Anderson Adventures!

ohhhh10 Summer

2010-08-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Summer of oh10 will be one for the books! It's been busy busy busy, but never a dull moment! I spent 4th of July in Nashville, TN for the Little People of America conference - where my girl Casandra competed in the dwarf national swim meet - and won THREE Gold Medals! (I have pictures, but not here!)

Ian and I took his family to hoppin' Maupin for a fun filled day of white water rafting - which never gets old! Ian's boat was a little tippy tippy, but the day was so fun!

Ian and I celebrated three years of wedded bliss, and had a WHOLE WEEKEND OFF. so we took a look at the SF Giants web site, saw they had three games against the DODGERS in SF - sent a quick text message to our boy Sergio Romo who hooked us up with players tickets! So we did a quick road trip to SF and watched the Giants SWEEP LA! which was so fun.

And now I (Kendra) am in Keizer for a few days hanging out with the fam. Dad had open heart surgery a week ago, and I'm here to help out for a few days. It has been so fun and special to just spend time with the family.

That's what were up to!

Books

2010-03-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

We're going on vacation soon! We're headed to Washington to spend one glorious week at Anderson Island - and I can't hardly wait!

This week is finals week - and I had a math final, a writing final (which was a 6 page essay) and a physiology lab ALL DUE on MONDAY - needless to say last weekend sucked. Big Time. & when Monday was over, I was happy - and now....I have one last finals on FRIDAY! Friday? Really? How annoying. I wish I could have just taken it on Tuesday to get it over with....

Anyways, with no school today I had a fabulous day - I spent the morning with two girl friends we went for a drive, ended up at beautiful benham falls and went for a little walk. It was just so nice to get outside, and be with some wonderful women. This afternoon I meet a friend for sushi, and now I'm on my way to the pool! What a great day!

One thing I really miss since starting school is reading. For enjoyment. All my spare time that I used to spend reading for enjoyment is now spent doing homework, or reading for school. Lame & lame.

Over Christmas break I read Donald Miller's new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

Now, over spring break I have two books I want to read : Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I am really really excited to sit at the Island House and read these books!

Isn't it funny the things we get excited about? I used to hate reading for fun, but my girls in Philly helped change me! Now I can't wait for a week off to read. I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

I highly highly recommend Donald Miller's book - ALL of them really - but A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is A-MAZING. Life changing really. I'll let you know what I think about these two, but they come highly recommended!

Today I'm just thankful for a great day off, and two new books to read during my week off!

Wacky Wednesday

2010-03-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

The craziest day of my week on the pool deck is always Wednesdays. You know, it's the middle of the week, and I'm in class all day, so by the time I get on the pool deck I'm a little tired. But one reason it's actually crazy is because here in the Bend Lapine School District, kids go to school 1/2 day on Wednesdays. So they are out early, and it just throws things out-of-whack, it's not part of any routine, for any one, and it's in the middle of the week, so kids show up to the pool after their half day of school and it's always a little wacky. They are usually early, and wound up, and busy- and I don't know maybe they sit around and watch TV and eat sugar for the second half of their day before coming to the pool- whatever it is, Wednesdays are consistently crazy.

Today was no exception.

This afternoon I show up on the pool deck, the kiddo's hop in the pool and are warming up like normal (just so you can see it, we practice in an 8 lane pool, and swim in the first three lanes, the rest of the lanes are filled with lap swimmers) and all of a sudden in the lane next to my lil guys (where lap swimmers are...), I hear "HELP! HELP!" I look over and see this man, carrying this other man slung over him who looks DEAD. His head is flopped back, eyes closed, and he wasn't breathing. The lifeguard runs over, my kids are(in the pool next to dead-looking-man) asking "whats going on? whats going on?" and all I have running through my head is "oh shit...oh shit... oh SHIT"

You see, when stressful events like this happen I can process no thoughts. At least nothing logical. You know what I thought as soon as I first saw this going on? Besides repeated curse words...

JUMP IN.

That's all I could process. To get in the pool. Which makes NO SENSE. The man is being carried in 4 feet of water. They don't need a fully clothed, crazy woman jumping in, that would not be helpful. At all.

My second thought? Was RUN. I just wanted to get out of there. I was sure there was a dead RIGHT THERE. I just wanted to get as far away as I could.

My third thought? HOLY SHIT I HAVE 20 - 8 YEAR OLD KIDS IN THE POOL.

My friend Jody was standing right there (and luckily, thankfully, she can put together thoughts in stressful situations like this....) and I looked at her and - in a panic asked her- " What should I do?!" and she, in a calm controlled voice said " get the kids out of the pool!"

Great. Yes. Something I can do. Something I know how to do.

So there I am, a totally panicked Coach Kendra Getting! Kids! Out! Of! the! pool!!!!! ahhhH!!!!! And my crazy energy isn't helping 20 eight year olds who are watching this dead looking man being drug out of the pool. Right next to them.

"is he dead?" They keep asking. I keep thinking 'I don't freaking know!! Lets just get out of here!!!'

I start herding all the little kiddies to the other end of the pool, away from all the hustle and bustle of the dead looking man with no heart beat.....and we walk to the other end, and I felt light headed. My hands were shaking. My heart was racing. I needed water and to sit down. I thought I was going to faint. (thankfully, I didn't)

You know those people who are totally cool in situations like this? Thankfully, sitting on the bleachers of parents there were a few of these calm cool people ,one was a fire fighter, and an ER nurse - who quickly jumped up raced over to helpe. In talking with them after, it's just whats ingrained in them. Stephanie said "as soon as I saw it I just ran over there, I didn't know what I was doing, or going to do" but she just ran over and did whatever she needed to do help the man. Un like me who just wanted to jump in the pool, or run. Neither of which options were very smart OR helpful.

I'm very envious of these people who can take charge of a situation, and put together logical thoughts in stressful situations. And tonight more than anything I was just happy to be surrounded by those kinds of people. So I could sit and sip on my water and almost faint over seeing something scary. What IS my problem?

Did you know I fainted last month? Ian had this surgery done on his mouth. It was gross, they took a graft from the roof of his mouth and stitched it on his gums above his tooth..... anyways, it was gross. So he had this surgery, and I had to pick him up after, because he couldn't drive after being on all these 'surgery drugs' so I was the shuttle home. I went into this TINY room where the nurse is telling me all about what he can and can not eat, and how to take care of his mouth post-surgery and how to take care of stitches and la la la la la.... because Ian probably won't remember most of the important info- because he's on all these drugs. And while were in this tiny room, I all of a sudden got REALLY hot. light headed. I started getting all dizzy, so I ask for a bottle of water, and boom. I fainted. I was supposed to be the ride home! Ian's on drugs after this surgery- He's walking and talking fine - but can't drive, & I'm the one fainting!

I'm telling you I have no composure in these situations.

Oh just so you know; un named man did not die. He had no heart beat, and was not breathing when they yanked him out of the pool, but the lifeguards and people around him did CPR right away, got his heart beating, and he was 'stable' when he left. Apparently he has some kind of heart condition....I'm not sure what really happened, but he left on the ambulance. We stood around, answering lots of curious 7 year old questions, trying to be positive, but of course I was freaking out inside.

Anyways, on this especially Wacky Wednesday I'm thankful for ER nurses, fire fighters, Lifeguards, and friends of mine - who can come up with complete, realitive thoughts in stressful situations.

2010-02-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

This time of year is always so much fun! So busy, always a little crazy, but so fun!

It's championship season, which means lots of pool deck time, LUCKILY I coach with my friend!

Time spent on the pool deck is quality. The District Championship Meet was last weekend, and our Bend High Lava Bears were no disappointment! They steped up and raced their hearts out, we saw tons of best times, lots of swimmers in the big finals, and some medals! This kid is exactly why I love coaching High School Swimming:

The begining of the season he could. not. swim. He coudln't side breath, or dive....and here we are at the district meet with two medals around his neck! MEDALS! He swam 24.9 in the 50 free (which is fast, for those of you non-swimmer types) and he made it to state in two relays! It's really awesome what can happen in three months! We had 12 kids qualify for the State Championships which is just, AWESOME!

Here's my girl doing my hair and rocking out to some music before the meet begins; fun times!

And here are some future Lava Bears!
And you KNOW pool time doesn't mean all work and no play, we got some fun mountain time in, with a special treat this week, Ian's dad joined us for a Tuesday Snowboarding sesh!
In MT Hood for the weekend for state, then I'm in Eugene Sunday to watch my little guys race at their state meet! woo!

Happy Feb!

UnPlugged

2010-02-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

We had this past weekend off - and if you know us at all - you know that a weekend off together is rare. So to celebrate this rare occasion my wonderful husband booked us a little cabin over in Camp Sherman - you know - the Metolious River area - called Lake Creek Lodge.

It's about 45 min away - not very far - easy to get to in a day - but far enough away to be unplugged.

You know what I mean by unplugged? No cell service, no wi-fi, no T.V. It was quiet, and peaceful, and beautiful. Just Ian, myself, and our two little pups all snuggled up in this little cabin in the woods.We were planning on snowboarding Saturday night at Hoodoo - but I'm not feeling 100% - I've come down with that icky cold- sore throat, stuffy nose and lingering cough- so we thought a night on the mountain wasn't the best plan, so we stayed in, which was just perfect. Here is Abby in her favorite spot: right by the fire.

There is something really special, really intimate, really wonderful when you spend a weekend 'unplugged.' We went for long walks with the dogs, took an afternoon nap, snuggled up by the fire, engaged in conversation. Really special conversations happen when there is no TV on, or computer to be in front of, or cell phone to be checking. We had conversations in that little cabin that would be impossible to have at home - just because of the sheer fact we were away from it all - only 45 min away - but it felt like we were miles and miles away from the busyness, and craziness of our lives...

We made a yummy dinner, and played mancala - you know?

That game with the colored stones. We never play that game at home, but we had so much fun playing together, just laughing, and talking and playing that silly game.

We were talking on the way home, just about how intentional we were this whole weekend, making dinner, taking the dogs for walks, having conversations with no noise, no distractions, just simply sitting for a few hours playing little games, and why we don't do these things at home. The conversation turned from why we don't do these things to - "hey! Lets try."

And I'm not sure if it's possible...Maybe it is, and I'm sure with some effort it can be acheived, but it's so easy to find a million things that have to be done like we need to clean out the garage, pick up the back yard, oraganize the closet....there is always something to do. And if we aren't doing busy work at home, than the TV is on, or the radio, or we are in front of the computer, or on our cell phones.....Maybe weekends away it just makes us appreciate it more....or maybe we should be intentional about unplugging ourselves at home, and sitting together, making dinner together, take the dogs out together, and have special conversations right here, in our home.....all pleasant thoughts - I'll let you know how that goes for us =)

For now, I leave you with a few pictures from our unplugged, wonderful relaxing weekend at Lake Creek Lodge:

Here is Abby & I on a walk

Our famous self-portrait shot:
Here we are in front of our cabin. *note* We tried to get a picture with both dogs, but honestly it's hard. Being outside with two dogs who would much rather just run off the porch than wait 10 seconds for the timer on the camera, this is the best we could do:

Here is Ian, Abby & Taylor on a walk

And here they are all packed up in the back of the car, ready to go home
Ahead we have a fun-filled week of school work & the big o'll district swim meet! woo-hoo! & Go Lava Bears!

I heart Tuesdays

2010-02-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, it's been a LONG time since I last updated this, and trust me, I've thought about doing it a lot. Something funny will happen, or something new, and I want to write on here to keep our fine readers in-the-know when it comes to our Anderson Adventures, but quite honestly we're really busy.

And lets be honest, everyone says that. Who's not busy, right? But trust me when I say, we're busy. But you don't want to hear about our boring everyday life, so I'll update you on the cool stuff!

Starting with this little love:

Abby! Our new little puppy. Look how tiny she was in the above picture!

We got her from the humane society the weekend after Thanksgiving. She was 8 weeks then, so now she's like 14 or 15 weeks? Something like that. She's awesome, and Taylor LOVES having a playmate.

We got Taylor when she was 2 - so we missed all the puppy stuff - which trust me, there are plenty of nights with Abby I wish we missed all the puppy stuff, but mostly we just love watching her get bigger, and play with Taylor, and do cute funny puppy stuff. Currently they are on the floor just wrestling and chewing on each other. Having two dogs is awesome, because they just entertain themselves! They love going on runs together, and playing with each other. I look forward to Abby being 100% potty trained, not digging up my back yard & loosing her desire to chew on everything.

But just look at that sweet puppy face? She's so stinking cute! Even if she still pees in my house and chews on my things, that face you can't deny: she's CUTE.

