Soooo, we didn’t *quite* do everything I had planned. I did bake scones, so maybe that makes up for skipping donuts?

We also skipped the beach, alas. The plan was to go on Monday, but then we had an epic sleep-in which made driving two hours each way (for, I was informed, “less than ideal surf conditions”) seemed like a bit of a waste of a beautiful day.

But! I got one item crossed off!

Dutch Bros.!!

So, I had no idea what this was until we moved here. It’s a chain of coffee shops a la Caribou except they’re almost always these standalone little shacks. (The shackiness is not limited to this brand – everywhere you go there are these little coffee shacks in the middle of nowhere.) There’s always a huge line of cars, but we wanted to sit down and so I tried walking up to the window on the other side.

“HI!! Can I order here?”

“You sure can!”

“Awesome! So guess what – this is my very first time at Dutch Bros!” [children roll eyes – mooo-oooom you are so uncool]

[eyes wide] “Seriously? Are you visiting from out of town?”

“We just moved here a few months ago and it’s not a thing out in the Midwest. So how does this crazy menu work?”

It *is* a bit of a crazy menu. Lots to choose from and many varieties. But she sweetly put up with our indecision and pointed us in the right direction. And then, when I pulled out my card, she smiled and said, “On the house because it’s your first visit!”

(#oversharingforthewin)

So, giving myself a big ol’ point for that one. Then, I’m giving myself half a point for the hiking plan. We didn’t exactly go on a hike, but when we bailed on the beach, we decided to replace it with adventuring and beer. Went for a leisurely stroll and found ourselves a supercool riverwalk, complete with a statue of our fave animal from the motherland.

(Lol – *one* of us is good at taking pictures. The other one says “eh, it’s got The Husband, the path, and the river ergo it is a riverwalk pic – good ’nuff!)

We walked for about six miles but our destination totally made it worth it.

Mmmm – cold beer on a warm day with the sunshine at your back and your favourite person beside you

Actually, I’m giving myself a full point for that. That’s way better than donuts.

Delayed such as it is. I was thinking of all you Canucks this past Monday when I was working like it was just an ordinary day and listening to CBC and imagining all y’all enjoying the first weekend of summer (oh Tom Allen and Tom Power, you don’t fool me – I *know* you prerecorded and were off somewhere sipping Timmy’s while I bulleted and copy/pasted and edited my Monday away).

Now it’s my turn! I know camping in the snow is de rigueur for your standard Victoria Day festivities, but a) no tent and b) no snow, so we need alternative ideas.

Here is my plan for the weekend:

1. Lie on the beach and read and eat a sandwich.
2. Get coffee from Dutch Bros. for the first time (bonus points if it’s one of those roadside kiosks in the middle of nowhere).
3. Hit up Sesame Donuts for the next stop in our “Find the Best Portland Donuts” quest.
4. Find a new favourite hiking trail (maybe. Chances are that I’ll just end up in the state park per usual, but we’ll see how adventurous I’m feeling).

I’ll report back next week. In the meantime, have fun, my fellow ‘Muricans! And don’t be too jealous, Canadians – you already had yours!

Oooo, you guys, I think we’re finding our Portland rhythm!

Second book club meeting this past Wednesday. I never did tell you about our first meeting. I was cautiously optimistic – lots of opinions and thoughts (books about hermaphrodites are wont to do that) – but a kind and generous group from what I could tell. Then, at the end when we were deciding on future reads, a girl a bit older than me (yes. Still “girls.”) suggested one of my favorite (but obscure) books. The Sparrow?! I don’t know ANYONE who has read that book except at my suggestion.

(Read it. It’s about Jesuits. In space. And it’s about love and God and first contact and ethics and family and despair and hope and prettymuchyouneedtoreadit.)

So, of course, I decided that a la  the patented C.S. Lewis friendship litmus test “What? You too?” that the recommender and I are destined to be BFFs. That she is obviously the Anne to my Diana (you all know I’m the Diana. I’m far too goody-goody-two-shoes to go climbing on roofs and I’m TOTES the kind of person to rewrite an old story to include Rollings Reliable Baking Powder so I can win a year’s supply [#Mennonitefrugality]). That the two of us will fall head over heels and we’ll look back years from now and marvel “remember when I/you suggested that book at book club and you/I just KNEW that someday we’d be dancing together at our children’s weddings.”

(What? A lonely work-from-home girl whose longest in-real-life conversation is the grocery store check-out clerk can dream, yes?)

