8 Things

Laura tagged me in this little note...

8 things I look forward to (in no particular order):

-Finishing my PhD

-Becoming a mommy

-Buying a house

-Living a bit closer to family

-The long days of Oregon summer

-Vacation and traveling

-Time with my hubby in the evenings

-Taekwondo

8 things I did yesterday:

-Spent a lot of money on my car service (timing belt, spark plugs, water pump, oil change...)

-Ate a chicken burrito (from Qdoba and thought of Laura & Kyle)

-Sat in 3 different classes for a total of 6.5 hours (1 I'm taking, 2 I help teach)

-Played in the back yard with my dogs

-Checked my email

-Watched Kris Allen make it into top 4 on American Idol

-Ate dinner with Ricky

-Talked to my dad

8 things I wish I could do:

-Get to Portland in 5 minutes from my house

-Know which umpire camp Ricky should go to

-Live closer to my family and have the great Oregon summers, too

-Travel A LOT and see the world/faraway friends

-Be "settled" (owning a home, starting a family, having my dream job)

-Cook as good as Ricky

-Feel comfortable in a swim suit (while eating whatever I want)

-Win an Olympic Gold medal and be on the cover of a Wheaties box

8 shows I watch:

-Amazing Race

-American Idol

-Criminal Minds

-CSI Las Vegas

-Heroes

-24

-Desperate Housewives

-House Hunters

I'm supposed to tag 8 people...but I don't know if 8 people read this, so if you'd like to do it, go ahead. :-)

Birthday week

Well, I'm a few days late, but I wanted to take the time to honor my husband who celebrated his 27th birthday on Friday. Ricky and I have known each other for almost 7 years (wow!). We met at a time when neither of us were looking for "someone" and have been pretty inseparable since. I definitely fell head over heels for his good looks, charm, and easy-going personality. I was going to say what about me won him over, but I guess you'll have to ask him because I'm not really sure. I'm guessing he'll say something about how well we got along (that I let him be himself, wear what he wanted to wear, and fit in well with his friends and especially his family) and how good I was at "taking care of him." But...you'll have to let me know what he says.

Ricky is the perfect man for me. He loves me unconditionally, he makes me laugh, he rubs my feet or back whenever I ask, and he always puts my needs above his. Don't get me wrong, Ricky has lots of things he likes and is into more hobbies than I can count. But this is what I love about him and what makes him so special and fun to be around. Ricky never meets a stranger and has a way of winning over pretty much any person in the room. I'm not really sure how he does it, but everyone loves him. It's definitely working for him! ;-) I'm super lucky to have Ricky in my life and to get to be a part of his family. I am definitely a better person for this, and I am thankful everyday for the time we have together. And while it's not always easy to be in the early "unsettled" stages of our lives, I'm happy to be here with such a wonderful man. I can't wait to see him in the role of father, home-owner, professional umpire (maybe), etc. I look forward to it all. So, happy late birthday, Ricky. You're amazing.

Even though I'm late on posting about Ricky's birthday on my blog, this does not mean I have been late at celebrating. For you see, about six years ago, I unknowingly started a tradition. The first time Ricky had a birthday after we'd been dating, I decided I wanted to make it really special. He'd been pretty busy with school, and I decided it might be fun for him to celebrate a full Birthday week (or "Hanukkah birthday"). I bought little surprise gifts and started one week before his birthday with a card and a poem about the week to come. While my original intention was for this to be a "one time" week-long celebration, it has become our tradition (for my birthday, too). Different years have been "gifted" differently, some with themes, some with mostly little gifts and a big one at the end, other years no theme at all. The point of it is not really the gifts but to celebrate and look forward to another great year, with some daily anticipation of what's in each package. So, here's the rundown of Ricky's birthday week this year, which he really seemed to enjoy.

Saturday 4/11 Hinged grill grate (no more lifting up the grate to add coals or cook certain food differently)
Sunday 4/12 The Easter bunny left him a baseball themed birthday basket complete with his favorite treats and a book (As they See 'Em) about umpires
Monday 4/13 Joby Gorilla Pod for his camera to see what that is go here:
http://joby.com/products/gorillapod/slr/
Tuesday 4/14 Another camera book (The Hot Shoe Diaries)
Wednesday 4/15 Timbuk2 personalize your own bag giftcard
Thursday 4/16 A Two-by-Two massage (my personal favorite!)
Thursday 4/17 Bamboo Fun tablet for photo editing to see what that is go here:
http://www.wacom.com/BambooTablet/bamboo.php

A Sunday Drive

Last weekend Ricky had his NW Athletic Trainers' conference in Seaside, OR (northwest OR). Neither of us had ever been to Seaside, so we used this as an excuse to go somewhere new (and for me to have some lazy time in the hotel). Unfortunately, the weather didn't really cooperate most of the time we were in Seaside. It was cold, raining (not our usual drizzle--RAINING) and super windy. Yuck! But the town of Seaside itself was pretty neat, and we did enjoy some good fresh seafood. On Sunday when it was time for us to travel home the weather was nicer, and we had a decision to make. Did we take the same boring route we came that had the potential for stopping and doing a bit of shopping at the nice outlet malls (up the interstate 2 hours and then travel west for an hour to get to the coast) or should we take the longer drive along the coastline? Ricky was leaning toward the idea that getting home quicker was better, but I convinced him to go "the long way" for the scenery (in exchange for driving the last leg of the trip). 

The first town we came to after Seaside was Cannon Beach. Cannon beach has a cool landmark known as haystack rock. It is beautiful and super close to the coast line. The town is full of rolling hills and scenic views of the coast from above. We loved this little town and decided we need to add a summer weekend stay here to our list of things to do.

Haystack rock from a distance.

Haystack rock a bit closer up.

A serene beach with no one in sight.

After driving for about an hour (seeing beautiful coastline and some pretty countryside), we arrived in another anticipated destination--Tillamook. Tillamook Oregon is famous to us because our favorite dairy products since moving to Oregon are "Tillamook," and they are produced in this town (rumor is they've been spotted in AR, too). We got to stop at the cheese factory, which is set up pretty much like a museum. We were both super excited about this, and we spent a good couple of hours here. While they don't package cheese on the weekends, they were doing some other things in the factory (pressing the curds into huge blocks and vacuum sealing them for the aging process). 

Ricky posing outside the factory for me. He didn't feel at all dorky posing outside the cheese factory (wink wink). Thanks, hubby!

It's their 100th anniversary.

This is where they were packing the cheese curds into 42 pound blocks, wrapping in plastic, vacuum sealing, and sending them to the aging warehouse.

We waited in line to taste several different types of cheese.

And then we shopped in the store full of Tillamook products. Which to choose? We ended up with the anniversary white cheddar...yummy!
 

They had a variety of great sandwiches at the deli all of which were made with Tillamook cheese products of course! Ricky had a grilled cheese with several different types of cheese.

 

And last but definitely not least, they had a bunch of ice cream flavors and fresh waffle cones (the waffle cone smell was hard to ignore but we were good and waited until AFTER lunch). Tillamook ice cream is amazing from the carton but even better when you can have almost any flavor you could imagine (including peppermint, bubblegum among others). Ricky went with Pistachio Pecan, and I had something chocolate with fudge pieces.

Here are a few more scenic pictures of the coastline. We've now officially seen almost all of the Oregon coast.