Fall 2009

The holiday's have come and gone already!! I have so much to update!

First of all, depositions are over! Thank goodness. I was really stressed out, but I did my research, went over some common depo questions, and asked Trav to quiz me over the accident, and some details and timelines over the past several years. They weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be, and they were over in about an hour and a half. And part of that was the guy who hit me talking! My lawyer said I got an A. Arbitration had been set up even before depositions were scheduled, but Patrick said they would probably settle before arbitration.

They didn't. Dec 21st kept inching closer and closer and we never heard a peep out of them! So we met with the lawyer on Dec 18 to go over what arbitration would be like. Nerves all over again! Before the meeting, Trav took me to get a dilly bar since we were a little early. I love stuff like that. I miss that from when we were younger. We had so much more time to just wander around town and do whatever we wanted. And Trav always had such good ideas! After the meeting Trav took me through the Pepsi lights. That was a lot of fun too. Anyway, at the meeting we went over that it would be in a small conference room with the judge, Patrick, me, Trav (our witness to how the collision has affected me), and the defense lawyer who had questioned me at depositions. He was really nice during depositions, so I wasn't expecting it to be too bad. All we could tell them was the truth. I haven't lied at all. Still, we were nervous! It's just nerve racking being on the spot and being asked questions in front of people! Especially with my horrible memory!

Arbitration was AWFUL. First my lawyer asked me questions about the accident and how it's affected me. And he asked Trav if he's ovserved that I do anything differently now than I did before the accident. That wasn't bad. But then the defense attorney got to ask me questions and the nice guy I'd talked to at depo's was no where to be found. I bet thats part of his strategy! Ugh. He made me look like a liar because he asked if I'd complained of headaches to any of my doctors before my accident and I said I didn't remember. I see doctors a lot and I talk to them about lots of things. I've never specifically gone to the doctor about having headaches, but I have had headaches before so it's possible it's come up at an appointment. Anyway, he asked me and I said I didn't remember. Then he found everytime I've ever talked to a doctor about a headache. Ever! He quoted what was in the doctors notes and then would say :do you remember that? DUH, obviously I don't remember or I would have said I did earlier! Then he asked me if I have any specific problems with my memory. He was such a douche. I hope someday I'm in control of something HE'S doing! I know it's thier job to act like that, but sheesh. And I will be the first to admit, I don't have a good memory! And with how much I've been to the doctor in the last 5 - 10 years, there is no WAY I can remember everything I've talked to them about.

Anyway, his argument was that I obviously had frequent headaches before the accident, so they shouldn't have to pay any of my medical bills. Hello....what about my back and neck problems? He had nothing to say about those.

It was very unpleasant. I totally didn't expect that. I didn't know I had forgotten so much. I felt embarrassed and that I was made out to look like a liar!

Afterwards, my lawyer said that was pretty normal, and not to worry about it. Yeah right! I was worried about even getting my 4k in medical bills paid for now!

About a week later, we got a letter from the judge. He is offering $2700 (app) for the medical, and $7000, non-econamical (pain and suffering). So almost 10k. My lawyer had said during the arbitration closing statements that he'd like to see a settlement in the high teen's. And we originally asked for 46k! Ha. We knew we wouldn't get that! 10k would be great if we got to keep it all. Of course the medical bills have to come out of it, and then 40% of whatever is left goes to the lawyer. There is almost 1k in lawyer fees that the other side is supposed to pay. They can appeal it though and we could end up having to pay some or all of it. My lawyer is also going to write a letter to my doctors and tell them we only recieved 70% of the medical in the case, and ask them if they will take 70% of what we owe them. I hope that at least Dr. Brown does that. He's already gotten over 8k from my insurance in this case!

Anyway, best case scinario, we'll end up with $4k in our pockets and all the medical bills paid, and worst case we'll end up with around $2k in our pockets and all the medical bills paid. I am REALLY glad to at least have the medical bills paid. That was stressing me out. I'd been hoping to get between 5 - 10k to put in the bank for future problems from the accident. Hopefully we'll at least be close to 5k. Only time will tell! Of course the other side can still appeal this settlement if they think it's too high, and make this go to jury trial. Which would be completely redicious! I can't see them doing that over 10k, but crazier things have happened! We have to wait 10 days into Jan for the settlement by the judge to be recorded in court, and then the other side still have 20 days to appeal it. So we probably won't even know if this is for sure what we're getting until the end of January! THEN my lawyer will write the letter to my medical providers, so we'll have to wait to hear back from them. And who know how long it takes to actually get a check from the insurance. It will probably be almost 3 years since the accident by the time this is totally done! And I STILL have back problems and headaches. You just can't put a price on what it's like going through this whole process. It's terrible. And on top of still being in pain....it's just not right. I NEVER ever want to get in an accident again. Mainly because I don't want to have to deal with the insurance!

On the positive side....as long as the other side doesn't appeal, at least this is OVER! I am very happy about that. I'd like to just move on! Hopefully the medical providers will take 70%, and the other side will pay their lawyer fees so we'll get the best settlement we can out of it.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had it at mom and dad's house. We had Grandma, Uncle Bob, Sara, and Air join Mom, Dad, Joel, Trav and I. It was a lot of fun. Mom and I bought all the ingredients together. It's expensive getting everything for a thanksgiving dinner!!! And I'm a thrifty shopper! It was almost $80 for all the ingredients! For one dinner. It was so good though, and so much fun! Air and I went through the Black Friday ads and got a list together of everywhere we wanted to go.

