gone baby gone

we have been saying alot of goodbyes lately. wednesday, i said goodbye to my work of 2 years. thursday, we said goodbye to our wonderful house in eugene. and in july we will be saying goodbye to the USA and all our loved ones in it as we move to Australia for a semester. Its weird and exciting to think about, and ever so intimidating to prepare for. Ill give some facts so you all know what im talking about.




through justins law school, they have an exchange program with the university of adelaide in australia. they allow 4 people per term to go and study there, while gaining credit and grades that count towards his law degree. Adelaide is located about 16 hours drive directly west of Sydney. its right on the coast and is a good sized city, though not as big as sydney or melbourne. it has its own LDS temple and international airport, which are both necessitates. we originally planned on going during his spring term of the third year, but that means he would miss taking the bar in july, and would miss his graduation. both no good. we had thought the deadline had passed for getting in for the fall term, but when asked the australian school, they said we still had about a month left to apply. so after a few weeks of waiting to find out, we finaly got the verdict that we were accepted for the fall term. now that was back in march and since then we ahve bought our tickets and begun planning for our departure in just over 7 weeks! yea thats less than 2 months! AHHH!


it had been my dream to travel around the world after studying there for 4 1/2 months, but that was proving to be quite expensive. so after lots of thought, quotes from agents and hours of researching countries, we decided on a different plan. since the school runs from july 28th to november 20th-ish, we will be in ausie till then, and then hop over to new zealand for about 7 weeks before we have to be back in oregon in january. we absolutely loved NZ and couldnt wait to get back, but we had no idea it would be so soon.

we are still working on our visa's and neccesary study abroad stuff but we are so excited. and now moving straight up to portland when we get backs means we can hopefully find a good house to buy and be settled in for a little while. to think of being in one place for more than 9 months... that will be new.

so proud

my hubby impresses me every single day. the stuff he manages to do, find and come up with always surprise me. his latest doings were our plans for when we get back in january. we had a couple of options between moving up to portland for the extension school, moving back to eugene to finish his last 10 credits, or finding something else totally different that he could use to finish his schooling. well, last night justin had an interview for an extern ship for the spring semester next year. these are not very common, so neither of us wanted to get our hopes up. apparently it went really well because they hired him on the spot. that means that when we get back, instead of coming down to eugene for his final semester, he gets to go work for school credit. talk about the best third year of law school ever. so now we get back he will begin his work with

Yea, seriously! i could not be more proud of him and all his hard work. he has always wanted to work for a big, sporty, active-style company and now is his shot! I know he will have so much fun and work really hard, and who knows what that means for our future. and talk about the discounts! woo hoo! it will be a great experience for him. hopefully we can finally buy a house and settle into one place for a while. that would be quite the change.

crazy weekend

this weekend we got a ton done. on saturday, justin and i got everything boxed up and moved out of our house. thats right, our house is empty. we had originally planned to leave some stuff like an air mattress, bike and stuff for me to use while i lived there for these last few days, but changed our minds while we were packing to just take everything out at once while we had the big truck. this way i wouldnt have to make multiple trips this week to finish hauling up our stuff. so after 12 hours of packing and loading, we finally finished our house at 11pm. we drove back up to my aunts house, again not in the original plans, to go sleep in a real bed.

we unloaded everything sunday, with the help of my fam, into my grandmas garage. i must say, it drove me crazy that after 12 hours of work the day before, we had the entire thing unloaded and ready to go in like an hour and a half. not that i wanted it to take all day again, but it seems like all our hard work was undone in seconds. but, its all unpacked and on to the cleaning!

our memorial day bald eagle we sawthen we got to go fishing with my family on the columbia gorge, which is absolutely beautiful, for shad. this is a fun fish to go for because we only go when there is tons of them heading up the river, and we use them as bait for other fish like halibut and tuna. so when we go, it is almost guaranteed to catch stuff. i think we finished the day wit like 16 total fish. so fun.

and we have also taken up playing doubles in tennis with my aunt and uncle. it has turned into boys vs. girls, but since the first time we played, us girls have been on a losing streak. despite our killer 4 game come back last night, we still lost all three games. i think we need to continue our lessons and maybe get some practice time with out the boys there to help hone our skills!

freakin out!!

our plans have changed so much in the last month, i really dont know why we ever plan anything. whats changed you ask? well, the people at my work have driven me crazy, and for the last time i am going say see-ya as i moved up my last day of work to the 28th on may. yea, thats right, i will be joining my husband for good next week. the original plan was not for another 3 weeks, but it was not working out. call me if you want the whole story. anyways, so we got our housing to waive the 30 day notice rule, and we will no longer be living in eugene as of the may 31st. yay and yikes! yay because i cannot wait to be back with justin every night, leaving this town, and being totally ready for our next big adventure and the short summer vacation. and did i mention playing cards everyday with my aunt. what could be better. the yikes is because i have to pack up our entire house in the next week, schedule an inspection, clean like a maniac, and move everything to independence, oregon. oh yea, and deal with my unhappy work people that i am bailing on them a few weeks early.

which all leads to my freakin out. all good and manageable but i dont like real stress like this. luckily i dont have it that often because i think my heart has been racing since last tuesday. it has all happened so fast and i just want the next 2 weeks to work out well and fly by.

