Did you miss me?

OMG, you guuuuuys.  It's been like TEN MONTHS.  I know.  I'm sorry.  And I should have been blogging this whole time because so many things happened in the last ten months.  Soooooo many.  But things have been crazy, and so blogging took the back burner.  Let me list for you the major life changes that have happened since we last talked...

1. K and I got ENGAGED!  Gah!  Can you believe it!?  OK, I basically knew we were going to get married after we had been dating for about three weeks, but it was still pretty amazing.  We got engaged in San Diego because he didn't want it to happen in Arizona, due to my...less than friendly feelings toward Arizona. It was wonderful and actually I think I'm going to need to do a separate post on it.  So, on to the next thing which is...

Sedona - one of our favorite places in AZ

2.  We MOVED...away from Arizona.  And back to Portland!!  OMG!  Nothing could make being engaged to the guy of my dreams better than moving back to the city of my dreams.  We had only been engaged a few weeks when we heard that there was a position open at K's company in Portland.  I really didn't want to get my hopes up, and it took FOREVER for it to become final, but in November we hit the road and drove back to Oregon where...

On the road home

3.  We bought ANOTHER house.  One in Portland.  There were a few things we liked about Arizona (very few), but the thing we loved the most was our first house.  It was perfect for us.  It was (is) beautiful and new, and nice and bigger than anything either of us has ever lived in.  And it was just, the ONE.  Much like we knew that the other was "the ONE" when we met, we knew that our house was the one for us the first time we saw it.

Pepper likes moving for obvious reasons

Christmas decor is always a priority

 When we found out we were for sure moving to Portland, we started looking at places to live.  I was pretty adamant about living in Portland proper rather than a suburb.  I did the suburb thing - and I learned once again that suburbs are not for me.  K and I had a bit of a showdown over this issue because it may have been more practical for us to move to the suburbs.  His office is deep, deep in the suburbs, and traffic to and from there is a nightmare.  Not to mention the fact that you can pretty much always find a place to live that is bigger, nicer and cheaper in the suburbs than you can in the city.  I don't always insist on having my way, but in this case I knew that moving to the suburbs would be a mistake.  Finally K gave me a challenge:  If I could find a job in the city before we moved, we would live in Portland.  Done and done.  I'm not sure how it happened so quickly, but it did - which leads us to number four....

The Tram

4.  I got a new job!  Well, obviously.  I did finally start working in Arizona, although it was at a job that I was grossly overqualified for and underpaid for.  Seriously.  Not only did I make 1/4 of what K made, but I'm pretty sure I was the only person in my position over 30.  It was nice to finally be working again, and bringing in some sort of a paycheck, even though it was quite tiny.  After a few months I was getting pretty bored, though, so really it was a relief to start something new when we came back to Oregon.

After we found out that we might be able to move back to Oregon, I knew I needed to start applying for jobs right away.  The first time I moved to Portland I applied for HUNDREDS of jobs and never heard a peep back on any of them.  So I expected that it would be similar this time around.  Despite not even being positive that we were moving, I pulled out my laptop and started searching.  The first night I applied for a few jobs that I thought I was qualified for and also met some of my requirements (as far as pay, position and LOCATION (reference #3).  I filled out some online applications, attached my resume and sent them into the black hole of job application land, presumably to never be heard from again.  And then to my surprise, the very next day I received an email from the owner of the business I had just applied with.  He had looked at my resume and wanted me to take a personality test!  Well, OK!  I filled it out that evening.

The next day, he sent me another email - he wanted to do a phone interview!  What!?!  So, we did a phone interview, and then a Skype interview, and then I was hired!  Keep in mind that I was still in Arizona this whole time, working at my old job and waiting every day to hear if K was really and truly going to be able to get the transfer back to Oregon.  I had to take a licencing exam to be able to start my new job in Oregon, so I started studying as soon as we found out that we would be moving.  Which also explains my ten month radio silence.  After we did finally get the notice that we would be moving, I spent pretty much all of my free time either packing or studying for my exam.  And when we did finally roll into town and get the keys to our new house, guess what day it was?  It was the day before Thanksgiving.  So then the Holidays happened.  And then...?

Portland I love you

5.  We planned a wedding.  After getting engaged, I did a few basic wedding planning things.  I started a pinterest board or 4 to pin all of the amazing and fantastic wedding ideas that are out there.  I bought a few bridal magazines.  I compiled a preliminary guest list.  I started looking at wedding venues online.  In OREGON.  Because no way in hell was I going to get married in Arizona.  And then before I really had to start worrying about the logistics of all that, we learned we maybe would be moving to Oregon..  So the details of wedding planning were put on hold until after the move was final and done.  I had emailed several wedding venues while I still was living in Arizona, and one that I was quite interested in was the McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Hillsboro, OR.  First of all, it is a McMenamins, which is sort of an Oregon standby.  Second of all, this location has a barn that they hold weddings in.  I blame pinterest for the fact that I suddenly needed a barn wedding.  I'm not a barn person, nor is my style rustic.  And I did not envision a rustic wedding in this barn, but still, I wanted a barn.  Which is surprisingly hard to find in the Portland area.  Not only that, but it proved to be much more cost effective than most of the other venues I was interested in, as the cost of the venue is included with a food and beverage minimum.

So, a few days after Christmas, I emailed the sales coordinator of the venue.  Just kind of throwing it out there.  K and I didn't really care what time of year the wedding was.  We knew it would need to be summer if it was outside, but other than that, neither of us cared if it was spring, summer, fall or winter.  Since this particular venue is outdoor/indoor, I preferred a spring, summer or fall date.

Not in the desert anymore

"Hi, just wondering what Saturdays you have available in the spring, summer or fall in 2014?"

Turns out, the ONLY Saturday they had available between April and October was June 21st.  And that was because of a cancellation.  I immediately forwarded the email to K and said - "what do you think?"
He wrote back "YES!"  And so there you go, six months to plan a wedding.  Not the shortest amount of time that anyone has ever had, for sure.  But still, there was no time for dilly dallying.  Which is good for me, since I am such a major procrastinator.  Knowing that I had a fast approaching deadline made me much more productive.  But it also meant that once again, blogging was not a priority.

The week after the wedding, I was sort of having withdrawals.  It had been so stressful and so wonderful - there were times that I said "I can't wait for this to be over with and just be married!"  But you and I both know that we thrive on the rush that we get from stress, and this particular kind of stress is like nothing else.  And then there was no more wedding planning!   I was explaining to K that I had put so much work and energy into it that it was sort of hard to have it all just stop.  And he said:  "You should blog about it.  You should do a series or something"  My husband, he is a clever one.  And to be honest, I had been blogging in my head the whole time.  I took pictures and I composed entries in my head.  So, I will be blogging about some of the things that have happened in the last ten months.  Some DIYs and some wedding planning things.

Oh yeah, which means that:

6.  We got MARRIED!   Obvs.

So that is it.  Here I am, ten months later.  Married and living in Portland.  Still cooking, still grilling, still DIYing ( although mostly DIYing wedding decor lately).  Still celebrating Wine Wednesday (and Wine Monday and Wine Friday).  Still trying to find the best things that my city has to offer - it's just that the best that this city has to offer is just...better.  Can't wait to tell you all about it.

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