2007 Civil War: The Final Plays

Need I say more? Go Beavers!!

Reunited And It Feels So Good!

Becca and I drove up for Katie's wedding... well more like she drove and I slept. And we had a great time seeing old Oregon State friends and catching up with our old Oxford friends.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I work long hours at the hospital. After a 12 hour shift, it's nice to have a comfortable place to sleep. But here I am for some reason sleeping on the couch and when I wake up and go upstairs to my room, I find my dog sleeping on my bed. Not sure how he got the comfortable place to sleep but there is something definately wrong with this. I can't believed I got booted from my own bed and by a dog!

Baltimore

I just got back from visiting my dear friend Elizabeth who use to be my college roommate down at U of A. We had fun just hanging out in downtown Baltimore and we also went to Havre de Grace which is on the Cheasapeake Bay and around Fell's Point that is a quaint little town that is near the harbor and still has cobblestone roads. We also enjoyed the hustle and bustle of New York City and were able to catch a broadway show. Her
husband Nate also accompanied us and it was also fun to spend sometime with him as well. I really didn't take any pictures this time but here are a few.

Trick or Treat!

Almost every Halloween I partake in the traditon of pumpkin carving. I usually carve the face on the pumpkin because I really can't do anything else that would turn out remotely close to what it is suppose to look like. My pumpkins usually look like this....
But that is what Becca actually carved. Smart move on her part to keep it original.

This year I attempted to be creavtive. And this is what turned out....
Even Moses looks disgusted by it.

And I thought well maybe it would look better in the dark.... or maybe not. It kind looks like a flying Christmas tree. I thought I would just blend the 2 holidays together since all the Christmas stuff comes out after the 4th of July anyways.

And if you haven't guessed by now what I carved, it's suppose to be a witch on a broom.

Yeah Portland!

So I like to do photography on my spare days and here are some snapshots of our beautiful city.

This was in NW Portland and it was so fun walking around the old neighborhoods with all the colors and the leaves on the ground and the smell of fall in the air. Reminded me of simpler times when life wasn't so busy.

Carmel Apples

I think fall is one of my favorite times of the year because
the leaves are changing and it's not too cold yet, baseball is still going on and football has started and it also means that the holidays are coming up. And for some reason there are more delicious treats to eat with the holidays coming up like carmel apples. Which is another reason I love the fall. My mom made this and I think it's the biggest carmel apple I have ever seen in my life! Here's a little comparison of a 'normal' size apple and the mutant apple. And here I am trying to eat it!

Ahhhh!! So scary!

A Ballad for Becca

Becca my dear you are so cool,

We go all the way back to elementary school

Your ode to me was so nice,

Now I am going to let people know about your spice.

You are a good roommate, that is true,

Always picking me up when I feel blue.

When you are on the road, other drivers watch out,

Road rage she has and she starts to shout.

Funny you are, but hilarious i am,

Cracking each other up, we are such hams.

Shopping you love, gallivanting around the pearl,

I think its so funny that you pass out when you hurl

You love kids and are a nanny by day,

But you stand your ground so the kiddos don't always get their way.

Your DVD collection is quite large,

You could rent them out for only a small charge.

You love to travel and been many places,

Well rounded and cultured you've seen many faces.

A cook you are not, unless it's keilbasa

I am glad you decided to live in mi casa.

If you weren't my roommate what would i do

probably work more at the hospital scooping up pooh.

I am oh so thankful to have you around,

so tonight let's party it up with some good ol' crown.

To Cook or Not To Cook....That Is The Question

I like to cook...well only some days, like when I have time and I have all the ingredients that the recipes calls for. Well today was one of those days that I wanted to cook. The only problem is that sometimes I can be kind of klutzy in the kitchen, like grating my skin off when I am actually try to grate cheese, or burning myself, or spilling something all over the counter. Cooking started off great until at lunch I sliced my thumb while trying to cut an apple with an apple cutter. Aren't those things suppose to let you cut an apple safely?
Then I was trying to make enchiladas for dinner and as I was boiling the chicken, the boiling water splashed in my face. I am pretty sure that I will have a blister on my face tomorrow. But the fun doesn't stop there... oh no, there's more. I swear that all moms and chefs have no feeling in their fingers anymore from all the days and years of cooking because after the chicken was done I needed to shred it for the enchiladas and burnt every fingertip I had trying to shred that dumb bird. Seriously, how do you all do it? And I was down one phalange due to the stupid apple cutter incident earlier in the day.

My 8 Facts

#1 I am not an ambiturner when it comes to parking my car. I just can't turn left. I now know how Derek Zoolander felt when he couldn't turn left but then he was finally able to and pulled off magnum. Hopefully my magnum will come someday and I will be able to turn left into a parking spot. It would open up so many parking possibilites.

