2010

We started off the year with a surprise party for Tyler's 25th birthday. Tyler had interviews for his first "real" job in January as well. He was offered the job in Wenatchee and accepted. A few weeks later, I got my acceptance letter from Evergreen and had to decline. In February we went to a Super Bowl party at big-time Saints fans Scott & Tina's.  In March we saw two great concerts, Jamie Cullum and then John Mayer. Easter was the first time we used our fine China, and we had both parents, Jen & Geoff over for dinner in Tacoma. In April I went to Washington, D.C. for the first time to spend time with my EHS girls. On Earth Day, we bought the Prius. We ran our first 5K at the Tacoma City Marathon in May. Mom and I went to see James Taylor & Carole King on Mother's Day. We went to Marc & Erin's wedding on the 15th of May. May also held the final episode of our favorite TV show, "Lost." In June we went to California to celebrate the life of Grandpa Fischback. Then we moved to Wenatchee, to "The Bat House." Jennifer also moved home in June, which we were all very happy about. We spent an interesting week in Minnesota for the 4th of July. We came back to Wenatchee and had a fun summer spending time with Hannah, and Tyler began his job at CWH. August meant Kacie & Travis' wedding and my 25th birthday all in one weekend. We also went to Priest Lake with Manoah & Connie and saw John Mayer and Keith Urban at the Gorge. In September we moved into the Mayer's house and I began my job with Wenatchee Pediatric Dentistry. We had a packed house for our house warming party / Oktoberfest in October. November 15th was Kirkland's 2nd birthday, which we celebrated with some wet dog food and doggie party hats. We had Thanksgiving in Wenatchee and later went down to Pullman to watch the Apple Cup, which sadly, we lost. December was a countdown until the 18th, when we left for a week in Mexico with Grandma Martin and 28 family members. It was my first Christmas with no snow. We enjoyed the slow paced life down there so much now Tyler & I are talking about moving down there for a year.

My New Years resolution was no shots of hard alcohol, and for the most part I was successful (you could probably get me on a technicality like a drop shot Jaeger bomb or sipping nice Tequila in Mexico). I'm actually considering continuing it on into 2011. As for a new resolution, I've still got a few hours to think about it.

Happy New Year!

2010 Christmas Card

Family Snowfall Red Christmas

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The song I can't get enough of, right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EIeUlvHAiM

It makes me sad to really love a song, overplay it, and then not be able to listen to it. But I do it again and again.

It wouldn't be a true amateur blog if...

...I didn't go several months without posting anything. It's funny to look back at my 30 before 30 only 6 months after I came up with it. There are things on there I'm definitely not interested in now. I attempted War & Peace (its a free download on my Kindle) and I just couldn't do it. So I'll have to come up with some other huge novel to tackle. I've also discovered that I'm not a long-distance runner and have no desire to run a half marathon. I'm also pretty much over the fish tattoo... so I guess I have some editing to do!

Since I posted last we've moved to Wenatchee. We started out in the "Bat House," which was an old fruit warehouse turned into a home up Squilchuck. We had bats in the attic, ants in the kitchen, the occasional mouse in the house and we watched Kitty, the owner's cat. Quite the zoo. We were there until Labor Day when we moved into the Mayer's house next to my parents. I've found the worst part of living next to my parents is telling people that's where I live. Other than that its actually not bad at all. They don't bug us, we can bug them, borrow whatever we need.... Of course I wouldn't want to be here forever but its pretty nice paying $1,100 rent for a 3200 square foot house on the Country Club! The exact same we paid for our 1,000 square foot house in Tacoma. Kirk loves living next to Woobie & Grandma Brenda, and its nice to have Auntie Jen dog sit while I'm at work.

I'm really enjoying my job at Wenatchee Pediatric Dentistry, and Tyler loves Wenatchee and working at the hospital. The plan is still to move to Olympia so I can get my Master's, if I can ever get him to leave. He's tried to talk me into commuting since its only 3 days a week but I don't think its realistic.

So there's the update. Maybe I'll learn my lesson and blog more often so I don't have to write so much. Probably not though. :-)

First 5K

Tyler & I ran our first 5k today in the Tacoma City Marathon. We were originally planning on running the half marathon, but after we started training (read: I started training, Tyler played basketball at the Y) we decided to just do the 5k. After running it we agreed we'd like to do it again, but aren't really interested in pursuing a 1/2 marathon. Maybe a 10k eventually. But it felt good to complete it, even if it's only a little over three miles. My time was was 34 minutes which put me at 14th in my division (women 20-24). Tyler ran a 23 which made him 4th in his division (men 25-29). Not bad! We're hoping to do it again this fall and beat our times.

Penny Prius!!!!

I can't believe it! I've been wanting a Prius really bad lately, Maxine is only getting older, so last week Tyler & I went looking for cars (what he called a "shopping spree" ha ha) and we bought one! I love love love it.

