I had time to stop by my apartment this afternoon before heading to the airport so I snapped a few shots now that I can see the place without the previous tenants stuff. I think it's gonna be pretty sweet!!

Dining room




Dining room to kitchen













Bathroom - pretty standard




Yes that is my sweet red carpet




Bedroom




Bonus room - hard to get a sense of size here




Door at end of the hall to the shared laundry room

It'll probably look quite different once I get my stuff in there but so far I'm saying home sweet home. :)

I am trying to get our Apple TV's to communicate to our PC through home sharing. They are communicating to the Mac laptop, but not the PC. We recently updated our internet provider from comcast to Qwest. I think it might have something to do with the firewall or ports. Any help would be fantastic.

Thanks

This is Isaac, a pretty good kid by most standards. He gets excellent grades, he listens to atrocious music, he plays the guitar, his room is a nightmare, he goes to seminary all on his own, he runs like the wind, he treats his siblings deplorably, he has good friends, and his favorite place to be is home. One minute, I want to kill him, the next minute he has his arms around me and is telling me how much he loves me. Overall, a good kid.

No, not the Barenaked Ladies song...it is one week until I move into my new apartment! I'll be signing my contract and getting my keys next Thursday and then later that day flying to San Diego before I even get a chance to go see the place. Not sure if I mentioned it before but the only time I viewed the apartment there were people living in it so I had to use my imagination in combination with the photos of the apartment vacant to imagine what I could make it into so I am pretty excited to see it again!

But I will be flying to San Diego to retrieve the stuff I left down there in storage, put it all in a rental truck and drive it back up here in time to then move the stuff into the apartment and be able to see the place that Sunday. My best friend Matthew will be driving up with me and staying for a couple of days to help me get settled and unpacked so I am really excited to have another fun road trip up the coast - seems to be a common occurrence for me!

So by April 4th, I will be out of Mom & Dad's and living on my own once again. For those that were betting on it, it turned out to be just over five months and I'm still alive. But really, it has been a great situation living with Mom & Dad for this brief time - very helpful to me and fun to be close to family so much. There aren't a lot of 29 year olds that could move back home for a few months and stand it, so I consider myself very lucky.

I'm excited to explore Portland even more as I make it my newest home. And I am happy to have any of the many of you that are close by come explore along with me. I plan to be chock full of recommendations for places to eat, shop, listen to music, relax and have fun very soon.

In connection with my move, I have been doing lots of searching and probably too much finding of different decor to furnish my new place. I think I'm gonna end up being like Anne and phasing in the different ideas but I am definitely grateful to all of you up here that are lending me different items until I can find ones for myself - I think I'm actually borrowing at least one item from each family!

Other than the move, work continues to go well. I am fitting in nicely with the team and we are getting a lot of really great work done. Last week was a little slow due to lots of vacations in connection with Spring Break time but it picked right up again this week and I have a full plate once again. There are a lot of projects in the works so I feel a little like I am in the calm before the storm right now but I am really enjoying what I am doing and look forward to taking on more responsibility as the months go on. In other work news, I am still working on a very part-time basis for my old San Diego company. I am managing an online project for them so I can easily do that remotely and we've worked out a good system so I can do work for them on the off hours. So between those two jobs, my weekdays are pretty full - about 50 hours a week plus about a 2 hour commute every day. - something I am definitely not going to miss about living in Vancouver and working in Hillsboro!

