McMillon Misadventures

Catch-up!

2010-06-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

We've been taking advantage of the nice weather to go to the park! Ellie is going through a faze where she's a little afraid of the swings, but loves the slides and climbing the stairs.

She had her first skinned knees when I took both kids to the park solo to feed the ducks and for Ellie to play on the playground. She fell off a bench right into some rocks. She was a trooper though and after a couple of animal crackers all was well.

Jonah's playtime takes place at the baby gym mat in our house. I'm surprised that he already has started batting at the toys and likes to hang out there for a while. And he started smiling, which just melts your heart! We're super busy, but loving life with our kiddos!

The baby love continues...

2010-05-12T06:09:00.001-07:00

Ellie loves to shower her brother in hugs and kisses. She always wants to know where "baby" is and asks to hold him several times a day. Jonah is sometimes receptive to the love Ellie doles out and sometimes is ready for mama or daddy to hold him instead. Mostly it depends on whether Ellie has just woken him up for some impromptu loving or if he was already awake.

Ellie is showing Jonah where her feet are after discovering that he was hiding his feet in the swaddle blanket.

Such a good big sister and we are so happy and blessed we have both of them!

Baby Jonah is here!!!

2010-05-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

So, I finally went into labor Monday morning, April 26th. I sent Josh off to work for a few hours just until I was sure the contractions were getting longer, stronger and closer together. He worked from about 8 AM to 10:30 AM because at that point my contractions were about 4 minutes apart. We waited to go to the hospital until they were 3 minutes apart, which was around 12:30. I was excited that this was going much faster than my labor with Miss Ellie. After that, it was pretty much a blur until Jonah was born at 6:45 pm. I was definitely nesting up until we went to the hospital b/c I insisted on doing laundry, vacuuming and gave serious consideration to scrubbing some spots on the carpet before we left. And I did insist that Josh stop by the bank to deposit cash we'd received for his business. Had I been thinking about the 10 or 20 speed bumps we had to go over to get to the bank, I would have probably skipped this. By the time we got to the hospital and checked in, I had pretty much checked out and was just focusing on relaxing through the contractions. At one point, Josh discovered that I had flooded the bathroom b/c the birth ball I was sitting on in the shower was covering the drain. I really didn't care that I was flooding it and was really pissed off that I had to move. I ended up getting an epidural, which only worked on one side again. But that was perfect b/c it gave me some relief for the last hour or so and helped me relax enough that Jonah was born shortly afterwards. Way easier labor than with Ellie and way easier postpartum recovery, for which I am very thankful. Probably more than you wanted to know, but it was actually and enjoyable experience and we are just so thankful for our sweet boy! It took us about a day to figure out which name fit him, but he's definitely a Jonah and I can't imagine him as anything else.

Jonah and me just after he was born. I actually got to deliver him myself, which was amazing!

9 lbs 6.6 oz and 21.5 inches long. The doctor was so shocked, he made the nurse weigh him twice.

On our way to my postpartum room a few hours after Jonah was born.

Ellie came to the hospital to celebrate my birthday with me and loved being close to "her baby."

Daddy and Jonah. I think Jonah is going to look a lot like his daddy, except for the nose and I predict Jonah will be taller.

Leaving the hospital to go home.

Ellie loving on her brother. She kisses him all day long and wants to hold him too. When he cries, she can't stand it and will cry too which makes everything a little more stressful.

We can't tell yet, but I think his eyes will be green like Josh's. It's a fifty/fifty shot whether they will be green or blue.

Jonah seriously has the biggest feet on any newborn I have ever seen. His feet are almost as long as Ellie's are now. This is why I think he definitely got the Slater height. Josh is really hoping he got the McMillon bulk too, which would make the perfect football player.

38 weeks

2010-04-20T17:04:00.001-07:00

So, some people have been asking for recent belly shots. Here are a few that Josh took last week. I also had a maternity photo session today, which I'm excited to see the pics from. When I get those back, then I'll post some of them too. But I have to say that I'm hopeful that the little guy arrives before the photos come back to me! :)

Business News!!

2010-04-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I'd been referencing some exciting news for a while and then I forgot to post it. OOPS!! Josh opened a new practice in March and his new office is only 4 miles from home. We love that he can come home for lunch several days a week and we can often drop by to see him when we're out running errands. On a silly, selfish note I love that there is a hardware store, grocery store and pharmacy in the same shopping center so I can easily have him pick up something we need on his way home!! The new office is in the middle of a Rapid Fitness, so patients and potential patients are constantly dropping by to see the doc. Best of all, the new facility has a great energy and the patients are all eager to see Dr. Josh. It was a busy week getting everything set up. We had about 2 days notice that the gym was finally going to open. It was completely remodeled and had been delayed in opening several times due to re-inspections that were needed and other construction stuff. Josh and I had lots of fun setting up the office, hanging diplomas and posters, getting new office equipment, etc. We've been open now for almost a month and things are going great!

Pollen season

2010-04-09T10:35:00.001-07:00

So, here in the South we have pollen season. It's a real thing. The weather channel even has a pollencast to tell us if the pollen count will be high today and what types of pollen to expect. Most people not from here say something like "We have pollen too. Are your allergies bad?" Pollen season in the South isn't so much about sneezing as it is about trying NOT to turn yellow like everything else outside. Once pollen season starts, you can't open windows or sit outside without inviting clouds of yellow pollen in your house or car. Shopping carts are covered in it, shoes, packages that are delivered, etc. I took a couple of pictures that really don't do it justice, but here is just one example. The picture above shows one of our pine trees in the backyard. The yellow tags on them is where all the pollen is coming from right now.

Our deck is actually a dark redwood stain. As you can see, it's covered in yellow powder except where I dumped out the dogs' water. If I leave water out for more than an hour or so, the bowl is covered in pollen and the water has lots of yellow floaties. The only way to get rid of the pollen is to pray for rain. Fortunately, we had a great thunderstorm last night that washed lots of it away. Now it can start building up again.

Here's one pic from Easter that I forgot to include. The family photo. Hopefully the next one will show a sweet little boy too and a much trimmer looking me. :)

Easter!

2010-04-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter. It was a gorgeous day and we were able to have Ellie's first egg hunt on the front lawn. She quickly learned to put the eggs in her basket and was super excited when we went inside after the hunt and we showed her the "candy" inside the eggs. So much fun! We hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter too!

Random Pictures

2010-03-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

So everyone was finally over their own personal sickness and then Ellie started teething again and has a small cold. She seems to be fine and enjoying herself, but no more playgroup time until she's all better. Magnum and Zena both survived their mysterious illnesses and I finally have them out of my kitchen and no more daily mopping of the floor for Josh! Poor guy had to mop up a mix of pee, poop and vomit every morning for almost 3 weeks while the dogs were sick. And our computers are finally over their viruses too! So I downloaded some pictures from the last few weeks and here are some cute ones.

Sickness!!

2010-02-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official the whole house is sick. Magnum and Zena have been struggling for a couple of weeks now. Zena had a UTI, which finally cleared up and Magnum may have bladder cancer. So, we have to wait for his prescriptions to finish up and if the issues have been resolved then he also had an UTI, but much more severe. If it doesn't clear up, the vet thinks he has bladder cancer. So we've been spending a fair amount of our time lately quarantining animals and cleaning up lots of pee.

Now, Ellie is sick too. She has a full-blown cold and appears to be cutting multiple teeth at once. Poor baby. I am also not feeling well, but hopefully don't get a major cold like Ellie. Josh is exhausted from taking care of both of us. And to top everything off, our computers both got viruses. One computer appears to have recovered fully, the other computer passed away last evening. Thankfully, we just backed up our pictures and videos a few days before. Otherwise, we would have lost everything. We'll post recent pictures when we get our computer situation back in order and we should have a good business update in a few days too. We'll keep y'all posted!

Snow in the South!

2010-01-31T18:24:00.000-08:00

It started snowing Friday night and we got more wintry weather through Saturday. Ellie was delighted with all the snow. It's mostly ice now and partially thawed, which will make really bad driving conditions tomorrow. We had some family time in the snow today. Ellie got to go "sledding" on a small raft Josh blew up and she loved it. Josh and I walked around the neighborhood and he pulled the raft behind us with Ellie in tow.

Recent Pictures

2010-01-18T06:26:00.000-08:00

So far, 2010 has been great. I've been busy trying to keep up with a little girl who's finally got the hang of walking. (Chase is her new favorite game) And I'm trying to figure out IRS forms for our business. Hopefully, we'll have some exciting news to report there in a few weeks (about the business NOT the IRS.) Here are some random pictures from the last month. Happy New Year from the McMillons!

Someone learned to stick out her tongue.

The whole family together before Will heads back to college and Andy heads off to Columbia.

Crazy Uncle Will and Ellie in their Carharts.

Ellie in the dress that Grandma gave her.

These pictures were taken using some green screen software that Josh gave me for Christmas. We had fun playing with the program yesterday.

Visiting Santa

2009-12-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

We took Ellie to see Santa in the mall last week. She was very scared of him this year, which was not unexpected. I sat with Ellie and Santa and all was good. She loved to look at his beard and was in awe of the reindeer hat he made for her. We all had fun. Maybe next year she'll be ready to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas.

It's a.......

2009-12-15T12:06:00.001-08:00

BOY!!

We had our ultrasound last week and found out that Ellie's got a little brother in there. I was going to try to scan the pictures as evidence, but everyone who has seen the pictures either couldn't tell what they were looking at or didn't really want to stare at his boy bits, so I figured just post the news and take our word on the pictures. He stretched way back with one arm behind his head and waved the goods at us for good measure. He's also a healthy guy and that's what's important. We're really excited and will let everyone know more when there's more news (aka a name for the kid).

Spaghetti Night!

2009-11-28T13:18:00.001-08:00

She was going for a Braveheart kind of look I guess. :)

Ellie's First Birthday!!

2009-11-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

We had Ellie's first birthday party on her birthday, November 8th, at our house that we'd moved into 4 days before. It was a little stressful, but we all had a great time, especially the little birthday girl.

Ellie ate a lot of foods she had never eaten before like pepperoni slices, crackers and spinach artichoke dip. She wolfed it all down in a hurry. I made her a birthday girl shirt to wear and a special tutu. She wore it all day until the mandatory outfit change after eating her cake.

She loves to pull that paper off the presents!

I made her birthday cakes. The little one was a cake just for Ellie to eat and smash.

We were pretty shocked that she ate almost half her small cake, but she really enjoyed it and her tummy was so distended afterwards. It was a really fun day and we were so happy to share it with our families.

Fall and Halloween!!

2009-11-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

So I decided to forget even trying to catch everyone up for now, but here are some pictures from this fall. Ellie loved playing with the leaves on Mom and Dad's front porch.

She made the cutest little lamb for Halloween. I made the costume for her and may there be a curse on anyone who thinks she looks like a bunny. Seriously, what kind of bunny wears a bell around their neck!!?

Ellie was fascinated with the pumpkin. I was so afraid she was going to push it down the stairs.

