Photography

I am so happy and so incredibly nervous at the same time. I've been getting compliments and offers of shooting pictures of friends with their families. I did my photography page not because I was trying to get people to let me take their pictures but because I was just finally getting enough courage to show them to people. This is something that I love to do. God knows what's going to happen and where he is going to take me. I have so many ideas of the different thugs that I want to do with my photography. I'm just glad that I'm took my first step. Thanks be to God for providing me with a gift I can share with everyone. 

Zoo lights

Bill and I went to the Oregon Zoo Lights yesterday for our date night. It was so much fun. The traffic was crazy and their were so many people but the lights were amazing to see. We walked around with hot chocolate and felt very much like it was finally the Christmas season. Merry Christmas!!!

Breakthrough...New Beginnings

I have finally decided to break through and put myself out there.  I am by far always so so self conscious but I have talked about wanting to be a photographer for so long that I needed to stop making excuses.  My pictures are by far amateur but there mine.  I will always love photography and I will always love taking pictures.  It is by far time to share them with people.

I have a new blog... http://nyssacardwellphotography.blogspot.com

Check it out if you want.

Thinking Again

I've been thinking a lot recently since my grandpas decline and eventual passing that this thought has slowly been pressing on my mind. 

I want to move back to the valley. 

You might know or maybe not Bill's dad unfortunately has ALS.  He will pass sometime in the future hopefully many years from now.  When that time comes Bill's mom will be moving out to McMinnville to live with her sister leaving Bill and I truly alone. I'm tired of being on the coast.  

I miss my family and friends.

All of my good friends have moved away already over the last couple of years leaving me feeling more alone then before. 

So my dream/thoughts will hopefully be coming true sometime in the future.  We will see though what actually happens.  It is all in God's timing and wants.

A little late

I know that this is a little late, ok only by a month but still at least I'm talking about it now.  

MY WALKING GOAL OF 2012-2013

I finished it in a way.  I was actually short 15 miles.  

Now the story behind that...I slacked off throughout the entire summer.  I know not usually the time that you slack off but for me apparently it was.  By the end of the year time frame I was walking at least 3 to 6 miles everyday.  I walked so incredibly much that it came down to having 3 days left and having to walk 15 miles.  I was completely going to do it but then the nasty infection called a "cold" took it's hold of me and I wasn't able to finish and walk the 15 miles.  So slight failure.

However the silver lining is I know for a hundred percent fact that I walked 15 miles (unaccounted for) throughout the year that I'm still saying that I finished my goal of walking 365 miles in a year!!

Onto the next years goal walking 730 miles in a year.  

2 miles per day

14 miles per week 

Nov - Nov 

IT BEGINS

Week 48

Week 48

I have slacked all summer long with my walking goal.  I do mean slacked majorly.  A few weeks ago I had more the 100 miles to walk.  Craziness I know.  So to motivate me to walking and finishing my goal I moved my tread mill into the living room and I'm walking in between 2 to 4 miles everyday (more like 4 miles everyday)  As of today October 2nd I have walked 269 miles.  I am now down to having to walk 96 miles in the next 33 days.  If you break it down to per day I have to walk 3 miles everyday but I am determined to make this goal!!!  4 weeks to go and I will do it!!

Hawaii

I'm so excited Bill an I got invited to go to Hawaii next year for the Beaver/Hawaii game!!  It will be so much fun. However because of that I'm truly starting for diet and exercise routine now. It's great motivation and its time to make a change and become serious about it. Therefore I moved my treadmill into the living room and I'm walking every day, 3 miles at least. (Goes with my previous goal that I made last year with walking 1 mile everyday.)  I'm so stoked about Hawaii and taking another adventure!!!

Weekend Wedding

It was a beautiful wedding and I was able to get some great shots of them.  Beautiful is all I can say!!!

Life

Have you ever noticed that when you are experiencing something hard you start hearing multiple conversations a day about the subject that is difficult to hear. I've noticed that for years.  I have had a few hard times the last few years and each time it's more noticeable now when someone starts talking about it. I notice more and more conversations about it. I'm sure that its always been that way and talked about that much but my ears have definitely been opened and all I want to do is scream "Shut up". One day it will be ok to hear about certain things but at this point it's all I do to not start crying when I her certain conversations. 

