hello charlie

Last night Derek and I got to meet the precious Charlie Auden. He may be a "big boy" but really he is so tiny and precious. It was amazing to be there and get to hold him and see him in his 3rd day of life.

I didn't want to put him down

The happy fam

too cute

He likes to cry..but he's still adorable while doing so

I may even be blessed by a tiny little visitor at my home today. Jess and Charlie are going to be on this side of town taking daddy to work, so we might just get to hang out. I have a feeling this blog may soon contain more pictures of Charlie than of myself. :) Just can't help but love him so much.

a child is born...

Sunday afternoon I received a phone call from my friend Jeff. I excitedly answered the phone and said "is it time!?", Jeff replied in a sober voice "it's time". Jeff's wife, Jess, was officially in labor at long last. I gathered information from Jeff and phoned all of our friends to give them the update. That was about 2:30 in the afternoon. I sat and waited by the phone for more news until I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to know! I picked up the phone and called Jeff & Jess's home at 7:00pm. Jess's mom answered and told me that they were heading to the hospital. Learning that they did not have enough car space for all of them to get there I rushed over (along with my friend Grace) to pick up Jess's mom and we met them all at the hospital. Not too long after, all of our friends began arriving one by one. Pretty soon there was about 9 or 10 of us in the waiting room supporting our dear friend and waiting for the news. Enjoy the pictures below...they tell a better story than I can.

This Jess about a week before she "popped"

Passing the time in the waiting room

Here we all are along with Jess's mom and dad

Shelley, Grace & Katie C. -- getting sleepy

At about 12:45am we received the news --- "It's a boy!"

Hugs all around
Charlie Auden...the newest addition to our group of friends.
We love him already.

Sadly because it was so late and we all had to work the next day (well later that morning technically), we did not actually get to see Charlie the night he was born (although I was willing to wait). But tonight Derek and I have the honor of blessing our good friends with a meal and meeting this precious baby boy. More pictures to come I am sure. Congratulations to the new mom and dad!

friends

The party the other night was great as expected. We heard about everyones holiday break, Ansley got to share her big news about being pregnant, we got to oogle over the size of Jess's ready to burst tummy and we drank beer with our best of friends. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that. I snapped a couple pics so I decided to share this one of me and the girls. A few of "the girls" are missing, but you get the gist. These are my friends. I love them.

Tonight I get the priveledge of seeing the girls again cause I am hosting "Clothes Swap 2007". It will be a night full of clothes, hard cider, Dixie Chicks and girlfriends. I don't think it gets much more girlie than that. Unless we all wore pink or something.

The internet at home has been incredibly turtle like. I swear it has been slower than dial-up (remember dial-up?). It's funny how quickly we get used to new technology and how it seems as though we could never go back to the way it was. I admit, I have been feeling that way about our internet connection. It has been unbearably slow. Things like checking my email that should take maybe 30 seconds are taking 5 minutes. I wonder how long it will take me to actually post this blog.

Yesterday was my flex day (I had the day off) so I slept in, got a good 8 hours and when I woke up, I looked out the window and saw this:Crazy Vancouver weather! About 3 days ago it was in the upper 50s here and then snow! Of course it all melted by about mid-day but it was fun while it lasted.

Derek and I had to run some errands in the States so late yesterday morning we made the journey southward to Bellingham. The border wait on the way down was about 30 minutes, not too bad. In b-ham we went to the bank, bought beer at Fred Meyer, went to Target (of course) and then to a book store. The border wait on the way home was non existent which was wonderful. Our whole trip there and back was exactly 5 hours. Record time I'd say. It will probably be our last visit to the states for a while. We are ready to stay put in Vancouver for a good chunk of time.

Last night we had a wonderful dinner with some close friends who we haven't seen in a while and found out they are going to have a baby! How exciting! Just as one friend is about ready to pop I find out another has one on the way. Tonight we are going to a party where we will get to see all our friends again, most for the first time in 2007. I am excited to hear about everyones holidays and see all my wonderful friends again. I miss them. And my one friend will get to tell everyone that she's expecting. It's going to be a great night. Pictures to come I am sure.

