Happy Birthday to Shawn

Happy Birthday, Shawn! Today is Shawn's birthday; he turns 31. I wanted to take him out to dinner, but he said he's rather wait until the weekend. Yesterday I got him a very impressive telescope from Costco. It's the kind that you can punch in a star or constellation and the telescope points itsself there automatically. He has no idea! Teehee! Also, I am taking him to Rooster Rock State Park (not the nudist colony part) to go to a star gazing event! I hope he likes it!

Perseid Meteor Shower

Does anyone know a good place to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower in or around the Portland area? I know that OMSI is having a big ol' star gazing party at Rooster Rock state park, but I was wanting to do something a little more private. The shower is happening after midnight on the night of Shawn's birthday and I thought it would be cool to take him to a nice romantic spot and watch the meteors.

Shawn loves to look up and watch the stars and he has always wanted to watch the meteor showers in the summer, but we could never really see them from our place. I was thinking that maybe I could find a place on the Washington State side of the gorge. Rooster Rock was such a good idea because there aren't a lot of trees and you can see so much of the sky. Leave up to OMSI to take a great idea and make it public so that everyone can enjoy the show. sheesh.

I was thinking that Beacon Rock would be a cool place, but there are lots of trees and also the 2nd largest rock in the world blocking the view. Even on top of the rock there are a lot of trees. What about Bonneville Damn? Anyone been there lately? Can you go hang out there after dark? I don't know anyone who travels out that way a lot.

Ten Long Years

aleb is walking. He doesn't know that I see him. If he knew, he wouldn't be walking. He really doesn't like it very much. Crawling is much faster, and that is how the dogs walk, so it's okay by him. I noticed that he was walking on his own a little bit more yesterday. Normally, he will crawl everywhere, even if it is just a foot or two away. More recently, he has been "driving" his car where ever he wants to go. Any day now he is going to stop crawling. I better get some more video while I have the chance.

The Slim fast diet is going great so far today. I do miss eating food and we are only a two days in. I am going to try to skip my snacks and just drink flavored water to curb my appetite until tonight because....... It's my anniversary!

Some people might think it's silly that Shawn and I still acknowledge our first date anniversary, but I don't. We dated for like almost 5 years before we got married, so you really don't see the whole scope of things if I say, "Shawn and I have been married for almost 5 years." Today is our 10 year anniversary! As Shawn and I have been saying to one another today, "Ten loooooooong years!" Hehehe

Shawn wants to go out to dinner with family either tonight or tomorrow, or both! I'll have to exercise a lot of restraint and also make some healthy choices while we are out. Eating out is just a part of life, and it is going to have to be a part of my diet plan as well. I guess I will just have to see my personal trainer, Jillian Michaels, today. I saw her yesterday and she made me do all kinds of horrible things, like jumping jacks and push ups. I can't wait to see what she has in store for me today.

It's a Great Day for an Endoscopy

am at the hospital right now. Shawn has been having horrible stomach pains for over a month and he's getting an endoscopy right now. He wasn't able to eat anything all day long and I didn't want to eat in front of him, so I am starving! I'm in the cafeteria right now listening to elevator music and eating a really expensive salad. They probably have to pay doctors so much so that they can afford to eat lunch. The hospital has free wifi, so I'm able to kill the time on the computer.

Poor Shawn. On top of having pain, being hungry, and having to get a camera shoved down his throat, he was nervous about the procedure. At first he was worried about going under the anethesia. Then, when he found out that he would be awake, he was worried he would gag on the camera. He was especially concerned when he found out the Dr who is doing the endoscopy normally doesn't numb the throats of his patients to stop them from gagging. I hope everything goes alright.

I wonder if he will be able to eat whatever he wants when he gets out. I hope so. I hope his throat isn't sore from the scope. I got him a rice krispy treat from the cafeteria. He really wanted one yesterday and we didn't have any, so I was excited to see that there were some for sale here.

Well he should be getting done right about now. Be back later to update you!

Love,

Blog Hog

have been doing a lot of thinking about the memory verse that I decided on in last week's post. I had briefly touched on that verse when I was studying the book of Ephesians about a year and a half ago.

I was cleaning out our disastrous hall closet when I stumbled upon my notes. I had a bunch of jumbled up thoughts in my head about the verse, but none of them were anything that I could form into something coherent. After finding the notes, I sat down and focused more on studying the verse and not just memorizing it. I wanted to be able to meditate on it and understand what it really means.

