These Are The Days Of Our Lives...

Ok, so Dan insists that I update this thing before he gets flooded with angry fan mail (yeah, right). I will admit it has been a while since the last post though. Spring break has now come and gone. We headed up to Sun River with Teresa and a few friends for two nights. We hit the hot tub, drank Kirkland Signature beer (not bad considering how cheap it was), went on a bike ride, and Dan did some snowboarding. Unfortunately, the conditions on the mountain were pretty bad...until the day we left and it started snowing pretty hard. 

That was the first time that we'd left Juneau alone overnight and he definitely seemed to struggle with it. When we came home we smelled like dog (our friend Melissa was dog-sitting Dulce for the weekend and I played with her all day -fun!) and Juneau refused to come out from behind the washer for a while. Once we got him out he was ok so we suspect that he was worried there might be a canine around. The next few days we hung out at home and tried paying as much attention to him as we could. 

Our next voyage out during our break was a bit anti-climatic. We'd picked out a hike in our little trail book and drove an hour up the mountain to reach the trailhead. Unfortunately...it was snowed out. We ended up having to turn the car around before we were even two miles from the start of the trail. Crushed, we decided to stop at the reservoir for a quick picnic. It was FREEZING! It was probably better that we didn't go on the hike in the end...

Later in the week we headed up to Portland for the day. We headed up to Multnomah Falls and hiked to the top. The view from down below amazing, the view from the top was ok. The hike up was definitely fun even if the view was mediocre!  After Multnomah we stopped at Ikea on the way home to pick up a few things to help organize the house (you should see the difference in our laundry closet!) and headed out of town. Poor Dan had been struggling with a cold/flu and it was getting worse every day. 

Saturday we had a big day planned but ended up taking it easy since Dan was definitely having his worst day yet. We'd planned on going to a vineyard, catching dinner at a fancy restaurant (we got a $25 gift certificate for $3), then going to a production of The Producers at the Actor's Cabaret of Eugene. Instead, we just did the play. It was a GREAT production and we definitely want to go to some more shows there! 

Pictures will follow...

Bring On The Confetti!

Our Birthdays!

So we just celebrated our joint birthday last week. It was a great day! We were blessed with presents from family and friends and were able to spend the day together. I made a corned beef and vegetable dinner in the crock pot so we could play all day. We lounged around, watched Chuck and Dexter (our two current favorite shows), went on a bike ride along the river, had a great dinner. All in all, it was a fantastic day - even if I did end up crying first thing in the morning and during dinner. lol  Onions in the am and dinner...well, I made the mistake of trying to give Juneau a little corned beef as a treat. Since he believes EVERYTHING is a toy, he got excited and lunged for it. I ended up with a precise claw gouge deep in my thumb and another up and UNDER my fingernail. Owwwwwwwwww. ='( But he was so cute I couldn't be mad at him! Oh, and we decided to get a present for him too. He now has a little Oregon tag for his collar. He's so dashing with it on! Note the picture below. =)

We're heading out of town tomorrow to spend a few nights in Sun River with friends. Spring break, baby! We'll only be gone for a few nights. We haven't left Juneau alone yet so we wanted to ease him into it. He's such a needy kitty we're worried about how he's going to take it. I did get the rest of the spring break period off from work but am trying to pick up shifts now that we'll be around. For the days that I'm not working, we'll be off exploring Oregon. We've talked about going hiking, camping, checking out some of the waterfalls out here. Lol Maybe that book of NW Hiking Trails that I got Dan for Christmas will get some use!

There's not too much else in current news. We've hung out with more friends, I've chopped my hair off to shoulder length (pictures will be posted once we have some), we've gone on several bike rides, I'm officially re-applied to UO for the fall, Dan may have sold his car, AND he's gotten yet another bike which he loves a million times more. Oh, plus he's crashed again and re-injured his wrist as soon as it started to get better. He went to the health clinic on campus but their x-ray machine was broken so we still don't know if it's something too serious. He doesn't really want to go back and get it x-rayed but I still think he should. We'll see once the machine is fixed! Ummmm...that's it! 

It's Official!!

First thing is first! Dan was offered a job at the BRT (the educational research shop on UO's campus) next year making about 40G a year depending on how the funding is set up.  He'll get to work with people he admires in the realm of Educational Research (including Jerry Tindal) and the position is set up to turn into a GTF if/when he goes back for his Ph.D. Needless to say, it's a great opportunity and we're officially staying! We love Eugene, I'll be able to go to school, Dan will be making more money than he would in Utah, he'll get to work with amazing people, it all works out. =) Oh, and he may be able to start the position this summer while he takes his last class. Now we're just trying to figure out if we're going to stay in our current place or if we'll be able to track down a new home where we could get a dog. 

In other events/news, despite the fact that it is currently snaining, it's been feeling like summer out here! We've gone on a few bike rides recently - one just to the park and a long one down the river banks - and have even been reading on the porch and sipping the occasional smoothie. It's a bit strange...during the summer we were soaked to the bone and didn't really GET a summer, and now we're in the middle of winter and it's gorgeous out. Funny how it all works out. 

Our social lives are starting to get more active these days too. We went to Simmyung and Ester's house for dinner awhile back. It was delicious! We met up with some friends to celebrate Melissa's birthday and even went the next night to get a birthday Pizookie with Melissa and Will. Dan went and played Ping Pong with Andrew the other night while I caught a cheap movie. Oh, and Dan's finally found guys to play basketball with! 

Life is definitely great! And things are only looking up from here...