Trip to the District

We went on vacation to D.C. last week and it was fantastic!

It has been a long time since we had a full week just to relax and do our own thing and be away from our lives for a little while. All this was made better by the fact that we were in our nation's capitol with SO many things to do and see.

We spent the first couple days with Jaala's family (Grandparents, an Aunt and her family, and an Uncle and his wife.) getting to know each other a little and just relaxing together. Our shelter arrangements were with Jaala's grandparents most of the week and the last two days we spent with Jaala's newly married uncle Jeff/J.C. (as he likes to be called). Everyone was incredibly hospitable and kind and genuinely fun to be around. Overall we had a wonderful trip made better by the fun people we were with so often.

We started out our touristing by walking around the D.C. monuments, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson. On our way back into the city from the Jefferson memorial we stumbled across Pres. Obama's motorcade returning from the opening day pitch at the Nationals Baseball game. What a pleasant coincidence.






These fire fighters were at the FDR memorial, there appeared to have been some sort of bomb threat because all the water areas of the memorial were taped off with police tape.




Inside the capitol rotunda, which we were able to see thanks to some connections that Jaala's grandpa has, it is amazing.


Jaala's one mission was to get a photo like this. She looks so TALL!


This is the view from the balcony of the building that Jaala's grandpa works in as part of the Department of Agriculture. Pretty cool.


We took a quick trip past the White House at the end of the day.

We did our best to hit all the main Smithsonian museums, they are all free afterall, and here follows our trappings from those visits.


entrance to the Natural History museum


Hope Diamond, out of its setting for the first time in a long time.


Spirit of St. Louis, flown by Lindbergh for the first transatlantic flight ever.


The Real Wright brother's plane. You can see Jaala at the right edge of this shot. She wasn't too into the Air and Space museum. It was a guy's museum. I thought it was awesome naturally.


American History-Kermit the frog.


Dorothy's ruby slippers


Michelangelo is a party dude.

We also saw the original star-spangled banner, but we were not allowed to take photos. The same thing was the story at the National archives, where the Declaration of Independence and such are housed. Sadly the Declaration is REALLY starting to fade. It is practically blank now except for the first few lines. John Hancock's signature couldn't hardly be seen at all. The Constitution on the other hand still looks very good and is displayed in its entirety for the first time ever.


the Holocaust museum. Another wonderful museum we were not allowed to take pictures of. A very powerful place.


one of our last Metro visits. We went to the waterfront to take a boat out to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's mansion in Virginia right on the Potomac river.










It was such a peaceful and reverent place, despite all the obnoxious middle-schoolers on field trips for visits. I would certainly have loved to live there.


On our last day we took a day trip with Jaala's uncle Jeff to the Shenandoah national park and drove along Skyline drive, a 100 mile road through the heart of the park that offers amazing views of the Shenandoah valley, sung about in John Denver's Country Roads.

Shenandoah River


This is great falls park, also in VA. but home to some very large falls of the Potomac river. Click the panorama below to see a stitching I made of three separate photos. (I know it looks blurry here, but if you click you can see a legit version of it.)


This one short blog post doesn't do justice to all the wonderful and breathtaking things we saw on our trip to D.C. Nor to the feeling that is so firmly reinforced of the power of America and how important understanding our nation's origins is. We will certainly be returning to D.C. for further discovery and inspiration. Thanks to all who made our trip so wonderful and worry-free, we are greatly in your debt.

Doin' some grass

So our HOA sent us a letter saying we better get our butts into gear and get the weeds out and some landscaping in. So, this last Saturday Harrison and I laid a yard full of sod. I have done this more than once in my young life and all of my sod laying skills came back to me quite quickly. This is a photo of what our lawn looks like now (don't worry... I swept the sidewalks and the driveway).

By the way... if you want a heck of a workout... please lay some sod. It is 2 days later and I can still hardly move my body. The grass looks great and we now have the prettiest yard on the block.

