October

Holy cow the past few weeks and months have been crazy.  Absolutely nutty.  October 2013 surpassed the previous craziest month of our life which was June 2008.  In June 2008 I completed my graduate research, graduated from grad school, had a fake wedding, moved across country with two cars and three lovely siblings in 10 days only to have Cliff immediately start grad school.  All of this took place in about 20 days.  So now imagine the nuttiness of this past October.  So many really amazing/stressful things happened.  I wish that I could dedicate more time to each event but instead I will present them as fast as they felt to me.  Get ready.

Mom and Pam Visited Oregon

I can't describe how happy I was to have these two wonderful women here for a week.  They visited the first week in October and did a little of everything Eugene/Springfield has to offer: eating out, shopping, bowling, exploring the mountains, visiting the coast, packing, hanging out, and the list goes on and on.  We celebrated Pam's birthday at the Timber Bowl then Falling Sky Brew Pub and four days later celebrated Cliff's birthday at the Falling Sky Deli.  I sadly wasn't able to take more than one day off from work but that ended up ok.  Mom and Pam explored during the day and we hung out at night.  On the weekend, we went to Saturday Market, drove up 126, had a picnic lunch after wine tasting at Sweet Cheeks Winery, thrift shopped, ate, and generally tried to do it all.   I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown the whole time due to the next event to be outlined and they helped to keep me sane, laughing, and well fed.  I love them and can't wait for them to come back.

We Bought A House!

That's right, we not only moved but moved into something we now own.  AH!  We had been looking at houses for a few months and had just about given up (seriously, we had to come to terms with throwing in the towel for another year when we found the one).  After seeing 50+ homes, we walked into an old homestead house in the Washburn and fell in love.  It honestly felt like our house the moment we stepped in the door.  The next day we put in an offer, two days later accepted a counter offer, three days later visited a mortgage broker, had an inspection, appraisal, and finally signed papers.  The whole time we were holding our breath and trying not to get excited as we know things go wrong with buying houses all the time.  We tried to keep a level, non-emotional head.  The whole whirlwind process took less than a month.  I discovered something about myself through this process. Apparently my body shuts down and sleeps when I am that overwhelmed.  Seriously.  We would meet with our real estate agent or mortgage broker and afterwards I would go home, stuff my face with something in our cabinets and then fall asleep to be dead to the world until the next day.  I did this several times a week!  I was not a good partner to Cliff in late September/early October as I was asleep for most of it.  Thankfully we are past that now.  We signed the papers on Cliff's birthday and moved in four days later with the help of amazing friends.

The date on the house says 1905 but the paperwork at the City actually dates it to 1890.  The home was once used as as a residence for mill workers and then a barber.  We are only the fourth owners of the home.  The lovely woman we bought the house from had lived here for over 35 years and did an amazing job keeping this old house in wonderful shape.  We are so incredibly lucky.

This is all you get photo and description wise as there will be more to come in the upcoming weeks.  We are 100% unpacked but only about 70% moved in.  When you go from a tiny cottage to a three bedroom house there are lots of opportunities for more furniture.  We are heading to Ikea next week to hopefully acquire a few last items that will complete the picture (rug, chair, bookshelf, etc.)  Then we will post more photos and stories.

Events at Work

Between October 12th and October 25th at work we had a first time community event, two park grand openings, a day long service project for staff and volunteers, and a major three day event.  Did I mention this was as we were moving into the house and trying to get out of the cottage?  Did I mention that my boss went into labor the morning of the major three day event making me the new interim Special Events Supervisor until March?  Did I mention that I love these events and that I was having a really hard time balancing my time between work, moving into a new house, and actually being a person? To top it all off, the weekend of the 25th I had a multi-day Board retreat for an organization that I am a part of up the coast.  Crazy.  I'm so thankful to be on the backend of the stress filled two weeks.

Cliff and I Celebrated 5 Years and I Paddled In A Pumpkin 

On October 19th, Cliff and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.  Time flies by!  To celebrate, Cliff was amazing as we left our new house filled with boxes to drive up to Tualatin, Oregon so that I could participate in the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta.  I lucked out back in March as I met the organizer and they let me take one of the spots for the event and since then I have been telling everyone I could about it.  I love pumpkins.  I love fall.  I love events.  I love my supportive husband.   This is everything I love wrapped up into one. You had to be dressed in costume so I bought a sexy bumble bee outfit from Value Village and like a sane person added black leggings and wool top to it.  The sexy bumble bee costume turned into a rational, normal person bumble bee costume.  I picked the outfit as it would allow me to be warm and swim with ease should I tip out of a 1,000 pound pumpkin in public.

