A time for joy

My sister and her partner have been in the process of adopting for over a year now. It turns out that adopting is an enormous amount of work with blood tests, interviews, references, parenting classes, etc. Seven weeks ago they were chosen as the birth parents for a baby girl. Maisie was born on Friday, and yesterday we went to meet her.

She is so cute, and so sweet. So far she doesn't really cry and she isn't fussy, although at only 4 days old a lot can change! My sister and BIL are doing awesome so far, and I am so happy for them. I love being a new auntie :)

B has another interview tonight, so changes might be on their way for us. It would be nights, but only part-time, which is both a plus and a minus. I've actually gotten a couple of calls lately for interviews, but I turned them down because they weren't different enough from what I do now, and they didn't pay well. For now I'm happy where I am, and if something fantastic comes my way, great. Otherwise I have a good job, good pay, and great benefits.

We're just starting to dip our toes into some home remodeling projects. The kitchen is first up. It doesn't need a ton of work, but it is too small and poorly laid out.



These pictures are a little misleading, as this is when we took possession of the house. The walls are now a little darker, there is a storage pantry on the left wall, and our main dining table is also here. I need to take a new picture! Anyway, this shows our plans. We have already replaced the light with a pretty pendant light. Our new french door fridge is set to arrive in 2 weeks. Now to figure out how to knock down walls and move electrical switches! Not noted in this photo is the plan to add more cabinets and counter space where the fridge is currently. We are short on counter space, so that should help a lot. Should be a fun project!

Spirit lifting

All has been fairly quiet on the blog front because sometimes quiet feels better than complaining. I KNOW we are very lucky, and I KNOW I don't have much to complain about. We both have good paying jobs, we have a nice house to live in, we own a decent car, we have families that love us, we don't have any major health issues, our marriage is strong, etc.

That doesn't mean that some days we don't both think "I can't do this one more day." Work becomes stressful, the house is dirty, winter (and S.A.D.) descend, and everything seems unbearable. Whining when you are lucky in the scheme of things seems petty, so silence wins.

To get away from some of the stress, we took a post-Thanksgiving 4 day getaway to our favorite B&B in Bend. Although a mere 3.5 hours away, it's totally different. While Portland is a lush, green, wet valley, Bend is high desert - scrub brush, tumbleweeds, and mountains about 30 minutes away. Most importantly, Bend has SUN. Glorious SUN.

Oh yeah, and it has Cricketwood Bed and Breakfast. We stayed here:

That picture barely shows half of the room. And the enormous bathroom:

The one thing we really miss from our old house is the two person soaker tub, so we definitely took advantage of this 2-person jetted tub (and learned the hard way to go easy on the bubbles!) Cricketwood also has a hot tub (lovely on the cold high desert night), a 9 hole disc golf course, all the wine/beer/snacks you want, tons of movies, lots of games, and a lovely husband and wife that run the place. Our favorite part by far though are the breakfasts. You can pick anything you want off of a menu that puts any restaurant to shame. Our favorites are the baked apple pancake and chocolate chip bread pudding with rum sauce. YUM! Plus you get fresh baked cookies at your door at 7pm.

Although I managed to take zero pictures while we were there, it was just as fantastic as we remembered it. We didn't do much, which was just what we wanted. We walked outside a lot and enjoyed the sun. We watched movies (Bad Teacher = decent, Be Kind Rewind = so awful we only made it 10 minutes in). We spent time discussing a winter vacation inspired by Budget Travel (Belize!).

All in all, a great way to spend 4 days not at work! But alas, work calls. Although for both of us there might be news on the horizon....

Work vacations

I travel a few times a year for work. While Orlando isn't my ideal vacation spot, when work pays for my flight and a really nice hotel in a sunny location, we take advantage of the ability to tack on a few vacation days and B comes along.

While I was sitting in overly air-conditioned meeting rooms learning about the latest in obesity research, B "had to" go to the gym, take naps, and sit by the pool and read.
Yes, I was jealous! The weather was an ideal 85 with low humidity. We did at least get one night off site to have dinner at downtown Disney. No, we didn't coordinate on purpose :)

After a few days of conference meetings, we headed to a different (read: more affordable) hotel. Day 1 we went to Discovery Cove. It was worth every penny. Although we didn't swim with the dolphins (after watching The Cove I can't do anything dolphin-related), we did enjoy the rest of the all-inclusive day. My favorite part were the 3 aviaries where we got to feed the birds.

This one thought that B's head was more fun than his arm.




There were TONS of different kinds of birds, and it was amazing how they would fly right up to you.
We spent time snorkeling with sting rays and a wide range of tropical fish. I'm a weak snorkeler and the water was cold, so that wasn't my favorite part, but I stuck with it for my water-loving husband's sake. Then we headed to the warm, fresh water lazy river, which was so relaxing.

One section of the lazy river went through the aviary, and we spent quite a long time talking with one of the lifeguards who had discovered that this one type of tern was very playful. We loved "playing" with them by throwing sticks they would swoop down to catch. It was so much fun!
We also took some much needed time to sit on the "beach" and enjoy the free drinks.

