Reflecting Back on Christmas...

Hi all! Wowee, can you believe it? Two blog postings in one day! As I sat reflecting on our trip home I was (oddly enough) reminded of a survey that my dear friend Ashley Whipple posted on her myspace only two years ago. (Seriously, I have no idea what made me think of this) So, I have decided to share with you my answers to these fun Christmas questions as I keep reaching for my kleenex (reminder: I am sick!): 

1. Do you like Hot Chocolate? 

Who doesn't??? During the Christmas season I usually prefer peppermint hot chocolate though. 

2. Turkey or Ham? ummmm probably turkey. Though we don't usually have either of these during Christmas...

3. Do you get a fake or real Christmas Tree? I have always had a real Christmas tree. You just can't beat the smells of a real one. 

4. Are there decorations on the outside of your house?

We hung a wreath with twinkle lights on our front door.

5. Snowball fights or sledding? Probably sledding... Snowball fights are fun too but not when you get hit in the face. :/

6. Do you like hanging around the fireplace because it is warm? I feel like this question is missing a second part like, "because it is warm? or because you like to snuggle with Pepper the cat and that's her favorite spot?" IF this was the question I would say: both. :) 

7. Do you enjoy going Christmas shopping? When I know what I am shopping for. Otherwise I get pretty stressed out.

8. What is your favorite Christmas song? Baby it's cold outside.... that song is really quite inappropriate. geeeeesh.... but still, classic. 

9. How do you feel about Christmas movies? Love them. 

Give me Christmas With the Kranks any day, but leave A Christmas Story for December 25th. You just can't watch a classic like that in mid-summer. 

10.When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music? Any time before Thanksgiving. That's just nuts. 

11.Do you open your stockings before or after you open your presents? Traditionally with my family we opened them after presents. That way there is still a little something left to open after presents. 

12. Do you watch Christmas Carolers? Not usually, but this year some happened to cross my path. I stepped outside palio's one night to take a phone call and to my great surprise a horse drawn carriage passes me with 12 people behind it caroling. 

13. Do you go to someone else's house to celebrate or do they come to you?

This was my first year away from home. We ditched the snow and traveled to California.

14. Do you read "the Christmas story," if so, when? 

ummm...... I think we read that when we were little....who knows when.

15.What do you do on Christmas day? 

growing up I would wake up really early with my brothers to open presents. Eat breakfast together. Lounge around all day eating candy and watching A Christmas Story until we got ready to go to my Grandma's house. 

16.What is your favorite holiday smell? Rain on the ground and chimney's outside....

17. Iceskating or walking around the mall?Ice skating for sure!

18. Favorite Christmas memory? Waking up to see what elaborate display Santa left for us.

19. Favorite part about winter? Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

20.Favorite Christmas decoration? The lights. I love looking at Christmas lights.

21. Lights: colored or clear? I like them equally. What I don't like are blue Christmas lights (no offense to any of you who like this). 

22. What is the best Christmas present you ever received? The first present that stands out in my mind was a homemade closet full of clothes for my American girl dolls along with homemade bunkbeds. they were amazing....... oh the good ol' days.

23. What is your favorite Christmas tradition in your family? My favorite tradition growing up was going to my grandparents house Christmas night. 

 

24. What is your least favorite thing about the holidays? How crazy some people get over shopping. Did you hear about that walmart worker who was trampled to their death from Christmas shoppers? 

25. What is the one thing you were excited to see under the tree this year? I was very excited to open my Toms Shoes. 

25. What is your favorite holiday drink? Peppermint hot chocolate or peppermint mocha. Or, I tryed this really yummy drink that had spiced rum, pear puree and cinnamon. yummy....

26. What is your favorite holiday food? I always like potatoes!!!  and anything pumpkin...

27. What is your favorite holiday movie? Elf or A Christmas Story

28. How early do you wake up Christmas morning? It has varied from 5:30am to 7:30am.

29. Do you have any plans for New Years Eve? I have a date with my Kleen-ex box and the couch. Maybe Wes and I will watch fight club or something. ha ha! It's hard to celebrate when you are sick.... 

missing you all,

Katie

Sick Together

Sore throat? check.

stuffy nose? check.

body aches? check.

coughing? check.

We are sick people. At least we get to be sick together..... (awwwww) just kidding. I think it's harder that we are sick together because it makes it more difficult to take care of each other. How do you decide who gets up to get more blankets? Or cook dinner? or... or.... do dishes? Once again I am kidding. My point simply is that Wes and I are both sick, though Wes has different symptoms than me. We will struggle through this week together. Unfortunately we are both back to work today. I went to work yesterday but I wasn't nearly as sick as I am today. Anyway, we had an amazing Christmas with our families. It was much harder to leave this time around. We love you all so much. You truly are our favorite people to be with. We miss the nephews big time. When I saw Charlotte yesterday for the first time in about two weeks I picked her up as if she was Preston. We love our family. :) Talk to you again soon,

Katie

One week 'till Christmas

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!

