First snow

Last night we had our first snow in town, but today is sunny and beautiful. We had little kitty footprints in the snow outside our door this morning and I felt so sorry for the little fellow that had tried to seek refuge at our door in the middle of the night. We've nicknamed the cat sniffles. It lives next door, but I'm not sure whether or not our neighbors even feed the little thing. They're not really the type to take care of anything. Anyhow, Brian's at work today, possibly being shot at by law enforcement officers with paintball guns. He's participating in role play scenarios to aid the law enforcement officers and heard a rumor that paintball guns might be involved. I just got back from my first physical therapy appointment in quite a while. I'm still walking with limp, so I wanted to figure out how to straighten out my walk. They filmed my walk on a tread mill and discovered that I'm rotating my leg inwards when I walk, so I've been given a number of new exercises to fix it. I'm excited about them, because I want to kick this limp and get back to normal. Yesterday, was quite enjoyable. I was able to go on a long walk with a friend who's a new mother, which was nice. We haven't done much together in the last year, so it was really nice to catch up. (And for whoever is wondering Brian and I are not quite ready yet.) The little tyke was cute, but we're not ready for that responsibility just yet. Brian also cut out of work early yesterday and we were able to get a lot done around our place. We've been trying to organize and create more space. We've been making lots of drops at good will and it's been refreshing getting rid of the build up that we never use. Brian rearranged the upstairs area and it looks a lot nicer now. Thank goodness for more space and less mess. Today, my goal is to work out at the house, do my new physical therapy excercises, make some jewelry in preparation for attempting to sell some (we'll see how that goes), walk to the bank, call the dish washer repairman (because our dishwasher miraculously started working last week while he was here and now of course a week later it has stopped working again), and make dinner. I'm busier now as a housewife than I was when I was working all summer.

End of the Season

I have just finished my second season with the forest service. I'm ending a little bit earlier this year, because I am not able to fight fire right now due to my knee. The lookout season ends earlier than the fire season. Brian still has about two months left on his season. In celebration of ending my season we took a small road trip to the John Day Fossil Beds and Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon. It's about three hours away. We had never been before and it was fantastic. Small little interpretive hikes, perfect for a semi-injured party member. I'm not yet up to long hikes and backpacking. We're actually going to be quite busy for the next couple of weekends. I'm getting together with my sister this weekend for some camping. Brian wants to go kayaking or rock climbing while I'm gone. The next weekend we should both be here. The following weekend Brian is going to the coast with his rapel buddies. They're renting a house in Seaside. I'm staying in town because a couple of our friends are throwing a huge halloween party, complete with live bands. Then the following week Brian's parents will be in town. Brian's going to take a couple of days off. We're going to be in Hood River for part of their stay and Bend for part of it. I'm really looking forward to the visit. Brad should be coming as well. After that our next plans involve Thanksgiving and then Brian's done with work. We just figured out our winter plans too. We'll be in Hawaii in the beginning of December and then we're headed to Michigan. We should be there through the holidays and into January. Then depending on my grandparents plans we'd like to go to Florida for a week. Brian has to fly back to Oregon for a class, but I'll be driving on to Lousiana and then Colorado for my cousin Tim's wedding. Brian will meet me there. Then we'll drive back to Oregon via a few weeks in Utah and then it's back to work for Brian. Wow. Now everybody knows all of our plans minus the dates and that's because we don't even know the dates for sure. I feel like I don't need to blog again until spring now. Immediate plans: We're going to a ski flick tonight in the old theater and tomorrow we're meeting up with friends to celebrate someone's b-day. That's everything. On another note, I've managed to stay more than busy since I finished work on Friday. The last two days have been non-stop for me and I have plans to keep myself entirely busy, during my six month sojourn from work. I joined the local gym and I plan to swim every day. I also need to do my physical therapy every day. On top of that, I plan on doing some mini-projects. My winter will be over before I know it, especially with all of our travel plans. Enjoy.