All the Birds of This Day

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't been terribly efficient at upkeep on my blog as of late. According to my last post, you may be asking yourself why, if I do indeed have so much time on my hands. I have answers, and I also have no answers. Firstly, I'm a little embarrassed/digusted with the design, colors, painting that doesn't fit in the border at the top, and silly posts ornamenting my blog. I suppose that I could just fix it up until I do like it, but I haven't, and so instead, I've just avoided it altogether.

Also, I think sometimes the upkeep of a blog requires you to keep a constant record of your doings and thoughts and accomplishments, it requires you to keep up wit and adventure, and while I've had plenty to record, plenty adventure, and perhaps still a little wit, it was nice just to live it for a couple months, without any record or explanation, just living.

I've had my ample rest from writing though, and am even going a step further and am creating a new blog which will be a little better organized, (blog address to be posted soon).

As far as my life in Portland, I still love Portland. Of course I get nostalgic for a Provo summer every now and then. How could you not, Provo is full of magic in the summer. I still get the occasional (okay often) pang of doubt and sadness that everyone has forgotten about me or has entirely moved on. Not true I am sure, but I've found that affirmations and small words and reminders go a lot further than I had remembered to keep us all close, and I'm so grateful for the many dear friends who have been so good about keeping in touch. I will try to do the same.

Gee and James came for a visit and I think we effectively did every thing there is to do in Portland and it's surrounding cities in a matter of four days. Carl and I considered starting a small tourist company for the rest of the summer. We had such a lovely time, we camped on a beach, hiked a lot of miles, went through the tillamook cheese sampling line at least 4 times, barbequed, went to the Japanese gardens and watched Ninja Turtles II, which was far more awesome than I ever remembered.

Carl and I started making handmade puzzles in his backyard. I will post a photo soon. We are hopefully going to sell them at local toy stores and at the Saturday's market. It feels good to be working with my hands and creating new things.

I spent a week with my family in California, which was so nice. It was good to be with them.

I also got a job. When I worked in the Provo Early Education Program Classroom, there were these amazing learning toys in the classroom. Anyone who was around me then probably heard me talking about Lakeshore toys. They are so well made, and I feel like they really help kids progress, learn and develop. I was hired to work at the actual store here in Portland. Yes, probably way nerdy, and the store managers probably wondered why a girl without any kids or a classroom already knew so much about their product, but I'm really excited. It's still a family owned company and they are really careful about their expansion and the conditions in which their products are made. It's a company I believe in and so am delighted to be there for the summer.

So, I guess this just turned into another update post, it will be the last of this nature for some time, and I will get to more interesting things.

much love to you all!