Taking advantage of a clear day

Last Saturday was a clear day, so we decided to take a walk in the woods - when you live in Washington you have to take advantage of any day that it doesn't rain. During the fall we had found a beautiful park called Priests Point Park, it has a wonderful rose garden (which we haven't seen in full bloom yet) and trails that take you to the Puget Sound.

This time we took some different trails through the woods. It was a bit chilly but so nice to be outside again. We even found some signs of spring peeking through, I cant wait to see what Washington looks like in full bloom.

All in all, it was a beautiful day and a wonderful walk.

I Love You Jars

Vince and I have come up with a project I am calling our "I Love You Jars." I don't know about you, but with the current economy date nights have been few and far between, and it has taken a lot of work to come up with new and unique ways of saying I love you without spending much money. This is exactly what we came up with I Love You Jars for.

We both sat down with strips of paper, a pen, and two jars in front of us, one labeled "for Vincent" and the other "for Lorissa." Each of us wrote down things we would want the other to do for us, things that are free or relatively cheap. Things like, "bring home Jamba Juice," "Send me a letter in the mail,""Have a picnic dinner in the living room" or "Leave a note of the top ten reasons you love me on my pillow." You can get as creative, practical or mushy as you want. Anything I wanted Vince to do for me I put in the jar labeled "for Lorissa," and anything I thought Vince might want me to do for him I placed in the jar marked "for Vincent," and he did the same for me.

Whenever we want to do something special for the other person we can just grab an idea out of the jar - the great part is Vince will now exactly what kind of things will make me feel loved and I will know exactly what he would like most, no guessing involved and no more having to hint around! And it all works on a tight budget, you don't have to spend a ton of money to say I love you.

I'll let you know how it works as we start to use the ideas we placed in the jars. As a post note, Vince had the great idea to make some slips up that say "write 3 new slips of paper and place in the jar," that way we don't run out too quickly.

Feeling Sick...Again!

I solved a great mystery today. Vince and I have been getting sick frequently since we've moved to Washington, I have been sick at least 7 times in the less than 5 months we've lived here. We went to work on Monday, both of us feeling pretty bad and our coworkers asked if we had checked our apartment for mold. Now I had been chalking our frequent sicknesses up to our systems poorly adapting to the new climate in Washington, it is a big difference from California weather, but after being sick so often and for so long I was beginning to believe that there had to be another culprit. So, as soon as my coworkers mentioned mold, I decided to do a thorough inspection of our little home.

As soon as we made it home from work I checked our bathroom, closets, , carpet, laundry room and windows....at the winner was the window sills. Our window are lined with a black seal...which apparently made it very difficult to notice the mold growth without an up close inspection. So I grabbed my handy cleaning toothbrush and bleach and went to work, and now that I know about the Northwest's tendency towards mold I'll be bleaching my windows regularly!

Here's to hoping that my husband and I stay healthy from now on and that the mold was the guilty party to our mysterious sicknesses!