This video is AMAZING!

I feel icky....oh so icky.....

I got a late Christmas present. A cold, yay........ I haven't been sick in a while, I was starting to forget how miserable it is. Fever, chills, headache, sore throat....good times..... I stayed home today, George took me to the doctor who said its viral so they can't do anything. She did recommend a slew of over the counter meds which are helping. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow so I don't have to use more vacation pay. Ugh.
I was really looking forward to the snow today, they were predicting a couple inches. We only had a trace this morning and it all turned to slushy rain during the day. But it looks like the Heilmanns were in just the right spot!
I posted Christmas pics on the 'random pics' link above.

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have SNOW!!!!!! on Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Fire

Crown's new coat!!!!!

IT'S PURPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a beautiful new coat from Marilee. It's purple with blue trim, doesn't he look cute?!

I love it! The picture is a little fuzzy cause I took it with my phone, yay for camera phones!

Just some pictures :)

Mom has been busy making lots of Christmas treats! Yummy

Here she is chopping some almonds for biscotti

Here's a pretty jingle bell wreath hanging on the front door.

These glass reindeer are cool. The antlers are magnetic so you can take them off. They're on tope of the fridge so kittys don't play with them :)

Here's a cute deco thingie I got from a gift exchange at work

This is what I took for the gift exchange, it was a cute tin with snowflakes, i filled it with chocolate ornaments I found at CostPlus World Market. That place is fun to wander around.

I made nine dozen cookies for a cookie exchange at work, it was a tasty event ;)

This is from Thanksgiving, the boys put whip cream on Strider's nose, he couldn't get it all off so it was there until I wipped it off.

And finally, another picture of our tree, this time with presents!!!

Vacation Time!!

Yay! I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday!

We still have a tiny bit of Christmas shopping to do, scary huh?
We are going to have Christmas here with my parents, siblings, grandma and uncle. I think we are doing something with Livvy, Tim and the boys on Christmas Eve....are we Livvy?
Our long standing Christmas morning tradition is to have pepper bacon for breakfast, before, after, and/or while opening presents, yummy! George doesn't seem to mind partaking in this tradition either! Oh, and our living room looks like Christmas exploded, all of our wrapping paper and boxes of deco are still strewn about and messy :)
Hopefully everyone else is doing well, we wouldn't know since you haven't updated your blogs in forever!!! Except Livvy :) she's doing a good job!

Pretty Tree!

Well, we finally got our tree. George and I went Saturday afternoon. I wasn't feeling so swell but we were just going up the road and it was going to be a quick trip....ha
We went to the same place we went last year, all noble firs and inexpensive. But when we got there and looked around, nothing looked that great. So we decided to try another place. We followed some cute signs that said "north pole christmas trees" So we drove way up in the middle of hillbilly no where to find some guy's yard that he planted some trees in. There were some big douglas firs, and one or two sad looking nobles...so we left. We were almost resigned to going to a tree lot, but then I thought of one more place not too far away.
We got there and the trees were perfect! There were lots and lots of beautiful, well trimmed nobles and we (I) had a hard time picking. We finally settled on one and George cut it down. He got nice and muddie too! But I was worth it, the tree is beautiful!
We finished most of our Christmas shopping today, now it's time to wrap all the goodies. Well, I might save that for tomorrow....
We would love to see updates from everyone! please?

A...Beautiful(?)...rendition to a wonderful song.

It brings a tear to my eye every time I listen to it.



sorry

Ft Vancouver

George had Army this weekend and they had the Christmas tree lighting at the fort. Jamie and I went and even sang some songs, wow huh? It was really really cold! There was a decent turn out, mostly army families and parents of the high school choir kids. The tree was decorated much nicer than in past years. We met up with Livvy, Tim, and the boys afterwards. I was waiting for Livvy to post some pictures....hinthint...but I guess she's busy today :) We had some cookies and apple cider, chatted for a while, then got really cold and went home!

On Friday we had movie night. Jamie and Galen came over and we watched the Pirates of the Caribbean, yes, all three movies! We were up until 1am something. It was fun, but I don't think I would want to watch that many in a row again.

Welcome Laurie Adeline Chacon!

Check out Carlos' blog for more details
http://chaconjr.blogspot.com/

We can't wait to see pictures!!

What you wanted snow?

