Congratulations!

Well, I'm a thinkin' that congratulations are in order for my sister. It still hasn't really hit me yet, I think because I haven't seen her yet, but my lovely sister Rayla and her wonderful boyfriend Keith are engaged! Yay! Just when I thought I was done planning a wedding, looks like I'm going to have to put in my suggestions here and there for another one! You know you're getting old when your younger sister is getting married. So congratulations to Rayla and Keith! We can't wait for the big day!

October!

October has thus far been awesome. The weather is even cooler which makes Matt and I jump for joy enjoy our morning coffee just a little bit more ;)

October has brought awesome developments. Firstly, Matt successfully completed his first non-relay marathon. He ran in the Portland Marathon yesterday (10/10/10) and now can no longer walk. However, he still somehow enjoyed it, although I will never, ever understand that. Especially since he usually complains about running. Boys are so weird.

Our high school friends Jerrik and Danielle are visiting us for a few days and have brought two wonderful "presents." They brought their pug puppy Maverick with them, so Matt and I get to play with a puppy during the day! This dog is insane and loves running everywhere and all the time, which is great. Matt and I can't have a puppy in our apartment, so this has been an awesome time to experience. Danielle has given us her terrarium set up, so Matt and I are going to get a bearded dragon soon! I am so excited! It's the next best thing to having a puppy or a kitten, seriously. I absolutely love bearded dragons and have been wanting one for a dew years now. I am stoked. Matt has already named the dragon Charles, even though we don't have it yet. And that will be the name even if it is a girl. So my previous statement of "Boys are so weird" gets proved yet again. If it's a girl, though, we will call her Charlie for short.

If only the Seahawks were having as good an October as Matt and I. How could they possibly lose to the Rams? SERIOUSLY? I still can't believe that happened. I should probably stop talking about it now before it makes me even more angry. Hopefully the bye they had this weekend gives them some extra practice time that they desperately need. Hopefully we can win a game off our own talent soon instead of taking advantage of the other team's mistakes. That's all good and everything, but you can't rely on that. Oh, Seahawks.

September Updates

Well, it looks like it's about time to update this here blog. Somehow, in my opposite of busy days, I never find the time to write about my life. So now as I find myself alone, instead of watching the new episode of House (thanks ever so much , Kelly, for this new addiction of mine), I have decided to tell you about the month of September. Fasten your seatbelts and please keep your hands and all other appendages inside the vehicle at all times.

After the initial shock (not to mention my head throbbing migraine) of the move, Portland has finally raised itself from the "Suck Meter" to the "Not So Suck Meter." While I think that I will always like Seattle better (I mean, come on, the Columbia and Willamette Waterfronts are nothing to the Puget Sound), it has improved and I am finding myself not hating it quite as much as I did. I still think there is not nearly as much to do here as there was at home, but that's mostly because I'm not a hippie and I don't enjoy running marathons (a mile is good enough for me). However, Matt and I did make it to the Rose Garden overlooking downtown, my first time visiting where the roses were actually in bloom, and let me tell you, the perfume those roses were giving off was amazing. Just opening the car door brought in the heavy rose-scented air. It was worth it just for that.

I met up with my good friend Erin, whom I've known since middle school and I haven't seen in about 5 years. I was stoked that I would have a friend in the Portland area, but she moved about a week and a half after I moved down here. I miss her already, but I was so blessed to have spent even just one day with her here!

A few weeks ago we headed off to the Oregon Zoo, where I might be willing to admit is actually better than the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. I mean, this zoo is build around the forest, instead of in the middle of a neighborhood and then designed to look like you're in the forest. It's pretty awesome. Matt was of course highly entertained by the monkeys and ducks and greatly enjoyed the Bald Eagle exhibit (America!). I, on the other hand, flipped over the baby elephant (AWWWWWWWWW!), the really active polar bear, the sea otters (of course), and the tigers, although they were tiger napping and not all that visible, nor as entertaining as Mike Tyson's tiger in "The Hangover". Definitely the highlight of my weeks here, even though it was absolutely pouring (who would have thought?).

