March Madness!

Emily and I sit and admire the trophy every night in the hopes that one of our brackets will win this year's tournament challenge. Emily is the reigning champion, but the upsets have set her back. Right now, she's hoping for a come-from-behind victory to win the cup!

Dave's Bracket
Emily's Bracket
We took a break from March Madness on Saturday to explore our surroundings. This windmill is in Independence. We also visited Monmouth (for Burgerville) and Amity.

Crafts....

...are not my specialty. Dave is the creative one in our household.

Dave painting Aboriginal Art in his Elementary methods class.

Luckily, I have been provided with a couple of opportunities to develop my talents in the world of crafts. My sis-in-law, Sandra, bought me a hat loom for Christmas, so I took it with me to Saint Helens last weekend and learned how to "knit" a hat. My hat is the maroon one with a white stripe and Dave's is the white/maroon striped one. I plan to make more but unfortunately my timing is a little off...Spring is just around the corner here!

I also had the opportunity to learn how to make glass magnets at our Relief Society craft night. The magnets were so simple (my kind of crafts)! We made them with cute pieces of scrapbook paper. You can also make the magnets using photos as well.

Valentine's Weekend in Seattle

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! We spent our 3-day weekend visiting friends in Seattle. Here are a few photos from our trip. We went to to Eagle Falls, Haybrook Lookout, Snoqualmie Falls, Discovery Park and the Pike Place Market. Thanks to Jake and Brad for being our tour guides.

Moles and Skin Barnacles...

I went to the dermatologist today to have what I thought was a funny looking mole/skin tag on my shoulder examined. The funny bump had been there for who knows how long and had just been a part of my arm as far as I was concerned...but Dave said it seemed odd and thought I should get it checked out. So, I made myself and appointment for what I thought would be a routine check-up of my skin oddity. Let me tell you what a routine check-up resulted in:

1. 1 shaved shoulder
2. 3 stitches in my lower left calf (the first stitches of my life)

It turns out the "bump" on my shoulder was a seborrheic keratoses aka skin barnacle (I would insert a picture here but the photos online look way worse than mine was). The doctor also noticed a questionable dark mole/freckle on my leg. Before I knew it the physician's assistant had numbed my shoulder and leg and proceeded to take the barnacle off my shoulder with what looked like a hand held cheese grater. He then took a hole punch and punched the mole right out of my leg. All of this took place in less than 30 minutes! I have to return to the dermatologist to have my three stitches removed and hopefully receive the results of the biopsies. So if anyone out there has a slightly odd looking mole/freckle/skin barnacle, think about having it checked out by a physician because it may need to be removed. Better to be safe than sorry.

Puzzles and Beaches

This puzzle, a scene from Vermont, was enough to make both of us crazy for the last two weeks.

I think we'll opt for an easier puzzle next time.

We've been spending the rest of our time at the coast where we saw these elk in somebody's field.

The weather hasn't always been nice.

The weather is much more tolerable when you can find clams.
We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday in Lincoln City.

Emily likes to play games with the incoming tide......

This is where we'll be staying over Independence Day of 2009!

Happy New Year

Emily and I went to Redmond to visit Steve, Amy and the kids to ring in the new year. The old year ended with a 'bang' as we hunted for chukar and pheasant on the 30th. I believe we finished with about 20 chukar and 10+ pheasants for 6 hunters. The day was a 'blast!'

Lucy took this picture of Emily at the park in Redmond.

Happy New Year!!!!

Halibut Clip

This is the next video I am working on during the break. It is an account of Mark and Dad's visit to Juneau last June. This clip is part of an hour-long production.

"Arctic Blast"

The television keeps calling this the "Arctic Blast" of 2008. It hasn't been bad until just recently when we got a half inch of freezing rain on top of all the snow. As dangerous as it is, the ice gives everything a beautiful shiny coat.

Snow and Pottery

We painted some pottery this weekend before the storm hit. As you can see from the photo, the road and the sidewalk are extremely slick! Our ceramic ornaments and mugs were fired yesterday and we were able to pick them up today.

Snow!

With a pinecone pipe and a dirty nose and two eyes made out of..........rocks? We got our first snow of the year this morning and some kids made this snowman out of it. The snow is gone already but the snowman remains!

Chicken Ridge

This is a video of our trip out Chicken Ridge.

Video Editing

This is a sample of the production I am working on right now. The entire movie will be about half an hour long.

Tree Lighting Ceremony

We got our own (fake, cheap, Charlie Brown Christmas) tree this year. So far, Mark and Gary are the only one with presents underneath.

Twins Visit

We have really enjoyed seeing Steve, Amy and the kiddos each month. This last month's visit was particularly special because we got to meet Finn and Will.