Katy turns 26

Charlotte and I made it down to corvallis, to celebrate Katy's Birthday. We had a great time hanging out with mostly just the girls and partying. We spent most of our evening at the peacock. We talked, danced, and drank for the entire evening. It was so much fun to be able to celebrate with everyone. Its so nice to be back home with all of my best girlfriends...

More to come in the next few days... i am super tired.. and heading to bed. I just wanted to blog before char! :)

Christmas 08

I/we have arrived to Oregon!

Kyle and I are so happy to finally be home and all in all our flight went well and we made it into town unlike many other people that are stranded as we speak at the airports, and bus depots. Charlotte was wonderful and stayed up late to pick us up from the airport, but it was great to be able to come back to her house so we could see the place. It was so much fun to see and I love the house! I cant wait to see what her and Grahm will do with the place. Kyle, Char and I went to breakfast on Sat morning with Matt and Carly before they left for Alaska. I'm just glad they got out of here before the storm hit. Char and I headed down to Corvallis on Saturday afternoon so that we could celebrate Katy's 26th birthday which was a blast (pics to be posted soon). Here are just a few pics from Portland, and our trip down to Corvallis. Kyle decided to stay in Portland on Saturday so he could spend some time with friends. He is currently still stuck up in Portland, and I'm just hoping that he will be able to come to Corvallis tomorrow. We have some serious Christmas shopping to do so i need him here... not to mention i miss him.

Charlotte and I... playing in the snow

The roads... it was crazy


I love the snow...

Riley... our guard dog. He told us if we need to put chains on, he would help :)

All in all i am so happy to be home, its so nice to be here with my family and my great friends. I have missed everyone like crazy and it just feels like home.

I keep getting a lot of flack for not posting to my blog.. so i am trying and will try better!

OCF 2008

Here are just a few pics from this year's Fair. 

The booth!

The girls!

This sign is super funny...

Flamingo parade.

Sara and I.  I was so happy that she came to the fair!

New House...

So here are a few pics from the new place.  

Here is our bedroom... please pardon the fact we have nothing on the walls, we have only been here for a week.  We still have lots of unpacking to do.

This is my favorite room in the house, its so nice to have a dining room table.

Our living room complete with big screen, pool table, air hockey table, and some really comfy couches!

Our backyard... with a pool and volleyball net.

I hope that this will convince all of you to come visit.  I miss you all!

Wanted to Share...

Here is a cute pic I stole from one of Kyle's classmates from his pinning ceremony.. thought it was cute!

We moved!!

So as some of you may know we moved into our new house! I am so happy about our new house, and cant wait for people to come visit me! (hint hint)

The house is huge, it has three bedrooms, an office, a living room, family room, laundry room, and two bathrooms. Not to mention a garage, and a backyard with a pool! Kyle has also described it as being so big.. he cant touch the ceiling in any of the rooms and that's not really an exaggeration! He can touch in the corners of the house, but really this place is huge! We are still in the unpacking phase of moving, but we are really starting to get settled in. We were talking about how nice it is to come home to this new house... and the best part its just the two of us! I will get more unpacked this weekend and take pics of the new place in hopes of tempting all of you to come visit us!

I'm sorry I have been so bad about posting anything lately.. its hard to find the time to unload all my pics, and then post them. I will work on pics from my vacation back to Oregon, even though i didn't take many! I miss you all sooo sooo much! I hope to see you all again soon.

I made it through my first Monsoon!

So.. I will post more of my personal story in a day or two.. but I lived through my first monsoon. It was crazy! - here is a story from the local news-

Monsoon storm tears Mesa palm trees in half, damages homes-

Many East Valley residents are cleaning up Tuesday after a monsoon storm left debris spread throughout the area. Hardest hit were mobile home communities with metal, trees, branches strewn around. Phyllis Payne lives in a mobile home community near Broadway and Recker roads in east Mesa. She's from Illinois and told ABC15, "...we're used to tornadoes so therefore this was just like sitting through a tornado warning, only it just happened so fast."A large metal strip was embedded in the side of her home. She thought about how bad it could have been. "It could have killed them. Had they been out in the storm, it could have, if it could have pierced through metal, what could it have done to the skin?"
A brief power outage Monday night seemed small compared to the massive damage and storm debris left behind at the New Hope and Park Place mobile home community in Mesa. The community near Recker and Broadway roads suffered some flooding. Winds ripped people's awnings, carports, siding and roofs. Several palm trees looked like they had been sawed in half with a chain saw; winds had torn them apart. Several trees and cacti blocked roads within the community. People who live there told ABC15 they thought the winds sounded like a tornado or a hurricane.

