Strengths Finder 2.0

Good relationships are a very important part of a working environment. A part of why I accepted my new position was the awesome chemistry that I had with my new office.

{i'm realizing right now that i didn't share with this portal what exactly my new job is- i now work for Dr. Meldrum- a plastic surgeon and hand specialist in Eugene and love every minute of it}

A part of getting to know each other was learning what our individual strengths were and how we can relate. In comes Strength Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. After receiving my copy of the book, I registered on the site and answered a series of questions that fell in line with examples such as: whether you strongly agree with "I like to encourage people" or strongly agree with "I like to challenge people," I strongly agree with "I like to listen" or "I like to be heard." There are a couple of scenario questions. You have 20 seconds per question and roughly 150 questions. When you're finished, the program generates 5 strengths. The book describes what the details of those strengths are. 

whoa.

I had chills at how freakishly accurate these descriptions were. I'm going to have Jeremy do it, too.

Fund-raisin'

Far before I accepted the position at my new job and made an extremely difficult decision to leave the restaurants, I was able to help fund raise for some amazing non-profits in Eugene. As the events coordinator for two very popular restaurants, I was able to use my position as a platform to encourage philanthropy and unity in our community in small but important ways. I'm very lucky to be a part of a community that loves on each other. Below are my memories of my last events with Agate.

Above was an event for The Boys and Girls Club. 12 ex-Duck current NFL players donated their appearances/signed jerseys/commitment to raising money to help tutor/feed and keep kids in Lane Co. healthy and safe.

Above is the annual "Chef's Night Out" which contributes funds to Food for Lane County. FFLC feeds thousands of families in our area. Did you know that a postal worker who also volunteered for FFLC is the man who started the postal canned food drives? Kind of cool.

I've been incredibly blessed in my young, professional career. I've gained an abundance of love and support, friendship, experience and extended family. I'm thrilled about this new chapter but fondly look back on the previous.

Sunday Fun-Day

Yesterday, Jeremy and I enjoyed a day consisting of church, caulking the exterior window trim and a dinner/movie date night on the Oregon Coast.

I love days like this. Incohesive-ness with togetherness as  a common denominator. Productive and fun. 

I was excited to have the entire front of the house totally ready for pressure washing and paint by the end of the day, yesterday. Also, Jeremy was gifted a trip to a coastal restaurant as a thank you for building the stage that our good friends got married on, in July. So, we went to the coast to do our dinner and a movie date night. By the way, The Waterfront is delicious. I would strongly suggest trying it out, if you're in Florence, Or.

Commencing the day was our ever so inconsistent Sunday routine of attending a church service. Jeremy and I haven't made it to a service in over a month. Luckily, all of the teachings are available on Podcast for us to watch whenever we are able.  However, we need that fellowship with our church family. And, isn't it interesting, how God always knows what you need to hear/when you need to hear it? The teaching yesterday was out of James 5:7-11 titled "Patient Perseverance"  (click here for the archive of teachings). Pastor Wes was talking about how blessed we will be if we remain steadfast in the face of opposition and how bitterness toward your circumstance leads to bitterness toward one another. He stressed the point that God produces character in suffering and that we should stay the course in the midst of opposition. 

I loved the reference verses: Philippians 2:14-16 and 1 Peter 5:7.

I am so encouraged by the gentle challenges that our Pastor starts our weeks off with. How easy is it for us to find something to complain about in the midst of a trial, and be completely blind and forgetful of the things that God has blessed us with.

I think that November is a great month to re-route my train of thought to a more thankful and less complaining one. I tend to get very caught up in the what we don't have's and the what hasn't gotten done and the what I don't have time for. When in reality, I have a lot to be thankful for and many blessings.. the focus definitely needs to be redirected.

What are you thankful for?

Road Trip

In October Jeremy and I left our home with our two dogs and a very full SUV to finish celebrating Jeremy's 30th birthday with a week-long roadtrip. We, thorougly, enjoyed ourselves. Here's the short of it.

Scenic pictures: OR to WA to ID to MT

First stop: Big Sky, MT

Second stop: Yellowstone National Park

The drive from WY to SD

Third stop: Keystone, South Dakota

Fourth stop: Salt Lake City, UT

Fifth stop: Home :)

The drive from UT to NV to CA to OR

I tried taking pictures of all of the places that we visited. I thought that I would have had way more time to be doing nothing but take pictures, honestly though, we had so much fun during our long drives that I just lost track of where we were. There's not one other person on this planet that I could have spent that much time in the car with. Truth.

