Back to the Land of the Living

Last night was my last graveyard shift. Now I get to go back onto day shift for 4 months! Which is great, because I have missed my friends...you know, the ones that have started saying, "Lindy? Lindy who? Didn't she fall off the face of the earth?" I start my dayshifts on Friday, so I have 2 days to get my body back onto a "normal" sleep schedule. This should be interesting, because I've found that I have started having an incredibly hard time sleeping when it's dark out. It will also be interesting because this will be the longest amount of time on day shift since I started this job. Could be fun!

Also this weekend is the opening of "The Diary of Anne Frank", the play I'm in. It plays Fri-Sun at 7:00 pm, both this weekend and next weekend, at the Baker Extension Building. It's kind of surreal to be in a play again after more than a year away from the stage, when I use to be involved with at least 4 plays a year. It's also kind of odd to be on the stage with people who haven't had any formal theatrical training. I'm not saying they are better or worse than those who HAVE had this training, they just don't have the same tools at their disposal, and I can definitely see the difference. The one who is the most fun to work with is Camille, who is playing Anne. She just plays the role so incredibly well, she's a joy to watch perform. This is the first time I've been in a "community" play. It's definitely been a fun experience. Hopefully Nathan will be ok with me being in more plays in the future, because I've really missed it. Eventually, I would LOVE to direct a play, because I've always felt more in my element in the director's seat than on the stage, but until that opportunity comes along, I'm enjoying just being involved again.

So today is Halloween...and I have the night off. Granted, I will have rehearsal until about 10:00 pm, but I'm still excited that I have the night off because that means I won't have to deal with all the little twerps that are going to be out and about town playing pranks and causing general mayhem...right? Ok, maybe not. I thought last night was going to be the lull before the storm, that it would be a fairly relaxed night. Instead, we had several runaway juveniles, mulitple medicals, and an insane guy who just WOULDN'T GO AWAY! When I heard about our first contact with him right before I got on shift, my first comment was, "I bet we'll hear from him again tonight." How right I was. I think we got about 4 more calls on him. So having tonight off is exciting. But at the same time, there's the slightly twisted dispatcher side of me that thinks that it would be a ton of fun to be on shift tonight because of all the craziness that will probably happen...and it's a pity to miss out on all the fun! Ah, the twisted things we find entertaining.

Well, it's about time to do the press log, take out the trash, vacuum, and then head home. Hasta!

Halloween!

I absolutely love this time of year. There's snow on the mountains, there's a chill in the air, the leaves are falling, it's hunting season, and it's time for Halloween! And for the first time, I actually get to host a Halloween costume party. I'm so excited! The party is this Saturday night and there's SO much to do between now and then!

Thanks to Martha Stewart's website, I've found a bunch of great ideas for decorations, snacks, and drinks. I don't necessarily like the lady, but you've got to hand it to her, she's pretty crafty. Some of her stuff takes a rediculous amount of time, energy, and resources that I simply don't have, but once you sift through the fancy stuff, you can find some easy and cheap goodies.

Here's some of the ideas I've found:

• Print out back images of rats, cut them out, and tape them on the walls where they meet the floors to look like rats are running through the house. (templates courtesy of Martha Stewart)
• Print out mini black images of bats, cut them out, tape them to the inside of a lamp shade.
• Carmel apples
• Freeze water in a surgical glove and use that as the ice in the punch
• Cut the tops off of small pumpkins, clean them out, put candles in them and place them on the front steps of the house as lanterns.
• Shred cheese cloth and hang it from the windows to look like old curtains.
• Cover all the furnature with white sheets to make the house look abandoned.

Those that know me best know that I am kind of obsessive about making lists. Before starting any project, I always list out the things that I need to do (clean the house, mop the floor, wash the dog, dust, do dishes, etc). I absolutely love being able to cross things off the list as I get them done. Then, if I have accomplished things on my list and am going to be leaving the list for a while, I re-write the list out, sans the things I've already done, so I have a neat and tidy list to come back to. Yeah, it's weird, I know. But it's the ONLY way I remember the zillions of things I need to get done.

