Big Sky

We've spent the last week on vacation in Montana.  This was last night's sunset from my parent's house.  That "Big Sky" thing is not just a slogan ;)

I Heart the South

Having spent a grand total of 36 hours in Charleston, South Carolina, I can confidentially say that I heart the south.  Here's why:

• Being addressed as "y'all."
  
• Sweet tea.
  
• Better yet?  Sweet tea vodka! Best yet?  Mixing it with lemonade.  It's like an Arnold Palmer that knows somebody.
  
 

• Palmetto trees
  
• Palmetto bugs (I don't actually like the bugs.  I just think it's the nicest way I've ever heard anyone refer to a cockroach).
  
• Seer-sucker suits with bow ties.  I was so taken with this gentleman that I pretended to be futzing with my phone just to discreetly(?) snap his photo.  I sure hope all ya'll appreciate the kinds of sacrifices I make for the blog.
 

• Calling your purse a "pocketbook" even if it's the size of a suitcase.
  
• Front porches with rocking chairs.  Arnold and I could pass many happy hours that way.
  
• The Piggly Wiggly.  If I had stayed three or four more days I think I could have legitimately started calling it "the Pig."  As in, "alright ya'll I'm fixin to pop over to the Pig for some more lemonade.  Anybody seen my pocketbook?"
  
  
• Trees that look like they're straight out of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
  
  
• Manners: people use them and it's so pleasant.

There it is!  On the anniversary of our country's independence, I publish my declaration of love for the first state to secede from the union.  Woops.  

Aloha June!

  June has been busy!  But busy in a lovely tropical kind of way, so we're not complaining =)  As soon as the graduates hung up their mortar boards we headed to the Aloha State for OSU's Hawaii orientation program.  

 

 All the new Beavers from Hawaii converge on Punaho School (where President Obama got his start) to start their "Beaver Nation Migration."  (Yes, we really call it that but I swear it wasn't my idea).   These are some of my favorite colleagues from around campus and we made the most of this tough assignment.

 

Thanks to an unused companion fare, Jimbo got to come along and join the fun work.  He probably learned more about OSU's academic programs than he ever wanted to know.  But we bribed him with shave ice very effectively.

Poor Sugar did not get to go to Hawaii.  Instead she got to go on vacation at her grandparent's house.  I honestly think it's her favorite place to be...thousands of square feet - much of it carpeted, another dog to pester, doting Mimi & Papa, and all the rawhide she can eat.  Needless to say, she didn't miss us very much.

In keeping with our Aloha-themed June, we attended a Lu'au housewarming party for our friends Dante & Jenn. They kept it real, digging a pit in the backyard and roasting a whole pig overnight.  Kalua Pork FTW! 

We made it up to Sugar by taking her to the party, sporting her finest Lu'au appropriate collar. 

Sending you warm aloha!

Vegas Baby BFF!

Though we scattered across the country after graduation, the gals from grad school hold an annual BFF gathering to keep the fun times going.  This year we were also celebrating Nikki's baby shower, and what better place to do that than Vegas?

That's why they say "Vegas, Baby!" right?  =P

Part of the BFF tradition includes matching t-shirts, and we take turns designing them each year.  This was Nikki's turn and she went all out in honor of our outlandish location.  Here she is modeling the back of our shirts:

Yes, those are iron-on rhinestones and sequins!  For a little added pop she bedecked the collars with feather boas. 

We're nothing if not subtle.

So we trooped all around Vegas in our matching shirts, eating our fill of decadent food, enjoying a few adult (and responsible-mother-to-be) beverages, seeing the sites, laying by the pool, and even catching a Cirque du Soleil show!  We crammed a lot of fun into a long weekend, and it felt just as good as ever.

Viva Las Vegas and Viva La BFF!

Nicole, Jill, Nikki, Tracy

Shower for Erin & Baby Aiden

In April Jessie and I went to Phoenix for a super-special shower for Miss Erin and Baby Aiden.   Erin's mom and sister were the creative masterminds behind the shower, and these gals really outdid themselves! 





Martha's got nothin' on these gals!  A highlight was the chocolate mousse dessert in baby food jars.  So cute, and not too difficult to pull together.


