LONG week

Wow, what a week.

Sunday and Monday went by in a haze of Krav, work, and trying to watch "Das Boot", a supposedly amazing movie about German U-boaters in WWII. Unfortunately, the only redeeming quality of the movie is that it is a very good sedative. The fact that you had to get up and flip the disc over to finish it made it such that we did not want to put in the effort.........sad? yes, but also tells you more about the movie itself. Anyway, on to better things...

Ryan's old HP hard drive has begun to fail (we think) and at the very least, to flail. Since we were able to catch Nikki's Dad and Mom before they left for the beach (thanks for the reminders guys, we would hate to forget) Dad was able to help us find a suitable external hard drive to back up with. Now, this all seems very boring, but to get to Fryes to buy that hard drive, we had to go down to Wilsonville. And of course, Wilsonville is very close (ok 11 miles) to Woodburn, which has a premium outlet center. For those of you in NOVA, think Leesburg minus the shifty eyed people and with better parking. Nikki decided some new clothes were in order for the both of them, and a fun filled day of shopping ensued! :) Now, if you were to ask Ryan, he would probably have a different view, but we won't dwell on that.....

And now to the fun part of the week! The later half was a downhill slide in to Friday, where Ryan had to work all day, then come home only to turn around and head to a test for Krav Maga. This being our initial "Qualifier", we were not sure what to expect. Good news is - WE BOTH PASSED! Yay for two Krav Maga Yellow belts in one house! The bad news - it's Sunday night, and we're both still beat. 3 hours of fighting takes a toll on you.


They spelled our name wrong, but hey, that might be something Nikki should get used to, huh?


And now the real work began. We got home from the qualifier at about 11 pm (it started at 7:30) and went to bed after some much needed ice cream. At 4:40, Ryan's alarm went off telling him it was time to get up for the Chili Cook-off. BRUTAL. He had to be at work by 6, and was at work until 6 pm Saturday night. Below are some pictures Nikki took while attending the chili cook-off, and, of course, voting for Ryan's chili. (which was the best anyway)



Obviously, everyone knows Ryan, and to the right is his team-mate (co-chef? chili buddy?) Nathan, also from the Casino. They used 4 gallons of Fat Tire (that's beer) and 4 cups of chili powder. No wonder so many people liked it. Oh, and speaking of liking it.......



They got 2nd place!!! Woohoo! They placed 2nd our of 9 competitors and won 50 bucks each! Isn't their sign grand? And that's the medal Ryan got to bring home. :)

We have both agreed that from now on, after Krav qualifiers, the next day is REST. No work, no workout, just rest. Especially since as we go up the belts, more time is needed for the qualifier. Yikes! Although $50 and bragging rights for a year might be a good alternative......:)

Have a great week everyone! We both miss and love you!

Classes are over, now school can start!

Hello everyone!
This week started off great! Monday we were driving around picking up supplies for a Fondue night, and we happened to drive past an apartment complex that was in the middle of remodeling. Long story short - WE FOUND FREE CABINETS!! Woot!!! Our day ended up a little more stressful than we thought (the cabinets were only free with the condition that we removed them before 4) but we owe a HUGE Thank You to the Howard family for letting us borrow Big Blue.

Monday night brought the promised fondue night and a lot of fun and cuteness. Of course, it is simply not possible to have Chooch and Lala in the same place and NOT be overwhelmed with how adorable they are! Oh, and their parents are kinda cool too..... :) Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

So for everyone not familiar with these beautiful faces, top left is Coltrane. The picture next to that cutie has Chooch (Coltrane - LOVE his nickname btw) with his Momma, Carly and a miss Jill, who for some reason is making a face like someone just asked her if Jesse could hang out in the library......
Below Coltrane is a certain little Olivia, who was actually VERY shy before that night. (No, seriously) And next to her is her Mom and Dad, Melisa and Jeffrey. (sorry, not sure on spelling)
In all, a very fun night with lots of laughter, stories and fighting talk (Thanks Nick and Jeff, sorry ladies.....)

