Happy 2nd Birthday Oliver!!

Last night, Stu and I left Kenton and Katrina's house during a snow shower that was softly covering the trees, sidewalks, and roads and this morning we woke up to Noah texting Stu that it had kept up all night!  We were so excited.  I don't think that we have ever showered so fast!  

We walked with Noah down to the Starbucks on 12th and Washington for some yummy hot chocolate and watched cars and trucks try to drive onto the 105.  Very entertaining!  This truck got stuck halfway up and had to slowly back down the hill.

After we got back to the house, Stu and I ran in a woke Oliver and Cinder up.  It is Oliver's birthday today so we surprised him with a giant bucket of snow!  He wasn't sure at first but soon was trying to tunnel into it!  Cinder wasn't very into it but Oliver was having a blast.  He didn't know what to think about it and would tunnel for a few minutes and then jump out and hop around, honking and trying to scratch an itch at the same time.  He does that when he is excited.  Haha.

Today, Stu and I will be celebrating our Christmas together since we will be driving up to Portland tomorrow and I will be flying to New Mexico in a few days.  We have a tradition of making a yummy dinner together and opening presents!  Of course, yesterday, when we should have gone to the store for our dinner fixings, we didn't.  And since we didn't feel very safe driving on the snowy/icy streets today, we decided to walk to Safeway.  I know!  The whole way!!

13th Street!!

A very happy and friendly Squirrel!

We decided that we would go to the Dog in a Box behind Safeway for lunch because I love chili dogs!  But after shopping and deciding not to get anything besides our Christmas dinner stuff since we aren't going to be in town very long, we realized that it was closed.  So...we walked to the Bierstein.  Which was closed.  Then I deposited a check at the bank.  Then we walked to the Eugene City Brewery because we knew that we didn't have anything to eat at home.  It was closed.  Then we walked to the bus station (Stu really had to pee) and then across the street to Pita Pit which seems to be the only thing open on this snowy day.  All the while, I was carrying a backpack with canned veggies and potatoes in it.  I know, I'm amazing.

It was definitely an adventure!  Now I get to clean the house and do lots of laundry to get ready to go out of town.  I hope that you guys all got to enjoy your SNOW DAY!

Congrats Stu!

I know that everyone (all two of you) who read this blog will already be aware of this, but Stu graduated this year with his bachelors and has been kind of taking some time off from stuff and looking for a job at the same time.  He decided to become a substitute for EEP to keep himself busy while looking and ended up being able to be hired for a real position in another classroom!  While we at Howard are a little sad that it means he won't be able to sub in our classroom and hang out as much anymore, we are very excited that he is now part of the EEP team.  (I am going to talk my boyfriend up right now...) but he is an excellent teacher and I know that he will do an awesome job.  Congrats Stu!  

Decorating the Christmas Tree

I love the Christmas season.  Getting presents is definitely a plus.  And it helps that my birthday comes with the holidays but mostly, I think that it is just the fun of getting to put up lights and decorate the tree and hang stockings that makes me enjoy it so much.  I love that the weather in Oregon actually starts to get cold and I can bring out the scarves and warm gloves.  I love that it is actually somewhat okay for me to randomly start singing songs.  And I love that I get to go out and try find that perfect gift for friends.  You know, the one where they open it and say, "Wow!  I can't believe you remembered that I wanted this," or, in some cases, the one that makes them go into a fit of silent laughs.  

This year I started the Christmas decorating early...like I do almost every year.  I put up the Christmas lights before my Thanksgiving Break and made Stu suffer through decorating the Christmas Tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  I think after four years of Christmases he still groans when I drag out the Christmas box but he knows me and obliges because he knows that it makes me happy.  Every year we try to find new, fun ornaments and this year our tree has taken on a Europe theme but my favorite one is still the one that I made before Stu and I were dating.  