Kirkland Signature

Here's some recent pictures of our dog Kirkland! I think he's the cutest dog in the world, but I guess everyone thinks that about their dog. :-)

He won't stop biting and licking his paws. So I bought him some socks.

After a cloudy / rainy winter, he likes to sit outside & enjoy the sunshine.

He got a haircut and looks like a fancy Westie now. :-)

Kirk loves his momma. 

Jen got him a "Laker Bunny" for Easter. He now has no ears and a lot less stuffing. :-)

This is my reason for wanting a king size bed. ;-)

Things I'll miss about living in Tacoma

When I found out Tyler and I would be moving to Tacoma, I had a very different picture of it than I do now. It doesn't have such a metropolitan feel as I imagined it would (Spokane's population is actually bigger) and living in the Proctor district has been really great. Here's some things I think I'll miss when we move to Wenatchee this summer.

1. Pastor Dean Curry's sermons at Life Center Church. They're always impacting, funny, and scripture-based. I still really miss New Community in Spokane, and it's weird going to a "mega church," but I'll definitely miss his great talks. Hopefully we can find a church we really like in Wenatchee.

2. Walks on Owen beach with Tyler and Kirkland on the weekends. It was really fun to see Kirkland experience waves for the first time (he started out barking at them, but got used to them pretty fast). I guess before we moved here I didn't realize how cool Puget Sound was and how beautiful Commencement Bay can be on a nice day.

3. The "urban village" feel of the Proctor District. North Tacoma is really pretty cool. I always pictured a crowded city with lots of crime, but we live on safe, tree-lined streets with 100 year old houses and lots of kids in the neighborhood. The coolest thing is the walkability from our house. The Safeway and Metropolitan Market are just around the corner. There's the Blue Mouse Theater that shows movies for $4 a few blocks away, and of course, a Starbucks just down from that. There's a little place where we rent movies, and lots of restaurants and bars. It's got such a great small town feel. Oh, and the Farmer's Market on Saturdays is wonderful too. I can't wait till spring really gets here and we can go again.

4. Parties with friends in our little old house. After living in Pullman, where there are always a ton of friends to hang out with, I was sad to move to Spokane where I had just a few. Then we moved here, where I pretty much have none. Most of the friends around here are Tyler's, except for Krisi, Erica and now, Kacie & Travis (yay!). But we've been able to get everyone together quite a few different times, for our housewarming / my b-day party, Halloween, and Tyler's surprise 25th birthday party. We might be having another for St. Patrick's day and I'm sure we'll have a "going away" party. Since most people are coming from a ways away (Montesano, Seattle, Shelton and Burien) we normally have quite a few who stay here for the night and have a big breakfast in the morning, which I think is Tyler's favorite part.

Something that you'd think I'd miss but I won't? The shopping - there's really not a lot of places that I shop here that Wenatchee doesn't have. REI is the only one we've gone to a lot that I can think of, and really, how often do you go to REI? As long as I've got a Costco & a Target I'm good. :-) If you know me well you know I'm not much of a shopper anyway.

Things I won't miss? The cloudy days, the traffic (especially I-5 and by the mall), Tyler working 60+ hours in a week, my "blah" job, etc. But in general, I know I'll have pretty fond memories of living in Tacoma and our first year of marriage here. :-)

30 before 30

I can't promise this won't be edited, but here's my list of 30 things I want to do before I turn 30. I've got about 5.5 years... eesh. My 30th birthday will be on 8/16/2015. In no particular order:

1. Read "War and Peace" - Attempted & failed! 
2. Enroll in a Master's of Environmental Studies program Check! Started Fall 2012
3. Visit Mt. St. Helens
4. Buy a house - Done! April 2011
5. Plan a surprise romantic weekend getaway for Tyler
6. See my sister get married to a wonderful man
7. Learn Spanish
8. Learn how to make a great pie Check! Maybe not great, but I made a few for Thanksgiving 2012
9. Become a mentor for teenagers at my church
10. Get a job I really enjoy - Check! I didn't think I'd do this before I got my Master's, but I really enjoy working at WPD. 9/17/10
11. Go on a tour of America's national parks (Yosemite, Yellowstone & Glacier at least)
12. Sell Maxine - Check! sold Maxine on 5/4/10! Sad but we love the new car :-)
13. Buy a hybrid or electric car (Nissan Leaf!) - Check! Bought a Prius on 4/22/10 - Earth Day!
14. Go for a day hike I've done this a few times, most memorable was Yosemite Falls, which I only made half-way up.
15. Ride a train
16. Get Kirkland a friend, whether that be another dog, a potbellied pig or an outside cat
17. Learn to play the bongos
18. Rent a condo or cabin for a week somewhere Big White at Kelowna, but only 4 days 1/14
19. Get a fancy camera and become an amateur photographer - Camera, check! Got a Canon Rebel t2i for Christmas. 12/25/10
20. Do a boudoir photo shoot Check! April 2012 with Nicole Conner
21. Drive the old Cascade highway - Done! We took the highway on our way to the San Juans for our 2nd anniversary
22. Snowboard in Colorado Substituted CO for BC, Big White! 1/14
23. Run a 1/2 marathon Ran a couple 5Ks...
24. Go on an Alaskan cruise
25. Go back to the resort we stayed at for our honeymoon to celebrate an anniversary
26. Eat at a fancy fondue restaurant Check! Valentine's 2014
27. Learn how to mow the yard
28. Get a Jesus fish tattoo on my back/shoulder blade - Done! October 2011
29. Go on a mission trip
30. Have a baby, but not until I've done most of the things on this list :-)

