Help us with a wedding craft project

Family and friends: Calling all wrapping paper tubes and paper towel rolls!  If you live near us, we'd like to adopt these recycling items for a wedding craft project.  No hints on what they're for yet!

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays, family and friends!

As you've heard, it's been a busy time for Dave and I.

I'm happy to say that I completed my first quarter of grad school.  Midterms and finals melded into one solid month of stress, but overall I think it went well.  I absolutely love my Education classes, and I'm excited about my new position in Admissions.  It will be sad to leave the park, but this position will help me pay for school and allow me to spend more time on campus.  I don't know what I'll be doing spring quarter yet, but I'm confident things will work out.

After taking a quarter off from wedding planning to focus on school, I'm enjoying thinking about it again.  More to come on those things soon...

Dave's been keeping busy, too.  Besides taking care of me during this stressful time, he created a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner at his parents' house.  Rick, Dave, and Jonathan were in charge of the "feast," and managed to serve vegetarians and turkey-lovers alike.  Lately he's been doing a lot of programming, and taking some time outs for gaming with the guys.

We've also been enjoying the holiday season.  Our friends posted some great photos: girls' sleepover, getting the Christmas tree, a cookie exchange, and making an amazing Christmas ornament.

The presents are almost all wrapped, Dave's stocking is filled (and he says mine will be soon, too), the advent house's doors are being opened, and we can't wait to see our families for a several day extravaganza of festiveness.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

It's been a long time

Time is a funny thing. The way my schedule is right now, sometimes I feel like I have a lot of time, and other times I feel so rushed. In general, though, I feel so happy with the right now and the soon to come.

So, the updates. What have we been doing since the Kirkland Triathlon I told you about way back when?

Well, with the start of October came my first day of grad school in the College of Education at UW. So far I'm absolutely loving it. This quarter I'm learning about science educational methods, historical writing of teaching and curriculum theory, and the role of nonprofits in youth education. Next quarter I will have courses on reading comprehension, multilingual socialization and learning, and business strategy for the natural environment (through Program on the Environment, my old program).

As most of you know, when I started grad school I went to half time at my job. That's been hard, as I've worked to build a program over the last two years, and now I have to let go of things. I was stretched to the limit trying to get everything done, including a sea level rise display I organized for 350.org's International Day of Climate Action. Now things are calming down a bit.

But, the big news. I've accepted a graduate student appointee position at school. Being a GSA is the way to go for grad school, since I'll be paid a salary and receive free tuition and health insurance. I'm really excited - I'll be reviewing applications for undergraduate admissions.

There have been a lot of ups and downs this month, but, luckily, we also had some fun in October and early November. We:
- Took engagement pictures!
- Had a great day trip to Dave's family cabin north of Seattle. They have been working really hard to fix things up, and rediscovering a relaxing family retreat. While there, Dave and I walked over to use the neighbors' rope swing. Here's my favorite pic of the day:
- Saw "Where the Wild Things Are" and got a really awesome crown.
- Whiled away a few weekend mornings at one of our local coffee shops sipping lattes, reading, and playing Scrabble.
- Did some manual labor! The sea level rise display faced some of our heavy fall storms, so I spent a good bit of time pounding stakes into the beach. I also enjoyed a work party at the park, and Dave spent another day at the cabin with his family.
- Visited Craven Farm on a lovely, rainy Sunday afternoon to partake in their Halloween festivities. We grew a ton of pumpkins ourselves, but Dave let me buy one very darling little pumpkin, and we enjoyed some delicious cider and a pumpkin cookie. It's fun to see our wedding venue in different seasons! Hopefully it won't be quite so muddy in August...
- Saw a great performance of "Waterlines" by Stokles Towles at Noodleworks by Uwajimaya. Stokley is part of a panel I am helping to organize that features artists from the Water Calling Series.
- Watched a lot of The Tudors and Lost. Netflix instant streaming to XBox is dangerous.
- Returned to E.E. Robbins to look at wedding bands. I think we've picked mine - it involved sapphires. Tehehe.

There are a lot of exciting things coming up, too. I'm looking forward to several fun get togethers with friends (a girls' sleepover, a vintage holiday show at Craven). I know Dave can't wait to start cooking up Thanksgiving food (Tofurky - yum!), and we're planning a fun Christmas tree-acquisition outing for later that weekend. Soon enough I'll be through final projects, and we can enjoy the holiday festivities.

Thanks to everyone for their continual support. Have a happy start to the holiday season!

Surprise! More engagement pics!

Well Gretchen was quick!  We have our pictures, and they are great!

I've resorted them, so check out:

Part 1 - Pink dress, blue sweater: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33063763@N05/galleries/72157622600557436/

Part 2 - Jeans and sweaters: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33063763@N05/galleries/72157622477080597/

Engagement pics - Part 1

The first weekend in October we had a great engagement session with Gretchen Blair.  She's still working on the edits, but we're excited to see a first set!  Check out our favorites at http://www.flickr.com/photos/33063763@N05/galleries/72157622600557436/

More soon!

