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. 

Sustainable Energy: WWS

It has been over FOUR months since I've posted. Sheesh. But I just read this article in Scientific American magazine (of which I have a subscription - dorky!) and even though I already posted in on Facebook, I want to post it here too cause it's so cool. I really hope I come back to this post years from now and see that we've actually taken steps toward clean energy.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=powering-a-green-planet

Key Concepts
Supplies of wind and solar energy on accessible land dwarf the energy consumed by people around the globe.
The authors’ plan calls for 3.8 million large wind turbines, 90,000 solar plants, and numerous geothermal, tidal and rooftop photovoltaic installations worldwide.
The cost of generating and transmitting power would be less than the projected cost per kilowatt-hour for fossil-fuel and nuclear power.

Married life

So the wedding has come and gone. It came to quickly (I felt a little rushed to get everything together) and the day went by way too quickly. But it was beautiful and practically perfect and most importantly, now, we're married! It was so nice to have all of our friends and family together, and I think everyone else had a really great time too. Our honeymoon was amazing; we were treated like royalty. Kind of ridiculous really! We couldn't ask for a better wedding and honeymoon, but now it's back to the real world. Tyler is studying for his tests before he starts his residency, and I'm looking into taking a class at Evergreen this summer. I should also get to looking for a job myself I suppose...

I LOVE being married. Love it love it. One of my favorite comments from Tyler so far was during the honeymoon when I asked him to grab something out of my make-up bag for me. He said very excitedly, "Babe, you have a PENCIL SHARPENER in here!" Ha ha, I guess he didn't know us ladies used those for our eye liner pencils, but it was pretty funny. Now we're working on putting the toliet seat down.... we'll see if that'll ever happen!

So much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it!

This weekend is a "wedding planning marathon!" I'm leaving for Wenatchee this afternoon to go to my mom's award dinner. Well first I've got to go out to the valley to pick up Johnna's dress at David's. Then tomorrow morning I'm meeting with Becky to finalize the cake order. At 1pm Jen and I have appointments with Pins and Needles to alter our dresses. Then I have some random errands to run and Erica and the Fischbacks should be getting into town later in the evening. THEN, Saturday I have my family bridal shower at Julie's, and I need to go to Mills Bros to change the color of the GM's vests (champagne looks too yellow I'm thinking, so they'll be ivory). Sunday is church, then a church bridal shower, and then engagement pictures with Josh Kill! SHEESH! :-D And the whole time (until the photo shoot Sunday evening) Tyler will be enjoying his bachelor party at Crescent Bar, drinking beer and playing lots of golf & pool. I'm jealous...

At least I'm getting a bunch done at once. After this our weekends are pretty much taken up: next weekend is the Rocco concert (yay!) and lots of packing, then it's Tyler's graduation and lots of moving, then hopefully we'll head over to Tacoma to look for apartments and do some shopping!

I can't believe there are only 37 days left!

Several inches of snow on April 2nd

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He loves me

So for some background to this story, I'm pretty good about answering my phone, at least when Tyler calls. Even if I go to bed early and he calls me late after I've fallen asleep, I'll answer, (though maybe angrily). And when we spend the evening together and part ways, we normally only call each other to say goodnight if we haven't seen each other for a few hours. When it's getting late we just say goodbye and go to bed. Sometimes he'll call me in the mornings to wake me up since he gets up a little earlier than I do, but not often.

So....

Last night we did some shopping at Costco (I got a HP Mini - yay!) and I left his house about 9pm. I had to circle my apartment to find parking and ended up a little further away from normal. I had my new netbook and a bag full of food, plus my purse. So it wasn't until I was all the way up to my apartment that I realized I forgot my cell phone in my car. It was late & cold and I figured it wasn't too big of a deal. The thought ran through my mind that if Tyler called he might be worried, so I kind of said a little prayer that he wouldn't worry. :-)

So this morning at 7 am I got a knock on my door. I've been ordering lots of stuff for the wedding but I didn't think FedEx came that early... it was Tyler! I felt so bad! He came in and gave me a big hug and I explained that my phone was in my car. He said, "I called you like 12 times... I didn't even think of that! I was thinking of the last thing I said to you!"

