Ferris Wheels, Funnel Cakes, and Fried Food - The Fair

I've been so stressed out for, oh, probably the last month and a half and it is really starting to take its toll on me.  I'm sure this is a surprise to no one.  But I think the combination of new thyroid hormones, Thyrogen shots, extreme stress and a weird diet have done me in.  I'm tired and get grumpy pretty easily.  Plus my appetite likes to play a little game of being non-existant to totally raging.

Before your mind goes there... no... I'm not pregnant.  What proof?  How about that wonderful blood pregnancy test I was forced to have that probably won't be covered by my insurance last week before my iodine dose and scan that resulted in a lovely arm bruise?  Will that work?  Ok. 

And I think if my insurance tries to not pay for this one, I am going to call and cry gender discrimination.  This will be the 3rd pregnancy test I have HAD to have this year for my cancer stuff.  The first two were urine tests that cost me $25 that were not covered by insurance.  For $25 I could have walked to the Walgreen's across the street and bought a box of 3 for less than $25.  Not to mention that my almost 2 years of trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant makes being forced to have a pregnancy test kind of an insult.  But I think if a doctor is making me take the test, my insurance should cover it.  If I were a man, I wouldn't even have to have the stupid test.

Did I mention I get grumpy easily?

The point is... I'm tired.  If you couldn't tell from my pictures, we went to the fair this last weekend.  And we did everything you are supposed to do at the state fair:  Saw the animals.  Ate fried food.  Walked through the exhibit halls to see the crap they are selling.  Get yelled at by a salesperson (more on that later).  Eat fried food.  Ride some rides.  Have a scone (or two).  Watch the boys get into a giant hamster wheel.

{Pictures are kind of blurry, but whatever.  You get the idea}

Why didn't I think of this?  It's GENIUS!  Another lost opportunity.

David didn't get his face painted like the last two years.  And he didn't say anything super cute or hilarious either.  But he did ride one of the big people rides and loved it.

Jeffrey and I rode the ride too.  But we didn't enjoy it as much as the girl next to us.

But he couldn't go on all the rides.  He was pretty bummed he couldn't go on the giant swings I made Jeffrey go on with me.

{Phil took this picture and I love it.  So cute}

Next year, David.  You'll be big enough next year.  Then your problem will be your dad letting you go on the rides.  :)

Anniversary Dinner

To celebrate our second anniversary, we had decided we would keep it simple and just go out to eat at a nice restaurant in town.  Not too nice, but a little nicer than normal.  So we made reservations.

But things didn't go quite at planned.

That afternoon, my uncle ended up in the hospital.  Since my dad's side of the family is really close, my dad and uncle that I work with went to the hospital right away to be with him.  That meant that my dad needed someone to cover his evening meeting for him.

I volunteered.

The meeting was super easy.  I basically just went for looks (which I'm pretty good at).

So here's what we did instead:

We went to the dog park.  I was run into by a husky, which left a lovely bruise on my shin.

Went to Petco.  Nothing says "I love you" like a pooper scooper.

Had a romantic dinner.

McDonald's drive thru is romantic.  He said I could have anything off the menu.  :)

Honestly, after the year we have had I am not surprised that our plan didn't work out.  But who cares?  We certainly didn't.  We spent the evening together and exchanged mushy cards.  I was able to fill in so my dad could be with his brother.  And most importantly, my uncle is ok.

It was a wonderful anniversary.  :)

More about our gifts later.

Memorial Day

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, my family decorates the graves of some of our family members.  This year there were 19 of us. 

Most of my grandpa's family is all buried at the same graveyard and decorating their graves is something my grandma and aunts have done for YEARS.  My parents and I started doing it with them after my grandma died.

{My Aunt Teresas putting together 13 arrangements.}

My great great great grandmother came to the Unites States in the late 19th century from Russia.  I think it is really interesting to learn our family history, and a lot of it is located in the one cemetary.  One of my favorite parts of decorating the graves is explaining to people the funny stories about our family tree.  Let's just say, the branches may run a little parrellel, but they DO NOT CROSS! 

Ok I'll just explain... Three brothers from one family married three sisters from another family.  There were actually four sisters, so one had to marry into a different family.  I wonder if she felt left out or unique.

After we decorate the graves, my dad sets up his tripod and we take a family picture.  Some may think it is a little strange to take a family picture at a cemetary.  Yup... We are weird.  Then we go out for lunch.  This year I got to make our waitress feel SUPER awkward when she asked us if we were celebrating any birthdays and I explained we had been decorating graves.  Good times.

