the new roof over our heads

we are in! to our new place, that is. not to jobs or graduate school, but those things will come. we do hope they will come soon, but surely in due time.

we have been spending most of our time entertaining harvey and he is quickly learning the way this puppy-hood thing works--as are we. it is certainly a full-time gig to be a puppy keeper, but the rewards and joys are worth the "investments".

the herding instinct of our little shepherd astounds me. it truly is instinctual for him. his most favorite things to herd at this time: our exercise ball/computer chair and rolling firewood logs. i guess we may have to invest in some sheep to keep him busy. a joke. believe me, that was a joke. there shall be no sheep. yet. maybe some fainting goats...

anyhow, harvey is quickly growing, so here are a few recent shots:if you hear of any good jobs for brandon or i, please let us know. we are quite desperate and needing to fund our rent and food bills. speaking of rent, here are some photos of our new place:

pray for healing

my dear, wonderful friend laura's brother and his girlfriend were assaulted in ecuador last week. her brother, britt, was stabbed 18 times and is now going in and out of consciousness. he is currently back in the states and being taken care of at the hospital that their sister, amber, works at in southern california.
there are a lot more details here, but i just needed to get this out there and get people praying for his healing. please also pray for his girlfriend who was raped. there is reason to believe that britt was trying to stop the assault on his girlfriend when he was stabbed.

the oldest of my youngest

back in september the oldest of my younger siblings turned 18, which you may recall from this post. ross is just an awesome guy and i am really proud of him.

anyhow, his senior photos were taken by the folks who took our wedding pics--kyle and kacie stott of stotts shots photography. they are an amazing couple with true artistic talent.

click here to see all rossco's pics.

and we shall call him...

HARVEY!

he's officially in the family now and we are all adjusting quite well. we picked him up on monday and had a very successful drive home. he slept on our laps as we cruised and then he got out and went potty each time we stopped. day 1 was full of lots of looks like this one, full of suspicion and mistrust:before we picked him up we were leaning towards "harvey" as his name but both agreed that we couldn't decide until we met him. when we met his foster parents (he was a rescue dog) they told us that they had been calling him "harley" so it was decided--harvey was an easy switch and seemed to be just right. it suits him well and he is hearing it often.
he is very well-behaved so far, even grandpa stan agreed, so that is saying something. :) he sleeps way more than we anticipated, but we certainly aren't complaining. the first night he hated his crate and whined the whole night, but we made significant improvements yesterday and he was quiet as a churchmouse last night.
he has already brought out a crazy, mothering, protecting side of me. the neighbors corgi met him for the first time this morning and unprovoked he just dove for his neck and was going crazy. little harvey was scared to death and cried out. i couldn't believe this other dog--he was into vicous, angry, out-for-blood mode. i pried him off of my little guy before he did too much damage. becky had said before that she didn't really like this corgi and now i see why!

here he is with rodney and papa.

getting snippy

what with us searching for jobs, a house, and having recently adopted a new puppy, it seems only suiting that i would plunge into another big change.

i've had long hair for a long time and thanks to an old friend and a brave hairstylist, i no longer do. out with the long, drab, hippy hair and in with the new, chic, bob. here is the photographic evidence of the big change. some of you may think, "who cares about a little haircut?" well, when it comes to big hair changes i have always been a little timid, so this is a big deal to me!

i really like it, although i haven't styled it yet, so that may change my feelings drastically. it should go well with my job at the hospital, don't you think? speaking of that, my interview went really well. they seemed to feel bad that they couldn't give me enough work, but hopefully that doesn't deter them from hiring.

expanding family

we have arrived in central oregon and are beginning the daunting tasks of finding jobs, finding a place to live, and... finding a puppy! we have so far only accomplished one of these tasks, and depending on who you talk to, it was perhaps the most important of the three! in a couple weeks we get to bring home this little guy:he is an australian shepherd mix and is about six weeks old right now. we can pick him up in two weeks and we are thrilled beyond belief. we have had a couple of heartbreaks in the dog realm in the past month and now we are finally getting to expand our family with the right little guy.

here's what we need from our friends and family: name suggestions! please give us some in the comments section because although we have a couple of ideas rattling around in our heads, we know you all can come up with more! our criteria: no more than two syllables and easy to yell (yes, we expect you to practice yelling the name before you suggest it!). you are all probably saying that we shouldn't have to yell at the dog ever, but let's be honest it will happen at some point and we don't want to find ourselves yelling a ridiculous name!

in other news, i have an interview at the hospital on tuesday. this is a job i really want, and one that would help with getting into graduate school, so hopefully i will have good news to report on that soon.

supermom isn't super vp to me

i'm bound to catch grief for this post, but i'm going to go forward with it despite the criticism is to come.

