I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

What a time this Christmas was. Taylor and I shared stockings at our house before heading over to my mom and sisters house for "Christmas". At their house "Christmas" consists of 5 kids, 3 adults, 2 dogs, 2 cats and one big surprise! So lets get back to stockings for Taylor and I. I found this adorable nose warmer for her and it was even in her college colors....

How cute is she!!!

So after Taylor and I got dressed we headed over to the Meyer/Clark household for some good ol' fashioned chaos! I of course, had camera in hand but just enjoyed being with my family and watching expressions, listening to conversations and just being entertained by all arround.

With Taylor, I also brought Shane who came as a surprise to the family! The gift he is opening is from his newes neice...Taylor. Some might quesiton her gift buying abilities! You be the judge for yourself!

The Ultimate Bail Out!

So I just realized how long it's been since I've blogged last! I can't believe it actually. For something that is so addicting how can I have neglected it for so long??? I thought I'd post a quick one since I'm hopefully headed out the door soon. I just had to tell you about one of the nicest guys I know! This is Justin...

Family man, married and has 5 adorable children yet he still came to help Taylor and I bail out of the driveway. After our first sonw on Sunday I was driving my new jeep and slid down the hill into our culdesac. Strange thing is I have 4 wheel drive and jeeps are made for this kind of weather! Well needless to say I was a little gun shy to drive my car so we are now driving the Mountaineer which is handling beautifully! We wouldn't be driving this car if it hadn't been for Justin coming over on Wednesday and helping us get it un-stuck from where I had managed to get it!

Yep....right out the driveway! STUCK! Justin bought us a snow shovel and brought over a regular shovel to help get the car out. After that he followed me to the storage location where we had the snow tires, followed us to Les Schwab (which by the way they were swamped - go figure!) and then made sure we were set! So a huge shout out goes to Justin for all his kindness! Who knows, if he hadn't helped us Taylor and I would probably still be stranded!

Here are a few more photos from this last week.

What kind of a pet mom would I be if I didn't include some adorable pics of Bear?

Ok, so obviously that isn't Bear but it is Doug and I at my moms house! We were taking Abbie and Taylor out sledding at the school! Loads of fun but boy was it freezing!!!

Christmas Presents that keep giving!

Taylor and I were blessed with a special gift from her Aunt Nancy and Uncle Harry from Arkansas. The gave us a cooking class at Sur La Table. Taylor and I headed out to downtown Portland to see if they could teach us anything about cooking! ;) Taylor loves to cook and when she's home from college I get completly spoiled. The menu you ask?

Christmas Dinner for the busy cook:

Apple and Chestnut Soup

Parsley and Thyme Crusted Roast Beef with Shallot Jus

Roasted Baby Carrots with Caraway, Fennel and Mustard Seeds

Potato and Parsnip Gratin with Parmesan

Orange Mousse Trifle with Dark Chocolate Topping

Sounds difficult but it was sooo yummy!

Do I have something in my teeth?

So last night my sis (above on left) and I went to our real estate class (by the way I'm going to get my real estate license in case you hadn't heard yet). She and I haven't really been in a class together since high school; we were in the same Biology class together almost 20 years ago! Boy I sound so old!

Anyway...the teacher kept staring at me! Why???? Not sure! I even leaned over and asked her why he was doing that...neither one of us could figure it out. The material was a bit over my head and I didn't fully understand it so perhaps I was staring at him with a blank look on my face.

Who knows how to read a map let alone break it down by sections and townships? Who knew what all of the lines are on a...hmmm can't remember what it's called....see how much it stuck. I do remember that north and south are the meridian and the east and west are a baseline but can't remember what it's called as a whole. Anyway its the directional thing on a map that shows where North is. I've never taken a geography class so let me just say in my defense, because I'm sounding very stupid at this moment, that I really am a sharp cookie! So the last part of the class was all about that and how to break things down and I realized...wow this IS kind of interesting! On the east coast they have townships and now I know why!

My sis and I sat in the back of the room trying not to get distracted! Let me just say that it was tough because the instructor kept making all these funny faces! I HATE doing things by myself sometimes so it's nice that Cass and I can take these classes together. This is more of a refresher to her but for me all the material is new! Now if I could just get the instructor to stop staring at me! Maybe I had something in my teeth!

~Tamara~

Seasons of life....

Every so often I get kind of reflective of where my life is. Now...is one of those moments! I have friends in different stages of life...1 the hint of getting engaged; 1 engaged; 2 having babies; 1 newly married; many celebrating multiple years of marriage and then there's me. Where you ask? Right where God wants me aparently! Am I happy here? Sometimes! I know that His timing is perfect but my waiting for His timing is anything but perfect.

Wedding Day

Larissa this is for you!

