Dang procrastintation

I had high hopes of getting some quality posts in before we took off for Christmas but alas, it was not to be so here's some pics to let you know how December has treated the Paxmans.

If you haven't heard, Portland has been having crazy winter weather, the storms in the last week have brought more snow to Portland than has been seen here in 40 years. And it is quite the spectacle. "Arctic Blast 2008" has proved that Portland is not equipped to handle snow. At all. Not even a little bit. I think at one point we had around 12-18 inches. And then the freezing rain came, and then more snow. Good times. Don't even ask me about driving with all those yahoos on the road.

Here's a pic of our ice graveyard. All of the ice courtesy of our front lawn.

That may look like snow on the branches but it's actually ice. All of the trees ended up this way after the freezing rain. There are some ginormous (I realize that's not a word found in the dictionary. Or maybe it is now, they do update that thing from time to time. ) icicles all around as well.




Having fun in the snow.

This is the house after the first snowfall. Did I mention that church was canceled two weeks in a row. Yep, they cancel church here. Like I said, crazy.

Snow falling at night.

In the middle of all the snow Scotty had a birthday. Happy Birthday my love! And thanks to everyone who braved the weather to come over and celebrate.

Zoe wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas so here she is in her Santa Paws hat, Despite the look on her face, she is thoroughly amused and very excited to send you and yours a Merry Christmas.

So, there you have it. And now we're off to AZ, that is if our plane actually leaves.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Question

Why are the chips at Chipotle so freakin' salty?

I have some theories:
Chipotle is getting a kickback from the pharmaceuticals that make hypertension drugs.
The same guy that made the guacamole is making the chips.
Someone misunderstood the directions on the bag of chips that said serve covered in salsa, they read it as "serve covered in salt"
If Chipotle can't kill us with their calorie packed burritos they'll get us with the sodium.

Just a theory.

notes on driving

I've long said that Utah has the worst drivers I have ever encountered (no offense to my Utah peeps.) Their inability to merge is somewhat baffling, the rubbernecking is ridiculous and to top it all off they can be just plain rude.

That being said, I don't know if that is worse than the drivers in the good ol' state of Oregon. They are a different breed to be sure. To start with, the 55 mph speed limit on the freeway is usually strictly followed, in fact, most drivers feel safest when driving 5-10 miles below the speed limit. I am typically not a speed demon but have felt like one even when driving a mere 62. And while I appreciate the "no, really, after you" mentality, it can make one crazy when one driver decides to let everyone on the on-ramp nudge in before you. There is typically confusion as to which lane is the fast lane, it typically varies from the middle lane to the right lane. This is hard for me to get used to, I'm your regular, "left lane, fast lane" kinda gal. I'm sure most of you are aware that it rains in Oregon, a lot, which would make one think that driving in the rain would come as second nature. But you would be wrong my friend, it seems to throw the whole driving eco-system (is there such a thing?) into mayhem, pure mayhem. And then there are all of the bumper stickers. If you're not frustrated enough by the lack of driving aptitude you can spend your time reading the bumper stickers, every good Oregonian has one.

I will some day get used to the rain. I doubt I will ever get used to the driving.

Hey guys

A few things I'm grateful for

1. This guy. I love him to bits and pieces and then some.



2. These guys. I have an awesome family.

3. These guys. I also have amazing in-laws. Lucky me!

3. These guys. How can you not smile at this picture?

Photo tag

Random. Here's the 4th picture in the 4th file of my pics. This is my bro-in-law Bobby. We went to a corn maze a few weeks ago and here he is posing as a sunflower. Lovely.

I tag anyone wanting to post an old photo.

Sensitive stomach

Poor Zoe. And poor Scott .
Poor Zoe because she must have gotten into something that gave her the runs. Poor Scott because he had to clean it up. And it was everywhere. Reason number 72 why I love my husband.

Announcement

One of these couples is expecting a baby.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

It's not us.

Congrats Krystin and Bobby!

The Unveiling

TA-DAH!!!

Here's a picture of the outside of the OUR, very own house! It pretty much looks like this even though this is an old picture off of Zillow. That big tree is no longer there, I have no idea how long it's been gone and the rest of the plants/bushes are extremely overgrown and need to be dealt with.
I may post pics of the inside but not until we get a few more things done. We love it! Even though we have found some things that make us scratch our heads.
I'll post before and after pics at some point as well. I guess that means I need to find my camera.

