Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Merry Christmas to me!

I just had to share one of my favorite gifts from Matt this year. A new clock for our kitchen! I love it so much... I just can't help but smile every time I see it. Doesn't it make you laugh? This little owl has so much personality. Thank you, Matt.

Monday, December 27, 2010

A Very Merry Christmas

I think all the excitement, happiness, and pure joy of our Christmas this year is captured in this photo:

Please let me get to that stocking... please, please, please...

Zeke did get his stocking and he has been playing with his new squeaky toys nonstop. What a spoiled dog!

Matt and I had a great Christmas together this year. I think my favorite part is all the fun activities leading up to the 25th... baking cookies (and decorating with the girls), wrapping presents, and watching cheesy holiday classics like Home Alone on TV. This year we hosted Matt's family at our house for Christmas morning breakfast and opening presents. It was fun to have everyone over and I loved having breakfast at our table all together. I made cinnamon pecan coffee cake and a sausage egg strata. Yum. Later in the day, we went to my parents' house to hang out with the Walton side of the family and enjoy a very delicious Christmas dinner. For dessert this year, I made dark chocolate peppermint cupcakes. I wish I could eat that meal all over again... it was so good.

Here is our classic sleepy Christmas morning photo. Merry Christmas! Love, Matt, Erin, Zeke and mustache.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween



Had Halloween off last night, which was nice. Halloween is an important holiday in the Newsome household. It was the first time I met Erin. It was at our BYOPP (bring your own pumpkin party). I was a Seahawk and Erin was a Hula Dancer. I'll never forget carving a pumpkin with Erin that night. We picked out a design and I cut open the pumpkin to start scooping out the guts and seeds and to both our surprise the pumpkin was completely empty inside. just a few dry seeds and no guts. The pumpkin had done some sort of weird rotting on the inside thing and the guts were missing. Erin tells me now that at the time she was horrified that she had just met me and the pumpkin she brought was rotting. But what she didn't know at the time, was I thought it was awesome. I mean who wants to scoop pumpkin guts? I knew I had a keeper after that night. I had found a girl who could pick the perfect pumpkin to carve. So lucky.

So every year we bust out the knives and scoopers and get busy on some pumpkins. These are the 2010 entries into the carving creations. Erin did the Meow Meow and I went for the W. Not for the Huskies, because they suck, but for George W. Did anyone else see the heater he threw for a first pitch at the World Series?


Meoowwww!



Yesterday afternoon I went to the dedication of the memorial for Officer Tim Brenton who was killed last year on Halloween. It was really nice. Great job by the community of Leschi to get it done. They worked hard to get it completed in time for the one year anniversary. Very much appreciated by all SPD I'm sure. The memorial is on the northwest corner of 29 Av and E Yesler Way if you're ever interested in seeing it. I highly recommend that you do.

Since I post on this blog once every 6 months. See everyone in 2011.

Matt



Friday, October 29, 2010

Halloween Happiness

This was a big week in Portable 1. Starting on Monday, you could feel the Halloween excitement in the room. We read Halloween stories, did skeleton math, made spiders with spider facts written on the legs... One of the highlights was making a class book, all about what the kids will be for Halloween. Here are some of the costumes my first graders brainstormed:

Today, they wore their costumes to school, bouncing off the walls while eating tons of cookies, juice, and candy at our class Halloween party. I had to take a step back from the craziness for a minute, take a few photos, and realize just how adorable and excited they really are.




Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Home Improvement


We moved in to our new house one year ago. Sometimes it feels like there is a never-ending list of things to do, but when we look back on what we've done so far, I think it looks pretty good. It's starting to feel like our house now.

Here are a few photos to show the progress we've made...

I wish I was better at documenting all the things we've changed about the house, but for this post, I'll show the two major projects we've been working on. We started with the kitchen and family room.

When we first moved in, Matt took one look at the cabinets over the stove and decided they had to go. He couldn't wait to rip them out. They blocked off the living room and made the space seem smaller. Here is the view of the kitchen before, with the yellow walls, brown cabinets, and fluorescent lights.
Matt with the dreaded cabinets:
After we tore out the cabinets, we had to repair the ceiling and replace the fluorescent lights. Matt, Clay, Critter, and my Dad put in new drywall on the ceiling and added new insulation.
This picture is a little blurry, but shows the lights going in, the cabinets painted white, and also some of the paint samples we were trying out above the sink.
And finally, the AFTER! Here is how our kitchen looks now. Isn't it so much better?
And now, here is some of the work we have done on the outside of the house. The two major problems we faced included the peeling, yellow paint and the warped, water-damaged plywood that had been used as siding on the upper parts of the exterior. We could never have done this project without my dad, who has helped us from beginning to end with his construction expertise and skills. Thank you, Dad! You are the best!

Replacing the siding on the back

New siding, primed and ready to paint.
Painted! Now we are working on the trim... final after pictures should be coming soon!
Replacing the old siding by our patio.
A little surprise bird nest
Notice how gross the end of the beam looks. We don't know what was growing on there! Matt and my dad cut it off to make it even with the rest of the house.
Looking better already...
Painting with Clay, Critter, Heather, and both of our dads!
The painting crew
Now the patio area is almost finished! Next step will be a new slider door.

