Imprints

Snow on the Beach

2012-01-23T13:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I got home from Christmas and still had little work scheduled. No worries, Luanna flew down 5 days later to go to the Ecola Reunion and shop for maternity and baby stuff. Who wants to work when there is shopping to do and sister time to be had?? We had a blast. She had a layover in Portland before continuing to Eugene to pick up the 'rents truck. I took max over to pick her up and we road back to IKEA!! Had dinner at Famous Daves and took her back to the airport. She showed up later the next day and we went to Dan Kelly's gig at some Irish pub in SE. SOOOOO fun!!! I have vidoe of Lu dancing away at 5 months pregnant! Suha came too and thanks to Tawni's persistance we did a little swing dancing, much fun was to be had by all. Radio Giants are actually really good too, so that makes it even more fun!

The next morning Luanna and I drove to the coast. The news had been squawking about a big snow storm for a week. We had Mom and Dad's gigantoid Dodge Ram so we figured it didn't matter either way. It had been snowing in the pass and the 45 minute drive took 3 hours...luckily we made it in time to catch some of Lu's friends before they left to go home. We stayed in Seaside but had a lot of fun hanging out with her dear friends Megan and Joe and their 4 boys and Donnie in Cannon Beach. We were reluctant to head back home as the snow had not let up the entire time we were there. It took only 2 hours to get back but we were met by the family at Andina's my favorite Peruvian Restaurant. Best food, Yummy drinks, Great conversation. I love my family.

Tiffany and Luanna decided to crash at my place for the week instead of driving back and forth to Amity every night. We had a blast, tasting local eateries, shopping for baby clothes and Maternity clothes. Suha cooked us a big turkish meal one night and they went to Multnomah Falls while I worked. (yes I did have a couple of hours I had already dedicated to work.) All in all, I did not really feel BACK in OREGON till Luanna flew off on Friday. Now I'm in the throws of home sickness and the relief of being home. (Not that I'm really sure you can have both at the same time but I do, so there is scientific proof in me!)

maybe it has a little bit to do with these two...

Jen

Turkey Day

2011-11-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

Well its been WAY too long!! So much has happened and i havent written about it at all! So lets catch up :)

My summer ended well. I wasnt to sure about going home. I was getting so much done for dad at work. I had lost 27 lbs on the HCG diet. Kara and I had just done another successful wedding cake project. I worked for Tammy at the Alaska State Fair and still kept my sanity. I took Eli on his first bike/ camping trip. I was enjoying hanging out with Carrie and I just wasnt ready to go home yet. Home wasnt ready for me either. I had asked my basement renter to move out at the begining of August and he requested two months which I begrudgingly gave in to. So I will expand on some of my adventures mentioned above.

First off, work was crazy slow starting out this year. Lets not forget we started with a wedding and a ton of visitors so I cant complain about the lack of work :) The wedding was amazing, beautiful and simply Luanna and Chad, of course in true Morris fashion it was over the top, yet perfect. Our Aunts did the meal again and everyone worked hard to get everything ready in time. We were blessed with beautiful sunshine during the day and magnificant clouds for a stellar sunset.

Next was 4th of July and as tradition calls for, we headed south for Mt. Marathon festivities. We took two motorhomes this time and were blessed with good weather yet again! Mom and dad left on the 5th but we begged to stay one more day so Kara, the kids and I parked and woke up to sunshine again the next day. For the next 4 days we would decide that night not to head down the road just yet...if it was raining in the morning we would go. Ha! We finally had to give up and go home. I found projects to keep me busy while we waited for clients to get their dirt work done and concrete in and buildings to arrive. It was kind of a messy shipping year. Buildings showed up in half orders or 9 buildings worth of sheeting on one truck but no structural to start standing steel. Also crates of mixed components and 3 different lables for each building. It took a lot to keep the yard organized. There was some office organizing too and learning how to order buildings on a new computer sytem. Dad and I had our hands full keeping the chaos under some fashion of control. I really do love working with him, juggling problem solving, scheduling, clients, and components. I did take one building by myself to Fairbanks and burnt out the brakes on the truck over 3 mile hill coming into Fairbanks. I used my trailer brakes to get the 750 miles home. Life throws curve balls and we make do. I did spend a night at Lake Louise with the Wilsons on the way home and picked a gallon and a half of blue berries.

I decided that after 8 months on crutches last year and still on limited motion I was not going to loose all the weight i had seemed to pack on lately. Kara had tried this HCG diet the winter before and she was keeping the weight off. She was much happier and more active now that she was able to move better. I decided I would give it a go for 40 days. I am soo glad i did. It was not easy to eat 500 calories a day especially while working construction. I did cheat twice both on over night camping trips. Kara was a great coach encouraging me and directing me the whole way. I couldnt have done it with out her.

This year I told Tammy I would not work at the Fair. I try keeping up with dad during the day stay up all night dipping carmel apples andlast year i lost feeling in my hand one week in and it took a couple of months to get it all back. As the time grew closer I couldnt stand the thought of NOT working the fair! Tammy asked again and I said okay, weekends only and as a sub if you are desparate. It was awesome....minus being around all that fair food and being on a strict diet. That sucked. Our theme this year was. "Tomorrow, I will start over" I love working with Tammy and the high school kids that help out. I love the lights, the sounds, the smells. Iove seeing people I never get to see, it kind of like old home week. In the end it was a good decision and Im glad I decided to go ahead and do it.

My Wilson chillin's are growing up!!! They love spending time with their Aunty Jen and I have always loved taking them to work with me, letting them "spend the night with me etc". Well this year Eli is getting a little old to be sleeping with me so instead I promised him a special camping trip just him and I. There is one thing he has been begging to do and thats to bike Eklutna Lake. Now we go there a couple times a summer but with such a range of skill levels and attention spans and limited equiptment there is just no way to go more than a mile before turnig around and going home. Its 10 miles to the end of the lake and 3 more miles to a public use cabin. I figured we could probably do it but just in case i made arrangements for dad to bring a couple atvs in day two to pick us up if need be. We packed and drove out friday night and set up camp at the lake. The next mornig we repacked our bags and headed out. It was a beautiful day! Unfortunately he lost his water pack somewhere along the way. He also had to fix his chain that kept falling off the next day. I was impressed he knew how to tighten it cause I was clueless!! We arrived at the cabin and were amazed at how beautiful it was and the views! Wow!!! We ended up being the only ones there so instead of sleeping in the bunks we made a big fire in the stove and slept beside it. We played cards, drew pictures, drank hot coco and tea. It was pretty darn awesome. Eli was so big, taking care of me and doing big jobs like gathering wood and reading to me by fire light. He is turning into an amazing person and I feel head over heals over my nephew again as I have every day since he was born. We woke the next day to sunshine so we decided to bike farther up the road which turned into a stream then a trail and we found all kinds of cool stuff along the way. Ice floating in the river from the glacier. Writing on rocks with other rocks, following floating sticks down streams, making different sounds by throwing rocks in the river different ways. And how to use my fancy camera. He has a good eye!! We decided we should probably head home around 2 since his first day of school was the next day. 3 miles later we ran into dad, lu, chad, moe, zach and willem!! Eli wanted to keep riding so he did but dad decided we should tow my bike behind an atv with a rope. It was awesome!! I wasnt too keen at first but it was crazy cool!! Eli's chain finally broke for he last time about 4 miles from the end so i was really glad they had come for us. It was an amazing trip and I for one will never forget it.

Coming home, i stayed with aunt coleen which is always a treat. Most of my work was at sorenson so it was nice being 10 minutes from work. The boy downstairs moved out only after I told him to get out NOW. Unfortunately he left the biggest mess I have ever seen. 14 bags of garbage. $20 of recycling, a can of toe nail clippings. A sink full of red hair, petrified food etc. It took kari and I a month to clean it up enough for her to move down stairs. We had tons of help from her parents and friends. As awful as the experience was, I wouldnt trade " getting high" for the first time ever, sealing concrete with my new roomie! It now looks AMAZING!!! I will get before and after pics up soon. As soon as we were settled, the owner called and said he was putting the house on the market. Gah!!! Anyway, we will see what happens.

So whats new? I have a new...friend :).

He is from Turkey. He was looking for a swing dance partner and come to find out he is actually pretty fun to hang out with too. Im learning a bit of Turkish and he is learning some ASL. He is an amazing cook and loves trying new foods. I like going to watch him and his friends play soccer and hanging out with them at 7hills food cart on division and 48th. He is a competative table tennis player which totally cracks me up. He is a mechanical engineer but wants to have a Turkish food cart or restaurant someday. He loves hiking and camping and is writing a phone app to quick refereance hikes around Portland. He also loves photography and photoshop. Life is quirky. We are enjoying spending time hanging out and learning about each other.

Food happens to be a HUGE part of this friendship. We decided to take turns cooking for each others friends. This sunday he cooked an auhentic Turkish feast for some of my friends. It was UNbelievable!! Friday we moved his kitchen "tools" to my kitchen. Then saturday we spent shopping for food! We went to Barbar Blvd World Foods first. So many different languages different foods, different packaging, a feast for the eyes!! Then we went to Fred Meyers, 3 times. Then Ikea. Then to the local mom and pop shop....twice. Sunday, cooking started at 11. I was "sous-chef" and "dish whench" while he cooked for 8 hours straight!! Yes 8!! People showed up around 5, i started serving around 6, we ate until 9. Afterwards we sat for 2 hours, comatose. He had cooked 15 different dishes: 4 main dishes, 2 salads, 2 appetizers, 4 desserts, soup, and 2 different rice dishes. Why, you may ask? Well, we had food allergies- eggs, soy, fruit, beef, and 2 vegan/vegatarians. He was addimate about having something for everyone. It was awesome listening to him describe ingrediants and history behind the food. My foodie friends were in heaven. I wish everyone could have been there!!!

"Rosemary and oregano are like twins, you have to decide wich one to accent."

Next week is my turn. Alaskan meal. My only challenge, no pork products and one person doesnt like fish. So no caribou sausage and somehing not so....fishy. :) I'll let you know how it goes...

So now you are caught up. I am typing this on my phone and cant spell check so please forgive me as i am going to post this unedited for fear of it NEVER getting there!!

Love to all
Jen

Cake!! Cupcakes!! Yummm!!!

2011-08-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

So we were at it again. Kara says, "I have a wedding cake this weekend." Of course I hear, "We have a wedding cake this weekend." Why might you say would I want to adopt the stress and tedious work of making wedding cakes with my sister? Because I love them, I love her, and because in my heart, I just KNOW she couldn't do it without me...or at least wouldn't want to. Now when I say I help, I really mean in an administrative assistant sort of way. A sounding board, idea planter, an encourager, pushing her to go the extra mile. A dishwasher, problem solver, a kid cop and re-director. An answer, when she needs one, a question, when she's stumped. A laugh when the hour is late and this time...SHE TAUGHT ME HOW TO DO A SWIRL!!! So really, this cake I learned a TON. One: READ A RECIPE ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Two: I can conquer a swirl in 30 mins. Three: Trust Kara on color...Sometimes she is right!! (there I said it, tough for an older sister) Four: Evie makes a GREAT co-worker on my construction clean up crew while mom is busy baking. I think this saved both of us. FIVE: I REMEMBERED WHY I LOVE WORKING WITH MY SISTER!!! She is pretty much amazing.

This cake was done for Nancy Pants (LOVE HER) and she has a heavy job and a extremely fun outlet. You should check out her blog nancy-inalaska.blogspot.com SO anyway, Nancy is a vintage sort of gal, with lots of creativity, spunk and a love for cupcakes, tents and flags. We knew we needed to make 60 cupcakes, one 3 tiered cake and two satellite cakes. We had no picture of what she wanted or color swath, just Champagne and Vintage, Red Velvet and white cake (and her BLOG!!) We referenced her blog a lot, as she had posted many of her favorite wedding ideas on it.

Kara tried a Duncan Red Velvet Cake mix and hated it, they were flat little tasteless cupcakes and we weren't about to serve them to anyone but the chickens. That's when we started googling cake and filling recipes. We tried another and the result was priceless, beautifully rounded cupcakes, moist, chocolaty, delightful!! I also googled a raspberry filling, and promptly whipped up the ingredients only to be unhappy with the texture...kara asked "did you follow the recipe??" Uh, instructions?? No, just ingredients. after a bit of simmering on the stove we fell in love with our new raspberry filling..."YUMMY NUMMINESS" said Ellie. Then there was the Cream Cheese Frosting Fiasco. It was very yummy but didn't hold up to well when used as piping for decorations. We quickly solved each issue as they came at us and by day two, had an idea of where we were headed. Day three: We get a call, three tiered down to two, 3 satellite cakes, and Ballerina Pink, Cake Topper musical chairs, and voila, we rolled with the punches. We were both happy with our Champagne color but I pushed for a darker pink since the pink Kara liked was the same tint as the champagne and her decor idea wouldn't stand out. The Pink did get too dark for both our taste but upon arrival and one look at the grooms tie, we had nailed the color spot on.

We walked in to find the cake table was an old rickety cast-iron stove. It took us the whole hour before and ceremony to set up all the cupcakes and cakes. Our flag cake matched the flag cake topper perfectly!! The details in this wedding were AMAZING!! Her venue, Crow Creek Mine was spectacular and all her little details just made the cake come alive. I was very impressed and thrilled that it all turned out so well.

Carrie Lambing Photographic: Luanna & Chad's Wedding | Big Lake, Alaska

2011-06-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

Carrie Lambing Photographic: Luanna & Chad's Wedding | Big Lake, Alaska: "What a beautiful day for a wedding of two amazing people. It was such an honor to be a part of Luanna and Chad's wedding day. I loved the l..."

2011-06-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful wedding. The impossible became probable and then miraculously was pulled off. There werw funny moments stressful moments. We had amazing women surrounding us as we pulled out all the stops in every way. I felt beauty all around me and in me. Luanna was stunning and her amazing smile!!! Oh that smile!!! I heard "The Morris's sure know how to throw a party." And "never moss a Morris wedding" more than a couple of times. Yes, i must agree my family (and extended family) know how to throw up a big event. As i sit here with a friend and a premeditated bottle of riesling (i had happened to see the lable and purchase for just this occasion) we talked about what came next.

next: is a statement
next: is a question
next: reminds us that

We always stand at a crossroads,
That we are all poets,
All philosophers,
The makers and keepers of our own dreams,

That we bring wine to our friends
That we might share both
Wine and words together,

Folded into a moment
on the edge of the next...

I Concur...

2011-05-22T20:16:00.001-07:00

The Uses of Poetry

This was a day when I did nothing,
aside from reading the newspaper,
taking both breakfast and lunch by myself
in the kitchen, dozing after lunch
until the middle of the afternoon. Then
I read one poem by Zbigniew Herbert
in which he thanked God for the many beautiful
things in this world, in a voice so absurdly
truthful, the entire wrecked day was redeemed.

Harvey Shapiro
The Sights Along the Harbor: New and Collected Poems
Wesleyan University Press

Cutest nieces EVER

2011-04-06T13:39:00.001-07:00

Ellie says "Mom! Take a picture of us! Two sweetpeas together!" ...I think she means two peas in a pod. :D
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

IMG01198-20110327-2046.jpg

2011-03-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Home Again!
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Aunty in Alaska

2011-03-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

I walked in the door to screams and squeals "Aunty Nen!!!" Then we played hide and seek...I am such a sap when it comes to my nieces and nephews. They are incredible human beings and they daily bring sunshine and perspective to my life.

Enter Willem Kade Melear

7lbs 11oz
red hair
longest toes ever

**swoon**

There was some bilirubin level issues at the beginning so it was touch and go there for a bit. He lost weight (down to 6 lbs 4 oz) and wouldn't poop...but now he is back to 7 lbs 4 oz and pooping galore...all is well that poops well!

We had a baby shower on Saturday. Kara and I had a great time making the cake. Cheryl did a wonderful job putting it all together. She had us puffy paint onesies!!! They turned out great. Margaret Zach and I took Willem to his first Basketball game. He slept through the entire game. (I wish I could have...) Since I am still on crutches (yes, again) I haven't gotten around much this trip but I have gotten to hold the baby. And that is why I came...to be an aunty. Here are some pics to tide you over to the next post...

Imprints

2010-09-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

There is an imprint of my fist somewhere above Tabletop on Lazy Mountain. It had been an amazing fall. Cold, crisp, sunny, still, BEAUTIFUL!!! So what do water logged Alaskans do when the sun comes out? We go crazy and try to pack all the out door fun we couldn't do all summer into a sunny weekend. Days are getting quite a bit shorter and the nights colder. But since there has been no wind (knock on wood) we have kept our beautiful colorful fall intact. The lakes are so still they are like amazing mirrors smoothly catching all the colors around them and casting them back at your eyes causing you to pause to catch your breath. Thanks to the warm sunshine cutting through the cold the adventurer in all of us has come out ten fold. The crisp air has made the mountains stand taller and our energy grow expidentially. Saturday we took the kayaks to Cottonwood lake and took turns toodeling along on the lake finding signs of fall. Dead salmon carcases, where they gave up the fight and rolled over the last time. Yellow leaves that let go early in an eager rush to float, toss and turn only to land on a wet surface so still they don't go anywhere fast. An old airplane on floats tucked in the trees quite forgotten, paint fading, skin rusting, still grinning from couling to couling like it's keeping a funny secret. Animals I don't recognize swimming through the reeds gathering stuff for pending winter. Geese flying in ever changing V's overhead giving up the ghoast and flying south. The kids were happily catching stickle back minos at the edge of the water. Buddy goes manic near the water anymore digging to China. Blue tried to keep up with us in the kayaks by running through peoples yards along the shoreline. It was practically perfect in every aspect. We decided that tomorrow, tomorrow wouldn't be so lazy..

Matt and Tosha decided to attempt Matanuska Peak for the third time that summer. Scott and I looked at each other and decided to attempt a lesser but just as harowing hike, Lazy Mountain. Unfortunately, while we were floating around lazily on a lake, Tosha was up at a river playing with her sisters and in an atempt to bolder skip across the river to rescue half a guitar case, Tosha slipped in and broke her toe between bolders. 8am Matt joined us at Windbreak Cafe for Morris Breakfast to tell us the sad tale. He joined our group after church in our ascent. It was another BEAUTIFUL day, clear, warm, FABULOUS!! Now I was born and raised here and have never attempted this particular peak before. Actually there are many peaks I have not ascended yet in this valley...all just as harry as the next. But I did grow up with lots of friends who climbed it...or ran it weekly...sometimes daily...I wish everyone could get a feel for what this means...insanity at it's best. Anyway, three years ago, the bourough decided to add an optional switch back trail for the first half of the mountain. Trail maintenance just finished it this year, so we took off down the horse trail for about ten minutes to find the head of Lazy Moose Trail. Here I told the group to go ahead and please not wait up for me. If I made it to the top that would be a bonus but today was about me, my camera, and my keeping myself intact and happy. This meant not pushing my knee to exaustion before I decended. This meant finding and eating as many raspberries and blueberries as I could find. This meant stopping and looking through my lens as much as I pleased without slowing others down....that was the last I saw them till the top. They beat me by 30 mins but we all arrived content and the view was so so SO worth it. A different perspective on the valley and a view of what is beyond was breath taking!! Matanuska Peak didn't look as intrepidous from here as it does from the floor. We took lots of silly pictures and decided to head down. Now you seasoned peeps know what I mean by the fact that there is only one option down and that is to run. The slope is at such an angle that it takes more energy (and pain) to hold yourself back than to let gravity take over. That is my favorite part, running down steep terrain!! It brought me back to my childhood and slopes at Hatcher Pass and the Butte or slopes above George Lake. Besides running created the first breeze we had felt all day!! I think this is odd because in this valley that is placed at the end of two wind tunnels, there is rarely a still moment, especially way up high like this. It was such a thrill, pure joy, until we got to the mud again and I hesitated. On my way up, I had gotten to this part, end of switch backs, slippery dirt slopes that I fell twice hard and almost gave up going up to the top. Now as I was coming down hard my left foot slid and I tried to catch myself with my right. That's when it popped loudly and I got sick to my stomach. I lay on the trail, pounding my fist into the dirt. I know I left an imrpint of Jen up on that mountain side that will wear away under foot and snow and wind but this mountain left an imprint on me. After being helped up, I tried to walk on my own and found this to be impossible. There was no stopping the tears of frustration, humiliation, fear, and pain. Matt and Jo helped me to the picnic table not far down the trail and we decided to take the steep, wider, more treacherous trail down in stead of the long, skinny, switch backs back. This way I could have a person on both sides to help me down. I had already started with 4 advil at the bottom and two at the top so I took 4 more and decided that swelling would probably not be a problem till tomorrow. The sun was still high in the sky but I knew even not having taken this route before that we probably would be lucky to get down by sunset. So, with Scott on one side, Jo on the other, Eric took my pack, and Matt testing trails and which path was the best choice we picked and proded our way slowly down. I'd like to forget this painful trek soon but attitudes were high, comments positive and if I had to be stuck in that situation, those were the people I wanted joking with me. We reached the parking lot AT sunset as I had predicted up at the picnic table, hungry and happy to be down with no more catastrophies. I tried to go to the Urgent Care clinic the next morning but they called my name at the time I needed to leave to go interpret at the high school. The nurse asked how I was going to get there and I told her they same way I got here, hobble my way back to the car and drive there. She kindly wheeled me to my car and off I went. After work, I tried again and got the same woman, we were good friends by now. My ankle was also twice the size it had been. No fractures showed on the x-rays but the doctor said that he assumed it was a torn achilles and a sprian. He said under no circumstance was I to hike for the next 6 weeks at least and if I aggrivated it at all and it ripped any more he would put me under the knife. He gave me "the boot" and put me on crutches and told me to stay off it as much as possible for 4 weeks. Tammy came to get me, I was in no mood to learn to drive left footed and didn't have crutches YET so we went to the pharmacy for pain killers and TURNING LEAF for crutches...did you know the local second hand store has stuff like this for loan??? For FREE!! Then I went home. The sun is still out. I have been to Big Lake twice this week, trying to enjoy the beautiful fall as much as I can with my limitations. I have been hiking once a week with my friend Carrie, but she offered to find a beautiful place to sit in the sun instead. I have learned that just because I'm down, I'm definitely not out. We watched an amazing sunset while a bank of fog litterally rolled in, with denali standing tall to our right on a lake as still as glass with bright red salmon swimming slowly below us. Fall is still awe inspiring here and I am still enjoying it.

Star wonder

2010-09-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Star light, Stars so bright
A million stars I saw tonight.
I wish I may, no I wish I might
spend a few hours gazing at you tonight.

To watch the clouds block your light,
To see the moon reflect just right.
So wish I could join you up above
unable to let go, holding earth so tight.

Photo by Carrie Lambing Photographic.

Life seems to rush by at different speeds. Sometimes we are able to savor every moment other times just barely keeping up with all the very important things pulling us in opposite directions. The more you close your fingers around it and try to hold on, grip it, slow it down, the more quickly it slips through your fingers like warm fine sand. Lately, I wonder if I'm doing enough to keep up with the important people in my life. Often I feeling I'm loosing myself in the busy-ness of the day, keeping up by loosing my sense of self and direction.

I know that hiding is an option but even though stillness is what I'm looking for hiding can suck you in like a black hole and eat you alive. I am sitting in a mostly quiet house (not hiding) enjoying the peace that comes at the end of a good life. When the colors seem sharper and the people seem clearer. Dinner is cooking and the pieces of life become like the spices, just a little goes a long way and mixing the right ones together smell so good as they simmer away! Do you remember the last food you REALLY tasted? I am reminded of my Granddaddy and how much he loved to taste food. He really enjoyed a good meal and always complimented the cook on each dish individually. I'm sorry this is so random, I need to write. Not sure how much to say.

I feel raw. Like life is pulling in so many directions and all are good but the options don't mix too well. Choose your own adventure books never sat very well with me. I always had to go back and ready every available option before moving on. What happens when you can't read ahead? What happens when there isn't another chapter? I feel very comfortable in this quiet space. I'm just not very good at moving on from it. Maybe it's because I don't find this space often enough. Maybe it's because it's a rare gem, a moment on a mountain, a moment with a friend, a moment walking to my motor home in the dark, looking up at the stars, inviting me to join them...

