Piano!

thrilled!

This month, after a few years of looking for a piano, we finally found the perfect one!  And it's all thanks to Zak's amazing Craigslist skills!  I've seriously missed playing the piano regularly and my skills have severely diminished, and I had all but given up hope of getting a piano anytime soon.  Zak tried to convince me that a nice electric keyboard would be a better investment for now, but I wasn't thrilled about it.

But then Zak found this piano online and contacted the lady about it.  It was in good shape, in the family for awhile and was the right price!  It seems like every other piano we've inquired about either was in ok shape or too expensive, too far away, but we could hardly believe what a great deal this was!  We went over one night to check it out and I fell in love, it was beautiful, and kept in good shape and the lady was really concerned about the buyer being someone who would take good care of the piano because it had sentimental value, etc.  I could hardly believe my luck!  We went home and decided we'd check with moving companies to see how much it would be to move it to our place.

Zak contacted them; it was going to be almost as much as the piano and that meant it wasn't likely we'd be able to get the piano.  I was really upset.  He talked to the lady, but she was convinced that, with the help of a few guys and some moving equipment, we'd be able to do it; she needed the money and the piano out of her house.  I texted my guy friends and asked if they'd be willing to help us move the piano in that weekend.  Bryan texted back about using a moving company and before I knew it, a few texts later, he was insisting that we let him and Chad pay for the movers as an early Christmas/birthday gift--it turns out they were planning on getting me a keyboard anyways, so they wanted to do this for me.  I cried a bit at work, I was so blown away by their generosity.

A few days later we were able to move the piano into our place.  The moving company I contacted were very nice, professional and quick.  I was so thrilled, I played for about 2 hours straight that night!  Since moving it in, I have been gathering lots of piano music and trying to get back to my 'old piano skills'.  It's been rough, some things are coming slower than I'd like, but at least I have something to practice on every day!

I am seriously so happy right now.  I'm so glad Zak found this piano, and that Bryan and Chad helped us out with it.  What great friends they are!  (When Bryan came over with the cash, he gave me a hug and a kiss and said, 'Don't you know you're family by now?')  I wake up, walk out to the living room and look at my beautiful piano.  The next step is to get it tuned, I've emailed a few local piano tuners in the area, but I need to save a little before I can do it.  It's a very nice piano, the keys don't really stick, the wood is nice and the stand for holding the music is really beautiful--all cut from one piece of wood.  It's a Baldwin Acrosonic, which dates to the mid 50s or 60s, I believe.

hard to see from the flash, but it's really nice

Anyways, that's the story of my piano!  It's wonderful and I'm a very lucky and thankful lady!

complete w/a globe she gave us--it's made from stones and gems, it's crazy cool

Jumping Off Waterfalls! + other fun (3 year anniversary, too)

This has been a really fun & exciting summer.  We finally feel like we are 'home'.  Our friends are great, we hang out with them often, we love our new place and both have new, great jobs. (Zak just started a new job for the school, he'll be working part-time doing A/V set up.  He's really excited about it, and it'll be a good fit with our schedules!) 

We have had a lot of fun adventures this summer and made a lot of good memories.  A few weeks ago Bryan & Chad got engaged and we had fun celebrating the love they share.  We are all really excited and happy for them.  The day after the party we went hiking with them and Kandace up in Elk River, about an hour/hour and a half away.  It was seriously beautiful and amazing to be in the forests.  We hiked for an hour or so and then sat and ate lunch with a beautiful vista of one of the three waterfalls in the park area.  We saw some people swimming in the lower falls area, but couldn't figure out how to get there; it was really steep and no clear path.  We then decided to go back to the first waterfall and try to get to that to swim in.  The hike back was definitely more taxing, a lot of hiking uphill and plus it was still really hot out.  But we made it to the upper falls and quickly got in the water.

