last one for tonight

Caitlin decided to get us some extra pillows for the bed. Anyone see the scene from "Along Came Polly" where Stillers character realized what these pillows are for? Gunnar likes them, Cait thought this was cute and wanted to share it with y'all. Okay im done for the night, it's like i have had all these posts pent up and finally had a chance to get them all out...actually we just had a lot to share and i kept forgetting parts. Oh also on monday the 10th of Dec. i go to critique for my first quarter. I feel pretty good and have gotten a lot of real positive feedback from my instructors but im still a bit nervous. Oh well...good night y'all!

Celebration!

So our 4 year anniversary was on the 5th, that was wednesday. So tonight, saturday, we celebrated. We went out and had dinner at the melting pot...nice and tasty! Some of Cait's pals have complained that we dont have enough photos of us on our blog so here are two.

oops

the title on the next post was suposed to be the title for this one. so its 11:45 now, December 8th, 2007, and Im sitting outside (Caitlin is inside because it is a little warmer) on our screened in patio in a t-shirt and no shoes or socks. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN OREGON! Yes that is the chair i am sitting in...im sure you care...

11:30, 12/08/2007, 58 degrees

Sorry, this one is sideways, this was the bathroom project...ive never replaced a sink before. and the Home Depot orange got covered up, that was our first color choice and it was a bad one. again, after pictures soon. that sticker on Gunnar's head says "Note: This is a permanent label. Do not try to remove. Surface will be damaged." Nice move Caitlin...he lost a little hair but hes fine. Jared getting whooped by Caitlin on the Wii. My friend Jared Coe from George Fox University came over with his friend, Avery from his new church in Colorado. They were in Atl for a youth conference and we forced them to come over and play Wii. They did. Also I made Jared be a model for one of my shoots for school, he makes a great model...if you are going for the just woken up look.

It's Christmas time!

Many of you may be visiting our blog right now because you got our Christmas card. Thank you for looking. I know that it has been a while since our last post. We probably have a lot to update on, and that will come soon. As for now, just a short note...oh, and hi Allen. So until our next post (which will be soon and have photos) Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope that you all had a wonderful turkey day. We went to Valdosta, GA to hang out with one of Chris' cousins and her hubby and son. Valdosta is about a 4 hour drive and is only a few minutes from Florida. It was sort of weird to be celebrating thanksgiving in 75 degree weather and palm trees. It is so weird that it is still so warm here. For those of you in the northwest, I'm sure it has been raining. It has only rained here about 3 days since we've been here in August. Although that has been really nice, we are really having a severe drought. There are all sorts of water restrictions. And we live in a state that never put restrictions in place, so politicians from all over the country are making fun of us for our lack of planning. They were going to make fake snow for a big festival, but they decided that would have been a very poor use of the water we have left. Chris is going into his last week of the quarter before critique week. He is getting lots of great feedback from his teachers. I promise as soon as he is done, we'll post more pictures. We hope you are all doing well. If you'd like to see a sneak peak at some of Chris' photos go to www.flickr.com/photos/cglow

just a little more time

I need just a little more time to get up some after pictures of the apartment. Chris loves school and is busy concepting and shooting. Caitlin loves work and is busy on the phone. We finally got a couch, and that makes this place feel a little more like home. We love and miss you ALL.

New Job

So here's the latest update. I have started my new job at Matria. I will be a primary case manager, which means: I organize in home care for high risk ob patients between the physician, patient, and the home health nurses. This service allows for a time to educate patients and will hopefully prevent many patients from being admitted to the hospital and potentially prevent some preterm deliveries, thus preventing some outrageous labor and delivery and NICU bills. So far I love it!!!!! I never imagined that I would step away from the bedside, but the model of this company is so fascinating to be a part of. It's one of the first companies to realize the importance of patient education and prevention. I work in a little area of the building with 5 other nurses. We each have a cubicle, which I just think is hilarious. The other 5 nurses I work with are all amazing and so much fun. I will also be doing what's called "Babyline" which is a 24 hour advice line for pregnant patients up until their baby is 6 weeks old. We are still in the process of painting and getting our apartment looking better. Next weekend we're taking out the old countertop. I know that we're probably going to get in trouble, but oh well. Maybe in 2 years they won't remember what it looked like before we moved in. We'll post pictures as soon as we're done. Love you all

