Life in the Crazy Lane

NYR... Grading day has come.

2010-01-04T00:16:00.000-08:00

Last year I made NYR which looking back from this day to one year ago, I give myself an overall grade of a C- in following through with them. There were 7, ranging from having peace of mind about certain things, to saving certain amounts of money. All in all, when there was a concrete goal: "Save X amount of $ by X date", I seemed to do great. When there was "Be more _________" or "Do more ______" I failed. I will try to rework my logic on the next NYR's to be sure to account for my pit falls.

Concrete NYR's
#1: Save 10,000 (hopefully more like 15).
#2: Go on 2 vacations.

- Make more food at home, eat out less.
- Try to bake & cook new things-- I got this started on the right foot... Today I bought a crockpot and cooked!! I invited some friends over and it was glorious. I averaged it out, and it was aprox $4 per person. I rock. Thanks Gran for the inspiration to do it.
- Spend more quality time with friends & family.
- Maintain organization.
- Stay @ current job for this year unless an upgrade comes along.
- Do more crafty things.
- Blog more.
- Take more pictures.
- Better nighly routines.

Last year before 2009 came, I took a survey for myself to see only. Since I have switched to more "paperless diarying" and now this is open to the public, I will be more selective of the questions/answers, however, I think these are fun and are a neat way to benchmark the changes that happen over a year. This is a tradition I hope to keep:

Questions about 2009

Where did you begin 2009?
@ Davis's. Dancing with Mike, Kristen and Renee. Maybe there were more people there but I can't remember. Distinctly I recall Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" blaring while we all danced in the middle of an insanly crazy dance floor that was packed. We had a blast this night. I remember it fondly.

Did you have to go to the hospital?
When baby Sydney was born. Often for lunch with John.

Any encounters with the cops?
First response to a car accident where a person had a stroke and drove their car into a light post going pretty fast. Had to stay and talk to the cops for a while as I was the only person who witnessed him hitting the pole, swerving and hitting the curb before the pole, and hitting another car... This was a scary day. I was on my way to let my dogs out before returning back to work.

Where did you go on vacation?
This is funny, as last year, my exact response was "to Kansas... three times... yuck..."
This year I also went on three vacations, the first was to Miami, second was to Mexico on a cruise, and the third was to Kansas. It was a nice break to not travel to Kansas three times in one year, but the down side of that was not getting to see Lucas very much :(

Purchase anything over 500?
Purchased an external flash for my camera. 399.00, Vacations +++.

Anyone get married?
Dad & Barb
Mike & Kris
Chad & Miranda
Tom and Carley
... I am sure more.

Did you move?
NO...

Sporting events attended:
I think we went to about 4 blazer games. Thought about going to a Seahawks vs Jaguars game, but opted out for some reason.. I also think 3 out of the 4 Blazers games we went to ended in Chalupa nights, and I still have never eaten a chalupa... weird... Went to watch the new UO Volleyball team sans Forristall on court.
We might have went to more than this, but I can't remember..

Concerts:
None.

Where do you live now?
La Casa

Describe your Birthday:
Woke up LATE to drive to Portland in the morning to catch our early flight to Kansas. It was freezing outside, about 16 degrees. We made it to the Airport, and I am not really sure how because I woke up without an alarm at 2:15 am, and we needed to have left the house about 30 min. before. Anyways, we had to walk in the FREEEEEZING cold from "long stay parking" to the terminal. When we got to Denver it was 6 degrees, and then we finally got to Kansas, I got to see my beautiful Lucas. He was standing there waiting for me with a balloon and a flower. SO PRECIOUS. We ate at Carlos O'Kellys, went home and Tiff had made us brownies. It was a great day that was full of traveling, with a great little reward. My Lucas.

What was the one thing you thought you would never do in 2009, but did:
Get promoted to Therapist.

Favorite moments:
Miami- going to starbucks every morning, laying on the beach..
The craziness of the summer... Weddings, graduations, birthdays..
Mexico- relaxation
Kansas- dancing with Lucas... Thizzzzzzle!!