2010-08-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

Well here it is 10pm and Luanna's boyfriend Chad is running around in the woods behind our house chasing a moose. This moose to be exact with a bow and arrow. Now the work begins...they drove a forklift from a work site to the house and lifted it onto a trailer, took it to the Cameran Shop and are going to hang it from another forklift and gut it over the burn pile...then the cutting and slicing, cleaning, wrapping and labeling begins. Have fun Lu and Chad!!! Good night all!!!

A Pilot's Tribute

2010-08-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a long day.

It's been a long summer.

2 summers ago, I would have summed it up as the monsoon summer of Margaret and Zach's wedding when there were way to many bear attacks.

This summer I would sum it up as the monsoon summer of plane crashes. The crazy part is, it's not due to weather or newbie mistakes. They have been old seasoned pilots who are some of the highly respected infrastructure of our greater community here in Alaska, the last great frontier. They are the pioneers of invention and tenacious ingenuity.

The monsoon part is easy to explain. We are setting records as one of the top 6 (and moving up rapidly) rainiest summers ever recorded in the short history of Alaska. The plane crashes have been chilling as one tragedy after another rock the pilot community and families here. When I first arrived in June, it was on the cusp of the first chilling accident. One of our neighbors on Lake Clark was hauling out materials from Merill Field with his family and a babysitter when he crashed into a neighborhood at the end of the strip. The plane burst into flames and valiant bystanders braved the flames to rescue all but one of the passengers. ALL involved were severely burned and most still reside in burn units from here to Oregon. They lost their 4 year old son. Horrible!

We've lost pilots before, plane crashes are not uncommon. My dad has made many rescues and pulled parts out or flown pilots and spare parts out to remote crash sites recovering wreckage or limping a plane back home to be repaired. He has one friend who has lived through more than 10 crashes and even one in the middle of a lake where he broke his back and some guy in a fishing boat happened to be there and pulled him out to safety.

I myself have witnessed a crazy lodge owner that wanted to beat other lodges to a hot fishing hole, leave too early in the morning and flip his plane right in front of our lodge while we were serving breakfast. Thanks to our guides who heard the chilling fla-whomp! and quickly drove in skiffs to rescue the passengers, everyone was okay and they had a new Beaver on floats the next day and the race was on again.

Most unfortunate was a dear friend and pillar in our community, while ferrying his family back from a fishing hole, was on his way back to get the last load and never made it. They attributed it to water in the gas tank but it really rocked our community. We are thankful that he was alone. Here is a picture of his family.

All of these memories and realities flood back when you hear of a plane going down. The closer to home it gets the more sobering the thoughts are. I remember noticing the very first sound of a plane flying over 5 days after September 11th. It was eery as if a ghost was pining for life or soloist was afraid to break the silence but wanted it's presence known. It was the first time I had realized how much air noise really tells me a lot about whats going on around me. This summer has been wet, wet, wet! The skys have been pretty quiet for the most part. I don't have to look up from my work to know that the ceiling has lifted 1000ft and we will have a rain break because the sound of a plane reassures me of it. The few times rays have escaped from the clouds, the sky just buzzes with the sound of pilots itching to get some air under their wings. This is the land of bush pilots. So many people depend on these metal soaring contraptions to bring them food and supplies.

These have been some of my thoughts as I drove to Anchorage to drop off materials for some remote village, sat at a mountain pass alone in the quiet, hiked the experimental farm as planes danced above me.

4 days before the big Elmendorf Air Show a C-17 crashed on the tarmac while practicing. 4 died, 3 of them were my age. The show went on but the air was a solemn celebration.

There was a plane of tourists that crashed on a glacier and got stuck without any supplies or gear for three days before the weather let up enough to drop supplies. A helicopter that tried to land ended up rolling leaving the count to 9 stranded cold and hungery people.

At the same time an Otter on floats, carrying our own Ted Stevens and Retired head of NASA and two teenagers and their parents, a retired Alaska Airlines Pilot,and two others, were headed out to a lodge for a fishing trip. In the fog, they hit the side of the mountain, from the pictures it looks as though the pilot tried to climb straight up to lessen the impact, that and the floats managed to limit the death toll to 5. 4 survived but were trapped in their seats till rescuers arrived later the next day. They were busy attempting to rescue the glacier group and pulled out and relocated to this crash site. Our state was in shock. Ted's first wife had been killed many years ago in a separate plane crash (in which he survived) at Ted Stevens International Airport. Worst part was, the pilot in this crash lost his son-in-law in the C-17 crash. Do the math for his daughter. She lost her dad and husband within two weeks of each other.

Reeling from this news, we heard that a C-123 had lost an engine and crashed. It was John Eshilmans...my mind went Eshelman, Eshelman, ESHELMAN!!!

I haven't seen Casey or Kristen since high school. We called Casey "Keebler" and his dad was just that, "dad." He pulled me out of a ditch once when I missed a hairpin turn before the airport on the way to a cross country ski team party at the Eshelmans. He was also owner of Steppers Construction so often he would swap favors with my dad's business.

He was working on a beautiful C-123 he had brought up to Wasilla from Florida in the hopes to use it to deliver supplies to those in need across Alaska. It wasn't quite ready to fly...so close! He had just talked to dad about flying a forklift and building supplies out to Lake Clark for our cabin and dad had just delivered Metal Roofing for John's new add-on. It was just weird. He was so busy doing so many good things. He was planning a trip to Israel, He was in the middle of moving a Firefighter Memorial to a more accessible and visible location. The list goes on.

Today, we went to his Memorial. We parked and walked with the masses along the taxi way only to be met by a pilots tribute as 10 beautiful planes and one helicopter flew one by one down the air strip. They came back and landed and we all cheered as they joined us. There was over 1000 people there, the Anchorage Fire dept and Wasilla Fire Departments showed as well as many pilot families and construction folk. Many Colony High alumni and faculty. He touched many communities. His brother choked through his Eulogy. It was very touching, and I learned who this person, Casey's Dad was. There were quite a few stories and from different parts of his life, an over view, an early view, and his last days view. I really liked this guy and felt the void he left behind. Crazy part is, he left but every thing he had his hand in kept going without him there. He was an amazing orchestrator, that's for sure! Two guys in parachutes landed during the stories and poems. And at the end, this man who was born on Elmendorf Air force Base and lived a die hard patriot and his hand shake was his word, was given a solute, the Steppers solution way. His son's Casey, Connor and (one more I don't know) Shot off 7 blanks while his brother Bob called them off.

I got to give Casey a big hug at the end. I'd like to actually get the time to catch up with him. Earlier this summer I drove by their place promising myself I'd go say hi later and now I wish I had taken the time to stop in.

Farewell John, you were a great guy and you will be sorely missed.

Busy Living Life

2010-08-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I was mentioning how I was behind in my blogging AGAIN and my mom said, "Jen, you are just too busy living life." I know, and I'm loving it, but I do love to write and I do love to relive my adventures on a page of...screen? Anyway...

Last weekend was again pretty darn fun...in spite of the rain...I know I keep talking about weekends as if I don't work and have plenty of hair raising stories from that. I do actually and will comment when I have pictures to post with. Unfortunately, Kara and I both forgot our cameras this weekend, even though we were only 10 minuets from home...Again, I am ahead of myself.

Monday:
Wilson's are planing to go to Valdez. I am planning to go to Chena Hot Springs.

Tuesday:
Morris's and Wilson's decide to go to Kennicott Mine, I waffle on my plans and mom starts looking for a motorhome.

Wednesday:
We are all cool with going to McCarthy and Kennicott for the weekend.

Thursday:
Mom and Dad find a Motor home.

Friday:
10am Mom and Dad buy said Motor home. Kara calls and changes her Valdez reservation to Sunday night. I call to reserve a camp site
BRIDGE IS OUT ONLY SMALL CARS ONE DRIVER EVERYONE MUST CARRY THEIR GEAR

11am Kara and I start looking for plan "B." Mom and I go pick up RV and she heads to DMV. Office is going up in smoke, fires in Dillingham, Delta, Horse Arena, Middleton Island etc.

12pm Byers Lake (opposite direction of Valdez) Horse Arena Fire OUT

1pm I head to Anchorage. Still no decision. Delta Fire OUT

3pm I head back to Wasilla. Dad says lets do Lake Louise. Dillingham Fire Semi under control

5pm Still no decision.

6pm Kara and I look at each other with pitiful "I really want to go camping" eyes and I throw out Finger lake, she looks at the clock, "now?" "sure, it's ten minutes from home, if we need anything we can run back." Mom says maybe they will join with the new motor home later.

8pm We drive out of the driveway to go grocery shopping.

9pm We set up camp, and start a fire.

10pm All fires are out in the office and mom and dad come over for s'mores in the Mini Cooper instead!!

This is a typical weekend in the Morris house hold. Kara and I never left the camp ground. We ate steak bites and hot dogs and cold cereal the ENTIRE weekend. I kept the fire going and it POURED on us both nights. We woke up to the sound of Buddy lapping up puddles of water inside the tent...tons of it too! Saturday warmed up enough to tempt the kids to go swimming, even though their lips turned blue. Mom and dad brought dessert both nights and then Sunday Wilsons left me by the campfire for Valdez. I made myself some hot tea and knitted till mom joined me, then we broke camp and picked every last current on the property before heading home...

It was a WONDERFUL weekend. No Pictures, sorry :(

Current Sorbet anyone??

Leaving Society Behind

2010-07-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

When dad picked me up he said, "You're out of practice."

Let me back up. It had been a long work week, actually short because Monday was a holiday and we had just got back from Clam Gultch. But by Friday, everyone was talking about going BACK to Clam Gultch for the weekend. I was not thrilled. I drive a lot already and as I previously mentioned, we drove a lot over 4th of July weekend, and here it is 4 days later and they want to turn around and do it all over again.

That's when dad asked me if I wanted him to drop me off in "The Pass." Now dad has been forever telling me of a little place of mystery and history called "The Pass" or at least that's how he has always referred to it. Up till now, I only knew that it was up high and really cool. I learned more along the way like Doc Cunningham put in the airstrip, and used to have a spot with wooden platforms for tents but the Forrest Service burnt them down since they didn't look natural. I also learned that a drop of rain could basically fall and have two choices, roll one way down the Chickaloon Pass or the other way down the Talkeetna Pass. I was at the head waters of two main rivers. Dad flew me around and oriented me to the area, set down and I unloaded my gear...then I watched him fly away.

Now don't think he left me ALL alone, Buddy was with me and I had a radio that on 121.5 could talk to the jets flying over, just in case...and Rusty's .45 of course. But I was up at 5,000ft and rarely did planes fly OVER this pass and the bears were at least two valley's down. It was just me and the sunshine and the breath of freedom. Freedom from societal norms. Freedom from convinces. Freedom from technology!! No Service!! I literally cast off my cares (and clothes) and went climbing. Buddy lost about three years off his life and turned into a happy puppy!! He wouldn't stop playing fetch and pranced every where he went. Everything was new and exciting!

Setting up camp was quick and easy. Everyone except the neighboring squirrel was happy with the site. He didn't stop chattering at me till I broke camp and went home! I was shocked and sad to find that my air-mattress wasn't holding air. I stole some duct tape off the scope box to stop up the biggest hole and ended up having to blow it up again every 3 hours. It started to rain a couple hours into my stay so into my tent I went. It was so nice to just snuggle into my fleece and down bag and listen to the rain. I read a book, started knitting a pair of gloves and slept, and slept and slept. All the sudden I realized it was Sunday and I hadn't gotten out of the tent in almost 24 hours!! It was the sudden growling from my stomach that brought me out of my slumber and back into my senses. I hadn't eaten since I left home. Oh! and did I mention it was cold? I was on the verge of freezing but had lots more clothes I could have put on. Little did I know it was snowing just above me!! I could see glimpses of it through the cloud bank that had obscured the pass the next morning.

Hungry! Right! So I opened the tent and in the vestibule set up the stove...(first mistake). I had bungeed the vestibule to some rocks and everything was wet wet wet! Since it was still drizzling, I decided to cook from inside the tent and use dad's stove...(second mistake). It took me a bit to figure it out get it set up and lit...so by the time the thing roared to life, I wasn't ready for the blaze it put out waiting to catch the burner or the back draft that was bringing the blaze into my tent. I was frozen in fear and stuck without a way out of my tent and no way to reach the zipper to the vestibule. Then the surge of panic and adrenalin hit me...I was flailing and and throwing and thanking God that everything was soaking wet! Somehow, the rocks with the fly still bungeed to them ended up on the other side of the tent, the stove on its side a few yards away still blazing in the rain and me breathing heavy thinking, "Did I just get away easy??" That's when the burner caught and I started laughing hysterically. I decided to cook the rest of my meal a couple feet from the tent and heck with the drizzle, it was now my new best friend.

Fed and ready to explore, Buddy and I "packed up" and took off on our adventure. I decided to follow the Talkeetna River up to it's source since I wasn't too excited about getting wet in a river crossing. I put on my new Keens and carharts and threw on my backpack and headed out. The clouds moved by quickly and gave us peeks of the peaks around us. Once in a while we even got a ray or two of sunshine! We had a great hike along river beds, across high tundra, over bolder piles left by meandering glaciers. Past lakes and caribou tracks and poop. We hiked all the way up to the glacier (Piedmont, since it ends on land.) Then I realized I hadn't brought any food, or the gun, and somehow, somewhere, I had lost the antenna to the radio. It was time to turn around and head back to the tent. We photographed rocks and mud, water and foliage, bacteria and lichen. Marmots wistled at us and birds chased us away from their nests. We even got the ground squirrel talking about our intrusion. Not once did we see a sheep or a caribou. Back at camp I realized we had been out for over 8 hours and so I cooked up some dinner, cleaned up and it started to rain again. Snuggling back down I decided if dad didn't come pick me up in the morning, I would try crossing the river to check out the huge gorge and cliff at the mouth of the Chickaloon Pass.

I woke up to sunshine streaming into my tent! It was practically a sauna!! I was excited to go exploring again so I got dressed, repacked with necessities I had forgot the day before put in first and started making breakfast. I figured if dad wasn't there by the time I was done I was heading out. Fed and cleaned up I heard a sound I hadn't heard in 3 days...the sound of an airplane coming through the pass. My heart dropped as it circled my camp and landed. It was such a beautiful day, I wanted to push dad to go hiking with me but I knew that we had a lot of catching up to do back home. Buddy ran up to the plane and to my great surprise was ready to jump in and GO!! (He hates traveling) We broke camp, much to my neighbor's delight and flew home trading stories all the way. We checked out a hanging glacier and a nursery of baby goats and a Golden Eagle!! I had such a grand time, I can't wait to do it again!!

I was unprepared for all the astonishment at my adventure. Since then I have been questioned by many Alaskans as well as others why I went on this solo trip and wasn't I scared. I think it is sad that people are so afraid of and detached from God's green earth, his creatures and his people. I loved being in a place so quiet I could hear my heart beat and my soul think. The usual fast stimulus of life sated so my eyes and feet could discover many miniature miracles and anchient earth artifacts. I was so full and rested when I got back, I wish this place of being on everyone, no matter how you get there. No, I was not scared I had my common sense and lots of comfy accommodations as well as my Buddy to keep me company.

I'm just out of practice...

2010-07-19T01:04:00.000-07:00

Mt Marathon...FINALLY!!

2010-07-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while hasn't it and boy do I have stories to tell. Tawni, I hope this makes you laugh as you requested. I will have to keep it to one story per post or you will be here all night reading this thing! Lets go back two weekends ago to 4th of July.

It was a long work week, nobody new what the plan was but we all new Seward was somewhere in the mix. Mark and Melony stopped by and invited anyone who wanted to halibut fish out of Homer to meet them Saturday morning. Of course Clam Gultch was also a given it was just how when and where. Thursday evening still nobody knew what the plan was, mom and dad had been shopping for a motor home but ended up using the Gigantoid Company Motor Home instead. The boys packed up the 4 wheelers in a covered trailer and hit the road after work. Dad still had more to do so he sent mom and I off in the motor home by ourselves with a "to do" list about as long as Santa's "nice" list. Dad and Andrew later flew to Kasilof...oh, let me back up a trace. Margaret and Zach had company from Oregon, friends from Multnomah up visiting. They went to Doner's Beach on Thursday I believe and Chad and Luanna whom both had 4 days off had decided to join until Wednesday night, Chad bought them both tickets to Montana for his family reunion, so they left Thursday afternoon. So much for plans eh?

So back to mom and I (because that is where I was!) we stopped in Eagle River for propane and food. Propane wasn't so easy to find but eventually we got it (and didn't even have to back up the beast!!) Figured out where it went but never ever figured out how to turn it on. Upon rejoining the string of cars on the Parks Highway, the oil pressure dropped through the floor. Now imagine my mother driving this 34+ft long beast through Anchorage, looking for a gas station she trusts herself to pull through with 3,000 other RV's trying to get a last fill up and top off before hitting the same 2 lane road we are driving down. Not only that, but mom points between the seats and says, "I don't even know where the engine is in this thing, do you think it's there?" This starts the first of many laughing till we are crying fits that last most of the weekend long. I wish I could remember them all. We can't get a hold of Dad who is most likely somewhere above Nikkiski by now and Margaret has no clue what kind of oil the beast takes. We try to rouse Keith Wright but by now it is 10:30. We take a guess, fill her up and still no oil pressure. The dip stick is terribly long and takes mom ten minutes just to get it in and down the hole only to pull it out again...we are giggling hysterically.

We decide that the gauge isn't working (even thought the beast was seriously low on oil) and make our way to Girdwood to check the oil again. On the way dad finally calls us, Margaret has kindly driven out to Kasilof to pick them up. Andrew forgot to unpack the truck into the plane while dad was fueling up so they are without many things including sleeping bags. Back in the beast there is no heat so I have ransacked the beds of their blankets and wrapped them around us.

Arriving in Girdwood, we open the engine compartment to find a hot engine and the dip stick says we still need more oil. This can't be good. Only then are we approached by two college age girls looking to hitch a ride to Cooper Landing. I told them it was an iffy ride, no heat, questionable oil pressure, not much to count on but it was up to them, there was plenty of room. They had been waiting on a promised ride for over an hour and were glad to take us up on our big roomy questionable ride. So we closed up the hood and made our way down the road. We did make it to Cooper's Landing and decided after dropping the girls off to pull over for the night.

It was 1:30am and so we called dad and said our good nights, bundled up in real beds and slept like two lumps on a log sideways! We hadn't figured out how to level the beast yet. Morning was much brighter and our spirits rested we felt better prepared to face the rest of the trip, especially after seeing an Esspresso Drive thru that served Kaladi's!! We called dad as we got close just to find that they had just pulled out to go to Homer.

Arriving we tried to light the propane and failed so we went to Merry's Clam Shack for hot tea, only to hear that Andrew and Dad had slept in the truck sitting up all night WITHOUT bags or blankets of any kind!! Pour boys!! So now most of us after a VERY long work day have had very little sleep and still we charged on with our many plans. Mom and I kept the beach fire going, we knitted, drew and read. Mom tried to help me paint my toes and we both about wet our pants laughing, in the sand with wet toes bright pink/orange and big drops of it all over my feet and her hands. We made quite a pair! We visited with Moe and Merry and Jo and Hiedi and different Doner gang members as they came in off their boats. Heather and Luke were also down for a visit...the beach is a grand place to chill and visit. We got to hear all about Heidi's trip to Greece too and see all her pictures. Mom and I made hobo dinners.

Margaret and her friends eventually went to Homer to help clean fish. They all got back very late sometime after midnight and we all fell into bed...I think dad was already passed out in my sleeping bag on the couch when we got back to the beast. Buddy was exhausted from running up and down the beach chasing waves and atv's and balls and rocks and kids but there was little sleep for the weary.

6am my alarm clock went off, we had 15 minutes to get ready before Merry and Heidi were to pick Scott and I up to drive to Seward. It was July 4th and it was Heidi's first race to the very top of the mountain and my first attempt to climb it. The plan was for everyone else to follow in the plane, unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and so it was just Scott and I who attempted the climb.

The first part was very precarious!! Basically rock and root climbing, then it was just straight up, one foot in front of the other, excruciatingly painful climbing...how the HELL do they RUN it??? Scott would get a ways ahead and wait for me. I would be ready to quit when I would see a flash of yellow ahead and think, okay fine, I can make it that far then, and on and on it went. Mark sped past us at one point and Mr. Veenstra came out of the brush at one point and told us that Emily would be racing too. We could hear clearly the band and the announcer getting the women lined up for their race. At the first gun shot, we still hadn't made it to midway. I thought we would be caught on the trail but we shot out at the shale just seconds before the first woman runner to break through the brush. It was a tight race to the finish, we could hear that the Seward favorite was behind the Olympic runner and past her just at the finish, protecting her title and gaining her 6th and final win in Mt. Marathon. 53 minutes and the race was over but women were still pouring out of the brush and climbing up the crazy thing!! After Heidi past us the second time on her way down, we tried our foot and riding the shale down between racers...it was AWESOME!! I believe that was the best part of the whole day really, cause then we got lost thinking we had found the easy way down only to find ourselves standing at the top of the rock face with tree roots to swing by...down down down we went and I don't know if I shall ever climb it again but I can now say I've been up it at least to midway!

We had BBQ at the church parking lot during the parade. I ran into my old boss from Helly Hansen and then we watched the men's race. They are crazy and act invincible climbing down the rock cliff at the bottom!!

Then we headed back to Clam Gultch...oh for those of you back in Portland...Wasilla to Clam Gultch is 225 miles, Clam Gultch to Homer 40 miles, Clam Gultch to Seward 132 miles. A Whopping total of 792 miles for the weekend.

Tosha met up with us in Seward and came back to Clam Gultch with us to spend the night and her birthday. It was awesome, we had a bon fire in the pouring rain and the next day sat around the campfire, drank hot tea and picked nets. My boat even caught a KING Salmon!! We drove down the beach to visit and climb the waterfall and enjoyed one more night on the beach before dad flew back, the boys drove back and mom and I chug chug chugged our way back to Wasilla in the big ugly beast. We were only to happy to send it on it's way to Eielson AFB a couple days later which I am glad to inform you made it.

Mom and I enjoyed our fits of giggles in spite of the headaches caused by ill prep and planning. Craziest part is, they all turned around and did it all over again the next weekend!!! I, on the other hand, have a different adventure to tell you about, in my next post.

Work Work Work

2010-06-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

Did I mention the cotton is flying around like nobody's business and it's getting harder and harder to breath? Well it's been a busy week and if it is a sign of whats to come I think there will be some laughs, some tears, some sweat and some fear. So far I have done a little bit of everything, shipping freight, delivering steel, following up on quotes, and running kids around to soccer. My house sitting job finally started on Wednesday but I've been too busy to move in. Monday I basically answered phones and email. Tuesday on the other hand was running to Anchorage, over and over again. Wednesday I cut my hand real good but I'm not posting a picture here. It really didn't hurt until today, now its an annoying pain, but it's a clean cut and should heal up just fine. I also spent Wednesday "advertising" as my mom calls it. Basically I installed (with the help of dad's handy man Sean, who dug almost all the post holes himself) three Arctic Fox signs...it took ALL DAY! I also bought a pair of gloves so as NOT to repeat that mornings "oops." After work I went and watched Emma play a double header where she decided head banging and picking clover in the back field was much more interesting than the ball. (I remember feeling the same way in kindergarten, almost as if it was yesterday) On my way home I had an epiphany...I didn't have to go home! So I stopped by Lambings' and had a short visit with Misty and Barb and Marie before they went off to bed. Carrie served me up some of the best current sorbet topped with dark chocolate sprinkled with sea salt! She is going to teach me how to make it this fall if the caterpillars don't eat all our plants. After that Carrie and I and Matt went out to Kroons' and sat on the porch watching the sun...go down?? Being as it was the 23rd, and we had lost 24 seconds, I guess we are on the down hill side of summer already and the sun will be setting earlier and I'll stop now before the Alaskans get depressed while reading this. Today is Thursday, I spent the morning following up on quotes, then spent the rest of the day delivering stuff out to Wolf lake...first off this requires a REALLY long heavy trailer. It rides real nice but I was so afraid I'd forgotten how...then I backed right up and first try hooked it up and drove off! Oh yeah! I still got it, grin!! First load was supposed to be two stops one drop, easy peasy lemon squeazy!!! There is no such thing. First load was two crates of windows, picked them up, then noticed down the road that one of my ratchet straps came loose, pulling over, one of the crates almost bailed. I called dad for some 4x4's and help. He said skip pick up number two and do the drop...this requires going through mass road construction (not a smooth ride WHAT SO EVER!!) 5mph or slower and 2 hours later, drop number one was done. The foreman told me that dad had requested I drop the trailer so I did and ran home, only to see dad's jaw hit the floor when I drove up without it...oops! Mis-communication...so I switched trucks (been using dad's) and loaded a bunch of "C" Channel (bloody steel that cut my hand yesterday) back through road construction at a healthier pace, picked up the trailer but had to drive down the taxi way and airstrip to get it out of the job site. Next stop was pick up number 2 at Greatland Welding. One of the guys came over and said "Wow! Nice trailer! I have trailer envy real bad right now." I had to laugh and tell him it was a lot better than the piece of junk I used to haul around! This one rides nice and smooth...His turn to laugh, "Can't take the tom boy out of the girl now can you!" BACK THROUGH construction (the flaggers are now waving and smiling at my familiar convoy.) Only to find the guys had all gone home! So, I did a refresher course on Forklift 101 and picked the load myself...(I can't believe it but I remembered how to do that too!!) BACK across the airport, through construction and ALMOST home when dad pulled up and said
"Hey, you have a minuet?"
"Sure?"
"Hop in and I'll show you the new job site."
"Okay"
So we delivered a forklift out at Hatcher Pass and then went home...to find a car of two kids waiting to go to soccer and no mom...well she was inside disciplining children, so I hopped in and took them to a soccer game, where the ref decided that they were going to play ALL 90 MINUTES!!! (they are only 8 year olds and we haven't had dinner yet!) So after 11 hours of work and a 90 minute soccer game, we FINALLY sat down to dinner!

