Hey Mickey!

Oh, Mickey, you're so fine. You're so fine you blow my mind. Hey, Mickey!
CLICK HERE (and fast forward to 0:38).

Guess what!? I AM GOING TO DISNEYLAND THIS WEEKEND!!!! Cheerleading Nationals have snuck up on me. It is going to be great! Wait, you don’t think that taking a bunch of high school cheerleaders to California sounds fun? Then you are probably a normal person. I realize that I am unhinged, but a weekend in the happiest place on earth is just what I need. Plus I love cheerleading. And spending all afternoon watching competitive cheerleading sounds look a good day to me! Here is my post from the trip last year.

Looking forward to recreating this. I need to remember to pack that shirt! 

On another note, how do you all feel about Google Reader leaving us? How do the rest of you track your favorite blogs? I really don’t like bloglovin. Soooo now I am in the market for a new RSS reader that will work for a desktop and my mobile device easily.

I will be honest by telling you that I have an unhealthy attachment to my Google Reader. That being said, what are we going to do come July 1st!? Let's be real, if Google thinks we are going to favorite sites and visit them every day, they have lost their bloody minds!  Let me know what you guys are doing. I have read a couple articles about some options, but I’m not sold on anything yet.

Have a great weekend everyone!

An Urban Playground

I had a great weekend that happened to go WAY too fast. It was here and gone in a blink of an eye. There was some good stuff in it though, including spending my entire Saturday in workout clothes, renting a surrey and getting my picture taken at a blogger meet-up. Wait, maybe it went too fast because we lost an hour? No, that can’t be it.

Do you ever feel like your city is your own personal playground? Marina and I spent Saturday jogging and hop-skipping through downtown. I mean this literally. We rented a surrey, walked to Portland City Grill for happy hour, decided to go to a movie and ran and skipped to Pioneer Place to make it in time to catch the 7pm of OZ. Marina referred to downtown as our concrete jungle gym. To top off the kid like behavior we grabbed slurpees on the way home. It was awesome. If only we could have played a game of tether-ball or something. When we are roommates we plan to have what we will call, “yoga clothes days.” This is a day where you stay in workout clothes all day, even if you go to fancy places like PCG. Believe me, you won’t care what other people think when you are that comfortable!

That was my weekend, ‘twas great. Then yesterday was just painful! I have never been so ready for a day to be over. I am exhausted for some reason. I think I am actively fighting off sickness. I got over that lame cold, but now there are some new fun things like an ear ache. Not that you care about that… Whatever.

Honestly, the real reason I think I am dragging is that I feel stagnant in my spiritual life. When I get like this I tend to question EVERYTHING. I start to figure that my short-comings as a person are abundantly clear to everyone around me and that they can’t possibly even want me to be in their lives. E.g. she is probably my friend because she feels obligated; my parents probably think I’m pathetic because I am so incompetent about my taxes. I could write an entire post on my negative self-talk and how all of my relationships are false, but no one is tryna be brought down around here! I promise I will not do that to you today. I will say this though, awareness is the first step right!? Kinda like addiction… but kinda not. I need to spend more time in the word and less time believing the lies that are popping into my head.

Obviously the reason I hear all of these lies is because I am not actively listening to the truth.

Wow, this post about my weekend sure took an interesting turn. Have a great Tuesday! I hope you are listening to the new JT album on iTunes today.

Portland on Dwellable

I'm back! Sun Valley and other stuff.

Hello again!

I have been so busy doing important things like going on vacation, going to a wedding, doing laundry and getting a cold. Jealous of those last two? You should be.

Here is some vacation stuff that you may have already seen on Insta. My sister has a fancy camera with good pictures, but she probably won’t share them for like a month… if at all. It’s okay Linds, I think uploading is a hugely annoying task as well.

The Lodge and Baldy

My lovely parents

Dinner at the Ketchum Grill

And from the wedding for your enjoyment:

I posted this even though it is blurry with demon eyes. Why? Because it is hilarious and my legs look crazy tan! 

There was obviously a lot of fun involved in both. Anyway, I’m back in action! Except for this annoying cold.

Hailey on Dwellable

Road Trips and MTV

No, I am not talking about Road Rules. Close though!

Only one post this week because I am going on vacation!!!!! Woohoo! I am beyond excited to kick it with my family, ski and eat. That list is not necessarily in order of importance, but to spare feelings I decided I better type it out that way. (Hint: put them in reverse)

I’ll be here:

This is from the @sunvalley Instagram YESTERDAY! 

