I'm blogging

In case you haven't noticed, I've been avoiding blogging for 2 weeks. I haven't felt very funny.

Oh so about the house - we made an offer contingent upon selling our house, which he countered. He was unwilling to even consider a contingency so we said nevermind. We are keeping our eye on it, it is still on the market at the same price, so if the price is lowered we may take that as a sign that he is becoming a little more desperate and may make another contingent offer. We're just not really wanting to put our house on the market without knowing if we will get this one or not. It's definitely on the back burner.

Two weekends ago (the weekend before Memorial Day), we went camping. Wednesday and Thursday night Momlie and I went to Stub Stewart, a state park about 30 minutes away. Geoff took us up there around lunchtime on Wednesday, unhitched us, and left. We got the camper all set up before he was even back at work! And it was PERFECTLY level, which can sometimes be a little tricky. We stayed in a loop we haven't stayed in before and walked around and scoped things out. There was a group of about 20 college-age kids building a wood shed (since it's the new loop they didn't have the shed where they sell the wood yet) - they were making a lot of beeping with an electronic level. In the 3 or so hours they were there, they put exactly 2 posts in the ground. 20 of them! Momlie put up our new set of party lights from the Easter Bunny while I started a fire, and then we had a fantastic dinner of crab legs, salmon, and asparagus - all of which we cooked over the fire! It was a very still calm evening, gorgeous weather, so we decided to rebel and leave the awning out. Geoff is VERY VERY VERY particular about the awning, he hates it being out if there is any wind and certainly never overnight. Around 2:30 in the morning I woke up - all of the windows were open and the blinds in my bedroom were banging against the window because of wind. I closed the window and then thought "oh no. the awning." So I tossed and turned for a while, trying to ignore it and hoping the wind would stop. I could faintly hear the blinds in the living area banging, and I was debating what to do. I peeked out the window and saw the neighbors still had their awning out, which made me feel slightly better. I thought "should I go close the awning? should I do it myself? should I wake up Momlie?" After 15 or 20 minutes I heard noise outside, so I peeked out - oh yes, 3 AM and the neighbors are outside pulling in their awning. UGH!!! Then I hear Momlie in the living area - I thought she heard the neighbors and was peeking out to see what was going on, but she said she was closing the windows so the blind banging would stop. I mentioned the awning and we decided we better go close it. So out we went to roll up the awning. It's a VERY good thing the blinds woke us up, because it got very windy after that - the whole trailer was shaking. Yikes. But the rest of the evening was still. The next morning, Geoff sent a text to ask how we were - we said "good, except for the awning incident". He said "ha, ha, ha, very funny!". If only he knew. :) We told him later, of course. We had cereal for brekkie and ham sammies for lunch, and then Geoff picked us up after work for softball. For dinner that night we had chicken caesar salads. Friday morning we checked to see if we had TV - we wanted to watch the weather because it was supposed to be like 95 and sunny all weekend! Crazy. We caught the Hillstrand Brothers from Deadliest Catch on a Portland morning show, that was interesting. All in HD... man we rough it when we camp! We just enjoyed ourselves and knitted (her not me), chatted, Sudokued (me not her), read, etc. Oh, and I worked on the first step of a sign I wanted to make for a camper - like a welcome sign! The "first step" consisted of spray painting a board silver. We also "installed stuff" - a MagLight holder and a paper towel that Geoff still hadn't done since September. We gave up on him and did it ourselves. ;-) Around 2 we started packing up - we wanted to be ALL ready to go for when Geoff picked us up. We got done pretty early, so we just sat all ready to go other than having the electricity still plugged in so we could have the AC on. That was the first time we had used it and it worked great! He swooped in around 3:30 and took us to Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington. It was great! Well - Friday when we got there it was humid and hot and buggy and nasty. ICK. We turned on the AC in the camper (roughing it again). It really worked great!! It was nice especially to get the humidity out of the air. Momlie went down to the beach (which was less than a 5 minute walk from our site) and Geoff and I started dinner - I made roasted potatoes, and he cooked the rest of the asparagus and steak. Plus we had some leftover crab leg. After dinner since it was so icky out (we were kinda back in the forest so it was just super buggy) we went inside and hung out in there. Saturday morning we woke up and made breakfast... and I decided to work on my sign more! Geoff was like "make sure you use a pencil to write what you want to say first to make sure you have enough room!" I said no. :) Geoff and Momlie were quite surprised - they figured being an engineer that I would want it to be exact. I said maybe I just wanted to have a creative outlet, but secretly I was just lazy. Lucky for me (I also attribute it to many many years of yearbook and scrapbooking and therefore having a good eye for how many pixels things are and spacing and stuff like that), the first word (Welcome) came out GREAT. I wrote Welcome all across the top of the sign. Then I didn't know where to go from there... I still wasn't sure what I wanted to say. What I DID know was that my brush was too big to write much more. Momlie wanted to go to the Fred Meyer (grocery store that also has Target-like items - it's like a Super Walmart but waaay nicer. They carry a lot of the same clothing brands as Kohl's, and they are owned by Kroger so all of their generic stuff is Kroger brand. It's a great store), so she said she'd get me a brush there. Also, we had to move! When I made the reservation, they didn't have any spots available for the whole weekend, so we had one spot Friday and one Saturday. So we moved and then she took the car to go to Fred Meyer. I LOVE having a towable rather than a motorhome because it's nice to have the car seperate. When she returned, I made the rest of my sign. I also drilled holes in the sign that are totally uneven (the eye didn't work so well on that part, I just called it "rustic") to hold it up. And it's SO CUTE. Geoff has the pictures on his camera so once he downloads them I will post for you all to enjoy. I'm so proud. Geoff and I tried to find a geocache - but (a) I didn't have on the right shoes and (b) we think the path was messed up by severe storms we had here in December, so we didn't find it. We used our dutch oven for the first time and cooked spaghetti - yum. Then we went and watched the sunset over the beach (this site was even closer to the beach). It was blissful - and a PERFECT temperature all day. Sunday we woke up, had breakfast, packed up, and went home. A sad day. But overall, a fantastic camping trip!!

