another big one

ok. so i know i just did one of these and i should really be totally up to date, but what can i say? when the sun is shining and the pool is right there, i would much rather be out there. so sorry for slacking, but not really. anyways. so we have been up to quite a bit.

out of commission

well, tons has been going on, and i will have to catch you up asap, but that will have to wait. we had a huge lul in our summer, but everything is picking up speed.

two weekends ago, justin and i did the "run for justice" 5k and had a blast. last week my bff sheri came out from utah to spend the week with me and go to the best tim mcgraw concert ever! ill fill in details and tons of pics later. lets just say, we got up to the second row, he touched our hands and we got our pictures signed by him.

then we all left on friday and justin and i came out to Cincinnati to relive some of his old memories. he lived here from '88-'96 doing most of his k-12 ed in cincy (as he calls it). anyways, it just so happened that this weekend also happened to be the 10 yr reunion for the high school he would have graduated from had his family stayed here instead of moving to the Philippines. what a coincidence eh? so after a day of touring the old schools, house, and child hood memories, we went to this reunion. we were both so surprised at how many people still remembered him and it totally made his day (again, pics to come later)

we have a few more days here, complete with of course a rush concert, (for those keeping tabs, that will be number three in the last 2 months... i know.) then its back to work for justin and off to NYC for me! i have never been but am so excited. for anyone who has advice on what to do, see, eat i would love some advice! there will for sure be a yankees game, but other than that, it will be 3 days of who knows.

once i get back on the forth, it will be a few days before i start the 2 week road trip to utah and ca before hopping on a plane to oz on the 22nd. wish me luck.

updates

so the past few weeks have been pretty crazy. not in the sense that they have been overly busy and i have no time, but just the opposite. i have had so much time lately, to much time in fact. i find that i dont get nearly as much stuff done. its weird, i know. well, turns out blogging is one of those things that doesnt get done. sorry. so heres an update of what we have been up to.

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.

Called to serve

Garrett, justin's youngest brother, got his mission call this morning and is to report to the MTC on July 16th to serve in the Japan, Sendai Mission. Congrats Garrett, I know you will make an awesome missionary! Your wonderful enthusiasm and spirit will lighten the people in northern Japan! And you will be missed! We love you and are so proud! Now you can really perfect your ninja skills.

new tag

20 Years Ago (March 1988) - yikes, i was 3 years old, we were living in upland california in the house next to the hospital. our house had bars on the windows and was in the bad part of town. i loved doing ballet and tap dancing and from around this time came my notorious cat and pumpkin costumes (ill see if i can find a pic.) i was always playing with my much cooler older brother and thats about all i remember.

10 Years Ago (March 1998) – already talked about in a previous post so ill highlight other areas... i was 12, in 7th grade at summit middle school. played the flute in the band, got cut from the volleyball team, barely made the basketball, but was loving the track team. 800m and long jump were totally my events. still trying desperately to find myself and i think i had about 3 outfits that i seemed to rotate every week (one consisting of the over sized overalls, seriously three people could fit in there with me.) very hard to find clothes that age, rail thin and super tall.

5 Years Ago (March 2003) – i was 17 years old and about to graduate high school. i had the best school schedule, only classes 2-4 period, fifth was yearbook (which had been completed by that time) and sixth was athletics, which once water polo was done, i went home at lunch almost everday(once i could sign myself out). i used to meet my friend sheri at least twice a week for lunch at legends or to her house to watch saved by the bell and the game show network. I was playing club water polo with CHAWP and getting ready for our last go at the junior olympics (we ended up getting 4th). I had just recieved my rejection letter from UCI and told to ignore it, i was still admitted on a polo scholarship. i took a road trip to BYU to visit lyndsey and sami at least once a month with sheri, also stared in/co-founded the band bombdigity, which consisted mostly of band practice in the car, and never took off like it should have.

3 Years Ago ( March 2005) – i was planning my wedding to this wonderful man named justin. i had met him in history class the previous year and had a fun/wild year and a half getting to know him (depends who you talk to). i had just moved to fountain valley/huntington beach area from my true love of newport. my grandfather had just passed away from pnemonia the week before our wedding. i was full swing in the middle of my water polo season at UCI and justin was finishing up his swim team meets. i was crazy in love and busy as could be. i think thats when i started my 20 units a quater so i could graduate in three years. i got my fisrt real job that april as a waitress at SOMA cafe and loved it.

1 Year Ago (March 2007) – we were about to celebrate our 2 year aniversary in eugene oregon, justin was swamped with his first year of law school at the university of oregon, but had just heard back that he had gotten a job in portland as an intern for the summer. i was preparing to go back down to Irvine to finish my bachelors and getting ready for an entire summer without my hubby. we had some awesome friends we played with almost everyday, and were planning to move into a house with the mattice's for the next year to cut the cost of rent we were paying. i had just gotten my dream job at the university and was thrilled with life. we had finally gotten our puppy house trained and i was planning our amazing trip/honeymoon to new zealand as a surprise for justin for our anniversary. i was the secratery in the young womens program in the eugene fifth ward. we had started a weekly girls game night and volleyball at our church building.