Well, even with such unfair expectations, this past week’s meeting was FABULOUS! Wonderfully gracious conversation despite some tough topics. Everyone liked the book (so they are all officially on my “approved” list). Lots of great discussion about characters and plot and religion.

And then!

As we were leaving, I casually asked The Recommender about her kids. Turns out she has two. Who go to the same schools as The Girl and The Boy. She and her family moved here less than a year ago. Oh, and she lives one block away from me! We chatted for a fun 45 minutes and I (brazenly) suggested maybe getting together sometime.

Honestly, even if this latest reincarnation of Anne and Diana never happens, it was truly a Godsend. One of the worst parts of moving is feeling unknown. As much as I love going to the grocery store and not worrying about anyone noticing that my hair is up in a bun yet again (omg doesn’t she *ever* wash her hair?), the thought that I might be walking around the neighbourhood and be able to stop and say “oh hey, Recommender! How’s it going?” is pretty huge.

So, maybe-possible friend made! Then we had another friend show up! Look who came to hang out here for awhile…

Technically he’s here for The Husband’s Canada Day party that’s being planned at work. But until then he’s hanging out at our house (laying low until that unfortunate elbowing incident dies down – oh Justin…), scaring the crap out of me every time I walk into the room. Good times!

Yesterday was more laying low, for three of us at least – The Boy was recovering from a sleepover, The Girl was recovering from being alive (truly, that girl naps like it’s her job) and I spent the day recovering from hourly heart-stopping encounters with my prime minister by burying my nose in a book. The Husband prefers a less prone position on his Saturdays, so he headed back to the beach:

We reconvened last night over tacos and Family Movie Night. We’re trying to expose the kids to all the classics – we’ve done Groundhog Day, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ghostbusters, and yesterday’s choice:

Yeah baby! [image]

Today was churchtastic! I double-dipped: I’ve been hanging out with the Episcopalians on my own for a couple of months now, but then The Girl and I went for our second trip to a very promising (for the four of us) church. Best one yet! Oh, our fingers are crossed for this one! Small, friendly, good worship, solid teaching….

Then (you getting jealous of how good this weekend was yet?), The Girl and I went on one of my favourite “we moved to a new city” field trips:

YEAH BABY!! A library card! Oh you ain’t officially moved in until you got one of these, that’s for sure!

Until now, I’ve been cheating a wee bit – my Kindle is still hooked up to the Hennepin library in Minnesota (what? I paid my taxes!) – so I haven’t been completely desperate. But as much as I love the ol’ Paperwhite, there is something about walking the stacks. Our local library is super cute – little, but they know what’s what:

After the library, a trip to The Girl’s favourite place on earth aka JoAnn Fabrics:

We rounded up this embarrassment of riches with dinner for four at our favourite local brewery (sorry, no pics – I’m too old to have whipping out my camera be instinctive yet). But the food was amazing (Beet. Fritters. With. Arugula) and the beer was even better. Plus two kids who got along the whole time? Don’t remember scratching that lottery ticket, but I’ll take it!

And now it’s Sunday night and the breadmaker is set (The Boy has a field trip tomorrow and needs a samm’ich), the coffeemaker is set (Mama needs coffee tomorrow so she can review release notes), The Girl is astonished with my musical amazingness at knowing that Solsbury Hill is in 7/4 time, and The Husband patiently awaits my blogging’s ending so we can finish another episode of The Wire.

You guys…we’re getting there….

When we packed up our Minnesota house (oh wait, did I say we? I totally meant I. Because I packed everything by myself. Just so we’re all clear on that one), there was a sense that every inanimate object had to earn itself a place on the moving truck.

(“Inanimate” because social services would probably not have been impressed if we’d made our kids argue their worthiness over, say, a box of books. [Depending on the day, that actually might not be an easy choice.])

Because we had a finite amount of space, and that amount was decidedly less than the amount taken up by our belongings, we had to do a fair bit of purging. Even when the purging was done (remember all my Craigslist adventures?), I was still a bit nervous that moving day might require some Sophie’s Choices of the “bed vs books” variety due to maxing out the truck (again, not always the easiest decision).

I gave the movers a tour of the house, pointing out the “must-haves” vs the “nice-to-haves.” That way, they could pack the essentials and then, if we started running out of room, they’d know what could get left behind.

