January Pointless Lists

FYI, this was a delicious cup o' joe.

After much consideration, I'm bring back the monthly Pointless Lists that I gave up writing last year. I don't know, I just kind of miss them is all. I'm sure no one else is as fascinated by my life's random stats as I am, but all I can say about that is there's plenty of room on the internets for you to start your own blog. ;)

Colleges that have sent Abby letters so far since she rocked her PSAT in December:
University of Oregon
Montana State (Eric always wanted to go to college in Montana...)
Seattle Pacific
University of Portland (she's excited about this one)
Northern Arizona
Carroll College (also excited)
Marquette University (excited 'cause it's big and legit)
Texas Christian University
Azusa Pacific University (huh?)
Washington and Lee University (what?)
Tulane University
Regis University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Hamline University
Case Western Reserve University (so many of these I've never heard of...)
Simmons
Lewis and Clark College (heard of that one!)
Washington State University (I kind of wanted to go there for awhile once)
Santa Clara University
Northwest Nazarene University
University of Miami

...And one invitation to some medical conference meant only for high school seniors. Well, details are boring.

And yes, to be clear, I AM bragging. How many college recruitment letters do you think I got as a sophomore? As a senior? The answer is none. I think it's flippin' fantastic that my girl is so smart! YAY ABBY!

Ahem. Where was I?

Abby and Johanna update:
Last month, the girls entered a contest put on by the Sons and Daughters of the Oregon Pioneers (of which they are card carrying members, thanks to my favorite mother-in-law's diligent research and gumption), and about mid-month we got two email messages saying that both had won in their respective categories (Johanna had to draw a picture; Abby had to write an essay). Lots of jumping around ensued. It was awesome.

Project 333 update:
At the beginning of the month, I was at 29 items. After shopping at the coast, I'm now up to 33--but that's just because I decided to add my beige jacket and orange scarf back into the mix. Why not?

Oh, and actually I was down to 28 items by that first week because Abby snagged my cute purple zip-up sweater. I found I wasn't wearing it as much as I thought I would, and when she expressed interest, I was like, go for it, kid. I hate it when I buy something that I know I'll just love, and then have to acknowledge I made a big ol' mistake. It hurts less that Abby likes it.

Light grocery shopping update:
I've been doing okay on the light shopping front, all things considered. My freezers are still a mess--I'm slowly whittling the contents down--but I feel the real victory stems from my pantry, just because that's the most visible "lightening," if you will, at this point. I'm not overbuying basics, I'm trying very hard to use what's in the cupboard, and at the store I'm trying to get more fresh fruits and veggies rather than rely on their packaged counterparts.

It's a work in progress. This week I tried to match freezer contents together for quick meals (why do I have a container of cooked pasta up there again? I have no idea, but I figured paired with some pesto, what could go wrong? DON'T ANSWER THAT)... but the truth of the matter is that even that takes time and sometimes when I get home from work I'm tired and I just want to sit down and that means it's Random Crap in a Tortilla Night. Again.

Books read:
I can't quite remember when Abby introduced me to the Throne of Glass series, but that's been keeping me busy as of late: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire, and THEN I found The Assassin's Blade, a compilation of novellas that take place before Throne of Glass begins. That's where I'm at now, although I stopped reading kind of on purpose after the third story because I know how it's going to end and I'm not quite ready for that yet.

And yes, it's PERFECTLY NORMAL to be so involved in the lives of fictional characters that you want to spare them pain a while longer.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the story arcs, the characters and the writing very much. I love that the main character is an assassin, and yet she's one of the good guys. I also love that she's complicated--she's not always good, and she's not always bad. She reads a lot of books, adores pretty dresses, and can kick some serious ass.

I don't know, they're kind of fun.

What I'm embarrassed to even admit but I'm totally admitting:
Abby has me hooked on Once Upon a Time and, even though I've only seen a few episodes, I'm more than happy to binge watch with her on Netflix. We're in season 3 and Hook is so freaking awesome with his pirate swagger and his shirt that shows his manly hairy chest, and he's so tortured and if he and Emma don't get together soon, I am going to be pissed.

Abby says I need to calm down. No, YOU CALM DOWN, ABBY. Jeez. Just one more episode!

Links to my favorite minimalism/simplicity reads this month:
The real cost of your shopping habits
V is for Values
The Possibility of Blank Spaces

I TOLD you Eric and I are a power couple

On Friday, Eric and I were ever so social, although honestly, we didn't mean to be, and if we'd have had our way, we'd have never left the house all night and there would have been much reading and maybe a little Super Mario Bros., which is Johanna's favorite video game at the moment.

