Travels...

We have been traveling around the US the past few months....hence the lack of updates on our blog. But now we are stationary again and living in San Diego, CA. Internet access and computers are once again available - so let the blogging begin!

Check back soon for updates on where we've been, what we've been doing, and why we are in San Diego!

See you soon.

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!

Learning to skateboard

Our nephew Andrew got a skateboard from his parents for his birthday. So first thing Saturday was riding lessons out front. We spent a bit of time trying to get Andrew covered from head to toe in safety gear...and a good thing too, I don't think that he needs any more broken bones. Then Robert and Vince tried showing him how to ride the skateboard without falling off, which took a while for the guys to even succeed at demonstrating!

Not to be outdone by his older brother, Jacob decided he wanted to learn as well. The poor kid was having a hard time sharing the attention with his big brother and kept saying, "It's Jacob's birthday now too!" He learned quickly that the easiest way to ride and guarantee not falling off is to just lay down on the board - it brings the center of gravity to a much easier to manage level.

By the time Vince and I left back to Olympia Andrew was riding like a pro.

Andrew's Birthday

Saturday was our nephew Andrew's 9th birthday, and we were so excited to be able to spend it with him and the rest of the family down in LA.

We didn't let Jacob and Andrew know we were coming in town, we thought keeping it a surprise would be more fun. When we drove up to the house on Thursday, Andrew was just walking around the corner from school. He had been told that when he came home there would be a surprise waiting for him, when he saw Vince and I he ran to give us a hug and said, "I thought it was going to be a puppy!" I'm not quite sure if he thought we were better than a puppy or not.

What happened to the sunshine?

Vince and I are so blessed to be able to make a quick trip down to LA. It was very last minute, because we were waiting on cheap tickets - but we are currently in LA with Vince's family, about to celebrate our nephew, Andrew's, 9th birthday in a couple hours. Vince is playing dominoes with Andrew right now, waiting on all his school friends to show up to the house.

Leaving gloomy Olympia we were excited at the prospect of sunshine and warm weather, unfortunately I think we carried the weather with us on the airplane. It rained yesterday in LA as we landed, it has been drizzling all day today...what happened to sunny southern California? Maybe God didn't want us to feel too homesick coming down here, so he let it rain so it wouldn't seem better than Washington! To top it off its supposed to snow back in Olympia when we land Monday morning. We just can't win.

All in all, sunshine or cloudy weather, it is wonderful to be with family. I am so thankful for our weekend trip - it was just the break that we needed.