Living Room Furniture Finally

It's offical... we finally have living room furniture. Our couch arrived last Saturday and we purchased a media armoire with some additional wedding funds (thanks Nikki & John). We now have a plush couch to watch TV and a room to entertain in. It's slowly coming together, and we love it! Here are some photos of the room. Note, we hope to purchase a futon for the guest bedroom and an all wood coffee table soon.

Rebecca's Birthday

It was quite the birthday celebration for Rebecca. It started with flowers hand delivered by Larry to her temp job. Dinner followed at a local hot spot, Cork. Though our reservation was for 7pm, we decided to see if we could be seated at 6:30 as we were getting hungry and were tired of window shopping. (why stores close in downtown Bend on Friday nights, I'll never understand)
It was quite the culinary presentation and experience. Though Cork is not a very large restaurant, more like a European restaurant front from the street, the food was impeccable. C'est MAGNIFIQUE!!!
We started with a spinach romaine salad, served with dried pears, vinaigrette dressing and warmed goat cheese centered atop the salad greens. Larry ordered the Filet, which melts in your mouth, served in a balsamic latte sauce with crispy onions and gourmet mashed potatoes.
Rebecca had their Halibut special. It was a halibut steak served with sticky rice dressed with an edamame salad. We decided to split our meals in order to sample the variety of food on the menu.

The service wasn't as personalized at Cork, like it was tailored at Merenda's, but we had a fabulous time and enjoyed one another's company. In celebration of Rebecca's birthday, Cork comped dessert, a delightful light and fluffy raspberry cream.

We documented our experience for you to enjoy.

On A Clear Day... You See Mt. Hood

Last Sunday, September 10, Larry and I decided to take Mt Washington Drive around Aubrey Butte in town, since it was such a clear day. The nearby forest fires have been restricting our mountain views this summer. Please take time to enjoy the panoramic views we saw. The mountains in the photo to the right (left to right) are: Broken Top, South Sisters, Middle Sister, and North Sister. Not quite the Rocky Mountains, but spectacular none the less!






Unfortunately, the photo above does not clearly show the view of Mt. Hood we received. But if you you squint a bit, you might make out the snow capped peak off in the distance between the two trees.

The photo to the right is off nearby buttes to the northeast of Bend.

Wine Tasting with Craig and Kristin

When Craig and Kristin visited a few weekends back, we ate dinner at Merenda's. The cuisine was fabulous with a variety of tastes and flavors. But the fun part was wine tasting flights of four distinct wines. Here are the flights we each chose and the ratings we gave the wine 1-4. Some even changed throughout dinner with the introduction of food.

Kristin had the Faces of Sauvignon Blanc
Dinner was Seared Tuna with Nicoise Salad
1 - Quivira, Fig Tree Vineyard- Dry Creek Valley,CA '04
2 - Domaine de Cassagnoles - Vin De Pay, France '04
3 - Jackson estate - Marlborough, New Zealand '05
4 - Domaine de Chatenoy, Menetou - Salon, France '04

Rebecca had the Vino Bianco Italiano
Dinner was Halibut served over Asparagus
1 - Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Marchetti - Ancona, Italy '04
2 - Orvieto, Classico, Antinori - Umbria, Italy '04
3 - Pinot Grigio, Kris - Veneto '04
4 - Vernaccia di Gimignano - Paradisio, Tuscany '03

Craig had Oregon Pinot Noir
Dinner was Roasted Lamb
1 - Rex Hill Reserve - Willamette Valley '03
2 - Amalie Robert Dijon Clones - Willamette Valley '04
3 - Stoller JV Estate - Dundee Hills '04
4 - O'reilly's '05

Larry had Premium Northwest Reds
Dinner was some facy named steak
1 - Pinot Noir, J Christopher - Dundee Hills, OR '04
2 - Syrah, Ethos - Chateau St. Michelle, Columbia Valley,WA '03
3 - Cabert Sauvignon - Sharecroppers, Columbia Valley '04
4 - Three Rivers, Merlot - Walla Walla, WA'01

Cheers!
When in Bend, we would recommend you try this restaurant.

