Our Happenings

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2010-05-29T09:56:00.001-07:00

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Erin Gorsline
The Standard
971-212-5234

Waiting for me to throw his ball

2009-11-19T19:51:00.000-08:00

Our vampire zombie :)

2009-10-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

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Terms and conditions

2009-09-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

Contract hannah wrote up for what she needs to do before getting a new bed :).

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Leaving the cigar bar with lori

2009-07-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

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Start of my day

2009-07-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

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Cute doggie on my knee

2009-07-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

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At my desk

2009-07-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite pictures by Hannah - I keep it pinned up at my desk :)

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Game night

2009-07-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to play Sequence with the family

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Hannah and Meg's find in the creek

2009-07-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

Hunting for Salamanders and Frogs

2009-07-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

2009-07-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

I love living in a valley known for growing fruit! A fridge full of cleaned, fresh cherries, raspberries and strawberries straight from the farmers market. Yum.

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2009-07-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

I've decided to take a picture every day for a week and post to our blog -- a week in pictures experiment. Here is friday.

Its been beautiful all week and it starts to rain while I'm driving home on the commute??

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trace elements of wheat

2009-05-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

Another day of trying to be dairy and wheat free. I'm making progress, although I catch myself 1/2 thru a meal and realize it has some trace of either dairy or wheat. I started the day with a bowl or Rice Chex and Rice milk ... pretty tasty actually, better than I had thought it would be. For lunch I had a salad with tuna as the protein. I was half way thru the salad and said to my lunch partner -- does mayo have milk in it? We couldn't decide so I'm still not sure if that was ok. The dressing had wheat in one of the seasoning so I got some trace elements of wheat there. For dinner I had scrambled eggs with some lunch meat ham and a cob of corn. I put a bit of butter on the corn and then went -doh!!-- butter is dairy god damn it! So, I had a bit of wheat in some salad dressing and a bit of butter on corn. This is harder than it seems :)

Man!

2009-05-12T18:56:00.001-07:00

Everything has wheat in it!!! I had chicken on the bbq with rice. I put some soy sauce on the rice and wouldn't you know it - the frigging soy sauce has wheat in it. This is harder thaqn I thought.

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Gluten and Dairy Free

2009-05-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm going to journal my attempt to go gluten and dairy free for at least two weeks. I've been feeling crummy for about a month. I'll save you the details, but suffice to say my intestines have been acting up. I decided this morning that drastic times call for drastic measures, so at first I was going to go off just dairy, but then I thought, what the heck, why not gluten too? I had coffee to start my day. I usually take it with milk, but instead I asked for a shot of soy milk. It didn't taste different that normal. I usually have a yogurt for breakfast but this morning I just had coffee. For lunch I had a salad with turkey. My head started to hurt around 5pm, but overall I was feeling OK. I had scrambled eggs (I put a bit of butter in the pan before realizing that was dairy, with some ham and mushrooms. I had a gluten free cookie I had for one of Hannah's friends who is gluten free. It was quite tasty. That's it for today, day one was better than expected but I miss dairy (don't miss the gluten yet).

Beautiful couch potato

2009-05-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

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Erin Gorsline sent via BlackBerry

My favorite tree outside our livingroom window

2009-05-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

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Erin Gorsline sent via BlackBerry

Mermaid hair

2009-05-05T19:09:00.001-07:00

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Erin Gorsline sent via BlackBerry

Tub time

2009-05-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

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Erin Gorsline sent via BlackBerry

Cutest dog on the block

2009-05-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

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Erin Gorsline sent via BlackBerry

Kentucy bound

2009-03-18T15:37:00.001-07:00

I'm in loiusville Kentucky this week on business. This is the farthest south I've ever been in the US - its not that south but there are some southern accents here! I'm finding myself taking it on a bit - I told the folks I'm here working with to call me on it if there here the southern drawl coming from me - a girl from nova scotia has no business having a southern drawl ;)

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Erin Gorsline sent via BlackBerry

Updated pictures

2008-12-23T09:00:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Oct-Dec ... Hannah in soccer, Halloween and our blizzard adventures. Our power has stayed on during the storm thankfully!

Oh Boy

2008-12-21T06:10:00.001-08:00

Just as I posted my last entry the power started to flicker! I jinxed us by saying something about the power, darn it. Fingers crossed it won't go out ....

Baby, It's Cold Outside

2008-12-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

It's a winter wonderland here! Like much of the northern part of North America, we've been hit with several winter storms in the past week. Hannah only had one day of school last week (!) and is now off for the Christmas holidays. I'm also off on vacation, and Michael's only seeing a few clients over the coming days. The storm that arrived last night dumped the most snow to date - about a foot - which is the first time in my 11 years of living here that I've seen this much snow at one time. It's now pelting down freezing rain (hence why I'm up so early, can't sleep with all the noise on the roof/windows). We all woke up around 5am, fortunately Michael and Hannah were able to settle back down for another few hours of rest. We went out sledding yesterday, the hill wasn't big but since we get snow so seldom, it was fun. We only lost our power once for a few hours over the past week -- I'm so thankful for that! Those 5 hrs without power was painful!

I finished up our Christmas shopping on Friday night, it feels good to be all done with that since it would be difficult to get out to the stores at this point. I think this will be Hannah's last year truly believing in Santa (she's teetering on the edge as it is ... I think she'll say she believes in coming years but I think this is the last magical year for the guy in the red suit) so I'm going to enjoy that part of Christmas day specifically. We have several fun gatherings planned with family and friends so we're looking forward to those plans. I have a host of pictures to post -- from soccer season, Halloween, sledding and snow - will download them today and link them here soon.

