by jltitus on August 9, 2009
For the last three years I’ve been taking about a week off the end of July and heading to Othello, Washington (my home town). I go and hang out with my mom, visit with friends, and just enjoy being there for a time. This time was no exception.
I got to visit my friend Cyndee and her family. She and I had a great girls day in Tri-Cities while Ryan and Daniel went to the Puz’s so Daniel could play with his friend. Cyndee and I went to Tri-Cities and got a pedicures. It was so much fun. It’s not often that I get pedicures so it was a nice treat.
I think after that we ran around to a few other places and then headed back to Connell to work on dinner. Once we got back to Connell Cyndee and I chilled and chatted about everything from what’s she’s doing now, to old teachers we’ve worked with, and more. I miss being closer and visiting her more. I’m so glad she’s lovig her job and working in Connell. It’s great too that Ryan is working there iin town too, so much better than the trips to Walla Walla.
We ended up BBQing for the night. It was so much fun! 
Cyndee was running the grill while Daniel and I were playing on his swing set, trampoline and soccer. Daniel is such a cutie pie and so full of energy. After dinner we headed to the pool so Daniel could go swimming. I decided I wasn’t going to goo swimming so no suit for me. I was so surprised with Dainel. He’s walk up the four flights of stairs to the top of the slide. He’d then slide down. I couldn’t believe it. he’s only 5 years old and he just does it by himself. I would be totally freaked out if that were me. He’s just fearless! It was an awesome visit! Now I just need to convince Cyndee to bring Daniel down here for a visit. I think he’d love the Children’s Museum, the Zoo, and OMSI.
Friday July 24th was the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life. I’ve been going every year for the last three years. Our team is a bunch of teachers, friends, and family. I love the relay it’s such a great community event. Othello is a small town, about 6K, with a lot of heart. There are so many people that come out for this event every year. I’m always surprised at how many come out. I think we started out about 7pm with a few words from people that have survived cancer. One of those that talked this year w
as my mom’s friend, Kristi Spohr. She was actually my French teacher in high school. She did such a great job talking about her experience in finding out she had cancer. I stood there listening to her tearing up and thinking I should really go and get my mammogram done soon. After the talks those that have survived cancer did the survivor walk. It’s the first round around the track and done by those that have survived cancer. It’s really cool because you see a sea of purple shirts walk the track. It’s neat, and yet bitter-sweet to see all those survivors. I know so many of them too. Some are even people I’ve gone to high school with. I’m so glad they’re survivors.
Every year we raise money and every year we try to do better than the last year. This year we raised $1,700 from our team, the Studs and Duds. I was so happy we’d done so well. I’m always happy if we make more than 1K, maybe next year we’ll make 2K. This year was a ton of fun too because “the kids” (Alex, Cade, Drake, and Gabriella) got to spend the night with us. I think they had a great time! I was proud of myself too because I walked 13 miles straight in the relay. I could have walked farther but I got a blister on my foot so the last 3 miles were hard.
Once the relay was over mom and I headed home. Saturday was a day of sleeping and relaxing since we’d not slept the night before. It was so nice not to do anything. Saturday night we went out to Penny and Israel’s place to have dinner and visit with the kids. I love hanging out there with them. The kids are so full of energy and just fun to play with. Cade had recently gotten a new goat so we went out to the pasture to see his new goat and everyone else’s goat too. We also got to see the new chickens.
Monday I headed to Ellensburg to visi
t with Eric’s parents. I think it’s so great that we have such a great relationship. I love my in-laws, they’re the best. Tuesday I got to go with Julie to her book club luncheon. It was so much fun. I love Julie’s friends. We all enjoyed a great potluck luncheon and chatted about all things from books, to movies, to computers, to potatoes. I can’t remember everyone’s names but here’s a picture of everyone in attendance at the lunch. A bunch of great ladies.
Later Tuesday night Greg, Hollie, Miles, and Beth came over to Bob and Jullie’s to visit and play for a while before we headed to dinner. I can’t believe Mile’s is going into 2nd grade this year. I think Beth has one more year before she starts school. I just can’t believe how much time has flown by. It seems like just a bit ago when they lived up the street from us and we saw them more often. I really wish we saw everyone more often but that darn work just gets in the way of it all.
I had an amazing vacation! I actually extended it to include Thursday and Friday so I could spend time with Eric. I was go glad I took the time off.
