On late nights and sunshine...

It's fun to see Justin and Alex's house becoming more and more their house. I mean, it's already technically theirs and all, but every week more changes happen that give it a more J and A personality. This past week or so has been the painting of the living room and dining room. Well, I suppose even more so this last week has been the complete rewiring of all things electric in their house, but on the asthetic side of things, it's been the downstairs paint jobs. And I got to help this morning! My job was the living room trim, which is seriously one of the only ways I've seen my perfectionism be put to good use. Like for instance last night when I was baking the pie for our little dinner party, I was ridiculously and very unnecessarily frustrated because the edges of the pie crust did not look perfect. We're talking starting to hyperventilate, about to throw the entire pie into the garbage frustration. Over a stupid edge of a pie crust. That's usually the type of benefits I reap from my perfectionism, so it was nice to create something positive with my forces instead. And it was a double bonus getting to hang with J and A (and Stephanie, who's living there for a little bit) while we worked.

So last night we had dinner with a band, aren't we so cool? They're called Transcarlet and are resident Bellingham-ites as well, so we were happy to entertain them. Okay, so they might have been our friends before they were ever a band, and it might have been way more of a just friends get together (especially since J and A were there, too), but it still sounds cool to say we were hobnobbing with a rich and famous band, right? And we met our new friend, TJ, too! Isaac put together some killer enchiladas, I crafted the aforementioned pie (which Isaac saved from being cast into the shadowy depths of the trash can, and which was actually really good, if I do say so myself) for dessert, and we got to spend a few hours talking the night away. I'm actually laughing as I'm writing this, though, because I say talking the night away like we were up to the wee hours of the morning chatting...but in actuality, we lasted until about 9:15pm and then everyone went their separate ways. Which is normal for us, but our guests were mentioning how a normal night for them lasts until about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, which I'm pretty sure I haven't seen since my college days (except when we're with Ian and Savannah, of course :).

Um, post script here...yesterday afternoon when I came home from work, Isaac and I just sat on the porch and relaxed in the sunshine and 55 degree warmth!! In case you missed that, we and Anyway, all that to say we had a good time with those guys last night.relaxed in the afternoon sunshine on the porch! And it's the middle of February here! All the flowers are coming up, trees are blooming, and I haven't warn a scarf for at least a month. Happy early spring to me.

An Alexie and a Beah...

The house is clean, candles are lit, and the aroma of a flourless chocolate delicacy is wafting out of the oven as it finishes baking. Our Peace mix echos in the background as I open the bottles of wine and put water on for tea. Isaac packs up the xbox, gives me a quick kiss, and makes a run for Justin's before the estrogen overtakes the house. Shortly thereafter, the girls arrive - first Alex, fresh from Bikram, then Grace with her bouncy curls (and Morgs joined us in spirit from the tropical land across the sea). We have a little catching up time before Beth and Stephanie arrive, then the wine is poured, chocolaty goodness is served, and the girl time begins. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have started a bookclub. How very refined of us, I know.

Now, most of you know that I have been extremely hesitant to commit to any kind of extra curricular activity over the past couple of years in my quest for rest and a calmer life, but I have to say this bookclub thing was a fabulous idea. I mean, you can't go wrong with a girls' night to begin with, but add the good food and stimulating discussion of a meaningful piece of literary work that we have just finished pouring ourselves into for the past month and you've got a really great way to spend an evening. January's book was A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah - this month is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. By the way, Lynn-t, I think about you every time I open the book, which has been every day for the past week.

It's a little unfortunate that it's just a once-a-month occurrence, but I suppose that helps ward off the possibility of it becoming just one more commitment that overwhelms our lives. So until next month, ladies, may you spend many a night curled up with a cup of tea and dear ol' Sherman.

