Seattle Weekend , Oct 27-29 2006

This past weekend I went to Seattle and met up with some of my best friends from Oregon, Jess and Kalee. We had a wonderful time full of shopping, eating and just being girls. Sadly, I forgot my camera and therefore don't have even one picture of our trip :( This saddens me greatly. But here is a picture of the 3 of us from the summer when they came to Vancouver to visit, just to give you a visual.
Friday night I arrived at the hotel (our room was on the 16th floor with a view!) around 7:30 and they got in about 2 hours later. Of course we were hungry and ready to get the girls weekend started! We stayed in a fun hotel in downtown Seattle and that night we walked a couple blocks to McCormick & Schmidts for cheap Happy Hour food and cocktails!
Saturday morning we slept in (ahhh) and then headed down to the corner Seattles Best Coffee shop for breakfast. From there we walked down near the water and spent a good amount of time at Pikes Place Market looking at all the fresh produce and flowers for sale, all the fun hand made jewelry, belt buckles, soaps and more! That's a fun place (even if it does smell like fish!). Then, girls will be girls, we headed to Nordstrom Rack and did some shopping! After hours of being on our feet we decided it was lunch time and spoted a P.F. Chang's. Oh man, it was goood! Being with some Oregon State alumni, we had to head back to the hotel and see how the Oregon State football game was going against USC. If you haven't heard about this game then you are way out of the loop because Oregon State shocked the world when they beat USC 33-31 on Saturday. What a victory for them. Needless to say, my friends were happy campers! From there we headed to Seattles own IKEA where the girls went nuts! I guess I am spoiled to live near an Ikea here in Vancouver. We had a fun time looking all around though at all the fun cheap furnitue and things. After Ikea we went out to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory near the water in downtown Seattle. It was a good meal eventhough the tables were awkwardly low and the three of us tall girls were having troubles eating our dinner properly :) When we got back to the hotel we decided to take a soak in the hot tub that was located on the 28th floor with a great view of downtown Seattle and the water. We spent a good hour, hour and a half saoking our sore bods and having great 'girl talk'. That about concluded our day because we were so tired from all the walking around that day.
Sunday morning we walked to a cute little local cafe that was just about a block from the hotel where I enjoyed a local cup of coffee and pear almond brioche...heaven! Then we checked out of the hotel, said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways. The weekend went by way too fast but we had lots of fun and memories. Plus on the way home I got to go to Target and that's always amazing!

BEND---New coffee shop in town!

Attention all Bend friends: for all of those who do not know, my great friends Dave & Majell Beach have opened a coffee shop in Bend, Oregon. It is called Backporch Coffee Roasters. This is not just any coffee shop but the BEST one in Bend and the surrounding areas. They roast their own coffee, they are passionate about coffee and they love people so it is sure to be a great experience all around.
They are located at: 1075 NW Newport Ave
and their blog is: http://backporchcoffeeroasters.blogspot.com/


Please go support my friends and enjoy a great cup of joe! :)

Life has been pretty uneventful in the past week or so. Derek is mid way thourgh his second to last semester at Regent, I am plugging along at work and all is going as normal. We are beginning to really think about what the next chapter in our lives looks like which is scary but also very exciting. The future is quite foggy at the moment and we pray that our eyes will be opened to where we are supposed to go from here. Time will tell and God will guide.
We get to go to Oregon for American Thanksgiving again and have just under a month of waiting to do. My big sisters have blessed us and we get to fly which is going to be a nice change from the 6-9 hour drive we usually endure. Seems far away but I am sure it will come quick. This weekend I am meeting up with my friends Jess and Kalee down in Seattle for a "girls weekend". I could not be more excited!!! It is going to be so nice to spend a weekend away with 2 of my best friends. I haven't really ever spent much time in Seattle, besides a few Mariner games, so it should be fun to explore the city and create good memories with friends. I am sure you will get the rundown when I return. That's all for now.

No longer a blonde!

