Blu Hole Ranch

This last weekend, Alissa was in town to visit her family and friends.  She had this trip planned before she came to see us in San Fran, so it was fun to see her twice this month.  On Saturday afternoon, Dave, Romo, Persons, Schwartz, Sarah and I packed up the cars and drove down to the Hunsaker's ranch outside of Springfield Oregon.  The have a few acres on the bank of the McKenzie river.  There are three horses, two pooches, and one fat Marley cat.  It was so amazing to see Alissa and her family.  I took lots of pictures. It was so amazing to be all together in one place, and have such a great time with my best friends! (I've been really high on life lately, so being with some of my favorite people just adds to it.  I love my life right now... it's perfect!)

Dave and I on the four-wheeler.  This thing was sooo fun!

The horse bridge out in the pasture

Dakota the Aussie

Dave and Bear, the other Aussie, playing in the McKenzie

Dave and his best man, Romo.

Country girls!

Sarah and Dakota

Alissa and Brian join Romo in his bed while Alissa visited our house on  Friday.

Paparazzi shot! Two of my favorite women in the world, doing what we do best, gossip.

San, Alissa's mom, teaches riding lessons on the property. Her website here. (Shameless plug!)

Mary's Peak in the fall... #2

The Sunday after Halloween, we decided to continue the tradition and take a drive up Mary's. This time I got to drive too! When we got to the top of Mary's , we hiked to the tippy top just as the sun was setting. Best pictures EVER!

Halloween Fun!

For Halloween, I planned and schemed quietly... and ended up as a blonde bombshell. I dressed up as Lady Gaga, a creative and outrageous pop star who tends to run around half naked... even to the grocery store. Alissa was Jessica Rabbit, from Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, the movie. Sarah was Robin Hood, and Emma was a cave lady. The boys did their costume exchange and ended up wearing what others brought. Dave was a lumber jack. Romo was a horse jockey. Persons was a "ho-bot", like a robot only feminine, and skanky. Haha. Ben ended up as Dave's 80's glam rock creation, and Elan was a skimpy nurse.

It as a great night with LOTS of fun pictures. We all had a blast! I love my friends/family so much. I don't know what I would do without them. :)

Here are a few of the best ones:




The whole group from the costume exchange party

Mary's Peak in the fall...

The day after my birthday celebration, the boys decided they wanted to take their cars for a long drive. Being that both Dave and Romo, and both their cars, love to go fast, they knew it was time for another Mary's Peak Rally. Even though I was not feeling up to being in a car going very fast around sharp turns (thanks to my hangover), I agreed to be Dave's co-pilot and grabbed a 7UP for the road. Romo picked up Persons to be his co-pilot... and we were off!

Here are a few choice pictures from the drive that afternoon. Hope you enjoy!




A view of Romo's '92 GLI Jetta with Mary's Peak in the background



Dave's Legacy wagon and Romo's Jetta at the top of Mary's



The boy and I!



Romo and Persons looking very small compared to the view from the top. This is facing west looking at the Coast range.



So photogenic that little car is ...



Dave's brand newish 2006 Subaru Legacy 2.5i special edition

Getting older has it's perks :)

On Monday I celebrated my turning another year older. As the day approached, many people kept asking me how old I was going to be. In reply I would groan and say " Ugh... twenty-four."

But as the day approached, the festivities began. The Saturday before my birthday we decided to hit the town. I figured I would give myself and my family a whole week between Jessica's birthday and Halloween to recover from hangovers/sickness/exhaustion etc. We started off having dinner at one of my favorite places, Block 15, with my Coffee Culture co-workers and local hotties. We moved from there to Downward Dog, a "pub and grub" on the waterfront that has amazing concoctions. We then moved next door to Cloud 9 for a live hip-hop show. We ended the night at our usual spot, The Peacock. Dave and I were only there a few minutes before Dave realized that I needed to head home. We ended up with some great photos on the camera that night, and we all had hangovers the next day. :)

Thanks to my boys for taking me out on the town and keeping an eye on me. You are the best brothers and boyfriend a girl could have :)







My actually birthday was a relaxing and wonderful day. I woke up with a sore throat and a smile on my face that morning, and had one of the best days EVER.

