Summertime . . . where the living is easy

So the past week has been pretty busy and definitely making me ready to go away for the weekend. I spent some time with Kaitlin since she's back from her trip. One of the days we decided to hang out and take some pictures up at the rose garden together. It turned out to be a super nice day! 

I have been working a lot which is good and bad. Its nice to get the hours and more money but Dan and I have been working opposite schedules so its kinda crappy when it comes to that. I am so excited to go away this weekend. Dan and I are going with my parents to Sunriver for the weekend. We are renting a house and just spending the weekend relaxing. I am SO excited to go. it will be so relaxing and just what we all need. On saturday Dan and my dad are running a half marathon so I am really looking forward to going and watching Dan. I am so proud of him! 

On another exciting note, we scheduled our engagement pictures! I'm so excited to take those pictures! We are going to take them at the beach in about a month. It will be so much fun & I definitely can't wait!

Well I'm off to work on some homework before work. I'll write more soon :-)

Weekend Wrap-up

So this weekend was really nice since Dan was off all weekend. We had been planning on spending this weekend together just the two of us for about a month and a half since it seems like our lives are going 100 miles a minute and two completely different schedules. So our plan was to just spend time the two of us all weekend. That worked out well on Saturday but ended up being time with family on Sunday which turned out alright. 

Saturday we went to the Oregon Garden. Dan had never been there and it had been years since the last time I had gone so we decided to go somewhere new. We have been enjoying going on new adventures and trips together for the past couple of months and it seems sort of like our goal for the summer to explore new places together. The day actually turned out to be decent. It was cloudy but not super hot, which was nice since there's a lot of walking involved in the garden. We first took a tram ride all around the garden where someone explained about each different individual garden and about how everything works. Then the two of us just walked around and took pictures and talked. It was a fun, relaxing, and enjoyable day. We went out to dinner just the two of us and then went home and played cards and relaxed the rest of the night. 

Sunday we went over to Dan's parents house for his dad's birthday party. There were probably around 20 people there. It was fun but a little overwhelming at the same time. His dad enjoyed it though, which is all that matters. After hanging around over there for a couple hours we went and visited my family and talked for a little while. By dinner time we just wanted to go home and relax so we spent the rest of the night together just hanging out. I miss him so much when he's gone all the time so I cherish the time we have together. 

Now we're counting down the days till Sunriver when we get 5 days off together and can just relax! we haven't had that many days where he is actually home five nights in a row to sleep in his own bed in probably 4 months. I am so looking forward to our trip and spending some time with dan and my family. 

It's Been Forever!!

Sorry it's been so long since the last time I posted. I have been really busy finishing up school and spending time with friends and of course working. Dan has been really busy working a bunch of overtime shifts and covering other people's shifts that he hasn't really been home too much so I'm really looking forward to spending this weekend with him. I made sure he didn't plan anything for this weekend & i requested it off of work so we could spend some time together. Our schedules have been crazy for the last month and a half, I feel like our lives never stop or give us time together, but it does make us cherish the time we have together. 

We have been having a lot of fun exploring different festivals and fun places around town. We have been to the iris festival, the tulip festival, the portland rose garden, the rose festival, and the japanese garden and been to the beach a couple times, all in the last month. We have taken some gorgeous pictures and it is really making me want to take a photography class. At the end of this post i'll add some pictures that we have taken. 

After messing around a bunch with the super nice camera dan's dad let us use it is making me want to take pictures all the time and really making me want to take a photography class. I'm not sure that Linfield really offers any so I might look into taking one somewhere else. I find it so much fun and so relaxing that I would love to learn more and get better at it. It's really nice cause one of my friends also loves to take pictures so she and i enjoy going new places 

where we can take lots of pics. There are so many gorgeous places in the portland area that you never run out of pictures to take. 

 I am off to wake dan up since its like 10:40 in the morning lol . . . and then we are going to spend the day together which i am super excited about. I promise to write more later hehe. 

& here are the pics I promised . . . 

Writing about life

So over the last few weeks a lot has been going on in my life. The one main thing is finding and connecting with my birth father. It was such a huge thing to have happen in my life! When i was 2 days old, I came home from the hospital with my parents and was officially adopted when i was 2 and a half. Since then I have only known my birth father's name. The experience of getting to know him has been absolutely amazing!! i can't believe how good it has been. I can't explain it, but the connection i have with him is different than a connection that i have with any other person. I don't think I ever really let myself thing that talking with him would have gone this well. I didn't want to get my hopes up so i just let myself go about everything just thinking that it might be okay, but it has been a million times better than that!

For once in my life I have some answers. Its like i am finding another part of my family. Like i am putting together the pieces of my life that i have been missing. It is such an amazing and completing feeling. When talking about everything I have been going through with a counselor who deals a lot with adoption and she suggested that I write a book about my story. There is such little literature about adoption and about people's personal stories that I feel like talking about my story would help myself and other people. I am still trying to decide if i am going to or not, but i think it would be an amazing experience!

Busy busy busy....