Christmas pics and highlights

A few higlights from our Holiday in Oregon include:
-seeing LOTS of good friends
-staying with Dave and Majell
-gettinng a whole new bathroom set for Christmas (unexpectedly)
-watching Taladega Nights, In Good Company, Oceans 12, Pursuit of Happyness and The Holiday
-Deschutes Brewery tour
-hours and hours spent at Backporch
-Our awesome Christmas gift from Dave and Majell "Free drinks for the time you are visiting"
-Beginning my New York scrapbook
-3 Christmas celebrations!

Feel free to look through the album of pictures

Christmas Holiday 2006

Home at last! Happy New Year!

Happy 2007 everyone! My Holiday has officially come to an end. No more lights, trees, presents, backporch coffee and no more Oregon. It was a great great trip but I must admit, a bit long. We are glad to be home to our own place with our own bed, our own shower and our own space. Today I went back to work and life is now officially back to normal for the most part. The last week or so in Oregon was great. Just as relaxing as ever mostly spent sipping coffee at Backporch. I got to see some old friends, went to a wedding and had 2 more Christmas extravaganzas with Derek's family!! I am very happy to report that our drive home was much more successful than the drive down. We did not hit any snow banks and though we were quite tense driving through the snow over the Mt Hood pass we made it through safe and sound. Below you will find a couple pics of our last days in Oregon. I will try and post the whole album in the next couple of days in case you want to see more of what we did during our break. I hope everyone had an amazing Holiday with family or friends or however you spent it. I am just so thankful for all of the friends we were able to see while in Oregon. Dave & Majell, Chris & Jenni (and Sam), our new friend Joe, Kari, Megan, Marc & Alexis, Shaun, Amber, Rachel and more...I love you all and appreciate your friendship so much.

Kari, Megan and I (just like old times) on top of Pilot Butte in Bend.

At Beth Colclough's wedding

Beth's wedding reception with Jessica and Allison (love you girls!).

opening my new sheets and down blanket from Derek's dad & step mom!!

Our adorable niece and nephew on Alex's new rocket! Aren't they the cutest?!

Christmas and more!

The past few days have been great. Full of friends, family and fun! A couple days before Christmas, Derek and I, along with my dad and a few of his friends went to a Deschutes Brewery tour and tasting. Which, by the way, is free and totally recommend it if you are ever in Bend.

This is beers number 3 and 4 :)

On Christmas eve my sister and her husband came into town at last. We went to a Christmas eve Candlelight service with the fam...

...and then out to Pine Tavern for a late dinner

Christmas morning arrived at last and the family gathered to open presents and spend the day together.


My wonderful husband got me the new iPod shuffle!!!! I am so excited about this. It is so cute and compact and perfect for anything.

The rest of Christmas day was spent with the fam. We hung out at home, went running with Annie, had a big Christmas feast around 2:00 then we all went to a movie. The kids saw Night at the Museum and the adults saw The Holiday. SO SO good. After the movies we had a gift exchange and Derek and I scored some great DVDs and a wine opener set. Exciting! Later that night as we gorged ourselves on dessert we played a fun game of Cranium that lasted way too long. But we had a blast.

Well, Christmas has come and gone, the rain has finally stopped falling, and the retail return lines are ridiculous. Exhale! Derek and I went shopping a lot of the day yesterday and last night we were treated to dinner at Zydeco by Dave and Majell. A splendid meal. Now I sit again at Backporch coffee just hanging out and waiting for the day to officially begin. I am meeting my friend Amber in about a half hour and then later today meeting with Megan and Kari. Oh how I love my friends :)

party

Last night Majell had a birthday party. We had lots of fun with friends....