Have things been as busy for you as they have been for us? I'm sure they have... This week we have been working, getting presents together and have gone to two Christmas-y party/ gatherings. It's been a fun week but I just wanted to stop by and say that we can't wait to be at home with our families to celebrate. Marisa and Ashley are on there way home today. Cory is already home. Courtney and Carlos will be heading in on Saturday. Bekah and Scott on Monday. Then Wes and I on Tuesday! We are comin! Can't wait to see everyone. It has been a very long time since we last saw some of you. I think Scott takes the cake for the longest.... actually, maybe Carlos does. Can't wait to see you all. Love you very very much and see you soon. :) 

Katie & Wes

Our first day of Christmas break.

Ever since I was in high school I have cherished these nights of freedom. Freedom from homework. Freedom from stress. Freedom from plans. When I have moments like these there is a part of my brain that sends me straight back to a summer night in highschool. A night where everyone has gone to bed and I sit in my room writing or reading knowing that I don't have to wake up and go to school or work the next day. Nights like those are rare as you get older. I am fortunate enough to have that this evening. One of my favorite things is a night before a weekend or a day free of plans. Anyway, today was just such a day. Church was actually cancelled today because of snow. Yes, if you haven't heard yet, it snowed today in Oregon. Getting to sleep in this morning was the best gift ever after a 4 hour nights sleep on friday night (due to painting until 1:30 am and waking up at 6am to continue painting before class). So, Wes and I slept in this morning and woke up to a very pleasant surprise. A blanket of snow. Pretty amazing first day of Christmas break don't you think? So, today Wes went to work while I went to Palios. It's been a really great relaxing snow day for me and the super exciting thing is that I get tomorrow off. Good news also, our hard work payed off and Wes and I both got A's in our painting class. We cannot wait for Christmas next week to be with our families and celebrate. So, this morning I got my jacket and rain boots on and stepped outside for some pictures...

Our car....


Our Front door...

Our door mat....




And, I took pictures this evening of the paintings we've spent so much time on that we turned in yesterday....


This first assignment was a painting of a collage. Meaning that we had to create an 8 x 10 collage from magazine clippings on paper and then create a grid on a 24 x 30 canvas and scale it over.

This is mine...



This is Wes'....

The second assignment was to paint an interpretation of music. We had to pick a song and paint whatever our imagination led us to...

This is Wes' to a radiohead song...


This is mine, inspired by Eleanor Rigby. Though, I can't explain to you how I got to this picture or what it means. I struggled with this assignment because we were told to not paint the song literally. If I had had more time to paint I would have given more detail to the back ground and to the man. I dont' like that his skin color looks so similar to the backgroung color...


The third assignment was to actually make a collage. In which we include clippings from things on our canvas.

This is mine....


I didn't take a picture of Wes' because he doesn't like his. :) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed seeing what we've been working on and talking about for the past couple of weeks. See you soon!

Friday

10am: walk to plaid pantry and get cream cheese for blueberry bagels. eat bagels.
11am: Start painting.
12pm: more painting.
1pm: frustration begins with how lame my painting is.
2pm: more painting.
3pm: more painting.....

............

9:30pm: Wes has a beer and stuffed garlic olives break.
10pm: still painting....

I apologize...

...for the rather short blog about our Christmas tree. I intended to add more pictures than that and put them in the correct order but I was having internet troubles... So here are some more pictures of our Christmas-y evening... enjoy them! also, this time in two weeks we will be in California with our families. Yessss! Can't wait!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

Goodmorning to you! It's 9:30 am now. Wes is watching The Bourne Ultimatum as I look through pictures of our Christmas Tree. So, the story is this:

On friday we went to safeway for our grocery shopping because believe it or not they don't have Smirnoff or Mikes hard lemonade at "the friendliest store in town" sooo safeway it was. As we were leaving we notice a tiny little tree lot set up in the corner and since we had made no effort towards finding a tree yet we decided we'd go have a look. We asked the man if he had any tabletop trees and he presented us with two options. One looked more like a puny tree branch and then the other looked like a rather bottem heavy miniture tree... (Wes calls it our Christmas bush) anyway we now have a tree and we decorated it Saturday night as we ate our homemade pizzas! Here are some pictures...

Quick!

I've been at Palios since 2pm today. It is now 9:30pm. Needless to say, if I wrote a blog about decorating our Christmas tree last night it would not be very good. I am getting tired and can only seem to think about the peanut butter cup, ben and jerry's ice cream that's at home in our freezer. Sooo my point is, check back tomorrow for Christmas tree stuff... I will try to post it in the morning! Love to you all-

me

A Good Day...

