Oh deer, Oh deer, Oh deer!

Well, it's been a while since I last wrote, but not that much has been happening with us. Cory is heavy into harvest season and that's keeping him (and in turn, me) busy. The cattle also got a bout of pinkeye too, which totally sucks, so on top of grass and wheat harvest they have to keep doctoring the cattle.

The deer have taken it upon themselves to also make sure I do not get bored... it all started one night a few weeks ago. About 4:30am I heard a clonking noise out in the garden (yard). It sounded a bit like a horse walking on concrete. I jumped up like a crazy person with insane reactions and ran out to the living room. There was a huge deer on our deck helping himself to our dogwood plant. Now, I can't really understand why he thought it was necessary to go up onto the deck, he could have eaten it from the ground since it's just a bush like thing.
Anyway, I've decided that perhaps it's their newly learnt talent and they plan to use it as much as possible!

The deer don't even get scared by me any more. I make big gestures, I'm loud & obnoxious and still they look at me with a duh face like they're saying "what's your problem lady?"
Grrr
Well, yesterday I was up and getting ready to leave for a day out with my friend Janet. I come out of the bathroom to find 3 deer going hammer and tongs at the plants on our deck. The dogwood, strawberries and tomato plants!
So, I run out, yell at them and they look at me like I'm insane... they were less than 2 feet away.
I finally get them to run off and I go back to trying to get ready.
A few moments later they're back. One guy on the deck, the other two helping themselves to the bird seed trays -Grrr
I scare them away again, and then again and again and again!
I felt like I was never going to be able to get out the door!
Why couldn't they just eat the yummy grass on our lawn that we haven't gotten round to cutting yet for a while so it's nice and long?????

I tell ya, I was about ready to go and get a BB-gun and give them a sharp warning in their butts!

Anyway, I have a million things I need to do today so I had better get off here and do some of them! :)

I'm in love with Nolan

Yep, you heard it here first.
I'm in love with Nolan...



No, no, no - don't go jumping to conclusions like a little busybody - Nolan is my new motorcycle helmet, and it's mine... all mine.

I've been using a helmet we borrowed from a friend for all the motorcycle rides we've been on but it really doesn't fit well and isn't comfortable, plus it's extremely heavy.

My main reason for needing a new helmet was my jaw and all that dental crap we've been dealing with. My lower jaw is weakened from the cyst that took control over my body so I didn't want to ride with anything less than a full face helmet. It just wasn't worth the risk (trust me) and I totally needed a new helmet anyway.

So, on Sunday after church we headed up to Beaverton and hit the Honda store there. They had the new Nolan 103 modular helmet in stock and after trying on a few others it was the one I wanted. It was light, a full face but also has the modular feature which allows me to lift the jaw section (not sure of it's technical name) and raise it up with the visor.

It's nice!

I haven't had the chance to try it out on a ride yet but I am itching to get out on the bike now... We're hoping there will be a sliver of a break in combining on Saturday so we can go with the Hillriders up to Seaside to the bikefest.

Oh and a big shout out to the Honda store up in Beaverton for price matching for us too - we got an awesome helmet at an awesome deal!

Just a year

Yesterday I was looking through some files on my laptop to try and organize it a little better and move things back to where they should be.

I like things to be where they are supposed to be, for the most part.

I came across this photo. It smacked me upside the head like a lead brick!

Do any of you know just how heavy a lead brick is? I do, I have one in my closet... it's heavy. The reason it's there is because it's so heavy!

Anyway, this photo screamed at me from the screen of my laptop. Just a year... just a year... JUST A YEAR!

A year ago (well, just a little over) we were there, sitting in that luscious and extremely fragrant meadowfoam after being announced Mr & Mrs Fast and we didn't have a care in the world.

We had no idea what struggles were about to face us in the coming year (+).There's no stress or worry in our eyes.

Maybe I was naïve to have let some of the signs of Graves Disease go unnoticed, but right now as I look back I'm really glad we did. I'm so glad we didn't have any worries or stress that day. I'm glad we were able to just enjoy our special time, breathe in the moment and capture those memories that will forever be untainted.



The other scary thing that smacks me upside the head when I look at this photo is how different I look just a year later. In fact, I could see the difference just a couple months from when this photo was taken but it seems like this past 12 months has aged me about 10 years!

Happy Independence America!

Well, our Independence day weekend was quite a lot of fun. We drove up to Mt Hood on Saturday morning (a little later than anticipated, but that's ok too) to meet up with my good friend Dave who is also an expat and his Oregonian girlfriend Katie.

They live in an absolutely beautiful area at the base of Mt Hood, at an elevation of about 1500 ft - I hadn't thought of the elevation being an issue but it was interesting.
After we got there we headed out to the Salmon river and did a little hike. I say hike, which is wasn't really - but it was a little more than just a walk, so I guess it was a 'little hike'. It was beautiful though and fun - except that I was hiking in my flip flops. I hadn't brought any other shoes, just two pair of flip flops, and I managed to dig another one out from underneath the back seat of our truck. Ugh.