I can't believe that I have known you long enough to have watched you grow since you were 7 or 8, learn to drive a car, graduate high school, and now get married. You have been such a wonderful part of my life that I wouldn't have wanted to miss for anything and I am praying for you in this new chapter of yours! You are going to be such a great wife and someday a great mom. Remember to keep God first even before your adorable hubby. Always stay true to who you are. Never lose touch of your gal pals and always keep your eyes fixed on where God is leading you. I have enjoyed your spirit and the times we have laughed together and cryed together and I'm looking forward to enjoying many more to come. I love you so much and a huge CONGRATULATIONS to you both once again!

Jered and Larissa Coats

Married November 8, 2008

4 pm at Lake Bible Church in Lake Oswego

Proud Parents of the Groom

Damon and Tami Coats

Proud Parents of the Bride

David and Sally Ransdell

Always,

Tamara

You want WHAT in WHERE?

There is a ton going on here at mine and Taylor's house! Some of which requires moving things from one room to another. The guys here working have been so sweet to me in helping me move things from place to place to get it out of their way and how/where I want it....that was until yesterday!!!!

Let's just say a picture is worth a thousand words!

SUCCESS! 5 guys and one huge entertainment center later! My question after all was said and done was....how come there was only 1 guy on the inside of the room!?!? ;)

Wanna FIGHT???

So I've learned this blog thing can be addicting for some reason! Not quite sure why!

I came across this picture of my little Hybrid today and thought that is was pretty true to who she is!

Taylor this is for you! Don't quit, don't give up! Keep on fighting for what you know is right! Keep fighting through the things life throws your way good and bad! You are a conquer and victorious! I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there are those from up above smiling at your every move and how proud they must be of you! You are a special young lady in my life and I just wanted to let you know that! Galatians 6:9 "let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we DO NOT GIVE UP"!

Love you honey! oxox Tamara xoxo

What a slacker! More from the trip to visit my little Hybrid

Alright - I decided that I should probably finish up the blog about our trip to Cincinnati, Ohio.

I last left you at dinner....after dinner of course we headed back to the hotel to hop on our computers and see what/who we had missed. The next morning we packed our things and decided to head to breakfast.

There was this adorable restaurant called First Watch - best pancakes in the world! Taylor and I decided this was a trip to do things we haven't really ever done before so we ordered a TON of food just so we could try it....after all how often are we really going to be in Cincinnati? As you can see from the picture above we really had a lot of food. Our favorite was a pancake with bananas and granola baked right in! Yum Yum! We asked our waiter what we should do that day since it was a home game and we didn't have tickets. He said not to miss Newport on the Levey. So....where's that you ask????

That's right Kentucky! How in the world did we end up here!?!? Another state neither one of us had been to! Whoa...my sis in law has kinfolk that live here! How funny! We didn't realize we were in Kentucky until the picture of the sign above! We had so much fun there! It reminded Taylor and I a lot of home. In the Portland area we can cross a bridge and then be in Vancouver Washington! Here you go from Kentucky to Ohio, hopefully you already figured that out! ;)

Yep, all the way from Oregon we can still be "ducks"! Aren't we cute???? I think I should get my hair a little more like Taylors! So we rode these things call, "Ride the Ducks". Is it a car or a boat? You guessed it, it's both! We rode from the Kentucky side to the Ohio side and headed straight for the water quacking all the way! We went on a little tour of both cities at once with our tour guides pointing out many fascinating things about both sides! We could see the thousands of people sitting watching the Bangles game (they lost by the way) as well as all the other many beautiful things from a boats view.

We headed back to the aquarium after the duck ride to finish our tour of the water life that we don't see in Oregon...yeah right! I even got to pet a shark! They said "start from behind the eyes and go to the tail" - wonder why that is, neither one of us got bit thank heavens but it did make me a little nervous.

We headed across the street for some ice cream then drove back to Bloomington, IN. We aren't the best with directions and map reading (both of us) although I could blame it on Taylor who was supposed to be my navigator but I was the one driving! Funny how you can't seem to get your sense of direction when you don't know where the ocean is!

We had a great trip spending time together and laughing and just relaxing! We both needed it I think! She comes home this weekend for a quick visit! I can hardly wait! Tons of stuff going on at the house and I sure hope she likes it.

oxox ~Tamara~

.....still can't believe I was ever in Kentucky!

How do we keep up!!??

There are times I've said to myself...I'm very organized and then other times I realize I'm kidding myself! Tonight was one of those times! How do we keep up with everything we need/should/want to do? I'm not here to give you some amazing tip, although I wish I could I'm just here to let you know that little by little it all gets done! Tonight I was SO frustrated and I can't even explain just how frustrated I was but I will say a huge shout out and thanks to my mom who helped me through it! Sometimes you just need someone to help get you motivated. There are always those things we want to do but how about the things we have to do? Procrastination at it's best! Thanks mom!

