Sunday, February 2, 2014

Book Un-Hauling

Book un-haul you say!? What is this you say? Yes. I'm getting rid of a hefty amount of books. By this I mean nine books. Lets not get carried away. I have been seeing this trend lately on Booktube of readers making videos where they outline books/series they are giving away to charity. I'm jumping on that bandwagon too. When I went to look at Amazon tonight (to purchase more books obviously) I thought, "Wait a tick, how many books do I have sitting on my shelves now?" (for those that don't have Instagram, I will insert a picture here:)


















I wish I could say picture encompasses all my "TBR" (to-be-read) pile, but sadly, no. When I saw it was upwards of 140 books, I thought, there is no way in hell that I still have interest in all of those. I read an article recently on my new favorite blog, Book Riot, that encouraged me to clear the shelves of books I've been holding onto for too many years. Most likely I will never get around to reading those and it's time to part ways.

So I wanted to do a quick little post about what I'm getting rid of and a short blurb as to why. I won't be including the covers in this like I would a normal book haul, I'm sure you'll all live!

Books Listed On Bookmooch:

1) Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

When I was working at KLEAN towards the end, I was taking a lot of "sick" days, or a lot of personal days basically which calculated out to about two days per week. Whatev. What that allowed me to do was catch up on my Netflix and every show from the past 5-7 years that I had missed. This included the show "Friday Night Lights". I figure, I do really like the show and it's probably similar enough that I don't have to read the book. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose.

2) The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

You know it's time to get rid of a book when you can't even put your finger on when you acquired it. Like I think this one might be a high school pick up, maybe even a gift from one of my parents? I don't know. In any case, I've been toting it around thinking at some point I'm going to be desperate enough to read it, but I can honestly say after fully reading the synopsis, that's never going to happen. Buh-bye.

3) Peace Like A River by Leif Enger

This was definitely a Goodwill purchase. Goodwill is a tricky one for me. They always have such a HUGE book section that is priced dirt cheap. The problem is, they never have books that are quite on my "to purchase" list. It's like, "Oh yeahhhh, I think I've heard of this book being good... mayyyybe I'll get it" which then turns into me carrying the book around in my hands throughout the store for an hour and I finally give in to buying it only to realize later that I'm probably never going to read that book. Oh American consumerism, you get me every time. At least it's for a good cause... right?

4) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

This is one of those highly popular books that I always feel like I should have read. Like everyone else has, why haven't you? I get suckered into those quite a bit, though I will say if any book has an Oprah Book Club stamp on the front, I steer the eff clear. I've learned my lesson with She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. For lack of a better phrase, that book SUCKED which says a lot since I read it in high school (well half read) and still have PTSD from it. Oprah may be able to do a lot of things, but recommend books she cannot. Anyway, I gave Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to my mom to check out and she said it was weird and she didn't like it, so I'm sure my feelings won't be too far from the mark. Goodbye book.

5) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

What sucked about buying this book was that it was at full price. In Barnes and Noble. When I was broke, broke, broke. I picked it up and put it back down within about 30 pages (my typical threshold for giving books a chance is 100 pages, but with this one I was bored to tears). I'm sure it's interesting and I'm sure a lot of people like it, but there are so many other books I would rather peruse before this. See yah.

6) Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I have had this book forever. At one point, when it came out back in 2000, I read almost 1/2 to 3/4 of it. I didn't have the steam to push all the way through. It's one of those that I kept saying to myself, "someday, someday, someday." But lets be real, it's 13 years later and I still haven't picked it up. Gone.

7) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

See #4

8) The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

This was a Goodreads recommendation. In whole, I'm highly suspicious of Goodreads recommendations, or any non-friend recommendations in general. Like in magazines when they pick "the best make-up/hair product/whatever of 2013", how do I know it's not because that brand paid them the highest price to print that? I don't. And how do I know the publishers of said book aren't paying to increase visibility, thus the reason a book ended up on my recommendations page in the first place, not because I would actually like the book (my mind is a scary place my friends). Anyway, I'm suspicious of this book, I think it's a plant, and it's time for it to go.

9) Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

I'm fairly certain this book was written for the middle-grade set and after my encounter with the Percy Jackson series, I'm over it. I'm done. YA is where I draw the line. I'm two and a half short years away from 30 and it's time for me to put down the books for the tween set. I just can't do it. I'm just too old for you.

