The infrequent ramblings of Miss Power

A Beautiful and Muddy Country

2009-11-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone...we typed this last night but the internet went down before we were able to send it. We are just leaving for the first night of the Festival of Hope. If anyone is up at your late hour, please be praying that the rain will hold.

Love you all...here is the update.

Rwanda Update: Thursday, November 19, 7:40pm GMT+2

Hi guys, We've managed to find a wireless signal and someone from our team is letting us use their laptop they brought. Wow, so many stories to share...

We got to Rwanda yesterday in the morning. We came to our hotel, had some lunch and then immediatley set out to do work projects. Some went to orphanages, some went to run eye glass clinics and we went to the local hospital to visit with the sick. There were three of us and we each had a translator. We probably prayed for about a 120 people or something like that. It was intense because everyone wanted prayer for healing. I'll share one story...

We approached a group of people outside one of the wards and we heard screaming. We approached and the noise was coming from a young boy of about 3 years old. Our translator inquired and told us that the parents thought the boy had a demon. He had been like this, frantic, screaming, terrified, for a long time. The translator who was also a local pastor had him brought into a back room to pray for his release from the demon. We felt just a tiny bit inadequate for the task. The pastor started praying for the boy and it didn't seem to be helping. Then he stopped and talked to the parents some more. He told us he didn't think it was a demon but instead a sympton of cerebral malaria. So we started praying for healing. That didn't seem to work either. So we stopped. The boy screamed the entire time. He was hallucinating that wild animals were crawling up his legs and attacking him. He kept pawing at his legs. I suddenly felt like Jesus just wanted me to speak words of love over him. So I started to do that while stroking his chest and face. After about five minutes of this I started weeping and he suddenly stopped screaming and calmed down. It was amazing. God is so cool. But he still wouldn't let me put his pant leg down which he was holding up as a way to avoid the "animals." I grabbed it and pulled it down and whistled a little tune. Then he pulled it back up and I whistled a different little tune when he did. Then I grabbed his pant leg again and did the same thing. And he pulled it up. We kept doing that, pulling it up and down and me whistling this funny little tune and then about about 20 times he started smirking. His eyes, cleared and all the fear was gone. It was beautiful. I could feel the large group around us breathe a sigh of relief. When we left about ten minutes later, he was still calm. It is such an honor to serve our God!

We also handed out packets of rice and soap to the patients we prayed with. Patients are responsible for anything they need. Medicine, supplies etc... they had to pay for entirely. Food and washing and all that sort of thing they had to provide for themselves..either through family or friends. The sick have to take care of themselves! It was a very intense afternoon.

This morning (Robin speaking) Caris and I went to run our first eye clinic with two other team members. It was great! We rode in a van for about 45 minutes on a road that was so rutted I didn't think we would make it all in one piece. Bouncing and shaking, honking to get the people to move aside so as not to run anyone over. (People are walking along all the roads all day and always smile and wave when the white people go by. We are quite an oddity.)

We gave the eyeglasses out to about 200 people today after testing them for what strength they would need. People waited patiently to come up to one of three tables, one at a time to receive their glasses. When I gave them their new pair I would say: "This is a gift for you from your friends in the United States who love Jesus and love you." It was such an amazing experience as all of the experiences are here. We are being blessed as much as we are a blessing, I am sure.

We have a specific prayer request that is very important: Every afternoon about 3 pm we get an unbelieveably heavy downpour of rain that drenches everything and makes everything a muddy mess. Tomorrow afternoon we start our first outdoor meeting at 3 pm. Please pray God will hold back the rain. Else the field we will be in will be an absolute mess!

Well, got to go. Caris and I gave out goats today. We will cover that later. Caris took about 150 pictures of the event. Quite the thing! We had a blast.

See you soon...Thanks for reading our letters. I know it is hard to imagine how it is here. We are having a hard time believing where we are ourselves!

Love to all,

Robin (and Caris)

A Night In London

2009-11-17T07:28:00.001-08:00

Rwanda Update: 11/16/09 10:45 GMT

We made it to London! We made it into London this afternoon and bussed to our hotel. We are staying here overnight and will leave for Nairobi and then Kigali tomorrow evening. (Another red eye!) Everyone from the team made it here as well as all of our luggage. We had a team meeting this afternoon where we got introduced to each other, worshipped together and heard more details about the trip. We are getting more and more excited about getting there and getting started with things. We will be trained tomorrow morning on how to run the eye glass clinics.

After the team meeting we had a some time to walk around London and find dinner. A group of nine of us went to the Westminster area which was absolutely gorgeous at night. We come up from the London underground right under Big Ben. We saw the Abbey and the parlimentary buildings and the London Eye. So huge!! It is a ferris wheel that sits beside the Thames river and holds like a thousand people at a time. It costs a fortune to ride and wasn't open tonight but still fascinating.

We finally found a little Italian place to eat dinner together. It had "Godfather" pictures up all over the walls. Funny. I had a Jacket Potatoe with chili which meant a baked potatoe with chili on it. Others at our table where very confused at what a "crisp" versus a "chip" was and which ones meant they were getting fries. Sounds like a great "Italian" place right? :)

Please pray for a good night's sleep tonight. It is nearly 11pm and I'm feeling weary but not tired yet. Only had about 4 hours sleep at this point so I need to crash. Also pray for our layover in Nairobi tomorrow. It is a quick layover and evidently it is a confusing and crowded airport.