What was the result?

A blog, of course. I put the blog on A Declaration of War because I thought it fit there the best. There is a link on my side bar to the homepage, but you can also click here to go straight to the post. It's a little bittersweet for me. I love contributing to Shawn's blog, but I don't love being the only one who does. I just hate to see such a good idea go to waste.

Love,

Stubborn Shawn

hawn is practically refusing to blog. I slaved over his blog A Declaration of War twice. Originally it was called Biblical Blog, and I set the whole thing up for him. I even gave him some ideas on what to blog about. Then, he decided that he wanted to change his blog mission and theme, so I reworked the whole thing. I made graphics, which I am not good at and so it takes me a long, long time to make them. I changed the name, three time before he settled on one, and I made a new email address to match. I sent his website to various search engines to get crawled by... spiders... ick.

Vanity, vanity. Shawn hasn't written a single thing on his blog. I don't want to be a nag, but it is getting pretty frustrating. He is the first link on my blogroll. Not assuming that is a coveted spot, but I like to think that it is an honorary one at least. All I want to see is a paragraph or two about, well, anything. I did all this hard work and he can't even type a few words? It's not like it would be hard. The guy types, like, 90 wpm, no kidding. His dad was a typing teacher.

So yes, I am aware that the blog was my idea in the first place. That I set it up first and then told him about it when I was finished. But this second time around he was directing me to put certain things in place, and now that I have, they aren't being used. Shawn has so much to say and he is normally pretty entertaining. I just wanted to share him with the world, but he won't let me.

Shawn. Please blog. Blog about whatever. Blog about how your wife is nagging you. Blog about Benny Hinn slaying people with his chi. Blog about that ugly guy in FL who says he can travel through time and kicks people in the stomach. If you don't, I will be forced to assume your personality and blog for you.

Love,

(your doting wife)

Multnomah Falls

Yesterday we went to visit Multnomah Falls. It was such a beautiful day for a hike! The sun was burning so hot and bright in the sky that, inspite of the misty microclimate, it was comfortably warm at the falls. It made standing in the spray of water coming off of the rocks very pleasant. The whole scene was so lovely that upon stepping up to the first viewing area, we were all instantly happy.

We paused for some pictures at the base of the waterfall. This is when Caleb first realized that the white crashing stuff was water. He was quite delighted about this and after two pictures he refused to turn around and look at the camera. We have about 8 pictures of the back of his head and a waterfall in the background. After pictures, we started for the hiking trail.

The first place that the trail leads you is to a bridge that takes you to the other side of the waterfall. This leg of the trail is short (only 0.2 miles), not very steep, has a guard rail along the edge, and has a bench or two at every switchback. There were so many people crowding the bridge that it made the dog nervous. We walked across it without pausing and decided that we would enjoy it more on the way back.

To the trail! We started off strong, maybe a little too strong. I had the feeling once or twice that Shawn was racing me to the top. Instead of leisurely strolling, we were goal-oriented marching. That's what I get for going hiking with a Marine. We walked at a pretty moderate pace, even passing people, until we made it to the first resting area.

I would have liked to sit an enjoy the view a while, but apparently this is the make out spot from a 1950s movie. Two people were sprawled out on the only bench without regard for the dozens of jello-legged people coming along the path. Another couple slurped, slobbered, and cooed at one another while sitting on the stone ledge at the rear. It was so disgusting. I''m all for sharing a romantic kiss at a view point. but I am seriously suprised they didn't pass out from lack of oxygen to the "brain".

After giving the dog some water we left makeout point, and started on our trek once again. Little did I know, that tainted bench would be the last one we would see along the trail. As we climbed higer and higher, the trail got steeper and narrower. I kept waiting for places to rest, but they didn't come. Finally we came to a stop at the end of a switchback where there was a small stone retaining wall. We stopped about every 3 or 4 switchbacks for rest before moving on.

As we neared the top, and the begining of hopelessness, the people coming down were very encouraging. "You're half way", "almost there", and "just 3 or 4 more switchbacks" were much appreciated encouragement as we climbed up the falls. Everyone assured us it was worth it, and even though I had said "Let's just rest a while and then go back down" more than once, we always seemed to continue walking.... up.

When we got to the top, we went off the trail to a secluded little clearing in the woods to have a picnic lunch. When what to our wondering eyes should appear? The slobbering couple from makeout point, in the woods, still making out. We set up our lunch anyway, and once they realized they were no longer alone, they left (THANK GOD). The rest of our lunch was mostly peaceful. Shawn fell in the water trying to get a drink for the dog, who turned out to not even be thirsty. We spent most of our time waiting for his shoe to dry.

The way down went alot faster than the way up, but I have to say, it was also alot harder. My legs were so warn out from climbing already that my legs were shaking from the start. Everytime I took a step one poor leg was forced to hold all of my weight, plus control my movement downward. Everytime I stopped my legs were visibly wobbly. I contemplated as I walked how, on the way up, you relish every dip in the trail, every tiny bit that might even be slightly less inclined, and on the way down you long for flat land. I never would have guessed that going down would be more painful than going up, fortunately, as I said earlier, it went a lot faster.

After we reached the bottom, I went into the gift shop to find a souvinere for Caleb. The first thing I wanted was an imprinted penny, since we also got one for him at the zoo. The penny machine was broken! I went to find a little personalized license plate zipper pull for his diaper bag, but they didn't have his name! I searched for a larger one for his stroller, thinking it would be cute since Shawn had one when he was little. Nope! No Caleb. They had wooden pocket knives with the names engraved, but no Caleb. They had Milton, but not Caleb. The only thing I could find with his name on it was a flashing key chain for $6.99. I carried it around the shop for a while before realizing that my whole family could eat dinner for $6.99. I put the keychain back and left the shop empty handed.

That's not to say that I have nothing to show or my trip though. I have lots of cool pictures, and this morning I have the inability to move my limbs. I also have the memory of seeing Caleb's look of astonishment at the tallest bathtub spout he has ever seen.

The Cheap Vacation

Shawn is on vacation. I know for some people that means that they go away on "holiday", but we're broke. Our previous vacations would usually consist of one trip to a nearby beach or attraction, followed by several days lounging on the couch playing Mario Kart or Star Wars Battlefront. With our lack of funding, it looked as if this time off of work was going to be spent in the traditional couch potato position.

We have a son now and I really want to have family traditions. I want to be able to say that as long he has been with us, we have made the most of our time together. With this in mind, I have resolved to do something each and every day of this vacation in order to make the most of the time that we have to spend together as a family. When I first began to plan our activities, Shawn was less than pleased. He was skeptical about handing over "his" vacation, which I delicately explained was no longer "his", but "ours" as a family. He has admittedly had a fun time thus far. These are the things we have done as of today.

Saturday :
Car Show
There were booths for local vendors of all kinds of cool clothing and artwork, live music, and of course lots of classic hot rods and vintage motorcycles.
Cost: Free


Sunday:
Vancouver Lake
We planned this day at the lake, not knowing that there were boat races going on. We got to watch the boats, and even though we didn't really know what was going on, we still had a good time. A picnic lunch proved to be not only froogle, but filling, and a nearby play area allowed Caleb his first trip down a slide (in mama's lap, of course).
Cost: $2.00 parking


Monday:
Oregon Zoo
Caleb's first trip to the zoo was a lot of fun for everyone. He loved to watch the marine animals, and especially loved the waterfalls, fountains, and other water features; with or without animals. We packed the same picnic lunch as the lake trip, but with some added snacking to get us through all the walking we would be doing. We were so tired that we didn't even get to see the penguins! This will probably be the most expensive of our vacation outings, but I think we really got our money's worth!
Cost: $19.50 admittance, plus I couldn't resist the cute zoo baseball cap for Caleb, which costs and OUTRAGEOUS $12.99!
But look, it's SO CUTE!!

Tuesday:
Trip to Hillsboro, OR to visit Caleb's cousins
Grandma and Grandpa are babysitting in Hillsboro, OR while Shawn's sister and her husband are on a short getaway. Shawn's mom got a cold while they were out there, and because of the laws in OR was unable to buy regular old cold medicine without a prescription! We brought her some Sudafed and then stayed the whole day to visit.
Cost: Just the cost of gas, that I am not going to waste my time calculating.

Tomorrow we are headed to Multnomah falls, we also plan to take Caleb swimming, to the Aquarium (since he liked the fish at the zoo so much) and hiking / bird watching at the Audubon Society, where we will also visit their wildlife rehabilitation center. Many, Many thanks to my wonderful friend Janell, who is letting me try out her Ergo pack!!!