Kyla & Nate

Emily's wedding...it only took 11 years...

2010-07-25T10:16:00.001-07:00

So the Pictures are a little backwards and mixed up, for some reason blogger is not letting me move them around this morning...

Emily was one of my teammates in College, her and I were the only 2 that made it through to the end together from our class . Her family is like my other family and Nate and I were so excited for her to finally get hitched. Emily and Eric have been dating for 10+ years so its about time!! :-) Plus, all my other MSU girls flew into town so it was a blast! Emily (the new Mrs Schubert) with Clay and Erin......

Who is preggers with TWINS :-) can't wait to meet them!

The one picture I think I have of Nate on the dance floor...

The Bride dancing her tail off... she did fall a few times too...blame it on the slippery flip flops!

Nikki and I

Not the best pic, but one of my few with Christie

Brooke, myself and the bride

Watch out SRHS....this is your coaching staff this fall...TROUBLE

Sean, Ian and Nate.... Nate kept calling Ian Ethan all night...haha then informed me that they both start with an E, that's why they are so confusing.... The hubby is always good for a laugh, gotta love him!

Cory and Nate when we took the out of town friends out to Cannon Beach to see Haystack rock

Christie and I

The old Tree House West roommate crew!! Emmy, Myself, Nikki and Sara at the baseball game for the rehearsal dinner

Us girls at Haystack Rock

The gang at Cannon Beach

What cheese tray??

The in-laws visit

2010-07-18T08:15:00.001-07:00

Kayaking along the ocean in front of my grandmas house...trying to get Nate and his mom in the background..

Rick beach combing at Goose Spit

Nate and his dad at my mom's house in Victoria

Rick Kayaking

Nate and his mom Kayaking

With my uncle Doug at the family cheese factory...all suited up for the grand tour

Grams with the best strawberry rhubarb pie...(thanks crystal!)

My aunt Deb and grams showing Rick and Cherie the fish hatchery we have on the farm

Rick & Cherie in Victoria after collecting beach glass

On the Victoria-Port Angeles Ferry

Ferry to Victoria

Fire Pit

2010-06-14T13:30:00.001-07:00

Nate built a fabulous fire pit in the back yard. I am finally getting around to posting the pictures. It is finally nice out here too so we can actually use it! We have had the rainiest spring ever!

Here it is after taking the forms off, it still needs a skim coat of concrete but I am so excited for BBQ's this summer!

Bathroom Window shelves..

2010-06-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

We have been slowly working on small things around the house...the list never ends! Nate built me 2 shelves to put up along the window mullions in the bathroom so that I could finally put out some of my blue/green glass bottle collection. I also added a couple of succulents and some shells I have picked up in my travels. I am SO ready for a beach house, can't you tell??

Roller Derby!

2010-06-14T13:14:00.001-07:00

Emily, Amanda and I went to the roller Derby! It was pretty fun to watch, it probably would have helped if we knew the rules though. Someone finally explained how you score points etc which made it more fun. Up to that point we were sort of just cheering when everyone else around us was :-)

BMO Vancouver Marathon

2010-05-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Entire Crew after the race....soaked after a rainy run, but still smiles all around

Uncle Rod and Aunt Joanne's house in Langley, the best hosts! I haven't seen some of these relatives in years and years and it was a fun time.

Pre race dinner.....cooked by the fabulous chef Rod of course!

2010 National Breast Cancer Marathon

2010-03-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

The 26.2 With Donna

Jacksonville Florida

February 21st, 2010 These boards where there for everyone to sign or put a message on. They had them along the course as well and then they are going to blow parts of them up to make Billboards to advertise the race for next year.

It was FREEZING at 530am before the sun came up.

Still looking a little sleepy and jet lagged in this picture..

Our shirts had a picture of Randie in her pink wig and read: "Running for Randie's Ta Ta's!"

Some of my other favorite shirts people had were ones that read "Saving 2nd Base" or there was a marathon relay team called the "Rack Pack". I thought those were pretty good :-)

We were lining up here for the start. The sun was just coming up so we were starting to thaw out..

It was really amazing to see how many people were running for someone they loved. People had costumes, tutu's, guys wore pink running skirts...one guy even ran the whole way with these huge pink angel wings attached to him.

After finishing....

It was a beautiful race, we ran along the hard packed beach for a few miles and then through these amazing old plantation neighborhoods which were nice and shady. The spectators were amazing, dressing their houses up, bands playing, setting up extra water and orange slice stations... Then the last 7 or 8 miles were along the freeway back to the Mayo Clinic with no shade and it was HOT! I thought I was going to melt into the pavement. I guess we forgot to put sunscreen on too...We ended up with some great farmers tans/sunburns..ha!

Post race, off to find our free beers!!

ahhhh....found them....

Nate's Post race Nap :-)

My Cook Ladies :-)

2010-03-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

Ronda and Lander's Newly remodeled cabin/house up at Higgins Lake Lander trying to pretend she is taller than me...I still have her by an inch!

Granted she is only turning 16 this summer...

Out on the frozen lake...surprised they could convince me to walk out on the ice, I hate feeling like I am going to fall through!

Ronda and I

Trouble...

So nice to see them, even though the visit was much too short. Love you girls!

Learning to Kiteboard..on ice

2010-03-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

Nate using the training kite to learn on top of frozen Higgins Lake
Dave Showing us how to use it...

Nate was great at it! It is so much fun, I can't wait to actually try it some more and get into the water with one!

In Love with my little Nephew :-)

2010-03-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

Little Man in a milk coma

I think I hogged Troy as much as I could while we were there...sorry Beth :-)

Troy chilling in his swing...life is good :-)

I LOVE baby feet...so cute!

