Grease is the way you are feeling....

it's frightening those lyrics just don't leave your head easily!

Bill and I left work early on Friday and headed over the snow covered mountains to get a 'culture fix.' something that i am missing like crazy these days. i am simply not feeling it here is Sisters, Oregon.

i snagged a sweet deal on a brand new hotel, that we have donned as our new 'Portland Favorite Hotel", The Nine's. it is right smack in the middle of downtown and has the cool hip vibe we love paired with Portland ease.

we enjoyed a leisurely dinner the first night at their restaurant , it was quite unique and so tasty. i could not stop thinking about (and texting) Wil and his new venture and where he might end up. the food, atmosphere, staff and wine were all great. warm & friendly yet cool & professional. we loved it!

the view of the entire seating area from our floor above. the floors all opened up to the atrium / hangout area below.

this is the lounge area outside of the restaurant, we had a drink in the eggplant colored chairs.

the next morning out to find the perfect cappuccino, which we did (crummy pastries though).

then off to the Portland Art Museum, at which we spent several hours taking in the art through the ages of time. i am always blown away by the amount of talent there has been and is in our world. stunning! we were also totally blessed and excited to get a call from Laura while we were here. they had sailed (or do you say boated...) into Sitka for a deck hand drop off and real showers. she sounded tired but good (o:, it was a treat to hear her voice. this mom adores her kids and my heart was yearning for her big time!

lunch at Henry's, such great pub food. we then gave in to a wee bit of building the economy. Powell's for Bill, Anthropologie for me (ONLY CLEARANCE of course).

then it was off to the theater to see GREASE, starring Taylor Hicks. yep, i used to be a big american idol fan and was excited to see him in real life (i did vote for him). the show was great. it was fun and entertaining and filled with the catchy tunes of Grease. it was 100% enjoyable!

Bill & I love city life and sometimes wonder why; we who would love a change seem stuck with super glue here in Sisters. we had the best time. we cherish the idea of just walking everywhere and that is what we do every time we are in a city. that is just one of the many things we absorb of the society while we are part of it. change is good for us, it renews our spirits.



of course on our way out the next morning we hit the Pearl Bakery. can not go to Portland and not go here for breakfast and to stock up the freezer with their perfect bread!

then over the bridge and out to IKEA. i covert their paper napkins in a unnatural way. also Urban Farmer completely inspired us for the next dinner party we are having with our 'dinner party group'. IKEA had all the elements we were hoping for to pull it off!


the new awesome picture above, my boys in NYC. sweet

Heard from Laura

last night. Three text messages (her service is pretty limited up there).

1st: Hey Mom, I don't have good service but how do you cook hamburgers on a stove?
I just laughed out loud (o: texted back: 3 minutes on each side crispy on the outside juicy in.

2nd: Thanks! you would not believe how hard it is to cook on a rocking fishing boat.

3rd: You can not imagine what I am seeing right now, about 100 eagles swarming and diving for fish, it's amazing & beautiful!

Certainly not everyday life!

This is not the boat Laura is on, just a very good representation of it, to give you an idea of her world right now.

Heading North

Flight Information

Flight Departs Arrives Traveler(s) Seat(s)

Alaska Airlines 65
Boeing 737-400
Seattle
Tue, 04/14 06:45 AM
Ketchikan
Tue, 04/14 07:54 AM
LAURA CHIARAVALLE
2F

ACK! It is hard for me to actually believe this is happening but my sweet, beautiful, quiet little Laura is headed to Alaska tonight to have a most unusual experience! It will be quite the grueling trip. She leaves tonight for Seattle, has a very early flight into Ketchikan Alaska, the plane actually lands on an island so she then takes a ferry to the mainland. Hangs in Ketchikan all day (which she is more nervous about than anything, being very blond & fair she has been warned she is going to stand out)! Then late afternoon another very long ferry ride to Hollis Alaska. Then an hour over the mountains down into Craig where the 'Confidence' is in port at this time.

The Confidence is a small fishing vessel that her boyfriend (Stefan) works on and Laura is going to live and work on the boat for the next couple of weeks!

So wow, what an experience! She has warm layers packed and is ready to get tough! Commercial fishing is an quite an amazing industry. The Confidence was actually spotlighted in a recent National Geographic T.V. Program on Sacro Fishing (the season they just ended last week). I am not sure what type of fishing they will be doing while Laura is on board. This SHOW on National Geographic will give you a bit of idea of what her world will be for the next couple of weeks. The confidence is most likely in this show someplace, but it's not based on them personally.

I am nervous but I do know who the captain of this vessel is and know she is in good hands. He would never let Laura join them during the dangerous stuff. This will be a huge learning and growing experience for Laura and I am excited for that. Please do keep her in your prayers, I am a mom so there are worries in my heart. God's hands are the best place she could ever be though (o:!

x
~ leila

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a wee bit of Spring and New Life in their heart this Easter!