And there they are. Best Friends Forever. Taylor & Abby. AWwwww.

Kay enough puppy puppy for now.

You know how I'm in school? And it's swim season -which means I'm coaching two teams? Ya? Well I also got a job teaching at a pre school! Which I love, but if you add it all up: That's three jobs, full time school & a new puppy (who needs to be let out every few hours), not to mention Ian got promoted and is now managing his own store.... The facts don't lie folks, we needed a second car: DESPERATELY!

I don't have a picture, though I should have one. After much debate over another Jeep, Ian would have LOVED a truck, we drove an Audi, and a Passat, we ended up with a 2002 Subaru Impreza Sport. Which will eventually be my primary car, when I learn how to drive a stick. It's a sweet little silver car, 4 doors, hatch back, so both dogs fit. Gets better gas mileage than the jeep, handels well in the snow, is all wheel drive, and people tell us they last for ever. I will eventually write a blog about my thoughts and feelings on one vs. two cars, but for now we got a second car which makes life SO. MUCH. EASIER.

Tuesdays have become they day I look forward to every week. It's my day off. We when I say day off I mean I still work 4 hours, but I get the day off. I have pracitice from 4:30-8:30, but no class, and no pre school. So I quite like Tuesdays. And Ian being a manager now, he gets to write his own schedugle which, you can probably guess what day he takes off most weeks? Yup. Tuesdays. This is what we did last Tuesday:

That's Hoodoo. Because on Tuesdays @ Hoodoo, a lift ticket is $19. So we can buy two lift tickets, gas to get up there, lunch on the mountain, and still not spend as much as we would on ONE lift ticket at Mt. B. As much as I love Bachelor - heck Hoodoo is cheap- so we like to spend Tuesdays there, when we can. Though today is Tuesday, and I'm sitting in my living room writing this blog. Well that is because this Saturday for the first time in 5 weeks, I do not have a swim meet! So we're taking the weekend off. Which means Ian is working today, and I still get the day off. Well you know, not off, but it's easy to be on the pool deck at night after a day off.

As for our weekend off, it will surly be an Anderson Adventure I will want to write about! Ya know - We have friends who love to go to the city for a weekend off. Get a nice hotel room in Portland, go out for a nice dinner, and hang out in the city - but you wanna know what we're doing? We've rented a little cabin in camp sherman - packing up the pups, and we're spending the weekend in this sweet little cabin - gonna snowboard Sat. night @ Hoodoo, and just spend the weekend relaxing in our little cabin in the woods. I'm really excited.

Then, after our splendid weekend away - its GO TIME as far as swim season. Championship season is upon us, we're tappering, going to pasta feeds, & getting ready to race. It's time for the big district meet then off to the State Championships! Love it.

I'll leave you with these last few pictures of our crazy few months, and I promise to get back on here more often to update you on our lives more often!

Glow Stick Dance Party on the bus on our way home after a meet in Corvo.

Ian & I on our way to snowboard for the first time this season!
*Happy Face!*

And one last puppy-puppy pic - 'cuz you can't get enough of that face!!

(I LOVE it when her ears flip up like that!!! So funny!)

six year old's have six hundred questions...

2009-10-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

We have our friend's daughter with us until Tuesday. Her name is Sarah and she is 6. We have her from Sunday - Tuesday, and she's awesome! But it is 9:15 at night, and I'm exhausted.

Like I said, she is six, and has so! many! questions! "why is it so cold? "is this why your house is so cold? (pointing to the skylight)"where do teeth come from?" Why do teeth fall out?" (she lost her first tooth last week, that's why so many teeth questions!) were there trees around before people?" These questions come just randomly too. there's no preparation, no warning, we're just driving in the car and BOOM! You're hit with one. Like "were there trees before people??" Ian said no - I said yes because there were trees when dinosaurs were around- he said there were caveman's - we stopped before we confused the poor girl.

I figure with so many questions, either parents are really smart, really creative, or just have no answer. Right now I'm all over the map with her, I don't want her to think I am stupid, so I want to offer some sort of answer, but I don't want to lie to her, she's bound to find the real answer someday...She's so curious....

I just studied for a math test while watching Fraggle Rock (and luckily my math test is WEDNESDAY, so it's not like major-important-studying going on, just brushing up..) and I thought to myself, how DO people do it? Study, work, raise a child. Studying and Fraggle Rock to not belong together, but somehow, people do it.

There is this concert tonight that Ian and I both wanted to go to, but someone's gotta stay home with the kid! Ian went - he is after all - the music guy. Oh, and I had to study. But it was like "oh. Weird. Only one of us get's to go......" Not like we could find a sitter -- we are the sitters!

It's good to have these little "glimpse" into parenting...The only thing I can think right now is how tired I am!

After we bought our house, people ask us, like once a week if we are gonna have a baby. This makes me want to put it off another year or 500....

We really really do love watching other people's kids, we love the opportunity to play and feed, and take care of some of the best kiddo's around! We're really thankful people trust us with their kids, its a huge honor, and we're so happy to do it!

Today we went on a hike, swam at the pool, and made a mess of the house --watched Fraggle Rock, ate popcorn & hot chocolate-- tomorrow I think a movie is on our agenda, and possibly carving pumpkins -- fun stuff, for sure! I'll get some pictures up soon of our fun little adventures. Happy fall!

College

2009-10-03T16:20:00.001-07:00

Some of you might remember -- I told you I was going to be a college student this fall. A 25 year-old-college-freshman. I didn't go to school when I was 18. When I was 18 I was 100% burnt out on school. So I just didn't go. I knew way to many people who had gone to college for God-knows-what, to then be 23 years old working at Starbucks to pay off student loans. That made zero sense to me. Not to knock working at Starbucks, it's just you can work at Starbucks - with out a college degree - and make money. So I've spent the last six years since High School doing other things, and now I'm a college student.

And I'm so thankful. Thankful that I waited. Because I sit in class now and as the teacher is explaining things I think to my self - six years ago? If I was sitting here, hearing about all this work to do, I would have been mapping out short-cuts. I would have figured out where I could cut corners, figuring out what I had to do-- the bare minimum --to get a passing grade.

I'm also thankful because I know what I want to do. Scary to think if I had gone to college six years ago what I would have gone for....I was super stoked on swimming at the time...I probably would have gone for something like athletic training or something that would have changed about 100 times before I left college. (funny because now I'm still super stoked on swimming, and guess what? You DON'T have to be an athletic trainer to still be involved in sports.) I don't think I would have gone to be a teacher. I hated school a LOT back then, I'm pretty sure 6 years ago the thought of going to school to be a teacher and spend more time at school, would have sounded awful to me.

But now I sit in class and take notes, I plan my entire week to get ALL my homework done & leave enough time left in the week to study. To make sure I understand everything 100%.

I'm in a writing class -- and we had to write an academic summary -- I read the article we had to summarize probably 10 times, I wrote a few rough drafts until I came up with one I liked before I edited it over and over, I busted my butt all weekend on this one page summary. In class on Monday we got into groups to read each others summary's and this kid in my group was like "yea, mine probably sucks, I didn't write it until like, midnight last night" And it did suck. And I know - six years ago - that would have been me. Pissing off some little assignment putting it off until the last minute, putting minimum effort into it. IT. WOULD. HAVE. BEEN. ME. There is not doubt in my mind. & I'm so thankful it's not me.

I think my attitude is different for a few reasons.

1) Because I know what I want to do. I have an end in sight, and although being a teacher with my own classroom feels so far away, I know this is what I have to do to get there.

2) Because I'm paying for it. (or WE are paying for it) so I'm not just gonna piss off some assignment - because I'm paying for that assignment!

3) because I'm older, a little more mature, and actually ready to learn.

You know what I was ready for 6 years ago? I was ready to travel! to whitewater raft! to snowboard! go to New York City! live on my own! eat ice cream for breakfast! I wanted do date someone! get married! Not sit in class and write an academic summary. How boring.

I'm glad all that is out of my system. I'm not sitting in class wishing I was out seeing the world, because I've been to New York City, and I've traveled to S. America, and I've paddled some intense whitewater, and I've met the man of my dreams, had a beautiful wedding, and now, now I'm ready to sit in class. Now I'm ready to write an academic summary.

And I wonder, do we have it all backwards? or am I in the minority? Should we be telling High School seniors to Take the SAT! Pass all your classes! go to college! know exactly what you want to do! where you want to go! hurry! hurry! go to college! we saved all this money! take this test! pass this test! ahhhh!!!!!!

or should we say, wait- save your cash, live a little - figure out some life stuff, then go to college. College is going no where, and more adults are enrolled in school right! now! than ever before.

I guess this subject could be an entire post in itself... and maybe my curiosity and thirst for adventure when I was 18 was abnormal. It's totally possible. I just have to wonder.

ANYWAYS, after all that, college....it's going well =)

Ohh summer time

2009-09-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would get some pictures up here from the end of summer time. Each picture captured a moment, tells a story of travel, adventure, family, friends.

We're so lucky to live in this great state of Oregon. With three weeks off, we got to run bare feet in the sand along the ocean, paddle through some white water on two of the most beautiful rivers in the state, we hiked along water falls, ate lunch over looking the deepest lake in the United Sates.

We got to spend time with family. The Trussell side of the family had a reunion one Saturday in August, where we got to see/meet people we haven't seen in years. Something special happens when family is together. It was a tender, sweet, fun, Saturday afternoon. All of these people were together, and despite silly habits, or flaws, or someone/thing so unique we might even venture to say weird; we were together, and we were family..... Some are total strangers on the street. But family at the end of the day. We drove away really thankful to have spent an afternoon eating BBQ hamburgers, fried chicken, enjoying endearing moments, and awkward moments and playing in a giant field with water balloons and bad mitten with our family.

Between Ocean, Rivers, Lakes & Waterfalls, we covered a LOT of state in our trusty Jeep. We often find car time to be quality time. Great disscussions happen when we spend hours driving across the state together. We often times learn something new about each other, we laugh, we're silent, we sing at the top of our lungs; anything from Tayor Swift to Ben Harper.

As romantic & peaceful & wonderful driving across the state may sound, I have ADD, and honestly can NOT sit still for much more than 3 hours in the car! Which has been known to drive my husband a little crazy, but luckly he gets me & instead of getting frustrated, he helps break up a long trip with a little adventure. Like, for instance we made a quick little stop-a-roo in a sweet little town called Blachely.

Where we walked around (illegally!!) gave green cabin a little hug, got to walk off some energy, and remember, some of the best times of my life....

And this picture above was after about three hours in the car, and all of a sudden Ian slams on the breaks and pulls off the Highway...."what are you doing?!" I ask?! He replys " I just saw a sign for bumper boats, lets get you out of the car!"

Thanks Ian Robert, for understanding me in a way not many people do, and for supporting me in ways that may seem a little child like to some, but makes perfect sense to us.

I LOOOOOVE RAFTING.

2009-08-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

I just spent 4 days on a raft trip on the mighty Des-ca-hooties with the incoming freshman of Reed College.

Sometimes I forget how much I love the river. Or how much I need the river.

I haven't lived in Maupin in four years, so I didn't know any of the guides, or even who would be there, what it would be like. As it ended up, I was in a group with some freaking awesome peeps! ( I did WAY to many push-up's playing the game of life!) But, lauged a LOT. I think Maupin just draws RAD people, yes, I just said rad. But it's true.

My soul is happy falling asleep outside, to the sound of the river, watching shooting stars everynight, cooking outside, having NO CELL PHONE, no internet access, no TV, no radio. We sat around every night, by the light of a lantern and LAUGHED. Spent the days on the river, the nights camping, and honestly life does. not. get. better.

We almost lost some boats, one guide caught on fire, there were lots of funny jokes told, and some pretty fun times on the raft.

After 4 days on the river with super-smart-college-kids, we spent a perfect night in Maupin which included cheap beer, dance party at the Guide House, volleyball, Tuesday Taco Night @ the Tygh Tavern, Kerokee, dancing and just a really freaking good time. God I love Maupin.

And yesterday we rallyed for a trip on the White Salmon where we ran a 14ft class 5 waterfall.

Oh, it never gets old. I was so happy. Wait until you see the pictures!

I'll leave you with this joke, (which I'm allowed to tell, because I just spent 4 entire days with Reed College Kids)

How do you starve a Reed College Student??

Hide their daddy's credit card under a bar of soap.

And that is all I have for now! I'm lovin' & livin' up this August! You should be too!

Awesome August!

2009-08-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

Wasn't it JUST the 4th of July?! I SWEAR. This summer is flying by!!

Here are a few snap shots of what we've been up too lately, some hikes

This was a sweeet hike, we walked behind this waterfall!

