SNOW!!

Ok last week Seattle got it's first snow, and really our first snow since we've been here. Seattle does not do well with snow. The entire city shuts down. We got 2.5 inches and it took Kelly five hours (YES!) to get home. So I'm not sure, we will have to have more snow to do additional trial experiments but it seems that for every inch you double that in hours for travel time. Now I know some of you are thinking well if you didn't live so far away... but that really has nothing to do with it. Public transportation is the only way to get around when it snows and that is a joke. People were waiting for over an hour to get on buses the first night. I was reminiscing of a family trip in Chicago. . . .only this time I used my public transportation smarts! Not to avoid the Cheery 300 lb Lady this time but to not stand out in the snow. Plan of attack: 1st - get to a bus stop that goes directly downtown, thank heavens my banker lives near a route and could drop me off! 2nd - Don't get off and wait for a bus in the snow it took the bus HOURS to pick those poor people up. I was not going to be one of them! Take the lite rail to the airport! Smart right?! Because even if I never got home I would have a warm place to sit, go to the bathroom and eat! Oh yeah! 3rd - hope the bus comes to the airport so I don't really have to sit, go to the bathroom and eat there. Well, it did an hour after I got there. So I got home four hours after I left work. The only scare I had was when the lite rail police come by and checked for tickets, I didn't have one cause I had never ridden it before and didn't know what to do but I had a pass that would get me on if I had used it right so they accepted it. Whew! because it is a $124 fine and they actually pulled one guy off in the snow and gave him one! Snow day the next day for work because the buses weren't running - BONUS! However, any excitement I had for this was quickly dampened the next day (literally) when I had to take the bus to work and the transfer bus never came so I had to walk a mile in the freezing wind and snow. Oh how I wish I had worn my insulated pants, I didn't even have my Fuggs! You know how they say when you are in the freezing cold and shivering and just before you die your body stops shaking and you start to get warm? That's how you know it's bad? And you go into a state of delirium and start to get sleepy. That happened to me at the bus stop. I had waited for 40 minutes and started getting that feeling so made the life or death decision to start walking. There is something about Seattle, no matter which way you are walking snow is blowing into your face! Seriously - it was not just my frozen brain playing tricks on me. And on top of that my trek was downhill - a steep hill and I had to take mini steps the whole way so I didn't fall - my legs and hips were killing me. I almost started to cry but then talked myself out of it because I would only be losing warm bodily fluids and it would do me no good. I encouraged myself during the trek by muttering how much I hate Seattle the entire way hoping beyond hope that the bus would come as I walked. Hating Seattle did not improve my mood and the bus did not come. I think my nose was frostbitten as I could not feel it for half a day, (earlier this week Kelly said it looked a different color than the rest of my face so there is some cause for concern) - but I made it. No more snow in Seattle please!

The dilemma . .

BSU football. Tomorrow 5 pm. Nowhere to watch! We may have to get more than basic cable tv just so we can watch the games. That wouldn't be so bad because then we would get all of the home makeover channels too! And maybe even E! if I'm lucky. But then what comes in the mail. . . a BSU alumni card! Brandishing the following question in bold letters: WHERE WILL YOU WATCH BRONCO FOOTBALL?!! I don't know!!!! Why is the mail torturing us now? Well guess what folks?! This little card was sent especially to us to tell us that there are viewing parties all over the US of A! So we will be watching the BSU v. VT game with other Washington Bronco fans in DT Seattle!! Yahoo! In 3D even! (Why is everything in 3D now?) So Kelly and I are going to get our sexy 3D glasses on and hopefully meet some new people and watch our Bronco's kick some VT bootie!

Dear Cable Bill,
We have decided to remain responsible with our money and not choose an upgrade in your services. For now. . .

SUNSHINE!!!!

