The Whitaker Family

The Main Event

2010-10-03T11:20:00.001-07:00

Celebrating at home

2010-09-30T08:53:00.001-07:00

Bru's Daycare Birthday Party

2010-09-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Bruin - 11 months

2010-09-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Bru at 10 months

2010-07-31T15:56:00.001-07:00

Latest and Greatest

2010-05-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. Really? 3 months since the last post on this thing? I personally blame Facebook. It's much easier to update that crazy thing than this one. When I say easier, what I mean is that I can be a whole lot lazier and throw up a couple of pics and a one-liner and call it good. On the blog, I have to go into detail and stuff. Man, that's hard to do. Well maybe not hard, just take up more time that we don't seem to have a lot of lately. So, I would again like to re-commit to our commitment of updating this blog. It really is darn cool. Just need to make it a point to do it. Hopefully I can "nutshell" a lot of our life for the past few months.

Bruin is of course the main topic of conversation. He is doing fantastic! Growing like crazy I tell ya. We haven't had him weighed lately, but I'll bet he's on the top end of 18 pounds or so. He will be 8 months old on the 28th of May. His personality is awesome. All around, he's just a chill, happy baby. The first few months of life were pretty strained and difficult, but he has really turned an awesome corner. He is content, and happy the majority of the time. He only starts to fuss when there is something wrong. Or if he starts getting hungry. I can relate, I also start to fuss when I get hungry - can't blame Bruin for doing the same thing.

Bruin is super mobile. I wouldn't call it crawling just yet. It is more of the army crawl thing right now, but he can certainly get to where he wants to go, and quick! he is currently most attracted to black electrical cords, and Payton's water dish. :) I think in the next couple of weeks he'll be full on crawling. He's has graduated to people food now. We still feed him his baby food, and formula - but he is able to put down some mashed up people food too. He is growing so dang fast! He is incredibly vocal too. No words yet, but he definitely like to hear himself talk! Lastly, he really likes the ladies (good job son). Whenever we're out and about, if he sees someone next to us or whatever, he is ALL smiles! It is hilarious!

Andrea and I are doing great! I finally finished my dang Associates degree. Yahoo! It only took me 16 years! Geesh! I'll start up the Bachelor's program in the fall. Andrea celebrated her first Mother's Day. I had pics taken of Bru and I and gave them to her. She liked them a lot. I had to be sneaky but accomplished my mission.

Outside of that, there really isn't a whole lot of stuff going on. We're just plugging away going to work and coming back home. We do still manage to have somewhat of a life by going out to the occasional dinner with friends, or having them over at the house. So, (as I'm knocking on wood) things are going really well for us. We are certainly blessed beyond what we deserve and we're just trying not to mess up too badly in any particular way. :)

Before the pics - you HAVE to take a look at the video we took of Bruin! Too funny - everytime I see it I laugh out loud!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BVcaPcpXnA

Latest news from the Whitakers

2010-02-20T05:39:00.000-08:00

Well shoot. You get constantly warned about not having any time once a little one arrives. I guess we're finding out that everyone wasn't just full of hot air. :) It is pretty amazing how quickly days go by now. Man, we wake up in the morning and the next thing we know we're putting the little guy down for bed and then relaxing ourselves for a bit before turning in. It has been a rather action packed couple of months since the start of the new year.

Bruin is doing absolutely great. He is still a really healthy baby. At his 4 month appointment he weighed in at 16.9 pounds and I think he was 26 inches long! Everyday is an adventure and it seems as the weeks go by he is just developing faster and faster. We aren't swaddling him to sleep anymore, we just have bath time and then get him ready for bed. We lay him down and then he's out. The night's are still a little interesting. He gets up one time to eat and that's about it. However, a couple of night's ago he did sleep for 12 straight hours! We were amazed! Of course, I did sneak in there when I got up at 4:30 to make sure he was still breathing. :) He is rolling over which is pretty dang cool and he is so interactive it's amazing.

We all went to San Francisco last weekend and spent a total of 4 days there. Andrea nor I had ever been before and it sounded like a fun place to go. This was our first family vacation and maybe our last for a little bit since Andrea is going back to work relatively soon. It was a blast though - the only downside was when we first arrived.

Bruin did absolutley great on the plane ride and the only question we had was how to get from the airport to the hotel. I figured we could take our chance at public transportation. How hard could it be right? We only had 2 - 50 pound suitcases, a carseat attached to one of them, and a stroller attached to the other, a backpack diaper bag/carry-on, and a 17 pound baby. Public transportation? Easy Peezy.

Well, we were able to drag, carry, hoist everything on to the train in San Francisco from the airport - no biggie. There was one stop that we needed to get off at to get to our hotel, we figured it out and were waiting for that stop. The stop came and we easily got off the train with our gear, oh and the baby too. We get off the train underground, so everything looks as it should. We calmly walk to the elevator to get above ground. Well, the elevator didn't go to the street, it went to one level below the street. Whatever - it's all good. We walked through the station a bit and found another elevator. Well , we found a broken elevator. No biggie - there's gotta be an escalator or something we can use. Yahoo! We found an escalator! Well, we found a broken escalator. So, you guessed it, we had to take the stairs with all of our gear. Andrea dragged one of the suitcases with Bruin attached to her front in a baby Bjorn, and I dragged the other one. Finally we were street level. Another couple of blocks and we can relax in our hotel!

Not so much.

Turns out we were about 12 blocks away from our hotel. Now in a normal, flat, city - who cares about 12 blocks right? No big deal, suck it up and do it. San Francisco is a different story. The first couple of blocks weren't terrible, a slight incline. However, the rest of them were just like the San Francisco streets that we all know and love. I happen to love them less than I did, say 3 weeks ago.

This is one of the hills we went up. Trust me when I say there were several blocks that looked just like this. I've never experienced looking up the street, and you are literally looking UP the street. I swear the street disappeared into the clouds, I know it did. So we just hunkered down and kept on going. Me dragging the 100 pounds worth of luggage, stroller, and carseat, and Andrea with Bruin. Talk about a workout.

Anyway, the rest of the vacation was fun. We went to Alcatraz, the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Painted Ladies (these are the Victorian houses from Full House), Golden Gate Bridge and all that kind of touristy stuff. While we were there we rode the cable cars, the city buses and did so rather well. It was a really fun vacation. Needless to say, we paid extra and took a cab back to the airport.

Outside of that, life is pretty chill. Watching Bru grow up and looking forward to Spring to do some work on the outside of the house, landscaping type stuff. Nothing too big.

Okay, some pice and then I'm done.

Christmas Eve 2009

2009-12-25T07:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was a very, very busy day but a fun one.

I had to go to work for a few hours while Andrea got the house ready for her family to join us. I got home around Noon or so and everyone was there already. Andrea's parents and also Jessica, Tim, and Bjorn were able to join us as well. It was a fun afternoon just having lunch and opening some presents that her parents brought with them. They all hung out for a couple of hours and then we were off to the Christmas Eve service at church.

The church was packed, it seemed like everyone had the same idea we did of getting to to the 3:30 service and then we could head out and do the family stuff later. This was Bruin's first experience being left in daycare at church. He seemed to do "alright". The ladies at the door said that a lot of the babies in the nursery started to have a melt-down about 5 minutes before the service was over. So when we picked up Bruin, he wasn't necessarily the happiest baby. The poor guy's schedule had really been thrown off. But it wasn't over yet. So we took screaming baby and all to Hillsboro to hang out with my parents.

Our Christmas tradition for the last few years has been to spend Christmas Eve with my parents and hang out at their place for awhile, then we would open presents. This year was no different. We got their at about 5:30 or so and ate dinner with everyone. Bruin did alright. Of course, he was polite enough to wait until we got to my parents to have a "blow-out". Andrea was well prepared though so we handled it like pros. :) Afterward, he was a little cranky just because it was encroaching on his bedtime. He ended up falling asleep at about 9 or so and the party was dying down. We did our gift exchanges with my parents and headed home.

We got home at around 11:30 or so and put Bruin to bed not knowing what would happen overnight. He'd been sleeping for a couple of hours so we were dreading that he would sleep till like 2 and then be up and rarin' to go. Is it too early to tell him that if he's awake then Santa won't come? He did end up sleeping really well and now I'm hanging out waiting for the family to wake up so we enjoy Bruin's first Christmas, and not just Bruin's first Christmas Eve. :)

Christmas already?

2009-12-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

Well, so it’s been a little while since we’ve done any kind of an update about our lives or little Bruin. It turns out that I’m writing this by candle/flash light because the power is out. I’m using the laptop and typing this into a Word document and then I’ll just copy/paste a little later. So right now, the house is perfectly quiet and the family is still asleep. It’s incredibly serene – just Payton and I and that’s it. I wonder just how long that will last.

So, Bruin is 12 weeks old tomorrow. My goodness, it’s hard to believe that he is almost 3 months old! People say that the time just flies by and I’m sure this is only the beginning. It is awesome to see him change from day-to-day. I remember wondering when he would be able to focus on things and wouldn’t ya know it? He is totally looking around and locking his eyes on so many things! He’s even smiling deliberately! Yes, I’m sure it’s not gas! He’s gotten to the point that not only is he smiling, but he laughs too. It’s also so amazing to see his face as he’s focusing and concentrating on whatever. He looks so determined and deep in thought. Okay, so that may in fact be gas. But it’s cool to see anyway.

He is sleeping pretty well at night. He’s usually just up the one time. He sleeps for about 6 hours and then up for about 20 minutes, then back down for about another 3 hours or so. There have now been 2 nights that he has slept for 8 hours at a time. I have to admit, the first time that happened – I was the parent who sneaked into his room to make sure he was still breathing. Andrea and I went out on a hot date and left him with two great friends from work. We were just gone for a couple of hours and they said he did great. That was the first night that he slept for 8 hours. We told them that they definitely will need to babysit more often! The second time was just a couple of nights ago. My Mom wanted to watch him, so Andrea left him at their place for about 5 hours. Then he slept through the night that night when she got him home! Maybe there is something to leaving your child with someone else! She’s offered to watch him again on the day after Christmas. I think we’ll be taking her up on that.

We had Bruin’s 2 month visit and things are great with him. The doctor said he is in the 90th percentile for his length and weight. So he is just a really healthy boy. He’s probably about 16 pounds now, he’s just a beefy kid. But, he is healthy and that’s what is important.

Christmas is right around the corner and I think we’re ready. Andrea is finishing up the Christmas card. She is amazing to be juggling a newborn and still be able to create and mass produce our Christmas card. Pretty impressive. It’ll be cool to celebrate our first Christmas as a family with little Bruin, even though he probably has no idea what is going on. What do you get for a 3 month old? We’ll be heading to my folks’ place on Christmas eve and spending it with them. Last year we kind of got robbed of Christmas. This was the week of the big snow storm so I was working on a 12 hour shift rotation for about 8-10 days right through Christmas. It will be good to get back to normal and our Christmas tradition. Andrea and I have had the discussion of starting up our own Christmas tradition. That will be fun to do. Then on Christmas, I think we’ll do a whole lot of nothin’. Just relax and enjoy the day.
So, I think that’s all I’ve got. If we were to post more often – I’ll bet these wouldn’t be near as long! I’ll try to get a little better at that. No promises though!

The Whitakers sincerely hope that everyone reading this, and those that aren’t, has a Great and Merry Christmas! Be safe and do a little bit of extra lovin’ on your friends and enemies. Go ahead and let that guy cut you off on the highway, don’t get too irritated when someone jumps in front of you in line, and be the first to forgive. As cheesy as it sounds and as marketed as it is – don’t forget:

Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Sounds overplayed – but so very true.

This pic is of Bruin's dedication at church, he did really well:

This is the 4 generations of Whitaker, I'm really glad we got this pic at Thanksgiving:

What a Difference A Month Makes!

