Party of One...The Loner's Manifesto

November 1 is my anniversary. Today is Halloween. I am being an introvert today. I would rather spend time by myself today. Well really not so much but me is all I have. My friends are with their children my husband is at work until 8 pm. He has been there since 6:30 am. I am not dressing up. I did not purchase any candy to give out. I am not going to answer my door. I think I will take myself out to dinner....

Tomorrow I will be attending my new ward for the first time. I am taking opinions on if my first calling in this ward will be in the nursery/sunbeams. I have been called into this position in every ward I have moved into for the last 12 years. I don't have hopes of breaking the tradition but we shall see. I have not even been to the ward. I am not sure what the demographics will be of this ward. It should be interesting.

The Move

As you know Dan has a 12 year old daughter. She spends every other weekend at our house. Due to that fact we needed to get a place with 2 bedrooms. I found a place near the max (public transportation that I take to work into downtown Portland) near Dan's work, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and cheaper price and less utilities. It's drawback is that it is an apartment. A third floor apartment. But there is a fully functioning work out room and indoor pool so I am not too upset. There is no garage for Dan to tinker in. I am sad about it. But he works as a mechanic and can do tinkering there if needed. He sacrificed the garage to get a bigger and cheaper place for his daughter. What a good dad.
After the final cleaning of that little house I was locking up and I started to cry...how ridiculous! But it was the place I spent the first hard year of my marriage. I am glad the first year is over but I am sad to leave it behind. I hope the little house treats someone else good.
As for packing my stuff. Well Dan and I have opposite schedules right now. So I packed my stuff and moved it by myself and he packed his stuff and got a friend and moved his stuff and some of the heavy stuff. Even though I did my share of the heavy stuff :) I put away my stuff and Dan took care of his. Our marriage is still very segregated. I am sure it is because of me.

Cake gone wrong

It has been a long time since I have posted. I have moved. Packed up my stuff and moved into an apartment. It is bigger than my little house. So I have been busy and have not had the gumption to post. I still have boxes and stacks of stuff everywhere. Luckily the boxes are mostly empty.

Well it is autumn. I have been craving a pumpkin cake. I luckily knew a woman who makes the most delicious pumpkin cake I have ever eaten. I got the recipe. I tried to make it yesterday and failed. If you see the picture the cake is not cake. It is like pie. It is about 1/4 inch thick. It did not raise. I guess my baking powder is bad or my cake 'fell' or the altitude is an issue. I am perplexed. I have not failed at a recipe too often. I will give it another go in a few days. But until then I have a thin dense cake up for grabs as well as some boxes.

Local C Supplier

This group of deliciousness are cinnamon devils. While I am a dental hygienist I must admit that I love cinnamon chewy candy. I love cinnamon bears...not covered in chocolate though. My only problem with packaged c-bears is that they have the potential to be old. I LOVE fresh candy in bulk.

I grew up measuring time through the holidays. I worked at the local grocery

store in Delta....Quality Thriftway. This store introduced me to the cinnamon candy world.
I moved away from Delta and then started counting time between Valentines day where cinnamon lips were available to Christmas when cinnamon santas were ready in stock. Luckily the holiday candy companies have added cinnamon bunnies and cinnamon devils so my only dry spell is the summer.

I have been in Oregon for almost a year and have missed the cinnamon candies. My mom did send me some lips but my dry spell has been long and dehydrating. I was doing some quick grocery shopping and behold my surprise when I rounded the corner near the halloween section...which I was going to bypass since I was in a hurry and it was crowded, but I spotted the c-devils!!! I got about 2 lbs. Dan laughed at me but promptly took a handful. I am so excited that I have my own local source of fresh soft sticky cinnamon candies!!! Life is complete.

On another note; yesterday I had lunch for the first time with Kristie. She was a RDH student at the same time as me. She lived in Washington. She found me via this blog. We have kept in touch ever since that one mean post I had in 05 half way through school. We met yesterday for lunch in Vancouver WA. It was a lot of fun talking about the differences in offices and getting to know each other. She is a kindred RDH. Her sister and her niece are/will be RDH. It is in her blood. She is a full restorative RDH. I am quite jealous of that. Not that I want to do restorative but knowing that there is a license that is one step better than mine is stroking my competitive nature....

Best Toy Store

Why am I showing you a picture of Finegan's? What is Finegan's? This is a large toy store. It is a wonder emporium of toys, games, stuffed animals, activity sets, cars, dolls, trains and all things kids! Finegan's is one block from the dental office I work at in downtown Portland. It is a wonderful place....how about those offices on the second floor? How great would those be? Still cannot beat the view from my office.

I am not doing a post about Finegan's. I want to direct your attention to the trees outside the store. Yes those are Christmas lights....what else can I say.

Seasons Change

Fall is definately here in Portland. Temps have fallen and leaves are turning color and the rain has started. It has been a while since it rained here. Rain is forcasted for every single day this week.

Being from dry Utah the wet Portland weather is alright with me. I mean where else can I get 365 days out of one bottle of lotion?!?!

Well bring on the soup, carmel apples and candy corns!! And who can forget the cinnamon devils...hint hint Delta crew....I could use some.

Let 'er Buck !!

This is all that remains from my weekend. For many of you who do not know what this bag is...let me explain.
I have a recipe for wonderful peanut butter, oatmeal, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter chip cookies. They are nummy. They are also fragile. I think it has to do with the chip to dough ratio.

I made a batch of cookies and filled up the Ziploc bag. We munched on them all weekend and traveled over 6 hours with them. I think they held up pretty well.
My adventures this week took Dan, Anna and me to Hermiston. Anna has not been to Hermiston for a couple years and her grandmother was excited to see her as well as her cousins. It was fun all over the place.
Saturday I got tickets to the Pendleton Round-up. This is a rodeo. A huge pro rodeo circuit event. Dan who is from Hermiston (22 miles away) has never been to the round-up, just the parade and party after. I am a rodeo lover. We went to the round-up and I completely loved it. I had the best time. The only draw back was that I lost the mullet bet. Dan, Anna and I had bet the night before about how many mullets we would see. My guess was 7. Anna 7-20 and Dan picked 1-5. I was completely dumb founded when we did not spot one. How shocking.
Even though the cowboys of Eastern Oregon have modern cuts they still are the same, big buckles, tight jeans, climbing bleachers with beers in hand trying not to spill. Great fun! And props to West Haven Ut cowboy who won calf roping--cant remember your name but hey I remember your jeans :)