Testing 1, 2, 3…

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Trip to the Coast

Hunting for beach treasures

This past weekend we had the opportunity to stay at our favorite inn in Cannon Beach, Tolovana Inn.  John’s company has done some trade in the past so we have had access to trade dollars for the last three years.  Well, they were about to expire so it was time to take another trip.  We packed our bags and loaded up the new family wagon for a trip to the Beach.

In case you hadn’t heard, we got a new family car last week, a station wagon.  Although the thing screams “estrogen” from the outside, we opted for the AWD T5 (Turbo) engine, so it screams “testosterone” under the hood.  It’s so nice to have the dogs in the very back and not pacing around on the seats, shaking, drooling and jumping over Hadley’s carseat.

We headed out about 4:00pm on Friday and had a lovely drive.  No real traffic to speak of, smooth and easy.  I  brought snacks for Hadley so she was also occupied for most of the trip.  It’s only about an hour and half drive, but let’s just say, that’s usually long enough for Hadley.  Scott, Jenn and Mason arrived a short time later as well.  We were able to get joining rooms, basically making it a two bedroom condo with a full kitchen.  We made wonderful meals, took walks on the beach, relaxed, and even made it into town for a visit.  It was a lovely weekend and the only thing I can complain about was that it was just too short.  Enjoy some pictures from our beach weekend!

Hadley, the Artiste!

I just wanted to share some of Hadley’s latest artwork that was sent home from daycare.  She’s a budding artist and I think it’s safe to say she specializes in mixed media.

Right when you get the camera out…

The other night we were giving Hadley her bath (which she decided she loves again by the way) and she counted from one to ten in Spanish, totally unprompted.  She’s counted from one to ten before in Spanish, but we usually have to ask her what number is next.  Well, I grabbed the camera to get it on tape just as she was finishing it for the second time (you can hear us asking for “mas”–the child doesn’t say “more”, but instead uses the Spanish word), and of course she refused to do it again.  But anyway, here is some bath time silliness courtesy of Hadley.

Flashback: Our first married Valentine’s Day

John and I have never been really big on celebrating holidays with elaborate gifts.  We prefer to spend time together and cook something nice and perhaps watch a movie.  After all, families that cook together, stay together.  This saying was to be challenged on Valentine’s Day 2006.

John and I were both working downtown at that time and carpooling to and from work.  The plan for the evening was to go to the store to pick up some ingredients for cheese fondue and make it at home.  I worked right on the MAX line (Portland’s light rail system) so I figured I would get a head start and take the MAX up to North Portland and get the ingredients needed at the Fred Meyer located only three miles from our house.  John could just pick me up at the grocery store and we would ride home together from there.

All started smoothly as I made my way to the store.  I had to pick up 23048098 pounds of cheese, 2 bottles of wine (one for cooking, one for drinking), kielbasa, green apples and french bread to dip in the cheese deliciousness.  I texted John to let him know I was done shopping and to get an eta as to when he would be arriving.  He said “I’m here.  I’m parked right in front of the store”.  I looked right, I looked left, I looked up, I looked down, John was no where to be found.  I said “ummmmm, no you’re not” as I was standing quite literally smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the store.  John asked me which door I was standing at because he was at the door closest to our old apartment building.  “Wait…..our old apartment building?  Why on God’s green earth would you be at the DOWNTOWN Fred Meyer instead of the one THREE MILES FROM OUR HOUSE???”  At this point, John says my tone had changed from it’s normal sweet and melodic (ok, maybe those are my words) to a darker, meaner, snarkier one.  Those who know me will know that yes, this can happen.  John argued that he just figured I would be at the downtown store because it was equidistant from both our places of employment and that made more sense to him.  I clearly did not understand this argument or see any point in that frame of thought and well, I let him know that.

I decided I would start walking home and he could just catch up with me and pick me up.  Being February, it should have been windy and raining.  Thank goodness it wasn’t raining, but it was unusually cold and windy.  Since John dropped me off and picked me up at the front door of my work every morning, I did not see the point in bundling up either.  The bags were very heavy, remember how much cheese I had purchased?  And the two bottles of wine were not helping the matter either.  If I had a corkscrew with me, I would have opened one of those puppies up right then and there, to lighten the load and to take the edge off.

As I walked, I found that the anger began to dissapate, and I was able to laugh at the situation.  It’s true, we had not clarified which Fred Meyer we were talking about and it was Valentine’s Day.  There was no need to argue.  John finally caught up with me with freezing cold hands, sore shoulders from my loot and TWO MILES under my belt.  I got in the car and immediately started laughing at the predicament we had gotten ourselves into.  Well, John wasn’t quite there yet.  He was still steaming over the apparent verbal beating I gave him over the phone for going to the wrong store (I conveniently don’t remember this part of the story).  We talked through it and eventually he laughed.  It was a laugh through gritted teeth, but it was a laugh.

We immediately opened the wine upon entering the house and began to prepare our cheese fondue.  I was hungry and  I had burned off all of the calories I was about to consume with my 2 mile walk carrying 23048098 pounds of cheese.  We had a lovely dinner and didn’t go to bed angry.  It honestly made for the most memorable Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had.

In discussing this blog post with John last night he told me that I never actually apologized to him for the verbal beating I gave him over the phone.  Not only did I apologize last night, but I’m also going to do it right here.

I’m sorry, John.

I love you John, you are my everything.  You help me learn how to be patient, you communicate with me, you encourage me, you support me and you love me.  You are the best Valentine I could ever hope for and I will love you forever.

New post!!

