My new website....

I'm writing this post to say that I will not longer be blogging from this site. Here is the new address for a cooler blog. Thank you all for reading and commenting. The new blog doesn't doesn't have a place for posting comments, but you can always write a short e-mail to me if you want to comment.

Visit our new site here

California here we come!

I have no exciting pictures to post, but Eric and I are leaving for California this morning and we will be there for 5 days (visiting his parents). We will be in two cities, Ventura which is right by the ocean and Simi Valley, where the Ronald Regan presidential library is.

Oh, and we had our first Christmas together! We had been house sitting two weeks prior to Christmas and didn't get back to our own home until Christmas Eve. That night we were planning to watch a Christmas movie together, but couldn't find a good one, so we settled on "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Midway through the movie my eyes started to close, so we turned the movie off and tried to get some sleep. We were like little kids because we were so anxious about Christmas morning! At one point in the night I woke up and Eric was awake too, so I mumbled, "If it's past 5:00, we can get up...." It was only 3:20! I drifted in and out of sleep for the next few hours and we finally got up at 7:20. I put on the water for hot chocolate and pre-heated the oven for cinnamon rolls while Eric carefully divided our presents for easy opening. We sat on the floor sipping hot chocolate and enjoyed each others reactions as we opened our gifts. My favorite gift was a new bible that has a celtic cross and my new named etched into it. Eric's favorite gift was the new computer game I got him (Rollercoaster Tycoon III). We went to church that morning and the kids' did a little program that was very cute. Then we went home so Eric could play his game and I took a good long nap. After that we went to our friends house to watch a movie and play games. It was a perfect first Christmas day!

But back to today, we are really excited to be in California hanging out with our family. It will be the first time we have seen his parents since the wedding! If I don't post until I get back, I hope everyone has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2 more days until Christmas!

It's so hard to wait this year! Last year Eric and I had opened our presents to each other early because we were flying to Colorado and California to see our families. This year we have to wait until Christmas day. We have made two rules about presents and they are as follows; 1. You can't shake or handle the present, and 2. You can guess out loud what your present might be. I'm excited for the gifts that I got for Eric. It's also exciting because we get to start our family traditions together. So far a tradition of ours has been to go to the Zoo Lights and get an ornament at the gift shop. Last year we got a glittery turtle and this year there was a booth of a local artist that put her photographs on things like ornaments, coffee mugs, mouse pads, ect... We got a star ornament that had a picture of the zoo train on it.

Yesterday was a really good day. Even though I am oficially on my Christmas break I still had to work a few days at my pre-school because we were open for a few families that didn't have alternative care. It was mostly like babysitting for four days and because it was raining a lot we didn't really go out much, so it was also a bit on the boring side. So yesterday was my last day of that and when I got done at 2:00 I got to hang out with Eric because he had the day off. We went out to eat at a Mexican place near by called "Cha cha cha". It was yummy. Then we just started driving around and took a backroad along the river and ended up in Lake Oswego. I had never really been there before, so Eric showed me the sights. We window shopped in the downtown area that was actually by the Lake Oswego. On the way home we got some ice cream and we also decided to go to the zoo, which I have posted about in this first paragraph. And here's a picture if you, like me, have never seen the lake before.

Hooray for Christmas Break!!!!

Sigh... I am oficially on christmas break! I work at a really awesome preschool, but this last week has been crazy and our kids have been bouncing off the walls! So what did I do with my first few hours of freedom??? I visited my the family I used to live with and did a christmas craft with my favorite kids in Portland. Then I went downtown to have dinner with my husband, who told me he got off at 9:00 but really he gets off at 10:00 and that makes me quite sad.

Then I had to go to the house we're sitting to let the dog out of the kennel. This dog is crazy as well, but I don't blame her because Eric and I do work a lot and her kennel is really small. The other day she was in the bedroom that we sleep in and there was a pile of clothes on the floor and SHE CHEWED THROUGH MY FAVORITE PAIR OF UNDERWEAR!!!!!! Actually she chewed through two, but I'm very particular about my undergarments. I am very much like a small child because I don't like thick elastic that itches and cuts off my circulation.

The best part of this story is that I got to get new underwear and because they were on sale I got to get 5! My favorite pair are red now with little white fuzzy polar bears on the front.

Hmm... I wonder if it's weird to post about underwear...... hope nobody is embarassed... the biggest fan of this blog is probably my mother-in-law (HI MOM!!!!!)


And for no reason, here is a photo I took with Eric's old camera.

I'm so hungry....

I just got off work and walked in the door knowing there was no real food for dinner. But Eric doesn't get off work for 30 minutes and after that it's a 20 minutes bus ride until we can dine together. So I had to make a quick decision.... I ate half of a chocolate donut.... but really I'm lying.... I ate three quarters of it. It was so delicious and yes I am still hungry.

Then when I was looking for a picture of a donut to post here I came across a recipe that sounds kind of nasty. I dare someone to try it out some time!

