Breakfast Test

This is our first full weekend in our new house. So we wanted to have a fun breakfast together. But we really haven't gone grocery shopping since moving out of our apartment. So with our leftover ingredients we had buckwheat pancakes with bannana syrup and eggs. The egg carton said they were expired, but a trick we learned from the days of Mr. Wizard was to test them in water.

Here you can see a good egg and a bad one. (The bad ones float)

As far as progress with the house, we have decided not to scrape the rest of the ceilings. Or should I say, I won't be scraping any more ceilings, as Erin didn't participate. It made the whole house dusty, I'm sure we've ruined at least one vacuum, and my hands are dry and crackling. However, it was fun spraying the mud onto the ceiling for the orange peel texture. My friend Jared came over with his compressor to help out. Sorry there are no pictures, the camera was misplaced at the time.

Also, our current front door doesn't have a deadbolt. So I purchased a door-hole maker to do the job. But the drill bit broke off in the middle of drilling and left itself in the middle of the door. The door now is completely scratched up and looks awful. A quick trip to Home Depot and I returned the unlodged part of the drill bit and exchanged it for a new door. The new door is fiberglass with an ornate half-moon shaped window at the top. It's pre-hung so it came with a new door jamb and everything. I just have never installed one before, so I'm a little hesitant to start ripping a hole in the front of my new house.

I need to stop watching the DIY Network, otherwise I'll keep thinking that I can do all of these projects on my own. Next project, custom built-in bookshelves, new windows, sunroom off of the kitchen...

Settling In

We are now actually living in our new house (hooray!) and hard at work on some updates. Joshua has expertly applied texture to the bedroom ceiling and painted it too. We finished painting our now creamy yellow kitchen. Today we intend to finish painting the bedroom so we can move our bed in. I have been lining shelves and cabinets all over so we can put things away - a slow but steady process. Six has made himself at home. He prefers our bed to any other spot in the house unless there is an open closet door or cabinet - then he heads inside for some privacy.
I have also been settling in at work. Have I mentioned yet that I love it? I knew I loved teaching, but somehow in the craziness of the last eight years the joy had faded away. I am happy to say that it is back and better than ever! It is so wonderful to have parents in my room helping out with everything they can - grading and filing, helping students, sharpening pencils, etc.

Moving Day

Yesterday was a whirlwind of moving fun. Joshua and I were up and moving before 6 (although he made me wait for breakfast and coffee until 8!) We got everything packed and ready to go. Surprisingly, this was the only time that I actually packed any boxes. Joshua packed like crazy all week while I worked on school stuff. One of my students gave me a gift card to Starbucks, so we treated ourselves to their new "warmed" breakfast selections. Not bad food, but for $15 we could have had a much better spread at a diner. Next stop - truck rental. Joshua found an amazing deal of $25 a day. Back at the apartment our moving crew was beginning to arrive (what would we do without family??).In about an hour and a half the truck was all loaded and we set off to the house. Marisa and I stopped to grab a lovely pizza lunch (can't beat Little Caesar's $5 deal). After a quick break we began unloading. In about an hour, we were done! I think that's got to be a record or something. The secret to our speed: everything is in the garage and not yet in the house. Not very convenient, but we can finish painting and ceiling scraping without worrying about covering our stuff. So now we are staying with Joshua's folks. Six is happy as a clam to be back in his favorite waterfront spot. Now we get to go back to our new home and try to find some clothes to wear this week ...

Ceiling Scraping = Mess

So I thought it would be nice to scrape the icky popcorn off of our new ceilings. We put our nephew Spencer to work donned in mask and goggles. What a mess that stuff made! The whole house (and half the neighborhood) was covered in powder. Joshua took over to finish the task and he managed to keep the dust to only the one room. Take a look at Spencer the "snowman"!

Let the fun begin!

