Marci Ehrhart Concert

I have had the pleasure of helping our friend Marci with a concert that she is putting together on Friday November 12th!

It's going to be a wonderful night, Marci is so talented and has a wonderful voice, and the rest of the band are awesome too - it'll knock your socks off!

Click below to check out the blog site for the concert and make sure to mark your calendar :)

http://concertforamber.blogspot.com/

I Dragged The Gut

As an immigrant to the USA I am constantly finding things here in my new home that are new to me or are just different...

Dragging the Gut is one of those things that is unique to the USA and here in McMinnville it was outlawed in the mid-late 80's.

It was such a wonderful evening, we had a great time dragging the gut with our 1972 Suburban and our Victory... I can't wait for next year! :)

October Already

I can hardly believe it's October already - it's scary how quickly this year has flown past.

Yesterday it had been a year since I was granted my Green Card, hard to believe it had been a year already, but in some ways it was also hard to believe it had ONLY been a year... a lot has happened in the past year.

To celebrate we made a 'full English breakfast' meal for dinner, and I made a Red Velvet Cake for desert - since it's our green card birthday, we had to have cake... right?

Oh my word, that cake was so good... now I'm not saying that to blow my own trumpet, especially since I got the recipe from a blog I read all the time, but I'm saying it because it was... the ganache topping was so chocolaty and so rich that it was perfect... I hate to imagine the amount of calories in the tiny sliver of cake I ate.

Since it was so rich and there was so much of it we figured there was no way we'd get it finished while it was still in it's prime, so we cut two large chunks and brought them to our neighbours.

Hello again...

Well, it seems that the past week and a bit have been pretty uneventful, and thus I haven't really had anything to blog about.

I guess I still don't really have anything to blog about, but after so many days thought I'd at least pop in and say a little hello.

I seem to have gotten used to the braces so far, and my lips have built up scar tissue to deal with the metal constantly rubbing on them. Sometimes my lip or tongue still catches on a sharp pokey bit and it hurts, but for the most part it's ok. The pressure on my teeth took longer to get used to, and it still aches at times, especially after (and during) eating. The front teeth are the only ones that still actually hurt, and I'm a little concerned about that since it's the site of the most recent bone graft. I can already tell that my teeth are starting to move, the gaps between the teeth (very noticeable at the front) are getting bigger as they all gently move into the space where the incisor was removed.

Cleaning my teeth has become quite the ordeal, I never realised it would be such a chore, but I'm hoping that I just get used to it and it becomes no big deal. It takes 15 minutes morning and night to clean my teeth, and then after every meal (or snack) I also have to give them a quick clean with the little 'christmas tree' type attachment that I carry in my purse and have several of. I hate the feeling of having food stuck in my teeth, it just grosses me out.

I've gotten used to talking with the braces there, and I guess I seem to lisp less... but I still don't like the way they look, even with my mouth closed I feel like they make me look weird, as you can see the way they make your lips stick up weird.

Anyway... Enough about the train tracks, I know I'm boring you already!

Other than that, life has been pretty quiet for us. We managed to switch our schedule for Christmas and changed our flights so we can spend more time in the UK with the family over the holidays. I am so looking forward to this and am excited to see everyone... it's been too long since I spent a Christmas with them!

I also saw my dr who said my T3 was a little high on the last blood test, so I dropped my cytomel down to half a pill in the morning instead of a full to see how it does... well, silly me I some how managed to cut them into quarters instead of halves, and take them for almost a week before realising.... no wonder I was exhausted all the time!

I guess that's it from me for now, will catch ya later :)

Metal Mouth Mary

It looks as though I have survived my first few days with 'train tracks'... it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

(terrible photo by the way, but I guess most of the photos pf the next 2.5 - 3 years are going to be pretty crappy)

Yep, after all I've been through with dental and surgeries this past 18 months you'd think this would have been a walk in the park, well, I tell you now it wasn't.

