erin johnson|photography

tuesday already...

2011-11-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm really bad about posting Sunday/Monday. It seems like a lot has been going on each week, and before I realize it, it's Tuesday or Wednesday! Nothing new to report really...I picked up a few extra days at work to make up for missing some at Thanksgiving, so I've been working a lot it seems. School is going alright, I need to spend more time on it...the quarter is almost over. I can't believe the holidays are right around the corner!

We are headed to Nebraska and Colorado for Thanksgiving - we will drive my truck and pick up a few things still at the ranch. Lots and lots of car time! Need to find a few good books.

Hopefully after this quarter is over I'll have more time to blog. Ideally I would like to try a new recipe each week, and take photos of it and post it here. I love food blogs!

monday's musings: dinner party

2011-10-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a dinner party with a few friends. It was a lot of fun - attire was semi-formal, there were some great fall dishes, and the evening wrapped up with a good old game of "Clue". I used to love that game but I couldn't even remember how to play it, it's been so long!

I had a blast planning the menu and creating the invitations for this party, I think I'll do it again! Basically, I did all the food, and our friends brought wine to share. There were only six of us so the food wasn't too stressful to make and wasn't too costly. The menu was:

cranberry walnut salad
with bleu cheese and raspberry dressing

sweet potato and carrot soup
with brown rice

homemade apple pie
gluten-free peanut butter cookies

Here are some photos:

bike commuting

2011-10-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a little bit late, but better late than never right? So they say.

The only thing I really thought about writing on here was about bike commuting. I do it pretty much every day, for everywhere I go. A long time ago I posted on here about how Whatcom County has a rewards program for people who make "Smart Trips". It's pretty cool - so far I've made about 230 since we've lived here. It's probably more than that - they don't let you record more than one on a day, sometimes I'll put extra trips on days I didn't make one, but I also run out of days on which to put the trips!

Anyway - I absolutely love bike commuting. Since we've moved to our new apartment, Trader Joe's and the farm stand I get most of our produce at are just 1 mile away. This spring I purchased two panniers, and I just fill them right up with my groceries! That way I don't have to mess with parking at Trader Joe's (it's AWFUL) and I feel good doing it.

My big rant about biking is how cars react. Here, it's a lot more common for cyclists to be on the road, any road, than it is in Nebraska. But still, drivers can be idiots. The main thing I don't understand is when I'm waiting at a stop sign. I'm riding in the road, which means I'm subject to the same laws as cars. But for some reason, cars like to stop and let me go, which means I have to get on my bike and get pedaling, rushed because I feel like I'm wasting their time while they're waiting for me. I don't understand - when a CAR is stopped at a stop sign, do you stop in the road when you have the right of way and let them go? I didn't think so. Just let me be subject to the same rules as cars.

The only time I don't follow the rules is when I've been sitting at a stoplight for at least 2 full cycles, and, knowing that my bike doesn't have enough metal to set the trigger off - so I'll be sitting there for a while until a car comes along - I go through a red light. Otherwise, I pretty much follow the rules.

Well that's about all for today, no new photos. I need to though because I need to submit stuff for my correspondence photography course. Yarg.

monday musings: heliotrope ridge

2011-10-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello! I feel like the weeks are going by too fast, before I know it, it's Monday again and I'm already late on posting here. For today's update, I'll use the three words in my blog's tagline:

life: Well, life is much of the same. Mostly work, some school dabbled in there, and then random other things. The weather has definitely cooled down already. I remember when we moved here (exactly a year ago this coming Wednesday) the weather was nice for quite a while. Although, it could have been the same as it is now, but I'm remembering it being "warmer" than now because it was good fall weather. I think I'm cold right now because I was so not ready for summer to be over. It was really only 6-8 weeks long I think!

There is also a new life among our family - the Deans (Jason's sister and fam) have welcomed baby #3 today - Indiana Kaya!

food: Last week I discovered a new easy "dish" to make. It's delicious AND nutritious! I had seen several other people sauteing Brussels sprouts, so I decided to try it. Besides, a one-pound bag at Trader Joe's is only $1.99! Anyway, I cut and sauteed them up with a little olive oil, white wine, and salt, and oh my goodness they were delicious! I don't even remember eating Brussels sprouts growing up...maybe I did? Pair these round delights with rice and curry sauce, and you've got a meal! Easy and cheap.

adventure: Yesterday we went on an adventure. There is a hike on Mount Baker (Heliotrope Ridge) that takes you right up to the glacier - it's one of the most popular routes that climbers use as a starting point to summit. The adventure part of it was that it took us way longer to do than we had anticipated. There were also many rivers and streams to cross along the way. The view was pretty sweet, but would have been way better if it hadn't been cloudy and foggy. We reached the glacier and couldn't see a thing, waited a few minutes and then some of the fog broke and we had a decent view for about 15 minutes. Then the fog came back in and that was it - talk about perfect timing, eh?

monday musings: fall!

2011-10-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

Fall is here! October is absolutely my favorite month, and I'm excited. Pumpkins, leaves changing, apple cider...mmmm!

Jason and I just did the Master Cleanse. It's the one where you drink fresh-squeezed lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper in filtered water for 10 days. We completed 8 days and felt like it was enough. We have mixed reviews, some things were good, others were extremely challenging and not sure if it was really worth it. I doubt we'll do it again anytime soon, but I'm glad we tried it. It was the longest "fast" I've ever done.

Now that it's over, I'm really excited to get into some fall cooking! During the cleanse, in my down time, I was working on a cookbook. Not really the best thing to do when you're hungry, but it's a project I've wanted to do for a long time and I had the time. I'm working on getting some of my favorite recipes all condensed into one file, then I'll print it and have it accessible to make up weekly menus. I'm also going to do a fun recipe on our "free day", where I don't care about dairy or calorie content, and I'll probably post the recipe on here with photos (if I'm ambitious enough).

Question: Does the Big 12 really have 10 teams, and the Big 10 has 12 teams? What in the world? This is probably not news to most of you, but I've been a little out of the loop.

Well that's all I've got for now, hopefully I'll have pictures next week, didn't have any new ones this week. Have a great week!

monday musings

2011-09-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, well there's my idea for a weekly blog title..."monday musings". Anyone else have a better idea? I've been trying to think of something for a week or so now. I would like to have some sort of regular weekly post. Don't know if it should be Monday, because by the time you guys get it, it's Tuesday. Maybe if I was on the ball and wrote it Sunday, it would make sense.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. I'm still catching up with summer happenings. After my Nursing Assistant class, I pretty much became a bum for 5 days out of the week. Well, that's not totally true. I did lots of things, I just can't remember right now. I did build a fun "cubecase", which is a bookcase but has the cube dividers to hold those little cube storage bins. That was a fun project. I also bought some more fabric with sewing projects in mind...started a pot holder but had some issues, got discouraged, and I haven't finished it yet.The best thing was that I relaxed quite a bit, and got to read for pleasure!

My new favorite thing about Washington is all the local farms! We went blueberry picking once together, and I went again several times to stock up for winter. Also, blackberries are free along the trails and anywhere else you can find them. I missed out on strawberries, but you can bet I'll be making a produce calendar next year and stocking up on every single fruit out there. There is a whole pamphlet on just the farms in this county. You can pick your own berries, apples, vegetables, pumpkins, mushrooms, etc., and the best part is that there are at least 5 farms for each kind! Everything is so cheap when in season. My next project is to buy a bunch of apples and make a ton of applesauce to freeze for the winter.

The other huge news for the summer is that we bought a sailboat! He's a little guy, but gets us out on the water. We've taken it out quite a bit with friends, and also went on an overnight trip (there's a cabin to sleep in!). I don't have pictures yet, but Jason posted some on his facebook I think.

We finally took a "vacation"...it had been a long time, basically since we drove out here if you can call that a vacation. We first backpacked in Wenatchee National Forest where we hiked nearly straight uphill (1,600-ft elevation gain in a mile or something?) amidst literally 10 billion flies. I shouldn't complain, it was actually the most successful backpacking/camping trip we've taken in over a year. Many attempts have been made. The hike was more daunting than we expected, but once we got up to Minotaur lake, it was SO WORTH IT. We found a beautiful little perch to set up our tent, and there was a rock right next to us that jutted over the lake so you could just sit and look around. Beautiful.

