Home again home again jiggety jig.

We're Baaaaaaaaacccccccccccck. (poltergeist style)
what can i say it is good to be home at my own lovely computer bloggin away. First off let me clarify i am not a traveler, nor do I find it relaxing. in fact it was way stressful for me. i am just pathetic in that way.

disappointment. my hair product was thrown away at security in Phoenix, too large, but it was half gone or more BUT they go by label not actual content. lance told me so but i tried anyway. good thing i had my bedhead stick just in case.

um the flight there fine. i read a Meg Cabot book. blogged in the airport and got there 15 minutes early whoohoo

Horrifying- while we are waiting on the rental car shuttle we get a call that Peyton Liberty and Paxton had gotten in a fight at school the day before -they ganged up on a bully and took him down, kicking and what not occurred. They hadn't told us, and it was the Principal calling to inform us that they had lunch detention. and what should she do about it? Lance had to talk to her yay for me. UGH!

Get the Car just in time to rush to get the rental car and get to an imaginary meeting. The rental car place shuttles you to pick up the actual car. Jeep Cherokee. good thing we got the GPS, Portland is confusing and we took the scenic route alot even with the GPS.
we found lots of one way streets, and pay parking. then he ditched me to go to that imaginary meeting. so i was gung-ho about being alone at first and went to a cute gift shop, and looked around. and then went to Paradise bakery for lunch alone and read my book. i was fine with killing time until he called and said he was meeting me there. well i wait awhile, and he never showed up , but i got 3 calls from a number i didn't recognize. so i got to the office to hunt him down . turns out he ran into the president of the company, and a couple other big names as they were going to lunch and wanted him to tag along. so he went , he tried calling but the blackberry wasn't working right for me. the secretary told him he should stick around, so i was left to find the hotel and check in alone. FABULOUS. so i got get the car out of the parking lot ($10), turn on the GPS and attempt to find my way. well it doesn't get rad reception because of the sky scrapers, we were in downtown Portland . hello still lost?! so i get going, and finally it tells me i need to flip a U turn asap. but the the GPS falls off the console so i have to pull off the street, and get it. i pull into the convenient pull out thing. and grab it then , the car in front of me is apparently broken down, and i can't get by, so i had to back out onto a major busy street. nice. i manage, and proceed on my way, finally get turned in the right direction. and find the road i want and turn on it to discover it is a ONE WAY! holy crap cars are coming at me. and i have to flip a U quick! nightmare. then i turn right and whalah! the hotel. so i pull into the hotel, valet parking , and go check in, get up to my room, and look out the window, and holy crap? the office building i had just been at is.........across the street! NICE! and the parking Garage? 2 blocks from our Hotel. so #1 -I am peeved for not getting settled before i am abandoned downtown in a large city, and #2 -I feel retarded for not checking out all of the details before we got there. because hello stress could have been avoided.

Lance had meetings until 5:30 and the party was at 6:00 , so i read and finished my book, hung up the clothes to steam for a while in the bathroom, and relaxed. as soon as he gets there though he is in a huge hurry./ they wanna meet at 5:40 to go to the Hilton for the party. and i hadn't really started getting ready. but i finished my book. fixed my hair and and got dressed, and touched up my makeup. get down stairs and we had to drive ourselves. and got lost on the way to the Hilton - we took another GPS scenic route.

Get to the party and everyone is drinking wine, we don't drink,so we have water. at dinner we drank Coke, and after dinner no coffee. So it is apparently obvious we are MORMON ,between the beverage choices and when the number of our kids comes up. we have , you know 6, and I felt pretty good about the whole thing until someone says something to the extent later that night" so when is this one due?" um NO!I'm not currently prego. I was met with shock and amazement when i say how helpful Lance is at home, cooking, but i can't get into the whole cancer thing (men become amazingly helpful when your wife has cancer). But i am not going there. then we left when everyone else did. and waited for the Valet to bring us the car. way tired. Cold, alone, 8 bucks for parking and $3 tip. other people rode together, in a car and a in a cab.

it was fun to meet the couple people Lance actually has contact with over the phone and on Skype(voice over internet protocol service think- google talk) that he chats with everyday, they email, and talk,so i knew a couple names. and the wife of Lance's boss (the only other AZ people there) the Big whigs were nice and so were their wives. The Hr guy was nice. and pretty much everyone we met.

Friday we went to Multnomah falls, and it was lovely and cold. freaking cold,Lance said it was snowing about a hundred feet above us and raining by the time it reached us. but the scenery was fabulous, and we of course hit the gift shop. Pierce is going to have a coonskin cap. fancy!
on the way back we went to the outlets, and then headed to the airport.

i dinged in airport security, and had to be individually checked. they couldn't find anything. but i was fine in Phoenix. fabulous.
I got a book in the airport. Water for Elephants. love it! and the flight home was super bumpy. but passed by fast because i was reading.

my thoughts on Portland? i could never live there myself. while i love how green it is , i like the sun. and it was overcast and dark so early, now i know why other places have daylight savings time (AZ doesn't participate in DayLightSavingsTime) and never got it. but it makes sense in Portland. the downtown scene is so not my speed. now if i was braver, or not alone it might have been different. but i am not dying to go back. is that pathetic? and I bought nothing other that souvenirs for the kids.

Pictures coming later. life keeps happening around me. and i have to still upload them.

the kids were great for my mom. (for the most part)
I'm glad we live in AZ even though it is raining here now, but you know AZ needs rain so it is a good thing, it'll be sunny and warmer in a couple days. whoohoo on that.

oh and pictures of the party outfit? we forgot to take pictures more like we were in a hurry and didn't bother when we got back later at night, too tired. and who cares anyway apparently i looked pregnant anyway. UGH!