On a completely separate note, the trailer for Real World Portland is out. My favorite part is when they show the carpet at the airport. My least favorite part is the rest of it. I can’t help but be slightly annoyed with the quality of the cast and how they will probably make PDX look super lame by spending all their time at Splash Bar and Dirty. At least they were here during an awesome time of year! Hopefully MTV reps PDX in a fab way! It is also likely that our favorite places refused to sign whatever MTV has that forces establishments to take on all liability. I am obviously going to watch the entire season. For many reasons… including seeing if that time we yelled at them from the car makes it on TV! Ha!

Click Here to watch.

I'll be back next week!… maybe. I’ll probably have a vacation hangover. You know, when you are so relaxed from your vacation that it is debilitating. Am I the only one who “suffers” from this?

[1]

Have a super Super Bowl!

This is my last post before the weekend so I find it appropriate to write about the Super Bowl. As you could have probably guessed, my favorite part of the Super Bowl is not the football (shocker), but instead the freedom I feel to become a complete food monster. A common Super Bowl short list includes: Wings, pizza, guacamole, chips of the potato and corn variety, beer and sugary soda drinks, and likely a veggie tray for appearances.

My mother is the only one in our family who likes football. Weird right!? Correction, my mother and brother-in-law are the only ones in our family who like football. I don’t know what Brandon is doing, but I think my sister and I have convinced my mom to go shopping with us on Sunday. BUT the funny thing about my mom is that over the past 25 years she has consistently encouraged us to become engaged in the important football event of the moment. Super Bowls, local college games, bowl games, the Seahawks, you name it. So I expect that my sweet mother will have Super Bowl themed food out as a ploy to get us to watch some of the game. What a gem.

This is how my sister watches football. At least she is trying mom! 

Enjoy the gluttony friends! I am “rooting” for the 49ers… and Beyonce. If you plan on texting or checking Twitter and Insta for most of the game (like a normal person), make sure to read this awesome and hilarious Super Bowl post from Venus. That way you can still kind of impress your boyfriend later. He will be like, “oh my gosh! You know so many awesome football facts!” and you will be like, “I know, right!?” Although, the only thing I actually absorbed from the list is that the coaches are brothers. Reading is hard.

Have a great weekend!

Don't let the ASPCA ruin your Friday.

First things first! TGIF!!! I am beyond excited for a fun and relaxing weekend. Actually, I will be spending my Saturday at a cheerleading competition. But I happen to find that fun! Don’t tell anyone.

One thing I would like to ask you about is the ASPCA. No, I don’t have an agenda and I will probably get hate mail after posting this. But what is the deal with the ASPCA!? They often ruin my day with their damn Sarah Mclachlan dog abuse commercial (I wont be linking to it). Does anyone not change the channel when that commercial comes on? I immediately change it for obvious “I don’t want to cry alone into my hummus” reasons. Not only is the commercial unbearable, but they run it on E! Why would they do that? I don’t think the viewership of E! television is particularly humanitarian. I was watching Kourtney and Kim Take Miami for heaven’s sake. I guess Kanye did give Kim a cat… but she lost it when she was drunk. Maybe we should call Sarah and have her and the ASPCA go rescue Mercy? Nope. Just kidding! Mercy already died (sad face). Read about it here.

The truth of the matter is this: The ASPCA ad does not tug at my heart strings. It makes me mad at them for ruining my day and I therefore refuse to give them money out of spite. That is my Friday rant!

James Van Der Beek wishes you a happy weekend!!

[1][2][3]

My Friends

I have a sick obsession with my friends. They are the most fun people ever. Seriously, there is no possible way that your friends are as fun as mine! My friends are hilarious (filthily so), beautiful and genuine.

After spending time with them, my stomach hurt from laughing so much… or maybe it was all the food.

My women at Rontoms. [photocred to Lauren]

And this is just a select few of the college ones! I am a very lucky girl.

I know this was a lame post. Guess what? Don't care! I am still recovering from the amazing long weekend!

A weekend of learning.

This weekend I went to a Portland Blogger meet-up. It was awesome because not only did I get to see my real life internet friends, I also learned stuff. Do you know what SEO is? I didn't either. But now I do! …kinda. I was a bad student in the back of the class talking to my friends (Linnea, Sam and Abby). I did take some practical notes though! I also got this super cute mug that Jenni made as our favor.

