An adventure

Waking up to the warm glow of the sun blanketing your bare skin. Yes, that is how I woke up yesterday. In this tricky weather of Washington State where the cold air nearly kills the bright shine of the sun, all I wanted to do was bury my face in my soft blanket and nap a little further.

As I lay there admiring the clouds I covet over these department store mattresses, I heard my Daughter and my Nephew laughing just downstairs. Incredible hearing, right? Then with the sun urging me to come out to play, I decided on a hike adventure with the kids. I rolled out of bed --literally-- washed up, and went downstairs to announce the plans of adventure proudly to the kids. They were ecstatic and helped me pack food for the adventure.

There is a trail called BPA Trail stretching all over the area that I live and my favorite time to go on a relaxing walk/jog/run is during the mornings. It feels more lively and the people that walk the trail are so much more friendlier with their "G'morning!" and "How are you?". The kids and I were able to find a path that I had not noticed before due to weeds blocking its view, but there has been lots of work done to the trail since I had last visited when the weather started to get colder two-three months back.

November 11, 2013

Excuse my illegible handwriting, but it says "Hello Everyone! My Husband and I'm  expecting our Second Child! I'm Pregnant!!"

That's right folks, after nine years I am pregnant with my second! I haven't fully spread this wonderful news to the full extent but I have made quite a progress! First it was announcing it to my parents and in-laws -- after sharing the awesome news with the Mister and soon-to-be older sister the little Miss. Then came my sister, few friends, and a spontaneous post on Instagram. I'm still waiting for my Husband to notify his Mother in Japan before I post the news on Facebook! Ha! It's sort of pitiful to think of my "full extent" as Facebook but honestly, what else is there?

I've already begun refreshing my knowledge in prenatal care and what to expect during pregnancy as well as obsessively searching for a baby name. The Mister and I've already decided on not settling on a name until the baby is born but it's okay to be prepared, right?

So, if you've caught on already, bravo! If not, have you noticed the title of this entry? November 11, 2013 is the estimated due date of this little apple-seed in my uterus. What? Apple seed? I'm 4 weeks pregnant and this little person growing in my uterus is the size of an apple-seed so until he/she grows into the size of a Grapefruit, he/she is referred to as an apple seed.

It's time I rest. I haven't done much all day but this body is cooking up an awesome being and I'm feeling a little worn. Oh the wonderful joy of being pregnant! Being able to nap because you know, it's hard stuff.

Adieu~

Date.

Today was errands day and like a lot of our errands day, we treated it like a semi-date.


Excuse the eyebrows. I was experimenting new ways to get it all sexy and got carried away…

We went grocery shopping at the commissary while getting excited over the prices, and gave ourselves a pat on the back for spending less than our budget.

I couldn't help noticing a few things at the commissary though. While picking up a bottle of children's vitamins, I saw white set of heads everywhere because the whole aisle excluding me was all senior citizens. I guess it's because I was at the healthy aisle --organic products, vitamins, and shaving cream on the other side of the aisle? I think I saw mouth wash too but I'm talking about just the one side of this aisle...--but it was all senior citizens. I even did a double take just to make sure because I gotta get my info right for this blog thing. It made me feel great for knowing I was doing the right thing. I mean, I know I'm doing the right, healthy thing by taking daily multivitamins and eating right but this just made me feel like part of some unofficial club of longevity. I know this is probably silly and you're sitting there rolling your eyes and sighing at the fact that I've wasted your time but I just wanted to share it with you all.

After the commissary we had lunch and treated ourselves to some goodies at a Korean bakery that we've always wanted to visit. The pretty decorations and colorful fruits made it so dangerous to just browse even with a full stomach. I wanted to buy everything... But with great restraint and limited funds in the bank account, we walked out with a small batch of white chocolate macaroons, some white powdered sugar cracker thingy that The Mister loves, and some flakey bread thing filled with cream and something else. Everything but the macaroons disappeared 3 hours later.

Okay so this doesn't seem like much of a date but everything The Mister and I do together seems like a date. We don't really go out much, can you tell?

A few photos from my Portland trip.

Sometimes when everything gets crazy here I think of Portland. It was a nice two day escape from all the noise of this two family home and the stress of trying to make everything fair between two kids: my Daughter and my Nephew.

My Husband and I planned on a very spontaneous getaway to Portland, Oregon the day after Christmas. We rented a gas-friendly car and hustled our fannies out that door as soon as Christmas was over. We booked a hotel right in the heart of downtown Portland so everything was within walking distance although we rarely found ourselves walking anywhere. It was a mission to cover much ground of Portland as possible! We also did crazy research on the places we just had to dine at because who doesn't love great food? I probably came back home with 5-10 lbs of extra weight but it was oh-so-worth-it.

We departed our home at approximately 8:30 AM. We had packed a few things for Trina to snack on so it was a straight shot all the way to Portland. The first place we went to was this great hole-in-the-wall biscuit place called Pine State Biscuits. It was featured on some television show that my Husband saw and he just had to try the place out for himself! Now I'm not much of a biscuit person and really couldn't care much for them but this was incredibly delicious.

After having our delightful biscuit breakfast we headed over to the International Rose Test Garden and the Japanese Garden. I was too busy taking the view of it all in that I forgot to take photos but no worries, it was too cold for the roses.

 

After the Garden we headed over to the Aerial tram to get a view of Portland from the sky! Little did we know that the connecting destination was to a hospital so we ended up looking a little silly. It would have been better to have worn a sign screaming "TOURIST" because that's exactly what we looked like as soon as we got off.

Check out the stickers on this sign! We were on our way to dine at this one place when I caught sight of this sign.

And this straw! One of the many things I loved about Portland was how GREEN they are! I always felt Seattle was the most wonderful city in the world (it's my home city y'all, can't hate!) but I felt like Seattle was lacking a few awesome points compared to Portland.

Oh and the hamburger from this go-green straw was delicious! It can't really compare to the burger from Dick's in Seattle but~ it was delicious in its own way.

Day 2-

This was one of the main reasons why we wanted to visit Portland! Their bus food truck center! I don't know if you would call it a "center" but it's exactly what it's like! There's tons of buses that fills one whole block and the varieties of dishes are freaking heavenly!

And of course, you really can't go wrong with a grilled cheese sandwich. ;)

Being the antique lover that I am, my Husband has squeezed a visit to a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge antique store in Portland. I wasn't aware of this visit so it was such a lovely surprise!

We ended the trip with a box of awesome donuts from Voodoo Doughnuts. Actually.., we went to a nickel arcade that I don't have any photos of...

Do I want to visit again? Hell yes. Would I recommend a trip there? To my Washingtonians, yes. The tax-free shopping is a bonus on top of everything else I've listed on here. But would I have someone from the east coast fly all the way to the west for Portland? Sure, why not? On one condition, you'll have to take me with you.