Another house project...

We have officially been in our house for a year now, and are still not done with all of the projects. Our latest project is to put hardwood floors in our entry and front living room. The entry way originally had hardwood, and the living room had carpet. The carpet was destroyed and we immediately ripped it out. Since then, we have been dealing with the plywood floor. After realizing that having someone install wood floors for us would be way too expensive, we thought..."how hard can it be." This is now week three! The picture of Doug is on the first day when we we taking off the woodwork and ripping out the old flooring. The picture of me is me wearing my "working pants." Doug is embarrassed of these sweat pants and was hesitant to take a picture of me wearing them. I happen to find them extremely comfortable and productive. I also feel a sense of pride while wearing the sweatpants. I have worn these pants for almost every house project that I have completed. If you look closely you will notice every color of paint that is on the walls of our house on the sweatpants! The final picture is what we have accomplished in our three weeks of working. More pictures to come.

Happy Birthday Aislinn!

Happy Birthday Aislinn. I hope you have a fabulous day. We are so excited to have you as part of the family and can't wait until the day you become our official in-law :) To many more wonderful birthdays!

Grete...It's the thought that counts!

First off, thank you to all of you for the well-wishes and birthday greetings this past week! It was a great birthday, and your messages and cards made it all the better! Today I got an unexpected belated birthday surprise in the mail. When I checked the mail I found this plastic bag with a note on it from the post office saying something to the matter of "we try really hard to deliver mail undamaged and in one piece...but sometimes we screw up." Inside there was an envelope that had been attempted to be taped back together and inside the envelope was a card that had been shredded to pieces. It was kind of like a puzzle putting the card together to reveal a wonderful birthday message from my great friend Grete. I feel really bad because the card was very nice and I could tell that she put a lot of thought into picking it out. It ended up being a good thing though Grete because I like puzzles! The mystery of what really happened to the card is unknown... Thanks anyways, I appreciate it, and all other cards, very much! (Jami, I hope you appreciate my eye for taking pictures primarily for the use of a blog entry)

Shear Shock

Things to never tell a new hairstylist..."It is starting to feel a little heavy," "I'm looking to trying something a new," and "sure, whatever you think would look best..." This week I got my haircut, and it was quite a shocker at first. I was thinking about getting just a little trim, maybe add some layers, but keep most of the length. I instead got an entirely different style and lost a lot of length. It has taken quite a bit of getting used to, but I think it is finally starting to "grow" on me.

Happy 1st Birthday Greta!

Hi Greta,

I hope you had a wonderful first birthday. I'm sure the princess themed party left all the other pre-toddlers envious. We can't believe that you are already one year old. You are growing up way too fast. It feels like just yesterday that we were holding you for the first time, and now you are scooting around and getting ready to walk. Make sure you help your mom post some pictures of your party on the blog. We can't wait to see them. Hopefully we will be able to make it to many future birthday parties. We love you Greta, I hope this next year is even better then the first!

Love,

Doug and Nicole

PS- Tell your mom and dad that we love them and miss them as well!

Pay it Forward...Doug Style

Lately a trend out here has been to buy complete strangers stuff. The other day at a star bucks 47 customers bought coffee for each other. It started with one person buying the guy's coffee behind him in line, then that guy bought the coffee for the guy behind him... you get the point. Well, I went to Burger King today with a co-worker up in Seattle. The line was really long and I waited for fifteen minutes. I kept noticing an older gentleman ahead of me looking back at me and smiling. When it was his turn to order he turned to me and said do you like Whoppers. I said boy do I. And next thing you know he orders a Whopper for me and tells me to pass along the happiness. I turn to my co-worker behind me said, "Hey I'm getting a free Whopper be happy for me." The Whooper give away ended at one.

This past weekend Nicole and I decided to follow the Lewis and Clark Trail. I was Merryweather Lewis and Nicole was Clark Griswold. We followed the Columbia river from Portland down to Skamania Lodge. Along the way we saw North America's second tallest continuous flowing waterfall. We also saw the Columbia Gorge which had a lot of scenic stops. We also stopped at the Bonneville Dam and saw 100 pound sturgeon. We did not see any seals but they were reportedly eating large amounts of endangered salmon. At the dam they tried to tell us people forded the river by floating their wagons with no wheels down the Oregon Trail. I happen to think it was a hoax because the river looked too wild for a wooden wagon to float down. Come on, people were white water rafting on a wild adventurous ride on the same trail. At the lodge Nicole enjoyed a back massage and I sat in front of a large fire place sipping hot cocoa. All in all it was a very nice relaxing vacation!