Oregon Trip

So it's about time I blogged again, eh? It was nice to have a bit of a break for New Year's and visit the various Hardy families in Oregon. We enjoyed Abram's mom's traditional Thai New Year's day meal, full of food with "lucky" names so as to bring you good fortune for the new year. GOOD STUFF. We also got to spend a lot of time with Barlow and Lexie out on the coast in their cute little house in Rockaway Beach. Abram's friend Eric came up for a visit too! We went to the Chinese Garden in Portland. (I'm kicking myself for forgeting my camera), and to Powell's of course for some new books and Japanese stationery (who can resist it?!) We visited the aquarium in Newport (always a favorite of mine), watched for whales at Depoe Bay (didn't quite see any...oh well!), went to Astoria and played 2 very long and intense games of Phase 10, both of which I failed miserably at. Overall, we had a great time, despite quite a bit of nasty weather. I look forward to returning when things warm up!!

A happy little seagull

The beautiful Oregon coast at Depoe Bay.

Can you imagine living in that house on the right?

"La la la la la la...and really bad eggs..."

"Captain" Abram at the helm. Funny, this, it's inside the whale watching building. So really, we're not going anywhere! ;)

Some videos from the aquarium. They had really cool "Chihuly-type" glass art in the tanks. It was awesome. Can you see the seahorse wink at me? And the touch pool with the rays was fun. I got a little too excited and drenched half my sleeve in ocean water! :)

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You can't really tell from the picture, but this little starfish was sucked onto the end of a hanging kelp, dangling in the "breeze." The entire plant was hunched over. Maybe not such a "little" star afterall.

Unfortunately it was getting dark by the time we went out to see the otters. Little Emmett here had already gone to bed. OH! So cute!

Abram, Eric and me on a very cold and windy morning on Rockaway Beach.

Some cool shroomage stuff growing on B & L's wood pile. (The house doesn't have a wood-burning stove anymore, hence the extreme shroomage)

Abram and a deck gun at the Maritime Museum in Astoria. Perhaps he's played a little too much "Call of Duty?" ;)

P.S. Sorry I got lazy with placing the captions. My blogging skills are lacking when it comes to the spacing. My preview looks NOTHING LIKE what actually shows up. Any pointers?

Breinholt Christmas Concert

So with the oober storm going on outside my office window all day yesterday, I sat there worrying about trying to get to Salt Lake for the Peter Breinholt Christmas Concert. Well, we had the option of leaving a bit early, so we headed out around 4:30. Getting to the freeway was interesting, but to our pleasant surprise, the freeway was quite clear and we realized that Provo got the brunt of the storm. We decided to take Trax for the first time. Now I'm sure those of you that live in bigger places or those that take public transportation everyday will think I'm crazy, but it was really fun to ride the train. And really easy if you want to go downtown without having to find a place to park.

Here's my Trax pass. Pretty exciting huh? So we made it with plenty of time to spare. The concert was really entertaining. Ryan Shupe was there. I think he always is. There were 5 guys on stage, with an occasional appearance by a guest singer who wasn't half bad. Peter sings and plays guitar. Shupe of course plays the violin/fiddle and the mandolin. There was a great pianist, a banjo/mandolin player and a bass/mandolin player. Yes, 3 mandolin players. That's got to be a rare find. By the way, sorry the image of the ticket at right is askew. Apparently I don't know how to line up things on the scanner, hehe. But the highlights would have to include a mandolin trio playing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." It was especially great because the showed pictures of screaming and crying children on Santa's knee in the background. It brought a whole new meaning to "you better not cry." ;) But I agree, some of those Santas ARE scary! I also REALLY loved the solo banjo performance of "The Christmas Song" (i.e. Chestnuts Roasting). Now, I know what you're thinking: "Airie HATES that song." Well, you're right, but that was before I'd heard it like this. So it's official, I like it played on the banjo, with no singing. Hazah. Pete did a couple of his old standbys and of course Christmas stuff. Overall, we had a terrific time and really enjoyed getting to see a concert this year, especially right before Christmas. There are few things that do Christmas quite as well as music, right? I'm hoping you all had/will have a chance to take some in this year! :)