Oh... by the way. The streets they mention Broadway and Recker are 1 block from me!


another story... the aftermath

Power utility crews worked Tuesday morning to replace downed power lines after an isolated monsoon storm slammed the East Valley Monday. Salt River Project workers used cranes to remove toppled poles and get ready to replace them. A crew member told ABC15 that one of the power lines brought down carries 69,000 volts, enough to light up two square miles. If one had come off a pole, it would have snapped like a rubber band, according to a worker. SRP officials expect Southern Avenue near Power Road to be closed for the rest of the day Tuesday.

Mesa took the brunt of the storm, with winds exceeding 60 mph and 50 lightning strikes within a 30-minute period.Winds were so powerful, the SRP power lines knocked down near Southern Avenue and Power Road trapped seven vehicles and a city bus. Emmett Hood and his wife were driving home when a power pole snapped and fell onto their SUV. It smashed the hood, shattered the back windshield, and came within inches from hitting them. A Mesa Fire Department spokesman said nine people were trapped in the vehicles. Only one person was hurt from broken glass.SRP shut off power to those wires, but those motorists were trapped for 45 minutes before officials said it was safe for them to get out of their vehicles. At the height of the outage about 10,000 SRP customers were without power due to those downed power lines. Tuesday morning, only about 400 remained without power. The storm dropped .87 inches of rain in Mesa, blew over power lines and lifted roofs of mobile homes. Roofs and awnings were blown off a mobile home park in Mesa, while AZ Car Care’s windows were shattered and their business flooded from Monday’s storm. There were no official reports of a microburst hitting the area, however it is highly likely. The National Weather Service will be looking into it.The storm started in the southeast Valley around 7 p.m., hitting Queen Creek and Gilbert. The storm brought a lot of dust, heavy rainfall at times and plenty of lightning.Like most monsoon storms, this was very isolated.

Im Back...

In AZ that is! I had a wonderful time in Oregon and it was difficult to come back to my new "home" in AZ. I had such a great trip back to my real home and could have stayed for weeks in order to spend time with all the wonderful people back there! I miss you all and wish I could have spent more time with all of you! I love you all and I hope you will all consider visiting Kyle and I in our new house! We have to start moving! YUCK!

Counting Down the Days... and a few weeks in review

I am currently counting down the days until I will be in Oregon! I am so excited to visit, and see everyone! I have a lot planned, but I'm hoping to make it all happen. I'm thinking that i need to sleep a lot before i come, so i have more time to spend with everyone. I will keep you all posted about my plans, and just call me to make plans with me.

The past few weeks have been good, here is a run down of what we have been up to-

Ashley's work- Work is good, i have good days and bad days and most days I'm exhausted when i get home. It is really difficult getting used to a new boss, new policy's, and new co-workers. I think that all in all it will work out... but I'm still finding my place in my new job. In the next few weeks, i will be finishing training, and have a schedule and responsibility's. One of the fun things that i have been helping with is freshman orientation. It is a blast working with freshman to get their schedules in and helping them figure out what they want to take. It makes me feel old in a way.. i kinda think I'm still really young, and think that i relate to the incoming freshman... but really there is a pretty big age gap.

This last Friday (June 27) I was able to leave work early and attend Kyle's pinning ceremony, which marks his entrance into his first round of clinical rotations. It was a nice ceremony with Kyle's class, and the 2nd year (soon to be third years). The second years got their white coats, and Kyle's class got their pins. Except Kyle's school forgot the pins so they just pretended to pin them. It was pretty funny! I was really happy to be able to go to the ceremony, and mark this big accomplishment with kyle. Kyle is in the back row (6 people in-I think). I didn't have my camera so I don't really have a better picture. Im hoping one of Kyle's classmates will send me a few.

Kyle is still busy with School but we were able to go out last last night to celebrate our friend Kristina's birthday. It was a lot of fun, we started out the night at this place called Dave & Busters (not sure if there are any in Oregon) but it is like a grown up Chuck-E-Cheez. There are all sorts of video, and arcade games, but they sell liquor and beer. We stayed there until 12 when they closed. There were still people with their little kids out until 12.... really weird! It was a great place to go to celebrate with a big group of people. We then went to Saddle Ranch - a country themed bar but they played hip hop music. They had a mechanical bull which was fun to watch (i didn't ride). Kyle and I partied hard... and were not feeling 100% today. It reminded me how happy i am that i really don't go out much anymore! I really like my evenings in spending time with Kyle, and waking up refreshed.