We went to the NC State fair this year. Ellie's first fair she's been to and Josh's second time ever at a fair. We rode a few kiddo rides with her and we all had a great time even though it was freezing!!!

We're officially moved in the new house now and even though we can't park in the garage yet due to unpacked boxes that fill it. We're really enjoying the house and the dogs will really enjoy the yard once we get the fence up. Pictures forthcoming on Ellie's birthday and the house. It must be box free before pictures can be posted!

She's Mobile!

2009-07-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

As a father's day gift to Josh, Ellie decided to start crawling. Yea for her and uh oh for us. So we've been very busy corralling her the last few weeks. She's having fun following us around and chasing the dogs. Ellie and the dogs are a funny dynamic. They used to annoy her when they could come up and smell her/lick her and she could only lie there. Now she annoys them by crawling up to "pat the puppy" or just plain steal their bone. However, they are smartening up and now move when they see her coming. Ellie also loves to climb on us and has been trying to stand. Sometimes she pulls herself up on whatever is nearby or she does a perfect downward dog.

Ellie also loves to help with laundry.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-06-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

On Memorial Day Weekend, we went down to Sunset Beach, NC with my parents for the night. We all had a great time including a delicious Calabash shrimp supper. Ellie loved playing in the pool and had her first experience in the Atlantic Ocean.

She got a little tired from all the excitement and started to get cuddly and sleepy.

How is it that chubby thighs can look so good on babies?

Despite all predictions, Ellie did not try and eat sand. She was happy to explore it with her hands and was very intrigued by the waves going in and out.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.

2009-06-03T05:28:00.001-07:00

I finally have a job- albeit temporary and part time. But it's a start. I am a Chiropractic assistant for a Doc in Apex, about 30 minutes away from Raleigh. He needed some office help, I needed some income, it worked. I am enjoying myself and learning some thing about running a chiropractic office.

I hear about my board results on June 26th, and if I get enough of a score, take the NC state exam the last week of July. So the earliest I can be licensed in NC is August. Between then and now I hope to find a full time gig or find someone who will give me a big bag of money. Any takers?

-Josh-

Life in Raleigh

2009-06-02T11:17:00.001-07:00

Life in Raleigh is pretty simple for Ellie....

She tries new foods a couple of times a week. Carrots is a favorite, but is best eaten outside on the screened in back porch.

Outside eating sometimes leads to outside cleanup. Ellie loves her baths!

Hanging out in Pappy's cockpit

Under the wing of the plane

Loving on the dogs

Ellie loves the simple life!

When Olive Oil Isn't Olive Oil.....

2009-05-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Things are not always as they appear. A week or so after we arrived in Raleigh, I enlisted Josh's help in clean-up after dinner. I began washing the dishes and as I poured soap on the dishes, Josh asked me why I was washing them with olive oil. I was confused for a moment and replied that I was using dish soap. Josh pointed at the container above and asked what was in that container sitting by the sink. I replied that it was dish soap. Then I gasped and said, "You didn't fill this up with olive oil did you?" Josh didn't reply, but grabbed the bottle and quickly walked out to the living room to ask my mom what was in the bottle. I started laughing uncontrollably when I realized what had happened. Josh came back in the kitchen and looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth. He incorrectly thought that they substance that looked like olive oil in the olive oil container was ... olive oil. However, it was in fact dish soap. Unfortunately, he used this to make eggs for both of us. He also said he thought it was really crappy oil and that it didn't coat well at all. Poor Josh!

Easter

2009-05-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

So, the day after we arrived in Raleigh was Easter Sunday. Sadly, I'm just now adding those pictures to the blog. Ellie was really cute in her easter dress and showed very little interest in her easter basket. We didn't hunt any eggs this year, maybe next year she'll be interested.

So what's next?

2009-04-23T19:39:00.001-07:00

Elisabeth has been kindly requesting and reminding me to add something useful to the blog. I thought I would give a brief update on where we stand. As of April 23rd, I have not yet begun to get some income. It will still take some time for my first paycheck to come in, this is why we are so thankful to stay with Tom and Ann. However, I have not just been sitting around watching Opra re-runs (I do watch a lot of Home Improvement though). I am now fully licensed in the state of South Carolina. I recieved my license in the mail last week and got my malpractice insurance set up. I am all ready to start working... 5 hours away... our life is complicated. I am concentrating on studying for my upcoming test on May 17th. I spend most of my days helping with Ellie, studying, going for long walks in the wonderful North Carolina sun, and... well that's it. I am really enjoying the time with Ellie, she has come so far in her development and I have been there to see her grow every step of the way.

We have several meetings scheduled for next week in South Carolina, so we will see what God has in store for us there.

Also the house has not yet closed escrow, the underwriter is being very thourough and requesting more documentation from the buyers. We sit and wait for that to close so we can start to look for housing in South Carolina.

So we are actively waiting, but we are so close we can taste it.

-Josh-

12 states in 7 days

2009-04-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Oregon to Idaho to Utah to Wyoming to Nebraska to Iowa to Missouri to Illinois to Kentucky to Tennessee to Virginia to North Carolina with 3 adults, one baby, two dogs and 2 ice chests full of frozen elk among many other things!! This was definitely the most complicated road trip I've ever done. First off, we started basically a day behind because we left Portland so late on Sunday.

Sunday, Day 1-

Our original goal for the first night was Twin Falls, Idaho. However, we decided to settle for Boise, but we hit a snag in the middle of nowhere Eastern Oregon. Ever heard of Duncan, Oregon? Neither had we. At around 11pm on Sunday, our passenger side trailer tire blew while we were going 60 mph. Josh pulled over to the side of the road and assessed the damage. It was not good. The tire was completely shredded and a good chunk of it was wrapped around the axle of the trailer. And the rim was no longer circular because the friction from the road had

flattened it to a half moon shape. We called AAA only to find out that our trailer wasn't covered for a tow. We called a tow place and asked for a tow, but the guy recommended just having a tire guy run us out a replacement tire and rim. The original quote for that was $400, but we said we'd pay cash (Thank you Dave Ramsey) and we ended up paying $240. This was a deal considering the guy had to drive nearly 30 miles to bring us the tire and they charge $90 a hour for after hours service. So after spending two hours on the side of the road, we were back on our way. But not before we had to call the tire guy back after he fixed the tire and drove away. We needed a jump. While sitting and waiting for him to show, we kept the dome light and the flashers on which ate up our battery. It's a good thing we gave the tire guy a tip the first time around. We gave up on getting to Boise and settled for Ontario, Oregon.

Monday, Day 2 -

We left late since we had to buy more dry ice for the elk meat and we were tired from getting to the hotel at 2 am. Our original goal was Cheyenne, Wyoming, but opted for a closer town in Wyoming, since we were 200 miles behind schedule and we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch in Boise (and everyone knows that CB is an integral part of any cross country road trip that I do). In fact, we used a Cracker Barrel map (and our GPS) to navigate our way to NC. Josh was pretty irritated that we didn't have a "real" map of the US, but excuse me the CB map has all 50 states and most major roads, so I didn't see an issue. We stopped in Twin Falls around dinner time to see the Shoshone Falls, which was fun. Then we pressed on and eventually made it to Evanston, Wyoming that night at around 2 am. While Idaho had been a nice 70 degrees, which meant Josh was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, Evanston had snow everywhere. Josh looked kind of funny in shorts checking into the hotel. :)

Josh, Ellie and I at Shoshone Falls

Tuesday, Day 3 -

We left Evanston with the original goal of Lincoln, Nebraska in mind. But we were several hundred miles off our goal by this time. Even though we left at a reasonable time in the morning and drove all day, we ended up stopping around 11 pm at North Platte, Nebraska. We were asked by a lot of people if we were driving through the Rocky Mountains, to which we replied "I don't know, where are the rockies?". You see the Rockies don't appear on the Cracker Barrel map and neither mapquest or the gps are forthcoming about mountain ranges. Most people looked disturbed that we didn't know if we were passing through the Rockies. We knew we driving I-84 to I-80 until the end of Nebraska and then taking some turns to get to TN. The funny part was we started asking people at gas stations and restaurants if the Rockies were nearby and if the highway went through them and THEY DIDN"T KNOW EITHER! :) I can now assure everyone that driving on I-84 or I-80 does not take you through the Rockies.

Wednesday, Day 4 -

We decided on Day 3 to stop early instead of driving until 2 am and trying to make Lincoln. It turned out to be a good decision and we left North Platte, Nebraska early, stopped in Lincoln at Cracker Barrel for lunch and then drove all the way to Saint Louis, Missouri, which was our original goal for Day 4. Yea! Our other daily goal for driving was take turns putting Ellie in the dreaded car seat. Josh tried to rename it "the happy seat", but he couldn't fool Ellie. She was tired of being in it, who could blame her. When she saw it she would start crying. We made it a point to drive as long as possible while she slept and was reasonably amiable. All in all, she was a great passsenger, as long as her needs were met and she had a least some time out of "the seat". To complicated things a bit more, she started on rice cereal a couple of days before we left Portland and we would get hot water at gas stations to mix with the rice cereal for her to feed her on the go. She was wonderful on the trip and very tolerant, but by day 3 she was getting stretched.

Thursday, Day 5 -

We had considerably less distance to cover on Thursday. We left Saint Louis and were going to my Grandma's house in Oak Ridge, TN that night for a short visit. We stopped off in Clarksville, TN to see my Uncle Jim, Aunt Judy and cousin-in-law, Robert and second cousin, Hunter. It was great to see everyone even though it was only for a few minutes. We made it to Oak Ridge around 7 or 8 pm. Grandma was excited to see us and Ellie! We had a nice visit and it was wonderful to sleep in the same bed for two nights in a row for a change. Of course, Josh was stoked to not have to load the car on Friday. Grandma couldn't get enough suger from Ellie and we look forward to seeing her much more often. We'll only be 3.5 hours away once we're in Greenville.

Four generations: Grandma Potter, Nana, Elisabeth and Ellie

Saturday, Day 7 - We left Oak Ridge in the morning and drove to Raleigh. It was the shortest distance we'd driven yet, so it was very relaxing. One last Cracker Barrel stop for lunch and we were in Raleigh by 6 pm.

It was a long trip and you probably heard way more about it than you wanted to, oh well. :)

Saying Goodbye to Portland

2009-04-20T19:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we're officially gone from Portland. We miss our friends a lot and Portland will always have a special place in our hearts. Our last week or so was mostly filled with packing and signing escrow papers, but we did try to get out and enjoy a few uniquely Portland things.

We took Ellie to Mt. Tabor and pushed her in a swing for the first time. She loved it, but was even more fascinated by the tall trees all around her. We've discovered that she really loves the outdoors.

Packing and loading took several days. Thankfully many great friends from our small group stepped up and helped us have a garage sale one weekend and load the moving truck the next weekend. Thank you! In the end, all our possessions took 16' in the moving trailer.

On Sunday, April 5th we loaded up the car and our teeny trailer to pull behind it and left Portland. Unfortunately, we didn't get away until around 4pm, so we didn't get nearly as far as we wanted to, but that's another story...