Kandace & Bryan leading the way

 

Chad & Zak have a fun bromance

Zak talking about the cabin he wanted to build there

 

hiking hiking hiking

upper falls, where we swam

 

middle falls

lower falls, wish we could've figured out how to get down there, but oh well

beautiful vista

you can't really tell, but it was super steep and we foraged a crazy (dangerous) path down to the falls

excited to go swimming!

where we went swimming, we climbed up to the top area

 The water was a lot warmer than we had expected, but it felt glorious.  The current from the falls was pretty strong, but there were plenty of rocks and ledges to hang onto.  I was having fun just swimming around but then the boys decided to climb up the falls.  The next thing I know I was nervously climbing up some rocks, but luckily the guys helped and made me feel safe and got me to the top of the falls, where there was a little pool to relax in.  But that wasn't enough, because then they decided to go over the small falls in that area and go into the next pool, where there was a place to jump off.  Zak did it, without us really knowing, but thankfully he didn't get hurt at all.  He even convinced me to jump off the top of the waterfall.  I was fine until I got to the top of the rocks and had to position myself to jump, but man once I did, it was so awesome!  It was so much fun and I was really proud of myself for doing something new and a bit scary.  I felt like a warrior woman for conquering the waterfall. 

We had a great time in the woods with our friends.  We are planning on going back sometime soon and hopefully camping overnight.  And I definitely want to try jumping off that waterfall again!

On Tuesday the 7th, Zak and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary.  Man, the time has been flying!  It's hard to believe it's already been three years.  Since it was on a Tuesday, we both decided to work and just go to dinner after.  It was actually to spend a quite evening at home, and not be somewhere else dealing with a hotel, etc.  We went to Sangria, a Peruvian inspired place.  It's really good; we've been a few times before and every time we have been there, our food has been great.  Zak had a chicken dish with rice, onions, and some other things--it was really yummy.  I had two appetizers: crab cakes and a crunchy spinach salad, both were excellent.  It was a nice evening.

Zak starts school on Monday, he has a bit of a weird schedule but he is planning on going to the gym or doing homework in his free time.  We are hoping to go camping sometime soon.  Tonight is the Lentil Fest in Pullman, which we are going to with Chad & Bryan.  We haven't been before, but it's apparently really fun and a big deal, so it should be a good time. 

Rachel's Grown-Up Job

After a few years of ups and downs, it looks like I have finally found a steady, full-time, long-term job!  And we both couldn't be happier.  I work for a company called Digilent; it was founded in Pullman about 10 years ago by some WSU engineer professors.  We sell microchip boards and engineering tools.  I'm still not 100% sure what everything is, but I know it has to do with engineering.  People can use our boards to make robots!  There is an office in China, Taiwan (where everything is made) and in Romania.  We ship all over the world, including companies such as Apple, NASA, Microsoft.  Pretty neat stuff.  Click to see the website: http://www.digilentinc.com/

I am on the end of my third week here and I just love it. I am responsible for processing the orders we receive online.  I record them in QuickBooks, and print out shipping labels (I don't pack the boxes).  It takes up the morning, and usually by 1 or 2 I've finished and can move onto filing or reading the news.  I've been working on typing up my notes and organizing my own, personal desk!  It's great.  I have two computer screens, a window and a sweet desk.  I also have my own email address and extension on the phone AND a name plaque on my desk.  It's pretty official.  I can listen to my music, have snacks, wear jeans & flip-flops...it's pretty amazing.

Everyone here is really nice, and I am now the fourth woman in the office.  I think there are about 2 dozen people, including the interns from WSU, that work in the Pullman office.  We ship everything out from here.  But we do have some international distributors.  I'm still now 100% how it all works, but I know what I do and I'm pretty good at it!

What's been great is that everyone has been nice and friendly, offering me food and advice, and wanting to help me when I ask questions.  It's been great.  I feel really good about this job, it's so great.  The one downside is that now I have a commute (so grown-up!), and while it's only 15 minutes, I'm not looking forward to the winter...I've been checking for carpool info online and we are thinking we'll end up buying a commuter car for me in the next few months.