Christmas Pictures

2010-01-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

I was happy to have my family come down to spend a late christmas at our house this year. We had stockings and a huge turkey feast :-) We played "Blind Ignorance" where you have a card stuck to your forehead but you can only ask yes or no questions to figure out who it is....
Nanna and I bright and early Christmas morning....looking a little like I just rolled out of bed...oh wait, I had :-)

Mom, Bethany and Nanna opening stockings

John, nate and mom opening stockings

Nanna and her dog/most spoiled animal alive Bailey

Bethany fit IN the stocking!

Our tree and cards...I made that star out of a collapsible builders ruler and hung it in the window

I found Bailey a "Ho Ho Ho" shirt...we had to cut it a little to fit, and unfortunately his snuggie was too small as well :-(
I am pretty sure I am getting the death stare from him because he did NOT want to wear it! haha

Happy Holidays

2009-12-26T21:07:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays to everyone! Best wishes for a wonderful New Year in 2010!

Santa's little helper

2009-12-24T22:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's hard to be far away from your family, but we love seeing pictures of our new little nephew who we can't wait to meet in February!! Check out the latest pics....he is so cute you just want to squeeze him tight!!

Troy meeting Brody for the first time

ADORABLE!!

Beth looking amazing after everything....she is going to be the BEST mom!!

Welcome our nephew Troy!!

2009-12-19T23:26:00.000-08:00

He is SOOOOO adorable I just want to snuggle him!!

The next little Spartan :-)

2 Days old

New daddy Nick and new grandpa Rick with our new nephew Troy.
Daddy and son :-)

Meet our new nephew Troy Martin Meyers
Born Dec 19th
7lbs 9oz
19inches long

Congrats to Nick and Beth, what a beautiful little guy! We are so happy for you and can't wait to meet him!!

Thinking PINK

2009-10-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

Nate and I will be running a marathon in February to support breast cancer research. If you are interested in checking it out or seeing our route here is the link:

http://www.breastcancermarathon.com/

Please send good thoughts to my aunt Randi as she kicks breast cancers butt!! Here she is with my uncle and the silly wigs we sent them to make her laugh :-)

Pumpkins

2009-10-31T21:01:00.001-07:00

Our pumpkins on the porch
My spray painted pumpkin

Bethany's sunflower pumpkin

Nate's classic face pumpkin

Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T12:34:00.001-07:00

Cam and Amanda (our neighbors) dressed as inmate and prison guardThey are getting married next year so cam added some "accessories" to his inmate costume :-)Cam and his friend casey....They even rolled casey in on a dolly to get the full Hannibal effect...it was creeeeeeepy!! Nate went as the famous Saturday night live skit with Justin timberlake "Dick in a box"

I think the facial hair almost looks real!Can you guess what I was???
A piece of bubblegum stuck to your shoe :-)

Bethany was "partly cloudy with a chance of rain" She would squirt you with her spray bottle :-)

The three of us in our costumes on Friday

My brother Haidan's Boat

2009-10-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

Haidan in his dingy...you should have seen both of us try to fit in it and have room to actually row the oars!! His legs are even WAY longer than mine! Haidan rowing back from his sailboat. His is he one with the dark bottom. I am so impressed that he built a 36 foot sailboat himself!

Comox Glacier. The view that I grew up with.
Comox Harbour
Me checking out the boat first hand

Haidan on his pride and joy house on the water

Haidan's boat with Comox glacier in the background

Molly the beach bum

2009-09-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Molly LOVES her sticks! She would play with sticks all day and after playing she sits down and chews them apart.

It was really foggy during our camping trip to Cape Lookout a few weekends ago.

Molly and Nate playing

When we first adopted Molly, the family that had her before us had written on the humane society sheet that she hated water. Well, when we take her to the beach, she runs straight for the water....she seems to like it as far as we can see!

Molly, wet and tired from playing in the ocean

Our plum tree is out of control yet again this year. I have been dropping bags off at neighbours and friends for weeks! I also pitted and froze a ton of them for cooking later on. This batch was from a big branch that broke off in the windstorm we had here. I filled twice this much when I picked the rest of the tree! I have made plum sauce, upside down plum cake, plum muffins...what else is there to make with plums??

Kelowna, B.C.

2009-09-18T14:21:00.001-07:00

Driving through the Coquihala Hwy. You will have to excuse the pictures...I was by myself and just randomly pointing the camera as I drove.

still driving...

Bailey, My Nanna's dog/most spoiled rotten pet alive :-)

Nanna and Bailey on our walk around Okanagan lake. For you who don't know, that is Ogopogo next to her. He is said to have been spotted in the lake (much like the loch ness monster).

Nanna and I on our way out for a movie and dinner.

Funny story: At the border on the way home, the US border guy had me pull over and open up the car etc... Everything was fine until he pulled a baseball bat from under the seat that Nate keeps stored there. He held it up and asked what I had that in the car for... My reply: "protection?" He laughed and said, well I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

Mt Saint Helens Hike

2009-08-16T15:07:00.001-07:00

The boys getting ready to hike down into the crater...you can tell how foggy it was It was so foggy on the way back you could barely see the trail
Down in the crater. Spirit Lake still has a lot of dead trees left over from the blast, but after almost 30 years, it is hard to tell this was all wiped out after the eruption

Ash and mud in the blast zone

Hiking on the way down....Mt Saint Helens is behind the clouds there somewhere

Nick and the mountain...but you can't see it through the clouds

Part of the trail was a little STEEP and along the side of a drop off

Our billy goat trail :-)

Checking out the blast zone

Crater trails

At the memorial for those who died in the eruption May 1980

The river where all the mud and ash had desecrated has come back a lot, trees have replanted and re-grown. You can still see some sediment there though

Emily gets engaged!!

2009-07-20T12:41:00.001-07:00

The group of us out to celebrate Eric and Emily's engagement. They have been dating for 10 years, ever since I knew her! haha I guess she got tired of us bugging her about getting married :-) YA! Can't wait for the parties to begin!