All in all, I feel pretty good about these choices. For anyone that knows me, I'm a purger. I love getting rid of things to make room for the new. That being said, the "new" will most likely be bought tomorrow. On Amazon. With my credit card. Huzzah!

Friday, January 3, 2014

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes!


Well friends, it has been quite a while. My bad. I'm hoping to pick it up here in the new year! I should have a lot more time and freedom with some of the life changes that have been occurring, but more on that in a minute. For now, I'm going to inundate you all with a slew of photos, hooray!!!

It's no mystery by now that I love books. It's gone beyond an obsession now, I might as well open my own bookstore or take up a job as a librarian. Of these books, I have read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore which I must say is one of my favorite books of the year. The other books have been packed away and are just waiting to get onto my shelf!
As I have shown before, our little house in Astoria was set amongst the trees where all fall we got to enjoy this deer herd. I loved being able to look out and see the momma's and the babies roaming around our backyard. In this picture, if you look closely, there are SEVEN(!!) deer. That's the most I saw in our time at that house which was just astounding to me!
It's a good thing that Ryan doesn't look at my Blog much because he would probably kill me for posting this picture. He's getting vain on me, telling me to take pictures down because he looks "fat". But I love this picture because it depicts what we would do every Sunday this fall- overdose on football! We would wake up early and head to Pig and Pancake to gorge on breakfast to be comatose through the rest of Sunday! It was amazing. Even better is when we get the kitten cats to come snuggle up with us.
In the last few months while working at KLEAN, my productivity level took a major dive. I don't know if it was a combination of not yet being on Zoloft, or whether I just stopped caring, but I found so very creative ways to pass the time including this! Yes, that is a book rested on my computer, and yes, it did look like I was being productive if you walked by my office and happened to look in. I'm sure glad that my college degree went to good use- learning how to be sneaky as hell!




Okay, holy hell, I'm so excited to talk about this amazing weekend. Sometimes in life you have to stop and take a look back at where you have been. I have been blessed with having some truly amazing experiences this last year. For Ryan's three year sobriety birthday, his best buddy Dru and I decided to treat Ryan to an all football weekend. First on Saturday, we went to see the Ducks whomp on the Huskies for the 10th (yes that's right, TENTH) straight year and then we wrapped up our Seattle weekend by going to the Seahawks game. I can't even begin to express how awesome it was! More pictures next!
This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole weekend. The x is for the roman numeral 10 because the Ducks have won TEN STRAIGHT games against those dirty dogs!!! I'm not bragging or anything. But on a real note, it was such a magical new stadium, and I truly believe that Husky stadium is one of the prettiest in the entire nation. You'd be hard pressed to convince me otherwise. We had seats in the 300 level all the way pushed up against the rail facing the water. It was AMAZING! Not only did I get to watch an amazing game, but I got to look at all the sail-gaters, yachts and boats floating in and out! Glorious.
The Seahawks game was the first ever NFL game Ryan and I had ever been to. It was pretty exciting. We stayed the night in Olympia to save some skrilla, then we rode the Sounder up to the game from Puyallup. That turned out to be a lot of fun riding a train full of Seahawks fans for an hour. Ryan and I obviously had to document the experience.
Obligatory CenturyLink Field photo.
Upon arriving in Seattle, we made a bee line for the Hawks store. I've been a Seahawks fan my entire life having grown up in Olympia, but never deemed the team worthy of wearing their logo on my body. Call me a fair weather fan, but I had to get myself some Seahawks garb including this delightful hat and a wonderfully flattering hooded shirt. I had to contain Ryan to not purchase one of everything, as we were headed up to the register, he had a Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman and Walter Thurmond III jersey in his hands as well as like three sweatshirts and two hats. We were able to narrow it down to a sweatshirt and a hat, thank god.

The next set of photos that should be in here are those from San Francisco, but I want to do an entirely separate post for those, so for now we're skipping those!