I never thought this week was going to be as busy as it ended up being. This week was filled with appointments, cleaning, school, work, fire department stuff, and spending time with the parents. Both dan & i feel like we have barely been home or had any time together in so long! i am looking forward to tomorrow and being able to hang out with dan for a little while!

Dan worked Monday, so I got to hang out with Brittany for a while & watch  the hill's together of course! hehe Its fun to hang out with more people from the department. Tuesday I had a bunch of stuff for school & then dan and i went to Ikea to get a new dresser & then we raced home to make it over to my parents for my dad's birthday. Wednesday we organized a bunch of the house & worked out before I had to go to work and Dan had to go to a union meeting. Thursday dan was back to work and I had to work thursday night too. 

By the time it got to friday I was just ready for a break. I had an appointment in the morning & after that dan & i decided to go to the beach for lunch and a walk for a couple hours. On our way home we ended up at my parents for a couple hours and then going to dinner with his parents. We got home around 10pm and pretty much went straight to bed. 

Saturday dan got up at around 6 to go to the station for the Burn to Learn. I went to breakfast & hung out with Amy for a little while and we went down to the Burn together. I hung out with a bunch of different people down there and always love to see my cute fiance at work stuff. He was the engineer on engine 25 so i got to stand and talk to him for most of the day which is always nice. I love learning more about what he does, plus its always a good thing when he's outside the fire :-)! Its nice cause there are getting to be a lot more young couples in the department so there are a lot more people to talk to.

After the burn we went to my parents to help my dad with my mom's mothers day present, met up with amy & liz to help them get a present, headed home to get ready real quick, and went back to my parents for dinner. Today I am spending the day trying to rest after a really long and hectic week. I can't wait to spend tomorrow with dan! i miss him tons and just want to relax with him! Hope everyone has a great week!!

 

It's been a while

Sorry its been so long since I have written anything, but its been a stressful week. I got a letter back from my birth father and his wife this past week. It is something I have been waiting for all of my life, so reading the notes were rather overwhelming. The notes back and fourth have been amazing though. They are the best that I could have ever hoped for. I am learning so much about myself and about my history. I look forward to every new note I get. It has been a few days since I have heard back from them so I am getting kind of anxious to get another letter. Other than that, this week has been filled with errands, finishing up our save the dates for our wedding, getting stuff ready for the pancake breakfast, and working on homework. 

Friday I was able to take a break from everything & have a fun day. I went and had lunch with dan at the station for a while since he was on shift. Then in the afternoon I hung out with Mika. She and I went to the Tulip Festival & then the mall. We had a lot of fun just talking & hanging out. When we got home we, like always, watched some episodes of Friends. 

Saturday was dan & i's 2 & 1/2 year anniversary, even though we both forgot hehe, but I decided to take him and my parents back to the Tulip Festival because they had never been there before. Everyone had a lot of fun & we had perfect weather for it! Then we went to lunch & did a little shopping. Saturday night we went over to Bert & Amy's and hung out with them & liz & josh. It was a very fun and relaxing saturday!

My Parents & i in the tulip field!

Dan & i at the Tulip Festival :-)

Sunday was exhausting but fun. Dan & i woke up at 3:30 to get ready and get down to the fire station to get ready for the pancake breakfast since dan was in charge of organizing it all. We got there around 4, and people were already setting up. It was a fun day. We ended up handing out plates & taking tickets all day. It was a fun spot to be cause we got to talk to lots of people and i got to hang out with Katy Hartmann & Elyse for a while. It was a great breakfast, just wished the turnout would have been better, but there's always next year! After we helped clean everything up, we came home & relaxed a little and then went and got something to eat. We were so tired, all night we were just trying to keep ourselves awake. 

Overall it was a great week & a great weekend and i'm looking forward to hanging out with one of the other fireman's wives tonight while the boys are at the station & to spending some time with dan & my family this week. :-)

Where did the weekend go?

Ahh the start of another week. . . seems like the weekends just fly by way too fast! Friday night we had some friends over to watch the Blazer's game and play some games. It was fun to get my mind off of everything and just relax. Earlier in the day on friday i had decided to email my birth father for the first time, which has been weighing heavily on me lately. It was good to just do it but really difficult at the same time. I have always wondered about my birth parents but putting everything into reality was really hard so it was nice to relax a little. 

Saturday I woke up early and helped out at the March of Dimes fundraiser for my dad's work. It was fun to spend time with him, plus we got to go to two of my favorite places for lunch and dinner. Dan had to work a 24 hour shift so it was nice to just spend some time with my dad. I had to work that night so that pretty much took up the rest of my day. 

Sunday morning dan got home around 8 and we lounged around in bed for like and hour and then decided to go to our favorite bakery in portland for breakfast. After that we drove to my parents house and went for a bike ride and chatted with them for a little while. I had to work sunday night too so dan went for a run and made me dinner. When i got home from work we ate dinner, relaxed, and played games all night. It was really nice to just spend time together. 

Now it's monday night and he's at drill again. I've been doing homework all evening waiting for him to get home so we can have dinner together and watch the hills :-) hopefully this week will go by fast . . . i'm excited to go to the beach on sunday with the family!! 

Have a great week!!