Amanda and I

Emily and Brooke

Emily and Amanda

Acting silly....nothing like a little champagne to bring you the best in you! :-)

Crater Lake

2009-07-20T11:50:00.001-07:00

A view of Wizard island in the middle of the crater
Some pretty wildflowers that were growing in the side of the volcano crater

This is the rock that we jumped off of into the crater lake. When I first jumped I was waiting for it to take my breath away from the cold but it actually was not too cold.

Nate and Pete swimming after their jump from the ledge

Pete on his way down. Nate went so fast that I didn't get a chance to get a picture.

The little island is called phantom ship

Wizard island

Some neat Rock striations (sp?) formed from the volcano and eruptions. This was during our hike back up to the rim after swimming. The sign said it was like hiking 75 stories of a building. We were sweating by the top, but the swim was really worth it!

Western Rim. The Crater was formed when mt Mazama erupted 7700 years ago. It is 6 miles in diameter and something like 30 miles in circumference. The rim we were driving/walking along was around 8000 feet up.

The water is this amazing blue clear color. The deepest spot is almost 2000ft deep but it feels like you can see down a long ways when you are swimming in it.

Down in the crater there is a special boat that takes you around. You aren't allowed to have your own boats or kayaks etc in the crater though. People were down here near the dock fishing and swimming.

On the hike back up...

You can see a little snow still on the edge of the lake. That is why I though it was going to be freezing when I jumped in but it really was not too bad!

Trying for a self portrait...nate squinting as usual :-)

Molly enjoying her back seat view. She was filthy from laying in the dust and dirt at the campsite.

Beware: She looks friendly but will growl your head off if you come too close :-)

Self portrait a little better with his glasses on

Another take on leftovers...

2009-07-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

My Macaroni Squirrel
Nate's Macaroni sword

The hush puppies and frog legs went into two rabbits

Nate and I went to Montage, a little restaurant down under the Morrison Bridge on the East side of the river. They take your leftovers and make them into crazy tinfoil shapes to bring home :-) We saw all sorts of things, including a cool giraffe and palm tree while we were there. The crayfish hush puppies were to die for and Nate really liked his Frog legs!

Cape Lookout

2009-07-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Cam and Amanda at the camp fire on the beach we made
Hanging out at the beach campfire

Molly ran around all day with Otto and Rose and the three dogs were dead tired by the time they went to bed that night!

Sunset Cape Lookout

Emily's awesome camping hat

Rose and Amanda

Nate some how hit himself in the forehead with the handle of the machete

War wounds!

Some quick updates

2009-07-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Molly chillaxing in the lawn

My veggie garden. Tomatoes, lettuce, squash, peas, beans peppers etc...

Mom this picture is for you, the plant that we put along the west side of the house. I can't remember the name so here is the picture for you.

3 years lucky

2009-06-30T14:17:00.001-07:00

Well time has flown bye yet again and Nate and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on June 16th. We've done so many things in the past three years it feels even longer than that!! haha

Amazing restaurant

2009-06-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well surprisingly besides our house, I don't usually post a lot about design or architecture on my blog. However, the other day I stumbled across this really cool restaurant designed by John Horner that I wanted to share with everyone. I would love to go there if I am ever in Europe again! It kind of reminds me of those wooden dinosaur puzzle things you put together when you were little. I think it makes for the most amazing atmosphere. I am definitely adding this to my inspiration images for a project later on!

BBQ

2009-06-06T22:11:00.001-07:00

My Brother Haidan, Aunt Deb and Uncle Phil
This is a whole lot of the Smith clan :-) at brunch the day after the BBQ

My Gram Georgie and me at the BBQ Yes, that is my grandma playing Flip cup...but we made her use water instead of beer :-)

Emily looks in shock that my grams is playing....and winning!!

Haidan and Nate

Intense game...Brooke and Emily cheerleaders ;-)

Ha! Em can't wait for cam to get going!!!

Mona Lisa

2009-04-24T21:44:00.001-07:00

Yes I know... I am a work of art :-)

Nate and I went to the Oregon museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and saw the Da Vinci Exhibit. It was really neat, they showed all of his inventions and made models of them so you can see how they worked. They also had lots of his art and other designs to check out, I would recommend seeing it if it comes to a town near you. It is amazing that he was so creative in so many ways, art, engineering, science etc... Truly an amazing mind.

80's night

2009-04-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Let me introduce Miss Portland 1985 and our good old friend MAGNUM P.I. Meyers. Unfortunately her sash is hiding the amazing SHOULDER PADS in that dress...too bad you can't get the full effect of my beautiful ensemble!

Some guy at the bar even asked if this was his real mustache....ha! Nate won best guys costume...I mean who else can pull off these white short shorts?? heheA great Madonna and Flash dance Hanna and Matt.....priceless
For some reason my camera won't download all my pictures from the night (might have something to do with dropping it a time or two on the bar floor....)
So you don't get to see all the outfits but at least you get an idea of how fabulous we all looked walking into the bar that night :-)

Final Four baby!!

2009-03-30T00:13:00.000-07:00

Go STATE!!! Can't wait to watch the final four next weekend!

Moving day.... for the shed

2009-03-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

I forgot to take a picture of the start but here we are trying to flip it around 180 degrees so that the doors face into the yard. We attached a tow rope around it and pulled by the corners with my jeep. There was a garage there a long time ago so it was gravel underneath and helped it just slide as we moved it.

Trying to move it to the back corner of our propertyYou can see our other little shed in the background as well as the claw foot tubs we have. One of those tubs is going to be refinished and put downstairs in the new bathroom.

Almost there....
The shed used to be along where that one section of fence is, so you can see how much more yard we have now! I think we are going to put in a raised planter box for a veggie garden and then build the rock fire pit and a picnic table back there.

Look at all the junk from our shed! We had to unload it all to make it lighter....man we have a lot of junk!