Yesterday began our new home improvement projects. After a quick trip to the house to assess the situation, we headed to Home Depot for the first of many shopping trips to come. $500 later, we made it back to the house and started painting. We decided to go with a very pale color palette. So pale in fact, that you may see the wall we are painting as white. Nope. It's actually a light shade of purple for our master retreat. Today we are going back for more painting fun, and maybe a little yard work. Doesn't that sound better than a Labor Day BBQ? Maybe we should go back to Home Depot and buy a BBQ ... now that sounds fun!

It's Official!

Today I went to pick up the keys to our new home! Can you believe it? It was not the happy moment I thought it would be - Joshua is out of town for the weekend and we aren't actually moving in until next weekend. This on top of starting school on Tuesday ... But I suppose that's fitting since it isn't the home I had been hoping for either. :) If only it looked more like this house...

Back to School Fun

I know it's hard to believe, but summer is quickly coming to and end and the new school year is upon us! I have been working like a mad woman to get my classroom all ready for my students. As hard as it is to start over with a classroom, I have enjoyed making it my own. Tonight was the back to school picnic - a fun, family event where everyone can get to know each other. The children had fun exploring our room and I had a wonderful time getting to know the families. We have more school supplies than I know what to do with and promises of parent helpers like you wouldn't believe! The staff at my new school are amazing as well. I feel like we've been friends for years! This is going to be such a wonderful year!

Our First House!

It's close to official. By Thursday of next week (one week away) we should be signing the escrow papers closing the deal. It's not exactly what we had in mind for a first home, but it is a stepping stone to better things to come. For the same money we could've purchased twice the home on half the land further out in the sticks. But as Erin always said, "It's better to buy the cheapest home in the best neighborhood rather than the biggest home in the worst neighborhood. And in the 98335 Zip code there are no bad neighborhoods. (okay, maybe there could be, but I'd still feel comfortable leaving the keys in my car.)

The home is just over 1,000 square feet with a one car garage. The garage is mostly finished so we can use it for living space.

The floors are real wood (I don't know the kind of wood, I'd like to say oak) throughout the dining, kitchen and hallways of the house. It's three bedrooms and one bathroom, and sits on 2/3rds of an acre. Our kids can ride their bikes to the second best elementary school in Gig Harbor, or if Erin still works at Lighthouse Christian School, they can go to the first best elementary school.

The living room is small but we have big plans to make it our reading room by installing some custom shelves beside and above the fireplace.

So many places to put our personal touch in this house and outside. The yard has some work to do to make it beautiful.

This is my first time going through the home buying process and it's confusing, frustrating, and quite stressful at all times. I'm sure many of you know how much Erin hates to pack and move; with that and Erin starting a new school year, life at home requires a little more patience than we've been giving it.

All in all, I'm excited for the new home. Finally something I can call mine and do whatever I want to with it. And with so much land I can build that garden I've been wanting, and composting center, and...

No News is Good News

I know everyone reading out there in Blogger world is desperate to know what we've been up to lately, so this post is just for you!
Summer is winding down so quickly - I only have two days left at the zoo! I've already spent a couple of days working in my new classroom. Joshua has been keeping busy with his work too. The rest of our time has been spent house hunting. We have an offer on a house in Gig Harbor and are awaiting the seller's response to our post-inspection adjustments. Don't worry, we'll tell you more once we know if it's ours. Joshua had inspired a new "toxic free" lifestyle which includes taking vitamins made only from plant sources, eliminating Sweet n Low ( I never thought I'd see the day...), and eating a low glycemic diet. If you'd like to more about it, ask him - he'd love to talk to you! We joined the new YMCA in Gig Harbor to continue our new healthy lifestyle, but it doesn't open until the 21st. We are looking forward to Zumba and ballroom dance classes!
Other than that, it's life as usual for us. Hope you enjoyed the update.

Trip to California

While Erin is reading about the last adventures of Harry Potter, I thought I'd catch you up on what we did last week.

It was our first trip back to California after moving to the green state of Washington. And sad to say, we didn't really miss our old home. We, of course, missed all our family. Which one-by-one, we'll get to move up to Washington with us.

Erin's cousin Alex and Grandma came to visit California too, from Albuquerque. It's always fun to spend time with them. Erin's dad brought us all to Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland, and do a whole lot of swimming with goggles.

