busy day...

As always, I'm trying to stay on top of my blogging, but my life has just been too full of work, fun times and when I have time, sleep.

This is a day from early in November. It started out with Bill drilling a hole in my foundation. I'm so darn stubborn and really insist on having a full size washer/dryer in the basement. After renting a really big drill, Bill was nice enough to do the dirty work. I consider myself to be a fairly strong lady, but I couldn't even hold this thing up. It took at least 45 minutes of drilling and Mr. Bill persistently pushed on, while I was second guessing my decision to voluntarily make a hole in the foundation of my home. It worked out though and since drilling the whole, the plumbing has been updated and a wall has been framed. What did I do to deserve such skilled help?

Here are some pics from the ordeal...





I should also mention that after the hole was drilled, Bill voluntarily went into the crawl space to connect the dryer piping. THIS IS MY WORST NIGHTMARE PEOPLE!!! The thought of all the creepy crawly things that were down there makes me cringe and cry at the same time.

Success!!

After working on the house for hours, we had a pre Thanksgiving dinner at Desiree's house followed by kareoke in North Portland. Des is a cook for sure. She made a fantastic meal with all the fixins!




Had to include a dramatic cheesy photo.

It was a good day!

RoxxyRiley!!

Temoya and Roxxy came up for the weekend and they stopped by the house for a visit. It is always great to see these two. Roxy is growing up so fast and she is pretty much one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. We made a quick run for sushi, since Temojai doesn't have many options in good ol' Oakridge.

My god she is cute!

Oh no! the chopsticks got her nose!

Roxxy eats a lemon-

Mom and daughter-

Beth trying to entertain Roxxy... and Temoya too!

Roxy is pooped!

Breefly in PDX for a visit

Bree and I have been friends since 1999. We met at Washington State University (Go Cougs!). Bree is a reslifer. She is an advocate. She is just an all-around awesome person.

She was in Portland for a conference in higher education. I was so happy to have her as a house guest. We had an opportunity to hang out, catch up and see some Portland night life. We also managed to spend some time at the floatclub before she left town.

Good times.


Bree hanging out in my house.

Silly Beth charging forward in the duck boat.

Betty giving kayaking a go.

This is the duckboat. It is this tiny boat that is supposedly good for sneaking up on Ducks. It is fun to pass by a 50' yacht in this little boat. The big-wig yacht folks love to laugh at this cozy little floating platform, adorned with a broken white plastic lawn chair. I love it.

a little bit of kayak fun....

One last pic before Bree drove back to Seattle. Thanks for the visit Bree! It was a ton of fun!

Halloween 2010

Just a quick post on Halloween.

It was really a last minute effort to put something together this year. I ended up going as a tennis player. Bill went as a certain movie character with the last name Diggler. I thought he looked like Marky Mark the entire time, but he didn't believe it until some people at the front door of the PDX party we went to screamed out, "DIRK"!!! It was funny.

There are also pics of Des as Medusa and Zach in his PeeWee outfit. Halloween is definitely his night.

Until next year....






What a cutie!

basement happenings.....

So......my basement continues to be a work in progress. My original goals were to quickly make it livable and rent it out ASAP. Turns out, that is much harder than one might think. I did drag my feet on getting the electrical work completed, but even more of a problem was my interest in making it a desirable place to live. Since I started the remodeling project, several things have happened. My partially employed neighbor has been re-framing and drywalling for very cheap. This has made a huge difference in the feeling and appearance of the entire basement. There are also two new windows, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. The big projects have included reframing, new drywall and taping, electrical updates and the plumbing. I finally got the electrical stuff done and am also feeling very thankful to Mr. Bill who has ridiculous handyman skills. He plumbed the kitchen/laundry area. Words can not express my appreciation for his time and efforts in this area.

Here are a few pics from around the basement.

Bill working on the plumbing. Notice my free craigslist cabinets in the bottom of the pic. They have been primed and will be painted a nice, clean white very soon. Butcher block countertops, new stainless steel sink and faucet to follow!

New window in the bedroom. There is also a new centrally located light, new outlet and new convenient light switch. I'm wondering why I didn't become an $$electrician$$?

The newly framed closet and door.

The bathroom- which thankfully was done when I moved in. I just had to have the ceiling drywalled.

This is a view of the kitchen/entry/bathroom area from the living room.

This is the living room/bedroom side of the basement.

Bill finishing his work.

Braya and Baby hanging out in the basement.

I'm feeling really good about the basement. Thinking I wouldn't mind living down there myself! I will have a Basement party when it is all complete. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Crabbing turned stormy beach weekend

About a month ago, I had plans to crab with Bill. For those of you who are reading from afar, Bill is my boyfriend. I won't go into details about how cool he is in this post (I wouldn't want to embarrass him too much), but I will list a few things that contribute to every second of fun we share when we're together. 1) He is brilliant, 2) He loves all things outdoors 3) He's hilarious, 4) He plays amazing music, 5) He's an artsy photog, 6) He loves to travel- everywhere 7) He loves the snow and 8) He has an insatiable appetite for life. I think we will have lots of fun together!

Back to the crabbing weekend. We had reserved a boat and tried to crab in Netarts Bay, when Mother Nature decided that it was time for a huge storm to hit the Oregon Coast. Instead, we enjoyed all the cozy comforts and had a great weekend in Pacific City. Geez I wish I had a piece of land in that little city. I Love IT!

We slowly made our way back to the city, stopping to enjoy Tillamook Ice cream, rustic photo sessions and local art galleries. Not sure it could have been better.

We are not done with the crabbing. A boat has since been purchased and we WILL get back out there so I can make my crab bisque. yum!

A few pics from our lazy weekend...

houseboat life

I continue to be really busy. I have been able to pack in some fun things too, not just work. I will have more time for commentary in the future, but for now, I'm posting mostly pics.

These pics are from a few months ago at the floatclub (Bill's house) in North Portland.