Thejakhouse's Blog

What a Storm

thejakhouse — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:58:35 +0000

Boy, was that a winter storm or what? We got snow, about 2 inches, but it melted and we all had to go to work. It seemed that in every other direction there was something major happening.

In Olympia, where Aaron’s family is, they got 14 inches of snow! That turned to ice and then they lost power. Aaron’s dad just got his power back on after almost a week without it! Now don’t get me wrong, I love snow and I want it, but once it turns to ice, that is it. We are glad that everyone is safe.

In Corvallis, the main roads going to our old house flooded…bad and it is still due to the continuing rain. Even OSU closed its doors! That is when you know it is bad because campus never closes.

Now we just have rain, rain, rain, RAIN! I feel like any moment I am going to be washed away.

Boy Are We Glad to See This Face

thejakhouse — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:04:04 +0000

We here at the JAK house were surprised when we received a phone call last week from our dear friend Sami. Sami and Aaron grew up together and he also lived with us while we were in college. Also, he is Jack’s favorite person on earth besides Aaron and I of course. Jack loves uncle Sami.

Anywho, we were surprised because Sami has been in Lebanon, (the country, not the city in Oregon) with an internship with the UN and was going to be there until April. We had just Skyped with him a few times, but we were beginning to miss him dearly. Just as we were saying this while grocery shopping, Aaron’s phone rang with Sami’s name as the caller. He was surprising us! He flew home because he got a job with the mayor of Portland!

I was so excited that I began jumping up and down in the store. Jump to a week later, we spent the majority of the weekend with him and it is just so good to have him back! He even got his own page on the Mayor’s website…check it out…

Youth Strategies Coordinator

Welcome back Sami!

The Honesty of a 5 Year Old

thejakhouse — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:41:08 +0000

I was subbing in one of my favorite classes today. It was Kindergarten and I have been in this class many times now and I know the kids, they know me and so on. Well it was the afternoon kids and we were doing an assignment on telling time (on the hour, they are only 5, remember) that the teacher had left for me.

Everything was going great and the kids were really getting it. Then one student, who is quite a turkey at times, raised his hand and said in the most sweet and innocent voice…

“Ms. Johnson, uhhh this couldn’t be any more boring.”

The parent helper looked at me and all I could do was smile and try not to laugh because a 5 year old at two in the afternoon is really ready for a nap and I could totally see where he was coming from. Luckily, the parent helper went over and said something so I could continue on with the lesson like nothing had happened.

In the end we had a talk and he finished the day on a good note. Oh, too funny.

Resolutions

thejakhouse — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:41:04 +0000

Welcome to 2012! The past year literally flew by and it is time to make some resolutions.

Besides getting back into our gym routine after taking a break for Christmas we want to take more pictures. When we started dating (almost six years ago), we loved to take pictures and it was all over when we got Jack and were the creepy parents who were obsessed with their kid. But over the past year we have just not taken the time to capture memories and we even bought a great camera to do so with and it just sits a lot of the time collecting dust. Also, our iphones have a great camera and that really leaves no excuses for this resolution.

With that being said, here is to a great year and capturing the moments, wether they are epic ones or just everyday life.

Alright, so maybe we are still the crazy parents who just can’t get enough of their boy, but look at that face!

A Week In Rewind

thejakhouse — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:21:55 +0000

Well now that our four Christmases are officially over, I can finally get back to reality. But first, I would like to share with you what the last week or so has been like.

Last Tuesday:

Work all day and then head to the store to purchase all of my baking needs for the annual holiday baking extravaganza. Head home, cook dinner, sleep.

Last Wednesday:

Work all day then arrive home to make 70, yes, 70 chocolate peanut butter balls. Make dough for chocolate crinkles. In the midst of this, my hand mixer begins to smoke and was basically on the brink of explosion. What am I to do now? I have to get a new mixer, I guess it is off to the mall to get another hand mixer. It was then that a Christmas miracle happened. Aaron said he would rather get a big mixer than keep spending money on a cheap hand mixer.

Well what do you know, Macy’s was having a huge sale on all kitchen appliances. I ran over there and saw that they had only the display model left in my color. After some looking over to make sure it was not damaged I took it for an extra 10% off after the sale price, which was $100 off. Total savings: $130!!! A Christmas miracle and a dream of mine.

LOVE! After I got home, I finished the dough then put it in the fridge to chill.

Last Thursday:

Work all day. Come home to baked chilled dough and made and baked snickerdoodles. A total of 15 dozen cookies were made and lord was that enough.

Friday:

Work all day. Come home to bake some poppyseed bread and the cakes for Christmas day. Two loaves of bread and three 9 inch round cakes were made. All these treats of course were made gluten free. I then had to do laundry, pack my bag, vacuum the house and get Jack’s food ready as well as box up all of my Christmas goodies.

Saturday: Christmas Eve

Pack the car and head to Olympia to spend Christmas with Aaron’s family. Saturday was his sister’s birthday and we enjoyed a nice evening and a great meal. I also made the filling for the cake I made the night before. This entailed constantly stirring the filling over a double boiler for over 20 minutes. Not my idea of fun, but the outcome was way worth it. I also put the cake together and made the frosting as well as frosted the cake that night.

