Au Revoir Oregon!

Well, the time has finally come… California I’m comin’ for ya!

Although our plan was to move towards the end of the year, for personal reasons we moved it up, and I am heading out the door this week!!!

Totally feeling all the feelings right now.

I have lived in Oregon for a little bit over a year. As I have stated before, it started out good but time foretold that it was turning out not to be the best decision for our family.

And that is okay. It is totally okay. We are humans and humans make decisions and they don’t always turn out to be the best. We sometimes make mistakes.

And again, that is okay.

Oregon is a wonderful and beautiful state. And it let me take pictures like this:

But it never felt like home and California opened her arms and beckoned us back. And so we are going.

Thus begins our road trip this week and honestly it feels good. So good to be going home, to our real home, and I might squeal with joy when I cross the state border when we make it in to California.

But Oregon, you were an interesting detour in my life and I will never forget you. Till we meet again…

Next stop, the golden state!!

Read Full Post »

I Heart Oregon

As I mentioned last month, I am moving back to California soon, and although I am super-duper OVER THE MOON excited about that, it doesn’t mean that Oregon doesn’t have its own brand of awesomeness! Although my time here has only been a little over a year and I still haven’t had a chance to see all that Oregon has to offer, here are a few of my faves ♥

Cannon Beach

What can I say? This place is awesome, and anything that ends with the word “beach”, has my name written all over it 🙂 Plus they have this wonderful place to eat called Bill’s Tavern Brewhouse. You must go there and eat all of the food.

What You’ll Find in the Supermarket

Portlandia is not just a TV show folks. Here it is in liquid form for your drinking pleasure.

Astoria

Good beach, good food, and of course Goonies 🙂

Ice Cream

Cool Moon Ice Cream was all kinds of awesome!

Salt and Straw was good and they have some interesting flavors, like avocado ice cream which they were trying out when we went. Not sure if they still have it, but it definitely had an interesting taste 🙂

Powell’s Bookstore

Also known as Booknerd Heaven. I mean, C’mon! Even though I can’t buy all the books that my heart desires, it has been nice to be close to this bookstore, and be in my happy place 🙂

Voodoo Doughnuts

Mmmm… Yum!

Portland

So much history!

So here are some of my favorites about Oregon! What about you guys? Have you been to Oregon and what are your favorite things to see and do here? 🙂

Read Full Post »

Gratitude

 

Every once in a while, I really want to say out loud, the things that I am thankful for. Life always has so much going on, and it’s easy to lose track of those happy moments. So I am grasping the ones that are fluttering around me at the moment.

I am thankful for:

• Coffee. I feel like that has to be said 😉
• The library. And the fact that my daughter’s face lights up every time I tell her that we are going there. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree ♥
• Getting a free preview of MLB Extra Innings, so my husband and I were able to watch a few Angels games up here in Oregon! Yay! I miss being able to see my team play. Go Angels!!!

• My daughter when she says “I love you Mommy”. Cue all the heart-melting ♥
• The fact that the weather has cooled off up here. We were melting, seriously. It doesn’t always rain in the Portland area, it really, really doesn’t. They have summers here, for real. #themoreyouknow
• Actually getting to the see the new James Bond trailer. Squeeeeeeeee!!! You know where I will be in November; at the theatre drooling over watching Daniel Craig. I mean James Bond 😉
• My husband and my dad, the two strongest yet caring men I know.

What are some things you are thankful for?

Read Full Post »

Backstory

So, 4 months is quite a long time to be away so let’s catch up shall we?

Well, last summer my family moved to Oregon from Southern California and we currently live in a suburb outside of Portland. We’ve explored all our new area has to offer and having rain during the winter with some nights hitting lows of 29 degrees has definitely been interesting!

I have loved having Powell’s Bookstore within driving distance. I have loved the good food Portland has to offer. I have loved my library and my daughter and I are there all the time checking out books and movies 🙂

I get why people love Fred Meyer’s. I get why people love the beautiful green trees and fresh air. I get why people absolutely fall in love with Oregon. I really, really do.

But…

(You knew one was coming, didn’t you?)

Life is full of decisions you make at any given time. You make decisions all day long. What you are going to eat for breakfast, are you going to work out today, should you get the oil changed today or tomorrow, and on and on. Pretty mundane in the decision-making department, right?

But then there are the life-changing decisions that you make, that you feel are the best for that particular moment in time. Whether you quit a job, or say yes to an engagement or decide to go back to school and get that degree you’ve always wanted. Moving, whether it is to a new city, state, or country, ranks right up there with the whole altering life kind of thing.

