Summer Vacation = Work Work Work

Finals.
Photo shoots.
Packing.
Moving.
More photo shoots.
Unpacking...sorta.
Painting.
Gardening.
Working in between all.

For the short version of what I've been up to the last 6 weeks, that pretty much sums it up : )

I was really nervous for finals this semester...because I had a chance to get an A in one of my classes for the first time in 3 years! Being that "A" student in high school and through most of my community college days, it has been rough getting B's and C's ever since my second semester at PLU. I was starting to think there was something wrong with my brain, I just didn't understand why I wasn't capable of getting A's on tests, let alone classes anymore. Yes, the content was difficult in some (O. Chem), but I finally realized that I lived a much different life outside of the classroom than most students at PLU--a house to keep up, a fiance to keep sane with his school fiascos, bills to pay and therefore shifts to be picked up at work. We are nothing short of busy!

I've never been a fan of self help books, but one that I read dealing with success in college gave me something new to try, and overall I think it's worked. This semester had plenty of me working and drama with my senior project, but I managed to pull an A in Biochemistry II, a B in Wildlife Ecology, a B in Comparative Anatomy (thank you God! lol) and a B- in Capstone.....which should have been an A. I am so darn bitter about what took place in that class as far as my grades, but I didn't get a C like I thought was going to happen so I'm not going to complain at the moment. I'm pretty sure another stern WTF visit to the professor's office was being avoided with that final grade assignment : )

As soon as finals were over we started packing up the house to move in with Cody's mom.....not my first choice of a move--let's be honest, it wasn't my second, either--but, we need to save money for a wedding and not having to put most of our stuff in storage to afford a place to live do it is a plus. The house needs a lot of work, which Cody is thrilled about doing. I know that it will eventually look better, I just don't like that it's not going to be a quick process. I decided to channel my annoyances into making our room and office those places that I would enjoy spending time in and feel like it was our space. It's hard to feel like this is "my" house too. After lots of paint on my hands and face, new dressers, curtains and hooking up the TV, our room looks pretty good! No, the floor isn't done yet, which is one of my annoyances but there's nothing we can do about it at the moment, but it was nice to not have to care if I got paint on it or not : ) Up until this weekend we were living out of storage totes and suitcases, and after a few days laundry baskets were thrown into the mix! haha It was not a pleasant experience, but I am so thankful for Cody through it all. He very well knows that I didn't really want to be moving in here, and I know that he's tried to make it as easy as possible for me. Most importantly, he let me be mad and kinda freak out a little some days ; ) We spent the whole week and a half he had off of school getting things done around here, and we have an 80% completed room (bathroom completely nonfunctional right now--no shower, toilet, OR sinks lol), a finished office, and a garden to boot ; )

Before pictures...sortof. I kept forgetting my camera, so this was the best I could do with a phone : P

The "in progress" stages...

Most of the room was painted light gray--looks kinda blue here

Cody pausing hanging up the blinds to admire his no wires showing project : )

After a long day of painting and many other projects..

The almost finished product:

I have lots more planned for decoration in our room. I am on the prowl for a simple armchair and I have schematics in my head for a NYC collage of picture frames and keepsakes, plus some accent curtains and pillows. It's going to look awesome : )

The rest of the house is still in disarray...things piled in the living room and dining room till they find a place/floors get done, and our couch is currently residing in the garage. The OCD in me tries to stay out of those rooms as much as possible for now : P

Because we were changing up the colors of our bedroom furniture and I love our IKEA night stands, I decided to attempt to paint them. Hindsight is 20/20, and I got so frustrated I'm pretty sure I should have just found some black ones! lol It wasn't THAT bad, but it just didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped, and in my eyes they are not done yet. But, I needed to walk away from that project and call it good for now : P  I found a blog that talked about the specific kind of primer to use and everything for painting IKEA stuff. Maybe it's just because it's black paint, but these things just did not want to hold the color. Cody said rolling the paint would be better, which I agreed with at first, but after 3 coats of black I'm getting spray paint for when I come back to touching it up. The best part is one of them held the paint and primer better than the other! I don't get it.

I've done a couple photo shoots since school has been out and I'm looking forward to the couple more I am scheduled to do this month--they've been a lot of fun and I've enjoyed the escape with my camera!

And last but definitely not least, Cody and I had our engagement pictures taken by Tasha Owen Photography last week and I cannot wait to get them back!!! We had the "usual" pictures done, of course, but we topped it off with a mini shoot in PLU's chemistry lab....they are going to be unique and absolutely awesome, Tasha and her husband Tom were SO much fun to work with, I'm already so pleased with them knowing the quality of work that they produce!