Not all of our family is buried in the same cemetary.  My great great great grandfather is buried in a Pioneer Cemetary located in a Vineyard called Cox Cemetary.  This time, we ran into one of the Cox decendants and she explained a bunch of the history of the cemetary.  We are the decendants of pioneers.  I knew my love of the Oregon Trail Game wasn't unfounded.

{Not a bad view}

{Old Pioneer graves}

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Twitter Family Reunion

My cousins are awesome.  I am sure I have mentioned it before.  Currently, they are all students at Oregon State University getting smart in all kinds of wonderful things.  Because they are young and I am older and wiser, I offered some dating advice for them a while back.

That's what older cousins are for.

Lindsay just got a twitter account and she and I had the following HILARIOUS (at least to me) conversation the other night:

Me:  I've noticed you have a thing for cats:  http://www.moredesignplease.com/moredesignplease/2012/3/27/kitty-couture-by-tokyo-lux.html

Lindsay:  That is the best thing I've ever seen!  Except that the kitty eyes would be on my boobs...

Me:  Oh would that make you uncomfortable?

Lindsay:  Not at all.  I'd have a kitten and that's all that matters!

Me:  You wouldn't be able to say, "Excuse me my eyes are up HERE!"

Lindsay:  As long as nobody tries to pet my cat shirt.

Me:  Only if you want them to.

Linsday:  I'll try that at the next blood drive.

{Kitty shirt from HERE}

She's a riot.  And a ginger.  The two things might be related, I don't know.

Follow me on twitter:  @mrsnjanney

State Fair

On Labor Day weekend, our family made our annual trip to the state fair.  This year did NOT disappoint.  Here are some highlights:

The view isn't always nice.  Gotta love the state fair around sunset, when the lights come on.

DRAGON!

How cute is THIS?!?  He walked right up to the face painter and said he wanted the Green Lantern mask.  When the face painter said she didn't know what that was, he simply pointed to his shirt.  Stephanie said David picked out that shirt specifically for the face painter.  So he is a little Green Lantern.

This might have been one of the best parts.  We went to look at the newest piglets.  There was a crowd around the pig pen and a bunch of the piglets were eating (obviously).  In front of the large crowd, David says, "The piggies are on her boobies."  To which Jeffrey replies, "They must have gotten their suckling reflex early."  It was funny.
Can't wait to see what next year brings.

PS - A couple of years ago, Foster Farms gave out "No Plumping" T-shirts for free.  We grabbed a couple.  Towards the end of the night, I decided to put mine on David (who was 1 and a half at the time).  The shirt was like a dress on him.  We then let him walk around for a little bit until he was tripping on  the shirt.  It was pretty stinkin' cute watching a baby walk around in a huge shirt that said "No Plumping."  I wished I had a picture.  It was the best Foster Farms ad I had ever seen.

Chocolate Milk

When I was little, my dad had to go on a lot of business trips. I was lucky enough to get to go on several of them but there were a few times when I stayed with my grandparents instead.

At the time the separation from my mom was really hard. That coupled with the giant Virgin Mary night light my grandma would keep in my room.

But there are a few things about staying with my grandma and grandpa that were always a plus.

1) Feeding the cows with Grandpa.

2) Grandma always had Fruitie Pebbles. I STILL loves those all the time.

3) Chocolate Milk

My grandpa had Parkinson's Disease and by the time I was 5 or 6, he was already having some mobility issues. And I think with every meal, my grandma would serve Grandpa some chocolate milk in those small teal plastic cups with a straw. I always got a little cup too. Not too much. There had to be enough for Grandpa. :)

I love chocolate milk. And I like that it reminds me of my grandpa.


Love, Mrs. Janney

South Beach Weekend

This past weekend was the Grenz/Burrus Annual Camping trip at South Beach in Newport.  And let me tell you... it was a good one.  The weather did not disappoint.

I tend to look forward to this camping trip with a lot of enthusiasm.  So much so that the Janney household left Thursday instead of Friday.  Going home after work would have slowed me down, so Phil and I packed up the car so I could hit the road right after I finished my CMU Reinforced Masonry Lateral Design (I rocked it by the way).  This of course meant I had to bring the dog to work with me.  She was a hit and such a good girl.  I am thinking of making her a vest with a pocket to hold a scale and a mechanical pencil so she can be the office mascot.