season finale's

yea for finales. all my favorite reality tv shows have their finale's the past few weeks. the bachelor, survivor, antm, the hills, dancing with the stars, and i am so excited for the battle of the davids on ai.

i think i watch to much tv... yikes!

a surprise for mothers day

wednesday evening

*ring ring*

dad: would you like to come to CA this weekend to surprise your mother on mothers day and a rush concert?

kelly: YES! let me check with justin to see if he can miss work on monday

few hours later...

dad: and..

kelly: he said sure. we will see you this weekend.

so we packed a bag, dropped off koda at grandma's and hopped on the earliest saturday morning flight to southern california. we had such an awesome weekend. we surprised my mom on saturday, then headed to legends for lunch. headed down to huntington so justin could take a kite boarding lesson (his newest extreme hobby) and so mom, courtney and i could shop on main street. headed back home for a delicious dinner at panera. played rock band with the fam. went to church sunday, soaked up some sun in dads backyard. had a wonderful 2pm roast for dinner. had a 5pm sushi dinner. headed to a rush concert and sat in the second row. had alex lifeson smile for MY camera, danced and sang until my throat hurt. got home at 1230am and was up at 430am for our flight back home on monday.this is my totally awesome mom. she is the most kind, funny, amazing, spiritual, forgiving and loving woman i know. i have learned so much from her example and she has taught me so much about life, love and happiness. I love her more each day and am so appreciative for support and advice. she is my rock. the awesome sis who is growing up so fastjustins new hobbyhe totally bent down to be in my picture smiling. my guys were going crazyNeil Peart, best drummer everthe guys watching the show

this is totoally my kind of weekend. I wish it could have been there longer to see all our friends and loved ones while we were there, but it was a jammed packed two days with lots of family time. so im sorry for not even calling anyone, but we will be back in july and i promise i will visit everyone.

twilight teaser

the wonderful twilight books are coming to the big screen and watch the trailer here:

Twilight Trailer

Coming 12/12/08

from a distance

ok, so since justin and i have been married, it seems like we are constantly having to live apart for some amount of time for some reason or another. first was when he had to come up early to start his law school, and i wasn't going to be able to come up until mid september because of my schooling. it was only about a month-ish and we thought that it would be the only time so we could manage just fine. then, the next year, we had to spend the entire summer (may-september) in separate states because our school/work schedules did not match up at all. again though, we thought it would be the last time and we could manage as long as we made a trip out every other week. that plan didn't end up so well, we went the entire month of july without seeing each other. bad idea! but thinking that would be the final time, as i had finally finished my school, we managed. how does it work out though that now, once again, we are living to two different houses during the week while justin works in portland, and i finish up working the school year in eugene for the next 5 weeks? may i just say that i cannot wait until we never have to live apart like this again. it totally sucks. so hopefully, for the last time, i had to say goodbye to the hubby so he can live in a different city.

happy birthday to me!

last weekend was my birthday, and as justin was preparing for his first final (also on fri) he made a point of telling me how busy he was, and wasn't going to have anytime. he asked "if we could just celebrate it the next week." ok, so i won't lie, i was pretty bummed. i was like, seriously! you cant put your books down for 1 hour so we can at least go to dinner. probably not the best response to his need to harness his stress and pass these important classes. anyway, so i spent most of the week coping with the fact that this just might not be the biggest birthday celebration, but who needs that at 23. i needed to get the facts that it might just be me cuddled up with my dog watching a marathon of sappy love stories, vegging out ice cream and cookies (i would have to make my self), and counting down the minutes till justin came home. granted he would be on brain-overload, and a totally stressed out version of him, but him non the less.

i got up fri morning and hopped in the shower as usual to get ready for work. when i got out, there were beautiful roses on my night stand, and the smell of eggs and ham in the air. much to my surprise, he had cooked up a wonderful breakfast and even managed to buy a present! he had gotten me the nike dri-fit running pants i so wanted. i was so excited, but still had the looming thought that he would be busy all evening, and this would be the extent of our festivities.at work, the wonderful gals got me a bouquet of fresh flowers, some gigantic cookies, and a wonderful card. yea, someone else remembered. my great friend brooke also sent me an edible bouquet to my office and i was so excited!! my friend lisa also hooked us up with these sweet balls we were having so much fun playing with at her house. Thanks Lisa!!as i arrived home, i was totally ready to get into my comfy pants, and hang out at home. when justin got home, he said he was done for the night, and he mentioned a few surprises still to come, so get ready. we went out to our favorite restaurant, beppe & gianni's, which also happens to be a 5 min walk from our house. one of our favorite shows is the amazing race , and justin happened to get in touch with the last couple that won, and they called to wish me a happy birthday. THANK YOU Tk and Rachel!! i could not stop laughing for hours.
when we got home, the surprises continued. he had also gotten me a birthday cake with candels from cold stone, and got me an awesome camera. oh my gosh!! i cant believe how wonderful he is, and how it went totally out of his way and spent so much time to make me feel so special, all while in the middle of his law school finals! what and amazing husband i have and i am so greatful for everything he does for me and our family.

on saturday, i did 2/3 of our triathlon and then went with justin to play volleyball. it was finally a nice warm day, and we had so much fun. spent a wonderful sunday at church and with our friends at a ice cream sunday bar to celebrate. it was such a great weekend and i am so greatful to everyone who made it special.

playing with the comp and my pics.