Favorite nights out:
Probably new years LAST year, I think that still counts. I had fun when we went out in Kansas.. This year we didn't do a whole lot of "going out", we did a lot more of "staying in and acting like we are 100 years old".. I like doing that. :)

I still have more questions, I will post more soon. It is my challenge for those who read this to answer these questions too. I know I am not the only one with a terrible memory, and even for those who might have sharp recall- that is only temporary. It is fun to read back on these things..

Happy New Year!

Kansas December 9-16th

2010-01-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

I was so happy to see my little Lucas. We got into town on my birthday, which was the bestest birthday presente ever. I got off the airplane to Lucas holding a flower and a balloon for me. It melted my heart.

While we were there we did a lot of relaxing, eating delish food Tiff made us, watched movies, played with Lucas, had a little Christmas, went out, slept, etc. etc. etc.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.
Sorry there are so few, but Tiff & I both realized we brought our camera's out FAR too little.

These are from the night we went out dancing @ Grand Slam. We had a blast getting ready this day. Tiff and I did our make up kind of crazy, and had been goofing around with hair and make up for most of the day.. Just like old times :)

As you can see, we got the party started before we even left the house.

Here are some pictures that are more christmas-oriented:

Some Randoms:

Last of all, Pictures from the last day @ the airport.

Lucas was being so cute this day... Running around the airport, screaming happy sounds, loving on us, being silly. It made it hard to leave. I was happy to see him at his finest right before we left though.

So sad to not be with them every day. Looking forward to their next visit out here.

Lucas is the most beautiful, smart, adorable, hilarious young man you could imagine. He is curious about everything, loves music, loves to dance, loves to love, loves to cuddle. I miss him very much already. A week was just not long enough...

Lucas, Tiff & Greg- We miss you guys. Thanks for having us at your home.

Hasta 2009

2010-01-01T17:27:00.001-08:00

2009 was full of life changing things.
I will try to put these in order of the way they happened, but not really sure if its realistic to assume I have the memory to do so.

Jan-April- Can't honestly think of much that happened in these months...

May- John and I took a trip to South Beach. We loved it. Beautiful weather, beautiful beach, good shopping, food, drinks, etc. etc.

June- Tiff & Lucas arrived in town, John & I graduated from the UO, Dad & Barb got married.

July- Lucas turned 1... Big Celebration.

August- Mike & Kris get married.

September- I get a promotion to THERAPIST... Cruise to Mexico..

October- I get moved into the Phoenix Program- I LOVE IT HERE!!!

December- Trip to Kansas.

2009 was busy. Undeniably busy. Stressful busy. Fun busy.

Well, I have declared more than once that I was going to update my blog of things that happened over the last year..

So, here is one last blog having anything to do with 2009... Then, clean slate for 2010.

I believe things that need to be addressed are as follows:

Cruise- ALREADY POSTED, GO ME!!!
Kansas
New Years Resolutions

Cruise

2010-01-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

Cruise- Sept 20-27

John and I decided we wanted to road-trip to California instead of taking a quick flight. So, we packed up our stuff and headed south. Our intention was to stop in San Fran, but as we approached the city, I got overwhelmed, and decided we better just drive on through (better to go back via plane, and commute through the city on foot, taxi, public transit). We stopped a couple of times on the way, one stop we did a little damage as we stumbled across an outdoor outlet mall that was quite nice. We left our house at about 5 am, and got into our Hotel RIGHT before the clock struck 12am. It was a LONG day of driving. I was resistant, but looking back I am now eager to take another trip. John and I always have fun together, and it was also pretty neat to see the weather just get warmer and warmer, and we felt so accomplished when we made it to our destination. Of course we made one very important stop on the way... In & Out burger, which I don't particularly like, but John would go crazy if he didn't have his Animal Style.

Our first day in Long Beach with Dad & Barb:

SHOPPING DRINKING SHOPPING!