Mike, Loni, Me, Stu, and Clair

Being Sophomores in college, my roommate and I were a little short on money so instead of buying all our decorations, we decided to make some.  This is one of my favorite pictures of my college years.  We were freshmen in the dorms and this ragtag group of people were always together.  Stu was one of my best friends and you rarely saw him on the girls floor without me hanging around nearby.  We were all hanging out in the hall when one of the girls on the floor asked to take our picture.  I just love it!  You can tell that we were all so goofy and happy.  I suppose that it helps that I ended up dating my best friend in the picture.

I am so excited!  Today marks the beginning of my Thanksgiving Break!  I definitely needed this time from work.  It is wonderful to be able to sleep in past 6:30 on a weekday without having to think, "well, that means that I can't eat breakfast," when I hit the snooze button.  To tell you the truth, I have only been able to sleep in until about 9 in the morning but still!  Exciting.  My next move: to try to take a nap in the afternoon.  I am always so jealous when Katrina comments on how she snuck a nap in.  And yes, I know, she is pregnant so she deserves it more...;-)

No huge plans for this break.  Stu and I are going up to Portland to spend the holiday with his family.  Thanksgiving is going to be at his Aunt and Uncle's house this year so it should be fun.  I'm hoping there is cheese.  Sounds like we are going to be in Portland from tomorrow evening until Sunday morning since Stu has a doctor's appointment Wednesday morning and he wants to stay for his Gramps birthday on Saturday.  I'm hoping to catch a movie and maybe play some drinking games with Megan.

Oh yeah, and lastly, I will probably be spending the entire break trying to get a hold of the Unemployment Office since I need to file for my wait week and yesterday was Sunday and I couldn't talk to a real person since they weren't working and today the line was busy from 9-4:55 and when I finally got through all the "for yes press 1, for no press 9" questions the office was closed and I once again, couldn't talk to a real person.

Anyway, I am going to be better at posting.  With the holiday season going on, I think that I will have more things going on in my life!  Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Eat lots of turkey!

Tamy's Wedding

A couple of weeks ago was my friend and co-worker's wedding to her long-time friend Mark.  It was held at the Country Inn here in Eugene and it was one of the most beautiful weddings that I have been too.  I'm pretty young so I have only been to about four or five but this one was definitely one of those top experiences.  

Mr. and Mrs. Mark Paden

The Howard EEP Group!

Becca and me at the bouquet toss.  I was making a "disappointed" face because I realized that Becca and I were the only ones that were single who were over 12.

It was a really fun wedding to go to.  Most of the weddings that I have been to have been of old high school friends where I have been out of touch with the bride for a long time.  In those situations, I don't really know what to do besides eat the food and pray that the cake comes soon so that I can leave because the only people talking to me are the parents who used to coach me or the little old ladies that I only knew vaguely from church who ask me what I am doing in life and look disappointed to discover that I'm not really doing anything life changing.  Tamy and Mark's wedding was definitely a better experience.  It was great to be able to be at this event, celebrating Tamy and Mark, with friends who I enjoy spending time with.  It was really fun getting the Howard group together outside of work.

When I wasn't taking pictures with my camera, Angie was, so I have a ton of other pictures of the wedding and reception but I decided to keep myself to a minimum.  

YES!

I thought this was pretty good:

ground zero

Halloween Season!

As some of you might already know, Halloween is pretty much my favorite time of year.  It was always the holiday that I really looked forward to as a kid.  What is better than being able to stay out late, dress up crazy, and get lots of candy...even if you had to pal around with your stinkin little brothers...;-)

I decided to post a few pictures that I have taken during the "pre-Halloween" time:

the little pumpkin that I got from Lone Pine Farms when we went with the preschoolers to the pumpkin patch.  Cinder was curious.  It is now the tiniest jack-o-lantern.

my pumpkins this year.  Stu was out of town so I spent the entire night carving and de-gutting pumpkins.  It was pretty fun.

And the best:  Stu, Megan and I went out to the Roloff Farms again this year and were able to get our picture taken with Amy Roloff!!  We were the first ones too!  Talk about being in the right place at the right time.  Man, now we have seen Matt, Jeremy, Jacob AND Amy.  I was so excited!  

