It's an offer you can't refuse!!!

We made a quick offer on a house this weekend. The company was having a huge special at all their developments nationwide...so we thought, why not try a low-ball offer ($50K off their asking price!!!) and if we don't get it oh well! It is a house we've been watching for the last month or so. We initially weren't going to even look at houses until February, but with the special year end/quarter end special, we couldn't pass it up. The house is in a neighborhood that our good friends Chris and Monica just got a house in this fall. We are very excited. Here it is, we'll find out Wednesday this week if it's ours for sure. There was a first offer on it, but it had a contingency to sell their home first, so now that we offered, they have 24 hours to remove their selling contingency and buy the house or it's ours!!! It's 3 bedrooms 2.5 baths 1900 sq.ft.

FAMILY PHOTOS

So for Christmas this year, David's dad, Pat Strobel, and his wife Mary wanted a group photo with all their kids and significant others. So last weekend we traveled to Salem and met everyone on the waterfront. It's funny, because Pat and Mary and everyone else lives in Salem. Hopefully we will never move there, I don't like it too much, but it would be nice to be close to family!

I'll try not to confuse you all too much with names. See caption below the picture.


From Left to Right:
Jon (David's brother) and Eryn (Jon's wife); Stefani (Bryon's girlfriend) and Bryon (Mary's not-official-adopted son, David's stepbrother); Kristin (David's sister) Aaron (Kristin's husband) and Samuel (our nephew); Will (Steph's boyfriend) and Steph (Mary's daughter, David's stepsister); Brian (Mary's son, David's stepbrother) and Jenn (Brian's girlfriend); Us.

cell phones are good for something!

On Friday night, we had my office's Christmas party. We had dinner in Portland at Stanfords and then made our way to the Michael W. Smith concert with a 65 piece orchestra. He had a few guest singers there. One of them was American Idol's Melinda Doolittle. As David and I were leaving, we decided to take a side route around the huge crowd, all trying to exit out the same path. That's when the cell phone came in use. I spotted Melinda Doolittle, and David took a picture on my cell phone with her. It's not the greatest picture, but...it worked!

Pictures from Matt and Tasha's Wedding

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!

So, the last 5 days were so relaxing and FUN! Thursday David and I ate lots of Turkey. I was in another wedding this weekend, so Friday was filled with decorating and rehearsal for the wedding. We all had lunch for the rehearsal up at this beautiful lodge called Stone Cliff Inn, in Carver, Oregon.










Saturday was the wedding. It was held at the Aerie at Eagle Landing. It was the most beautifully decorated wedding I've been to. The bride's mother is an interior designer, and did the whole thing! I'll post pictures of the wedding later.








(THIS IS JUST A PICTURE OF THE PLACE, the picture to the left is just an image I couldn't remove. Real pictures of Tasha and Matt's wedding are coming...)



We had so much fun dancing the night away, hanging out with good friends and eating wonderful food!


Sunday David and I went up to Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort. He has a season pass this year, so I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of the mountain. I didn't get to play on the hills because of my back, which is getting better. I imagine next season I will get to go. I got new skis 3 years ago and have only used them twice because of the dumb back issue.

Anyways, we made it back to Corvallis last night just in time for the TV show Amazing Race!

Pictures of the Taylor's Wedding

MONICA...

The Beautiful Bride!!!


We had our hair done altogether (1 bride and 3 maids) at a salon in town called The Retreat. I was a little nervous when "Richard" stepped into the lobby and escorted me away to his station. But we all know gay men can do great hair. I don't have a picture of my hair, but I loved it! Here's Monica's backside of her head so you can see her hair:

The Bachelorette Day

So, David and I were in another wedding this last weekend. It was for our friend's Chris and Monica. We hang out with them here in Corvallis more than anyone we know! We love getting to spend any and all our time with our "bestfriends". (I just termed them our bestfriends, because sometimes I think they are my only friends here since all my girlfriends have moved away.) We had the bachelorette party Friday night after a day of decorating and getting our nails done; while the boys had a day of golf, movie, and eating. Sadly, our Nintendo Wii broke the same day, and all the excitement to play Wii all night never happened for them. I'm not too saddened by the breaking of the Wii, it means David won't be playing for a while!