Life Lesson

Say little, and love much; give all, judge no man; aspire to all that is pure and good.
~White Eagle

Rebecca Busy at Work

Rebecca as of late, has received a few temporary jobs from the personnel agency she signed on with here in Bend, Express Personnel. Last week, she worked Thursday and Friday at Nosler Incorporated. They make hunting bullets. She received quite the education while working as their receptionist. During the days, she read the owner's biography, Going Ballistic, and met him. John Nosler is a 94 year old man, who endured the Depression, delivered produce along the west coast, loved to hunt, and designed a partitioned bullet that would accelerate to hit the prey and explode hitting the vitals upon impact. It was a fascinating read.
Rebecca just received a new job on Tuesday. She's working for Western Title & Escrow assisting the HR Dept. with open enrollment. She's loving the experience and will have some overtime this evening. This job should last a few weeks and the pay is great!
She likes staying busy with these professional temporary jobs, but longs to find the right career that will complement her skill, talent, and provide her joy. But this works for now.

Life Lesson

Do not seek perfection in a changing world.
Instead, perfect your love.
~ Master Sangstan

Dresser refurbishing Complete

I'm elated to say, that after two weeks of sanding, painting, and decoupaging; our moving sale find is now refurbished with black semi-gloss paint with white rice paper decoupaged to the drawers of our oriental dresser. We moved it from the work space in the garage to our bedroom last night, and I'm thrilled with the stylistic outcome we created.
Note- Larry suggested we paint the drawers black before decoupaging them with rice paper. The hint of black showing through the rice paper makes the dresser complete. It was a great starting project!

Oliver, the neighborhood cat

Last week, Larry and I walked around our neighborhood block and came across a fairly large Siamese cat. He had beautiful coloring and gorgeous pale blue eyes. He was sophisticatedly sitting on the street curb and watching his "territory" when we called to love on him. He brushed his side along my leg mentioning that a scratch behind his ears was needed. We found out from a fellow neighbor that he's a stray cat that lives under the front deck of house that is for sale. He gets his dinner from a neighbor's wife, and watches for cars and traffic approaching his domain. His name is Oliver, and I now see the resemblance of Oliver Twist perhaps in this cat.

Life Lessons

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.
~Jack Penn

Time with family, Road Trip, and Sea adventures

Last weekend, we drove to Portland, OR first to spend the weekend with Craig and Kristin and see Pink Martini in concert at the Portland Zoo. It was a great time for all of us, especially now that we're neighbors. The drive to Portland take close to 2.5-3 hours. I found myself getting anxious once we hit I-5. Two hours would be much nicer of a commute to visit Craig and Kristin, but we can't complain.
The Pink Martini Concert was a highlight of the weekend. They played songs in alphabetical order and I was thrilled they played the Balero. It's a fabulous piece of music and the band plays it perfectly. They are a diverse band, and it's hard describe what type of music they play. We thought big band international would be the best way to describe them.
Kristin made a fabulous picnic dinner for us, consisting of grilled chicken, green/yellow beans, sliced vegetables, and a tomato bread salad. And we couldn't forget the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Larry picked up Gail at the airport on Saturday while I visited the Farmer's Market with Craig, Kristin, and Abbey (their dog). It was an eventful day for the pets, as this was Abbey's first encounter with another dog staying in her house, other than her sister Biscuit. Gail's puppy Kit, seemed to be a bit afraid of Abbey at first, but then warmed to her and they played in the backyard with each other nicely. The biggest test, was the cat LeStat. We kept him in his kennel while Abbey sniffed him out and was a bit puzzled at first. We let LeStat out in the upstairs bathroom and Abbey had a chance to meet him again. This time she licked him. The introductions were entertaining. Check out the pictures...

Sunday, we drove Gail home to Whidbey Island. Kit did fabulously in the car, and after we gave LeStat some NutriCalm, he fell asleep and stopped meowing. That was getting annoying after an hour. As we entered Seattle's city limits, we got a spectacular show of the Blue Angels taking off from Boeing Field for the Sea Fair Air Show. It was exhilarating to see the trail of smoke and hear the powerful engines. Needless to say, all three of us were thrilled by the small show next the highway we drove.
Kit unfortunately experienced his first car/sea sickness in the drive to Oak Harbor after crossing the Sound by ferry. It was a beautiful, sunny, summer day on the ferry! Before dinner, we took Kit to a beach nearby Gail's house, so he could have his first beach experience. He did well, after eating a bunch of sand. And he loves watching waves crash on the beach and eating dry seaweed. We had enough time to stop in Greenbank and purchase our favorite Loganberry pie. It was delicious for dessert!

