Memorial Day Hike

On Monday the a bunch of us went on a hike, it was one the best hikes I've ever been on, for two reasons: 1) it was relatively easy, and 2) IT WAS GEORGEOUS!!!!! There are SO many different shades of green out here, it's just amazing!

A slug on a platter... "slimy.... yet... satisfying" (*name that movie)

me and some of the other girls from FF

most of the group that went hiking. It was our group as well as others from the singles ward

After the hike we went to this little burger joint called Kidd Valley and I had the most AMAZING pinapple shake!On a side note, I took this picture on the 26th of May, when gas was $4.07 out here...

10 interviews!!!

Well my partner Jasmine and I have completed our first 10 interviews (our group only sent out mailers out to let families know that we're back and wanting to do follow-up interivews on the 9th, and started making phone calls on the 12th.) Each partnership has to do 52 before the end of the summer (there are a total of 500 families), and therefore I need to do at least half (since I'm leaving early) and I'm actually shooting for 30-35. So Saturday, we had two interviews scheduled, but when we went to the first house, the family had forgotten or something and when we tried calling to see if they were just running late or whatever, the phone got disconnected and we haven't gotten in touch since... but we did get the other one done. Had the first been there, we would have had our first 10 done on Saturday night, but since it wouldn't be until Sunday that we get to our 10th family (we occasionally have to do interviews on Sundays as that is the only time they are available), we decided to celebrate on Saturday night... so we went to 7-11 and got a slurpee!

We're at the office in this picture, and I just realized that we were outside the bathroom, and you can see our lovely shower curtain that I don't even know why it's there (the shower curtain)... I don't know who would shower at the office, everyone has a shower in their apt... hmm oh well :)

Charity (another Researcher, and Jasmine's roomate), me, and Jasmine doing post editing, where we enter the date, family ID #, and our initials on every page of the survey, and making the DVD's from the interviews (there is a "video task" where we record the families interacting and discussing questions that are asked of them on cards) and other office work...
So these pix are out of order, and I could easily arrange them, but I won't, this way, it will keep you on your toes to know what I did earlier this week:

After an interview on Thursday night (I think it was Thursday) my roomate Jessica and I went downstairs to watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith with her partner Bryon and his sister Whitney...

Jessica and me at the FF party on Friday night, we watched a silent film called "THE GENERAL"

it stared a dude by the name of Buster Keaton (I've never heard of him before, but apparently he was rather famous back-in-the-day... like in the 20's). Apparently, he did his own stunts, like the one pictured below, while the train was actually moving...It was my first time watching a silent film, and it was pretty good. they had a much more difficult job acting than actors today, because they couldn't talk and therefore their body language had to be much more obvious... so the overdramatic affect made it more funny... I would definitely recommend it!

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

here are some pix of my roomates (left to right) and other people helping with the study

Rachel, Cherice, me, Jessica, Britt and Stephanie

(steph isn't a roomie, but she lives across the hall)

dinner, courtesy of JoeDee and Brittany

me and my partner Jasmine, we've done 7 interviews so far, not bad...and this is our roof outside our penthouse... it totally looks like a castle, and i was reminded of the taunting frenchman from Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

"Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you..."

***Also, if you notice the playlist player on your left, you can scroll down... that is because my awesome husband fixed it... i love being married to a computer programmer... thanks rog, I LOVE U BABE!!!

fun in the sun... and in the night...

I was able to attend a session at the Seattle Temple last week, and the tulips there were BEAUTIFUL! I've really gained a greater appreciation for tulips since being here, they're everywhere, and I just love them. I think they're up there with hibisci (I doubt that that is the correct way to pluralize "hibiscus", but oh well:) I was alone and on the phone with Roger, so I only got a picture of the temple, not of me with the temple in the background... maybe when roger comes out:)
I miss roger TONS, but last friday night, I got to enjoy one of the perks of being "single" again... my awesome roomates (minus Rachel, who was M.I.A.) went to downtown Seattle about 10:30 at night. that's something that roger and i just don't do anymore... we just sleep...

Something that is really cool about Seattle is that "downtown" is actually safe. (at least the part that we went to, and we had a guy who lives here with us too). here are some pix...

Brittany, Cherice, me, and Jessica... like I said, we just need Rachel now

(I had just gotten done with an interview, and was still in my work clothes)

the space needle (I didn't take the pic, thanks britt for the copy) :)
britt, me, jess, and cherice

wha'cha?

Well, here are some more pix...

here is my official Flourishing Families jacket, I was so excited, its alot like my blue Patagonia jacket, but it has the FF logo on it...

Me and Brittany in our "gear" some of the group waiting for the bus to go to Pike Place Market and the Seattle Art Museum

The giant piggy bank (i didn't really waste my quarter)

In front of the place where the throw the fish (I had a video on my camera, but I can't get it to work... sorry)

Outside the Seattle Art MuseumThis was a bit different, but i guess it's modern art, huh... :)At the Art Museum Gift center, there was this cool purse (those of u who know me really well, know that I'm not normally a "purse" person), but it was made out of pop tabs... but it was $35 bucks!!! So i obviously didin't buy it..

Sorry my pix are kind of dumb, hopefully when things get going more, I'll have some better pix as well as stories or something...

more seattle

Dr. Day (the guy in charge out here) took us on a "tour" of Seattle, and we stopped at the beach for 5 minutes so we could take pictures

a panoramic of the beach... sorry it's so small, i don't know how to make it bigger

Adam, Christina (they're married and it's basically b/c of her that I met Roger), Me, Brittany, Jamie, Celseste, & Malvina at the Museum of Flight. the first thursday of every month is free, so we got to see some cool stuff for free:) gotta love that:)
i always wanted to be an astronaut when i was little... this is what i would have looked like

in SEATTLE

Well, I'm here in Seattle. I drove out with Brittany Hulme and she/we made really good time... We left Wednesday (the 30th) at 6:00 in the morning (from Provo) and got here about 8:30 that night (Seattle time).

So here are some pix of our PENTHOUSE... here is what our room looked like before everybody's beds were set up and the moved into their own apt (ours opened up a day before the others, so everyone stayed at our house, and all the bedding/futons/dressers/etc. were at our place)

Afterward... Britt and I are roomates, it's fun having a roomate with the same name:)

This is my bed....

View from my bed

a panoramic of the view outside our window the coolest thing about our place... a SAUNA!!! yeah, it's small, but its COOL!

a washer and dryer, Rog and I have to drive to the laundry place in Wymount, so I'll enjoy being able to stay in my own place to do laundry a view of the kitchen
we have a bar, we might put some Martinelli's or something, but maybe not...
the living room
the living room with the fireplace...
So that's our pad... It's SO big, I didn't even take pictures of the whole place. There's 6 girls (well, 5 in ours) in each apartment, so it's plenty big...

more to come later :)