Disneyland has been taken over by Pirates this year. Tom Sawyer's Island is now the Pirates Lair. With captain Jack sparrow signing autographs at one end and performing a stunt show on the other. You can search for lost treasure, or get captured by a primitive tribe, like us. The submarine ride was open, but with a two plus hour wait in line, we decided to pass on that adventure.

Erin's mom is always a delight, so much of Erin's humor is in her. I missed her a lot too. Jackie wanted us to have a late Breakfast together at a restaurant we don't have in Washington. I suggested BC Cafe for their great pancakes. But Jackie said that they have cockroaches and vetoed the vote in favor of Mimi's Cafe. Three days later, I had my BC Cafe pancakes. (They had an "A" rating on the window)

Maybe one of these days we can leave without mom getting a tear in her eye. Perhaps it'll be the day when she leaves with us.

For many more pictures of our trip visit our Web Album Page

Spa Day at Seacliff

The first week of summer when the kids were all out of school, the Mason gals and I decided to go out for pedicures. After balancing the budget, we all decided to change plans. A picnic at the beach sounded much more reasonable. Joshua used to attend a "Vino Night" where the host kept a journal handy each week for guests to write whatever they wanted. He bought us our own journal for writing out thoughts and feelings. Here is Marisa compsing her entry for the day.

The day was slightly cooler than we had hoped, but nothing a long sleeved shirt couldn't fix. We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch of bagel sanwiches that stuck to our teeth, chips, drinks, and cookies for dessert.

Since the original plan was to get pedicures, I found an at-home version at Big Lots. For just $1, each gal got sandals and foot-shaped brushes with pumice on one end. I threw in a set of clippers, scissors, files, and paint and here is the result! Now we need to schedule a day for manicures ...

Zoo Day!

A few weeks ago the Muellers came for a visit. The highlight of their trip (for me anyway) was a day at the zoo where I work. This is a beautiful picture of the entrance with majestic Mount Rainier in the background.








William was in charge of reading the map ... no wonder we got so lost! Ok, we didn't get lost at all since we had such a well informed tour guide. :)
William enjoyed feeding the goats almost as much as I did. Isn't the zoo fun?
This was not from the zoo, but I didn't seem to get any pictures of Mackenzie there. She loved watching all the animals! Here she is with something else she loves ... shoes! Hers, yours, left, right, it matters not to this little one.

The Third Time is the Charm

We were scheduled to leave Seattle at 7:20pm Tuesday night, and we happened to arrive rather early (around 5:30) since traffic was lighter than expected. So, we checked out the shops, then sat and read our books for a while. When our plane arrived, it was having mechanical difficulties, so we had to wait for another plane to arrive, making our new departure time 9:10. Argg. So went back to the shops, played soduko on the computer, took the train to the other gates, walked around there, and returned to find out that now our plane had a failed circuit breaker. Not to worry, there was another plane on the way and we would be leaving at 10:30. Yikes! Surprisingly, all passengers seemed to be in good spirits about the delay. Nobody wants to fly on a plane with angry people! We finally arrived safely with coupons for $25 off our next flight at 1:20am. Good thing we weren't flying out on a connecting flight!

For my Mom

A few blocks from our house is Point Defiance Park where there is an amazing rose garden. Mom asked for a picture of the most perfect rose we could find, so here it is in her favorite color, yellow! And just for fun, here I am next to my favorite color, pink. Last, but certainly not leasr is a beautiful hydrangea. They are in full bloom all over this great state. One of my favorite plants (not pictured) is an amazing blue hydrangea at the zoo.

Family Portraits

In June our family had portraits taken, since everyone was here for my niece Madison's graduation from High School
Only my brother-in-law is missing from this picture because of sickness.
Top Row: Dad, Mom
Middle Row: Debbie with Mackenzie, Walter, Mike, Mary, Pattie, Me, Erin, Joe
Bottom Row: William, Marisa, Austin, Chandler, Madison, Mavric, Richie, Blake, Spencer
Below is a picture of our family from the late 70's. I'm the sailor. Boy, have we grown. Hey, Dad, I have your tie now.
Finally is a picture just of the guys. My dad, brother, and myself.