We hope you're all having a safe, happy, loving Christmas and wish we could give all our east coast friends and family a big Christmas hug.
Love,
Erin, Michael and Hannah

Oct update

2008-10-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Autumn has arrived and Halloween is just around the corner. Hannah got her costume last week (she's been thinking about it for weeks now .. the girl likes a chance to dress up!) and she's going as a witch. Not just any old witch - a glamour witch. What, do you say, is a glamour witch?

From what I can tell, it's one that has a pretty dress and no warts. We decorated our porch, so we're well on our way to being ready for trick-or-treating.

I just returned from a trip to Maine on business. It was beautiful there -- perfect east coast autumn. I had a huge maple tree outside the window of my hotel room. The town I was in had a Tim Hortons which I enjoyed visiting each morning I was there.

I have a few pictures to post - will do that in the coming week. All for now - need to get a bit of extra sleep today, feel like I'm fighting off something. Gotta love the winter flu/cold bugs.

Ah ... Relaxing

2008-09-08T18:37:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting on my front porch in my Adirondack chair. Its 630pm - Hannah's at soccer practice, Michael is with a client. The house is clean, the laundry is done, the groceries are put away, supper dishes are done. Its a beautiful night - about 80 degrees, the walnut trees are providing shade and there is a nice breeze coming in from the Columbia river. I have a small bowl of green onion chips and a white wine seltzer (had to add sprite and ice because the bottle was warm) and I'm starting a new book and nova is relaxing at the foot of my chair. I'm all alone for another 45 minutes....I'm thankful for all that surrounds me. Exhale.

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Meow Meow Go Away

2008-09-07T18:00:00.001-07:00

We went shopping for gym sneakers today and saw the "first ever animated cartoon made specifically for 3D - Fly away to the Moon". On the movie -- my main comment is they paid a lot of attention to 3D effects ... not so much to the story line. They used kids for the voices of the three main characters - a mistake I think because the lines all sounded to me very much like kids reading lines from a script. Since it cost $10 a ticket (even for a matinee) I felt a bit ripped off. Ah well, Hannah seemed to enjoy it. I remembered NOT to get popcorn as every other time we've gotten popcorn she's been up throwing up in the middle of the night. Finally I remembered this and choose sour patch kid candy instead. One point Mom, zero throw up popcorn. After the movie we ventured into the mall to buy Hannah a pair of sneakers - and after 6 stores, we settled on a pair that she thinks are 1) very fashionable 2) something that she calls "meow meow go away" which in Hannah translation means that she thinks they make her look like a tough girl in a band. She choose a pair of low top black converse sneakers. They do look great - and they are the first article of clothing or shoes that make me see into the future - a glimpse into what 13 is going to look like. She wore them today with short sock, her jean skirt (they are skorts ... have shorts underneath but you can't tell by looking at them) and a white tee-shirt. With her "meow meow go away" moves (which consists of her making a sound that she believes sounds like a guitar while doing the windmill move on an air guitar), let me just say it's quite a sight.

First day of school

2008-09-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today was Hannah's first day of third grade ... here are a few pics from our morning. I gave her a hug and kissed her on the forehead when I said goodbye in the classroom -- she said "Mom, DON'T kiss me in public, that's embarrassing!" Michael did the same thing (he didn't see me doing it or her reaction) and he got the same response .. so at least we're an equal opportunity embarassment. I can't believe my little girl getting all grown up!!

I also didn't post a blog about my last leg from Hood to Coast -- my third leg was much better than the second. I got a few hours of sleep and had something to eat earlier in the route so my food digested and didn't cause cramps while I ran. I finished stronger than I expected and felt really good that I completed all my legs. The folks in my van were great team mates -- supportive and fun, exactly what you hope for in people that you're trapped with in a van for 32 hrs unshowed and smelly :) Seriously, they made the experience and I wouldn't have made it thru it without them! Here's a picture of our team at the end of the adventure. We all look pretty good for being at the end don't we? Good thing that smell doesn't come thru in a picture! The one of just me is at the start of the adventure ...4am on Friday my way out of the door .. the group picture was 5pm on Saturday at the end.

Blog Hacker

2008-09-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

My blog was hacked ... the last two notes about asking for donations for dogs and selling puppies were not from me, looks like they were a scam, sorry for any confusion. I deleted them from my blog -- so the actual posts you see below about hood to coast are from me :)

Second leg done

2008-08-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

Wow that one hit me like a TON of bricks, had to do a run walk combo because of so many muscle cramps (I ate dinner too close to the run). But I completed it and my team was super supportive even though I was pretty slow. 5 more runners to go before we rest. I think my last will be somewhere around 6 am ish ....almost there!

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First leg done!

2008-08-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged much about the prep for my Hood to Coast relay but the big day has arrived! I thought I'd put in a few blog entries along the way for those who may be interested in my adventure! My first leg was 5.6 miles long, straight downhill. It was a beautiful view, trees that wouldn't end and mountain views with snow topped mountains. The first 4 miles felt pretty good, I ran the whole thing. Mile 5 was tought - the gluts were screaming! Another runner in front of me turned around mid run and I asked her if we were at 3 or 4 miles??? She said 1.6 to go! Which was the boost that I needed. The last 1/2 miles was the hardest - it was slightly uphill so it was using the different muscles than I had for the 5 miles prior. ... But I was so close so couldn't stop then! I'm in a van with work folks - 3 who I know well, 3 who I've never met. they all seem like a good crew - had quite a few laughs, we're having fun. Our third runner is finishing up in a few mins, so we're halfway thru out first full leg. More later :)

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Toronto bound

2008-07-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

Passports - check
Noterized letter giving me permission to travel with Hannah by myself - check
Ninentento gameboy - check
Portable dvd player and a few movies - check
Harry Potter book plus a non fiction one for me - check

Ok ... I think we're set for our plane ride to Toronto (Vancouver first, then Toronto). I'm excited to see my family. Hannah is excited to ride on the plane (she's an old pro now, and much easier to travel with at this point ... practically enjoyable!) We're off to Delhi for the first part of the trip, than back into downtown Toronto for the second half. I'm looking forward to visiting Canada's Wonderland, it will be fun to take Hannah there, I have a lot of good childhood memories from there and I'll get to catch up with a few old friends which I'm thrilled about.