I tried to go to bed early, but I didn't fall asleep until almost 11, and Air was at the house at 3:30am! I was running on about half the sleep I normally get! We shopped until we dropped. We didn't get home until 4:30 in the afternoon!! I was delerious around 8. I usually make it until noon before I get delirious! But I got my second wind around 10 and I went strong until about 4! We got LOTS of good deals, and I got most of Trav and I's Christmas shopping done.

We went and got our Christmas Tree on Saturday. We found Volstadt Farms in N Albany last year, and we really liked it so we went back. They had a BEAUTIFUL Nordmann Fir. It has the stiff thick branches and pine needles, and they are deep forest green on the top, but underneath they are blue, so the tree looks frosted if you see it in the right light. It was a little more, but it was just too cool. Trav and I got our first really nice tree! Of course we had fun picking it out and cutting it down, and enjoyed some wassil before leaving. When we got home we decorated. Trav put the lights up outside while I decorated inside, and then we decorated the tree together.

We had Christmas with the Clark's on Saturday the 18th because Robert and Kathy were leaving Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with her family in Eagle Point. We went to Jason and Amber's this year and had Thai food. It was a fun day. Trav and I made some of our gifts this year, and we made hot chocolate for everyone there. We LOVE hot chocolate, and pretty much everyone knows it, so we thought it would be appropriate! Plus, who doesn't like hot cocoa?? :) We put it with little marshmallows and wrapped a bow around the jar. I also made them each a plate with homemade cookies that we made and Rachelle's Christmas Cookie Party. Mmmmm they were so yummy! And we got them each a little something else. We were supposed to do homemade and/or small gifts this year. We got Coraline an Elmo pillow and stuffed animal. She's really into elmo right now, so that was fun! She was very excited. Amber and Jason got us some cool souvieners from Thailand and they knit me some slippers like Travs that they knit him last year. Robert and Kathy made us a family calendar with family photos in it. It's very special. They also made us a HUGE jar of homemade pickles. They are so good! We've already eaten at least half of them!

After we did Christmas we figured since we were in Portland we should go to the Portland Zoo lights. I'd heard they were really cool. The line was outrageous! It took about 15 - 20 minutes just to get into the zoo! It was SO pretty! Everything was lit up amazingly! Everyone said taking the train was a must to see the lights, so we went to get into line for the train. It was over an hour long line!! The train ride was fun, but it was only about 5 minutes and Trav and I said next time we go, we're going to walk it!! I've never been on the train though, so that was pretty fun! Not worth an hour long wait though!

Trav and I had from the 24th - 30th off work, then we worked the 30th and 31st, and were off again from the 1 - 4th! Christmas Eve we slept in, and then went to meet at my parents house. We went to the Christmas Eve service at Morning Star in Salem. Afterwards we went to look at lights around Salem, and we finished up by getting a pizza from figaro's to take home and bake! We did Christmas with Sara since she was leaving that night to go spend Christmas with her mom. And we did our Christmas Eve gifts! It was really fun! Sara did a GREAT job on gifts. She got me hot chocolate and candles....can't go wrong!! She got Trav beef jerky and authentic rice crackers (which he has been really into lately), She got my dad coffee, and my mom a mug gift set that was purple and had a bible verse on it! All her gifts were super thoughtful! Mom got us all Christmas Eve jammies as always! Mine are snoopy and super soft!! Trav's are awesome too. They are like a scrubs material but they look have a flannel print. He loves them.

That evening Trav and I actually went home. We have Emma-Roo now, so we have to come home to take care of her! We gave her the stuffed duck toy that Sara got her and she loved it. She had it torn to shreds in about 5 minutes, but she had so much fun doing it.

We woke up nice and early Christmas morning, left our Christmas jammies on, and headed to mom and dad's for the tree. We got spoiled as always. It was a lot of fun! It took over 2 hours to open all our gifts. Trav and I both got each other OSU shirts for our gift. Great minds. :) We rushed home at 11 to get the prime rib roast in the oven for lunch at 2!

Mom, Dad, and Joel came over at noon and mom helped me get dinner ready while the guys chatted. Grandma Collins came to dinner too. She had a lot of fun with Emma. Right when dinner was ready, my cousin Kimmy and Kevin, and Aunt Mel called because they were in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by. They came by with Kevins 3 daughters and it was so much fun catching up. After they left we got dinner on the table and the prime rib was de.lic.ious!!!!

We had a great time socializing with family. After dinner we watched "The Proposal" because mom had been wanting to see it! Such a funny movie. That evening Lacee, Hunter, and Ryder came to visit. He is such a cutie. We all took turns holding him and loving on him. Emma LOVED him and wanted to play so badly. It was really cute.

We finished out the night rocking out on guitar hero, talking, drinking wine, and catching up.

