Saturday, September 27, 2008

Living in Portland: Good-bye City of Roses, Hello Never Ending Rain

We have loved it here so far. Portland, if you didn't know, is also known as the city of roses. (picture below is in the internatn'l rose test garden) Our first weekend here, we went to rose festival and parade, it rained, but that was clear back in June and it's been pretty dry here ever since then. Actually, the summers here seem to be pretty similar to Utah's except that there is a real beach near by and that the mountains are WAY TO FAR AWAY from where we live......
But alas, those sunny summer days are coming to an end. Every one that learns that we are from Utah says "do you like rain?" or some other wise crack comment like: "enjoy the sun now" or "come October, you better invest in an umbrella". And they are right. I got my first taste of winter in portland this week and it stinks. Even though the temp was only in the 60's, I felt like I was walking up old main hill in the dead of winter on my way from the bus to work. There is just something about that damp cold that is colder than the icy winds that blow down utah's canyons.


So, to keep up our endorphines and avoid seasonal affective disorder, we are thinking about joining a gym. They are so FREAKING expensive and I hate those macho retarded fake baked half naked stereotypical gym people that were so abundant in the gym I tried out this morning, but it seems to be the only solution I've thought of so far. Anyone else got an idea?

mmmmm Fall is Delicious

I love fall. Not only because it smells good--fresh and crisp-- and looks good--red and yellow leaves with green grass--and feels good--no more sweaty people on the bus--but also because it TASTES GOOD!! You know, pumpkin pie (ie mud pie according to dad), sweet potatoes, fresh apples and apple crisp, root vegetables, and best of all: butternut squash.

I am SO happy today because....I BOUGHT MY FIRST SQUASH OF THE SEASON.....and to make matters even more blessed, it still had dirt on it and it was shaped perfectly for cutting into squares. That made the fact that richard has been golfing since 7:30 this morning (it is now 12:00) okay.





Since richard wasn't with me at the farmers market today, I made some new vegetable friends: brandywine tomatoes, kellogs breakfast tomatoes (amazing) and purple peppers. Good thing richard was golfing this morning, otherwise I might have had to share those tomatoes and peppers........(yeah right, I haven't made that much progress).......but he probably wouldn't have approved of me spending 5$ on them........maybe richard should go golfing every saturday (:





Sunday, September 21, 2008

York Dorks in Port Port

My sista sista Amy Lynn and her husband Kelby Max came to visit this weekend. It all started out with dinner at an overpriced and not so good restaurant (McCormick&Schmicks).
Along with my sis came a small bundle of joy aka Evan Glenn York. He's such a cute little squeaky creature. We tried to visit Mt. St. Helen's.....but instead of seeing the crater and large reforesting projects.......we got to wander aimlessly in the clouds.

Isn't Mt. St Helen's so beautiful?

We also tried to avoid paying 8 dollars a person to go to every visitor center or nature walk....

and thus ended up at an industrial weyerhauser forestry center that was very anti-environmentalist. It had a great playground with excavator toys that Amy loved to play on.



And Richard loved it since he isn't too fond of the forest service or rangers.......those silly Buhlers..........We ended the day with a BANG! By eating greeeen and very BEANY enchiladas and watching the movie VOLCANO "the coast is toast." I would recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't seen it! Hooray for visitors.....aren't you dying to come see us Joy?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Still Gett'n Paid


I am a working woman. In my first couple weeks of work, I would brush my teeth at 6:10 to get out the door and think...."Oh my gosh, I am never going to make it, this is the worst decision of my life to work here, I'de rather die than go to work." But now, It's actually pretty fun. I have delightful co-workers who are more than willing to help -- with out making me feel stupid (which is probably the reason that I hated clinicals so bad). This week, I gave a presentation to the state employees on stocking a healthy pantry. It was like one of those presentations that I had to do in school.....but I GOT PAID 21 bucks an hour to do it!! Yeah! Lot's of the time I feel like a big faker....you know....like I'm just wandering around pretending like I know what I'm doing....but when I bust out of those hospital doors at 4:30 every day - I walk really fast because even though I still don't know what I am doing.....I'M STILL GETTING PAID!

From the Loins of the Pink Flamino: Part II



We started a zucchini plant in Late July/Early August. It's chances of survival were low. We could not get it to produce fruit. We tried manual pollinating. No success. Then, we gave the zucchi a friend....a traillis.....a pink flamingo.......and from its loins has come the fruit of our labors.....baby zucchinis!!! Yeah!! Hopefully next year we will have some ground in which to have a real life garden....I'm still hoping.

A couch hating soccer playing day


I joined a soccer team. I've played in one game and I made 1 goal and I have no idea what any of the rules are. All I know is that my ankles are about the size of my thighs after I put both my ankle braces and then my shin gaurds to protect my loosey goosey ligaments. It is alot of fun and my hubby bub loves come and watch me and the mommies in my ward run around with our heads chopped off. GO LEFTOVERS!!! YEAH!


So we got couches yesterday. It is the first big thing we have bought together. They were more expensive than I would have liked and (now that we have them....2 weeks post purchase) less likable than I would have liked. Oh well - we will just have to work on our good consumer skills. At least the stinky stink stink brown ones from Zic have been removed from the premisis.....sorry to let your good craftsman work to the goodwill dad! And now when richard is a bad man I have a place to send him for the night.

The real question is, why didn't we spend our money to buy a bed bigger than a full? As my 5 foot--probably 90 pound-- friend Joanna told her equally small fiance - "some people I know (referring to us) sleep on a full....I promise we don't need a king!". Yeah we are really smart.




Thursday, September 11, 2008

Almost aDream Weekend

Ever since I started looking for jobs outside of Utah exspecially in Seattle and Portland I looked into when the Yankees were going to be playing Seattle. While I was looking I thought "hey doesn't BYU play Washington this year in Seattle." So when I took the job in Portland I bought tickets to the Marnieers Yankee game and come to find out BYU would play Washington the same weekend.

So last weekend my parents came and we went to both games. It wasn't perfect because first I lost some of the excitement for the Yankees game since they are out of the race for the playoffs and I have been busy finishing school and starting a new job I haven't followed them as much as I have in the past.

Then Saturday afternoon we went to the game with my parents and cousin Rob and his wife. He is a washington fan. It was a great game and was even better when they were playing on our end of the field becaude we were so close. To bad the game ended with the controversy but what ever -- BYU won and it was a good ofensive game. I believe this a picture of the winning Touchdown pass.

I give the Weekend an A- and would only been better if Steve was there, Nicole hadn't left the game at halftime (but that was no big deal -- she doesn't like football), and the Yankees
would have won.

comment from nicole -- We also ate at an amazing restaurant in Tacoma WA and I had cedar plank salmon and rich had mahi tacos. Before that lunch, I would have given the w/end activites a C+, after that lunch and finally meeting people from the Buhler side of the family, definitally A-.