Update on Life

Honestly, I have worked. It just looks like from my blog that I have only gone on adventures and read. But not that we have internet at our house I can do more regular updates!

I have started to get into a routine, well as much of a routine the sports information world allows. During the fall I am the primary contact for men's and women's soccer and golf. It's an interesting schedule, I am not used to having games on Saturdays and Sundays. The conference Pacific plays in, the Northwest Conference (NWC), schedules conference games on Saturdays and Sundays and a very rare Wednesday. The Sundays really surprised me, I am was just used to having Sunday as a day off at Central and also being able to attend church. With games starting at noon there is no way I can get to church and back in time to get set-up!But I am figuring it all out slowly.

The first home match was about a week and a half ago, and it was the first full soccer match I have watched in my entire life. I know, how can I be the primary contact for the support, huh? Well I have learned a lot about it in the first month here. The women's soccer coaches, husband and wife duo, are the youngest people in the office besides me and have answered all the questions I have had about the game at this point. So I am finding the groove I need to write logically stories about the matches! All my stories can be viewed at http://www.goboxers.com/ Mine are all the soccer and golf, of course!

I also have had a chance to play a lot of volleyball. The head volleyball coach discovered I played for Central and asked if I could come in and play with them at practice. Well I couldn't refuse the chance to get on the court again. Pacific doesn't have JV programs, so coaches only have a varsity team to work with and have to make cuts. So to make sure they have enough to scrimmage I go in and play!

The one problem I have to adjust to is using a Mac computer. I have used purely Windows computers throughout college, so having to adjust to the Mac version of everything was slow at first but I am starting to get it down.

At Pacific I am only suppose to be working 26 hours a week, because of how they have my pay allocated....I am yet to keep my hours under 26 since I started. But with all the sports starting it is hard to keep it under, if something needs to be done I need to get it done. However, with only working 26 hours I figured I would try to find a minimal part-time job on the side. After a bit of searching I came up with a landscape company in Forest Grove that was looking for a someone to do marketing and web updating for them. I contacted them and now I am working about 10 hours a week there. I figured it would be nice to get a bit more marketing experience and improve the skills I already have.

The first problem I ran into with my car after it trekked all the way out here was a low coolant light coming on. Well, I should say a light coming on because I had to look it up in the owner's manual to figure out what it meant. I really was dreading going to a mechanic here, especially if it was something simple. So I called up Mark, my mechanic at home, and he walked me through it and I did it myself. I felt so accomplished.

The next problem came during the Iowa State vs. Iowa game. Our cable and internet hadn't arrived yet, and I was decked out in layers of ISU. (Because I have been told Oregon doesn't have seasons, it has layers...just add or subtract!) Well I thought of going to Buffalo Wild Wings, but had to no desire to sit there that long and probably have to fight to have a game of Iowa teams on. So I used our 'stolen' internet and loaded the live stats, it looked like a bunch of foos ball men moving around. Unfortunately, things did not go ISU's way and it was a disappointment, but I still wore my layers proudly!

Sunday, Chantel and I tried yet another church (there were no home games!) in Hillsboro. It was an incredibly small church, smaller than my church at home! And was definitely geared towards families with young kids, so not quite what we were looking for. On the way home I saw a sign for a garage sale, and since we still didn't have furniture, we detoured. It ended up being a great detour! We got a couch and a loveseat for $50....in a lovely floral print. But the problem we had was getting it across town. So something in me, made me walk around the neighborhood and whenever I saw a truck in the driveway I knocked and asked if they would help. At about the 5th door I found someone willing to help us out! I honestly still can't believe I went door-to-door asking for a truck driver...a year or 2 ago you couldn't have paid me enough to do that!

Lastly, I wish I could be at home to see some of my siblings sporting events. Daniel is in his last jr. high season of cross country and has made solid improvement over last year. Leah is wearing my #3 this year for the Bearcats. I know they aren't having the most outstanding year, but they are young with no seniors on their team. I am very hopeful that they will improve this year and next year will be a great year for them. If any of you get a chance, please go watch them for me!

Next time I promise to keep this shorter, but I had a lot to fill you in on!

Recipe: Fudge Puddles

Instead of a weekend of adventures, we stayed in and baked and cooked full meals. And by full I mean they also had dessert. The recipes we used were out of a recipe book Natalie's sisters had put together for her. The fudge puddles were so good I must share. They are very similar to peanut butter cup cookies, but the fudge is so enjoyable with ice cream.

Ingredients:For cookie part:1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fudge:1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir together flour, baking soda & salt. Cream butter, peanut butter, white & brown sugars. Mix in egg and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Stir the flour mixture into creamed mixture. Shape the dough into 48 balls, 1 inch each. Place in mini muffin tin (only about half way up).

Bake dough for 12 to 14 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven & immediately make wells in center of each with a small spoon. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Then carefully remove to wire racks. Fill each shell with chocolate fudge mixture.

For filling, put chocolate chips in a pan and heat on low until the chocolate melts & thins out. Stir in milk & vanilla as heating, mix well.

