Can't Wait to See These Kiddos

This week I am flying to St. Louis to see my parents and then I'll go to Illinois to visit my sister Kari and her family. I CAN'T WAIT! I go through withdrawal when I don't get to see my nieces and nephews. And, I get to meet the newest nephew on my side of the family, Garrett.

Concerts in the Park

There are parks all over Portland and every summer the city of Portland arranges free concerts for every Friday and Saturday night at the various parks. The past two weekends David and I taken advantage of the proximity of the concerts being played at the park right down the street from us. The weather was perfect, the music was great, and we got to enjoy watching all the cute little kids run around. Well, at least I was enjoying watching the cute kids, David was napping since he had been working so much. Does it seem like a common theme? We go out, David sleeps.

Girl's Camp- Camp Melacoma

This past week I went to girls camp for a couple of days. To be quite honest, I was not looking forward to it at all. But, I had a great time and got to meet a lot of people in the stake.
I had the cutest girls in my cabin. They were all really different, but they all got along great and were the easiest bunch of girls I could have asked for. NO DRAMA!
It was unusually hot so we did a lot of melting. We were one of two cabins that actually had electricity, so my co-cabin mom went home one night during free time and picked up a fan and a window air conditioner. We lucked out big time.

Back Row L to R: Cherilynn, Jen, Lata and Sierra
Front Row L to R: Marie, Lia and Samantha

I learned some great new campfire songs, made some cool jewelry, was reminded of how to pick out different constellations, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. There was lots of stuff I did not get to do, but regardless I had fun and my testimony was strengthened.
This is what we got to look forward to every night when we gathered for the flag ceremony:

I am definitely glad to be home though.

Lost Dog

David and I were at the park tonight and after seeing hundreds of dogs running around, we remembered something funny that had happened while living in California. To save our friend involved some embarrassment we will change her name. If this friend, let's call her Laine, reads this post, we love you and replaying this story cracked us up again and made us wish we lived closer!
A couple of years ago our good friend Laine "found" a lost dog. Laine said that while driving through a neighborhood near her home this little dog came running out into the road. Being the pet lover that she is, she rescued this dog from being hit by a car and brought him to her home. The story seemed a little off to me, so I prodded to get more information about how she came to the decision to bring the dog home. After enough prodding I found out that although she had been driving through this neighborhood and she did actually see the dog, the dog never actually ran out into the road. She saw the dog alone in the neighborhood park and stopped to pick it up. I harassed her a bit for "stealing" the dog.
Later that night I told David about it and we devised a plan. Actually, David devised it and I was the actress that helped the plan come to fruition. David created a lost dog poster telling some heartbreaking story about a young boy who was looking for his lost dog. Juan's twin brother had passed away and in an effort to relieve some of his sorrow his parents had given him this dog for Christmas. He named the dog after his twin brother and was devastated that his special dog had gone missing.
Of course most people probably wouldn't believe this story, but we knew that Laine, stricken with guilt, would fall for it. I planned to meet my friend to go out the next day, so before I picked her up I placed the poster on a tree at the exit of her neighborhood where I was sure she would see it. When I picked her up, she told me she had returned the dog to the park. (This did not foil our plans, I think it made our prank turn out even better.) As we drove out the exit I made to sure to draw attention to the lost dog poster. Of course she had to get out of the car to read the poster. She started freaking out and was begging me to drive her to the park to pick up the dog. I told her I would not drive her to the park to get the dog so she could return it to his owner. After a few minutes when I couldn't act any longer and I was doing the laugh/cry combo I told her what David and I had done.
This is an email I got from her a year ago about this experience:
"So last night Ron said something about me stealing dogs and I was like what the heck are you talking about! Then he reminded me of my little escapade of "Borrowing" the little slightly retarded Chihuahua from the park. And then I remembered the HORROR I felt when I read the lost dog poster after I had just unloaded him at the park and the absolute Horror I felt when you wouldn't turn the car around and take me back to the park! It had me rolling on the floor. That was the best lost dog poster!!! And I fell hook, line and sinker for it! My hat goes off to you and David BEST PRANK EVER!"

So the moral of the story is: do not "borrow" other people's animals. David will make sure that you never live it down.

Birthdays, Beaches, Bunkers and Bumper Cars

Monday night I went to visit Mames in Vancouver for her little boys birthday. Her little boy Christopher just turned 2 and he is so adorable. Here is a picture of him opening presents.


Wednesday we took the young women from church to the beach. Originally I thought we would just be going to one beach, but Karmen, the other leader, had much bigger plans. We visited several beaches along the coast, ate lots and lots of yummy food, went to an old military site and went to Astoria where the Goonies was filmed for all you 80's movie fans.

Our small little group of YW at Ecola State Park overlooking Cannon Beach.

Cannon Beach, OR

The young women road the bumper cars a few times. I was laughing so hard at one of them because she could not get the car to go straight and she was getting hit over and over again. I think I need to start carrying a video camera around to capture these moments. Another young women, who is a bit more timid, road around the outside edge the whole time to avoid everyone else. (Doesn't that defeat the purpose of bumper cars?)