Scott, who is one of Ian's very best friends from growing up, got married to a beautiful young lady, Jessica. We made the treck over to watch them get hitched!

Ian sang two beautiful songs, the ceremony was beautiful, and the party after was super fun! It was great to celebrate the two of them!

Here MEEE on my brother in-law's motorcycle!

We took it for a fun little spin - was fun to get some hang out time with the big bro!

The Bend Open - which is a big o'll swim meet we host - happened at the beginning of the month. It is such a fun meet, people come and camp in the park, we're swimming outside, it was warm & sunny & fun. No pictures from the meet, sorry!

We JUST spent a long weekend at the beach, did something illegal - but of course took pictures of it =) So check back for those!!!

Now we're heading out the door for 10 more days of Awesome August that will include a four day rafting trip, some time at Crater Lake, & a Trussell Family Reunion!

September 8th is when ' normal' life starts for us, so until then......

HASTA!

MJ

2009-07-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today I cried watching TV. Which if you know me very well there are two things very strange about that sentence. #1 - the fact I was even watching TV is strange (we rarely have it on!)

& #2 Me shedding a tear is very strange.

haha okay, maybe only #1 is true....BUT no matter how you look at it, I think its weird to cry in front of the TV!!! ahh but I did...

I'm not home in the mornings, but today the girls had other stuff going on, and I wasn't with them, so after practice, I was home. Around 10am I turned on the TV hoping to catch some news, and found, instead Michael Jackson's Memorial.

And I was hooked. I got totally sucked in.

He was an intriguing, enchanting man, who captured the world. He captured us in positive, negative, and maybe even confusing ways, but you can not deny, the man captured our attention over and over through the years. He had a way of stopping us in our tracks. Whether it was his looks, his dancing, his music, allegations against him, his lyrics, his family, we all stopped to watch, to listen, to see....him.

I watched the whole memorial service and it was respectful, touching, honest. We were all reminded of him as a singer, a dancer, a humanitarian. And I got espically sad watching his family, his kids, his friends, people who knew him well. It was refreshing to hear funny stories, of his life, stories of kindness, and good things. I couldn't help but look at his kids and his family, and just be sad for them.

My favorite line, one that certainly made me shed a tear was when the Rev. Al Sharpton said this to MJ's kids: " There wasn't nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with"

And I believe that.

MJ made music come to life.

Who can forget trying to moon walk like him? I mean c'mon we all tried.

Who can forget Heal the World, Man in the Mirror

Those lyrics can sure change the world.

I found myself oddly sad that he was dead, but glad the world was able to celebrate him in a positive way.

NOW, lets all let the man rest in peace, eh?! We'll see if that happens...

I think it just might have been the first time I shed a tear over a pop star!

Maybe I'm making a huge fool of myself admitting all this to blog land, but I tell you DownLoad those songs, be reminded of him, and don't get distracted by all the strange things about him....

The world did lose the King of Pop, and today, I felt a little sad about it.

Perfect Day

2009-07-06T20:15:00.001-07:00

Ian & I have had a lot of what we call "perfect days" lately, which is wonderful. Last summer I was working 60+ hours a week at three different jobs. Summer was far from wonderful. Unlike this summer, which is more often than not, perfect.

I spend 2 hours every morning at the pool, from 8-10. And its so awesome. I have 50 eight & unders in my group. Sounds crazy, and some days it is, but I love it. I really do. I know I've said it a hundred times over but I love coaching swimming more than I ever thought possible.. (and lets be honest, a perfect summer day must include a lil pool time...)

I'm nanny-ing for a new family. Two girls who are 6 & 9 years old. And they are kind, thoughtful, polite young ladies. Our days are spent at the park, on a hike, at the High Desert Museum, free movies at the theater, in the kayak, at the pool, having a pick-a-nick. Doing things your supposed to do durning the summer time. Sarah, who is 6 is constantly reminding Ian to say "excuse me" after he burps, and to "never talk with your mouth full" We will probably go to every park in Bend this summer, but the best parks will have monkey bars.

And this summer is also different becasue we have weekends off, together. Ian is off by 1:00pm every Saturday, and off all day Sunday & Monday.

This is what last weekend looked like: Saturday I had breakfast with two of my girlfriends, and after, we headed down to the pet parade. (Bend has the funniest little parade to celebrate our pets! Dogs dominate the long line of people & their pets, but there are tadpoles, turtles, chickens....the best part? A little dog tied to a dozen balloons flying in the air. SO.FUNNY.) Anyways, after Ian got off work we went down to the 4th of July celebration in Drake Park. We walked around the booths, ate lunch in the park listening to a band play. After our stroll in the festive park, we took Taylor for a kayak ride. Someday we'll take some pictures, but she loves the kayak! We swam in the river, paddled around the river, just played in the river for a few hours. Which is perfect on a hot day. It's too hot for Taylor to go on a run, so swimming is a great way for her to burn off some energy. After playing in the mighty Dee-shoots we went to a block party, a family on the swim team invited us, we ate some yummy food, visited with friends, watched the kiddo's on the slip-n-slide. And to end the evening Ian & I sat on our roof & watched fireworks from off the Butte. And Sunday we slept in, went to church, took a nap, brought a bottle of wine, some cheese and crackers and met some friends at the Les Schuab Ampitheater where there is a free concert every Sunday. We sat in the park for two hours visiting, soaking up the sun, listening to music.

Days like this, are fun, relaxing, spent with good company, there is no better way to describe it than perfect.

I think back to other times of my life. 13 years ago a perfect day would have been spent at North Wood, with Mac & Cheese for lunch, Skittles for a snack.

5 Years ago a perfect day would have been a day spent in the busy city, and an evening sitting on row house steps, watching the neighborhood. You would have found me knitting, reading, eating chinese food from the corner store, and laughing, becasue my summer five years ago, I laughed a lot.

3 summers ago, my perfect days we're Thursdays. Although every day was a mixture of perfection and chaos, Thursdays at camp were my favorite. I usually got to ride my bike on Thursday mornings. Lunch on Thursday you could always expect salsa & sour cream, & for dinner they made the best Thursday Juice you ever tasted. We called it Thursday Juice becasue we got it every Thursday. It's really this yummy-mouth-watering-red-fruit-punch-kind-of-juice.mmmmm......Thursday's we spent most of the day at the waterfront, had a BBQ, a big o'll silly camp-fire, made some excuse to jump in the lake after dinner, & we always slept outside under the stars, on Thursdays. I usually took a shower on Thursday's, because Friday was the only day I didn't have to get in the lake. Also, watersports week, kids we pretty burnt out being behind the boat by Thursday, so we'd 'sneak' an inner tube ride in, and would always get in trouble. (ALWAYS) I would bet anyone who would challenge me $5 I could stay on the tube the longest. I didn't lose one bet that summer. The kids loved to watch, but we always got in trouble. No. Matter. What. But it was totally worth it. (PS what kind of jacked up camp do you get in trouble for having fun at??!?) It was pretty jacked up thats for sure. But Thursdays were perfect.

And now, my perfect days are right here. In Bend, OR. With the love-of-my-life. Doing things outside, exploring this fun-little-town we live in, playing in the river... And I like to wonder, what will my perfect days look like in 3 years, 5 years, or even 13 years? It's a fun thought.

Calculator & Yoga Mat

2009-06-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight I bought a Calculator & Yoga Mat.

Tomorrow I am taking the placement test up at the college. You did not miss read that: BIG NEWS I will be a college student this fall. Maybe it's not big news, but it feels like its a big deal for me.

I am planning on going for Elementary Education. I want to teach second grade. Today we filled out all the FASFA stuff (throw up a little prayer we can afford school), tomorrow is the placement test, and July I will meet with an adviser.

I'm finally ready. For college. Its a weird feeling, because for so long I was so against it, I hated the thought of school, it was my worse nightmare! But now my hearts desire is to be in a classroom.

Funny how things change. Although, I don't think it ever really changed. My hearts desire that is. I think I've always known I wanted to teach, I just haven't always wanted to go to school....

The Calculator entered the scene tonight, while Ian and I were sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out the practice questions for the test tomorrow, and neither of us could do the stinking math!!

Although, I'm not convinced the calculator actually helped much. I might get one question right on the math part. I'm sure I'll be in Math 50, for like, ever.

I just want to write a note to who-ever-the-big-man-is and tell them this: My math lessons, when I am a teacher will not be lacking. Because I have the best resource in the whole wide world when it comes to teaching math and that is: my mother-in-law. Amathlady is MY mother-in-law, who is on the cutting edge of teaching math, with an entire room in the house dedicated to math, I mean really, she travels all around the country teaching teachers how to teach math, and she is MY mother-in-law So really, no matter what my math grades are in College, it will not be a direct reflection on my math lessons as a teacher. so please? Can i just be a teacher already?! And skip the math.

Oh. I. Hate. Math.

So I bought a Yoga Mat. Because I really enjoy Yoga. And it will calm me down when math stresses me out. And honestly I'm tired of using the mats they have at the gym. Last night at yoga the mat I used smelled like feet. Not mine. Ew.

A calculator & yoga mat. The perfect combination.

Ian VS. Garbage Disposal

2009-06-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, our garbage disposal stopped working. Ian flipped the switch, and it clunked around, made some awful noises, and just then just stopped.

So he asked me "did you put anything in there that your not supposed to?!"

Feeling a little offended i replied, NO. It was a fair question for him to ask, i guess, considering i do a nice percentage of the cooking. But i still was slightly offended. I know not to put anything large down there, no onions, no chicken bones...So the broken disposal remained a mystery.

It was something we just lived with, we've been without a garbage disposal for the last three years, between our apartment & rental house, so no.big.deal. Until you do dishes.

We found, when ever we did a load of dishes there was a sink monster that gurrgled, and gurrled, until it EXPLODED with last weeks food that is supposed to be sitting nicely in the bottom what-ever-is-down-there into our sink. EW. What an eye sore, sure to cause some not-so-pleasant smells, and it was a pain becasue you knew if you rinsed it down the sink, as soon as you did another load of dishes, MR. Monster down there would surely explode again.

This little problem suddenly became something we needed to fix. asap. So Ian hopped on the computer, did a little research, found a new disposal, at the good o'll Home Depot , and two trips later, and lots of tools & grunting, and a few choice words, wa-la a new garbage disposal.

Here he is. Dosen't he look like a real home-owner?

Oh, and what broke the dang thing in the first place? Not a mystery after-all.

Ian asks me last week "do you think an avacado peel can go in a garbage disposal?" I say, "the actual avacado (like the mushy stuff) or the PEEL?" Trying to give him the benifit of the doubt, thinking to myself, we don't have a garbage compactor down there, just a little disposal.

He says "the peel"

Ah, NO Ian, i don't think an avacado PEEL should go down the garbage disposal. "oh, well i think thats what broke the garbage disposal" YA-THINK?!?

After a nice little lesson about what is approiate, and not approiate to go down our humble garbage disposal, two trips to Home Deopt in one day, and an afternoon of my husband under the sink, I think the Avacado Peels will go in the garbage CAN from here on out, what do you think??

Ahhh...the joys of home-owning. I believe we have years & years of adventures like this ahead of us.... =)

Hello, June

2009-06-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

Last June, Ian & I got rid of both our cars, and bought our Jeep. Remember that? With the intention to ride our bikes as often as we could. Its a lot trickier to ride in the winter, but now that summer is upon us, we pumped up our bike tires, and are back to riding whenever its possible. With the thought that its better for the environment, its better for us, and it saves us cash.

I was packing up my back-pack yesterday, and thought the contents might give you a glimpse into my day. In my sweet biking backpack was:

* A pair of shorts
* A tank top
* Trail Mix
* Flip flops
*Rain jacket
*long sleeve shirt
*Jeans
*my swimming binder with attendance & workouts

One needs this random assortment of things on a June day in Central Oregon. Because its 80 degrees and Humid, and 60 degrees and pouring in the matter of minutes!

June is funny around here. Yesterday was our first practice that was canceled because of lightning. My 6 year olds were totally bummed to have to get out of the pool. The 16 year olds had been praying for a strike of lightning, and rejoiced as the sky lit up. Its blue Sky's and sunny right now, but they are predicting more thunder & possibly hail this afternoon. Ahhh....swimming outside is always an adventure around here!

We are really excited summer is here. We're looking forward to kayaking trips, camping trips & baseball nights. I have Iris blooming in my back yard, bleeding hearts in my front yard. We meet our neighbor across the street who has a doberman puppy, Hendrix. Hendrix & Taylor could romp around for hours.