That brings us to Tuesday, and our last day of Spanish classes for a few months. We ended up meeting our instructor, Clayton at a nice little Cuban restaurant, Panbiche for breakfast. We actually didn't end up speaking much Spanish, but did get quite a few tips on roads to try in the area. We both really like Clayton and can't wait to start classes up again in October.

And now for the pictures of the new house! I know they have been long-awaited, and since I cleaned for company (my momma didn't raise no fool) I took advantage of that opportunity to get some good pics.



Our new couch, off-center? yea.....Pretty? Oh yea!!
This view is directly to the right after you walk in the front door



A perfect place for Grandma Theo's painting! That is the view from the front door, with the couch to the right and the TV to the left.



Our dining room table, about 5 feet away from the couch on the same wall. Any suggestions for the blank, cream colored wall? We're thinking the giant Nebraska flag is a little juvenile - and we want to hang it up outside :)



Our Kitchen - directly across from the dining room table. Not quite enough storage yet - hooray for the new cabinets going up in the garage soon!



Rudee and Jeanie enjoying their new backyard.



Our free grill. It does what it's supposed to, and you can't beat the price.

Wednesday and Thursday passed in a haze of motorcycle maintenance, lesson planning and martial arts. Ryan and I finished the leftovers from fondue night, and decided that we really like vegan cheese fondue. Who knew? That goes along with our recent decision to become pescetarians, mostly for health reasons. We'll see how it goes!

Friday and Saturday Ryan has worked, and Nikki has planned. Goals for this week are to keep our sanity and health up moving in to Friday the 28th, which is our endurance test for Krav Maga. Ryan also has to work Sunday, Monday,Thursday,Friday and Saturday this week. For those of you keeping score at home, that means he only gets 2 days off this week, where he usually has 4. I'm sure texts of encouragement and love would be appreciated. :)

That's all for now folks, enjoy your week ahead, and check out a little blog called philliebee.handmade (you'll find it to the left) if you feel like you're lacking creativity, she's got TONS to spare!

Lots of love!

Proving our "Husker-ness" to the neighbors....

This week was pretty uneventful. Monday found us at Eisenhower (Nikki's home school) to help re-arrange the schedule for this year. We had Jitsu during the day, and then Ryan worked all night. Monday nights are the hardest for him, he has to work from 5pm to 2am (more like 2:30 by the time he leaves) and then get up for Spanish at 8 the following day. Nikki tries to be nice on Tuesdays....

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent playing with the pups, picking Blackberries from the overgrown backyard, and resting. August has been a tight month for us financially, so instead of going out, our new favorite thing is grilling for dinner!! We are learning a lot about how to make things instead of buying them, which has actually been a lot of fun!!

On that note - Nikki has been trying washing her hair with Baking Soda instead of shampoo. Thanks to a Miss Jill for the tip! Next we will be making a homemade body scrub and Burts Bee Facial Cleanser!

And now we come to Thursday! Anyone who knows Ryan knows that he likes projects, and Thursday he found one!! Here are the supplies, I'll let you guess what he did.....

Anyone? Anyone? Bueler? That's right, he created a HUSKER MAILBOX! It's not quite done yet (The paint takes several days to fully dry)

Ryan was having a little too much fun with the spray paint! :) Here is the (thus-far) finished project!

Nikki's project for the week was to get Rudee smelling a little better. Perfume and Essential oils are apparently bad for dogs, so we had to go the old-fashioned "Bathing" route. The poor guy was NOT amused...

Have you EVER seen a face like that??? Pitiful.....I can just hear it now...."MOM, WHY ARE YOU TAKING PICTURES AND NOT STOPPING THEM????"

