Status Update

Is it really already the end of September? It is just me, or does time seem to slip by faster the older I get? It seems like we haven't been up to much, but yet there is always something going on.
On the 8th I did a quick one day trip to Beaverton for a shower for Grace and Hannah. It was so much fun to get to visit will college roommates and see other Fox-ians (some I'm sure I haven't seen since I graduated!).
My dear friend, Allison, made a quick one day trip over here on the 15th, so we had lunch and I showed her our home and we visited for a while before she had to return to her family.
Last weekend was the first weekend since July that we either weren't out of town, or didn't have guests in town. It was so nice just to have a weekend around home. I did a little shopping and (at one store) actually saved more money than I spent! That's so gratifying...I love a good sale. Plus, I'm now wearing 2, almost 3 sizes smaller than I was in April. Since I was diagnosed with PCOS, I'm supposed to be very careful about what I'm eating...my body doesn't process sugar correctly. No (real) sugar for Shara...just lots of fresh veggies, lean protein, some fruits, and whole grains (mostly organic), ooh and vitamins.
This week I've been trying some new recipies: Parmsean Tilapia (so yummy), Pork Loin w/ Orange Sauce, Cheese crusted chicken. I'm not much of a seafood fan, but I'm going to try a Chipolte Shrimp recipe since Curtis loves seafood and I like spicy food.
This weekend, my friend since 2nd grade (yes, we've been friends for 21 years, in fact, we met and became friends amost exactly 21 years ago - I think it was some time in October), her husband and their 2 daughters are coming for a visit! I'm so excited for them to get here! We don't get to see each other often enough, but when we're together, it's like we've never been apart. I've found I have a few friends like this, and they are such a blessing in my life. Sometimes life happens and we don't speak for a month or so, but when we do get to talk, it's so great that we just pick up where we left off. I probably don't tell them often enough that their friendships mean so much to me, so thank you, Aj, Alli, and Bre for putting up with me for this long. I love you all dearly and I hope that I can be as much of a blessing to you all as you have been to me.
One last note, I'm pretty sure my doggies are certifiable. They bark at nothing, fight over chew bones (they can only chew on one at a time, even though I give them each their own bone, they fight over one), think the living room is thier personal wrestling ring, lick their food, and make strange noises like Chewie from Star Wars.

These are the Cliff Notes of my life...

Visited family in Southern Oregon over Labor Day weekend: visited with cousins, played with babies, confiscated keys from intoxicated cousin, was told by neighbor's mother at parent's church that we have the best lawn on the block, bbq, grower's market, picked blackberries in creek for fresh blackberry cobbler.

Back to work! Short week, yeah! Too much to do in short week, boo! Tried to recover from long weekend and do laundry and clean house.

Got up early Saturday morning, headed to Portland for celebration of birth. Visited Washington Square Mall, it's been far too long since visiting a "real" mall (note to self, visit real malls more often). Visited with college friends, ate Thanksgiving dinner, but food was "finger" food, catered by one of the hostess' hubby. Yum-o! Drove home.

Cleaned house on Sunday. Haven't been home or without guests on weekends since JULY.

Back to work, sigh. No more long weekends until Thanksgiving!

Nighty night!

Tag!

I've been tagged and here are the rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight (8) random facts/stories about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight (8) things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight (8) people to tag and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and to read your blog.

On to the good stuff:

1. My least favorite Sesame Street character is Grover.
2. As a child, I used to eat my McDonald's French Fries in a precarious way. I would eat all of the fry except the very end. That is the tail, and you don't eat the tail! Sadly, I never grew out of strange eating habits. My roommates in college alwasy knew I was done eating when I would start playin with my leftover food.
3. I love lists. I make them often and for just about everything. Grocery lists, chore lists, honey-do lists, pro/con lists, things to do on vacation lists, itemized lists of my nail polish...
4. I was diagnosed with Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) in April. I debated for a while if I should even put this "announcement" on this list because it isn't very funny and I was trying to keep the list light and fun, but it does qualify as a fact about me, so....if you're curious, here is a link.
5. A short list of things I LOVE: the smell of freshly cut grass (love it when Curt mows the lawn), the sound of thunder storms (we had some really loud ones right before Labor Day), cleaning (I took a couple days off for my birthday and spent the entireday of my birth cleaning our house. Ironically, my mom could never get me to clean when I was a kid.).
6. My clothes have a particular place in the closet (no, it's not on the floor).
7. When I go to bed at night (as opposed to going to bed during the day), I find it hard to fall asleep unless one foot is sticking out of the covers. That's a nice change from how I used to sleep as a baby, with my patootie up in the air!
8. As I was driving home from a baby shower on Saturday, for the first time since Curtis and I moved to Central Oregon 2+ years ago, I found myself feeling like I was headed "home."

