#73 Take 2

I visited the downtown VooDoo donuts finally too! Last Thursday...the 23rd of December, I went out with my sis, my mom, Kel's friend Laura, Dani, my cousin's friend Monica, Auntie Gayle and my cousin Meredith to celebrate Meredith's 21st birthday. We began our night taking shots at my house before heading downtown to get some dinner. We ate dinner at Chipotle (after seeing Red Robin had a 45 min wait), then headed over to the Rose Garden to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas show. From here Monica left us (she is only 20) and we headed to Dirty (to dance on some stripper poles to the one and only Britney Spears...we were the only ones in there being it was only 9:00 the night before xmas eve). From there we went over to Dixie's and danced the next 2 hours away. My mom and Auntie Gayle went to Powell's books while us girls partied it up. At an early hour of 11ish, the young girls were tired, so we ventured down to Voodoo donuts. It was full of weird people (as to be expected) and luckily none of us got sick from eating a donut from that dirty place. I had a maple donut w/ bacon...2 of my fav. things! The first time I was at Voodoo I chose something crazy and wasn't a huge fan, so I had to go with what I knew would be delicious...and it did not let me down :) The others in the group ordered a variety of donuts, in which all were satisfied. I am not sure if I would visit this place sober and actually eat the donut that was purchased....:) (PS the camera was left in the car :/...I was not in charge)

#73 Voo Doo

VOOO DOOO DONUTS!!! I did visit!! We have some long time family friends (my parents went to high school with them) who's daughter (more my age) got married @ Voo Doo Donuts on HALLOWEEN!!! It was a very interesting place! We didn't visit the downtown location, but rather the one on the East Side. I had a GIANT Carmel Apple Fritter that was delicious until I had about 3/4 left (it was so sweet and I felt sick but still kept trudging along. I was offering bites to anyone who wanted one!) I am not sure why I chose this donut either...maybe because it sounded unique?! I am not even a real apple fritter fan...weird!! I wish it would have had WAY more carmel than it did...next time I will try something different, as I will be visiting there again sometime because I LOVE DONUTS!! :)

Me & my Carmel Apple Fritter Donut

The Beautiful Bride and Groom

Yep I was there...finally

The menu, yet the spinning jewelry case had tons of different donuts in it.

Brynn was there and loved the donuts too!!

#80

Part of our beer can bag
Momma Ruth and her girls

Our group Friday Night

Making dinner

Dong Bong before the trip :)

See a concert @ the Gorge in George, WASHINGTON! yeah I finally was able to go to the Dave Matthew's Concert w/ the girls. In the years past my parents, my sis and bro have all gone...along with one of my bestest friends, Laci. However, this year we left the boys at home and I was able to join. Friday night (I forget the date...i would need to go back and see...I think it was the beginning of September) Whit, Kel, Anna, mom and me loaded up the truck, did a beer bong from Kelly's dong bong (not momma Ruth cause she was driving) and off we went! We arrived @ The Gorge ampitheatre many hours later...ready to PARTY!! We were lucky enough to have floor seats for the Friday night show! It was tons of fun, despite the fact we were all exhausted! Saturday AM we woke up and partied some more! Anna and I made breakfast sandwiches and we were off! Dozens of Jell-O shots from Kelly's suringes and many, many games of flip-cup w/ total strangers later...Whit had been "married" to a Canadian, we had dances on the top of the truck, moms nickname had been established...Momma Ruth....I had taken a bite of a random guys hamburger while walking around trying to find Kelly and Whit, I had "taken a short nap" in the neighboring camp on the grass, Kelly's friends had joined us, we cut our sleeves off of our DMB Tye Dyed shirts, Allison had taken a drink from a franzia bag that was duck taped to another random guys stomach, we had ridden the bus over to the ampitheatre, I had taken another short nap on the grass waiting for the concert, Kelly and Jocelyn had bough $20 socks because NONE of us had been prepared for the freezing weather that we were about to endure, mom spend who knows how much on a blanket and long sleeve shirt because again it was FREEZING!, we spent an arm and a leg on not very good food because we didn't eat dinner before heading the concert, we moved from really good grass seats to HORRIBLE grass seats where we couldn't even see the concert, mom was nauseated from inhaling marijuanna all night sitting down in our floor seats where Kelly and I traded off, all the girls were huddled on the grass trying to stay warm because we were in short sleeve shirts and shorts, we left the concert early because we were SOO cold and momma ruth wasn't feeling well, we all bundled up in LAYERS UPON LAYERS of warm clothes and cuddled into bed to hear only a short while later "momma ruth momma ruth momma ruth!" from our fellow Canadian friends we had been drinking with prior in the day...we were all too warm to get out of our sleeping bags, and were out for the night! The next morning, we packed up and were sad our girls weekend @ DMB had to come to an end. On our drive back we had to stop in Yakima at some Model T guys house some mom could take some pics of a car the guy has no intentions of selling anytime soon! But oh well...it was a great part of our trip! We photo documented everything and were able to get a good laugh when we got home to see all the crazy things we had done! :)

#44 Take 2

I ran another 5k, this time, Race for the Cure in Portland, OR. This was way back on September 19th...I know a LOOONNNNG time ago! I forget what my time was too...it was much faster than the Crawfish Crawl I know that. I want to say I ran around 24 minutes. So about 8 min. miles, which is an improvement. I will post pics later cause i am not on my computer :)

#32

Ahhhh a pedicure! I hadn't gotten one in forever!! I met my mom and sister on July 7th (I know a loooong time ago now) to get our feet pampered. I forgot to take a picture of it...because it is my feet :) The nails were painted pink...no special flowers like my mom and sis. I had forgotten how great a pedicure feels!! I need to do these more often!! :)

#58

We finally had a play date. Brynn and I met Michelle & Elizabeth at The Children's Museum on Thursday. The girls had a blast! I hope we can get together with other little ones on a regular basis because Brynn LOVES little kids! Here are a couple of pics from our adventure!

