B is for Big City Times for a Small Town Dude

Andrew and I had the pleasure of showing our 2nd guest ever around Seattle. His parents visited during the summer and then, in cold, dreary January, my dad came to see us! Having guests always gives you the opportunity to do the "touristy" things that you don't normally think of doing after you become accustomed to living here. Here is a pictureful post to show everyone what fun we had!

On one of the first days we walked all the way from the stadiums to Olympic Sculpture Park, which is a few blocks from the Space Needle. Round trip, its about 6 miles of walking, yee haw!

We took the infamous Seattle Underground Tour! Andrew and I had wanted to go, but he was at work. Luckily it was so fun, that I would love to go again. Andrew would love all the historic stories involved. The story basically is, that when Seattle was settled the first time around, they messed up, and ended up having to build new Seattle, on top of old, flooded, shitty (literally) Seattle. Pictured below are the skylights from the underground looking up to the current "1st floor" level Seattle.

Here's what the skylights look like from above. I always thought they were some artsy purple amethyst thing that Seattle just did because. Which is often the case. For art's sake of course. 

Old storefronts in underground Seattle. Super creepyish.



Underground Seattle's famed "sewing circle." The most lucrative business in Seattle's early days. I won't give it away but these seamstresses weren't exactly making quilts. Can you find anything odd about the picture below?



 We took an inexpensive ride on the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Walked around for the day, had a great lunch, and saw some great scenery. Here's the skyline as seen from the ferry. Gorgeous.

And a view of the Needle and Mt. Rainier from Bainbridge. Aren't the houses SO CUTE!? Right on the water. Those people are such luckies!

All smiles for father-daughter time, and an artsy sunset :)



We induldged in great sea food, and many trips to Starbucks during Dad's visit. Also, I had to work for a couple of days, so Andrew and Dad also had their man time to go see strippers and talk about sports, or whatever men do. Just kidding, they went to the Museum of Flight.....as far as I know. Ah shucks I missed it! Thanks for taking the time to visit Dad, it was a memorable time!

U is for Up All Night Crafting

Crafts > Laundry

Back in the good ole days when I had cable, I would have a show to watch almost every day of the week. It helps to pass the time during deployments, and gave me little things to look forward to. Thats a roundabout way tellling you, I was watching a hillarious show, Up All Night, and they had an AMAZING wreath on their door. I couldn't find a still shot of it, but its basically a peace sign with metal studs all over it.

So here is my Up All Night inspired wreath that now gracefully adorns our front door. We're so trendy ;)



Instead of purchasing the usual wreath frame from a craft store, I went to the hardware store for almost all the materials for this wreath. A Pinterest tip prompted me to buy pipe insulation for the frame, which costs about $1, compared to $4 or $5 at the craft store. I simply made a circle, then guestimated the 3 inner sections after that. If you measure correctly, they should fit in place like a puzzle without any glue.

I chose to wrap the pieces individually with ribbon, and then assemble them inside of the larger circle. Because of the angles involved, ribbon wrapping the peace sign as a whole might've been a little too complicated.

Finally, for the studs, I used, get this, upholstery nails!

They're like thumbtacks with little domes on top, which was perfect! Costs about $1 per package of 25. And here's the finished product! A great everyday wreath for those times in between holidays.

Until next time....

Cheers,

KLM



A is for Appetizing AND Healthy? No way.

I try to dabble in healthy food, and I would like to think of myself as a pretty healthy eater (besides the recent sugar cravings, that is). A while back, I subscribed to Women's Health Magazine Online, and recently, probably as some kind of subliminal messaging about not getting lazy, Mom got me a Fitness Magazing subscription. Just kidding Mommmmm!

My fellow coworkers at the aquarium are also eat really healthy. They eat things like chia seeds, hemp seeds, bran, seaweed, quinoa, and everything organic and/or vegan and/or gluten-free. Being surrounded by that kind of stuff makes you think about what you eat. So here's a recipie from an old Women's Health, that I tweaked a little, but its still healthy and yummy!

• Roughly 1 cup of crumbled cooked tilapia. Cook however you like, I just used lemon juice, salt and pepper on the George Foreman grill.
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced kale
• 1/4 diced tomatoes, drained
• 3 Tbsp crumbled feta
• 3 tsp lime juice
• 2 tsp olive oil
• A couple sprinkles of cumin
• Wheat tortillas, warmed

Mix it all together and wah-lah! This is great for leftover fish or chicken. And did you know kale has been found to protect againt breast and ovarian cancer? Red onions contain chromium, which can help protect against diabetes. And tilapia is a great source of phosporous, which keeps your digestive systme and skin healthy!

Now go try this recipie and tell me what you think!

