Trip to Mount Rainier

Today the weather was forecast as mostly sunny, so we decided visit to Mount Rainier! After a two hour road trip, we were excited to hike around for a bit. Nevermind that we completely spaced on wearing more appropriate clothing for 40 degree weather (like gloves and thick socks). Because of this, we didn't hike up anywhere near the snow but it was beautiful down in the meadow. 

Preview of the pictures to come...!

Our first peek of Mount Rainier on the drive up the mountain.

Despite the fact that it was a Tuesday, there were many visitors taking
advantage of the (mostly) sunny weather.

A nice lady offered to take our picture for us!

Appropriate quote for this beautiful mountain meadow.

Matt with an awesome view of the other mountains surrounding Mt. Rainier.

Waterfall that is 1/2 icicle.

Evergreen decorated by nature with icicles and tiny snow pats.

Almost a clear view of Mount Rainier. Darn those stray whispy clouds!

Just a pretty picture of a beautiful area.

An ice cold tributary flowing down the mountain.

Black tailed deer! We saw bunches of these awesome creatures.

"When James Longmire's daughter-in-law, Martha, first saw this site, she
exclaimed, 'Oh, what a paradise!'" - I concur.

Up close of the meadow foliage. The meadow smelled like huckleberry!
I wish I could bottle that scent and take it home.

A delightful blue/purple flower growing in the meadow.

Saying goodbye to glacial Mount Rainier on the way down.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed the trip! Maybe one day you can come visit us and see for yourself the beauty of the outdoors that a camera cannot quite capture.

Autumnal Bliss

Gingerbread man tree stump!!

As you may have noticed by my last post, I am very excited to experience the autumnal bliss of living in the North. I am busy planning day trips we may (or may not) be able to take in the coming weeks to see the foliage. You see, Matt's work schedule varies from week to week which makes it difficult to plan anything in advance. And as I will soon join the workforce as well (with a truly unremarkable job as a waitress to fill my time and buffer my bank account until I manage to finagle a career out of this economy), our ability to venture out into the Washington wilderness will be severely limited. On the other hand, it is going to continue to get colder as the season progresses so I probably won't want to be outside that much anyway.


One thing that I do have planned is filling my kitchen with fall food goodies! Apples, squash, pomegranates, and cranberries. Salted Caramel Mochas, Peppermint hot chocolate and Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Ahhhhh, seasonal treats! The other day, I added a new recipe to my autumn arsenal - Sweet Potato Muffins. A few leftover sweet potatoes had me searching the internet for ideas, until I ran across a muffin recipe and smushed a few versions together into the following recipe.

Sweet Potato Muffins

12 muffins 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
2 eggs

1 cup white sugar (or brown sugar if you have it, which I didn't)
1/2 cup oil
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg (or to taste)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1/4 tsp ginger (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grab your 12 muffin tin and line it with muffin wrappers or lightly grease the tin. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl, gently beat the eggs then add the sugar, oil and milk. Mix wet ingredients to combine then add the mashed sweet potatoes and continue mixing to combine. Finally, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter should be pretty thick and with some lumps. Pour into muffin tin and bake for about 35 minutes.


Just as an aside, Matt ate three of these muffins in quick succession right after they came out of the oven because he loved them so much. We quickly polished off the batch by the third day of our muffin's short lives. When I first made this, it was late at night and I was on a baking frenzy. I just hope I managed to give you all the right recipe notes...I'm making these again tomorrow so I can verify everything (Oh, darn!). If you make a similar dish or have any good ideas about this one I would love to hear about them! I read a suggestion to use 1/2 pumpkin puree and 1/2 sweet potato =D

Anyway, Matt and I still regularly venture out into the state park wilderness in the immediate area. Here are a few pictures from our last trip:

Coastal beach on the Puget Sound.

A sad beached jellyfish the size of my shoe. I (gently) kicked him back to the water.

A random treehouse built into the shoreline trees on a public beach.

And of course, I had to venture up! Neat place, but it
didn't improve the already awesome view.

The forest side of the shore was a wall of some clay-like substance. It
appears to be the preferred place for adolescents to graffiti.

