My Trips and Tips

Meowy Christmas! My name is Arwen, but you can call me Your Royal Highness. I’ve been living with my faithful servant Jessie for almost two years meow, since she ransomed me from the orphaned pets castle (1st Ave. Shelter). This is my second Christmas at Jessie’s small quarters in the rustic lodge (old apartment building) at the base of the hills outside town. This year she wanted to write a Christmas newsletter, but she has an affliction called Writer’s Block, so she said I could write it. I am honored to continue this tradition, because I heard that my late uncle Fritz Charming III (dog) used to write them for my grand-human Vicki. His sister Sophie (cat) is too busy chasing mice on their country estate while her humans enjoy retirement, my aunt Toto (also a cat) is too busy following around my grand-human Jeremy while he works on fun projects, my big sister Tuppence is too busy being a muse to her artist humans that she lives with in Salem, and my cat cousins Pickle and Zelda do the same for my uncle-human Ben who now has a patron for his art. So it’s up to me to be the royal record-keeper for the family.

Since coming to live with Jessie, I have been a purr-fect companion for her. I cuddle and look cute and help her de-stress from her job at the military high school. She enjoys helping students prepare for college and careers. Her favorite parts of that are arranging field trips to colleges and career events, and seeing students get excited about careers during their  job shadows. She’s very thankful to her friends and people in the community who have helped with this! I’d offer to help, but none of her students plan to become an adorable cat when they grow up, so they can’t follow me around for the day.

Jessie is having a blast at the church she goes to meow. She sings on the worship team and sometimes helps with the little kids. They’re not as cute as me, of course, but she likes them anyway. She feels very blessed with friends and community there.

I deserve extra cat-treats for Christmas, because Jessie leaves me alone sometimes to go travel. She didn’t do any big trips this year like last year’s Montana and Arizona road trips, but she did go on an epic road trip through Oregon’s Outback where she visited her college roommates during spring break, a summer trip to Mt. Rainier and then camped and rafted on the Deschutes with friends, and later hiked to the top of South Sister volcano with my Auntie Alex (neighbor human who lets me play with he

r cat Misty).

All in all, it’s been a nice year. Jessie and I like living here, although she’s saving up for a 2-bedroom townhouse so I can run up and down the stairs. And so she can host friends and family and international students. It will be fun! I hope you all find the same peace and joy she has this year. Meowy Christmas!

My last post outlined some of the amazing things that I finally got to do that I’d wanted to do for a long time, like seeing alpine wildflower meadows and getting a tattoo. I’ve also fulfilled some of my big life-long ones in years past, like seeing the Neuschwanstein Castle and Maya ruins and rafting over Class IV rapids when I was younger, and writing a novel several years ago (I didn’t say it was a good one, but it exists!).

Then there are all the things I’d never thought to put on any sort of Bucket List (before that movie came out, we just called them “Things I want to do before I die”), but would have put on any such list if I’d known about them. For example, I’d have never thought of exploring the Buddha caves, Darulamon Palace ruins, or the shops on Chicken Street, until I lived in Afghanistan. Or body-surfing in the South China Sea when I lived in China. Then there are the local ones, like digging for thundereggs (geodes) with my friend Tracy when I visited her in Central Oregon. I love these amazing surprises!

For me, adventures in life need to meet a nice balance of things-to-look-forward-to and things-to-be-surprised-by. So of course, I have plenty of things still to look forward to. But I also hope to be surprised by the abundance of amazing experiences in this great world. As I said in my last post, this year I’ll be taking it easier on the wallet when it comes time to travel, and may try to work this summer. But I still hope to explore a good bit. One idea for vacation time is to go to Southern/Central Oregon and hike Crack-in-the-Ground and Fort Rock, and maybe the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument before our current federal administration succeeds in downsizing it. (Not trying to make a political statement or anything, but I love my national park system, and I haven’t been to that one yet, although I’ve driven right by it!). For now, I’ll be content with hiking and biking around my current city on the sunny days we keep getting once a weekend. It’s beautiful here!

So what’s left on my Bucket List? Seems like I’ve done it all, right? Well, this great big world still has plenty for me to look forward to. And if I don’t get to them all (or even any of them), well, I’m having fun right where I am, so that’s all right, too. Here are some things on my list, though, just for posterity!

World things to see/do: Machu Picchu in Peru, Petra in Jordan (you’ve seen it in an Indiana Jones film), Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia (lakes spilling out into other lakes via waterfalls!), the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, Ankgor Wat, hiking at Grand Canyon and Banff/Jasper and the Alps, seeing the fjords in Norway and the Northern Lights anywhere up that high in latitudes, hiking to the top of Kilamanjaro, seeing the thundering waterfalls of Iguazu Falls in Argentina/Brazil and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe/Zambia, hiking in Noel Kempf Mercado in Bolivia, and of course visit friends in London and New Zealand (with possible stopovers in Australia and Papua New Guinea?). So yeah, I have plenty of adventures to daydream about!

West Coast things to do besides the ones I’ve already mentioned (so a bit more likely than the last paragraph): Raft the Rogue River, hike in the Wallowas and in Mt. Rainier National Park and up the side of Mt. St. Helens (yeah, the one that blew its top the year my brother was born), see the Owyhee river valley and the Rome Pillars, hike Castle Crags State Park, visit Lassen Volcanic National Park (any place with a spot called “Bumpass Hell” has got to be interesting), go hang-gliding somewhere, see Hells Canyon, drive the Aufderheide Memorial Drive in the fall (I tried this year but part of it was closed due to wildfires) and all the way around Crater Lake, and take in the rest of the waterfalls in Oregon that I haven’t seen yet, which is surprisingly still quite a few. Maybe rock climb at Smith Rock again (I’ve done it before but it’s been 20 years) or do the water-hike through Oneonta Gorge again (with a waterproof camera this time). Keep riding my bike all around my hometown, even though I’ve done all the river bikepath now. And of course I’d like to write another book. And maybe take up a martial art. So I have plenty of things to do around here to keep me busy!

What about you? What things, far and near, are on your bucket list? Or your Old/Boring/Thirty list as my friend Caitlin calls it, to which I take mock offense since I am well over 30 and hopefully not remotely boring. I aspire to be like my former boss/principal Karen and her husband Tim, who are older than me in regular years, but are young at heart and are out-adventuring me all the time. I think Tim sky-dived not long ago, somewhere in Western Asia. That’s one thing that’s not on my list, but I’d happily do if the opportunity came up. You never know. It could be fun! Please post comments below with your fun ideas!

2017 was a year. They all are, aren’t they? But it was really quite a year. I turned 40 this year, and was determined to do it well. So I went through my mental bucket list, and of the things I hadn’t done yet, I made a note of which ones I really wanted to do before I turned 40. And did them, for the most part. They were fun! But a lot of the joy I’ve had this year was in the little things, as I reported in my last post. That being said, it’s time to review the big things.

Last year I started exploring some areas of Oregon I’d always wanted to see, like the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and adventuring in the Madras area with my friend Tracy who lived there. I also made new memories by revisiting Yosemite National Park with a sweet friend Keri that I’d met in Europe. This year I bought an annual National Park Pass. I think I barely broke even on the cost of it, but it was worth it to have the freedom to stop at any national park I wanted to!

I started in early June with Crater Lake National Park, which of course as an Oregonian I’ve seen many times. But this time it was with my friend Cindy, whom I worked with in Central Asia. She flew out from Colorado to visit and timed it with our friend Katie’s day-long layover in Portland. It was great to share my home state with these two! I’d been to visit Cindy in Colorado a couple years earlier, so it was a blast to be the host this time. When school got out, I went to the east side of Lake Washington for a training for work. I got to hang out with my grad school friend Mimi and eat a fancy dinner upstairs in a restaurant overlooking the waterfront. I also got to catch up with my high school youth group friend Jamie on that trip. Pictured below: Cindy and I put our feet up and relaxed by the Crater Lake Lodge overlooking the sapphire-blue lake.

