Goodbye, old girl

The time has come. Amy and I are leaving Oregon. Or more accurately, have left Oregon. As we faced all of the uncertainty and indecision of being jobless and wondered what to do, some things became very clear. I had a lot of jobs I was pursuing in Utah and everything that I had been pursuing in Oregon had fallen through the cracks. Even Dick's Sporting Goods didn't want me! Then we realized that schools in Utah started on August 22nd, and that if we wanted our kids not to miss weeks of school, we needed to get out here and get them started. Luckily we had a vacation planned here anyway for my brother's wedding, so we decided to come and stay.

We have been here for about 5 weeks, living in my MILs basement. (Thanks, Bob and Linda!) And meanwhile, I have been interviewing for jobs, we have put our house for sale in Oregon, and we have are shopping for houses here. A couple of weeks ago, I flew back to Portland with my little sister (Thanks, Beccy!) to pack up my house and load it into two big containers to be shipped to Salt Lake and drive our cars back to Utah. And Amy stayed here on her own and got to deal with getting the kids to school and trying to prevent them from breaking my in-laws furniture. It has been a fun few weeks.

But we are here. And I have a job (Thanks, Old Navy!!) and our house in Oregon is under contract (Thanks, jerks who bought our house and who are asking for a bunch of unnecessary repairs!) and we are under contract to buy a house here (Thanks, OCD old lady for keeping your awesome 70s split-level in immaculate condition!) So life is getting better.

I wanted to take a moment to list a few things I will miss about Oregon, and a few things that I am excited about in Utah. Let me say first it goes without saying that what I will miss the most are my friends in Oregon, and what I am most excited about are my friends and family in Utah. But that would be a boring blog. So I know these are all superficial and inconsequential, but they still matter.

Goodbye, Oregon. Thank you for:

1. Trader Joe's. I have blogged about my love of Trader Joe's before. And many of you may just not get it. Even if you have visited a Trader Joe's once or twice, you probably think, "What's the big deal?" But when you live by one and do 80% of your shopping there a week, it changes your life and the way you eat. I'll miss having my kids hunt for Moto the monkey and getting a free sucker for finding him. Goodbye Floes, Peach Pops, Salsa Authentica, Joe Joe's, Chili Sauce, Cherry Jam, Hamburger Buns, Pizza Dough, Goat Cheese, Goat Cheese with Honey, Goat cheese rolled in blueberries, Orange Chicken, White Balsamic, Gnocchi with Gorgonzola cream sauce, lemon curd, bagged arugula and many, many more things I have forgotten. (Please feel free to share your favorite Trader Joe's items in the comments!!)

2. My Favorite Muffin. What's better than a bagel sandwich and a giant muffin and then getting really fat? This place makes the best. I will miss you, Sicilian Sandwich on a spinach bagel and a coconut cream muffin!! (Honorable mention to Burgerville and their sweet potato fries and walla walla onion rings.)

3. Agriculture. I know Utah has agriculture (we export sagebrush, right?) But we have made it a tradition to partake of the lovely agri-business that were all about 5 minutes from our home. We loved cutting down our own Christmas trees.

Picking our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

Harvesting raspberries from Smith Berry Barn. And I love that we pay for the privilege of harvesting ourselves.

4. It's so pretty here! Utah certainly has its own beauty which I didn't really realize until I didn't live here for a while. But Oregon will always hold a special place in my heart. I love the forests
and the coast and the tulip festival.

I kind of look like a 85 year old woman in this photo

That tree was in my backyard!!

5. Powells. Its the country's largest independent bookstore. And it is amazing. And beautiful. And the books are so cheap. We would go every year for Bingham Book Day. BBD just won't be the same at the local Barnes and Noble.

6. No Sales Tax. On ANYTHING!! I still can't get my head around it here. I had to buy a new cell phone and had to pay like $15 in tax!! And whenever I but a $.99 fountain drink I am really annoyed when the total is actually $1.06 or whatever. I hate you, sales tax.

I hope when my kids grow up and get married that they all move to Oregon, so I have no choice but to follow them there. Because I hate the idea that I am done with Oregon. Who knows what life will bring.

So onto Utah. Of course, as I said the greatest thing about living in Utah is being close to friends and family and having people that can come to Jonah's baseball games, or Sunday dinners, or piano recitals. Utah has really hipped itself up in the last few year, with the Ikea and the H&M and the fancy local restaurants. Here are the other superficial things I am excited about.

1. Holiday Oil. If you live in the Holladay area (why isn't it called Holladay Oil, you may ask?) is there a greater gas station chain on earth than the Holiday Oil? They have a wide variety of fountain beverages (I am enjoying a Holiday Oil Diet Coke in a Styrofoam cup as we speak.) including Fresca! Don't you sometimes need a fountain Fresca?! Where else can you get that?! They also sell these little beauties:

The Dunford Bakery Chocolate Cake donut. They are so delicious and so chocolatey. You can buy a big box of them from Costco and when we were visiting here we would always get one "because Jonah liked them." Then Jonah would eat 2/3 of one and we would eat the other 17 1/3. They are dangerous. And delicious. In the few short weeks that we have been here, Noel has also become obsessed and asks us every single morning what time we are going to Holiday Oil. 

2. Cafe Rio I know it is cliché. And I know you have to wait in line with a bunch of Moms who have had boob-jobs and who are part-time wedding photographers and who drove up in their Ford Escalades. But it's super popular for a reason! The food is dang good and you get a lot of it. It makes the best take out for watching TV after the kids have gone to bed and you just want something yummy while you watch So You Think You Can Dance. 

3. Great Harvest Bread We had this lovely institution in Hillsboro, but the bread was usually either over cooked and a little dry or the wheat wasn't ground all the way so the bread was a little crunchy. And the people who ran it were slow and grouchy. And you had to ASK for a sample, which they would begrudgingly shave of a tiny sliver for you. The bread at the Great Harvest Bread Co. here is always fresh and delicious, they have a much bigger selection and they practically force you to take a sample. And it is always warm and about as big as a quarter of a loaf of bread. 

4. Theatre  I am certain that there is fabulous theatre in Portland. But when you have small kids, it is easier to not make the effort to get a babysitter, drive downtown, find parking and attend a show Which makes our total number of live theatre outings while living in Portland zero. But in Utah we have a lot of friends that act in and direct plays, which makes it much more easy to get off our badonkadonks and go see something. Last week we saw the FANTASTIC The Drowsy Chaperone at the Hale Center Theatre in Orem starring our friend Brett Merritt. It was great. If you live in or near Utah County, there is no excuse not to see this show. But it also reminded me how much fun live theatre is. Can't wait to see lots more stuff!

I am sure there are things I left off this list, but it took me about a month to get this blog put together, so I better just publish. We are truly glad and grateful to be back. 

June and July Books!

Something about losing my job I guess made me not want to review books in June or July. But I am back with an obnoxiously long post about book reviews!! And I have also decided I am going to stop apologizing about these posts. If you don't like them then don't read them. If you do like them, feel free to share your own book suggestions in the comments.

I read 14 books in June and July! Wahoo!! That is what being unemployed and taking a two week vacation will do for you! I set a goal at the beginning of the year to read 40 books and I am currently at 34 books. I am going to push for 50. Here we go:

The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan. 4 out of 5 stars.
As Wheel of Time books go, this one is pretty great. Rhuidean. the Aiel. The breaking of the White Tower. Good times. Did my nerd-cred just go up?

Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff. 4 out of 5 stars
I recommended this book in my guest post over at Today's Mama about what to buy for Father's day. I stand by it as a great gift for Father's. It is a true story (told through historical documents and accounts, but it reads like a fiction book.) of a sightseeing plane of GIs in WWII that goes down in a secluded valley in Dutch New Guinea. It is a great story of survival. Also, this proves I don't just read fantasy books and/or post apocalyptic novels for teenagers.

