Its hard to believe that an entire year has passed since Kelsea's accident. Last January she was riding along with a friend when their car hit a patch of black ice and they went rolling.

Kelsea broke her neck in the same place as Christopher Reeve and had to wear a metal halo for several months.

Today she is healthy and happy. Her recovery was a tedious, painful, and terrifying experience but no one could have handled it with the grace and positivity that Kelsea did. She is truly an extraordinary and beautiful person and I'm so lucky to be her sister. I love you Kels!

Reason #234,982,734,982,374 why I love my sister:

She buys cute boots and lets me wear them. a lot.

See? I'm not the only dork that color-codes my bookshelf. I found this while thumbing through this month's Martha Stewart Living.

Somehow blasting music, cleaning the house, and making a trip to Starbucks in my sweats were all I wanted to do today. Bonus.

Illuminate to follow.

So I picked up The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman in print. I adore her illustrations. (See her NY Times Blog Archive here.) She depicted a year of her life in pictures. I'm inspired to do the same...

I could probably create an entire blog called "Mom's Place" filled with all the little curios she has around the house. Her home is always impeccably clean- with beautiful furniture I cross my fingers that I will get one day when she's tired of it (she's practically already stocked our entire house! haha)- and then, in a little corner somewhere you'll find something like this little guy. He's from Fireworks (one of my favorite local stores). Be sure to check them out online!
We are off for coffee! Ciao!

Today is a bit of a blur...I was up every 30 minutes or so last night with some kind of stomach virus. Now, it is 6:30 p.m. and I'm feeling like I'm in a time warp. Yuck. Has anyone ever noticed that 99.999% of commercials in America either promote food or involve food in some way?

God must be encouraging me to read...

While I was in Denver I took my cousins to see Marley & Me (the movie aimed at children that was full of inappropriate sexuality and language for a kids' movie...ahem). Anyway, at the end of the movie Owen Wilson's character does a little monologue about dogs and how they love you no matter what and they don' judge you (blah blah blah) and he asks, "what person do you know like that?" My mom and I giggled and rolled our eyes. (I'm so glad she was there with me.)

Today at school I was sitting on the floor reading a book to my class and one of my little girls walked over and hugged me and rested her head on my shoulder and I thought of that line from the movie. I thought about how uplifting children can be. They are forgiving and positive and loyal. I love teaching and I'm so grateful I get to be around my students everyday.

In other news...

I met Ruth at JJ Mahoneys tonight in Redmond. Its a fun little pub on the Eastside with great service and yummy mudslides!

Great Job!

Tim and Eric were in Seattle last night!
They did a show at the Showbox SoDo and my oh my- it was so great.

I found them on late night cable a few years back and knew instantly that Erik would love their comedy. Now- I've seen so much of it that I love them too!

For some of you it may be too late for warning- but don't click on their website unless you have a truly weird sense of humor. I mean it. Weird.

Anticipation...

MYBESTFRIENDISPREGNANT!!!
and this video represents how her and her husband feel today

Monoptik from Lutas on Vimeo.

I LOVE YOU 2 (well, 3)((or 4! Ruthie- what if you have twins? triplets? i'm getting a little ahead of myself here)

Too bad, so sad...

I wasn't going to post tonight...
and then I checked the mail!
My dear friend Jamie from South Korea sent me a Happy New Year package. A Starbucks Journal- and we are both wondering if these are even sold in the U.S.


There is nothing as special as a true friend.
Jamie and I met a couple years ago in college when she was studying in the U.S. We became friends instantly and she got to observe the pre-wedding process of an American girl(Bachelorette parties-oh my- and Bridal Showers "Are we all going to help you shower or something?" she asked me.)
Even though she has gone back to Korea she still keeps in touch and sends me letters often! Erik and I plan to visit her one day soon.
Jamie proves that distance cannot stop love.
I am so grateful to have her as a friend!!

I'm exhausted.
The trip finally caught up with me.

Sooo..
I'm cuddled up in my jammies watching the People's Choice Awards with Erik and making photobooks.

and that's about it.
So sue me.

I'm baaaaack!

(My grandmother was absolutely horrified by this picture.)

Phew!
What an amazing 3 weeks.
I took so many pictures that I decided to put them on Picasa and let you go through them there instead of uploading each individual image.


Here are the links to:

Oklahoma
Texas
Colorado

Enjoy!
It is so great to be home again. It was almost fun to go back to work today!
Oh- and before I go:

My New Year's Resolution
*to follow through *
There are so many times I'll think about how I should write a letter to my great-grandmother or take a walk on my lunchbreak. Once in awhile I'll dream up anonymous ways I could help people in my life. But I rarely follow through. So this year I resolve to take action. To not let my thoughts end as thoughts.

And now a song from my cousin.



Little Streisand from Jamie Reed on Vimeo.