Merry Christmas!!!

I have failed at mailing Christmas cards this year so I've decided to do the next best thing, Internet greeting! Adam and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year! Amidst the chaos of Christmas shopping and planning for travel, it is easy to forget the reason for the season. We hope everyone is able enjoy time their friends and families this Holiday season. We are excited to come home to California to spend Christmas with our family! We have also enjoyed starting Christmas traditions with our friends here in Oregon. The above picture is our first time cutting down a Christmas tree together.

Christmas Time is Here!

I have to admit that this is the first time in many years that I have felt in the "Christmas Spirit"! I think the winter-like weather can be credited for it. It's been quite cold and we've had some very frosty mornings. It's not so bad so far... I am looking forward to our trip home to sunny California. Hopefully it will be nice and warm. I'll take 60 degrees as warm! It's funny how I've acclimated to the weather here. Suddenly 60 degrees is warm! I shouldn't say warm, it's more like relief from freezing!
Adam and I have been celebrating by cutting down our own tree and putting up Christmas lights on our house. Pretty fun stuff! As I mentioned before, we will be going home to California for Christmas. We are very excited to see our families. Adam was fortunate to get Christmas day off so we're even more excited about not having to rush home on Christmas Eve.
As for my new job, it's going well! I'm learning a ton of new things! Sometimes I feel like I'm in way over my head! I definitely have the medical background but I do not have the accounting background. I need to do some homework and get up to speed because I need to learn this stuff to do well at my job. Everyone has been helpful and they're always offering support which is a great thing to be surrounded by!
Adam and I have finally gone back to church. Between moving and working on the house and our work schedules we put church on the back burner. We're so happy to be back. We are loving our new church and God is speaking to us through every message! We also got back to House Church which was really nice!
All in all, this is shaping up to be a great end to 2011!

I'm going Downtown!!!

Exciting news... I got a new job!!! I've been keeping this opportunity on the down low because I didn't want to risk jeopardizing my other jobs. I am the new Accounting Assistant for Oregon Anesthesiology Group. My new office is located in Downtown Portland in the Pearl District. This is a great place to work, there are tons of great restaurants and shops nearby so Adam could come visit me for lunch and do some shopping too! The other great thing is I can take public transportation to get there! I won't have to drive our enormous SUV to work every day. Other benefits are a real salary, consistent schedule, and I get to work in an office again! I won't really get much Doctor or Patient contact because it's not that type of medical office but I will get a chance to grow my skills. The only drawback (which is also a benefit) is that it is a full time position. Although this is great for financial reasons, this also means less time at home with Adam. I've become accustomed to leisure mornings of watching tv and drinking coffee with him and now we'll have to save that till the weekends. I'm pretty excited still to have a "grown-up" job. I've been humming "Downtown" by Petula Clark all weekend.
I also have to share my my birthday weekend recap! On Thursday evening Adam and I went to pick up Aunt Jan from the airport. I think I referred to her in my last post as a "surprise". We got to the airport and Aunt Jan came out of the terminal without her bag. She claimed she had to check her bag because of a birthday gift that wouldn't pass security. We got down to the baggage claim and we were waiting for her bag when a girl approached us from behind and I began to think this weird girl was rudely going to barge in between us! Then the weird girl started to say something and I realized, that's my sister!!! Surprise!!! I was so excited to have both my Aunt and my sister here in Portland! Although, I was waiting for my other sister April to pop out of an elevator somewhere! Unfortunately, no April :o( But I could tell it was going to be a great weekend! We started with dinner at Salvador Mollys. Then home for a tour of our house. We got up on Friday morning and headed over to Multnomah Village for a lovely breakfast at Marco's Cafe. Then we headed to Multnomah Falls. Afterward, we went to do a little shopping at The Container Store. Then we went out for my birthday dinner at a Lebanese restaurant called Nicholas. Dinner was delicious and everyone enjoyed themselves! Saturday we kicked into high gear and started working on the kitchen. Aunt Jan is the shelf lining expert so she started that task. She also finished scrubbing my cabinets! Carrie helped clear the clutter and put things away. She also scrubbed my wainscoting in my dining room. We also washed some light fixtures. Then we stopped for a little girls lunch and shopping trip. Adam elected to stay home to continue working on his project. We ate at the Old Market Pub which is down the street from our house. Then we headed over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought a rug for the dining room and some other kitchen necessities. We came home and finished some more chores and then headed over to have dinner with Tia Patty and Daniel at Jade, a Thai restaurant in Sellwood. We came home and watched "The Wizard of Oz". Sunday morning we finished organizing the laundry room and my linen closet and then headed out for our last lunch together. We headed Downtown so Aunt Jan and Carrie could see where my new office will be. We had lunch at the Deschutes Brewery. Then it was time to head to the airport. It was hard to let them go but I was so glad they got to come in the first place. That concludes my birthday weekend. Now I get to look forward to the rest of November and in a month and a half we'll be home in LA for Christmas!

