01-31-14

This evening Bruce and I headed down to Portland for dinner, shopping for the rental at Ikea and Home Depot, and dessert.  A fun mix of business and pleasure on the eve of a working weekend…

We sat in the car and pigged out on a St. Honoré, a mini cake named for the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. It’s a classic French dessert (don’t tell Bruce!) with a circle of puff pastry at its base, cream puffs dipped in caramelized sugar attached side by side on top, filled with creme and finished with whipped cream (using a special St. Honoré piping tip?!?).  Yum!

Happy 70th to my FIL!  Thought of you with all the almond flavored stuff at the dessert place.

01-30-14

As my world spins faster, less time and energy to think up fun blog posts.  Here’s a fun Christmas gift I got this Christmas; myself drawn by artists in very different styles…

01-29-14

Sleep, work, exercise, rentals, repeat.  Oh, tonight small group mixed things up.

Poor 29^th, trashed for the third time under our ownership.  It’s close to being Craigslist worthy though. 

Rent, clean, repeat.

01-28-14

“After dinner come upstairs and see my new ottoman.  That will give me time to clean my room” – Anastasia

It’s bigger than anyone expected, but it has a fun shoe caddy inside.

01-27-14

The boy.  He eats anything that isn't tied down.

I guess the peanut butter is my fault.  On Saturday we blended frozen bananas, nuts, and peanut butter to a pulp, and now he thinks peanut butter should go with everything.

I remember eating PB from a spoon when I was his age...

01-26-14

Grama and I just hanging out...she might kill me for posting a photo without her having put on lipstick first.  Long driving day, but fun conversations and desserts from my past.  Glad she's out of the hospital... again.

01-25-14

More family tennis.  Anastasia got this shot.

You know it's a gorgeous day when you have to drive around town looking for an available tennis court.

01-24-14

A theme keeps popping up in my life this month, and that theme is how important self talk is.

I’m reading a business book called Think and Grow Rich which seems to be all about getting a detailed vision, repeating it often, and having faith and persistence to get there.

I’m doing an on-line healthy eating course called Living Lean, and it is all about the mental side of choosing to eat lardy food.

And today our Weyerhaeuser health coach posted a blog about how important the words we use are.  He is very careful about vocabulary.  Examples:  “deadlifts” becomes “picking up heavy things”, “workout” becomes “train”, and “go on diets” becomes “change their eating habits”. 

01-23-13

It seems like work becomes very un-fun about every five years or so.

Tiffany and I have been working hard to help Weyerhaeuser’s newly acquired 600-plus-thousand-acres of timber and new employees transition to Weyerhaeuser processes and systems.  We’ve spent time bouncing ideas off each other and taking turns pulling out our hair over obstacles.

Today I found this sign on her desk, and I had to chuckle, then run to go get my camera.

01-22-13

In a few weeks I’m hoping this bookcase will look very different, so thought I’d pause to take a BEFORE photo.  I think I figured out a way to label the albums.  Etsy is such a blessing.  Right now we seem to dig through them all over and over to find the photos we are looking for.  Waiting for my custom order to arrive…

01-21-14

I got my first royalty payment from Amazon today for my e-book sales – a whopping $4.08!

My share is $2.04 of the $2.99 list price.  Since publishing I have sold 10 copies of the book.  Wish I could tell to whom, if they are friends and relatives, Bigger Pockets colleagues, or if anyone else is finding it.

Not gonna be a rich author, but it helps fund buying some e-books, and having fun with it.

01-20-13

Our counter space seems to have accumulated a lot of Costco stuff.  Tennis racquets, Dave’s killer bread, pudding Xander can't stop eating, kitchen staples.  Meanwhile, I’m soaking beans, chopping leaf lettuce, and wishing I would make time to make my own “magic mineral” broth.

How did it get to be Monday again?!?

01-19-14

Go Hawks!

OK, so a big fan I am not.  But I'm happy for them and their fans, including the two guys who loaded up on creme soda, chips and dip,  gummy bears/worms, and salami and watched the game.

01-18-14

Bruce and I went to Vancouver for a retirement party Saturday night.  Mike Niland, the king of cash, retired after 40 years.  I spent almost 16 years in Mike's controllership organization, either reporting directly to him or once removed.  The end of an era for sure.