Seattle Bound

2008-07-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

Taking off for Seattle sounds like a fun thing, unfortunately for me it's an up and back trip. I'm off to Canada to visit family next week, and on Sunday night I discovered Hannah's passport expired 2 weeks ago. bummer. I checked mine a few month back and saw that it had 5 yrs left, so assume that Hannah's was fine too as we got both at the same time. What I didn't realize at the time was children's passports are only good for 5 years, adults for 10 yrs. So, Hannah and I are going to take a 3 hr drive to Seattle, get her passport, get back in the car and drive 3 hrs back home. Poor planning on my part but I'm thankful I discovered it this week. Taking an extra day off from work this week is killing me -- it's hard enough to wrap things up before leaving on vacation for 2 weeks without have one less day to do it in!

I'm took a few week hiatuses (read: lazy streak) in my running training. I'm back at it with 6 weeks before the big run. I'm doing pretty well, but part of my body are starting to hurt so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the aches and pains will just go away. I keep getting a sharp pain in my shoulder at the last part of my run, I've done some online research and it seems like it's from breathing too deeply when I'm running rather than being efficient and breathing from the top part of my lungs. It's hard to breath just from the top part of your lungs when you're gasping for breath!

Quote to live by

2008-06-10T20:23:00.001-07:00

"It is our choices, Harry that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

From Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Sprinkler fun

2008-06-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

Hannah's in the brown bathing suit - playing with her friends Clara, Raina and Catie. Alas, this was a few weekends ago - it's been rainy and overcast ever since!

update from the land of sun

2008-05-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's been super hot here ... 98 degrees for the past week! We've been enjoying it, but we're back to the normal 60 degree spring weather starting tomorrow.

I just completed week 2 of my training program, on to week 3 training tomorrow morning at 5:15am. I'm enjoying have the goal to work toward, and each week I am getting better, but it is kicking my ass. The program is exponentially more difficult from week to week, no incremental like I thought it would be. That's ok -- I only have 2 1/2 more months to build up to running 5-7K three times in a row with little to no sleep in between each leg, so it probably needs to be exponential to get me there :)

Training entry

2008-05-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

I found a training program which seems perfect for me -- "couch potato to 5K" training program. I finished week one yesterday, and it had me on the treadmill for 30 minutes three times last week ... doing intervals of 60 secs of running, 90 secs of quick walking. I haven't darkened the door of my gym in over 6 months so this unfortunately is where I need to being. I've been calling my gym membership "workout insurance" because I've been paying the monthly membership "just in case" I wanted to go to the gym ... which hasn't happened in quite a long time. The good thing about following this program is if I were doing it on my own I would have started out trying to run more than I was able right now, which would have made me super sore and unable to keep going regularly. Each day felt better than the one previous, and I did 40 mins of lifting various weights and sit ups afterward. I also found a music podcast that I used on the third day which I liked a lot. A guy in northern California made up podcasts with techno type music to each of the weeks for this program. The good thing with using these to run to is he tells me when to speed up for the run interval and when to slow down. When I'm listening to my own music I have to pay attention to the time on the treadmill and that can be annoying to do halfway into it. I also went to a store that caters to runners, and even though I felt completely out of place, I went to get a good pair of running shoes. They film you running so they can recommend a shoe with the right support for how much pronation you do (good news is I don't have much pronation but I run with my right foot pointed slightly out which signifies tightness in my right hip, and it's not the most efficient run stride). I think I have bigger issues that worrying about my right foot being pointed slightly to the outside, so I'm not going to focus too much on that :) Michael asked 'how was it going to the store?' My answer was it was completely humiliating but I went anyway! I used my new runners on the third workout and they did feel better .. more cushion and supportive in the right places. I'm feeling good going into week two of my training, and I'm ready to move to the next week.

Side note -- our kitchen refresh is coming along well. We have our new floors and new appliances in. We're going to really enjoy having a gas stove, it's super fun to cook on. Our new counter tops come on Friday, I'm excited to see how they will look!

Party Hair

2008-05-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hannah's school has a yearly tradition of hosting "A Daughter's Dance" where the girls in the school take their Dad (or significant male figure) to a dance at the school. The pair gets dressed up and spends the evening snacking on cookies, dancing and at some point in the night, doing the limbo (one of Hannah's favorite parts). Hannah wanted to have "party hair" as she called it ... she wasn't specific about what that meant, so I improvised and borrowed a curling iron from our neighbor and made her hair wavy. Here's a few short videos and pics of them before the dance.

