Hood to Coast

 

Hood to Coast is an epic relay race, starting at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and ending on the beach at Seaside, OR. This has always been an event on my bucket list, and this year, Shannon was the co-captain of a team. There are 12 members on the team, plus a driver or two. Each person runs 3 legs ranging from roughly 3 miles up to almost 8 miles.The legs are broken up by difficulty/mileage, so some runners run more miles, while others have hilly/tough runs. So with a team all set, we started training harder for what would be a fun, challenging, exhausting experience.
I had the 1st, 13th, and 25th legs of the race. The 1st leg is the infamous, Timberline run, with a drop in elevation from 6000 ft to 4000 ft. It's a little over 5 1/2 miles long, and straight down the hill. This was a great description of the first leg by another runner: "Your ideal candidate would have short legs with
high turnover (to better handle the downgrade), a ferocity bordering on psychotic, and a
really short memory. In other words, your ideal candidate is a Jack Russell Terrier". So yes, I was the Jack Russell Terrier for our team. I do have to say though, that after running the leg, it was quite enjoyable. The weather was gorgeous, the run wasn't as bad as I expected and in looking back, I probably could have run it a bit faster. My other legs weren't anything to right home about. My last leg was run at about 5 in the morning, so it was pitch black and I was dressed a little too warmly, but I didn't walk and ended up passing quite a few people (road kills)!
Our team did well, no top 10 finish or anything, but with some substitutions of runners before the race due to injuries, we beat our projected time by just over 2 hours. I think the toughest parts of the race are the fact that in the 24 hours your team is running, you don't really sleep, and if you do, it is very intermittent, the traffic at some of the runner exchanges can be horrendous and your body is tired of nothing but bananas and carbs, but it was a great experience and I would do it again (if only it were easier for teams to get it, its a lottery). Great job team Coastbusters! 



Our awesome Van art, courtesy of Mark. 

Happy 1st Anniversary

Our First Anniversary!

(Yes this post is almost 3 months late, but better late than never!). It’s hard to believe that a year has already gone by since our wedding day. Every time another month went by, we both were surprised with how quickly time flies. This year has been full of adventures, our honeymoon, moving in together, and starting our big remodel! Of course life doesn’t always go as you plan, I am still on the endless quest for a nursing job, our remodel has lasted longer than anticipated, but when life hands you lemons, you gotta make lemonade.

            To celebrate our 1 year, I started looking at all things paper to come up with a creative idea for Mark. I ultimately settled on hand calligraphy-ing our fancy Marriage certificate. It turned out great and I’m going to get a nice frame for it to display somewhere around the house. Mark surprised me with tickets to Broadway in Portland, which was totally unexpected and great. We did take out our wedding cake from the freezer to try some, and surprisingly, it wasn’t bad. We were also able to get a re-created cake from the bakery that was fresh and amazing. We also received a gift certificate to Skamania Lodge. It is a resort in the Gorge on the Washington side of the Columbia River. I thought it would be a great little getaway for our anniversary and worked out nicely as my cousin was getting married in the Gorge the following day. We started out the day with a hike in the Gorge, Angel’s rest. It is one of my favorite hikes, the views at the top are just breathtaking. After getting cleaned up we enjoyed a wonderful dinner overlooking the grounds and the Columbia followed by a walk around the grounds. The next day we drove into Hood River and went wine tasting before heading to the Bonneville Dam for a tour before the evening wedding. The weather was gorgeous, the day amazing and the company perfect.

            This year has brought us closer together and I can’t imagine not waking up to Mark every day. I know this year will bring more adventures and I can’t imagine any of them without my partner in crime! Here’s to another wonderful year! 

Angels Rest, Looking North

Mt. Hood Winery, Hood River

A bad Blogger!

Oh my,
I'm such a bad blogger. I have had every intention to write several posts over the last two months and well, clearly I haven't. I'm planning on highlighting our 1st anniversary and Hood to Coast as well as another remodel update. But for now, school work calls and I'm also fielding bids for our countertops! I'll leave you with a beautiful picture of Mt. Hood from Mt. Hood Winery in Hood River, OR.

August Already?

I can't believe it is already August! This summer has flown by. I've got a couple of posts in my mind, and I'll get to them just as soon as I finish my final paper for the semester. But in the mean time, I thought I would give an update as to what we have been up to for the summer (and why the kitchen is in the same state as it was in June)

This summer I started my Master's Clinical. I will be "working" with Clark County Public Health until graduation next May. My role there is to work on a practice improvement project and helping with other small projects during my time there. I never anticipated a nursing role in public health before, but it has been a very good experience and I am excited to be there until graduation. Needless to say, school this semester has been very tough, I have never been a fan of the 10 week semesters in which you still need to get 16 weeks worth of work in. But only two more semesters to go and I'll have my 3rd degree! 

