Portland City Grill

This last weekend was fun and productive, the best kind really :)

Friday night we had The Clark's and the soon-to-be Beaver's (Shane and Cheurisya, and yes his last name is really Beaver) over. We went out to dinner first and then came back to our place. We had a lot of fun, but I am pretty sure someone put something in my drink because I only had a few and woke up with a migraine of a headache, ouch! So Saturday we relaxed for awhile, did some shopping for the yard, and returned some bottles.

Cheurisya and Shane

Sarah and Travis
Me and Brian

Saturday night we celebrated Travis' birthday by going to Portland City Grill with Sarah and Travis. It was delicious food! We started with lobster potstickers which were to die for. I went out on a limb and got the dungeness crab butterfish, I say that I went out on a limb because I'm not a huge fan of seafood, but I am glad I did because it was so yummy! Brian got pork tenderloins which were so juicy they practically melted in your mouth, soooo good. We had a good time and called it a night when we got home around midnight.

Travis and Sarah before we headed to the restaurant

Brian and I at the start of the night

Sunday we were so productive it wasn't even funny! We got up and went to Home Depot to get some stuff for the lawn, then we came home and mowed the lawn, thatched it, and sprayed the weeds and landscape. Then we came inside and cleaned the wood floor, did some laundry and cleaned every sink in the house. By this time it was only 1:30, so we rewarded ourselves and took a little nap, it felt really good. We decided to do some grocery shopping which is a big endeavor in itself since we do it in Corvallis, which is 15 minutes away from Albany (where we live). We got home and made some dinner and watched Friends (we have all 10 seasons!!). It was a good weekend, but now it's Monday and the work week has officially started :(

My work told me on Friday that I would no longer have an office space at the Landfill, so I am permanently based out of Woodburn. Ugh.

So that was our weekend in a nutshell. I wanted to post more but we are going over to my moms house to watch 24 and Brian is giving me the, "Let's go" sigh.

Also, I am working on a how to for the hemming of the jeans, don't worry Jules I didn't forget, it's on the way!

Hope everyone has a great start of their week!

Typical Oregon Weather

Things are pretty boring here in the Holcomb Home, which I am thankful for. The weather last Thursday and Friday was absolutely gorgeous, it was in the seventies and the sun was shining....looking good for the Easter weekend, right?! Wrong, like true Oregon weather Saturday and Sunday were gloomy and rainy, so depressing. It's amazing how ambitious I am when it's beautiful weather outside, I work in the yard, workout, clean the house, wash the cars :)

Friday night we hosted a poker party at our house, Brian was the first out :( He has won the last 3 in a row so I guess it was bound to happen. I ended up going to bed at 12:30 even though the poker game was still going on, I was so tired!
Saturday night we went to Brian's mom's house for Easter dinner and my mom and Randy (stepdad) came. We had delicious food and played Armed Forces pictionary. Brian's twin sister, Sara, was in the Navy and so if you weren't on her team, you didn't do so well. We played until 10 and then went home and crashed.
Sunday we headed up to Salem to Brian's dad's house for Easter dinner (2 Easter dinner's in 1 weekend!), the food was of course yummy there as well, and Brian's Dad makes some good cocktails!

This week will hopefully be relaxing and chill as there is not a lot going on. We spent Monday at my mom's house and I hemmed Brian's pants, I'm getting pretty good which I need to since I have to hem every pair of pants I buy, darn short legs! I'll post a picture, sounds cheezy, but my mom taught me the coolest technique that makes the hem look exactly the same :)

Saturday we are going to Portland City Grill and I am really excited. I have never been there but I hear it is really nice. I love getting all dressed up and this is a great excuse for it! My co-worker, Sarah's husband, Travis is turning 25 so this is how we are celebrating his birthday.

Well, I guess that is all for now. Enjoy your week!

Me oh my

Well things are continuing to change, life is never boring here! Things at work at still changing and I never know where I'm going to be, that's always fun.

But moving on...I wanted to post pictures of our completed paint job downstairs, yay!! We could not be happier with how it turned out, it just feels nice and homey :)

Me taping the ceiling

Brian being his cute self and painting like a good hubby ;)
The finished product, complete with pictures on the wall! (Notice Friends is on TV, what else would we be watching!)

I took some pictures of our beautiful bark mulch from when we did yard work the other weekend, we still have a lot to do to get the grass nice and green but it's a work in progress:

Man, now that I own a house I am a boring blogger! We are still in the excited phase where all we want to do is work on the house, gotta get as much done while we WANT to do it. We are really excited to have our housewarming party, but we will probably wait until it's closer to summer so we can do a BBQ, plus we can get the house even more completed.

