The Good, The Okay, and The Horrible

Happy Sunday! And Happy Birthday to my dear friend Sarah in Dallas!

My week has been pretty traumatic for so many reasons...I just have to share. This was my first week at my new job and it was so much fun, despite my dental problems. Last week, I accepted a position at The Hotel Monaco in Downtown Seattle. It's a Kimpton Hotel! I'm a City Reservation Coordinator, there are three Kimpton Hotels in downtown Seattle, and there are two of us handling the reservations for these hotels. I'm excited about the new challenge and opportunity to learn about a new department in the hotel world. There are so many awesome perks about being an employee with Kimpton Hotels...I can't wait to take advantage of their perks!

This is the retro hotel logo for Hotel Monaco. It is a very recognizable chain in Seattle.

Here is a current photo of the lobby. The hotel common area is about to undergo a face lift starting November...excited to see what this trendy space will look like in the end.

If any of you work or have worked in hotels, you can understand the simple benefit of having an office. Well, I hit the jackpot and have an office space! I have perfect hours and still am able to enjoy my weekends with Mark...and Lola!

Now, onto the Okay part to all of this. After a short understanding that parking in Downtown Seattle costs about $300 per month on the low end for a garage that is about 8 blocks away from work and not safe...I decided that public transportation was a must! It's about $125.00 per month to ride the light rail and parking at my station is free and monitored by security. From living in Dallas, my image of the light rail was tainted with the sight of dirty street people and gangster riding patrons...which was a little concerning. The Seattle light rail is much nicer, cleaner, and quicker than Dallas. I hoped on the opportunity to ride the rail. I'll admit that I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but it's been great! The only down side to it in the beginning is that if I don't get to the park and ride before 7:15am...there are NO parking spaces. So I get there early enough to get one...and just get to work super early. There are a few coffee spots close to work, so I foresee most of my money going to the establishments! :)

For the HORRIBLE...I repeat horrible part of my week. Let me just start by saying that I have a huge fear of going to see the dentist. I had the worst dentist in history taking care of me and it has left me scarred for life. When I was either 8 or 9 I had to have 14 teeth pulled, my baby teeth didn't come out and my jaw was too small to hold a few of the permanent teeth, and of course my dentist with no bedside manner was the one to take these out. It was horrible and I literally have a panic attack when I go to the dentist. I kinda feel like a baby saying it, but it is truly the only time I feel vulnerable around any type of doctor. With that being said, I woke up on Tuesday morning with a sharp pain in my bottom jaw on the ride side. It was pretty bad, but I thought I could take some Tylenol and it would go away or if I needed to go to a dentist I could go over the weekend. Not so much...by Wednesday morning at 2:00am...this was much more than a toothache. I looked in my mouth and saw that a wisdom tooth was coming in. I'm 26...and this is not normal!! Please keep in mind that it's my first week of work and I'm in training. I have no sick time, NO insurance, and am afraid to ask to leave to go to the dentist. I went into work and made it through the day, but worked up the courage to go to the dentist on Thursday morning. My gracious new bosses understood and let me take the morning off to do so. I went to a dentist with GREAT recs and he said that the tooth must come out. Ends up that it was pressing my other teeth together and could end up breaking or crushing a tooth. (Where did this mighty and angry tooth come from!?) The dentist numbed me up....and I had a shaking attack, I was scared to death. Oh man. The tooth is out and my work understood about me not returning and drooling all over the place. I was given Vicodin...which just made me a drowsy mess. I probably looked like I had narcolepsy. So after about $500 later for the tooth and meds...I'm feeling a lot better. Hoping that I don't have to go back anytime soon!!

I'm excited about this next week...I will be able to make it through the entire work week! I hope they don't hate me! :)

Something that I really love!

So I'm not just stating this because my whole family follows my blog...I just think this contraption is so inventive!! You are looking the Cuisinart soup maker, it cooks, blends, & purees all in one! I'm going to be loving the fact that soup will be appreciated in this colder climate come winter and I can make all the soup that I want. Yay!

On another note, Mark and I are headed to pick up a quick Friday night dinner in celebration that he collected his first paycheck! Woo-hoo!!

This is a short update, I will have a very exciting one coming to you tomorrow. :)

{XO from Seattle}

No mas Tex-Mex?!

If you follow me on Twitter or have ever met me you know that I LOVE Tex-Mex food! I really could eat it every single day for lunch and dinner. Imagine my surprise to find out that there is absolutely no Tex-Mex in Seattle! *gasp. I halfway expected that it would be hard to place a few, but to not have any just boggles my mind. (If any one of you want to lend me some money to open one here...I'm pretty sure that your ROI will be VERY high!) We went to a "Tex-Mex" place in Queen Anne. The Yelp review said that it was "amazing"! We were excited when we walked in and saw a plethora of University of Texas memorabilia! We sat down and ordered something called, "queso"...it was a bowl of melted feta cheese, a can of green chilies, and jack cheese. (I'm shaking my head a I type)...I won't go on about the rest of the meal, but we were sad and disappointed. Right then and there we decided that if we want Tex-Mex we've got to make it ourselves! I can do that...and I'm happy to oblige.



First recipe is Chicken Chalupas

This is a very easy meal and tastes amazing!!