So, I won't brag too much but Christmas break just got one step closer for me. As I sit in this moment I have nothing left of school work except for the three paintings that need to be completed. The past two days I have been pouring over my notes and text book in search of all the information I would need for my final. Finally it is finished. Though it was only 12 questions long, with a weeks worth of time to complete it and all notes and internet resources at my aid, it was still test. I mean seriously, how can you afford to get a single question wrong knowing you were allowed the whole of the world wide web to help you? Though I am excited to no longer worry about chapters to read and deadlines to remember there is a part of me that is sad this class is over. Really for the first time in my life I took a class that captured my interest from day one and I succeeded in it. I am proud of the work I put forth and the knowledge that I have gained. This class taught me that art is FAR MORE intentional than I ever knew. Most of my assignments were to describe different works of art. I can now look at a painting and explain in paragraphs all that it holds. Just for fun I thought I would share with you the painting that I had to describe for my final. 

[unfortunately I can't place the image from the internet directly into the blog so you have to click here to view it.]

The painting is called Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the grass in french) and was painted by Edouard Manet. The painting was considered revolutionary for its time because it was the first time an artist painted a woman naked in an ordinary setting as if it were normal for a woman to just be sitting at a picnic naked. In the past paintings that portrayed naked women were generally scenes from history or greek mythology. This painting was the first of it's kind and marked the beginning of Realism/Impressionism when artists began painting images from ordinary life. Interesting huh? Manet was definitely trying to create change, wouldn't you say? 

Anyway, thanks for letting me share, I find it all very interesting in case you didn't notice. :) Wes and I are off to do some painting. Love you!

Hellooo Everyone,

It is hard to believe that tomorrow is December 1st. Where did the time go? I have no idea. It just dawned on me today as I went to purchase tickets for the Nutcracker Ballet (mine and Wes' Christmas gifts to each other this year) that Dec. 13 is only 2 weeks away! Which means that Dec. 25th is now only 4 weeks away... wowee! We went to church this morning and heard a great message about spending less. Imago Dei is apart of something called the Advent Conspiracy which is basically a big movement to get back to the heart of gift giving and Christmas and to steer clear of spending money on sweaters and such that are merely out of obligation verses need. The bigger picture of course is to then give money that you would normally be spending on things you don't really need towards the big goal for the year. This year the city has asked Imago Dei as well as some other churches to gather money for a youth center. Portland has a 43% highschool drop out rate and the center would basically help get drop outs back into the system and get caught up in time for graduation. Pretty cool stuff... anyway, just thought I'd share. Christmas is coming and we have so much to be thankful for!

Something funny to share: Wes and I have been hashing through all of our painting projects due at the end of this semester. I was under the impression our teacher said one thing, while Wes understood her to mean another. Today, I emailed our teacher with our dilemma and confusion and got by far the funniest email I have ever received from a teacher. I thought you would enjoy this little glimpse of our painting class. Here is the email I sent my teacher, followed by her response:

Hi Una,

This is Kathryn Scoville from your Saturday paint class. I had a question regarding assignments due. I was under the impression that because of the mix up with the new collage assignment that you would like us to pick either the new collage assignment OR the copy assignment. However, Wes thought that you meant we still need to do both..? From what I thought we need to complete: 1) First Collage, 2) 2nd collage OR Copy assignment, 3) the music assignment. It this correct? Thanks Una.

Kathryn

Hi Kathryn,

You were given a choice to either do the new collage painting or a copy. One or the other and the final project. Those two things still remain to be done. So, the wife wins.

Kisses to your husband,

Una

...OKAY so I know what you guys are thinking... either 1) that wasn't that funny or 2) What kind of weird teacher is this sending kisses to your husband??? ha ha I will therefore give you some background information on this teacher. She is one of the funniest teachers we have ever had. She uses the word yummy to describe anything good looking as in the sentence, "Oh thas yummii" and "crap" for anything she perceives as crap as in, "thas crap" and calls anything that is frustrating her a "stupid thing." As in, "oh that stupid thing!" Wes and I think it is funny to quote her often and I apologize big time if you don't at all agree with us in how funny this is. She will often ask Wes for some odd reason to validate her for example at the end of lots of sentences she will say "right Wesley?" and we will be caught totally off guard. She likes to talk to us or include us in her jokes because we are the only married couple in her class and this is very humorous to her. So, I basically just gave you a day in the life of Katie and Wes' painting class. I hope you enjoyed it. Sorry if you didn't. :) 

moving on! This week is my mommy's birthday, and also I sort of lead the girl book study at our home group on wednesday... it will be interesting, I will let you know how that goes! We are also starting to pick classes for next term which is exciting. So that's the latest and plus some in a nutshell I guess... Talk to you again soon,

Katie

Thanksgiving

Happy Holidays to all! Boy, I know it is only the first day after Thanksgiving but already the Christmas bells are ringing in my ears. We listened to Christmas music last night while we were cooking and today I made a list of gift ideas. I saw several houses today with Christmas lights already and heard of one person who went to go get their Christmas tree today. I am very excited for Christmas.... Anyway, as for our thanksgiving we had a very nice day. It was such a great feeling to lounge in the PJs until 2pm watching a movie and eatting donuts. :) Then around 3 or so our cooking began with pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. Which was later proceeded with stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, our special "turkey" (that actually tasted really good! and very similar to turkey) and rolls. It was a very yummy dinner. We even pulled out our table (normally we eat at the counter/table in the kitchen) and set it up between the TV and the couch so we could fill it with all our yummy items. As we sat down to eat we had a good laugh about how far away from each other we were. We both had to sit on opposite ends of the table since we squished it into our living room. Overall it was a memorable and fun first attempt at Thanksgiving. We missed you all! Hope your Thanksgivings were amazing. Talk to you again soon, and enjoy the pictures posted in the last blog! 

