awake my soul

at a time in my life when I feel perpetually behind and can't seem to keep anything straight, I've found myself turning to music for refuge. most days I only manage to find a few minutes to myself and while it's not much, it's enough to hear that one song that will (hopefully) lend my day a little pick me up.

I have a sort of "hall of fame" playlist that's been my go-to lately. it's just a mish mash of favorite songs that have moved me in some way along the way of my "growing up" (in quotations because I'm still in this phase, and will likely be for, well, ever). I decided that it would be cool to share some of these songs with you (whoever you are) every week... not because I "discovered" them (which I never do... I literally just started liking Kings of Leon last summer...) but just because they might tug on your heart strings a little too. Or make you dance. I got a few of those too.

This week you get Mumford & Sons. For two reasons. One: I rolled out of bed on this fine no-where-to-be kind of morning and, sort of on auto-pilot, got dressed, made my tea, hopped in my car and went to... church. Huh. I haven't been to "church" (also in quotes b/c it's actually the center for spiritual living a.k.a. hippie church) in at least a year. I didn't plan to go, but I ended up there this morning, so I decided to make the best of it. The jokes were surprisingly funny and the music was nothing short of awesome. The "band" was fully decked out in seahawks gear and led the congregation in a soulful (well, as soulful as white people can be) rendition of Stand By Me to send us on our way. But ah, I'm losing my point already. The point is that this morning my legs knew something that my head didn't... that my soul (not in quotes) needed awakening. And I thought about this today (all day) and it turns out to be pretty true. Now I've (finally) come to Reason #2: this song (which also takes place in a church... what are the odds...?) seems appropriate. And it's beautiful. And it reminds me of my mother. For a whole lot of reasons I won't get into right now.

Enjoy.

if you lack patience, you may want to skip ahead to ~1:15 when things get rolling...

Mumford and Sons - Awake My Soul from Thomas Henley on Vimeo.

loving the head and the heart. take a listen.

it was sunny for about 5 minutes this morning. did anybody catch it? i scrambled to get dressed and outside but (as usual) the second i stepped outside the clouds took over. never fails. but who needs sunshine when you've got great music & artsy fartsy music videos? i dare you to watch this video and not fall completely in love with every single member of this band. (oh, please excuse the occasional f-bomb. they happen.)

The Head and The Heart - Honey Come Home from Welcome To The West on Vimeo.

danny and i were listening (& dancing) to this album the other night while making ziti and he, oh so thoughtfully, commented, "i think i'd rather live with the one i love." a little Mr. G wisdom for your day.

oh Christmas tree

We love our little apartment, but if we're being honest, it's a bit of a shoebox. So naturally our past Christmas "trees" have really just been oversized branches that had fallen off of larger trees (and obscenely priced at city tree stands).

a typical Grady christmas tree...

But not this year... the morning after Thanksgiving D & I laced up our boots and headed east on I-90 to Papa's tree farm, just south of Issaquah, where we could get dirty cutting down a real (life-size) tree of our choice. My favorite thing about trips out to 'the country' with the D-man is that I am reminded that these are his people. I forget sometimes that my city-saavy hubby, who loves live music and public transportation, is really just a country boy at heart. I genuinely believe that if you plopped this kid down in a small town with a pickup truck, a work shed and a few acres of land, he would be happy as a clam. And maybe the mayor. But I digress.

Papa's tree farm was as charming as the come. I could have sloshed around in the mud & rain drinking hot cider & smelling pine all day. We were new at this, so our selection process was pretty hilarious. As we scrutinized each tree, weighing the benefits of Doug fir vs. Grand fir, bushy vs. spacious branches, I was strangely self-conscious that the trees could hear our judgments. Regardless of how lopsided or awkwardly shaped a tree was, I found myself compelled to say something nice about each one. (note to self: trees are not kids... I need to take off my school psychologist hat on the weekends...)

We tried (of course) to agree on an absolute maximum price before we even looked at any trees, but in true Grady style, we lost sight of any budget restraints the second our boots hit the mud. We approached it more like one would shopping for a puppy... throwing any 'rules' out the window the second we spotted our "perfect" tree, beckoning us to take her home... sure that another family was going to swoop in and snag her the second we walked away...

Here she is! A Grand Fir.

cuteness.

I think we picked a winner.

No better way to wrap up our day than beers & kobe burgers at the Issaquah brewery...

Tasty cider, meet the always-delicious Hazelnut Brown Ale.

Danny making our beverages make out. And getting awesome looks from other pub patrons.

Reason #417 why I love this guy.

And here she is in all her glory!

merry christmas friends.

our first thanksgiving.

After crashing various thanksgiving dinners over the years in seattle, we decided it was about time we step up and host our very own thanksgiving on densmore. We were most excited/nervous about roasting a turkey for the first time. I have actually never handled/roasted a whole (dead) animal of any type, so there was much homework to be done. plus, this would be Josh's first venture back into the world of meat eating and so (no pressure) it really had to be tasty. After reading dozens of reviews online (as well as horror stories of dry or overly salty turkeys) we decided that brining was our best bet. The next morning we were feeling a little overzealous and decided to double up on our efforts and stuffed a healthy amount (i.e. a lot) of melted butter under the skin of the turkey. Thanksgiving and low fat do not go together. The next 4 hours were spent basting, pacing, & hoping that this little plumper wouldn't let us down. We must have done something right, because that was one tender turkey! We beamed at our guests' approval, like the proud parents of a kid who had the star role in the school play (which this little turkey did). Here are a few photos to commemorate this momentous occasion, beginning with the most hilarious (& intense) faces my hubby makes when prepping a turkey.

power... POWER...