(why am I blogging at 12:30 am? Because there is no other time!)

Alaskan Awesomeness!!

2010-06-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

So two weeks ago, I decided to spend the summer in Alaska. Since then life has changed drastically. I found a renter, stopped taking interpreting jobs and started cleaning and packing. The yard is beautiful and the house immaculate. Mom came to visit and the party began! She landed and it was one event after another.

Interpreter Happy Hour
Freddie's BBQ
Brenna's Graduation
Brenna's Graduation Party
Jenny's Graduation/Cambodia Party
Pack
Chinese Garden Tea Party
Rose Garden Trek
Surprise Birthday Party for ME!! (thanks terp crew!)
France Reunion Party at my house

Then mom dropped me off at the airport and away Buddy and I went! Arriving in Alaska, Dad and I headed straight to Providence to visit Lyndsey Heiserman. She is still not doing great but we are still waiting to see if the anti-inflammatory meds will help regulate her colitis. It was good to see Margaret too for a little minute.

My first morning in the USAK, the kiddos piled on my bed and snuggled in...SO FUN!! Then the work began. Kara started baking cakes and I played with the nephew and nieces. Our day looked like this:

Snuggling, French toast, Search for eggs, play in yard, game of Sorry, roast hot dogs in the chimeniah, play nap time in one big bed, SSR, order out pizza, soccer game, pass off the kids to the cousins, bridal shower, visit with friends, back in bed

The next day all the kiddos went with Miss Erin and visited the Zoo...while Kara and I started decorating the "practice cake." The craziness began and didn't stop till 2:30am only to start again at 6am and lucky for us the masterpiece was finished an hour early. Then we had to transport it across town and gravel roads to the wedding on a bluff. Minus on mishap where the cake tried to slide off the board onto my lap we made it safely and the wedding was beautiful, clouds, wind, rain and all.

Today we are granted a bit of sun between clouds and a great morning of friends, kids, coffee and...(oh the house looks like we ignored it for three days while making a wedding cake!)...time to clean!!

Two More Book Events

2010-04-12T08:27:00.001-07:00

Carriage Me Back in Brownsville, Oregon!
May 1st
Farmers Market 8am - 12pm
Bella Caccina's 1pm - 5pm

Local farmers, musicians, wagon rides, old cars and historical movies all located in one of the smallest, quaintest, oldest towns in Oregon...where my Granddaddy lived! You wont regret visiting this local celebration.

19th Annual
Canby Wine, Art and Garden Show
June 4-6, 2010
Main Pavilion and Main Lawn

Hours:
Friday 5:00-9:00 PM
Saturday 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Sunday 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Tickets: $5.00 per person, 3 day pass, $12.00
Tickets and passes purchased at the door.

All weekend long, you'll enjoy wonderful wine, great art, and beautiful flowers, plants and garden decor while listening to the sounds of talented musical artists.

Canby

2010-04-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

You know you want to be there :)

This is a reminder that I have a book signing this Saturday, April 10th in Canby, Oregon. It will be held at a quaint local bookstore called "Walk in the Park." Information and maps are on the Granddaddy's Hands website as well as to the right and below on this page. Hope to see some familiar faces there and can't wait to meet some new ones too!! Thank you for your support!!

Jen

Escape to the Beach!

2010-03-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

Buddy and I decided it was time to get out of Portland, so into my truck we jumped and up Highway 30 we went! The plan was to head south from Astoria and stop at every beach sign we saw until the sun set.

In Astoria we hit traffic heading south, getting out to stretch our legs and take a bathroom break and check out the sea lions in hopes that the traffic jam would break up...it didn't, so we changed plans and headed north!

"Long Beach!" I said. "Woof!" said Buddy. I figured pretty much that meant lets go! And so we did. We hit Long Beach and drove on the sand till we couldn't see anyone and set up "camp." First we played fetch, then went for a wade in the waves.

I sat and read "Emma" for a bit then broke out the bread and cheese (and cheese burger dog bites of course.)

As the sun went down we watched a dad and his kiddos fly a kite to our left and an old couple set up a campfire to my right.

The moon rose behind us the sun set before us and we went for a run down the beach in the dark. It was absolutely fantabulous and exactly what both of us were looking for!
Then we tried to drive home...that was a mess. I decided to follow my Garmin home and anyone who drives in the dark following a Garmin deserves to get taken for a ride! The normal two hour drive up 30 or 26 turned into a 3 hour back road tour of the turny topsy turvey logging roads complete with gravel and potholes with glimpses of Orion and a sliver of the moon to guide our way.

Finally arriving home we both fell into bed exhausted and perfectly happy with our day.

My First Royalties Check!!!

2010-03-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, how exciting is that! I think I'm going to go cash it now that I've played around with it for a while...hehehe...most fun $10.79 I ever made...oh simple pleasures!

Changing Seasons

2010-03-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Life has many seasons, some of them earth bound others in personal growth, even others socially, economically, romantically, etc. When too many seasons change at once, one tends to look back on their life either in awe or curiosity wondering what caused so many changes all at once. I know there is no answer to this as I look at several new seasons. Weather wise, spring came early this year. First week of February I saw my first flowering tree! This was shocking to me. I know nature follows its own internal clock and tells us whats coming next but, I thought someone should tell this little tree that its a bit to early to be showing off it's beautiful buds. I was right, we had some beautiful weather broken up by rain storms, wind storms, even snow this week, yes this very first week of March! I keep turning the heat off and back on again. Spring is such a tease!

Economically, the stress of our nations situation is starting to show signs of serious strain on my field. Jobs are far and few between and the competition is fierce. Its becoming more than just tightening the belts to wait it out. It becomes a way of life as the dry season is looking more like the seven year drought. There are lots of conversations around this subject and it is interesting to hear what different people have to say about it and how they are dealing with it. Some are traveling, which sounds like the wrong way to go when money is scarce, but if one has no bills and a little bit of cash saved up, a little goes a lot farther in some countries around the world compared to here. Others are scraping by on one income rather than two, lucky dogs. Some are parking cars and using bikes and transit faithfully, even others have lost everything and are couch surfing among friends and family. For me, I got a roommate. Hopefully this will be enough help to stave off any more moves in my near future.

Socially, I have found a few girlfriends who's schedules actually match mine. We have been enjoying "Happy hour Wednesdays" and "Soaking at the Kennedy School Saline pool" on Thursdays. Once a month we have been going dancing at Holocene or taking adventurous outings such as OMSI after Dark and trips to Seattle. This season has filled me with hope that a season of new friendship has arrived, a new wave of female companionship has started to partially fill the void left by friends and sisters far away as well as a significant other now gone from my life. That hole has also opened up a new season called "dating." The freedom to accept the offer of a dance, or drink, or phone number. This season is full of excitement, disappointment, anticipation, surprises, ups and downs. Gone is the days of unspoken understandings or givens, or knowns. Everything is new, history is a mystery, the future unknown. Sometimes I think, I'm too old for this. Other times it makes me feel young. Mostly it makes me feel lost. Humans are creatures of habit, change is not something they do well, no matter how much they profess being efficient at it. I, for for one do not claim this. I understand that I am at fault when I do not accept change with grace. My patience is nil when it comes to a new learning curve which doesn't make meeting people very easy at all. So starts the calamity of dates, one after another. I give them all nicknames since a lot of them have duplicate names and the names are not important really until one of them fits with mine. This may be a mistake but it is how I've decided to keep things interesting and light.

Another season, comes with me personally. (as if the last season wasn't personal enough!) It has to do with becoming a published author. To Google my name now comes up with all kinds of interesting stuff! Honestly, I used to Google my name to see what my alter ego was up to. I have been a dancer, photographer, singer, lived in Britain, New York and Japan. Now, the real me can be found on Amazon.com and an Artists website, a blog and Facebook...I used to be so obscure! People are already selling used copies of my book on Ebay and it only came out two months ago today!!! I have bumbled through 3 book signings and as much as I don't care for selling myself (mostly cause its all so unexpected and new) I am learning the ropes slowly...probably more slowly than my marketer would like but I'm still working on it. The fun part of it all is sharing my amazing Granddad with people all over the world, and yes my book has been purchased all the way over in England! And bragging on my Aunt's amazing water colors. Another fun part is hearing peoples' stories about their own grandfathers and all the sweet memories that are resurfaced by the book. The not so fun part is remembering how to spell my name when signing copies and counting correct change after hearing such touching stories or watching someone wipe their eyes after reading through it. Through all these changing seasons, three things remain the same: I am still Jen, I still love my job and I am still a crazy Alaskan girl looking for the next Adventure.

Ciao Bella!

Spring Cleaning in February

2010-02-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

I will not attempt to reiterate the last two weeks where everything that could go wrong did. I am in a good place now and would like to not relive or dwell on the hell I passed through...somewhere in the world, someone had it worse I'm sure of it. Instead, spring arrived early and with it came a visit from my parents. God's perfect timing. Every morning dad got up and took Buddy for a walk exploring the area, and mom put more and more clothes on. Saturday we went on my trek for the best waffles ever and mostly just enjoyed the sun. I had lots of plans and trashed them all because it was so nice and sunny we spent three days pulling ivy and black berry bushes, burning brush, rearranging flower beds and cleaning up the yard. We hung my lights and now I have a little bit of Italy in my back yard. I really wish it was just as warm! Dad re-vamped my bbq, mom showed me where plants were coming up. There was a pile of brush from last spring and we added just as much to the pile. Being a city I googled the rules for burning in city limits...you can't. But you can have a 2'x3' fire in a fire bowl with a fire extinquisher near by, Alaskan-Speak for go ahead!...so mom and dad got me one for my birthday and dad started chopping up the pile into little pieces and burned almost the entire thing!!! Now I have a beautiful yard to play and entertain in. Garretts and Verheydens and Nana came over Sunday to break it in. We had a fire pit, took walks, bbqed lunch, made home made ice cream, played Apples to Apples and had a grand ol time. Brenna made Uncle Paul an amazing brownie cake decorated with pansies for his birthday. I ignored my phone for 4 days and got a lot of rest and physically worked my body to permanent state of sorness! I'm ready, come what may...

Seattle or Bust

2010-02-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

Technology is an amazing thing...when it's working, when you don't forget it somewhere. Sitting at my computer, IMing back and forth with Saamanta, we were agonizing over the fact that 3 o'clock wasn't coming as fast as we liked. We had big plans to drive to Seattle and 'paint the town' as they say, or used to anyway. Margaret's company likes to send her places and this week happened to be within driving distance of yours truly! Saamanta wanted to visit her sister and friends in the area so we found ourselves squirming in our seats biting the bit wanting to hit the road before Friday rush hour clogs the road from Mexico to Canada. Throwing what I could in a bag, Saamanta waiting on my porch, we finally hit the road. Hitting the carpool lane, we sped past the parking lot through Portland and Vancouver, stories flew by like the country side. I straightened my hair, we stopped for gas and a Mocha Perk, with visions of pizza and beer to come...then we hit Tacoma. SCREECH!!! putt putt putt, 5 mph, we are NEVER going to get there!!! We were both so glad we were stuck in traffic together instead of by ourselves. We found some good tunes on her ipod and enjoyed the unique city scape. First stop, Stellar Pizza with her friends in an old industrial section of town. It was a birthday party for a girl named JoJo. I met a bunch of people and remembered maybe 4 names. Margaret got off work around 7pm and called me for the address, plugged it in her garmen and promptly got lost. She called me to get unlost and said, "the lady is telling me to go straight but there is a fence!" I handed her to a person with an iPhone who knows the area better. LOL!!! After a bit of back and forth, I eventually stood on the side walk, just in case and there she was! We were both very excited. After some REALLY good cheesy garlic bread and salad, Margaret gave us a key to her room and directions and went home to bed. Saamanta's friends were a lot of fun and it made me miss my girlfriends back home. There was a lot of reminiscing and catching up and giggling over old antics. We crawled into Margaret's King size bed around 2am.

Good morning sunny Seattle!!! Saamanta and I woke up LATE! She had a hair appointment so off she went and I struck out to find black gold. It was a chilly beautiful morning, I enjoyed a bit of coffee and Pride and Prejudice before the day got started. Afterwards, Saamanta and I (and her hair dresser) walked down to Pikes Place for lunch and met up with Margaret and her senior Jennifer. We had just ordered some Russian pies when Margaret ran past me down the street with her camera up trying to catch a picture of a mounted policeman...it was hilarious!!! Wait, do I know her? Do I want to know her? After introductions and a farewell to the hairdresser, we went into pikes for the best fish and chips EVER. Saamanta took off to meet up with a friend and the rest of us perused the isles of colorful produce, and artisan crafts. I showed them the layers of shops below and the infamous post alley gum wall. We walked back to the hotel, stopping at Ross, for a "quick" shopping detour. They were raising money for the heart association and all over the store with each transaction announced another dollar raised, please yell 'whoo! hoo!' Jennifer was trying to reserve and orchestrate a dinner at the space needle for all the KMPG Alaskans in the Seattle area that evening. It was hilarious! Eventually we made it back to the hotel for a short nap=get ready for a night out. we ordered a cab and went to the top where the spinning restaurant gave us a 360 degree of the city at night. Margaret and I shared a salad, shrimp cocktail and the king crab. 4 of her co-workers met us there for dinner, one of them being a cute guy from Montana named Collin. After dinner we went to the top of the space needle only to find out that Jennifer was scared of heights and Amy had fallen 300 ft higher than the space needle with a defunct parachute during a stint in the military and was there to tell us all about it...after we were on the ground of course for Jennifer's sake! We wanted to go out for after dinner cocktails but Amy and Mark insisted on walking up to Capitol Hill (unbeknown to us, lacking in bars but full of gay clubs). Margaret and Jennifer caught a taxi home. I remember some snogging and loosing my credit card but lets just skip to Sunday...

Found my card!!!! I had left it at the space needle when paying the bill. We started with crepes from Pikes Place (fantastic!) They are huge, if you can share, DO! Then we walked back to the space needle to recover my card. Found a photo booth and after passing the second one figured it was a sign so we all crammed in and took some photos. We also found a rail car that takes you from the space needle to down town 2 blocks from our hotel for two bucks! Arriving down town I discovered I had left my purse in the photo booth with my camera and phone in it! two bucks to get back and voila! It was still there! With everything in it! two bucks to get back and my feet still love me. Margaret and I spent most of the rest of the day shopping while the others watched the super bowl. We found some cute clothes and hot boots. Margaret totally made out but then come to find out her boots were two different sizes! Saamanta met back up with us and showed us some cool spots like in the Fremont area the troll under the bridge as seen in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, and a park that overlooks Seattle at sunset. We went to pick up my bag and drop Moe off and back to Portland we went.

It almost felt surreal, like we had never even left. We found ourselves back at our computers, IMing each other, chatting about different events of the weekend, wondering when the next adventure would be...

2010-02-17T00:13:00.001-08:00

EVENT SCHEDULED:

Author: Jen Morris

Title: Granddaddy’s Hands

Event Date: Saturday, April 10th

Event Time: 11:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Store Address:

Walk in the Park

280 N Grant St
Canby, OR 97013

(503) 651-1957

Brew Pub Crawl

2010-01-31T09:24:00.000-08:00

I had an amazing FIRST yesterday...my first brew pub crawl in the microbrew capital of the northwest. Our friend the pretzel guy, Mike, put it together and around 20-30 people from different walks of life showed up. I don't know much about beer or even like it so much but I hear that it's not all budweiser here so I was willing to give it a try. I had met a guy named Chris at Prost! three weeks prior and after giving me a mini lesson on German beers and picking two out for me that I actually liked, we switched emails and planned to go out and try more of Portlands famous brews. Our schedules didn't match up until last night, we planned to meet at McMenamins before the Pub Crawl started and go from there.

I had no idea that there were the "normal" brews that they always have on tap and then the "seasonal" variety and so my lesson began with the fact that McMenamins is not all about Terminator and Ruby Red. I started out on recomendation to try the Sleepy Hollow Nut Brown, a beer that was seasonal but upon overwhelming request to return it to the menu can now be found periodically, I loved it! I also had a sip of his British style Nebraska Bitter, (looks like budwieser but tastes nothing like it!) I also learned very quickly that not all light beers are IPA's and I really don't like IPA's at all. After a very yummy cup of Tomato basil bisque and tater tots, we moved along to meet up with the rest of the group at New Old Lompoc.

On our way down 23rd, an amazing street with tons of quaint little shops, I found a pair of fingerless gloves that I just had to have! Winding our way along, Chris pointed out the local gellato, and kosher sandwichshop, a truely east coast tasting bagel shop and a cash only pizza joint. Finally arriving at the end of the buisness section we found this hole in the wall dingy little building that has an outdoor area covered with heat lamps in back, and is known for their seasonal brews as well as yummy fried food. We met up with Mike and Chris and Mike talked brews till I was so lost, I was very happy to see my friend Yvonne walk through the door. I tried their Winter Warmer, supposedly has spices and stuff in it but it tasted metalic to me, I didn't really care for it. I had a taste of Chris's New Alt...it wasn't bad, better than the winter ale. Now Chis is starting to get an idea for what I do and don't like as the group heads to the next spot.

Lucky Lab was a huge open room long picknic stly tables, grab a beer, grab a pizza, grab a spot and get to know your neighbor! Here Saamanta, Alex, Amy, Camille, her sister Marcie and Chris with the big glasses and skinny jeans finally met up with us. I did not write a note about the beers we tasted here so all I remember is, yep its beer, don't love it don't hate it...NEXT!!!

The group moved onto Bridgeport Brewery, and now we have moved from hole in the wall to old dusty hall room to uptown industrial renovated place, very cool architecture, mixed old wood beams, red brick and steel buttresses. Here, Jacquie showed up and I had finally bought a pretzel necklace and met a new guy, (name forgotten sorry) who is vegan not only in the food department but as an ethical life style choice. I told him not to look at my boots. He said the only people who wear furs are eskimos and "insert a not so nice word." I laughed and said "Phew! Lucky I'm an Eskimo then!" I ordered a sampler which had 8 different beers on tap, and I only liked three of them. The Blue Heron Pale Ale, The Porter, and the Scotch Ale. Chris drank the rest.

On the way to the next joint Chris, Jacquie and I stopped at a new vino bar and shared an amazing bottle of Sol De Uco Syrah! Now that is more my style! Next we were tempted with a dessert place that had the most amazing creme brulee with pepper and berry flavers so light you could hardly tell, and raspberry truffle and a vegan cheese cake. Chris and I shared a cigar, an experience I have not had for 11 years, and as good as it was will not do again for another 11 years! We didn't miss much as some girl in the group had a tif with the bar tender and they moved onto the next one pretty quickly.

There we met up with the rest of my friends, PV and Huebert had finally joined the party, but too late for me. By this time I was giving out pecks on the cheek and needed some real food and my bed. I was meeting lots of new strangers and the beers were all tasting the same, my pallet was gone and it was time to call it a night. Chris, his friend Brook, Jacquie and I went to Gasthaus for some food and Jacquie took me home. 8am I was up and on my way to work...good times :)

Mississippi Avenue: One block at a time!

2010-01-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

Good morning! I promised you I would describe Mississippi Avenue and so I shall, one block at a time.

I am going to start at Skidmore and Mississippi and work my way down to where the road dives under a mass of freeway interchanges. There are so many dynamics to this little street I now call home. It is the epitome of Portland in so many ways, in all of its many little nooks and crannies. This city is made up of "Mississippi Avenues" all over, each with its own interesting flare. Ask any Portlander to describe their area, be it Hawthorne or Belmont, Alberta or Mississippi, NW 21st or Hollywood, Pearl, and Alphabet districts. They will be quick to tell you of their favorite beer on tap, book store, and Batista with free wi-fi and local market. There are so many great little corners here and I have the privilege of living and exploring one of these many delightful attractions. There are as many great characters here as there are places. I don't remember names well but I will do my best to give you a feel for the service that goes along with place.

First is what I have dubbed "the food carts." They are located in what would be Prost's parking lot, a small German Pub that has the feel of any small tavern in Gerberau...but I am getting ahead of myself. I visit the food carts every Saturday morning for a cup of Organic coffee from DOGFATHER, a cart that is run by a man and woman who by today's standard would be considered the "local hippy's of yesteryear." He loves Buddy because he had a dog like him once and being a very "dog friendly and peace loving" decor cart he always has treats on hand. Today though, since it is Sunday so a break in tradition is always warranted, I decided to go for the fresh squeezed juice instead. Apple carrot pear orange, was my flavor though you could add pineapple, blueberry, cranberry, or ginger for free. Mix and match any combo you like, he says you can't go wrong! Next door is THE BIG EGG which always has a line and smells heavenly. Everything on the menu of course, has an egg in it thus I am unable to taste it's goods without negative side effects but if it's consistent line says anything about it, I'm sure it's a local favorite. Next is the NATIVE BOWL which I ordered their Alberta Bowl today, Grilled tofu, fire breathing dragon sauce, jasmine rice, shredded cabbage, carrots and scallions. Awesome! They have other selections themed appropriate to their name and sloggan "think global, eat local" like Couch Bowl (chinese flare) and Mississippi Bowl (BBQ twist.) Both sounded awesome and I will have to go back to taste the other flares of this husband wife run food cart. I had such a hard time choosing that she let me taste the different sauces which made it even harder then since they were all delicious! She also gave Buddy some "cookies." The SUSHI TREE was closed up so I will have to explore it another time and you know I will! Next door was a interesting twist as it's pouring rain outside and there is just a tent without warmth to it yet they serve you like you are sitting in a warm Chinese restaurant, with tea cups and glass tea pot on a bamboo tray while waiting for your cuisine! There is also the option "to-go" and the RUBY DRAGON sounded delightful. Their board boasted in colorful chalk of Abbot with Yammies and the Grandmaster with Yam, spinach, pepper and Tofu. Yes, this description left me curiously in the dark but still wanting a taste of the obscure. Unfortunately I had already made my order and it was ready "to-go." The last three food carts were also closed up so SUGAR CUBE, SOUTH WESTERN PIZZA COMPANY and NUEVO MEXICO will have to wait to be sleuthed at a different moment in time. I have driven by in the evening when all of the carts were open and wished I could stop. So come out of the parking lot and into the pub where the folks are friendly and the bar tender greets the regulars by name and they come and go. You're welcome to bring food cart purchases in as long as your drinking.