When I took this picture, I said that all I got from my shopping in SF was this cat, but that was totally not the truth, my wallet was crying after San Fran. But it's always amusing to me that cats love boxes, bags and basically anything they are not supposed to get into/ things they don't fit into. Marley is not special, he's one of those typical cats, and I love him for it!
Our San Francisco trip was when we were given the offer to come up to the Apple Cup. On the flight back from SF, we decided it was what we wanted to do with our future. While we were wheeling our bags back to the Camry in the Economy Lot at PDX, I told Ryan I thought we should start looking at getting a four wheel drive vehicle for the snow. At midnight when we got back to Astoria, I went to bed. The next morning I got up, Ryan had told me he had already found THE CAR and he was on his way down to Salem to get it. For those that are following along, that's about 12 hours before he had picked a new car and had purchased it. It was love at first sight and it has been love ever since. We ended up getting a 2006 Toyota 4Runner, and we are absolutely pleased with it. It has leather and HEATED seats as well as a massive moon roof and roll down back window. It's the nicest car either of us have ever owned and we are still so thrilled about it!

November marked my father's 70th birthday. For a while now I knew I wanted to do something big, whether that be a cruise to Alaska or a nice weekend where friends and family could come celebrate my father! With the way everything worked out (being that Alaska in November would have been terrifying), we ended up doing a party and these were the invites!
Yeah, yeah, more books. I know. But oh my God, Allegiant?? Soooo good. I know what everyone else says, that they thought it was slow and not the ending they wanted, but damn, I surely wasn't expecting that. Totally one of my favorite series which I have passed on to many friends now.
Since Ryan and I were season ticket holders for the Ducks, I told him that one of the times I needed to take him to my favorite pizza place/hangover cure of all time (for those that KNOW Eugene, I might be misspeaking in saying it's my only favorite, Pegasus is a total tie). Sy's New York style pizza is exactly that, HUGE slices that absolutely save your life. I mean I can't talk highly enough about this place. As I'm typing, I'm actually craving it. I need it. I love it.
Eugene has to be one of the prettiest places in the fall. I mean it's pretty year round, but all the trees on campus and the leaves, it's an Instagramers dream. On the walk through campus on the way to the game, I had to snap this picture of the leaves/my fall outfit/my duck gear. I love my ducks!!
As a sober person at Autzen, you have to find different things to do. Tailgating is hard when you aren't on the same level as everyone else. On this particular game, we arrived about two hours early to the stadium so we had to get really creative! Apparently there is a thing such as the "Duck Truck"? I don't know, I got a picture in front of it because it's just that damn awesome. Also, we were able to see the players come off the field from pre-game warm ups and a lot of people were snapping pics and getting autographs, that was definitely a first for me. It's surprising what I missed as a drunk college student! Amen to being older and wiser.
Puddles. So badass.
This was the first night game we had been to in our seats, and it was awesome. I forgot how much I love Autzen under the lights.
Okay, first, sorry mom and grandma for this picture. Second, holy shit I still fit into my high school cheerleading outfit, third, I almost wore this to work for Halloween, fourth, I didn't because my toosh is literally seconds away from world exposure. This is a Halloween-y I got this year, when you're sober, this holiday no longer holds as much meaning. I don't think I even got to watch Hocus Pocus this year! Tragedy.
As a Duck fan, this was one of the worst days of the year. This was the day of the Stanford/Oregon game. I was so excited when I got up in the morning, I even yelled, "TIMBER!!!!!" at Ryan at like 5:30 AM. Something just didn't feel right about the entire day though. While we were watching the game (which I only was able to stomach the first quarter) everything just seemed... off. I don't want to ever play Stanford again.
I will say this to anyone who asks. Ryan and Dru are both the biggest idiots I have ever met. Even though my boyfriend came out on top of this dumbass bet (pun intended), I was not a fan. If you all remember back to the pictures I posted of the Ducks/Husky game, there was an infamous bet that took place around this time. Dru and Ryan thought it would be fabulous to place a tattoo on the outcome of this game since Ryan is a crazy Duck fan and Dru is a loyal Husky supporter. Not just any tattoo, an ass tattoo. Of the opposite team. Obviously since the Ducks won, Dru was the one in the hot seat, and I will give him absolute props for following through with this. Here's the picture proof.