This is the view of our backyard from the road side. Cam and amanda's driveway is behind there and we have to put a little section of fence in to finish the job and keep molly in. I have wanted to move this shed since we moved in. It was in the middle of the backyard and I like to have as much yard as possible!

Art Portfolio

2009-03-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

I took a drawing class this winter and really enjoyed most of it. I am far from being as talented as the rest of my family when it comes to art but luckily some of those artistic genes snuck their way into me!! Here is a little sample of my portfolio...Ink and Charcoal orchids Driftwood propped up on a box in Black and White Conte crayon

Ink wash sunset

Charcoal Value of a model we had in class

Charcoal and eraser again..... we did a lot of charcoal and while I love its forgiving nature, it is SO messy I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Black and White conte crayon on brown paper

Still life black and white conte crayon on brown paper
This was a negative shape project with ink and black sharpie marker. We had to draw the shapes around the objects first rather than just drawing the objects and then highlight the negative space somehow.

Value only Charcoal and eraser. We had to make the contour lines only by erasing rather than drawing them in darker

Charcoal Model pose

The empty lot is not empty anymore!

2009-03-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

Remember the pictures of the empty lot that we sold? Well the house is going up in record time!This is what is there now...I think they only started building about 3 weeks ago!

You can see where the garage is going to be on the bottom left and it has a fireplace etc. It seems like they are going to make it pretty nice.

It's official...

2009-03-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Cam and Amanda on their engagement!!! We are so happy for them and love having them as our neighbours. Nate now officially calls them CAMANDA :-)

Rae Rae's Bachelorette Party

2009-03-14T18:14:00.001-07:00

Raechel's Bachelorette Party Pictures, sorry they took so long! Congrats to the happy couple, you both deserve all the happiness in the world :-)These name tags were hilarious!....and yes there is a penis straw in the cup (sorry gram!) Emily drinking her NASTY pepper martini....talk about spicy!!
At Vault, enjoying many Martinis :-) Rae Rae had her own Pimp cup designed specially by little miss crafty Emily of course :-)

I probably enjoyed one too many martinis that night....

It may not look like much just yet....

2009-03-14T17:56:00.001-07:00

We are framing in the bathroom downstairs. The window above faces out to our backyard. The claw foot tub will run along the wall underneath the window and then the toilet to the left and the sink to the right (when you look at this picture). We are going to put in a pocket door to have a little more room since our basement isn't super big.
The water heater/Furnace area is framed out, ready for drywall

The wall as you come down the stairs is framed out and ready for drywall as well..

There will be a small laundry room kitty corner to the bathroom when we are done. Where the washer and dryer are right now will be closed off to hold the plumbing and machine to pump the water up to the level of the sewer line etc..

The wall below is going along the old concrete steps and will have a frosted glass window in it to let in more light but also be private enough for a bathroom.

When we are all done, we will have a bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, storage shelves along the back wall and the Water heater/Furnace area will be walled off. I think we are also going to set up some kind of closet or organization area along the steps as you come downstairs.

I know it doesn't look like much just yet, but you know how we are, and it will look very different soon!!

WICKED

2009-03-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

For my birthday Nate bought tickets to go and see the musical play WICKED! I had read the book and thought it was great and they came to Portland just in time for my birthday! It is the "real" story about what happened in OZ and how they became the wicked witch and Blinda the good. It is very entertaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0m6sclZkH0

You can check out the trailer at the link above on YouTube.

It was amazing, from the costumes to the lighting to the singing and crazy story I LOVED it! The only down side was the lack of leg room in the seats :-) I felt a little like I was sitting in an airplane! ha!

We also had dinner before the show at the Portland City Grill way up on the 30th floor of the US bank tower downtown. It was so cool to see a sunset with a 360 degree view of Portland! Not to mention the food was DELISH!

http://portlandcitygrill.com/

Brad Paisley Concert

2009-02-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

Even though we were WAY up at the top, it was still a GREAT show!!

The typical Kyla and Nate self portrait of course....

The energy level was awesome and he played all my favorite songs

Not to mention he is pretty hot....and so was Dierks Bentley too! :-)

You can see the stage WAY below us :-) Then again we did buy tickets randomly about 3 hours before the show!!

So Friday at about 4pm Nate and I got home and were thinking about what we wanted to do that night. I was thinking maybe a Blazers game or Lumber Jax (professional Lacrosse team here in Portland) would be fun so I looked up the Rose Garden. Well, no luck but then I saw that Brad Paisley was playing and there were some cheap $25 tickets left for the nosebleeds. So we decided that would be fun, bought the tickets online and went to the concert at 7:30! It was a BLAST! He was so great and they also had DIERKS BENTLEY and Chrystal Shewanda (sp?) open for him and they were both totally worth it too. It ended up being really fun!!

The lot is being built on

2009-02-28T11:49:00.001-08:00

The lot we split off and sold is now being built on. They have already built a fence, dug out the foundation and set the cement slab for the foundations. I still can't believe they are able to fit houses on such small spaces but they seem to be getting it done fast so I will keep taking pictures as they get stuff built.

Re-finished cabinet

2009-02-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

I found this cabinet on craigslist. It was originally from Target. I really liked the 12 little drawers to hold all my drafting and art supplies for my home office. However I thought it was kind of bland looking and I didn't really think the pulls on the drawers went with the office decor.So I found some wall paper and cut out pieces to cover the front of the drawers. I used a spray adhesive to attach them instead of getting the wall paper wet since the cabinet had too smooth a finish on it and I was not sure it would stick well enough.Then I bought some cheap rubbed bronze pulls from Home Depot and put them on. The wall paper has a little sheen to it where the branch runs and makes it look

so cute!

