Holidays!

OK so I know it's been a while since I have posted but I haven't had much extra time lately. Both Emma and I until recently have been working a lot of overtime and also mainly getting ready for the wedding. It's actually going to feel strange after we get back and have actual "free" time to do whatever which will be nice. Its hard to believe that we have only 10 days to the wedding!! Seems like it took forever to get here but now its here and we are both very ready to get married, see family and take a vacation!!

This past xmas eve Emma cooked up a great meal for the both of us. It was just us and the boy for a quiet evening at home which was very nice. She started out with making coconut shrimp which were out of this world! New favorite food!! I have had it before but this was the best by far!

Then after a ton of shrimp we had a nice salad with greens, Gouda cheese, caramelized pecans that mom sent, and cooked pears.

After that was the main course! We had rib eye steak in some sort of wine sauce with brussel sprouts, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes. The steak was from a local farm and very tasty.

Then came dessert which is always a treat. Chef Emma made Apple Fritters with vanilla ice cream and a caramel sauce!

Trip to London

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Originally uploaded by ryan_nowell.

So I recently uploaded some pictures from when Lance and I took a trip to London 3 years ago. We had a great time and hopefully we ALL can go back sometime. I would love to show Emma all the places we got to visit. I was only allowed to upload a certain amount so not all the pictures were uploaded. I will send the rest when I get a chance.

Getting Closer!!

OK so I have to say that the wedding has taken over my mind!! All I think about is leaving my work and getting on a plane to go a nice warm place. The time has flown by but now it's creeping along and driving me crazy. I know it will come soon enough but I want it NOW!!!!

Ok now that I have that off my chest. I found this picture the other day searching the web for pictures of Makena cove. This is the entrance to the beach from the street. It's pretty hard to see and when we first got directions we tried 3 times to find it. But now it will be easier. We will be sending out some directions to this beach and the other locations of the night before the wedding and the reception.

Interesting drive this morning.

So this morning was an interesting one for sure. It started out with noticing that the car was frozen when I took Puma out to play. This of course changed my plans to play longer with him and set up a short time before I leave to turn the car on and let it warm up so I could drive. I also decided to leave a bit earlier since the drive might be slower. Sure enough it was.

I turned the corner to get on to the St. John's bridge and I noticed that a lot of cars were backed up and moving slow. Didn't think much of it at first until I got closer and tried to slow down. Yep that's it, tried to slow down!! The front tires hit the ice and locked up. Luckily with my intense parking lot training with John a few years ago in the snow I remembered to let off the brakes and let the tires steer where I needed to go. I managed to stop the car just before the car in front of me. I then looked in the rear view mirror to see if any cars were behind me about to do the same but fortunately nobody had followed. A few seconds into driving across the bridge at about 2 miles an hour, I noticed in the rear view that the cops had blocked the road behind me. I thought....well great timing....about 20 seconds sooner and I wouldn't have the luxury of trying to cross the ice covered monstrosity in front of me.

So I continued, tires spinning and the car sliding to the large curb on the right hand lane. The car in front of me was worse off then me. I noticed that the tires were pretty close to being bald and being a Dodge Neon and having the wind pick up on the bridge wasn’t helping him. I managed to stay far back letting him show me the more icy spots on the road ahead and give me enough warning as to when the traffic would be coming to a stop.

I managed to make it to the top of the curve of the bridge and then it was all down hill!! I thought well I am half way there. This is when it got tricky! I kept pumping the brakes and letting the tires steer me on all while keeping an eye on what the driver was doing in front of me. I stopped for a second to let them get ahead and just then the Neon hit the brakes and slid to the curb scraping the side of his car to slow him down. I decided to drive in the middle of the road to give me more room.

I finally made it to the bottom of the bridge were traffic was backed up each way coming from East and West. Luckily the cops had stopped the traffic waiting for the cars in front of me to finally get off the bridge since we pretty much couldn’t stop. We all made it across the bridge without becoming bumper cars or a jumbled mess of cars.