It's so sweet because I'm the worrier in this relationship and definitely the "worst case senario" one. I was a little surprised he was so upset. I hate for him to have been so worried but it was honestly nice to see how much he cared.

He loves me. :-)

HONEYMOOOOOON!

We booked our honeymoon - yay! We're going to the Royal Playa del Carmen for 8 nights! Thanks to the terrible economy I think we got a pretty good deal too. I've been reading reviews on tripadvisor.com and some of them freak me out a little, it seems people either loved their vacation or hated it, but luckily there are WAY more good reviews than bad ones. I can't wait for sunny Mexico!!!

Here's a link to the resort's website.

My Inner Bride

My dress

I found "the dress!"

I'm Engaged!

After dating for over 4 years, Tyler finally proposed! We had planned on spending Thanksgiving apart this year, so Wednesday night I drove to Republic by myself. I woke up Thursday morning (Thanksgiving), got ready, and we were about to eat when my grandpa asked me to get the door. Immediately I knew something was up - why would I get the door? Tyler was standing on the doorstep and asked me to come out there with him. I said, "Oh my gosh!" and started crying, of course. He got on one knee and gave his little speech (which later I found out was very long and thoughtful, but he shortened it a bit) and I said, "OK!!!" Ha ha... not "yes!" or "of course!" but, "OK!" So now we're thinking instead of "I do" at our wedding we'll say, "Ok." Ha ha. So the whole time we were on the front step, I could hear clicking coming from his car, and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a camera poking out of the window, so I asked him, "who's in your car?" and he said, "my whole family!" So out poured Steve (who was taking pictures), Carol and Geoff! It was so fun to have both of our families there - and I never imagined the Fischbacks would be in Republic, WA! So we all went in, I calmed down a bit and gave everyone hugs, and we talked about how they all kept it a secret for so long - he had been planning this for over a month! And I had no idea.

Here's a picture of him putting the ring on my finger. I LOVE it, he did such a great job & it's exactly what I would have picked out myself! Click here to see my Facebook photo album.

Launch Pad Inland Northwest

View my page on LaunchPad - INW

Go Cougs

Apple Cup was amaaaazing! I can't believe it went into double overtime. Obviously both teams are pretty terrible, but it's nice to prove that we're at least a little better than UW! Ha ha... Now I'm just excited for basketball season so we can set good records for WSU rather than being the team worst in history...

This is from the Seattle PI:

"Losing this game meant the Huskies are last in everything: Last in the conference, last in the college football nation, last in all statistics.

Here's the real iron pipe to the head: Relative to competition, the Huskies are the worst in Seattle. Worse than the Mariners, worse than the Seahawks. Worse than the monorail, Starbucks, Washington Mutual and the state budget. They're even worse than the Sonics, who were so bad they were outsourced to Oklahoma City, where they still stink and, in maintaining the local tradition abroad, just fired their coach.

The Huskies are worse because not only did they lose to what was considered the worst team in recent big-time college football history, they already had fired the coach but decided to keep him on the sidelines for reasons that look more dubious with each bewildering play call."

Ha!

What's just as wonderful (in a way) is President Floyd announcing a voluntary pay-cut. Because there's going to be so much cutting back he's volunteered to lower his salary and lead by example, which I think is wonderful. It's not like he's going to bed hungry - it's being lowered from $725,000 to $625,000. I think he'll survive. But it's a nice move compared to UW's president, who only agreed not to get a raise this year (he already makes $905k and is one of the top-paid public university presidents). What would have been most amazing is if Floyd had said, you know what, I'll really stretch my dollar and only make $100,000 next year. That would have saved our school over $600k - think of how many students could go to school free for a year with that money. But at least he's doing something! Go Cougs!

Click here for a great video.