Keys to the Kingdom

So it's one of those mornings. Well, really, it all started last night. I received a payment from a client just as the office was closing. The accounting department upstairs (where the nice big safe is) had already left for the day. Hmm...what to do. I knew that my front desk drawer locked, so I threw it in there, locked it up, and then, stupidly, tossed the keys into one of my other drawers. Fast forward to this morning. I come in after a marvelous trek through the snow (yeck!), sit down and remember the check. I reach for the drawer with the keys. LOCKED. I try all the other drawers. LOCKED. Now, you tell me how I could lock a drawer, THEN place the keys in another drawer and THEN have that drawer lock too? I swear the office is cursed. Last week our phones went down for a day, then we had a power outage that threw our server for a whole day, then I almost lit myself (and the office) on fire when I found a cut wire on the Christmas tree I was putting up. And now, the mysterious drawer that locks the 2nd time it closes. *sigh* When working in a profession that has a stigma for having a certain "bimbo" quality, and in trying to disprove that stigma, I'm not doing so hot today. A locksmith is now on his way. Can I take my vacation now please?

Christmas Tree Quest

So we set out last night after work with a mission: bring home a suitable Christmas tree for our ridiculously tiny apartment. “It’ll probably have to be a fake one this year,” we said to one another. Yeah, a fake one. They tend to be more space efficient considering their nice symmetrical cone shape. So we set out.
Stop 1: Robert’s Crafts. Well, I’ll be honest, the tree wasn’t the primary purpose of this stop, but we looked at them none the less. EXPENSIVE.
Stop2: Home Depot. We looked longingly at the real ones first. They had about 4 trees total. It appeared they’d been cleaned out. No dice. We looked at the fake ones. Gosh, they’re so fake looking! And only one or two had colored lights. We decided to move on.
Stop 3: Walmart. They had pink and purple trees at Walmart. Not quite what we were looking for. They had a few but they were either too tall, or just too darn fake! (The ones that don’t look as fake are too pricey!!)
Stop 4: Wendy’s. No trees, but some tasty Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers.
Stop 5: Target. They had a gold tree at Target. They called it “Fantasy Champagne.” Uh, no thanks. They had a few others, lit and unlit, but they still seemed too fake or too expensive.
Stop 6: (Yes #6) Lowe’s. Generally we don’t really like Lowe’s. They’re not as helpful as Home Depot, but hey, we were on stop 6 and were getting desperate.) They had a large selection of fakies. Unfortunately, the one I wanted cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $200. Yikes. So we moseyed outside to look at their real ones. At last, we found the tree!! They had several to choose from. We ended up with a Noble Fir from Sublimity, Oregon. Hooray! Yes, it’s a bit on the fat side, but it fit nicely in the tiny space we had available. And get this, it was 20 bucks. Yep. And you seriously can’t beat the heavenly smell of a real Christmas tree. HOORAY!!

OH TANNENBAUM! (or tannen-bum if you're Johnny Mathis)

30 Things I'm Grateful For

So I decided to do a little blessing counting this morning in preparation for a day of gratitude tomorrow. I've only listed thirty things. There are so many more! I have discovered how positive one feels after a good assessment of how good life really is. Don't let the opportunity to count your blessings pass you by this Thanksgiving!!

