HOLIDAY '13 RECAP - INSTAGRAM

FRAMED GIFT FROM HUBBY / 2013 ORNAMENT

     The framed gift was from a super cool new gift boutique in Newberg, Pulp & Circumstance. In full disclosure, Dan went there and picked out something entirely different and this is 1 item that we exchanged for. The actual gift he gave me was a necklace with a carved wooden bird. (Big points for putting a bird on it, and even bigger points for trying to buy me a present in a fancy stationary/gift shop with a toddler in tow, but it just wasn't something I would have actually worn. I will not suffer fashion to avoid hurting my husband's feelings. And really, he had no hurt feelings. He honestly said "I had to be quick! I had Raine!")

     The ornament was from a gift shop here in Carlton. I picked it because not only was it pretty...It lights up! That seemed fitting because Raine was so into THE LIGHTS! (MOMMY! THE LIGHTS!) this holiday season. ;)

RAINE & THE GINGERBREAD HOUSES / DONATION CARDS

     There is one business in particular in Carlton that is always fun for Raine to pass the shop windows on our way to the coffee shop every morning (GIANT HORSES! POODLE FIGURINES! FROGS ON THE SIDEWALK!) During the holidays Raine was extra enchanted by their festive items. GINGERBREAD HOUSES! GIANT SILVER PLASTIC SHEEP! NATIVITY SCENES! Not to mention a life-size retro SANTA outside the front door. Unfortunately, it is not a shop 'for minors.' There is wine tasting, just as there is wine tasting in practically every business in our town, so no toddlers. ;)

     I raised some funds and collected gift cards to send to five families in Washington that were affected by the tornado. These were the beautiful cards by Rifle Paper Co. that I bought and had the total pleasure of mailing the donations in.

CHRISTMAS MORNING / HOLIDAY BREWS

     It was absolutely hilarious to watch Raine open presents this year. He thought it was the most exciting thing, and yet was still a little bit unsure of it all, and what was happening exactly. He STILL doesn't know how to grab a present and just rip into it, despite three Christmases and two birthdays. But once you get the unwrapping started, he will certainly help finish! After his first few presents from Santa (including this clearly AWESOME Hungry Caterpillar puzzle --way to go, Santa!--) he started grabbing the presents from under the tree and proclaiming, "For me! For me!" After several more presents from family in Illinois, he started running around the room in utter excitement and stopping at the tree and screeching, "I am here! I am here!" And he would repeat grabbing presents and shouting "For me! For me!" Dude was jacked UP on Christmas! Ha!

     A favorite holiday brew of mine was Fireside Chat spiced ale by First Amendment. I also enjoyed one of Dan's gifts to me, the Experiment Ale (with Oregon marionberries) by Harvester, which was a welcome treat as I had changed by Christmas to a gluten-free diet. Additional seasonal brews we enjoyed this season were: Deschutes Jubelale winter ale

10 Barrel Pray For Snow winter ale

Fish Fish Tale Organic Ice Breaker winter ale

H.U.B. Abominale winter ale

Ninkasi Sleigh'r winter ale

Portland BlackWatch cream porter

 Widmer Brrr ale

Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean*

*Dan's favorite ;)

DINNER BY LORRI / RAINE'S FIRST SNOW

     The weekend after Christmas, we enjoyed celebrating with Lorri and Carmen in their new home. She pulled out all the stops to give me a beautiful, satisfying gluten-free dinner. :) We had slow-cooked pulled pork with barbecue glaze, smoky black eyed peas, and gluten-free ham biscuits with a homemade honey orange butter. Raine was a huge fan of those biscuits and butter and I have to say, after two weeks of no baked goods (going gluten free) it was the BEST Christmas present for me. :) They were delicious!

     Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Yamhill County saw a half inch of beautiful snow for one day. :) Roads were frozen and it was hard to drive anywhere (we don't salt in the Northwest) but the scenery was worth it. Raine woke up that morning and was excited by the sight of snow. It was certainly new to him. He is very good at telling me what we are dealing with each morning, weather wise... I enter his room, turn on the light, and open his curtains. He proclaims: "Fog!" (Sounds like "F*#!*") "Raine!" "Sun!" And that day, I taught him, "Snow!" We are looking forward to our trip this weekend to Illinois when he can actually play in real snow. ;)    

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dan, April, Raine, Leah

Raine and Noah

We welcomed the New Year with April, Jason, and the kids. We hadn't been to visit for 9 months so we had a lot of catching up to do! The girls are growing up too fast. I keep telling them, STOP GROWING. Allyson is taller than me! Raine had so much fun with Nathan and Noah, running around and playing cars and trucks, jumping on the mini trampoline and watching "Turbo." April is a new consultant for LuLaRoe, which is a super awesome brand of maxi skirts, dresses, and leggings. Once you try on those skirts, trust me, you will never want to take them off! I didn't have time to shop but I'm sure I will next visit!

Our NYE was quiet and nice. I closed shop early at 4 pm and Dan and Raine met me for dinner at McMenamins. That evening, Raine played with his new baby-sitters, Isaiah and Becky, while Dan and I snuck away to the movie theater and finally saw Catching Fire. We were home by 11 and popped a bottle of champagne and tried our best to stay awake 1 more hour. It was rough! LOL. I finished up Christmas cards and spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to get digital copies of movies that Raine got for Christmas downloaded to our computer and portable devices. Trying to get stuff like that to work makes me feel old and cranky. I am so NOT tech savvy. I think I was in 1999 for a split second?

One of my goals this year is to figure out iTunes. I still don't know how to use it, and "sync" and the "cloud," etc. I haven't been able to listen to music for months or enjoy anything I listen to. I've just lost the love. I don't play much at home. We use Pandora at work and I hardly pay attention to it. And after the tornado, honestly, I preferred to drive in silence. I am confident if I can organize my old library (make sure all of our CDs are digitalized) and get it all in iTunes properly and then sync our devices, I can teach myself to love music again. We will see.

Any other goals for 2014? I asked Dan during our road trip yesterday and he just said "NO." We used to have "Family Goals" and every year he usually came up with something for himself personally, but I think we are just both so tired and exhausted from all of the change this year....It is hard to think about tackling anything new. 

If I had all of the time I wanted, I would clean up this blog. I'd fix the links and photos from the year that it resided at Typepad and certainly begin to show it more love and affection than I did in 2013. What a lowly post record of 17 posts! Yikes! I should have been writing and chronicling the mayhem of 2013 but maybe it was just too wild and crazy to digest and put into words for readers. I have a sneaking suspicion 2014 will continue to be a bit of a roller coaster, at least in terms of dealing with health issues and making some repairs from financial surprises we encountered since our move. I also continue to agonize on a daily basis about how to find the perfect work/life/parenting/spouse/friend/daughter/sister/artist/writer/spiritual being combination. IT IS ELUSIVE! LOL. I will just do my best.  

Much love to you and yours in the New Year!

2013 HERZING HOLIDAY CARD TIMELINE

December 2012

Decide to do holiday cards again next year because I got positive feedback on ours this year!

May 2013

Move to new house and decide to use a photo of us in front of our new house for the holiday cards.

September 2013

See a neat-o holiday card design on Minted.com that features a new house address on it. Perfect!

October 2013

Oh wait. I don't have a good photo of us in front of the house. When I ask our neighbor to take a photo, she keeps cropping one of us out. I ask awesome professional friend to help and try to schedule a time with her.

November 2013

Awesome professional friend comes to take our photo. Basically, I realize I have a toddler and sitting still in front of our house isn't going to happen. We go to Main Street and let Raine run around all over Carlton. Awesome professional friend follows us following him.

We did a lot of chasing.

And trying to pose.

But mostly let Raine explore.

Everywhere.

And be silly.

"Say Cheese!"