It has finally (FINALLY) cooled down so our apartment is no longer around 90 degrees. I take it as a great sign that my feet are freezing in the morning when I saunter to the kitchen to make the coffee and that I need to unfold the Seahawks blanket while I watch the morning news (on Fox, of course).

I have also begun knitting again and have many projects (aka scarves, that's all I make) for numerous people that I'm working on. Someone needs to have a baby so I can try my hand at making baby blankets, I think that would be fun.

It should probably also be mentioned that I did have a successful interview and my transfer was approved, so I do work from time to time ;) I was transferred departments, however, so now I get to take care of all the animals in the store and work on the fish wall. OH BOY! Although it gets rather boring when the store is slow, I love my job. Not glamorous, but the next best thing to working in a zoo. Hey, I should look into their volunteer program...

Matt hasn't been up to much. Other than running marathons, he did travel down to Texas for 5 days for his flight physical. These doctors run them through every kind of test imaginable, including a psychological one, and basically decide whether you can be a pilot or not. Word to any pilot-seeking cadet out there: DO NOT eat really greasy food the day before your blood test. It will cause an unusually high spike (or not so unusual, considering the fat content of greasy food) in your triglycerides and cause the doctors to freak out and have to redo the test, which means you have to be starved of food again the following day. They don't really tell you what happened to your test, either, so you lie awake all night freaking out about what you might have failed. All's well, however, and at the end his flight doc told him there isn't anything weird in his file that should prevent the pilot slot. GOOD NEWS! Of course, the day after he left, I was puking my guts out with no possible way to go to work or go to the grocery store, but thank goodness it was only a 24-hour thing. And thank you to all the ROTC 800s who offered assistance, it made me feel so much better that I had some friends "worried" about me. Man, I love the military, they all take care of each other.

And life moves on, into September. Goodness, I love Autumn.

Portland

All of you know our first few days in Portland haven't been the greatest. Here's the entire scoop on that.

-Moved down on Wednesday. Got infected with a cold and also got a migraine as we rolled into town.

-It was an uncomfortable 95 degrees. Which normally wouldn't bother me, but I had a migraine, and only one of our windows opens. I felt really bad, not being able to do too much unloading, but I was also nauseous. Once the bed was set up, I threw myself onto the bed and took a nap. Woke up to take my dad to the train station, then continued with my nap once we got back home.

-The electrical system is from, oh, the 1500s, and none of the outlets have 3 prongs. Thank goodness Fred Meyer sells adapters for only 99 cents.

-Our shower is underneath the stairs. There's only so much room to stand in until you hit your head on the ceiling. The bath ledge also comes up to about my knees, so it's like jumping hurdles to get into. POSITIVE NOTE: This lends to an awesome, deep bath.

-Our couch, our beautiful, comfy, awesome couch, doesn't fit through either door to our apartment. Thankfully, the other Air Force 800 cadets are babysitting it for us, while we received their couch. They got the better end of the deal, however.

-Setting up our internet and cable has been a complete NIGHTMARE. And after 5 days from the first call, it's still not set up. And won't be for another day. Which is why I'm sitting in the Pilot House on U of Portland's campus, stealing their wireless.

It can only get better from here, right? Here are some positives that have happened to us:

-Matt and a few other Air Force friends ran the Hood to Coast relay marathon. Meaning they took turns running from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast in Seaside. Matt's first leg was six miles of downhill from Mt. Hood.

Summer Updates

Alright, it's been awhile, so here's an update on the Darnell's first summer together!

- First off, we need to congratulate Emily and Kevin, Brandy and Trent, Megan and Pat, Jill and Chris, Celia and Jake, Kat and Trey, and Heather and Joe, all of whom also got married this summer. Best of wishes, everybody!

-Our first apartment was awesome. Unfortunately, no pictures. And we never made it into the pool. Lame.

-Matt got his pilot's license! I've been up two times and he has also taken up Trent, Jerrik, Zack, my parents, and even my WWII vet grandfather, whom thoroughly enjoyed his ride!

-Other than that, we didn't do anything very entertaining.

And now we're in Portland.

Honeymoon in Vegas!

