Living with The Smiths!: Guess who's back....!

Shamrock Run 2014!!

It's been quite a while since I last posted on this blog...almost a year actually! Lot's have things have happened over the past year, and let me tell ya ~ Time sure Flies!!

Over the past few months we traveled to Buenos Aires and North Carolina. My mother passed away in June so I spent a couple of weeks in New York. That alone is enough material for me to write a few pages of blog, and maybe I should but for right now I won't. My Poppa Bert moved from Long Island to the great North West last August and is currently living in the 'Couve! Vancouver, WA is just 2 exits from the "Smith Farm" in Portland, OR so it's nice to have him so close but just far enough : )

Cam and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary last July 2013 on the beach where we got married! We had a fantastic time hanging out with his mom and sister, and also spent a couple of days at a family reunion for his dads side of the family. It really was a lovely trip! Can you believe that we met in 1998! Wowza we're getting old ;)

We have a couple of trips planned in the next few months! Cam is photographing a former co-workers wedding in Newport Beach, CA so we're making a mini vaca out of it. In two weeks we'll be heading to the beach for a couple of days, I can't believe it's so soon! In June I have a cousin getting married in Georgia so we'll be heading down south for a full week. Cam's sister lives in Atlanta so we are going to spend a few days with my side of the family at the wedding, and then we will be hitting the ATL so spend time with Regan and Cam's mom who will be flying in to meet us all for a few days! Cam has his annual trip to New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans in July, and in August we're heading to Bethlehem, PA for my cousin Jason's wedding. He's getting married on an old Christmas Tree farm and rented an old farmhouse that we will be staying at. It even has a red barn!!

Last summer I enrolled in a Vet Tech program and am currently taking online course to become a CVT (certified vet tech). I love my job at the Oregon Humane Society and it as encouraged me to take my love for animals a step further! Before my job at OHS I had considered becoming a CVT but didn't know if I would have the "guts" for it. Working as an Animal Care Technician has exposed me to lot of things that have made me realize that I am up for the challenge :) I recently got certified as a Euthanasia Technician which is a strange thing to be proud of but I am.

Ok so now that we're all caught up (not really but good enough) on to the "FARM"! We have 4 laying hens right now. Last May we added an additional hen to our flock and she is an Ameracauna named pEGG that lays BLUE eggs! She is the most petite hen out of them all but she lays big, beautiful eggs. Our plymouth rock LayLa is the egg laying winner, followed by pEGG, EggBerta, and Martini.

Last weekend (i have off Tues/Weds so I consider that the weekend) Cameron expanded our garden space by building an additional 12x9 raised garden bed! He also blocked it off with a gate so now we have open garden beds that the chickens can't access (I'm sure at some point this summer they are gonna sneak in but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!!). Slim and Stan are excited because now they have full day access to the deck and outdoor without the chickens coming around and peckin' at them. And now we can have company over on our back deck without having to worry about bird poop!

It's still pretty early in the growing season but we do have some things in the ground already. We have the two 12x9 beds and a side area that we call Lettuce Lane. So far it has some spinach and kale started in it (that the chickens got a hold of in 5 seconds but they're doing ok) and in the main bed we have 4 different varieties of radishes and a whole lotta sugar snap peas! We've also started cilantro, chives, parsley, kale, and basil in pots and I have seedlings of pumpkins, marigolds, tomatoes, and kale started in the house. I tried Eggplant, Pepperoncinis, and Red Pepper seeds AGAIN this year but they don't appear to be doing so hot. Which is funny because I'm pretty sure that they just need hotter weather.

As of the New Year Cam has started running and we have been eating mainly a plant based diet. I wouldn't call us Vegan yet, but Vegan"ish" for sure! We still eat our chickens eggs and an occasional slice of pizza or chocolate chip cookie. There are so many delicious, fun to make, healthy recipes out there and Cam and I are really enjoying the new way of eating, thinking, and feeling! We ran our first race together just last week. We did the Shamrock Run! Cam signed up for the 5k (well I signed him up on NYE after a few IPA's lol) and day of the race he went to the registration booth and switched to the 8k...5 miles!! He did so great. I did the 15k and being that it was my second time I don't think I'll do it again ~ the hills are SO hard!! My dad came down and cheered for us at the finish line, and then we went out and had a couple St. Patrick's Day brews. Next up is the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon and 10k on May 18th. I'm doing the 1/2 and cam's doing the 10k! G Love is headlining after the race and there will be music at every mile.

So that's about it for now. I'll post more often I hope so I can keep up. Stay tuned for lots of pictures of veggies and flowers....! Woo Hoo!