So Far This Year (2008) – ive planned some amazing weekend getaways to see all that oregon has to offer, booked tickets to china, cut my hair the shortest it has ever been, held the newest baby to steal my heart, i just got my calling as the laurel advisor in the eugene 3rd ward, and found my new love, our DVR!! i am training for a triathalon in june. i have started reading alot more and skipping all commercials. but it is only march...

Yesterday – was tuesday, the bussiest day of the week. i typically work a 9 hour day because we have our department meeting at 8, which are always eventful. i realized when i got home for dinner that we had an empty fridge because i didnt want to buy anything when we were going to be gone for a week, so dinner consisted of egg salad sandwiches (justin wouldnt let me just eat cereal). we both read until about 9:30, then we were hoping to catch some of the open gym volleyball at the rec center, but no one was there, so we opted to take our dog for a run. this was the first time of the year i needed to use my inhaler before we went, i have really bad allergies here and all the greenery gives me asthma when i work out from march through sept.

Today – i slept in till 8, would have been longer if justin didnt get a phone call at that time, i didnt have to be to work till 10, i got my hair chopped off one more time on my lunch hour, did this post, checked out everyones blog, read some of my new book "the kite runner", made a list of everything not to forget for our trip ie. passports!, our firends are coming over for dinner and justin is going to make his yummy curry rice, hang with them a bit, make my hubby laugh, and fight for his attention from koda.

Tomorrow – is thursday. i have work 9-6, and then go home, finish packing for china, drive up to my aunts house just outside of salem (shes taking us to the airport), drop off koda and find someone to pick up our mail for the next week. clean the house cause i hate coming home to it dirty.

This year – is going to be exciting. im going to move to portland for the summer for justins job, becoming an aunt, dance on the great wall of china, adventure through oregon, see NY city and go to a yankee's game, meet some amazing people, and finish it up by moving to australia in july.

i tag steph, sheri, jill, lisa, laura, megan, annie, jake and if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged!

reunited at last

so the hardest part of this summer adventure is over. the whole month we didnt get to see each other has come to an end. justin has joined me in sunny CA for the next 2 weeks. we have no plans other than the beach (we have already been four times!) and relaxing. its nice to have the fam back together again.

updates

so justin and i are still in seperate worlds. i am in the land of sunny so cal, and he is in the mood swinging portland. with days of 100 degree weather, followed by rain, it cant make up its mind. lately he has been working for the law firm Dunn Karney during the week, and with his free time either playing volleyball, swimming or fishing with my uncle on the ocean. just last week they racked in a ton of good sea food, catching like 18 crabs and 7 salmon (now thats a fresh feast).



i on the other hand have been going to school two days a week, and on the off days, trying to fill the time so i dont go insane with boredom. so far i have been to two optionectics seminars (for options trading), a concert, and the beach. its been nice to see everyone and hang out with my family and be back in the land that i love.

tribute

so this past year was so much fun, but it wouldn't have been the same if it weren't for our great friends. we were blessed to have met the Starkey's and mattices who helped make this transition to oregon so much easier. so this is a tribute to them and all the fun we had. we will do this top five style:

5. Volleyball- with the help of a few regulars, we got a good turnout for volleyball games every tuesday night at the church. with it raining so much, we needed to find some fun activities to do indoors, and volleyball became our escape. with justins jump serves, ryans big blocks, brians miralce hits, brookes clap before the serve, clara's ability to hit the ball in the right direction after a while, and kelly's hand-eye-jump-spike coordination (actually lack there of) we had quite the games. it turned out to be the perfect release .

4. so to also pass the time and do it indoors, we had these themed nights. now let me explain. we used to have family dinners several times a week together and after a while they needed some spicing up. so we would dress up often. some of the highlights are our super hero camp fire night. one weekend we had wanted to go camping and eat tinfoil dinners, but of course it was raining. so we relocated to our living room. with plans to set up our tent inside and have a big sleep over, we also decided it would be appropriate for our inner super hero to come out. so thats exactly what happened. another great night was our adult prom. our church sponsored a modest prom for all the kids in the area to come and enjoy if they didn't want to go to their schools. so since they had the gym all decorated nicely for the kids, they opened it up to the adults the night before. so of course any excuse to play dress up we took advantage of. we got all dolled up in our all black outfits and went to a fun night of dancing and laughing.

3. so coming in at number three would have to be our fun sayings. we had so many inside jokes and fun sayings that would stir up a ton of laughs and memories every time. a few of the best are: said "Draw up my plans" heard "drop my pants", "is no good" in thick japanese accent, SHHWWEEEETIE, "PRRRFFFF", Brooke's sound effects- *Frink*, Pachow pachow, wapaw, "I will bring wood!"-brooke, "Thank you or coming to my party, may i please have your money now"-brooke, "your chizzled abs wont help you now"-brian about ryan, "lets all get naked and spank brooke"-brian, "roasty toasty"-kelly, "that's nice"- kelly, "all day baby! all day!"- kelly, "asians smell like incense and rice"- kelly, "eh hoser", "ya mon" is apparently what the canadians say...right brooke.