The rest of the trip was spent relaxing in the wonderful Bavarian Village of Leavenworth, Washington. Nestled right on the east side of the mountains, the Cascades I think? The history of the town is that it was almost in economic collapse, so they decided to restructure everything around a Bavarian theme. Well, they succeeded. Normally, Jason and I wouldn't like such a tourist trap, but we loved it. I really want to go back in the winter. The hotel we stayed in had so much to offer - free putt-putt golf, amazing pools and hot tubs (indoor AND outdoor), and an amazing breakfast to top it all off. We also walked around to different shops, and did some wine tasting. We also bought the most expensive bottle of wine that we ever have - $25. I didn't take too many pictures while we were in town, it's tough working lugging my heavy camera around.

Well, that's probably it for now. Below are the pictures from Minotaur lake, and the one photo I managed to take in Leavenworth, of our Pool Basket. :)

my "deluxe" $30 sewing machine

2011-09-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time since I posted anything...sorry folks. My summer break is now coming to an end - you would think I would have had more time to write posts, not less. I start classes next week, so maybe then I'll be on the computer more and a little better about posting. I've been thinking about doing some sort of weekly post...so it would be guaranteed you'll have my musings, rantings, ponderings, right in your inbox every week.

Until then, I have some catching up to do. The first thing is to tell you about the AWESOME sewing machine I snagged from Goodwill. I definitely wasn't shopping for a sewing machine, in fact I was looking for some furniture to spice up our new apartment. Initially I thought it looked like a pretty cool entryway table. Then I peeked underneath. Pretty much the best deal ever, and I don't plan on getting rid of it...ever. It even came with replacement parts, tons of needles, the original manual, and above all, it works!

Fortunately I had a great starter project. I haven't used a sewing machine since I was 12 and made a quilt with my grandma (I still have it and use it all the time, Mema!). Our apartment needed curtains, and the windows are odd sizes that were hard to find curtains for without handing over any arms or legs. So I bought fabric instead (still quite pricey) and fortunately my new neighbor across the street (a friend) happens to be an artist whose art is, well, sewing! She definitely helped me out and now we have curtains, and I learned a lot along the way.

I have been thinking about quilting/sewing for quite a while, and that's why, once I figured out the table was a sewing machine, I bought it. I have several projects in the works, and I hope I'll still have time with classes and increased hours at work. Anyway, here are some photos of the amazingness that is now in our office (hopefully soon I'll have photos of our new place).

"if it's wet, and it ain't yours, don't touch it"

2011-07-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

That's pretty much the "universal precautions" lesson given to us by my nursing assistant instructor. I think it sums it up quite well.

The clinical time has been interesting and very thought-provoking. I can say with confidence that I don't want to be a CNA for too long, but I could survive for a little while. Hopefully in a hospital or assisted living type setting, but if all I can get is a nursing home, then that's fine too. The resident I was assigned is quite funny, but I can tell he's also bummed about being in a nursing home and needing assistance with every little basic need. Overall it's been a decent experience so far - 4 days left!

plastic-bag ban

2011-07-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Bellingham's City Council just voted to ban plastic bags city-wide! We are the 2nd city in Washington to do so. One article talked about how it would be better to do state-wide bans, because retailers that have stores in multiple cities will be battling different city requirements. It makes sense, and I would love to see Washington and other states completely ban plastic bags...but we'll have to start with city by city for now I think. For details on how it will work, click here.

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. We've moved to a new apartment (a duplex) and LOVE IT. It's so nice, we have more space, and aren't putting up with mold all over the place. I believe once we receive our deposit from the old place, we are going to report them to the health department. We found mold in our mattress, on our bed frame, our couch, on the carpet growing under furniture, it was in the windows and on the walls in all the rooms....needless to say, we are so glad to be living in a cleaner environment.

I'm taking the course to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) right now. We'll start clinicals this week and will be in a nursing home for a couple of weeks. It's been fun, but I can already tell that I'm not going to absolutely love being a CNA, and will definitely be looking forward to nursing school and moving up to an RN. However, CNAs are very important and I know that the job is necessary in many places.

Well, that's about all I have for now, hope everyone is having a fantastic summer!

gorgeous weather + wonderful blessings

2011-06-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

We have just had a great week here in Bellingham. Ski to Sea was so much fun, and I've really been thinking about doing more races like that. The weather is finally starting to warm up a bit - first day in the 70s is today! I feel like I'm delayed about a month or so...weather like this usually hits Nebraska in late April or early May, so it's been hard for me to figure out that it's June already! It's been nice and sunny this past week most of the time!

Jason found a local job! He was going to have to back out yesterday, on the road for another month, but just got hired on Thursday at Mercer Logistics. It's about 20 miles from our home but it's a lot closer than he was! He'll be doing some warehouse stuff too...but basically it's a place that customs will take trucks for inspection if they have any doubts about loads that are crossing the border. We are excited to have him staying here again!

The second blessing is that we've accepted an offer on our house. So, barring any issues with the buyer's finances, we'll close at the end of this month! It will be so wonderful to not have that extra payment (and utilities) every month. I will miss the house though, it was our first, and we had just got it looking the way we wanted it before we left. But, life happens and plans change...we have loved living in Bellingham and we're glad we moved.

I hope everyone else is experiencing great weather and blessings as well!

kick your mama

2011-05-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

Yep, that was our team name. Ski to Sea was yesterday, and it was a blast! I've never competed in race like this, and I've never done a bike race before. It was definitely hard (42 miles) but it was a lot of fun. Although I don't think I did very well overall, I achieved my personal goals of making it in under 2.5 hours and never having to stop and walk.

Thankfully, I was able to borrow some top-notch gear from this wonderful community of ours! I don't think I could have done so well if I'd had to use my heavy and old road bike with tennis shoes. I was able to borrow a great, light-weight road bike with clip-in shoes, and some padded shorts for comfort! I'll admit I was scared about the whole clip-in idea, being attached to the bike like that, but after experiencing it, I don't know if I want go back! I'm inspired now to look for a good deal on a nicer road bike...and I might even look for some more races to compete in!

It was such a beautiful day for the race, too. Hardly any clouds, good temp in the 60s I think. The way the race works is the first 4 legs head up the mountain at 5 a.m. - the cross-country skier, downhill skier, runner, and road biker. Being the road biker, I got dropped off first, then the other three headed up further. They had to get through all of their legs, and then I got the timing chip from the runner. Basically, the biker has the longest time to wait - being dropped off first out of the four, and last to compete. It was fun though, with such a gorgeous morning - the place I set up my stuff had a wonderful view of the mountain, and I was just basking in the sunlight! It was fun to see all of the other racers too - some are professional athletes, and others are there just for fun and didn't even train. I was in the middle - trained a little but definitely not a professional!

I just can't believe how huge this event is - this was the 100th year, and there were the most teams ever - 500. Since there are 8 people on each team, that means there were 4,000 racers alone, along with at least 50 volunteers at each transition point. I guess there were 34 states and 9 countries represented also! It was really fun to be a part of something so huge.

The sad part was our last leg, the kayak, didn't get to go. The wind had started to pick up in the afternoon, and a lot of the early kayakers were having trouble - so they stopped it with any kayak that wasn't in the water by 5 p.m. Our kayaker would have been in the water at 5:20...so we almost made it! I felt bad for the guy though, he waited all afternoon and then didn't even get to go.

Jason's back, and was here for the race, which was really nice. He met me at my finish line. He also had set up the food stand at the park where I handed off the timing chip to our canoe guys. He had a pretty good day selling stuff, and we're thinking that if he can get a local job, we could just do events like that with the stand.

Anyway, I'll end this post with a lovely picture of me during the race...there's a photographer that has a huge team that captures every single racer!

three years

2011-05-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

We are in week three of Jason being gone, and it is really hard. I can't even imagine the struggles that families go through when the husband or wife is serving overseas for a year or more at a time.

Today is our three-year anniversary... but we are two time zones and about 2,000 miles apart. :( But, he sent me some flowers with a wonderful card!