"Remember the 5 P's - prior planning prevents poor performance" - a Mike-ism I like to repeat often

01-17-14

How can the kids be so excited about rotating out the emergency kit?  They helped me tonight so they could have quicker access to the "old" cereal, granola, pop tarts, Cliff bars, tuna, almonds.  Goofy kids.

"This one says BBQ sauce with chicken" - Anastasia, examining the dehydrated food rations
"The list says crunchy peanut butter but I can only find chunky." - Xander

01-16-14

Xander finished up his driving course tonight.  With a 100% score on his written test.  There may soon be more keychains laying around the house…

01-15-14

I've been enjoying my evening walk on the treadmill for so long, it is was a huge treat to walk it outdoors on the lake this evening.  Huge flock of ducks to watch, BiggerPockets podcast in my earbuds, and plenty of other people to greet along the way.

01-14-14

The living room is still full of phone books.  And the main hallway seems to be littered with kids...

01-13-14

Key Club has a fundraiser to deliver phone books all over the city.  A and X have the St Helens neighborhood south of us.  Bag, deliver, check the address off, and repeat.

01-12-14

I’d say that I only left the house this weekend to go to food establishments, but that might be a slight exaggeration.  Still, pretty quiet weekend…

Yesterday was Xander at a food establishment, today is Anastasia.  We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant with the horse motif.

01-11-14

Running errands with the guys.

Stocked up on whole grain bread at the Franz store, bought supplies for the Electric Bean at Cash & Carry, lunch, and coffee at the EB when we dropped off their needed supplies.

With Xander driving most of the way.

01-10-14

I had a foodie day today.

In Cosi today my staff and I went to a belated Christmas lunch at a new Aberdeen swanky restaurant.  I had a roasted whole butternut squash, stuffed with wild rice, mushrooms, maple, and cranberries.  It was delicious.

For dinner Bruce made a romantic dinner, since the kids are at a youth event.  He made roasted asparagus with a cranberry pistachio pesto.  It was also delicious.

Great way to usher in the weekend!

01-09-14

Crazy day!  Almost the weekend.

01-08-14

This is my family.  A week into the new year and they are still goofballs.

01-07-14

Driving the boy to driving class.
Discussing college acceptance with the girl.
Maiden outing with new jacket.
Collecting rent.
Play video games.
Making but not eating dinner.
Watch Hardcore Pawn.
Not going out for coffee.

All in an evening.

01-06-13

Can you name 5 CNN newscasters?  That was a question on our Name 5 game, but it wasn’t a question to me, darn it.

Chris Cuomo

Kate Bolduan

Michaela Pereir

John Berman

Christine Romans

I enjoy listening to CNN first thing in the morning from the treadmill.  Christine Romans had an interesting story today:

10 things you'll pay more for in 2014

Nuts

Mail

A house

Rent

Honey

Chocolate

Satellite TV

Public Transportation

Health Care

Taxes

01-05-14

Quiet day at home.  All of our meals at home.  Sunday night dessert at home.  Plenty of resting time.  We did make the trek to Kalama to walk Kress Lake and play a quick and cold game of tennis.  Then back to the warmth and restfulness of home.

01-04-14

We went on a little family hike today that ended with stump jumping.  Wee!

01-03-14

TGIF.  After work welcomed the family home, went to buy paint with Bruce, then went scrapbook with friends.

Meanwhile the painting continues.  Goodbye bright girly, hello bright sophisticated.

01-02-14

My one little word for 2014 is FALLOW, which raises eyebrows.

My definition: left dormant for a period in order to restore its productivity.
My interpretation: do less and accomplish more. Pare down normal activities to make more time and energy for other things.

Specifics:
Less rigidity with devotions and memorization, more hearing and responding to prompts of service from God.
Less activities that don't directly align to my passions, more volunteering at HNA events.
Less focus on pounds and points for healthy lifestyle, more time for tennis, naturopath, quality workouts, new habits.
Less gardening, less focus on daily/weekly to do list, less plans, more scrapbooking, reading, time with family, and down time.

Confession: this photo, my representation of fallow, wasn't taken on 1/2/14.  I didn't take any photos or post my blog because I was doing fallow instead... :)

01-01-14

Good-bye bright pink and purple walls and garden stencil in Anastasia's room.  Primer coats today so it can dry while they are up north.  This photo isn't in focus, but I liked it.