Drink often enough at this place and you get your own bar stool you can kick people off when you visit. I don't remember how many cards it takes (more than 20?) but it's 50 beers per card...quite a feat I must say. The food is AMAZING!!! and the tables long and cozy, very much like Europe, come in find yourself a "SEAT" get to know your neighbors. I love it! I wish I could remember the menu, it was all in German anyway, so I asked my neighbor from Jersey to pick something for me. Both beers were amazing and the food was to die for. He wrote his address on a coaster and said there were plenty of great beer spots around if I cared for a tour...and so I shall take him up on that offer soon as there are spots on his list right here on Mississippi! Moving along across the street is an old place housing Thai Cuisine and a Laundromat! Interesting, didn't go in, looks a little scary not to mention the combination seems gastronomically lethal.

Next door is a building with lots of space for rent and one very European style grocery store called PASTAWORKS. I am going to be a regular here for fresh baked bread, exotic cheese and wine selection, fresh pasta cut to whatever width you like, local veggies, sauces, meats and sausages, olive oils and other random canned goods. I walked in and asked the woman at the counter to give me "the tour." I'm so glad she did too cause she pointed out all kinds of stuff I would have missed at first glance. She also gave Buddy a doggie biscuit! Other than that there are only two other interesting places on the block other than houses and empty spaces for let. CASA NARANJA is a tapas bar, with weird small plates of food (the steak bites are stellar!) and drinks I didn't try yet AND last but not least, Vintage Real estate which appears to be a billboard more than anything but I haven't explored it too much yet. And now we have arrived at the corner of Mason and Mississippi. Don't mind me as I'm going to escape the pouring rain now by running home to enjoy my juice and Albert Bowl and a pot of hot apple tea.

Catching up...on sleep.

2010-01-16T19:22:00.001-08:00

Someone mentioned recently that my blog hadn't been updated in a while. It made me think, either I've not had anything particular to say or what there was to say wasn't particularly interesting. A lot has happened since I got home, so much so that my bags are still sitting here where I left them with all their contents spilling out. I have spent the last 48 hours, mostly, in bed. I arrived home ready to go camping but plans fell through. As disappointed as I was there was plenty more to fill my plate. First was the Professional Interpreter Happy Hour held at the Green Dragon. I saw interpreters I hadn't seen in years! (We are really good at hiding.) It was nice to finally have an avenue to socialize outside of our jobs. After that, a group went out dancing at Holocene and Sara dragged me out of bed 4 hours later to go to an all day workshop on Demand Control Schema..see I told you, not very interesting. I wish I could tell you that I spent the weekend camping with this really great new old friend of mine, but instead, and probably better for it, I prepared for my first week at PSU.

Sunday night, though when I was out at the Blue Moon, I got asked to go on my first real date in...never mind...so I said sure. Monday was long but I was ready for it. My teammate was blue so Abby and I went out to Prost near my house where we met yet another gentleman who new much about literature and Latin and loved anything German or really anything beer related. He said he'd show me around Portland's greatest pubs if I was so inclined and wrote his email address on a coaster for me.

Tuesday I went on the date with "Blue Moon" after a very long day at PSU. I didn't really think that 4 very technical classes could wind me like that but I was exhausted. He took me to Ringside Steakhouse where first, there is valet parking only and secondly the waiter was a charming gentleman who knew his stuff. The food was AMAZING and afterward he wanted to know if I'd ever been to Portland City Grill. I said no so we went. It's at the top of the US Bank tower and my what a view! The waitress couldn't wait for us to leave, being a Tuesday evening I'm sure she wasn't happy that we stayed till after last call. He dropped me off and poor guy tried to go in for the kiss! I maneuvered it into a hug, then scrambled out of the car...not interested, sorry folks!

Already short on sleep, Wednesday felt really long (and it's my short day!) I could hardly stay awake, but I met up with Sara at 3 to help her shop for Belize. We had such a great time and ended up going to Kells to celebrate what a stellar shopping job we had done and to meet Bill. Sara he's AWESOME!!! Good luck with that ;) We were catching up and just chillin' over a guiness when this guy asked us if we were interested in joining their party. Sara kindly declined after waiting an uncomfortable eternity for me to practice saying "no." Don't worry I got my chance later because they came back to chat after a few minuets. They were very cute construction workers but I had had my fill of interesting meets this week and just wanted to have a good time with my girlfriend before she went traipsing off to Central America. We closed that place down and so arriving home around 1am AGAIN, I got what little sleep was to be had before a repeat of Tuesday.

Thursday, just about did me in, besides the fact that "Blue Moon" came over afterward for a "leftovers" date. Sealed the deal, I can't be interested in the guy if someone paid me. I kicked him out early and was in bed by 8:30pm. I didn't get out of bed till Saturday at 10:30am. Yep, I skipped Friday and stayed in bed for over 36 hours. And only then did I get up because coffee and waffles was calling my name. Buddy and I took a great walk in the mist to US Bank, then to the coffee shop, then to the waffle shop and home. Then later walked in the pouring rain to this amazing store that is like being back in Europe. Prosciutto, Comte, Puttanesca, vino, brick oven bread, fresh noodles, I was in heaven. I will have to write about all the amazing little shops that are right around the corner from me...when I wake up tomorrow.

ALASKA!!!

2009-12-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well here I am, welcomed by 6 inches of snow and still going. It was an eventful trip, starting with an interpretation appreciation event followed by friends staying out too late, drinking too much and then an early 6am work day followed by cleaning, packing, flying, driving a small nap then playing, plowing, visiting, knitting, eating, tromping...etc. Let me back up just a bit...packed and ready to go my friend Cindy and I went out for fish and chips and then she dropped me off at the airport. Getting through check in was uneventful and the line through security was pretty much in holiday style; long and cheery! I got up to the belt and started "the strip." Off with the coat, off with the shoes, off with the belt (miss please take off ALL your coats) out with the laptop, three bins later I walked through the metal detector and waited for my stuff only to find that I was missing my suitcase. It was still sitting on the other end of the belt where I had left it on the floor. That stopped everything! "Red Alert on belt 3!" I was as red as their alert! All the belts were frozen and the whole long line was craning their necks to see what had stopped their holiday progress. After thoroughly going through my stuff, they called an "all green" and the belts started up again. I got 'redressed' and headed to my gate. I was definitely on an Alaskan flight, sitting at the gate there wasn't an empty seat in sight and many families were spread out on the floor having picnics in their parkas and bunny boots. The conversation was very different than you would hear on the typical Portland street corner. Connections were made the tales got taller with every telling. I enjoyed hearing names and places I knew so well. I was headed home. Then they started to board. The poor stewardess had to ask numerous times for people to sit down and wait their turn. There was no explaining to them that there was a boarding process. They continued to mob until they just let us on the plane. I think we were all just ready to go home. I slept most of the way and upon arriving, there was my mom, next to the cutest Athabaskan family in their kuspuks and furs. "Welcome home JEN!!!" After grabbing my luggage, dad pulled up in his one ton work truck pulling the 28 foot insulation trailer, half full of insulation and mom's mini cooper. While I was "sleeping" a blizzard had started in Anchorage and mom was in doing Christmas shopping, not wanting to plow home in the mini, dad had picked her up and took her to Cattleman's for dinner. It took us almost an hour and a half to drive the 45 miles home. The ditches looked like parking lots, minus the random over turned car. Eventually I crawled in bed after kissing my sweet sleeping nieces...Ahhh! It's good to be home!

TUESDAY
I awoke to a big breakfast of home made sourdough cinnamon rolls and sausage! It was AWESOME!!! Then Kara, Lu and I went to the bank and saw Matt and Myrna and Steve...it was like old home week, can't go anywhere without see folks I love and adore! Then Kara and I went shopping at Target. Afterwards I went home with the girls for naps and to start a knitting project for Christmas while she went to the dentist. Eventually mom and I got the kids up and stuffed them in snow suits, hats and boots, and gloves, and we stuffed them all into the mini and drove down to Cameran. What were we doing? Why "trudging" of course! We trudged through the 2 feet of fresh snow, up to Emma's elbows!, looking for the perfect Christmas tree. We shook the snow off trees down peoples necks, made snow angels, caught snow in our mouths, and eventually found a tree that only had one bald side. Rusty was a good sport as I posed pictures and video ops. And we trudged back out with a 16 footer. It was a good day, arriving home, dad asked if I'd go "help" him plow some folks out, so I jumped in the truck and away we went. I visited while he plowed out the driveways, a few times I shoveled out the tricky hard to get spots, but all in all we got a lot done, though the snow was still coming down pretty hard. We got caught by a customer and had to go dig for C's in a snow bank, dad showed me his new shop and we got home just in time to catch the end of a BBQ rib dinner. Such a good day! So good to be home!

WEDNESDAY

I got up early and went with mom to her dentist appointment. It was still snowing very hard. After I dropped my computer off at Renaissance to be worked on since it crashed the night before. We hit Fred Meyers for Christmas cookie fixin's then started to plow our way home. The windshield wipers kept freezing up and the snow was thick and the roads were disappearing under all the snow, three lanes became one and ditches were piling up with vehicles again. We missed our exit and couldn't keep the window from icing up long enough to get off the highway. It was the scariest ride I've had in a VERY long time. We were both VERY glad to be home and stayed there the rest of the day baking Christmas cookies, playing with kiddos, knitting and sitting by the fire. Watching the snow come down from inside a warm house is so much better than plowing blindly through a blizzard in a mini cooper! That evening we decorated the tree, ran out of lights so dad went out for more lights. We hung lights on the porch at 5 below zero and decorated the tree. Matt and Kaylee dropped in for a visit and all was well with my world. I went to bed feeling safe a cozy surrounded by love and Christmas lights.

THURSDAY

This day was prep day for my book signing events on Friday and Saturday. I still wasn't too keen on driving as the snow was still coming down fairly consistantly so I asked Kara if she wouldn't chauffeur me around. We went to Naomi's house to visit. Sara Brown and her three kids were there so we had a nice visit and the 9 children had a great time playing in the boys bedroom. Reminded me of days gone by when we were young and went a visiting. After that, we went to Palmer and I met with the Fireside Bookstore staff and ironed out details for my event. Leaving there we drove to "Mc Jr. with a star" for play land and lunch time. We pounded out the plan for the rest of the day and headed off to pick up Eli from school. Up at Pandemonium I met Shannon and ironed out details for my second event and then went to Just Imagine Toys with 4 kids! Yes we are insane, it was so fun! I also got to see Shelly and her twins which is a big reason I go there every year. The kids were so good except when it was time to go, it was hard to tear ourselves away from all the wonderful toys. Finally we came home to find that the "other women' had been busy making candy all day! After dinner I sat down and finished off two of my leggings, 4 to go!

FRIDAY

Today was Eli's pizza party.It had stopped snowing! We were all moving really slow so we had a lazy morning and eventually made it to Pizza Hut to celebrate their class reading over 100 books! Arriving back at school, we saw Logan Snyder (8th grader, facebook and family friend of mine) who was showing off his lynx he had shot the night before up in Tok. Only in Alaska...then Kara and I shopped for stuff for my signing table, now I'm official with a receipt book and guest book! Eli and I sat in these children sized sofa chairs while Kara ran around the store with an employee looking for hooks (or something like that) after gathering everything on our random list we headed home so I could get ready for my book signing. Fireside Books is a quaint little store in old town Palmer with both new and used books. Joy and Elias Davidson were my first customers. It was so fun to hold Elias for the first time, he was SO little!!! and warm. Myrna and Steve Reynolds came by, always good to see them and then Betty Bair, one of my biggest fans, stopped in, not to mention my mom, dad, nana and Kaylee. We had a great time chit chatting and catching up...and basically we FILLED the store. Sold 4 books too! Unfortunately I was reading the clock on my phone (still set to Oregon time) and we all left a half hour early. Kaylee and I headed to Tokyo for sushi and then home again to warm up by the fire. It was so good to spend some quality time with her catching up and gaggling like geese...girls! We stayed up late giggling about guys then slept in late...so nice to be on vacation!

SATURDAY

We woke up to the shouts of the kids screaming that the lights were out...yep, power was out all over town. We lit some candles and went back to sleep. Lu showed up, not being able to work and the fact that the heat wasn't on at the salon and it was cooling quickly, came home to see if we had power or at least a fire lit. The power came on as she drove up but everything from Fred Meyers on was still out so she stayed awhile. I, with a lot of directions from Kara, made french toast and bacon. Yumminess!!! After cleaning up I dropped Kaylee off and ran home to get ready for the second signing event. I went early to have lunch with Betty Bair, mom and nana. Barely got my food and people were there ready to buy! And that was just the beginning of a long line of love poured out on me from my community. It was SO awesome, I can't even explain it. I sat next to this author who had self published her book and I gotta tell you, after hearing her story, I feel very blessed with how easy I had it going through Tate Publishing. Kirsten Ekren now Mason whom I hadn't seen since high school came by, and Rebecca Buchanan with her heart full of grace. All of the Knit Wits and a few teachers, family and friends, filed in with hugs and cheers for this big event. It's really quite amazing how many people were just as, if not more excited than me, even better, most of them personally knew Granddaddy and this was a testament to how great a man he was and how loved I am in this community. We started half an hour early and went an hour and a half later than scheduled but nobody minded. It ended with the sounds of click click clicking coming between to rows of books, my dear friend Carrie Lambing, now professional photographer and dear friends Matt and Nate, had just returned from a solstice party up at the cabin, Rosy cheeked and smelling of campfire, just in time to catch me at my table. This was definitely a great way to end my most successful book signing to date. It was also Pandemonium's best book signing event to date as their highest seller had sold 18 and I had come away with 24 plus the three they decided to put on their shelf. Thank you all for your overwhelming support. I feel truly blessed!

...BTW, the day isn't over yet.

I no sooner had arrived home as Carrie Lambing called, "what are your plans for tonight?" Nothing I said, and she proposed a drive to Anchorage to see the children's choir perform. Why not? So 20 mins later we were back in her car headed to town. It was so good to have an hour to just catch up and story swap. Upon arriving at the concert though, the parking lot was rather empty and the doors locked. After a quick call to Naomi, whom I happened to know was accompanying the choir, we found out that it had been moved from 7:30 to 2pm that afternoon. I was so glad I had agreed to go along! We decided to hit up Bear's Tooth for some dinner and some Apple Ale. Just a great time with a dear friend and good food! At the end, Brandon came bounding up to the table! What a surprise to see my cousin after a year...Alaska is so small sometimes! He was just as surprised to walk in the door and find me in the dining room! It was all around a very good, very long, deliciously delightful day. Oh yeah, I got home around midnight and spent some time on skype with Jeremy in Afghanistan. He comes home TODAY for good! Safe travels my friend! Unfortunately Evie was up crying half the night with a cold so little sleep was to be had by all.

SUNDAY

I was woken up by Rusty knocking on my door, "bus leaves in 15 mins" AHHHH!!! I couldn't find clothes, shoes, brush teeth, make up, fix bed head, fast enough. I can't believe I remembered the camera since little Ellie was going to be Mary in the nativity scene "on stage!" We were a little late to Wind break. It was so good to see Kat again (our usual waitress). Breakfast for all, lunch for me, cups full of whip cream for the kids, Christmas presents and cookies from Kat and off to church we went. It was fun to see Naomi and Joel up there leading the service and choir. Dad is looking more and more like Santa Clause with his big gray beard, only now do I notice this as he is up there singing with the choir! The 3 year olds did their nativity scene and Ellie did awesome, only almost dropped "baby Jesus" once and started them all waving at the audience. Heidi Doner was accompanying them on piano and my does she sound amazing!!! Little Liam Brown, I mean "Joseph" was right there helping "Mary" down the steps on the way out! Best part was singing harmony's with my sister while she sang the impossible counter soprano solos over the top of O, Holy Night...ahh, I do love being home. There were so many people to see, hug, and catch up with. It's always a whirlwind of faces and then we moved the conversation down to Kaladi's so second service could proceed. I got to see Swaners and Davidsons and Veenstras...oh and had the most amazing conversation with Mr. Veenstra, who, I knew was a genius and a great adventurer, but first hand got to hear about his newest plans and adventures, and the beautiful boat that is right near me in St Helens that he has been working on! We were pleasantly surprised to find we had "boats" in common. I offered to be galley cook on any of his adventures.

And now I am caught up, hopefully Aunty Barbie this keeps you entertained and satisfied, I will try to keep a better account from now on. To all of you, I hope you are well safe and sound. I can't wait to hear about all you your adventures this Christmas.

Monday Monday

2009-11-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Well, I can't say it wasn't good to me. Three jobs, two canceled billable, one very long nap. Now to forage for dinner. I hear the grocery stores are not to be contended with today. This week, millions of dollars will be poured into "the perfect meal." I love almost every part of that meal...minus the stuffing. I guess me being hungry has me reminiscing of the good ol days with lots of sisters in the kitchen preparing the turkey, baking bread and pies and all sorts of goodies like green bean casserole and yams topped with marshmallows. Ahh...yes I'm hungry...OH! Not to be side tracked! There was a reason for this Monday post! I am expecting a box of books, 100 copies, to land on my door step December 11th...that is exactly 3 days before I fly home. They are $8.99 apiece. So IF you are an Oregonian wanting copies for Christmas, please let me know via my phone between now and then and I will make sure you get them before I leave! Cheers!

A Stellar Weekend with the Girlfriends!!!

2009-11-22T11:40:00.001-08:00

Well this weekend proved to be rather interesting, new and different...oh yeah and tons of fun. Started with a hike on Sauvie Island with my good friend Cindy. It was a nice brisk walk and of course I had to take a picture, we kept going but couldn't find Bud Dog. We ran around clapping and calling and it wasn't till I went back to where I had taken that photo did I hear yelping from down the bank. He had dove down the steep bank after some exhilarating scent only to find that he couldn't get back up to the trail. Obviously my dog does not know his limitations! Cindy crawled through all the brambles to hand him up to me. I was very happy to have him back but now ever time he dives into the bushes my stomach lurches. Later on the trail, Misla and Buddy started chasing birds and then this little mouse that was doing it's darndest not to get stepped on but illuding all snapping jaws. It was quite the funny little scene until Buddy stepped on it. Cindy screamed, I reached down to pick it up by the tail and toss it in the bushes when it came alive again. It was just playing possum and didn't like it's tail being pulled. It jumped up and hid under my foot. The dogs just looked at me then the mouse between my feet, and me again. It was like a stare down, the mouse climbed my leg, then did circles around my leg, over my foot and eventually just decided to stay between my legs till the danger had passed. I asked Cindy to take the dogs down the trail and maybe he would head for the bushes. I tried to take a picture of him but he didn't like the flash so much...he did head for the bushes and the heavens opened up and poured buckets upon buckets on our heads. We hurried as fast as we could but the trail was flooding and our jeans were soaked to the bone within minuets. We arrived soaking wet and laughing hysterically...never has a hike at Sauvie Island been so eventful!!! I ran home dried off and got ready to go out dancing...yes I said dancing. Saamanta decided to have a spaghetti dinner at her place before hand and we all brought something. Julie, Camille, Abby, Jen F., and a few girls I didn't know, her roommates and Amy and Yvonne. Everything was so yummy! After apple pie to top it off, 7 of us headed down to Holocene. There really weren't tables to sit at, it was all dancing floors...so after grabbing a drink, they headed out to the floor...I can't tell you what it's like to see 6 of your friends not caring about anything or anyone dancing together, it's like something switched in my head, and I wanted to join them. So I did. They couldn't believe it about as much as I couldn't, after a while, I couldn't figure out why I had never gone out dancing...my sisters love it, but I never understood why. Anyway, it was a great night. I slept till almost noon! Missed my hike with Cindy but had a good time playing music "who is this" games with Jeremy online. Cindy came over and we made dinner before heading to Kennedy School to soak in the spa pool. It was still raining hard but so fun to be in hot water while it was raining big cold drops on our heads. From there I went down town to listen to a free Jazz concert with Saam's friend Alex. When he was done working we met up with some friends at Good Foot to listen to JUJUBA- 11 piece funky afrobeat and juju led by master talking drummer, nojeem lasisi (king sunny ade)!! I re-met Amy which was fun and the band was awesome! The beer was terrible and I was pretty tiered so I headed home around 1am...(second night in a row!) If you want to know what good music is going on, just ask Alex. So here it is Sunday, I'm doing laundry and trying to get caught up before the last day of a non-stop entertainment weekend! Today, maybe some waffles from the little stand down the road, and then another hike, and then meeting up with more girlfriends to watch New Moon at Lloyd Center then dinner and finishing with the pinnacle: Trans Siberian Orchastra Concert with Jacquie at the Rose Garden. This has been one crazy fun packed weekend...what's next?

Them Boots were made for walking...

2009-11-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

I had a great weekend: lazy, relaxing, inspiring...I stayed at the Garrett's with Liam while Coleen and Pat went on a mini vacation to McMinville for wining and dining. Gus and Buddy were very entertaining since they are always playing tug of war or wrestling each other to the floor. I caught up with friends online and watched movies and the history channel with Liam; Unfortunately, while we weren't looking, Gus ate my leather shoes and that left me in desperate need for some work shoes. I woke up Sunday morning uninspired to go shopping but my dear Aunt Coleen had just gotten home and was about to put on something a little more comfortable when I suggested a shoe shopping trip...her eyes lit up and her face glowed...shoes? really? I love shoes! Let's go! So we started out on our little adventure. We stopped at my house to show her the new pad and then headed to the mall. This shoe shopping adventure was a whole new experience for me. Boots are obviously the in thing because first stop was Macy's and I swear they had over 60 kinds to choose from ranging everywhere from $80 to $400. After grabbing some knee socks to purchase and try on boots with, Coleen started picking up boots and carrying them around so I followed suit. Soon we had 6 pairs, and the trying began. The lady measured my foot since I had no clue what size except in European sizes and she didn't know how to translate "40" (size 9.5 btw). One pair was okay but mostly it was a no go. Next stop (Cinnabon) JC Penny's and it was mostly a no go too. Three more stores later I was ready to quit. It was obvious that boots were made for looks and not comfort and I wasn't about to pay an arm and a leg for shoes that are going to hurt. Right before we hit Nordy's, we stopped at Shoe Mill and the gentleman there too me back to when I was a kid and we used to go shopping once a year for THAT pair of shoes. They seat you and ask questions about your feet, put the metal measuring unit under your foot and have you stand up, run to the back to find your size, come back and sit on a stool and unpack the shoes carefully and methodically then gently lift your foot into the shoe and any amount of effort on your part is phoo phooyed. First pair was horrible, second two pair fit like a glove and felt like they were made for me. They had support in the arch and were tall and no heel and I felt like a million bucks in them. I went for the pair that would look better with skirts. Brown riding boots-triumph! I wore them today and I must say I got a lot of looks, "she's got legs" went through more than one mind today. It was a very blustery day but I stayed nice and toasty in my boots and knee socks despite my choice of skirt rather than pants. They do need broken in though, my little pinky toes are complaining tonight but I'm content with my riding boots that were made for walkin'!

