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!

Hello from Katie--

Here at Palios, again! Yes, we practically live here. We basically cook, garden,sleep and then read at Palios. Here is your bulleted update since I don't really know what to talk about:) ...

- I dropped off my computer at the Computer-Dr.'s office yesterday.
- We are enjoying having our living room back.
- We started watching Heroes lastnight, amazing start to the first season. Wow, I had now idea what this show was really about. very good.
- We are almost finished with the 2nd Harry Potter book.
- I am still completely, utterly, 100%-ly disappointed that the next harry potter movie is no longer coming out in November. NOW what are we going to do on thanksgiving??? (i'm just kidding, kind of.)
- 3rd home group tonight! woot- woot! We will report back about how it goes!
- Speaking of home group I still need to read for tonight so I should get going- oh!
- I got an A on my art quiz today, yessssssss oh! OH! and-
- Wes and I get to go to 3 art galleries tomorrow in the pearl district required for my online art class. This will be ammmazing.... oh! OH! OH! and lastly-
- we made homemade pesto last night to put on our pasta- it was the best pesto ever. You should get a basil plant. (Thanks mom for ours!)

Love from,

Katie

Bravo for living rooms!

.

Hello everyone, its Wesley Raymond Scoville. Since I have not really been participating in the dialogue of the blog (only by means of Katie) I have decided to post a simple message to chime in and finally begin to add some input.

This morning Katie and I had to wake up fairly early (8:30!) because the painter was due to come today and finally finish our ceiling. Which he did show up and finish the job (Yeah!). It was actually quite a joy to have him around because he had actually at one point had gone to PLU. It's not everyday one can talk Philosophy with a painter. From there Katie and I watched the Presidential debates (yes I know it was a week ago) which were, disappointing at most. But better late then never. At 11:30 Katie left for work.

Soooo, Katie is currently at work right now and I have just finished re-furnituring the living room, which looks very nice and cozy. Until fate brings us together again, Adieu.

Bad News:

The New Harry Potter Movie, the Half Blood Prince, was postponed until summer 2009! but this gives Katie and I more time to finish the books so maybe its not so bad.

My play list today included:

Radiohead, Hot Chip, Wilco, Guster, Travis, and Beck (which I had first heard a year and a half ago when Katie flew up here from Colorado.)

Life

Wes and I will agree that we have both began to appreciate life in new ways this past week. Yes there are the obvious ways, for example appreciating a ceiling in our living room and the fact that we both have computers but one other thing that has brought joy to our lives is the little sunflowers that are beginning to grow out front. I know this sounds totally cheesy but it's the truth. :) A couple of weeks ago when we planted our herbs into their pots (those are starting to grow too!) we also decided to plant a couple of sunflowers here and there just to see if it would work. To our surprise it actually did. Neither one of us have had much experience gardening so you can understand how exciting it is to watch something that you planted grow its roots and peak out of the ground. The amazing thing about sunflowers is your ordinary looking sunflower seed sticks right up out of the ground around the baby stem and eventually the little leaves throw the shell off. That is the stage they are at right now. I know I am probably sounding a little ridiculous getting so excited about baby sunflowers but as you grow up you begin to appreciate these little things that you've known your whole life and never took the time to think about... you know? So, some other things...

We finally found a bread recipe that we really like and can make as our regular sandwich bread. [if you don't have a bread maker we would encourage you to get one because you have so much more control over what kind of bread you want, its as fresh as you can get it, its inexpensive, it makes your house smell yummy, and its fun.] Here it is:

Bran and Yogurt Bread:
To make a large loaf in your bread maker:

1 1/2 cups water
1 cup plain yogurt
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp molasses (or you can use corn syrup, thats what we used)
3 1/4 cups unbleached white bread flour
2 1/4 cups whole-wheat bread flour
2/3 cup wheat bran
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp rapid-rise active dry yeast

*When making bread in your bread maker always do wet ingredients first and then dry ingredients and then last put in the yeast to prevent yeast from getting wet.

It's amazingly yummy I guarantee you will love it.