I tag:
1. Hannah B.
2. Hannah H.
3. Mandy
4. Faithy
5. Shannon
6. Amy
7. Marisa (now you have to post!)
8. Alli (um, hi, your last entry was in JANUARY)

Hello, Friend!

The sun has come back out to play! YEAH! I was getting worried that it had made it's exit for the summer. It's always around in the winter, but it's not so warm, just bright and shiny.

Curtis and I had a great time this weekend at Belknap Springs Resort. We both took off work on Friday so we could take out time getting over there. It's only about 100 miles from our house to the resort, so it was a quick drive. We were going to take highway 242 out of Sisters (the "scenic route") but we saw a sign that said that the highway was closed 20 miles ahead. But, before we turned around, we stopped by the nature preserve because there was a HUGE herd of cow Elk! One had even wandered over to the sprinklers to get herself a drinky!
So, instead of driving the 20 miles to see if it really was closed, we decided to take highway 20 over the Santiam Pass to highway 126.

Once we arrived and got checked in in, we decided to wander through the beautiful gardens.

There are so many flowers all over the place and I'm sure Curtis was delighted that I kept naming all the ones I knew (which was quite a few, thanks to my mom, the gardner).


Here are some shots from the Secret Garden:




Here is Curtis in the "Heart Garden" being goofy:



Saturday we decided to go for a hike, so we drove to the nearby Ranger Station to get a recommendation from the experts. The very cute ranger man suggested we hike up to "Blue Pool." He explained that about 6 miles above the Blue Pool, the McKenzie river was diverted into the Smith Reservior for the Eugene Power and Water Board (something to do with electricity). Then, it gets dumped back into the Trail Bridge Reservior. However, downstream from the Smith Res., the McKenzie river suddenly bubbles back up out of the earth about 2.5 miles above Trail Bridge Res. Cute Ranger Man (CRM) said it is the most clear-blue water you'll ever see. So, armed with a map and some water, we drove up to the trail head and started out. It was fun for a while, until we stared meeting mountain bikers coming down the trail. I serously don't know how they were biking on that trail, it was very rocky. After about 2 miles, we come upon the pool. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.




I think there might be forest fairies that color the pond blue every morning :) It sure was worth the 4 mile round trip hike. We live in such a beautiful world. Sometimes I can't believe how creative the Lord is. People diverted His river, so He created something amazing!

Once back at the resort, we hopped into the hot spring pool. There are two pools at the resort and both are heated by the hot springs. Kind of like a gigantic hot tub, except with lots of little kids yelling about how hot the pool is. After dinner, we just laid around the pool some more. There aren't TVs or phones in the rooms (which was actually very nice), so we spent more time talking and laughing. Here is the view from our room: it looks out over one of the pools and over the McKenzie River



Curtis and I figured we haven't been this relaxed since going to Hawaii 3 years ago and, we are definatly going back! There is so much to do and see and explore!

Now, it's back to reality. I think the laundry is calling my name :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

It seems like the summer has just flown by, but that could be because our Spring/Summer starts about 6 weeks after all the nice weather starts on the other side of the mountains and ends sooner, too. This morning when I left for work, the fog and crispness in the air reminded me of OCTOBER in the valley. Sigh.

Anyway, 2 weekends ago my mom and I had a girls trip to Tacoma for my cousin's daughter's first birthday. We had lots of fun visiting and watching Luci smear cake all over her face! On the way home, we stopped at the new IKEA in Portland. Boy was that a mistake, I think all of the Portland/Vacouver area were trying to get in the store. They even had people directing parking like at the county fair!

Last weekend my parents brought my grandma up for a visit. This is the first time she's been to our new house. We had lots of fun visiting with her and showing her central Oregon. We got to do lots of things we don't normally do because we live here. We took her to the top of Pilot Butte where you can see all of Bend and get a great view of the mountains. We also took her to the top of Paulina Peak on Sunday, but it was too couldy to see anything.


This weekend we're off to Belknap Hot Springs to celebrate our 3rd anniversary (it was 8/21.

