Author Archives: compassrosequeen

Merry Christmas! You’re probably all with me in feeling like I can’t believe Christmas is already here. I’m excited! But exhausted!

My last post covered some major events and adventures of the first half of the year and part of summer. The biggest one being getting engaged. Since then, we’ve had a few more adventures, and don’t worry, we got married! We’re all adjusting to the new normal of being a family (even Arwen the Adorable cat), but more on that later. First an update of our adventures. With photos at the bottom. Feel free to skim to them if you don’t have time to read.

The biggest trip of the summer after my last post was to Oregon’s other “crater lakes”: Newberry Crater / Paulina Mountains, part of Newberry National Volcanic Monument. The national monument it sits in was our kids’ first park in the national park system. They loved it! After driving southeast to Salt Creek Falls and the other side of the Cascade mountains, we got our travel journals stamped at the park’s visitor’s center and hiked to Paulina Falls. Then we drove to the top of Paulina Peak to see the two lakes separated by a cinder cone and the swirly patterns of the Big Obsidian Flow. Next we hiked over the Big Obsidian Flow, marveling at the shiny glass rocks. Our last adventure in that area was descending into a lava tube cave, the kids’ first cave ever and Chris’ first lava tube cave. They all loved it! Except our youngest got some “lava kisses” from going too fast, and he decided to head back to the entrance. Dinner was comfort food at Cracker Barrell in Bend. We capped off the night by stargazing at the Dee Wright Observatory on the old McKenzie Pass.

My next adventure was with just our oldest girl. She and I met up with my adopted goddaughter and her husband on the southeast side of Mt. Hood for a hike to Elk Meadow. It was spectacular! Wildflowers galore with Mt. Hood looking down on them. It was a bit hairy to get there, though. We had to cross a raging creek on a log and thought we’d gotten lost after hiking longer than we thought it would take. But we got there, and were so glad. After hiking, I took my now stepdaughter to explore historic Timberline Lodge, and we got dinner at a rustic restaurant in the Welches area on the way back.

The rest of the summer was busy with wedding preparations and other summer fun. Chris and I took the kids to the Scandinavian Festival for their first time, my mom and brother and I took the kids to putt-putt and pizza, my new coworkers all headed to my old work site at the military school to volunteer for a day to get school ready for the kids, and friends and relatives held bridal showers and bachelorette parties and helped me make wedding decorations.

The wedding was great fun! We’re so grateful to everyone who helped, and especially to our friend who hosted the entire wedding at his property. He’s hosted a few weddings there for friends, but says we’re the first ones to use his treehouse as the backdrop. But it’s just so epic! My bridesmaids and flower girl and I hid in the treehouse before the wedding, and instead of marching through a gap in the audience, our processional took us across a swinging bridge. Because… why not? All my husband’s kids were in it as either junior bridesmaids, flower girl, or ringbearer. Close friends and family members were part of the wedding, too (I think my brother loved his “perch” in the treehouse to run the sound from, and he did great at deejaying the reception). Instead of a unity candle or sand, we had a Lego castle, and during the ceremony we all put mini-figs we’d made of ourselves on it. Most of our church and many relatives and friends helped with the wedding in one way or another. And we were so blessed by everyone who came. Even the Burger King Gang made it! All in all it was a fantastic day, with our only regret that we didn’t get to spend time with everyone who came.

Our honeymoon was a blast. We had booked a cabin in the Wallowa Mountains, but there was a lot of wildfire smoke there, so we canceled. We spent a couple days with friends in Madras as a base, exploring four state parks with epic views: Smith Rock (no we did not hike Misery Ridge but walked along the Crooked River), Peter Skene Ogden Wayside (where we watched people bungee jump), Cove Palisades (we watched the sunset on the rock formations), and White River Falls (Chris’ favorite of them because of the ruins of an old hydroelectric plant). Then we drove up to the Gorge where we enjoyed exploring the waterfalls and the beautiful grounds at the Columbia Gorge Hotel. The sternwheeler ride started in Cascade Locks and reminded us of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland with its funny commentary from the captain, but with better scenery. Chris really enjoys old dams and hydroelectric plants, so we checked out the Bonneville Dam and museum. We also enjoyed visiting a beautiful Italian-style vineyard/winery in the area. On our last day, we headed home by going around Mt. Hood. From Hood River, we stopped at the Draper Girls Farm, which had a rope swing with beautiful views of Mt. Hood, delicious cider, and lots of treats for sale. Then we hiked to Oregon’s other Sahalie Falls (we in Lane County are used to visiting Sahalie Falls in the McKenzie River area). We had to climb down tree roots to the grotto with the falls, but we had the place to ourselves. Very romantic! Lastly we ate dinner at Timberline Lodge and watched the clouds roll in, signaling the end of our very summery late September honeymoon.