My appointment was booked for a max of 90 minutes. That's longer than they usually allow for putting on the braces, so they figured it would be plenty of time... turns out they didn't factor in the 'MARY CARD'... my appointment ended up being a little shy of 3 hours 15 minutes. It was also pretty uncomfortable, since I have just recently had the bone graft in two places on my lower jaw. Having my right wisdom teeth (top & bottom) was also kind of a nuisance, since they had a hard time getting brackets all the way back there.

Anyway, I survived. I walked out of there with metal brackets on my bottom teeth, and clear ones on the front ones of my top. I also didn't quite get rid of my flipper... it kind of just got changed, and it's now a bridge.... Don't ask, it works (kind of).

The first day I couldn't eat a thing, my back teeth had so much pressure on them it hurt too bad. The next couple days I resorted to softer foods, soups etc... boring, but manageable.

This weekend I finally ventured to rice and that was better. It had substance and was edible, but it got really badly stuck in the brackets and was a pain to clean... at least it kept the hunger at bay tho! ;)

The easiest thing by far was baked potatoes.... thankfully, they're also one of my fav foods to eat! I also had a can of Heinz Baked Beans stashed so I poured those over the buttered potato and topped it with grated cheese.... Mmmmm, I was instantly back in London for the 20 mins it took me to eat my dinner!

Another step in the right direction...

So, today is my last day with this delightful (can you hear the sarcasm) flipper??? Tomorrow I am due to get my braces on and I'm quite excited about it.

I'm excited that I won't have to wear this partial denture anymore, but mostly excited that I'll be getting on my way to being done with this whole ordeal. I know braces aren't going to be any fun at all, and I know it's a LOOOOONG time before I'll be getting them removed and my implants in, but I'm excited because I'm working my way towards that finished goal.

So, I guess this time tomorrow I'll be numbing up the insides of my cheeks and trying my hardest to eat dinner without complaining! hahaha




Lets just hope that there aren't any horrible surprises like there were last time round...

Catch up after a long week!

It's been a long week since I last posted on here. I can't believe it has only been a week...

So, all the things I had intended and planned to since I last posted on here haven't quite happened, as I said, it's been a long (and very strange) week.

On Wednesday last week I had grand plans, I started strong and got going with things I needed to do... Then I got a phone call from my dear hubbie, saying that his Mom had taken a fall and was hurt and was heading to the hospital. So, I put everything on hold, threw together a pot of spaghetti, put the rest of what would be dinner in the truck and headed out there.

It turns out that she was going out the sliding doors and her flip-flop caught on the rug and she took a dive. She whacked her face on the cement and landed on her wrist, it was smashed up. Broken in at least 4 places and in a right mess.

I got the house cleaned up and dinner finished before she came home, and boy am I glad I did. She came home with her arm in a splint and a partial cast, and she was hurting pretty bad. There was no way she would have been able to do those things, and I knew she'd be worrying about it getting done.

It was a pretty late night, I guess we got home around 9pm, which doesn't sound too bad, except that poor hubbie had been gone at work all day and hadn't even got his shower til we got in the door.... we crawled to bed for some much needed sleep.

The next day I headed to the farm with Cory to look after his Mom, she had grand plans of going out shopping and running errands with me, but I knew there was no way she'd feel like it... and when we got to the house she said she realised it too. So, I just stayed with her that day and did some things round there, helped her manage her pain and did some grocery shopping... There was no way I'd be getting the things at home done, so I just put them out of my mind.

The weekend crept up on us and I was glad it was here. On Saturday morning Cory's Dad called to ask if I wanted to go and do some target practice... I really needed to before deer season started, so we headed out there and shot targets for an hour. It was actually really hard work, the guns I was shooting were so heavy and the stock was really long, so it made it hard for me to get a comfortable position. My aim was good though, and my Father in law said I would be good enough to go hunting. I definitely want to do some more practice sessions before the 1st Oct, but my confidence was a little better.

