The Bemilie Blog

As the winter months begin to draw to a close and the weather begins to tease us that it might someday be nice and warm out, we have begun to plan out the plantings in our yard. Last year not much happened in the way of gardening we spent most of the spring and summer just getting used to having a yard to take care of. We put in two rose bushes, bought a lawn mower, and thought and dreamed and planned about what else our yard could be.

In the post holiday gloom we attended a monthly event which we have come to call the “Married Couple Collective” (MCC) and one of our friends shared this video with us:

This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

After watching the video we all agreed that growing our own produce was a good way to provide for ourselves in the down turning economy as well as support the effort toward “greener” living. With that in mind, our thoughts have turned from ornamental gardening to productive gardening.

I started some basil seeds in our garden window a few weeks ago and they are just starting to poke their heads out of the soil.

Basil

Also, I ordered four different tomato plants to be delivered in the first part of April: “Sweet Millions” cherry tomato, “Viva Italia” Roma tomato, “Shady Lady” tomato, and “Fantastic” tomato. I am looking forward to having an over abundance of tomatoes when the time comes and being able to share the wealth. In preparation for the tomato plants arrival Kam and Erin, two members of the MCC, came over to the house and helped us build a raised planter bed.

Kam, Emilie and Erin Working

It was definitely an interesting weather day – one where the phrase: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” It was cold and we had sun to hail and everything in between. If nothing else it added to the fun of the day and we got the bed almost completely built.

Almost completed bed

We’re going to have some dirt delivered to fill it in and give it time to settle before the tomato plants get placed in the bed. We are hoping to build another bed to plant zucchini, green beans, and onion in.

What an adventure Ben and I have had these past few days. Portland is experiencing record levels of snow fall – and it just keeps coming, plugging up all major forms of transportation because no one is prepared for it. Typically, we get snow once a year. It’s usually fairly light and melts off in a few days. This series of storms, which started last Sunday 12/14 and the news channels have appropriately dubbed “Arctic Blast”, have dumped the most snow on the city that we’ve seen in 40 years, and to top it off temperatures are not going above freezing so it isn’t melting off. Consequently, buses aren’t going any where, the MAX is having trouble keeping at regular intervals, and 300 people are sleeping at the airport because flights aren’t leaving. For Ben and me, that means our flight on Saturday evening to Los Angeles was canceled and rebooked for Monday. The rebooked flight was canceled and we were scheduled on another flight to leave 12/24. Hopefully our flight on the 24^th will leave like it is supposed to. Honestly I’m too tired at this point to think of any alternatives.

In the mean time here are some lovely pictures of the snow.

Ben & Cleo in the snow 12/14

Our yard gnome in the snow 12/17

We didn’t find out that our original flight out was canceled until after we had trudged through the few inches of snow that had already accumulated taking the bus and the MAX to get to the air port hoping that they were equipped to deal with the snow. After we checked through security we went to find the gate we were supposed to fly out of and saw that all of Southwest‘s flights had been canceled for the day (and every day until today).

After rebooking our flight and finding out that they just didn’t have enough de-icing equipment to deal with the weather we sat down to have lunch in the airport before attempting to head back home. When we got down to the MAX line that runs from the airport we found that it wasn’t running because a switch was frozen at a transit center three stops up the line and they were attempting to remedy it with blow torches. After the MAX got up and running we got to the stop we need and waited in blowing snow neither of us dressed appropriately for the weather we were encountering.

Finally when we got on the bus trying to get closer to home we encountered several more problems including the bus we were on ending up in a snow drift and unable to get out forcing all of the passengers to sit and wait for another bus to come along and rescue us. Another bus came along shortly after and we all climbed on and silently prayed that it would get us that much closer to our destinations. Finally Ben and I got to the stop and began to trudge the half mile from the stop to our home in blowing snow, no where near appropriately dressed. After a three hour journey we finally arrive home, still intact, and luggage in tow. We’re thankful for being able to get home, but are sad that our trip to visit Los Angeles is so delayed.

