The fourth of July...2011 edition.

I've talked before on how I'm not such a HUGE fan of this holiday. (see here for my post in July 2010). But, Seattle weather actually cooperated this year and it was sunny and hot mostly all of the 4th of July weekend this year. I KNOW, I couldn't believe it either. It actually reminded me of how a true 4th of July should be, well, how it was for me growing up in the midwest. We had a family BBQ with the boys and Justin's mom on Saturday, and pretty much laid low the rest of the weekend. Meaning this:

Justin worked on this bike...

And some more... while I laid on the back porch in the sun and read. It was fabulous. In between, we played tennis, and basketball, and football with the kids... mid-afternoon, in the evening. Lots of fun.

Then, on the morning of the 4th of July, we went on 6 mile run, straight through the parade route in downtown Kirkland which, by the way? Absolute mayhem. It was kind of cool to see everyone out, though. I could see how it would be a fun event for kids.

Then we played more basketball...

And one more...  I'm not sure who was the reigning champ of horse, but it was not me. And, we definitely sweat our butts off. Seriously, it was HOT (which was awesome). We opted not to do fireworks this year since they didn't start until 10pm and we are lame old people who had to get up for work the following day at 5am. It was probably something we will regret for the next 10 years, the amount of time it will take for Seattle to be 80 degrees and sunny on another 4th of July. All in all, successful day. Despite all that's going on in our country, I still think it's a pretty damn good place to call home. 

The lady next door.

I shall call her Grace.

Why, I don't know. It's just the name that popped in to my head and I don't know her name. So, Grace it is. Luckily, it's a pretty name because this is a pretty damn sad story.

So, May 18, 2011. What a weird night. I haven't mentioned it because, well, it just seemed weird until now. It still is weird. (lots of "weirds" in this sentence).

Justin and I had gotten home from work and as far as I could tell it was a typical night. We made dinner, were sipping on wine, sitting down to eat and got a knock at the door. Justin says, "oh, it's probably someone selling something, I'm on it." And I'm all, "Do we really even have to bother?" He walks to the door and it's our HOA president. I hear him asking questions that Justin doesn't know so I'm summoned. We are asked things about our neighbor next door (aka: Grace)... Have we seen her? No. Do we know what she looks like? No. She was having her water turned off since she hadn't paid her water bills in 3 months, nor her HOA dues. Weird. Again.

In the two years I've lived in our quiet little neighborhood, she is the ONE neighbor I've never seen or met or heard. I've heard from the other neighbors that she's just reclusive, and never comes outside. She's always been like that but she's quiet and pays her bills and doesn't bother anyone. One of my neighbor friends said that in the 15 years she's lived in the neighborhood, she'd only seen Grace twice!

The HOA president tells us that he'll probably call the cops for a welfare inspection since no one is answering the door and no one seems to know anything about her and her bills are so late (and stuff is piling up on her porch), which had just started this week. We noticed papers piling up a week or two ago but then they were gone so we thought nothing of it.

A while later, the doorbell rings again. A cop. Same questions. Same answers.

Justin and I give each other a look, like WHOA. WHAT IN THE HELL??? Again, weird....

About a half an hour later, the doorbell rings again. The cop. Looking like he's about to yak or cry all over the place. UH OH. He says, "Um, ma'am, we're going to need to get your information, your neighbor has passed away."

Justin and I look at each other confirming a thought that had crossed our minds but just didn't seem fair or plausible to actually be REAL. I mean REALLY?

So we give him our information and I ask, "she was in there dead?" And the cop looking like he's still going to gag, "Um, yeah."

HOLY SHIT.

He asked us to come identify the body but since we'd never even seen her alive, that wouldn't have done him much good, other than he would have shared what he must have been feeling with someone else.