We walked all over long beach, shopped our little hearts out. I did some damage at their Nordstroms. Long beach was fun, we ate a lot of good food, went to a bunch of different restaurants, spent a lot of money. We did this for two days in long beach.. Relaxing, shopping, drinking, spending money. Rinse, Lather, Repeat. Even though we are what you call "veteran cruisers", it was still a little bit of a shock to get on the boat and eat all you want and not have a bill at the end of the meal due to our money spending excapades in Long Beach. The Hilton we stayed at had a really nice pool, so we did some relaxing and swimming there also.

Highlights of Long Beach: Waitress @ Taco Beach (bird shit on her while she was taking our order, full on hilarity ensued. we had A LOT of laughs about this), Multople drinks & watching football at Smooth's, Breakfast @ "The Omlet Inn"--- DELISCIOUS!

Lowlight of Long Beach: John getting HIVES!!!! ("My armpits are itchy...")Running 10 blocks from downtown LB, to the hotel to find the gift shop BARELY still open in time to buy him some Benadryl..

Day 1 (September 20th) : Cruisin'

Today we got all of our stuff loaded up in my car, drove to the embarkation port, unloaded our lugage, pulled our our passports, and before you knew it, we were on the boat and sunbathing!

The boy's had their shirts off in no more than 15 min after stepping foot onto the boat. As you can see, us ladies opted to stay classy and keep ours on. We had to wait some amount of hours before we were allowed to go to our staterooms, as they finished the hustle and bustle of soarting luggage. In the meantime, we watched as our enormous boat (biggest in the entire fleet) departed Long Beach and started on the Journey, as well as checked out our new home for the week. As soon as we thought it was safe to head to our Riviera Deck, we did. All our rooms weren't too far away from one another. Dad & Barb found some surprises waiting for them in their room, so we met up and had some bubbly with them!

Dinners soon became our favorite part of every single day, as we would often go do "our own things", and every night at dinner we would all meet around our huge table and do some serious EATING. Additional to the food, our waiter Sekson (who very shortly into our stay informed us that since his name- pernounced Sex-Saan, was difficult for some, we could allow ourselves the liberty of calling him "Sexy", and we did. He was the best. Here are a few of our finest from the first evenings dinner:

The next day/day's we had "At Sea" time... AKA, lay in the sun and drink LOTS of beer days (or for me, try the strange "drink of the day" or strawberry daq's with lots of whip cream), explore the boat days, eat a lot days, swim days... These days are best put in photographic evidence form, as words don't really do it.

Following this night was our first formal dinner. I think we all had a blast @ dinner, ate a lot, and did unlady like, un gentileman like things while we were all looking so lovely.
<---Our food Babies

John's one bite challenge... Behind him, is our lovely waiter Sexy.

Following our formal night John & I found our second home at the poker table. It was a fun little interactive gaming table that I had a lot of success at and John didn't have a lot of success at. Either way, we both had fun. These are pictures of us getting ready to go out for the night which included playing poker, watching comedy, and we even found KODA in our room after dinner..

Similarities?

The next day.. More Pool/Drink time & a FUN dinner.

I think it is important to mention that at this point, Curtis and Suzie haven't really made an appearance in any of our photos.. This is because most of the time we had no clue where they were. We even had radio's we used while on the boat, and often times Curtis was in his room sleeping while we were all out in the sunshine...
A good ending to our evening, we found a cute little elephant, and then watched movies in our stateroom as we fell asleep. Luckilly on this cruise they had three movie channels, all with new releases playing. Kept us entertained while we recovered from our days full of dehydrating sun & booes.

The next day was our first port of call... Puerto Villarta!

As you can tell, it doesn't look like much is going on in the first shots as everyone gets off the boat and is mulling around what the hell we are going to do.. Finally we decide to just take off down the beach. As you can see the sky isn't blue, but that is no indication that it wasn't hot... Because it was, Hot and Muggy.

I will try to narrate the pictures that may need it..