Our Mantle

 The Mantle

From Beginning to Finish

Our Mantle is finally complete and up on our wall!!!  Thanks to my dad who made it for us.  It's beautiful and I'm so excited!!!  The two years has totally been worth it now to have the living room almost to completion.  We just have touch ups on the paint and the popcorn ceiling.  Once that's done then we need to put in a new flooring and trim and then it's DONE!!! 

Grandpa Kerr

My Grandpa Kerr passed away yesterday afternoon.  He was an amazing man.  When I was a child he would always try to steal my donuts that he got for us which he actually could never have because he was diabetic.  It was always make me laugh whenever he would try to do it.  I would just laugh and say no, you can't have it. 

He was a World War 2 veteran.  He actually was on a ship during the war that got blown up and sunk but him and some others survived and floated in the ocean for awhile (I believe 3 or 4 days however could have been shorter of a time I can't remember for sure) to be rescued, surviving by smoking cigarettes.  He never talked about it much at all which is understandable.  However I heard the most of the stories when his sister came to town and he shared a lot with her.  He was an amazing golfer winning trophies for it.  He was a baker and made amazing apple pies and he worked in the Portland Steel Mill losing most of his hearing. 

He was the best most wonderful Grandpa and I will miss him so much.  I will always remember the great times we had and all the wonderful memories of him.

Blue

MY HOUSE IS FINALLY BLUE!!!!!!!

It has taken us 2 years to paint our house but it is done!  I'm so so so happy that this week we finally accomplished a few goals.

1.  Painting the house.

2.  Texturing the walls.

3.  Painting the living room walls.

4.  Ripping up the carpet in the living room.

5.  Sealing the driveway (totally wasn't a goal earlier but once we got to Home Depot we couldn't resist.)

2 years I have been waiting for these things to happen and it finally did.

Here are the pictures of the house...Before and After.  (Still have to paint the trim but that will be tomorrow)

 

 Sorry for the picture having sun spots...didn't realize until after the house was painted.

MY HOUSE IS BLUE!!!

Once in a Lifetime Trip

Bill and I decided last year that we were going to go to Castle Danger, Minnesota.  Now I know what your thinking what is Castle Danger and why there?  Well Bill was watching a show and how the picked the place they were going was they threw a dart at a large map and went where ever it landed.  So, there you go that's what we did minus the dart and add a finger and closed eyes.  Therefore Castle Danger here we go.  After googling it I found out there really is only a brewery there so needless to say that's where we were going to go.  Two days before we were scheduled to leave (July 5th) Bill came to me and said that we should go all the coast to coast.  Therefore plans changed.  The new plan was to hopefully Maine.  We were going to leave on July 5th -13th.  However, Bill came home on July 3rd from Fire Practice and asked what was stopping us from leaving on July 4th.  I said him with working with the fire department and he said nope not this year.  Therefore things changed and there we go we left a day early.

 Here was our schedule...

Day One...
Home...Portland...Washington...Idaho...Butte, Montana.
                    Awesome fireworks that we could see from our tent because we were beyond tired.
Day Two...
Butte, Montana...Fargo, North Dakota.
                   North Dakota is GREEN and HILLY!!!
Day Three...
Fargo, North Dakota...Minnesota...CASTLE DANGER, MINNESOTA...Wisconsin.
                   We had the Castle Danger beer at a restaurant.  It was pretty good.
Day Four...
Wisconsin...Illinois...Indiana...Ohio...Pennsylvania...Niagara Falls, New York.
                   Yep there is a town also called Niagara Falls.  It was a long, long day.
Day Five...
Niagara Falls, New York...Massachusetts...New Hampshire...York Beach, Maine.
                   Niagara Falls was absolutely breathtaking!  York Beach is the east coast version of Seaside and Bill took a swim in the Atlantic.
Day Six...
York Beach, Maine...Portland, Maine...New Hampshire...Massachusetts...Connecticut...New York...Pennsylvania
                  Another long day...Pennsylvania is beautiful and nothing besides the picturesque view of trees.
Day Seven...
Pennsylvania...Ohio...Indiana...Illinois...Iowa.
                 Nothing much happened at all.
Day Eight...
Iowa...Minnesota...South Dakota.
                Radiator broke in South Dakota which Bill repaired.  We got to see The Badlands.
Day Nine...
South Dakota...Wyoming...Montana...Idaho...Spokane, Washington.
               Mt. Rushmore a whole lot smaller then I thought it was going to be and Crazy Horse.
Day Ten...
Spokane, Washington...Portland.
               Radiator broke again and replace...got to see a good friend and catch up.
Day Eleven...
Portland...Home...so nice!!!!