2. so for my number two spot, i am going to have to give it our adventures. the best part of oregon is when the weather permitted us to go enjoy the all this state has to offer. we had bonfire at the florence coast complete with tinfoil dinners, a burnt peach cobbler in the dutch oven, and a photo shoot. a weekend spent camping in silver falls state park (see previous blog). temple trips with every intention to going inside, but for one reason or another it happened to be closed. so we would go to cheesecake factory instead. on beautiful day with all the boys busy with their school, football, or building a model, the girls took the opportunity to head to the beach. we had fun in florence, getting the best ice cream at bj's ice cream parlor, and then heading to the beach to check out the tide pools. girls game night also became a weekly event were we would get together and play an arousing game of settlers of catan or ticket to ride. typically with janyse winning, however, an occasional upset would make our night. for justin, my little surfer boy, if we ever got a chance to head out to winchester bay, we took it. knowing how stressful law school can be, he needed to release by riding some waves. now the coast up here is not at all like the one back home, as in it is rarely sunny and always cold. so instead of laying out on a towel, i would be bundled up in a blanket watching him be corralled by the sea lions. so we found this good little restaurant in Winchester bay that has the best milkshakes in Oregon, and we would stop every time for lunch.

1. and for number one... i would have to say our birthday parties were the best!! we had one that fell every month from january to july, so we did them up big. for justins in january we all got dressed up in 70's attire from the local vintage store and headed out to dinner. then we headed up to my aunts house for some delicious bbq ribs and football. for brians in march we celebrated on st. patricks day and took full advantage of it. we got dressed up in all green, ate green breakfast (complete with green milk), and went rollerskating. for kelly's in april and brookes in may, we combined the two and went to a club dancing. we were some of the first ones in there and had the whole floor to our selves, which is just the way we like it. for ryan's in june, we had a big steak dinner on brians handy bbq and went to the movies. since clara's birthday is in july and we were all going to be gone, we had hers the night before ryans and made it a surprise game night with the frerichs for one last time. i have to say, these were some of the best birthdays.

so thanks to our friends, this year will be one for the record books. we had the funnest year, and it wouldnt have been possible had it not been for them. thank guys.

california here i come

so the big move finally happened. i am down in cali soaking up the sun and the smog. its nice waking up every morning knowing the sun is out so it will be a very warm day! as for justin, he must still play the guessing game with the weather in portland. I always knew i loved so cal, and now i remember why. the family and good food make it my paradise (though chicken makes it a close second while staying with her, she knows the way to my heart with her delicious cooking). oh how i love la la land.

highlites of the week

so i have never been one to wax my eyebrows, but on tuesday i got brave and decided to give it a try. i let brooke do the honors. other than the pain of pulling the hot wax off, it was quite the experience. i don't think i have ever laughed so hard at the two of us all baby powdered up. brooke i am sorry i slammed your hand in the door and then yelled at you. and i hope all the wax came out of your eyelashes... but thanks for an awakening to a whole new world of no plucking.

on thursday we went up to visit justin in portland, check out his new office, squeeze in a session at the temple and hit up cheesecake factory for some always delicious food! as we pulled into justins work, and headed up to the 14Th floor, i couldn't believe this was really were he worked. with a view overlooking downtown, his office was unreal. of course we had to document the moment with a few pictures. next on our big adventure, was down to the portland temple for a wonderful session. every time i go i get more enlightened and with the help of justin, get more of my questions answered. next was off to our beloved cheesecake factory. a trip to portland is never complete with out stopping here! once we had our dinner and specialty cheesecake for the road, we headed back to eugene (a 2 hour journey). poor ryan had to drive back with 3 girls sleeping soundly. we didn't feel that bad however because he is the only one out of the bunch that didn't have to get up and go to work the next morning.

so you know when you can't remember something. for whatever reason, i can remember my 10Th birthday party at the bowling alley, but i can not remember monday! even on tuesday i had no idea what happened the day before. i suppose some temporary amnesia has fallen over me, that or it just wasn't that memorable. oh well, must not have been very important.

one down, two to go

as justin finishes the last final of his first year of law school, we both sigh in relief. I finally get my husband back, well at least for now. starting may 14th, he will be working in portland at dunn, karney...johnson...smith...rogers... or something like that (i know the first two are right, but its a guess after that). as i head down to california to finish up my bachelors (oh to be done!!) we spend another summer commuting for weekends to be with each other. what a bitter sweet feeling. i couldnt be more proud of him to have gotten such a good job doing what he really wanted, but living away from him as he does it is a difficult thing for me. i have to keep reminding myself i can do anything for three months. but knowing this is the last time we will have to do this is a relief.

i couldn't be more proud of the man i married. he has turned out to be quite the catch. all the qualities i loved in him when we met have only magnified. everyday he amazes me more and i find myself wondering how did i get so lucky. my family is even better than i could ever had imagined.