we're "official" portlanders! (if bikes makes if official. haha)

i should really start updating more than once a week, otherwise i may forget all that we've done. i know i said i'd try to not be so lazy with this, but if i have time to update, then i'm either watching dexter (my new tv show addiction) or skyping my family. :)

let's start with last sunday. we did end up going to the saturday market (http://www.portlandsaturdaymarket.com/) downtown. it was a really cool place! it's like arts and jazz fest but it's every saturday and sunday from march 1st to december 24th. there all sorts of different booths; all that you'd expect at arts and jazz and much more. we got an extra surprise too: the Pride Parade was going on. i had read all about the gay pride festival in one of those weekly newspapers, but i totally forgot about the parade happening. the parade went right through the middle of the market. it was very exciting and wild. everyone was dressed up, some more wild looking then others. i wish i had taken some pictures of the people. there were rainbow colored tutus everywhere. some girl was wearing pink fuzzy boots. plenty of spectators had rainbow beads on or were carrying rainbow flags. it was nice to see how accepting all of these people were. they were cheering on the parade, screaming like they were at a beatles concert or something. haha. the participants were great too. there was lots of dancing, costumes, singing... it was a spectacular sight. what i really liked was that there was a section of the parade for supportive family members. they were carrying signs about how much they loved their kids/siblings/etc just the way they were. it was beautiful. i really enjoyed seeing the togetherness and acceptance among all of these people. that's not something i would see in texas (though maybe, just maybe in austin, if the participants were brave enough to march around town without protective gear or clothing on...). it's a sight i will never forget, and i hope to be there to see it next year. :)

after we got back from the saturday market we went grocery shopping and then i went to work. oh boy.

monday....we went thrift store shopping. i can't remember if i've mentioned that there are 4-5 thrift stores w/in a mile of our house. it's like...a dream...hahaha. that's my mexican showing through maybe...though i think i've always been thrifty with my money. haha. jarrod and i got some new shirts. nice. ;) that's really all we did that day. that evening i skyped with my mom and gene for an hour and half. it was lovely seeing them! we gave them a virtual tour and got caught up on all sorts of things. who needs to just call someone now when you can see them face to face? technology is great! haha. once we were done skyping,i called my dad (he should work on getting a webcam :D hahaah) and caught up with him. he's coming to seattle/portland in september!!! CAN'T WAIT!!! ahhhh. :) after talking to dad, i started on some laundry and then i started watching dexter. i watched 5 episodes until chris lemchi called me around 12:30am. he was with pegues and ricky and they... had had a few drinks. hahaha. made for an interesting conversation. i really miss those guys! I MISS YOU! haha. it was nice getting to talk to them too. :)

on tuesday we went to the community cycling center (http://www.communitycyclingcenter.org/) bc jarrod was tired of waiting on getting his bike up and running. unfortunately, the bike given to me by his mom was too damaged. the guy said it'd cost more to fix it then get a new bike, so i started looking on craigslist. to that later. jarrod left his bike there to get fixed and we came home. that evening, we skyped with my mom, brother, and gene (gene was heard in the background, mostly. haha). we played with the cats on camera. so amusing, yet inhumane.... that was a good time though. :) after skyping, we went to the Clackamas Century theater to watch THE TWO TOWERS extended edition. LOVE THOSE MOVIES!!! haha. apparently the mid 40s lady next to me had never seen it before bc she kept gasping and "oh no"-ing throughout the entire movie. all i could think was, "how could someone (not including dorian, if he's reading this haha) not have seen these movies before? it's almost been out for TEN YEARS." but whatever. she wasn't too distracting. i still enjoyed every minute of the movie. :) excited for THE RETURN OF THE KING this tuesday. oh yes. haha. that's the end of tuesday.

wednesday i worked 9-5. work was SOOOOO SLOW and the hours went by even more slowly. man. slow. once i got home i started up on dexter again. ADDICTING. haha. around 8:30 my mom texted me to get on skype so i could talk to my grandma and grandpa guajardo. my grandma was freaking out! she loved it! haha. she said she wanted to give me a hug, but all she could do was give the computer a hug. hahah. i love you, grandma! :* after skyping i went straight back to dexter, and that's the rest of my evening.