Hope to send updates in Rwanda! Love you all.

Caris for the Power Girls

First to London

2009-11-17T07:27:00.000-08:00

RWANDA UPDATE: 11/14/08, 10:01pm PST

Hi everyone, we wanted to send our first update tonight before we leave. Our plane departs tomorrow at 1:19pm. We will first be headed down to San Francisco to join the rest of the team. Then we fly out around 8pm from SFO and will arrive in London the next day. We are all packed. (It's amazing how much stuff you can condense down to two suitcases and two carry-ons!) We will spend 24hrs in London to adjust to jet-lag before flying down to Nairobi and then over to Kigali. The last leg will be by bus to Rwamagana. (Yea, say that five times fast if you can say it at all.)

Please be praying! Pray for our flights to go smoothly. And for the adjustment to jetlag! We won't be in country that long so we want to make the most of our time there. Also pray for our patience and mercy towards one another as we get tired and worn out from travel.

At this moment I think we have been blessed with over $7700 worth of support for this project from you...our friends and family. We are extraordinarily blessed as are our Rwandan brothers and sisters. Thanks once again for your generosity of spirit! We can't wait to give away the goats that so many of you purchased.

Grace and Peace to you!

Mooching, Wedding Bliss and Timber!

2009-06-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

There are some friends in my life that really put my lack of blogging to shame. One of them does that by blogging regularly enough that I always feel like I know what is going on in her life. Since she lives far away that is so cool. However, I feel bad that I don't reciprocate the information exchange and my life continues to be a mystery to her. :) The other person who puts me to shame is the one person who is an actual, in-the-flesh fan of my blog. She actually checks it consistently and reads it and keeps asking me to update it. Since my last update was in March, I am ashamed.

So I'm going to tell you about my weekend briefly and quickly and try to make a new commitment to posting more regularly for all my "fans." All one of them.

This weekend was characterized by quality time with friends and family. I got off work early on Friday and my friend Janie (the unnamed fan) and I, went to Barton Park in Clackamas where half the church was camping for the weekend. We drove by everyone's campsite and took stock of what everyone was having for dinner. Then we parked and ate four dinners. :) No really, we were stuffed by everyone's hospitality and it was a blast to just hang out and talk with friends. We drank people's booze and ate people's smores. Well, I drank people's booze and Janie and I both ate the smores. Did you know that I am a smore making pro? Apparently. I have been thus named by Janie and the Jorgens family.

Saturday started with another wonderful breakfast at a new place that Maile and I were encouraged to try called Cafe Du Berry. (Although you would have never known that that was the name of the place. We never saw their name anywhere. Not on the building or even on the menus! I checked my bank account this morning just to see who the charge actually posted to.) The little cafe was on Macadam and Maile had been told that they had a killer French toast. So that's what we both had and it was good although I'm not prepared to say that it was the best I've ever had. I would have preferred it more cooked in the center. It tasted almost like you were eating custard which is both awesome and weird for French Toast.

Saturday afternoon I went to see my friend Luke Hotchkiss get married to Virginia (Ginny) Hurt. It was at Pennisula Park in North Portland. They got married in the gazebo and it was a beautiful and perfect day for the affair. It was a bring-your-own-chair event and everyone also brought a potluck item to share. It was so much fun. After their real vows they read vows that were in the style of Dr. Seuss. It was hilarious. If you want to read the vows check out this link: http://weddings.about.com/od/yourweddingceremony/a/SeussFunnyVows.htm.

Many of my friends from OSU and InterVarsity were there celebrating with Luke and Ginny and we spent all afternoon talking and catching up. When the wedding was over we didn't want to leave each other so we all went over to Anthony and Sarah's house and played games and watched Gran Torino until midnight. I loved it. It was so good to see everyone again. Good folk!!

On Sunday, Dad and Mom and I went to Chinatown to the House of Louie for dim sum after church. Then we walked to Powells and Mom and I bought new books for our classic literature book club of two that we formed in March. We are now working on "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Room With A View." We also picked out two books about Rwanda because we are hoping to go there in November with Eternity Minded Ministries. Then of course a lovely summer afternoon would be incomplete without some ice cream so we walked to Ben and Jerrys for some scoops.

We were considering wrapping up our afternoon then but it was so nice outside that we decided to go see the Portland Timbers play the Montreal Impact up at PGE park. We beat them 4-0 which was great although my mom and I missed two of the goals because we went to get hot dogs. Geez!! We payed for that twice. Once when we found out they scored while we were gone and a second time later...(ya know...hot dogs.)

I was beat by the time I got home on Sunday night. I think my cats were suprised to see me home. LOL. But I loved every minute of my weekend and felt so blessed by the people in my life. And now it's Monday. Ugh. :)

Wedding Bells and Bagpipes

2009-03-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

For those who don't already know, my handsome brother got married two weeks ago to Pamela Jean Proctor. It was a beautiful and fun affair. Instead of writing a million words about it, I'll just post a bunch of pictures for those of you haven't already seen them on facebook.

Here are both sets of parents watching the wedding rehearsal. We couldn't have asked for two better in-laws. Scott and Sandi are awesome.

Ahhh. So cute.

They made up a game of wedding jeapordy. How fun is that?! Between the maid of honor and I, I think we were able to guess most of the answers. This was a fun inclusion to the rehearsal dinner at McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse and most people's favorite part of the evenining. It helped everyone get to know each of them as as a couple. Scott and Sandi made the poster board at their sign shop they own, Impact Sign Co.