Well, that's my summer so far in a nutshell....throw in working almost full time and it's been a busy one : )  I am working on getting myself into an exercise routine while I have the "time" to do so. Hopefully the nice weather will be staying a little more permanently soon, but I have no excuse with this beautiful trail in practically in my back yard now!




Just for fun--I have enjoyed watching this little guy grow into such a fun and thoughtful person. I can't believe I met him when he was about 1 1/2 years old, and now he's about to be a big bad kindergartner this fall! He came over to stay the night with Grandma the other night and we had a little fun with the camera--if he sees it, pictures must be taken : )  He marched into our room after using the bathroom and says "Hey Ashley, I really like the way you decorated the bathroom, it looks nice!" Hahaha  Oh, Joey...I love this kid : )

Joey: "Okay lets close our eyes for this picture!"
Me: "Alright let's do it--ready?"
*Click*
Joey: "Oops I opened my eyes just a little.."
: )

Road trip, field trip, and everything in between!

5 more weeks of the semester left.....yipee!!! However that also means that the opportunities to boost my grades are becoming smaller and smaller, which always makes me nervous. I'm doing fantastic in biochem and wildlife ecology, but comparative anatomy? Not so much. I don't appreciate the teaching style or expectations very much, but I'm kinda stuck with it now : )  I never like being the average, but with the volume of terms/structures/concepts we've had to memorize for a single exam, I'm actually kinda thankful to be hovering around that 75% mark--half of the class above me, half below me. I guess that the best part is not only does he curve every test, but the overall grades as well. Now I just have to hope that the same people haven't been getting the high grades every time! ; )

It's been a very long time since I've written anything on here--I feel lazy for not keeping up with it, but, it's not like I don't have other things occupying my time : )  I do believe that I left off with my weekend excursion up to Boundary Bay in British Columbia at the end of February. For my wildlife ecology class (which I am enjoying MUCH more than expected!) we were assigned to write a term research paper on our choice of animal from a list Pacific Northwest species she had for us. I chose the snowy owl--no, not because of Harry Potter, I swear!--but because I think they are really really pretty birds and I had never seen one (besides at Northwest Trek) and thought it would be cool to learn more about them. Part of our assignment includes making a poster of our research to "present" (i.e. stand next to it and answer questions) during PLU's Academic Festival at the end of the semester. I thought to myself, I wonder how close to us snowy owls can be found? The mountains, maybe? If I was going to have to make a poster with pictures I sure wanted the pictures to be my own if possible : )  So, I sought out to find where I might be able to go see these owls in their natural environment. I stumbled across a blog of a man named Marc Hoffman (Songbirdphoto.com) who had recently seen and taken photos of snowy owls in British Columbia, so I emailed him to ask if he could possibly give me directions to where he was at. Thankfully he did and the following weekend I headed out to Boundary Bay/Surrey B.C. with  my best friend to see some owls!

Of course the whole experience was cool (I'm pretty sure Mel enjoyed it too lol), I was excited taking my first trip to Canada--but hands down the best/funniest part of the trip was crossing the border. I have the enhanced drivers license so I didn't need anything else, but Melanie didn't have that or a passport. We kept getting conflicting information about the required documents to cross the border from the Canadian side and from the U.S. side (we found out later the passport law had been in effect since 2009, whoops : P) so we were armed with her birth certificate, SS card, license, and who knows what else! I got super nervous when we got to the border thinking they weren't going to let her across, so much so that when the border guard asked "Where is home?" all I could think of to say was Washington, and even that took me a few seconds *lol*  Then when he asked what we were doing in Canada I told him we were headed to Boundary Bay to see the snowy owls. "....seriously?" was his response and I kinda laughed, said I was doing a research paper on them for school and decided to see them in person. "Well that's cool I guess.....but you're seriously like 25 years younger than anyone else coming across to go look at them!"  Coming back into the U.S. the border patrol asked what we did in Canada, told him the same story, and no joke, got the same response from him! So birders are all old huh? : )

Anyway, we got a good laugh out of it, no mention of Melanie not having a passport, and off to Surrey we went....after I had to give up my very large can of pepper spray--thanks, Canada, for sending two girls on without a weapon! ; ) We dropped some stuff at the hotel and then headed right out to Boundary Bay. We totally lucked out with the weather. Aside from it being SUPER windy on Saturday, the temperature was pretty tolerable and it didn't rain--can't complain about that on the coast in February. There were actually lots of people out on the trial looking at and taking pictures of the owls. I don't know what I was really expecting the area to look like, but I was definitely expecting trees/woods of some sort. We were just off the shores of the ocean, in a very flat and open area with lots of washed up logs and wetlands between the trail and the edge of the water. I hadn't done much research on the owl up to this point, but it turns out they are ground nesters and prefer vast, open expanses like these. It was beautiful. I love the coast as it is, but there was just something about the area that was really neat. And the owls--most were literally 25 feet away from the trail perched on the logs!!! So. Awesome.