Oregon Jamboree

We spent this weekend at the Oregon Jamboree in Sweet Home, OR, and although I'm not a huge country music fan, (well, let's face it, I probably know 5 country music songs and that's because I know who Carrie Underwood is...) I had a good time, but don't tell my mother in law ;)
I'm tired, sunburned, and I ate way too much food I shouldn't have, but enjoyed myself.


We haven't been up to much over the last 2 months, but boy has time flown by. We've been doing lots of yard work and enjoying the wonderful summer weather with friends and family:

My cousin Kurt's son Randall Paul (RP) and my other cousin David's daughter, Grace playing in my mom's pond.

Maverick and Patch peeking out from their very tall kitty tree where they like to sleep.

My mom and dad over Father's Day weekend and their 35th wedding anniversary! They celebrated by taking a trip to New York! My dad fulfilled a life long dream and got to see a Yankee game in Yankee Stadium!

The new flagstone thingie Curtis built for me off of our back deck.

Flower!


More flowers!



Jesse napping at my feet as I blog.

Chester trying to get in my lap as I blog.

Seattle, Portland and Grants Pass

We had a very nice Mother's Day weekend in Seattle, lots of yummy food, good company, shopping, and baseball! It is a VERY LONG car ride from LaPine, but we made the best of it. 5 of us in dad's 4-Runner. Jeff, Mom, and me in the back seat. It's a good thing we all like each other....and that we all showered!


I had a meeting in Portland the following Thursday for work and decided to stay an extra day and hang out with a couple of my roommates from Junior year of college. We had some much needed girl time. I have new appreciation for stay at home moms - they wore me out, and I was only there for 24 hours!




We went to my parent's house over Memorial Day weekend. Some of my cousins were there - I got to play with baby Luci, my cousin Jon and his wife, Erin's 9 month old. We watched the parade on Saturday, bar-b-qued on Sunday after church, saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and watched the jet boat races on Monday. We took Jesse and Chester with us, and discovered 2 things - they do NOT like long car rides and loud boats.


This last week our well started making some cha-chug, cha-chug noises....and over the weekend we started losing a lot of water pressure! We used as little water as possible and did laundry at Curt's parents' house yesterday afternoon. Today, the well fix-it man came and fixed it. Thankfully, it wasn't anything major and I can now wash my dishes. Ah, the joys of home ownership.

Let's see, what have we been up to lately?

• We stained and sealed our deck - it was finally warm enough (above 70!). Then, 5 days later, it snowed (May 3 & 4).
  
  
  
  
  
  









• Jeff, my brother, came for a visit last weekend! He enjoyed a day at the mountain and then a Cinco de Mayo dinner/bonfire we had with the neighbors. No, there wasn't any burning of inappropriate items.


• We finally got an outdoor doggie kennel for Jesse and Chester - they are much happier to be outside during the day.
  
• Our cat, Maverick ran away for about 4 hours the other night. He finally came home about 1am and scratched at the back door and meowed until I woke up and let him in. Here he is keeping the puppies in line :)

• I've been trying a bunch of new receipies from this great blog my friend told me about: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/
  


• We had dinner with some friends and then took a nice stroll along the river in Drake Park.
  


• We're going to Seattle this weekend for Mother's Day and Jeff's birthday. We'll be enjoying shopping, brunch, and a Yankee/Mariner game!
  


• Curtis planted some grass and it's finally starting to grow! I love spring!

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my younger, taller bubba, Jeff! He was born 25 years ago on Mother's Day and Mom had always said he was the best Mother's Day present she ever received. I've yet to figure out a better gift, and believe me, when I was younger, I tried!

Snow in April?

It snowed off an on for a few days over the last week....so I let the puppies out to play! They slipped across the deck trying to get each other. Then, Jesse was so tired, he fell asleep with his little head hanging out of their bed!

Thankfully, the snow only stuck around for a day and then melted away.

Introducing....

The two newest members of the Bauman household: Jesse and Chester! I had a momentary lapse in judgment and decided to adopt a puppy for Curt for his birthday (April 7 - he'll be 31!). When I showed Curt the picutres of the two puppies left at the shelter, he thought it would be a great idea to get them both. So, on March 24th we took a trip to Madras and picked up our puppies. They are cute (when they're sleeping) and fun (when they aren't trying to chew everything they can find), and they had managed to wiggle their way into our hearts by the time we arrived home (after a quick stop at the pet store to get supplies).

