2007 Recap!!!

Don't forget to check out our trip recap - the post below - if you haven't yet!!!

2007 year in review with pictures!!!

We rung in 2007 in Coos Bay!!!

In May we went on our First trip to Disney World!

The tree of life!


Waiting for Fantasmic to start!

In early May we finally received our baby Chinchillas after waiting 2 months

to get them. Callie and Kahlua were both born on March 16th!

In June we went to a family reunion up at Wallowa Lake.

The views from the summit were amazing!

On the top of the mountain at Wallowa Lake!

In early July Peter bought me an awesome

first anniversary present!!!

For our First Anniversary we went down to Southern Oregon

and visited Crater Lake!

Our anniversary trip also took us to the Redwood Forrest!

The months of October and November were filled with

several job interviews which eventually led to Peter

accepting a position at KPMG in early November!!!

Right before Christmas we escaped to Depot Bay for

a couple of nights of relaxation!

Christmas 2007

The girls loved their 1st Christmas!

The end of December sees us in San Francisco cheering Oregon State on

to a win in the Emerald Bowl!!

Our Year almost ended in San Francisco!

2007 was a really fun and great year for us. We continually saw God's blessings in our life and spent a lot of time in awe of how greatly he showed his favor on us. Here's hoping to an even more amazing 2008! We already have much to look forward to in the coming year!!!

Home again!

Our trip pictures first and then the trip recap below!!!

Here they come - It's game time!!!And the Beaver's take control!
Game Over and the fans storm the field!

The disappointed Maryland Mascot doesn't know what to think

The Maryland fans don't know what to think either

San Francisco from our room

We arrived home just a few hours ago and amazingly with how tired we are we actually got our Christmas decorations all taken down in the house. Our trip to San Francisco was very quick paced but a lot of fun. We are tired and it is always nice to be home again no matter how much fun the trip was.

We left at noon on Thursday after we worked for half of the day. We were anticipating a long drive to hopefully get us within a couple hours of San Francisco. We started our drive and made it all the way to Grants Pass and that is where our journey slowed down. We filled up the tank with gas and grabbed a quick snack and were on our way again. Soon after leaving Grants Pass is where the snow began. We were prepared for the snow and fully expected to hit the snow at some point in southern Oregon or northern California. We made it to Ashland and began to notice several semi's on the side of the road beginning the chaining up process. It was amazing how many semi's were pulled over. The line went on for several miles. We eventually hit dead traffic and recognized a sign telling us that they would be inspecting chains two miles ahead of us. We knew that we were not required to chain up because we had 4 wheel drive but there were several morons who didn't pay attention and were the ones causing the hold up in the line. They were stopping every car to see if they had chains and if they were not chained they were making them turn around. We sat in this line for over an hour waiting our turn. We finally made it through the line and were able to continue on our way. We had no problems with the snow, besides the fact that you couldn't drive very fast and we spent the next 2 to 3 hours turning our way through the snowy mountains. It was around 8:30 by the time we made it to Redding and we decided to stop there and get a bite at our favorite California destination "In-N-Out"! We had seen several Beaver fans on our journey and we saw several more during dinner. We began to realize that there would be lots of Orange at this game. It was a lot of fun to talk with these people and go to an "away game" where there were so many of us! We wanted to get as close to San Francisco as we could before stopping so we all agreed we would drive until 10:00 and then call it a night. We ended up making it to Willow and that is where we spent our night. We even got a discount on our room!

The next morning we quickly ate and filled up the car and were on our way. The weather was the biggest disappointment of our day. (We later found out that it was a record breaking low weather day for San Francisco - Lucky us) We made it to San Francisco before noon and started our way across the bridges. We quickly discovered that the local drivers are not very nice people. There was a man who was in the wrong lane in front of us and everyone was honking at him and nobody would let him in. Peter took the high rode and let the man in, and the man, in turn paid our toll at the bridge :) We were three hours early for check in but we went ahead and found out our room was already clean and waiting for us. We got a discounted rate for the second day of our journey! We checked in and decided to go down to the Fisherman's Wharf and find some lunch. We rode the trolley system down there and met up with several Beavers along the way and at the wharf. Several "Go Beavers!!!" were heard throughout the city that day :) We did not however see very many Maryland fans. We found another In-N-Out at the wharf and ate and decided to head back to our room and put more layers of clothing on before taking off for the game. After putting on 5 or 6 layers of clothing and grabbing blankets and ponchos we rode the subway down to the Giant's stadium. There was so much Orange down there! We discovered our seats were the first row behind the dugout where Oregon State came out (Did you see us on TV!!!) and Peter's parents quickly texted us a picture of us from their TV - We are celebrities now :) The game was pretty good - I can't complain because we won! It rained the whole second half of the game but it still wasn't as bad as some of the games I've been to. When we finally did make it back to our room we were very happy that we had turned the heat on before leaving for the game!

