Powdered balloons-yuck!

So this weeks been a bit crazy and I haven't made the time for some photos. I may try and start posting photos a bit more regularly as there are a lot of good photos. It's hard to not post them all at once. If you've got some of your own share the wealth!





I think these made it down to Brownie's room....and I don't think he was happy.

Ah-nold...

So I've got a soft spot for the governator. I'm nor sure why but I've also come to be fond of videos about him. A friend of mine found this recently and I think some of you wil enjoy this as well.

Foiled again!

I saw it again....the Mystery Machine. This time I was in downtown Portland with Britt and some friends. It drove by and I was beside myself. I had Britt grab the camera but I wasn't able to run down the block to catch a picture of it because I would have been squished by the Max. Until next time...

Picture of the week

So it begins-the picture of the week! Please post your comments/memories....should be fun. I definitely remember this hike. Fun times which also reminds me of going to Flying Pie with the dorm section for Doug (what's his name's) birthday. Remember the cowboy Barry Overall? Characters indeed.

So there I was....

A few weeks ago it was one of those moments that I found myself really wishing that I had a camera with me....I'm a few blocks from class and out pulls one of the coolest vehicles that I've ever seen in Portland. I've seen lots of interesting autos but I think this took the cake. I don't think that it was exactly like this but I think you get the idea.

Get Fuzzy 2

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and had to chuckle. I have no problems with Democrats and was surprised because I figured the author was one....unless he's poking fun at his own party. Regardless, pretty funny.

Speaking of violence....

So we were at dinner last night with family and my brother in law says that he saw a trailer for Rambo IV. I was beside myself because I didn't think there were any plans to ressurect that franchise. Then again Rocky 6 happened.....Over the Top 2 anyone?

I was curious though and wanted to investigate....Ian (brother in law) did say heads were rolling (literally) and that it was a violent trailer. He was not kidding. I'm not sure if what I saw was approved for America but it was definitely the most violent trailer I had seen. Interesting-if you check it out be forwarned.

I'm also sitting here watching tv and decided to check something else out. Now I probably should be doing homework (that's a prime thought for the next 13 weeks) but I decided to check the UFC. Huh. Also very violent and I'm not sure what I think about it. A bunch of huge dudes beating the snot out of each other. I'm not exactly sure what it says about our culture nor about men in the church as I know of a lot of guys who really enjoy watching it. Definitely seems Roman like but on a smaller scale. Any thoughts?

I think I want to cry....

Unfortunately it's possible that history is repeating itself.....let's hope for a happy ending.

September 2, 1979......

True to form I've once again managed to not tell Jed and Eli happy birthday on their birthday......it seems to be an annual ritual. Sorry fellas. I've many good memories of spending time with you and hope that we continue to get to hang out in the future. I hope that you were blessed on your birthdays. Happy Birthday!

p.s.-remember the day in the photo? :)

Fore!

I only yelled that once yesterday.....and didn't even really need to. I'm at Cannon Beach right now with the Thomas men-brothers, dad, grandpa. My dad, brothers, and I went golfing yesterday-27 holes. Golf is so fickle. One minute you can hit an incredible shot and think, "I can do this". Then you don't see another incredible shot for the next 15 shots. But then you hit another and the game keeps you wanting more. Overall it was good to hang out with my family and spend time together.....we did this last year as well after my mom passed away. I think this will turn in to a bit of a tradition which is cool. So until next year-"Fore!"

Get Fuzzy

If you're not familiar with this comic, you should be. When I first started reading it, it took me a little bit to get "it" but now I'm definitely a fan.

3:25 a.m. or so

It was about this time last night that I stumbled down the hallway to take a look outside and see the lunar eclipse. The moon was about a third of a way covered with a slight shadow. Kind of cool and also kind of weird when you consider what a lunar eclipse is. I should have taken a photo but didn't think I'd get a decent one. Oh well.

Greetings..

Just quickly writing a post to say that I'm currently sitll alive and breathing. The summer was incredibly busy and we spent a good amount of it away from our house (and computer). Tomorrow night I have class starting up again which blows me away seeing as how 2 months went by in a blink. I don't know if I'm quite ready to get started back in school but it's time to buckle down and get after it. I'll post some photos of our summer travels in the next week or so....maybe in class :) P.S. Thanks to the Multnomah boys for haning out this past Friday night. Good food, bad service, okay movie, good company=good times.