Do I? I do!

It's the bend and snap!

This is my new sister-in-law Pam. I'm a lucky sister to be getting someone as amazing as you Pam.

My mom was so pretty!! No. She was gorgeous actually! Dad, you are so lucky.

We are freezing our little butts off but at least we are looking beautiful!

Look at these handsome men! And not a single one among them. I mean, I guess that is no suprise but geez, what did I get dressed up for then? :)

Pam looked fabulous. Her dress was amazing and the hair and makeup looked perfect on her. Although, someone remind me not to get a dress with beading under the arms for my wedding. By the end of the night...ouch!

How can you not love this man?! Dad, you are the cutest.

Dad, I still can't believe that you took this shot. You took the best picture of your life at the perfect time. Thank you. Travis...love you! You looked amazingly handsome that day.

Like I said before...handsome!

I want to thank my cousin for taking the most beatiful picture of my parents I've seen in awhile. Just lovely.

Mother/Son dance.

This photo has so much character in it. I love Pam's face. She was worried about breaking Chris' back. I think he was doing just fine though. LOL.

This picture makes me smile. This is Jon Sturm, the pastor who performed the wedding ceremony. I worked with and for Jon for many years. It meant a lot to me that he did this for my brother and my family.

Maile and her adopted Portland dad. Maile, even if you never marry in, you will always be a part of this family. We love you so much!

BFFs? LOL. We are so chipper in this picture.

Food Critics

2009-02-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

Maile and I are spoiled. Portland has some really great restaurants and we have been to enough of them that now it is getting harder and harder to please us. I had a coupon last night for a buy one get one free dinner for any of the restaurants owned by the Restaurants Unlimited Incorporated. They own places like Newport Bay, Stanfords, Portland City Grill and others. We decided we would go to Manzana in the Pearl District. We couldn't find it though because it was no longer there. It had been replaced by Palomino which is owned by the same company so we decided to go ahead and try it.

Now Maile and I should really start our own food critic blog or at the very least start posting on city search or something because all we do when we go out is comment on everything about our experience. Palomino had a good ambiance. No complaints there. Our waiter was attentive and cute. **wink, wink Our first impressions of the menu was that it lacked a cohesive theme. Exactly what kind of food does this place specialize in again? Nothing stood out of note. We shared an order of portobello mushroom soup which they kindly split into two bowls for us. The soup was good but I was glad for the fresh cracked pepper because it really needed an extra dimension to it. Just a tad boring. They also served us sliced bread with some sort of salsa or marinara sauce with chunks of cheese (maybe feta) in it. I like the sauce but Maile thought it was a bit weird.

We decided to order two things and split them each in half. I ordered a chicken and Gorgonzola salad and Maile got the Marsala chicken with cappellini. The salad was actually quite delicious. It had pears and candied walnuts and coated lightly in a maple vinaigrette. The chicken was very tasty and the flavors of the salad blended quite nicely. I thought the $18 price tag on the salad was rather exorbitant but the salad itself was nice.

Maile's Marsala was nothing to write home about. HA, although I guess it was enough to blog everyone about. Nothing extraordinary about it. A little heavy on the garlic. The presentation wasn't very nice. It really needed some sort of vegetable with it to help liven up the plate. Brown sauce and sauteed mushrooms never look all that pretty when poured on a plate over a flattened breast of chicken. The chicken was $19.

Anyway, I think our final verdict would be that the price was way too high for the creativity of the food. You can find much better places in Portland that give you a much better meal for the price. I am just glad we got $18 knocked off our final bill.

Unusual Wedding Preparations

2009-02-09T13:19:00.001-08:00

You know...when it is your brother getting married, the type of wedding preparations you do looks different than if it is a friends wedding. As family, you have all these other things to think about, like what to do with all the family coming in to town. For my parents, this has meant pushing the time line of their home remodel up to get the upstairs finished in time for guests to arrive. So my dad and I spent all day Saturday installing crown molding to the baseboards, doors and closets of the guest bedroom and hallway. I must say that we were impressed with ourselves. We did a pretty good job (this time) and accomplished much more in a shorter time period. I'd show you pictures, except that I didn't take any. I like working with my Dad on projects although when it comes to numbers and calculations, we don't process things the same at all. He would spout all these numbers into the air and my brain can't collect them into any coherent. Give me a piece of paper and a pencil and I'm a whiz at math. Make me do anything mentally without a visual image and I look like an absolute idiot. But we didn't cut off any fingers and didn't destroy too much wood because couldn't measure correctly.

We also reinstalled the closet system that they took out in order to pain the closet. My dad took before pictures of what it looked like assembled so we would know how to put it back together. Course the pictures didn't help me know which of three nearly identical shelves was supposed to fit at the top so I had to reinstall the shelf three different times. The pictures also didn't tell me that I was using the wrong screws. Who knew that all the hardware in the bag didn't just go to this closet. Oi!

However, the house is looking fantastic and if you haven't had a chance to see it since all the work started like a year and a half ago, you should check it out. The master bath/walk in closet is so cool and the kitchen isn't too shabby either. Great work Mom and Dad! Now on to the rest of the downstairs. :)

I also got my hair cut and highlighted this weekend in preparation for the wedding. My gal Chandra made me look fabulous again. I was getting a little scraggly there. Now I've got to work on the slideshow that I am putting together for the reception. I need to block out time in my life to do that because that is going to take a bit of work. Then next Sunday I'm starting to bake the 36 dozen cookies that will end up being party favors at the wedding. His and Hers favorite cookies. Cute huh? So 18 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies for my brother and 18 dozen white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for Pam. Thank you ahead of time, Mom, for helping me!