Goodbye Portland!

Transition

2009-03-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

I was waiting/hoping Josh would update the blog with all our news, but here it is:
- Josh got a job in South Carolina (Greenville).
- He'll be working for a company that runs fall prevention programs for elderly people.
- We'll be opening our own practice there in a few months.
- We move on April 5th!
- We're moving in with my parents in North Carolina for a few weeks while we hunt down a place to live. This is slightly more challenging with the dogs.
- We accepted an offer for our house last week and are currently in escrow!

- Josh heads off to Nashville for training later this week!

All of this fell into place in the last two weeks, so it's moving fast to say the least. I am so excited for warm summers and lightening bugs and sweet tea. The list just goes on and on. Greenville is 4 hours away from my parents and 3.5 hours away from my Grandma and 3 hours from my other grandparents, so I'm pretty excited. For me, that's really close. And Ellie rolled over for the first time on Sunday, 3/15! Whew.

It's so amazing to see when things work out so perfectly it has to be a God thing. Last month, we traveled to Greenville for Josh to interview for an associate position. It ended up not working out with that practice. However, just a few weeks later, Josh was offered another opportunity in South Carolina, in Greenville, the same town we visited the month before. Below are a couple of pictures from our original Greenville trip.

A cool park with a suspension bridge, a really cool children's area and in walking distance to the local zoo.

Are we mean parents or what?? We made Ellie sleep in a dresser drawer during part of our Greenville trip. I don't think she minded too much though.

We'll keep everyone posted as often as we can. We're packing and selling stuff around here as fast as we can and dealing with a growth spurt/teething with Ellie. Fun times!

The Easy Button

2009-03-13T11:45:00.001-07:00

All I can say is a huge thank you to Nana for this magical toy!

Four Months old!!!

2009-03-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

Time seems to fly so fast!!! Miss Ellie was four months old on Sunday. Here are some of the little vixen's traits.

She has a beautiful gummy smile that she loves to show friends, family and strangers.
She has enough hair for us to use a barrette.
Ellie still refuses to roll over, but loves to turn on her side and now tolerates laying on her stomach for a few minutes.
She tries really hard to sit up on her own and can balance for a minute when you put her in a sitting position.
Ellie loves bath time and kicks in the water, which means Mommy usually ends up pretty wet.
She has learned to screech and yell and gets excited when she raises her voice. She also has an extensive cooing repertoire and she loves to imitate sounds we make.
Ellie loves to look around and watch what the people or dogs are doing around her. If you say her name then she usually swings her head around to make eye contact with you.
She learned to bat at her rattles and chimes that we hang on her car seat and her baby gym, which entertains her for a few minutes.
Ellie loves to hold onto things especially her burp cloth and will happily hold it when we carry her around.
She now sleeps for 10 - 12 hours a night consistently and usually goes to sleep without crying. We love our schedule!!

In short, we think she's just the sweetest baby there is. Here are some recent pictures.

A couple of fun days

2009-02-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

We've been having relaxing fun days since both of us are currently home with Ellie. It's nice to be able to stop, take pictures and even post to the blog regularly. Ellie is finally big enough to fit in a ruffled hat with a knitted flower that I knit for her. I knitted this hat one day when I was eight months pregnant and holding a garage sale by myself. It was a very productive day! At the time, I had no idea Miss Ellie's eyes would be so blue. I think she looks gorgeous in it!

The second Tuesday of every month is two dollar admission at the zoo here, so for six bucks we got a fun filled day at the zoo this past Tuesday. It freakishly snowed all day, which was nice because we like the snow and not many other people ventured out to the zoo. I love days like that because the animals are very friendly to the few people they see and you can have some really fun interactions with them and avoid the crowds. This was Ellie's first trip to the zoo and she handled the outing well. She was a lot less interested in the animals than we were, but she liked the bird noises and watching us look at the animals.

Akeem the giraffe was particularly happy to see us! Did you know that giraffes have black tongues?

Ellie speaks!

2009-02-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

After many failed attempts to edit videos we've taken .... we FINALLY were able to edit some today. Below is just a clip of Ellie being really cute and weird when I was changing her diaper. For some reason, she really like to talk into my mouth. Strange, but extremely cute!!

Pretty in Pink

2009-02-07T12:39:00.001-08:00

Ellie and I had a little photo session today. First she showed off her amazing abs while attempting to sit up on her own.

Next she made dramatic faces for the camera just like any supermodel.

After she was warmed up, she showed off today's apparal.... a pink bumgenius and John Deere boots. Did I mention she likes to hang out upside down?

Then she got really excited. I like to think she burns off that last bit of energy just before she crashes.....

And sure enough, just a couple of minutes later she was all tuckered out from the excitement. After a few minutes sucking on her thumb, it was time for her afternoon nap. :) Josh and I aren't huge fans of pink, but even I have to admit that Ellie looks adorable in that color.

Naptime!

2009-01-28T13:31:00.000-08:00

Ellie has been sharing her naptime lately.

Apparently Mommy and Ellie both like to sleep with their arms over their heads.

Sleeping next to Magnum is fun too!

Christmas catch-up

2009-01-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!! We had a whirlwind Christmas holiday that started with all of our family arriving for Josh's graduation from Chiropractic college. You may now call him Dr. Josh McMillon!! I am so proud of him. He also passed part four of the national boards and just has a licensing exam to take before he can begin practicing.

It snowed some the week before Josh's graduation and despite all the weather predictions that it would warm up for a rainy Christmas, we had a very white Christmas instead. It continued snowing and Portland was basically shut down for a week. Ellie had her first snow and her first Christmas was a white one. It was also the first white Christmas for me, my parents and my brothers. Notice how the snow is up over the front steps and part of the drift is over the front fence!!

We really enjoyed having everyone here for the holiday and although it was a tight squeeze with 8 adults, 1 baby and 2 dogs in our small house, it was a wonderful holiday. After everyone went home, Josh, Ellie and I drove to California for his cousin's wedding and were there for a week. We completely lost our minds and took Ellie to Disneyland while we were there. Thanks to Aunt Kim and Uncle Bill for getting us in. She was completely cute and surprisingly liked the rides. We could hear ooohhs and eeees as she smiled. The little girl rode the rockets, carousel, teacups and Pirates of the Caribbean with us. We also took her to the beach for the first time.

We've been back for a week and are finally getting back to a normal routine. Ellie is now 2 months old and a sweet, happy baby who smiles and coos at us.

Visiting Santa

2008-12-17T16:51:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Josh and I took Ellie to see Santa for the first time. He was visiting Phillip Foster farm, which is a historic farm that is kind of a low budget Oregon version of Colonial Williamsburg. They have a cider squeeze festival there every year that we go to and when we saw that Santa would be sitting in the parlor on Saturday for kids to visit, we decided to take Ellie. She was sleepy most of the time, but we enjoyed watching her sit on Santa's knee. She was the youngest to see him all day. Maybe next year she'll be more excited to tell him what she wants for Christmas.

Silent Night!!!

2008-12-17T12:09:00.000-08:00

We had a big first last night ..... the first night Miss Ellie slept all the way through the night. A full 7 1/2 hours of sleeping bliss!! I don't expect this blissful experience to be repeated every night especially since she's only 5 1/2 weeks old, but it was wonderful. I actually called her pediatrician a couple of days ago to make sure it was ok for her to sleep that long without eating, but according to Dr. Crist it is perfectly fine, so last night I went to bed without my little alarm clock to wake us up to feed her and we all had a silent night. Yea!! It definitely gives us more energy to have fun with all the snow that's falling today.

Snowy pictures to be posted later!

One Month Old!!

2008-12-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It may be the lack of sleep that makes it all a blur, but little Miss Ellie is one month old already!! We've been having a great time with her. Here are some pictures of her first month.

Brand Spanking New!

Hanging out with Grandma

Hanging out with Grandpa

Hanging out with Mom

Hanging out with Dad

First Bath - utterly content

Just dedicated at church

First family walk

Chillin in my bouncer

So tired!

So unhappy!!

Cloth diaper, tie dye t-shirt: Can you tell I was made in Oregon?

Hanging out with Nana

Spending time with crazy Uncle Will

Oops I just wet PopPop's pants (actually what was happening!)

One Month Old and quite the little person!!

Christmas Tree Hunting!

2008-12-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

This is the first year since we've moved to Oregon that we didn't hunt down our own Christmas tree up on Mt. Hood. However, I think having a 3 week old is a good reason not to trapse around in the forest looking for our typical spindly, Charlie Brown tree. So this year, Ellie and I went with Josh when he sighted his rifle in prep for his hunting trip and on the way back we stopped by one of the many U-Cut Christmas tree farms for our tree. It was still a really fun experience. A very sweet Russian man let us pick out our tree and then cut it for us. Poor Josh had to load the tree on the car himself. We had a great time and our little Reindeer looked so cute!

Ellie's Here!!!!!!

2008-11-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

We welcomed Miss Eleanor Ann McMillon to the world on Saturday, November 8th at 7:55 AM. She came out with a precious wail and let everyone know that she was cold and not too happy that she was leaving Mommy's tummy just yet.

The facts:

Weight: 9lbs. 2.6oz

Length: 21"

Head Circumference: 13 1/4 cm

Chest Circumference: 14 cm

I went into labor naturally last Friday morning when I woke up. I even went to work until about 1 pm, when I decided that these were probably the real contractions. So, I met Josh at his clinic and we went to the hospital where I was admitted. Ellie came a week and a half early, so everyone was pretty shocked that I had a 9 lb baby in me, much less that I was able to have her naturally. We were very fortunate that she is a strong little one and tolerated over 24 hours of labor. She has beautiful dark blue eyes, a full head of dark hair that gets lighter every day and chubby sweet cheeks. Here are a couple of pictures for now. Josh will add his two cents once boards are over this weekend. Thanks for everyone's prayers. We are deliriously happy and completely in love with Ellie.

Major Catch-up blog

2008-11-01T14:34:00.001-07:00

Well Everyone, we've been extremely delinquent in updating our blog. And to top it all off, we've had lots to blog about. I'm just going to hit the highlights and maybe Josh will write a more substantive post later.

In early September, we travelled to Raleigh to see the family and had a great time! It was great to catch a little bit of Indian Summer, see my parents and at least one brother and meet his very sweet girlfriend. Also, Josh experienced his first tropical storm.

When we came back to Portland, Josh took lots of tests including his last final exams EVER and of course, passed all of them with flying colors. The day he finished finals was his birthday and we celebrated the last finals/birthday just the two of us. (By this point, we're pretty tired!)

In October, we've been busy every weekend with something fun. So far, I've attended a Women of Faith conference, Josh has cut and chopped our wood for the winter (he actually hauled it down from Mt. Hood), Josh went fly fishing for a whole day, and we went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze. Josh has also managed to re-paint the entire upstairs of our house and move 3 rooms around. The office upstairs became Ellie's room, Ellie's old room became our bedroom and our old bedroom became a den/office. Can you say nesting?? Josh was a trooper and basically did all the work himself. I contributed to things that needed to get done by canning 30 pounds of green beans with a friend and having a garage sale. Oh and we helped a friend move too.