Here's everyone hanging out


Dave and Derek hid in the back room avoiding the social scene for some of the time :)


It was a "bring a dessert to share" party and boy...there was quite a spread



Now I sit, once again, at backporch awaiting a friend as the rain falls on the streets outside. Another day in Bend continues.

just hanging out in Bend

I can't say that a lot has been going on these past few days, cause nothing really has. It has been peaceful and restful and I won't lie...I am kind of bored. But I need to cherish these moments cause in a couple weeks when I am sitting back at my desk at work, I will miss this. The majority of our day has pretty much been spent at Backporch sipping coffee and hanging out with our friends. The place is such a social hang out. You stay there long enough and you are bound to run into at least 2 or 3 people you know. It's great. Today I was even let behind the counter to play a little bit. Good times. I am learning that when it comes to my job, I have it quite nice. Poor Dave and Majell work 12 hour days, 6 days a week. They come home at night and are just wiped out. They hardly have enough energy left to fix and eat dinner and then they are off to bed around 9:00 every night only yo get up and do it all over again. They need a break, big time. Such is the life of owning your own business I guess.

We have seen my family a handful of times and 2 nights ago Derek and I went to see Pursuit of Happyness, I highly recommend it. Oh man, it was SO SO good. Go see it!

Yesterday and today I got to get behind the counter of Backporch coffee and experience it from the other side. They put me to work and we had a good time. Although I was confused while counting out change to not see loonies and toonies! Tonight Majell is having a little birthday party with friends and I am very much looking forward to seeing old friends and eating dessert :) I have pumpkin cheesecake tarts in the oven as we speak.

The next few days will be filled with hanging with my mom (some movie watching, shopping and scrapbooking) and then the Christmas festivities will begin! It still doesn't feel like Christmas time and I am beginning to wonder if it will at all this year. But...Merry Christmas!

Oregon at last

We are officially on Christmas holiday in Oregon. I cannot believe it. This has been the long awaited trip and it has arrived! Saturday morning we woke up super early and hit the road. We dropped off our friends Lucas and Shannon at the Seattle airport then continued down the highway. We arrive in Portland just in time for our hair appointments with Derek's brother-in-law. That's right! I have "new" hair yet again. It is now shorter and browner and I adore it. So we spent 2 nights in Portland and mostly just hung out with Derek's sister and her family.

Yesterday morning we hit the road again and headed for Bend. We have been so antsy to arrive in Bend because we get to be here for TWO WEEKS! After much web cam viewing and weather watching we decided to drive over Santiam pass rather than Mt. Hood because the roads seemed a lot clearer and we would rather not put chains on if we can help it. This seems to have been a mistake. As we were driving over the top of the pass there was a lot of packed, packed snow or ice. We were going down a hill, not going very fast and we lost control. We fish tailed back and forth for about 30 seconds and Derek handled the wheel so well. We thought he would be able to correct it and we would be back on our merry way. Instead, it only go worse and it became uncontrollable. Our car ended up spinning around and slamming into a snow bank on the opposite site of the road. It was so scary, so so scary. Especially because about 5 seconds later a semi truck came around the corner and had to drive around us. We know that someone up above was watching out for us. Luckily there were no other cars on the road, there were snow banks on both sides of the road and the semi truck didn't come even 2 seconds earlier. Needless to say we were quite shaken up and the rest of the drive to Bend seemed forever. Our bumper is pretty scratched up with a couple small cracks, but that is the only damage. Praise the Lord.

Anyway, we were so happy to get to Bend and see Dave and Majell (our good friends, that we are staying with in Bend). We got to see their new coffee shop and spent the evening there with them. On Monday nights they have a "coffee cupping" and we were happy to participate in that.

So we are officially in Bend and so happy and thankful to be here. More stories to come...

Christmas dinner with friends

Last Tuesday night, my girls group decided to invite the husbands along for a nice Christmas dinner at Levi and Shelley's house. Everyone pitched in and we had wonderful food and drinks including ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, wine and more! We had a great time eating and laughing and having some good "family time".

Here is our beautiful table complete with all the fixins :)

Lucas and Levi enjoying the meal

Shelley and Levi --- eat up!

Later, Shelley read us a Christmas story

Just hanging out


Lucas & Shannon and Jess & Jeff (and carl)

The gang!

birthday bash

Friday night our friends Ben and Lucas had a Birthday party......

This is Ben


This is Lucas

There was beer

...and friends (don't worry, Jess didn't drink the beer)

and drinking of beer

shortly followed by singing

...and dancing

fun was had by all :)

The rest of the story...and Thanksgiving too!

