oh bliss...

"deep calls to deep in the roar of your water falls. all your waves and breakers have swept over me."


life has been beautiful lately. there's a smile on my face and joy in my heart. it's times like this that i can say proudly...i'm so happy to have the world as my office!

I just got back from camping at silver falls national park with our new church community. it was so good to hang out and get to know new people...nothing better than sitting around the campfire sharing stories. and after the camping trip, i was able to plant myself in nature at silver falls with my journal and process through what God has been whispering to me lately.

oh, and then my trip to oklahoma last week...labor day is delcared the eight, where my college friends get together somewhere (maybe sometime i can get them all up here to oregon). this year we met in our college town in oklahoma (go cowboys!). so much fun! there was plenty to gab about and so much life experiences to share. it was so good to be around the familiar beautiful friends that i've experience so much with...my heart needed it. i cherish their friendship.

and while i was in oklahoma, i had a lunch with my grandma, visited my grandpa, had coffee on the back porch with my dad, dinner with my aunt, went shopping with my mom. dinner with trav's granparents and aunt and uncle. multiple coffee conversations with my best friend...and i managed to work at coffee shops in-between. oh what bliss.

Hoppípolla

a beloved song by sigur ros (translated into english)

what beauty...


Jumpin' Puddles

Smiling
Spinning 'round and 'round
Holding hands
The whole world a blur
But you are standing

Soaked
Completely drenched
No rubber boots
Running in us
Want to erupt from a shell

Wind in
Aand outdoor smell of your hair
I hit as fast as I could
With my nose

Hopping into puddles
Completely drenched
Soaked
With no boots on

And I get nosebleed
But I always get up
(Hopelandic)

And I get nosebleed
But I always get up
(Hopelandic)

one less car...sometimes

now that we live in the most bike friendly city, travis and i decided to finally buy ourselves some good bikes. (and helmets of course...it's the cool thing now, ya know.) we are both so excited. last night we rode down the street to get our groceries...a whole new side of portland has opened up to me! my goal is to ride the max and/or bike everywhere i can. this is the best city for that!

our living room

okay, so we're starting to be settled. hopefully someday i'll take pictures of our house...for now, here's the living room!

camping on the oregon coast

this is home and i just love it!

it just keeps getting better

i just keep falling in love with oregon. i just love it. it is feeling more and more like home.

my long time friend, brandi, came to visit and we went on a camping trip to the coast this weekend. I LOVE THE COAST!! it is absolutely gorgeous...forest and ocean...it couldn't be better! we went on a few hikes and enjoyed the beach.

i'm just so excited that this is our home. this isn't some place i'm going to just go once and say, "yeah, the oregon coast is nice, i went there once." no, i'm going to know it like the back of my hand. i'm going to find the trails that i love. i'm going to find places that i just want to go and sit all day and soak up God's creation. this is a place that nourishes my soul.

(having technical difficulties with the images right now...check back later for images of the coast! my poor ibook is having problems. I'm in the process or reinstalling my operating system and making it feel better...oh, joy.)

Getting Things Done

i love it when a book comes along at just the right moment. well "getting things done" was that book over the last few weeks. you may laugh, but it really is an incredible book.

this summer has been incredibly wonderful and incredibly stressful. i've been a little bit overwhelmed to say the least...trying to balance so many things. mainly work and the house, but that was enough on my plate. i have had so many things rolling around in my head and i was mentally and emotional exhausted. i felt like i could never get enough done. i was always behind, especially with work. and i'm not normally a person that feels exhausted, but I was. I was bogged down with so many "open loops" in my head and didn't have the passion and creativity that usually drives me.

well, this book walks you through steps of getting everything that is cluttering up your mind written down. i've always been a planner and had a planner right by my side, but lately, that hasn't been enough, i have still felt like there was just too much to do and too much on my mind. (but instead of me thinking, i need to finish this ad and this brochure and organize the kitchen and blah blah blah, i can actually do those things and be present where i'm at.) I took last weekend, went through the steps of the book and i felt AMAZING. i'm not kidding. i can't tell you how much better i feel. and i was able to move through this stressful work week with a clear head. i won't go through all the details of the book and why it was so good.