We slept in on Saturday and checked out of our room and went back down to Fisherman's Wharf after a quick ride down the crookedest rode -Lombard Street. The whole city was pretty well overcast but we still got to experience the honking horns and fishy smells of downtown San Francisco. We stopped at Ghirardelli Square and got some chocolate and also some famous Kara's cupcakes. Peter and I were hungry so we decided to go down to Hard Rock and have some lunch. It was quite a battle to travel down the sidewalks and it was very easy to tell who was from Oregon and who wasn't. Besides the obvious fact that the Oregonians were wearing black and orange, the non-Oregonians were carrying umbrellas that were poking every which way! Now even the non-Oregonians were talking to us. Besides the normal "Go beavs" there were also several "good game" comments! It was actually a lot of fun to have random people talk to you :) From there we drove across the Golden Gate bridge just to say we did it. We definitely couldn't see anything through all of the fog but hey - we did it!!!

That is about all we did. We drove to Redding yesterday and spent the night and made it home faster then going. All the snow we experienced three days ago is now gone and the rodes were thankfully very clear. We had a fun trip and we are glad we went. We were hoping for better weather but we are Oregonians and used to it. Here's hoping for a repeat trip to Cali next year but next year Peter is hoping for a trip to the Rose Bowl! Here's to wishing!

Home and ready for Christmas!

We had a wonderful time at the beach. Here are some pictures to prove it. We didn't do much of anything. I watched some TV (we don't have cable at home) and read some books and napped. Peter mainly played video games :P

We really did enjoy ourselves. It is nice to have some time to not DO anything and with the last few months we have had between work and school it was very pleasant to just relax and not be responsible.

Our three bedroom condo. It is bigger then our house!

The view from our room. The weather was incredible while we were there. It was in the 50's and calm. The weather did however get pretty nasty the day we left so it was a good day to head home.
Depot Bay
The lighthouse in Newport :)

Now on to Christmas!!! We will be sure to post some pictures of Christmas and also of our trip to San Francisco.

Go Beavers!!!!

and of course.......

Merry Christmas!!!

We are outta here!

We are done!!! Our work week is now over and we are ready to go! We are leaving today for Depot Bay for a few nights. We got away last year for a couple of nights before Christmas and we are looking forward to going again this year. We are getting the last of the gifts wrapped, house cleaned, and bags packed so we can get out of town and unwind and relax. The last of the busy time at work should be over now and it is time to have some fun for a couple of days. Christmas will be great too and then after that we are off to San Francisco!

Peter did really well this semester too. He is still waiting on a few grades but the worst he has this far is a B and I think that is darn good with taking a 29 credit semester. 4 more months to go!!!

I should get going - lots to do!!!

In sickness and health

Well, the week is over! I did in fact call in sick yesterday. I tried to avoid it but I think it was for the best. There is no way with the shape my back was in that I would be able to do my job. I did go in today and now I only have three more days of work next week! I am still getting over this bug that I have and I am really hoping Peter doesn't get it.

I am always amazed how Peter steps up to the plate when I really need him to. He never fails to take care of me when I need him to. The last few days he has helped me out with every little thing that he can. He's been forcing me to bed at 6:30 at night so I get enough rest. He's been making sure I drink enough water to get better. Wednesday night he even went to the store and bought my food and gift for a gift exchange I had at work. He wrapped the gift and even delivered it to my work after I was unable to go. It really is the smallest things that he does that really make me fall more in love with him and become even more attracted to him.