For my father's birthday, we decided to throw a party at the Alderbrook Inn. We arrived there Friday night and had a delightful dinner at the Robin Hood Pub across the street from the inn. We woke up to a non-rainy day on the canal and we were able to catch some breathtaking views! Though it was cloudy, the Olympic Mountains were out in their full glory. I absolutely love this place and can't wait to come back again!
For those of you who have not been to the Alderbrook Inn, I highly recommend you get yourselves there soon. At just over 100 years old, this piece of property has it all, water, mountains, luxury dining, family fun, and one of the most gorgeous lodges I have seen. They have two lodge cats (which will be featured in a picture in just a moment) which you know I loved, and an ENORMOUS fireplace that you can basically sit inside which you see pictured at the left. There's just something about this place that is beyond relaxing and you feel so pampered if you're staying in the lodge or in the guest houses like we were. It was an amazing weekend.


 Sometimes the thought of family gatherings can be really overwhelming, especially if you're in my family. None of us are necessarily close, my father had me at the age of 42, making me closer in age to my second cousins than my first. Also, us Briggs's tend to be slightly antisocial and anxiety ridden at the thought of large events. My dad's birthday went amazingly well though, for all that being said. There were a total of about 25 people that showed up to wish my father well upon embarking into the golden years of his 70s. It was rather impressive actually. We had people from all eras of his life, from family to high school friends to AA friends and work companions. It was amazing to see the outpouring of love for him!

Okay so this little odd-eyed gem is named Brook. She and her brother Alder are the most adorable, tolerant kitties you will ever behold. I can't imagine the life of a lodge cat. Yes, it would be luxurious longing around in that lodge all day, but at the same time, think of all the people touching you! Everyday! Without a moments rest! ...I still think the good outweighs the bad. I have to say that these cats caused a (momentary) rift in my relationship with Ryan. Alder and Brook have inspired me to look into getting a unique cat, whether it be a Manx (which these were), a Persian or a Scottish Fold, I really don't care. I know some people out there would scoff that I would pay for a designer cat when there are millions of kitties to be taken home from the pound, but every cat I have ever had has been a rescue, and I really want something awesome like Maru (who is a Fold). Watch that video and tell me you don't think the same! Anyway, Ryan said that over his dead body would I bring a third cat into our house. I told him that was very unfair considering they are technically his cats (should we break up I will be stealing at least one of them, fair warning), but he's set on two being enough. Who knows, I might employ the help of one of my readers to pick up a kitty from the airport and bring it from Seattle to Chelan for me one of these days.... Soon.

Around the second week of November, my sober life partner Alison ventured up from LA to do a speaker meeting at KLEAN. Ryan and I missed her speaking, but we were able to go to dinner with her before she left. Seriously, this is one of my favorite girls in the world, it was amazing to be able to catch up since it had been about a year since we had last seen her.
November is a celebration rich month in my family. Not only did my father turn 70, but my grandmother turned 80! For those of you who can do simple math, yes my grandma is ten years older than my dad. Oh family! Anyway, my mom brought my grandma down to the Oregon coast for a nice relaxing get away and Ryan and I were able to treat the two of them to a delightful dinner in Seaside.
Later that month, my wonderful friend Hannah invited me over to stay with her in Portland while her fiancee was away on a boys weekend (LAN party). On that trip, I was blessed with being able to see her try on and pick out her wedding dress (I do have pictures of the winner, but obviously I can't post them yet). I have never been to a bridal shop before, but I have seen many a episode of Say Yes to the Dress. I'll tell you the reality isn't so far off of what you see on the show. Brides came (by appointment only) with a whole entourage of other women to watch them try on everything in the store. I couldn't help but think about how beautiful everything was. I wanted to try on one of everything even though there's nothing pretty on my finger :)
Someday...

Sometimes there is nothing more that I love than sitting at home on a rainy day with the kitties all by myself. In the last few weeks of working at KLEAN, I definitely took some "sick" days where I just couldn't muster the energy to fake being happy about being there (I had already mentally checked out). I love this picture so much because Marley really looks like he's pondering life (I promise you there's nothing going on in his head at this point, he's a simple boy).
Okay, so there are going to be a lot of pictures of kitties from this point on. In December, while trying to move, leave our job, etc., I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. Except of my cats obviously. So this here is a picture of our lovelies enjoying the fireplace. Ryan and I were just talking about this fireplace last night and how much we actually do miss it. It was like instaheat! You turned that sucker on and BAM! You're sweating. That's why the cats loved it so much, they're heat mongers.
So for any of you that have not traveled to Astoria, if you do, the 14th Street Coffee House is a must. From their funky, industrial diner decor to their amazing coffee and snacks to the hotel they are attached to, there is nothing not to love about this place. It's situated on two of the busier streets in downtown Astoria so there is people watching galore!
Surprisingly this time around moving, the kitties didn't freak out as much as they have in the past. And unsurprisingly, they loved the hell out of all of the moving boxes that were laying around the house. What's the deal with cats and boxes? It's a very funny thing.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me or Ryan. We are both very impulsive people that when an idea strikes us, it's hard to stop that train from rolling. That being said, we have never given each other our Christmas gifts on the actual day of Christmas. It's always like a month before. So bad. Last year we had the realization that we were adults, dammit, and that we could give each other gifts whenever we wanted! So we've been keeping up with that tradition and on the night of the Civil War after Josh Huff had the game of his life and basically won it for us, I gave Ryan his jersey. He's loving it, I can tell you that much. He wore it just recently while watching the bowl game and he can't wait to hang it on the wall!

