Announcement....

On our other blog. :) www.ourpathtoadoption.blogspot.com!

Flu Shots

Angie and I have been busy the last few weeks, which is always a good time. We've mainly been caught up in preparations for the baby we are excited to adopt in a few weeks. The process has been going very well and you can keep up with that on our other blog: http://www.ourpathtoadoption.blogspot.com/.

As part of the preparations, we went to an urgent care facility to get our H1N1 vaccines. We feel this is a good thing to do since we are going to be parents soon. Anyway, I had a dork moment that I don't mind sharing. As I was sitting in the chair ready to receive my shot in the shoulder, I couldn't help but think of that song called "Hearts on Fire" in Rocky IV when the training montage is going on and Ivan Drago receives his steroid injection. I was tempted to stand up from out of my chair, raise my arms in the air and yell, "Dragooooo!" like Rocky does when he climbs to the top of that mountain. Does anybody else know what I'm talking about or am I a bigger dork than I thought?

I must mention that Ang was braver at this than I thought. I came out wimpering a little and she was rock solid. If anyone asks, I'll say it was the other way around.

Anyway, here's the YouTube clip in case you forgot: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPbLzu83Ato&NR=1&feature=fvwp

The injection is at 1:57 and the part where he yells, "Dragooooo!" is at the end of the clip. I think this clip is dubbed in either Spanish or Japanese. I'm leaning toward Spanish.

Intervention

On Friday night, some girls and I went to New Moon. A few of the husbands and kids came over to our place to hang out with Dan while we were gone. Big mistake. We came home to this:

Yep. They held an intervention. They even wrote letters to each of us and read them out loud. Apparently just because we wish they were sparkly, or because we call them Mr. Ab-tastic, or because we read and reread the books and watch the movies over and over, they think we're obsessed. Whatever. Here we are listening to the men try to convey their heartbreak over it (I look like such a dork - what am I doing??):

Here's Dan getting some support while reading my letter:

Dan even found a shirt that I made and tried to hide from him. The front says "Edward sucks..." and the back says "...on my neck."

. . .

Actually, none of the obsession is true. We do like the books and movies, but only a normal amount. This was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Watching them trying to be so serious about the whole thing was classic. Oh, and as a side note, I didn't make that shirt - Dan did, but it's awesome. I so love all these people - they are so great! It's because of them (and R&K) and all of our friends here that I love living here so much! And aren't I so lucky to be married to someone that would be so cool to put this together?? We have so much fun!!

Utah

I was able to go to Utah a couple of weeks ago. I had so much fun! It had been a little while since I had been there - okay, only since July, but who's keeping track? Anyway, it was my neice, Rachel's, birthday so I actually didn't tell her I was coming at all and surprised her. Jodi's family picked me up from the airport on her birthday and kept her totally oblivious the whole ride. She didn't even realize they were at the airport until they opened the door and I was standing there. Oh how I love surprises! I took a video of it of course. :)



Yes, at the end, Tysen says "Hi Jenny!" It took a few days of me reminding him that my name is Ang and not Jenny, but he's got it now. It was such a fun week - Disney On Ice: Princess Classics (I LOVE Disney On Ice - sometimes I forget how much), Jump On It! (this really cool place filled with tons of trampolines all connected to each other), November Potluck (for celebrating the November birthdays), lots of family time, time to see friends, and much more that I can't think of right now. Anyway, I took a lot of pictures (I can't help it - I have too many cute people in my life that I love), so I had to put them in a slideshow again. Enjoy!

Gameday

I had an awesome Halloween and it didn't have anything to do with costumes, candy or those scary Scooby-Doo shows but it had everything to do with college football.

ESPN's weekly TV show College Gameday came to Eugene for a live broadcast (because of the Oregon-USC game) and a co-worker and I were lucky enough to score a pair of VIP passes through our employer. These passes enabled us to hang out "backstage" and do such things as watch the broadcast from behind the cameras, meet The Duck (as seen in the pic above), eat whatever food we wanted, wander around, get on the Gameday bus, and most importantly, go on the set and meet the Gameday crew. I had such a great time! It was fun to do all of this and experience the energy of the crowd that gathered for the 7 a.m. broadcast. There were so many creative and wacky signs that people were waving in the audience. It was thrilling to be a part of it.