So, Curtis & Suzie made their fist appearance here... We went to a cute little resort that was right off the beach. After a LONG walk, and passing some of Puerto's finest security systems. We also saw a sad dead little puffer fish, and John was crawling on a rock with a bunch of jumping crabs.. At the swim up bar we did all kids of fun things, my favorite was recieving a 75 min massage for 35 USD. AMAZING! I wish we had those kinds of deals in the states.
Highlight of Puerto Villarta: Knee Racing, laughing until crying, bloody knees, also playing mortal combat in the pool, apparently I also missed Curtis knocking the wind out of Kristen...... LOL
Lowlight of Puerto Villarta: Overcast.

Pre Dinner & Mikes 1 bite challenge.
FAT & SUGAR FREE PUMPKIN PIE THAT SEXY REQUESTED HE NOT EAT.... MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Next Day: Mazatlan!

In Mazatlan, we took a cab to El Cid... Beautiful hotel, we purchased ALL INCLUSIVE for the day... I got wasted. The boys drank basically nothing, which was hilarious because on the boat when the drinks are extreemely expensive, and at the other ports they drank like fish... As soon as they had the allure of unlimited already paid for drinks they said "I'll take water"... Kristen and I were baffled by this.

I tried to demonstrate just how wasted I was, and just how sober John was...

Highlight of Mazatlan: BOOGIE BOARDING, Sorry no pictures... Macarana, BINGO in the pool, The exercise buff who I almost ran away with, the Nachos, and the unlimited drinks...

Lowlights of Mazatlan: Overcast.. I also tumbled over in a wave and snorted a nasty amount of salt water... ICK.

Dinner this night, I have almost fully recovered. John looking like he spent all day recovering from the first part of the week... At this point, I can't believe that our cruise is coming to what feels like an end! However, we talk a lot at dinner about visiting Tobasco's, and being in CABO..

Cabo day started awesome. Beautiful sky... A nice trip over to Cabo, high hopes for our most highly anticipated destination:
We saw some very stylish men right when we got off our catamaran and stepped foot into Cabo.

We treated Mike & Kris to the Marlin'... Both John and I have done this in our past trip's to Cabo. This is my third time to be in Cabo, so I sat out of the tradition and watched while Mike & Kris took a tripple shot upside down..

Then, as we left the Giggling Marlin, a VERY SERIOUS EVENT HAPPENED:

RAIN!!!!!!

WE got soaked. It was pouring! Luckilly, We went to "Da'Right Joint" and turned our monsoon into a really fun day.

We got back on the Catamaran, and headed back to the boat. We survived the flood. We survived the Rain.

Highlights of Cabo: Da'Right Joint

Lowlight of Cabo: No Tobasco's... :(

THE LAST FORMAL DINNER: Bow Tie!

We had such a blast!! The next day we woke up, got in the car, and started our Journey home... Before we got too serious about driving home, we stopped at the LA Zoo, and played around. John drove straight home, just as he drove straight there... We stopped at Denny's and ate some good food in Sac town, played all kids of alphabet games, and most of all had a safe and fun Journey home. I think on the way back we might have wished a little bit that we had flown there, however, that faded pretty soon after we hit the pillow.

Highlight of the Trip: Smiling, Laughing, Sun, Fun

Lowlight: Having to go back to work. :)

36 to go.

2009-11-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Up at 4 again today, probably again tomorrow. Work Work WORK! Tomorrow, however, has some added benefits built right in... .99 tcby waffle cone, Glee, Modern Family...

Here is a haiku I wrote last night:

thirty seven days
snuggling with my Lucas
work, you are a bitch

Wanted to share an article about my mom I found over the internet last night...

"Cancer Strikes all Walks of Life"

For me, one thing is a clear lesson that I will continue learning in my life- One person can make a difference.

I miss my mom. I wish I knew more about the person that she was, and how I am like her or how I am different from her. As I get older, 29 seems younger and younger to me. I am proud of this article, and proud that my family has resiliency, love, acceptance, and most of all, fun.

