Easter

Happy Easter!  I love this holiday.  I love the meaning behind it and the chance to focus on the Savior and the Resurrection.  This year Easter fell on a very appropriate week where the blessings of the Gospel and the Resurrection have taken a deeper meaning for me.  I am so grateful for the Life and Mission of Jesus Christ, for the fact that on that Easter morn the message delivered was, "He is not here. He is risen." Luke 24:6.

 
 
 Sorry for so many blossom pictures, I just love them.  They were all taken outside our apartment this weekend.  Easter was really nice this year.  Church was very good as usual and our afternoon was quiet.  I got to Skype with my family and we went hiking-more so walking at Cooper Mountain Nature Park.  We also had a fun dinner with Ben Holst who served with JD in India, he is from Nevada so he didn't have any family here either.  We had a turkey that I cooked in the crockpot, stuffing, salad, corn, and other treats it was a really fun and delicious day.

Family Valentines

Our moms are awesome. We have been receiving some great Valentines. From the Hewlett's we got a dragon kite with a 6 ft wing span which should be fun to try out at the beach. We also received a package from the Speths that contained treats and JDs favorite hoodie that was left behind when we visited Utah. We love our Valentines and our moms.

Early Valentines

Since I have work and JD has a hard class section coming up we did some early Valentine's celebrating tonight. We went to a delicious restaurant called La Fogata. We ordered a what we thought would be more of a sampler plate to try new things and were brought out huge platters of food that resulted in a lot of left overs. Afterwards we went home and watched an IMAX movie off of Amazon Prime. We both fell asleep around 9:30 PM. What a romantic night, right? I am grateful to be with my best friend and that any time spent together is special. He is pretty great.

Happy New Year

I had good intentions, I really did. I wanted to go somewhere new; hiking, ocean, park, ect were all very real possibilities. Instead I slept in and was in my pajamas all day long. That was just fine in the end. In fact, I am thinking that isn't such a bad way to start a year.

Goodbye 2012

Clarke Cousin Party

I love my cousins.  It was so fun checking off our lists by doing things such as Just Dance, watch football, play 3 card games, play 3 board games, cut snowflakes, color pictures, golf, and ping pong.  It was great catching up on their lives, what they are doing, and hearing some amazingly awkward 'love' stories.  I love that we still play together, no skits, standing on logs for 4 hours, or Mulan/Harry Potter reinactments this time, though we did hang out in the Gryffendor Common Room for a while.

Winter Timberland

We had snow today in Portland! It is kind of strange how people react to it here especially if you are at an elevation of 500 feet or more. We can expect 0-1 inch and the commute was insane with people driving about 20 miles per hour the whole way in 35 and 40 zones. Not to say it would kill Utahns to be more careful but when the snow is melting on impact it is pretty much like rain right?

An Evening with Angels

The Relief Society Christmas Dinner is a big deal in the Hazeldale Ward.  The cultural room was beautiful with strung twinkle lights across the ceiling, fabric draped over lights around the walls, and real garlands throughout the room, across a piano, on every table with lights along with metallic wreaths and angels, pictures of Christ throughout the room, and garlands across the stange and along the walls with ornaments hanging from them.  The evening was amazing as well.  There was delicious food, amazing musical numbers, and an opportunity to focus on how each one of us can be an angel in someones life, and that from the talks of four women, we are angels and don't even know it.  It was a really neat evening, below is an excerpt from Elder Holland's talk that was shared, The Ministry of Angels-General Conference October 2008.

 

My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.” On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.