For Memorial Day weekend, Geoff drove me and Momlie on our annual wine tasting adventure as always. We hit our favorite place first and then went to all new places - nothing that fabulous, in fact all rather disappointing. I don't think we'll be back to any of them, but our goal is to go to all of the wineries in the Willamette valley (there are A LOT) so we have to try new ones at least some of the time! Sunday we helped Gary and Momlie a little with cleaning out their garage, and then Gary and Geoff watched the Nascar race. Monday Geoff and I stayed in bed all day watching the Deadliest Catch marathon - okay I'm lying. I tried to - I lasted until about 3. I thought that was pretty good! But by then I had to get up and do stuff, so I just took care of a few things around the house. And that's about it. More tomorrow maybe when I don't have this much to blog about. It's always hard to make it over the big hump and then it comes a little easier.

Last softball game

Tonight was our last softball game. We both absolutely loved coaching! In fact, we're already planning on doing it again next year (we'll see where the next 8 months takes us). We've been trying to figure out if most of our girls will be on AA again next year or if they'll move up to AAA, because we love them all and want to stay with as many as possible. We have a party next week, so we're looking forward to seeing them one last time. The best part of tonight, and perhaps the whole season, was these wonderful gifts from two sisters tonight (and their mom told me they were the girl's idea!):

Jenni, age 6














Meagan, age 9














Jenni, age 6














Meagan, age 9

Poor Geoff

Someone (ME!) woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. This is how our morning went down:

Me: "Should I put my hair up?"
Geoff: "Sure."
Me: "WHAT?!?! You mean my hair looks that bad?"
Geoff: "No, I just thought you wanted to put it up."
Me: "My hair looks hooooorrrrriiiibbbbleeeeeeee!!!"

10 minutes later...

Me: "Oh, so Gina got this gift the other day, can you believe it?"
Geoff: "Are you jealous or making fun?"
Me: "Making fun. What?! You think I was jealous of that? I think it's way over the top. I can't believe you think I'd be jealous!"
Geoff: "I was just asking..."

Poor Geoff. I had some coffee after that and now I am much more pleasant. I didn't sleep well last night.

Note: I had to really debate posting this one because I didn't want to look like an overly emotional freak girl. But I decided to because one of the reasons it's funny is because most of the time I'm NOT an overly emotional freak girl, and also because this serves as a pittance to Geoff.

I can hit!

I love when we get our gas bill, because I love seeing how low it can be each month. So today I said to Geoff "tomorrow they read the gas meater!" "I mean meter". Geoff was like "HAHAHAHAHAHA. Meater!!" Yes, it's funny.

Lest you think I'm a softball star and that's why I'm coaching (I know, none of you are that dilusional), I have really never hit a softball or baseball in my life. We used to play in gym class for a couple of weeks a year, and I can't recall ever hitting it. Sure, maybe I got a little piece of it or maybe even hit a foul ball or two, but I certainly never hit the ball. Geoff even threw me a couple of pitches before a practice a couple of months ago, but nothing.

Yesterday I decided that after all of this coaching and telling the girls how to hit it, I HAD to be able to hit a softball! We were very early for our game again and so was one little girl, so Geoff was doing some batting practice with her. He had 6 balls and threw her 4, and then she had to go to the bathroom. So I grabbed a bat (yes, it's meant for 3rd graders, but whatever) and asked Geoff to throw me the last 2 balls. I figured after all of the girls I've watched be corrected in their batting stance, girls I've corrected, and all of the times we've said "keep your eye on the ball!" I would know how to stand, and if I could keep my eye on the ball I could actually hit it. The first one was a bad pitch, but the second one I hit dead on and it went all the way into the outfield!! I was a little shocked. So then I ran out there and collected all 6 balls and had Geoff pitch them to me again. 2 were bad pitches, 1 I nicked a little but didn't quite get, but the other 3 I hit! Again, all of them to the outfield. I'm so proud. I now have the skill level of a 3rd grader!

Oh, and since the Duggar Family is pregnant again, Momlie and I have decided that they should name their new baby Jeffrey, to go with all 17 other J names they have.

Friday Funnies

First a few softball quotes:

Girl: "I want to be him!" [Geoff]
My thought: "WHY?!?!?!"
My response: "Because he can throw so far? Yeah, it's pretty cool!"

Girl: "Doesn't coach own any long sleeves?"
Me: "Yes, he does."
Girl: "Why doesn't he wear them? It's coooooold!"
My thought: "Because he's a large hairy man that sweats a lot."
My response: "I don't know, I guess he's just not that cold!"

