Best Things about the New Place

Here are some of my favorite things about our new apartment

1. I can walk to pretty much everything I need: 2 grocery stores, a pharmacy, the post office, various mom and pop restaurants and a Top Pot Doughnuts. What more do I need in life? Also having a grocery store across the street means better dinners. Why? Because say I was making Mu Shu pork lettuce wraps and I forgot to buy mushrooms, instead of just leaving them out I walk downstairs and buy them. Hmm I'm feeling like taquitos for dinner but don't have fresh cilantro? Walk the 2 minutes and buy some. Seriously it's my new favorite.

2. Big, NICE kitchen. This is pretty much amazing. Cooking is sooooooo much easier when there is more than 2 square feet of counter top. The granite counter tops, new appliances and new cabinets are just lovely

3.  Roof Garden. Do I need to even say anything else?

4. Free BBQ grills. There are two grills on the roof for anyone to use which is nice. We invited some friends over and we grilled and ate outside on the roof. It was beautiful.

I'll post up some pictures soon.

Wedgewood

No we are not moving to an Elizabethan manor in the English countryside, though that would be cool.

Aaron and I found a place in Seattle in a neighborhood called Wedgewood. All of the neighborhoods here have names. Weird. Anyways, it will cut Aaron's commute not quite in half and be an all around adventure.

Delicious Seattle restaurants here we come!

Yay Books!

One of my all time favorite authors is one I found relatively recently. Her name is Lindsay Buroker. I've read all of her books, follow her blog and even donated a fair amount to her kickstarter campaign. Seriously guys, I love her books. They are full of adventure, witty banter and just a touch of romance. Add in the fact that they are in her words 'high fantasy novels in the era of steam' and you have a book that seems personalized just for me. Go get the first one right now, it's free for kindle and various other sites


These came in the mail as the 'goodies' for donating to kickstarter. I was so excited I pretty much was jumping up and down.

Yes I'm hugging the books

The author even wrote me a note! I'm so happy :)

Awesome

I laughed for a full minute after reading this.

http://xkcd.com/1069/

If you want me to explain why it's so funny, I'd be happy to :)

House update

So remember all of those pictures I posted of our house? Yeah, it was the wrong house. The builder built the wrong house :( We met with them yesterday and are currently looking for a lot to build the correct house somewhere else. If we can't come to an agreement in two weeks then Aaron and I will be scrapping the whole thing and renting for another year.

This experience does make me really grateful to know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and has a plan for our lives. Thank goodness for the gospel.

Footings!

Here are some more pictures of our house

From 5-13-2012

And here are some from 5-20-2012

Yay it's getting built so fast!!!

Dirt

This is a picture of the most expensive dirt I've ever seen.

Though there is a good reason why this dirt is so expensive ... because in approximately 3-4 months there will be a house on it.

That's right, Aaron and I are buying a house! I'm so very, VERY excited about it. Especially the kitchen... and the soak tub and the walk in closet and the garage and the loft and the closets and the backyard and a LOT of other things.

Be prepared to see regular pictures of this lot as it becomes our first house.

Yay for Dirt!

Perspective

Sad news everyone. I did not get into the graduate program at University of Washington. Everyone has been saying really kind things to me so thank you. I just wanted to share one of God's tender mercies.

I volunteer at the Seattle Temple once a week and so I listen to church music as I drive there. One morning not too long ago I was listening to "I'm trying to be like Jesus." I've heard this song probably hundreds of times but this line sounded really important to me: 'be gentle and loving in deed and in thought.' Gentle in thought? What does that even mean?

I've been pondering that for a few weeks when I got the dreaded rejection email. My first instinct was to be mad and upset. "This is lame!" my spirit wanted to shout, "This is terrible!" But then I remembered what my loving Heavenly Father taught two weeks before. Be gentle in thought. So I thought gentle thoughts and counted my blessings.

My life is completely wonderful. I just got a job a I enjoy. My husband is amazing and my marriage is better than ever. We always have enough food to eat and a warm, comfortable home to live in. Our financial situation rocks. I have two families that love me and are always cheering me on, Castillos and Boushleys you're so great. I have everything I could want.

Who needs to grad school anyways?

Mini!

My super awesome sister Alicia got me these cute mini baking pans for Christmas and I had to try them out.

What's in them is this yummy recipe for coconut bread from this website

Thanks again sis!

New jobs!

You may not have heard but I got a job. I'm working as a swim instructor at the Pro Sports Club in Bellevue, WA. It is the world's largest fitness club. Usually I am skeptical about claims like this but really it is HUGE. It has a entire spa,  4 pools, 3 fitness rooms that are way over 1000 sq ft,  4 full size tennis courts, two full size basketball courts, about 8 raquete ball courts, about 5 squash courts and the locker rooms have a sauna, steam room and whirl pools. Not to mention all of the studios for various work out stuff, the doctors' offices and restaurants (yes plural). What the crazy?!? I know. I get lost when I try to venture outside of the pool areas. It's a really fun job and I really missed teaching so I'm happy. I work about 10 hours a week, which is perfect for me.

If you're wondering about Aaron's new job you'll have to wait until March 26th.

How cool my mom is

Remember how my mom took a ceramics class one time and became really amazing at it? No? Well I do and just in case you don't believe me look at this chip/dip bowl she made us for Christmas. We eat a lot of chips and salsa :)

Valentine's Day

I think this was the first Valentine's Day when I actually did something fun for Aaron besides just a homemade card. I cooked a ham! (Well it was pre-cooked but still)

And this is the pretty table set up

Aaron bought me a really beautiful pearl necklace but I don't have a picture of it. I hope your Valentine's Day was as good as ours!

What's this?

Sometimes living up here in Seattle I feel like Jack the Pumpkin King. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaxKiZfQcX8

Last Saturday the rain turned to snow and I managed to capture a video of it.

I was very excited so naturally I had to go dance and play in it.

Remember that pile of snow I wanted on my porch-balcony-thing?

My father in law suggested we go sit in the outdoor hot tub while it was snowing. So we did.

Actually getting in was tricky 

Yeah we're that cool. I wish we had taken a picture of the pool furniture since all of it was covered in snow.

Well that was the snowy adventures. It's raining now and most of it is melting. Sigh. It was fun while it lasted.