September.

September has been good to me. On the 1st of the month I completed my last final. Ever. 8 days later my final grades were posted and submitted. And....I did it! I successfully had the lamest summer of my life, but I GRADUATED. From college. It's fantastic. As for right now I dont pity anyone in school, but come the end of this month when Geoff starts up again I know I'm going to be totally jealous. I really like school--not all of it--but most of it was pretty fun and engaging. But for now I feel relieved and can't wait to get settled into my new working woman lifestyle. Our insurance cards came in the mail yesterday and I felt just as accomplished, if not more,  as when I got an A on my marketing plan. And that's a big deal because I poured my heart and soul into that thing.

Me, the day I graduated. Because you were just dying to see.

and this might have happened too.

We've managed to fit in some fun this month too. 

Geoff and I went to The Dalles/Portland for a bit. 

While in Portland I took Geoff to this incredible portland based company Moonstruck Chocolates.

We both agree that this is the best milkshake we have ever had. 

The conquistador: chocolate, caramel and carmelized hazelnuts.

To. Die. For.

We couldnt help but snag these little guys too.

Geoffs was a chocolate orange owl and mine was a chocolate hazelnut frakenstein laced with pop rocks.

We went to the farmers market in The Dalles too.

Poor Geoff didnt fit in the car.

Larry shows off his new flowers.

I bought Sweet Cherry jam and I'm saving it just for you Shellene. 

Its crazy delicious.

A couple days ago I paid my brother with a mediocre dinner in return for painting my bedroom. 

The whole family came over and Levi asked Geoff if he wanted to armwrestle. 

Funniest thing ever. 

As for now Im spending the rest of my time gearing up for the first home game! Im so excitied for football to start in Corvallis and for all the fun we are going to have this year. I love that we get to spend so much time with family this time of year. 

Happy September!

Whew!

Its been a very busy week here at the homestead. We spent memorial weekend in The Dalles who's weather report was supposed to be better than ours here in the Wilamette Valley--unfortunatley, it lied so my plans of laying by the pool were foiled. The weather here has been terrible and I think im starting to develop the SADS. I worked my first 30 hour week at my new job and I am loving it more than I thought I would. I basically spend my day being a personal shopper and I LOVE it. We just wrapped up dead week and are starting in on finals--which is always a blast. Thankfully we have a list to look forward to. Because this time next week i'll have practically graduated, we will be lounging on the beach in San Diego and Geoff and I will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary. And sometime in between all that Geoff may attempt and complete the "Lucky 7 Chicken Challenge" (more on that in a bit).

Our memorial weekend consisted of Backgammon, golfing and lots of food.

Can you guess who did this?

I give you a hint it starts with a G and ends with an EOFF.

Geoff with his mashed potato martini. YUM.

I feel like im always blogging about skamania, but its a lot of fun. Its also where we took some wedding shots. 

On to more exciting things.

What is the "Lucky 7 Chicken Challenge"?

It my friends is this:

That is Geoff's teammate Alex attempting the 7 over at China Blue downtown.

All you have to do is eat that whole plate in an hour (like totally easy, right?.....not).

The pot starts at $100 and every month the challege isnt completed, the pot rolls over.

Which means that right now, if you eat all that in an hour, you win $300. 

Alex gave up half way through--he decided to do it to see if he could get some extra bucks for his upcoming Vegas trip.

Which means that Geoff is DYING to take the challege. 

Im not even going to tell you that this turned into an hour long discussion last night on how to prepare for eating competitions. 

That doesnt mean that I support this. Geoff thinks its a win-win because even if he doesnt complete it, he will still have Chinese food for days. But I keep thinking that a) hes going to die trying and b) i'll be out 27 bucks if he doesnt make it. 

We'll see how things go. 

Rip City Rollers!

For those of you who didnt know, Geoff is in a Bowling League with some teammates and friends.

Anyway, Tuesday was the end of the season and they came out champions!!

Which I used to think was impressive until I showed up last night and realized there were only 3 other teams and well, anyway...

I made bowling ball cookies for the team, and the rest of the bowling alley.

(Geoff used them to trade for sodas at the concessions)

The team, minus Mike

(Blake, Burke and G--and dont worry this half of the team stayed sober)

But dont worry, Mike made his appearance.

(Blake, Mike, Burke and Geoff)

Dont be scared by his awesome moves.

I married him for his stellar bowling skillz. 

Par-tay!!

The day after Geoff's birthday I threw him a party (we would have done it on Thursday, the actual day of his birth, but nothing can get in the way of Geoff's elder quorum basketball games). I made some sweet treats for everyone

And Geoff blew out the candles "like a real man" with only one blow (hes always talking to me about his awesome lung capacity, whatever)

Thank goodness we moved, or else we never would have been able to fit a dozen friends in our little Shadow Hills apartment. 

After our little party, we headed to The Dalles (@10pm) for a quick weekend trip (it was a very last minute decision).

My sister was in town and Geoff didnt have to teach sunday school on account of it being stake conference at church. 

It was short but it was fun. On Saturday my mom, sister, her girls and Geoff and I went to Klindt's bookstore downtown and we all picked out a book. Sweet deal, thanks mom!

We hung out until late Sunday night and then headed home. 

A quick but fun weekend. 

Everything good comes from Sweden.

I've had a rough week. 

Geoff noticed.

I came home to a 1.9 lb bag of swedish fish on the table.

I love swedish fish and he loves me.

But that also means that i've been grabbing a handful of these guys everytime I head out the door to go to the gym (amongst other various time during the day :)

counterproductive?

whatever.

Lets eat some cake!

My sister sent me a link the other night to a Huffington Post article about the meanest cakes of all time. I never knew people could express anger on something so sweet. This one being my favorite:

Not exactly the suprise im looking for on the day after.

That giant cookie certainly isn't going to fix that problem.

This one is especially kind....and racist??

I dont know if the Native American drawing is a reference to Pat's heritage or her new job?

And on a side note:

Happy Birthday to my brother Michael today.

Thats what you get for being the middle child. 

Sorry dude. 

Nah, i'm just kidding! Happy Birthday older bro!

Skamania, we love your good eats.

Over the weekend we went to Skamania Lodge for their Friday Night Food Madness (thats not the technical name, and technically, I dont know the name for it). Anyway, its a whole bunch of prime rib and salmon and seafood and really, really good desserts delieved via everyones favorite way of "all you can eat" (Can you see how great this place is for Geoff? He loves this place). I love this place too for its food but also for its beautiful lodge setting and scenery--it also so happened to be where G and I took some of our sweet wedding photos. Here are some photos I was able to catch from that evening.

Geoff was trying out his "sexy moves" in this picture--which would have come in handy earlier when Manny the crepe making guy was trying out his moves on me.

all in all we had a pretty fun time.