The Selanders

You should know

2012-01-20T19:59:00.000-08:00

This...

was confirmed by this!

My apologies...

2011-11-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

...to Ducks fans. I went to my first ever game and fear I cursed them causing them to break their 21 home game winning streak and dashing any hope of the BCS Championships.

But, I still had a great time (until they lost). I went with my friend from work Sheryl and had an awesome time. We tailgated before the game, eating lots of great food; we then walked around the stadium and saw the Heisman Trophy in person.

We had great seats and yelled a lot.

See how close the on field camera was?

Captain

2011-11-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

Today was Ben's promotion ceremony to Captain. I got to pin (it's called pinning but I'm not actually pinning him, it's velcro) him. I asked Ben's dad Mike to take pictures during the ceremony. All the pictures turned out blurry and Ben's eyes are closed in most of them.
*Note to self, don't ask Mike to take pictures again. :-)

Please note I took this picture so it is not blurry like the rest (and everyone's eyes are open)

Congratulations Captain Selander!

Summer

2011-07-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

My Grandma

2011-07-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

Lucy Louise Bax

March 18, 1943 -July 13, 2011

As powerful as words can be, there really are no words to adequately express the measure of a person’s life, or what they meant to us. Lucy Bax was my grandma and being the oldest grandchild I was able to have her as my grandma for 26 years. It’s hard to think that there will not be any new memories with her created, but I will forever cherish the memories I have.

First Peter 4:9 says “Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” She followed this instruction well. As her grandchild I knew I was always welcome in her home and she made me feel so loved while I was there. Even though grandpa has diabetes she still kept sweet treats in the house for us kids to eat by hiding them in the closet so grandpa wouldn’t eat any.

My grandma’s mom passed when I was 10 years old leaving her grandchild Tina, who was my age, without a grandma. I remember Tina telling me she would just call Aunt Lucy grandma because it would be easier. I think she wanted to call Lucy grandma because everyone wanted her to be their grandma; she was that great of a grandma.

When she began her photography business she would let me and my sisters come with her to her shows. I learned some very valuable business lessons during that time. I remember one show she told my sister and me that for every $100 worth of pictures she sold, we would get $1. To a 10 year old, this was a great deal. So we worked all day trying to sell her pictures. In the end, she sold over $1000 (which I think at the time was the best she’d ever done) and we got $10. It. was. awesome.

Grandma was the oldest child and definitely took on the role of the typical oldest. She was the planner of the family. She would plan all of our family camping trips. I remember during those camping trips she would bring a big poster with intricate designs on it for the grandkids to color. She always had the coolest markers and would let us stay in her trailer while coloring; which was always such a treat.

When I turned 16 they took a friend and me on a cruise to Mexico. Can you imagine how brave they were to take 2 16 year old, boy crazy, girls on a cruise to Mexico? But my grandma planned everything and we had such a wonderful trip.

In college I was contemplating applying to a program that would allow me to study abroad in Spain but I was afraid to go. Grandma told me she’d lived most of her life letting fear dictate what she did and she finally decided she didn’t care about what other people thought and she didn’t want me to let fear dictate my life. Because of her, I applied and went, and was forever instilled with the same love for travel that my grandma had. In fact, while in Spain my grandparents were in Europe also and we met in Rome for a few days. Traveling with them was so much fun –even if I did have to sleep on the floor of the bed and breakfast.

It’s difficult to say good bye to the grandma I loved so much, but God was ready for her and who am I to argue. Thank you God for the time I did get to spend with her. She was a very special woman and we were all lucky to have known her.

The Netherlands

2011-07-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

People have asked which was my favorite country to visit and I’ve responded Scotland, but as I prepared to post the blog on Holland I realized how many pictures I wanted to show because I have the fondest memories in Holland. However, the memories aren’t of the beautiful, old buildings, the canals or the cheese stores (which were all great), it’s the memories we made with my family while we were there.

My grandparents were the reason for our trip to Holland in the first place. This September will be their 50th wedding anniversary and since they both immigrated from Holland, they thought it would be fun to celebrate over there with relatives that still live there.
So we flew into Amsterdam and stayed a night in our hostel in the Red Light District.
We did see all the typical things you'd expect to see in Amsterdam; canals,

wooden shoes,

Open air markets,

where we bought stroopwafel made right in front of us (so good!!!)

cheese stores where you can sample all different kinds of cheese (also so good),

and parking lots just for bikes. Our canal tour informed us that the canals are 1/3 water, 1/3 dirt, and 1/3 bike.
Amsterdam needs the bike parking lots because there are so many people in the city and there isn't room for everyone to drive cars. Guess that's why some choose to drive a car like this:
This is Dam Square. See how many people there are?
And of course we enjoyed gebakjes (dutch pastries).
After time in Amsterdam we got our own little car,
packed all our things in it,and drove to these cabins on a working dairy farm to stay with my family. My grandma found these cabins and reserved them for us. They were absolutely adorable!

