Where'd You Go, Jessi?

Even though I've been publishing since 2012, I still don't have a great understanding of the disappearing act I put you through. 

Blog breaks are usually prefaced, planned, communicated. You're all polite enough to give warning ahead of time, allow proper goodbyes and give some type of indication why you're not going to be writing or reading for a specific range of time. 

My blog breaks are nothing like that. Mine are spontaneous, immediate and often unexplainable. Full of carbs, adventures, surprises and living. Those nights. That song. 

This act may seem like a sign of hiding, depression, loneliness, introversion or discouragement. Not the case at all. My breaks are a sign of having too much to share, too much to be excited about, too much to post, too much good.

There's actually no such thing as "too much good" but I'm trying to explain the side-eye-smirky feeling. 

Let me present the facts of life of the last twenty days.

:: Boarded 7 unique planes, only seated in the middle twice.

:: Been in six states.

:: Attended one wedding. 

:: Attended two sporting events (one with beer for sale, one with dogs to pet).

:: Drove my car only 8 days.

:: Kissed a boy. A few times. 

:: Also helped paint his toenails while he was asleep.

:: Read: The Opposite of Loneliness, Where'd You Go, Bernadette

:: Bought: This One is Mine

:: Listening: Bossypants

:: Ate clam chowder in Boston and drank mimosas "in the Mission".

:: Okay, a lot of mimosas in the mission with MacKensie.

:: Was driving a car solo when it broke down on me at 1am.

:: Took one shower in Oakland, CA and one shower in Warwick, RI. 

:: Baked chocolate chip cookies.

:: Learned San Francisco is cold and should not be shocked at the absence of palm trees. 

:: Was called up on stage to lead a song in my Pound! Workout class. 

Literally this stage -->

:: Taken only five workout classes and currently scheduling more aggressively.

:: Posted five instagram photos.

:: Put together three pieces of large furniture with only an allen wrench.

:: My nails have been painted all but a few hours (mostly Essie Fiji)

:: Discovered chia seeds.

:: Changed my job, manager and desk location.

:: Took 25,000 steps in a single day.

:: Slept through one book club.

:: Was picked up at the Portland Airport twice by my golden sisters.

This was actual life. Feels like I should go out and live it some more.

Confessing with Melissa today!

Photo-an-Hour

This is a post I've wanted to do for the longest time. 

So long, it even became the name for one of my eight daily wake-me-up alarms that continues to get snoozed and forgotten. In the graveyard with all of my "Wake up!", "Work out", "Today you need to wash your hair", "Okay now you need to blame traffic for your lateness" alarms. 

That got old, so one morning I got the I-Will Power to take the photo an hour. 

The day I chose was Wednesday, March 4th - it's now March 17th - since it was one of my very important work meeting days at the start of the month. 

5:30 - My view when I wake up, the Christmas lights that have been up for two years.

6:30 - Dress for success and #selfieoritneverhappened

7:30 - My weekday savior during Lent. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mr. Coffee. 

8:30 - Yes, my new she-crush Alyssa announced that she joined Snapchat.

Derp, I missed a few hours in the midst of my super-busy important work day. Thank goodness I was doing photo-an-hour because that's where the terrifying or amazing bird photo came from. You can thank me for cutting photos out such as the office printer and a close-up of the Red Vines tub in my office.

11:30 - A gorgeous day and a terrifying symbol that Spring has sprung.
12:30 - Drink. Drink. Drink. My 64oz work water growler.
2:30 - These weren't consumed on this day, but they were consumed once and now they're office art.

My work presentation and craziness went well, so the rest of the afternoon was spent wrapping things up, answering any follow-up questions and of course scheduling a fun yoga class to celebrate.

3:30 - "Yes We Can" with the Road Runner is my desktop background. It's supposed to be funny.
4:30 - In the car selfie! Off work, kicked butt on my hard day and my hair is still doing it!
5:30 - "Get excited!" says ClassPass. Yoga class with scary-advanced handstand practice!

Disclaimer: Two of these photos were not taken March 4th, I just failed at this prompt and had to show something. Didn't I?

7:30pm - Trader Joe's Crunchy Salted PB with Flax & Chia Seeds. Yes.

Not actually 3/4 #1 - Thanks, mailman. Nothing to see here. Just my year's supply of contact lenses.

Not actually 3/4 #2 - Brand new lovely mural outside of my adorable coffee shop. 

Come on ladies, I know you can do better than me at this prompt. Show us what you've got. Yes I know your lives are more exciting than mine!

One to Portland

What!? MacKensie came to Portland this weekend?

It's true, it happened. My long time blogger crush sent me a text last week wanting to know when was a good time to visit. I started to look out into September for weekends that made sense, but then said "this weekend is great, but it's probably not the cheapest way." Looking at flights, I was right - but when we figured out how much it would cost to drive AND that miss Ziggy could come along we planned a three day whirlwind trip of all the Portland fun.

I wanted to show miss Mary Mack just enough to make her love it, but hold back that much more to make her want to come back and/or consider moving here. She's been flirting with the idea for a little while now. 

The just enough meant hipster bars, the best sushi in town, voodoo donuts, the accidental walk-in to a strip club because we needed to use the restroom - then the non-accidental stay at the strip club because... Portland. 

The things I kept from her were my paleo cooking skills, my love for lazy Saturdays at cute coffee shops, the hottest brunch spots on the weekend with fried okra and of course the music scene. A girl has to keep some cards up her sleeve. 

Saturday evening Brooke was finally able to squeeze us into her busy schedule (kidding, this girl is busy and killing it right now) so we went out to dinner with her college friends and made a mess of some tasty thai food and craft beers. 