Now a non-softball related funny:
Me: "Does Schucks carry a size 6 AN fitting for a fuel system?"
Geoff: "No, I doubt it."
Me: "Why not?"
Geoff: "They're too expensive."
Me: "Oh. So where would you get one?"
Geoff: "The internet."
Me: "What if you didn't have the internet?"
Geoff: "Maaaybe you could special order it at a few places, but it's just so expensive that no one carries it."
Me: "Well how much is it?" [thinking gosh, why would someone want a $500 part to redo their fuel system?]
Geoff: "$5"
Me: "WHAT?!"
Geoff: "Well those fittings are normally like 50 cents... the $5 ones just don't sell."
Me: "Okay"

It was just so funny that he was saying how expensive it was and it wasn't really the expense, it's just the specialized nature of the part that makes people not carry them. Funny.

Ridiculous!

I have a "Safety Calendar" here at work. The kind you tear off a page for each day, and there is a new safety tip each day. Well today's tip is about Christmas trees, and how you should be careful that your lights aren't freyed. I thought "how odd..." and then I flipped to the late November section of the calendar to see if it was just so full of Christmas tips there that they just had to put an extra one in May to remind us. But November 28th's entry is about Halloween and being careful when you're trick or treating! A month too late or 11 months too early, depending on how you look at it. November 27 (Thanksgiving this year) is about working with poisonous plants because that's apparently a popular Thanksgiving day activity. There are zero Christmas-related tips in the entire first week of December. And Christmas Day's tips is about making sure latch key kids know not to answer the door or say they are home alone. I know when I was growing up my parents left me home alone on Christmas Day all the time... riiiight. Odd. Someone should work on making these tips more seasonally applicable. Maybe next year.

Still no word on the house - I believe the offer went in this morning!

House Update

We went for the second showing with Gary and Momlie yesterday. They definitely liked it, which was great. No one thinks it's perfect, because it's not, but everyone can see the potential in it. Gary pointed out quite a few things of note - cracks in foundation (not deal breakers, but they are there), galvanized pipes, decent electrical, where the sun will hit the property, inexpensive (relatively) ways we could quickly make some changes to make it more livable, etc. He asked ahead of time if he could be critical without offending us and we said YES!!!! That is why we especially wanted you to come, because we know that you will be our devil's advocate. And he was, which was perfect. I had a whole list of questions about various things and all were answered. We also got to meet the next door neighbor who was very nice and told us some of the scoop. At lunch yesterday, we decided that once I talked to the zoning department at the county today (left a message for them Friday but hadn't heard back yet and I needed clarification on a possible easement next to the potential property) we would make an offer today.

I heard back from the county today and got tons of information about the property, including the fact that it has two "special considerations", one for wildlife habitat and one for views, which basically mean that you have to get special permits before doing any changes to the exterior of your property. Like, because your house is visible from the Multnomah Channel, they don't want boaters to be enjoying their nice day on the water and look up and see your neon green house. Kinda like an HOA, but it is county regulations. Things like that. And you can't build 30 stories high and ruin your neighbor's view, etc.

Once I had that, we were ready. I called our realtor and left a message and she returned my call around 5ish. She had not previously asked and did not realize that we wanted to make an offer contingent upon our current house setting and was not pleased with that. She said that there is another couple interested in the house and they were just finishing up securing financing and about to make their own offer, and she wanted us to have a strong offer since there is likely another offer out on the house. I talked to her some about it and she said she would call the listing agent to see if the seller would consider a contingent offer. I said "well why would he SAY he would, that makes no sense!". And she said "well, if I say you're a great buyer and very interested and all of that but that you just need to sell your house first, he will tell me". So she did that while Geoff and I talked about what we wanted to do. We had previously discussed just renting our current house but decided against it, so we spent some more time talking about if that was what we wanted to do. We decided it just doesn't make sense for us due to a number of factors, and told her that we definitely want the offer to be contingent on selling our current house. Actually Geoff told her this - he answered when she called and he was so great with her. I was upset at that point and he was just fantastic. He said everything I was thinking but not able to express properly. So, she is going to type up the offer as we want it, email it to us in the morning for approval, and then she will present it to the seller. So maybe our house will be on the market tomorrow? I don't know. :) According to Geoff, she said that it doesn't look good that our house isn't even on the market yet and we still want that contingency. But we don't want our house just on the market randomly, we only want to sell it if it means buying this other house. So it is what it is - he can either take it, leave it, or negotiate it. It's out of our hands, and if it's meant to be, it will happen.

An interesting thing about the whole experience, aside from the fact that it's like a 180 degree different market from when I bought this house in June of 2005, is buying with someone else. When it was just me, I made my decision and that was that. Now I have to really make sure that what I want to do is what Geoff wants to do, just like he's doing with me. So we are overly tentative with our opinions sometimes. It's particularly amusing because we're almost always on the same page. One of us will finally say "I know we're not making this full price offer with no contingencies, and that may cause us to lose the house, but I'm okay with that. I can get over it. Can you?" And the other will say "Yes, definitely! I feel the same way. I'll be a little sad for a bit, but our house now is great and other things will come along." PHEW, okay. Now we can move on. That's how many things happen with us and it's been especially apparent in this house process. I'm sure you married people got quite a kick out of this little anecdote.

