Vacation (Part 2)

Day 5

We left Lincoln City to go to Coos Bay to stay with my grandma.  We decided to spend some time in Newport.  Of course it was raining hard that day, making it difficult to go store to store.  We also found out that restaurants in Newport are closed on Wednesdays.  I don't know why every town we were in places were closed when we were there but it was sort of annoying.  We did got to a glass blowing studio.  They were not doing any demonstrations, but we did buy this amazing glass float.  When we got in Coos Bay we had a little run in with the Wal-Mart photo department over the pictures Elizabeth took, lets just say I am not going to Wal-Mart again to print photos.  We then got to see my grandma.  I have not seen her in two years so it was so good to see her and we spent the rest of the night talking. 

Day 6
We went to Shore Acres, which is a garden in the Charleston area, with my grandma.  It was really pretty with spring flowers and close to the garden there are views of the ocean which are really neat. 

 After we left my grandma bought some fresh crab from a little store on the dock.  We ate the crab for dinner with melted butter and it was so good.  It has been so long since I had a whole fresh crab and it was heaven.  She was so nice to do that for us. 

Day 7

We had a laid back day walking around Mingus Park and downtown Coos Bay.  We then played games with my grandma.  Jason won all of the games which was annoying.  My grandma and I wanted to beat him up.  One great thing about spending so much time with my grandma was getting to hear a bunch of stories about my family I had never heard before.  I thought that was so great.

Day 8

Last time we went to Oregon Jason loved the drive down to Brookings, so we decided to do it again.  My grandma came with us and it was great.  The beaches and ocean are so beautiful down there and you can see some of it from the highway.  It was just so nice to stand out and breath the fresh ocean air and stare at how pretty it was.  I know I am biased but I think that the Oregon coast and the western part of Oregon is the most beautiful place in the world and I wish we could move there.  I would love to live there again.  We then took my grandma to dinner and played more games.  This time my grandma actually beat Jason on Quiddler, but he won all the other games. 

Vacation (Part 1)

   We just got back from our vacation to Oregon.  We had so much fun and it was super hard to come back home.  So here is a quick synopsis of how our vacation went. 

Day 1

We left for Idaho to stay with Jason's sister's family.  Elizabeth and Tom made us hamburgers for lunch and we played our new game, Dominion.  (Thanks Rosanne and Jeremy for introducing us to the game.  Jason had to go out and buy it right away.)  It was so fun to see them and see our new niece, who is super cute and it was really fun to hold her.  Elizabeth also took new pictures of us, which was so nice of her and she is so talented.  She did such a good job and although we don't have all of the pictures here are a couple of pictures that she took. 

Day 2

We left Idaho and headed to Oregon.  We stopped in Portland to eat at Shari's, which I had not eaten at in years.  It was just ok.  We then went to Tillamook because Jason really wanted cheese curds and ice cream.  Tillamook makes the best ice cream.  After that we went to Lincoln City where we had reservations at the same hotel that we stayed at last time that is right on the beach.  We immediately took a walk on the beach and walked on the beach until sunset.  We also watched the waves from our hotel room at night. 

Day 3

 We decided that we would wonder around Lincoln City.  We had found this place online that we wanted to go to for breakfast.  We drove down there and they were closed.  They were closed Mondays and Tuesdays.  So we just drove down the main road in Lincoln City and found this little hole in the wall place that only had six tables.  Jason ordered the crab omelet and I got the pancakes.  The food was so good and I could not believe how much crab they put in Jason's omelet.  We then walked to little stores around Lincoln City and then went to the outlet stores.  We then decided to drive down to Depoe Bay and looked around there.  When we got back to Lincoln City we ate at a seafood restaurant for dinner, which was really good.  We then walked on the beach. 



Day 4

We got up early to drive to Cannon Beach to look at the tide pools at Haystack rock.  We had never been up there before so we were pretty excited.  It was pretty fun.  We got to see starfish and anemones.  I really wanted to see a puffin, but we could not see them.  We then walked on the beach for a couple of hours, because the beach was huge.  It is one of my favorite beaches we have been to. We then decided to drive up to Astoria because we had heard how great the city was.  No offense to Astoria, but I was underwhelmed and wished we had spent more time in Cannon Beach.  We then went back to Tillamook for more cheese and ice cream. When we got back to Lincoln City we walked on the beach one more time, as we were leaving the next day.  When we got back we were hungry, but found out that every place in Lincoln City closes before 9 pm.  That was kind of frustrating, luckily Dairy Queen was open. 



What I have been up to

The last two weeks I have been busy preparing my house for a home inspection. I like to make sure the house is super clean when we have one. This one was with LDS Family Services but compared to the Foster Care inspections, it was a piece of cake. I mean they are always stressful but the foster care one is really stressful. Before getting ready for the inspection I worked on a lot of projects so I thought I would share pictures of some of them I have finished and ones I am working on. Since I am not working right now I have been working on quite a few things.


This is the onesie I am making for my new niece that was born a week and a half ago. I bought the black onesie and I am sewing on the pick flowers. It is not quite done but this is what it will look like. I have ideas for other onsies to make, so I guess when I make them I will have to post pictures. I was hoping it would look like a boutique onesie so hopefully it does.

This is a baby afghan I made. It was suppose to be for one of my sister-in-laws, but she lost the baby. So I am just going to save it for when she has another one.

This afghan I made for my new neice. I am making another one that is purple with green ribbon that is for her sister. I thought it would be fun to make them matching afghans.

This baby afghan I made just because I liked the design. I don't know what I am going to do with it yet.