Anyway, we are having our Harvest Party in the classroom today so hopefully I'll get some pictures of teachers in their costumes!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

I hate Fox News

Every year I visit my parents in New Mexico for Christmas.  It is fun for me because it is the only time that I get to see my Mom and her husband, and my two younger brothers.  I get home cooked meals that I don't have to make myself and I usually have a pretty good time.  The only thing that I don't enjoy is that my parents watch Fox News ALL THE TIME.  It drives me crazy, none more than Mr. Bill O'Reilly himself and I always get into heated arguments with my Step father over the opinions on that channel.  Anyway, I saw this comic and liked it.  

Crazy ?drunk? Guy

So last night, Stu and I were sitting in our living room when Noah called us to let us know that there was some guy screaming outside his building.  I stuck my head outside and (since we live a block away from Noah) the crazy dude was making his way down by our house.  First, he attacked our neighbors fence (good thing it is strong) and then he came down to the corner, to the house across from us, and ripped their Obama sign out of their yard, went up their steps and banged it against their door.  He proceeded to turn down Washington, walking in the wrong direction down the middle of the street, screaming (in gibberish), attacked another sign and then disappeared down 13th.  Crazy.

Stu and I walked to our neighbors and saw that the Obama sign was crumpled and ruined, sitting on their porch.  Wow.  I think someone really didn't like Obama.  He had attacked a couple of other political signs in the neighborhood and I am really glad that he didn't see our Obama sign on our porch.  Too close for my comfort.  

Anyway, it was weird and the kind of thing you only see on TV so I thought I would post it.  

Weekend Surprise

Stu finished his last class of his college career on Friday.  To kind of celebrate, we went up to Portland to see his family and have dinner with his sister on Saturday.  The idea was to just get out of town for a little bit.  On Sunday, Stu surprised me by asking if I wanted to go to the coast.  I have really been wanting to make it over to the Newport area because I miss the ocean but we just haven't made the time; Stu has always been busy with school and I was always busy with work.  It was really cool to just decide to go spur of the minute.  We ended up crossing over from Wilsonville and stopped at Lincoln City and then went down to Newport for lunch/dinner (it was pretty late by the time we made it) at the original Rogue Brewery.  The funny thing was that we also decided to go through the wax museum and Ripley's Believe it or Not while we were there.  It was pretty funny going through those things.  I was totally freaked out in the wax museum though.  It was all dark and creepy...The best part of the trip, of course, was the taffy that we brought home.  It was definitely a great way to end the weekend!

the classic bridge picture

         

I found a Big Daddy!!  You have to click on this picture to make it bigger.  I didn't notice this at the time but my flash totally caught the "Big Daddy's" eyes.  Creepy!!  EEK!

Congratulations Mr. Glusman!

As most of you probably already know, our friend Noah is getting ready to begin his teaching career in a few days!  He was hired at Churchill High School teaching Social Studies and Economics (and maybe another subject but I am a terrible friend and may have forgotten) and Stu and I were able to visit him today.  He was in the process of decorating his room and I took a few pictures.  I hope you don't mind that I put them up Noah...I'm pretty excited for you!

Noah behind one of his desks putting up a poster

Maps!

Seattle Trip

This last weekend was the PAX expo that Stu and Kenton have been planning to go to for months.  It was held in Seattle and lasted all weekend long, and since they were already getting a hotel, Katrina and I decided to go along and have a "Girls Weekend" while the guys nerded it up.  

The guys spent almost all of the waking hours at the Seattle Convention Center so Katrina showed me around Seattle (she and Kenton spent a year in Seattle) and we went shopping.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures until the last afternoon when we went down to the Pikes Market so all I have are the typical Seattle tourist pictures.

The pub near the convention center where we had lunch.

It was really nice to get out of town for the entire weekend and to be able to hang out with friends the whole time!  Katrina and I got a lot of shopping done (we brought about five pairs of shoes home between the two of us!) and it was pretty much the best way to end the vacation--besides the shower in the hotel room that literally felt like it was ripping the flesh off of your body.  But other than the shower, it was awesome.  Thank you guys so much for inviting us along on the trip!!