Cheers,

KLM

January Favorites

I cannot believe it's already the end of the month. Forgive me for having so few posts lately, life is crazy when you work 40 hrs a week for free ;) I'll save the aquarium and Seattle adventures for an upcoming post, but here are my favorite things for the month of January:

• I'm in love with the end of January because it means 2+ weeks of hearts and sweets and love and pink. I am a sucker for holidays and the feelings they give me. Valentine's Day makes me feel so smiley and cheerful! Last year, I made a paper heart chain, complete with red glitter, that stretched around my entire living room. Yea....probably about 40 feet worth of glittery hearts.

• Ever since grad school I've not been much of a fan of reading. Never read so many books in my life. But my Kindle Christmas gift and rides on the Light Rail every morning have prompted me to start up this whole "reading for fun" thing. From what I've heard, the Hunger Games Triology started out as a series directed towards teenagers, then a much larger audience caught on. It's basically about a futuristic North America where annually they choose a boy and a girl from each of the 12 districts to go to the Hunger Games, and fight to the death, till there is only one winner. I'm on the second book and they are so fun to read. I often hate myself in the mornings because I can't put it down at night.

• Another Christmas gift that I'm loving. My mother just knows me so well :) This FlipFold makes my dressers so pretty and organized. An organized home is a happy home!

• Sugar. Oh my goodness. I'm not proud of this being my favorite this month. I don't know what it is! Andrew says I have a problem. Cookies, cake, donuts, chocolate, frosting....I can't get enough. Not such a good thing to have as a favorite! I usually tell people I don't have a sweet tooth, I have a salty tooth, because I crave salt much more often than sugar. NOT THIS MONTH! Eating frosting by the spoonful must not be apart of my life next month, or Feburary's favorites list will be topped by Weight Watchers meetings!

I'll catch up soon with more posts I pinky swear!

P is for Post Holidays

So here I am, back in the land of Subarus, seagulls, and evergreens. Being in Kansas for a few weeks was absolutely wonderful! I ventured back and forth between Topeka and Winfield a few times; north and south, up and down, doin' the holiday shuffle. My favorite memories of the trip involved simply being with my family whom I hadn't seen in a long time. KJ and I decorated the tree, we all ate a ton of food, laughed for hours, had lazy days, and coddled me and my screwed up sinuses (I am NOT good at being sick. It just makes me so mad! I have better things to do than feel crappy.)
I spent a lot of time with Andrew's nieces and nephews. All 4 of them. Under the age of 4, God bless em. Here is the newest addition, sweet little Natalie, in her lamb coat!

I feel like it takes a special kind of person to appreciate scenery like Kansas'. The Flint Hills is one of my favorite drives ever. You can see for miles, and the blue sky sits right on top of the hills. No buildings, no trees. Nothing to separate the best friends of land and sky :) Much different than the Washington scenery, that's for sure.

Much of my time home was spent watching Andrew fly his.....wait....fix. his new remote control airplane. We watched it slam into a telephone pole, get snapped nearly in half, fly into a tree a block away, and it's still alive!! The thing did start to grow on me after I got a lesson from the pilot himself. We'll see how long those feelings last. In the meantime, I'm getting my shotgun warmed up for sporting clay lessons, so I hope we don't try to "practice" our respective interests at the same time ;)

We took a horse and buggy ride with two GIANT Clydesdales in Winfield. Just a short, chilly ride around their famed "Isle of Lights" display.

Got to have coffee with one of the best friends ever from my college days. It was so great to see Ashley and get caught up in person. Since moving, first to Oklahoma, and now to Washington, I have found that true friends are hard to come by. Distance makes things inconvenient to many people, which is a shame when you think you are close friends with somebody. Luckily, I have a select few girl friends who have been supportive, and not let mileage get in the way. They know who they are and I couldn't be more grateful for them!

And finally, New Years! We have a great tradition of going somewhere new each year with a couple, Eric and Kelli. This year, we traveled alllll the way to Wichita for a nice dinner, and dancing! If only we had gotten a good picture....funny Andrew. Real funny.

That's all I've got for now. I hope your holidays were all you wished for! Can't wait till next time when I can fill you all in on some aquarium happenings. Until then....

Cheers,

KLM

December Favorites

I have not done a very good job at keeping up with all I've been doing lately, but being back home in Kansas has been wonderful! It will make it tough to go back to Seattle in a week or so. I'll be sure to update you on all the cool things I've been up to over the holiday season. But for now, here are my favorite things for this month!

