ode to Oregon

its funny how a teeny tiny piece of plastic can change your life. Today i got my Arizona drivers license and Paul got his Arizona license plates, and it feels weird. We've lived here for two months and its definitely settled in, but I knew & know that at some point we'll go back to Oregon. But for now... we're Arizonans. Which is so weird. There's something extremely special about being from the Northwest and it's completely tied in with my identity. So in honor of my sweet special home state, heres a list of my favorite things about Oregon:

-how when you fly home and step of the plane theres that sweet sweet smell of rain and trees and something you can't really but your finger on, but you know you're home. 
-the rain. which never. ends.
-when the rain does end [even for five minutes], somehow everyone flocks outside to enjoy a brief glimpse of the sky
-voodoo donuts. i've actually never had one [shocking I know]. but how theres some cult following about pastries. Only in Oregon!
-you can hike anywhere
-its so green!!! I didn't know how much I loved that silly color until I moved to a brown world
-the way the pear trees at my dads house change colors in the fall
-the sunsets!
-how i know our state animal, state bird, state tree and state flower because i have that much pride about my state
-that our state animal is the beaver! so fitting for a logging state
-attempting to see the green flash at Seaside even though its always too cloudy
-the gray days in winter.
-wearing scarves and boots and jackets- all year round!
-the beer!! I am a beer girl at heart and Oregon has the best beer, and so many types!
-the christmas lights on the trees downtown
-how eighty degrees feels like 120 [trust me, it actually doesn't]
-by the time it's April everyone gets so excited for summer when it actually doesn't show up until mid-July
-camping in the forests
-camping anywhere. even when its 30 degrees and rainy
-curling up in front of the fire at my moms house
-knitting being socially acceptable
-the blues festival
-that people actually get spray tans and lie in tanning beds! Its so ridiculous!
-coffee shops. everywhere.
-the homemade chai at Interzone. If you live in Corvallis and haven't tried it, you're missing out.
-Crater Lake, Mt. McLoughlin, Klamath Falls.. the list goes on
-The view of the mountains from Paul's moms house
-cruising down the river on Brizo
-The beach, the river, mountains and the city all being within a days drive
-Multnomah Falls hiking [they also have the best ice cream]
-Powells!
-Food trucks that actually have good food
-Timbers, Blazers, Hops. Even if they aren't the best teams, the city loves them and stands behind them, because that's what people from Oregon do
-River place marina and all the memories I have there
-how every building at Oregon State is made of bricks! It makes it feel so homey and is beautiful 
-when it snows people freak 
-that everyone gets in swimsuits when it gets over 55 degrees! [makes me shiver now]
-how when people say 'the mountain is out today' everyone knows what it means
-the huckleberry milkshakes at Burgerville. RIGHT?
-how they turn the deer on the Made In Oregon sign into Rudolph during the holidays
-OMSI
-lastly, my absolute favorite thing about Oregon is how it feels, because it's home.

bag lady

i'll admit it- i'm a snoop. i think you can pretty much judge a person by what they carry around them, and for that reason i'm completely obsessed with 'whats in your bag' blog posts. i can't get enough of them! so to satisfy all of you fellow snoops here's a glance at what is in my bag.

[1] Sunglasses are an essential in Arizona and these are my go-to! Even if i'm wearing gym clothes i automatically think i look cooler when i throw these babes on; Ray-Ban Wayfarers, 55mm in tortoise shell
[2] This moleskin day planner is my life. As most of you know i have what can only be described as the memory of a goldfish, and without this planner i would be lost; Moleskin day-by-day calendar
[3] What kind of a lady doesn't carry around a wine-opener? Am i right or am I right?
[4] As a dogmom i have to carry around bribes with me! And my sweet pups are allergic to everything so these all natural peanut butter cookies are Penny and Bears favorites; Nutro Crunchy Treats in peanut butter
[5] i unfortunately am one of those people with oily skin. This face powder is my savior; Smashbox Halo powder in 'fair', and kabuki brush
[6] gum. need i say more?; Orbit gum in peppermint
[7] i have no idea why i had stamps in my purse because i don't even own envelopes!
[8] Living in the land of sunshine my lips are constantly chapped and this stuff is heaven; EOS lip-balm in mint
[9] sometimes my fair skin needs a little lift and this lip/skin tint always does the trick; The Balm's 'Staniac'
[10] in case of an allergy attack i pretty much always have some sort of medicine on hand; Sudafed Pain & Pressure
[11] looking for a great eye highlighter for tired mornings? this stuff is amazing; Smashbox 'Photo Op' under-eye highlighter
[12] I've had this wallet since i was 16! i love it, and i think it loves me too; Hobo clutch
[13] the one absolute necessity in my purse- an extra dog leash; KONG large-dog leash in cobalt