The saga continued as we went to the airport Tuesday morning to catch our 9am flight. We were checking in and they told us that we were in fact on the 5pm flight not the 9am flight. This was a breaking point for both Derek and I as that was the last thing we wanted to hear. We spent the next half hour on the phone with Air Canada trying to figure out what went wrong and what they were going to do about it. They were completely useless and unsympathectic at our situation and they were not going to do a darn thing to help us. After days of annoyance with the airline and being stuck in Portland we decided to rent a car and get home!! We went to the car rental area at the airport and went from place to place asking if they did "one way to Vancouver BC". No, no, no, and no! Finally the last one we went to had one car they needed retunred to Canada and we could be the lucky ones to drive it there. What a relief! We hoped in our front wheel drive Ford Taurus and headed North. Once we were getting near Olympia we began to see more and more snow on the sides of the road soon followed by ice and snow on the highway. The right 2 lanes were pretty clear but the far left lane (the "fast" lane) was pretty iced over. We stayed right and witnessed nearly 3 accidents in the left lane. It was intense. We saw dozens of abandoned cars burried by the snow on the sides of I-5, some even facing backwards and we could only imagine how they got into that position. The roads got a little better as we went through Seattle then quickly turned worse as we approached Bellingham. From Bellingham to the border it was like we were drving on an ice skating rink, I don't think we went more than 25 miles per hour. Luckily, being the Oregonian I love, Derek knows how to drive in this stuff, it's the other people that freak me out! The best was when we would see people driving on the clear roads (with maybe a little slush) with full on chains on their tires. We laughed at that! We were happily surprised to see only about 3 cars at the border and we were home in no time! Ultimately we decided that waiting for the 5pm flight would have been a batter and safer option at the end of the day, but we were so antsy to get home that renting a car seemed the most logical at the time. Most importantly is that we made it home safe and we resumed our lives Wednesday morning as normal.
Now I can rewind a bit to Thanksgiving day. As you will see from the pictures, the day began with a hike in the (unexpected) snow at Sahalie Falls. It was gorgeous and the snow was so fresh and soft that it didn't even feel cold! After a hot shower and feeling refreshed, my sister, Annie, and I began cooking the feast. It took us allllll day to cook that meal. Little did we know it would basically just be the two of us doing all the work. We didn't eat until about 8:30pm, I still can't believe how long it took. We enjoyed a big family gathering with tons of food, just as Thanksgiving should be. We followed that by playing a silly Disney trivia game with all my sisters, we had a blast and laughed a lot. That was basically it for the day and my parents and little sisters and brother headed back home late the following morning. It was a short trip for them but ours continued on with a day full of movies, games and leftovers with my big sisters. Derek joined us later for some Cranium and speed scrabble. What a great day with absolutely no shopping! The following morning (Saturday) Derek and I headed into Eugene where I was able to have lunch and coffee with my great friend, Ashley. We headed staright out to Forrest Grove to spend a night with Dereks dad and stepmom, we had a nice evening filled with chatting, picture viewing and a yummy dinner! Sunday morning we made our way to Portland in anticipation of flying out later that day but.....you know the story from there. Enjoy the pics!

American Thanksgiving weekend - November 2006

stranded...

At this very moment in time on Monday afternoon I am sitting at a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon. That's right, Portland. As you well now we flew down to Oregon last Wednesday to then drive to Eugene and spend American Thanksgiving with my family (more details and pictures on that to come at another time). Anyway, we drove back to Portland and planned to fly out around 4ish on Sunday. That was quickly changed when we checked out flight status online Sunday morning and noticed our flight had been canceled. Apparently it has been dumping snow in Vancouver and they can't keep the runways clear. We were a little bummed cause we were ready to get home but thought it would be fun to stay another day. We rebooked the flight for today at 1:30 to only find out this morning that yet again our flight was canceled. Derek and I spent a long time trying to decide if we should just rent a car and get home. However since all of the I-5 in Northern Washington is covered with snow as well we decided driving might not be the safest route. We are scheduled to fly out tomorrow morning at 9:20am and have decided that if it is once again canceled then we will rent ourselves a nice SUV and get home! We are sad to be missing the snow in Vancouver but from the looks and sound of it, I think it will be around at least another few days.
The funny and ironic thing about all of this is that we had originally said we were not going to come for Thanksgiving because of the time and energy it took to drive down to Oregon, that is when my sisters bought us plane tickets. But if we would have just driven in the first place we would have been home yesterday. Oh man! Derek has a lot of school work to do and that has been difficult to accomplish but we are trying to make the best of the situation and we have been enjoying time with Derek's sister and her family. And last night we got to go out to McMenamins with Dan and Amanda.
One day soon we will be home in Vancouver again only to come back to Oregon in less than 3 weeks.

