A year later. London 2012

I figured a trip to London was a good way to start up my blog again. Mainly because I want to remember everything on my first trip outside of north America!

Left 4.24.12 at 18:55, and after a mostly comfortable flight with free wine, decent food, and my own row, landed in London at 12:00 local time on 4.25.12. Brandi Carlile was on my plane, too! Do you know who she is? If not, look her up, she's rockin, literally -and figuratively!

The adventure of getting to Pax Lodge wasnt terrible, but I think it felt long because I was extremely tired and my bags felt heavier than I remembered them being when I packed them!

Made it to the lodge. It's in a cute little part of London with quiet streets and homes surrounding. After a nap I felt energized and ready to head out.

I had high tea at the Palm Court, Langham Hotel, and it was divine. I had their signature Langham Tea, finger sandwiches, awesome pastries, and of course, scones!!

I'm back at the lodge now, and ready for bed. Looking forward to a full day of adventuring tomorrow: Bike Tour, and a ride on the London Eye!!

Disclaimer: I've never blogged from my phone before, so I have no idea what kind of order these pictures from high tea will be in. :)

Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair

We're off to San Francisco in two days and I'm super excited!! Tomorrow is Marcy's last day of work at Girl Scouts, which we've both come to terms with. Her more than me, but I dwell and that's a story that would lead to a more negative post, so by the by.....

We're off to San Francisco! :) Marcy and I taking eight of our 5th Grade Girl Scouts to bridge to the next level of Girl Scouting by walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. Can't get more symbolic than that!! The girls have been working hard the last five months to fundraise and plan. On Sunday, we took a field trip to the airport so they could learn the ins and outs of security, travel, and proper packing. Some of the girls have only been on an airplane once and most haven't flown in 5 or 6 years, so this will be the first time they really remember.

We're meeting at the airport at 6:00 a.m., much to the dismay of some of the parents (haha!) on Friday morning. Every day is jam packed with exciting activities, including a haunted night tour of Alcatraz, the Academy of Sciences Museum, the Cable Car Museum (this is the thing the girls are MOST excited about - and so is our trip budget, since it's FREE!), and of course the Bridging Event. The Bridging Event draws in over 3000 Girl Scouts from across the country, so that should be really cool to see.

I'll post pictures when we're back. Have a fantastic weekend, and Happy Mother's Day to all my fabulous friends who are fabulous mothers :) And, of course, an extra special Happy Mother's Day to my mom!!

Goodbye Fall, Hello WINTER

Wow, I've become LAME as a blogger, and really I have no excuses.... Here's a recap of the past 2.5 months....

SEPTEMBER:
Marcy and I traveled to Colorado for Labor day and had a great time visiting friends in Denver and Estes Park. We even got to sneak in a visit with my cousin and his wife, which was so great. We were there for a wedding, and enjoyed hiking and reminiscing about our time working at the YMCA of the Rockies.


I quit Starbucks mid-September since Marcy and I were moving to South Seattle. It was a really tough decision, but it's amazing how much more time I have...which definitely doesn't help my case for why I haven't blogged......Here's my last chalkboard art at Starbucks...


At the end of September, I spent a weekend with my Girl Scout troop at Camp Robbinswold (a Girl Scout camp on the Hood Canal). We arrived on a Friday night in the midst of a massive thunder storm, which resulted in many crying wet children....BUT, we awoke Saturday to beautiful sunshine, and the Girl Scout Gods were shining upon us the rest of the weekend - it only rained at night or when we were inside - LUCKY!!!



OCTOBER:
Most of you know that Marcy and I lived with one of Marcy's clients for the year. Linden has Down's Syndrome and needs some extra help around the house, so while her parents were traveling for the year, we moved in to their house. Our year came to an end when Linden's parents got back at the beginning of October. It was bittersweet - we were REALLY excited to have our own space again, but we loved the neighborhood where Linden's family lived...and the free rent was a nice bonus :) We are loving our new place, and are finding things to love about our neighborhood every day!! Billy's favorite is the nice front yard where he can lounge and watch over the house at the same time :) Here's a few shots of our house before we moved in....