Needless to say, I have a big ol' list of things I need to acquire/accomplish before the party. Thankfully, I have a couple of friends who have graciously volunteered to help decorate on Saturday before the party, since Nathan is unfortunately going to be at a Beav's game in Corvallis with his dad for the weekend. I'm already starting to whittle away at my list as much as possible. Tomorrow, Dana and I are heading to Boise to get our costumes, since Baker is woefully devoid of Halloween costumes. I'm planning on being Marilyn Monroe ala "Some Like It Hot". The blonde hair, the white dress, the red lips, the works. Dana hasn't quite decided what she wants to be yet, so it will be fun to help her pick out some costumes to try on!

I'm super excited about having this party at our house. It's the first actual theme party that we've had since our Housewarming Party in March, and I absolutely LOVE finding excuses to host big parties. I think I get it from my parents...I know for a fact that I got my "the more the merrier" mentality from them. And I just happened to have the weekend before Halloween off.

On top of the having the party, I'm also thoroughly tickled about having all weekend (Fri-Sun) off without having to travel anywhere. I have every other weekend off, and for the past 3 months or so, I have been traveling every single weekend I've had off. I've missed being able to go to the high school football games, hang out with my friends, spend time with my husband, etc. Even more exciting is the fact that the only time I plan on traveling in the next few months is the night before and day of Thanksgiving. Yay for staying home!

Oh, and I just have to say again how excited and thankful I am for the blessing of Carly and Shem's new daughter, Stella. It was a hard labor followed by a c section, but both Mama and baby are healthy and beautiful!

That's about it for now.

October Babies

First of all, I just want to give a shout out to my friends who have had/are having babies this month. Three friends, in fact. The first is Cassie Steele (use to be Morrisey) who had her adorable daughter Jadzia Joy Steele on the afternoon of October 15th. Jadzia is absolutely beautiful. Congrats Cassie!

The second friend is Lynds Riehl, who I went to college with. She was induced on the 14th, but I haven't heard yet how little McKenzie is doing. Hopefully all went well with that family!

And the third is my friend Carly, who is being induced TONIGHT!!!! I can't wait to see pictures of Stella and hear that Carly came through the birth with flying colors. Our thoughts and prayers will be with you, Carlsons!

That being said, Nathan and I have decided that we're not allowed to have an October baby. As much as I think there need to be more Libras in the world, there are several reasons for this decision and I think you'll agree with us when you hear them.

First, almost half of my side of the family was born in October. And if they weren't born in October, they were born in February. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but that's sure what it feels like! Adding one more person to the October group just seems a little silly to us. For Heaven's sake, it's starting to get hard to keep track of everyone with an October birthday!

Second, October happens to be baseball play offs. As the guy on tv has grown so fond of reminding us, "There's only ONE October". Nathan is an avid baseball fan and grows slightly frantic at the idea of having to possibly miss not just one playoffs game, but possibly many more after bringing the baby home. And I really don't want to have to get angry at him for running out of the room while I'm in labor to check on the score of the game! After all, stress is just suppose to make the process more difficult, and I don't think I need that.

Third, outside of my family, October seems to be a very popular month to have a baby. Why not January? Or August? Ok, I have to admit, it would be nice to not be in the end of your pregnancy in the hottest months of the year. But a month besides October would be nice.

Now that I've written all that, NO, I'm not pregnant! This was just brought on by 3 of my friends having babies this month. And if the time comes and it turns out we're going to have a baby in October, no, I'm not going to be angry. Amused, not angry.

Congrats again to those who have just had a wonderful addition to their families! If only you all lived closer!

Birthday Fun

Evidently the fact that I haven't written about my birthday activities has left some of my readers with a considerable amount of angst (cough cough Rachael cough cough) so I figured I'd take up some of my last couple of hours at work doing so.