2009-11-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Eagle Creek for Veterans Day

2009-11-12T14:12:00.001-08:00

It was a great day, and after wishing all those vets and their families and the civilians that work for and with them a happy veterans day, I set out with a group of friends to hike Eagle Creek Trail. It was all very last minuet, when Tuesday night you realize that all your regular jobs are canceled tomorrow due to a federal holiday, what do you do? Why sleep in of course, and then pack up the dog and a day pack and take off for the Gorge. Yes it was raining, but I had wool socks and my ski pants and a NOLS fleece to keep me warm and dry. Cindy, Austin and Lola went with me. We drove out to exit 41, parked and headed up the trail. It was fun just walking and talking or rather signing till we got to the cliff part, okay so that was most of it, it's just a scary trail to be signing on but we all lived through it. The trail hugs basalt cliffs warn away by the mighty Eagle Creek. Since it had been raining the water was just pouring off the cliffs and onto the trail, one part was literally a waterfall you had to walk behind. We arrived at punch bowl and the river was so high you couldn't actually see the falls. We all sat down to have a picnic lunch and I kicked off my shoes and socks, rolled up the pants and waded out into the rushing river to some logs stuck in the middle. Climbing out I took some quick pictures with my phone then contemplated the return forge. I waited for the feeling and color to return to my feet before jumping back in and making my way back to the shore. It was such a nice day for the hike. I had been on this trail before in summer, 90 degrees, barely a trickle in the river, after 30 miles of hiking, we by-passed punch bowl, heads down one foot in front of the other just trying to get out and back home...nice to have finally arrived :)

Blustery Fall

2009-10-31T14:53:00.000-07:00

Wowza! Fall hit with a monsoon! Wind storm and buckets of rain, kinda reminded me of an Alaskan fall, one day all the leaves were there the next day they were all in my yard. Fall also came with that nasty complimentary cold (ie sinus and broncitus) that took forever to go away. I FINALLY kicked it with the 2nd set of antibiotics, but not after suffering a cracked rib from all the coughing. One week later I ran a stop sign and T-boned the nicest woman ever. She had just dropped off her daughter at school and I had just been honked at for stopping at a no stop sign intersection and luckily nobody got hurt. So my crazy life continues...! I was blessed to have taken my truck to a shop that had a loaner car (rental covereage on your insurance is a good idea...if you're me. I didn't have it.) The seat belt re-injured my rib so that it hurt both front and back. But now I am three weeks out from it and it's starting to improve somewhat, meaning I can sleep through the night, not that my job is allowing that! This week I was working both days and nights (reminder to self, insufficiant sleep is not healthy on any level!) It will pay off eventually :) Last weekend I went to Grandma's and got to spend some time with Grandpa and Uncle Bill and Uncle Dave and Aunty Phyllis. It was so good to just sit in his comfortable room and watch the Duck game. We also got to see Colt and Austin in a puppet performance the night before. I came home to a pumpkin carving, Young Frankenstien, Mulled Wine Party at my friend Abby's place and then finished the weekend off with breakfast at Gravy's with Sara dreaming up all kinds of new adventures. Inspired by travel talk I got through a bunch of boxes and got the basement ready to rent out. Now with a little sleep I will feel like I have a new lease on life. I'm settled in and loving my new little place. (And I do mean little!) Wasabi has decided to become an indoor cat much to my delight and surprise since we are down town and it is a city of 2 million people (and probably twice as many cars!) Buddy has two new cousins, named Blue and Bella, the four sisters officially each have their own dog, which makes me laugh really. Especially when one is a taco bell dog rat terrier mix! (there is something so wrong about this and yet not so surprising!) As for the book it is ready to buy! You can go online to Tate Publishing Inc and order one yourself or wait for me to do a book signing in your area (requests welcome!) I do not have any on hand immediately but hope to by Thanksgiving. I am going home for Christmas and can't wait to be terrorizing Alaskans for almost a month, Dec 15-Jan 6th! Other than that I'm just enjoying the random highlights of living in Portland like finding fresh produce on the road...an onion named stewart and a tomatoe named bob...they were both very yummy :)

So here's the story

2009-10-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

So I've been in Portland for 2 weeks now. First week was taking care of the Garret kids and getting back into my work mode. I had been sick for a while but figured the antibiotics were kicking in and I was getting better. No such luck. By the end of the week I was so much worse and found myself looking at a weekend of moving with my mom (lucky me!) who was also unfortunately sick my nana and my two pairs of muscled men ditched me last minute. When I got the keys to the place on Thursday night the place was so dirty there was no way I could move my stuff in, new game plan, I called mom and nana if they would go straight to the house in the morning to start cleaning, Cindy had asked if I needed help in the morning so she and Ian jumped on board and I called Eric to see if he could help. Unfortunately he came down with something as well so Uncle Paul stepped up to the plate. Mom and Nana, Cindy and Ian and Uncle Paul came to my rescue! With out the fve of them it would have been impossible. So I moved in and the next week began, still sick! After litterally blowing though a huge box of lotion kleenex, I hit the weekend wanting to sleep. Of course we started with Friday night, the big ASL Comedy night at PSU...it was a hit, 500+ people showed up for the event, it was a smashing success, I saw so many old friends and lets just say on many levels was an inspirational experience. I got to bed at 1am smiling and exhausted. I spent the next day in bed and that night went to Shane and Christy Lambings to watch the new 007 movie with Christy. I ended up staying the night, and sleeping most of the next day. I talked to Tom for a bit who had just finished up a week of forced vaccation and then Jacquie came over Sunday night and we tried one of the Pubs on Mississippi Ave. Bratworst with horseradish sauce, definitely cleared my sinuses for a few minuets. It was so good to just sit and chat in the comfort of my own place with a friend. And then surprise surprise I went back to bed. Now I'm awake even though I'd rather still be in bed and have a Doctor's appointment at 3:30 (Lucky me!) and my evening gig cancled so I'll be back in bed soon. I hate going to the doctor with a cold, I am always afraid they are going to phoophooey me and send me home to rest. But it's been 5-6 weeks now so, I'm kinda tiered of being sick. So here I go...

A Week of Searching

2009-09-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a good, hard, exhausting, exasperating, exhilarating, informative, frustrating, sweet and very long week. We have seen 8 homes in varying distances, south Eugene to Albany and Lacomb. My Garmin wouldn't even find Lacomb. We got lost on back country roads, interviewed many interesting people, gathered good but sometimes vague information, cried, laughed, coughed (I'm on antibiotics!) talked, thought, drove, slept and calculated and now it's decision making time. Bill arrives today to visit the last two homes with us and dad arrives tomorrow morning. The boys will help grandma break the news to grandpa and then next week the chosen home will interview and move grandpa before the first of October. It is definitely crunch time.

Starting next week, I return to my work interpreting up in Portland for PSU and Sorenson. I also will be moving into the house I rented and getting myself settled for the winter. I have many fun things planned for October, the terp crew is getting together, Coleen and Brenna and her friend Breanna are going to come stay the night for a night on the town and then working on the yard and gardens before winter sets in. Cindy and I are planning on a girls night once she gets moved back up from Kalamath Falls mid October and then of course it's Halloween, a time of harvesting and sweets.

Marketing called...I missed their call and that will tell me what comes next. Looks like my books will cost $8.99 or $9.99 (they've told me two different prices) As soon as we have a publish date anyone can start ordering books online. As I know more I will post it here so keep checking back!

You Are My Sunshine

2009-09-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

Capris Watermelon Salad

2009-09-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of heaven if you dare to try!

Dice Watermelon
Dice Tomatoes
Dice Fresh Mozzarella
Slice Red Onion
Chop Fresh Basil
Toss together and drizzle Balsamic Reduction over the top.

Balsamic Reduction
Equal parts balsamic vinegar and sugar reduced in sauce pan to a syrup mixture.

I have in my hand...

2009-09-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

...A book called "Granddaddy's Hands"

It is the final draft before sending it to print. I'm just slow on the sending it back! When I do, it will be 4 weeks and hopefully I will learn how to order them! So maybe around Thanksgiving I will officially be a published author. It's a very exciting and nerve wracking time. It still makes me cry.

Grandma is getting better, we are still getting lots done. Today was the clothes closet..Ahhhh!!! She needs to come help me with mine now! Speaking of, I've rented a house in a great part of Portland, 2 minuets from downtown. I get to start moving in October 1st. There is still much to be done at Grandma's so the timing is great. Now she wants to wash sand and paint the deck. All smiles here! We did have an unfortunate event happen while we were sleeping. Someone slashed all the tires on two tractors, one lawn mower and the old pickup truck in the shed out back. It's becoming near to impossible to find tires to fit the trucks old rims and to replace one of the tractors rear tires we have to order them from Japan since they are not produced or distributed any more!!! They are $750 a piece! What one learns when taking care of their grandma!

Grandpa turned 86 with 2 parties! It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. There were so many family members there and TONS of food. Grandma still hasn't decided what to do with grandpa other than come to the conclusion that taking care of him at home is not an option. We have been bringing him to church on Sundays and this time proved to be too much. Now the solution, we have till October 3rd to get it figured out. He is so cute too, he is happy and busy and loves it when we visit but still wants to know when he can come home. This is not an easy or nice decision but that's life..."sticky." It brings out the worst in people...and the best:

It was a lot of fun to hear grandpa singing and wheezing through the hymns at church. To watch grandma grab for his hands, inspect his nails and hold onto what's left of their long life together. I've never seen this side of my grandpa and as he forgets all his worries in life, I'm learning who this man is uninhibited. He is beautiful. I'm learning who this woman is as she fights through the quagmire of dementia and what's left of her life focused on caring for a beautifully complicated man. She is courageous.

Maybe in a couple of years I will see more positives in this experience but for now I will hold onto his funny comments and beautiful smile and the small glimpses of their 60 years of love for each other.

New Day

2009-08-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

New Day was one of my favorite choral songs back in high school. I've been singing it all day! Today really has been a new day...let me back up and explain...

Well, it's been a long week, or two or three, I've lost count now. Grandma and I had a very hard first week of her recovery. Spirits were low, outlook was dim, fever was high, energy nil...a week and a half after her discharge, on a Sunday morning, I took her back in to the hospital around 4:30am...on the way I hit a deer and she hit the dashboard with her nose. (not wearing a seat belt cause of her incision.) I didn't even stop...Anyway we went in and they almost sent her home since her 101 temp had lowered to 98.4. I almost begged, since I had just given her Tylenol to control it and so they took blood samples. Getting some results back abnormal (kidney, liver, white blood cells all at dangerous levels) they decided to try a cat scan. I watched her try to drink this nasty stuff that's supposed to light her insides up like a Christmas tree and try to keep it down. She puked in the machine anyway and they had a lot of clean up before actually getting the pictures, besides the fact that her fever was back by then (4hrs on the dot like I told them it would) and she was shaking and teeth chattering so bad I was shocked any pictures turned out! The Doc said he would be back in ten mins to let us know the results and ten dragged into 50 and then 60 and then at 75 mins (oh and she is puking every 5 mins or so) he comes back and says he is admitting her for an abscess that needs to be drained asap.

It is comforting to know that something was wrong because I started wondering if I was crazy, if I was over reacting. I was already not happy with the way they were brushing off her concerns and pains and fevers the week before, besides sending her home without antibiotics, eating solids or having a bm...I felt alone and ignored and almost vindicated with this last turn of events...not that I was happy she was back in the ER with another scary scenario. I went home around 2:30 in the afternoon and driving by Mary Lou's I decided to stop. She invited me in and started feeding me and I started talking for the first time all week...I'd really kept my mouth shut for a week, afraid to cry, afraid to yell, really not knowing what to say and once I started I couldn't stop. I ate so much and talked myself dry after 3 hours and went home to fall into bed...but the phone started ringing. I'm glad Mary Lou got me started, it helped me process a ton before family started calling. (Really Doctors speak Greek to me!) I also got a very upsetting call from Cherie about my pets so I was determined to head to Bend while grandma was in the hospital to bring them home to Brownsville.

Monday I went to check on grandma and visit another nursing home (we are trying to find an AFFORDABLE alternative to the one grandpa is in) and things went from bad to worse. The machine they needed to drain the abscess was in Corvallis and broke down. They were having a hard time controlling the fever and she wasn't keeping any fluids down, not having eaten in a week she was very low on everything nutritional...in went a nutrition pic line. I couldn't sit there and watch, they didn't want to transfer her out of the Samaritan Hospital system to try a different machine, the nurse told my dad I was overreacting so I decided it was time to leave...of course I had to stop at Wal Mart for a couple items grandpa needed and dropped them off. The head nurse caught me and talked for me for two and a half hours. Grandpa had taken a bad fall with his walker and they were concerned about how to get him up and moving his artificial hip and lessening the fall risk factor. Then they went over the fact that they had heard through their sister facility that we were calling around looking for another facility and were concerned we weren't happy. Plus they had a bunch of good dementia material to give me. So by the time I left for Bend the sun was casting an orangy glow on everything and I knew it was going to be a long night. Exhausted I picked up the animals around 9pm and headed south to Klamath Falls to spend the night with Cindy King. It was so good to see her and even though I arrived at 11:30pm she had Thai food waiting for me. I slept in and stayed in bed till she got home at 5:30pm. (minus two walks to the store) We ate at the local brew house and spent another night.

I hated to leave that morning, but I thought I had better get back to my duties at home. The corn and flower beds needed watered and grandma's pets needed fed and the carpets needed cleaned before she got home. I know Aunty Carol was supposed to be holding down the fort while I was gone but I felt rested and ready to go back. I arrived at the house to find carpet cleaners just leaving and Carol and Jerry smiling saying "Great! It's all yours! Vacuum the carpets when they are dry and put the furniture back before grandma gets home." And they were gone. I found out that the radiologists machine had been broken for Monday and Tuesday and they couldn't get her in till Wednesday and Mary Lou had heard me mention I wanted to clean carpets during my Sunday Chat so she called and had cleaners come Wednesday...it was CRAZY!! Lucky Mary Lou had picked up Angel the dog (Gracie is good at fending for herself). It had been in the 90's for the two days I was gone and the corn hadn't been watered because of a hose mix up and the flowers looked burnt...it was all I could do to put the place back together (and trim all the bushes and trees) before grandma came home on Friday.

Saturday and Sunday we both crashed, lots of sleeping in, lots of naps and to my pleasant surprise, lots of eating...she was finally keeping down food! Monday she was feeling better. We had a doctors appointment in the morning to remove the drain tubes, made our trip to Wal Mart (can't go to Lebanon and not stop!) and then went and visited Grandpa. He still thinks Grandma is his mom and today thought I was his wife...he is really confused. He is always really glad to see us just not sure who we are. He keeps trying to give Missy the Mustang too (I think she is getting the better end of the deal in all this confusion!) I did get permission to bring Buddy the next day. We arrived home to find that the phones were off the hook and nothing, NOTHING I could do would make them work!

Mary Lou to the rescue called the phone company and gave me instructions how to fix the problem (reboot, duh Jen!) So, today (after fixing the phone saga) we went to Wal Mart to change the battery in my truck and pick up sinus meds (yes I'm fighting my 3rd sinus infection this summer) and then took Buddy to the nursing home. He laid his head on little old ladies laps while they exclaimed over him. He put his paws up in grandpas lap and I was so glad he didn't do that to anyone else!!! We took him outside and grandpa and another client threw the ball for him for 2 hours! I'm so glad Granddaddy taught him to put the ball in his lap right where he could reach it easily...it helped everyone really enjoy his company and be able to join in the tossing even if it was just straight at his nose (which he caught of course). About the time Buddy wore out, it was time to go back to the hospital to remove the pic line. After that we headed home and I made carrot soup.

It was SUCH a good day!

Oh! And I almost forgot! Tomorrow Coleen, Brenna, Beth, Tawni, Barb, and Nana and I are going to open the final proof of my book...(drum roll please!)

Not What I Expected...

2009-08-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well here I am in Brownsville Oregon. Aunty Barbie stopped by to visit me and encouraged me to update my blog with all that has transpired in the last 3 weeks since I got home. She says she keeps checking it to see what I'm up to and if there are others this might be an easy way to keep people up to date. So here I am, not sure if there are readers, but this ones for you Barb and Gary!!! So much has happened since I got home but none of it was what I expected. I spent the first week working very little and sleeping a ton. I went to Bend and visited Cherie, Ricki, Buddy and Wasabi but since I still haven't found a place to live I had to leave them there. We had an amazing couple of hot days there and Cherie and I and the dogs hit the reservoir for a wonderful swim. Buddy still afraid of the water explored the shore line and Ricki spent most of her time swimming in circles chasing her tail and fetching a ball. Then next day Cherie and I left the dogs home and floated the Deschutes River...AWESOME!!! I hated to leave but I headed back to Portland. I was finally getting over jet lag and realized that I needed to clean up my rooms (both aunts spare bedrooms) and pack for Alaska when I got the call that Grandma Morris was in the hospital. For a week I drove back and forth between Portland and Brownsville, working, visiting Grandma, helping Uncle Bill take care of Grandpa and the gardens and keeping everyone fed and help Melissa find a nursing home for Grandpa. The day before Grandma came home, we found a place for Grandpa. I brought Grandma home canceled my ticket home and 3 days later Bill and Sharon went home. Margaret and Zach showed up that day and helped me clean all the windows inside and out and clean up the flower beds. The week Grandma was in the hospital it was above 100 degrees and fried a bunch of the flowers, tons of dead heading kept us busy and in the sun. (she picked a perfect week to leaver her house with no AC!) To back up a little, Grandma took Grandpa and Gunner and Angel to the beach, lost Gunner, lost the keys to the car, lost Gunners shoes...eventually found all three lost items and headed home. Melissa picked up Gunner and about the time she arrived home Grandma called and asked her to come back and figure out what was wrong with her. She had sat down with a stitch in her side which had a turned into a sharp pain in her gut and couldn't get up off the couch. Melissa took her to the hospital where the doctor asked her what she thought was wrong. Grandma said she thought it was appendicitis so the tests started. He came back saying good news it's not appendicitis but bad news it was worse and as soon as his team arrived they would be putting her under for emergency surgery on a perforated intestine. She was going septic and they had to take all her "stuff" out wash it and put it back. As you can imagine, anything that comes out of a box never goes back in the same way and her biggest complaint is "it just doesn't feel like he put it all back in in the right place!" Grandpa is really confused and his story changes all the time. The most disturbing part is he doesn't recognize Grandma, he thinks she is his mother Merrill. Anyway, starting Monday this week, it was just Grandma and me. Food isn't sitting well in her stomach still so food is interesting. This week: The corn has grown taller than me and watering the garden takes almost 2 hours each night. The deer are eating the zucchini plants that aren't in the dog run (grr!) I have transplanted many baby plants around the house inside and out (we'll see if they make it!). We have run around town shopping, visiting the doctor and Grandpa. We have cleaned out the fridge (trust me that was a big job...expired 2007??? I'm so glad I move a lot!). We have canned 20 lbs of green beans, put up zucchini and tried to figure out what to do with Grandpa...

For myself I have read 3 books and have a couple more checked out from the library. Started knitting again. Walked Angel every morning. Finished approving the graphic design part of "Granddaddy's Hands." And slept in EVERY DAY! Oh and officially caught up on my blog :)

Things left to do? Clean carpets. Go through closets. Clean out Pantry (both!) Go through and clean out meds. Figure out finances and Grandpas future. Paint living room pink???

Grandma is frustrated at her slow recovery. She is only 14 days from going under the knife and 7 days from arriving home. The Doctor said it takes a young sprite 6-8 weeks to get back to normal. She is doing great and now I know where I get my shear determination and stubborn streak (and my habit of being way to hard on myself!) Grandpa is doing great too, the home is very good to him and he is doing well even though his memory is worse. Uncle Bill tells the funniest stories about Grandpa in the nursing home...wish I would have wrote them down while they were still fresh. I have two more weeks without work after this weekend. I am wishing I had my animals with me, other than that, I'm getting rested up but frustrated at my limitations as a grandchild. I'm enjoying the down time and the special moments hugging my Grandma when she needs it and making memories...more later :)

Back on American Soil

2009-07-20T23:03:00.001-07:00

I'm home! I'm exhausted! I'm going to bed...and when I wake up I will let you know more. For now, I'm home, safe and sound.

Last day!!!

2009-07-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

I thought this day would never come! Im so ready to go home. So after I blogged yesterday, I went down to the grand canal to join in the feasting and festivaling...I promptly dropped my phone (the blackberry one) in the grand canal and lost it. I called mom crying, I was so flustered, tiered, and not thinking. So I made my way back to the bus to catch a ride home only to find 3 stubborn bus drivers that had no intention of going back when they were scheduled to until the firework show was over! So I sat in the parking lot and listened to the booming fireworks, couldnt see anything either!!! unless I wanted to find my way back to San Marco Square, for an HOUR!!! Then they took me back to the campsite. I had a tent alone for the first time ever...slept like the dead. Got up when my Italian phone accidentally called home, so I talked to mom again, got some of the travel info I needed and now Im checked out and have to wait for a train at 8 tonight to Paris. Good times! So I wont have a phone till Monday or Tuesday and have lost all of your numbers, addresses, birthdays, my calandar, notes, lists, etc. Never put all your eggs in one basket??? See you all soon!!!

Venice a place of charm and full of delight!

2009-07-18T12:14:00.001-07:00

Okay so yesterday was rough...beyond rough! We missed our boat off Capri so not only did we have to repay 16 Euro each to get off the island we were late getting to the train station. In a quick decision we decided not to splurge on the coach with beds (sara warned me not to do this!) and we sat up all night trying to sleep. We both got little sleep on already exhausted stressed out sore people this was enough to tip me over the edge. I was bawling in the train station over our luggage locker not being secure. PV wanted to puke all day cause he drank too much sea water in Capri and so we strolled the streets of Verona (I ate the biggest plate of spag!) and we just took it easy. Back on the train to Venice PV was feeling a little better and wanted to eat. He decided to dash out on one of the 2 min stops and grab a sandwich...he didn't make it back on the train.

Now here is my side of the story.
Pv jumps up with the change can. I say "No! (He gives me a look) Oh fine go ahead" and I go back to reading my book. All the sudden I hear banging on the door and I try to run down the stairs but there is this guy and his bike that won't move and I argue with them to push the button to open the door. I hear loud knocking on the other side of the car and it starts to move away. I'm so shocked and pissed at the biker and don't know what to do so I go sit down and pick up my book lest I begin to cry. Then I think of all the things I should have or could do. Pv is standing with nothing and I'm sitting with everything. Let me paint a picture first. I am on a train with two huge packs and one carry on and both of our money pouches, passports, and ticket. Pv is standing on the platform with the keys to all the locks on the bag and a can of change. I could have thrown him my purse. I could have tried to throw him the ticket. I could have gotten off at the next stop and tried to come back. I kept reading. Every time I tried to stop and think the tears overwhelmed me. All I could come up with was this

He knew where I was headed

He is the kind of guy to jump a train

God is in control

So I headed to Venice with strangest looks from all the peddlers sitting in our car. They kept looking at me and his empty seat and back. Upon arriving I somehow got my pack on my back maneuvering pv's pack on my front and grabbing the carry-on in one hand praying it all stayed on. I walked to the front and center end of all the platforms and is started to rain. Then it started to pour, lightning thunder, marble size hail! (Seriously!) I was so in awe and totally dumb found as to what to do. So I waited.

I have never been happier to see PV's silly grin coming through the crowd, I totally lost it! (Ask him for his side of the story. He ran the gambit of emotions as well.) 2 and a half days of absolute craziness! This was the last straw. But no the saga does not end here.

We eventually got over the swapping of stories and started to look for our shuttle to the hostel, checked in and went to grab dinner before the bar closed. Upon returning to the room there were two more travelers there (in a 3 bed dorm). They were from Seattle and said they had just been back to the registration desk to figure this out but the woman insisted that there was only one girl in our room. We went back and explained what was up and the woman was put out and gave us a key to another tent. We arrived and found another woman there who was not happy with sharing a tent with a guy. So we went back to the original tent to tell the 2 girls to move and they had already made themselves at home and had no intention of moving even though we had been there first and it would have been more comfortable for the other woman who was expecting a female dorm not mixed. Needless to say we gathered our stuff and crashed (the woman was pissed!) At 6am she moved out very upset and banging stuff around. I promptly went back to sleep after she left. I was too tired to care. PV had considered just taking the day to relax but I had over heard him telling two girls that venice was ugly and dirty, knowing that he had only seen mainland airport and train station, I decided he needed to experience the real thing. He agreed and quickly changed his mind. It is definitely a city with its own flavor. We went to Murano, blew a bunch of money on glass and headed back to the main island and walked furiously to catch the bus back to camp to get his stuff, my room and send him off to the airport. I don't leave till tomorrow night (but I bet I make it back to portland before he does!) Now I'm back on the island waiting for a bathroom and for the festival to begin! Bring on the feast!

Verona

2009-07-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Alas I've lived and seen the acclaimed balcony of Juliet and took a picture of loveless tourists rubbing her bronze statues breasts in hopes of finding true love I guess. (Who ever thought of starting that tradition was the same crack pot that thought itd be funny to watch tourists climb a waterfall holding hands in Jamacia!) Verona was beautiful quiet clean and I'm glad I stopped for the morning. Now I'm off to Venice. I'm so tiered I could cry but its been a beautiful trip. One more city to go!

I'm in Verona

2009-07-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we spent at Capri in the sea. We really had ment to explore the place but once we got in we didn't want to get out. (Okay so we did for lunch but then ran right back in!) There were rocks to dive off and if a person got tiered of swimming one just had to roll over on their back to take a nap. It was awesome! It was fun trying to dive when your body wants to be a bouey. Anyway, we took the night train to Verona and are here waiting to check our bags at 7 and explore to town. Maybe go to the lake before we head to venice tonight. I also am being pestered to make a decision on the cover design of my book. I can't believe how time is flying!

