April 30th, 2012 - JJ

1. Getting to have dinner last night with Casey & Katie. I love them! I'm also thankful that the weird guy who sat at our table didn't stay too long. I wanted to catch up with my friends, not meet new people. Further thankful for Blokes and Birds, which is delicious!

 

2. That the date day I planned for Derick on Saturday went well and that Derick liked all the places I picked to take him to. Old Town Pour House, Old Town Oil, the Spice Shop, Quenchers, & Longman & Eagle. YUM!

 

3. Clean laundry. Nuff said.

 

4. That Derick carries pretty much all heavy objects that need to go up or down the stairs. Cat litter, shelves, full laundry baskets, etc.

 

5. That all of the packages I sent out last week made it to their destinations (except one, but it requires a signature and no one's been home to sign for it). Also thankful for FedEx. If I'd sent these things via USPS, they would still be on their way, and I'd still be worried about whether or not they'd actually get there.

 

6. That people like the "Go the F to Sleep" book as much as Derick and I do.  So funny!!

 

7. A fake short week this week. Thursday and Friday I have a conference to go to, which is less work than being at work, and I'm actually excited to learn more about the topic.

 

8. The Starbucks date I have with Jenna later today.

 

9. That Allagash hasn't broken the skin by scratching or biting in about a week. I think he's learning to play nicer.

 

10. The new Sookie book comes out tomorrow!! Pretty much the only thing that could make me put the Game of Thrones books on hold. :)

April 29th - Heather

1.  A weekend of exploring destinations outside of my bubble!  It's too easy to create this bubble of  work-home-local grocery store...and never live outside of that bubble.  I can't do that!  There's always a reason to drive and live out side of the mundane!  Yesterday we packed up our kitties (and litter box) and started by driving out to where I'll be taking my first two masters classes this summer...ended up being much father away from main campus than I expected...but it made the venture an adventure!

2.  The amazing frozen custard place we stumbled across while driving around downtown Burlington!

3.  Brunch at the Pine Cone Cafe and the random trip through the outlet mall this morning.  It's scary to realize just how close to home that outlet mall is!!!!

4.  Reading books on the kindle...soo much easier than trying to hold a thousand pages for hours and hours!

5.  My wall of books!  It's not a full library...yet...but I have four almost floor to ceiling bookshelves along one wall with a small cluttered writing desk in the middle.  The sad part is that I don't think I've read half of the books on my wall....hmmm I feel a resolution taking shape.....

April 27th, 2012 - JJ

1. Heirloom tomatoes! Derick put together a delicious caprese salad with them last night! YUM!

 

2. The fancy tangerine olive oil that Heather and Kathy left at our house a while back (over Thanksgiving, I think?). It made the caprese even more exceptional!

 

3. The patterns Tammy sent to me (Thank you, thank you!!)! I will be trying out the sewing machine this weekend and am excited to have so many fun things to make!

 

4. It's Friday. If it could also be 2:00 asap that'd be great. I'm ready to go home.

 

5. The adorable picture that Derick's friends, Britt & Dan, posted on facebook of their new baby in the outfit we sent them. She's SO stinking cute it's crazy!

April 27th - Heather

The air has its chill and the sun its warmth
Dew glistens on the blades of grass below
Tall leafy green trees stud the lawn
Yet I miss the fresh chill morning air
Alight with the fragrance of the trees
The Sound sparkling in the sun
Moss on the floor that sees no sunlight
For the rays are too busy dancing on treetops
Happy, fragrant trees waving and dancing
Encouraged by eyes of snow capped peaks

1. It's only appropriate that I'm thankful for trees on arbor day!  They play so fondly in my memories!  15 years ago I could have walked off a plane and onto a jetway blindfolded and still known I was at Seatac because the smell of the trees was instantly present.  Over the years that fragrance has been harder to find....when I moved back to Seattle in 2004 I had to get to my grandma house to smell it....then she had her evergreens felled because they were too old, too tall, and too likely to fall on the neighboring houses.  The last time I smelled that sweet fragrance was when my mom and I went for a drive around the penisula (yes, I admit it, Forks was the destination, but the scenery of the peninsula was reason enough too) while we were back home for a vacation in 2011.  It's been too long!

2.  The views of green leafy trees outside my office window.

3.  Coffee!  I know...and as some of you know,  I gave up coffee for tea.  In doing so I knew there would days like these ("there'll be days like this my mama said") when coffee would be a necessary indulgence!

4.  Seeing the Hunger Games last night...even though I was in tears within 10 minutes...ok, maybe 5...all I know is that I cried through the reaping.

