Friends, Football, Food and Fun on the First

Okay, so the last of our holiday parties was today, our annual Jan. 1 party, always a crowd favorite. It's one of those times I wish I could freeze and savor much longer than the 7 hours it actually lasts... Friends from all different parts of our lives descend on the Mill Creek house for games of all sorts (football on tv, cards, board games, puzzles, etc. on different tables) and one HUGE pot o' chili to be had.


It is so much fun to have everyone we love in the same place. It is reminiscent of our wedding/rehearsal dinner, everywhere we look are people we like! Yay for that. It was cool to see our college friends mixing with work friends, and this year we had the treat of having 3 infants there, ranging from 2 weeks-6 months.



I remember years ago, when the party mostly included recent college grads. It's cool to watch the evolution of guests to include married couples and now kids, Jman being the oldest at the ripe old age of two. I love watching my friends parent, and am getting excited about that chapter to come in our lives. We're now homeowners with careers, advanced degrees and dreams a lot bigger than we dreamt at 23... I love growing up. I used to think that life after 23 would suck, all down-hill from there... And I am glad to be wrong about that, every year gets better and better. The adventures we take, the connections we make, the healing that takes place. I am grateful for it all. So here's to 2008 and all that's to come; I am expecting nothing short of greatness.

Happy 2008

My first post of the new year... lots of pressure. I'm too tired to write anything profound, so I'll save reflection on our insights of the year just passed for the near future. Last night while Los and I drove to Forrest and Shannon (and JUDAH!)'s house for the New Years' party, we asked each other what the most significant 3 things about 2007 were, for ourselves, for the other, and for us as a couple. It was a great convo and powerful to introspect/reflect about that... but I'm too tired to recall it all. For now, anyway.

Can I just say that being an introvert is hard work during the holidays? Can I get an amen on that? I mean there are people everywhere... And FABULOUS people. People with whom I wish I connected regularly, but life gets in the way of that, so we cram it all into a 2-3 week period... that is just crazy. But exhilarating, stimulating, and I love it.

But now I am wiped out. And ready for a good long break until I go to another big party. So all you January partiers, feel free to skip my invite;) I'll be busy laying on the couch all month.

REI Garage Sale-ing

This morning Los and I did our first ever REI garage sale. It was awesome. This is an event that is nationwide and once to two times a year, on random Saturdays. It is a members-only sale where everything returned to REI for any reason is massively discounted and distributed around the nation to all of their stores. Back in college I used to go visit my friends, who would literally camp out around the Seattle flagship store for multiple nights, in hopes of scoring some killer deals on all outdoor gear and apparel at their once-yearly sale. I am not that hard core. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good deal, but the thought of sleeping outside on a sidewalk in the cold just to go shopping was of no interest to me.

So when the person I spoke to in Bellingham yesterday said their sales were more mellow (read: no shoving people and diving to get things) I was pleasantly surprised. I got off work at 8am this morning, and Los met me soon after. We sipped our coffee and hung out with Burly, chatting and reading for two hours until the doors opened. We were numbers 28 and 29 in line, amazing compared to the hundreds who wrap around the Seattle store in serpentine lines before their sale. By 10am, our line had grown to about 150; still not bad.

We decided to divide and conquer as Los really wanted some jackets and a backpack. I didn’t need anything but a water bottle, and was just curious what was available, so as the masses rushed into the store, I snagged Los a great pack and then perused the women’s stuff. No one was really by me, but tons of people were going after the sleeping bags and backpacks, so I watched in amazement while people reminded me of a scene on Animal Planet, emulating a pack of wolves tearing apart a carcass.

I realized the hot-ticket items were the expensive things: skis, snowboards, tents, hiking shoes, packs and bags. Makes sense, you could get a $400 item for $40. Los found great deals on two jackets, and a daypack, plus the big backpack I appropriated for him; I got a pair of shoes and my water bottle. By the time we left, the check-out line went 50+ yards around the back of the store. We walked to our car with purchases in hand, relieved not to be in that long line, and pleased at our morning and money well spent.