The crowd was rowdy even before sunrise


The Gameday crew doing their thing


On the Gameday set with Desmond, Kirk, and some random guy

Later that evening, I was fortunate to attend the Oregon-USC game. I had a feeling it was going to be a good game, but I was wrong. It was a freakin' awesome game! The Ducks destroyed the Trojans 47-20! To put some perspective into this, it was the worse loss USC has had this decade. Being the Ducks fan that I am, it was the best regular season college football game I've ever been to.

This Halloween was one of the best experiences of my life (so far). What a day!

Good times at Autzen Stadium! (I love this pic)

I need to mention that Angie was such a great wife to wake up at 5:30 a.m., make breakfast for my co-worker and I, then drop us off at the stadium for College Gameday (as well as pick us up). All of this she volunteered to do without me asking. Thank you so much, Ang! I love you!

Autumn

I absolutely LOVE this time of year! I love autumn. I love the colors. We have the most amazing colors in Oregon! And I love the smell! Yesterday, Dan and I were driving with the windows down out by the coast, and I could smell the trees and they smelled SO good. I love the decorations, the hoodies, the hot chocolate, the pumpkins, everything!

Dan and me on a hayride to a pumpkin patch

At a park that we love to walk through

I love this

See what I mean about the colors?

I must admit, these last three pictures were from a couple of years ago. I haven't been as good at taking pictures this fall. I wish everyone could see Oregon in the fall!

Thoughtful Dan

Tonight when Dan got home from work, he called me on the phone to ask if I could help him carry his work backpack in since he doesn't have his cane anymore (that's a whole new post...) and needed help carrying it. I thought that sounded a little strange, but I went to help him and sitting in the trunk of his car was this!!!

I was so excited!! He got it for me as a "thank you" for helping him out the last few months while he's been recovering. Which really hasn't been a big deal to me - he would've done the same for me, plus some. But let's not tell him that...I'm just excited that he got this for me!

A few weeks ago, I went to my friend Michelle's house and we made baby blankets...okay, she made a baby blanket. My job was to take one piece of fabric and sew the edges in a straight line. Hers turned out beautiful. Mine...well, mine is a piece of fabric with crooked lines on it. But I love the blankets I made. :) And ever since then, I've been dying to get a sewing machine so I could learn to do all these cool things with it!! So we went to the store and I bought some stuff. We'll see how it all turns out.

Ducks games

Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to score a pair of tickets to the Oregon-Cal game right before kickoff! I love going to Ducks games, so my excitement level of getting tickets to this game was comparable to that a little kid getting a puppy for Christmas.
I was going to take Ang with me, but it worked out better for me to take my home boy Blake, instead. The seats were in the student section and we got there a few minutes late, so it was obvious that we would have to stand the whole time (if we were lucky enough to find the space). I have progressed enough in my physical therapy to where I can now walk with a cane (and feel much older in the process), but I still can't stand longer than 15 minutes at a time. Thanks to Blake's smooth skills, we were able to convince security to let us sit in the "patio" at the top of the student section, which is reserved for people with disabilities. We had plenty of space, actual seats to sit in, and no one blocking our view in front of us. Perfect seats!
{Blake and I in our "box" seats}

Possibly one of the most exciting football games I've ever attended. The Ducks destroyed #6 Cal by a score of 42-3! Go Ducks!
{The Ducks in action}

{The Duck was crowd surfing all the way up the stands}

I got quite the sunburn from being at this game. Oh well, it was worth it!

Family Visit

We were lucky enough to have some of my family visit recently. They came up for the Oregon-Utah game. They all had a great time at the game (okay...maybe not the Utah fans - which is everyone but Dan) and my mom and I had so much fun watching all the kids! It was a little crazy, but they're just so dang cute and funny that we had a great time. And then we rewarded ourselves with dinner and a movie. :) The rest of the trip was full of relaxing, shopping, and just having a good time being together. I'm so blessed to have such a great family!!

{These kids sure do love their grandma!}
{Isn't Annalee adorable??}

{The boys loved watching Cars!}

{Tanner is so sweet!}

{I just adore Aaron}

{Looks like someone found some stickers...}

Beatlemania (sorta)!