Here are some more pictures we too on our trip to the grocery store yesterday during a lull in the storm.

Our home covered in snow 12/22

Emilie on the street in front of the house 12/22

Dearest Family & Friends,

Warmest wishes for the holiday season! In January we finally closed on our house in a Portland suburb and have been diligently working to make it feel more like home. We planted two rose bushes in the front yard the first week of April with the hope of adding more in the years to come. We painted the dining room and one of the bedrooms, and are still trying to decide on a color scheme for the other rooms of the house. We have a list of other things we would like to change – big and small – but still enjoy it as it is.

Painted Dining Room

In March we adopted a dog from a local rescue group. Miss Cleo is a six year old corgi and Tibetan terrier mix. She’s a relaxed and affectionate dog and we’ve enjoyed adapting our lives to include her.

Cleo (Click the image to see more)

In June we traveled down to Sacramento to spend time with Emilie’s parents, sister and her family who had traveled from Kansas for the visit. In August we got to join Ben’s extended family in Cambria, CA for a week long vacation at the beach.

For our two year wedding anniversary we adopted a kitten from a shelter. Elwood will be a year old in March and is a spunky little tuxedo cat. He has brought a quite a bit of excitement to our lives.

Elwood and Ben (Click the image to see more)

Also in September we had the great opportunity to participate in the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure at the waterfront park in downtown Portland. We hope to be able to do this event annually.

In November Emilie participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and is proud to declare that she was able to meet the 50,000 word requirement before the close of the month.

Ben is still working for the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon Ministries as their main Web Developer and assisting in tech support. Recently he helped launch new web sites for each of the organizations contained within the Sisters’ ministries. Emilie is still enjoying her job working for Insight Schools, Inc. as the Receptionist and Administrative Assistant. She had the opportunity to travel to South Carolina and Nevada to help with information sessions for the schools Insight was starting there; she also gets to write for the monthly company newsletter.

December has been a fairly low key month for us, aside from the excitement of the snow storm we’ve had this past week – unusual for our area. We look forward to the New Year and the joys it will bring.

With Love,

Ben & Emilie

At the beginning of November, I decided to shave my beard off completey. At that point, the hair on my chin was about two years old, with me trimming it every now and then.

I decided to shave it off and grow a full beard during the month of November because I have never had a full beard before.

Here I am after 25 days of hair growth with little trimming.

Having a full beard was a good experience. I liked how I looked and I liked how it felt with one exception. I did not like having a mustache. It always got in the away of my activities which include eating and kissing my lovely wife.  I decided today that it had to go. I had some fun with different hair designs as I cut it off and I took pictures for some proof.

Stage 1: Shave off Mustache

Stage 2: Make myself kinda look like Wolverine

Stage 3: Mutten Chops with a Goatee

Stage 4: Arrow Sideburns

I still have the arrow side burns as I write this, but I think I will remove them before work tomorrow.

Update: I did shave them off soon after the picture was taken.

About two months ago a friend of ours sent out an email to all of her friends stating that she was putting together a team for the Susan G. Komen Race for the cure (http://www.komenoregon.org/) in honor of her mother who is a breast cancer survivor. We joined 45,000 people at the Portland waterfront park early Sunday morning for a 5K walk for the cure. What an amazing day. There were moments during the two hours where you would look back down the hill you were walking up and see the thousands of other people walking, and you just think: “Wow.”

Yesterday Ben and I got serious about dealing with our yard … and the weeds. The weeds had been accumulating at least since we moved in in January and we had been desperately trying to ignore their ugly little heads bursting through the soil. So while Ben took to the lawn with the reel mower I started digging up and pulling out as many of the weeds as I could. One of our neighbors saw Ben “struggling” with the mower and offered to use his gas mower on our front lawn and then come back with some weed killer.  Apparently our neighbors feel bad for us because we don’t have a “real” lawn mower.  In the heat of the day our neighbor came away with three bags full of cut grass emptied in to our yard waste bin. I managed to effectively clear a majority of the weeds from the front walk way and planter area under the kitchen window. What’s scary about the weeds is that we’re no where near done with them … we haven’t even touched the back yard yet!

