Thawing Out

Hello!  I'm back!  I wish I had a decent excuse for my absence, but I don't.  We weren't overwhelmingly busy, we weren't on a long vacation, we weren't going through some life-altering drama, I just didn't feel like writing I guess.  I won't bore you with all the details of life since my little hiatus, just a few highlights.

A few weeks ago Dan and I took a long weekend to visit some friends in Southern California.  A racing teammate of Dan's moved to LA last year with his wife and daughter so we hung out with them for Friday and Saturday.  They took us to a viewpoint to check out the sprawling city, and so I took the typical tourist shot of the Hollywood sign.  

Ken (Dan's friend) is an avid surfer and he volunteered to take us out on the waves and teach us a few things.  I didn't fare so well.  I got thrashed around quite a bit and after ingesting about a gallon of water (mostly through my nose) and bashing my head against the board and the ocean floor I chose the role of photographer instead.  Isn't my husband cute in his wet suit? 

Saturday afternoon we hopped on the Amtrak Surfliner and took it down near San Diego to meet up with Ryan, a college friend of Dan's. We enjoyed strolling along the beaches and even went home with a slight sunburn, but I'm not complaining!  

 I splurged and bought myself a beachy hat which Dan caught in this photo.  

We're a long way from the beach now though.  This weekend Portland was hit with a winter storm.  To my midwestern eyes it seemed pretty mild, but the WHOLE city shut down.  We had a snow day on Friday and Monday.  We got about 6 inches of snow and then a sheet of ice on top of that.  The city doesn't have the infrastructure we're used to in the midwest.  There are very few snowplows and salt trucks.  Add to that a ton of hills and I can understand why the city shut down.  I snapped these photos shortly after I got home on Thursday afternoon.  

On Sunday we received these emergency warnings on our phones.  

We're hoping to be back to normal by tomorrow.  I, for one, will be grateful to get back to work...I kinda miss my kiddos, haha. 

Thanksgiving Fades Into Christmas

I cannot believe how quickly last week flew by.  We had parent-teacher conferences on Monday and Tuesday which went remarkably well.  To be honest, I was a little nervous about the potential of having to hold conferences completely in Spanish.  As it turned out, I only had to have one Spanish conference, the rest were in English.  All were enjoyable.  We had Wednesday off, which was even more enjoyable.  Dan and I actually had a chance to sit down and sort through some of our wedding photos...5 months later.

We had a nice Thanksgiving too.  A lazy morning and then a leisurely drive out to McMinniville (a rural area, filled with wineries and farmland, about an hour outside of Portland).  My friend and co-worker Becky invited us to their family gathering at her husband's ranch there.  It was a nice little family gathering, but inevitably slightly awkward since it wasn't our family.  We enjoyed it though and were grateful for a place to go to celebrate the holiday.  

Friday I jumped right onto the holiday bandwagon.  I made Christmas cookies...plus a special one that reminds me of home.  It's still a Christmas cookie even if the frosting turned out more neon than holiday-ish right?  

Saturday I proceeded to make and put up the rest of the holiday décor. Like the boxwood wreath ($9.99 at Trader Joe's!).  I jammed some fake berries in there to make it a bit more colorful. 

 I also made this Pinterest find for the bookshelf in the living room.  I purchased some wooden (and cardboard) letters from Michaels and painted them with metallic paints.  I made the "O" out of the same fake berry garland that I used in the wreath.  It was on sale...don't judge me.

And I'm mildly embarrassed to admit this last creation.  I am officially a "crazy cat lady" because I made the cat a freakin' stocking.  Yep.  Not only does our cat now have her own stocking, but I put in the time and creative energy to hand sew the darn thing.  But come on, it's cute, right? 

I think it looks pretty good with our stockings too.  Disregard our strange Christmas Aloe...still deciding if we're going to get an actual tree or not. 

The Eye of the Storm

No this is not the calm before the storm.  Nor the peace after the storm.  We're enjoying a day or two of general solace after a hectic and confusing week and before we enter into more and more insanity.  

Let's begin with a recap of this past week, shall we?  At approximately 3:30 am on Wednesday morning, Dan decided that after hours of sleepless agony, we needed to go to the Emergency Room.  He was dealing with extreme pain in his abdomen, and we feared it may have been appendicitis.  After waiting at the ER for hours, we learned that it was not appendicitis, but we still have no clue what it was.  He now has a primary care doctor though (something I've been begging him to get since we started dating!), and we're working to determine what the source of the pain is / was.  That, on top of some stressful situations at my afternoon school (what else is new?), it's been a long week.  