I realize I’ve been seriously lagging behind on my posts.  There are always other things to do it seems, besides writing blog posts.  So I apologize for that.  If you are reading this now, I appreciate you checking back to see if there is anything new.

Well, we have a two year old on our hands!  We had a fun birthday party for Hadley at Sound Roots School of Modern Music with all her little friends.  Hadley’s party was also attended by her two favorite people in the world, Scott and Jenn.  Jenn was able to spend the weekend up in Portland helping us get ready for the party and Scott traveled all night to make it back from a hockey game in Eastern Washington to attend.  It was a lot of fun, and I took lots of pictures.

It’s been a lot of fun to have a two year old.  Yes, there are tantrums bigger than life at times but even those provide laughter and entertainment for mom and dad.  Hadley is very independent and “Haddy do it!” can be heard on many occasions on any given day.  She loves to play hide and seek, laugh, dance and sing songs.  We are still working on going on the potty (she will successfully go about once a day), and she is gaining new language every day.  It’s fun to hear what words she picks up on and what she learns at daycare.  In fact, the other day she exclaimed “oh dear!” when she dropped something.  Just don’t ask her to say “frog” because it resembles another four letter F-word when it exits her mouth.  I’ve attached a bunch of pictures of our big girl for your viewing pleasure.  Also, here is just a random video I took last night of sheer cuteness.

1, 2, 1, 1….

You will see what I mean by the title of this post once you watch the video.  I took this video a couple of weeks ago when we started working on counting.  She did pretty well, and it’s fun to watch her learn.  She can almost count to 10 by herself now, although she usually misses the number 5.  Toddlers are amazing aren’t they?

Yes Hadley, there IS a Santa Claus

We had plans to see Santa Claus this morning with our friends Jeff, Sofia and their daughter Ana.  We had been preparing for it quite a bit because although Hadley thoroughly enjoyed meeting the fat man last year, we didn’t know how this year would go.  Toddlers are a whole different story and Hadley definitely has ideas about what she does and does not want to do.  There is no forcing this strong willed child.

We started out by doing a bit of a “dry run” Saturday evening.  We decided to bring Hadley to the city square that night to see the Christmas Tree on display.  I’m not sure how tall it is, but it has to be at least 60 feet tall (you can see me in the white hat, and Hadley standing underneath it).  It is lit with energy efficient LED lights and is absolutely beautiful.  Hadley LOVES looking at all the Christmas lights this season.  On the drive home each evening we pass houses lit up with lights and she will clap and ask for more.  We thought the downtown tree would be a big hit.  We got there and she seemed to be less then impressed.  Since the mall is only a block away, we decided to walk around the mall and let Hadley get some energy out since it started to rain outside.

John and I thought it would be a good idea to take her to the Santa area so she could check him out and see what she was getting into.  All week long we would ask her, “do you want to see Santa?” and she would enthusiastically answer “yes!”.  We knew that she really had no idea what she was saying but she pointed Santa out wherever she saw a man that was wearing a Santa hat, or a picture of him somewhere.  She seemed very interested when we saw him, she even tried to walk up to him while there was a couple of other children on his lap.

Sunday morning proved to be another story.  We waited in line at Macy’s to see Santa first thing in the morning.  Hadley loved the Santaland that was in the Macy’s lower level.  She saw all the reindeer and made reindeer noises for us, which happen to be a “roooaaarr” in Hadley’s world.  By the time we got up to see Santa, Hadley was a bit more reserved.  She decided that there was no way she was going to sit on his lap, hence the family picture above.  John was able to get some video after the picture was taken.  She did end up saying “Thank you Santa”, but when he tried to hold her hand, she freaked.  Our Santa visit was over, and honestly it went as well as could be expected with a nearly two year old.  She did a really great job, and John and I were pleased as punch.

John started taking the video just as Santa asked Hadley if she liked Dollies or babies (which, by the way, Hadley is obsessed with babies…..and no, I’m not having another one yet).  She was responding by saying “no babies.  no babies!”

Enjoy the video and from our family to yours we hope you’re having a very Merry Christmas season!

Christmas is here!

First you buy the tree (notice the Clark Griswold pose)

John (aka Clark Griswold)

And you need to clean

And then you decorate the tree

Christmas is here!

…and I thought I hated pork chops

I always thought I hated pork chops because the ones we have made have always turned out dry, and rubbery.  Well, we were making two mistakes…wrong recipe and wrong cut.  I learned that the thin cut pork chops will ALWAYS be rubbery, so buy at least a 3/4″ inch cut, but in my opinion the 1″ is optimal.

Here is my go-to pork chop recipe, drenched in Onion Gravy.  It may have only 3 ingredients (salt, pepper, flour and oil for frying don’t count), but trust me, they are deliciously simple.

Pork Chops and Onion Gravy

• 4 pork chops, 1″ thick
• vegetable oil
• salt and pepper
• flour for dredging
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 cups chicken stock

Rinse and pat dry pork chops.  Season both sides with salt and pepper.  Dredge in flour.  Heat a couple of tablespoons vegetable oil in a fry pan with a lid.  Fry pork chops in pan until golden on each side, about 3 minutes a side.  Take pork chops out and set aside.  Add onions to drippings in pan and saute for a couple of minutes.  Add a couple tablespoons of the leftover flour from dredging and toast flour with onions for about 2 minutes.  Slowly pour in chicken broth, and let the mixture come to a boil.  Reduce heat to low.  Nestle pork chops back in onion gravy, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until pork chops are tender and cooked through and gravy is thickened.

If your looking for a perfect comfort food meal, serve with a baked potato and the famous Green Bean Hotdish.

Try it out and let me know what you think!