Seattle with Matt

Our friend, Matt, was in Portland visiting and popped up here to Seattle. We were able to go down to the city and spend the afternoon with him. It was so much fun!

We started out at the Olympic Sculpture Park. We, of course, had to have a little fun making fun of what some people consider art (e.g. a washer and dryer in a meadow). Hmmm. Just not sure somehow. It was fun walking around and chatting, getting caught up on each others lives. It is right on the sound which makes it very pretty but a little bit smelly too.

After that we headed over to Kerry Park and had a picnic lunch. It was so yummy! We had sandwiches of home made bread and left over grilled chicken, chips and salsa, apples, home made blueberry muffins and home made Swirly Peanut Butter Brownies. Nugget even made a new friend--the super sweet puppy you see above! So cute! Matt kept us well informed telling us all about the history of Seattle he learned while on the Duck Tour. We so need to take that! (We're geeks, I know.) We, of course, had to end the day with coffee. Matt had asked around and found out about this great coffee shop, Zeitgeist. So yummy! Good friends, good food, good coffee, good views--all-in-all, a great day.

Come on out friends--we'd love to go exploring with you!

Fun Times in WA

A Long Time

Hello, friends. It's been a long time. I do apologize. For those of you who know me in real life, I'm sure you understand where I've been. For those of you I have only met online, we had a baby, purged our home, rehomed our beloved animals, packed what was left of our belongings into a truck, Ralph hurt his back, drove 2400 miles, moved into a new house and I went back to work full time at a REAL hospital. *grin*

Our life is a little different now but it is good. Our books, pictures and decorative items are still in boxes cluttering up the house and garage. All functional, need-for-daily-living things are out and in use. Nugget is adjust well to her new home and is as busy as ever. Garbonzita has in a blink gone from a sleepy, cuddly newborn to an alert and happy 3 month old! She is reaching for things, cooing and giggling, ticklish and sleeping large segments of the night away.

Ralph and I are adjusting to our current roles. Work is going good. I am super busy taking care of pretty sick people. I am dusting off rusty skills like nursing judgment and time management. There are things that I miss about working with the Air Force and things I was glad to leave behind. Ralph is learning to multitask with little ones. He takes them grocery shopping and gets to (new) churches on Sundays with them while I work. His is baking bread, baking Nugget's "muffies" (muffins), feeding Garbonzita, making dinner, laundry, running errands, etc all while looking for work and sending out resumes. We are both grateful to all who helped get us here and miss our friends.

Speaking of friends, the Lord has provided some of those already as well. One of the girls from my nursing class back at Cedarville lives here with her husband and 3 girls. They have been such an encouragement and help to us. Ironically, she and her husband are both originally from MN as well. We are also invited to a 2nd birthday party this Saturday. It's for the daughter of one of my coworkers. We are actively looking for a church home and have one more church we'd like to try before we try to make a decision.

There is so much to see and do here. We've been to the ocean a couple of times. We drove up to the mountains once. We've been down to the city a couple of times. We still haven't been to any of the lakes close by or made it to lots of other places. I think we'll be kept busy sightseeing for a long time to come.