Conversation in the car on the way to work Wednesday morning -
Setting: The sun is finally shining on Seattle!
Kristin: (in a sing songy voice) "Oh my go-osh I am so excited the sun is finally owww-ttt!!!"
Kelly: "Mmmhhmmm"
Kristin: "This is so great!" (Smiles all around!)
Kelly: (Courtesy grin)
Kristin: "I love the sun!! I feel like singing a song!"
Kelly: "Please don't."
Kristin: "I want to sing the song from Oklahoma! OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MOOORNING! OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAAAAYY!. . . . . That's all I know."
Kelly: (Thankful that is over and his ears have not started bleeding) "ooo-k"

He was not QUITE as excited as me but I know deep down he appreciated my enthusiasm. Who doesn't love sunshine (right Heather?! :) ) You will notice my blog is a bit more colorful these days! The sun has been out for seven days now!! (I wasn't here for four of those but I am going to go ahead and give it credit since I was in the sun in ID). YAY!!!

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower ~ Hans Christian Anderson

Ok so I didn't stick to blogging every night last week. That it hard. But I do have a weather update. The sun came out on Thursday!! However it has been rainy all day TODAY!! So in solidarity with the sun I am keeping the black and grey blog page. Besides had I changed it for just the day no one would have noticed unless they happened to check me for an update. I know where there is some sunshine though. . . IDAHO! And I will be there in four days!!! Foote family picnic - YAHOO and we were also going to celebrate Father's day with our dads. Weather is supposed to be in the low 80s! I can't wait! Unfortunately it appears I will be going alone so hopefully I can bring the sunshine back for Kelly. He asked for the weekend off, was approved, we booked our flights and then he got his schedule and was scheduled to work on Sat. But they gave him the Friday off (to go out of town!!!), so that was nice. Unfortunately, none of his coworkers wanted to trade him and they are without a manager right now so the assistant manager is a little overwhelmed and Kelly going out of town is the least of her worries. It looks like he is going to have to stay. We are really bummed because we were both looking forward to the time with family and each other. So this is what it is like when both spouses work inflexible jobs :) Heather is still holding our hope for us, so if Kelly gets is off it will be her positive thinking that gets him there.

P.S. Still raining

We are such dorks!

Conversation on the way home from work the other day:
Kelly (very excitedly) - "I had the most awesome day at work! I was so great! This customer..." (me - listening intently)

Kristin (totally psyched) - "I made the most awesome whiteboard at work today! It was so cool..." (Kelly - ready to hear my story)

Us - laughing hysterically at the same time because we just realized we are corporate nerds.

Surprise #2

My second surprise was for Nicole's birthday. This surprise was even better than I could have hoped. Justin and I talked a few weeks before and started our plan. I kept Justin's email from something Nicole had copied us both on for just such a occasion. I was so afraid Nicole was going to find out. Justin continued to assure me she had no clue. The weeks before she was lamenting on the fact that her birthday was coming and she was in TX and hated it and she was going to celebrate it alone. Hehehe. It was all I could do to not scream "BUT YOU WON'T BE BECAUSE I'M COMING!!!!!" I took a long weekend and flew from Seattle to Houston to the podunk airport of College Station where the ticket counter guy checks you in, runs security, drives your bags to the plane and loads them and then proceeds to hop in and pilot after checking that the runway is clear of obstructions. Justin picked me up and the plan was for him to go to class while I babysit Peanut and wait for Nicole to come home. I was so excited I could hardly wait! Savannah showed me all of her toys and we had fun taking a couple of self portraits. . .










Then. . . the garage door opens. . . what I didn't know was she could hear Savannah's toy (the reoccurring noise in the video)outside and she knew Justin wasn't home so she instantly knew something was up. But oh well. She comes around the kitchen corner and SURPRISE!!!!

