weekend with pops

so at the beginning of the month, my dad and his friend came up to visit justin and i for a weekend of rush concert and sight seeing. we headed up the columbia gorge (this is such a beautiful drive! highly recommended) and stopped off at the multnomah fall, which is right off the freeway. we then continued up to george, washington (yeah! seriously) for the rush concert. this amiptheatre is called the gorge, and it is stunning. it sits right on the bluff overlooking the columbia river. it is so pretty. it was a bit windy, but watching the show with the sun setting in the background was awesome.
the next day we had it all planned out to go check out mt st helens, since its just over the border from us. it had been sunny and clear the whole drive until we got to the point where we should have been able to see the mountain. yea, thats right, should have! in true northwest fashion, it will be clear and nice until you get to where you are going, and thats when the clouds roll in. we got into the park and could barely see 20 ft in front of us. just a big white cloud where this massive volcano missing its top should have been. such a disappointment. i doubt i will be able to get justin back in a car for a few hours to go see it again any time soon. so when you look at these pictures, imagine a huge mountain behind us and that this is just like a green screen or something.

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.

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.

long lost pics

my ever so dear, funny, not-so-computer-savvy mother finally sent me the pics from when she journeyed up to Oregon in the beginning of February. bless her heart, after failed attempts of emailing, making cd's, sending the cd's, and uploading all to no avail. she finally sent a jump-drive containing them. that arrived yesterday, and i was so excited to finally see how they turned out. while she was here we hiked to the top of the local spencers butte. its only a quick 45 min hike to the top, although it was through snow. we had a fun photo shoot at the top.

our family photo

thanks mom, and remind me to give you a computer lesson next time im down there.

poor koda

our luvable pup got bit by a husky last night, poor girl. she is doing ok, but we are all a bit shaken up, justin and i included. we were out for our usual run, she was sniffing other dogs as usual, until this one went angry and bit her just below the shoulder on her leg. a deep gash but she is doing good. we are in touch with the owner (go figure another law student), so everything should work out just fine.

what a reality check though. i know she is just a dog, and it compares nothing to kids, but for know she is our kid. it tore me up inside to see her so scared and hurt. holding justin back from kicking that other dag to china was another thing. he has his "anger issues" (as i call them), but i must say he handled himself very well. and making sure that koda stopped quivering, yelping everytime we touched her, and bleeding made for a long evening. i think by the end of it, we got about 4 hours of sleep. so i solute all you mothers out there, especially those who go through things worse than a mean bully. im sure im going to have to hold myself, and my husband, back if ever our kid gets picked on.

bend weekend

justin and i had a getaway to bend a few weekends ago. my dad and brother came up from so cal to get in a weekend of ski/ snowboarding on mt. bachelor. we have had some great snow up here all winter, not to mention the 4 in. we got everynight while we were there. bend is only 2 hours away and we had yet to been our there. we drove up late friday night and i had to put on snow chains at about 11 to get over the pass (justin was having a hard time figuring them out). then on saturday, justin stayed back and studied while my dad, brother and i went out to the slopes. i borrowed my dads old gear because i had none, it was a bit oversized. the visibility was crap, but i had a blast flailing, rolling, sliding and falling down the mountain. turns out i havent skiied in about 6 years and it totally showed. notice all the pics of me are sitting on my butt.

that night was great hanging out with my family, gettig some sweet new stuff, hiking along the deschuttes river, and just having a great time. sunday we went back up to the mountain. the weather was a little bit better, meaning the sun poked out a few times between being stuck in a snow storm. i think i got worse over night, i was so stiff from the day before, but we had tons of fun.

needless to say, i refound a joy for skiing and really want to get out a few more times this season. hopefully they will be sunny instead of snowing, but anything will do at this point.

yard work

so we have this beautiful back yard that we havent exactly used because the weather has been crummy around here. and since we dont use it, we havent taken care of it either. so after 8 months of living in our lil house, we thought it was time to clean up the yard. (that, and we got a letter from our land lord saying we have to. thats good motivation!) i thought i would show you just how long our lawn got to be. Koda was watching her rival the lawn mower like a hawk.we also have this growing garden of daffodils and tulips that must have been planted by our previous renters. it was a wonderful surprise.

awesome weekend

so we totally had the best weekend! garrett, justins youngest brother, was in town and he is a blast! i love having him around, he brightens the day. on friday, J and G went out to the coast in newport to surf and hopefully catch some crab with our brand new (free) crap pots. every one we had talked to, including those out there at the same time had said that they hadn't caught anything, so much to my and their surprise they pulled up 6! by the time they got home and cooked them up, we were eating around 9:30. there is nothing better than fresh crab!
on saturday i and my friend annie threw a baby shower for my good friend clara , who is due on the 20th of this month! it turned out really well and was a great time honoring her. we weren't feeling all the shower games, so the only one we did were guess how big her belly is with the string. the best part was that the winner was a 3 year old. she was almost exact. it turned out really well considering this was uncharted territory (and thanks to my v-teachers and everyones help!)that after noon we took garrett (the ultimate thrift store shopper) to eugene jeans, a local "vintage and retro" second hand store. (for everyone who knows how many hippies we have in this town, you can imagine all the second hand stuff the produce). he was like a kid in a candy store, totally loved it. between that and our favorite hog dog place here in town we were a happy bunch. we managed to get a game of sand volleyball that afternoon because the weather was so nice. we spent the evening lounging around and i went to bed around 10:30 (and thats after the time change). i got almost 12 hours of sleep that night but it was totally needed after all the sleepless nights (just ask j how cranky i am if i dont get my sleep). we had to leave church a bit early to get garrett up to portland for his flight, but it worked out really well. garrett, thanks for coming out, you are always a pleasure to have around, and are always welcome!!

weekend in newport

since living in oregon, the name of newport has come to mean a place totally different than my beloved former home of newport beach, california. so they are both cute little beach towns with a harbor and cute beach houses, but yet so different. the oregon coastline is breathe taking in all its beauty, more exotic and rugged (not to mention all beaches are national park and can be camped on anywhere). we had a blast staying with our friends the Jentzsch's from our ward on a spur of the moment weekend get-away. we drove out friday night to this amazing beach house right on the coast. waking up in the morning totally made us want to own a beach house were the first thing you see when you look out the window is the ocean. on sat, we went to a few beaches, justin entered a surf contest, we hung out at the aquarium, watched an amazing sunset from the comfort our our house, megan did a killer fire dance, and watched GOAL! (our favorite movie). what a great day. Sunday we went to the local ward for sacrement, walked down to the beach from the house, justin went surfing and greg got in with out a wet suit (crazy!!!), had an awesome lunch and headed back to reality. This was such a refreshing little break from the everyday, we owe such a big thanks to the jentzsch's for inviting us along for a great weekend.