My birthday actually seemed to stretch on for DAYS. Which is by no means a bad thing. Weekend before last, on Saturday I believe, some of our friends came over for dinner (my mom's world famous taco mix) before starting on brewing beer with my husband. Before dinner, my friend Brandie presented me with a present and a cake, stating that Saturday was going to be my early birthday since we had no idea when we would get to hang out again. So I opened my present from Brandie and Issac, we had dinner, ate some cake, and I ran off to work for the night.

Fast forward a few days to Wednesday night (day before my birthday). I'm once again at work all night. Nothing real spectacular happened, but we had some fun calls that night. The next morning (Thursday, my bday), I get home, say good morning to Nathan, make myself some tea, and then go into the living room with Nathan, who had decorated the room with a "Happy Birthday" banner and balloons. I opened my presents...lots of fun stuff including, but not limited to, Mel Brooke's "History of the World Part I", an electric blanket (I get cold sleeping by myself when I'm on night shift), and a Smith & Wesson Lady Smith .38 Special pistol (yay for having firepower against lions and tigers and bears while hiking, oh my)! I then went to bed and slept until around noon-ish.

At noon, I woke up, took a shower, started some laundry, then went into town to spend a little bit of my birthday money. I got a holster for my new pistol and a bluetooth headset for my cell phone, for when I'm driving. When I got home, I proceeded to pack for Arizona and get ready for work. At 5:30 pm, I met Nathan and some friends at Barley's for dinner...they got to drink beer, I didn't. Then it was off to work, where Nathan brought me home made cheese cake...YUM!

The next morning (Friday), I got off work at 7 am, jumped in my car, and drove to Boise to meet my mom for our flight to Arizona...but not before a quick stop and Barnes & Noble, an absolute must whenever possible. We flew to Arizona to visit my grandparents, had dinner at the Outback Steakhouse that night, and went to bed. On Saturday, Grammy, Mom and I went to Tubac, an artist village south of where my grandparent's live, where I spent the rest of my birthday money and we had lunch. Sunday was my Grammy's birthday, so we spent the day at Kitt Peak Observatory, an astrological observatory complete with the HUUUUUUGE telescopes. Pictures will be up eventually. Then it was dinner at a local italian restaurant, back to my grandparent's and (over 30 hours after last sleeping) off to bed.

Monday morning found us packed up, showered, and enroute to the airport, where Mom and I jumped on a plane home, only to get stuck in Salt Lake airport for about 2 hours before heading to Boise. So instead of being able to get home and take a nap before work last night, I got home at 6 pm and had to be to work at 7 pm. Thankfully, I now only have 1 1/2 hours to go before I get to crawl into my nice warm bed...only 23 1/2 hours after I woke up yesterday morning. You would think I would learn my lesson, but evidently not.

Thankfully, this is my last bit of traveling for quite a while. These last two months on graveyard have been brutal because every weekend I haven't been working, I've been traveling. This means that I haven't been able to stay anywhere near my graveyard sleep schedule, which is very tough on a body. The last weekend in October, I actually have the weekend off and get to stay home!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So don't ask me to do anything or go anywhere!

So there it is...my birthday "week". Nothing too fancy, but nice, none the less.

You know you're a dispatcher when...

Every single one of these are true. Literally.

You know you're a dispatcher when...