Taylor and I met up with Phil in Corvallis for lunch at Local Boyz.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  If you are ever in Corvallis and you like Hawaiian food, you have to go there.  And get the macaroni salad.  I ate until I was sure I was going to explode.  Just thinking about it now, I am drooling a little.

Once we got to the campsite, we set up our tent.  David was such a good helper.  Seriously.  For a 3 year old, that kid has some excellent mechanical skills.  He legitimately helped with the tent.

Phil and I signed up for the Gorge Half Marathon in October.  And because of our schedules and stuff, we are behind on our training schedule.  So Thursday night, we had to do a 4 mile run.

The weather was perfect.  We really like running at the beach, as mentioned previously HERE.

The next day we tried to go to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse but it was crazy windy and there were a bunch of people there, so we stopped by Fred Meyers to pick up a few things.  David helped my dad pick out some epoxy.

Saturday morning, Phil and I hit the pavement for a 8 mile run.  Here are some pics from that.

Saturday afternoon was spent on the beach which was of course really windy.  You can't tell because I was the one taking the picture, but I was dressed like an eskimo.  A long sleeved shirt, a down vest, light sweatshirt, a fleece jacket, running pants, and sweat pants.  The plus side to that was 2 fold: 1) I was actually not freezing and 2) I didn't need to apply as much sunscreen.

So there you go.  A few snapshots from our weekend.  It was SO FUN and relaxing just to get away.

And seriously... go to Local Boyz.

Bounce house, drag, and family... Just a normal weekend

I had one of the busiest weekends I have had in a while this last weekend.  It started by driving to Tigard to drop off some PE prep books to Gavin.  Then immediately driving to Clackamas for Tegan's dress fitting.  Back on the freeway to drive south for my brother's grandmother's 90th birthday party (did you follow that?).

My brother and his cousins (he is my 1/2 brother) organized a really nice party at his house full of wonderful food, lots of wine, and a bounce house for the kids.  While watching the boys all play in the bounce house, David looks at me and says, "Aunt Natalie... you can't get me" and then runs into the bounce house.

So I decided to run in after him...

Let me tell you... the bounce house was quite the work out.  My calves were tired after I got done.

From there, I headed back up to Portland for Tegan's Bachelorette Party.  Happy hour at Portland City Grill followed by...



Dudes.  All dudes.  Who all look better than I do in lingerie.  Sad.  :(  But I digress.  Then we went back to Brittany's AWESOME house for a sleepover.  No pictures of her wonderful house because I would have felt like a major creeper taking pictures of someone else's house.  But let me just tell you... it was gorgeous.  Perfectly decorated.  Seriously.

Anyway... after going to bed at 4 and waking up at 9, I headed back south down to Albany for the Grenz Family Reunion at Kizer Farms.

It has been at the same place for as long as I remember.  I asked how long the family reunion had been going on (it is an annual event) and turns out it started as a birthday party event for my great-great-grandmother, Eva Hirning Grenz Ammon who came to the United States from Russia.  You can all thank (or curse) her for brining this wonderful family to the U.S. 

What?  Your family reunions don't include meetings with minutes and officer elections following Robert's Rules of Order?  Huh... Weird.  Phil and I are on the books for the newest married couple 2 years in a row.

It may not be here next year.  That will be weird.  We Grenz's aren't great with change.

After a couple more hours we met up with my parents for the most amazing pizza EVER.

Padington's.  And then I went home and fell asleep at 8:30.  I am wild.  And you all quit reading 5 pictures ago.

What a week

Sunday night, I was laying in bed totally dreading this week.

My boss is gone for the next three weeks, meaning I am the only engineer at work.  And since getting my license in January, I haven't had to stand alone and stamp things.  This caused a certain level of nervousness which I am sure everyone can understand (I can tell you are nodding as you read this).

I knew that next week I had some fun things to look forward to and lots of work to do in preparations (aka work like mad) for Tegan's bridal shower.  So that week would FLY by and would end with a fun little party where I get to see some friends.

And the week after that... well... let's just say I am a HUGE nerd and Harry Potter is released on Friday.  Everytime I see the HP trailor on TV, I get full body chills.  In fact, just sitting here thinking about it I got full body chills.  Kind of makes me want to run through my office and jump.

Alright, so now that I have embarrassed myself I will move on.

