We just got back early this morning from a wonderful trip to Monterey. Adam’s aunt and uncle live in Monterey and we wanted to go and get some sun and enjoy the beautiful sites by the bay/ocean. Adam’s parents joined us too! The vacation had the perfect balance of relaxation and fun activities. Here is a quick break down of our trip:

Thursday
-Flew to Monterey
-Relaxed and went swimming in the pool
-Ate yummy home made dinner with delicious dessert
-Trip to Community hospital when Adam broke a wine glass after doing dishes and cuts himself

Friday
-Tour of Evan Moor. Evan Moor is an educational publishing company…it’s a big deal for elementary teachers. Adam’s uncle is the CEO so we got our own private tour!
-Drove up to Big Sur and survived all those winding roads
-Ate lunch outside at Nepthene looking over the ocean
-Watched Star Wars on the big screen home theater system
-Had wonderfully made scallop dinner

Saturday
-Visited Carmel, although there wasn’t much sun
-Ate the best ravioli ever at Joe Rombi’s
-Watched Wall-E

Sunday
-Drove out to Carmel Valley
-Ate lunch at Corkscrew Cafe
-Tasted wines at Joullian and Robert Talbott (Talbott makes wonderful Pinot Noirs)
-Another swimming trip in the pool
-Another wonderfully prepared home made dinner
-Watched Pan’s Labyrinth

Monday
-Visited Monterey Bay Aquarium
-Lunch at Sand Bar and Grill
-Last minute sun bathing
-Flew back to Oregon

It was an amazing trip and I plan to go back again!

I am exhausted, worn out, tired, wiped, drained…(you name it) from this school year. As the end of the year rolls around, with 3.5 days left to go, I think back about how rough this year was. I had so many students with really intense behaviors, and I still have a few who are testing my patience until the very last day. I still love my job, but my mental sanity is probably at its lowest. Just a few more days to go…

Work has been taking up most of my time, but I am looking forward to summer. So far we have good balance of vacation, relaxation and work. This summer we are head to Monterey to visit Adam’s aunt and uncle, spending 4th of July with both families in Salem, spending a weekend in Black Butte and shorter trips around to various places in Oregon. In addition, I have a conference in Orlando at the end of June. At the end of the summer, we are going to have 10 days off of work for vacation. We have no plans and we like it that way. It will be a nice break for me between summer school and the new school year.

Also, our yard is looking fabulous…in my opinion. The mound of dirt has been moved to our side yard and the front of the house looks great! Our garden is growing rapidly with many herbs and lettuce almost ready to eat. This weekend we added spinach and dill to our beds…but we didn’t add any Ginger (insert laugh here).

Just a few more days (sigh)…

Like this…

Today we planted lots of yummy fruits, vegetable and herbs. We still have more room and more things to plant…oh if only they were ready tomorrow!

We planted strawberries, cantaloupe, green beans, broccoli, zucchini, cucumber, lettuces (red sail and butter leaf), red and Walla Walla onions, 3 types of peppers, roma and sauce tomoatoes, two types of basil, cilantro, rosemary, sage, oregano and parsley.

I can’t wait!

I finally finished all the planting in our back yard. It is so nice to look out the window and see a ‘grown up’ yard. Here is our back yard.

For now, we are not planning on doing any more yard planting. We do however, need to start filling up those HUGE planter boxes with yummy vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc. We also need to get our sprinkler system up and going…as a few sprinkler heads were busted during the overhaul.

Oh yeah…and that pile of soil needs to be gone too.

On Saturday a work crew of 13 people and 3 dogs helped transform my once boring yard to an exciting and colorful landscape with lots of plants, a newly shaped lawn and five beautiful raised garden beds. It has been my plan to work on the yard since a moved in, and a about a month ago we started on the project. Adam and I had made plans for the yard, and started slowly over that past month in preparation for Saturday. I took a day off on Friday, and my mom came down and we spend hours picking our flowers, trees, bushes, etc. for the yard. Saturday morning starting early for us with two trips to Jerry’s (our local home improvement store) and two units of potting soil being dumped in our driveway. Then our friends started arriving with various tools and excitement for our new yard. We starting planting in the front, then moved to removing the sod in the side yard, which was significantly helped by a sod cutter! Planting was continued around in the back yard, while five large planter boxes were being built and installed in our side yard. The transformation was absolutely amazing, and in only a days work! We still have more work to go, but we got so much accomplished yesterday. I am so thankful to have an amazing group of friends who are wiling to take their Saturday off to spend 7+ hours in the hot sun helping me out. I can’t thank you enough.

See how 13 people, 3 dogs, 1 mom, 2 units of dirt, 2+ dozen plants and cedar wood transformed our yard yesterday.

And looking at the yard today, it looks so different from the time I initially bought the house.

I feel like I am constantly on the move…and I don’t have the breaks to slow down.

So here is a run down of life currently…
Work is keeping me busy but only a few more weeks left
Soccer is going well and it is my release from stress in my daily life
Track is finishing up this week..it’s been fun, but I’m glad track is almost over
Sorority advising has been extremely stressful, but I have found some ways to delegate
The yard is coming along nicely, but slowly The yard process will pick up with our work party this weekend

That’s an update for now…now if I only had time to relax!