Love,

Katie

Pictures!

Ryan Kramer Visiting!

Hi all! 

Will you please forgive me for not writing nearly as often as I was? I honestly think that this has been the busiest we have ever been here in Oregon. For the first time all of our free time had to be put towards homework. Needless to say, having Ryan here has been quite a treat. We haven't been out to dinner this often since we first moved here. Ryan arrived mid afternoon on friday. Unfortunately he had to watch us paint for the first couple hours because we were that far behind on our painting homework. Anyway, we made up for the boring afternoon by going out to The Horse Brass Pub and even better, VooDoo Doughnuts for dessert!!!! We had some seriously amazing conversations this night. Saturday morning Ryan took the day to visit his family here while Wes and I were bombarded with even more huge painting projects to complete as the term comes to a close (we only have 3 weeks left of school)! Saturday night we took Ryan to The Kennedy School, one of the 21 and over movie theaters here. Enjoyed the movie "Righteous Kill" as we sat on some couches and had pizza, Root Beer and Beer served to us. (Seriously, come to Portland just for this... so much fun!) Today we took Ryan to our church and then to the grocery store (haha). Unfortunately Wes had to go to work today so Ryan and I are spending the day at Palios together. UNTIL! We pick wes up tonight and go to an amazing looking seafood restaurant (by Ryan's request) called Bay 13. We will let you know how it turns out. After we are coming home to watch a movie and snack on Oreo's. We love having friends. :) 

Ryan leaves on Tuesday, which is also Wes' Birthday. (22 ahhhhh![Amity's too actually]) Then, Thanksgiving thursday! So I don't expect next week to slow down too much either but hopefully it won't be too long before I post another blog. Love you all... 

Katie

Finally...

Dear Blog readers,

I can't tell you how sincerely sorry I am for falling off the face of the earth for these last 9 days. My blogging took a back seat to our trip to CA for the wedding and to work/ loads of homework since we got back to OR. What I'm saying is... we've been busy! Tonight, Wednesday night is the first glimpse of free time I've had since we got back from California Sunday evening. After our home group that is.

So, since our fabulous trip home we have just been back to work really.... Wes had Monday off this week but I started back in to work on Monday. Monday night we started painting our collages which are due this saturday (big project! 2 ft. x 3ft. canvases, biggest we've done yet). Tuesday we both worked and painted some more. Today I worked, Wes painted all day, we went to home group at which we had a thanksgiving potluck which was so much fun! Came home and here I am. I know that this blog is incredibly boring but I just wanted to drop by and let you know we are still alive. :) I will post another blog soon about more interesting things like Wes retiring his old shoes and stuff like that.

love you all!

Katie

oh laundry...

how I hate thee..........

I am once again at a laundromat washing some clothes, this time around the hampers aren't quite as full but it is still an interesting task. I say interesting because this time there are some new characters to make the experience that much sweeter. Today I have met a man who's hair was longer and prettier than my own and felt lead to tell me about black bean recipes he created all on his own (perhaps this conversation was prompted by Rachel Ray playing in the background). And now I sit listening to three grungy boys huddled around a guitar, electric I might add. Yes, these boys have actually plugged in their mini amps and have proceeded to play in doors. Why the owner is allowing this I don't know. Hey, at least the internet works in here and I have a computer small enough to carry in my backpack. :) 

I have one minute left on the dryer so I should be going! Just thought you'd like to know how trip # 3 to the laundromat is going so far... haha love you!

Beautiful Saturday

Hi... Katie here! Just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing? I can't believe I haven't been on here since Tuesday. This week went by pretty fast and it's so weird to think this exact time next weekend my cousin Chris will be getting married. I am so happy for you and I cannot wait to see how all of your months of planning turn out! :) I love weddings. I loved them before I got married but now that I have been through the whole process I definitely see them through "new eyes." I get so excited about the idea of possibly being a wedding planner someday... Its weird I know, but when I think about it I get so excited... who knows what I will be someday. All I know is that I want a studio in my house some day where my creative thoughts can wander through every drawer of paper, paint, colored pencils, magazine clippings and colors! Oh how ideal that would be.... 

hookay- enough of my daydreaming, I really need to get on with my homework but figure a couple more minutes of procrastination won't hurt. :) Wes and I had our painting class this morning. We stayed up late again last night watching Heroes (2:00am). So needless to say I had a heck of a time prying myself from precious sleep this morning. And the oddest thing was that we didn't paint one bit today. Today we began a collage project. I was slightly disappointed because I was thinking we were putting magazine clippings on our canvas mixed with paint etc. But no no no my friends, we are creating a collage on paper and then painting that collage on canvas. Still fun, just different. Pretty complicated though... we will have to post pictures of the outcome once we are finished. Wes is at work right now and works everyday until wednesday of this week! 