Back Blogging

2009-01-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

So we had this little snow storm...otherwise known as "Snowpocaplyse 2008" and I got off work for nearly two weeks. It was a little nuts. And you would think, that with all that extra time on my hands that I would blog. However, my time off turned into a big fun relaxing adventure!

First of all, Maile's 13-year-old sister, Caroline, was in town. I was already planning on taking a day off to spend with her and Maile but as it would happen, we got to spend an entire week all together. I cooked big hearty breakfasts for everyone everyday. Well...maybe we'll call them brunches since the girls never got up before noon. =) I made a big german apple pancake, nun's puffs and strawberry stuffed crossaint french toast. YUMM!!

Since the raods were atrocious and I have a weenie snow car, we walked or bussed everywhere. We Christmas shopped along Hawthorne. (Somehow everyone there made it to work.) We got treated to a fantastic dinner at Saucebox by Maile's boyfriend, Kyle, who bartends there. We stuffed ourselves and Caroline enjoyed all the virgin libations that Kyle concocted for her from the bar. We went to see Australia. The big epic that maybe needed to be not quite so epic. We played arcade games at the Avalon. We won Caroline a million tickets that she used to by all these crazy toys. I went to dinner at Bethany and Paul's beautiful condo on Belmont. It was a wonderful dinner of Pastaworks pasta. I got the skinny on Skinny, their humungous and adorable cat, who I cat sat for for the rest of the week.

We went to the bowling alley and played a few games which I bowled atrociously on. I blame the temperature of the room. Their heat, evidently was broken. I think it must have been 50 degrees in there. We also got treated a bit at Paddy's, which is the restaurant and bar that Maile works at. I think we ate more than our fill of happy hour food there. Was there something on that menu that we didn't order?

Kyle also scored us really, really, really great seats for the Blazers game. Two of us sat in the 100 level and two of us watched from a private booth complete with a free wet bar and catered food. We were living the high life and it was a fantastic game. Blazers won against Shaq and the Heat. Caroline got a Brandon Roy jersey and a foam finger that she made us all wear while cheering loudly. It was a great night.

I'm sure there were other adventures that week but because I am blogging about them so late, I have forgotten them. I must admit, I really needed the vacation. I thank God for that. He knew I needed a break. Thanks!!

My Parents

2008-12-05T21:45:00.000-08:00

I have great parents. No. I have awesome parents. They are wonderful. I love them so much. And when I talk to other people who know them, they gush about them too so I feel even more justified to brag about them. My dad is an amazing servant. He will lay his life down for just about anyone and in any way he can. He helps cook every Sunday night with a team preparing food for 75 people attending Alpha. I always hear how he volunteers for all the worst jobs like dishwasher duty. He also is always the last to leave so he can make sure any lone women gets walked to their car safely. That is just who he is. He has always put his family first, sacrificing his own wants for the benefit of the rest of us. He models Jesus' sacrificial and practical love to us.

My dad is also one of the most loyal people I know. He will stick with people through a lot. He always roots for the underdog which came in handy when the Beavers sucked for so many decades. And this may be a weird thing to love about your dad but he is absolutely NOT a handy man. However, he will almost always give a go at a project no matter what it is. Now it might take five times as long to complete the project and four more trips to Home Depot than it needs but he still tackles it. He has taught me everything I know about home improvement. :) I have to thank him for that because even though I may not have had the most knowledgeable of teacher, he taught me to try. I feel incredibly more self sufficient because he instilled that courage in me when it comes to maintenance stuff. And I love getting the giggles with him when working on a project with him that is going awry.

My mom is such an amazing and talented lady. Every time she sits down at the piano she astounds me. She recently prepared a bunch of old jazz standards for our Alpha celebration dinner. I got to sit in the sound booth and simply listen to her play for about 45 minutes. It was great. I took me back to when I was a kid and she would practice in her studio. Now, anytime anyone plays the piano, it comforts me. It is kind of like how we all have a comfort food that we eat when we are sick or feeling blue. For me it is someone playing the piano. We recently got a piano in our apartment and occasionally Maile practices when I am home and I love it.

Everything my mom does is done with excellence. Truly, if you want something done well, ask my mom to do it. She is reliable and follows through on her commitments to people. She is currently looking for a new job and I think anybody would be absolutely crazy not to hire her. They really couldn't go wrong. My mom is a lifelong learner. She went back to school when I was in high school and got her Masters in music education. I think with straight A's too. She is so smart and such a hard worker. Then, even though music had been her life since she was a child, she went back to school again when I was in college and this time she got her associates degree in computer technology and started a completely new career path. She will forever be a cheerleader for people wanting to know themselves better and who want to do something new with their lives. I know she will always be there beside me when I need a push and she will walk alongside me as I figure it out.

I could go on and on but I just wanted to say all that. Mom and Dad, I love you. Thanks for everything.

