Of Sports and Thumbs {Life Lately}

I'm comin' at ya with one working typing hand this morning evening (seriously, this is taking a sweet forever) so this may not be very long! It's been a while though and things have been a happening so I thought I'd recap...

First of all, our church hosted a womens conference called IF:Gathering a couple weekends ago, and not only was it fantastic and amazing, it led to me reconnecting with an old high school buddy who used to be one of my very best friends!

K'Lynn and I catching up between lots of hugs and laughter. Oh the beauty & blessing of girlfriends!

In the meantime, Russ and Cooper were given courtside tickets to a Blazer game and had themselves a boys night!

Somehow this included a new Blazer tee and beanie for Cooper (yay for Blazer bucks!), and Dutch Bros. 

Next, Kendall talked me into taking her and her friend Hannah to the movies, and that's how I ended up crying like a baby through Storks, appropriately, since it's actually about babies. And darn cute.

But mostly what we've been up to lately is watching sports. Cooper finished up Junior High cross country...

Kendall finished up JV volleyball...

The varsity team (that Kendall swings up on) won their district tournament and are now on to State...

And we watched our neice Miranda who's playing for the Multnomah University Lions for the 2nd year (and completely dominating!)

Sports, sports, sports. It's the story of our lives these days. 

And this is what else has been going on. Remember a couple weeks ago when I wrote about my grape juicing day and mentioned I cut my thumb on a soup can? It healed up real nice. And unfortunately without any feeling. Apparently I severed a nerve, and last Friday I had surgery to repair it.

You'd think a little thumb surgery wouldn't involve full hospital garments and general anesthesia... at least I thought it wouldn't. Which is why I fully planned on attending a wedding that same evening. Alas, the doctors and nurses all laughed at me and my hopes were dashed to the ground. Not that I cared after I woke up again... hellllooooo pain meds. I pretty much slept for the next 24 hours straight.

And now I'm sporting this subtle look for the next two weeks. How many times have I had to tell the soup can story, you wonder? Way WAY too many, is the answer. 

Things haven't been all bad though. Our lovely neighbors brought us the most delicious homemade meal with flowers and a card, and Russ and the kids have taken on the household chores like champs.

And my splint didn't stop me from spending the day with these ladies yesterday, putting together 84 freezer meals to split 6 ways! (Although I definitely was the least useful woman in the room.)

It took us 7 hours and it was actually really fun! Fun and tiring. I was out by 8:00 pm last night. All that supervising wore me out! 

(Kidding. Believe it or not, I was in charge of opening all the canned goods. HA.) 

Monday Confessional: The Bumbling Duo

{Ahhhh, the majestic sight of freshly sealed 1/2 gallon jars of grape juice!}

Last Saturday was grape juice and jelly making day at the Halverson homestead. Really, the only time of year I truly embrace my inner pioneer days spirit and make use of the fruits of our fields (aka: backyard.) As always, my mother came over to help me (because she is a saint), and together, we managed to harvest all of the grapes, make 4 batches of jelly, can six 1/2 gallon and four quart jars of juice, AND create a number of fiascos that had us laughing and crying throughout the whole day. 

First of all, while clearing out my sink to fill jars with hot water in preparation for hot grape juice, I grabbed an empty soup can by the lip and deeply sliced the inside of my thumb below the first joint. Probably the worst cut I've ever had... I might have even taken myself to the hospital for a couple of stitches if it hadn't been a Saturday and we didn't have Kaiser insurance (a combination that would have equated to a full day wasted in the waiting room.) Instead Mum bandaged me up and I tried to only use one hand the rest of the day. It didn't work. Thumbs are important, guys. 

Next, after cleaning up my hand, we decided to check on the first batch of grapes we had started steaming and discovered we'd forgotten to make sure the tube coming out the bottom of the steamer was squeezed shut, so hot grape juice was pouring across my concrete back patio and into the grass. TRAGEDY! We quickly closed it and mourned the loss of propably a quart of juice. Not the best start to our day!

After filling all of my 1/2 gallon jars without incident, we decided to move on to jelly and made our first double batch on my stove inside. I like to turn my jars over to help them seal after filling, and it was during this process that fiasco #3 occurred; a newly filled quart jar of hot jelly was accidentally dropped on the counter while being turned over and the lid hadn't been put on properly so it popped off and the entire contents poured all over the counter, engulfing all the other jars in a sticky mess, seeping through the tea towel they were all sitting on and oozing under my toaster. ANOTHER TRAGEDY! Homemade grape jelly is like GOLD in our house! Mum and I were horrifed but couldn't stop laughing, what were the odds?!!  