before pictures

you have to wait for the after photos. we are in our new place now, it is about 60 years old and is dripping with character. we have our first round of pest control coming this week, we are not used to seeing some of these bugs that are totally normal for this part of the country. we will post after photos later but here is an idea of where we live.this is from our screened porch, the bldg across the way looks just like ours, if you go down that road you hit one of the main veins of atlanta called Peachtree, one of the many, but the main one. living room, door on left is to patio dining room weird kitchen the bath another view from our porch...and...the largest directions ever!

suday morning

Just a short update here. Since Caitlin got a new job we will be moving. We found lots of place to move to but none of them made perfect sense for us. Finally on a whim while driving around apt shopping we drove down Peachtree Memorial Drive in the Buckhead district of Atlanta. Down at the end was a bunch of rad old colonial looking brick buildings with classic screened porches sticking out the front. A couple days later we were able to get inside and see them...they rock...so we applied and will be finding out soon if we have a new home or not. Buckhead is an affluent area so we really should be paying more for this apt than we will be, we kinda got a deal, once we move in we'll post some photos for y'all. I think once we settle into the place we will be for the duration of our time here we will start feeling more at home. Then we will also be able to commit to a church family and a small group and maybe even serve somewhere, and the best part ACTUALLY go to church together. we have not been able to go to church together more than I think twice since we got here. That sucks! So needless to say we are both stoked on that. Also i will be able to walk to school, hooray for no more 9 mile 45 minute commutes. Caitlin will have to drive to work now but its all freeway and SHOULD be cake at the times she will be traveling. the ONLY bummer is that she will be working until about 11 every evening, but that will give me time to do my school work. A couple facts about Buckhead: the 3 richest zip codes in atlanta are in Buckhead (so we'll be the poor kids), there are 15 streets with the name Peachtree in them (example our new address on Peachtree Memorial), okay only two facts, i can't remember any more. Thanks for reading up on our lives.

Just a few images

here is just a couple photos i shot off strolling around town.

New things again

So life here has been full of ups and downs. Most of you know that I have not really enjoyed my job and I think working nights has made me a crazy person. Seriously, how normal is it that I felt like crying every time I walked into that hospital? So, thank God, I have a new job!!! This job will actually take me away from the bedside, which will be weird and exciting, but from what I hear, all hospitals here are understaffed and I really would like to keep my nursing license. The job is at a company called Matria, which provides home care to high risk ob patients, but I would be at their call center doing case management and telephone triage. The hours aren't perfect (2:30pm - 11pm M-F), but I don't have to work any weekends or holidays. But this will give Chris time to get homework done at night. Ahhh homework, something I really don't miss, but now my hubby gets to do. He started school on monday, and I think it will be really fun and really challenging. They actually told him in orientation that they can't write anything bad about the school on their blog (I think that's funny and sad that they've had problems with it.) So far he is really enjoying it, but he has a class called natural light, and his assignment is to take pictures every day at sunrise and sunset. So it's pretty funny, when we're stuck in Atlanta traffic at sunset and he's taking pictures out of the car window. It's weird to have to plan going out to dinner around sunset. But it seems so far that this term will be great. Oh, and by the way, now we have to find a new place to live, because the travel company has been paying our rent, and we have two weeks to find a new place. We're going to move closer to the school, making Chris' commute almost nothing and mine only about 10 miles, so that won't be too bad. Anyways, that's about it. I have to get ready for work. Only 6 more shifts to complete...unless I go to work today and they tell me to leave. I left my notice under my managers door last night. And a note to Annie: I'm glad you like my cards. I want to do a workshop, but I don't know enough people here yet.

