Heat Wave

We are in the middle of a heat wave. It was 106 yesterday (although my car registered 107) and it is supposed to be even warmer today. Not that I want to get a rise out of anyone or make political statements-but...isnt it kind of strange that we have had the hottest summer on record and the coldest winter with piles of snow in the NW? Im just saying. Maybe there is something to this whole climate change thing. Maybe I will look back at this post 20 years from now (when climate change is a total reality) and remember when it was a debate about whether it existed.

That aside, it is HOT and we dont even live in the desert! The car gets to 145 degrees while sitting in the sun. Now I know why I dont live in hot climates and love the snow so much. You can not only play in the snow, you can bundle up and avoid the chill. With this, there is no avoidance beyond staying inside...and how fun is that?!? Not very.

Aaah, now this is more like it! Which picture is more welcoming...hahaha

Makeup and weekend

I wish that I would have know about Make up forever ("HD makeup") when I got married. This stuff is amazing. I hate liquid foundations or makeup in general for that matter-but this stuff makes you look so flawless, especially in photographs-it is incredible. It was designed for actors when HD came out since HD was so unforgiving. I have to say, I love this stuff and I dont ever have good things to say about makeup.

Over the past weekend, Monique turned 30 and rented a party bus, which was actually a school bus that takes you around to different bars in the Portland area (it is called bar fly). It was a fun night out with some of my favorite girls. There are quite a few pictures up on facebook. Here is one of a few of the girls:

Jen, Monique and I

I promise...

I promise that a post is coming soon. Items that must be included in said post:

1. Our trip to Maui
2. The garden that Nick built for me and I planted
3. Misc. items

Sorry I have been so bad about keeping this-the weather has just been so beautiful!

Birthday

Random, I know-but the blog lacks pictures...so here are some old ones....

My parents on our big day.

Nick, snowboarding. 

Well, I have turned a year older. I had another birthday on May 2nd and it was quite good. Nick and I will be celebrating a little late-in MAUI! We take off in 2 days and I am so excited!!! So let me see, big accomplishments in 26 years:

26 years and

• 1 Wedding to a wonderful husband
• 1 year married to aforementioned wonderful husband
• 1 best friend from back when I was 2
• 1 house purchased (on 2 acres)
  
• 1 hood to coast run completed
  
• 1 career job (as an accountant)
  
• 2 fantastic parents still married
• 2 rounds of bootcamp at adapt survived
  
• 2 years in a row completion of the Shamrock Run
• 3 degrees from institutions of higher learning (history, spanish and accounting from University of Oregon and Portland State, respectively)
• 3 continents visited (of the 7 I need to see)
• 3 languages learned
• 17 states visited
• Thousands of tears
• Millions of laughs
• Many more years to live

I know, that wasnt really in order and really didnt have a numerical purpose, but oh well! Oh, and ps. In case I didnt mention earlier. I love my mac!!

Arguments and Surprises

Arguments:
I know, kind of a funny title for a blog-but a very interesting question was asked over the weekend "Do you and Nick ever argue?" It seems as though arguments are a part of life-but I suppose I had a bit of trouble wrapping my mind around whether or not Nick and I actually argue. The word argue brings with it such negative connotations and I am not entirely sure why. By definition, argue means to present reasons for or against a thing. I found that my answer was no, Nick and I don't argue much, if at all. This is actually true. However, I did say that we disagree from time to time. Disagree by definition means to differ in opinion; dissent. I'm not entirely sure why disagree sounds so much better than ague, in fact-the definition of argue almost sounds more calm than the definition of disagree. I find it interesting how words change over time and how, in general, certain words have certain connotations associated with them.

I am not sure how normal or not normal it is to disagree or argue with your spouse-It is very rare that Nick and I do not agree on something but would this show that we have good communication and strong similarities? Does it show that neither of us have particularly strong opinions? I suppose I don't really know what happens in "normal" marriages but I do know that I do not like arguing at all and would rather not get my way than argue about something.

Surprises
It is really amazing how opinionated people are with life decisions. Everyone has an opinion on what is a good age to get married (well, it seems to be less about the age and more about "you are way too young" or "you are really getting older, when are you going to settle down?" With all this "too young" and "too old," it seems that the "perfect age" somehow gets lost. Anyway-this leads me to the surprises part of this post. **Disclaimer- No, we are not having a baby. ** Ok, so when Nick and I have kids, I really don't want to find out what we are having. My thought is this-It is only a 9 month wait and there are so few "real" surprises in life. I think that when we have kids, I will care less about what we are having and more about having a healthy baby so really, I would be thrilled with either sex, besides, there is nothing you can do to change the results-even if you find out when the baby is in-utero. So this brings me to the second part of this-plannning. Everyone thinks that you cannot adequately plan for a baby unless you know the sex. Yea. Maybe if you want to drown in pink or blue-but what about all the neutral colors. What if I want to do a zoo theme, or dogs, or yellow and green stripes? (No I dont really like those themes, but it was just an example). My thought is, I am not buying stuff for the baby that will last its entire life during the 5 months it is still baking before birth and there are so many things that people can buy for showers that can be used by either sex. Anyway, people are really opinionated about this topic. I heard the most interesting argument from a guy friend this past weekend. "I would want to find out because while I really would be happy with a health baby, no matter the sex, I would be disapointed deep down if it was a girl and would need those 5 months to get over that dissapointment. And deep down, Kenzie, every man wants a son and even if they don't admit it, every man is disapointed with a girl." Interesting. I sure hope this isn't true with all guys.

Beautiful April Weekend

We had a positively beautiful weekend (in the high 70's I think). Nick and I hosted a friend of mine from SYA Spain back in high school, Josh, who made his first trek from Boston (his home town) to Portland. I was happy to show him around our beautiful state (Portland and Hood River were on the list) and was thrilled that Oregon cooperated with me and showed some sun! Josh even left Portland with a heart in Oregon sticker! Among other things, he got to see Portland, eat at some great restaurants, see Multnomah Falls, sip a smoothie in Hood River, take in the Gorge and sleep soundly in the Oregon fresh air. He brought with him a friend, Rob, who is an extremely talented cartoonist. There was a festival/convention called Stumptown that was a showcase of cartoonists (Portland has the second highest number of them, New York is first). It was really neat to see everyones work. I knew little about this side of Portland before.

Josh and Rob left early this morning and Nick and I are back to our usual routine. Today, I will be more than halfway done with my boot camp. Hopefully it doesnt go too fast, I really enjoy it a lot!!

Celebrate April 15!

I know that there are not many people who celebrate April 15 because this is generally a day that, if you procrastinate, means you will be rushing to the post office to send off your taxes...or maybe it is the day that you cut a big check to uncle sam which is also a bummer.

For me, April 15th means the official end to busy season! No more Saturdays, long late nights, difficult deadlines (for the most part) and backlog of jobs!

I will be celebrating April 15th by going to boot camp at ADAPT which I have been doing for the past week and a half and it is AWESOME!

Easter:
I didn't do an update on Easter. Nick and I went down to Eugene and spent the night at my parents house. Nick and I hung out there for part of the day Saturday and then on Sunday, we picked up a cake at Sweet Life (yummy) and then headed to Nick's mom Joni's house to meet up with Nick's brother Todd, his wife Amber and their 5.5 year old daughter Maylee. Rounding out the guests were Joni and her boyfriend Steve. We had prime rib, mashed potatos and then cake!

I have several countdowns going at the moment. 16 days until I turn the big 2.6. and then 22 days until Nick and I go to Maui. In the mean time, I have bootcamp to look forward to each night and having Nick in town still is a definite plus. :-)