This was a rare treat and I was so excited that I got to see them. The snowy owls experience what are called irruption migrations that happen when there is a large increase in their population (usually due to an increase in lemming populations in the tundra) and so there are more owls migrating south as a result. In North America their summer habitat is in the tundra of northern Canada where they breed and lay their eggs, and their winter habitat is usually in Central southern Canada, north central and north east of U.S. In irruption years (which happen it seems every 6-8 years, but isn't a regular pattern) they expand their migration range further south and closer to our coasts. Some years snowy owls have even been spotted in Texas!

The only damper on the trip was seeing the lenses the other photographers out there had that I REALLY wanted. I was very close to asking one of them if I could just look through their lens, just to get a taste of the giant telephoto that is definitely on my want list! Through the research I've done I think I'm becoming an owl person : )  Their behaviors are fascinating to me. I've even been in contact with the person in charge of the Massachusetts Audubon Society who has personally been doing research on the migration habits of snowy owls that he finds selecting their winter habitat at, of all places, Boston's Logan International Airport. He has found a way to affix GPS devices to the owls in a way that does not interfere with their normal behaviors and has been tracking the flight patterns from year to year from their summer habitat to their winter habitat. If you're really interested in the rest of the story just let me know : )

Other than that I have just been chugging away at school, work, and trying to get at my camera when I can, though the weather hasn't been the best. I have done a couple of photo shoots--one of an adorable little girl who was about 3 weeks old at the time, and then had some fun with my nephews Joey and Van one night watching them while mom was at volleyball. We did some Easter pictures and Van's 6 month pictures. I've also got a couple of photo shoots lined up the last 2 weekends of this month that I am excited about!

Hands down my favorite pic from NW Trek!

This past weekend was a pretty packed--and finally gorgeous!--weekend. Saturday I spent the first half of the day with my wildlife ecology class at Northwest Trek. It was the first time that I had been there were the majority of the animals weren't moving or hiding : P  We all had a good time even though we had an assignment to complete while we were there...but I did mine on the snowy owls they have there so I didn't mind too much : ) Then right after I headed to Keana's house for Joey's 5th birthday party--complete with delicious cake and everything Lego-themed, she did a fantastic job decorating. Joey didn't really pay attention to what he was opening for presents...it was an open, look for a second, toss it aside and open the next one lol  Later on when I asked him what we had gotten him he said "he forgot"--silly kiddo, I helped him build the firetruck legos we got him anyway ; )

This was after cake, chips, earlier jello, some frosting covered marshmallows, and hot dogs... ; )

Cody and I finished off the weekend at my parents house for some BBQ hot dogs and grilled pinapple (YUM) while the weather was still nice....and this morning its back to the typical spring rain. It was nice while it lasted, hopefully we will get sun before July!

Until I have more pictures to share, hope you've enjoyed those in this post! : )

Wedding Plans and a Sunny Afternoon

My oh my, where does the time go? It's already been 2 months since Cody and I got engaged! As far away as it seems, I have a feeling next summer will be here before we know it..........good thing the whole wedding is practically planned already!! Okay well not the WHOLE thing : )

Cody thought I was slightly crazy for having all of the things I do thought out and more or less taken care of with so much time before the wedding--I'd like to call it being smart! The way we've got everything rolling (and by we I mean my mom, best friend, and wonderful Pastor Kathy...Cody said 'Whatever you want!' hehe) it's going to be so much easier on the wallets of everyone involved. We still have a budget--that's getting stretched, I'll admit--but none the less it's still there and money will be spent as wisely as possible. That being said......there are a few things I want to splurge on : ) After all, this will only happen once!

What's Done:

• Venue picked (can't book till July)
• Date picked (finally)
• Photographer booked (Sooooo darn excited to work with Tasha Owen Photography!)
• Colors chosen
• Wedding party chosen 
• Invitations designed
• Reply cards and Thank You cards designed and printed
• Bridesmaid's jewelry purchased (LOVE Etsy!!!)
• All decorations for table centerpieces
• Favor bags and tags ordered
• Wedding dress purchased (I did this 2 weeks after the proposal--felt silly, but I love it! Thanks Mom!)