So many things have been happening around here the last few days! I've watched at least seventeen hours of television, made what appears to be a permanent indent in our antique rust-colored couch, felt like I was going to pass out at least a dozen times, writhed with body aches the likes of which I have never experienced in my life to this point, and have not eaten nearly the amount of calories one should consume per day. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's official...I'm sick. But I hear poor Tommy and Mitch are both sick as well on the other side of the world, so I'm most definitely counting my blessings that at least I can lounge around in complete misery in the comfort of my own home with a doting husband who rents me Amelie and brings me ice water and smoothies.

But seriously, it can't be very entertaining hearing about me being on death's doorstep (possibly a slight exaggeration, but...) so here's the real news. I am no longer a blonde. Shocking, I know. It lasted for an entire two months and I loved every minute of it, once we got past the yellow stage into the white-blonde color. But, alas, all good things must come to an end as we were not too thrilled about the every-six-week-upkeep schedule the whiteness required. So I am back to brown, although I must admit it is a bit lighter than my natural brown. Another six weeks and I'll go back in to finish off the coloring and get it a tad darker. I must admit, it's kind of nice being back to a more natural me. Which is a good thing, since I'm planning on staying brown for quite a while now.

***

I actually wrote that part a few days ago and just never posted, so I'm happy to report that I have, indeed, recovered from the grossness of being sick, and in true lovers' fashion, succeeded in passing along the fever and body aches to my dear husband shortly thereafter. Isaac took it like a champ, though, and bounced back in only three days, whereas my recovery took a full four. In celebration of his renowned health, we disconnected our cable for the next six months. Isn't that a great getting better present? We got the cable last fall for (of course) football since Isaac is, after all, a boy, but he promised me when we purchased it that it would only be through the football season and then we could go back to our hippier lifestyle. And even in the three days since it's been disconnected, I've felt noticeably calmer and more relaxed. Evenings when I'm tired aren't automatically spent vegging in front of the telly watching Bear Grylls and Mike Rowe, but instead are spent reading, baking, yoga-ing, and relaxing to the tunes of David Bazan or Rocky. Life seems to pass by slowly and peaceably, like a trickling creek, and every minute is experienced as it's own special mark in the day. I like living like that. Brewing a cup of white pear tea, having a girlfriend over to chat, relaxing with Isaac on a walk around the neighborhood, making bran muffins and granola for the week's breakfasts. I guess all I'm saying is that I have a good life up here, with Isaac. Speaking of which, he's walking through the door right now...

The best Christmas Present Ever...

So, the other night there were about seven cop cars right outside of our house for several hours complete with searchlights and everything. We peeked out the windows on and off for a while, but could never see enough to actually figure out what was going on...so we chalked it up to some kind of massive manhunt that was taking place. Slightly freaky, but Isaac was with me so I wasn't too worried.

Fastforward to the following afternoon.

I am in the kitchen preparing to bake some fantastic spicy ginger cookies for that evening's festivities and Isaac is in the back room, when we hear a knock at our door. A very loud knock. Now the thing about our house is that there are three doors to enter before you actually get into our apartment. We live in an old house, so there's the external door that leads down a very short hallway and ends with the door of our apartment and the door of the downstairs apartment. If you go through our door, it takes you up a set of stairs where you then reach the actual door into our apartment. Now, obviously the only people who know this are those who have been to our house before, so the majority of our knocks come from the door at the bottom of the stairs. Only people we know come straight to the top of the stairs, but that happens only if we know they're coming over, so they never knock, they just come right in. All that to say, something is not right if there is a loud knock coming from our top door. Isaac asked me to get it, but I was a tad alarmed being that there was a possible vagrant on the loose via last night's supposed manhunt. Not wanting to just open the door to a murderer without Isaac in the room as backup, I called out a friendly, "Who's there?" When no one answered, the churning in my stomach kicked it up a notch so I turned my gaze toward the back bedroom and called for Isaac to come. But before he came out the knock returned, even more fierce than before. I called out again, "Who's there?" and again, there was no answer. Something was definitely wrong because I was only about seven feet from the front door and there was no doubt that whoever was out there could hear me, but was refusing to answer until I opened the door. I called for Isaac again, and then eyed the deadbolt, about to run over and flip it locked, awkward as that may be since they would most assuredly hear the sound of the door locking loud and clear and would know I just locked them out. I heard the deep tones of a man's voice behind the door now and became even more panicked as I racked my brain to try to remember where we had put the phone so I could call the police if necessary. And still there was no sign of Isaac (probably because Isaac doesn't get scared of anything, so I'm sure it never even occured to him that the person at the front door was possibly waiting to shoot me at point blank range once I opened the door). Then, to my horror, I saw the front door starting to open and I knew he was coming inside. I thought my heart was going to beat straight out of my chest and the words, "Don't come in or I'm calling the police," were at the tip of my tongue...

