D-Day

It's D-day for me, as in departure day. I am leaving Portland headed toward the first day of the rest of my life. And will return a different woman. I have struggled with weight my whole life and tried numerous different diets to no avail. After years I finally decided to contact a professional and found out that I have a hormone problem, a thyroid problem and a metabolic disorder. A triple threat of obesity. I have been diligently working hard for the past two years to improve my health and change my life style. I now eat differently, exersize and have lost 44 pounds. The climax of my journey comes tomorrow when I will enter the hospital and have a sleeve gastrectomy to help lose the remaining 125lbs of excess weight that I carry. When I leave the hospital on Thursday a new part of my journey begins. One that will allow me to live life to the fullest. A life where u can fit confortable in an airplane seat, where I can ride roller coasters, and where I can walk my dog around the block with out needing an inhaler or a nap afterward. I am so excited to be entering this phase of my life. Following the recovery from my surgery I will also be entering my first nursing classes. I will finally be able to look my patients in the eye and discuss their health and what they need to improve upon without feeling like a hypocrite.

My bus to the hospital leaves in 30 mins. SO EXCITED!!!! 

Precious time

It is with a heavy heart that I write this today.  I realize now how selfish I have been.  I have allowed life to get in the way of what is important and I took time for granted. I thought that if I could just do what needed to be done then I would have time later for the important stuff like family and friends.  So I have gone about my life working, going to school and neglecting to spend time with the people that are important to me. There was always an excuse, too tired, too much homework, needed to study and now I realize how stupid those excuses are.  Friends and family should be a priority in life because u never know when u will run out of time. My aunt Betty lives in the same town as I do and it has been maybe two years since I have seen her and spent any quality time with her and now there is no time left. She passed away this morning and has joined many of our other family members above to watch over us. Aunt Betty was the kindest most wonderful person that I have ever known. I hope she is currently celebrating the fact that she is no longer in pain and that she has been reunited with the many others that we miss so dearly. 

My goal as human as of today is to be a better person, a person like Betty. Someone who knows the importance of family. 

So excited!!! I bought a new car. Bye bye trimet, hello 25 hours of my life back. 

Had a great day today, crafting with Aimee!!! Here are our goodies. We made quilt tops, reusable sandwich bags and bread bags. So much fun!! Can't wait til next time. To see more stuff that Aimee makes go to her blog lazy as a daisy here at blogger.com

Winter Term 2012

This term went great!!!   It was difficult at times but I made it through and maintained my 4.0.  I'm on the presidents list again.  So HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Valentine's Day

For Valentines Day, I surprised J and planned a trip to Spokane to see one of his favorite bands.  I didn't get any homework done but it was well worth it.  We stayed at the Davenport, one of Spokanes oldest and fanciest hotels.

We started off our trip with  a walk down to Riverfront park shortly after arriving.  It was perfect timing because the sun was starting to set and it was beautiful. 

The view from our hotel room was gorgeous. And triggered our curiosity. 

We found out that the two large towers belonged to a bar and restaurant called the Steam Plant. We decided to head over for happy hour and some snacks before our first big event

The first night in town we found out that a comedian that I liked was in town and so we bought tickets and went. We had a blast!  She was so funny and it was also funny to watch the people that came to the show.  One guy was dressed like Waldo,  striped hat and all.  

The next day we start out the day at a restaurant that Jesse fell head over heels in love with.  It was an old train car that the owners had converted into a restaurant. The seating was a little tight but the food was fantastic.

Next we took a drive to Coeur D'alene.  

When we returned to Spokane we went back the Riverfront Park to explore all the parts we did not see the previous night and to ride the skyride which provides an up close view of the falls.

Sunday morning before hitting the road and heading back to Portland, we indulged in the Davenports famous Sunday Brunch held in the hotels famous atrium.  

New Years 2012

We started out the new year with lots of fun and a quick trip to the beach.

Beautiful Sky

 Aimee, Daisy and Andrew came over and spent new years eve with us. We stayed up playing games and toasted the New Year with sparkling cider and the New York Ball Drop.  The next day we took a spontaneous trip to the beach.  We played in the sand, eat ice cream and then finished it off with a nice warm dinner to heat us back up after the chilly day at the beach.

Say Squeeze!!

Even Pip had a sweater on.

Yummy!!

 

What's better than cold ice cream on a cold day. 

2011 Update

So it's spring break and I finally had time to download all the photos from 2011.  So here is a quick rundown of what we did.