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. 3.5 out of 5 stars
I have never read Willis before, but I know her fans are rabid and many. I listened to this on tape and found it quite enjoyable. It is the story of a future society where historians can send people back in time to conduct research. It was a bit slow in the middle, but worth the read.
Marcelo In The Real World by Francisco X. Stork. 4 our of 5 stars
This was my Bingham Book Day 2011 purchase. It is the story of a boy with Asperger's syndrome who goes to work over the summer at his Dad's law firm. He uncovers so things there that are unsettling, and it is interesting to watch how this boy who views the world in a very different way than most people deals with those discoveries. It was well written and I am a bit of a sucker for stories about triumphant kids with aspergers.
Divergent by Veronica Roth. 5 out of 5 stars
A fantastic, post apocalyptic teen romance. My favorite kind of book!! I think it is the next Hunger Games, except without Peeta.
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this book. And as soon as I have a job, I will become a barefoot runner. (Because I need to buy special shoes, which seems a little odd, since it is about barefoot running.) I can't stop thinking about this book. If you are a runner (even a casual runner) you need to read this.
Whistling In the Dark by Lesley Kagen. 2.5 out of 5 stars
This was our book club selection for June? July? I don't remember, but I know it was lame. It was the story of two girls growing up in the 50's and being boring. It had some nice writing, but the plot was tired. It was won of those books that as we discussed it at book club, everyone hated it more and more.
Troubletwisters by Garth Nix and Sean Williams. 4 out of 5 stars
My good friend Kacy gave this to me for my birthday, probably not knowing how much I love a good YA Fantasy yarn. (Although if she reads this blog, maybe she does know.) This is going to be a great series. And with the glut of YA novels targeted at young girls (who dream of falling in love with supernatural creatures) I always appreciate a YA book that I feel like boys would like to.
Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe. 5 out of 5 stars
Really? 5 stars for Rob Lowe? Isn't 5 stars what I gave East of Eden? This is a GREAT celeb book. The thing is, Rob is a pretty great writer, shares so fascinating stories of growing up in old Hollywood with Martin Sheen (President Bartlet!) as his next door neighbor and shares some great life lessons as well. (What did I learn? You can't make your boys into good men by lecturing it into them. They don't learn that way.) I recommend listening to it on tape, because Rob reads it and does all the different voices, and his impression of Matt Dillon is pretty spot on.
The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan. 3 out of 5 stars
Meh. As WoT goes, this one is a little long winded. Plus everyone joins a circus, which never goes well, amiright?

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin. 3.5 out of 5 stars
I can't really decided how I feel about this book. On the one hand, it is an incredibly beautifully written fantasy novel with an incredible premise. On the other hand, I didn't exactly care about anyone.

Fuzzy Nationby John Scalzi. 3.5 out of 5 stars
Do you want to read a book about the legal battles of a giant multi-planetary organization who is trying to strip the resources from a hostil planet inhabited by little talking teddy-bear/cat creatures? Then this is the book for you.
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer. 2.5 out of 5 stars
In all fairness to this book, I don't think the author wrote it thinking that it would have a huge audience in the overweight and balding 34 year old man demographic. My wife and SIL were both fans of the book so I gave it a chance. It had some original ideas and was well written. And for you twilight haters, the girl in this book is pretty powerful and it is the boy who needs the saving. But not for me.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver.4.5 out of 5 stars.
Fantasgreat. I love me a good dystopian teen story, and this is a great one. In the future, society has identified "love" as a disease and has created a cure to eradicate it. Love and passion, they surmise, have been the cause of a lot of human suffering so wouldn't we be better of without it. And while that sounds like the plot of a Lifetime movie, this is a great read.

So there you have it. Feel free to share what you are reading in the comments. Or come visit me over at Goodreads.

