Developing Talents - A Day of Domestic Arts

Today Nathan and I spent time together being domestic. Those closest to us know that I lovingly call him my sous-chef. He's great at chopping and measuring!

The morning started as we "made" rolls. Okay so they're just the kind from frozen dough, but it was a nice warm-up exercise. Frozen or not, baking rolls smell amazing! That's what I call a wonderful way to start the day.

This week I was fortunate enough to acquire some garden-fresh produce from a friend whose hard work has produced amazing results. I got a recipe for stuffed zucchini (cousin of the more famous stuffed pepper). Excitedly I realized it was a way to sneak more vegetables into our diet. As the dutiful sous-chef, Nathan prepared the zucchini while I prepared the stuffing. The results were unanimously in favor. Phase one of Operation Increase Vegetables was successful!

But the domestic dabblings didn't stop there. I had also acquired some rhubarb (the redheaded stepchild of the fruit world), so I decided to give strawberry rhubarb pie a try. I pulled out a family cook book for Grandma Joany's crust recipe, and I conferred with Allrecipes.com for the filling. I put the sous-chef to work chopping the fruit while I went to work on the crust. This was my first attempt at a pie on my own, and it was, as Sarah W. pointed out, an ambitious task. The first attempt to roll out the crust failed. The second attempt improved a little, but required some patch work. I was feeling discouraged but Nathan assured me it would be delicious. As it started to cook and aroma filled the house I began to relax. Plus I remembered that I bought vanilla ice cream to go with, so even if it sucked everything would be ok.

4 YEARS

August 11, 2007
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon. All the family was in from out of town. Everyone was scrambling to put the finishing touches on our day. It's hard to believe four years have passed since then.

Here is an incomplete list of things we've done during our marriage...

Completed four years of school and two degrees, Paid off Nathan's car, Zip lined and ATV toured in Hawaii, Moved 3 times (thanks to family and friends who helped), Started New Traditions, Cheered at Sounders Games, Concerts and more concerts, Finished LOST and started Glee, Quit old jobs and started new ones, Went Sailing in the San Juan Islands...and so much more.

When Nathan asked what I wanted for our anniversary I thought about what I could ask for. I have a lot of stuff, more than I know what to do with. So I realized what I wanted to create memories with my husband. We've been so busy that sometimes we were lucky to see each other one or two hours before we went to sleep. So I asked Nathan to take me to do fun things.

On the night of our anniversary (a work night) we went to the movies. This wasn't just an average trip to the movies. We used a gift card to Gold Class Cinema in Redmond. This place is the fanciest theater I've ever been to. When I was dating Nathan there was a really nice theater in Vancouver WA called Cinetopia. The thing that stands out in my memory is the butter bar which had six flavors of butter, if memory serves correctly. But Gold Class was above and beyond. Actual recliners in the theater! Plus you can order dinner, drinks and desserts. Oh MY!

In case you're dying to know what movie we saw: Cowboys and Aliens. Yep. Nothing says Happy Anniversary like a western-sci-fi-lovechild. The movie was entertaining and overall the experience was fun. We didn't have the kind of elite service we expected, based on the price of the tickets. All in all, it's a fun thing to splurge on, but way over priced for an everyday movie experience.

Of course, no occasion would be complete without our famous self portraits!

Phase Two of our anniversary celebration was on Saturday after I got off work. Nathan met me down town. First we took the SLU Trolley into downtown. Then we went on the Seattle Undgerground tour. Luckily we had some time to kill before the tour started because I saw the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It was difficult to select just a few to sample.

During the tour we learned a lot about the history of the city. I have to say, it's not just for tourists...locals welcome! Our tour guide was funny and poked jokes at Tacoma. There were also several poop jokes as we learned about Seattle's early sewer problems.

Serious face

After that we headed to dinner. We'd heard about Ipanema from several people, so we decided to give it a try. Again, if you're looking for ways to say "I Love You" to your sweetheart, try 18 kinds of meat and an all you can eat salad bar. A match made in heaven.

Smushed Faces

Waiting outside for our table to be ready

This is where they cooked the meat...and the pineapple

A little sample plate from the salad bar

Nathan and I both agreed on a couple of favorites. We liked the the bacon steak, sirloin, and garlic pork. I've been to similar all-you-can-eat restaurants. They have a sign for YES = bring more, and NO = well that one is obvious. So we pretty much had our sign on yes all the time. We were finishing up our last few bites and had turned our sign to no, when I saw it coming from across the room. I quickly told Nathan to flip our sign over but we almost weren't fast enough. We almost missed the best thing ever! The server came to the table and brought the perfect ending to a wonderful meal. Grilled Pineapple lightly dusted with cinnamon. It melted in our mouths, and we melted in our chairs.

The Crafty Side

My first project was a necklace. I went to a local bead shop, Garden of Beadin', in Bothell. Nicole helped me pick beads and chain I liked. Nathan was having poker night, so I went over to Nicole's to make my first bead necklace since girls' camp. Each section is a little different

The product is mostly finished.

I'm planning to add a little more bling to this.

It was a fun project and might be the start of a jewelry phenomenon.

A young women's activity brought out more creativity.

We made accesories out of old T-shirts.

Here's a bracelet and hair clip that I made.

There are a lot more styles and items I'd still like to try.

All the girls seemed to have had a great time.

During another one of Nathan's poker nights I had a ladies craft night. I was off to a slow start and only made two cards, but I had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to developing my creative side. Special thanks to mom for helping and bringing such fun toys for us to play with. I hope to make this a more regular thing. Anyone is welcome and all projects are too, from scrapbooks to cards and cross stitch. I never thought I'd like poker night so much.