A Rough Week

Well I haven't had too much going on to post about lately.
Let's see, I guess the big thing this week is figuring out why Samantha has been Sooooo grumpy and not eating anything. She is getting her last molars in on the top of her mouth. She has had a hard time with all her teeth, I guess it's just really painful for her and then she gets fevers from it as well, so she's been a little sick. poor kid.
The week has gone by pretty fast but it's also been a little frustrating. Dave's bike got stolen right outside his office building. Of course, right when it's about to be summer, and right when we get Sam a helmet....grrrrrr! So the very next day I look on Craigslist just to see and there's a posting from Milwaukie, which is a bad part of town for a cannondale for $500, no picture, hardly any description. Dave called on it first and it was some kid, and he was really short with Dave, "I already sold it"....hang up. So later that night I called the kid and asked about it trying to sound like an interested buyer, and he told me the same thing and after asking a couple of questions I pretty much told him about Dave's bike being stolen and if he knew anything about it, and of course he said no. So I said, "yeah whoever would put a stolen bike on Craigslist the day after he stole it WOULD be pretty stupid!" I mean this kid was really awkward on the phone. So I got off, but after a couple of hours I was still festering about it wishing I would have asked him more about it. So I decided to call him back.
me: "Yeah I'm just calling back because I wanted to get the number of the person you sold it to so they can give me a description of the bike so I know it wasn't stolen."
kid: "Uh, well no I can't do that"
me: "Well why not? Why does it matter to you if it's not stolen?"
kid: "Why are you harrassing me?"
me: "Uh, I'm not harrassing you, I'm trying to figure out who stole the bike so why should you worry about giving me the information if YOU didn't steal it? (trying to scare him) The cops will probably call you anyway about it since you didn't post a picture, and it's the same type of bike, so if you give me the information then THEY won't have to call you."
kid: "well, uh, I don't think, uh, well my brother gave me the bike, and, uh...." and then he tried to accuse me of other things and wanted to know what my name was and where I lived......yeah right!
Well needless to say I didn't get anything out of him and I was so frustrated, because I know we'll never see that bike again and it's not really "TOP PRIORITY" for the cops......again I say, grrrrrrrrrr.
So that was the drama of the week. Very frustrating between that, Sam being in pain, and Dave having to put up with his boss, who has a temper, and Dave gets to be the one he takes it out on, even though it's usually always other people's mistakes, but yet he is still the one to get yelled at.
But at least it ended on a good note. We drove down to Salem as a spur of the moment thing to visit Dave's parents. And I got to sing on Mark's new album, which was really fun. He is a very deep, poetic person and a great songwriter so I felt priveleged I got to sing on parts of one of his songs.
I think this week will be quite busy, with me starting the apartment managing on Wednesday, and there seems to be a few issues I will immediately GET to deal with. But it will be good.
And I was going through a couple of pictures I have taken in the last few weeks, so here are some more Samantha pics.

This picture was taken while she wasn' feeling well and thought the floor would be a comfortable place to lie down.


She's my Baby Spice!



another "I'm not going to smile" face

Happy Anniversary

It's been a Year!!!
Holy cow, one year ago today was a very very very hard day for me. It was the day I moved to Oregon from Utah.
I don't think I cried so hard in a very long time....well not since Samantha was born.
I was staying with my parents for about a week before I came up here, and I remember trying to relish each day I was there because I really didn't want to leave. On the last day I was there my parents, Natalie, and I went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and I was really hungry but almost couldn't eat because my stomach was churning because I knew whenever we left would be that much closer to me leaving.
Just thinking about that day makes me sad a little because it makes me wish I could be with my family. It's hard missing dinner every Sunday where we all get to just hang out, and it's hard missing all the family parties, and birthdays, and some holidays, but I guess that's part of growing up and being an adult. But it's a hard part.
When I was walking off the plane in Oregon with Sam and my tear-stained face, some nice (but very flamboyant) gay guy took pity on me and came over to talk to me because I think he felt bad. I must have been a huge mess.
But as hard as it was moving here, a lot of good has come from it. Oregon really is a great place to live and I do really enjoy it, even though I may get sick of the rain sometimes. If we were still in Utah, Dave probably wouldn't have a job because they pretty much closed down his entire department he was previously working at there. And right now he has a good job that he enjoys (for the most part). Plus we've been able to do a lot of fun things up here, and have been able to spend a lot of time with Dave's family, and Samantha has been lucky to still be close to at least one set of Grandparents, and has gotten to know them very well, and loves them a lot!
So Oregon is great, but I love any chance I get to go back and visit my family, which will become harder and harder now that they are all moving as well. So we are all spreading out between Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. But at least it will make those times we do get together, that much more special.
Happy Anniversary to me! I guess I'm a true Oregonian now!

I AM A HUNG BUCK!

Okay don't let that title scare you, it's just the name of my Indoor Soccer Team! And yes they do have t-shirts with a mascot but I don't think it would be too appropriate for me to wear :) And yes, the name was thought of by a few guys!