That afternoon I headed to a friends baby shower. She was actually a friend of Cory's growing up, but we've hung out a few times and she's a really awesome and fun girl. It was also my first ever baby shower... so that's something else to check off the list... I didn't know what to expect, but it was a fun afternoon!

That evening we headed out with some other friends downtown, our friend Nat was having a birthday and they'd gotten a babysitter so were trying to make the most of it. It was a nice evening, but another late night... I'm not used to all these packed days and late nights!

We crawled into bed a little after midnight to catch some much needed Zzzzzzz's!

Sunday after church and lunch we headed to Amity Vineyards with John & Janet. The vineyards here in Oregon are amazing, and there are always so many of them! If you're a wine buff then you should definitely get out here and take a tour, you'd be amazed.

After that we were shot, we needed to kick back & relax, so we ordered a pizza and chilled out for the evening... The weekend was gone...

Autumn has arrived!

Well, it definitely feels like Autumn is here in full force... and I'm not complaining one little bit. I do like the sunnier fall type day, with the beautiful clouds and the wonderful sunsets but I really enjoy the cooler weather. It's mid to upper 60's here today and it's right about perfect for me!!!

The end of last week we spent canning apples into pie filling, which was really fun and very rewarding. We have quite a bit more to do so I think we'll probably make a start on those tonight. We didn't get any canning done over the weekend, but we had a good weekend so that's ok.

It was the Labor Day holiday here yesterday which I still don't really understand and should probably look up so I'm more in 'the know', but frankly, I don't think most people around here really 'celebrate' anything much on Labor Day, except that it's the long weekend before fall and before the kids go back to school etc!

On Saturday Cory had to work in the morning so I did some things around the house and in the afternoon/evening we had a party at our good friends, John & Janet's... they're our neighbours too, so it's really convenient for us. Several couples came over and we just had dinner and played some games at their place. Two of the couples brought their RV's so they could stay the night, and it was kind of a "bon voyage" get together for two of our friends who are going away for 6 weeks in their 5th wheel.... so it seemed fitting for people to bring their RV's. We played camping type games, boccee ball, horseshoes, some kind of bean bag throwing game and several other things. In good camping style we also built a campfire and roasted smores... Mmmmm....

Anyway, it was a lot of fun - they're great people and so much fun to hang out with!

Sunday after Church we headed to Salem to the State Fair. We met up with some friends there, did the usual fair repertoire which included lots of walking and eating foods that we wouldn't usually have. It was fun and we wrapped it up with dinner at Walerys Pizza - the best pizza joint I have EVER been to!

Yesterday, even though it was a holiday here in the US Cory went to work. Farming doesn't seem to care about the holiday schedule, and we mostly work around the weather/crop schedule instead. It was a dry day and we really needed to work on the clover, so he worked the best part of the day but got off a fair bit earlier than usual.

We had dinner with John & Janet again, yummy enchiladas made from the left over smoked turkey John cooked for the party on Saturday. They were fab! After that we hopped into the truck and took them up to the farm. They'd been up there before, for our wedding, but they hadn't seen much so we took them up to the hill where we'd like to build our house, down around the fields - thru to see the cattle and many other sights. It was a fun adventure and I really liked that we could take them up there. They're good friends of ours so that means they hear us talk about farm locations all the time, so it was nice to show them what we're talking about!

We got back and had desert, the apple crunch I'd made from Cory's Grandmothers cookbook. I'm trying to make each of the recipes at least once that I will include in the book I'm making, so I can make sure the instructions and ingredients/quantities are correct and suggest any alternatives with the recipe in the book.... it was really good... the only thing I changed was to add cinnamon and I'm glad I did... it was pretty close to perfect!

So, that's the long weekend in a nutshell... Today I had a Dr's appointment to get my blood results. Everything was good, except my T3 was a little elevated, approx 10%. So, all in all, not bad at all, nothing to be worried about. I'll just adjust my Cytomel pills slightly and re-test in a month and see how the bloods look.

This afternoon I nipped up to the farm with lunch for the men and after that I rode with Cory a little bit to do some things he needed to... It's always fun to see him mid day. I love my hubbie!