Hannah on our front porch ... Grampie -- notice tthe sign in our front yard :)

Let the training begin

2008-05-06T21:36:00.001-07:00

OK ... I may have officially lost my mind! I joined a team to participate in the Hood to Coast running relay this summer. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it is a 48 hr 197 mile relay race that starts on Mt Hood and ends at the Pacific ocean. Each team is comprised of 12 members and you spend the 48 hrs riding in vans taking turns completing the race. It works out that each member runs about 5 miles three time each over the 48 hrs (so about 14-15 miles each, with each leg being a different difficulty). That may not sound like much -- but it seems like a lot from my chair as I think about training for it! I think this blog is going to turn into a chronicle of my preparation for this event. Turning 36 this year was a big deal for me -- I didn't have a hard time with any other age related milestone thus far -- but for some reason this year was tough. I signed up mostly because I want to have a goal to achieve a degree of fitness that I haven't had for a long time, and doing it in a year that is meaningful age wise seems like good timing. I'm going to start training tomorrow ... I'm interested to see what my baseline is ... my bet is the starting point is pretty low! Frankly, I'll be surprised if I can run a full mile without feeling stopping. Good news is there is only progress to be made from my current ability level :) Wish me luck!

Important PS -- this is also a fundraiser event for the American Cancer Society ... I'm going to fundraise in memory of my Grandmother Penny Sinden who passed away late last year of cancer. I'll post an online form on the blog once it's set up in case anyone is interested in sponsoring me in this journey. Thanks!

Flip camcorder

2008-04-27T17:00:00.001-07:00

Here's my first video of Hannah with our new Flip camcorder ... this thing is amazing ... small, inexpensive (relatively speaking :), fun to use and it shoots solid quality video. I'm sure there will be more videos to follow soon!

Shoe obsession and other items

2008-04-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

My new job requires a different wardrobe than my old job. Since my new job is downtown, it's a completely different vibe than working in the suburbs. I feel like a grown-up - I wear suits, I have an office, I walk around in the city among other urban professionals, I don't need to see engineers in their spandex, etc. In shopping for this refreshed wardrobe, I have discovered that I love shoes. Actually, I maybe be on the verge of being obsessed. I got a little giddy when I found my most recent purchase ... beautiful red leather mary-jane type heels. Super cute and actually comfortable too! I found a picture online ... I want you to picture those with my killer Banana Republic dark blue suit ... fierce as the kids say :)

On to more important topics ... Hannah is loving Tae Kwon Do. Here are a short movie (the parents are in the back so the angle isn't great .. and I can't figure out how to get it to play vertical..) We bought a "Flip" recorder so movies will be fun to take with that.

Crossing off the To Do List

2008-04-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm getting a bunch of things done that I've never had time for. My new job is giving me back a lot of time -- no more working in the evening or weekends, plus getting back an hour a day in commute time. It's making a huge difference, I'm thrilled. We got our taxes done. We found a Tae Kwon Do class for Hannah to join, she started last week. We're getting a bunch of house projects done that we didn't have time to focus on. Life is good.

On Hannah's new class -- she's been wanting to go for a while now and we finally located a class that was at a convenient time and location. After watching her first class, I'm thrilled that she's interested in taking it. Her teacher is focusing on a couple of key concepts that are perfect for her ... focus/quieting the mind and persistence. In the first class the teacher had them answer his question "if we don't get it right the first time.." "we try again!". Hannah tends to want to get something perfect from the first time she does it, so this will be good practice in having to build a skill over time and not getting frustrated when it's not perfect right away.

We are making terrific progress on our house updates. The plumber finished the installation of our new 'pipes' ... it's not pipes but is flexible tubing which is very cool. They also drilled out to the street and put in a bigger line into the house. Tonight we did a load of dishes, a load of laundry AND ran the tub for Hannah to take a bath ALL AT THE SAME TIME! Before our new pipes, we could only do one of these things at once ... what a huge time saver! I wasn't thrilled that we prioritized this over things I could "see", but now that it's done, I have to admit Michael was right to want to put this at the top of the list :) We also are getting new electrical panel and a bunch of new grounded plugs installed, that will be a good improvement from a safety perspective. We also have a couple of roof repairs and painting our second floor that we'll get done too. I don't know why I didn't have our second floor painted when we moved in 3 yrs ago - we had every room painted except the upstairs (the upstairs is a big open loft area which is our bedroom, Michael's office and a bathroom) so it will be nice to have something other than white walls up there.

We also decided to refresh the kitchen ... and we're starting to make progress! I say refresh rather than remodel because we're not changing the footprint/walls or changing the cabinets, just all the surfaces and appliances. Our new dishwasher was installed today. It is SO quiet! It's running now and I can barely hear it. We picked out the new counter tops, floors and tiles for the back splash, the designer comes by on Sat morning to measure and figure out when it can be installed. We bought new appliances (fridge, gas stove, dishwasher which is in now) plus had a water line installed to the fridge and the gas line to the range. It will probably take 3-4 weeks to get it all installed, I'll be sure to put up before and after pictures. The before isn't horrible ... just boring. Plus our counter top is 3x3 inch tiles, and with making espresso drinks, the coffee grinds are constantly in the grout lines and that drives me crazy. Our new counter top is one continuous piece (that was a must have) and we're going to do an under mount sink, so clean up of the coffee will be a snap. It's all about the coffee in our house :)