It was an awesome trip that was so fun and felt so long that we thought it took a month and a half to complete.  It was seriously amazing to be able to take this trip with Bill.  Next one to the south!!!!

We went through 19 states!!  I added on 12 new ones.  Only 12 more to go!!

AWESOME!!!

One down...95 to go

Today...

got one something off of my bucketlist!!!

Yep.  I sure did!!  I finally after 8 years of living here made a Sand Castle on Sand Castle weekend!!  I know.  I know.  8 years but usually I'm doing something or gone every time the weekend comes up.  Today though we were coming home from having lunch with Bill's parents and Bill surprised me by stopping in Cannon Beach.  I knew exactly what he was up to!!  I was so elated. 

 

My Sand Castle built only with hands no tools. 

 

Now I only have 95 things left to do on my bucket list!!!

Time

My life is flying by and the time is running so fast that I can't keep up with all the things that I want to do.  It's probably most likely just laziness with not being able to get things done but I still blame time.  I'm just so tired after work, before work, that I just don't want to do anything when I get home. 

Luckily though this week I have off so I will be able to get things done.  I get to actually clean my house and actually clean!!  I am going to do my first actual purge of this year this week.  Going through everything in the house and getting rid of all the things that we don't use anymore.  It will be so nice to not have the feeling of being cluttered and closed in.

It will be a fun time. 

I'm looking forward to getting my house clean after almost a year of just glossing over things.  I might even be inclined to take pictures after I clean everything up. 

Backyard

Well this is it.  It's the year of actually working in and around our house!!  It has been a crazy two years.  Last year going on so many trips though was extremely fun but we didn't actually do anything around the house.  This year though I have it all planned out.  Bill and I have the week off and we have already started work.  Bill finished our rock wall for our raised flower bed (pictures to come later).  Next, we are moving to the inside to the living room (because of the weather) and we are going to work on our walls.  Finally getting them back to being real walls, textured and painted.  Then the next step will be to put up the mantel that my dad made for us then the living room will be complete.  I don't care if it's actually gets done this week just as long as we make some progress on the house.  Pictures to come soon of all the projects that we have going on. Right now though I'm relaxing on the couch.

Oh Canada, Oh Canada

My Birthday Trip

Last year I was in Japan on my birthday and since then I decided that I was going to be out of the country on every birthday from now on!!!!  Granted it will be a lot of trips to Canada but that's quite alright. There is so much to do up there that it is completely fine with me!! 

Our trip was fabulous!!  So much fun that weekend.  However it would have been better if we stayed longer but it was still great.  We went to Vancouver BC, found an awesome sports bar with deep fried oreos (absolutely to die for), Mt Whistler, Shannon Falls, then back home!  Till next year (also Canada)!!

On our way to Canada!!!



She is pointing at the wrong dot but we are on the map!!!



Shannon Falls



My first Cuban!!

Week 25

Week 25

 

27 Miles

 

(26 Miles Since Last Log In)

 

169 Miles = 196 Miles to Go

 

Yes I know a day early then usual and yes 10 weeks have passed since I have last logged in.  Bill and I stopped working out in the morning because it was getting just so darn hard getting up in the morning at 4:30am every day.  I was slightly at a loss of what to do when working out so I just stopped unfortunately.  I took a 4 week period off.  I'm happy though that a friend asked if I wanted to work out a few days a week.  That was fortunate because I got me back on the right track.  This week I walked 6 miles on Monday, 8 miles on Tuesday, 7 miles on Wednesday, and 6 miles on Saturday.  27 Miles!!!  What a great week!!!