Adam and Eve

2008-11-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

Two Fridays ago I went over to ACMA, which is a fine arts high school in Beaverton for their production of "The Apple Tree." My mom was hired to play the piano for the musical and she was doing it with her friend Jody who was on the synth. You never know what to expect from high school productions. I have been to my share of shows that make you want to sneak out the back before intermission. But occasionally I see something that really impresses me.

This was a very unique production. It was basically three short, seemingly unrelated, stories. The first was called Passionella and was set in like the 1940s. It was about a chimney sweep who wishes to be a movie star and gets her wish only during certain hours of the day. She falls in love with another movie star who doesn't want to give her the time of day because she is so "fake." Little does he know. Passionella is played by my friend Kyley who is a fabulous dancer and adds quite a bit of humor and glamour to this role. (She is giving the thumbs up with me to the left) Anyway, the two movie stars do end up getting married and they both discover in the end that they have both had some fairy godmother help to be "famous" and they both turn into their regular everyday average self as the curtain closes. Hmmmm...interesting.

Next short is set in like the fifth century or something like that. It felt very Romanesque in costume and feel. It is about a princess who is in love with a soldier. When their love is discovered he is sent to be judged. Now in this land the queen has set up a very odd system of justice. The accused is given the choice of two doors. At one door is a lion. If he chooses that door then he is obviously guilty and obviously immediately punished. If he chooses the other door, he is innocent and there awaits a woman that he then marries. So this soldier is given a choice and the princess finds out from the lion keepers which door the lion is behind. But she is also a jealous person and can't stand the thought of him marrying the person behind the other door. So in the end of this short act, we see her point him in the direction of a door and we never get to know if she chose death for him or not. Doubly, interesting. What does that have to do with the first short? These are written to go together. Hmmmm....?

The final half of the show follows Adam and Eve as they are first created and getting to know each other and their environment. I was supremely impressed by the two actors who staged this entire act. Their acting was compelling and the story made you think about something that gets entirely glossed over in Sunday school with the flannelgraph. They explored things like how did Adam and Eve know how or what to name the animals. In what ways were men and women different from each other before socialization ever had a chance to direct otherwise. Did Adam and Eve ever fall in love. What did that process look like? When you have no past to learn from and no teacher, how do you learn about the world? It was a very thoughtful, humorous and, in the end, touching show.

Now I am still trying to figure out how the three parts flowed together. They did mention the color brown during each show but I have no clue why. I also found out later that it was written by Mark Twain and was intended to be show in the opposite order of acts. Adam and Eve were supposed to start it all and Passionella was supposed to conclude it all. That piece of knowledge didn't really solidify anything for me. Oh well. It was a fun night. Since you couldn't take pictures during the show I don't have any to show you except these. Many of the actors and their parents showed up at Red Robin later where my parents and I were grabbing grub. The guy in the middle played Adam.

Cupcakes make the world go round

2008-11-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

Ok I know that this is a day late and a dollar short but I have to tell you how Maile and I actually got through the voting process this November. First of all, it took three and a half hours for us to work through all the people and measures on the stinking ballot. Since we had anticipated such a long voting journey we decided we needed provisions and rewards. So we first pre-treated ourselves to dinner at the Montage so that all those carbs would give us the energy we needed to push through. (If you have not had the privilege of eating one of their famous mac and cheeses then stop by sometime and check them out. YUM!!) Then we stopped by Freddy's and bought our favorite beer. Because beer was going to help take the edge off when Sizemore's poorly written measures were making us frustrated and angry. Lastly, we needed a reward system to keep us going. We bought and baked our favorite funfetti cupcakes with funfetti frosting and sprinkles. Just the sight of them will cheer you up. We buckled down and filled in our little round circles and every once in a while, when we felt the momentum and resolve faltering, we ate a cupcake. So I just want to thank cupcakes for the important role they played in this year's election.

Halloween was so much fun. For five years now my church throws this huge party for the neighborhood. We buy 26ft high inflatable slides and bounce houses, fill the kids up with sugar for two hours and let them back loose on their parents. It's marvelous. We have tons of carnival games and cotton candy, popcorn and pronto pups (corn dogs). I had one person tell me that she was trying to find something else just as fun or more fun than the Halloween Extravaganza to take her grandkids to this year and couldn't find anything. Our party was the best thing happening for kids. YEA!! I love this event because it gives us a tangible way to meet our neighbors and serve them in a really practical and fun way. I hope we never stop doing this. The picture to the left is of my friend Elinna and I at the Extravaganza. Obviously I was a cowgirl (Yea creativity!) and I think Elinna was going as one hot mama.

Dad and I headed down to Corvallis again for another Beaver game. This time we got to sit a little higher. While the excitement of being practically on the field was awesome, we ended up watching most of the USC game on the jumbotron. This time, we had a big light pole right smack dab in the middle of our jumbotron sightline. Good thing we didn't really need to see it from where we were sitting. The Beavs are still on a very tentative path to the Rose Bowl because of our win over USC. But we have four huge games to hurdle over first. On Saturday we barely won over ASU. It was one of those really stressful games that wasn't played particularly superbly by either team. But we scratched out a win and Dad and I got to try out our new rain gear. We were hot but we were dry. Not we've got UCLA, CAL, Arizona and Oregon left on the schedule. Yikes. Should be interesting.

My good friend Karen Snyder was in town this Wednesday and she and Maile and I went out to Huber's for drinks and desserts. Hubers is known for their Spanish coffees which they make flaming tableside. I was very impressed by how this server could do a three foot pour in an arc over his head. Crazy! It was good to see Karen, who is leaving to serve for the next two years with Wycliffe at their national offices in Orlando, FL. I'll miss not being able to see her more often. And I know she'll miss the NW. Just maybe not in January when it is 70 degrees and sunny there.

