Thanksgiving 2009

This post is full of pictures and videos of the 'little ones' for family and friends living far far away from the Seattle area.

The first pic was taken while I was talking to my Dad on the phone on Thanksgiving. Wish he lived closer to the festivities so we could visit in person!




Father and son




Taking a family photo took us about 37 minutes! This was the best one!








My cheesy and very entertaining brother!!


Mother and daughter

The following are videos from our day. One is kind of long, but fun to watch because you can see how fast the kids are growing up.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Music!

The American Music Awards were on last night and this performance had me mesmerized! It made me want to move to New York City! The last part is the best, so watch it till the end!

and so it begins......

Yesterday I had my first trip to Mt. Hood and it was fantastic! So crazy to snowboard in tons of powder before Thanksgiving! I'm really hoping the snow keeps falling steadily for the next 4 months!

Here is a happy pic before hitting the slopes.
Baby and Moosedog hung out in the back of the truck for the day. Baby's face in this pic is hilarious because Moose is a big smelly dog and she was less than excited about how she spent her afternoon.

This was just before driving back to the city. We got some good runs it, but I'm sorry to say my body is not in snowboard shape! Time to get to it!

We went up again today, but had to turn around about 20  minutes from the mountain. The roads were so icy, accidents happening everywhere. The Mountain was also not open because they were on a 'wind standby'. You win some- you loose some I guess!

Now I'm packing and looking forward to a short work week before driving to Seattle to spend several days with the Fam and I AM EXCITED!!!!

our world

Wednesday night I saw Al Gore speak in Portland, Oregon. I went because I'm sick of ignoring this problem. I will be honest. I have been paying attention to the research, recycling religiously, acknowledging the changes in the ice caps and polar bears, but I haven't really done anything beyond that. I believe that I am my own worst enemy with changing my life as it relates to this problem and after listening to Vice President Al Gore speak about that topic, the problem really is a bunch of 'I's'. I have done what I thought I could do to minimize my impact on the human footprint, but really after listening to him, I have done NOTHING. I listened to him talk about how Americans are opposed to changing their ways and also about the problems with the slow legal system. It was all too reminiscent of the problems I face in community mental health and trying to help people with serious needs in our country, when most of us are living much more extravagantly then we need to. I know- it is everybody's own prerogative until they have a personal and direct connection to the issue at hand. To me it seems black and white, but I guess if everyone is not on the same page, it becomes a conflict. 

Al Gore's main message was not about becoming educated, or informed. It was about becoming active. Active in a way that will influence policy and help mandate some of these changes from the top down. I agree with him. People need to be told when to change, especially if they aren't changing on their own. Let's be honest, the changes that we need to make for global warming to slow or stop completely are very costly. I drive an old, inefficient Ford Explorer. I would like to drive a hybrid, but do not want a big car payment. He shared that only 12% of the energy potential of the gasoline was being used to power my car(due to the old technology behind gasoline engines). From that 12%, only .08 was being used to actually power my physical body. The ratio of what we are using in terms of pollutant increasing fossil fuels and what we actually need to travel is grossly unjustified and comes at a real cost to us and our future generations. I need to save to buy a hybrid or I need to find other ways to not hall around an extra 5,000 lbs when I feel like a slurpee. Geez? Maybe our obesity crisis will be influenced by finding other solutions?

Al Gore spoke with hope and I was really glad I had a chance to listen and make personal goals for myself. This is a crisis to me! I know this sounds egocentric and selfish, but the thought of my grandkids not being able to fly down the side of Mt. Hood on a board makes me feel very very sad. I LOVE SNOW and that personal connection is strong enough for me. 

What is your connection to this crisis? Do you like fresh air? Hours of safe sunlight on your skin? Your ocean front property? beautiful species of animals both on land and in the ocean? 

Please purchase a copy of his book entitled, Our Choice. Read it and find ways to inspire yourself and others around you. Al Gore finished by explaining that our country is really the last industrialized nation to get on board with being committed to finding solutions for this crisis. Most of Europe, Japan, India and China have already changed their policies and are devoting human energy and money to finding more efficient solutions to this problem. 

It is our turn now.

Isn't it fascinating how life really feels like a roller coaster? It seems like when you finally feel secure and comfortable with your situation, something happens to offset the balance and before you know it, you are back in an ever-changing environment. These feelings come from a positive place for me. I have blogged in the  past about my stagnant professional movement in this great city of Portland. Well recently, several positive job opportunities have come my way and I'm really not sure how to handle it. Before my energy was spent on remaining positive and having faith that something would come my way. Now I have just applied for a few positions and my energy is spent on, "if I get multiple offers.... how will I handle that?" and the timing issue? How much do you share with potential employers? It just baffles me how it is impossible to avoid anxious thoughts, even when positive opportunities are coming my way. Thankful is what I should be right now!

And for the record, I'm referring to multiple part-time opportunities... Nothing life changing at this point. I will keep you posted though.

It is all good really because it has forced me to step outside of myself for some peaceful solace and it is during those times when I remember my health, family and all that is good in my life! Life is too short to stress. I mean really, I have a seasons pass for Hood and the lifts opened last weekend? What could be better. As my wise cousin told me, "Enjoy this time, because you will have plenty of time in the future to be tied down". Thank you Alix for your direction. It has been more helpful than you know!

What in the sam hill is going on?

Why have I not been blogging regularly? It has been a very strange summer and fall season for me. My life has been filled with blogworthy events and thoughts(at least to me?), but I just have not had the discipline to write up anything! I know... if I'm using the word discipline to describe my experiences with blogging, maybe I should rethink this whole thing. But the truth is, I think everything I do consistently takes some amount of discipline. It also takes that, "I'm just going to post on this, I don't have time to make it perfect, I will just do the best I can". 

I have actually been thinking more about my blog and what it means to me from a philosophical standpoint. This sounds like a very strange thing to talk about, but I started my blog a few years ago when I was in a VERY bad place. I needed to prove to myself that my life was worthwhile and posting stuff gave me incentive to find new and fun things to do. I also started the blog because I wanted to become a better writer. I realize I have been in school for umpteen years, and that should make one more comfortable with their ability to write, but it didn't. In fact, it made me constantly compare, analyze and stress about a skill that there really wasn't time to nurture during grad school. There just wasn't time to become friends with my writing. There was time to become friends with scientific reporting and statistics. So, this blog has helped me to form a relationship with my creative writing side. 

So why have I stopped? I'm pretty sure the main reason is the lazy factor. Blogging is time consuming with no financial benefit and lately I have been trying to get my money stuff in order. The second reason is that I reached a place where I just didn't want to post to the world anymore. I post a lot of pictures on the page, and those pics pop up on google images a lot and whabammy... John in Florida, Jens in Norway, Ming in China, they can all be right there.... up in my business. I guess I just became overwhelmed by the accessibility of this information. For the most part, I think I'm over that- I think. The good news is that I do post with some discretion. I have had my few isolated events with posting about my humping neighbors, penis/vagina party, and a few comments here and there. That's the fun stuff to read anyways, right?

Well I think I'm ready for a comeback. I think I need a comeback. It is strange to say this, but posting on this blog also keeps me in check. I have been having so much fun this summer and fall, but haven't been accountable for a lot of my time. I have been looking back retrospectively and wondering why I haven't done more since I finished the last degree? So- back to the grind I go. 

Thanks to all of you who check this blog regularly, even after I dropped off the face of the earth. I'm going to get back at it.

Starting with this topic:       2012 the  movie.

Yep- I saw it last night. I wanted to see the special effects on the big screen and yes they were amazing! The movie was okay. It was of course very predictable, similar to the Deep Impact. I LOVE LOVE John Cusack, so that made the cheesy factor more bearable. If you are at all interested, I would suggest seeing it on the big screen. I was definitely hiding my eyes in anticipation throughout the movie. Strange how much I like that feeling of insecurity and blood-curdling fear!

Today is a 'to-do' list kind of day. I'm going to clean, launder, sell stuff on ebay, grocery shop, shower, apply for jobs, work on current projects, etc., etc., Et cetera. 

I'm in need of a VERY productive day. Finishing this posting is a great start too!

Happy Sunday All!