Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas

Hey ya'll! It's been a month since our last post and quite a lot has gone on since then! We had a great Thanksgiving meal, have started decorating for Christmas, and Tim is nearing the end of his first semester at Vandy.



Heather was not able to get much time off from work for Thanksgiving so we decided to stay in Nashville and cook our own meal for the first time. We, Heather especially, were a bit nervous about cooking a turkey unsupervised. In true Tim and Heather fashion, we sought the advice of professionals weeks in advance. Translation, called both moms and took notes on Thanksgiving specials on the Food Network. Fortunately our planning paid off and we ended up with a simple to cook, delicious turkey! We also spread out the cooking over a couple days which decreased our stress levels at any given time. Thursday morning was surprisingly calm. We spent half the morning sitting on the couch and watching the parade while the turkey was in the oven. Our menu also included: dressings with homemade bread, Heather's garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, deviled eggs,cranberry relish, and a pumpkin pie!. We ended up with enough food to feed 6-8 people! After stuffing ourselves, we felt like we had just as much food as we started with! A week or so later we had finally finished off the leftovers. A definitely successful first Thanksgiving!



Leftovers!





With Christmas rapidly approaching, we (Heather) have been thinking more and more about decorating the apartment. Last year we had a tiny, pathetic, fiber-optic tree. Needless to say that it didn't make the trip with us to Nashville. So, a few days ago we went out and got our first real tree! Tim ended up setting up quite the learning experience when it came to securing the tree to the roof of our car. He rolled down the windows and ran rope over the tree and through the windows (one rope through the front windows, and one through the back). As soon as he finished tightening the last knot, he realized "oh great. I tied the doors shut!" We decided instead of doing the ropes all over again, we would just crawl in through the windows NASCAR style. It was pretty comical to see us both laughing hysterically while crawling into the car through the windows in the busy Walmart parking lot. I'm sure we got a few looks from passersby. One thing is for sure, we'll never do that again! Tim blamed the situation on always having a pickup to throw the tree into. We resolved to have our next vehicle be a pickup of some kind.



With Christmas just 19 days away, we are eagerly looking forward to having Tim's parents join us in Nashville for the holiday. We have a long list of things to do with them in the few short days they will be here, and we couldn't be more excited to show them around!

Happy Halloween!

We are loving the fall season! The weather has been cool and the leaves are turning beautiful colors. We went to a pumpkin farm to pick out pumpkins a few weeks ago. We met a group of Tim's classmates and all took part in the fun activities at the farm. We successfully competed a corn maze, took a fun hay ride, oh yeah, and picked out pumpkins! We had a great time!




We both have a lot of fun carving pumpkins, I'm not sure we will ever grow out of it! Draco liked smelling the pumpkins, he was very curious about the whole event!



We even dressed up and went out to a Halloween party! Tim dressed as Lieutenant Dangle from Reno 911 and I was a beauty queen. We had a fantastic time!

These past few weeks of fall activities has been a great start to the holiday season! Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!

Draco!

The other day I caught Draco standing AND eating!
Its seems like a small thing, but for Draco this is big (almost as big as he is)! He has always been such a picky eater. Ever since we got him he has only laid down while eating. To this day he will not eat without me (Heather) close by. Even if Tim gives Draco a treat during the day, he wont even eat it until I am home.

Anyway, enjoy the cute pictures of Draco!

Tennessee State Fair

Two weekends ago we went to the Tennessee State Fair! Our main motivation was going to the demo derby Friday night. We ended up waiting in line on the road just to get into the parking lot. I would guess the line involved about 120-150 cars! There was only ONE parking lot and ONE entrance to the fair! Talk about poor planning!!

Eventually we got in, found the grandstands, paid for our tickets to the demo, went to find seats and this is what we saw:


A race track. We weren't sure how there was going to be a demo derby, there was no place for the cars to smash into each other. The only thing we could guess is that demo derbies in the South are maybe more about the racing than the smashing. We were pretty bummed about the non-smashing of the cars.