He has found a couple local jobs that didn't require experience, so he's been applying to all of them (with a little help from me). I'm not sure if we can do this long-distance thing for too much longer, so let's all hope he will get one of them!

my husband: the truck driver

2011-05-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I mentioned on here before - Jason has recently completed school and obtained his CDL (commercial driver's license). He landed a job with Werner Enterprises (you've probably seen their blue trucks on the interstate). The company is based out of Omaha, Nebraska, which is ironic. Anyway, he left today for a suburb of Los Angeles to begin orientation. He'll be there through Wednesday I think, then he heads out with a trainer to do 275 hours of driving before he can start his solo route. At this point, he might not be home for 3 or 4 weeks, but a lot of our questions will be answered tomorrow (Monday) as he begins orientation and learns a lot more about the job!

Once he goes solo, we think he'll be on the Western Regional account, which unfortunately means he will most likely be gone two weeks and only home for a couple of days at a time. The good news is that I have plenty of homework to keep me busy during this time. Also, this is only temporary, he just needs enough experience (6 months to a year, not sure) in order to land a more local job. Local companies don't want to hire you unless you have a little experience.

At this time, the hot dog cart is on hold. We are planning to re-structure some stuff after what we have learned, and definitely aren't shutting it down. I just don't have time to run it every week and since he'll be gone we are going to figure something else out - soon, hopefully!

Unfortunately, he's taking off just in time for summer here in B'ham (we've heard summers are amazing and we're pretty excited about it). Hopefully he will be back often enough to enjoy some of the better weather around here, and hopefully we'll be able to still take some trips this summer. I will miss him, that's for sure!

petrie takes a bath

2011-04-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

There once was a beautiful kitty named Petrie, who had the softest fur in all the land. Her fur was so soft and comfortable that several fleas decided to take residence in it. "Alas, it's time for a bath!" declared her human companion. The bathtub was filled with warm water and soap, but Petrie was quite hesitant - kitties don't care for water very much. But she waited patiently while her human massaged her and bathed her. Afterward, she licked and licked and licked herself in an attempt to dry off. Once dry, she was content, and smelled like beautiful flowers. However, the fleas were still alive, and her humans must figure out a different way to safely get rid of them!

spring quarter

2011-04-09T13:18:00.000-07:00

I'm officially a nerd (but this officialness has probably already been declared in years past). I am REALLY enjoying my anatomy and physiology class. If I haven't mentioned it before, it's the one where they cram two quarters of A&P into one quarter, so we meet every day and have hours of homework every night. You would think that any normal person would thoroughly not enjoy that kind of class, but I do. I love the subject matter, and I'm really enjoying all the new things I'm learning about the human body! This next week we are learning ALL the bones in the body and playing with skeletons to do so. AWESOME!

However, things can get tiring after a while, and I have 12 weeks (11 weeks left) of this quarter to get fully sick of this class, especially since it meets every day, and we have at least one test a week, if not more. I'm also taking Pharmacology, but it's online and just for a few weeks. I can work as fast as I'd like, and get all the stuff done sooner, too.

Not much else to say, other than I'm really grateful to be enjoying school this time around, and fully interested in continuing the process. I think I enjoyed engineering school every once in a while, too, but I definitely wasn't this enthusiastic about it.

kayaking in bellingham bay

2011-03-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

The weather was fairly nice last weekend so we took the kayaks out. There is an island that Jason was particularly attracted to, and he had already been there once, so I made the voyage with him this time. Because of a lack of access points near this island, it's quite a journey, and our kayaks are not necessarily the kind that are best for smooth and easy cruising! Some of the things we saw along the way were a bald eagle, otters, starfish, and a guy kayaking with his dog riding on front! We've decided we're going to train Petrie to do the same.

Small beach on Chuckanut Island:

olympic national park

2011-03-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we made the drive over to the Olympic Peninsula. Well, driving + ferry ride. This definitely isn't the best time to go over that way, at least for the weather, but there wasn't anyone around. Our original plan was to do a 3-day, 2-night backpacking trip along the coast, starting at La Push and working our way south.

We ended up just hiking about 2 miles down to and along the coast, camping on the beach, and then coming back the next day. Here's why: sleeping on the beach is LOUD. This is not Bellingham Bay, which is protected by islands and is very calm. This is the full-on Pacific Ocean, so we did not sleep at all. We also encountered pouring rain the next morning, and not having the proper equipment for hiking in pouring rain, we decided to head back home. The storm that moved in had also affected the tide - causing it to rise higher than our chart told us, and it came into our tent as we were packing up. However, the trip was mostly decent, we had good views of the ocean the night before, and it's just a gorgeous area in general.

Anyway, here's how we made it super cheap: we shopped for granola bars and power bars at a place called "Deals Only: We only have deals". Yes, that's the name. It's run by a family of Russian immigrants we think. Anyway, they have the slightly outdated food that's still OK (thanks to all those preservatives). We were able to get a huge box of granola bars for $3, power bars for 3/$1, and some nuts for $1. The rest of the food we took we already had.

On our way back, we ate at a place called Frugals (photo below) because, well, they said it would be frugal! Although, it wasn't really - $8 for a garden burger and a hamburger meal?

Third Beach Trailhead:

Third Beach:

I saw this little guy peeking out at me...

...so I took some more photos:

I can't believe this river is so blue-green! (Elwha River):

Frugals (glare from our car windshield):

Updates

2011-03-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

The cart: It hasn't been going as well as we had hoped, but of course it still isn't summer yet. We have high hopes for the Farmer's Market, which starts April 2nd. Although Bellingham has a huge population of people that are into organic & local foods, there is definitely still a majority that would rather pay for and eat crap. But the usual patrons of the Farmer's Market are those who are willing to spend a little extra for the good stuff. We have found though, that our price ($3.25 including tax) is not a bad deal, and other hot dog stands we've heard about are selling the cheap dogs for that price or more, they're just making a larger profit than we are.

Alas, I don't think this will be full-time income for Jason, so he is in the process of looking for something else, and we'll probably just stick to Saturdays. Not for sure yet, though. We also know the bar crowd is a great time to make money, but we've been out a few times, and drunk people are just annoying (albeit hilarious).

School: is officially over for this quarter! I am excited to announce that I received an A+ in all my classes (don't have the official records yet, but tracked my grades throughout the quarter). This is good because my GPA in pre-requisites is the biggest part of my nursing school application (at a different community college, but where I plan to apply). I also get a bonus point for having a prior degree - so it's worth having! Not just for that reason, though.

I am thoroughly enjoying the health care field so far, although I do realize I'm just beginning and only doing basic courses. However, it's still science (which fascinates me), and I think it's the branch of science that I will enjoy more than engineering. Next quarter I'm taking Intensive Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) 1 and 2 (squished into one quarter). I'll also be taking Pharmacology. So, I'll be more in depth than ever before, and I'm excited! I already have my textbooks and I'm ready to start reading them!

Ski to Sea: This is the coolest thing ever, and ever since I heard about it a few weeks after we moved here, I have been looking forward to it. I guess it's been going on for 100 years! To me, it's like the ultimate team racing adventure. I've always wanted to do something like this...too bad Nebraska doesn't have mountains and an ocean, it's kind of a requirement for this. So, what is it?

Cross-country skiing: 4-mile loop
Downhill skiing: 2.5-mile loop
Running: 8 miles, 2,200 ft. drop (sounds easy, but it's hard on the knees!)
Road bike: 42 miles
Canoeing: 18.5 miles
Mountain biking: 19.5 miles
Sea Kayaking: 5 miles/4.3 nautical miles

Well, there you have it. You basically start at Mt. Baker and end in Fairhaven (a downtown portion of Bellingham). It's a relay race, two on the canoe, for a total of 8 team members. We haven't officially signed up yet, but I'm on a team with some fellow Mosaicers (our church). I've been given the wonderful option of doing the road bike segment! Yikes! I'm actually really excited though, I've never done any sort of race like this, and it's giving me an excuse to get in better shape. I have just under 10 weeks to train, the race is May 29th!
It's a big deal around here, and I guess somewhere around 35,000 people show up in Fairhaven for the whole day's festivities. We are hoping to have the cart out there! People from all over the West come for it too, not just Bellinghamsters. :)

Well, I hope all is well wherever you are reading this. I am going to enjoy 2 full weeks of spring break before I start next quarter! I would love to travel somewhere - I have 6 full days where I don't have work either, but it would need to be a free trip (money is a little tight - anyone up for buying a house in Lincoln, and closing this week?)...hmm, doesn't usually work that way. I guess I'll just relax.