Lost weekend#1

Memorial Day weekend we headed out to Cannon Beach. I think this is one of my top five favorite places to be.......although it wasn't always sunny, when it was, it was beautiful. We went with some "newer" friends of ours that we met through playing ultimate. Gunnar and his wife Jamie-their sons-Bryson, Kjell, and Soren. We had an awesome time hanging out with them. It was good to be able to spend a longer amount of time with a family to see what daily life would look like. When Britt and I got married we decided to be on the "3-5 year plan" when it came to having kids. 3 years is next week. We definitely find ourselves moving to wanting to have kids but aren't quite there. Lots of responsibility! (more than we know). The kids were well behaved and they are an awesome family. But we both came away saying "Not quite yet...." All that to say the weekend was awesome-lots of time on the beach and good food.

Britt and I went to Fort Stevens on the way home which was fun. As we were leaving the beach house we saw two fighter jets (f-16's?) fly a couple of hundred feet over the water line. It was a fun ending to a good weekend.

Class, class, class

I've been meaning to post on some of the recent happenings but homework has made that a challenge.....even though I'm in class right now :) I've got a presentation sometime in the next hour of so-should be okay. I'll post more on my past weekends later. Back to class.

Joker-Batman Begins 2

I'm in class and should probably be paying attention......however on the first day of class the professor said that if we wanted to play on our gameboys/whatever, that's fine as long as we don't interrupt anyone. So I thought I'd use this time to get caught up on blogging.....Upon seeing this photo-http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=20726 I got a sense of the mood of the next Batman movie. (I tried to put the link in the text but for some reason it wouldn't work-check it out).

"Jack"

A year ago today my mom got to go be with the Lord. It was something that was kind of expected but yet the timing was a little sudden. My mom was a cancer survivor. She was first diagnosed in the winter of 99' (I think) and was clean in '01.....Then in March of 03' she was diagnosed terminal (1 yr. to live) with a reoccurence of cervical cancer.

However, God saw fit to let her live another 3 years which were a tremendous blessing. She was able to be at my wedding and meet my beautiful wife which made me very happy and thankful......part of me wishes that she would have been around to see our first child but we were by no means (and still are not) ready to bring a life in to the world.

Her last three years were good and she tried to enjoy every minute of it. She was on chemotherapy on and off with her body responding well most of the time. She was often tired and would get sick fairly easily. I'd try and tell her to slow down and take care of herself but that often didn't work. She was a go getter. My mom has six brothers who used to call her "Jack" instead of "Jackie" which I thought was fun. She wouldn't ever let us (my brothers and I) call her that but I would try and sneak it in there every now and then. My mom was a good women who loved life. I miss her. Yet at the same time am so happy for her because she no longer has to deal with the challenges of the human body.I look forward to seeing her again....whole and healed.

Froo Froo

This is Froo Froo or Froofie the bunny. He lives in our yard from time to time and is fun to watch. However I'm not sure how fun he'll be when things start growing in our garden and he decides to start munching on them.....It is kind of cool though to have an animal running around your backyard and not be responsible for it. We'll see how I feel about Froo Froo when the garden is growing......

An old love rekindled

We been playing ultimate frisbee regularly once a week for the past 6 months or so. I'm glad that we've been able to as it's something that I didn't get the chance to do much after leaving Multnomah. What's cooler is that we're starting a summer league this year and there's a rumor that the Portland Ultimate league is trying to get a tournament here in Longview....halfway between PDX and Seattle. That would be ridiculous.

Weekly happenin's

So it's been a busy week.....last weekend we had a garage sale at my mother in law's house. It went really well and is only my second time of being directly involved in one. Kind of an interesting deal and there even seems to be a sort of sub-culture/community that exists among people who frequent garage sales. People were talking toBut one another on a first name basis.....also interesting is that the first customer showed up a 6:55a.m. One hour and five minutes before we were "officially" open. But no complaints as she almost bought $100 worth of stuff.

I started my summer semester this last week. Instead of a 16 week semester this one gets cut in half to 8 weeks. Yo. Things will be interesting and I hope that I can keep my head above the water. Class three nights a week for the first month.

We hung out with our friends Annie and Drew and planted a garden. A first for me that was fun to do. Tonight the last Survivor the season-Go Yauman!