I love your blog

I have been awarded the "I Love Your Blog" award by Chrystal! So i get to try to answer these questions in one word. And since it's 3:45 in the morning and I'm at work waiting for a patient, now's a good as time as any to fill this out.



1. Where is your cell phone? locker

2. Where is your significant other? bed

3. Your hair color? brown

4. Your mother? bestest

5. Your father? hilarious

6. Your favorite thing? snuggling

7. Your dream last night? interrupted

8. Your dream/goal? millions

9. The room you're in? PACU

10. Your hobby? progressing

11. Your fear? loss

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? traveling

13. Where were you last night? dreamland

14. What you're not? slacker

15. One of your wish-list items? France

16. Where you grew up? Flagstaff

17. The last thing you ate? moosetracks

18. What are you wearing? scrubs

19. Your TV? HD

20. Your pet? Zoe

21. Your computer? off

22. Your mood? tired

23. Missing someone? Scott

24. Your car? parked

25. Something you're not wearing? pajamas

26. Favorite store? unknown

27. Your summer? fabulous

28. Love someone? eternally

29. Your favorite color? pink

30. When is the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? awhile

I award the following people with the "I love your blog award" and in so doing tag them to complete the above questions.
MiRanda
Shannon
StefStarSnow
Lohra
ShellsBells

Point well taken

A conversation Scott had with one of his 5 year old primary kids.

Evan: Do you have a slow car or what?
Scott: Huh? What do you mean?
Evan: Well, cause you're always late.

We're working on that one. 9 o'clock church is hard.

House Dating

What house hunting and dating have in common...

It's time consuming and all-other types of consuming
You're always looking at houses, wondering if it could be the one.
You actually find a few you want to check out more closely, only to go inside and realize it's just not what you were looking for.
You find a match-maker, someone to set you up with all available houses. You often wonder how well this person knows what you're actually looking for by what they find for you.
Most of the houses you really like are way out of your league.
Pictures are not always what they appear.
There's a lot of creepy, old houses out there.
You find a good house, one that will suit your needs, everything fits and then someone else puts an offer in right before you and it gets snatched away. You realize later it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
Everyone wants to know exactly what you're looking for but you're not even quite sure yourself. You'll know it when you see it.
Everyone you know will tell you all about their house hunting/buying experiences.

And eventually when the time is right, you find the one you've been looking for. And it all works out. And life goes on.

Toothache

If you know me well, you know how much I struggle with going to the dentist. I won't say I hate the dentist because it's not actually the dentist I hate, it's the whole experience. And we had plenty of experiences in the month of August. Scott unfortunately took the brunt of it, poor guy. Here's a rundown of our combined fun:

2 intial visits
2 full sets of x-rays
3 temporary crowns
2 permanent crowns
1 root canal
1 retreat root canal
1 root canal surgery
more xrays
palate ulcers
3 visits to file down high spots
4 prescriptions for clindamycin
3 prescriptions for vicodin
more ibuprofen than our livers are able to metabolize
1 prescription for decadron
36 hours of hiccoughs (straight)
Maximum dental benefits paid
Lots of dental bills

And they're still not done with us. How did we ever find each other?
Here's to a better month!

Apparently we'll be taking a ferry...

Scott and I have been wanting to get up to Victoria BC for awhile now so last weekend we headed on up. We pit stopped in Seattle Friday and had a good time (minus trying to park downtown) hanging out in the city. We left Seattle early Saturday to get to Port Angeles and take the ferry over. Being slightly unprepared we were relying heavily on the directions on the Scott's iPhone. I was the navigator and Scott driving. The directions seemed pretty simple, take the 90 to the 104 and then to the 101. We kept seeing signs for the Kingston ferry along the same route we were on. Scott asked if we were going to have to take said ferry. I didn't think so, it looked like the 101 went from Edmond to Kingston, when Scott asked to look at the phone he enlightened me that white dots on a map over a body of water indicates a ferry. Oh. Apparently we were taking a ferry. And we had to wait two hours to get onto it. ugh. It slightly delayed us but by some small miracle we made the 1245 ferry to BC even though we didn't walk onto the ferry until 1. phew.

Here we are at Pike's Market in Seattle

This is the Victoria Harbor

Scott made a friend on the ferry

The Sunken Garden at Butchart Gardens.

Scott rode a horse.

I made friend's with a gardener

Taking pictures while driving at 70 mph is undoubtedly a wise choice.

Maharaja

The Maharaja of Kapurthala

The Maharaja of Victoria

Spotted. The Maharaja. Scott and I were quite pleased to catch a glimpse of this rare public appearance in Victoria BC over the weekend.