1] You've ever had the urge to answer the phone by saying "Your local 411"
2] You applaud the dispatcher who was on the news last year for his comment to the unruly child's mother "Do you want us to come over and shoot him?"
3] You have the bladder capacity of five people.
4] You believe that 50% of people are a waste of good air.
5] Your idea of a good time is taking a good domestic call, an armed robbery or calling a pursuit.
6] You get excited and call every other dispatcher you know when you hear the state police screw up on the radio.
7] You would conduct a criminal record check on the parents of your children's friends, whom ever you're currently dating or anyone who is nice to you, if it were legal.
8] You believe in the aerial spraying of Prozac and birth control pills.
9] You disbelieve 90% of what you hear on the other end of the phone.
10] You have your weekends off planned for a year.
11] You pray for your relief to come in five minutes early because you have to go potty soooo bad.
12] You believe the government should require a permit to reproduce.
13] You refer to your favorite restaurant by the "nearest cross streets" to which it's located.
14] You have ever wanted to hold a seminar entitled: "Suicide...don't call me, just do it."
15] Your job description includes baby sitting the city (or county).
16] You ever had to put the phone on hold before you begin laughing uncontrollably.
17] You have ever been unable to dispatch officers on a call because the caller's name or the call itself is so ridiculous that you can't keep from laughing.
18] You think caffeine should be available in IV form.
19] You believe an officer is a hero only when he brings you in a 44oz. cappuccino.
20] People call you all hours of the night to ask you directions to strange places...and you know where they're located.
21] You claim to be a "communications officer" because it just sounds so much more important than a "dispatcher."
22] You get on the air to tell an officer to call dispatch so that you're not going over the radio when you warn him/her about the Tom Adam Robert David (TARD) they're about to encounter.
23] You do not see daylight from November until May.
24] You've ever referred to Tuesday as "my weekend", or "this is my Friday".
25] You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, it sure is quiet tonight."
26] You find humor in other people's stupidity.
27] You have microwaved the same meal more than three times in order to eat warm food because everyone in the city seems to know when you're trying to eat.
28] The better you are at your job, the more you get complained on.
29] You want the social security number and finger prints of anyone interested in your younger sibling or children.
30] You have a bumper sticker or tshirt that says "I love Cops" or "Dispatchers tell cops where to go."
31] Boredom at work causes you to keep a mentally handicapped person on the phone for hours just to listen to their stories.
32] You have ever given back a plate over the radio that returns to"Seymour Wehner" or "Sharon Peters" because the officers think it's funny to hear you say dirty words on the air.

I've never had a job where I've been expected to know so many random pieces of information before. Here's just a smattering. You need to know:

• 12-code...this is our version of the 10-code. As in "10-4 little buddy, you're loud and clear." Only, someone decided that too many people know 10-code now, so we switched to 12-code. So when a new officer comes in and keeps accidently using the 10-code, we laugh at them.
• The phonetic alphabet...but not the normal one that everyone else uses, the freaky one. Adam, Boy, Charles, David, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lincoln, Mary, Nora, Ocean, Paul, Robert, Sam, Tom, Union, Victor, William, Xray, Yellow, Zebra. Now imagine how hard it can be when an officer spells a name for you to run, using this phonetic alphabet. "First of Mary...Mary, Adam, Robert, Yellow". That's 3 different names used to spell out one name. Not sure what genious thought that one up.
• Whether complaints called in are law matter (call out the calvary) or a civil matter (tell them to go whine to the courts, the cops can't do anything).
• Ordinances: noise, barking, parking, littering, weeds, garbage accumulation, etc. Not to mention the differences between city ordinances and county ordinances.
• When to page out just Baker Ambulance for the county medical calls, when to not page out Baker Ambulance for county calls, when to page out both Baker Ambulance and the rural ambulance for that area for county calls.
• Which areas of the county are covered by which rural fire departments, and who to call about fires in the areas that aren't covered by any of the rural fire departments.
• Which page to turn to the in the pre-arrival medical book while listening to a mother scream in your ear that their child is choking/not breathing/seizuring.
• Which radio freqency to use depending on where our deputy is in our fairly sizable county.
• The 50 different ways you can run a licence plate, driver's license, or name/dob in order to get as much information as humanly possible on the person your officer is out with.
• The difference between Officer, Deputy, Sgt, Lt, Detective, Sgt Detective, Chief, Sheriff, School Resourse Officer, Code Enforcement/Community Service Officer, Canine Unit...and what each one does and does not do. More what they do not do, though.