I feel so very lucky that he chose me to be his wife. It is weird how we still miss each other all the time. I always figured after you got married and lived together that you would get tired of always being around each other, or at least enjoy your time apart. I think we both do enjoy sometime to ourselves, but overall we still really miss each other after a work day and look forward to our time together on the weekends! There is so much about marriage that I am still learning :)

It never ceases to amaze me how Peter lives out his wedding vows to me on a daily basis. I never doubted that he would keep his vows, but in my mind he exceeds them daily! With all of the back problems I have had in the past year and how they have affected me physically, financially, emotionally, and at times spiritually - he has been there every step of the way in more ways then I thought I needed him. God is good and he gave me the best!

The Creepy Crud!!!

This week is almost half over and boy are we happy about it! Peter and I have both been working quite a bit. Now that classes are over for Peter he is working a lot more and I am in the heart of the busiest time of year at work. Unfortunately I am also pretty sick right now. I have a pretty bad head cold but to make it worse my back is killing me. For some reason my soreness that accompanies a cold is really affecting my back pain. Throw in a cough and my back is wasted. I am hoping that I am feeling better tomorrow so that I don't call in sick. I am yet to call in sick and I really don't want to start now! Today I was supposed to work late but I was able to ask if I could leave after my 9 hour day instead of staying for the 11 hours I was supposed to work. So now I am trying to relax and hopefully kick this thing before it gets any worse.




This weekend was nice. Our niece's spent the night with us. They are actually a lot of fun to listen to. They have the strangest conversations and say the funniest things. I have a few pictures to share at the end.





We also met Peter's new little brother Edik this week. Edik is ten years old and is from Russia. We have had a lot of emotions building up to his arrival but he is now here and we look to what our future with him holds. We met him this weekend. It was so weird, he was so excited to meet us and when we got up to the house he was jumping around and excited. We went inside and sat down with him. It was heartbreaking to see how he acted around us. You could tell that he wanted to hang out with us but he was afraid to for some reason. He literally sat there with his back to us. Almost like he didn't feel worthy to be our friend. I don't want to read to much into it because I can't speak for how he was feeling, but that is the feeling we got. It broke our hearts. We want to have an influence in his life and more importantly we want him to feel like he is worthy of being part of our family and MOST importantly worthy of God's love. I hope that we are able to show him love and live God's love out for him! I think the language barrier is a huge issue right now and we will be able to build a much better relationship with him after we are able to communicate!





In one week we will be done with work for the Christmas holiday!!! Our way of celebrating Christmas is that we go away to the beach for a couple of nights before Christmas. It is a lot of fun and a great way to relax our way into Christmas! With how I feel right now I am more then ready for the next week to go by.

Cooking Dinner with the niece's!

Peter's attempt at teaching them video games!

Wow - what a week!!!

Thank goodness this long week is over! I don't think either one of us would want to go back and repeat this week! This week was pretty intense for Peter and his school. In fact tonight is the first time we have seen each other all week. It also figures that he has had a hard time finding stuff to keep him busy at work................. until this week. He had a ton of stuff that he was responsible to get done and work and had a constant stream of meetings and homework with every free moment he had. This is his last week of classes - ONE MORE SEMESTER!!!! He has one take home final this weekend and one in class final next week and he is all done! With how fast this semester went I imagine that the next one will go just as quickly!!!


This week he had a ton of papers to write and two group projects due in one class today. It is hard when you are working with a group because you have to constantly make time to meet with them. So every night this week Peter had to meet with his group. Monday night I think it was, Peter was using my chi-machine while I went ahead and went to bed. I woke up at 4 to get ready for work and there Peter was sound asleep on the floor! He fell asleep using the thing and we both have been so exhausted that neither one of us woke up and noticed. Last night I went to bed while Peter was still at school and usually I wake up when I hear him home, but last night I was sound asleep! Tonight my poor husband is exhausted and just wants to go to sleep - but it is all over and that is very good!

For me I have had a high stress week. I don't want to say to much because I don't want to get any one's hopes up (or mine) but I have had a very busy week and I am hoping for some really good news by next week so keep me in your prayers this week if you wouldn't mind!!! (No I am not pregnant if that is what you are wondering!) I have still been working really long hours at work and that still shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. I am now full time on the other side and while it is much more entertaining then what I was doing it is so much harder physically. Upholstery is seriously hard work!!! Every muscle is sore in my body. My hands hurt and are stiff again like when I first started upholstery three years ago! My shoulders are killing me, my back hurts worse (although surprisingly not as bad as I expected) and shockingly my legs and muscles in my thighs even hurt. I guess it is a better work out but I seriously hope the pain goes away soon!