Another fun-filled day!

Yesterday morning I had to go to Renton (almost to Seattle) to have my fingerprints taken for my teaching certificate. Joshua and I both thought traffic would be a nightmare, so he came with me to make use of the carpool lane. We left extra early and surprise surprise - no traffic at all! So we spent our hour at Starbucks enjoying the coffee, listening to the sentence-long descriptions of other people's coffee, and our library books. Aside from having to go to one office to fill out an application, another to pay, and then back down to the first for the actual printing, all went well at Education Department. It's so much nicer these days having it computerized - no black fingertips! When I go off work, I went to pick up Joshua (yes, his car is STILL in the shop) and we drove around looking at houses for sale before heading home. Then, our usual walk through the park followed dinner. Mount Rainier was quite a site! We tried taking a picture, but our camera just isn't fancy enough to capture the contrast of the mountain and the sky. For our evening entertainment, Joshua made some iced tea which we sipped out on the balcony while listening to records (do you remember what those are?) and playing Cribbage. Just as the sun was about to set (around 9:15 in these parts) we were invited to join the Mason family for some ice cream since they were in our neighborhood. We shared a dark chocolate ice cream with brownie and peanut butter mixed in ... delish! You've got to love the long days of summer. :)

Dinner fit for a ... 5 year old!

Tonight for dinner, Joshua and I had a feast of Fluffernutters (his crunchy and mine creamy), grapes, and to round it off a glass of milk. I had planned to make lasagna, but after a long day and two hungry tummies upon walking through the door, we found something a little faster.
Our fun day started with a new church, Journeys in North Tacoma. Joshua knew two couples already! Then we headed out to Federal Way for a very special treat ... Del Taco!!! We both had our favorite chicken tacos but they just weren't the same as those in our memories. We actually made the trip all the way out there to go to the Super Mall in Auburn. It reminds me of a fancy Ontario Mills (for the California readers) only with much better stores. I got some new duds for the school year and we enjoyed the window shopping too. Joshua had an inkling to go spend the afternoon in Seattle. Lots of other people apparently had the same idea, so free parking was impossible to find. Instead, we enjoyed the city from the car! We drove past the troll under the bridge, the Space Needle, Experience Music Project, and the beautiful waterfront with a handful of cruise ships ready for new adventures. If anyone comes to visit and wants to explore Seattle, we promise we'll park the car and show you all around! Summer is just getting started, so think about it, will ya?

Father's Day (still in the negative)

Well, another Father's day passed that I have to celebrate somebody else. Still in the negative, maybe next year will be father's day #1 for me or at least -1. But for now it seems like negative infinity. All my side of the family is in town because our oldest neice graduated from High School on the holiday. We started off by making breakfast at my dad's house for half the family. On the menu was homemade hashbrowns, thick butcher-cut bacon, scrambled eggs and french toast stuffed with cream cheese and marmalade (from famous Mimi's Pain Purdue). After breakfast there was another extreme low tide so Erin and I went trekking down the beach with our nephew William to share with him the excitement of the deep. But he must have some of the past Erin's timidity because he wasn't too sure about seeing all the creatures.

 

It's fun being able to see my family again. It was eight years ago when I moved away from this region, and mostly out of their lives. It is funny to run into all the old familiar faces so often now. My sister Mary, 13 years my senior, used to be always at my side as I was little. She has a son, Mavric, who is about 10, that exibits a lot of the same behaviors as myself. I jokingly said that it is because we were raised by the same woman. Mary's older daughter, Marisa, has spent some time lately with Erin and has discovered that she too exhibits behaviors of Mary. So all this time I thought I had made a mistake and not married my mom, I was just comparing to the wrong woman!

Low Tide Fun!