That is just a small sampling of the practical knowledge we need in order to do our job. On top of that, there is the stuff they don't list in the job description. The stuff that makes our officers' jobs easier and keeps them safe. You need to:

• Know which officers want a Dark House list printed out each night and which officers don't.
• Know which officers use 12-code (I'm 12-94, "I'm a-ok" in layman's terms) and which ones still use Dispo codes (I'm code 4, meaning the same thing as 12-94).
• Know each officer's voice by heart because most of the time, when they say their unit number, you can't understand what they said but you sure as heck don't want to ask them to repeat themselves.
• Know which officers you can joke around with and which ones you need to be completely respectful with.
• Know which officers want their phone messages immediately via radio, which officers want their phone messages emailed to them, and which officers want their phone messages both over the radio immediately and emailed to them.
• Know which callers you can generally trust to give you the truth (about 10% of the population) and which ones are just blowing it out of their bum (90% of the population).
• Have a working memory of every call you've received, as well as the calls that came in during your off-time that you read about in the call screens, so that you know what the officers are talking about when they come in and ask you about a call that happened 3 weeks ago.
• Know where your officers are at all times, even though sometimes they forget to tell you that they have gone out somewhere and you don't know it until they go 12-1 (available, back in my vehicle).
• Be able to picture the scene no matter where it is in the county.
• Immediately know where the street/road that the caller is calling from is located, so you know whether it's a city or county call, or whether it's even in your county.
• Know who is dating whom, who is recently broken up, who has restraining orders against them, who is living with whom, who is selling drugs, who just recently got released from jail/prison, who is on probation, who has their licence suspended/revoked/expired. You can look most of these things up, but sometimes the officers don't ask us to run them, so we need to know, just in case.
• Know what we can tell people without getting ourselves in trouble and what we need to keep our mouths shut about.
• Know which people are serious about their suicide threats and which ones call frequently just to get attention.
• Know what a drunk and/or high person sounds like over the phone.
• Have as much as possible memorized about each of our "frequent fliers".

Essentially, we're suppose to know everything. About everyone. This is something that, until recently, I was starting to think just may be impossible. I've seen my fellow dispatchers pull random bits of information on people out of the air countless times. Would I ever be able to do that? But tonight I did. One of our officers got lied to by someone trying to cover for a significant other. When the officer came into dispatch and told us about what this person said, I was able to remember a call that came in over a month ago that proved that they were lying. This may make it possible to bring the person they were protecting to justice.

Ok, so remembering a little bit of information really isn't that big of a deal in the real world. But that is the unwritten part of my job that actually makes up about 75% of what I'm suppose to be doing as a dispatcher. And tonight showed me that I'm getting there. I still have a long ways to go before I can be dubbed a "competent dispatcher". But I'm getting there.

DONE!

That's right, I finally finished painting the guest room! I put the last coat on the walls and took down all the tape today. It was a little bit of a trial and error deal, cause I figured out that I needed to take a razor to the tape in order to separate the tape from the paint on the wall, otherwise it made the paint peel back. As a result, I had some touch ups to do this afternoon, but it's all done!!!!!!!! Thank heavens! Here's some pics:

By the bed from the door.

The end of the bed from the door.

The doorway and dresser from by the window.

My favorite part of the room...the closet.

The newly painted door that looks brand new. :)

I tried to edit the color using photoshop to be as close to the actual paint color as possible. I think the color in the photo of the closet is the closest. The entire look is very fresh and has a very Caribbean feel to it, I think. At first, both Nathan and I were a little worried about whether we would like it, but now that it's all done and the tape is gone, we both really love it.

Now all that's left to do is put the blinds, drapes, and pictures back up, replace the light fixture, and trade out the outlets. Oh, and we'd love to replace the carpet, because let's face it, shag brown just doesn't go with the new paint job. All in good time.

Happy

I've decided that life is very, very good.