2009-10-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

Well, Bruin turned 1 month old two days ago. Everyone always talks about how fast time goes by, but it really does. It's weird to think that Bruin is a month already!

I figured I would jot down what the first month with Bruin has been like. It's not been as super crazy as I thought it would be, but it wasn't tame by any means either.

It's definitely been an adjustment for Andrea and I. She is still home from work and likely will be till April or so. I went back to work 2 weeks after Bruin was born. That was a little weird. While I'm at work, I just think about getting home and seeing the little guy and hoping Andrea isn't climbing the walls. She has been doing great with him. It's amazing to see her patience as he is screaming his head off, or fussy, or just down-right uncooperative. I admire the fact that she is able to keep her cool and just keep trying different things to settle him down until she finds the one that works. It's pretty awesome! I do what I can to settle him, and for the most part he does settle down - there are times when he is just not settleable (yes, I realize that's not a word). During those times, I kinda feel my blood pressure slowly start to creep up a little. Not too bad, I just need to remind myself that he is just a helpless little guy and he's not intending to be difficult - he's just telling us that something is not right in his world at that point in time.

It is crazy trying to guess what it is that he needs. For the first month - the majority of what he needs is food. THAT BOY CAN EAT! I am always a little surprised at how much he can put away!

The big question that people are always asking is, "How much sleep are you guys getting?" The funny thing is that they don't just ask the question. There is a slightly sarcastic tone and even a smirk at the end of the question. :) Surprisingly though, Bruin is sleeping really well (as I am knocking on all of the wood I can find within arm's reach). His regime is that he goes down for the night between roughly 9-11pm. We try to have him down by 9, however sometimes it takes till 11. Then he sleeps for an average of 5 hours or so. Andrea, bless her heart, gets up when he does at sometime between 2-4am, feeds him, then puts him back to bed. Then he's down for another 2-3 hours. Pretty sweet gig. We did move him into the nursery around week 3 maybe? He grunts and makes sounds in his sleep that caused both Andrea and I (more Andrea than me) to stay up and listen to each sound, hoping that he is staying asleep. So Andrea made the decision to move him to the crib in the nursery instead of the bassinet in our room. Good decison babe. Sometimes I do/did have the irrational fear that I swaddled him so tight that he stopped breathing. :) I think it's more my paranoia that anything.

During the day, Andrea definitely has her hands full with him. Since he eats so much, she is constantly feeding the guy. Not overfeeding, just feeding (to all of you concerned moms that think we're on the road to childhood obesity). He also doesn't like to be put down so much. He is so strong though - definitely the strongest baby this side of the Mississippi river. He can lift up his carseat and put in the car all by himself! Okay, well maybe not. But he is strong though. He has been lifting up his head and looking around almost since Day 1. We tried tummy time and he kept rolling himself onto his back. Admittedly, I don't think it was intentional by any means - but still impressive to see. He did it maybe 4 times in a row! I think he's gonna be a bruiser. Bruin the Bruiser. Kinda has a nice ring to it.

We've gone a few outings since he's been home from the hospital. We went to Costco about a week after he was born - he did great. Andrea has taken him shopping a few times. He's been to Target and stuff. The most notable achievement was this last Wednesday, Ocotber 28th. We went to go see Michael Jackson's "This Is It" with him. Talk about stressful. We went to opening night at Bridgeport. We took him to the 9:30pm IMAX show. He cried at the beginning before the movie was on when the theater was still pretty quiet. I'm sure each person in there was getting their projectile ready to throw in our direction. When the movie started, he was fine. Andrea fed him and he was awake for about 45 minutes of the movie, then he konked out. It was stressful though because the movie was broken into segments where each one of his songs was a segment of the movie. Between these segments, the movie screen would go black and it would get deathly quiet for about 4 seconds. Each time that happened I was just hoping that he wasn't going to pick that exact time to cry out. He did awesome though. We haven't taken him to work yet since it's flu season and there a lot of people out sick or working sick. So, we're not gonna try it for awhile.

This Halloween, Bruin is going to dress up as MIckey Mouse and we'll hand out some candy. We're going to try and make it to the neighborhood Halloween party, but we'll see where we are at the end of the night.

Overall, it's been a great month. There was only the one time that I was wishing I had some hair so I could pull it out. Kidding, kidding, kidding. It's been awesome growing with him and watching him grow. Incredible to think that God trusts us enough to give us this blessing. Really, really cool feeling to know that what Andrea and I do now for this little guy - will shape him into the man he becomes. Well at least until the teenage years hit. :)

Here are some compare and contrast pics from when he was roughly a week old - to now when he is a month old.

***For those of you that skipped the huge important post just to get to the pictures...that's cool. I'm good with it. :) ***

How was the first week of Bruin's life?

2009-10-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

I don't plan on doing this weekly, but I thought it a good idea to just put down to paper (or blog) what our first week of having a baby was like, and how our lives have changed. In a nutshell, things haven't really changed all that much. We're still going out to dinner and movies, we're in bed at about 9 - and we get up at roughly 7am or so. It's hard to believe so many people with their warnings of "Get your sleep now". Seamless transition...

Yeah - not so much.

First of all - it's great. It's awesome to know that God blessed us with this great child. I mean, how cool is it that we have this little person to raise and teach the ways of the world? It's a little overwhelming to remember that we have to do our best not to break him. Physically, or psychologically. :) For the first week - mission accomplished, I think.

We were in the hospital from Monday 9/28 (Bruin's birthday) - Thursday 10/1. By the time Thursday rolled around, we were definitely ready to go home. The hospital sent us home with a meal for the night and we were on our way.

Overall, it hasn't been too tumultuous. Of course there is the lack of sleep. Andrea and I are averaging about 4 hours a night - sometimes a little more than that. At this stage, Bruin does a lot of sleeping. He wakes up when he's hungry and eats - then once he's eaten he goes back to sleep. Sounds kind of like me as a teenager. :) I'm a little bummed that there isn't a lot of "play with daddy and mommy" time. But I'm sure that's coming. He hasn't been particularly fussy or anything - except when he's hungry of course.

We continue to get lots of support from friends and family and neighbors too. Not that the neighbors don't fit into the "friend" category, I just felt that they deserved an honorable mention. :)

Payton is adjusting really well. While we were at the hospital our good friend, Greg Rood, stayed the nights at our house. He was here from Monday - Wendnesday night. We didn't want to send Payton somewhere while we were at the hospital. We both wanted him to be affected as little as possible with the new baby coming. There were a couple of days that I brought one of Bruin's outfits home and a hat for Payton to smell and stuff. Hopefully, this prepared him a little more for Bruin's arrival. Since we've been home, Payton is a little bit curious but not a whole lot. He has smelled Bruin a couple of times (he hasn't licked him yet) :) Otherwise, it's been pretty uneventful in that regard.

Around the house, I tend to like everything in its place. Clutter is one of my #1 enemies. I am very A.R. about that. Probably even OCD. I have been able to let that go just a bit. I still don't like clutter and things everywhere, but I do understand that some things are just better left out in the open as they are much easier to reach and use. The house is still in good shape and things aren't all over the place (because that would make me a little crazy).

So for the first week - things have definitely changed in our lives, and definitely for the better. It's cool to think that this chapter of our lives is just beginning. Who knows what week 2 will bring.

The First Day of Bruin's Life

2009-09-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be a good idea to just chronicle the events of Bruin's first day of coming into the world to meet us. Sorry in advance for the extra long post. If you're A.D.D like me - you might as well stop reading now.

Andrea was scheduled for a C-section last Friday 9/25. So we knew that it would be our last "childless" weekend. We made it a point to go out to breakfast the Matt and Kristi Craig (great friends of ours) and then we also went out to eat later Saturday evening as well. On Sunday night, we went out to a great dinner at "Manzana" in Lake Oswego. Again, knowing this would likely be one of our last quiet evenings together. We got home at around 9 or so in the evening and headed to bed at roughly 10 or so.

We both had pretty restless sleep. Andrea slept solidly till about midnight and me about the same. After midnight - we were awake about every 40 minutes, anxiously looking forward to Bruin's arrival the next morning.

On Monday morning, I was up at 4am (not too far from the norm) and I woke Andrea up at 4:15. We needed to be at the hospital by 5:30 for the prep work of the surgery. We made it out the door by 5:15am and got to the hospital just before 5:30. So far, not the most climactic of mornings. :)

We got to the hospital and got all checked in, this is when all of the fun began. Andrea had 2 nurses, one on either side of her, bombarding her with "stuff". One of them was getting all of her life history worth of anything medical, while the other one was taking her dear sweet time starting the "pic line" for the IV to go into her. If you ask Andrea, I think she'll tell you this was the worst part of the whole day.

Close to 7:15ish our doctor, Dr. David Johnson, came in to make sure everything was on track. He started his visit with, "What'd you think of that Bears game last night?". Have I mentioned that I love this doctor? Then we met the anesthetist who would be responsible for making sure that Andrea felt nothing during the C-section. He was awesome as well. Very relaxed, soothing, and confident. Great bedside manner to ensure neither Andrea nor I would get freaked out about anything that was about to happen. The theme for the day was "As Few Details As Possible". Andrea did NOT need a play-by-play of what they were doing to her. Everyone did a great job of accommodating this request.

At about 7:40 they took Andrea to the Operating Room and got her all prepped, numbed up, and attached to just about every machine you can think of. I was waiting patiently back in our room for them to come back and get me once she was all ready. I said a prayer for the safety of Mom and Baby, and then it was on.

I walked into the O.R. at maybe 7:55 and I swear it was the brightest room that I've ever been in in my life. Andrea was on the table and there were about 7 people in there to help bring Bruin into the world. I sat on a stool by Andrea's head as they got to work. I have to say that I have a very, VERY strong wife. She did outstanding throughout the whole thing. I kid you not, she acted like this was her fourth child! Good job honey. What seemed like mere minutes later (well, because it was), I heard Bruin cry! It was awesome! I looked over the curtain just in time to see him startled and purplish. What a sight!

They took him over to the table to get him cleaned up and I went over and looked at my son. How weird is that to say? My son! I took tons and tons of pictures to use as blackmail on prom night for him. He was great! I did catch myself counting his fingers, toes, umm ears, arms...you name it. He was perfect! It seemed like an eternity before they were finished poking and prodding him. When they did finish, it was time to meet Momma. After some more pics and bonding - it was time to go back to our room.

He was a cryer to begin with. For maybe the first hour?, he was crying - and you would not believe the set of pipes he has! Since he was born on a Monday, we didn't have any visitors until the early evening. I think this worked out for the best to be honest. It gave us time to just hang out with Bruin. After the initial cry, he wasn't bad at all. He would cry when he was hungry, or wet, or umm...not wet. :) Outside of that he would just either sleep, or lay in our arms just looking around.

My parents showed up at about 6ish or so and they were thrilled to meet their new gradnson. My sister had 3 children before she passed and they all leave in Kentucky, so this is their first opportunity to have a grandchild so close to them. It was great to see them! It was also great to see the big bucket of "Popeyes" chicken they brought with them! Yum! Then Mike and Stacy Gellner showed up with Jacoby. Later, Matt and Kristi Craig came over too. It's awesome to know how much support that Andrea and I have.

Once everyone had left, it was back to the three of us. We were very curious to see how the night would go. At about 10 or 11 or 12? We were still trying to see how the night would go. Bruin was perfect as long as he was being held. We tried to put him in the bassinet and he would be a little grumpy about that. Between feedings and changing and all of that good stuff - it was a pretty long night. This coming from a family that had gotten quite used to the 9pm bedtime. Yikes! Finally, at about 3am the nurse came and said she would take Bruin for his hearing test and then keep him parked at the nurses station for a couple of hours. Bless her soul! So Andrea and I were able to sleep for a good solid 3 hours and it was magnificent!