Oh, and guess what! We're seeing Ryan Stiles in person at his own comedy theatre in town this Saturday! Thanks to my parents for a gift card to the theatre so we could buy tickets!

Cart Photos

2011-03-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Dandelion Organic Delivery

2011-03-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday I received my first produce bin from Dandelion Organic Delivery. It's this amazing service where you decide on what bin size you would like (2 options for veggies & fruit, and 2 fruit options), and they deliver the produce right to your house. All produce is organic, and local produce is included as much as possible. Here is what I love about this service:

I find out on Saturday what I will be getting on Wednesday, so it gives me a heads up to look for recipes.
It's different every week, so it forces me to try new recipes. This last week I made eggplant lasagna and carrot-parsnip soup!
I save time in the store. Most of my time is spent wandering in the produce aisle (we do eat a lot of produce) but I'm never sure how to cook stuff, so I resort to the basics and make stir fry most of the time. This way I only go to the store to get a few random ingredients for the recipes.
The largest bin is A LOT of produce, and it's only $35/week. I think it would cost a lot more if I went to the store and bought the same amount of all organic produce. It also leaves me $25/week in my budget for the other few ingredients I need - which is easy to do because most of our meals are centered with veggies & fruit!!

This week I'm getting:

3 lb Fuji Apples
2 D'Anjou Pears
1 lb Kiwis
1 Honeygold Grapefruit
1 Red Leaf Lettuce
1 bunch Carrots
1 bunch Spinach
1 bunch Broccoli
2 lb Garnet Yams
1 Red Onion
1 bunch Italian Parsley
1 bunch Red Chard
2 Slicing Tomatoes
6oz Petite Shitake Mushrooms

Pacific Snack Co. Grand Opening!

2011-03-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know we're opening our food cart on Friday, March 4th. Those of you that get my emails won't get this until Friday...so think good thoughts for our first day! A quick run-down of our menu - all products are USDA certified organic!

Soup (two daily choices)
Beef Hot Dog

The “Pacific” (Hot Dog, Soup, & Juice)

Snack Bars

Fruit

Juice

Bottled Water

French Press Coffee (12 oz)

Tea (12 oz)

Check us out on facebook and spread the word!

...and this is why we moved here

2011-02-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

It has been so amazingly sunny here this past week. Just wanted to share some photos I took last Friday. Yes, there are blooming bushes, and yes, the photo was taken on February 18th. Love it!

View from a popular park in town:

The two mountains you can barely make out are the ones I see when I drive into town, every time there is a clear day:

Mt. Baker:

House Listing + Pacific Snack Co.

2011-02-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official - we've listed our house in Lincoln for sale. After almost 6 months of not renting (which we still can't figure out why) we can't financially keep paying for a house to sit empty. So those of you that live in Lincoln, spread the word if you know of someone who's in the market for buying a house!! I happen to think that it's a gorgeous house (I might be biased), and I really wish we could have just brought it with us to Washington, because it's way cheaper than anything out here (even our tiny apartment rent).

We were really, really hoping to open the soup cart this Friday (the 25th), but because we're waiting on the city and health departments for permits and inspections, I think it's going to be pushed to next Friday, March 4th. We have a lot of odds and ends to finish up, but I we are getting SO close!

This past weekend it was SUNNY on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - more pictures to come! I think, in some ways, I'm glad it's rainy here a lot, because when the sun does come out - you do not take it for granted. You are able to enjoy the beauty of where you live with so much gratitude. I love it here, the mountains are gorgeous! I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing them, or get used to them, because they capture my attention every time. :)

Here's a sneak preview of our cart logo - I designed it in Adobe Illustrator!

Best of 2010

2011-02-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

I got a little inspiration from a photography blog email I get - to review last year's work and post what I think are my best photos from 2010. I didn't spend a lot of time on this, I probably could have spent more time on it, and even edited a few I never took the time for, but I didn't. Alas, here are my best (or most amusing, in the case of Petrie):

Officially Published

2011-02-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

I officially have photos published in a magazine - Bellingham Alive! Those of you reading this from Bellingham should check out a copy. There were two separate articles: one on chocolates, which I posted some of my photos here, and another on some local products. I'm really excited about it! I also am going to a hairdressing academy's annual soiree on Saturday for a shoot. This is really picking up pace, and although it's not paid, it's good experience!

In other news, Petrie has been such an amazing cat since we have been back from Christmas vacation. I do homework at the desk, and she'll climb on the back of the chair and crawl down my front to sleep on my lap. This happens several times a day; I love it!

Day 1: Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free

2011-02-01T16:54:00.000-08:00

With the month of February being the shortest, and most precise number of days (exactly 4 weeks), I decided to try a gluten-free, dairy-free diet. I'm lactose intolerant, and should be doing dairy free all the time, but usually I cheat, and as a result, usually feel like crap. I decided that I could stick to no dairy for 4 weeks, and see how much better I feel. I've also heard that people who do gluten-free have a lot more energy.

As I was going through the grocery store, buying food for this experiment, I realized it wasn't far from how I eat normally. We don't buy much bread, I might buy a loaf for Jason, and maybe some flour tortillas for burritos, but that's about it. For chips, we like corn tortillas, which are gluten-free anyway. So instead of flour tortillas, I bought brown rice tortillas instead. I'm not sure if I'll see a huge increase in energy, since I probably have already experienced that increase in energy just by being vegetarian and avoiding gluten and dairy most of the time (but not always up until this point). Anyway, we'll see how it goes! I'm hoping to just feel amazing, and never want to go back to eating crappy food except for the rare occasion.

So far, so good today - the only odd thing I had was hot chocolate at a coffee house, made with rice milk of course. Unfortunately, I looked at the ingredient list of their chocolate syrup, and although I'm pretty sure it was gluten free, the first ingredient was high fructose corn syrup. As I was drinking it, my stomach starting feeling a little odd, and I bet that's why. I think from now on I'll be ordering tea. Overall, it looks like my diet will consist of lots of fruit, veggies, beans, nuts, and rice. The good news is I can still eat my dark chocolate!

This weekend we were able to go snowshoeing on Mt. Baker with some friends. It was so much fun! It was kind of a gloomy day, the haze never left, and it started snowing harder and harder while we were up there. It was kind of a heavy, wet snow, but the fresh powder was really fun for playing! We also went down to Anacortes, which is about 45 minutes away, and went to a park right on the coast. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon!

Psychology Lesson!

2011-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

My psychology instructor showed us some cool videos today to demonstrate a couple of concepts. Who knew YouTube & school could be related?! I'm studying, really!

Also, I love living on the coast! I'm sitting a coffee house right on the coast, and it's a rainy, cloudy day, but it's still gorgeous. And, I'm watching a group of some type of geese/bird dive under water for a bit and then come back up, only to do it again!

Classical Conditioning is when you pair a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus, in order to get the same response when the conditioned stimulus occurs as when the unconditioned stimulus occurs. For example, Pavlov, the guy who came up with this, tested this theory on his dogs. He noticed his dogs would drool every time he got read to feed them. So he started sounding a bell before he would feed them. They soon associated this bell with food, and after time, would drool at the sound of the tone. Drooling at food is a natural response for a dog, but drooling at a bell tone is the conditioned response. :)

Operant Conditioning is when the subject is either rewarded or punished for a certain behavior - when they are rewarded, the behavior is likely to be repeated, and alternatively, when they are punished, that behavior is likely to stop over time. I might try to get Petrie to do this!

(If you're viewing this in the email subscription, you might have to click on the title of the post to go to the webpage and view them)

52º

2011-01-13T20:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, the weather here is great! Tuesday night everyone was worried because we were supposed to get 7 inches of snow, which we may have. But it didn't matter, because by 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning, it was already above freezing, and by the time I woke up, most of it was melted off. Since then it's been in the 40s, but today it got up to 52º!! How cool is that?! It's supposed to stay warm like this for the whole weekend. Granted, it's rainy, but I don't care, I'll take 50s and rain over single-digit highs and ice. :)

In other news, we have the business owner's approval for the location we wanted for the cart! We just have to apply with the city and make sure no one else has that spot. If we get it, it will be half a block from the Farmer's market (opening again in April) and on the main downtown road with the most foot traffic. Exciting!