We arrived in Tualatin, ate hotdogs and hamburgers, drank fresh cider, and ate apple cider donuts (you can't find those often out here in the PNW!).  The event consisted of four heats: two were speed races and two were challenges.  I was in the last challenge heat and was so nervous.  By the time that I paddled to the starting line, the other paddlers told me that I needed a ball and a flag.  What?  So I paddled back and minutes later was given the items but not a description of what they were for.  As I paddled back to the starting line my mind was so focused on not tipping out or throwing up because of excitement that I missed the instructions on what we were supposed to do.  Whoops.  No worries as I kinda watched what others were doing and tried to follow.  I understood the rules to be take the ball and keep it in front of you as you paddle around a bouy in the middle of the lake.  To do this I would throw the ball for a bit, pick it up, throw it a little further, move it forward with my paddle a bit, throw it again, repeat.  I didn't come in first and I didn't come in last.  Just what I wanted.  It was amazing.  I was like smiley, dopey idiot happily paddling around in the middle of a lake.   When I got out, Cliff met me at the finish line and laughingly said "I like how you decided to cheat the whole way."  "What?!?  I didn't cheat!" is that my brain was yelling.  Cliff informed me that the rules were announced that once we did the initial throw we were not allowed to pick up the ball again until after we passed the finish line.  We were to juggle it with out paddle the whole way.  Get out?!?  I was mortified and felt really bad.  I don't like to be a cheater.  It took a little of the victory out of my step.  I felt so bad that I hunted down the event organizer (who so kindly gave me the opportunity) to apologize for my rude interpretation of the game.  He laughed and said it was totally good.  He in fact had not even noticed.  Whew.  Kathy and Jill, the wonderful friends that they are, drove down to cheer me on.  We hung out for a bit then we all went our separate ways.  Cliff and I topped off the evening with dinner at the Urban Hopworks pub in Portland for their happy hour and then returned home.  We ended the day with a 44oz Sonic chocolate banana milkshake.  It was an amazing Saturday and a pretty fun way to spend an anniversary.  For the next one, I need to support Cliff as he  geeks out and gets to do something fun.  I'm a lucky gal.

October was crazy but really wonderful.  In addition to the events listed above we also got to spend a morning with the amazing Katie (Schumm) McFaddin as she was in from Boston.  It was only an hour or so but it was so great to catch up!  We also celebrated our first Halloween in the house.  We have never had trick or treaters at our previous places but this year we had about 70.  It was interesting.  All in all, I'm thankful that I kept my sanity.

Outdoor Movies

This weekend Cliff and I spent a significant amount of time in our $1 garage sale lawn chairs watching movies outside.  I must say, I think movies might be better when watched outside with a group of folks.  Maybe it is just the magic of summer or frozen drinks (thanks Sonic!) but either way, outdoor movies are pretty great.

So I'm the lucky gal who gets to plan our Movies in the Park series at work.  It is pretty cool as it is the first thing that I have ever programmed all by myself.  It is totally my baby.  If it succeeds or fails it is all on my shoulders.  My goal this year was to pick movies that would get a variety of folks out to our parks.  I wanted classics that would hopefully bring out more than just families with small children.  In addition to families, I wanted kid free couples, folks on dates, people with friends.  My goal was to get a diverse group.

Last weekend was our first of the series.  We showed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or "the good one" (sorry Johnny Depp fans out there but his was atrocious).  I got to the park early to help our new crew get the screen up.  Once it was up, I treated myself to my first Crisp Bean Burrito of the season from Taco Time.  Last summer Kerry introduced me to them and they became a staple for the event crew.  In fact for Haunted Hayride I ate Crisp Bean Burritos four out of five days.  That is actually quite disgusting but I will wear it as a badge of honor.  I was really pleased as we got a good number of people out to the park on a weekend where everyone and their mom's second cousin were out of town due to the fourth of July holiday.