It's swim meets, BBQ's, kayak's & camping from here on out. Life is good friends, life is gooood.

Taylor Swift!

2009-05-21T12:31:00.001-07:00

Remember our dog, with her hot pink collar? And we named her Taylor?

Taylor Swift Anderson, to be exact?

This is her above.

And below is the ACTUAL TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!! Live in concert!!!!!!

Weird, she has no hot pink collar, but she does have a sparkly guitar!

We drove to Portland last weekend to see the one and only Taylor Swift, and it was A-M-AZING

Taylor Swift is a Country artist who writes 99% of her own music about falling in love & breakups, life's ups and downs, and summer flings, and everything in between......

She is cute, she is funny, she is an awesome singer, and so entertaining in concert!

It was so fun to be there, SO MUCH FUN! I sang to every song, and loved every minute of the whole concert!!!!

The lovely Kellie Pickler opened up for her.....

And she was AWESOME live. I bought her new CD & I'm really enjoying it! =)

Ya, I'll be 25 this summer, and I'm not one bit ashamed to be a Taylor Swift Fan!

You know how music takes you back?? She does that for me, and her CD Fearless got me through this last crazy swim season.

Elizabeth & I would sit on my living room floor, drinking vodka martini's doing meet entries for 50+ kids, singing, laughing, crying right along with Taylor Swift. She brought us a lot of joy in the midst of some really hard months -- i couldn't have been happier to be at her concert, singing a long with EVERY song.

You remember her song CHANGE? She sang it at the Olympics? .....mmmm.....SO GOOD.....

Basically i have the best husband in the world. If he had to pick his top ten list of concerts to go to, Taylor MIGHT not be on that list, but he was the best, and came along for the ride! And didn't make fun of me, not once!

It was really really reallly really really FUN.

=)

Mother's Day

2009-05-21T12:15:00.001-07:00

I do realize mothers day was a while ago....If i had time everyday to update this i would! But, i don't, so here we are a few weeks late...but better late than never, eh?!

We traveled over the big o'll hill for mom's day to say "whats up!!!" to our mothers on the day we celebrate them =) It's always fun to be with family, eat some home cooked goodness, and just be together.

Above is Nancy and her two boys

Below is my grandma Poindexter & I

Mom, Grandma, & myself

My mom has this BB gun she keeps around to shoot at the cats in the back yard -- she doesn't HIT them with the BB's, just scats them out of the yard so they don't dig and shiz in her beautiful garden....ANYways, Ian loves (LOVES!) to play with the BB gun in the back yard. So i captured the moment.

Happy late mothers day!
We Love you!

Ahhh.....The new house!

2009-05-08T14:04:00.001-07:00

Let's just start out saying this: WE LOVE OUR NEW HOUSE. Love it. I never want to leave.

Here is our sweet little kitchen. It has so much more ROOM than our old kitchen. So much more space. And I love the tile floor. (Taylor is wondering, what, exactly, we are doing)

Below is the dinning area, the back doors leading to the back yard, and of course, the wine bar. mmmmmm.....vino!

And above is the living area. One of my favorite things? The sky lights. There is not one light on in the house right now. The natural light is so.....wonderful!

And the living room again. That couch thing is awesome, its set up as a lounge chair now, but all you have to do is click it and boom --

Couch.

It lays into a bed too. Cool huh?

And the hall bath. I'm excited to put up some black & white photos in here!

Anyhoo....thats just a little sample of how totally AWESOME our house is, honestly we're not decorated at all, and the bed room is a mess right now =) So thats all the pic's you're gonna see for now....

BUT, it is Ian's Birthday! So i leave you with the Birthday Boy & some yummy birthday cupcakes!

He is a quarter of a century today! .....Lucky. I can't wait to be 25!!!!

Have a great weekend & happy mothers day!

In the midst of crazy-ness, just play!

2009-05-08T13:25:00.001-07:00

Thats our motto.

Between closing on our house, & moving, we of course have made time for a few adventures! I mean, we wouldn't be the Anderson's with out putting aside oh-so-important PLAY TIME!

So we thought, that deserves a post all to it self! We went to the beach, hiked the Metolius, and spent a day hiking at this sweet place we found called round lake.

The Beach Trip was for a swim meet. We drove over to Lincoln City for the little buggers to race. The meet went really well, and on Saturday afternoon when all the swimming was done we had a big o'll Bend Swim Club Bon Fire / Pot Luck.

Jannelle & Ella both swim in my group

The kids playing

Our Round Lake hike was just a spur-of-the-moment-i'm-bored-with-moving trip. We just started driving past sisters, saw a sign for some trail heads and stumbled upon this little piece of heaven

Taylor was really happy to play in some snow!
That lake behind us is frozen.

and Taylor thought it would be fun to RUN onto the frozen lake.

It was so peaceful, and beautiful, and just what we needed; to be outside, enjoy some fresh air, and just be together for a day. No agenda.

And here are a few from the Mighty Metolius.

We packed a pick-a-nick, and walked along the river

And it started snowing. Thank-You, Central Oregon

Can you see the snow on her head?

So the Pick-a-nick got moved indoors. Which was much more cozy and warm.

Our Rental still has all our pictures on the walls, the office is not all the way moved, we haven't even started moving the garage, let alone cleaning the place........But at least we have fun! =)

Moving

2009-05-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

Our theory on moving was this "we're going to take our time" So we did zero packing, had no boxes, nothing ready-to-go. We knew when we would close people would ask "oh are you packing??" NAH - we'd say "we're taking our time...."

We got our keys to the new place on April 28th, and (NO DUH) wanted to stay in our NEW house! Why sleep in an old crappy rental, when we have a new, beautiful house we OWN?!?! .....

(why we didn't think through all this is beyond me)

So we have our keys, the new place is 100% OURS and we think -- lets move the bed over and sleep there -- sweet. But then we have to drive across town to change clothes? -- okay then lets move the bed ROOM over -- okay, but we're going to drive across town to shower? -- sure then move the bathroom -- but we have to drive across town to eat? -- okay the kitchen.... -- okay EVERYTHING! So Ian took a VAY-kay day the day after we closed, and we spent one whole day moving everything we needed to BE at the new place.

Oh ya -- in the snow.

WHAT THE SNOW?!?!

Yes, thats our bed being moved in the snow.

HELLO APRIL! Thanks for joining us.

AHHHHHH!!!!!

2009-04-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

Our offer has been accepted!!!!!!!!!!!! Which means if all goes as planned, we will be closing on a house (OUR HOUSE) on April 28th!!!!!!!! April 28th.....now that's not very far away people!

We're really excited, like, REALLY excited!

http://www.mlsfinder.com/kwls/kw/index.cfm?action=listing_detail&kw_id=4359223&domain=a241441.yourkwagent.com

So i don't know how to make a link, a real link! SORRY! But that's the listing page( for those of you who are interested in seeing pictures!) We'll get real, actual, pictures up soon, but for now, i leave you with 1747 NE Mark Court, our new house!

Can you believe it??!?!

Where did March go??

2009-04-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

So I wish i could update this silly thing at least once a month, but seriously..... where did the month of March go????

So sorry about not getting here even once last month! But how about a quick recap on the good o'll month o' March?

The short course swim season came to an official end which meant two whole entire weeks off! No pool deck, and after being on the deck every single day since September, it was well needed!! Ian took the first 10 days off, and we had a fun little spring break. Went to a wedding, saw the family, put an offer on a house (more on that later!) hung out at the beach, and deep cleaned our house. Like moved furniture to vacuum, dusted (our wood stove creates so much dust!!) moved the microwave to clean, cleared out the garage, filled our entire trailer up with crap to haul to the dump... it took us a whole day, but was totally worth it!

A few of my favorite moments from the break:

* going for a run at my old middle school with Taylor

* Eating cream cheese tiger tails from Roths

* Playing cards with the Anderson's

* Walking on the beach late at night under the stars

* Wii at my parents house

* Ian & I sat at a sweet little coffee shop at the beach and enjoyed lattes, the morning paper, and good company one morning.

So about this house....well, we're going to buy a house! It's really exciting.

It's also really sad.

Because all these houses we're looking at are either short sales or bank owned The houses are going really cheap right now because banks don't like negative #'s, and these short sales, they are desperate to get out of their loan before being foreclosed! So really sad for them.....but a really great opportunity for us!

Not to mention the President of the U S of A is also going to give us $8,000 just for being a first time home owner!

We're not itching to get out of Bend any time soon, the mortgage isn't going to be that much more than our rent, and its a great investment!

Looking at houses in our price range (& there are TONS of houses) we came pretty much came across two different scenarios; #1 we found beautiful, new big houses in crappy locations, with a postage stamp for a back yard. The plus side? we would have to do ZERO 'work' on the house, because they are so new! and so beautiful! But do we want HW 97 in our back yard??? #2 scenario; were these funky, older homes in a perfect neighborhood! The location was awesome, but a lot of these homes, we'd have to replace carpet, paint walls, landscape the yard, buy an oven and fridge, BUT live in a great place.

Until...after hours of walking through homes... we found this little beauty! It was built in '92 but has since been remolded. Its 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, bay windows in the living room, tile floor throughout the kitchen & hall, a beautiful kitchen that comes with an oven, fridge, & microwave (all matching!) and a really nice sized back yard and the best part about it?? Its in this sweet litlte neighborhood, in a cul-de-sac, with a elementray school & park just down the road. The house is awesome & the location is awesome!!

So we put an offer on it, its a short sale, which means it could take a while, and turns out the people that owned it took out two, TWO (2? yes 2!!!) mortages on the house. C'MON people, if you can't get a loan with one mortage, probably, don't get two, i don't know...call me crazy....

Anyways, the seller, and one bank has accepted our offer, now we're just waiting on the other bank, we should hear next week. If this dosen't go through, we're back to square one. Which is fine with us, but its exciting to think we'll be in a new place (OUR OWN PLACE) this summer! wahoo!!!

Anyways, that was our month! Today is my last entire day off, and to be totally honest, i'm ready for pracitice to start! This week i found my self wondering, WHAT DO PEOPLE DO IN THE AFTERNOON / EVENING???? Becasue i'm usually at the pool from 3pm-6:30pm, but this week i just found myself being BORED in the afternoon, i was watching Oprah.....I told Ian i always want to be a swim coach and have my afternoons busy, 'cuz i was just bored this week! Plus i love what i do, so i'm looking forward to Monday! Plus its summer season! Which means the top comes off the pool soon......ahhh yess....i love my job!

We're going on a date tonight -- We're having dinner at Deschutes Brew Pub (our friends here in town, the husband is the GM so we babysit for them once an month, and we get dinner once a month at the pub -- its a sweet trade!) and its the first Friday of the Month which means its the Ark Walk! You just walk around DownTown Bend drink free wine, walk through these businesses and look at art, its really funky and fun! Just one more reason WE LOVE BEND.

Happy Friday blog-land!

Floating Thoughts.

2009-02-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

I know its been a while since we've updated this blog. If you had any idea what our life has been like the last month, you would not ask why. So I'm going to sit here in my comfy sweats, with my chicken noodle soup in my over sized Starbucks mug, and write out some of my thoughts, and give you, dear reader, a little glimpse into our lives.

* I coach the fastest 8 year olds in the state. They have a gold medal to prove it.

* Ian still has a job at Starbucks, and after lots of rounds of lay offs we're really thankful.

*on that note, Ian is running one of the most successful Starbucks in his district. Believe it or not, his sales are more this year than last year.

* I'm happy the economy is going to be stimulated. It's going to work.

* In the matter of 4 hours I felt every one of these emotions: excited, nervous, happy, sad, proud, elated, angry, stressed, proud, & disappointed. All in 4 hours, and I'm not even joking.

* I slept for an entire day after the above happened.

* I guess i never even knew you could feel all those emotions in one day, one event. It still boggles my mind.

* Another thing that blows my mind? Is this; we've had weeks in Bend where it is 16 degrees, and with in a matter of days its 60 degrees. What blows my mind even more than that is people are still debating about global warming.

* Driving from Keizer to Bend, i feel like I'm coming home.

* I watched a movie called Fired Up with 15 high school kids, and giggled in the back of the theater the whole time.

* I've spent 4 nights away from home this week.

* I'm ready for vacation.

* A bunch of crap went down in regards to swimming, and our High School kids had (have!) every right to be angry, bitter, and have poor sportsman ship. But i coach class-A kids, who through a bunch of injustice have held their head high, and acted like REAL winners.

* I've never been so proud of my kids, & so angry at the system all in one moment. <--that was a hard moment, but a precious, intimate moment.

* If you have no idea what i'm talking about, its okay, just know its been a rollercoaster ride of emotions the last few weeks. And the dust is starting to settle.