Anyways, we took Monica out Friday night to dinner at a Topas Bar. There were about 20 of us that came, and we were rowdy! We gave her a list of 10 tasks she had to complete before the night was over, also we gave her decorative items that were associated with being a "Bachelorette". Some highlights of the night included: the manager showing us his bellybutton, being toasted by "chain man", free champagne from a random guy at the bar, Monica's special cup, and getting marriage advice from the pastor! Below are pictures of the bachelorette party. I'll post wedding pictures later!

Yummy for the Tummy!

We had David's family over for dinner the other day, and I made the best after-dinner-treat ever!!! Fresh fruit and yogurt parfaits!

Georgia visit #2...

Went and visited Jessica again in Georgia while Jake is in Iraq. It was so much fun! We enjoyed watching movies, going to Hilton Head, SC and laying on the beach, and lots of yummy food. While at Hilton Head, SC, we went swimming in the Atlantic and were quite suprised to see hundreds of fish swimming by us only a few feet away. It was almost kind of gross! It must have been Nemo's Fish Hwy! The Beaver game against UCLA was on tv, and since I was supposed to be at the game with some of my Regner relatives, we got dressed up and sent text messages to them while they were at the game getting rained on! Here are some pictures I stole from Jess, since I didn't take any!!!

GO BEAVS!!!

At a park letting Jessica's dog, Allie, go swimming!

So Becca tagged me, month(s) ago and now I have to write eight interesting facts about myself. I have to post these rules first.

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (If you don’t have a blog, email me)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Ok, my facts:

Fact #1: I absolutely hate the sound of paper, any kind of paper, being creased with finger nails. Fold the paper in half, but don't give the poor piece of paper it's death with your sick finger nails people.
Fact #2: I love teenybopper movies to the extreme. Not just the "girlie movies", I'm talking "you have to be age 13-17 to have interest in the movie" kind of movies. Becca Stump and I used to rent all the Mary Kate and Ashley Olson twin movies, stating out loud for anyone in the video rental stores that we were babysitting that night (and by used to, I mean if they still made these things, we'd still be doing it).
Fact #3: I seem to have a super nose, I can start sniffing the most outrageous odors. But I love the smell (among many smells) of gasoline! I love to have the window down when getting my car filled up at the gas station.
Fact #4: My favorite thing to wear is men's XL sweats, and it just so happens that my husband wears that size! Or maybe that's how it became my favorite :)
Fact #5: I'm learning to eat fish AND like it. So far Halibut and Salmon (with a lot of lemon juice) have made the list. While learning to eat fish, I learned I'm allergic to shell fish, i.e. prawns/shrimp!
Fact #6: My husband has better taste in style than I do when it comes to me (he even just bought me a Coach purse). I need to live with my old roommates again, the fashion police were called on me everyday I wasn't in sweats!
Fact #7: I love reality TV. Current TV can't misses: The Hills, Newport Harbour, Survivor, Rock of Love. Again, please refer to fact #2 in regards to the first two shows listed.
Fact #8: On my honeymoon, I rode the Mexican public bus, A LOT. Hey, it saves money! And according to David, it makes you more cultured! It sure does, especially when the bus stops in the middle of nowhere and tells you to get off, and that the snorkeling bay you are trying to get to is in "that direction". But when you look in "that direction" all you see is desert, barbed wire fences and a dirty trail littered in trash. Only to come away from that day to not have to take the public bus because you are held hostage by a Mexican vendor, from which your husband lost his snorkel gear from, but to have a personal Mexican chauffeur in his very own 1980's-about to breakdown-car, praying he truly is driving us to our hotel to get his money we owed him and didn't have and not a remote location to murder us! (I've been watching too many Lifetime movies)

All right...8...and now: Monica, Auntie Teena, Melisa, Jessica, Julie, Sheena, Jen and Leslie

Sheena's grandma Compton takes control of the dance floor...look out!

Again...more pictures...

More pictures of Chris and Sheena's Wedding...

SHEENA'S MARRIED!

Sheena and Chris finally got married yesterday, Sunday September 16th! It was one of the most beautiful and fun weddings I've been to. She got married in the Abigail Gardens at the Abernathy Center in Oregon City. I stayed up in Portland with her Thursday thru Sunday, and it was such a fun weekend with Sheena! A lot of old memories, and laughing til 3am every night, including the night before the wedding, oops! She had 8 bridesmaids and 1 jr. bridesmaid, Chris had just as many groomsmen, 9. Everything went perfect, including the little drizzle of rain during the ceremony! I'll post more pictures later when I get more, but for now, here are a few that Breanna sent me.