And because I gave Ryan a gift, naturally he had to return the favor. Since I knew we were moving to Chelan in the dead of winter, it was time for me to ask for some warm attire and footwear. There was no reason for me to have UGGs in Astoria, with as much rain as we got I would never be able to wear them, so I guess I will look at that as a perk of moving to the coldest region on earth. I kid. I was very pleased to add these to my closet, I have been wearing them literally every day while we've been in subzero temperatures. And the bows! I die.
Thankfully Chelan has some amazing sunrises and sunsets, because I think it would be something that I would miss the most. We had the most delightful view from our kitchen and living room onto Young's Bay in Astoria, sometimes it was just absolutely breathtaking. When it wasn't gray and cloudy, you could see the most amazing colors. This was one of those mornings. It also marked only 12 days left in Astoria for us.
As of late, we have been having some pretty scary issues with Marley. Without getting into too much detail, the boy hasn't been able to make the boom boom on his own, without the help of an enema (too much detail I think...). The vet we had been taking him to in Seaview, WA was helping with the issue, but then sending him home to us... unkempt is the word I'll go with. The boy couldn't even stand the smell of himself, he was in constant embarrassment mode. The first time we thought we had the problem cleared up, we took him to a groomer who did a WONDERFUL job with him! He'd never smelled better. When the problem persisted and we had to take him for round two at the vet, enough was enough time to take matters into my own hands. I watched a YouTube video on how to wash a cat and this is the end result. Granted I used Ryan's body wash and did it in the kitchen sink, but he smelled like a dream and I didn't even get scratched! Now, almost $1500 later, boy thankfully is being able to make the dookie on his own, praise the lord.

So about a week before we were set to leave Astoria, Ryan's presence was requested in West Hollywood. That gave me an entire week to myself, which was surprisingly nice. By the end of the week though, I wanted my man home! He arrived back in Astoria with roses in hand, and Peanut was instantly jealous. She stole my roses! Look at this!

And last but not least, the deer herd I spoke of earlier came to give us a send off on our last day in Oregon! I like to think of it as a National Geographic meet and greet between Marley and the rest of the animal kingdom.







To wrap up, I will give an apology for being so absent. I love writing this blog as much as some people (hopefully) love reading it. If we ever get internet at our new place (which at this point is looking doubtful) I hope to update a lot more regularly with general life updates, picture updates, book updates and so much more. To anyone out there that does still see if I'm updating, thanks for bearing with me, I promise it'll be worth the wait!!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A Month (+) in Photos

I'm not sure of the dates on most of these photos, but I can guarantee these are from the last month. I'll work on getting back to my glory days of knowing dates and being more timely about updating soon. Anti-anxiety medication, here I come!!

July: In the days before we moved, the cats were getting real freaked out. All of their play toys had disappeared as well as the furniture. I think they thought they were getting left. In the whirlwind move (3 days total), we had given our cat carrier to my dad to take our outdoor kitty to Olympia with him, not thinking about how we were going to get our two feisty felines over to the new house. It involved me and Ryan trying to shove them both into a moving box (I swear we are against animal cruelty) and it ended up with both of us wearing some ferocious scratches. Now that we're all settled into our new place, I think the cats are a lot happier, the setting is much more peaceful and there are many deer for them to lust after.