Here are some of my closest girlfriends in AZ. Kylee, and Kristina!

Kylee, Me, and Kyle at Dave & Buster's! Kylee did really good, and won a ton of tickets.... i think she's saving up for a really good prize!

Oh.. one more quick thing. It looks like Kyle and I will be moving! I am very excited about having more space, but I really hate moving, and I will miss my roommates Jay & Drew. We really did have a good thing at this place, but Kyle and I got an offer we couldn't refuse. I will update everyone more on the house another time. But all i can say is we will have room for people to stay with us!

All I need to do now is get through this week, and then I'm on VACATION! Cant wait to see everyone!

Fun Weekend.

Sorry about the small pics, but i had to steal them from my friends facebook page. We have been trying to stay cool now that the weather is in the 100's +, and this weekend it was 110 both Saturday and Sunday. We went to a concert at the Mesa Amphitheater (it really was pretty nice- we were not sure at first) and saw both The Roots, and Ericka Badu. The concert was great, though it was really hot at first it started at 6, and it was still 95 out, and there were really only places to sit in the sun. It eventually cooled off, and it was amazing. We are hoping to go see Death Cab this Thursday if Kyle's study schedule allows.

The Group- Adam, Kyle, Kristina, and Kristen. Me in the front.

Erica Badu- she wore this plaid suit the whole time- long sleeves and all. I'm not sure how she did it, it was hot in the crowd, and i can only imagine how hot it was on stage. She also had a huge afro! She really is a good performer, and the show was great.

The rest of our weekend-
it was good, i layed by the pool, and relaxed. I'm studying Kyle's old GRE exam book and its scary. I have a lot of studying to do, good thing I don't really have a time line. I ran errands today trying to find cute stuff to decorate my new office. Its hard though... the new office feels like a closet and is pretty small for two people. We will see, I'm sure i can make it feel like a home away from home. It does make me realize how good i had it at the SON! That office didn't need much decorating to make it feel homey.

Kyle has been busy studying, he has a 5 week summer term and it has three classes and they are very intense. All of his hard work is paying off, he got a 4.0 last term, and we hope that this summer term doesn't wipe him out. At least after this intense 5 weeks, he can relax back in Oregon and at the OCF.

I'm back to work tomorrow, and am looking forward to it. We are scheduled to help out at new student orientation which should be a lot of fun! I'm hoping this week will allow me to actually do some work, and also get computer access, and a computer (which after two weeks you would assume to have). Oh well! Hope everyone is good! Leave me a comment so i know someone reads my posts!

Week two..

Oh.. just thought I should let everyone know that I made it through my first week at the new job, I'm on week two.  Everything is going well so far, and Im learning a lot.  I will update you on how it goes, and what exactly I will be doing (honestly I'm still learning).  Im tired now, and have to get up early!  

Birthday Present....

My birthday was back in March, and I was given money from my parents, my Grandma B, and my Grandma & Grandpa Gale.  I wanted something special to remember my 25th Birthday, and thought it was fitting to purchase nice jewelry.  When Kyle, Barb and I were out and about in Scottsdale I found these beautiful earrings. I love them so much!!

Thank you to all that helped purchasing them!

Barb Visit's AZ

Barb came to visit us last week and it was so fun to have her!  We kept her busy with all sorts of fun stuff, and showed her all of the things that we love about AZ.  On Sunday we took her to the Desert Botanical Garden, and wandered along all of the cacti.  Its amazing how different things grow in different environments, and i really think cacti are super interesting.  Here are a few pics from our visit.

Kyle, Barb & I.  

Why I think cactus's are so cool!

Kyle and Barb next to a Saguaro cactus, you see lots of them in AZ

Kyle's artistic photo skills.

In addition we took her some of our favorite places to eat, kyle cooked up some wonderful dinner, explored, lounged by the pool, and relaxed.  

Its Official....

I have two pieces of good news.....
1. I was offered a job (finally)
2. I'm coming home to visit

I'm still working out the exact details of my trip to Oregon but basically I should be in Oregon from the 5th of July to the 16th. I have lots of things to work into my trip, and I am so excited to see everyone. I wasn't able to see everyone during my last trip, and I'm hoping with such a nice long trip I can work everyone in. I will let you all know my exact plans but they do include time in KFall to visit Gma B, time in Corvallis to celebrate my dad's bday, time with Katy (I didn't see her at all last time), time in Portland with Gpa Gale, visit OHSU SoN (hopefully a nice lunch?), Seeing all of my other friends (Char, Mikaylee, Caroline, Carly, Jolene, and so many more), spending time with family, and the OCF. I'm sure that I left something out, but all in all I am so excited to come home.

