friends who are family.

so much has been happening these past two weeks! i'll let pictures do most of the talking.

two weeks ago the reeds threw a pizza party at their house- i got to come over and help with all the preparation, from making dough to chopping veggies to assembling the pizzas like true italian chefs. katy and i had a regular pizza parlor going in her kitchen, making one as we pulled the one before it out of the oven. everyone just hung out and played games, apples to apples and the question game. it was an evening of too much pizza, coffee and shortbread cookies, and fellowship with good friends. only one picture though, i didn't have my camera :(

the next weekend was easter. there was a good friday service that i went to at ballard which was really intense. the worship was heavy, the video about Jesus' death very straightforward. the whole evening was intent upon reminding us what Jesus did, how he was unjustly accused, how he chose to endure what he did in the name of love and obedience to his Father. how even in our sin, even in our blatant disobedience, he endured the punishment that WE deserve. the service ended with the video showing the tomb being sealed, with an invitation to join mars hill on sunday at 9:30am at quest field to hear the rest of the story.

it was a reminder of the cost of the sacrifice.

the next day was full of last minute preparations. katy, dorina, kelsey and i spent some time wandering around pike's market and eating lots of cheese and honey samples before heading to the field for rehearsal. we all served in one aspect or another, and since mars hill was expecting around 20,000 people to show up, there was a walk through for all 1000+ volunteers the day before. that afternoon was sunny and beautiful.

we cooked a gourmet pasta meal (asparagus, chicken, white wine, cream, feta, sun dried tomatoes, lemon, fresh basil) that evening and ate it family style, because that's basically what we are.

i spent the night at the reed's house that night since we all had to be at the field at 7am on sunday. it was a bit of a scramble, coffee and granola in hand, as we all hurried out the door to pile into the car. when we got there, all the loose ends from the day before had been pulled together. katy, kelsey, dorina and i huddled under our panchos in our uncovered seats and watched as people began to trickle in. it was pretty amazing to look up from the front and see 17,000 people in the stands above. mark preached a very straightforward message, gospel truth. then the baptisms started, and katy and i made our way down to the front in our bare feet and hopped into the (thankfully quite warm) tanks. at the end of it all, more than 750 people came down to be baptized, publicly proclaiming Jesus as their Lord and Savior, acknowledging that they are sinners, separated from God, that Jesus is the only way of reconciliation, and repenting of their sin and choosing grace.

it was an honor to be a part of it.

that afternoon and evening i spent on vashon, eating tons of candy and good easter food with katy's family. they welcome me like i'm one of them :)

that's all for now, i'm off to finish making homemade butter and whipped cream for the reed's anniversiary party tonight. fun fun!

chef's corner.

i've been cooking more lately, red lentil soup, eggplant parmesan, and the classic pumpkin bread. plenty of new recipes to try, i'm finding more every day! salmon patties, asparagus and lemon pasta, homemade ravioli. i probably should be working instead of cooking all the time, but it's much more fun to cook, especially with the music turned up so i can sing along. and we all need to eat, right??

my freezer is getting full of all these leftovers. lots of them. a gal needs someone to share all this food with!

walking underwater.

today has been a very abnormal wednesday. since i've been working 10 hour days, i get one day off a week, which is usually friday. this week, however, it was today. i tried to get up early (6:15) so that 5am won't be so hard tomorrow, but didn't manage to get out of bed until 7. it's good to rest i suppose. though i'm not actually physically at work, it's hardly a day off- i have a major assigment to do (which i'm procrastinating on by writing here instead), which has composed every component of my agenda today. after doing research for a couple hours this morning i decided to get out to lincoln park for a brisk walk. i can only sit still in my little basement of a room for so long. the walk didn't last long though, my knee started to hurt, probably a result of being a little strained from physical therapy and from being so cold. i'm definitely not a cold weather kind of person. though through my whole walk i was determined to convince myself that 43 and windy was actually quite warm, because the sooner i can do that, the sooner i can expand into my summer wardrobe. my winter clothes have never had so much attention!

i parked it at starbucks after that, this time along alki, for another change of scenery, and sipped on a vanilla latte with my feet by the fire as i continued to research and read, this time some for pleasure and some for work. not a bad setup if you ask me.

i stuck around for a couple of hours until my grumbling tummy told me it was time to go home, at which point i overheard a mom and her two kids talking about how low the tide was and that they should go look for critters. naturally, the sense of adventure in  me perked up and i headed to drop off my work at the car and hit the beach. i only wish i would have been wearing shoes that i could get wet, it was a whole new world down there! the tide was so low that i could walk along the sand and see the seaweed up close and personal. had the water been where it usually is, i would have easily been standing 3 feet under. i've never seen the tide so low here, but it was fascinating. if it weren't so far from my house and so chilly, and if i didn't have so much work to do, i'd go back with my nice camera and check out all the little tidepools.

