjoyed the trip! so yes, here are some of the highlights!

somehow, all of the pictures got posted in reverse order, so we're starting towards the end of the trip. this is a pic of kevin and i in downtown palm springs. we took advantage of our hotel's complimentary limo service (!) to enjoy a nice dinner on the town!

a group pic at the wind farm just outside of palm springs! the turbines are so cool! there are more than 3000 of them in various heights to catch all of the constant wind that filters into the valley. a pretty great way to power 500,000+ houses every year!

at the joshua tree national park looking up into the oldest-know joshua tree. it's estimated to be over 2000 years old! the joshua tree can only be found in very specific climates. they start out as a small, single-trunk stalk. at the end is a terminal bud, so when the flower blooms and dies, the tree has to create an alternative branch because the old one can't continue to grow. this is why the trees are made of such complex branching patterns--pretty cool!

a view from the top of eureka peak in the joshua tree national park. palm springs is right on the san andreas fault, so one minute you'll be at sea level, and the next you'll be several thousand feet above the valley. i think here we're at just over 3000 feet.

sunset over the valley...

me, posing as a golfer with kev, an actual golfer. the pga west course is absolutely AMAZING and i'm so glad i went as caddy/moral supporter.

kev, showing off his fabulous golfing form. look at the beautiful mountains in the distance!

view from the pga west clubhouse. such an amazing course!

hanging out at the top of san jacinto peak--over 8000 ft above sea level! we took a large tram up to the top. in the tram, the floor revolved giving every passenger a view of the valley below. for a person with fear-of-heights issues, it was a little traumatic, but the view from the top was well worth it. note the snow! it was significantly colder at the top, of course!

merry christmas from the future mr. & mrs. faw! hanging out at the top of san jacinto peak.

the most wonderful time of the year!

2009-12-13T00:27:00.000-08:00

i love the holidays! they are so wonderful for so many reasons! here's my top ten list for why i love the holidays (in no particular order):

10. hot cocoa. i know that you can drink hot cocoa at times other than christmas, but there's something about christmastime that makes hot cocoa taste THAT much better. love it.

9. christmas music. i. love. christmas music. there isn't a single christmas song that has anything to say that's depressing or horrible or leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. listening to christmas music lifts my spirits and makes me smile. my all-time favorite christmas song ever is "christmastime" by michael w. smith. if you haven't heard it, go listen to it RIGHT NOW! it's wonderful. love it.

8. lights. what is more beautiful that the reflection of christmas lights on a clear winter night? growing up, i got to see christmas lights reflected off of all the ponds at the front end of my neighborhood--probably one of my most favorite things ever. incidentally, also one of the things i miss most about spending the holidays in boise. love it.

7. decorating. christmas decorations are so much fun, and they're such a great way of reliving memories. all the different decorations--from the plate i made in kindergarten to the ornament's my dad's given me throughout the years--are so much fun. love it.

6. christmas eve service at my grandparent's church. the crazy organist. the candlelight carols. the little kids in their holiday attire. the bell choir. it's one of my most favorite traditions of all time. love it.

5. anniversary. though my technical "anniversary" date is set to change this year, until then i will celebrate my anniversary with kevin on december 15--three years since we became a couple! so, on top of all the christmassy goodness, i get to celebrate us. love it.

4. tbs's 24-hour marathon of "a christmas story" (and other christmas movies). again, christmas movies are happy! they make me smile and i love watching them. i've already tackled "the holiday", "love actually", "while you were sleeping" and "serendipity" this season. still to go: "a christmas story", "the grinch who stole christmas", and "a muppet christmas carol". love it.

3. annual fondue party. every year, i get together with four of my closest and dearest friends for good food and a great time. we've had this tradition for years and, even though it might look somewhat different every year, it's always one of my favorite things to do during the holidays. i'm looking forward to it this year--december 27! love it.

2. giving. there's just something infectious about the holiday season that makes me want to give. i can't seem to walk by a salvation army bucket without putting something in (unless i don't have cash, which happens more often than i'd like). it's a wonderful feeling, being reminded of how blessed i am and how important it is to give back. this is one thing i need to remember the entire year. love it.

1. family time. the holidays = family. we have our traditions, we have our fun, and mostly, it's just really great to be together. no better time to appreciate each other than the holidays. love it.

now, some photographic highlights from last christmas :)

the sun is shining!

2009-12-01T11:15:00.000-08:00

welcome to december!

sorry about the lack of posting. november was a busy and somewhat bleak month. lots of rain, clouds, storms, wind--yuck! i know that this is the quintessential definition of seattle weather, but i'm still adjusting. i'm used to boise's sun and spokane's cold. this whole rain thing isn't doing it for me.

but today, the sun in shining! in other good news, i'm almost done with my first quarter of grad school. i officially have six more days of class, two fatty papers, and two presentations until christmas break. yikes! i can't believe how fast this has gone by!

other good news:

- less than SEVEN months till i get married!

- i'm going to spend christmas in sunny california with the fam!

- my christmas shopping is completely done!

yeah... life is good :)

time for an update

2009-10-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

though not too much to say! basically, my life for the past 15 days has been grad school (imagine that)! now that classes are in full swing, i'm beginning to feel the full weight of my homework and research duties.

my research advisor (having ascertained that i am now settled and not constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown... we hope...) has started giving me additional work and duties, which is surprisingly nice! it feels good to know that i am helping him in some way. right now, we are working on a study examining how research methods are taught in an undergraduate class. it's pretty interesting, and it makes me realize that i received really great methods training while at whitworth (thanks, alan!). my professor is hoping to have me write and publish an article detailing the studies' findings, and i am okay with that! publications speak LOUDLY when it comes time to entering a doctorate program and finding a job in the real world. how great would it be for me to be second author on a paper in my first year as a grad student!? sign me up!

classes are going well. i hit a small bump in my methods class this monday, but i was able to recovery (verrrry fortunately...). other than that one hiccup, things are smooth. i had my first exam today and (fingers crossed) it went well. i can't believe that it's almost time for "midterms"--i use this term lightly as i don't actually have an midterm exams (which is pretty wonderful). within the next week or two, i'll start gearing up to register for winter quarter. crazy.

well, sorry this isn't more interesting and that i don't have any great stories for you... actually, WAIT! i did something funny today. while i was waiting for a bus, i watched as a poor squirrel ran around campus with its head stuck in a yogurt container! it was pretty funny watching it bump into trees and the sidewalk, but also kind of sad. i thought about trying to rescue it, but i wasn't sure i actually wanted to touch the squirrel or the yogurt container, so i refrained. yep, that's my interesting story...

what an enthralling life i lead.

a funny video to end things...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK9_DPYlve4

reading reading reading!

2009-10-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

life in graduate school is officially in full swing! this week is my first full week of class, and i've made it halfway through. on mondays and wednesdays, i have my statistics class, which i actually think is going to be very interesting and challenging. on tuesdays and thursdays, i have an introductory course focused on communication theory. the beauty of my schedule (aside from having three day weekends every weekend--yes!) is that my two classes are so different! i think this will probably help me from getting bored... at least, i hope it will!

thus far, my graduate career has involved a LOT of reading! i'm reading for classes and for my research, which means i'm trying to squeeze in about 8 hours of reading a day--yikes! my research is pretty interesting so far. i'm studying salivary a-amylase, an enzyme released into saliva by the sympathetic nervous system in response to stressful situations. i know, who would have ever thought i'd be dedicating so many hours of my life to reading about spit? certainly not me! i'm hoping to begin working on a few other projects with my advisor as well, including one looking at different undergrad statistics classes and another examining facebook relationships (ahhh... i can relate all to well to these research subjects)! should be pretty good.

in the meantime, i have begun to explore my cute little neighborhood, and i have officially found the BEST donut shop EVER! it's called top pot donuts and they are featuring an amazing old-fashioned pumpkin donut. they are totally to DIE for! kailey (my roommate) and i are both big fans...

to wrap things up, here are a few pics of campus. i didn't take them (i'm not THAT good at photography), but i figured i'd let everyone see where i'm going to school. UW is incredibly beautiful--prettier than i think most people imagine. enjoy!

a look at the quad in fall... the weather in seattle has been pretty perfect this week. sunny and in the 60's--so wonderful! the trees haven't started turning yet, but i know it's just around the corner...

this is a picture of suzzallo library. it's an amazingly beautiful gothic building that was built during the 1930's (i think...) anyways, it is the social sciences library, meaning MY library! whenever i need to do research (which will come up a some point), this is where i get to go. yay!