* My husband, for Valenties Day, bought me a CD. That i love.

* I love going on runs with my dog, Taylor.

* I spent a weekend at Eagle Crest with a bunch of adults who have all known me my whole life, and i had so much fun. Fimilar people who are comfortable to be around. It was a really nice weekend.

* My parents know me really well. They know just how much space to give me, while still being tottally supporitive, and i REALLY appreicate them.

* I don't mind driving over the mountain pass covered in snow, but i hate (HATE) driving in the city.

And that will be it for now. Those are my floating thoughts on this chilly Monday afternoon.

Taylor

2008-12-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

We could stand it no more! We had a void in our life needing to be filled! We adopted another dog!

Meet Taylor.

She is our sweet 1.5 - 2 year old black lab. We found her on www.petfinders.com at a no-kill shelter in Prineville! We were really looking to adopt from a shelter with a no-kill policy because that is what saved our sweet pooch, Cooper!

She is a high-needs dog. She really just needs a lot of love! She has been abused before, and is very skiddish around men. She's not aggressive, though she growls, but she is very very scared of people. Poor girl.

We went out to the shelter and walked her a few times, and she stole Ian's heart. So here she is!

Once she trusts you, she is so cuddly, and sweet. She is fantastic!

I think she has also been neglected, she does not like it when either of us leave the house, and she will not go in the backyard by her self! We have to stand out there with her before she will go potty. But we don't mind. We're just glad she is safe, and to have her around!

We tried to get a family picture -- we'll do better next time, but for now i leave you with the newest Anderson, Taylor!

Christmas Tree Adventure!

2008-12-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

Ian and i are spending Christmas in Bend this year. It will be the first Christmas either of us will be away from our families. We both work Christmas Eve & the day after Christmas, so instead of going to Salem for 24 hours, we're going to kick it at our house. Which we're both really looking forward to. An actual day off, together.

So we decided since we're staying home, that we should get in the spirit! Ian put Christmas lights up, i hung stockings by the fire, brought out some decorations, pulled out all our Christmas CD's, and we thought, to top it all off, lets get a tree!

(this is our cute little wood stove w/stockings!)

Ian refused to pay $20 and buy one from a lot, and insisted we had to go out and chop one down. Fine-by-me. As long as i don't have to get all pitch-y and chop it down!

This is our "lets get a tree!" face.

So a few weeks ago (obvisally before the snow storm -- there was no snow!) we put on our hikin' boots, drove out to Prine-Tucky (prineville) :) and went up to the Ochoco mountains to find the perfect tree!

When we got to the part of the forest we could cut, we walked around, and i found this cute little tree. Not too big, not to tall, wouldn't take up too much room... but my husband had different plans...We crossed a creek...
And he found this monster! This is the tree he wanted to take home. Ya, don't think so! Our house is tooo toooo small for that, its giant! We found we had very different ideas on this whole tree thing.

So we settled on this beauty.

(You can tell, i was being really supportive!

Ian hauled it down the hill, and across the creek, and loaded it on the jeep.

I kept taking pictures, Ian was thrilled. You can tell by the look on his face in the picture.

So anyways, we get the tree home, Ian takes out his tape measure, he measures how much room there is from the floor to the ceiling, and adds in the tree stand, and is doing all these calculations to get the tree to fit just right. I of course keep my self busy, and add no input. Its tree, and saw, and garage stuff -- i've leared -- i stay out of it. So he's in and out of the house, in the garage chopping and trimming and he brought it in the house....and he cut the ENTIRE bottom off! -- not how i would have done it -- he cut too much off the bottom, and it doesn't even reach our ceiling!

I walk in and say "wow! its short" and he was not pleased.

He calls it our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. I'm not convinced its that bad. Its a cute, humble little tree.

He was ready to go down to a lot and pay $20!

But i think its a perfect 1st Christmas Tree.

A story from my week.

2008-11-20T21:02:00.000-08:00

November marks the third year of coaching high school swimming for me. I've learned a lot the past two years. actually, to be honest the past two years were like, 100% learning.

Its weird to learn something you're familiar with. I grew up on a pool deck, but suddenly, as a coach, I'm clueless.

To say the least it was a struggle. Kids were totally disrespectful, rude, peeing in water bottles on the bus, lighting farts ON FIRE on the bus (ya, open flame HELLLO!) spit wads, back talking, whining, complaining. Public peeing. That sums up two years for me. Me saying "get in the POOL" 100 times over...

I could also sum up the last two years with laughter, friendship, kids improving, working hard, stepping up to the challenge, winning. ahhh....that sweet sweet word. winning. feelings of pride and joy and excitement. And really, lots of laughter.

But we struggled with respect.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ian and i have been praying for the swim season. For the better 1/2 of the month. and my prayer has been this: Kindness. (oh, and then we had a crap load of kids come out for the team!) so since November 10th my prayer has been that kids would feel valued, along with my continued pray for kindness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Last night was the parent meeting.

And one of the things Elizabeth and i learned the past two years is that we can't do it all. We can not, (and will not!) organize all the team dinners, order the sweats, plan every fundraiser, organize the banquet. I will spend two hours on a pool deck with your kid 5 days a week, i will get up early the week of holiday to be at the pool and coach your kid, i will travel around the entire state of Oregon for swim meets, I will stay up until the wee hours of the morning baby sitting your kid in hotels, I will do whatever i can to have your kid be a fast swimmer with good technique but the rest of that stuff? Mom and dad - you're helping out. Its a good lesson for us to learn by year 3. Parents can help. (and the astounding thing is they WILL help)

After the meeting a handful of parents were hanging around, talking. And this one mom said the most beautiful thing. Her daughter had come home from practice and said "mom, everyone is so nice"

and this parent was saying "its so refreshing, because that's not what she says after softball, usually its griping about things like she said, he said, his cousins boyfriend said...." you know. HS stuff.

But that comment "everyone is so nice"

I had that overwhelming sense of the Lord. Ya know that totally undeniable sense? and He was saying keep praying for kindness

And can i be honest about my prayer? The better 1/2 of the month, when I've been praying for kindness, its been totally selfish. 100% about me. I wanted the kids to be kind to me. me.me.me.

That prayer was about no more public peeing, no more farts being lit on fire, no more me begging a kid to get in the pool. I wanted my job to be easier. I wanted kids to be nice to me

But guess what? I was stunned. Because that prayer has worked. The kids have been amazing. (I'll keep you posted after we travel for the first time!) But they have been kind to me.

And they have also been kind to each other.

Its a beautiful thing. Ian and i are just being transformed by watching the Lord work in our lives. His fingerprints all over our days. Answering prayers, even the most selfish prayers i pray, He answers in ways that blow my mind.

Its a sunny day with snow on the ground!

2008-11-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday was a simple day. We woke up to a beautiful, cool, sunny fall morning. Ian and i shared a pot of coffee while doing a morning devotion. We're reading the book of John together, and trying to spend each morning together in the word, and praying for our friends, our families, our jobs. Some mornings we are rushed during this time, especially on mornings when one, or both of us work. Saturday was not one of those days, we were able to take as much time as we wanted discussing, reading, praying. A pot of coffee, a fire in the wood stove, these mornings i look forward to.

We knew we had to take advantage of the sunshine! So we thought we would put on our hiking boots, and go on a little adventure. We drove up towards Mt. bachelor, and stopped at Swampy Lakes Snow Park. There isn't a TON of snow up there, not enough to xc ski, or even snow shoe, so a hike was perfect.

We packed our lunch, and ended up hiking to this little cabin. Well its not a cabin, because there is no door, just this covered area with a wood stove, tons of wood, and benches. Its a place to stop for people who are snowmobiling, or xc skiing, or snowshoeing so they can get warm, enjoy a seat, drink some hot drinks, get out of the elements, they are pretty awesome!

So we tromped through the snow, following the trees....

Seriously. Well, okay - the trees with the blue triangle marker things, that led us to this sweet little cabin!

You can kinda see the blue triangle- marker -things on tress behind Ian.

Haha can you guess what Ian is doing?? :)

Winter is a craaaazy time for us! with Swim Meets most weekends, Holidays, there is a lot of transition going on at Ian's store...We're really thankful we live where we do. And we're really thankful for Saturdays like this past one filled with God's beauty, a winter-filled-fall, quality time, being out side with the one i love.

Soooo....I quit my job!

2008-11-07T12:05:00.001-08:00

I was working at Columbia Sportswear here in Bend. Great company, awesome product. I can not do retail.

Not many people are quitting their jobs right now, Ian and I count our blessings, and we're thankful we're in the minority when it comes to that! I thought i would share with you a few thoughts on my experience in retail.

#1 I learned that I'm not patient, and I'm not kind. If any of out out there thought i was either of those things: I FOOLED YOU!

A story to prove my point: I'm ringing a customer up. He has bought like, five items. Working here, I'm getting pretty good a multi tasking I can ring up an item, take off the hanger, fold it, put it in the bag, and after all that still hold a conversation. That's a lot to focus on! And I got pretty quick at it, too.

This process is pretty daunting, and I'm moving as quickly and as efficiently as i can. But with lots of items, it can take a little bit to get it all off hangers, folded and in the bag. So i finish ringing up the items, hit the button on my machine that says total, and tell him he owes $49.90. Now, mind you, I'm still taking off hangers folding his clothes, and putting them in the bag for him to take home. (Remember multi tasking, I'm good, real good i can hit total, and still get that stuff done!) The man slides his credit card, and IMMEDIATELY says "it says wait for Cashier"

You might read this and think nothing of it, no big deal. I mean it IS what the machine says.

I on the other hand, was pissed.

You want to know what i want to say to that man? If i was allowed i would have said this: (read totally sarcastic) "REALLY? That's what it says? Wait for cashier? GOD, sir, THANK you Thank you for telling me that! How did i get through this day not knowing what it said???!!! I would have waited all day had you not told me that's what it said!"

(now not sarcastic voice)"Seriously sir, I've rang up HUNDREDS of HUNDREDS of items. I've worked behind this one machine for the last 6 months of my life, i know exactly what that damn thing says, but if you would just give me like, THREE seconds to put all your shit in this stupid bag, i would then hit the button on my machine that will print out a little paper to get your signature. Please, don't talk to me like I'm stupid, like i don't know what it says. I know, i know all to well exactly what needs to happen in the next thirty seconds to get you out of here as quickly as possible, it may be a surprise to you but IT IS MY JOB. It is what i do every day."

Its not like i was standing there, twiddling my thumbs doing nothing, and there was this awkward pause waiting for cashier......

I WAS FOLDING ALL YOUR STUFF!!!!!!!!! AND GETTING IT PUT AWAY.

You see: No patience. I have none. And although i didn't say ANY of that out loud, i wanted to, and that is NOT kind.

That's just one story, i may share more later.

I'll tell you what, i will never shop the same. Those people at the stores you shop at, they may make eight bucks an hour, and wear a name tag, but guess what? Their one soul purpose in life is probably not to be at that store, and help you, they have families, lives, a job to do, so just be kind. Take a second, and maybe be grateful for the person bagging your groceries, putting your clothes in a bag, because I'm pretty sure they are doing the best they can. And I'm also pretty sure they know how to do their job.

I will shop differently, i will be more kind, i will watch my words from here on out.....

Yes we can.

2008-11-05T15:23:00.001-08:00

And yes we did!

Ian and i are excited to be on the side of History that voted for change. That broke down walls. We are proud to have voted for the PRESIDENT of the UNITED States of America. Someday we will get to tell our kids, that not only we were around, but we VOTED for the first African American President in the USA.

Last night we whispered prays of "thank-you..." For reasons like now we don't have to stress about health care, and the war has an end in sight, and we don't have to continue to watch the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And because after 8 years of chaos, i feel confident in the leader of our nation, excited, even. And because we've come so far. 43men who all look the same, and now a man of color. It brings hope. Dreams come true.

I watched the T.V. and just cried. Happy tears. Ian said "well, we don't have to move to Canada!"

75 days. The end of an error. Thank God. But seriously, God, Thank-You.

Preparing for....Winter!

2008-09-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

In preparing for winter (yikes! can it really be that time of year??) today we went out into the National Forest just 30 min out side of town to get some fire wood!

Yup - firewood! - we have a sweet little wood stove to heat our house, and (i guess??) now is the time of year to collect firewood! hooray!

So we took the chain saw and chopped up some trees!

Now, don't you fret, all you tree lovers out there! We aren't cutting down living trees, but tree's that have already fallen, and really important people at the BLM & National Forest have deemed OK to have as fire wood. There is a very specific area you are allowed to get wood, and its all very clearly marked. So we aren't interrupting wild life, or growth, and the pamphlet they gave us when we bought the permit educated us on not cutting anything with nests or things of that nature that are around the tree.