Kirkland Triathlon

On the 20th Dave and our good friend Blake (who will be a groomsman in our wedding) did the Kirkland Triathlon.  They did incredibly well.  I was so proud of Dave as he swam (super fast!), biked, and ran his way through his first tri.  I think he may have a future in this!

 Look at that confidence.

 

 Tehehe.

 

 Contemplative Dave and Blake.

 

 Dave returning from the swim - already stripping off his swim shirt!

 

 Dave in the transition area.

 

 Blake takes off on the ride.

 

 Dave returns from the bike ride.

 

 Dave heads out for the run.

 

 Blake returns from the bike ride.

 

 Here comes Dave!

 

 Run Blake, run!

 

 Aww.  They did it!

 

 Triumph!

 

Way to go, #400!

All photos by Jackie (I got to use the nice camera - sweet!).

Bloedel Reserve

Yesterday Dave and I met up with my dad and Cathy for a walk around the Bloedel Reserve.  I've been wanting to visit for a long time, and it was great to enjoy a gorgeous early fall day on Bainbridge Island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photos by Dave.

More Craven pictures

Last Wednesday we returned to Craven for a meeting with our caterer.  It was a gorgeous morning, and we got to see the end of the wedding season and prep for the pumpkin patch,

A wagon we can use for gifts.

 

 The grassy area will be used for the cocktail hour, or we will tent it for ceremony if it is a drizzly day.

 

 This is the area where guests will walk in.  The ceremony will be straight ahead, cocktail hour to the left, and reception through the barn doors to the right.

 

 Looking back at the parking area.  They are going to be adding a few more bushes here.

 

 The ceremony space.  We will have a long aisle, and will have the arbor straight back by the corn.

 

 A closer look.  I call this the corn amphitheater.

 

 This is the area of the farm to the side from the wedding area.  We can take pictures here, and the tents you see will be used for the buffet and potentially for the ceremony.

 

  The side of the barn where the reception will be held.  The tent you see is where the buffet will be, next to the caterer's station.

 

 A separate barn by the parking area.  The car to the side is closer than people will park on the bug day.  We'll be able to take photos, and maybe even do the bouquet toss from the top area!

Dahlias!

A think it's official: dahlias are a must-have for our wedding flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These dahlias were photographed yesterday at Volunteer Park.

Our cake topper is on the way!

I love, Love, LOVE our little birdies.  Fly on home soon!

Our "Save the Date"

We have had so much fun working with the wonderful Danielle on our electronic Save the Date. She is part of the amazing duo Ravenna Girls (see their blog and shop). Don't worry, she's an important part of the wedding design team and you'll see her work again!

I'm dying to talk about our invitation plans, but I'm going to wait on that one! For now, here's that adorable Save the Date:

Danskin Triathlon

Many of our regular readers got a run down of the triathlon (or were present), but I wanted to share some more photos. For my short summary of the event, see my Sustainable Jackie blog.

Here's our team - Team Kendy. From left to right: Brianna, Gretchen, Brianne, Jackie, Dana, Allie, and Laurel. Kendy is one of the pastors at Dana's church (where most of the girls work). She is currently fighting cancer, and we wanted to show our support for this very inspirational woman!

Shortly after gathering, we set up our transition areas (laying out gear) and began puttin on our wetsuits. While they aren't required or absolutely necessary, wetsuits help a lot with buoyancy. Dave was on a photography rampage. I'm making my "stop taking pictures of me trying to shove myself into this wetsuit" face.

Here we are in wetsuits and swim caps (color is based on your wave).

The swim was my biggest challenge - but I did it! Here I am headed up for the first transition.

Dana was awesome. She was the first out of the three of us (Jackie, Brianne, and Dana) to set out on the bike ride.

I managed to recover some time on the bike ride. Brianne and I met up on the trail, and I saw Dana finishing her transition just as I was coming in for mine.

But Miss Brianne is a super-speedy transitioner. Here she is running up.

And here I am, dumbfounded, as she runs off while I'm still changing my shoes!

Luckily I finished up quickly, and Bri and I ran/walked the 5k together. I thought this was a really cute picture of Brianne almost at the finish.

We had lots of great "fans." I think Dana looks like a star surrounded by photographers here.

Yay! We did it! We even got medals - how funny.

Check out those numbers and our amazing muscles!

Awww! It was so good to do this with two of my best friends. They really stuck with me when I was horribly afraid of swimming. While we weren't at our best performance level, I'm really proud of us!

P.S. - Dave was AMAZING, as always. He was right there training with me, and got up ridiculously early to cheer us on and take photos. What a wonderful fiance! I'm a very lucky girl.