Well, sorry if this blog wasn't that interesting. I know I have a way of blabbing on and on about nothing important but that is all for now. I will try to post atleast once more before our visit back home! We can't wait!l

Love from,

-Me

Today is Tuesday...

...Though my mom would call it "Totally Terrific Tuesday" (Tomorrow being "Wonderfully Wacky Wednesday of course.) Wes is at work all day today again, I am at Palios and thought this would be a fun new way to give you random information about the life of the Portland Scoville's. The idea taken directly from Erin Youngren on the Jeff Youngren blog .  It is called "I am..." and well, this is it...

I am...

• I am... wondering what to have for dinner and I haven't even had lunch yet. 
• I want... to sit with my best friends and catch up on life. 
  
• I have... a lot.
  
• I keep... getting calls from a gated- community- center-manager in Costa Rica asking for a woman named Deborah. 
  
• I wish I could...go to Hogwarts with Harry Potter and the gang for a day. Just a day to see what it's like to use words like "Ridikalous!" and have owls deliver my mail.
  
• I hate... paper-cuts and... and... how clumsy I am! 
  
• I fear... accidently spilling water on my computer again. 
  
• I hear... music, and an espresso machine.
  
• I don't think... I need to take showers every single day. :) 
  
• I regret...not taking cough medicine today.
  
• I love... that Wes sang "skidda-merinky-dinky-dink, skidda- merinky- doo" (how on earth do you spell that?)  to me this morning, with made up hand motions and all.
  
• I cried when... we watched Cold Mountain. 
  
• I ache for... Disc 5, Season 1, of Heroes.
  
• I am not...working right now, But, I am... getting paid! 
  
• I dance...on two occasions: when no one is watching, and at my wedding. 
  
• I sing... all the time with out realizing it.
  
• I never... go shopping anymore.
  
• I rarely... drink water.
  
• I cry when I watch... something... sad...? crying is pretty much my reaction for everything anyway... haha
  
• I am not always... outgoing, I can be quite shy.
  
• I hate that... Ashley Whipple is a good 18 hours away from me.
  
• I am confused about... how my clothes aren't clean after we spent a lot of money washing them.
  
• I need... to do homework.
  
• I should... go and do homework now.

Wasn't that fun? I thought so...

So, Last night Wes and I had dinner with PJ Oswald at a place called The Leaky Roof. (Sounds like "The Leaky Cauldron" right? sorry, another Harry Potter reference) We had a lot of fun and might get to see both him and Erica for dinner on the 23rd. exciting! Also, we go home for Chris and Tiffany's wedding in a week and one day. We are so excited to see everyone, I can hardly believe how fast it arrived! Talk to you again soon,

-mrs. Katie Scoville

 

VOTE

Happy monday! (though it feels like the end of the week to me, if only it was...)  While many of you think I am encouraging you to vote for a president I'm actually not. Wait, I mean... I'm not discouraging you from voting for a President I just mean that's not what I am talking about. 

What I am talking about is the crazy pictures Wes and I took. Thank the maker for the fun-ness of macbooks. We thought it would be funny to ask you to vote on which picture you liked the best. Check it ouuuuut....

#1

#2
#3

You can vote through the blog website (not through your emails parents) on the left margin of our blog page. vote, vote, vote! :)

Sunday

Nothing new really.

I am still sick.

Wes is at work.

His work is amazing.

He loves it.

I am so happy for him.

We have dinner with PJ Oswald tomorrow night. 

We are very excited to see a familiar face! 

I am at Panera Bread right now, had a gift card... 

Doing homework.

Then I get to go and rent a movie! 

Pick up Wes from work later.

Then time for more homework.

Watched Gladiator last night.

It was actually good! 

Heard from Alex today, that made me happy. :) 

Can't wait to see everyone in less than two weeks! 

yep... I think that sums up everything.... 

Love from, Katie. 

Our Week...