Our first night, we stayed at the Tulalip Resort and Casino, in Marysville, WA, since our flight wasn't until Sunday afternoon. Tulalip was AWESOME. We went to dinner there at a seafood restaurant. Since the hotel knew that we were on our honeymoon, when we came back we had a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries, sitting on top of numerous chocolate shavings. 2 of my favorite things combined into one!

The next morning, we finished packing, picked stuff up at both our parents houses, and had breakfast with his parents. My dad dropped us off at the airport. This is the first time that Matt and I had gone flying together. Matt got to experience my, err, love for flying. Or lack of it. Lets just say, during take off, I have a death grip on my seat handles. I don't enjoy taking off. And I married a pilot. OH, well. Thank goodness I do not have to fly, as well.

Vegas was amazing. However, all of you who have made fun of me for living in the middle of nowhere for the last 4 years, Vegas is in the middle of nowhere more so than Moscow/Pullman is, I will have you know. Vegas is in the middle of the freakin' desert, and absolutely no majors towns around it for hundreds of miles. It is also surrounded by severe mountains, so I will never again think Moscow is all by it's lonesome.

Naturally, we visited Vegas on a record breaking day. We were there on the hottest day early in the season. Apparently, June 6th is the earliest in the year since record keeping began that it has reached 110 degrees. That's a lot to get used to, when you're used to 50 degrees and raining.

We stayed at the Mirage, which is perfectly located in the middle of the strip. We were in walking distance to the Venetian, Bellagio, and Caesar's, among others, and from those hotels we could take trams or monorails. We saw every hotel south of Treasure Island except the MGM. Our favorite hotel by far was the Mirage, but we also liked the Bellagio and the Venetian. Matt also liked the Monte Carlo, and I liked Paris.

We laid pretty low, not partaking in much activity. Our main activity was sight-seeing, walking through all the shops and hotels in the morning. The pool at the Mirage is awesome and we spend most afternoons there, where one day we enjoyed Pina Coladas, which are my new favorite alcoholic beverages. The Mirage's main attraction is the volcano out front, along with the dolphin habitat and Sigfreid and Roy's Tiger and Lion exhibit. If you know me AT ALL, you should know that my favorite by far was the dolphin and tiger exhibit. We tried to see all the hotels' free shows, like the Mirage's volcano (really awesome), the Bellagio fountain (also really awesome), and Treasure Island's Siren and Pirate show (really trashy and lame, thus disappointing).

Las Vegas was extremely fun and enjoyable, except one aspect. Food there, especially just normal food, is ridiculous, and you get no food prep stuff, like a coffee pot or a microwave, in your hotel room. A simple breakfast of belgian waffles runs over $10, and we won't even mention lunch or dinner. We choose to eat at the food courts most nights and ate only 2 meals a day, having breakfast late in the morning and dinner in the evening. Thank goodness every hotel had a Starbucks, which was only a few cents more from their normal prices, so we ate most of our breakfasts there. We also discovered a Denny's, which was also normally priced. Everything else, though, was ridiculous. Only in Vegas will you go to a burger diner, order a $12 burger, and not get fries with it. Seriously. A side of fries was an additional $8. LAME. We did enjoy on "fancy dinner," as we called at. Matt and I chose to go to Mesa Grill, which is Food Network's Bobby Flay's restaurant. BEST CALAMARI EVER here! (Well, he called it "Crispy Squid," but we all know that's calamari). I enjoyed my 16-spice rubbed chicken with mango-garlic sauce, and Matt enjoyed his mexican-spiced pork tenderloin. For dessert we had churros with dark-chocolate dipping sauce. I never had churros before, they were awesome!

Unfortunately, honeymoons have to end. On Friday, when we got to the airport, security was a complete joke. Firstly, the agents running the x-ray machine didn't realize that there was a bag stuck in the machine and that 1., no bags had gone through the machine for about 2 minutes, and 2., the line of people for their machine kept getting longer and longer. Once the lady in front of Matt said "Hey, I think there's a bag stuck...", the agents freaked out, and it took about 10 of them to wonder out loud what they should do, while the lady took about 5 seconds to stick her arms in there and free the bag. I feel safe. Then, I was "randomly" picked by the metal detector to be searched (to prevent against racial profiling, of course). The TSA agent made me walk through the metal detector 3 times, with it beeping everytime, and then made me stand in the plastic cage until I could get searched. Interestingly, the female agent only patted my back. Good thing she didn't check my legs, where I was hiding my very thin sword from my hip to my ankle ;) What a nightmare.