Now we are waiting to see if we win our auction on ebay and then we will be in bed. Peter and I and my parents are trying to go to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco on the 28th!!! We have bid on the tickets and the auction ends in 45 minutes. It would be an exciting little get-away if we are able to go!!!

That is all for tonight!!! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as life is pretty crazy right now but hopefully will be settling down soon. For now, sleep and rest are on the agenda!!!

The girls!!

Updated pics of the girls. They will be 9 months soon. I always joke to Peter that they would like to have a male around for Christmas so we could get some little baby chinchillas, but I am not sure that we really need anymore responsibility right now. We love having two - two is enough :)

Going through the motions..........

Life is just continuing on. There is nothing too exciting to report about but I figured we should update for the sake of updating. Peter is extremely busy right now. He only has two more weeks of classes left and he is on his final semester (yeah!!!!). He had a big final project in Cultural Anthropology that he completed today. He has been working so hard the last few days to get it all done and I am sure he is very relieved to be done with it and he can now relax for the rest of that class. It is amazing to think back to when this whole journey started. Time really has flown by since the beginning of college and so much of our lives have changed since then.

I have had quite a slow down at work this week. It has been a nice relief but next week we are back up to 11 hour days. It has really helped me feel productive and relaxed at home. It is so nice to have a few hours to relax in the evening instead of eat dinner and go to bed. I have been doing some scrap booking and I will hopefully be at a good stopping point with that shortly. We have a big table set up in the living room that I was scrap booking on and I had a goal of being caught up enough to take it down by the time the Christmas tree went. Needless to say it didn't happen. I have some Christmas projects that I want to start working on so I really need to get it all caught up.

hmmm, in other news - we are looking forward to the civil war this week!!! Go Beavers!!! I think we have a great shot of winning, but you never know with the civil war.

I imagine we will probably go to a movie tomorrow night. Last weekend we went and saw August Rush. It was a very good movie and I recommend it. This weekend we may either go see Enchanted or This Christmas.

Okay this was long enough and boring enough but I really don't have anything exciting to report for now. Peter has been very busy with finishing up school and that is about it!!!

Success

Well Black Friday was a success!!! An exhausting success, but a success!!! We got to Best Buy around 4:30 and joined the line that was haf way around the back of the building already. We waited in the cold until 5 when the line started moving. They were only letting so many people in the store at a time so we had to wait probably about ten more minutes before getting the store. We quickly found the computer and were surprised to find that they had several of them. We got put in the computer line and waited.................... for an hour and a half. It was a pretty miserable wait, they were only letting people with computers check out from one little area of the store and I guess the computers went down in that area so instead of letting us check out with everyone else, they just made us wait until they were fixed. We finally made it out of Best Buy after 7 and were on our way to the mall. Basically everything in JCPenny's was 50% off. We bought Peter some dress shirts and ties and decided to not waste time looking around the rest of the store as it was so crowded. We found our way down to Cinnabon and quickly did a little bit more shopping at the mall and got out of there as quickly as we could. The mall was worse then I ever remember it being on a Black Friday. After the mall we went to Target. Didn't find too much there, but we didn't look to hard either. I think we were so tired by the time we made it there that we just wanted to go home.

We were home a little after ten and decided to lay down and take a nap. We slept for a couple of hours and then woke up and demolished our house. It is weird how much moving and rearranging we have to do to fit any Christmas stuff in our house. We have everything decorated now, except for the lights outside which will be coming soon! We ended the night with a pizza and a relaxing night in front of the t.v.!!!

Here are the pictures I promised.

This was my Living Room!!! As you can see the monitor on Peter's laptop no longer worked so he had to set up a monitor and little workstation to use it. It became the perfect little storage place for my pack-rat of a husband.

Christmas Decorations!!!

Our Stockings!!

Our Christmas Village!!!

More Christmas Village

Our Disney Tree!!!

To top it all off!!!

Black Friday!!!

