Life change for '09

Okay, after the last few crazy years of my life, things are finally starting to settle down. I've married a wonderful guy, have a great job, and things are looking up. However: I've really let myself fall by the wayside. I completely stopped exercising, and truly taking care of myself. I'm embarrassed to say that I've gained about 15 pounds! Yikes!

The last couple of years I have "walked" in the Portland Marathon 5 mile walk sponsored through my company. I have promised myself that this coming October (the next date for the PDX Marathon), I will run the 5 miler. I would like to run the 15 miler, but.....that is a LOT of training. So, for now my goal is to run the 5 miles.

This is a picture of me getting my packet for the 5 miler from this last October.

Wish me luck! I'm going to need it!

Gingerbread house fiasco

We decided to get the "cheaper" gingerbread house kits this year. It looked so fun, and we pulled out all of the items, only to find that we had to mix our "own" icing and things did not go well.
Our gingerbread houses were a bust. They would NOT stay together.

The roofs kept sliding off the houses, the walls kept falling over and everyone started getting impatient. So, we ate our gingerbread houses, before they were even built. They were delicious. Next year: We'll spring for the deluxe model homes.

Artic Blast!!!!

Portland does NOT snow. Maybe a few flakes will sprinkle the roads a couple of times during the winter, but for the most part: We just get rain. Lots and lots of rain. However, it seems about every 5-6 years we have a monster snow storm that shuts the city down completely. This year was the year. Of course, it had to hit within days of Christmas, so it really put a damper on the last minute shopping.
We all spent about a week stuck inside of our house because the roads were too dangerous to drive anywhere. It was a little maddening! Talk about cabin fever! The first couple of days were fun, and exciting. After that, it was just annoying and inconvenient.


These are pictures of the front and back of our house.

Christmas tree

The NorthWest is known for it's beautiful, evergreen trees. Therefore: We have some great choices for Christmas trees. We have a tradition of going to a Christmas Tree farm, choosing the best one of the bunch, and cutting it down on the spot.

My favorite kind of Christmas tree is a Noble. When I lived in Utah, it was a real treat to get a Noble tree because they were so expensive. And...if we were lucky enough to buy one, it usually had a huge gaping hole we needed to hide in the corner....you get the picture.

This isn't the case up here. We can buy a beautiful, perfect 7-8' tree for $25 or less. Each year our tree is more and more beautiful. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the tree with all of its decorations but still.....it was another year for a wonderful family tree.

Pumpkin carving!

I figured we worked really hard on our pumpkin carving, so I should at least post the finished product. I think they turned out pretty cute!
I'm still a little nervous letting the younger kids use the knife to carve, so we had some "kid friendly" carving utensils.





One of these pumpkins does not belong.

Spooky!