May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude for, the Lord’s promise as contained in one of President Monson’s favorite scriptures: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” In the process of praying for those angels to attend us, may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves—with a kind word, a strong arm, a declaration of faith and “the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.” Perhaps then we can be emissaries sent from God when someone, perhaps a Primary child, is crying, “Darkness … afraid … river … alone.” To this end I pray in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Festival of Trees

 I volunteered at the Providence Festival of Trees today in downtown Portland.  Three hours of looking at trees and people watching was awesome.  I was assigned to the Wizard of Oz tree.  It was an upside down gold tree with a farm, farm animals, fences, and straw sticking out of it to create a tornado.  The tree came with a play house that had crushed the wicked witch of the East.  Also pictured are: Island of Misfit Toys, Oregon State vs University of Oregon wreaths(they also had full size trees and mini trees-it is a very serious rivalry here, Avengers, and Portland Timbers(with soccer balls and Timbers scarves).  Other trees that were unique were fly fishing and farming themes complete with a heated chicken coop. 

 

Other random event: I am used to seeing odd people around Portland.  It isn't too uncommon.  When I got into the covention center there were a lot of odd ducks with glitter and wigs and big hats, and instruments.  Turns out it was a casting call for America's Got Talent.  It was kind of fun seeing all the people practicing their 'talents' in the suites before going in to audition.

 

Overall it was a really neat experience and it gave JD a whole day to study without several interruptions from me. 

Countdown to a Utah Christmas

Ever since I was little my mom has always given us advent calendars to count down to Christmas.  She even made a home made one for my sister Christie filled with Trident chewing gum, mints, etc since she was allergic to the chocolate in our calendars.  This year she sent my sister and I advent calendars not counting down to Christmas, but counting down to when we would be flying home for Christmas.  The countdown consisted of a string of lights along with Christmas Trivia Cards with the date and how many days remaining written on each one.  So fun!  We are really excited to be with our family in December.

Thanksgiving

We had a very neat Thanksgiving this year.  JD had Wednesday-Friday off of school this week which has been amazing.  We slept in, and watched the dog show champion be selected in the morning. Afterwards we had a delicious dinner with some friends in the ward.  The McNeils made a HUGE dinner of ham, turkey, potatoes, yams, beans, etc Whitings brought delicious stuffing, and the Parades family brought a dish that I can't pronounce that is native to their country of Peru, that was SO good.  We got to hear about the Parades family conversion and it was an amazing dinner.  Afterwards we got to hang out with the Whitings for a while since their 2 year old was sick and they couldn't come to the dinner portion.  We feel so blessed to have such good friends here, to have the Gospel in our lives, and to have each other.  It was a really good holiday.

Picture Notes: birds in the grocery store parking lot and Peruvian cuisine.

Halloween Photo Tricks

This is what happens when you have no Trick-or-Treaters and a husband studying for a big test on Halloween: photoshop sugar skull, zombie, and witch.

Pumpkin Carving

We had fun carving our pumpkins tonight.  Nothing quite like turning on Pandora Halloween Radio, listening to a variety of music including: Nightmare Before Christmas, Disney's Haunted Mansion ride soundtrack, Told the Witch Doctor, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Monster Mash, Thriller, among many other classic Halloween songs, and digging out pumpkin guts. I think they turned out pretty cute.  Happy week of Halloween!

Pioneer Day

Happy Pioneer Day!  We packed a lot of my kitchen today, followed by lunch with my family and Grandma Ann.  We went to the rodeo with the Speth's and I got to use my firework setting on my camera, that made me excited, though in general I don't think I am a very big fan of rodeos.  Call me dumb, but I feel bad for those little cows being tipped, tied, roped, and ridden.  It was a good, productive day off though, it would be nice if Oregon celebrated Pioneer Day, oh well.