Needless to say, after long consideration my husband and I decided that Oregon is not the best choice for us after all. My family and I are going to be moving back to Southern California.

Yes, I am going back to Cali, Cali, Cali…

Oregon is an amazing place and I have nothing negative to say about it all. It is a great place to live and raise a family.

But it just never felt right…

For our family, we need to go back to our roots and those roots are back in California. We miss our extended family and our friends. We miss having a support system. We thought those things would be things that we could just work through but it was becoming apparent that that just wasn’t the case.

Also, for reasons I am unable to disclose, there have been some personal issues for our family that were magnified here and it is best for us to go back to our home.

Our real home. Under the California sun.

Our decision to move to Oregon was made with the best intentions. We felt a calling to come here and plant roots here. We felt a calling to put down our stakes and make a new life here amongst the tall and beautiful trees.

But sometimes that whisper you hear, or that knot that starts forming in your stomach, simply cannot be ignored. And part of the hesitation in admitting that a decision is not working out, is that one does not like to feel like they made a mistake.

And that’s okay. Because I don’t see our move to Oregon as a mistake. I see it as a stepping stone onto something bigger and better.

In fact, ever since we came to the conclusion that going back to SoCal was in our best interest, it really and truly feels like a weight has been lifted off of us.

As for specifics on our move back to California, I don’t have a date yet. We are planning to move in the next few months, but we have some things to take care of here before we hit the road.

Sometimes you have to go through it to get to it, if you know what I mean. But that’s okay.

I am so happy to be going back to my home. My real home.

Read Full Post »

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun…at the Pumpkin Patch

Cue all the Pumpkin Patch lovers!!! Holla!

I love going to the pumpkin patch and I was super excited to check one out here in my new digs. So off we went!

It was a gorgeous afternoon, perfect for a corn maze.

Don’t let the cute little cat fool you… I may or may not have almost had a panic attack because I couldn’t find my way out of the maze and all I kept thinking of was the movie Children of the Corn.

Annnnnnd, a creepy baby in a carriage, just staring…

Seriously yo, they had this trail that wound through a woodsy area, and lo and behold, there was the creepy baby. So I took its picture. Please don’t haunt me creepy baby…

Random skeleton dude…

Tombstones

And the best part: picking pumpkins!

My daughter had so much fun picking up pumpkins and putting them in the wagon. We got some good ones!

Also we had fun hay climbing, lemonade drinking, and all other sorts of hi-jinks!

Lastly, special shout-out to my husband for rescuing me out of the corn maze before I lost my mind 😉

Read Full Post »

More Adventures in Portland

As much as I would like to spend every single day exploring all that Portland has to offer, I have to do it in small doses. Portland has a lot going on, and hey that’s part of the fun of exploring a new city!

Time for another chapter of adventures in Portland. This time, my family and I went to NW Portland also known as the Pearl District.

This was a cool little find, although trying to prevent a small child from getting wet was an adventure in itself. We had just arrived to this part of town and hadn’t even started exploring yet 🙂 Ah, kids…

Right across from this park, is one of the best ice cream places! Oh. Em. Gee. So, so good!

YUM!

Cool Moon Ice Cream is oh so delicious! My husband loves ice cream and what better way to end the summer by indulging in some frozen goodness?

My favorite flavor is Cookies ‘n Cream. My daughter and I shared a scoop of this awesome deliciousness!

We walked a lot and saw so many cool stores. We ended up at some art festival kinda thing, but they had food. Good food. Everything from gyros, to burgers, to curly fries, to root beer floats.

And then I saw this beautiful building:

I just love they way this building looked and the beautiful architecture. Couldn’t resist taking a picture!

What’s funny is, as we were walking back to our car, the sky opened up and it started raining. My daughter said, “Mommy it’s raining! I need new boots”. 🙂

Read Full Post »

It’s All About Cannon Beach

So y’all know I love the beach. One of the things that drove me crazy about my previous residence was how far away we were from the beach. I loooooove the ocean and the smell of the salty air.

Living where I do in Oregon, we are only about an hour and change from the beach, but it’s all good because the drive to even get there is gorgeous and full of trees 🙂

There is so much to do in Oregon, but a trip to see the beautiful ocean was needed. An excursion to Cannon Beach was in order!

I’d seen pictures of Cannon Beach in magazines, but until you see these ginormous rocks in person…pictures honestly don’t do it enough justice 🙂

Breathtaking!

Don’t the people on the beach look like ants compared to that huge rock?