Of course the best part was time with my best girls.  As usual, we didn't take nearly enough group pictures, but we got a couple good ones of a very cute preggo girl. 

 Big loves to Miss E and the baby-to be!

Mary's Peak

Today, Sugar and I went on our first Adventure together. Being that it was a beautiful December day...60 degrees with a light drizzle...we headed out to Mary's Peak to explore what we might find. Not knowing what to expect, seeing that neither Sugar or I had ever been to Mary's Peak, we packed up all the necessities; Hi-lift Jack, Shovel, Ax, Flashlight, Dog Toys (including the chuck-it and squirrel), water for Sugar, water and snacks for Jim, camera, gloves and a pocket knife.

This of course would be the first chance to get the Jeep into any mud. Sugar was incredibly excited to see how the Rubicon would fare knowing there was a good chance there might be a trail or two up on the mountain. We loaded up and headed out stopping to top off the gas tank before heading the short 15+ miles to Mary's Peak Road. According to internet research it looked like the road would be left open all winter accept the short access to the very top.

Sure enough we found ourselves winding up OR34 till we reached Mary's Peak Road. We were a little let down when (in contrast to the signs) the road was in good condition and fully paved. We wound ourselves to a high point and parked in a parking lot. Finding a trail to walk we ended up in a rather dumpy area where clearly people had enjoyed shooting their guns a little too much. The ground was riddled with remanence of TV's and propane tanks, plastic and metal objects that could no longer be identified and a slew of shells from 22's to shot guns. Regardless Sugar bounded up a gravel pile to the top and raced down a sheer face before I could even reach the top. Being concerned she might take off somewhere I couldn't see, I called her, trying to make my way back down quickly only to find that she had raced back up the sheer face and tried to meet me at the top from which I had previously called her. Crazy girl.

We headed back to the Jeep excited to head back down and explore some of the dirt trails we had noticed on our way up. We came upon a little gravel road that lead us to an even more exciting trail. The trail drove straight up one of the hills and lead us to a series of moguls that many a 4x4 before had clearly attempted to mount. About 50' above was a 60 degree rock face that posed a clear and exciting obstacle. We hit the moguls in 4 high and rocked about as we made our way up, spinning a few tires here and there. Putting it in 4 low we bounded over the second series of moguls with incredible ease.

Sugar was excited at this point so we jumped out and checked things out. She headed up the trail looking at where we might go and pointed out that this might be a little more than we had intended to find. Sure, with a friend or another rig along this would be easily surmounted but we decided to shy off and put the Jeep to the test later. Today was just exploring.

We backed our way back down the trail and headed back to the road to see what else we might find. About a mile back we found a clearly well used path off the road and bounced over puddles and through the trees till we came to a little clearing obviously used regularly for camping. Off to one side of the trail was a very small mound that had been driven over many a time leaving decent moguls that would cause anything smaller than a truck to get stuck.

We popped it back into 4 High and bounded up and over the mound with ease, spinning the tires a little as you clearly could feel the jeep teater on two wheels! Sugar was a little let down that it was that easy so we spun around for another go, pulling out all the stops. 4 Wheel Low, Anti-Sway Bar disconnected, finger on the locker button. We crawled over the little obstacle and reached the point where we had teatered on two wheels previously. The rear end spun a little so I hit the locker locking the rear end and rolling with ease once again over the hill.

A little let down at how easy it really is to get over anything in this jeep, we rolled back to the highest point and jumped out to snag some pictures. That anti-sway bar disconnect is awesome. It really does increase the travel drastically.

Even with two tires almost completely jammed into the wheel wells and the other two barely making contact with the ground this Jeep holds its own and then some. I can't wait to truly find a real trail to test it out on.

We made it home and I was quite embarrassed at how little mud we had managed to fling on the Jeep. For a lazy Sunday afternoon Adventure, we did ok though. Sugar, the Jeep and I did get muddy and had a little fun doing it. Sadly it was too foggy to get any pictures of the view but I think we had some fun. Sugar agrees and is now sleeping soundly on her pillow getting ready for the next big adventure.