Yikes. I just spell checked this and I had 5 spelling mistakes. That's atrocious. (yes, I spell checked atrocious but it was right!)

Friday Night

Last night we had an excellent softball game... the girls were great! They really continue to show improvement every day, it's so fun to watch them. As an added bonus, Geoff's parents came to watch us/them. :) It was great having them there and it was a really fun game. The first game was still my favorite, maybe just because it was the first, but this game was a very close second. It went quickly, we got through all 5 innings, and it was just all-around fun.

Addy and her very serious boyfriend Brett came over tonight. They were only here for a little over an hour, but it was great fun! I made a big pile of nachos that we all chowed on, and we caught up on life. They've been looking at houses using our realtor, so we both showed each other the "current favorite". They are seriously considering a gorgeous house in SE Portland. I would hate having them so far away (they're just down the street now) but the house is great and maybe we'll be moving anyway. I haven't seen Addy in quite a while so it was good having her here. Brett is great and it was fun to catch up. We also did quite a bit of reminiscing about our younger and single days. It's hard to believe that we're coming up on 5 years of being friends - I still remember the night I met her and our random path to becoming such good friends. We had so much fun together, lived together for 2 summers, and I hope we continue to remain close.

I think right now Geoff and I are strongly leaning towards buying the house we looked at on Tuesday - we have another showing on Sunday that his parents are going to with us. It will be nice to have a second look and a second set of eyes. There is a lot of potential in that house and property. I've been struggling through it and praying through it all week, and that's been a good thing.

Girls Night Geocaching!

Last night for girl's night we geocached! It ended up being only me, Kristie, and Kendra, which actually worked out very nicely. For one thing, we all fit in one car which was great, plus they are the two I know the best so it was nice to spend some alone time with them. We looked for 5 caches and found 4. The one we didn't find was a puzzle cache, so I guess it's possible we didn't figure out the right coordinates from the puzzle, but I think we did. It certainly wasn't a very difficult puzzle. There was one ambiguous part but the rest was just basic math. And 2 out of 3 of us are engineers so you'd think we could do that. Plus we used Kristie's cell phone calculator to double check ourselves (we actually did the math by hand first)! They both loved it and Kendra thought her husband would really enjoy it as well.

Not much else going on - Geoff's been super busy at work this week but he should slow way down next week. We had a great softball game on Monday night and we have another one tonight. The weather is looking pretty nice for the game, hopefully it won't be too cold/windy for the girls. My sister is in Bilbao, Spain and is visiting the Guggenheim this weekend. We're going camping in 2 weeks - for 4 nights, yay! We're having a Mother's Day brunch next weekend, then camping, then the week after that is Memorial Day! I can't believe it's May already.

Bunch of random topics

So first thing is, I was thinking about my "blog audience". The other day we were talking about "baby blogs" that people do so the grandparents/friends/relatives who don't live nearby can see pictures, videos, etc. about the new baby. Those blogs are basically written for someone. I know who my approximately 5 readers are, and occasionally I'll post something and think "oh, Marisa will find this very funny". But in general I try very hard NOT to post for anyone in particular. I want to make my blog applicable to all of my readers in general, and even to the internet at large. I do get those people who Google "mormon stockpiling" or "raw celery disease" or whatever else and end up here, and occasionally they actually start reading or even leave ac comment. I think in general my blog is like a TV show that is better if you watch it regularly (because the episodes build on each other and you know who the characters are), but if you come in at some point and haven't seen any previous episodes, that's okay too.

This Sunday's sermon at church was about the parable in Luke 12 where a dude has a really great crop one year, builds huge barns to store it all, and thinks he's set for life. Then he basically dies. Of course the point is - don't store your treasures here on Earth, because they're meaningless when you die. "Have you ever seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul?" But when we first read that passage I thought "uh oh... stockpiling! This is me! This is bad!" As I reflected on it more, I think that my situation of buying in advance when I have a great price is different than storing/hoarding treasure. I don't want to be too quick to justify myself though, so I continue to ponder that question. Then this morning as I was reading Proverbs, I read "Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer." And I thought "that's me! I'm wise!" And then I thought "wait, I'm comparing myself to an ant." But it's just another "data point", if you will, for me in my ponderings. The ants are not storing up some food, thinking they are good and don't have to work anymore, and propping their feet up and living the good life. They are doing what they need to do to prepare for a rough period, they will use their food for the winter, and then they will do it all again the next year. I relate to that more than the first man - we buy things we know we will use ahead of time when they are a great price, then we have them when we need them instead of having to run out and pay full price. And when we have too much stockpiled, we just give it away. Anyway, just my current musings. Thought I'd share out loud I guess.