On that “pack if it fits” list was our patio furniture. As much as I love getting my deck on, patio furniture takes up a lot of space. And when you start doing the math of cost-to-transport-across-Rocky-Mountains vs cost-to-replace-on-the-other-end, it was clear that my beloved deck chairs were not gonna be first into the lifeboats.

Oh man, it came down to the wire on moving day. We got the sofas in and the beds in and the eleventeen kitchen boxes in and the books (phew) in and the piano in. And, of course, all the passports and green cards. But we were getting awfully close to the “you shall not pass” line of the truck and the patio furniture was still not in.

BUT! Brandon and crew (best movers evah!) somehow managed. They pushed, prodded, stacked, shoe-horned and otherwise Tetris’ed EVERYTHING. And I happily shut the door knowing that somewhere down the line, there’d be some deck-getting-on-ing once again.

That time is NOW! Look where I’m sitting!

Isn’t it amazing? It’s like my own little slice of heaven in my backyard. I feel a bit like Lady Grantham taking respite in the shade from the beating sun to save her porcelain skin (if Lady Grantham drank martinis and ate potato chips and blogged and read books on her Kindle and did so as a well-deserved break after cleaning the entire house AND mowing the lawn including going to the gas station to get gas for the mower [and standing there like a knob while the attendant filled my gas can because Portland]).

That tree is something else, too – here is as much of it as I could fit in one picture:

God bless massive trees! And patio furniture! And WiFi that reaches to the backyard! And 32-degree days in May! And definitely Brandon and his amazing crew of moving magicians!

Argh. Sorry all. Major writer’s block over here. Scout’s honour – I’ve totally had the computer on my lap, all ready to blog, aaaaaannnnndddd…nothing.

Things are still good out here at the end of the ol’ Oregon Trail. School, work, weekend, wash, rinse, repeat. We’ve passed peak blossom and are settling into a nice, warm late spring. Just over a month left of school (shoot – we should probably figure out what these kids are doing for summer break).

In lieu of anything more thought-provoking than that, some pics:

The Boy’s still playing hockey – getting better every week! Poor kid had a game at 7:30 am yesterday morning.

To assist the hockey effort (see what I did there?), there was some major father/son bonding over the building of an epic hockey net.

The Girl’s been doing a lot of non-screen stuff lately – mostly drawing, but also some puzzling.

Epic net, yes? There’s slapshot practice every night. (I overhead the tail end of a story that concluded with “and then my puck went into the neighbour’s yard and I heard one of their chickens squawk” but I pretended not to hear it.)

And let’s end with a gratuitous “Girl on the Beach” picture. (Another statement I pretended to not to hear was “awww, do we HAVE to go to the beach AGAIN this weekend? I’m sick of the beach.” Silly spoiled children – try growing up on the prairies a three DAYS’ drive from the beach and see how sick of it you get.)

Hey there, hi there, ho there, friends! Time for a catch-up post. Our calendar’s been full lately – dinner guests, more hockey, and our first Grandma/Grandpa visit.

But first we had a birthday in there. Can you believe she’s 15?!

Per usual, I knocked the cake outta the park. And also per usual, we consumed said cake at the crack o’ dawn (hence the bathrobes, blankets, and bedheads).

Good times with the g’parents. Somehow they lucked out and got the nicest week we’ve had since we moved – sunny and 20s pretty much every day. It’s also fun being in a new city, since we’d long exhausted the Minneapolis faves. So in showing them around, we got to see some new stuff, too – took the fam to OMSI and got ourselves nice and scienced up:

Then there’s new hockey in the mix. The Boy is actually playing on a for real team! It’s “4 on 4” (which, I have learned, does NOT mean that there are only three other kids on his team and that the two coaches can each take two cute little boys under their wings and give them all this individualized attention. Nope, it means four at a time on the ice and it’s actually a bunch of crazy tweens all getting up to no good in between being on the ice).

The Boy likes it so far, except for the 6:20 AM ice time today (!!!!!). I knew that in theory this was a thing, but never thought I’d experience it. (By “experience it,” I actually mean “groan in disbelief as The Husband gets up at 5:45 and roll over while murmuring ‘you wanted him to play hockey…'”.)

But the boys were home in time for us to try another church. Sigh. Church-shopping is tough. I imagine it’s like dating? (Having only ever had one real first date [unless you count attending an all-day youth event with Greg from Grunthal when I was 14 “a date”], I’m not sure how closely it compares.) Every time we try a new one I have to remind myself that it’s just a “get-to-know-you” visit and that it’s not like I’m gonna marry this church and have its babies and that I don’t need to sign up to lead children’s ministry my first time. But oh, the temptation is there – nothing makes you feel more settled in a new place than a church, yes?