So tonight was our first game! I was really excited because it really has been too long since I have played soccer, let alone Indoor. And wow, I kind of forgot how fast-pace and tiring it is, especially if you're not completely in shape, and there is only one sub for the girls. There were about 8 guys or so on our team, and 3 girls incuding me. And the rules of the game require that 2 girls are on the field at all times. So by the end of the game, we were all pretty tired! But it made me remember how much I love soccer, even if I wasn't as good tonight as I was a few years ago, at least endurance-wise!

As far as the game went, it was pretty even back and forth scoring for each team, and we were tied 4-4 up until the last 12 seconds of the game when we scored to win the game!! So the Hung Bucks Hung in there to win it! woo hoo! Not bad for a first game. And the guys were all pretty nice, but when you get a bunch of guys together and it involves sports, and winning, a few choice words are spewed from their mouths in repetition. But nothing I didn't really expect.
Anyway it was a fun game, and nice to be playing soccer again.





And here are a couple pictures from Easter. We had a little candy hunt (we didn't have eggs) for Samantha after church, and she's already been able to do a couple of Easter egg hunts, so she knew exactly what to do with her basket, and where to find the candy. It was a fun, and a low-key Easter for us. We didn't go anywhere, we just stayed home and ate our Ham and funeral potatoes meal!



She was soooo tired at the end of the night!

More Eggs please!

Last night Dave went on a campout to the Coast by Tillamook with the YM/YW in our ward so Sammy and I had a fun girls night together. Today I took her to a Healthy Kids Fair at one of the Hospitals in this area where they had TON of stuff, information and free samples about keeping kids healthy, and an Easter egg hunts for little kids, so Sammy got to pick out some candy and eggs.
There was also a guy dressed up in a bunny suit which she thought was very exciting and we were planning to get a picture with, but he was gone by the time we finished the Easter egg hunt..oh well.
The other main reason we went was they were selling bike helmets for $5 so I had to go get one for her because Dave and I are wanting to do some biking soon with her, and we'll definitely need one. The funny thing is I was at Target couple of hours ago and saw the same helmet for $21!! Ridiculous.....so I'm glad I got mine for a good price. Although I did have to stand in line for a half an hour to get it, and trying to keep a toddler entertained for that amount of time is not the easiest thing. Good thing I had chocolate, popcorn, and pretzels to keep her happy.

She did have a lot of fun wearing her helmet around the house before bed though. She used to take Dave's helmet and wear it, but now she's got one that actually fits her head and won't cover her eyes!

Advenures in Apartment Managing!

Yes, it's a new chapter for us, but very exciting!
I know a lot of you are probably thinking, "she's stupid... getting excited over apartment managing?" But do you know what this means?
No more paying rent!! or internet....or utilities (for the most part)
And all that for a little bit of work?? I think I can force myself to do it.

And actually there are a lot of people who are trying to get into the business of managing apartments these days. Apparently there were at least af ew other couples or so that were hoping to manage the ones we got, but thanks to visiting teachers that put a good word in for you, we got lucky and get the opportunity to save A LOT of money! And my visiting teacher (the one who is doing it now) said it's a really easy managing job compared to most, which is another plus. There are only 16 units, and no one ever moves from there apparently because they like it so much and it requires less than 10 hours of work a week! (depending)

Just thinking about the possibility of how much money we can save is really the thing that makes me the most excited. And being able to save for a good down-payment on a house?? I mean that's what you need these days! So...within 3 weeks we will be moving just up the street!

Just a little Disclaimer: managing these apartments doesn't mean that we are in the poor house and can't afford to live anywhere (although some places we sure canNOT afford) we are doing it to save money, pay off bills, build up food storage, etc. So I don't want anyone to think they have to send us money because we don't have any.....although donations are accepted! :) hee hee totally kidding

Also in the land of excitement....I joined a Co-Ed Indoor Soccer League! Woo hoo! It's been quite a long while since I played, and even longer since I played Indoor so this should be good!
Oh how I've missed playing, it will be nice to get out there to get some good exercise and show those boys how to play!

Easter Fun!

Well it's Easter week, and the festivities have already begun! (Of course I don't know that we'll be doing much more because I haven't found a good Easter Egg hunt to go to yet this weekend).
Anyway on Saturday we headed down to Turner to watch the afternoon conference with Dave's sister Kristin and her family, and afterwards she put together a wonderful Easter egg hunt for the kiddies. (I didn't have my camera with me so I will have to get copies from someone who did) It was a really warm, wonderful day perfect for hunting candy and chocolate, and unfortunately some of the chocolate did melt. But the kids had a lot of fun, and I know Samantha really enjoyed it a lot.
Later that night, all the boys were able to go together to Priesthood session which was nice for them that they could all be together.

And then today I went up to Vancouver to hang out with my friend Becca and her kiddies. Since it was another beautiful day, we went to the park and had a picnic. And Becca being the cute mom she is, put together her own little Easter egg hunt right there in the park for Juliana and Sam. They loved it and it was funny because they were very picky about which eggs they wanted to pick up and what colors. So after a few minutes they had still left a few candy-filled eggs on the ground so Becca let the two other kids on the playground come over and get the rest. They were very happy about that. We had a good time basking in the warmness of the day! I figure any day that it's nice weather, I have to take full advantage of it because lately they have been so few and far between!