Mayhem

At the end of September Matthew and I were checking out thrift stores for a set of dining roomchairs and whilewe were in one of the stores we noticed that they had a relatively large selection of Halloween costumes, so we spent a few minutes being silly and trying on a few of the masks and hats. There were a couple of items that caught my attention, including an old fashioned police hat, those silly glasses with a mustache attached and an adult sized bumble bee costume. I told Matthew that we should get them so that we would havecostumes early this year and not have to rush around the day of, trying to finish our costumes like we have every other year. Matthew proceeded to say that we had no need of costumes this year because we didn't have any plans for Halloween. I then said that we could maybe throw a costume party and he reminded me that we hardly have any furniture, so I rescinded and we left the store empty handed.

Of course, about a week or so later I received an email with an invitation to a Halloween party from a couple in our ward. Because of how busy we were, we didn't have much time to look for costumes, so the week before the party we went back to the thrift store hoping there were still some good costumes left. To our dismay, even though Halloween was still 7 days away, the store had put all the costumes away and were setting up Christmas items in their place. I was disappointed and to be honest a little put off. Why do retail stores in our country do this? Why do they start setting up shop for a holiday that is 2 months away when the nearest holiday hasn't even come yet and when there are still other holidays in between? What about those of us who aren't that organized or who like to give special attention to each holiday? Needless to say, another Halloween, another last minute costume idea! But I have to say I think this one was my best yet and I am so excited with how it turned out!

So I was racking my brain about what Matthew and I could possibly be and I brought this to the attention of a few of my coworkers. So for a couple days my coworkers and I discussed several costumes options, but I didn't come up with an idea until I saw one of many recently popular commercials for Allstate insurance. They have a man that represents all that could go wrong in this world, and his name is "Mayhem." The original play was that Matthew and I would each go as a different representation of Mayhem, but when I remembered that we had a church party to go to, I thought it would be inappropriate for me to dress up like a man. So, Matthew and I watched a few more videos and I got the idea that I could make a car out of cardboard and Matthew and I could go as the Mayhem- Blind Spot commercial. What was even better is that at the last minute I found a woman's wig that truly made Matthew look the part.

It took me all of Saturday afternoon to create the car, actually we were a little bit late to the party because I was still working on it. At the party we had a bunch of ghoulish goodies, played games and enjoyed getting to know each other better. We laughed while playing halloween charades and even harder when Alex guessed that Liz's drawing was a werewolf and not a floppy-eared mouse in less than 10 seconds. Overall it was a great night and I am excited to continuing hanging out with the younger couples in our ward. It feels good to be meeting more people who could become life long friends.

Snoqualmie Falls

This evening Matthew and I decided to head to Snoqualmie Falls. It's a place we have been meaning to visit since the day we moved here. We also wanted to get out and enjoy some of the fall colors, so it was the perfect opportunity.

Maize Maze

Last night we went with Jack and Steph Quincy and Alex and Liz Clark to a corn maze. The first half went by really fast. There weren't very many people around to distract us and we had a good system to rule out all the dead ends; although we still managed to find one or two!

Top:The group on the hay ride before the start of the maze. Bottom: Sad because we found a dead end.

When we got to the half way point we enjoyed a little rest and even took a few pictures "roasting" over the fire.

The second half of the maze proved to be much harder than the first, and it didn't help that there were a lot of loud, people who may not have been as lucid as we were. After going in circles for at least 30 minutes, Jack convinced us that the map was a good idea and we escaped the corn field without having to alert the authorities (unlike some other unlucky family we heard about in the news).

Above Left: Matthew was really hungry & wanted some corn, but I reminded him that we weren't allowed. Above Right: Liz and I were very impressed by the carved pumpkins

There weren't enough animals for all six of us so Alex opted to be the Farmer, Liz the ram, Steph the Sheep, Kara the Horse, Matt the Cow and Jack the Pig!

After we the trailer full of hay brought us back to the parking lot, we spent a few minutes swinging on a tire and gawking in amazement over the size of all the produce. Seriously, there were a few honey crisp apples the size of Matt's head! It was a really fun evening!