Then in July, I drove my friend Jessica’s kids through the northeast corner of Oregon to their house in Montana and vacationed with them all there. On the way, the kids and I saw the ruts of the Oregon Trail wagons near Baker City and stopped at Chief Joseph’s grave in the Wallowas. Then we drove along the Lewis & Clark Trail in Idaho, and finally reached their home near the Continental Divide in Montana just in time to set off a few fireworks for Independence Day. Jessica and the kids and I went to the north and east sides of Yellowstone and into the Grand Tetons, and later on a separate trip to Glacier National Park. I got to visit my high school friend Debbie on the east side of Glacier, too. All the parks were amazing. We’d all been to Yellowstone before so we skipped the geysers and saw the more remote parts of the park. The Grand Tetons make even a preschooler with an instant camera look like a professional photographer. I describe Glacier as the love-child of Yosemite and Zion National Parks. Maybe even more beautiful than both of them. Glacier fulfilled some of my bucket list dreams: seeing mountain goats in the wild and vast meadows of alpine wildflowers. Between these three parks, I think we experienced all the soul of the Rockies (if Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado is the “heart” of them)! I saw more waterfalls, alpine lakes, and wildlife than I could keep track of. The first two days in Glacier had some very weak but cooling thunderstorms that unfortunately conditioned me for the summer to not be afraid of them. Bumming around the historical mining city of Butte was fun, too. We even took in a little bit of the renowned Montana Folk Festival there. We also did a day trip to Great Falls, which had some great sights along the way. Glacier was actually the last thing we did, and after I spent the day with Debbie in Many Glacier, I drove along the outside edge of the park and headed home, after stopping for lunch in the historic lodge at East Glacier Park. I stayed the night in Spokane and went home from there, back to my kitty Arwen. It was such an amazing trip! Oh, and Jessica’s family bought me my own mountain goat!  Doesn’t Celeborn the Stuffed Goat look real? But the best part was just getting to spend time with them all. Jessica is one of the truest friends I’ve ever had, and it was wonderful to enjoy some of God’s most beautiful creation with her.

Oregon Trail ruts, Baker City

Chief Joseph’s grave, Wallowa Lake

Mammoth Springs, Yellowstone

Tower Falls, Yellowstone

Bison, Yellowstone

Grant Tetons

Hike on other side of Jenny Lake, Grant Tetons

Avalanche Lake, Glacier

Avalanche Gorge, Glacier

Falls by Haystack Rock, Glacier

Glacial valley, Glacier

Wildflowers by Garden Wall, Glacier

Wildflowers by St Mary Lake, Glacier

St Mary Falls, Glacier

Mountain Goat on Hidden Lake trail, Glacier

View from Logan’s Pass, Glacier

Small lake in Many Glacier, Glacier

My next big trip this year was to the Southwest. I drove with two of my Salem writer friends Diana and Debby through California (with a pit stop at Burney Falls, which was even more spectacular than my childhood postcard collection showed) to a faith-based fantasy/sci-fi writers conference in Reno, where we met up with another writer friend Tracy and her artist husband Denny. I went with the latter two to Virginia City, and with Denny I went to downtown Reno while the others had a conference session to go to (I only paid for a guest conference fee instead of the whole fee). I had agreed to go to this conference for several reasons: getting to spend time with my writer friends who had been such a support for me through my divorce in Salem, getting to learn about writing with a focus on fantasy/sci-fi, and last but not least, my first cosplay experience (also on my bucket list). Oh, and a nerf gun war. That was never on a bucket list of mine, but would have been if I’d thought of it. The conference exceeded all my expectations, mainly because the keynote speaker, Ted Dekker, spoke right to my soul. It was as if Jesus was right there telling me He loves me and has great plans for me. It wasn’t just what the speaker was saying. It was something much deeper that I can’t explain. I just felt it in my soul.

Burney Falls, California

Most Expensive Globe, Virginia City, NV

Virginia City, Nevada

Virginia City, NV

Gandalf, Cosplay Banquet

Reno, NV (obviously)

But the conference was only the first part of that trip. From Reno, my friends all went on vacations with their husbands who met them there, and I met up with my friend Jas who was there visiting a friend. We drove to her house in Phoenix, stopping for some fun adventures along the way. (We pause this blog post for a brief announcement: it is midnight and fireworks are sounding off all around me with neighbors shouting “Happy New Year!”). While driving nearly the entire length of Nevada, we stopped at a gimmicky store by Area 51 and got pictures of us as aliens. We stayed the night in a suburb of Las Vegas where our high school friend Katie (who did the best rendition of Fruma Sarah in our production of Fiddler on the Roof) lives with her family. It was great to reconnect! Then we took a detour on the last leg to Phoenix so we could see the London Bridge. Yup, the one from the song, that is no longer in England but is in southwest Arizona. It’s a small world! There was even a British couple visiting in the little tourist “English city” below the bridge. Once we rested up in Phoenix, we spent the day north of there, exploring some Native American cliff dwellings and Sedona. Montezuma’s Castle and Montezuma’s Well National Monuments are misnamed, of course, but still fascinating to see! And Sedona… well, we’ll just say that it lives up to all the hype, and then some. I actually liked Sedona much more than Moab (granted, I only got to drive through Moab briefly on my way through later this trip). We drove through the rock formations and visited the serene Chapel of the Holy Cross, and ate Chinese food. Then we hiked up Bell Rock, which is supposed to be one of the best “vortex” spots. Well, I couldn’t feel any more special energy than what I felt with the storm that rolled in. And learned the hard way that storms in Arizona are not to be taken lightly. We kept saying “We should probably head down now… ooh, look! Double rainbow!” as the storm rolled in quietly. Then the heavens opened up and dumped right on us. We had to run and slide down the rock, which became a giant waterslide from flash floods (Hey! Seeing a flash flood was kind of a secret bucket list wish!), trying to stay low to the ground because the lightning was right on top of us, too. At last we made it to the trailhead, where a concerned local couple was about to head up to find us. We sat out the rest of the storm in my now-drenched car, letting our adrenaline subside. The rest of my stay in the Phoenix area was less eventful but also fun: Jas’ homemade dinner and climbing around the rock formations at Papago Park. Jas and I have been adventuring together since we were in high school, and I’m so grateful we’re still close even though we live in different states!