Brian has been really sweet since last week was the roughest one since the time I had 6 tests in one week! This job stuff has been really stressful and Monday was overkill, completely overwhelming. The gal who is training me has been doing 2 jobs: Accounts Receivable (AR) and Customer Service Rep (CSR) stuff. She found out in the meeting Monday morning in front of everyone that she would be training me on the AR stuff and she would be doing the CSR stuff full time. I think she was a little shocked, understandably so. Everyday last week my schedule changed as well as my responsibilites. Now I will be doing about 3 jobs so I'm a little stressed. I came home Monday from work exhausted and about ready to cry, Brian had a really sweet card and in it he wrote: "I love you and support you in whatever you want to do, whether it's leave, stay, or buy a new pair of shoes." (The leave stay was in regards to my job!) It made me laugh and that is just what I needed, man I love him! He also surprised me with a picture I have been eyeing at Target, it is pictured above and it is hanging behind the TV, it's so pretty!!

Random note: Brian brought home the cutest little helmet from work and we put it on MJ, I don't think she liked it! Man we are mean parents!
Yesterday we went over to Jaime's house and helped her paint the girls' room along with my Dad and Anna. Anna and Jaime spent the whole weekend doing it and stayed up late both Friday and Saturday to get it finished in time, what troopers! My mom and Randy took the girls for the weekend so we could paint and decorate their rooms for their birthdays. It turned out sooo cute and I am so mad I didn't take my camera, hopefully my sister will post pictures soon on her blog: jensenfive.blogspot.com. It's a green and pink theme with adorable princess canopies over their bed and pink letters that spell their name. They were really excited when they came in and absolutely loved it.

We did some yardwork today since it was nice out and took a long nap, I love naps! We should have gone grocery shopping but we'll stretch out the food as long as we can.

Well, that's all for now, have a great Monday!

Big changes...


So it all started a few months ago when the business unit I worked for consolidated with another business unit in Woodburn (about an hour north). The word "consolidation" is not something you want to hear in your business as it means, people will lose jobs. We have been a little worried especially since we just bought our house. Well, the coporate big wigs came to our work and had an all day meeting on Thursday with the managers. Friday came and I was up in the front of the office making copies when by boss asks if I have a minute, "Sure," gulp. As I walk by my friend and co-worker Sarah I wave and whisper, "well, see ya later." I sit down in the chair and try to look as calm and collected as possible, I don't think I did a very good job because he started by saying how he knows the feeling of being anxious about your job, great thanks.
Well, the good news is that I did not lose my job. Instead I am now in charge of more accounts, I will be traveling to Woodburn half the time, Salem (half hour north) one day a week, and at my normal office the rest of the time. There is no set schedule so it will change from day to day. Mine and Brian's first thought was yay, I didn't lose my job! We are very grateful and consider it a huge blessing. I am not exactly excited about driving so much and not knowing where I'll be each day, but I'll plug along.

So the weekend started by having dinner with my Mom and Randy (stepdad), and Sarah and Travis (co-worker and husband) at a cute eatery in town. We watched the U of O game and for the first time in my life I rooted for them. Brian and I both graduated from the rival, OSU. But they are representing the state of Oregon in the tournament so I can't be a hater :) Sarah and Travis came over and we watched Idiocracy which was an okay movie.
Saturday we woke up bright and early, ran to the paint store because we finally picked the color we wanted for the rest of the downstairs. I will post pictures when I get a chance to download them from my camera. We came back and painted our hearts out, we got sooo much done!! Then that night Tiff and Eric, Kristie and Dar, and Craig and Caren came over and we had drinks and socialized. It was really fun and we got to show off our new paint job!
Today we painted another wall which almost completes the downstairs. My mom and Randy were so nice and brought us bark mulch so we did some yard work, it was a gorgeous day to be outside.
It was a very productive weekend for us which is nice. It is so hard because we want to finish the inside decorations and paint, but we also want to spruce up the yard and get the grass looking good. So much to do so little time!!
Well, I better get to bed. I am headed up to Woodburn tomorrow :( Wish my luck on this new adventure!

Happy Spring!

Spring begins today, yay! I wish this meant it was sunny and warm from here on out, but Oregon holds true to the saying April showers bring May flowers. Actually, Oregon takes it a step further: April, May, and part of June showers bring a few days of sun in July and August, hehe.

