Tis the Season

I know! I have been MIA for awhile. Don't worry, we are still here and kicking! What have we been doing?? Well, we had Thanksgiving back with our families. We talked both our parents into gathering at the same place! Which worked out really slick, one Thanksgiving!! Jesse's family came over to my family's Thanksgiving which was really casual and at our family hunting shack.

Before everyone had gathered and while the Packer game was on... my Uncle Ken, and my brother were going to do a quick half time hunt. I wanted to go!!! It was technically just a ride around the woods to see if we could see any deer. I was excited and thought it was a great picture/blog moment. I had to put on all my Dad's hunting clothes in order to go. 1) It is cold and the more layers the better. 2) You must wear blaze orange.

Here are the pictures from our mighty half time hunt! Nope, we didn't see a thing! Before we left my Dad says, "Lynn, what are you going to do if they shoot a deer?" Umm... not sure! Turn my head and close my eyes!!

I had to do participate in Black Friday!! My sister, a few girlfriends and I headed out to the stores Friday morning. We didn't leave too early... 5:30ish. Which I think is the earliest I have ever gone, because we live so far from the stores. We didn't actually get to our first store until 6:30ish. We had a blast!

Jesse stayed home on Black Friday and tried his hand doing a "how to video" with his brother and a friend. He went all out on this video - got the mics, the shirts, hats, banners, etc. The video was how to install one of the alarms that he sells. His brother was the camera man. It was so funny to watch his brother... he totally played the part of the camera man. He had the headphones, the laptop, the video camera, and the hand signs. He would do these hand motions so the guys knew when the camera was rolling. Super funny!! Jesse's buddy, Jason, was the guy doing the install of the alarm because he has some official title (Certified Motorcycle Mechanic... something like that). Jesse was in the video as well, showing all the tricks or giving useful information.

They spent all day on this video... I think it was like 12 hours!! After they completed the video they went inside to see what kind of footage they got.... the video had very poor image quality and was not "sellable" that way. They would have to do it AGAIN!! I felt so bad for them!! Good news is, they just did it again a few weekends ago and it went so much better and they did it in about 1/2 the time! The best part, the image quality was right on this time. Jesse brought his "uncut" version over to my parents house and we had family night watching his video! Pretty funny!! It put my Dad right to sleep, guess he doesn't need to know how to install an alarm. :)

This past weekend my Mom's family got together for their annual cookie baking. Everyone has to bring a batch of cookie dough that will make 5 dozen cookies. We have a very large family and we need enough cookies for everyone! It was so festive this year because it was snowing and it was just beautiful! Cookie baking was held at my Aunt's house and she lives in the middle of the woods with a pond, and with the snow falling it was just priceless! I, of course, forget my camera back at the apartment. I was so bummed! I realized it as soon as we hit the interstate and was not in the mood to turn around and go get. So, just envision this... table upon table full of cookies!! I am not even kidding! Her kitchen table is covered in cut out cookies. She has a whole other room that has 2 tables set up... full of more cookies. Then her kitchen island even has cookies on it. And out all her windows there are big beautiful snowflakes falling.

With all this fresh fallen snow it put me in the mood for a little Christmas decorating. I didn't put up a tree last year so I had extra excitement for a tree this year. Here are few pictures of our decorations around the house. I was trying to be creative with my camera one day and this is what I got...

Tonight we will be fighting the crowds at the mall and doing a little Christmas shopping. I am kind of looking forward to it. Every year when Jesse and I do our shopping together we treat ourselves to a Starbucks! YUM! Okay, maybe I am just excited for the Starbucks and not for the shopping....

I am also trying to figure out if we should do Christmas card this year. I have always done them in the past and enjoyed it. But this year I was looking at our pictures from the year [to make a card with] and we having nothing. We even went to Mexico - you think we would have something from that. Nope! I just don't like them. So, I am trying to talk Jesse into going outside with me and making a tiny snowman and writing Merry Christmas in the snow with green food coloring. I think it is the coolest idea and I got the look. You know, the one that says, "Are you serious?!" So, not sure if we will be doing card this year or not. It will be a surprise! :)

Happy decorating, shopping, and cookie eating!!