What...sitting in a hotel???

See...I wouldn't lie to you! Taylor and I spend a lot of time together on the computer...no talking or interacting but we do IM eachother! Just kidding!! We actually have a blast together! So the trip to Cincinnati took about 3 hours including stopping to make sure we were headed in the right direction and stopping to take a couple pictures.

So you don't see things like this in Portland very often. One of the things we thought was funny as we were driving was how flat everything was! Where are the mountains? It was beautiful none the less! The picture above is a freshly cut corn field.

Because I love to take pictures...on our drive I spotted some bales of hay that I thought would make a great background and Taylor looked adorable as usual so we pulled over she posed and this picture is the result...

Yep...she's a pretty girl inside and out! :)

Another funny thing on the trip was the fact that we saw about 9 people jumping out of a prefectly good airplane. They were landing in a field close to where we were driving and I was hoping they'd all make it and not land on the road. Taylor is a great picture taker on the fly so she snapped a couple pics so that you guys wouldn't think I was fibbing about the whole thing! ;)

So now back to our time in Cincinnati. We coudln't find downtown!! We took the wrong road...big suprise but eventually saw big building and a beautiful downtown area and felt right at home. Both of us joked about being "city girls" and wanting the skyscrapers! We stopped at our first hotel choice The Hayatt - totally booked! Then the Hilton - totally booked! However the Millinimum Hotel across the street from the 2 of those had room. I did't even think about it being a home football game which was a large part of why the hotels were sold out.

We had dinner at the Hilton in a beautiful restaurant area I had the porkchop and Taylor had salmon and then of course we split a dessert! If I've learned one thing about eating with Taylor is there is usually something sweet to follow each meal other then breakfast of course.

So where did we end up next....

My little Hybrid

After the trip to Seattle I was home for less than 12 hours before I headed out to see Taylor in Indiana.

I arrived on Thursday evening and she and I had dinner together at a place called Bombay House (Indian food). It was delicious!!!! She has definetly gotten me into trying more new things and new places to eat.

She's doing great and this weekend was her first Regatta (she's in rowing). She and 8 other girls were in a scrimage this past Saturday and did fantastic. They beat the other novis boat by 2 minutes and 10 seconds!!! Other then tons of blisters on her hands I think she's really enjoying being on the team and looking forward to seeing where it will take her. I have of course, being the proud parent I am, attached a few pictures!

After the Regatta we headed to Lowes to pick out some things for the house in Portland and then back to Sue and Winston's for showering and getting ready for the rest of the day. So what did we do from there you ask??? Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room in Cincinnati Ohio. Neither she nor I had been here before so we decided to be spontanious and packed a bag and headed out for the night!

more to come.....

Seattle is beautiful this time of year....

I don't care what people say about Seattle it is very beautiful this time of year....cold weather and all. So mom and I decided it would be nice to get away together and she's always complaining that she doesn't get the opportunity to use our timeshare so she got a free trip. Even though we staied at the time share we didn't technically "use" it beacuse we didn't have to use our points so I guess that means we'll have to go again! ;) Bummer, huh mom?

Mom and I had a great time together! Let me just say that it is so NICE to have a GPS in the car! We went to all sorts of cool shops and had a great dinner at a restaurant called 13 Coins....BEST steak I've had in a very long time! We did quite a bit of shopping which included 2 mattresses (memory foam) and a night stand for my room. Needless to say the car was packed and there was no way to get anything else in or out of it for that matter.

We also visited a place I used to live in the Snohomish area. I couldn't believe that we even found the house and school. When we got to the school I asked them if they had any yearbooks from way way way back when I would have attended there. No luck with the yearbook but they did have a class picture! I'm the one on the left side incase you couldn't tell. Sorry for the quality of the picture I had to take a picture of a picture because in this little podunk town they didn't have a scanner or a color copier at the school! Come on people join this century!

We were also able to visit with our long time friends lovingly refered to as Unca David and Auntie Lulu. Aunt Lulu has always been short but I'm now taller then she is! She says it's not much of a challenge to get to her height. ;)

All and all we staied in Seattle for 2 nights and 3 days. I've included some pics - of course!

now...off to the Midwest!

I'm Engaged!!!

That should have gotten most of you but how else was I going to get you guys to read this??? I know, nasty trick and "crying wolfe" too often will get me in trouble when it really does happen but I just couldn't resist!

We all have my sister in law to thank for this blog! She inspired me because she sent me a blog about her family (my brother and their 2 kids) and I couldn 't resist using this as a way to keep up on people or a way for them to keep up with my ever exciting life!

Please don't e-mail me back with all kinds of corrections to my spelling mistakes, although now I see there is spell checker!

I'll check back in later with more insightful information about my life which I'm sure you are all on the edge of your seat to read!!

Hugs and Love ~ Tamara