The Vice Prez Candidate

Stonehenge

So on the other side of the river, on your way to the Gorge, there is this little turnoff called the Stonehenge War Memorial.  Now, I have no idea what Stonehenge and WWII have in common but it is a nice little place to take some pictures.

Tom Petty Concert

For Stu's 25th birthday this year, his family gave him tickets to the Tom Petty concert at the Columbia River Gorge so this last weekend, Stu and I drove up for the show.  I ended up taking a bunch of pictures but am only going to post a few.  The weather was great so the drive was really nice and the show was AWESOME!

Driving on the 205...

Stu and I stopped at the 7-11 in Yakima (where his parents had gotten us a hotel room) because we wanted to get a 6 pack of beer to drink (tailgating of course) in the parking lot right before the show.  We drove up and this guy was passed out in the handicapped parking space.  I know that it is a sad picture but I couldn't help it.  I am a terrible person.

The valley that we drove into in Washington.  I'm pretty sure that the town's name is Ellensburg but I can't remember now.

We made it all the way to Washington without getting caught in traffic.  Then we get on the dirt road (what should have been about 10 minutes outside of the parking for the show) and we get stopped by traffic.  We were stuck pretty much in place for an hour and a half.  This half naked man stepped out of his house to check out what was going on.  I thought, since I wasn't doing anything else, that I would take advantage of the photo op!

The traffic was so slow that passengers were getting out of their cars and walking so that they could legally drink beer (there were police officers placed along the road).  They would walk until their drivers caught up and then grab another beer.  The guy in the mirror was too lazy so he just sat on the hood.  I don't know if you can make him out but it's kinda funny.

It took to long to get to the show to drink our beer in the parking lot so we just went in.  It took some shoving and backtracking but Stu and I found our seats before Tom Petty went on.  7th row!!  We were so close!

Man, he is looking pretty old.  But the show was great!  There was tons of energy and most of the people around us were crazy/drunk/high!  Even Tom was taking some hits off of something between the songs.  Haha.

I Have Pictures!

Today Stu and I spent the afternoon with Katrina, Kenton and Finn playing games and hanging out.  I was also able to get Katrina's key to the classroom so I could grab the cord to my camera!  Yeah!!  I have taken a ton of pictures this break and now I can share them!!  Woo hoo!  Here are just two pictures that I took at the fair this last week.  I already posted about the fun that we had at the fair so I won't repost but if you are interested, there are more fair pictures in my pictures link!

Summer break = lazy fun

So I am officially on my second part of Summer Break.  And I am definitely enjoying it.  I get to sleep in until almost 8 every morning and then I have all day to do what I want.  Mostly it has been to relax and read or watch movies, etc.  But sometimes I manage to get out of the house.

Yesterday, Stu and I went to the Lane County Fair with Noah.  It was sweet because we all got free tickets in!  I guess that the people who run the fair figured it was  little annoying to have all those extra people and extra cars parking in our neighborhood.  So if you could prove that you lived within 3 blocks of the fairgrounds with some official mail with your address and a form of ID, the fair was free!  It was a million degrees out and but we still managed to go on some rides and eat an elephant ear!  We even had this creepy carny give us a free ride, saying, "It's on me man...Being a carny, its a dirty job.  I just took a shower last night and I'm already dirty..." 

Anyway, we got some pretty awesome pictures but I ended up leaving the cord to my camera in the classroom last week so I don't have a way to get them onto my computer.  Tomorrow, Stu and I are driving up to the Gorge to see Tom Petty and I'll have more pictures so hopefully I'll get a chance to share them before September ;-)

That cat is almost as big as a Van!!

Finally!  I have something that I can blog about!  I am very excited.  Can't you tell?