That Sunday was Air and I's Annual Friends Christmas Dinner. It is growing! Last year we had 9 people come, and this year we had 15. It was so much fun. We had it at Air's this year, since it was at my house last year. We set up tables across her living room. They took up the whole thing! It was awesome. We got the biggest turkey we could find, a 22 pounder!! We got all the fixins and started early Sunday preparing! Dinner was a little late, but really when isn't a turkey dinner a little late? :) It was a really fun time with our friends! And I must say, the food was delicious! I think we're going to have to rent a place next year to fit everyone! :)

Early Monday morning, Lacee and Hunter brought Ryder over for Trav and I to watch him overnight. They were going to Seaside to celebrate thier anniversary. They brought him over at 7, and of course Trav and I were sleepy so we put him right back to bed and he slept until 9! Nice. Then when he woke up, we got up with him. Poor little guy had a pretty bad cold. In the first hour of him being awake, he spit up on me at least 5 times, and Travis - none! Of course.

Trav and I had all these things we were thinking of doing. They left us the stroller and car seat so we were going to go shopping! We still needed to get our Christmas gifts for each other. Well, it's a lot more work to get out the door with a baby! We got him all ready and right before we left, he spit up on me. So we changed him and me and got all ready again, and Bam, poopy diaper! At this point we'd been trying to leave for about an hour, so when poopy diaper hit, we just decided to stay in for the evening instead. :) So we played at home. Emma LOVED Ryder. She was instantly protective of him too. It was really sweet.

Poor Ryder was having trouble breathing beacuse of his cold, so we woke up several times during the night. Or I guess I should say, we woke up several times. We was coughing and coughing one time so we got up and he was still fast asleep, just coughing right through it.

Tuesday Trav and I were determined to go shopping! So we tried again, and we actually made it out the door this time. Ryder fell alseep in the car seat and he slept the WHOLE time we were out shopping. We went to Old Navy and tried on tons of clothes (and got our Christmas presents there....they had so many good deals!), we went to the mall and Target and he slept right through the whole trip. He slept on the way home, and he slept when we got him home. Lacee called me as we were getting home at 5. I expected her call because I knew they were heading home at 2, so they were due back around 5. Well, she called to say they were stuck in the snow and still in Cannon Beach. Traffic had just been crawling and stopped the whole 3 hours. What a nightmare. We didn't mind watching Ryder at all though! Lacee and Hunter didn't make it back until almost 11pm! It took 9 hours for a normally 3 hour drive!

We had a great time seeing and watching Ryder. He is a happy baby. I like happy babies! And I learned something about myself....I think I will spend a lot more time at home with my baby than I ever thought!! :) I don't think we'll be going out much. Especially if Travis isn't there to help me! :) I'm sure it'll get easier with experience though.

Travis woke up with a sore throat on New Years Eve. Poor guy. He was feeling pretty awful after work. So, we had a very chill NYE party. We toasted at midnight with water in our martini glasses.

Now, it's 2010. Where have the last 10 years gone? I remember 2000 like it was yesterday! This year will be my 10 year high school reunion! What the heck! Here we go......

Seafood buffet = delicious!!

Just a quick post to say that the Seafood buffet and Spirit Mountian Casino is DE.LIC.IOUS!!! Seriously. We went to celebrate Air's birthday, and I don't think I've ever eaten so much crab. They had every kind of seafood you can imagine! I had salmon, steamer clam, bay scallops, TONS of crab, and even a peice or prime rib. I completely stayed away from the sides! In this case, as delicious as it looked, it was just filler! It was so good! I can't wait to go back!!

A trip to Seaside, 11 years together

It's hard to believe, but I have now been with my sweetie for 11 years and one day.
:) My very best friend in the whole world.



We'd been wanting to get away for a while, so we thought what better time than the weekend before November 9th....the day we starting dating. As Travis put it, the day I finally said yes. :) He'd asked me out several times a day for about a month and was getting used to me saying no. It wasn't that I didn't like him, it was just hard for me because we were best friends, and I didn't want to ruin that friendship. I'm so glad I finally decided to give it a try though, because it's turned out to be the best relationship ever. Our friendship has only made it that much better!

Anyway, we decided to take a weekend trip to Seaside last weekend. We found a really cute little hotel....with only 14 rooms, that was right on the promenade. It came complete with an ocean view, fireplace, kitchenette, and a temprupedic mattress. They also provided the most comfortable robes we have ever worn. Someday, we want to buy some!!

So, we planned our trip! We planned to leave Saturday the 7th at 8am, drive up through Tillamook and stop at the cheese factory, and finish the drive up scenic 101, through Cannon Beach, and then Seaside. The night before we left, we had a few drinks with Erika and Darin and Shelby so we didn't end up leaving until 9am. Which was just fine! We stopped at McDonald's to get a mcmuffin and a couple coffees and we were on our way. We hit a huge storm on our drive over. It was really cool! At one point it was raining so hard that everyone pulled off the road because you couldn't see in front of you at all! We were on a windy road between Salem and Tillamook that we'd never been on, so it wasn't worth it to even attempt to stay on the road when everyone else had pulled off! It was exciting.