Once he got this thing tamed, it was smooth sailing!

who's that hunchback brining the turkey?

brined & ready to roast!

excited to make my first batch of bread pudding.

party of 8.

table settings.

dice.

masters of the turkey (universe).

my plate. now everybody knows where all the gravy went.

cute husband picture #4,257.

leftover lineup. winner gets first dibs.

just a few highlights of the evening...

• josh's (now famous) deviled eggs
• sweatpants & cowboy boots
• playing dice for leftovers
• blue ribbon for the most tender turkey (wait, that didn't happen. but it should have.)
• the never-ending bowl of mashed potatoes
• the thanksgiving song
• jockstrap
• cracking open a bottle of reserve wine from the alexander valley (yum).
• cutthroat apples to apples
• giving thanks for great friends.

Thanks to Danny, Teresa, Aaron, Dave, Wendy, Bess & Josh for making our first time hosting Thanksgiving a memorable one.

first day jitters.

It's been (at least) a month since my last blog posting. Apparently I needed a break. Or maybe I'm just not cut out to be a weekly blogger. I guess time will tell. Regardless, I'm back (for now) and gearing up for my first day of school tomorrow.

Walking across campus this morning, I was thinking about how many first days of school I've had in my life. And good Lord, it turns out that this is my 23rd first day of school. So you'd think after 22 tries I'd be really good at this, right? You know, cool as a cucumber... totally "in my element" or something. But sadly, this is not the case. Turns out I still get the first day jitters. I still have nightmares about showing up without a shirt on (hello!) or forgetting to go to class for an entire quarter and not realizing it until the day before finals and then trying to do all the make-up work in one night (ridiculous much?). And I still (consciously) worry about being late or saying stupid stuff or not making the best first impression.

But, as my father-in-law reminded me this summer, all the worrying in the world won't help a bit... and in my case, won't change the inevitable. :) Because I will likely be late to a class or two... I will undoubtedly make jokes in class that nobody gets (and awkwardly laugh at them)... and when meeting new people I will, without fail, ramble & then apologize for rambling, making first impressions pretty hit or miss. BUT, and thank goodness for buts, in the grand scheme of things, I realize these are pretty small infractions. We can't be perfect and it's about time we (ok, I) stop wasting mental energy thinking about all the things that could go wrong. Because, as Mr. Grady likes to remind me, plenty of stuff will go right.

Surprisingly, graduate school is gradually helping me let go of some of these anxieties. Being in an environment where there's always someone smarter or more articulate or a harder worker than you is not just humbling, it makes you realize real quick that if you spend all your time dwelling on your shortcomings, you won't have time to write your dissertation (unless your dissertation is on your weaknesses, which would be terribly depressing). To make it through these next two years I'm realizing that I will have to take it easy on myself and trust that everyday I'm getting (at least a little) better at what I do, and that if my heart & head are in the right place, good things will follow.

So there's my little pep talk for myself. Tomorrow morning I will make my official debut as PhD student and Teaching Assistant for the School Psychology program (holy crap). And instead of losing sleep tonight over these big shoes to fill, I'll try to think instead about the awesome faculty that (for some reason) think I can do this and how I have a fantastic partner-in-crime (Mr. Grady) to come home to at the end of the day who will, without fail, laugh at all my lame jokes.

Plus, I'm planning to bring donuts for everyone, which should score me some BIG first impression points. :)

up North

Poor D-train had been all cooped up in our tiny apartment for a week dealing with a sore (and perpetually runny) nose. So saturday we decided it was about time we got him out of the house and into the sunshine. All summer we had talked about going berry-picking and so it seemed Saturday was our chance- we decided to make a double-header day of it, spending the morning in the berry fields and the afternoon wandering around Bellingham.

We're both completely smitten with the scenery up North. The mountains, the trees, the green valleys and lakes... Bellingham is one of those places we swear we'd move if we didn't have such an awesome family waiting for us south of the border.

First stop, Sakuma Bros. berry farm. On the picking menu today: blackberries & blueberries.

Here is D describing how he picks only the plumpest & juiciest berries: "just a soft tug and if it doesn't come... it's not ready yet." How very zen.

My picking method? One in the bucket. One in my mouth. One in the bucket. One in my mouth. Repeat.

And my attention deficit sure came into play... after picking pounds of blackberries D was ready to head to the blueberries, but on the way I kept spotting "the perfect juicy berry" (a dozen times?) and just had to go after it... and eat it of course.

Now onto the blueberries. Beautiful!

Here's how I could tell Danny was feeling better... can you spot the little blueberry he's trying to catch in his mouth?

Gorgeous Day.

A visit to the "Ice Cream House" was our reward for a hard morning's work.

Best strawberry milkshake EVER. Sorry Burgerville, but it's true.

Later at the Bellingham Farmer's Market, we ran into this stand that makes you work for your smoothie! Brilliant! If I hadn't been so full on berries & milkshake I would have been right up there spinning away to make my own. Instead, I begged Danny to make me one of these for Christmas. There's pleeeenty of room in the garage. :)

Garage mural. Love that blue.

A happy camper at Boundary Bay brewery.

Back at home I decided to try my hand at baking again (those of you who know me know that in the past, baking and I have not gotten along). With fresh berries coming out of our ears, all I could think about was hot bubbling cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream. Found a recipe on thekitchn.com and voila!

This recipe was a little too sugary for my taste, but D seemed to enjoy it.

Great weekend.

ten things.

I am loving right now.

This Ode to Ali McGraw t-shirt.

This movie trailer.

This shop in Ballard.

This book.

This Delta Spirit song.

These sweet fingerless owl gloves.

This dream house on Whidbey.

This magazine. Keepin' me up on my current events.

This pop-up card.

This bike ride on Whidbey.