The sides of the house...
Cutting new siding
Starting to put up the new siding
Testing paint colors
Using the sprayer!
Old house color

New house color!
We aren't done yet... we still need to do some touch-ups, paint the trim, and choose a front door color. It's getting there, though! We couldn't have done any of this without the help of Matt's awesome friends and both of our dads. Hopefully soon I'll be able to post pictures of the finished product.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe two years has gone by since our wedding day. What an amazing day it was...

I remember that my favorite part was turning around to walk back down the aisle and seeing all our friends and family cheering for us. I've never felt so much love, support, and excitement in a single moment. I still can't believe all those people were there just for us - just because they love me and Matt! We are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.

The last two years have been filled with big milestones - new job, new house, new dog... Here's to the rest of the memories we get to make together! I love you, Matt - I'm so happy I get to share my life with you.


Monday, July 19, 2010

Summer Time


Where has the time gone? We've reached the half-way point of summer already. Let's see... what have the Newsome's been up to? Matt has been hard at work both at his job and around the house. We've had fun working in our yard and making it look a little nicer. It is nothing amazing yet, just nice enough that we can go out and have dinner on our patio and enjoy the summer nights. My dad and Matt have started working on replacing some of the siding on our house. Our goal is to get it ready to paint by the end of the summer. Sometime soon we will have to do a blog post with before and after photos of the house. It's changed quite a bit since we moved in last September.

A few weeks ago, we helped Matt's mom and dad move from the family house where Matt grew up. The photo above was taken at their new house. What a pretty view!

School's out for the summer and I've been spending a few days a week tutoring and babysitting for one of my favorite families. It is nice that the hours are flexible and I have been able to spend time with Matt on his days off and get together for some fun times with my girlfriends.

Zeke just keeps getting bigger and always keeps us entertained with his sweet, goofy playfulness. We love him so much and can't believe our little puppy is already a year old and is just HUGE. We always get comments about just how big he is! He loves going for rides in the car and sticking his head out the window, wagging his tail the whole time. What a good life.




Thursday, May 6, 2010

BFF

Hey there, it's me, Zeke. Life is good right now. The weather is getting nicer, I've found lots of places to dig in the yard. Daddy planted grass seed on the lawn and I've discovered it's just delicious. You should really try it some time. Anyway, yesterday I made a new best friend. His name is Cooper. We played at the park. I love meeting other doggies. Ok, that's all. Bye!
Oh, Hey there. Want to be my new best friend?

Cooper, you are so awesome. Let's play!

I could do this all day...

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Big Doggy

When a regular stick just doesn't cut it...

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Just call me Tech Wizard

My time teaching the first graders has come to an end. I'm sure going to miss those sweet little faces. The good news is that on Monday I'll be starting a new long term position. A few weeks ago, the principal at my school asked me if I would like to interview for the tech specialist position as the teacher is going on paternity leave. I said yes, of course! Now, here I am getting ready to take over the computer lab until the end of the school year. This is definitely something new for me, as I wouldn't describe myself as a tech expert. I'll be teaching the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. I'm excited for this new opportunity and also a little nervous. Most of all, I'm so happy that I'll be spending the rest of the school year at Odyssey. Even though this position is only half time, it will be so nice to know where I'll be every day and to finish out the year at the school that now feels like home to me.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Go Hawks!

Hope the Seahawks draft Eric Berry. I'm sure everyone reading this agrees.

Here's a little story about a chase I got in the other night.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Cooking with Criminals

Here's a link to a story about an arrest I was involved with. I had never heard of the website until a friend of mine showed it to me. Enjoy!


Matt

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

March Madness from a Dog's Perspective

Hey there! It's me, Zeke. Everyone seems to be pretty excited about basketball these days. I have to admit that I like tennis balls much better than basketballs. Have you ever tried to fetch a basketball? It isn't easy. Anyway, I'd like to share my picks for the final four this year. Here are my choices, based on how much I would like to play with the mascots. For the West, I am going with with the Butler Bulldogs. One of my best friends from puppy class, Gracie, is a bulldog. I have to stand by her team. On that same note, I'm choosing Georgetown for the Midwest as they also have a bulldog. Both of these bulldog teams are making me wonder why no NCAA teams have Labs for mascots. I don't get it. I would make a great mascot! Anyway, for the East, I'm going with the Washington Huskies, of course. Does number 11 mean anything to me? No. I'm a dog. I like Huskies. Mommy bought me a new Husky collar and I'm very proud of my team. Last, for the South, I'm picking the Baylor Bears. I've never played with a bear, but since my nickname is Zekie Bear, I'm guessing it must be a good team. Well, that's all for now. Happy March Madness everyone!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Dr. Seuss Day

Today was Dr. Seuss' birthday, also known as Read Across America Day. It has become quite a special day in the elementary school world. The kids got to wear their pajamas and bring a stuffed animal to school. We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Cat in the Hat. As part of a grant from Page Ahead, each student at the school got to choose and take home their own book. This is such a big deal for my students, who normally wouldn't be able to afford a new book. We even made Cat in the Hat paper cut-outs. It was a fun day... one of those days where I love my job. The kids were so cute in their pajamas. They are at the age where they are so excited about learning to read and it was great to have a whole day devoted to just that.