Ok, that's the update. I've actually got the night off so I am looking forward to some down time. Catch you all later!

The Mile High (DRYYYYYYYYY) City

2008-10-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I took the opportunity to visit my brother Travis and his fiance Pam in Denver. They generously bought me a ticket to come out and see them and help them out with their new house that they bought. Before I say anything though I just want to comment on how stinkin' dry that place is. Not only is the air thin but it has no moisture whatsoever. Well...I shouldn't exaggerate. I heard that there was 1% humidity when I left on Sunday. I got a nosebleed the first morning I was there. And this coming from the girl who always has "moisture" in her nose because of her allergies. Ok, well enough with that rant. I'm just so glad to be back in Portland where my skin doesn't feel like it is turning into a desert.

I arrived late Sunday night and Pam was sweet enough to come along to pick me up even though it meant a short night of sleep for her. And of course they brought Kaiser. Kaiser is their two year old Weimeraner that they just adopted three weeks ago. He is a sweet boy. Here is a picture of him getting his cuddle on with Pam on the couch on Friday night. Pam was a little tired for some reason.
On Friday Travis and Pam had to work so I slept in and then got to work painting their master bathroom. Trav came home after lunch which was good because Kaiser had already destroyed a pair of his shoes while under my watch. Trav and I spent the rest of the afternoon fencing in this dog run that he is building. Their backyard is fenced but it is a three foot tall fence. Easily jumped over by the Weimer. I wish I had a picture of the run he built. Very cool. Good job Trav.

Pam came home before we were finished and we all piled into their Nissan Titan for a much needed trip to the dog park. After that we picked up some movies, more paint and some dinner groceries and went home. They cooked this fabulous tri tip steak, green beans, salad, bread dinner complete with wine. I discovered that my brother hates red wine but we oddly enough have the same exact favorite beer, Blue Moon Belgian White. Pam and the dog slept through War Inc., a very interesting tongue-in-cheek movie about what the world might look like if corporations ruled the world rather than governments.

Pam made a great breakfast on Saturday morning before we all piled into the truck again to go back to the dog park for a Weimeraner Shelter Meet and Greet. Basically I got slobbered on a lot by 10-15 beautiful Weimers and other such dogs saying hello to everyone. I also realized what a great job Travis has been doing training Kaiser. In only two weeks Kaiser knows how to sit, lie down, stay, heel and leave food alone that is sitting right in front of him. And most of those commands he knows by hand signals only. Amazing. Trav is a really patient and firm teacher.

After the park, we painted the hallway and the guest bedroom and finished painting the master bathroom. We also finished putting up all the rest of the fencing for the dog run and raked all the backyard leaves. At that point my right arm was about to fall off from exhaustion so we decided to get pizza and go bowling. Yea, that's right. Bowling with the exhausted right arm. Needless to say I sucked it up. But I have so many excuses to use this time. I mean...besides the tired arm, I didn't have my own ball with me. That just totally throws you for a loop. Then they turned off all the lights for "cosmic bowling" and I couldn't see the arrows on the lane anymore. Then there was all the flashy, strobey lights swirling around me....And it is as this point that I felt old. What is wrong with me? At what point did cosmic bowling turn from fun and awesome to bothersome and obnoxious. So I sighed to myself and we went home and watched Leatherheads.

On Sunday Travis and Pam took me to this awesome breakfast joint called Toast. Ironically enough, one of Maile and I's favorite breakfast spots here in Portland is also called Toast. The Littleton, CO Toast kind of specializes in pancakes. Since none of us could decide what kind of pancakes we wanted, we ordered a "flight" for the table. Kind of a sampler of four short stacks of four different kinds. So cool! We had lemon blueberry, oreo cookie, bananas foster and blueberry granola. I loved it. Yay cool breakfast joints!
After our hearty breakfast Pam and I headed out to do some more hard work at the mall. We were on the prowl for the perfect bridesmaid's dress for me. Pam had this great and generous idea of letting each bridesmaid pick out a cute black cocktail dress for the wedding. That means we all get to wear something that is flattering on us and that we will most certainly wear again. Gold star for Pam!! We headed to the White House, Black Market store which, as the name suggests, kind of specializes in all things black and white. Gloriously, we bought the first and only dress that I tried on. I nearly kissed the service clerk I was so happy that this wasn't going to be a long ordeal. And I love the dress. It is super cute and looks great on me. Thanks Pam!! (Sorry, I don't have a picture of it!)

Ok well this is getting long and I am sure most of you don't care that much about all the little details of my trip. But let me just finish by thanking my brother and Pam for hosting me. It meant a lot to me to spend time with you both. I love you and wish you lived closer. Good luck with the new house and the new dog! And if anyone is in Denver, look them up. They have a fabulous chocolate brown guest bedroom now to host you in. :)

No Pictures!? What kind of posting is this?

