December and January

Hello~!

We had a very cold Oregon December this year! There was freezing rain that coated absolutely everything in a sheet of ice for almost a week. Branches from trees all over got so heavy they broke off and were falling on the ground, in parking lots, even blocking some roads!

We spent the month cleaning, packing, and preparing for the holidays. On the weekends, we tried a few new restaurants including Pita Pit, and hung out at the Eugene Downtown Public Library. We had a funny moment when we mailed gifts to California and picked up a package of slippers from Mom in California--a package swap!

We drove to Portland on Christmas day to see and exchange gifts with Tara and family around noon. I was able to see Tara's little sister Erika for the first time since we worked together in 2013. Tara's little boys were very excited to show Derek their new Hot Wheels cars and tracks. Tara and Erika dropped us off at the airport at 1:30 pm and we had a nice flight to Las Vegas and then Columbus. We didn't get in until 12:50 am and stayed up laughing and opening presents with my mom and sisters until 5 am--so a very loooong day for us. But very fun and silly.

We spent a fun and relaxing few weeks shopping, watching movies, and playing board games. A lot of board games--5 Seconds, the Logo Game, and Pass the Popcorn. Also, Derek wins so often it is almost (almost! but not quite) un-fun to play with him. All told, we went to four different locations of our favorite used bookstore, Half-Price Books (thanks mom for those gift cards!). We went to the three most popular malls in Columbus (Polaris, Easton, and Tuttle). We ate at Olive Garden twice.

We went to the famous Columbus Zoo for their Wild Lights event with my family, my best friend Joy, and her boyfriend Dylan. This zoo is huge--over 588 acres. The Wild Lights has over 4 billion LED lights all over the pathways and buildings--some even blink and change to music piped all over the park. Lots of Mannheim Steamroller and other classics.

For New Years we went to Hocking Hills (a popular Ohio destination for honeymooning) with my family and two other families. The cabin we stayed in was very large--it slept 16 people. Including Cambrie, there were six teenagers that took over the pool table and basement. My mom drank wine and caught up with the other moms, Carrie and Brenda. And Derek, Kelsea, and I just kinda floated between the groups eating a lot of chips and goodies. Unfortunately, it rained so we weren't able to sit around the nice fire pit and make s'mores.

We went out with Cambrie and her friend Hannah to pick up her school books downtown and ate at Katzinger's resterant in German Village. The Ruben sandwich, homemade pickles, and matzo ball soup was delicious and warm on such a cold and snowy afternoon.

Our flight home was cancelled due to weather. Ohio was without snow, and Portland had only an inch, but our layover in St Louis was completely shut down. So we went with Cambrie to movies and sat in fancy leather seats to see Moana, Arrival, and Hidden Figures. Hidden Figures was so good! My favorite movie of the year by far.

Once we were back in Oregon, we again hung out with Tara--celebrating her birthday at Buffalo Wild Wings and catching up.

In pet news, when we came home, we found our cat Dinah had a serious sore between two of her toes. We were told by the vet that she has an eosinophilic granuloma complex, which is actually similar to the condition Derek has, weirdly enough. We've been giving her steroid medication and she's had to wear a cone to keep her from licking at the sore area. She hates it! But at least she gets to be treated like a princess and gets yummy wet cat food.

Towards the end of January, our apartment complex started a siding upgrade construction project. It's been very noisy and inconvenient, but hopefully it'll make the buildings look nicer. Unfortunately, there is no end date in sight so we just have to be patient for it to all be over.

I think that about does it for December and January. And now, pictures!

Frozen trees! 

In Ohio I grew up with bare trees in winter so it was so strange for me to see colorful frozen foliage!

 Pretty!

My guilty pleasure: baklava! I love it sooo much :)

Joy, Dylan, and I at the Wildlights

 Pictured above: Cambrie and Derek in Aug 2014 making serious faces at the donation center in the Asian tiger exhibit

Pictured right: These two stretching to save the tigers this year! So cold but very cute!

We haven't changed since high school

Cabin in Hocking Hills

Full Kitchen 

Our bedroom was right next to it!

 The smell of pancakes was a nice wake up call!

TV and fireplace

Cute embroidered art in the hallway

Kelsea and her brother in law talking video games

Backyard view

Our bedroom

Upstairs

 (Kelsea actually told me she thought the cabin needed some paint! She's so funny)

 Poor Dinah girl and her cone (getting smooshed here for some petting)

Some of the construction...or really just the removal of the old siding...stayed tuned for next month! Hopefully there will be some siding soon

November Recap

It seems we've gotten a bit behind on the blog again.

What can you say about November? This is probably not exactly the right outlet to be political. So I'll just say that the election made me embarrassed to be an American.

Moving right along, then, there were a couple of weeks in November with some long hours at work while my department was short-staffed. And Courtney went through everything in our closets and found a lot of old clothes to sell. Whenever we had time to spare, we worked on putting more of our doll house together.

In mid-November, Courtney and I took a trip up to Portland and went to IKEA with Courtney's friend Tara. It was a nice little day-trip that helped us prepare for company on Thanksgiving.

My parents came up to visit for a long Thanksgiving weekend, and we had a great time. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and we had a lot of fun exploring the town and surrounding area. We visited Fern Ridge Lake, Florence, Heceta Lighthouse, and took a scenic drive down the coast. While I was working on Friday, Courtney and my parents drove around town and visited the Mount Pisgah Arboretum. We also met up with my dad's cousin Judy, who lives in the Eugene area. It was nice to get to know some nearby family.

And now, pictures!

The doll house is starting to take shape

Cookies!

Turkey brine preparation

Thanksgiving dinner

What a feast!

Mount Pisgah Arboretum

View from the Heceta Lighthouse

Pacific Ocean

A look at the bridge North of Coos Bay

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!