Bridge Pedal

Bridge Pedal 2011...we were so excited to be able to join over 18,000 riders a few Sundays ago to pedal around Portland unhindered, and ride our bikes over 6 of the city's 10 bridges.  We received our goodie bag and our bike tags...

The Starting Line before 8am in downtown.

The sea of riders behind us.

Stopping for a water break on the I-5 bridge with a cool view....

How often can you ride on the HIGHWAY?  This was amazing!!  Here we are on the top deck of the bridge, where we found a few vendors, music, free giveaways of Clif Bars (yum!), and the opportunity for me to win a crazy pair of sox!!

The view from the north end of town looking south.

Jeld-Wen field, home to the Portland Timbers MLS Soccer Team.  This was part of the Bridge Pedal too, the first time they let non-players on the field.  This was REALLY cool!  And here is Scott, seeing what it's like to be Timber Joey.  Everytime the Timbers score, Timber Joey, armed with a chainsaw, lops off a disc and passes it up into the Timber's Army section where they pass it to the top of the stands.

 We had an AMAZING day and were SO glad we were part of this event!!

Only in Oregon?

In preparation for a cookout today at one of Scott's professor's, we visited the local market for some tasty dessert and fruit. We're sure you've heard it, at least on the weather channel, Portland hasn't had any 90 degree days ALL YEAR, until yesterday.  Trust me, we haven't minded!  In honor of all the hoopla, a watermelon sounded perfect.  Imagine our surprise as we cut it open to see this...

I guess we should have read the label, because all we saw on the sign on the bin was "seedless watermelon."  Whoops!  Oh well, it tastes AMAZING and it is now a conversation piece for later!

Mikumi National Park

Things are going well for Scott & the team in Tanzania.  This is actually their last week of teaching and they'll be boarding a plane on Friday to return home.  They've been teaching a Bible Study Methods course (Hermenuetics) as well as a New Testament Survey course to pastors.  These men have been great students...and teachers!  I don't want to steal the thunder, but wanted to pass along a bit of an update, albeit late.  Good intentions on my part.  My schedule became far too busy once Scott left and their schedule was extremely busy.  We did get to Skype several times and it sure was good to hear his voice & see his smiling face!

The team visited a game park yesterday and here's what Scott sent me:

We are back in Dar from the game park, and we hit the jackpot while there. Seeing a lion is rare from everything we heard. Not only did we see one lion, we saw four; a female and her cub early in the morning, and a young male and a female resting near a kill in the early afternoon. We got within 100 feet of the afternoon lions. Incredible. We also got close ups of zebra, elephants, impala, giraffes, and a couple of warthogs, and some hippo shots too. What an incredible day.

Back from Hiatus, Short on Testosterone

I guess I didn't realize my last entry had been over 3 months ago.  Maybe I live in denial.  I wonder if it's the same as when one looks in the mirror, mutters something to the effect of, "I really should exercise more," then goes about the day forgetting the muttering, only to repeat it all over again the next day.  I don't know, maybe I think about the blog the same way.  "I need to post something today..."  Then it's tomorrow already.  Oh well!

So, the first entry from a long hiatus should seemingly be well thought out and entertaining to write, as well as read.  It's almost 11pm and I'm writing on a whim.  I'm also on my 3rd full day of being without my hubby.  He left for Tanzania on Friday, which is why I'm short on testosterone--no Scott.  It's been far too many years since I've spent more than a few days by myself, and is taking quite a bit of adjusting on my part.  One month is a long time to be alone in a VERY quiet house.  With this, I have been reminded of how some of my single friends and widows/widowers might feel.

I received word very late on Saturday night that Team Tanzania had made it to their destination safely, however bedraggled and lacking sleep (Scott didn't sleep at all).  Tomorrow begins their teaching.  VERY exciting.  I am anxious to hear from Scott within the coming days.

Until next time, and may it not be another 3 months...

Spring is Coming

Amazingly, these little blooms showed up 3 weeks ago.  As much as I tried to persuade them to "go back" because it was so early, they persisted.  Enjoy a bit of spring's beauty!

Getting in touch with our Kenyan roots

Fellow seminary student Shane & his wife Kristie invited us to join her birthday celebration.  They wanted to check out a new restaurant that we found out was being run by another seminary student that hails from Kenya.  Thinking we wanted authentic, we allowed our buddy to order for us!
So here is the tilapia...before....

and here is something else, which we can't pronounce, which included lamb, pico de gallo, and ugali...

 

 

a classic "Scott" reaction

Shane's accomplishment....

The tilapia....after it met it's match

We had a great time!!  Tanzania here I (Scott) come!

A Rainbow in Winter

What a beautiful and unusual sight in winter...the rainbow - a symbol and reminder of God's promise to us.

Another New Chapter

Some of you may or may not know that I stumbled upon a job posting just a little over a month ago that seemed, possibly, a great match.  After 4 interviews, I was very excited to receive a call on February 10th, extending me a job offer.  I accepted.  Done deal.  Today was my first day.

Dressed in my "big-girl-job clothes," as dubbed by my friend Mesu, I headed out for my first real commute to work since April 2009.  Let's just say that Portland traffic is, in not so many words, awful.  Add a little precipitation and the threat of 1 inch of accumulated snow at 500' and above, and you get a commute you never bargained for.  I love my 99 Camry and the fact that it gets 32 mpg.  However, after spending 1 hour in the car to go a mere 15 miles, I was having flashbacks of leaving Cedar Point after the park closed on a Saturday night in the summer.  Stop and go. Stop and go.  Did I mention the Camry has manual transmission?


So here it is my 1st day of work and I have to make a call to my supervisor to let her know I'd be late.  Nice.  Thinking I might be fired before I ever start (not really), I made a somewhat panicked call to Scott to find out the main line's number of my new employer.  Unfortunately, that number yielded another voicemail stating that the nice option of pressing "#" for the directory, met me with a message that I was not allowed to use that option.  Hmmmm.

I arrived only 15 mins. late and all was fine.  Phew.  My first day consisted of a quick tour, a meeting about my benefits and a bunch of paperwork, followed by 3 back-to-back meetings about compliance, regulations, and legislation.  Good thing there was food!

It really was a good day!  I am very happy to be working for this non-profit that supports healthcare organizations and hospitals, and I believe there will be many more good days ahead.

Snow Day!

We had been praying since the day before for a snow day for a couple reasons.  One - the obvious, if the school closes, it means no work for Karen.  Second - it happened to be Karen's last day of work!  I was shouting from the rooftops at 6:05 am on Thursday morning when I saw Multnomah on the list of closings!

taken from the kitchen window

under a huge pine tree on campus

Scott trying to tell the flowers they bloomed to early :-(

What a great day!  We had much to celebrate.  I begin a new job on Tuesday with a healthcare & hospital organization and I'm very excited!  It's hard to believe that I began my job search in May 2009 and it has taken this long to find something that is, what I believe will be, a good fit for me.  God has certainly seen fit to provide for us with my job at the school, despite my knowing that me in an academic setting is tantamount to some high levels of frustration.  Oh well.   As my old boss Ken once said, "...learn as much as you can wherever you go.  You never know when you'll need to use those things."  A good nugget of wisdom that I've carried for almost 20 years.