New Look

I was getting tired of looking at our blog so I gave it a make over... what do you think?

Now that we are back in Wisconsin we get to celebrate deer hunting season! Seriously, it is a holiday over here! It is kind of funny to be back here and watch it all go down after being gone for 4 years. This whole week one of our local news channels has been counting down the days to the opening day. Every radio stations plays the song "The Turdy Point Buck"! A super funny song that just takes me back to being a kid and loving this song and singing it on the school bus. Everyone over here knows this song - even small children!! I found the song on youtube and have attached it to my post so y'all can enjoy it!

Bring on the Snow!!

Last night about 10:30ish I am headed to bed and I take one last look out the window and see that it is SNOWING!! Not snowing a lot... but still snowing! We had to go out on our patio and capture the first snow fall!! I am not sure how long it snowed, but there was no evidence that it had snowed this morning. Nothing! Natta! Zilch! It was the first words out of my mouth this morning "Is there snow on the ground?" Nope.

This is not a smile. This is a teeth clench to keep my teeth from chattering! It was COLD!

Maximum Security

When you think of a maximum security prison, what do you think of? Think they are stuck in their cells with nothing but a bed, toilet and sink? No freedom to do anything? That is what I always thought until I went there!

Jesse is currently working (2 days a week) at the Green Bay Maximum Security Prison and they were giving tours on Saturday... we went to check it out. You ever have those feelings where you want to see it, but then again you really don't. That was how I felt about it, but my feeling of having to see won.

The building was this huge, old, creepy brick building. Oh, we went at night and it was dark. Even more creepy! We had to be stamped before we could enter with ink that you could only see under a black light. I was so afraid to cross my arms in fear that my stamp would rub off and they wouldn't let me out... but I am girl and they only allow males. Whew!

We saw the visitor center, where outside people come to see the prisoners. They told us about how the outsiders try to sneak items (mostly drugs) into the prison to the inmates. How the inmates have figured out that a certain shoe has a secret compartment in it if you peel back the sole of the shoe just a little bit.

The inmates can order things (clothing, etc) and have it shipped to the prison for them!! (Why!!? I thought this was max. security?!!) They do have to have a receipt from the store to prove that it came from a legitimate place and it doesn't have drugs hidden somewhere in the item.

Now, they are so over crowded that they have run out of cells so they just (in Lynn terms... not in official wording) set up a huge room with beds and they all stay in this huge gym size room... no metal bars to keep them in. They have about 30 other guys with them to talk to all day long. We didn't actually see this... we just seen pictures and we were told about it. Of course if one of them started acting up they would do something about it and probably send them to isolation (segregation as they call it). These guys are probably not so dangerous on the dangerous scale.

We see pictures of what a typical cell looks like. I am telling you they have more stuff shoved in their cell! They have TVs, and anything else that you can imagine. We also took a few of our friends with us on the tour and our friend Lacy said it best "It is like putting a child in time out, in their room. They have all their favorite toys to play with on their time out."

We took a walk over to the cells. We don't actually see the cells or any inmates (as Jesse would say, this is not a zoo where you can look at the people!). You can look down the hallway without actually seeing any inmates.... long hallway of bars on either side. While we were there they were handing out ice. Yeah, ice!!! Just ice!!! No water to go with the ice!! Odd!! I looked at our tour-guide (a guard) and said... they are giving them ice!? She kind of rolled her eyes and said, yes we have to give them ice once a day. What do they do with their ice? No idea... try to cool their tap water down... I don't know. Eat ice chips at night? Very odd. I was peaking down the hallway while another guard was handing out the ice and I would watch the inmate pass the guard a cup, the guard would fill it with ice and pass it back. To every inmate! There was even a 'station' where the guards were filling up bags with ice... were they going to give them to the inmates with a cup?? I don't know, but it was sure odd.

We moved onto another section of cells and over here they were a bit loud. Hooten and hollern about who knows what. (They must of either ate all their ice and now they are bored or they didn't get it yet.) Anyway, we are standing there and our guide is explaining something to us, but I am too preoccupied by an inmate who keeps sticking an item out of his cell (so I stopped listening to her). I had to tell her that someone was sticking things out of his cell... because it was bothering me. She said, that he was sticking out his fingernail clippers and using it as a mirror to see us. Ah, creepy!! (How many times do I say creepy in this post??) And why do they get fingernail clippers?? We can't take them on the plane but an inmate can have one? Hmmm.

