work – emerald city diaries

highlights of 2012.

happy 2013!

i love reading yearly highlights on other blogs & even though i try to keep up on the updates via this blog, there are hopefully a few fun things to share that you haven’t heard before. here’s the rundown of 2012:

january: i donated blood for the first {& last} time. we dined at emmer & rye in queen anne with my friend beth ann who was in town visiting. we survived snopocolypse 2012. the repairs on the jetta were finally completed from my rear-ending in november. sadie had surgery to get a small lump removed & have her teeth cleaned.

february: we took a trip to new england & managed to visit all six new england states. we spent a long weekend in boston. i celebrated my 27 {yikes!} birthday & valentine’s day with my love in manchester, new hampshire. we celebrated thanksgiving in february with my law school friends {this is a reoccurring event in which my friend miriam cooks up a big thanksgiving dinner at various times of the year}. we celebrated leap year!

march: my mom visited for a long weekend. i oversaw work to the townhouse {new venting for the dryer}. we house-hunted on the weekends with our realtor padraic. i started & completed all three books in the hunger games series. we saw the hunger games at the IMAX. we saw {& were disappointed by} king tut at the pacific science center {no tut, just his stuff}. aaron took a work trip to vegas. we made our first {& only} offer on a house. our offer was accepted!

april: we took a post-offer tour of our new house. we celebrated easter dinner with my grandmother. we showed the townhouse to potential new tenants. i co-hosted a baby shower for amanda. we packed up all of our belongings for the big move. we closed on our house after signing lots of paperwork & handing over a very large check. we moved.

may: we were rear-ended {this better not become an annual event}. my mom & dad visited for a long weekend & helped with some house projects. we celebrated my grandmother’s 90th birthday! we celebrated aaron’s 29th birthday! i took on my first pro bono case with VAIJ. we hosted a small dinner party with old idaho friends kami, travis, & their adorable daughter olive. we spent a night on the town in bellevue at aaron’s organization’s ship party with lots of aaron’s co-workers.

june: we saw dia frampton in concert at chop suey. we hosted a small dinner party with my law school friend marcus, his then-fiancée katy, & their beagle maggie. padraic & his partner justin threw us an awesome housewarming party! we ventured down to alabama for andy & hailey’s wedding. i had lots of phone interviews.

july: we attended herschel’s first birthday party {the son of one of my law school friends}. we celebrated the fourth of july! i started going to fitness classes with my neighbor leanne at community fitness. we hosted a small dinner party with andy & hailey, just back from their honeymoon! we attended thanksgiving in july at miriam’s. sadie & i drove down to idaho. i got my haircut & had drinks with my CBC {high school} girlfriends. we loaded up the car & took a roadtrip {sadie included} to stevenson, wa for marcus & katy’s wedding. we saw the dark knight rises at the IMAX.

august: we celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a picnic dinner at greenlake! we attended our first neighborhood potluck & met lots of our neighbors. we joined a summer bocce ball league with ben & sarah. i did yoga in the park with our neighbors – the friends – & tens of other people. i shopped & noshed with my friend ashley who was in town on a work trip. we attended the pratt’s housewarming party {a couple i met & befriend while i was in americorps}. we attended padraic’s wig birthday party. i met my pro bono client. i was offered a position doing media license management & started working. my bff carlie came into town – our first house guest! we attended a moroccan dinner feast at ben & sarah’s house. aaron’s parents visited seattle for a week.

september: we attended a final farewell summer bbq. we visited indiana to see family & surprise meg at her baby shower. we attended a colts game with our friends colt & erin. we celebrated sadie’s eighth birthday!

october: we visited peru & got to hike around one of the new seven wonders of the world machu picchu. my mom & sister anya visited for a long weekend. my friend meg was in town to visit! aaron made an unexpected trip back to indiana to attend his late grandmother’s service. we attended ghouls near greenlake, ben & sarah’s annual halloween bash, as a somecard. we celebrated halloween with our very first trick-or-treaters!

november: aaron attended a week-long conference for work & stayed downtown. i watched the election results while painting the bathroom trim & texting aaron updates. we hosted our first {vegetarian} thanksgiving. we spent the long holiday weekend working on the house.