The house remodel has reached a bit of a stall. I blame it on our busy summer schedule. We have a sink picked out, but the counters haven't been picked out yet. The floors were fixed a couple of weeks ago and while they only replaced two boards, puttied and marker-filled the other problems, it is nice knowing that we don't have to fix anything. Most of the kitchen cabinets have been secured to the walls, so we'll be able to move most of our dishes, small appliances etc., back into the kitchen.
 Now that school is over for the semester, I think we will have more time to work on the house, ie: Sarah will get to go shopping for  furniture ;)

We also knew that we didn't want to spend the entire summer working on the house, and want to be able to enjoy ourselves. For 4th of July we spent the afternoon/evening barbequing with friends and had an amazing view of downtown Portland.

We were also able to go up to Seattle to celebrate one of my best friends baby showers!! It was such a fun shower and barbeque to follow. A great way to kick-off our summer. 

The following weekend we rode in cycle Oregon weekend. It is a two day ride, where you have the option to go what I call "urban" camping. This year's event was held out of Oregon State Univ., so we camped out on campus and ate at the cafeteria. We rode 34 miles the first day and 36 the second day. For someone who never thought about riding that far, I had a really fun time. 

The next weekend, I went to Walla Walla to catch up with some more best friends for a weekend of wine tasting and celebrating new arrivals. It was a perfect weekend with beautiful weather and just a wonderful atmosphere. Picture is me and miss Lily Itule.

We are going to go spend part of the weekend in the Columbia Gorge this weekend, to celebrate our 1 yr. anniversary (can't believe its already here; another post on that later). 
 Then it will be off to Denver in a few weeks for more girlfriend time and the following will be Hood to Coast (an epic 12 person relay from Mt. Hood to Seaside, OR; also deserving of its own post). 

So far we have had a busy summer, the weather has been perfect for most of July and I'm thankful to be able to spend time with so many amazing people! Now if I can only pull myself away from the Olympics to actually write my final paper.....(Aug. 8 update: Paper is finished and the summer semester is officially over!)

Another Remodel Update

Our floors are done! Last week we had the hardwood installed and it feels good to have it finished. I would say that it looks amazing, but that wouldn't quite be how we feel. Don't get me wrong, it looks so much better than the subfloor and the forest green carpet, but its just not perfect. There are a few spots where the boards aren't quite touching and others where you can tell where they stapled it (either too hard with the tools or quality of the board). There is also one piece that is higher than the others, the whole corner is sticking up. Now I probably wouldn't have noticed all of the wrong little things for a while, but I was vacuuming all of the dust and I started to notice. Then Mark mentioned some of the spots and we decided that we should talk to the floor guys. Are we being ridiculous? The more we thought about it, the more we were told and had the expectation that it would be perfect. We shouldn't have to go around "fixing" the brand new floor. So, in the meantime we are working on putting the kitchen back together, also something we thought would be an easy task....boy were we wrong!

Of course there will be a series of remodeling recaps, but for now here are a few pics!

Kitchen before any Remodeling, even before new stove and microwave!!

Kitchen Before Floors (after painting)

Kitchen After Floors, Starting to Put Kitchen back together

Enjoy! I will be detailing the remodel just as soon as we are further along. Now its off to choosing counter tops and a sink (although we are pretty much 95% decided on the sink!)

The Big Remodel

*Disclaimer, I wrote this June 3rd*

Here is a brief update on our remodel:

In choosing to do much of the work ourselves, it has probably taken twice as long. But never the less, progress is slowly being made. We will be finishing the very last ceiling today. We had to wait a couple of weeks for the floor to come in, and now it is all sitting in the living room, acclimating. After some serious thought last weekend, we are considering having someone put in the floor. There are quite a few areas that would need a touch of leveling (you can use shingles), but that would mean an entire weekend dedicated to discovering where these spots are with a level and marking them. Originally we were going to install the floor ourselves, however, the more we thought about it and the extra work that is now involved, we would actually be able to enjoy our summer if someone else did the floor. We still need to pick out a counter top and new sink, but we know it will all be worth it soon!

Adjustments

With every stage in life come adjustments. In college it was adjusting to not being under your parents roof and taking more responsibility for yourself and schoolwork. After college, it was adjusting to life out on your own, new jobs, possibly new towns and meeting new people. The most recent adjustment in my life was going from fiancé to wife. Yes, its been 10 months, but I finally feel as though I have “adjusted” to being a wife. In the beginning it was fun, moving into “our” house and finding places for my belongings. I enjoyed starting to make a home for us. But there was still a large part of me that was in limbo. I missed not having my morning breakfast/tea with my parents each morning. I missed the noise that was always present at my parents, there was always something going on. One thing I could count on, is that I would never be lonely, because someone was always home (even if it was just the dogs). Mark and I don’t have a dog (someday maybe) and he always leaves for work in the morning, so I found early on that I was quite lonely during the day. I managed to fill my time with trips to the gym, school work and grocery shopping. But many times, I just missed having the noise around. It has taken a while to adjust, but I think I’m there now.  I have managed to make a schedule for myself as best I can and with clinical starting up, I have been very busy this semester. Our current remodel project has also taken up much of my time, as I have become an expert painter over the last month. It’s hard to believe it has taken almost 10 months for me to feel “settled” in my new role as wife, especially when I did a lot of the household tasks before we were married. But I am here now and each day I am blessed to wake up next to my best friend.