#2 I am not a big fan of cake. I will eat it if I have to because I don't think it tastes bad, but I would rather indulge in some other kind of sweet. And I don't see what all the hype is about when they finally cut into the cake at weddings and parties. Basically it's just moist bread with some thick sugary coating on top of it. At my parties I have always opted for icecream cake. Now that's the way to go.

#3 I am a sports fan. I think I am one of the few girls that can actually sit down and watch a whole sporting event on TV and not be totally bored. Weird I know. And I think it would be cool to go see the Olympics, World Series, or Superbowl someday. Even the World Cup would be cool and I am not that big of fan of soccer but I hear the World Cup is crazy.

#4 I usually sleep on the right side of the bed. I don't know why because I try to even it out but I always wake up on the right side.

#5 I can't handle bodily fluids. Why am I a nurse you ask? You got me. I think my stomach gets weaker and weaker with each encounter of bodily fluids. I use to feel bad running out of patients room when they were puking (after I handed them a bucket, I am not that bad), or when their ostomy exploded, you know things like that; but now I realize that I am just doing them a favor in case I puke on them. Plus I running to get them medicine to make them feel better faster.

#6 I love to travel...although not by myself unless I am going to meet up with someone somewhere. I don't get the people who enjoy traveling by themselves. There is no one to share any great moments with and plus all the pictures are of yourself and how many pictures of yourself do you really need?

#7 I have been bitten by an ostrich before...and it was at a petting zoo of all places!

#8 I love the beach! I would be perfectly happy with my life if my sole purpose was to enjoy God's beauty by going down to the beach everyday and have a great day swimming, surfing, playing beach volleyball, watching sunsets, and basically just looking out into the vast ocean.

Ok now Pam, Jim, Dwight, Angela, Michael, Phyllis, Kevin, and Oscar it's your turn!
...and that's what she said

Aloha!

Well, I just had the toughest week of my life. Going to the beach everyday, watching Hawaiian sunsets every night, pretending I am an amazing surfer can be really rough on a person. It's a good that I am back now working hard and making every dollar count! But in all seriousness, Hawai'i was really fun and refreshing, minus the sunburn I got the first day from surfing the whole day. I was able to enjoy the whole island of Oahu by surfing, snorkeling, hiking, swimming under waterfalls, luaus, shopping, visiting Dole Plantation, Pearl Harbor and eating lots of pineapple, coconuts and sipping on Mai Tais. My family and I also were able to support my sister and her volleyball team as they played in a tournament at the University of Hawaii. Aloha and Hang Loose!

Providence Bridge Pedal

On Sunday my mom, dad and I participated in the Bridge Pedal. It was a lot of fun being able to ride across the bridges and freeways of Portland and enjoy the beautiful view of the city. Our ride started down by the waterfront and continued to wind its way through Portland over 8 bridges: Hawthorne, Ross Island, Marquam, Burnside, Broadway, Fremont, St. Johns, and Steel and plus we rode down to Portland, from my area, so our ride consisted of about 32 miles! Yeah for us. Afterwards we got to enjoy our free admission into the Bite of Oregon and chow down after our long ride and listen to some music by the water. It was definitely a fun day and I can't wait for next year when we bike 10 bridges! (This picture is on the top deck of the Fremont Bridge. They closed it down to traffic so we got to enjoy the view and listen to some live music and taste free food and drink samples).

Puddles Are Deceiving!

I just spent the last couple of days camping at Fort Stevens with Jennifer and Dad. As a kid, we use to go here all the time because it was right on the beach and there were tons of biking trails and they had old forts from WWII that made great places for hide and seek. During this camping trip we did a lot of biking. On our last day we took the bike trails and rode from our campground and went north to the south jetty where the Pacific Ocean meets the Columbia River then on the way back we decided to ride our bikes on the beach since the tide was low. I have never done this before and it was really fun riding right next to the water. Well as we were riding we kept going through little puddles along the shore that were left over from when the tide was hide and chasing after the many seagulls that thought they had a found a nice quiet place to relax on the beach. As we were getting closer to the end of our beach ride, I noticed that we were riding kind of a sand barge because the ocean was to the side of us and there were quite a few puddles to the other side. So I decided to blaze a trail right on through these puddles as I had done before. I started to go through the puddle and then the next thing I know my front tire is submerged into the water and takes me and the rest of the bike into the puddle. I fell pretty much head first into the water with my bike. Now this puddle is only 4ft x 4ft and as I stood up, I came to find out that this puddle was waist deep! I was completely soaked after my surprise swim and had to ride the rest of the way back to the campground in my soggy tennis shoes and jeans.

So 13 again...