This morning - I woke up at 6am and left our room to get some coffee across the hall and saw little Bruin sleeping soundly at the nurses station and my heart melted a little. It's crazy how attached you can be to someone that you met barely 22 hours before. what an awesome time we're having discovering this new chapter in our life.

If you're still reading this crazy long post - I'm done. :)

Welcome - Bruin Deffie Whitaker

2009-09-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

He's here! On September 28,2009 at 8:13 am, Bruin decided to make his appearance into the world. He weighed in at 9 pounds, 9 ounces. He is 21 inches long. His head size is 15 inches, which from what I'm told is about 2 inches bigger than average. Can't say that we're all that surprised. He was delivered by C-Section and it went very, very well.

Mom and baby and doing great! Seeing such a perfect little boy is just another testament to how great God is. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful son.

Short and sweet and I'll get to the part that everyone wants to see. Pictures! Trust me - many, many more to follow.

These aren't the greatest pics - but they're the best I could do for now. Keep checking back for updates!

I'm a TV Star!!

2009-09-03T08:34:00.001-07:00

Well, maybe not a TV star but I was able to play an FBI Agent on the TV series "Leverage" It was such a great time. I think I might have even been in an important enough part that I won't get cut!

I signed up online to be an extra and they emailed me that they needed me last Sunday. I got up at 4am to arrive on "set" at 5:30am on Swan Island in N Portland. I had to bring my own dark suit and show up looking official. There was a lot of waiting around and doing nothing. I was basically waiting for them to come and get me for whatever the scene was going to be. When they did, the fun really began.

The scene I was in was towards the end of the show. The FBI comes swarming in to arrest the "Leverage" team (since they're technically bad guys). A real-life helicopter would take off, and then 3 FBI vehicles (An SUV, and 2 other black sedans) and a cop car would come barreling out of nowhere. I had to run on foot behind one of the vehicles and take cover behind the cop car and aim my MACHINE GUN at the guys. Good times!

Another was I had to run across the top deck of this freighter ship and aim the machine gun at the bad guys. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Take after take after take. I ended up being there about 13 hours getting paid minimum wage. What a blast though!

The episode I'm in is actually the Season 2 finale of the show. It's a two-parter and I'm in the second half. This may be my break into stardom!

HEATWAVE!!!

2009-08-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

Man-o-man!

So there aren't any pics of the heatwave that we're at the tail-end of, but oh my gosh! It was HOT! Working at PGE you can see the direct effect of crazy hot temperatures. We had lots of customers lose power due to fuses in transformers melting. And inside transformers is oil that is used to keep the transformers cool - this oil was close to boiling point! What in the world? This is still Oregon right? Last time I checked we weren't living in Phoenix or something.

Last week, the temps topped about low 100's for 3 straight days. Who would have thought that living in Oregon, we would be excited to see the temperature drop to low 90's?! Luckily today, it will only get to 95.... (can you sense the sarcasm?)

We are so thankful that we installed the Heat-Pump a few months ago. After suffering through last summer without A/C - it is great to be able to feel the difference. Especially with Andrea being pregnant. Everyday last week we found ourselves very, very thankful for making the decision to buy the heatpump. I truly do feel bad for the people we run into that don't have A/C. My heart goes out to them since we were in that same position last year. Even though the hot weather only last for a couple of weeks - I think it was worth every penny.

I am a little curious to find out what August will hold. It was mid-august of last year that we had the intense heat. I'm wondering if we'll see 100's again this year. I'm bettin' we will...

Walking on Broken Glass

2009-07-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not quite that dramatic.

About 2 months ago there was a group of us from work who thought it would be a good idea to walk a Half-Marathon. We usually walk during lunch or something and we thought it would fun. As the day drew closer we were getting a little more nervous. However, when the day finally came we were in pretty good spirits.

We walked the "Lacamas Lake 1/2 Marathon" up in Camas, Washington, the weather cooperated and it was only up to about 80 when we finished. Unfortunately, since Andrea is pretty darn pregnant, she didn't make the trip up there with us.

Walking 13 miles tends to take a little while. I was able to finish in 3 hours and 18 minutes. It was a blast! I actually won a certificate for the top male finisher in my age group 30-39! Before getting too excited, it may be important to know that I was the ONLY MALE PERSON IN MY AGE GROUP! Oh well, at least I had something to show for it.

I've never been much of a runner, and now I have some ankle issues that more or less prevent me from running. I could get into this walking thing though.

Kind of a quick post - thought I would get this in there though.

READ THIS ONE - QUICKLY - IT WON'T LAST!!!

2009-07-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

Andrea and I (and Payton) went and had our pictures taken on Saturday, July 18th. It was with a new girl, Kim Harris. She did a great job and was really nice. Since Mindy Strauss was busy with a brand new baby we had to venture out and find someone else.

We had a great time at the NIke Campus in Beaverton. Our growing family took a lot of pictures. Payton did especially well, especially after just having extensive mouth surgery and other stuff the day before.

Here is the website that a sample of our pictures is on. It's kind of a sneak peek. We really lile how they came out and are a little worried that the rest of them look this good. We may go broke buying all of the pictures from Kim.

Here is the website: www.blubelstudio.com . They likely won't be on there for long.

Our poor poor Payton!

2009-07-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

So our little pup Payton had some pretty extensive work done at the vet today. I took him into the vet about a month ago and they recommended that we do a pretty serious dental cleaning. His mouth was pretty bad and they said they would likely have to pull 2 or 3 teeth. He also had two fatty masses on himself. One was on his rear right leg, the other was in the middle of his chest.

I took him back in this morning and dropped the little guy off. Knowing that he was going to have a bad day, we gave him some really good "wet" dog food last night instead if the same old "Dry" stuff. If he only knew what was in store for him.

I dropped him off at about 8am this morning. At about 9:30am, I had a message from the vet that his mouth had gotten much worse in the last month and she would have to do "multiple" extractions. I figured, okay, at least he'll have a healthy mouth again. Truthfully, his breath had gotten horrid in the last few weeks.

Well, at about 11am I get a call from the vet. She lets me know that Payton is fine and he is in recovery. She then goes on to let me know that he had to have multiple extractions. I figured, that stinks but now he's better.

I then ask the question, "So how many is multiple?"

The vet then thinks a moment and starts counting more to herself than to me..."12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18..." I'm thinking to myself. "Whaaaaa?!" She ends up saying that he had 29, that's right, 29! One more time - - - 29 teeth were pulled!!!

On top of that - he had the two masses removed. So this evening he is a hurtin' unit and he seems to be just miserable. Poor little thing.

"There are other things to do in Seattle than Football?"

2009-07-13T08:21:00.001-07:00

Until the 4th of July weekend, I had only gone up to Seattle to watch NFL games. I would drive up there with friends, park the car, walk to the stadium, watch the game, walk back to the car, and drive back home. I had always heard that there were fun things to do in Seattle but never believed it. So Andrea and I decided to give it a shot and become tourists in Seattle for the weekend. We spent quite a bit of time up there, from Thursday, July 2nd thru Sunday, July 5th. It was a lot of fun. We were able to see many many attractions.

Andrea was a trooper. Our hotel was in the heart of downtown, we stayed at the Hyatt on 8th and Olive. We were able to walk to the majority of the places and attractions we wanted to see, unfortunately for Andrea. She did a great job though - we did have to walk MUCH slower than our well established "Disneyland" pace which was a little brutal for me. I'm sort of the type to get to the next place as quickly as possible. My thinking is that whenever we get to where we're going, there will likely be a line, so the faster we get there - the shorter the line. I'm a little bit crazy when it comes to things like that. However, we walked pretty darn slow and Andrea was quick to remind me that I needed to get used to it with the little one on the way. I just had to keep telling myself, "We're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry." We persevered and Andrea had the aching feet and back to prove it. Poor thing.

We left work at 3pm on Thursday and after battling through Portland traffic got to Seattle at about 7:15 or so. We checked in and then took the monorail to the Space Needle. Being on a monorail and not headed for The Happiest Place on Earth, or Tomorrowland, or California Adventure just seemed wrong and a little confusing, but we got through it alright. We had reservations for dinner at the Space Needle and got there just in time for sunset. It was a great time. Luckily, we had a family about 3 tables away from us to keep our future in perspective. They had a number of small children with them who were at different times during the dinner, excited, angry, sad, really-really angry, and just plain loud. And they didn't have any trouble letting our side of the restaurant know about it. You would have thought they were trying to warn incoming planes not to hit the Space Needle itself. With that said, it was still a great time and a great way to start off the Seattle weekend.

On Friday, we had breakfast at Pike's Place Market at a restaurant called Lowell's. We could look over the water and just relax. On the way we saw the "Inn at the Market", and also the "Athenian Inn". Both places can be seen in the "Sleepless in Seattle" movie. It was pretty cool. From there we walked down to the ferry. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island where we walked and shopped for the better part of the day. By the time we got back to "mainland" we (Andrea) were pooped. So we had some dinner and turned in for the night.

On Saturday, we were able to do the Seattle Underground tour. This was really interesting to see. There was an original Seattle that was built about 10-16 feet below the Seattle we know today. We were able to go underground and see what it was like back in the day. Andrea was making the tour guide a little nervous. Everytime we stopped, Andrea would do what she could to alleviate some of the pain in her back (no, not me) and start stretching, or leaning on the railing, or squat down. I'm pretty sure that the tour guide was thinking she was going to faint on his tour. He kept looking at her to make sure she was still "with it". Anyway, that was a really good time. Again, Andrea was a trooper for walking around underground on the 90 minute tour.

After the underground tour we went to the "Experience Music Project" next to the Space Needle. This was a good time. There was a huge concrete open area before the entrance and there were hundreds of chalk sentiments in tribute to the late Michael Jackson. We took a picture of an especially memorable one. "I will grab my crotch and spin everyday in your honor". We were also able to play some intstruments and learn about the history of music in Seattle and elsewhere.

Saturday evening, we shopped around a little and had some dinner and then called it a day. We did however, visit the hot tub at the hotel. It was a very long day of walking around and it was so HOT in Seattle. A good soak is what both of us needed. I was a little afraid that we would boil the baby, but after questioning some friends I was assured that it would be okay for Andrea to sit in the hot tub for a few minutes.

On the last day, Sunday, we didn't do a whole lot. We went to breakfast at a nice little place called CJ's. Then we walked down to an Olympic Sculpture park or something like that. Walked back along the waterfront, and then grabbed a cab for the rest of the trip to the hotel. Andrea had clearly had enough of walking for the weekend, I can't say that I blame her.

Now we're back in Sherwood and the Seattle trip was just one of many, many busy weekends we have for about the next 2 months. Yikes! It was a good time though. If you're still reading this crazy long post - thanks!

Updated Ultrasound Pics

2009-06-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some more recent ultrasound pics of the Baby Boy that is growing inside of Momma. Yep, it's a Boy! We're really excited about it! I might be a tad more excited than Andrea, since we won't be putting ribbons in his hair. Right, honey?................. Honey?

Anyway - these pics were from May 5th, 2009. Roughly at 19 1/2 weeks along.

Enjoy!

We're expecting our first!

2009-04-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

We've told just about everyone, but I thought it would be worth putting on the blog as well. Just to create that official "record". Also, the little one can see how dorky his/her parents were by blogging about when he/she was still in Momma's stomach. Andrea is pregnant and it's pretty stinkin' cool.

Now, as most of you know (hopefully all of you know), the Whitakers are a Christian family. We believe in God and in his son Jesus. Something I will never be able to understand is that there are people (particularly parents) that don't believe in God. If I was a non-believer, looking at the first ultrasound in the hospital room, would change my mind in an instant! How in the world can someone look at that ultrasound and think that anything but God created it? To look at the ultrasound and see a miniature heartbeat, and to see this "form" molding into a person is amazing! Amazing! God is amazing at what He does, that's all I can say.

Andrea is 14 weeks along right now. The poor thing has been doing the morning sickness thing and we hope that she is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We have our next appointment on April 10. The due date is September 27th. We are finding out the gender around Week 20 which should put us in the first half of May.