The reunion was way overdue and the video is not that great because I was too excited to think about details like actually zooming in enough to get her facial expressions. But it was great! Nicole looked super duper hot in her little Friday work outfit - TX wasn't treating her so bad. I tried to teach Savannah how to say SURPRISE!! But that is hard to master in two hours. She did get a very excited squeal in though. I was successful in teaching her how to make an elephant sound and trunk motion which she continued to do long after I left. :) We had so much fun! Justin was so great to not only help plan and pull off the surprise but he watched Savannah so we could have a girls night out of sushi and dessert and go shopping in Houston. There we went to Saks where the sales lady treated us like trash, it was a very Pretty Woman moment (if only we had Richard Gere's credit card. . .) And I would just like to say that practically everything there is made in China and not that great. Then I introduced Nicole to the Nordstrom's perfume counter where you can get samples of anything you want you just have to ask and they send someone to make it for you! We went to Olive Garden and had a free meal because there were bugs on our table! What luck! Justin told me please take her shopping! I couldn't refuse. Shopping, shopping and more shopping! I almost had a meltdown on my hands when I made her try on 50 pairs of pants at GCGB but she persevered and found a ton of cute stuff. And the girl looks good in every shoe you put on her! Seriously she should be a shoe model. Companies that make ugly shoes should hire her because she makes them look good!
She took me to the Bonfire Memorial which was really cool, and sad. I think what I liked most about TX A&M is how important history and symbolism is to them. Everything is done a certain way or placed specifically to represent certain things. I like that so much thought is put into what they do. They are very proud and it shows. ( I still think the Gig Em is silly though). We also went to Austin and toured that city a little, we watched Twilight, and went to Savannah's drs appointment. I bring the last one up because I was so impressed with her and so amazed at how much those appointments cost! They asked Nicole like four questions that was supposedly an autism test and charged her $450 for it! But the best part was she had to get two vaccines and the nurse comes in and gets her all ready, Savannah is watching wide eyed the entire time, and she sticks her with the needle and Savannah, very quietly says "ohhh". And that is it! I was shocked and amazed and it once again confirmed she is the best little girl ever. Finally the weekend ended and I had to say goodbye to my girls. I was so sad. I miss them both so much and wish we lived closer. It is just not the same not seeing my BFF everyday. I tried to persuade Justin while I was there that Seattle has just as much to offer, if not more, than TX! But he was not convinced. It was a great trip and we only have one regret - I did not take a picture of the two of us!!! UGH! But I did get lots of cute ones of Peanut.

Thanks again Justin for helping me come visit and surprise Nicole. And thanks Nicole for sharing your birthday with me. It was a great trip! I can't wait until the next one!

9 Months!

Alas, it has been that long since I last posted! Just realized some of you may think that title means something else. We did not make a baby in that time, though we could have! And this is not news that there will be one in that time in the future. Sorry. Just finally decided to update the blog. Consider THIS my labor of love :) I am horrible at this because I get on and I start to read all my fun family's blogs and about life in TX with Nicole and Roger's adorable girls and then by the time I am ready to get to mine I am tired and I have to redo my background and fonts blah blah blah. I have put a generic background on so this doesn't happen in the future, you will notice it is black and white I am leaving it black and white until we get some SUN!!! Oh sun where are you?!!! Why did we leave you in San Diego?!
I have so much to catch up on from my last blog (I know you are all wondering what happened to Surprise #2!!!) I promise I will blog everyday this week and catch you up on our mostly boring but sometimes entertaining lives. We just got back from vacation, we finally went home again for Mother's Day (5 mons is WAY too long to be away), we have new roommates, I celebrated Heather's 30th!!! in Vegas with her, the holidays, October b-days, job changes, our Scooter went to kitty heaven, and my horrible hair cut, Whew! I better blog every night this week and next!
Our new picture is how much I LOVE KELLY. For lots of reasons but most recently because the day before we left for vacation we thought we lost everything on our computer. EVERYTHING. I am just so happy to HAVE this picture. Pictures, journal entries, creative writings, videos and recordings of him and his students playing the piano, addresses of everyone. It was devastating and made us sick. I held out hope all along that things are never entirely gone from a computer (I mean NCSI finds stuff all the time right?) we would just have to find the right guy to locate it. He, with a little help from the Mac helpline, found it all in a compressed file after hours of searching. I was right! And Kelly was the right guy! He came back downstairs with that smile I love on his face. Success!! He is my hero. Now that we are back from vacation, tomorrow he is buying an external hard drive so we will have a backup. ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR STUFF!

We've been in Seattle a year!

Wow time flies! Kelly and I were just laughing about our trip up here and how crazy moving was. Very dramatical as I say. Leaving home is hard. We have made some new friends that we will have forever but Seattle is not home. We will enjoy our adventure here while it lasts but won't be so scared to go on the next one.
Things we miss the most:
Family
Friends
Playing the piano at all hours
The sun
Our home
Kelly's students
Family

Things we like about Seattle:
Friends
My job
It is green
It is beautiful when the sun does shine
There is lots to do
We are close to the ocean :) (hehehe that is the Sound not the ocean!)
It's only an hour plane ride from home