Christmas time.

The snow is really coming down today at about 1”/hr and the office is closed so I have time to write a post. Christmas was good to us and we got to spend a lot of time with my parents and Brenda’s parents. Of course first things first, we had to get the Christmas Cards ready. By “we”, I really mean Brenda. Of course she went way overboard and sent out about 80 cards to all of our friends and family (only about 5 actually like me and the rest like Brenda). I think she does this because she also loves to read Christmas cards and kind of hopes to get one in return (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Since we sent out so many, and if you did not get one, you may be thinking that you are not important and we couldn’t care less about you. This is not the case. I apologize in advance, although there are only a few people who actually even read this blog and I know I sent them cards. My job for the cards was to lick the envelopes and put on the stamps…right about at the top of my skill set.

On the weekend before Christmas we went down to Brenda’s parents house to see Brenda’s mom’s Christmas program. It was really good and it is always fun to see grade school kids and speculate as to their inelegance level and what crazy things they do. Of course it was great to see Ben and Laura and we are pretty pumped that they are going to be coming out here this weekend.

Check out the kid in the sweater showing his belly. At one point in the show he tried to get the kids around him to smell his shoe laces...real genius.

Fun time with the twins.

For Christmas Brenda’s parents came up along with my parents. I made multiple huge meals and must say that they turned out quite well. Hornado, llapingachos, and pork hominy soup were just a few of the great things on the menu.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Here is Brenda and I with out Friends Chris and Izumi.

Brenda's parents getting cookie fixing for Christmas.

For Christmas I gave Brenda tickets for Jim Brickman tickets and last night that is what we did. The concert was great and just flew by.

No Photography was allowed so I had to sneak this crap picture.

For the last two weeks I have been out of town for work in Seattle. There were a few sites over there I had to visit and fix a few things so off I went. the weather was actually pretty good. the first day I was there I woke up and I knew I was sick again. I went to the local urgent care facility top confirm that yes once again, I had Strep throat. That makes twice in the last four months that I have had Strep...not very common for me. After a few drugs I was fine and of course without anyone to sympathize over me I just went along my way working. The faster I got the stuff done the sooner I could go home.

One day when I pulled up to one of my job sites, I stopped at the well I had to work on. the well I had to work on happen to be in a handicapped spot and I parked next to it per usual. I was going to open a hole in the ground in the handicapped spot, it would be unusable for the next ten minutes, not a big deal. Right when I got out a guy took a picture of my license plate and asked me where my handicapped placard was. I let him know I was there for work and he immediately got pissed off and said he was calling the cops. He continued yelling and saying something like "you can't park there I don't care what you are doing" and "that's bull s***, you sorry blahblahblah...." and other yelling. I then went to put up my work cones and started to laugh a little at him and the absurdity of the situation....he took offense to my obvious amusement of his ranting. He then proceeded to run out get into my face and kick my cones over....I calmly put them back up and he would yell and kick them right over again. He then told me if I thought it was so funny maybe he wouldn't wait for the cops and would just kick my a** right there. I let him know if he was going to call the cops then he should ask them to send an ambulance as well because he was going to need one in the not so distant future. It all ended up with him leaving and nothing really happening, but I have not seen someone so mad in a long time. Next time I think I will just reach into the back of my truck (about 2' away) and grab the axe I got back there and ask him if he needs anything else...idiots are all around...be careful.
Here is a nice view of Rainer from one of my sites....it was much better in real life.

My work truck just passed 100K on this trip. I think it had about 40 when I got it just over a year and a half ago.

Random picture of the week.

This is a 4wheeler that some guy in Idaho has totally make up to look like a jeep. He has a jeep front on it and so much crap hanging off this thing it is amazing....Oh ya and it is for sale as well.

This weekend I was home so I thought that it would be a great time to go out into the deep woods a pick out a Christmas tree. Brenda and I stopped by the Forest Service office and for 5 bucks go the permit to cut down any tree we wanted for Christmas. We drove up to the mountains and were off.

Here is me dragging the tree out of the woods...that snow was very deep and the truck was quite a distance away.

Here is my wonderful wife being a great sport.

And here we are back at the homestead in front of the fireplace. That is one cute little stocking, but I am afraid it will be to small for our kid right off the bat.

