Office Bonding

My office did a little team building this week. And we had a good time doing it.

Harvest Fest

It had been a while so we joined my parents and Cait for dinner and some monster trucks! I love playing with the camera functions!

State Fair

A backlog of things to come, but I'll start here! Our annual trip to the fair began with mutton busting and ended with water balloon filling!

Oregon Women Lead

Last night I attended an event in Salem for women interested in politics. I was blown away! Until recently I thought I'd be leaving the politics up to Bob, but lately I've been considering a number of positions. I am the Secretary of my local professional board and I think that through that and attending our neighborhood association meetings, I've learned that I want to be involved, I want to express new ideas and I want to make a bigger difference. So last night I mentioned serving on the Planning Commission - a non-elected position, but one where 7 men currently sit. The response was incredible, 'You need to meet this person...' 'Hi I'm so and so and are you involved in 'x' yet?' So I guess I have a little bit of work to do, but I am excited.

On another note, I'm applying for a national position with the AIA (American Institute of Architects, same organization I am the Secretary for the Salem Chapter). There I said it. Application is due tomorrow for the Young Architects Forum. I'm not sure I really have a chance, I took a big step without taking many small ones, but at least I'm still walking.

Very Moving

Last night Bob and I went to one of the healthcare vigils. Whenever groups of people gather I am moved. It breaks my heart to hear their stories and see that people of every type are fighting to have a basic right. Please call your congress (man/woman) today, or heck send an email and let them know that we all deserve affordable healthcare, we all deserve the right to preventative care, we can no longer be denied coverage or face the rising cost each year.

911, but everyone is okay

Earlier this week, we had a very traumatic morning that probably ended up being a pretty funny 911 call (from the dispatcher's point of view). I first must say I don't normally call 911, but the previous night the police had been patrolling our area with lights and occasional sirens leading me to believe they were looking for someone.

Bob and Lulu went for their usual morning walk and I continued to be lazy and check my email in bed (than you iphone), when I am suddenly aware that there is a commotion outside my house and Bob is yelling 'Help' but it sounds slow and fear filled. I jump out of bed and run to the front door while dialing 911. Why the front door? Because the noise I heard is from the side and back of the house. I have visions of someone brutally attacking my husband (I must also say I just finished 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' which has a murder mystery). As I reach the front door I am giving the dispatcher my address and I walk out on the porch. I can see Bob now and he appears to be fine, but is breathing hard and is bent over. I'm describing everything I see to the dispatcher while trying to figure our what Bob is saying. I then realize my dog is behind me, so she is okay. 'No, he doesn't need an ambulance, yes he looks fine.' I say. Bob is talking about a dog that chased him and was trying to attack Lulu at the park, so I tell the dispatcher there is a wild dog in the neighborhood, but I don't see it and so I can't give a description, except to say that my husband is now getting in a truck with two guys that came running down the street with yard tools (to chase the dogs of course) and they are going to get the lady's number. (what lady? is someone else involved?) So I describe the truck and tell the dispatcher I am sorry and I will call back to finish the report when I know what is going on. (ie who the lady is, who the guys are, what the dog looks like)
I then go inside, check on Lu and try to make breakfast (7:30am now).
Bob returns and tells me his side of the story. When the dispatcher calls back to finish the report, I hand the phone to him.
It turns out that there were 2 pitt bulls at the park when they rounded the corner of the school and they came charging at Lulu. She turned and ran home (thank goodness her stride was longer), but Bob could not catch up and feared that Lu was cornered at our fence being torn to pieces, hence the yelling for help that sent me into a panic. His yelling however scared the dogs away, leaving me sounding crazy on the phone. The noises I heard were Lulu coming through the fence and then the back door (which she knows how to shove open). The guys with yard tools in the truck were working on the school (by the park) and saw it happened and wanted to help. The lady, was the dog owner. Who yelled at her dogs, but didn't do much more. The guys then went to her house to confront her (maybe not the best of ideas). They were then told that her dogs were under control and if they weren't they 'would have killed your dog'. Okay, crazy lady. A couple hours later the police come by the house (I am now at work telling this story) and let Bob know this will then go to animal control (thank goodness).
So I'm not sure who I would have called if the dogs had still been in my yard. If Bob hadn't yelled for help then we would have filed a complaint with animal control. Lulu seems fine and we've taken her to the dog park since so this doesn't become an issue. I'm sure it isn't the last we'll see of this crazy lady, but I hope it isn't any time soon and that her dogs are at least on leashes. Trauma, Drama and probably funny for the dispatcher.

A quickie

A number of things have gone right today :)
I stained a sweater and a pair of pants last week carrying flowers and the pollen came out today!
I won a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure!
Bob defends his prospectus on Friday - over the phone!

Summer...

Has once again slipped away too quickly. But here are tidbits we enjoyed eating! Of course the jam will keep, we have frozen blueberries and I'm trying to grow tomatoes in the greenhouse. I think we ate our weight in raspberries instead of freezing any and I hope we don't regret it this winter.

Work

This is the new office building my company designed and is building. We had a party for the Salem Art Association and here are some images from it. It was a good day.

Sometimes things suck...

Sometimes I am frequently reminded of a young life skit involving oranges and nails. The orange is the little girl's heart and each time something in life hurts her, a nail goes into the orange. Soon she learns not to trust and is filled with hate, but God is presented to her and He withdraws the nails from the orange (giving her a new heart.) The point at the end is that life sucks, but it wasn't what God intended. He didn't want us to be in pain, in war, or hate. But this week has been rough, sure there have been golden spots in it, an engagement, a baby announcement, and my anniversary, but the dark spots are a little bigger. Bob's Aunt died of cancer this week, two more layoffs in my office, and my heart breaks for my niece and her stupid dad that hasn't talked to her in a month. I mourn with Bob's family, I miss my co-workers and live in fear and gratefulness for my job at the same time and I wonder how my sister's ex can be so cruel to his little girl? But I will try and remember that I have new heart, and the nails weren't supposed to be there, but on the cross.

No Pictures

Since being back from our trip we have also been to California and Montana and both times we saw great friends, ate tasty food and I packed around the camera, but didn't take any pictures. Sorry!
We spent the weekend of the 4th with our good friends in Missoula. We rafted, went on a little hike, visited our favorite spots in town, but most of all hung out and enjoyed each others company and conversation. If only we lived closer! We saw the new house, saw Ty's family, watched illegal fireworks with the nutty neighbors, discussed politics, made breakfast together, watched the dogs play, tossed around the idea of a multi-day raft trip next time and were of course sad we had to leave.

Scotland! The last leg of the trip

I apologize for not getting these up here in a more efficient manner. After Spending 6 days in Ireland, we then traveled to Edinburgh (then Sheila returned home) and the rest of us continued into the highlands. We visited the north coast, a whisky distillery, a cooperage (the barrel making) lochs and castles. The weather was not quite as good, but it didn't really matter.

Cliffs of Moher and The Burren

Dingle Peninsula

On to Dublin and Cobh

I think this was day 6 and 7. Britta met us here and we wandered the city for a day. We then had to say goodbye and drove down the coast to Cobh where we ran into a pipe band competition.

To Munich and Southern Germany (Days 4&5)

So this is in Munich, but the rest are Neuschawnstein.




























































Oh what stunning views!