Naples!

2009-07-14T23:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, so last time I wrote, I wasnt anywhere near Naples! I left Cinque Terre and traveled to Siena. I spent a day recouperating while the Siena School of Language was finishing up. I slept in, did laundry, met another guy who was meeting up with one of the students to explore Europe for the next 30 days. We explored Siena together while the students were taking their last final. We went on a scavenger hunt looking for all the fountains of the different contradas, I think we found 6 out of the 17. Then we sat in the compo for 2 hours eating lunch. That was a nice change to eating on the run. We went into the compo museum and climbed a tower that had a nice view of Siena then raced back to the school to meet up with the students. They were headed out to a very nice 6 course meal and Chris and I tagged along till we knew where they were going to be and then trekked out on our own to find Kebabs...it took us and hour and a half to find the place, then we sat there for two hours chatting with the owner...(she was from Iraq and his mom is from Serbia so they had a lot to talk about.) Then we retraced our steps to the restaurant and the school STILL wasnt done with their meal! We ate gelato on a door step and finally the students came out fat and happy. The next day PV and I headed to Roma. Two days to see Rome is not enough to scratch the surface but we were happy with as much as we did get to see. There is still so much more and we really ran through everything we did see so I have to go back! From there we headed to Naples (where we are now). It was a crazy day as it started out packing and leaving the hostel early in the morning. Dropping off our bags at the train station, picking up a ticket for Naples and starting out to see everything we could before we had to leave. We hit St Peters square and then I tripped and fell, yep, it hurt. Needless to say, I think my ankle will not recover till I get home. We saw a lot of stuff we had seen in the night but not in the day, trevi fountain and pantheon were my favorites...and then we headed back, not realizing how late it was. In the train station we split up, I went to find our train and PV to get our bags. It was one of those race against the clock moments where PV is wearing two huge backpacks pushing people out of the way and hop along me is trying not to loose him but still get us on the train on time. We made it, 4 mins early! Arriving in Naples it was late and dark. The train to the metro was fine but after that things got a little sketchy. We missed our stop along with another couple from Turkey but they found a women who walked us straight to our hostel...here they just put garbage out on the street at night to be picked up and people are out drinking in all this filth so it looked scary. (I will not go into detail about all the crazy scary things we have encountered here!) During the day its much better looking and feeling. We were happy to hit the hostel that was much more clean and safe feeling. The next morning we met back up with Chris and Stephan (from the Siena School) and went to see Pompei. WOW!!! They were being hosted through couch surfing and their host was a linguist of dead languages. He also had a guest from America and one from France. They were awesome too Jeff and Baptist. I cant tell you how awesome it was to explore this place with a guy who can read the writing on the walls so to speak. He had plenty of other historical information too but kept saying that wasnt his area so if we wanted to know more we needed to talk to an expert. It was funny, Bartec was absolutely fantastic. He is studying for a year in Naples (latin and greek) and is actually from Poland. He is going to give us a tour of Naples today and a few castles and maybe the beach. Since all his guests are leaving today he has invited us to stay at his place tonight and then head to the east coast tomorrow, I cant believe how the time is flying! 6 more days for me, 4 for PV. PV has a friend in Venice and we are trying to be in Venice for Friday night. That leaves one night up in the air. I will let you know when I do!

Cinque Terre

2009-07-09T01:54:00.000-07:00

This morning I had to say goodbye to Jacquie, it was sad to see my friend go. We have had such a great time and this last place was stellar above and beyond my wildest dreams. I don't think any camera can catch the rhythm of this place. I'm sitting here in an internet cafe, reveling in typing on a real computer instead of my blackberry, trying to figure out what to do next. Roma is the obvious choice but I'm so ready to crash by the sea and never leave it, it's hard to focus. (I will tell you about Cinque Terre, don't worry!) It's really hard to find words right now...even though it's easier to type!

Note to self:
Directions to Roma Hostel
From Termini train station you just have to take the metro direction BATTISTINI (Linea A) and get off at CORNELIA station;follow the exit signs direction 'Piazza Irnerio' and then follow the signs for 'Via Aurelia'. Once you are outside the metro you can see in front of you some bus stops next to a Mcdonalds; from there you can catch bus # 246 and get off in front of the camping village.The bus stops in front of a supermarket, please use the footbridge to cross the road to the camping village.

Please ignore, I don't want to pay for printing it :)
Okay, gotta go, will catch you up from my black berry on the train to Siena or Roma!

Bologna

2009-07-08T23:42:00.001-07:00

Pv got up real early this morning and caught a bus to Siena. We eventually got up, packed and headed into town waiting forever for a bus as usual. We caught a train to Bologna and then a bus to our hostel which ended up being 20 mins out of town. Unfortunately for us we missed our stop and ended up way out in the country. The bus driver said we could get off and wait for the next bus. I needed a toilet and we were hungry so not thinking we jumped off the bus. It was 100 degrees out and sunday. NOTHING was open (I walked for a mile and saw nothing!) We had to wait 2.5 hours for the next bus and it was the same bus driver who had told us to get out and wait. I could have killed him! It was nice to have AC for the next 20 mins and then he let us know we were there. (A redeeming quality!) The hostel was great! No awesome view and or happy hour but there were hot showers and beds and lockers and Ciara our host was full of great information. She sent us down the road for dinner and it was some of the best food we have had so far. We went to bed tired and happy. There really isn't much to say about Bologna. It has the oldest university in Italy. All the sidewalks are covered with pillars on street side. Very cool affect as well as pedestrian/rain friendly. Portland could learn some thing from them. We climbed a tower that had worn wooden steps and plaques at different heights, for example at 55 meters it said "tower of pisa". It was pretty cool and felt safe at the top since you were surrounded by stone walls instead of flimsy fences. We walked around a lot and it all seemed to be the same. It does have the oldest university in Italy and we met one of the conservatory students at our hostel. He was playing the stand up bass outside and it was fun to sit and listen while I read. We did check out restaurant row that Ciara had recommended and after walking a ways down the deserted alley with questionable characters I freaked out and practically ran back to the busy streets with lots of people. I am sorry we didn't find what she was talking about but at the same time it wasn't worth feeling unsafe. We did find this wine and sandwich bar where the gentleman that waited on us and kept shoving more food at us was amazing! We tried a rosso we both loved and an interesting champagne and sheep cheese with balsamic and parmesian with marmalade and real bologna! It was so yummy we were full after all the taste testing we didn't even need lunch! We left bologna and traveled to cinque terre where I fell in love! This is a place I could live out the rest of my life by the sea! Tiny towns, great trails, terraced gardens, delicious food, wonderful people! - Jacquie just left :( I need to figure out where I'm going next and get packed before check out time. To be continued!

PV comes to visit

2009-07-07T07:23:00.001-07:00

Even though we got to bed at one am and had very little sleep the night before, the insanity continued. PV was showing up on the 8:15 bus so we got up early and went to meet him. Now when I say early I mean accounting for a few things. Me not waking up. The bus not being at its stop when it says it will (or the next one!) And the 30 min ride around town to get there. All happened and when we got there he wasn't there. I checked my phone (I had forgotten to turn it on again) and he had emailed saying he missed his bus and would be there in an hour. We walked most of the way back to our site to hit out favorite cafe ("bar") for cappalloni and cappachino then back to the station where he was waiting for us. We went to the Duomo Piazza and toured the baptistry. It was amazing! Its ceiling was all tiled andhad gold behind clear tiles in places where it just sparkled. Its floor was a hodge podge mix of different patterns which was explained in the commentary I rented. It had been erected on the site of some homes and they just kept the original floors of the homes and built the baptistry as a special place to carry out this one (missing a catholic word, it will come to me). After seeing that it was time to book over to the Muse de Academia to visit David. First we went into the instrument part. That was cool! They had an old harpsicord and piano forte there and beautiful violins and cellos and this weird snake horn. They had some things you could manipulate your self and I learned that technically a piano is a percussion instrument because a mallet on the arm hits the string and a harpsicord a stringed instrument because it is plucked by the arm. Then we entered a huge hall. Now there are statues of David all over Florence. There is a huge Bronze one next to camp and a stone one in a piazza somewhere in town but the original marble David is unfathomable. I walked into the hall and it looked like every picture I had ever seen of him. I took some shots mydelf to document I was there and walked down the long hall. The closer I got the bigger he got. His demeaner stayed the same, thoughtful, older after having slayed Goliath, but he was bigger than life. His hands were incredible! The veins and nubby bones and tendons were all there as if you were studying a giants hands. His eyes were not solid like all the other statues we had seen so far, they looked real like you could loose yourself in them. He was the best part of my day. There wasn't anything else in that museum worth seeing besides a wonderful special collecting showing by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. We left full. Then we went back to the Basillica to climb the Duomo. Okay so the leaning tower of Pisa was scarry. This was almost worse. There were aswesome moments lke when we were so close to the fresco painted ceiling you could touch it and whe you realize you are walking between the ceiling and the roof of the dome and there is hardly room to stand straight. There are places so small I don't suggest a clausterphobic person go! The inside of the church was beautiful and in describable. When we finished climbing the 453 steps (something like that) and emerged at the top I almost lost my nerve. The breze was strong and there was a flimbsy fence separating us from certain death. I was not the only one hugging the columns on the dome behind me. I did not like being that high up with so many people excited and carelessly jostling around for a good picture. After it thinned out. I found a quiet spot near the fence and listened to a hispanic women giving a group of kids a history lesson about christ and peter and paul (in English!) That's where Jacquie and PV eventually found me. PV tried to get me to stand near the fence for a pic. I'm sure it didn't turn out well. I was not a happy camper. I took forever getting down the tight steep skiny stair rails. I'm glad it wasn't a ladder or everyone would have known my legs were shaking. I was happy to be back on the ground at long last. We made our way to the famous "gold bridge" that is full of jewlers selling very expensive pieces. Then I bought my Florence jacket and we nade our way to camp. My foot is huge. All this walking on a sprain is not fun at all but I'm trying to ignore it as much as possible. We got back to camp in time for happy hour. They have this one really good italian beer called Poretia that I wish we had at home. After taking a break, enjoying the view and the sun going down we went back to the piazza where the play had been and eat at a Doner Kabab place we had noticed the day before while looking for Michealangelos house. After that we found gelatto and rushed back to the bus station only to find it closed. The lady who sold PV the ticket had given him the wrong time apperantly so we took him home, snuck him into camp and we all crashed. Itd been a really long and wonderful day.

Beautiful Florence!

2009-07-07T06:22:00.001-07:00

I love Florence. Its just beautiful and full of art, history, life and every corner has some discovery in it. Today we went to the Uffizi museum. I was thrilled! I saw some of my favorite paintings and talked Jacquie's ear off about different techniques of the times and cliches found in their art. There was paint and sculpture mixed and it was in this beautiful palace...oh! Speaking of palaces! Its been so long I forgot to tell you about the other palace we went to and its extensive gardens and sculptures and costume museum! Another time. Anyway...Uffizi was quite the experience. And from the top it had an amazing view of the great Duomo (whose top wasn't put on till much later due to not having the technology to build a dome that big!) Then we had lunch at the cutest yellow and red cafe outside and ate really good food but I don't remember what. I just remember tomatoes and balsamic and so far every meal with those two have been delicious! We moved onto the Science museum where Galelio's stuff (including his finger) had been moved to an alternative sight during restoration. We were bumbed but went and saw a bunch of cool gadgets from centuries past. Out side we wandered around and happened upon Dante's house (that was cool and unexpected!) We stopped for gelatto everywhere but after a while got smart and started researching our gelatto places and asking around. That's when we really found the pleasure of true tuscan gellato! Walking around we saw a sign for a play. It was in this huge piazzaand they had been setting up for a few days (we'd walked by a few times) and this time I asked Jacquie what the play was about (her italian is so good, I don't know what I'm going to do without her!) It was Dante's Divine Commedy put to music and dance. Now this is one of Jacquies favorite author/books. You should have seen her when we happened upon his house (no surprise to her, just to me.) So even though we were exausted we couldn't pass up the chance to see the piece he created in the place he created it in. I got a literary lesson over dinner and we were off to see Dante's greatest work. Dinner! We past this mexican restorant and I had a hankering for a margarita. (I know, no surprise!) The guy yelled happy hour and we went in. I ordered some chips and salsa to go with and the salsa was oddly italian more than it was mexican. It was so yummy! Then we went to this cafeteria style place and I ordered way to much food from this kind boy who was teasing me about my choices and indecisions and so on. He wrinkled his nose at my defacing his cooking with balsamic vinigar and olive oil. It was fun but totally weird too. Wish I'd had someone to share a traditional florentine steak with! It was too much and I couldn't have put a dent in it. (Inch and a half thick as round as a dinner plate!) After we were done we walked back to the piazza, poured some wine and sat down to watch.

I can't even begin to describe what this was like. There was a huge church at one end. Projected onto it was the backgrounds for the different scenes (the woods he is lost in, the sea he has to cross, the flames of hell, satan himself, the clouds in heaven, etc. There were basically two movable platforms on stage that made up the set. The main characters sang while a dance troup did ballet and acted out the characters in the different levels of the inferno, pergitory and heaven. The voices were bigger than life! I still get chills thinking about it! I called dad and let him listen in to a trio by Dante, Beatrice and Virgil. He was on Doner's Beach in Clam Gultch and he loved it! Technology amazes me! Jacquie and I were both falling asleep but it was too awesome to leave early so we stayed to the end where they let these huge balloons go and watched them disappear into the sky. It was phenominal! Walking home at 12:30 we realized that we had been sleeping through Florences night life. The streets were bright, outfits where wild, and drinks were flowing. We made it up to the statue of David and again there were tons of people cars and music. The city lights The club outside our campsite had a line a mile long waiting to get in. Arriving at our campsite, we could have been anywhere and it wouldn't have mattered. We were OUT!

Palio continued...

2009-07-07T05:22:00.001-07:00

So here we are, 20 deaf and hearing: LIS/ASL/Italian/English mix, hanging out in the campo as close to rail as possible at the highest point possible. People keep strolling in and the compo starts to fill up. A cannon announces the beginning and end to everything! Trials, parade, false starts and race. Even as the parade is going people are still filing in. I can't even describe what 2 million people in a square looks like with more people pouring in. When the oxen went around and the championship flag was hung over the officiating stand the doors were closed and there was no way in or out of the campo. We had been discussing through out the day our bus situation and the race start time. This is when we realized if we miss the last bus there is nothing we could do about it! We stood for two hours while the horses and riders jostled for position in lining up. There were 3 false starts. This is how it looks on tv. Cause I couldn't see anything from where I stood. There is the "ref" box (he gets escorted out of town as soon as the horses start off for sure. It is too dangerous for him to stay to see the winner in case one contrada is upset with how he handled the start of the race.) There is a rope from him to the inside of the track. Each contrada has a mascot (Turtle, eagle, worm, etc.) And is given a number (1st slot, 2nd slot,etc.) The ref waits for complete silence for the first line up. He calls out an animal and that contrada goes wild and then quiets down. This is crazy too. 2 million go from noisy and fidgety to silent is seconds. Way faster than any assembly at school or game at the Rose Quarter. He continues to call animals and they continue to line up in their respective "slot" there are no stalls just a rope. There is a lot of pushing shoving side stepping and smack talk going on. Each rider is dressed in his contradas colors with the animal on their back. Their horse has a set of reigns and head piece to match. (A horse can win the race without his rider as long as this head piece and reigns are still attached to the horse.) The riders carry a switch that cannot be used before the rope is dropped but after that any horse and or rider is fair game! Porcupine keeps shoving turtle out of his number one slot as far as I can tell. Shell might have had something to do with that too. If it takes too long to line up the ref tells them to all back out and do a lap on the leg right in front of us (I get to see more smack talk up close!) This goes on for an hour and a half until 9 are lined up in front of the rope. A second rope is raised most of the way across the track behind their butts and finally the last horse and rider (in red and green) races past them to start the race! When the short rope is at the middle of the red and green horse the front rope is dropped and they are all off. (I wish I could have seen all this but I got to observe it later on the tv in the pizzaria.) Three laps is all it takes. There were no mishaps at the corner with the mattresses (the only part of the track I could see) and the winner was a good horse length or more ahead most of the way! Turtles won! As soon as he crossed the line people poured over the fence and ran in front of the racing horses to get them to stop. It was insane! The turtle flags went up and the rest of the 17 contrada flags followed behind during the victory lap. (The last place rider gets 550 Euro first place got 150,000!)Then all the cafe's on the outside of the track bring out tables and chairs and feed everyone really fast! Not something I've experienced here, nothing is fast about food here!) The parading and music and partying carries on all night long. Everyone who is not apart of the winning contrada puts away their scarves. And all you see is turtles everywhere. Jacquie and I were exhausted having gotten up so early so after some pizza and shots, PV took us home and put us to bed before returning to the throngs of merry makers. I guess there was a water pump running that kept Jacquie up all night and she tried to wake me but I was dead to the world. It was a long hard night on her. We woke up extremely early to catch the first bus home at 630am. What a day!

Florence

2009-07-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

So its been a while and as Tawni has so kindly reminded me "catch up with your blog!"

I will try my best to recall and help you to live vicariously through the extremely historical experiences I have happened upon so far.

July first.
Jacquie woke up VERY early. She did a lot before I even stirred including climbing the hill behind our camp site. Oh yeah! So we are staying at this camp site up on a hill overlooking Florence in an old olive grove. It has the best view, great beer, hot showers and a huge set of stairs to climb to get home every night! I did eventually wake up and we set out to explore Florence. We found a "bar" (as in coffee bar) and had capelloni (I think) Jacquie is so much better with this language. It was like ricotta cheese creamy delicious with mini chocolate chips rolled in a semi crunchy shell. A bit of heaven to go with our cappuccino. Then we set out on foot and made all kinds of discoveries. Like where the science museum is not :op we took lots of pics and strode down many streets and got the lay of the land. We had terrible pizza for lunch and were scared to try pizza again after that. (Don't worry we eventually did). I really don't remember much from this day except my feet hurting from all the walking. We pushed like we only had one day to see Florence and covered a ton of ground.

July 2nd
Today we got up extremely early (5:30am) to catch a bus to Siena at 7. We practically ran to the bus station and I sprained my ankle pretty bad on the way. Not wanting to slow down or think about how tight my shoe was becoming, I tried my darndest to keep walking. Once in Siena, we met up with PV and he showed us around. Siena is definitely a town anyone could fall in love with. Its cobble stone goes up one hill and down the next. Its tall brick and stone buildings are hardly spaced wide enough for a tiny car to pass through. Today it was adorned with the flags of different contradas (neighborhoods as far as I could tell) and everyone was wearing a scarf to show their colors. There were gangs of the same contradas parading through the streets following horses all dressed in matching colors. A lot of pride was being flaunted and history being replayed. You didn't wear a flag and walk alone without getting roughed up by another contrada. We met a lot of hearing and deaf students from the states and deaf people from all over Italy. We learned as much italian sign as fast as we could. It was one of the top experiences of my trip so far. So many different dialects too! The older deaf folks relied heavily on spoken Italian so that made it hard for us folks that didn't speak it. Jacquie has been interpreting for me since she got here. I'm so surprised at how much she learned in such a short time. I don't know what I'm going to do when Jacquie leaves me. I know nothing of the language here. Maybe ill go to England instead. They sorta speak english :)

Anyway, some deaf folks cooked our group some great Italian cuisine and then we all headed to the Compo. We stood there for 5 hours total. 2 hours waiting for it to start so that we could have a good view of one corner of the track. Then the parade started. It lasted one and a half hours! Each contrada had their own group of flag bearers that waved and tossed and put on quite a show and their own drummers and knight and horse and all kinds of midevil weapons. There were 17 contradas in all. They were all dressed up like pages and wow I can't explain but someday when I get home I'll show you. At the end of the parade was these 4 HUGE white oxen that pulled this wagon with the bishop of whatever church this race was dedicated to and other important people. After the parade the horses and their riders came out (bear back mind you) and started their way around to the starting line.

The Trip to Florence

2009-07-01T22:58:00.001-07:00

After waving goodbye I went and found something to eat, found the restrooms (50 cents!?!) Then heard blah blah blah geneva platform 4...I ran. By the time I got up there most everybody was already on the train. (Did I mention they only stop for two minutes?) In my seat I watched the country side change again from following river valleys to winding our way through gorges. The architecture changed as well from stacked rock and clay tile roofing to more white wash walls with verigated tin and scrolly wood accents. We had arrived in Switzerland. At the train station I immediately left to see what I could see during my 2 hour lay over. I was taking a picture of a church across the street when a woman approached me and asked if I wanted a pic of me in front of it.

Meet Veronica. Older woman with 3 children ages 27-36 who looks in on her disabled neighbor and walks their dog for them. She has lived in several countries and speaks 4 different languages and asked if she couldn't show me around. I was thrilled! She told me how the church I was looking at had just had a big celebration for its 150th birthday. She took me to this river with a huge fountain and pointed to a huge old church on a hill. That one she said was 1500 years old. Then she told me to walk down to the lake and not to miss my train and not to trust people and to be careful with my bag etc...she was my Switzerland mom for an hour. Very sweet. She had to take Wendy the dog back to her neighbors and make sure they had everything they needed and then her son was coming for dinner so we parted ways. What a beautiful soul!

I saw men playing roller hockey on old roller skates (not the in line kind) near the lake. It was beautiful as the sun was going down but then I realized I must have misplaced my memory card for my camera in Avingon France when I downloaded my pics at the station before the fam left :( 16GB down. Back at the train station I got a little nervous. The only train at my departure time was going to Roma. I met a woman from Texas and her two sons headed to Rome celebrating one sons graduation. The other was a sophomore in high school. They had just come from Paris and it sounded like they were having a great time. The train pulled up and thankfully had a piece of paper that showed all the stops. Florence was one so I hopped on and found my berth. Inside was a boy from Belgium. Right after me came in to guys from Pakistan. Next stop we picked up a very old man from India (his feet where amazing! Dry wrinkled and looked as though he had never worn shoes in his life!) He coined the phrase "its salty" meaning its hot where's the AC. And last but not least a guy from Rome headed home. I found myself in a sleep car with 5 men. Not what I was expecting.

The guys from Pakistan where cousins on a crazy wild trip fitting in 5 different countries and multiple cities into 9 days. We were all getting off in Florence then They were headed to Pisa then Florence then supposed to be in Vienna that night! Crazy men! Javid was studying in Lead, England getting his PhD and come to find out he is a part time note taker for Deaf students at the university. Zulfia works in the oil fields for an Italian company in Pakistan. They invited me to take a quick tour of Pisa with them. Arriving at 6am with nothing to do till 1:30 I was game but told them as long as we get back before Jacquies plane I was cool with it. They said they still had to see Florence too and catch a train at 6:30 so we went. It was awesome!!! They were very fun to travel with. We arrived walked to the square with the tower and church and old wall. Took tons of silly pics. Their philosophy was to follow the chinese people because a they stick out and have very innovative picture taking ideas. We bought tickets to climb the tower the steps are marble and worn down a ton! The top was a little scary if you don't like heights. But they don't let you stay long. Its weird to climb down a leaning building! I was happy to have my feet on solid ground again! I had to pay to pee again and then I realized I'd lost my new wooden ring (set it down while applying sun block) I was very disappointed but it had been a good day so far. We sat down to a meal of light Italian beer and pizza. It was so good! Making our way back to the train station we just missed the train to Florence that would have gotten me to the airport on time. I started to get nervous. Jacquie and I had no way to contact each other and our plan was to meet at the airport. Javid debated the validity and authenticity of "they" and that helped me keep my mind off the fact that JQ would be sitting there forever wondering what my fate was. We arrived and finding and waiting for a bus shuttle became excruciating! When the bus pulled up to the station there she was waiting to get on! I couldn't believe it! I had almost missed her! Poor thing. I was so sorry I hadn't been there when she landed. We made our way to Campo Michelangelo and life was looking up. We freshened up a bit and headed to town for dinner taking one of the Rick Steves walking tours. It was an incredible night and we saw the old gold jewler's bridge. We decided to have diner in a whole in the wall place that turned out to have incredible food hearty house wine and stellar service.