So, we were very cautious, only cut where we were allowed to, and we waited for an hour (err...45min) to make sure we didn't start any forest fires!

It was a lot of work! That chain saw is heavy

(you see, i also got a shot at the o'll chain saw!)

and it was a lot of work carrying all the wood to the trailor......BUT it shall all be worth it when we have cozy little fires in the wood stove while the snow falls in Central Oregon.

Road Trip!

2008-09-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Time off work is rare in the Anderson house. I (kendra) work three jobs, Starbucks always has some project for Ian to be working on, above and beyond the regular Assistant Manager duties, so coordinating time off is a special task, but we were able to get a whole entire week off, of everything! hooray!

So, with no real plans, we loaded up the jeep with camping stuff, bought the Fromers guide to Oregon, and hit the road. We decided to spend a week, and explore the state!
(Here i am with all our stuff!)

Our first stop? The beautiful Oregon Coast! We sat on the beach one night and watched the sun set, we went to the wax museum, saw some wales, and sea lions, went to Devils Punch Bowl, and ate at the cutest little Mo's!

(this is me in front of the cute little Mo's)

(Look caaarefully, you can see a wale!!)

The Sea Lions were funny!

A cute little Newport Pic

After some fun filled time at the coast, we drove South through North Bend, over through Roseburg to Hwy 138 and found a sweet little camping spot right on the North Umqua River!
This is me cooking dinner

Highway 138 follows the river so there are tons of little hikes to do, and thanks to Fromers, we knew the best ones to stop off at! These are moments i treasure.

This is a sweet waterfall we saw!

Oh-my-gosh i love this picture of my sweet hiking husband! isn't he wonderful??

Any-hoo, the Highway spit us out at the wonderful, beautiful, breathtaking Crater Lake!

Where we spent the better 1/2 of two days, funny thing is, Ian and i both grew up in Oregon, and neither of us had been to Crater Lake! So we explored it together for the first time.

There is only one place on the whole lake where you can go to the water, and it is quite the hike to get down there! (well, actually the though part is getting back up!) But we made the trek, and it was so beautiful!
Here we are, standing the deepest lake in the US! (the 7th deepest in the world!)

You really can't take enough pictures of this beautiful lake! The water is so clear, and blue, and its just amazing!

Happy Hikers!

Here we are drinking some coffee as the sun rises at Crater Lake.

So, basically our trip was really awesome. We started it out camping on the Ocean, spent a night camping on the river, and ended up camping at arguably the most beautiful lake, ever. Our hikes included hot springs & water falls. Really can you think of a better place to road trip?

Oh, here i am with the map, planning out the day!

And we will leave you with some random road-trippy pictures....Liiiike, cooking lunch
in the back of the jeep

OR

A pick-a-nick- table

September 8th the crazy-ness we call fall - which quickly becomes winter, which is even crazy-er! Ian started working at a new store this week, which is sure to bring lots of new experiences, swimmings starts, i'm still doing the whole retail Columbia Sportswear thaaang. It's busy, its fun, but at the end of the day, we're thankful we get time off to play in the great state of Oregon!

August twenty whaaat????

2008-08-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure about you but we can't believe its nearing the end of August! Where did the month go??

Its been pretty busy for us! My family came out the beginning of the month and stayed at Eagle Crest. We all went golfing one afternoon. I think my dad won the whole game, but I beat Ian, and lets be honest, thats the most important part :)

My aunt and uncle and cousins were all there too! It was some good quailiy TAPP time ( Trussell Anderson Poindexter Parker!) We laughed a lot, drank a bit, smoked things that are only legal, and we went white water rafting! (we uh, TAPPed the river, yeaaaaa...

The Stitt family was camping at Lake Billy Chinook, so we went out for a visit! Played in the kayak, rented a ski boat, and had dinner with them one evening. That was so much fun to play with them for a day!
We love those Stitts!

And I have spent lots 'o time on the pool deck! Which I just love! These are some pictures from the swim meet we host here in Bend, the Bend Open! My little kiddos swam so well. I just love watching them swim fast, and fall in love with the sport.

And as of 5:00pm Friday August 22 we are officially on VACATION! We won't be back at work until the first of September. We're not sure where we are headed yet, but its sure to be an adventure!

This is love.

2008-08-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Did you see this moment?

This young man is making history, and Ian and i have been up every night this week past midnight to watch it all. and I'll be honest, we don't usually stay up late!!! But its so worth it.

the mens 4 x 100 relay? There really are no words. I just love watching Jason Lezak pour his guts out in the pool, swimming the fastest split in history.

And last night? the mens 100 Fly? Let me tell you something that finish we will be studying for a while! As a coach i'm telling my little swimmers all the time "don't take an extra stroke for your finish!" and guess what? Phelps took an extra stroke, and it won him the gold! and not just a gold, but # 7 gold, for the most, EVER! I loved watching that moment.

can we talk about the fact that his goggles were leaking?

The man is UNBELIEVABLE .

1 Year ago

2008-07-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

We were getting married! Crazy how time moves so fast!

Central Oregon has a secret!

2008-07-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Its true, last weekend Ian and I discovered Central Oregon's Best Kept Secret - and boy, are we glad we did!!

Ian and I have lived in Bend for almost two years now, and we feel like we have barley scratched the surface of things to do in Central Oregon - there are so many beautiful places to explore! So with two days off, we decided to explore a place we've only read about in books....Paulina Lake. We've had friends tell us about it, and read about what a great place it is to spend a weekend! So we figured with lots to do, only 30 min away, we were ready for a fun-filled weekend of camping! Unfortunately Ian worked until 11PM on Friday night, which means we didn't leave Bend until Saturday morning.

Now, camping at Paulina, there are no reservations - its all first come first serve.

Have you ever looked for a camp spot on a SATURDAY in July?? if you haven't, one thing to keep in mind - its busy - (this thought didn't exactly cross our mind until we arrived) and the camp sites were full - FULL i tell you! We drove through one loop - no site - twooo loops - totally full - three loops - no place to lie a tent! What a bummer, we were loosing hope, and getting really bummed, until we reached the last camp ground on the furthest away lake (east lake) and RIGHT when we pulled in, campsite #33 was free and clear of any peeps! It was the perfect site. ahhh ....a place to lie our tent! (and our bikes, and our kayak...)
Once we unloaded our stuff, claimed #33 as ours for the next 24 hours, we decided to hike up to Paulina Peek! It was a tough hike! Straight up, but the views at the top were breathtaking!

There is a gravel road you can DRIVE up to catch the view - buttt we didn't drive, oh no no, we hiked. And it was rad. The view from Paulina Peek they say is the best in Central Oregon. On a clear day you can see mountain peeks from all over the state! On this Saturday you could kind of see Mt. Bachelor, and make out a few of the Sisters, but all the smoke from the Northern Cali fires have been smokin' us in! So the view wasn't as good as it could be, but its better than the view of our TV, eh?? :)
There really is no better way to celebrate a few hour hike, than with a trip in the o'll kayak to cool down, relax, and swim swim swim! We're getting much better at paddling together, and looove playing in the kayak!

We made some dinner, watched the sunset, played in some hot springs && cuddled by a cozy camp fire!

It was a well needed, perfect weekend together!

Bend Summers.

2008-07-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

Last summer was busy. Really busy. We were traveling over the hill at least once a month, we were planning a wedding, getting married, on a honeymoon. All the while still working, coaching, rafting....It was busy. So we kept saying "oh next summer...." Yeah. Next summer our butts! We're working like crazy, but not to worry, we're still getting some play time in! And thought we'd share what July 2008 has been like!

We found our selves with an afternoon free - in such a rare moment we descied to hop in the jeep and drive up Cascade Lakes Highway! The drive itself is stunning, but we stopped off at Devils Lake and did a little hiking.

It is such a beautiful lake! Sometime soon we want to take the kayak to explore, but this afternoon was just hiking.

We love that 20 min from our house we get to be in such a beautiful place!

A snowman in July - who would have thought?? There is still some snow up there though! We're in sandals and sunglasses building a little snowman. We love Oregon!

It's Baseball season so we've gone to a couple games to watch the good o'll Bend Elks! Its pretty funny.

The sprinklers came on right before the game and flooded third base! So here are all the guys fixing the flood.

And here we are in the stands! It wasn't cold, I'm not sure why I'm wearing my hood! Sometimes i just like to i guess!! :) We love living a block from the stadium. Baseball nights are fun!

We went to a wedding at Willamette Valley Vineyards! Kelly McGranahan and Mark Bretl tied the knot on a beautiful Sunday afternoon!

Here are wedding Bells Ringing!

And here we are enjoying some yummy vino!

And the stunning vineyard! Cant pass up a photo opt!!

We've had some family staying in Central Oregon this past week, my aunt and uncle in Sun River and my parents here in Bend! So we've had some good dinner, some good beer, and some good laughs! We're looking forward to some camping, some rafting, and an anniversary still left this month! Woo-Hoo!

Much love to you all! -

SoCal Wedding!

2008-06-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Ian and i were in San Diego this last weekend for our dear friends Linda and Travis' wedding! Linda and Travis live here in Bend, Ian worked with Linda at Starbucks, and she is my very best friend here in Bend! She started dating Travis, and Ian and Travis became quick friends, and over the past year we've shared lots and lots of fun memories with them. We wouldn't have missed their wedding for the world!

This is us at 6am on the plane! This is our "we're so excited to get out of town" face! We were rockin' out to some rad air plane tunes, takin' pictures, and the lady next to us...not so impressed.

We got to San Diego at noon, on Saturday Linda and Travis picked us up at the Air Port, and we drove to beautiful La Jolla and ate at the Hard Rock - Yum!

Here they are the happy couple!

The wedding was on the roof of a hotel in La Jolla over looking the beach, and part of the 'wedding package' was a bridal suite where all the bridesmaids stayed the night before the wedding. This was our view from our room.

Ian was a groomsman and i was a bridesmaid, here we are in our get-up on the roof of the hotel! Their colors were yellow, with green as the accent color, true Oregonians at heart! (GO DUCKS!)

We had our own table, it was awesome!

Ian & Trav before the wedding, getting ready in the hall - silly boys! Ian was the only one around who knew how to tie a tie! I guess being in Choir in High School payed off!!

And here we are the beautiful bride and I (she is absolutely fabulous! )

This was my favorite picture of Ian and i from the weekend!

All'n' All the wedding was beautiful the recption was so much fun, Ian sang a beautiful song called Ocean by Ten Shekel Shirt, and we were home by Monday at noon so Ian could work! It was busy, it was hot, and it was so much fun! Linda and Travis - WE LOVE YOU!

Oh one more thing, our friends from here in Bend Gary and Courtney were the photographers, and they are STUNNING pictures, you should check them out. Garys' website is www.garyachristenson.com SERIOUSLY check them out they are amazing!!

Today was a good Thursday.

2008-06-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

We've been in the market for a new car. We weren't looking too seriously, but our goal was to have a new car by the end of summer. For a few reasons, first: we would really like to be a one car family. Two cars isn't really necessary for us, we're both with in walking distance from work, and, well, we don't NEED two cars. & Second: the poor o'll beretta was in bad shape. She became a town car, it wasn't really safe to take her over the hill anymore, she was in need of about $800 worth of work, and instead of putting cash into our old beat up car, it was time to get a new one! Oh, and Third: after knowing my husband now for three years, he was FINALLY willing to get rid of his, ahem, stupid wrangler!

We had a few non negotiable items while car shopping.
# 1 under $10,000.
#2 Under 50,000 Miles
#3 we wanted to be able to live out of it, like sleep in it, and camp out of it.
and
#4 Ian wanted to be able to "haul stuff", (Like what kind of stuff i ask...like - JET SKIIS - ) he tells me. hah. He's a dreamer! But honestly he does have a trailer to haul around town...

So we found this beauty! she is a 2001, was in our price range, had 41,000 miles on her, the seats fold down, we can sleep in the back, AND haul stuff around! It was such a great deal, exactly what we were looking for (ian loves himself a jeep, that was the icing on the cake for him!)

So this morning we said good bye to the wrangler ( i did the freaking happy dance to say goodbye!) && we traded in the silly silly wrangler for a real car!

a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee 6 cylinder (for those of you that know about that stuff) with only 40,000 miles! That was our Thursday, how was yours??