This week we showed Back to the Future.  I was really excited about this one as I had several coworkers tell me they were coming.  And they were all folks without kids!  Not that there is anything wrong with kids but this just goes to show that I am approaching my goal.  Well, on Friday we had awesome numbers and so many of them were our non traditional viewers!  One elderly couple got there around 7:30pm to get a good spot and no kidding they must have been 75 years old.  Victory!   I'm hoping the momentum will continue throughout the rest of the summer.  Fingers crossed.  Check out our website if you want to see the rest of this season's movies.

Last night we were invited to a friends house to see a movie in their backyard.  How cool is that?    They bought their own screen off Amazon as it is going to be a yearly tradition.  They rented a snow cone machine (with kid syrups and adult syrups like mojito, peach daiquiri, and margarita), had a fancy popcorn trolly, and a candy concession bar that was out of this world.  Cliff and I both ate so much candy.  M&Ms.  Red Hots.  Starbursts.  Rice Crispy Snacks. Skittles (did you know the green is no longer lime but instead green apple?  Gross.).  They showed Up (which is oddly enough our next Movie in the Park).  To help get people in the spirit, they even had a bunch of balloons tied to the top of their house (note on the top left/middle part of the photo below).  Pixar really has made some quality films.  My favorites being Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Up.  I always cry several times throughout the movie.  It is just so sweet and real.  It was a great date night.  Cliff and I need to one day be as cool as Sarah and Isaac.  It was a beautiful night and their hospitality made it even better.

On a side note: their backyard had the most amazing grass ever.  Seriously.  It was like a think lush head of hair.  We just kept running our toes through it.  It was so green.  So soft.  We've never gotten the appeal of large grassy yards.  Now I think we see.  It was impressive.

Outdoor movies are so much fun.  Cliff and I went to one on the Hopkins Campus during the 14 days we lived there together in the summer of 2005.  Before this weekend we hadn't gone to one together since.  Big mistake! My hope is that it will become a favorite summer date night.

Life Is Beautiful

From September 28th - October 9th Cliff and I were lucky to be on the east coast to celebrate the weddings of two great couples and spend time with family and friends.  It was amazing.  Lots of smiles.   Plus, I got to dance.  Sometimes I even got to dance with Cliff.  It was a pretty epic week.

Part I: Sam and Steve's Wedding

We took the redeye out of Portland on Thursday night so that we could get into Pittsburgh with enough time to join into some pre-wedding activities.  We didn't sleep at all.  Maybe two hours of bad napping at the most.  We did get quite a few Biscoff cookies so that helped.  Kathy and Jill lovingly picked us up at the airport. What did we do first?  Cracker Barrel of course!  We don't have them around here and I miss then dearly.  We ate biscuits, hash browns, gravy.  You know all the essentials.  We stocked up with cheap candy and went to go get our nails done.

Cliff went with the boys to run errands and Sam and the bridesmaids got manicures and pedicures.  How girly!  It's been a really long time since I've had a pedicure and I was really ticklish.  Also, it was pretty funny as in college Kathy, Jill, Sam, and I were together all the time and never once was getting our nails done a considered activity.  Was not on our radar.  I think it was more fun because it was such a foreign group activity.  Also, BIG thank you to Jill who is letting me steal some of her photos to post as I only took one Sam and Steve wedding photo the whole time we were in Pennsylvania.

The wedding was at this beautiful farm (pond, donkeys, rolling hills, geese, silos, awesome barn).  The best part is that the bridal party got to sleep onsite in one big house. Slumber party!  Sam and Steve grilled out for all of us at the rehearsal dinner.  It was really nice to be able to hang out with everyone.  With very limited sleep, Cliff and I still managed to stay up until 10:00pm.  When we woke up the next morning we felt like new people.  Seriously.  It was like Cliff and I had finally arrived at the party.

The wedding was so beautiful.  I cried a whole lot.  Sam and Steve are wonderful together and we had all been waiting for the day when they finally got married. Sam was glowing and Steve was a dressed up version of his amazing self.  The setting was unbelievably beautiful and the food was super tasty.  They did a family style dinner with brisket, chicken, grilled veggies from the family farm, mac and cheese, pumpkin tortellini, mashed squash, and roasted potatoes.  I ate like a pig but who's really surprised.  We also got to see a real life cookie table in action!  We heard about this PA/HH tradition at our fake wedding back in 2008 as our co-couple was from that area.  Well, let me tell you.  I'm totally sold on cookies tables as they are amazing.  Sam's aunts baked thousands of cookies in preparation for the big day.  Thousands!  I sadly didn't get to eat any (so many of them hand nuts/touched nuts) but Cliff said it was the most consistently delicious array of cookies he had ever had.  And that's a compliment.  As if the day wasn't already good enough, THERE WAS SO MUCH DANCING!  I love to dance.  I'm kinda bad at it but that night I didn't care.  I danced like I was back at Emerson as a freshman at Hand Me Down Night.  I was a dancing machine.  Dancing. Machine.  I was sore the next day.  I had so much fun.  The best part, Cliff danced with me for two and a half songs!  We didn't dance that much together at our own wedding.  We hadn't danced together that much since junior year of high school (after which Cliff knew I liked him so he stopped wooing with dancing as he really hates it).  The whole night was magical.