Snapshot of a Night On-Call

Take a shower. Dress nice. Feel dread, feel fear. Look at myself in the mirror and tell myself, “self, snap out of it.” Pack my bag, head to hospital, feel joy, feel anticipation. Want to turn around and drive home. But don’t. Walk through hospital doors, clock in and put on pager and ID badge, feel competent, feel official. Go to office, organize things, look at pager every 5 minutes, feel neurotic. Want to be paged a lot, want not to be paged at all. Check my email too many times. Try to settle down and read. Doesn’t work. Go out to dinner with hubby and mom, try to stay present, all the while feeling on-edge and nervously glancing at pager with increasing frequency. That thing owns me tonight. Go back to hospital, meet Jonathan and Lynnea, give all 4 people a tour. Feel professional, feel proud. Hang out until 11:30, feel tired, then go back to my office to make my bed. Get some sleep, not sound sleep, I am at a hospital on-call and my pager is 10 inches from my head, but sleep nonetheless. No page wakes me up, only my own anxiety of a potential page. 8am comes. Off duty. Turn the pager off. Relax.

Christmas: Part III- Giving

The best thing that Los did this Christmas was host a bunch of high school seniors this weekend, and they ‘adopted’ a local family. This single mom and her two boys are barely making it; and are living in a shabby, dimly-lit two room apartment above a Mexican restaurant. Not that Christmas is about gifts, by any means, but when they aren’t even an option, that can devastate a little kid. The spirit of generosity was high among the teenage boys (a rarity in some, perhaps, but these teens are great) as they dreamed about what the young boys might want. They went out for a couple of hours to buy some things for their home, a few toys, and gift cards for practical things like groceries.





After the chaos of lunch and wrapping here, they brought all their gifts to the mom and her boys. Both parties were blessed in the experience and I’m sure that is a day that will be remembered by everyone involved. I pray their Christmas was warm, full, merry and bright.

Christmas: Part II- WHITE

I was pleasantly surprised by how great this new Christmas experience was. I no longer need to be “dreaming of a White Christmas,” as I got my first one! Big fluffy flakes fell gently while we opened our gifts. The fresh, clean snow blanketed the trees and earth with beauty and peace, the best gift! My mom and I (yeah, so I couldn’t go completely without my own fam, I begged her to come up) took our dogs outside and walked a couple of miles through the trees and gorgeous Greenbelt in Mill Creek (breathtaking trails with a creek amidst suburbia). It was magical. I felt childlike.

We had a great two days of celebrating with Los’ family. They only have extended family over on Christmas Eve, about 25 people came over. It was nice to connect with some members of his fam I’d yet to meet, and to get some jars of home-canned spicy garlic and asparagus, gotta love that. And then on Christmas, it was a quieter time with just immediate family. Raoul made his famous French toast. Everyone ate too much. We had good conversations and fun giving each other things. I know giving is always more fun than receiving; but I was pretty stoked that Los surprised me and got me a white ‘puffy’ down jacket I had wanted. After spending as much as we did in South America, we weren’t going to do gifts for one another; but he’s such a giver, he couldn’t resist… what a guy!

Christmas: Part I- Change and Ritual

This Christmas was my first in Washington. Away from my family. I am a big girl, a grown-up even; 28, with a husband, dog and contemplating kids of our own soon. And yet I felt myself sink into a bad mood as Christmas neared. Rather than think how lucky I have been to travel to see my family in California every year for the decade I haven’t lived there… 27 Christmases in a row in sunny CA should be enough, right? Instead, I was pouting that this would be the first not seeing them.

I love the energy, the chaos, the rituals, the shared laughs, meals and stories. The familiarity. It is tough to say goodbye to all of that. Not even goodbye, since we’ll probably join them again some day, but just goodbye to that being a permanent fixture I can count on in life. One less ritual in my already poor repertoire of rituals. I have always wanted to have lots of ritual in life, but I move too frequently, or am too forgetful (probably both) to remember things and repeat them annually.