Baby Shower fun!!!

On Sunday my friend Grace and I threw a baby shower for our dear friend, Jess. Grace and I had a blast coming up with fun ideas and planning, planning, planning! We were so giddy and had so much fun with it all. The shower went great and Jess is now stocked up for baby! Take a look at the pictures.

Derek and I leave tonight to go to Oregon for American Thanksgiving. We have been blessed by my big sisters with plane tickets from Vancouver to Portland. We are looking forward to it. One more hour of work and then I get to go home and get to the airport! Lots of Thanksgiving pictures to come. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

(with this new web album thing, I think I am going to phase out my Photo Blog. It will still be there but will be more of an archive--FYI).

November 19th, 2006 - Jess's Baby Shower

Yucky icky Vancouver water!

I was going to post a blog about the "happenings" with our water here in Vancouver (for all you non-Vancouver folk who do not know about this already) but instead I will let you read one of my friends Blogs who has already done the work for me :) Thanks Grace!
Go here and read about it. And yes, feel very very sorry for us :(

Update: Read the latest article in Vancouver Sun written today

Last night Derek and I went to the Real Canadian Superstore to go grocery shopping. It was, surprisingly, an okay trip as the store was pretty empty and the check-out lines were short. As we were unloading our cart at the check-out stand I noticed something on the floor that was purple. As I got closer I realized it was a folded up $10 bill (canadian-hence the purple). I awkwardly picked it up, not knowing what to do, held it up to the cashier and said "uh, someone dropped this", his response was "well, you can keep it!". You would think my reaction to this would be "Alright!! Ten bucks! How shall I spend it?!?!" but for some reason I felt strangely guilty, like I had just taken candy away from a kid. I looked around at everyone to see if I could notice anyone with a "I lost ten dollars" look on their face and slowly slipped the bill into my pocket. It is now in my wallet where it will be safe and sound from my husbands recent out-of-control spending habits ;)

Now this is Vancouver!

Our fall got off to a bit of a late start this year as we didn't see much rain until last week. This is quite unusual for Vancouver where we are used to rain for at least 9 months out of the year. And though we got some rain last week, I would have to say that as of today, I can confirm that fall is officially here to stay! It is POURING outside right now, there is standing water everywhere and the wind is crazy howling. I was beginning to get concerned with all the blue skies and sunshine we were experiencing but now I can rest easy. This is the Vancouver we all know and love. Welcome back friend :)

The Departed

Last night Derek and I went to see The Departed in the movie theatre. Which, first of all, is a huge deal because we NEVER go see movies in the theatre, it is so gosh darn expensive up here. We weren't neccesarily dying to see this movie, but we were in need of a good date and it sounded like a fun thing to do on a cold fall night. It was a good movie, an action, quite violent, but with Leonardo Dicaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson in a Martin Scorsese film, you can't go wrong. It was a pretty long movie and about 2 hours into it the sound went out. No sound whatsoever for probably 5-10 minutes. This was annoying and awkward and it was near the end, so it wasn't a good time for the sound to go. But it did come back on and we watched the end in full sound. After the movie though we noticed people who were in our theatre lining up and we thought "reimbursement?", we of course got right in line and got two free movie passes!! All because the sound went out for 5 minutes. So eventhough we weren't too happy to pay $12 each for a movie, it's like we got a 2 for 1 and it was totally worth it!
The movie was good, a lot of swearing, a bit long, a bit violent, but very good, I would recommend it if you are into that type of movie. Although I am sad to say that Mr. Scorsese will probably not be earning his oscar on this one either.