I made this floral arrangement for my sister-in-law. I had wanted to do something like this for years, but was not sure if I could. When I told Kirsten about my idea she liked it so I thought I would make it for her.

I made this afghan for my friend's son for Christmas. I made one for his sister too, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Hers was red, purple, blue, and white and had flowers and starfish on it. I liked the colors of this afghan but I did not really like the yarn, it was not the easiest to work with. He liked it though so I guess that is what counts.

Well that is part of what I have been up to since finishing school and being at home by myself. They are not anything spectacular, but it does keep my busy. I have also been working in my yard trying to get it cleaned up since the winter. I am going to work on it a lot this week so maybe I will posts some pictures. We planted some new plants and soon we are going to plant another rose bush. I hated one of my bushes so I tore it out and I am going to replace it when I find the perfect bush to replace it. So that is keeping me busy too.

A big decision

Jason and I have made an important decision for us. We have decided to try another adoption agency in the hopes that we will be placed with a child. We will still be going through LDS Family Services in case a situation presents itself through that agency, but we will be on the list of the other agency too. We are hoping that going through two agencies will result in being chosen by birthparents for adoption. We are also keeping our license of Foster Care, but we are not actively trying to foster. We talked about it a lot and decided that we could not handle another situation like we went through last year. Especially when the child will be in our home and if the child left it would be even more difficult.
Going though another agency was a big decision because their fees are a lot more than LDSFS, however, we feel like this is the path to take right now so I guess we will see what happens. It will be a few months before we apply because we are trying to get a few things together and we have to construct a new profile. But I am hoping by the summer we will be approved and on their waiting list. We are both cautiously optimistic about going through another agency and it is a little scary, but I guess if it is right it will all turn out okay in the end. It is also giving me something to do because I have the profile book to work on and I am hoping that we can have two home studies done in the next couple of months so I have to get ready for those.
Well that is our latest adoption update. I can't believe that we have been trying to adopt for almost four years now, it seems like forever. Hopefully going through this new agency will result in a placement or the closure for us to move on to other things in our lives.

The cookie told me to

Last week Jason and I got chinese from P.F. Chang's. My fortune cookie said, "A new pair of shoes will do you a world of good." Well not to go against a cookie, to quote Homer Simpson, "They are so sweet.", I decided to buy some new shoes. So last week I bought these black shoes. I was skeptical of them at first because I don't normally like the shoes that have platforms on the toe area, but when I put them on they were so freaking cute I could not pass them up. In addition they make me quite a bit taller since the heels are four inches. While I was at the store my friend showed me these really cute wedge sandals that were tourqouise, which is usually not a color I buy. I tend to stick with black and red. I tried them on and loved them, but thought that I could not buy two pairs of shoes. But this week I could not stop thinking about them so today I went back and bought them. They are super cute and look good with the new pair of crop pants I just bought. They make me taller too. So I think that I am done buying shoes for a little bit. But the cookie was right buying new shoes did make me happier.

Valentines Day

Usually Jason and I don't do a lot to celebrate Valentines. We try and do things throughout the rest of the year, so we don't put a lot of stock into one day. This year however we did quite a bit for each other. It started with Jason sending me roses last week. They came in an Oregon box which I though was weird, but then I opened the box and saw these green and yellow roses. I could not believe that he found Oregon Ducks colored roses. They made me laugh. I think that it is funny that most husbands get their wives red roses for Valentines, but I get football roses. I love it.

So I guess in retaliation for the roses I made Jason a candy bar bouquet. I got the idea at Smith's and decided to make one for him. It turned out pretty good, but after a day or two some of the candy bars fell off. I gave it to him before Valentines for two reasons: I was excited for him to have it and I was too lazy to try and find a place to hide it.
For Valentines day I decided to make Jason a special romantic dinner. We never go out to dinner on Valentines because it is crazy and I prefer to have to rush through my dinner because the restaurant is so busy. I had a couple of ideas and after deciding it would be too hard to find duck, I decided to make rack of lamb. I had never made it before and I was sort of nervous. It was not that easy to find the rack of lamb, but finally I did. So I made roasted rack of lamb with a mustard sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and a salad. Not to brag, but it came out pretty yummy. I tried to make it look fancy like a restaurant, which it sort of does.

For dessert I made panna cotta, another new recipe for me. I decided to make vanilla panna cotta, with raspberry syrup and berries. It turned out really good and Jason really liked it.

So that was our Valentines day. I was excited that the food turned out good, since it I spent hours cooking.

Well that is about all that is going on with us. Jason is still working a lot of hours and I am just working on projects. I will have to post some of them soon.

Da, da, da, da

Last Saturday Jason and I went to Beethoven's 5th symphony presented by the Utah Symphony. We bought the tickets back in September or October and I had been looking forward to it since. I decided to buy a new dress and my sister helped me find a very cute black Calvin Klein dress. It was kind of expensive, but when Jason saw it his first reaction was, "Holy Crap!" so I figured it was worth the money. Every time I think of Calvin Klein dresses I think of the movie Clueless, so the dress makes me laugh. Well, on to the symphony which was really lovely. Listening to the 5th symphony live was really great. They also preformed a new cello piece, written by a Swiss composer, that was really interesting. I don't really know how to describe music in technical terms, but I know how music makes me feel and I found this piece really interesting and different. I thought they were going to play a peice by Mendolsen and when I found out that they wern't I was disappointed, but after hearing the cello peice I was glad I got to hear something as interesting as it was. It was also interesting to see the man who played the cello because he was so passionate about the music and I love to see people who are so passionate about what they do. In April we are going to another Beethoven piece, which I am looking forward too. Since we went to two symphony preformances this year maybe next year we will go to the opera.