Our First Vegas Show

So, I was the 29th caller one evening on my way home from work and I won tickets to Jersey Boys. We had heard that the show was good, so I thought I would try and win tickets. Show tickets usually run more than $100 per seat... so I was VERY excited when I found out I was the winner. We saw the show this last Saturday night. They took us through the "VIP" entrance and we ended up sitting in the 7th row! The seats were awesome!

The show is about Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. It was super good (if you didn't pay attention to all the F-Bombs). The singing was AMAZING! Harrison told me that he thought some of the songs were a recording because they were singing so well (but we both knew that there was no recording... it was all live).

A MUST SEE for folks who want to see a good show. There is some language, as I mentioned earlier, but if you aren't afraid of that... go see it if you have some extra dough in your pocket.

So I had this idea.....

Well, I didn't have the idea per say, but my mother in law gave me the idea. She called me this morning wondering what she could do for a project she has coming up centered around May Day. Well I thought of May Day cone baskets and I decided that I would make small mini May Day baskets this afternoon. Here is the fruits of my labor:

A most humbling experience

Well, this last week Harrison asked if I would record a verse on one of the new songs he was mixing. I jumped at the chance. You see... I have, in the past, been hesitant, to record with Harrison (it made me so nervous), but I decided to do it.

This is a photo of me recording

I thought the whole process of laying down one track (one verse) would take all of 15 minutes... but I was very much mistaken. I found out the other night that I do NOT have perfect pitch and I sing VERY much out of tune... which was very clear when we listened to the 10 and 15 different recordings of me TRYING to get the thing right. I was AWFUL.

Harrison warned me. He told me that if I was going to be receptive to criticism than I could go ahead and record. I would have to say I did very well with the (this is not a joke) 2 and a half hours of re-recording and tips and do-overs and blah blah blah.

I thought before all of this, that I had a pretty good voice and pretty good pitch. Well folks, I was wrong. I was really bad. So, after almost 3 hours of recording MY ONE VERSE we finally got it. FINALLY.

After some editing and some tricks Harrison had up his sleeve, my portion actually sounded alright. As soon as the song is finished I will post it for all to hear.

I have much more respect for recording artists who spend DAYS and WEEKS in the recording studio working on albums. It is no small feat. Not small at all.

Im all alone!

So, I am sitting here looking at all of what I love (shabby, vintage, and all that crap) and it appears that I am the only one at work who loves what I love. BOO.

I miss you Jane!

Love,
Jaala

Our Living Room (definitely a reflection of Jaala)

TADA! Here are the final and finished photos of our living room. All the furniture is in and it is finished (all except some canvas portraits that we need to save our pennies for to go over our couch) and new window treatments... which we will need to save our lovely pennies for as well.

Of course I would have some shabby ducks in the back (thanks for those mom)

My beloved BONJOUR banner had such a great place to hang right in this room.

These next photos are of what little lovelies are in my coffee table. I love my coffee table and I try to switch things out for holidays. This is what it looks like without a holiday near.


I hope you have enjoyed this tour of my living room. I love it and spend quite a lot of time in it... it I am not in the craft room or on this dang computer.

CHEERS

So, when I get the urge to craft, it usually involves pretty paper, something vintage, and tons of glitter! This is what I crafted today. Some paper cards to hang in my office (and one to send to my good friend Jane).




The End.

NAUGHTY KITTY!!

It's a good thing a cat has nine lives. I swear I thought I was going to take one of them from our cat Spock today.....



What in the world happened you might ask.... well... let me just tell you. Harrison and I were painting the stairway and hallway today. It needed to be done and we finally got the energy back to do it. So, we covered our brand new carpet in plastic and got to work. Well, Spock got the notion that he needed to run up the stairs. So he did... right through this pan of paint... and right through the new carpet that had not been drop-clothed yet.
Luckily... we bought a Bissel Little Green Clean Machine a couple of years ago and I was able to get the paint out. LUCKILY! The carpet still looks brand new and the cat still has all lives (well... all the lives he had when he came to us).

After Harrison gave Spock his bath, he enjoyed a nap on our bed. What a silly, yet naughty kitty!

PS- the hallway and stairs look wonderful!