We've been pricing central air-conditioning for the house. Andrea should be pretty pregnant during the hottest part of summer, so I think we're going to pull the trigger installing a heat-pump here in the next couple of weeks. It will go a long way to making the house a ton more comfortable.

Well, I think that's about it - I put up a couple of ultrasound pics so you could see our little bundle. These I think are Week 7 pictures. Right now, at week 14, the kid is the size of a lemon. :)

Albertson's - No longer accepting competitor coupons

2009-03-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

What a sad day for me and my coupon clipping friends! I was shocked and so disappointed when I heard the news. Until now, Albertson's got most of my business because they accepted compeitor coupons, but I'm not sure I will be able to continue to do the bulk of my shopping there. I read online last night that someone talked to the store manager at the Sherwood store and he told her that they would be accepting them until the 18th, but when I just did my grocery shopping tonight, they told me that they weren't supposed to accept them at all but they would take them this one last time. I guess the positive side is I will no longer feel the shame in the checkout line as the checkers struggle with my coupons and their calculators to see how much to take off my order while watching the line pile up behind me. It was a little embarrassing at times, but I didn't mind when I was saving so much money.
And if that wasn't enough to throw my frugal strategy off - I heard today that Safeway may discontinue double coupons! What is the world coming to?

A Tale Of Two Parks! One Wet, One Dry...

2009-02-28T13:14:00.000-08:00

Take a look at these pictures! The first picture is of AdventureLand in Disneyland on the first day that we were in the park. It was pouring! All of the Californians decided not to come! It was great, it was like we had the place to ourselves! We're from Oregon so who cares about a little bit of rain.

The second picture is on the 3rd day we were there. It was Sunny and 70 degrees, you could tell that who the fair weather Disneyland fans were. There are just a couple of more people in the same shot.

The Whitakers in Southern California

2009-02-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well, we've been back from vacation for quite awhile. I figured it's about time we blog about our trip to southern California, and of course Disneyland.

It was a great trip, we had a blast with the Craig's and the Hoefer's! Who could ask for better company while on vacation? In the end we ended up having a great time and doing some new things this time around. However, the trip didn't necessarily start out really smooth.

We got to the airport very early in the morning on Saturday the 14th. What better way to spend Valentine's Day right? Well, we get there to learn that our flight was actually delayed for some unknown reason. They didn't have a lot of explanation as to what was going on. However, they neglected to tell Matt and Kristi that their flight was delayed. Which was odd since we were all on the same flight. They checked their luggage as if everything was absolutely fine. Then we let them know it was delayed and we were all able to book a different flight into LAX instead of John Wayne. It was a nice smooth flight, but we couldn't help but wonder if the Craig's luggage knew that we were going to LAX instead of John Wayne.

We were all pleasantly surprised to see that all of the bags made it to the same place that we did. On that first day in California - we went to Sprinkles - which is a cupcake store. I personally didn't see the draw for cupcakes, however - the 20 people in front of us in the line apparently did. I couldn't really get all that excited about it until I actually ate one! They were actually really really good!

After Sprinkles, we had lunch at an old fashioned diner and then headed down the coast to visit some friends in San Diego. After that, we decided that we wanted to go to the Griffith Observatory to take a look through the big telescope. What we didn't count on is that half of California wanted to do the same thing. By the time we got there, the closest parking place was easily about 1 1/2 miles away from the actual observatory. So we ended up just packing it in and heading back to Anaheim.

The next day we had breakfast at a great place that Kristi suggested and then we spent the day at Universal Studios! This was the first time I had ever been. Andrea was there like 25 years ago. It was great to see all of the behind the scenes stuff. We took the tour and saw Desperate Housewives street (whatever that's called) and we saw the wreckage of the plane from War of the Worlds, and the Bates Motel from "Psycho", Jaws, and lots of other things. We rode fun rides and had a great time all in all. Here are some pics from the first couple of days in southern California:

Ben's Blurb - what's up with the Whitaker's?

2009-02-11T05:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile since we've posted or blogged anything so I figured I would give a quick snapshot of what we've been up to for the last couple of months.

It seems like we have just been non-stop busy without a moment to spare. Honestly, we do it to ourselves. We've been hanging out with friends and having people over, going out to dinner every now and again. I'm buried in schoolwork from the two classes that I'm taking this term. It seems like I'm doing some type of homework every single day. Last weekend, I think I literally spent 7 hours on homework. That's not such a good time.

We did go to the Auto Show last week. It was kind of a drag. Not a whole lot going on there. Andrea was able to sit in her dream car, The 2009 Honda Odyssey Touring Edition. Someday, that will be our next ride. Maybe not the 2009, but some variation of it I would imagine. We had a good time, but there weren't a lot of cars to oogle.

We did just buy a freezer from Direct Buy (I know all of this is just fascinating stuff isn't it?). We're actually pretty excited about it. Andrea is a coupon clipping Queen and her only limitation is where to put all of the food. So she has yet to reach her full savings potential due to space limits. She finds some insane deals. Sometimes, I have a twinge of guilt - like we're almost stealing from the store. But that's only when I have all of the items protruding out from underneath my shirt. Kidding, kidding. She is pretty dang amazing with the amount of food she brings home from the store. I look at the receipt and think that it must be wrong. She gets a special joy when the Supervisor of the grocery store has to come over and override the register because she's saved so much money! I have to say though, I can't go with her because I just don't have that kind of patience. Doing the grocery store-saving thing - takes a special kind of person. And it most certainly isn't me. So anyway, we have a new freezer on the way and we're both pretty excited about it. I think that's one of the main indicators that you're old when you're truly excited about a new appliance. Yikes.

As most everyone knows - we are taking a return trip to California on Saturday. We're going with our good friends the Craig's. It should be a great time. We're going to spend Saturday driving down the coast to San Diego and basically goof off all day. Then on Sunday, we're heading to Universal Studios to spend the day there. On Monday-Wednesday we'll be in Disneyland! It's funny how I always think that our last trip was "the last time for awhile" until we're somehow headed down there again. It'll be fun though. We're spending the time in the park with the Hoefer's so it will be a great time.

Well, to keep you all from boredom - I guess I'll quit. It's a little after 5am and it's time to wake-up Andrea so we can go to the Gym this morning before work. Here are some random pics of the last couple of months from the Auto Show and also the SuperBowl party and Bj and Tracy's.

Stay tuned for Blog updates on the California trip!

Hello 2009!

2009-01-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

We hope that everyone had a happy New Year celebration!

We celebrated with the Craig's once again, playing games until 1 am or so. We are hoping that they follow through with their commitment to host us annually since they make such great hosts. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our camera so there are no photos. Maybe some will be up on their blog soon.

As tradition goes, we made some resolutions. Kristi had us write them down and we put them in a jar so we can read them next year. Considering I couldn't exactly remember our resolutions from last year - it is a good idea. I think running a 5k was one of my resolutions last year, which I ended up doing twice and even did a 10k later in the year. The year before our resolution was to recognize good customer service (as opposed to complaining about bad customer service). Ben did follow through with a few times by writing letters to companies or store managers.

This year my resolutions are to:

Donate to the Tualatin Food Pantry once a month. I'm making this resolution because I have felt convicted lately for 'feeling' poor, which we undoubtedly are not. We have more than we need, more than we deserve and helping others is something we have the ability to do. I wanted to make this commitment to ensure it's something we remember to do regularly and not as casually.

Run a 10k. Even though I already did it last year, making the commitment to do it again is still a little intimidating. I stopped running regularly after completing the race last year and have been increasingly more relaxed (and less regular) with my exercise. We are officially joining the Sherwood YMCA today so having the goal of getting back up to 6 miles will keep me going, or at least I hope so.

Hopefully a year from now I will be able to report that I followed through with these resolutions. I'm curious what other people's resolutions are. Anyone have something creative they want to do in 2009?

Working on Christmas due to Snow and Outages

2008-12-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

So this Christmas was different than any I have ever had. This was the first Christmas that I was ever stuck at work and away from my family. It just didn't feel the same. It sort of felt like just another day.

Andrea and I worked a lot of hours this week due to the Level III Outage (over 50,000 customer without power) that we had. I worked 6:30-6:30 on Sunday, 7am-7pm on Monday, 5am-5pm on Tuesday, 7am-7pm on Wednesday, 5am-5pm on Thursday (I mean Christmas). Being at work and fielding escalated calls from customers who were mad, angry, and frustrated that they didn't have power tends to wear down a person after 60 hours in 5 days. I found myself rolling my eyes, getting defensive, as well as getting utterly annoyed.

However, working on Christmas Day while my wife was at home, was something different - it stunk. Not being able to spend time with my beautiful wife, in our beautiful home, with our great Christmas decorations and our dog Payton, added to my deteriorating mood. Add complaining customers to that and it's a volatile mix of emotion. It was a freakin' pity party for poor ole' Ben.....

...for the first couple of hours.

Then I began thinking. God is awesome and he looks out for His kids. So awesome that He sent His only son to Earth, FOR US! Talking to these people on the phone, I realize that they are talking about their power being out and Christmas being ruined, and no Christmas dinner. Of course, it is inconvenient and a drag - but it could be worse. I started thinking how fortunate I am that I have a beautiful wife to miss, and great house that I wish I was at, and that I HAVE Christmas decorations to miss and a dog that is thrilled to see me whenenver it is that I make it home. I am so thankful for my life and the things that God has provided for me and my family. I am thankful that God sent his son to us to forgive us of our sins by taking them from us and dying for the wrong things that we have done and continue to do. Putting things into that perspective, allowed me to create a more positive attitude while at work, and do my best to empathize with those customers that continue to call in. Don't get me wrong, there were some calls from folks that were very thankful that our crew were out there and that our people at the center were there to talk to them.

I hope that folks were not inconvenienced too much for the last few days while they were stuck in the snow, or stranded at home, or without power. No matter what mindset you're in, it's still kind of a pain. I think it's a great opportunity to reflect on the blessings that we've been given. Things will get back to normal before we know it. I am just so incredibly thankful that the Whitaker's have a "normal" to get back to.

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you had a great Holiday Season!

The First Snow at The Whitaker Pines

2008-12-14T12:04:00.000-08:00

Well, as everyone is probably aware. It's snowing outside! This is bitter-sweet. The weather is great to look at, and it makes everything look so fresh and clean. However, it is usually coupled with outages - meaning that I'm sitting here just waiting for my phone to ring to head into work. We'll see.

After church, we decided to take some quick pics of the house, and of Payton - with the new covering of snow.

Ben's Blurb - Gospel Christmas

2008-12-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

Andrea and I took my parents out to the Gospel Christmas. (If Andrea were posting this, I'm sure she would be able to put a cool link to The Gospel Christmas website or something, but since it's me - you'll unfortunately have to look it up on your own.) It was a good time. We went to The Melting Pot for dinner and then walked to The Arlene Schnitzer.

This is the second year that we've gone to the Gospel Christmas and it is such a great time. It is definitely refreshing to see all types of folks coming to experience such a great Christian program. I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Ben's Blurb - "Can they see us from space yet?"

2008-12-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

Christmas season is finally here! This by far is my favorite season. I love the music, the weather, the hustle and bustle, the giving nature of people, and of course being able to celebrate Christ's birth. What a great time of year.

I also love the lights! I've never really been in a neighborhood where the neighbors also like to decorate their houses as well. Now that we are, the competitive side of me is starting to take over. Of course I am more than cordial as I'm telling the neighbors, "Your house looks great". I am, however, secretly hoping they blow a breaker and their house goes dark. Yikes, that's not very nice. It is cool to see everyone celebrate though.

This year, I had the lights up on the house about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. My strategy has always been to wait for the first halfway decent weekend of weather in November and get the lights up. I don't turn them on until after Thanksgiving though. I'm not THAT crazy. It's fun to strategize the light placement, and which breakers I think are on the verge of being overloaded. So far we haven't had any major incidents. (fingers crossed).