Jed this one's for you

I found a spot :)

Bullets

-So, I started school this last week. Class on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. Plus 3 weekend classes. This will be done by the end of June and will certainly be a sprint.

-I didn't get as much done as I was hoping this last week.....or rather I didn't get done what I thought I would get done and got some other good stuff finished.

-Since last week I've been riding my bike to work. The weather hasn't been horrible and so far this week has been awesome. It's been good to combine exercising with getting to work. It only takes me about ten minutes longer than driving and I'm not paying $3.46 a gal. to get there:)

-Last, this photo is from the tulip festival in Mt. Vernon Wa. If you've never gone put it on your to do list sometime in the month of April. Acres and acres of tulips which are always gorgeous. There's also a cool town fair in downtown Mt. Vernon.

Yay!

Whew! One more semester down. Apparently my final from Monday night went okay because I got an "A" for the class. Fortunately the test was open book which didn't make it easy but it was helpful since there was a lot of info. Then today I finished my last book for the semester. I was even able to play ultimate frisbee for about two hours in the midst of it:) Good times. I'm off of school for a week and excited to be able to make time for stuff around the house. Unfortunately I don't see sleeping in happening any time soon. Nighty night.

Never a time like the present.

So, I should be studying for a test....a final that is that I get to take in approximately 53 minutes. Fortunately it's open book and I haven't studied as hard as I usually would. After my test I just have some reading to try and finish by Friday I'm done with my second semester. I get next week off which I'm very much looking forward to. Study time.

Finally....

Okay, I know. I watch American Idol. I haven't voted......in two seasons but it is kind of fun to watch. So finally this week Sanjaya is no more. It was kind of interesting when they announced he was out. At one moment I wanted to jump up and down and cheer that he was out. The next moment I was realizing "This is just a tv show and he's just a 17 yr. old. Why am I happy?".

Feeling glad that he was gone yet bad for wishing "ill" towards him was interesting. It's amazing how something like a tv show can get you so invested in emotions and the individuals of the show. "Reality tv" seems to tap in to the desire for the viewer to follow a story. Or maybe even be part of a story. I havent' quite fully followed this out and don't know how it connects to us being part of a bigger story. Not by any means are tv shows supposed to be part of our bigger story but that appeal to our desire to be in a story. Maybe that's it and why it gets so easy to get lost in them. Huh. I'll have to keep pondering this one.

One more week.....

So my semester ends next Friday. So one week give or take and I'm excited. I've got three big things left to do and it's 12:00 a.m. and I'm blogging. Stalling? Maybe-trying to survive and make it one day a time? Definitely.

El Guapo

Tonight we're hanging out with our friends Annie and Checo. They've been married for a year this weekend and are celebrating their weekend in Portland. We picked a movie to watch and to my delight we watched this goodness. Good times.

Sobering.....

So, since about October I've been working at Child Protective Services supervising observed parent-child visits. Some cases are "better" than others but all of the kids are there for a reason. Neglect, abuse, drugs in the family, etc. Anyways today a newer case was in with their visit. The kids are out of the house primarily for neglect and they were having the visit with dad. Sometimes parents get taken in to custody by the police. I hadn't seen this yet but today had the opportunity.

It was weird to watch the visit knowing that within the hour the dad would be arrested. So dad's case worker came in at the end of the visit and told him that he had some people who wanted to talk with him. The kids were left in the room with grandma and dad was walked down the hallway. Thankfully it was an uneventful arrest and nothing crazy happened. It was a reminder to be that life is sobering and fragile at times. Small decisions can have huge ramifications in one's life.......one day at a time.

Yo Quiero?

So I've got a paper due on Thursday and I've kind of started it.....I've wrote some initial thoughts out for it and it's only a reflection paper. 5 pagesof nothing too intense yet it's till something to do. Britt and I go home at 7:40, I ran back to the store because we left our purchase there. I get back home about 8 and we continue to work on dinner. Then a bit later Paul Bricknell (whom some of you know) stops by. We had a good time chatting for about an hour. Finally we end up sitting down to catch up on our Tuesday night shows and it's about 9:30ish or so. So I start thinking "Huh? I've been here before" A late night when I should be working on a paper and I haven't touched a thing.