As most of my friends [and definitely Paul] can attest, i have an abnormal amount of purses. I have a tendency to go through 'purse phases'. When I get a new one I usually use it for months and months until it's time to change it up, and folks I am definitely in a purse phase right now. This Kate Spade tote was a Christmas present from Paul's dad Mike and step-mom Kristin and guys, its amazing! It's safe to say I'm in love. I've been using it basically non-stop since Christmas day, and I don't see this phase ending any time soon!

"adjustment"

Adjustment. Adjusting. Adjust. 

I have been repeating variations of this word to myself for a month. And I have been given some great advice, and some not so great advice- all of which has included this word.
I have come to strongly dislike this word. "You'll adjust to the heat." "You'll adjust to the move." "You'll adjust to not having family around." "You'll adjust to having no friends." Over and over and over again.
I do not like this word and I DO NOT like adjustment. Somewhere over the past two months adjustment has slowly turned into appeasing myself. Lets face it- I love having my family around, I love the rain, I love having friends. and, I love Paul, I love that we moved to Arizona, and I love how our relationship is growing and our life down here.
It is incredibly hard not having my family and friend here, but that doesn't mean I have to adjust to anything and I have been trying to trick myself into this thought for so long that it has been driving me crazy! I think it's okay to be sad about everything we left behind in Portland, and I will be, and I don't think that will ever change. But that does not mean that I have to adjust. and i won't.

Let me be a little clearer- I miss Oregon so much. This move have been incredibly hard. I've been alone a lot of the time, without friends or family or anything to do. But, at the same time it has been incredibly rewarding. I have thought day in and day out about calling my mom and asking her to fly me home for the weekend, but I'm not going to do that. And here's why: I have lived and loved in Oregon my entire life. But i love Paul more. And we owe it to ourselves and to each other to start our own life in a place we don't know, and grow and love a new place together. Having no friends is so hard for both of us. Paul is a very stoic kind of person and would never admit that, but I'm not as strong as he is. I'm moody and impatient and impulsive, and he grounds me. And living here has made us so much stronger. More than I could ever imagine. We've had to come up with ideas of how to fill our time and have fun with nothing. We literally moved here and had nothing. Don't get me wrong, we are both super fortunate to be able to afford the live we're living, both have salaried jobs, and so much love. But what neither of us has ever had to deal with is a huge excess of time, with nothing to do. With this time I've had to confront myself on a daily basis and really evaluate the kind of person that I'll be.

So, for that reason I've decided that I am never going to simply "adjust". I'll grow.

Reppin my Beavs today. Miss you, Oregon. 

If you can't stand the heat....

In my life, the kitchens in my houses have never been just places to cook.
It's the room where a family comes together.
At my dads house, most of my major life events have taken place in the kitchen. I found out I was going to college in that room. I was standing in there when I got the phone call that my grandpa had died. I introduced my guy to my entire family there. It's where we have all our serious conversations, and where we stay up until four in the morning drinking wine and laughing. When family comes into town, we go immediately to the kitchen for hours to catch up!
And I think I've spent more time in my mom's kitchen than the rest of her house! It is far and away the best area of her home [I think], and even though she hadn't lived there that long by the time Paul and I moved, we had some amazing times in that room! Not to mention, my mom is a phenomenal cook. She could challenge Julia or Betty to a cook off and win. [I wish I had gotten that gene!]
To me theres just something so comforting about kitchens for this reason, and now I don't even usually associate kitchens with food. Is that weird?