Oh, there was also a photo booth.  That was pretty fun too.

Part II: Time with the Family

The next day we dropped Kathy and Jill off at the airport, rented another car (a Ford Focus), and drove the five and a half hours back to Maryland.  We ate our take home caramel apples at a rest stop someplace about an hour north of the PA/MD border.

The following day Cliff flew back to Oregon as he had work and I got to spend time with Mom and Pam.  It was really wonderful to spend quality time with them.  Over the next four days we played slots at the new casino at Anne Arundel Mills, installed a new front gate on Nanny's fence, drove to Virginia to eat lunch with Dad and Grandma, visited Arlington, shopped, ate Sweet Frog frozen yogurt, and celebrated Pam's birthday at the Gaylord Hotel.  I didn't take nearly enough photos but look these happy faces!

I also got to meet Mom's new dog, Sam.  He is a big guy (about 150lbs) but is really sweet.  He just wants to lay on the cold bathroom floor and be pet.  Weanie and Wibble are falling in line and you can tell that they like him too.

I wish there had been more time but it was really wonderful just to hang out and talk.  Next time we will need to go on an adventure.  I'm trying to talk them into coming out to Oregon.  My fingers are crossed.

I also need to mention that Mom and Pam saved the day quite a few times by lovingly taking three trips to the airport.  Thank you!

Part III: Andrea and Joe's Wedding

As if the trip wasn't already awesome enough we got to celebrate another fantastic couple.  Andrea and Joe got hitched and we got to be a part of it.  Sweet.

Nicole and I got to see Andrea and Joe's new apartment (nice work guys), get our nails done, and help put together the wedding flowers.  Cliff took his second redeye in eight days and got back into town just in time to put up directional signage and be apart of the rehearsal dinner.  Cliff did a reading and I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid along with Nicole and Andrea's fun friend Cat.  I sadly didn't take any photos leading up to the wedding but Cliff took a few shots from the front row during the ceremony and then various folks used our camera to document the day.  Score.

Andrea looked beautiful.  Joe was so handsome.  It was a little cold (in the low 50's after being in the 80's and 70's all week) but that didn't matter.  We are all really happy to have Joe officially apart of the Lyddane clan.  The day was so much fun.  We got to see family that we haven't seen in years.  Plus, there was more dancing.  The Wileys and the Minters really know how to break it down.  Even the Lyddane men got into the action.  And I got to dance with Cliff yet again (thank you Stephen for documenting!).  Dancing makes me so happy.  Oh, we all also got to hear how Stephen has the most amazing, beautiful hair ever.  Seriously, both women and men were jealous.  I heard several conversations.  It was awesome.

Once again, the food was delicious.  We seriously lucked out.  For the rehearsal we got Beefalo Bob's BBQ (I miss BBQ soooooo much!).   For the wedding, there were tons of appetizers (crab drip, artichoke dip, various bruschetta, zucchini fritters, and something with tuna).  I sampled them all except for the tuna as I was never able to corner a waiter while they still had them on their tray. That was just the beginning as we also had salad, chilean sea bass on grits, and filet with mashed potatoes.  Best filet ever in my opinion. And the cake was chocolate and raspberry (very Andrea).  I ate two pieces plus several chocolate covered strawberries. Also, I got two shirley temples.  Always a good day when you have a shirley temple.  Apparently I like to eat like a pig at all weddings.

I was really sad to leave as the trip had been amazing.  I had a smile on my face almost the entire time (hey...a girl has got to eat and sleep).

It is hard to believe that four years ago yesterday Cliff and I got hitched.  Weddings make me happy.  Being married rocks.  Seeing friends and family also rocks.  Life is beautiful.