New Feature

I made a new page that takes you to a photo gallery of sorts showing our Oregon adventures.  It is still under construction and I have more to add, but it is easier to keep it up to date starting now then play catch up and be behind all the time.

Portlandia

We explored downtown Portland today and had a great time.  We started at Pioneer Square which was having an Italian Festival complete with band playing songs like "Amore"-when the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie, that's amore- we went to the Old Town Farmer's Market, walked along the Willamette River, saw China Town, and went to Powell's City of Books.  I love Powell's.  Today's highlights included a 1st Edition Adventures of Tom Sawyer and 1st Edition Stuart Little (that is the one I am holding in the picture).  There was also a book from 1512 with a $4,800 price tag.  I love walking through all the rooms and levels and seeing all the different books everywhere.  It is awesome.  We explored Jeld-Wen Field a little bit and enjoyed the sites and sounds of all the people, there is definately a reason that Portland's Motto is: "Keep Portland Weird", there were plenty of different things and people to watch.

Small World

JD & I went to the Portland Temple yesterday and decided to check out the Visitor Center before heading back home.  I love how the backgrounds change behind the Christus statue depending on where you are!  In Los Angeles there is ocean, in Portland a lot of trees and waterfalls.  While we were wandering around, a van pulled in and a bunch of girls piled out of it, we saw that they were sister missionaries and when I looked even closer I recognized Ally, the daughter of one of my coworkers!  It was fun to see her even though we don't know each other very well, more just passing by while she was running errands for her mom or bringing Deb's glasses to her at work, but still super neat.  She was so happy doing what she was doing and the only complaint she had was how fast time was flying by.  I love how small the world really is.

Long Distance Relationships

I love technology!  It is so nice being able to Skype my sister in Wyoming while having my mom in Utah on a speaker phone at the same time. It is pretty neat if you ask me.   

 

Phineas & Ferb

JD has been studying super hard after long days of class.  This usually entails him coming home in time for dinner and then studying after dinner until bedtime.  I am so grateful he is dedicated to school and wanting to do well, but sometimes you just need to break up the day and relax a little bit.  This week began what has become one of my favorite parts of my day.  After we clean up dinner we sit down and watch an episode of Phineas & Ferb.  It is a good chance for JD to relax, and it is a great time for me to cuddle and watch a fantastic cartoon.  This has turned into our mini daily date night-dinner and a cartoon.  I love it!

The Speths

International Rose Test Garden

It is still so strange to me that we can drive to downtown Portland in 20 minutes.  After a long week, JD and I went to the International Rose Test Gardens for a change of scenery before he spent the rest of his Saturday studying.  It was overcast and cool, a very welcome change from the 100 degree sunny weather we have had the past week.  We had fun walking around taking pictures, sniffing roses, and looking at the names of all the different roses.  They have everything from Fragrant Cloud to Betty Boop to Ketchup and Mustard.  I was a fan of the Octoberfest Roses (second ones down on the left), and that was even before I knew what they were named.  It was a quick get away and it was fantastic.

Mi Casa

My mom really wants to see pictures of the apartment, so while we aren't done with everything, and some things have already changed from when I took these this is the overall gist of where we live!

Top Left: Dining Area

Top Right: Bedroom

Middle Row: 1 & 2 Second Bedroom, acting as JD's library/study area/office

Middle Row: 3 & 4 main bathroom and master bathroom

Bottom: 1 & 2 Living Room, wall cutout looks into the kitchen, Right: Kitchen

The couch faces out onto our patio that is a lovely view of a bunch of trees.  We are so happy here and it feels more like home every day. I will post more pictures when I finish some projects up.

Olympic Withdrawel

I love the olympics.  I think they are wonderful.  I love watching the athletes do amazing things.  I love muting the dumb commentators.  I love that once every two years political agendas can be pushed aside and that athletes can compete for the love of sport despite wars and grudges and all of the crap that goes on.

The olympics this year have been a bit of a lifesaver for me.  While I was packing I was able to follow the events during the day.  When we got to Oregon and JD started classes three days later I had something to preoccupy my time.  Now they are over and I am in trouble.  I went from being a full time graduate student working two jobs to only having to worry about what to cook for dinner.  I need a job, and a hobby, and a project or I am going to go crazy.

So, thank you London Olympics 2012, for keeping my sanity a little bit longer, for inspiring, for taking up my time, and for just being the cool thing you were.

Portland Temple

We made it to the Portland Temple yesterday and it was wonderful!  Per the usual standard here, it is surrounded by trees and forest, so it was hard to get a full picture of it because of how big it is and the trees all around, but it is beautiful.  With Ogden closed we have had a minimum 40 minute commute to a temple this past year so it was really exciting to find that we were only 20 minutes away.  We are very grateful to have a temple so close and for the blessings that come from these sacred places.

White Coats & Badges

JD had his white coat ceremony this evening.  It was a pretty neat event, personnally I am glad that they started on time and that it didn't last forever.  So now he is as official as he can get until he passes his boards in three years and can have fun studying, testing, and working at clinicals in the mean time.  We are super excited and are looking forward to what this experience has in store.

Exploregoning

We were able to get so much done yesterday we had the opportunity to sightsee a little bit.  We took Jeff and Dad to see Pacific University and the Hillsboro campus where JD will be going to school.  The campus was half college half botannical gardens, the grounds were beautiful.  We then drove out to the coast.  We went to Cape Meares, ate extra sharp white cheddar cheese at the Tillamook Cheese Factory along with icecream.  We drove up the coast to Cannon Beach and enjoyed the ocean until heading back home.  Again we are so grateful for all that our dads were able to do to help us and we had such a great time with them while they were here. It was fun showing them where we will be the next while and to enjoy this beautiful state with them for a few days. 

We're Here!

.We made it to our new apartment in Aloha this afternoon!  We stopped at the Bonneville Dam on our way to Portland and watched fish swimming up the steps that have been built around the dam.  We also got to see the giant sturgeon.  I have learned that dads are the absolute best people to take with you on a move.  They are strong and good at moving a lot of boxes and furniture.  They are good at fixing things and putting furniture and lamps back together.  They are also VERY good at emptying boxes.  The past two times we have moved it has taken me at least 2 weeks to get done what we did in a few hours today.  I may be looking for things for a while, but in general everything is put away in the perfect spot and we are not living in a cardboard jungle like the picture shows.  There are definately more things to do, but the bulk of it is done.  We had a great dinner at Chevy's to celebrate being here (really we were just very hungry) and picked up our Civic from Ben too.  It was a very busy but good and productive day.  Our dads ROCK!

My dad helped pick out the shower curtain and Jeff helped hang up.  Talk about teamwork!

Oregon Bound

After a stressful few days wrapping up packing, tying up loose ends in Utah, saying goodbye, and getting ready to move to a different state we are ready to go!  We woke up super early after staying up super late to finish packing up the UHaul, clean the Robert's basement, and start our drive up to Oregon.  We had a really good time spending time with our dads on the way up.  I drove in the Corolla with my dad and JD was the lucky duck who got to drive the UHaul with Jeff.  We are so grateful that they were both willing to come and help us with this move.  First day we have ended up in Pendleton which took us about 9 hours, we will finish the rest tomorrow.

Pharmacy Goodbyes

We both had to say goodbye to our coworkers and close friends at the pharmacies this week as we get ready to move.  We will miss our friends at Herefordshire and South Ogden.  How blessed we have been to work with such amazing people at such amazing places!