When Paul and I first moved to our new house, the kitchen was the first room that was completely unpacked, ready to go and felt lived in. I seriously didn't even care about setting up our living room [probably why it wasn't set up until we had lived here a month and a half.. whoops], i just was focused on the kitchen! Especially because we were given so many amazing kitchen appliances for Christmas that I was getting to unpack for the first time! [Thanks mom, dad, Joe, Braden, Nancy, Mike and Jeannie for all of those amazing gifts!]

Every morning when we wake up at 5am [yikes!], while Paul hops in the shower I run into the kitchen, turn on the coffee pot, and usually assess the damage from the night before.... if i haven't climbed back into bed again! When I actually wake up for the day [usually around 630], I put the dogs outside and get to work! I would love to be the kind of person who can't sleep with a dirty house but I just don't have the motivation when it's bed time [nothing can come between me and my bed when I'm tired]. So my first job of the day is always cleaning the kitchen. I don't know how, but Paul and I go through SO many dishes! I mean, it's a little ridiculous. I can't cook to save my life so the majority of my dishes are coffee cups, but Paul somehow manages to fly through at least five dishes a day. Throughout the day as I attempt to make lunch and snacks [usually a PB&J or a smoothie.. or an avocado.. or carrots...Paul always tells me I eat like a rabbit] I end up cleaning the kitchen A LOT. And when I'm not cleaning the kitchen, or running around chasing my dogs, or sitting outside, you can bet I'll be sitting at our kitchen table!

I could literally talk about our kitchen in everyone of my blog posts, but to spare you guys my rambling I'll just get to the pictures [thats the fun part anyway!]

So here it is, a little view of my favorite room in our house.

A bedroom

Well here it is! The first of a few 'home' posts I hope to get done this week before I enter the working world next Monday.

As much as I hate to admit it, I've always been the kind of person who does everything in their bedroom. Craft, eat, watch tv, hiding out from the rain, oh right and sleep! It's probably because I've been living in apartments or houses with seven other people for the last five years, but lets face it theres nothing more comfortable than hanging out in bed!
Now that hiding out from the rain isn't really a factor, and we have a house big enough where I actually have space to do things other than in our bedroom, our room has just become that. Not my craft room or living room or kitchen, anymore. Because of this I've tried to make our room a really clean space with not a lot going on so that when it's bedtime I'm not tempted to watch tv or knit in bed anymore. So, I've tried to keep as little as possible on my dresser other than books and a lamp for when I sleep, and a few things that remind us of home.

Clearly I have a thing for gray. I don't know why but I think its the most comforting color! Plus you can add a little pop without overwhelming everyone else if its gray!

After my college house burned down about a year ago I had to get all new furniture, including my bed. This one is from Ikea, and I got matching nightstands as well but because this bedroom is significantly smaller than the one at our old apartment, I had to choose between a dresser and a nightstand and lets face it- I have way too many clothes to not have a dresser! I'm hoping to do a little makeover on my dresser at some point but for now it does the job!

My favorite item in our entire house is my elephant. My whole life [and probably further back than that] my grandma LaDene collected elephants, and after she passed a few years ago each of us got to choose an elephant to remember her by. I love having this next to my head at night. It's a little reminder of my family, and a fantastic reminder of the incredible human being that my grandma was.

I'm usually trying to read a few books at once, but I always find myself re-reading the same ones over and over again. I've read the Lord of the Rings series a few times, but theres way too much packed in those books to remember so I'm slowly working my way through it again. On the other hand, I've been trying to finish the shining for about three years, and get so scared that I have to stop! Because of a little push from my sweet friend Madison I picked it back up and started it over again. It's still just as scary but I'm trying! The Cider House Rules is my favorite book of all time. Even though the subject matter is a little weird, I am convinced its John Irving's masterpiece. It's one of those books with so much background and super developed characters, and I can't get enough of it! I find myself re-reading it about once a year and since I've had a little time on my hands since the move I started up again! Finally, the Beauty book. I'm a little embarrassed that I own this but it is seriously the best! I've never been great with makeup or hair so it gives me lots of ideas!

