19 Days and Counting

We've had more snow, sleet and hail around here and 10 degrees below the normal temperature for this time of year.

Really? Who is counting the days until Spring? Me. We had another white-out view at our house which is the worse weather, in my opinion. I don't even mind the rain because at least we still have our view but not when it's like this. I must sound spoiled or something. I realized after posting yesterday about how slow our life has been so far this year, it's in contrast to last year. I looked back at 2016 and I don't think I even had time to think about the weather. Each month we were either going on a trip, hosting visitors at our house or throwing a party. That's called living life to it's fullest! We moved here August 2015 and here's a rundown of our life the first 12 months:

Sept 2015 - Labor Day family barbecue/Bruce's birthday party
trip to Washington, D.C. for Bruce's trade show and visited my sister who lives there

October 2015 - hosted my sister who visited from Boise and hosted a family brunch
hosted my brother and his wife who visited from Boise
hosted a lunch with girlfriends at our house

hosted lunch for our nephew and wife who came to visit from Minnesota stopping by with their three children

After the first two months, you can see it was a miracle I even had time to unpack.

November 2015 - hosted a post-Thanksgiving family dinner (a slow month, thank goodness)

December 2015 -Nick visited from Japan with lots of Seattle Christmas activities on his list
hosted Christmas dinner

hosted a post-Christmas family potluck

hosted New Year's Eve drinks and appetizers with friends

January 2016 - Nothing. Rest time!

February 2016 - Super Bowl party

trip to South Beach

March 2016 - 17 Day Caribbean cruise
trip to New Orleans with sisters and Bruce's trade show

April 2016 - Mariner ticket party

hosted my brother and his wife who visited from Boise

May 2016 - Nick visited from Japan
hosted Mother's Day barbecue
trip to Iowa for Bruce's dad's 90th birthday

June 2016 - hosted friends visit from Boise

hosted Bruce's sister and Dad who visited from Iowa
hosted my brother and his wife who visited from Boise

July 2016 - Nothing because I had foot surgery to remove a Morton's neuroma. A rest month.

August 2016 - hosted my brother and his wife who visited from Boise and hosted a birthday party for him

September 2016 - Trip to Sweden, Denmark and Italy for most of the month.

I realize I don't even blog about everything. I think because before I know it, the next thing is starting to happen. Actually, January is the only month we didn't have a trip or visitors or hosting an event. (I'm not counting July because of my foot surgery so that was an unusual month) I think January is a month you need to rest because of the holidays. It takes me awhile to get all the Christmas decorations put away so it's a good month not to plan anything. If I were continue on....

October 2016 - hosted my sister and her husband who visited from Colorado
hosted a birthday brunch for my nephew

November 2016 - hosted Thanksgiving

December 2016 - Nick and Sachiyo and Hana came for a holiday visit

hosted a favorite foods meal for Nick

hosted a holiday family brunch

You see it just continues. This is my life. Bruce and I look so forward to our next trip, our next social activity at our house or our next visitors. Coming up next for us will be our Mariner ticket party, a visit from my brother and his wife again and then a trip to New Orleans for another sisters get-together (and Bruce has another trade show there). Even though I might be counting the days until Spring, I think I'm really counting the days for more activity and excitement in my life. So actually, I really only need to count to 18 which is when my brother and his wife arrive or count to 31 which is when our Mariner ticket party is, or count to 37 when we leave for New Orleans. I'm so excited, I can hardly wait.

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party go

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas. Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play". That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play. Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is. And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas". Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br

Sylvia's Scenario

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