David Crowder Band

A couple weeks ago, we made a quick trip to Portland to see DCB on their final tour. It was on a Tuesday night, so we left work after lunch on Tuesday to head to Portland for the concert. What you are about to see are some really awful pictures from my phone. I still have an iPhone 3GS and the camera on there is pretty terrible. You'll see the evidence below. Nonetheless, I want to document the memories, so here is how the night went down.

We thought we showed up for the wrong concert when Brad Paisley's bus was beside us as we waited in line to get in the show.

Kory was supposed to be showing how excited he was for the concert...

We got into the venue and I quickly realized there would not be seats like I had imagined and we would be standing for the next 6-7 hours. Oh boy.

I thought it would be a grand idea to take a picture of Kory and I while we waited for the concert to start. You can see how well it turned out.

The guys standing behind us asked me to take another one so they could be in it, so I took one of Kory and two strangers. At least they sort of have half a face in this one.

Next those guys offered to take one for us with us facing the chandelier so the light would be on our faces. Slight improvement. 

Finally, one of them held his phone right above our faces to cast light on us and then the other one took a picture with my phone. This is as good as it got that night folks. Our faces kind of look like we have a disease. Ew.

Although I was super frustrated with how bad the pictures were turning out on my phone, I decided to give it one more shot to get a picture of David Crowder. Goodness gracious this one is awful. I did try to zoom in so that was clearly a bad idea. 

I zoomed back out and it's definitely much better. Probably the best of the night, which isn't saying much. Should have brought my camera with me instead of relying on my phone...lesson learned.

The concert was incredible!! John Mark McMillan, Chris August, Gungor and David Crowder Band all put on a great show and it was one of my favorite concerts I've ever been to. However...we stood up for a total of like 6 hours, I had nothing to eat or drink, we were so cram packed together that I could barely turn around to talk to Kory without hitting other people. By the end of the concert, I seriously thought I could pass out from hunger/thirst/exhaustion. I'm obviously a whimp and not a hard-core concert attendee.

It was about 12:30 when we left and neither of us had eaten anything since lunch. We looked forever to find any place in downtown Portland that was still serving food and couldn't find anything. Thankfully, we located a Safeway that was still open and we grabbed some dinner to take back to our hotel since we had a mini-kitchen. We barely made it out of the store before we both dug into the bread and were eating hunks of it as we walked back to the hotel. Oh yeah, we rode a street car to the concert, not realizing it wouldn't be running when the concert was over...so after standing for all those hours and my feet killing me, we had to walk a couple miles back to our hotel.

It was probably because I was so hungry, but man that baked potato soup and hot bread were delicious! Before we got to the hotel, we passed a homeless woman and Kory suggested that we could give her the rest of our bread. I quickly told him we would not be doing that because I was still hungry and needed the rest of it...I'll just say it was the empty stomach talking. I'm not always that selfish.

The next day, we slept in and went shopping at REI and Crate & Barrel with gift cards from our wedding. We spent over $600 that day (all went on the cards) and ended up getting $3 back in cash in our pockets. That's my kind of shopping! We also ate lunch at The Flying Pie, which is a famous Portland pizza place. You can see that they pile a bajillion toppings on there. It was good, but honestly nothing beats good ole pepperoni in my opinion :)

Overall, it was a great mid-week getaway and I am so happy we got to see DCB on their farewell tour. It was worth every minute of standing and being hungry and thinking I was going to die. 

Family Comes to Visit!

Kory's parents came to see us last week and it was SO wonderful having them here! They had already put about 1,000 miles on their rental car traveling around Washington and Oregon visiting churches for Ben's work, so we opted to stay around here and have a relaxing weekend with them.

One of the most fun things we did was look at houses! This was the first time we'd gone to look at houses and we actually knew what we could afford and were looking pretty seriously. We were just driving around and looking at them from the outside, but we found quite a few that we want to revisit with a realtor.

Kory's mom is a phenomenal cook so we also took this opportunity to enjoy some of her delicious cooking and to learn from her kitchen wisdom. She and I made a home-made apple pie...oh my goodness, it was so yummy! Here is the pie after we'd already eaten about half of it. (I know, the photography on this blog is quite professional...can't even take a picture of the pie before we eat most of it!)

We did go to Eugene one day to do a little shopping. Kory & I got Apple TV for our guest bedroom so we can also watch TV in there now. I had no idea how small it was going to be!

Our other finds that day included one pair of pajama pants for me, a lamp, and a pair of pants for Kory. Pretty exciting day, I know! :)

Ben and Jackie were able to be with us for worship on Sunday morning and it was so fun for them to be able to meet our church family and see why we love Redeemer's so much! When it was time for them to leave on Sunday afternoon, I was the first one to break down crying and I really hadn't expected that to happen. I think it's because it finally feels real that we're going to be staying here and our home is going to be far away from family for quite some time.