The two rose bushes we put in in April are full of foliage and will likely soon be producing flowers. Ben and I are still trying to decide exactly what other plants we are going to put in the front yard. I would like to have more rose bushes to accompany the two that are already there but that will likely have to wait until next year to put more in the ground. We’re thinking of putting in a Japanese maple in front of the kitchen window to limit the view from the street into our home.

One thing Ben and I know how to do is play! We heard on Wednesday that my favorite band would be playing at Spirit Mountain Casino which is in Grand Ronde, OR about and hour and a half drive from our home. It was so great to see Blues Travelr in person – something I hadn’t done before. It was a really rockin’ show! I am so glad that we could go experience them in person … and I could sing along with almost all the songs! We’re hoping to be able to go check out live music more often, but nothing could match that.

Here is a great YouTube video both Emilie and I love.

Emilie and I have decided that Cleo is a cross between a cat, a pig, and a dog.

The cat side of her is very cuddly (she loves getting up on the couch with us while we watch TV).

She is also quiet (even though our current cat is louder than her) and calm (she stays calm even when Emilie and I run around the house chasing each other). She is a pig because she sorts when she is sniffing and snores when she sleeps. It is so very cute when she is sniffing quickly because she sounds exactly like a small pig. Her dog side is everything else (peeing, pooping, eating, etc.).

We love our Cleo!

I am amazed at everything that has happened so far this year (month… what ever). Ben and I finally closed on the house and with a lot of help this past weekend we got most everything moved over from the apartment. We still have a few little things left over there, and need to clean it, but we don’t have to turn in the keys until the end of the month. We’ve been sleeping at our new home since Sunday night and I already think that for what ever reason I’m sleeping better. Even though I’m getting the same amount of sleep, I feel better rested in the morning.

We had a plumber out on Monday to fix all of these weird little things the previous owner had managed to over look or screw up and was discovered in the home inspection. Like the standing water under the house because of a clogged sump pump… I came home from getting a load from the apartment and saw water gushing from a pipe in front of our house in to the gutter. A very good thing. The plumber said he thought they pumped out near 400 gallons from under the house! Now that the pump is fixed though, we shouldn’t have that issue any more.

I am very much looking forward to getting a garden started come spring. I am already researching planting techniques and all sorts of other fun stuff. The yard is pretty much a blank slate so anything I do will be a nice change. I’m thinking of putting in quite few rose bushes, some rhododendrons, maybe a hydrangea or two… I need to start drawing out the plans. I really shouldn’t put anything in the ground until late March at the earliest because of the late growing season around here.

So the word is out, we are in fact moving in to our home by the end of this month (a bit later than we expected due to bank delays). Once we knew for sure that we would be moving in to the house we started scoping out prices on refrigerators, clothes washers and dryers. There was a pretty amazing sale going on at Sears for the end of the year, so we checked out what they had to offer. The sale was a “tiered” sale event for appliances – buy one get 10% off, two 15% off, three 20% off of the entire purchase. On top of that the washer we purchased had a lot of rebates on it including a tax rebate for being energy efficient and conserving water (being a front load washer it only uses 15 gallons of water a load instead of the 40 used by a top load). We ended up getting all Kenmore appliances and we are quite excited to get moved in and start using them. We plan to get all moved and settled in by the end of January because that’s when our apartment lease is up.

On the job front, Ben is still enjoying his work a Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon as a web programmer and IT support. He loves the familiarity and the new challenges every day. Emilie is enjoying her position at Insight Schools corporate office where she has been working as a receptionist and administrative assistant since early October. The work is challenging and rewarding.