Then busy season at my new job went into full swing. All summer our youngest would ask “What’s on your fun list next, Jessie?” But as autumn went by, he asked it less and less as the weekends filled up with me working. It was a bit sad. I wondered if the kids felt like they’d been given a bait-and-switch busy stressed stepmom for the fun one. But we managed to find some time for fun family adventures here and there. We got a sunny day for a fall farm visit to the Northern Lights farm, where we ran around the corn maze, sipped hot cider, and ate freshly made doughnuts and elote. And then got hailed on during the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. It was marble-sized hail! But we were okay, and our oldest thought it was awesome. We made it to hike Spencer’s Butte one night after work, and reached the summit right at sunset. Right after Halloween we went to a Ducks v. Beavers women’s soccer game with our pastor and his family. Best of all: my old roommate Andrea came to visit on her road trip. She and I lived together for a year in Central Asia, and now she teaches in Turkey. The kids loved entertaining her while I worked in the evenings, and I got to show her a bit of Eugene and Springfield, including the Public House eateries and Sweet Life Patisserie. (Hey, when it’s raining here in the Willamette Valley, all there is to do for fun is eat delicious stuff!)

The holiday season has been a nice time of doing fun things around town and visiting with family. A few weeks ago we took the kids bouldering at Elevation Bouldering Gym, which they loved. Future rock climbers! We watched the military school march by in the Springfield Christmas Parade that weekend, too. Chris and I each took a vacation day last week and drove the kids north to explore the German/Swiss-themed town of Mt. Angel with my stepsister and her son, and held baby goats and painted sweatshirts at her house in Hubbard. We got to see all of our parents and siblings for Christmas in the last couple days. We’re grateful for the weather being decent for that, and are praying for the people across the continent that are facing severe winter weather conditions and lack of electricity. We are also praying for people around the world that are facing war, oppression, famine, and other traumatic conditions. Reading the news breaks my heart, but I do it so I don’t grow calloused. This time of year we hear the phrase “Peace on Earth” but so easily get distracted by our own lives that we can forget that others have difficulties far beyond ours. Please join us in praying and reflecting on what we can do to help others around the world.

Now to get a bit more personal, something I don’t do very often on here. But I started this blog when I was working in schools, and I now have a very different life. So this is a bit about the journey that my new family and I have been experiencing during this time of transition.

I’ll be honest: it’s been hard sometimes. My teacher training and experience has been invaluable. But stepping in to mother five children ages 6-14 has been tough. I make mistakes all the time. And most parents get to know their kids slowly, starting with one, while I’ve been learning the needs and personalities of all of them all at once. Fortunately I’d already bonded with them all before the wedding. But it’s still hard, now that I’m in their lives daily. And finding time to spend with their dad on top of that is difficult. They’re almost all night owls like their dad and grandparents, so by the time they’re all in bed, I’m ready to sleep, too. I feel like I’ve traded the constant nagging feeling that I have papers to grade for the constant nagging feeling that I need to do somebody’s laundry. And an interesting thing we all miss in this transition: my apartment in South Eugene. I knew that my cat Arwen and I would miss it, but didn’t realize the kids would miss visiting it. Our youngest wishes I could have kept it. For a vacation home, I guess! I miss being so close to hills and hiking trails, but there are some perks to where I now live in Springfield.

But we’re getting by. Chris is supportive and helpful (and is a great cook). Arwen has actually been very helpful for the kids in this transition. When they get stressed by each other or by me holding them accountable, it calms them to pet her. (And they use her as an excuse for everything, to hilarious results; I wish I had a nickel for every time they say “But she’s just so pretty!”). As for Arwen, she’s always been a skittish, shy cat, but she’s getting used to having 5 human siblings that fuss over her. She especially loves getting brushed a lot more often than I ever did. Busy season is almost over, so my evenings and weekends have been reclaimed. And I’m happy to have only one busy season a year in my new career instead of three of them in my teaching career. I may go back to teaching someday when the kids are older, but for now, I’m grateful for my nice quiet office job in the insurance brokerage industry. We’ve already been planning our new “Fun List” for Oregon and beyond. Our youngest has been drinking warm milk every night out of a tiny mug I got as a kid in Seattle, with a picture of a teddy bear holding the Space Needle, so he’s determined that we need to go there in this new year coming up. Washington road trip here we come! Along with Crater Lake NP, the Wallowas (Chris and I decided that the kids would have been very jealous if we’d gone up the tramway without them, so we don’t feel we missed out by not going there on our honeymoon), Oregon Caves NM, and heck, while we’re that direction, we may as well keep going into California to see the Redwoods. And of course we try to enjoy the little things in life, like playing at the neighborhood parks and watching funny cat videos together.

