schools out forever!

(or at least for four days)

today we got the best news: the university was closed! as i see it, there is no way that a person can have a bad snow day. they are always welcome in my book!

this is our fabulous icicle which i am hoping touches down by morning.

the good news continues as they have closed the university tomorrow also! our plans are not yet set, but it is nice to have forwarning of a snow day.as you can see we have lots of snow--probably 2.5 feet! and more is on the way... 13 more inches are due tonight. cheers to an unexpected four day weekend! :)

worth remembering

we got home tonight from our journey to tonasket and apex ski resort. on our drive we heard a song that made us thankful for all the fun we get to have together: someday these will be the good ol' days, let's make them worth remembering.

our ski trip was incredible--got in some good downhill (er, cross country) with kim up in havillah. it was certainly some of the steepest cross country skiing i have conquered yet so that felt nice. plus it was a joy to be out in the woods with kim and cedar. all-in-all a great visit in tonasket!

here i am showing of my snow plowing ability, which i exercised rigorously that day!

then we drove onto apex and crashed at this great hostel that is literally right on the mountain. it was cheap and often smelled like marijuana, but then again it was full of canadian youth so any other smell may have been alarming.

the building in the center was our abode for the weekend

this photo doesn't do justice for the mountain, but it shows that it is indeed a beautiful place

the morning started out with blue skies and sunshine allowing us views for miles. by mid day the crowds picked up a little and the clouds came in, but it was still a great place for me to work on getting my ski legs back on. we are going to have to make this skiing thing a regular activity.

and apparently when i wear goggles i no longer have eyes--a great look for me really!

here is my better half, looking all handsome on top of the mountain.

this morning we cruised down into penticton, hoping for a full plate of eggs and hashbrowns, but our lack of familiarity coupled with their abundant "closed" signs lead us instead to a health food store where i scored on some gf cookies and a kaiser-less kaiser sandwich while brandon choked down a fake (canadian) bacon egg sandwich.

oh, and i got to hug one of (if not the) biggest peach ever. not everyone can say that! all stories told, we had a great weekend and certainly one we will look back on while we reminisce from front porch rockers some day in the distant future.

p.s. i wore a helmet the entire time while we were downhill skiing but managed to suffer another head trauma while climbing out of our bunk beds. it won't be the adventurous stuff that kills me--it is walking to work and going to sleep that seem to be the obvious culprits for this girl!

brr!

concussed

yesterday i had a nasty fall on the ice. it was one of those cartoon-like falls that defies gravity and causes you to fall into the ground below with quadrupled force. it went like this:
so yesterday i had a nasty headache, dizziness, and an unrealistic inability to focus all day. i slept (bad idea in hindsight) and woke up with the same symptoms. i reported the incident to the safety office and they told me that i should get medical attention as a workers comp claim. i went to the quick care and the results are.... i have a 2nd grade concussion. there are three levels: 1 being the least bad and 3 being knocked unconscious so i am right in the middle of that joy!

the other thing i learned is that doing a workers comp claim requires mounds and mountains of paperwork--as a deterrent from making such claims, i am sure--and those are hard to fill out when you are concussed. i think i put together all the possible wrong combinations of all the addresses i have ever had.

anyhow, now i have drugs (muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatory) as the main thing is the pain in my neck. on my x-rays the side view of my neck is stick straight, but it should be "C" shaped so that means my muscles are all spasming--more fun!--hence the lovely meds.

the saddest news the doctor gave me: no football for 10 days. how will i ever survive?

if you are wondering, my hip is feeling ok, although it is currently a deep, dark purple bruise that seems to be enlarging as we speak. good thing i have a bit of padding there!