24 hours + 24 hours = one very long day

2009-06-30T15:17:00.001-07:00

When I look back at where this day started and how much ground I've covered and all the people I've met I'm exhausted and full filled with all the wealth that is in my life. As a new friend told me...this is where our story begins and ends...but I think he was wrong. This is just one chapter that jumps around a lot. The chapter ends but all the characters show up later again in a distant place a and time. So this chapter begins in St Remy with my alarm telling me I've actually slept till 9 and need to get up and pack. I hit snooze a couple of times knowing that even though I have a birth in a train car that doesn't mean I know when I will next sleep. Packing my extra bag for Aunt Beth and stuffing some stuff in nanas bag I'm officially ready to depart my group. Its still quite a while before that happens but at least I'm ready. Mom, Nana, Coleen and Brenna are at cooking class. The girls and I decide to go into town to grab a few more pics and souvenirs before we hit the road. We drove down to the roman ruin excavation site to see what we could see without paying. It wasn't much but I climbed up through the scrub brush and out onto a pillar of rock and WOW! It took my breath away! You could see forever! Not so much right in front of you where they excavated but everything else, villages with spires piercing the centers surrounded by fields and orchards to the next town. I was about to yell to my sisters to join me when I heard the car door shut. They never heard me. Now I'm in a dress pretty sandels on an out cropping of rock and shale and there are stinging nettles and brambles everywhere you look. I try to pick the easiest way down but I realize its lead me to the wrong ravine. This is when Kara finally gets out of the car and calls my name instead of just honking the horn. She was thinking the same thing I was...stranded with a broken leg would suck right now, is she lost or hurt? Anyway, found my way down, went back to the hotel, loaded the cars and waved goodbye. Beth and I in one car, Tawni and Barb in another, the sisters in the van and all the luggage made our way to the train station. We left very early and it was a good thing cause we did get off the beaten path and stuck behind an accident in traffic with weird round abouts (4 lane highway going straight thru the middle) I hailed a non-english speaking semi truck and asked him how to turn around. Thru gestures we got our selves straightened out. One more stop for directions and we were there. Barb Moe and I stayed with the bags while the rest turned in the cars. That's when Coleen started calling frantically. They were lost "okay I followed the signs to Nice and never saw a TGV sign where do I go?" We had followed signs to Avignon so I was no help. Our porter was not worried. "Ah Nice! Its only like...mmm...30 mins away! Plenty of time! Do not worry they will be here!" Our train leaves in 45mins now. I'm totally worried! Needless to say Tawni runs back to collect a cd from the rental car coleens group showed up 7 mins before departure and nana found her train ticket 2 mins before the train pulled up. Tension was high and for the first time I was feeling a little teary. It was hard to let them go. When they took off, the silence on the platform was deafening! My body was buzzing. I was so used to being in tune with 11 other women and now I was just overly conscious of just me...to be continued!

St Remy

2009-06-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday. We have one full day here so we made the most of it. Breakfast was served at 8am so we made sure we were ready to jump in the car before we sat down to a VERY scrumptious breakfast of granola, croissants, fruit, orange juice and cafe au lait. Then we were off, first to a Market/flea market (antiquing) and then to the lavender fields. The market was amazing, I've never seen anything...no wait, the Alaska State fair on a sunny, non-school day...INSANE! I finally burnt to a crisp, Se la vie! It had to happen sometime. There was so much color and noise and movement! Linens, legumes, jewelry, clothes, trinkets, you name it, it was there. Even a box with a baby pig and rabbits they were wanting you to buy food to feed them! (seriously, everything!) It was a little overwhelming...especially the antiquing, everything was old, and I mean nothing was less than 100 years old! And most of it was over 100 Euro...it was fun to look through the old furnature, linens, crystal, paintings, books, etc. So much to see, so little time. We ventured on to another town (I'll fill in the blanks later when I remember) that was older than anything we have seen yet and built into cliff. It was awesome and got everyone excited! We drove onto the lavender fields only to be surprised at how they were mountain pastures and just small funny shaped fields here and there. The abbey was absolutely stunning just like in the pictures but not at all in the setting you assume...when they say fields, you just don't picture the drive to victory bible camp and end up tucked in a closed valley. Lots of fun pics later we headed to explore that fun village on a cliff, only to find pay parking, being cheap some of us jumped out, while others drove to a different angle and parked in a no parking zone with the rest of the tourists...LOL! So French! We got some ice cream (glace) and headed home (missing the McDonald's!). Back at the hotel we hurriedly got ready for the next venture. Back in the car we drove to the insane asylum where Van Gough spent his final year before taking his life. He lived there for one year and 8 days and painted over 150 canvases and did over 100 sketches! (the beginning of art therapy?) It is still a working hospital. Walking across the street we saw some Roman Ruins that were built around Christ's time. Very cool. THEN WE WENT TO DINNER...(it's 7:30pm, we haven't eaten-minus glace-since 8:30pm)...10:30pm we still haven't gotten the bill...I have to the bathroom but there isn't one...Evie is vacillating between crying and sleeping...we are all so tiered from the fun day that even finding our way home is a challenge. (oh, and I keep loosing stuff!) Arriving home I take a cold shower, felt so good on my burn, and we all went to bed, well, I'm there as soon as I post this! Tomorrow Coleen Brenna Mom and Nana are taking a cooking class offered here at the hotel. I am personally going to sleep in, run some errands for mom and pack. If there is time, I would love to see the excavated roman ruins but I am headed to Italy so we'll see. Tomorrow I have to say goodbye to the family...I'm not ready

Goodbye Villa in the Vinyard - Hello St Remy

2009-06-28T01:11:00.001-07:00

Today we said goodbye. It was so sad because we were just feeling comfortable and brave and could have stayed there another week without running out of things to do. Mom and I went out to Chateau Verez for one last bottle of vin while the girls lazed around the pool one last time. They met us in Vidabaun at another winery where I got my wine glasses and carafe. Thru town this semi rode two inches from moms bumper laying on his horn as if we could go any faster than the car in front of us! This place is crazy! (I personally love it!) The plan was to head to the lavendar fields. There were toll boths and highways and round abouts, dodging across 9 lanes to stay together. We decided to skip the fields and find our hotel first. (This ended up being the best idea) We drove around for hours, or so it seemed, in and out and thru St Remy. We even stopped at the office of tourism to ask for directions and still got lost! Driving around we met a guy in a truck who flagged us down by yelling Tawni's name. It was our hostest. He was going to the market and when he noticed 4 cars full of women driving around. He figured it must be us since a group that big especially all women is an extremely rare sight. It was a good thing. We only had coffee that morning and it was 4pm. We were all tiered and hungry. After settling in and getting the intro to the house and grounds and town we went to town for dinner...only to find that no one serves food till 7pm! It is a beautiful town with tintsie wintsie alleys and the old arches to the old walled city still standing between buildings. There was a huge church and while paying for parking we saw three different sets of brides and grooms leaving their weddings! (More soon)

Johny Depp aka Stinky Cheese

2009-06-27T05:33:00.001-07:00

This morning we woke up and the 'Morris' girls made breakfast. We had potatoes and onions again with ham this time and scrambled eggs! It was so yummy and nice to have everyone together again on the veranda. I must say our meals have been amazing. Salads with lots of stuff in it. Cherries and nectars. Cheese and bread with balsamic vinegar and oil. Coleen made a yummy chicken noodle thing one night. Beth made a yummy ham noodle salads. And tonight Coleen is making fettecini with our yummy expensive cheese and Beth is making sauteed vegetables. Oh and lots of vin!

Anyway today we went to La Plan De La Toure. Home of our favorite pirate Johnny Depp (aka Stinky Cheese). We found parking and walked the streets looking for stinky cheese. It was a very cute and very nondescript. Extremely small we didn't dare mention his name so stinky cheese became the code word. It had a fun boutique. I bought an extra suitcase to send home with the ladies and french fries. We looked all over for stinky cheese but never found him. We saw what we assumed was his house but nobody really knows. From here we all decided to do different stuff. Lu's car went to the sea and shopping in St Maximes. Tawni's car went home and to the turtle preserve, which ended costing an arm and a leg so we declined going inside and to the butterfly caves, which ended up being a beautiful winery under construction, and to go horse back riding. YES, I, Jen Morris, rode a horse and did fine! It was very uneventful which was perfect in my mind and we rode down to a crick and up through some vineyards, up where you could see over the valley. We even saw 2 turtles (very lucky our guide said). Coleen said they even gave us real horses, not the retired trail riders but competition horses that jump and race! It was very lovely and my horse Ferrell did very well. The guide wasn't so bad either even though he didn't speak very much english and I even less French between our gestures we carried on great throughout the ride. Mom's car went to La Garde Friene and visited a cemetery and went home for a swim then back to our "butterfly cave" and to the super market.

It was a lovely day. We ended with the best fettechini and sauted vegetables I have ever tasted. A nice blanc from Chateau Verez. The sun went down as big storm clouds threatened to rain in us. We ran to the vineyard to get pics before our light was gone. Brenna found the biggest spider, I didn't go look, she had already danced and spat and stood speechless for long enough and that was good enough for me :)

Back inside the packing began. More piano playing and dragging of feet. We didn't want this week to end. One last skinny dip and 3 falling stars and tons of satellites. A perfect ending to our villa in the vineyard.

The Mediterranean Sea!

2009-06-26T15:14:00.001-07:00

Today we got up early and drove to the sea! I cannot do this day justice as this is a public blog. You will have to ask for each individuals account of this day in person. Each will have their own story to tell.

We picked up Saraphina around 9am and drove on the tiniest road we have seen to date on the steepest ravines we have seen to date. It was awesome minus poor Aunt Beth who couldn't hardly keep from crawling out of her skin she was so scared to be on the down hill side and the other two drivers who were cursing the French and their skinny little roads. Mom seemed to handle it very well :) I'm so proud of her! Oh did I mention there are tons of bicyclists on these crazy roads? Then we hit the sea! It was just like the pictures (accept in the picture your the one sitting on the beach not the one stuck in round abouts wondering why all the entrances to the parking are exits and you can't actually get to the beach like everyone else knows the secret but you!) We finally found the perfect beach with shade for me and sun for everyone else and jumped in. WHOA! IT WAS COLD! Okay so in my mind the water is perfectly warm almost like a bath but this was SO not the case. We snorkled a bit and saw a couple varieties of fish and a flounder and lots of sea grass. Mom dove over and over for what looked to be a cool shaped shell but ended up being a burried piece of sea weed! We spent all day reading, sun bathing, swimming, walking, staring at nudes (hey they stared at us, 11 women and a baby! We just stared back), napping, repeat. When we finally tore ourselves away from the beach we decided to visit the city of Borme. Okay I can't say enough about this village. It is the top best place we have visited thus far! I could have lived there for a year! From the moment we came around the hill and saw it perched on the side of the mountain craig with the sun going down casting that orangy glow we all love so well WE FELL IN LOVE! Why do we find all the cool places just as they are closing up for the night! We were all very tired so a quick walk through town we grabbed some glacier (ice cream) and headed home.

I do have one funny story from this little piece of heaven. I was carrying Evie in the car seat, taking pics etc when she woke up. Tawni took her out of the car seat cause she is so much easier to carry that way and we put our purses in it with the blanket over them. As we were heading back to the car park I noticed a little steep alley and dove down it to take some pics.
As I was multi tasking: carrying stuff, walking down a hill with stairs, taking pictures I tripped on one of the stairs and barley caught myself from falling face first pell mell down this steep skinny alley. I heard everyone gasp and run reaching for the car seat when I realized they thought there was a baby in it! They were looking at me mortified as I shouted "No bebe! No bebe!" Then the looked confused and disbelieving so I said "Avec mama!" And this little old lady gasped with relief spouting off a bunch of French while clutching her heart. I quickly tucked my camera under the blanket and raced away red faced. I'm just really glad it wasn't worse.
Thinking I would wind my way around and head them off at the car park I was very mistaken. I ended up at the bottom of a little neighborhood
looking up a big cliff at the car park above. A little French man started following me grinning ear to ear. I think he was amused to find me lost and flustered at least that's my story (This is getting to be annoying, frenchmen and their blatent appriciation for women!)

After dropping Saraphina back at home, mom Beth and I went back to the lookout to grab a couple picks of La Garde Freiner in the sunset light. Then home for dinner and...bed...wait a minute! I don't know who started it but there was skinny dipping too! Kara and I saw the coolest shooting star and we spotted lots of satellites before finally going to bed.

Wednesday - La Garde Friere

2009-06-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Next day we went to market in La Garde Friere. It was supposed to be a quick trip. (The girls slept in after their long adveture up north). We met a women over olives who promptly invited to show us the town, a fountain, a lookout, and her friend Kate's "typical french house". Saraphina came to visit and swim in the pool. She stayed for dinner and then at sunset she and I walked to the top of this hill (everyone else drove) and had "sun-downers." It was an amazing view and the wine was splendid too. Sorry so short. Trying desperately to catch up!

Tuesday a day of rest - for some!

2009-06-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

I wish I could get one of my sisters to blog their adventure driving to Monico and back! They arrived home exausted and grinning from ear to ear. I think they had a good time but enough driving in France for a bit! They made good time to Nice but couldn't find parking. I guess the traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Monico! They got there just as the palace was closing so they only got to see the grounds but one of the guards finally explained to them why Evie was getting so many looks. In his broken very limited english he told them that the sun is so much stronger here that you don't take babies out. Its too dangerous. That explains why we haven't seen a baby younger than walking age out and about!

As for the rest of us, we slept in and took a swim in the pool. I made breakfast of fried potatoes onions and sausage with fresh garlic, rosemary and olive oil! It was yummy! Pretty much just laid around the pool and painted and pooled and painted again! Around 5 we decided to go "chauteau hopping" as Aunt Beth calls it. We sampled wines and bought our favorites. I'm going to try and sneak a few bottles home...we'll see. One beautiful place we wittnessed a mother and daughter have a little spat right in front of us (not typical french behavior!) The mother could speak english but wanted her daughter to have the chance to practice. The girl asked if we wanted to "try" any wines and her mother said no its "taste.". The girl rolled her eyes and responded "try taste all the same in english eh?" Mom argued daughter slapped her hands and shooed her away then refused to speak till her mother left the room. "I know English but I no like her correcting me all the time!" She said. It was hilarious! Another beautiful dinner together on the patio. A dip in the pool and stories shared as the Monico group arrived back late. It was a good day!

Monday was an elusive market day

2009-06-25T06:37:00.001-07:00

So on Monday we got up early again, coffee croissants with chocolate again for breakfast, loaded in two cars this time (less getting lost and separated we hoped) and headed for a market in St Tropewe drove for an hour and dove back into the crazy confusing costal towns again. Back and forth, up and down, round and round. We finally gave up and went back to a huge super market we saw before we hit town. It was heaven! A little bit like america and a little more predictable than anything we have done or seen yet! I found an atm and an adapter and chips and mineral water in bulk and ice tea! Shampoo and conditioner and sun block and "after sun" and medicine for my head! We finally made it back home by late afternoon and dove right back into the pool. Some of us decided we weren't going ANYWHERE tomorrow!

Sunday was Market day

2009-06-25T06:02:00.001-07:00

Vidabaun was a cute little town. After arriving late after a crazy departure from fast paced Paris and getting lost going in circles in those crazy little coastal towns, it was nice to go at the slow country pace for once. Some of us still feeling the push and rush of Paris, tried to stay together. Others feeling the freedom of a small town went to explore. As you can imagine, this was a bit like herding cats. It didn't take long to find the market...we just followed the empty baskets! The full baskets were coming from this tiny hole in the wall which turned out to be a pedestrian alley where we were met by the biggest wheel of cheese I have ever seen! The lady there had all 11 of us taste testing goat cheese and sheep cheese and goat/sheep cheese and cow cheese (yuck!) And compte 3 months old and compte 2 years old...it definately gets better with time! I definitely love old compte. Anyway, after we had our fill, picked our favorites most of us moved on down the lane while Coleen picked out portions and paid. The lane opened into a square (if you could call it a square) maybe twice as wide as the lane where farmers sold fruits and "verte legumes." We tried to figure out what a kilo was by buying very yummy cherries. Then Coleen caught up to us with huge eyes...she was speechless. When speech returned we learned that the cheese had cost 98 Euro ($150) and that we had 2 Euro left in the pot for dinner. Live and learn I guess (it was really good cheese!) I found bread and bought a loaf of olive bread and a loaf of multi grain bread. I also bought a liter of olive oil. While getting these purchases (unbeknownst to me) the bell in the church tower above me rang for mass and was deafening. People flooded the streets and then it was quite empty. Good for us shoppers :) It was awesome! It was fun looking thru all the linens and shoes and clothes and jewelry. I found a peach tea I like much better than their water. We all gathered at a fountain as we finished and made our way back home. I am not used to the way men openly appreciate women around here. With 11 of us its quite an oggle fest. We jumped in the pool and had a restful rest of the day at our little villa in the vinyard! That night Nana played on the baby grand and we sang while making dinner. We ate on the veranda at twighlight. I love it here...

Saraphina!

2009-06-24T14:41:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a bit. I've been busy being lazy. I will catch up I promise. (I tried a bit today and then it got erased before it posted. Bloody blackberry!) Sorry dad no pics as I still haven't found wifi. Monday we went to market Tuesday we stayed home (well half of us did) the others went to Nice and Monico. Wed we went to market again but in La Garde Freiner this time and met a lovely women over olives. She promptly invited us on a tour of the town and her friends "typical french house" and we took her home for dinner and pool time. She then took us to this lookout above the village to watch the sunset and have "sun downs" basically a night cap. Its been lovely, relaxing and down right unbelievable. How can I ever go back to normal life after this! Tomorrow we are headed to the sea. Then Friday staying home and horse back riding. Saturday we have to check out early and head to St. Remy. I will be sad to leave this place. You should have seen Coleen Tawni Mom and Brenna biking through the vinyards this evening. Surreal!

Catching up by the pool in Provance

2009-06-22T08:46:00.001-07:00

Okay so the night before we left Paris we arrived home to find mom and nana just arriving. (They hadn't made it to the church) They had closed the Louvre at 9 only to find that the metro station had closed too. They spent 3 hours walking home!

The next morning we were up, packed and checked out by 830am. Good timing we thought! We had rented a shuttle to get all of our bags and nana, barbie, mom kara and evie to the train station and we took the metro. Splitting up for coffee and other purchases we lost a little time. Arriving at the station there were 15 mins to spare but we couldn't find the shuttle. Then the machines would only stamp half our vouchers. A man handling our luggage stuffed it in a side door and told us to get on the train before it left us. Mom almost didn't make it trying to give him a tip. He was very helpful (and very cute) and didn't really speak english. Luckily the train left 5 mins late. We sat down harried high strung and ready for the 4 hour ride. I had bought bread and fruit so at least we had food! There was a very nice gentleman in our car who decided to play tour guide host and coleen became an inquisitor. We learned a ton of stuff about the train how to get around what to avoid etc. The land started to change from flat and green to hilly and green. Then we crossed a river and everything turned yellow and dry. Then we saw the sea! This is what I have always dreamed of...vineyards and red roofed, white washed houses with green shutters and flowering vines next to the sea. All was well till it was our stop. We got off and realized our bags were in a locked room behind our car. The train whistled its warning and Mom and Beth opened the engine compartment in a desperate attempt to look for our bags which promptly got the attention of the non existent coach men who yelled for them to stop. If this had not happened the train would have left us standing empty handed. Relieved we packed our stuff to the car rental agency only to find that (two drivers down) everything was going to be more expensive then we thought. A lovely women who knew as much english as I knew french tried to help us understand that we had to insure the cars. Either decline their insurance and reserve 50,000 Euro on your credit card OR "la petite" insurance for 14 Euro a day plus reserve 1600 Euro on your credit card (who has that kind of limit?) An hour and a half later we had 4 cars, 4 drivers and a car seat. Now if you think, whew its finally over you are regrettably wrong. Who knows where the map went that the helpful man gave us while teaching us how to drive our Euro cars. Try 4 american drivers trying to find each other on tiny streets, lots of traffic and pedestrians and bicycles and motor cycles splitting lanes and all the cars look the same! We finally put the bright yellow safely vests in our back windows and drove around and around the round abouts till we were all together and the lead car would figure out where we wanted to go. My car was me and mom. We basically just giggled the whole time. Lu's car had music pumped up real loud. Tawni had Barbie and Nana I guess there's had a bit of gasping with each entrance and exit of round abouts and splitting hairs with cyclists. Coleen and beths car was the lead car...so you can imagine how relieved we were when 2 hours after we left the rental car garage we finally left the little town of St Raphael! We followed the sea to St Maximes and headed inland. Here is were Beth slowed down and we caused a traffic jam. Imagine one lane divided into two with a steep cliff on one side and rocks and trees on the other as curvey as you can possibly imagine climbing up up up! We passed thru a beautiful town of La Garde F...something at sunset and we feel in love with Provance even after its not so welcome welcome. Arriving at our house we were welcomed with the customary bread wine meat and cheese platter which made us all melt onto the patio over looking the vineyard cheering and laughing about the entire escapade! Then we all changed into swim wear and jumped in the pool. I am still fighting a sinus headache so I went to bed after that.

Goodbye Paris!

2009-06-20T13:41:00.001-07:00

I'm a little behind so I'll combine yesterday and today in one blog. Yesterday was pretty darn sweet. Besides the fact that I finally had my own clothes to change into, we all over slept and spread out doing different stuff. Brenna and Coleen went to the Champse le Sey to go shopping, my sisters and I went to the Arc de Triumph, Barbie Nana Beth and mom got on a "hop on hop off" tour bus that drove them around town to different sights and museums. We all met on Pier 7 for a lunch cruise on the Sein. I think that was a high light for all of us. Ill write more later...need some sleep. More about funky round abouts! Stay tuned

I am sorry. I had a really bad head ache andI fell asleep last night in the middle of blogging, woke up and realized I hadn't posted it. SO! Lunch tour was awesome, we all dressed up, ate fancy food, I played historian since we couldn't understand the tour guide over the pa system, there was a lovely violinist and piano player playing live music. It was awesome! Then we split up again with the intention of meeting together just after 9 at the highest point in Paris, Sacre Coure. Morris girls went back to Arc de Triumph to climb to the top (very breezy, awesome views, evie needed a nap) then we went back to the hotel. Mom, Nana, and Beth continued to do the hop on hop off tours. Tawni, Coleen, and Brenna continued to shop. Everyone but mom and nana ended up at the hotel before leaving for "soccer cracker". Barbie wanted to stay home and keep Evie. Mom and Nana had decided to hit the Louvre one more time 6-9 and meet is at the church. Coleen bought cheese and baggets. I bought wine tomatoes and straw berries and the rest of us set off for the Bastille. There are many stairs to get to the top! It was fun and felt never ending but the top was amazing and the view was surreal. There was a consert going on outside and they were holding a mass inside so we sat on the steps eating our dinner while partaking in both worlds. It was beautiful. On the way back we had planned on stopping to see Moulan Rouge but in the subway this guy tried to take my phone out of my hand and then proceeded to kick a vending machine till it gave up all its euro. Everyone in the station was nervous and upset. We left for home instead. Margaret and I broke off from the group to watch the Eiffle tower sparkle. That was worth coming to Paris for. Then we walked home and had an Irish Coffee before going up to bed. It was fun to watch the little restaurant next door close up shop. They have 7-9 people close. Everything, tables chairs and benches get stuffed inside the little shop and then they sweep the street! They are so efficiant and so fast. I had already packed so I was ready for the next mornings departure...I'm going to take a nap and then I will tell you more ;-)

Giverny and Versialles

2009-06-18T15:23:00.001-07:00

What an overwhelming day. I'm exhausted. Its midnight AGAIN and I can hardly process all the stuff I saw and the stories I heard. I learned more about Monet than I have ever learned in an art history class room. (Probably a good thing. I didn't need any more amo to use against my teachers) Dude! He painted pure colors. He didn't mix them on his pallet. He also didn't care to learn the names of his flowers. All he cared about was their color. They were his pallet! There is 7 minutes between changes in light so working fast and on many paintings at once is a good thing. His water lily pond series numbered in the 200's! Oh and he loved cooking. What is not to like about a painter who loves to garden and cook! There is something to say about immersion being the best way to learn something. Actually experiencing the places he saw and painted...awe inspiring! Oh! And our tour guide was exceptional and hilarious! And our skillful driver scared the living day lights out of the Austrailian couple as he weaved our double decker bus in and out of these tiny 1/2 lane wide villages chasing their little cars onto sidewalks or to stop dead in their tracks only to reverse all the way thru town to the nearest side street! There were houses built into the smooth white stone cliffs because originally if you didn't have a man made roof in France then you didn't have to pay taxes. The Sein Vally was beautiful and the poppies and bachelor buttons were in full bloom. Then to top it off the Palace of Versialles! It only took 49 years to build it but it made me feel so small and insignificant! Louis XIV aka the sun king definitely had an appreciation for Roman mythology, Etiquette, and of course himself. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer! Amazing! That alone was enough to give a person a month to study and explore to scratch the surface and we only had 3 hours! We didn't even hardly touch the 2000 acres of gardens, lakes, and Marie Anntionetts little village! It was grand and my feet were sore. Upon returning to the hotel aunt Coleen realized someone had swiped the wallet from her zipped purse and re zipped it! Money, cards, drivers license gone. Not only are we two drivers down now (since I left mine at home not thinking correctly) we were hungry tired and pissed. We went to the corner cafe and had dinner. That definitely helped. A little wine, bread and cheese and good food including creme brule and the best Irish coffee I have EVER had served by the cutest french guy I have seen so far. Kara says I can't take him home cause he makes this annoying rooster sound. Back at the hotel my bag still had not arrived. We went up to our room to get ready to head to the Eiffle Tower to see it sparkle in the hour and our phone rang. My bag had FINALLY arrived! I was so excited tired and decided to stay home with Evie and go to bed. I had planned on going to Sacur Coure early tomorrow before the sun rose but I think I will let Paris wake me up instead (or Evie which ever comes first!) Maybe the next morning right before we leave...

