Chugging along

Well, we have been trying to get back to life as close to normal.

School is over for both of us for now. Ryan passed his EMT course with a B+!! The final was last Wednesday, then the mulage final (The one where they dress people up with fake blood and have to simulate a real emergency) was the following Saturday, the 12th.

He got the highest score in the class on the written final, and only missed that because of a small brain fart on the physical final. Still something to be VERY proud of!

I made it through the holiday season at the elementary school level. For those of you with kids, or who teach kids, you know that this in itself is a feat. We had 2 sing-a-longs, 2 choir performances and LOTS of too-yummy food. New years resolution? I think so.......


Me with my choir of 47 members.

This past week has been full of school stuff for me, but a nice break for Ryan. He has been able to get back in the gym and lift, and is loving it. He keeps telling me how good he is feeling. We are really starting to buckle down and talk about the tough things we are going to face in the upcoming years, with him going to Nursing school and me finding a new career. It has been nice to be home together a little bit more.

This past weekend, Ryan made a cake! It was a mocha torte, and it was a great idea!


The delicious looking cake, and the handsome chef :)

We also had a delicious dinner on Friday (Cheese zombies anyone?) and watched some Christmas movies. Ryan had never seen "It's a wonderful life" so we watched it, and he loved it. I forgot how much I like Clarence. :)

Saturday we got up and were able to make it to the gym, together for the first time in months. I actually kept a lot of the strength and muscle I used to have, so I was pretty happy. I think Ryan was excited we got to go together. His strength is coming back too, and he can't stop admiring his traps in the mirror. :)

Then Saturday night we tried a new recipe - Swedish Meatballs!


Look good? Not really, but boy were they tasty!

Then Saturday night, we visited a place called Peacock Lane. It is in Portland, and the whole 2 block lane is done up in beautiful Christmas lights. The houses were lovely, and some were very VERY creative. (note: done up looking like a present with bow and everything) Unfortunately, as Ryan put it, "It was like standing in a two block disney world line". We went down the lane one way, then escaped at the end instead of going back up the other side. There were some very nice houses though!



These were neat, but my favorite is below! And the reason it is my favorite has NOTHING to do with think pink/purple lights........



We got to get dressed up to go out Saturday night too!


Take 1 - Happy, no? Take 2 - All I can say is wow


Take 3 - gave up on the timer YAY!!

After Peacock lane, we went to McMennamin's Kennedy School. IT WAS AMAZING! I love the fact that it still looks like an old school building. There are 3 or 4 bars, a soaking pool, a movie theater, hotel rooms, 2(?) restaurants, and way too much to take in in just one visit. We saw a "Where the wild things are" for just 3 dollars/person. We sat on a couch, (the theater is full of them) had beer and pizza delivered to us at our seat, and all around enjoyed the atmosphere. For those of you coming out for the game next year, We are SO going here!

This morning, Ryan let me sleep in, then made me soft boiled eggs for breakfast. Yum! We were debating on going to the gym, but then decided to take a walk, then go. We ended up taking a little bit longer walk than we anticipated, and 2 and a half hours later we made it back home. After not working out for a few months, an 8 mile walk was NOT on the agenda, but lovely all the same.

Which brings us to tonight. Ryan is at work, looking forward to his dinner of Swedish meatball leftovers, and I am about to go heat mine up. Hopefully we will get another update up here with Christmas pictures soon.

Miss and love you all, especially this time of year. We hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Chasing Goats in Dog heaven

Well, this morning we let Rudee go to dog heaven. We came home to a flooded kitchen. Fun day. :( We love you Rudee, your were an awesome dog and an amazing friend, even if you did drool a little. :)

Giving Thanks for the time we have

The past few weeks have been rough for us.

We learned on Friday, November 20th that Rudee is dying. It all started the day before when I noticed how distended and uncomfortable his stomach looked. I thought bloat (maybe he ate Jeanie's AND his food?) so I took him to the emergency vet right away. (Bloat is like colic in horses, the stomach fills with gas and then twists, and can be fatal if not caught early) BTW - if you live in Vancouver, stay away from a certain vet named after a certain patron saint of animals. Just fair warning. After being told that it was NOT bloat, and the vet trying to tell me that he knew it all along, that it is just gas, and he (the vet) was amazing because once he diagnosed bloat without the stomach even having turned yet......(Yes, seriously, he was bragging to me about his diagnosing skills.....somewhat ironic) I was charged $155 bucks and told to give him Mylanta.