My mother-in-law is the queen of ritual, so I am learning a lot from watching her. I know that as we move around the country/world, I’ll have to make more effort than most to have a sense of stability in creating rituals. (even if they’re only 2-3 years at a time) I’ll take any suggestions or advice you guys might have, stories of favorite traditions, etc. Lord knows I could use some help, since the only constant in my life is change. I need some inspiration and creativity to fuse stability and change together. Any thoughts?

South America Trip with the Flory's

We are home! And jetlagged... But grateful. What an unprecedented trip. For the first time, I blogged a lot about one of our adventures, and our friend Joel, who is an amazing photographer (fotografo en espanol) captured a lot of the majesty on camera, so I'll get to share lots with you! He'll edit the photos by next week and I'll start putting up my posts. But until then, enjoy this one photo from the world's most amazing national park, Torres del Paine... More to come!

Happy holidays:)

Beautiful Morning for a Run!

Los just ran his 5th 1/2 Marathon... It was cold and sunny, a great morning and Los' fam and the Zentler fam cheered the guys on. Now we're gonna see if he can train for the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon or the NYC Marathon... But he had a fun time running with Erik, who was doing his first 1/2.



Didn't know how to turn this up, but isn't little Jackson becoming such a cute boy! He turns two this week:)


And I had to capture the morning sun on the EMP (Experience Music Project- cool museum of music at the Seattle Center) and the Space Needle, a Seattle icon for those of you who've yet to visit.

Our Christmas "Update"

Happy Holidays from the Evans family! We look forward to hearing about your year. Carlos was gone about 6 months again this year, for deployments to the Middle East. In his last tour, he was the Mission Commander, and this fall he was promoted to be an Instructor Pilot. When he came home we bought him a new Prius, which we love (50 mpg!) and he just ran his 5th Half-Marathon with his best friend Erik. I have kept busy with school (I’ll finish my Master’s this summer!), being a chaplain in the ICU at a local hospital, mentoring college students, traveling 10 weeks myself, and gardening at our house (over 400 things planted, including a vegetable garden, which was fun).
When he was home in spring, we went to Australia for two weeks. Beforehand, we didn’t really care where we went; we were just looking forward to spending some concentrated time together. However, snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef is now among the top highlights of our lives: the brilliant rainbow of sea life was breathtaking. Queensland is a lot like CA or HI, without all the people and development; really peaceful and restorative. If you’re up for an adventure, we highly recommend it!
This summer when Los was gone, I hung out with my family in CA, and visited my bro, who was playing baseball in Switzerland. I took my mom, who’d never been to Europe before, around Switzerland, N. Italy (Lake Como, Cinque Terre), the S. of France and Paris. It was special to be with them in countries I love, and to show my mom where Los proposed to me in France.
Los and I love to see the world and are now gearing up for our next trip, with our great friends, the Flory’s, to South America. We’ll hike a lot, ride horses and kayak in Patagonia, and see Santiago and Buenos Aires. We leave the 4th, which is why you’re getting this early? We’ll be back in Seattle for the holidays and hope to spend time with as many of you as possible!
p.s. by this time next year, we will have sold our house (yikes) and moved somewhere in the country/world (unknown to us at this point), so PLEASE keep in touch. Our blog is a great way to stay connected, we regularly write and post photos, and would love to stay up to date in your lives as well. You can reach us at www.caseandlos.blogspot.com no matter where we go!

Our First Anniversary as Dog Parents

This Thanksgiving week we celebrated our one-year anniversary with Burlington Philippe Evans (call sign: Tornado), the World’s Best Dog. We reflected on how nervous we were at first (all the book reading in the world does not compare to reality…) to how grateful we are for him (he’s everyone in the neighborhood’s favorite dog) and for all that he’s taught us about ourselves… We cannot imagine life without him. He’s one of the best gifts in our lives and we love him, enjoy some photos of him.