• My new Kindle Fire! As an unexpected Christmas present from Andrew, this little guy is so fun! I never thought I would've needed one of these things, but I've used it a ton already. I can get on the internets, download music, and get read lots of books! He thought it would be great for when I ride the train everyday and won't have to worry about hauling around a big book that doesn't fit in my purse. The best part is that before he gave it to me, he downloaded some of my favorite music, and a book from my favorite author onto it for me. Such a thoughtful guy :)

 

• Giving gifts! I know I have mentioned it many times before, but for me, the best part of the holiday season is making/picking out gifts for my close friends and family. My parameters for gift giving are ones that are personal, thoughtful, and useful. I will be sure to show some pictures of my favorites that I made in my post-holiday blog.

•  The beginning of justice! This. My family, and our close family friends have been waiting for this to happen for almost 10 years. In 2002, Mike and Karen were found shot at Karen's residence. I have had the privilege of knowing the Mike's children, and the Boots family for my entire life. I remember the funeral. I remember hearing the buzz about Dana showing up. It was creepy and disgusting. Mike's children, Dustin, who is my age, and Haley, who is older, have turned out to be successful, bright adults. I have never seen such strength and perseverance, despite this horrible, prolonged process that they have had to go through. Every time I think about having a bat shit crazy mother, or testifying against her, all I think is "I can't even imagine." Almost every day, I think about what will happen in the next few months, and what will happen. I can only pray the prosecutors keep up the good work like they did for the hearing, and justice finally gets served.     

 

 

• Hobbies.  I have also mentioned this aspect of my life before. I am sometimes a jump-around jack of all trades, master of none. Well, as I get older, I would kind of like to hone my talents in on some of those activities. This interest to find my own special hobby was sparked when Andrew got his very own, remote control airplane for Christmas. And let me tell you, he is borderline obsessed, but more on that in the next post. I figure I'm going to need something to be as equally enthusiastic about so I can suck him into one of my interests, as I have been sucked into pretty much all of his. Mostly airplanes. Not that there's anything wrong with that! We can just grow together while investing in each others interests :) And since I know he probably wouldn't be too keen on crafting, my list so far is crew, skeet shooting, and more wine stuff. (That's a picture of a wine bouquet aroma kit. I'm gonna train my nose!) I am sure this will prove to make many interesting memories in the future!

O is for Ode to the Preschoolers

Did you know the average preschooler asks 437 questions a day?


Did you know the average Kelsey says "No thank you!" an average of 829 times a day? (No thank you, is our nice version of "What the hell are you doing??" or "STOP IT.")


Though my career as an assistant preschool teacher was short-lived, it was a good experience that let me bond with some children, learn a little bit about how I would and would not parent my future kids, and get some insight into early childhood education. 


I never realized how I would get attached to the kids so quickly, or that I would get the opportunity to intern for the Seattle Aquarium the very first time I interviewed for it. It left me in a tough situation. I do not pride myself in leaving jobs after only 4 months, but I would be crazy not to. My boss did not seem to agree that this was such a great thing for my career, but you can't please em all. I will always try to live my life for what is best for me, and though that may sound selfish, I feel like there is no other way if you truly want to be happy. 


So here is a collection of my favorite quotes from my little buddies at Little Acorn.  May you read them and get a laugh at the innocent, unfiltered language of 3 year olds.


"Are you a good pole dancer??" A very enthusiastic question asked in reference to his favorite America's Got Talent act, an acrobat who did flips and tricks like a monkey between two large poles.


After staring for a good 5 seconds at my chest area...."I've got little titties!"


"I've been watchin' a whole lot of Star Wars. My favorite character is Astrodoodle."


I gave a worried look to a little boy after he did an uncomfortable, almost painful looking dance down the hallway, without having to say anything to him, he replied, "Don't worry Miss Kelsey, I'm just fixin my weewee." 


I asked one little guy what he was asking Santa for as a Christmas gift. He told me ever-so nonchalantly, "money." And when I asked what he would buy with it? "More money." Ah, an entrepreneur's early start. 


Finally, my most recent and favorite conversation with the most hilarious, feisty, 3 year old girl.
"You know who said a bad word?" No, who?
"Somebody said a bad word." What did they say?
"Somebody said something." Well you can tell me. 
So she she leans down very close to my face like she is going to whisper in my ear....
"DAMNIT!"
"My daddy says that." Oh! Well I am glad you don't say that.
"No I just whisper it to myself so I don't get in trouble."


Some of these kids I wish I could carry around in my pocket for the conversations and entertainment. Even when don't listen, or tell me I look like a boy when I wear my glasses, they always would find a way to put a smile on my face. Preschoolers are sometimes a very good solution to a crummy mood. Emphasis on the sometimes. 


I will hopefully get the chance to sub for the school, and get to see my little buddies soon. I made sure they all knew where to find me at the aquarium. 


Until next time....


Cheers,


KLM