San Diego

The weekend before thanksgiving I went to the annual American Speech-Language Hearing Association's (ASHA) annual conference. In case you are unfamiliar, it is like comicon for SLP geeks, like me.

I had a great time seeing grad school friends, learning stuff, and wandering around the city.

The 65 degree, intermittently sunny weather was a welcome departure from the classic Oregon winter (aka rain).

gratitude

I have a lot of things to be thankful for this year. 

The best husband ever.

(and I mean, ever)

My family & friends 

(many of which I include under 'family')

My health.

(this one has been real wild card in the past)

My job.

(aka getting paid for the first time in a long time)

My home.

(It has a fire place that turns on by flipping a switch, a switch people) 

What are you thankful for this year?

Autumn

It appears I have lost my enthusiasm for long, wordy blog posts (don't worry, I am sure it is temporary.) Regardless, I want to show husband what I have been up to for the past two weeks so here goes.

12 hr trip to Ft. Stevens

Cider pressing with Sallie and the extended family

Sunrise at Shriners

2 years

Today is our second wedding anniversary.

I was planning on celebrating like this... 

 but then husband managed to surprise me from halfway around the world with these...

The flowers included a personal note from husband, written in Italian.

He is the best. 

Happy Anniversary P!

Doughnuts, phones, cupcakes etc.

I am a terrible blogger.

Truthfully, I have been so busy alternating between doing practically nothing (and loving it) and adventuring that I don't think about writing that much. Turns out grad-student levels of stress kept me blogging and now that I am leading a stress-free life (if only for 27 more days) I don't get the urge to write as often.

Anyway, this is a story about how I visited Bellingham two-maybe-three weeks ago.

It started with a facebook message from James. It went a little something (actually, exactly) like this.

Who could argue with that logic?

So I went and we had loads of fun eating delicious food, hanging out with friends, watching reality TV/ Jeopardy and encountering ridiculously nice people. Lucky for me/you, James is a more faithful blogger than I am and has already chronicled this part for me.

Stacey getting married

I met Stacey over a game of Sorry when I was three years old. Her sister and my brother were in the same first grade class and our mothers brought us with them when they came in to volunteer.

We have been best friends ever since. 

 Last Saturday, she got married and I can't imagine a better person for her to spend the rest of her life with than Brendon. 

July 9, 2011 was a marathon (my favorite kind of marathon,) but I managed to snap a couple pictures here and there.

And now, I bring you my favorites.