Am I There, Yet?

It’s hard to believe that I was at the beautiful Oregon coast just last week.  The trip was way too short.  We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning at the coast.  Wednesday afternoon we drove to Portland and then came back home on Thursday morning.  It was just the two of us.  It’s always fun to get away without the kids, although I’m amazed at how much I miss them when we’re gone.  The absence makes me appreciate them more.

I love Oregon.  I love the drive over the mountains, into the rainy valley and over to the coast.  Oregon has seen some outrageous amounts of rain lately.  We drove past a golf course in Corvallis that was flooded.  I told Josh that we should get some row boats, beach balls and golf clubs and play a game of water golf.  Wouldn’t that be fun? 

The weather at the coast was amazingly warm for this time of year.  Here’s the view from our hotel room (isn’t it gorgeous?):

Here’s what it looked like during sunset:

It makes me want to go back!

We spent some time at the harbor, stopping to get some clam chowder at Mo’s.  Who wouldn’t?  It was amazing.  I love, love, love Mo’s clam chowder.  While at the harbor we saw some sea lions soaking up the sun.  I love watching wild animals in their habitat.  One sea lion was very diva-esque.  I’m assuming it was a female, but I could be wrong.  She was extremely annoyed anytime one of her companions barked or rocked the platform and she struck a pose for the picture.  I had to take a picture of her:

Here are some pictures we took of ourselves:

As I mentioned before, on Wednesday we took off to Portland, stopping in Lincoln City to grab a bite to eat at McMenamins.  I didn’t realize they had a McMenamins in Lincoln City.  It was smaller than the one in Portland and here, but still had great food.  They also served a delicious bowl of clam chowder.  Watch out Mo’s!  Yum!!!

I love experiencing different culture in different locations.  When in Rome…

It rained in Portland…are you surprised?  Not I.  But, then again, it’s been raining here too.  Go figure.  I can’t wait to go to the coast again.  By my count I’ll be there in 5 and 1/2 weeks.  Woohoo!!!  Then, after that it’ll only be 8 weeks until my next trip.  After that?  Who knows.

I love Oregon.

You know what I love best about Oregon?  My friends.  :)  They rock!

Have I mentioned that I’m a knit-aholic?  I decided to venture away from scarves for a moment and I made a hat last night.  It was easier than I thought.  Here’s a picture of my daughter modeling the hat:

What’s this?

It’s a mess…that’s what it is.  LOL!!!  Most of you know I’m a knitting freak, although I haven’t ventured past scarves, yet.  My next big task is to try to knit sweaters for my nieces…Lucy and Pebbles…the dogs.  Anyways, my sis-in-law challenged me to try crocheting and showed me a picture of a scarf she wanted.  Here’s the finished product:

Interesting, huh?  It was fun.  I may try another one…making some significant changes.

I don’t have much time to blog right now…I’ve gotta go knit. 

Some of you may know that my dad has invented a game.  It’s called Spin-It.  After a long process it appeared in stores today!  I’m so excited for him and hope this takes off.  Right know it’s only at ShoKo, but hopefully it’ll spread to other chains.  Hooray!

After my two pregnancies I started to maintain my weight around 135 lbs.  That may not seem like much, but you have to remember that I am 5′ 1 & 3/4″ and wore size 10 pants.  This is not good for the self-esteem.  About a year and 1/2 ago, a friend convinced me to start the South Beach Diet.  I went from 135 lbs to 118 lbs.  I felt great.  I had to go buy new clothes.  I still remember the feeling when I tried on size 6 pants and they looked a little baggy on my butt, so I grabbed a size 4…thinking I was just being silly…and they fit!  I cried tears of joy in the dressing room.  However, I may have gained a little too much confidence because I resorted back to my original eating habits (bad habits from my high school days when I didn’t gain an ounce no matter how much I ate!)  I gained most of the weight back again weighing in at 130 lbs at the end of last summer. 

Recently I was whining about this with a friend (actually, we were co-whining about our weight) and we decided to be accountability partners and try to lose weight together.  We decided to make it interesting and threw in a gift certificate for a massage to the person who reached their goal.  We both set our own goals and whoever does not reach their goal has to buy the other person a massage.  We actually both want to reach our goals so that our husbands will have to buy us both massages.  :)  I was finally motivated.  I cut sugar out of my diet and started to eat more veggies, fruit and whole wheat everything.  This was extremely difficult during the Christmas season, but I really wanted a massage more than I wanted pie and cookies.  I admit that I didn’t exercise much.  Well, I lost all my weight again and started hanging out at the 118 lb mark.  My goal was to get to 115 lbs before the end of January.  The last three pounds weren’t budging and I was getting really frustrated because it’s almost the end of January.  I finally resorted the the whole exercise thing.  (I hate to sweat!)   But, you know what?  I’m actually enjoying the exercise and find that I am looking forward to it.  My other friend told me that I’d better start exercising or I was going to be a skinny weakling.  LOL…she’s right!