Sunday we slept in like champions and rolled out of bed around noon to get our butts up a mountain. We declared that Sunday was "Ziggy Day!" so we let the little bundle of cuddles lead us all the way up Angel's Rest (2.3 miles and 1500 feet elevation). 

We reached the breathtaking views in under and hour and spent our time at the top overlooking the Columbia river below while Ziggy searched for some shade in the shrubs. 

We made it down the mountain, cleaned up and met Brooke & Brad for dinner in the cutest part of town, NW 23rd. After some sangria, grilled stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos and way too much good food, we lined up for our "blogger bestie" photo and turned it to black/white to mask our sleepy weary weekend faces.

To finish off the evening we went home to get Ziggy and took her to the Lucky Lab - a bar where furry friends are welcome and encouraged! We had to finish off Ziggy day with a bang! She thanked us by prancing around on the tabletop to show us that she could get wild and crazy too. I think she liked her visit. 

Sadly, MacKensie drove all the way back to San Francisco (close to 700 miles) and I'm sitting here hoping and wishing that she and Ziggy come home to Portland soon <3

...Or at least come back and try a donut with some bacon on it!

Things I Learned in Belize

I was all kinds of excited to come into work today with a tan glow that my co-workers would envy. However, like all people who don’t apply enough sunscreen, my sun-kissed skin quickly adapted to the Portland climate and graciously began to shed and peel and all those other sexy things that happen to burnt skin. 

Literally, it’s like a crime scene in my sheets and I can’t wear black all week because it’ll look like dandruff everywhere. 

No, that’s not confetti. That’s dead skin. Thanks for asking. 

I feel like I forgot to write after taking a week off, so let’s get back in the swing of things with an easy version of Things I Learned this weekend with miss Katie. 

+ Taking a Friday night red-eye is my jam - duh because we all know I covet my Friday night naps.

+ There is a direct correlation between happiness and palm trees. More trees, more happy. 

+ Brother genuinely enjoyed having us there to surprise him.

+ Having a girlfriend looks good on my brother. It was the first family trip with no sibling quarrels.

+ Less is more when it comes to drinking poolside rum and vodka. 

+ Eating paleo does not soak up the rum and vodka I mentioned above. Fried bread does. 

+ It’s hard taking selfies on a family vacation.

+ It’s harder taking selfies when your face swells up for no obvious reason.

+ Googling “Swollen Face Belize” is not a good idea for the hypochondriac in me. I’m on bug-infestation watch for the next two weeks now because of it. 

+ You can win $1,000 from picking which square a chicken is going to poop on.

+ My mom is very animated after drinking 3 beers and winning aforementioned $1,000 from a chicken pooping on her square.

I’ve read over and over how you guys hate vacation recaps (and book reviews) so I’ll spare you the “mark as read”. 

If you do want to read some of the backstory I spied my mom typing up her Monday recap on our flight back into the states! 

I came, I saw, I snorkeled, I regulated (my Karaoke song).

And now I’m peeling.….. and maybe dreaming of my next tropical adventure. 

Are you linking up with Katie today?

Sneaky Tropical Vacation

I've been keeping an awesome secret for the past few months on my blog!

Since the spring my parents and I have had plane tickets booked to Belize for a family vacation with my brother and his girlfriend. My brother knew about the vacation, but he didn't know that his family would be crashing the party on what he thought was just time in paradise with his lady.

Now now, don't worry - they are still going to get another week of alone time after we head back home. It's just pretty awesome to pull off nearly the greatest heist in history and land in paradise with palm trees.

It was almost impossible to not post a million photos of the journey thus far, but you can bet I won't hold back on any more! 

This girl is going to be taking pool selfies all week, hopefully not drinking as much as I did on day 1!

Hopefully you don't get sick of me!

Look Out World, Here's Bella!

I'd mentioned a time or two on here about a new addition to the family, but was hesitant to share as the original lady we'd planned to introduce pictured below was caught in a snow storm. We were set on going to get Miss Purple from Nebraska as she is the step-sister to my sister, Bailey and adorable as can be!

Via Loup Valley Goldens

No flights available, a 22 hour drive one-way, a growing puppy almost too big to be able to fly in the plane cabin and a brother arriving at the end of the week were all hidden messages to look beyond the predictable path and let our hearts open up to another option.

My dad took it upon himself to look on his kindle and found a little bundle of love who was only a two hour drive away. I received a call from my mom on my Saturday run and she informed me that they were going to take a drive to 'look' at some puppies in Eugene - and invited me along for the ride. Done deal - I turned around, showered quickly and headed to my parents' house for the journey south.

After what seemed like the longest drive ever, we arrived in Tracktown, USA and were on the ultimate puppy hunt. We arrived to the owners' house and met the prospective puppy's parents (Dash and Peaches) and were directed to the garage where these three silly faces were looking at us.

Each of them eight weeks old born on December 30th, these fluffballs named Beans, Leo and Lucy were placed into each of our arms and gave us their most earnest 'take-me-home-today' puppy kisses. After asking questions of the family, petting the pups and watching them play together we had a family huddle and weighed out our options. As we were leaning toward a girl, we placed extra attention on Lucy and she reciprocated. We discussed our feelings and restrictions of getting Miss Purple from Nebraska, and that the gentle nature of Lucy was steering us in a new direction.

A handshake, an exchange of cash, toys and food and before I knew it... I had a new sister! Lucy was a beautiful name, but with all of our four legged family members' names starting with 'B', Bella seemed to fit perfectly.

World, meet Bella!

I'm so excited that she's joined our family and you bet you'll be seeing more cuteness around here!

<3 JE