We are freaks!!! Yes, it is now 3:45 AM on Black Friday. We are one of those crazy people that gets up in the middle of the night and stands out in the cold for an hour waiting for a store to open on Black Friday. Granted, today is not much different then any other day except for the fact that we are getting up and doing something fun instead of going to work. That is, if you consider fighting insane crowds fun!!! To make matters worse, we were reading in the newspaper about where the crowds will be this Black Friday. As the Oregonian refers to it "The belly of the beast" will be at Best Buy this morning. Where are we heading off to? Best Buy. So seriously - wish us luck. Peter's laptop has been on its last leg for quite some time now. We were trying to hold out for graduation, but that thing I can guarantee will not make it another 5 months. I will have to post pictures of his little set up in the corner. We will also be decorating our house later on today, so I will post pictures later.

Wish us luck as we go into the beast. Let us pray we make it out with our limbs all still attached and a computer!!! Black Friday 2007 begins.................

It's Official!!!

Many Emails

7 Applications

6 Different firms

15 Interviews

5 Water Bottles

4 Courtside Blazer Tickets

3 Free Meals
2 Fleece Sweatshirts

1 Free Hotel Room

3 Great Job Offers

1 New Job!

All In 2 Months time..........

It is finished. Peter will be working for:

It has been a very difficult decision in coming but we both are confident that this is the place for Peter to begin his career. We have had so many ups and downs in trying to weigh through both firms but finally with some help from God we are excited about what Peter's future holds!!! We are that much more excited now to finish this school phase of life and on to the real part. This year is still going to be full of a lot of information and decisions and we will be sure to post as all of that comes into place. Yes, we were highly considering the offer at AKT, but it really came down to benefits. KPMG has amazing health care and retirement and disability insurance (hopefully will never need that one) and that is so important to have with our hopes of being a one income family someday. What KPMG offers with help with preparing and taking the CPA exam is going to be so valuable in the coming months. Peter will be able to get the best education available to help him prepare for the exam and they will also pay for him to take the exam. One less thing for us to worry about.

Like I said, all of our nervousness and anxiousness has been overshadowed with a calmness about the decision we made and a sense of anticipation and excitement for what our future holds. Thanks for all the prayers sent our way in this decision. God has surely blessed us!

Update of sorts.........

This week has been yet another crazy busy week. More so physically for me and more so mentally for Peter. So far this week Peter has had no meetings at night or interviews that put him behind on time and he has also barely had any homework. It has been a nice break for him and in perfect timing with all of the information rattling around in his head. He is having such a difficult time with this job decision and fortunately he was able to get an extension from KPMG until next Wednesday. It will be so nice to have this all over with. Peter is driving himself nuts right now. He did get his counter offer from AKT (it was a little bit disappointing) and has spent most of today back and forth emailing with the recruiters at both firms getting his questions answered. He is also in contact with a friend at AKT and my relative at KPMG to help him get the inside scoop about the real life inside both firms. I think we are about 90% sure on which offer he is going to accept, but still, things COULD change. So that is all the information that you get until we are 100% sure. ;P Oh yes, KPMG sent him a sweatshirt and fancy pen today in the mail and they also are giving us 4 Blazer tickets next week!!! They are schmooozing as I like to call it!!!

In the little bit of non-job offer related news. I am extremely busy at work this week. 11 hour days all week and a full day on Friday (my half day). It is helping us financially so I shouldn't complain, but it is definitely a challenge to face the alarm clock at 4 in the morning. My back is doing surprisingly well this week. I am very thankful for that with how busy I am at work. Usually I would be in a lot of pain at this point in the week but I went to the doctor last week and he gave me a new prescription to try and it seems to be working very well at this point in time. I also ordered a chi-machine. My doctor claims that this just might be the miracle cure for my back pain and so I am actually looking forward to getting it!! I will update on how it works when it arrives!!!

I am off to bed for now. Time is ticking away and 4 AM will be hear before I know it (or want it)!!!

Change of Plans!!!

