My husband seems to be glad that I have this opinion—no pressure on him.  And while we don’t celebrate the ‘holiday’, we do wholeheartedly appreciate any cards or gifts that are sent our way by those who love us (ie: our parents).   

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a special package in the mail this week.

cereal in a can!

My mom knows me so well.

In a past blog post I mentioned how this cereal had piqued my interest, and being the thoughtful person that she is, she ordered me a tube of my own cereal.  Aptly titled, Katie & Goji. My very own custom cereal—How exciting! 

I promptly opened it and had a taste test (no matter that it was mid-afternoon. ANY time is cereal time).  Mmm…yummy!

nutritious & delicious!

I love that it comes from a small company, they personally mix your cereal and add their signature, as though they’re a long lost friend sending you a care package.  The canister is twice the size that I expected it to be.  It’s huge.  Even so, I’ve been doing my best to not have my usual giant servings so that I can keep this around longer than just 3-5 days like I tend to do with any cereal.  

I especially enjoy the dried blueberries and goji berries, and there certainly is no shortage of them.  Not only is it tasty, but I feel good knowing that I’m putting awesomely nutritious foods into my body—artisanal cereal, almonds, goji, blueberries, wheat germ, and chia.

I’ve never had chia seeds before, but they’re like poppy seeds, fairly tasteless, and are apparently excellent nutrition for runners.  I just hope I don’t start sprouting like a Chia Pet!

Thanks, Mom & Dad!  You’re the BEST!

We packed like sardines on the bus to the airport, braved the winter weather and crazy busy Christmas travel frenzy, and arrived in Spokane yesterday afternoon.  Thankfully, we had no travel hiccups whatsoever, but were welcomed to Idaho by 9 degree weather.  BRRR!  

I have certainly lost much of my midwestern tolerance for cold weather by spending the past two winters in Seattle.  But I’ll survive.  The beauty of northern Idaho makes up for the frigid temps.

There is already over 3 feet of snow on the ground, and we’re supposed to get another 8-12 inches tonight.  One thing is for certain—we will be enjoying a lovely White Christmas! 

Merry Christmas!

I meant to post this on Thanksgiving Day, but we’re without Internet at our new place until next week, so I had to wait until I could get access elsewhere today.

I count my blessings everyday, but Thanksgiving just seems to be the day we all set aside to express our thanks.  This year….Wow. This year has been both a whirlwind of life changes and also a year my heart is overflowing with thanks.  I can’t even begin to list them all, but I feel that I should at least publicly share 3 of the most important ones:

1. Marriage.  My husband. I love him so much.  And while we can be so different in our unique personalities, I can’t imagine my life without him. Certainly there are times of struggle and stress, but the joyful times and experiencing married life together are far more significant.  It is a bit odd to think that at this time last year, we weren’t even engaged, and now here we are enjoying our 76^th day of marital bliss.

2. God.  I was baptized this year on Easter, and we are so blessed to have a wonderful support system in our church, especially our young adult small group.  We’ve developed honest & caring friendships with so many of them.  And while I still have lots of spiritual growth, I feel like I’m finally at a point in my life with God where I’m not struggling to keep my head above water, but I’m swimming with the current and living in Jesus’ love.

3. Family & Friends.  For their continued love, support, and overall health.  I can’t fathom as to where I would be in my life without every single relative, friend, and most importantly my parents, brother and sister (in-law).  I am who I am because of my wonderful family.  I don’t express my thanks for them as much as I should.  And friends from all stages of my life, all different from each other, but each one important to me in their own special way.  New friends close by and old friends far away.

This year for Thanksgiving, Todd & I stayed here to enjoy a quiet day together. Our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, just the two of us.  While spending it with our families would’ve been ideal, that wasn’t possible this year so we made the most of our holiday in our new home.  I told him not to have very high expectations.  I couldn’t easily convince myself of the same thing—my memories of Thanksgiving with my family are filled with love, fun, and lots of delicious food.  I had very high expectations of myself for my first Thanksgiving dinner attempt as a wife. 

A turkey would’ve been too big for the two of us, so I stuffed a whole chicken with veggies and finished off the meal with my own version of green bean casserole (homemade crispy onions on top too- none of that unhealthy French’s canned stuff), mashed potatoes, and gravy.  I finished the feast with yummy pumpkin pie and real whipped cream.  I wanted to do as much of the food from scratch and with fresh ingredients as I could find. 

