Moving In Together

Welcome to another edition of Flashback Friday! I'm not going to lie, sometimes when Thursday night rolls around, I groan (like last week- Christopher totally bailed me and my heat exhaustion out, thanks honey!!), cross my arms, and pout at the thought of having to dig out a picture and force my fingers to type some sort of story like caption to go along with it. But other times, like tonight, I'm very much overwhelmed with excitement and can hardly wait to click "publish".

I love all of the new participants *waves* that have been stopping by our space and leaving their link for us to follow back to their stories. Don't be shy, if you've never played along before but you want to, jump right in! You don't have to write a big long story, or go into extreme detail, just a simple picture with even just a single line of caption is enough to connect with us and make us smile. Us being, the entire flashback community (I'm pretty sure I can call us that, right?) of course, not just me and Christopher (ok so, Christopher doesn't actually read anybodys flashback, haha, but I do).

Anyways. On with our flashback...


January 2005. The middle of an ice storm.

Christopher and I had met each other the summer before, in June I believe. By that December, right around Christmas time, he had moved into my tiny studio apartment, and we were happily keeping each other warm at night.

While my studio was extremely affordable for its amazing location in downtown Portland, it wasn't big enough for all of our things, and each other. We had found an apartment on the other side of the bridge, and by January- we were moving into our first apartment together.

It had a bedroom. And a kitchen. And a full size bathroom.
A sunken living room. Full size windows.
A real apartment.
All ours.

The above picture was taken by Christopher's mother, who happened to be in town during our move. She picked up the camera during a silly game of hand clapping. The clock in the background belonged to my Papa, and we still have it- its hanging up in the garage, just where he had hung it. The TV, we still have. My parents had given it to us as a gift when they got a larger one, and they've since bought us an even bigger one (we would have never bought a nicer one for ourselves, they got it for us as a Christmas gift), and have moved the old one into our bedroom. The entertainment center is something that I grew up with, my parents having gotten it as a wedding gift (If I'm remembering that correctly), and we still have that as well. We almost sold it in a garage sale, but I just couldn't let it go. Instead, the entertainment center that held my parents entire record collection, and then mine and Christopher's, is now upstairs in our daughters room holding Disney movies and My Little Ponies. The desk that you can hardly see, and the chair that Christopher is sitting on- my dad built those. He didn't build them for me, but it was given to me, and its something I'll never get rid of.

And again... checkout Christopher's hair.
Also, I'm wearing a New Kids On The Block t-shirt.


Christopher's mom snapped another picture of us while we were unpacking our new kitchen. I had so many kitchen things that I had been saving up since I was 16 years old (we were 20 when we moved in together), that I had been dying to use. I knew I'd move out someday, so started asking for things like blenders and toaster ovens way back when. When I lived in my studio, I didn't even have a counter top, I used an ironing board, so they all stayed packed away. Finally, it was time to bring it all out of hiding and put it to good use.

Do you see the PBR there on the counter? Its to the left.
We drank a lot in those days.

And do you see that awful army hip pack that Christopher is wearing? I wasn't sad on the day that he threw that thing away, lemme tell ya. He wore it everywhere, filled it with literally nothing, and it was constantly getting snagged on things, or falling off (he has no hips, hes a guy!). I think it went into a free box during our "get rid of this stuff before we get married, or go marry your stuff" fight. Not a pleasant fight to have, but seriously, it was either his junky recording equipment that was doing nothing but taking up space and time, or me.

He chose me *insert cartoon hearts and eyelash batting here*.
Good choice, right?
I'd say.

I never would have thought that moving into our first apartment together, way back in 2005, would lead us to where we are now, 5 years later, living together half a country away from where we started, no manny-packs or reel to reel players or recorders allowed (hon you know its for the best), still very much in love.

And I still have those pink striped pajama pants and that trucker shirt.

************************ Ok, your turn! Grab a seat, upload a picture, write a little blurb about it- and flashback with us! Make sure to link back to this here post (you can use our polaroid button from wayyy down at the bottom of the page, or you can link back old fashioned text style), and then add your link to the list below. Our flashbacks make the world a better place. Promise, hee hee.

Goats!!!

I had the diaper bag halfway put together, both kids were getting their shoes on (ok Charlie was chewing on his and Eleanore was crying by the front door because hers were on backwards and she couldn't possibly fix it herself), I was just minutes away from getting us off on a mid week adventure to the zoo, when- suddenly my phone lights up with a text message from my long lost friend Saybra, something about how the babies can play with goats?

WHAT! Yes! Where?? We love goats!

Ok, I hate goats (I've been attacked twice, maybe even three times), but the babies would love it, I know they would!

I quickly texted Saybra back, and within 15 minutes, we were all strapped into the car, on our way to play with goats! We'd save the zoo for another day.


Of course I got lost on the way, having lived here for 4 years and still having no idea how to get around this dang town, but we eventually got there, with farm songs on the cd to spare.

Eleanore got out of the car quickly, jumped around and nearly broke her neck bending it in every direction to try and see where the goats were hiding, without having to leave her comfort zone beside the van. While Saybra was putting a puppy dog into a kennel, Elie spotted the goats off in the distance behind a fence, and off she went.


Charlie sat happily on my back on the ERGO, while Elie stood by my side observing them while they snacked, too afraid to actually touch one. She was really excited while they were eating and nudging each other like cute animal friends do, but as soon as they got close to her she'd back up with wide eyes and panic in her voice. After being in the field for awhile, she started warming up to them like I knew she would, and broke down and did the goat dance with me.

Whats the goat dance, you ask? Pretty much a hip shake with flailing chicken arms, and a little "goat goat goat, oh goat goat" song to go with it.

The goats got bored with our company, and ran off to play on a pile of boards by the barn alone. We had been out there for awhile by that point, so after some more goat dancing and another attempt at pushing Eleanore to feed them when she clearly didn't want to, we decided to head inside to visit the puppy dogs and snack on frozen waffles and juice.


All in all, the kids loved the adventure. The green grass, the poop on our shoes, the sun on our skin- so much fun. Charlie fell asleep on the way home, and Eleanore passed out face first on her bed just five minutes after walking through the door.

I'd say it our first playdate with goats was a success.

And um, I didn't get attacked, so- thats good too.