We toured the Tillamook Cheese factory, which is always fun! We sampled the cheeses at the end and in the process discovered a new cheese that we loved. It's vintage aged sharp white cheddar. It is so good! We bought a block and brought it with us!



The drive on 101 was so beautiful. We stopped at a couple viewpoints to look at the ocean.

We were in Cannon Beach in no time! We were hungry and we saw a sign for Mo's so we stopped there to eat. I've always wanted to see the big famous rock in Cannon Beach, but I had no idea which beach it was on. I figured we'd look on our way back the next day, but when we pulled up to Mo's....there is was! Right on the beach Mo's was on!! It was so stormy that we couldn't walk over to it, because the storm had brought the tide all the way up to the parking lot! There was no beach to walk on!

We got seated right away, and at a window seat. We ordered our lunch and were just talking when we noticed that the tide was coming right up to the restaurant.

We figured it was normal, until we looked around and noticed the waitresses looked a little panicked. We asked ours if this was normal, and she said no. They were thinking about evacuating! We got another big wave while we were there....it knocked some big logs against the building causing it to shake. It was awesome! They "messed up" my order too and gave me a huge order or free fries. :) Everything was going our way!

We continued on our way to Seaside. It was only about 15 mins from Cannon Beach. We found our hotel, and we were about an hour early.

We went it just to let them know we were there, but they said we could check in. Our room was SO nice. Better than the pictures! It was so cozy!

They even had a balloon bouquet on the table in the bay window that said Happy Anniversary and had a card from them with taffy and home baked chocolate chip cookies!!

All because when Trav called to book the room, they asked what the trip was for and he said we were celebrating our anniversary! We felt so special. We loved the room. We turned on the fireplace and then went out to take a walk on the promenade while it was still light out. We took our umbrellas because the weather was a bit iffy.

Right when we left for our walk, it started sprinkling. Out came the umbrellas. It was pretty windy too, and Trav was having the hardest time controlling his umbrella. It was so funny! It kept catching the wind and pulling one way or the other! He was holding a coffee in his other hand but one hand just wasn't enough to control this umbrella!! The wind caught it good one time, and flipped it completely inside out.

I was dying laughing. We decided Trav's umbrella needed to find a garbage!! We huddled under mine for a few minutes,

but then they sun broke through the clouds and it was beautiful for the rest of our walk! The "prom" went probably a mile and a half each way, and we walked the whole thing! It was such a nice walk.



On the way back we walked a good portion of it on the beach. We also stopped along the popular shopping strip to check out a bunch of the little stores. We found a hat store that had every kind of hat you could imagine! We looked at the restaurants to get ideas for where we wanted to go for dinner and for lunch the next day. There were lots of nice places. There was a Mexican place called Taco Shark that actually had shark tacos. We knew we'd have to come there for lunch the next day!

We got back to our hotel right when it got dark....perfect timing!! We got into our robes (did I mention they were the most comfortable robes ever?) and turned on the Beavers vs Cal game! We got great news that Stanford beat the Ducks, putting an end to their winning streak! It was especially good news, because we beat Stanford. Woot woot! The Beavs vs Cal game was great! The Beavs won!! We opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate, and then we opened 2 more. :)


We sat in the most comfortable robes in the world, sipped our champagne, enjoyed the fire and the sound of the ocean out our window, and watched the Transformers movie we'd borrowed from the hotel. It truly was a perfect evening.

The next day we slept in and then got ready for the day! Starting with a great shower and great shower products! They has TempleSpa products, which I'd never heard of before, but fell in love with! The soap made me feel so soft! It made the shower so relaxing. We were sad to check out, but excited to spend another day at the beach! First stop: Taco Shark for lunch!! We got 2 shark taco's, and a salmon burrito and split them. The shark taco's were SO good. I wasn't sure if I would like them, but I really did! The salmon burrito was wonderful too, but the shark taco's were the best! After lunch we walked to the aquarium. We bought some food to feed the seals, which made the whole trip to the aquarium worth it. It was so much fun feeding the seals.

They were hilarious! One of them would splash anyone with food, another just sat in the back and hit his chest over and over making a clapping noise and just had this look like, "hit me dawg". A couple others would do flips and little tricks. I could have stayed all day and fed them. We read about them later and found out that they have NO training to do tricks, but they all have their own little things that they do. After feeding the seals, we walked through the aquarium. It was pretty small, but fun, and with Trav reading all the signs, we learned a lot!

When we were done at the aquarium, we headed to Cannon Beach to check out the art festival they were having. First we stopped at the beach with the famous Cannon Beach Rock. It wasn't stormy anymore, so we were actually able to walk out on the beach.

Then we walked through several little shops, and went through a couple art galleries. I always feel like I'm going to break something in art galleries! There was some beautiful artwork. After a couple hours, we decided to head home. We had one final stop to check out the Inn at Arch Cape.
We've looked at staying there a few times, but it is very expensive and they have a 2 night minimum and we usually only want to stay for one night. We were close to it though, and wanted to see it up close and personal. It looks really cool. We'll stay someday!

We had a great trip! We LOVE the hotel we stayed in, and will defiantly be staying there again!