January:  Dee grandma's sister was here to visit.  On one of the weekends we went to the beach and played bingo.  










February-April:  Brought Valentines Day and Easter, which I have no memory of.  I have no clue what we did, if anything, for either of those holidays.

May: In may we took a trip to Multnomah Falls and Bonneville Dam with the girls.

Toward the end of May was Erin's graduation.  I was able to take two days off of work to go to Colorado and see her walk across the stage.  I am so proud of my little sister.

My birthday was in May also.  Jesse surprised me by inviting some friends over and having a BBQ.  Some how we did not get any photos of this event.  Oh well there is always next year.

June was a month of rest. I had sinus and tonsil surgery on the second and spent most of the month just resting and recuperating.

July brought us Independence Day.  J's favorite holiday,  I think he is a bit of a pyro.  The day started out with a BBQ and ended in Washington at the train depot blowing up massive fireworks.  It was fantastic!  However because it was unplanned, I didn't have my camera.
This was also the month that we took our two trips.  The first was to Silver falls.  It was a day trip that we took grandma on.  We had a ton of fun hiking around and see all of the different waterfalls.

The next trip was a surprise trip for Jesse.  I packed up all of our bags while he was at work and then when I went to pick him up I told him that I wanted to go to dinner at  a new restaurant.  I got on the highway and started driving.  He was so funny.  He kept asking where we were going and what restaurant.  I told him I couldn't remember but I knew how to get there. There really was no restaurant but I drove him all the way to Garibaldi where we stayed for the weekend. After dinner and a good nights sleep we got up and conquered the Tillamook Cheese Factory and the Tillamook Air Museum among many other things. 

We also got to see some dumbass bury is Jeep in the sand up to the wheel wells.  It was hilarious. 

August:  In August was J's B-Day.  It was pretty quite, no big party just a family dinner with grandma, Paul and J's best friend Brian.  I made a Guinness Chocolate Cake and put hot wheels on it to make it look like they were pushing the frosting around like dirt and bought sparklers for candles. 

Grandma bought J some water guns and a water fight ensued. 

 

September and October went by without any major events just lots of homework.

November brought Pneumonia and Thanksgiving.  Somehow I ended up with pneumonia and was sick most of the month.  I was also supposed to host Thanksgiving.  J ended up doing most of the work and grandma helped him  a ton while I slept.  Only waking long enough to eat and go back to bed.  

In December I took a day just before finals to relax and spend some time with grandma making Leftsa, a traditional Norwegian bread. 

At the end of the month we spent a day in Washington visiting Jesse on the Christmas Train and then we had Christmas dinner at Grandma's house.  

Crazy Year

I can't believe that it has been a year since I posted anything.  2011 was definitely a crazy year and it flew by so fast.  There have been so many changes in my life.
 I started college, which turned into completely starting again. The college said that it had been to long since I was in school and most of my credits were expired, so I had to start from the beginning.  Which worked out pretty well so far.  I am not thrilled with the added time that it will take to reach my goal but I can tell that it will be a blessing in the end. I need a refresher on some of that info that I had to relearn.  But so far so good.  I have maintained a 4.0 for the year, just hope I can keep it that high.
Jesse and I also moved.  It is in the same complex just a bigger apartment.  We upgraded to a two bedroom so that we could have a guest room and a dishwasher.  Best choice ever.  I love having people come to visit and I love my dishwasher.
We didn't really travel a ton last year.  We made one or two trips to the beach but definitely did not do all the fun things that we normally do.  With my school schedule and working full time it made it hard to find time to get away.
I did slip away for three days at the end of May for Erin's high school graduation.  I am so proud of my little sister and love her so much.  I will be sending good vibes to her while she attends college at the University of Northern Colorado, working towards her teaching degree.  Maybe we could be study buddies via Skype or something.  HAHA
The one thing that I do regret from 2011 is being so involved in school that I let it take over everything.  Most holidays and birthdays went by without a celebration or a second thought.  This year I intend on finding a balance with school work and friends and family.  I have already made some plans to help make this happen. I can't disclose them right now though, otherwise it will ruin the surprise.
Talk to you soon!!!!

OMG!!! What am I doing?