I went to the Kappa Delta Chapter at Washington State for Initiation weekend. It was great to participate in KD Ritual again - I hadn't been part of initiation since I was in college, and it was wonderful to welcome new sisters. I'm really enjoying my work as a chapter advisor and could foresee myself staying in this role for a while.

Mid-October we had a Girl Scout field trip (I'm sure you're thinking that my life is consumed by Girl Scouts - ha! It is, and I really do love it!!). We went on a walking tour of Downtown Seattle, and it was really fun to play tourist for a day. Many of the girls hadn't been downtown, so we had fun exploring all the sites and had a great meal at Ivar's on the water.


We spent a weekend in Bellingham with friends, and had so much fun. We explored the local farmer's market, ate delicious food, and went on a beautiful hike near Mt. Baker. Lovely!!


At the end of October, I turned 29!!! Can't believe it! Marcy and I planned to have a housewarming party at our new house, but little did I know that she also planned to have it double as a surprise party. Our friends teased her that she took the cheap way out by having me clean and prepare for my own birthday party - haha!! It was really fun and a great night spent with friends. And, lame as it may be...we took ZERO pictures!!!

Halloween we didn't have ANY Trick Or Treaters, so we left the house and spent the night with friends at a bar where you can bring your dogs. Billy was on cloud 9. We also watched the lame Ranger game that night - what a BUMMER!!

NOVEMBER:
I spent two weekends in Pullman at the KD house. The first one was for Council Officer Interviews. The second one was for Elections. The women elected a GREAT council and I'm excited to work with all the women next year.

We had ANOTHER (ha!) Girl Scout Field Trip. We had a lock-in at a local campground, and the girls spent the night doing fun activities, crafts, geocaching, and games. We all fell asleep watching "Alice In Wonderland" using a giant projector - it was like our own private movie theater. So fun!!

And now, here I sit, with the snow falling outside and loving it. I finally have some time to just sit with nothing to do and no excuses, so I BLOG!! Hope all is well where you are, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING. Hopefully I'll be back sooner than later :)

August updates thanks to my phone!

I've become so bad at remembering to take my camera with me! Luckily, since I have my phone, I can use that to remember events. It's not amazing picture quality, but it does the job...
Since working at my new job, I've discovered this awesome cupcake shop - check these out:


I went to Minnesota at the beginning of August for a family reunion. It was great to be back and see the cousins and enjoy some quality time. Of couse, I didn't take many pictures, so I'm relying on my dad to send me his. This is the only photo I got the whole weekend. Our first morning walk with Sadie:


I had a couple days after the reunion to hang out in Minneapolis before catching my flight home. I braved the crowds and headed to the Mall of America. It's changed a lot since I was there as a kid, but it was still a humorous experience :)


Marcy and I went with a couple of friends to a Melissa Etheridge concert with some friends. It was at the Paramount Theater, which is a really old theater that I love:



Our year living at Linden's house ends September 30, so we've been looking at a lot of places to live. We'd like to buy within the next year or so, but for now, I'm really excited with the place we found a couple weeks ago:

It has two bedrooms, one bath, a completely redone kitchen and living area, a full basement (unfinished, but that's FINE with me - more storage!!!), and the closets have these awesome closet organizers in them that I'm in love with. We move in next week!!!

Marcy and I went to this awesome event at the Woodland Park Zoo called "Tasting Flight" where we got to taste wines from a lot of local wineries and explore the Northwest America zoo exhibit. It was perfect weather and definitely delightful!!

Last weekend was a Girl Scout event called GirlFest! It was a really fun event with over 6000 attendees and lots of cool activities, ending with a concert by Josh Golden, who is a Radio Disney star - the girls went CRAZY! I was responsible for decorating the Meet and Greet Room for Josh to sign autographs and take pictures. This photo isn't the final result, but pretty close. I had a lot of fun!

This weekend we're in Denver, and since I'm up before everyone else (my typical pattern), I thought I'd blog a little. We're staying at our friend, Jenny's apartment, and her dog Koda does this 20 hours out of the day:

He is SO cute!! :)

Minnesota Here I Come!!!

