Settling into Eugene...

As mentioned in the last post, the truck was unloaded quite quickly! BUT the real task then became, what to do with all this stuff and where should it go! By coming up here before Corey starts the Master's program, it allowed full dedication to the task of unpacking and decorating. • A key feature that we loved even from the moment we saw this rental posted on Craigslist was the unique fireplace. It has been renamed "darth vader" for its resemblance to the oh-so-popular nemesis in Star Wars. Maybe it is from these very fireplaces that the mask was designed for the movie?! (this style fireplace was around in the '70s) Who knows... Here is a picture of the fireplace and a picture of darth... you decide. Corey's parents came up this past week and drove up Donna's yellow beetle (woohoo two cars!). They really wanted to help us settle in, so we decided to take them up on the offer. We spent a large portion of one of the days completely fixing up the back yard. (it is the most rocky soil anyone could imagine!) We added beautiful flowers, a little vegetable garden, AND a composting area! We are diving into "green" oregon with both feet! Here are some pics of the outcome. Here is the below shot (provided by our landlord...we forgot to take "before shots" fortunately he had!). And here it is after our hard day's work! Our first go at a composting box... we will see how this goes! (I think we might have to build a barrier around it so that little critters can't feast off of the goods...we have already found multiple raccoon droppings in our yard!) Didn't Corey and his dad do an amazing job building it?! The inside of the house is really coming along as well, BUT in order to see those shots, you will just have to come and visit! (we do have a guestroom!) • Still to come later on in the next few days... our weekend on the Central Coast...

Oregon Adventures (belated) Chapter 2!

Vicki—this one is dedicated to you! Thanks for bugging us to get the next blogs up! Here we go! Now where did we leave off... • Our moving van/semi is shown below with Corey's car being towed behind. (if this truck is 26 feet, plus the front portion, plus the length of the car towed... well, you do the math, it is LONG!) Going up the Cuesta grade was quite an adventure...a slow adventure. This beast would only get up to 25mph going up! We had huge semi-trucks passing us on the left. We just had to sit back and laugh. In this picture you can see Corey (the normally speedy driver) enjoying a (forced) leisurely drive. (If you can see the speedometer... it is only at 25!) Okay—so maybe his face started out more like the picture below! (ohhh, so determined! Here he is almost breaking 20mph!) The truck was diesel, which was nice because it was a lot cheaper than unleaded gas. It had a 50 gallon tank... most places would not let us fuel up the entire way... stopping at $100. We just had to get a picture of the momentous occasion—it is not every day you see $100 on the gas pump! (though with gas prices continually going up... maybe this won't be so rare!) We stayed the night with stella/mom and hit the road quite early! Katie and mom woke up to eat breakfast with us (how sweet) and then promptly went back to sleep! Two hours away from Eugene we decided to pull the kitties up front with us (until then they had been in their own "kittie coach", having free reign in the car being towed). These are a few shots of how they first reacted to the change of scenery. Frou-Frou has was quite "meowy". Feist and Donna both join in on the meows! Frou-Frou and Feist started to calm down and really enjoy the plush nap setting, while Donna was still a bit frazzled, but she eventually calmed down as well. The beautiful Oregon highway! What a trip! (yes, that is a semi just having passed our moving truck!) Upon arriving we had some amazing movers show up! (thanks to Nik and Ekklesia church!) For those who have been following our blog... remember our road trip last summer? (posted last July titled day 32 & 33) Well, we ended up keeping in contact with our Eugene friends at Ekklesia and are now going to that church. (Back when we heard about this church from Nik back a year ago, it was held in the pastor, Wesley's home and now has grown to filling out a community center). It reminds me of being in the Vet's Hall back at shoreline nine years ago! If you are interested in finding out more about the church we are stoked to attend go to: www.ekklesiaeugene.org Seven awesome people showed up to help us unload the beast! It was accomplished in less than two hours. Praise the Lord! He has truly provided for us! We are making lots of new friends and having great fellowship already in this short time here in Eugene. yahoo!!!!!! More to come!

the Oregon Adventures, Chapter One

Can you believe the big day is finally here!?

After 13 years for Corey and 9 for Donna, we are packing up and headed up to Oregon!

With friends, having pizza, sitting in a room with friends and no furniture - that's what moving is all about. Celebrating the good times in this chapter of life, and sharing with close friends as they carry your earthly belongings out the threshold of your home are great ways to spend our last day in SLO!

The girls, Feist and Frou-Frou were just hanging around and so were we, after 15 or so of us loaded the moving truck and cleaned up the old house in under 4 hours. Oh, how we are going to miss our friends here in SLO...

Frou-Frou and Feist have been following us around the house today (there are no boxes or bags to play with anymore!) They are quite attached as you can see below!

Feist looks so small with no furniture around her! She was trying to mess up the amazing job Sarah did cleaning our room (don't worry Sarah... it is still beautiful!).

Here are a few of us hanging out at the end. You can't have a complete moving day without pizza on the floor at the end!