Played soccer in the pouring down rain tonight. But it was surprisingly better than I anticipated.

But I realized how much I love indoor soccer!

Who knew what a cup of coffee would bring?

Today, Adam and I are celebrating our one-year anniversary. It has been an amazing year and we are looking forward to many more amazing years to come. Here is how it all started:

After getting out of a long-term relationship, I took some time for myself and decided not to date. I had just bought a new house and I was readjusting to the single life. After being single for a while, I decided to dabble in on line dating, as the dating pool for professionals is small. Truth be told, I am still a little embarrassed that I used online dating but I’m getting over that. One night during an intoxicated evening, my roommate and I joined OkCupid.com. We built profiles and starting answering the millions of questions they ask. About a week or so after, we cancelled our accounts thinking how silly it was to open one in the first place. About a month or so later, after dates with ‘eccentric’ individuals from other online dating websites, I decided to reinstate my profile on OkCupid.com. It was a free site, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try again. I signed up and looked at people whom the site seemed to think I was compatible with to meet. Adam was my top match, and I was one of Adam’s top matches. After a few days online, I read through Adam’s profile to see who this guy was. His profile was very sincere and honest. I was immediately drawn to the fact that he worked in a similar profession as I do.

So I made the initial contact via email. We traded emails back and forth for about a week until Adam finally asked to set a coffee date, which I agreed to. We met on Saturday, April 26th 2008 at 3pm for coffee at Allan Brothers on 5th Street. Of course, I arrived early, as I am one of those types. Adam was pretty close to on time. I was nervous and I could tell he was. We went inside to order drinks. I ordered first and waited for the pause for him to pick up the tab, but he didn’t. I paid, and then he bought his tea. (I mention this because it is a running joke that he didn’t buy me coffee on the first date. It doesn’t bother me, but some people think I should have dumped him then and there). With drinks in hand, we headed outside to sit in the sun. The conversation was good however a little awkward at times, as first dates often are. While in conversation, we looked at our watches and realized it was 7:00pm. We had been at coffee for four hours! At the end of the date, he asked for my phone number and asked if I was available early in the week for another date. I agreed, not being totally sure if we had more to talk about then just work. We left and went out separate ways. I went into the date with low expectations, but left feeling pretty positive.

The next day, I got a text message from Adam asking me over to his place for dinner the following night. I was thrilled! I was amazed that it didn’t take him that long to contact me…as some guys have ‘rules’ about calling a girl after a first date. That Monday, I headed over to Adam’s apartment with a bottle of wine. After going to the wrong apartment, I found my bearings and ended up at Adam’s place. He had prepared bread with balsamic, vinegar and garlic, honey mustard chicken, pesto ravioli and a salad. We ate dinner and drank wine as we talked the evening away. We were both quite relaxed, and the conversation was good. After dinner, we cuddled on the couch and watched a movie. After the movie, it was time to call it quits, as I had to work the next day. As I turned to leave, we had our first kiss…although it was an awkward kiss. I jumped in the car and headed home with a huge smile on my face.

After spending the evening with Adam, I knew that he was someone special; I didn’t know quite yet just how special he was. Throughout the next few weeks we only saw each other a few times per week, as our work schedules made it hard for us to spend lots of time together. Very quickly a few nights turned into four or five nights, and soon we were making ourselves have one night apart to keep our ‘me’ times. In the first few months, we met each other’s family who invited us in with open arms. In early August 2008, we said “I love you” at a romantic weekend at the beach. In November of 2008, Adam moved in with me and our relationship moved to the next level.

Today, I am extremely happy to have found someone as genuine, caring, honest, communicative, fun, goofy and intelligent as Adam. Words cannot describe how much I love him. Who would have thought that a simple coffee date would turn into meeting the most amazing partner ever?

I love you Adam!

We spent the morning reshaping the front yard. We have added more to the flower bed in front of our bedroom, added an additional flower bed along our sidewalk accented with a curve, and Adam attacked the hedge. The front yard is finally reshaped. Now we need add some plants/flowers and try to revive the grass. We will attack the back yard next weekend. And will probably be planning a yard work party on Saturday…so those of you who live close by may be asked to help. But don’t worry, workers will be paid in food and beer!

We have embarked on a ‘yard beautification’ plan to fix up our yard. The previous owners of the house did not maintain the yard very well, so Adam and I are fixing it up. I must admit that Adam is doing most of the back breaking hard labor…but for some reason he is enjoying it! Not sure why, but I am not going to ask questions. When we moved into together, we divided the house…my main responsibility would be to maintain the inside of house and Adam’s responsibility would be to maintain the outside of the house. Of course we would always help each other out! Thus the yard has become Adam’s main project with my loving support and labor as well.

Accomplishments so far…
-Hedge trimmed
-Back lawn has been reshaped
-Front lawn is in process of being reshaped
-Dying plants are being removed

We still have a lot more to do, and some things we will have to wait on and see as we progress through this project. We want to add more space to plant flowers, tress and bushes in the fornt and back, so we are doing away with lots of the grass. We also want to build a small garden with raised boxes for herbs and vegetables. And who knows what else may come out of this project? You can see our progress through pictures here.

I have a feeling, there will be many more trips to Jerry’s and garden stores in the next month!