Justin and I both felt part guilty and, well, really, mostly sad for our next door neighbor Grace for the rest of the night. Not only did she die all alone but no one even knew for god knows how long. Probably at least 2 months, if not 3 (she hadn't paid anything since February). It seems so unfair and though it probably was the life (not the death) she wanted for herself, you'd think that at least SOMEONE should have noticed. Needless to say, we did not sleep well. It was so very sad. You think you know your neighbors and, generally, we do... we know them all, we play with our neighbors kids, we talk to our neighbors, we live in a safe neighborhood in the Kirkland suburbia...we thought we KNEW that our neighbor was just always quiet, reclusive. And we accepted it. Little did we know that she was actually dead for a long while and we didn't even think anything of it. Oh, and she apparently has 9 (yes NINE) brothers and sisters back in the midwest. Who had no idea she had passed. We still have never heard of why she died (she was only 50) and no one is still living in her house. In fact, they've done nothing to clean it out or anything (weird...again).

I'm not really sure what the lesson is in this other than that age old lesson that life is short, don't take anything for granted, most things that are seemingly "problems" really ARE trivial, and make sure to tell the people you love that you love them. Oh, and make sure you actually KNOW your neighbors. It certainly brought us back to ground zero and put everything into perspective since it was so (literally) close to home. We fell asleep wrapped up in each other that night. Sad lesson to learn but I guess that is the definition of what life is at times.

After the wedding day...

that I posted after in my last post, all we wanted to do was die, er, well, at least not think about wedding stuff again, ever. Or at least for a day especially days where it was supposed to be 75 degrees and sunny. So, we got up, vetoed all talk of wedding and wedding related items and headed straight to Bastyr/St Edwards park where we ran a 7.5-8 mile loop. It was gorgeous.

Not sure what the gray strip is here (perhaps a bad photo operator) but you get the idea of what it looked like when we ran by the water.

And a shot of Justin as we are getting ready for the "extrememly difficult" part as the trail tells us. It was difficult, per the usual. Though, it's not like a typical hike where it's difficult for 2 hours, it's a fairly short lived ten minute difficulty. With slugs. I hate slugs.

After our workout, we went home and immediately packed up a picnic to take to the beach where we plopped ourselves by the water for the better part of the afternoon. I'm not sure we said more than 10 words to each other as we were both completely mesmerized and fascinated by people watching.

A view from where we sat. Gorgeous. And not a cloud in the sky. Again, it's not even JULY. Sssh, don't say it too loud, it might ran for the rest of the summer if Seattle starts to act "normal."

And a picture of us blinding the beach with our whiteness but working on a bit of summer color (and, truthfully, we both even got a little pink)! Perfect summer day.

Wedding weekend

This weekend was filled with a ton of wedding activities... at least yesterday. Check out our blog (click here) for what we got done. Not only did we get a lot done but there was wine involved so it was a success by all accounts in my book!

More nostalgia

We had to bring in pictures of ourselves to work circa 1985 for our firm's 25th anniversary party. Kind of a then to now sort of a thing. Here's what my mom sent me to pick from (IE: me in 1985):

Any guesses on which one I picked?? Actually, the first one... with the book. Golfing was a close second. As were the suitcases.

And a current "now" picture... Sort of. With "winter hair." It was taken for the same 25th anniversary party but at the end of January, um, when my life was HELL and I was operating on about zero sleep and complete stress. Why in the world professional pictures were scheduled for then along WITH the anniversary party, I'll never know. But, at the end of the day, we made it through!

After a particularly hellish week...

I was surprised by my wonderful boyfriend, yet again, with an awesome care package complete with nut butters, protein bars, water, and flowers. Oh, and got  a special delivery from him to give me these things. All of my favorite things! I think he was partly concerned for me that I might die. Only my problem was wasn't lack of nutrition, mostly stress and lack of sleep. Which by the way? Who are those people that DON'T eat when they are stressed/or tired? They LOSE weight at these times. I want to punch them in the face. When I am stressed and tired, all I DO is eat. And eat terrible... well, terrible for me. Basically I ate 400 pounds of peanut butter last week. Like the big vats of Adams peanut butter from Costco that is "supposedly" 72 servings. Um, yeah. Gone. Some might label peanut butter as health food but I'm just guessing here that when you consume massive quantities of essentially fats (ahem, "healthy" fats), it's really not so healthy. But I was stressed. And tired. And only wanted peanut butter, chocolate, and a side of wine. As it always goes.

