PDX Happenings

Not to say that the last couple of weeks of job searching have been fun, but I haven’t had to style my hair, wear make-up and I’ve been avoiding my previous dress-code black like it’s been dipped in swine flu.  I’ve spent my days:  job searching, cleaning house, doing laundry and a couple of home improvement projects here and there.  That all changed on Friday when I had my first job interview after applying for about 20 jobs in the last month.

Last Thursday I applied for the Assistant Director position at a local cosmetology school knowing that I had the skills and experience to fit the job as advertised.  I was confident as I hit “send” and my cover letter, resume and letter of recommendation entered into cyberspace.  I emailed the job advertisement to my sister, John and my mom to show them the great opportunity that was sitting in front of me.

On Friday morning around 10:00 am I got a call from the Director asking if I could come in that day for an interview.  My day just happened to be free (of course) so I agreed to meet him at 3:30.  I left early since I had to run an errand downtown and wanted to arrive in plenty of time.  It seems I left a little too early since I arrived at the school a entire hour before my interview.  I decided to run to the bank and drive around the neighborhood a little since I wasn’t that familiar with SE Portland.  I spied a Thai restaurant called Pok Pok (2007 Restaurant of the Year) that John and I have been meaning to try among the other neighborhood landmarks.  After my bit of exploring I headed back to the school to arrive 15 minutes early for my interview.

I met the Director, Darin, and he started off the interview with a tour of the facility.  It is a locally owned, small school, but very nice, clean and organized.  It was empty as most students had already left for the day.  After my tour we headed up to the office and the interview began.  He was a very nice man and I was confident in my skills so I was very relaxed during the interview.  We talked a lot about my experience in the salon industry and why I wanted to break into the education side of cosmetology.  I explained that I’ve always had a passion for education and especially loved training and working with new staff in my previous management jobs.  Things seemed to be going well and he told me he would be making a decision by the middle of this week.

We kept talking and I felt like he started picking my brain about how to manage women, specifically young women in such a creative industry.  I told him my methods and how I gauge my staff each and every work day.  Itold him that I also manage everyone differently.  Direct talk may work for one person but someone else may need a softer approach.  We kept chatting and the interview started winding down.  He ended by telling me that he’s had a couple of good interviews already and had some resumes set for interviews next week but he really liked what I had to say and felt that it was a fit and offered me the job on the spot!  I did tell him that I wanted to take the weekend to think about it and discuss it with John as it would involve working Saturdays and so I felt it was a family decision.

After talking about it over the weekend, I have decided to take the job (naturally).  I am still working on figuring out Hadley’s daycare situation before I know my official start date, but I will be starting no later than August 1st.  I’m having a bit of a hard time accepting the fact that I will be working on Saturdays and missing that family time, but I’ve compiled a list of reasons why working on Saturdays won’t be so bad.

1. I won’t ever have a case of the “Mondays”
2. We will only have to pay for Hadley in daycare 4 days a week
3. Hadley will have a day to bond with each parent separately, and one day together as a family each week
4. I never have to work evenings
5. There will be no rush hour to contend with on Saturdays
6. Errands are easier to run on Mondays
7. I can drink a case of Schlitz while watching Bret Favre and the Vikings on Sunday and sleep it off on Monday

There you have it.  Once I put it that way, it sounds pretty darned exciting doesn’t it?  Thanks for your suggestions as to why “working on Saturdays rules” to Mary, my Mom, Jay, Scott and Shanna—can you guess which suggestion was Shanna’s?  If you have any more reasons, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Our Fourth of July holiday started off with a bang, that’s for sure.  We spent some time at the dogpark on Friday morning and got some chores done around the house.  We spent the bulk of the afternoon in the backyard playing with sidewalk chalk and cooling off in Hadley’s baby pool, because it was a hot day indeed.  For dinner we decided to grill some chicken quarters that we had in the freezer.  I submerged them in their ziplock bag in some warm water while we ran to the grocery store.  When we got back they were perfectly thawed so we dried them off and seasoned them up with some home made spice rub from our Weber grilling cookbook.  We were excited to eat them along with the pasta and steamed broccoli we had prepared.  They were gorgeous and perfectly done after an hour on the grill.  John pulled them off and we sat down to dinner.  John and I ate a good portion of chicken, but little Hadley decided the pasta and broccoli were much more appetizing, let me tell you, I wish I would have followed her lead.

