OREGON TRIP, Nov 5-9, 2009

In our adoption process, David and I were instructed and "highly encouraged" to attend a western United States including California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii FSA (families supporting adoption) conference in Portland, Oregon. We had a few hours left for foster care training in our required training left, and we had been talking for about 2 years taking a drive up the Pacific Northwest, so we seized the opportunity to accomplish both. Here is a rough journal of our trip.

DAY 1-

arrgg- always takes longer to take off on trips, we left 2 hours latter than planned because we remembered a few more things to bring, and I missed the alarm.

Our journey begins up highway 5, with a quick stop at Denny's for breakfast- happy to admit that my moons over my hammy, and David's pancakes didn't make either of us sick as I always try to stay away from that place. We only resulted to it to make the stop fast.

After we hit Williams, Ca, where highway 20 that takes you to fort bragg meets highway 5- we were in territory neither of us had been, so we kept our eyes peeled for new scenery, and tried to get good glances and views of towns we always hear about, but have never been to, Redding, Red Bluff, and Yreka. They are all what they sound like and look like on the news, mountain towns, lots of northern, CA pine, a few redwood trees. As we passed Yreka, it was open land for awhile, and we figured we must be soon hitting the Oregon border, sure enough we saw the "Welcome to Oregon" sign. We already had seen the mile markers to Medford, OR. It was actually right near the border we got our first random rainfall, and were initiated to the eratic rainfall and then sunny weather patterns typical of the Northwest. I tried a new thing this trip, David insisted on driving most of the way, so I became the photographer for cool scenes/views from our car, and I can brag, some of the pictures turned out great for taking them from the road.

When we hit Medford, OR at around 4 pm, David and I wanted to go see the Medford, Oregon Temple, so we went straight there so we could see the Temple in daylight. It is so pretty,the smallest Temple plan, with only 1 sealing room, and is also located on the same property as a stake center. We took some pictures, and walked around the grounds. We were leaving to go back into town and when David shut the back door of our car after putting the camera in the back seat, he hit his head pretty hard on the door, enough that he got a terrible migraine. We relaxed a few minutes, and then went to eat dinner, we ended up choosing Applebees. The migraine wasn't getting any better with Advil during dinner, so David had an idea to go back to the stake center right next to the Temple, and get a blessing. We went back and there were two brothers that were in the Stake Offices that were willing and able to administer a blessing to David. We decided with a little drama to stay in Medford for the night, instead of proceding to Portland. We decided to let David chill, and get up really early the next morning and make it to Portland early before having to be there for the conference by 3 pm. We layed low and watched a movie in the Ramada Inn so David could get over the Migraine.

Day 2-

Yeah! we woke up early as planned, David's head felt somewhat better, and it wasn't raining, cloudy, but not rainy. After a contiental breakfast at the Ramada inn, we got on the road to proceed to Portland. We pulled over to gas up our car at a cheveron outside of Medford, and when we drove up to the gas pump and stopped, David got out to pump the gas, and I got out to go into the gas station to get some bottles of water for the road. We were approached by a woman, in a raincoat asking us how much gas we wanted. David and I looked at each other a little bit surprised, and a little confused why she was asking us, and who she was. It was then we learned, and were told by this Cheveron employee the state of Oregon has a law that consumers/public are not allowed to pump their own gas. In fact, you will be fined $500 dollars if you do. David and I looked at each other in shock, and thought she was kidding at first. She pumped our gas, and I got our waters, and then we continued to Portland.

The journey up to Portland from Medford was the most picturesque, and amazing with mixtures of fall colors, moss, and amazing landscape of hills and trees. There was low setting clouds, amdist alot of groves of trees. We enjoyed gauking at the scenery, and had of course some beattles music going on that David had loaded on our GPS.

About an hour and a half before Portland, our rear ends were traveling soar from sitting, we were so ready to just be there already. David finally let me take a driving shift, and sure enough, right after I started, I was in the middle of a dark, heavy down pour, but then it subsided, and the rest of the leg to Portland was nice until we hit the city.

Portland is kindof hilly, green and lots and lots of trees, and very updated and modern. They have every store and thing to do possible. It is much bigger than I thought. We made our way to Hillsboro, a suburb only about 10 minutes west of Portland, to check into the Marriott near the chapel where the conference was. We checked into the motel, and I have to say Marriott rocks for being the cheapest motel near the conference we could find! The lady said when we checked in that the hotel was brining complimentary cookies to our room, where do you find that service? After checking in, we freshened up and then went to the chapel for the conference.

Conference Friday afternoon and evening:

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Camping Trip to Donnor, 2009

We took a 2 day camping trip, just the two of us this time to Donnor state park August 27th to Aug 28th. We enjoyed beautiful weather, no crowds, and the hike and museum was fantastic. It was all the reason more why we love California!