We made it to Paris!

2009-06-17T15:55:00.001-07:00

That's the gist of it. All of us are here and I'm the only one who's bag got lost. Hopefully it will show up tomorrow evening. For now I'm borrowing clothes. The gentleman who helped me process my lost luggage has met Larry Kroon at a convention. I must say this world gets smaller and smaller. All day I kept looking around expecting to see someone I knew after that! Margaret and I went on quite the adventure while most everybody took a nap. We walked non stop for hours! Saw the outside of almost every museum/monument and had crepes with nutella and our first cafe and bought 2 paintings from this guy who was painting near the Sein and learned the metro system in 7 hours. My feet were bleeding by the time we rejoined the group under the Eiffle tower for wine and pizza. (My walking shoes and everything else is in the lost bag) now its late. My roommates Evie and Kara are crashed out as I should be. Early morning to Guverny and Versilles! (Please ignore misspelled words) Good night!

Happy Birthday Jen!

2009-06-14T23:39:00.000-07:00

Reminiscent of A Lavender Field

2009-06-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

As I lay here, mind spinning, I'm wondering what all needs to get done before I head out on Tuesday. My check list is getting longer instead of shorter and my free time committed to packing and planning is getting much much shorter! I did finally get around to changing my address today. (A week late, oh well) I got a chance to talk to my Alaska family which was definitely a perk for me. It almost feels real! Work is picking up and details are slowly getting nailed down. I'm taking too many pictures to process so I'm not sure what to do with them all. Dragon boat races, Angel's Rest hike, moving, etc. I did post some lavender to remind myself that in a very short future I will be transported from the lovely lavender in front of my aunts house to the fields of lavender in the hills of Provance France. I can't wait!

150 Kindergardeners at a Pig Farm

2009-06-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

European Itinerary

2009-06-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

People keep asking and so here it is! I will be updating it constantly since hardly any of it (except some travel/tour dates) are set in stone!

Monday June 15th Happy Birthday to me!!!

Tuesday 16th travel to Paris

Wednesday 17th Hotel (1pm?), Catacombs??? (10am-4pm) Rick Steves Historical self guided walking tour of Paris ending at Notre Dame (5:45pm Vespers)

Thursday 18th Giverny-Versialles Tour(9am-6:30pm)
(Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées and Eiffle tower at night)

Friday 19th Sacre Coeur (7am), Eiffle Tower (9am), Seine Cruise (12:30-2:45), Shopping???

Saturday 20th Travel to Provance

June 30th My first over night train ANYWHERE!!! (just like the movies)

July 1-5 Florance

July 2 Siena

July 5-6th Rome?? Bologna?? Lucca??

July 7-8 Cinque Terre

July 9th-17th Northern Italy (the lake country)

July 18-19 Venice

July 20th Fly out of Paris

Stress Level Has Dropped One Notch

2009-06-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

Well folks! I'm officially moved! (and spread between 4 locations) I celebrated with a nice long nap today instead of continuing on with the never ending "to do" list before June 16th arrives.

Final Book Edits (check)
Move (check)
Find Passport (check)
Learn how to use camera (check)
Buy a bikini (check)
Forward Mail
Pack!!!
Turn 32 (do I have to???)
etc...

Tomorrow I am volunteering at Sara's school on a field trip to a pig farm...should be a good time, good pics and hopefully no swine flu outbreaks! That has been Sara and my favorite diagnosis for everything. "I can't move anymore I think I have the swine flu" "don't touch my stuff you might have the swine flu" instead of "bless you" after a sneeze it's "I think your coming down with the swine flu" Never gets old.

I am wanting to celebrate my birthday this year...I'm thinking Andina's (I think that's the name) for happy hour then spaghetti at Jacquie's the night before I leave for a European Adventure! I had a fun lesson on how to use my new Cannon Rebel XSi. Mckay, Sean and I met for coffee at the near the Beaverton Farmers Market and took some really fun shots. I'm ready to practice some more tomorrow with the kids. HA! Good times.

2009-05-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

3 weeks!!!

2009-05-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

That's it! I have to send Buddy and Wasabi to their new home for the summer on Friday, be out of this house by Saturday, have my book finished with final edits by Sunday, have to be 32 years old in 3 weeks from today AND be on a plane the next day for a great adventure. There is hardly any room left in my storage unit. The weather has been so nice it has been almost impossible to focus on everything that needs to be done...when I give up I go pull weeds in the sun. It's a nice compromise since I can't plant a garden again this year. I did take a hike during lunch break on Sunday. I practically ran up and back down Mt Scott, taking pictures the whole way! I will put together a slide show and post it soon...the wild flowers are amazing right now.

It's been a while!

2009-04-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

So much to say, so little sleep! I finished my first edits and sent of the manuscript yesterday. Such an interesting process! I found it to be more technical than personal. I am headed to France with the filles en mon famille, I have train tickets to Italy and an friend of mine will be meeting me over there for a week then a week on my own then another week with another friend!!! I say I will post more and I shall! But I'm in the middle of moving into storage, packing for a summer of couch surfing and traveling and working and just plain craziness!!! Love you all...more to come!

We're Home!!!

2009-03-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

So nice to be home!!! I know I didn't really do a great job of keeping people posted the last half of the trip but things got seriously busy and there was only time for sleep, besides the internet was iffy most of the time. SO! I will update this week as my schedule allows and will try to put together a couple more slide shows that summarize the end of our trip. So much was going on that it was really fun to listen to people naming off highlights over the phone on the ride home. I wasn't even aware of half the stuff going on there were so many events happening simultaneously! So everyone knows, we are all home safe and sound. Nobody got seriously sick (food or water) just a couple of colds. My friend Harry Davidson is successfully past his first surgery and will be looking at at least one more next week. There is an update page you can join on facebook if you like. Today is the last day of March and that means 14 more days to do my taxes! I can't help but wonder how everyone's first day back went. Kinda weird not having everyone around 24/7. My 14 hour day ended FINALLY, I actually downed an energy drink for the first time ever and felt like I was interpreting on crack! It was awesome till I hit the wall 2 hours too early. Now I know why all the guys were drinking 4 and 5 every day in Mexico! Anyway, tomorrow is another early day. More later :)

Day Two Let The Work Begin!

2009-03-25T22:46:00.001-07:00

2009-03-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

Day Five - Still Alive!!!

2009-03-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Day 5!
Today was a creative day, we painted the children and adult ministry rooms. The room is so bright and cheery. The kids came upstairs at one point and got so excited! One boy said, "Oh! It's so beautiful!!!" I wanted to cry. I got to put serveral verses, including my life verse in Spanish on the walls. It was really messy and fun. Everyone is very tiered, but the upstairs is officially done and the downstairs is being painted as I type this. Tomorrow we will start hanging cabinets counters and installing appliances and fixtures. After I was done painting "graffiti" the upstairs, I went to photograph the soccer players. The kids were great, I got hit a couple of times, had my eye in the camera and not on the ball! I got some sun but no sun burn, yea! There was a bit of miscommunication this evening, when we got home, everyone was dressed up and went to youth group and held a "purity event." Some people didn't even know it was dinner time. I was paint and dirt head to toe and needed a quiet spot in my day so 4 of us stayed home and had a quiet evening. We are all feeling more refreshed and the group came back and said it was awesome. I got to skype mom and dad tonight, we had a bad connection but between mom fingerspelling and . Sounds like Harry has a long road ahead of him but he has a great surgeon (same one dad had) and is getting a pair of rods (just like dad) next weekend. We are praying for the best possible outcome, just like dad's, but Judy and Harry are just greatful to still have him alive and are okay with whatever the outcome is. A man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

2009-03-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

2009-03-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

Day Three Continued and day 4 :)

2009-03-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! So much has happened today (Day 4) that I can hardly remember Day 3! So back to yesterday which was only Monday, believe it or not, we got a late start. The showers here are ice cold. There is coffee in the mornings so I cant complain. The girls and I practiced puppets in the sun, it's really starting to look good and they are very entertaining, I'm just praying our CD holds out cause it was skipping a lot. Getting to the church the guys went to work on their respective projects and the women began to sort all the donated soccer gear and the goodies for the women's tea on Friday. At one point, Pastor Frumencio and another kid, who were airing up the soccer balls, started laughing real hard, then after like 5 mins they were still laughing and even though we didnt know why, it made us laugh even harder when Frumencio started whooting and laughing like a gril and then people started to come looking what is all the fuss about and they would start laughing, I still have no idea what we were all laughing about but my stomach muscles hurt today and I'm sure its from our 30 min laugh fest. PV asked Frumencio if he knew of any Deaf people he could talk to. He said yes he knew one and would get him here, later he came back and said I have good news and bad news. Bad news, cant get ahold of the guy, good news there is a deaf school 5 mins from here and you are speaking there tomorrow at 10 am. PV's mouth dropped open and just exploded to life, I know this is what he had been waiting for, to love on people just like him. He thought he might meet one or two but to be invited to a deaf school? AND he was alowed to talk about God? We were so excited! PV and Tom did an amazing job fixing the mud job upstairs in the children's ministry rooms. I helped mud the screw holes and then I handed one of the mexican kids a sander and we sanded out both rooms, then the girls and I put the first layer of paint on. At first I was working with a 2" roller. Then one of the big rollers handle broke and was discarded so I grabbed that one and worked with no handle LOL!!! At least it covered more ground! Anyway, we thought we had gotten a great deal when we bought 5 gallons of paint for $8 but when we put it on, we realized WHY it was only $8, it was so thin it didnt really cover anything. After that Tom was so kind as to come back to La Sombre and turn on the hot water heater for us girls, we were whiter than the walls! It was so nice to have a hot shower. It was also nice to come home to the smell of Chicken Fajita's! Judy really out did herself and Leslie chopped a ton of veggetables! There were even left overs and I had them for breakfast :) Judy make's great authentic mexican food having grown up here and we are going to look for a blender today so she can make us real salsa. She made a mexican egg dish this morning...it smelled great! I'm jumping around! Anyway, after dinner and showers some of us went to watch the church men's team play soccer. It was so fun and SO COLD! Pastor Frumencio is such a crack up, he brought a bull horn and blew a siren for every goal. He would yell "kick it even if it isnt even close!" or "We gotta goal but we're still hungry!" or "careful there son dont kick it to the stars!" It was hilarious. Sergio would interpret for us. I went home and fell in bed not sure why I was sooo tiered. This morning I woke up and could hardly move. I'm embarrassed to say I don't think my body is used to working like that! Nobody got much sleep last night, poor Jordan is so sick and her cough sounds horrible. Tony's knee is not doing well either (he just had surgery 2 weeks ago for a torn miniscus) He is working through the pain and hoping to get done with his part today so he can take the rest of the week off. This morning we got up "earlier" and got to work. Painting continued, construction continued, soccer registration started, I called home and heard about Harry's accident. Please pray for my dear friends Harry and Judy in Alaska. Harry was hit by a dead tree leaning on a tree he was cutting down, he is in critical till the swelling goes down enough to do what ever surgery is needed to put him back together again. He's got a nice head injury, something wrong with his esophigus and crushed his back. He is in and out and I'm sure my mom and dad are a great comfort to them both. I wish I could give them a squeeze but my prayers will have to do for now. God knows I love them. Anyway, after dad and I hung up the team gathered round and prayed for Harry and Judy and then we were off to the deaf school. I dont even know where to begin. The look on their faces was priceless, they were enrapped with PV, a deaf american, who goes to university and who loved them enough to come all the way to their classroom to tell them so and an interpreter who has no deaf family that "just learned" sign and came all the way to their classroom. It was such a blessing just to make them feel so special. They were all hugs and questions and smiles. It was hard to go, I could have stayed and played all day. We exchanged signs and emails. I hope we get to go again before we leave. I think all were blessed by this meeting. On the way home, one of the hispanic women who went with us told us that it was her brother who was Deaf but was embarrased to come to the church. PV and I will go to her home and visit with him. They live a block from the church! Who knew! Back to work :)

Day Three

2009-03-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

Today was exhausting. We just got back from watching the Heaven's Door Men's Soccer game. We lost in a shoot out, but their new jerseis looked great! More about that later, I'm hitting the hay but I wanted to mention first that PV and I are going to a Deaf School tomorrow to tell the kids they are loved and worth their weight in gold. Please pray for PV, that God gives him the words every kid is needing to hear. Pray for me that my shoulder will not get any worse, with drywall, painting, puppeteering, (and I thought signing would be my biggest source of pain!) it's swollen a lot. Good night all, God Bless you!

Love Jen

Let the work begin!

2009-03-22T23:36:00.000-07:00

This day was quite amazing in a million ways. For one we got up early! Crazy, I know. I woke up at 5 and was up and ready at 7am! We began our day with a visit to the church to unload the trailer full of goodies and supplies and see what we were up against. Upon arriving, we met Pastor Frumencio and his family. Of course our interpreters hadn't arrived yet so it was fun gesturing and using what little Spanish we could collectively recall. The little boys really took a liking to Erin because she played soccer with them. Unfortunately, games were cut short by the gusts of wind that got up to 40+ mph! They were still asking for her at 9pm tonight. At the church we gathered in a circle and I gave a little Deaf Culture 101. It was hilarious, I had them do this experiment where everyone at the same time had to turn to their right, and tap the person, wait for them to look them in the eyes and then say, "Welcome to Mexico!" Even though they said it was really hard, they passed with flying colors and I've noticed a huge difference in the way they communicate with PV. We prayed over the project and then directly got to work. I'm serious when I say not 15 minutes later there was a wall up between the soon to be kitchen and computer rooms. PV and Michelle went upstairs and started working on finishing mudding and taping the children"s ministry room. The girls and I started sketching for the mural that will go on the walls. A group tried to leave and go grocery shopping when we realized that after unloading the trailer, we lost the keys to the van and trailer. Someone grabbed a sawzall and proceeded to cut the Master Locke off the trailer so we didn't have to tow it around anymore. After a long search, we gave up and went to lunch at our favorite taco stand instead. Then we went shopping for food and paint and other materials. While at the electrical/plumbing store, Tom lost the keys again, only this time he found a hole in his pocket and they were hanging out in the bottom of his shorts. We still haven't found the first set of keys (a concern for prayer) but we have found the source of the problem. Getting back to the church us girls decided to go back to La Sombre (a place of rest) and practice puppets for Children's World. It was so entertaining! It takes way more arm strength than any of us really have. Kudos to all you puppeteers! After a very yummy dinner of spaghetti thanks to Michelle, we started wondering where in the world the men were! They finally got home around 9pm only to eat and head back to the church for more. PV ran out of Mud and so they got back around 11:30. He showed me some pics of how much they got done. Its insane! the wiring is in, the plumbing is in, all the walls are up. For not thinking we would start until tomorrow, we are well on our way. Thank God for the extra day and the extra strength we shouldn't have had! Now it's midnight so I'm gonna post this and hit the hay! More to come tomorrow :) Good night and God Bless!

Day One The Trip Down

2009-03-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

Whatch Out! PV's driving!!! Tony has given him the nickname Road Warrior. To catch y'all up here's what's been happening. Everyone met at Orchards around 5pm. Due to one hiccup after another, PV and I finally arrived around 5:50. Departure time was 6pm and we were on the road by 6:30. You should see the trailer! Next time it gets opened I will take a pic. It's literally busting at the seams. We actually had to ratchet it back together. There are 7 people in our van and 8 in the other. 2 people left Friday morning before us and 5 more are heading out at 3:30am Saturday morning. Scott crossed into Mexico early Saturday morning and drove around lost for 4+ hours in the sand. Poor things! They finally made it to the compound only to find out that the stores in Mexico only sell used wood and he has headed back to the boarder to wait in the 3 hour line into Yuma to get our lumber and sheetrock. We, on the other hand, made it to Woodburn around 7:30 for dinner and left around 8:30, hahaha, not even to Salem and it's 8:30! We had a good laugh and then everyone crashed. Next thing we know we were in Grants Pass and it was midnight. 5:30am I woke up and we were in Sacramento (I think!) There we switched drivers and PV took control. We passed Harris Ranch in the morning so the stench wasn't too bad. We jsut ate at Denny's near Newman and consensus is that we don't stop till we hit Mexico, except for gas.

WOW! Good Morning! So to catch you up, we switched drivers right before the grapevine, Tom at the wheel I finally got some good sleep. We prayed all the way down for a green light at the border. As we drew closer to Yuma, we switched drivers again, Tony got the honors of driving us across the border. Tom called 4 people asking them to start praying about our crossing with us. As he hung up the last call Rubber Duck came over the radio and told us to pull over, his van was over heating. (Yes we have named the vans, ours is Big Ben.) The van was actually completely out of oil! Praise God! We were within a mile of a gas station! All was good, back on the road, we hit the border at 10pm and got a red light. Upon opening the back of the trailer, the guards eyes got as big as saucers (it really was stuffed to the gills!) they said we could move along. Praise God again, I'll give you a red light and still get you through! We finally ate our first real authentic Mexican Tacos (or 3) at 11:30pm. Arrived at the compound only to find the gates locked and no one awake. No Problem! We took it off its hinges backed the vans in and unloaded them and trailer, I was asleep by 1am, to the sounds of air mattresses being filled, before the lights were even out. God is very Good! After 31 hours of travel, we are all safe and sound.

The Marathon

2009-03-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Granddaddy's Hands

2009-03-19T19:41:00.001-07:00

Well folks! It's official. As of today Tate publishing has accepted my Aunt Beth's art work for the book. Yea! They were thrilled with the quality and looking forward to working with us. Production starts April 1st, two days after I return from Mexico. I will let you all know what that is like as we go through the process. I can't hardly believe that its actually happening. I hope this book blesses children as much as the process has blessed me. Unfathomable! Here is the painting of the cover just to give you a taste of reality. These are my granddaddy's hands :)

Ecola Reunion

2009-03-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

The Begining

2009-03-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. 2009 and I've finally broken down and learned how to blog. This is the best way I know how to keep all of you, whom I love very much, in the know on how my life is going. Since I'm gearing up for a great year of new adventures, I figure this is the best way to keep one and all up to date.

So, what does this year hold for me? I said adventures and I meant it in the most broad terms. This means everything from traveling here and abroad to having my very first book published. There is so much to do and we are nearing the end of the first quarter, so first things first TAXES!! All of you who are laughing because you know me and paper work, no worries, I have not let you down, I still haven't done them. But before I get ahead of myself, lets look back at last year and catch you up to date.

2008 was a year. Yep, lots happened, I will just touch on the stuff that still impacts me today, ie my most lovable familia :) In January my entire immediate family, minus grandchildren went on the HCI Cruise. Awesome! Yes, chalk up another sunburn for Jen and tans around for the rest of the family BUT now I have a brother in law that burns like me so I was not alone. Spring break I went with my friend Sara Martin back to Lopez Island and toured the San Juans and took a side trip to Victoria BC. My dear friend Lane from the marina was home and we met his daughter Brittany who upon hearing we were going to Victoria joined in the fun. The stories are hilarious, the pictures are amazing, I wish I could say more. Two weeks later I took a trip to South Carolina, and then 2 weeks after that I moved out of my cute little apartment into a huge house with my lovely roomates Sara Martin (texas) and Rosemary Tracy (alaska) AND left for Alaska. Yes, it all happened that fast. Buddy and I spent the next 5 months working for IHS Construction, back behind the wheel of my favorite FORD pulling a trailer and earning the nickname "4 ton Jen." Why? Well here is the other exciting part. My baby sister Margaret got married to this great guy Zach. We all moved home, yes I mean all, Kara, Rusty and the kids included. It was quite a summer, minus the rain, it was pretty darn awesome. It included a massive family fishing trip one week before the wedding. A trecherous hike over Crow Creek Pass, and a Llama trek with my mom, Aunt Coleen and Cousin Brenna. So yes I eventually decided it was time to return home in the middle of September. And the fun just didn't stop there. My friend Jenny Dodd and I went and had an Apple Weekend at the farm. We picked, pressed and pureed! I really enjoyed the time with Nana, and the fellowship while sitting by the fire. Overwhelmed by Granddaddy's lingering presence, I jotted some thoughts down and shared them with Jenny. Needless to say, I submitted them to Tate Publishing and promptly forgot about it. October, November, December! They all just flew by! Kara gave me another Neice around thanksgiving time. Evangeline Moyra joined our family. Mom bought me a ticket home for Christmas. Thus my 6th month in Alaska began with a phone call from Tate. Yes they wanted to publish my book.

That brings us to 2009!

I decided I wanted Aunt Beth to illustrate my book so we started working on gathering paintings, scanning and getting ideas for missing pictures etc. We just submitted the pictures today just in time for the April 1st deadline. That will start the production process, editing and whatever else that entails. I will keep you all up to date as it happens.

The women on my mom's side of the family decided to take a trip to France. I decided to extend my stay, since I'm going I might as well see some places I've always wanted to see. SO! Nana, Barbie, Tawni, Mom, Kara, Evie, Lu, Margaret, Beth, Coleen, Brenna and I are headed to the region of Provance on June 16th (Happy Birthday to me!) I will keep you posted.

Now for more recent events. We had a mini Ecola Reunion at my house a couple of weekends ago. We gathered for home made pizza and fellowship. SO good to see old friends and the kids WOW, 8 total, oh the insanity! It felt so much like old home goup nights, I loved it! I hope we do it again and not 15 years down the road, AND I hope more will find us and join us. We had Shane and Aaron Gray and their 4 kids, Buzz, Adam and his girlfriend and her daughter, Rob Rainwater, and Liz!!! yes Elizabeth Woods now Anderson found me on facebook right before it all happened so she brought her three kids. Praying for her hubby in Iraq and his safe return.

Last but not leaset!!! I am going on a Mexico Mission trip as a team member/volunteer Interpreter (ASL not Spanish!!!) leaving Friday March 20th. We have so much to do and so little time while we are there! Nothing like tackling the impossible in Gods name to prove He is possible right? So here are the goals so you can be praying: Drive to San Luis Rio Colorado (Friday-Saturday), Construction (plumbing, wiring, drywall, mud and taping, painting, installing fixtures Sunday-Thursday maybe Saturday), Soccer Tournament (expecting 450 participants, Monday thru Saturday), Women's Tea (Wednesday-during construction), Marriage Conference (40 couples Thursday and Friday), Childrens Ministry (every night), Pastors Leadership Conference (Saturday) Big End Event Saturday night, Drive Home (Sunday-Monday). There it is folks, there are 22 of us going! If we have internet I will keep you posted. Otherwise look for an update when I get back. Someday, I'm going to learn how to download photos to this thing too!