A Great Night

I have such a great husband.

Yesterday, I had a seminar to attend in Portland, so JJ and I planned to have my friends drop me off at Bridgeport on the way home. JJ then drove up to meet me for dinner.

When I got there, he had bought me a yummy soy peppermint latte (hmmm, so good!) and we shopped around for a little over an hour. He had made reservations at PF Changs for dinner. We didn't know this at the time, but apparently they have a gluten free menu, including dessert which was so great because I could just order whatever sounded good instead of having to pick and choose and ask for them to prepare things differently.

Anyway, while we were eating, JJ casually mentioned something about how I haven't had a massage in awhile. Totally clueless, I said, "I'm actually not as in to massages lately. I like facials much better. My favorite part of a massage is the neck and shoulders and they do that on a facial." He didn't really comment and went about eating our lettuce wraps. A few minutes later he got up to go to the bathroom.

I didn't think anything of it and about fifteen minutes later, JJ's phone rang. He answered it and had this weird conversation. When I asked him who it was he tried to make something up and then finally said, "I made a massage appointment for you after dinner and now I'm trying to change it to a facial."

Awww...so sweet. And what an (unknowingly) brat I was saying that massages weren't my thing. Anyway, they had an appointment open and I went in and had a spectacular facial.

The girl who did the facial said that she was going to give me her number so that JJ could call her husband and give him some pointers. What a sweet guy I have, huh?

Congrats Meryl!

At some point when JJ and I were dating, he made the comment to my family that he didn't think Meryl Streep was that great of an actor. For some reason, it snowballed and JJ started asking random people all the time who they thought the five greatest American actresses are. Sure enough, nine out of ten people had Meryl Streep on their lists. It has become somewhat of a joke in my family and whenever she has a new movie or gets a great review, everyone rubs it in.



Well, this morning Meryl Streep was nominated for her fifteenth Oscar (yes 15th!). It is more than any other actor, male or female, has ever received. When we went to dinner tonight, a card was waiting for JJ on his plate. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but my mom had put a blue ribbon on the front. When he opened the card, this is what greeted him:

The print says, "Congratulations! Meryl Streep: The finest actor in the history of the world."

ppssst...can you keep a secret?

JJ is actually enjoying reading a novel (thank you, James, for the James Bond book). Last night we went to sushi and they were super busy so we waited about 40 minutes to finally get our order and he talked about the stories in the book almost the whole time. At one point he said, "It's so weird because I can't even figure out how I'm turning the pages. I'm just picturing the whole story in my mind and I look down and I've read a bunch of pages without even knowing it." Be still, my English teacher's heart.

After dinner we went to Borders. I took off on my own, as usual, for about a half an hour and then I went to find him in the magazine section, where he always is. He wasn't there and when I went to look for him I got distracted again and eventually I heard his voice behind me, "This one was published in the late 50s and this one in the early 60s. Do you think I have to read them in order?" Sure enough, he had found the James Bond section and was figuring out which one to read next.

Please keep this a secret (wink, wink). He will lose his "I don't read anything but magazines and internet" vibe if he knew I told you.

Our Saturday

Since I've been off wheat, I haven't really tried to create some of my old favorites. For my "bread" products, I've just been eating things that are naturally legal like rice and corn tortillas. Today, I had nothing but time on my hands so I decided to dive into some of the GF mixes that Staci bought me from Bob's Red Mill. I started with the brownies:


Super yummy! You honestly can't even tell the difference! JJ said that if I hadn't told him they were gluten free, he would just think it wasn't his dad's recipe.


Right now, I have pizza dough rising and for dinner tonight JJ and I are going to have BBQ chicken pizza...hmmm...one of my faves!


Today JJ has been working on tiling our master shower while I've been tackling the laundry. I haven't done it for a couple weeks and I had seven loads to do this weekend. I already have four folded (washing clothes is easy for me; folding takes more motivation). Here's what the shower currently looks like:




He's building in shelves for all my bottles and a place to put my foot up when I shave my legs. Lovely!