But were were even more confused when we saw the cars:



Yeah, there was only ONE demo-derby-looking car to been seen. Turns out the rest of the cars did not show up! How does this happen? We don't know! They had to cancel the demo derby because there were no cars! I think we both of our jaws touched the ground when they told us the demo was canceled. Their excuse involved some type of communication error, but they weren't really sure. We got our money back and decided that we probably won't return next year. All in all it was a very confusing and weird experience.

We had a better time when we met up with some of Tim's school friends. We all had lots of fun eating delicious fair food and enjoying other fair things. We found the livestock barns and went in to check things out. Right then it started to downpour. We didn't have umbrellas so we found a seat and watched people show their cows in competitions. Suffice is to say we ended up spending 30 minutes more then anyone would ever want to in close proximity to cows and goats.





All in all we had a great time at the fair and lots of laughs!

New Car

Last weekend we bought a car! It is a 1998 Toyota Corolla. It's in pretty good shape but it is the "value" model. Translation...no features. Thankfully the only feature it has is A/C, a definite must in the South. Even though it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, it runs well, should last us as long as we stay here, and might even be worth a couple dollars when we are ready to sell it. It is so nice to have two cars again. We were starting to stress a little bit about Heather having to wait 30 minutes after work on the side of a very busy road for a bus that would take over an hour to get her home. Thankfully we can rest easy knowing that we both have reliable transportation again!




Check out our new wheels!


Today we took Draco to a dog park near our apartment. He had lots of fun being off leash and being able to run around a bit. There were some really nice dogs there and even another corgi. We felt pretty bad for Draco when he started getting humped by a soaking wet bulldog , so we made sure to give him a treat when we got home! Sorry Draco!

Today we also went to K&S World Market, an ethnic grocery store. It was so fun to see all the different and yummy looking food. We scored some yakisoba noodles, pot stickers and curry sauce. We also checked out the Costco and finally bought some Tillamook cheese! They don't carry it in the regular grocery stores here.



This weekend we also plan to venture to a Jazz Festival and spend some time by the pool...oh yeah and not go to work or school on Monday! We miss you all and hope you have a fantastic holiday weekend!

We're on a blogging roll!

As we thought, we have so much to share with you all right now! We know at least most of you have never been to Nashville so we'd love to share some stories and pictures as we explore the city for ourselves. First, we have a few more pictures from our trip to share, and then some pictures from our trip to the local Farmers Market. Don't forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!

Some of the beautiful red rock just east of Salt Lake City, UT

There were tons of huge windmills in the Wyoming high country

The arch was really exciting to see in person!

FINALLY!

The Tennessee State Capitol sits on the highest point in the city limits. It overlooks a mall similar to the one in Washington D.C., but much smaller. Earlier this week, Heather and I took an official tour of the Capitol building. Some highlights included the House and Senate Chambers and the Governor's outer office.

These pillars run along both sides of the mall. The space between each pillar represents one decade of the state's history. On the stone wall across the walking path, historical events that took place during the decade symbolized in the pillars are engraved.

Tennessee history = Civil War history

What the? We think it is mini okra.

It was interesting to see what types of fruits and vegetables are grown down here. Most farms had the same things: tons of tomatoes and squash, peppers, corn, watermelon, peaches, and cantaloupe. The cantaloupe and watermelons were HUGE! The cantaloupe is about twice the size of Hermiston melons and the watermelon was about 3 full hand-widths.

Unpacking and the Anniversary

When we got to the apartment on Saturday morning, it was already hot outside and we were NOT looking forward to unloading the entire truck. But the truck wasn't going to unload itself so piece by piece we emptied it. It was quite a bit of work to find homes for our 2-bedrooms worth of stuff in a one-bed townhouse. After a few loads to the dumpster and a couple big loads to the nearest Goodwill, we made it in! I'll put a few pictures of the apartment down below. We explored Vanderbilt one afternoon and found Heather a good Vandy shirt to wear around now. Cami, we found a burrito place that seems to be related to Chipotle, called Qdoba. It's just like Chipotle but a little bigger and better! Oh yeah!!! We'll be just fine down here!