I can't wait to go to Kansas... And in the mean time, I will continue to try to make most of my footprints on the world positive ones.

Happy Tuesday.

Leaving on a Jet Plane..

2009-11-02T19:21:00.000-08:00

We bought our tickets to KANSAS today.

After Lucas blew me 39 kisses in a row today over skype, I figured it was time for us to get our butt's in gear and book our flights. We are going on the 9-16th of December. I get to spend my birthday with my FAVORITE little boy.

Yes, for those of you who are counting, this is our 3rd vacation this year...
Yes, we are spoiled... But we work hard!

Counting down the days... 37 to go!

Coming Soon.

2009-10-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am going to dedicate an entire day to updating the blog about things like:

The cruise
Redmond
Work
Trip planning- Kansas edish...

Stay tuned.

"Goody Goody it's Cleaning Day"

2009-09-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

When I (Taylor) was a younger lady, I had a book called "goody goody, its shopping day". It was about a papa bear and a little daughter bear that would go grocery shopping, and at the end of the shopping excursion, daughter bear got a prize from a quarter vending machine. I LOVED that book.

Today will be similar, except it is "John Bear" and "Taylor Bear" in a furious last ditch effort to get our sh*t in order. We will be cleaning from top to bottom, and organizing along the way. And hopefully taking about twelve trips GOODWILL. And at the end of the 'excursion', instead of a quarter machine goody, I am sure we will reward ourselves with some margaritas and a good night of sleep.

Unfortunately, our three day weekend isn't going to be spent the way I had planned it (Seattle), but the rain came and cleaning (and saving money) sounded like a better option. Plus, John Bear is at the grocery store right now getting us goodies for brunch burritos and replenishing our empty stock of ground coffee.

High hope that today will be well worth it, and in 13 days we will be on our way to a week ++ vacation to see San Fran, The Menslage Bunch, Mexican Beaches, Tobasco's in Cabo and perhaps Disneyland.

Happy Labor Day!

Comments

2009-09-01T12:22:00.001-07:00

Comments are back up and running. Page needed a little maintenance.

That's all!

Pikes Place

2009-09-01T06:11:00.001-07:00

I wonder if we will go to Seattle this weekend for some original Starbucks coffee and a $5.00 bouquet of beautiful fresh flowers?

It has been nearly three years since we last went there! Blasphemous.

It has been another early Tuesday morning for me. Paperwork for my job is astronomical right now, and maybe forever. I have designated Tuesday mornings extra early to start-complete my mandatory scribbles. The above was a random thought/daydream (or maybe I am still asleep-dreaming)/side note that distracted me from the grind.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Field of Dreams

2009-08-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

John and I exploring fun new locations for my photography clients & goofing off (serious modeling) while we were there:

Enjoy!

Randoms

2009-08-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Summer is winding down, and my last post was just shy of twenty days. I am left wondering to myself how it could already be zeroing in on SEPTEMBER, and my summer has nearly vanished before my very own eyes.

Here is the low down on what has been going on:

Kristen & Michael Rott's: pre-wedding, wedding and post-wedding festivities. August 13th 14th and 15th- Portland.

Fair- Down town Eugene= corn dogs & people watching

Work- averaging 55 hours/week.

Photography- Spent this most recent weekend finishing editing Carley and Tom's wedding photos and distributing them.

MG's birthday- Southern style BBQ & a night of dancing until the town closed down.

Saw Gran & Gramp's new house & visited with them which was long overdue.

Anniversary- celebrating 4 years: after a LONG day of work for both of us we went to TCBY got a .99 cone saw friends, followed by splitting a VERY late dinner from hodgepodge and watching Scrubs @ home.

Started my NEW job- I am now seeing individuals and families as a therapist.

John & I started running again- hurray for us.

Planning our road-trip to CA for the cruise that we will be leaving for in some 23 days..