I found out after I arrived LATE to work that they had just reopened it after putting down a deicer and some gravel.

I wonder what the rest of the weeks travels will be like with the high hovering around freezing!!

Parents visited

So this past week my parents came up to visit and to work. Some friends of ours (Paul and Kristin) are remodeling their basement and needed an electrician to do some work since they decided to do it themselves. I happened to mention that my dad does electrical work and they suggested having him come up to do the work. So they came up last week and dad worked on it until yesterday. All went well except for a few weather issues along the way. The eelctric company was supposed to turn off the power on Monday so dad could hook up the new box but with the weather as bad as it was they were busy taking care of power outages around town. They finally came yesterday and dad was able to hook it all up with no problems. He even helped me....well did the work....on adding a few extra plugs outside in the front yard and helped with moving our light up in the bathroom. It really is amazing how fast he moves. No wonder he wired an entire basement in a few days!!

47 DAYS until the big day!! Can't wait to see everyone and enjoy our time on vacation and of course get married to the best girl in the world. All the plans are coming together. It's the small details that we will have to worry about soon enough.

I am still sick for those who knew. I can't seem to shake this cold or flu that I have. It's just a bad cough but it's enough to make me crazy. At least it came a week early this year instead of like last year when I was sick for Thanksgiving.

Party Time!

So our party this past Sunday went well. Almost everyone that said they would come showed up with goodies in hand. Emma and Amy, who came up to visit early on Saturday were able to get things set up and ready to go without my sick body in the way. Yes I was still feeling ill and had vertigo again which wasn't too fun. It mostly makes you feel like you are car sick or on a ship rolling through the sea. Anyway. The party went really well and it seemed like everyone had a good time. The weather held out and the rain held off but it was a bit cold. Luckily the wood stove worked well and warmed it up some. They all had nice comments about the house and the yard and everything that we worked hard on all year. It was nice to hear after all the work that we did. I guess it's the amount of time that we spent on it and nothing else that made it worth it as well. I am not sure why but I forgot to take any pictures of people that came but it never occurred to me until after the party. Once again Emma and Amy did a nice job with the decorations and I was actually surprised at how well the garage turned out for a party.

Sick and Busy!

Ok so it's been way too long since I updated this. I have been sick for a while and have busy working on the house again. I ended up missing 3 days of work this past week and just started to feel myself yesterday morning.

Emma ended up working yesterday for graduation at her work. Luckily she didn't have to work too long.

Last night we went out to dinner and it wasn't the best experience. A new place near us called Christies just opened and so we decided to check it out. It was a bit odd to say the least. Maybe we are spoiled with going to places that we really like but this place will most likely not be on our "revisit" list. They only had a few entrees to choose from and the food tasted like it came out of a box. I suppose my taste in food has changed with Emma's yummy cooking but oh well. So of course we had to make up for it by visiting one of our favorite breakfast places. It's called the Tin Shed. Food is amazing. I had a "Fetch" which is potato cakes topped with bacon, chives, tomatoes and cheese and a biscuit on the side. So yummmmmmy!!

Well we are getting ready for next weekends big party! It's not that big but any more then a few people is big in our small place. I finished the staining of the fence out back and installed the 3rd light in the bedroom(of course with dads help on the phone). I wanted to make sure I had it all right before I started. I am not a fan of getting shocked or doing it wrong. Had a bit up a scare when I turned the light on and heard a small pop sound. Turns out I might have cut the wire a bit when installing it but it was an easy fix(thanks DAD). Emma has been busy of course cooking up some goodies for the party as well. Not sure what it all is but looks tasty!

Well off to watch the second game of the World Series. Cubbies didn't even come close to making it this year but I still love the game!!!

89 Days from today!

The big day seems to be creeping up on us very quickly. Plans are coming together and RSVP's are streaming in. Saturday we spent a good amount of time signing up for wedding registries and driving around town. It was fun to pick out things that we would want if we had an unlimited budget. Of course most items were "dream" items if we won a shopping spree but it was still fun checking out everything. Emma also updated the Wedding Channel website with address info and times of some of the events.