Oh right, my blog...

I've been sitting at my laptop (with internet!) for over an hour trying to remember the things I've been needing to look up or do on an actual computer and I just remembered, "Oh yeah, I should update my blog!" My contacts are so dry they may pop out but here goes nothing!
Adam and I are enjoying living in our home! It's still a work in progress but as of tomorrow or Thursday the kitchen floor should be complete and appliances back in place! A functioning kitchen equals a huge sigh of relief! As of now, we had to post a sign on our front door directing trick-or-treaters to the back door because our stove and refrigerator are blocking the front door. Speaking of trick-or-treat, Adam and I got to spend our first Halloween together as a married couple! It didn't go quite as I had imagined but we still had a great evening together! We ended up skipping the pumpkin patch but I whipped up some beef and barley stew in my crock pot, bought half a pumpkin pie, and topped off the meal with Pumpkin Beer. For Adam, of course! We watched some scary shows on tv and that was our evening! We only got two trick-or-treaters which was a little disappointing because we know there are a few more kids in the neighborhood. Oh well, more candy for us!
I can't forget to mention that we got cable!!! Direct tv to be exact (I guess it's not cable, it's satellite). Anyway, it's tv! We've been glued to the tv since! Well, while we're not working... It's seriously mesmerizing. Hopefully the obsession with it will wear off.
Although I can't believe it's already November, I think this month will be pretty eventful. First of all my birthday is coming up! Feeling oddly strange about turning 24. I only say this because even though 24 is still young, I can refer to the junior high years as, "ten years ago". Yikes! At least when you're only 24, ten years seems like a long time. I'm sure that ten year chunk will shorten over time. I'm excited because I'm getting a special visitor on my birthday weekend :o) After the birthday festivities we'll have a week to get ready for some more visitors!!! It's amazing how having a house opens up the opportunity for family to come visit! Then to end November, of course Thanksgiving. Adam may take a trip home to visit his family before Thanksgiving. I might go with him if work allows. A busy month for the Oregon Nunez's!
I promise to post pictures as soon as possible! We broke a camera so all my pictures are on my iPhone. Getting those onto the computer is going to be an adventure! I'm taking advice!

October 17, 2011

I'm well aware that it is not October 17th yet but that's the day we can officially move into our house! The missing laptop charger has been recovered and now I can give the full progress update on the house! As of now, about 98% of the house is painted. That is, all areas that will be receiving new flooring are painted. However, I'm re-painting the master bedroom because the only paint color I was sure of turned out to be borderline hideous!!! I should have stuck with safe colors like beige or creamy colors. The color in my entry way and living room is supposed to be a light grey and it turns out to have a purple tint to it. We're hoping it's just a reflection of the cherry hardwood on the sheen of the paint. If not... I guess we'll wait and see. We painted our guestroom a lovely sand color so I decided to put that on one wall of the master bedroom. The other walls are a shade lighter on the color swatch.
Adam broke ground on installing the new laminate flooring yesterday in the hallway. He's made some stencils, practiced cutting, and pulled up all the carpet in the hallway. And surprise, surprise... Stains! In the sub-floor! The stains in the carpet were obvious but I was hoping we'd get lucky and they would stop in the carpet or pad. At the beginning of this project I started to form a serious anger toward the family who rented the house before we bought it because of how filthy they were. When you're nose to nose with their remnants for days at a time, it gets to you! Not to mention the urine smell! Apparently, I'm the only one who can still smell it. Yes, even through the paint I can still smell urine! Now we have to paint sealer over as many stains in the sub-floor as possible or the smells won't go away. Of course, I'm the only one whose worried about it because I will smell urine till be move out of the house!
I came to a point where I felt bad about being angry at the children for the messes because I reminded myself that it's not technically their fault. It's the parents that I'm angry with!! I also have to mention that we moved all the appliances out of the kitchen in order to put the new floor in and we found a load of crazy objects behind the oven. Lets see: Golf balls, toy vampire teeth, toy snakes, toy airplane, egg shells (and egg ooze down both sides of the oven), a spatula, and a fork. I also found a child's drawing and a mini 3 Musketeers bar on top of the refrigerator. After a nice dinner with one of our new neighbors (the ones who told us about the edible underwear) we learned that some of kids had some health issues and they were basically neglected by their two-timing, World of Warcraft playing, psycho mother. Poor kids :(
Enough about the renters! Our new neighbors have been very welcoming to us! Everyone's happy to have us and see activity going on at the house. They've offered to let us borrow ladders and work lights which have been so helpful! I mentioned before that we were invited to dinner which was pretty cool! The couple is pretty fun to hang out with but unfortunately they're moving. Hopefully some nice people will move in to that house.
So, October 17th is when the carpet will be put in and we can move in! We can't wait! It will be so nice to have the major things done and be able to relax a little! I will post pictures when we're done!