2008-10-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

So yea. I don't have any pictures to show you from all my adventures over the past week. I don't have a picture to show you of Maile and I standing in line for rush tickets at the Gerding Theater to see Guys and Dolls last Wednesday. I don't have a picture to show you of Maile and my new favorite youtube video but you can watch it here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iUU6jTqB6k. I don't have a picture of me leading worship at our women's retreat at Cannon Beach. Neither do I have a picture of me leading a merengue dance class at that same retreat. (Besides, pictures of the ladies learning the dance would have been much more fun anyway.) I also don't have a picture of the piano concert that my mom and I ushered for on Tuesday. And last but not least I don't have a picture of Maile and I trying Pok Pok last night which was voted Portland's best restaurant in 2007. You can't see my amazing meal I had.

I'm sorry that you visually missed out on vicariously living through my life this week through these pictures. I will try so much harder in the future to bring to you the best that my camera has to offer. Until then, ciao.

Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together today.

2008-10-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

I have had the special privilege of being able to attend nearly all of my friend's wedding. Last Saturday I got to see Jeff and Melinda tie the knot. I met them both in college through InterVarsity. As I looked around the reception I caught myself reminiscing about all weddings of my friends in the room. I couldn't think of a one that I hadn't been able to go to. What a great gift!

I was lucky I made it to this wedding at all though. I was in NW Portland eating a great meal at the Industrial Cafe with Maile at 3:40pm. With a gasp I realized that I had forgotten that Jeff and Melinda's wedding was at 4pm in Lake Oswego! Luckily, we had just finished paying so we jumped up and ran to the car like madmen. Well, I ran to the car like a mad man. Maile giggled at me because a guy on the sidewalk starting laughing at me because I was freaking out so much.
I had to drive home to SE Portland to drop off Maile and change clothes but somehow I was less than ten minutes late to the wedding. Whew! (Thanks Maile for printing me out directions so quick!)

The wedding was beautiful and the party afterwards was awesome! Everyone was dancing and having a great time. I left the party nearly four hours after it started and it was still raging. If you want to see more pictures, check out the album on my facebook page.

Love you Melinda and Jeff! Best Wishes!!

Irises and Shows

2008-09-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

So I decided with all this good weather we had this weekend and free time I actually had, I would do some yard work in my little patch of land out back of the apartment. I was pruning down my irises and must have done something not right because I can barely move today my back hurts so bad. It is fine when I am sitting still but I am having a very difficult time rising from a sitting position or bending over in the slightest. Oi, that'll teach me to do yard work. On the other hand, my iris bed sure looks good.

On Saturday night, Dad and Mom and I went to a concert that some of our friends were putting on. It was very good. Tammie Dees has such an incredible voice. She did everything from Jazz classics to Opera. Tricia Collier, who I sing on worship team with, was also there performing with Tammie. Here is a picture of the two of them on stage. Good job girls!!
Mom and I ushered this weekend at the Newmark Theater for Menopause the Musical. The show was hilarious but just as hilarious were all the menopausal, hot flashing groups of giggling women who came in for the show. The room was absolutely freezing before we opened and once the seats were filled it was nearly hot. There were only like 10 guys in the auditorium. Some of them definitely looked like they had been dragged in there. Ha! I think it was good for them, though, to gain a greater understanding for what women go through. I definitely think that women got the worse end of the curse. Course, we did eat the apple first...

BEAVERS BEAT #1 TROJANS!!!

2008-09-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

I was there! My dad and I got tickets for a few Beaver games this season and this was one of them. Oh my gosh, it was an incredible night of football. Too see OSU play that first half felt like we were in a dream. Every call seemed to go our way. The penalties went to USC and the challenges went to the Beavs. Quizz Rogers hid behind the offensive line andUSC never could find him. He rushed for 186 yards. His brother James also brought in two touchdowns. It was incredible! And we were seated in the front row the whole time.

The third quarter felt more like how the game was predicted to go. (The Beavs were favored to lose this game by like 27 points or something.) USC came back after half time and made two runs down the field with the energy and ease in which we normally see them play. It got a little scary but made the fourth quarter even more exciting. A key interception by Laybourn in the fourth gave the Beavs that extra lead to 27 to 14. And I'm convinced that the USC touchdown with two minutes left in the game was due entirely to the student section pouring into the Beaver sidelines and dousing Riley before the game was done. Stupid! They were a distraction and could have cost the Beavers the game if USC had recovered their on-side kick and returned for another touchdown. They would have won because our last extra point had been blocked.

Anyway, such a great night and very awesome to have experienced it with my dad. Go Beavs!!!

Apartment Dwelling Animals

2008-09-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last night our apartment got a little excitement. I was cooking dinner and had a friend over. I went into the kitchen to find the kitten kind of spazzing out. She was visibly distressed about something in the general vicinity of the refrigerator. Now about a year ago or so, my other cat had alerted me to a giant sized rat that was hiding behind the fridge. I left the kitten "guarding" the kitchen while I went in search of my flashlight. I was hoping and praying that I would not be finding another rat and I was preparing curses upon which I would heap upon my landlord for not doing anything about the situation last time.

I peered around the fridge and was disgusted to find, not a rat, but a snake. A snake was in our apartment behind our fridge! It was slowly venturing to leave the safety of the back of the fridge and move along towards the back door. I freaked out. I threw Shalom (the other cat) towards it because back in the day, when we lived at the other house, she was an avid snake hunter. She ignored the thing. Useless creature!

So I called the closest boy to come rescue us. Johnny, one of my upstairs neighbors, came flying down with his two buddies all excited about the snake. We pushed aside the fridge and he managed to snag a grab at it, flinging it into an empty kitchen trash can. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Maile called Johnny at that moment and he told her he was standing in her apartment with a snake he just caught behind her fridge. She thought he was joking. I wish it had been a joke. She was almost home so she insisted we keep the snake until she could see proof of it.