Ok.. the job part. I was offered a position with the W.P. Carey School of Business Undergraduate program. I will be starting June 2nd, and its full time work. I'm excited to have a job, and am looking forward to to meeting new people, challenging my self, and to be getting a paycheck again. There are other perks of the job.. which include tickets to ASU events... no worries.. I'm still a Beaver fan and will plan on attending all ASU vs. OSU events. Go Beavers! If you are coming down to any of the games in Arizona let Kyle and I know and we would love to put you up.

Oregon Country Fair Time....

The Oregon Country Fair is just around the corner and I am excited as ever!  Here are some pics from last year!  I am happy to say that I will be able to attend for the 2008 OCF.... 

What the Fair looks like before we get there.... Kyle and I scoped out the booth and thankfully no trees were down, and everything was in place...

The Stage... Some day we are going to have to replace this thing, but until then we will continue to have performances by meandering performers.. always a treat

Setting up.. the transition is a lot of fun!

Falafel's anyone?  I love being behind the booth!  

Mike is the Falafel master... 

Every Sunday, never fails... the backless tux.  I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

After a hard day or night of partying... It's my tent and I think its Sasha.  Oh well I think this sums it all up.  I cant wait to get back and enjoy all what the OCF has to offer.  

In Memory..

Just a few pics from the slide show that we put together for my grandmother.  She was exceptionally beautiful, caring, and compassionate.  I miss her, and think about her often. She and my grandfather were married in 1950, and had many fun adventures during that time. 

Wedding Portrait

Off to their Honeymoon !!!

Sisters...

Grandma and Grandpa in their backyard.  They had one of the most amazing gardens, and it was always fun to spend the summers in The Dalles and help out in the garden.

Grandma and her sister

I have thought of her often, and I am very thankful for all of the time I was able to spend with her and my grandfather.  I was so happy that they moved to Portland, and enjoyed my many trips to their house to do laundry, and a wonderful dinner was always part of the evening.  

She was pretty special!

Golf Date

Just a glimpse of out life in AZ. Kyle took me golfing the other weekend and we had a blast. It was the first time that I golfed 18 holes. Kyle says that I did good and showed a lot of patience. I think I have slight ADD when it comes to golf. I think the best part is driving the cart!

Pics from my trip to Oregon

I actually didn't take many pictures during my trip to Oregon... but here are a few

Went to East to watch Jeffery on Friday! Just one of the things I miss about my roomie & Portland!
Carly, and I. We walked around on Saturday morning, with Matt and went shopping, the market, and had sushi! A Perfect day in the city!
Tulips! I love Tulips.. a sign of the weather changing!
I miss my sisters!

I miss all of my friends... I wish you could all come visit! I am planning on coming home in July for the OCF, and just to spend time with everyone!

1st Day as a Temp

Well, I had my first day as a Temp. It was a pretty good day, and all in all I felt pretty productive. I guess its just nice to get out of the house, all I did was make copies, and enter data into filemaker. Oh well, I go back tomorrow and get to do it all over again! I'm just happy to be out of the house and to be making some money!

It really made me miss my old job! I was really spoiled at the SoN!

I have to put a little shout out to my friend Caroline! She was so sweet and mailed me a copy of a book on interviewing! I am working on reading it, and learning all of the things that I have been screwing up on in my previous interviews! Thank you so much! You are such a good friend!

Back to AZ..

Well, I'm now back to Arizona after my long visit to Oregon.
It was great to be back home in Oregon, but it was longer than expected.
One of the main reasons that I came home was to help out my Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma had open heart surgery at the beginning of the month, and she was finally discharged to home. She experienced some complications from the surgery, and we had to re-admit her on the Friday that I was home. My Aunt Ellen and I took her to the hospital and spent the day with her, which was very special. She required an additional surgery (which happened on Sunday) and she never really recovered from the surgery and she passed away early Monday morning. It was extremely difficult for me, because she was so important to me, she really is an inspiring person. I'm going to miss her a lot.

She said that we needed to have a big party for her and that is what we did! Here are some pictures from the big event!

This is Grandpa, My cousin Mairin, and me.

Sara and I. In our new dresses! Thanks mom!

I will work on posting more pics.. I had a lot of fun with all of my friends. I miss you all terribly!