We also saw the bath house... nothing special just like the showers in a locker room. The get 10 minutes to shower. She said they warn them when their time is getting close to up and if they don't have the soap out... too bad. Can you imagine? Oh heavens. I would have soap left in my hair every time!

We went to their school. They have a few class rooms where the inmates can sign up to get their g.e.d or whatever they would need school for. They also have a barber shop, masonry, and some other learning center where they can leave with some job skills so they could possible get a job when they leave. Seriously in the barber shop there were those heads of hair sitting around for them to practice on. I guess I never thought I would see that on my tour. Our guide said that no one usually takes these classes... maybe a couple out of a 1000.

We went over to Jesse's building where he works. Had to walk outside to get there, remember it is still dark out! Creepy!! You see a couple of other buildings along your way and then a huge fence running along the outside with the watchtower. Yup, there were people in the tower watching for someone to escape!

We didn't get to go to Jesse's floor where he works just the main level. So on the main level on both far ends they have what they call segregation! This means one inmate per cell, and they stay in there 23 out of 24 hours. They have a real small window to see and that is it. While we looked down that hallway (which was behind a closed and locked door) you could see one of the inmates peeking out his window.... I wouldn't look, I was a bit freaked out to see him looking back at me.

Our last stop was the cafeteria! Where they had some cookie bars and juice. Our guide was really pushing us to eat the bars and to have a snack. I grab one first and take a bite and Jesse says... The inmates make these bars? Ahhhh... what??! They did.

Now you all have toured the prison! Of course they had all kinds of guards everywhere and lots of locked doors. Honestly, it did not feel like a maximum security prison to me. I did not feel 100% safe... and I was (or at least that is what I was told). I am not sure how Jesse does this job, but he really enjoys it. He says, they are still human and they still deserve the help that I can provide them. You go Jesse!

Fall Weekends

My Aunts and Cousins (maybe a quarter of them... there are lots more that didn't come!)

A couple of weekends ago my Aunt held her annual 'Soup Off'. We all go to her house with our best pot of soup and compete for the soup ladle trophy! No, I didn't win. I did get second place!! I made a green chicken tortilla soup.

I did win the football kicking contest!! Yup, that's right I kicked the football the farthest for the girls!! Thanks to Mr. Kelcheski, our 8th grade Ph. Ed. teacher, who spent weeks on teaching us how to properly punt a football. Looks like I still got it! : )

I won myself some very yummy cut-out cookies.

Uncle Tom won for the guys.

My Aunt & Uncle also set up a 'station' for practicing your gun shot. The guys got real excited about this! They did get real competitive over the football kicking... but I am afraid some of them may have limped into work on Monday from pulling a muscle. I took my turn at the target... and well... I missed! I hit her garden fence instead of the target! Oops! Good thing I wasn't the only one... my sister hit it too!! (My Mom will probably have pictures of us shooting the guns on her site. She might even show you the garden fence with the proof that we hit it!)

This past weekend my Sister, Niece, Mom, and I went to a corn maze for the day. It was so much fun. Elly loved it! We decided to do the kid maze because the other was very muddy and the workers told us that 2 girls lost their shoes in it... it was that sticky, suctiony mud. The kid maze was less traveled which meant less mud!

It was like a scavenger hunt in the maze for Elly. She had to find all these items that had to do with nursery rhymes. She loved it!

We went on a hay wagon ride to see this big round barn. It was pretty neat. The want to fix the barn up and hold parties/weddings in it.

They had big round hay bails set up in a maze that the little kids to do on their own and Elly thought that was coolest thing ever! She couldn't get enough of them. Even when it was time to leave she cried because she wanted to play in the maze. What are aunties for??? I grabbed her hand and took off running for the maze and said "Come on El we can do this one more time!" As we are running she is giggling and then stops half way to the maze and looks back at her Mom and Grandma and isn't quite sure what she should do... follow Tia and have fun - or - go back to Mom. I won!! She turned around and ran back to the maze for one last time. Giggling the whole way! Hey, she got in the truck with out crying and pouting... I think I did a good thing!