I'll just say it is worth picking up. it frees you up to be creative, to dream about things you want to do, to brainstorm about projects...it is superb!

nike

while my parents were here, we toured the nike campus. my dad is a sport salesman, so we were able to get a private little tour of the place. i'm not a big fan of sports. and growing up in oklahoma, it was hard to get away from it! But I was excited about seeing the insides of nike. i have to say i have some respect for athletes...i like the analogies that sports can offer to life...about endurance, pushing yourself, staying strong, etc, etc. it was cool walking through the different museums. each building is dedicated to a particular athlete. there were soccer fields, basketball courts...all of which had themes. creativity definitely went into everything that was built I was impressed. 5,000 employees, several restaurants and bars, its own post office, a track that circles the campus, a natural spring in the center of the campus. It felt like I was on a college campus, not a corporate headquarters.

pictures from the vacation...

here's what we've been up to the last week...we had such a great time with my family!

drive

our drive to the cabin

the cabin

what an amazing vacation for our family...we had such a relaxing time hanging out here...grilling and enjoying wine, reading, sitting by the fire, a cup of coffee on the porch, enjoying the hot tub...it was the perfect place for some quality time with the fam...and they even let me throw out some questions for everyone to answer (ya know the questions like, describe one of your scars, what's something you would like to do...i learned my dad stepped on a rose bush and almost had his foot amputated when he was in high school!)

The cabin was located right on the sandy river, just an hour east of portland...

columbia river gorge

on our way back from the cabin we drove through the columbia river gorge...


stopped at the multnomah falls...


went along the columbia river gorge historic highway



and stopped at the latourell falls



visted the vista house, which has a beautiful view of the gorge..



wow! oregon has so many natural wonders!! i can't wait to go on hikes through all of this beauty!!

fam in town

my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law are here for the week! yippee!!


outside our house


we took them to northwest 23rd wednesday night and ate at laurelwood brew pub.


Today we rode the max downtown. explored some of the pearl district and downtown. hung out at powell's city of books...






(cool sign downtown)

..and went to my favorite coffee shop, stumptown coffee roasters...



and ate superb seafood at jake's grill...




tomorrow we are going to a cabin by mount hood for some relaxin'! wahooo!!!

and now a washer and dryer

things are coming together at the moore household. that's right we finally bought a washer and dryer. we've been looking on craig's list for the last month and we couldn't find what we wanted and we finally gave in and bought a new sucker. i have to say i wasn't thrilled with this big purchase. i would rather have other stuff, but i guess i need to be able to wash my clothes!

we had the guys deliver it yesterday. i felt pretty bad because they had to take it to the third floor of our place. : [ and to make matters worse, they installed the wrong washer and dryer. not just the wrong model. it was even a different brand...and i didn't even notice! they called a couple hours later to let me know they installed the wrong one and they were coming back to replace it. whoops. too bad they couldn't have just left it. it was about twice the price!

a great book

i'm a little behind on my reading with all of this house stuff...so, i'm finally getting around to the highly recommended irresistible revolution book. and wow!!! what a book! i'm challenged by every word and am really praying that God will use shane's words to help shape the way we live our life here in portland...a new place is the perfect time to start new habits and new ways of living...and that's what i'm praying for. maybe i won't be living with the homeless in philly, but i'm ready to put all the things i've been thinking about for the past year or so into practice. more on that to come, i'm sure.

..."all around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip or dance, just don't tiptoe."

silver falls

so, i'm a little late in posting about this, but a few weeks ago when travis mom was here, they went for a hike at silver falls. (unfortunately, i had to work, but i will definitely have to go sometime) this is just an hour away from us!

the summer is splendid

now this is what i call summer...

a work in progress

here's travis' mom and i painting our living room.




and the beginnings of our living room, kitchen area (sans decorations and the kobie touch!) the actual colors aren't quite as gray in "real life."

nature in my own backyard

Just down the street from our house is Tualatin Hills Nature Park....219 acres of beauty. yesterday i took a walk down there. It is wonderful and such a great place to get away from everything and be in nature. (oregon is full of these places and i just love it! ) I'm glad to have such a great spot within walking distance!