ATLANTA THRASHERS 1...

...Florida Panthers zero Caitlin and I finally got to go out on the town. Dinner, hockey game, get lost, turn around, get lost, and finally dessert. there we go...this is Philips Arena where the Thrashers and the Hawks play. whenever they want the Thrashers fans to get all rowdy these birdheads spit out fire, its cool!

Home again.

So I got to go home again, home being Portland, Or. The funeral was nice and it was great being with family again. Remembering my Grandfather with my family was simultaneously healing, emotional, and just plain fun. Thank you to those of you who were praying for us. However nice it was to be back in the northwest it was even better getting home to Caitlin here in Atlanta.

Still no pictures...I'm so sorry

I am sorry that we still haven't posted any pictures, but I realized it's been a long time since I wrote anythings, so I thought I would catch you up on our life. First, Chris' grandfather passed away last Friday, so he is flying home this weekend for the funeral. Most of you know how freaked out I am about flying, so this will be hard for my to put my hubby on an airplane alone, not to mention be home all alone. I have talked to a few of you about my job, but let me tell you...it is no fun. This hospital is crazy!! If I'm concerned about something, they all criticize me and tell me I'm crazy, but then I'll get written up for something that had nothing to be concerned about. There are no policies backing anything up, so you have to make sure that you ask the right person because nobody really knows. I am seriously counting the days until my contract is up. Hopefully I can find a job somewhere. Anyways, that's about all that's going on. I'll post pictures soon. Love you all.

Come on in y'all

Everyone told us that the south is hospitable...and yes, yes it is. So we have been here for a total of 3 sundays now and have visited two different churches. At each church we have been approached genuinely and greeted because they knew we were new. That's how you do it! So far we have been invited to two separate life groups, or home groups, or community...whatever you want to call them, and have visited to one couples house for dinner. PEOPLE HERE ARE NICE, GENUINELY NICE! I love it. I think we might have found our church already also which is pretty cool. Honestly I was a little worried that our church search would last far too long. But God is good. That's it for now so please keep in touch and call us whenever you want, just remember 8pm in Portland is 11pm here. Peace Chris made this post.

Strange Laws in Georgia

So we thought not being able to purchase alcohol on Sundays was a weird law...here's two more. 1) In Gainesville, Ga it's illegal to eat chicken with a fork, and 2) In Kennesaw, GA if you are an adult living there the law requires you to own a gun.

No Beer on Sundays

So we went grocery shopping tonight and Chris had to replenish his beer supply. He pondered for a moment why the lights to the beer and wine isle were off, but grabbed his six pack and headed for checkout. The kind lady behind the counter said y'all can't buy beer on Sunday. We thought she was kidding until her manager came over...ooops. So we have learned a very good lesson - buy your alcohol on Saturday. Tonight we're writing this from our balcony. It's actually a nice enough (meaning not to hot here, versus too cold or rainy where we're from) to sit out here. We went and bought 2 white rocking chairs today. So now we have our rockers and our hound dog, all we need is a shotgun, but I'm sure you can't buy those on Sundays either. Chris continues at WAMU, but hates his drive, while my drive couldn't be nicer. It actually takes me less time to drive to the hospital than it does to drive through the parking lot at the hospital. Work seems to be okay, but it seems that I will have to get used to some things. We miss all of you and will try to start making phone calls more often.