Random Bits of Silliness

Since moving Matthew and I have been struggling to find balance in a few areas. The first area is our grocery budget. We knew that in moving, our cost of living would go up, but every time we adjust our grocery budget we still end up spending too much. This is something we are frustrated with. Well, in some random conversation Matthew had with our Bishop and his wife, we discovered that there is a WinCo in the area and according to the calculations of our Bishop, the amount of money we spend in driving to the grocery store would be small compared to the money we would save in groceries, so we decided to give it a go.

This month we have recommitted to keeping our grocery budget and the first thing we did was take a field trip to WinCo. There, we made many discoveries: 1)The produce at WinCo is not quality enough for us, even with the savings, 2)Going to WinCo when you are in a hurry is not worth it, 3) Although WinCo isn't a "bulk" store like Costco or Sam's Club, you can find BIG things there, the following pictures are good examples:

Above Left: I don't know if you can tell, but those are giant marshmallows. Matthew and I love to have roasted/toasted marshmallows year round. In Salt Lake we toasted them in our toaster oven. Here in Seattle we have been broiling them in the oven. In order for these guys to be soft all the way through we have to toast both sides.

Above Right: This is a 10lb tube of beef. It takes up the entire shelf of our fridge! We aren't planning on buying any more beef for a few more months!

Above: One more thing Matthew can threaten me with. (He would never)

We will see if the trip to WinCo really saves us money!

The other thing that Matthew and I have been struggling with is our menu (I find it interesting that both of these struggles have to do with food). Lately, we have not been able to come up with anything creative to eat and we are getting pretty sick of the same old things. Well, Matthew was trying to figure out what to make for dinner and he was talking to his sister Jen. She suggested twice baked potatoes and gave Matthew an idea of how to make them. They turned out fantastic and Matthew told me I had to take a picture of his masterpiece.

Above: The twice baked potatoes. They included sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese and some of the dry ranch mix. We also had roasted red peppers seasoned with Italian dressing and sauteed zucchini (the zucchini was a recipe from our Bishop's wife, they give us lots of good advice!)

Surprise, Surprise!!

This week Matthew decided that he wanted to take me on a surprise date on Friday night. I told him that I would accept an invitation as long as there was dinner involved and it was something creative yet cheap. Well, Matthew did not disappoint!

When I got home from he work he let me change and then we hopped in the car and Matthew plugged a secret address into "Mandy" our GPS. When we got on the freeway and I noticed we didn't have long to drive and I figured out that we were headed to Mercer Island. This is the island that I was originally supposed to work on when we moved up here, but we recently found out that the company I work for didn't get the contract so for now I will be working in Issaquah. Matthew decided that since this island was "what brought us here" and neither of us had yet to visit it, we should spend some time exploring.

Our first stop was for some dinner. I think Matthew was planning on making dinner, but he had some unexpected delays and ran out of time. Since moving to Washington we have missed a few of our favorite spots to eat, especially the Costa Vida/Cafe Rio type places. Matthew has been searching around for something similar and tonight we tried out a place called, "Qdoba" and I have to say that it was pretty great. The restaurant had a very similar feel and although the burritos weren't quite the same (they weren't "smothered" in cheese and hot sauce) they did have their own yummy twist (you could add a nacho cheese to the inside along with your hot sauce and guacamole).

I thought we were going to eat at the restaurant, but Matthew informed me that we had "reservations" somewhere. This confused me, as we already had food. What could he possibly have reservations for?

He had me put the next location into Mandy and all along the way I tried to guess what we were doing. When we seemed to be in a wooded area I guessed that he had reserved a campsite or picnic area. Nope. Then I remembered we were on an island, maybe he reserved something on the beach. Nope. Then we pulled into a QFC (grocery store) parking lot. What? What could he possibly have reserved at a grocery store, especially when we already had food? And then I thought that maybe this was just another stop on the way to this "reservation," so I asked Matthew what we were doing here and he just smirked and said, "You'll see." As we went into the QFC we turned straight away and as we approached the red machine I realized the reservation was for a movie.

