Our New Nest

Last weekend we jetted off to Seattle on a mission to lock down a place to live. The pressure was on; with only a month to go until we move our furniture, we knew we couldn't come back to California without signing a lease.

I was lucky enough to find a company called Seattle Apartment Finders. They have agents that find housing for people like us that are clueless and unfamiliar with the area. Our agent was Jen, and we told her our price point, how many bedrooms we wanted, etc. and she sent us a list with pictures and the breakdown of pricing. We then told her what places we liked and disliked, and almost immediately she got to work on making appointments for us.

Our appointments were packed into one day, so it was pretty tiring! We looked at so many, and liked things about each one, but the last one really spoke to us. It is up on a plateau in Issaquah, and it's all new development. There's a hospital adjacent to the complex, and a transit station 1/4 mile away. It's perfect, I could try and get a part time job at the hospital, and Ryan can catch the Microsoft shuttle to work at the transit station. The complex is called Discovery Heights, and we locked down a 3 bedroom town home with a detached garage. The complex itself isn't even done being developed yet, and the surrounding shops haven't all been filled. That's how new that area is, which I love.

This place is perfect for us. Outside of the city life, but close enough to go for the day. It's centrally located between Ryan's work, and Bellevue College for me, and it's also close to a Home Depot, my favorite! :D

We are so excited to have a place where family can finally visit in comfort, and adjust to Washington life with ease. Here are some pictures I took so I could show everyone back in Cali. :)

One of the guest bedrooms on the first floor, which will be our office for Ryan's computer & my sewing machine.

Our amazzzzinggg kitchen with stainless appliances & granite countertops

Kitchen/dining area

More of the kitchen

Our patio. We will have our grill out here. :)

I didn't get a good picture, but we actually have a little bit of a view of the woods from here.

The living room

Up to the 2nd floor

Laundry room to the left, guest bath straight ahead

Laundry room. Such a plus since all of the other places had a laundry closet

The other guest bathroom

A part of the master suite. I LOVED all the windows this townhouse has, in Washington you need all the natural light you can get!

The hallway of the master suite. Master bath straight, walk in closet to the right

Double sinks! 

Master shower/tub

Stairs up to our door (to the right)

Our walkway to the garage

There she is, our wonderful new nest. :) 

With the little free time we had that weekend, we got to head over to Pikes Place Market (famous for where the first & original Starbucks is located). Their market is awesome! They had crazy produce, flowers, and trinkets. I loved these flowers, and when I asked I was told they're called ornamental kale. Absolutely beautiful!

So that's that! We're getting a U-haul and moving all of our furniture the first weekend of December, then flying back for the holidays. We will be permanently moved right after Christmas, since I start school on January 3rd. So exciting, nerve wracking, and awesome. This huge change is going to be such an experience, I couldn't ask for anyone better to do this with. <3

Cheesy Fortune Strikes a Chord

The other day, Ryan and I were conversing with my Dad about the "Seattle vs. San Jose" debate, which led us to talk about career choice. As we're deep in conversation, he abruptly says, "I'll be right back, I have something for you two."

He walks to his room, and comes out with his wallet. Out of it he pulls a fortune that says, "Doing what you love is freedom. Loving what you do is happiness."

This struck a chord with me, and made me almost a little emotional. Even though it's a cheesy fortune from a little cookie, it was still a wonderful reminder to always make sure I'm living my life doing what I love. That's why I decided recently that I am going back to school and applying for another Diagnostic Sonography Program. I want more education, and I want a degree. School has never been easy for me, so I fought myself with this idea for quite sometime, but reading this fortune really solidified that I know I love what I do, and more education will bring me infinite amounts of happiness.

So remember, not only should you love what you're doing within your career and education, but in every aspect of your life.

That's all for now. :)

A Short & Sweet Visit to Beautiful Washington

Just a brief update before I talk about our visit:
Ryan finished off his internship with Apple this summer feeling fulfilled & satisfied with his experience. He came away from his summer with new friends, new knowledge, and a job offer! Apple offered him a position on a great team doing what he specializes in (graphics.) During the summer, the Microsoft recruiter had contacted Ryan about wanting him to apply for a full time position. Previous to summer, Ryan had turned down an internship with Microsoft, because Apple had a graphics internship. So after the recruiter contacted him, he had spoken to me and asked how I felt about him applying in Washington. I told him he had my blessing, as long as I could come with him to see Washington and get a feel for it.