Nathan and I are having a blast gradually working on the house. I may be able to get the guest bedroom fully painted today, which is exciting. The paint is a bit more green than I expected, but it's growing on me. I'll post pictures when I'm done. Painting the trim and door white makes all of the trim and the door look brand new, so we're planning on painting the rest of the trim/doors in the house that color, except for the front room (which is getting new trim) and the bathroom (which will be a dark tan to match the light tan that we're painting the walls). Nathan is working on getting all of the switches and outlets switched out. I think he only has a couple more rooms to go upstairs. We're also gradually replacing the hideous 70's style light fixtures and the gold door knobs...gold fixtures/hardware make me shudder. When we first moved in, we were thoroughly overwhelmed by all the things that we needed/wanted to do to the house. But the more we do, the more we realize that it's a process to enjoy and that we don't need to get it all done NOW. So we are having fun.

Work is going well, as far as I'm concerned. And I've come to a very happy conclusion. All my life, I've been brought up to have huge goals and expect amazing things from myself. First it was to become a dentist. Then I decided I wanted to be a doctor instead. Ever since I decided that medicine wasn't for me during my freshman year of college, and became a theatre major instead, I felt like I was letting myself and everyone else down. Especially my parents. So I keep trying to push myself to do bigger and better things, which never made me happy. Yet I still always felt like I was letting everyone down. But I've decided to stop. Stop feeling like I have to be in a better place than I am now. Stop feeling like I'm letting people down because I'm not a doctor/dentist/whatever I feel like they expect me to be. I've decided that everyone else is just fine with where I am now, and that I can feel free to be ok with were I am as well. This may sound like a fairly simple idea and one that I should have come to a long time ago, but it's a huge relief and it makes me happy and relaxed in a way I haven't been a very long time.

No more dwelling on "what could have been, should have been, might have been". I have an amazing husband who loves me, takes care of me, and makes me laugh. I own a fun house that we're working on fixing up and making our own. I live in a great town where we feel like we can raise our kids without too much fear. I have great friends who don't hate me for my freaky schedule and the fact that I go MIA when I'm on graveyard shift, who are happy to welcome me back when I stop being night owl. I have a halarious dog who keeps us entertained and is just happy to be as close as possible to us. My family is amazing. We have our health. We don't make a ton of money, but we're comfortable.

My life isn't outstanding, or phenominal, or life-changing. But it's good. Very very good.

I Don't Know

I hate politics.

As a rule, I ignore them. They make me angry. Mostly because I feel like I never get anything near the truth, so I feel like I can never create an informed decision or opinion. Because of this, I try to avoid expressing political opinions, as a rule. When politics or religion (another hot button issue for me...note I said "religion" not "faith") come up in conversations, I clam up. Life's too short to get worked up by these things. But sometimes politics is brought home, whether you want it to be or not.

A good friend of mine just got back from Iraq. Not on leave, but home...at least until the next deployment. Being new to blogspot, I hadn't found their online journal until tonight. Reading it makes me want to cry. His writing was beautiful, eloquant, and piercing. In person, this friend makes light of their time there. On a daily basis, I thought about them and worried. But I didn't let myself dwell on it, because dwelling on it wouldn't change anything. When they came home on leave, I didn't want to be the friend who asks the stupid questions about what it's like there...they spent all their time "there", I just want them to enjoy being here without me forcing them to think about "there" during their entire leave...wow, good grammar Lindy.

A while ago, if you had asked me if I agreed with this war, I would have told you no. Absolutely, unequivocally no. I would have told you that I support our troops, that they're just following orders, but that Bush is an idiot and we need to mind our own damn business. Now...I don't know. I don't know enough of what is really going on over there to have an opinion. Am I going to find out enough to have an opinion? Probably not. Politics still piss me off. But have I been humbled by what I've read in TD's blog? You bet.