The rest of the weekend was spent baking 2 batches of cookies, 2 batches of brownies, and 2 kinds of foccacia bread. A bunch if teacher friends are coming over Monday night for a fondue night, and Nikki was getting ready for dessert. (THE most important course!) The only thing we need now is some berries.....oh wait, we just happen to have a weed in the backyard that produces some! I guess it's time to go pick, enjoy your week! We miss you all!!!

Jitsu and Hiking and Daring......oh my!!!

Time for a real update!

This week started off pretty well! as many of you might know, Ryan and i are both taking classes in Krav Maga and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We have classes most nights of the week, and Monday, Wednesday and Thursday during the day. Krav is teaching us quite a bit about common sensical (if that's a word) defense, where as Jitsu is focused more on techniques of rolling on the ground and submitting opponents with choke holds, tweaking major joints and defending against the other person's offenses.



Here are some action shots of Ryan grappling with our classmate, Miles.



Our Jitsu instructor, Ray Stevens (above) is a lot of fun and often refers to Jitsu as a big game of chess. Beyond being tons of fun and a great workout, we get to wear the latest fashions in Gis!! Here are some examples....:)

Tuesday brought about Spanish class in the morning and relaxing in the afternoon. We had a "Christmas in Jul--August" because Linda was kind enough to send us a lot of our wedding gifts!! Ryan was SO excited to see his shop vac, and I couldn't wait to use our new coffee maker and glasses! THANK YOU LINDA!!!

Ryan checkin out the booty

Nikki was able to completely demolish a half wine barrel in the name of moving it closer to the house to use as an herb garden. So much for that idea. But at least we have some neat metal hoops and scrap wood now!

We got to go hiking this week, FINALLY!! We went up to Mount Hood, in Oregon. We found the hike in Ryan's Backpacker, and they pointed out that this specific hike was great for looking for Huckleberries. For anyone who has ever tried to pick huckleberries, you know how "fun" this can be. Suffice it to say, we gave up looking for ripe berries (of which you can find about 1 in every bush...) after about 15 minutes. We had some BEAUTIFUL views,






and after Umbrella Falls, we pretty much bug free. (Thank goodness)




We came back with only a handful of huckleberries, but 4 pints of raspberries we stopped to pick on the way home. Yum!!

The rest of our week has passed somewhat uneventfully with a lot of baking and grilling. Ryan made amazing hamburgers and Nikki made Zucchini bread and Foccacia bread. Our house was smelling REALLY good! :)

This week we have started on a dare given to us by the lovely and sweet Ruth
couple - Larry and Pat.



The book is called "The Love Dare" and so far it has challenged us to do things like eliminate all negative words towards each other, get each other an unexpected gift, and do unexpected acts of kindness. So far we are on day 4 of 40. We are being challenged to stay positive and really focus a lot of time and energy on our relationship. It has been refreshing and informative so far, and we are both excited to see what this dare will bring in the next 36 days.

To finish out the week, Ryan took the dare of doing something kind and unexpected for Nikki by going grocery shopping for her!!! Woohoo! He even went after work on Friday, which made him even more tired. What a nice guy! :) After work on Saturday, we met at the gym for a quick lifting session. Following a shower (boo sweat), we headed down to Portland, OR to watch the UFC 101 fights. Some interesting fighting ensued, and after much shaking of our heads and yelling out the names of Jitsu positions we recognized, it was time to go home and go to sleep. Whew.
All these events bring us to this morning, when we got up, made pancakes and talked about our dare for the day. Welcome to a week in our lives!! Look for an update next Sunday!

Keep track of us!

Hi all! This is a new way for Ryan and I to try and include everyone in our lives out West! Check back here for all things big and small. We will try to update every weekend.

This past weekend, Nikki got to go on a Kayaking trip with some friends, and then Ryan met everyone for dinner after work. A fun evening of grilling, games and hilarity ensued!

We also recently moved in to a new house! Hooray for having room for the dogs to run, and us to spread out a little bit. Pictures will come next week, after we have cleaned a little....sorry mom.....