We found this picture at Target and loved it! I put the key in front to signify our new home :)

I wanted to post pictures that I have taken the last few weeks and haven't had a chance to post. Brian and I watched the kids a few weeks ago when Jaime and Schuyler wanted to get some packing done for their move. I just love the pictures of Porter and MJ, MJ is so good with the kids and it was so cute because she would just go and sit by Porter, adorable :)

I also took some pictures of the living room after we have moved in, we still have some painting and picture hanging to do, but it feels like home :)

Here is our new couch (this was taken before we painted the kitchen red)
Us on our first night in the house, exhausted!
Brian and Porter chillin, so cute!
MJ watching over Porter.
Brian's mom and stepdad came over last night and took us out to dinner, Izzy's, yum! I had a delicious salad, pizza, and some frozen yogurt. I was pretty proud that I didn't stuff myself because that is easy to do at a buffet. They gave us some ideas for the backyard which is good because we need all the ideas we can get. Mom also gave us a cordless vacuum that we can use on the hardwood floors. I have been stressing and researching about the best way to clean hardwood floors since I've never had them. My dream is to have a Dyson, but that is a ways in the future, so for now I have been sweeping and then using a mop that we got from Home Depot. This vaccum will be nice for a quick clean and also under the couch and corners where the dust bunnies hide.

I am looking forward to the weekend, not for any particular reason, but just time off work! We still haven't picked the exact color for the living room, I would like to start that room this weekend, but we kind of need the color to do that ;)

We're connected :)

We got the modem from Qwest yesterday, but of course we had technical problems with getting internet hooked up so we had to wait until today.
We painted our kitchen this weekend! We are both really pleased with how the color turned out, it's exactly what we wanted. It's called stolen kiss and it's from Sherwin Williams :) It's crazy how paint can make a room feel so different, it feels more cozy.

Here are some before and after pictures:

I painted myself in a corner :)


Brian played poker on Friday night and won (of course!), he's so good :) Bauer(Nate) will disagree, but I'm pretty sure he's just jealous ;-) Amy, Mindy (Nate and Nick's girlfriends) and I talked about wedding stuff since Nate and Amy set the date for September 22nd! Amy had tons of brides magazines so we looked at ideas for bridesmaid dresses and centerpieces. The poker game went until after midnight so we were pretty tired and ready for bed when we got home!


For St. Patrick's day on Saturday we went to a place called Murphey's and enjoyed a live band and some green beer. It was packed when we first got there so it was a good thing our friend Shane made reservations so we were able to sit at a table instead of stand. Once the band left it cleared out quite a bit and we could hear each other talk :) Man, I sound old!



This weekend I am hoping we can get started on painting the rest of the downstairs and do some yard work. Well, I'm gonna go spend some time with my hubby, have a great day!

I Miss the Internet!!!!

I have missed blogging so much!!! We have not hooked up internet at our new place yet so I am blogging from my mom's house. We are hoping to get internet sometime this week, crossing our fingers :)

So the move went great! It took half a day and a lot of our friends and family, but we did it, we are all moved in :) We are pretty much unpacked and some pictures are hung. Brian hung 2 large shelves in our garage so that's all organized and both our cars fit with room to spare. I didn't bring my camera so I'll have to post pictures next time, I took a bunch!! Next week our goal is to choose paint colors for the whole downstairs. We are thinking a deep red wall for the back kitchen wall and a mocha color for the rest of the downstairs. Since this is our first house we are thrilled to be able to paint whatever we want!
We are planning to have a housewarming party closer to summer so it can be an outside BBQ. We have lots of extra bedrooms so friends and family are welcome to come visit!!

The weather lately has been great here, almost 70 degrees. That is unheard of in March around here, but we are loving it. I love walking around our neighborhood and smelling all the BBQ's going. By the way, we love are neighborhood and are excited to start a family here :)

One of the things I hate about moving, aside from packing and unpacking, is switching all the bills. Man that is a huge pain in my arse! We have had this huge battle with Comcast and they are trying to charge us for the modem, which we did not rent from them it was ours to begin with. So Brian called and they basically called us liars because she was telling him he had to bring it in so they could make sure it wasn't theirs or we had to pay $25 for someone to come out and look at it and ensure we were not lying. Yeah, that's great, I would love to pay you money so you can come out and look at our modem and call us liars, NO THANKS!! So now we are going with Qwest :)

So, I am hoping we get internet soon so my next post will come soon and with pictures! Stay tuned.......