It is 230 in the morning and I can't sleep.  There are so many things going on in the next two and a half weeks and so many things that I need to do in order for all of it to go smoothly that I can't get my head to turn off.  I am tired, I know I am I can feel it but I can not sleep cause I keep thinking about everything that I need to do.  I know in my heart that in the end everything will work out and be great but I am such a perfectionist that I tend to drive myself nuts.  I am uber organized and overly critical of so many stupid things.  I worry that I did everything correctly and I stress about whether I did everything I was supposed to.  I pack and unpack and then repack my suitcase a number of different times, because I am afraid I have forgotten something or that i will miss count and only bring things for six days instead of the seven that I need.  Jesse thinks that I have OCD.  I think that I need someone to hit me over the head with a baseball bat and knock my ass out so that I can sleep for the next two days totally uninterrupted. In the last 48 hours I have slept a grand total of maybe 5-6 hours and that was not even all at once.  I am hoping that by writing this all down, that I myself will truly realize how ridiculous it is and will be able to then clear my head and sleep at least 4 hours before I have to get up at 7am because I have a big day ahead of me.  And I don't think that walking around like a zombie cause I'm so exhausted will do anyone any good.

Ouch Update

So, here's the update. I have a cracked bone in my foot. That's why it hurts so stinkin bad. Unfortunately because I waited for so long and have been walking on it for the whole time the dr. says that there is little that can be done and that it will just need a few more weeks to heal. So vacation here i come and I am not allowed to were any cute shoes I have to wear my tennies or something else that has great support. So she says. We will see how long that lasts.

Ouch!!

So I think I have a broken bone in my foot.  Someone stepped on it while I was riding Trimet one day and it has hurt since.  I have been trying to ignore it, but since I have been sick and needed to go to the dr's anyway I am going to have it looked at and the dr ordered an x-ray that I am supposed to get before my apt today.  I probably doesn't help that Jesse exacerbated it yesterday.  He decided to throw me in the pool and i grabbed hold of the metal stairwell to stop myself.  Little did I know, the metal staircase is not cemented in.  It came out of the ground and into the pool with me.  I hit my heel on the bottom of the pool and then kicked the metal rail with the top of my foot when i was trying to get back to the top of the pool for air.  Now it really hurts.  And he's in the dog house.  Guess I will find later, my apt is at 4pm.  Hope it's nothing serious, my vacation in in 17 days.

Astoria Trip

On Wednesday July 14th, Jesse and I went to Astoria for our day trip.  Our first stop was Fort Clatsop.  It's where Lewis and Clark settled for the winter on there long journey. 

Our next stop was Astoria.  We decided to Climb all 170 steps of the Astoria Column.

170 steps up.

The Astoria Column

This is the view from the top.  

We drove across that huge bridge and went over to Fort Columbia next.  It's the fort that played a pivotal role in protecting the west coast during the WWII.  Fort Stevens was the other fort which is more famous, but we didn't go there.  This is one of the batteries that is at the Fort.  

And this is one of the giant cannons that were used to defend the Fort. 

After a day of lots of walking and hiking, we were hungry and wanted to see more of Astoria so we headed back over the river.  After eating we decided to take a trolley ride on the Historic Astoria Trolley.

Then before leaving town we just had to due the touristy things and see two of Astoria's most famous places.  The first was the house where the Goonies was filmed.  

And the second was the elementary school where Kindergarten Cop was filmed. 

We had so much fun and actually learned a few things about Oregon's history.  

Coast Trip

On this Wednesday trip, we went to the coast.  We started out in Newport at the Oregon State University Marine Science Center.  We learned a lot about what OSU is doing to help marine life and track the underwater earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  They also have an exhibit where you can touch some of the sea life and learn about the creatures.

Then we headed up the coast and drove across the Newport Bridge.

And headed up to Depoe Bay.  Where we sat and ate caramel corn and fed some birds.

Our next stop was Beverly Beach, where we played in the water.  Jesse lost one of his water shoes and I had to go in and get it cause he didn't want to get to far into the cold water.  

One of the other stops we made was for lunch at Pronto Pups.  Jesse says they have the best corn dogs around.  They are even better than the ones at the fair.  And they claim to be the original.  

When we were done playing at the beach, we headed home and decided to stop at the casino.  Jesse did well he won, I was not so lucky.  But dinner was devine.  We had all you can eat crab at the buffet. 

Happy Independence Day!!!

Uncle Paul doing a fire dance around the fireworks. 

Everyone sitting around watching the
fireworks.

This year for the 4th Jesse and I hosted a BBQ at our house.  We had a lot of fun and there was a ton of food.  We ate, we laughed and we blew some stuff up.

The spread.  

Dissipating  fireworks.