Our drive back to Bend on Monday was long, too long. Seven hours didn't seem all that bad when talking about the commute, but doing the drive back to back is too tedious. Especially contending with Seattle traffic every day of the week. But we were happy to have the weekend with our family. It's a blessing to live so close to family!

Wedding Photos with Personality

The Happy Couple - Larry & Rebecca

Wedding Talents, Thank You!

Our wedding cake was designed and created by a dear friend of ours, Brian LaFlamme. He made our cake a focal point at our wedding. Thanks for making our dream cake Brian! Especially, all those cherry blossoms!

Our wedding would not have been a success without some great friends and family offering their talents. Including Brian, we would like to thank the following for their talent contribution at our wedding:

• Tom and Katie Branch, the wedding venue, a beautiful backyard backdrop that didn't need that much tailoring to make it the perfect wedding location.

Holly Vaccaro, wedding photographer, a great eye to capture the beauty and relationships the day offered.

Megan Carraway, wedding coordinator, though her boyfriend was moving on our wedding day; we thank you for helping Rebecca with her hair, coordinating the rehearsal, and making the transition from ceremony to reception a smooth one.

Kayleigh Manchester & Family, for being the best flowergirl without flowers. You made the wedding party complete! Debra and Chip, thank you for driving cross country so Kayleigh could have this experience.

The Henry Family, Paula, Marshall, Kristin, and Craig, for all your support leading up to our wedding day! Your assistance cleaning, setting up the reception area, and helping the rainy day blues disappear were of great help to us.

Craig, thank you for video taping our wedding ceremony and capturing great special moments throughout the day. Receiving the DVD of our wedding was the best gift ever! The scene selection, music choice, and professional quality were visible; you have a fabulous talent that both Larry and I love.

Heather Balyeat, great friend, flying in for the weekend, offering a shoulder for me to cry on when I needed to release stress, being the videographer, making sure we had everything we needed for our honeymoon in the car, and rallying the kids to decorate the car (Kristin, thank you too).

Rob Harter, pastor, for making our ceremony unique to our relationship andintimate so everyone felt like they participated. It's the best wedding I've seen! And for bringing Emma, who was doll to have. She was the perfect playmate for Kayleigh.

Raleigh and Craig Johnston, family BBQ Coordinators. The "family reunion BBQ" was great! Having the family get together before the wedding allowed us all to catch up with one another without competing with the event. And the surprise having Sarah there, was the icing on the cake. Thanks for being Rebecca's second parents away from home.

Newlyweds

I'm realizing that there aren't any photos of Larry and I yet posted to our blog.
Below are two picures taken during our trip to the Tetons.
This photo was taken at the base of Hidden Falls. We hiked 2.5 miles in to the falls and took a boat back across Jenny Lake. Our boat's engine died in the middle of the lake, so we waited for another boat to come out and take us back to shore. Adventure at its best!

Our next photo was taken atop Rondezvous Mountain at Jackson's ski resort. It was a pristine, clear day for the photo!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend, was a blast! We had two friends over for BBQ on Friday night. We played three games of bacce ball at a local park, near our home. Our friend Tyler is a pro at the game. We managed to play on both grass and gravel at the playground.

Larry played Frisbee golf with the same "boys" on Saturday night. They mapped out an 18 hole golf course throughout the Old Mill office park. Larry works with Tyler and he's the leader of the pack, entitled "The Boys". There are four of them between the ages of 22-24, that live in this college house near the Old Mill District. They have great personalities, are extremely friendly and talented. We usually play sand volleyball with them on Thursday nights too.

Sunday, we tried a new church, New Hope. We were delighted by the appearance and sound of two electric guitars and thumbing drums on the worship team. The message wasn't bad either.
Larry and I took a bike ride near the Dechutes River in the afternoon and explored the bike path that follows the river through town. We managed to arrive at the amphitheater during this Sunday's free concert too! The band was playing western swing music, and they played well. We stayed at listened to four songs and then headed home to make dinner.

I stumbled across a moving sale on Saturday and fell in love with a 60's styled dresser and bought it for a bargain. Larry and I are lost without a dresser to store our clothes. The dresser has nine drawers to accommodate the joint clothing piles accruing on our closet floor, and some black oriental like handles for the drawers. I have sanded the dresser and plan to paint it this week. My hope is to decoupage the drawers with rice paper to make the dresser that more Asian. We'll see how it turns out.