Here are some pics of the house. I think next year - I'll be able to fit some more on the house. I mean, look at all of those empty spaces. And there is all kinds of room on the lawn for cryin' out loud!

Athey Creek Turkey Bowl - 2008

2008-11-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well, after taking last year off due to a bum ankle, I decided to take the field this year in the annual ACCF Turkey Bowl. I've been playing football on Thanksgiving since the 9th grade (1991). When we would play, every once in a while, a guy would show up who was quite a bit older than we were, thinking he could still play with the young kids.

I am now that guy.

It was a good time this year. It's great to get out there and run around and hit people, and get hit. Playing with a group of guys that want to play for the fun of the sport and not to kill someone is a nice change of pace. :) I played Quarterback all day and took my share of some hits, but that's what keeps me young I guess.
I was able to escape without any major injuries this year. Of course two days later I'm hobbling around like I'm 70. My legs hurt, my ribs and abs hurt from the punishment, my ankle is killing me, my neck is sore, and I'm pretty sure I have a deep thigh bruise. (I'm itemzing this part so I might remember why I shouldn't play in 2009) :). All in all though, it was really good time and my Dad showed up, like he always does, and was able to take some pics of the game. What a guy.

These are pics of some of the action. You can see our Pastor, Brett, in a couple of the shots and the other guys that were there as well.

Athey Creek Turkey Bowl - More Pics

2008-11-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pics of the fun that was had on Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

Ben is off at playing football at the annual ACCF Turkey Bowl while I am getting ready to host our first Thanksgiving. It's actually not as frantic as I thought it would be since I did everything I could ahead of time. The house is clean, the table is set and the turkey is cooking. I'm sure I am forgetting something, but thought I would take a few moments to blog. Seems we have neglected it most of this month.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And once you're done with dinner take a look in the direction of Sherwood, because you just might be able to see our house gleaming with thousands of Christmas lights!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T20:15:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic first halloween in our new house. I wore my wedding dress because I love it so much, and there is no other day that it's appropriate to wear it. Ben got a tuxedo t-shirt to match me and Payton was a bumble bee which was not in theme, but he was really cute. We had 190 trick-or-treaters! We could hardly believe it, but it was super fun.

Our neighborhood is really festive so we followed suit with lots of lights and HAPPY halloween decor - I refuse to have scary, dead decorations around. If they are this many decorations for Halloween, we can't wait for Christmas! In fact, Ben is already strategizing the light situation.

We still have plenty of candy around the house, so if you need a chocolate fix, please stop by!

It wasn't from me!

2008-10-30T20:11:00.001-07:00

If you received a random email in your inbox from my hotmail account - it was not really from me. Sometime this morning, an email was sent from my hotmail to EVERYONE in my contacts list talking about some website with good deals. When I got an email from Ben saying "how do you know these are good deals when everything is in euros?" - I knew there was a big problem. I went into my hotmail to see what was going on, there was dozens of undeliverable messages and ALL of my contacts were deleted! Please don't open the email or go to the website. I'm still not sure how it happened, but it's a little disturbing. And as a side note - I probably don't have your email address any longer. Hopefully no real damage was done.

Michael & Lisa get Married!

2008-10-29T17:36:00.001-07:00

Our last stop on vacation was Bend, Oregon where we stayed the weekend at the Inn at Seventh Mountain with the Gellners. It was a weekend wedding extravaganza for our friends, and fellow Disney fanatics, Michael & Lisa. The weather was GORGEOUS and Michael and Lisa looked so happy with one another. We're so very happy for you guys and hope you're enjoying the honeymoon in Disneyworld!! (Well, you're probably back by now since I'm so late in posting this)

Vacation Part V - Hello Hotlanta!

2008-10-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

My good friend Misty took us to all the touristy spots in Atlanta and we had such a fun time hanging out together. We toured CNN Center, World of Coke, and walked Olympic park. We hit the Hard Rock Cafe for Ben (because he NEEDS another t-shirt). The other sites I wanted to see were a little more retail related. There's lots of stores there that they don't have in Portland so I came home with a few things. Just a few. Here's some pics of our last couple of days of vacation.

We love you Misty! Thanks for being such a great hostess. We hope we can visit Lionsgate again one day.

Vacation Part IV - Go Bears!

2008-10-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

Exciting game today! We thought the Bears were going to win it in the last few seconds but it just didn't happen. In the end it was still worth it. Ben said the Falcon fans were WAY friendlier than the Seahawks fans he has encountered at the games in Seattle. They harrassed us, but in a friendly joking way - not the totally rude, spit on your car kind of way. Fun day!

Vacation - Part III Layover turned Destination

2008-10-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

Did I say we were on our way to Atlanta? Somehow we ended up staying the night in Chicago. There's a long story behind that - the moral of the story is that American Airlines is lame. So, we called upon a former Chicago local for some tips on how to make the most of our unexpected stay here. We braved the train and found our way to Giordano's for some world famous deep-dish stuffed crust pizza.

We're back at O'hare waiting for our re-scheduled flight to Atlanta. From the Atlanta airport we will be going almost directly to my first NFL football game to watch the Bears play the Atlanta Falcons. Ben will be in heaven.

Vacation Part II - Welcome to Louisville

2008-10-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Louisville around 1:30 am on Thursday morning. Ben's mom and the kids were waiting there to greet us. The kids were pretty happy that they got to stay home from school because they were out so late. We were all pretty wiped so we mostly hung out around the house. Guess we were preparing for Friday where we packed as much in as we possibly could. We started with a big pancake breakfast in the morning. Then we all went to the cemetery to visit Candi's grave (Ben's sister). Afterwards, we headed to Kart Kountry for some amusement. They rode go-karts, played video games, and a round of miniature golf. They had a great time. In the afternoon we took them to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The adults all agreed it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The kids thought it was hilarious. Friday evening the kids had a soccer game, and the day was done.

This morning we got to surprise the kids with early Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa Whitaker. We took them to the Super Walmart pretending that we needed to do some shopping for ourselves. When we got there we told them each that Christmas arrived early and they could spend $100. Before the words were out of our mouths those kids were literally running down the aisles to the toy department. It was really fun.

As I type this we are already back at the airport on our way to Atlanta to visit my good friend Misty for a few days. Yahoo! Pray for no more delays!

From left to Right: Brianna, Edie (Ben's mom), Dimitri (Michi), and Creed.

Vacation Part I - Getting There

2008-10-11T12:39:00.001-07:00

We left Wednesday morning bright and early to make our way to Louisville, KY. We're visiting Ben's mom, neice and nephews for a few days. Traveling was a LONG day. We left Portland at 8:30 and had a 3 hour layover in Seattle. We went from Seattle to Chicago where we had a 4 hour layover before going onto Louisville. Then our final leg was delayed more than an hour on the taxi way waiting in line to take off. It took us more than 12 hours to get there, but at least we got a really good deal on the tickets (and now we know why). Here's some photos of our traveling day. We got a good one of Mt. Ranier from the plane, Ben doing home work in the Seattle airport, and a photo of us in the Chicago airport. Sadly, there was not much Bears merchandise in the airport.

Bendrea Housewarming

2008-09-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

We hosted our housewarming party exactly one month after we moved into our house. It was a little last minute and hurried but my goal was to have people over before October, otherwise I thought it would never happen. Having that goal date really forced us to hit the ground running once we moved in, as you may have noticed from our painting blog (only 4 rooms left!). Once I finally got around to scheduling it I realized we only had 2 free days in September that could possibly work so we just went for it.

It was so much fun to have a bunch of friends over. Since we hosted on a Sunday, football was on the tube almost the whole day and most of the males were content to sit in front of our massive television. My mother-in-law made a ton of hopia and lumpia in addition to the food we prepared. There was no excuse for anyone to leave hungry. With a steady stream of visitors from noon into the late evening, I feel like I didn't get to catch up with anyone for as long as I would have liked. As soon as it was over, it was time to clean up and get ready for another week of work. Here's to hoping this is the first of many parties we will host here.

Meagen & Mike's Wedding

2008-09-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

I was volunteer wedding planner for Meagen and Mike at their wedding at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse on Saturday night. The rain held off making way for a lovely outdoor affair. Everything came together just in time. (And I do mean just in time). Meagen is such a beautiful bride and Mike is a really lucky guy to have her. We had a great time celebrating into the night, and I think my feet still hurt a little bit. Congratulations you guys!

I will be stalking Briels blog (their photographer) over the next couple weeks to see some fabulous photos!

More Painting

2008-09-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend was another weekend full of painting. Saturday Ben and I painted our Master Bedroom, then Sunday I ventured all the way to Creswell (just past Eugene) to do some painting in Savannah's new bedroom. Savannah is the two-year old daughter of Tim & Jenny Bonn who are our good friends. They moved into a new house six months ago and Jenny asked me to put some finishing touches on her room. So the pretty pink words and flowers are my contribution. This type of painting is much easier, cleaner and faster than the other kind of painting we have been doing lately. (Only 4 more rooms to go!)

I hope Savannah loves her new room!

Ben's Blurb - Weekend Warriors UNITE!!

2008-09-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

So this last Labor Day weekend was a busy one. We spent the entire weekend painting the inside of the house. It was a lot of hard work, but we are finally done! Sort of. We have all of the major areas of the house done. We still have 4 bedrooms and a bathroom to do. That will hopefully happen in the upcoming weeks. We did manage to paint the office, family room, living room, dining room, formal dining room, kitchen, hallway, stairway, 2nd floor landing, and also the entry area from floor to ceiling. Yikes. We did a pretty good job staying motivated through the weekend but there were some early mornings (for me) and some late nights!

It started at Home Depot on Friday night after work, then Saturday - I got up early and painted the office, then Andrea got up a bit later and we hit it really hard. We turned in after 11pm on Saturday night. Then Sunday we got up and did it all again. On Sunday we finished up at about 5pm. By then we were sore and exhausted. Monday we were free to do other house stuff.

Here are some pics of before and after

More Pics of the weekend paint job

2008-09-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of more before and after pics.

Angela-la-la

2008-08-27T22:05:00.001-07:00

This post is a bit overdue, but better late than never, right?

My good friend Angie was in town for a business meeting a couple weeks ago and I got to hang out with her in the short span of spare time she had. It was so much fun to see her even if it was brief. I've known Angie since the 7th grade and she is so sweet. She may be the most opposite of high maintenance as a person could be. She packed for 2 days in a single backpack... blows my mind! Angie is one of those friends that even though we haven't seen each other in more than a year, it's like no time has passed once we're together again. So Angela, I'm really hoping this company merger (or whatever it was that got you here) - brings you back more often. It was a treat to see you. Hope you enjoy our single photo that we managed to take together.

Happy Birthday Abby!

2008-08-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

Today is Abby's birthday!

I have known Abby since we were roommates at George Fox many years ago now. Abby is always so much fun to be around. Anyone who has spent a day with Abby knows there is never a dull moment and there's always plenty to laugh about. I have also come to admire her amazing talents in the Domestic Arts... she's always entertaining, whipping up a meal for someone, and does it all on a budget by clipping coupons and seeking out the best deals around. She loves the Lord and her family with all her heart and has always been an advocate for children. She's been a wonderful friend to me and I'm so thankful for her. I hope you have a fantastic birthday Abby!

If you read my blog and you know Abby, or even if you don't... go to her blog by clicking here and leave a comment to wish her a very happy birthday! She loves comments on her blog and it's always an entertaining read.

(I had to steal this photo from Abby's blog because I'm not quite organized enough yet to find one of my own.)

We Moved!