This Old House

2008-03-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

First, let me say that I love our house. We bought it two years ago when Hannah started kindergarten. It's our second home -- definitely could be our keeper house. We decided which neighborhoods/schools we wanted Hannah to go to and only looked in those areas. We search for months (it was a seller market back then!) and put offers on a couple of houses, but none worked out. The market was so hot that you had to find the house the day it went on the market, and if you didn't get an offer in within the first 4-6 hrs you'd be out of luck. Often, there would be 3-4 other bids against yours. I found our house one day when just driving around the neighborhood, noticed a little "for sale by owner" sign in the yard. I pulled over and sat looking at the house from the curb. I jotted down the phone number and figured I'd call back later that day. But instead of pulling away, I decided to go up and knock on the door to get a few details (there was no info on the sign -- no price or info about the house). As I walked up to the door another car pulled over to the curb, obviously other interested buyers. The owner answered the door, she said that she had just put the sign out an hour earlier and I was the first person to enquire -- did I want to come in and take a look? Knowing that others were starting to mill about on the side walk, I said, yes - that would be lovely. I fell in love with the house when I first stepped in -- it was a craftsman bungalow, built in the 1920's and all of the charm has been maintained. On the left thru the front door was a beautiful fireplace that ran the whole length of the living room, with bookshelves flanking either side of the fireplace. The dining room was on the right, with beautiful wood floors. She took me on a tour of the house, giving the details along the way. I asked her the price, expecting it to be at the high end of our price range (we had seen 40+ houses in our search so I had a good sense of what the market prices were). I was surprised to hear that the price was very reasonable, probably about 20K under market value. Instantly I was suspicious -- what was wrong with the place? After further discussion, I realized she wanted a long close time -- she was having a house built in another part of town and didn't want to move twice. She also didn't want to do any major repairs, wanted to sell it as is, so was willing to negotiate for both of these needs. Anyway, cut to the end of the story, we had a signed agreed offer 4 hrs later .. and the rest is history :)

We've known that there were a few must do items in the first 3-5 yrs of living here, we did a few key things when we first moved in - we had the whole inside painted (which made a huge difference ... white walls do nothing for the character of the house!) and had a beautiful craftsman style cedar fence installed all around the perimeter of the property. The fence was Michael's suggesting ... little did he know at the time that it would open the door for getting Nova (our dog) 5 months later! Once you have an enclosed yard that is good for kids plus pets! So, the time has come to get a few of the next set of jobs done now. Several don't make any visible difference in the house, but we're going to do one fun one .... more on that in a minute. The not fun but expensive ones are plumbing, electrical and roofing. Our plumbing is old and corroded -- which makes it impossible to do more than one thing with the water flow at one time. Meaning you can't do laundry and the dishwasher at the same time -- there isn't enough water pressure to do both. So, we are having all the plumbing replaced and the pipe to the street redone as well. They have finished with the replacement inside the house, and just that has made a big difference ... and I know that the pipe to the street will be a huge change because that is the source of the water! We're also having some electrical work done, replacing the electrical panel. It is on circuits, which obviously is old and probably hazardous. We also have a leak by the chimeny, so we need to get that taken care of, hopefully that will be a repair and not a new roof, but we'll see on that soon.

We're also going to do something that is a visible difference ... we're still debating what. The three projects that are on my short list are painting the outside of the house, redoing the front steps and installing pillars (someone put iron instead of pillars at some point in the past ... I'd like to put back something that looks more original), and updating/refreshing the kitchen surfaces and appliances. With all the must do projects, we can probably do one nice to have project. We're leaning toward doing the kitchen as everyone would enjoy that .. I'm the only one who really wants to redo the outside of the house ... so those projects are lower on votes :) We're going to look at appliances tomorrow, I've spent the last few days researching them on consumer reports along with flooring and counter top products. The products I like best so far are marmoleum for the floor and fuez counter tops. Both are 'green' eco-friendly products -- fuez is made from recycled glass and colored cement, and marmoleum is a natural product. Our cabinents are very nice and we don't want to change the structure/layout of the kitchen, so we're just calling it a refresh rather than a remodel :) Whatever project we end up doing, I'll be sure to post before and after photos!

Spring has Arrived!

2008-02-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

I took Hannah and her friend Zoe on a hike last weekend. It was beautiful here ... we're in the middle of the forest, and you can see from the pictures, the sun was shining enough to make it through the trees. It is warming up as well, tulips and crocuses are peeking up through the ground. I hope that you're seeing signs of spring wherever you are as well!

I'm a lover not a fighter

2008-02-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

I thought Michael was kidding when he said there was a house in the neighborhood with a bunch of lights up for Valentine's Day. As you can see from the pic I snapped below, clearly he wasn't kidding! There are lighted hearts in each of the windows, big red lips in hearts on the lawn along with left over white christmas lights on shrubs. Wow, these people take valentines's day very seriously .... or maybe they are jewish and don't get to put up lights in December so make up for it on Feb 14th. In any case, may you and your sweetie have a very romantic and loving holiday :)

Video

2008-02-04T19:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a video of the girls from the coast :)

Hannah turns 8 and other happenings

2008-02-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

Our little girl turned 8 years old today! It is such a cliche ... but time really does fly. I can't believe it was eight years ago today that we were in the hospital with our new 5 lbs 8 oz baby. I was so nervous before she was born - so many feelings at once it was overwhelming. We celebrated her birthday with a cake and presents at our house with her two best friends Clara and Raina and a outing to the Hannah Montana 3D Concert movie. Hannah and her friends had a blast, the adults didn't have a bad time either :) Here are a few pictures from the party and our trip to the coast a few weeks ago. We had a wonderful time ... Nova the wonderdog fully enjoyed his beach outing (and as you'll see from the pictures, his new coat :)

The prettist latte ever!