Tagged as:
connell,
cyndee,
relay_for_life,
washington
by jltitus on December 21, 2008
The last week here has been…. well, CRAZY! We’ve gotten a huge dump of snow here in the last week. I think we’re up to the fourth snow storm coming in the next day or so. Today marks day 9 of being stuck at home, except for a brief amount of time on Friday, when the weather cleared and we had time to get Christmas gifts. We now have 8 inches for now and a 1/2 inch of ice on top of that snow here in Hillsboro, Oregon. I can’t believe it’s this bad. I’m pretty sure that this snow storm is worse than the storm of 2003/2004. I mean already highway 84 has been closed several times and chains have been required for all cars around town for days.
When this crazy weather started I was excited at to prospect of a white Christmas but now, it’s looking like it’s gong to be a small affair for Christmas because the snowy weather is supposed to continue for the next week which will mean bad roads and I don’t want my mom and Eric’s parents making a treacherous trip like that. Like I said… this is day nine and I’ve got cabin fever so bad… heck, even Eric has cabin fever. We’ve played video games, watched movies and tv.. for tons of hours. We’ve even broken out a puzzle to do… that’s how bored we are. We’re both sick of being home and getting bored with it all. I’ve taken some time to make some holiday caramels and I think here in a bit I’ll make some sugar cookies. I think the other thing that stinks is that this isn’t much of a Christmas break, because we can’t go anywhere, or do anything. In any case, I’m hoping the weather improves so we can all have a wonderful and safe holiday.
Tagged as:
hillsboro,
portland,
snow,
winter
by jltitus on January 16, 2007
by jltitus on January 13, 2007
Today I did it. Nope, haven’t gotten a job yet but I did something that I’ve been wanting to do for about two years now. I love our house and I love our kitchen the only bad thing is the tile in the kitchen and more specifically the grout. Whoever decided to put cream tile and light cream grout in a kitchen was nuts. Ok, it HAD to be a man. Anyway, Eric and I are avid “foodies” so we like to cook a lot which means the kitchen gets used A LOT which means, stains on the grout even when you’ve sealed it.
Today the solution was implemented. I re-grouted most of the kitchen (just have the counter with the wine frig on it and the counter between the stove and the pantry left, oh and the bar) with this stain-proof grout from Home Depot. I’ve been wanting to do it forever because the kitchen always looks dirty even when it’s clean because of the grout. I thought it was going to be a pain in the but and take forever but it didn’t. To do most of the kitchen took about 3 hours which wasn’t bad in my mind at all. Now the grout is curing and looking wonderful. Every couple of hours or so Eric walked up while I was finishing and commented that it looked great. I can’t wait until it’s all done and then the problem is solved.
Hey, Julie… Want me to come up and do your kitchen while you’re on bed rest and I’m still looking for a job? I’d be happy to do it. 
Off to bask in my accomplishments for today and a big drink of water. Tomorrow I’ll tell ya what’s up with the weight-loss and eating better. Hint… it’s going well.
Tagged as:
goals,
grouting,
tile
by jltitus on December 15, 2006
Don’t know if you’ve heard but the weather in Portland tonight is NUTS!!! We’ve had crazy rain and wind all night. In fact, Eric and I just spent the last 5 hours in the dark, OK, well not in the total dark, we did have flashlights and candles but in the dark pretty much.
About 7pm tonight the power went out in our whole development. I called PGE and found out the there are more than 45,000 people without power tonight. I’d watched on the TV earlier in the night and learned that there were several roads closed because of downed power lines and blown transformers so i wasn’t super surprised when we lost power. What I really didn’t like was that Eric was in Lake O taking a final and I was home alone, in the pitch black with a dog not sure what to make of things. I managed to grab the camp lantern (battery powered) and some flashlights and things and made myself ad home and started reading my book, anything to get my mind off the fact that I was home alone, in the dark and only had my cell phone.
Eric got home a little later and then headed to the grocery store for batteries for the radio, a battery powered alarm clock and a cheap phone. We have phones but they, like most people’s require electricity to work. When Eric got back he offered to make me some Chai tea. I mentioned to him that we didn’t have a way to do it. he reminded me about the joys of a gas stove. He turned it on, used the BBQ lighter to light it and in no time we had hot water for tea. YEAH!!!!
Although tonight was sort of not fun, missed some of our favorite shows, it was a lot of fun. I had lit a whole bunch of candles so we weren’t in the dark. it was nice to have some quiet and just relax a little. Eric got to play his new game on the DS while I read my Jodi Picoult book. It reminded me that we need to sometimes just turn off the TV, shut out the world and just be. I mean it was so nice to just sit together in the same room and just enjoy our hobbies without the whirl of the world.