That list seems short when I write it out, but there are so many other things floating around in my head...and lets be honest, pinned on Pinterest...they just don't have a finality to them or it's too early to do anything about them : )

The things I thought would be the hardest for me to decide on actually turned out the easiest. It was a complete fluke that I even have a dress already. One day there just happened to be a few hours where my Mom and best friend were both free so we decided to make a last minute appointment at The Wedding Bell in Tacoma. It was fun! 8 or 9 dresses later I wasn't really thrilled about anything I had tried on and wasn't really looking forward to going to tons of different shops. Even though I didn't want to spend a fortune on a dress, David's Bridal was really the last place I wanted to get one. The consultant at the shop was sooo nice and never made me feel like I was wasting her time because I hadn't chosen anything yet. After all those dresses she said "Okay, I'm going to go pick out a couple of dresses that incorporate what you have liked about the others, and I'm not going to look at the price tag. That way you will know how much what you like is going to cost." Okay, fair enough. No joke, she did some magic trick because the next dress I tried on was literally a combination of every single thing that I said I had liked--and the best part was it was one of the least expensive dresses of all of them!!! DONE. Wrap it up....or send it off to be made, you know what I mean lol 

The other thing I thought would be difficult was picking a photographer. I can't tell you how many times I got asked how I was going to take pictures at my own wedding the first few weeks after we were engaged : P  I had narrowed it down to 3 choices before I asked my photographer friend Heather what she thought about my choices. She told me about a photographer that I hadn't really considered, mostly because I assumed I couldn't afford her. I was willing to spend more on photography for obvious reasons, but we still had a limit. After Heather raved about how awesomely wonderful it was to work with Tasha Owen and her husband, I decided to send her an email to see about her prices and set up a time to meet with her and go over what all is included in her services. As soon as I spent 5 minutes in the same room with her I was sold! She is one of those people that you can help but smile and laugh when you're talking to them, just an absolute joy and someone who has been a pro in the photography industry for several years--both show in their work! Not sure when we will schedule our engagement session with them but I know it is going to be fantastic : )

Needless to say I've been a busy bee as usual in the last few weeks with all this wedding planning business. Before school started back up a week ago I managed to get my scrapbook for 2010 done along with a project and a few recipes tried done from my Pinterest to-do list, . This one was super simple and I actually already had the frame and everything that went inside it. It's a nice alternative to the calendar that used to hang in it's spot next to my desk--plus its good for any week/year I want it to be.

The recipe I tried recently was a really simple one whose purpose was to satisfy my hot sauce + ranch craving. The original recipe can be found here--I adapted it to suit my attempts to eat better, and as good as a grilled cheese-style buffalo chicken sandwich sounded, I decided to make it into a wrap. I also substituted the mayo for fat free Greek yogurt--this stuff is awesome! I couldn't even tell the difference!

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

• 4 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (approx. 2 lbs)
• 5 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 cup nonfat Greek style yogurt
• 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Buffalo sauce (or sauce of preference)
• Blue cheese crumbles (to taste)
• Spinach leaves
• Burrito size tortilla

I baked my chicken in the oven for about 35 min at 350 degrees, then used two forks to shred it. If you have an easier/quicker way, please do share! : ) Combine the yogurt, celery, hot sauce, and chicken in a large bowl. The amount of hot sauce I used had a good kick to it, but I like spicy things--definitely add less to start if you aren't a hot mouth like me *lol*

I warmed up some tortillas in the microwave, added a couple scoops of the chicken mixture along with a few blue cheese crumbles and some spinach leaves--yummy!!!


I am SO looking forward to warmer weather! Winter needs to be done now. A couple weeks ago we had a 60 degree weekend and it was fabulous, but such a tease. I took the Sunday afternoon to get some exercise in at Chamber's Bay and then a few hours of reading the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy, the Mockingjay, out on the Central Meadow. It was wonderful.

Chambers Bay--the site of our wedding next summer : )

My ring looked pretty in the sun, had to take a close-up of it ; )

Creative Photography Challenge: Project 24

I've have wanted to do a photo challenge for a while now. I follow the blogs/feeds for a few here and there, I just don't have the time like I think I will during classes to get out and complete the photo assignment for a week...unfortunately it's not getting me a grade.