For My Gals at FBC

Here's how my first day of orientation went (sorry for all of you non nurses who won't understand most of this) -5 scheduled c/s -1st case scheduled 0730, into OR at 0815, response from preceptor..."you do what you can do" wow, can you imagine saying that to a surgeon at Salem? -Doing 5th scheduled case at 1800 -PACU ratio 2:1 -no birth buddies -no lunch -no breaks -no tech in or -2 anesthesiologist in whole hospital (now how do you get epidurals for all 450 deliveries they do?) -All orders on the computer, which went down, and I still don't have a password -one of the nights I'm scheduled still needing 9 RNs to get to core So this was basically my day, and I have a horrible headache. I'm sure it will be better once I can figure out how to do everything. But the best thing...NO MEDICATION BARCODES!!!! Love you all and really truly miss all of you

Urgent Prayer for Kaeli

Many of you received an email asking for prayer for Kaeli from us. For those of you who did not and would like to, please join us in prayer for this precious little girl. Kaeli is the daughter of our pastor in Oregon at Grace Chapel, and has been battling leukemia for a year. Tonight, Kaeli is in the hospital very, very ill and the church is asking to come along side them in prayer. To learn more about Kaeli and her story visit www.kaeliallison.com We know that Kaeli is in the Lord's arms and trust that He knows what's best.

Attempting a Normal Life

Today is the first day that Chris is going to work, so he left about 1 1/2 hours early just in case traffic was awful. We have no idea what to expect around here in terms of the freeways. The traffic here is unbelievable!!! There's a major highway that makes a circle around the city (called the Perimeter) that is between 6 and 7 lanes at all times, then there's 2 other major freeways that form an x through the perimeter and out that are 5 lanes each. Not to mention the countless other "little" freeways off of that. I thought Portland was big when I-5 hit 4 lanes. And traffic stops for no reason around here. Yesterday we were stopped on the freeway because people were stopping for a person on the side of the road cutting down a tree...ugh. This weekend was quite busy trying to get our life together. we had 2 days to get Chris a car. He really wanted a Jeep, but that was not panning out well in our time frame, so we started looking at other options. We found a car we liked and the person told us he lived about an hour and twenty minutes south of Atlanta. We thought, no big deal, we've spent the last 10 days driving, we can do it. Well...an hour and a half turned out to be over 100 miles!!! But we ended up getting the car and now Chris has a Volkswagen GTI. I'm hoping he won't get any tickets. And in the midst of all of the driving around to find a car, Caitlin decided to meet up with somebody to purchase a CRICUT!!! For all you scrapbookers and card makers out there, you know how cool this thing is. So I'm really excited to play with it. And last night was the first night that we began looking for a church. We found ourselves at a church called Veritas, which is just a few miles away from our apartment. It is a very small start up church. The crazy thing about it was that there was a couple there who I knew from home. She worked with me at Salem Hospital and they moved out her a few months ago for her husband to go to Physician Assistant school at Emory University. It was really nice to see a familiar face. We think that we'll continue to check a few other churches out, but everybody was really nice and it's comforting to know that it would be a good place to be. Anyways, today is my day to attempt to make our house like a home. We're still waiting on most of our stuff to get here, so frozen lasagna will have to suffice for dinner. Sorry that there's no pictures this time.

Day 10 Move in Day

Today started getting up in Chattanooga, TN at 4am!!! We had to have my car to the Honda dealership at 7:30. After spending an hour at the dealership, they determined that there was a cable vibrating against a part under the hood. So for only $65 the nice man made the blender like noise go away and he replaced my headlight and...I have a/c in my car again. One thing that we've noticed here is that everybody is really nice, and they all talk to you. So this is our apartment below. It's on the 3rd floor so moving this morning was very hot and disgusting, but now I'm sitting here with the a/c on way too cold and hoping to not have to go outside again until November. Annie, it sounds like you had a terrible day, and I have to hear the story about the nose. And tell Leah, that she is a superstar for being in charge of that unit. I don't think I could do it.