When people would visit us in Myrtle Creek, I always knew in the back of my mind it was somewhat temporary and we wouldn't live there forever, so I was just excited to show off this cool place I live. Now, however, we're looking to buy a house and Kory is planning to be at his job long-term and we really feel like this is the place we'll settle down and have a family. When B & J left, I think it hit me that this is how it's going to be with family for a while, at least. My love for Oregon (and Kory, of course!) is enough to keep me very happy for now though!

Honeymoon Day 5

(So this is way out of order, but I'm just trying to keep you all on your toes!)

Day 5: Belize

Before this trip, in my mind, Belize was going to be the most tropical Paradise-type stop of the whole trip. Oh my, was I ever wrong! This was, by far, the most ghetto place we visited and resembled Mexico much more than Tahiti.

We booked excursions ahead of time in every stop but this one. Because I thought it was going to be so beautiful, we decided we could just get off the boat whenever we woke up and walk around and see the sights--no excursion necessary.

That morning, we did sleep in and head to shore mid-morning, but the next few hours did not turn out like we had planned! Of course, the harbor area was modern and well-kept and looked like most every other stop we visited. However, after walking a few blocks, we found ourselves in a 3rd world country being accosted by local cab drivers and tour guides who wanted our money.

There was a disagreement at this point between Kory and I because I wanted to keep walking in one direction and this old man told us everything in town was the other direction, so Kory wanted to turn around and go the other way. I could clearly see that there was more town ahead and pretty much every person who got off the boat was continuing to walk the direction I wanted to go...so I wanted to keep going until we ran out of town and then turn around and start back the other direction. After all, we had many hours to spend here, so I figured we should see all of the town and get some more exercise.

We ended up going the way Kory wanted and it was fine. Life didn't end. However, I was so frustrated that Belize wasn't meeting my expectations that I was probably taking it out on Kory. My bad. We walked and walked and walked and the further we went, the more shady the neighborhoods got. At one point, Kory said it was getting too bad and we needed to get out of there before we got kidnapped. I was still mad because we waited in line for about 10 minutes to get a Coke and never got one. The men in front of us were just chatting it up and had no concern for the 5 people in line behind them.

We decided that we would just go back to the ship and hang out there the rest of the day since Belize had not been kind to us. I was definitely mad that we were going to waste this whole day and that everything was going wrong. Kory was trying to make things better and figure out what would make me happy but I was just in a funk and couldn't get out of it.

Right as we headed back to get on the boat, we passed this tour shop and stopped for a second to see what trips they offered. A tour guide immediately approached us and tried to sell us one of his tours. I wasn't interested but Kory started asking some questions. The guide said the cave tubing adventure was easily the #1 selling tour and that it was the most popular tour. Back story: my co-worker told me they went cave tubing and she LOVED it and it was so fun and the best thing ever, blah blah blah. Well, I looked at the tour on Carnival's website and wasn't that interested in it before and was even less interested after hearing my co-worker go on and on about it.

So the tour guide told us he had a group ready to go on the cave tubing, but they had to have 2 more people before they could go. He told us he'd give us 50% off if we would go with him. This guy was most definitely local and quite hard to understand, but he was certainly enthusiastic. Anyhow, Kory thought it sounded fun and was much better than going back to the boat all day, so he wanted to do the tour. I figured I should let Kory do what he wanted since I'd been such a Debbie Downer all day, so I agreed to go. We reminded the driver we had to be back in time to catch the boat (we only had about 3-4 hours left) and he said it would be no problem and we would make it back with time to spare.

AND then the real adventure began! I'm very sad to say I don't have pictures to document the rest of this day...but the one picture I do have is of the van we took for the tour.

This van had no A/C and the chair I sat in faced sideways so I was looking right at the rest of the people who were in forward-facing chairs. We met a Canadian couple who was also going to be on this tour and immediately hit it off with them, so my attitude was quickly changing and I was feeling better about this day.

As soon as we got in the van and headed out of town, we had to stop by the Tourism Agency Board to let them know how many people were going on the tour and where we were headed, etc. In retrospect, I appreciate them doing this because the likelihood of tourists not returning from such trips is probably pretty high. This tourism board consisted of two women sitting in folding chairs at a card table on the side of the road with a notebook and pen. Our driver slowed down and rolled down his window to shout our numbers and destination at them and keep driving. Official business.

So then we drove. And drove and drove and drove. Oh my goodness it was taking forever to get to this place. It turns out that these caves are about an hour and a half out of town! We were speeding down this dirt road and passing large trucks at insane speeds and I was getting very carsick. We finally arrived at the cave tubing location and changed into our swimsuits and got our inner tubes and headlamps. The next surprise on this trip was that we had a 30 minute hike before we could get in the water. I thought we'd grab our tubes and be in the water within a couple minutes. After hiking (mostly uphill) for what seemed like forever, the guide told us we needed to start hurrying or we weren't going to make it in time. So now we were hiking even faster and I was getting more and more nervous we were going to miss the ship.

We finally got to the water and lined all our tubes up to form a train where we each held the next person's feet to connect the tubes. The tour allows people in these "tube trains" to float on the water through this cave system. Truthfully, I wasn't that impressed. Part of that probably comes growing up near Carlsbad Caverns. I have probably visited there 5 or more times in my life and after a while, it kind of loses it's excitement. Kory & I also visited the caves near Austin a few years back. The other people on our tour were from Canada and Puerto Rico and none of them had ever seen the inside of a cave before, so they were completely amazed.