...when two long lost faces peered around the door. It took my frazzled brain a couple seconds to register the intruders, but two seconds later I was screaming and crying as I recognized Morgan and Tommy!! THE Morgan and Tommy who have been gone since September gallivanting around the world and who weren't expected back until the end of March! I know I can't convey our excitement at seeing them, but they're two of our best friends and we have missed them so much since they've been gone. And we had absolutly no idea whatsoever that they were coming home for Christmas. They surprised everyone, even their parents! It turns out, they really had wanted me to open the door without knowing who was there so they could see my surprised face which is why they didn't want to identify themselves. Makes sense, just makes the situation a tad scarier when there are dangerous criminals on the loose. Anyway, I recovered and we got to spend an awesome evening with them...and they're here for three weeks!

As soon as we had calmed down (okay, as soon as I had calmed down) we drove over to Justin and Alex's to surprise them. Isaac and I hid behind the bushes and Tommy and Morgan rang the doorbell and waited. I wish I could have seen Lex's face because all I saw from my vantage point was smiles and waves from Mo and To, and then finally Morgan's exasperated beckoning for Alex to come open the door. Apparently she had just been standing inside staring at them in shock because she couldn't believe they were actually there. So awesome! And then we called Justin up from the basement, but like Isaac, he doesn't react with the drama of us lovely wives. Just a huge smile and hugs all around from him.

Just thinking about it all makes me tear up again. So we have three wonderful weeks to spend with our friends before they head back to Asia for the duration of their expedition. The best surprise ever.

PS, if you're interested in following their journey, you can read about it all here. And they have hundreds of awesome pictures from their travels.

The day we got married...

Better late than never. We've finally got some of our wedding pictures rifled through and relatively organized into a pseudo-chronological display.

Want to see them? Go here.

Do enjoy.

Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising by Jean Kilbourne.

So provocative. She found a way to put into words the things I've been feeling for the past decade.

A handful of wheatgrass...

We live in a rather tiny apartment. One bedroom, one bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. Which means no storage place. At all. No extra closets, no garage, nothing. So for the first year of our marriage, the home for all of Isaac's tools was a gigantic pile on the floor against the far wall of our bedroom. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not complaining because we LOVE our little house, but I was also very thankful when Isaac's next project created a home for all of those tools. He got the idea to incorporate old milk crates as shelves and started the hunt for a broken down cupboard he could restore to fit the crates. A few days later, his project was born. He had to extend the back of the cupboard and fix it up quite a bit as it was a sorry piece of junk to being with. Then he covered all that work with lots of sanding, paint, and varnish, fit the milk crates in and - whallah, we have a mini tool shed. It's beautiful and matches the other cupboards he did earlier this year. And best of all, we have our far wall back.

And then there's his dream (our dream, really) of living in a place where plants rule the roost. Where everywhere you look inside, there are dozens of species of plants living among us. We have tons of plants in pots, but this time Isaac wanted to fully incorporate the greenery into the piece of furniture. So he purchased some old drawers from a torn down elementary school, fixed them up (of course), and then created waterproof indents in the top to house whatever it was we wanted to grow - wheatgrass at the moment.

Next, I want a new bed. He's been drawing up designs on and off for the past year for it, but weather, space, and lack-of-garage-sized-tools has put that little dream off for possibly a couple more years. Until then...