Here is what we have NOT been doing:
Cleaning
Cooking
Grocery Shopping
Spending time with Family
Being good dog parents
Relaxing at home

Good thing we are young and have energy for this kinda lifestyle. I hope that fall brings a much slower pace and some balance into our lives.

Some funny pictures of bowling @ the pre-wedding festivities:

Running away... for the day

2009-08-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

We're pretty realistic. We know that everyone gets downtrodden at work and with the small day to day bugaboos. So really we feel pretty fortunate that we get to escape every now and then. That's what we're doing tonight.

For my (John) birthday last November, Mark and Barb got me a gift certificate at the Fireside Motel. *gasp* Yeah that's right, I got a gift certificate for a motel waaaaaay back in November and haven't gotten around to using it until now. That should spell just how busy life gets. At first it was Mr. Wolverine and I kept telling Taylor we'd go as soon as that was over, then there was always work in the way, board meetings, wedding/bachelor or bachelorette party prep, one of us was always doing something and we couldn't even spare a night to drive out to Yachats for a peaceful getaway. Well that time is now, and we're gay about it.

I (Taylor) am mostly gay about playing "Deal or No Deal" at the casino on the way. And having a night away from our dogs (even as much as I love them, they are often times a pain in the ass). It is really quite exciting that following this getaway I have a 4 day work-week next week and a two night stay in Portland with my BFF's the following weekend.

Pictures to come! For now, Hannah Montana is on tv...

Taylor & John

a LADY GAGA affair...

2009-08-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

In honor of Kristen's soon to be married status, and me being her MOH... It is only mathematically and ergonomically correct that the biggest party on the face of the earth was thrown in her honor of being single for only a short short time longer. To do this the best way I knew how was a. in costume b. out of own c. with a limo d. with lots of booes, and e. with a hotel so no one has to go home in shit-wrecked state of mind.

So, without divulging too many details, here is the low-down
honorary bachelorette party games
macaroni grill for dinner
hotel for getting ready/drinking
limo= more drinking
Envy club= drinking, dancing, puking, fighting, getting kicked out
All over downtown Portland & waterfront= meeting strangers, trying to skinny dip in the river... etc.
Hotel room= ordered pizza @ 3:00 am & watched an "involuntary" voluntary stripper... HAHA

Those are all the details you will get.. And few pictures-

It all started with an internship...

2009-07-30T18:59:00.000-07:00

A little history before the big news:

Last summer was like any other summer for me. I was still in my undergraduate work, doing summer school, waiting for Lucas to be born, had some trips planned to go to Kansas to spend time with Tiffany & the new baby. If I remember correctly I had only taken the first four weeks of summer classes because I knew Lucas would be here in mid July, and I think I actually missed one of my last finals as we were headed to Kansas. Regardless of being in school, I hadn't checked my University email account since the previous spring. I decided to get on one day, and saw two emails from the Director of the program I received my AOD counseling certification from. One from about three weeks back saying "I have some internships I was thinking you would be a good fit for, let me know what you think.." and a second one that was sent the DAY BEFORE saying "This place is a great fit, but it is very time sensitive and I would call asap if I were you"...

Now let me give you a little more history- This dude, the director of these programs is a self-diagnosed hippy who has spent time in the federal pen for smuggling drugs some years ago... His brain (more specifically his memory) has some damage done to it. I never expected him to seek me out, nor did I expect it to be so specific and tailored for me... Which is even more ironic because I wasn't actively seeking out any kind of internship. It had been in the back of my mind that I needed to start looking, but because I had other things going on, I had put it on the back burner...

SO, I checked it out.. I sent an email to some person named David at Center for Family Development. (A place I had never heard of...) He got back to me... Quick.. I called him, we had a phone interview, he asked me to come in and have an actual interview the next day because he was leaving out of town, and this was a decision they needed to make soon. Boy, was this moving quick for me... It felt like 0-60, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Come to find out what I was getting myself into was a graduate level internship. They had never before asked an undergraduate or even considered an undergraduate for their program. This program was a therapist teaching clinic. I was able to see clients through this clinic who did not have insurance, and had some wonderful experiences getting clinical supervision, and expanding my ideas of plausible career options.