August: A couple weeks after the move, my mom had some time off from work and she decided to come down to Astoria for a weekend! My brother, Ryan and I collaborated on getting my mom a birthday gift of pottery classes, and she has been gracing us with new bowls ever since. She saw an example of a bowl that was selling for $75 in the magazine Real Simple and she decided to replicate it (I tried finding the article, no such luck). It's an adorable little bowl with a white bird perched on the side, we haven't decided what to put in it yet, so it sits proudly displayed on a shelf in our kitchen.
August: As part of my mom's trip down, we decided to make a stop in Portland. It had been quite a while since I had done any major shopping and I had a few major things I needed to get. While we were there, I took my mom to Montage for the first time ever where we chomped down on some Spold (for those of you who don't know what that is, I'm sorry, you're really missing out. It's Spicy and Old fashioned style macaroni, thus Spold. It's to die for). It had been a long time since I had been there, they changed their handwritten menus! I was bummed, but it was wonderful none the less.

August: In a previous post, I talked about our little book nook. I'm not the only member of the family that has been enjoying it. Peanut gets to get acquainted with the neighborhood felines and Marley gets to act like he is the king of the castle on his throne. We finally go the light above it to work, so I am very much looking forward to using that this coming fall.
August: Ryan and I still haven't unpacked most of our belongings. I think this move was pretty taxing on both of us, I still haven't gotten back into the groove since. Also, I think we lack a lot of shelving (in our old house, it was all built in) and I haven't quite decided what I want to purchase yet (well I have, but they're $649 from Pottery Barn). I have been able to unpack just enough boxes to make this beautiful little corner in our bedroom though. I love everything about it, it looks like something straight out of Pinterest.
August: Now that I've lived in Astoria for two years, I know that there is no such thing as summer. You have sunny 62 degree days. It's nearly impossible for it to get any warmer than that (I'll save the rest of this rant for another day). This was one of those sunny cold days that Ryan and I ended up getting off a couple of hours early. I'm not much of a golfer but I can appreciate that Ryan loves it. For that reason, I will sometimes go out golfing with him and either ride or walk along. There's a 9 hole course in Gearhart called Highlands that I actually really enjoy because I can day dream about the beach houses along the course that I hope to one day own. The course is very scenic, this dock extends all the way from the course to the beach.

August: While we were at the course, I wanted to get a picture of the two of us since it had been a while that we had one together. We had a really good time!
August: The whole family in the book nook (Ryan was taking the picture).










August: The beauty of working in a treatment center is that I get to help people through the same difficulties I had in early sobriety. For those like me, I looked at every single problem I had all at once and it became overwhelming really quick. There was a client we had that I have become close with and he is much like me, a worst case scenario-ist. What I have learned over time and through some personal growth is this: "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: "One bite at a time." I would always have to remind the client this. That you can't handle large tasks all at once and that you have to take it little by little. To show his appreciation, he purchased me this keychain elephant, I loved it.

August: For a long time now I have been putting off going to the dentist, the doctor, everything, for fear what I might find out. I finally bit the bullet and scheduled myself for a teeth cleaning. I found out something I had been thinking for a really long time; I'm a teeth grinder and clencher. After seeing an episode of Sex in the City where Miranda finds out she has TMJ, I was convinced that's what I had. That's not the case though, it's more that when I sleep, I can't help but clamping my jaw together really, REALLY hard. To where it's really painful in the morning and I get headaches throughout the day from it. Finally I got myself this little baby, a night guard. I feel the epitome of cool, I'll tell you that much, but man, she helps so much.


August: Ever since we moved into our new house, Marley has become even more water snobby and will only now drink fresh shower water. It used to be the running sink water would suffice for his highness, but not anymore. At any given time, Marley will herd you into the bathroom and just expect that you are going to run the shower for him. He's also to the point now where he will pop his head in if you are in taking a shower. Ryan said when he first got him, Marley would come into shower with him and Ryan would sing this song:

"Mister Marley-kins McGillicutty lived down by the sea,
And every single day he would pick an apple tree, 
No he didn't know his name and he didn't know his way,
But every single day he would go down by the bay"

I don't know who is more insane, Marley or Ryan.