Staying in the creative mode... I decided to take the decorative colored glass rocks used at our wedding and glue them to a framed mirror I picked up at Michael's. It brings a new texture to our guest bathroom wall, and plays with the sunlight brought in from our skylight. I'll have to take some pictures of the house to show the essence of our new home.

Blessings in disguise

As much as I'm loving the down time, and becoming acquainted with our new home, there are some things I miss that are in Colorado. Everything was comfortable- our weekly routine, friends, our jobs, church, and our neighborhood. Moving is an adventure, and with a new home and neighborhood, it tkes time to meet new friends, find a church, job, and a routine that works for you. Althoug, I must admit... there were times I hated our routine in Colorado, as I felt it prohibitted us from being spontaneous or venturing to the mountains for a hike.
Well, Bend offers so many new routines for both Larry and I, and I just wanted to be sure and recognize the blessings that we've seen thus far:

• Picnic Lunches at Drake Park at noon on a weekday!
• Biking to the Wednesday Night Farmer's Market, and then for gourmet pizza on the way home!
• Meeting perfect strangers, welcoming us to Bend and giving of their time and recommendations.
• So close to the mountains, that traffic is only fifteen minutes!
• Mountain breezes that come through our front bay window.
• Meeting a new dog everday that has just gone for a swim in the Dechutes River.

Fire in the night sky

Last night, Larry's company had an Open House to celebrate the 25 years they've been in business. It was a great gathering! It was great to meet everyone's spouse and we all had great conversation. Larry even had the opportunity to network with a few clients and competitors that swung by for the party.

Just a everyone began heading home, the sun set behind the mountains in Bend. Unfortunately, there's forest fire that's near Sisters, Black Crater Butte, that has already engulfed 1700 acres. You can see the smoke from the fire n these sunset photos. It smelled like a campfire too. Here's hoping the fire becomes contained soon. Evacuations are in the midst. Our friends in Colorado completely understand, I'm sure.

A few wedding items

While filtering through our many photographs this week, we've discovered a few wedding photos that we thought you might enjoy.
Instead of a guest book, we had a Wishing Tree in keeping with Japanese tradition. We unfortunately did not receive everyone's wishes. We were blessed to have to girls, Emma (pastor's daughter) and Kayleigh (flowergirl) sign a wish each. It was precious to read their wishes for the both of us. Plus, I think they established a great friendship during the wedding, each playing with parasols in the backyard. Hopefully there is a picture of that!

After our wedding, we drove to the Grand Tetons and then onto Bend, all while traveling with the top of our wedding cake. Luckily, it kept cool in a cooler that we had to keep cold each night back at the hotel. It has been delicious to eat our first week in our new home, and we have two pieces left.

Thank you Brian for the delectible treat you gave us! I just love the detail in each hand cut and painted sakura (cherry) blossom. Our cake will never be forgotten!

Sisters - new family favorites

After our hike on Saturday, Larry and I decided to visit Sisters. Sisters is approximately 20 minutes west of Bend on Highway 20. It's a quaint town that we discovered on our Oregon drive tour in 2003, thanks to John Lee's recommendation. Here are the peaks you can see along the drive, coincidentally called Sisters (North, South, and Middle Sisters).
There are ranches along this route, that grow hay for their horses. It's beautiful to the horses graze with the mountains in the background.

Rebecca found her new home quilting store three years ago on our Oregon Trip '03. There's a great selection of batik and oriental prints to sew with. In fact, Rebecca didn't leave without a few purchases- 2yd of a great olive bamboo print, and two fat quarters ( sample fabric averaging about 1 square foot in size) in a fun retro lime green print. She hopes to make pillows for our new living room, after we purchase the couch we both like. A friend recommended a home furnishings store in Tumalo, coincidentally on the way to Sisters. We checked it out and liked a couch in Olive green microsuede with two recliners on either end. The house is coming together nicely, and decorating has been fun as a team.

Rebecca isn't the only one who has a favorite store in Sisters. Larry loves the Doc Holiday Bookstore, that has a large collection of books covering topics on the Old west, Cowboys, and Native American history. He purchased a fiction book on George Drouillard, guide to the Lewis & Clark expedition. It's interesting to hear how he got the job. There's a wealth of history in the west! We're beginning to feel like modern day pioneers, following parts of the Oregon Trail and reveling in the history lessons we receive along the highway.