I Left My Heart in Seattle

Last week I had the opportunity to make a quick trip up to Seattle to meet my new nephew. Well, it was quick, as in, last minute pack my bags and leave the next day. Boy am I glad I could make it up there! Big E is such a cutie! I think I might have gone overboard on taking pictures of him, but how am I supposed to stop with just 1 picture? I'll let you take a peek for yourself.

I miss holding his tiny little body and dancing with him to Coldplay. He will definitely be spoiled rotten by his Aunt Binny! His little hands have quite a firm grip on my heart. :)

Oh, and while I was up there Nicole took me to the Oroweat Outlet store where I scored this sweet stash for $11! When the lady saw I was from Oregon, she told me that their bread comes from the bakery in Beaverton and there is an outlet store there too!  I never knew it existed, but now when I need a good bread fix I can go get fresh good stuff for $1! Very happy to get my own cheap Oroweat bread so close to home. :)

Why I Hate Valentine's Day

I've never liked the color pink. Or hearts. Or doilies. And I'm diabetic so the extra sugar on Valentine's doesn't do much for me. That's strike 1 against Valentine's Day.

Strike 2 occurred in 5th grade. Think back to when you were in elementary school and Valentine's Day meant a class party with red punch, sugar cookies, and mailboxes to receive all of your valentines from classmates. That was when Valentine's Day was fun and awesome: it was an excuse for a party during school. I looked forward to these parties every year and 5th grade was to be the ultimate party because it's your last year in elementary school and lets face it, there aren't any Valentine parties in middle school. Unfortunately for me, I have only missed 1 day of school in my entire K-12 years. And that one day occurred on Valentine's Day in 5th grade. Yes, I was puking my guts out on the day that was to be the party of all parties. I couldn't hand out the Valentines I had so tediously worked on, wouldn't get to eat heart shaped cookies and instead sipped on ginger ale. I missed out on the last awesome party in elementary school. Thus began my disdain for Valentines Day.

As I grew older I nicknamed Valentine's Day "Singles Awareness Day" because lets face it, this holiday really sucks when you're single. Enter feelings of loneliness, self consciousness for not being pretty enough, and what's-wrong-with-me-why-can't-I-get-a-guy feelings. And all over facebook, school, and blogs, everyone brags about that special someone they are with on this day. It seems like mylar balloons, chocolates, and roses are slammed in your face, reminding you how incredibly lonely and pathetic you are on this day. Strike 3.

Now that I'm married, I still loathe this day, despite having someone to share it with. Why? I think it's because the world has decided this to be the one day a year we declare love for each other. And Tyler and I do a pretty decent job sharing our love for one another everyday, not just Valentine's Day. We say "I love you" multiple times a day, surprise each other with little gifts randomly, not just on this one day of obligated gifts. We perform acts of service for each other that show our love. Why do we need a silly holiday to remind us we love each other?! We already know that and show our love daily!

The whole concept of Valentine's Day is so superficial to me, and true love is so much more than that. Sure, you can post a picture of the flowers your love gave you, but does that really mean anything? If he truly loves you, he'd empty the dishwasher for you, or take out the garbage showing you how much he loves you. I think a husband who sits down and helps me fold laundry is so much more romantic that one who brings home a box of chocolates.

And lucky me, my husband does that with me weekly.

Who needs Valentine's Day?!

Holy Mole-y

It would appear that we have a mole living in our front yard. Yes, a mole. The creatures that inspired the Whack-A-Mole game at Chuck E Cheese. I honestly have no idea what to do with a mole. I never thought those would be a problem in my front yard. I thought it would be something that people who live in the country, not suburban housing subdivisions, worry about.

But alas, I have such luck. You see, here is the evidence that led Tyler to conclude we have mole(s) living in our yard.

Now, for months we've had the upturned soil along the curb. We always just figured that because our yard is on a slope, the soil eroded down there with the help of gravity. Our house is on a corner, it makes sense that none of the other houses in our neighborhood had this problem since ours was the highest and had more soil that the others.

Then last week these little beauties popped up: holes. Right smack dab in the middle of the yard. After quickly verifying that the other spouse didn't create said holes, we realized something was not right. Tyler investigated and feels like the ground isn't completely stable; he thinks there are tunnels below the grass from some sort of critter. Enter: moles.

So yeah, we have a mole problem. Who knows how long they've been living here, since we've been assuming wrong the past few months. And the HOA mows our front yard, so we rarely tend to it. What do you do to get rid of moles? We are open to any/all suggestions!

Seaside

 This past weekend we had a wonderful trip to the Oregon coast! Tyler and I have made many day trips there, but never spent an entire weekend truly soaking up the fun. We decided to stay in Seaside this time since we typically visit Cannon Beach and wanted to see what else the coast has to offer.

We saw this awesome sting ray washed up on the beach. Gross, yet fascinating.

Oh, we brought Chloe with us. Yep, we're those kind of people. How could we leave her home while we go out and have fun?! She had a blast and loved the other dogs on the beach, the seagulls, and stopping to smell the seashells.

I had only 2 requirements for this trip: to eat Mo's clam chowder, and to buy earrings. I neglected to take a picture of my delicious chowder, but trust me, it was amazing. By far the best clam chowder I've ever had in my life!

The second requirement is my self-imposed attempt at creating traditions. Hear me out now. Whenever we go somewhere together, I want to buy earrings to remember the trip by. It all started with our first trip to Seattle where I picked up some earrings at Pike's. I now have a tiny little collection of earrings that bring fond memories of our travels whenever I wear them. It also helps when friends bring me back earrings from their cool trips (Hawaii, London) to reinforce my new tradition. :)

I guess I also had the requirement to watch the sunset at least one night we were there. We truly lucked out with gorgeous weather with clear blue skies and only a light wind. This is not the Oregon coast I know!