Rain, is that you???

Yesterday morning I had to go to a part time staff meeting at The Container Store and we walked out and it was raining!!! I have mixed feelings because it's supposed to be fall which means white puffy clouds, brisk mornings, and colorful trees... Am I right? However, it was absolutely glorious to go to bed last night with the windows closed and wake up in a dark and cool room. How could I not spend an extra hour snuggling underneath my warm comforter! I'm sure like all weather that this is just a fluke!
I finished my first week of training at The Container Store, hooray! I have never received this much training for any job and I still have more! I admit, my brain was done by the end. I have learned a lot but still have way more to learn. Mostly product awareness at this point. I use the term awareness instead of knowledge because we aren't so concerned with being able to tell the customer everything we know about a certain product. However, when someone needs a paper tray that holds "tabloid" size paper, I do need to know if we even carry that. This is a true situation and the answer is no, we do not carry anything to hold tabloid size paper. In fact, I didn't even know what that was until I came across that customer. I think a few more 6:00AM merchandise processing shifts will help me be more aware of what we have and where it is! I also have to say that I'm very impressed by The Container Stores business, sales, and moral ethics. I've worked a couple retail jobs where they either don't care what you do at all or they mentally/emotionally abuse you for not performing and then don't give you tools to use to improve. The Container Store is almost fool proof! First off, I've been having a mental war over this but people come to our store to buy things. My first retail job was the exact opposite. People didn't want to buy the product but at The Container Store they really buy stuff! Our sales goals are outrageous and we're beating them almost every day! I'm so mind blown over this simple concept. Second, not only does that sort of make my job easier but even if it didn't this company gives you all the tools you need to sell. This ultimately makes the sales process easier but I have to practice at it because we're creating a genuine shopping experience for our customers. We're supposed to connect with people and offer solutions for multiple things not just one thing. We're not really supposed to ask, "How can I help you?" rather "Are we working on the office today?" Just more personable. I have to say, I'm out of practice. But it will become easier.
Adam is plugging along working away! He worked a trade last week which meant neither of us were home much. By Thursday we were both in desperate need for time together! I actually got a surprise on my car after work, can anyone guess?? A taco!!! Haha Ok sounds weird but he knew I would be hungry so he got me a taco from Taco Bell and left it on my wind shield with a note saying, "I love you" on it. As I approached my car I thought I got a ticket or something. Very sweet husband. He also took me to dinner at a Greek restaurant which was pretty good. I think we'll take Mom and Dad Nunez there when they visit in a week! We're excited to see them and we have almost their whole stay planned!
However, they won't be staying with us in our house! We got totally screwed on our closing. Our loan coordinator did a terrible job of communicating with us and didn't seem to know his job very well because all the paperwork was pulled together a approved AFTER the last minute! I guess he was supposed to send our approved paperwork to the escrow company two days before our close date (9/16) so we could sign, they could review, and we would get our keys on Friday. Our paperwork ended up getting approved and e-mailed to escrow on Friday (close date) and then the woman at the escrow company didn't understand how to open up the page to access the documents. She had to receive them by 3:00PM in order for them to be ready to signed on Tuesday. Well, she didn't answer any phone calls or e-mails to receive directions on how to open the docs. Now, we're waiting in the dark till Monday to see how much longer this is going to take. To top it off, our loan coordinator had the audacity to say that he thinks this was all done in a timely manner. Does he realize we had a 90 day escrow??? He's sending us a customer satisfaction survey and needless to say it's going to have a long letter attached about how someone should never say something like that when buyers are going to be closing almost a week late from their close date after a 90 day escrow. Given all the work that needs to be done in the house we ended up pushing our move out date from our apartment to later in October to give us more time. We're disappointed because we should be working on our house right now so we can move in and enjoy our home. We're hoping now that it's in the hands of the escrow company that things will run smoother but we're not holding our breath!
Well, if you're still reading thank you for listening to my rant! Happy Day to you!