The weather was a bit on the rainy side even though I don't remember the weather being forcasted that way. But of course that's just the way it can be around here. I tried to finish the staining of the fence but got too wet and besides that, a playoff game was on as well as some football games to be watched. I will have to take a picture of the "new" fence and post it.

We then spent a majority of out time cleaning up the house and cleaning out the garage to get ready for our party at the end of the month. We figure the weather won't be the best and our place is tiny to have lots of people in so the garage and it's cozy fireplace will warm it nicely and add room for people to gather.

Fall is coming!

I would have to say that this time of year is always nice around these parts! The weather gets cooler and the sun is still out. It hasn't started to rain all the time and the days of hot weather with no AC are gone until next year. The leaves of the trees are starting to change color and litter the streets. Halloween is coming which leads to all the rest of te fun holiday's and with it the yummy treats that are made. This past weekend we went to Sauvie Island to pick up some veggies and fruit from the farm near by called Krugers. It is really a great place. They have everything that you can possibly get and right now tis the season to get pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. We picked up a small one for Emma to cook up a yummy pie with and boy was it!!!


Of course this weekend wasn't with out it's projects and other work around the house. I think I have become partly addicted to working on the weekends. I finally got around to staining and sealing the backyard fence. It was really amazing to see how the color changed as it dried and how it really looked like a brand new fence. Ok that's not that exciting but it was still a cool change.

One more thing. Our friend Pete ran in the Portland Marathon yesterday(26.2 miles). We went down to downtown St. John's to catch him as he went by to get a few pictures but I saw him at the last minute and snapped a few shots. Was really disappointed since I wasn't able to get him coming down the bridge but I didn't see him until it was too late. It was cool to see all the people and all the friends and family cheering them on. I think it would be fun to join in some year but the training will have to start before that happens.

Pete did a great job! Here are his stats. WAY TO GO PETE!!

Place Overall: 2072 out of 7548
Men: 1416 out of 3328

FINISH: 4:03:40 pace: 9:18
10k: 54:40 pace: 8:48
Turn-9.1Mi: 1:22:40 pace: 9:06
Half: 1:55:12 pace: 8:48
20 Mile: 3:00:38 pace: 9:02
35K: 3:18:40 pace: 9:09
Chip Time: 4:03:40
Gun Time: 4:05:12

Trellis

So the final addition to the yard has been added. Worked out really well and was easier then I thought. Would have to say that out of all the projects, this was the first one that didn't have it's problems. We usually had one or two things go wrong that took time to resolve.

So we thought the weather had changed to being much cooler the past few weeks but today we were about 84 which is quit warm since it was in the high 60's recently. We are excited for the weather to change and welcome fall and all the new colors. Of course with it comes rain and mud for the dog to get into but it's always nice to play in.

Vacation slideshow!

Here are some pictures from recent trips. They are all mostly of Emma....but hey I always have the camera and she is much nicer to look at!

I also updated the site a little and added a link to the right of Adbel's son Alex's website for his band. Great music!!

Front Yard Pictures!

Finally got a chance and a break in the weather to take some pictures. Was really nice to be done and enjoy our yard.

Done Done Done

So the yard is finally DONE!!!! We installed the path over the weekend which took longer then we thought but of course nothing is new with that. I also finished up the front gate by building it and then cutting the tops off the posts and installing the final post caps. It went in pretty well with only a few hiccups but all in all it was great to be finally done! When I get a chance I will post some pictures.

Yesterday we had a visitor stroll on in to the back yard. It was a friendly older dog. He had an insteresting ridge along his back and he mostly just walked around and pissed on everything. Puma loved it becuase he turns into a puppy around dogs that come into HIS yard. So of course he wasn't wearing a collar so we closed the gate and tried to figure out what we were going to do. Then Emma had the idea that maybe he just belonged to one of the neighbors down the street so I started to walk down and ask around. One couple didn't know english so I tried to ask them in Spanish and it turned out they don't have a dog so that was easy to figure out.