2008-08-22T11:08:00.001-07:00

Just like magic we moved into our new home yesterday! With Ben's help this has been the easiest move I have ever had. I'm so blessed to have a very organized and motivated husband with endless amounts of energy. Ben and a few friends had us moved from the townhouse to our new house before 2pm yesterday! All I had to do was clean the townhouse and start unpacking. It was amazing. I'll post more pics later as we get more organized, but here's a peak!

Mamma Mia!

2008-07-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

I had an afternoon with the "old ladies" to see Mamma Mia. (They called themselves old ladies for the record). We themed it by eating at Blue Tangerine for Mediterranean food. Of course, I ordered the pizza - so much for culture. We were all in agreement that the movie was really good. If you don't care for musicals I don't know how you would feel about it, but doesn't everyone have fun listening to ABBA music?

Offer Accepted!!

2008-07-19T15:36:00.000-07:00

We are accepting an offer today and it seems we are on our way to selling our home!

I've been dying to sell the townhouse since we put it on the market, but now that it's happening, my emotions are all over the place. We were planning to take it off the market when this came in like a whirlwind. It's all happening so fast I'm not sure how to process the information yet. We're praying that the Lord will lead us to the right place and our decisions will be blessed. Please pray for us because it's about to get crazy around here. (You actually might really want to pray for Ben because I'm certain this is potential for me to drive him over the edge.)

Audrey Marie Sprowls - New Baby - 3 Hours old!

2008-07-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty hectic day. To finish it off, our friends had their baby. Aaron is a guy I've known for almost 20 years, and todaythey had their second child. It was great to be able to see them at the hospital. We brought them some dinner since they were both starving. The request was Carl's Jr. So we got to the hospital at about 9:30 or so to see the proud parents.

Whaddya think? Are we ready for our own?

Oh yeah...Pics of the proud Parents. :)

2008-07-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Ben's Blurb - Saturday Fishin'

2008-06-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

This morning started incredibly early. Like 2 am early. My Dad and I decided to go fishing today, so that involved me getting to Hillsboro at 3:30 am. Now, my plan was to get up at 2:45 am and head to Hillsboro. Unfortunately, those of you that know me, know that I have this disorder where I always wake up before my alarm. So there I was, wide awake at 2 am - so I just decided to get up. I'm a freak, I know it.

We had a pretty good day. The weather cooperated and we were on the water by 5 am. We caught about 20 fish before calling it quits.

The sport of fishing doesn't run through my veins like it does the rest of the Whitaker family (Andrea excluded), but I still had a good time. It was fun to get out and hang with Dad for a while.

Ben's Blurb - Kremlin Night

2008-06-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

The tradition continues. It seems that about every other month, we meet to see who can overthrow the Russian Dictatorship. It's a good time with great friends. This time was at the Whitaker house. We added an extra element by having some authentic Russian tunes playing in the background. I would like to point out that the bottles in the background, are RootBeer bottles. Just to eliminate any confusion. :)
Ian Strauss was the Party Chief at the end of the game, so he was the big winner of the night. He was able to claim victory over Matt, John, and myself.

There will be a next time though. My time is coming - I can feel it..

Photo Shoot with Mindy

2008-06-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

We got to have our family photos taken with Mindy this week. She is such a talented photographer and I love her creativity. We had so much fun with her gallivanting around Sherwood. Ideally we would like to have family photos done once a year in the future. So that in 10 years we can look back and see how hot and young we look now! You can see a sneak peak on her blog here. We can't wait to see the rest of the photos.
p.s. Mindy also deserves credit for our engagement photo pictured to the right

Another Running Accomplishment

2008-06-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

I ran my first (and maybe my last) 10k! I actually ran for 3 minutes and walked for 1 minute the whole distance, but I finished and it felt pretty good. It started and finished at Bridgeport Village and there were lots of festivites around. My friend Rachelle, and Linus from my Weight Watcher group ran with me and we all finished together in 1 hour and 11 minutes. I even walked away with a $25 gift certificate to the Container Store. I'm glad I went through with it even though I was nervous I wouldn't be able to go that far!

Tabasco Rules

2008-05-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

Ben has a very expensive Tabasco habit and this is what we've had to resort to... a 1 gallon jar. I'm hoping this will get us through to the end of the year.

A night of Guitar Hero

2008-05-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

We had the Craigs over for a Guitar Hero Marathon. Actually it wasn't really a marathon, but the boys did play quite a bit. Kristi and I gave it a couple of tries, but we never got a '50 note streak' message when we played. We look pretty good with guitars though, don't we?

Always fun to hang out with the Craigs!

A night with the Waxenfelters

2008-05-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

We met up with Royce and Bess to go to a Timbers soccer game. However the highlight for me was going to Saint Cupcake for the first time. I'm so glad that Bess mentioned it because I've always wanted to go, and cupcakes beat soccer in my book. The shop is super cute and pink, so that was a pluse for me. And the cupcakes were DELICIOUS. So we sat and enjoyed our miniature cupcakes for a while and then arrived fashionably late to the soccer game.

The Friar Trot

2008-05-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today I did it! I ran my very first 5k! I've been training for this for a few months doing the Couch to 5k running program I found online - and today I actually did it.

My friend Darci ran with me and Ben drove around and took pictures of us. The heat made it pretty tough on me even at 8am. I've been able to run 3 miles for a while now, but this felt like the longest 34 minutes of my life. There were a few points that I just wanted to give in and walk, but I hung in there and made to the finish line without stopping. I have to say, it feels pretty good to say I did it.

I am so crazy that I am actually going to train to do a 10k in June. No idea how I'm going to basically double my distance in just a few weeks, but it's a benefit for the Children's Cancer Association which is one of my favorite charities, plus it's in Tualatin so I don't need to go far. Wish me luck! Maybe you can come cheer me on at the finish line!

Happy Birthday

2008-05-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

Today is Ben's birthday! Ben happens to share a birthday with our friend Stacy Gellner so we celebrated together at the Melting Pot for dinner. Oh my goodness it was delicious. We had a great time with Stacy and her husband Mike, who are also fellow PGE employees.

Once we got home Ben immediately started playing with his birthday present - Guitar Hero III. While he's playing that - I'm blogging tonight's adventure. Who knows how late he'll be up with that. The Playstation 3 has magically extended Ben's normal curfew of 9 pm.

I love you honey! I hope your birthday was everything you hoped for.

Impromptu Dinner Party

2008-05-12T07:21:00.001-07:00

We had the Craigs over for an impromptu dinner party last night. It all began because Ben & I had ordered our anniversary cake from Lamb's Thriftway. I remembered that I had been at Scott & Abby's when Matt & Kristi brought out their anniversary cake, and decided we needed to have them over to share in ours. Plus, I didn't want Ben & I to eat that much cake by ourselves.

Then we decided we might as well have them over for dinner if we're going to have cake. So it was the perfect opportunity to bring out my beloved china. Kristi brought a lovely green salad and I made a new Weight Watchers recipe which turned out well - Honeyglazed turkey tenderloin with Sweet potatoes. It was a risk trying a new 'healthy' recipe because you never know if they're going to taste any good. Luckily this one worked out.

We finished off the evening by watching the 3 hour finale of Survivor. Kristi won a bonus piece of cake for correctly predicting that Parvati would win the million. Congrats Kristi! Hope you're enjoying your extra helping of banana cake!

A weekend with the Hoefers

2008-05-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Ellensburg visiting the Hoefers. It was so good to see them. The grown ups got a chance to go out on the town on Friday night and then Saturday Abby and I entertained the girls with a spa day. It was like sweet chaos. Hailey was fascinated with my make-up and insisted on helping me each day and I got to do the girls hair on Sunday. I love how girly they are!!
I really miss seeing Abby and the girlies more frequently, but a stay at the Hoefer House is always an entertaining one.

Ben got a real kick out of this photo so I had to include it. I guess this is what kids do.
Dinner at Dakota Cafe.

Happy Anniversary

2008-04-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

Today marks one year since we were married! The year went by so fast and I'm so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Everyday I'm reminded of how God provided a husband who is so perfectly suited for me. I pray that we will always be as blissfully happy as we have been this first year.

I love you Ben!

Here's some of my favorite photos from our wedding day.

Ben's Blurb - I got a new job!

2008-04-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've "blurbed" so I figured I would throw one on here.

I did get a new job. I'm tired of PGE and decided to try something else. For those of you that know I used to work in the restaurant industry - I think I missed it quite a bit, because I got a call from the Owner I used to work for and...

...none of that's true.

I actually did get a new job, but I'm still at PGE. I'm currently a Lead/Supervisor in the residential contact center. Talking to angry customers, supporting about 60 phone reps, and doing all types of side projects. Well, I applied for a new position where I will still be a Lead/Supervisor, only I'll be doing this in the Billing department. The cool thing is that Andrea and I will be working in the same building. We'll be in completely separate areas and departments, but we get to work the exact same hours - all the time. This position is what's called a cross-train and will likely last about a year. Hopefully, this will give me some more "Resume Filler" that I can use to continue my career.
The only thing is that I don't know the first thing about the Billing Department. I think we probably send bills out to people. :) But that's just a wild guess.

That's about all I got - I figured I would throw some Disneylanf pictures up, now that we have a capable Internet connection. Unfotunately, this was our last trip for a very long time since our Annual Pass expires on our Anniversay on the 28th of this month. I think Andrea is still in denial about that though (in denial about the last trip, not the Anniversary) :). However, without the annual pass - the trip becomes considerably more expensive...

Bummed we can't blog

2008-04-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

The problem with complimentary Wi-fi in our hotel is that it's not so good. (The same might also hold true for complimentary breakfast) It took me about a half dozen attempts just to log on to our blog, and I still can't download any photos. Blogging isn't as much fun without photos.
So we may just have to wait until we are home to fill our blog with all the fun things we did while here at Disneyland. And Abby, No this is not a joke. We really are here! From what I understand, these are the things you're supposed to do before you have kids.

We had a full day yesterday. We were in the park from 9 am to 9:30 pm. No wonder I was so exhausted by the end of the day. We ate at Blue Bayou for lunch, and the Storytellers Cafe for dinner and rode a lot of rides in-between. The only ride we didn't get to that we planned on was Peter Pan's flight. But not without trying. We waited for about 30 minutes and got to the last leg of the line, where you can see them loading guests - and it BROKE DOWN! Such a disappointment! Maybe we'll try it again today.

Greetings from California!

2008-04-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are again in Disneyland! We were completely spontaneous and planned a trip to Disneyland. I think we made this decision very late on Thursday night and less than a week later we are living it up in the park.

Most of the day was spent traveling, so we were only in the park for about 6 hours. A little more crowded than I expected, but the weather was warm and sunny.
Our feet are already tired and we're going to rest for a full day tomorrow.

And here's a quick photo of something we haven't done before. Ben got to drive a Segway through a small obstacle course at the Innoventions attraction. (Not so much an obstacle course as it was reflectors taped to carpet) I decided I didn't want to do it with a bunch of people watching me so I let him do it and I took photos.

*** Blogger won't let me download the photos, and it's really annoying. I don't know if it's the free internet at the hotel or something else. I'll keep trying to post photos, but I'm losing hope that it will work***

The latest craft project

2008-04-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

I've had a flood of creativity lately since the craft room has been packed up and it's uber clean and organized. One of the most recent projects are these stinkin' cute invitaitons I made for Lexi's 14th birthday party. Now that I'm blogging this I'm wishing I had taken more photos.

These are favor boxes similar to what I made at our wedding. When you slide open the box - there's a York peppermint patty inside and underneath is the invitation printed on circles that are strung together with ribbon. The names of the invitees are printed on the outside circle with lots of sparkly glitter all around. They were so pretty I almost didn't want to let them go. But I did. Any guess on how many peppermint patties I ate while making these? I lost count.

Dinner with The Bonns

2008-04-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Tim & Jenny were in town briefly on Friday and we were lucky enough to meet up with them for dinner. We don't get to see them often enough so it was a real treat. The weather was perfect so we took advantage and strolled around the commons before eating. We ate at Lee's Kitchen for some chinese food and good conversation. Ben and I got to see firsthand how much more work it is to go out to eat with a toddler, but Savannah is just cute as can be.