This coming week I have teacher observations at my morning school, and preparation for parent-teacher conferences in the following week.  No rest for the weary.  

Dan's been working on the weekends lately, leaving me to my own devices.  Since we're trying very hard to save money, and it's gotten cold and rainy, I have limited options.  Basically, I have one option: baking.  This weekend's creation was a fancy gourmet treat.    

  

That, my friends, is a butternut squash, apple, and brie galette.  It is French.  Therefore fancy-shmancy.  Right?  Haha.  I saw the recipe when searching for ways to use butternut squash and decided I was up for the challenge.  It turned out pretty well too! 

I probably should've made something a bit more along the lines of comfort food, with everything coming up, but hey, it's got cheese in it!  And I love me some cheese.  Yum.  

Kitchen Aid

We didn't have classes on Friday and we have off on Monday as well.  I love having student-free days to get caught up on grading and work in the classroom.  You'd think I wouldn't have as much to do this year, considering I only teach four classes.  But somehow I managed to spend the entire day on Friday entering grades and fighting with the online grade system.  I'd hoped to get all of my report cards completed, but as a result of some technical difficulties, I wasn't able to do that.  I got home around 6:00 on Friday night exhausted and frustrated.  So, to cheer myself up, I decided to spend a good portion of the rest of the weekend using my new favorite toy: 

                                         

Isn't it so pretty?  As a wedding gift we received this beast.  It's awesome.  I've made quite a few batches of cookies with it so far, and am anxious to see what else I can do with it.  I started out by making some Snickerdoodles on Saturday.  

                                

                                        

They're half gone already.  Typically I'd blame Dan...but I've had more than my fair share of this batch.  They're just such a warm, autumnal, cookie.  

Today I tried my hand at a cheesecake.  Never before in my life have I made a cheesecake...and it shows.  I don't think I cooked it thoroughly enough so it's still quite goopy in the middle.  I was also rushed because I'd forgotten some ingredients, then procrastinated going to the grocery store.  By the time the thing came out of the oven, I was scurrying to get to a friend's house to watch the Timbers playoff game.  I didn't have the time to let it cool properly I just shoved the steaming creation into fridge and ran out the door.

  

It doesn't taste terrible, it just looks pretty pathetic. 

                            

It did however get the still-flea-ridden Futty's approval.  She started licking some off my hand and then tried to steal it off my plate.  

We hope to spend the day outside tomorrow because Dan has the day off as well and it's promising to by 60* and sunny.  Dan's got a few parks and hiking trails he wants to check out and I want to go to a spot where he said we could most likely spot some bald eagles.  Birds scare the bejesus out of me, but for some reason I really want to see a bald eagle!   

Drama

Flea Update: I think we've gotten Futty's flea problem under control-ish.  I cleaned all of her favorite spots to rid them of potential flea eggs and larvae and we got her some monthly medicine.  So far so good.  

In other news.  I received two surprises on Friday:

1) I was offered a full time teaching job at my favorite school

2) My dear sister Mandy went into labor (finally!) 

Surprise Número Uno: The Job

I've been helping out in the 2nd grade with some reading groups every morning.  I've enjoyed getting to know the kids a bit and getting to know their teacher as well.  It turns out that the teacher is planning to take a school wide position (School Improvement Specialist or something to that effect) and her job would be available within the next month.  I'd heard rumors about this, but didn't give it much thought, until Friday morning when the principal approached me in the hallway.  He walked up to me and said (more or less) that he couldn't bear the thought of losing me in the Spanish position, but that a full time 2nd grade position would be available and he would be remiss if he didn't offer it to me.  

Needless to say, I was pretty flattered and shocked.  After I found my "footing" again, I started to mull it over.  I've never seen myself as an "elementary" teacher, and am still not sure I have what it takes to be in a classroom of 20 some odd tiny people who are still trying to get the hang of school, though I'd definitely be up for the challenge.  But there was one thing holding me back from saying yes to the job. At the beginning of the school year, the Spanish students asked me if I'd leave them like "all the rest" of their Spanish teachers (according to the other middle school staff, they'd been through about 5 teachers by November last year...most of them scared out of the building by poor student behavior).  I had told them that unless I had some injury that precluded me from teaching, that I planned to be there until the end of the school year.  I can't go back on that promise to them.  It's not fair to them.  Plus, they're all doing REALLY well!  So, I had to tell the principal that I couldn't take the job.  