Monday was our actual anniversary, and we had a little money left over from the trip, since we ended up staying in our cozy room Saturday night instead of going out to dinner! So, we decided to go out to dinner on Monday. When we got home from work, Trav surprised me with a really sweet note, and a gift!! I didn't expect it at all! He got me an OSU beanie. It's so cute and so soft and warm! I love it!

We had dinner at Carino's and finished the night cuddled up on the couch enjoying some hot chocolate with whipped cream on it. I can't believe it's already been 11 years. They have been 11 years full of fun, happiness, and lots of love.

Beavs win again!!

Beavs win again!

What a weekend! I have been trying to be extra healthy for a while so I haven't been drinking much alcohol. Well, last weekend I decided to drink to support the Beavers for their game again Standford. Trav, Air and I went to tailgate with some friends before the game. It was great hanging out with Darin and Shelby and Cheryl and Teri and some of their friends. Air and I mixed up some drinks with the infamous UV blue raspberry vodka. It was a beautiful day. Some one made a big pot of taco soup that was SO good!

Nate picked up up from the tailgater at almost 4, and we got home right before kickoff! It was a great game. The first play Quiz got the ball and ran almost 70 yards, almost scoring a TD on that first play!!! I was so excited that I got up and ran to stand right in front of the tv and was jumping up and down screaming for Quiz, and my foot hit the rug wrong and a managed to slip and fall down. I wasn't the only person who fell that night though!! I was the first. :)

Anyway, it was an awesome game and our team was great. Our defense is really shaping up, making it so our offense can play like they should be able to!

After the win (38 - 28 OSU) we celebrated with a shot of vodka. Bad idea. For some reason if you can get me to take one shot, I end up taking several. From that point on I know we had a lot of fun, I had some great coversations with Nate and with Air, but with all the shots we took it's all just a blur to me. And I paid for it Sunday. I promised myself (as I always do when I get sick from drinking) that I would never drink again, as I was laying on the floor in the bathroom next to the toilet. Sunday I wanted to just lay on the couch all day and do nothing, but instead we went grocery shopping at Winco, went to U & D Nursery to look at getting a shade tree, and went back to the house to clean up.

It was a great weekend, overall. Every now and then you have to just get a little more than tipsy. :)

This weekend it's a Bi-week for the Beavs, which means Trav and I can actually get something done on Saturday! And we have a lot that we need to get done. We're going to:
put the clear coat on the fireplace, so we can start using it
get the wood from my parents house
if we can decide on a tree, get a shade tree from U & D
trim the bushes/hedges
get and spread grass seed
plant a tree....if we get it of course
and get and return the truck to Trav's parents.

Whew! It's going to be a busy, busy productive day. I'm looking forward to getting some stuff done!

In other news, and this is going to date me someday when I see this, but I LOVE Pandora internet radio. It is great. I put Where I stood by Missy Higgins in, and now I am getting so much great new music.

Work is slowing down...as is evident by my blogging more! So I guess thats good and bad. We need the business to stay afloat, but I also needed a little break from the madness! We'll see if CM&S is still around after the winter. We're looking good right now, but a slow winter could take us under. I really hope not, because I feel like soon the economy has to turn around and things will get back to normal.

Trav convinced me to try a new heating tactic this year for the house. We're going to leave the heat on all the time, just when we're sleeping or not there we'll turn it down to 60 or so. The plan is that since it'll never get FREEZING cold, like it normally does when we turn it off from 10pm - 5pm the next day, it won't take it long to warm up, since the walls and floor and everything won't get down to like 40 degrees! We'll see how our bill looks this month and go from there. It makes sense that it should work right? We're also going to be using our fireplace again soon so we should be able to pretty much just leave the temp at 60 and use the fireplace to heat the living room. I hope it works.

Travis continues to be just an incredible husband. He always knows what to say to calm me down if I am stressed out about something, or comfort me if I am sad or upset, and make me laugh when I want to cry. He listens when I need to vent, and talks when I need to listen. He impresses me daily with his drive and hard work to make amazing products at work. He has such a passion for work....after 3 years of working somewhere lots of people loose that, but he still has it! And his desire to keep the house clean and take care of me. It's so nice to never have to get up during the night, because Trav takes the cat out when he wakes up, and the dog out when she needs to go out. There are so many little daily things that he does for our family and he never complains about it. It's almost as if he LIKES it. I feel so blessed to have him. He makes me want to reach my goals, and be a better person. Plus, he's really funny! And everyone needs to laugh. I think back to our first year of marriage and the struggles we had with being on different schedules, and him not working and going to school full term....which really was pretty much 10am - 1 or 2 am with all the homework he had in those last few months. He was so stressed out all the time, and I was stressed out all the time. It was a rough start for us. We loved each other so much, but we needed a little relief. I am so happy that we don't have those stresses now. Sure we still have disagreements here and there, but overall we are able to just be happy and enjoy our life together.

Emma is so big. I don't know if she'll get any bigger. She's 10 months now and still so much puppy!! She can put a smile on my face so quickly. Whether it's her constant throat growl she gets when she wants to play with me when I get home, or her following me all through out the house, or her sigh or whine when we ask her to do something she doesn't want to do....or when she gets a crazy energy spurt and just runs fulls speed around the house and yard, or when we give her her favorite pink squeeze toy and she carries it everywhere and squeaks it and drops it so she can pounce it. She is so funny. She is dirty and smelly too, and noisy, but it's worth it!