The week (in JUNE, might I add. HELLO WORK GODS, it is JUNE) was one that was a mini busy season revival. Yes, I realize how unfair this is. Usually this week of hell hits in, oh, May. Which is bad enough since it is May and all but June? Ludicrous. It kept getting pushed back so I knew it was inevitable and I knew it was going to be rough but I had sort of forgotten (or at least blocked) what it was like to work hard and long and how much energy that just sucks out of you. In busy season it's one thing but outside of busy season? You just aren't prepared for those kinds of hours. And thinking that hard, MY GOD, my head hurt from thinking so much. You have to realize that us CPAs really only use our full brain capacity for about three months out of the year, maybe 4. After April until after summer? We are pretty much on OFF.

So anyway, yes, wah wah wah, it was rough. I know, things could be worse, I could not HAVE a job, or be homeless or have no food or warmth or have some terrible disease. I KNOW. But, it was hard and now I am just going to continue to whine for a second here. By the end of the week I was operating on about 3 hours of sleep and couldn't even form clear sentences if I tried. I'd used too much brain capacity? Maybe. So maybe I was also forgetting to eat too, thus, my boyfriend's worry about my lack of nutrition. Though I seriously doubt it judging by the fact that my pants fit tighter and the peanut butter was gone. Perhaps existing solely on peanut butter for the week put me in some sort of nutrition deficiency? Or maybe I forgot to drink water. I don't know. It was all a blur. I do remember that the three hours of sleep was made worse by the fact that when I was sleeping, I was DREAMING about work and the plan of attack for when I eventually go to the office. At which point, I woke up and said, "Screw it" let's just get this show on the road. So by the end of the day, I looked and felt like I'd been on some sort of crack for thirty years. BUT, I met the deadline. WIN. And then in my infinite wisdom (which I always get when I'm exhausted), I decided to do my long run anyway that was planned for that day. Oh really, body, you're going to crash on me NOW? Screw you, I'm running anyway. It's called adrenaline, or a natural high from finishing the deadline... USE IT. For 5.5 miles. I did it. And then I died. FAIL. 

The next day- the care package. After a bit of sleep. And meeting the deadline. Finally. I felt slightly more alive. And it was Friday so that automatically made everything better. Date night at our favorite sushi place in Seattle with some good wine and chocolate + more peanut butter for dessert followed in the day after the care package. Then, I remembered. It's not busy season. This was short lived. I made it. It's almost July. SUMMER. All became right with the world again. 

Gorgeous roses.

Oh, yes, and he also got me a PLANT. And I love him for continuing to believe in me and the fact that one day I'm going to find my connection with plants. That being said, bets on when I will kill this one? We all know how awesome my green thumb is.

A father's day.

Yesterday, after an 8 mile (miserable) hike due to the fact that the weather was nasty and my legs were sore (aka: they hurt like hell and I was being stubborn about it and dead set on completing the hike) we took the boys and headed to Justin's brother's house for a father's day BBQ where Justin and I played paper, rock, scissors for who would get to hold this cutie:

He obviously won. At least for a while. It WAS his day after all since he is the father of the two of us. But then her adorableness ruled and I had to steal her and cuddle her myself. Is she not the cutest baby you have ever seen?

Speaking of father's day. I am a HORRIBLE daughter. In the chaos of getting to Jordan's house then taking Bailey to Justin's mom's house, coming home, realizing that the next week of work was going to be a cluster in all ways imaginable, I totally forgot to call my dad. Completely spaced. I pride myself on always remembering birthdays and "special" days and I totally forgot. I texted my brother and said, "I completely forgot to call dad!" And he texted back, "Well, that's better than me. I actually SAW him and totally forgot to say anything." Which made me feel slightly better. Until my mom called and said, "So what did you do Sunday?" Whoops. Anyway, I think my dad knows how much I love him everyday and that he is the best father. And I'm pretty sure I won't forget next year. It's what we like to call an isolated incidence.

Another day of reflection.

We've had a few of these days lately. Today was the memorial for Justin's grandpa who passed back in April (see here). It was determined to have the memorial of his life a couple of months after he passed away as this weekend was the wedding anniversary of he and his wife (Justin's grandma). It was a good day of talking to people, most of who I didn't know but they were all very sweet. Below: some pictures of us before we headed to Justin's grandparents house for the memorial.