Learning to like Portland

I have always lived in small towns in Eastern Oregon. Growing up in Echo was a lot of playing on the river whether it was finding swimming holes, floating down to the overpass, or just rock skipping. It was sledding in the winter with tons of your friends and 4-wheelers to pull you back up the long hill. It was the whole town cheering you on when you went to state playoffs for sports.

College in La Grande was similar. Bike riding everywhere, frisbee in the park, late-night walks, lots of BBQ's at friend's houses.

When we settled in Pendleton to begin our careers, I was a little worried but I shouldn't have been. After a few weeks it felt like home. Laughing around a fire, watching children play, taking the dog to the park.

I have always loved small towns and the slow pace they have to offer. Seeing my students at the Aquatic Center, visiting with other parents and friends at whiffle ball games, walking to work on sunny days. I like knowing lots of people and people knowing me.

With Dad in Portland now I have learned some new things about myself. They're not all good things either.

The biggest: I Really Don't Like Portland.

I Really Like Some of the People who Live in Portland, but the city itself, hmm...

I have been to Portland before many times. The Zoo, downtown shopping, the airport, IKEA, a Portland Trail Blazer game and even a Metallica concert. All things that are right off the freeway. I had never really gone into the city neighborhoods and in my first day of doing so I found out that big cities are not my cup of tea. Not at all. The traffic freaked me out (the sheer speed and then Wham! A traffic jam), the fact that no one says "hello" or even really looks at you as you walk past them (not that I wanted some of those people to say hello to me), the grafitti everywhere and public displays of vulgarity seemed crude and disgusting to me.

Since Dad is going to be spending quite some time in Portland, I decided I had better take a closer at Portland and find some things I can enjoy about it while I am there. Ignore the crazy people and focus on the good stuff. Overlook the people wearing "I HATE COPS" t-shirts and find things a city has to offer families. Not an easy task for some, but I am always one for a challenge!

Mark's cousin Jeff, his wife Erin and Jeff's sister, Jennifer, have a wonderful house only 15 minutes away from the hospital and once we are off the main drag and getting closer to their neighborhood, I always feel myself relaxing and I can let go of my death grip on the steering wheel and look around a little bit. The streets are tree-lined and shady, giving off a sense of peace and families. You can just picture people picnicing underneath these trees or children having a lemonade stand.

This sign warmed my heart! They were speaking my love language!

This last weekend we went back to Portland for 3 days and on our first night there all of us walked over to this huge park that lives in this tree-lined neighborhood. There were groups of people playing kickball, bike polo, and basketball, of course. There was a section of the park devoted to dogs and lots of equipment for kids to play on. Despite some graphic language that included some f-bombs and a lesbian menage-a-trois (we were in Portland after all) the park was a lot of fun. The boys discovered a real merry-go-round and played and played on that while making some new friends. I have some great video of that! There were huge pine trees throughout the park and it was so vast that everyone had lots of room to do their own thing.

On Sunday, we went to the Zoo. But first we took a special route there.

Do you need to ask if they were excited?

I think not!

This was the way to see Portland!

Erin and Jeff - our seasoned tour guides! She was just as excited as I was to see a

                                                Banana Republic - a girl after my own heart!

(I have never actually bought anything from Banana Republic but I have often fantasized about doing so).

Caleb stood grapsing the rail for a long time and then he decided to take a quick break and try and answer the question of "Where do you think we are going?".

After the Max ride we ended up spending hours at the zoo. I would have loved to taken photos but my faithless camera turned fickle again and quit working, but I do have a lot of video from the flipcam. We were a tired group of tourists on the ride home but very satisfied with the day. It wasn't even over yet!

We went to the hospital to see Dad and he was awake and out in the children's garden with Mom. The boys were able to see him and he had a huge smile for each of them. He even reached his hand towards them and the boys gave him big hugs. Since we didn't want to overwhelm him we played hide-n-go seek elsewhere in the garden so Mark could visit with his Dad. We were very encouraged by the progress we saw and I can't wait to see where Dad will be a week from now!

This blog post is so long, I have forgotten my point.

Oh yeah! I am learning to like things about Portland - the Max, the food, the zoo. But as I was sitting in the backyard last night visiting with friends around our fire pit and looking up at the stars, I realized that in my heart, there isn't anything in Portland that could compare with the things in Eastern Oregon. I guess the Lord knew exactly what he was doing when he settled Mark and I here!