We're meeting with our lawyer this Friday to go over what the depositions meeting on the 27th will be like. I'm nervous. I don't like being in the hot seat and I don't like answering questions when I could answer them "wrong" or not give them what they want to hear. I didn't do anything wrong, it wasn't my fault, and I'm the one stuck with daily pain because of it.....I have a lot of medical bills that need to be paid, not to mention I'd like some money to have for future problems I'm probably going to have.....I've been warned by several previous accident victims about. My mom sleeps in a chair because her back got so messed up from a car accident she was in 20 years ago! Also, all my pain a suffering! This has been a long, hard road. So, I'd like to get my point across and do it the right way. Seems difficult since I'm just supposed to answer yes or no, and keep my answers as short as possible. Hopefully the meeting with our lawyer will help me feel better about it. I'll be really glad when this is behind me. And I hope and pray I get a good settlement out of it.

Ok, it's almost time for lunch!

A trip to Victoria for our 4 year wedding anniversary. Summer's over.....welcome Fall

Oh my gosh, what happened to the summer? It went by so fast! I know "they" say that every year goes by faster, and I believe it....I just didn't realize it went THIS fast. It's already October! I'm still writing 08 on paperwork and in a few months it's going to be 10!!!

I haven't posted in forever....I don't know why. I mean, I know I've been busy with the summer, but I also think my focus has changed quite a bit. I've really been trying to live IN the moment....I talked about it a lot previously, but I realized a few months ago that I was doing lots of things to enjoy my time, but I wasn't really soaking them in and really enjoying them. Like we'd go to the park, but instead of relaxing, watching the ducks, looking at the sky....really ENJOYING it, I was rushing inside and not giving myself time to enjoy it. It made me realize that I've been doing that a lot, with everything. We DO lots of great things, but I haven't been taking the time out to really enjoy them and let them soak in. I understand now that's what it means to "stop and smell the roses". Not that I need to DO tons of fun things, but that I need to actually enjoy them.

Also, with working only 4 days a week, in the summer, when I did my blogging AT work, has made it much more difficult to find the extra time to blog about each weekend. That and my current addiction to facebook! :) I only have time for so much! You'd think, well duh Sarah, blog on your Friday's off. But I've actually been staying very busy on my Friday's off. When mom needs my help, I'll spend the day working for her. When Air is off, we'll often do something fun together. Last weekend we gave each other pedicures and painted our toes orange and black in support of the Beavers. It was really fun. I've only had ONE Friday where I was just sitting around bored. And I'm pretty sure I used that up by sleeping in until lunch!

So, what have we done this summer? Well, we only got to go camping once. I wanted to go more, but we had other things going on and it just didn't happen. The one time we went was a lot of fun though! I'm glad we got to go! We've gone to the beach a few times. Last time we went the weather was incredible! It was cloudy here at home, but the beach was warm and sunny. It was a great day at the beach. Of course in September we've been supporting the Beavers in football! We've already gone to 2 games, and watched the others on tv. So far they are 2 - 2. I'm hoping they can really find their groove and start winning more games! I'm a little nervous for them this season.... but I am still a beaver believer!

We helped save my parents from selling their house....which is great! I didn't want to see that house go away!! Speaking of houses, Ladd GOT a house! He moves in in November! We are very excited for him!

This is a picture of us while in line waiting for our ferry to arrive.

We went to victoria for our 4 year wedding anniversary. It was a fantastic trip. Being married to Travis for 4 years has been so much fun. He is my best friend, he understands me better than anyone else, and he works WITH me. He is the best partner in life I could ask for and I thank God for him everyday. What a blessing. Thanks for the best four years ever baby!

The sunrise on our drive to Port Angeles to catch the ferry.
We don't see many sunrises so it was pretty cool!

So, we went to Victoria. It was beautiful weather every day. We got there on Wednesday at 2pm. The ferry ride itself was fun.....well, the first hour was fun. We stood up at the front where it really caught the waves and bounced up and down so far! The last half hour we just wanted to be there though! We got off the boat and made it though customs quickly. We got checked into our hotel, and then walked to the harbor to check it out.

This is us right off the ferry!

It was just how I remembered.....street merchants and entertainers lined the inner harbor, people were everywhere...I loved it. We walked along to check out all the street merchants and entertainers, and then decided it was time for dinner.

One of the street performers... The shows were so much fun.

Our first night there we ate at one of the 5 restaurants in our hotel. It was an outdoor restaurant on the 2nd floor of the hotel. We sat right on the edge so we could see everyone walking around under us. It was fun. They had a special going that night where you could get a bottle of wine at cost plus $5, so we got a bottle, and ordered a delicious dinner. I had a Greek dish, very good. We chatted and enjoyed each others company and the relaxation of being on vacation set in while we were up there, enjoying our bottle of wine.


After dinner I was pretty tipsy, so we went back to our room, loaded up my water bottle and an empty apple juice bottle for Trav with mixed drinks and beer, and took them down to the inner harbor to check out the night scene. We saw a couple great performances and listened to some good street music before heading to bed.