Aside from making bread we also made banana bread (to use up our dying bananas). Saturday we had our painting class together and absolutely loved it. I managed to take a couple pictures during our "lunch break" so you could see what it's like. We were asked to bring in 3 small panels to paint on. The teacher had us paint 3 different items one on each panel. The first one we were asked to paint this cylinder that was placed in the middle of the room. We learned how to paint lighting and shadows and then we had to do this with a box and a circle as well. We also learned how to apply a tinted glaze to our paintings... It was a lot of fun. We loved it! Also, Last night I went to a girls movie night with the girls from my home group. There were only 6 girls there total and I am so glad I went. I had a really great time getting to know them better and I feel like I can eventually become good friends with them. SO... that's all for now... OH wait, I almost forgot!

Our ceiling is fixed and painters are coming tomorrow. yaay!

AND Wes and I are going to start the 2nd Harry Potter book tonight! I know- so exciting isn't it????

love,

Katie

Harry Potter, My computer, and Our Current Living Conditions...

Hi! So- I will first give you an update on the house. Right now, we are sitting on our bedroom floor and can't even see into our living room. Workers have been here since 9am and have taped plastic stuff on all the walls and on the floor. They moved out all of our furniture and covered the bookshelves. (Thank goodness we don't have to move those out!) I am so happy that this is getting done so fast and that it sounds like it might get done in one day!!! Golly, all it takes is to live in your bedroom for 5 days and you will surely gain more appreciation for a living room. I am feeling better too, a little stuffy nose but I think I'm fine. yay! I do have a tiny piece of bad news. I guess I say tiny because when juxtaposed with the latest events it seems minor, but really it isn't....

Yesterday at coffee in my drowsy state from having my head in a book for 3 hours I went to take a sip of water and practically through my cup of water onto my laptop. Yes. Water on my open lap top. Water in the keys. I hopped to my feet immediately and ran for napkins. Wes picked up my lap top and turned it upside down to drain as much water out as possible. But still... I fear that it may never turn back on. Wes seems convinced that it will be OK in a couple days after it has aired out for a bit. I'm not sure though... it's just my luck that I would have an online class this quarter and have already damaged the most important element of the class- the computer. Yes, my husband is of course nice enough to share with me for the time being (thanks mr. Scoville) but still... I worry! On to other things...

I made my mom's spinach manicotti (Stuff-a-roni is the term I'd prefer to use since that's what we called it when I was little) for dinner last night and it was so yummy. We ate that while watching Secret Garden. Now, Secret Garden... is kinda.... not that good in my opinion. ha ha I'm glad I can say I've seen it now but still.... it was a little... different. Now since we are on the topic of movies that gets me to Harry Potter.

I have recently been obsessed with Harry Potter because well, we finished the first book. Yes, Wes and I did watch all the movies just a couple months ago. And Yes, we are just now starting to read the books for the first time. The books are amazing. Well, we have only read the first one but we read it together in 4 days. Everybody says the books are great and now I can finally have something to contribute. Read them. You will appreciate the further in site into the character's thoughts and the plot of it all. I feel like I finally understand it all completely. Anyway we have a blast reading out loud together since we have seen the movies. A lot of the lines from the first movie are taking directly from the book. So, as you are reading you can hear the actors voices in your head and it's hard not to -accidently- talk in a british accent. ;) (if only you could have heard Wes' impression of Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. I do a pretty good Dumbledore impression if I do say so myself.)

Sorry if that was a lot of gibberish. At least you can tell how truly obsessed I am. (I have even been dreaming about Harry Potter scenarios.)

Alright, I should get back to homework. A couple of "Shout outs" to:

1. Grandma Fay: Happy Birthday To You! (I know it was yesterday but still...)
2. Ashley, Cory and Marisa- I miss you and love you so much.
3. Brothers- I miss you, come visit now! :)

Thank You

I am encouraged to hear that so many people are following our blog. Thank you to all of you who love us and care so much about how our move is going. Because of our current living conditions, we don't have much we are able to do other than sit and wait for workers to come and do there thing in our living room. :) Therefore, I have nothing much to report today. Tonight Wes and I are going to our home group for our second week. Right now we are at Palio's doing homework. Earlier today we went and got school ID cards and sat and read harry potter for a good hour or more. Tadaaa.... That is Katie and Wes' Oct. 1st. HAAA! (gasp.) It's Oct. 1st. Happy October! Pumpkin time is almost here! Love you all, Thank you for your encouragement during this weird time. :)

Katie