Yesterday, Stu and I were invited by Carolyn and Jesse, who we have gotten to know through Kenton and Katrina, over for dinner.  They are housesitting/dog sitting for some people they know so we joined them and the Henry's for lasagna and Mike's Hard Lemonade (that could have possibly been 10 years old since we couldn't figure out the sell by date).  The best part about it was that one of the dogs they were watching was a little black pug puppy who wouldn't stay still for a picture.  Her name was Mya.  She was just too cute!  I couldn't resist!

Carolyn and Katrina trying to hold Mya still for the camera.  It was a team effort.

After dinner, we all went back to Kenton and Katrina's house to do cool friend stuff, you know, like eating ice cream and hanging out.  We also got to partake in all the good candy that Kenton's mom brought them back from Finland.  

Okay, I know that I haven't been very good about updating my blog lately but I really feel that I haven't had anything interesting happen to me in a while.  Since my break has been over, I have pretty much just been working all the time.  And when I am not working, I am thinking about work.  I am definitely not one of those people who can leave work totally at work.  It creeps in (especially when I am trying to fall asleep) and stresses me out.  And I don't feel like I have a particularly stressful job usually.  

This last weekend, Stu and I went up to Portland to celebrate his sister's 21st birthday.  She celebrated early because she has a horse show in California for two weeks.  It was fun.  Good dinner and we were able to go out in the boat for the first time.  It was really fun but I was too afraid to drive the new boat yet.  All I would need is to crash my boyfriend's parents' new boat!  

Other than the boating, pretty much nothing.  I am boring.  Oh, and Oliver has starting "teething" on our little green blanket...weird.

It is my brother's 21st birthday tomorrow.  I know!  21!  I can't believe it.  I mean, am I really old enough that my little brother is now going to be an adult?  I'm not saying that I am that old...because I know that I am not.  I'm just saying.  Jake has always been the crazy one in the family.  I'm the responsible one, Jeremey's the smart, quiet, youngest one who could never do anything wrong, and Jake is the one who doesn't really care so he just goes for it.  But now he is going to be old enough to legally go for it.

Anyway, I just realized this morning that my brother could now go to a strip club and it freaked me out.  And I have no illusions that he won't go to a strip club.  Haha.  Boobies and beer??  He's been waiting his whole life for this moment!  Anyway, I hope that the frozen ice shot glasses work out for you Jake. 

Jake's the one not being crazy and threatening you with a sword in this picture ;-)

A Whole Lot of Henry :-)

This weekend we were able to spend a lot of time with Kenton, Katrina, and Finn.  When we were on our vacation (and had the exact same vacation time), that we didn't get to hang out all that often but this weekend we definitely got in some Henry time!

On Friday, Katrina and Kenton went to watch their friend at his recital so we were trusted with Finn.  It was really fun!  And I think that Finn had a pretty good time.  Granted, he was only over at our house for two hours (not really enough time to get bored) but still!  Finn played with the ferrets, who are totally in love with him now.  Oliver followed him around everywhere and Cinder kept trying to give him kisses.  We also took Finn over to the little playground next to Noah's house and Stu flew this helicopter that we have.  Finn even let us put on his pjs.  I wanted to get him ready just in case he was going to fall asleep on the way home in the car (which he didn't, of course).  I asked him if he was ready to get his pjs on and he told me no.  Then I told him that Stu would help and he got all excited and stayed still the whole time!  Now I know that Stu's name is totally my leverage with him!

On Saturday, Stu and I went to the Oregon Country fair with Katrina, Kenton and Finn.  It was really really hot but a lot of fun!  I love going there because there is great food and lots of people watching to do.  I definitely got my fill of old man butt!  We stayed until about 3:30 and, while we were all having a good time, I was definitely ready to go home.  I was so tired!  

We stopped under this tent to get some rest towards the end and there was this band playing

Katrina and Finn...and half of Kenton.  Sorry I cut you out Kenton.  I didn't know!

There is a man there, I swear ;-)

Finally.  I mean, who could go without a nice thong/loin cloth picture?

Gypsies

One of my favorites.  The Gypsies dancing to a little girl playing the fiddle.

He was on a box in the middle of an "intersection."

I have more pictures but I think that I am going to have to make an album for them.