Thursday was our anniversary. We spent the morning walking around Chinatown, and trying to find the restaurant we wanted to go to that evening so we could make reservations. It took us a while, but we finally found it. It was such a cute little place, Il Tarrazo, nestled into a street ally. It looked like it was in Italy. My parents had given it rave reviews we were excited to try it. We made reservations for 7:30. Then we took a walk along the outer harbor, over the bridge and to the other side. It was cool because you could see the whole city from there. They have nice paths that you can walk on all along both sides of the inner and outer harbor. We sat on a park bench and enjoyed the view for a while before heading back to the inner harbor.

Sitting on the outer harbor. You can see the inner harbor in the background of the picture.

Il Tarrazo was packed with people when we got there at 7:20. The staff was all so friendly. They sat us at a cute little table in the back. It was very romantic lighting. I ordered salmon over rice and Trav ordered a marinara pork over pasta. They brought us an appetizer of bread with an olive paste? to put on it. It was so good. I've never had anything like it! Our meals were incredible. I've never had salmon that good. It melted in my mouth. And the rice wasn't just rice, it was an amazing cheesy rice. I don't even know how to explain it. The veggies it came with were the best veggies I've ever had to. I don't know how they did it....they were grilled but had a special sauce or glaze or seasoning on them.....delicious. I thought for sure I'd ordered the best meal in the place, until I had a bite of Trav's. Oh my gosh the pork in that sauce was incredible. I think his was actually even better than mine! I helped him finish his meal too! :)

On our way to Il Tarrazo.

Il Tarrazo Restaurante!

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and got ready to go out. We were going to go to the club in our hotel. They had $3 drinks for the ladies all night. We had a few drinks in the room, and then headed down stairs. For some reason the club wasn't open yet, so we headed to one of the pubs to have a drink instead. We sat in a big comfy round booth in the corner and we talked about how we're just not young enough to enjoy the crazy party scene anymore. We'd much rather sit in a nice lounge, in comfy chairs, where we can hear each other talk and listen to live music or something. We decided that instead of going to the club, we'd rather go fill up our cups and walk around Victoria. We had a great evening walking around the city and drinking our drinks.We had a great evening walking around the city and drinking our drinks.

Friday came bright and early! We wanted to head to the butterfly gardens, so we drove about 20 minutes to get there. They were right new to the Burchart Gardens.


The butterflies were beautiful. We spent a long time in there just watching them all flying around us. One landed on me, but not long enough to get a picture! Dang it!



On the way back to our hotel, Trav surprised me by taking me to the Craigdorach Castle.

I've always wanted to see it. It was really cool. We didn't go in, but just looking at the outside was fun. Plus, it's just fun when Trav surprises me with stuff. We used to spend hours driving around looking at the mansions in Corvallis, and this kinda felt the same.

When we got back we went for a walk on the OTHER side of the outer harbor. At the end was the Fishermans wharf, which we'd heard was pretty cool. They live in houses that are literally right off the docks and floating in the water. It was a long walk, but it was beautiful the whole way. The Fishermans wharf was a fun experience. It even had little shops and food stands. We stopped at an ice cream shop and got the best ice cream I've ever had. We got it for Trav, but I think I ended up eating most of it. It was called moose tracks. It had fudge, peanut butter, and carmel swirls in vanilla ice cream. It was so packed with goodies there was hardly any actual ice cream. Yum. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.





We got back to the inner harbor a couple hours before dinner time, so we went to a restaurant on the inner harbor. We'd been there before and I'd gotten a fishbowl bellini and Trav had gotten a martini... it was called the billy idol martini and it was the best he'd ever had. We've never seen it since, and no bartender has ever heard of it. We wanted to go back and get the same thing, but that was 8 - 9 year ago, and they didn't have it anymore....or even remember it! Darn it! So instead we split a fishbowl bellini. Yum.

Then we headed to the Old Spaghetti factory for dinner. Of course they had their bellini's on special, so we ordered a couple more! We had a delicious dinner and delicious drinks. Afterwards we headed to the harbor to see if anything was going on. They were having a big street merchant mall so we went to check it out. There were so many cool things for sale. I spotted some beautiful hand woven scarfs that I really liked. We kept walking and at the end they had a live band playing. We really liked them so we stopped and listened for a little while.


On our way back, Trav stopped and got me one of the scarfs. It's beautiful....red and orange. I love it. By this time, I was tired and ready for bed!

Saturday was our last day. Our ferry didn't leave until 7pm though, so we had some time still! We went to the mall, got some sushi, got me a dress, and got some souvenirs for our friends. Ketchup chips of course!! We also walked through Beacon Hill Park which was beautiful and so peaceful!

In Beacon Hill Park.....so nice.

After that we took a tour of the parliament building, which surprising to me, wasn't boring at all. It was very interesting. I'd even say it was fun! :)

This is the Parliament Building at night. They light it up in the evening.