10 Years Ago...

I was just thinking on my way home tonight that ten years ago I didn't even know what the World Trade Centers were. I remember getting ready for school (freshman year of high school) and my parents having the news on and asking, "Where is this?" thinking that this was another country. When they told me New York City I was kind of taken back because I was probably old enough to know what the World Trade Centers were yet I was clueless. Fast forward to now and I think of how much America has changed and sort of moved on from 9/11. I know I don't think about it often... Last night Adam and I were visiting some friends and we watched the documentary "9/11". I honestly thought I would have nightmares later because of some of the horrific realities of the film. It was also hard because it is from the firefighters point-of-view. I could not imagine Adam running into a 100+ story building knowing he probably won't come out alive. All of those service men and women were so brave! I don't know if I could be that brave. I admit, I can be almost cowardly at times. I just pray that something like that never happens again and my husband and family never have to endure that.
On a lighter happier note, Friday was Adam's birthday! Since I wasn't allowed to get him a Birthday present I decided to pamper him for the day! I started by making him a "gourmet" breakfast of ham and cheese frittata, chocolate chip pancakes, and chicken sausage. Then he got to play some video games and we went to the gym. Then we went to lunch at a bar in North West Portland and had pizza and beer for lunch followed by a trip to Powell's Book Store for some reading and people watching. After that we headed over to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) to watch a film at the OMNIMAX Dome IMAX theater. We saw "Tornado Alley" which was really cool! Then we ended the evening at Soho Asian Fusion for some sushi and sake. One of the highlights of the day is that I drove him everywhere! I really like for Adam to drive so it was a treat for him to get chauffeured around town. He also got to come home and play more video games. I think he had a good day :o)
So far this we has already started with my first day of work at The Container Store (Hooray!) and celebratory dinner at Pambiche, a delicious Cuban restaurant. Adam is working and reportedly got to watched a fly over on the roof of his station. Tomorrow he's off but I work 9-5 and the rest of the week is looking a lot like Christina working while Adam's home. He's working his regular days but he'll be home alone because I have training this week! Then Friday hopefully closing on our house!!! Celebrating the busiest week of this year!!!

Joys!

When I was still attending a Methodist church we had this thing during the service called, "Joys and Concerns" which was a time for the congregation to raise the hand and share something good that has happened that needs praise (Joy) or something that needs prayer (Concern). Lately, I've been having a lot of joys so I wanted to quickly share them because I know I get awfully full of complaints!
First, this last Saturday my little sister celebrated her 11th birthday! This is so surreal for me because unlike my older sisters, I was there the day she was born and watched this little baby grow into an 11 year old! I think about this every birthday because I'm so fascinated by the miracle of life. This must be what it's like to be a parent watching your baby grow up... Scary! I wish the best for her in her 11th year of life and I hope she can also survive her first year of Middle School!
Second, the joy of being BUSY! I've been helping Adam's aunt, Tia Patty with her son the past few weeks. He had about a month of no full time camps to go to and he's still needs a little bit of supervision and chauffeuring to tutoring and football. All I have to say is Portland was not built for traffic so driving across town to football practice is like a part time job! However, another joy has come from this which is that I'm really getting to know how to get around town! For the longest time I only knew the most direct route from getting from our apartment to Tia Patty's house but now I'm finally figuring out which streets go through and which don't!
Third, making new friends and connecting with old! This month has been the most social month I've had since I moved here. I met a new girl at our House Church who is also a CA transplant and we've managed to meet up about once a week. She's a pretty cool chick. I also received an e-mail from a girl who lived in Tucson, AZ who was family friends with my Aunt Jan's family who lives in Tuscon. She's new to Portland so we're going to meet up at some point! Lastly, my good friend from high school moved up here to live with her Aunt and Uncle and we got to meet up for dinner and gelato which was fun!
Adam told me a couple weeks ago when I was having a really bad day that I needed to create a list of short term goals for myself. Just about all my joys were in some way my goals. Even better news is that he worked a ton of shifts last week and he ended up getting an overtime shift today and works his normal shift tomorrow. We were worried that I would be sitting at home depressed with nothing to do but I'm actually needing to stop blogging to get ready to go do my drug test for The Container Store and head up to Tia Patty's to check on Leo (Adam's cousin).
Once last thing, I spoke with Adam's Abuela (grandma) on the phone the other day and she was congratulating me on the job and she said, "See! Your patience has paid off!" Yes Abuela, my patience, prayers, and pleas to God have paid off/been answered! I love her tid bits of wisdom! All for now, have an outstanding week everyone!

Finally!!!