But alas and alack, as we have already established, it's not easy being an introvert in an extroverted world. And yet, we try. Hard.

So for reasons I've never been 100 percent sure of, Eric is the government representative on our local chamber of commerce board. As a member, he goes to a monthly meeting and talks about... chamber-y things, I'm just going out on a limb with that... and then when there's a festival or something, he volunteers him and me, or him and Abby, or him and me and Abby. Jo would help too, except she's too young. As it is, Abby isn't even allowed at some of the functions, which generally include copious amounts of beer and wine and hard cider.

Friday was the chamber's annual member appreciation banquet, and somehow we got out of going last year, but this year our number was up and Eric RSVP-ed us. Bright side: It was at a really nice hotel and the theme was prom, so clearly I would need a ball gown. I have one picked out on Pinterest and everything for just this kind of occasion:

Source.
Pretty!

But then I remembered that I'm a minimalist and I need to make do with what I have. Just kidding. Actually what happened is I kind of forgot about it and since I only happened to remember like two days before the actual event, there wasn't time to go shopping. Plus I'm too practical to actually buy a ball gown.

That makes me sad. I'd really look great in that dress.

I remembered two days before, incidentally, because Eric sent me a text that was all, hey, just FYI, apparently we're winning the volunteer of the year award, and I was all, am I getting punked right now? 'Cause that ain't funny, dude, and he's all, if only I was.

Well... damn.

But! Then everyone was talking about it at the paper, and it sort of came about that no reporter had been assigned to cover it, except we always cover it, apparently, and what were we going to do? I was all, calm down, I'm actually going to that thing anyway, I'll do it, and my editor was all, excellent, but hey, it's this great social event so don't worry about taking copious notes, okay? Just have fun! And I'm all, have we not met? In what universe would I pick socializing over taking notes? Plus PS (and I actually did say this part out loud), the only thing that will keep me from having a full on panic attack is going to be that writing assignment. 

But then it turned out that Chelsea, our lovely general manager, was able to come after all, and that made me happy because yay! Someone we could sit with! And so what if she saw me knock over my chair, fumble with my camera, and run into a table? She sees me do that every damn day at work already.

So I'm sitting there, eating what I hope is a very all-natural non-artificial kind of meal (they had some kind of roasted vegetable dish that I really wished I'd taken two scoops of instead of one. Like, I'm not even sure why it was so good. It was just roasted vegetables. But it was amazing) and writing down the highlights of the speeches given by... jeez, everybody. The mayor, our state representative, the chamber president, everyone. Bite, notes, sip of wine (our wine tasting tour taught me that, while I'd much rather drink coffee, white wine isn't terrible), more notes, another bite. Just doing my job, everyone! Just blending in!

And then the chamber president guy is all, we're now going to present a very unique award for our volunteer of the year thingy (paraphrasing because I had kind of stopped listening as I was too busy trying to breathe normally) and we're honoring a family! The Walker family! They come early and stay late, and they're great and stuff. (Again, paraphrasing. Not panicking is way harder than you'd think.)

Eric and I were looking at each other like, uh, yeah we come early 'cause then we can get it done and get the hell out, but hey, thanks for making us sound less lame than we are, and then we awkwardly stood up and waved and then sat back down.

Hey, though, afterwards, Eric took pictures for me, which Chelsea thought was adorable (totally was), and I went around and got some follow up fact checking done, and then I sniffed out the coffee and had two cups to calm my nerves and then Eric and I cut it up on the dance floor.

Joke. We chatted with a few people we knew and then left.

And just so we're all on the same page, we totally won this award because of Abby. She's the darling of the chamber, I kid you not. They love it when she comes with us because she's a rock star and personable and smart enough to handle whatever task they set her up for, be that making coffee or taking tickets. Too bad she could't come to the banquet with us, actually. That would have been fun.

Not to point out the obvious, but clearly winning awards for being awesome is something power couples do all the time. It's so hard to be so great, you guys. Such a burden, really.

Another Christmas House weekend for the books

This past weekend was the Walker Family annual Christmas House (so-called because when the tradition started 17 years ago, we always did this at Christmastime; these days, it would be more accurately called the I Have a Dream House because it's turned into a MLK weekend kind of ordeal, but Christmas House is just quicker to say). As we have for the past few years, we rented a house in Lincoln City, Ore., on Devil's Lake. It might seem weird to rent a lake house at the coast (hello, Pacific Ocean!), but this plan is actually full of win: Less traffic near the lake, quiet setting, still close to town. Plus it's a house that fits all of us comfortably. When you're up to 25, even if three of you are babies, that's really something to consider.