now we have sarah palin on the scene. she has done well for herself and deserves respect for the things she has achieved.

however, she doesn't seem qualified for being first in line to be the president. here are my issues with her as vp candidate:
1) she went to UI. i worked for UI. it isn't a bad school, but a b.a. in journalism from UI does not set anyone up with a broad enough education to run this country.
2) she is riding the "woman card" in hopes of getting women to resonate with her. honestly, her portrayal of womanhood is not one i want to associate with. sure, she is a superwoman/mom, but that isn't what being a strong woman is about. at least it shouldn't be what being a strong woman is about.
3) she is completely anti affirmative action. i am a strong advocate of affirmative action. 'nuff said.
4) her approach to sex ed is exclusively abstinence based. i've been a STARS (students today aren't ready for sex) educator and i honestly believe that teenagers aren't mature enough to get themselves involved sexually. however, i am not naive. sex among teenagers happens and if we don't give kids the facts about protecting themselves and others we are going to have a slew of other problems on our hands.
5) she is pushing herself (or being pushed) as the first woman to be on the ticket. try 1984. how can you take that away from someone else?
6) she is advertising herself as a "regular woman", the equivalent of a "good ol' boy". call me crazy, but i don't want a regular woman (or man) running our country. i am a regular woman, but i am in no means qualified to run this country. show me how you are better than the rest of us. show me how you are more qualified than 99.99% of this nation to be in this position.

so here is my final take, she is a strong and capable woman. this does not make her qualified to run the country.

who is this man?

the passage of my brother ross into full-on adulthood seems impossible. but here he is celebrating 18 years of life and i must face the reality that my little brother isn't so little anymore.

my memories of him as a child:

• loving to sing (often the incorrect lyrics)
• claiming the entire middle seat in our mini-van
• spending hours spiking his hair (for third grade!)
• getting deep joy out of eating sushi
• building snow huts in our yard until his lips were blue

what i know of him as a man:

• his thoughtfulness--always considering what would make those around him truly happy
• offering witty, clever commentary of our world (& our complicated family)
• living in the moment he is in
• giving his best to school, sports, and his friendships
• having courageous goals of becoming a helicopter pilot
• still getting deep joy out of eating sushi

ross, you amaze me. i am so proud of you and who you have chosen to become.

happy birthday rossco!

skipping seasons

here in jackson, we seem to be moving quickly through fall--so quickly i think mother nature is trying to pull one over on us and skip the season entirely! we have had snow in the hills above our house, which is unnerving for this sunshine-loving girl.


what is my reaction to this quickly approaching snowy season? the purchase of skis. for the first time in my life (12+ years of skiing) i own my own skis. i am thrilled! we actually bought them at the oh-so-upscale jackson hole resort. we got a killer deal because they are last year's model and the shop wanted them out so they could bring in new gear. when i say killer deal, i mean i negotiated the already low price to get a deal we couldn't pass up. brandon married a girl who negotiates prices with glee. here they are, in all their good-deal-glory: in other news, i am headed to flagstaff, az this week. i haven't stepped foot outside of an airport in arizona, so getting to see this country i hear so much about is exciting. i am hoping we have time for me to at least peak at the grand canyon.

add to the resume

yesterday was a gloriously chaotic day on the river and i loved every second of it. normally i have to work in town on mondays, but on this labor day i was needed on the river because we were short-staffed. the morning ticked by at a snail's pace until we got a call that a 40' log was stuck across the river, blocking boaters from getting through. megan and i investigated and we made the call to close the river until this hazard could be removed (well actually we told our boss to make that call, but we influenced his decision).

brandon happened to be working on the fire engine and they offered to come help us cut the log out. they came down with the chainsaw, we fitted them up with pfds and tied them to a safety rope, and the cutting began. they cut the root ball off the tree and we assumed the tree would then break free and float away. no such luck as it was royally stuck. they then began working to pry the tree out by using the leverage of another tree. eventually it broke free and floated down river.

the man with the chainsaw, chip, got onto the search and rescue jet boat and they followed the tree downriver where it got stuck for a second time. they then cut the tree into four pieces and let those float away to meet their fate in the reservoir.

chip and brandon sizing up the task at hand

needless to say, this was a very exciting day and i loved having an important task to help with. however, the best part of the day was that the photo i took made it onto the cover (that's right, the COVER!) of the jackson hole daily paper. you can read the story and see the photo here. that means that i can modify my resume to include "professional photographer" as i was getting paid while taking those photos. not a bad gig!

you can check out all the photos on our picassa album which is a new photo album program we set up for sharing our pics. (the link is now also on our sidebar under "more photos".)