Tagged as:
blackout,
eric,
power_outage
by jltitus on December 11, 2006
by jltitus on December 8, 2006
I’ve been down here in AZ for about 5 days with Eric, my mother-in-law and father-in-law and LOVING it. I’m being really bad about posting partly because we’re just having too much fun, swimming, reading in the warm sun shopping, the spa, the sun, etc while the boys golf and also because there’s only Internet (wireless) in the lobby which mean little contact with the outside world which isn’t half bad. I’m having such a relaxing time I honestly wish I could stay down here. It’s been in the high 60’s to mid 70’s this whole time. Right now it’s 74 and sunny outside. God I love the sun, I can’t get enough of it. It’s times like this that make me realize how much I hate the rain in Portland.
Today Eric and I are off to visit some of my friends down here while his parents have a quiet night at home. No Pinochle tonight. Oh, that’s another thing, Eric and his parents taught me how to play so we’ve been playing several hands every day so far us “girls” are up two games.
Pictures will come but not until I get home, can’t be bothered posting them right now because every minute here on my computer is another minute I’m not in the sun Keep warm all my northern friends and know I’m not jealous of the cold at all..
Tagged as:
arizona,
bob_titus,
eric,
julie_titus,
vacation
by jltitus on December 3, 2006
Heading to Arizona… WOO HOO!!! Sunny skies, a little warmer, swimming, shopping and …. the SPA.
Tagged as:
arizona,
vacation
by jltitus on November 3, 2006
Eric and I headed to Ellensburg today. We go every year about this time as Julie and I have a tradition of going to the scrapbook convention in Bellevue every year. We stopped at Eric’s parents first. Neither Bob nor Julie were home so we just left Baylee there while we went to Greg and Hollie’s to see them and the kids. The last time we saw them all was Father’s day weekend in June when they’d just bought the house and showed it to us.
We timed it just right as Beth was just awake and it wasn’t long until Miles had woken up. Those two kids are SO cute and I can’t believe how big they’re getting. Eric and I were stilling in the living room chatting with Greg when Miles came down the stairs turned and headed towards us. Hollie said something like, “Look it’s auntie and uncle” and Miles smiled from ear to ear and came running toward us. Of course it was big hugs all the way around. We sat there and chatted with Greg and played with the kids while Hollie was messing around in the kitchen. Beth is so super cute with her big brown eyes. Beth is so young and we haven’t spent the time with her like we have Miles because Greg and Hollie moved a little less than a year ago so I’m really not sure if she even knows who we are yet. It was a lot of fun though to play with the kids and catch up with Greg and Hollie.
It wasn’t long and Miles asked if we wanted to go upstairs and play video games. Originally he’d ask me if I wanted to play but I asked if Eric could play with him because Eric likes video games and with my tendinitis the repeated thumb usage isn’t good for me. We all headed upstairs to the landing where the kids have this great little play space to play video games and trains. It’s such a fun little place. Miles played a couple of games for a bit while Beth, Greg, Eric and I watched. Then, Eric and Miles were playing. Beth had a blast cruising around upstairs checking things out, jumping on the bed and playing with Miles clothes. Greg was multi-tasking by watching his laptop and hanging out with us while Hollie was downstairs. I had a lot of fun keeping Beth happy while the boys played video games. She’s VERY ticklish so of course I tickled her like crazy. One of the most precious moments was when Greg was on the floor with Beth and tickled her. He had Beth in his arms with her back to him while he hugged her with one hand and tickled her with the other. The best part was their facial expressions. I wished at that moment I had the camera because you could see the love Greg has for Beth and the love she has for her daddy. It was a very precious moment! It is those moments with the kids that mean so much. I want to have a close relationship with both Miles and Beth.
After we’d spent a few hours at Greg and Hollie’s we headed back to Bob and Julie’s to spend a little time, have a cocktail and chill before we all met at the local pasta restaurant for dinner with Greg, Hollie and the kids. I had a great night. I mean, it was so nice to sit with Bob and Julie at home, have a little to drink and catch up on things going on with all of us. It makes me appreciate the “slow times” where you really get the opportunity to talk with each other. Later on we headed to dinner and met up with Greg, Hollie and the kids. It was a great dinner; the kids were so good, better than I think I was at that age. It was nice to sit as a family and have dinner together and catch up. I really love moments like that, gathering together, spending time, chatting about all sorts of things and just appreciating each other. What a great night.
Tagged as:
beth,
bob_titus,
ellensburg,
eric,
greg_titus,
hollie_butler,
julie_titus,
miles
by jltitus on July 27, 2006