Below are some recent belly shots. This first one was taken before we went to dinner to celebrate Josh being completely done with all his required patient visits. Woo Hoo! Note the new living room paint color. We're not sure we love it yet, but it really needed to be painted again and we were sick of brown.

Sooo.... we've been a little busy getting things done and getting ready for Miss Ellie to make her arrival. Her new room is now ready and bags are packed and we completed our Childbirth prep class last week. At my last midwife appointment Josh was instructed on the fine art of catching a baby because we hope that he'll be the one to recieve her and hand her back to me. He did very well delivering the fake baby from the model, so I feel very confident that he'll do great if he has the opportunity. After all, the man will be a doctor in less than 2 months anyway and took the required Obstetrics and Pediatric classes. By the way, we have every intention of Ellie being born in a hospital with medical staff attending the birth, so this isn't some hippie free birth experience we're planning. :) We haven't lived in Oregon that long. As of tomorrow, I'll be 38 weeks pregnant and Ellie was considered full term last week, so just 2 weeks until she's due and hopefully she be here sooner. Stay tuned for updates.

More Pictures!!!

2008-08-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

Josh did a great job of documenting Ellie's room transformation, but I wanted to post a few more pictures from when Mom was here and some pictures of Josh since he tends not to post any of himself.

Here is Josh after we finished all the work on the walls and the floor and he finally got to assemble the glider rocker. He's been looking forward to this Daddy task for some time now and he did an excellent job!

It was another late night (midnight probably), but we got the furniture assembled!!

Here are some great shots that Josh took of Mom and me. I think these are the only photos during her visit in which we were reasonably clean and were wearing clothing that wasn't covered in paint.

Josh took some great pictures of me at 27 weeks. Here are a couple of pictures.

Daddy kissing baby Ellie

Daddy sharing wise thoughts with Ellie

The left picture is me at 20 weeks and the right picture is at 27 weeks. If you look closely at the right picture, you can see my belly now has a nose on it from my outie belly button. Josh swears it's really a megaphone to talk to Ellie. :)

That's all for now. Hope y'all enjoy the pictures. Hopefully, we'll have some more to add to them in a couple of weeks.

PROJECT: BABY'S ROOM

2008-08-18T08:54:00.001-07:00

PROJECT BABY'S ROOM:

The baby's room started as our spare bedroom downstairs in what used to be the basement. This room wasn't totally finished when we moved in several years ago. It had 4 walls, but two of the walls were painted concrete, while the other two were framed drywall. So the first step in creating the perfect baby environment was to frame and drywall the concrete walls. This required installing furring strips with a gun that shot nails into the concrete using gun powder. That was exciting. For anyone in the Portland area, Bob's Rental on Stark just west of 148th has great deals on rental equipment- everything from ski's, snowboards, and rafts, to any construction equipment needed.

Next step was to drywall. I'd like to give a special shout-out to Jesse Larimer and David Hendrix for the help. I couldn't have done it without them. Then it came time for mudding, now I see why it is such an art. We learned two things: mudding corner tools are fantastic, and drywall dust gets EVERYWHERE, including Elisabeth's closet full of nice clothes- oops. By the end of that week the basement windows were framed, the mudding was done, and the walls were ready to paint.

Then we decided to finish the ceiling too. Since the room was originally a basement, the ceiling is essentially the sub flooring. To top it all off, there is a heating duct that runs in the middle that fed both that room and the room above (seen in the far left picture below). So to make it look better we decided to enclose the whole thing. That sucked. Another few days, some cursing, two more pieces of drywall, two recess lights, and some not-so-fancy mudding later it was finished. We finished just in time for Elisabeth's mom, Ann to arrive two weeks ago.

Picture on the left shows the cement walls, unfinished roof, and heating duct. The boards on the floor are the firring strips used to frame for the drywall.

As the construction finished, the painting and clean up began. We painted the room "wicker", and the ceiling white. While waiting for the paint to dry we cleaned out Elisabeth's closet and washed ALL of her clothes. I say "we", I really mean Elisabeth and her mom.
After the room painting was finished it was time to do the trim. Baseboards along the bottom, quarter round along the top, and molding around the windows gave the room a finished look. Carpet shampooing completed that phase of the project.

In between coats of paint, clothes washing, sleeping, shopping, and meals, we were busy. We sanded, primed and painted the baby's furniture. This included the crib, changing table, side table, and a small chair.

Finally it was time to assemble the baby furniture (I was very excited- this is such a daddy thing to do). The glider rocker went together without a hitch- and may I say that I LOVE IT. We weren't so lucky when it came to crib assembly. We learned quickly that the craigslist crib we had been storing for over a year was missing a few parts- UGH! Thankfully home depot had some of what we needed. The rest of the furniture was placed inside the room. Elisabeth and Ann washed all the baby clothes that we have been accumulating from garage sales, organized, and stored them.

The room is now ready to receive it's occupant. In the meantime it's Magnums favorite place to hang out, and our favorite place to relax in the glider rocker. A great big thanks to Ann for her help.

So what's next?.... Well Elisabeth mentioned painting the rest of the house. I quickly vetoed that idea. Maybe we should turn our focus onto the huge pile of dirty laundry that has been accumulating, the dust bunnies all over the floor, and oh yes... school and work.

Josh

Catch-up

2008-07-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

So, we were really busy the month of July. Here are the highlights.

- Josh got "new eyes" on July 3rd via lasik surgery. All went well and he now has 20/15 vision in both eyes. He's loving not having to use contacts or glasses anymore!

- Magnum and Zena were both traumatized by fireworks/Fourth of July, which really lasted for about 2 weeks of near daily valium pills. None for me though. :)

- Zena learned that apples closely resemble tennis balls and she can easily pluck these from our apple trees. She's also found that they're tasty to munch on. I am not a fan of this new trick and scold her because I want to eat my apples when they're ripe! She has made off with more apples than any other predator and I'm thisclose to spraying the ones within her reach with pepper spray just to teach her a lesson.

- Zena has also perfected the art of fly assassignation. She is the world's best fly swatter. 5 minutes inside our house and it's a dead fly. She stalks them around the house; jumps off furniture in her pursuit to get them when they're up high and then bites them and spits them out or slaps them on the floor with her paw. Magnum is generally mystified by this behavior. Below is a picture of Zena looking at her most recent victim.

- We went fishing and tried out our new raft a couple of weeks ago. It's been a cold summer so far, so we've only gotten out on the lake one time. Josh caught some little fish, but nothing big enough to keep yet. Below are some pictures of me fishing at Trillium complete with huge stomach and outie bellybutton and Josh enjoying the new raft.

- Josh has been hard at work on the baby's room. So far he's gotten drywall up on all remaining walls, mudded and sanded them, soffited the ceiling, installed recessed lighting and framed the windows. He's just got a little more mudding and sanding before we can paint and then he'll do the trim. We're so excited! Pictures will be posted at the end of the project. It's been a lot of hard work for him and I'm so grateful he's handy!

Those are all the major things that have happened so far in July. We'll keep you posted!

I've been tagged...

2008-07-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

So I have to leave 6 facts/habits about myself. I'm supposed to then tag 6 people, but I like to be one of those rebels who breaks the chain. So here's my facts:

1. I twirl my hair when I'm sorting out a problem.

2. If I come home to dirty dishes, there will be no dinner. Impossible! I only have enough energy to clean the kitchen or make dinner, not both. It's a very sad fact.

3. I can't eat just one ice cream sandwich. It would be lonely in my tummy by itself, so I sneak another one. If no one sees you eat it, it doesn't really count!

4. I am a compulsive list maker and post-it user. I have a list for just about anything. I make lists of what to buy, chores that should be done, what to do with my weekend. Sometimes if something wasn't on the list and I completed it, I feel compelled to write it on the list and cross it off. It just feels good.

5. When I get home from work, I always give Magnum love and attention by himself before releasing the beast (I mean Zena). I let them both out to go potty and then Zena gets her love. It's the same show every day.

6. I love to read. I usually read 1-2 books a week. We'll see how long I keep this pace up. And I read everything from kid's books, classics, modern fiction, textbooks on various subjects and how-to books. It just depends on my mood.

Elisabeth

Pregnancy Update- I will soon be outnumbered

2008-06-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

We had our big ultrasound appointment yesterday. The baby is healthy, and growing well. And it's a GIRL!! This totally caught us by surprise. We both were thinking it was a boy, for no good reason, that's just what we thought. So now we need a name... oh boy. I am so excited to have a daddy's little girl. I am already feeling all protective. So in preparation for a girl, I need to polish my shotgun, practice my interrogation techniques, and purchase a dead bolt and an electric fence. I am really in for it now.

We also wanted to put some belly shots online for you all to see. I have had a blast playing with the camera. There will more creative shots to come.

A bad month for a dog

2008-06-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Zena is having a bad month. To start with, a few weeks ago we awoke around 11pm to the sound of chewing and ripping. I stumbled into the room where she was supposed to be fast asleep in her crate. I caught her chewing on the sheet that was covering the pillow in her crate. She was literally eating it. I disciplined her and removed the sheet and went back to bed. A few minutes later she was chewing on her pillow. I once again disciplined her and removed the pillow. As I directed her back into her crate after removing the pillow I noticed she was acting funny. She seemed very agitated, she tried to lick anything she could including the air, and she was trying to eat whatever she could. She also felt really hot. I thought she needed to throw up, so I directed her outside. Outback she went nuts eating grass. I thought she had a tummy ache, and decided to let nature do it's thing and let her eat grass. BAD idea. Elisabeth recognized some of her symptoms... she then asked me to feel her stomach... it was REALLY round. Zena had bloat. We rushed her to the vet where they inserted a tube to get rid of the built up gas. For those of you who don't know, bloat is very dangerous. It kills animals, usually livestock and horses, and it's a very painful death. It occurs because the intestines spasm and the valves that usually allow gas to escape the stomach in the form of burping and farting (which Zena does a lot of usually) have shut down. So gas simply accumulates... it's like the worst cramps and gas pains you can imagine, followed by death an hour later. The vet was able to release the gas and I spent the rest of the night watching her, the recurrence rate for bloat in the next 7 days is really high apparently. Yay.
A few days later she developed allergies. Yes, that's right, my dog has allergies. She sneezed and shook her head a lot. So much so that we had to take her back to the vet thinking she might of had an ear infection. No ear infection, just allergies. Apparently this is also "dangerous"- if they continuously shake their head for an extended period, dogs can get a hematoma. So she got some allergy medication.
Moving onto a few days later, while walking her she tried to scratch the haltie around her nose and caught her upper eyebrow with her defore claw. She bled and of course, now has a scar on her eyebrow where hair used to be.
She also suffers chronically from alopecia X- which is a fancy way of saying she loses her hair for no good reason. This month, she is in her cycle of losing her hair. The vet thinks it's due to hormones. It started when she was fixed. And every few months she loses most of her hair and then grows it back. So she has some bald spots this month, and she has gone from all black to, some black, and some gray where she has lost most of her hair. She looks SO PATHETIC.
And yesterday... we let her out of her crate upon returning home from shopping to discover that she had hurt her tail somehow. She cried and whined like she was about to die for a little bit. Now her tail just won't stay straight. She is having problems keeping it up. She must have strained it, I don't think it's broken... but what do I know.

