Bummers of Field Traveling

There are some bummers to field traveling.  While I love the perks, there are a few bummers of field traveling.

Disappointment.

I think David has the coolest job in the world-- for him.  From the time he was a kid he loved playing with toy cars.  When he got older he read car magazines.  He was probably the only fourth grader kid looking through the Auto-Trader.  Ask him the make and model of any car on the road, and he can tell you down to the year of the vehicle.  The man is crazy about cars, so it's awesome he's in a field he loves.  That being my disclaimer-- I'm of course happy for him that he gets to do what he enjoys.  Disappointed for me that he has to be away...

All. The. Time.

A few weeks ago we heard things were going to change up in the office, and there was a possibility (however rare the possibility, I still thought it was cause to do a mini celebration in my heart!) he could get a local district.  He'd be home every night.  Just the thought of it made me excited.  Then they made the announcement and he called and said "Don't be sad...."  Disappointment.  I'm still a little bit bummed.  Excited for him that he's has an opportunity to work with the different dealers, bummed for me that those different dealers don't happen to be local. 

The schedule.

Sometimes, the schedule can really work to our advantage.  Like when he had a meeting at a casino and spouses were invited to attend.  That was cool.  Or when he had another meeting in the mountains and again, spouses could attend so I happily tagged along.  That's fun.  But there are times when the schedule totally messes with us!  Just today he called to say that with this recent move, he now had an important event to attend that coincided with a mini vacay we'd planned to take in October.  Given that this event only happens once a year and we can postpone our trip, we decided it might be best to reschedule our vacation. 

The traffic.

His work requires a ton of windshield time.  Sure, he gets a lot of phone calls out of the way, but when what would normally be a 3 hour drive turns into a 6 hour drive because you hit traffic in two metropolitan areas, the wife starts to wonder where he could possibly be on a Friday night?!  Still driving?!  Craziness.  I thought we moved away from traffic!

All this being said I am blessed that my man loves what he does and is happy with his work.  =)

2 Month Hiatus & Wine "Yay or Nay" 40



Well hello dear blogger friends.  I've missed you so!

2 months have passed and not a word on the web.  I haven't been "super busy" or "stressed" or "unable to handle my life" (for the most part!)...  Just full to the brim-- so much so that writing took a back seat for a bit. Sometimes I wish I had a mother duck like the sign above, someone to lead and mentor me as a wife, worker, friend, family member, etc...  That sign is right outside our neighborhood and it doesn't lie- you will actually see ducks crossing exactly where that sign is on the road.  And they always follow one another.  In this season of rest that I've been in I've noticed that I don't really rest very well.  I'm constantly looking ahead, wondering what's next, mitigating through decisions that maybe aren't even mine to make quite yet.  All these things and more while I was on a 2 month hiatus from writing. (So much for the goal of blogging 2x/week! I'll get back into it.)

I did learn over the past two months, however, that I truly do LOVE TO WRITE.  I missed it dearly.  So much so I've committed to writing every week day for the rest of June, to get reacquainted with you all and the pen (or keyboard I guess I should say).  So here is the first of what I'm calling the "2 Month Hiatus" series in which my two months of writing hiding are followed by two straight weeks of writing, writing and more writing! I'm writing for 2 straight weeks, every week day.  So here's to hello.  It's nice to meet with our coffees (or wine)  in hand over the world wide web and catch up!

During my hiatus, we had Memorial Day.  At the Lillard home, that always means wine tasting.  And when I say always, I mean since we moved to Oregon.  We never were into wine until we moved.  If you gave David wine when we were in California, he was always passing it off or looking for a Red Bull and vodka instead.  Wine was definitely not our thing.  "Cough syrup" is what he called it.

When we moved to Oregon, suddenly we were surrounded by the Willamette valley in one direction, Columbia valley in the other.  David's dealers sponsored wine events.  It was only a 20-30 minute drive to get out to rolling vineyards.  We could literally drive home from church on Sunday and stop by a winery on the way home.