And the tree after we got it up. I know it is not a "full" as those trees you may get in the lots around you, but I think it is not that bad for picking one out covered in 3' of snow and paying 5bucks.

Some of you may be wondering how Brenda broke the news to me about her "situation"...I was sitting on the couch, after having a very long week out of town for work, sipping a cold one down and relaxing when she told me she got me something and handed me a bag. Being a complete idiot and not ever looking into anything she is saying or catching the subtle hints..I had no idea until I pulled this thing out.
It took about 10minutes of deep breathing to catch my breath and realize what she was trying to say...I was shocked.



A short video of a cycle ride I took on Friday and one also of Brenda when we went to get the Christmas tree. It was a great weekend....we are very blessed.

1+1=3

This thanksgiving was a great time at the house. My parents and Brenda’s parents both made it out here for the celebration ….and then work. We have been very busy out here with buying the house, leaving the next day for four days of work in central Washington, buying a car in the same week, moving into the house, and getting ready for all the changes. It may seem to outsiders that we are swimming in money because we are spending it like our hair is on fire, but I can assure you it is not the case. After multiple trips to Bed Bath and Beyond, Home Depot, and countless furniture stores I can officially say I am a homeowner. Although it does cost a lot, it feels better spending money on this instead of the empty pit that is our apartment. Brenda's new ride....a 2008 Ford Escape.

Look at all those leaves. Brenda is very excited about the new house in this picture.


The counter is transformed into the work bench.

Here is Brenda by the fence the the horse area.

We were able to paint a bit in the house and get the baby’s room ready as well….what…are you serious. Yes I am. Brenda and I after years of looking at couples that had kids and thinking that we were very happy with our kidless lives, have done a 180 and now are expecting a child on or about the 7th of May. I know it happened a little fast and really it was a lot for me to handle with the house, work, and everything else, but I guess that is life and will not change anytime soon. We are not going to find out what we are having other than the normal verification that it is a human. Brenda is getting bigger, but has not had any ill effects from the pregnancy except for some changes with her diabetes. A lot can happen between now and then and we are just trusting that God has it all in control… which is good because there really is nothing we could do anyway.
Here are the girls painting the Baby's room. Notice my parents already gave us a highchair and we have to arrange the crib delivery yet. We are well on our way to having a cluttered house.

My parents were nice enough to also bring a bedroom set four one of the bedrooms which will save us a ton of money. Brenda's parents also brought us a couch(hide-a-bed) and a beautiful grandfather clock. It is great to have parents to outfit our house and give us a hand at moving in.

More pics of us on Sunday. It was way to bright for pictures, but we tried anyway.

Here is the barn

And lastly the guys are hanging some doors on the closet in the baby's room.

Snow and winter has hit the northwest (as you may be able to tell with the pictures. With a high last of 6F one day we really felt like we had moved to the Midwest or something. Highs have now stabilized around 35 or so and are great. We got about 8-10” of snow on the ground and tomorrow it is supposed to drop another 6” or more. I really like the snow, mostly because it covered the leaved before I had to rake them, but also because it is nice wet fluffy snow that makes everything look so nice out here. We are really thankful we got our ford escape with 4wd a mere 6 days before the snow hit. With Brenda’s, commute it has made it much safer than driving the rear wheel drive T-Bird.

I am really skimming over a lot that has happened in the past few weeks, but it is all kind a blur to me and I am having a hard time recalling it.

It's cool to be square.

This past weekend we got a chance to go to the first teach social even for Northwest Christian (where Brenda teaches). It was out in the Green Bluff area of Spokane at one of the teachers’ house. The event was a barn dance and they got a square dance caller in to host the event. Brenda and I have never square danced, but it is pretty easy to catch on and by the end of the night we felt like old pros.
Here are a few of the folks.

Brenda is the tall one in the tan jacket....it was cold, but just right for dancing.

Work has been very busy and we are trying to get all the field work wrapped up before the bad weather hits, but no such luck. The forecasted high for the week is about 45F and it should be raining or cloudy all week. In Wallace ID, where my jobsite is, there is some snow on the ground at the higher elevations and I suspect that there will be some snow at the lower elevations by the end of the week.Pic from today.