The trail we took leading from the beach into the forest.

And here I am on the trail reppin' UTD Soccer!

A mushroom colony that gives me the urge to hunt for smurfs.

And here is the Matt man in all his goofy glory!

Watching the leaves change

Goodbye Summer. Hello Autumn! 

I have always wanted to witness the leaves turn colors from green to yellow and red; however, in Texas, Autumn means the leaves turn from green to dead without a spectacular show of color. Fortunately, here in our corner of Washington state, I have already seen oodles of yellow, orange, and red leaves. Moving here has finally allowed me to watch the leaves change first hand and I am uber excited!

I've been scouting around for the best color changing trees in our neighborhood over the past week and here are a few I have managed to snap pictures of. I wish I had a fancier camera to take more impressive pictures, but maybe this will encourage you all to come visit us to see the trees in person instead.

Starting to change from green to yellow!

Turning from green straight to red!

Close up of the leaves.

It almost looks like the leaves are smoldering in a fire with those colors.

  

Tiny maple tree but it is turning a beautiful orange/red color

Up close picture of the maple tree's leaves

The colors don't stop at the trees. There are tons of bushes putting
out beautiful red berries! I don't believe they are edible though. 

A gorgeous rose bush I found hiding in the back of the apt complex
with just a few buds and blooms left.

And of course, the evergreens are as green as ever and laden with pine cones!

Eight days into October & this is my first post for the month?

Not sure who to credit this image to. It's all over the net. If you know then please
let me know as I am happy to credit the creator/owner.

So I hate to admit it, but being alone and jobless in a new state several thousand miles away from my closest friends and family is hard. I miss everyone. I miss my old life. I am not admitting defeat, by any means, but I would like to mention (for posterity's sake) that I'm sad. Infinitely normal feelings, I know, but annoying to deal with nonetheless. Which is why the poster depicted above (my current desktop background) acts as a daily reminder that there are things I can do to help turn my mood around.

10 Positive Steps for Mental Health

1. Accepting who you are - I haven't cut my face out of any of the pictures while decorating my apartment, so I think this step is well accomplished.
2. Talking about it - I spend at least 15 minutes a day whining to Matt (poor boy) or one of my lady friends about my loneliness. I try to rotate this support system duty so as not to exhaust any one person's empathy too greatly.
3. Keeping active - I work out at the apartment gym almost every day. Nothing hardcore but at least I am there!
4. Learning new skills - Does learning how to be alone count?
5. Keeping in touch with friends - Snail mail is the best. Checking the mail box is my favorite part of the day thanks to my girls! If you want a letter or little drawing from me, just drop a note in the comments and I'll send one your way!
6. Doing something creative - Hmm, does crafting cover letters count as creative work?
7. Getting involved - I signed up to volunteer with a local organization called Neighborhood House! I hope to get started working with them soon. 
8. Asking for help - I have received incredibly sage advice from my friends, family and supporters. There hasn't been much need to ask for help because it has been given so readily.
9. Relaxing - The library is my friend. Not only is the library only three quarters of a mile away, but they also have e-books available to rent online if I'm too lame to leave the apartment. Reading is my favorite way to relax and escape.
10. Surviving - This one is easy. I just refuse to give up. "Being alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now is all that counts."

To be honest, this week has been one of the best since we've been here. Loads of great things have happened. We acquired Chuck Testa the beta fish. I got an early look at the gorgeous engagement pictures of my friends B & Mr. E. I received snail mail from my friends JJ, MgB and L. I attended a ladies spiritual small circle at a nearby church. My mom came back from her month long trip to Africa. We were invited to a Halloween party. I cured my insomnia by listening to folk tales read and recorded by my grama at bed time. I made homemade rice milk. We received a care package from the best mother in law in the world (that contained drool-inducing gummi snacks). Matt has the next two days off and we might go visit Mount Rainier. Life is good. So I will leave you with pictures of Chuck Testa the fish.

Chuck Testa swimming like the fish he is.

Chuck Testa posing for the camera like a pretty boy.