Here are the list of ingredients and the order to layer them:

• Pre-made Chapula tortillas
• Low-sodium refried beans
• Shredded chicken with a little bit of chili power and paprika- heat until warm in microwave
• Shredded lettuce
• Dollop of sour cream
• Dollop of Guacamole or a few slices of avocado
• Diced tomatoes
• Sprinkle with mexican-style cheese

This is one to try, and you get to use the Chalupas for the next recipe as well. Ole!

Second recipe is: Tortilla Chip Chicken Enchiladas

This was so easy, and fun to make.

Shopping list:

• 2 large cans of shredded chicken
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• 1 8oz. sour cream
• 1 packet of taco seasoning
• 1 can of tomato with green chilies
• 1 can of pinto beans
• 1 can of Mexicali corn
• 4 corn chalupas (use from chicken chalupas)
• 2 cups of mexican shredded cheese

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Drain the can of tomatoes REALLY good...and spread on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish

Rinse the can of beans, and then sprinkle on the top of the tomatoes,

Drain the can of corn and layer on top of the beans.

Now crush the chalupas and sprinkle on the ingredients.

In a seperate bowl mix the 2 can of chicken (drained), sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and taco seasoning. Once mixed well with spoon, pour over crushed chalupas.

Once it looks like this, pop it in the oven for about 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, pull out the casserole and top with cheese, then bake for another 5-10 minutes. Let set up for about 5 minutes, then enjoy! We did...and forgot to take a final picture. So sorry, but it is really delicious. I served it with a simple salad and salsa ranch dressing.

For now...these will help my Tex-Mex cravings! If anyone has a delicious recipe to share, please do!

Pike Place Market

I'm ready to go back! We went when kids were out of school and it was a beautiful day...there were a TON of people. We really didn't get to take our time going to each and every booth and really seeing what is there. Here are a few reasons why Pike Place Market is just so amazing and fun, for residents and vacationers!

There is it...and we snagged a picture! Amidst the crowd and being asked about 20 times to take pictures of people. I should have put up a booth and collected $15.00 per picture!

Yummy cheese! This was breath taking! I can't wait to go back and stock up on cheese.

We went against traditional standards and went to Seattle's Best Coffee...it truly is better than Starbucks! We sipped on cappuccinos, and I truly think this drink is how you can tell if a place is legit.

Finally someone offered to take a picture of us...down from the cool sign. And the streets are at a crazy 70% angle or something. It is a great workout to go up and down the streets between 1st street and 2nd street.

Mark the "pork butt" in contemplation about something truly serious!

Can't wait for the day to be able to take this ship to Alaska for about 8-10 days! Anyone want to go?

OK, so here is my favorite part about Pike. The flowers...and they are CHEAP!! I almost filled my arms, purse, anything with these gorgeous bouquets.

This arrangement was $15.00! Do you see the lilies in the arrangement...this one just keeps getting better!

Nothing better than sweet almonds!

I can't wait to go back and gather fresh fruits, veggies, seafood, and goodies to make dinner...perfect with a fresh bouquet of flowers for the dinner table. I'm really loving that there are so many things to do in the Seattle area. There are so many farmer's markets and festivals! I'm loving it soooo much! 

Our home...

Our first stop when we arrived was at the apartment complex that we researched online. We searched and searched for a safe area, lower price, and nice amenities...and our complex has all of the things that we are looking for. Mark and I wanted to move into an apartment first so that we could take our time to find a neighborhood or even city where we want to focus our home search. We signed a year lease, and hope to find a home by time our lease is up. This complex is great because we can go month-to-month, if needed, and the price doesn't change...which means we won't have to pay hundreds over our rent just to stay here. Blessing! We settled in Renton, WA which is just about 15 minutes south of Seattle and Bellevue...it's perfect and it's close to Mark's office in Kent, WA. We are also close to Sea Tac, i.e. the AIRPORT... come and visit anytime, just let us know ahead of time so we can clean up all of Lola's puppy hair.

Now, the pictures that I'm going to share with you may be a little scary! I took these on the day that our furniture and boxes arrived, so it's super crowded in the house. I almost had a panic attack because I like to have everything in it's place and this was just not ideal for me. If I would have known where the kitchen boxes with the paper bags were...it would have been very helpful. :)

You are looking at our lovely dining room!

I'm not a fan of these blinds, but they are everywhere. I can live with it. This is the living room!

See if you can guess what room this is?

Once we have the apartment set-up I will post new pictures. 

We are short on space due to downsizing into a one bedroom from a two bedroom with garage house. We ended up getting a storage unit to store our washer and dryer (a nice perk is that this complex has a washer and dryer in every unit) and our Christmas/Holiday decor, hunting stuff, craft/sewing stuff, and other things we don't want to give up, but don't have space for in the apartment.

Things that I an still learning to live with:

• Ugly blinds, coming from the plantation wood blinds to this is difficult (I sound so snooty...)
• Ground floor: Good for Lola...bad for little to big spiders making themselves comfortable in our home.
• No light in the bedroom or living room...seems a little weird to have lamps lighting our home.
• No fans anywhere in sight...or A/C!!! You really don't need it here because the weather is so nice, but its a total adjustment!
• That being said about not having fans, with all of the rain thats here and the mold issue that can occur....my mind thinks that a fan will help with circulation and therefore not having stagnant humidity to grow mold spores. I'm not the smartest crayon is the box, but I like my idea.

Today is such a beautiful day and it's Labor Day Weekend...I have to go out and enjoy the weather!