We went to rodger's chocolates to get a float....they are famous for them. We got a new girl who didn't know what she was doing, so not only did it take 15 minutes to get our floats, they weren't made quite right. We weren't impressed. Maybe we were expecting to much? We went to Cafe Di Amore and had a great meal there. My dad had recommended it. He was just in Victoria a couple months before us, so he had lots of recommendations. They were all good ones. Thanks dad! Before leaving we got a charcoal portrait by one of the street merchants.

We've always wanted to get one, and we finally did. It was fun. It doesn't look exactly like us....we both look better than we do in real life. Haha. Trav also got a leather bracelet from a street merchant.



Now it was time to get in line for the ferry. There was a seagull that flew right next to the ferry for about 20 minutes.

Our trip was over.....except of course the 5 hour drive home! We got home at 2am.

Other than that we spent the summer hanging out with old friends, and making new ones! We had dinner with Trav's coworker Matt, and his wife Kristi. It was a lot of fun. They are a fun couple! Also, Trav's old college friend Nick just moved in Albany, very close to us. We are planning a date with he and his wife as well! We've spent some time with Darin and Shelby and we always have a great time with them! Of course we are continuing our Wednesday dinners with Air! And we've been spending Saturdays with her....watching the games. Go Beavs! Ladd has been visiting quite a bit. We are really looking forward to visiting him pretty soon...in his own house! Rachelle has been busy as usual, but we've been able to hang out a few times!

Emma is growing up. She's already 10 months! She eats like a horse! I'm looking forward to 2 months from now when we can switch her to much cheaper DOG food, and get her off the puppy food! Plus, I'm pretty sure that once they hit 12 months, they don't eat as much! Right now she's at 5 - 6 cups a day, of the most expensive lamb and rice puppy food! But she's doing most of her growing right now and it's important to us that she has the best nutrition during this time. But is is hurting in our pocket book. :)
We've been going probably a little to easy on her with her training.....but she's still doing great! Dogs are so much fun but they sure are loud and smelly! And expensive!! She snorts, snores, breaths loudly, farts all time, scratches, whines..... wow! But it's all worth it.

We didn't get much done around the yard like we wanted to. We were hardly home to do it....not to mention that we are saving all our pennies in this economy! It's just not turning around very fast. Our list of things we want just keeps growing....inside and out! It's hard to see people around us getting so much nice stuff while we're just staying stationary and penny pinching. I know it will all be worth it someday though!

Our wisteria that we brought over the fence from the neighbors is really growing! It's so pretty! We need to get an arch under it now, there is so much! I love it! Thats just reminding me of my list of things to do though! Oh my gosh I almost forgot! We did get one thing off our list of things we need....we got new pans! We got them at the state fair. They are awesome! We needed new pans BADLY. Ours were peeling, our food was sticking to the bottom and burning, plus half of them had warped on the bottom so the heat wasn't even at all because they didn't sit flat! They were great pans for about 8 years, but then they just took a nose dive! So, we watched a demo on some pans and they were awesome. We had mom look up the name brand online and they got good reviews. They are restaurant quality and they have a 25 year warranty!! Plus, they are MADE of the non stick material so it won't peel off! We got a huge set. We paid more than we thought we would, but I think it's worth it. Trav pointed out that we eat most of our meals at home, and this was just like eating out 20 times....except we get to use these for at least 25 years for 5 - 7 meals a week! Oh, added bonus, you don't have to use a non stick spray or oil or butter to fry things up. Which of course I love since I try to cook low fat! You can even make a grilled cheese sandwich with no butter on the bread....it just crisps the bread up with nothing on it. I've done it, and it is delicious!

What is still on our list? A lot!

New sink (ours is chipped and green)
New dishwasher (ours is loud, from the 80's, and barely works!)
New countertops
New cupboards
Carpet Cleaned
Gate and fence on left side of the house
New patio
Grass seed......this is a work in progress, trying fix our grass
Shade tree in the front yard
landscaping....new bushes, barkdust, etc
New porch swing (I LOVE my porch swing but the cats ruined the cover last year so we took it off, and this year Emma has ruined the seat)
Paint Bathroom


I know theres more that I'm just not thinking of right now, but there is obviously a lot!! We have our work cut out for us. But I continue to be grateful that we don't NEED anything because something is wrong with the house. Or cars.

Ok, I think I've covered most of the summer! I still can't believe it's already over! It's fall.... Happy fall!!

To my husband on our 4 year anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my husband, best friend, lover, and confidant. The last 4 years of marriage have been so much fun! Thank you for staying by my side through all the hard times, and of course ALL the good ones! Thank you for being the one who makes me feel happy no matter what is going on in my life at the time. I love you more and more each day. The last 11 years with you have been a blast, and I'm looking forward to the next 70!

The Climb

Yep, here I am with my song lyrics again. I am not a huge Miley fan, but this song just really is how I feel. It's all about the climb..... thats what life is. It's not even about what we get when we get to the top, it's about how we handle the hard part.....getting there.

I can almost see it
That dream I'm dreaming but
There's a voice inside my head sayin,
You'll never reach it,
Every step I'm taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing,
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes they knock me down but
No I'm not breaking
The pain I'm knowing
But these are the moments that
I'm going to remember most yeah
Just got to keep going
And I,
I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on,

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

Keep on moving
Keep climbing
Keep the faith baby
It's all about
The climb