Notice the gray on the back of the legs in the first picture. That's where she loses her hair to start with. In the middle picture see her tail, which is in an arc pointing down. This is usually pointing up and going a mile a minute. The far right picture is of her eye. Notice the grey scar on her eyelid. We are just so glad she didn't get her eye.

-Josh

New Toys and Good Neighbors

2008-06-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

With the arrival of the baby in mind, we've started making plans and completing projects which we've been meaning to get done. Actually, I gave Josh fair warning that I feel great and will happily work on projects until mid to late August, and I make no guarantees about working on projects (usually construction related) after that date. :) So, this summer will be all about enjoying those last few camping/fishing sessions sans bebe, and getting our house projects done! The "making plans" comment references the major purchases (if any) that need to be made prior to the kiddo. One we decided was definitely needed is a camera upgrade. We love our little digital, but we wanted to be able to take great portrait type shots too, so we bought a Canon digital SLR. It's fabulous.

We practiced taking action shots on Miss Zena (because kids never sit still... much like Zena). I think that 3 frames a second will work out fine. Here's a couple of my favorites.

As you can see, Mags gets some camera time too.

Josh is also working to get some good belly shots. So far, he's not happy with the way the silhouette pictures are turning out, but you can see my little pot belly in the pics below. And things will be a lot easier now that we have a tripod. ($4 garage sale find!)

The other toy purchase was a Wii. I finally caved. If we can't play all the fun sports we like outside, we might as well try to simulate them. Besides, how else could I kick Josh's butt at boxing while being 4.5 months pregnant. :) (JOSH'S Disclaimer: I in no way advocate using physical violence toward your spouse be it video game or otherwise. But boy is it fun. And for some reason I just don't mind being beat by a girl, especially one hopped up on pregnancy hormones.)

Josh kicked project completion into high gear last weekend, we he decided that it doesn't matter if it's cold and rainy in June, he was going to get that fence up anyways. So Sunday afternoon we went to Lowe's, purchased our supplies and two hours later we had a lovely fence separating us from our neighbors with the help of our good friend Jason. Yay! Not only does it make our yard look bigger, but it keeps their gas leaking truck off our side lawn and guarantees that Josh will actually be able to use our side gate to bring the lawn mower through. Also, it appears to keep the adults from smoking outside our guest room window and leaving the butts in the flower bed. Now we're set to be good neighbors. Still on the list for this summer: (which I- Josh- am sure you don't care too much about, but we are going to tell you about it anyway cuz we have a captive audience)- replacing the window well fence out front, downstairs bathroom touch ups, drywalling the baby's room, painting the baby's room, painting the living room, dining room, upstairs hall, and kitchen. (Side note: after 2 weeks of Mai Tia red on the kitchen walls, I decided that I do not like it. Oopsie.) So if anyone wants to come for a visit, work on a project, feel free. We will supply the food, lodging, entertainment, Chiropractic care (via the outpatient clinic at Josh's school) and LOVE!

Till next time,
Elisabeth (with Josh's two cents thrown in... can he get change?)

Here comes another McMillon...

2008-05-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

We're so excited to announce (to everyone who hasn't heard yet) that we're expecting a little miracle baby in November! We've been enjoying our little surprise for a few months now. Here's the scoop: Baby McMillon is due 11/17/08 (the day after Josh's final national board exam to be a licensed chiropractor, nothing ever comes easy) and YES we want to find out if baby is a she or a he. Hopefully, we'll know on 6/24. We don't have a great ultrasound picture to post yet. He was only 6 weeks old for the first ultrasound, so there wasn't much to see. BUT, we do have the little guy's heartbeat recorded from our last midwife appointment and it's one of the sweetest sounds we've ever heard. Click on the link below to hear for yourself.
http://www.box.net/shared/4hrfpmw0g0

Elisabeth is finally past the sick phase. She has "popped" so to speak. You can barely make out a baby bump in the picture below, it's awesome.

As luck would have it, I am taking an obstetrics class right now. It's great to learn about the whole thing while my wife is going through it. To get a reaction, I told her I could just deliver the baby here to save us some time and money... that brought on a look of horror as she said"HECK NO!"- which is good cuz I didn't want to anyway (scary!). Last week in class we covered the last few days up through birth, I had to call my wife and thank her for what she is going to through- all you dads out there give your wife a hug cuz- OUCH!! Birth is amazing!

We thank all of you who have been praying for us. God has brought us a long way in a short time. We are just so excited. We look forward to what God has in store for us and our baby.

California for a surprise visit

2008-04-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

During my last break Elisabeth and I decided to take an impromptu trip to visit the family in California. We worked in out with my dad so we can surprise my mom. We rented a car, loaded the dogs in the back, and headed down. We headed out Friday night, starting around 8pm. We made it to Medford and stayed in a motel 6. That's when the dog trouble started. Zena was just too freaked out and anxious to sleep, so she paced and whined. We were on the 2nd floor in motel and every time someone walked outside our room or came up the stairs she barked. I am sure the neighbors loved us. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night. Regardless, when 7am rolled around we were up and at em. The second part of the journey was much longer, but we made good time. With multiple potty stops for dogs and Elisabeth, and gas fill ups we were able to arrive in Whittier around 7pm that night.

To the left- Elisabeth walking the dogs at a rest stop. To the right- our rental car. That was the best money we spent on the trip. Definitely worth any extra cost and still cheaper than plane tickets, especially with unlimited mileage and good gas mileage.

Dad had arranged for them to be gone when we arrived. So we got to the house and tried to settle in. Once again the dogs decided to make things interesting. I let them both in the backyard so they can run around a bit. Well they ran all right, they ran straight for Ben (my parents cat) who was laying in the rose bush bed. What happened next was kind of a blur, there was a lot of noise, mainly from Ben, and a lot of fur flying, also from Ben. I think Ben did a good job of fighting off the dogs. I ran over to stop the fight and Ben, thinking that I was also a dog, used my leg as a scratching post. I momentarily freed him from the dogs, but the chase was not over. As Ben ran away, both dogs got loose from me (yeah YOU try holding Magnum with two fingers). They chased Ben around the yard and caught up to him just as he was trying to climb a tree. Magnum grabbed him off the tree and pinned him to the ground. I ran over and separated them again. As I lead the dogs away from the scene I looked back at Ben who just laid there in the grass groaning, I had no idea how badly he was hurt. Naturally I was thinking the dogs just killed my parent's cat. Seconds later, when I returned Ben was gone. UH oh! Just then, my parents pulled up. UH OH!

We rushed out to surprise my mom, it worked. She about fell over when she got out of the car and saw us standing in the drive way. I love it when a plan comes together. We greeted them with hugs and smiles and news of Ben's disappearance and possible demise. After searching all the usual places, Ben was no where to be found. My parents took it in stride though- God bless em. We looked over the dogs, and discovered Magnum had several bloody scratches on his face, most likely from Ben, and probably some from the rose bush. Both Mags and Zena smelled of cat urine, apparently Ben peed on their faces. Ew! I had to check my leg.

On Sunday we awoke to a beautiful sunny day- despite the weather prediction of rain. We went to church and then we spent the rest of the day with the extended family. I tell you what, you can't buy that kind of entertainment. I only stopped laughing long enough to give my stomach muscles a break and to eat. We had a great time catching up. But Zena was a bit freaked out with all the people around. She started nipping at the heels of those who walked close to her- the vet calls it herding and says it's natural because she is part Border-Collie. I don't care how natural it is. At one point she ripped a hole in my mom's pants while nipping at her heels. I think almost everyone got nipped, Zena got dad several times. They just shrugged it off, God bless 'em. We were so embarrassed.

That night we awoke to a peculiar sound. It sounded like a small bucket of water being poured onto the kitchen floor. It was... kinda. The "bucket" was Magnum, and the "water" was from his... um... butt. Yup that's right, he was sick as a dog. We spent the next two nights taking him out every 3 hours so he can do his thing. On a few occasions, we didn't catch him in time and my parents carpet suffered the wrath. But my parents just shrugged it off and cleaned it up. God bless em! During the day, however it was harder. On Tuesday we left for a day trip to the lake with my dad's boat. We left magnum and Zena in the kitchen so it would be easy to clean up his mess. That night, when we returned it was a war zone with liquid land mines all over the floor. No harm done though, a mop and a few buckets of water later it was all clean. My mom said this was the cleanest the floor had been in a long time. $120 later, we found out Magnum either had dysentery from Ben peeing on his face during the fight (you gotta admit, Ben went out with a bang), or he had eaten some bird feed that had fallen in my parent's back yard that had made him really sick. The treatment was the same for either scenario. Antibiotics and a special diet.

The trip to the lake was the highlight of the vacation. Dad worked tirelessly on Sunday and Monday to get the boat ready for the trip. He is the greatest dad a guy could ask for. While we relaxed in the sun on Monday he slaved away to rebuild his carburetor. By Tuesday it was good to go. The best part of the lake trip was that Elisabeth caught her first fish ever!! It was a good size. She and my dad were the only ones to catch anything all day. That's okay we kept ourselves busy, we each got to drive the boat. I even had a chance to attempt to dock it at the S.S. relief station- a porta-potty in the middle of the lake (seen below). That proved to be difficult because the lake was rough and the wind was blowing strong. I finally docked it on my 4th try, but not before I scratched the bow and broke a vent cover off the side. My dad just shrugged it off. God bless him. I told him I would make it up to him and buy him a new boat eventually. He said he would hold his breath.

On Thursday we said our good-byes. We left sunny Southern California and came back to cold rainy Portland with a renewed appreciation for the sun. Our damage for the weekend was pretty bad: one dead cat (or so we thought), pet stains on the carpet, scratched boat, broken vent cover, ripped pants courtesy of Zena, and the stress of having to constantly watch Zena anytime you walked around her. I wouldn't be surprised if my parents never invited us back.

Update: Ben showed up a week after we had left. Dad said he had a few minor scratches but was just fine. So my dogs aren't murderers. Whew!

-Josh-

Chiropractic News!

2008-04-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

We've had some chiropractic updates around here in the last month. On April 10th, Josh was pinned at a Western States pinning ceremony for 10th quarter students. The ceremony marks their transition from treating students at the student clinic to becoming student interns treating the public in the outpatient clinic. Josh had already been in the outpatient clinic for 5 or 6 weeks, he was one of the 12 out of 60 that they moved up early. At the ceremony, their clinicians who supervised them in the student clinic spoke about the great strides they had made. The Dean of Clinics and a Vice-President spoke as well. Then the student doctors lined up and came to the front when their name was called and the Vice-President put the Western States pin on their white coat lapel. That pin is a right of passage, it is the only one that they are allowed to wear on their white coat while working in the clinic. It signifies that everyone who wears it has passed all the requirements and was promoted to the outpatient clinic. It's kind of like a mini-graduation ceremony 9 months before they have the full graduation. Josh knew that the ceremony was coming up, but didn't have a date until we got back from California and found the invitation in our mailbox for the next Thursday. I had a great time and was so proud to see him up there! Below is a picture of Josh with his student clinic supervising clinician, Dr. Ginter.