5.   I'm very thankful that my mom turned the news on this morning and I heard the weather forecast....I was planning on wearing a dress until I heard the meteorologist say that we wouldn't make it out of the 40's today! :(  Seriously...couldn't we bump that up by, say, 10 degrees???

April 26th - Heather

1.  Having sick days and not having to call 20 people just to find one that can cover for me when I need to take one!

2.  Not having a migraine....even after all the sleep I packed into yesterday I felt a little headache lingering about the edges of my brain....but it did not turn into the dreaded migraine!

3.  I finished the first book in the Song and Ice and Fire series...now I'm only a book and half behind my lovely friends...I think. And if one or the other of them has begun the fourth book  I don't want to know yet!!!!

4.  That some of the books for my grad classes are available in Kindle editions!  My Kindle is so much more portable than big clunky text books.

5.  Textbook information in general!  I was starting to panic since my first class starts May 19th - aka in just a couple of weeks!!!  And according to their website, the bookstore on campus still didn't have anything in stock and because it wasn't in stock I couldn't even see the title information.  So I called one of my wonderful co-workers in the Education Department and she told me where I could find the textbook info without having to rely on the bookstore's website!  And now I can breathe!!!

April 26th, 2012 - JJ

1. Crackritas! Our pet name for the very strong and very delicious margaritas at Cesars.

 

2. Time spent with Emily & Jake. Always fun! Especially with crackritas!

 

3. Groupons, making crackritas cheap!

 

4. The delicious and fancy chocolate bar Derick put in my easter basket. I've been eating it slowly, one teeny square at a time, trying to make it last, but today I couldn't control myself and have eaten a whole row of squares. It's SO good!!

 

5. That Derick liked the "fake" jambalaya that Megan and I cooked for dinner earlier this week. It had all kinds of veggies in it and I thought for sure he'd hate it, but he loved it! It gives me so much joy to find new ways to get Derick to eat veggies.

 

6. Books! Amy and I are now reading two series together and I love it! It's so much fun to have daily chats to talk about our feelings on the chapters read the day before.

 

7. Cats who kill spiders. Allagash isn't really good at killing spiders yet (he just wants to play with them so they get away!), but Muffin is a PRO!

 

8. Plants! I have several plants at home now and have managed to keep all of them alive, thus far (although I just bought a lily and it's begun dying within two days of me bringing it home....crap!). I'm also thankful for our edible plants: basil & mint, thanks to Tammy.  Fresh basil is so much more delicious than the dried stuff.

 

9.  That I get to spend time with Mary today. I think she is just so wonderful and I love when we get to drive to meetings together. I'm almost sad that we'll be closing one of our two mutual clients out soon because it means I will be spending less time with her.

 

10. The heated seats in the company car. I am thankful for them often, but today especially since it was pretty cold outside this morning!

April 23rd - Heather

1.  A speedy state tax return!  I was amazed to see it blinking at me so coyly from my bank account Friday afternoon.

2.  A fabulously successful first attempt into the world of preparing and serving a French-inspired 7 course meal to 3 people that blur the distinction between friends and family!  Here was Saturday's menu, in addition to the standard bread basket lingering through the following courses:

• Pretzel-like bread sticks wrapped in prosciutto with a garlic aioli mustard paired with  Chardonnay
• Wild Pacific Salmon with a mojito chutney paired with Chardonnay
• Mango Sorbet
• Roast Beef paired with Pinot Noir
• Spinach Salad with cranberries, pecans and a balsmic vinegar and olive oil dressing paired with Pinot Noir
• Dried apricots and Brie paired with a local Peach wine
• Chocolate and Vanilla Parisian Macarons and cafe paired with this Chocolate Red Wine from Walla Walla, Washington

3.  Trader Joe's!  I love their food.   I don't get to shop there as much as I did living in DC because it's so far from home, but I made the trip out there to get everything for my foray into multi-course entertaining because I knew they would have the macarons that I wanted and so much more.  

4.  A wonderful brunch Saturday morning at Cafe Centraal and I'm extra thankful since Derick picked up the tab!  Thank you!!! :)  It was amazing.  I was a little skeptical ordering a savory pancake breakfast but it sounded too good to pass up....and it was!

5.  That we've past the half-way point on the grant.  For those of you who may not know, my current position is 100% tied to a 5 year Department of Education grant that Carroll University was granted.  There has been a steep learning curve getting into the world of grants and federal money.  But we are half way through our third year and therefore half way through the grant funded portion of the project overall.  Is it improper to begin a countdown from this point until the last day of the grant????