School has been continuing to be time-consuming. The material hasn't been hard at all, but it's just taking my time. I'm fortunate I have the 3-day weekends to get a lot done.

Happy Friday everyone!

damnyouautocorrect.com

2011-01-07T14:55:00.001-08:00

Just found this site, it's hilarious: damnyouautocorrect.com. Apparently iPhones auto-correct words in text messages...here are some of my faves:

Ho-Ho-Horrible
New Year's Eve Party
Wet & Nasty
Best Wishes for the New Year
Success
See a Doctor
New Medical Drama
Don't Go Downstairs
Command Shift 3

BEST OF DECEMBER

Nerd Alert!

2011-01-06T21:04:00.001-08:00

Well, we made it back from our Nebraska-Colorado adventure. I have to say, I am quite glad to get back to Pacific NW style winter - 45º. It's rainy, but I don't mind. I'd rather have that than a 0º high like it was in Steamboat Springs, CO last week.

On our drive back to Washington, we decided to go all night. I had never done that, and it was definitely hard. Thankfully, Jason is awesome and drove most of it. I drove two legs of the trip, but he definitely drove way more than I did. We had some bad roads in places, snow-packed and a lot of ice. After not getting much sleep (overnight Saturday and into Sunday), I didn't recover until about Wednesday.

Which was just in time to start school. Unfortunately, both of us had to go back to work on Monday, and have been running around since then, so our apartment is a mess. I'm hoping to have some time tomorrow (Friday) to clean up and get organized. The problem with being a minimalist, but not really committing to it, is the fact that you still have crap to deal with, but it annoys the heck out of you. And we brought even more crap back to our 460 sq. ft. apartment.

Petrie was more than happy to see us when we got back. Our friends did a great job looking after her, and she was apparently very fun to be around. When we walked in the apartment Sunday morning, she basically clung to us for the next 6 hours. After that, she was never in a different room than we were. She is such a loving cat, and even more so now.

So, the nerd alert is for me and school. I'm taking basically freshman level Biology, Psychology, and English. All of these are new and different topics for me, and essentially a lot easier than the last school experience I had (graduate level engineering). So far it's actually fun and I'm enjoying doing the homework. (there's the nerdiness). I'm sure it will still be a time commitment, but I'm looking forward to a somewhat easier quarter. That's the other thing that's going to be weird to get used to, they do quarters here, so I'll do 12 weeks of class (1st one is already over) and then be done at the end of March. The next term will begin in April and go through the end of June - which is longer than what I'm used to. My schedule is set up well - I have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and my permanent work schedule is Monday and Wednesday. So yay! for 3-day weekends every week.

A random question popped into my head this morning as I was waking up: If you were able to meet a famous person, who would you want it be? It would have to be someone that was alive right now, otherwise it wouldn't be physically possible. I still haven't figured out my answer, but I would love to hear from you guys in the comment section of what your answer would be, and I'll get mine in there soon. If you're getting the emails, don't reply to the email, but actually go to the site and comment, so everyone can see! Fun!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and I'm working on our holiday letter...it will get sent out soon... ?

Advent Conspiracy

2010-12-23T12:45:00.001-08:00

Two posts in one day! I must have all kinds of time on my hands. :) I just read a post on a friend's site and wanted to share it here. It's quite long, but if you have 10-15 minutes, it's definitely worth your time: click here. He and his wife are opening the discussion on looking at Christmas and the Advent season a little differently. It seems like we all hear about how consumerism is wrong, and we should be doing it all differently, but a lot of times these comments come with a negative tone - kind of like "that would be nice, but this is easier." Their piece about it really digs into the depths of the issue, and how far (in some ways) we've strayed from the original design of Christmas - a celebration of Christ's birth. I really want to spend more time worshiping God for His wonderful gift to us, and then celebrating that gift with friends and family. Also, for more information on the idea, check out Advent Conspiracy.

I, personally, am looking forward to coffee with a friend this afternoon! Then tomorrow, we are driving down to Seattle with some other friends, we might grab breakfast somewhere and just hang out, and then catch our flight to Denver. Once we get to Denver, we'll be spending time with family for a week, traveling across Nebraska and then back through Colorado on the way back to Washington! That, to me, is the best part of Christmas - good food, quality time with family & friends, and catching up with everyone.

Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you are able to spend time with family in relaxation, focusing on each other and Christ, and not America's bland consumerism.

Mosaic Kids - Nativity

2010-12-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

The kids at our church put this movie together. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, you don't have to, but you at least have to watch the first part with the voice-overs, it's hilarious!

If you can't see the video in your email, click on the title of the post to go to my website.

Yarg!

2010-12-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Ugh! We lived here for 70 days before I found out where Bellingham's Walmart was! Today I found it. :( I really don't like a lot of things about Walmart, so when we moved here I decided I didn't want to know where it was, and was never going to shop there. The fact that it took me so long to find it is a testament to Bellingham's community reliance on more local stores. There are regional chains, sure, but the main places I shop for groceries are all local. I love it! Anyway, it looks like the Walmart isn't frequented by many people, it's not a Super Walmart and it's kind of hidden from view just north of the main shopping area.

This past summer, my truck's alternator and battery both died on me (one caused the other, but I'm not sure which one to blame). Anyway, it killed my radio/cd player, which was an aftermarket piece of garbage that had been installed by the previous owner. So, I basically haven't had a radio (or clock) in the car for about 6 months, but Jason just installed a "new" one for me! He was able to get one out of a car that had been impounded (I guess they didn't need it anymore) and it works great! I'm so glad to be able to listen to CD's in the car again.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it on here or not, but I'm doing some photography for a local magazine, Bellingham Alive. It's unpaid, but it will give me good experience and will get my name out into the community. Today I worked on my assignment for the next issue, which is a feature on chocolate shops in the area. There's only one shop actually in Bellingham (the magazine covers more of the county, and even Vancouver & Seattle stuff), so I just shot at their 2 locations. Below are some of my favorite shots, let me know what you think!

Rain, Rain, Rain

2010-12-18T16:42:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not your ideal white Christmas around here. We had that for Thanksgiving instead! It has been raining A LOT here lately - although we've had some breaks here and there with sunny days. A creek that runs through one part of town is usually rather calm (I think) but I walked by it the other day and water was gushing under the bridge like nobody's business. It was pretty crazy.

I have worked about 5 days or so with the clients at Moore Street now (that's the specific site I was assigned). I have now spent some one-on-one time with a few clients and it's not that bad. It seems like most of the clients know the routine (better than me, the newby) and typically comply with the daily grind. We had one client that was having a minor break-down, but since she wasn't my responsibility that day, I stood aside and just observed. I really like the philosophy of the company - they view staff as facilitators, or supporters, of the client's life. We're not there to be their parents and tell them what they can and cannot do, we are there to make life a little easier for them. We are helping them assimilate to living in the community just like you and I do. We allow them to make their own choices; when a problem arises, we give them the options they have and resulting consequences of each option, and let them choose the outcome of the situation just like we make choices. Mostly, I feel like it's given me a new perspective on disabled adults, maybe most everyone else understood this, but I feel like I've learned a lot.

We had a Christmas party for the clients on Wednesday, and it was really fun to see them all interact with each other. Everyone was dressed up, and they all looked pretty sharp! The company has 7 sites I think, so I was able to meet other clients with whom I will not be working (like the proper grammar?).

We've ordered the base trailer for the hot dog cart! We just got approval from the Health Department to start building it (what a nightmare that was, and expensive). Jason talked to a business owner yesterday for possible approval of locating the cart in front of their store. He didn't grant immediate approval, so we're still waiting to hear back, and also looking for other options in case that falls through. That location would be ideal, there is a lot of foot traffic there, and it's just half a block from the Farmer's Market, which runs April through Christmas. That way we could still be open for the Farmer's Market but not have to get a permit through the Farmer's Market. We also are now approved customers of the largest natural and organic distributor here on the West Coast - UNFI. Once we get back from Christmas we'll start building the cart, and hopefully everything will fall into place from there!