September already!!!

Today is September first and I can hardly believe it. It seems like this year has just flown by and I feel like I'm still trying to play catch up.

The last two days of August were chilly and blustery. It really started to feel like Autumn was on the way, and I must admit I'm kind of excited for it to get here. I know we didn't have much of a summer and some people really like the heat but I'm not the kind of girl that likes it being much more than 80-85F regularly. Mid to upper 70's is much more my kind of thing ;)

I'm not really sure what this month will hold but I do know that the next couple of days will involve apples...

I've been trying to get my hands on apples at a really reasonable price and I even hit a produce stand this morning to see what kind of a deal I could score. I was pretty impressed at the price for a box really, considering you'd pay twice as much in the grocery store...

But, as I was having coffee with a friend of mine this morning my hubbie called to say that his Grampa was on route to our place with two types of apples for us. I couldn't believe it - I was stoked! There's really no better price than free... Only shame being that I wasn't home, but he said he'd leave them on the deck for us.

I got home to find that he'd brought us two big boxes of apples, each one almost full! I was so excited... It means I'll be having a double date with them and my canning supplies for the next couple days! (Yah, I'm weird and/or easily pleased)

Well, the other exciting thing that happened today was that I bought my very first hunting license and deer tag. Yup, this means I'm definitely going hunting this fall! It's kind of a weird thing for me, since I don't know if I'm actually going to have the guts to aim and shoot at the deer when the time comes, but I'm definitely up for the challenge and am starting to look forward to it.

Not so much of a city girl after all, eh?

Bluergh!

The last couple of days I am feeling totally blah, bluergh and ick! I don't really know why and can't really put my finger on it but I just don't feel 100%. My back hurts and my stomach is icky so I have been taking it easy this afternoon.

On Friday we left town to go camping for the weekend. I was really looking forward to getting away and also for some cooler weather. It had been far too warm for little ol' me and I was starting to feel a little wilted. I needed some cooler temps!

Dear hubbie loaded up the truck on Thursday evening and I did the last few bits on Friday morning and then I jumped in the truck to go pick him up from the field and we hit the road. We headed just south of Bend to a place called La Pine but as we pulled into the campground we were greeted by the 'Campground Full' sign. Uh oh, this was bad news. We hit one other campground and saw the same thing so we decided to head up to Paulina Lake.

We had wanted to camp up there but I was a little nervous because of the lake and the mosquitoes, but since the other two sites were full it was a sign so we headed up the road to Paulina Lake. Neither of us realised it was so high up and it seemed like the road just kept on going and going... at 6350ft we entered the campsite and it wasn't full. Infact, it was only about half occupied! YAY - I was excited!

We found the perfect spot and jumped out to start setting up camp and WHOOOSH, the mosquitoes were on us like crazy! I could even feel them biting me which is a first, usually the first I know that I've been bitten is a few moments later when it starts to swell.

Ugh! Cory was willing to leave and go find another campsite somewhere else but I didn't want to, it was so pretty there and it was an adventure after all.... a few painful bites later I was starting to feel like I was going to go crazy, so I got inside the half erected tent while Cory set up everything else and got a fire going.

A few moments after the fire got going they started to leave, they really didn't like the smoke so we kept the fire really smokey!

We walked over to the lake and it was just beautiful, it was as if we were on top of the world. There was no other point of reference that we could see from where we were and at over 6000 feet we really were up high!

After that we went to find the host and paid for the night... he warned us that it would be cold (and it was) and that hopefully we had enough blankets to keep warm for the night. I was actually looking forward to it being a little cold, and already had my beloved beanie hat on! ;)

We went back to the campsite and fixed up a yummy dinner and chilled out by the fire before hitting the hay early.

It was pretty cold that night, it hit somewhere in the low 20's and we felt it but we were very glad for lots of warm blankets and a blow up mattress! After breakfast and a walk to the lake we packed up our stuff and hit the road.

