The Coast

The people that I work for, offered to let Andrew and I to stay in there beach house last weekend for my birthday! This house was beautiful and relaxing we were one house away from the beach. So we woke up the waves each morning. We would go play on the beach a few times each day. Leland loved the water and would run right in but Burgundy was so cold even with her sweater on. Andrew and I even ran and jumped into the cold water a few time, I love the ocean even if its freezing. One time when it was ten o' clock at night, a bit scary.

The Oregon coast is beautiful all year round.
Fun Fact:  These movies were filmed on the Oregon coast Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Goonies and Short Circuit.

Breaking the Rules

We decided to paint our apartment. Technically we are not suppose to paint it but there are other people in the building that have their apartments painted and some of them asked and the managers said yes. So we thought, lets just do it! So the kitchen is yellow and the living room is brown. Our bedroom is the best green, as most of you know green is my favorite color so having my room green is really fun. I do need to say thank you to Andrew because he painted the whole apartment. With the kitchen he worked all through the night last night to surprise me with a finished kitchen in the morning. And if that was not sweet enough when I came home from work today he had the living room finished too.  Our apartment feels a little bit more like our home.

Lobster Tail in Beurre monté

As some of you might know Andrew is someone that really enjoys cooking and happens to do it very well. Since we have been in Portland we have only had one real dinner, it was on his birthday and he cooked it. So I thought that it would be nice to cook for him, I do not think I have ever cooked for him (we have been dating over four years). 

Going at this dinner alone was bit of a challenge. I started with something easy roasting some red potatoes. I just had to put them in olive oil, salt and pepper, then in the oven for 30 mins. 

I have never tried lobster before and I definitely did not know how to cook one, so it was an adventure. I had to look on youtube to see how remove the shell. It took me almost 20 mins to remove both shells, but in the end successful. 

Next I had to melt four cups of butter for the lobster to cook in. (That is what Beurre monté means emulsified butter). The lobster just needs to cook in the butter for about five mins at 165 degrees.

Then I sautéed some spinach in olive oil and garlic.  The only thing I forgot was to put a skewer in the lobster so they did not curl, other than that it was pretty good. I was very nervous to have Andrew try it but the dish turned out and he really liked it. 

Andrew also loves pumpkin pie, he starts in October goes through December always having a pumpkin pie on hand. So to complete the evening we had some pumpkin pie.

Fun Fact: Potato bugs aka rolly pollies are in the crustacean family with the lobster. 

Our Apartment on 7th and Morrison

Our apartment building was built in the 1920's and rumor has it that when it was first built it was used for house-rent parties. Where people would come eat, gamble, flirt and drink. It is in a great spot that was once downtown Portland. We are just a few streets over from the Willamette River.

I apologize for taking over five weeks to post the pictures of the new apartment, but here they are. This is the bedroom it on the right when you walk in the door.

The bedroom looks really nice here because Andrew just got done cleaning. A big down side is that we have too much stuff for our little apartment so we are trying to make everything fit.

This is the living room it was not just cleaned so sorry for the mess. Our books fit nicely in the nook about the desk. The desk is in a spot where a murphy bed use to be.

Here is the kitchen it is a bit boring but we tried to add some flare with some African stuff and cameras.

I put this photo up because I love old things and one of the things that I love most about this apartment (and Portland) is that not a lot of things have been upgraded. They seem to keep the originals and it maintains its richness . Here is a door nob to our closet.

Here is the bathroom, as you walk in the door it is directly straight. Again the great black and white tile. Also it has this really old and worn out claw foot tub!

This is the sink in the bathroom and I love the different spouts for the hot and cold. It does make it hard to wash your hands at times.

Four Days To Go

Now after months of planning, we only have four days until our big move to the Rose City. Everything is a mess, the 12 x12 room we have been surviving in for the past six months has slowly caved in on us with piles clothes, boxes and small things that we keeping buying from IKEA. On Thursday the 20th at 11:00 PM we will start our twelve hour drive with the Uhaul and car in tow. We will be moving into our apartment two stories above the restaurant/bar The Maiden. We are moving into an apartment that neither of us have seen, we got the number for the apartment from a friend of a friend. But with not seeing our apartment and driving twelve hours, finding new jobs and moving threes states away from the only place we have ever called home, we could not be more excited or ready for this move.

Coastal Change

Andrew and I have been planning a move to "The Big Apple" for about nine months. We were looking at apartments, trying to find jobs and we packed up most of our things. When our desired move date got close things were not working for us, it was looking like we were not going to be able to move. We were crushed because we has worked so hard, saved as much money as we could and most of all wanted to get out of Utah. So in a moment of lucidity, after going back and forth, we decided to change our route and move to the west coast, Portland. We had visited there before and really enjoyed it (mostly the food). The move to Portland has been so much easier, we already have an apartment and I have a job there at a Montessori school. We could not be more excited about the big change, it is much needed.

mother's day at nana's!

happy mother's day

i do not have much money so i made my mom a silly candle 

my mom and sweet nana 

i have such wonderful women in my life 

lisamarie, my mom, me, melissa

lisamarie and her son easton. easton is 3 and he is a spark plug, i love this boy

easton playing on the slip n' slide he loved that thing. at one point he was having my mom and lisamarie pushing him on the slide so he could go faster. 

this is baby owen he is about a month old in this picture. he is a love

here is annalise, elizabeth's little girl. annalise is going to be just like her mom, super smart and polite.