Yesterday was our first anniversary! We had a great day together. We made a delicious breakfast, ate some of our wedding cake, and went to see a movie (Julie & Julia) which was pretty cute! And for dinner we went out to a good steakhouse in downtown Nashville. Seth and Emily gave us a gift certificate to Jimmy Kelly's Steakhouse as a graduation gift so we used it last night. After a couple of the best steaks we've ever had, we drove all around downtown to check out the Saturday night hustle and bustle of the city. It gets pretty busy down there but we are both really excited to check out the nightlife sometime soon!

We are still searching for a job for Heather and will continue to search vigilantly until we find the right job for her. Please continue to pray for us that we would find the right job soon. I am getting very excited to start school in a few weeks! It will be refreshing to be reminded of why we moved oh so far away from home. Now check out some pictures!

Best Friends...


Seth being a goof...


Our first dinner with chairs!


Some of the really interesting architecture at Vandy


Proof that we actually made it to Nashville ;)



Our makeshift dining table + two chairs!! WOOT!


Remind you of a certain someone with Buttons?


She won't admit it, but she does have fun playing video games every once in a while!


This cake has definitely seen better days


Our two beautiful diplomas!

Eastbound

We have been meaning to write about our big trip for a while and I'm sure many of you are eager to hear more about the details and see a few pictures from our trip. To start, we made it all the way to Nashville in just 4 days of traveling! Considering our average speed on the freeway was between 65-70mph and most other traffic was in the 75-85mph range, we felt we made pretty good time! I'll break down the trip into 4 sections to make it easier to read and to write.

Day 1: Started in Walla Walla. We had our first and only glitch in our trip before we even got the truck rolling down the road! While getting all of the last-minute things packed in the truck, I (Tim) managed to lock the one and only key inside the cab. Fortunately we became AAA members before our trip and thanks in part to being in Walla Walla on a Tuesday morning, the tow trucks were standing by and arrived in just 10 minutes! If only they could get to you that fast when you're stuck on the side of the freeway! We felt very lucky to have such a quick response and before we knew it we were on our way to Adrian, OR. We made it to Adrian in time for a late lunch at the Mirage which is the only restaurant in town. After a deliciously greasy lunch, Nana and Pappy gave Heather a tour of town and their beautiful new house. After about 90 minutes in Adrian we were ready to hit the road. Our goal was to get to Twin Falls, ID for the day. We made it to Twin Falls with plenty of energy so we surged ahead hoping to make it through the high desert and into the Salt Lake area. We spent the night in Ogden, UT on Tuesday Night.

Day 2: Thanks to our extra energy the night before, we got a 3-hour head start on the day having driven past Twin Falls and into Utah. Our goal for Wednesday night was Cheyenne, WY. Let me just say now that while the goals were nice to have, we drove past every single one of them! Day 2 was the day we realized just how much road construction is going on across the country. You wouldn't believe how much of our freeway is torn up and being resurfaced/repaved right now. We saw signs that said "Road Construction Next 41 Miles". It felt like we would see one of those signs every 41 miles or so! Obviously it wasn't THAT bad, but we were amazed at how much construction there was. Normally it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but when you are in a moving truck with all of your stuff, you are much more aware of the extra bumpy/unsteady roads out there. Nevertheless, we made it through the construction of the day and through some of the most beautiful country of the whole trip. Eastern Utah is amazing (pictures to follow)! The red rock formations are fantastic and they seem like they never end. Of course before long we were in the western Wyoming high country and to say it is desolate is an understatement. The three words that kept coming to my mind were Wide Open Spaces. Little did I know at the time just how much I preferred this type of driving over some other environments soon to come. Not much else to say about the drive through WY. It was high, mountainous, beautiful, and boring all at the same time. We soldiered on and made it to Cheyenne in good time and with plenty of energy, so we drove on through. I had my eye on North Platte, NE but Heather was ready to stop at dinner time. We put down for the night in Sidney, NE which, I believe, is the home of Cabela's.

