Summer to do list:

Oh hi! Disappeared on you for a bit there. Mostly because I've been going through a weird phase where I think every written sentence sounds stupid and pointless. Not fishing for encouragement (well kind of), because I know it's just a phase and I'll get over it and continue to ramble on.

I've also recently started my new job. All I can say so far, is that I feel like I'm exactly where I should be, and I haven't felt that way in a loooooong time. I hope to write about my experience in unemployment/under-employment/free lance/ 'dunno what I want to be when I grow up' soon. It's been a difficult and useful phase and I finally feel like I'm on the other side.

Just as a disclaimer, I refer to the above in terms of career path. I can assure you, I'm most definitely married to the right man and am at total peace about living in Spokane. Although, I really should write a post about the very real 'post-visiting-your-home-country-depression' something I wasn't expecting to deal with, but then did, and now I'm okay.

Woah, I actually just showed up today to share my summer to do list. Welcome, welcome gorgeous Northwest Summer, I was totally made for you and you for me. I promise you won't hear me complain about the heat. I love the heat! Also, it's just not acceptable to be one of those people who complain about the weather at all times.

This Summer will look a little different than our first care free, newlywed, newly immigrated summer and I can't tell you that I've had time to be sad about that. I'm so ready for the 'to-do' list that lays ahead. Moving boxes, puppies, office hours! Let's do it!

This summer I will:

-Do my best to introduce more watermelon to daily life. Ever since Pinterest taught me that I could scoop my watermelon with an ice-cream scoop I've been obsessed.

-Diligently watch every  Cesar Millan episode for new dog ownership tips.

-Also find the new member to the family to apply above mentioned tips. 

-Wear my new bright orange lipstick like it's nobodies business

- Embrace the after work hike. I want to go back here often.

-Weekend camping. Duh. It will take a few months to build up leave again, so we'll need to embrace the weekend quickies.

-Gardening and composting, because that's what you get excited about after living in balcony-less, big-windows-opening-less apartment for so long.

-Paint my front door yellow.

-Move into house with yellow door.

-Try a new ice-cream flavor until the end of July.

-Try to remember to wear sunscreen. Drink more water. Eat more salads.

-Run in the mornings before work. I did it this morning for the first time and now feel superior to all, also, it will very soon just be too hot to go in the afternoons... and I'll need to keep running if I want to justify all the ice-cream flavors I NEED to try this season.

-Find and purchase a grill for our backyard and BRAAI, BRAAI, BRAAI (bbq) ALL THE THINGS!

-All of them.

One last thing: YAY summer!


Photos are all from my iphone, edited with Vscocam. Follow me on Instagram here, it's fun I promise.

Things I've always wanted to do in America #29

Speaking of things I've always wanted to do in the USA... here with a quick look at our day at the county fair.

Filled with goats and ponies, kids being violently thrown from sheep, tiny pig races, a ferris wheel, something deep-fried, blue ribbon pumpkins and oh so much more.

When Ben was at the County Fair last year, he kept sending me pictures of goats and over-sized egg plants... all I could think was: Next year I'll be at the county fair, I'll be a wife and a permanent citizen and probably eating something horribly unhealthy. Man, I couldn't wait for that day. Now I'm already looking forward to the next one... might even enter the pie contest next year.

RepreSENT !

Things I've always wanted to do in America #12

While the chances are that I won't be able to go to school in a yellow school bus and eat cafeteria food like they did in the movies, I have managed to add a few checks to my list.

It's a weird kind of list. Not very impressive, and I don't even fully know what's on there. It's just a list of things I've wanted to do in America based on books, movies, tv shows, blogs and American friends I've been exposed to over the years.

Some checks have included: Eating a Krispy Kream doughnut, going to Yellow Stone, New Years in Eve in Times Square, shopping at Yard Sales (and oh my have I checked this one), spending a day at the county fair and so on.

One such odd desire: go to a pumpkin patch, another has been to go 'pick your own' anything. I honestly can't believe I went the whole summer without heading out to Green Bluff and picking my own darn strawberries like all the cool girls do. Oh well, I more than made up for that.

Pumpkins, apples, blackberries and flowers!

 

 All this fresh country air suddenly inspired me to ask Ben to take a few "outfit" shots of me. Something I may or may not introduce here... But my inner super model/posing without posing self just didn't seem to appear. Anyway, the shoes are from Woolworths, and so is the bag and so is the scarf... I think. Oh never mind, maybe I'll be a classy outfit post girl in my next blog life.

Our trip out here did nothing but feed this dream we have of one day living in the country with all out goats and peacocks. 

 

 

I would like say something about apples if I may? If all apples tasted like these apples did off the tree I'd probably wouldn't call them the boring fruit. So sorry about that apples! I didn't know you could taste that good.

I'm sure there are places in South Africa to go pick stuff to over joy your picking heart, but I just never thought to do that, not anywhere around Jo'burg that I know of anyway. So, that's why, check! Check to still getting my tourist on, even though I live here now.

Practice nature

Skerp oogies/little sharp eyes. A 'nickname' my parents gave me when I was still very young. For as long as I can remember my family enjoyed taking long weekend trips, especially up to the Kruger National Park in winter months.  How do you keep a toddler entertained in the car while you're trying to enjoy the magic of the bush with hopes of spotting wild life? Let her believe that she has a super power. A super power where she can spot all the amazing animals first. (Because what's the point in spotting that giraffe second right?).  A super power I still believe I have thanks to their clever parenting skills.
This weekend we took a drive through Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. Maybe a half an hours drive from home. Ben and I both wanted to fine tune our super power skills (turns out he is part of the force too) before heading over to Yellowstone next weekend.
The skill that is combing through bushes and trees to spot a moose, a bear, a chipmunk. Remembering how to dive into nature with all five senses. The sound of rustling quaking aspens, the smell of a water body, the taste of last minute packed snacks, the feel of gripping onto binoculars or adjusting the zoom just right, the peace that comes from staring off into wide open spaces.

** Read this account of my friends visit there with kids, also with more useful information and gorgeous photos!**

Stirred

What is this inside me that marvels at yellow with green and open and sounds of the a waterfall so? I don't care to explain it, I only care to appreciate and nurture it.
What ever it is, it's grand, and the Northwest sure knows how to stir it in me.

***forgive the dirty wind shield, but road trips can not be done any other way ***

"spring" but I'm still freezing

Rumor has it that things are looking up this week. By up I mean hot, and by hot I mean the weather not sucking.

So far I am still pretty darn cold. Spokane Spring and Jo'burg Spring is not the same thing, Spokane Winter being pretty different from Jo'burg winter was my main clue here.

Driving by people wearing shorts and sandals confuse me. Turns me into those crazy old ladies that yell at people in public "waar is jou skoene kind! weet jou ma jy's hier?"

Luckily they don't really understand, luckily I don't really do this.

Still, crappy cold weekend or not we had to get out of town, just for a few hours, just to keep telling ourselves 'it's only going to get warmer and better'.

So we drove up to Mt Spokane to say goodbye to the snow and then found a river to go calm down by:

 

I do however have to say, the city of Spokane, even though a little chilly for me, is breathtakingly beautiful so far. Overload of blossom pictures post to follow.