Saturday evening we stayed at a campground at Detroit Lake and it was substantially warmer than at Paulina Lake (it was also substantially lower in elevation) and had next to no mosquitoes. I didn't get one bite that evening nor did I even see a skeeter lurking nearby.

We camped close to a little beach on the far side of the lake and it was quiet and calm. We had a fun & very relaxing weekend... laying on the beach, relaxing strolls, throwing rocks and just not having to do any of the stuff waiting for us back home.

ooooh, and I almost forgot to mention that we had the first smores of the year and they were perfect! :)

Good News!

Just a quick post to share some good news. I just got back from seeing my Maxillofacial surgeon for my 2 week follow up and he is so pleased with how much healing has taken place since the surgery.

AND (yes, it gets better) he is giving me the go ahead to move into ortho treatment right away.

Awesome huh?!?!?!

I should have another 4 week wait before I'm ready for ortho, but my body is healing so well & he knows I'll take extra good care of myself and my teeth so he's letting me start!

I am so excited - it means I get rid of the flipper sooner rather than later and that we're taking another step in the right direction. This is also the first time for a long time that something has happened ahead of schedule with my health and dental issues!!!

So, watch this space people - brace face will be showing up a little sooner than scheduled! :)

Now I really need to get off here and get cracking - I have so much to do today and tomorrow. We're heading camping tomorrow afternoon for the weekend so we have to pack all that stuff into the truck and for some reason while I was at the store I thought it would be an awesome idea to take advantage of the deal they had on apples, so I just bought 10 pounds of Granny Smith apples that I am planning to make canned apple pie filling with and I still have berries in the refrigerator downstairs. Not to mention the chili and scones I'm making to take with us camping... Oh and dinner for tonight...

Yikes!

Over & out!

Hello & Canning so far

Well, it's been a while since I've written on here... Not too sure why, probably just since I haven't had much to say... so I'll keep this post short so as to not bore you to death.

Last weekend we picked berries, and we picked a LOT! It's craziness how many blackberry bushes there are at the farm. It seems like with the weather this year everything is late producing fruit, the blackberries are no different. There was plenty of ripe and juicy berries for us to pick but I'd say about 75% of the fruit weren't ready yet. We picked several gallons of berries and will probably wait a couple weeks before another mammoth picking session.

So, I made jam for the first time ever! It was quite a process but so much fun, AND the jam tastes yummers too, so that's a bonus. I made two batches, one just straight blackberry and the second is blackberry, blueberry & strawberry mix. I also made a batch of blackberry pie filling and canned that, but all the recipes called for a product called 'ClearJel' that I couldn't find in any of the stores close by so I subbed with cornstarch. I don't know if it turned out ok, it seems a little runny to me, but I guess the only way to know for sure is to make a pie and see... so I guess I'll be doing that next week sometime too.

I'm still holding out for apples... I have an awesome recipe for canned apple pie filling and I'd love to have that stashed away for the winter.

Yah, I'm nutso

Well, those of you who know me will know how I love a good project... ideas bubbling over, sometimes I can't sleep at night because of ideas going round my head, or popping into my head in the middle of the night... my brain just keeps ticking over and over with ways in which to make it better and more exciting... and that in turn makes me more excited about the project... (Yeah, I'm nutso)

Some of you will also know (hopefully less of you) that I am just crazy about recipes... yep, you heard it. I'm a feeder. I love to cook, bake, create some kind of yummy edible goodies... and I love to also research these goodies, read about them, drool over them and they get my brain going in ways I just can't explain. I don't know why, except perhaps because I'm nutso.

So, imagine the insanity that would explain my excitement if a certain project also involved recipes and or cooking in some fashion, add that to the love I have for family and you have pure craziness. Well, that's exactly where I'm at right now!

I am working on a project that has all of those elements, and it's awesome. I am putting together a book... Yep, you heard it. Crazy, huh!?!?!