Last week, Angie and I bought the new Beatles Rockband game. I obviously know who the Beatles are and have heard some of their songs, but I was never a fan. After playing this game the first night, I'm a fan now! I didn't realize how good their music was. I'm addicted to this game and can't play anything else. I find myself waking up in the morning and sneaking over to the XBox to play a song or two before I start my day. I usually do this while Ang is getting ready because I don't want her to think I'm obsessed with this game. I guess the secret's out now. :)
Anyway, I give this game a giant thumbs up! Here are pictures of other people who give their stamp of approval:









'nuff said.

Doughnuts!

In honor of Labor Day, Angie and I decided to celebrate by making other people work. We drove up to Portland with the main goal to shop for some baby stuff. After picking up some baby items, we decided to check out this doughnut place in downtown called VooDoo Doughnut that was featured on the Travel Channel TV show "Man v Food" (which has become one of my favorite shows to watch).
They have some strange concoctions as you may tell from the picture below.
(yes, some of these doughnuts have Cap'n Crunchberries, Froot Loops, and M&M's on them)
The only thing I wanted to try was the maple bar with bacon on top of it. I know it sounds like an odd combination, but lets get one thing straight: bacon is awesome. Bacon will make anything taste better. And since I don't like maple bars, I thought I'd put my theory to the test.
And guess what? I loved it! There's something about the fusion of the doughnut, maple topping and bacon on the tastebuds that reminds me of pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Ang took a few bites of it and she agrees. Our second favorite was the glazed doughnut with chocolate frosting, rice crispies, and a drizzling of peanut butter. We don't typically eat doughnuts, but these were definitely worth it. They were even worth waiting in line for, which spilled out onto the sidewalk (even at 3:00 in the afternoon).
Good times...

...but not for this guy.

Adieu, boot

I realize I've done a crappy job of updating this blog, especially since my ATV accident. It's not like I have much else to do other than sit around waiting for time to heal this thing. So to update you, here's a timeline of what has gone down:
July 15th: being a little too awesome for my own good, I wreck Todd's ATV and my right ankle. Receive a splint and percocet (yippie!) to heal myself with.
July 25th: Happy birthday, me.
July 29th: Ditch the splint and get a boot. Stitches come out. Wounds on ankle still make me want to throw up when I look at them. Also, I've noticed that my right calf muscle has shrunk quite a bit. Crazy how small it can get after a couple of weeks of not using it.
August 4th: Current boot is painful to wear because ankle is still the size of a cantaloupe. Get prescription for cooler, storm trooper-looking boot instead (see picture at the top of this post).
August 20th-ish: I challenge Tegan, the 10 month-old girl that Angie tends sometimes, to a race to see who can start walking first (without help). I win.
August 26th: Start physical therapy. The phys. therapist I go to is very strict, but is proven to get results. Tells me to, among other things, stop walking on my own. The race with Tegan resumes.
August 31st: The phys. therapist tells me to get rid of the stinkin' boot. I happily oblige. Also gives me more painful exercises to do. Hooray.


Me happy to be doing physical therapy. You can't tell the size difference in my calves in this pic, so don't even dare to compare. Come see fo' yo'self, homies.

Oh, and the ankle has reduced in size from cantaloupe to grapefruit. You may be able to get a better look with this closeup.

Notice how I can barely fit my foot in my right shoe (btw, I got new shoes because the old ones got messed up in the accident. Hooray for new kicks!).
Still a ways to go, as I'm told it may be another couple of months before I can get the ankle/foot back to being somewhat normal. And with all of the daily exercises included in my rehab, it will take another six months for my right calf muscle to match the size of the left. Can you believe that? Its crazy how it only takes two weeks for the strength to go away, but requires half a year to gain it back. And that, in a nutshell, is how I'm recovering.
I shouldn't be whining. I'm thankful that the wreck wasn't much worse. I'm grateful I got a concussion instead of permanent brain damage. I'm also grateful that I broke my ankle in a way that didn't require surgery. Most of all, I'm grateful for an amazing wife who has stood by me and taken care of me through all of this. I know it's not easy on her to have to tend to my every need, but she does it without even complaining. She continues to be an excellent example of what true love and dedication are all about. Thanks, hot stuff!