So…I’m getting to my point.  This morning I stepped on the scale and lookie what I saw!

Woohoo!!!!!  Only 1 and 1/2 lbs to go!  I broke the barrier!  I haven’t weighed this much since high school.  I’m elated!

(Please ignore the toesies…Mom and I are getting pedicures in 2 weeks.)

Next week Josh and I are going to the coast (without the kids!) and I’ll have plenty of free time to take walks on the beach.  Our hotel also has an exercise room and a pool in case the weather is crummy.  I shouldn’t have any problem losing a pound and a 1/2 within the next 10 days. 

I am so looking forward to my massage.  :) 

I feel horrible this morning.  I went out with some of my girlfriends last night.  I had a great time, but I drank way too much.  I had 6…or maybe it was 7?  Anyways, it was way more than I should’ve had.  I do not know why nobody stopped me or slowed me down.  Being the lightweight that I am I should have known better.  It was the hard stuff, too.  I would feel a ton better this morning if I would’ve drank 6 or 7 cups of decaf…but, no, I had to have regular coffee.  What?  Oh.  Did I forget to mention it was coffee I was drinking?  Jeesh…what did you think I was drinking? 

Anyways, yes, I drank too much coffee last night and I paid for it.  I lay awake in bed the entire night.  I could not sleep an ounce.  I got up several times…to pee, to chew on some Tums, to surf the net, to read, to crochet.  Nothing helped.  I was still wide awake when my husband’s alarm clock went off at 6:00 this morning.  I couldn’t help but think that it was 9:00 AM on the East Coast and that people all across the U.S. were already up and running about and going through their usual Saturday morning routines and here I am, unable to sleep a wink.  It was a horrible night. 

I did end up falling asleep sometime around 6:30 and the kids let me sleep in until about 9:30, so I’m going on little sleep today.  I hope my parents call this morning and offer to take the kids.

So, Girls…this is my cry for help.  Next time we go out and start drinking (coffee, that is) please watch my intake and feel free to cut me off at any time, or at least make me switch to decaf. 

I’ve decided that I am not a good mix when it comes to baby showers.  I’ve had several memorable experiences with baby showers, the most recent being last night.  I thought I’d share my experiences in countdown format:

#4 most memorable shower)  My friend Sarah’s baby shower:  This one was pretty recent and the experience had nothing to do my involvement.  We were playing a “win, lose or draw” type game and one of the girls was getting ready to draw her picture.  She looked at the card with the clue, threw the card on the coffee table and began to draw.  Did I mention there was a lit candle on the coffee table?  The card caught on fire and we were all too focused on the drawing pad to notice until somebody in the back of the room calmly pointed it out.  It was actually quite comical to see the reactions of the women around me.  Some panicked.  Some thought they would try to blow it out…which only made the flame bigger.  A retired fire-fighter’s wife knew what to do and they got the fire out before it did any real damage.  I won’t forget that baby shower.

#3 most memorable shower) My baby shower:  I had toxemia during the last month of my pregnancy and was on bed rest.  I was gigantic.  My ankles were the size of my calves.  My baby shower had already been planned so my mom and grandma got me out of bed and into the car, drove me to the shower and then propped me up on an easy chair where I sat all night.  I felt like a fixture in the room.  There were over 70 women there.  It was crazy!  It was also very fun and very memorable…even though I couldn’t move.  There were too many presents to open that night and we ended up taking 1/2 of them home with me to open the next day.  Even though I was extremely uncomfortable and I looked like a whale and was the center of attention in a large crowd, I felt very loved.

#2 most memorable shower)  My friend Nicole’s shower.  This shower was last night.  The hostess recently moved into a beautiful new house, but she was one of the first to move in on this particular street.  Most of the other houses are not completed, yet.  It was dark and freezing cold when I arrived and there were other cars coming down the street so I decided to walk on the sidewalk instead of the street.  The sidewalks weren’t shoveled and so I started to walk through about 2 inches of slush.  My shoes were pretty thick so I didn’t think it was a big deal…that was until the sidewalk ended.  Apparently the sidewalk hadn’t been completed because I stepped into a hole full of ice, water and mud.  It came almost up to my knees.  Looking in front of me I thought there was a sidewalk so I took another step into a deeper hole.  I tried to jump out of this hole and onto the street, but wasn’t very graceful about it.  I walked up to the house (completely embarrassed about my appearance) and knocked on the door.  A friend of mine answered it and said, “Come in!”  I said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea…I need some help.”  I couldn’t walk inside this beautiful new house after stepping in a huge mud/ice/water hole.  So, I stayed outside while the hostess grabbed a towel.  I have complained about being cold before, but I have never been this cold in my entire life.  My feet were burning with the cold…if that makes any sense.  I took my shoes and socks off and followed her through the room full of women looking gorgeous to her bedroom where she gave me a pair of pants to borrow.  I drank 2 cups of coffee to warm up and when I got home I soaked my feet in a hot bath.  My feet still hurt this morning from being frozen.

