October Recap

Boo~! 

October is here! 

This is one of my favorite months of the year. And we were so busy!

We celebrated Derek's birthday on the day by going to Costco (boring I know!) but over the weekend I woke him up with breakfast in bed of Japanese-style eggs, and we went out for dinner at Los Dos Amigos Hacienda, which was new for us and very delicious. Then we had pie and ice cream at home.

This month we had fun walking around the mall and Skinner Butte Park, watching the debates and Al Smith dinner, and going around to antique stores and thrift stores. I even found one thrift store called SARA's Treasures that also is a cat adoption place. Derek petted kittens and one ginormous, fluffy, orange cat while I shopped for spare crock pots to help me make side dishes for thanksgiving. A win-win for both of us!

In the middle of the month, it happened folks! Day Shift!!!! Hooray! We are officially no longer mole people! Derek has been working a lot of hours, though, because October 1 was the launch day for a new software program that completely changed the way they do things. He has been dealing with the stress very well I think and I'm very proud of his come-early, stay-late work ethic. He is such a good worker! For my part, I read a now-famous de-cluttering book and decided to follow the guidelines and purge our closets and shelves. Six bags off to Goodwill, giving to our community.

Some other fun moments from this month were when we tried out a new and small theater called the Broadway Metro to see a subtitled Japanese movie and then went out for sushi at our favorite restaurant, Sushi Island. Our bill was cut in half for happy hour--only $13.50 for the two of us!

Since this is the month of Halloween, we ate a bunch of candy and watched creepy and cute movies and television--Penny Dreadful, Beetlejuice, Hotel Transylvania 2, Coraline, Paranorman, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Last, but not least, I have to mention I wrote to Lin-Manuel Miranda (the creator of Hamilton) awhile ago but received a handwritten thank-you note this month! It was so exciting to get such a nice and personalized message back. If you haven't see it yet, I encourage you to watch the PBS documentary on the creation of Hamilton--available online to watch for free throughout the month.

Thanks Everyone!

Birthday Pie!

Aw! Relaxing and holding hands!

Hubby makes me pancakes!

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Sleeping kitties and the best kitties...

Have a Great Day! :)

September Recap

September is here, but it is still warm, and there hasn't been very much rain. We've been enjoying watching TV (including a new show for us called Adam Ruins Everything) and eating the delicious dinners Courtney's been putting together. We've had sloppy joes, meat pinwheels, steak and veggie kabobs, chili, spaghetti, and egg and avocado sandwiches. I am very spoiled.

We've also been walking around the neighborhood and enjoying the changing leaves while listening to podcasts together or getting a bagel or coffee at Barnes and Noble down the road.

We sold the bed in the library since it took up so much space and had only really been used once. Now we have a nice sofa to sit and read books on..definitely a better use of the space.

Toward the end of the month, Courtney's friend Joy's parents, Stephen and Jan Smith, visited us on their way to Crater Lake. We took a small walk to show them the Willamette River and even did a bit of geocaching (Jan's hobby) in our own backyard! It was pretty fun and made us look at a familiar place in a new way.

The last weekend of this month, we drove up to Portland to visit our friends, Tara and Danny Godinez, and their children. I played soccer in the yard with their second grader, Isaiah, and Courtney went shopping with Tara. Our hotel was really nice and it was very fun to visit a new part of town. We were even able to go to a large Japanese grocery store called Uwajimaya and Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya (a chain Courtney went to in Japan!) while visiting. We got some delicious crackers called senbei and had almost finished the whole bag before coming home.

August Recap

(Hi--I realize it has been some months since we have published something. We're very sorry for being so bad at this! Some of this has been languishing in our drafts section--enjoy!)

Happy Summer!

We are enjoying the heat! 

August is here, which means we celebrated my birthday~! We tried Outback Steakhouse--turned out not to be the best--but then we had a lot of fun at the movie theater watching Ghostbusters. It was so nice to see strong and positive female friendships. We also took a trip to IKEA--my birthday gift was a small foldout sofa for our library.

Derek's still doing a great job at work. He recently received a glowing performance review and a small raise! Still hoping for that change to the day shift though!