thursday i woke up early (9:10...for some reason i sleep in late here, like 10:20, but i'm gonna start working on waking up early again) so i could get my car inspected at a DEQ station. DEQ checks the emissions on your car, and i think that's about it. all i know is it seriously took 5 minutes, if even and my car had passed! WOOT! one step closer to getting my oregon license and license plates! after that i came home and jarrod finally woke up. we went back to pick up his bike, then we ate lunch in heaven, aka THE GRILLED CHEESE GRILL (http://grilledcheesegrill.com/). euphoria. lol. i love that place. can't wait to go back. i may have to find someone else to go with me besides jarrod though (seeing as how he is the MOST PICKY EATER ON THE PLANET). i'm gonna find someone with my love of grilled cheese and we will go weekly!!! mwahhaahahha. okay. i'm done. after lunch we came back home and around 5, started skyping with jarrod's parents. :) yay! unfortunately, i didn't have as much time as jarrod with them bc i had to go in to work, but that's okay bc they will be here in ONE WEEK! the hartfields are coming to town. can't wait!!! :D

alright, on to today. we went to Cartlandia (http://www.cartlandia.com/) for lunch. we chose Savvy J's southern cuisine. we had po'boy sandwiches, mine was fried catfish (i miss gene's weekly catfish fries! i miss them so! haha) and jarrod had the chicken po'boy. here's a pic of mine:

yum yum yum

 

 

 

then we went to look at a bike i had found on craigslist to see if my short self could ride it. and guess what? i can! and now it's my bike. here she is:

 so, since jarrod and i both have working bikes, we decided to take a ride down the Springwater Corridor. (http://www.40mileloop.org/trail_springwatercorridor.htm) no, we didn't do 40 miles, but we did ride 7! oh yeah. it was a nice ride! nice temperature, cloudy. it was nice exercise w/out much effort. i think we may be riding our bikes around there quite often. :)

now that i'm done updating and jarrod's at work, it's time to watch some dexter! wooooo.

hope everyone has a good weekend. especially my parent's, who insist on rubbing it in my face that they're at our family campout. i really do wish i was there. that's probably my favorite part of summer, those camp outs. oh well. i'll do some camping here pretty soon, so there. haha. 

alright, dexter is calling!

-sarah-

One Month

Today is the day: one month since we made it "home." Time has flown by and we have already done so much exploring, but we're still not even half way through or caught up on all things Portland. There's still so much left to do! Which is both exciting and exhausting. Haha. Mostly it's exhausting to my wallet, which i'm not fond of. I really like to save, even if there's not anything i'm supposed to be saving for. (in this case, i'm still saving for school, but i have enough to go back this fall, it'll just lower my funds sufficiently, but not enough to worry about, so don't worry about us! haha)

Which reminds me, i'm feeling a little iffy on getting a library science degree. i've actually been thinking about maybe becoming a wedding planner, bc i'm great and planning and incredibly organized as well. my only problem would be dealing with bridezillas. i can't promise i wouldn't slap them around every once in a while, which could lose me some business....haha. since i had been thinking about becoming a wedding planner, i looked into it and found a certification program that's all inclusive. the program takes a shorter amount of time (about 6 months) and costs half of what one semester at the school i'm looking at costs. since i love saving money, and am very impatient, this would seem like the better choice for me, but i do still love books and think being a librarian or doing archives would be a great career. AHHHHHHH! such a dilemma. as of right now, i'm still leaning towards the library science degree. i've already applied, been accept, and sent in my transcript, so i'm waiting to see what classes, if any i will need to take before i can get started on the actual degree. with the wedding planner one, i could start right away, even right now and be done around christmas or so...yeah. so, let me know what you think! i'd love feed back. i need as much help as i can get! hahah.

back to Portland and our adventure:

Friday we went to the OMSI (http://www.omsi.edu/) which is portland's equivalent of the Fort Worth Science Museum, but smaller, i think. still just as cool, if not a little cooler (that being owed to the Narnia exhibit. what wasn't cool is they didn't allow pictures of the exhibit, and even though i could've snuck a pic with my phone, i'm too good of a person to do so. boo.) the first exhibit we went into was about babies; the pregnancy cycle and everything in between. they even had real fetuses (don't freak out, they had a disclaimer saying that the babies died of natural causes and were kept for research.) from the beginning, right after the egg has been fertilized, to full grown baby. it was really interesting and cool. that probably sounds weird, but i don't care. i didn't take pictures bc they could seem a little disturbing. jarrod said he was glad he hadn't eaten before viewing that, if that gives you a clue. i can, however, show you some pics of other exhibits! yeah!

this was the top of a triceratops skull, some of it was missing.

a stegosaurus spike

pterodactyl fossil

you know what this is. haha

something i thought was cool: they have chargers for electric cars there! there were 3 parking spots specifically made for electric cars. totally awesome! hahah.