***You can also use a large muffin tin, but it will make less and it is almost too much to eat at once! We did some of each and added Tillamook ice cream, it was great!

Book Review: The Wedding

Yep, I have finished another book. It would seem from my postings that all I do is go on adventures and read.....not a bad life huh? The Wedding is the first Nicholas Sparks book I have read in over a year. It is also one that got thrown into my stuff in my rush to pack, because Jodee so graciously helped me pack and was in charge of books. So I finally read it and it was great, because it was less predictable than the last one I read. I didn't suspect the surprise that happens in the last 10 pages. So I highly suggest you don't give up on it before you get there...and DO NOT read ahead either!

This book is the follow-up to The Notebook, however after seeing the movie a thousand times in my life I decided not to read it before. I also hate the differences between movies and books and chose not to put myself through the stress of the differences. Noah is still alive in this book and has almost reached the age of 90, while still doing well for his age he is slowing down. One thing that stuck with me was everytime Wilson, his son-in-law, visited him he asked, "You doing okay?" Noah always responded with "Could be better, Could be worse, though, too."

I found that little saying so true. We get ourselves to a point in our lives where we think nothing else can go wrong because it's already so bad. But is it really? Your view on life is a mindset, you have to see it through a positive lens! Choose to see the good and not dwell on the bad! As I ran through the streets of Forest Grove I thought about this saying quite a bit today and decided, Life is truely what you make it, sure it could always get worse, but you're alive and free, why complain?

Adventure: Into the Wilderness

After a long first week of classes for my roommates we wanted to do something that got our minds off of class and work for me. Friday was Chantel’s birthday so we let her decide what the weekend would look like.

Camping in Ecola State Park

Camping. This is what Chantel elected to do. She has containers of her camping gear in the garage and has camped literally around the world. So she found a hiker’s camp in the forest at Ecola that was free, besides the camp parking fee. Friday after work and classes we packed up her jeep and off we went.

As we left it was sunny and nice and we were hopeful, however after we crossed the coastal range fog and clouds rolled in killing our chance of watching the sun set over the ocean! But we still held high spirits, after a short stop in Cannon Beach we decided to just go to the camp area and hang out. By the time we made it to the park and got our parking passes it was starting to get dark and we still had to hike a mile to the camp area. We quickly gathered the essentials needed at the campsite and started our hike up.

Now this up was actually kind of miserable and hysterical. We had limited light, but that wasn’t the problem. After walking for about 10 minutes it started to rain and the hill seemed to get steeper and not to mention we had no idea how far we had gone. But we trudged on. Eventually, we found the camp area because others who had made it up there in light had a fire going and had claimed all the bunks that were available. So we had to scope out a flat place to put up the tent, a tent for 2 people. Meaning someone had to sleep outside, Chantel was excited for this until about 2 a.m. when the rain became harder and into her face.

We all survived the night, but the next morning none of us were well rested, but we got to enjoy our breakfast overlooking the ocean and listening to sea lions. Then it we took a different trail along the ocean and back to the beach, where we enjoyed sitting on a overlook and watching the early morning surfers. After sitting for a while we climbed through the rocks on the beach to get a tide pool and found crabs and starfish and over sea creatures.

Tourist Towns

Our plan to hike a mountain fell through after our long hike in the dark and rain the day before. But we decided to hit up the tourist towns along Highway 101. First it was Seaside, we found the beach and walked barefoot enjoying the warmth of the sand. Then we made a pit stop that ended up being much longer than planned at an outlet mall in Seaside, but I must say we walked away with amazing deals!

After the long pit stop we cancelled the continuance north on 101, due exhaustion starting to set in. We drove south on 101 and enjoyed random overlooks into the ocean and stopped once because we spotted blackberries in the ditch. When we finally made it to Tillamook, I had to sit in McDonalds because it was the only source of wireless internet and write a game story while Chantel and Natalie toured the Tillamook cheese factory. When I finished I joined them at the factory for cheese samples and dinner. After dinner we had to have Tillamook ice cream and let me say it was amazing. My sticky bun ice cream tasted like a fresh sticky bun. After all that we felt overly full and incredibly tired. Bed time came about 10 for me, because I had to be at a game on Sunday morning…

Hiking to Elowah Falls
Labor Day I went hiking with my uncle Doug. He had taken my parents when they were out here, but I sadly missed it because I had to work. On our drive to Columbia gorge we took a scenic byway instead of the interstate. I love just driving through the tunnels of trees, it’s beautiful. We stopped at Crown Point overlook into the Columbia River Gorge and then continued on. As we drove there are many places to pull off and hike and many different waterfalls you can see on these hikes. We even passed right next Multnomah Falls, which was incredibly busy. So that will have to be for a different day. When we finally made it we hiked to Elowah falls and then just sat and enjoyed the calmness of the area.

After our hike we headed to over the Bridge of the Gods to Washington, where we went to Skamania Lodge. The Lodge is back off the main route and surrounded by trees and has an amazing view into the gorge. It has a patio and chairs that are set-up just to let you sit, so we did for a while before having dinner on the patio.

Book Review: The Coast Road

Another Barbara Delinsky book has hit my hands. When my mom and I were wandering downtown Forest Grove we discovered an antique store that also sells used books. So I got one, as did both my parents.

This book is set in the northern coast area of California. The main character Rachel has been divorced from Jack, a workaholic, for about 6 years and been living with her 2 daughters, Sam and Hope, in the canons of Big Sur. In a hurried night she is hit from behind while driving and pushed into a valley off the highway. Upon being rescued she is still alive and put into intensive care with a severely broken leg and in a coma. Not knowing who else to call a friend calls Jack. He is finds it necessary to drive the 3 hours to be at the hospital with Rachel and support his daughters. The next part of the story continues with Jack taking care of his daughters and spending his time at the hospital. He puts off work for weeks and starts to see the things he was missing in life and quits his firm in order to make a change and put his family first.

While at times the story is predictable it does have a good point. Enjoy life; don’t just get wrapped up in working and making a living. If all you worry about is measuring your success in money you have failed. There is so much around to appreciate and it’s important that you do just that. Find time for your family and those important to you.

Adventure: Roadtrip to Seattle

Safeco Field

In thinking out loud I mentioned I would like to see the Twins play in Seattle while I was living in Oregon. So Chantel pulled up the schedule and they just happened to be playing there the next weekend. The tickets on the Mariners website were a bit more than we were willing to pay so I looked them up on StubHub and found them as low as $4.85. But needing a group of 5 we had to settle for the $8.99 plus a transaction fee and online printing fee. So all and all we paid $11 apiece to sit in the centerfield bleachers, which I must say were not bad seats!

We then took our roadtrip, Chantel and 2 friends from North Dakota, Natalie and me. It was a pretty easy 3 hour drive to Safeco, finding parking also was not bad and only cost $5. The game itself was a bit boring due to lack of hits, but the Twins won 1-0, so I was happy!

Seattle Space Needle
With the opportunity of being in Seattle we couldn’t pass up the chance to visit the Space Needle. We found parking a ways from the Needle and walked through a park with a large amount of green space and a cool fountain. Then around the children’s science center and finally found the Needle. While none of us felt the need to go up, it was neat seeing the site in person.

Pikes Place Pier
Again another opportunity presented itself while we were driving through Seattle and that was to visit Pikes Place Market and Pier. The market was an open air market, with fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers and of course fish. The fish part wasn’t too appealing to me, but it’s popular there and we stopped at the original market place.
After walking around the market we continued walking down on the pier and had to stop for seafood. I must say I was a bit apprehensive about eat any seafood, but tried baby shrimp. I can’t say I was amazed, but it was edible.

Church Round 2

That Sunday we tried another church, this time in Tigard. Which is even further than eastern Hillsboro! The church was huge and chaotic! We went into the sanctuary and there were no seats left and I feel like no ushers present either. So we continued on to their ‘viewing room’ which is a live TV broadcast of their sermon. Not a fan of the unorganized control of the church members or having to watch it on a TV. It made the shorter ‘long’ drive to the Hillsboro church more appealing for the smaller church size. We will have to try out another, but Westport in Hillsboro is looking good. This church however had a picnic after church and I got to have a salmon burger and this I can say I was impressed by!

Adventure: Into the City

The first weekend of living in our new house lead to an adventure into the city.

Portland Saturday Market

This was an adventure day sparked by Chantel, because of the plans of having to meet with some relatives for supper. So we headed downtown Portland. After circling several blocks we found some street parking. We then walked along the river observing the view and the different people along the route. Then we stumbled across the Saturday Market, I guess it was kind of hard to miss.

There were tents of vendors. We walked through it all looking at random items and the different kinds of foods that were served. We then continued on and walked around Pioneer Square and through stores on our way back to the parking spot. Along the way we found an area with neat little waterfall fountains, where the photographers in us all took over and we took pictures and just enjoyed sitting for a while.

Rose Garden
After the stop downtown we decided to visit the rose garden. It was incredibly busy, finding parking was very stressing. Once we found a spot and made our way to the garden we discovered about three wedding parties have pictures taken in various parts of the garden as we wandered. Chantel and her friend Jess were all about getting pictures, but having been there once before I just walked and enjoyed the view and took in the scene. I find it calming to just sit in an area with green plants and observe and think.

Finding a Church

We tried a church in eastern Hillsboro on Sunday. I enjoyed it and the sermon hit an important point. ‘Families are imperfect, but they are families.’ We need to love our families because they are what God gave us. He loves us despite our imperfections and sins. We should be able to do that with our family, nothing should create a wound so deep it cannot be forgiven or worked out.The downside of this church was the distances was a bit long, especially once the soccer season starts and I have to cover games on Sundays. It will make getting there and back before the games start impossible. So we will be trying a couple more and maybe hitting this one when possible.