More of our trip later.

Noxious Weed

Noxious Weeds=Delicious Blackberries

We've been loving picking berries

Coneheads and friends

It's been a tough week or so for the dog. She spends a good portion of her time with a cone on her head. Dang allergies.

Madeleine doesn't mind the cone so much.

This is one of Zoe's cat friends. She thinks she's a cat, the cats aren't usually fooled.

Spontaneity

In case you haven't heard me complain about it lately, the weather in Portland has not been so great lately. The weekly forecast has included key words like this for what seems like forever: rain showers, mostly cloudy, lower than normal temps, expect warmer temps by the end of the week, rain showers, mostly cloudy, lower than normal temps, expect warmer temps by the end of the week. The "expect warmer temps by the end of the week" is what I believe to be a conspiracy theory to keep people in Portland, the extended forecast always has the 4th day getting warmer but the 4th day never comes. Well, enough of my diatribe on the weather, the important thing is we did something about it. We can't change the weather, so we decided at the last minute to change our location, at least for a few days. Last Thursday afternoon we booked a trip to LA for the next morning. Goodbye rain, hello sun! (I'm late on posting this trip was the weekend before last) and the weather did perk up a bit this weekend!



A few things we learned along the way:

1. The people dressed in costume in Hollywood around Sunset Blvd expect tips if you take their picture. We didn't tip.

2. Right off of Rodeo drive there is an awesome cupcake shop that far exceeds the cupcake shops found in Portland. Delicious!

3. The Grizzly River Run ride at California Adventures will leave you completely soaked.

4. Make sure when you book the trip you book it in your married name, not your maiden name. whoops.

5. An afternoon at the beach makes up for 3 months of rain, kind of.











We take the rides at Disneyland very seriously, as you can tell from this picture. I know, you are as confused as we are at the faces we are making.

What's in a name?

"The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers." -Marshall McLuhan

While you may think this post has something to do with my new name, it does not. I am very pleased with my new name and have embraced it fully, although it sometimes takes me a minute on the phone to give the right name.

Rather, this post has to do with the names that parents choose to give to their children. I am constantly amazed at the seemingly thoughtless act of naming a child. This is their name for crying out loud, what they will be known as for the rest of their life! In Utah, the pattern seemed to be to come up with a "unique" spelling or creating a "new" name. (Now, some of you may be thinking that I, of all people should not discuss the spelling of names. But--I did not choose the spelling of my own name and I was also born 20 or so years before this craze came about.)
Now that I have worked in children's hospitals in 3 different states, it's evident that this problem stretches far outside of Utah. I currently work in the PACU (recovery room) and so we have an operating room schedule with every patients name on it. Typically we scan the schedule for names we may find entertaining. Today was no different but the amount of names was absurd. Here is a sampling.
This is not a joke. These are some of the names on the schedule today. All in one day. Jackpot. (that's not one of the names.)

Hooper
Drusilla
Ryen
Zayben
Declan
Favian
Shania
Anjulena

Seriously? Drusilla? Seriously? Now, this is not an attempt to offend anyone who may know a child with these names or maybe even named their child one of these names. It is just my own little brain trying to grasp what drives a parent to name their sweet little baby Drusilla or Zayben. Maybe you can help me understand. Please, anyone....

"People's fates are simplified by their names." -Elias Canetti

VIVA MEXICO!

Viva Mexico indeed! Here's a few pics from our trip to the country just south of us. Our trip to Chichen Itza (Mayan Ruins)

Hanging out at the Aventura Spa Palace after enjoying a delicious smoothie.
After playing some frisbee (thanks, dad!)

Our favorite restaurant at the resort, I think we consumed an average of 5000 calories a day.

Scootering around the island of Cozumel

Best Day Ever

Well, it finally happened! We got hitched! I am now a Paxman (not quite official, still have to change my SSN and get an Oregon license but I'm considering that a technicality.) We started the festivities off with a dinner on Friday night with lots of family and friends. It was held at the clubhouse in Heather and Matthew's neighborhood (Scott's sister and bro-in-law.) We had it catered by none other than Cafe Rio, delicious!

Saturday was perfect, the weather cooperated nicely and we enjoyed a beautiful day. Our sealing (marriage ceremony) was at 1pm but Scott and I had to be at the temple at noon. I won't tell you what time I got there but let's just say that Scott made it there first. No worries, I wasn't so late that we delayed the ceremony just late enough to make Scott wonder if I was going to show up. It was all due to some traffic in Sandy where I was getting my hair done, whoopsie! (Becky--I'm still getting comments on the hair! You did an amazing job!)