A Homemade Harris Thanksgiving

Disclaimer: the pie crust and canned pumpkin were from Whole Foods and the gravy came premade from Trader Joe’s, but other than that….all homemade.  I’m not brave enough to attempt gravy just quite yet.

I think I exceeded my own expectations. 

thanks for the flowers Mom & Dad!

We tried a new Washington wine— Holy Cow Riesling— to go with the meal and decided that if we couldn’t be with our family and friends, how better to spend the evening than watching every FRIENDS Thanksgiving episode?  Oddly, season 2 didn’t have a Thanksgiving episode, but we laughed our way through the other 9 seasons.

Today we woke up early to walk downtown for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade (Seattle’s day after version) and came back home for some buttermilk waffles and Home Alone.  

Here comes Seattle Santa!

A nap sounds good, but we have to finish moving a couple last items out of our old apartment and do a final cleaning.  Great way to burn off the past 24 hours of yumminess.

So I’m looking to do something different with this blog.

Maybe change the name. Definitely change the look at some point. Blog more frequently for sure. Maybe focus on blogging about more varied, intimate details of my daily life.

I read A LOT of blogs out there, so I have a tremendous amount of inspiration (which also shows me where i’m seriously lacking in having an interesting blog).

I keep up on my friends’ blogs, wedding blogs, design blogs, photography, travel, culinary, spiritual, financial…..it’s funny how my blogrolls have grown as my life has changed. I read only a couple running blogs now and have started reading more food and finance blogs as an attempt to be a good wife and set up a budget for our family.

But I’m first and foremost drawn to the wedding and design blogs b/c I consider that a form of research for work.

Yes, if I didn’t officially previously mention it, I quit my 9-5 job at an ad agency to pursue my passion of having my own customized stationery design business. So I’m not sure if that’s where I’ll take this blog right now, or start a new one specifically for that, but I’m thinking all these things through while I get back into the groove of blogging about my new married life.

stay tuned….

Todd with his parents- riding the Seattle Streetcar

Todd with my parents— our wooden boat ride on Lake Union

Me- sailing the ship. (this is the only picture where I’m not eating my hair.)

Aye Aye, captain!

A view of my apartment from Lake Union (or near proximity of my place)

my pieced-together panoramic view of GasWorks Park

My awesome birthday present from Todd, a Mac Mini. I named him Cooper. And pretty birthday flowers from my NY friend Kaddie.

Kayaking fun!


Followed by some yummy mexican food at Agua Verde cafe

Agua Verde Paddle Club

Oddly, in all these photos it is cloudy. I think it’s because they’re from June, which was an oddly cool/cloudy month. Apparently I don’t carry my camera on sunny days….oh, and I guess it didn’t help that I had no more storage space left on my memory stick.

Additionally….I ran 3 miles Monday and 3.5 miles this morning with no foot problems.
We’re heading back to Kansas early tomorrow morning for several bridal showers and final wedding vendor meetings. Should be lots of fun, though I’m kinda dreading the heat!

This is:

Miles McCool Harris.

Todd adopted Miles from a rescue shelter about 4 years ago. They were constant companions, and when Todd decided to make the big leap and move to Seattle, Miles went along too. I first met Miles via ichat when Todd and I started dating long distance. We would wave at each other, and then he’d dart off into his favorite paper bag like a bolt of lightning. We finally met feet-to-whiskers 2 years ago and I like to think that he immediately took a liking to me. (perhaps he just was glad to have a female around)

I knew how much Miles meant to Todd, so when I eventually moved to Seattle and spent a couple of unemployed months staying with them, I learned to put aside my dislike of cat hair everywhere and the occasional vomit cleanup. They welcomed me with open arms (and paws) and we became a family. Miles and I spent every day together. He’d welcome me home from a run and lick the salty sweat off my forehead. He gladly helped me job search, perching on my shoulder like a parrot.

And he even did pilates with me…he liked it so much that he felt the need to use my mat as his own mat/bed/scratch pad. I knew we’d be buddies for life when I woke up in the middle of the night and found him sitting on my chest, watching me sleep. It became a comforting nightly ritual.

This past December, Miles started showing signs of sickness and the vet diagnosed him with kidney failure and feline AIDS. And to our surprise, apparently he was much older than we’d thought. For the past six months, Miles was on a strict kidney food diet, several medications, and we (eventually just Todd) gave him a subcutaneous electrolyte drip several times a week.