...and the finger lost

2009-02-19T23:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I was going to post a before and after of a little project I was working on....BUT.....my finger decided to take on the Xacto knife.....and the Xacto definitely won! I somehow had the knife in my right hand cutting and stupidly swung my left hand over to grab something and it stabbed right into my finger, but the blade was so sharp, I didn't feel it and then pulled my hand down and sliced my finger. It looked like a pac man mouth and I tried to put pressure on it and hold it above my head to slow the blood flow, but damn it I could not stop the blood from gushing out!

I ended up driving myself to the ER and luckily it was not busy so I didn't have to wait very long before I saw someone. During this whole time, it kept bleeding profusely and would not clot so when I got to the ER they gave me a shot to numb it up and then something to clot it. I guess I nicked some little blood vessels as well as the tendon in my finger so they had to stitch it up inside the cut and then they put a few quick loops on the outside of the cut and used some glue like stuff that they use now instead of stitches to seal it up. UGH how stupid am I??? It feels fine right now, although the numbing is starting to wear off and it is starting to throb.

SO....... you will not get your before and after posts until Nate gets back from Missouri to help me hold and cut some things!

Wallpaper the stairs???

2009-02-15T23:45:00.001-08:00

This wall paper comes from ferm living (http://www.fermlivingshop.us/) They have the cutest wallpaper, and since wallpaper is making a come back big time, I was considering putting something up the stairs in our house like this, but maybe a different pattern. I don't know if I can quite make myself put it on a wall yet.....I feel like I have had to take off so much tacky wall paper, I would hate to do that and one day someone would have to take it down wishing the person prior had not put it up there. haha...

Happy Valentines day

2009-02-15T23:35:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great valentines day!

Nate, Molly and I went for a valentines day hike in Forest park. I started to take pictures and wouldn't you know it, but my camera battery died after these two. Well at least you get to see the cute little ferns trying to grow on the side of the trees.

Babies and shelves...

2009-01-11T21:33:00.001-08:00

Little Miss Kayden

I got a chance to babysit my Friend Kristen's daughter Kayden the other day
She is such a cutie and I am sure will be SUPER tall since both her parents are over six foot tall!!

Kayden likes "Uncle" Nate

These are really bad pics but I was trying to show the shelves we built down in the basement to store all of our junk. For those of you who know our house, they are on the north end of the basement along the wall that butts up to the crawlspace under our front porch.

We actually went through all of the boxes down there finally. We hadn't looked through some of them since we moved into the house over 2 years ago! Suffice to say, there were a few bags donated to goodwill :-)

Christmas 2008 Vancouver Island

2008-12-30T21:09:00.000-08:00

Nate and I on our xmas morning walk along the beach. You can tell we just rolled out of bed!

My brother the giant wearing my grams apron while making whipped cream

Dinner table...hehe Sam at the kids table in the back..I guess I am old enough to be at the grown up table this year :-)

Xmas 2008 at my Grams house

That is a whole lot of the Smith clan!!

My gram had the ultimate charlie brown Christmas tree. I think she plucked it from the side of the road at the last minute and Nate and I could only fit about 10 ornaments on it...and that was probably 5 too many! ha ha

A seagull enjoying xmas morning

Snow on the beach in front of my grams house

Tree island, directly across from my grams house. Nate and I took the kayaks over there last summer

The coastal range got a huge dump of snow. I grew up with this awesome view!

View off my grams deck

The tide had come up and washed away the snow and was on its way back out

My grams house covered in snow, more than they have had in a long time!!

snow, snow go away....and stay away!!

2008-12-22T21:44:00.000-08:00

Nate and I went snow shoeing around town tonight...They really have no snow plows since it rarely snows here in Portland, so you can see the condition of the roads in the background. We helped pull/push about 4 people just in our trek up to Mt Tabor and one of them was the tow truck :-) The roads have been really bad and we got about another 10 inches along with some freezing rain so people are getting stuck left and right around here. Good thing we have my trusty old 4 wheel drive jeep...it has been doing great! They say this is the most snow they have had since the 60's here!!

Picture of the snow drifts of our neighbours...we dug her out today
Bethany making snow angels and no longer believing me when I told her before she moved here that "We don't really get snow in Portland" ha ha oops... I think she brought this weather from Michigan though!

I added these last two pics because just a week ago I put up some pictures I had taken of the beach in our bathroom from being at the coast and thinking it had been a really warm November.....ha!!
Hopefully we will be able to make it up to the Ferry in Port Angeles to get to my see my family for Xmas!!

snow day

2008-12-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

We woke up to a snow day today...only a few inches but it rarely snows down here in the valley so it basically shuts everything down. Also, don't get me started on the drivers here!! Especially that dumb lady pulling her toddler on a sled behind her car...while other cars were driving behind her!!

Molly loved the snow, she kept running along and dragging her nose in it to pick up some in her mouth. You can see it on her nose below.

The fountain at the college across the street from our house looked cool all frozen

I let the cats out to see the snow but they decided to crawl around the porch instead of having walk through it :-)
We got a cool rain chain for xmas so we hung it up....it will be good for when the snow melts

Bella was not impressed with the snow :-)

more back room updates

2008-12-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

I decided to use the same chocolate paint (called Belgium sweet) for the back room that we used in the upper wall in our bathroom. Not only does it look warm and inviting for our back door area but we also had leftovers from the bathroom makeover

(please excuse the windows, I have not scraped the paint off the glass yet)

I actually found this cute light cheap at Target and I love the way it looks lit up at night

We still have to build trim around the doors and wire the light into the ceiling permanently

As you can see I still have some patching to do along the base and then figure out flooring

We are thinking about doing some type of plank flooring since the back stairs and then basement are a combination of sub flooring and cement. We found this neat looking vinyl plank flooring that resembles engineered wood planks pretty good. It would be easy to lay out and keep clean for the laundry area and bathroom down there too.. check out a sample of the type:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100522792&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&cm_sp=BazVoice-_-RLP-_-100522792-_-x
Here is a few pics of the flooring in rooms....I think it looks like pergo really...I saw it in person and they did a great job of making it look like real wood with grain textures and all! What do you all think?