CPR, FIRST AID CERTIFIED

We finished our LAST step of the adoption process of the California state requirements for foster/adopting by taking a CPR and First Aid class to become CPR/ FIRST AID certified. We had a really nice instructor from the red cross come and present the classes to us for 6 hours; yes, you read it correctly, 6 hours. We took 12 lessons, as well as our hands on practices of chest compressions and mouth to mouth. We also learned to do splints and bandages for first aid. We took a test at the end, and both passed! Yee Haw

ADOPTION STUDY COMPLETED

Most of you viewing our blog and that are close to us know David and I have decided (we decided 2 years ago) and are going forth with the adoption process. We applied and did some paperwork over a year ago, and then by the time we were going to have our adoption study we had decided to relocate, so we had to be patient and hold off until we made our recent move.
If you don't know what a home study is, you are not out of it. Neither of us knew until we got into the adoption process. A home study basically is where a social worker checks your house to make sure the house is "suiteable" for a child. Suiteable is basically safe and clean. They come and check to make sure the house has a place for the child. They check to make sure there are not sharp items, chemicals, and other dangerous items ground level or lower cupboards or drawers. They check to make sure you have a place to put the child, and that you have a fire extinguisher and a fist aid kit. Lastely, they want to make sure you are "sanitary" for the health of the child.
We had the appointment, Monday, July 20th. The appointment was an hour, and very smooth. After the inspection, we had another good discussion with our social worker.
This experience has been emotional and tedious, but has been amazing and such an eye opener.
We will update this blog when we find out our profile is viewable and if anything else happens.

4th of July!

This year- 4th of July was interesting. We finished our last activity as members of the activities committee in our ward, planning the anual 4th of July breakfast. We had a great committee, who were diligent and joined us preparing the breakfast at 6 in the morning. A few even came at 5:30 AM. The heartly breakfast turned out delicious, with strawberry and whipped cream pancakes, scrambled eggs, all kinds of fruit, juice, and sausage and ham. We had a committee member that organized a group of elderly ladies that tap dance and perform to come perform patriotic numbers. We had a good turn-and had alot of compliments afterward. We are going to really miss the wonderful committee and our wonderful ward.

David had to work through the day after the breakfast, while I unpacked boxes, and then fireworks, we broke our routine. For the last 3 years we have gone to the well -known, fun Folsom Rodeo on the 4th of July.
I had spoken earlier in the week to our dear friends, Tiffany and Kevin Wadell, and they kindly invited us to join a group they were going to watch fireworks with again. We joined them and had fun visiting and the firework show kept going and going like the energizer bunny. Thanks to Tiff and Kev for having us.

MOVED!!

After many months of analyzing and weighing out issues and looking into relocating out of state. We have decided to stay here and camp (figuratively) in Rancho Cordova, CA- the Sacramento area. If you want our new address, please email me. This is an open blog, and I never know who is going to view it. We weren't ready for all the issues involved in making the big move out of state yet, however unless things dramatically change with the local sacramento economy in the near future ( like the next 3-4 months), that day will arrive sooner than we anticipate.

We got 200 feet extra room in this new abode than we had in our last place, and our rent is $200 dollars cheaper- so we have no complaints on our end. We also love, love that David could litterally bike or walk (even though it would be a long walk) to his work.

I have decided that besides painful medical and dental work, moving has to be the most tedious, lame, drawn out event in life. Spending so much time buying boxes, transporting furniture, and taping up boxes is grueling.

It is official- weird but true! I have a new job OFFICIALLY.

After 4 and a half long, drawn out months of doing odds and ins for work after loosing my job, and going crazy , but waiting in the process of trying to transfer David's job out of state, I was hired on by the same company David has been working for for 3 and a half years at The Home Depot. David has worked most of the time in specialty/appliances and is manager trained. I was hired as a lowly cashier. Bascially David is a big cheese over me.
I am glad that even though this will be a very temporary thing, I have the opportunity to get a dose of my husband's company and work life, and it is a great company to work for. The company is all about the customers and employees.

The first question everybody asks, are you both working at the same location??? Answer is no, no. David and I on purpose work at different locations. I was hired on as a temporary worker, which was the plan from the beginning;but am grateful to have work as so many millions right now are looking and seeking for work. So far, I have gone to orientation, done shadowing, and watched a bunch of training videos. I will put an update as some time goes by and see how this goes.

Tahoe trip- kindof random

On March 9th, the weather was so beautiful! but snow was still up in the mountains so we took a long awaited jaunt to Lake Tahoe. We were planning on just going to Pollack Pines, but when we arrived in Pollack Pines, there wasn't that much snow, and the mile marker on the road indicated we only had like 25 miles to South Lake Tahoe. So went decided to just continue all the way.

Upon arriving in South Lake Tahoe, we immediatly went to the ski lift at Heavenly, but they had just closed the life. So we checked out some shops, found a place to hike around, throw snowballs, played in the snow, and take pictures. The crisp cool air with the sun out, and the snow around the lake was so picturesque!

When it became dark, we picked Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, which conveniently was located in a Casino. We hung out there and enjoyed dinner. We left South Lake Tahoe around 10pm. Too bad we couldn't stay with work the next day!

St Patricks Day, 2009

David had to close at work on the 17th, so our plans to go to the downtown (old) Sacramento parade got thwarted. I was going to just head down there and hang out, but I respected David's and my families concerns of going downtown alone at night, even in public.