Despite these setbacks, his health seemed to improve and he was living out his ninth life to the fullest. This cat had more toys and blankets than I have shoes and purses. He had full run of the apartment.

But it’s so quiet there now.

Yesterday, we took Miles to the vet, knowing that we wouldn’t be bringing him back home. I’ve never had to watch a family pet put to sleep. Growing up, our pets got ran over by tractors, trucks, disappeared into the night or ran off to another farm. Yesterday was just plain awful. You try telling yourself its for the best, don’t be selfish and keep him around if he’s in pain. We did the right thing. But it’s hard.

No more Miles sitting on the window sill staring out at the Space Needle. No Miles to come greet us when we walk in the door, with his meowing that seemed to say “i’ve missed you, i’m so glad you’re here, pet me.” No Miles to sit on my face while I sleep at night, or sprawl out on my legs as if they’re his own territory. No Miles to whisper secrets into my ears or hold a semi-intelligent conversation with (believe me, he could talk). No Miles to tear around the apartment at the speed of light. No more games of hide-n-seek. No Miles to get his head stuck in a water glass and make a sloppy mess.

It’s cleaner in the apartment now. But I don’t like it one bit.

I miss Miles.

It’s the transition from spring to summer— when the days are long and the cool breeze blows in through the open windows while I’m sleeping. It’s prime-time strawberry season. My #1 favorite berry. Yes, that’s correct, I have an entire list of my favorite berry rankings. Perhaps I’ll share that with you someday. And of course, it’s my birthday month! No additional explanation for excitement needed there.

As I mentioned in my last post, it’s been a busy couple of weeks, with my friend Cat and my parents all visiting back-to-back.

Some favorite highlights of mine include our multi-restaurant ’sushi crawl’, going kayaking in Portage Bay, Espresso martinis at Chandler’s, my first Mariners’ game (and my annual eating of a hot dog), sailing in a 19th century wooden boat on Lake Union and having both Todd and my parents in town to meet for the first time. And that’s only the short list— I’ll try to round up some pictures to post later.

I love having visitors— showing them my beloved adopted city and even experiencing new things myself— but I’m in serious need of some ‘katie time’. I need to enjoy it while I can before wedding prep chaos takes over.

Then I’ll be crazy bee. I’m sure all around me are looking forward to that. MuahahaHAHAHAAA!!

We’re off to our homeland before the sun even rises, catching a 4:30am bus to the airport. Ugh. Who planned that?

Oh yeah, I did.

I had to, in order to get the most out of our short visit, packed with wedding vendor meetings, a couple’s communication class at the church, tux/bridesmaid dress fittings, and squeezing in as much time as possible with family and a few friends.

That’s the bad thing about going back home. I love making the trip, but it’s impossible to see everybody I want to, or even try to see everyone with all the other items to check off the to-do list. And this time more than any previous, it seems like there’s a gazillion to-do items.

It’s a weird mix of fun and stress, but I’m excited for it and wouldn’t want to spend the next four days any other way.

My brother said we can play Nerf gun war

Introducing……my SIGG.

(only mine has the twist top, not the cap top)

SIGGs have many appeals, including:

1. The aluminum design is eco-friendly and doesn’t leave a ‘plasticy’ taste. In fact, I think it makes the tap water taste better (that’s probably all in my head though). And with recent studies claiming that plastic bottles can potentially leak toxins into their contents, I figure I’ll do my best to avoid that risk.

2. Very cool graphic art exteriors and various lids to choose from.
(here are just a few)

3. They’re made in Switzerland, and I’M made in Switzerland! Ok, technically, I wasn’t MADE in Switzerland, but my maternal ancestors were, which makes me 1/2 Swiss.
I love all things Swiss…Swiss Cheese, Swiss Chocolate, Swiss Army knives, Swiss watches, Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa (although this isn’t actually made by the Swiss, it’s made by Nebraskans). And most importantly, the Swiss’ neutrality during World Wars. Gotta respect that.

This is where I segue into my lifelong dream to travel to Switzerland….ever since I was little and my grandparents would talk about their ancestral land, I’ve wanted to go there and stay at a chalet and eat cheese and chocolate and play an alpenhorn while frolicking in the Alps in some lederhosen with my hair braided like Heidi. Someday, somehow I’ll fulfill that dream. And I’ll be sure to have my trusty SIGG by my side.