Harris Beach

We have a print in our home of a picture that we took in Oceanside when we were there in July that says:

You can shake the sand from your shoes but it will never leave your soul.

There is something about the Pacific Coast that makes us want to sell all of our possessions, quit our jobs and just make camp on the beach for the rest of our lives. Of course, we would never do this, but just dreaming about it is enough to get me from one day to the next!

Several weeks ago we woke up and told Freckles that we were heading to the Coast for the day! She was super excited and we were rewarded with mostly good behavior through the day. It was super windy and the waves were gigantic, and a little scary, but it was a much needed break from reality for all of us and we ended up having a great day at the always beautiful Harris Beach!

Happy "Event-Aversary" to Me!

This summer I hit my one year "event-aversary" at work!

We held the Fore Kids Classic and our Annual Winemaker's Dinner at the gorgeous Del Rio Vineyards.

 

Fore Kids Classic

The Fore Kids Classic was a big deal for me because this year, I actually got to help with the flower arranging (last year my flower arranging skills were not so hot), but my first vase this year got the "perfect" from our Special Events Coordinator, so it was definitely selfie worthy!

I'm so grateful that a year and a half later I still love my job more than anyone ever should - yes, there are days that are frustrating and politics that shouldn't happen (just like at any job), but overall, I feel so blessed to be able to do what I do!

 

Del Rio

This event has shaped up to be one of my favorite events, simply because Del Rio Vineyard is one of the most gorgeous places in the world! Acres and acres of vines, a little rain, a rainbow - what could be more gorgeous?

 

 

This year, I was asked to speak at the event about the Mentoring Program at the Club and about our experience with Freckles. It was an emotional few minutes in the evening, and I always hate crying in front of people, but I have been told multiple times since that evening that what I had to say was very moving, so I think I did a good job. My "speech" is posted HERE if you're at all interested in reading it.

Square Dancing

Okay, so I've given up on posting things in chronological order. The fact that I finally have a few minutes to post is a miracle in itself and I'm not going to worry myself with whether or not events are in order! :)

In October, our then roommate and good friend Talia moved to Texas to work at a facility for struggling teenagers. It was sad to say goodbye to her, but we are happy that she is happy there and doing well with her new life!

Before she moved, her family and close friends threw her a going away party with her favorite kind of activity - square dancing! Nate is always happy to get me in his arms and turn me around the dance floor ;), and this time was no different (I hope that you can sense my sarcasm). Nate happily took me in his arms but begrudgingly moved with me around the dance floor - although there are pictures of the evening in which he has a smile on his face - so I know he enjoyed it a little bit!

 

Anyway, it was a fun night! Freckles came along (I posted a pic on her blog if you're interested) but spent most of the night playing with the other kiddos - so it was a nice opportunity for Nate & I to have a little "alone" time!

Random June Fun ... Catching Up 2014

June! June was a great month. Why? Because at the end of the month we went on our wonderful trip to the Coast and to Seattle! Ahh, June ... I love June ... :)

We did do a few other things too ...

June was the month that we committed to DHS that we would begin taking the Foster Parent Classes that were scheduled for the following month ... that commitment was a HUGE one (especially with where we're at today), but we are SO grateful that we did it ...

I had an embarassing moment at work where I wore the same shirt as my co-worker, so naturally, we had to take a picture ...

 

We went for dinner and drinks at Taprock to celebrate the life of Nate's wonderful Uncle, who passed away. We love you, Kent!

 

We signed the contract on our new place (incidentally, we LOVE living here) ... I was going to post a picture but I'm too lazy to edit out our address from the front of the house ... if you want to see where we live, just come and see us!! :)

We snuggled LOTS ...

And I got this love note from the sweet little girl that I was mentoring at the time (who just happens to live with us now)!!

 

Through my job I experienced another first! I attended my first Bachelor Auction. To be clear - I was not attending as a guest ... just as a Club representative!! :) It was pretty hilarious to watch and it reinforced just how much I love being married and how much I love Nate!

Random May Fun - Catching Up 2014

Wow! All the way back to May? Is there really a point in playing catch up? Probably not to anyone else, but my OCD brain will go crazy if I just skip to now AND someday, I'm going to print this blog to a book and how will it look if several months are just missing? ;)

So, all the way back to May we go ...

If you recall, May was the month that I took my big trip to San Francisco for the BGCA National Conference! While I was gone, Nate did A LOT of this:

We grew our first of two strawberries ... the rest didn't grow so well - the plant was crazy huge, we just didn't get any berries on it ... maybe next year ... this one, however, was DELISH!

 Condoleeaza Rice spoke at our National Conference and she was A M A Z I N G! I purchased this book at the Conference with every intention of reading it ... several months later I'll admit that I'm still only a few chapters in ... but I maintain that I'm SUPER busy ... so that's okay!

I spent some time at my favorite park taking some pictures for a friend ... this was intended as an Instagram "I'm lucky I get to spend my morning here" post ... I'm not sure that it ever made it ...