There were 14 of us from the States that came to stay in 3 cabins on this farm in Woubrugge. Here's everybody: my aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunt and uncle, sister and grandpa. Unfortunately despite all her planning my grandma wasn't able to make the trip. She was missed horribly.

This is the dining room. See those doors?

That is where Ben and I slept.

One night we invited friends and relatives still living in Holland to come to the farm for a visit. Here is a group picture of everyone who was able to make it. It was fun to meet relatives I'd never seen before (or at least remembered seeing them before).

Also at the cabins were row boats.

We all took turns rowing.
The first day at the cabins we went to a little town named Leiden. My grandpa was kind enough to take us to a pannenkoekenhuis. This is where they serve "pancakes" bigger than your face. I had ham, cheese and mushrooms on mine. I couldn't finish it it was so big -but delicious!
The next day my aunts and uncles wanted to go to Amsterdam but since we'd just been there we got to spend a day with my grandpa. He took us to Scheveningen to this little restaurant on the beach. Here is my grandpa being responsible and protecting his head from the sun since he forgot his hat.
And Ben enjoying his long island ice tea.
Brittany found this good looking Dutchman.
After Scheveningen my grandpa thought it would be a good idea to see the Parliament building in Den Haag. He gave me a map of the COUNTRY and told him to navigate to the building in the CITY. (By the way, this is not possible). Instead we drove around for about 4 hours in circles -never to find the elusive Parliament building. We did however make a wrong turn into a parking garage and had to pay to get out of the stupid thing. Ben and Brittany in the backseat thought this whole adventure was quite hilarious.
The next day all 14 of us went to Delft. This was perhaps my favorite city in Holland. It was so quaint and welcoming. Ben and I climbed to the top of this church (375 steps),
and saw this view.
Another example of the canals in Holland.
Delft is where they make Delft's Blue so we went to the factory to see how it's made.
Everything is hand painted. The paint goes on black and when it's fired it comes out blue.
The other thing people think of when thinking of Holland is windmills so we were to Kinderdijk where they have lots of those.

And there's our 3 week trip in 3 blog posts. We really did have such a great time!

Scotland

2011-07-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

I know the anticipation has been killing everyone so without further delay here is our time in Scotland:

We flew into Edinburgh
and were completely overwhelmed with the amount of old, well preserved buildings in such a concentrated area.
Since Scotland is part of the UK there were still cool telephone booths like this one:

One of the major attractions in Edinburgh is the Edinburgh Castle which sits atop a hill over looking the entire city.

We wanted to stay out late one night to get a picture of it at dark all lit up, but this was taken at midnight and it still wasn't dark. We were too tired to stay out later so this as close to it being lit up as we got.

A view from the castle:

Scotland is famous for deep fried candy bars. Here is one of the deep fried Snickers we enjoyed.

And what trip isn't complete without an old man sleeping on a bench? So cute.

Next we took the bus to St. Andrews. Here is what remains of the cathedral.

St. Andrews Castle.

Some may know St. Andrews because that is where Prince William and Kate went to school, but to others, St. Andrews is known because it is considered to be where golf originated from. The Old Course has hosted the British Open more than any other golf course in the world. The bridge Ben is standing on is the "famous" Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole of the Old Course. Many famous golfers have walked on this bridge.“I’d like to see the fairways more narrow. Then everybody would have to play from the rough, not just me.” Seve Ballestero

From St. Andrews we took a bus to Stirling for the day. Stirling has two main attractions; Stirling Castle and the William Wallace Monument.

Unfortunately these 2 attractions are about 2.5 miles apart. See? There is the William Wallace Monument as viewed from the castle:

But we walked all the way! For those who love history (my husband), this is Stirling Bridge where William Wallace won the battle against the British saving Scotland. If you want more details, watch Braveheart; Mel Gibbson is William Wallace in that movie.

After Stirling we went to Glasgow. This city was in stark contrast to Edinburgh. Edinburgh had charm and history, Glasgow had people.

It did have this cool building in George Square.

And this Cathedral.

And this arch as an entry into a really nice city park:

This is Glasgow University. Could you imagine if this was your school? How cool!

You can't tell in this picture but we are actually sitting in a cemetery leaning up against a monument to somebody. It just felt so good to sit.

One more country to go...

Where to start?

2011-07-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Ben and I just got back from a 3week trip to Europe and came back with over 1400 pictures. Since no one in their right mind wants to look at that many pictures we've been trying to cut them down, but it takes so long to go through that many pictures.

