Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Excuses...excuses...excuses

Life has been busy. My deepest apologies to the five people who read this blog and check it only to go, “Really?! Still the lame chili one?!”

I thought I would do a quick catch up and then leave you with some potentially empty promises that  after my move, hopefully my computer will be unpacked and my internet up and running quickly for more regular posts.

The  MOOOOooove!

Well much to my surprise my rent was raised by $140 bucks a month and after the initial shock (is that legal?!) and panic reaction, I realized this was finally my chance to get out of the burbs and back to Portland. I did a reverse Craigslisting and the very next day my now current landlord contacted me. After some negotiating- ME: lower the rent…and pay for supplies and I will do the labor to fix the place up... HIM: Deal! I landed myself a labor of love that has turned into what feels like my whole life right now. My landlord has been awesome though! He has ordered things online, got me my subway tile for the kitchen, re-wired the bathroom for new lighting, tore up the ugly carpet and with the help of some amazing friends I have gone to work shining up the place. At the end of the month I will be living in a little 2 bedroom house with a yard, a place to park and very close to some of my very best friends. It will be a nice little place to live until I am ready to buy my own place. It has however been painful at times and there is a ton of work left to do. Not to mention I have been working so much on the new place that the current place is sitting around wondering when I am going to get packing!!

LOTS of Painting!

Unhappy Bathroom

UNHAPPY Kitchen

Paint Dipped Pony-tail


The Timbers!!

The Season has kicked off and I am officially married to the Timbers until the end of October. My season tickets have me in the second room in Section 110 and are such fun seats. The goals from my view are pretty spectacular. My section group is awesome! It consists of my brother from another mother…Sebastian (who looks like a Timbers version of Where’s Waldo with that hat he is superstitious about), our buddy Jared (the two forces of Jared and Sebastian combined are known as the Wood Brothers and have even made it on ESPN), my girl and relief from all the Wood jokes, Ann and the big, gruff, snarly (total softy who when I am not looking shields my purse from the rain because he KNOWS he loves me) Kirk.

Our boys look amazing this year and even though we got soaked during the first game it was very much worth it! The first match proved to be one of the best matches I have been too. The Great Scot Boyd is proving to live up to his reputation and of course that accent sealed the deal long ago for me. This is going to be a great season!

Half-Time...The slab of wood ended up the boy's drink holder


Seb and Jared...aka the Wood Brothers


Three-way Birthday…

With all the sad stuff that happened in February…I cancelled my bowling birthday party that was planned last month. My friend Jess’ birthday was on the day before our friend Derek died and Karie’s birthday was last week. It was decided that we would throw a make-up giant birthday party and it was a total blast! We all got together and went cosmic bowling! We broke out the glow sticks, put on the smelly bowling shoes and had a really great time! It was a nice relief getting everyone together after everything that had happened and just having fun. There was a ton of laughing, some terrible bowling and my hand only got stuck once in the bowling ball that was intended for children. Check out the super blurry...somewhat true to life...action shots below.





Cooking Class…

My cooking class is in full swing and I am teaching a group of very awesome 9 and 10 year olds. I went into it thinking I had a younger group on my hands and when I saw the group of kids walk in I had to scratch most of my lesson plans. These kids are so much fun and they want to learn how to be a chef. I can’t believe how skilled these kids are. I am also really impressed with their nutrition knowledge. It gives me some faith in the school system that they are familiar with so many health facts and have some nutrition basics. They blow all the adult classes out of the water with their knowledge. I have them for another month and then it is onto the next assignment. They exhaust me but I don’t notice until they have all left the kitchen. It’s been really fun! I can't take pictures of the kids but I will try and get some of our food soon!

Noah turned 4!

My nephew Noah had his 4th birthday and it was Superhero Themed Awesomeness! LOVE this kid! It's so fun now that he is getting older I can get him cooler gifts. He got a sketchpad and some colored pencils and I taught him how to play Go Fish with some fun Paul Frank Go Fish cards. Of course the card instructions say the game is intended for 5 years and up but my nephew is practically a genius and had it down pat!




Shamrock Run 5k

In the middle of all of that I have been attempting to continue my training for the races I have planned this year. The Shamrock Run was yesterday and it was so much fun! My girlfriends joined me for this race and they did awesome! I only got flipped off twice and it was on the up-hill part. I still have my big goal looming in the distance (Heartbreaker Half Marathon)…but after this race I have about four more fun ones in between, including a 7K women’s only race at Fort Vancouver and few more that are making me think I need to check my calendar soon.

Before

After...wanna guess who was flipping me off?? She's the one closest to the camera.


So...yep...pretty busy. I finished glazing my wood floors this evening in the new place, tomorrow I leave for Vegas for a week for a well deserved but kind of poorly timed vacation and NOW I just finished a blog post.