I got a job!!! Finally, all the months of searching and applying for jobs has paid off!!! I applied and had two interviews with The Container Store and they called me the other day and would like to continue on with me. I have to pass the background check and all that first but it's looking good! I'm still nervous because I haven't signed anything yet. After I go in and fill out all the paperwork and stuff I'll feel a lot more relief.
I was not looking forward to going back into retail but I learned a lot about the company and they're extremely reputable and put their employees first. They treat employees very good which I'm excited about this because I've always worked in retail stores where they pay badly and you get in trouble when you don't sell anything when it's completely out of your control. The Container Store is very career oriented and they give their employees a lot of training. I'm excited about the training because I'll get to learn some new stuff and feel like I have a real job. The employee turnover in the store is also very low which is proof to me that they take care of their employees and I should be happy there.
Other then that Adam and I are a few weeks from closing on our house! I can't wait!!! We've met some more neighbors who have convinced us that the carpet in the house HAS TO GO!!! We obviously knew it was dirty so we were going to save money and have it cleaned. But now we know that the previous tenants had animals pooping on the carpet, dirty diapers laying on the carpet, and worst of all edible underwear mashed into the carpet by a small child! Adam and I are going to bite the bullet and get rid of it! Since we decided that the carpet has to go this means that we have to replace the hardwood before the carpet goes in for everything to match up correctly. We're looking into a nice laminate hardwood. We also have to paint before all the flooring goes in. Not to mention window treatments and a washer and dryer. Needless to say, it's a good thing I finally got a job!!! I'm so excited even though it will be a lot of work, I'm ready to move into my house!
Adam and I also started going to a new church... Sort of. We found a church closer to our new house called Solid Rock. We showed up on our first Sunday on time but we didn't know that there were so many people who go to the church so we ended up leaving because there weren't any open seats. No hard feelings though! We decided to start smaller because we really need to meet people are create genuine friendships so we have been going to a House Church through Solid Rock. A house church is like a Community Group or Bible Study. We do a little discussion about the scripture and lesson from the previous Sunday and then break into small groups and pray and then take Communion. The House Church we chose is really close to our new house and has a good mixture of people close to our age and walk of life. They're pretty tight knit from what they've told us so we were really encouraged to join a group that seems to run together outside of House Church. We have yet to actually attend a service at Solid Rock but we're very encouraged by the sense of community thus far! Thank you God!

The Thrill of Victory!!!

Adam and I got to go home to California for a little vacation last week and we went on a camping trip to Lake San Antonio. This is an annual camping trip that a group from Alicia's (Adam's mom) church goes on every summer and this is my second time going. Everyone in Adam's family was able to make it at one time or another, it was really great spending time with them. It was really great getting to spend time with our nephews because now every time we see them they have changed a lot. A few of the people that come have boats so a lot of the kids do a lot of wake boarding, tubing, and "wake skating", among other water sports. We decided to go on a special young adult ride so Adam, Brandon (my bro-in-law), and I could do some wake boarding. A friend of ours, Jon, was driving us on his boat and he asked me if I had ever tried wake boarding, I told him I've tried many times and cannot get up to save my life. I'm hopeless! Jon asked for 5 tries to get me up so I said fine, but I doubt it will happen! I let Adam and Brandon go first since they're pretty skilled at the sport. We got a nice show of them jumping, catching air, and even a nice back flip from Adam! Then it was my turn... Now, I'm not afraid of eating it because I've been there and done that many times. But I was still nervous about trying and failing again! I jump in yell to hit it and BAM! I popped up!!!!!! So amazing!!! Of course, I didn't really know what to do once I got up so amidst shock and excitement, I let go! After a few tries I finally stayed up and decided that staying outside the wake was easiest. I was so ecstatic that I was laughing and screaming because I finally conquered my long term goal of getting up on a wake board! My legs were starting to get wobbly so I decided to call it a day. I was so soar the day after but it was so worth it! I just wish my family could have been there to see because they're the ones who have put in all the effort to my previous attempts! I also have to admit though, that I think there were a couple of factors that helped me get up. First, the boat is smaller and faster then the boat I'm used to trying on. Second, the rope was connected to a canopy at the top of the boat rather then in the back of the boat. My cousin pointed this out to me. No matter what, I'm glad I was able to hold on! This isn't the greatest pic, I'm still trying to figure out how to save the images from the photographers Facebook.
Other news on the Nunez Front, we had our home inspection after getting back from CA and we passed! Now we have a large stack of paper working to go through for our financing. I'm sure our loan coordinator will be getting to know us well by the end of that!

Welcome to Home Ownership!