So I've been trying to figure out how to present the pictures and our trip on my blog; first I thought I'll do a day by day blog for the next 21 days representing each day of the trip and showing pictures from each day. Then I realized there was no way I wanted to commit to 21 consecutive days blogging. Then I thought I could do a blog post per city we visited. But then I realized that was 15+ cities and again I didn't want to do that much. So then I decided I would do 3 blog posts -1 for each country we visited. However, that means I have to cut a lot of pictures out in a mild attempt to make the posts not too long.

With all that said, the first country we visited was Ireland. We flew into Dublin, stayed there for 3 nights and then spent the next several days traveling and staying in Cork, Galway, and Blarney.

We stayed in hostels while we were in Ireland which means we were staying in a room with anywhere from 4-10 people per room. This is our hostel in Dublin.

Here Ben and I are in front of Dublin Castle.

Right next to the castle were these buildings painted cool colors. I have no idea what the buildings are used for but I liked the way they looked. This is St Patrick's Cathedral. Since we were still on West Coast time we woke up really early the first day which allowed this picture without people in it since normal people were still sleeping at that time.

My sister Brittany also came on the trip with us. We saw a postcard in Dublin that had doors on it, because there are a lot of cool doors in Dublin so Brittany and I started taking pictures of the cool doors we saw with the intent to scrapbook a page of just doors from our trip. Here we got 3 cool doors in 1 picture.

And of course a trip to Dublin isn't complete without a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. Here we are in the tasting room. Don't tell but I thought the beer was gross. It was cool to take the tour because at the end of the tour you go into a bar that is about 10 stories high with windows that provide a 360 degree view of the city.

Another church in Dublin with beautiful landscaping.

After a few days in Dublin we took a bus to Cork. This is the church we found there.

A cool door we found in Cork.

From Cork we took a bus to Blarney to see the Blarney Castle and LOOK at the Blarney stone. I know you're supposed to kiss it but after being warned by a friend of all the germs on the stone I figured I'm already chatty enough and didn't need to be endowed with the gift of gab from the stone as legend states.
The view from the top of the castle.

Ireland reminded me a lot of Oregon with its hilly green view. This is a view from within the castle.

Our next stop was Galway where Ben found this cool hat in one of the souvenir shops. As you may have guessed by our coats and beanies it was quite cold in Ireland but mostly dry.

In Galway we took a bus tour through the Burren and onto the Cliffs of Moher. These rocks mark the grave of 30+ people who, according to our bus driver, were determined to have died from arthritis (I think that's what he said -given his Irish accent he was a little difficult to understand). However, that same bus driver also told us we would never meet a bus driver who wasn't crazy. The roads are so narrow and we commented on how impressed we were with his driving skills. He bragged that he hadn't lost a side view mirror yet -but he'd only been on the job for 2 months!

The Cliffs of Moher:

From Galway we took a bus ride back to Dublin and flew out of Dublin to Scotland. Our adventure (we stopped calling our trip a vacation about 3 days into the trip when we realized how much walking we were doing and how exhausted we were at the end of the day. We figure by the end of the trip we likely walked over 60 miles!) through Scotland blog post will be coming soon...

Five years

2011-05-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Five years ago today Ben and I married. To celebrate he took me to Portland City Grill for dinner and Gerry Frank's Konditorei for dessert. It seems like the five years have flown by and I feel so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man.

I was going to put up pictures of our wedding day but those are all tucked away in an album safely secured so I figured instead I would post pictures of the trip when Ben proposed.

I was studying abroad in Spain and Ben was at Fort Leonardwood, MO at basic training. When he completed basic I bought him a ticket so he could come visit me.

December 4, 2005 in Sevilla, Spain. This is the exact spot where Ben asked me to be his wife. It overlooks the gardens of the royal grounds.
Ben loves this picture of us on a bench in Sevilla enjoying Spanish tortilla sandwiches.

Here we are in Lisbon, Portugal.

We also got to visit Granada, Spain.

Mexican Riviera Cruise

2011-02-24T19:47:00.000-08:00

As the title of this post suggests my family and I had the opportunity to go on a 10 day Mexican Riviera cruise with 5 ports of call and 3 days at sea. It was awesome! But instead of boring you with words I’ll show you in pictures.

In order to get to San Diego, CA –where the cruise was leaving from- we determined since there were 7 of us going –my parents, sister, other sister and her husband, and Ben and I- it would be substantially cheaper if we drove down. So we rented a van and left at 2pm on Thursday February 10, 2011.
We arrived in San Diego 17 hours later to board the Carnival Spirit.

Once on the ship the first two days were spent at sea. There were plenty of activities for us to do like play mini golf...

and play cards...

play dodgeball (actually only Ben and my dad did this activity). Here my dad was the last man standing on his team. Ben and my dad were on the same team and their team ended up being cruise ship champions and they got cool medals.

We saw beautiful sunsets...

had cool towel animals in our room each night...

we dressed up...

And had fantastic service by these two men...

who fed us delicious food like this...

Then we arrived at our first port, Puerto Vallarta. We had decided to do an “Extreme Canopy Adventure” and let me tell you this was so much fun!

We zip lined (here Ben and I were racing; the guides say it was a tie but I say I won)

We also repelled down a rock wall with a waterfall...

And Maxx held up this building.

Next was Mazatlan where we did a lot of this (walking)...

but we made friends with statues...

and the locals...

and saw cool sites like this...

and this.

Then onto La Paz where we stood under this arch...

and saw this beautiful beach...

and this cool looking church.

Next was Cabo San Lucas. We took a water taxi…

to see this site...

and play on this beach.

Finally we went to Ensenada. We had to walk through this market…
to see this “natural phenomenon” (as our guide called it). It was a blowhole.

Then on Sunday February 20 we drove another 17 hours to arrive home on Monday February 21 at 3:30am. We had such a good time with family and the weather was a nice break from this cold Oregon winter.

Civil War

2010-12-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

Recipe

2010-11-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

Since Thanksgiving is coming up this week I thought I would post a recipe I recently found in a magazine that I really enjoyed.

Recipe for Army an Army Wife

1 1/2 cups patience
1 lb adaptability

3/4 cup tolerance

1 tsp. courage

A dash of adventure

Combine above ingredients. Add two tablespoons elbow grease.
Let sit alone for one year.

Marinate frequently with salty tears. Pour off excess fat and sprinkle ever so lightly with money. Knead dough until payday. Season with a lot of international spices. Bake 20 years or longer, until done.

Serve with pride!

Oh, and this announcement is a week late but MY HUSBAND IS HOME!!!

Gilbert House

2010-10-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I had stole this cute child and we went to the Gilbert House. Here she is trying to blow/pop a bubble.

She loved playing with the trains and watching the automated one go around and around the tracks.

Seriously, how cute is she?!?

It was a great day to go since there were hardly any other kids there. She had a great time grocery shopping. Her mom would be proud, she bought lots of fruits and veggies.

Her full cart!

Electrician

2010-10-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's the small things in life that are worth celebrating. Today for me it was successfully playing electrician. My porch light wasn't on a timer so whenever I would come home after dark my house would be black. So I went to Lowes and successfully selected all the necessary equipment to change my 3 way switch to a different switch and hook up my porch light on a timer -and I had to buy a new cover. Here is what my light switch looked like initially:

I had this out just in case -but I didn't have to use it.

And the finished product! (admittedly I didn't do this all by myself -thank you Maxx and mom).

Feeding the 5000

2010-10-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

OK, 5000 may be a slight exaggeration but yesterday my sister and I did feed about 175 people. My cousin got married and we offered to serve the food. The wedding was at 3pm so we served snack foods instead of a full meal. This is what my kitchen counter looked like prior to the big day. We borrowed all the trays and crock pots so I had to store them all before hand.
Then on Friday we set up the church; this is what it looked like when we arrived.

After the church was set up we spent all of Friday afternoon making and preparing food. Here my mom and Brittany are chopping vegetables for the pasta salad and vegetable trays.

One tray complete, many more to go.

This was our little coffee station at the church. It may not look that impressive, but for my sister, mom and I who don't drink coffee this was a minor victory. Although we were told that for an afternoon/evening wedding you shouldn't serve caffeinated coffee (sorry to all the guests who couldn't sleep all night!)

This was the only fridge we had use of in the church. See how packed full it was? We actually had to put a table in front of the fridge to keep the door closed because it kept popping open.

A picture of the completed pasta salad.

And our meat tray.

And the cheese tray.

And the rolls.

And meatballs.

Even Maxx helped set up the tables.

Here we are waiting for the guests to arrive and happy everything is in place.

The finished product ready for guests to eat.

After everyone had eaten we also had to serve the cake. Thankfully Charissa came and helped us with the whole event. Between keeping the plates, punch bowl, coffee creamer and everything else filled, it was nice to have the extra hands.

We had just the right amount of meatballs, rolls, meat and cheese and jello salad, but made way too much pasta and potato salad. For our first (and maybe only) attempt at feeding 200ish people it went quite well.

Just a pie

2010-08-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

I know this is a silly post but I just made my first pie from scratch- crust and everything- and since no one is here to appreciate this accomplishment, I figured I'd post a picture:

Doesn't it look delicious? I'm bringing it to work tomorrow so hopefully it is. I followed the recipe Lyndsey posted on her blog. (Yes, I'm a copy cat).

Before and After

2010-08-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy lately with various tasks around the house and I have the pictures to prove it.

PROJECT #1
First, my garden. After winter my garden looked like this, full of weeds:

Then, after lots of weeding I planted seeds and it looked like this: (see my blueberry plants?)

And it grew into this with beans, tomato and blueberry plants:See the nice blueberries? They are delicious. This sunflower randomly grew in the backyard:

PROJECT #2
Our garage has nice shelves on the sides but see where the fridge is? We don't use the fridge to keep things cool, just to store stuff on top of it.
So I had a great idea to build some more shelves. For $7.00 (the cost of the screws) and the use of some old wood we had I was able to build these with the help of my dad:

PROJECT #3
This ugly bathroom was the biggest of the 3 projects. Here are the before pictures:

So I had new floors put in:
And my mom helped; here she is doing a great job of not cursing at the leaking plumbing like I wanted to (thankfully a call to grandpa and he told us how to fix the leak):
And the finished project!
I'm so happy with how it turned out and appreciative of my mom's help so I could complete this project in 1 weekend!

Happy

2010-08-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

Finally Ben's turn has come for R&R. We didn't do much since Ben just wanted to relax but we were able to go on a 6 mile hike to Opal Creek. It was a beautiful day and a great time to spend together and in the beauty Oregon has to offer.

My Birthday Hike

2010-05-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

For my birthday my parents and sister and I went to Multnomah Falls to go on a hike. I found a recommended hike online at this site which warned it was moderate in difficulty but that didn't scare me. The hike was 4.9 miles with an elevation gain of 1600 feet. Literally, the first 2 hours or so of the hike was uphill. The hike took us past 10 named waterfalls and countless cascades and intermittent falls. It was a loop following the Wahkeena Trail for the majority of the time.

Isn't Oregon beautiful with so much green?!?

Fairy Falls:

View of the Columbia River:

Wahkeena Springs (Brittany and I drank from the spring, it was great tasting water):

Ecola Falls:

Little Multnomah Falls:

Multonomah Falls:

Multnomah Falls and Benson Bridge:

After this spectacular hike we headed to Red Robin where I got my free birthday burger. It was a great day and a great birthday.

Oregon Beauty

2010-05-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my dad and I had the opportunity to go to Opal Creek for a 6.5 mile hike. It was really nice.

Today, my parents, 3 foster kids and I went to Drift Creek Falls. The hike was shorter, only a little over 3 miles, but we got to go over this 240-foot suspension bridge (the longest in Oregon) that hovers 100 feet above Drift Creek:

My mom was scared, see?

But in her defense, look how high up we were:

Here is the another view of the cascading 80-foot Drift Creek Falls.

Even though it rained a little, it was a great trip!

Can you see now?

2010-04-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Since no one could see my trees from the previous post, I am posting an updated picture. Both trees now are beginning to grow leaves so you can see them now!

More house projects

2010-03-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

James 2: 15-16 says "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?" This verse is talking about faith and deeds but a couple weekends ago I was able to appreciate it for another reason. Since Ben is gone a lot of people have said they're there for me whenever I need something. As kind as that is, sometimes those words fall flat. But not always.

Two of Ben's friends from high school offered to come over one Saturday afternoon to help me with any yard projects I may have. Ben and I had begun a yard project before he left but didn't finish it and I was too overwhelmed with maintaining the rest of the house to tackle it. I appreciated so much the help they did so that I (with the help of Kyle digging the hole for the trees I wanted to plant) could finally complete another project in our backyard. Here is a picture of the finished project:
Also, because of this great weather we had I was able to finally paint the trim around my new windows. Don't they look great?

My newest card

2010-03-07T20:29:00.001-08:00

Here is the latest card I sent to Ben (minus the note I wrote in it -sorry Charissa):

Gifts from near and far

2010-02-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a package came that I had been waiting for. It was from Ben. He sent me a beautiful pashmina scarf/shawl. He bought it at one of the local baazars in Afghanistan where he is learning the art of bartering.Then, I had our neighbors over for dinner who brought this as a hostess gift

And these because they just got back from the Olympics.How lucky am I?!?

This is for educational purposes

2010-02-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of 14 things you should never say to a military wife: ( I know this post has some tone to it but I think it's funny because I have been asked some of these questions and I do think the thoughts below. :-) )

1. “Aren’t you afraid that he’ll be killed?”
(This one ranks in at number one on the “duh” list. Of course we’re afraid. We’re terrified. The thought always lingers at the backs of our minds —but thanks brilliant, you just brought it back to the front. Maybe next you can go ask someone with cancer if they’re scared of dying.)

2. “I don’t know how you manage. I don’t think I could do it.”
(This is intended to be a compliment. Though, its just a little annoying. Here’s why: it’s not like all of us military wives have been dreaming since childhood of the day we’d get to be anxious single women who carry cell phones with us to the bathroom and in the shower. We’re not made of some mysterious matter that makes us more capable, we just got asked to take on a challenging job. So we rose to the challenge and found the strength to make sacrifices.)

3. “At least he’s not in Iraq.”
(This is the number one most annoying comment for those whose husbands are in Afghanistan. What do they think is happening in Afghanistan? An international game of golf? Guys are fighting and dying over there.)

4. “Do you think he’ll get to come home for Christmas/anniversary/birthday/wedding/family reunion, etc?”
(Don’t you watch the news? No! They don’t get to come home for any of these things. Please don’t ask again.)

5. “What are you going to do to keep yourself busy while he’s gone?”
(Short answer: Try to keep my sanity. Maybe there’s a military wife out there who gets bored when her husband leaves, but I have yet to meet her. For the rest of us, those with and without children, we find ourselves having to be two people. That keeps us plenty busy. We do get lonely, but we don’t get bored.

6. “How much longer does he have until he can get out?”
(This one is annoying to many of us whether our husbands are deployed or not. Many of our husbands aren’t counting down the days until they “can” get out. Many of them keep signing back up again and again because they actually love what they do or they VOLUNTEER AGAIN and AGAIN to go back to Iraq because there is work that needs to be done.)

7. “This deployment shouldn’t be so bad, now that you’re used to it.”
(Sure, we do learn coping skills and its true the more deployments you’ve gone through, the easier dealing with it becomes. And we figure out ways to make life go smoother while the guys are gone. But it never gets “easy” and the bullets and bombs don’t skip over our guys just because they’ve been there before. The worry never goes away.)

8. “My husband had to go to Europe for business once for three weeks. I totally know what you’re going through.”
(This one is similar to number two. Do not equate your husband’s three week trip to London/Omaha/Tokyo/etc. with a 12-15 month or more deployment to a war zone. Aside from the obvious time difference, nobody shot at your husband or tried to blow him up with an I.E.D., your husband could call home pretty much any time he wanted to, he flew comfortably on a commercial plane, slept between crisp white sheets and ate well, paying for everything with an expense account. There is no comparison. We do not feel bonded to you in the slightest because of this comment and, if anything, we probably resent you a bit for it. Comparing a 12 month combat deployment to a few weeks business trip is like comparing a crummy Ford Taurus with Mercedes convertible.)

9. “Wow you must miss him?”
(This one also gets antoher big “duh”. Of course we miss our men. There are some wives who do not and they’re now divorced.)

10. “Where is he exactly? Where is that?”
(I don’t expect non-military folks to be able to find Anbar Province on a map, but they should know by now that it’s in Iraq. Likewise, know that Kabul and Kandahar are in Afghanistan. Know that Muqtada al Sadr is the insurgent leader of the Mahdi Army in Iraq and that Sadr City is his home area. Know that Iran is a major threat to our country and that it is located between Afghanistan and Iraq. Our country has been at war in Afghanistan for seven years and at war in Iraq for five years. These basic facts are not secrets, they’re on the news every night and in the papers every day —and on maps everywhere.)

11. “Well, he signed up for it, so it’s his own fault whatever happens over there."
(Yes, ignorant, he did sign up. Each and every day he protects your right to make stupid comments like that. He didn’t sign up and ask to be hit by anything, he signed up to protect his country. Oh, and by the way, he asked me to tell you that “You’re welcome.” He’s still fighting for your freedom.)

12. “Don’t you miss sex! I couldn’t do it!”
(hmmm, no i don’t miss sex. i’m a robot. seriously…military spouses learn quickly that our relationships must be founded on something greater than sex. We learn to appreciate the important things, like simply hearing their voices, seeing their faces, being able to have dinner together every night. And the hard truth is, most relationships probably couldn’t withstand 12 months of sex deprivation.)

13. “Well in my opinion…..”
(Stop right there. I didn’t ask for you your personal political opinions. Hey, I love a heated political debate, but not in the grocery store, not in Jamba Juice, not at Nordstrom, not in a restaurant when I’m out with my girls trying to forget the war, and CERTAINLY NOT AT WORK. We tell co-workers about deployments so when we have to spend lunch hours running around doing errands and taking care of the house and everything else, they have an understanding. We do not tell co-workers and colleagues because we are giving an invitation to ramble about politics or because we so eagerly want to hear how much they hate the President)

14. “OH, that’s horrible…I’m so sorry!”
(He’s doing his job and he’s tough. Don’t be sorry. Be appreciative and please take a moment out of your comfortable American lives to realize that our soldiers fight the wars abroad so those wars stay abroad.)

*This is from the following website* http://yestheyareallmine.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/things-not-to-say-to-a-military-wife/

What a guy

2010-02-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

I really hadn't expected to get anything for Valentine's Day this year since I assumed Ben would be a little too busy fighting a war to actually think about a silly holiday like Valentine's Day. But to my great surpsise and joy, these arrived at my door today: and these... (most of these are already gone because they were so delicious).
I sure do love that man.

Cross country Skiing

2010-01-31T12:09:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I was able to go cross country skiing with my family. I love it so much! We went to Hoodo because there wasn't enough snow where we usually go. The best part is I'm not even sore today! Here are some pictures from our trip.

Here are Caylia and Brittany going down a slight incline. Group picture (even Tahoe got to come).And because it's always funny to watch people crash, here is a video of Maxx doing exactly that.

Now keep in mind these were cross country skiis we were on, not downhill. That didn't stop my dad, Maxx or I from going down this huge hill.

Here is another video, this time of my dad crashing (on the above mentioned hill).

Valentines Day

2010-01-29T17:01:00.000-08:00

I know it's a little early but since it seems to take about 3 weeks for a card to get to Ben I'm actually late. I just wanted to share my craftiness of Ben's Valentine's Day card. It turned out pretty great.

Here is the front:

And the inside, who doesn't love a pop up?
I wrote a little note in the white space there in the bottom.

Our last few moments

2009-12-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

Time is interesting. When I want time to go quickly it seems to drag on forever; but when I want time to go slowly, it's gone all too quickly. It's nice to know that God has complete control over time and its pace. Leading up to and going through this deployment I have resolved to appreciate the time I'm given. I don't want to wish away the next year to have Ben home again (although I do miss him and want him home) because God has given me this time.

Inversely, I am trying to not mourn the time that has gone too quickly. Ben was home for 5 days this past week and we had a wonderful time; but as previously stated, it went too quickly. On Sunday, the full day before he left, we were able to spend the day in Portland together. We had so much fun thanks to the suggestions of a few friends. First we went to Pittock Masion. It was bitterly cold but also beautiful and decorated for Christmas.

We then checked into our hotel at Hotel Deluxe. It was a fancy hotel with valet parking in downtown Portland.

After that, we walked to Powell's Bookstore which was a few blocks away and spent a couple hours looking at all the books. Ben bought 4 books with his Christmas money to keep him entertained while he is away.

We ended the evening at Portland City Grill which is on the 30th floor of the Unico US Bancorp Tower in downtown Portland. It was awesome; it is a dimly lit restaurant with windows on all sides so we could see all of Portland with its lights including the river. The food was also quite tasty.

And now, Ben is gone again so I get to practice being thankful for the time God has given me.

Thanks for coming

2009-12-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

This year I hosted my first Christmas party. We had a wonderful time with lots of food and fun. We ate dinner at the fancy table,

decorated sugar cookies,

ate tripple chunk brownies,

and left a huge mess!

Phase 2

2009-12-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

We were able to accomplish another phase of our home upgrade this past week...New windows! Here are some pictures.

The trim around the windows still has to be painted, but I am supposed to wait 1 week for the calking to dry.

Here is the garage window. It is frosted now so we don't have to have an ugly curtain hanging in the garage.
Sliding glass door.

The old windows that were here did not open so when I orded the new ones, I made sure they would open which will be so nice in the summer.

In other news, Ben gets to come home for Christmas! And since the Oregon military can't support their soldiers, it only costs us $550!!!

Army of One

2009-11-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

This post is mostly for my husband, but you can read it too -it's just not really that interesting.

The following is a summary of my day, beginning at 5:30am:
Go shopping for all the great deals on black Friday
Come home to put lights on the house
Start the lawn mower by myself
Mow the lawn
Rake the yard
Bring wood into the garage
Sweep the garage
Get a Christmas tree
Trim and set up the Christmas tree and other decorations (ok, this is only half done)
Clean the kitchen
Do dishes
Clean the room
Do laundry
Change the sheets on the bed
Do more laundry (I'm a little behind)

Now, go watch last nights episode of Survivor...And it's only 7:34pm. Imagine how much more I could have done if we were an Army of TWO! I sure do appreciate all the help I get around the house when I have a husband.

I would have posted pictures of all my hard work, but the new camera I bought doesn't have a memory stick, and contrary to what the salesman told me, the memory stick for my old camera does not work with the new camera. Guess I'll have to do more shopping tomorrow.

4hrs 30min 17sec

2009-10-05T20:16:00.001-07:00

I finished my first marathon!! I didn't run as fast as I would have liked and I am very sore today, but I finished.

This first picture is taken the day before the marathon at the expo.

These last 2 pictures are at the finish and after the finish. See how pretend happy I look. I was actually in a lot of pain. Running 26.2 miles is a lot of work.

My Hobby

2009-10-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

While Ben is away (which he is, deployment day moved up to late October), my favorite thing to do is scrapbook. Since not too many people (okay, no one) comes over and asks to see my scrapbooks, all my hard work sits in the book. So now for your viewing pleasure, here are the pages I've recently completed for our trip to Hawaii.

First Fruits

2009-08-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

More like first vegetables. One of the best things about having a house is the fact that I can have a garden. This year my garden is thriving! I have already canned 8 pints of green beans (and that doesn't count the numerous evenings I walked out to my garden and cooked fresh picked green beans for dinner that night). Below is a picture some of the other vegetables I'm growing. See how small the carrot is? I think I'll let those grow some more before I pull any others out.

I also am growing corn. The stalks are about 7 feet tall, but not quite ready to pick the ears yet.

Phase 1

2009-07-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Before: After:
I painted the trim on our house the past couple weekends. There still are a lot of updates we want to do, but it's nice to have the red gone.

So proud

2009-07-20T19:26:00.000-07:00

I know this is a silly post but I don't care. I found this recipe and it sounded so good. So I went to the store to buy shrimp and noticed the noncooked shrimp was cheaper. So bought it and learned how to devein the shrimp. It was then marinaded in this spicy sauce I made and then put on the skewers with the vegtables. They turned out so tasty I just had to show the pictures of the colorful dinner we made.

Uncooked...

Cooking...

Eating...

Back to real life

2009-06-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

While we were gone we had a tree cut down. The mess was waiting for us when we got home. With the help of my parents, Alan, and a chipper, here is the work we were able to accomplish in 3 hours.

This is the ugly tree that is left. In the long term plan, this tree will come down also.Here is how big the stump is that is left: The big pile of branches my dad made before we got home:

The pile is gone!

From Hawaii

2009-06-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

Currently I am sitting in our condo in Hawaii and decided to make you all jealous by posting pictures of the fantastic time we are having here.

Just a nice beach we snorkled at.

At the Luau.

The brothers.

The ocean that claimed the life of our camera (why do swim trunks have pockets?!?!)

Shaved ice is so good!
Another beautiful sunset in paradise.

Our hard work.

2009-04-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Between being a part of the Easter play at church and crummy weather Ben and I have been working hard to finish our side yard project. Last weekend we finished the retaining wall and today the fence guy came and put the fence up. Look at our progress!

This is the retaining wall on our side of the fence (notice the yard still needs to be leveled and have grass planted): This is the beginning of the retaining wall dividing our property:

Same wall from the other side:

And this picture I took with my hand over the fence to show the completed look from my neighbor's side of the fence:

Doesn't it all look so good??? Now all we have to do is rotatill (however you spell that word) up the yard this weekend, plant gross, finish the retaining wall along the back of our yard, decide what kind of plants to put in the back part of our yard, buy some river rock and we are done! So close...kind of. I love it!

Our latest project

2009-03-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

During the spring and summer my favorite thing to do is work in our yard. Last summer we took on a portion of our yard and built a retaining wall and planted grass giving us a larger yard to enjoy. This year we are taking on a different portion of the yard and rebuilding a fence. Below is our progress thus far.

Before....

(Ok, you can't tell but the yard is slanting up away from the camera and to the right, which is why it needed to be dug out and evened.)

In the middle....

Can you see Ben working hard here? He is wearing camo so you may miss him.

I don't have end pictures yet because we are not done. Now we have to go buy the materials and put it all back together again. I can't wait for next weekend!

I must be growing up...

2009-02-26T17:54:00.000-08:00

The other night I watched the President's address to congress and was not only interested in it, but had several thoughts of my own I told the President during his speech (he didn't respond). It's funny to me that when I was a kid I was annoyed the President's speech was on all the channels and now, I watch it willing. Weird.

Why would two people need all these clothes?

2009-02-19T18:10:00.000-08:00

The answer is simple. On October 4, 2009, Ben and I will be running the Portland marathon. Ben has already been training up for this marathon for quite a while; I, on the other hand, began training last week. I have a training schedule, have researched proper nutrition, hydration, stretching, and strength training, and am dedicated to training up. So Ben and I went shopping last weekend and stocked up on the clothes and shoes we need to help us be successful. Another tool I have in place to help me be successful is my coworker. She used to be a fitness trainer at the Y for several years and she is helping hold me accountable to my training schedule.

When I was in 7th grade I made a list of 50 things I want to do before I die. While some of those things on the list are no longer goals of mine (and many more I’ve already accomplished), one of them was to run a marathon. I figure I’m not getting any younger, so I might as well do it now. Plus, since Ben is running it with his company commander, I figured now was the perfect time.

PS We are not running the Honolulu Marathon but that is what Ben's jacket says.

Why start a blog?

2009-02-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start a blog on this Valentines Day because I am very proud of the gift I made Ben and wanted to impress the whole wide universe. I know it's not an original idea, but my statements are.

Pretty great huh? Ben got me my favorite candy and tonight will take me on a date out to dinner. How nice.