Utah in July

I know I'm posting about this way late, but we've been a little crazy working out life with a broken ankle. :) We had so much fun in Utah last month. We were planning on only staying a week, but ended up staying just over two weeks. We had a busy time in Utah the first week and after Dan's accident, ended up mainly just hanging out at my sister, Steph's, house.

We went boating at Yuba Lake and had a great time! I really wanted to learn to wakeboard and had never done it so I tried and it didn't go over very well...I only got in the water once to try it and only tried getting up three times, so considering that, I think I did pretty well. My hardest thing was that I kept flipping over onto my stomach and those wakeboards are freakin' heavy!! I had the hardest time flipping it around. My brother, Jon, had to swim out a couple time and do it for me...Eventually I was able to do it and everyone cheered, so I was fine not being able to get all the way up. Dan learned how to knee board and we all had a turn on "The Animal" or accoring to Rachel, "The Pencil".

We had a great time 4 wheeling. Since I already talked about this in pretty good detail, I'll skip it in this post, except for a couple more pictures. :)

My youngest brother, Jamie, and his fiance, TaNeil, got married in the Draper temple. It was such a great day! The temple is beautiful, her family is so great, and Dan made it through the whole day on his crutches fabulously, and we all had so much fun! I absolutely adore TaNeil and am so excited to have her as a new part of our family.

We were out there for the 24th of July, which was really fun since we of course don't celebrate that here in Oregon. We had a party at Steph's house, complete with a BBQ, fireworks and "boxes" that my mom made. The "boxes" were going to be handcarts, but as my mom was sticking the graham crackers together with the hot sugar, she burned her fingers. So they ended up being "boxes" but I loved them! I thought they were so cute!

We had such a great time with friends and family! We ended up driving up to Boise to stay for the night on Dan's birthday. We wanted to split the drive to two days so Dan wouldn't have to sit in the car for that long straight. We stayed with our friends, Bryce and Lindy (thanks again!!), and had so much fun with them. I felt bad that Dan had to be travelling on his birthday, but he ended up getting 4 (I think) birthday cakes, so I think that more than made up for it. :)

We came home to a really fun surprise! My cute sister-in-law, Kristi, and her boys came to our house while we were gone and put up decorations for Dan's birthday! There were streamers EVERYWHERE and balloons and crows and medals and everything! It was awesome!!

I took a ton of pictures....I tried to condense, but I still ended up with quite a few on here. Surprise, surprise. They're out of order, but I've spent so much time putting them on the computer that I don't really want to take more time to fix it. :) All in all, it was such a great trip, but we're happy being back in our own home and back to regular (kind of...) life!

4 Wheeling

Dan and I have been in Utah this week and have had tons of fun...up until yesterday at about noon. We went 4 wheeling with Todd, Steph, and Dallin and Dan ended up rolling (we think - no one saw it) his 4 wheeler. Yesterday was a scary day for us, but he's doing much better today. I wrote in pretty good detail what happened and posted it on my family forum, so I'm just copying and pasting it on here. I was tired and kind of out of it when I wrote it, so I hope it makes sense. :)

We were finished 4wheeling and Todd and Dan decided to go back out for a couple minutes. Todd came back by himself and we waited for a few minutes waiting for Dan. When he never came back (after about 5 mins), Todd went looking for him. About 5 minutes later, they both came driving back on their own 4wheelers really slowly. Todd pulled ahead of Dan and told us that he wrecked and was hurt. I pulled off his goggles and helmet, but it didn't look like anything was too bad, but he said his ankle hurt. It looked really bad and some tissue (I think that's what it was) was sticking out of it. So Todd poured water over it and wrapped his shirt around it. We got him into the front seat of the truck laying down while Todd got the 4wheelers back on the trailer (so fast, I don't know how he did it...). I tried to keep Dan talking but he kept talking in circles - asking the same questions, and not remembering anything that was going on. He couldn't remember the 4th of July, my birthday, our anniversary, etc. This was the point when I really started freaking out. Although, he knew his birthday, name, etc. (This point reminded me of 10 Second Tom (or whatever) from 50 First Dates where there was a conversation going on and then he'd start over with the same questions.)