Adam and I have officially entered escrow on a home! The search was a little long but we knew what we wanted when we found it! I have to say that home buying in a state and town where you don't have much family or influence on where exactly to live is very hard! I feel that if you're living near family you choose a home near them. We were really working with a clean slate here! The whole Portland Metro area was at our feet. The first question to answer was, "West side vs. East side". We have received strong advice from many friends giving good advice on which side to live on. We spent a long time driving around every area and decided that the West side was best for us. We particularly liked Southwest Portland because we could enjoy suburban life and still be close enough to the City for entertainment. The first thing that sold us on our house is that it is in SW Portland and borders the suburbs of Tigard and Beaverton. It's perfect! We'll be close to everything! The only other question we had to answer was "Old house vs. New House". Originally, my answer to this was, "NEW! NEW! NEW!". I think most of my life I've wanted to live in a new home. But after seeing some of the great architecture of the homes built between the 1920's and 1940's I had a change of heart! However, we still chose a newer home. The neighborhood is close and a little unconventional but I think we'll be happy there!
The negotiations went well and we got a great price! The main reason we got such a great deal was because the home was in foreclosure and the bank is more interested in unloading the property versus a home owner who has sentimental value in the home. We had a little excitement with getting the paperwork done and starting our 10-day inspection period. We're going on a mini vacation and won't return till day 10! Luckily, the contract from the bank actually states that we have 12 days. The other piece is that the bank will most likely not repair anything unless it's something that will severely cause the property from not selling such as a broken sewer line. Anyway, I've been holding down the fort because Adam has been at work for two days. I had to work out with our realtor when to get our inspection done which resulted in shortening our trip to CA. I'm sure it will be well worth it! Below is a link to the listing for our home, you can check out all the details and pictures!
http://www.redfin.com/OR/Tigard/8955-SW-Nordic-Dr-97223/home/26671522

Pleasantville

I think God new that today was going to be laundry day because it's the perfect temperature outside to be running my dryer. A little cloud cover makes a huge difference!
I've found myself repeating a line from this movie that came out in 1998 called "Pleasantville" with Reese Witherspoon and Tobey McGuire. Most of you may know what I'm talking about but for those who don't it's about two teenagers from the 1990's who travel through their television and end up on a 1950's sitcom called, "Pleasantville". It's very stereotypical 1950's, black and white, wife vacuum's in pearls and husband comes home from work with dinner waiting for him. The town is really small and quaint and reminds me a lot of where we live in Wilsonville! The city of Pleasantville has two streets and Wilsonville has about 5 main streets. The line that makes the connection for me is when Reese Witherspoon is in a geography class and the teacher is giving a lesson on Elm Street, the dialogue is:
Miss Peters: Last week, class, we discussed the geography of Main Street. This week we're going to be talking about Elm Street. Now, can anyone tell me the difference between Elm Street and Main Street? Tommy. Tommy: It's not as long? Miss Peters: That's right, Tommy, it's not as long. Also, it only has houses, so the geography of Main Street is different than the geography of Elm Street. [Jennifer is frowning in bewilderment. She raises her hand] Miss Peters: Mary Sue! Jennifer: Yeah. What's outside of Pleasantville? [the entire class turns to look at her] Miss Peters: I don't understand. Jennifer: Outside of Pleasantville? Like, what's at the end of Main Street? Miss Peters: [chuckles and shakes her head] Mary Sue. You should know the answer to that! The end of Main Street is just the beginning again.
The reason this is so hilarious to me is because there are streets in Wilsonville that ultimately start and end at the same street. That's how small our town is!!! Adam and I agree that this was a nice place to start in Oregon but we're a little tired of this small town!