Suddenly David started bringing home wine.  At first, it was wine he'd received as a gift from the dealerships he was working with.  Then slowly, over the course of the first year, he'd start buying bottles that he'd tasted at dinners or on the road.  When he was home, we'd open up a bottle over dinner and he'd share its story.  "This was my favorite at L'Ecole" or "Jeremiah said you'd like this Orange Muscat" he'd say.  It quickly became a hobby.  Now David can taste a wine and tell you what kind it is.  He's kind of crazy like that.  He'll know if it's a Zinfandel or Malbec.  He can tell between a Syrah and Merlot.  Well, most of the time he can.

Me on the other hand, I'm still learning.

Then last weekend when our friends Michelle and Kevin were visiting, we went to Powell's books (if you've never been there, please come visit and we can go.  It's Portlandia amazing) and David bought a book.

For those of you who know David, he doesn't read.

At all.

Okay well maybe he reads the newspaper and the bible.  But that's about it.

Guess what the book was about?!

Wine.  He bought a book about wine.  And he's been reading it!!!

We were on a plane out to Orlando earlier this week and he was reading on the plane.  He even read the section on Champagne.

"But you don't even like champagne," I said to him.  "Are you going to skip this part?"

"No," he replied.  "I want to read through the whole thing.  It's kind of fun learning about all the different varietals and grapes."

"Well why don't you write about it?" I asked. "You'd be so good at writing about different wines!  And I would love to read what you have to say.  It would be fun!"

I'm not sure that he appreciated my enthusiasm, because he responded:

"If the people who read your blog think that a wine blog would be interesting, then I'll do it for a month," he said.

"Oh you're on," I replied.  I totally thought I had him...  But wait for it...

"But only if you can get 40 people to 'nay' or 'yay'.  Deal?!"

I stared at him with my wine in hand.  Nay or yay?  What the heck?

"What are you talking about," I asked.  "Nay or yay?  Like you mean you want people to say nay or yay against you writing a blog for a month?"  Tsk-tsk.  I felt his competitive spirit coming on.

"Exactly," he said.  "If you can get 40 people to comment on your blog and say 'yay' or 'nay' to whether or not a wine blog would be cool then I'll write one for a month."  He grinned  a purple teeth grin (we were in the middle of tasting a Malbec- and a yummy Malbec it was).

"You've got yourself a deal," I shot back at him.  This is going to be a challenge, I thought to myself.  40 comments?!  I don't even know if 40 people have even looked at my blog!  And why 40?  What's the significance to that?  He said he picked a number that was out of the range of possibility (What a supporting man he is, eh?!)

So friends...  Will you join me on this?  Will you 'yay' or 'nay'?!

40 comments is all it takes, and David will blog for a MONTH about his wine adventures.  I would love to read about these adventures, because he's full of interesting knowledge about the wine he drinks and also because he's just so darn hilarious when he talks about wine.  Will you join me? I have till the end of June.  If 40 people yay or nay by the end of the month, my hubby will write wine and I will be able to read all about it.  You can read about it too because if I win this challenge, I'm going to set him up with his own blog (that he'll write on for a month.  But who knows?! Maybe he'll enjoy it and stick with it!).  David doesn't read or write (normally) so I think it would be fun to hear what he has to say.  And this might be my only chance. :)

Comment below the word 'yay' if you think it's a good idea, and 'nay' if you don't.  No hard feelings either way.  I'm just hankering to get to 40 so I can read what my man writes!

As always, thanks for reading.  I've missed spending time over this virtual space and am looking forward to getting reacquainted with you all. :)

Friday Night Cheesecake

"That cheesecake you made last weekend was sooooo good," He smiles at me while he's blurring up his protein shake in the blender.  Home from a long week in Alaska and grateful for weather above freezing temperatures, my husband and I have our ritual debrief of the week while we each make our own Friday night meal.

"I'm glad you liked it!  I love making cheesecake!"  I reply.  After a successful turnout for Krista's birthday, cheesecake has been a treat I'm no longer fearful to take on.

