THIS IS HAPPENING!

So, this is Jared making his very first guest posting on the wonder that is rowberryness. We are 2 days away from Nicole's due date and I feel it somewhat of my duty to make sure the world gets to see pregnant Nicole because she is awesome, a little fiesty at times, but awesome none the less. Also, I have been taking a few pictures of the baby bump and am sure everyone would enjoy the proof we really are about to have a baby girl.

  The left picture was taken under the threat of my life. Realizing we had no pictures recently to ever prove Nicole is pregnant for the sake of our daughter I tried to sneak this one in on a Sunday morning.      On the right my model was much more cooperative with the camera!








In other news besides the baby bump we recently survived Portland's latest strange behavior...Snowmageddon. Starting on a Thursday afternoon through Sunday we received about 9 inches of snow which is fairly rare here in the Northwest. In a light drizzle the people of Portland are great about just continuing on with life as if nothing is happening but change that to a light flurry of snow and the world is ending. Since nobody owns snow shovels or understands how to drive in the snow it got pretty exciting around here. My school actually canceled my Friday and Monday classes which provided a much needed 4 day weekend to study and sleep. Nicole and I ventured out on Saturday for an epic sale at Jo-Ann's that couldn't be missed (If you don't know me well enough to hear my voice reading this to you please add some sarcasm to the previous statement) and also a stop at Starbucks for hot chocolate. Thanks Dad for providing the gift card to make the hot chocolate possible! Starbucks is an essential to people here so it was a great place to people watch. As shown below we even spotted a lady cross country skiing to get her Starbucks coffee!

10 Things I Should Have Blogged About

Yeah....it has almost been a year.  I quit working at Nordstrom, the holiday's happened and then I started another job that took over my life and all motivation for anything but sleeping and eating.

We are doing really great right now. Jared might say otherwise, he is in a really hard term at school.  They have moved on to practicing in dummies mouths; no more table top dentistry. And "stab lab" has started. (I'll let your imagination run with that one).  

Basically here are the top ten things that happened this past year or at least ten things when we actually went outside and really lived instead of worked, slept, studied and worked more.

#1 - We went to a Tulip Festival outside of Portland with friends.  I loved it.  Basically I want my own tulip field some day.  Be jealous of Jared's mad posing skills ha. 

2 - We finally went camping.  We went with our friends.  We headed south to a place called Silver Falls.  It has a loop hike where you go by 10 waterfalls.  Jared made amazing cobbler and we had tin foil dinners. Good, good times. 

#3 - We finally hiked the famous Multnomah Falls.  It was so much harder then I thought and I realized the true need for a waterPROOF not just water resistant coat.  People kept telling me the only way to live in Portland is to get out rain or shine.  Hiking up a mountain in the rain did NOT make me like Portland.  I say, get out in the sun, stay in with pajamas on when it rains.

#4 - After all the talk about how amazing the fishing is up here we decided to take some other dental students up on their offer and go camping with them.  It was a new crowd that I had never met and a short trip but still really fun.  On our way out we headed east and finally found  a part of Oregon that does not have trees everywhere.  We felt free.  In fact, we decided to drive super fast for Oregon a.k.a 80 mph. Yeah, the speed limit does not go over 65 anywhere but like I said we felt free.  Right when we hit 80 we started joking about hitting a deer and TWO SECONDS LATER A DEER RAN ACROSS THE ROAD. Basically we could be dead and will be driving a safe 65 from now on.  Also, the teeny tiny town of Maupin that we past has amazingly large otter pops. 

#5 - Seattle.  See photos below.  We did a lot, it was amazing and I'm losing motivation for writing this post (and it's understood a little bit better why it takes me a year to post). 

#6 - Jared has dominated not one, but two inter-mural championships.  Technically, one of these was last year but I'm adding both down.  One in volleyball and one for basketball.  They won sweet shirts, their names on a trophy and my favorite part, food after the game. 

#7 and #8 are family coming to town.  Sadly I don't have pictures from either visit, we've lost our camera (Mom and Jennifer, I have failed).   Jared's sister and her family came up for about a week and my family came up for a week as well.  Living away from family was something I thought I would be okay with.  Lies.  I miss them and it is amazing to have them come up and visit.  It makes things feel a lot more normal when they are here and I loved it!!  Please note that we now live in a two bedroom apartment, a.k.a we can actually accommodate people so don't everyone plan a trip at once...which leads to number 9.

9. We moved finally!! And of course no pictures either but trust me our new apartment is amazzzzing.  My favorite features are:

• Washer and Dryer
• Dishwasher
• Fireplace
• Separate kitchen and living room (a.k.a you can't see the dished I don't wash from the front door)
• TWO bedrooms, oh yeah.
• Two stories
• A half bath downstairs (again, I love this due to cleaning.  I may or may not ever seem to get my bathroomness off the counter but that all stays hidden upstairs now)

10. And last but not least we are going to have a kid!! And a girl at that.  We both are soo excited to have this new little girl soon, March 3rd so the Dr.'s says.