Dan still doesn't remember what exactly happened. He remembers taking a turn a little too fast, fishtailing, thinking "oh crap", falling, and then nothing else until being in the truck and that's still a little hazy. We're thinking he fell off and the 4wheeler rolled because it's banged up pretty good.

Todd gave him a blessing (THANK GOODNESS he thought of doing that) and we started down the mountain with no phone service. After 5 or 10 mins, we finally got coverage and Todd called 911 and had an ambulance meet us at a gas station in Stockton. They took him into the hospital and ran tests. By this time, he was finally remembering things - not everything, but enough that I was able to calm down quite a bit. He has a fractured ankle (he also has a hole in his ankle that they had to stitch up, probably from the break pedal that sticks out), and bruised rib or liver or something around there, but his CT scan came back normal, so his head and neck are fine considering he had a concussion. He's scraped up pretty good and has some road rash or whatever that's called. But he'll be fine. He's got some bandages on and a splint on his leg (we need to go to another dr next week to get a cast put on) and he's in quite a bit of pain, but he'll be just fine in no time.

We had a great time 4 wheeling - in fact, Dan keeps saying how much fun he had. My mom and sister took some pictures while we were at the hospital, but I won't post those because some of them are pretty gross. :)

Dan lookin' pretty cool driving through a creek.

Dan at the top of the mountain.

My mom thinks we look like astronauts in this picture.

Us practicing our synchronized 4 wheeling.

Dan driving back after his accident - he doesn't remember this at all.

Dan getting cleaned off and stitched up.

Poor Dan all bandaged up.

We'll post more pictures and more about our trip after we get home, which we're actually not sure when that will be now. :) We may end up staying out here longer and going to a doctor here. We're not sure yet.

Get better soon, Dan!

St. Louis and Silver Falls

About a month ago, Angie and I went back to St. Louis to visit my family. We were only there for the weekend, so we had a lot to do in a short amount of time. We spent some quality time with my family, Ang and I went to a Cardinals game (of course), ate at our favorite places, and saw some old friends.
It was good to see my niece. She looks exactly like her mom! I had the priviledge of blessing her at church. I can't wait until I get to do the same thing for my own child! I also enjoyed the time spent with my family. My sister and her spouse flew in from San Francisco, so all of us were gathered together as a family for the first time.

As some of you may know, my stepmom was involved in a serious automobile accident last September and when I last saw her (later that month), she was laid up in a hospital bed full of machines and tubes hooked up to her. I'm happy to say that she is doing a lot better now! I knew she had made great strides since then (such as re-learning how to walk, speak, etc.) but it was good to visit with her and see the progress for myself. If you met her today, you couldn't even tell that she was hit by a semi-truck on the freeway. Amazing.

We didn't take many pictures on this trip, but here are some of the highlights (I took some random pictures with my phone and uploaded them to Facebook, so you can catch them there under the "Mobile Uploads" folder):

Angie and I chillin' at Busch Stadium (aka-my Graceland)

They even have fireworks, too! (at least when the Cards hit a home run)

Ordering out of the back window at the White Castle drive thru...because that's how we roll when we're in St. Louis!

Me doing my best impression of Buddy the elf on the escalator.


Me and my niece. See, she's already looking up to me (well, up at me, at least)!

How about this: Judas Priest and Whitesnake performing at the FAMILY Arena? Really?

And speaking of trips from a month ago, Ang and I went with our friends Blake and Kristin to Silver Falls State Park at the end of May and had a great time! We chose to do the five mile hike around the park and we saw a total of seven waterfalls. It was amazing to see all of these beautiful waterfalls and their plush, green surroundings. Blake was told by one of the park rangers that he should be fine to walk the trail with a stroller (instead of using that baby backpack thing they have). After helping Blake carry the stroller up and down many steps on some winding paths, I came to the conclusion that the park ranger must not have any children. Anyway, we had a memorable time and went on a beautiful day!

Us at one of the falls.

One of the falls.

Come to think of it, couldn't this post have been broken up into two? Yes, it could've. Just consider it a "packaged deal" of rewards for you, the reader, in response for the lack of postings lately.

Oh, and one more thing...

IN YOUR FACE!