I would highly recommend Discovery Cove. It was nice to have everything included in the admission price, and the staff clearly cared a lot about the animals they were working with.
The next day we went to Islands of Adventure. B suggested we do the log ride first because it was close and we "wouldn't get too wet." I think you can tell by this photo that he was very wrong!

After that we decided we might as well do the other water ride, because we couldn't get any more wet, right? OF COURSE WE COULD! :) We couldn't have been any wetter if we had jumped in the water and swam in our clothes. We were laughing so hard, and I was momentarily saddened by B saying "I haven't heard you laugh like this in such a long time." I really need to get rid of all of the work stress (more on that in another post) because laughing with your husband is SO.MUCH.BETTER!

While at Islands of Adventure you have to hit the main attraction of Harry Potter World, and of course, you have to try butter beer (it was delicious and tasted like cream soda).

We also went to Dr. Suess's world which was so well decorated.

Of course you have to get green eggs and ham for lunch while in the land of Dr. Seuss!

We were almost dry after lunch.
All-in-all we loved IOA - especially because we didn't have to wait in any lines at all! It was a perfect day to go there.
Our final day we went to Universal Studios. The weather was cloudy and rainy, and there were more lines. We were also getting tired, so I didn't take any pictures. We did agree that our favorite rides were the Simpsons roller coaster simulator and the Shrek 4D (the water spray when donkey sneezed tickled my funny bone).
After walking back to our hotel and resting for a bit, we dragged ourselves to get some food at a nearby ale house that we had eaten at the night before. It was free shot night from the smirnoff girls.

That smirnoff, coupled with the other drink I had, made me think it was a good idea to eat our dessert without a fork. Verdict: yes, it was a good idea ;)

We headed home the next day, just in time to catch the front edge of the tropical storm. 3-5" of rain was predicted for that day, and they were well on their way when we left! As usual, vacation time with B reminded me how much fun we have together once the stresses of work are out of the picture. He constantly cracks me up (like saying "Baby, I'm sugar" and pointing at his face when I asked him why he was so worried about getting wet in the rain) and we spend lots of time being goofy. I just wish I would have had more than 3 days off of work. While we have our late spring/early summer vacation planned (road trip so Zion/Bryce/Antelope Canyon), we're eagerly trying to figure out what to do for our winter vacation. I think an all-inclusive vacation might be up next.

Cheers to the (freakin) weekend

Before these activities are too far in the past that it isn't worth talking about them anymore, I thought I'd blog them. We had a packed weekend, which is a welcome change after weeks of house stuff consuming every weekend.

Friday night we planned Cartapalooza with our realtor/friend and her boyfriend. Portland has tons of cart pods, so we decided to hit as many as we could. We ended up being horrible at pacing ourselves, so we didn't eat at many, but we have agreed to do it again soon.

First up was Cartopia. There we went to this cart first:

And had these:

A trio of sliders. It was so funny because I walked up to order them, and the guy seemed really hesitant. I finally asked if he didn't want me to order them. It turned out that he gets to make any 3 burgers he wants, and he was disappointed that it was late and he was out of a lot of his ingredients. I asked if I should go to a different cart, and he told me that "even just my burger, plain, on a bun is better than any of the other carts here." Well then! They didn't disappoint. One had swiss cheese, mushrooms, and mustard, one had poblano peppers and jack cheese, and the third was his veggie burger with avocado. All were delicious!

Next up in the same cart pod was the taco guy. For $1 we had to try some! I stuck with chicken (B ordered for me while I was dealing with the burger guy) and he had tongue and stomach. Yep, he always picks the weirdest thing on the menu. The tacos were also really good.


From there we went to a pod on Foster Rd. We chose those because they had a cart with FRIED GREEN TOMATOES. But wait!! Not just FGT - a FGT BLT!! I was so excited, and we made sure to get there before they closed at 9pm. However, at 8:30 they were closing up. We were so sad, but they said it had been really busy so they were out of food. They promised a free cookie if we came back later, so I think we'll go back next weekend.

Next up was Ala Cart (points for being punny!). Although we went there with a plan to get more "real" food and not dessert (that would be the next pod group), we quickly changed our minds when we saw this:

Fondue?? Yes please! (Again, bonus points for being punny) We played beanbag toss while we waited, and I laughed so hard at our friend that couldn't even hit the target that I could barely breathe. Then came the food. Behold....

They had the cheese fondue, we had the chocolate/berry compote fondue. Ours came with freshly made donuts, apples, fortune cookies, and strawberries. It was heavenly. In fact, if I could go get it again right now I would!

After fondue we were off to the Hawthorne pod, which I was most excited about. Whiffies Pies is well-known around here, as is the fry cart. Yet another cart in that pod has a wood-fired pizza oven in their cart! Alas, we walked around, looked at each other, and realized we were way too full to eat any more. We decided to reserve those carts for another day.

Saturday we were lazy during the day, but at night we had two social events planned. First we went to Grain and Gristle, a new local restaurant, with my friend/co-worker (and fellow Warrior Dash-er) Jen and her partner. We had a lovely time with them and ate some fantastic food.