We are pretty excited to close on the house on the 8th and can’t wait to get our stuff in there. We hope to have Thanksgiving at our place this year with my parents and the in-laws. We would love for them to see the house….oh ya and help out will some of the work we want done as well (suckers). I also have to go and cut some wood to get a good stockpile before the snow is way too deep to access the National Forest. This is really just an excuse to go out in the woods and use gas powered tools, but I say it as if it a necessity.

As soon as we get into the house I also have a long list of tools that I want (I hate it when people say they NEED things that are really just wants). I am pretty pumped.

Short list of things that I am currently annoyed with
- Political advertisements. I Think I am going to go and vote for anyone I have not heard of. If I see a name on the ballot I recognize, it must have been from some BS commercial and I will automatically reject their name and move on.

- Ballot measures. With all the measures we have to vote on these days, it kind of makes you wonder what we are paying out state reps to do. I thought that they were paid to make these decisions, and if we did not like their decisions then we vote them out. Next they are going to ask us the wipe their butts as well…if I have to hold their hand the whole time we may as well do their job for them…oh wait…we already are.

- On 60min last night they had some sob story about a guy who got laid off and could not find work. They tried to make us feel bad about the adjustments his family had to make. Their poor fragile lifestyle had to change. He used to make 200K a year and now was trying to whine that he now cannot afford to send his kid to college or pay the mortgage on the house…Mortgage…couldn’t he have paid that off in like 5 years making 200K a year? Oh, wait…he is an idiot and wanted a band new Mercedes for everyone in his whole family instead of paying off his debts (Want to bet he leased the cars…bonehead). As for college, let you kid get loans like everyone else….or…wait….get a job. My company is trying to hire a lot of people right now and if you are willing to travel there are jobs out there. Were we actually supposed to feel sorry for him?
I do have a lot more things for this list, but I don’t want to be thought of as bitter.

Lets play what's wrong with this picture....it probably took you about 2 seconds to find it(name not matching the picture), but apparently the dumb workers at the BOA here in WA cannot figure it out. Since California is on a different system than Washington we had to open a new account. I thought that was why I banked with a national company....so I didn't have to do that. I have had it with the BOA up here. The personnel just ask if you called customer service when you go in and ask a question...hello that's why I am here. They make you fill out deposit slips as well...Isn't that what they get paid to do? They don't have a clue how the bank functions, but sure can spit the robotic crap that gets ingrained into their brains during their initial training. We will be switching banks as soon as the house stuff gets worked out.

Home sweet home.

I thought that when we moved to the city of Spokane it would be a nice change of pace from the busy area of San Jose. That has not been the case so far.
We have been thinking about getting a house for some time now and found a realtor. Last Sunday was our first face to face meeting with her. We let her know the type of house we wanted to buy, and then looked at a couple online. We found three we wanted to take a closer look at and went out to check them out. The first two we did not think were that great, but the third one we thought was pretty cool. I emailed our realtor the next day to thank her and let her know we liked the last house, and she said the house just had an offer put in on it so if we did like it we would have to move fast. Not good news seeing as we are first time buyers and had only seen three houses. To make this long story short…we got the house and should be closing sometime in November (the exact dates I wanted to go bear hunting in North Carolina, but I guess I got to take on some responsibility sometime).

Gardening area.
It is a really neat house, but we are still negotiating some of the repairs that need to be completed prior to actually signing the papers, so you never know what could happen.
Stats on the house.
- Lot is over 1acre (just what I wanted)
- 5bed, 3bath, 2car garage
- small shed outside, the other owner had horses so it is set up for animals
- It is Outside the city limits so less rules and more fun. The house does need some work as stated before so we will be very busy this winter with small projects all over the place.

Work has been busy with me and with Brenda. Her work is about 40min away and will continue to be that far seeing as our house is only about 3 miles from where we live now. She is getting very tired of the drive, and I can sympathize because I also have to drive to get to our project site in the panhandle of Idaho (only for a few more weeks). Needless to say with all the papers we have to sign and inspections we have to get, we have been very busy and normally not getting home until about 8-9pm or so last week.

Updating my blog is not exactly on my priority list nowadays.

When our realtor asked us to be completely honest the first day we met her I proceeded to tell her I told her I wanted to be able to pee in my backyard without anyone seeing me....you should have seen her face when I said that...priceless.