One thing I did learn that I will have trouble using, is the obvious point that your title and tags need to have key words and somewhat relate to what your post is really about. I struggle with that because I would rather have my title be eye-catching and weird rather than relevant. Meh, we’ll see how it goes.

Other things I learned this weekend are:

1. There is an Elephants going in down the street from my house. My heart is rejoicing but my wallet is pissed.

2. This is my favorite note from church this weekend. It was timely and lovely and beautifully put.

I hope your short T-giving weeks are as stellar as mine! Even with all this narst rain. 

Endless possibilities and Harry Potter.

It is Friday and I am in SUCH a good mood! My coffee tastes extra caffeinated and my weekend plans are taking over my brain. Endless possibilities my friends. Endless. Reality is that I will probably do a bit of cleaning… but why rain on my own parade? I’m sure I will fall in love with a tall, handsome, Jesus loving stranger this weekend! Why the heck not? It could totally happen.

I also thought I would share a gem that was sent to me this morning. Here is a video that was recorded by my friend Hanna at the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1). We were in line (in the rain and cold) saving spots for some tardy friends. *Warning: Hanna F-bomb in vid.*

Obviously a killing curse is involved… what else? Truth is, I forgot about this. Thankfully I am now reminded that Lauren and Marina owe me FOREVER.

Happy weekend!

Tricks and Treats in the Emerald City.

I went north this weekend to celebrate Halloween. Go ahead and start calling me Lucifer for celebrating the devil's holiday. I just really like to dress up! It was a blast to spend good quality time with friends. I’ll add pictures below of our outrageous 80s outfits, but first I thought I would share 3 weekend highlights.

1.) People laughing at our costumes and us staying in character by walking around doing lunges, high-kicks and punches. (I was sore the next day)

2.) Laying in Cameron’s bed while watching Harry Potter and eating tortilla chips.

3.) Brunch with some of my fave ladies X2. (we had brunch twice, there weren’t clones of my friends)

Jazzercise and Flashdance

Others thought we were Olivia Newton John. I'll take it! 

Prom queen 1985! And her Mormon date. 

Just a couple action shots. Did you want to store your lip gloss in my fanny pack? 

I hope you all had fun and safe weekends! My Halloween will continue with a chili/ voting/ candy passing out party at my parents house on Wednesday. Woot!

Today is Friday!

In celebration of the impending weekend, I would like you to remember that anything is possible!
[Start watching at 0:13]

How much do you love Tom Haverford? It should be a lot.

Insta-ridiculous and apple picking.

This weekend I went apple picking with some fantastic old and new friends. We went to a place called Bell Farms out past Beaverton down Farmington road. The picking was obv awesome, but the best part came later. They let us use their cider press and It was so freak-yeah fun!

Here are the photos of the day, but that is not what this post is about. Keep reading!

How can you not do cartwheels in an orchard?

Cutting up the apples and pears for the cider!

Step 1: grind       Step 2: press cider

Blurry but awesome. Such an American day! 

When the day was done and Nicole and I were sitting on my couch this conversation ensued:

Me: Hmm. Which filter shall I use? Whoa, Nashville looks good! Nashville never looks good! I’m doin’ it.
Nicole: Nice!
Nicole: No seriously though, which of these looks better? I like Brannan. It makes the apples look better, but Valencia makes you look tan.
Me: Who do you care about more? Me? Or some stupid cut up apples!? Rude. Make me tan.

Victory. We could have been talking about serious things like life, but instead we talked about instagram like these were the most serious decisions we had ever made. Ridiculous.

It's an election year. You should all do something American like apple picking!

Chelanigans

This past weekend I went up to Lake Chelan, WA to celebrate the 26th birthday of one of my dearest friends. We have known each other since age 12, so yeah, we have celebrated a lot of birthdays together. And let me tell you, they just keep getting better! This celebration was no exception… we managed to get into some chelanigans! (That is a play on the word shenanigans. In case you don’t get it. It also happens to be the name of a bar in Chelan, but that is neither here nor there.)

The whole area was majorly smoky due to wildfires, but that didn’t extinguish our good time! (pun intended)

We spent most of the weekend laughing, snacking and wine tasting. You know that sounds like an awesome time! Don’t deny it.