It is Thursday night now, and though it is time to read Harry Potter I decided I would hop on here first and give you all a little update. I have now caught Wes' cold. Thank goodness Wes is feeling better so we aren't both sitting here sick (though we were both quite unproductive today). Also I did something really stupid last night. While Wes was off at our home group (I stayed home since I was sick) I was sitting on the couch getting ready to get to know my Macbook better (Yes I got my computer this week! Did I tell you that already?) I had my computer sitting open on my lap and as I went to lay down on the couch the open computer fell forward and hit me square in the face. Right on the bridge of my nose. Needless to say, I cried and said a word or two out of complete shock. And now I sit here with a swollen nose. I don't feel that I am over exaggerating but it always feels worse than it looks. You can hardly see a bump really but I have two little red lines on my nose. Kinda funny really... So, I have a swollen nose and a cold/ occasional fever. Today Wes and I slept in until ten, read Harry Potter and then watched Catch Me If You Can until 4:30pm. ha! Why wasn't I working? You ask. Coincidentally they don't need me today, or tomorrow, or for the next two weeks! So, I will still be getting paid while I sit here on my couch doing homework or whatever I please. I have no idea how I got so lucky. Speaking of jobs, Wes came home from helping our friends move into a new house tonight with some very good news! Wes has a job!!!! And! He starts tomorrow! We are very excited. For those of you who didn't know, Wes had an interview with the Filson Company a couple of weeks ago and heard back from them tonight. The Filson Company is an outdoor clothing company primarily dealing with non-synthetic wool/outdoor hunting/fishing clothing. They have one other store in Denver, CO, otherwise they are mostly catalog based. Anyway, there store is new to Portland (opens november 1st) and is in a really cool historic brick building in the middle of the Pearl district. (really ritzy-art district of downtown)

In other news, we carved pumpkins this week! I some how got the idea that carving a face that had similarities to my husband's would be fun. While Wes carved one with a large toothy grin. This took place on "the night that we did everything." We call it this because it felt like we did everything and anything that was possible in one night. We: Carved pumpkins, made more chili, more cornbread, went to the grocery store, made home-made roasted garlic hummus (you actually roast hole garlic bulbs in the oven for an hour), and as we did all of this our minds were buzzing with anticipation for the 4 Heroe episodes we were going to watch later that night. UNFORTUNATELY we opened our netflix package to see that the DVD was cracked. It is now 5 minutes till 11pm and our conversation goes like this: "Videorama is open until 11! We have 5 minutes!" We drop our things immediately, both in our slippers and pajamas, grab the car keys and dash out the door. On our way we conjured a plan: Wes says, "You hop out of the car and I will park, then come in after you." We arrive, and I run up to the door as quick as my little slippers will let me. I fling open the door and say "Did we make it???" The man at the counter says "you have 3 minutes!" I begin searching the isles and for a moment, we fear they don't have disc 4. But alas! we find it. all is well. And we stay up until 2:30am watching them. the end!

That was our night full of "everything" and here are some carving pictures:





Wes' is on the right with a nose like Professor Snape (Harry Potter), mine is on the left (that is suppose to be a pipe on mine by the way!) And the right eyebrow has a piercing. Everyone have a Happy Halloween! Sue and Greg, we hope you have a fun time visiting your grand children! :)

Love from,

the newest Scovilles

buzzzy bees and the busyness of life

The title is random I know because I wanted to emphasize how random this blog is going to be. I simply am too busy to make sense. Do you see? So, bare with me...

The term "buzzy bees" comes from the cute 3 year old that I am nannying. It seems that every time we are together she manages to say something about the "buzzy bees." Whether it is on our way to the park or while we are playing in the living room and a "buzzy bee" manages to get inside and commit suicide in the light in the living room. (yes, this did happen.) The reason you should know that we often talk about "buzzy bees" is because it is so darn cute. Please picture in your minds a cute little 3 year old girl saying "hmmm... I think I see the buzzy bee." or "hmmm... the buzzy bees aren't going in there. no. no the buzzy bees aren't going to come in there." Charlotte often talks in circles and says "hmmm" out loud.

next to talk about-

Our painting homework this past week... If you didn't hear yet Wes and I were stressed out last week because we had two paintings (on the bigger side) to complete by saturday morning. This was in addition to normal homework and on top of going to work for me. Anyway, the assignment was to paint geometric shapes on one and whatever we wanted on the other. And both had to have a specific color scheme that we learned about in our last class (complimentary, monochromatic, analogous, etc) Since we both left them to complete the night before it made for a very crazy friday. Some of you have been asking about them so here are some pictures of what we finally came up with...

Wes' monochromatic painting of a building he took a picture of in India:



Wes' geometric shapes painting:



My monochromatic painting of a sunflower:


Here is a picture of me working on my geometric shapes one...



Also! We went to the pumpkin patch after class on saturday. We drove out to Sauvie Island where there was a huge pumpkin patch, corn maze, animal farm, and the usual caramal apple-hot-chocolate-type-grub. :) here are some pictures:




The next post will probably be of us carving pumpkins- hopefully. It's a busy week this week: work, midterms, homework, sickness (wes is sick), halloween, responsible for snacks at our home group. busy, busy, busy... We love you!

Vegetable and Bean Chili Night (and laundry)

'Twas a dark and stormy night... just kidding... it was only your ordinary Sunday evening. Wes and I had spent most of the day at a laundry matte, turning our five-dollar-bills into quarters and breathing in the interesting smells of an old man in braids and a muscle shirt. It should be known that this was in fact only the second laundry trip we have made since we have lived here. We don't like going. And we don't like how much it costs. Anyway, after much procrastination we gathered the towels and piles of dirty clothes and threw them into the back of our car. Made the trek all the way around the corner to the Springtime Cleaners & Laundry and went in and scouted out "our spot." We took up a whole 4 washing machines and 3 dryers. Two hours later, we leave with our things and are thankful to no longer be smelling the body odor of an old braided man.