Weekend in Seattle

2009-09-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

My first weekend in Seattle has come and gone and I survived. No fiery crash on I-5. No crazy abduction at the Puyallup Fair (not that I was expecting one...) It was actually a pretty great weekend! I went to the Fair, out to dinner with Leigha and a few of her friends, bought a bunch of great books at the Friends of the Seattle Library Book Sale (TONS of books all for 50 cents a piece... Thanks to Camille), and churched at Mars Hill (a large, popular church here in Seattle). Great weekend!

Monday was my new student orientation... I finally got to meet everyone in my cohort (all nine of us... pretty small, really). They seem to be pretty nice. I also finally had my questions answered about what my classes are going to look like. I met all of the communications faculty over a catered lunch of tasty sandwiches--woo hoo! Great Monday!

So there's a little update, and here are pics from the outing to the fair :)

Cotton candy! I know it's kinda lame, but it is one of my all-time favorite fair/carnival treats! Nothing like purple spun sugar...

Enjoying our fair dinner--I had a Greek gyro, Natalie had a Krusty Pup... It was all very tasty!

BABY GOAT! Nothing more needs to be said!

Back to blogging

2009-09-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

So, it seems that my life begs for blogging during the most tumultuous (and therefore probably most interesting) times. When I left for Spain, I blogged like mad because everything was so new and exciting and I just wanted to share my new world with everyone back home.

Grad school brings a similar opportunity.

Though I would never dare to assert that Seattle is as enchanting, charming, or exciting as Spain, I will say that it certainly IS different. Having never lived in a city larger than Boise, ID (except for Sevilla), Seattle seems totally strange and different. I made my official relocation on Monday, and, despite my endeavors to explore and learn the city, I still have zero sense of direction (leaving me very prone to disorientation and getting lost) and driving on I-5 induces audible verbal swearing every time.

In spite of all of this, I am remaining hopeful, excited for the challenges that this new life chapter brings. In order to cope with the stress, however, I will be blogging.

So, I take this moment to welcome myself back to the blogging world.

engaged

2009-03-24T20:43:00.001-07:00

for all those people who want to know, here's the story:

well, saturday was the first day of kevin's spring break, so a few weeks back i suggested that we have a fun-day to celebrate. he agreed and then offered to plan the fun-day for us, much to my chagrin. i am the planner in the relationship, but i acquiesced. all throughout the week, whenever i asked him about our fun-day plans, he always laughed and said that he hadn't planned anything yet. of course, i believed him.

on saturday, kevin picked me up for lunch and we drove over to applebee's. ironically (in my mind... well-thought-out, according to kevin), this was where we had our first day more than two years ago. of course, i didn't know he was going to propose, so it didn't seem like anything special at the time... only in hindsight did i realize its significance.

after lunch, we drove over to this little massage parlor located in this weird spot. we were both a little sketched-out at first, but it turned out to be a really nice place inside! kevin didn't tell me what we were going to do (obviously something involving a spa). a lady came and whisked me away to an incredibly relaxing pedicure, and then kevin and i met up again and got a couple's massage--so nice. we both left the parlor feeling incredibly relaxed and happy.

we had a little bit of time to kill before our next stop, so we headed back to my apartment, where we cleaned up and got ready for a night on the town. kevin drove us out to coeur d'alene, where we had our first really special date. we went to this very nice asian food restaurant called the bonsai bistro. kevin had arranged for us to enjoy dinner in our own private room. he had also arranged for us to enjoy 10 courses of amazing food prepared for us specially by the chef, troy. troy flew in different food ingredients from all over the world! our ten course meal was as follows:

1. a seared ahi tuna on a cucumber rose along with kobe beef tartar (from japan) topped with salmon roe (fish eggs... surprisingly tasty).
2. the most AMAZING edamame ever!
3. frog legs... seriously. they were like tasty, tender chicken wings.
4. a sushi tray complete with a squid and seaweed salad and homemade wasabi.
5. scallops flown in from scotland.
6. a kobe beef steak with prawns (both flown in from japan) as well as foie gras (again, surprisingly tasty).
7. the TASTIEST mongolian beef EVER!
8. schezuan prawns on a spicy bed of rice--sooo good!
9. a dessert of coconut creme brulee and fried bananas.
10. a fortune cookie! my fortune warned me about a hard upcoming week (yuck) and kevin's said something much happier (he can't remember and neither can i! had i known we were going to get engaged, i would have saved the fortunes).

after a fabulous 2.5 hour-long dinner of the most amazing food i have ever had in my entire life, we decided to take a walk along the boardwalk the circles the coeur d'alene resort. after stashing our leftovers in the car, we started walking. the whole time, kevin seemed a little distracted, but i didn't really think anything of it. we reached the middle of the boardwalk where we were directly across from the resort. it was beautiful with all the lights sparkling on the water, and everything was so quiet and still... kevin paused during our walk and told me that troy (the chef) had told him a little coeur d'alene legend. troy had explained that, if you take a handful of dirt from one of the planters located on the dock, closed your eyes, counted to 5, and made a wish, your wish would come true! little did i know, kevin actually made the whole thing up just to get me to close my eyes! anyways, i totally bought his story and willing grabbed a handful of dirt to make a wish. when i opened my eyes, he was down on one knee. i immediately began to cry and, according to him, i said yes before he actually asked me the question! i'm not so sure about that, but i do know that he asked me to make him the happiest man in the world, and i agreed.

the ring fit perfectly and is the most beautiful ring i have ever seen (of course, i AM a little biased). in the car on our way back to spokane, kevin told me all about the planning and plotting he'd done in order to make our night super special. he told me a couple of reasons for why he proposed the way he did, and here are his insights:

1. he picked march 21 because it was the first day of spring and he thought it incredibly fitting for us to start this new chapter with a new season--pretty cute.
2. he picked everything from our casual lunch at applebee's (our first date) to the proposal on the dock because it all has connections with our past.
3. he chose coeur d'alene as the proposal spot because he wanted us to get engaged in my home state because i'm such n idaho girl.

really, everything was (and still is) absolutely perfect! i am the happiest girl alive and i could not ask for a better fiancee. we have a lot of planning ahead of us, and we're looking at getting hitched in june of 2010--so everyone mark your calendars!

collage of me

2009-03-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

courtesy of a fun game on facebook, here's a collage of me!

DIRECTIONS:
- Go to Google image search.
- Type in your answer to each question.
- Choose a picture from the first 3 images.
- Use this website (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php) to make your collage.
- Save the image for use in this note.
- Post and tag your friends.

QUESTIONS:
1. What is your name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your hometown?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. What is your favorite movie?
6. What is your favorite drink?
7. What is your dream vacation?
8. What is your favorite dessert?
9. What is one word to describe yourself?
10. How are you feeling right now?
11. What do you love most in the world?
12. What do you want to be when you grow up?

the good news keeps coming!

2009-02-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

so hey everybody! i hope that everyone had an excellent valentine's day! i know that a lot of people don't like valentine's day, but it's one of my personal favorite holidays, and (even though i'm a day late) i wish everyone a great day!

i had a wonderful valentine's day, and life has been so busy since my last post. i started working at my new job last monday. it's been quite the experience! mostly, i've been training and taking classes online. there is a lot of prep work that goes into being a teller at wells fargo. apparently, the banking industry is the most highly-regulated industry in the u.s., and i have to learn about a LOT of regulation before i'm allowed out on the teller floor. it's been crazy! i've spent eight hours a day the past week in the back room bonding with a computer... awesome. it's so much information, but i'm really excited to get out there and actually start working. hopefully, my training will wrap up towards the end of this coming week and i'll be out on the floor cashing checks after that! woo hoo!

in addition to starting my new job, i had a really awesome weekend! saturday, kevin made me breakfast (which was AMAZING) and we spent the day hanging out. then, we went out to dinner at a greek restaurant here called niko's. the food was pretty awesome. basically, we spent the day together, which is always a winner in my book :) additionally, i found out some really exciting news: i got accepted into the University of Washington's masters program! yay! not only did i get accepted, they also offered me a full research assistantship, which means i would basically get paid to go to graduate school and learn about things that i already love!!! how awesome is that? i'm still waiting to hear back from another school, but i feel such relief knowing that, no matter what, i have been accepted to graduate school and that door is open for me in the future.

so yay!

again, hope everyone had an awesome valentine's day and an amazing weekend :)

good news on the home front!