After that mess was cleaned up, I decided I needed to make an iced coffee and poured the last of the pot Russ had brewed into a tall glass and went to the fridge to get milk and ice. When I turned back around coffee was all over my other kitchen counter... the glass had cracked and while I was sad to have to toss it, the worst part was that there was no more coffee! Why, God? Why?!

After finishing laughing over our bumbled day, Mum had to head home and I decided to hold off on making my second double batch of jelly. I set aside the 10 cups of grape juice I'd steamed for it in my large cooking pot sitting ready on the stove, and put the lid on to keep till the next day. I did want to finish steaming the last of the grapes into more juice though, so I turned on my small saucepan of lid seals to simmer and it was only AN HOUR LATER, while wiping down my entire kitchen, that I discovered I'd turned the wrong burner on and had been slowly simmering away my reserved grape juice instead. 

Dang pioneer spirit! Look where it led me! I'd call the whole day a giant fail except, look at all my pretty jars all filled up and looking delicious! I think I still came out ahead ;)

Ladies Portland Food Tour

I have a new favorite activity for a girls day out, and it involves food. A lot of food. Also, a completely free (of plans) day. And I mean a WHOLE DAY. And I suppose it helps to live near a city big enough for people to rate the top places to eat in it... so if you live near a city, love food, and want to devote a whole day to eating out at new places with a bunch of girlfriends, I present to you: the Ladies Food Tour!

{myself, Becca, Claudia, Danielle, Amy, and Joni enjoying breakfast at Mother's Bistro}

My friends Danielle and Amy were the ones who came up with this awesome idea. They polled facebook for everyone's favorite/must visit places to eat in Portland and came up with our game plan: 

Mother's Bistro for breakfast

Pips Original Doughnuts for, well, doughnuts

Nicholas Restaurant for lunch

Salt & Straw for ice cream

and La Provence (in nearby Lake Oswego) for dinner and dessert

They invited a bunch of ladies to carpool and do the whole shebang, or come to any part of the day that worked for them. I believe my response was, "I'm in, baby, and I mean ALL IN." We broke up the day with a little local shopping between breakfast and lunch, and an afternoon movie break at the theaters between lunch and dinner. All in all we were out for 12 hours and basically closed out La Provence at night, where two more girlfriends had joined us for dinner and dessert. It was the best day!

{These babies come out piping hot and they are gooooood}

{Joni & Amy with a giant fresh hot pita at Nicholas}

{It was our first time trying authentic Lebanese!}

{The many weird and wacky flavors at Salt & Straw}

{I was so full I had to get a kid's cone, haha. My favorite flavor is strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper. It's amazing! And yes that's a snazzy bandaid on my cheek. Sexy, I know.}

{Our group joined by Linley and Erin for dinner at La Provence}

{Desserts galore!}

{The best part about ordering food with girlfriends is getting all different things and then trying everyone else's!}

We decided we definitely need to do this again in the fall. There are so many more must-try places to check out in Portland! And I was pleased with how much I spent overall, which was quite a bit less than I thought it might be. Several times I split meals with one of the girls, and I only ordered a drink with dinner, so that helped.

You guys have got to try a food tour day with friends! And then please invite me along ;) 

Monday Confessional {more small confessions}

1. Yesterday I went shopping with my mum and sister to help them find dresses to wear to my brother's upcoming wedding. I already have my dress (two actually, purchased when I found them back in May because they were both such great deals and I loved them both), so I was solely along for the ride and playing the role of style advisor.

And that is the story of how I came home with a third dress.

Don't be like me.

2. Chick-Fil-A recently came to the state of Oregon and opened a location right in the area of town I do all of my shopping. After avoiding the long lines for the first couple of months, I finally made my way there and discovered their fresh squeezed lemonade, waffle fries and chicken sandwiches, and the all-important original sauce.

This picture was taken last Thursday night and it was my third visit in one week. 

I am in trouble. 