december: we attended a housewarming party for amanda, george, & madeleine. we brunched with our neighbors – the friends – at the 5 spot in queen anne. my mom visited for a long weekend. i brought back a pinterest christmas & recruited some friends to join in on the fun. we celebrated the holiday season with six holiday parties with friends & co-workers. i won rookie of the year at work. we enjoyed a double-date night in bellevue with some newly engaged friends. we loaded up the car with presents & made the trek to idaho for the week of christmas. we celebrated christmas! we made it safely back to seattle only one day delayed. we plan to ring in the new year with friends & watch the space needle firework show.

reflecting back on this year, i am reminded how blessed we are & also how different this year has been than the year previous. it has been such a wonderful year & ringing in a new one is a bit bittersweet.

how was your 2012 – was it a year to remember or are you itching to start 2013 already?

see highlights of 2011 here.

my weekend in pictures.

{late friday afternoon pick-me-up. hello weekend!}

{lazy dinner on friday after a long work week. a perk of living in the city – zeek’s pizza is right around the corner!}

{sadie was already missing us as we left to run some saturday morning errands.}

{we bought a nest this weekend – sorry, terrible lighting! – as our little old house is already very cold.}

{sunday morning just isn’t sunday morning without french press coffee.}

{finally hung the beautiful wooden utensils we picked up on our trip to peru.}

sorry for the lack of pictures this weekend. we had a lazy, but also productive weekend – does that even make sense? – as the work week was long with aaron working all week at a conference for work. we have lots of house projects lined up for the coming weeks & i am already envisioning our house in christmas lights! {i know, one holiday at a time. i waited until the day after the election to start listening to christmas music, & will wait until thanksgiving is over to deck the halls in christmas décor.}

how was your weekend?

fashion friday.

well, no one totally opposed & i remembered to take a few outfit pictures this week, so here we go with another fashion friday post. {also, i promise if this becomes a normal thing that i will get a tri-pod so you don’t have to endure the iPhone & mirror photos.}

{dress: ann taylor // bow belt: ann taylor // shoes: report}

{top: ann taylor // skirt: banana republic // shoes: steve madden (nordy’s)}

so i went on a work shopping spree at ann taylor when i first started my job, hence all of the ann taylor in my wardrobe. do you dress up for work?

thirty before i am thirty.

i haven’t been able to check off anything from my thirty before i am thirty list recently which has been a bit of a bummer. obviously i have a few more years before i am thirty to get the list completed, but it is such a great feeling to put a little check next to one of those items.

just last week, however, i was able to check off a big item & i wanted to share in case you hadn’t heard the great news!

number three: get a grown-up job. many of you know that in lieu of entering the workforce right out of college, i applied to law school & joined americorp for a service year. i graduated from law school last spring & sat for the bar that july, but have been looking for work since last fall. since i had essentially been in school my entire life (well, since age 5), i really hadn’t had a real job. that is until now! the week before last i was offered a job after two rounds of interviews, & obviously i accepted. i am an account manager of media licenses at a large software company (you could probably guess!) & will be managing non-standard media licenses for big clients from pre-license thru the life of the license. i know it may sound boring to some, but it is right up my alley with all of the contracts & compliance that is involved (yay for using my law degree!). while i have not even worked a week, i am enjoying the role & really like my team. it has been a bit of a change for me to be gone from the house all day, like we had to hire a dog walker to come walk sadie & let her out during the day, but it is wonderful that aaron & i both have great jobs! {does this make us yuppies?}

{my first day of work}

are you keeping a list of things to do in life?

whoa, i know that guy!

aaron has been in his new position at work for some time now, & he is set to leave on his first business trip next week. to las vegas. where the weather will be in the low 70s. and sadie & i will be in seattle. where the weather will be in the low 50s. i digress.

any-hoo. aaron sent me a link over IM this morning & i didn’t really know what to expect. i opened the web page & saw that it was a list of people. a list of people that were going to be speakers at the conference next week. i scrolled & scrolled while racking my brain to see if any name looked familiar. then one did…

{picture taken by erin marcum.}

yep, aaron is going to be speaking at this conference! wahoo! i am so, so proud. congratulations husband!