Told you, wayyy too many clothes for our tiny closet. I've slowly started to push my way into Paul's side but I'm trying not to! Plus about half of my clothes are for cold weather- not ideal for this Arizona heat!


Well that's about it! Next up- the kitchen!

checking in & taking stock

Although we don't have that many milestones to celebrate around here, I like to pretend we do with our little dogter and dogson! We've officially made it a month and a half in Arizona [feels like one week!], and time is flying by and things are changing quickly! So, to keep track of the messy crazy busy life we have and hopefully remember some things about our sweet pups, I've borrowed a little idea from the cutest mama/blogger i know, Allison Wall and decided to do a 'talking stock' post once a month. Here goes nothin!


Making: house decorations! In an attempt to compromise with Paul I got rid of all of my previous decorations before the move [they were too 'girly'], so now we have a big house full of bare walls! Im making shadow boxes like a madwoman and pulling ideas from pinterest/blogs/instagram. Basically anything I can do on a budget! 
Cooking: does a bowl of cheerios count? I am not the cooker in this family, but i can make some mean scrambled eggs! 
Drinking: coffee..water..coffee..water.. more coffee. keeping up with a puppy is hard guys!
Reading: the shining. at least attempting to read it.. it's so scary! This is my second third fourth attempt!
Wanting: Bear to sleep until six, Penny to stop eating rocks, Paul to come home from work, a bath, but most of all for the weather to cool down! It's been 90 already! I thought we'd have a few months to ease in but it looks like that was wishful thinking!
Looking: forward. 
Playing: tug, fetch, frisbee.. pretty much anything that involves my dogs having a toy in their mouth is a good game
Wasting: time. Sometimes it feels like there aren't enough hours in a day to do anything for myself! Maybe that's selfish but I think everyone needs a little 'me' time every day
Sewing: bits and pieces of this house together.. slowly but surely it's becoming a home!
Wishing: Paul would get home from work already! 
Enjoying: our little make-shift family down here. We might be young and silly to have such a big house and two baby dogs, but man life has never been better!
Waiting: for the mail to come! I have loved getting mail since I was really little [even though it wasn't for me]. And now that they do come for me [mostly bills... yuck!], i still love it!
Liking: that I've already been on a run, took Bear to the vet, cleaned the house, and found time to write! My days are usually no where near this productive i promise!
Loving: how vocal Bear is! I swear he has a noise for everything. Penny looks at him like he is crazy and that is hilarious too. Right now they are spooning each other while they sleep.. cutest. thing. ever. 
Hoping: That as time goes by Arizona will feel like home. Paul and I love it here, but I think we both still feel like Oregon is home for us. Its a work in progress!
Marveling: at how much can change in a month! Were we really still in Oregon in January? With no house, no jobs, no Bear, no truck.. jeese!
Needing: a nap. and a shower. 
Smelling: our tropical sensie! 
Wearing: all black. Not the best idea in this heat but it's the first thing I grabbed this morning
Following: my pups around. all day long. 
Noticing: how lucky I am lately.
Knowing: that in one short week I'll start work.. I'm trying to get as much done possible this week before that happens!
Thinking: how glad i am to have such a big support system. I think know this move would have been a lot more difficult without all of our friends and family back home. 
Feeling: stressed/happy/busy/loving/exhausted
Bookmarking: blogs blogs and more blogs! Ive found so many great ideas for our house and so many amazing women just in the last week browsing blogs!
Opening: our patio doors. For some reason our house is always freezing! A blessing in disguise i think, considering we haven't had to turn on the AC yet
Giggling: at Bear hopping around all over the place! I swear this dude doesn't even know how to walk.. just hop!
Feeling: at peace.

Thanks for reading! And get excited because this week I'm starting our house posts!

A visitor

>>This past week was something I've been looking forward to since before Paul and I moved....Chelsea was visiting! The longest Chels and I have spent apart since 5th grade [have we really been friends for almost fourteen years!?] is a few months here and there when one of us has been out of town for the summer, so this move was definitely something I knew I would have to adapt to for all of my friendships, including this one. The best thing about Chels is that she's the kind of friend where you can go a few weeks without talking to [not that I could ever make it that long!], but once we do talk it's like no time has passed at all.