I took a trip to Ohio this month and had another birthday dinner--this one much more delicious at Rusty Bucket, a BBQ style restaurant. I even got a free dessert!

I was able to go swimming at my best friend Joy's pool and visit with her family, and we even took a mini road trip to Kenyon College, where we visited the historic church on campus. Pictures below! Speaking of Joy--she is now working at a brand new Vera Bradley Outlet Store, which if you recall our April trip, is dangerous for both of us!

I spent a significant amount of time with my family--shopping, movies, and of course, dying my hair. Cambrie is so good at it! We held a garage sale that was very successful and used the profits to decorate my mom's living room. I even took it upon myself to break out my design flair and decorate my mom's living room shelves with "shelf jewelry." I painted a clock and combed stores like Home Goods, Marshalls, Hobby Lobby, and AtHome.

Cambrie and I played a trick on Kelsea during the garage sale

That is about everything for August! Hope everything is well with you guys!

July Recap

July was a month of travel. The first few weeks we spent cleaning the apartment and packing for our trip. Also I helped Courtney bleach her hair—which was very exhausting for both of us! Most of you reading this probably saw us this month. For those of you missing out, we traveled to Bozeman, Montana for a family reunion on the land of my great-grandparents. We spent a few days meeting extended family, swapping stories, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, Courtney was not able to say goodbye to everyone on the last night due to some minor heatstroke. But we had a great time and are very excited for the next reunion.

Then, along with my parents, we went to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Pictures are across social media, but we’ve included some of our favorites.

Driving back to Oregon, we went a different way and were blown away by the desert-like environment of eastern Oregon. When we finally got home, Dinah was very happy to see us.

We also went to the Lane County Fair—getting in for free by donating can goods. It was my first county fair experience so I didn’t know what to expect. Walking around the air-conditioned building and seeing the talented growers, bakers, artists, photographers, and quilters was quite fun. We watched Steve Trash, a green magician performing tricks and teaching about recycling. We saw cool puppet shows and stalls and costumes. There were rides, but they were for little kids so we didn’t wait in the long lines for them. Before going, we enjoyed a strawberry lemonade and Swedish funnel cake sugary treat called a fri-jos.

That’s about it for us—enjoy the pictures!

June Recap

Hello all!

June was a very celebratory month. Most importantly, we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We kept it low key with just a nice sushi dinner (where we conquered the giant Godzilla roll!) and movie (Finding Dory). Which I realize is a weird combination, but I mostly had unagi (eel) and eels aren’t in the film so I think it is okay. June was also the month of Father’s Day, Kelsea’s birthday, and Joy’s birthday (technically July 1^st but still).

This past month was also one for crazy scheduling as Derek made forays into training for the morning position—sometimes going into work at 7pm, 3am, or 8am. He also worked two Sundays this month which made for even more interesting sleeping hours.

As for me, I did my usual things to keep busy. I started reading from a top ten list of classics. I’ve finished The Great Gatsby (liked it slightly more than I did in high school) and am about 60 pages into Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Also started Lolita (about 50 pages in) but am sort of too grossed out to keep reading at the moment.

I started really taking better care of my skin and teeth and going for walks while Derek is at work. I really hope I can keep up my healthy changes…and possibly drink more water (which I hate).

I’ve also restarted my facebook page after two years and reconnected with a few people, which is always awesome.

And last but not least, I’ve pulled out all of my summer clothes (bye to sweaters for now), washed them, and set aside specific ones for the upcoming July trip to Montana. Also have started compiling road trip cds (Derek’s job), and planning snacks and good things to pack. Our kitchen table is my command central and it looks like an explosion. 

That is about it for us—enjoy the pictures!

May Recap

This month was one of adventure and trying new things. Early in the month we went to the Oregon Zoo in Portland early in the morning when the animals were awake and the place was almost empty. It was a fun, spur of the moment outing, and I think the pictures below will do more justice than my words.

We also took a little road trip for Memorial day weekend to Florence, Oregon and enjoyed the coast, the clam chowder, and salt water taffy. Again, pictures below.

That is about it for us. Work is still going well for me, even expanding as I take on training a new person and getting additional training myself to advance. Courtney and Dinah are holding down the fort at home.

 Oregon Coast