Day 3: Our "goal" for Thursday night was Kansas City, MO. We made our way through Nebraska which turned out to be nearly as monotonous as Wyoming. Let me tell you, we thought there would be quite a big of corn in Iowa and neighboring states like Nebraska. We could not believe how much corn there actually was! Through almost the entire state of Nebraska (and many others to come) there would be solid fields of corn lining both sides of the freeway for hundreds of miles! We were both pretty amazed at just how much corn really does grow in the Midwest. When we left Nebraska we were expecting to enter Missouri but we ended up going through Iowa for about 10 miles! Add that one to the list of states! Our next state to conquer was Missouri. It ended up being very similar to Nebraska but slightly hillier. We found Columbia, MO to be a good stopping place for the night so, like every other night on the road, we used our GPS to locate hotels in the area and called ahead to make sure they allowed pets and to make reservations. Traveling with an atlas is nice, traveling with a GPS is convenient, but traveling with both is the only way to go! Being able to look up local businesses is a huge plus on the GPS, but being able to look several states ahead of us and see detailed road maps was also invaluable.
We had one minor hiccup in Columbia that is worth mentioning. We pulled into a hotel to check in. I was planning on driving through the drive-thru/keep you out of the rain thing. Even when I got closer to it, it looked like I would have plenty of clearance for our truck. I didn't see any warning signs about the clearance height until I got my front axle under the roof. Then I saw it...I sign no bigger than a bumper sticker that said "Clearance 10'". Oh great. My truck says it is 10'6". I got out of the truck and inspected the roof to try to figure out if I could actually make it or not. It should be noted that we had received numerous warnings about backing up our truck with the tow dolly attached. Apparently it acts like a double trailer because the trailer pivots on the hitch and it also has its own pivoting piece that the actual car sits on. Our options included: trying to drive through under the "low clearance" roof, take the car off the trailer, unhook the trailer and back up the truck, or back it all up together. Our solution was to carefully and very slowly back up the whole thing. Fortunately we successfully backed the truck and trailer and drove around the poorly signed roof thing. Whew! The man in me still feels I could have made it underneath the roof! ;)

Day 4: This is where we made the biggest detour from our original goal. Our original plan was to drive to Memphis for the night and make it the rest of the way to Nashville on Saturday. What a silly idea that turned out to be! I can't believe it hadn't dawned on us to just drive towards Nashville and stay somewhere along the way. Well, the two of us eventually figured out that from Columbia MO, we could make it all the way to Nashville by about 4:00 (thanks Garmin!). We went east from St. Louis into Illinois and spent quite a while in that state. Guess what? They grow corn in Illinois too...lots of it! Thanks to a two-hour delay in traffic we made it to Nashville around 6. It was too late get into our apartment so we spent the night in a nearby hotel. We finally made it! 5 days of driving and approx. 2,500 miles later. I'll write a bit more about current events in the next post which will include pictures from the trip.

The Journey Soon to Begin

Well, I can't believe that the big moving day is almost here. In just 4 short days, we will be packing up all of our things into one big truck and moving it across the country. Wasn't I applying for grad schools just a few months ago?! My how time does fly. Heather and I have enjoyed our year in Bellingham so much! She has said repeatedly that Bellingham is the first town besides Walla Walla that she's ever felt like she could settle in. We know that there are so many exciting things waiting for us in Tennessee, but we sure will miss the spectacular view of Mount Baker to the east, and the beautiful sunset over the water to the west.

There are so many mixed emotions surrounding our big move. We are both pretty sad to be leaving our first home together, but at the same time we just want to get it over with! We have been planning this next step for so long and we are ready for the anticipation to be over. Then again, moving so far away from family will be difficult for both of us. We know it won't be long until Christmas, and we hope we will get to see you all more than once a year for the next 3 years. It's a bit hard to think about that reality even now. But on the brighter side, we are following Gods will! We also know he has great things planned for our lives in Tennessee. We are eager to grow closer together through this crazy adventure. And someday, we WILL move back to the west coast!