Flip Flop!

And there it is! Winner winner, chicken dinner.

November 23, 2013

Believe I am so utterly COOL to have my family photo done and my design ordered. 

December 1, 2013

I can send my cards out this week and everyone will have our new address in time to send us their cards! 

December 27, 2013

Wait!?!? Where did the last 26 days go!?!? 

My Post About Being Busy

Good Lord, things have been BUSY. Since I posted that we had found a house, I can't even begin to describe the level of busy-ness I have been operating at. I still could have found time to write, but I honestly was not making it a priority.

My priority has been keeping my sanity.

Part of maintaining my sanity has been "To Do" lists like this one. The week after we moved, I had four pages like this one (front and back). I had to keep everything organized somehow. By now I can't even make a list. It is too overwhelming. Not because there is even MORE stuff to do, but because I already spent all possible energy and used up all of my superwoman brain cells. There is nothing left. I don't know how or when I get a recharge, but I am hoping it is soon...

Here is what we have been up to...

We celebrated Easter. This involved friends and food, presents in Raine's Easter "nest," bubbles, more food (including cupcakes) and more bubbles.

We went back to Illinois for a visit. There was a lot of playing to be had for Raine with his cousins, and then we had our fair share of food and beverages, and lots of time with friends and family.

We packed a lot for our move. We tried to pack a little bit every day. Raine liked to pack and then unpack, pack, unpack, repeat.

We finalized paperwork on the house and made several trips out catch glimpses as it was built.

We had it inspected and then had a new homeowner orientation with the builder.

We signed a lot of paperwork and closed escrow.

Then on Saturday May, 4th, we moved in!!!

We tried our best to help all pets adjust to the new house. This included training Rocco to use a doggie door. We crossed our fingers that he would use it while we were away at work throughout the week, so we wouldn't have to come home to accidents all over the new hardwood floors and carpet. It took about two weeks until I felt completely comfortable leaving him alone. Now he uses that thing like a BOSS.

Hobbes made some surprising trips to the vet, racking up ridiculously large bills. He had two teeth removed and was diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism. He has to eat expensive prescription food now, of course.

Rocco also has had to have some extra vet visits and tests. Most notably in just the last week, he has developed what we believe is Lymphangieasia, which is causing protein to leak out of his intestines. He started medicine yesterday and I am working from home this week to monitor him until we can get him back to the vet on Thursday and have his blood checked again to see where we are at. If he has stabilized on the medicine, there is hope we will have him around a couple more years (as we will continue to treat it with a prescription diet). If he does not stabilize, we will have to help him get more comfortable and say goodbye in the next two to three weeks. We are stunned and sad and nervous.

Immediately after we moved, we spent a week cleaning the crap out of our condo. (This included Mother's Day. However, before Raine went to the baby-sitter and cleaning commenced, I did get to have a groovy little breakfast en plein air with my boys at Henry's Hot Breakfast. And hubby gave me roses. Sigh.)

After listing the condo, we waited for six agonizing weeks to get tenants. Just as I was about to lose my shit, we found them. I just gave them the keys Monday. HALLELUJAH.

In between all of this, I have tried to attempt to baby step my way into tackling major changes with my daily job and special projects, including the business I want to start. The short of it is that nothing much has changed. ;) I am still at the same day job and it is still very stressful and even less ideal now that I live 30 minutes away. My plans to amp up posting and content of this blog has failed, but I did finally gather together my goodies for my side project, snail says. It is in early prep stages and I will not be formally launching it, or making any sort of announcement, necessarily, when it is up and running. The plan is to leak it on Pinterest eventually, when I reach a certain point in the content level (which I think is scheduled for late August or September). LOL. I wish I could tell you more, other than ... It will basically chronicle Dan and I's love letters and creative tokens of affection during our courtship, which was ten years ago this month. This is the only time I will likely mention this project because I want it to happen in a space exclusive of this blog, with it's own organic possibilities.