Now, that's not to say I didn't enjoy the tour. There was a natural waterfall in the cave that was just incredible! The sun was shining in through an opening and it was beautiful. There were also a couple other formations that were really neat and it's always fun to just relax and float on water. However, there was not as much relaxing as one would hope for...the water gets really shallow in places and you have to lift your bottom up so it won't drag on the rocks. We also had to paddle in the still water and get out and walk at one point because the water was almost dried up in that spot.

When you finish floating through the caves, you are free to just float the rest of the way back to the vans and swim/jump off rocks/whatever you want to do. Well, by this time, we were REALLY cutting it close on time and we had to get a move on it. The Americans and Canadians were swimming back as fast as we could while carrying an innertube, but the Puerto Ricans were nowhere to be found. They were on a different cruise line and their ship didn't leave until several hours after ours. Again, I was really frustrated that they were just taking their time and were going to make us late.

We ended up practically running to the van so we could head back to town. I found out on the ride back to town that the really big guy from Puerto Rico weighed too much for his tube to handle and it was losing air and that's why it was taking them so long. Anyhow, I think we made it back to town in about 45 minutes. Oh it was a terrifying ride for sure, but we didn't care because we were cutting it so close on time! Thankfully we made it back with just a couple minutes to get back on the boat. There was a crazy long line to get on the boat, but we knew we were going to make it at least.

However, we had reservations for the steakhouse that night and by the time we got back on the boat, we only had about 30 minutes to get to the restaurant. That might have been ok but we each needed to shower and get ready and it was a fancy night so we had to really dress up. I ended up throwing my hair into a wet bun and we were a few minutes late to the reservation anyhow. We have no pictures because I was looking pretty rough and also we ran out of the room in such a hurry that I forgot my camera.

The meal was amazing, though! I wish I had my camera to document the incredible food we had...and, of course, I can't even remember what it was all called. So just trust me when I say it was delicious and we ate WAY too much.

Wedding Ring

So last night I lost the 3rd little diamond from my ring. That means 3 have fallen out in the past 5 months. I don't like this trend!

As you can see, there are two diamonds missing right now. I lost the first one just a couple months before my wedding, so I had it replaced and cleaned and shiny for the wedding. I lost the second one in June or July and now I lost the last one last night while trying to do laundry.

I'm kind of a clumsy gal and I somehow banged my hand/ring on the door as I carried a laundry basket to the washer. I was so sad when I looked down to see another diamond gone. I tried to find it in hopes of...well I don't know what I thought I was going to do if I found it really. Sell it on Ebay? Put it back in? I don't know. I just wanted to find it...but I did not. Then, I was feeling too depressed to do laundry so I just put the laundry basket back in the bedroom and went to bed instead. I told you recently I've loved doing laundry recently, so this loss just took the joy out of it.

My co-worker told me today that happened to her so much she doesn't wear rings at all anymore. I don't think that's the solution for me. I love my ring and want to continue wearing it, but I definitely have to get it fixed now that it has two holes. It's looking quite snaggletoothed if you ask me.

I'm thinking I might go to Wal-mart or Claire's or somewhere to buy a cheap ring that I can wear while this one is being fixed. That might come in handy if this is going to become a regular occurrence. I could try to be more careful and stop being so clumsy, but I really think it's a safer bet to just buy a replacement for when I have to get mine worked on. Thank goodness for the insurance!

Lucy Mereness

A few weeks ago, my first precious niece was born! Her name is Lucy Jayne Mereness and she's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I've only seen pictures of her because she is 2,000 miles away from me in West Texas.

I've stolen these pictures (with permission, is that still stealing?) from my sister-in-law, Brynn, because I obviously have none of my own and I want to document her cuteness on here for the world to see. I'm so thankful that I can watch her grow and change through pictures until I get to hold her in December. Oh I can hardly wait for that day!

2nd or 3rd day alive I believe



In some pictures you can tell she's rocking a sweet little mohawk, I love it!

These are my favorite pictures so far, for obvious reasons. I do realize she has 3 other aunties, but I bought this for her so I choose to believe she loves me most :) Also, I've never ever said "Auntie" before (pronounced on-tee), but I'm really loving the British vibe of it lately.

　

I think she looks a lot like her Daddy in this one.

She's just begging for me to pick her up!

I can't get over how much I love those little booties she is wearing! I always knew I'd be excited to see her, but I had no idea how much it would kill me to have to wait almost 4 months to hold and kiss her. Thankfully, 3 of my friends here will be having 4 babies in the next month so I can love on them in the meantime. In fact, one of them was born yesterday, so I'm excited to meet her soon.

Also, two of my BFF bridesmaids are also pregnant now (Shout out to Jacinda and Deonna!), so I'm saving up to buy lots of cute baby gifts in the near future. All this baby talk is almost enough to make me want to have a baby now too. Almost.