Surprise Número Dos: 

This one wasn't much of a surprise.  We've been ready for this to happen.  Mandy was starting to get pretty darn uncomfortable with the last few months of the pregnancy.  I got a text on Friday night that they were headed to the hospital.  I didn't realize what a harrowing night they were experiencing until the next morning.  Mandy was admitted to the hospital with labor pains, but was not experiencing much progress.  They discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck.  Twice.  They rushed her into an emergency C-section (all of which I learned after the fact, while sitting on my sofa drinking coffee).  They operated and got the baby out.  Luke says it was a total of 9 minutes between the time they rushed her into the operating room and when they delivered the little man.  

Luckily both Mandy and baby are doing just fine now.  I'm still having a hard time dealing with not being able to be there and hold the little dude right away.  I did get a chance to video chat with both of them and my mom's been sending me tons of adorable pictures.   The photos below are courtesy of a super proud grandma:  

Meet Ezra David.  He's the handsomest little dude in the midwest, that's for sure.

A proud big sister.  

Uh oh...

Sadly, our Sunday explorations were cut short this weekend.  We were lucky enough to get out to Kelley Point Park (beautiful outlook where the Wilamette River and the Columbia River meet) for an hour or so (pictures below).  But that was only AFTER the discovery that this little fluffy creature is not the only creature living in our house.  

She's got FLEAS!  Yuck yuck yuck!  

In all my years living with a great big golden retriever, Abby, I have never encountered fleas.  I am so grossed out!  She's even an indoor cat!  The vet says that because our apartment complex has carpeted hallways, the flea eggs/larvae will  drop off any other unclean mongrel that lives in our building and then stick to Futty when she goes into the hall.  She does wander into the hall often since she's a bit of an escape artist.  At any rate,  it is NASTY!  I combed her fur on Sunday with a "flea comb" which has super fine teeth and it's mainly used to detect the "flea dirt" (a nice euphemism for flea poo) on the skin.  

"Flea dirt" is more or less dried blood bits.  In addition to a disgusting amount of flea dirt, I found nearly 10 LIVE fleas!  Blech!  

Dan, being the wonderfully helpful husband he is, ran out today to chat with the vet and get some medication for her.  Not to mention picking up a ton of quarters for laundry, haha.  I came home from school and did a complete cleaning of her favorite spots, and 3 loads of laundry (more to come tomorrow as I wash ALL blankets and rugs and any fabric with which she's had contact).  

We're dealing with it, and so is Futty cat.  And I suppose I just have a bit of motivation for some more deep cleaning, we all know how much I love that!  Luckily, despite the gross encounter, we were able to check out some pretty river views before our hectic week started. 

  

Sunday Explorations

Since Dan had Sunday off of work again this week, we decided to do a bit of exploration.  I wanted to do some serious hiking (like out at Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens) but Dan woke up with a cold and wasn't feeling too energetic.  I can't blame him since he ran 19 miles the day before, while I sat on my butt.  We decided to drive out to Powell Butte Nature Park, a nature preserve east of Portland.  We were disappointed to find that most of it was shut down due to construction, but we did find a little trail leading into the preserve and we decided to see where it led us.  We were pleasantly surprised to find some gorgeous vistas.  

Here I am with Mt. Hood in the background (taken on my new phone, FYI...check out that quality!) 

And another Mt. Hood view (which isn't quite as clear because I zoomed it in quite a bit) 

I've grown to look forward to seeing Mt. Hood every morning.  I used to be surprised when I saw it looming over the skyline because it seemed so sporadic.  One day it was clearly visible, and the next it would be hidden by clouds.  I've since learned the exact point on the horizon to look and nearly every morning I can see the outline of the beast looming in the sunrise.  It's like it's saying "Good Morning!" 

From our vantage point in Powell Butte, we were able to spy Mt. St. Helens too!  Her poor decapitated self.  Again it's blurry from zooming.  The iPhone isn't perfect yet.  Or maybe the user isn't perfect yet. 

Sometimes if it's clear enough, I can find her in the morning too.  But I haven't quite learned her spot yet, plus she's farther away. Two weeks ago though, Dan and I were driving along the St. John's bridge (the farthest north bridge in Portland) and saw her clear as day behind us. She scares me a bit though. She's unpredictable.  

Last but not least, and you'll have to use your imaginations for this one.  We could spy the TINY little tip of Mt. Rainier.  I promise, those aren't clouds, it's a mountain peak...it's just really far away.  Trust me.