Love Leila, Laura & Chatham (the dog who's bunny that obviously is)

(o:

p.s. Bill's in NYC

could you,

please, please, PLEASE be my friend... poor Chatham's is desperate for Griffey's affection.
she shows him nothing but disgust. it is sad, secretly i think she enjoys the brawls they get in to. she would NEVER let you know it though!

off to friendlier things... he is wondering... "are these for me??"

no, they are not.

driving south..

Laura and I are headed down south tomorrow. we are looking very forward to the high 60's - 70 weather predicted. (so funny my mom said, "well it may not be that warm.." seriously to us, 60 feels like 80!

we are first going to Napa to stay with my momma then the three of us are headed to Santa Cruz for; the baby shower for Laura's first newphew, my momma's first great grandchild and my first grandchild! pretty exciting! he is still in his mum's tummy and will be out early July.

Laura and I had fun shopping for him, found some pretty cute boy stuff. this by far our favorite find and we even think his mum, Heidi will love it! this is just a hint of a pic (i can not give it away... i am so weird about gifts that way....



sorry it's so blurry. i did manage to lose our very last camera when i took Bill away for his birthday weekend.... (really i know Renee....) so until i can get a new one... the cell phone is the only option, pretty sucky!

we will miss Bill but we WILL NOT miss this weather! blah.

x

still here

life either gets cold and really slow.... nothing much to post, or overwhelming and exhausting.... no desire to post. it's been both for awhile. so have just stayed away. i always feel so guilty not posting, i just have a desire to keep in touch and this is an easy avenue to do that.

so far we have not sold our house, obviously not a sellers market. we have had a good offer but are not interested in a contingency since the market is so bad. we are going to do a bit of a price drop in hopes of bringing in some new activity. wanting to move to Bend we have found the options are wide open. there are so many houses for sale at rock bottom prices we see it's a great time to buy.

we did get to finally go back to the house we are trying to buy and look at it again, to make sure we like it as much as we thought we did. we also looked at some other options. it was nice to get out for a few hours over the weekend.

of course the house we really want is the most expensive of all of the options we are considering right now and it's not perfect! it feels like 'House Hunters' weighing the positives and negatives.

this would be our second choice.

it is such a close second and such a better price it makes for tough decision making. what we LOVE about this house is the neighborhood, it has an office, the master is on the main floor and the two other bedrooms are a really good sized are upstairs. it's in NW Crossing which is a very big mix community that has a market, restaurants and parks within close walking/biking distance. a lifestyle i adore! the house is stunning on the inside and brand new, not even done yet.

the negatives are the living area is pretty tight and it has a HUGE HUGE house looming directly behind it. backyard privacy is nil because of this, with a driveway and basketball court being right next to the back yard.

it is such a great option and we like it so much until we go here!

this is the home we are quite sure is meant to be ours! we have admired it for a couple of years actually and considered buying a house across the street but we always said, "but that's the house we want." we figured it had come up for sale knowing the owner's businesses had gone under... we made an offer right away and the house has been in a foreclosure/bankruptcy nightmare ever since. so we are just waiting...

what we like about this house more is, the flow. it is a very well designed space and just feels so right to us. even though it is so much smaller than our existing home it does not feel tight. it feels right! we see ourselves living in the house quite comfortably and think it would work well for entertaining, something we love to do. it has two living spaces so when the kids are all home there is room to spread. it is designed in a way the the indoor living flows into the outdoor living very well and there are even built in heaters so that the outside is more pleasant for a longer period of time.

the setting is absolutely fabulous. it is in a neighborhood but it backs up to woods very much like our house now. it has a fantastic forest view and a pebble path down to the hot tub in the woods. the setting is serene, peaceful, private and quiet.

and.... THE KITCHEN. the home was owned by a chef and his family. the kitchen is a dream.

downside is the master is upstairs along with the two somewhat small bedrooms. also there is no office space.... you can tell by the few pictures that i have taken off the website that the house has the clean lines Bill & I both love. we dream about turning into our own and making it a space worthy of Dwell magazine.

the master bath is over the top, not sure why it's designed this way... it is about the size of our present bedroom which is odd in a way because it is not an 'over the top' house (well other than that range!). the design fits and is not out of place, it's just a master bath showplace.


in the meantime of us waiting for our house to sell and this bankruptcy mess to be ironed out house prices have continued to plummet. so this house is no longer worth what it was. we are writing a new offer with the hopes of more flexibility on the selling end for us. in order to GET a buyer!

so that's the little that has been up. other than some ups and downs that are life out loud.

soak in that sun, 'tis a blessing!
x
~ leila