In the still-finding-our-feet meantime, we soldier on. Work/school continue to be fun and pleasant places for us all (NOT taking that for granted, never ever). The Girl has tested out of French class, so she’s down to six classes, one of which is metal shop. She has a free period every day, and her other classes are either new-but-easy or repeats of material from Minnesota. I’m calling this her “gap year” and just being thankful that she can take it easy academically while she focuses on acclimating.

Ooo, in possibly-exciting news, I’m joining a book club that meets monthly at a local bookstore. I kinda wanted to find one that was the “meet in people’s houses and drink wine” kind because the public place ones seem a bit too formal. But then I thought about starting my own and realized that I’d never be comfortable going to a stranger’s house, much less invite several strangers over to mine, so I’ll follow the first-date-in-a-public-place rule here. I’ll keep you posted! We’re reading Middlesex, and nothing says “first date conversation fodder” like hermaphrodites!

And that’s all I’ve got. Consider yourself catched up.

 
The Husband is teaching The Boy the rules of hockey. He starts 4 on 4 this Sunday….

(I know, I owe you part 2 of our vacation…. I’ll get there….)

Hello from San Francisco! We rolled in a few hours ago and our Air BnB has smokin’ fast WiFi, so a blogging we will go!

We started our trip in dairy style – the Tillamook Cheese Factory!   

And would it be a legit family vacation without some currency destroying? I think not… Then off to a lighthouse for some whale watching.

    
 We watched…no whales. Oh well. Better luck at the next stop – a hike! (Aka a “leisurely nature walk” since The Girl is suspicious of the “H” word.)   (Yep – we went all the way up there)

    
     Tuesday was more nature walks, except this time on the beach and with the redwoods!   

    
    
 (Sorry, out of order – the app is rudimentary. And spacing issues. Oy.)
Today was mostly driving. The Girl loves driving! Give her Mom Teddy, some tunes, and some scenery, and she’s happy for hours.   
The Boy prefers to ignore ancient trees in favor of movies on his phone.

 But we drag him out for touristy things as necessary.

 
Now we’ve moved from the country to the city – cable cars and Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz, here we come!

This right here is why I’ve long stopped wishing I could go along on The Husband’s trips:

Oh dear. We’ve reached the point in the blog journey where, absent daily moving van and new school excitement, things tend to take a bit of a downward turn. Without something super important like “OMG you guys Portland is so weird” or “Guess who found the grocery store??” to mark each day, there seems to be less reason to post.

But this is a not terrible thing, yes? We haven’t even been here three months yet and already our lives are hum-drum and same-old-same-old – that’s pretty amazing, I’d say.

However, in the interest of  catching you up on the quotidian:

What we’re doing: School (The Boy), Schoolish (The Girl – she’s had a stomach bug she can’t seem to shake lately – fortunately she has a fair amount of wiggle room in her current schedule, so she’s not falling behind), Work (me), Traveling (The Husband – some pleasure, some work).

How we’re wasting time: Screens, always the screens.  The Boy discovered The Walking Dead (bad parent for letting a 13-year-old watch it? Yea or nay?) and The Girl does a fair bit of Minecrafting. I finally tried Downton Abbey for the first time over the weekend (and the fact that I’m already on Season 2 probably indicates how good of a fit it is for me). I also finished a book in there – The Husband was away, so we pretty much hibernated.

What’s providing the drama: Metal shop! Remember how I told you that every time my phone rings around 1:30 on alternating days, I worry a bit? Well, I finally got the call! “Hi, this is Kim the school nurse. The Girl is fine. But there was an incident in metal shop….” Here’s the damage:

A bit tough to tell, but that finger on the right got a good singeing. She’s taking it in stride, though:

What we’re planning: Spring Break! It’s next week and for the first time ever, we’re going away! (Take that all those years of “but my friends are going to Disneyland for the FIFTH time and we never get to go anywhere….“) Now that we’re on the Left Coast, we suddenly have way more within driving distance than in the Midwest (where you’ve got Chicago and Mount Rushmore and that’s kinda it). We’re going to San Francisco! I’ve never been, so I’m pretty excited.

Aaaaaaand that’s about it. Until our next riveting installment!