We heart Bend

2008-06-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

Ian and i have been riding our bikes as much as we can! We've been riding to work, and to run errands, and today we rode our bikes to church! It takes extra time, but we figure there are lots of positives to riding bikes, like saving money (can we talk about how silly gas is!) its better for the environment,&& its better for US!

Today on our way home after church we stopped downtown for some yummy Pizza - its five bucks for pizza, pop and a salad! Its one of our favorite cheap little places here in town, then we went to the concert in the park. Every Sunday at the Les Schwab Amphitheater there is a free concert in the park! So we took the bikes, sat in the sun and listened to some reagge music.

The amphitheater is right on the river, and about a 5 min bike ride from our house, I'm pretty sure Sundays in the park will be a regular thing for us!!

Just thought i'd share...

2008-06-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

This is my wonderful husband on the guitar and our friend Travis on the Djimbe last month at church for the offertory song.....i'm quite fond of it, and thought i'd share it with ya'll!!

YouTube - Special Music: Ian Anderson April 2008

On another music note we were just at this AMAZING reggae concert tonight. Paul Wright and his band called Root Down. They are from Eugene, but play in Bend a lot && they put on this AWESOME concert for our little church peeps, and i can't tell you how fun it was. We just danced and danced all night! woo!

We're going to see them Wednesday at McMenamins we'll have to take some pics to share!!

2008-06-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

It has been so long since we've blogged. YIKES! We kinda had a rough month or so, we had to get rid of our sweet, sweet dog Cooper. And i think in all honestly at the time it didn't feel like something worth blogging about.

We were heart broken, but he got in a little accident and bit someone - which is a no no. But we were absolutely crushed. CRUSHED. After weighing all our options we had to get rid of him (well that and our leasing and management peeps wouldn't let us keep him!)

& the Humane Society would haaaaaaaave to put him down :( BOOO!!! (which made us so much more sad!) We couldn't imagine having to put him down.

But there is some good news!

#1 I have the best parents in the whole wide world, and they were willing to keep him until we could find somewhere for him to be.

#2 we found a rescue in Portland (a no- kill rescue) that was able to keep him. And help him find his new "forever home"......We're just happy he is alive!

Cooper is such a loving, sweet, fun dog, that we know he is going to be perfect for a new family.

So we're going to try and get back into this whole blogging thing. Sorry we left ya high & dry for a while! But we're back.

PS - BEND IS SO COLD RIGHT NOW. its like 57 every day. and cloudy. and cold. and the top is off the pool (because every other year in the middle of june it is SUMMER) So i'm coaching freezing 8 year olds every evening in the cold. ugh.

PSS- Dear summer, when will you come?

The never ending winter...

2008-04-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

Its snowing right now. Its April 19th...and we have snow.

&& Can you believe they want our studs taken off??? iiii don't think so! We're driving over the pass in a week, and there will surely be snow. (& surely be studs on my car!)

Its officially the never ending winter in Central Oregon.

Spring Update

2008-03-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

Wow! Time has really flown by, and its spring time! Can you believe it? You can't believe it here in Bend, because we have snow on the ground currently! And its bitter cold out side. But really, we're okay with it. Freshies in March is nothing to complain about when we spent a pretty penny to snowboard all winter! (&& Spring!!)

So we thought we would update you with what we have been up to lately! First i must say we are having SO MUCH FUN with our new dog Cooper! He is amazing. I have never really been a 'dog person' i've always enjoyed animals, but not a person that just loves dogs. Ian is a dog person. If we're out walking and a dog is out, he would want to stop and pet it, and play. Which is nice and all, but i've never been that person, had that desire. I must say, i love Cooper more than I ever thought possible!

How can you not love that face??

He loves the snow more than just about anything. So we took him Cross Country Skiing at this snow park here in Bend that was made for dogs (like Super Cooper!) that love snow! It's an off leash snow park!
It was a really fun afternoon! and we went on a warm beautiful day! Neither one of us has Cross Country Skied in YEARS, but it was a really fun adventure! And Cooper was the happiest Pup this side of the Cascades!

We took a week off for Spring Break, and went to the Anderson Island House. My grandparents own this cute little house on a cute little Island in the Puget Sound. Its really peaceful, and relaxing and fun.

Here we are: the Anderson's on Anderson Island!

We took full advantage of the BBQ at the house. We enjoyed some fantastic dinners at the house, watched movies, cable TV, read some books. And my wonderful parents let us bring their Wii, so we played tons of bowling (for the record i have the highest score. 190 baby!)

Look at those sweet skills.

We went on lots of walks, a little hike, a few runs, played with Cooper lots. We spent one day in the big city of Seattle! The highlight was shopping at REI! We spent the better 1/2 of two hours there. It was amazing.

REI Seattle. The Mother Ship.

But all'n'all.....we don't miss the Big City. Not one bit. I don't miss the traffic. Waiting in traffic. So many stinkin' cars! Feeling like you're risking your life every time you change lanes. It was Awful. (we don't drive over 45 really, in Bend!) The trash. Everywhere. The feeling that everyone is in a hurry. Not to mention people just everywhere. We spent a few hours in Seattle, and as we left we uttered a quiet prayer that went like this: "thank you God, for Bend Oregon."

Our time on Anderson Island was well needed! I had one (yes, one) weekend off between November and March. We were so busy with swim meets, and if it wasn't swimming, we were traveling for holidays, or weddings, and if we weren't traveling, we had people visiting. All of these things are wonderful, and we wouldn't change it for the world. But after an entire winter jam-packed full of stuff six quiet, peaceful days on Anderson Island were well needed!

Now we're back in Bend, I got a new part-time job at the Columbia Outlet. Swimming for the Bend Swim Club starts tomorrow. ( i started exactly one year ago with them, i can not even believe its gone by so fast!) Ian has some really cool stuff going on at Starbucks, he's actually creating his own position. Basically fixing stuff. He couldn't keep his hands off the equipment, so they are giving him an opportunity to do his own thing. Its really exciting!

Ian's parents were out for a visit, and they brought a drum set for the house! Ian is playing drums more and more at church, so now he can practice at home. And he's giving me a few lessons :)

We're enjoying spring, looking forward to summer, and thankful for winter. Hope this unusually cool spring finds you well.

Saturday Morning

2008-03-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

This is how Saturday Morning went down in the Anderson House:

7:45am - Ian up

7:50am - Kendra rolls out of bed and walks into the computer room Where Ian is. There is no greeting, no 'good morning' not a 'how did you sleep' Her first question is:

"how much snow did the mountain get?"

Ian - "Twelve inches"

-They stared at each other, knowing what the other was thinking -

It's March 29th and there is a foot of brand new snow.

We're going.

8:15am We quickly loaded up the Jeep, grabbed cold pizza to eat on the way up the mountain

9:10am There's an SUV that has spun out on the side of the road thats stuck in a snowbank. (a tourist, no doubt) We stop, and Ian hooks up the jeep to the SUV and pulls them out.

10:15: oh, we're shredding the nar. It was Top 5 one of the best days ever. When the powder is that amazing, its like a spiritual experience. Our boards were just surfing through this amazing white ball of fluff.

- I think we got five amazing runs in -

And all of this before noon. Why you ask?

Because Ian had to be at work by 12:15.

Gosh, we love Central Oregon.

Fab Feb!

2008-02-18T10:38:00.001-08:00

A quick update from our life here in Bend! Swim season wrapped up in a whirl wind of two weeks, with districts here in Bend, and State the weekend after at Mt. Hood Community College.

I survived the two weeks with my friend and head coach Elizabeth by my side, and lots of coffee!
We had 14 kids make it to state which is more than double from last year, and our kids walked away with some hardware! They were pretty thrilled. No one thought we would even make it to the state meet, let alone place! (the girls here got 4th in their 200 free relay) You can tell, they were pretty happy!
And we got a dog! For Valentines Day (well the day before) But he is the best dog in the whole wide world! His name is Cooper, we got him from the Humane Society. He is two years old, (which means he is potty trained!!) He is a boarder collie lab mix, and he is so so sooo smart! He loves to play fetch, and we're teaching him how to play Frisbee. Its really fun to have the best dog in the whole wide world live in your house :) Not to mention the cutest!!!Things are going well, the sun is shining and the snow is melting here in Bend! hope you're having a FABULOUS February!

Nathaniel and Danielle

2008-02-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we drove to Salem for Nathan and Dani's wedding! Ian and i loaded up the jeep with flares, MRE's, chains, and just about anything you could need if you were stuck in a snow storm!!!

But in the end we didn't even go over the pass. Its been so sketchy, and last week it was closed two or three times, and they've had avalanches, and horrible wrecks, we descided it wasn't worth going over the mountain, but missing the wedding wasn't an option. So we went HWY 97 to 84 and went through the George. It was beautiful, a little wet, took exactly 5 hours, and we were as safe as can be! We figured, in all honestly going over the pass could have turned into a 5 hour drive, so we went the safest route we could.

It was well worth the 5 hour drive to see our wonderful friends tie the knot!

I've been friends with Nathan since i was 15! Thats a long time ago, and Dani is perfect for him. Not only is she beautiful, but, smart, witty, funny, and they are so in love! We are so happy to have such great friends to walk through this exciting, fun, part of life with.

Congratulations you two!!

Holy Snow!

2008-01-31T13:28:00.000-08:00

This is how much snow we've has the last 12 hours! Its been crazy! Ian and i have been trading off who gets to shovel the drive way and sidewalk everyday. Its a lot of work! and our $10 shovel from target i think makes it even more difficult! You can see when its Ian's turn he likes to play more than shovel.

The big news here in bend thats buzzing around is that there is no dough to plow the snow! Winters here have been pretty mild the last few years so they cut the budget back more then 1/2 for this winter, but after the first snow fall in Jan they have used 60% of the budget to plow snow - Yikes! - Which means roads aren't exactly easy to be driving around on, and it also means school was cancelled for the kiddos today. Which is great for them but bad for teachers as it IS finals week. And its also bad for swimming since we only have six practices left!

But we're staying warm :)

Is it 2008 Yet?

2008-01-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

Those of you who have seen me drive around town know i have a bumper sticker on my car that says "is it 2008 yet?" I got it after bush got re-elected and it felt like the longest 4 years of my life were ahead of me.

And this afternoon as i was peeling the old sticker off my car, it felt exciting, refreshing, because it is 2008!! Change is on its way, thank goodness.

Now i want one that says January 20, 2009.

Anybody know what day that is???

Mountain

2008-01-18T14:04:00.001-08:00

We had one of the best days on Mt. Bachelor this week! -- It was BEAUTIFUL! Great snow, beautiful weather, and even better company :) We really enjoy snowboarding together in the middle of the week!

We look like Mountain Hard Wear reps in this pic - sportin' our rad jackets on this beautiful Wednesday afternoon! It feels like spring boarding in the middle of Jan! Though we're not complaining.

We hope all our friends and families are enjoying the winter months as much as we are here in Bend!

Our First House.

2007-12-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

We're renting a house on the South East side of Bend and we spent the last day moving. My wonderful, amazing, incredible, lovely, parents bared the big snowy mountain, drove their truck over and helped us haul all our crap (excuse me..) stuff from our two bed room apartment (which we out grew 5 months ago) We couldn't have picked a better time to move (hear the sarcasm) it was snowing! The entire time! so we had a big o'll blue tarp, and a big o'll white truck and after many'a trips across town we are finally all moved in. Not unpacked, but moved in.

Despite moving (i hate moving) the end result is quite wonderful.

Our top five favorite things about the new casa: (in no particular order....)

#5. We can do laundry AT OUR HOUSE. No longer do we have to haul our laundry around town.
#4.We have a wood stove! we can build a little cozy fire, and heat our house for wayyyy cheaper!
#3.We have a garage! Ian now has a work bench, and a place to put tools we can put all our wet boarding gear there, park the jeep. store crap. We love the garage.
#2.We're with in walking distance from the baseball stadium where the Bend Elks play. That means we are watching lots o' baseball this summer!
#1. We have a yard. A pretty big one, with a fence. We're hoping to get a dog in the next month!!

My Wonderful amazing parents also brought us a big TV which Ian would like on the top 5 list, but since i write the blog, i don't deem it worthy of top 5......but it is nice!

we're excited about our first (rental) house.

Our First Christmas

2007-12-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

We made the trek over the mountain for the Holiday, and it was really fun! We were able to see our great friends the Stitt's. You might recognize the silly little boys from our wedding, they were the ring bears. We drove to the beach to visit with them for a few hours, and the boys are not camera shy!

We were part of two gift exchanges, one with the Anderson side of the family, and we like to say we kinda got the shaft! We ended up with HAND SOAP, and Luke and Jess (our bro & sis in law) made out like bandits! We're taking lessons, and next year we will dominate that Anderson gift exchange. Muuuwahahahahha!