We had a layover in Portland for 2 hours, but fortunately while we were there, the F-15 squadron from the Portland Air National Guard were flying, so Matt and I got to watch them land and taxi over to the base. It kept Matt pretty happy.

Now we're back home, slowly but surely getting our apartment set up and organized. We are loving living by ourselves, but a little shocked at how much money it cost to stock up the kitchen with food and get everything you need that you took for granted, like toilet plungers and kleenex. We knew it would cost money, but underestimated all the stuff we needed. But we're slowly but surely getting there.

That being said, does anyone have a couch? We're in the market for one ;)

Wedding Day! June 5, 2010

Our wedding was everything that I wanted it to be! It was absolutely amazing! I want to thank everyone who came to celebrate with us, and everyone who helped make our day one to remember. We really appreciated your presence and everything you did! Now lets start at the beginning

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, praise God! We were so worried, since the previous 14 days contained non-stop pouring. We got married at our church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, where I was baptized. The girls started getting dressed at 9, since pictures started at 11. I had 4 bridesmaids: my sister, Rayla, was the maid of honor, and Alex (best friend), Kelly (college roommate for 4 years), and Brittany (Matt's sister) were the other 3 bridesmaids. Brittany was our hair stylist, and she did an excellent job! She curled my hair, and braided and curled everyone's hair, and also did my make-up. The boys took only about 10 minutes to dress. Matt, also, had 4 attendants: his best man, Jerrik (a last minute scramble, since his original best man, Joe, had a mandatory Army obligation), Cory and Zack (elementary friends), and Kyle, aka Yak, a college roommate.

Everything went smoothly (unless you consider constant calls back home to my dad, for him to bring this and that that we left at home), until about 45 minutes before pictures were scheduled to start. We realized that we had left the bridesmaids dresses at home! And dad was not there anymore! My mom, the only one dressed, rushed home to get them (fortunately we live only 10 minutes away). Once they arrived, COMPLETE mayhem as girls started shoving themselves in dresses. But, it being a wedding, something else happened, too, and all to Rayla, poor girl. We realized that the clasp on the back of her dress had come off, so my mom and grandma had to speed-sew the clasp while she was in it. I was even helping curl hair! Then, somehow, Rayla managed to get lotion all over her dress, and it didn't come out with just water. My mom and grandma again came to the rescue and were ironing her dress while she was wearing it. And this is the scene that my photographer came in on.

From there, everything went swimmingly. The pictures started on time, even, and we all worked so well together that the pictures ended ahead of schedule! Since the weather cooperated, we got to take them outside, too! This was really important to me, because the fountain outside the church was built in memory of all children who have past, and the thought came after my brother past 11 years ago. In this way, my brother was able to attend the wedding.

The ceremony lasted about an hour. We left for the reception at Country Village in Matt's dad's FORD MUSTANG!!!!!!!!!! VROOM!!!!!!!!. The reception only lasted about 3 hours, but I think everyone had fun! We learned a very important lesson, though. Even if you set the buffet line at the end of the receiving line, it still goes really slow. And we were hungry hungry hungry. We did get to eat, though, eventually, and it was delicious, along with the cake, which my mom's best friend made. Our first dance was "Lost in This Moment" by Lonestar, and the father-daughter was "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney. A big hit (in my opinion, anyway), was the line dance to Cotton-Eye Joe, which we danced 3 times. My sister caught the bouquet and Yak caught the garter. From there, we danced and hung out until we left for our honeymoon.

I feel so lucky that our day was executed perfectly and we only had minor stressors at the beginning! We were able to relax at the wedding, which definitely allowed us to have fun! Thank you so much, everyone, for such a wonderful day!