Raising a World Changer

I’m a MOM! It’s been a hot second since I’ve written anything in this blog but with encouragement from my hubs, I’m starting it back up. I’m not going to try and catch you up on everything from the past two years but I’ll give just a quick catch up: I gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy on June 15, 2019 – 7 lbs. 14 oz of sweetness. His name is Williams Terry and to just say I love him is an understatement. He’s now 7 months old and it has been a crazy rollercoaster ride of parenthood so far. I quit my job after almost two years of working at the University of Portland and just about the same time, Ryan started as a budget coordinator at the University – it was a great switch! We also bought a house when William was just 6 weeks old, I coordinated and executed a 5K race about the same time and I am now short a gallbladder – it’s been a whirlwind, y’all!

I want to concentrate on my son real quick – There will be lots more to come, I have big plans for this blog and lots more to say but I want to start with this – I am raising a WORLD CHANGER.

Right now, William’s hands are so much smaller than mine, but soon, they will be much bigger. I want William to realize that both of his own two hands (and his words) can impact the world. He can use his hands to build people up instead of tearing people down – he can use them to pick up a friend off the ground, to work hard and earn a living, to play,  to change the world for good, to show God’s love, to write, to dream, to do SO MUCH. I just can’t imagine the potential I have to help my son realize his potential. I hope I can be a good example! Since we are only seven months in parenting this sweet boy, I know almost nothing.. I rely on so many people for wisdom and knowledge on how to raise a child and how to raise this child into a man. I have so many hopes and dreams for him and I desperately want him to know that I will love him, no matter what and more importantly, that God loves him deeply. Right now it’s all about feeding him, getting him to sleep and changing his diapers, but soon, it will be all about training him to be a great boy and eventually a great man. It’s a huge undertaking and one that Ryan and I did not take on lightly. We understand raising a child is HARD WORK but we are up to the task. We can’t wait to see what kind of impact William Terry Boettcher is going to have on the world.

Here’s to raising great children who know they are deeply loved.

-C

Portland or Bust

Hi Friends,

You may have noticed via social media that my husband, our dog, and I have moved to the great Pacific North West! Portland…. to be more specific. We packed our things, rented a Uhaul, drove 10 hours, and settled in a little condo in SW Portland. We’ve only been here two weeks but we are so in love with this city.

I have always been one for adventure and I will always believe marriage is my biggest adventure, but moving away from everything I’ve known for the past 26 years has been a hard, fun, nerve-wracking, and exciting adventure. With the exception of living in Redding for 4 months, I have never moved away from home.. I have enjoyed the comfort of Chico, CA but my little adventurous heart (along with my husband’s) kept pulling us to move away and start a new adventure in a new city… so we did!

It was perfect timing: Ryan graduated at the end of May and we knew for awhile that we wanted to move away once he graduated with his Business/Finance degree. So, we decided to take a leap of faith after we returned home from our Europe trip (middle of June)  and we both quit our jobs in anticipation of finding new ones in Portland. We had to move out of our home by June 30th and by that time, we still hadn’t found jobs or a home in Portland yet… so we begged some friends of friends to let us move into their home for a month. Now we really had a time frame… 30 days to find new jobs and a new home in a new city. We spent those 30 days driving to Portland at least once a week to interview for jobs and look for a place to live.

Around the middle of July, I was contacted by the University of Portland for an interview in which they would pay for my flight and lodging to go to them for the interview process… of course I said yes! I went through a few interviews and then I went home… and wasn’t contacted for the remainder of our time in Chico (which was pretty disheartening). We decided that once we signed a rental agreement that we would just move to Portland- whether or not we had jobs (unemployed in Chico or unemployed in Portland… might as well be in the city we want to be in!). So, on July 31st, we packed up and drove to Portland and much to my surprise, about two hours in to the drive, I was called by the University of Portland and offered the job! Fully giving the credit to Jesus for His perfect timing in our lives. It was a crazy happy moment. I started on Tuesday, August 15th and you’re looking at the new Office Manager for Events at the University of Portland… a job that is just perfect for me! Ryan is still on the hunt and we are hoping that he finds the perfect job for him soon:)

(a few pic of our home below):

 

So now we are here.. in Portland… for who knows how long. It’s weird and exciting and scary. Some of you might ask, why Portland? I’ve got a few reasons for you.

1. FOOD CARTS
2. Amazing outdoor adventures to be had (Forest Park, Columbia Gorge, etc.)
3. The weather.. why endure 100 degrees for 3 months straight when you can have the cold?!
4. To try something new
5. Powell’s Book Store
6. Did I mention the food?!
7. CCCOOOOFFFFFFEEEEEEEEE
8. Why not?

We just wanted something new, to challenge and to stretch ourselves as human beings. I don’t expect this transition to be easy, but at least I have my husband, my best friend, by my side to endure and adventure together! And all of this is very fun for us, but trust me, I miss my family so so much. I am the first of my siblings to move away and there will definitely be an adjustment period for my whole fam. Regular Facetime dates will become a thing!

We are excited to find a church and connect within a small group, to join an adult sports league to meet new friends, and to make friends with co-workers. And as much as we’re excited to put forth the effort to make new friends, we miss our friends from home already. With that said… please visit us! We have a spare room and would love to have people come visit us:)

 

Always Adventuring,

-C & R

 

The Beginning of our Europe Adventure!

Holy smokes friends, we made it to Europe! It took a 10 hour flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam, a 3 hour layover and then a 1.5 hour flight from Amsterdam to Prague to make it to the actual start of our journey. This was Monday into Tuesday’s. Most of Europe is 9 hours ahead of the United States and our bodies were so darn confused! We arrived at our hotel and we tried to make ourselves stay up until a normal bedtime (9:00pm) which is 12 noon in the US to make our bodies adjust quickly to the time change.

We are traveling with Ryan’s mom (Karen), Paul and Brooke (Ryan’s brother and future sister in law) and family friend Phyllis. We will be joined by many more friends when we actually get on our river cruise. We are traveling with Viking River cruise from Nuremberg, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. After the cruise portion ends, Ryan, Karen and I will be traveling to Rome and Paris as well (yay!). 

Like I said, our first stop was Prague, Czech Republic and wow, I am just amazed at the beauty and history of this country. There are building built in 920 a.d next to buildings that were made in the 1990’s. They still have hundreds of old buildings that survived both World Wars(somehow!) and we found out that Prague was only bombed once and it was by mistake from US pilots.  There are also so many statues all around the city and so many old churches, I couldn’t stop gazing in awe of these amazing places! 

Our first day of sight seeing was a roaring success. Ryan and I set off alone in the morning (after having coffee of course!) and headed towards the Charles Bridge…a famous walking bridge in the city. I had read about the towers on either side of the bridge and that you can pay a small fee to climb to the top.. so we did. The views were worth the many steps! 

We got a bird’s eye view of the river and surrounding city areas… it was gorgeous! We then set up a giant hill to find Prague Castle– a sight to behold! We couldn’t figure out how to buy tickets but we were invited to join a free city tour from a man named Scott. We learned a little about the castle and wandered around for a good while. We learned half the castle was built a long time ago and the other half was finished in the 1920’s. There is also an indoor jousting arena in the palace that surrounds the Prague Castle.. how cool is that?! Another interesting fact we learned from our super cool guide, Scott, was that several times throughout Czech history there was an event that happened… czech’s throwing people out of windows… they did this so often that they had to make up a word for it, and that word is defenestration. Here is the castle: 

That about sums up our first day.. other than LOTS of stops in different cafes for coffee:) 

The second day we were in Prague, we decided to take another tour from Scott, but not before we caught a glimpse of the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square(which was under construction, but still worth it!). 

With Scott, we wondered around the “new” parts of Prague (built anywhere from the 1400’s to the 1800’s). We saw an interesting building towards the end of our tour called the dancing house. It was finished in 1998 and the solid, stone part represents the unchanging communism and the glass part represents the rigid but flowing capitalism. 

After the tour, we set our sights on finding a cafe that was a recommendation from a friend. It’s called Cafe Savoy and let me tell you, they had the best mocha I have ever tasted! Cafe Savoy had everything you would think of when you think about an old European cafe… strong marble table tops, extravagant building details, fashionable waiters and waitresses and food and coffee to die for! 

We ended our time of wandering in Prague by indulging in the local cuisine.. TRDELNIK! Cinnamon sugar dough cooked with a hollow inside and filled with chocolate, caramel, or ice cream. Ryan and I enjoyed this treat immensely! 

The very last thing we did in Prague was travel to a tiny village to experience the Czech history. We dined in what used to be a barn and were serenaded by old men playing old instruments. We watched people dance like they would “back in the day”. It was quite the experience and so ended our time in Prague. 

Next up, Germany! 

-C 

Ashland, Oregon to Table Mountain, Oroville

Have you ever had that itch where you’ve just had to get away? The feeling that you need a moment to breathe and some new place to explore? Ryan and I felt that a few weekends ago… so we picked Ashland, Oregon to explore! Did you know that the southern end of Oregon is a mere 3 1/4 hours from Chico?  AND because it’s north, not south like the Bay Area, there’s basically NO traffic (what a win!). We packed up our car with our stuff and our pup (Frankie the red Queensland Heeler) and journeyed north.

Ashland is known for it’s funky, hipster feels and Shakespearian atmosphere… they have Shakespeare plays continuing for 8 months out of the year. Many people travel here to see these famous plays. And while that’s cool and all…. Ryan and I spent our time sipping wine and lattes, eating the local cuisine, and roaming the great outdoors. We left Chico about noon and we didn’t get into Ashland until about 4:00 and where did we head straight to? Weisinger’s, a fantastic local winery. We were half the people there (which isn’t a bad thing when you visit somewhere in their “off season”) so we had the outdoor deck all to ourselves which overlooked the rolling hills beyond the highway. We ended up with a bottle of their Syrah to share with my parents.

We stayed at the Ashland Hills Hotel and Suites which definitely fit the funky feel of Ashland and they allowed dogs, yay! After we settled into our hotel room, we ventured to the small downtown of Ashland. I’m from a small town, so I have grown to love other small town downtown areas. They have so much culture and you can get a feel for the locals with all the different stores. We ate at a restaurant called Harvey’s Place the first night where we dined on tater tots and mac and cheese (I know, I know, we eat like 12 year olds) but we highly recommend this place for fellow Ashland adventurers.

On Sunday, we headed to a coffee spot called Noble Coffee Roasting that at least 5 people told us we HAD to go while we were here and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. I have a confession… I’ll drink any kind of coffee as long as it has sugar in it (I’m partial to Dutch Bros… keep your comments to yourself) so the vanilla latte I had was superb as I can’t tell the difference between amazing coffee and average coffee. I count heavily on Ryan to tell me if a coffee shop is good or not as he normally drinks straight espresso. I just love the vibes in a coffee shop and I love to people watch.

We ate lunch in a very hip restaurant called the Brick Room that my sister and brother in law recommended to us. Ryan and I are definitely foodies (which is why I have to run otherwise I would weigh 500 pounds) and we LOVED the food here. Check out their menu here if you ever visit Ashland. After eating, we meandered through the shops in the downtown area (which is super dog friendly, fyi) and made our way to Rogue Valley Runners which is my second favorite running store (second to Fleet Feet, obvi!). Rogue Valley Runners is owned by a phenomenal ultra marathoner by the name of Hal Koerner and his store is a runner’s paradise!

Our last stop was at Emigrant Lake to get some energy out of our crazy dog before we headed back to Chico. It was foggy, windy, rainy and gorgeous. We just walked the levee but I wish we could have stayed longer. Check this place out in the summertime, I hope to go back!

 

The next weekend: Table Mountain in Oroville.

I have been here a lot… basically every spring since my freshmen year in college. It’s definitely up there on my favorite places in the world. You haven’t been there and you live in the Chico area… SHAME ON YOU. Get your butt to table mountain, right now.

Directions: Take 99 south and exit on the Butte College ramp, turn left onto Durham/Dayton Rd and follow it past Butte College. You’ll come to a four way stop, continue straight through that and at the second stop sign, you’ll turn right (which is Pentz Rd). Once on Pentz, it’ll dead end into Highway 70- take a left here. Once you take the left onto HWY 70, look for the first right you can make onto Cherokee Rd (there aren’t any signs for Table Mountain). Follow Cherokee rd until you see a small parking lot with port-o-potties and you’ve reached the beginning point of Table Mountain Ecological Reserve.

Pictured below: Phantom Falls

It’s privately owned property that they open to the public (and cows) year round, but the only time it’s worth visiting is from the middle of March to the end of April. This flat “table” area explodes with wildflowers and it’s a sight to behold! There are several water falls in the area, the most common to hike to is called Phantom Falls and I’ve never hiked to it before until this past weekend.  It’s not very far, it was only about a 3.5 mile hike round trip and people of all ages and stages of life can definitely make it to at least the first water fall (Phantom Fall is the furthest water fall from the parking area). Take your time on this hike and enjoy the scenery. All I can say is that God’s creation is glorious.

Fun thing that happened at the end of our hike — we saw someone trying to back their car out of spot and realized it was our neighbor… so Ryan helped her back out of the spot and we thought that was it. Once we got home, she came over and gave us a book to say thank you. Guys, she’s a botanist and she WROTE THE BOOK and it’s all about the wildflowers on Table Mountain. How random and cool is that? The book is called the Wildflowers of Table Mountain and it’s pretty nifty.

Gaze upon the beauty that is Table Mountain… and keep in mind… these pictures don’t do it justice.

Happy Adventuring,

-C

To Be A Teammate

This is just the ramblings of a woman in love trying to figure out what takes to make a great marriage so great. As many of you know, I am married to an amazing, loving, caring and patient man whose name is Ryan. He is the love of my life and I can’t imagine living out this crazy adventure with anyone but him. Our love story isn’t oozing with romance (I’m more practical than romantic), but Ryan won me over with his well written love letters and through his encouragement of my adventurous spirit. He knows what makes me tick, he loves me despite my quirks, he showers me with love on the daily, and I know he works hard everyday to be a good teammate.

Love Story Background: We knew each other through high school, but trust me, we did NOT like each other in high school. Our graduating class was only 25 people so everyone in our class knew each other pretty well. I was annoying and Ryan was stern and we both liked different people during high school. Now… three years after high school… I had stayed in Chico and Ryan had moved to Sacramento to go to school. Sacramento was quite the experience for Ryan but once he decided to actually focus on school, back to Chico he went (lucky for me!). Ryan contacted me once he moved back as I was one of the only high school friends left in Chico and asked to get connected to people I knew. I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ at Chico State (now known as CRU) and living in the Girl’s CRU House and I plugged him into our Junior Year bible study which was at my house. We hung out a lot with people in my friend group during this time and Ryan was able to make some connections with the men in this group. He told me once I saved his life by connecting him to these people.

During this time, my friends often told me that they thought he was cute and I should date him and all I could say was, “Ew gross, we’re just friends!”.  To add confusion to our love story, I started dating someone from out of town just about the time Ryan moved back to Chico(which worked in my favor)… Ryan realized he had feelings beyond friendship when he found out I was dating someone…. and he decided that he actually liked me! Lucky for Ryan,it only took a month for me to figure out this person I was dating from out of town was NOT the person for me. Just a month after breaking up with this person, Ryan and I were dating! Ryan asked me to go on a walk, late one night, and told me about his feelings towards me. He asked me if I could risk our amazing friendship for an actual relationship. I told him I was willing to take that risk and I am SO glad I did! I knew within 6 weeks of dating Ryan that he would be my husband (it’s true, I have it written in my journal!).

We dated for 10 months, were engaged for 5 months and now we’ve been married over 2 and a half years! I do have to say, our wedding was my favorite event of my whole life thus far. We had a blast (I tell Ryan I wish we could have that wedding again every summer and he always says no). And marriage, let me tell you, is so so sweet. We have so much fun and I can’t believe we still get a life time together. I tell you our love story so now I can focus on what happens after marriage.

 

Why I care about being a teammate: Many people told us that marriage is HARD and it was just a little disheartening to hear as we were in the “honeymoon” stage and planning our wedding. I think they forgot to tell us how amazing marriage could be too! We decided that this wasn’t a phrase we wanted to tell other newly engaged or newly married people… that’s a scary phrase! Marriage can be so fun and so rewarding.. we highly recommend it:) Yes, marriage requires a bit of work, but God put you together for a reason and you can accomplish so much together when  you chose to focus on your mission together. An aspect Ryan and I like to focus on in our marriage is being on the same team and working hard to be a good teammate. Ryan and I grew up playing sports, so this terminology is something we understand. When we work together as a team, we get to win as a team. Being on the same team for us means communicating well in all aspects of life such as: asking your husband if he wants eggs in the morning while you’re making some for yourself, giving a run down of your agenda for the day, sharing prayer requests together, or it could be divide and conquer with chores and errands. The list goes on and on but for me, it’s naturally so easy to act as an individual and not as a team.

While I understand what it means to be on a team, I can be selfish and act completely independent of Ryan. Ask anyone… my best skill is planning and organizing. Heck, it was my job for the first two years after graduating from college. It’s easy for me to schedule hangouts, vacations, family time, etc. without the consent or thought of my husband. Lucky for me, one of Ryan’s best qualities is his easy going nature and he gives me plenty of grace in this area. I know normally it won’t bug him if I plan a few friend events without asking him first, but I know after awhile the introvert in him doesn’t want to be around people anymore. I can also be a bit bossy (whoops) and controlling which is also not a good behavior to have when trying to act as a team. It’s something we’re working on… as a team. Ryan has permission to call me out and I’m working on my attitude on how I respond to that.

Some things we’ve come up with to be a good teammate are:

1. Spending less time on social media and watching less television.  We also turn off all media to simply BE with each other. This is something that’s much harder for me than Ryan… I don’t listen to music when doing chores, I like to pop on a tv show to play in the background. For Ryan, it’s really distracting and we end up watching tv or scrolling through Facebook more than we end up talking to each other (what?!).
2. Doing things that are “side by side” as opposed to always “face to face”. This is something we learned in our pre-marital counseling from Will Wilson. Ryan, like most men, prefer to do things side by side such as: building something together, walking together, etc. I like to have “face to face” time (like most women) and I want Ryan to talk to me for hours straight while we sip coffee at a local coffee shop. We have to be willing to change it up and do something something different than the norm.
3. Do things with just the two of us. As you can tell, I love adventuring! I also love being around people… but sometimes it’s just nice to have a 4-5 hours car ride with just your own thoughts (and music preferences, duh!).
4. Praying together. It still is something that’s not quite routine for us, but it’s something we decided to commit to about a year ago. When we pray together, we get to hear what’s on each other’s hearts and how Jesus is pushing us in our mission in life. It’s a sweet time and intimate for us. It helps strengthen our marriage when we pray together.
5. Laugh a little. Golly gee, sometimes people are SO serious. What attracted me most to Ryan was his care free and jolly nature. Ryan is a goofball and so am I (sometimes I still wonder how I didn’t scare him away!) and we just love to HAVE FUN with each other.

Ryan and I are only 2.5 years into this whole together for a lifetime thing and obviously we’re still figuring out how to be good teammates. But with a little elbow grease and some laughs, I’m sure we’ll figure it out:) I hope that reading this brought you some peace about being on a team with your spouse or significant other and just know that it’s on my heart to be praying for newly wed couples while they’re figuring life out together (just like we still are!). We love this adventure of a life we have together and I hope this mission God has sent us on can bless someone else.

 

Ryan’s Note: The way you treat marriage defines the nature of it.  If you decide that your marriage is “hard” that’s how you will play it out.  I like to think of it as something I enjoy.  To play off Carly’s sports analogies, playing a sport can be difficult, but it’s your love of the game that drives you to be better both for yourself and your teammates.  Marriage is fun, marriage to Carly is funner. Falling in love was not hard, it was fun.  Prepare for hard times, they will come.  Serve each other, work for each other, hold each other, push each other, and listen to each other.  Maybe check out Galatians 5:22-23, there is some good wisdom in there.  Practice good things and you’ll do well in the games.  Don’t skip the basics and refer to them often.  Mostly, life is short so have some fun and make an impact.   You’re amazing, and if you don’t believe me, ask your best friend.

 

Praying for happy marriages,

-C (and R)

Happenings in Healdsburg, CA

Ryan and I decided 2 years ago that our big Christmas gift to each other would be a trip somewhere. We both figured we have enough stuff and we LOVE to travel, so this annual trip idea was birthed. This year we decided to keep it simple and go somewhere close to home (last year we went to Seattle, look out for a “Past Adventures” page coming soon!), so we picked the town of Healdsburg in wine country.

I think we may have picked the worst weekend ever to go adventuring as the “storm of the decade” was expected to hit full force. Luckily, I married an amazing man who has my trust whole heartedly and would never do anything to put our lives in jeopardy, so I felt save driving through the storm. Because of the storm, there were hardly any people around, lots of the wineries and restaurants were free for the picking. Luckily, Ryan’s brother knows someone who lives in Healdsburg and they were nice enough to let us stay in their guesthouse… it can be quite expensive to stay anywhere near Napa. This little guesthouse which was over their garage was perfect for us and just a ten minute walk to downtown Healdsburg. The guesthouse was stocked with everything we needed: a bathroom with towels, opening skylights so we could hear the rain, movies with the option of chromecast and our sweet hosts also gave us a bottle of Korbel champagne!

We headed down from Chico on Friday afternoon and arrived in Healdsburg just in time for dinner. We were told Campo Fina was one of the best restaurants in town and let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint! It was a quaint little Italian spot with a great local vibe. Our waiter was spectacular, both in attitude and looks (he was a ginger with a great ‘stache and a man bun) and the food was out of this world. Ryan had wild boar bolognese and I had winter squash gnocchi…pair this with some good wine and we were golden!

Since it IS vacation, we slept in late and moseyed over to Costeaux, a cute french bakery, for breakfast. They had killer coffee and a pretty authentic line up of breakfast options, including brie cheese which happens to be one of my favorite cheeses! We ordered a chocolate croissant to go (because why not??)… biggest bummer of the day was accidentally dropping that chocolate masterpiece in a puddle:(

The highlight of this weekend getaway was definitely visiting the Castello di Amorosa (read all about it here) which is a completely authentic medieval style castle that took 15 years to build and opened officially in 2007. I highly recommend paying just a little extra to have the guided tour (it costs about $25 just to be admitted) because you can go places in the castle that others can’t! We were able to tour the whole place, including their wine cellars which are over 45 feet underground. We also had our own private tasting room after the tour… they only sell their wine at the castle itself, so we took advantage of that opportunity. Plus, our guide’s name was Carly, she even spells it the right way, it can’t get any better than that! The whole tour and tasting was about 2 hours… totally worth the time considering it was raining.

We decided our wine tasting adventure couldn’t be over yet so we decided to head over to   J Vineyards and Winery to have us some sparkling wine (my personal fave!). Again, we paid a little extra for a different experience at this winery because the normal tasting area was pretty busy. We spent our time in the Legacy Tasting Room and splurged with our flights of champagne to also include a cheese spread (YUM!). Because Ryan and I don’t drink often, this was the second and last winery we visited. We decided to spend the rest of our afternoon at Flying Goat Coffee where we did another of our favorite things.. playing Shanghai! Shanghai is a card game passed down through Ryan’s family and we teach it to everyone we possible can. If you’re ever interested in hanging out with us and learning how to play, just message me.

For dinner on Saturday night, we went to a tapas bar called Bravas. I have to admit that we were a little unsure of this place especially because we didn’t know what half the menu said! But, it turned out to be AMAZING! They had this potato dish called Patatas Bravas that was to die for (I told you that Ryan and I are foodies!), you have to try it if you are in Healdsburg.

Our breakfast joint in the Shed on Sunday morning was the last of our excursions in Healdsburg. I was about to nix this place because it looked way too hipster for our taste BUT I am so glad we gave it a chance. It is a farm to table style place and the food and coffee went beyond our expectations. I had the Grain Belgian Waffle and OMG, I wanted about 10 more after it and Ryan said the same thing about his biscuits and gravy. Don’t pass this place up!

We had a wonderful, rejuvenating experience in Healdsburg and we feel ready to take on 2017!

~C