Holy Whirlwind, Batman

I guess it's official: we fell off the face of the earth. Back-to-back "where are you?" phonecalls from my mother, and some cheeky little comments to the effect of "quit snogging and start blogging" confirm it.

In all honesty, we're not ignoring you! We've been just the teensiest bit busy. Here's the rundown:

Sunday, May 30th:
- Nicole sings two jazz services, skips the last postlude to jump in the car and race to the airport. Flies to Minnesota FOR THE LAST TIME.
- Nicole & Jim stage the classic greeting-your-long-lost-love-at-the-airport scene (which we gave perfected) FOR THE LAST TIME.
- One last adult beverage with our dear friends Bekah & Matthew
- Jimbo's apartment is consolidated into a 5x8 cube painstakingly arranged to fit perfectly in the 5x8 U-Haul trailer
- We arrive home at 11pm and give the apartment one last cleaning

Monday, May 31st:
- Up early to queue at U-Haul with the rest of the college students in the Twin Cities.
- Friends arrive to help with the loading
- Collective cursing of the three flights of stairs to Jim's apartment
- Sad goodbyes with our Minnesota friends
- by 10:45am we are loaded and road-ready. Nicole's total time in St. Paul was 12 hours and 15 minutes.

- Drive 11 hours. Comment extensively on the blandness that is North Dakota.
- Stop for the night in Miles City, Montana. Had a nightcap at the Gold Dust Saloon & Casino. Classy joint.

Tuesday, June 1st:
- Drive 8 hours across Montana. Let the record reflect that Nicole drove (and even successfully parked!) the truck and trailer. Pop would be way proud.
- Saw two funnel clouds
- Played "Bury the Cows" with moderate success.
- Dinner with Mom & Fred. Ahhh...real food.

Wednesday, June 2nd:
- Drove out to Florence to visit Sandy & Dean (Nicole's Aunt & Uncle) and picked up Miss Sugar for a playdate.
- Visited Sugar's home-away-from-home, Tails & Trails
- Taught Sugar to fetch...with moderate success.
- Visited Shirley & Vic (Nicole's "grandparents")
- Drove 3 hours to Ben & Treena's in Spokane
- Proceeded directly to Benedito's for pizza and beer. Did not pass go. Did not collect $200.
- Enjoyed the evening with the fam and the brown dogs.

Thursday, June 3rd:
- Up and on the road. Drove 7 hours to Portland.
- Stopped for hugs from Jim's parents
- Drive another hour to Salem
- Dinner with the Adams' and admiration of Ella's new "walking" skills
- Choir rehearsal (with cheers and applause at Jim's arrival!)
- Drive one last hour to Corvallis.
- Collapse

Friday, June 4th:
- Up early to unload the UHaul
- Created a giant mess in the spare room
- I abandoned Jim with his pile to go back to work

Saturday, June 5th:
- Up early to drive to Salem
- Quick coffee date with Jim's best friend Ryan and his boys
- Meeting with the wedding coordinator at Willamette
- Errands at Target
- Three and a half hour jazz rehearsal
- Welcome home party for Jim at the Best Little Roadhouse

Sunday, June 6th:
- Up early to drive to Salem
- One big fancy church service in honor of the Bishop's visit
- Picking out a dog bed at Costco
- Back to church for an Evensong service and our quartet's jazz concert
- Dinner with Jim's family at Rudy's

Monday, June 7th:
- Nicole goes to work and Jim commences the settling in
- Grocery store
- Errands
- Jim heads to Portland for a little family time

Tuesday, June 8th:
- Jim goes to the allergist to confirm what we already knew: he's allergic to everything. And especially grass seed. Did you know that Corvallis is smack in the middle of the Grass Seed Capitol of the World? Jim started the heavy-duty allergy injection therapy.
- Baskin Robbins for Dante's 31st Birthday
- Explaining the "31 Flavors" thing to Dante
- More unpacking...
- Wedding invitation assembly

Wednesday, June 9th:
- More work
- Meeting with the facilities coordinator and caterer for the wedding
- Pre-marital counseling session
- Dinner with Dante & Jenn

Thursday, June 10th:
- Lunch with Kate in honor of her last day as our Graduate Assistant
- Reception at WOU honoring our friend Karen's big fancy national award!
- End-of-the-year choir party (and hand-delivering the first batch of wedding invitations)

