El Paso Pics

Some pictures from Rico's trip to El Paso. Funny...somehow I always pictured El Paso with flat desert, not mountains.


Yes, Rico knows me well... I love houses way out of our price range!

"Priceless"

This from one of my high school friends on Facebook: Picking up a gallon of the season's first fresh apple cider at the grocery store: $3.69. Buying all the ingredients to make your husband's new favorite meal: $11.62 on Visa card. Having your two-year-old stand up in the cart after you dro...p all your coupons in the check-out line, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Oh, CRAP!!! Oh, CRAP, Mama! Oh, CRAPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!": Priceless.

Ahh, the joys Rico and I have to look forward to! I can't wait!

First Day of Fall - 86 degrees in Seattle

How insane is that? Another day for the record books. I'm actually kind of tired of this. But then again, I say that now, and I'll be grumbling about the wet weather in the next month or two. I'm a hard woman to please, lol. Though, if you can wrap your head around this... Colorado Springs (and other places like Vail and Denver) had their first dusting of snow yesterday! I don't know if that's a sign of a crazy winter or not. Last winter, they (the Springs) didn't have very much precipitation at all.

In other news, Rico had his first day back to school yesterday. He's taking two classes this semester. He has a year and quarter left, including this quarter, until he completes his Associates Degree in Accounting (yay!).

Yesterday, I also began a new project. Payroll! Sounds exciting, huh? (Yeah I know - not really, for most of you! But whodathunk that with an English degree, I'd want to do accounting???) Holly, the current payroll gal, is having a baby in November so I will be taking over part of payroll duties (mainly hourly payroll; Joe will be doing the salary payroll) until she gets back.

Oh and who could forget... officially 30 days until ALOHA!!!

I caught this on my drive out last night...

3 for Hawaii

We are T Minus 33 days til Hawaii! And an unexpected but welcome surprise... Erika (Rico's mom) is coming with us to Hawaii!! We were even able to get her on the same flight and everything (which is really cool considering we're this close to leaving)!

We went to the Puyallup Fair yesterday - it's definitely better going in the middle of the week versus the weekend. I'm not a crowds person (I get this from my dad, lol). We mainly went for the food because the rides are too expensive (at least the ones we want to do - the Extreme Scream and the sling thing--basically a big rubber band that two people are attached to they pull it back and let you fly, it looks sooo cool!). It was fun but it's also very repetitive...they tend to have the same thing every year.

We also booked ourselves for a night with the Trans Siberian Orchestra. For those of you who don't know who they are, it's a rock band orchestra that plays Christmas music along with a laser light show. Basically, Christmas music set to rock beats. It sounds pretty cool from what I've heard (though Rico had to talk me into going because I was a little skeptical until I heard them). It's the weekend before Thanksgiving so should get us in the Christmas mood.

I broke out the Crockpot yesterday. I have a really hard time justifying cooking in a CrockPot during the summer when the grill tastes so much better and since we only have a limited time of year when it's ideal to cook outside up her, I try to use it as much as possible. We ran out of propane just before Rico left for Texas so we've been procrastinating on the refilling. To that end, I found a cool new blog, written by an author who wrote a crockpot cookbook. She challanged herself to make something in the Crockpot every day for one year. Last night, I tried the Crockpot Fried Chicken. Delish! It basically came out like baked chicken but the meat was falling off the bone like a good pot roast (which btw, I still haven't been able to make as good as my mom!). I might have to try a few more of these recipes. Rico does love the slow cooker!

FINALLY! My husband is home!

Rico is home, safe and sound, after driving for 26hrs (with only a 5 hr break), from El Paso to Washington, via California. He got home at 1am this morning and promptly passed out! Today is the lovely adventure of unloading the Budget truck into storage. Luckily, he has Billy to help him since I'm at work. We're returning the truck when I get off of work.

Let me just say, the house was way too quiet while he was gone!

Well, that was really nice of them!

