Wow, Fall. You have hit us and with you comes millions of pine needles, soggy days, and cold feet. But I love you! Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love it when I can begin to put layers on and start wearing all my nice warm coats outside. And there is really nothing better than a wet weekend spent inside lazing around watching your favorite show and drinking hot apple cider.

I am throwing myself into the season and embracing the fact that Halloween is hardly over (I still have yet to actually pack all my Halloween stuff up and seal the box away in the garage) and the stores are already filled with Thanksgiving and Christmas merchandise. Stu has informed me that I am not allowed to buy any ornaments, or the AWESOME light up pink flamingo for the front yard, until after Thanksgiving but we will see about that. I'm thinking a covert trip to Target is in store ;-).

I apologize for the lack of blogging but my camera is being stupid and not letting me upload my photos or even erase the 500 pictures off of my memory card even though I have hit 'delete originals' every time I connect it to the computer. And what is a blog without pictures? Lame. Anyway, with Fall comes lots of photo ops so I plan on breaking out the camera Stu has but never uses and I promise to blog more!

Because We are Just THAT Cool...

Every year, Lane Ferret Shelter and Rescue puts on the "Ferret Agility Trials" to raise money. Stu and I have known about it for years but we are always doing something on the weekend they are held and we end up reading about it in the paper days later. As ferret owners, we have always wondered how our ferrets would do in the competition so this year, we took Oliver and joined in on the fun.

Oliver was totally freaked out about the car drive and then the amount of people and ferrets at the trials but his number was 23 and, that being one of my lucky numbers, I was confident we would take home a ribbon!

Oliver didn't take home any ribbons though...he didn't pull any weights, even try to get out of the paper bag, and ended up turning around during the tube races but we still love him. We met some nice/interesting people, saw our vet and Oliver was attacked by a girl ferret owned by a really sweaty woman. We left after "Princess Pea" chomped on Oliver's neck and wouldn't let go. But we think Oliver enjoyed himself and plan on taking him to the park more often. It's nice to not have to hide the ferrets anymore now that we aren't renting...

Places from My Childhood

After my parent's left, seems I just couldn't handle being away from them. They left my house and drove down to visit my aunt in Cave Junction. I decided that my new car needed to go on its first road trip, so three days later, I was driving down to Cave Junction too!

The crazy thing is that my cousin has lived in Eugene longer than I have and we lost contact a really long time ago. We kept giving our numbers to our moms only to have them lose them or give us the wrong number so we haven't talked in years. While my mom was visiting, I was actually able to get in touch with Sarah and we decided to make the trip to Cave Junction together (since my parent's were staying with her mom.) The drive down was the best part of the trip because I was able to catch up with Sarah and get to know her son Domanick (almost 3!)

It was a perfect summer day in Cave Junction. I have spent most of my life growing up there (ages 0-4 and then 9-16) and have a lot of memories in that town. It was weird to drive through and see buildings torn down and new ones erected and it was really crazy to have the option to stop for lunch at Subway. When I was in high school, the only thing you could eat at that was "fast food" was Dairy Queen or Giant Burger!

Right before we left to come back to Eugene, we decided to go swimming at the gauging station up the river. This is quite literally the swimming hole that I learned how to swim in. It was beautiful and crystal clear and unchanged. What a great way to spend the evening.

Summa Time...

I have been putting off posting anything for a while because I was sure that I hadn't done anything this summer. But looking back on some of the pictures that I have taken and posted on Facebook, I realized that this has been one of the best summers I have had in a long time. I didn't really go anywhere or do anything unbelievable, but I still had an amazing summer!

One of the really special things that happened this summer, is that my parents came to visit me. Most of you know that my family lives in New Mexico and that I only get to see them and spend time with them for about six days right around Christmas. My mom and step dad George decided to make the trip to Oregon this summer and they spent a few days with Stu and me.

We have always been a "coast" family, spending a lot of time living near the ocean, so one of the days they were in Eugene, we made a trip to Oregon City (where George grew up.) It was quite the road trip with me missing the exit I intended to take and going a very long route which included the Tualatin/Sherwood Highway and later a really shady, random winding country road. But we made it!

The end result was us finding our way to the beach at Ocean City (and me discovering that was where the Pelican Brewery was.) George told us all kinds of stories about how he and his dad used to build Dory Boats and we found the little building his mom built where she used to can fish. After leaving Ocean City we ended up going to Lincoln City to get a late lunch of fresh clam chowder and saltwater taffy! Yum!

The next day was my mom's birthday! I haven't been around my mom on her birthday since I was in junior high so it was really nice to be able to help her have a special day. We ended up going to see the livestock at the fair (my family raises horses and other animals) and then coming home for a yummy bbq. We got my mom her favorite type of cake from Sweet Life and then headed out to the fair at dusk to go on some rides!

It was really nice to have someone who isn't a wienie (...Stu...) and who wants to go on rides with me.

It is always a little nerve racking and tiring to spend time with your family. Especially when they are staying in your home (and you wake up to old country music blaring from your tv speakers at 7 in the morning...every morning...); but I was really sad to see them go. You never realize how much you miss the people you can't be around until those first few quiet, boring hours after they leave your house.

taken in the parking lot of target this evening...

Our House

I have had a few friends and family members from out of town ask me to post some pictures of our new house.

the front

living room

living room

living room

kitchen

kitchen

Dining room...we are looking into a dining room table but we haven't gotten that far yet.

Megan's room

upstairs bathroom

master bedroom

hot tub and deck off the master

Our BBQ deck. Thanks for recommending Bi-Mart for patio furniture Kenton and Katrina!

Fire pit down below. We are excited for smores!!

It is really cool because we have this little bark mulch area by the fire pit and every night around dinner time, deer come and munch and nap in our yard.

We are excited to finish furnishing the house and getting everything in order. We have a lot of work to do. I have to mention the "Man Cave" that Stu set up in the family room downstairs. Just picture our old living room and you have it. Stu was very excited about the prospect of being able to have his own room in the house that I will actually let him put up his cheesy posters in.

Moving Day

On June 24th, Stu and I became official owners of a house! We had been on break for about a week so we pretty much had the entire house packed into boxes (thank you Carolyn, Jesse, Kenton and Katrina for letting us borrow those boxes from you guys!).

The ferrets were very confused about what was going on. Oliver kept trying to pry open the tape on the boxes. It was pretty funny.

It was definitely a tough day. It was super hot and while we had hired movers to help us, Stu and I were pretty much responsible for getting a lot of the boxes and other things off the truck. We were very lucky because Stu's family came down and his sister helped us unpack a lot of stuff while Stu and I were telling the movers where to put stuff. His mom was awesome and cleaned our kitchen and bathrooms and his dad brought us a couch and bed frame down from Portland. It was a very long day but it went so much smoother with all the help from the Goss Family!

Ann, Stu, Megan and me, toasting after it was all over. Champagne to celebrate our first house!

Moving day photo shoot! Stu and his sister with their glasses next to the hot tub!

Me and Stu trying to be funny...only to have Ann be "that guy" in the photo...creeper ;-)

We have a house!