Last week was my spring break from school but I still had to work. This week then which is Washington's spring break, allows me to get some time off from work. This is fantastic since I've got some catch up work to do on school and working on the home. Tomorrow we're going to the beach for a day....now back to not touching a thing. This reminds me of my Multnomah days when I found myself in this situation many times and often my response was "Taco Bell anyone?" Good, fond memories of days past.

in a galaxy far far away.....

So, I'm a little late getting on the You Tube and Google video kick so maybe many of you have already seen this. Quite impressive and fun.

Ahhh!

So many good intentions and so litttle time. I was hoping to be back on the blog train last week but with a month left in my semester, things other than school are quickly pushed to the side. My reading for fun continues to pile up, google reader entries, grow and tv shows continue to be produced. Fortunately for next week which is Washington's spring break I will have a little break from work. Here's to hoping that I can regain some sanity. One day a time....help Lord...

Home sweet home

Life is finally starting to settle down for us.....a little. Mostly everything is at least in the room it's supposed to be, internet and tv access are back, our fridge is full, and yet we still have little time to enjoy things. I think when you move you should get like a week off or something. Both Britt and I work two jobs and most nights as of late get home on average....maybe 7 or so. Craziness. Jesus has certainly been challening me to sit at his feet in the midst of all of this. It's hard but as he told Martha, "Mary has chosen what is better...." and that is something I've been challenged with these last few weeks. Letting God have his way and order my life makes things go much smoother than when I'm in the driver's seat. One day at a time-Ps. 46:10

yahoo

As of Saturday morning we'll be connected back to the internet surfing, tv watching world. The former is certainly a bit more important and the latter is a bit more unnecessary but a nice treat.

New home....

So we're somewhat settled in to the new house however we have yet to have tv stuff set up nor & I think more importantly internet service. Hopefully this weekend we'll get stuff set up. Sad as it is I think I'm having withdrawals or at least see how much I depend on tv or internet.

One more.

I found one more paper that I get the opportunity to write....due in two weeks:}

No more career counseling for me!

So, my presentation went really well-it was the first time I had ever done a powerpoint presentation.....does that date me? Kind of fun though and my career counseling class in over now. So only two more classes left for the semester which translates in to: Four books, two presentations, and a paper with other various readings. Sometimes I wonder why I'm doing this and then I remember days when I use to walk 10 miles and push carts. Oh yeah.
After class I drove home to move! Saturday night we moved in to our new house in Longview. Crazy, exciting, weird, we're in a homeowner's assocation now....that's strange. We got lots done that night and then had planned to move all of Sunday as well. Well life has other ideas sometimes and we got to spend half of our day in the ER. Brittany's grandma, who is 83-84 is still with it mentally but physically is beginning to get ambushed by her body a bit. We had to take grandma in Sunday morning because Britt's mom was out of town for the weekend for a retreat. Thus we lost half a day of moving which wasn't the end of the world but did make for a busier Sunday afternoon. So now I'm sitting at school because I'm sans internet and need to write a paper. Nice to have some comments from reader land. Bye for now....I'll post house pictures later.

grad school

So I'm about to give a presentation for one of my classes.......I'll give the report.

Mr. Jones....

So apparently I still have an occasional readership.  About a month ago I was thinking of doing away with the blogging due to business.....and as others have put it, "Real life trumps blogging". Buying a house, school, eating, sleeping-these things have made blogging drop further down on the importance scale.   However a good (but short-for me) night out with friends I haven't seen for awhile made me think "huh, maybe I'll keep writing for a bit.  So if you're still reading (Mr. Jones & others) I'll keep writing.

24:)

Ah what a good show.  I can't quite put my finger on why it's so good bit I think that it has something to do with having such a good strong leading character.  If you've read Wild At Heart, I think that this show would fit right in with some of the given examples.  Good to see Jack get a little weak as well.  Good show.  No Great Show.

Late night musings

 Oh who knows if this will be short lived or not but we'll give it a go ......again.  Hard to make the time to blog-I find that I have to be really intentional or find something witty or funny to say.  Maybe the Doogie Howser method is really what is appropriate and will get me writing more.  Journaling through life.  

With that said I'm sitting here, after finishing my first week of my second semester in graduate school, about to start reading my first book.  Undergrad is challening but I find that the grad stuff is killer.  Literally your job/profession is to read books.  It's good but challenging.  Hard to find the balance in life and what is important seems to come to the forefront.  Night.