Week 15

Week 15

 

9 Miles

 

116 Miles = 249 Miles To Go

 

I got my walking back on track this week.  It has felt so nice.  Onto the next week.

 

 

Week 13 and 14

Week 13 and 14

 

11 Miles

 

107 Miles = 258 Miles To Go

 

These last few weeks were hard to get through.  Just didn't feel like walking at all.  However, I was only short 3 miles so I think that it was still good.  I'm just plugging along.

My First Photography Gig

The Cake

 

 The Bride

The Couple

 

I am so happy that I was able to have my first wedding/photography gig.  It was actually unexpected.  I told the mother of the groom that I was going to bring my camera and take some pictures of the wedding.  Soon enough I was told the day before the wedding that I was the photographer.  I was surprised needless to say and extremely anxious, fearful, and excited.  I just couldn't believe it!!  I am extremely pleased to say that some of my pictures were awesome, some were great, some were alright, and some were awful (those I deleted).  I had so much fun though and I loved being able to do it and have that experience!!!  Congratulations to them and I was so happy to be apart of the wedding.

Proposal Rock

Oregon's Petrified Forest.  Beautiful.

Proposal Rock - Yes Bill did propose that day!!!  Only 8 years late.  That's ok though it was still a beautiful sight to take in! 

I loved it there it was fun and we got to forge a river to get to the other side of Proposal Rock.

Week 12

Week 12

 

9 Miles

 

96 Miles = 269 Miles To Go

 

This week was a good week.  I'm glad that I am on the right track and excelling.  I have walked more then I have needed to which is a great feeling to have.  I hate the feeling of being behind.  I am hoping that this week I will be able to walk 5 miles on both Saturday and Sunday but we'll see! 

Keep on Walking!

 

Week 11

Week 11

 

17 Miles

 

87 Miles = 278 Miles To Go

 

This week was a very successful week.  The most I have walked in a week in my life.  I like ending my weeks with a long walk with friends.  It makes the 5 miles go by faster then they would by myself.  I'm happy that I'm doing this.  A pro to all this walking is that I have been able to lose 5 pounds and lost an inch off my legs.  Yay for me!!! 

Week 10

Week 10

 

15 Miles

 

70 Miles = 295 Miles To Go

This week was a very productive week.  I feel like I accomplished a lot.  I was able to fit in 15 miles of walking doubling my goal of 7 miles a week.  I am so happy that I moved my treadmill into the house!!  It has really helped me increase my miles and guess what I am ALL caught up!!!  It is so nice to feel like I'm back on track.  I just have to keep walking!!!

Week 9 - Walking Goal

Week 9

 

11 Miles

 

55 Miles = 310 Miles To Go

 

Well it is my time to catch up!!  I did 3 miles more then I was supposed to and I will continue to do more every week to catch back up with my goal.  I'm 8 miles behind and hopefully in the next few weeks I can get caught up.  To do that I brought my treadmill into the house from the garage.  Here I come next week.

Week 7 and 8

Week 7 and 8

 

3 miles

 

44 Miles = 321 Miles To Go

 

Well...there isn't much to say.  I should have plugged in my own treadmill and walked but I didn't have the energy to actually do it or the where.  Having a hurt husband isn't as much fun and no motivation to actually get out there and walk.  Next week hopefully will be better.

2013

Don't worry this post isn't going to be about New Years Resolutions.  I've decided that they are not necessary I can plan resolutions anytime throughout the year.  This post is about My FIRST Polar Plunge.  It was COLD!!  It was fun and a great way to start off the new year.  As I jumped in the cold of the ocean it took my breath away and hurt my lungs but it was so worth the experience.  It was very warm after I came out of the water though which was nice because I was expecting to have to use my blanket.  After the plunge we went and got an extremely warm cup of coffee which was needed. 

I hope everyone has a great new year and does at least one thing that they haven't done before!!