Catching up

Well, I haven't posted for a while because I had a sneaky suspicion that no one was really taking interest in my random banter but I've decided I don't care, I just feel like writing! I don't have much to update because things are almost the same as they were the last time I posted. I still don't have a job. I'm probably rounding application number 50 or 75 and still nothing! Not even a phone call. Although I have gotten e-mails saying the position I applied for has been filled. When was my interview? Oh right, I didn't get one. The only logical explanation that Adam and I have come up with is my lack of connections. The people getting hired are probably people who had connections. To remedy this factor I have decided to volunteer with a social welfare agency that helps families in need in the Portland area. I'm looking forward to this because I get to mentor a young female. This will be hard. I've volunteered in similar atmospheres and one thing I know is that at-risk youth are tough to get through to. But I'm up for the challenge! I would also like to volunteer at a local hospital but I'm holding out for a job a little longer before I put too much on my plate. I have extended my job search to restaurants and retail stores.
I had an interesting encounter a few weeks ago with a prospective connection. Adam and I signed up to do a stress study at the College of Natural Medicine in Portland in exchange for $20 gift cards to Fred Meyer. Desperate for a break much? I got to the school early and ended up poking my head into the office of one of the faculty members while searching for the study administrator. She let me sit in her office while I waited for the guy to get there and we chatted about jobs and my current job outlook. She mentioned that they would be having a position opening up in July for an administrative assistant and if I'm interested I should apply and e-mail her my resume and a cover letter and she would make sure that my application at least makes it to the top of the pile and is seen by the hiring manager. Yay! At least I will know that my application is seen. However, I haven't seen the job posting yet.
Aside from the job outlook, the only other note worthy observation I've made lately was at church. Earlier I mentioned that Adam and I have been attending a church close by called, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship. One of my first observations at ACCF was that they don't use screens to project the lyrics of the worship songs on. Instead, they hand you a small piece of paper with the lyrics on it as you enter the building. At first I thought, "Not very Portland-like, they're not saving trees!" but I also thought that maybe they can't afford screens and a projector yet because they are in a new building. I admit this question came across my mind every single time we went to church because I don't really care for holding that little piece of paper while I'm trying to worship. Finally, at last Wednesday night's service the pastor brought up the subject! Yes, finally!!! I was kind of disappointed with the answer. Not to say it's a bad answer though! He explained that he (and some other pastors) feel that the screen thing is too "churchy". Wait... What? With my upbringing "churchy" is an organ, a choir, and a hymnal! Screens and projectors are new and contemporary! He was explaining how the church strives to keep things as simple as possible so that's why they don't do any announcements and the service is strictly worship, a message, and communion. That sort of makes sense to me, I don't really agree with the "churchy" concept mentioned earlier, but that's merely my perspective on church. The point he made that I really agreed with was that it helps people actually learn the songs. The purpose of the little piece of paper is for new comers or visitors who don't know the songs. But they play a lot of the same songs, rotating in new songs, so people can actually use their brains and memorize the songs. This way they can fully be consumed in worship, hands free and eyes free. What a concept... For the record, the band doesn't use any sheet music either. A cool concept but I'm still not completely for it. This brings up the generational difference of the church goers who insist on keeping their organs and hymnals and now us who insist on having our screens and projectors! Very sociological! Haha... I could go on and on about this but I'm afraid I may have already lost my viewers. If there are any!

Job update

Well, after weeks of applying for jobs all over the Portland Metro Area it has finally paid off... For Adam!!! He wanted to pick up a summer job to save up for a down payment on a house so he applied for general labor jobs and got picked up by a paving company. So that puts us at 2-0. However, I did get an e-mail back about a volunteer position I applied for a couple weeks ago. The agency is called Morrison Child and Family Services. They are letting me know this week about what is available. I applied to volunteer in either the office or as a youth mentor. At first I thought this was just a cruel joke in life that my husband could get two jobs and I get a volunteer spot. But I figure this may be the way to go because the agency focused on the social welfare of the family and if I make it into an MSW program I have great experience to build my education on. I could always hold out for a paid position as well.
Adam and I have been talking a lot about how having a degree doesn't necessarily guarantee a respected job. I'm disappointed because I got my Bachelors degree thinking that it was my ticket to any job out there. I thought employers would looking at my application or resume' and see "Bachelor of Arts Degree" and hire me right away. Apparently, this is not the case! Almost every job ad I have seen asks for at least three years of experience. I thought I was awesome with two years of experience. The conclusion of this conversation is that I have to lower my standards. My search is being reduced to Nanny jobs and other domestic type work. This is a blow to my ego. I thought, I'm a college graduate and I'm going to make some money and be able to enjoy life, go shopping more, and maybe even travel. Now I'm applying to minimum wage nanny jobs. Not to say that Nannying is a bad job or anything. I just thought I would wait a few years before having to be responsible for children!
On a more positive note, I have started a new hobby! I bought my first basil plant! Adam and I took a little trip to Fir Point Farms in Aurora, OR. It's about a 10 minute drive from our apartment. They have green houses with plants you can purchase, they bring in local produce, and have a farm with goats, chickens, and bunnies! There is also a hiking trail and a farm store where you can buy more local products like honey and preserves. I submitted an application there too. I bought a basil plant thinking the weather should stay warm enough to leave it on my patio. A day later the clouds and cold came back and I have to move it inside. It's still alive!! I'm thinking about the advice in the movie "28 Days" with Sandra Bullock. She goes to rehab and one of her peers asks the counselor when they can start having relationships after leaving rehab. The counselor advises they buy a plant and if they can keep the plant alive for a few months they should buy a pet and if they can keep the pet alive for a few months then they are ready for a relationship. At the end of the movie Sandra Bullock walks into a plant store and runs into the old friend from rehab and he is arguing with the store owner that they sold him a bad plant because it died. The friend also has a dog on a leash with him.

America's Struggle... At least one of them.