We (George) drove to Burns, OR on Friday for my Aunt's funeral. It took us about six hours to get there. There was a little snow on the road going over Mt Hood, but not too bad. Jamie and Galen (sis and b-inlaw) road with us. We entertained each other, slept etc so the time passed quickly. It was very cold in Burns, like super brrr. The service was grave side Saturday morning, it was very sad. Afterwards we met with some family at a restaurant, had a bite to eat and got back on the road. It took a little longer to get home, there was more snow in the passes, but not bad traveling with the snow tires.
Tonight we are having lots of comfort food. Green chili chicken enchiladas, cookies, and pumpkin pie with whip cream, sigh....food is good...
We also got new cell phones today. George's phone broke a few days ago and we were overdue for the two year upgrade. It was a good deal, buy one get one free w/mail in rebate. So in 6-8 weeks we'll get the rebate and then I can say we have two new free phones.

We make cute elves

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1113059651

windshield wipers are important

Especially when it's raining, and dark, and really cold. So it's no fun when one breaks, worse when its the drivers side. And you know what makes it even better? When you lock your keys in the car. Then you have to call your wife to pick you up.

waste of gas

We drove to Fred Meyers to print some digital pictures. We had them on a thumb drive. The stupid computer at the store didn't recognize the drive. Ugh, what a waste of time and gas. So we got eggnog. We are going to go see the zoo lights, should be fun, but cold.

***Okay, we're back, I think I'm starting to feel my nose. It was really really cold. It's 33degrees right now :)The lights were cool. The train (yes I rode another train) wasn't as cool as we were expecting, and stinky. But we got to see the polar bears and tigers yay!

We are thankful for...

Kitty snuggles

That the kitties like my parents

That this will be yummy turkey in 6hours

And George's desk being clean


On a side note, I need everyones birthdays.I know some of them but not all, like the nieces and nephews etc. Please?

My Aunt Marie

She was 59

I love this picture

choo choo nightmare

To all but Tristan since he loves trains, never take the train. Just don't do it. I went to a conference in Tukwila (south of Seattle) on Wed/Thurs. I didn't really want to fly in to Seatac, and my company didn't want to reimburse me to drive myself, so they suggested I take the train. Cool, I thought, the train is neat that should be fun. Ha.

My Mom drove me to the vancouver station, train was to arrive at 6:30, it was really cold outside. Thankfully they have a small station that you can stand in. The train was late. They had to change engines in PDX, then the bridge was up, then they had to wait for freight traffic. And you may think, oh thats not so bad, but it took an hour and a half for the train to get to vancouver. I didn't leave until 8pm. We were supposed to be in Tukwila by 9:10, I say again, Ha. Since our train was late we lost our 'place' in the train track order, so we had to wait for all other traffic at every stop, they had the right of way since they were on time. Which ment we were later and later with every stop.

There were only three of us in my car. I think each car holds about 20 people. I sat across the isle from a nice lady, we talked most of the time. But there was also another lady, aka crazy lady, in the car with us. Every time the train would slow or stop or rattle or Anything she would huff or sigh or complain out loud. We laughed silently every time. I think she got off in Tacoma. It was also cold, really cold. My feet were freezing and I had my big winter coat on the whole ride. Every time the staff person would walk through our car we would say it was cold, he turned the heat up twice but we didn't really feel any difference. The third time we asked a different person to turn up the heat and she said we had the warmest car on the whole train, ugh. There was also this 10-12yr old kid that kept walking through the cars, like 15-20 times during our ride, annoying.

Okay, so we didn't get to Tukwila until 11:30 or so. I was supposed to have a cab waiting to take my to the hotel, well, they were supposed to be there at 9:10. So the lady I had ridden up with drove my to the closest hotel, the embassy suites, so I didn't have to wait at the station. I use the term 'station' very loosely. Tukwila has a plateform with a covered shelter like a bus stop. Nothing inside, no phone, very creepy in the middle of the night. Anyway the nice lady drove me to the embassy suites, they called me a cab and I enjoyed their lobby for 10mins. I'd like to stay there sometime, when I have money. wow. Spendy place. So the cab comes and takes me three miles to my hotel, the DaysInn. Lets just say it might not have looked so bad if I hadn't just been sitting in a ritzy lobby. It was icky. I got there at 11:55, they close they lobby/check in at midnight. That would have been interesting. SO I get my keycard and go to the room. I was on the second floor all the way at the end of the hall, I passed a lot of doors, outside of which were booze bottles, garbage, and my favorite, a plunger. Can we say ick?