I figured I just needed to get through this week, and then the next 2 would FLY BY.  By wednesday, I was ready for the week to be over.  Thursday morning, I woke up and thought it was Saturday.

But you know what, this week has had some delightful surprises.  Phil and I were able to make some decisions about some things, we went to the gym two days in a row, I am feeling energetic and optimistic.  To top it off, Phil and I are going to a Volcanoes game tonight with my brother and his family!!  I LOVE hanging out with them and they are usually so busy that it is hard to see them.

Here are some pics from the last game we went to with them:

It was so much fun!!  I am secretly hoping the boys will last longer tonight.  It would be cute to see how they react to the fireworks.

You never know what the week will bring.  This week was good to me.

Love, Mrs. Janney

Busy Lately

Oh man... to say that things have been hectic lately is nothing short of an understatement. Things have been less than ideal these last 2 weeks.

Without going into too many details, Phil's dad had a medical emergency (I'm not sure how much information Phil is comfortable with putting out there). Since family is pretty much one of the most important things to me and because Phil IS the most important thing to me, I sent Phil to Virginia right away to make sure he could spend time with his family. He was gone a week.

At the same time, I was trying to prepare for my best friend Joanna's baby shower. I had been looking at ideas and trying out recipes for a couple of months. I wanted it to be just right... classy and unique. Well Phil and I had planned on getting a lot of work done around the house to prepare for having people over for the shower, but he had to leave suddenly. So I had to try to figure how to do everything I had orignially planned AND get the house ready all at the same time by myself. I mean, I could have cut back on the stuff I had planned for the shower, but I really wanted to do it the best I could for Jo. I feel like amazing friends deserve amazing things.

On top of that stuff, I was dealing with trying to be supportive of the stuff Phil and his family (who I have not always gotten along with the best) were going through and trying to wrap my head around the changing circumstances of my new family. Money got thrown into the mix too but we won't talk about that.

I survived the week. Thanks to some help from my parents and LOTS of work by Phil once he got back, the shower was exactly what I had in mind for Jo and her baby on the way.

Also during last week, massive hiccup at work. All I will say is a combination of my being REALLY stressed, passive aggressive co-workers, and total lack of sensitivity caused a MAJOR breakdown for me. Even now after it has been "dealt with" I am still kind of knocked back from it. I don't bounce back from some things very well and I can tell this is definitely one of those things.

Even now I feel like I could burst into tears over everything right now. To say that I am a little depressed is an understatement. I am trying to pull myself out of it, but it is hard. Exercise has been helping. I guess it is good that my desire to lose weight trumps my bad feelings. :)

In other news, I have taken a step backwards when it comes to my coffee consumption. I had started drinking my coffee black to cut back on the calories and because sugary cofee kind of grosses me out now. But the other day I decided to get a soy misto from Starbucks (a past favorite of drink of my friend Karla). They use the Vanilla Soy Milk. It is SO GOOD. And I have had one everyday since. I stopped using soy milk a while ago (I used to put it in my tea) but stopped because of the estrogen mimicking effects of soy. I figure I will have to stop when we start having kids so I might as well enjoy it now.

The baby shower forced us to finish getting the house looking nice and I LOVE IT!! We bought an area rug for the living, mainly to cover some stains on the gross carpet. We used a belated wedding gift card to get one from Target (thank you Alan and Jen).

We got our thank you notes so now I have to start getting those done. I will be glad to have those done. I feel like a bad person for not having gotten to those yet. But it is kind of bad timing because I registered last week to sit for the PE Exam in October. And I HAVE to pass it. Well I don't have to, but I REALLY REALLY want to. So I have to start studying for that. I figure if I can do like 10 thank you cards a day, I should have them done in a little over a week.

We are leaving for the family camping trip tonight and I am so excited. Seriously. I am super excited. I am not so sure about being excited to be around my family since the last time I went I left early because they were so mean to me. I am hopeful though that this time will be better. I just really need a little break. Actually I think I could use a long break but I will have to settle for a short one. Gotta take what you can get.

Anyway, I will post some pictures from the baby shower soon. I really need to download them because I want to give them to Joanna. I will leave you with this picture of the Mommy-to-Be. She has about 4 weeks until her due date and she is pregnant OUT IN FRONT. Like she has not gotten any wider and you can't tell she is pregnant from the back. The baby is OUT IN FRONT. Totally worth all the work to have a shower for this lovely lady. :)





Love, Mrs. Janney