As usual we have been busy! Joe and I are often looking for ways to slow down and really need to get better at that. However, I'm learning that we really like to do things which has the natural side effect of making us busy people.
Because we have so much to catch up on, I'll break them down into June and Julyand post in stages
June:
In June I took the Oregon Educators Licensure Assessment (ORELA). Why you ask? Well, I've discovered that sitting behind a computer is not my cup of tea. Unfortunately, my exercise psych degree is a bit ahead of its time so I really could only work behind a computer or behind a computer with a phone headset on (ick). To address the sitation, I made a list of everything I wanted and, lo and behold, going back to school was the one thing that kept me from having it all. I am now planning to go to WOU to get my teaching license. I'll start in January 2010 and finish in June of 2011. The ORELA wasn't much fun, but I got my scores recently and I rocked it!
The weekend after the ORELA, we headed back to Eugene to celebrate my dad. He made a lovely habliut dinner for Joe, Grandma, Grandpa and me. Unfortunately, Sue had to take her dad to the hospital (he's recovering!) so they couldn't be there. It was still a nice afternoon with good company.
The next weekend, (see what I mean about busy?) we met Virginia and Margaret at Detroit Lake to kayak and canoe out to Piety Island. Last summer we all paddled around Waldo Lake. Joe and I weren't able to camp that time, but we vowed to do it again. Virginia and Marg are such good company. When we got to the island, we had to first find the perfect campsite. Virginia is very particular and would inspect an infinite number of sites to find the best. I don't go to quite the extreme she does, but I certainly play into it. Joe and Marg followed us and piped up with an opinion when we asked, but I think they would have been happy with just about any site. After we set up camp, we went for a hike and then a swim. While we were hiking small animals raided our breakfast, so, after our swim, we paddled over to the nearest marina to buy some oats. The wind was horrendous. We'd paddle and paddle, but didn't really advance. We finally made it back over the choppy water. After all that work we were ready for V & M's amazing dinner of fresh figs with balsamic vinegar and blue cheese and pasta carbonara. We felt a bit bad that our gormet oats had met their demise and that we only served them quaker oatmeal. I guess we brought lunch too...Still, I felt inadequate. I should get used to it though because Virginia's dad is the ultimate camping gormet chef and she clearly takes after him.
That night our campsite was raided by horrendous monsters that looked a lot like deer and didn't do any harm. To make a long story short, deer sound a lot like people tromping through the bushes, Joe is brave and will shine a flashlight at anything without a plan of attack to see what it is, and I'm more inclined to ensure that I can get a firm grip on a paddle and surprise whatever evil lurks so I can beat the crap out of it if necesssary. But then, I'm often over-prepared.
We got up that morning, broke camp and scurried off to rehearsal (for Marg) and pictures (for Joe and me).
Yup! We didn't just camp that weekend; we came home, cleaned up, and headed out to O & L Nofziger Gardens, where we got married, to have our pictures taken. We figure we look a whole lot better than we did when we got married and we should have some updated pictures. Blue Castle Photography did an amazing job and we had a great time with them. We both expected it to be awkward, but it was so much fun and you can tell from the photos.