Oh, so many things to think about! The thought of this move away from home can be unpleasant, but being reminded of God's plan is the most reassuring thing we have. We are thankful for all of you, excited to see most of you this next weekend, and will miss you so much. We promise to keep in touch through this blog. Have faith Cami! We can do it!!!
I'll sure we will have plenty of pictures to post, and stories to tell when we get to Nashville!
Until next time...

Camping Trip '09

On this weekend's agenda, CAMPING!!! Heather, Draco, and I went to Silver Lake Park near Mount Baker. We had scoped out the area with Mom and Dad when they came up to visit a few months ago. One look around the park and we knew we wanted to camp there before we left town. So this weekend was our time to camp! We have been waiting to go camping since we got married. You may remember that a major motif of our gift registry was camping gear. We tried to find a camp site on several occasions last fall but were unsuccessful. Needless to say, we were very excited to spend some time outdoors (sans hiking).

Being the planners that we are, we made several checklists and packed our gear at least a week in advance. Excited? Nay, Thrilled to camp!!! We barely fit our stuff + Draco in the car but we made it and set up camp Friday afternoon



This is proof that I can build a fire! But don't be fooled, the wood was a bit wet and the fire barely hung in there. It took the both of us to keep it going all evening.


This is a part of Silver Lake. Aside from sitting on its bank and enjoying the beauty of the surrounding mountains, we went on a paddle boating excursion directly to the nearest shady spot! I think we both had forgotten how much work a paddle boat can be! Despite the unwelcomed workout, we really enjoyed the time together exploring the lake and searching for fish swimming below.



We had the best time camping together! We learned a bit about "surviving" outdoors and will be even better prepared for next time and we hope we can find some good places to camp in Tennessee.

Oh, Draco had a ball too! Does it get cuter than this?


Next weekend Heather's parents will be coming to visit and the week after that we will be packing and moving. Oh my goodness...Uff Dah! Until next time...

Graduation and After

Here is the second part of our graduation weekend in Bellingham. The graduation ceremony was all that we could have hoped for. Despite having to read over 600 names in my ceremony, they were able to finish exactly on time in only 90 minutes! We all sweat through the ceremony and then had a bit of time to cool off before we had a great dinner celebration at the Hearthfire Steakhouse on the water. We spent several hours at the restaurant talking, laughing, and enjoying being together as a big family. I'm pretty sure that Dad got about 10 times as many pictures on his camera as I did so be looking for more pictures from him soon.



On Sunday after everyone left town, Heather and I spent a little time together just trying to relax and then we decided to take a drive and try out the new GPS! Heather found a county park that looked pretty interesting in Ferndale, just a few miles north of Bellingham. We excitedly got in the car and hopped on the I-5. We were barely half-way down the entrance ramp when we noticed traffic was at a standstill and backed up for quite a ways. It didn't take long to figure out that there was a pretty intense situation up ahead and we probably wouldn't be moving for a while. After only 5-10 minutes of waiting, people started to turn around and go back up the entrance ramp to the surface streets!! Heather and I couldn't help but just stare at people with our jaws on the floor in disbelief! She captured the whole thing with our camera. Yes. Those are several rows of cars on the same side of the road, going in different directions. Brilliant right? Not so much...



The first thing we found at this park was a fragrance garden. It was full of all kinds of varieties of sage, mint, thyme, rosemary, and other aromatic flowers and trees. It was such a unique garden and was very interesting to explore!



Later, we look some really neat trails through a large wetland area. It was full of all sorts of wildlife and plantlife that we don't usually see. We weren't able to get a good picture, but as we were pulling into the park, a bald eagle was circling overhead! They are such majestic birds. Feel free to click on the pictures to make them much larger.

Here is a Blue Heron



While standing on a bridge taking pictures of the Heron, we noticed this little guy silently swimming down the stream at a pretty good pace! At first we thought he was a small beaver but he turned out to be a muskrat. Too cute!