It's another gorgeous day in Seattle, and it's supposed to stay that way through the weekend...but of course, I'm leaving tomorrow to head to Minneapolis...where it's raining.... I'm very excited, though, because I'm meeting all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, and Bryan & Leann for our Family Reunion!!!! The last time we were all together was when my grandmother passed away six years ago, so it'll be great to all be in the same place together again.

I leave tomorrow afternoon, so after work today, I'll be packing, cleaning, and doing laundry. I have tomorrow off from Girl Scouts, but I open at Starbucks in the morning, which actually works out well, because then I'll be tired enough to sleep on the plane.

This morning, Billy and I went for our usual 3-mile jog around Green Lake. After we climbed the hill back home, I made a pit stop at Starbucks. Billy had to wait outside. This is how he felt about it.... (and I don't know why the photo is upside down...it definitely takes away from the cuteness factor...)


Have a great week!

Time Flies...

I can't believe how quickly the summer is passing by...

A quick recap of my life the past month:

It was a cold, dreary 4th of July here in Seattle. A couple of our friends live on a boat (cool, right?!?!) and we were going to watch fireworks from there, but bailed when the rain and wind didn't stop. July 5th = Beautiful...go figure :) We went on a really nice hike to Snoqualmie Falls, and really enjoyed it!!

I finished up my job at the YMCA on July 7th, and enjoyed a nice long weekend, starting at Girl Scouts on July 12th. I've been there a little more than a week, and I LOVE it. I feel totally different about this job than I felt about my job at the YMCA, and I'm so excited to be working for Girl Scouts in this new capacity!! Speaking of Girl Scouts...have you seen the new Girl Scout brand? It is totally rad and I love it!!

This weekend, some friends and I got together to watch "Troop Beverly Hills," make s'mores and pop popcorn in a kettle. It was really fun - most of the friends work at Girl Scouts, and hadn't seen "Troop Beverly Hills," which I was shocked by, so it was fun to watch it with them and laugh at what a ridiculous (and AWESOME!) movie it is!!

Today I got to take a new GS employee on a tour of our one of our camp properties, Camp River Ranch. We had a great time, and hiked all over camp, which I really enjoy. Tomorrow I'm going to visit one of our Community Day Camps (different from River Ranch because it's held at a community park and run exclusively by volunteers).

Here are some pictures I took with my phone during my morning workout the other day...I used the iPhone app "Hipstamatic" which takes "vintage" pictures - LOVE IT!!

Another New Job

Funny how the last time I posted, it was about a new job, and now exactly a month later, I have another new job.... Here's the story.

I started my new full-time job at the YMCA as a Program Supervisor of Before/After School Care and Day Camp Director in the summer. I was also still working part time for Girl Scouts and Starbucks, so my days were JAM PACKED - I left every morning at 6:00, and got home in the evenings at 6:30 or 7:00 - exhausting... The new job at the YMCA started out okay, but I never had that feeling of excitement I think you should have when starting a new job.... I thought I would give it some time, and see if I just needed to adjust. Well, the adjustment never happened. Instead of creating curriculum and supervising staff like I was told during my interview I'd be doing, I was providing direct care and felt more like a Day Care worker than anything else. Just not my cup of tea, so to speak.

Then, a job at Girl Scouts came open, I applied, and now it's my NEW JOB!!! The title is Area Manager - it's a job I've had my eyes on since first moving to Seattle, and a job I applied for in the past. I really like the Regional Director I'll be working for, and I am really glad to be staying with Girl Scouts. My reasons for leaving to go to the YMCA were not that I was frustrated with Girl Scouts, just more that I was ready for a new challenge. I know I may not have given the YMCA job 100% with still having two other part time jobs, but I think I would've wanted to put more into it had I been enjoying it more.

So, I'm finishing up my last two weeks as Day Camp Director, and then my YMCA Director will take over. She is being amazingly supportive through all this, and said this isn't the first time someone has left for the same reasons. I definitely feel badly, but I also think this is the right move for me.

I start as the Area Manager in July. I will be supervising 2,000 volunteer Troop Leaders, recruiting girls to Girl Scouting, and recruiting volunteers. I'm also going to serve on the Teen Programs committee and the Gold Award committee (the Gold Award is the highest Girl Scouting award - like the Eagle Scout). I can't wait for this job to start!!! WOOHOO!! :)