One last thing: I got something in the mail today. Something I have been saving my sheckles many moons for! I will share it with you tomorrow! (or possibly the next day - you know what kind of blogger I am!)

Missing Poppa

Our family is home now. All of us. The boys are home from Grandma's house. Mark and I are home from Portland and the hospital.

It feels good to be home. Good to be in our own beds. Good to be driving our familiar streets. Good to be "whole" again with our little family.

All of this is good but in truth it doesn't feel great. A large part of us is still in Portland. Still with Mom and Dad as he battles everyday to take a step closer to some day come home.

Home.

Even though we are not there today with Dad, I still feel like some of him is here with us. I look at Mark and see Dad - it's in the shape of their nose, the line of their smiles, their mannerisms and the things they say.  My heart aches as I listen to the grief that fills Mark's words as he tells me how his Dad is his best friend.

 His best friend and his Hero. A best friend that he can't stand the thought of losing. Memories of Dad and thoughts of what is to come are heavy on us then.

I can feel Dad smile when Owen is praying at dinner with his sweet, precious voice:

"Dear Ward, please help Poppa to feel better and come home soon. We really miss him. Help him to not fall off any more wadders. In Jesus name - Amen"

I am finding it hard to answer all of Caleb's constant questions.

"Why did Poppa fall?"

"When is Poppa coming home?"

"When can I see Poppa too?"

"If I see Poppa, will I see his brain?"

"Why won't you answer my questions about Poppa?"

It makes me want to be a kid again and have someone answer all my questions. It's the not knowing that is hard in this situation. The not knowing when Dad will come home. Not knowing how long he will have to stay in the hospital.

The not knowing if he will wake up and be the man that we remember and love dearly.

For now, we are strenthened by prayer, the wonderful family that we do have and the amazing friends that keep showing us in a hundred different ways that they are here for us. We are putting our trust in God and even though it is hard, we are taking each day as it comes, celebrating the small gains Dad makes and waiting in anticipation for more to come!

         

We love you Poppa!

Where to begin...

I have sat here in the hospital waiting room for the last 4 hours trying to find the right words to share what is happening in our lives right now. I have deleted entry after entry after entry. So I have finally decided to keep it simple. Here I go:

Mark's Dad is currently in ICU at Legacy Emmanual in Portland. He is here because they have head trauma specialists and that is what his Dad needs. Last night I started a blog for mom to keep everyone up to date and that blog will have the most current information on it. The address is:   tgolter.blogspot.com             

Now that school is out and I have ordered a new camera (my last one has been dropped one to many times now) I will be blogging a lot more. I am glad summer is here and my time is now my own. Cutting the last 3 days of our school has proved to be a surprising blessing because now I am free to be here for as long as needed. That's all for now. Continue to pray!

Bloomsday - Finally!

My camera has been on a vacation without me. It took off to Baker City with another teacher that I had a training with a couple of days after Bloomsday and has only just now come home to where it belongs. It has been properly grounded and is very contrite for it's actions.

Bloomsday was Sunday, May 2nd up in Spokane and Mark and I went and stayed with family so that we could participate.

It was a blast and I want to share some of the race with you.

(WARNING: there are a lot of pictures!)

Mark and I got up early and ate a nice healthy breakfast (Thank you Aunt Sherry!) and then we headed into town. After parking the car at the mall we got in line to take the bus downtown closer to the start.

Here is the line behind me:

Here is the line in front of me:

Racers came in all shapes and sizes. It was so neat to see everyone there ready and excited to go. You start to get pumped up before the race even starts!

The Bus Ride:

Once downtown we had to find our color group - orange. When you register you have to estimate your finish time and depending on what it is, determines your starting group. Ours was not the elite runners group just in case you were wondering.

This is the beginning of the color group behind us - Green. Notice the Tella-Tubbies? (sp?) Lots of people dress up and run in costume.

Groups are so large, that colors have to also be split so that not too many people are starting the race at the same time. Mark and I were in the 2nd orange group and there is a big sign at the front telling us when to walk and when to stay put. The race starts officially at 9:00 but we didn't actually cross the start line until closer to 9:30.

While you wait, there are bands playing and people taking off their clothes. :) The clothes, mainly sweatshirts and coats, are thrown onto the trees and bushes lining the streets and after everyone has started, they are taken down and donated to various shelters and people who need them.

Once the sign says walk, everyone starts cheering and clapping and my stomach started dancing.

You can see the Start Line way in the front to the left. Mark had to hold the camera up to get this shot.

Here's my view of the Start.