Well, we got some good news and some bad news. The good news is KPMG just presented an offer to Peter and it is a very good offer. The bad news is Peter has a very difficult decision to make. There are so many pros and cons to each position and while we are so sure about AKT being a great work environment KPMG just stepped in with great benefits, great bonuses, great educational resources (that they pay for) and a better salary. This is going to be such a difficult decision so please keep us in your prayers. Pray for Peter to make the right decision in all of this. He is already stressing out and he needs a clear sense from God on where he belongs. This is both an exciting time and a terrifying time. He can't make a bad decision because either place would be a good place for him to work, but what is the best decision for us?

He has to decide by next Friday and this week is going to be filled with a lot of prayers, a lot of advice from people, and hopefully a better offer from AKT!!!

They are all done!!!

The interview process has officially ended. I think we are both relieved to have it over with but still are kind of nervous or held back for now. I think we will finally be able to relax once the decision has been made and the offer has been signed. It is close, the offer has all but been signed. We both clearly know where the place for Peter to work is. It is kind of weird, we have had this "feeling" all along and as the process is now done and over we still feel completely like that firm is the place for him to work. If you haven't guessed already - it seems unless something drastic happens in the next few days that Peter will be accepting the offer from AKT!!! KPMG does have a lot to offer education wise and it has been a difficult choice to make but I think the last few days have confirmed that it is not the place for Peter.



Let me tell you all about our trip up to Portland. Peter had to be checked into the hotel around 3 so he could be to KPMG by 4. We get on our way and are doing great time wise until we hit downtown Portland. With all of the construction and dumb people everywhere it was extremely hard to find the hotel. After circling the block, we find the hotel and we are supposed to valet park the car. The valet was all backed up and with construction directly across the street from the hotel and one lane of traffic there was no where for us to leave the car. So we go around the corner and just have to settle for a parking spot we have to try to cram all of our stuff in our hands to carry to the hotel, pay the meter (with the little bit of change we had on us) and hustle because Peter was supposed to meeting a girl from fox to walk down to KPMG at 3:30. It was after 3:30. We get up to the hotel room, and the keys don't work. Peter goes down to the lobby to fix that while I look down at the piece of paper they scribbled our room number on - that looked like a 409 was probably a 404. So here I am, standing in front of someone else's room with all of our stuff sitting right in front of there door. Peter comes back up, he drops our stuff and is out the door because the girl was down in the lobby waiting for him and he still had to get the car moved.



Great first impression of working in downtown Portland :)



Well Peter went to his night activities at KPMG. They did some activities and such (I am not really sure what they did - it can be difficult getting information out of men sometimes) and then went to a fancy Italian dinner. Anyone who knows Peter, knows that fancy isn't really for him. Out of this whole event, Peter was most nervous about ordering dinner :) I really don't think he enjoyed the food very much but it sounds like they had a decent time at dinner. What did I do with my night? Well, I watched the CMA awards which was nice and I took a warm jacuzzi tub bath and read Every Woman's Marriage (good book). My night was nice. Peter finally came back around 9:30 and he watched the rest of the CMA's with me.



The next morning he had to be up and gone by 8. He had three interviews and an office tour. He feels everything went pretty well. He went out to a fancy breakfast with them and I don't think he was to impressed with it either.



So in the end he learned a lot about KPMG. They are a great company and would be perfect for a lot of people, but it just doesn't feel right. Yes, we could definitely make it work and it wouldn't by any means be a "bad" place to work. We both feel so much better about AKT then KPMG though.



We were talking on the way home yesterday about how some of the people at KPMG who were interviewing or considering KPMG were - stuck up or felt they were better then other people. KPMG is a big firm, to an extent it is a company that you have to jump over your friends to reach the higher positions. Peter wants to work for a company where his co-workers are his friends, not his opponents. A place where you aren't always stressed out about your job. Somewhere that he can have a family life and enjoy his work life. I think we know where he can have all of this. Yes, there are some bad things about AKT too, but overall it fits much better for us.

Disney on Ice!!!

DISNEY ON ICE!!!

The girls ready and waiting for the show!!!

Aladdin and Genie Opening the Show!!!

The 7 dwarfs!!!


Jillian Loved Tinker Bell!!!

Belle

Ariel!!!

Sebastian!!!

The dragon from Sleeping Beauty (he eventually lit the ice on fire and the girls couldn't believe that the ice didn't melt!!)

Jillian wasn't sure about the dragon!!!

The end with Cinderella!!!