And now, the house. Ever since we looked at that first property a month or so ago, our realtor has been sending me a few houses every week. She sent one that really caught my eye last week, and Geoff liked it too. So we went to see it yesterday. It's on the river (basically a tributary of the Willamette, which is that river that you tried to sail down and dodge the rocks in at the end of the game Oregon Trail) and on a good day has a view of 4 mountains (Rainier, St. Helens, Adams, and Hood). Of course there are only 2 good days a year in Portland, but that's another story. :) It's on 2 acres, most of it forested, but there is still plenty of usable land around the house. The current house is roughly 1000 sq ft which is about half the size of our current house, but we use about half of our current house anyway. And there is no reason we can't expand/renovate/rebuild/etc. the current house. It was built in the 50's but there have certainly been some improvements since then and it's in pretty good condition. The foundation seems good, it's very clean (there is a faint smoke smell, I think he used to smoke but doesn't anymore, and he has a cat which I'm way allergic too, but we can deal with those things), and looks like it's been well maintained. We could move in and live in the house 100% as is. Yes, we'd definitely like to replace the carpet and wash and/or repaint the walls, but that's easy and by no means HAS to be done immediately. Then in a year or two Geoff would like to re-side and re-roof the house. Then in X (5? 10? No idea.) years we would do some of the improvements like maybe renovating the kitchen, adding more family/living/dining room space, adding a couple of bedrooms, etc. We're certainly not looking for a giant house, but it's nice to have a space for guests and whatnot (it's tough because I want there to be a space for my parents and sister to be when they come visit, but you can't not buy a house that is perfectly suitable for the people who will actually be living there for a week or so of visitors a year). There's just tons of potential with this property. I am wary because everyone seems to love it so much (Geoff, realtor, my parents, Geoff's parents), and that makes me feel like SOMEONE should not like it so I'm becoming that person. That's not quite worded right - I DO like it, a lot, I just am trying to be cautious. I also feel like it's not the right time to buy a new house, but Geoff and I have talked a lot about why it's not such a bad time. We've been on such a strict course of financial goals, particularly in the past 4 months, and this may involve a deviation from that which is hard for me, but once I'm used to it, it will be fine. And it's not even a bad deviation, it's just a modification of plans. Our realtor is looking into the exact property lines, easements, that kind of stuff, so we might have more data today. We'd like to go back on Sunday with Geoff's parents to get a second set of eyes on it, too, so I'm going to ask about that. So that's what I'm thinking for now. We'll see where this goes.

And for the record

In our grocery store (Albertsons), chorizo was actually located near the ravioli and ricotta. Because THAT makes sense. We had to ask about it, and the lady was like "I don't know why it is here... I think it would sell better near the Corona!"

Blogging while I cook

This was our conversation on the way to the grocery store:

Me: "Where do you think Mexican chorizo will be located in the store?"
Geoff: "Near the beans."
Me: "WHAT?!"
Geoff: "Um, well... what is it?"
Me: "Sausage!!"
Geoff: "Oh. Well near the sausage."
Me: "Thanks, that's helpful. And why would it have been near the beans anyway?"
Geoff: "I thought Mexican chorizo was another word for garbanzo beans."

Hahahahahahha. Yes. That really happened!

But that's for a recipe for another night. Tonight I'm making Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts with a Lemony White Wine Sauce. Gotta go flip the chicken! Just a few more minutes. :)

Camping, Young Geoff, Illegal Lane Change, and President

I had to write that title to remind me of all of the things I want to talk about!

First of all, camping this weekend was excellent! Instead of the coast we went to a local state park (due to the forecast of severe wind and 3 - 6 inches of snow). That of course was added to our list of things that make us prematurely old. But we had a grand time nonetheless. We ate delicious food, had some wine, chatted a lot, and watched A LOT of movies. I love our camping talks, we talk about all sorts of ridiculous things that we wouldn't normally discuss. And then after we get back to real life I think "gosh, I probably shouldn't have said that, or talked about that, or mentioned that, or asked that (or all of the above)". And then feel bad for a week. And then I usually get over that and get excited for the next trip.

I know, I just began 3 sentences with the word "And". I remember learning at a young age you couldn't do that, and pointing it out to my teacher that I saw it in a book. She then taught me about "writer's prerogative". So I'm using that now!

Here are a few cute stories that came up while camping (I asked if Momlie remembered exactly when Geoff became a Christian, or realized what growing up as a Christian meant, or his faith became his own, or whatever happened for him):
- Geoff went to a Lutheran church growing up, and the church had a "First Communion" (which I normally associate with being a very Catholic tradition, but what do I know?), where you go through a time of learning about what communion is, etc. Normally people went through this in 3rd grade (actually I think that's what the Catholic kids where I grew up did, but it seems like Momlie might have 2nd grade for their church). Anyway, the year before that, Geoff started asking a lot of questions about communion and saying he wanted to start taking it. Momlie and David (Geoff's dad, who has passed away) told him that if he worked it out with the pastor, he could do it. So one day when they were at bell choir practice, Geoff left for a little while (it was a very small church, so it was okay), and he came back in with a piece of paper. When David asked what it was, Geoff said that it was his appointment with the pastor. She came to their house and told Geoff what he needed to understand and study, and he did everything he needed to do, and got his First Communion a year early! Yay for Geoff. (Interestingly, to this day, communion is something that is still extremely important to Geoff, and it happens to be important to me too. During "The Great Church Search" we have both been keeping an eye for churches that have weekly communion, rather than monthly which tends to be more common in Protestant and non-denominational churches).
- Even before that time, when he was very young, Geoff would serve communion at home. Whenever they had popcorn (or any small food like that), Geoff would go around and around and around passing it out to whoever was there, saying "The Body of Christ" each time to whoever was receiving. So cute.
- When they were greeting people at church, instead of saying "The peace of the Lord", Geoff would give people "A piece of the Lord" greeting. Which may be just as fitting, when you think about it!