2008-01-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

A full week at work

2008-01-13T22:13:00.001-08:00

I've been a blogging slug ... last week was my first full week back after the xmas holidays, so it was a bit of a rough entry! I feel pretty much aclimated now, so all should be better. Plus, the week is a 4 day work week as we rented a fabulous beachhouse with 2 other families for a four day weekend (monday is a school holiday, so we're going to stay Fri afternoon thru Monday morning). When I say fabulous, I mean it ... 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, covered outdoor jacuzzi, ping pong table, oceanfront luxury! Plus it is dog friendly so Nova will get to explore the beach to his heart content. Here are a couple of pics of the view from the livingroom from their website.

On one of the days, Lori, Anne and I are going to get away for an afternoon of pampering at a local spa ... so all in all, it should be a wonderful getaway! Next post will be pics from our adventure, no doubt : )

Wow!

2008-01-02T16:40:00.000-08:00

The upside of turning 36 when someone sends you a bouquet with flowers equal to your age, its a BIG bouquet! My mom sent me my most favorite flowers today ...aren't they beautiful? Michael and Hannah are making me dinner tonight ... a great day :)

Dancing Elves

2007-12-27T12:05:00.001-08:00

Have you ever wondered what we would looked like as a dancing elf? Now is your chance to find out! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1835361690 You can make a version of your family too .. send it back to us if you do :)

Close Encounter of the Furry Kind

2007-12-26T14:34:00.000-08:00

We visited a local Christmas light festival a few nights ago. They has a petting zoo with goats and ponies. Here's a shot of Hannah with one of the furry friends.

December pics

2007-12-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here are a few recent pictures of us -- we're almost ready for Christmas (by ready I mean things are purchased, nothing is wrapped :) We have gatherings planning from tonight thru Christmas, we're looking forward to good food and relaxing with family and friends. We'll miss seeing our east coast relatives as always, but look forward to our Christmas morning phone calls.
We hope you are all enjoying the holiday wherever you are!
Love, Michael, Erin and Hannah

Here Comes Santa Claus

2007-12-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

We visited Santa after dinner last night. Fortunately Hannah didn't change her mind at the last minute on what she wanted to ask him to bring her. We set a new rule that Santa needs 2 weeks notice -- he's not a last minute builder, so we emailed him with the gift she would like, and she didn't change it last night. Last year she she asked Santa for one thing thru mail, and then when she saw him on Dec 23rd, she changed it to something else. Santa was busy very late into the year last year! Hannah thought she saw the raindeer on top of the mall (the roof is glass when you look up) so it was a pretty exciting outing.

Getting Ready for Christmas

2007-12-14T12:07:00.000-08:00

We have our tree up, lights on the house and most of the presents are bought. Here's a picture of Hannah and Nova in front of our tree this year. We bought a new digital camera, I really like the pictures it takes in low light. It's an improvement from our last one as it's very small and I haven't had the same issues of blury pictures (fingers crossed!). I sold our old one on eBay so it feels good to have recouped some of the money I paid for it :( Ah well, live and learn ... the camera was beyond my skill level, I'm sure it was bought by someone who will be able to figure it out!

Hannah tries sushi

2007-11-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

Happy (american) Thansgiving!

2007-11-22T13:17:00.000-08:00

It is a sunny autumn day here, a great day to be off from work spending time with Michael and Hannah. Michael has been teaching Hannah how to play chess, they've been enjoying playing a game or two most days. We're off to dinner at Michael's aunt and uncle's house shortly. We were asked to bring dessert so I baked (yes, you read that correctly!! BAKED!) three pies ... Two pumpkin and one apple. Hannah and I were up early this morning and we just took the last one out of the oven. I've included a picture for proof :) I'll let you know in a future blog how the tasted!

Rainy weekend

2007-11-18T14:58:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been busy for us - lots going on at work and Hannah missing a week of school with a virus. She had a fever and a monster size canker sore in her mouth. Poor thing couldn't eat much for days as it was too painful. She was recuperated by Friday, so went back for 1 day. She's off all next week for Thanksgiving - so will practically have a 2 week break .. lucky :)

Winter weather has arrived here ... which for our climate means rain. The trees in our front yard are finally starting to loose their leaves, so raking is our our to do list. The branches were playing havoc with the various lines to our house, so Michael has been busy cutting them back. We took a trip to a local skating rink yesterday -- it's inside a very large shopping center in town. Michael took a few pictures, not great quality, but you get the idea!

Our pumpkins

2007-10-31T18:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T18:35:00.001-07:00

Nova is comfy

2007-10-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ah .. the life of a dog :)

Halloween came early

2007-10-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hannah's school has a Halloween party after hours instead of during school time. They held it last night, and as you'll see from the pictures and video below, a fun time was had by all. I'm not sure where Hannah gets her dance moves, it may be a recessive gene :)

Picture this ...

2007-10-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

If you have to sit in traffic, its nice to have this to look at! Gotta love the NW :)

It's a cold and rainy night

2007-10-20T20:38:00.001-07:00

We're enjoying a quiet evening home by the fire.
Bring on the hot chocolate!