I’m hoping that in 2023, I’ll have more time to write in more detail about our adventures, and more time to work on my other writing projects. Best of all, more time to spend with my new family. I’m a lucky gal! I get hugs and cuddles from five precious kids, one sweet husband, and one fluffy cat, and I live in a relatively safe place. Here’s to hoping for Peace on Earth to come to places that need it. May the Prince of Peace dwell in our hearts. Merry Christmas (a day late now as I finish this, unless you’re Eastern Orthodox or celebrate all 12 Days of Christmas), and have a great new year!

Hello, friends! It’s time for an update. And when you read through this post, you’ll understand why.

First, I need to let you know that I’ve been trying to fix the categories on my blog this month, and for some reason, most of them disappeared. I can still see them in my account, but not on my actual webpage that you see. So bear with me while I figure that out. Currently, all you can see from the tabs at the top are the “Journeys of Women” posts and the “Uncategorized” posts. I think you can see the rest of them (like the teaching overseas ones) if you scroll through all the posts. Also, I’d like to write more travel-article-type posts of short trips, so keep an eye out for those. I’m summarizing our recent ones in this post.

This summer has been so great in so many ways. If you don’t follow me on Facebook, you may be surprised to learn that I left teaching for now and am working in an insurance brokerage office. I miss having students, but am enjoying the change of pace. However, since I’m working all year now and not getting even the three week break between summer school and the new school year that I had at my last school, I’ve been making the most of my weekends this summer. Namely by doing road trips with my fiancé and his five kids.

What fiancé you say? Okay, so I’m pretty private concerning my romantic life on both my blog and on Facebook. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Three years ago I met a really nice, nerdy guy named Chris. We became fast friends, and the following year we started dating. It wasn’t the right timing for us to date yet, so we parted ways but stayed friends. The next year we tried dating again, because we realized how much we enjoyed spending time together. But we had some major differences that kept things from working out between us at the time. We stayed friends again, because we just couldn’t not (despite our best efforts to give each other space). This year, we decided that we needed to find a way to be together. We talked and talked, and found common ground to build from and found ways that worked for us both without compromising who we are. I’m so grateful to find a man who loves me fully, and is willing to work on things to make things work! He is sweet, generous, and strong but gentle. A true gentleman. He even wears a top hat (keep reading).

So here we are! Engaged. (More on how that happened later)

But wait, you say. You said something about five kids? Yup, he comes with five adorable sweet goofy kids ages 5-13. Just call me Maria von Trapp (actually, I’d be honored if you called me that; I’ve read her memoirs and the real person was amazing!). They are all so adorable in different ways, from the oldest to the youngest. And great artists like their dad. I’m so excited to have a great husband and kids! I feel so blessed at this second chance in life to have a family.

Speaking of second chances, I got to have a real-time live conversation with my ex-husband last week. It’s been so great to have his friendship again, especially before I remarry. Talk about closure. I’m glad he’s happy in life, too. It’s been 11 years since our divorce, and I’d have liked to be remarried by now, but I’m grateful for the way it worked out.

You’re not getting off that fast by distracting us with your ex, you say. Who is this guy you’re engaged to? Well, his pen name is Professor Popinjay, and his first name is Chris. You can find his humor column in old copies of the recently defunct local newspaper, the Springfield-based Free For All, or join his group page on Facebook if you want some good laughs and deep thoughts.

So how did this “professor of comedy” propose? All right, I’ll tell you. And now I’ll get to those weekend trips this summer that I mentioned earlier. I could write a separate blog about each of them, and maybe I will sometime, but for now I’ll just summarize and show a few fun pictures.

The first big trip we took in July was to the Enchanted Forest. If you haven’t been to Western Oregon, the Enchanted Forest is Oregon’s own adorably podunk version of Disneyland. I grew up going to it with my family and my cousins every summer, and my fiancé went there once as a kid. We were so excited to take his kids there for the first time! And they loved it. Ice Mountain was their favorite ride, and I think the maze-like caves and the Crooked House were their other favorite things to do there. And they were fascinated by the Fantasy Fountains display. But the big finale happened right as the park was closing. Chris pulled me aside in the picturesque European Village (right below the animatronic gossiping English ladies in the 2nd story windows) and asked me to marry him. I was a little distracted because the young kids didn’t know what was happening and were asking to play in Pinocchio’s Playhouse, but I said yes and figured well, that’s probably how our romance will continue to be for the next 10 years or so. Fun and frequently distracted by adorable kids. We left the theme park and ate dinner at my old favorite Méxican restaurant in Salem, La Hacienda Real, and then played for a while at the Riverfront Park. I miss Salem sometimes!