After that we found our way to Applebees and a few stores. It was a great day for us girls!

Fish, Paint, and Dirt

This past weekend we headed back to our parents house for a little visit. Friday night we arrived at Jesse's brother's house [Jerry]. We went to a local corn maize...which was pretty fun. Then finished the night off with an Oktoberfest in Little Chicago. Oh what a treat! We weren't there more then 5 minutes and I already had a drunk guy coming up to me asking me if I knew how to dance. I told him no, which wasn't a lie! He didn't believe me and told me that he could teach me. Oh goodie! He wanted me to dance to Polka music!! We didn't stay long.

Saturday Jesse and I had my little niece for the afternoon. We took her to Jesse's parents pond to splash around. It was in the 80s with very high humidity... so the pond was refreshing to splash around in. Elly was insistent that I go and look in the bag that her mom packed her to see if her swim suit was in there. It wasn't!! That water wasn't that warm!

Jesse and Elly went fishing in the pond. All they had to do was stick a fishing pole with a hook in the water and the fish would bite at it! You didn't even need bait!! She thought that was pretty cool. Although we kind of gave her the wrong impression about fishing... usually you wait for hours for a bite... not 30 seconds.

My cousin, Shawna, and her family showed up to Jesse's house for a little bit. Her oldest son, Josh, spotted Jesse's dirt bike in the back of our truck. At first I tried to tell him it was my bike, but he was too smart... he wanted to see me ride it. Um....

Before they could leave they wanted to hear Jesse's bike! Jesse unloaded his bike and did a few tricks for the kids... wheelies. The boys went nuts! They thought that was the coolest thing and they thought he was Evil Kenevil!!

Saturday night we made our way back out to Jerry's house. I finished painting his garage for him!! Okay, I helped - I painted the last coat on all but 1 wall!!

On Sunday we were at my parents house. I was able to talk my Dad into letting me take his 4-wheeler out to the hunting shack. When I say "talk my Dad into" I really mean I had to do some talking!! He just got done washing it when I decided I wanted to go out to the woods... and he wasn't too excited about letting me get it dirty again... but isn't that what wheelers are for??

Jesse rode his bike and I followed behind on the 4-wheeler. Following this guy out to the woods was insane. We had take the road for about 3 miles before we got to the woods and he was doing wheelies the whole way there!!! Then he started fish-tailing around on the road... crazy stuff!! I was getting kind of nervous... yes, he wore his helmet but still!!

Before we left the hunting shack Jesse wanted to practice a few more wheelies... so he went up and down the drive way while I tried to get a picture.

And that was our weekend!! Enjoy the pictures below!

High Cliff Park

This is Lake Winnebago right outside of Appleton. It is the third largest fresh water lake in the states. I think it is 30 miles wide. It is huge! As far as you can see is water... but it isn't the ocean.

The leaves are already starting to change over here. You have to love the beginning of fall.

This is a tower that you can climb... to get a better view of the lake and the surrounding area.

Here is your view.

When we were down by the lake we spotted this chimney type thing sticking high above the trees... we had to check it out. It was once a Lime Kiln. Here is a picture of it in its prime.

Here is what is left of it...

Jesse kept telling me that "there are no signs that say Keep Out or No Trespassing". He was about ready to jump the fence and see what was behind the doors. I tried to tell him that was why the fence was there.

One last look at the Lake before we leave.

After visiting the lake Jesse and his brother [Jerry] wanted to drive around and look at enclosed trailers. Why you ask... I have no idea. A guy needs a trailer! Do you know how often it would come in handy. We can move ourselves! I don't know how many more times he plans on moving but it better be worth it if we need our own trailer! : )

Anyway, we are driving around and we come across this....

You know you are in Wisconsin when you start to see stuff like this.

Deer hunting the hunters.

Corn Fields & Farms

Jesse and I went back to our parents this past weekend. (About a 2.5 hour drive) Where we live it had been stormy and raining but the closer we got to our parents the clouds were breaking up and the sun was shining.

