Portland Quote

"Seventeen clydesdale horses."
"Packrat.  They call me Packrat."  -by Packrat.  He was our favorite neighborhood scavenger.  He always had the best stories and we were always glad to see him coming down our street with his shopping cart.

"Heeeelp me, heeeelp me."  From Brickhead, this guy who was just hit in the head with a brick and was laid out on the sidewalk a couple blocks from our Portland house.  We saw Brickhead the very next day on the other side of town.  Matt says to the guy, "Hey man, I think I saw you the other night.."  Brickhead replies, "I know, come here.  Check out my head."  (circa 2007)

And so it goes....

And so it goes.... This was the title of my blog for the purpose of describing my life at that time. While we expect several more rounds of transition with Matt still in grad school, I feel that the most emotional parts are behind us. Goodbye to the jobs and work we were so proud of, to our beautifully restored house and lush yard, to the furniture and the extra household items, to 10 or 12 extra bikes, to the Barracuda (aka Chuck Cuda), to the Eclipse (aka Eclipse-Mino, our teal green sports car that we used as a truck on many occasion), to the beloved Northwest, and especially to all of our friends.

With frugality and minimalism pulsing through my veins, I've never liked having extra "stuff" and I can be painstakingly critical of my purchases. (I know that you are laughing out loud after reading that sentence if you know me or any member of my family very well!) So when it came time to downsize from a three bedroom house to live a couple years in a small Boston apartment, I was surprised that I had developed some material attachments. Maybe the twinge of sadness came from knowing how much thought had gone into the purchase of each item I was selling, that it was a reflection of my personal style, or just how much I knew I liked it. But I'm pretty sure that the main source of the pain was that the list of items sold grew so long that it had become a full time job to manage!

"And so it goes" came into my mind with each item that was carted off by it's new owner. We were left feeling free and a little less complicated.

This is where I would have inserted some statistics of how many items I sold, total dollars accrued, and a collage highlighting a handful of favorites; but that file is currently lost on my dead computer. I can assure you that the list was impressively long and that I sold a couple thousand dollars of stuff plus the cars and then the house!

Matt and I know that the most important things in life can always be with us. Our family is still our family, our friends are still our friends, our memories and what we have learned are still in our heads, and we have each other. So here's to cleaning out and living light!

Bye bye Beard

Presenting:
The Phases of Matt's Beard




It was fun while he had it.
He didn't think he could ever do it
or get away with it.
but he did...
and he wore it proudly.
Now it's gone.

These are the phases of Matt's beard...

Closing Time

Today was an extremely exciting and long anticipated day for us. Our house FINALLY CLOSED! YAY! What a huge relief and now we are now able to close that chapter of our lives. We are so grateful for all the prayers and support while we were trying to sell our house and move on.

I thought all along I would write a post to summarize everything that we did on the house. I am now realizing that this too would be yet another huge project centered around the house. There were so many different phases; over two years worth of work. Instead I decided to just celebrate the close of 1846 Farragut and avoid missing the house that Matt and I love and hate so much.

Here's to Portland Oregon, to Farragut Street, and to our amazing historic restoration project.

The Best Neighbors Ever!

NoPo = North Portland

With the house up for sale and our move impending, my very best Portland friend and neighbor threw me and Matt and neighborhood goodbye party. (This was the last weekend in May.) We live on such a wonderful street filled with amazing people who we could never forget.

Anyone in ear shot of me for weeks after this party would have certainly heard me talk about Wendy's "Hamburger Dogs" or "Hamburger Logs". This is by far the best idea of all time! I should also mention that Wendy is an amazing cook and the spread was filled with tons of amazing eats.

(A few more important neighborhood friends shown below as they were not paparazzied at the party.)

Thanks to all our friends on Farragut Street and especially Wendy for all the great memories!

Tony -aka- T.Roll

The weekend before leaving town one of our best and long time friends came to visit us
from Seattle. He took the train down and hung out with us for the day.
Now that is a dedicated friend!!!

First off, breakfast on Mississippi Ave then Tony helped Matt bring a couple pieces of furniture to the main floor of the house. After business was taken care of, Death Roll, Stolen Sweets (on her newly fitted scraper bike), and T-Roll we were off for a day of radical bike riding. We rode downtown Portland then took the Max up to Washington Park to the top of the hill which we proceeded to bomb down. We rode over a couple of bridges and along the waterfront. A little Hot Lips Pizza for a late lunch and a farewell to Tony at the downtown train station.

What an awesome day. Thanks for being such a great friend Tony.

Hopefully we'll hang out in Boston or Seattle very soon.

Summer Blooms

In resistance to unpacking some of my decorative things which I already packed up for our previous false move dates, I opted to add some color to the house with flowers. I had a house showing yesterday and after all the cleaning was complete I had just enough time to cut some flowers from my yard and put them in the house. My hydrangea is BEAUTIFUL. When I get a yard again I plan on planting another hydrangea and hope that it will bloom with this same deep purple color. (it appears a lot more blue in the pictures)

Wish, Hope, Think, Pray

Do you know this tune?  Sing it: 

Wishing and hoping and
thinking and praying,
planning and dreaming
each night of my house
that it will be sold in time

http://www.1846nfarragut.com/

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us and for future buyers so we can sell our house.