Our Brownie Scout

2007-10-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

Posing in her vest, with the patches that I sewed on myself (Grampie, are you reading that? I sewed them on myself with my own needle and thread! They were not the iron on type!) I can hear Grampie thinking that I might make my 10 year wedding anniversary yet :)

Yogi Hannah

2007-10-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hannah in her best full lotus pose :)

The iPhone has landed

2007-10-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Michael is a happy camper -- he bought an iPhone today. He had been enamoured with them since their launch, so he's thrilled to have one. It is pretty amazing, Apple is the role model for user center design, and it shows in their products. The camera quality is pretty good -- here are few that he took of Hannah and I tonight. I think I look a bit drunk in the one just of me, so not sure if that says something about me or the picture quality :)

Our Travels

2007-10-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

We've been on the road, in search of the perfect pumpkins (well, not really, but each of our trips involved picking out pumpkins so why not make it into a theme). We visited our friends, Kerri, Karen and Mia's cabin last weekend on Mt. Hood. We had a terrific trip - it's nestled on the foot of Mt Hood, just outside of Hood River, it's a beautiful area. We went on a few walks and visited several fruit farms and picked up yummy apples and picked our own pumkins and then carved them later that night after a bonfire. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

We went on another pumpkin adventure today - to a pumpkin farm outside of Portland at a place called Sauvie Island. There is a lot of farm land there and it's a popular spot this time of year. We had breakfast with the friends we went to Hawaii with - Les, Kris, Maleek and Amir and then made our way to the farm. The kids took a ride on ponies, we took a tractor ride to the pumpkin field, and then had lunch. It was a beautiful west coast autum day - sunny and long shirt but no jacket temperature. Here are a few pictures from our second (and probably last :) pumpkin outing this season.

Autumn has arrived

2007-10-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

The weather has turned very fall-like this week. It's coat-wearing time and the leaves are starting to turn color. We have two huge hickory or maybe walnut trees in our front yard. These things are huge .... at least two houses high. You can imagine how many leaves are on the things. We found out the first year we lived here that while they may provide wonderful shade in the summer and are terrific to look at, they have one annoying quality. Their leaves drop very late in the season -- somewhere around mid to late December. By that time, the city run yard debris service has stopped and it so rainy that the leaves are a yucky mess. Ah well, they are beautiful, and beauty takes work :)

Here's a recent piece of Hannah's art work.
Happy Autumn!

Attack of the Flu Bug

2007-09-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when you need a weekend of fun and relaxation the most, that something goes wrong? My first two weeks back at work have been crazy busy, but as of Friday at 5pm I had worked through 99.9% of it and didn't expect to be working thru the weekend. Michael was out at a Stephen Pinker lecture Friday night, so Hannah and I had a nice evening together. We went to a restaurant in the neighborhood that we both like and played checkers and watched a movie together at home. On Saturday, we had plans to go for a hike and generally have a good day. Michael had clients in the morning so Hannah and I were puttering around the house. It struck around mid morning - and by "it" I mean that sickish, head hurting, feeling nauseated feeling that you know is not a good sign. Within 10 minutes I was throwing up and it wasn't pretty. It lasted much of yesterday, but I'm feeling better today. Fortunately neither Michael or Hannah have come down with it .. yet.

On a happier note, I am started in new job at Intel. I'm going to be the HR Manager for the Digital Health group, I'm very excited about it. It's a job that is more responsibility that I have now, and the staff that I'll be working seem terrific -- so it's a great opportunity. It means more travel to Sacramento as most of the managers are there, but it should be mostly up and back in the same day and no more than once a week.

Organized Chaos

2007-09-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

My first week back to work has been busier than usual -- I was in San Francisco on Wednesday and Sacramento on Friday, glad to be thru with week #1.

Hannah started back to Brownies on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, they were still looking for a parent to be help the troop leader at the meeting. I told Hannah that Brownies might be cancelled because another parent wasn't able to be a helper. She asked if I could help and I said I needed to go to California for work. Hannah cocked her head sideways and said "Mom, do you want to go to work, or do you want to save the world?". Pause. "Because at Brownies we are saving the world". I think I'm raising a master negotiator!

Part of Hannah's homework this week was to write 10 things she'd like to learn about this year, see below for her list. Her idea for #8 was actually "How to get rid of our president", but we convinced her to be a bit more non-partisan with her ideas :)

Dance of the Swifts

2007-09-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

We saw an amazing sight tonight -- thousands and thousands of birds - Vaux's Swifts - preparing to roost for the night in the chimney retrofitted especially for them. Swifts stop in Portland on their way south for the winter, and a local school partnered with the Audubon society to make their chimney a hospitable place for thousands of feathery friends. Hundreds of people gather each evening before sunset to watch the birds make their way into the chimney. The sky is filled with little black birds, they form what looks to be huge swarms and they wait to take a turn to make their way into their resting place for the evening. Hawks swoop to try to get dinner and it shakes things up a bit. When the hawk comes in and missed, the assembled crowd lets out a loud cheer. We went with our friends the Hanson's, here are a few pictures and a short movie from the evening. The pictures of the birds don't really do them justice, but here they are anyway :) If you're viewing thru Facebook, click here to see the pictures.

Back to Reality

2007-09-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

I'm back to work tomorrow - I'm feeling a mix of emotions tonight. I've had a wonderful sabbatical, lots of wonderful memories with Hannah and Michael and family and friends this summer ... but I am looking forward to using the 'adult' part of my brain again. A lot can change in a few months, so I'm not sure what I'll be doing when I return, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Having time off has given me a chance to look at my priorities, and I hope to make a few changes in how I balance work and family to make both more enjoyable. I finished a bunch of projects that I'd hoped to do when we returned to Portland, so it feels good going back to work with those crossed off the list.

Trouble in Nova land

2007-09-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

OK - Nova has done it now. He got ahold of Hannah's favorite (and by favorite I mean the "I-can't-sleep-eat-or-think-without-Bunny") stuffed animal. He ripped a big hole where the leg meets the body and ripped a bunch of stuffing out of it. Plus Bunny has that characteristic feel of a toy that has dog slobber all over it.

