A joy!

It's been a joy to have Brynn here in Portland. It's given us a chance (as she is a fine motivator) to go out and see what makes Portland great. It's really easy to get sucked into the school, work, sleep routine but i've been wanting to show her for so long how great Portland was and we've been fortunate to have some time to do that.
The other day we went on a walking tour of downtown on a search for statues that seem to be scattered all over the city. A few of them you question their purpose in being here



but who am I to complain at what makes Portland great. The culture, art, and vibrancy of the city make it so much fun to live in. We can literally turn the corner and find something to do!

Woooo weee

Finally finished the week per se and I couldn't be happier.

I went into this first week of school pretty sure of myself and feeling I had picked the right balance of classes, a mix of doing what I need to do (ASL, Spanish) with what I want to do (Graphic Design.) Well a few kinks (like not being able to continue in the GD program this winter unless I took and passed another two courses) and nights spent worrying as I lived life on the wait list. But after quite a bit of finagling I think I ended up in the right spot (though with an armload of more books.... goodbye financial aid) and on course to enter the ITP program by next fall (crossing my fingers).

A few highlights... my Deaf studies class is taught by Champ from Anchorman and one of the interpreters is Alec Baldwin.



It's a great class and one thing that I have been very impressed with is that all my ASL teachers have been Deaf which will help give me added insight into what is expected of me as I hope to be successful in working within the Deaf community. Still havemy reservations. Of those in my classes I would say about 80 percent raised their hands to respond to the question of who wanted to be a interpreter. The thing is that entrance into the ITP program you have to demonstrate the skills necessary to be only one of twenty five admitted into the program per year. Odds are slim... yikes!

Whadda’ busy week!

Geez you’d think we were movers and shakers.

Quick recap of what was a big week as we ended up Portland in a much anticipated move.

Tuesday with a little help from some from friends we packed up our belongings and skirted up to our new home in Portland. We were able to find a wonderful two bedroom apartment off of Barbur Boulevard. It’s centrally located between Portland State and PCC, right on a bus line, just in the middle of everything. Today on our last day off together (as we’ve been enjoying our one week summer vacation) we were able to go both to Portland and Tigard for breakfast, shopping, and sights with ease. In particular i'm fascinated how each of the neighborhoods bring their own flair. Mississippi Avenue is one of my favorites, next week I think we'll hit up the Portland Spelling Bee that is held every Monday night at Mississippi Pizza. Ahhh it’s so good to be back in a city I love so much.

Church was great and we’ll be seeing many changes in the coming week. Apparently the stake here has been in a real flux and this Sunday’s attendance (of around 100+) was the biggest in about a year. They’ve redrawn the ward boundaries and we don’t know where we will be by this time in two weeks so we’ll see where we will end up. Met quite a few friendly faces and for really the first time, young married couples who are our age which is really nice. A few of them ended up being old faces from my other branch at Portland State which was a neat surprise. It’s weird though starting anew as I personally am somewhat of a introvert and making new friends hasn’t always been my strong suit so there is the obvious wish to have things remain the same but if experience has taught me anything is that with change we can have something better if we are willing to sacrifice the comfort we desire.

With school starting in a week and part of the reason i'm up here is to attend PCCto become an ASL interpreter and I am amazed on how the Lord will bless us in the most amazing ways. For the first time ever I was able to sit in on a deaf branch of the church. It was located in this very classic looking church (so different looking that I passed it three times because it clearly isn't part of the church's building plan) made of stone and with sweeping steps in the back, intricate woodwork, just gorgeous. It was a very uplifting moment as I sat there and looked at the gospel being brought to people through the hands of His children. I'll be excited to go back and continue to absorb and in time serve.

Brynn got a job at the Lloyd Center Jamba Juice and has been working since Friday. We had a little fun on the bus as we practiced getting from home and work. I’d never thought twice about how the bus worked as I had for most of my life ridden the city bus. Trimet’s system is wonderful but as I saw Brynn fumble around so cutely with the money machine I wished that everyone would get the opportunity to experience what a wonder it is to be able to get around nearly at will. I won’t lie though there are the pitfalls of the transit system as it brings everyone and I mean EVERYONE into one place. Brynn had the pleasure of being hit on the MAX when she was riding alone on Saturday. Haha. I won’t lie in that he made a good choice but next time he’s a dead man.

Saturday also brought dark clouds, ten foot breakers, and a big red dog on the ocean (even for only a few minutes). Got to live the life on a boat as I spent all of Saturday with Joel and Greg Warnock out in the Yaquina Bay, fishing, eating burgers (on a boat), and fighting the ocean. I can’t describe how fantastic it was being on the ocean riding the waves. It was wild and somewhat scary looking back and seeing how big those waves were and how quickly the caught up with the back of boat and lifted it with impunity. Man if only I could retire today (yeah, yeah I know, I haven’t even begun the fight) I would plunk down some dough and get myself a fine sailing vessel. It’s of course a lush lifestyle and we didn’t actually bag any of those jumping salmon but it was exhilarating, every single minute of it.

The final tango

Summer is winding down and we have been really getting out there. Having landed the apartment in Portland and having a whole week off we've had the chance to really get out there. It's been a fantastic week.

We attended the Monmouth Stake Temple night and it was a beautiful time. Being able to again strengthen our faith and renew our commitment to living the gospel brings so much joy. And the amount of people who responded to President Petersen's call to fill the chapel makes me so proud to see the saints heed the Lord's servant. So many came that we were able to witness the selfless nature of brethren who when seeing that we were filled to capacity and there were women without seats graciously got up and offered their own. It was good to see that gallantry still has a place in the world.

OMSI was amazing. We took Tyler, Connor and Trent to see the museum (Trent being a first timer). It was funny because we had never been to a musuem together as a couple (the only other time was when I arranged for Brynn and I to go with Trent to Willamette University's art musuem, Trent acting as my beard) so Brynn didn't know that i'm a slowpoke when it comes to looking at things. Especially when most of the exhibits are interactive, I can spend ages in each section. So as the others ended up zipping through I was moving as slow as molasses. This obviously didn't sit well with Connor because as I was nearing the end of the second exhibit she ingeniously (I think having had seen this technique practiced with Karli and Bill) invoked the wife clause ("Brynn wants to see you") and off we went to the CSI exhibit. All in all it was a fantastic way to spend the day seeing ourselves do the weather on TV, making paper airplanes, flying into space in a Gemini capsule. I think we were there for four hours and I hadn't made it all over the museum.



One of the biggest rip offs was the State Fair. We each hadn't been for years personally because of bad experience working there with the carnies. Ten bucks to get in and no way we are going to pony up three to four dollars to get on the lamesauce rides, we ended up going back and forth up the aisles looking at people's wares and food. Ended up finding a new exhibit to the fair. It was a Sea Lion outreach program that held shows every day to educate people about sea lions and it featured two sea lions that had been rescued. The neat thing was that you could buy a ticket to get a kiss from the sea lions and sensing that this would be the one redeeming factor of our outing we each got a ticket. The kiss was so cold and wet but not as gross as you would think. Each dollar also went to funding the program and the sea lions themselves.