"I think we should make another one." Bluuurrrrrhhhhh, chuuuuuuug, slurrrrrrp goes the blender.

"I don't have anymore cream cheese.  I can get some this weekend if you want though," I comment as I microwave my peas and pasta sauce.  David begins pouring his creation into a huge big gulp 7-11 cup. He takes a long gulp through his straw and I notice he's got protein shake sprayed on his eyelid.  I laugh and tell him to close his eyes while I try to gently scrape it off his eye.  Then his cheeks.  Oh, one more spot-- his nose.

"Let's go to Winco tonight at come home and make one!"  he says with his eyes still closed as I'm  seriously trying to scrape the small dots of sprayed protein shake off his eyelid.  How the heck did this protein shake spray all over?  Why did it dry so fast-- on his face?!  I think this to myself and then realize he is serious, he really wants me to make a cheesecake.  Tonight.  And it's already 8 o'clock and we just started eating dinner!  Cheesecake takes at least 45 minutes to bake after you make it and we haven't even gone to the store yet.

At this moment I had a choice.  Okay, so it wasn't that big of a deal, it's a cheesecake for goodness sake.  He probably wouldn't have really cared either way.   But I still had a choice: honor my man by going with him to the store so we make his indulgence-- or whine about how by the time we come home from shopping and make it then bake it...  Blah blah blah.

So, we went to the store.

We made a cheesecake... Together.  David make an awesome walnut crust with bran.  Okay, so he likes to experiment with food.  :)  It turned out and it was lovely.

Sometimes there is joy in going to Winco on a Friday night at 9:00.  It took a character check on my part, though.  Be here, present for the small things like making a cheesecake.  I'm so glad I didn't let that pass me by.

One of my goals for 2011 is to find joy in something-- every day.  Joy in a cheesecake. 

Yum. :)

David

Here he is, my favorite field traveller... My adorable husband David. Yes, that's a lot of wine in the picture! :) We went to a wine tasting event last weekend. One of the perks of being married to a traveller is that they make up for being gone by taking you on trips or weekend excursions with all their travel points! Oh David would probably disagree and say that he makes up for that in other ways 'wink wink' but that's just the guy in him coming out ha! We got to taste all the local Washington state wines that were being judged for awards. David was in heaven. He loves a good Syrah or Malbec. I can't believe I just said that. A year ago, before we moved here, we wouldn't have known the difference!

The trips and mini vacations are super fun, yet being married to a traveller brings its own set of interesting dynamics to marriage. Although we've been married for two and a half years, we've only just begun to get into the swing of being married. Every 6 months it seems we've had a big change occur and then it takes some time getting used to. We both have had huge job changes in the past year and a half, moved, bought a home, David finished his MBA... And now here we are, finally slowing down and just being in one place for a while. Getting used to just being and being okay with things staying the same for a bit. Figuring out each other when it's been four days since we've seen each other. For instance, we made a deal that Friday nights are chill nights, since that's when David comes home and he's tired of being out on the road and eating in restaurants. He just wants to chill and eat cereal on the couch. By Friday, I am ready to go out since I've been at home all week and am ready to go out on the town. So we compromised and Saturday is our night to go out. Or the fact that I am home so I'm constantly organizing and re-organizing our house, so when he comes home he can't find anything because most likely, I've moved it. He may come home and there's not much in the fridge, because either I haven't gone to the store or the food's gone bad since I'm the only one eating it (oh but there will always be cheese. I adore cheese. And berries too!). I wonder if these are normal things all couples deal with just on a different scale. Or is this just the life of a field traveller's wife?

I love this man so very much. I mean look at him, he's a hunk! :) Here he is outside on our deck, after we'd had dinner with friends outside on one of the few warm nights we've had here in Oregon. He even cleaned up the kitchen after dinner and went with me to a local farm to pick strawberries earlier in the day. What man will sacrafice a portion of his afternoon to pick berries for goodness sake?! This field traveller is a gem. And I am lucky to be his wife. :)