As of the past few weeks I have hit the job hunt pretty proactively. I would estimate I have sent in at least one application or response to Craigslist Ad's a day for the past two weeks. The number of responses from those applications, nada!!! Before I left California I felt very confident in my ability to get a decent, well paying job. Now I feel almost completely worthless! However, to put things into perspective I have considered the follow outside factors that would be causing this delayed response. First, the response volume for ad's on Craigslist is extremely high and employers who are posting probably get very overwhelmed and only view the first 20 or so applicants. Second, I have also applied to two of the largest hospitals in the Portland area, these are the big wigs of Portland and let's face it, they probably have more important things to do before looking at hiring 100 applicants, first reason also applies. Last, connections! Some of these people who are posting probably just throw it out there to be fair to the public and then hire someone who is an acquaintance of a current employee. I know that last one sounds cynical but you never know! I can't help but feel that the inadequacy is not the fault of the employer but also part of the applicant, me. Yes, I got my degree and I have two years of great job experience but that doesn't seem to be raising any eyebrows. I think my main concern is that I pursued the wrong degree. Sociology is a great foundation for a Masters degree but I was so busy planning a wedding and trying to get my affairs in order to make the move to Oregon that I didn't really focus on my career or Graduate education. I am planning on applying to Graduate programs but that doesn't open up till next Spring. I can't do nothing till then! Among applying to jobs, I also applied for a volunteer position with an agency that helps families who are struggling. I can't sit in this apartment forever and do nothing! Unfortunately, our church doesn't exactly offer any outreach programs so that avenue is blocked. I guess one of my points here is that I really should have set myself up a little better with my education, either by achieving a more specialized degree or by being ready to enter a Master's program upon moving here. Bottom line, I'm starting to feel America's hurt for jobs. We want to work!!!
On a more positive note, I have began watching a new television series on Netflix. It was a show on Showtime that aired a few years back called The Tudors. I have actually gotten passed the funny language and have gotten somewhat hooked. The series is about King Henry VI (I think that's the number) and some of the historical events that took place. The series is not historically accurate which makes the show confusing but it's still amusing. I have to say that the language doesn't seem accurate either, the script seems to fall in and out of that Old English language. I could be wrong though!

I know everyone has been waiting for wedding pictures and my photographer just finished and sent all 500 photos to me on a CD! I have no idea how to e-mail a file that large and I'm actually sure that it's not possible so I thought I would just share a few photos on here to give everyone a little idea of how awesome my pictures turned out!

New Chapter

Adam and I have settled in to our apartment in Wilsonville, Oregon! Our first month as a married couple has gone pretty smooth and we're so happy to be together again! I decided to start this blog in an attempt to keep our family and friends posted on what is going on with us here in Oregon. I have a few friends and family that blog instead of relying on Facebook to be the messenger of their whereabouts. I'm inspired by this because I don't give much detail to our lives on Facebook and where better then a blog to talk about yourself and your family. Having studied Sociology, I'm always intrigued on what other people are doing so I figured it was also time to share a little about what's going on with us! I have to say that this new chapter in our lives is very exciting but at the same time we're kind of asking each other, "What's next?". For a long time we were trying to graduate college, graduate Medic school, apply for firefighting jobs, get jobs, and create a life for ourselves. Now here we are in our apartment, in this little city, with the road clear ahead of us! For everyone at home, I just want to give you an idea of where we live, we are in Wilsonville which is not Salem nor Portland! I will attempt to post a map on here. It's a very quite town, we have two grocery stores, a movie theater, and a Red Robin. We also have our own public transit system which we learned was installed for the major corporations that are established here such as Xerox, Sysco Foods, and Mentor Graphics. Adam and I hopped on one of the buses and half of the stops were at these establishments. The other perk that I must share is that we live less then five minutes away from Target! Yay! There is also a Costco and Pier 1 in the same shopping center. It's the small things like having Target nearby that make me feel a little more at home.
Other then that, Adam and I have began some interesting newly wed projects. We decided to buy a table from Goodwill and re-finish it ourselves. With a new electric sander and some tools that my dad gave to Adam, we've slowly but surely made some progress on one chair so far! Luckily, we have Tia Patty's (Adam's aunt in Portland) garage to do our project in. Speaking of Tia Patty, Adam and I have been making a much need effort to have Sunday dinner with her and her sons, Daniel and Leo. This is a custom that we used to do with my family back at home and we insisted on bringing it to Oregon. I've also been taking advantage of her company while Adam is at work. Patty is also off work for the time being so she likes the company!
Adam and I have also started going to a church here in Wilsonville called Athey Creek Christian Fellowship. It's been a very good experience so far, they have a lot of great ministries for Adam and I. They have a newly married couples group, a hiking group, and a snowboarding group. The church is filled with young couples and young families which is good for Adam and I. We're trying to make new friends in our area.
I think that's all for now!