Projects in the works...

2008-12-11T21:33:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of our back door looking from the kitchen stairs
The stairs down to the basement

To the left is where I took down the nasty closet (and killed like 100 spiders with the shop vac). You can see into our kitchen from here

So basically we had yet to touch the basement and the back room and stairs leading down to the basement from the kitchen. Today I tore down the gross old shelf and painted the window trims and will be patching up the missing wood pieces and then trying to pick a light color to paint in there to light up the area. We will then be picking out some type of flooring...but I will keep you in suspense until we do it so I can take pictures of it.

Here is a quick sneak peak at the basement. This picture is actually the closet in the bedroom. We have framed out a bedroom and the shelving area so far, and still have the bathroom and laundry room to go and then mud and sand and paint it all! ha!

It's hard to see everything but I will update as we progress. Above you can see where we will be chipping out some of the brick to put in an egress window to be bale to get out of basement in case of emergency.

insomnia....and cookies

2008-12-09T07:22:00.001-08:00

Since I am having trouble sleeping, and woke up at 4am this morning and couldn't sleep yet again. If anyone has any good tips to fall asleep and stay asleep, I would really appreciate them. I have already tried a few things, chamomile tea sometimes helps but my major problem is that as soon as I wake up, be it a noise or something, I simply cannot fall back asleep!

I decided to get a jump on making the holiday cookies and chocolate dipped pretzels we are making for gifts to our neighbours etc..

I forgot to take a picture of all the dark chocolate pretzels but you can see the white chocolate covered ones with candy cane crunch pieces on top.

I made sugar cookies to decorate...I wasn't paying attention and burnt the first batch but managed to salvage the next batch

Decorated cookies

Oh Christmas tree....

2008-12-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

Rio was determined to help decorate the tree...I don't think Molly likes the flash on my camera
We put up our christmas tree tonight

I tried to take a picture of the lights we put on our house, but it didn't turn out very cute because I think I also had the porch light on, but this gives you an idea of what we did.

Thanksgiving 2008 - Yachats - Oregon Coast

2008-11-29T20:46:00.000-08:00

The awesome house we rented

Some pictures from Yachats, about 3 hours from Portland. A bunch of us rented a house out there for thanksgiving and Emily's parents and aunt Lynne were able to come out from Virginia Beach to spend it with us too!

Nothing like a sunny day in November at the beach!!

One end of the thanksgiving table. I think there were 16 of us.

The view from the house at high tide

Emily as usual made the cutest name markers for the thanksgiving table

Molly's doing great!

2008-11-29T20:36:00.000-08:00

Molly is feeling a lot better! She is on anti-seizure meds and seems to be happy and functioning normally again. She really enjoyed being down at the beach while we are out at the coast for thanksgiving!

Rocky Shores - Turkey Day

2008-11-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Just wanted too show you all where we will be spending thanksgiving....so you can droll at the amazing house we all rented!! 6 Bedroom, 4 Bath, Hot tub, ocean property and 2 Kitchens!! Perfect to cook our turkeys!

You can check it out on the following link for more pics:

http://www.vrbo.com/199593

Wine tasting

2008-11-24T17:01:00.001-08:00

It was a misty day up in the vineyards but I still thought the view was pretty

Laura & Lee

The usual self portrait....taken after quite a lot of vino

Laura, Lynn, Nate, Lee and Laura

Emily organized an Eco-bus tour of a bunch of vineyards this weekend while her parents and aunt Lynn were in town for thanksgiving. It was a great time and we bought some great wines! The whole bunch of us have rented a place on the Oregon coast for thanksgiving so I am sure we will have more photos for you all after turkey day!

Lots of quick updates

2008-11-24T16:53:00.001-08:00

This is the new shed we built in the back yard

I am SO exctied....my lemons finally turned yellow!! Time for Cocktails!

The wreath decorating our door

We finally found a good place to put up our sailboat...we used an old cornice type thing I found at an antique store..I think it kind of looks like the ship is riding a wave :-)

Higgins Lake with the Cook Ladies...Fall in MI

2008-11-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

I got a chance to go up to Higgins Lake and visit Ronda and Lander and help coach/play with her high school volleyball team. What a great bunch of girls!

Don't let the sunshine fool you...it was only like 45 degrees out up there!

I can't believe Lander is almost as tall as me at 14!

(Christi, maybe you should start recruiting her!! haha) Fall is the one season I miss from living in Michigan. The colors there are so pretty!

Higgins lake is probably one of my favorite that I have been to in Michigan

Feeding the "pet" squirrel, it ate right out of my hands!

Nick & Beth wedding 10-24-08

2008-11-05T08:36:00.001-08:00

Congrats Nick & Beth!! We are so happy for you and love having you as family :-)

Here is a sneak peek of wedding pics, I took like 200 or something so here is just a small preview!

The official Meyers Hershey Bar

The happy couple right after the ceremony :-)

"Oh my god we are married!!!" haha
Beth and her niece Bailey (cutest flower girl ever!) and nephew Dylan

Nate and I in the Limo

The Meyers Boys...nice cowboy boots nick!

Best Man, Matron of honor Jenny (Beth's sister) and baby Brooklyn in the belly :-)

Rick (father in law), myself and Nate

Aunt Amy and Nate

The Happy Bride and her mom KathyJust us....probably after a few drinks by this time! :-)

Nick gets an 8 point

2008-11-05T08:33:00.001-08:00

While we were in Michigan, my brother in law Nick shot an eight point with a bow

front porch updates

2008-10-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

This is the house and how it looked when we bought it.....

We just finished renovating the front porch and this is how the front of the house looks now!

(please don't mind the half finished paint job, I still need to touch it up, we just finished building and wanted to get a coat of paint on it to seal it up!)