Just weeks later, Microsoft had scheduled his flight, hotel, and interview. I was anxious, and truthfully freaked out. I immediately tried to picture myself moving to another state, and got a pit in my stomach. California is my home, and I couldn't imagine myself moving my entire life so far from my family, and my comfort. But I knew I couldn't stress about all of these "what ifs" until after the trip, so I shelved those feelings for a while.

So Wednesday, Ryan and I trekked over to my Mom's house to stay for the night since we were flying out of the San Jose airport early. We failed to check the exact time of the flight until this night, and realized that we were going to have to leave my moms at 3:30 am to get to the airport ontime! Gladly, getting up that early wasn't as hard as I imagined, since we were both running off of excitement.

We arrived to the Seattle-Tacoma airport at around 8:45 am. We got our bags, and headed for the rental cars. Microsoft gave Ryan a new mustang for his rental car, so that was pretty awesome to cruise around in during our visit. Then, not really thinking again, we headed straight for the hotel. It's amazing how your internal clock gets so messed up even flying for a couple of hours in the morning. We didn't even realize it was far too early to check in! Luckily, when we arrived at the Westin (yes Westin,) we were checked in immediately. So we unpacked, and figured we would go drive around and see Redmond (the town where Microsofts main campus is located.)

We discovered some amazing towns and neighborhoods along the way, one of them being around Lake Sammamish. It was the most beautiful lakefront community I had ever seen. Being from California, you don't see a lot of lakes that have primary residences, so this was refreshing to see. Both Sammamish and Issaquah are definitely where we would aim to live if we ended up moving. It's so close to Seattle, yet seems so remote and far away. Plus its gorgeous and green, but what part of Washington isn't?!

Ryan's interview process lasted from noon to around 7 on Friday, so during that time I decided to check out the public transportation, and get a little sight seeing done, as well as visit Bellevue College and check out their sonography program. Being from a small town, public transportation wasn't as easily accessible, so boy was I confused when I got to the transit station! I decided to wing it and get on one of the busses that would end up at the college and see what would happen.

....I got a little lost.

I ended up in Seattle at the University of Washington, where the bus driver said to get off because this was his last stop. So instead of being a big girl and asking him how to get back to the college, I got off and didn't say a word. I realized if I hopped across the street, that same bus would pick me up and would go the opposite way, so I gave that a whirl. Thank goodness I found my way there! I finally got to the college, but surprisingly wasn't a bit stressed along the way because I got to sight see, and experience something like that by myself, which is rare.

Ryan has a few friends he met interning over summer who live in Seattle, so they volunteered to show us around. One night we went to Capitol Hill, (a neighborhood in Seattle) and had dinner and grabbed some drinks at a cute & fancy bar called Tavern Law. Apparently, that bar has been voted one of the top 25 bars in America in GQ Magazine. We also had one of his friends available on Saturday to show us around downtown Seattle and University District before we caught our flight home. It was nice to have people who know the area, and are honest about the weather as well!

We didn't get to do nearly as much sight seeing as we had hoped, but from what we did see and do, I have truly fallen in love with Washington. But more importantly, Ryan got the offer! We will know the terms of the offer (pay, signing package, moving package, what team, etc.) tomorrow! I am so proud of all of his accomplishments, and I know it must feel amazing to be a coveted programmer after all of his hard work. It's very calming to know that we are going to be making this decision together, because believe me it's going to be a tough one for both of us. It doesn't just depend on where we feel like moving, it depends on where we plan on starting a new life, and eventually starting a new family. Neither of us want to be moving our children around and causing them the pain of leaving friends and their familiar life.  But whether it's to live or visit, I know I'll be back in Washington someday soon. :)

The view from our room

Another view from our room

Another view from our room

Ryan in our room

University of Washington campus

U District, thought this building was cute & funky

View from the Space Needle in Seattle

Up at the space needle

Another space needle view

Taking a picture of the UW campus

Me & Ryan's friend Jared. He was probably explaining what I was looking down at!