So last Friday I was hanging out with my friend when he received a call from his friend that has forever changed my life from that day forward. His friend had tickets to a concert the next day and he didn't want to go and my friend didn't want to either so he asked me if I would like them. I was like sure...free tickets I don't even care what concert is. And long behold it was the AMERICAN IDOL Tour!! Wahoo! I called my friend Becca and asked if she wanted to go with me and not to my surprise she was just as estactic as I was...ok maybe she was a little bit more because her not so secret crush Blake Lewis would be there beat-boxing on stage. Now I too was a fan of Blake Lewis but just not to the same extent as Becca and I never knew I was such a big fan of Chris Richardson either until they had appeared on the stage and was spitting distance from me that I transformed into this 13 year-old junior high girl....you know the kind that has posters all over her room of boys that she thinks are "so hot!" I was screaming and yelling and taking way too many pictures of "my boys" that I would be embarrass to admit. And sadly, I was even cheering on for Sanjaya. Anyways, the night was fabulous as Becca and I belted out every word to all the songs. Although I did refrain myself from singing along with Lakisha Jones as she performed Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," which was amazing...that girl can sing!! All in all it was fun reliving my junior high days and I guess I will always remain a teeny-bopper but at least I have fellow teeny-bopper Becca to enjoy these special moments with.

Oh Sh**

So the other day I was reflecting on my career as a nurse and thinking that I get paid to do the weirdest things sometimes. Like this one night at work, I had a patient that love to get attention in anyway that he could. This man happened to be in his 50's but acted like he was 5. Well as I walking down the hallway, I heard this man screaming and banging his arm against the side rail. So I walked in to see if he needed help and as I stepped into his room I was overpowered by the smell of poo. And I thought "well that's really gross," but yet continued to venture on into his room. Thinking that he crapped his pants and that's why he was screaming at the top of his lungs, since that is what we all do when it happens to us...ummm yeah right. So I am checking his bed and I don't find any "buried treasures" which I find really weird because the stench of poo is almost making me passed out, it was that bad. I decided to walk over to the other side of the bed for some reason...oh maybe I thought the air was better on that side or something...anyways to my surprise I find this nice little dark brown thing on floor that actually resembled a slice of a brownie minus the little powder sugared specks on it. And I was thinking to myself, well I am pretty sure that brownies weren't served for dessert tonight. So I cautiously approached "the brownie" afraid that it was going to jump out at me since that happens all the time. As I got closer to this chocolate delicacy, I realized this isn't a brownie!! This is his poo and what the heck is it doing on the floor!!! I started freaking out and tried to control my gag reflex at the same time while I looked back at the man. He, of course, started laughing like he had just played the dirtiest trick in the book on me. Well, it was pretty dirty since it did involve poop, I'll give him credit for that. After I was done freaking out and lecturing him how a grown shouldn't be playing with his poo in the first place, I noticed that this man had partaken in this "chocolate delicacy" before I had walked into his room. Poo was stuck between his teeth and under his fingernails! And I thought just touching poo and throwing it on the floor was bad enough. I just couldn't take it anymore! I called a CODE BROWN and waited for back up as I stepped out into the hall for a breath of fresh air.

Cyclist Wannabe

Yesterday, my dad, David and I ventured out onto the streets of Portland with our alternative means of transportation...our bikes...for a leisurely bike ride. My brother and dad rode to my house, in SE Portland, and from there we headed toward the Willamette River. It was such a beautiful day out, about 80 degrees with a light breeze. We snaked our way towards downtown Portland through old neighborhoods with cute little bungalows and huge maple trees that made an umbrella over the road. We made it down to the east side of the waterfront and enjoyed the Portland skyline for a moment (as seen in this picture) before we carried on and crossed the Hawthorne Bridge to the west side of the city and made a loop back over the Burnside Bridge and carried on back to my neck of the woods. By this time, we were getting tired and hot and the way back home was pretty much all uphill so we ended up getting off the bike route and blazed our own trail back to my house the quickest way possible. Now my brother and dad are more bike savvy than I when it comes to the rules of the road. I just figure that people should be watching out for us cyclists, and yes I included myself in that group. Well we were finally in the last lag of our leisurely bike ride and were cruising down a hill toward Burnside. I was just happy that I didn't have to peddle uphill anymore and I could enjoy my ride down this hill with the wind blowing in my face and cooling me down. Well I came barreling down this hill right into the mainstream of traffic on Burnside as a bus came racing up the road. I heard my dad scream "EMILY!!!" as I turned onto Burnside and watched the bus swerve out my way. As I was thinking "that was close, I could of died," the bus stopped in the middle of traffic and gave me a look that could of killed me since he wasn't able to do it with madman driving skills. The bus driver seriously gave me the death look for like a minute. I felt like he was slowly killing me with his glare, or maybe at least my ego. As the bus driver sped off, I sheepishly got back on my bike and rode back to my house in silence thinking that maybe I shouldn't be a part of this cycling thing after all.

Well I decided to start a blog since a lot of my friends don't live near me anymore :( so sad! But I thought this would be a great way to keep in touch and to keep them updated about what's going on in my life as well as be able to see what's going on in their lives.