Going to market to buy a fat pig...

We have been trying to eat fewer store-bought, refined foods with lots of chemicals in them. Not to any great extreme however. I refuse to give up Umpqua ice cream or diet coke so I know I will never be one of those who grows everything myself. I just want to think about what goes in my mouth first. So, if I decide that yes, I really do feel like I'll should take some Yellow #5 into my system today because it comes in the ice cream I'm craving, so be it. At least I know. I HAVE moved over to making all my own bread. It tastes far better anyway. I stick to store flour, not organic and I don't think we will ever grind our own. If we have 10 or so kids then maybe. Anyway, the point here is that we have a friend that raises pigs. We bought a half and are going to the butcher today to determine how we want it cut. We've never done this before with a pig. It seems to be a good thing to get closer to our food than a package on the shelf, to recognize the sacrifice of an animal life to feed us. Hopefully it will help us be more aware of what and how we eat.
I should probably get it tested for MRSA too, eh? Which reminds me of another story about Mad Cow and giving blood. I'll have to put that one up sometime.

old pictures

I've been going through pictures on my moms computer of the last five years. It's amazing how many more pictures people take with digital than with film. My mom takes thousands of pictures. Other than being very overwhelming to sort through it is a great thing to go back and remember all these events I had forgotten. I'll put up a few good ones.

So, after getting really busy last year and not posting anything for months, I managed to delete our internet program. Well, not exactly but it stopped working. Long story. The impact was to no longer have access to saved bookmarks and passwords which, in relation to this blog, meant an even greater excuse not to write (because it would take SO much more time to figure them out). Lame, yes. But it doesn't really fit with our lifestyle anyway. We were attempting to find a way to communicate with family and friends all that is going on in our lives. The problem is that we don't have that many amazing things going on and little time to come up with witty or deep things to say. We discovered an amazingly great thing...FACEBOOK fits perfectly! Short, to the point, wide variety of people to reconnect with, and you can say a lot or nothing. Not much self expression. Perfect for us. That means I have more time for other creative activities, like gardening, and writing papers, and remodeling a home. Since the last post we gutted our bathroom (yes, our only one. We made frequent trips to my parents!) I finished my second year in the counseling program. This fall we decided that instead of finishing the program by doing an internship that we would wait until next fall (09) and move to portland. Joe will finish his masters and I will finish mine. Then, who knows where we will go. It's been a bit stressful to think of moving, getting internships and school set up and applying for scholarships along with the usual daily activities.
So there's an update for the last year. Join us on facebook or check every few months and you might find something. Maybe a random surprise note!

Do you want some ketchup or mustard with that?

We had some interesting visitors tonight. One was a 2 and a half foot tall monkey holding a pumpkin. We had an few angels, a butterfly, pirates, some nondescript gargoyle-ish creatures, and a member of the star wars groupies with a really cool light saber that made crashing noises when it hit things. About 9pm, way too late for little kids to be out, we got a knock at our door. Opening it up we found ketchup, mustard, and a pregnant nun (escorted by two others...apparently not well enough, considering the nun). Puma wasn't too sure what to think of them either!
Don't you all have a calculus test tomorrow????

New Arbor

It's difficult to find time to finish projects when the list is really long of items demanding attention but we finally finished putting in an arbor in our front yard. It's holding a Jasmine plant. Originally the plant was under the window but I had misread the growth rate (20 feet not 20 inches...oops!) so we needed to move it. People who know things about plants roll their eyes and smile when they here I thought the Jasmine was going to be small but the picture did make it look that way and I don't know much about plants. Learning by trial and error I guess. Anyway, now it's found a new home and can grow as big as it wants.

Toketee Falls

Weekend Adventure

Saturday a good friend from grad school drove ALL THE WAY DOWN to visit and go to Crater Lake. I think it's one of the most beautiful places in the world. We were going to hike down to the water but it decided to snow the day before and we weren't prepared for to hike in it. We still enjoyed the view. It was rather weird going from the Burg in the valley where summer is just ending, to the surrounding mountains in full autumn color, to winter white, and back again all in one day. I live in an amazing place! Here are a few pictures of our trip, including a waterfall we stopped at along the way. Apparently there is also a hot spring near this waterfall but we couldn't find it.

By the way: Crater Lake is one of the clearest and deepest lakes in the world. On clear summer days when the sun is directly overhead the blueness of the water takes my breath away. There's no way to describe how incredible it is.

Last Flowers of the Season

I planted some bulbs my mom gave me and look what came up recently! I love the beautiful surprises. Rather than just enjoy this flower falling over in the corner of my yard I thought I'd bring it inside. It makes me feel like summer is still here for a bit longer. Our two year old cat Puma likes it too...

Too much temptation

Our Cat

There is a reason that I can't have flowers in my house. Well, I can, just in very limited places. Okay, one place: Over the fireplace. It's the one place the cat cant get to where I can still display flowers. We have also given up on Christmas trees, real or fake. Puma either eats the tree or the lights. Either way it's a bad thing. Visions of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation dance through my head everytime I think of it. So, to accomodate a cat, we won't have Santa leaving presents under the tree as a tradition. Probably a good thing since it's all a big lie anyway.