Pumpkin Carving Party

Hey, we had another great October pumpkin Saturday. We started the morning going to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin for carving. We ended up going to a pumpkin patch on Beef Bend Road, there were a ton of people there. Go figure, the weather was great. While there, we collected our pumpkins, went through our first corn maze (which was surprisingly harder than we anticipated), got some apple cider, and had an Oktoberfest sausage. We then had to pick up supplies and stuff for carving in the evening. Our friends came and everyone enjoyed my grandfather's recipe for rumpunchkin, which is quickly becoming more and more famous. We set a record for the number of pumpkins carved, 13(my mom, aunt and uncle pumpkins aren't in the photo). We also collected pumpkin seeds and are attempting seed roasting, the first batch has turned out well. As some might guess, with a number of people in the house Mel managed to sneak out through and open door and dash around the neighborhood, with Robert hot on his tail. If he wasn't terrified of the outdoors prior to that event he is now, at least for the next couple of days. Check out the picks, and we hope that you can join us next year.

Good thoughts for Corey

Please have good and positive thoughts for Corey tomorrow as he is taking his 8hr exam to become a professional engineer. He has spent the last month studying almost every day for 2-8hrs. He is a little nervous but I know he will do great.
Thanks again.

Fast times in Victoria BC

Early this month I took a fast trip up to Victoria in British Columbia Canada. One of my bridesmaid and past Azalea girl Kelly is getting married. Her husband Dylan and her are getting married in December in New Zealand. Kelly is a big runner and signed up to run the Victoria half-marathon. She enlisted friends to run with her (not me) and the weekend suddenly turned into a bacherlorette party. I rode up with Rhea (Corey's best man Alan's girlfriend) on Friday after work. We got in around 7:30to Lauren's house. We all went out for Sushi and Lauren entertained us with her fascinating single/dating life. The next day Rhea and I showed up at 7am to board the ferry. We got two seats next to an older women and her adult son. They were a very entertaining family and the 3 hour ferry ride went fast. Neither Rhea nor I got sick, luckily. After 45 minutes waiting in customs we meet up with Kelly and her friends. The group was a mixture of Alaska girls (non-palin supporters), College friends and co-teachers. We had two suits at the Chateau Victoria. Saturday afternoon we spent walking around shops, parks and having high tea. A few of us stopped at the Dutch Bakery which is a bakery with a soda fountain/dinner. It brought me back to my days at the Pharmacy. The weather was Autumn perfection, cold but sunny. In the evening the runners went to the expo while non-runners decorated the room in pure bacherlorette style. We had dinner at a Greek restaurant and Kelly was a good sport and danced with the belly dancer. The non-runners went out and the runners went to bed. We (the non-runners) went to two bars/clubs where we did the three D's danced, drink and dared each other to do things. We ended the evening by searching for food. In the end we found a cheap and greasy pizza joint it really hit the spot. I went to bed around 3am and was woken up at 8am but my roommates. We planned on cheering the runners on but 6 girls hung over don't make for a fast or motivated bunch. We did manage to squeeze in breakfast and lunch with a walk around downtown before we got back on the ferry. This time with all 11 of us. Between the partiers and the runners everyone was so tired we joked that we had one functioning brain between us. Rhea and I got back in her car at 10:30pm for the ride back to Portland. I reached my beloved pillow at 2am only to wake up at 6:30 for work. No shock I ended up getting sick and missing two days of work later in the week. It was a fast trip up to Victoria but great time spending it with an awesome group of new girls and seeing some beautiful sights. Congrats Kelly and thanks for the great time.

Doors and more

I know I am suppose to post pictures of the paint job but I am waiting. We have decided to buy a few new doors, a mail box, outdoor lights and house numbers to finish it off. In about 5-7 weeks we will be the proud owners of a new front door with side lights, a new side garage door (current one is nailed shut, stupid owners before us), and new 20 minute fire safety door from kitchen to garage and two new sliding glass doors. That only leaves 3 skylights left, two pocket doors inside and one bathroom door inside and we have replaced every door and window in our house. We bought new windows when we first moved in. We really enjoy them but did little research and had a high pressure sales person. This time we looked at a few places and had some in home estimates done. I think we both feel confident about our decision. We even get a 6% discount for getting so many doors and paying with out a credit card. We are able to do all this since selling Corey's car. It has been a challenge at times and Corey is riding his bike in the rain but we are enjoying the life of no car payments. Next spring I hope to get some shudders on the windows for more appeal and window boxes. Keep looking for pictures of the new doors in a few weeks.

