Ludwig Family Vacation-Oregon Coast Edition

The moral of this story is that I need to start taking pictures with a real camera. Sorry for the blurriness (though in my defense, I think the salt air made the lens a bit foggy--that's possible, right?)

The crabbing beach

Burkey-man

The boys crabbing (which we had for dinner one night. Yes, even me).

Just the pretty (very cold) Pacific Ocean

Samples at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Yum.

Uncle Adj and Sayla

A little outlet shopping with Keadryn.

Oh, did you ask if those were sunglasses that fold down 3 times to fit in small places? Yes, yes they are.

Us in Portland. Side-hugging. (we need tans).

We did lots of crabbing, Tillamook Cheese Factory, Rogue Brewery tour and lunch, birthdays, anniversaries, the aquarium, games, walks, kites, diet cokes, coconut iced coffees, candy, food and drink competitions, and shopping. We had a great time.

Now, it's back to reality, a very busy reality at that. 1 week of work left. Signing rental contracts for our house,selling more things, donating lots, seeing our friends and still hanging out with Adam's family, buying a trailer, and packing, packing, and more packing.

Lean Pockets get an A in packaging

True Confessions: I like Hot Pockets. Even worse, I'll settle for a Lean Pocket. I am not proud of this.

Yesterday I forgot my lunch so on my lunch break trip to Target, I snagged some Lean Pockets (actually the ones pictured above to be exact). I forgot how much I like these guys! Later, Liz and I had a little pow wow about how we enjoy these (sorry for outing you Liz). It's kind of embarrassing, so I told her I wouldn't share this openly unless directly asked "do you like Hot Pockets?".

Listen, I will say that I can appreciate Jim Gaffigan's take on the situation (hilarious actually). In fact, I also realize that most of America shares his sentiments. But not me. I love these little bread pockets of cheesy goodness.

But I digress. The real purpose of this blog, surprisingly, is not to share another quirk about myself--especially since I just told Liz yesterday I would only confess this at gunpoint. The purpose, is to give credit where credit is due.

Lets talk about Hot Pocket's packaging for a second. It has progressed so much since I was in middle school (probably the last time I remember eating them). Seriously, easiest-frozen-lunch ever. Here's why: remember how you used to put it into that special sleeve and microwave then put on a plate and the cheesy goodness oozed out everywhere... NO LONGER. Now, you still use that special sleeve, but afterwards, you can fold one end into the other, creating a little pouch. ANDDDD there's more. That little pouch has perferated edges so as you eat your treat, just tear away the pouch so it gets smaller as your treat gets smaller! GENIUS

In school we learned a lot about the importance of packaging from a marketing standpoint. And this tells me that the Hot Pocket brand is concerned about making things convenient for me--time effective and dish free. If Dr. Powell was grading them, I'm sure they'd get an A in packaging.

Kudos Hot Pockets. Job well done.

And incase you dont hear from me for a while, its because I'll be vacationing on the Oregon Coast. Go ahead, you can be jealous.

I think Sandra and I would be friends....

The Proposal was on TV tonight. I love that movie. This scene makes me laugh every time.

....I think Sandra and I would be friends in real life.

Our 12 Step Moving Program.

Step 1: Apply to school for engineering, and get accepted. check.
Step 2: Find a temporary home. check. Thanks Kirstin and Adam.
Step 3: Decide to sell or rent home. check. renting it is.
Step 4: Have a moving sale/sell almost all you own. check. We are currently living out of boxes (literally, I took moving boxes to create makeshift dressers) and sitting on what we haven't sold yet (a recliner, a desk chair, and an end table in between, possibly photos to come).
Step 5: Find renters and seal the deal. almost check. We just need to finalize the contract, have a signing party, and pray pray pray it's a good decision.
Step 6: Tell work you're leaving. check.
Step 7: Buy a trailer, load the trailer. pending.
Step 8: Use up all remaining PTO. check (on Saturday). We're rendezvousing with the rest of the Ludwig fam on the Oregon Coast.
Step 9: Pack. Pack. Pack. the start of a check. Still LOTS to pack and donate.
Step 10: Have a "See Ya Later" party so we can have all our friends in one place one more time(code for a convincing everyone we love here to come to Denver too party). pending.
Step 11: Caravan road trip to Denver. pending.
Step 12: Get settled, find a permanent place to live, FIND A JOB. all still pending.

we're getting there....

No more secrets...

Well blogging world, we have an announcement.....

We're moving to Denver!

In just under a month.

You have no idea how good it feels to get that off my chest:) Now I can tell you what's really been going on with us...

Ironman 2011

Remember I told you I'd blog about Ironman? Better late than never.....

One of my favorite things about Coeur d'Alene is Ironman. Every June, our little city of Coeur d'Alene hosts an Ironman Triathalon. (incase you didn't know, this race is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and polished off with a marathon--- you know, NBD...) Gosh, every year I'm so amazed by it all. I think I even say the same lines "I can't imagine doing this", "it's crazy how much you have to train", "I can't imagine working out for like 8 hours straight (and that's the pros)"... etc., etc., etc.

Anyway, it's really incredible and inspiring, and each year we head down to be in total awe of them/be in total confusion that someone would pay $600 to do this to themselves. But, it's pretty cool.

Work made me miss my pool party...

Work perpetually interrupts my beach plans. Every week, Monday through Friday (except for my every other Wednesday half-day) I try to make plans to go to the beach, and then I remember "shoot, I have to work that day, I can't make it to my beach party, I'll have to reschedule". Anyone else have this problem?

Well this week, I was supposed to have my half day on Wednesday (today) and made actual legitimate plans for a pool party with some other sun lovers. Unfortunately my half-day every other Wednesday got switched around this week, which makes most other things in my life more convenient, except that I missed my pool party:(

To compensate for my loss, I went to the park for lunch (pictured below) instead of running my usual winter time errands which usually find me at Target. Actually this is a much more common occurrence now that it's summer time, Shelly and Sara can attest to that. Although, today I did not pack a tube top like I sometimes try to do to avoid any possibility of nasty tan lines...