Day 9 There goes the AC

Today we drove from Mount Vernon, Illinois to Chatanooga, Tennessee. We stopped in Nashville for about 15 minutes (thanks to our dog), and saw a little bit of the Grand Ole Opry. The good thing is that Nashville in only 4 1/2 hours from Atlanta, so we plan on coming back for a mini vacation. These were the most beautiful and colorful butterflies I have ever seen. I want to plant these flowers on our deck in Atlanta so I can butterflies also. The only problem, I suck and gardening and have no idea what these flowers are...mom, can you help?And now for the real fun of the day. My car has been making this blender type noise, off and on for a little while, but really it wasn't that bad, so we didn't think much about it. Today however we discovered (as the noise was becoming more and more frequent) that it was connected with the air conditioning system. We connected this after last summers incident of an exploded air conditioner, ruined heating system, and a $3000 repair. Thanks, to Honda America for footing some of the bill. So needless to say, we think that if we continue to run the A/C the same part will explode. So...to help save the A/C system, we turned off the A/C and opened the windows. We drove 80 miles with no A/C in 100 degree weather - NOT FUN. We are taking the car to the Honda dealer in Atlanta tomorrow morning for diagnostics. Please keep us in your prayers that they can find the problem and that it will be a cheap and easy fix. Also, that Chris can quickly find a car so we can have transportation. Praise the Lord though, that the Honda dealership will give us a complimentary rental car. We love you all and miss you.

Day 8 Kansas City to Mount Vernon, Illinois

We stopped in St. Louis to see the arch on our way into Illinois. We had great plans to see lots of St. Louis, but Gunnar had other plans. In this heat, he only lasts about 15 minutes outside until he drops his tail and pulls on his leash until he lays down. In case you're not checking the weather here, it is 98 degrees with about 70 percent humidity. This is weather we've never experienced, and it will take some time getting used too. We were going to stay in St. Louis, but decided to add a few hours to our trip and went to Mount Vernon, Illinois. There really is nothing there, but a few restaraunts. We had our first experience at a Cracker Barrel. I had been told about them, but had never been. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are basically a homecooking restaraunt, with this cute general store, where you can buy old fashioned toys and candy. They're everywhere down here. The other thing that is everywhere down here some sort of bug that we don't know what it is. When we walk out of our hotel room, we can hear this high pitched screaming type of noise (we actually thought it was the power lines), but it's bugs in the trees, how gross!

Day 7 Colorado Springs to Kansas City Missouri

Today was our longest day of driving . We left Colorado very early and it took about 10 hours to get to Kansas City, Missouri. The drive was very boring, but prettier than Idaho. We didn't take any detours and see anything though. We chose to avoid the Largest Prairie Dog , 5 legged cow, and 2 headed rattlesnake exhibit. I'm sure it would have been thrilling.

dad this one's for you

For those of you who already wrote our address down in pen in your address book, Caitlin will take full responsibility for your need for whiteout. Our address is actually 4310 Jefferson Square Court Decatur, Georgia 30030. I actually googlemapped it and it is 0.8 miles from the hospital I'll be working at. Thank the Lord...I loved you all at Salem, but I was getting a little tired of the 30 mile commute. We love you all and love when you leave us comments:)

Day 6 The Garden of the Gods

This is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This is by far the most beautiful thing we've seen on our trip. The park is amazing and breathtaking. We also now have an address: 4310 Jefferson Square Court Decatur, GA 30030

Day 5 Denver

Well, so far our trip is going well. We haven't had any car problems or disasters (other than the ER Vet), praise God! We are staying at the lovely Motel 6 along the way because they allow the dog. Gunnar continues to hate the car and his sedative (called Ace) only works so well. It makes him a little glassy eyed and tired, but he still hates the car. We spent a day in Denver. After scouring the visit Denver magazines, we had a whole day mapped out of things to see and do. The first included walking around the LODO (Lower Downtown) district and then a trip to the CityPark and to the State Capitol....but...1 1/2 hours into walking LODO Gunnar laid down on the sidewalk and wouldn't move because it was sooo hot. So much for sightseeing in Denver. Here's some photos of what we did see.

So Chris got this funny thing called a lomo camera (he calls it a toy camera though), and we took the film to get developed in Denver and this is what he got.