The dig out

Here are a few more pics of my beautiful car, post-dig out. It started snowing again today, so you can see how my car's dealing with that. It's not looking pretty my friends. My car has definitely seen better days. So far I haven't freaked out. I'm sure it's coming!

Finished project

Since I was stuck inside all day, I decided to try a pattern that I got from one of my Ravelry friends to test knit. It's a design for a book of Twilight-inspired designs that the TKB group is putting together and is called the Isabella hat. I think it turned out really cute, and was super fast to knit up. I love it though. Thanks for the yarn mom!

Car disaster

Katie and I woke up this morning ready for a fun day of ice skating and (for me) a bridal shower. We were getting ready to hop outside when this site greeted our confused eyes:


In case you're not sure what you are looking at, this is what was left of our carport, and under that mound of snow sits our vehicles. My BMW and Katie's Trailblazer have had better days. We spent the last hour or so getting hold of our landlord (who had already been by and knew about it), and our insurance agencies to make claims. It's a great day!
Here's a link to the rest of the aftermath.

Fun with Carports

Finished project #2

I put my jury duty time to good use and got a good bit of my Anisette wrap I've been working on done. Add in some movie time while I'm stuck in my apartment, and you get a finished project. I haven't blocked it yet, but here are some pics so you can see how it turned out so far. I'll update later when my mom helps me get it perfect!

Fun with the goat

Katie and I were visiting my mom the other day while she was working on the goat ornament for her advent tree. While she was in her office blogging or working on her website or something fun like that, I decided to have some fun with her goat. How could anyone resist using the wooden hand really? Please note the Fragile leg lamp in the foreground! Good times, good times.

Happy 26th brother

It's hard to believe that 26 years ago today, we welcomed home our baby brother (finally dad got his wish). Who knew how much we would love our little Tonsy. You put up with your three older sisters torturing you, making you play all our cast-off roles, go diving in Cannon Hill Pond for a bike, being called Mer-girl baby, and being the only boy cousin (besides Kip, who ignored you like he did the rest of us). From winning the soccer State championship with his penalty kick to running his own Carquest store (a couple of times), the boy's done good!

Love you brother. I hope this year brings you happiness and health. Perhaps even back this way again!

Christmas decor

Megan inspired me with her beautiful Christmas decorations, so here's some pics of our pretty apartment! I love this time of year too Megs. My favorite is the mismatched tree decorations. I love a million different ornaments that have no reason to be together on my tree!

Uncle Chuck

Katie and I headed out to the Naval station on Sunday to watch our uncle Chuck's change of command ceremony. It was pretty cool actually. He's been the commander of his Reserve unit for the last two years, and is now moving up to a new command/duty...I'm not totally sure what it is except that he will be based out of Honolulu, but will be able to report out of Washington, so no move! Here are a couple of pictures from the event. The sign was from the stations fence-line (a little going away present from his men).

Sorry for the non-posting!

As with all teachers, the weeks leading up to Christmas seem to be the busiest time of the year. I'm busy trying to get our research papers finished, and keep my students focused on school when their minds are clearly on snow not school. I have most of my vacation dedicated to grading at this point. Oh well. There are worst things I could be doing.

In fact, I have been doing worst things, I got assigned jury duty this week! Could the timing be any worse?! I spent the last two days sitting on a jury for a weapons possession case (of course I got picked... did you expect anything else?). It was an interesting case, and we found the young man not-guilty. Now hopefully, I can get back to my classroom and do some teaching. I'll know after 5:30. So that's my week. Hope yours is a bit more joyful!

Happy Thanksgiving

So Mom, Katie and I trekked over to Seattle for Thanksgiving weekend. Needless to say, good times were had by all. We braved the chaos that is the family dinner at Mimi's house (too small and too fun). BZ saved the day with her quick run to the store for Potato Buds when we discovered no one had brought mashed potatoes. It was so fun catching up with the cousins, aunts and uncles, Mimi, and family friends. And oh my goodness those babies are getting too big!

We stayed with Auntie Sue. Katie and I got to give the new hide-a-bed it's maiden voyage. Our backs survived somewhat intact. We braved Bellevue Square on Saturday (no Black Friday for us) and found some cute stocking patterns (stay tuned for the finished project), and a little Christmas shopping. Our adventures ended with a stop at the Davis "cabin" on our way home and a quick visit with Zaide and Baba, Ryan, Megs, and Hadley. What could be better? We even let mom stop at Vinnie's on our way home.

I hope that your Thanksgiving was as blessed and happy as ours was! Thanks for the amazing time family. You make it hard to stay on the East side of the state.

Christmas time?

As you all know, I hate it when Christmas decorations go up before Thanksgiving. Although, not so much when it happens at people's houses, more the commercial decorations. When we went to Twilight on Friday, Riverfront Squares Christmas tree was already up and a choir was there singing Christmas Carols, and the weekend before when Katie, mom and I went downtown, too many stores were already playing Christmas music. I guess it's just the commercialism of it all. I hate that they start with Christmas earlier and earlier so that they can get people to buy more stuff.