The art of Chris Yormick

Leave Me Here, 24"x48"/2005 mixed media on canvas

how many times can i talk about our new place?

we went to the DMV today and we now have oregon license plates...wahooo!!! we are oregonians! (i have to say that i was sad to see the minnesota license go!) now i just have to take the written driving test to get my license. i'm ready to be a local. (and i can't believe i have to take a test for my license!)

trav and i have had a lot of fun playing house. it's almost like we have been set free from the cage called aparment living and we are just so excited about making the place our own. we both have our own tasks...i'm trying to decorate and set up house. (and unpack box after box) he's doing all the handy work like putting up blinds and sealing the tile.

i'm really happy with our place. even though it is in the 'burbs and it is a townhouse, i have to say i'm completely euphoric to call this place our own. it already feels like home and i didn't think it would be this fun!! everything is exciting...our refrigerator, our stove, buying blinds, using our garage. sitting at our dining room table...everything is an experience in itself. we are like kids in a candy store!

i've painted a lot and still feel like i have so far to go. It is fun watching this place come together! but i'm starting to get a little overwhelmed at all the stuff that still needs to be done before i can feel settled. (i feel like i'm going in a million different directions and now i'm back to work, so i'm trying to balance work with playing house, which is hard to do...especially since i work from home and all the stuff i want to do around the house is staring at me!) I'm hoping to make some headway this weekend...

a few days away from the computer

my ibook and i have become good friends over the last year. we've spent a lot of time together, gotten to know each other. but this week, i'm a little sick of the little guy. i've been working on deadline after deadline and i'm ready to not be in front of this screen. but as we speak, i'm finishing up the last of the deadlines and about to enter 5 days of bliss....PLAYING HOUSE!! yes, we are officially home owners now!! we'll start to move stuff over tomorrow! and i've bought the sample colors that i'm planning on using and i'll get to see them on the walls tomorrow! wahooo!! i'm hoping to soak up the next 5 days in all its glory (except for the actual moving part!)

oneplace in the new times

my church in phoenix had the cover story in the new times this week (the alternative newspaper). okay, so they exagerated on some stuff and maybe they missed the point of what oneplace is about...but i think there are some good quotes from my friends and it is cool to see what oneplace is up to these days. it seems anytime you read about an emerging church in the newspaper, you have to hear about how the other churches are doing it wrong. maybe they are or maybe they are just doing it differently. but it isn't about the surface stuff, the methodology, that makes churches like this different...it goes so much deeper than that. and i wish critics could see that.

house stuff

well, we had our inspection and final walkthru this past week...we walked in for the inspection and there were 20 people touching up paint (and i felt kinda' bad that i would be painting over all their hard work)...it made me laugh. do builders ever run on schedule? i'm just happy that we will be able to move in next week. and we will be closing on our new place next week. oh so exciting!! this summer will be a whirlwind. trav's mom is coming in to help us paint (and i'm painting every wall in the place!!! wahooo!!) we're going to try to get as much as we can painted before we move in. but before this big week can happen, i will be working like mad trying to meet some deadlines for work. work has been crazy. i mean really crazy. it has been fun and starting to get a little stressful. but i'm happy to have the work and i learning how to work well under pressure.

i'm so excited for trav's mom to come visit...i am so lucky to have such a great mother-in-law. i wish i could just play all week, but i'll have to work some while she's here.

i think i spoke too soon (previous post) that i'm not anxious! ha! okay, i'm anxious. If i could just take a month off of work and play house, i would be one happy camper, but such is life. the bad part of working at home is i will be tempted to work on the house when i need to be working...deadlines will drive me.

living in the waiting

i'm patient right now. i don't feel anxious. and i'm a little surprised at myself...i'm not worried about whether our house will be finished in time for us to close on the 30th. okay, so i'm a little stressed about how many projects i have piling up and how that will work with painting our new place and settling in...but nothing i'm too worked up about. i feel calm. i feel at peace. and if you know me very well, you know i'm a pretty anxious person. i try to live in the moment, but i have a hard time doing that. my mind is always racing...racing ahead, thinking back...always going. and i have a hard time just soaking up the moment i'm in. i'm either analyzing or dreaming...but minneapolis was a 8 month lesson on enjoying the present...because that is what i did. we were stuck in the waiting, of not knowing what would happen with travis' job and i had two choices...i could keep thinking about the next place we would move to or i could enjoy the beautiful city of minneapolis and live in the waiting. i'm glad i chose to live and it has made it easier in this weird time of waiting in portland...waiting to feel settled, to feel at home here, to be in our new place, and find a rhythm of life that resonates with my spirit. these things take time and right now i'm okay with that. i feel like the last 5 months we've been in portland has been an incubator for me...a time to renew my spirit from our adjustments and moves. and i'm at a point now that i'm excited to begin our life here in portland. i realize it has already started, but i feel like it will officially start when we move into our first house.