We had a pretty uneventful evening, put Hadley to bed and watched a movie in bed.  Right around the end of the movie, my stomach started bothering me.  We went to bed shortly after the movie was over, excited for the next days plans.  We were going to head to Sauvie Island bright and early right after breakfast to let the dogs run around on the beach and swim in the water.  The afternoon was to consist of sitting on Amherst Street with our neighbors, having a couple of cold ones, enjoying the potluck, talent show and company at our annual Fourth of July block party.  Well, things didn’t pan out.  I could not fall asleep because my stomach was bothering me so bad.  I finally got out of bed at 2:30 in the morning and hurried my way to the bathroom, I was sick.  Dinner was not in my stomach anymore, but at least I got some relief.  I brushed my teeth and headed back to bed.  I was so dehydrated in the morning and still pretty sick to my stomach so John took over and I stayed in bed.  I ended up not getting out of bed until I was feeling better around 2:30 in the afternoon.  Poor John took care of Hadley all morning (who, to be honest, was in a pretty tough mood), made the pasta salad and the brownies for the potluck and brought in water, Perrier and medicine for me in between.

Enjoying the block party

I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower and really was feeling a lot better.  We got Hadley into her darling little Fourth of July dress, packed a cooler and some lawnchairs into the wagon and walked down the block to the party.  We chatted with our neighbors, Hadley found stuff to play with (wreck) and I let out a big sigh of relief…….until I looked at John.  He was looking a little green around the gills and told me he thought he needed to go home and rest for a while, he wasn’t feeling so well.  He headed home and Hadley and I stayed at the party.  We had a great time but definitely missed John’s company.  We went home once to check on him and found him curled up in bed, under the covers and complaining of severe abdominal cramps.  It had finally hit poor John.

I stayed at the party as long as I could and as long as Hadley would allow.  John needed his rest and I wanted to go home and put Hadley to bed after the neighborhood kids and teenagers had indulged their pyromania fantasies. I didn’t want to tend to a waking and crying baby when I was still pretty green myself.  Little Hadley was a trooper and LOVED the fireworks.  We didn’t see a big show, but some neighbors had crossed the border over to Vancouver and gotten some pretty cool ones.  Hadley saw them and would say “ohhhhhh, WOW!” over and over.  It was so wonderful to see the expression of wonder on her face.  After each one burned out she would sign and say “more, more, more”.  I was so bummed that John didn’t get to see it and I wasn’t able to videotape it.  But I suspect next year will be even better.  Here are a few pictures that I did manage to take.

Hadley stayed up for all the neighborhood fireworks and then laid her head on my lap and said “nigh-nigh” so I knew it was time to get her home.  She got home and into her bed around 10:30pm and went right to sleep.  Being the great little sleeper that she is, she slept in until 8:30 and then took a 3 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon so mom and dad could fully recover.  As if that wasn’t enough we topped off the weekend with a migraine (John) and a chest cold (me).  The stars just weren’t lined up for us this weekend, here’s hoping that next weekend is a little better.

Today we are finally feeling better but we have agreed that it was the worst holiday weekend ever.  Oh, and we are now vegetarians.

I’ve seen this sign a hundred times and never really noticed it.  I was walking by it the other day and really looked at it.  I’m not sure why a Teeter Totter sign needs to be posted in reflective yellow, but I don’t make the sign rules either.

I know, I know, I’m so late at posting this!  But I’ve been job searching like crazy and spending hours on end on the computer, it’s hard to get the motivation to blog.  But here I am, better late than never.

Last weekend John’s dad came out from Rochester, MN and we had an amazing time.  We were able to spend a weekend

"Bompba" and Hadley enjoying a book

in Cannon Beach at Tolovana Inn and we were even able to bring the pooches!  they are a former client of John’s company and so we’ve had the perk of spending a couple of weekends there on trade dollars.  Gotta love the trade system!  It’s a beautiful hotel, we have never been disappointed.

We headed out on Friday around lunch time.  Before we left town we stopped at a 7-11 to get some sodas for the road.  It just happened to be “free lunch Friday” at the 7-11 we went to.  So we started with a couple of sodas, some chicken strips and some jo-jo’s.  Score!  This weekend was going to be good!  It was a pretty uneventful drive out except for a couple of downpours along the way.  We got to the hotel and were able to check in an hour early because our room happened to be ready.  Score again!  We brought our stuff up to the second floor and opened the door to our “Luxury One Bedroom Suite” and had a look around.  The room was fabulous!  Double sinks and granite in the bathroom, full kitchen, large living room with fire place and a flat screen tv and a sweet little porch with a view of the ocean.  Hadley took off and started running around the place like a crazy woman and the dogs were content staring at the ocean out the wall of windows.

