Mexico

A couple weeks back Marti and I went to Nuevo Vallarta with Travis and Kristy. During my one hour and fifteen minute bus ride to work this morning, I was staring outside at the gloomy overcast Seattle sky wishing I was back in Central America...

How is this possible?

I found this article and found it shocking. Some lady died in front of her tv 42 years ago and no one noticed until now! A police spokesman said: "When officers went there, they said it was like stepping into a place frozen in time. The cup she had been drinking tea from was still on a table next to the chair she had been sitting in and the house was full of things no one had seen for decades. Nothing had been disturbed for decades, even though there were more than a few cobwebs in there."

First of all, the situation is pretty sad because obviously she didn't have any family or friends that performed much of a search when she went "missing." Secondly, how can someone die in an apartment complex without anyone knowing for 42 years? Unbelievable.

NIght out with the grad gals

Saturday I got together with some of my graduate school friends.  I always love getting together to catch up, reminisce, laugh and just have a girls night out.  I will miss having you gals around!  I still start to feel my blood boil when discussing certain aspects of grad school.........  Congrats to all of you and your upcoming ventures.  I will be anxious to hear all about them.

Port Townsend

Today we went with our friends Spence and Katie to a small town on the Puget Sound called Port Townsend. They have been in AZ while Spence attends grad school but they came here for a summer internship. Marti and I met up with them at their short term rental (which has an amazing view) in Tacoma and the five of us packed in their car for the quick two hour drive up the peninsula. We had lunch at a quaint restaurant by the water that served fresh seafood and a killer prime rib sandwich (quite the combo?). We walked around, perused the shops and took in the views. As we drove around Fort Worden, a former military instillation turned state park, we spotted this old abandoned row boat and couldn't resist the kodak moment. Thanks Katie for the brilliant photography.


We got a little pose crazy and took a couple more not-so-candid shots.

Itinerary

I'm sure everyone is just dying to hear what our summer plans are. Well, wait no longer. Marti and I cannot wait until we quit our jobs and take 6 weeks off from anything and everything. We have a malleable plan that has a 92% chance of changing as it happens. We are fine with that because we just want to relax and be spontaneous. Here you go:

July 2-5: Oregon coast
July 5-12: Monterey at the beach cottage
July 12-20ish: Fresno
July 20ish-Aug 8ish: SLC
Aug 8ish-12ish: Drive to Michigan and stop in Nauvoo, Carthage and maybe another church history stop
Aug 12ish: Ann Arbor!!
Aug 21: Back to School

Temporary Housing

Marti and I found renters for our house a bit earlier than expected and decided to move into some temporary housing to bridge the gap before we moved. Bad move. Without taking into consideration the fact that Marti is pregnant and hypersensitive to any hint of a smell, I unilaterally chose a suspect dwelling that is somewhat dilapidated and has a faint odor of “old person” in order to save a few bucks. Having lived in houses in Brazil that make this place seem luxurious, I get by just fine. However, the pregnant Marti will not leave the “safe-zone” (the bed) without a surgical mask. Let’s just pray that the next 29 days will go faster than the past month.

Photography 101

For Mother’s Day, I bit the bullet and bought Marti a SLR. I’ll admit that I bought the present with some self interest, however, I feel justified because Marti isn’t a mother quite yet. We got a Nikon D60, the middle level of the camera maker’s entry line. In true Costco like fashion, it came with an extra zoom lens (VR 55-200 mm), 1 gig SD card and a case. We were in need of a new camera because our old compact takes sub par pictures, especially in low light settings. Now we can get some good shots of the little one that will be coming soon.

Finally in the "Blog" world

Hey, well I guess we could not postpone any longer…… We have joined the blogging world. We are excited to keep in touch with friends and family. Here are a couple of post of what has been happening with us over the last couple of weeks. This weekend has been a lot of fun. On Friday we celebrated the end of my clinic fellowship year with most of my co-workers. We went to this place called CHOPSTICKS in Bell town, near Seattle to listen to music and enjoy the night. Thanks for celebrating my big night with me and for all your help! I am almost an official Speech-Language Pathologist.

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On Saturday night we celebrated Morgan and Linnea’s wedding. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. Linnea looked beautiful in her wedding dress. Linnea, Ashleigh, Katherine and I all carpooled up to Bellingham our last semester of school (about 1 hour and 15 minutes each way). We talked a lot about wedding stuff, so it was neat to see it all come together. We are excited to for Linnea’s and Morgan’s new life together. You guys will be awesome. It was also fun to get together with all the speech gals and their spouses/significant others. Hopefully, we can get together soon (I am thinking in April, if any one wants to host…hint, hint…)

On Wednesday we went to the Sonics game. I wish I would have taken a picture of us walking into Key Arena in true Seattle fashion, soaking wet. We were both drenched! It was raining so hard. As you can tell it was not a crowded night but the Sonics won. Thanks aunt Lan and uncle Jeff for the awesome tickets.

A couple weeks ago a friend from my mission (she is a member of the church in Victoria) came to visit with her cousin. Shawn was at Berkely interviewing, so we had a fun girl weekend which consisted of lots of chatting and hitting all the tourist spots of Seattle. We went to Pike Street Market, downtown, and the Space Needle. They had never been to a Target and had heard some many things about this big store that it was top of the priority to experience the target store. They thought it was neat but I think were a little disappointed.