At work I've been mentoring 3 kiddos, to girls and one sweet, sweet boy - who wrote me this note:

I discovered Babes Bakery. One one particularly frustrating day at work I decided to treat myself to lunch. I drove and drove deciding where to go and remembered that we had been wanting to try out Babes - I gotta say, it was a wonderful decision. The Plain Jane sandwich was divine, as was the German Chocolate Cupcake that I had that day ... it is now one of our favorite places to grab lunch!!

We had Mentor/Mentee night at the Club and played a little Hide & Go Seek. My hiding spot wasn't very creative, but it had the most beautiful view!

There is our May in a nut shell. I'm sure that other things happened, I just don't remember what. I do remember getting home from the conference and being so exhausted but SO, SO happy to be with Nate. I sure do love that guy a lot!

... Alive ...

This blog has definitely taken a back seat in this crazy thing called life! We've had A LOT going on the last few months and my every intention is to keep this blog alive and going, but it might be a few months more before I get all caught up.

In case you haven't heard (if you know us, you've heard), we have become Foster Parents to a beautiful 9 year old girl! She is giving us a run for our money, but we are surviving! If we're not at work our time is centered around what is happening at home. The only reason I'm able to think about this blog tonight is because I took a few blessed days off of work in the middle of the week so that I could focus on some other things that have been neglected (like sleep, a pedicure, paying bills and apparently this blog)!

Anyway, we're still alive - just in case you were wondering! Hopefully soon I'll get caught up because we had a visit from our BFF's in August and we just had the best time ever!!

Oregon Coast & Seattle Trip - 2014

Earlier this month, Nate & I traveled over to the Coast to stay a wonderful night in Newport, then we drove up the gorgeous Oregon Coast and over to Seattle to stay with his parents for several days! We had a WONDERFUL time on our trip and took, of course, hundreds of pictures! I made this book through Shutterfly (which I LOVE, by the way) and thought that I'd just share it with you instead of doing a long, long blog post ... I may post some of our pictures on my photo blog later, but for now, here's the fun we had on our trip!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

... life happens ...

wow! is it really already july? we have been SO busy with different things and it's crazy to me that this year is half over. it is really, really hot here in grants pass. like in the 100's hot ... it's really disappointing to me how little rain we get during the summer - but i suppose that the "winter" here is perfect (just rain, not a lot of snow) so that makes up for the heat ...

it has been a big couple of months for us. we both had birthdays, we went on a fantastic trip to visit nate's parents in seattle, we drove up the coast, we moved to a new house, we started foster care certification classes (more than that in another post).

life has just been happening. it has been busy, but it has also been really great. i don't mind so much that it seems to be going fast - it means that we are doing things that are worthwhile (although today, i'm being totally lazy - my first lazy day in WEEKS - and it feels great).  i've got so many blog posts to catch up - more for record keeping than anything, although if there is anyone out there who still looks at our blog, that's cool.

i kind of think that blogs are out now that facebook is in, but i don't really care! blogging, for me, is SO much easier than scrapbooking! some of you may remember my scrapbooking days - hours and hours and dollars and dollars spent on making the perfect page ... now those books sit at the top of my closet only to be looked at once a year - if even that. it's weird to make a scrapbook, or a blog, or keep a journal when you don't have kids ... i remember once wondering what would happen to all of our 'memorabilia' when we move on from this life and i don't really have an answer to that. maybe one of our nephews or nieces will be interested in it, maybe we'll adopt a child or two through the foster care system and they'll want it, maybe it will sit at the top of someone else's closet until generations have passed and no one really knew who they belonged to ...

anyway - that's not meant to be a morbid or disturbing or a sad thought process ... just something that comes to my mind every once in a while when i am working on preserving our memories ...

we are really excited for the next couple of weeks - our foster care certification classes have been amazing and we are SO excited for a visit from our favorite wilkie family at the end of the month ... hopefully by their visit i'll have our blog updated ... maybe that will be my goal.

anyway - that's it! i'll post about all of our awesome stuff as i get caught up, but just know that we are doing great and we have a lot to look forward to.

Crater Lake

In early May Nate had a rare Sunday off! We decided to get out of the house and ended up going for a drive. We had heard about some falls that were on the way to Crater Lake, so we headed up that way in search of them!

We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove ... we didn't see the falls, but we saw a sign indicating that the turn off for Crater Lake was only 20 miles away ... we looked at each other and decided, "why the heck not, we are already here."

As we approached the turn off for Crater Lake, we saw the turn off for the falls - we debated which way to go but again decided to head up to the Lake ... it was a very wise decision!

We were definitely unprepared for all of the beautiful snow and had to stop off at the gift shop to get a long sleeve shirt so we wouldn't freeze. After getting to the top, the sun was so warm that the long sleeve shirt was rendered unnecessary after hiking around for a few minutes ... oh well!

We stopped at Beckie's Dinner on our way back down the mountain for some dinner and some DELICIOUS cherry pie!!

Anyway, as you can see, it was a beautiful, beautiful day and Crater Lake is absolutely amazing! We loved the stark contrast between the lake and the snow, we loved that there was still a layer of ice on part of the lake, we loved the green pines, we loved it all!

Perhaps one day we'll head to the falls ... or maybe we'll just go back to Crater Lake!

... the drive home was beautiful, as well, and I can't resist posting this picture ...