Also notice the new walkway I put in...

Here is the best pictures that I could find to show the progression!

we pulled off the old posts as they were a little dry rotted and I think so badly put together that the roof was holding the columns up instead of them holding the roof up! We also replaced some rotted boards on the porch as well.

Happy Birthday X 3

2008-10-06T15:56:00.001-07:00

Nate, My Nanna and John all share the same birthday today! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all of you! Check out the monster 3 layer cake that we made for the occasion!

my gram

2008-09-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Congrats to my grams (on the left) who won a gold and silver at the B.C. senior games for table tennis (that's ping pong to you common folk...)

kitchen updates

2008-09-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

Before...
start of the project...

finished back splash

Our kitchen is now yellow and we finally have a tiled back splash finished :-)

some quick updates...

2008-09-02T07:12:00.003-07:00

I have managed to grow some lemons on our lemon tree....we shall see if they end up ever turning yellow...
I had to post this just to prove I have not killed our garden yet...there are actual tomatoes growing!!

Our grumpy jerk of a mail man does not like dogs so we had to move our mailbox to the outside of our fence so that molly wouldn't growl at him......so I made it look pretty at least...

Sara's visit

2008-08-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Sara and Nature.... :-)

A pretty stream along our 8 miles of hiking straight up a mountain that day..
On our hike up to Wakeena falls

Somewhere up high that I made Sara hike to that day..haha
relaxing (and sweating) on a WAY too hot day on the Portland spirit
Buck Lake
hiking to Buck lake to sit in our inner tubes in the lake...
Horsetail falls

Seattle

2008-08-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

We stayed overnight at a hotel in Seattle after the flight from Alaska

View of the space needle from our hotel

Pikes Place Market...

Dani & Gregor's wedding

2008-08-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

My cousin Nick and I....there may have been a little (ok a bottle) of wine involved in this picture....
Gram seemed to enjoy the wine as well.... (sorry gram, I had to post this one...)
Me with my cousin Dani and her hubby Gregor who is swiss but they live in Australia at the moment. It was so nice to get to meet him finally!!
cake time...

My cousin Samantha and Gregors best friend from Australia Arvin (sp?)
The happy couple during their first dance
Mom, my bro Haidan, Cousin Nick, myself & Nate

This was the coolest table there by far!! YA table 8!
The happy couple, plus I caught the grandmas eating hahah...
Cheers!!
What a beautiful wedding and wishes for many happy years to the wonderful couple!!

The shoes called KYLA!

2008-08-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

Nick & Beth are getting married in October so I was just looking around on the Internet for shoes to go with the bridesmaid dress that Beth chose for us to wear (see above) and saw some shoes on the NINA website that are called the KYLA! not sure if I would want them for the dress but now I feel like I have to have them simply because they are named after me :-)

http://www.ninashoes.com/-(263)-Silver%20Flash%20Fishnet-(7974-8J56JG).html

I {HEART} IKEA

2008-08-12T00:44:00.000-07:00

Cute new leaf curtains from IKEA
cute new bedspread from IKEA
some great pictures I framed with frames from IKEA
I decided that I would tackle trying to decorate our guest room. Can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ikea....they have so many cute things that are really affordable and pretty decent quality too. If you have one around you and need to decorate anything I highly recommend going there. The problem is that it is hard to walk out of that place without buying something.... (but hey, how can you pass up $4.99 sheets and $11.99 duvet covers?) I would love to work as a designer for IKEA who sets up the show room rooms...now THAT would be a great job for me!

the Cook ladies visit portland

2008-07-29T00:50:00.000-07:00

Mt. St. Helens from a distance....it was kind of cloudy but you can sort of see where it blew out the side of the mountain
we ended up driving up the back side that hadn't erupted and got to look at it from the climber bivouac..really neat and close up!
Lander and Mt St. Helens

Beacon rock was really neat, we were sweating getting to the top though, straight up! Great views of the Columbia river from the top though

We went to the backside of Mt St. Helens and went down into Ape Cave which is an old lava tube. It was really neat, really dark, kind of creepy but totally worth it. I have never walked underground through a lava tunnel before!

new deck, new plants etc...

2008-07-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

If we were hillbillies, these could be our hot tubs....
Some pots for the front of the house
Molly and her kiddie swimming pool. The people who gave her up said she didn't like water....well she loves the ocean and her pool so I think they were crazy!
I fenced in a little area in the back by our shed to plant a garden and added some flowers around it. I picked out some tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers etc.. we shall see how fast I can kill them with my brown thumb...haha

building the small deck out back of our house to hold the BBQ and a few chairs to sit out by the fire pit

Like I needed any more projects...

2008-06-30T23:48:00.001-07:00

I forgot to take a before picture so I had to dig out this REALLY old one of the house simply for you to see the old walkway
We then somehow managed to break out the whole walkway that was about 5-6 inches thick and I dug it out wider
Molly getting dirty....of course the day after we give her a bath!
I started to lay flag stone but this is as far as I have gotten....also need to get a few more grasses to go along the side and then lay the mulch. I will post an after picture tomorrow when I get it done!

kayaking the Willamette

2008-06-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

We went kayaking around Ross Island in the Willamette river this morning. We were lucky we went early morning because it was almost a 100 degrees today and SOOOO hot even out on the river!! I think we are going to start looking to buy a couple of used kayaks :-)

1950's hip hop trailer

2008-06-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

Nate and I were driving home one day and saw a guy selling his 1950's hip hop trailer so we bought it for my in-laws because my mother in law has always wanted one and this one is in pretty good shape. We are going to re-do it for them, luckily it has a fiberglass curved top so it survived structurally better than its aluminum top counterparts!

First step is a good power wash...

6-16-08

2008-06-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

WOW!!!

I cant believe it has been 2 years since we were married!