So here is the beast that we will be driving up to Eugene! This truck/semi is 26 feet...and we did fit all of our stuff in there (barely!!). We were told that we need to stop at all the truck weigh-ins... what?? That will be an adventure for sure! We will try to keep up with posting as we make our journey up to Eugene and get settled in! So check in soon to see how we are doing!

the beard, baby, the beard...

So back in December for our trip to Israel, Corey had decided to not shave, and possibly let his beard grow a bit...
Around February the beard was getting pretty long, so he trimmed it down to a quarter of an inch... but from that point, had let it grow, especially since Wes and Sara had invited us to the Avett Brother's concert in Santa Cruz.
Thus, Corey let the beard grow... Months had gone by he had wanted to trim it out of its lengthy unruliness, but Donna wouldn't let him give up the fight! "You've gotta see how long you can grow it for the Avett Brother's concert!
And so grow it did...
Last weekend during all the architecture project madness, he finally took a break and had it done with... check out these pictures of insanity! As you can see the drastic change from beard to beardless, Donna sorta freaked out and let Corey know about it!! "You look like a baby!!" "Where'd your face go!?" "You lost two inches of chin all around!" "I miss it!"
Not that Corey's the ugliest looking bloke on the block, but rather that Donna had been eased into his bearded look with a slow transition, but was shocked by the 5 minute transformation back to his old self! (after a week, Donna is now loving her man's face again)

Avett Brothers with Wes and Sara!

Wes and Sara invited us to see a concert at a very in-opportune time at the end of Corey's semester... so what did we do? We drove to Santa Cruz on Thursday afternoon for dinner and an awesome evening concert before a very late drive back to SLO for Donna to teach her 8am class! The Avett brothers, although we didn't take any pictures displayed their usual antics while performing their bluegrass hillbilly folk-rock medley. A banjo with probably 15 broken strings over the evening's span, a guitar, a stand-up bass, and a reasonably often played cello by the band's newest member, a piano and drum-kit chimed in well with the love balads as well as the flat-out screams.

For a listen to some of their stuff, check out these video links on YouTube:

November Blue - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV_SyNfnPxI&feature=related -

Murder in the City - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5OZCKxj158&feature=related -

Bella Donna - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XybDz9I9k4k&feature=related -

Offering - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evgzy4yO1Hc -

Colorshow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9weQzTxU88Q -

And you may in the videos get a hint on Corey's inspiration for the next post upcoming!

The Trail Less Traveled... in SLO!

We found a little trail map in our mailbox today, so we picked out a spot we've never hit up before and found what could be San Luis Obispo's best kept hike spot secret! ;)

Bowden Ranch Open Space is on the East side of town across the street from French Hospital at the end of Lizzie Street. The hike begins by hopping over the creek through a fenced pathway through pretty and prickly cactus. The first view out showed us that the top of this hike was going to show us more than the view of Madonna Mountain and Bishop's Peak that we saw just a few minutes into the hike...

Donna likes to close her eyes in photos... maybe she's thinking about the red panda... (more about the red panda later... pet skunks might have to come after the pet red panda)

Corey's ears were getting a bit chilly with the wind, so he wrapped his jacket around his head... almost like a modern day turban... ;) Doesn't he look happy??!! (he really is)

It was a lot steeper than we were expecting (the challenge is good), and due to the fact that Corey is getting over being sick, we decided to not go the entire trail... but we are looking forward to coming up here again before we leave the state.

This is going on our "must do before we leave SLO list." Do any of you fellow bloggers have other spots on the Central Coast that are "hidden treasures" that we should find out about before we leave? Help us out!

Yes we did. We used a Neti pot...

The Neti-Pot, has been used for YEARS. It is so praised that people decide to turn this nose device into a piece of artwork!What is this contraption? A teapot? If you rub it will a genie pop out? Should you water your plants with it? Nope. And where does it really go? The NOSE! Why? Is it a nose flute? Not quite...

Though it might look as though it could be played like a nose flute, as seen in this image below, it is not played at all, but poured.

A co-worker of Donna's had recommended this device for Corey, since he is a bit under the weather with a sinus infection and suffers from allergies throughout the year. So, being the impulsive person that she is, Donna went out and purchased one that day. (anything to help Corey feel better is worth a shot!) Here is the diagram of how to use it. It does look quite upsurd.Of course Donna had no intention of using it, it actually scared her quite a bit. So, Corey was the brave one and decided to have a go at it. Look at that flow...like one of the waterfalls we saw at Yosemite the other weekend.He uses it like a pro! Those in India (where it originated) would be proud. Donna thought she would NEVER try it—she can't even dive because she doesn't like (actually HATES) water up her nose. But seeing Corey do it with ease, and getting the verbal challenge from Corey, she also did it. And it was not bad at all! It really does clear out your sinuses quite nicely and it's not uncomfortable—though it might look a little weird. So if you are curious, you should give it a shot! (I wish our neti pot looked this cool) These ones are called "rhino" netipots. Donna did some research on the Neti uses and saw this one: Swamootra Neti - Neti using one's own Urine to cure ailments. SICK! I don't think we will go as far to use this method. That just seems wrong! I think we will stick to filling it with warm water mixed with saline solution.