Washington has been having extreme low tides recently, so we decided to venture out and see some wild life first hand. We went right out in Joshua's parents' backyard and oh the things we got to see!
Here is a giant pink sea star. He was missing one arm, but we wanted it to look nice for the picture. Don't worry, sea stars can regenerate their arms.
Next, we came across a field of sand dollars. I have never seen so many in my life! There must have been over a hundred in a 2 foot section of sand. This one had his spines moving like crazy (you can kind of see them glistening in the picture.) Joshua found this salad-loving oyster too. These are not native to this area - they were brought here from Japan. If you find a shell on the beach, don't keep it! The young oysters attach to the empty shells.
This collection of pieces tell a bit about a moon snail. They have shells like the one pictured and eat bivalves by drilling a hole in the shell. Check out the clam shell in the picture! The most interesting thing about a moon snail is the way it protects its eggs. It buries them in the sand and then secretes a glue-like substance in the sand around the eggs creating a protective collar. You can pick it up and hold it and it won't fall apart! Weird!

We saw more crabs on the beach than we could count, but this was the biggest out of the water. This is a red rock crab and they, like other crabs, molt when they outgrow their exoskeleton. Even the eyes and gills are left behind! Many people mistake the molts for dead crabs, but not any uahardwick.com readers!

And here we have a cool eel-like fish called a gunnel. I don't know much about these guys other than that they live in very shallow water and look like a cross between an eel and a worm.

As we got closer to the bridge, the sea life exploded! Here you can see about a half dozen ochre stars. This was the best shot we could get since most of the stars we saw were in a couple feet of water. There were tons of purple and orange ochre stars, and even a few blue mottled stars (those are the ones with the long arms that stay almost uniform in width.)

Here's an ochre star up close. Do you know how these guys eat? They use their tube feet to pry open shells like mussels and clams, then spit out their stomach and digest the creature in its own shell! Once it's all soupy, the star slurps everything back in. Even more strange, when sea stars die, they don't realize it. Their stomach comes out though and they figure out the bad news when they can no longer eat. Bizarre!

Don't these anemones look like slimy bell peppers? They hold water inside their bodies to keep from drying out during a low tide. That's why they squirt if you poke them. But don't do that! Then they will dry out and die. Don't be a sea creature killer. You can see some of the open anemones under the water as well as more stars. Funny they're so close - those purple stars like to eat anemones!

This is one of the posts of the Purdy bridge. It is just covered with these green anemones! They can actually clone themselves by splitting in half, which is why they all look so similar. If they were open you would see their beautiful pink tips. They feel sticky to the touch, which is actually a sting, but our skin is too tough for the sting to penetrate.

Last, but certainly not least, here is why the beach along this section is called the Spit - geoducks! Pronounced "gooey-duck", these clam-like creatures spit up to 3 feet of water! They can't fit this long neck (pictured) into their shell, so their best defense is to bury themselves in the sand. This neck of theirs can stretch up to 39" to the surface! Also very interesting. geoducks can live up to 160 years! Strange!

We had such a fun day exploring the outdoors, it was one of my favorite days ever! If you know me (at all) you know that I am an indoor girl and under normal circumstances, avoid wildlife at all costs. But you forget dear readers that I am now a zoo employee and spend many days monitoring the touch tanks which contain almost all of the above mentioned creatures. Knowledge of these strange critters had erased the fear and made me a fan of low tide days!

I've got a new job!

Working in Washington has been very strange for me. I started out grading writing tests for eight hours a day - the pay was ok and it was full time, but WOW was it ever boring. Then I started teaching at Sylvan which I love! I am subbing for another teacher two days a week and teach my own groups two days a week. The kids are fun and the staff is awesome. Unfortunately, it is very part time and the hours are awkward. Finally, I have been having a blast working at the zoo. I get to work weekdays and a few Saturdays here and there and I love it! Three jobs, however, are just not enough for me ... so... I accepted a first grade teaching position at Lighthouse Christian School! I start the last week of August, so I get to continue with Sylvan and the zoo until then. I didn't expect to go back into the classroom, but this job seems to be the perfect fit. I am going in next Friday to observe the teachers in action and hang out with the little ones on Field Day. I think this will be my last "new job" post for quite a while!!