Still snowing...

It's been over a week since this "deep freeze" started. Many thought the snow previously pictured from Sunday would be the worst of it... Not quite. It has been snowing and between 18-25 degrees Fahrenheit ever since. We have up to 15" built up in some areas around the house. When Columbia hasn't been closed, Scott has driven me to work, and he's managed to make it in everyday at least long enough to get his laptop and work from home.

Church has been cancelled two weeks in a row and we were sick the week before that, so I believe that makes us almost inactive :). We still have power and heat, no broken tree limbs, although a couple out front look suspicious. Large clusters of ice stalagtites hang from the eaves.

We had 8-9" piled up in the backyard by Saturday evening, then that night the freezing rain came. That added a layer of ice a little over a quarter inch thick on top of the snow, and this morning we've gotten another 3" or so on top of that. The first 9" were dry and powdery and thus has created large snow drifts in the roads and some yards where the snow just blew around and collected in mounds. All routes to the coast are closed, I think, and chains are required all around the Portland metro area.

This is me in the snow before the ice came...


The layer of ice that rested on top of the snow...


And today after the new snow fell:

*Severe Winter Weather*

It began snowing at 7:30 this morning in Portland, and continues...
We received an email and two phone calls notifying us that all church meetings were cancelled due to the weather. So instead of sitting at home and watching it, we bundled up and ventured out, Brindy leading the way.
We went to the tennis courts near our house so Brindy could run free while we tried to make a snowman with all the fresh snow (our yard has "land mines" we chose not to play with). It turns out the snow was a little too dry to make more than a snowball. After running around for a while, we came back to the house and drove over to Emily and Chris' to see the nieces and Byron and let them play with Brindy.

Our backyard around lunchtime:



Our backyard again at 4:00pm:



Also, yesterday we put the tile mopboard up in bathroom and I'm so excited with how good it looks! Now it needs grouting and sealing then the "amenities" can go in (toilet, vanity, etc).

Windows, Christmas tree, and Braces...

Over Thanksgiving weekend I bought new windows for the house. My Dad also had the day after Thanksgiving off so we spent that Friday and Saturday putting them in. The outside is mostly trimmed up but the inside still needs some work. We replaced single pane aluminum sliders with double pane vinyl windows.

The inside that still needs trim. You can see me and our Christmas tree in the reflection.


The outside all done.


Here is our Christmas tree. We went this last Saturday with my family to a U-Cut lot. We left with 4 trees. (Only one for us) My nieces and Nephew were having a blast crunching up the ice on the ground.



My awesome self portrait...

Yesterday I got braces put on. Today my teeth hurt! We had a lot of money left over in my FSA this year so I figured now was a good time to finally get straight teeth. It is supposed to take 18 months. I can only eat soft foods right now because chewing hurts. My Coworkers only teased me a little bit today. We had our work "Holiday Luncheon" today so I had to mush salmon up with my tongue. I was so glad they had mashed potatoes.

Kah-Nee-Ta

Megan and I decided to take a trip to Kah-Nee-Ta Resort and Casino for our anniversary. We stayed there for 2 nights (Sunday night and Monday night). Monday morning we went on a hike. The front desk had a trail map and we decided to be adventurous and do the most difficult trail. The view was spectacular and we even saw 4 deer. We felt great after the hike and told ourselves we would do that more often. Megan went to the spa and had a body scrub, scalp massage, and mineral soak afterwards.

With our room, we got 10% off a spa treatment, free admission to the water park, and $10 for slots. The water park was nice. The water is heated by the hot springs and they cool it to 92 degrees. It was perfect. I went on the water slides and Megan just enjoyed the warm water. Since the hotel only had one restaurant open, we decided to drive to Madras and get dinner. My Dad's GPS helped us find a great Mexican restaurant. We then went back to use our $10 at the casino. We've never really been to a Casino so we really didn't know what we were doing but with our free $10 for the slots, we had some fun and left with 5 bucks.

It was a nice getaway. Peaceful place with no cell phone signal.

Weezer

It was a little while ago but on the 9th we went to a Weezer concert. A friend of ours found out about a deal for $10 tickets to the concert. We showed up on time but I quickly realized we should have showed up late. There was a band finishing up as we found some seats. We didn't sit in our assigned seats because we didn't buy tickets at the same time as our other friends who came.

Angels and Airwaves started playing we got excited. We had never even heard of the band but I hadn't been to a concert since highschool. One song sounded like the next and it got a little boring. We also had to move since the people who had the seats we were in showed up. We still had a prime spot though.

As Weezer started as some people were still showing up. We got kicked out of our seats again and decided to just go so high up in the Memorial colesum that no one would care. The view up there was actually better. Weezer was awesome. They played a lot of thier older songs that I know well and a bunch of new ones as well. At the end they had a bunch of local musicians play a few songs with them. We all really enjoyed Weezer but could have done without the Angels and Airwaves.

Another Nephew

My sister Kelly had a baby yesterday. Jake Logan was born at 5:55 PM he is 7lbs 12oz and 21 Inches. Jake is Kelly's first and my parent's fifth grandchild. Megan and I are getting behind.

2008 Update...

I just noticed that we haven’t updated our blog for over a year. The Brazil trip gave us a lot of interesting things to write about. We have had some exciting things happen in the last year.

Soon after we got back from Brazil, I got a job at Sabrix. It’s a software company in Lake Oswego. In June I finished school. I graduated with my Master’s in Financial Analysis from Portland State University. I’m so glad to be done. It was rough working full time and going to school at night. I thought I would have all kinds of free time now that I’m done but I’ve been able to fill it up pretty easily.

The day of my last final in June, we closed on our first house. It’s a fixer upper in Tigard. We have a huge yard so Brindy has plenty of room to run around now. We’ve been fixing things up and spending a lot of time on the house.

So far, we’ve painted everything after having the walls textured. We tore out the carpets and had the hardwood floors refinished. We had can lights installed, replaced all the doors and are in the process of remodeling the main bathroom. It’s not going as quickly as we imagined but we’re making progress.

3 weeks ago we joined 24-hour fitness. We decided it was time we got in shape. I’ve been working with a personal trainer and I’m already seeing results. I lost 3 ½ pounds in 3 weeks. We’ve enjoyed it so far. I ran a 5K a few weeks ago.

Megan is taking fall term off school to recharge so she got a job at the Columbia Sportswear Outlet in Lake Oswego. She is enjoying the job so far and comes home with clothes pretty much every day she works.

We are doing well. Hopefully we will update this more often and I plan on posting pictures of the house.