Can't wait for Halloweeeeeen! My favorite holiday ever! Pictures will be up A.S.A.P.!

Monster Mash!

Every once and a while I get e-mails from JibJab about their free "sendables" that you can put people's faces in. My last masterpiece was the Hangerouters as Chippendales (see previous posting)... but now it it's time for some Halloween fun!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The Summer Belongs to Country Girls

Last Thursday afternoon, one of my best friends was in town so we decided to get some shots in for the end of the summer of the three of us girls. We went out to a park called Fitton Green here in Corvallis. It beautiful! And there's a great view of Mary's Peak.

Here's to a great summer, and hoping for a great fall!

Here are a few of my favorites...

Movement

So the end of April is coming, and with that, there is a lot of change going on! Jackie came to visit for her spring break and we had a blast! Even though I had to work still, we found time to go out and about and have some fun! We went to the beach one day and did long drive up the coast. We spend a lot of time with my "family" here, the Nan Ham Fam. It was great and I have a feeling Jackie had a ton of fun!

It was really nice last weekend (right after Jackie left, of course) and Dave and I had the chance to ride our matching bikes around Corvallis, and down to Willamette park, where I proceeded to get really sun burnt :)

So now I'm moving... it's been stressful, so stressful I'm now sick in bed. I'll keep you updated on that!

The hangerouters... chippendales edition

The group that does elf-yourself during christmas time has many other videos where you can put people's faces in the video and they can look really funny! Dave and his dudes call themselves the hangerouters, and I thought it only appropriate that they become Chippendales!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Can't keep Up!

Wow... I see that I haven't written in a while. Just got back from California a few days ago. It was so much fun! It was a great way to spend some quality time with Alissa before she was off to Guatemala for an internship. I took her to the airport on Thursday afternoon. It was probably one of the harder goodbyes that I have had to do... so far. Next up is Dave, and I don't even want to think about that. He is going to Alaska for the summer...

I am working on moving out of my current house, and to a less expensive, more friendly environment. I hardly spend any time here anymore because I don't feel welcome here. That's too bad. My friend Chris and I plan to move in together. He wants to move back to Corvallis, and is currently homeless, so were are trying to get this done ASAP. Problem is, I can't afford to pay double rents... especially if I am trying to save money by doing this, so I have to wait until my place is filled before moving out. I'm really excited for it though... living with Chris is going to be a blast!

I'll keep you updated on the living situation... Still working. I have had my hours bumped up to 38-39 a week, so once i move I might actually have some spare change to play with! Yay! (I hate being poor).

Hope all is well with everyone else!
Peace!

Settling into the groove...

So work is keeping me busy. I am finally adjusted to my crazy schedule, so I now have time to play and get things done without missing my bed too bad.

We went on a trip to Sisters and Bend two weekends ago with a big group of our closest friends. We all got dressed up for a themed party we threw called rednecks vs. ski yuppies. Let's just say that we are way better at being rednecks than yuppies in our group of friends.

Valentine's day was on Saturday. Dave made me breakfast (it was sooooo good!), and then we went on a fun bike race together called an Ally Cat. It's like a scavenger hunt, only on bikes at night. It was way fun! One of the things we had to complete was "getting married" at the courthouse. We had to take off our front wheels of our bikes and exchange them when we exchanged our vows. We even got an unofficial marriage license. Haha. After that we met up with a group of our friends and went to one of our favorite bars, called the Crowbar.

I work about 35 hours this week. Yay! Hopefully it won't wear me out too much.

Halloween Pictures!

All the girls! Alissa and I were witches, Sarah was a pirate lady, Emma was a cowgirl, Brittney was a devil, and Dave... he was my baby mama.



The boys that participated in the costume exchange. Oh man they were out of control!





Liss and I even scared ourselves... we made good witches!