Portland Fun!

Last week before Thanksgiving Nate and I took a quick trip to Portland, OR. We have never been away from the kids by ourselves and both needed a break. We thought Portland so that maybe we could go to the coast and because we had watched Anthony Bourdain's, No Reservations, and saw all these amazing places he had eaten at. So it sounded like an amazing place to go! We stayed at a B&B in Happy Valley, it was just up the hill from all the main points in portland and the people there were amazing.

This is a view of the front. Not sure who's car that is.

And this is the view from our window. The B&B is backed right up against the woods and on a daily basis gets deer and other wild life walking about.

Our drive there was quick so we decided to go out for dinner and went to this awesome sushi place called Bamboo Sushi. Nate said the Sushi was amazing. I got a Japanese curry dish before I realized I'm still not ready for curry since my throw up incident with it almost 3 years ago. So Nate ate my soup too and we both enjoyed the quiet meal and atmosphere of the restaurant. We then walked down to Staccato Gelato and had some AMAZING Gelato and doughnut holes! Day one done, we went back to the B&B and watched a movie in one of their 3 common rooms. Then we slept in a tiny full size bed together. Going from a king to a full was hard on us, but much harder for Nate since I elbowed him all night. The next morning we were roused by the delicious sent of Waffles. Our host made a wonderful breakfast as we watched the rain pour outside. When Nate and I were happily fed and dressed we decided to head out to the temple.

The Portland Temples grounds have to be one of the prettiest I've seen and the inside is equally as stunning!


That afternoon at the B&B we just relaxed and napped. Our hosts love animals and have somewhat adopted an entire flock of ducks and 3 different deer families.

That night we went out for linner (lunch/ dinner) to Apizza Scholls. My pictures to not do justice to the pure awesome of their pizza. I would sell my children to have a piece of their pizza again. Ok, maybe not, but it's mighty tempting.

If you are ever in Portland, go there! The open at 5pm Mon- Sat and open at 4:30 on sunday. I mean it, it's amazing, all other pizza is an epic fail compared to this! Later and dragged Nate to Breaking Dawn with me and we even got a bit of Christmas shopping done for the kids.

The next morning we went to Voodoo Doughnuts. While the doughnuts are good, we really are going for the atmosphere and the silly designs of the doughnuts.

I got the ODB and the original voodoo and Nate got a bearclaw (which we left at his parents house on accident) and the Mcminville mini. We also got one for Sadie, my mom, and Nate's mom.We'll just say we got Sheila a big brown space ship.....


The rain was so bad at this point (the worst since 2007) that we decided to skip out on the coast and just head home to ensure we were back in time for Thanksgiving. We did however stop at Multnomah Falls and hiked up the short trail to enjoy the falls!

The drive home was uneventful except for a terrible book we endured (we listen to audio books on trips to help us stay awake) and we were glad to be home. We enjoyed our trip and plan on doing it again in about 3 years. Maybe we'll go to Disney World, just us 2! ;-) Happy blogging all and hope your Thanksgiving was great!

A wee bit o' catch'n up to do!

Well I am not good at this blog thing!! You'd think being home 5 days a week, I'd have time for
everything, but with 2 kids I barely have time to shower! Right now they are silent cus I turned on the magic picture box. I haven't let Sadie watch regular TV for a few months (she watches one movie every day. Either watching it or having it for background noise while she play in the play room), but this morning I had some work to do with the chickens and needed her to stay distracted instead of torturing her brother. So she's enjoying Dinosaur Train at the moment and John is playing on the floor with his stuffed puppy and lightening McQueen car and I have a moments to catch up on this dang thing!

Let us go back to August, I swear that was only 2 weeks ago, but to my surprise it's already November. In august Sadie started swimming lessons and LOVED them. She did great and was able to get over her fear of water. While her teacher kept looking at all the parents with great disgust (she was a teenager that was probably being forced to teach the little ones) she was so kind to the kids and Sadie loved her.














August also brought the beginning of the school year for me. It hasn't been going well. I just can't seem to find the time to study and I swear being pregnant in the past has killed some brain cells. I can't retain a thing! But I will continue to try and do what I must do to get my education. Our garden didn't fair well do to Hammy's destruction and the soil being crappy, but our giant pumpkin did great!














At the end of august we did some family pics. While I don't have the professionals yet, here's some I took

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In september Sadie started pre-school and she has loved it!!! The chickens grew some and life was simple and happy. Not much happened in september and that actually makes me quite happy!


October was Halloween fun, Sadie was Iron man and John was a bull dog. Sadie picker her outfit out herself this year. It's the first year I let her choose what she wanted to be and well, John had no choice. He made the perfect bull dog though. He likes to growl while he crawls, so it was all the more adorable when he was in his costume growling. Sadie also went to her first Halloween party with Grace and loved it!




As of today November 4th, the chickens are finally contributing members of the family!!! We got our first eggs this morning. I was so excited that I decided to clean their coop and give them new straw to bed in for being good chickens! They are still dumb as posts, but I'm glad to be getting nice fresh eggs!!

Well, my spare time is up! Life is good and hopefully I'll update sooner next time!

Life is short

I can not believe that this year is more than half way over. Sadie is 4 now and Lil' John is 6 almost 7 months old. How I cherish being their mother. I am truly blessed to have them and a wonderful husband who helps with everything he can.

These last few days I have been lost in thought. Death seems to be rearing his ugly face far to close for comfort into my life. 1st the death of a young athlete earlier last week. While I never knew him personally, he gave Idaho something to brag and smile about. We were all so proud of him. 2nd, the loss of a friend from jr high and high school, Josh. Josh was contagious in his joy. You could not help but smile around him and bask in the glow of his personality. I did not feel his death would affect me as it did. As it was, we had not really spoken since high school, but last year he started working at St. Luke's and I would periodically see him in the unit I work in. It was as if 5 years had never come between us, but just another lazy summer just like the years before when we were in school together. He was able to make me laugh in my terribly grumpy pregnant state, while at work and he personal sunshine never faultered no matter how hard his day was. I should have took notes, asked him how he was able to turn a completely awful day into sunshine and rainbows. But that was Josh, he was everyones rock, you could always lean on him. I am not too proud to say that I burst into tears when I found out about his death. Trying to find someone to lean on, I turned to my husband and mother. After crying a bit to my mom she said "Lisa, he must have fulfilled his purpose here on earth. It was just time for him to go home. Be happy for him, he is the lucky one." How true and bitter sweet her words are, for he truly is the lucky one. He will be so missed here on earth and at times I still feel it was unfair for him to be taken so early in life, but my mother is right, his purpose was fulfilled, he's gone home.
Facebook as been buzzing with memories and prayers for Josh. I hope that one day I will have made an impact on those around me like Josh has. My heart grieves for his family and I hope the are able to heal with time.

As the Grim Reaper come closer and closer to those in my life, I want to make sure you all know I love you. To all the friends, enemies, frienemies, loved ones, and everyone else in my life, thank you. Without you I would not be who I am today. Even with the hardships I've gone through in my life, I'd do it again just to make sure I got the same outcome as I do now. I do not know where's I be without Nate. I pray I never lose him, I don't think I could bare life without him. He has given me everything and I owe him more than my life. Thank you baby for your love support and for our 2 beautiful children. I hope to repay one day!

Life is short, unfair, and brutal, but I hope that I can be like Josh and have a smile on my face even when the going gets tough. As I read in another blog today about a mother who lost her beautiful baby girl to a drowning accident, "I can do hard things." I will do my best to live every moment to the best of my ability and smile more often. Life isn't all that bad, but it is far to short, so live it up!

With love,
Lisa

Week: 0 Day: 1, Wow you're a sweaty person

Last week at work I must have been drugged. That's the only reason I can think as to why I would agree to this years Dirty Dash. It's a 10k (6.2miles) obstacle course/ race in the mud. It sound thrilling and the video on their web site make me giggle! But me do this? Haha! I say to you Nah, nah! Well, I was talked into and so I thought I needed to get a training schedule. Training officially starts next Monday, but I thought it wouldn't hurt if I started with the rest of this week and did the week one schedule twice. Yesterday was actually Day 1 and the workout was intense! It was for only 30 minutes of cross training and I'm thinking "Pshhh no biggy," and Nate brings to my attention the point of this is to build endurance, so work it girl work it. I did 15 minutes of the spinner bike, 10 on the stair master, and 10 on the elliptical. After the stair master though, my body told me peace out, you're on your own and exited the building. It took all I was worth to get on the elliptical and go, but this is all about endurance right? Yeah, whatever. Then for 20 minutes or so I pretended to lift weights (really I stared into space and lifted the very minimum). I was sweating like a whore in church! As I sat there watching Niagara fall from my fore head I remembered the nurses from L&D commenting on how sweaty I was during the delivery of John. In my defense, they were seriously trying to lipo suction my wrists when they were poking for an IV and instead of whining, screaming, or crying I sweat when I'm in a lot of pain. During a real tough contraction one nurse was moving me and touched my shoulder only to tell me, "Oh wow, you're a sweaty person!" Not the right thing to say to a woman in labor....stupid idiots. Any who, I have 8 more weeks til the big race and my chunky butt has got to lose some poundage before I go and try to kill myself atop Bogus! Wish me luck! I have a feeling that the stair Master and I are going to be favored enemies.

Spokane Fun

I recently went to Spokane to visit family and my friend Danielle, we had a blast! It was great seeing everyone and I already want to go back!

Exhausted little man!

Fun traveling in the car

Cour de lene lake and a funny lookin tree

Cake pops we made

Spokane Falls

Cake I made!

Soo long

Today we are one month and one day away from my beautiful little girl turning 4. And my handsome little man is already 5 months old. Where did the time go? This year has been fairly good to us so far except the last few months, but nothing major. There is one thing we have to do though and it breaks my heart to do, we have to say so long to Hammy. I came home last night to an empty chicken coop (yes I HAD chickens) and a very skittish dog. Turns out Hammy ripped through our coop and killed all 3 of my poor chickens. He also dug up a sprinkler head and tore it out, this is the 3rd time he's done that and Nate and I realized we just don't have the time for him. I feel awful, we've invested a lot of time and love into this stupid dog, but with 2 kids, I just can't pay as much attention to him as he needs, so he's off the live with my cousin Jake where he will be loved like no other. Farewell my silly friend you will be sorely missed!

On a lighter note here are some pictures from the last few months, enjoy.

My poor chickens...

Our Garden, now mostly destroyed thanks to the dog.