Haystack Rock, daddy and Hadley

We settled in, unpacked the cooler, and did our best to break in the leather club chairs.  After a couple hours of that, we finally got out to the beach.  The dogs loved being off their leashes and Patrick loved the feeling of the ocean air blowing through his curls.  They ran around, greeting people and other dogs and Patrick constantly fought the urge to go swimming.  He went in up to his belly, but the water was cold!  It typically only warms up to about 58 degrees by mid-summer, no matter what the air temperature.  But that didn’t stop us from putting our feet in and scanning the beach for sand dollars and other treasures.  It was Hadley’s first time going to the beach since she was about 8 weeks old, we were excited to see her reaction to the sand.  She loved it and toddled around in it and even made a couple of attempts at some sand castles.  But mostly she was happy walking around and pointing out all the “doggies” and “ducks” (seagulls).

We comfortably slept to the sound of the ocean and woke up to sunshine.  It didn’t stay sunny all day, but it didn’t rain either.  It was a comfortable 60ish degrees and we

Crab legs for dinner?

spent another couple of hours combing the beach and building sand castles.   Tom took us out for dinner on Saturday night at a local pub and brewery and we got our fish and chips and seafood fix and went back to the condo the have a couple of beers and full bellies.  We spent Sunday morning enjoying more beach time after some pancakes at the condo.  Then, sadly, we had to bid farewell to the beach and head back to Portland.

It was Father’s Day so John and Tom got some fingerpaintings that Hadley had done the previous week and we had a

Father's Day at the Beach

lovely day at home.  It was relaxing for John and I, busy for Tom as he was fixing stuff for us.  He fixed the hot water pressure on my kitchen sink.  The hot water has only been coming out in a trickle for the last 4 years!  We just never quite knew where to start on fixing it and let’s face it, we’re too cheap to call a plumber.  Well, 10 minutes later, a dirty bucket of water and a bent wire hanger later, my water pressure was fixed!  My quality of life has changed since Tom fixed our sink!!  He also looked at Hadley’s doorknob and took about 4 minutes to fix that as well.  It seemed the knob was longer than the width of the door and it would slide back and forth when closing the door and make a loud noise.  Obviously this is annoying when you are putting a tiny babe down and quietly trying to back out of the room.  Like I said, 4 minutes later, Tom had that

Mr. Fixit!

sucker pulled out, turned around, reinstalled and tightened.  Now I could close that door in church and no one would hear it.  We let Tom off the hook after that, since it was Father’s Day and all. But I have to say,  Tom inspired me to do a little home improvement around here myself.  I cleaned all the grout with bleach and a toothbrush in the kitchen.  I also removed all the old crumbling grout from around the sink and from where the backsplash meets the wall and reapplied it.  A minor fix that when all said and done, only took a couple of hours, but it’s made a world of difference when you look at my kitchen!  I’ve also purchased a tube of caulk and this week I plan on sealing all the cracks in the windown and door mouldings.  This should have been done when they were put up and before they were painted but the previous owner hadn’t caulked them and as new

Is there more paint on the picture or on Hadley?

homeowners, John and I didn’t know any better.  Mark my words though, it will be fixed by my birthday!

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Bompba on Monday morning.  After daycare that evening we drove up to our house and Hadley started pointing at saying “Bompba? Bompba? Bompba?”  we had to tell her for a couple of days that Bompba went home but we would be seeing him again in September.

Thanks for coming out Tom, we all enjoyed your visit so much, and Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there!!!

Now, what good is a post without pictures?

Hadley and her teachers: Sage (L) and Anesha (R)

Last weekend we attended Hadley’s “Gala” at her daycare.  This was the first year they have decided to do it and it will surely be an annual event.  On Saturday afternoon from 3:30-5:00, each classroom was open for parents and family members to walk through to see how our kids have been spending the year.  They had delicious food, cake and a three piece band (keyboard, drums and a stand up bass) playing from the top of the play structure on the playground as well.