Once there, Scott and I had time to spend with each other, I have never seen Scott nervous until this point, he says it's equivalent to nerves before the big game but I don't know how anyone could perform a sport when they're shaking so bad!
The sealing was performed by a former temple president and he did a phenomenal job in giving us some instruction and advice. I wish I was more eloquent and had the ability of describing the sweet feelings of being in the temple, marrying the love of my life and being surrounded by family and friends, but all I can say is that is was the perfect moment, beautifully sweet and better than I could have ever imagined!

The rest of the day was amazing, filled with lots of pictures (thanks to Jen for her fabulous job), flowers and fun! We had our reception at the Alpine Art Center, kudos to Stef who did such a fab job on the flowers and centerpieces. Everything was just gorgeous! I loved every minute of it!!

As I was planning for this wedding, I had some fear that something might go wrong or that it wouldn't meet my expectations but I had nothing to worry about! From start to finish it was just as I had imagined! Definitely the best day ever!!

Musical Quandry

Okay, blogging friends, I need your help. Scott and I are trying to put together music for our reception. I can sing along to almost anything but if you ask me the name of an artist or the title of the song, you will receive just a blank stare in return. So, here's what I need from you, some of your all-time favorite tunes; love songs, dancing songs, favorite 80's, whatever. I just need name of song and artist. We're going to try to compile something that has a little bit of everyone's taste. And, I won't even ask you to lip sync at the reception, maybe.

Whatcha doin?

I know I just posted but Scott's sick and blogging is a good way to pass the time when you don't know what else to do with yourself. :o)

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to in the last month.

Portland Trailblazers vs. Utah Jazz game. I think Scott thought I was going to cheer for the Jazz but I was never really a Jazz fan, is anyone a Jazz fan that isn't actually born in Utah? That question is in no way meant to offend all of the loyal Jazz fans out there, it's just a question, I'd love to know if there are some un-native Utahn's who are true fans. The game was fun, even when we found out we were sitting behind the grumpiest man on the planet. Nothing that banging two noise sticks together can't help.
Snowshoeing at Trillium Lake!! The snow was pretty packed from the cross country skiers so the snowshoeing was easy but still a great time. FYI-jackets from the GAP are not made of breathable material.

Although some people may think that I want to torture Scott, this is just not true. Even if I drug him to Utah for wedding planning and then out to AZ to meet my entire family. And I do mean entire family. He even met relatives of relatives. While we were there my aunt Vicki took our engagement pics and they turned out great. Here's a few of us just having a good time. And yes, it was freezing outside.

Tagbacks

Hmmm....I thought I was done with tag but as to not disappoint Laura, I will try to share six unknowns about Scott, which shouldn't be that difficult since only 3 of my friends outside of Portland have met him. That was quite the run-on sentence, I apologize and Scott-just remember, I love you.

1. If Scott and I were to have our own sitcom/reality show it would be called "The Nurse and the Hypochondriac." Scott has had a variety of maladies since I have known him: diabetes, spinal meningitis, pink eye, brain tumor, migraines, teratomas, enlarged heart, I could go on and on. Now, I guess to be fair he can't be classified as a true hypochondriac because he doesn't seek treatment but maybe that's why he's marrying a nurse.

2. Scott sometimes gets food obsessions. If he gets in his head something that he wants to eat, he can't forget about it, and he will crave it until he gets his fill. Some of his past favorites: Baja Fresh steak fajitas, PCG tenderloin satay, Chili's honey chipotle chicken crispers, Costa Vida pork tacos (it would be Cafe Rio but we don't have one here.)

3. Cheap shoes. Scott was recently prepared to purchase a pair of running shoes for $8. You may be thinking, "wow Kaydi, you found a bargain shopper" but if I tell you they were women's running shoes you may just be worried. :o)

4. Zoe loves Scott. I was afraid that my dog may not take kindly to Scott because she is very co-dependant on me. I shouldn't have worried. Zoe loves him, she likes to plop right on his chest when he comes over and always tries to give him kisses. yum.

5. Scott can relate anything to a Seinfeld episode. Just try him, he'll come up with something.

6. Just because this is about a TV show as well, I don't want to give you the impression that Scott watches a ton of TV, he doesn't, at all. But I think that Scott may be the only person to have seen every episode of Smallville. Who watches Smallville? :o)