Things I'm Grateful For

1. Life. To live and breathe and think and laugh and love and cry and and and…
2. To wake up each morning with the love of my life by my side
3. Flowers and trees
4. Houseplants that can survive in my apartment
5. Rain
6. Cheese, in all its forms
7. Three great siblings for best friends
8. Parents that love me and gave me immeasurable opportunities
9. crochetpatterncentral.com I owe you so much!
10. A priceless education
11. Great artists and authors and playwrights that have inspired me
12. To live in a nation where I am afforded so much freedom and choice
13. Good looking cars. Sometimes it just feels so good to just stare at one!
14. Cats…an independent man’s best friend ;)
15. The pleasure of hearing, feeling and creating music
16. Being able to speak another language
17. The ability to believe
18. Cute shoes. There’s just no substitute for the feeling of wearing cute shoes!
19. Manual transmissions…I just didn’t know what I was missing before!
20. NPR – it feels so good to be nerdy sometimes!
21. Facebook...I actually keep in touch now!
22. To know there is a God, that He knows and that He loves
23. Modern medicine. I owe you my life
24. A good job with good people
25. Friends that let you crash at their house to watch football and beat them at games ;)
26. A sister living so close!
27. A husband who sacrifices so much to make a better life for me
28. Dreams
29. To know the purpose of my life
30. To have a Savior to lift me up and help me get back home

AHM Hoops

So I'm glad Autumn gave a little preview of what's going on at AHM these days. (AHM = Ascione, Heideman & McKay, our law firm). So the guys here joined the Provo City basketball league. They didn't have any "regular" spots open, so they joined the "6 foot and under" league. Yes, Abram qualified. He claims he's 5' 11 & 3/4". We'll just have to believe him on that. Anyone over 5'5" seems really tall to me. They've been having early morning practices (6am on Saturdays! The psychos!) which I have yet to be involved in. I keep saying that one of these days I'll take them cinnamon rolls or something, but I'm feeling less-than-motivated with the 6am stuff. But Abram goes. Good for him.



We had our first game on Thursday. I won't tell you the final score, but our guys looked good in their new jerseys and made a fair showing. I will add that the other team had plenty of players OVER 6' tall. Oh well. I'm not sure how long the season is, but we're excited to see what will come of it. If nothing else, AHM has the biggest cheering section! Go team!


I like this shot. Everyone seems frozen and vexed by the flying ball. Ah.....

8 Things

So I saw this on a friend's blog and stole it because I haven't blogged in over a month and needed something to write about. :)



8 Things I'm Obsessed With


1. My new Yoville house
2. Getting squeezies
3. Crocheting
4. Fresh cranberries
5. Office Supplies
6. Getting mail
7. Peter Breinholt
8. Warm feet



8 Words or Phrases I Use Daily
1. "Goob"
2. "Ah...trash bags!"
3. "Hi sweetie!"
4. "I know, right?"
5. "Oober" (I know this one is supposed spelled with a "u" and those funny dots, but I think it looks even more oober with two big fat o's)
6. "Rockin' hot!"
7. "No me poques!"
8. "Ascione, Heideman & McKay, this is Airie, how can I help you?"

8 TV Shows I Like to Watch

1. House
2. The Office
3. Countdown with Keith Olbermann
4. Arrested Development
5. Lost
6. Clean House
7. Law & Order (the Briscoe episodes)
8. Those 7 are pretty impressive considering we don't actually have tv!



8 Things I Did Yesterday
1. Wore my new size 3 shoes :)
2. Won Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights. HAZAH!!
3. Ate a Papa Murphy's Philly Cheese Steak pizza...oh cheesies!
4. Opened precisely 42 pieces of mail NOT addressed to me
5. Watched an entire pro football game for the first time EVER
6. Took 4 Advil for an oober headache
7. Noticed the new awning on our house that had been there at least three days for the first time. HONEST.
8. Enjoyed the heated seats in my Volvo

8 of My Favorite Places to Eat

1. Red Lobster
2. La Dolce Vida
3. Autumn & Leslie's House
4. Zupas
5. Tucanos
6. Great China
7. L & L Hawaiian
8. Kneaders

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1. Thanksgiving holiday
2. Having my Christmas crafties done
3. The end of law school and internships
4. Living in Western Oregon
5. Good health insurance
6. A new snazzy phone in May (Yeah, May)
7. A baby (not quite yet, this is not an announcement :) )
8. Seeing all of my family at Christmas and New Years

8 Things on My Wishlist
1. A big, oober comfy couch
2. A full-sized oven
3. A truly, 100% CLEAN house
4. A kitty
5. An herb garden
6. A garage
7. A baby grand
8. Abram in his dream job