 

 

after the omsi, we ate at burgerville again, bc we're too indecisive to eat somewhere else. we'll work on the food aspect. that's something we're definitely way far behind on.
BUT speaking of food! i was told about the most amazing food cart known to man: The Grilled Cheese Grill!!! oh yeah!!! (http://www.grilledcheesegrill.com/) i plan on visiting very soon, probably by myself since jarrod is so picky. :P and doesn't like cheese. i will eat here though! hahah.
anywho, yesterday we didn't do anything but work. LAME.
in a little bit we're gonna head to the Saturday Market downtown (yeah, it's sunday, but so what. that's what it's called) to do some fresh/local grocery shopping before we hit the grocery store.
that's been our weekend. woo.
before i go i'd like to say HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! to my dads, and all the lucky dads out there! :)

 the best dads (in my opinion!!!) I LOVE YOU ALL!!! :)
-sarah-

hanging with friends

hanging with friends is my current addiction. i've only been playing it since saturday, but i can't stop! hahah. for those of those in the stone age (ie w/out a smart phone) hanging with friends is an game app. it's like hangman, which is way better than scrabble. haha. anywho, in my free time (or even not in free time, though i won't admit to playing while i'm working........) i've been playing hanging with friends. it's so much fun and incredibly addicting. but i'm sure you're not here to read about my obsession with this game. haha.
the real good stuff:
we went to the International Rose Test Gardens (http://www.rosegardenstore.org/thegardens.cfm) again to see if the roses were finally in bloom, but very few were. we researched when the roses should bloom and it's from june to october, unfortunately it hasn't been sunny enough to get the roses blooming yet. :( but that's alright, we have plenty of time to go back and visit. after the garden we came back home and then jarrod left for work. i was bored so i decided to try and organize a few things (we're done unpacking, that doesn't mean everything is in it's place yet...haha) and do some laundry while jarrod was gone. that's pretty much it for that day/night.
saturday, i opened at work and it was SLOW. those hours took forever to fly by. something good that came out of work was that i had time to read the Willamette Week (http://wweek.com/portland/) which lead me to finding out about the Fruit Beer Festival going on. i thought it'd be pretty cool to go to that, so once i got off work, jarrod and i left for the Fruit Beer Festival at the Burnside Brewing Company. (http://burnsidebrewco.com/)

 
we took the TriMet for the first time since visiting here in may. it was fun. haha. anywho,on to the beer. we got a commemorative glass (woo!) and then you were allowed tickets ($1 each). one ticket would get you 4 oz and four tickets got you a full glass. we got $8 total (not all ended up getting used. haha). once we got our tickets, we stood in line for...20 minutes or so? got our beer....not sure what kind it was, but we were in line for a belgian apple something or other. it was GROSS. haha. i didn't even get close to finishing mine, and that's all i got that night. haha. jarrod finished his and then ventured into the Rare Beer room where he got an oyster stout with lemon peel (flavor, not the actual peel) which was pretty smooth, i'll admit. it still tasted horrible though. jarrod liked it! hahahah. by this point i was starving, so we left the festival and went searching for food. we ended up at Michael's Italian Beef and Sausage Company (http://www.michaelsitalianbeef.com/). the fries were really good, but i didn't care too much for my sandwich. next time (if there is one) i'm going with pasta. haha. after dinner (it was 9pm by this time) we headed back to the TriMet station and there we waited forever bc we're tourists here, for now. haha. eventually we ended up on a PACKED train (there was an MLS game that night. portland, or maybe it's oregon? just got their first professional men's soccer team. everyone's going crazy for them! haha) and by 11pm we were home. long night, but fun nonetheless. :)
sunday we went to Plato's Closet (that's right, there's one here too!) and then we went to the mall for a bit before i had to go into work at 5.
today, nothing has really happened. i worked 10-6 and jarrod is currently at work so i'm all aloney on my owney.... 
i'm off tomorrow and SUPER EXCITED bc i get to see LORD OF THE RINGS EXTENDED EDITIONS IN THEATERS!!!! ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! haha. i have no idea what we're gonna do before that... something fun. haha.
that's it for now...no big plans for... a while? i'll still update sometime soon. 
:)
-sarah-