Finally, a bit of fun news: the Lunch Bucket is STILL not open!! I can't believe it. When I originally applied, it said they were opening November 1st. Then when he hired me, he said it would be November 29th. I'm really glad I'm not working there, because I would still be waiting!

Quick Update

2010-12-07T15:07:00.000-08:00

Somehow this past week went by awfully fast. I can't believe Christmas is less than 3 weeks away! The only major updates I have are that I quit the bell-ringing job - I'm just not cut out for 8 hours of standing & doing nothing, even if I was fortunate enough to be inside. I wouldn't have quit if I didn't have another job lined up, but I did, and the bell-ringing schedule was actually conflicting with the other job.

I had my first shift on site yesterday, working with the developmentally-disabled adults. It was a pretty good day! Most of the day I spent reading up on each of the clients, getting to know some co-workers, and just figuring out where stuff is and how it works. The shifts are longer, but it doesn't really feel like it. For training the next couple of weeks, I'm just scheduled 3 days a week, 11-hour shifts. I think I'm going to enjoy it, at least for a while, it definitely won't be boring! The co-workers I met yesterday are great - I don't know what shift I'll be on so I might be working with other people too. The clients are also great - and none of them seem to have extreme disabilities - at least yesterday, most of them were in a pretty good mood and easy to get along with.

Jason is still working as a dispatcher, and is extremely ready to get the business going so that he doesn't have to work there anymore...one day last week he worked 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., but at least he's getting paid for overtime.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...and School

2010-11-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, wow. What a whirlwind it has been to figure out employment for me! But fortunately, it's all figured out now! So, the Lunch Bucket thing didn't work out, mostly my fault, but it's for the best. He wasn't going to open the restaurant until today, actually, but I found that out about a month ago. The issue was that I was still going to have to wait a month, and then have to change my schedule again (he was very particular about deciding all of our shifts way ahead of time) in January when I start classes (more on this later). So I talked to him about it, he said I might still be able to help him out in December, but that I told him I would be looking for temporary seasonal work. So, I still looked, and during that time he found someone else and would not need my help.

After I found that out, I was a little more anxious to find a job, so I signed up to do bell ringing for the Salvation Army. Seasonal, so good deal! And it is paid, I always thought it was a volunteer thing. However, my first day on the job was the coldest day on record this winter season. I lasted 3 hours. They also wanted you to do it full time, when I was looking for part time. Luckily, the guy coordinating everything is very cool, and also 1 day older than me, we figured out. He found a part-time shift INSIDE the mall for me! I start that tomorrow and work Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Don't you just love those bell ringers? :) Although, I just found out this morning that I don't actually ring a bell, since it's inside, I'll just hold it. They took the ringer out. :(

Secondly, I also interviewed at a place that provides 24/7 care for developmentally disabled adults that live in either apartments or homes owned by the business. This morning I found out I got that job!! I'm really excited about that, because it will give me a little experience in healthcare - although no certifications or nursing school is required for the job, just first-aid & CPR I think, and some other job-specific training. But I'm really excited about that!! I go to orientation on Wednesday.

Finally, I registered for classes today. My original goal was to get into the Nursing Assistant (NA) course so that I could get certified and then find a job in the field to start getting experience. I also want to make sure that I enjoy it enough to go to school again for several years. The school part isn't the issue (I'm a nerd & enjoy school) but it's the cost & time invested in another degree. Anyway, it turns out that it's quite an ordeal to get into the NA course! Because I'm a first-time student I could only register in "General Registration" so all the courses are full and many people are on the wait-list. I talked to someone in registration, and they said my best bet is to start taking the other pre-requisites I was planning on, and I will have more priority next registration (for spring term) and will have a good chance to get into a class. The only bummer is that I have to wait that much longer to get certified. But, I will already be getting good healthcare experience at my job!

In other news, it has warmed up here and we are enjoying the weather. It's still "cold" but not freezing, all the snow melted off and it is again safe to drive!

Happy Turkey Day!

2010-11-24T16:31:00.000-08:00

Wow, that now seems weird, since I'm a vegetarian. But I used to say that all the time, and that is what people eat on Thanksgiving. Anyway, I hope you all have a very wonderful Thanksgiving and are surrounded by friends and family and good food. We have been so blessed by some friends we made here, they have invited us to Thanksgiving with their family. My dinner contribution is the wonderful "egg noodles" (freezer aisle style) that I love. They are a must at every holiday meal, in my opinion.

Although unplanned to coincide with the holiday, my thoughts have been straying toward what I'm thankful for lately. It seems that we've found a lot of things here that can get us down - the unexpected weather, mediocre jobs, etc. But I've been trying to focus on the fact that we have a home where we can stay warm and dry, a wonderful family & kitty, and the fact that we do have jobs and can put good food on the table every day.

What are you thankful for?

I thought we moved to the Pacific NW?

2010-11-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

What the heck?! Is this Nebraska? A storm moved in yesterday, cold winds, and SNOW fall last night. Bellingham is a town with annual average snowfall equal to 10 inches, and we just got about 3 of them overnight. It's not supposed to be above freezing until Wednesday. The driveway to get out of our apartment complex is kind of steep, and it's covered in ice. We could get the truck out earlier today, while it wasn't ice, but now it's ice and we will probably not be able to get it out until Wednesday unless it gets scooped. This is not normal for this area, the town pretty much shuts down when something like this happens. But, Jason has to somehow get to work on Monday, and I'm sure he's going to be swamped (with towing calls). We've been walking everywhere we need to go, for the most part, tomorrow we'll probably be walking to church.

We took Petrie out in the snow!

Bellingham State of Mind

2010-11-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, I couldn't wait any longer to share this video. This is a video all about Bellingham, all the greatness and the quirks. One fact about Bellingham - you'll see Ryan Stiles in this video, because he owns a house on Lake Samish, just south of the city. He also owns a small theater here, the Upfront Theatre, which is completely devoted to improv comedy. Anyway, take the time to watch the whole thing, it is very well done.

Catching up on photos

2010-11-17T12:09:00.000-08:00

The following are some photos I took when we visited Washington in August. The first ones are of Pike Place Market in Seattle - a huge farmer's market that's open 362 days a year! It's a busy place. I wish I could do all of my grocery shopping there...

The last two photos are of Mt. Baker - the largest mountain near Bellingham. It's 10,781 feet elevation, which doesn't seem like much compared to the Colorado Rockies. BUT, if you do the math (and I did), the actual difference in elevation greater, making the mountain seem enormous. There aren't many great places to view the mountain in actual Bellingham, though, the best view we've had is when we crossed over into Canada.

Pikes Peak = 14,115 ft, Colorado Springs elevation = 6,035–7,200 ft, so a difference of 6,915 to 8,080 ft.

Mount Baker = 10,781 ft, Bellingham elevation = 69 ft, so a difference of 10,712 ft. (thanks to Wikipedia for the elevations)

Home for the holidays...

2010-11-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

It's official! We'll be heading to North Platte for Christmas, Jason has an entire week off, including 2 weekends and Christmas Eve. We are really excited. We bought plane tickets yesterday, one-way Seattle to Denver, on December 24th (we're driving Jason's car back). Now we are working on how to get to Seattle (so we don't have to leave our truck in expensive parking) and what we will do with Petrie. I hate to leave her by herself in our apartment, but I think that's what we'll have to do. We are going to have to find some people to check in on her. Otherwise it would be about $150 to board her.

When we first arrived in Bellingham, we had arranged for some professional photos to be taken of us. I had been wanting to get these for a while, and just hadn't gotten around to it in Lincoln. When we decided to move here, I started looking around this area, and found a great photographer couple, Evantide Photography. We just got our photos back on Friday, and below are some of them. They are great!

One month...

2010-11-12T08:41:00.001-08:00

Well, we've officially been in Washington for a month now. We rolled into town mid-afternoon, October 12th. I can't believe it's already been that long! A lot has happened though, and it went by so fast.

My job at The Lunch Bucket won't start until November 29th. After I heard that, I kind of had some doubts about working there. Mostly because I'm planning to take the CNA certification course starting January 5, and also a few pre-requisites for the nursing program - so basically I would work the month of December, and then have to change schedules completely, or quit altogether. I talked to the owner about it, and he understood, saying he'd still like my help for December if I could. I started looking for temporary jobs, just for the holiday season, but there's not much out there. Plus, I don't want to get stuck with something where I'd have to work over Christmas, because we think we'll actually be able to make it home - Jason is hoping to get a whole week off!