About three months into my internship I got a call from David (same dude) asking me if I had some time to chat... He had been thinking about me being a good fit in some program called the "DTRC". An intensive outpatient AOD treatment facility for youth involved at the county or state level for criminal activity. So, I took that on being the naive person I am, and have been working there ever since. I am what you would call a "Primary Worker". I do individual AOD counseling, I facilitate therapy groups, and supervise while they are in our program. I love my job and feel really blessed to be part of the program. I was in it from the beginning. DTRC was a new concept and the grant had just been accepted, so I was there through the implementation process, the designing, the constructing, the configuring, etc. It is still a learning process and this job has stretched me in ways I didn't know were possible. I come home exhausted every day, and wake up the next ready to tackle another day.

... Let me see if you know where I am going with this... I get another call again from David... (who isn't just some random dude, but the director of Center for Family Development) asking me to come chat. He has been thinking about me becoming a therapist for a couple months and is wondering what I think about the idea if a spot were to open up...

Hells Yes!

So, after a few more phone calls, and a few details here and there, I have been offered the job. I will be working part time as a primary worker, and part time as an individual and family therapist.

The best part about this is how much confidence and trust CFD puts into me. All my life I have never done things the "traditional" way. Graduating high school and college early seemed to be perplexing for some people involved and I was met with a strange resistance because of my ideas of blazing my own path... CFD embraces that, and dances with me.

I am scared, nervous, excited, thankful, appreciative, determined, etc. to be starting this new job and phase in my career.

Thank you to everyone who supports me, puts up with me, manages to maintain relationships with me even though often times I can be flaky and overbooked. I appreciate it and will need your love and support as I take on a new task. One I am bound to fail at, but will get back up and have some grace when I fall, and will use all your support to help me.

A Wedding, A Bridal Shower & Eagle Crest Resort

2009-07-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I spent the day with Carley and Tom intimately by their side photographing their BEAUTIFUL wedding at Mt. Pisgah. John was there and helped me out because he is the best assistant in the world. Sunday John and I parted ways, me to the north and him to the East (the difference is I came back Sunday night, and John will not return until Tuesday) I went to the beautiful Miss Kris's 2nd Wedding Shower at Zena and Lindsey's house in Aurora, OR and John went to a board meeting "weekend" at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond, Or.

The Wedding 7.25.2009- Was: beautiful, universally and globally sound, romantic, genuine, personal, unique, grounded, and overall a good time. I met Carley through an internship through Center For Family Development. We had both missed the "official" orientation day, therefore we got to spend a couple of hours getting a second-hand version together. I think we both identified we gelled well that day, and have been friends since. Carley is a beautiful person with a lot of passion who manages to be relaxed, fun, and down to earth all at the same time. I met Tom a few months ago in a night out on the town (mcminemans, the vets club & the Cheeseburgers) he is a sweet, kind, humble, and hilarious. I was honored to be such an integral part of their wedding and the symbolism of their lives becoming one.

The Bridal Shower 7.26.2009- An amazing tea in the meadow! Everyone involved in putting this together did an amazing job. It in its self could have been a small wedding. Everything was gorgeous, synchronized, delicious, and picture perfect. I have never been to an actual "tea party" and it was more than I could have even imagined. I know there was countless amounts of hours put into making that party what it was. It makes me feel so happy that Kristen has so many people in her life that love her and want to make days as special as yesterday was just for her! The weather was gorgeous, and the garden was breathtaking. She scored some pretty sweet gifts, and will apparently be BAKING all the time for Michael when they are married and living together :) I feel so special to be a part of Kristen and Mike's lives, and see all the little parts coming together nicely for their big day coming up on August 14th.