Then I came across another neighbor outside loading stuff in his truck and he turned out to be the owner. Said he never noticed he was gone. As we walked back he said " Oh you guys are the one with the new yard....looks nice!!" That was nice to hear. He then introduced us to his lost boy, Rudy the Ridgeback!

1 year!!!

So yesterday was the one year anny for us being in our home! Still can't believe it's been that long. Time just really flew by. To think that when we first moved in how different the look and feel of the place was. We were sleeping in the living room on the futon and I was being bit up by flees fromt the dog that used to live there. Of course this was also Pre-Puma so he never had the joy of the itchy bites on HIS legs. our bedroom wasn't finished and liveable for 46 days and the rest of the time until we could sleep in our own bed was spent on the futon in the office.

Then we later adopted our boy. We went from working day to day painting or ripping out walls to walking the dog or taking him to the Dog Park.

Christmas came around and we got engaged in our home. It was a bit of a surprise for Emma but she was sort of expecting it to happen soon. Was really a great moment!!

And now time has flown by, our yard has been completely torn up and built back up again and now we only have 4 months until the big day!!

It's been a great year in our first home and we will for sure have many more. What will we be up to in another year? Who knows!!

Fun with Treadmills

Just a little reminder that working out can be fun!

Busy weekend and good news!!

This past weekend went way too fast!! Emma helped a friend with catering so she was gone all Saturday which left the boy and me on our own. I worked on the yard and the fence toppers or whatever you call them. They turned out pretty nice. Cheap too. Could have spent $14 on each but since we built our own it was only$1.62 a piece. Saved $175 but it did take a while to make. I will post a picture when I get them installed.

Since Emma worked so hard over the weekend and made some extra money we decided to go to Costco and see if they had any scanner\printers available. We have been wanting a better printer to print photos and she also wanted to be able to scan in the thousands of recipes that she has collected. We found one that was $50 off and hopefully it works well. Now we just need to invent a touchscreen to access all those recipes in the kitchen!

Also received some news about our neighbors next door. We noticed a while ago that they were going missing one by one. Those pesky kids stopped running around and then no more vehicles were being worked on in the carport. Then one weekend the house had all it’s lights on all day and night. Then one day when Emma was walking Puma she noticed a note on the door from Kermit King stating “If you do not return by 3:30 pm tomorrow then I will assume you have vacated the premises.” Sure enough they were gone for good. I looked over the side and everything was gone. Someone had shown up and started to clean the place out for the next couple of days. Then yesterday morning while I was in the front yard Kermit stopped by to say that he had kicked the tenants out and has already sold the place!!! He said they were supposed to leave a month and half ago but had to go through the legal process to get them to leave. He said the gentleman that purchased the place is single and is looking to buy his first place. We were hoping it would be a younger couple but oh well. At least we won’t be expecting any piss filled condoms in the yard!!!!

San Francisco!!

This past weekend Emma and I went to San Francisco to meet up with the family and see the sites. Here are some pictures of the trip and a few others.

San Francisco

Front yard

Ok so it's not done yet but it might be a while till it is. I was looking up some pictures from last year when we bought the place and it's interesting to see how its changed.

Here are some before, during and after pictures:

Keeping an eye out!

Came across this site (UofA Webcam) the other day and thought it was cool. It's always nice to see what the old home town weather is up to. Some cool time-lapse videos as well. Enjoy!

I promise I will post some pics of the new front yard. Just need to take them!!

Not much going on at the moment besides working all the time and working on the yard. Emma is going to Rhode Island for a memorial and then the weekend after that we are off to San Francisco!! Should be some good times since Emma's family is all going to meet us there.

Oh Don Piano!!

Favorite part is the last one. Oh Don Piano!!! Enjoy