Kickball, Meatball

Passport Services is definitely one area of the U.S. government that works well. After my initial panic attack over Isaac's passport, I found out that there is a Passport Office in Seattle. Ariel and I had to take the day off work and take Isaac up to the office, but 150$ and 15 minutes later we had finished the application. We got his new passport in the mail today. Hurray for a functioning government!

Today we went to the park and played kickball with the kids and our friends Jacob and Catherine. I had thought it would be fun to play ever since I saw a group of people playing in Mccarren Park in Williamsburg, NY when I was visiting a friend in Brooklyn. I am not sure if the sport is supposed to be ironic, but we had a blast. It was the perfect sport to play with the kids - requiring no skill to enjoy ourselves. We ended up tying, and other than my accidently hitting Isaac in the face, it went very smoothly. A couple of kids playing at the park joined us. Maybe we will have some team t-shirts made next.

After kickball, we went home and I made Mellow Meatballs from Nigella Lawson's latest cookbook...this is a great recipe and very easy. You just simmer meatballs in 3 Tbs. of curry paste and a little bit of oil, sprinkle with cinammon and ground ginger, then add 1 can each of chopped tomatoes, coconut milk, and garbanzo beans, and either chopped sweet potatoes or squash and simmer for about 20 minutes. We ate it with rice.

Stupid Person of the Year Award

ACK! Tonight, as I was getting some parerwork done, I was looking through our passports. Isaac's passport expired three months ago. We leave for Mexico in a little over two weeks. How could I have missed this???? I definitely remember looking at the passports when I bought the tickets six months ago. What on earth am I going to do now??? The internet has conflicting info on what exactly one must have to travel to and from Mexico. If I had not realized this until we were at the airport would they have let us through anyway???? I won't be able to sort this out until offices open tomorrow, but I have given myself a full blown panic attack in the meantime.

Weekend Update

This weekend has managed to turn out just perfect. Saturday was mostly putting life together; grocery shopping,laundry, housecleaning, and budgeting etc...that I try and shove into the first half of the day. Friday evening, the girls and I attended a fund raiser for a local adoption support group. It is nice to see families we have met throughout the girls adoption. I also got my ballot in the mail! I am so excited to vote this year; in addition to the presidential election there is a close governers race and an important 'death with dignity/assisted suicide' law that mirrors Oregons. It could have a pretty big impact on the lives of a lot of my patients - and after I have thought about the law, I think I am going to vote for it.
Today, we all went to the Snoqualmie Falls area and want on a hike on the Twin Falls Trail. It was a beautiful and cold sunny day with lots of gorgeous foliage. I can't say how much I enjoyed the time spent with my family today.
Almost the best part was the kids spending over an hour on the hike back up telling the worst possible knock-knock jokes imaginable. I need to print some off the internet to tell them - they haven't really discovered the meaning of a punch line yet. Their jokes usually go something like this "Knock Knock" "Whose there?" "Banana?" "Banana Who" "I ate the Banana". Followed by hysterical laughter. It is very cute.
After the hike, we went to Uwajimaya - a really cool, huge Japanese/Asian style supermarket in Seattle's Chinatown. Shkuri and I shared some sushi and everyone else shared some cheap noodles. Our dinner cost about 9.00$ - in contrast to the hot cocoa we had at the Salish Lodge in the morning, which cost us 22.00$. The kids are now winding down while playing a video game they bought at a store in Chinatown called Pink Godzilla - which is devoted to Japanese video games of all kinds.

Embracing the Dishwasher

We have a broken dishwasher in our front yard. It isn't on our lawn or anything, but it is still in our front yard, and it has been for almost a month, since it broke and Ar replaced it. Ar has definite plans to get rid of it, but hasn't quite gotten there yet.  The funny thing is, in our neighborhood, nobody really cares, and it doesn't look that out of place. I used to be a little chagrined about living in what could be (kindly) called a starter neighborhood. I used to really want to live in a nice, tasteful home - maybe not a McMansion, but something that had a little charm. 

Now I kind of love my neighborhood; I like that we know all of our neighbors, and that at there are immigrants from God knows where among them. I like that you can let your lawn go brown and have ten half rusted bikes on it, that kids just come over and start riding. I like that the people sitting out on their front lawn smoking in the rain wearing bedroom slippers wave to me when I get the mail. I like that there are kids playing at the park at ten o'clock at night on a school night.  I could go on and on about the joys of our neighborhood, but I would imagine you get the picture. 

  I have been in nice, manicured neighborhoods, and there is no way to get past the fact that ours is just a lot more laid back and livelier place to be.  It has taken me a bit of time to come to an acceptance of what demographic I fit in; sure, I may have ten years (and counting) of college under my belt, but I am certainly not living in Bohemian Bourgeois heaven. Thank God.

Life So Far

I am now about three weeks into my new schedule; the kids are back in school, I am still working my normal job, and I have added one to two days of nurse practitioner clinicals into the mix. Elias has started preschool two days a week and Ar is working a big job that requires him leaving the house at 5:00 in the morning. I am certainly not disapointed with how busy I am; come Friday night it is all I can do to crawl towards bed. Even thought it is very hectic around here; life is pretty awesome. I love my clinicals; it is so great to be doing what I have always wanted to do, I love seeing patients. My preceptor is very good; not only is she a wonderful practitioner, but she is a good teacher. She is making the transition from "I can pretty much handle anything that happens at my job" to "I know absolutely nothing, please don't make me cry" relatively easy. The kids are settled into their school/piano lesson/play routine. Som how it is all holding together. Now that I am unfettered from most homework, I have been able to throw myself back into reading. I had forgotten how much I love to read. I haven't made it to serious literature yet; after finishing the Twilight series, I am working my way through the fifteen Stephanie Plum mysteries by Janet Evanovich.

This last week was Ariel's birthday. Last night we had a smallparty with a handful of friends and family. Ar is very happy with his new backpacking hammock (to replace a tent) I got; I don't know if it will get very far from our backyard, but he is really happy with it. The weather is sunny and fall crispy, the kids are playing outside with friends, and Vegetable soup is on the stove for dinner.