And, the business. It is forming. I have a P.O. box, email address, and company name with a blog/web site and Twitter account. It is in such early stages I hesitate to share details but if your really want a peek, you can get a glimpse here.

OH. AND AS IF THIS ALL WASN'T ENOUGH. I have also poorly attempted to be a super sister and super daughter and help and/or stay on top of (at least) my mom's medical progress. More about that at another time, because there really is no simple way to recap that.

ABOVE ALL, THOUGH. 

I have been falling in love with our home and our new town, as well as the greater community and county we now live in. I am beside myself with peace and joy having at last found my elusive Oregon roots. They are reaching deep quickly and finding nourishment here. I look forward to what they produce.

Happy New Year!

Card for GG Karpiak, by my most favorite Rifle Paper Co.

Finish each day and be done with it.

You have done what you could.

Some blunders and absurdities

no doubt have crept in; 

forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day;

begin it well and serenely

and with too high a spirit

to be cumbered with

your old nonsense.

This day is all that is

good and fair.

It is too dear, 

with its hopes and invitations

to waste a moment on yesterdays.

 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, in a letter to his daughter

 

(Totally swiped that from Christie's post Sage advice for the new year at life at the condo.)

 

Cheers to 2013! I have high hopes for this year. ;-)

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

*

My super sweet little family.

Our health.

Shelter and food.
Amazing family and friends.

*Rifle Paper Co

Pinterest Luv: Thanksgiving Pie Topper

7 months later, I have tackled another Pinterest project. Needless to say, crafts or decorating are not at the top of my priority list the way they used to be! I pinned this cute little pie topper 6 months ago to my Holiday board and was determined to remember it come Thanksgiving. And I did! I was ready to go for Saturday's Friendsgiving 2012 (Lorri and Carmen have been going to Friendsgiving at their friends' home for five years and this was the first year we were invited).

I stopped at Michaels Friday on my lunch break and picked up glue, two sheets of gray paper, and green and brown ribbon. At home we already had wooden skewers, alphabet pasta (I had to order it a few days ahead of time because I didn't see it any of our local grocery stores. I ordered from Soap.com because they ship so fast!) and paper birds that I printed (I literally googled "bird clip art" and browsed Google images for something appropriate.)

I thought it was going to be a quick project. However, gluing teeny tiny pasta pieces is a tedious affair! Especially because I had Dan do a test run to see if the glue dried clear (that's his project above) and as far as I could tell the first ten minutes, it was drying white. So I was sure to wipe and fix every little tiny bit of glue that showed around those letters. It actually DOES dry clear but I didn't know that until long after the painstaking project had ended. :) Another time consuming aspect is finding the right bird illustrations and sizing them to print correctly. But I would definitely say the hardest part was gluing the letters if you are a perfectionist like me. After that was done, I strayed from the instructions and threw out the glue and just started taping everything together. LOL. I was out of patience!

So mine didn't end up as durable as Oh Happy Day's version, but it worked for this event and so far has held up to work again on Thursday. I made it for my own store-bought pecan pies but at Friendsgiving, I took one look at Lorri's gorgeous handmade cherry pie and totally hijacked it with my banner. She was very gracious to let me. LOL!

A Belated Happy Halloween!

Amy Mulder Photography

We were lucky to spend Halloween with our family while we were in Illinois. The 26th, Raine went to a Halloween party with JD, and then on Halloween he did some trick-or-treating with Logan and Lexi. Here are a few pics. Many more can be found here. ;-)

Updating his Facebook status before going to the party. :-)

JD as the cutest Stay Puft Marshmallow Man ever!

Raine moved on to pajamas but still kept playing at the party. There were so many toys!

Ready to trick-or-treat on Gillman. ;-)

Little Lexi Bee

Logan Mario Brother

Candy!

Cruising Gillman!

Trick-Or-Treat!

Raine was easily distracted by pumpkins, his new most favorite thing ever.

Sorting all the loot!