I have also planned another trip to San Diego in May, this one for a bit longer than the few hours I will be there next week. I received an email last week from SDSU alerting me that I was eligible to walk in commencement this May. That triggered my memory that I never walked for my MBA because I graduated in the summer semester and if you are a graduate student at SDSU, you can't walk the semester prior if you graduate in the summer. So I am now up to walk if I want to. I thought about it for a while, talked to my friends, talked to Mom & Dad and decided that I really would like to do it. It helps that it is in San Diego, so an excuse to visit all of my friends but it will also be nice to have that culminating experience for the degree. My best friend from the program is also graduating this May so I will get to walk with her too so that will make it extra special. So that is the weekend before Memorial Day - in case anyone wants to join me, Mom and Dad in our quick trip to San Diego, you are welcome to come to my commencement ceremony. It's on May 21st bright and early at 8am. Just make sure to let me know if those pigs do fly so I can put aside tickets. ;)

It is kind of crazy that all of us will be up in the NW so soon - crazy and awesome. I am really excited to have everyone so close - especially so all the little cousins can know each other that much better. I'm anxious to hear the 100% from Mike & Brooke and that the move hold is taken off for Tom & Tracey so keep us updated!

Love you all!

http://runningforrisa.com/times-places.php

I guess it is about time that I sat down to blog. Life has been quite busy lately.
Here are a few things that have happened:

-At the beginning of this month, we moved into our new place. We are getting very close to being unpacked. So nice to get thru stuff and really figure out stuff we don't need.
-Ants have been a big issue at the house. They have been in almost every food cupboard in the kitchen, the pantry, and then they made their way upstairs thru the plumbing and into the hallway, kids' bathroom, and then our bathroom. We finally had enough and called the landlord who now has us set up on a quarterly visit schedule with an exterminator. It is so great to be taken care of like that.
-Peter and I ran the Santiam Scramble run. It was a bunch of craziness but it was such a awesome and fun time. It was five miles that included multiple straight up climbs, 6 creek crossings, and we spent the majority of the run not on trails, basically running thru branches and bushes. There was lots of snow and mud. Peter definitely feels like he has found a group he fits in with. I think we will be participating in these runs yearly now.
-Andrew is now signed up for kindergarten. Crazy to think that we are at that point but he is so excited.
-I met the other day with 5 other moms to talk about starting a preschool co-op for the kids that are Beck's age. We won't be officially starting until the fall but Beck keeps asking all the time about it. I am just excited at the fact we have so many young families in our ward to do this with.
-Camie is on the verge of officially walking. She will take steps here and there but then will realize she can do things faster by crawling. She is beginning to wave hi and bye and says "mama", "dada", "bye", and "night night". It is excited to know that she will be turning 1 next month. Speaking of which, local stinchfields/perrys: When are we doing the birthday celebrations for April? I was thinking the 23rd since we will be up that weekend for sure.
-I am continuing my marathon training. It is going well. I did 13.33 miles the week before last and felt so good. It was pouring rain the whole time but that made it so much better. I am busy trying to get the house settled and get things set up and make it feel like home. I have lots of plans for the decorating of the house but we gotta have the money to do it so I think it may have to wait until a little later.
-Peter is working hard at work and is busy with Portland Mormon Choir. They have their spring concert next month and he has been working hard at memorizing the songs.

We are looking forward to the many upcoming events of the summer and so excited to have everyone in the area in just a short while. We love you all and can't wait to see you guys soon.

-Anne

I was scooping their ice cream last night, based on their individual requests and just had to laugh as I realized how much it is a commentary on their personalities. Hayden and Danica could not be more opposite and Alyssa is somewhere in the middle. But just like Vanilla and Chocolate, they're all good!

The Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra would like to invite you to join us for the performance “My Redeemer Lives”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Find us on Facebook for updates! www.facebook.com/PortlandMormon


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To celebrate this Easter season, come and enjoy a concert filled with music focused on the life and mission of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Bring family and friends to an inspiring concert that will help remind all of the role Jesus Christ plays in our lives. Special musical guest Dallyn Vail Bayles will leave your heart full of appreciation for the true reason for this upcoming holiday.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


West Linn High School

Thursday, April 7th 7:30PM
Friday, April 8th 7:30PM

Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra is featuring two of their three Spring performances on the Westside of the Portland Metropolitan area. This venue holds a maximum of 500 people so seating is extremely limited! Purchasing tickets early is encouraged.