2009-02-02T16:15:00.001-08:00

this weekend has been such an excellent weekend and there are so many reasons why!

1. i got offered and accepted a job! actually, i got offered two jobs, but i ultimately could only accept one, so i am now officially a wells fargo employee (pending a clean background check). i was so excited when i got the call friday afternoon! i'll be working full-time at a branch out in the valley (which is the only unfortunate thing about the position... it's a little far away...) where they have a high volume of spanish-speaking customers. this means that i'll hopefully be able to keep up on my spanish! like i said, the job is full time with my hours mostly during the week with occasional saturdays. i have full benefits (woo hoo!) including 19 paid days off per year and the chance to earn lots of financial bonuses. basically, i'm just really excited! i will hopefully start working tomorrow or wednesday, and i can't wait to get started!

2. i got to spend lots of quality time bonding with a puppy. kevin and i went home this weekend to see elsie (kevin's parents' brand-new german shepherd puppy). she is so cute! she's just this ball of fuzz that leaps instead of walks and loves chewing on sticks... it was so nice to have puppy time since kevin won't actually let me get a puppy of my own!

3. i got to hang out and watch the super bowl with kevin and some of his family! it was a lot fun, especially since kevin's grandma and i were totally into the game, cheering whenever the cardinals did something right (which, unfortunately, wasn't often enough).

4. i got to spend friday night with kevin (we went downtown to p.f. chang's to celebrate my recent employment offers) and lindsay and travis (we met up for dessert/continued celebration).

basically, lots of good things have been happening as of late, and i'm so, so glad!

ob-la-di ob-la-da ob-la-da ha!

2009-01-20T23:59:00.001-08:00

ha la la la, life goes on.

or so the song by the beatles says... and i suppose that it is, indeed, true. life does go on. after finding out that i did not get the job at whitworth that i was so hoping for, i wasn't exactly sure how my life was going to continue (meaning how i was going to pay for rent and groceries and important things like that up here in spokane), and the scary thing is that i'm still not sure. i've spent the past week filling out at least 20+ job applications to everywhere from fred meyer and best buy to random office assistant jobs in the greater spokane area. i am crossing my fingers, holding my breath, and saying many a prayer that one of them will come through. if not, i have to figure out what the next step is, and that most likely will involve a move back to the homeland.

fortunately, through all the stress of job hunting, i've had really awesome people beside me. through their heroic efforts (especially kevin and lindsay), i have not completely lost it. in fact, this weekend was a really nice weekend. i spent some girl-time with lindsay friday night after getting my hair cut short (yes, in a spur-of-the-moment move to try and spice up my somewhat boring life, i chopped off my hair). then on saturday, kev and i ran errands all over town. sunday, he and i tried out a new church and then hosted a game night which was so much fun! we played balderdash and the world's longest game of cranium, and there was lots of laughter and joy.

so here i am in another week. tomorrow, i have an interview with wells fargo bank, and i am hoping that things go well and they offer me a job!

so that's the end... nothing's really happening, so i'll keep this updated as best i can :)

oh, and here are two quick pictures of the short hair for your viewing pleasure. let me know what you think!

long awaited blog update!

2009-01-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

greetings everyone! sorry about the long pause on my blog... i've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. after christmas, i headed over to florida with my family and kevin. it was such a nice, relaxing trip! the beaches were beautiful and the weather was just perfect--sunny and in the 70s and 80s! it was a really good chance to just relax one last time before taking on the real world...

so after a week of paradise, kevin and i came back up to spokane to resume our real lives. the snow was UNBELIEVABLE! it took kevin three afternoons of solid shoveling in order to free my poor buried car. schools have been closed and the roads have been awful... earlier last week, the snow started to melt as temperatures rose, making things even MORE interesting. needless to say, it was hardly the welcome back i was hoping for...