Leap Day Madness

Once upon my time my parents went on a trip to Florida and had a grand time. One evening I was asked out on a date to see Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band in Sandy. I happily said yes and went. Upon arriving home past the time when carriages turn back into pumpkins I was startled to find that my siblings had decided to sleep over at Grandma's and had completely locked up the house for safety. I had to sleep on a bunk bed at the neighbors house among Prom dresses past after waking them up at 2:30 AM, and spent a morning WD-40-ing the keyhole of our door to make the only key available work.
Flash forward to Leap Day 2012. I was on my way to renew my CPR certification when I get a phone call that my coworker's son was sick and needed coverage. I agreed to cover as soon as I was done with my certification. I was walking back to my car and noticed a few missed phone calls from my sister. Come to find out my brother locked her out of the house while she was out, but the neighbor wasn't home. Guess where my dad was? Florida. Mom? Jamaica. Me? Trying to get to work. Everything worked out eventually but what a crazy day.
Oh and by the way, yes, I did wear blue scrubs and a yellow top to work to keep with Leap Day tradition too.
Happy Leap Day!!!

Valentines

I love my permanent valentine and best friend. We went to Bombay Bites and had only appetizers which was delicious and fun. Before we left we were given a balloon, a rose, and free desert and appetizer. Flowers and a great letter were also included on this 'day of love'.

Sleepover

We did our New Year's Eve festivities a day early this year. Sye and Jake came to sleep over. We played games and had a good time. I am not very patient with games that take as long as Monopoly or Risk and I gave prior warning. Instead, I created my mission to take over where I would want to live which lead me on the adventure of taking over the northern portion of Middle Earth. Once statisfied that the Shire was fully secured from bothersome trolls and orcs, I was done.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving was fun this year. I started out the day at Ogden Regional Medical Center for the Thanksgiving Day run with Aimee, and Lara, Sam, and Andrew. It was a fun event that hundreds of people come to every year. This was the 26th annual run, admission is nonperishable food items that you place directly into Salvation Army trucks. JD and I went to both families this year. My grandpa came to the Hewlett feast where we learned all kinds of Thanksgiving trivia such as: turkeys can run up to 55 miles per hour if threatened, turkeys pardoned by the President live out the rest of their days in the happiest place on earth: Disneyland, Thanksgiving was started in 1863 by president Abraham Lincoln, and the largest pumpkin pie ever made weighed 2,020 pounds. We then went to the Miner Thanksgiving. With the family being so large, they set up tables in a church and passed the different food items around the table. It was kind of fun waving to people across the gym. We finished out the day at both of our families houses once more, this time for pie and watching a movie. It was a fun, but busy day. It is weird to think that we probably won't be here next year.

Goodbye October

October 31st is a fun holiday. Halloween is just crazy if you think about it, people dressing up, knocking on strangers' doors, and asking/demanding candy, and if you don't comply it is implied that you will be sorry. As fun as this holiday is and as fun as decorationsand such are, I have to say Halloween is kind of a sad day for me because it marks the end of October.
It certainly has been a wonderful one this year: fall leaves, hiking Waterfall Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon, (snowballs one week, hike up Donut Falls the next), Moab, River Walkway, Alpine Loop, General Conference, peaches galore off of Jeff's trees, Arches, birthday celebrations, crafting, zombie 5k, the opera, family parties, fall break, and so much more. All in all it was just wonderful. So long October, it's been great.

And the winner is....

So Monday morning at 6:15 AM the alarm went off signaling the necessity to roll out of bed and head to the starting line of the Old Glory Days Riverdale 5K. JD has never participated in such an event and was less than enthused over the whole event upon hearing the alarm. We like to joke about our differences when it comes to sleep case in point: Natalie: light sleeper JD: sleeps like a log

Natalie: early bird JD: night owl

Natalie: light switch JD: sunrise

This taken into account, the 5K was an interesting event all around. It was a beautiful course going along the river parkway for part of it (which I love). The day was nice, we had awesome friends to do it with and even a mascot practicing what JD would like to have been doing (Team Spencer!). We finished the walk and went straight to our car after saying goodbye to Megan and Scott. Turns out that both JD and I ended up placing. Go figure. Don't ask which is which because we don't know. JD's coworker accepted our ribbons for us or we wouldn't have had a clue that we even placed. Hopefully this makes it so this won't be JD's first and last 5k? :)