Friday morning rolled around, and after 3 rounds of Mylanta, Rudee's tummy was just as big and uncomfortable. He couldn't lay comfortably. By this point, I knew that if it was bloat, we were going to have to go in to surgery to get it fixed. So thankfully I have a wonderful staff at school who saw how worried I was and told me to go home and get him to a vet. Ryan was able to leave work and we drove Rudee bear out to OUR vet in Washougal. After spending MORE than 5 seconds with Rudee (I love our vet) the vet was able to hear some problems in the area of his lungs and heart. The whole time this as been going on, Rudee has been showing various kinds of twitching. We told her about that, but I'm not sure it registered until they tried to get him up on the xray table and he started loosing muscle control in his legs and face. Scary stuff.

After the xray machine fiasco, they let us hang out in the room until they processed the film of his stomach and lungs. The vet walked back in the room and sighed. That is NEVER a good sign. She showed us the xray of his stomach area. She showed us the grey part, and said that it was fluid, NOT gaseous and that it was hard to get the two mixed up. The reason there was so much fluid was revealed by the next xray. She put up the xray of his lungs and all we could see was black. She then explained that the entire mass was cancer. The fluid making his stomach distended was from the cancer cells. There were several more minutes of questions, but it all boiled down to the fact that we only had weeks left with our bear dog.

After a somber ride home and some (a lot of) tears, we decided to make however much time Rudee had left amazing. And that is what we have been doing the last few weeks. He has been getting treats every day, car rides, walks, scraps from the table, and pretty much anything a puppy could want. That first weekend we were able to have some friends over to take pictures of us with him, and some of those are below. We also were able to take him to the beach on the Oregon Coast. Both he and Jeanie LOVE the beach, so it seemed like something nice we could do. The good news so far is that the meds we were given to help him really have helped. His stomach area is no longer distended, he seems happy to see us again, and is eating just fine. Lets hope this keeps up for as long as possible.

As far as Thanksgiving goes, we spent a quiet day at home, cleaning and watching movies while the Prime rib cooked.



Our Thanksgiving dinner. And yes mom, that bowl of olives started the evening full. I know now why you always waited as long as we would let you before putting out the relish dish.

I think we have been giving thanks for every day we have with Rudee this past week, and will continue to do so for as long as possible. This is one year when I hope Thanksgiving will last long after Christmas!! A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all of you reading this, and wishing you a very Merry Christmas Season! We love you!



The above pictures were taken by our wonderful friend Amanda. Thank you!



These are some I took. Rudee does this thing we call "frog dog" and he hadn't been doing it very much, we think because his stomach felt uncomfortable, but then he did it for us! And I had to take a picture. :)



Rudee and Ryan on the beach. :)



It was a beautiful evening to be at the beach, and all of us were grateful for it!

Celebrate good times

This was a fun week!

It started out with a day off, which always makes for a good week. Wednesday I got to sleep in, and then lounge around all day! Happy Veteran's Day! Poor Ryan had one rough week though. 5 days in a row of night shifts. Ugh! At least that means he has Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off this week.

Thursday I roped Ryan in to coming to help out with Basketball practice after school, because my fellow coach was out sick. I think his exact words were "How do you do it?". As a treat, we went out to Old Chicago for dinner to use one of our birthday free pizzas. Black olive and massive amounts of cheese? YES PLEASE!!!

Friday brought with it the normal amount of panic in the morning (I am running a students-read-the-announcements-on-friday thing at school, and forgot to find students the day before. Whoops!) but then turned out to be an ok day. Ryan got off work early and had the house picked up when I got home, so all I had to do was unload groceries and cook! Thanks hun!

We had friends over for diner, a couple that we met when Brighid and I worked together for summer camp. It was a fun filled evening, and they were nice enough to bring over some pictures they had taken of us on our honeymoon! We owe them BIG time! Here are a few examples:










The last one is probably my favorite, but I also love the one of Rudee :)
Thank you so much Brighid and Travis, you two are awesome!

Saturday when Ryan got home from school, we headed out to the Restaurant at the Historic Reserve for dinner. Everything was delicious, and we even got desert on them for it being our birthdays! Yum! Thanks to Mom and Dad for helping us go out for a lovely evening!

After dinner we decided to go see a movie, but the movie didn't start for about an hour and a half, so we parked it at a Barnes and Noble and got some coffee to read with. It was lovely to just sit and relax and sip coffee. We saw "The Hangover" and I almost walked out in the first 5 minutes. Anyone who has seen it will know why. Anyone who hasn't, you might want to get there a little late.....

Overall, we have had a great weekend and wonderful birthdays. Thank you to everyone for the kind words, cards and gifts! We are looking in to plane tickets for July, so hopefully we will see everyone then! Lots of love and hugs to everyone!

Creatures in the night

We got to go to a sporting event!
For as long as we have been out here, we have not been to a sporting event out here. Finally, this week we were able to! One of my 4th grade students had the honor of singing the Star Spangled Banner and the Canadian National Anthem at the Portland Winterhawks game, so we went to cheer her on. The Winterhawks are Portland's Hockey team. I have never been to a hockey game before, so it was an interesting experience. And here I thought football was violent. The whole point of the game seemed to be throwing each other in to the walls. Ouch!



After the game we went to Deshutes Brewery. They have a brew called "The Abyss" that they only brew once a year. Last time they brewed it, they sold out in less than 2 weeks. This batch came out on Tuesday, so we decided to go in and try it out. We had a ginger/berry cobler and the beer, and it was delicious. The beer was an imperial stout, so we could only drink one each, but seeing as it is 11% abv, that is probably a good thing.

On our way home, we were about to pull in to our driveway when Ryan stopped short and turned his brights on. There was a full grown DEER in our neighbor's front yard! (We can only hope it stomped the cat, but thats another story.) After following it as stealthily as we could (ha) we discovered that there were actually 2 deer! We think they got lost and just wandered up the hill. Seeing as we're pretty far away from any big stretch of forrest, we were a little worried, so we
stayed with them for a little bit. It was dark and rainy, so we didn't get any good pictures, but the best ones we got are below.



The rest of our week passed by quickly and uneventfully. Thursday Ryan had the day off work, but spent the day mostly studying. We got tamales from a wonderful mom at school and enjoyed those friday night after Ryan got off of work, then Saturday consisted of class and work for Ryan, and me sitting in a chair working on importing cds while listening to a Pacific NW "Thunderstorm". I say "Thunderstorm" because there was one or two claps of thunder, and no lightning. Oh the northwest. :)

Today we are both home together for a while (YAY!) and we will be doing much of the same, studying and importing CDs. This week should bring some fun though, with a day off on Wednesday for Veterans day, then our joint birthdays at the end of the week. We will update asap, but as we both have ALL next weekend off from work, it may not be until Monday. Enjoy your week everyone, and hug a veteran if you see one.

Love and miss you all!

On Weddings, the flu and Halloween

And fortunately, these things (so far) happen separately.

Thankfully, Ryan had a blast at home for Adam and Kendras wedding. I hear they even got some early snow! Congratulations to the lovely Newlyweds, and we both wish you many many years of happiness! There are a bunch of pictures up on facebook if you look at Adam, Kendra, Ryan or Laura's profile pages. What a gorgeous wedding.

After Ryan got back everything seemed to be getting back to normal, when WHAM Ryan caught a cold and Nikki got slapped with the flu. Both of us were laid up for most of the weekend. Then when Nikki was finally on the mend, Ryan came down with the same flu. Poor guy. It wasn't looking like he was going to be able to go to work so we got to make a trip to the free clinic. It was an interesting experience, and we left feeling very humbled by all that we have access to. We have been worrying about how to pay for dinners out while people there didn't have a roof over their heads or a way to keep warm at night. Makes you very grateful for what you have.

After both of us got to feeling better, it has pretty much been life as usual for the past week. Class is still going well for Ryan. He seems to be enjoying learning about emergency medicine, and is looking forward to continuing his education through becoming a Paramedic.

Nikki enjoyed teaching her students some of the G rated moves to Thriller. It was amazing that even 6 year olds could recognize the opening sound effects. "This is Michael Jackson! He made a song called Beat it!" Oh, first graders, you do make me laugh.

For Halloween we got to spend some time with our friends the Rondstadts, and finally got to meet Amandas parents. Great night with great people. Here are some pictures of our Halloween costumes for ya!



Nikki was a mad scientist, and Ryan went as "A man who doesn't make a fool out of himself", therefore there is no picture of him. :) On the right is our lovely hostess Amanda, with her mother. Both amazing ladies.

Ok, so hopefully there will not be as much of a break between now and the next post. Good news for those financially minded people - We should have almost all our debt (and definitely all of our credit cards) gone before the end of the year! HOORAY!!!

We both love you all!!

Two weeks = 14 days

14 days of fun and work.
We both have been learning a lot in school. Patience is high on that list for both of us.
Thankfully, we've both also been able to spend some time together in between schooling and working. Last weekend, we actually got to spend both days together! Ryan was just starting training, so there was no lab on Saturday yet. We instead spent Saturday working and baby-showering. Nikki's friend Sinead is having her first baby this month, and if the baby shower is any indication, this is going to be one very loved baby! We don't know boy or girl yet, but we're all just hoping for before Halloween so that baby Brooks can wear his/her new onsie "Baby's first Halloween".



The beautiful mommy-to-be and some of the delicious snacks made for the shower. People weren't kidding when they said Darcy (the shower-thrower) is amazing with food. Wow!

And of course, while Nikki was out having fun with gal pals, Ryan was home working on the garage. It got to the point where the dryer was walking around the garage and keeping us up at night with all the noise. But to be able to fix the dryer, you first have to be able to get to it, which was the point of putting up the cabinets. We now have garage storage, and an accessible dryer!



The left is the north side, where Ryan's workbench will be, then the right is the south side, which butts up against the house and is being used for kitchen overflow and cleaning supplies. Ryan worked so hard on these, and man does it make a difference to have those extra cabinets in there!

Project number 2 for the weekend was the dryer itself. When Ryan got to it and took the drum out (minimal bodily injuries sustained) he saw that the wheels were actually at a 45 degree angle. Apparently, that's bad. Very bad. Also, the belt was almost worn through. Also very bad. After about $40 on supplies, our dryer has not moved once and is quieter than our washer. Yay Ryan!!!



The naked dryer, and wheels before and after. Notice the lack of metal middle on the old wheels.


On Sunday, we got to help Amanda and Jose can their many, many vegetables from their garden. It was a great experience, and we got to wear aprons! We canned spaghetti sauce, salsa, and green beans. It was a surprisingly huge amount of work, but all well worth it!



Doesn't he look so cute??? Thanks Amanda and Jose for letting us help! This week was full of school and work, so nothing really exciting to report. Saturday Ryan had his first lab, which was how to move patients, and also had his first test. He got a 94%! He likes school, but he is also excited to get away for a few days this week. And early congratulations to Adam and Kendra!

Today we are spending the day studying and relaxing until Ryan has to go to work tonight. Speaking of which, we better head out and get some grocery shopping done for the week. Ryan will see you Nebraskans soon, and Nikki wishes she could. Have a great week! We love and miss you!

Busy busy bees!

Ok, so school has started, and as any teacher knows, spare time is in short supply!

Ryan has been prepping to start class tomorrow, and Nikki started school last Wednesday. That doesn't excuse the lack of posting, but hopefully it will explain it. :)

The first 3 days of school for Nikki also coincided with work for Ryan. However, he was still nice enough to bring Nikki coffee and doughnuts whenever he could. We found a fun little shop that we love called Mugs, and they serve some amazing doughnuts from a place called Voodoo doughnuts. They make a Bavarian creme and bacon filled maple bar. Sounds great to Ryan, Nikki still isn't so sure......

Monday brought around the first full week of school for Nikki, and boy did it DRAAAAAAAAG. After not working at school most of the summer, it was hard to get back in the swing! This picture is for Mom - first day of school pic!



Ryan was able to go to Krav and Jitsu during the week, and was a huge help to Nikki when she got home anywhere between 5:30 and 7 every night. Nikki will be returning the favor this week however, as Ryan starts class and working nights on Monday.

If you're curious, He will be going to the Northwest Regional Training Center for classes 3 days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday will be class days, and he will be working (at least this week) all nights on Monday through Thursday. So (fingers crossed) hopefully we will have Sundays and Saturday nights off together! Of course, they will probably be spent doing homework, but hey, its time together, right? :)

Yesterday (Saturday) and today went by very quickly, in a haze of botched football games, CPR classes, and then today, Race for the Cure in Portland. Nikki got to walk with some teacher friends, and we called our team "Teachers for Ta tas". Shirts are in the works for next year :)


On the left; Sarah McPartland, Melisa Woods, Nikki, MaryJane Campbell, Leslie Howard, Sinead Brooks, and Brigid Michaud
On the right, Sarah, her "Monkey arms" :) Nikki and Melis!



On the left: The lovely Mrs. Howard and Ellie-bell Michaud
On the right; WOW almost 50,000 people strong!

In all a very successful 2 weeks! Ryan starts class tomorrow, Nikki goes back for full week #2, and there will probably be a lot of tired people in the house for a few days! Thanks for all the good thoughts, commiserating calls and "support" for us husker fans (Zachary.....) out here in the Pacific Northwest! We miss and love you guys!!!

Last week of freedom

Sorry about the late update, we've been busy! :)

We got to go to our first ever intermediate krav on Monday! We learned about how to throw hooks and uppercuts, but much more work will be needed! this week was really nice, a good mix of rain and sun, and gave us a good chance to play around outside a little. Jeanie is pretty hit and miss with wanting to play, but we were able to get a video of her and her "wubba. :)

It's not looking like it's going to work on here though, so check Nikki's facebook page! :)

The best part about the beginning of the week was a trip to the Oregon State Fair! As far as state fairs go, nothing can beat NE, but Oregon was nice! We got to see a log cabin built in 1952, BEAUTIFUL rose gardens, and a magician! AND they had wine!!!



As you can see, Nikki was excited to taste the gold medal winners from this year, and they did not disappoint! We got to ride in an air-tram thingie at the very beginning of the fair, and it was nice to see the whole fair from the air.

Well, there ended the "fun" part out of the week. While Ryan got to stay home for Wednesday and Thursday Nikki had to head back to school. It's rough after a summer off, but Ryan was enjoying having the house to himself! :) Open house at Eisenhower was Thursday, so Ryan was kind enough to come help put the classroom together Wednesday night. Yay for leaving school at 6:30pm. We'll put pictures up next week so everyone can see the rooms! Nikki had about 10 families visit her all the way down in the music room, and everyone seemed to be excited to start school again!

Friday brought more work for both Ryan and Nikki. Nikki is feeling much better about this school year, and actually feels halfway prepared this time around. We'll see how the year starts off though. Saturday we got to spend time with some friends we haven't seen in a while for a bbq celebrating their new grill. Our first experience bbq-ing and not eating meat went very well, but I think we ate enough mashed potatoes to kill a horse. Apparently red meat makes you less hungry - who knew?

Anyway, this all brings us to Sunday morning. Nikki woke up at 6:10 (it wasn't planned) and freaked out because Ryan is usually up and getting ready to go by then, and he was still asleep. When asked (more like shoved) he just grunted and went back to sleep. Well, Nikki did too, and before you knew it an alarm was going off at 7 and Ryan was telling Nikki to get out of bed. Seeing as Ryan tries to be out of the house by 7 on the days he works (which is usually Sunday) Nikki was very confused. It turned out that Ryan had switched shifts with someone so he could take Nikki out to brunch on Sunday!!! He had been planning this for weeks, and Nikki didn't know about it until then. What a surprise! We went to a place called Skamania Lodge which does an amazing job with their Champagne brunch. Not only was the food great, but the view was extraordinary!



We are hoping to go back sometime to stay for a little while. The Bonneville hot springs are very close, as well as a bunch of great hikes and Mt. Hood across the river. Something to look forward to! :)

And now it is Monday, and you know what kept us from updating yesterday! Sorry about that, but hopefully this week will run smoothly with the start of school and the killing of a few blackberry bushes. :)

We hope everyone has a great week! We miss and love everyone, and Ryan can't wait to see NE family in October! (Nikki wishes she could be there....:( )