Off we go! 

Roommates! 

The Sassiest vineyard. Hard Row to Hoe

See how smoky it was!? 

Cheers from the birthday girl! 

Off to get my hair done! Oh sorry, did you think I was going to write about the NFL refs? Ha! I crack myself up.

Laziest of weekends.

This weekend was amazing. I literally had zero plans. Well, that’s a lie. I had a few plans on Sunday, but mostly I was totally free to do what I wanted!

I did laundry and watched Netflix on Friday. I know it sounds lame, but it was completely therapeutic.

On Saturday I went to Zumba, grabbed coffee and effectively spent the afternoon at my parent’s golf club pool. It is official; someday I will lead a dance on the stage at Zumba class. I have to. It is now a goal. If only I had the guts. Oh, and I will also have a rockin’ mom bod like all of the ladies at the pool. Psych! I haven’t had kids and they look way better than me. So… I guess I’ll let that one go.

Sunday I made it to the blogger meet-up! Barely. I was literally there for 30min of the 3 hour event. I am the worst. All of the PDX bloggers who helped did a really great job putting it all together! Snaps to Jenni for taking on the planning of these events! I started thinking about it as I talked to Sam. I have met both her and Jenni in real life ONE TIME! Yet we greeted each other like we are old friends. Why? Well, we read each others blogs! Shouldn't it be weird? Somehow it isn't.

I am not very good at the blog meet-ups… due to not being a serious blogger and being as awkward as I am. I like blogging, I just don’t have very many readers. So when I go to stuff like this I sorta feel like a wannabe. But you know what!? That is just lame and insecure and I didn’t start this blog to feel validated by strangers. So whatevs.

Check out the cute party favor and the earrings I won from the meet-up!

Notebook by Jenni and earrings by Dijana Designs

Oh, and am I the only one who benefited from the outrageously awesome line-up ABC Family had going this weekend? Not that I watched TV all weekend… but Stepmom, My Best Friends Wedding, The Notebook… just to name a few! Their programming was dominating my TV.

Hope your weekends were fab!

Mishmash Moments: Summer addition.

It has been a while since I have done a mishmash post. It is time!!

In no particular order of importance:

The Mish:
The Fab5!!! U.S.A U.S.A U.S.A!!! (If you didn’t mentally fist pump and chant that… let me know so I can promptly stop being your friend.) I am beyond excited that our girls are taking home the gold. I am glad we only have a few more rounds of staying up for gymnastics though, my body is thoroughly sleep deprived from staying up to watch the prime time. Yes, I tracked it live, but NBC puts together those cute packages about the athletes! I can’t get enough.

I watched in true fan fashion. I mean that literally. Check the scrunchie below. Gotta suit up in solidarity!

This is my actual competition scrunchie. I know it is weird that I have it, but I use it when I straighten my hair. The soft velvet doesn't leave a dent!

Anyway, that is all I will post about gymnastics. If our girls win a ton of individual medals, I will try and refrain from boring you to death with continued excitement. Just know that I am totally stoked.

The Mash:
This past week I had to say goodbye to another friend. Seriously. I am going to have to join an online friendship site if my friends keep moving away. Does desperate_for_friends.com exist? Ms. Martha is headed to San Diego for a new adventure and I am excited to hear about her exciting experiences… even though we are all a little bit bitter.

Anyway, there were multiple going away bashes. 1.) Brewfest (which I missed out on) and 2.) A chill-sesh at The Goose.

Oregon Brewfest

Fun with friends

The Moments:
On Saturday I had the opportunity to go to the beautiful wedding of Eric and Lisa at the Lewis River Golf Club. Seriously. It was a fantastic wedding. The sermon was one of the best I have ever heard at a wedding. He talked about how in Genesis the word 'helper' is used, which has become slightly derogatory in English. When really the Hebrew word is more like partner, in a way that means necessary for existence. So beautiful! What a picture of marriage and how it means to live and love. As necessary entities in each others lives.

Here is the happy couple!

Cutting the cake

And some fun time spent with friends:

Sara was in town for the occasion and we showed up in matching outfits! 

Amanda was toasting like Phoebe. Duh. [photo courtesy of Cayly's F-book]

I will send you off with a picture that most definitely would have made it into this post. Yep, that is me. Dancing with my cake.

True love. Who needs a man when you can dance with chocolate cake?

[1][2]