Bittersweet

Well a couple of weeks ago Tyler was offered a job at the hospital in Wenatchee. It's pretty crazy that the only two advertised clinical pharmacist positions (which is what he wants to do) were in Wenatchee and Olympia. He interviewed at both, but Olympia was going to take about a month and a half to get back to him, and Wenatchee had their decision within two weeks. Meanwhile, I was STILL waiting to hear back from Evergreen about grad school, whose website said it should take 6-8 weeks and it had been about 12.

So the hospital wanted a decision from Tyler right away. He was going to ask if they could wait till he would know about the Olympia job (and I would know about grad school), but they pretty much gave him 24 hours to decide. It is the perfect job and he said he wanted it more than the one in Olympia anyway, which had a worse schedule and would be doing more "boring" stuff. Since we didn't know if I had got in to Evergreen or not (and wouldn't know about Oregon or Colorado for another month at least), he decided to accept.

Fast forward to this week, when I got my acceptance letter from Evergreen. Tyler had said he knew I would get it, and I was obviously hoping so as well, but every week I waited past week #8 I figured they were just taking their time on rejection letters. I had joked that if I got accepted I would cry, but that's the first thing I did, I sat on the couch and it all came out. I realize there are a lot bigger problems out there than not being able to go to grad school, but this was such a obvious family-over-work choice for me, and it was really hard. I've always said Tyler's job would be the most important, because you can't have two leaders and two people always getting what they want, but when push came to shove, it was really really hard on me. It would be different if this wasn't something I was passionate about, and I just wanted to go back to school because I couldn't find a job I liked. I can't imagine not working in the clean energy field and I don't know how I'll really get into if I don't get a Master's in Environmental Studies. I've always really wanted a Master's anyway.

So it's been a few days since I found out, and I posted it on Facebook that I got in. The really crappy part is that I'll I'm getting is sympathy (which is of course what I want...) but it's like, hey, only 40 people get into this program a year, this is a big accomplishment! Be excited for me! But they can't, and neither can I. Now I wonder if I should have called Evergreen when Tyler got the job to let them know I was no longer interested. But I had to know if I'd get in.

So the "plan" now is to move to Wenatchee, live there 2-3 years max, and then re-apply (which hopefully will be easy to do) and move to Olympia. Tyler keeps trying to get me to think about commuting, since classes are only Tues through Thursday, but I really don't want to drive 4 hours twice a week. Or live with his parents, or have him live with mine. It just doesn't make sense, plus it's not very environmentally friendly to commute across the state all the time. :-) I think he keeps suggesting it because he doesn't want me to think going is out of the question, but it really is. I also think he's worried that he'll love this job and love Wenatchee and won't want to move so quickly, which is what I'm worried about too. Not for me though - you would think I'd be really excited but I'm not - I just didn't plan on ever moving back, at least not before we had kids...

Anyway, through all of this I'm trying to be supportive of him because he's so excited about this job, and about Wenatchee. The one exciting part is that we're going to buy a house, so that's really fun. I just need to be thankful and remember that we're lucky that he could get a job so quickly and that it's exactly what he was looking for. Maybe I'll find something great in Wenatchee too... at the PUD? :-P

***UPDATE***

I talked with the director of the program and they are going to defer my acceptance up to five years! So whenever we can move back over to Olympia I've got a spot saved! I feel SOOOO much better. God is good.

Half Marathon, here we come...

Tyler and I (well it was my idea) have decided to run a half marathon this spring. I'm not very good about exercising unless I have a good "reason" to, and with the wedding over and no tropical vacations planned for the future, I needed some motivation! After starting to train, I realized we probably should have started out with a 5k. At this point I can only run about a half of a mile before stopping to walk, and we've got until May 2nd (about three months) until the big 13.1 miles. I've never been too athletic - I can remember the mile we'd have to run to warm up for soccer practice killing me - but I figure it can't be too terrible if lots of people run double that amount! Tyler hasn't done much as far as "training" goes. We go to the YMCA ever Monday & Wednesday, but he mostly plays basketball. Still, with his track background (400 hurdles on the WSU track team!) I'm sure he'll beat me to the finish line with a couple of hours to spare! Sheesh.