Friday, June 11th:
- College of Pharmacy graduation ceremony! My Favorite Student of All Time gets her Pharm.D.
- Jim and I interview graduates for a video I'm hoping to create for our orientation program
- Dr. Amanda comes over for dinner and is officially adopted into our family.
- We decide to put Amanda's car on Craigslist (Jim offered to help her sell it).
- Bocce Ball
- Responding to the nine quick inquiries on the car
- Rushing to the car wash to clean and vacuum the car in the near-dusk

Saturday, June 12th:
- Waffles with our new waffle iron!
- Jim and Amanda take the car for an alignment and run other errands
- We pile in the truck and drive to Albany to look at scooters
- Jim and I purchase our wedding/graduation/long-distance survival gifts to each other
-I picked out a sweet helmet, too. The front slides up and down depending on how I want to rock the Storm Trooper look.
- Load the scooters into the truck and drive to Salem
- Unload the scooters at Lucas' garage for a little temporary storage
- Drive to IKEA to meet the first potential car-buyer
- Buyer test-drives, haggles excessively (thank GOODNESS Jimbo was handling that one...) and eventually agrees to buy Amanda's car for the full asking price! Much celebrating!
- Long decision-laden tour of IKEA (with Dr. Amanda in tow) as we pick out a new mattress, and a huge shelving unit for the living room
- Pause for some swedish meatballs
- Load the truck and head to Lake Oswego
- Pick up dinner for Jim's family
- Say goodbye to Dr. Amanda. We won't see her again before she moves to South Carolina =(
- Quick visit with family friends

Sunday, June 13th:
- Coffee at Beth & Adam's
- Back to IKEA for the cabinet we decided we need after all
- Runs to Home Goods, Target, and Bed, Bath & Beyond for all those little things necessary for consolidating our households in some kind of organized manner.
- Setting up our new mattress and wrangling the allergy barrier around it
- Moving the old bed to storage
- Jim assembles the huge shelving unit, the new cabinet, and another storage cabinet for the bathroom.
- Remove and rehang the existing medicine cabinet to accommodate the additional storage
- 6 loads of laundry
- removing old shelves from the living room and rearranging their contents
- Consolidating and organizing two bathrooms worth of stuff into one
- Collapsing on the new mattress

Monday, June 14th:
- Jim begins his battle with the blackberries taking over the backyard
- Selling the futon and loading it up for the new owner
- Finishing and mailing ALL the wedding invitations! Crossing our fingers that they arrive safely.
- More unpacking, cleaning, and organizing
- Editing the wedding website and developing a scenario to manage RSVPs
- Falling into bed at 9pm

Tuesday, June 15th:
- Driving to Portland for Nicole to attend a faculty meeting while Jim starts work on a new patio at his sister's house
- Picking up our "new" couch (new to us anyway!)
- An hour at the fabric store on wedding-related errands
- Drive home in an Oregon downpour
- More Battle of the Blackberries and weed-pulling
- Packing for the trips that we each leave on tomorrow
- Blogging.

PHEW! If you aren't up to date now, you require too much information! Thanks for bearing with us (and our neglected blog). We're looking forward to the moment when the dust settles. =)

You Know You're A Redneck If...

...folks bring their shotguns for the family photo. L-R: My "aunt & uncle" Sandy & Dean, Pop, Jim, and me.

We had this taken on our family trip to Virginia City this summer. I've always wanted to do one of these silly photos, and it was pretty easy to talk the rest of the crew into it. My Dad and Dean wanted to be Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and I think they really looked the parts!

Options for the ladies included some high-collar school marm stuff and a sea of petticoats. I wasn't quite sure which direction to go, but Sandy turned to me and said, "let's be tarts!" and that was that. She sure is a good influence.

And, of course, Jimbo had to be the pious one. But that's only after Pop wrestled the shotgun out of his hands. Leading up to the click of the shutter, Jim was determined to be clutching both the bible and the shotgun. Not sure what to make of that but I'll let the seminary administration sort him out.