Bell Rock, Sedona area

Saguaro cactus, Papago Park

Montezuma’s Castle National Monument

Montezuma’s Well

Views along Highway 95

Area 51 tourist trap (but fun!)

Papago Park, Phoenix, AZ

Ancient dwellings at Montezuma’s Well

Storm coming in over Sedona

London Bridge is no longer falling down

View from Bell Rock, near Sedona

Now for the last leg of that epic trip. This was my chance to drive some of the famous portions of Route 66, which I’d been wanting to do ever since learning the song in high school jazz choir circles. From Jas’ house, I went north to Flagstaff, and then east on I-40, taking Historic Route 66 whenever I could. I didn’t see much that was exciting in Flagstaff or Winona (couldn’t see anything of Winona, but it’s in the song), but the hike in Walnut Canyon National Monument was fantastic. The canyon itself was worth the trip, but there were so many well-preserved cliff dwellings all along the hike that you could even walk into! Then I stopped in Winslow, which had a great visitor’s center with free stuff, including a Route 66 passport to get stamped along the way. A young businessman and I traded cameras to get photos of ourselves “Standin’ on a Corner” and I got a milkshake at a soda fountain that used to be a bank. Next stop was Holbrook. All I did there was stop at the kitchy Wigwam Hotel, which made me feel like I was in the movie “Cars.” My plan from there was to drive into New Mexico (just to say I did) and then double-back in the morning for Monument Valley, but the last big stop in Arizona’s Route 66 was Petrified Forest National Park. I’d meant to only stop there briefly, but I was taken aback by this gem in the National Park system. I ended up hiking to the valley floor from the historic inn in the Painted Desert. I sat overlooking the vast expanse ahead of me, of stark, colorful desert. Never had a felt so wonderfully alone in the universe, with only God’s presence (and a wild hare) to keep me company. And I was prepared to be disappointed that I didn’t have time to drive down to the petrified wood portion of the park, but there was quite a lot of it in this section! Breathtaking. So I didn’t get as far into New Mexico as I’d hoped. I stayed the night in my car in the parking lot of the Gallup Walmart to save money. From there, I drove north to Shiprock, taking in the sunrise and and Navajo people alongside the road. I ate breakfast at a local fast-food joint that served Indian breakfast tacos along with the usual fast-food fare, and I was the only non-Native person in there. It was all older folks, meeting up with friends for coffee and good conversation. Then I drove up into the Four Corners region of Colorado. I thought I had time to see the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, but only got partway through the park. I was on a schedule: to get to my cousin’s house in the Salt Lake City area for dinner. So I doubled back and drove into Utah. I stopped in Arches National Park for literally 15 minutes, which was much more interesting than the hour I spent in Mesa Verde not getting to the cliff dwellings. I didn’t see any arches, but the rock formations were great, and I had gotten out earlier to climb up the roadside Winslow Arch. I got to my cousin Julie’s house almost on time, and had a wonderful dinner and drinks there. It was great to connect with her because I’d never really gotten to know her, since she’s from Nebraska. She recommended that I stop at Shoshone Falls in Idaho on the way home, which was well worth the trip.