I'm sure you can image our kitties are less than thrilled. Maverick just sits around an glares at them and occassionally whaps them on the noggin. Patch won't leave our bedroom (it's her "safe place").

First BBQ of the Season!

It's been SO nice here the last week! We're talking high temps in the 60s! Woo Hoo! Heat Wave! Anyway, our neighbors across the street invited us over yesterday afternoon for a BBQ. Another couple and their 2 boys came over as well and we all enjoyed the warmish weather, yummy food, and watching the kids be wild. I'm just going to say that fire + big boys (as in adults that should know better) = burning things that probably shouldn't be burned....like old pleather couches....good, hot times.

Happy March!

So we finally have some snow around here. It started snowing on the 19th and has been snowing pretty much all the time since then. This is the most snow we've had all winter!

My parents came for a visit over President's Day Weekend. Mom and I did some decorating (pictures to follow one day) and shopped! She helped me pick out some curtains for the front room....they're RED, but don't worry, our walls are Walnut Cream, our couches are cream, and the carpet is brown, so the room needed a little color ;). It was so nice to have them visit. They were our first official overnight guests. They even left a small tip for the maid in the guest room. Guess I'll have to give it to her, oh, wait that's ME!

Not much else is going on....work has been crazy busy, but that's good. We're still loving our home!

For those of you who have been requesting....here are pictures of Maverik and Patch enjoying their new home and of the front and bank of the house.

We've Moved

We must have picked the coldest weekend this winter to move, but we did it. Last Friday (1/12) Curtis' dad picked up our U-Haul (we rented one incase of snow and/or other wintery type weather) and Curtis, our friend Brandon and I spent about 2 1/2 hours loading our stuff out of storage. This way all we had to do was move our stuff from the in-law's house and unpack the U-Haul. Everything went smoothly on Saturday and we had everything out (we had the biggest truck PACKED full) by mid-afternoon and most everything out of Don and Martha's house. The kitchen is usable as are the bathrooms, washer/dryer and we have TV (thanks to our across the street neighbor, Jason who is a whiz with electronics - hey, he works for the cable company). Our clothes are unpacked and there are sheets on our bed. I finally got the computer unpacked this past weekend and have been working on re-arrainging the furniture in the living room. I think the next room I'll tackle is the guest room - the bed is in, but the sheets haven't managed to make it on yet.

I tend to take my time unpacking boxes - some haven't been opened since we left Portland just over a year and a half ago. I found all our wedding cards and some souviners from our honeymoon in Hawaii. I'm down to 1 1/2 rooms that still have unpacked boxes in them, but I think that is pretty good. Here are some pictures now that we're moved in. Dad, I've included 2 pictures of the refrigerator - THANK YOU!

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! We had Christmas with Curt's parents on Thursday before Christmas and left Friday after work for my parent's house. We had a great time at my parent's house for Christmas - we fondued after the Christmas Eve service (I think it is starting to become a tradition - 2 years in a row!). My cousin, David, proposed to his girlfriend....I hear wedding bells!

There is something that has been on my heart lately and I want to share it with my blog-friends. In the morning at work, I listen to a radio show out of Texas and they do this thing called "Breaking and Entering Christmas." Basically, people write in about someone they know who, for whatever reason, doesn't have enough money for Christmas. The listeners donate money and gifts and one of the morning show hosts goes to the house (conveniently, the family is not at home) and sets up a tree, presents and fills their fridge with food for Christmas dinner. This year the family of 6 was living in a travel trailer (much like the one Curt and I have been staying in for the past 7 months) because their house was destroyed by a tornado sometime in November. They have 2 storage sheds they use for "extra" living space. It hit me that I have been whining a lot about living in the trailer at my in-law's house. We are so lucky because, in a few weeks, we get to move out of the trailer into our brand new house. This family's lives were interrupted when their house was destroyed but their attitudes were that of gratefulness because nobody was killed (several family members were injured).

So, I prayed a simple prayer asking for forgiveness for my ungrateful and whiney attitude and I let my in-laws know how much I appreciate their generosity these past 7 months. They opened up their home (and trailer) to us not knowing exactly how long this process would take. I know they are ready for their space and daily routines to go back to normal (my mother-in-law had a moment of honesty the night before we left for Christmas saying they needed a break from us just as much as we needed a break from them), but I'm sure they will miss having us around when we move out.

