New Kittens!!

Unfortunately they are not ours....much to my dismay. My parents just got this brother and sister pair last week and we were able to pay them a visit over the weekend and welcome them properly into the family. They are adorable! The smokey-colored one, Bear, is the boy and once he falls asleeps, he is SOUND ASLEEP (as illustrated by Graham's successfully putting him on his head without him waking). The girl, Monkey, is very playful and energetic and you have to make her run around for a long time before she'll snuggle with you. SO cute! Wish I would have been a good girl this year so I could ask for a pair for Christmas...

Monkey

Bear

Cuddling w/ Monkey

Bear can sleep through anything!

See?

"Girls dream a lot."

The title of my post is a direct quote spoken by Graham today. We had a great day together, running errands, shopping, enjoying pho soup and then having a delicious dinner at home (Graham made the best burgers ever!)

First we went to Shane Co to have our rings cleaned and polished (and mine re-dipped and re-sized). Of course I had to check out all the other rings on display, dreaming of the right hand ring I'll someday have... I did make it very clear to Graham that I am not expecting a ring ANYTIME in the near future, but explained to him that a girl always dreams about her wedding ring, and after she gets that, she has to move on to dream about her next piece of bling.

Then we went clothes shopping and I kept making comments like "Wouldn't it be cool to have red shoes someday?" or "Maybe we should just buy a pretty pump of green scented hand soap for our kitchen--wouldn't that be nice?" And on and on.... I really wasn't begging for these things or even asking for them really, I was just dreaming. Anyway, I did find a gorgeous winter coat that I'm excited about.

Over lunch, I started talking about how I want to take a three week trip to Europe sometime soon--"When will we fit that in?" Graham just laughed and playfully rolled his eyes.

On to Crate and Barrel where I used my gift card to buy the CUTEST Christmas mugs. Check out http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=17&f=30443 and http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=17&f=30370. Graham could not get over how excited I was to drink out of these come the day after Thanksgiving. Of course then I was on to jabbering about how my dream is to have a set of Christmas dishes to use during the month of December....

All this to say, we had a great day together and I in particular really enjoyed dreaming--it does my heart good. Now I'm doing my heart a 2nd favor as I sip a glass of red wine.

Today I dialed 911

So I was leaving work when the following scene unfolds:

I'm driving along Broadway when I pass a couple of strip mall (7-11ish type) shops next to a gas station. Out of nowhere, a man comes booking it out of the store, running along the sidewalk as fast as he possibly can, looking back occasionally as he runs. It was pretty much a blur because he was going so fast but I see him zipping into the gas station where I presumed would be his "getaway car." Acting on instinct, I take an immediate right next to the gas station to get off the main road and do something. (What I was going to do I'm just not quite sure...my gut said not to lose sight of the guy). To my surprise, he did not jump in a car at the gas station but ran into the alley right by where I had pulled over. Someone else apparently saw this suspicious activity go down and also had pulled over. He was dressed in nice slacks and dress pants actually got out of the car and approached the runner with fists raised. Then things get a little odd....The runner looks for a minute like he is going to try and knock the lights out of this nice business man, but instead he lifts up his white t-shirt and exposes his giant beer belly (I wish I would have had my window down to hear the verbal exchange because I certainly felt like I missed something!) At this point, I decided I should disappear because in Everett, crazy people like this carry guns and I wasn't about to get shot just for trying to be a good citizen. I was already on the phone with the cops and so I sped away quickly, giving them my best description of the runner. I hope they catch him! I don't know what he did, but he sure looked like he didn't want to be caught.

Good ole' Everett--gotta love working is such a classy city!

Bear--grrrr

Today Graham and I finally went to see a financial planner to discuss....well.... our finances. We've been meaning to do this for a very long time but it just never happened. We went to the father-in-law of one of Graham's fellow worship leaders at Bethany and he was so great! I think we definitely made a great choice by selecting a Christian man to help give us advice and guidance--not only does he know a lot about money and the market, Don also seemed to have lots of godly wisdom.

The two of us are pretty clueless when it comes to money and investing, or at least so we thought. Apparently though, we've gleaned enough guidance from friends, family, financial articles, and for Graham, NPR, that we're doing the right things (according to Don). We learned a lot about bear markets and bull markets and what that all means and were glad to see that a financial expert was so relaxed even despite our current bear market economy.

Basically now we need to decide our timeline for the various goals we have (i.e. selling our place, moving to Seattle, having babies, me quitting etc). In the meantime, we're going to explore the world of CDs while Don helps us look at our current 403b retirement plans. (By the way, my current retirement plan is set up for my retiring in the year 2050---doesn't that just sound depressing!?! I better not still be working in 2050!)

Sight of the day

Need I say more?

You know I've had a bad day when....

.....I voluntarily order a beef burger with bacon, cheese, mayo and guacamole on a WHITE bun--so out of character for me! I would have had a glass of wine too but we were on a $10 date night budget so that would have put us over...

Welcome Fall!

I love it when the leaves change color! Graham and I went for a walk today to enjoy some fall sunshine. I took pictures as we went....this one is my favorite.