But other than that, it's great!  I'm so happy!  It's kind of a strange feeling to not dread going to work!  I mean, I do sit all day and my wrists get a little bit tired by the end of the day, but I have a little drawer full of candy and snacks, and I can take it easy if I need.  The reason I got this job is because Zak is an excellent job scouter--he sent me a ton of jobs he found on-line.  I had kind of forgotten about this job, because I had done so many applications in a few weeks.  But I came in, nailed the first interview, and was called back for a second one within three days.  I got the job offer call twenty minutes later, just as I was heading into Moscow!

I'm still in my probation period, but no one has given me any reason to be worried.  In fact, the girl whose job I now have didn't leave, they had to create a job for her; no one has left the company, really.  A lot of people have been here since it started.  So there is a great future in store for me here.  I'm really happy to have this job, it just makes life so much better!

where I work

entrance

up a flight of stairs & through this door...

my desk!

some of the things we sell

my view

fancy!

another shot of my desk area

view from where I eat lunch sometimes

where I eat

excited to be at work!

Our Weekend at the Lake

The last weekend in July we spent in Coeur d'Alene with Zak's family.  His grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  We got to see Zak's parents & sisters, cousins & aunts & uncles as well.  We also got to meet 2-week old baby Rachel Rose, who is so easy to love!

they fell asleep watching the Olympics, pretty cute, huh?

sunset over the lake

We drove up after work on Thursday night and immediately fell in love with the area.  We haven't had a lot of time to explore the Coeur d'Alene area, but now we are thinking of future possible trips.  The lake is beautiful, clean and huge.  Trees everywhere, lake-side houses, basically an ideal location for us.  Especially Zak, he is a huge fan of this type of living.  I'm surprised with how my view of our life has changed and can easily see myself living in this area.  It's so beautiful, relaxing and would be a dream to live here.

down the steep stairs to the house

view from the end of the dock

view from the little convenience store nearby

 We loved seeing Zak's family, we haven't seen both his parents & sisters altogether in two years, and it was nice to spend time with them.  We spent Friday swimming, tanning, kayaking and watching the Opening Ceremonies of the summer Olympics.  It was a nice, relaxing day full of good food and fun.  On Saturday Zak and his dad went to a shooting range and I went with Zak's sister & mom to downtown Coeur d'Alene.  We had a fun time window shopping, popping into the boutiques and antique stores.  We met up with the guys and a family that they used to live near in Michigan years ago for a really good pizza lunch.

brotherly love on display

skipping rocks with Liv

magical dragon tattoo

glow-in-the-dark unicorn chest tats

showing off her sweet tattoo

Sunday we celebrated the 50th anniversary with stories from their courtship, a cute slideshow set to music and cake and ice cream.  It was a nice celebration of such an amazing milestone.  We had to leave afterwards, sadly.  It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Zak's immediate family, since they live so far away.  But we have hopes of seeing them soon!

he was really sweet with baby Rachel

Liv, Delaney, cousins Chelsi & Kayla

the Reilly 6! we haven't had a nice picture of all of us since the wedding, this one is going on the wall!

goofy family picture

the memo was: jewel toned, no logo shirts...we look nice!

you can imagine the amount of persuasion I had to use to get this picture to happen!

Summer Adventures

We are having a pretty good summer so far.  We love having a backyard to relax in!  It's been nice to have dinners or early morning chats out on our lawn furniture.  Lately it's been really hot so we've been using our previous tenant's kiddie pool to soak our feet in while tanning (well, tanning for me, sitting in the shade mostly for Zak).  It may be a bit "white trashy" but it feels amazing.  Our friend Chad comes over often and we sit outside and tan for a few hours.