After that we headed to the golf course and played a little lawn bowls. It was SO much fun and the weather was just perfect. We played Dave & I against Cory & Katie - England vs USA.
Cory & Katie beat us by a point, which was ok I guess - since it was Independence Day weekend... but we WILL have to rematch sometime (soon)!
We grabbed dinner out and then made a dessert run and got some yummy cakes and pies! The gooseberry pie was my favourite, and surprisingly I really liked the coconut cream pie too - something I have never been a fan of, but it was really good!
Sunday was the 4th, and Katie was snowboarding with her brother up at Timberline so the rest of us had breakfast and then headed up to check out the lodge. I'd been there before and I love the lodge - it's amazingly beautiful and the view is always stunning. It was cloudy at the house but perfectly sunny and clear up at the lodge.

We met up with Katie & Sean (her brother) for a drink and snack before heading back to the house to get prepped up for the BBQ.
We headed home as everyone else headed to fireworks - it was getting to be late and Cory had to work first thing in the morning. Swathing grass seed = early morning starts.

We got to see so many fireworks on the way home though, for pretty much the whole drive, and we made it in record time too. There was hardly anyone else on the road, I guess everyone else was watching fireworks or celebrating Independence somehow!

4th July weekend is almost here!

While this is not my first time to celebrate the 4th of July, nor is it the first where I've actually been here in the US to celebrate (that was last year), this year is the first time I will celebrate the 4th of July at "home" in the USofA.

It's pretty exciting, and seems a little unbelievable since I've been here for what seems like a lifetime (19 months, but who's counting?), but yes, this is the first Independence Day as a Permanent Resident of America.

It's kind of exciting - I'm not really sure if I'm supposed to feel some sense of pride or excitement or something, but I do know that we're going to have a fun weekend.

My good friend Dave is in town from NY - well, he's actually from 'back home' but he's now living in NYC. He's here in OR with his girlfriend Katie who is an Oregonian. So, we're planning to meet up with them for a weekend at the mountain (Mt Hood).
I'm excited - I've never really spent much time at Mt hood outside of the winter months. It's so pretty up there too!

So, it's bound to be a fun weekend... I'll let you guys know if it feels any different as a non-alien ;)

Fun 3-day weekend

So, with Cory being a farmer now it just so happens that sometimes days off for holidays have to be switched around, otherwise he'd never get any time off.... Well, the 4th July holiday is one of those days. Since Cory is almost certainly going to have to work next Monday he took yesterday off and we had a 3 day weekend. It was so much fun, and I really enjoyed having him home and getting time to hang out. I LOVE spending time together.
So, on Friday we just about finished the flooring at the rental house - which is a big relief because it had been looming over our heads like a humongous hail cloud and we needed to get the majority of it done. Also, they were having a party there on Sat, so we really wanted it to be looking good for them.

Saturday morning we made a trip to the dump - all the flooring from the rental house needed to be disposed of and it had been riding in the back of our truck for a little over a week - yuck!
After that we had plans to go up to hang out with our friend Aaron and some buddies for his birthday - we had to make an unexpected stop at Les Schwab due to a cling-on nail we picked up at the dump, but we got to watch the second half of the USA vs Ghana match on their TV while we waited so I didn't complain. Too bad the USA lost and were sent home.

So, we got back on the road and headed to meet Aaron. We were heading out on the boat for the day and we were looking forward to it. It was near perfect weather and we were in need of a relaxing day - it was exactly that. We got to meet some new people too, so that's always an added bonus. I like meeting new people.
After that we headed a friend's who is also Aaron's neighbour and had a BBQ there - I'd brought a birthday cake and some watermelon so I didn't feel too bad about showing up at their house for food. The one thing I completely hate is going to someones house empty handed.

The food was yummers! A great day all round!

Sunday at 7am was the England vs Germany match. I was so nervous. The history with us and the Germans in general is pretty bad, but in football it's so prickly that I could hardly contain myself. We needed to win, not only to progress to the next stage, but to prove a point that we still had what it took.
I was in church, working on the projection with the live stream on my phone sitting beside me on my desk. I was hardly able to contain myself. The Germans scored - NO!!!!!
Then we had a disallowed goal and I could just feel that it was all downhill from there.

The game ended just a few moments before Church started, the score was 4-1. Our boys were going home, we'd been well outplayed by the Germans, our tails were firmly between out legs.

Boo!

After church we grabbed lunch and headed home to work on the yard - it needed a fair share of TLC!
We were still wrecked from the previous day on the boat so we snuck in a little afternoon nap too. It was a good afternoon!
Cory got sun burnt though, pretty badly on his back. All day Saturday he had kept applying the sunscreen while on the boat, but something about working in the yard without his shirt on he forgot and he was suffering. The aloe was soaking in almost instantly - I felt bad for him, I'd been there before... several times!

Yesterday we decided that we were going to have a chilled day too, so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the coast. It was warm when we left town, but by the time we got to the beach it was chilly, grey and starting to drizzle. I kind of liked the break from the heat!
We did a little window shopping at the outlet mall, went to the beach and then hit up Mo's for an early dinner before heading home.
Oh, and on the way home we took a little detour and looked at Oregon's oldest covered bridge. It was originally built in 1914. It was pretty cool to have a look at and read the story of how it was saved and relocated. :)

After we got home we did a quick 2 hour whizz around our house and it looks clean as a whistle, it's amazing what you can do in so little time eh?

After that we chilled - watched some TV and had a relaxing evening.
All in all a great 3 day weekend...

Here's some pics:

Another handful

OK, so not literally a 'handful' (you'd need really big hands) but you get the general gist.

The past few evenings I've really enjoyed walking around our garden (yard) with the camera and just seeing what I can find. I am always amazed by the pure beauty in nature.

So, here's a few from our garden - enjoy :)