So if we're able to go home, we'd fly to Denver on the 24th, a one-way ticket, get to NP somehow - my parents might be able to pick us up, and stay in NP for a few days. Then we would take Jason's car, start the journey back to Washington, but stop in Steamboat Springs for a few days to visit my dad's side of the family that will all be there skiing! There's also a wedding on New Year's Eve! We are really hoping this will work out, Jason is asking his boss today hopefully. He already gets the 24th and 31st off, so he's asking for Monday the 26th through Thursday the 30th off.

Well, in other news, we bought kayaks!!! We took them out yesterday for the first time. They are fun to have, and a good substitute until we get our boat! More pictures soon! (I know I keep promising pictures, I'm workin' on it!)

Smart Trips

2010-11-04T12:41:00.001-07:00

Whatcom County has this great program called Smart Trips. It's a webpage where you register an account, and then you can log in any trips that you make by biking, walking, public transport or carpooling. It's definitely based on the honor system, because it's up to you to log in the distance you went - there's no one keeping you accountable. But there are tons of rewards - after so many trips you get a gift card to a restaurant, if you're logging enough trips a month you are entered for a cash drawing, and they also send you a discount card for local businesses after your first 10 trips.

I think it's a great way to encourage people to travel by other means than in a car by yourself (now, I definitely know that sometimes there is no other option). But if you have the choice, and the time, it's definitely worth it. I walk to the grocery store that's close to our apartment, I've been biking to the library and other downtown areas most of the time, and stuff like that just adds up.

In other news, the weather around here has been great! The last 2 days were sunny & mildly warm. I've noticed that it takes most of the morning to warm up from the night's cold, but afternoons are pretty pleasant. Although, I'll have to admit I've been kind of a bookworm lately, I've been reading a lot of novels that I got at the library, and time just seems to be slipping by...

By the way, thanks to those of you subscribing to this! It means a lot to me that you want to hear what's going on with us!

I voted! And other wonderful updates from up North...

2010-11-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Happy November! I am sad that my favorite month is over now, but man it was a hectic & crazy month! October 1st is when we packed up everything and left Lincoln...and by the end of the month we were in Washington with an apartment and jobs already lined up!

We are having a great time here. When we came to visit in August, we stayed with a couple that took us to their church - Mosiac. We loved it immediately. This church is definitely not a traditional church, in the sense that you sit in pews (or auditorium seats) and "watch" a service. Not that anything is wrong with that, but Jason and I have definitely identified more with the way things are at Mosaic.

Every Sunday that there is a service (sometimes there aren't - more on that later), it is a potluck meal. Everyone brings something to share, and we enjoy meals together at round tables, where we can face each other and meet new people every week. Then we'll sing a little, usually songs written by the person leading worship that week. After that, the pastor, Matt, will give a message. More often than not, he'll invite you to share your thoughts or questions, and it turns into a large group discussion with his guidance. I love it! Usually once a month, there is a service Sunday, where instead of gathering for worship, we go out into the community and serve wherever it is needed. I also LOVE that part, and feel that it really embodies the phrase we see every Sunday - "Don't go to church, be the church."

We have been so blessed to meet a lot of new people - Jason is going to a men's bible study every Monday evening, and I will start going to the women's study every other Tuesday (it's called "Wine, Cheese, & Jesus!!). I don't think we share that amazing food & drink every time, but I'm sure it happens on the occasion. Overall, it's been a great way to meet new people, and the community there has definitely taken us in and made us feel at home - since our family & friends are so far away!

As for voting, Washington does this "vote by mail" system. We got here just in time to register for this election. When we went to get our driver's licenses, they asked me if I wanted to register at that time, but if I did it there, I couldn't vote in this election. He told me that if I wanted to, I could go register at the County Courthouse and I would be able to vote this time. Jason didn't get that info, so he registered at the D.L. place - and didn't get to vote this time. Anyway, I was very excited to find that they also mail you a Voter's Guide for this county, so I had lots of helpful information as I was making my decisions! I'm just sad I didn't get an "I voted" sticker...

The weather has begun to turn more gloomy & wintery, although I am happy to report that even when it's cold, rainy, & windy, it's still in the 50's. It seems like most of the time, if it was like that in Nebraska, it was COLD. I hope there is at least one or two more sunny days in the next couple of weeks though, because I'd like to take some photos of the mountains & fall colors.

Jason is "enjoying" his job so far. He told me yesterday that at least he's not dreading to go in every day, like he has at some jobs. His main issue with it is that it's taking time away from starting his business, and he works during business hours, so he can't run errands (for example, I'm going to the Health Department for him today).

Alright this is getting long...but oh! I forgot to share about Halloween. No one we knew was really doing anything, and I had found a great "bee" costume at the thrift store and really wanted to wear it. So we went to Fairhaven (a downtown district within Bellingham) and walked around a little. Jason just wore a khaki shorts, a Hawaiian shirt & goofy large sunglasses. We ended up going into this Mexican restaurant, and after not being waited on for about 15 minutes (and watching people who came in after us get water & chips/salsa) we decided to leave. We then found another Mexican restaurant (I was really craving a burrito) where we were waited on by an egg. We met a guy who was traveling by himself, and invited him to have dinner with us. He is from Mexico, but is currently living in Vancouver, BC for school. He had come down to Bellingham to experience "American Halloween". I love meeting travelers!

Alright, well that's all for now folks!

We've Arrived!

2010-10-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I used this blog. Right now I'm going to just use it to write, and maybe upload some photos every once in a while. So just some quick updates from the Johnsons:

We were glad to find an apartment after living in the Motel 6 for 4 days...it's a nice little place, close to the University (WWU). For some reason it's hard to find places around here that allow cats! Large dogs, I can understand, but teenie little Petrie? She weighs 9 pounds. What kind of damage could she do?

Our apartment is close to a little strip mall, and although I'm basically opposed to consumerism, there is a nice grocery store, an REI, and a Starbucks (we use this for free internet). Only 0.4 miles from our apartment!

We both found jobs in just a week! We are very blessed to find jobs in such a short time, in this day & age, and also in Washington (I'm tiring of the phrase "in this economy"). Jason is working as a Dispatcher for a towing company, full-time. I will start in a couple of weeks as a cashier at a new eatery, which is even closer than the other strip mall, it's about a block from our apartment. Yay for walking to work! The funniest part is the name, it's "The Lunch Bucket". I'm excited to just have a part-time job and focus on other things. It's also been fun having a break from work this past month. We had saved enough to live for quite a while, but it's a weird feeling every time you spend a dollar, knowing that nothing is coming in, it's all going out. So we're glad that we're going to start having $$ coming in, it will be more than enough to live on, so we can save up more to buy our boat! :)

Washington is so great, especially Bellingham. I LOVE living in a town where you can see mountains! On my way to the library this morning, I noticed that the mountains just over the border in Canada (which you can see from Bellingham) just started getting snow. It's so beautiful! Pictures, soon I hope! I also LOVE the abundance of local produce, just because of the climate difference. We have been buying local apples & apple juice! We haven't bought anything yet at the Farmer's Market, but we've been a couple of times and there are definitely a lot of options, even for local meat & cheeses (not like I eat either of those...). Actually, I can eat goat & sheep cheese, and the local Food Co-op store has an abundance of varieties of those!

We had a fun time picking out furniture for our apartment too! I am proud to say that we did not buy anything new, and we acquired: a futon, desk, coffee table, night stands, end table, dresser, drawer storage, and lamp, for a grand total of $84! We've also picked up some used games so we have something to do with friends! Oh, and my greatest find EVER: a free vacuum sitting outside the dumpster at my apartment complex. All it needed was to be cleaned out - definitely a dirty job, but so worth it, since it was free!! (We weren't sure what we were going to do about a vacuum, we have a very nice one sitting in North Platte, but just didn't have room to bring it this time.)