TD,
In a way, I'm glad I didn't find your blog until after you got home. I knew you were in danger, you can't help but be while you're over there. But reading what you wrote really brings that fact home. I don't know if you know how glad and relieved I am that you're home safe. If you don't...I am. I just don't know how much to say about it when you're around, because I want to help home be as "normal" as you want it to be. Which is why I just let you lead our conversations to where ever you want them to go. I'm glad you feel like you can pick up the phone and call when you want to hang out. I have to admit, I'm still trying to reconcile you of today with the you that I remember from high school. Part of that is because of the past year you just experienced, a larger part of that (I think) is just not seeing you very much in the past 5 years. But I'm glad you're home so I can get to know you again.

Oh...and thank you.

Fall!!!

It's officially fall in Baker. Actually, Mother Nature has taken a huge step forward; she has almost seemed to have forgotten fall and is racing head long into winter. But I'm a-okay with that.

I absolutely love this time of year, but never more so than when I'm home in Baker. Living in the Valley for 4 years taught me to appreciate Eastern Oregon weather. During my time in Forest Grove last weekend, it rained...and by "rained", I mean it POURED! I seriously wondered if there was going to be a flash flood. Here, we've had a some showers, but nothing too serious...definitely nothing that soaks you as soon as you step out of your car and chills you to the bone. (shudder) It's no wonder life seemed to take on a grey cast starting in September in the Valley...you rarely saw the sun for half of the year! I love that on this side of the state, it's rare that you don't see the sun and blue sky at least once every day. Even on the days that are stormy and snowing, you still have a glimpse of warmth.

I was driving to work tonight and passed a house that had a few red leaves that had fallen from the tree in its yard. It was absolutely beautiful and made me smile. I'm noticing the change in the season all over the place, from the city streets to the aspens changing colors in the mountains. And it made me realize that last year I didn't really have the chance to enjoy the Baker City fall with everything that was going on with Marla. This year, I'm remembering what fall felt like when I was growing up. The snap of cold that promises snow coming soon, but not quite yet. Laughing at the town folk who had to deal with their falling leaves because all we had out on Pine Creek were pine and fir trees. (Now we have a huge maple tree in our yard, it's karma I tell you!) Loving the first day that you say, "I know just what I need...hot chocolate!", because somehow hot chocolate has the ability to infuse you with the warm fuzzies. We were never really surprised if it was snowing on Halloween. There have even been times when it has snowed on my birthday, which I always loved.

I walked out of work this morning to see snow on the Elkhorns, which are the first things you seen when you walk out of the back door of the Sheriff's Office, and on the Eagle Caps across the valley. It made me giddy. Even better, the snow was still there when I got to work tonight. As I was driving to work, the weather forecast on the radio said to expect rain and snow showers tomorrow and Thursday. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!! I'm taking true enjoyment in this season, and am really looking forward to this winter. Last winter was full of pain and mourning...I want this one to be full of joy and love.

Oh, and my birthday is in 9 days...even more reason to be excited for the season!

Dresser!

I actually accomplished something today. After purchasing all that paint this weekend, I decided that I wanted to get started painting on something. Tackling a room just seemed like too big of a project when I have to be at the Young Life club house at 5:30 pm tonight for our first club, but I figured I could start and finish repainting my heirloom dresser in that amount of time. Which I did. Unfortunately, it took a little longer than expected, because I put two coats of primer on it, which I mistook for the flat white paint I wanted to use. So I ended up with 3 coats of paint, as well as two coats of the jade white for the embellishments. So here it is, the finished product, sans glass top which will be added once I get all the wax from the candles I use to burn cleaned off.


I'm really happy with how it turned out and can't wait to see how the room looks once it is painted. Nathan said he's going to work on hand sanding and priming the closet in the guest bedroom, so there's a possibility that the guest room will be finished by the end of this week. So stay tuned!

Homeownership!

So we've officially gone a little insane now that we've realized that we can do pretty much anything we want to our house because WE OWN IT! Both of us are so use to either living in a parent's house or a rental, that it took a while to come to realization that we can make improvements without worrying about ticking off the current landlord. Now that we have come to that realization, the home improvement projects seem to be coming out of our ears.