>>From the second I picked her up on Wednesday it was business as usual for us, and though we didn't do much over the week it felt like we did so much! Mostly we sat in the sun on my back patio and caught up, laughed over stupid inside jokes, hoooowled over pictures she had taken from our eighth grade year books, watched Bear and Penny, and laughed more. It felt so good to have such a fantastic friend around!

>>We did that for the first two days, and on Friday [valentine's day], we decided to do some crafts! [and drink some pina coladas.. yummmm!] Chels drew some simple designs for shadow boxes that I've been working on, and I half-hazardly made a rope wall hanging that did not turn out very well [I had to re-do it today.. whoops], but it was really relaxing.

>>That night Chels treated us to dinner at this restaurant that Paul and I have been driving by for weeks saying 'we should try that sometime', and we finally got to with  Chels! They had amaaaazing guacamole, and even better drinks, and I was with my two best friends.. I think that is the perfect recipe for Valentines day, don't you?

>>Saturday morning Chelsea's uncle picked her up to go see family, so Paul and I were able to get some chores done that we had been neglecting all week, and then we drove down to meet them at Chels's Grandma's house. After a super delicious bbq lunch [in 90 degrees!], we drove back home to recoup and decide what to do that night! We had originally planned to go hiking, but the trail had been closed early for some reason, so we decided to stay in and have a few beers! It was the perfect ending to a really fantastic week and some much needed best-friend-time for me.

[love you Chels]

>>I've gotten really used to being alone since we moved down here, mostly because for a whole month i didn't have a car, and now that I do we don't really know anyone else. Of course Paul and I have a great time with each other, but theres nothing quite like hanging out with your girls, which honestly was something I really hadn't anticipated before moving. I've always lived in a place where I knew people, and as silly and naive as that sounds I just didn't assume Phoenix was going to be any different. I definitely took for granted that my girls were usually just five minutes away from me, or that I could wake up and make plans for that same day with all of them! It's very weird knowing that I don't have anyone like that down here, and that even though my friends are just a phone call away it's not like I can hop in the car and see them twenty minutes later. I know that I'll eventually make friends down here, but for right now it seems a little daunting.. I haven't had to make a new friend since.... kindergarden!! How crazy is that!? I didn't think Phoenix would change me all that much, but it looks like I have some growth in store. SO.. to hopefully help me meet some people I'm signing up for a bunch of clubs. Book clubs, knitting clubs, beer clubs, etc. Basically anything I'm interested in.. although I share most of my interests with elderly women haha cross your fingers for me that there will be another twenty-something in one of these groups!!

p.s. I am officially employed! I got offered the job just a few hours before I picked Chels up from the airport!!

[doityourself]

Going blog crazy today! Actually, I'm just trying to take full advantage of the fact that I already cleaned the house today and my dogs are entertaining themselves long enough for me to write a few posts and take pictures of the house so that I can do some house posts! Normally I spend the day following Bear around making sure he doesn't go potty in the house, steal Penny's toys, eat things he's not supposed to [especially rocks and power cords], and following Penny around making sure she doesn't get her muddy paws on our new couches, steal Bear's toys, and put things in her mouth that she's not supposed to [like Bear's whole head].

Last weekend, when the pup's were not behaving well, Paul and I decided to stick them in the house for the day and have some fun of our own! I don't know how normal this is, but apparently our idea of fun usually has something to do with going to a hardware store and randomly deciding to build something we have no idea how to build. In reality...that's more Paul's idea of fun.. I just go to the paint isles and day dream about painting our ugly-brown walls a better color! And so, last weekend, we did just that! We hopped in Q, Paul's weirdly named truck, and made our way over to Lowe's while frantically looking up how to build an outdoor table and color schemes for bookshelves.

We've been planning on buying an outdoor patio set, but in this spur of the moment Lowe's DIY trip, we [Paul] decided to build it himself! During this super-macho day dream of his, I was day dreaming ways to make our house look, well, less brown. Everything is brown here! The houses are all brown adobe brick, the ground is completely brown everywhere, our house is painted brown, and it just so happened that every single piece of furniture we brought down here is brown too. Gross! So, I decided that because Paul was doing his weird DIY builder man thing, I was going to re-invent the one piece of furniture that is my favorite, and the one that was the most brown- our bookshelf!