From there we went to a Yelp party at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). The best part - it was FREE! If you scored an invite, it didn't cost anything, PLUS there was free booze, free food, and live music. We had a really great time.

B, cheezin' with his free beer and showing off our lego tower that "survived" the earthquake (go us).

Me, trying to balance. I won with a pathetic 3.4 seconds. Maybe that beer didn't help!

B kicking butt at the sit and reach. There were a lot more exhibits and activities, but many of the best ones didn't allow photos.

After all of that fun on Fri and Sat, today was filled with grocery shopping, yardwork, laundry, and football. While I was meal planning B asked if I could make a Shrimp Boil. Um, I'm from Portland, so I don't even know what that is! A few seconds later, All Recipes told me it was easy, so I thought I'd grab the ingredients and give it a try.

The verdict? Easy to make, and pretty darn good! We agreed we'd tweak it a little if we made it again (upping the spice level), but overall it was quite tasty, and it was fun to try something new.

Overall it was a packed and fun weekend. Back to the grind tomorrow. Two weeks until "vacation" (3 days of work conference, then 4 days of vacation tacked on). It can't come soon enough.

Run, jump, and be muddy!

Since we started running, it has been the topic of conversation often at work. We run fairly regularly with two of my co-workers on the weekend. After doing our first 5k, one of my coworkers (Jen) mentioned the Warrior Dash. Having never heard of it, I googled it (warriordash.com).

5k PLUS obstacles, PLUS water, PLUS mud? No thanks! However, Jen got our other running buddy Michelle to agree to it, and together they harassed me until I signed up. Bryan refused, so it became a girls-only event.

I'm so glad I did it! We ran it together the whole was, and it was awesome! It was exhausting because a large portion of the course was uphill, but we made it. We were wet, muddy, and exhausted, but we had a blast and will definitely do it again next year. Enjoy the photo evidence of our craziness.

Bathroom update

We're slowly making the house "ours" and putting our own mark on it. The first room we have mostly done is the main bathroom. Before it was generic builders beige, beige tile, and brown mirrors. I knew I wanted to paint it gray to pull out the gray in the granite counters, and we had decided on a gray/yellow theme. However, when we went on a shower curtain hunt we found a gray/black/red one that we liked a lot, so we changed up our plan. First, some before shots.

Sink before:


Tub before:


Curtain before (with a little of the new paint):


First I spray painted the mirrors. Before they were brown, but they were peeling and weren't in the best shape:
.

Two thin coats later, they looked like this while they were drying outside:


In addition to the mirrors and shower curtain, we bought a rack for over the toilet (we have very little counter space), a red bathmat, and a couple of black towels. We spent Friday night painting, and Saturday morning I tried to tackle painting the ceiling white. I quickly learned that doing ceiling cut in work on a highly textured ceiling/wall combo is torture, so I abandoned that and painted the ceiling gray too. The gray reads a little blue in these photos, but it is a true gray in person. We're pretty happy with the sort-of finished product.

Full shot after:


Sink area after:


Curtain after:


For not a lot of money or work, I think it is a pretty big change. In the future we plan to rip out the beige tile and put in something gray or white, maybe paint the cabinets white, install cabinet hardware, and put in a new toilet. I'm keeping my eye out for some artwork and red bathroom accessories as well. As things change I'll share new photos.

Running

A number of Portland bloggers have found me lately (hi!), and I realized it really is time to update a few things and blog again! A few years ago I had another blog. My MIL was a loyal reader, and although it was pretty benign, she would take it upon herself to email my husband and complain about something I had written every.single.time I posted.

I have referred back to that old blog a few time for recipes I like or to share some photos with others, and I decided to link it back up with this blog. There are a TON of older posts now if you're bored :) Thanks to Kellie for the motivation to link them up. My MIL is no longer in my life, and the drama is long since passed, so it's nice to have all of my blogging history in one place. I started off blogging when I moved 3,000 miles from my family and friends, and it is fun to look back and see how much life has changed!

Since I last posted eons ago we have been busy! Not only is it summer (the sweet, sweet time for BBQs with friends, ice cream runs after work, and happy hours on patios), but we've been very busy getting settled in our new place. It wasn't without a few bumps in the road (FOUR attempts for the hardwood guys to get the flooring installed corectly), but overall things are going well. Boxes are unpacked, some painting has happened, and we have plans to tackle the yards (where the weeds grow knee high in less than 2 weeks - HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN??).

We also ran our first 5k. We've be training using Couch to 5k. I have never been a distance runner, even in my track days, so a 5k is really far for me. The program is 9 weeks, but at week 6 (last Friday) we did our first 5k. We had a "goal" of finishing in less than 40 minutes. Yes, I know that is very slow. It was a really hot day, which made it hard, but I finished in 39 minutes and B left me in the dust with an impressive 32 minutes. I've now been out for a week with a hurt back, and I've finally given in and I'm going to a chiropractor for the first time today. I have a Warrior Dash scheduled for Sept 11 with a few coworkers, so I really hope I can start running again this weekend. I still don't like running, but the minor weight loss has been nice, and it does feel good to be in better shape. Pre back issues I was also bike riding to work 3-4 times a week, which was nice too.