BUT what I was saying before I got on about our laundry was that it was an ordinary Sunday evening. A beautiful fall day, with beautiful sunshine and the crisp fall air. We sat on our couch and thought "hmm... what shall we have for dinner tonight?" We opened up the cook books and came across a vegetable and bean chili recipe. Sounded easy and delicious so we paired that with some yummy corn bread, made our grocery lists and set off for the grocery store. It was around this time that I realized our corn bread came with options. "Wes?" I said to him as we walked towards New Seasons Market, "Would you like to have Corn bread muffins or just plain corn bread?" Wes thought for a moment and replied (now I'm not over exaggerating on this one these are exactly his words) "umm, I think we should do Corn bread muffins because they are cuter." I erupted with laughter and said "Oh that is going in the blog for sure!" So, there you have it.

We made Vegetable and Bean Chili on Sunday night with corn bread muffins because they were cuter. I'm glad we did because they were so yummy we are having them again tonight. The Chili lasted us through Tuesday and my only complaint is that it was super spicy. It has Cayenne pepper in it so beware! I think next time we might omit the pepper because it has great flavor even with out it. Anyway, here is the Chili recipe:

Vegetable and bean chili

1 tbsp olive or veg oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
1 bag (1lb) frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower
1 can red beans, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can tomato sauce
2 cups frozen whole kernel corn
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground red pepper

In 5 quart dutch oven heat oil over med. heat. add onion and garli; cook 4-5 minutes stirring frequently. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally until chili is hot and vegetables are crisp-tender.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Let me know if you make it! It makes 6 servings and is great as left-overs!

Love you all- a couple quick things: we ordered me a macbook so I will be getting my own computer soon, and also- Tuesday night I got home from work to hear that the yard workers pulled up all of our sunflowers. I cried I was so disappointed. While I know it is silly to cry over flowers that probably weren't going to make it through winter (says or next-door neighbor/pro-gardener) I was sad that we would no longer be able to stop and marvel at how they had grown in just one day. Sad, sad stuff.

Talk to you again soon!

Katie

We Love Icecream...

Wes and I have created a new family tradition: always getting our own pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream for movie nights or "Katie-needs-a-dessert-tonight"-night. We have attempted to get new flavors every time but this past trip to the New Seasons Market ("the friendliest store in town") we decided to get our favorite flavors. My favorite is "Cherry Garcia" and Wes' favorite is "Imagine Whirled Peace." We documented the deliciousness this time around. ... Sending Ice Cream love and cold wishes your way. From our rainy state to yours :) (ha ha)

With Love,

Katie and Wes (For real, Wes helped write this one too!)

Pollock

Yes, I am talking about the famous artist Jackson Pollock. This week I had to watch a movie about an artist of my choice for my online intro. to art class. As Wes and I searched for anything interesting in the local video store we came across two that sparked curiosity. The first was a documentary about Andy Warhol. Only knowing a few odd facts about him, I decided to rent that one but then got really excited when Wes picked up a movie titled "Pollock." (directed by Ed Harris) All I knew of Pollock was that he was an abstract painter who would walk around his canvases on the ground and splatter paint like mad. Not being able to resist we rented that one too and turned out watching "Pollock" today. I can't think of a better way to get me excited to do my painting homework for the week. :) Although Pollock lead a depressing, rather intense life (which ended in a drunken car accident) his theories on painting are inspiring to me. While critics and friends would crowd around him and analyze what everything "meant," Pollock was simply in love with creating. He didn't want his work to be categorized or "figured out" he wanted it to be purely a painting. If you are interested at all about learning more about Pollock's life or theories on painting I would encourage you to rent this movie, we really enjoyed it.

Friends & Family---

I am so sorry for not posting for a couple of days... Usually I am pretty good about posting once a day or so but I have been very busy this past week since work has picked up for me. The latest in the lives of The Oregon-Scovilles:

We went to the mall today because I wanted to see if I saw anything perfect to wear for Chris and Tiffany's wedding... didn't find anything, if only my purple dress would reveal itself from hiding! man, I loved that dress... it was fun to find out where the mall was though... it's 3 stories, quite old, but has an indoor ice-skating rink right in the middle! Perhaps we will be posting an ice-skating blog soon... ha, I would love to go ice-skating but that comes after the trip to the pumpkin patch. Sorry skating rink, pumpkins take first priority in Katie's list of priorities.

