Food, sun and scenic views

Blissed out right now. Had an amazing day today let me tell ya. Went over to Vancouver to visit my lovely Ma and took her out to lunch. Went down to Beaches Restaurant and enjoyed a beer and a yummy lunch while enjoying the beautiful weather. That in itself would have been perfect but it got better. Proceeded to go home and water plants, play with the dogs and just enjoy my home. Then, after Tim got home from work we relaxed a bit then Tim had this amazing idea to take a drive. So drive we did! Took a lovely scenic drive up to the Vista House through the back of Gresham while listening to country music and chatting it up. After a couple lovely picture taking moments we headed back down into Troutdale and went to the Troutdale Airport to continue relaxing. Sat and watched planes for a bit (long enough for Tim to smoke a Black & Mild) then picked us up some El Pollo Loco for dinner and headed home. Now, here I am typing this up and contemplating heading to bed on account of the fact that I must get up at 5 am for work. All in all a pretty fabulous day! Here's a couple pictures to accompany this post. Enjoy!

Had a beautiful and fabulous 4th of July up at my Grandparent's house in the Gorge :D The weather was perfect, the food was delicious and the company was fantastic too! My cheesecake and pie went over really well, so well in fact there was none to bring home :D makes me feel really good to make something that other people enjoy so much. Didn't see too much of my brother, as he has other things going on and other stuff to do. But, that's ok. I did get to spend a little time with him so I'll take what I can get :D All in all was just a nice, relaxing day with family and friends.

Happy 4th of July!

Alrighty :D Cheesecake is done, coconut custard pie is done and I'm ready for the 4th! Really looking forward to just enjoying my 3-day weekend and hanging out with family. Have a safe and happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Here are the blackberry cheesecake and coconut custard pie pics I promised :D You may drool now, it's allowed LOL

Beer, cheesecake and the 4th of July

Well folks, it's the 4th of July weekend! Also, it's sunny! How amazing is that?! I'm sorta in awe of how wonderful the weather is being and should continue to be. So, in honor of summer actually being here....I bought beer! :D So very yummy. It's the Kona Brewing Company's Wailua Wheat Summer Ale and its pretty much amazing :D I'm sorta addicted to it...so if you like beer, by all means try this one. Trust me, you won't be sorry.

Also, because it's the 4th of July weekend i'm in the process of baking all sorts of yummy goodness. Currently in the oven.....Blackberry Sour Cream Cheesecake. Yes, it IS as delicious as it sounds ;) I'll be sure to post a picture of it when it's done. Going to be bringing it up to my Gram's house for the 4th of July BBQ/Bonfire/Dessert Extravaganza that we like to have their every year. Will also be making a Coconut Custard Pie to take up as well. That will get done tomorrow and will most certainly post a pic of it as well :D Yes, it is in fact my aim to make you hungry and also a little jealous. Is it working? LOL

Tattoo ramblings

Contemplating a new tattoo. Really been itching to get another one lately....So I'm busying myself with doing research, searching pictures etc so that I can hopefully draw something out. I know I'll want to put it on either my shoulder blade or the side of my right lower leg. The key here is me being able to translate my idea to paper...I'm not exactly artistic so that might be a problem LOL Unless of course someone out there in blogland would know someone willing to draw one out for me??? Any takers? My guess is I'll have to do a rough draft idea myself then just take it to the tattoo artist...once I decide where i want to go. I'm going to do some research on artists in the Portland area that I might want to go to....I'm thinking perhaps Black Hole body piercing and tattoo...all of this is still up in the air, in idea mode for now. But i'll update when i have a better idea of what i want. Don't want to give too much info away just yet ;)

Movie Critic Time

Had two amazing days off with Tim this week :D Love it when we have two full days off together! We had a Pho lunch date on Tues followed by some laundry and yard work and then today we went and saw the new Transformers movie. All in all a very good weekend I'd say. I was actually quite surprised that I enjoyed the Transformers movie as much as I did. I liked the two previous movies but was prepared not to like this one for multiple reasons. However, I found that I really did enjoy watching this one. Lots of explosions, robot fights and actually had a decent storyline. I was still kinda sad Megan Fox wasn't in this one but it was still a good movie. Now, I just need to finish watching the Harry Potter movies! That is on my to do list before the last one comes out in theaters. Then, on to reading the books! I really wanted to finish the movies before reading all the books so I didn't ruin the movies for myself. So, really, I'm excited that the movies are finished so now I can read :D

Happiness is a state of mind

I'm slowly learning to take things as they come. I'm finally OK with aspects of my life that I've been fighting with for a long time. Life is good. God is great. Now, to just keep repeating that to myself.....

I recently quit my job at Starbucks....and it's like the heavens opened up and angels sang, the whole bit. I didn't realize how truely unhappy that job made me until I quit. It's amazing my family and friends didn't strangle me while i was working there, because i'm sure I was always a little unpleasant to live with! So, to everyone who put up with me....THANK YOU! Your amazing and your patience astounds me.

I now have a fantastic job that I love. Now, that is a sentence I never thought i'd be able to type! I'm still working in coffee, but I'm working for a small coffee shop in the art museum that is just opening up and I have the freedom to really make an impact in how things are run. I love the atmosphere there and really am enjoying working with the people that I do. I am so much happier in general now it's amazing...Life is good, God is great!