Here's a picture of the perpetrator shortly after the crime - I think his eyes look a bit remorseful, don't you? :)

And a shot of the victim and the injury:

My plan is to stitch and clean Bunny up before Hannah gets home from school - hopefully she'll won't be the wiser. I think that's better for everyone concerned :) Since I don't have a needle or thread in the house (that's a bit embarrassing ... a grownup should probably have a needle and thread somewhere in the house!) I'll need to make a quick trip to the store. Maybe I can get some new stuffing too. Ironically we have an appointment with a dog trainer this afternoon, she's coming by to help me with a few specific things with Nova. Ripping up toys wasn't on my list of things to cover with her, but I guess we have one more thing to work on!

First day of school

2007-09-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of second grade for Hannah. She has a great teacher this year, we're really excited for what a great year we bet she'll have. She was a bit nervous this morning, new beginnings often bring some nervousness for her. She settled into the classroom quickly, her teacher had a word search out on the desk for all the kids to start working on as they entered. I go back to work next week, so have the days to myself this week and next -- just enough time to finish the final projects I'd like to get done. Here are a couple of pictures from this morning.

Ouch

2007-09-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

While shopping for new school clothes today, Hannah got her fingers jammed in a changing room door. I walked out to ask a salesperson for a different size and as she was holding the door open her fingers slipped and went into the jam of the door. She was screaming like crazy, I thought for sure they would think I was hurting her! Strangely (and sadly) no one came back, I guess people feel uncomfortable interfering with parent-child interactions. I held and comforted her for a few minutes, then got her clothes back on and carried her out of the store. Fortunately, the clerk had an ice pack so we applied that one our way home. The nail bed on her middle finger is a bit purple but it went down a lot over the evening. We had a quiet evening watching a movie -- Sponge Bob Square Pants, The Movie (her choice). She's sound asleep now, but before bed asked "will my nail still be purple for the first day of school?". Phew ... she's all back to normal :)

Our Mermaid

2007-09-01T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hannah's been in swimming lessons since we arrived back home and she's made a lot of progress. She graduated to the deep side of the pool and has taken to jumping off the side and "swimming" around the deep end. I took a video of her jumping off the side of the Giffin's pool when we were in Shelburne last month and I took another one of her swimming and jumping into our local pool last week. I think you'll agree, she's made a big "leap" :)

Movie #1 - Taken July 2007

Movie #2 - Taken Aug 2007 - 1 month later!

Humpback Aerobics

2007-08-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

A video of a whale breaching from our trip to Provincetown. Enjoy!

Travel Pictures

2007-08-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I've been on sabbatical this summer from work. We took a trip out east starting in Provincetown, then continued onto Nova Scotia from there. Michael spent the first two weeks with us, then Hannah and I stayed on for another two weeks on our own. We had a fantastic trip, it was so wonderful to see everyone and spend an extended time together. Here are a few pics from our adventures.

How Long Will Keys Stay on the Roof?

2007-08-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

I spent $300 dollars today on something very unsatisfying -- news locks for the house, new key fobs for our car and "car clubs" for our steering wheels. Let me start from the beginning and explain why. Hannah was having a sleep over with her friend Lilly. Michael and I decided to take them out for dinner to a restaurant about 10 miles away from our house. I went out and switched around the booster seats so we had two in one car. As I was getting the girls buckled into the car I put my car keys on top of the roof. I noticed the newspaper I put in the car for the neighbors who went away for the weekend. The neighbors were in their yard so I dashed over and gave them their paper. Michael came out and we got into the car (with Michael driving). We got to the restaurant and as we were waiting to be seated I had a flash of putting my keys on the roof. I looked in my purse -- no keys. We went back out to the car - no keys on the roof. I've often put the keys on the roof as I'm getting Hannah or groceries into the car - but the difference this time was I wasn't driving. We retraced our "steps" and couldn't find the keys anywhere. Problem was, they could have dropped off the roof 10 feet from our house or 5 miles. To be on the safe side, we decided to change the locks and the other precautions mentioned above. I should have known better - I don't have a very good track record with putting things on car roofs. The most spectacular was when I was a kid. On a family vacation with my mom and dad, we stopped for a picnic along the route. We played trivial pursuit over lunch. When getting back in the car, I put the game on the roof while helping to load other things in the car. We got in the car and took off on the highway. Next thing I heard was a big bang .... we looked back and it was a flurry of trivial pursuit cards all on the highway - flying thru the air, on the road, everywhere. We kept driving -- what are you going to do about hundred of playing cards on a stretch of road with cars going 100 kilometers per hour? Only thing going on my roof from now on is the bike in the rack.

Our First Entry

2007-08-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Forgive me Family and Friends, it's been 10 months since my last update to our website. I realized that I either needed to cancel our webhosting service or figure out a new format that might keep my interest a bit longer, and hence the blog was born. I have cancelled our MiHaEr.com site and decided to give this blogger.com site a try, so please bookmark this url instead for our latest pics and stories. A few friends and family members have blogs, so I thought it may be fun to try it out. It seems like a good combo, able to write text plus post pictures. Look forward to hearing your thoughts and any suggested improvements!

We’ve been enjoying our summer -I’m (Erin) on sabbatical from work (meaning I’m not working but still getting a paycheck .. gotta like that). Intel gives an 8 weeks sabbatical every 7 years, my time came up this summer. We spent a month travelling - Provincetown and Nova Scotia - and had a terrific time. We’ve been back home for a few weeks now and have been frolicking in the local pool everyday and having a grand summer.

I’ll write more about our trip and post pictures over the coming days, but here are a few pics from the start of our trip. We visited Michael’s Uncle Bill in Provincetown, and he took us out on a whale watching boat. We saw about 15+ whales, it was a terrific day. Here are a few shots from our trip.