Happy Birthday to Me!

(last Friday) I got an ipod! And some money for a dock-- any recommendations? Dan had to fly early that morning, so he told me he left my present in the kitchen. I got in there after yoga and saw a note and an angel food cake mix. He said that he hoped that I would have fun making the cake with Josie. I thought that was weird, and eventually got everything out to make the cake, and then opened the box, and there was my present! What a clever lad. Anyway, I used some money that I got from Mom and Dad Bentley to buy myself a itunes gift card. Thanks guys! And pooled some more money from my parents and Dan to get a dock, which stinks. So I'm going to exchange.

My birthday was the best! Dan did everything I wanted to do, and he even pretended he liked doing it (shopping at Motherhood Maternity, which included picking things out-- he even ate a donut with me-- ususally I eat a donut alone haha.) It was great! We went to a play, we had linner, we spent some birthday money. Anyway, Happy 25 to me.

(Explanation for the delay: I had to write the day down in my journal first, because I always condense the second time I tell/write anything. So journal first.)

Pictures from my first helicopter ride

Here we go!
Multnomah Falls from the air
The freeway and The Gorge from the air
Me in this tiny thing
Back at the airport

Josie's Birthday Pictures!

Josie and Dad with her presents and her cake.

And it begins. I made the cake. It was very cute.

Josie "opening" her presents
She loved this little seahorse that played music. Tyler got it for her.


Happy Birthday!

Lots of Pictures

She loves to brush her teeth!

This is a look at our family at Christmas, with our Christmas tree we cut down ourselves. It wilted by the time we got around to taking the picture. It was about 3 times that wide.
Reading books

Josie with Sarah and Katelin at Thanksgiving

Soon to come... birthday and helicopter ride!

Homemade Jam

I've had bags and bags of delicious berries in the freezer, and I finally did it. I finally made jam. Holy crap, we have a lot of jam. I would say gallons and gallons of strawberry jam, which is good because I won't have to make it again for a while. Well, until I get to the raspberry. I feel very domestic. Yes, yes I do. I even bought some frozen Rhodes bread loafs to bake because I don't want to overdue the domesticity by baking bread just yet. But homemade bread, or Rhodes bread, is definitely needed if you have homemade jam. And it's cheap! And they don't have Granny bread here, so nothing is worth buying. It's all dry and crappy. Storebough jam stinks too! I stole a loaf of Granny bread from my mom's freezer supply that the fam stocks up on every time they go to Utah, but it's gone now. $1 a loaf for Rhodes! I hope it's good. It's %100 whole wheat, so that's a plus. I'm rambling. It's either all or nothing with me I guess.

My First Helicopter Flight

I was Dan's first passenger Friday night! We went out about 5 or 6pm. I was a little nervous because I don't like the feeling of my stomach dropping, but it wasn't like that at all. (I had to clarify that I wasn't nervous because of Dan's flying abilities.) We hovered out near the runway, and it was cool to watch the grass blow away from us. He called up to the tower and off we went! The helicopter we flew it was a tiny thing, like the one pictured above. The Troutdale airport is right on the Columbia River Gorge, so we flew up the river and above tons of cool waterfalls, including Multnomah Falls, a popular tourist stop. It was cool to look down on the houses and their yards cleared in the forest on the edge of the gorge. So cool. Anyway, the weather was good and we got down about a half hour from sunset. Perfect. I took a lot of pictures and hope to post them in the future. haha.

Psycho!

So the other day I was looking for some undershirts for Josie at Walmart, and I hear a voice behind me asking if they can give me a card. Sure. This lady hands me a card and talks to me about her business, working from home selling nontoxic cleaning supplies. She wants me to consider working for her. Sure great. Thanks. Yeah, I'll give you a call. So I didn't give her a call, for obvious reasons. I'll just avoid her. That shouldn't be a big deal. So a few days later, after I've forgotten all about her, Dan hands me the phone. Hello?

"Hi Rachel, it's Paula." I'm thinking Paula in my ward. She was my young women's teacher for a while. "When do you want to get together?" I'm thinking, why would Paula want to get together with me? Is she my new visiting teacher? I didn't know that they were changing my visiting teachers. Hmm. Why would she want to get together? I guess that could be fun. She's nice. So I say, "Oh, whenever." Well, we make an appointment for Thursday at 11am. And then, and not until then do I realize that this is the lady I met at Walmart! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! Crap!

So I was going to call and cancel yesturday, but I forgot. I called her this morning (Thursday) about 9:30am and told her that I wanted to cancel. "Well, lets forget about the business part. I just want to distribute these great nontoxic cleaning supplies. I just want to show you a short video, blah blah blah." To which I reply, "no thanks, I'm really not interested." And then the kicker! Her last chance! She says something about women who are "at home all day with their cleaning supplies, 89% of them get cancer." What the crap! 89% of women who stay home all day get cancer because of their cleaning supplies!?!?!?! I'm pretty sure that the worst thing that would happen is a burn or inhalation of some kind. Good crap, you crazy woman! Anyway, I thought it was funny, and I'm glad I'm not working for this very unstable and illinformed/informing woman. Ha ha.

Pictures

Josie had her first birthday on the 14th! Happy Birthday! I love love love to look at all the pictures on other people's posts. I have high ambitions of posting some of Josie's birthday. The only obsticle is that we don't have the internet at our house, so I have to remember to bring up the camera or computer. I'm bad at hauling a bunch of crap up to my mom's house. Actually, I'm good at it: Josie's pajamas, medicine, toothbrush, blankets, stuffed animals etc. I can't bring myself to bring all the technical gear too. Anyway, this may just demonstrate how lazy, I prefer tired, I am, but I will eventually post pictures of Josie's birthday, (probably when my mom gets them off her camera and onto her computer, to be honest.) So until the level of my ambition changes I will continue to post meaningless pictures I find somewhat relevant on the internet.

Beach Trip

The Relief Society President in our ward has a beach house, and we had a sleepover this past weekend. We drove to Lincoln City, about 2 hours away. We had lunch, we went to the outlet mall, we just hung out. It was warm for the two days we were there-- the weather was perfect. So fun! We stayed up until about 5am talking girl talk (I'm not sure I'm caught up on sleep yet). And even though I was in bed until 9 am I don't think I got any sleep because of some unnamed snoorers. I would do it again in a heartbeat, but sadly I think that will be my only trip. They have these every six months, and hopefully I'll be in the hospital. That's still weird.

I need a haircut.

Sometimes I feel as if my hair has become a joke, like Donald's here. I repeat, I need a haircut.