Well, I think that's all I have for now. Please, please, please come visit us!!! We would love to host you. You get yourself here, and we'll take care of everything else! Many of you have mentioned you've never been here, and now you have no excuse: you have a free place to stay, and good company! :)

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2010-05-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

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2010-04-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

So I think I've officially surpassed the number of photos I'm supposed to have at this point in the year...but oh well. And I've been cheating anyway and just posting multiple photos from one shoot...I think I work better in batches anyway. At least I'm getting my camera out once a week at minimum.

85-91

2010-04-12T18:16:00.001-07:00

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2010-03-27T16:47:00.005-07:00

68

2010-03-18T18:21:00.005-07:00

67

2010-03-18T18:21:00.002-07:00

66

2010-03-18T18:20:00.002-07:00

65

2010-03-14T13:27:00.003-07:00

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2010-03-14T13:27:00.001-07:00

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2010-03-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

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2010-03-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

This is a compilation of 10 photos, forming a landscape. Taken in Wyoming, along the interstate, at the same spot the litter photos were taken, below.

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2010-03-02T10:11:00.000-08:00

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2010-03-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

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2010-03-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

Yay, Jason graduated! I handed my camera to a guy who I think had never seen an SLR camera before. Even though I had the settings on Auto (which I never do except in cases like these), he (or my camera) managed to way overexpose the shot, and it was blurry. This is the only good shot we have of Jason and I at his graduation, it's all I could do. :(

creator|creation

2010-02-23T17:31:00.001-08:00

In America, at least, it seems that so many people disregard the impact their every action has on everyone else. Even though "being green" has become such a popular thing, is anyone actually paying attention to what they are doing? Just because you're buying the stuff that says it's environmentally friendly, do you know that it is? Do you know that consuming less in general, is a better way of "being green"?

But why do you want to be green? Well, I can only answer for myself. For me, it's a spiritual issue. God gave us this earth, and this is how we treat it? When someone gives you a present, do you destroy it? Unless you have relational issues with the person, I highly doubt it. That's exactly what we're doing to this earth. He gave it to us to care for it, to exist in it. The earth is bigger than any one of us, but as a collective, we've managed to trash it, to pollute it. God created man to rule over the animals and vegetation of the land, to work it and take care of it (paraphrased Genesis 1:28 to 2:15). "This is why litter and pollution are spiritual issues"--Rob Bell.

The thing it comes down to the most though, is overpopulation. When 2 people have 4 kids, the population of the family increases by 200%, which is insane. Now think about every family you know that has more than 2 kids, where the parents are more than replacing themselves on this earth. But here's the real kicker for me: the people having the kids, LOVE kids. Which is all fine and dandy, everyone has something they're passionate about. But here's the big question: What kind of world do you think these kids are going to grow up in? The choices we are making right now affect the world those kids will grow up in. Has anyone ever thought about what the world will be like when their kids are 40, 50, or 80 years old? Will the world even exist? I'm not even sure that this earth will be survivable in that time, with the rate we're destroying it now. There are plenty of kids already in the world that need loving, so if you love kids, love them. Demonstrate that love through caring about their well-being in the future. Our actions impact generation after generation of people that will live after us. It's kind of selfish for us to only worry about what's affecting our lives, right now.

Every single decision we make, every single day, demonstrates how we feel about our Creator. The creation is not only this earth, but the people in it, for God created man also. How you treat those around you, and the environment in which you live, reflects how you feel about the Creator.

48

2010-02-18T07:37:00.010-08:00

Okay, so the next 9 pictures are going to be what I am displaying in my "personal project" for the photography forum. We submitted the photos last night so that Michael's can dry mount them for display. I'm not exactly sure why I couldn't just order the photos to be mounted, most professional photo printing places offer this...but what can you do. Anyway, I'm writing this on the last of the 9 so that you see it before you scroll down. Be sure to click over to the next page of posts, as all the photos aren't on this first page. Sometime soon, I will try to post my "write-up" describing the project.

This is a butterfly out at Indian Cave State Park, last summer.

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2010-02-18T07:35:00.004-08:00

Sunrise, as viewed from Mt. Sinai, Egypt.

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2010-02-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

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2010-02-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

Love Everyday

2010-02-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if anyone is even reading (or viewing) my blog anymore, but I thought I would post this anyway. It's a free ebook of thoughts, tips, and ideas by several relationship bloggers. Definitely worth the read!

Download the free ebook here!

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2010-02-07T14:25:00.002-08:00

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2010-01-30T17:04:00.000-08:00

Jenny's chocolate flaxseed muffin:

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2010-01-30T17:03:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I really got behind...I'll try to catch up by taking a couple a day or something.

portfolio|weddings

2010-01-25T18:13:00.001-08:00

kyle+kaitlyn:

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2010-01-24T19:43:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I took this pic yesterday, but oh well....

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2010-01-23T20:53:00.002-08:00

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2010-01-20T19:54:00.001-08:00

Okay...so I'm already getting behind. Yikes! Don't they say that resolutions only last 21 days? I'm about right on the mark...however, I'm definitely not quitting! I have so many photography projects and challenges that I'm working on, there's no way I'd give up. I just missed yesterday, that's all. Tonight we had the photography forum again - we're talking about our personal projects. I need to figure out what I'll do, and fast! The projects are due March 6. I'm excited to actually have a theme to start researching and working toward. Because we didn't take any photos at the forum, I was kind of anxious to find something of which to take a photo! It's been foggy today, and I LOVE fog...but since it was already dark, I didn't know what I'd do. I rode with my friend Whitney to the forum, and when we got back to her place, I loved the fog surrounding the street lights and these trees next to her building. I have another photo that I'm doing some special effects with, but don't have time to finish tonight...so maybe I'll post that later, along with the rest of the baby tiger photos...

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2010-01-17T21:51:00.001-08:00

A very amazing thing happened today! I was at the (joke of a) mall in North Platte with my mom, and there was an exhibition of sorts. It was some group, I honestly can't remember the name now. They had a few live baby exotic animals--two tigers, a kangaroo, and a lemur. As of right now, I'm still trying to figure out if it was sort of a scam, but they were trying to raise money so they could continue to rescue exotic animals from dangerous or neglected situations. For example, your normal every day person that gets a tiger cub, and then realizes they don't want it anymore when it gets really big. Anyway, you had to pay $25 for 8 minutes to play with the baby animals, and I decided it was worth it. I've never been able to play with a baby tiger, or any other non-standard pet. My mom wasn't feeling up to it, so we raced home to get my dad and he came back with me. Even if the $25 was a joke, the animals looked like they were being treated well, and I got some great shots out of the deal. The following is my favorite, but I will hopefully post more as I have time to process them!

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2010-01-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

mmm...hot tea and a book when it's snowing outside!

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2010-01-02T12:01:00.001-08:00

Okay, so the internet connection that was freely available to us at our house decided to vanish yesterday. I thought I was going to have a good connection that made it easy for me to upload pictures every day, but I was wrong. So I didn't upload a picture yesterday, but I at least took one! I hope to have the internet connection remedied sometime in the near future.

These are some blown-glass kitties that I found at an antique store in Missouri over Thanksgiving. I had decided not to purchase them when I originally saw them, but later decided I did want them. I went the next day, and although the store was supposed to open at 10 a.m., we waited until 11 a.m. and it still wasn't open. We needed to head back to Nebraska, so with the help of my aunt describing them to my grandma, my grandma purchasing and mailing them to me, I am now the proud owner of the little beauties. :)

Welcome!

2009-12-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new Project|365 blog. I am challenging myself to take at least one photo every day, and post it here. I hope you will join me in my journey to explore the beauty that is in my every day life. I'm also planning to replace my previous blog with this one, so on occasion, I will have posts including sets of photos from larger shoots. I'm getting a head start! I picked up my camera today and took some photos of my Christmas tree.

Christmas means something different to everyone, it seems. For me, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ. Here are some scriptures I'm studying to celebrate the birth of my Saviour:

For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23, emphasis mine).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus was born as the Son of God, lived a sinless life, and made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. He rose again so that we are able to have a personal relationship with God.

We are given eternal salvation by believing in Jesus Christ - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9-10). I sin, but am saved by Christ's death and resurrection.

What are you celebrating this season? I pray that you all have a wonderful Christmas season, enjoying friends and family, traveling safe, and remembering the origination of this holiday - the birth of Jesus Christ (see Matthew 1:18-25).