Fall!

I love LOVE fall. When Kevin and I first discussed marriage, I knew it HAD to happened in the fall. The air is crisp, and fall has its own smell. I love to look outside and watch leaves caught up in the wind twirling up and down in the street. When I was growing up fall meant that the holidays were coming soon. My mom always decorated our house with leaves and pumpkins. We burned candles and logs in the fireplace.

Kevin and I were tipped off by a friend recently that Goodwill is a great place to buy fall decorations. The next day we headed out to two of our favorite Goodwill's. We sorted through all the decorations and found some great items!
Meet Bobby:

He is really Bobby2, last October mom gave us a scarecrow for our garden but he succumbed to Oregon's elements, and he's no longer with us.









This close up is really for Andy and Whitney. I thought you could appreciate his little dreads.

Wild Horse Canyon Retreat

Here are some pics from our weekend in Eastern Oregon!

Kevin and I were happy to get out to the dry, hilly, environment to the East of us.

This is the path to the sports pavilion. I don't even want to know what their water bill is each month to keep the grounds this green.

I was a happy little lady on vacation.

This is one of the ziplines. First we were told it is the longest in Oregon, by the end of the weekend everyone was exclaiming it is the longest IN THE WORLD!

What? We really like to kiss, sheesh.

We caught this sunset on the drive home. It was gorgeous.

Race For The Phewwwww....

Weird day today. I am currently working as a cafeteria lady, but I also spend Tuesdays and Thursdays as an intern. Being an intern is fun, and gives me quite a few new things to experience. Today my internship led to me waking up at 6am! On a sunday, gross. I got up nice and early because I was in charge of coordinating a group of volunteers. Today was Portland's 16th annual Susan G. Komen "Race for the Cure."

We (Kevin and I) took a shuttle (school bus) down to the race and headed straight to our crew's truck. We had tons of bananas on a table and Kevin and I got to work blowing up balloons. After passing out balloons to small children, and wrangling our team for a team picture, the real work began.

We headed north up Naito Parkway and claimed our spot to cheer on the biggest race of the day. Our small team of cheerleaders, from young children to adults, jumped and shouted and waved pom poms as racers passed. We spent the bulk of our time (3hours) screaming for the 5k walk. The 5k walk had over 35,000 participants. I yelled into a plastic megaphone and encouraged the walkers to finish strong. It never ceased to amaze me that each new wave of walkers was happy to hear the same things I had yelled at the 10,000 people before them.

I yelled things like:
"You're almost done!" "Only three more blocks, don't give up now!" "You can do it, bring it on home!" "You're so close now, I promise."
They loved it! So I yelled, and yelled, and yelled. All under the watchful eye of my boss who seemed impressed with my ability to scream non-stop for 3 hours. Kevin got quite a few laughs when he yelled "I'm here because I lost a dare!" Hardly true, we all know he was there because he supports everything I do. The crowd also loved when he would yell "If me yelling at you doesn't encourage you, then nothing will!"

On our way home we picked up some food and after filling my tummy I took a deep-sleep nap that felt so good.

Polydactyl Kittens...

...Or, kittens who have 6 toes on each paw! Yesterday I met two little kittens who are polydactyl. Their extra toes make their paws really big and when you hold a paw in your hand it looks like a mitten. When the kittens walked around they looked like high heels with the front four toes flat in front and the two side toes extended to walk. I held a little orange striped kitten. She had such a pretty coat and she was a very sweet cat. I wish I had my camera, because as I held her she would press a paw against my chest as she purred.

To The Canyon We Go

After Kevin gets off work this afternoon we will pack up and head to Antelope Oregon. Every Fall semester MBC takes a weekend to get away from the city and take a retreat. From Friday-Monday in the second weekend of September we take over Wild Horse Canyon. It is really beautiful there, and quite the opposite of the lush green, Portland. The best part is that this retreat is FREE! It is free for both Kevin and I, even though he is not a student. We are really looking forward to getting away and going on a hike, and maybe even using the zipline. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Of Minor Note

When you comfort yourself by saying; "maybe it is just stuck in my eyelid" you know you've got a problem on your hands. This morning as I sipped my coffee and chatted with Kevin I noticed the vision in my right eye seemed a bit off. It was a little blurry like when some goo gets lodged between my contact and my pupil. I decided to investigate further the cause of the blurriness. I looked into my right eye and noticed I did not see a contact lens. I began to poke at my cornea in a dragging motion, hoping the lens was there and I just couldn't see it. But, no such luck. The lens was gone. I began to wonder where it could be, in my eyelid? On my pillow? I have yet to find it. I will be a glasses wearer until I can make it to the eye doctor. I think it may be fun if the lens turns up in some awkward place.

Writing Exercise

In my Article Writing class we are given small writing exercises, to well, learn to write better. The other day our professor introduced a particular writing exercise with a story.

In Portland, we have many street fairs where locals sell stuff. Art, food, and some weird things. Apparently, years ago there was a woman who had a writing booth. You could pay her 50 cents and give her a topic and she would write a page on the chosen topic. In a similar fashion my professor told us to choose a topic for the person to our left to write about. I was given the topic "puppy-love" and I had so much fun writing it, I thought I might share it here too. Keep in mind I had a very limited amount of time to write this story.

Puppy-Love

I would have to call it puppy-love. There was not other way to describe it. I was in second grade and certain I had met my future husband. His name was Taylor. He had just moved to California from Georgia. We sat at the same table in Mrs. Cox class at Walt Disney Elementary. As luck would have it, I was given Taylor as my reading partner. We were told to prepare a short presentation on Johnny Appleseed. Taylor told me he was nervous, and that he couldn't read very well. I was confident I was the girl to carry him through.

"Don't worry Taylor, it's going to be great!" I told him.

I arrived home and got to work. It was important that I looked good. I began to put together what I thought would be the perfect outfit. The next morning I got dressed in the outift that I had fashioned after the '80's pop singer, "Tiffany." I pulled on a pair of wool tights, laced up my high top converse and put on a denim skirt, over a tu tu. I wore my favorite over sized sweater. The pink and yellow one, with the rollerskating elephants holding hands on it. I thought it might make Taylor want to hold my hand.

My mom drove me to school and when I stepped out of the car I was mortified. I suddenly realized what I was wearing. I was so embarrassed I turned to get back in the car, only to see that mom was gone. I did not feel as cool as "Tiffany."