The snake didn't seem quite like a normal garter snake. It wasn't colored exactly like one and it had this bad habit of occasionally shaking its tail at us. He didn't have any rattles on it so we kind of ignored that. It also would lash out with its head like it was attacking. That was a little disturbing.

Maile got home and we decided to throw it outside. Johnny and Maile ran about a block away and tossed the thing. They came back and I thought the adventure was over...until someone said something to me this morning...

I was retelling the night's exploits to the gals at work and one of them asked if the snake had maybe escaped from a neighbor. A sickening feeling of dread fell over me as I remembered the countless reptiles that my immediate neighbor Kerri owns. In particular a pretty little snake that she keeps in a cage in her room. OH MY GOSH!!! I just threw out my neighbor's pet!! Crap, what do I do?!

I called Maile and she called Kerri and the rest of the evening's exploits were told to me. Apparently, when Johnny was outside the apartments later, Kerri came out freaking out about her lost snake. Evidently one of her cats had knocked over the cage and the snake was missing. Hmmm...where did it go. Johnny told her about rescuing me from the snake that I found in my kitchen earlier and she made him go searching through all the bushes where they had thrown it. And amazingly enough, they found it! Praise God!! (BTW the snake was a corn snake. )

I am relieved at how the situation ended. However, I am over finding rodents in my home. Not cool.

Yea, I finally exist in the blog world

2008-09-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

I do not consider myself a writer. When I picture a writer, I think of a person who writes because they must. They need to put pen to paper and create. It is part of living for them. These people seem to enjoy the art of journaling and writing without necessarily an end goal in sight. I am not this kind of writer. Instead, perhaps you could call me a utilitarian writer or a pragmatic writer. And in that sense, I feel that I am quite adept at the craft. I write to accomplish a purpose. I write to finish a school paper, design marketing material, or a church program.

Writing for a blog seems very much like journaling except that others are expected to read what you pen. However, I have been inspired recently by many friends and family's blogs who have effectively used their blogs as a way to keep everyone informed about their lives and activities. That to me seems filled with purpose, and while I can't imagine most people caring to know about my daily activities, I figure I can at least make a go of it. So here goes...

I seem to fallen into a habit of taking on way too much stuff in my life every Fall. As September started I thought I was being a good girl because I had turned down the offer to join a bowling league team again. Yay, one more night free. Yea right! There are just too many good things to be a part of. On Monday nights, Maile (my roommate) and I are taking a personal finance class. The course is called Financial Peace University and is through Dave Ramsey's organization. I had heard recommendations from many many people who had taken the course so I got pumped about getting debt free and experiencing a sense of freedom from the stress of finances. The class so far is very, very good. I would recommend it to anyone!

I decided a few months ago to take on the role of leading worship at my church's women's retreat for the fourth year in a row. This is one of those things that you forget every year how much work goes into it. Lucky for me, this year I have my mom on my team and she is indispensable in the help and knowledge she brings to the table. It has made planning this year and preparing for this year's retreat so much easier. Thank you Mom!!! So my Tuesday evenings are generally spent with my wonderful team of gals who are leading this shin-dig with me. We jam together at Jody's house for a couple hours learning songs, working through the music and laughing a lot.

Wednesdays were supposed to be this glorious night off. So far, that hasn't really been the case. Something seems to pop up each week. But they tend to be awesome stuff like taking my workaholic friend Jay out on the town or shopping at REI with my parents. Every couple of weeks an evening meeting is thrown in for good sobering measure.

Worship team meets on Thursdays but I'm not always on the team so I get a night off every so often.

Fridays and Saturdays are the nights that my mom and I usually usher at the Portland Center for Performing Arts a couple times a month. This has been great. I love that I get to do this with my mom and we get to see a lot of shows; many of which are awesome and the occasional one that you wish you could sneak out of except for the fact that you are ushering the darn thing.

Saturday mornings...er, Saturday afternoons are my time to hang out with Maile and get some good roommate time in. Recently she has taken over the bar at Paddy's where she works so she often doesn't get home until after 5am on Friday nights. Thus the shift from our roommate breakfasts to our roommate brunches as she needs to sleep until at least noon. I love this time I get to spend with her and rarely will give it up for things that come up that could conflict with it.

Sundays I spend with the community of faith at Greater Portland Bible Church. My parents are a part of the same church as I am so I get to serve alongside them in ministry. It also means I get the privilege of spending time with them at least once a week (if not more) as we have lunch after church. I really cherish and enjoy the time I get to spend hanging out with them. They are awesome. I really have amazing parents.

On Sunday nights I run the sound and lights for Alpha. Alpha is a place for people to come without fear of judgement or condemnation to hear more about Jesus and the Christian faith and ask any questions they may have about spiritual matters. The evening starts with dinner, then a video, then a time for small group discussion. I'm hoping that people find answers and peace to life's most difficult questions and discover the hope to be found in the person and diety of Jesus.

So anyway, that is a little snapshot of my life. In case you didn't know...I work full time at my church. I provide administrative support to several ministries including worship and missions. I won't offer commentary about working for a church. I'll perhaps save that for another post. However, I'll say that it is both a very rewarding and purpose filled vocation and one filled with the burden of many, many people's lives.