Time flies when you are having fun :-)

New screen door

2008-06-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

The cats are enjoying our new screen door alot :-)

Camping weekend

2008-06-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

We went camping this weekend at Cape lookout with Molly
She LOVES the ocean and getting all wet and salty

So how often does a car in the campground catch on fire and burn to the ground?? This was so weird. We left that morning to go Kayaking and came back a few hours later to see this as we drove through the campground!!

Miss Molly makes her debut!

2008-05-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Molly already chilling on her new blanket

She already loves her Kong and the hidden treats inside :-)
The cats have lived with a dog before (they miss Cooper!) but aren't too sure just what to think of little miss Molly just yet so they are spying on her from the top of the stairs trying to figure out their next move!
Now all Molly needs is a SPARTAN collar and leash!! haha

Molly

2008-05-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

Meet MOLLY the newest addition to our little family! We pick her up from the Oregon Humane Society tomorrow afternoon!! Nate is now out numbered by girls :-)

Corona's little cousin CORONITA!!

2008-05-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

These little Coronitas are the cutest little mini beers ever!!

5-20-08

2008-05-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

My latest Ink/Acrylic project

My "helper"

2008-05-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

She wasn't really into my using her "mouse" today! :-)

Saturday & Sunday posts

2008-05-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

Our Rhodo's are starting to bloom
I saw this cool archway and thought it would look neat if we built something like this but on a bigger scale (wider) to have a pergola in our backyard to hang our hammock chairs from...

lazy friday

2008-05-16T16:05:00.001-07:00

Mmmmmm nothing better on a Lazy Friday afternoon in 90 degree weather than a hammock and a bowl of fresh strawberries!!

2008-05-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Our Neighbour Cam is a HUGE University of Oregon Ducks alumni/fan(atic) so he just loves it when Nate wears his Oregon STATE hat!! haha
I guess it would be like us Spartans being teased by an ugly UofM hat though.....

2008-05-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

So I thought my picture of the day was going to be from our run of the never ending steps on Mount Tabor.....

BUT then I saw THIS on the way home....yes these people decided yard ornaments were too normal, so they mounted some fake cats and squirrels on their ROOF!! hahaha

Project 365....kind of a late start!

2008-05-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

You have to love IKEA for affordable fun organization! It has made my art desk cleaner already!

So a lot of my blogger friends have a "project 365-6" blog where they take a picture and post it on their blog every day for a year (hence the 366 this year). Well I got a very late start but I am going to TRY to get one up here every day! So here are today's pictures.

Hmmm think our cats are spoiled???

2008-05-07T20:58:00.000-07:00

So our cats refuse to drink water unless it is running from the tap......or sometimes they will wait until I pour myself a glass and stalk me until I put it down and then when I turn back around they are drinking from my glass making me have to go back downstairs to get my own.....hmmm makes you wonder who owns who!!

Thief

2008-04-17T09:44:00.001-07:00

So Nate wakes me up this morning as he is about to leave for work at about 530am and tells me that someone has stolen 2 tires and the rims off of my car.....WHO DOES THAT?? I mean not like I had some sweet tires on the old girl or anything, I mean this is a 1994 Jeep we are talking about!!

Karma is a bitch though, so I hope whoever you are that stole them, I hope you really really REALLY needed them!!

I LOVE TULIPS!!!

2008-04-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

I just had to add this one....they are all coming up and opening up and I absolutely LOVE tulips! I am not quite sure how they all ended up the same color since they were from different bulb batches but maybe some different color ones will come up later towards the summer?? It is so nice out today, supposed to get up to 70 degrees!!

Spring Flowers

2008-04-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

I love spring time for all the pretty flowers! Grandma G will be happy to see all the bulbs she helped me plant last spring have come up in our garden...maybe I do have a little green thumb after all!

Multnomah Falls

2008-03-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

My mom at the base of the falls
My brother, my mom and I hiking up to 600 feet to the top of the falls
Nate looking over the edge

The Falls
Bridge over the falls on our way up to the top...

Us hanging out at the observatory deck at the top of the falls

It is a LONG way down!
View of the Columbia Gorge and Washington State across the Columbia from the top of Multnomah Falls. You can see the dusting of snow they got above the 500 foot level...

our flip house

2008-03-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Check out http://207flipshack.blogspot.com/ to see pictures of our latest flip house adventures!

There is also a permanent link to our flip house blog on the side of this blog! I will try to keep both updated but of course I am always busy busy!!

60 degrees and sunny!

2008-02-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

This is our shed. This is how it looked when we bought our house. UGLY

This is our shed now...we painted it to match some of the house colors.

We want to get a dog some time this spring or summer so we had to finish putting the last corner of the fence in around the back yard up to the shed. Since it was amazing out today (60 degrees!!) we decided it would be good to get it done.
Nate trying to dig through rocky soil. Notice the awesome paint job on the shed behind him!!

Winter wonderland

2008-02-05T17:27:00.000-08:00

Trillium Lake
Making my own path

It was not at all sunny the day we went, it actually snowed on us the whole time
Trail up the mountain

Little Chunky Monkeeeees!

2008-01-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

While in Michigan I was lucky enough to finally see Lianna and Brian's twins; Ascher and Maeve! They are SO cute!! They are even more special since we share the same birthday!!
Ascher and his cutie pie curls
They loved playing with uncle Nate on the bouncy ball...
I think Maeve has the cutest curl comb over ever!
Maeve hogging the shot....

New Years in Michigan

2008-01-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

So it snowed...just a little while we were in Michigan..... only about a foot or so!

We woke up New Years day to a foot of powder!
While it looks pretty, I remembered why I love Portland as I walked in freezing wind and cold!

Snow Shoe time at Mt. Hood

2007-12-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

hiking Skiway Trail at Government camp
Nate and the view... Testing out the new snow shoes!
Resting after getting killed going uphill for a mile! I am just pretending I can breath normal!!