This year, green nailpolish, a green necklace and earings that my friend Sarah Latchaw made for my birthday a few years ago, would be the most Irish I would get. My parents invited me, and I accepted her invitation to come over for a yummy corned beef and cabbage meal to their house, which was fun- thanks mom! I brought David a plate of food home to have when he got home and he loved it also.

No fingerprints and rejected fingerprints????????

Ok- talk about humilitating!! David and I went into the UPS store where they do live scanning to get our fingerprints for the department of justice (DOJ) and FBI. We went in thinking it was going to be an easy, 10 minute ordeal, and get it over and done with. The store was busy in the first place, after 15 minutes of waiting, we were called, and I, Amy was first up.
The guy doing the fingerprinting grabbed my fingers, and started his work. In great shock, I noticed my fingerprints looked like a bunch of lines with no grooves or contours in my skin. He had me use some lotion that is suppose to help expose more of the grooves and contours of the skin on the finger, but unfortunatly, it only helped a little. To make matters worse, a 5 minute deal turned into a 25 or maybe 30 minute deal. He was patient and did the best he could, but my fingerprints were still rejected. The guy said the system will reject them at first to make sure it is not the administrator and if they show the same problem when I go in again, they will accpet them on the basis that it is the best print they can do. SO SO Humilitating. He said some people just don't have clear fingerprints, and that alot of times if I wash my hands alot it happens. He said nurses and doctors especially have the problem. So I am waiting for our rejection letter so I can go back in and get them accepted on the basis that that is the best fingerprint they can get on me. To top off the lame experience, the guy said our total was $310 for both of our fingerprints, because they go to three different government agencies. Talk about pure robbery- that should be illegal- but then the government is the best at taking money.

Oldest Neice turns 15!

On February 27th, our oldest neice, Rachael, Amy's brother Ben's oldest and only daughter turned a whoopin 15 years old. She started high school also last fall, and is quite the smart cookie. We can't believe she is already 15! We love you Rachael!

David's and my own little valentine evening!

Besides being incharge of the ward valentine party on February 13th, we were asked to babysit our dear 2 neices and nephew (David's sister Rachel and her husband Alex's kids) on the 14th during the day; so they could attend a wedding/sealing in the Oakland Temple that was actually scheduled on Valentines Day. David had by mistake been scheduled that day, the 14th, off from work, which he never gets, so we jumped at the opportunity to spend time with our neices and nephew. We woke up in the morning on the 14th, and got a call first thing from David's parents saying they were coming over to bring us a valentine gift, and they arrived shortly after with a cute, creatively made chocolate heart cake done by my mother in law (see photo). I am constantly in awe of her talent!. We visited with them for a few minutes and then took off to Davis, Ca (about a half an hour away) to fullfill our babysitting assignment. The two girls (our neices) were picked up by a friend to go to a birthday party only 45 minutes after we started the babysitting, so a majority of the time we spent with our adorable nephew,2 year old Peter. He is one easy child to take care of (at least for the short time we were there), and we took him to a children's little interactive, explore center there in Davis called "exploreit." We enjoyed watching him explore the science activities. We kept being told he "would not take a nap, and that he doesn't take naps." by his parents. In the car on the way home we stopped for a snack and drink since we had skipped lunch, and I stayed in the car with Peter while David went in the store. In the car, I kept looking at Peter because he was being so quiet. After about 5 minutes waiting in the car for David, I looked back and he was out as a light bulb. We took him back to their apartment to nap, and then the girls arrived back from their friends and family and then their parents arrived back. They kept expressing they were thankful we were able to help, but any time we get to spend time with them is a treat.
After babysitting, we drove back to our home in Fair Oaks, and got ready for an evening of dinner and relaxing. David took me to Strings Italian Restraunt, which was yummy yummy, and then David bought me the most beautiful star lilies (see photo)on the way home. We went back home to a quiet evening of " Gone with the wind" and the delicious chocolate cake made for us by my in-laws. It had been so long since I have seen that movie, I forgot how well done it is and how much I love the romance of Scarlett and Rhett. I am so grateful I have the hottest, sweetest, and romantic hubby ever!

Our Valentines Party, 2009.

Back in November, 2008- David was called to be the activites chair and I, Amy was called to be on the committee. We were incharge of planning a Valentine Dance on Friday, February 13th.

Our committee was awesome- very creative and fullfilled assignments so willingly. We had people assigned in the ward to bring desserts and finger food. We hired a caller (square dance DJ) and had square dancing and slow dancing in between. We decorated the cultural hall with naturally pink, red and white balloons, crate papaer, and heart confetti on the table.

We were shocked how well the caller did, he is quite talented and very interactive with the instruction. David and I were also shocked the groups participated and enjoyed themseleves so much. Unfortunatly, we had a low turn out, however that night there was a major storm, and the dancing threw off alot of people that were disinterested in it. The people that did come, expressed alot of positive comments about the activity and kept expressing they were impressed with the dancing and decorations and food. After this activity, I decided I should be an event planner- I love it!

Been a long time!

I let this blog go for awhile since I joined facebook- but here goes- I will update!