3 Year Anniversary

Our 3 year anniversary was September 10th. We took Thursday and Friday off to enjoy ourselves. We left early in the morning for the Pendleton Round-Up. It was both of our first times going. We meet up with our friend Mary and her friend to watch the rodeo. I have not been to a rodeo since I was a child. My dad took my sister and I once. During the caff roping event they accidentally broke its neck and it died in front of us. Me being a sensitive child cried and made such a scene we had to leave. What are the chances it would happen again right, wrong. Half way through the rodeo was the caff and horse roping event and it happened again. Besides that part we had a good time soaking up the sun and cheering on the cowboys. We enjoyed the Native American ceremonies and shopped in the market. We bought ourselves a Native American vase with a turtle for longevity and a flute player for happiness and good health on it. We also got our soon to be nephew (Corey's sister is due in January) a dream catcher. A trip to Pendleton isn't complete with out going to the World Famous Let'er Buck room. They only have Whisky and Vodka that come out of dispensers. It felt like a dirty old western saloon. For dinner we had pizza. It has kind of become a tradition of ours to try new pizza parlors in each town we go to. We only like the cracker crust pizza style. Our love for pizza dates back to the start of us.
On Friday we wanted to stay in a Mcmenamins since Corey proposed at one. The only room available was at the White Eagle under the Fremont Bridge. They play live music every night. That night the band was a lively country blues band. We enjoyed listening to them outside under the heat lamp drinking and eating. I have decided to try drinking beer. That night I ordered and finished by first beer a pilsner. We turned in around midnight but the band played below us till 2am.
Saturday Heidi planned an End of Summer Dinner at John's house. The couples are John and Natalie, Heidi and Tyler and Corey and I. We have become close friends and will be sad to see Heidi and Tyler leave for England this November. We hope to plan a few more nights together before then.
Sunday we had plans to eat dinner with Rhea and Alan but the night before wasn't kind to us and we rescheduled for a later date. All in all we had a nice anniversary filled with fun experiences, new places, friends, time alone and good conversations. Here's to next year and perhaps being in Australia.

Done Painting

Well, I'm done anyway. There are a few things Carol is going to wrap up, but there is very little left. After painting every day for the last two weeks with only one or two days off, I'm tired. Now I have the pleasure of using the time I was painting to study for the Professional Engineering exam. If you haven't had the privileged of trying to relearn in a month what you spent 4 years of college studying so you can take an 8 hour exam that only 50% of people pass resulting in the ability to sign documents that make you legally liable for for multi million dollar projects, you're missing out. Well, what is life without a little excitement.

Peace

A Month Off

We took August off from blogging. Not intentionally just things kept coming up and sitting in front of a computer all day at work does not motivate. So here is a recap of what we did in August.
August 8-10 we planned on going camping. I took the Friday off but due to conflicting schedules with friends we decided to stay home. Corey went to work and I hang out with my niece and sister. Saturday we washed and waxed our car (Mazada Corey sold his). Afterwards we drive to Silver Falls and hiked almost 8 miles. Corey's parents were having a dinner party and we joined in. Had some yummy beans and cornbread.
August 15-17th we went to Lincoln beach with my family. It was nice seeing everyone together and we had tons of food and sugar to snack on. One down fall was the weather it was 100 degrees here but very over casted and cold at the beach. Other down fall everybody was fleeing to the beach making traffic horrible. My sister Lauren and grandma B took 12hrs to get from Seattle to Lincoln beach.
August 23-24 I had the Lee family Reunion. Corey stayed home to finish the patio cover. It was good to hear my great uncle Ned's stories about bowling. I also got to see my cousin Karen who lives in Cali. She is expecting her first little one next March. I wish she lived closer. I got to walk around with Bailey till she fell asleep. Boy is she getting heavy. On Sunday I went to the baby shower of a college friend. I have three friends having babies in September and that was the only shower I could go to. At her shower we all made a scrapbook pages for her and her family to add pictures too. I thought it was a great idea.
August 29-31st The start of the never ending painting job. If you read the previous post you know that we are still working on finishing the job. We were lucky to have family and friends help us the 1st weekend and on/off the second weekend. We both have little motivation to work on it during the week. Speaking of painting we should be doing that instead of hiding from the heat. Can you believe it 90-95 this week, it is September.