After picking out two movies we headed back towards the car and Matthew had me put in the cross streets for our last destination. He said that he was given the idea for this last spot from the missionaries. I thought, "What do the missionaries know about dates?" but I tried to trust Matthew. So we followed Mandy's directions and the cross streets took us to a spot under the I-90 bridge that went over the island. Matthew then confessed that the missionaries weren't sure of the exact address to the place they suggested, so we pulled up the map in Mandy and looked for the closest park.

Matthew said that he had jokingly asked the missionaries if they new of a romantic, cheap place to take a girl on a date and said that it would be best if it were somewhere on Mercer Island. Of course the missionaries in our area did not know of a place, but they did know the missionaries on Mercer Island, so they called them and they suggested this park right on the North end of the Island.

Matthew and I eventually found our way to the park and expected to see a great view of Lake Washington and maybe even a bit of the Seattle skyline, but instead we were met with a big hedge. We were both sure that if we took the path we would be able to get around the hedge and see the view, so we decided to go on a little stroll. As westarted to walk down the path, it hit me what path we were on. This path was the bike/pedestrian path that ran just parallel to the I-90 bridge over Lake Washington. I had gone over this bridge several times while driving to and from work and I thought the view was spectacular. I had often thought it would be fun to come to the pedestrian path and take some photos. So, we kept walking and sure enough we walked out onto the bridge just next to the freeway. At this point the sunwas already pretty low in the sky, but I still think I got some fun shots. I definitely want to go back sometime in the daylight.

After taking in the beautiful scenery, Matthew and I headed back to the hedged in grassy area to eat our burrito and watch our movie, out on a blanket. We almost got through the entire movie before getting too cold. Near the end we headed for the car and finished the last 20 minutes or so with the laptop in my lap.

All We Do is Work

In celebration of the Labor Day holiday weekend Matthew was scheduled to work everyday!

Matthew started working for a bike shop not too long ago. Most of the time neither of us minds him going into work because 1) he is only working part time, 2) even though it doesn't pay that great it still brings in a little extra money, 3) Matthew is now not completely bored out of his mind and 4) most of the time he works when I work, but this weekend it was a little bothersome to find out that he had to work at least part of the day for every day of the 3-day holiday weekend. We were hoping to go camping or on a long hike, but our plans were foiled.

However, during the time that we did have together we still wanted to do something and when Jack and Steph showed some interest in hanging out with us we decided that we needed to do something adventurous, so we decided to go on the Underground Tour of Seattle.

Did you know that what today is known as Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle completely burned to the ground way back when? What's more, no one died in the fire. And even more impressive, that fire actually made it so that Seattle is now on a more firm foundation. Needless to say the tour was very interesting.

Most of underground Seattle is a bunch of "basements." When rebuilding Seattle the people purposely built the buildings with the intent that the 1st floor would be underground and the 2nd floor would eventually be the main entrance. The 1st floor would become a basement because of the retaining wall that would be built around the city blocks. It was quite fascinating and I don't think I could adequately explain how all this was done, so this is my plug for the Underground Tour; anyone visiting Seattle should take the tour!

Above left: old elevator pieces being stored in one of the "basements" Above right: a piece of the old sewer system in Seattle

Above left: An entrance way to one of the buildings from the old first floor, now basement Above right: An entrance way to one of the buildings from the old 2nd floor, now main entrance

Above: Random cool shots of structures in the underground of Seattle

Above: The two pictures above show window-like structures from two different views. The one on the left is from underground and the one on the right is the same window on the sidewalk. They built these window-like structures so that those shopping while the retaining wall/sidewalk construction was in process wouldn't be completely left in the dark.

After the tour we took Jack and Steph to see the gum wall at Pike Place Market. It was just as gross as it was the first time we went. This time we remembered to bring gum, but I couldn't get myself to contribute to the museum.