There is a lovely little town that encompasses this beautiful beach complete with shops and restaurants, and… a library!

Yes, I know. Yes, I am talking about a library and the beach in the same post. However, outside this library they had the cutest bench and I just had to snap some pics!

And up above the bench are:

And…

Edgar Allan Poe!

We ate lunch at Bill’s Tavern which, let me tell you, is worth every penny!

Seriously. Eat here.

Have you ever been to Cannon Beach?

Read Full Post »

Decorating on a Budget

Everyone wants to save some money when furnishing a new place, right? I hear you. We were in the same predicament. We moved up to Oregon from Southern California with only what would fit into our two cars, so… you guessed it… No furniture, no lamps, no dishes, pretty much nada!

We needed these items because candlelight is all fine and dandy, but it does get dark, and lamps help me from not running into things. We also didn’t want to spend all our hard-earned money on furnishings. So we did things on a budget with as little impact to our wallet as possible.

We scoured Craigslist. We hit up Goodwill. We went to consignment stores. And we completely lucked out at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

I mean, look at these solid wood end tables we found!

Gorgeous!

I love them, and they remind me of the table that my grandmother had in her living room. Every time I look at them, I am reminded of her 🙂

Perfect for storage!

And the best part honestly, was the price. They were listed at 2 end tables for $25, but they were marked off an additional 25% off, so we got both end tables for a little less than $17!!!!

Awwwwwww yeah!!

I also mentioned that we needed lamps. Because although the sun sets late up here, it still gets dark eventually, and that whole running into walls, clumsy sort of thing, well I do that. So I need to see.

Ta-da! Aren’t these pewter grey lamps just the cat’s meow??

Swoon!

Love, love, love them! ♥

I found these babies at Goodwill for $6.99 a piece and snatched up both of them! These lamps are quite tall, and I know my picture may not do it justice, but they really are beautiful. And solid. And pewter grey. Did I mention that? 🙂

Good stuff is out there folks, if you just look hard enough!

Have you guys picked up any great deals through Goodwill or the Habitat for Humanity ReStore? Any other places that have great deals? Let me know! 🙂

Read Full Post »

Hello Oregon!

Yup, we made it! I still can’t believe I am here, amongst all this tree-filled gloriousness, but I am 🙂

Ahhhh….zen….

My family and I drove up here over a 2 day period. Southern California to Redding, and then Redding to Portland. Can you say exhausting? Have you ever travelled with a 4 year-old and a cat? Have you???? E-vent-ful, mmmkay? 😉

Oh and by the way, Redding was bloody hot. Like, the sun was directly beaming all of its rays on this city, and you felt like your skin was on fire. But dinner in a nice air-conditioned restaurant, soon rectified that. Ahhh, air conditioning.

So after lots of coffee, tears, greasy food, and multiple gas station pit stops, we made it to our new home! There is still lots to do though…like get a couch. We seriously drove up here with what would fit into our 2 cars and that’s it. So needless to say, we are in need of some things…like seating arrangements 😉 As my husband would readily assert, I am a neat and organized person, so the fact that my new place is still in a bit of disarray, is driving me cray-cray. Neat-freaks, are ya with me?

I hope to get back to blogging normally and on a schedule soon. But first I need to get a couch. And I need my pictures hung on the walls.

And chocolate. I need chocolate.

Read Full Post »

Garage Sales and Happy Signs

Hello All!

Hope your season of Summer is treating you well 🙂

Updates, updates, updates…

It’s been garage sale time in my neck of the woods. We’ve done pretty well with the garage sales that we have had. People have been very nice and the haggling hasn’t been too painful 😉 We have had a few garage sales simply because we keep finding more stuff to get rid of, and also, once it hits 12pm here, it is insanely hot, and you will literally burst into flames after it hits noon. So most people only have garage sales for just a few hours in the morning and then pack it up to do it another day.

Let’s Go Crazy!

And to the individual who bought my Depeche Mode Violator CD, you are welcome!

I was watching HGTV the other day… who am I kidding? I watch that channel all the time! Anyways, it was some show where they were doing a remodel of a house they just bought and the designer said, “We turn crappy, into happy”. And I wrote it down, because I just thought that one phrase could apply to so many facets of life! Frown got you upside down? Turn crappy into happy!

You know you want this to be your mantra for the week 🙂

Only a few more weeks till I am in my new home of Oregon! I can’t believe that soon my family and I will be on the road, ready to start this new chapter in our lives 🙂

How is everyone doing in July so far? Any fun things planned? 🙂

Read Full Post »