2019 – September
Oh, September. Oh, Canada!
We finally got around to taking photos of the Bears that the office gave to the kids. Finnegan and Gus. We also drove around the area and visited where Bates Motel was filmed (the TV show) but unfortunately, they had recently torn down the house and buildings that were used. Instead, we get a picture of land through a chain link fence. Visited a lighthouse and some waterfalls (below).
The Tantalus outlook was also where we took the photo (that is in black and white). Pretty stunning images of clouds and the terrain. The pictures simply don’t do it justice. The kids were excited to go hiking as this is their jam (see family photo at the entrance to Brandywine Falls) and the kids posing at another spot. Then took a trip downtown and walked the streets a little. Look at the statue they have of the Orca!
Before we knew it, our time was over and it was time to return to the States.
Below you will see a neighborhood.. it was a nice view we had in our Tacoma-area Hotel where we stayed overnight before the final stretch back to Portland. Then it was back to work for another week of work! I do like the view from the patio at work. You have a nice view of the Convention center (see green towers below) and downtown.
We still kept meeting up with Gramps and Ellie as much as we could. They were surprised that we were back so soon, but I think it’s a good thing. We took random weekly trips to look at random things in the area like the Portland Meadows building. However we spend them, the weekends always feel short— speaking of short: we have been house hunting. See the photo of the shower? It also is short and not a good fit for someone who is 6’4. Wait, how’d you sneak that in? How are you house hunting?!
Well, so the story is: we didn’t go house hunting last time we were in the area as we knew things would probably be more temporary. We however were getting tired of planning for no future. We specifically set up the rental we had to be month to month AND out of our price range that we were comfortable with. We got a furnished place with none of our stuff with us. Why? To push us to make a move. At the current rate, we would need to be out of the rental by January or February – otherwise, we would be hemorrhaging money. The best way to do something is to push yourself to do it. We signed up with a couple of different realtors and were on the go. We were open to Portland or Salem. We would prefer to be on the West side of Portland, but if not, then probably south and closer to Keiser/Salem. Potentially on the east side if we could be close to our home church.
Moving forward the mornings have been really pretty lately. Imagine foggy mornings giving way to sunlight bursting through the air. Can’t see it? Okay, I caught a photo of it one morning while driving to work. Arabella is also getting too big – she lost her first tooth!
You can see a cheesy photo of her (above) showing off her missing tooth. We came across an art project near where we lived that had a big chalkboard and said “Before I die I want to ____” Arabella answered that with “be a dancer.”
I thought I’d share a candid photo of some of my co-workers. We are in this downtown office for a few days doing training and I took a photo on the DL. Bill is on his phone (lower left side), Don is talking to Arlene who is not pictured, and Trish is on her phone on the far side.
Coming close to the end of September you can start to see some color on the leaves (pictured on the Cascade Campus). We also took a few trips down to Keiser to look at some new homes that were being built in our price range. We have gotten tired of working with multiple realtors and reached out to Michelle (our Pastor’s wife) who is a realtor and she said she wanted to work with us. Not sure if we want to go for this house or not. It is an interesting thought because it’s new. I just don’t like a few things about it – including the quality of the build and the one-car garage. How can we have so little room for storage?
BIG SHOES. Yeah, those are a touristy thing that they have at the Adidas World Headquarters (which is not far from where we live). I drive past it every day and finally said we were going to do it! The kids got a kick out of how big they were. The end of September also means that the Oregon Heritage Farms have McIntosh apples! Why does that matter? It’s the golden apple for my mom’s apple pies. We may have gotten a few pounds of apples.
just Pray
note: this post was published on 08/29/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of September 2019 to keep chronological order.