The whole place had the stinky cleaning product smell, like, hey lets spray some smelly air freshener and maybe no one will notice the moldy bathroom. My room was freezing cold. I cranked the heat up and it ran all night, I was still cold in the morning. I slept in all my clothes. The bed was hard and I could feel all the springs. I woke up by 7:30. I could hear all the people around and above me thumping and slamming doors, so I got up. The shower had mold around the walls and ceiling. I dress quickly and checked out by 8:30. I again had to call a cab since the conference was at a different hotel. Yeah, I know, why didn't I just stay at the hotel where the conference was? It was too expensive. The conference was interesting to me, but probably not to all of you :) It was about childrens mental health and the benefits WA state provides and how we need to change it etc. Thankfully they had breakfast and lunch served, I was so hungry having no dinner the night before and all...

So the thing was over at 4pm and my train home didn't leave until 5:45, so I sat in the nice lobby, called George and talked for a while. The about 5pm I decided I should call the cab since they take 15-20mins to get to you. I asked the front desk lady to call for me, which she started to do, then she asked where I was going, Tukwila amtrak I told her. She said Oh! and hung up the phone and went to the back room. I stood there confused for a moment until she can back with a man in hotel uniform. It was the shuttle driver. He drove me to the station instead. Nice and all but I got there by 5:10, a little early for the train, but at least I didn't pay for a cab. Now, I know this is long, but if you remember I described the Tukwila station earlier. Yeah, it was raining and really cold. So I sat in the little shelter until
5:50 when the train showed. It was a cold ride home, and more crowded. We were supposed to be in vanc by 8:30, got there at 9pm. George picked me up and I went right to bed when we got home.

Lessons: Don't take the train. If you do, wear your snowsuit. If you take the train, expect to be late, very late. Don't get off in Tukwila. And finally, don't stay at the DaysInn.
Thank you.

no water chili

So, we (my mom) are making some more no water chili for dinner. She made some about a month ago in an effort to use the huge harvest of tomatos. At the time she had also picked a bunch of green tomatos that would have otherwise been ruined by the weather/freeze. Well the green tomatos are now very ripe. So hence, chili again. Because they are so juicy and we use so many, we don't add any other liquid to the chili. It is so good :)
George marched in the veterans day parade this morning. The news had said we were going to have a big rain storm today with 1/2" of rain....it was sunny all day! That was very nice, George was happy he didn't get soaked. I stayed home and cleaned house, did laundry etc. The dust bunnies had morphed into dust monsters, which usually means it's really time to vacuum. So I did. And I think I'm on laundry load number five. Boring I know. If George gets home at a reasonable time (he's at a group meeting @PSU) we might go to the store and print some of our honeymoon pics so we can have an actual album.

not so good

Well, they had to increase the medication for her coma. When they reduced it she started 'over breathing' her respirator and her blood pressure increased. She has also started 'posturing', which basically means her reflexes to physical stimulus are decreasing which is an indication of brain damage.

small update

They started to reduce the medication for the induced coma today. They will reduce it slowly over the next few days so they don't over stress her, then we have to wait and see if she wakes up. She still has active brain waves, so she's still 'here' but she's still not breathing on her own. No ETA on how long the coma could last, could be days or months. In people that do recover there are some personality changes and long term memory loss among many other things.

Brain Aneurysm

What is a Brain Aneurysm?
"A brain aneurysm, also called a cerebral or intracranial aneurysm, is an abnormal bulging outward of one of the arteries in the brain. It is estimated that up to one in 15 people in the United States will develop a brain aneurysm during their lifetime.
Brain aneurysms are often discovered when they rupture, causing bleeding into the brain or the space closely surrounding the brain called the subarachnoid space, causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Subarachnoid hemorrhage from a ruptured brain aneurysm can lead to a hemorrhagic stroke, brain damage and death."

My Aunt is in the ICU, she had an aneurysm rupture yesterday. They did a procedure called Endovascular Coiling, where they basically fill the aneurysm space with platinum coils (wire)so it stops the blood flow. They also put in a drain to get the extra fluid off her brain. She is in a coma now, both natural and medically induced. They want to keep her in a coma until the fluid stops and they are sure the bleeding has stopped. They plan to keep her in the induced coma until next week and then see if she will wake up.

Oh to be a cat

...and take four hour naps...

Happy Halloween!

Eight years ago today...

We brought home my horse Crown! He was almost six months old, never been touched, and total wild. He's still a big baby. This picture was when he was a few days old.

Farmers market and other fun

George and I did lots of stuff yesterday it was so fun! We went back to the Portland farmers market and got some yummy dried cherries and some local made honey. There were a bunch of little kids in costume, it was very cute. I remember three really good ones. There was a dragon, looked like green pjs with a gold horn on the head and gold wings very cute, kid was 3 maybe 4 yrs old. There was a baby in a stroller dressed like a ladybug, that was adorable. And we saw a teeny tiny pirate. He was sooo cute! Maybe 2yrs old, probably younger and he even had an itty bitty hat!

We went to lunch at the Blind Onion (pizza place) we got two big slices of pizza and a drink for $6, not bad huh? We walked back to the market afterwards because we saw some people with apple cider and it looked really good. When we finally found the booth with the cider they were all out except for one gallon, we didn't want that much so we decided to go. We drove back to Vancouver, sat in traffic for a while, and decided to swing by the Vancouver farmers market for some german sausages, the vanc market is so tiny compared to the pdx one! We got the yummy sausages (I think we will have them for dinner tonight) and we got some apples. They are very good, I'm eating one right now! George won't eat them, he says they are too healthy...

We stopped and got movie tickets on our way home, we had planned an evening out with some friends. Buying the tickets was the first time I showed someone my spouse/military ID! We were buying four tickets but they only let you buy two discount tickets per ID, but since we both had ID they let us get four tickets and they were only $6.50 each, for an evening show! Cool huh? Then George made me go look at new cell phones. I like my phone, I know how to use it and it still works, who cares that its almost three years old! George does, he wants a new phone. So we looked at a couple and found one that is buy one get one free. We get a mail in rebate also so both phones would be free. I didn't want George to get them until we checked the consumer reports, so we still don't have them yet.

We went home for a little bit and I fell asleep on the couch in the sun, but I had my feet up on the end of the couch so when I woke up everything was nice and warm but my feet, they were freezing! I think George played computer games and looked up the consumer reports. We left around five to meet our friends (Taylor and Heather) for dinner. We went to a little mexican place, it was yummy. Then we went to the movie which started at 7:10pm. It was good but scary, which was kinda the idea being close to halloween and all. After the movie we all road together to pick up T&H puppies from Heathers parents house, they were puppy sitting. We took the puppies, very cute hound type dogs, back to T&H house.

Then we went to a Halloween party at Taylors sisters friends house. I saw someone that I work with as soon as we got there, it was weird. His name is Keith and he came with his sister who is friends with Taylor's sister, and the world got really small...We had fun at the party, there were a lot of people in costume and they had karaoke, it was loud but fun.
We didn't get home until 1am. I slept in until 10am today. Okay, I think I got it all, hope everyone else is having a good weekend too!

House

We love House here, the show...House, I hope you all have seen it. George and I were a tiny bit upset last week when it wasn't on. There was some baseball game on instead, lame. It's really annoying when they skip a week after the season has started, you're all excited for a new episode then WHAM! HAHAHAHA! joke is on you viewer! no show this week sucker!
George promptly went to TV guide online to verify it would be on this week, whew...and it will be, it better be! You east coasties have probably already watched :( no fair. It's not on here for two more hours.

On my way home today a giant red pickup was going to run me over. I was driving up the road to our house, which is a paved but no lines country road. The guy in the giant red pickup was looking at a house that is being built and not watching the road at all. He was driving down the center of the road and drifting over to my side, he totally didn't see me AT ALL. When I realized he wasn't going to move back to his side I started honking (pathetic squeeker honk...) he swerved back to his side and gave me the sheepish sorry smile and wave. He would have squashed me, ugh.

As most of you know, I answer phones all day for an insurance company. Most calls are rather mundane, some are amusing, some stressful. Today I had a lady call to complain about something really stupid. She was very angry and demanding, then she started talking about the fires in CA and how her parents house has burned and the town she was raised in is gone etc. She went on for several minutes while I fixed the issue she was calling about and by the time she hung up she felt so much better after venting about the fires she was full of thank you's, nice huh?

Oh, and can we have invites to Blake's and Miriam's blogs? the email attached to our blog is churchogden07@hotmail.com we haven't been able to see theirs yet!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

THE WEDDING PICTURES ARE HERE!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.portlandphotographer.net/lynnettegeorge/index.html
click the link above to watch the slide show :)

Bravo.....

It was a long time coming, but i finally saw the Transformers movie.

Bravo Michael Bay, Bravo!!

Wind?

We are supposed to be having a wind storm today. There are some rather angry looking clouds out there, and it's a little breezy, but not really what they were predicting, at least not here. I'm kinda bummed I was looking forward to a good storm! I did notice it's been just windy enough to take a bunch of leaves off the trees, so now we've lost a lot of fall color :(

Funny commercial

http://www.ffk-wilkinson.com/

moooo

So I'm sitting at the table and George walks by with a glass of milk. So I say, mmm can I have a little moo? and he says sure, goes to the fridge and sets the jug of milk on the table. Gee thanks honey, can I have a little moo in a cup please? So he gets a glass comes back to the table, holds the glass to his mouth and says....mooooooo

get it? a little moo in a cup?

Mmmm brown sludge

I made soup,

lentil soup

My favorite, too bad it doesn't look nicer, but is sure tastes good.

George stayed at school until 7pm tonight, which means he won't be home until 8:15 or so :(

I wish it didn't take so long for him to get home. If we lived closed to PSU it would be a lot easier on him, but then, well, we would have to move and icky rent.

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Yesterday was my sister's birthday, she's 38! okay just kidding ;) She's 15months older than me, you figure it out! We had a fun family dinner at home and super yummy Larsons cake YAY! I think there might be some left too, mmm dinner....hey, I went to the gym today, I'm sure it all evens out...kinda...

mmmmm chickens.....

We have chickens, by we I mean my Mom. There are five chickens and they lay green, blue, and brown eggs, it's like easter eggs every day!

Cheese!

We went to 'The Wedge of Portland' today...It was a cheese festival Yummy! There were lots and lots of people and George didn't like them, it was very crowded. There were 25 cheese vendors in addition to the regular Farmers Market, which I didn't know they had either! There were tons and tons and lots and lots of people and we had to elbow our way through the crowd to get to the yummy cheese. We tried lots of different cheeses and bought lots too. We also got some smoked salmon pate and some dried cherries. And the most amazing part? It didn't rain!

Happy Customer Service Week

In case you didn't know, this is customer services week! So be nice if you call for customer service, I answer lots-o-mad calls and it makes the nice ones far and few between. When you're mad, remember, don't kill the messenger, more than likely it's not that persons fault! Venting is okay just try not to say 'you people...' too many times.
We do our best with every request! catchy huh?

Waffles

I made yummy waffles for breakfast! I have been on waffle probation for a few years...I made a huge mess out of them once, huge mess....But I did good this time! and they even tasted good! Yay me!

Happy Anniversary to my parents, today is their 29th anniversary!

Happy Birthday and other ramblings

Happy Birthday Dad/Bryan!!! (Sept30th)

Today we stayed in bed until 8:30, it was nice. Then George made a yummy egg scramble with sausages, tomatoes, and lots of cheese. It was really good! Then we didn't do anything for a few hours, then we went to the farmers market in vancouver. We got some fruit, goat cheese, and lunch. Again, very yummy. Then we came home and I read for a while (aka fell asleep for three hours) and George played his computer game. Now he's talking to his dad!

It's cold here...cold. The trees are turning colors, it's raining, and cold....burr. But now I'm more ready then before, I reorganized my closed for winter clothes. I'm still not excited about long sleeves for the next lets see.....eight months? Ugh.

George had his first week of school. He likes it but doesn't know anybody in his classes, so he'll be making some new friends this year! He's getting smarter every year, which means I have to pretend to understand him even more than normal, but that's okay, I have a degree in pretending to understand people! hehehe

Okay, if you read this UPDATE YOUR BLOG TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGGGHHH!

Destiny....

Please don't leave!!!

Summer that is.....being the last day of summer, it was nice and sunny, and windy, and cold....ugh. I don't want it to be winter yet! My horsie is already fuzzy, what does that tell you?! I feel like with all the wedding and planning and stuff I missed summer somewhere in there and I am really really not ready for it to be cold. I don't wanna wear sweaters and coats all day! The worst so far is the light change. We are losing light so fast now, it's dark here by 8pm and it makes me so tired. And it's not very light in the morning when I get up, that really makes me want to stay in bed....it can't be time to get up yet, it's still dark outside.....Seasonal Affective Disorder anyone?
I finally got my new job title at work, only took six months.....yay me...I think
George starts school on Monday, and he's been busy with Army for the last two weeks so he's kinda wiped out too.
We still have a big pile of boxes and stuff (wedding presents) and we don't have anywhere to put the new things. So they are in a pile behind our sofa. The cats love it, so much fun to climb on.
I spent most of the afternoon canning pears with my mom. We're going to do more salsa tomorrow. Maybe I'll take a picture of the pantry....It's full of jars, greenbeans, peaches, pears, salsa, tomatoes......
And no, we still don't have pictures back yet, and yes we will post them when we do get them back!

Yay Kissing!!!

Some more pics from the honeymoon