Hadley’s class (the Chechen Room) was lined with story boards and pictures depicting the different projects and activities that have taken place in the last 9 months.  They do things at her daycare that I would never do at home!  For instance they were having a unit on textures and sensory experience.  They had large bins (think food-service size) of cornmeal and flour that the kids could play in and run their fingers through.  I’m not sure what Hadley gained from it but it sure looked like she had fun!  She had flour everywhere and looked like the cutest little clown I’ve ever seen, complete with white face paint.  The tie-dyed shirt that I dressed her in that day didn’t help her cause either.

Growing Seeds is a wonderful daycare and we are so grateful that Hadley gets to spend her days learning and exploring

Watching the class video montage that Sage made for the parents

there.  She loves her teachers and her friends and we love the type of learning that goes on.  Each class has a Spanish speaking teacher and an English speaking teacher.  There have been numerous studies on the benefits of bilingual education and it’s been fun to see Hadley learn some Spanish words.  She actually said “agua” before she said “water” and has used both Spanish and English words when pointing things out.  She has been known to call a duck “pato” in addition to the English word.  John and I took Spanish in high school so we’re able to get some simple books from the library in Spanish to keep things consistent but before we know it, she’ll be passing us up!

They also use American Sign Language throughout the day and Hadley has learned to communicate using some signs.  She can tell us when she wants to eat, when she’s thirsty, when she’s all done, and when she’s gone poop among other things.  It’s been so helpful to be able to communicate with her before she’s really talking.  She probably knows about 20 signs and is learning more daily.

Speaking of talking, Hadley has had a little growth spurt in her speech lately as well.  Her words may not be clear to everyone, but John and I are understanding more and more words, signs and sounds from her.  She knows about 15 animal sounds (”Hadley, what does a cow say?” “MOOOOOOOO!”–cuteness!!) and has about 20 words.  It’s amazing to me how much she can understand as well.  It’s been a really fun couple of months watching her take everything in and learn on a daily, almost hourly basis.  I’m really convinced that the excellent care she receives at Growing Seeds has helped foster her learning and growing.  It’s really no wonder we were on the waiting list for a year before we got in!

And of course, the link to some current pictures of the little one.

Scott and Jenn live down in Eugene (about 1.5 hours south of Portland) and invited us to join them on the Annual Wine Tour that they attend.  We bought advance tickets a month or two ago for $50.  That included the charter bus to 6 different wineries, and 3 wines at each vinyard paired with food for each one.  The food was amazing, the wine even more so.  What did we do with miss Hadley?  Our friends Brian and Kara were also going and their nanny was available to take care of both babies (Sam is just 2 weeks younger than Hadley).  From what I hear, that babies had a great time, but I can assure you, we had it even better!

After dropping Hadley off at Brian and Kara’s house we met up in the mall parking lot to board our charter bus and start the adventure.  We were also joined by Jennifer’s parents, Lucian and Eileen Eddy.  They have made the trip down from Blaine, Washington for 3 years going now and I expect we will all be going on this tour for as long as they let us on.  It was such a fun day!

I will list the Vinyards we visited, along with a fact or two about each one and then the wine and food pairings.  I’ve also linked to each one, definitely check them out!

Saginaw Vineyard-Saginaw was the smallest of all that we visited, it is a little farm outside of Eugene with an amazing array of wines for such a small place in a really charming setting.

• 2007 Chardonnay–Gorgonzola and white wine cheese torte on artisan bread
• 2007 Pinot Noir barrel sample–Grilled chicken skewers with garlic and ginger marinade
• 2006 Marechal Foch–Decadent chocolate brownie (yes, we had a brownie for breakfast and it was delicious!)

Iris-The tasting room at the Iris Vineyard was not able to host this year because of some permit issues so we tasted the wines at their warehouse in Cottage Grove.  There were huge steel vats and barrels upon barrels of wine housed there.

• 2007 Iris Pinot Gris–Seared tuna wrapped in lettuce
• 2008 Iris Pinot Noir barrel sample–Beef bruschetta
• 2005 Iris Pinot Noir Reserve–Smoked salmon mousse

Chateau Lorane-The tasting room was nestled in the woods at the end of a long, windy, uphill road.  It sits just above a lake where apparently the owner of the vinyard is said to waterski naked.  It was a littly chilly up there, so we didn’t get to see the water show.

• 2007 Tempranillo Rose–Spinach spread with breads and fresh fruit
• Marechal Foch barrel sample–Mushroom risotto
• D’Vine Red–Cayenne spice chocolate bars with raspberry drizzle (sounds weird but was fabulous!!)

King Estate-This is one incredible place!  It is 1033 acres of certified organic vinyard.  I believe it is has one of the largest barrel rooms on the entire West Coast.