Walnut Canyon National Monument

Cliff Dwellings at Walnut Canyon

“Standing’ on a Corner” spot in Winslow AZ

Wigwam Hotel, Holbrook AZ

Tow-Mater’s Grandpa

Petrified wood at Petrified Forest NP

quartz in petrified wood

Sitting on a rock overlooking the valley floor in the Painted Desert

Painted Desert, Petrified Forest NP

Looking up at the rim of the Painted Desert

Sunrise in New Mexico, on the Navajo reservation

Shiprock formation, NM

Look! A mountain goat! (stuffed toy in Mesa Verde)

Me at Winslow Arch

The arch was so graceful!

Arches National Park

Shoshone Falls, Idaho

This year brought a couple more big bucket-list items: my first complete solar eclipse and my first tattoo. I experienced “The Great American Eclipse” event by going up to Woodburn with my cousins Eric and Chrissy, staying the night in Hubbard with my stepsister Tammy and her family, and watching the actual eclipse in Gervais with my friend Karen AND  MY BEST FRIEND TIM  (her husband; inside joke) and their daughter. Then my friend Sarah got a tattoo for my 40th birthday. Actually I got two: a real one (a compass rose, of course) on my upper arm and some added freckles to make the Orion the Hunter constellation on my wrist. Also for my birthday, I got to see my first professional soccer game! Mom took me to see the Portland Thorns, the women’s sister team to the Timbers. It was a blast! We got to watch part of it with my friend Holli and her family, and the Thorns won! Mom also took me to a Ducks v. Cornhuskers (American) football game because her friend that was supposed to go got sick. Pictured below: the Eclipse! Note that Arwen didn’t come with me to see the eclipse; I just had to get a pic of her wearing my eclipse glasses that I got at Yellowstone.

I also did a lot of other fun things this year, like hiking all the Ridgeline Trails in South Eugene, biking all the way across town along the river bike trail, going to Wildlife Safari with my cousins, spending time with my relatives that came to visit, hiking to Belknap Crater (a really cool little volcano) at the top of Old McKenzie Pass with my friend Tracey, and hiking Sweet Creek Falls trail with my mom. I also did some fun Eugene traditions like going to the Scandinavian Festival with my friend Charli and her family (their first time) the Lane County Fair with my mom and brother, and waterfall day hikes with my friend Rachel (the first one was quite a misadventure but we made it fun!). This fall and winter holiday season have also been fun, including a “German Christmas Day” in Mt. Angel and a Christmas Market with my friend Rainie who used to live in Germany, visiting and hosting family, and playing in the snow with Jessica and her family when they came to Oregon for Christmas. Oh hey, I had one more bucket list adventure there! We met up at Diamond Lake to go tubing in the snowy hills, and I walked a little ways out onto the frozen lake! So cool! I’m sure I’m near WordPress’ photo limit so these fun adventures just get mentioned, but I’ll try to post pics of them sometime. At least on Facebook.

Pretty sure this is my longest blog post ever, but it was an epic year. Hey, you only turn 40 once, and I figured I might as well have fun with my mid-life crisis. Many of my friends are turning 40 this year too, and it’s been great to celebrate this milestone with them! Happy New Year! This next year will much much more mellow (as I save up for some big goals and work to pay off debt), but hopefully just as fun with friends and family.

Hello out there in blog-reader-land! I know it’s been a while. Frankly, I’m shocked that WordPress hasn’t canceled my blog. But it still exists, so I may as well use it! Here’s the latest in the chronicles of my adventures.

My last couple posts were written when I had just started working at the military school in the Oregon town I grew up in. I meant to write at least a Christmas newsletter last year, but settled for posting photos from the whole year on my Facebook page. I’ll probably do that again, because I don’t want to share very personal photos for the whole world to see. But I’ll also try to catch everyone up here today.

As for work (school), I decided to stay at the military academy. That first spring, I taught remedial 9th grade math and English. The next school year, I taught 9th/10th grade social studies, remedial 9th grade math, and a journalism elective class. Sadly, this school year’s schedule didn’t allow me to keep the journalism class. But I’m still teaching 9th, 10th, and now 11th grade social studies, as well as a credit recovery class in the computer lab which allows me to tutor the students in math and other subjects from their online recovery courses. It’s been neat to watch the students grow up from squirrely freshmen and sophomores to (somewhat!) mature juniors and seniors. I’ve learned a lot about military lifestyle and experiences from the school and my coworkers. I can safely say I appreciate the service and sacrifice of veterans more now. And there are some fun experiences I wouldn’t have in other schools, like learning to march correctly to a cadence for local parades, and FTX (our military-style version of outdoors school). I love FTX! We hold it in the late spring at a Boy Scout camp, and I’ve had a great time camping out with the 9th grade girls both years. This fall, I got to see my students in action as we volunteered at the local Highland Games. It rained on us, but the kids had great attitudes, and got accolades from all the vendors and festival organizers! I feel very blessed to get to know the students and grow in friendships with my coworkers at this school. I will always miss my ISK (my school in Central Asia) coworkers and students, but I’m thankful for Facebook and email to keep in touch with most of them.

