I made this for dinner last night, so delicious!
 (I used pre-cooked lemon chicken from Trader Joe's, so it made the recipe even easier)

tree climbers/brunch eaters

and then there is this...

a love note to our family in just a few simple words, from a fantastic new friend and an old one, obviously magic was in the air because my "in it"  moment happened after leaving their house, and this just solidifies that we are so meant to be right where we are and it was up to me all along to just accept it.

okay...

are you reading this blog yet?  I love it.  It inspires me, challenges me, makes me want to be a better person, makes me cry, laugh, smile, cringe, you name it, but by far my favorite blog of all time.   This weekend was glorious, I mean just a really spectacular weekend and at first I couldn't pin point as to why but after reading this on Kelle's blog I realized why.
"In August, I will celebrate my eighth year in Florida. It took five years to beat the homesickness, two more to not cry over the absence of a cold, snowy Christmas and finally, this year, I'm comfortable with the heat. I forget to complain about it, instead remembering to wear ponytail holders as bracelets, keep bathing suits in the car and stock my purse with blotting papers."
This weekend while Jeremy and I were in the car, the kids were happy and quiet, great music was on, the sky was blue, the air was warm, the mountains were gorgeous and I turned to him and just said "we are in it" (yes, I did steal that line from the Garden State movie).  What I meant was we are in this life together (obviously) but we got our not so perfect but totally delightful kids in the back seat, finally weekends together, nothing at all is even close to perfect in our lives...but yet in a weird way it just is because "we are in it" maybe in it to win it, maybe not, but I felt like we didn't have a care in the world and everything was just good.  It was one of those "life is so darn good" moments that I forgot to hate Seattle and actually really kind of liked it and I just decided to accept.  With acceptance can come joy and with joy can come contentment and from there everything can just trickle along as well.

so busy, so much fun, not alot of time for blogging!

not prepared vs. prepared

Sometimes, even I , have to have a little chuckle as the expense of myself!  Both kids have eye doctor appointments today at 4:10pm and I assume with two kids and two sets of drops, dilation, etc. that we will be getting home around 6 or later so I prepared to make this 16 minute meal, I even got fresh ginger and my meat is already marinating. Can you all just sit back and smile at my preparedness? Yup, I am  totally patting myself on the back, um, except I need to back up because before I do celebratory dance around my kitchen let me tell you about our lunch...I took the kids to Costco to load up on necessities, we went around 11am.  I always forget that they take cash only for the food and as we were loading our cart up the kids started mentioning that they were hungry.  It's a no brainier to get pizza or a hot dog for lunch, it's so cheap and yummy but if you only have change in your purse it makes it much more difficult.  I managed to find $2.20 which was what we needed to get a piece of pizza, I asked for the biggest slice they had for us all to share. Luckily at Costco the portion sizes are out of control. While we were eating our pizza in the glorious sunshine we couldn't help but wish we had enough change for a 3 scoop cone of gelato, 3 scoops for only a $1.50, we could definitely share that too!  Carter suggest we scour the car because Jeremy always drops his change in the sides and all over, and sure enough we came up with enough.  Pizza and ice cream, all shared makes for one fantastic but unprepared fun lunch!

Happy Father's Day to these three great Father's!

my dad and I

Jeremy with his dad

Jeremy with our kid's

Hello...

Dinnertime may have just gotten a (easy) leg up in this household, Trader Joe's cookbook, yes, please!

Carter is officially a third grader!

first day of 2nd grade

last day of 2nd grade

The Person/Brady/Baron clan

Jeremy's whole family: sister Melonee w/ Cooper and Chloe, Papa and Nana, brother Tyler, Dad, Mom, our family, and brother in law Justin with Piper.  (now, I just need a family picture with my brother's and their crew and with each of my parents)

I am wasting a ridiculous amount of time today designing beautiful engagement rings on the Blue Nile website. It's so much fun.   I guess it's a good thing my husband works for them and that I am caught up on laundry, already cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed and have leftovers for dinner.

and the winner is...

Paula!

a few people could not comment for one reason or another (blogging glitch) so I took the people who commented, emailed me and FB me, threw them in a hat and had Carter draw a name.  Paula, socks are on the way!

Graduation

I really can't believe that this journey is over.  I feel like the last 2.5 years have moved so quickly but then at other times it was painfully slow, either way, we are done!  Jeremy has an MBA and I have a husband, home every night at 6pm! 

Steelhead Diner

Jeremy and I went out last night to celebrate our anniversary, 10 years is sorta a biggie and we had plans a few years back to take big ol' trip for our tenth...but it happened to fall on a very busy weekend (graduation etc.) and since Jeremy starts a new job on Monday we decided that we would have to postpone a weekend away.  Oh, and if you didn't know Jeremy got a job with Blue Nile, so we are staying in Seattle.  So, last night we decided to spend the whole evening in Seattle just soaking up where we are going to be for a few more years.  We did a little shopping (Nordstrom Rack, love it!), eating and movie going.  The thing is I really love spending time with Jeremy and we love going out for dinner, it's out "thing".  We try out new restaurants, we analyze and compare to other's restaurants we like, we are food critics to no one but ourselves.  Last night we went to Steelhead diner, it's definitely not a diner but it is super fantastic.  I mean really yummy, completely effortless and a superb presentation. The Steelhead house dinner salad made my knees weak.  It was so good that even after the movie we were still talking about the food.  I think we might have to keep this place in rotation!

10 years

This morning I woke up with this song in my head, not because I love that Broadway show or even really like the song but because Jeremy and I have been married 3, 252 days (2 leap years added) which equals 10 years!  I was singing it 3, 652 minutes, instead of what they do but either way I have a feeling it will be in my head all day.  It's funny, now, how ridiculously young we were when we got married, 23 years old, babies living in New York city without a clue as to where or what our lives would be like.  We have certainly had many challenges along the way, maybe more than some other married couples, maybe not.  We have shared heartbreaking losses and disappointments.  We have made last minute decisions (Carter's name, moving back to WA, etc.) and other decisions that seem to take forever to make and sometimes never happen.  We have shared so many intimate moments together that sometimes just thinking of us on the day our babies were born makes me wonder how anyone on earth could ever get divorced, but then again I can also remember our darkest times when life was hard or stressful and divorce seemed the easy way out.  But, I have never wanted the easy way out and Jeremy never has either, but marriage is hard work.  It's the kind of hard work I like.  When I think of the hard times it is far outweighed by the great, wonderful, easy good times.  Jeremy makes life fun.  We have a great time.  After 10 years of marriage we can share a glance at each other that speaks volumes. We know what each other are thinking or feeling.  It is that security of being married to your best friend that makes life and marriage so great.  These past 10 years went so fast, it's unbelievable, it really is.  I don't really know how this is possible but I love him and like him more today, 10 years later than when we married. He's pretty fantastic, I am blessed.

a few wedding pictures:

if the sock fits...

So, my lovely friend Gloria and her husband Terry started this oh so clever company called party in your shoes.  Gloria and I met at a Bible study through Redeemer church in New York. It turns out that she grew up in Bellevue (not to far form where I live now) .  We both moved from New York around the same time and she now lives in Beijing where they started party in your shoes.  They made this fantastic sock for Father's day that I just couldn't resist getting Jeremy and since I love brilliant and out of the ordinary gifts, I asked if I could share her website with my very loyal blog readers.  Gloria was delighted to let me share and is offering a 20% discount with the code carissa (good until July 4th).  How exciting is that? but it actually gets better...anyone who makes a comment (please leave your email address in the post or message me with it) on this post will be put in a drawing to win a free pair of socks (ths Pink Panther, as seen below)!  My blog following is quite small so you have really fantastic chances.  The drawing will be on Saturday June 11th, in time to get your socks before Father's day. 





Memorial Weekend/15 year reunion...super good time!

Last weekend we headed to the good ol' Palouse for my 15 year high school reunion and some fun family time and boy oh boy going home never disappoints, it was fantastic!  I honestly feel like I could either take New York city or Palouse Washington.  They really are so different from each other it's unbelievable but really I love both those places so much, both I consider home.  I saw so many wonderful people while I was there.  The whole weekend was over flowing with love, laughter, and smores.  We had late nights, a few too many drinks, dirty jeans and socks, great food, and decent weather.  The one thing I have learned as I get older is that "home" is really about the people you surround yourself around not actually where you live, and this weekend just felt like home.  There was so much happiness, that my heart will swell for weeks to come. 



down town Palouse, WA



country kids

Bozeman friends!

Hannah!

Heather!

love these kiddo's

fresh eggs

Theo rides a horse!

Carter does too and she does tricks!

Jeremy's first time on a horse!

class of '96

fun times!

totally love him!

Theo with cousin James (Justin's oldest kid)

music

almost a family pic! (with Saphyre and Sunrise, Justin's girls)

more buddies and their cute kids!

Smores!

Theo doing the yearly Tharp family run

Carter doing the Tharp run

Jeremy runs, same loop every year, he beat his time from last year, I beat mine too!

all the kids and grandkids except Trevor and Kendra (we missed you guys)

Rachel!

cousins!

This little cutie went to his first Mariner's game today.  My brother bought Jeremy and Theo tickets as a graduation present for Jer.  They had great seats, Thank you Uncle Trevor!