
Sunday, December 26, 2010
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

Friday, December 10, 2010
Go Grandma Go!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Check and Mate
Another quick story I thought many would appreciate. I came home from a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving (thanks to all who made it so special :) ) to find more snow than I could shake a stick at. I parked two blocks away and trudged through about a foot and a half of snow (the sidewalk was nonexistant and snow plows filled them anyway), in some areas 3 foot snow banks, with the huge bags of goodies and provisions my mom sent me off with. After falling multiple times into the snow along the way with my comically oversized luggage, I finally made it inside. And promptly realized that my pants zipper was not only down, but flayed open. I thought I'd noticed a draft... at least it was dark when I got home, I'm pretty sure I was a walking sideshow. Best part?! It gets better and better! We got probably a foot and a half continuously throughout the day yesterday and the prospects only look whiter. Imagine me, the most balanced and coordinated person this side of the Mississippi *insert sarcastic tone here* trying to walk down my killer 55 degree driveway to get to a sidewalkless street of cars going 45mph around a slight corner before my house. It's awesome.
Oh, and I got my visa for my trip to Kazakhstan while I was home! Oh the joy! Tis beautiful, and I'm now in the process of applying for a train ticket to Almaty and finding housing there. We were suggested a little B&B called "So Young's Happiness Guesthouse"... looking into it though, kind of sounds like... well, let your imagine roam free.
Alrightyroo, gotta jet to do SOMETHING for this research paper... oh, and exam this afternoon. Been working hard to finish the year strong with homework and have also been spending numerous hours preparing for choir tour, can't wait to get the ball rolling! Hope you're all safe and enjoying this holly jolly holiday season. Love you all like you wouldn't believe :)
Peace and love,
Chels
Friday, November 19, 2010
Computer Fail
Good news! Seevers has a room!!! We have a dining room and a whole mess of other house issues (plumbing, locks, name it... probably got it), but I feel so much better knowing that she has her own space... it wasn't a good situation. She's graduated to the garage, score! It's kind of interesting right now at the house, a little up in the air, because Steph graduates at the end of the semester and is now probably going home. She has guaranteed work there... I don't see her half as much as I used to, it's a little sad, but I don't want to see her leave! It's really getting to her, she doesn't know what to do, so I would appreciate good juju vibes being sent her way. Again, thanks for that!

Friday, October 8, 2010
жизнь чудесна

Thursday, September 9, 2010
The Beginning of the End
Monday, August 16, 2010
Coming out from under my rock...
Please don't mind the dishes drying on the rack or soaking in the sink... I just wanted to give you a picture of how it will likely (hopefully) look like throughout the year. Having no dishes at all would be unrealistic and downright dishonest! It was quite the road to get all the bills transferred and names changed and such, but I washed my hands of the old place and am starting anew! To celebrate, when Steph came back into town, we held a barbeque for our friends and second family. There were about 15 of us, it was great! The badminton net was up, the tiny football barbeque was... well, useless until Tarig, the father of my Sudanese kids, came over. Fire + inexperienced barbequer = flipping burgers on the stove. Anyway, we all had a blast. I did take one picture though with my camera. Asim, the 5-year-old, apparently starved himself all day, telling his parents "I don't want to eat yet, I'm having barbeque at Chels and Steph's". So by the time we finally got food warmish, Asim asked for this impressive masterpiece.

Oh yes, the boy I've never seen finish a piece of chicken asked for a double decker cheeseburger. After eating half, he put it in a ziploc baggy and put it in the fridge as a snack for the ride home :)
This past Tuesday (or a week from today if you will), it was Richard's friend Alice's birthday so a small group of us went to Silverwood Theme Park. It was so fun! I had never been so it was great to finally trek over and try it out. There were many memorable moments, including the accidental hour-long detour around Hayden Lake (fun fact: it's a pretty large lake), being spit on by kids while riding the ferris wheel at sunset, helping Richard overcome his fear of rollercoasters (slightly), and trying to skillfully and discretely pick my atomic wedgie in front of the whole group after going down the super duper cool waterslide. It was great, I could go there every day! Except I will admit, after about 7 minutes I wanted to kick/punch/slap each and every speaker in the park that was playing nonstop kiddo banjo music... I can still kind of hear it now... anyway, here's a picture of Richard and I on our Silverwood day of fun! Kinda goofy (on his part... but I'll get him someday):
I haven't figured out how to turn it, so... sorry! Enjoy :)
This past weekend I took a roadtrip with my friend Kendel to Shelton (the parents' cabin), Portland, and Eugene (didn't actually happen, we were going to visit the University of Oregon but decided to wait for when class was in session... I'm looking there for grad school, they have the 4th best program for Masters in Education in the US so it's worth a look!). It was phenomenal to see my wonderful family as well as an old friend (Shoes, or Emily as she was called at birth, goes to Portland State University), but fairly self explanatory so I'll just show a few pictures:
The stunning sunset at the lake cabin :)
My niece is b-e-a-UTiful, she's so perfect! And she's getting SO big...
An example of the beautiful driving weather we had for our nomadic weekend.
I've still got quite a few things to plug away at until the summer is over (school starts September 8th... I think...), so I've been keeping nice and busy in my off time! But don't worry, I play plenty too :) I hope this finds you well, please keep me posted on what's going on with y'all, and have no fear I will not go this long again without blogging :)
Peace out, rainbow trouts
Chels