Lots of farms on our drive and I thought it looked really neat with the clouds. These pictures are out the window doing about 65mph... pretty good, huh?! We also seen "Oreo cows" The head and butt were black and the middle was white. I couldn't get a picture fast enough... I'll try next time.

The below pictures are of a cornfield that separate my parents from their neighbors. The house in the last picture is of the neighbors... I was at their place when I took the pictures. They were having a NASCAR party. They deep fried a turkey! Yum! They also deep fried Twinkies! Those were so good! Kind of tasted like an elephant ear from the fair! They rolled the Twinkies in a batter (similar to a pancake mix) fried them, then sprinkled them with powdered sugar.

You don't want to eat this corn... they call it field corn and it is not good. Only the cows like it!

Missing Tigard

How about some love for Tigard!?

I don't know when it was but July sometime... Jesse and I were sitting in our apartment in Tigard and noticed a beautiful sky. We couldn't see it very well so we hoped in the Jeep and drove down 99 a bit to this place.

I got some very cool shots!!

I need to brag about my Tigard neighbors for just a few moments. Really missing them right now! We had very cool neighbors there. Brandon & Natalie... were in the program with Jesse and I love them to pieces!! Miss them tons! If Jesse and I were going a little stir crazy we could always call them and go and visit for awhile.

Zack & Sara... were our go to garden neighbors. You could find Zack grilling a couple burgers while drinking a bottle of beer. Sara would be drinking her wine trying to keep her cats from running away. Jesse and I would sit out there and distract them from their grill (and cats) and have a drink with them at night. So fun!

Liz, Faith & Justin... You could always find Liz out on her patio with a glass of wine! She has the sweetest daughter Faith and a rapping boyfriend Justin. Justin would always try to get me to rap... told me it was just liking rhyming... well I can't do either!!

Lee... he passed away right before we left. He was an old man that was hard of hearing and loved Jesse to pieces! He would come over and bang on the door so loud!! He would need Jesse to put in a movie for him to watch because he couldn't figure it out. He was a pretty neat guy and glad we were able to meet him.

Ryan & Lin... BBQ boy!! Ryan is always grilling and cooks enough to feed an army! I can't tell you how many times we would be sitting in our living room and all of sudden we would either hear things being thrown at our windows or hear our names being yelled. It was Ryan... he was grilling and had extras. He also had a Long Island Ice Tea to go with it. Ryan is an awesome cook! Sure do miss his grilling nights!! We actually just got a call from them this past weekend... they are engaged!!!!!! I am so excited for them!! Love them to pieces!!

Love and miss you Tigard neighbors!!

Tia & Jesse Day!!

Last week my sister [Shannon] and my little niece [Ellyn] came to stay with us for 3 days. Elly was so excited to have a Tia & Jesse Day. She actually got to go to Tia's house and sleep over!! Exciting stuff!!

Both Jesse and I had to work while they were staying with us. But, we work from home!! We certainly confused Elly. She would bring a chair over to my desk and say "Why do you have to work here? You have to work at a Doctors office. This is not work." My sister works at the hospital for a Doctor... therefore she thinks that everyone should work for a Doctor and not at home!

She got to color all over my papers with my pens and pencils! Good times in her eyes! After I was done with work then we went to play in the lake. She loved it out in the lake and didn't want to go and eat supper.

Cute story about the lake. She would sit in our apartment and look at the lake and beg to go out there and was I done with work yet because she was ready to go swimming. At one point she came running over to me "The water in the lake is going away!!!!" Of course I played along and said "NO WAY! Show me!" She runs me over to the patio door and says "See, the water is going away." Here a big clump of yuck was at the surface of the water and it sorta looked like the bottom of the lake.... : )

Here are some pictures of our time together!

We went shopping one night and got Elly these adorable shoes.

She starts preschool this fall with Ms. Amanda and needs cute shoes!!

She walked around saying "I love my new shoes. They are soooo cute."



This is our sassy little Ellyn.

I had to sneak this picture because Elly wouldn't let me

take their picture. I tried to get a nice one and she cried. : )

My sister brought us this cake because she was here on our 4th anniversary!!

The cake was made by the same lady who made our wedding cake. Very cool!

Virtual Tour

Here is a virtual tour of our new home. Enjoy.