I came across this particular challenge on Pinterest around the beginning of the year and I think this is one that I can do! And maybe it will get me motivated to make time for my camera as a study break : )

This particular challenge struck me as fun and unique--plus I have the list up front, this pleases the type A side of my personality : )  I have already gotten a couple down! My goal is to complete two of each category, but not give myself a "due date" other than the end of the year...

Vintage:  This is a picture I took in 2010, but I played around with some settings for that vintage look..

Sparkle or Blur

Another Catch-Up : )

You'd think with almost 3 weeks off of work I would have found time to sit down with an update, but apparently I've found other things to occupy my time : P


First thing's first....as of December 23rd, I'm officially an engaged woman! : ) We are super excited, but the wedding won't be until next summer. Cody thinks I'm slightly crazy for having as many things as I do already planned, but I can't help it! I'm SUCH a planner, and that's probably the one area where Cody and I are the most different (that and our sleeping habits, but that's a completely different story lol). He's very much a take it as it comes kind of guy, where as I usually have a good idea what I'm doing for at least the next two weeks ; )


Many have asked for the proposal story, so I thought I'd share it here--as happy of a story it is, I kinda get tired of saying the same thing over and over : )

So here's the story--he acted like he didn't have a plan for that night when I asked him the day before what time we were going to leave and what I needed to wear. I just kept getting "I don't know, what would you like to do?" I even told him that not that I expect to do big and elaborate things for our anniversary but that I was kinda disappointed that he didn't really take the time to plan something....oh little did I know ; )  

We headed up to Seattle (I didn't know this was where we were going but just figured we would). We took the exit for West Seattle so I had a feeling we were going to Alki Beach. He said "I'm assuming you know where we are going now, I thought it would be fun to recreate our first date". On our very first date we went to Seattle and ate at this restaurant called Tango for dinner, then killed time at a couple bars before the show started at Jet City Improv (hilarious show by the way!) and the ended the night walking around the park on Alki beach.So we were doing it a little backwards but that was okay, I thought it was completely adorable. So we're walkin around, I of course had my camera so I'm taking pictures of the skyline. I wanted to get one of us with the skyline in the background do I set up my camera on the sidewalk and messed with the timer, running back and forth a bunch to redo the picture till I was satisfied : P After about 15 retakes I was finally happy and we started walking back toward the truck. I assumed we were cutting it close to making our dinner reservations and he said "No we've got a little more time we can walk some more." Okay. A little before this I was just reminiscing about our first date, told him it was the first place he held my hand and the first place he put his arm around me when we sat on the beach. We walked over to this grassy area close to the water and he says:"So this restaurant that we are going to is a pretty quiet, low key place but I think you will like it. It's also a pretty classy place, and the ring that I gave you before isn't classy enough.."He got down on one knee, said "Oh my gosh I'm nervous now.." hahaha  and the rest is history! ; ) I of course said yes, and I can't wait to marry my best friend : )

The absolutely adorable ornament Cody's sister Keana got for us : )

Christmas this year was very laid back and enjoyable--as it should be! Cody and I went to his sister's house on Christmas day, and then a week later had a second celebration with my stepsister and her kids from Oregon when my brother was up here visiting. I can't seem to find the pictures that my mom sent me at the moment...gonna have to get them from her again : P

Van thinks my ring is pretty too : ) 

Some amazing fiance got him a charter fishing trip on the Sound! hehe

A few days ago I flew back from my two week trip visiting my Dad and family in Oklahoma. As much as I like spending time down there it's hard to be away from here for that long, thinking about all the projects and such that I want to get done before I start school! Nonetheless, it was a good trip--got a few rounds of golf in, got to spend some time with my grandparents, and lots of relaxing time laying on the couch or playing cards : )

Dad's new toy -- 2012 Ford Raptor....it's pretty fun : ) 

Pretty blue skies out at the ranch in Jay, OK 

I had a little friend on the ride....ironically his name was Cody *lol*

Grand Coulee Damn in Langley, OK -- fun fact, it's the largest-spanning damn in the U.S.!

Gorgeous sunset on the drive home from Grove!

My grandpa loves rebuilding cars, and he's been working on this 1964 Volvo for at least 4 years now. When my Dad and I drove down to his shop, he needed us to help him set the electronic speedometer he installed, so I got to go along for the maiden voyage to read him the directions...Dad followed just in case we broke down : P  He does everything himself, including the upholstery!

Before

After

 So fun! I thought it was pretty cool to share the first ride with him since I don't see him but twice a year <3