#1 most memorable shower)  My friend Carrie’s shower.  (Yes, Carrie, you’re still #1…I will never, ever, ever forget your shower!)  This shower was almost 6 years ago.  I was pregnant with my daughter and during both of my pregnancies I had extreme morning sickness the entire 9 months.  The nausea would come on quickly and I couldn’t control it very easily.  My co-workers would see me suddenly jump up from my desk and run to the bathroom and would all look at me with sympathetic looks when I came out of the bathroom saying things like, “Are you OK?” and “I’m so sorry you’re feeling this way.”  It was humiliating.  Well, I was headed to Carrie’s shower and I was at a stop light with cars on both sides of me, behind me and in front of me when…you guessed it…a wave of nausea hit like nothing else.  I panicked.  I couldn’t move my car anywhere and the thought of jumping out of the car and vomiting in front of all these people made me even more nauseous.  I thought I could try to keep it inside…and I just couldn’t.  I threw up and threw up and threw up all over the car.  I think the stress of the situation made the nausea worse.  I was hysterical.  I was so upset.  I was crying so hard I couldn’t see where I was driving.  I managed to turn the car around and drive safely home.  I pulled into the garage because I didn’t want any of my neighbors to see me getting out of the car covered in vomit.  I’m getting teary eyed just remembering the horror of this!  I run into the house and I can’t control my crying enough to tell my husband what happened.  He thought something horrible happened like I lost the baby or smashed the car.  He helped me get into the shower, told me to get showered and dressed and go back to the shower to relax and enjoy time with my girlfriends and he would take care of the car.  I did just that and he took the car down to the car wash and cleaned the entire thing…inside and out.  I don’t know how he did it and I honestly don’t know if I could do the same.  I got to the baby shower and was still pretty emotional, but still had a good time. 

Anyways, that’s it!  I don’t think I’ll be going to any baby showers soon.  I may have to avoid them all together.

I’ve lived here for almost 7 1/2 years.  From the moment I started going to our church I have known at least 1 person to be pregnant…the first being my friend Deb.  :)  There’s just this chain and it has yet to be broken.  Every small group I’ve ever been in has consistantly been made up of pregnant women.  Did I mention that there are two pregnant women in my small group right now?  It’s crazy.

Anyways, I got a little sidetracked.  I just wanted to say that I think it is absolutely adorable that the last two babies born (and only a couple weeks apart) were named Linus and Lucy.  Anybody else get a kick out of that?

I don’t think I would do well as a single mom.  Last night Josh was working late on the video stuff…I didn’t mind, ‘cuz he looks so cute on TV! ;)  Anyways, the last time he did this he didn’t get home until midnightish, so I didn’t expect him to be home early.  So, as soon as the kids got up from their “naps” I realized that I still needed to fix something for dinner.  I didn’t really have the energy or drive to cook at that particular moment, so I asked them if they would like to go to the video store and Taco Bell.  Of course they graciously complied with loud screams of excitement.  :) 

We went to Blockbuster, picked out a couple of DVDs for them and a couple of chick flicks for me.  Then we ran to Taco Bell and loaded up on healthy stuff…of course!  Ha!  After we got home and the kids ate their tacos they went upstairs to watch their DVDs and I got out the portable DVD player, set it up on the table to watch my DVDs and ate my nutritious Taco Bell meal.  Yes…in case you don’t know me…that’s sarcasm.  I’ll try to refrain! 

I love the portable DVD player.  I could take it with me.  It was great!  I had to throw away my Taco Bell mess and I walked into the kitchen to throw away my trash with the DVD player in hand and the movie still running.  I wanted to get more comfortable, so I took my movie with me into my walk-in-closet while I picked out some pajamas and changed my clothes while never once being interrupted from my movie.  I then grabbed my bottle of water and got comfortable on the couch while never having to turn the movie off once.  I sat there for 4 hours vegging out, watching fake people live out their fake lives while the real-life kids vegged in their own little world.  Everybody was happy.

And, this is why I would not be a good single mom.  I don’t think the goal is to get through life while keeping everybody happy.  Dishes need to be done.  Healthy meals need to be prepared.  Kids need to be played with and educated.  I have a feeling that if I were single, alone and tired from working outside the home and trying to manage my family and house on my own, that I would turn into this type of person.  I don’t know how my single-mom friends do it.  I admire them tremendously.  Kudos, my single-mom friends!

Still, I had a great evening and don’t feel an ounce of guilt. 

BTW…Shall We Dance is not worth the time or money!  I found it to be dumb and unbelievable at times.  I am embarrassed to even admit I rented it.  Must Love Dogs is cute fluff…but, again, only watch it if you have time to burn and don’t mind not being able to get 2 hours of your life back.

Speaking of movies…we saw Pride and Prejudice last weekend.  Oh…it was delicious.  I adored every minute of it.  This movie that has to be in my library.  I’m trying to figure out how I can sneak away to watch it again.