On this trip we: visited with friends along the way, visited monuments, national parks, zoos, famous architecture, war hero resting grounds, battle grounds and one of the biggest snow resorts in the world. We experienced temperatures from 5 degrees to 70 degrees. We saw black bears in the wild and watched Old Faithful explode right on time. We made almost every meal on our camping stove and bonded over working as a team and enjoying the countryside. We've seen the sun rise and set behind the Black Hills. We've seen the beauty of Mt. Rushmore in the evening and in the morning, both are truly separate experiences. Jeremy and I learned more about this country than we anticipated and developed a deep love for it. We met some amazing people with some incredible stories. I can officially say that I've sung for a crowd in South Dakota. And so can Jeremy. We drove 3,500 miles in 8 days and saw 9 states. I am so encouraged by our character and love for each other. Seriously, the worst thing that happened was running out of gas and a chip in my windshield on the last day. And for the record... these two:

are the BEST road trip dogs of all time. I couldn't believe what angels they were. 

I fell in love with them all over again.

This is the last big trip that we will be taking for at least a full year so it's definitely a good thing that it was such an amazing success :)

Our 4th Anniversary

Jeremy surprised me with a trip to the Redwoods for our anniversary. We spent a long weekend exploring and getting pampered. Below are some special moments from our trip:

Clearly, he did an awesome job with planning our trip!

Below is our favorite memory, not just of this trip, but to date, as a couple.

We were in our beautiful hotel room, getting ready for a beautiful seafood dinner on the coast when we came up with a beautiful idea. 

Jeremy went to gather 11 balloons: 7 for every year that we've been together and 4 for every year that we've been married. We decided to take them on the beach before dinner and release each one with a hope/dream/prayer/wish for our marriage, future children, family, careers, and life in general. 

I loved every touching second of that moment on the beach with my husband.

Jeremy's 30th Birthday

Jeremy celebrated his 30th birthday on the 23rd of July. I wanted to make a sizely effort to show my appreciation for how far he has come in his life. I am incredibly proud of the man that he has worked so hard to become. So, first, I hooked him up with a long awaited puppy and brought him home from my mother's house in Georgia back in April (thanks mom :). Then, I threw him a giant poker-themed party: 

And now, in just a few days short of a month, we will be going on a bit of a road trip. Our itinerary is below:

October Birthday Trip:

8th- Leave home for Huntley Lodge (miles: 908, time: 14hrs)

9th- 10 am: scenic round trip ride 

       1 pm: High rope course

       3:45 pm: Zip line

10th- Check out of Huntley Lodge and in to Yellowstone (miles: 126, time: 3.5 hrs)

11th- camping/exploring

12th- Check out of Yellowstone and in to Mt Rushmore's White House Resort (miles: 515, time: 9 hrs)

         Go to Mt. Rushmore, explore

13th- Check out of Mt. Rushmore and in to Royal Garden Inn Salt Lake City (miles: 648, time: 10 hrs)

14th- Explore/Relax

15th- Check out of Royal Garden Inn and head home (miles: 806, time: 13 hrs)

Total Miles: 3,003 (minimum, not including scenic drives/exploring)

Total Time in the car: 49.5 hours (again, minimum)

States covered: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah and Nevada. Whoa.

Happy 30th Birthday, J. Love ya, kid.

Windows

All of our windows are finally installed and the outside trim is done. We are now in the process of replacing the old/mismatching trim and by the end of the month we are scheduled to paint the entire exterior.

The house will be a creamy gray, trim will be off white and our shutters are black

It's all in the little things

Today, I was able to work from home and check some things off of my list of to-do's. Typically, I have two types of lists for myself: 1. my daily lists that are created and achieved every single day and 2. my on-going lists that are for myself but are not time pressing projects or chores that can get done when I can find the time. Amongst the phone calls and email correspondence, I had laundry and the crock pot going, I got the house cleaned and the dogs bathed. I did some organizing and other general productive items on my list. In the middle of the day, I started noticing that there are elements of my home that made me smile. They are small but smile worthy. And if you're anything like me (quite particular and OCD in many ways, tidy, clean, etc), and are living in, what seems more of a project than a home, it is important to take note of the things that you truly enjoy about the project home that you live in.

 1. A pretty and small bouquet of flowers in a mason jar on the table (even though they're roses, not my favorite)

2. All of the laundry is done :)

3. I got to spend the entire day with my Jeremy's puppy. (he's normally with Jeremy on his job sites while I'm working)

4. I have been wanting to break up the sterile look of mostly cream on the guest bed and found this couch blanket at Costco. It's perfect and I'm totally going back to get one for the couch. It's super warm and cozy.

5. The entire day was over cast and very intro-to-Fall-esque. Which inspired me to browse for sweaters. I found these at TJ Maxx. They're perfect.

6. I, recently, found a way to organize all of my batteries and light bulbs. I can't tell you how much more enjoyable it is to reach for a replacement bulb or battery, knowing that they aren't unorganized or messy in their wrappers, but instead, in bins.

 7. As I was taking a break from the inside chores by throwing the ball around for Peter, the puppy, I noticed that our gardens and fruit trees could use some harvesting. I love eating the produce from our own yard.

8. I planted some dwarf curry and several different kinds of lavender plants in our front flower gardens and they are spreading and growing like crazy. The combination of the two are so beautiful and smell heavenly.