August 27th, 2013: Not only did I celebrate my 2 years of sobriety on this day, but Ryan also quit smoking. It was truly a day to revere. Ryan had quit smoking about a year and a half prior, but had a slow relapse when he started smoking cigars, then hooka and finally cigarettes when we first opened the facility. It took him about 7 months to come around to the idea of quitting again. Already he's seeing the benefits- both physically and to his wallet. I am one happy lady, not having to kiss an ashtray everyday is wonderful.
August 27th, 2013: I know I didn't upload this photo, but one of my best sober friends Allison put this up on my two years. She's one of the girls I went through the Rosebriar with, and I absolutely adore her. She lives down in LA so we don't get to see or talk to each other as often as I would like, but every time we talk, it's like no time has passed. Two years is a big accomplishment for me, considering in the past I could barely go a couple of days without wondering when I was drinking next. I owe a lot to the people I surround myself with and the changes I have made in my life to get here.

August: As an early birthday present to myself, I ordered the J. Crew necklace I have been eying FOREVER. I really liked the red version of this, but the white is a close second. I'm trying to slowly compile some nice statement necklaces, this is the first of my collection! I'm in love.
August: Ryan and I are Duck's season ticket holders now. It's still crazy trying to wrap my head around that. It was such a surreal experience being back in Autzen after three seasons of not seeing a game there. For the first game of the year against Nichols State, Ryan and I had the opportunity to sit with some friends in the second row, it was pretty damn sweet, especially when the plays were happening right in front of us. I can't lie, I may or may not have started tearing up a little when I first saw the players run out of the tunnel on to the field with the Duck and the guy that rides the motorcycle. It was AWESOME!!!


August: Ryan and I had to take the obligatory picture in front of Autzen. It's one of my favorite sights in the whole world and it's the first one I have been able to snag with my boy.
August: August: I think the goal here was to try to snap a pic with the stadium/field behind us, which obviously was a pretty epic fail, but none the less, here's another picture of me and my boy all ducked up!
September 10, 2013: I'm the first person to admit that I'm not a girly girl. I do love fashion and I try to make my hair and makeup as presentable as possible, but I'm not huge into nail polish, jewelry, so on and so forth. To my memory I have not purchased myself nail polish. In my entire life. So because I watch a lot of beauty gurus on YouTube and because I look at Pinterest a lot, I've been believing more and more that I want to get into painting at least my toes. For an early birthday to myself I picked up Essie's Peach Daiquiri. This first time turned out to be a total disaster, I'm still learning how much paint to load on the brush so it doesn't look totally gloppy and ick. I'm a work in lady progress.

September 12, 2013: One of my favorite gifts this year for my birthday is this delightful Oregon tote. From the minute I laid eyes on it, I knew I had to have it. It's now my daily computer tote to and from work, it's the best!
September 13, 2013: Sometimes, it's just one of those days. This Friday for Ryan could be classified under that category. The second we got home from work, this is how I found him. With our census (number of residents) growing, it's becoming increasingly busy for all of us, Ryan especially since he is Intake and he works with clients insurance companies for all of our facilities. He's one busy, busy man.
September 14, 2013: We woke up pretty early to get down to Eugene for the Tennessee game. Thankfully we stayed in Portland the night before so it wasn't a 6:00 AM drive, but still, 8:00 AM on a Saturday isn't great. The only thing that really helped us through is the wonderful decision we made to start drinking Redbull at that time. My sponsor saw this photo and his comment was, "I didn't know two people could make Redbull look so fun!"
September 14, 2013: Finally Ryan and I got the opportunity to watch the game from our seats. Autzen is a pretty small stadium, so even though we are basically up at the top, the view is wonderful. We actually really love our seats, we're thinking for next year, instead of paying the extra "donation fee" to move closer to the field, that we would purchase four tickets so that we could instead bring family and friends with us to the games!
September: Even before it was officially fall, fall was here in Astoria. I had an opportunity to wear my gorgeous new Hunter Boots (that Ryan got me for my birthday) and my Handsome Devil Boston Terrier sweatshirt (that my mom got me for my birthday). I have been wanting both of these items for as long as I can remember (well at least a year). I was so proud of my outfit that I had to have Ryan take a picture of me wearing it.
September: On our most recent trip to Eugene, we stopped in Portland at New Seasons (my second favorite grocery store of all time) and I acquired the most delicious licorice of all time. I found this stuff back in my Enterprise days (when a customer had left a bag in a returned car) and I have been in love ever since. I find though that when I start eating this stuff, I can't stop myself at just one piece. It's just so damn delicious!! For those of you who are licorice fans, I would highly recommend getting yourself some of this heavenly treat.