• 2007 Signature Pinot Gris–Estate smoked trout with horseradish and watercress
• 2007 NxNW Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon–King estate bratwurst
• 2008 Block 2A Clone 114 Pinot Noir barrel sample–Blue cheese and chive tartlettes

Hinman Vinyards/Silvan Ridge-Hinman is actually the vineyards grocery label and retails for about $10-$12 a bottle.  They save the best grapes and wines for their Silvan Ridge label.  It is the oldest winery in the valley at over 30 years.

• 2006 Merlot–Caprese crostinis
• 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon barrel sample–Sausage and mushroom tartlets
• 2007 Early Muscat Semi-sparkling–Homemade cheesecake

Sweet Cheeks Winery-The winemaker at this place was an import from Australia, he hates to be called “Mac” so don’t do it and if you call him “gorgeous” he’ll pour you a hell of a sample!

• 2008 Estate Pinot Gris–Bay scallop and grapefruit ceviche
• 2008 Syrah barrel sample–Wild mushroom and goat cheese turnovers
• 2008 Reisling–Mixed berry tiramisu and lime curd marscapone

Most of the tasting rooms were open to the people on the wine tour as well so we tasted more than just the 18 I just listed.  Thank goodness there was so much food or we would have been in trouble!

We capped off the day by barbecueing back and Scott and Jennifer’s and recovering from the days adventures.  If you haven’t come out here yet and gone wine tasting, buy your plane ticket already!  There are some amazing vineyards, the scenery is spectacular and I promise, there is a wine for everyone.  Even the people that say “I don’t like wine” will find something to buy in the Oregon valley!

I took about 90 pictures throughout the day.  Not all of them are blog-worthy, they tended to be a little more blurry and off center towards the end of the day.  And of course, the photo documentation of the trip.

Memorial Day, out-of-town guests, garage sale, cheap beer, pool time, BBQ’s and a crispy sunburn.  We spent the weekend busy, busy, busy.  We had been planning on having a garage sale with some friends for quite some time.  We decided to have it on Saturday only in a blitz to get rid of all our junk, I mean really awesome stuff.  It was a blast, we had 3 other people participating and we hosted it at our house.

We kicked off Friday night by organizing, pricing, planning and capped it off with a couple games of cribbage.  We haven’t played in so long and the weather has been absolutely beautiful here in Portland for a straight week so it was nice to sit outside and play.  If you care to know, I kicked John’s behind in two straight games.

Saturday morning the madness began early.  Hadley woke at 7:30 and the day had begun.  Pretty shortly after that our friends Jeff and Tim were over dropping off some of their things.  We had advertised the sale on Craigslist and had written that it would be one day only from 10:00-5:00.  We had a steady stream of early birds starting around 9:00am.  Within 20 minutes we had already made a couple of sales.  Our house is really close to a main street so we had a steady stream of traffic coming all day.  We had unloaded a ton of our stuff and loaded up the rest of our things into Jeff’s truck to drop off at Goodwill once the sale was over.  I believe each family made out with $250-$300, so it was a job well done!

Scott, Jenn and Mason made the drive up from Eugene to spend the night at our house and to join in on the after garage sale festivities.  We had invited some friends and neighbors to stop by for a little potluck BBQ feast and some PBR’s outside.  We stayed up way too late, drank too many beers but had so much fun!

John and Jeff spent the day on Sunday golfing at one of our lovely local golf courses.  Hadley and I spent the day over at Jeff’s house enjoying Sofia and Ana’s company by the baby pool.  We sat out in the sun, played in the yard, and enjoyed the amazing weather that was once again bestowed upon us.

Monday was another gorgeous day in Portland (we are actually on track for setting a record for most days without rain in May).  Once Hadley went down for her nap John and I headed out back and enjoyed Hadley’s baby pool without her.  I stayed out way too long enjoying my magazines with no sunscreen on while turning to a nice shade of crimson.  I know better than that, and am now paying the price!

Tuesday was back to work for John and day at home for Hadley and me.  We actually spent the morning at Home Goods picking out new bedding for our bedroom courtesy of our garage sale earnings!  Tomorrow will be here before I know it and reality will set in when I get ready to go to work in the morning.

I mentioned in the comments in one of my previous posts that my camera actually did not break after sitting out in the rain–I did lose a few pictures (60!) but that’s ok, I’m a picture taking freak.  Here are some recent ones to show you.