As you know Cory's Grandmother passed away in March, she was a wonderful woman and she loved to entertain, cook, bake and create... story has it that she was as crazy about recipes as I am and would often sit reading cook books for inspiration and ideas (YAY, I'm not the only person in the world who would happily take a recipe book to bed).

I wish I would have had some time to know her in the prime of her life, I have a feeling we would have gotten on like a house on fire.

Anyway, I have collected books and books and just tons of recipes from her and I am probably not even a third of the way through. I am sifting through the recipes and books and collecting ones that she loved to cook and some that stand out to people when they think of her.

My plan is to put these together in a book that people can have, and so not only will the memories of Paula Ann Fast live on, but her recipes will also.

It's working title is: After all, there's nothing quite like Grandmother's cooking!

Canning time!

Laugh if you will, but I have never done any of my own canning before. Probably partly due to the fact that I grew up in London and it's not really the thing to do in the big smoke.

Last year we had an awesome vegetable garden, a bumper tomato crop and grand plans of canning sauces and all sorts of goodies to see us through the winter months.

Unfortunately, my diagnosis of Graves Disease and then the dental stuff on top of that kind of put a spanner in the works and we just couldn't keep on top of the garden or get round to doing anything with the produce either. We were up to our neck with other stuff going on so we had to just let people have the tomatoes from our garden. At least they didn't go to waste - that would have been unbearable.

This year we had high hopes too. We planted our garden and were excited about being able to have our own produce to see us through the winter months. Unfortunately the weather this year wasn't quite as good as last year for tomato plants and we haven't had the bumper crop of last year that we hoped for. It's kind of sad, but hey, that's life. We will have some tomatoes from the plants but they're coming so late. I doubt we'll have much to can though.

But the canning story doesn't end there... no, no, no... We still have grand plans! We are going to whip up a batch of berry jam and I'm planning on gifting some of that to friends and family and we have grapes galore in our garden too that I will find something awesome to do with. We're going blackberry picking this weekend too and I'm planning on using some of those for the jam but most to make pie filling and we'll be getting our grubby hands on some apples too for pie filling. So, it should be pretty awesome... and there are rumours that a friend of ours might have a bunch of extra tomatoes that they'd be willing to share with us... YAY!

So, watch this space people - the canning extravaganza is going to start in the next couple days... I have no idea how easy or hard it will be, but I'm guessing it's not rocket science... and after all, we are two fully grown and fairly smart adults, I'm sure we won't blow up the house!

I'm a chipmunk... just not sure which one!

Well, it's been several days since surgery and simply put I feel terrible.

Cory stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday to help me and that was awesome. A good perk of being ahead on the farm during harvest.

I was doing pretty good up til about Sunday when my swelling started to get worse and the bruises took on some colour. My mouth is pretty stiff and sore and I think I look like a chipmunk. I totally don't look like me, I look different... weird.

I spent most of yesterday doing not very much. I rested and slept most of the day and kept cool in the basement. Today has been pretty much the same thing, I've been bored out of my head but there's not much else I can do about that. I've been reading online, searching out recipes and watching a little tv - yep, sounds about as boring as ever, huh.

I'm thinking about canning... yep, sounds exciting huh? Apple pie fillilng, jam etc etc.... So, perhaps we'll be out picking fruit this weekend! :)

Anyway, that's about the height of it. I'm scheduled to see Dr Johnson for a follow up next week on Wednesday, unless the swelling and pain doesn't go away, in which case I'll see him sooner...

Harvest

Harvest is an especially beautiful time of year in Oregon. There is so much to see, so many textures, colours and the landscapes are just highlighted by the farm machinery and all the activity buzzing around.
I couldn't help but try to capture this.

Mooooooo

Cows are fun subjects to photograph. I didn't have much time to snap these photos before they got freaked out and started a stampede.... nope, I'm not kidding - just very thankful they were runing in the opposite direction!

Some recent photos (photo heavy)

I have always loved to take photos - and as you can tell, sometimes my posts are a little photo heavy (sorry).

I've really been enjoying taking photos in and around the farm and where we live this summer... here's a few of my favs :)