Sunday: Christmas Day

Woke up and opened presents! It was great and I got so many wonderful things! Jack was happy to with his gifts.

There was nothing at this point that would make this pooch happier.

We then headed over to Aaron’s dad where we enjoyed more great food and the cake that took just about all my might to make, but it was great and worth all of the hard work.

Monday:

I went to workout with Aaron’s mom and boy did that make me feel good! We then packed up and headed home. Unpacked, went to the store and chilled for a bit.

Tuesday:

Work all day then headed to Tualatin to have Christmas with my dad, brother, his fiance and my sister. With traffic it was an hour drive. Dad made a great meal and Aaron and I enjoyed all of the gifts we received.

Wednesday:

Work all day and then headed back to Tualatin to have Christmas with my mom, brother, his fiance, my aunt, uncle and two cousins. Another hour drive in rush hour and rain. But it was wonderful to see everyone and eat clam chowder.

Thursday:

Back to reality

As you can see we here at the JAK house had a pretty hectic week, but we are go grateful to have such wonderful family to spend it with and we can’t thank anyone enough for the fantastic gifts we got.

Christmas Come Early

thejakhouse — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:39:20 +0000

Aaron and I, in recent years and yes I can use years because we have been together for almost six now, have just decided what we want as a couple for Christmas and purchased it together. Last year it was a Kinect for our Xbox. This year, since we are able to upgrade our phones and we decided to get each other the new iphone 4S…you know the one you can ask questions? It’s amazing!

Well, as of last week my life changed forever as a entered the iphone world. I am an Apple user in every way and now that I can add my phone to it, it just makes things easier. Yes, the apps are addicting, but having everything just sync up is great.

Here is what mine looks like

Here is Aaron’s which, is on its way from China as we speak

We thought that there would be plenty of these phones in stock for Christmas, but we were quite mistaken. Literally, every store that sold these phones were sold out and had not idea when more would become available…crazy, right?

So, I did some research and saw that ordering it from Apple itself was the way to go and within a week of ordering it, it was made and sent directly from China. Aaron’s being the popular color took some more time and will be here this week.

As we are the generation of the tech savvy, we have never been this up-to-date in the cell phone department.

Merry Christmas!

The Greatest Christmas Tree Ever

thejakhouse — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:41:54 +0000

Aaron and I took our Sunday morning and got a bit rugged by going to a U-cut tree farm and chopping down our very own Christmas tree. We scoured the farm to find the perfect noble and we were looking for something grand and quickly because it was quite chilly and I needed to get my complimentary hot chocolate and candy cane.

It didn’t take us long to find the grandest tree of them all.

Isn’t that just the most perfect tree you have ever seen? Yeah, we think so too. Now it was time to chop it down, which by the time the tree was down, Aaron was beat.

We then carried it over to some very nice gentlemen who shook and netted this grand tree and put it into our car. It was then time to pay for it and enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate and a candy cane.

It took some time to get the tree setup and decorated, but the end result is completely worth the blood, sweat and tears it took to complete it.

I know it leans a bit to the right, but I feel that it fits the JAK house perfectly.

Darn you winter!

thejakhouse — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:58:33 +0000

Winter, while you are almost upon us with your chilly days and I hope lots of snow, it is our waistlines here at the JAK house that we just cannot take. With winter comes comfort foods, holiday baking and hot toddies. My goal is to not get baking until it is closer to Christmas, so I can save myself the temptation of tasty treats. Aaron and I have been a lot better, I haven’t filled the cookie jar in months, but is the leftover pie in the fridge from Thanksgiving calling my name? Yes, it is…

Here are some of the things I am excited for.

There are so many more things, but I am actually drooling on the keyboard, so I should stop now.

Anyways, we have also been hitting the gym during the week not only because it makes us feel good, it is also preventative maintenance with the ‘all I want to do is curl up on the couch and eat because it is cold outside’. This however leaves our boy Jack home a bit longer and that just hurts our hearts, I hope to be home sometime this week while it is still light out so we can get him out.

Happy baking!

Thanksgiving

thejakhouse — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:17:41 +0000

Well with teaching, getting a cold and having Thanksgiving at my house, it has been a busy past week or so. Aaron and I hosted Thanksgiving for my mom, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle and two cousins. That makes 9 people for our house, 11 if you include Jack and my mom’s dog Ollie. It was a tight squeeze, but we had a great time.

I was in charge of the turkey, stuffing (which was gluten free and cost an arm and a leg) and the desserts, three pumpkin pies (one just for Aaron) and an apple crumble. It was a completely gluten free meal and my family couldn’t even tell, which was a huge compliment! It was great to finally be a grown up and share my home and cooking skills with my family.

Of course we had the camera near, but being so busy we didn’t take any pictures. Luckily, my cousin took some for a photography class…this is all we have.

As you can see, Aaron was very skeptical of my stuffing. Happy Thanksgiving!

Meet Jerry

thejakhouse — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 03:18:09 +0000

This is Jerry. He is the newest addition to our Christmas/winter decor that I cannot wait to set up! I picked him up at the Camas antique store where he has many more friends, just like him and some even have a bow tie…let’s just say that this makes me excited.

The name Jerry just came to my mind and I hope he enjoys his new home.