Did you know you can get a ticket for illegal lane change for changing lanes too fast? Like if you realize you need an exit at the last minute and change quickly across several lanes of traffic, you get a ticket. Apparently you're supposed to be in each lane for 5 or 10 seconds before changing. Crazy. (and no, I was not the receiver of said ticket, although I deserve approximately 23689698 of those tickets. Hey, I grew up in Chicago!)

And here is a short snippit of a conversation from today:
Patrick: mccain is a career politician
you should run for president
i would vote for you
Kelly: WHY?
You and I totally disagree on issues.
Patrick: youre organized
you like to stockpile and save money
you enjoy the outdoors
youre prematurely old.
Kelly: LOL.
Those are not reasons to be president.
Patrick: you like calculating wealth, so i feel like national debt would annoy you
Kelly: I would be a disaster.
When is the last time you voted for someone because they enjoyed the outdoors? What about issues like climate change and foreign affairs?
Patrick: the enjoying the outdoors would mean you are about conservation and stuff like that
you would probably end up calling the british prime minister a freak or psycho or something
Kelly: See. EXACTLY why I cannot be president

12 minutes

I have 12 minutes before a meeting to tell you about our first softball game last night.

In short - it was GREAT! So much fun. We played 5 innings in one hour and 40 minutes, which is almost exactly what we are "supposed" to do (it's supposed to be 5 innings with no new inning starting after an hour and 20 minutes, and we started our 5th inning at an hour and 18 minutes!). The girls were fantastic - at first they were a little confused and didn't know quite what to do, but as we played more they got better and better. It was neat to see their progress just in the short time that we played. In the first couple of innings a few of the girls had some trouble hitting the ball with coach pitch, so we added a tee if they couldn't hit it after 5 or 6 coach pitches. But by the last inning, every single girl on our team had hit at least one coach pitched ball. It was great! They got a couple of outs and MANY of our girls got runs! :) Very excited for our game today!

It was EXHAUSTING though. I had no idea it was going to be so tiring, but Geoff and I were both beat by the time we were done. I guess just from yelling for 2 hours (they need a lot of direction, both when batting and playing out in the field) and being up and about in the sun (yes, there was sun). At least we know what to expect tonight!

That only took 4 minutes... 8 to spare! :)

A couple more stories

So first, the Lock N Lock. Geoff and I went up to Oma and Opa's to visit last July. This is when Oma and I discovered just how alike we are. So she kept sharing with me all of her neat little organizational tricks. She showed me these containers that she had from QVC. At first, I was unimpressed. I thought "but I have those little disposable Glad containers that I use for leftovers and such". But as she showed me more and more uses for them and how well they kept stuff, I was VERY impressed. The coolest one was a spinach container that had a thin little rack at the bottom to allow room for any water to drip down and stay off the spinach, thereby making the spinach last longer. She said she'd had spinach in that continer for a month! While we were there, she took us to a couple of stores to find Lock N Lock, but nowhere had any. Costco had Snapware, which is similar to Lock N Lock but not *quite* as good. She bought us a set of Snapware as an engagement gift to get us started. Later that month at our engagement party, she got us a few more Lock N Lock items - including the infamous spinach container. Which by the way, is amazing - it keeps food fresh forever! For Christmas, she gave me a Lock N Lock set of a bread container, cereal containers, and a few others. When we were visiting them last month, she showed me a little experiment she'd saved for me - she put some graham crackers in a Lock N Lock and some in a Snapware. The ones in the Snapware were all yucky and gross, but the ones in the Lock N Lock were good as new!! Seriously you have no idea until you try the stuff. Geoff makes fun of me because our whole pantry and fridge is filled with Lock N Lock. But our food lasts a looooong time that way. It definitely cuts back on waste! My mom's complaint is that it takes up more room in the fridge than a plastic baggie or something similar, which is true - but if you're willing to give up some space, you are gaining a lot of longevity. I heart Lock N Lock.

Next story. As we were driving through Seattle to Oma and Opa's last weekend, Geoff said "no wonder ages 16 - 25 are always getting in car accidents! Look at all of the people who are whipping around me. It is moms and dads with their young teenagers in their cars!" I asked him why it then wasn't the moms and dads getting into the accidents, and he said that they do have some driving experience under their belts which helps them be a little bit better at making decisions. But then their kids see the way they are driving and think they should be driving that way too, thereby causing them to get into accidents. It's quite amusing that 22 year old Geoff is getting frustrated with all of the crazy drivers on the road... :)

Prematurely old

When we got the camper, Momlie and Gary declared that Geoff and I were prematurely old. Here is a list of the top reasons why:

1. We own a camper (think about when you drive by huge motorhomes, who do you see driving them? 75 year old men)
2. We use Lock N Lock
3. Geoff commented that the checker at Best Buy was "a nice young man" (see this blog entry)
4. We Grocery Game (aka match coupons with sales to get the best deal)
5. I didn't go to Vegas with Patrick, Hart, and Becky when I was in Arizona a couple of weeks ago (to my credit, that was because Patrick and Hart decided not to go, not me!)

That is only 5 things. I do not think we are prematurely old. Momlie will pipe in here with list of 238966 additions, I'm sure!