Thanks (for) Giving

One of the things I love about our church is how generous everyone is. I was pretty devastated last month, when the numerous wildfires destroyed portions of southern California. A church we’re connected to, (Los’ fraternity brother is the college pastor) Malibu Presbyterian Church, was burned to the ground, and a Young Life camp east of San Diego was also harmed. Many people had to evacuate their homes, and some lost all of their possessions. Hearing their accounts and seeing photos in the LA Times was so sad.

So I was really touched when, on the Sunday following the start of the fires, our Seattle church took up an offering for victims of the fire. Essentially, every one of the 4,500 members gave $10, as $45,000 was raised that day. I know that’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but I know it will be added to other gifts and hopefully it will go a long way to bless some people who are hurting temporarily. I was so proud and grateful to everyone for their generosity, especially when later that week I heard that a local tv station had raised money for CA as well, and of the 3 million+ audience, they only raised $40,000. It was pretty eye-opening to realize what a small portion of people can accomplish when they have a like-minded vision. Hoo-Rah for generosity, thanks for giving.

Sweet Peas (and the ministry of multiplication)

My wonderful friend Kirsty’s favorite flowers are Sweet Peas. They are delicate and so fragrant, and while I was at Lowe’s this spring I thought I might try my hand at them this summer. I threw 50 cents worth of seeds (25 seeds) in the ground, and was amazed by the proliferation of flowers we had for 6 months!! All my neighbors who wanted them, and I, cut them from May-November, and they kept producing… It was awesome.

When I am a pastor, I know I’ll have a million gardening analogies, and I will spare you the sermon now, but I will preach about this some day, because this is the gospel, friends. I planted 25 seeds, and when I took the (annual) flowers out for the winter, I opened up the pods and got over 1000 seeds! 1000+ from 25!!! Amazing. That is what we happens when we give ourselves to others, the ministry of multiplication occurs… and the world is better for it.

Frequent Flyers in Florida

One of the highlights of fall was the trip we just took to Florida. Los became an Instructor Pilot (very cool), and I got to play with people my heart loves in Jacksonville. I don’t know if we’ll ever live there again, but walking on the warm beach in November, eating at our favorite places, and spending great time with beloved friends was such a gift.

Blessed Chaos and Counseling

I feel like my brain might explode, there’s so much going on in life right now. I don’t think I realized it since it’s just this season of my life, and when you’re in that state, you’re going day by day, and don’t get the bigger perspective; but a pastor I met with last week said that Los and I have so many active components and ambiguities that it is really stressful. With all of Los’ traveling, my school, ordination exams, moving (somewhere?) next summer, contemplating selling our house and pregnancy, and me working at the hospital now (on top of our other investments, friends and family) there’s just so much happening. In a really good way, it’s painful, all of this learning that is happening; but it’s to the point where I’m having a hard time fitting everything new in my brain.
I love being at the hospital, which is stretching me and challenging me. Something that’s very important to me is that my life has integrity, so practicing awareness of ‘resistance’ takes so much work, for introspection and healing. We cannot change other people, we can only change ourselves, so whenever we get upset about something, looking at why that issue pushed our buttons is a hard task!
So Los and I might start doing some counseling, to be set up for success. We have started talking about starting a family, but we’d like to feel as healthy as possible before that, since everyone counsels us that when your family expands, issues can be exacerbated. We don’t really have problems, but we certainly experience ‘resistance’ toward some things the other does or says; I don’t know if it’s possible to ‘fix’ that or not; but we could stand to grow in awareness of the deeper issues which trigger little explosions from time to time. Starting to practice this discipline has taken me off (and others off) any high horse. Now I am noticing flaws, or ‘growing areas,’ all the time! So we’ll see where we go from here? Growth is always good, and even if it’s painful, I am glad for it. It’s certainly not boring!