Fun to hang out with you guys!

p.s. Ben and I did not do the Mickey Mouse shirt thing on purpose. This is one of multiple times we have left the house in matching shirts and not realized it until later. Yet another sign we are meant to be, right?

Random Poll

2008-04-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is a little bit random, but I'm becoming paranoid.

After going to multiple open houses where I can instantly tell animals live there based on the smell, I'm worried our house has a smell.

I asked some people and they said it didn't, but maybe they don't want to tell me to my face. So here is your chance to anonymously tell us if our house smells like dog. We really do want to know if it does.

My future craft room!

2008-04-06T15:53:00.000-07:00

Susan was kind enough to let Ben and I swing into her home this week so Ben could get a good look at her craft room. Of course, the purpose is so he can eventually build one for me. The beautiful thing about it, is it's tucked away into the closet, so you can just leave your mess out and then shut the doors (or curtains in this case).

Isn't it great?! And what blows me away is that Susan built it herself! She is amazing.

Officially on the market!

2008-03-30T16:55:00.001-07:00

We are officially listing #8030500. There is a sign in our yard and we are FOR SALE.

It is a relief to have all the work done of getting the house ready, but I can tell it will still be a little time consuming keeping it this clean all the time. I'm always saying "How do people do this?"... then we went to open houses today, and I realize - they don't. Some do, but we've seen some pretty disgusting stuff out there. Dirty clothes strung out, fingernail clippings on the counter, and more. The worst by far have been houses that smell so foul of animals that you can't even concentrate on what the house looks like. Eewww..

I certainly hope that 'grossed out' is the last thing someone feels when they walk into our house.

For now we are just going on faith that our next house will be waiting for us when we're ready.

Baked Turkey & Jack Cheese Chimichangas

2008-03-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've made this recipe a few times already and Ben actually gave it a 4 out of 5 - which is incredibly high considering it's healthy. I especially like this because I can make the chimichangas as stated, but I also have used the left over meat mixture on top of salad for a quick and easy lunch.

Baked Turkey and Jack Cheese Chimichangas
POINTS: 5

2 sprays cooking spray
1/2 pound lean ground turkey
16 oz fat-free canned refried beans (I used black beans)
1 3/4 cup salsa
4 1/2 oz canned green chili peppers, mild, drained and diced
1 tsp chili powder
3 Tbsp scallion(s), thinly sliced
1 cup shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese
8 large burrito-size wheat flour tortilla(s)
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
** I also added about 1 cup of chopped mushrooms in here somewhere)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray. Coat a 13- X 9- X 2-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Add turkey to skillet and cook over medium-high heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Drain any excess liquid from pan and then add beans, 1 3/4 cups of salsa, chili peppers, chili powder and scallions. Cook until heated through, about 3 minutes; stir in cheese. (I added the sour cream here because I don't like it on top)

Meanwhile, wrap tortillas in foil; warm in oven for 10 minutes.

Assemble chimichangas by spooning about 1/2 cup of turkey mixture onto each tortilla; fold in sides and roll up.

Place chimichangas, seam-side down, in prepared baking dish. Bake, uncovered, until tortillas are crisp and browned, about 20 minutes. Serve each topped with 2 tablespoons of salsa and 1 tablespoon of sour cream.

Craft Room

2008-03-28T07:04:00.001-07:00

Anyone who has ever been to my craft room, knows that it has never looked quite like this. And I'm sure it never will again. I only wish I had taken a before photo! You can catch a quick glimpse of it here to give you some idea of what chaos it was. If it ever got cleaned it was only for a few seconds because I would get inspired, work on something, and mess it up all over again. We packed up almost everything so we can put our house on the market, and I've decided this is just the right amount of craft stuff that anyone should have - this photo probably only represents about 30% of what I actually own. I've left out just enough stuff for the invitations I've committed to a few friends... and that's it! I do miss all my precious paper, but it feel so good to have such a clean and organized workspace.

So anyone who can attest to the before and after... you must comment!

"You want me to do what?"

2008-03-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Vomit the Dog.

So we get home from work last night thinking of what we're going to do for dinner. Also, wondering what the next step is in getting the house ready to put up for sale. When we walk in, the first thing that we see is a bag that previously had been filled with approximately 15 chocolate chip cookies.

Andrea had bought them for me the night before, and I was looking forward to eating them for dessert last night. They were sitting towards the edge of the coffee table, and it seems that Payton had gotten hold of them. The story, obviously doesn't stop there.

So, knowing that chocolate is poisonous for dogs, I called the Emergency Vet number that I had programmed into my phone (this isn't the first time we've had to use it - whole packs of gum, ant traps, entire bag of HALLS Lozenges, have also mysteriously disappeared). So I'm explaining the situation to the vet and she puts me on hold a moment. Then comes back to the phone with a phrase that I've never heard before.

"Vomit the dog."

Much like "Walk the Dog" as far as sentence structure, but a dramatically different activity altogether. So she proceeds to tell me the way to do this is to give Payton 2 Tablespoons of Hydrogen Peroxide, and that should do the trick. She said it would continue working until his stomach was empty. It did. Payton and I spent about 45 minutes bonding in the bathroom.

We felt so bad for him because one minute he's happy and full of Chocolate Chip cookies, and the next minute, well, not so full anymore - and not so happy.

Anyway, he's fine now and back to his old self. We're not sure what's gotten into him. He is still a very well behaved dog, but he has his moments of rebellion where he randomly gets into something.

I think God may be giving us a very mild "Kid Test".

A new purse!

2008-03-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today I scored a great deal on a brand new Coach purse for myself! It is frivolous, but I sure look good carrying it around.

I'm too lazy to get the camera and photograph it, but it looks a little something like this... but it's all black. Yay for me and my fancy purse.

Cooking in the Burbs Vol 2

2008-03-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

I found this recipe in FoodDay last week. It is actually a repeat of a recipe I tried a few years ago from FoodDay and they re-printed it. Once I saw it, I immediately went to the store to buy everything to make it. Ben only gave it a 3, but I think it's really good.

Pot Sticker Spinach Chicken Soup

2 14 1/2-ounce cans reduced-sodium fat-free chicken broth or one 32-ounce box
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 fresh green or red jalapeno chile, seeded and minced
16 to 18 frozen pork pot stickers (or substitute other pot stickers; see note)
11/2 cups fresh baby spinach or regular spinach, torn (about 1 ounce) or 1/3 cup frozen leaf spinach (one-fourth of a 10-ounce box), thawed, drained and squeezed to remove excess liquid

Hot chili oil (optional)

In a medium saucepan, simmer chicken broth with garlic and jalapeno over low heat for 5 minutes. Add frozen pot stickers and simmer an additional 5 minutes. Add spinach and simmer just until wilted but still bright green.
Serve hot, with chili oil on the table for those who prefer it. Note: Pot stickers come in various sizes and packages. We used Trader Joe's frozen Pork Gyoza Pot Stickers (also labeled Pork and Vegetable Dumplings); there are 24 to 26 per 1-pound package

What's been going on

2008-03-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

I'm finally back to good health after battling the nasty virus going around. Sorry it's kept me from keeping up on our blog. It is good to be amongst the living again, and thank you for all of the well-wishes!

This week Ben and I have been toying with the idea of selling our house and upgrading. The entire week we've been on a roller coaster of should we or shouldn't we. We went to look at a house in Tualatin on Monday which turned out to not exactly be our dream house, but it served as the catalyst for the rest of the week. We drove around neighborhoods in Sherwood and Tualatin to try to figure out which end of town we really want to call home (and we're still not sure). Now we're making a list of the things we need to do to get our house market ready, and we're still not sure we're ready to do it. Decisions, decisions.

One of the repairs we have to make is our kitchen sink. (And the only reason I mention it is because I have a photo of it, and like others I hate the idea of blogging without photos.)

So this is what happens when you put a hot pan in a sink that is not made of cast iron. Looks like we need to buy a whole new sink. The good news is, we went to Home Depot and sinks are not as expensive as we thought. If any of our fellow bloggers have any secret plumbing skills, maybe we can talk before we take this on.

Ben's Blurb - What's New...

2008-03-01T07:20:00.001-08:00

So, it's been quite a while since we've blogged anything. As you have probably noticed. Andrea has been awfully sick lately - so I figured I would step in and just give a quick "blurb" on what we've been up to lately.

Since Andrea's been so sick - there hasn't been a whole lot going on. She had to miss an entire week's worth of work because she's been down for the count. I've never seen her so sick. But the good news is that it seems like the worst is over and she's getting better by the day. She'll be back to her regular self in no time.

We are going to Honda today to get the oil changed in the Civic (exciting isn't it?). I think we'll test drive some kid movers while we're there. It should be a good time.

Oh, and if you remember my entry about the squeaky dryer....we're having someone come out today who actually knows what they're doing. The dryer makes such a racket - our neighbor who is trying to sell his house asked me if we could not do laundry on the weekends because potential buyers will be coming by to look at their house! He and I are really good friends - I've known him for about 10 years - so I didn't take offense. But hopefully we can start doing laundry in peace after today.

That's all I got, I'm sure once Andrea is back to 100% she'll be updating this thing like crazy.

Making up for Super Bowl

2008-02-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

Saturday night Ben made up for his Super Bowl faux paus. He surprised me with dinner at Mama Mia's, the restaurant where we were engaged in July 2006. It was oh-so-delicious and a wonderfully romantic meal. All is officially forgiven and Valentine's day is just around the corner!

Ben's Blurb - "A Sad day at the Whitaker's"

2008-02-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

"February 11th, a day that will live in infamy..." Okay, well maybe not quite that bad. We sold the Scion today. (awaiting gasps, and sighs)

We drove into Portland after work to meet the gal who wanted to buy my car. A very nice lady who was buying the car....for her 16-17 yr old daughter! Yikes. The daughter was there, but didn't test drive it, barely even gave it a second glance. What a shame. Andrea seems to think the girl was more excited about the car than what I was picking up from her. Maybe girls are different - but I know when I was a teen driver, I would drive my car into the ground. Hopefully this teen driver will be different.

Anyway, the way the sale went really helps us to count our blessings and thank the Lord for being so obvious in our lives. I re-listed the car on Craig's list on Sunday night. A couple of hours later - I had a call from the girl who was interested. We set up the meeting to be right across the street from where my Dad works in Portland. This is the same place the car title was at as well.

So everything worked out. After work we met her down there. The Mom and I went for a test drive. Afterwards, she went down the block to get the cashier's check and brought it back. Dad met us there while we were waiting for the woman to come back with the check. After the transaction was completed. Dad gave us a ride to the mechaninc to pick up the truck (had brakes done) and now we have wheels again.
Just the way the entire evening went so smoothly let's me know that it was the right thing to do. It seems like such a small thing to thank the Lord for - but it just goes to show that nothing is trivial for Him. I honestly believe that this was a small step to help out our future. Dropping this car payment, and allowing us to save a little more money each month in order to set up our future seemed to be the right thing to do. And the fact that it was as easy as it was - drives that point home.
So in light of that - I have a small tribute to the Scion Tc. Please enjoy the photos - and allow me some time to grieve a little. The loss is certainly bittersweet.

Ben's Blurb - Okay...maybe a couple of more pics

2008-02-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

A couple of more pics and we'll lay the Tc to rest...

Please feel free to leave your kind remarks for the dearly departed...

Cooking in the Burbs with Andrea Vol. 1

2008-02-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

I know this pales in comparison to the famous Cooking in the Country with Abby, but I've been very excited to share my new love of domesticity with my faithful readers. I hope to regularly share new recipes that we have been trying out.

This recipe is from one of my Weight Watcher cookbooks. I served over rice and it was quite tasty. On a scale of 1-5 Ben gives this one a 4.