This past Fourth of July was the first one we've both had off together.  We got up and had homemade breakfast burritos (our latest obsession) and had a nice discussion for a few hours.  Around noon Chad came over and then Kandace and eventually Gabe.  We all just hung out, listened to music and tanned with our feet in the pool.  It was pretty perfect.  We had burgers, watermelon, homemade cookies & cream ice cream and lots of fun!  Bryan came over for a little bit and then  we all ended up in Pullman for the fireworks show.  It was a really fun day!

me & Kandace soaking up the sun

Chad, Gabe & Zak moving the pool

me & Bryan

Kandace & her fluffy dog we love, Simon

Gabe, Kandace & Bryan waiting for fireworks

a goofy picture of Zak, Chad & me

One day Chad came over with Hampton, who had 'stress-pooped' in his kennel on the way over, and was covered in poop.  Chad ended up power-spraying him with the hose while Hampton squealed and ran around the yard.  It was pretty funny.  The rest of the afternoon Hampton took to the bushes and reverted to 'wild pig' and only came out when he was offered food.  We tried to put him in the pool but he hated it and in the process of desperately escaping, stepped his little high-heeled hoof on my foot.  Ouch.  Zak tried misting him, but he was unhappy.  That pig just makes me laugh, he is always fun to play with.

the exact second he was in the pool

the only way we got him out of the bushes

look how cute!

We have been enjoying hanging out with our friends often; we have a great group of friends and it's made our lives really fun this past year.  This past weekend we went down to Lewiston and went tubing on a small part of the Snake River with Kandace and her parents.  It was so much fun.  The weather was in the upper 90s and the water felt amazing.  We floated down the river, had sandwiches, cookies, chips, drinks and enjoyed soaking up the sun and yelling at passing boats.  Everyone except me got a pretty red sunburn, despite the huge amount of sunscreen put on.  Oh well.  It was really fun, we want to do it every weekend!

Later that evening we hung out with Kandace and her boyfriend Gabe and played video games.  We got a hankering for KFC and drove over to the KFC/Taco Bell only to discover that chicken stopped at 9 PM.  It was 9:10.  We waited impatiently for 10 minutes behind a suburban from South Carolina that ordered, I kid you not, 6 full bag of Taco Bell.  That needed 10 minutes to put together.  We parked at Safeway, determined to find another option to dinner.  I headed to the bathroom, on the way I saw some kid (kid A) walking out of it.  Whatever.  I was washing my hands and noticed a backpack in the garbage.  We have been watching a lot of Weeds lately, so I immediately thought it was a drug deal.  I quickly felt around and check the pockets, but it was unzipped and felt empty.  I walked out of the bathroom and saw this kid with a goofy hat (kid B) sitting a bench, waiting for the bathroom while kid A was nonchalantly walking around the area; he even asked a clerk where the chips were, although they were obviously on the next aisle.  I practically ran to find Zak and pulled him back towards the bathroom, explaining what I had seen.  We waited and Zak took his blood pressure, and a few minutes later, kid B came out of the bathroom wearing the backpack!  We are convinced we saw a drug deal happen!  Amazing.

Tonight Chad came over & we ended up cutting the boys' hair!  Well, Zak buzzed Chad's hair and Chad gave Zak a mohawk because, why not?  They are pretty cute together.

buzzing Chad's hair

buzzing Zak

pre-product Zak (note his sunburn from this weekend!)

these boys are pretty fun

Zak profile 1

Zak profile 2

Other than that, Zak has been having some long, hot days at work.  He comes home, takes a shower and sits under the fan and relaxes for a bit.  I left my job at the attorney's office because it was seriously the most stressful I've ever been in my life.  It was too much work for just me, and she never had the time (or priority) to train me.  I was expected to be up to date on over 100 clients, had no one else to check things with and a few times a week I came home and just cried to Zak.  It was pretty bad.  I've been job hunting, with some mild success.  I have a few job interviews lined up and expect to find something soon.  It's been a bit of a trying time for us, but are hanging in there, trying to enjoy ourselves and make ends meet.  One day we'll look back on this time fondly, right?

Anyways, our plans in the future involve meeting up with Zak's family, who will be in Coeur d'Alene at the end of the month with the rest of the extended family for Zak's grandparents' anniversary.  It should be a really nice weekend.  Zak is looking forward to impressing everyone with his facial hair, slight tan and muscles.  Our 3rd wedding anniversary is during the week in August, but we don't have any plans just yet.  So that's our life for now!