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.