time here in spokane is passing by somewhat slowly. i'm dedicating most of my time to the glorious job hunt. things are pretty tricky on that front, though. seems like no one is hiring! i've been fortunate enough to land two interviews. i had one interview on wednesday for a position that i really, REALLY want! it's a job at whitworth in their conferences and special events department (where i worked for three years during my undergrad...). i feel like the interview went really well, and now i'm just playing the waiting game. the other interview is for a bilingual bank teller position with wells fargo, and it isn't until next wednesday (jan. 21), so i still have lots of time to prepare for that interview. in the meantime, though, i'm just trying to be patient and keep my eyes and ears open. i am by nature not the most patient person in the world, so this is taking a lot of effort!

so there's a quick update on the life of me! i've added a few florida pics at the bottom for your viewing pleasure...

hanging out at the resort, enjoying the harbor...

kicking it on the beach! i love the combination of the water and the sand :)

kevin and i taking off for our parasailing adventure!

happy new year! hanging out on the beach in our awesome party hats--welcome 2009!

gorgeous florida sunset...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2008-12-25T13:13:00.001-08:00

here's a quick post to wish everyone a merry, merry christmas! hope you all have a wonderful holiday with friends and family and SNOW!

a beautiful idaho sunset. i took this picture outside of my sister's house. the colors were absolutely lovely...

our happy christmas tree on christmas eve! we've collected ornaments for our entire lives and every year my dad gives us a hallmark keepsake ornament. it makes our tree quite eclectic but wonderful.

sisters hanging out with frosty in the mall!

my boise white christmas! here's a picture of my backyard covered in the gorgeous snow... it was our first white christmas in a looong time.

our tree all light up. sparkling tree + stockings + roaring fire = loveliness and christmas magic...

a very, merry spokane christmas

2008-12-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

christmas in spokane! here are some lovely pictures from my time in eastern washington...

to welcome me back to the good ole usa, kevin took me out to one of my favorite spokane restaurants: the old european! we got fabulous breakfast food that made my world so happy!

i am really excited about those eggs benedict! they are so tasty :)

after an afternoon of shopping and running around in the great spokane blizzard, we came back to the house. i wrapped presents while kevin coached at basketball practice. we braved the snow one more time to grab quizno's for dinner (another one of my absolute favorites) before settling in for a movie, some presents, and really great food. here's kevin, back from quizno's and fred meyer (where we got a really good red velvet cake)!

look at our cute christmas tree! kevin decorated the whole house for christmas as a surprise and i was so happy. those are all our presents around the tree (woo hoo).

here are our wonderfully personalized stockings, courtesy of kevin!

kevin featuring the awesome red velvet cake!

me partway through the present opening... presents are just a lot of fun!

happy couple :)

kevin's mysterious present from spain... it's hard to guess what it is because of the packaging (it's definitely a sword made in toledo, a town i visited in spain).

me with my new, beautiful schwinn road bike! i'm super excited! now the snow just needs to melt and i can go for a ride!

SNOW!

looking out into the backyard of kevin's house... look at how high the snow is. it's so crazy! this was the largest snow dump in spokane's history (according to the news)...

look at kevin faithfully shoveling the driveway!

this was before i pegged kevin with a snowball... don't feel bad for him. he totally got revenge by shoving me into the snow. it was so cold and so wet!

welcome to spokane!

2008-12-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

alright, so here's the inaugural post of my real-life blog (because spain definitely DOESN'T count as real-life, right?). anyways, after spending about 45 hours in transit (no, that is not an exaggeration), i made it to spokane where i've been hanging out and celebrating the holidays with kevin. of course, as soon as i got here, it started to snow and it hasn't let up since! we now officially have about two feet of snow (maybe more? i don't know... i haven't braved to outdoors yet today) and are expected to get lots more! it's not supposed to let up until later this evening, if at all. yikes! what a welcome back to the states... well, i guess i wanted a white christmas and that's exactly what i'm getting! so here's to lots of snow, being back in the united states, and excellent, relaxing snow days spent inside a warm, cozy house!

here are some pictures that kevin took of the magical madness! he spent a good 1.5 hours shoveling the drive way and sidewalks--poor guy!

check out kevin's awesome handiwork! the best part: i didn't actually have to go outside and help :)

look at all of that snow! it's so crazy!

another shot of the house in all its winter wonderland glory!