One week to go!

Only seven days until my pseudo-graduation day, our 3-year anniversary and a Columbia Gorge retreat! I am searching for things to do in the area while we're on our mini-vacation and I've learned there's quite a bit nearby. We'll be staying on the Washington state side of the Gorge, which puts us right at the foot of Gifford Pinchot National Forest (we'd never heard of it either) and just East of Beacon Rock State Park. Between them it looks like we'll have plenty of hiking trails to chose from.
This week passed pretty quickly for me. I surprised Nick with an incredible "bucket list" treat on Wednesday, but I'll let you hear it (read it) from his perspective. I'm sure he'll be writing about it very soon. :)
On Thursday a very special (and very large) package came for me-- my mom's graduation gift of a super awesome, fairly gigantic Kitchenaid mixer!

Of course I had to set it up right away (after cleaning the entire kitchen in order to make room for the monster).

Isn't it pretty?! It even matches our stainless steel appliances! I'm thinking Nick's probably glad that I didn't chose the bright red one, as its new home is on our kitchen island. Oh, and it works like a charm, too. I tested it out with my favorite Chocolate Banana Bread recipe.

It sunk a bit in the middle, but that's because we like taking it out a couple minutes early for a gooier (is that a word?) treat.
Anyway, tonight Nick treated us to dinner at a local restaurant I've been wanting to try. It was such a fun place. The tables were made out of doors (a lot like my DIY desk!) and were painted with beautiful pictures. Ours had a painting of the St. Johns bridge. Our table also had the game "Bananagrams" that we could play as we waited for our food.

The food was delicious, by the way. I got Pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and Nick got BBQ chicken pizza with caramelized onions.

Tomorrow I give a virtual presentation of my thesis to my classmates and professors. My last class in on Monday! I cannot believe that I will be finished with grad school in a matter of days. It's going to take a while to sink in. I've applied for several jobs in the past couple weeks--all for social work. I have accepted that I will likely not be teaching in the next few years due to the ongoing teacher layoffs and budget cuts. So it's on to plan B for me!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!