Of course, I’ve done a bit of traveling since I last wrote, too. After seeing my ISK coworkers (and my awesome Uncle Gary and Aunt Kathy and friend Jas) in Pennsylvania in February 2015, I used my airline miles and credit to attend weddings of my coworkers from overseas. The first was in Florida in May, for my friends Kristin and Nathan, who now teach in SE Asia. The next two weddings were in Michigan in June. It was a blessing to see all of them get married, and get to catch up with my ISK family each time! And fun to sightsee with them, like beach time on Lake Michigan and shopping in Amish country with my 2nd ISK principal. My other big trip that year was a drive to Seattle to visit my grad school friend Mimi, with a side trip to Vancouver BC to see a friend I had known from the expat community in Central Asia.

This year (2016) has also brought some fun journeys. In the spring, I got to visit my ISK friend Cindy in Colorado, although it was still winter there! Beautiful, though. We saw Garden of the Gods and some mountain towns near Boulder. For spring break and again after school ended for the summer, I got to house-sit for and visit friends Tracey and her husband Jay, who worked at my current school my first year, and who live in lovely Central Oregon. Together we hiked in the snow on Mt. Hood, drove up the Deschutes River, and hunted for geodes (aka Thundereggs; round rocks filled inside with crystal) at Richardson Rock Ranch. On my own, I used their house as a base camp to go see the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. I hiked all three sites in one day. Breathtaking vistas, ancient fossils, and amazing rock formations made the drive so worth it! Later this last summer, I drove to California to meet up with a Czech friend that I met in Prague. She had never been to Yosemite, and I happily agreed to take her there. The last time I had gone was in winter, which was beautiful, but limited the places to go. So Keri and I got to hike to Vernal Fall, and drive to Glacier Point, which was probably one of the most epic views I have ever seen. And that says a lot, because I’ve been blessed to see some amazing ones in this world. I’ll try to include photos. I also got to visit my friend Elly in San Francisco (she’s much closer than the first time I visited her in her home country of Germany!), and drive back through Napa Valley and the Redwoods coast. Later in the summer, Jas came out from Pennsylvania for her family reunion, and I got to go up to Central Washington state for it with her and her aunt and uncle. I love summer!

As far as writing goes, I haven’t done any of my own (unless lesson plans count). But I have had some of my students participate in National Novel Writing Month, so at least I’m helping pass on a literary tradition. One of my writer friends is now publishing a novel for the first time, so be sure to watch for Calliope Jones books on Amazon soon! They’re great!

I’ve had some fun times with family this year, too. My mom and I met up with my stepsister and her teenage daughter to enjoy the crowds, I mean the tulips, at the Woodburn Wooden Shoe Festival. My brother made me an epic wall decor piece in the shape of a medallion from a cartoon we watched as kids. I’ve also enjoyed spending time with one set of cousins while I lived with her mother-in-law (and now have my own cute apartment! Many thanks to the wonderful people who let me live with them before that!), and am attending a church now where another set goes. In sadder news, I had three aunts pass away this least year or so, and one cousin just two days ago. I’m grateful that I had gotten to see two of them not too long before they died. Before my mom left to be with her brother, she and my stepdad had an impromptu Christmas breakfast/coffee with my brother and me. We’ll get to have a fun dinner on Christmas Eve with my dad and my stepmom, too. I’m so thankful for the family I have. And friends in this community that I grew up in but hadn’t lived in as an adult (old friends, friends from my new school, new friends from the church I went to last year, and new friends from my new church). And for my thoughtful boyfriend, too. (Just had to slip that in there to leave you all wondering!)

Well, I think that about sums up a lot, at least what I’m willing to share publicly. Thank you all for your friendship and support over the years! I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the holidays.

Contemplating Tunnel View at Yosemite

View from Glacier Point at Yosemite

White River Falls in northern Central Oregon.

Where Jas and I camped and inner tubed at her family reunion

My first classroom at the military school. Darth Vader only visits on May the Fourth (be with you day). I now have a real classroom!

Merry Christmas!