Today is our walk through - the day we get to point out all the things that we think are wrong so they can be fixed (like the big hole in the drywall under the kitchen sink from the finish carpenter). We still don't have an exact move-in date, but I've been told about 2 weeks!

Frozen Hair, Car Doors That Won’t Shut and Frost on the Inside of Windows

That’s what I’ve been dealing with the past 2 mornings! I opened the window shade in the trailer only to discover frost on the INSIDE. My cat, Patch likes to hop up on the table and lick the condensation off the window (yes, she has issues), but had a very surprised look on her face when she licked the frost. I immediately laughed and had pictures in my head of her tongue sticking to the window, so I closed the shade to prevent her from injuring herself. I won’t bore you by complaining that it was -2 Monday morning and how when it is that cold the heater in the trailer doesn’t so much like to work. Funny how that is…

We got all our Christmas shopping done this weekend…YEAH! As I was baking some cookies Sunday evening, my Bubba (my brother, Jeff) called to get some recommendations for gifts for the parents. Watch out, Mom and Dad, your kids have been cahooting, or is it ‘in cahoots?’ Anyway, Curtis and I will be heading to Grants Pass for Christmas on Friday!

In other news, our countertops and cabinets have been installed! The carpet and other flooring is being installed this week…I LOVE my red wall in the nook. Curtis likes it too, but he won’t admit to it.

Merry Christmas!

A Little Fun...

A - Available/Single? Married.
B - Best Friend? I have several…luckily!
C- Cake or Pie? It depends…I love a good chocolate cake and marrionberry pie, but not together, unless it is marrionberry sauce drizzled over the chocolate cake :)
D - Drink Of Choice? ½ decaf, double, tall, sugar free whatever, nonfat, extra foamy, latte (hey, I worked at Starbucks for too long…I like to choose drinks that fill all the boxes J).
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? The Internet…hey I have to keep up on celebrity gossip. Their lives are far more interesting than mine…thankfully.
F - Favorite Color? Shara-cotta (see recent post about painting our house).
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Worms.
H - Hometown? Grants Pass/Merlin.
I - Indulgence? Anything chocolate.
J - January Or February? Well, by January, I’m sick of the piles of snow, so I’ll say February – we’re getting closer to the snow going away!
K - Kids & Their Names? We have 2 cats…Maverick and Patch.
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? My family.
M - Marriage date? August 21.
N- Number Of Siblings? 1 – Fluffy (Jeffrey).
O - Oranges Or Apples? Oranges.
P - Phobias/Fears? Heights, but I did get up on our roof to paint the trim on our house!
Q - Favorite Quote? I don’t so much have a favorite as I have one for every situation!
R - Reason to Smile? I have a loving husband, supportive parents, and great friends – I’m a lucky girl!
S - Season? Fall – before it starts snowing (yes, it snows here in the fall).
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? 3 people – you know you want to!
U - Unknown Fact About Me? If you know me, you pretty much know everything about me (“Hey, that’s MY exit!”)
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Lima Beans.
W - Worst Habit? Biting my fingernails – I’ve done this since I was a small child…
X - X-rays You’ve Had? Are you asking how many? (At least 1) Or what’s been x-rayed? (I broke my foot when I was 6).
Y - Your Favorite Food? My mother-in-law makes mean fried chicken.
Z - Zodiac Sign? Gemini.

Always Get a Paint Sample

We're one step closer to moving into our house....the inside is painted. Curt's friend John came out Saturday morning and we started about 8 and finished just after 2. We almost had a disaster: The Mohican Mist color I picked out, which I thought would be a lovely purpley-grey was PINK! If you attended our wedding, you know that the bridesmaids wore pink. If you are my mom or friends, you know I like pink. I definatly DO NOT like pink on four walls of a bedroom. John was going to paint over the pink with the Walnut Cream, but he let me try to tint the pink with some tints he had. I added some Venician Red, Burnt Sienna, Brown, and Black in hopes it would come out a shade of Terracotta. It turned out great! It's not as orangy as Terracotta, it's more red. The new name for the new color is: Shara-cotta! So, the lesson for this weekend is to ALWAYS get paint samples. Don't depend on the little color stip to be an accurate representation of the color. I didn't get any samples for the other colors and I really love them, but it's better to be safe than sorry!

PS - sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll add some once we're moved in and I have high speed internet again.