Ben and Laura visit

We had the most lovely weekend last week with Ben and Laura Eisenga coming up here. They had not been away from their kids for the weekend in like forever. They left the kiddo's at home with the grandparents and stayed two nights up here.

Saturday we got a chance to go to the apple orchards just outside of town and it was perfect weather.
I had to carry the bucket and picked an apple from about every tree I passed....not sure which ones I got in the end, but most of them are good.

Ben and Laura

We also went up to Mount Spokane and warmed up by the fire in the summit house.

Holy cow is that one good looking couple.

They actually really still love each other even after kids.

Brenda and Laura are a little too much like high schoolers when they get together minus the pillow fights.

With no kids we had a chance to go out to a nice restaraunt downtown call the Catacombs. It was a very small restaurant in the basement of a historic hotel and really fun.

For more details or pics you can check out Laura's blog....off to yet another week of work.

Brenda also made a giant leap into the 21st century this weekend. She finally got a cellphone. After the years and years of resistance we thought it would be good for her to have one for the very long drive she has to take every day. I don't know much about phones, but I have tried to teach her as much as I can and she is now out there and mobile so world beware.

To the westside...last weekend

Thursday I got a chance while the woman was out of town to got o the "Pig Out in the Park" downtown Spokane. There was two stages with great music and about 50 food vendors. everything but the food was free and I had a great time.
Live Bluegrass is so much fun to watch.

Here is what I had for dinner....Gyros are very goodAnd here is another band

And a overview of the mob of people down there on a Thursday night.

So last weekend we got a chance to go over to my parents house in Burlington. It takes over six hours, but with the three day weekend it made the drive worth it and it also was nice that we got a chance to drive through the Cascades. We had a great time going on a couple of walks/hikes and going blackberry picking. Blackberry bushes are on every roadside there and they are huge. It was amazing that at every stop the bushes had thousands of berries on them and no one cared if you picked them. We came home with two big ziplocks and have made a pies we almost polished off with friends last night....it was very good.

Hiking along the waterfront...such a good time.

Here are my rents acting like they like each other...and after three kids.

Sunsets out here are great because there are clouds. In California they only had smog which did make for good sunsets, but then you couldn't breathe... you can't have it both ways.

Fairbanks or bust

It was a week ago now that I was up in Fairbanks Alaska for work. I got a call a couple weeks ago and they needed my services for a job up there for one day and I said sure. Free ride to a state I have never been to....of course. I booked the ticket for being in AK for two days but only ended up being there for about 40 hours total. I got in late the first night and worked the next day and then had a chance to go fishing (good thing I brought my rod). Jason is one of my coworkers from KY and he had been there for about a week so had the spots scoped out and killed them the previous night. Then I flew out the next day which made it a very short trip, but a good time.

Lots of grayling were caught and we had a blast. I got one on my second cast...now I know I am a good fly fisherman, but I think it was also a good spot to fish.

Here is Jason laying siege to the aquatic sasquatches. He caught more than I did, but I know next time to bring more elk hair caddis flies.

Brenda has been very busy since she got hired two weeks ago or so at Northwest Christian. She is going to be teaching PE, health, and a leadership class to Jr. High and Sr. High kids. She loves it and although I lost my home cooked meals when I get home from work...I think she may like that better. Actually I know she likes it better.

This weekend we went to the northern Idaho fair. It was cool to get back to the standard fair atmosphere you only find in a small town.

Here is Brenda posing next to the animal creations out of vegetables and fruit. I can't believe that people submit these things, but I think they were kind of interesting.

We watched the Rodeo and it was pretty interesting. They had all of the standard things, but since it was a "pro" rodeo there were almost no locals entered in the events. Not the small town stuff I was hoping for.

Of course there is a lot of patriotism here. It is really kind of cool to see how everyone seems to really love the US up here and does not complain about it all of the time. Everyone was reverent during the entire national anthem and then they actually prayed in public. In CA there would just be a "time of silence" so no one would be offended (political correctness gone over the edge and yet another example of liberals scarred of normal average Americans).
Here is a bareback riding action shot.

Washington does seem to be a bit behind the times. Example: there is no place to recycle here. I mean, we got bottles and cans coming out of our ears and everyone here just throws them in the garbage....really.