Chips and Cake: Whoa, It's an Update!

We figured a little update was due after several months of blog silence. The hiatus was not intentional. It seems like we just moved in and suddenly winter, spring, and summer have flown by! What have we been doing with all of this time, you ask? Well, a lot and not a lot. We’re still here in Bellingham, and as Mike mentioned back in December, it’s a bit of a novelty feeling for us to be staying put in one spot. The past few months have felt like a bit of a vacation after years of seasonal life. Not having to pack and move, plan something big, or repeatedly start from scratch leaves lots of time for…whatever! When living and working seasonally, a year’s worth of experiences tend to get crammed into a small amount of time, and now we’re adjusting to opposite side of that coin, in which days and months flow into each other, uninterrupted. It’s different and lovely, and that’s how the end of August has managed to arrive in the blink of an eye. So here’s a little recap of our past (almost) year in the ‘Ham:

We discovered that it is DAMN HARD to find a job in this town (shocking, right?), and even harder to find one related to a degree and/or job experience. Most educated 20-somethings here seem to be employed in food service, so we have joined their ranks. We are currently both happily employed by a great local restaurant that employs awesome people and fosters a great sense of community. Good work environment + fun coworkers/friends + living wage = not too shabby. Mike, however, will soon be leaving his position because...
Mike is going to grad school! Mr. Mills will be embarking on a journey to a Master’s in Education (for teaching math!) this fall at Western Washington University here in Bellingham. Western has a great program, and Mike’s going to make one hell of a math teacher. Western thinks so, too, because they’ve granted him a scholarship and an assistantship! Mike is excited and a little anxious about heading back to the world of academia, and he has about a month left to enjoy a life of ease and slacker-dom before kicking things into school mode. A new chapter is about to begin!
Grad school is somewhere on the horizon for Kelly, too, just not this fall. After spending three months in the limbo-land of Unemployment, finally finding a job, eventually quitting said job, and starting a new job, Kelly is content to just be happily employed for the moment. Besides, both of us starting grad programs at the same time would’ve been total insanity.
Aside from work and (future) school, we’ve been enjoying lots of quality time with friends and family. This summer has been filled with visitors, backyard gatherings, weddings, family reunions, anniversaries, and mini-adventures. Here are a few pics: