Update On Paging Tokyo

So apparantly, my sister found my post about Nick and his snowshoeing poles paging Tokyo simply HI-larious! Hurray for kampisms, a case of the giggles strike again! What Ali did not know when she read my blog was this...the poles that Nick has BEAMING out of his back pack are actually mine...thats right folks, not only was my husband nice enough to carry my poles for me, but he had that caption written by me and was laughed at, oh the hillarity of it all!

Background on the poles. We decided (quite geniously i might add) to get poles prior to our first outing on snowshoes. This was smart because when we did go snowshoeing, we went in McCall which had over 4 feet of pillowy soft powder and contrary to popular belief, you do not "float" on powder with snowshoes on, you just dont sink quite as far if you wear them. This is where the poles come in, they are, of course, helpful for balance...but they can also act as a lever when you sink and fall down. Instead of being helpless (I have fallen, and I can't get up!) you use the pole to crank yourself upright. Ok, major sidetrack. Anyway...

So Nick and I go to REI to buy poles. True to form, Nick selects the most modern, compact, fold up and practically put in your pocket poles. Yes, that's right, he selects the wow those poles are so cool poles. I, on the other hand, try to act like I am a saver, look, my poles were $20 less than yours, look at what a bargain hunter I am! Nevermind that they are long and not as modern as yours...

Which brings us to the snowshoe race. We decide to bring our poles. Nick fastens his poles onto his backpack and I smile, hey, you have two sides to that backpack! Would you puhleeeeeze put my poles on there too? Your poles are HUGE he answered back, but put them on anyway, because he is the best husband ever! As we started the race, they kept wacking him in the head, at which point he threw me one of those nasty type glaces which reminded me that being thrifty is not always the way to go...oops. So...I couln't help myself when I put the pictures on the blog...I just had to put the caption in that would make it appear as though Nick had bought the dumb long poles. You're welcome Ali, everyone needs a belly laugh from time to time!

Home buying & Busy season

Well, I think that we may officially be in what accountants seem to spend their whole year talking about. "Busy season." If you ever listen to accountants talk, they are either gearing up for busy season in busy season just finished busy season, or something else followed by busy season. I think that it may be the most commonly used phrase in our vocabulary. Its funny too, most people have been employed at their workplace for a certain number of years based on the date that the started. Accountants have their own way of calculating time. I have been here for one busy season and I am embarking on my second busy season. Huh. Yes, go ahead and scratch your head, and mutter to yourself "accountants are so strange." Yes, yes they are...wait I am one....well anyway. Moving on.

The homebuying process is moving along. We have until February 6 to close. Well, I guess there are no guarantees since things have come up at every moment along the way. That is home buying for you I guess! So long as the rest of the process sails smooth, we will close on the 6th. At that point, I can possibly post some pictures! Hurrah!

Snowshoe Race

On Sunday we took part in an 8k snowshoe race at White River snow park just outside of Hood River and mount hood. Our time was like 1 hour and 47 minutes, however, we had a great time, we walked, stopped, played, took pictures, nick pushed me in the snow (mean!) and then pushed me in the snow again! (Double mean!) Just kidding, he really did push me in the snow but we had a great time! We are planning on going back to the snow this weekend too! Hurray for snow!

Mount Hood...all the way to the top...er...maybe not, but it was steep!
I'm going, Im going!
Another shot from the peak of Mount Hood (Ha!)
Nick with his radio antena! Paging Tokyo! Who would get such long poles, scheesh.

New News?

Could there be a turn of the tide? A change of events?

Scratch the big news--nevermind.

So, the big news was that we were in the process of buying a home in Beavercreek, just outside of Portland on 2 acres. During the inspection period, many things were found including bad siding, bad roof, everything unmaintained for the past 3 years, old HVAC systems, and other misc. items. Nick and I asked for a reduction in price, unfortunately, the seller was not willing to reduce the price to our satisfaction and so the sale is on the verge of falling through.

On the one hand, this is a blessing is disguise because the repairs (cash out of pocket) to fix the major issues would be huge with a low return when we go to sell. On the other hand, my dream of being in a house soon has been squashed for now. I know, I know, there are other houses out there and this is probably one of those "it happened for a reason" things. That said, I am just having a harder and harder time being in the apartment, squished in, one bathroom, no nice furniture, etc.

I know, I should be greatful that I have a place to live at all. I don't know, it just gets to be hard sometimes, you know? I mean, I married the man of my dreams, I am thrilled to spend the rest of my life with him, I just want that time to be spent in a home that is ours, a home that we can stretch out it, a home that we can get furniture for and have more than one area to hang out it...hey, maybe even have more than one living are so that if someone wants to watch TV, we are not all stuck either watching it or hearing it.

I know that it will happend eventually, I just feel like I have been so patient, we have been "Actively" looking with a realtor since Septemberr 2007 and I just worry that we will still be looking in September 2008.

My dreams of owning a house revolve around several key items, here they are:

• Having an office to be able to study and work in
• Being able to have family members come and stay, comfortably
• Being able to host dinners or the like for friends and family
• Having my own furniture
• Having a dresser in a room that is not horribly cramped
• Having a larger closet
• A garage to put things like bikes in instead of taken apart in the bedroom
• 2 or more bathrooms!
• A yard that is fenced to have a dog in!
• The ability to decorate or paint or whatever because it is MINE to do what I want
• No speed bumps when coming home!
• Being able to eat dinner at a dinner table, NO TV while eating, NO eating on the couch, NO eating on the floor
• Having the stereo hooked up so that I can listen to music
• Not having people above me
• Not having people come home and shine their head-lights into my room late at night when I am trying to fall asleep.

There, that is a somewhat comprehensive list....

One of my favorite pics...to lighten the mood!

Big news keeps getting delayed!

Grrrrr. The big news that should be coming soon just keeps getting delayed and things keep getting in the way of progress! Growl! I am trying to stay positive and hope and cross my fingers that everything turns out! Heck, maybe it things don't turn out the way that Nick and I are hoping, we will pack our bags and move to McCall, Idaho. I am ready to go!

Big news, Coming soon!!!!!

Oh, and to clarrify, no, not having a baby...that is a few years off yet...but I have big news, I just don't want to spill in case everything falls thru! Stay tuned!

First Wedding Photos, more to come