And here is my boy, looking super sweaty and tired. Don't you love his dorky glasses. He used to always work on the house in his awesome Dolce & Gabbana glasses and I was so afraid that they'd get wrecked, so I bought him a pair of prescription work goggles. They are so nerdy and he actually wears them out to Home Depot when he's working on the house. So embarassing- but he doesn't seem to mind!

A Fun Evening With Friends

Tonight we went with Corban and Lauren to Newport Bay for dinner. It was so much fun. We had lots of laughs. It was so fun to catch up after the busy holiday season. It's always nice to have great friends, but even better when they live right across the street!

The Laundry Sink is Installed!

Next, on to cabinets!

A Really Cool Evening

Tonight, McKay hosted a FAFSA help event, where they invited parents that needed help filling out their FAFSAs to come and do it there. They opened up two computer labs and had a bunch of volunteers working with parents. It was great because many of the volunteers spoke Spanish, so they could help non-English speaking parents.

Anyway, JJ and I went and volunteered and I spent almost two hours with a senior named Eduardo and his dad getting his FAFSA all filled out. It was a really fun experience. It's one of those things that I totally take for granted knowing how to do, but for a kid whose parents didn't go to college, it can be a little overwhelming.

This dad only finished sixth grade in Mexico and now is so committed to getting his son through college. It's nice to think that two hours of my life doing something that seems really simple for me could help change this kid's life. Pretty cool!

When I Get Older...

...losing my way, many years from now. Will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?

Today is JJ's dad, David's, 64th birthday (hence, The Beatles' lyrics above).

We went to Lake Oswego and had dinner at David and Jean's house with Jessica, James, Staci (and their kiddos). Unfortunately, Fode was driving home from Washington and the Evans are in Cali as always, so they couldn't be with us.

We need James!

James lent us a board game the last time we were at their house. We really like strategy board games like "Settlers of Catan" and "Carcassonne." We were at the hobby shop and saw this game called "Cuba" and it looked like the type of game we would enjoy. Sure enough, James had it so we took it home with us. Here's the problem. Whenever we play a new game like this, we play it with James and Staci. Now, James is a teacher and he's the best to play a new game with because he reads the directions ahead of time, figures it all out and then teaches us how to play. We just could not figure this game out tonight. It had so many different pieces and cards and who knows what else. Finally, JJ looked at me and said, "want to go watch a movie?" We didn't put the game away because it took about a half an hour to set it all up. We may try again tomorrow after church, but more likely we'll just wait until the next time we can spend a few hours with James and Staci and let James teach us.

Thanks Staci!

My sister in law is so, so sweet. When we had dinner with them on Thursday night, she had gone to the Bob's Red Mill factory and bought me a whole bag of Gluten free groceries. I had the cereal this morning and it was SO GOOD! Really good. I would eat it even if I didn't have to avoid flour. Thanks again, Staci.

Costco and Dinner

Last night we hung out with my parents. We ran to Costco to pick up some things and then went out to dinner at Bentley's. The hotel was still decorated so we did an improptu photo shoot. Christmas card next year for my parents (If they cropped out the purse and junk on the bottom)? What do you think?

Gifts

I honest to goodness care WAY more about seeing family and friends over Christmas than the "things" but we got some really cool gifts this year. My parents bought me Portland Center Stage Seasons Tickets, which I am just so excited about. They also got JJ our sink and cabinet for our new laundry room. One of my favorite gifts for JJ was from James. He got him the book of short stories that have inspired the James Bond movies and JJ's actually been reading it. As I was falling asleep last night he looked over at me and said, "I'm on page 48." Let me tell you, that is a first in our house. He reads all the time....just always non-fiction and informational type things. As an english teacher, I'm always trying to get him to read fiction. When he was starting to read it (and actually enjoying it) he told me that he better not finish it or people will start buying him more books for gifts :)

I think our combined favorite present though, was actually from me to JJ. I didn't realize how much I would like it, but I really have. I bought him the one-cup coffee maker at Macys. I'm not a big coffee drinker, so I bought the hot chocolate pods and we've been using it every day, multiple times. I totally recommend you get one if you spend way too much money on Starbucks and Dutch Bros. It definitely helps with that.