We're in Wisconsin!!

The trailer is fixed!! We were back on the road at 3:30pm Wednesday afternoon with a fixed trailer. Dave ended up having to change all 4 of the bearings on the trailer. Good thing Jerry (Jesse's brother) called and told us to check all of them... otherwise we were just going to change the bad one. Thank you Jerry for the heads up! We drove all night (25.5 hours) and made it to Jesse's parents house at 5pm tonight! Tomorrow morning we head to Appleton to our new apartment. Update you more later.

Trailer Troubles

We were off to a great start on Monday. About 14 hours of loading the trailer. We had to pack everything so tight and use every last bit of empty space we had. We did get everything in the trailer... we do have our truck bed full but not too full. It was a long hard day but we finished and pulled out of the apartment at about 9:30pm and drove to Troutdale, Oregon. We needed to find a hotel with truck parking. We have a massive setup with this trailer and can only go to big parking lots. (Troutdale has lots of truck stops and we fit in well.)

Yesterday started off great. We hit the road running. About 7:30pm we stopped in Missoula, Montana to fill up with gas and drive another 1.5 - 2 hours to Butte Montana to stop for the night. We pulled back out onto the interstate, following Jesse's Dad, to soon smell a horrible gas/oil smell. I looked at Jesse and asked him if he forgot to put the gas cap on because we are now pumping our own gas. (Side note about gas pumping... we find ourselves just waiting for someone to come fill us up. It takes about a minute before we realize we have to do this ourselves. Oh and running the credit card machines on the pumps... not our friend!!)

Jesse's Dad (Dave) pulls over onto the side of the interstate. Jesse gets out to see what is going on and comes back to tell me that it is not good. We have a bad bearing in one of our trailer wheels... can't go any further until it gets fixed. Jesse and I take off to the next exit and start looking for someone to help us out. Plus, it is 8:30pm local time - not many places still open.

We find a guy who builds trailers! (SWEET!) He is not sure that he has parts but he will let us park the trailer there so Dave can work on it. Plus this Trailer-Guy is going to have a mechanic come in in the morning to help out.

Jesse's Dad limps off the interstate with his truck & trailer and drives to this place to park the trailer for the night. Meanwhile Jesse's Mom (Mary) is calling around looking for a hotel for us to stay at. We are at a Best Western and we got the last room. There was a cancellation just before she called. Sturges is going on right now and we were having a hard time finding a room!! Praise God!! The hotel is probably 2 miles for the Trailer-Guy.

Dave got up this morning to meet the mechanic at 8 and they are still working on it (12:30pm right now). I just went and dropped Jesse off by Dave so he could help out and it sounds like they need to replace all 4 bearings (1 per wheel) before we can hit the road again. We have talked the hotel into letting Mary and I stay here until 2pm. After that I think we will be snuggling up to the local Starbucks.

Did I mention that Dave & Mary bought this trailer brand new... they are kind of frustrated that it broke down. It shouldn't have.

Our original goal was to be at Dave & Mary's Thursday evening but we are about a day behind now. When I dropped Jesse off Dave mentioned something about pulling an all-nighter. We'll see what happens.

We also have a HUGE wild fire here in Montana. When we drove in last night you could see the big "clouds" of smoke and airplanes dumping water. Mary said that she seen about 10 firetrucks go by while they were sitting on the side of the interstate. Trailer-Guy said that they had that interstate closed a few days ago due to smoke. This morning we woke up and it is really smokey and you can smell the smoke.

Alright, I better run and keep Mary company. I'll let you know when we finally get there. (I am still hoping for Friday afternoon.)

A Quick Update

There have been messages left on my phone, messages left on the blog, comments made to me in person.... UPDATE YOUR BLOG!!! Here it is and don't be disappointed that it is a short one with no pictures...

My last day of working in an office was on Friday the 13th!!! WHOOHOO!!