Some would call the trip uneventful. Boring even. But we loved the laidback nature of it. We weren't rushing to go do this or that or try something out. Our style of travel is to make a huge list of all we want to do, knowing full well we won't be able to do it all, and pick and choose which items we want to cross off when we feel like it. This trip, we were content to walk the Promenade in Seaside, and drive to Cannon Beach for Mo's and wave watching. We really just walked up and down and up and down the coast with Chloe, enjoying the salty wind and sunshine. It was a much needed break from life, just spending time together in a beautiful location. Can't wait to go back again!

I Won!

Ever since I read this post from Alie, I couldn't wait until our toothpaste was running out so I could declare war on my husband. When things started getting down to the nitty gritty, I told him the rules and that the battle had officially begun.

I won by default because my husband suddenly developed "sensitive teeth" necessitating the use of sensitive toothpaste that I honestly don't know why we have opened. When I saw him brushing his teeth and loading up the other toothpaste, I declared myself victor. And he claims he needed to use the special toothpaste, but we all know it's because he was too scared to even attempt to get more toothpaste out of that sucker. He wants a rematch, but we'll have to wait a while for that to happen. In the meantime, Robyn-1 Tyler-0.

Side Note: Turns out, I've lost every single previous toothpaste challenge before. I only know this because my husband recently confided in me that he has no idea where I store the extra toothpaste tubes and hence, always squeezes out as much (or as little) as he can until I go get a new one. . .

Meat

So, call me crazy, but in December I ordered 40 lbs of ground beef. Yes, 40 lbs.

Where can you buy 40 lbs of beef? I bought mine from Zaycon foods, a northwest based company. (But they deliver all over the country! Check out the website to see if they are near you.) They are pretty much an amazing company. They sell in bulk (ie 40 lbs) straight to you. No grocery store prices, no wondering how old your food is, and high quality products. They sell fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts (my 40 lbs is coming this week!), ground beef, bacon, fish, and even produce that I am eager to try this summer. The ground beef we bought is 93% lean and is honestly the best tasting ground beef I've ever had. And it's not dry like super lean ground beef can get. It's delicious (and that's not normally a word I use to describe ground beef). And at $2.89/lb, we were sold. Cheaper than Costco, better tasting, and leaner beef.

What does 40 lbs of ground beef look like you may ask? Why, let me show you!

I know, I know, it looks absolutely disgusting. Don't judge me.

Now, the annoying part is that you obviously can't store beef like this in 10 lb rolls. But, I ended up cooking 10 lbs (1 tube) into taco meat and freezing it that way. The rest I just divided into 1 lb chunks, put in quart sized freezer safe ziploc bags, and flattened to freeze (and thaw!) faster. Now I have baskets full of 1 lb bags of ground beef and taco meat sitting in my chest freezer. Whenever I need ground beef, I just pull out a bag in the morning and it is thawed by dinner time.

One of my baskets o' ground beef.

In the upper basket on the right you can see some of my cooked taco meat in ziploc bags.

 

This was my first time using ziploc bags to store ground beef in, but they work very well! When you flatten the meat out, you squeeze out almost all of the air. It's like the poor man's way to vacuum seal. Just make sure to use the freezer bags because they are thicker and will protect against freezer burn better than the cheap ones. And it makes perfect sense that flattened bags of ground beef thaw faster because of the greater surface area. I can't believe I've always been storing beef in huge chunks that never fully thaw in time for dinner.

So now I'm in need of ground beef dinner recipes. Shepherd's pie, lasagna, all things taco, and of course Hamburger Helper have become routines at out house now. What else do you guys use ground beef for? Recipes/suggestions are always welcome!

Hooray!

***Old post I found in my blog list. . . apparently didn't hit the "publish" button like I thought I did. So here ya go, just a few months late. Sorry.***

Today was awesome. Like, really awesome. I don't have to work tonight, hence the blog post at a late hour to help me stay awake and not mess up my new sleep schedule.

I started off being on edge most of the day, tired, cranky, and slightly hormonal. I was only able to sleep 3 hours before I had to be up again for Tyler's follow up cancer appointment. Hence the reason for the crankiness.

Well, the Doctor said that everything looks great now! The enlarged lymph node that showed spread is now back to normal size, the blood tumor markers are in a normal range, and no signs of cancer remain in Tyler's body. Hooray! As soon as we left the building, I just broke down and cried with relief/joy that this is finally over. I honestly can't believe how lucky we are. As we left the doctor's office, the nurse who has worked with us since day 1 asked if she will be seeing us again. We happily replied that we wouldn't, that everything looks good and no more treatments will be necessary. In the waiting room, she did a happy dance and hugged us to celebrate the news. I felt slightly awkward celebrating in the waiting room in front of other patients who might not have such a happy outcome, but then I realized that this might give them hope for a positive future too.

I'm so grateful for such a wonderful support system throughout all of this. From the medical staff at the radiation center, to the prayers in our behalf, to the cards and well wishes we received, we feel so fortunate to have so many people who care about us. I feel so loved and cared for, especially from my Heavenly Father. I guarantee I wouldn't have made it through this trial without His hand guiding and strengthening us through it. I have never felt closer to Him than I do now after this experience. For anyone going through anything even remotely difficult, I can attest that Heavenly Father does hear and answer your prayers, you must ask for His help and it will come. For us, it was answered through the love and affection of others around us.