[our unfortunately brown bookshelf, pre makeover]

[At this stage I had no idea how he was going to make a table]

After probably three hours at Lowe's, we made our way back home with a truck-full of lumber, drill bits, wood stain, wood conditioner, outdoor sealant, paint brushes, paint, paint trays, and painting tape! We might have been  a little over-ambitious, but we were definitely determined! I started painting the inside of the bookshelf, and found that the colors I picked were a liiiiitle more bright than I thought, but nothing was going to stop me at this point! While Paul was drilling holes into every single piece of wood we bought, screwing them all together and somehow making a table, I was casually painting my book shelf and watching the office! [and drinking a beer].

[starting to look more like a table, and less like scattered 2x4s]

[seriously, way brighter than i thought]

It took two days and probably eight hours, but we were done! The bookshelf looks 1000x better, our house looks a lot less brown, and we have a patio table... just not chairs yet :). The only thing left to do is stain the table, and then we are in business!

 [much less brown, much more cute]

[he did it! I'm not sure how, but he did it!]

Perfect weekend? I think so!

january.

January was an incredibly hectic and exciting month full of lots and lots of changes for us! 

When we first moved in to our house we had one room packed full of boxes and furniture which, while Paul was at work I was in charge of organizing, while somehow keeping Penny's very sneaky and curious nose from chewing up everything. We had a Uhaul packed full of two separate houses, but apparently two little apartments full of stuff does not fill a four bedroom house! We spent the majority of the month sitting on camping chairs, watching red box movies, and eating sandwiches [which sounds a lot like college but was actually really fun!]. 

[told ya, camping chairs!]

After we were finally unpacked and settled [kind of] in to a routine, we decided it was time to get Penny a buddy! We knew pretty much since the day I picked up Penny that another pup was in our future, but we hadn't really had the opportunity to think about it seriously until this January. We [I] spent about a week scouring the Internet looking for litters in the area. We knew we wanted a boy, and up until I started the search we were pretty set on getting a Lab. After visiting a few different litters and talking to what felt like hundreds, we stumbled across an ad for German Shorthair Pointer puppies about an hour away from our house! I called the man, and we were on the road about twenty minutes later to pick out our puppy! Although we had spent the past nine months talking about getting another dog and the past month searching for one, it felt so exciting and crazy that we were actually doing it! We had a fantastic time meeting the breeder, and loved watching the litter interact with Penny [we knew we wanted to bring her to meet them to see how she did], and finally we got to take our little man home! 

Bear is such a little dude! He is the complete opposite of Penny, who as a puppy was incredibly shy and quiet and excitable. Bear is constantly on the go [if he's not sleeping], hops around nonstop in the cutest way, and is the most vocal puppy I've ever seen in my life! He apparently has a sound for every emotion he's feeling and talks/whines/howls/barks/growls/yips constantly! At his first vet appointment the vet told us he is the biggest GSP puppy he's ever seen! When Penny was ten weeks she weighed about eight pounds, and Bear weighs 15 already! Seeing Penny with him is hilarious and a little touch-and-go, but they are already fast friends. 

 [taking Bear home!]

 [best buds.]

 [being a stud at his first Vet appointment]

Because we moved here with only one car, I spent the majority of January setting up the house, taking care of Penny [and then Bear], and once we got the Internet I started my job search! The last week of January we finally decided it was time to get Paul a truck, so we went kicking tires! We were the first people to the car lot, by far the youngest, and the last to leave- but we ended the day as a two car family! Finally I'm able to actually go out on interviews [I have one tomorrow!], run errands, and take Penny to the park during the day, and Paul has his own truck to go to and from work! 

[Paul and his truck!]

January has been crazy. A new house, new job, new puppy, new car, new furniture... new everything! Although I don't think we're every going to feel settled [a good thing, i think], this little desert life is such an adventure and we are loving it!