I was in Federal Way for dinner tonight and as I was pulling up to a stop light, there were about 3 cars ahead of me and on either side of me. Apparently, one of the cars in front of me had stalled and had the driver trying to move it out of the way to the side of the road. Well, four guys, all from different vehicles got out and helped him push it over (one guy even had his wife/gf/whatever, get out of his car and drive so he could help the other driver out). It was refreshing to see random strangers helping each other... maybe it was because 9/11 was yesterday or just because they didn't want to get stuck behind the stalled car. I choose to think that they were helping out, passing along good karma and it made me smile as I drove away.

8 Years Ago...

I was in college, freshman year. I remember coming back to my dorm room to my roommate crying and the TV on, with one of the twin towers billowing smoke. I remember watching the second plane hit the 2nd tower and the pandemonium ensue after we began to realize that this wasn't an accident and the terrorists weren't finished. Then the reports of the attack on the Pentagon and the plane headed for the White House and the brave amazing people on that flight who stopped it from getting any further than that Pennsylvania field . 09/11/01 was such a horrible day for everyone in this country.
That day changed so much about the way we live now - the war in Iraq, the extra security at airports, what people feel is important. What amazed me about the following days though, was the solidarity that we felt with those around us. Coming together in the midst of a tragedy changed the way we saw each other.
Unfortunately, another fact stands out in my mind and that's how many more lives were lost after the main attacks on 9/11. I think about the soldiers in Iraq (and all around the world) - those whose lives were lost and those who came home not quite whole - mentally and physically; those who are still over there fighting and protecting what we take for granted, even after that horrible day and especially now that the wounds have scarred over, the debris swept away and our lives moving forward.

THANK YOU... those words have never seemed so inadequate.

Holiday Travel

I haven't seen my family in a long time... and I would love to go home for one of the upcoming holidays. My dad came to our wedding which was in January but my mom and Bucky, I haven't seen since October of last year and I miss them! So right now, I'm on a mission to find a good price for holiday travel (yes, I know... it's a mythical being, these low priced flights, but I'm determined!). Wish me luck!!

Well, there goes today's calories!

I don't do it very often (even though I do live near the city that is so famous for it!!), but when I do, it's so worth it!! I justified it by only getting a Tall, with Nonfat milk and no whip cream...that makes it ok, right???

And to top it off, I added the complementary Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffin... what can I say, they go so well together!
It's been a delicious beginning to the fall season (even though it's supposed to get back up into the high '70's, low '80's with no rain for the next 5 days).

Texas...

Some pics from Rico's first day in Texas...Erika driving in the crazy Texas traffic!"Hanging out with Grandma. One of the coolest women in the world!!"

Happy Wet Labor Day!

Such is the life of living in Washington ... it's been a wild wet crazy weather weekend. We had a tornado in Enumclaw last night and on our way home, we saw this:

Both sides of a double rainbow!

In Colorado Springs this weekend, they had the Hot Air Balloon Classic. One more reason I just want to pack up and go!Rico is leaving Wednesday for Texas...this'll be the 1st time we've been apart in over 2 years (yes, cheesy, I know but it does warrant a mention, in my mind).

Texas

Some sad news...

Rico's grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's last week and due to medical reasons, will need to live in an assisted living home. Theresia is such an independent woman, I know this is not going to be easy on her (I haven't met her yet, but from talking to her on the phone, I know this to be true). She's just in the beginning stages, so she is still able to make her own decisions and definitely has opinions on how she wants everything to be.

Erika is down with her now, helping her get adjusted and Rico is flying down next week to help pack up the house to get it ready to sell. He'll be driving a U Haul back up here. He's actually kind of excited about that part. He's looking forward to the road trip on his own. He's never seen the parts of the country he'll be driving through.

It kind of reminds me of my cross country trip out here. I absolutely loved it. I kind of wish I had taken longer to do it but I was so anxious to get here and get settled, I drove as fast as my Xterra would carry me, with only a few stops (Grand Canyon, San Francisco and California coastal towns).