Happy One Year!

June 30th marks one year of marriage for Wyatt and me. It really has been a fun, exciting and pleasant year. I just love being married to Wyatt! He really is the best match for me and always focuses on my positive attributes and helps me work on my weaknesses (my weaknesses tend to be his strengths). He helps me to be, and helps me want to be a better person. I am grateful for his patience, his thoughtfulness, his sense of humor and his good cooking! As sad as it sounds, I am so used to having him around, when I'm alone for a night or weekend, I really wonder what I did without him. I guess the truth of the matter is I'm addicted to my husband! Happy Anniversary Wyatt! I think number two will be even better!

Peanut Butter and Apples

I've never really been a fan of apples...that is until I discovered the wonderful companion they make to peanut butter. Yum! I usually eat an apple everyday for lunch, IF, I have peanut butter with it. Because the truth of the matter is the apple is merely the vehicle to get the peanut butter to my mouth. Anyway, Wyatt and I went to Trader Joe's about eight or so months ago and discovered Trader Joe's peanut butter. I must admit, I was a bit weary at first, seeing that it was all natural. My apprehension is obvious if you've ever had that Adam's Natural Peanut Butter crap. This stuff is nothing like it. It is so yummy good! I can seriously go through a jar a week! I can't even taste the difference between this and the bad-for-you hydrogenated oil stuff. And the best part is it is it is good for you and cheaper than the bad-for-you stuff. The 16oz. size is about $1.70 or something. Compared to the bad-for-you stuff that costs about $2.50 a pop! So now I can eat all the peanut butter (and apples) I want without feeling guilty...kind of. I guess I'm so excited about this peanut butter is that I'm not typically into "organic" or "natural" things. Actually, I can't think of anything else I eat that is organic or natural. Well, except for natural Cheeto's...which will have to wait for another post...

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Okay, my post about the CCC has been up for over a week now and I thought it was about time to get some new scenery. I keep telling myself that it would be so easy to blog more than once a week but yet I seem to never be able to do it. One might think I'm the busiest person on earth the way I sporadically post. So, in order to fill the gapping hole I've created from my last post, I have dedicated this one to my friend AJ. She is source of the very cute aprons I am modeling below. And by source I mean, designer, creator and executor. If you're interested in purchasing your own very cute apron you can visit her ETSY shop here: Sew What? Very cute! Don't you think?

Wyatt was being silly when he took the pictures - so you'll have to forgive the odd angles.

Over Rated (clap - clap - clap clap clap)!!!

Forward: What I am about to touch upon is a very controversial subject. It is not to be taken lightly.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie is...over rated! That is all there is to it. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy a good chocolate chip cookie from time to time. And even more so, I really enjoy the cookie dough. But really, it isn't the greatest cookie ever. I think there are far more cookies out there that take the cake (is that cannibalism?) for the best cookie ever. I have no idea why it has gained such publicity and such high-favor among the human population. It's almost as if there are a bunch of CCC lobbyists making their voice be heard on capital hill. C'mon! Could you get more boring?!!!

Let's examine a few of my favorites that I think surpass the CCC:

1. Sugar Cookie (my mom's recipe with sour cream and nutmeg)
2. Snickerdoodle
3. No-Bake Cookie
4. Macaroon
5. Gingersnap
6. Molasses
7. Russian Tea Cookie
8. Pumpkin

To those who think the CCC is the best cookie ever, I urge you to break out of your comfort zone. Go explore the world of cookies! There is more to life than brown sugar and chocolate chips!

My Car - The Oregonian

It's official. My car, Sam, is now an Oregonian. I tried my hardest to postpone turning in my Illinois plates for Oregon ones. And I was actually pretty successful at it. I was able to renew my Illinois plates last year because my mail was still being forwarded to me at that point. So I've been living in Oregon for nearly two years (this August) and I've been able to keep my Illinois plates the whole time! Illegal? I know. Dishonest? Depends on your viewpoint. I wasn't doing it to skirt the law. It's merely issues I have with pride and my resistance to fully becoming an Oregonian. Despite the new plates - I am not an Oregonian... I love you Wyatt!!!!! :)

Before

After

Cousin Dale

My cousin Dale is living in Portland (Vancouver) for the summer! Hooray! The three of us decided to celebrate "Portlandom" by participating in the annual event honoring the rose city - the Rose Festival. Basically it consists of white tents setup along the water front, with different food booths and carnival rides. Wyatt brought up a very good point that each event/festival seems to remind you of something very familiar...every other event/festival in Portland. They all seem to have the exact same setup - just with different themes attached to the name. Despite Portland's inability to add variety to the mix (or ability to be very efficient - the unnecessity [is that even a word?{that's right - I did just use parentheses inside parentheses}] of planning the details of each event), we had a great time. We ate an elephant ear and I had someone to go on all the rides with! Yes, Wyatt is very capable of going on all the rides but he got a new camera which he thoroughly enjoyed playing with. Plus he is a bit of a worrier when it comes to carnival rides. Not so much because he is scared of the possibility of the ride coming unbolted from the ground - which in my opinion, actually is a very reasonable reason to worry, but because he gets worried that he will get sick on the ride. I have been on rides with him in the past and he has yet to get sick as, he assumes he will be. However, he is very good at convincing himself he will get sick and creates a flurry of worriedom (is that a word?) and as a result his stomach is so full of nerves that indeed, he does get sick. Does that make sense? Anyway I have posted a few pictures below presenting Dale and me enjoying the rides, as well as the fruits of Wyatt's new hobby.

Portland's littlest park

Dale and me up-side-down on the Inverter (to be said with a deep voice)

Ducks

Ferris Wheel

The Way We Roll

I think Portland has more bicyclists per capita than any other US city. Okay, I just pulled that one out of my head. But seriously, I don't think I've ever commuted to work without having to go around at least one bicycler on the road. There is even an Oregon license plate that encourages drivers to "share the road." I don't have much of an opinion on the subject but Wyatt gets pretty annoyed by the abundance of wanna be Lance Armstrongs. Mostly because they demand we treat them like a car and "share the road" with them but yet, they don't follow the rules cars do. Weaving in between cars, stopping at stop signs when it's convenient for them, crossing the crosswalks like pedestrians, you know - being inconsistent on when they want to be a moving vehicle and when they want to be a pedestrian. Sometimes Wyatt likes to say, "he thinks he's people" and it makes me laugh.

We may not be fans of bicycling as a sport but are really enjoy casual biking. Just biking in our street clothes, riding on the sidewalks and pretty much acting like a pedestrian on wheels. This past Saturday we took advantage of the nice weather and went for a bike ride. We parked our car on the east side of the Wilamette River, rode across the Hawthorne Bridge to the water front. Rode south on the water front to the bean (aka:tram) and rode that to the OHSU at the top of the hill. Did you really think, being casual bikers, that we were going to ride our bikes to the top of the hill? Gasp! Once off the tram, we rode our bikes down the hill, through the city and across the bridge to our car. I had a blast! I'm sure we were getting stink eye all over from all the "professional" bikers for not obeying the rules of the rode, but hey, we're casual bikers.

Wyatt snapped some cool pictures of our little ride below:

Riding the bean up the hill

the bean

the bean again

OHSU and the bean

Marquam Bridge (picture taken by me because I thought it looked cool)

Camping on the Coast

This is what we did over Memorial Day weekend with our friends the Demaris' and Schaffer's:

Sat by the campfire...

Sat by the campfire again...(that's Jen falling out of her chair)

Went for a hike...

and went skim boarding!