Seaside Beach, OR. The coast was chilly and it was so foggy. You could barely see the ocean. Some of the girls decided to work on building sand sculptures.

Tilt-o-Wheel. Just thinking of this ride makes we want to barf.

At Fort Steven's State Park

The fort was in operation for 84 years, beginning with the Civil War and closing at the end of World War II. It was the site that protected the Columbia River entrance. The only action this site saw was on June 21, 1942. A Japanese submarine fired in the vicinity of the fort. The Commander refused to return fire. After this, Fort Steven's became the only installment to be attacked by an enemy since the War of 1812.

Captain George Flavel House, Astoria, OR

Beautiful historic house that has been turned into a museum.

Sorry to disappoint anyone, but we did not find the Goonies's house. I did tell the girls that if we found it they would all have to get out and do the truffle shuffle, so most likely if they knew where it was they decided to keep it to themselves. Hopefully on my next trip to Astoria we'll find it.

One of Portland's Finest Areas to Live

Last weekend we went to a party to welcome the new cardio fellow. The program director holds the party at her house and last year was our first time to visit this part of Lake Oswego. And, we loved it. I have been to several different states that have similar neighborhoods with homes backing to lakes or canals and I love all of them. I could get used to a life like this. The program director and her husband just got a boat and they named it the "Cath Lab". She is a pediatric cardiologist specialized in catheter's, so if anyone calls her while she's out on the boat she can tell them she's in the cath lab. Brilliant!

Oompa Loompa Wanted

This was the title for a job listing in Portland, so of course I had to check it out.

Do you love chocolates, candy, and all sorts of sweet treats?

When you see Oompa Loompas do you long for a happier way of life surrounded by sugar?

My dream job! Too bad I'm not a teenager anymore :(

The job hunt continues....

I am pleased to say that there are tons of open positions that would work for me since I am not supporting a family and don't have to be as concerned about the actual salary of the position. So far I have applied for 12 jobs, signed up with one temp agency, attended one networking group and spent hours revamping my resume and cover letter to fit each specific job I am applying for. Now the only problems are making myself look that much better than all the other applicants and trying to get one on one face time with the employer. All of these jobs are in fields such as medical, non-profit and education that I have never worked in before, but hope to venture into. That makes for a little bit of an uphill battle applying against more qualified applicants, but I know I can do the jobs. It is all about NETWORKING. Luckily I am feeling better about things this week and I feel like I am putting in good effort and I will be blessed for that.

Happy Fourth!

Yesterday started out with an early 6am wake-up call to get ready for the Ward Fourth of July breakfast. As the activity chair, I get to arrive to every activity early and stay late. Quite a change from the past when David and I would just drop in for a bit to say hi. The breakfast turned out really well and the food was fabulous. I told our Bishopric I might have to hire them to come cook breakfast for David and I.
After the breakfast I hung out with some friends from church while David was still at work. Luckily he got off pretty early, around 4pm, and later that night we headed to a barbeque with some of the residents from the hospital. We just ate, talked and played a couple of games. Every party with the peds residents seems to introduce a new game. For the last couple of parties Corn Hole has been set-up. Supposedly it's a mid-west thing, but I'm from the mid-west and we never played this. It's similar to a bean bag toss, but with more rules.

Last night we learned another new game: Ladder Ball. It was a lot of fun, but I'm not good at this one either. I either throw the balls way, way to far or I throw them just short. It's all luck if I actually hit the ladder. But, if I had a yard, I would invest in both of these games. They are entertaining (especially when the players look like David and I) and maybe I would get to practice enough to actually get good.

It was a great day. And, at the end of the day I realized that Heavenly Father had answered at least 5 of my prayers that I had offered that day, during the past week and even a couple from the last few years. There was nothing huge that happened that would appear extraordinary to anyone that might have been watching my day unfold, but to me my prayers were answered and I was reminded that God knows me and that He really hears my prayers.

Another Portland Treasure

Before we moved here everyone told us that we had to see the Rose Gardens. I am wondering why no one was telling us about the Rhododendron Gardens. They are so much better. Last week David took another day off work, YEAH, and we went to the temple and then to the Rhododendron Gardens. There are a couple of ponds/lakes throughout the garden and multiple little trails that weave around the park. It is peaceful and not nearly as busy as the Rose Gardens. We didn't get to see all the Rhododendrons in bloom, but it didn't even matter, the rest of the landscape was beautiful.

My pathetic attempt at a photo of us.

There were squirrels all over the place and I was surprised by how close they would let us get to them. It was fun to sit and watch them rummage through the leaves for food and then nibble at the nuts they found.


I love how ducks flip upside down and stick their butts in the air. I guess I'm easily amused, but I had to get a photo of it.



We have added this to our list of places to show our Portland visitors.

Peace on earth begins with?