The following Monday was Independence Day, which saw a great time at a church barbeque out in the country at the home of one of our pastors. My mom and stepdad came, too. We’ll be having the wedding there, so Mom was excited to see the epic treehouse we’ll get married in front of! Later we watched fireworks at the driveway of my future in-laws.

The next weekend we took a break from day trips so I could spend time with my cousins. One of the twins was hosting a birthday party for his twin 4-year-olds on Saturday, and on Sunday I went wine tasting at Walnut Ridge vineyard with his twin. I don’t spend nearly enough time with either of them considering how close we live. I’m hoping the change of pace with me working more normal hours now will help that.

The next weekend was back to big day trips. Chris and I took the kids hiking to Iron Mountain at Tombstone Pass, making a clockwise loop by heading up Marcola Road to Sweet Home and then east on Hwy 20 (stopping at the Shortbridge Ghost Town along the way, of course). The Iron Mountain/Cone Peak trails are the best kept secret from Oregonians. Everyone else knows about the area because it was on the cover of an Oregon tour guide book. Two summers ago, my friend Natasha and I did the whole loop hike. It was spectacular, with full meadows of every color of wildflowers all mixed together. This summer with the kids, we just did the Iron Mountain section. We hit the beginning of the wildflower season (all the plants in Western Oregon are two weeks late this summer because of the cold rains late this spring), so the trails had some wildflowers along them but not as many as when I went before. Still beautiful, though. At the top the old fire lookout has been converted to an observation deck, where you can see almost all the big volcanoes of Oregon and even one in Washington. My fiancé’s little boy struggled a bit to make it to the top, saying “This mountain is too big for me.” But he made it, and we ate a picnic lunch. Heading back on our loop road trip, we stopped for ice cream at Clear Lake and ended up renting a rowboat. That was a hard lesson in teamwork, but everyone loved looking down through the crystal clear water. We stopped at Sahalie and Koosah Falls, ate supper at the outdoor Obsidian Grill in McKenzie Bridge with live music (at which the youngest daughter wanted me to dance with her), and got an impromptu free private tour of River Run Gallery in Leaburg. What a magical day! The sad part is the next day I found out my best friend’s mom was dying of cancer. The last time I went to Iron Mountain, I found out my friend Meranda died of cancer. I’m a bit nervous to go again, but I don’t believe in superstition, and it is a beautiful place. Next time I go, I will honor both of their memories.

The next weekend, we did more than a day trip. We went camping! With friends I used to work with at the military school. And their friends. And all 5 of our kids plus their kids. We had campsites on the other side of the river at Belknap Springs, so we lugged our gear out there in wheelbarrows and set up camp. The kids loved swimming in the hot pools and running around the Secret Garden (Little Man did laps around it to burn off excess 5-year-old boy energy), and I loved eating s’mores by the campfire. My friends took Chris and his oldest daughter whitewater rafting on the McKenzie River while I took the rest of the kids hiking to Proxy Falls. We all met up at… guess where… the Obsidian Grill with outdoor live music again! This time the youngest girl danced with her daddy and her little brother and their new little friend that we camped with. I love the McKenzie area. And I’m happy to report that wildflowers and underbrush are popping up below the burnt trees from the wildfires there two years ago, and homes are being rebuilt.

Not to be outdone, the last weekend of July had a beach trip. We drove out to where Chris’ parents were camping, and then headed to North Jetty for some sand and waves. It was nearly 100 degrees in the Valley, but only in the 60s at the coast. The kids had a blast running up dunes and rolling down them, drawing in the wet sand, letting the cold Pacific waves tickle their feet, and playing in a driftwood fort someone had built. Then we ate supper and s’mores at his parents’ campsite with them and his brother.

But with all this summer fun (I haven’t even mentioned weeknight activities like my company party for my office at a baseball game this week) and planning a very quick-turnaround wedding (it’s in September because we’re too old for long engagements), we’re exhausted. So I canceled our plans to go to a family reunion in Washington this weekend so we can stay home to work on things. And clean house. And relax.

What fun, adventurous, or relaxing things are you doing this summer to beat the heat (or embrace it)? Or for my Southern Hemisphere friends, how is winter going? I’d love to hear you all! Please comment below if you are willing. Happy August!