M.I.A

I have been completely MIA from the blogging world this summer, mostly because of how busy and crazy life got with working towards graduation and all the moving between Ryan and myself. I spent majority of the summer staying with my Mom to be closer to Salinas for one of my internships. I wanted more experience, so I asked my school if they had a hospital I could go to on top of my other internship....So that next week I began driving to Corcoran District Hospital. I was so fortunate to get this internship, even though the driving was KILLER (2 hours in the am, 3 in the pm) but I stuck it out to get the experience I yearn for. I was not only driving to and from Corcoran this summer, but also from Carmel Valley to SLO for school, and visiting Ryan. I would be lying if I said summer wasn't really tough on me with all of the traveling, because along with that came some added stress, but I'm so elated to say I got through it! I am graduated, and extremely relieved.

...Now what? Stay tuned...I should know in just a few days where Ryan and I will be starting a new life. Eeeek!

So anyway, I am happy to say I'm back, and back with another blog.  I have now started a separate blog on my adventures in DIY, sewing, crafting, cooking, etc. So go read it, and follow me please! :)

Home Is Where The Maker Is

3 Months...

I can't tell if I'm excited, or scared out of my mind. I graduate in three months and I feel so unprepared for the "real world." A lot of my friends graduated college this year, and I had such a hard time understanding why they weren't stoked to be graduating...now I get it. I don't feel competent enough to be out in the field, and I have a lot more challenges ahead of me (passing registry exams, etc.) Lets just hope this next year brings me good luck & minimum stress. :)

This week I've been attending a vascular class not through my school but actually through my internship. As challenging as it is, I may decide to specialize in vascular ultrasounds if I can find a job where they will teach me. My school doesn't cover much on any vascular scans, we've only touched a little on the carotid artery, and not even it's branches, so I'm pretty fascinated with it right now!

San Fran Adventures!

When I visited Ryan this week, we got invited to San Francisco via party bus. the bus was packed with 42 people, so we met lots of new people, some not from America (they were here on internship with tech companies as well.) We went to two different clubs in SF, Bubble Lounge & Holy Cow. Bubble lounge was a little too sophisticated for me, it had a lot more middle aged people, but Holy Cow had a big dance floor & bar so that was a lot more fun. We got back at 3 am, and took a cab home, which ended up costing almost 70 dollars due to night construction on the freeway. Thank god we had 6 people on that cab! 

At Bubble Lounge

Me & Desiree on the bus

Ryan & I (camera made us look greasy)

Britney Spears, Femme Fatale

No matter how old I get, I still indulge in my 4th grade obsession. So I met some friends at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, and saw Britney Spears last weekend. We found tickets for really cheap, but unfortunately, the seats weren't very good. We had a birds eye view of backstage, and we couldn't see the set for the stage since we had a side view. After the opening acts, my friend Diana thought she'd ask if we could get upgraded. Surprisingly, they upgraded us FOR FREE to the second section, center stage! What a huge difference that made. 

The sets were INSANE, and the stunts & dancers were awesome. I went to Britney's circus concert 2 years ago, and this show was by far better than her last. I'm so happy I sucked it up and spent the 50 dollars on this!

Sadly, I forgot my camera but thank goodness I had my phone :)

The Move

With Ryan leaving for his internship this summer, I decided to move to my Dad's house in Paso Robles. It's a 45 minute drive to school, but I only go two days a week now. I figured living by myself was pointless and both Ryan & I could save a lot of money this way. I was well aware of the adjustment to living with a parent again, but my Dad is so easy going & helpful that I haven't had any problems with it. Moving our cats was stressful for both them and me! I'm glad they adjusted well. I was really sad to leave beautiful San Luis Obispo, but I have a feeling I'll be back someday. :)

A goodbye picture of our neighbors kitty spaz. (Nova's boyfriend hah)

Our post move meal, carbs carbs carbs!

They obviously adjusted quickly ;)

Sustainable Seafood Event

For Ryan's birthday, I bought him tickets to the sustainable seafood event at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Not only does Ryan LOVE cooking, but he's a huge fan of Alton Brown, who happened to be giving a talk & cooking demo there. We ended up buying a cook book and getting it signed by him, and afterwards on the patio was a bunch of chefs & companies handing out yummy samples. The talk also included aquarium fees so we got to walk around and explore for the remainder of the day.

That weekend we stayed with my family, and Ryan my sister, and I made a steak dinner for the whole family. Earlier we had gone to a new kitchen/cooking store in downtown Carmel, and bought some great steak rubs that were made from salt that was harvested from the Monterey Bay so we used that for the steaks. So yummy! :) Too bad I don't have a picture of it.

Book signing

Yummy samples

The kelp tank.

Ryan's favorite.

Cooking :)

Me & Manz