Tickets are priced at $15 each. Groups of 10 or more are $12 per ticket.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Willamette University, Smith Auditorium
Saturday, April 9th 7:30PM

It has been a few years since Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra has had a concert in Salem. This is a great opportunity for everyone in the Salem area to be able to enjoy and experience this great music live and close to home. Smith Auditorium only seats 1200 people. With only one Salem performance, this concert will probably sell out quickly so, again, you are encouraged to get your tickets early to avoid being disappointed.

Tickets are priced low at $10.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional information regarding the concert is available at portlandmormon.org


Get tickets now at http://www.portlandmormon.org

Batwoman has join the crew!

We were about 2-3 away from him at this point. The guy I was with had a camera with a nice flash to get some pictures.




Da..Dum....Da....Dum.....

I had the chance to go diving with some friends of mine after work last friday. It turned out to be a beautiful day. I just kick myself every day that I did not get certified earlier but that is life. I want to take advantage of the last few months we have here to do as much as I can. Here are some pictures of the dive. The second dive we saw this cool cuddlefish and also a sea turtle. You can see how the cuddle fish changed its color as it back away. It was just a really cool experience.

Okay, time to get out the pencil (keyboard) and make a few scratches about our trip with the Krouts. We left on the 5th of March and came home last Sunday. They stayed to Tuesday and wished they hadn't due to the Spring Break activities on South Miami Beach. Included here a few photos from the trip on the NCL Epic, their newest and largest ship. It was only 2/3 full so getting around was very reasonable. They expected the Spring Break crowd to fill the hull the week after ours so I am glad we were there when we were. Totally booked out for the week following us.

This is a very special day in our family. Today Hayden was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. He has been looking forward to this day and is excited for what it means. I would like to take the time to write more but I know the grandparents are anxious for a report so I will hurry and share the basics now. Hayden chose to be baptized in the ocean, an Okinawan tradition that is still an option because there is not a good font to use in the church building. We tried to do it back in February but the wind was so strong that the current was to rough and the waves were too big to get in the water. So after much waiting, it was finally today. The weather made us nervous a few times today but it held out and ended up being wonderful. It was warm enough and the wind stayed down and it didn’t rain. We had only one set back, the tide was really low. Although we tried to read the tide charts and understand what they meant in the end we just to pick a convenient time that was after church and before dinner. We didn’t get it right and the boys had to go out really far into the ocean to get deep enough. They were lucky to have strong dads to carry them! First we sat up on the beach and enjoyed a talk about baptism. Then we moved down through this opening toward the water. At higher tide the water comes right up to this spot.
We stood here on this sand and they walked out until the water was deep enough, about 50 feet.

Once Hayden was settled in the water things seemed to really calm down and we were able to hear the prayer and watched as Hayden was put under water. His leg floated up, perhaps due to the current, or salt water, or his anxiousness to get out, who knows. So they got to do it a second time and it went smoothly. Tom then carried Hayden back to the waiting dry towel. Then I got to snuggle him to warm him up while we watched his friend be baptized.
While they all went to change we moved up off the beach and to a covered pavilion for the rest of the service. We felt very loved and there were a lot of families in attendance so we all sat and sang primary songs while we waited for the boys. Once they returned I gave a talk about the Holy Ghost and the boys had to try to crush a soda can that was empty and then one “filled” with the Holy Ghost. They were then confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were given the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Hayden said he had a great day. He got to choose chocolate chip pancakes for lunch and pizza for dinner and all his friends came to the baptism. Once the girls were in bed I sat with him for a while and we talked and he said it felt good. Most of all he said he was surprised that he didn't feel cold when he went under the water. He was so worried but he said he just felt warm. It was wonderful for me to be able to see Hayden take these important steps and I felt so proud to be his mom. At the same time I am overwhelmed at the responsibility to care for someone so important. He truly is amazing and has the potential to be anyone he wants to be. I want him to stay little forever but as he inevitably grows up I look forward to seeing the young man he will become!