In between the weekends

Wow, lots going on! This past weekend we were at Oma and Opa's for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We did not actually see any tulips, due mainly in part to that fact that we were having too much fun at PACCAR! Actually about halfway through PACCAR, we split into two groups - those that REALLY wanted to do the tulip thing and those that wanted to stay at PACCAR. It was just me and "the men" at PACCAR... such is the life of an engineer. I am often in meetings where I am the only female. Although industrial engineering has a lot more women than other types of engineering... anyway, getting off topic (you know I'm the queen of that!). After PACCAR we got a bite to eat at a new brewery... it was delicious!! YUM. Then we went back to Oma and Opa's and met up with Julie and Oma to go GEOCACHING!!!! We found four caches, including our first non-micro cache. The non micro was a Lock N Lock box (Lock N Lock itself really needs to be the subject of another blog another day - it is AMAZING!) that was probably 8x6x2. There were all sorts of little trinkets in there but we TNLNSL (geocache speak for Took Nothing, Left Nothing, Signed Log). It was great and we all had fun. Then back at Oma and Opa's, Julie, Geoff, and I sat outside and planned our camping meals. We planned Saturday night to be a "spontaneous" night (pick something up at the local market, perhaps fish since we'll be at the coast) and Geoff made fun for planned spontaneity, but when you're camping you don't just have a fridge full of stuff to choose from. You either have to plan the meal or plan to be spontaneous! After the planning session, we went inside for a DELICIOUS dinner. Steak, asparagus, salad, sweet potatoes, corn... oh my. :) After that we played a game called Hand and Foot. It was quite fun... I'd never played before but it's pretty easy to catch on to. Then Geoff and I went in the hot tub! I looooove hot tubs especially on cool evenings, it was a perfect night for it - not raining but still cool out. After that it was bedtime. The next morning we went to church and then headed back to Oregon. :)

There was also a lot of discussion about me and my blog at Oma and Opa's - for example, when does Kelly laugh? She doesn't laugh out loud at "planned humor" (pranks, TV shows, movies, comedy routines, etc.) but does she laugh when someone says something sarcastic or otherwise funny? Yes. What does she blog about? I don't remember the other things that were discussed but I know that there was discussion about / study of me and my blog. Odd.

Sunday evening we had a coaches meeting for softball - we got uniforms, met the other coaches, and aligned on rules (fun things such as all the players can be on the field at once, even if you have 12 people. There are 5 innings, an inning ends after 4 runs, everyone has batted, or 3 outs - whichever comes first. There is no keeping score. After an hour and 20 minutes, no new innings can start. A girl gets 7 pitches or 3 strikes when she is at bat).

Monday we had softball practice - this was the first time we used coach pitch instead of the tee. Coach pitch is what we'll use during the game. About half of the girls did awesome and had no problem hitting. The others will improve with time. They are all so positive and enthusiastic - we have a great team!

Last night we took a grand trip to Costco and purchased a new vacuum. We bought the Bissell Healthy Home. We have been talking about a new vacuum for MONTHS (and have probably needed one longer than that). We even went and "test drove" vacuums at Christmas with my mom. The Bissell Healthy Home was on clearance at some Macy's about a month ago and we tried to find one but they were out - sad. But then yesterday at lunch we were talking about what we were going to do that night, and Geoff said "I'd like to vacuum but it's a lost cause with our vacuum cleaner". I said "well we have to go to Costco tonight, let's just get a vacuum." The look on his face was PRICELESS. He was like "what? You just want to buy a vacuum, just like that?" After some discussion we decided we'd do a little research during the afternoon and pick a vacuum (I wanted the Healthy Home, he wanted a Dyson). A little while later he IMed me and said "you know what? I've been reading some reviews, and everyone says that the Healthy Home is awesome and the Dyson is just NOT worth the extra money. Let's get it!" So we did. And it's FANTASTIC. We vacuumed the downstairs, the stairs, and the upstairs and had to empty the canister twice because it picked up so much stuff. Ew. We were living with that. And I have allergies! Oh well. Now our home is healthy indeed. :) And our vacuum is excellent! We also did all of the camping shopping last night so we're ready to go for this weekend! Oh, and when we were at Costco I was browsing through the wine area and this nice fella said "excuse me, do you guys know anything about wine?" Geoff and I looked at each other nervously and said "a little". He said that his doctor wanted him to drink a small glass of red wine for his heart each night but that he didn't really like red wine so he wanted something sweet. We told him that unfortunately red and sweet don't really go together, unless you're talking about a port. So he asked about a particular bottle of wine he was looking at, but it was a cab and merlot mix so we said no no no!!! And he was like "well at least you steered me clear of that!" Then Geoff said that if he made a bowl of pasta, maybe with some sausage or peppers and onions, that might take some of the bite out of the red wine. He seemed to like that idea. We just had a lovely conversation and he was a lovely man. I'm glad he stopped us to chat! I always have the best conversations in Costco. I hope he finds his wine and his heart is okay. :) (poor guy is lucky I didn't try to invite him wine tasting with us!)

Tonight we have our first softball game! The weather looks kinda crummy, so we'll see what happens later this afternoon. I hope it's not rained out, the girls are so excited! Really I think the first couple of games will just be a glorified practice... but we'll see. It will be fun either way!

Tomorrow we have another game and then Friday we're going CAMPING! We're going to the coast again and we'll just leave straight from work - it works so nicely that way and we love getting there early, doing our setup, and then starting our campfire and observing everyone else pull in after they get off of work later than we do or have to drive more than we do. It's fun seeing some guys back their HUGE rigs in, and it's great to see who tumbles out of a pickup truck, or what kind of party lights people pull out to hang up. It will be a fabulous weekend!