And you find your destination with so many different places to call home

Sorry it's been a while since the last update, i was just being lazy. haha.
i'll start with last friday, when we went to Ecola State Park. (http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_188.php) It was bright and sunny when i woke up last friday, so of course i was trying to think of things to do outside, bc it was also supposed to get into the 70s! :) while jarrod was sleeping i decided we should go to the beach. i had been waiting for the perfect oppurtunity, and there it was! so at 11, i woke jarrod up (he sleeps way too much) and said WE'RE GOING TO THE BEACH!!! so we both got dressed and off we went. It's an hour and a half to two hour drive there, so that's wasn't too bad. Plus the drive could be considered scenic, especially compared to driving anywhere in texas. :P there were tall trees every where. it was nice. :)
anywho, when we got to Cannon Beach (http://www.cannonbeach.org/) we ate at a place called Pig and a Pancake (http://www.pignpancake.com/cannonbeach.html) which wasn't all that good. :P but i had to stop there bc it reminded me of a line from Supernatural, and i knew sending a pic of place would make my parent's laugh, so there you have it. haha.
after lunch, we went to ecola state park and walked around looking out at the viewpoints, trying to figure out how to get to a deserted beach. finally, we found the path- a 1 1/4 mile hike for experienced hikers. it actually wasn't all that bad getting to the beach (believe me, i'm not much of a fan of hiking, especially uphill. haha) except for all of the mud, which almost swallowed one of my shoes. 

 all and all, the hike to the beach was actually quite nice. the shade of the trees and streams near by kept the temperature really cool. 
when we got to the beach, it wasn't entirely deserted...there was a guy walking around and a couple sitting on a log looking out at the ocean. jarrod and i threw our stuff down and ran for the water. i barely put my feet in before squealing and running away from the waves. it was COLD. haha. jarrod got in up to his ankles, maybe a little higher. after playing in the water for a bit, we decided to take a walk up and down the beach. we found a little waterfall and some type of sea bird.

after walking around the beach for an hour or so, we decided to take a nap in the sun. the temperature around the ocean was probably in the high 60s, so the sun's warmth was very nice. :) it was a lovely afternoon. after our nap, we took the trail back to my car. this time, the hike was not as much fun bc it seemed like the majority of it was uphill. no bueno. haha. once we got to my car we decided to head back to cannon beach, the town and look around for a bit. most of the stores were closed though, since it was after 5, so we decided to head home. we stopped at Happy Teriyaki (http://happy-teriyaki.com/) for dinner. it was pretty good! lots of food for cheap! haha. that's what i enjoyed. once we made it home, we just sat around and watched some tv then went to bed.
overall, it was a GREAT day! :D probably my favorite since we've been here. i can't wait to go back! haha.
saturday i worked 9-5. after work, jarrod and i went to the Clackamas Town Center (the mall) so jarrod could buy some new work shoes. we went to the vans store and got his work shoes, and then we headed back home. we watched the Starlight Parade on a local news channel (the Rose Festival is still going on. there's another parade this Saturday) and then we went to bed.
sunday was rather boring. I did the laundry while jarrod was at work. once he got home we were lazy all day until i had work at 5.
monday we went to Laurelhurst Park (http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=224&action=ViewPark) and walked around for a little bit. We made a stop by walmart afterwards and then we came home and were lazy the rest of the day until i had work at 5.
tuesday we watched the MTV movie awards until 2pm and then we went to go see X-Men: First Class. i highly recommend that movie. it was REALLY good. probably the best movie i've seen this year, so far. once the movie was over, i got to work. :P woo. work was hard this day bc i had been told that our new cat, Binx, was going to be euthanized that day, and he was. 
poor binx came to us sometime in february during a snow storm. he was hungry, but seemed very healthy. i put a box with a blanket outside for him so he would have somewhere warm to sleep, but he wouldn't get in that box! he just wanted some attention, so i stayed outside in the freezing air to give him some love. after all of the snow was gone, we didn't see him again, until he showed up the night before my garage sale in april, skin and bones. he looked horrible, but was still as sweet as ever. my parent's felt bad for him, so they decided to take him in and nurse him back to health. he wouldn't have survived outside much longer. so we started taking care of him and he seemed to gain a little weight, and he was always happy to be around you and get loving from you, so we figured his owner may have abandoned him or something. after a month of taking care of him, he had only gained a little bit of weight, so we were a little worried, but not too worried since he didn't seem miserable. finally, this past saturday, mom and gene took him to the vet and found out he had intestinal cancer... poor binx! but mom and gene said they would take care of him and love him until he was too miserable to live anymore. we were all thinking he'd have more time, but on monday, he started vomiting every time he ate, so my parent's knew it was time to take him in. they took him to the vet after work tuesday. apparently he was still as happy as ever, purring constantly; loving the attention. i'm glad he's not suffering anymore, just upset that we couldn't have helped him sooner. he was a sweetie and will be severely missed, even if we only owned him for a few months. goodbye binx!
alright, enough sad stuff. :/
yesterday, jarrod and i went to the Oregon Zoo (http://www.oregonzoo.org/). it was packed with wild animals known as children. blagh. it was lacking in actual wild animals though. :P it's the smallest zoo i've ever been to, and it's the only zoo in oregon. poor people don't know what they're missing out on. haha.
we came home after the zoo and i took a long nap. it was nice. :) then, we decided to go see Kung Fu Panda 2. (gotta catch up on our movies!) That was also really good! good movies are fun!!! haha. after the movie we came home and ate dinner, then i called my parents and talked to them for a while. it was nice. :)
today i'm thinking we may go to the Leach Botanical Garden (http://www.leachgarden.org/) for a bit and then i have work this evening at 6.
i have another day off tomorrow, which i'm excited about! not sure what we're gonna go do yet, but i'm thinking downtown....yes...we'll see.
anywho, i'll try to not be so lazy and update more often bc i know this is a pretty long post. haha
-sarah-