And that is the past year in a nutshell.   

VooDoo

I used to think I didn't really like doughnuts except for sour cream krispy kreams....those doughnuts I will love forever. But I have since been overwhelmingly converted to the doughnut by Voodoo Doughnuts.  I remember watching food shows on T.V about the famous, freaky joint in Portland but this one is actually as good as everyone says.  Maybe I'm going overboard but any place that has bacon on the menu will be a favorite of mine!  Please enjoy the photos below....yeah, those doughnuts have bacon, BACON!!, ores and coconut.  

Oh, and let me mention the bricks on the outside of the building have glitter painted on them.  The picture doesn't do it justice. Someday I will have a glitter wall no matter how much Jared protests. Oh and....Bacon.

Notice the awkward eye contact form the creeper in between our heads.  Ha, not to sure if that photo bomb was on purpose or not but funny nonetheless.

5 things...or more

I'm pretty sure the hazing period of moving to Portland is over. Except that the first couple months were sunny and gorgeous and now everything is....cloudy and gorgeous so maybe it decided to mess with us now (and until July 5th according to a customer at Nordstrom)   Really though, even with all the rain it is amazing here, especially with all the leaves turning right now. And so we salute Oregon with the top five things, not in any order, that we think are awesome and/or weird about Portland

#1 The view!! It is amazing and crazy all at the same time that we live in the middle of a city but are surrounded by trees and nature.  They have urban hiking here.  Yeah, you can be in the middle of Portland, start at a trail head and 30ft later feel like you are in the middle of nowhere.  There are a billion squirrels that live at our apt complex too and they are hilarious. They will run across the roof and jump into the tree outside our door.  However, the crows that also live in the trees need to D.I.E.  Harsh, I know, but they are awful creatures of the devil made to torment man into going insane. Anyways....

#2 The people. Most people we meet or come into contact with are really nice and helpful, and super relaxed.  That being said, when these people are being nice and helpful they are usually swearing which is hilarious and not what we are used to coming form Utah.  But I kinda like all the character people have in Portland and how excepting they are of each other, non-judgmental.  Of course that acceptance comes with a whole lot of other political crap but for the most part it's really nice that people here are...nice. And the stories Jared has from riding the bus...classics.  Have you ever wanted to have someone roll a joint next to you on the bus? Or announce an imaginary football game on the bus? Or watch people avoid a giant 50 cent piece spider IN the bus? Move to Portland...

#3 The food carts.  THEY ARE AWESOME. Sure, this isn't just a Portland thing but we will probably always associate delicious food carts with Portland because this great city is where a love affair with cheap, mobile food has begun.  Plus, our food pallets are so different it's nice to eat dinner where we both get exactly what we want. 

#4 Dental school.  This one is more for Jared obviously but he is really happy with the ways things have turned out and I am too.  He always comes home with crazy stories about his professors and the drama of politics that exist among the faculty.  And all the classmates he has are pretty awesome too.   

#5 The city.  Yup, me, the girl from the hicks, is stating that it is actually really nice to live in a big city.  We live about 5-10 min from downtown. But Portland is crazy because we live in the middle of a city and because of all the trees I can't even hear the road 50 ft from our apt.  It makes it feel really secluded and so I think this might be the perfect city for a country lover.

Urban hiking...think about it, it kinda blows the mind.

Japanese Gardens

So these pictures were taken almost two months ago.  Woops....but they are fun and they are making me miss family even more :(.  We went to the Japanese Gardens in Portland and we went for free with a library pass you can check out (which ended up being good because I probably wouldn't have paid to get in...they were cool, in a free kinda way).  

Also sorry I just keep putting up old stuff and just pictures.  I've grown lazy and pictures tell a better picture than I could right now.

Rose Garden

Soooo....Nate and Emily came up to Portland a long time ago, about a month ago.  And it was fantastic.  We had been here only a couple weeks and we were able to see family again which we loved. And we loved the roses too.  My dad has been talking about the roses ever since we found out we were moving here and I never took the time to find them.  Luckily Emily had all the info and they were free, just in a park.  Pretty fan-stinking-tastic.  

The Tram

So OHSU has a giant tram that runs from the riverfront up to the school.  Yeah, the school is at the top of a giant hill.  There are steps up to the school in the trees that I see people walking and I'm amazed.  It's like the stairs at BYU times 7, literally.  Anyways...Jared rides for free and still had a free ticket from when he interviewed so we went and it was awesome. In some of the pics you can see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helen.   I was a loooooong time ago when we did this but still, enjoy the pics. 

See that tiny little tan building in the slight bottom center of the picture? That's the dental school.  It's a little old and getto but they are building a new one right now.