Though we are proud to say we did well at the Poindexter gift exchange, we walked away with a remote control helicopter (that Ian loves playing with) and dinner and a movie, not a bad date night! These gift exchanges are so stinking funny. We walked away and both agreed we hadn't laughed that hard in a while. Its so much more interactive, and exciting, than the regular "i bought seventeen matching pencils one for each of you" we love being able to sit around with our family and chat and laugh, and still get a cool present!

We took our cousin picture by the fireplace (as we always do) , but this year wearing our matching AI sweatshirts! My grandma is so funny and gets us matching shirts every year, this year they were worthy enough to have the picture taken in! AI for those of you who might not know is Anderson Island - the Island the family has a little cabin on.

The drive back to Bend over the pass was like driving in a snow globe!! But we were in the four wheel drive studded jeep with a very safe driver (my wonderful husband) and made it safe and sound in about three hours, not bad.

Christmas 2007 was fantastic, we love our funny little families!

Snow

2007-12-17T12:54:00.001-08:00

I (kendra) was in the valley all weekend for a swim meet in Portland and it rained all weekend. Now i was in the pool most of the time, but before the meet, after, while we were driving there was just rain, rain rain. and i got to thinking, what can you do in the rain?

well, drive. But running in the rain sucks, camping and rain don't belong in the same sentence, do you go rain hiking? now that sounds awful. And i can't think of anything fun to do in the rain. Like "hooray its RAINING, lets go........." (walk in the rain?) ew.

But the snow, which we have falling here in Bend, there is lots to do in the snow! When it snows it opens up opportunities for fun things like snowboarding or skiing, and if you don't like the mountain there is cross country skiing, and hiking in the snow has its own name and its called snow shoeing, which is amazing! You can go snow camping which is exciting, and sledding, and even build a snowman. The snow means adventure! the snow is fun and exciting!

Rain is so dreary, so depressing, gosh after two whole days i was ready for to come back to Bend. The rain can be loud and obnoxious, and wet, and dark and sad and boring.

But when it snows theres a level of excitement, and at the same time the snow is peaceful, soothing. It falls silently and beautifully. When snow falls its mysterious, and here in central Oregon our snow isn't very wet which is nice, you can walk in the snow and before you enter your home you just stand outside and brush it all off

I don't know about ya'll that live in the valley, maybe the rain has some element of excitement, but I'm pretty sure Ian and i won't be back any time soon. We're happy in the snow!

Mt. Bachelor

2007-12-04T11:02:00.001-08:00

The mountain is open! Mt. Bachelor opened on Thanksgiving day, and Ian and I are taking full advantage of playing in the snow. I am just learning how to snowboard, and Ian has been a fantastic teacher. I do believe i married the most patient man in the world. And because of his fantastic teaching skills I'm really picking it up! We are having so much fun together, and we're able to have quite a few laughs at my boarding skills.

We're getting more and more snow, which means more lifts are opening! And i'm getting better which means we don't have to spend all our time on the bunny hill! woooohooo!!

High School swimming is in full swing! And i must say its going really well. The kids are eager to learn, and are passionate about the sport, and really they just want to swim fast! Its nice to coach motivated kids. We had our first meet in good o'll Pendleton last weekend. I spent lots of hours on a big yellow school bus with thirty kids, which means lots of laughing. I would never tell them this: but they are funny! The kids dropped so much time from last season, and at our first meet! That means they are only going to get faster.

This next weekend we are on our way to North Bend for another HS swim meet, and Ian is our chaperon! We will let you know how it goes :)

We're enjoying winter in Bend!

Road Trip!

2007-11-21T11:26:00.001-08:00

A few weekends ago we went to Chehalis Washington to visit our good friends the Cummings, and their new baby Will! Will was baptized on All Saints Day so Ian and i drove up for the occasion. It was a really fun weekend and so great to spend time with old friends.

The Cummings girls have been such a big part of my life growing up, and now they are beautiful, funny, young LADIES. No more little girls. Its so fun to have watched them grow up, and get to know who they are now. Stacey and Brian (their mom and dad) are such a big part of who i am today, and have been so encouraging and loving over the years, it was so fun to watch them parent a baby again :)

We hung out at their new AMAZING house, played some intense rounds of bachie ball (the girls LOVED playing with Ian), went out for lunch, held the new baby laughed a lot. It was a great weekend! We are lucky to have such wonderful friends up north!

Unspeakable

2007-11-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Ian and i have found an amazing church here in Bend called Antioch. and for the last three weeks our pastor has been talking about human rights. and it has rocked our world.

ROCKED IT.

Read the book Unspeakable. Its by Raymond Bechard. It will ruin your life. But make you so aware of things we just don't talk about.

Do you realize we have more slaves TODAY than any other time in history? We have 27 Million.

and you do know that Sex Trafficking is the #1 Crime in the world. These women, little girls, are being tricked into, and sold into sex trafficking.

18,000 - 20,000 people are trafficked into the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA every year. This is happening in our own backyard.

The #1 crime IN THE WORLD.

And Antioch is talking about it, and not only are they talking about it, they are finding ways to get involved.

and i would like YOU to please check out this website for ransom wear. (Ransomwear.org) Its an organization here in Bend helping women in Nepal. This organization will buy women out of brothels and give them jobs. They knit, and crochet, and make hats, scarves, gloves, purses that are sold here. And the money goes to the girls so they can have a life with OUT being a sex slave. It goes to counseling for the girls who have lived in brothels, it goes to people patrolling the boarders who are literary stopping and arresting men who are crossing the boarder with these women.

Please check it out look around, Christmas is around the corner, think about buying someone a gift that will also give. Freedom never felt so good.

And if your interested in hearing what Ken has been talking about, Antioch podcasts all the sermons and songs on ITunes, just look up: Antioch Bend Oregon and listen to the Human Rights. Its worth it, i promise! Put it on your Ipod, or burn it on a CD, but the preaching is unbelievable, and it will rock YOUR world!

a little side note: Ducks are still top ten in the nation. We're hanging on!

:)

Livin' the Dream

2007-10-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

Ian and I have been really busy lately.

And we're not stressed-out busy, just there is constantly something going on, every night of the week we have plans, there is work, and High School swimming starts in like three weeks, and we've just been going through the motions of life. But last night we were able to pause for one second and realized we doing EXACTLY what we have always wanted. And we're so happy.

Let me expand on that.

First off: I love my job. I am absolutely 100 % in love with it. I love the kids i work with, the guys i coach with, the parents on the team. I enjoy watching the kids fall in love with swimming, and watching them improve, and swim fast. I love that i work for the Bend Swim Club.

Ian is really enjoying Starbucks. He's learning so many new things about being a manager and being a part of a successful, big company. (the good the bad and the ugly of it all!) And the great thing about Starbucks is that he's interacting with people all day long, people from our church, kids from young life, families from my swim team. Plus Starbucks enables him to do all the other fun things on this list of life. :) Thanks Starbucks!!

I love that Ian and i are leading Young Life. I've dreamed of doing youth ministry with my husband, and thats exactly what we're doing! He plays guitar every week, i act like a big dork in front of kids every week, we're starting Young Life at a school that needs jesus so bad its silly! It is so exciting to watch God work in that school, and in our own lives. And its so nice to be doing ministry with my husband. The team of people we're leading with are amazing! Besides having club every Monday night, we meet on Friday mornings for coffee and devotions, and hang out time. Its rad.

And have i mention we love our church? Its called Antioch, and its amazing! we're involved in this bible study called the Realm that meets once a week and Ian often times leads worship (its amazing by the way) I'm working with the children's ministry a few Sunday's a month, and we are involved in this awesome community of people that we fellowship with all week long. People that desire to live an authentic life, and are trying to figure out what it means to walk with Jesus everyday.

annnnd we have amazing friends! Its that simple. we're surrounded by people that we just enjoy doing life with. drinking coffee, playing games, riding bikes drinking beer(soooon, very soon we will be ..) snowboarding all together. Good quality, authentic, fun people.

Plus its Bend, which means we get to see beautiful mountains everyday! Who can argue with that?

Who knows where we will be in a year? two years? for the moment we are just right smack in the middle of where God wants us, and its an amazing, exciting feeling. I think too often we get bogged down with the mundane routine of life, but when we are able to pause, and take a look around, we feel pretty stinking happy.

Sunday afternoon

2007-10-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after church, and lunch with some friends, we decided to take a drive up cascade lakes highway and go for a little hike. We ended up going to Todd lake and hiking through the snow. Which i (kendra) wasn't totally thrilled about, but we had a really fun afternoon! The higher we went the more and more snow we found and at one point we made a pretty rad snowman! It was great to get out before winter hits too hard and we can't drive up cascade lakes anymore!

Swimming and Starbucks are going fantastic! High School season starts in one month and i can hardly believe it! We're crossing our fingers for Halloween Snowboarding on Bachelor this year - wouldn't that be awesome? We're loving life in Bend.

WHC!

2007-09-28T14:02:00.001-07:00

So we spent last weekend at Wild Horse Canyon - the Young Life camp! We were there for a leaders weekend, and spent our time going to seminars about how to be a leader, and what Young Life is about, and we got to play, play, play! Kelly Allison and I (we are three of the four girl leaders at Summit) we got to play on this big swing, and on the zip line, and the high dive at the pool, it was so fun getting to know the girls more, and spending time with them. They are really awesome!

Its so refreshing to be part of a ministry (again!) about loving people. Young Life is really that simple. All about building relationships with kids, and loving them. We are really enjoying our selves, and God is working in big ways at Summit!

Sometimes i just stand in awe, God has a sense of Humor, let me tell you!! To think 3 years ago i was in the inner-city, SW Philly, on South Alden street, starting out my year of building relationships, and loving people, and now here i am in the west side of bend doing the exact same thing! what a drastic change, talk about a total opposite, completely different setting! You can't get more opposite than SW Philly and the West Side of Bend. But the intention is the same. To be loving people. People on the West Side of Bend need to be loved just as much as the people in SW Philly.

We'll keep you updated on Summit Young Life. We just officially got a place to start meeting, and God is just opening so many doors and presenting us with some fun, exciting (random!) opportunities!

It's Official!

2007-09-21T15:46:00.001-07:00

We are season pass holders to Mt. Bachelor! Ian had the day off today and we went to the Mt. Bachelor office and got our season passes - and you know what that means? ...Fun adventures this winter!

We are officially young adults for one more year! This year we got the 18-23 year old pass, next year we'll get the spouse pass :)

Its 80 degrees today but we're looking forward to the snow!!!!!!!!!

Wedding Pictures!

2007-09-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Summer Summer tiiime!

2007-09-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

We thought we would start keeping a blog for those of you we aren't in touch with tooo very often! This might be a fun way to let our family and friends know what we've been up to :)

So we are newlyweds! We got married July 28th, 2007 in Salem, and the wedding was absolutely fantastic! We had so much fun, laughed all day day, and really enjoyed seeing family and friends we haven't seen in so long. We just feel so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing people. Our friends and family worked so hard to make the day flawless - and it was a perfect day! The weather was beautiful, the ceremony was simple and elegant, and the reception was fun! we danced and ate some good Mexican food and feasted on some yummy cake. We had our honeymoon on a Cruise to Mexico and are now back in Bend!

After the wedding Ian started his new position at Starbucks as an assistant manager, and i got back to the swim team just in time for the Bend Open (which is the biggest meet we host all summer!) after the Bend Open the team took a three week break so i headed out to Maupin for some fun in-the sun-rafting! (and the extra cash wasn't a bad gig either!) Ian came out a few times with our new KAYAK (yes, we got a kayak for our wedding!) and we got to play play play! For my Birthday we went to the North Fork of the Santaiam with some friends, we swam, and hiked it was beautiful! We had a bbq in Salem with the fam and some good friends - it was nice to be in Salem not planning a wedding! we got back from camping and i left for SanDiego for a week for a swim coaching clinic. It was really awesome! i learned so much about the sport, and came home with so many new ideas for my group and lots of new ways to coach the kids. It was so encouraging and inspiring to be totally surrounded by people who do exactly what i do, with the same goals and mind set - it gave me a whole new passion for the sport.

Now life is getting a little more normal, the Bend Swim Club is back from the break so I'm coaching everyday which i fall in love more and more with. We are helping to start Young Life in the new-est high school here in Bend called Summit! Its a challenging and rewarding task - if you're the praying kind be praying we would be able to meet kids, and begin fruitful relationships with them! we're hoping to bring a handful of high school kids to fall camp at the end of October!! So far its looking very positive - we can't wait to get club started for the kids!