girl’s weekend

Girlfriends, Houses, DIY

Posted by Lisa Eirene

What a busy but great weekend! My bff, Rachel, drove down from Seattle for the day on Saturday for a fun day of girl talk. We decided to get some other friends together to join us and it was so much fun!

My friends Samantha, Robyn and Erika also joined us! It was so great! We all went to Edgefield out in Troutdale. I figured it would be a good location for lounging around chatting, drinking and just hanging out.

When we first got there at 11:30 we stopped at the Tea House Bar and got a beverage while we waited for Robyn and Erika to arrive. Sam got an amazing coconut pina colada thing. It made me think of Hawaii! I got a glass of the White Rabbit white blend.

The cool thing about Edgefield is that you can just hang out and wander around on the grounds and explore. We took our drinks and walked around for a bit and then decided to get lunch in the courtyard. It was chilly out but sunny.

I got a burger (with a bun! my one cheat for the day). We spent a long time just chatting, which was so fun and so needed.

The one bummer was the service. They lost our order and it took an hour to get food. 🙁 I’ve ever had bad service at Edgefield so this wasn’t great. Oh well. The food FINALLY arrived and it was delicious.

After lunch we went inside to hang out because we were getting a little cold and then it was time to head home. It was SO much fun! I definitely want to do it again. It was fun to just hang out with my girlfriends in a group, something I haven’t done since my wedding or bachelorette party. It was great!

In other news, we are finally house hunting! We planned on doing it last year and the plan got postponed. So now we are totally doing it. We are finishing up projects in our house to get it ready to sell, we contacted an agent who was recommended by a family member and we started looking at houses this week. We even went out and looked at three different houses on the market this weekend.

None of them were “The House”, which is fine. I don’t expect to find our house this early. We’re still fine tuning what we are looking for. Our list isn’t very long but after seeing three houses, we definitely know what we DON’T want.

After Rachel headed home on Saturday evening, we checked out one house that we’d rate a 7/10. We both really liked it. It was a house that was flipped and they did a REALLY good job on the work!

Hardwood floors throughout, then new hardwoods (or laminate) in the kitchen/dining/bathrooms). Brand new kitchen that was gorgeous! Three bedrooms on the main, then the attic:

Attic ceilings were a little too low for the gym to be up there but we could put a spare bedroom, office and playroom up there and that would work well. The downside? No garage, just a carport. There was a finished basement but low ceilings so it was basically just good enough for storage down there. The biggest issue for me: it was on a SUPER busy street. The biggest issue for Michael: no master bathroom.

The house was great, but the location made us not move forward. We’re still looking! But dang, that house was nice! 😉

On Sunday I went swimming for the first time in a month! It went great! It was weird taking a month off after my surgery but it was nice being back in the pool. Then home for house projects.

Our babysitter spent a few hours with Logan so we could get some stuff done. Michael worked on finishing the grout for the kitchen backsplash. I painted the pantry doors and the trim in the kitchen.

Man it was hard work! Painting is easy but it also takes a lot out of you. I mean, I was painting off-white doors white. LOL. At least we got it done. I have more trim to print and we have to paint the rest of the doors in the house…sigh…but we are making progress!

Sleep Over

Posted by Lisa Eirene

Over the weekend I had the pleasure to help a friend celebrate her upcoming wedding! My friend, Samantha, is getting married in August and we had her bachelorette party over the weekend.

I’ve known Sam for over 11 years. We worked together in my last job. She was the “floater” who would cover the people on vacation or leave so we met one day when she was covering for someone in my unit. We became friends right away. Sam is an awesome, funny, smart, strong lady who is the QUEEN of PUNS. 😀

On Saturday a group of people got together for lunch to start the party! We met at Matador–one of my favorite restaurants (and where we had our rehearsal dinner!).

I got the street tacos and the brussels sprouts. The sprouts were AMAZING! So delicious! I got a Mojito (they usually have Boneyard on tap but not this time, bummer!). There were 12 of us there to celebrate this awesome lady.

After lunch we had some time to kill before we could check in at the AirBnB so we stopped for gelato:

After that we all headed to the house that was rented. It was in Sandy, so not far from Mount Hood. I was the first one there and got to poke around before everyone else saw it. WOWZA. That house was stunning! There were several rooms with king sized beds and then a few rooms with bunk beds. But that view…words cannot describe how gorgeous it was.

Oh and…there were a lot of animals heads. LOL

And a fire pit:

We were pretty high up but the view was stunning and we could still hear the Sandy River below.

Every body else arrived and we unpacked and unloaded the beverages and picked out our sleeping arrangements. Then settled in for the evening. There was a lot of just hanging out, especially on that deck. I mean, how could you not?

Sam made everyone dinner, despite numerous and frequent requests from guests to help or do it for her. But she wanted to cook everyone a meal to show her gratitude and love. I mean, what an awesome person, right! She made a tofu curry that was absolutely delicious!

There was some wine and some of the ladies brought whisky and tequila (no thanks!!).

Group shot!

Then the fire and roasting marshmallows and making s’mores.

As the sun started to set, Mount Hood poked out of the clouds for the first time. It was breathtaking. There were bats flying around, it was a warm summer night and no one was in a hurry to do much of anything. Before we knew it, it was dark.

We had this gorgeous cake for dessert:

And just hung around around the campfire. My favorite summer activity! I think we all went to bed around 11:30 (party animals!) and it was a nice, quiet house for sleeping. I slept pretty good with my bunkmate in the king bed. She joked that we had the same bedtime routine: eye masks and ear plugs!! I woke up a few times kind of early in the morning because I could smell someone downstairs making coffee. It wafted through the house but I was so sleepy and lazy feeling I just kept going back to sleep. Then up for breakfast with the ladies.

Fresh fruit, granola, yogurt, coffee and mimosas for whoever wanted them) and someone made a “buckle” coffeecake. I’d never heard of it before but it was SO GOOD! It was basically coffeecake with a ton of fruit in it. It was a pretty slow morning. I enjoyed some coffee out on the deck in the sun. It was already a pretty hot day. Then it was time to pack up and say our goodbyes.

I had SO much fun celebrating my friend! She’s an awesome person and I’m so excited for her wedding. And I got to widen my friend circle and made some cool new friends. It was a very fun, relaxing, empowering weekend of ladies!

After leaving I went swimming and then home to my boys!