exploring our new hometown :)

since i had today off, jarrod and i thought what a great day to go exploring? and so that is what we did.
we started the day off at the best buy near PDX bc jarrod had an interview there at noon. guess what?! HE GOT THE JOB!!! yay!!! everyone sing and dance!!! haha. once he told me (while we were in ross- only a short walk away from best buy) i started jumping up and down. he was not as excited as me, on the outside, but i know he's truly glad he has a job again. he was going a bit stir-crazy there w/out anything to do or people to talk to (besides me. he was so excited when he got to go to trader joe's with brandi bc he finally got to talk to another person! haha). that has all changed now. his first day of work is sunday,, and although it's strange to look forward to work, i know he truly be happy to be back. :)
anywho, how can you top exciting news like that? i don't know if i can, but i'll try. haha. so, after ross we ventured to the Hawthorne District (Brandi's suggestion. she's very helpful!) where we ate lunch at the Cup and Saucer Cafe (http://cupandsaucercafe.com/) where i had the "World Famous Garden Scramble." YES it did have VEGETABLES in it, and LOTS. it was DELICIOUS. here's a pic: 

it had zucchini, broccoli, red peppers, and spinach and garden sausage (no idea what that means...). i can't believe how FREAKIN DELICIOUS it was! haha. the toast was whole wheat- they gave us raspberry jam, tasty. there's some potatoes hidden under the toast-yum. haha.

 so, after lunch we explored a few stores down the street. one was jackpot records (http://www.jackpotrecords.com/). then we came upon this awesome vintage clothing store, the Red Light Clothing Exchange (http://redlightclothingexchange.com/). the clothes were like costumes, but for every day use! it was WILD but AWESOME. i bought a cute purse there.

i also saw this AMAZING skirt:

but SADLY, it was a medium. :(

 needless to say, we'll be visiting that store for fun, and clothes, again soon and often. haha. after the red light we went across the street to a vintage furniture store...and that stuff was old. hahah. like....60s-70s style. it was interesting... we went to ben and jerry's after that. (my replacement for blue bell, since there's a ben and jerry's pretty much around every corner. yum) ben and jerry's was our last stop on hawthorne. what a good time. :)
once we left hawthorne, we decided to give the Rhododendron Gardens (http://www.rhodies.org/xtal/csg_index.htm) another shot. (since it was only sprinkling by this point.) the gardens were lovely! and very peaceful. the soft patter of the rain added to the feel. it was beautiful. :) here are some pics (from my cell phone bc someone forgot their professional camera. eh hmm)

pretty, aren't they? :)
after the gardens we went to see the new pirates of the caribbean at my work. i enjoyed it. :) now, we're back home. we may watch some true blood in a bit.
that was our day. quite an adventure. i truly enjoyed every minute of it.
life is good. :D
-sarah-