surprise attack

last night around 9:30 we noticed that it was snowing like crazy. the weather report had said nothing of snow, so a blizzard was certainly not on our radar. indeed, a blizzard it was! huge flakes were whizzing sideways past our window and within 30 minutes the freshly shoveled sidewalk was covered in 6" of snow.
then the calls started coming in. (i am on call for work now.) over the course of the night i received 26 phone calls and i was up until 3:00am! multiple transformers around town blew up into blue arcs of energy, generators petered out mid-way through the night, a handful of folks required rescuing from downed elevators, and i schlepped my way through feet of snow to calm everyone down. when i went to my car at 2:00am to solve yet another crisis, my doors were frozen shut. i swore a bit and climbed through our back hatch. at that moment i thought about quiting my job.
now it is the next afternoon and the snow is beautiful, a true wonderland. i am sure most people woke up to be surprised by the winter beauty around them. i however watched the flakes fall all night and fought the wind gusts as i ran from building to building. maybe i am lucky to have witnessed the whole winter attack.

thankfulness

as many of you know, i have not been grateful to live here for the past year and a half. i have complained about my job, about the climate, about the scenery, and the activities available. but today i got to thinking about what our time here has really looked like and i realized i have much to be thankful for. i suppose this post would have been more appropriate for thanksgiving, but it is one of my pseudo-resolutions to practice the art of gratitude, so here goes:

1. i realized i didn't want to pursue marriage and family therapy.
2. i realized that the human brain fascinated me and that i may be smart enough to pursue neuropsych.
3. i tried yoga. and loved it. it has changed my life and will forever be a part of who i am.
4. i found out i was celiacs and got healthy.
5. i tried quinoa, which may be my most favorite thing to eat.
6. we bought our beloved outback.
7. we were blessed with a wonderful godson, rowan.
8. brandon and i grew closer and found out what being married to your best friend is all about.
9. i have made amazing new friends: amber and afton, andrea and will, leah, jen and liam, sara, cori, tim... the list goes on. they are all so different and great.
10. i got my combat roll (kayaking).

our time here is drawing to a close and i am eagerly anticipating what is around the river bend (pocahontas anyone?), but we still have a few months left here so i am going to try to live out our blog title by living in the current moment and being thankful for all we have been blessed with.

another thing to be grateful for: all my applications are finally ready to submit. the UVM application will be in the mail tomorrow and then the waiting game can get into full swing. pray for the readers of our applications. pray they like us and want to offer us all kinds of assistantships and fellowships!

you can induce the lazarus effect

it is so easy through (product) red to support AIDS treatment in Africa. you are going to buy that phone, shirt, greeting card, etc. already; why not make a difference with your purchase?

obama 08

wohoo! as a barack obama supporter i get regular updates on his presidential run. hopefully the email i received tonight was just the first of many to say "barack has won!" that's right, obama won iowa. it is so huge and my heart is all aflutter with happiness and hope.

not only did obama win iowa, he won the democrat vote by almost a 10% margin. let's hope the energy continues through the other 49 states.

tired at home

our trip home was wonderful--we are fine-tuning the art of time in central oregon. in the past our breaks have always been overwhelmingly full of family time and running from this house to that house. of course that was part of our trip, but it was all we did. we managed to enjoy the beauty and adventure of the area a bit too!

best part: grandma came over from the valley for three nights. it was such a blessing to celebrate christmas with my favorite lady. what a trooper though, she had to ride through some nasty snow storms coming and going. mom, grandma, and i went for a little manicure treatment on christmas eve and the people at the nail place just loved grandma! we made some precious memories with her. like i said, we also go to get out and enjoy central oregon. both brandon and i love the feeling of being tired from working hard, whether it be from mountain biking, cross country skiing or working in our (small) yard. while we were home we cross country skied three days in a row: tumalo falls, three creeks, and from black butte to suttle lake. needless to say, we were VERY tired and it felt great!

these first pictures are of our trip with rob and becky to tumalo falls. there was much snow blowing in our faces and down our coats on the way there, but the trek back was peaceful and serene with the snow at our backs and the trails sloping downward.

i don't look cold at all, do i?

the beautiful falls

we also got the chance to meet up with laura and be introduced to her new beau, kevin. our trip with them sent me over the exhaustion edge as we were breaking trail through 2 feet of snow the entire way. fortunately a delish meal was our goal and we were lucky to have someone willing to pick us up--the trip back just wasn't happening.

laura and kevin taking a break