Eagle Crest Resort- John is currently probably waking up, and getting ready to go tee off for a round of golf. He is on the board of directors for a charter school that is getting ready to open in the fall. They are having a meeting in Redmond and are providing wonderful accommodations to those who are traveling. John sent me a picture of his hotel room, and it looked so lonely without me in there! I had to stay behind to work, but I hope he is having a blast. In the meantime, I am so busy here I probably won't even realize he is gone (yeah right!) I feel fortunate that after spending every night together for the last four years practically I still miss him a lot when he is gone even for just two nights.

This week's agenda:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- Work, Work, Work....
Thursday- Hiking, Bachelorette party finishing touches/Working on John's movie.. (a little bit of work for me)
Friday- Work
Saturday- Bachelorette Party!

My first ever DRIVE-IN MOVIE!!

2009-07-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Drive-in movies have pretty much been a staple in John's 'book of fond past-time memories', he and his high school friends would drive to the nearest one (about 45 min away) all the time. I heard lots and lots of stories about how much fun they are, and since the closest one shut down since John and I started dating, we have never been. Well come to find out there is a place called "Motor-Vu" in Dallas, Or that still does drive in movies, and totaling about an 1.5 hours on the road to get there, we decided it was time for me to experience a "first" and go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in the great outdoors.

So yesterday John and I had most of the day free from work. He and Mike went hiking in the morning while I established our blog, we worked out together when he got home, went to lunch with Jane, Ron & Jill at Hawaiian Time, I got dropped off then picked back up from a quick meeting at work then John and I hit up Men's Wearhouse to look at suit's for his graduation gift. After all that running around we thought it might be a good idea to go over to El Torito's for a little happy hour fun (grande draft beers and margaritas). Yesterday was shaping up to be a fun day! 7:00 rolled around and John and I were dressed in our best drive-in movie gear- SWEATS! Mike came to pick us up, and we drove to a Salem Popeyes for a quick snack. Kristen met us at the Popeyes because she had traveled down from the north-side to spend the evening with us. I hopped into the car with Kris, and we tried to beat the boy's to a location we had all never been to before "Motor-Vu- Dallas". A few wrong turns and phone calls to Salem-natives got us there all of about 2.5 minutes sooner than the boys (VICTORY!). We all piled into Mike's truck at that point ($18 for a car) and we were on our way... Chelsea (one of John's co-workers) and her boyfriend met us there, and everyone spent a decent amount of time trying to get their dome light (that despite everything we tried to do wouldn't turn off) to turn off. It was still light out when we got there so we had some time to set up the back of the truck with lots and lots of blankets and comfortable things. We made our way over to the snack bar, and after a little "who's-in-line-oh-whoops-we-just-cut in front-of-a-lot-of-people debacle I ordered a non-traditional: pickle & hot-coco... A combo meal they had never seen before. Kris & Mike got the biggest pop-corn on the planet, and we made our way back to the boy's who had put the finishing touches on the finest looking movie theater seating I have ever seen. The rest was history. We got snuggled up and watched our movie (only minorly interrupted by the car next to us and its odd behavior; lights turning off and on, hazard lights occasionally, horn honking, engine turning on and off, baby crying, etc...) It wasn't my favorite HP movie, but it was my favorite that I've seen in a drive in theater. Oh yeah, and incase you were wondering the answer, Chelsea's dome light finally turned off... Thank goodness. :)

First Blog!

2009-07-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends and Family-

As life is passing us by and monumentally huge things are going on for us, we have come to realize that because of our crazy schedules not enough time is taken to appreciate and savor these moments. Hopefully if I can be diligent enough to keep this updated, and we will have some kind of personalized record of all the fun/exciting/stressful and crazy things we are doing and really appreciate them when we have time to! Aside from that, we realize that blogging is the new way to stay connected, and wanted to share with the most important people in our lives some of the inter-workings of our tedious schedules we tend to forget to celebrate and talk about with you all. We also really love checking up on other blogs to see how people are doing and the fun things they are partaking in and would like to have something like that for ourselves. So here is to new beginnings and perseverance in making this all worth while :)

Taylor & John