Goodbye Earl

You've probably noticed the "silence" around this blog lately. We're mourning a loss and it's been easier to be quiet than to talk about what happened. One month ago today (February 23rd, 2010) my dad passed away. What I find therapeutic today is to tell his story - complete with the irreverent humor and the shoot-from-the-hip honesty that characterized my Pop. I don't know whether our readers will find this of interest (or think I'm crass and tacky), but I'm really just doing it for me.

Pop was 61 years old - too young for dying - and lost his life to melanoma (that's skin cancer to the non-oncologist crowd). Melanoma is one of the nastiest cancers. There is no cure. Chemo doesn't touch it. Radiation wouldn't matter. There are a handful of experimental biochemo treatments available, but the success rate is about 5% and it is horrible to endure. When confronted with those options, my Dad opted for no treatment at all. Our goal was quality of life, and making the most of the time he had left. Considering that he had been given 6-12 months to live in March, 2008, it's pretty remarkable that we got nearly two years with him after the cancer metastacized. Pop would certainly have attributed that success to a commitment to doing whatever he darn well pleased, and a his favorite pain-killer, Jack Daniels.

The day after he was diagnosed, Dad quit his job and "retired." Shortly thereafter he bought himself a brand new truck and a fifth-wheel trailer. The very first accessory purchased for the trailer was a customized vinyl decal:
And that pretty much sums up the attitude Pop adopted toward the melanoma. He didn't waste any time compiling his Bucket List and checking things off. Drive to Alaska? Check. Catch a 30-pound halibut, fly to the Arctic Circle, ride a dog sled, ferry down the Inside Passage? Check. Jim and I joined Pop for a week of his Alaskan adventure, and helped him celebrate his 60th birthday.
After a summer in Alaska, Pop's next trip took him south. Zion National Park? Check. Alien-watching in Roswell? Check. (And I got the care package to prove it). Decorating a cactus for Christmas with the snowbirds in Arizona? Dipping a toe in the Rio Grande? Fishing any lake they didn't kick him out of? Touring air-craft carriers in the Gulf of Mexico? Check. And finally, the big destination: Mardi Gras! CHECK.
We got a box of trinkets when he checked that one off the list, too. But I think I'll save that for another time. Pop's gift-giving is...well..."renowned" to say the least, and is certainly deserving of its own post.

And still the Bucket List went on. Jack Daniels Distillery (hallowed ground)? Check. Pop even called me that day to tell me he could die a happy man because now he'd seen heaven. Double check. Non-geographical items made the list, too. Sleeping late and fishing all day? Check. Eating all the chocolate you want without worrying about the consequences? Check with hot fudge on top. Saying exactly what you think? Che...oh, wait...he'd had been doing that all his life anyway.

And then there was the matter of a girlfriend. Someone who would always attract attention for her good looks...someone who would be a loyal traveling companion, and who wouldn't nag. Check. Meet Sugar:
Yes, it is completely ridiculous for a man who has already exceeded his life expectancy to adopt a puppy. But the thing about exceeding your life expectancy is that you learn to do what makes you feel good, not what makes sense. Pop loved labs. LOVED labs. We had a sweet chocolate named Maya when I was a kid. After she was hit by a car Dad would joke that he'd trade me to the gypsies if he could just have another dog like that. So, when he started talking about wanting a puppy, I knew it would make him happier than anything else. We told Dad that we would be willing to take care of the dog if and when we were needed. He was on his way to pick up his puppy the next day. (And I'm happy to report that I have not - to my knowledge - been traded to the gypsies. Phew.)

In the end, no amount of puppy love would change the fact that Pop's days were numbered. The last six months were long and hard for him, and for us. Though we didn't know it, the melanoma had metasticized to Pop's brain. When faced with the option of a risky brain surgery that may or may not have helped matters, I went back to what I knew about my Dad. He had no interest in lying in a hospital bed, and he definitely didn't want to spend a minute doing anything that wasn't worth his precious time. So we let him go. We gave him the gift of peace, and relief, and eternal rest.

And so my Pop is "on the road again" leaving me with no doubt in my mind about his love for me, and with gratitude for the blessing of a devoted dad. May light perpetual shine upon him.

And may the fish keep biting.
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