Spicy Orange Beef with Vegetables
Makes 4 servings (5 WW points per serving)

3/4 pound beef top round, trimmed of all visible fat, cut into thin strips
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp grated orange rind (didn't have any)
1/2 cup low sodium beef broth
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce or 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (used red pepper flakes)
4 tsp canola oil
1 Tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger (I have stuff I squeeze from a tube)
1/4 pound green beans, halved crosswise
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips (yuck, I used part of an orange pepper, cut small enough I wouldn't notice)
1 carrot, cut into matchstick-thin strips (I used 2 carrots to make up for the pepper).

1. Combine the beef, 1 tablespoon of the cornstarch, and the orange rind in a medium bowl; toss well to coat and set aside. Combine the remaining 1 tablespoon cornstartch, the broth, orange juice, soy sauce, sugar, and chili-garlic sauce or crushed red pepper in a small bowl; set aside.
2. Heat a non-stick wok or a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat until a drop of water sizzles. Swirl in 2 teaspoons of the oil, then add the beef. Stir-fry until cooked through, 2-3 minutes; transfer to a plate. Swirl the remaining 2 teaspons of oil, then add the ginger. Stir-fry until fragrant, about 10 seconds. Add the green beans, bell pepper, and carrot. Stir fry until crisp/tender, 2-3 minutes. Add the broth mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens, about 1 minute. Add the beef and cook until hot, about 1 minute.

Ben's Blurb - What's New...

2008-02-03T14:23:00.000-08:00

So, I'm in a little bit of hot water this SuperBowl Sunday. Anyone who reads our blog automatically knows why:

As a football fan, it would be a cardinal sin to miss the Superbowl and to miss seeing a team possibly go undefeated for an entire season. This is something that we will be potentially be able to tell our kids about. (At least I will anyway). So, my wonderful and understanding wife is sort of okay with us not going out on a Hot Date today. I will certainly make it up to her in the near future though.

I've been deliberating for a very long time on whether to get a new Game Console for the house. I finally decided that I definitely wanted one. So for the past couple of weeks I've been trying to decide on an XBOX360 Elite, or a Playstation 3. After talking it over with Andrea, I decided to get the PS3!!! It is very exciting to have and I can't wait to play it. It also comes with a Blu-Ray player as well. A very exciting weekend indeed.

http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/car/559336959.html

Some sad news is that I've decided to sell my Tc. This was a pretty hard decision to make as I am pretty attached to this car. Compared to the cars that I've had in the past, this one has been the best. Unfortunately it just isn't very practical to hang on to anymore. Andrea's car is paid off and selling mine would save us over $300 per month. Looking towards the future and wanting to save money it seemed like the best thing to do. Also, as we're looking for a new house in the next few months - having the remaining loan for the car come off of my credit report will help too. All of my life having good credit has been a priority, so this little adjustment could help us a tiny bit in the loan department as well.

My Dad is giving us his truck once my car sells, so I'll drive that whenever we need to have a second vehicle available. If you know of anyone looking for a little sporty black car, you know where to find me!

Here's a pic of the new ride (close to it anyway):

Hallelujah!

2008-02-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

After cross-training for 7 1/2 months, I finally got the news that I am officially a permanent member of IT. I'm so thankful the Lord blessed me with the opportunity and the ability to do well. I'm most excited that I no longer have to take customer service phone calls (except for those coming from our close and personal friends). Still deciding how I'm going to celebrate, but it feels great!

The Cat Show

2008-02-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

Sunday we had the pleasure of accompanying the Craigs to the 2008 Cat Show. This was actually really interesting. Those cat owners are REALLY into their cats. I'm sure they cost a fortune and it's probably a lot of work getting a cat ready for a cat show. Those reasons may explain why many of the owners demand you use hand sanitizer before petting their cats - if you can touch them at all. We had a good time, and even got free cake. You can read more about it on the Craig's Blog here.

The Perfect Pair

2008-02-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we hosted an engagement party for Mike & Lisa. Neither of them were hip to posing for photos, so we don't have any good ones of them. We have quite a few of them with eyes closed, tongue sticking out, and even eyes rolling. I'll spare them the embarrassment of posting any bad ones. We'll just leave you with a photo of the fabulous JaCiva's cake that Alane provided. We're so happy Mike finally popped the question. We think they are so perfect for one another.

You know, if you guys decide you need to get married in Disneyland, we would totally be there!

Ben's Blurb - "Hmm, I didn't see any Minivans."

2008-01-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

I know I went to the car show with Andrea, Matt and Kristi, but all I saw were these:

In all seriousness - I really liked the Honda Odyssey too. Andrea looked really good in it. To answer any and all questions - we have no announcements at this time.

How Does My Future Look?

2008-01-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

Don't I make a mini-van look good?

Ben and I attended the auto show Friday night with Matt and Kristi. We had a blast sitting in all of the different cars and dreaming which one will someday be ours. Ben and I both liked the Honda Odyssey complete with leather interior, GPS, remote doors and DVD player for when we're carting around a couple of little ones. But I think we're still a ways off from needing to buy that. For the record, I did look even better in the Lexus ES 350, but I have a feeling, this is more likely to be the next step.

We thought that Matt and Kristi looked pretty stylish in a mini-cooper.

Happy Birthday Monique

2008-01-24T22:03:00.000-08:00

Tonight we celebrated Moniques birthday with some dinner at McCormick & Schmicks. Stimulating converstaion + yummy steak and seafood = a fabulous time.

We hope you had a great birthday Monique. We enjoyed celebrating with you!

Ben's Blurb - "So now what do I use the TV for?"

2008-01-20T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well I must say I've never been more disappointed in a football season than I am with this one. Tonight's football action very well may have been the end of the season for me, and believe me, Andrea is thrilled.

The Patriots against the Giants on Superbowl Sunday doesn't appeal to me even a little. I don't care for either one of those teams, so it's onto next season I guess.

This will most likely be the first year that I don't watch the Superbowl. Maybe Andrea and I can find a place to go out on a hot date or do something more fun than watching the Patriots win again. I'll bet we can go find something to paint and then watch it dry.

Anyway, bring on the the Offseason - as far as I'm concerned football season is officially over. So sad...

Dress Shopping with Meagen

2008-01-12T19:23:00.000-08:00

Today was just like heaven for me because I got to spend the day with Meagen wedding dress shopping. Oh how I miss the days of endless wedding planning. Now I just live vicariously through others tying the knot.

We had a whole entourage with us voting on dresses that she tried on. These are the two faves from David's Bridal, although she has enough time to try on many more dresses in her future. Either way, I think she is going to make one beautiful bride and I'm really excited to be helping her along the way.

So now it's your turn to help Meagen in the search for her perfect gown. Cast your vote on the poll to your right for your favorite dress.

Note: I'm not certain if those in attendance should be allowed to vote or not. When I think about it, even if I said they weren't allowed, I know they would vote anyway, so why bother?

Dress #1

Dress #2

Ben's Blurb - "Can you pass the salt please?"

2008-01-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, they really are Bears Salt&Pepper shakers. A friend of mine at work was in Los Angeles on vacation a couple of weeks back and saw them and said that she just HAD to get them for me. As a Bears fan, I've seen just about everything that's labeled Chicago Bears. Salt & Pepper shakers are new to me though. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them - but still pretty cool to have.

Spending our Christmas Cash...

2008-01-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

Ben's parents gave us a Costco Gift card for Christmas with enough money on it for us to take this long to consider how to put it to best use. Finding something that both of us wanted was the hardest part.

If Ben had his way, he would probably have a new GPS unit in the car right now. I thought this was silly, since I saw first-hand what this meant when his dad brought his along for our night out at Gospel Christmas. It was really used more like in-transit entertainment - "let's see what she'll say if we don't turn here..." . And really, we've been very successful at navigating our way between Tualatin and Sherwood so far.

Now, if I had it my way, I'd probably be sporting a new Coach purse or something shiny from the jewelry case. I'm still not sure why saying "If I look good, then you look good" didn't win my case.

So, after much deliberation and combining our saved up allowances, we decided on something that both of us will enjoy and use: A shiny new lens for our camera!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

I have been such a slacker on the blog and seem to have fallen behind. I'll start with our New Year celebration. Forgive me for being just a few days late.

The Craigs and the Smythes joined us for some light festivities. We planned on playing games, but we ended up just chatting and playing with Payton. I think he may have gotten spoiled with attention from so many people.

I got a chance to try out a new Weight Watcher recipe for Thai chicken skewers. The sauce was good but I dried out the chicken by being paranoid it was still raw. I also whipped up some yummy cupcakes and somehow managed not to eat any. Kristi delighted us with a delicious appetizer of homemade tortilla chips and some chili con queso (?) dip. Then we had a hot chocolate bar (copied Abby again, I'm so unoriginal). We had a little mishap when heating up the milk, but eventually pulled through complete with whipped topping and sprinkles. Umm.. did anyone make a resolution to go on a diet because this probably isn't helping, is it?

We all tired out fairly early and pooped out around 11. Yet another sign we are getting OLD. Thanks guys for being with us in the final hours of 2007 - what a great year it was!

Now that I'm writing this, I realized this was the 4th new year I have celebrated with the Craigs. Random, but true.

Ben's Blurb - "Well, it was squeaking..."

2007-12-29T13:21:00.001-08:00

So this morning started as any normal Saturday would. With a load of laundry in the washing machine. Naturally, washed clothes should ultimately end up in the dryer. Well, Andrea had left for Eugene and about an hour later - I hear a horrific screaming coming from upstairs. So after making sure that Payton was accounted for and, making sure the screaming wasn't coming from me since this is the last weekend the Bears will be playing football, I proceeded upstairs.

The dryer in the past has been making small random squeaking sounds and I've been expecting it to quit altogether. So upon hearing the tirade coming from the laundry room this morning, I was certain that it was in it's death throws. So I decided to tear it apart and see what I could do - what extra damage could I really do right?

Well, long story short (and a couple of extra screws later), it's back together and working quite well. (Whew)

70 Years....?

2007-12-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

So the last time there was a White Christmas in Oregon was back in 1937! I thought it might be a good idea to get this on the blog somewhere. Who knows when the next one will be.

We had a very quiet Christmas this year. We woke up and hung out at the house. We didn't do Christmas presents this year which felt a little weird. Since we went to Disneyland earlier in December, that was our Christmas gifts to one another. So we worked on a puzzle and just enjoyed watching the snow. Payton had fun out in the snow as well:

Christmas Eve!

2007-12-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone! This was our very first Christmas Eve as a married couple, and it was a good one.
The day started with both of us having to work. Blech! But we were actually able to get off work at 3:30 instead of the usual 5pm. We were planning on making it to the 5:30 Athey service, but we were able to make it to the 4 o'clock service instead. Which was great!

After church we headed to Ben's parent's house in Aloha and spent several hours there. It was a good time. There was enough food there to feed about 10 people at least! Afterwards we opened some presents and then headed home a little after 11pm.

Ben's Blurb - Football Season

2007-12-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

After taking Matt's lead - "Ben's Blurb" will be a potentially recurring theme in the Whitaker Family Blog. To kick this off, I figured why not start with something football related...is ayone surprised?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm an avid football fan, and a Chicago Bears Fan. I got into Fantasy Ball severaly years ago. Andrea just loves that about me!

Well, this Sunday basically ended the fantasy football run that I was having. This season I was ridiculously in 3 fantasy football leagues. And today marked the end of all of them. Next year, I may have to tone it down to 2. We took some pictures when Matt Craig and BJ Buckendorf came over to do the draft. It was a fun time. Our wives were downstairs trying not to think of their husbands as geeks. :) The Bears have also been eliminated from the Playoffs, so now it's time to pick another team that I may want to see win it all. I may just have to jump on the Cowboys bandwagon for the next few weeks. We'll have to see...