Last Friday, we got Josh's part two and part three national board results. HE PASSED!!! We're so excited. Now, he's only got one part left, which he'll take in November. I'm so proud! Josh has passed all of his boards on the first try and hasn't even come close to failing one. So, Josh is completely on track to graduate in December and have his liscense in January to start practicing!! We're getting really excited that the end is near, but still don't have any answers about where we'll be on what kind of practicing situation Josh will be in. Of course, we'll keep you posted!

The In-Laws, gotta luv em!

2008-04-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

My wonderful in-laws decided to come visit us towards the end of January. So once again we strapped on our snow shoes and drove up to clear lake- we should own some property up there with as much as we are there. This time, the weather was great. The sun was out at times, a light snow sprinkle at other times. The snow was not deep but the lake was still frozen. We walked a different 3 mile loop, enjoying the weather and the company. The dogs behaved, and walk was nice. We walked out onto the middle of the lake and decided to snap some pictures.

1st picture- Tom and Ann stop for a quick photo in the middle of clear lake. We walked on water!

2nd Picture - Tom and I decided to "strike a pose". Notice my attitude... oh yeah, I am too sexy for my snow shoes. Those are my gloves in my jacket pockets, my stomach isn't that big... I swear! If only I had an excuse to explain the ghetto booty... You can barely make out dots on the lake in the background. Those are snowmobilers- a group of 7 or so, using the lake as their race track. I WANNA DO THAT!

3rd Picture- Ann and Zena at the clear lake sign. Our dog was told to come several times before the picture was taken. She stood there and stared at us with the look you see here. She listens so well! Brat!

After a day in the snow we wanted to show Tom and Ann the other side of Oregon. So the next day, we drove out to the coast, it's KITE FLYING TIME!

We had a great time at the coast. Elisabeth got the bright idea to grab some drift wood and bring it home, hoping to prove the myth that while it burns, the fire turns several different colors- or something like that. So we all carried an armfull of sandfilled, wet driftwood to the car to take home. When we got it home I made a nice fire, got it burning hot, and threw on the driftwood. It was amazing, the wood burned a deep... blackish gray. Did you know that damp wood doesn't burn much, it really just smokes. Yeah, so did we, but we tried it anyway. The few flames we got from it were the normal fire color. So we now have some very sandy firewood that really just smokes. I love my wife.

-Josh

Another snow trip - Jan 08

2008-04-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Since we are a glutton for punishment we decided to take another snow shoe trip back up to clear lake. This time David and Ginni Hendrix came along- some friends from our small group. The weather was rough and the temperature low. Naturally the dogs came along. The snow was very deep. We trekked 3 miles around the lake. The first mile wasn't bad, we were going down hill and we were able to walk in some tracks a snow mobile had made. When we reached the lake, we encountered a group of snowmobilers (is that a word?). One of them, probably in an attempt to show off, decided to make a series of several tight turns at a very high speed while on the frozen lake. Unfortunatley for him, the turn was too tight, the edge of the snowmobile track dug into the ice cutting a nice oval shaped hole for his snowmobile to fall into. Fortunately for him we was very close to shore so the water level was only up to his knee. It happened in an instant, and a few seconds later he was out of the water and back on his snowmobile like nothing had happened. Lesson learned, I'd say. Too bad I didn't have the where-with-all to snap a picture. But you can use your imagination.

The last couple of miles were rough. As you can see in the next picture the snow level was up to our knees even with the snow shoes on. Zena was barely visible in fresh snow, but was smart enough follow behind us. For the last 2 miles we walked single file switching leaders from time to time. We slowly made our way out into the middle of the lake (a very cool feeling) and up around into the camping area. At one point Zena thought it was a be a good idea to jump over an embankment, she didn't know there was a steep drop off on the other side. Luckily Elisabeth saw it and was able to scramble over to pull her to safety before she got too far down the embankment.

The last mile was hard, but we made it back to the car. I gotta hit the cardio. Nothing makes you feel more out of shape than walking in deep snow.

-Josh

Christmas Vacation part 3- yup, back to the snow again

2008-01-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful day: slightly cloudy, soft snow falling, the sun peaking out every now and then, a cool 20 degrees. It was perfect conditions for a snow shoe hike. Jason and Jennifer Lee decided to come along this time despite our nutty Christmas day escapade. We drove up to Trillium lake this time, a place Elisabeth and I love to frequent during the summer. This time, we decided to leave the dogs at home.

The Trillium trail was packed with people. Apparently it's a very popular snow shoe/cross country skiing spot. Going there was easy, it was down-hill the whole way. I thinking to myself this was going to be an easy little hike, and it was... until we took a wrong turn. We turned a bit too soon and got into some heavy snow. Luckily someone had blazed a previous trail. On the way, we stopped to take some pictures.

We arrived at the lake a quarter of a mile from where we wanted to be. So we trudged around the lake, sometimes on the ice, to our destination.

There we sat and snacked. It was a badly needed rest. As we headed back, I was thinking to myself " well the way here wasn't bad, the way back will be even easier because of the route we will be taking". I couldn't have been more wrong. The reason the way down was easy is because it was down-hill, down a very steep hill.

And after 3 miles of shoeing, that last hill seemed insurmountable to climb back up. Poor Jen was having difficulty with her asthma acting up. I learned that altitudes and cold air are actually bad for someone with asthma. Who knew? She was a trooper though, tougher than I would have been in the same situation. With her sense of humor in tact, and with her husband's encouragement she made it the last mile to the car. That was rough for both Elisabeth and I, I can't even imagine how hard it was for her. What a trooper!

(Pictures below: the left picture was taken during the summer, on the right Elisabeth is standing in the same spot mimicking her fishing stance. As you can see she is standing on the ice. )

Christmas Vacation part 2- A hike, a flat, and heavy snow

2008-01-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

After a wild Christmas day, after a couple of days of rest, we were itching to get back up the mountain to do some good 'ol fashioned snow shoeing. This time it was just Elisabeth and I with the dogs in the Subaru. Thinking I was all too clever, I bought a set of used studded tires with rims for $75 on Craigslist. Well there is a reason they were only $75. I put the studded tires on the day before we left and kept a good eye on their performance. They seemed fine. So we made our way back to Clear Lake. Half way up, we stopped at Government Camp to use the restroom. When I got out I noticed one of our tires was a little low. So I put some air in it thinking we probably had a slow leak, after all the tire had been on for 2 days by now and it's just now showing some air loss. So I aired it back up and headed 15 miles up the mountain to Clear Lake road.

It was beautiful, and just like Christmas day, it snowed from beginning to end. We put on our shoes and started our 3 mile round trip hike (sound easy, doesn't it? You would think...). Taking our new Magellan GPS navigation... thingy (I don't really know what to call it) for direction we set off with our destination being Clear lake. The dogs LOVED it. They went nuts in the snow. Zena especially loved to bound and romp and dig her face in the snow. She went crazy. The first mile wasn't bad, it was down hill. The Second mile was really rough, because we were in 10 feet of really soft snow (not an exaggeration, we actually looked it up when we got back). Snow shoeing is not easy, especially in deep soft snow. We hiked in a single file line, trading off leaders every now and then. The dogs got smart, anytime we hit deep snow, they stayed behind the leader allowing him/her to blaze the trail. This was fine, except when they got too close and repeatedly stepped on the back of our SHOES!! Grrrrrr.

We made it to the lake, and began the last mile back. This was rough because it was the last mile and it was slightly up hill. We loved being outdoors and loved the beautiful snow accumulating on our beanies and jackets.

We arrived at the car to find an almost completely flat tire. Uh oh. The spare I had was not a studded tire, AND it was a space saver donut tire, not a good thing to use in the icy mountains. Luckily a couple miles down the mountain was a gas station, surely they would have air. If I could fill up the tire again, the leak was slow enough that I would have enough time to get to a tire repair shop at the bottom of the mountain. Well... the chevron didn't have air, it had a station labeled air, but no hose for air. Nuts! They did have a fix-a-flat spray can. So I used that, the can only had enough to fill the tire to 15 PSI, which is half of the 30 PSI needed to have a fully filled tire. That's okay, that would get me down the mountain the 15 miles to the place I used to fill the tire up in while coming up the mountain. Traffic was horrible, it took us 2 hours to go 15 miles. We spent A LOT of time at a dead standstill. With air still leaking and a almost flat tire to begin with, I was sweating it. I was in traffic with no shoulder, there was no way I could change a tire here. We limped into Government Camp and I filled the tire with air there. Whew! It took us another hour or so do get home, but the fix-a-flat and air combo did it's job. We made it safe and sound.

I had to shell out another $50 to replace that tire. Apparently the studs were loose and when I drove on them some wouldn't stay upright and they would actually be smashed sideways into the tire, one of them puncturing it. Good to know. When you buy studded tires, check to see if the studs are loose. Loose studs = bad. Lesson learned. And that's why there were so cheap to buy in the first place.

A Great Christmas Vacation- what were we thinking

2008-01-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

So you wanna know what we did over Christmas vacation? One word... snow! We spent A LOT of time in the snow up on Mount Hood.

During thanksgiving we went snow shoeing at Clear lake with Will (Elisabeth's younger brother). We just got a taste of the fun snow shoeing can bring and we wanted MORE. Well Santa brought us snow shoes and poles for Christmas so on Christmas day we headed to the mountains with some friends Jason and Jennifer Lee. This is part one, this portion of our adventure we will entitle "what were we thinking?"

Christmas day snow adventure started great, we took the Durango with both Magnum and Zena along with some sleds and some leftovers from Christmas Eve dinner and the snow shoes. Jason and Jennifer were in their '80s Dodge Ram 4x4 diesel with their dogs Otis (a VERY sweet pit bull with a head bigger than Magnum's, but a body smaller than Zena's) and Winston (a very young Chow/Lab mix).

We began with some good 'ol fashioned sledding. It snowed on us from the minute we got up there to the very end of the night. It was really nice. So things were good... until Jason got the bright idea to try to take his Ram down a trail covered in snow. I, of course being the supportive friend I am, said: "Do it. If you get stuck, the Durango can get you out". What were we thinking. Jason started down the trail and within 20 yards was stuck, unable to reverse out. At this point he was still close enough that the Durango could pull him out with no problems. But (and here is the "what was I thinking" part) I suggested that he drive further into the trail to get a running head start in order to get out of the really heavy part he was in. Well... he listened to me (what was he thinking) and went further down the trail. After 5 minutes of back and forth he managed to get his Ram stuck in some pretty deep snow. The situation was worse. Because he continued into the trail at my encouragement, I had to drive the Durango into the trail in order to get him back out. Uh oh. I managed to get the Durango stuck in a matter of seconds. The situation was a lot worse. What were we thinking?!! Well, at least I had chains to put on the Durango in case of such an emergency.