A Man of Leisure

As Amy mentioned in her post last month, I lost my job recently. (On June 17th, to be exact. Happy Birthday to me!!!) It wasn't how we were planning on spending the summer, but it has turned out to be pretty great. It has been like a summer vacation! Sure there is that stress caused by watching your bank account get smaller and smaller. But we can handle that, as long as I get a job before the numbers reach $0. (It is like having your life be a game of Mountain Climber on The Price is Right.) We have tried to spend the summer having fun and doing as many free and nearly free things we can (more on that later.)

Being unemployed is a funny thing. I sort of felt like that I would spend the time being more awesome - like I would work out EVERY DAY and I would finally get that novel written that I wrote 4 pages of 3 years ago and then got stuck. But somehow, having nothing to do makes it really easy to do nothing. I did have a few good weeks of really regular work outs. But the novel is still on page 4. And clearly I haven't spent any time working on this blog. Here are some of my observations about being unemployed:

1. When I do manage to go to the gym, it is usually at about 8:30am - 9:00am. Hey, no point in getting up early if you have a whole empty day in front of you! This is the geriatric hour at the Hawthorne Farm Athletic Club. Everyone there is 104 years old. And the funny thing about 104 year olds is that they like to have extended naked conversations in the locker room. I am all for catching up with a friend you run into at the gym, but put some pants on. They also like to watch Fox News on the locker room TV IN THE NAKED! That combines two of my least favorite things on earth: Bill O'Reilly and old naked men. It would only be worse if Bill was naked.

2. When you are unemployed, every email that chirps in your in-box and every phone call that rings causes your heart to race. You assume that the email is of course from a super awesome company who saw your resume and wants to pay you twice what you made at your last position. Every phone call you suspect will be the unemployment department calling to tell you that they are sorry that they have made it so confusing and impossible to apply for unemployment and to make it up to you they will be covering all of your living expenses for a year.  But 9 times out of 10 that email is the Walgreens weekly add (why did we sign up for that?) And the phone call is the library telling you you have an overdue book.

3. You try and find every free event you can. Luckily, we have a lot. You can check out passes from the library to most of the local museums. The school district offers free lunch every day (EVERY DAY!) in the park. Part of me thinks, "We shouldn't eat the free lunch - it is to help out the poor people." Then I remember, we ARE the poor people. And sometimes it is free to just stay home and let the kids play wii all day.

Here is how we have filled up our summer:

Sitting in giant rocking chairs at some (free!) children's museum in Salem, Oregon.

Climbing around the "giant erector set" at the same children's museum. Really, children's museum? Giant Erector Set? I know that is what we called them in 1943, but those were simpler times. Climbing erector sets = free!

Trying to get trapped inside bubbles at the museum. (Bubbles = free!!)

Forcing the kids to pick raspberries at Smith Berry Barn. While this is not technically free (you do have to pay for the berries you take home) you can eat your weight in berries as you pick. Unweighed berries = FREE and DELICIOUS!!

Feeding clover to the goats at the berry barn. Did you know goats look like strange animals from another planet. Their pupils are horizontal rectangles. Since when is that something we allow on Earth. Also, free!

That's a lot of berries my hot wife is holding! And no, they were not free. But they were worth it!

Apparently, we do a lot of bowling. There is a place by us where you can go online and get coupons for free bowling once per day. You just have to pay for the shoes. The kids love it. There is air conditioning. And it is a great way to kill an afternoon.

Also, they sell french fries there. Sold.

Every year, we like to ride the train to celebrate the annual, celebratory, "Celebrate Hillsboro" celebration. It's a big street fair/ farmer's market with face painting, bouncy houses, etc. It's fun and, say it with me, free.

The boys have never wanted to get their faces panted, but Lila is game for anything. She showed them how it was done with a butterfly and they followed up with some manly face-painting like dinosaurs and rockets. 

We had a fun afternoon and came home with a lot of free swag. Nice.

Also, here is a kinda cool picture of Jonah playing flag football. It wasn't free, but we paid for it while I still had a job, so there's that.

So the summer is wrapping up...and we are hoping that soon the fun and fancy free times will end and I will have a job. It has certainly been fun while it lasted. We just hope it doesn't last much longer.