but as i'm stuck in the waiting, i'm enjoying work. enjoying walks by the river. experiencing new music. enjoying the time travis is home. experiencing new things. reading good books. getting to know the city. and smiling at the clouds. (i just love clouds.)

cool art

i looooovee designs like this. i just want to eat them up.
(thanks to greg, i found this great site)

i like hatchbacks?

there have been a lot of things that I've become interested in since college...and most of them make me step back and say...what? who am i?

hip-hop
history
science
the west coast (nothing against it, i just didn't think it was for me...and then i found the pacific northwest. ahhh.)
tv shows i look forward to
the discovery channel
PBS
NPR
folk music
that there's so much more to a city than downtown
going to bed early and getting up early (this is a recent portland thing...i must be getting old. and it is very strange for the late night kobie to be turning in early!)
thai food
volunteering somewhere (I'm still working on this one)
cooking (i would like to do it more, at least!)
beer (and i've discovered oatmeal stouts are one of my favorites)
and now hatchbacks
but i smile. because even though a may be surprised at my new found interests, i'm enjoying them! and maybe i'll be a little more open to other things.

PHO!

over the last few years i have gotten better about trying new things. for most of my life i stuck to the tried and true...but i have changed my ways...and i actually enjoy trying new things, exploring, discovering... and our new friends here (who, by the way, bought a house 3.44 miles from us!! wahooo!) have given travis and i a little push to explore and enjoy new things.

we tried pho. yes, that's right, PHO! it is wonderful and i'm glad i tried it. i think it will be a regular thing for me!

moving? what?

so lately, i've been anxious to get settled into a new house. thinking about walls to paint (and here are the colors i'm thinking about today...i used this little sherwin williams model to look at my kitchen and dining/living colors.) about decorating. excited to be walking distance to the max with easy access to downtown. great places to hike. looking forward to getting to know the evergreen community better. meeting new people. and then it hit me...for all of this to happen it involves one thing that i am very sick of doing lately...MOVING. PACKING. UNPACKING. i think that travis will be doing the packing again. (he was so dang good in minneapolis, he is rewarded with the job again!) but i know it will be my job to do the unpacking, the figuring out how everything is going to fit in our oh so small space. moving across town is never as bad as moving across the country, like our last 2 moves. no renting a huge truck, no boxing everything. and this will be different, right? we are moving not to a temporary apartment, but a house we'll be in for a little while. i'll put that at the front of my mind.

but now is not the time to be overwhelmed with that now. i have a logo to work on a banner ad to create...

i'm turning granola

i've always had a little granola in me...but travis and i have slowly started caring about the environment, about how much we drive, being resources, treating our bodies well, about living more simply. and minneapolis and portland have definitely been a catalyst to bring out the granola in us. i have this urge to really live naturally and simply. and our move to oregon is the start of something great. i'm excited to see how i allow the people around me to shape me. i guess i feel like there are parts of me that are just dying to come out and i'm excited to see how those part of me come to the surface as we make oregon our new home.

portland was rated number one in the top 50 big cities to care about the environment, use its resources wisely, etc. that is exciting to me and i'm happy to be in a place like that.

what have i been up to lately?

well, travis and i bought a refrigerator on friday...i didn't think buying a refrigerator would be so exciting. it is a stainless steal bottom freezer that we found new on craig's list. and when we went over to pick it up, we met a great couple that just moved to portland...and sal, is a painter and has made a studio in his detached garage. it was inspiring and fun to meet another couple starting their life in portland. it was good to hear about them using the max and selling a car, caring about how energy efficient everything is.

i have started picking out paint colors for our new place. (and it seems i come up with a new color combination everyday...we'll see what we end up doing.)

we've been going to a lot of home stores to look at new stuff...so much fun! it is starting to become real that we are actually going to be in one place for an extended amount of time. yippee!

i'm reading a great book called. "change the way you see everything." my brother recommended it and i really am enjoying it.

we are thinking of making a trip to ikea this week. (phoenix had a ikea. minneapolis had an ikea. but now that i'm really wanting to buy a few things for our new place, i'm going to have to drive to seattle to go to the nearest one. o-well.)

we have become addicted to craig's list. maybe we'll end up finding our dining room table on there.

i loooooveeeee portland weather. if i can still wear a jacket on june 3rd, it is my kind of place. friday it was cloudy and in the 60s and no rain. perfect weather. and even when it is raining, i love it. we'll see what i say after i go through the long winter rainy season. but so far, i have nothing, but good things to say about the weather.