I just finished doing homework and love that I can describe what different types of paints are made of with out consulting my notes. YES! The foot high stack of flash cards is paying off... I'm just kidding the stack isn't a foot high but it is high believe you-me. I love how recently when I sit down to write a blog, I have no idea what to write about and some how paragraphs fling from my fingers as if they have been waiting to be written for days. Who knew my fingers had brains of their own. Ok, now I'm babbling. Sorry!

as I was saying, I just finished doing some homework.... earlier today Wes and I did our painting class homework together. Guess what it was? We had to go outside, pick up five leaves from the ground and take them inside and draw them "blindly" and "not-blindly." (ha) basically, we had to draw them once only looking at the leaves and not what our hand was drawing and once where we could look. Sadly, my drawings while looking weren't much different from my drawings with out looking. Unfortunate indeed. We are finally moving further along in Mr. Potter (Harry that is) Book numero three (is that how you spell "number" in Spanish? Apparently my spell check doesn't speak Spanish.) And, when Wes and I went to the mall today we brought up something to do with harry potter at least 4 times: "look fri-ed-land-ers, FRIEDLANDERS!" Katie announced, "Doesn't that sound like a shop from Diagon-ally in harry potter?!?" Wes replys "Friedlanders, maker of fine wands, established 284 AD."

Hope you followed that... ok, enough for today we are off to our 2nd home (our first home being Palios coffee & dessert house. ha ha juuuuuust kidding.) We are leaving palios to go home to 26th avenue.

Love you all tremendously. Thank you for caring for us, we miss you....

I am...

Such a cheeseball! But, what can I say? When we got home today to a package on our doorstep the shape of a PSU sweatshirt I was very verrry excited. (did you see how I did that? I even added a couple extra "r's" like my jr. highers do to emphasize my point.

anyway, I know what you are thinking... "what's the big deal about having a sweatshirt from your school?" But for some reason I get excited about these things... maybe just because it's a new sweatshirt and I happen to love having a cozy day and wearing boots, jeans and a sweatshirt. Or maybe it's exciting to me to have some physical evidence when I come home for Christmas that I am attending school out-of-state. Whatever the reason might be, I finally have my very own PSU sweatshirt and if you didn't get the point yet... I am very excited about it. :) Tonight we are going out to dinner at an italian place down the street and then we will come home and watch the new Heroes episodes we got in the mail today. I was planning on posting pictures of our place up today but I felt like those pictures didn't quite capture the beauty of our old little home here. :) So, I am going to take more exciting pictures tomorrow and I will get them up shortly after. Also! Yesterday marks our one month of living here. When I think about this past month I think of food, harry potter, jobs and our living room ceiling. Sounds like a good first month huh? We are very excited that in a month we get to visit everyone back home! We look forward to it. We miss you and love you --

Katie

Dear Santa,

Some people have been asking us about what we would like for Christmas. I know this is a little early, Santa, but I thought maybe you'd want our list too.

Katie-Red clay patch woven TOMS shoes size 8
Wes- Burlap woven TOMS shoes size 11
Katie/Wes- target gift cards
Katie- MAC 150 Large Powder brush
Katie- SewPro Quickstitch Sewing Machine- SP-402
Katie- 194 concealer brush
Katie- 116 Blush brush
Katie- MAC blot powder/pressed medium
Katie- any MAC, Sephora, Nordstrom gift cards, clothes, makeup etc. :) the things I don't often get to treat myself to.
Katie/Wes- Movies: Secret Window, Harry Potter Movies, Indiana Jones Movies, Series of Unfortunate Events,
Wes- Lord of the Rings Box set (Hardcover) (Used are awesome!)
Wes/Katie- Desk Lamp FORSA - Color: Nickel Plated
Katie- Painting Canvases
Katie/Wes- drawer Unit ANDY - Color: Dark Red (for art supplies)
Wes- Atlas Shrugged (Used are awesome!)
Katie/Wes- Value Chess Clock - Color: Green
Katie- Bareminerals Foundation in Fair
Sincerely,

Katie And Wesley Scoville

Running

Katie Here! Coming straight to you today from Palios (where else?) sipping her pumpkin spice latte'... Hola!

So, we know what you are all thinking. "Wes and Katie are going to come home fat one of these days! What, with all the - pesto, apple pie, homemade bread, banana bread, enchiladas, veggie burgers, and other amazing foods they are making!" no, no, no I'm just kidding we don't actually think you are thinking that... but whether you are or you aren't- before you did or did not think this Wes and I had decided we would go running or biking occasionally in the early mornings. (did that even make sense?)

What I am trying to say is- Yesterday Wes and I went running! We got up at the crack of dawn (really 6:45am) and paused to wonder, "what does one wear to go running?" We are such newbies when it comes to physical activity such as this. Anyway, we got dressed and made our best attempt at stretching, recalling everything our beloved high school P.E. classes taught us. It was a successful run... we made it back alive, though our throats were sore from the cold morning Portland weather, and our legs weak from being stretched out of their comfort zones. We hope to make this a regular morning ritual (not too regular, after all we do need our beauty sleep).

I just realized today that we haven't yet posted pictures of our place. With our living room back in order we will certainly get those up here soon.

two things in closing- we are very excited to come home and see everyone in November. (Chris and Tiffany it's almost that time!!) and also,

We love you!