I love this tradition, by the way. Instead of buying Christmas gifts for everyone, we pool our money to cover the house and food costs and just hang out together (more expensive at this point, but way more enjoyable). I love that my girls have grown up with this. Experiences over stuff, you guys. That's minimalism!

Plus the Walkers are just super fun and cool. It's not bragging if it's true.

Here's a run-down of the weekend's events for posterity. I mean, what else am I supposed to write about?

The Good
Finally saw Silver Linings Playbook (loved it!), lots of chatting, a rather delightful three-hour nap on Saturday, heavy rain doesn't deter anyone from doing anything at the coast, cousin time for the girls, card time with the boys for Eric, hot tub time for Johanna, and just general awesomeness all around.

The Bad
Why is the toilet paper in rental houses only one-ply? That is the only bad thing I can think of, and yet, we survived.

The Ugly
I took one photo all weekend. What the what?

Figure 1.
Johanna and Reid (see "The Babies," below).

The Insane
We watched the Seahawks vs. Packers game, which was interesting because there were 24 Seahawks fans and one Packers fan amongst us, and things were looking pretty bleak there for a while, but then! The Seahawks came back with like 16 points in the last four minutes, I don't know, I wasn't paying that close of attention, but it was awesome.

That's not even the insane part, though. Cute Rachel's boyfriend announced that he was going to jump in the lake if the Seahawks won, and then all of a sudden he's shedding clothing and running for the dock and we're all like, no way! and following because it's not everyday you see someone jump in a lake. Then my sister-in-law decides she's going in and has to pretty much be rescued by the boyfriend and her son-in-law Andy before Andy jumps in, too.

You guys, what is this nonsense? It's WINTER. It's the COAST. It's freaking freezing!

Johanna also jumped in the lake, but that's just because she got too hot in the hot tub and Eric encourages anarchy, apparently, even when his beloved wife is screaming from the door DON'T YOU EVEN DARE. Jo started the trend, actually. She and Eric were way too proud of themselves.

The Coffee
Coffee, naturally, plays a big part in my life, and this weekend was no different. We had coffee in house, of course, but then Abby and I were forced to go into the world (to a cute little coffee shop in the outlet mall one day, to Starbucks the next two) for more because hello, you can never have too much coffee in your cup. Side note: I finally tried the Starbucks Flat White and mmm! I'm a fan!

So is Johanna. She drank half of mine.

The Shopping
So you guys, I tried to keep light in mind while at the outlet mall. And I did okay. I replaced my black and navy long-sleeve t-shirts and my pair of jeans (and learned Levis makes a 34-inch inseam, which rocked my world) and added a white long-sleeve t-shirt, a teal pullover sweater and a black turtleneck sweater (I know, I know, but! Sweaters!). Um, I also bought a pair of super long yoga pants so someday, theoretically, if I were to fight my fears and go to an actual yoga class instead of, say, just doing yoga in my living room, I wouldn't look like (much more of) a dork. But those things don't count because Courtney.

The Unexpected
My favorite grey sweater (favorite even though I look kind of terrible in grey) got a hole in the back collar almost ASAP after purchasing the thing at Eddie Bauer in September. I causally mentioned that to the kid behind the counter as I was buying Johanna a plain black t-shirt (that is another post for another time) and she was all, that is not right, and then went and found my sweater in my size and traded me one for one right there. Um, I was not expecting that. Wicked cool, Eddie Bauer kid!

My new sweater is a little more oversized than my old sweater, but is way better quality. I can't figure out why that is, since this is from an outlet and the other was from an honest to God store, but whatevs. There are just some things in this life you can't explain.

The Minimal Packing
I wore clothes. Every day! No one noticed I was recycling the same items over and over. Oh, and oops, I brought a nice pair of pants for Mass and then totally forgot to wear them. So I could have packed lighter is what I'm saying. I kind of wished I'd packed my tennis shoes so I could have walked on the beach... or around the lake/neighborhood.

The Babies
Babies! Are fun! But they weren't all that interested in me unless I had my iPad, and then we were best friends. Reid (2) was Johanna's satellite all weekend long, which was hilarious. She took it all in stride. Logan (1) and Kayden (2) were mostly just enamored with her block building skills, especially since she let them knock all towers over.

The Food
My sister-in-law Debbie was in charge of renting the house and getting all the food figured out (no easy feat), and wow, she nailed it. Here's a little something she made for Saturday breakfast that I ended up eating all three mornings we were there because A) Delicious and 2) Leftover are the best.