And now some random things:

I use a lot of CAPITALS when I type. It kind of reduces the effect, don't you think?

Last camping trip, in February, we came up with the name Momlie for Geoff's mom (combining Mom and Julie). She was signing an email to both of us saying she was on her way to meet us for camping and wrote
"Mom/Julie
Juliemom?
Momlie?
Julom?"
We laughed and I said "she never should have written Momlie, now I'm going to call her that!" When she met us at the camper I told her that and she said "you know, I actually kind of LIKE the name Momlie". So I started calling her that - it's a great name for me to call her, and it's perfect for any hypothetical future grandchildren (from Geoff, Trevor, or Rebecca). But I haven't been calling her that around other people or in my blog because people would be like "who's Momlie" (okay, maybe I'm not giving you enough credit... you would probably figure it out!). Anyway, Momlie is "the mother in law". So from here on out, that is what she will be known as in the blog.

6 or 8 months ago, they started building a drive thru Starbucks on my way to work (previously there was no Starbucks on my route, if you don't count the one in the Albertsons that I drive by). It didn't open for a very long time, and then about 2 months ago we saw a car in the drive thru. They were open! We commented that there would be more and more cars as more and more people realized that it was open. And in fact each day for the next week or so there were more cars in the line. It leveled off at approximately 5. Well today was kinda yucky and cold out, and Geoff said "wow, look at the Starbucks line!" I immediately thought "oh, that must correlate with the weather." Then I said out loud "we should log date, time, temperature, weather conditions, and number of customers in line." Geoff said "Great idea! Do you have a log book we can use?" I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't... he had the same idea I had, that the weather changes the amount of people in line. He even said that it was too bad we couldn't figure out what each person was ordering! So tonight we're going to get a notebook from home and start logging the Starbucks line to see if there is in fact a correlation. Ahhh, this takes me back to my queuing theory classes. I love it. (actually, my group really DID study a Starbucks line as our project in that class... hehe). Anyway, that will be fun. I'll let you know the results.

Okay, I think that's enough for one day... sorry so long, but it's been a while. :)

My husband is all about the bling

Seriously. Geoff definitely loves jewelry more than I do. I never wear my engagement ring because... well I don't know, I just don't wear it. Maybe because it's impractical. I don't know. (I do ALWAYS wear my wedding ring). When I was in Arizona recently, there was a woman who had very similar rings to me, except she had a third ring and I thought it made it look cooler. So I thought "hmm, maybe I should try THAT". I probably won't like it, because I think it's just that I don't like wearing rings, but it looked so cool on her so I want to try it. So I told Geoff that I might go to a jewelry store to try a third ring and see how it looks. He said "Okay. Can I go with?!?" I said of course, and he said "YAY!". We are so mis-matched... I am wasting a guy who likes jewelry on a girl who doesn't... when the whole rest of the world does. Oh well! Too bad for all of you. :) (oh, and since I don't wear my engagement ring, he always says he's going to take the diamond and make it into an earring or something for himself... hehehe)

And on to a completely new topic, some of the things on home listings are absurd! Cases in point:
"Seller says sell this property!" (as opposed to most sellers who DON'T want it sold??)
"Appraised for over $310.000 in the past" (first of all, $310? Or $310,000. And second of all, did you get the memo that the housing market has taken a downturn? That means your previous appraisals don't necessarily mean much.)

Faster than Jiffy Lube!

Geoff changed the oil on my Jeep tonight, and when he was done he pronounced "Faster than Jiffy Lube!" He was too - including all of the cleanup, it took him about 20 minutes (time for two batches of cookies to bake). I was VERY impressed!! My friend Kristie has been calling Geoff lately about all of the car woes she's been having, and she said to me on Monday "I'm glad you brought a mechanic into the family". Hehe. It *is* awfully convenient. ;-)

Since I've been out of town twice in the past two weeks and we're going to Oma and Opa's this weekend and camping next weekend, we took tonight as a "be productive" night. We had a couple of errands (okay, and one quick geocache) that we took care of on the way home, and we got home around 4:45. It is now 7:30 and I finished all 12 things on my list, Geoff finished all 6 things on his list (his things were bigger than mine - one of mine included taking something out of the freezer to defrost it!), plus we made dinner (artichokes and hot dogs, weird combo I know but it worked - and the whole dinner was less than the retail price of one artichoke, yay Grocery Game!) and I made two batches of cookies. Now I'm blogging and Geoff is out running his motorcycle to keep it running well. Yaaaaaaaaay for productive nights!

An observation

At work I've noticed that sometimes you'll kind of know of someone for a while, maybe you've emailed with them a few times or talked on the phone, but you've never met them face to face. This is extremely common in my large company. Sometimes I feel like I work with people I don't know more often than people I do know! But then you meet the person face to face and all of the sudden you're like best friends. Now that you "really know" the person you'll ask them to do more favors for you - like "oh hey, it was great to meet you the other day! Can you pull me this set of data? THANKS!!" Not quite sure how friends = favors, but it seems to. I have done this before, and just yesterday I met someone new and today I had two new emails from her asking me to do a few things for her (we had only emailed a handful of times before we met). Interesting.