But wait... the chains didn't fit my tires correctly. UH OH! So we did what any man would do. We tried to put the chains on anyway, using a McGyver-esque technique to secure the chains. But we were not McGyver - we were Josh and Jason. After a couple of failed attempts with the chains we started to panic. The situation was beyond bad. As daylight started to fade and the snow fell harder we continued to dig and rig in a hope the chains would stay on. God is good... a nice man happened by with some extra tire cables that fit the Durango. So in one attempt the Durango was out of harms way thanks to that man, and God. There was NO WAY we would risk getting the Durango stuck again. So we had to come up with another plan to get the Ram out.

We started with the same approach: get the cables on the Ram and we should be good. But the problem was that the Ram was in such heavy snow on the drivers side that it would have taken at least an hour to dig it out enough to put the cables on. The situation was bad for Jason's Ram. After several attempts with only the tires spinning he now had 4 large holes in the snow. Then the situation became dire. Jason had turned on the Ram in an attempt to warm the snow that was so deep it was touching the undercarriage of the Ram. But the diesel exhaust was getting to us while we tried to install the cables. So after a bit of whining from me, he turned off the vehicle. That put the nail in the coffin. As we began to dig out the snow under the Ram, we noticed it was really icy. In fact, it was basically a block of ice under the Ram. The heat from the engine had melted it just enough so that it froze again quickly. The truck was now high-centered on a block of ice and the front drivers side wheel wasn't even touching the snow. So with daylight almost gone, Jason shaking and turning blue because he was in jeans and a fleece all day laying in the snow, and the girls and dogs tired, cold and hungry we made the decision to leave the Ram overnight and return tomorrow with a winch and a prayer.

So we headed down the mountain in the Durango, Me, Elisabeth, Jason and Jennifer with their dogs in their laps in the back seat, and Magnum and Zena in the very back with all the stuff. On the way down as a way of apologizing, Jason and I bought our wives some hot coffee at a gas station 15 miles from the place Jason's Ram was stuck. While we were stopped we happened by a tow truck. With a quote that was half as much as anyone else he called, Jason decided to employ the tow truck. We drove the 15 miles back in REALLY heavy snowfall and in the dark with the tow truck following. As we headed back up, noticing the heavy snow fall I said a simple prayer: "God we could use a break from the snow for the next few minutes". God answered my silly little prayer. The snow all but completely stopped as we arrived at the trail. Within 30 minutes, the Ram was free! Of course to top off the evening, as the tow truck was backing out to leave, he accidentally ran into the back of the Ram. It gave us all a good laugh, even Jason.

Did we snow shoe? Elisabeth did for maybe 10 minutes. Did we have fun? Yes, but not the kind of fun you'd think. Did we learn a lot? Yes, Jason learned not to listen to me and listen to his better judgement, and I learned that I don't know what I am talking about most of the time when it comes to snow.

(picture: Above on the right- Jason and I trying to fit the cables on the Ram, notice the Durango in the top left just 100 yards away after we had gotten it out; above on the left, the drivers side of the Ram covered in snow up to the door jam, with Jen (Jason's wife with a snow shovel). The snow under the Ram was actually up against the frame and after a few times of starting the Ram and shutting it off, it turned to ice and the truck became high-centered; below- Jason shelling out the bling to pay the tow truck, just before the tow trucked backed into his Ram while leaving)

OSCE's, FINALS, and then a break. God is good.

2007-12-12T20:50:00.000-08:00

It's that time again. Time for me to crawl into my office cave and only come out for food, a little cuddle time with the wife, and to go take a final. Tomorrow is my last final. WHEW!

This week of finals started with a BANG. Monday afternoon I had to take a set of exams called OSCE's. I have no idea what OSCE stands for, but I know what it means to us students. It means long hours of studying everything we have learned up until this point. Anything was free game on this test. There were 20 stations, I had 5 minutes to complete each station. This year the test ranged from performing exam procedures on real people while a clinician watched and graded (beleive me, lot's of writing was a bad thing), to multiple choice questions, to interpreting X-rays. Chalk another one up to God coming through for me. He is so faithful.

Before the exam we were sequestered for one hour. We had that hour to sit and wait while the group before us took the exam. There we were, 20 or so students in our white coats cramming more information into any available space in our brains. Some crammed, some sat around and joked, but everyone was really really nervous. That was the longest most nerve racking hour of my life. I did A LOT of praying, not that I would pass, but that I would simply remember what I knew and that He would quiet my nerves.

He did, and I did. I passed, thank GOD! I was talking with one of the graders today, she said at my 2nd station I gave 4 answers to one question, all of them were wrong! Naturally I have no idea what I said or what question was asked, I was in a nervous haze at that point. But after the 3rd station, God took control and calmed me. We now joke about how much of a nut I was at first.

OSCE's ended at 3:15. I had to take another written final at 4:00. Whoever planned that at my school is just plain mean. I did well on that one too. See, God is faithful regardless of how I act or how little faith (in Him or in me) I show.

So after a few more finals, I sit here writing this instead of studying for my last final tomorrow. God is good, true. But I know I gotta do some work too. Time to hit the books, one last time this quarter.

Josh

A (tree) Hunting we will go.. A (tree) Hunting we will go...

2007-12-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

So it's my turn to post. I guess I have been slacking a bit on the posting, Elisabeth has asked me to do it several times, yet it hasn't been done. She is so patient.

As is tradition, we went hunting for a christmas tree again this year. This time, we had another vehicle to follow us on our trek through beautiful Mount Hood. We headed up to Estacada with friends Cory and Becca in our car, and our other friends Jason with his wife Jennifer, and John and his wife Brandi in Jason's old rusty monster of a blazer. I realize those names might not mean a lot to many of you, but it proves that we have friends (yay).

(Cory and Jason behind him in a BIG mud puddle.. oh yeah)

The conditions were less than perfect, but that didn't stop us. It was cold and rainy (imagine that in Oregon), and that meant a little bit of snow and A LOT of mud. Naturally we just had to play a bit on the way up.

We trudged up the mountain in search for the perfect tree. After a few miles and a lot of mud we pulled off and went trapsing around the hillside. Lo' and behold we found it.

We brought the tree home and after a bit of trimming, we had ourselves a wierd looking tree, but a tree none-the-less.

As you can see, we have had some problems with our garland. Apparently dog tails and garland do not mix.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Josh

Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

This is the longest post we've ever written and has 5 videos. Maybe a little excessive, but we thought all of them were worth including and they're funnier with the volume up. So enjoy! We've been having a really fun Thanksgiving again this year! Elisabeth's brother, Will, came down from Missoula. We put him right to work. Josh and Will added stairs on to the back deck. So it's no longer a long, scary step down into the mud!! They worked on the stairs while Elisabeth cooked Thanksgiving dinner and we all finished about the same time. We've been feasting on yummy leftovers for a couple of days now and they're still good! Friday, we shopped, rested and played games. And today we headed up to Mt. Hood to play in the snow. This time we had both dogs and we rented snow shoes. We had a blast! First, Will decided to test out the new circular sled that he and Josh bought the day before. However, Zena thought it was an oversized frisbee and barked until he threw it.

The funniest was when she tried to bring the sled up the hill and it would slide back down along with her. She also tried to fetch the snow balls that we threw for her.

We walked down to the lake and discovered that it was mostly frozen.

This is the same lake that Josh and I camped and fished at this summer. It was amazing to see how different it looked. We stuck to the really thick parts and ran and slid around with the dogs.

Josh and Will had to take sliding to a new level of course!

We were looking for a place to try out the snow shoes, but it was harder than we thought because the snow was a lot lower than it was last year. We found a spot that the guys decided might be good for sledding, but there was too many rocks and not enough snow.

It gets dark now at 4:30, so we had to head back down the mountain. Now we're all worn out and vegging around the house. When we got home, Zena exhibited some strange behavior. She started nipping at Will's legs. We thought this was pretty funny and were a little worried that she didn't like him. But it turns out she just doesn't like his snow pants! The noise they make when he walks made her growl and then nip at them. If you listen close, you can hear her jaw close as she nips at him. Naughty girl!

We let her do it long enough to get it on camera and then let her know nipping is not ok!! But it was really funny! This was a longest post ever! Thanks for reading!

Sleepy Babies!

2007-11-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

Josh sent me a sweet picture of the sleeping kiddos. They're keeping him company while he's home sick today. :(

Back from our Sabbatical

2007-11-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

Well, we haven't posted for a really long time and there is way too much to catch up on completely. I'll hit the highlights of the last week or so. Josh went to a chiropractic seminar last weekend in Seattle and I got to go as the tag-a-long who just hangs out. Saturday, I went to Pike Place Market with a friend, Nicole, whose husband was also up for the seminar. We shopped all day! Below is a picture of the first Starbucks.

The famous fish market where they throw the fish.

Josh and I at the Rainforest cafe. It felt like being back at Disneyland!And now for the big news... Magnum just got a little sister tonight. Her name is Zena and she is such a sweetie. Right now there is a lot of nervous energy, some growling and we've just had the first potty accident. Zena is 3 years old and looks like a 40 pound version of Magnum. Magnum definitely likes her, but she is a little nervous at her new home. However, she doesn't put up with any crap from Magnum. They had a great romp in the backyard and we all got a little muddy. It was lots of fun!! Here is a picture of both of them together and then one of Zena by herself. We'll keep you posted!

The Most Spoiled Dog in the World!!!

2007-03-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

If only we had the audio, so you could hear him snoring . . .

Winter Treat!

2007-02-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, we have been busy! But all with good fun things. Elisabeth's parents came for a visit President's Day weekend. We had such a blast seeing them. It was a go, go, go weekend! On Friday we went to McMenamins pub, a Portland favorite. They also have a movie theater, so we saw The Departed. I have to say the movie could have been so good, but I now regret my decision to stay awake and watch the rest of it. Sleep would have definitely been better! Saturday, we shopped and browsed and shopped some more. Josh took an opportunity to study in the car for part of the day rather than look at antiques. I think Tom would have liked to join him at times. Sunday, we went to church and then headed up to Timberline Lodge for the night. It was so much fun!! The weather cooperated (depending on what you wanted) and we enjoyed 14 inches of snow during the night. Josh had to dig the Durango out the next day for us to go home.

Tom and Ann temporarily lost their minds and slept with the window open, so they enjoyed snow INSIDE their room. I guess people from the South don't get as much winter as they'd like at home, so they get as much as they can elsewhere. The lodge was so much fun to stay in. We played games by the fire at night and had yummy yummy food. For those of you who don't know about the lodge; the exterior was used for The Shining and it was built in the 1930's during the depression by workers in the WPA. Below is what it looks like looking straight up from the second floor window at the Lodge. Notice that the snow is much higher than the window. They have an average annual snow depth of 21 feet and receive about 45 feet of snow a year.

The lodge is about an hour from Portland. The picture below was taken out the window in our room. The corrugated metal thing is what keeps the entrance open in the winter due to the high snow depths.

It is a very cool place to visit year round. Sadly, Tom and Ann left on Tuesday and Elisabeth had to go back to work. We had so much fun during their visit!!! And hope they come back soon.

Last weekend Josh played volleyball 1/2 the day on Saturday and Sunday we had a marathon set of potlucks. We were gone from 9:45 AM to 7:30 PM! Busy times, but we're having a lot of fun. Tonight there is a snow advisory in effect for the Valley (Willamette, not LA), so maybe we'll wake up to snow.

Is there a doctor in the house??

2007-02-07T19:32:00.000-08:00

Josh started a soft tissue internship in the student clinic this quarter in addition to all of his other classes and the first set of boards he has to take. It's a load and a half. When he works on one of his patients, Josh has to dress like a doctor. I love it. Today, I saw him in his gear, complete with lab coat and official id tag and I had to share.

I think he's the handsomest chiropractor in the joint. Of course, I may be slightly biased. Magnum was also very impressed by his daddy's paraphenalia.

Anyway, Dr. Josh is now a reality. And I'm so excited he's getting to the fun parts of all this schoolwork - the part where he gets to help people.

January Happenings

2007-02-01T18:37:00.000-08:00

Well it's still winter in Portland. It's warmed up to a nice 48 degrees (feels like 30 with the wind chill). In the past few days, we've had some strong winds, which means the low clouds that hide the beautiful mountains have been temporarily blown aside. This is the view at the park across the street from us when I got home tonight. You can see Mt. Hood in the background.

It's now getting dark around 5:20 PM, so I actually get to drive home in the daylight! Magnum has been having lots of fun with a new friend named Blake. He's a 7 week old puppy that our friends Trent and Tiffani just got. He's hilarious and to watch Magnum and this wee pup interact is even funnier. Tiffani and I were in stitchs watching Blake try to jump up on our "back porch" (more like oversized step). Blake would run and jump up, unfortunately clotheslining himself in the process. We sadly did not get that on video, but I did record Magnum and Blake's first meeting. They're a little wary of each other in the video, however, after several meetings they now get along even better. Magnum is tolerant when Blake bites his tail and Blake understands that to touch Magnum's bone is a declaration of war.

Have a great Groundhog's day tomorrow!!

Snow!!!

2007-01-12T07:19:00.000-08:00

We've been getting false promises of snow from the weatherman for a couple of months now, but until yesterday we had no snow. When we woke up yesterday, I asked Josh if it had snowed and he confirmed that my hopes for a snow day home from work were just wishful thinking. He went to school around 7:00 and there was still nothing going on in the snow department. Then when I reluctantly opened the garage door to head to work at 7:30, I saw this thick shower of snow coming down outside. I was so excited, that I went back inside and grabbed my camera and took some pictures.

Magnum came out with me. He was so frisky from the snow. He kept tearing around the yard in circles just getting out his energy.

And if you know Magnum, you will realize how odd this behavior is because when it is time for me to go to work, Magnum usually has already got his napping spot comfortable on the couch. After taking the pictures and consulting with an office mate about whether Concordia would be open, I decided to turn on the 4 wheel drive and head to work. In retrospect, I should have stayed at home and waited for the sun to come out and thaw some this first. Despite the fact that I have a big SUV, 4 wheel drive and was driving slow (25 mph or less) and pumping the brakes when stopping; I still spun around some. Another friend of ours was less lucky, she hit a fire hydrant and a wall. Under the fast falling snow, was a thick layer of ice and it was very difficult to drive on. I got to work just fine, but I stressed about going home for most of the morning. So around noon, I went home to work for the rest of the day. Sure enough, it was thawing, but was still really icy in our neighborhood. I took more pictures.

This is the most snow we've had since we've moved here and we loved it!

Christmas for two please...

2006-12-28T20:25:00.000-08:00

For the first time in our marriage Elisabeth and I spent Christmas without our families. We missed our families very much, but realized it was a nice change. Not that we are going solo (or duet I guess) from now on, but Christmas for two (or three if you count Magnum) brought us closer. We started the celebration by putting up our tree. The things is, for some reason our tree looked a lot more full in nature, with snow and other trees around it, go figure. So once again we have a Charlie Brown christmas tree and we love it!!
After the decoration came the food. And boy was there a TON of food. Elisabeth was a machine.
She cooked enough food for an army. We were able to give some away to friends and her coworkers. Not only did she cook wonderful holiday snacks like Puppy Chow, Cheeseball, Rumballs, etc.; she also cooked us a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner complete with a Cornish Game Hen, mashed potatoes, gravy, lime green salad, french onion soup and ALL the fixins that rival the best Thanksgiving meals I have had.

Of course I attempted to help. Unfortunately, I take after my mom in the cooking department and my feeble attempt at fudge resulted in a light brown runny mess that more resembled a sugary country gravy rather than a firm melt-in-your-mouth taste of heaven. Yeah, ew! Inside the warm house smelled of food, and Christmas. Outside, the temperature dropped as the days passed. Pretty much every morning we woke to freezing temperatures, frost and ice as in the picture below. One morning we woke to a light layer of snow covering everything. It stuck for a while but melted just in time to freeze at night so the roads were slick the next morning. Walks with Magnum at night on slick roads is very challenging but kinda fun. Not only do I enjoy playing on slippery asphalt, but I also really enjoy the crunch of grass under my boots when I walk on our freshly frozen yard. There is something about the smell of a cold morning, the smoking chimneys, the crunch of frozen grass, and the peace and quiet that brings a smile to my face and gives me a sense of contentment. I love it.

Merry Christmas to all, we miss you and we love you. We are truly blessed to have people who are actually interested in reading what we have to say.

Josh and Elisabeth

Schools is OUT (for three glorious weeks)

2006-12-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

Ah the great release of finals. I come away from this quarter (my 5th of 12) with a sense of accomplishment and a hope that I remember even the slightest thing I supposedly learned this quarter. Okay so... the thigh bone is connected to what bone? Lord help me...

Next quarter (6th quarter) is where the real fun begins. I am finally done with the basic sciences. Now I get to start with clinical classes. The good news though, is that I learn how to adjust the neck and extremities, my last two hurdles before the finish line that is Chiropractic. The bad news is I have part one of the National Board Exams at the end of this upcoming quarter. This is usually the most dreaded part of the National Boards simply because it requires recollection of all of the material over the last year. The basic sciences. So I ask for prayers. Not only for me, but more for Elisabeth. During finals time every quarter I become enthralled in studies and neglect her. Coming up I will not only have finals, but one week prior to finals I will have national board exams. This means I will not be very much fun to be around and Elisabeth will have to put up with me for a good three weeks.

But enough about next quarter, it's time for me to concentrate on break. Thus far I have checked off one thing on my rather lengthy list of TO DOs. That's all right, I have three weeks. It feels good to turn my attention back home, to things around the house, and mostly to my wonderful wife and our Christmas together.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree . . .

2006-12-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had a lot of great plans, but unfortunately I ate something that did not agree with me. Therefore, I spent most of the weekend throwing up and Josh spent most of it cleaning up after me. (What great husband!) However, we did get our Christmas tree before all of that unpleasentness. One of the things I love about Oregon is that they have so many trees, you can cut one down for $5. So, we drove up in the mountains (about a 45 min. drive) and looked for a road or trail that we could take off the main highway to cut down our tree. The snow level had dropped to where we were and Josh handled the icy roads very well. The road that Josh normally uses for logging was closed due to the snow, but we found another one farther up the highway that didn't appear to have a name (which is really good, because if it isn't named then they can't tell you not to cut down trees off of it!) The short version of this story is that we parked, walked around, drove off again, fully engaged our 4 wheel drive, drove down a trail, parked, and cut down a 12 ft. tree.

It was a blast. Magnum loves the mountains. He was especially facinated by some fresh deer tracks. We ended up seeing the deer a couple of minutes later when we were in the car. Josh single-handedly secured the tree on the car and drove us home. My hero!

Thanksgiving!

2006-11-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Belated Thanksgiving Everyone!

We had a wonderful holiday with my brother, Will, and some friends, Trent and Tiffani. Will flew in last Wednesday and stayed until Sunday afternoon before he headed back to school in Montana.

We had a big T-day meal with all the fixins. I bought a 21 lb. bird and it took 6 hours to cook! We also had stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean cassarole, pumpkin pie, rolls, lime salad, mashed potatoes and gravy.

After the meal we lazed around and eventually played cards.

On Friday, we burned off a lot of the T-day meal by participating in the Black Friday shopping event. I had never heard that term before I moved here, but apparently that is what the shopping craziness is called on the day after Thanksgiving. Josh and Trent left about 4:30 in the morning. Will, Tiffani and I headed out with them for round 2 around 9:00. We shopped until it was time to race downtown to the Christmas tree lighting in Pioneer courthouse square. We sang carols and had fun with friends in a huge crowd of people!

On Saturday, we went up to Mt. Hood to look for a Christmas tree and to play in the snow. There weren't any good trees where we went, but we had lots of fun sledding and tromping around in the snow. Magnum went with us and the snow was deeper than he is tall. It came up to Will's waist and he is 6 ft. tall. We spent the whole day (when it was light) up on the mountain with turkey sandwiches for lunch, of course. Needless to say, we burned off a lot of T-day on Saturday too.

We had a wonderful break and now we just have to get through a few more weeks and Josh will have a 3 week break before his 6th quarter and I will get a week holiday for Christmas!

Rain and more Rain

2006-11-21T07:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a very wet month so far. But we are really enjoying the rain! It's nice to just curl up inside, light a fire and relax with a warm mug of tea (or hot chocolate for Josh). Unfortunately, Magnum still feels the need to go outside for his daily constitutional. (a.k.a. a WALK - we never say the "W" word until absolutely necessary because Mags takes excited to a new level!) Notice my Magnum walking boots that I got from the farm supply store. They are warm, dry and even match my pajamas!

Josh has been studying like a fiend for his end of quarter. Sometimes Magnum helps with cuddles.

However, starting Wednesday we are going to relax and enjoy the holiday. We wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

Josh's Many Faces

2006-11-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

Ok. We decided to start a blog to share what's going on in our lives with our families and friends. Aren't words and pictures worth at least 2 phone calls?! We'll try to update this often. It's a great excuse to use the digital camera! For Halloween, Josh dressed up as a Scotsman.

Magnum dressed up as a basketball player. I was sick and didn't dress up at all. :(

Josh grew out his beard for about a month beforehand and had fun shaving it off a piece at a time after Halloween.

This is what is known as a handlebar mustache- gross! But as you can see it was really funny to his friends. And yes, this was taken during class.... for shame.

Perhaps the good ol-fashioned 7o's 'stache will look better... perhaps not.

Thankfully one day later it was gone and all is right in the world.

2006-11-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

Coming soon to a computer near you!