3. Last week we were given a large box of fresh-picked blueberries as a thank you gift.

After washing them, I reminded everyone not to eat too many at a time or they would deeply regret it... if you know what I mean. I then proceeded to ignore my own advice and ate and ate and ate, because they were just so delicious and tempting, and I don't think I have to explain why I may never be able to look at another blueberry again. 

I'm so sorry, dear digestive system. 

Monday confessional, over and ouuuuttttt. 

Nice Boys. Can't Cook.

Oh my sweet, sweet boys. They have the best intentions, God bless them.

Exhibit A: 
Blake (age 7) and I were home alone one evening last week when, after turning down my suggestion of stir-fry for dinner, Blake decided he wanted to make me an "english muffin dinner" without any help. I gave him the go-ahead, and didn't really start to get nervous until he was still banging around in the kitchen after 20 minutes. He finally came out with a sandwich with the crusts cut off (cute), because there weren't enough english muffins for the both of us, and a side of nutrigrain bar.

The problem was what was in the sandwich.

Umm, that would be butter, honey, nutella, and GRATED CHEESE.

I'm afraid to say that I COULD NOT. After two of the smallest nibbles humanly possible. I gave him all the points for effort but told him I was going to have to break his heart and eat a bowl of cereal. He didn't seem phased by that so... phew. 

Exhibit B:

Russ and I went out on a Valentine's date Sunday night and left the kids home with Kendall in charge. She sent me this picture after we'd been gone a couple of hours, telling us that her sweet brother Cooper (age 12) had decided to fix her a special Valentine's dinner to share with him. 

(I guess Blake got the shaft?) 

The problem was Kendall had no idea what it was exactly, and after studying the picture, I couldn't tell either. Burnt taco shells? Burnt lettuce leaves? 

Nope. Cooper explained it to me the next morning... "charbroiled" roast beef deli meat slices, seasoned with paprika, garlic powder, and steak seasoning, and stuffed with cilantro and cheese. With a classy side of cheese for garnish. 

I gave him 10 points for fancy presentation, all the points for sweet intentions, and negative 20 points for forgetting that his sister is seriously lactose intolerant and can't eat cheese. (He highly enjoyed his creation all by himself.)

And now to work with my boys on "foods that compliment each other". 

The Return of InstaFriday {The Friday Photo Dump}

I love instagram... it's by far my favorite form of social media (compared to facebook, pinterest, & twitter). I hear more and more about snapchat these days and it's possible I would like that best if I would actually try it out, but i'm secretly afraid to.

I ain't hip and young no mo'!

I'll probably cave eventually though. I mean, I finally joined twitter last year, and that's been around since 2006 so... I've got time! But back to instagram, I like to end the week recapping what's been going on lately, according to our life on instagram. Let's do this!

By lately I mean a while back because this picture of my best friend Jana and I was from our annual Christmas outfit shopping trip at the start of Christmas break. We like to go shopping for ourselves after finishing all the Christmas present shopping, because it's always fun to have something new and cute to wear for holiday festivities. Kind of a Christmas-themed "treat yo' self" day. We've been doing this for 6 years now!

We also exchange Christmas gifts and this year we managed to gift each other the exact same thing... a gel manicure certificate, which just cracked us up. 

I love best friends.

Also over the break I went out to breakfast with some blogging friends at Gather in Silverton, Oregon, this cute & trendy little breakfast/brunch spot in town. 

I had the pear and brie stuffed french toast with eggs & potatoes and it was AMAAAAAZING! If you live locally, get yourself to Gather and try it out. 

This is my brother, Jamin. I ran into him while grocery shopping at Costco and even though we see each other almost weekly, this spot seemed like a good place for a visit so we stood here blocking the coconut water for 20 minutes. Then I told him I needed to take a picture to show Russ that "see, men shop at Costco all the time!" (He's still not convinced. #goals.)

And last but not least... I got my first ever hate note left on my front window in the Kaiser hospital parking garage! Russ was with me and I'm sorry to say we felt no remorse when we saw it but laughed hysterically instead, that someone actually took the time to get a piece of paper out and leave us that when every third car in the parking garage is not a compact, and no one really pays attention to those spots, do they? I'll just go ahead and answer that for you: no they do not. If you've ever had to find a spot in that garage and try to get to an appointment in time you know, YOU TAKE WHAT YOU CAN GET. 

It pretty much made my day, I love a good laugh.  And I love Fridays too! Happy weekend :)