Jesse's brother and his girlfriend got here on the 12th and leave this Monday. We have been very busy with them... went to Southern Oregon camping. The boys rode their dirt bikes in the dunes and the girls went off in the Jeep to find a few waterfalls. Totally amazed that we found the waterfalls... Steph is a great map reader. We showed the boys where the waterfall was on the map and they were impressed with our navigation skills. No, we did not have the GPS! We wanted it but forgot it at the apartment. Side note: They were painting fresh yellow center lines on the way to the waterfall and the road was EXTREMELY narrow with no shoulder or guard rail and a steep drop off. We were scared so we just stopped as they drove by and well... I have some yellow on the jeep to prove it. Oops!

We just got back this afternoon from a mini road trip to Central Oregon. We saw the crooked river gorge... really cool. Went in a lava cave. Very dark and cold!! Went on a few scary jeep trails... scratched the Jeep up. Sorry Dad - I told Jesse to turn around but he insisted that we keep going down this narrow path that seemed only wide enough for a bicycle. (Dad, can we come over and use your new buffer? We'll give you a Sunday ride!!) Ended with Crater Lake. Last night we stayed in Medford Oregon at this really cool hotel were they had a live band called "Hot Gossip" that played very fun rock music from the 70s and 80s. We wanted more 80s... we asked them to play Bon Jovi or some Meatloaf but they told us that they didn't have a keyboard player so they couldn't do those songs. If only I had my keyboard that I got for Christmas that one year...

Moving... we only have about 10 days left. Are we packed?!? Ha! No! I have gathered all the boxes and will start on Monday. Promise!

Moving worries... So, Jesse's brother Jerry gets here and starts looking at all the stuff we have: 2 garages, a couple of big trees and an apartment. He tells us so openly and freely... you are not going to have enough room on the trailer!! WHAT?!!!? So now I am in a little bit of a panic that we are not going to have enough room... then what? We call Jesse's Dad who has been telling us we have SO MUCH room and he reassures us that we will have plenty of room and we will not have to leave anything behind. I'll let you know what happens... (Stressing me out!!)

Alright I must get going... I'll try to update you before we leave.

Neighborhood Cook Out

Saturday morning the first words out of Jesse's mouth, "The *bleep* lied again!!" He was cursing the weathermen! According to the weathermen we were suppose to have 60s and rain. We woke up to sunshine! Which is great, but apparently Jesse is a little tired of Oregon weather forecasters.

Saturday afternoon Jesse and I went to a farm and picked berries, strawberries and raspberries. While we are picking the raspberries a little boy sees me and says, "Your pretty." I say thank you and ask him why he doesn't have any berries his box. He has been eating them all!!

Pretty soon this little boy and his sister, whose teeth and face are berry-red, are now picking berries right beside me. Their Mom shows up and she is yelling at them to stop eating all the berries. The little boy asks his Mom, "Isn't she pretty?" Then it turns it to this crazy, even more awkward event. Little boy and sister start yelling... You're pretty. You're hot. You're sexy!!! Mom yells at little sister and tells her not to say that word. Mom then hollers for Dad to discipline the sister. Dad comes over and says, "I agree with her." Mom, "Did you hear what she said." Dad, "Yes." Talk about awkward moments in the berry patch.

They had goats at the berry patch.

- - - - -

The best part about the complex we live in is that we know most of our neighbors! I just was telling Jesse on Friday night that I feel so comfortable here. I am not scared when he is gone because I personally know all the surrounding neighbors. Jesse told me not to worry he would get to know our new neighbors!! He is the social butterfly and that is why we know all our neighbors!

Jesse would do the smallest chores... taking the garbage out. He would be gone sometimes for 30 minutes!! He would stop and talk to anyone he saw and before we knew it we are not only neighbors but we are now friends.

All of this being said, we had a cook out because all of us are leaving. Some of us are leaving the state others are just moving to different apartments because we have new owners here and well... they are not very nice. And this is putting it nicely.

We all had a great time and I am going to miss each and everyone of them!! Here are few pictures from the party...

This is a preview of what our kids will look like... this is Faith and she is so sweet!

Sara, Liz (Faith's Mom), and me

Me, Lyn, Sara, Faith, Liz, and Kat

Zack, Justin, Jesse, Lee, Reece (The little guy), Ryan, Lee's son (Don't know him), Jesse

As you can see from the pictures most of us are in sweat shirts and jeans. The morning may have started out with sunshine but right before our BBQ we had a down pour and then it was cold.