 the water is usually half way up the concrete stairs on the left.



it was a nice little spontaneous adventure, a wednesday off is a nice little break in the routine!

as of late.

a collage of things have been happening up here in seattle, i'll relate them in some sort of list format.

i've started working in the NICU with the tiny little babies, making sure they get good nutrition to grow appropriately. my preceptor there is hilarious, and the office we share with the pharmacist (who has a very entertaining accent) and the social worker (who happens to be in love with everything twilight) is always full of laughs. it's pretty amazing we get anything done actually. the NICU is so specialized that in a way, it's much simpler than regular hospital inpatient dietetics. i like it so far, we'll see how i feel at the end of two more weeks! two more weeks until i'm done working in tacoma (read: 2 hours of commuting and $20 in gas every day)- i think that deserves a celebration in itself. i've definitely enjoyed the rotation. if it wasn't so far, i would certainly apply for a job there. i might anyway, we'll see. next on the lineup is diabetes counseling at swedish hospital in downtown seattle.

it has now been over 3 weeks since i've been able to go on a run, and today would have been the perfect day (sunny and mid-fifties!). i settled for a walk in lincoln park instead. the good news is, the pain in my knee isn't from a tear. according to the doctor, i sprained my IT band, and i start physical therapy tomorrow. hopefully i'll be able to hit the trails again soon. even though it's only april, and the seattlites say good weather doesn't come until july, i'm optimistic.

i had eggs for dinner tonight, everyone around here has chickens so my friends are always giving me eggs. i suppose when you collect upwards of 5 a day, you have plenty of eggs to give away! i made a little scramble out of them with some of the toppings i have leftover from the pizza party we all had last night. katy is all about making pizza from scratch these days, which is definitely near the list of my favorite things to make as well. so we made a bunch of pizzas at her house last night and had a bunch of friends over to eat them and play games and eat shortbread cookies and coffee with sweetened condensed milk. we had so many leftovers we could open a little pizza shop right there in her house. or we could all eat pizza for every meal for the next few days.

this past week i house/dog-sat for my friends dorina and westin while they were on vacation in mexico. it was really nice to have a house all to myself actually. particularly because that meant that i could turn on the lights and music as i ate my cereal at 5 in the morning before heading to tacoma, something i don't quite have the luxury of doing at my own house. logan was a good guard dog and slept at the foot of my bed every night! and they have a nice view of the sunrise:

my friend jenna has officially moved back to colorado. she was an intern up here as well, working with physical therapy, and upon finishing her rotation had to go back to denver to graduate. we threw her a big fiesta to celebrate- she's been a heartfelt friend since the beginning, and i'll definitely miss her.

lately katy and i have taken to frequenting costco for their samples and vanilla frozen yogurt....it's quickly becoming tradition. a couple weekends ago katy's sister lily came too. they're like my family up here, we do everyday life things like grocery shopping and baking. i'm thankful for that.

easter is coming up! 7 days and counting. mars hill is throwing a huge easter service at quest field here in seattle, and all 8 campuses will be cominng. they are expecting around 20,000 people to show up, and are taking a ton of volunteers to facilitate the whole thing. my campus, west seattle, is heading up the baptism team, which is where i offered to volunteer. i'll actually be in the dunk tank with one of the pastors helping baptize people who have dedicated their life to Christ! i'm really looking forward to it, what a sweet opportunity :)

another post soon i hope.
bye for now!

baked oatmeal.

last night gary and i opted to cook brinner, which is always a good choice in my book. i threw out ideas of omlets or french toast, and he suggested baked oatmeal. seeing as i had never heard of that, we decided to go with it and baked up a batch from his mom's recipe. we made some cinnamon apples to go along with it, and the result was basically apple cobbler.

delicious, and not really nutritious. but brinner tends to be that way i think.

tomorrow is my first day back at work after a week long break. it will be nice to have something to do i suppose, i've been a little restless these past few days with just staying at home. i attribute much of that to the fact that all physical activity is currently out of the picture, related to a knee injury of unknown cause. however, it is very effectively keeping me from doing anything any faster than a slow walk. i was bound and determined to take a day trip to the mountains this week for a day of hiking! but instead had plenty of time around the house to clean and organize, go through things, do homework, read and rest. i spent several afternoons/evenings at the reed's new house, just baking and laughing and watching movies. those things are good too :)

time to hobble upstairs to check the banana bread. i love baking on rainy days.