With that said, I am starting to think about Christmas presents for family and friends. Even if we weren't on an economic downturn, my feelings on presents is to buy and receive less. I'd much rather spend time with family and friends, or get something small but meaningful then just get stuff. I already know how much you all mean to me and what I mean to you. Isn't that what Christmas is about? Sharing in God's love with each other. Being reminded of what a gift the love of others really is. I don't need a present to tell me that.

So this year, look for gifts that show how much you love and appreciate each other instead of ones that fill up the empty bottom of the tree. Your hearts and mine will be much fuller for the change.

Twilight/ Women's weekend

This has been an eventful weekend for me: Twilight and hanging out at Pend Oreille River with the girls. Fun movie, People's sexiest men issue, a pedi, and gossiping with the girls...what could be better? Here are a couple pics from the festivities

Thanksgiving '08

Well, it's official. Today Katie and I convinced L-dine to go with us to Seattle for Thanksgiving. We can't wait for four glorious days with our family and friends. Get ready for some crazy fun people. The Longinotti-Kynaston's are headed to you.

Twilight

OK, I know it's totally dorky, especially if you aren't a fan of the books, but I am soooo excited for the Twilight movie to come out next Friday. Every time I see a new trailer for it, I get a little thrill in the pit of my stomach. This is definitely on par with a Harry Potter movie for me. I can't wait to go with my girls (yes, we've made a girl's night out of it).

So anyway, here's a couple of the newer trailers they've released. You can get a little taste of what is making me antsy! And if you haven't read the book yet, you should. It is really a fantastic love story with quite a bit of adventure!

Election Night '08

So Katie decided that we needed to host an election night party at our new digs so that we would get our act together and put our stuff away.  As much as I hate to admit it, she had a great plan.  I posted a photo album on the right so you could see the fun.  We definitely love the new place as much as we love that Obama won!

Party at the Reed's

My Halloween fun continued on Saturday night when my friends Monica and Dustin hosted their annual Halloween extravaganza.  The costume I had ordered ended up too small; luckily Katie saved my bacon by letting me borrow her scandalously short flapper costume.  I got tons of compliments on it, so I owe Katie big-time.  Here are some photos of my favorite costumes and people from the night.

Dave, Nate, and Kathryn

Todd the transformer

Before:

After:

 

Kathryn dressed as the sit and be fit lady from PBS:

                   

Erin and me:

          

Michael Phelps (funniest/creepiest costume of the night):

Halloween Fun

So Katie and I decided to go over to my mom's on Halloween to help hand out candy.  We figured no sane parent was going to let their children trick-or-treat in Browne's Addition.  We had fun watching Bravo's 100 greatest Horror movie moments and checking out the little kids costumes that came to our door.  But things really took off when we discovered the wooden hand that Aunt Sue gave to mom last weekend to use for shaping gloves and mittens.  We discovered that the bendy fingers were good for something other then flipping each other off.  And the fun began.  I haven't laughed that hard in some time.  We all had tears in our eyes as we played with the hand and watched the t-or-t-ers react to the creepy wooden hand.  Here's some pics of our fun!

Moving day is here!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Katie and I decided to move up our moving day! Ugh! One, I hate packing and two, I hate moving. Last night, in a delirium from being too hungry, Katie and I decided that we should just get a Uhaul this weekend and move our stuff over to the Haunted Mansion this weekend instead of next weekend. I know I'm going to be happy about it in the end, but I am dreading finishing the packing I need to get done right now. Oh well, in 48 hours, I will be a happy little Browne's Addition resident. I'm sure it's going to be great. Wish us luck!

I love the fall!

What is it about Fall that makes me so happy? I love that the trees are a million different shades of orange, red, and yellow. I love the crunch of walking through falling leaves (even though I hate raking them). I like that the air is a little more crisp. I love pulling out my warm clothes and sweaters. Oh, and I adore snuggling deeper into my comforter when it's time to wake up because that is so much better then getting out into the slightly cold morning.

I think my favorite thing though is the lighting of fall. Everything feels like it has a glow to it, and the light outside feels a bit softer instead of the sharp sun of summer. Clearly, I was meant to be a photographer in this life or another.

Last weekend, we took our Sunday School classes up to Greenbluff. It is perhaps my favorite place to visit. There is nothing cuter then watching little kids try and heft giant pumpkins into the carts their parents are pulling. Everything is just so festive and fun during the fall harvest: music, laughter, families. What's not to love? Here are a couple of pics from our adventures!

HM house

So we found a front runner yesterday, in the cute but slightly scary Browne's Addition area. The owners listed it on Craig's list as "The Haunted Mansion", so now that is all we're going to call it. How could you not? It's a renovated mansion that they have split into apartments. Ours would basically be the entire main floor. Here are a couple of pics from their listing. Could be a match made in heaven!