After we finished tearing out the living room carpet and revealing the warm hardwood floors, we realized that the paint in the living room had a decidedly PINK tint to it. Now I have never been a girly girl and, needless to say, neither has Nathan. So while I was in the Portland area this last weekend, Nathan told me to go ahead and go to Home Depot to pick out some paint for the living room and the guest bedroom. I picked out a green tinted white, called Jade White. It's going to go very well with our living room curtains and I'm so excited about how the guest room is going to look!

The plan for the guest room is to paint all the walls the Jade White color and all the moulding/trim a flat white. There's a closet that sits out about 2' x 3' from the wall in one corner...we're planning on painting the main walls of that closet the Jade White, then the moulding and the doors the flat white. We also plan on panting the room door white. Yay! Along with painting the room, I also have my family heirloom dresser that needs repainted. Right now it is white with light blue accents, but the paint has been scuffed and such, so it needs to be repainted white and then paint the accents Jade White. So those are our painting projects.

Meanwhile, Nathan has gradually been working on the electrical problems that the house has. Which are by no means few and far between. He has been moving throughout the house replacing the old, outdated light switches and outlets. Now our switches are those nifty white switches that you rock rather than flick, which is a much more updated look. He also replaced the very old light fixture in the bathroom, which had begun to make suspicious clicking noises. When he took the old fixture out, he discovered that the lightbulbs were 1oo w bulbs, while the fixture was rated for 60 w bulbs...as a result, he found all the wires were melted together. Yikes! He also found several outlets/light switches that were not grounded. So it's a very good thing that he has started working on these things so that our house won't burn down. Now he's looking at doing the same stuff in the basement, which is actually slightly terrifying. Marla had many amazing qualities, but the ability to do quality electrical work was definitely not one of them, and she refinished the basement herself...which means that she did all the electrical work down there. (Gulp!) So that should be interesting.

Other than that, we'll probably repaint our bedroom and our stand-out closet eventually, and we'd really love to replace ALL of the flooring in the dining room, kitchen, hall way, guest room, our bedroom, bathroom, and basement. We also want to do some more work in the bathroom...repaint (probably a tan color), replace the laminate in on the bathroom counter, put a shower/bath unit in, and replace the sink/faucet. Oh, and eventually we'll do a full-scale kitchen remodel, but that won't be for a long while. The list goes on and on, but after doing what we've done so far, we feel really good about our ability to gradually get it all done.

Beyond home improvements, last weekend I jumped in my car after my graveyard shift and drove my butt to the Portland area for Dani's 25th birthday. She reserved the local wine shop, Cork & Barrel, where the owner shut down the shop just for us from 7 pm until 10 pm, popped several bottles of wine, arranged for snacks to be brought over from the cafe across the hall, and just let us enjoy ourselves. The wine shop had an upstairs balcony where Scott (the owner) had put a couple of tables with chairs and a couch. That's where we spent most of our time. It was a TON of fun and it was great to see a lot of people that I haven't seen since graduating from college. I finally crashed at around midnight, after being awake non-stop for about 30 hours. Needless to say, I slept almost all day on Saturday before I went to Home Depot and then went to Starbucks at Orenco Station to visit Sam, who was my maid of honor in Nathan and my wedding. It was great to catch up with her, since I hadn't seen her at all since our wedding. On Sunday, I met my grandparent's in Gresham for brunch then drove home, where Nathan and I made dinner and ate in bed while watching Armageddon until I just couldn't stay awake anymore.

While I was gone, Nathan kept going on the home projects until his grandparents from Arizona arrived to spend the night before continuing on their journey back to Arizona. They went out to dinner on Saturday night and enjoyed the chance to spend time together. I'm bummed that I wasn't here to see them as well, but I had committed to going to Dani's party about 2 months ago. But I'm glad Nathan had a chance to spend time with his grandparents, who he also hadn't seen since our wedding...seems like we can say that about a lot of our family and friends!

Ok, well, I think it's time to go get started on some of those home projects that I can actually do! Woohoo for painting!