After breakfast this morning Bryan and I drove around a couple neighborhoods looking for design inspiration in architecture. We drove down Alberta Street and came across this building with corrugated metal siding. Bryan’s been trying to convince me that our house would look cool with this siding, but I was skeptical since the house is a 1910 Craftsman style. The building in these pictures is of a similar style as ours (though much smaller) so it helps give me an idea for his vision.
Then, after reading in a Starbucks for an hour, we attended church at Imago Dei Community in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. I hate going to church on vacation. When I was a kid, my parents always made me attend the tiny country church near our cabin in Northern Minnesota when we vacationed on the weekends. I hated it then, I hate it now. But I love my husband so we went to church.
It was much warmer outside today. I had come prepared for the frosty weather of yesterday, wearing tights and three layers of shirts, sweaters, and jackets, so instead of being comfortably warm I was downright sweating. Seems the Northwest keeps you guessing. At any rate, we had stored all our leftovers from various meals this weekend in the car, figuring the freezing temps would keep it all from spoiling, so after church we pulled it all together and had a leftover picnic in the park with the warm sun on our backs. It was all rather SPONTANEOUS, which seems to be the mood of the weekend.
Later we connected with Mike and Brianna Showell who used to live near us in Seattle. They picked us up and drove us out to the Nike headquarters in Beaverton where Brianna is a Product Line Manager. She does consumer research and trend spotting to help design new shoes, and I got to see all the shoes she was involved with designing. I just have to say that she is a ROCK STAR in my eyes! How crazy is that to be able to see something you created on a sales rack, and watch people try it on, and make a decision to pay money for it? This is the pride I should have for Bryan for all the projects he creates, the websites he designs, the educational systems he’s created. I guess I didn’t really make that connection with him until I saw it in something more tangible for me… like a shoe.
It is late, and here we sit: two geeks with our twin laptops snuggled together in bed. We’ve had a great time connecting this weekend, refreshing our vision, readjusting our course, reflecting on the past few months. I am very grateful for every moment, but I miss my kids and can’t wait to see them tomorrow.