#44

I did it...without training! I will attempt this one again though because I didn't run as fast as I am capable. My parents have been on a workout kick for the past few months, and I convinced them to run the Crawfish Crawl 5k in Tualatin during the Crawfish festival. My mom was hesitant at first because she hates running, so I told her I would run with her...so I did. We finished in 28 minutes. I hadn't ran in over 3 weeks prior because I had hurt my foot and my mom despises running so it was a great feat!!! We plan on doing other local races as well...the next on our list include Race for the Cure & Pints to Pasta. Maybe this will be a new trend. I do have a picture of this, however, it was taken on my moms camera...so i will post when I get it :)

#53

I did it!!! I shampooed our living room carpet!!! It is disgusting how much dirt was in it...and I am sure I could go over it again and get just as much! I am so glad I did this because we play on the floor a lot with Brynn. Now the key is...I need to take off my shoes when I come inside (I don't know why I love having my shoes on so much....because really I love when they are off), also we need to try not to let Brynn eat in there (she is a snacker so if every time she snacked she was in her high chair...she'd be in there A LOT) and no other beverages but water allowed :) We have been doing a lot better about eating at the table (Jerret and myself) so hopefully this will be a habit that sticks to help avoid potential spills on the carpet...now to keep my cat from coughing up her hair balls!! I shampooed 1/2 on Sunday, and the cat puked on that 1/2 Sunday night...AHHH!!! Today I finished the other 1/2 while Brynn was napping, hopefully the cat will not puke on it while I am sleeping tonight. Out of all the rooms in our house, why does she have to pick one of the 2 carpeted ones????

Just a glimpse at the nastiness the cleaner got out of the carpet...EWWWW!!!

2nd 1/2

First 1/2

#89

I began my trek on #89, find 15 new dinner recipes. Ihave been wanting to make Vegetable Rice Pilaf since visiting my friend in Colorado last summer. Finally, I decided I needed to find a recipeand make it. I just googled searched Vegetable Rice Pilaf and found one I thought looked good on Cooks.com. I know this wasn't a whole new dinner recipe, however, it was the first time I had cooked catfish too, so I guess it was somewhat of an ALL new experience. The pilaf turned out all right. It called for white rice and all I hadwas brown rice, so after the said amount of cook time, the rice was not done,but all the liquid had been soaked up, so I had to pour an extra can of chicken broth in, and it was still somewhat crunchy :( The flavor was good, despite the fact I went a little overboard on the pepper :) I would try this recipe again, but maybe use more water with the chicken broth when cooking so the rice can get completely cooked.RECIPE:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter

1 small onion, diced

1 celery stalk, diced (I used 2)

1/4 cup diced mushrooms (I used 4 mushrooms)

1 1/2 cup white rice (I used brown)

1/4 c. dry white wine (I used whatever white wine I had...Eola Hills Riesling...boy was it tasty while cooking)

2 1/4 cup chicken broth (I started w/ 1 can and ha

d to use a 2nd)

2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

pinch salt, pepper and dried thyme

In a heavy saucepan melt butter over medium

high heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, salt and thyme. Saute, tossing for about 3 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring until the

grains become translucent (about 2 minutes). Add

wine, and continue to cooke on high until nearly dr

y (about 2 minutes)

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Stir, cover and lower heat. Simmer until liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender (about 17 min)

Remove from heat, stir in pepper and fresh parsley fluff w/ f

ork. Serves 4-6

**Well with all of my side notes, maybe mine didn't turn out because I didn't follow the recipe to a "T" oh well, it was worth a shot :)

#71

Today Jerret & Brynn helped me complete my very first item off of my list...take Brynn to the Zoo. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and time off and decided to venture out. Brynn is the perfect age. She loved looking at the animals (despite the fact we went through the time of her AM and PM nap). She was a trooper...by the end of our 3 hour visit, we put her in the car and she was OUT before reaching the freeway (less than 3 minutes away)! I am so glad we were able to go as a family and experience this together. We took lots of pictures and I can't wait to take her again...maybe in another year or so :)

In addition to accomplishing the zoo, I am also working towards blogging about each item and photo documenting each as well :) ENJOY!!

Here I go....

I have decided to begin a 101 in 1001 journey. I read about on a friend's blog and decided it would be a fun challenge to widen my horizons and accomplish things I have always wanted to but never have gotten around to. It was easy for me to come up with my first 20 things, and from there it was a bit challenging. As I was about finished making my list, I set my pen down, and told my husband "I don't think I am going to do this" he asked "why?" and I responded with "What if I don't write things down that I really want to do? What if I am forgetting things?" He inspired me to take the challenge and said it will help me to get out and actually do fun things that I have been wanting to. This should be considered a jump start to those activities. I was thankful for his continued encouragement and am glad I am going to take this journey. Having me talk about it so much, he is working on a list of his own...he is not quite ready to begin yet though. I am hoping to keep up with the blog and work towards accomplishing many of the items that reside on my list! Hope you enjoy reading about my journey along the way, and it would be fun if I could inspire you as my friend did me!