Bellevue Botanical Gardens

For the past few years it has been a Christmas tradition to go to the Southeast Botanical Gardens in Okinawa. They would decorate everything up and even do a huge laser show at night. It was awesome, and one of my favourite things to do there.

Since we are no longer in Japan, I was kind of bummed about not being able to go again this year. And then a co-worker told me about the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. So, of course we HAD to check it out!


Granted, they don't have a laser show or fun little festively dressed Okinawans. But they did have a unique clustering technique that made incredible light displays.



















What a great way to help bring one of our Okinawan traditions to Washington!

Just after Thanksgiving

Two days after Teresa and Clayton left, Mary, Rob, Marc-Andre and Luc came for a visit! I finally got to meet little Luc! Both of those boys are super cute. I absolutely LOVE being Aunt Sarah! :)

I also LOVE having family come visit. This was a less adventurous get together than the one with Teresa and Clayton. There was no geocaching, there was no bocce ball...but there were a lot of good conversations and good family time of playing with the boys.

Here are some of the hightlights:

Teresa and UW?

In December, Teresa will be graduating with her second Bachelor's degree, this one in Anthropology, with an emphasis in Archeology (her first was major in Religion, minor in Art). Because of this, she is working on her grad school applications, one of which to the University of Washington program here in Seattle. While here, she decided to set up an interview with one of the professors who does the Southeast Asia Archeology that she is hoping to study. It went so well! I'm very impressed with her because she seems to know exactly what she wants to study, and pretty much exactly how she wants to apply it. And I'm guessing that the professor is pretty impressed with her too. Who wouldn't be??

I'm really excited about this possibility...both for her and for me. This is her number one pick because it is such a great program for what she wants to study. And of course, it is my top pick for her too because she would be so close by again! Hopefully this will all play out and she and Clayton will be moving out here next summer.

*fingers crossed!*

Thanksgiving

What makes Thanksgiving special for you?

To me, Thanksgiving is a time filled with family, fun outdoorsy adventures, fantastic dinner spreads, and lots of laughter. And this year was no exception.

This was the first time in 5 years that Teresa and Clayton were able to spend Thanksgiving with the Cutter clan. It was such a blessing to have them here! We spent the week geocaching, exploring, playing bocce ball in the park, eating ALL the time, etc. Here are some pictures from all the excitement.









Geocaching:
In a muddy ravine..........and on a nearby beach.

Bocce Ball :) Looks like I was pretty excited in the second one!

Another cool tradition we have is putting up the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. This year, with family all living nearby, we had THREE houses to decorate. And for me, that's just plain fun. :)

I love family and traditions!

New apartment

I have a new apartment! Jess and I have been searching and searching. We walked through several, and were never that impressed. The first was just small and dirty, and kinda creeped me out. But it was the right price. The second was pretty nice, in a great location, and within walking distance to a lot of fun locations...but was way too expensive. And others were just variations of the same. It was so discouraging!

But then we found one listing on Craig's List. Yeah, I was pretty shocked too. But it looked nice and was in a decent location. It's actually the bottom floor of a house. Our landlords live upstairs. It's a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment, with a washer/dryer in unit. We get the entire backyard all to ourself, including the covered back patio and BBQ. Yep, it's a pretty nice setup! And our landlords are awesome. They are both professional musicians: Alan is a composer and professional bassoon player. Sanja is a professional violinist. We get to hear a lot of fantastic music coming from upstairs.

We just moved in (November 3rd). So once we get all settled in and decorated, we'll start having people over. Get excited! :)

Luc Tomas Broussard

My second nephew, Luc Tomas Broussard, was just born!! Oh he's super cute. He was born November 1, 2007 at Sewickley Hospital, Sewickley, Pennsylvania. We weighed 8 lbs 13 oz. and was 22 inches long. I've attached pics of the handsome little man, one with my other super cute nephew, Marc-Andre. I'm so lucky. I LOVE being an aunt!! Feel free to admire. :)

PS- Sorry about the poor quality of photos...they were taken with my brother-in-law's cell phone at the hospital.

I'm a working girl now :)

I am the new Resource Development Administrative Assistant for Medical Teams International. :) For those of you who don't know, they are a Christian, humanitarian relief and development organization that sends medical and dental teams worldwide to help with disaster relief, poverty, and conflict. (You can learn more about them by going to their website: www.medicalteams.org)

Basically, in a very shortened version, my job will be assistant to the VP of Resource Development and assistant to the Executive Director of the Western Washington office, office manager, and to handle the administrative duties, track donor activity and co-plan fundraising events....and, of course, any other duties as assigned. hehe I'm extremely impressed with this organization and feel very proud to be working for them!

Thanks to all who have been praying for me! You are greatly appreciated!

The Whorl and Left Loop

Chris O'Shaunessey, one of my friends from when I lived in England (whom I hadn't seen in 12 years), came for a visit recently. So I took him downtown for a little taste of Seattle life. We even found out what category our thumbprints are! (FYI: I have a whorl and a left loop) Below you will find some of the pics from our little escapade. :)

Sorry I've neglected the blog

Hey all,
I've been a tad busy lately, and my blog has suffered. But don't worry. I'm working on a few blogs to update on the news and what's been happening lately. So check back soon for all the goods. :)

Moving into the condo

For future reference, 21,000 lbs of stuff does NOT fit into a 2 bedroom, 1 car garage condo. Trust me on this.

Luckily we just moved from Japan where we had practically nothing of our own and just borrowed from the government. This allowed us to experience life without our things and to live in a mostly de-cluttered atmosphere.

Now, with boxes invading every possible available space, we are in purge mode. And after 30 years in the military, we have a LOT of things that need purging. I'll update you later with how things are progressing....but in the meantime, here are some of the before pics:

Living room and garage: