4.18.2007

weird

Today's weather has been crazy! It was so sunny and warm outside early today, I was even able to take a walk up the street to my boss' house. But this afternoon it began thundering and hailing bullets. We have Nate's dog here now, housed in the back yard, and I had no idea how she'd respond to the weather...It was a little edgy there for a few minutes.

When the weather broke, I took this gorgeous picture of the clouds from our back porch. The second picture is of our dinky porch with the hail piled up. Craziness.


4.14.2007

teensie weensie

Look how small this rabbit is...I stopped by G&G Macs today and I caught them staring out their window at the front yard. They were on their way out the door toward me before I was out of the car. Grandpa and I crouched down in the grass and took a closer look at this tiny rabbit!



Apparently the mom took off without this little one and it has been sitting in nearly the same spot for the last few days waiting for her. G&G think it's totally incapable of taking care of itself...which means it will inevitably die. Sad! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the mom-rabbit comes back for the little one.

Seriously. It's itty bitty.

4.11.2007

babies

It seems like there are babies everywhere, whether they're new, baking, or just a thought spoken out loud, they can't be avoided! The catch is, they're cute! Just this past weekend, Nate and I made the drive out to Newberg to meet Indira Dagget. Our visit was super delayed, so she was nearly a month old by the time we met her. She was super expressive and already working on strengthening her neck muscles. I've attached a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:)






On our way home from Newberg, we stopped in a Dutch Bros. for a quick pick-me-up. And then we remembered that we needed a few groceries for Easter dinner with the fam. We crossed Tualatin-Sherwood Rd. and visited Haggen...It's been forever since we've been there! We used to walk there from our apartment when we lived in Tualatin. We decided to reminisce a little more by driving past my old work place and our apartment. Ah, good times. We actually REALLY miss living in that apartment! We don't by any means miss the size of the place, or the cigarette smoke from our neighbors on all sides, but the apartment was a great first home for us. Even now, though, months later, we can't help but be grateful for our house!




[psst...our apartment was the one on the second level, pretty much hidden by the beautiful tree that I miss oh so much!]

I forgot to mention before that we stopped by Mom and Dad's on our way out to Newberg. Nate finished painting their kitchen and surrounding spaces not too long ago, so they were just recently able to work on their kitchen ceiling. It was a drop ceiling for too long. They took out the florescent lighting and put tin up. They added can lights over the main counter and put in another fixture where the florescents were before. Tadaa! It's beautiful.





Oh yeah, it was soaking outside. Poor Rameus. Actually, after visiting Newberg and Tualatin, Nate and I went back to Mom and Dad's to share hotdogs around the bonfire and dye eggs. Just good, clean fun. Kinda. Mom had the ingenious idea of putting rubberbands around the eggs to create cool patterns, but two out of three rubberbands hated being submerged in vinegar. They snapped. The first one was in a deep purply-blue dye and it went everywhere...We cleaned it up quickly, though, so our clothes and the countertops were spared.





I'll write more about Easter day tomorrow. For now, enjoy your day! Blessings!

4.05.2007

Career Conference, Bellevue, 2007

I finally sent myself some of the pictures I took at the conference, so now I can blog about it:) I apologize for the poor photo quality...Nate had several bids that he needed the camera for, so I used my phone to take pictures.

Julianne and I connected right around 12:30 on Sunday afternoon. Nate was washing my car, so we waited for a few minutes before taking off. Once we got on the road, we had to stop at the gas station to fill up - it was then that I realized I had forgotten my purse at home. Do you know how long it's been since I've done that??? I can't even remember the last time. Both Friday and Saturday were very loopy days for me (it took multiple tries to get anything said or done - Necia can attest to this), so I warned Julianne that I would very likely need her constant supervision. She laughed, but I was oh-so-serious! She agreed once we discovered my purse was at home...lying by the front door...

So the drive up was fairly uneventful. Right around the Centralia outlet malls, we found ourselves slowing down to about 25mph. We never could figure out why there was so much traffic. South-bound I-5 was moving quickly while we puttered along for several miles and then things lightened up. We figured it was the end of spring break so everyone was heading home.

We arrived in Bellevue and promptly got lost. I pulled two u-turns on major roads, right in front of our hotel. They made the entrance as difficult to get to as possible, I swear! Actually, it really wasn't that bad. I just kept missing my opportunities to turn into the lot. When we parked it was at 5:01pm. I ran inside to check us in and to request a "cot" for the director sharing our room with us. Neither Julianne or I knew who she was, really, so we weren't sure how we were going to connect with her.



We dumped our stuff upstairs, changed, and walked the four blocks to the conference center. Mary Kay craziness! There were women everywhere. And a few men, one of whom became Sales Director while we were there. The first session was long. Just before it started, though, a couple women asked to take the seats next to us, and when they went by, we noticed that one of them was wearing a name tag...She was our roommate! We connected with her and she drove us back to the hotel that night.


Early the next morning, Julianne and I got up early in search of coffee and a warm breakfast. The day was beautiful! We eventually found a Starbucks, bought our coffee and breakfast sandwiches, and then walked back to the room to start getting ready for the day. We had to pack up our belongings, as well, because we had to check out before walking to the morning session. Our roommate took off in search of breakfast, so we packed up the room and checked ourselves out. We walked to the conference center (by this time, my feet were killing me from the stinkin' heels I had to wear), found seats, and sat through three short classes. We stayed for the 10:30am to 12noon session and then had to head back to Portland.

The drive home felt so short! We made the drive in good time and had wonderful weather along the way. The conference was incredibly beneficial...it really motivated me to grow my business. If any of you out there want free Mary Kay product, I have a dozen odd ways you can get some! Just let me know and I'll mail you a flyer:]

Anyway! Here's my favorite view of Oregon as we're crossing over the Columbia from Washington. Ah, clouds...Enjoy!

4.03.2007

Really, I'm still here.


Look who I found! Nate and I connected with Kristin (roommate from Canada) while we were in Cannon Beach last Saturday, and, lo' and behold, Corey Lockbeam showed up with his wife, Cara (sp?). I haven't seen Corey since Ecola graduation in 2003. It was soo fun to connect with him again! Turns out he has plans to attend Multnomah Bible School here in Portland in the fall, so he and Cara will be moving down from Yakima this August. Yeah!


Mom and Dad decided to take a jaunt out to Nehalem for an overdue camping trip, and Nate and I used that as an excuse to visit the coast. It rained while we drove out, but as soon as we had Saddle Mountain in sight, the weather cleared and we enjoyed sunshine and a strong "breeze" the rest of the day! Just look at the poor pup...It was gloriously refreshing to be back at the beach! As overdue as Mom and Dad's trip was, it felt more overdue for Nate and I to be back in Cannon Beach. We walked the dogs on the Nehalem sand, though. It had much more room for them to run. Dakota went absolutely nuts, and Rameus wasn't too far behind! He actually held his own. We took our time ambling down the beach and then headed into town to walk around a little.



It was sad when it came time to leave, to tell the truth. Nate and I don't have established plans to return until June. We were going to go to Rockaway in May, but I still have leadership classes on Saturday mornings, so the timing makes the trip impossible. All in good time, though, right? Now we have months and months of anticipation to look forward to:] And that'll make the trip even better! Oh, here's a picture that Dad took of Nate and I in Nehalem. We made the mistake of turning our backs to the water to take a picture. Dad had our little digital camera out in front of him, counting down until snapping the pic, when he suddenly shouted out, "RUNNN!" I screamed and jumped five feet forward, and Nate made a mad dash toward Dad. Dad started cracking up, he thought he was so funny. We thought the world was about to end when it was just a little tide coming in. I nearly peed my pants he startled me so bad. So this picture is the one he took on the count of, "One..." He wasted the following two seconds waiting until the perfect moment to tell us the wave was coming in.