Chocolate Doughnuts

Made with chocolate and mashed potatoes
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup mashed potatoes
2/3 cup milk
3 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
fat for deep frying
Directions for Chocolate Doughnuts Recipe below.
Beat eggs until light and beat in sugar. Melt chocolate and shortening together; add to sugar mixture. Add potatoes and milk. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to batter, adding just enough to make a dough that can be handled. Chill dough then roll out on floured board; cut with doughnut cutter. Fry (a couple at a time) in deep fat at about 370° until browned on both sides, turning once. Transfer to paper towels or brown paper bags to drain.
Makes about 30 to 36 doughnuts or donuts.

My dilemma...

I have this situation and I'm not quite sure how to fix it, so can anyone help? My cousin is getting married on April 8th. She is actually stationed in Korea right now (where she met her husband to be.) She will be arriving in Denver, Colorado on the 1st of April. Now here is where my trouble sets in.... I was planning to take a vacation to Colorado during the last week of March because that's when I have time off because of spring break. Eric was even planning to come with me and take some of his vacation days as well. We were planning to leave around the 28th and come back on the 1st (a sunday)

My problem is we can't afford for both of us to take time off the weekend of the 8th and go to the wedding, and we certainly couldn't afford for both of us to fly down there one weekend and just me fly up the next. Could I ask Jenny to move the wedding (actually it's more of a reception... they are getting married in Korea) up one weekend because that's the weekend I will be in town. It will be a very stressful day for them just getting back into the states. I really don't know what to do here..... HELP!

Thanksgiving and Christmas updates

I know a lot of you faithful readers have been asking to post something about our first Thanksgiving, so here it is:
Eric and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving! There were five of us total to partake in our feast (we had SO much food!) I was in charge of the mashed potatoes and I made too many, but our turkey was very yummy! We only ran into one small disaster with the cooking of the bird, and I'm sure you will here something different if you talk to the other eye witnesses, but let me tell you my story... So the turkey was done after soaking in it's own grease all day and we were ready to carve it, so Eric gets a knife and starts hacking away. Seconds later he says, "Eww, I just cut a vein or something" and when I walked over to check it out all I see is blood dripping from part of the turkey. I immediately walk straight into the bathroom, thinking I might throw up, but it doesn't happen. So we put the bird back in the roaster to cook it more... About an hour later Eric tries again to cut up the turkey and this time I am standing right next to him. The first cut he makes is followed by a squishing sound and more blood errupting like a fountain (EWWWW!!!!! I make a gagging sound and leave the room again....) Turns out, SOMEONE (they shall remain nameless) remembered to take out the nasty bag of I don't even want to know what's in there from one part of the turkey, but forgot about the head part. It was taken care of and we still had plenty of turkey to eat. We had five pies that day... and five people... that's a 1:1 pie ratio (and I probably ate that much.) We even went around the table before we ate so that everyone could say what they were thankful for. Oh, and we weaved place mats out of construction paper and laminated them.

Then last weekend Eric and I went to pick out our Christmas tree. We chose a smaller one because a) we have a tiny apartment and b) because we're actually housesitting for some friends starting today until Christmas eve and they had mentioned that they didn't put up a tree this year. Did we decorate it right away when we got home? You bet! Are we going to take all the ornaments off to haul the tree to our temporary home and decorate it there? Of course. I only partially broke one our or ornaments, a small green glass gummy bear ornament that we got in Florida on our honeymoon. Eric chose a tree topper that was just like the one that he had as a child, only the story goes when Eric was very small he tried to take a bit out of the glass tree topper because he thought it was candy and had to go to the emergency room.


So we aren't traveling anywhere for Christmas, but we do get to go down to California to celebrate the new year with Eric's parents. I am really looking forward to spending time with our family and I am also looking forward to the SUNSHINE! I love palm trees and I love the beach... it will be very hard to return to this yucky Oregon winter. I know, I used to say that I love the rain, but this cold is kind of getting to me. Is a move to California in our future????? Only if God makes it possible for Eric to get a job transfer down there. And if I don't post until later have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What a wonderful day its been. First I have to start off by saying that one year ago Eric and I were at Multnomah Falls and that's where he asked me to marry him! We have been married for five months now! Hmm... and all the purposal pics are on Eric's computer, so I will post this one. We had always joked during our engagement that it would be funny if our get away car was a bicycle built for two. Then it was days before the wedding and we still hadn't planned for anything and there was someone at my church that had such a bicycle in their garage! We practiced first of course, and it was at the rehearsal dinner that we decided who would drive (with a rock, paper, sissors trournament.) It was a lot of fun. Eric's groomsment tied on tin cans so it made a lot of noise and I didn't even wreck us!

I'm looking forward to a four day weekend! I will be having Thanksgiving with Eric, my friend Coleen, and my cousin J.W. is stationed just two hours north of Portland. We are attempting to make a turkey, but none of us have done it before, so we'll see how it turns out. It will be the smallest Thanksgiving I have ever participated in. I hope everyone has a nice holiday!