That's right folks! After the hair fiasco over the weekend I had my hair professionally colored and the result is that I am no longer blonde! Check it out for yourself and please let me know what you think. I am still feeling quite self-concious about it because I have always been a blonde. I think this is going to take some getting used to. I think, too, that these pictures make it look more blonde on top than it actually is. You may have to see me in person to get the full effect, but you get the point for now :)

Also, for all you Vancouverites, I am part of a new blog (with my friend Paul) doing Vancouver Coffee shop reviews. You should check it out and maybe get some opinions about your local cafes. The blog is www.vancouver-cafe-reviews.blogspot.com I just did my first review on the Elysian Room, ENJOY!

I did it!!!

Yesterday, October 15th at 9:30am I ran my first 10k. It was pouring down rain, freezing cold and all on hard cement...it was great! My time was one hour and 36 seconds or so but I am just happy that I completed it without stopping even once. I was soaked through to the bone, my socks were wet, I was dripping everywhere, I had no good rain clothes on and my hair even began to dread itself because of the rain and I looked good ;) I am pretty darn sore today and wanting to just go home and lay down. But at the same time I am quite proud of my accomplishment. I know it's not big marathon or anything, but it is a start nonetheless. Not sure if or when the next race will be, but my hope for next time would be that I can do it under an hour. Check out more pics here and enjoy!


In other news: Yesterday some good friends and I decided to have a "hair party" and we cut, colored and whatever else you can do to your hair. It was great fun except for the fact that my hair is now orange. Well, mainly just the top, but orange indeed! I am quite embarrased of it and have down what I can today to cover it up, but it is still quite obvious. I am leaning towards forking over the big bucks to get it done professionally. That will teach me to do it myself though. Ick!

oops...didn't see that window

I was just sitting here at my desk doing my work like normal and all of a sudden I hear a big thud on the window. "Oh no, that was totally a bird" is what crossed my mind immediately. I went to the window and looked down on the little deck we have outside and sure enough it was a tiny little bird. I felt for it so I went outside and looked at him. He was lying lifeless and I was sad. But I gave him a nudge and alas he was still alive. I picked him up and it looked as though nothing was wrong with him and that maybe he was just a little shaken up (I mean who wouldn’t be after slamming full force into a window). I couldn’t figure out why he was acting so weak though. Until I looked again and noticed that he has totally punctured one of his eyes. Gives me the willies to even think about it. So I sat him up on a table and try giving him a little boost, but I am sure the loss of sight in one eye is quite traumatic and he’s not quite ready yet to spread his wings. But he is still sitting out there now and I am just so sad for him. Why is it that little animals can really tug at the heartstrings? He’s just sitting there all alone in the sun and I can’t help but keep looking outside at him. The picture is not of the actual bird, but it just helps to give you a visual. Poor birdie, I wish there was something I could do.

UPDATE: 10:21am -- I looked outside and the bird is gone. I hope he flew and didn't fall :( YAY!

What a weekend! I had a blast and it went by waaaay too fast. I posted 3 new posts on my picture blog, for your viewing pleaseure. Those pictures will describe my weekend better than I can. It was amazing!

Oh yeah and in just 5 very short days I will be running my first 10k...oh man!!! I signed up and I am jazzed to do it, I am, however, not very excited about running it alone. My friend Levi was supposed to run it with me but he has been sick and doesn't think he will be better in time or in the right shape to run. So I guess I will be at it alone (anyone wanna join me?!?). This makes me nervous as I am a much better runner when I have someone beside me, but I have paid the fee and my name is on the list, so there is no backing down now. Plus I figure that I have got to start somewhere if I ever want to really be a runner. I'll keep you posted.

A fun filled weekend coming right up!

Although nothing too exciting has happened in my life lately, there is some fun to come this weekend. Hopefully I should have lots to share and I will for sure have lots of fun pictures to post. Tonight I am going to shopping with my favourite pregnant friend Jess, to help her pick out maternity clothes...I am SO excited. Tomorrow morning Derek and I are off to Whislter, BC for one night. I have NO clue what we are going to do but it's going to be fun because we have never been to Whislter, any suggestions? Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving which means a day off work, yay! Our friends Levi and Shelley have come up with the brilliant idea of having an untraditional Thanksgiving and instead having "fall fest 2006" in the park. We will put our copats on, roast up some wieners, thro the football around and have a great day. I am very excited about this. Okay, okay, I am very excited about all 3 of these activities that will consume our weekend. Now if I could only make the clock move faster so I can get on with it already..............