"Sometimes I feel like a dime amongst a bunch of pennies"

Once you cross the line your time starts and is recorded by a cool little thing that is strapped onto your shoe (I forgot to take a picture of it). It is pretty jam packed at first and it takes over a mile for runners to clear out a little bit and give you room.

At one point, there was even a cow in front of me.

At different points of the race there are water stations. Volunteers line up with water in their hands and you run by and grab one (You feel like a "real" runner when you do this). You slurp some from the cup while you are running and then you throw your cup on the ground, trying not to splash too many people while you do so.

This group ran past Mark and I singing and chanting all kinds of funny stuff but they quickly left us in the dust.

Young whipper snappers is what they were.

Here's me - Look I'm still running!

Then we started up Doomsday hill. It's a big sucker and even though we had ran all the way there, I had to start walking at this point. It's steep, it's tough and it's looooooong!

Here is is looking at it from the top.

After that I had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. I wanted to be able to say that I ran the whole thing except for the hill and yup, I did it!

Here's the finish line. As you are running towards it they are playing Chariots of Fire and you somehow find you can run a little faster to finish the race.

After the race you go collect your T-shirt and pretty quickly everyone starts to put them on. On the drive home I counted how many people I saw with them on and I was up to 5 by the time we got back to Oregon.

This guy paid extra for the bodysuit. Sadly,they didn't have one in my size.

Maybe next year!

I didn't get pictures of all the bands that play along the race course or the kids who gave me a free otter pop or the hundreds of people who are cheering everyone along as they run, but I hope that I gave you a peek into the race and maybe, just maybe, made you want to try it next year!

My finishing time: 1:24:21

My faithful husband who never left my side: 1:24:20

My place: 13,873

Mark's: 13,861

Total Participants: Over 50,000

All the Wrinkled Ladies!

Anita Renfroe.
How can you not LOVE this lady? Her sense of humor is priceless!

Turning 6

My poor children. They are so neglected at times. Just ask Owen.

Oh wait, he might still be outside taking a nap in the dirt.

Between conferences,
teaching the boys to ride their bikes without training wheels,
training for Bloomsday (or not training in my case - I'm up to a mile and a half without wanting to die but I'm a little concerned because the race is this Sunday and it's over 7 miles long. Hmmm...),
helping teach a Dave Ramsey class each Sunday evening, and
just living life...

in between all those things we managed to squeeze in a birthday for our little boy, Caleb. Oops, I mean our big boy. Our SIX year old big boy Caleb.

Caleb got to have his first ever "friend" party. He was allowed to invite a few 4 friends from school (and his brother of course) to Chuck-E-Cheeses. This is who he chose:


                                                                       Mr. Muscles - (aka Jack)

The next Michael Jackson - (aka Andy)

"Caleb's Girls" (aka - Delaney and Allie)

The kids had a great time playing games, eating food, dancing, and just hanging out. Mark and I had a great time too (believe it or not!).

 

The best part was watching Caleb though - he loved every minute of it.

Happy 6th Birthday sweet boy!

Inside Jokes

There is someone in my life you must meet.

He has a smile like Matt Damon - one that takes him from being an ordinary guy into something extraordinary. His hair makes McDreamy jealous, his blue eyes can find you across a room and make you freeze in place and his body, well, let's just say -Whoo-ah. His charm is what gets you though - his

ability to make you laugh, to make you feel special- as though you are the only girl in the room. When he talks with his Australian accent it makes you want to purr.

His name is Luke and he is a figment of my imagination.

Let me back up and tell his story from the beginning. How he came into being (and how I am not crazy).

My good friend Cindy and I always sit together at various teacher trainings. We always laugh and joke and visit our way through the more boring parts (we even secretly text each other during the not so boring parts). Trainings are good as long as we have each other. Well, one night at a tech. training we were taking the "end of the night" survey. It was a zoomerang survey and very long, as are most surveys. But this survey had a surprise ending. 

It had Luke thanking us for taking the survey.  

Cindy and I looked at each other, looked back at our computer screens and said "Yum" in unison.

And Luke was born. We quickly started to wonder about him and assign fictitious facts about him. Half a dozen names were tried out and discarded before we both agreed on Luke. He had to have an Australian accent, of course, because only the hottest of men do. He is in his late 30's, possibly early 40's and he knows how to treat a woman - that went without saying.

Well, not too long after that first night of meeting Luke, we took another survey, and lo and behold, Luke was back. Since then he has been popping up in my life in all sorts of places.

 My good friend Cindy has made me my very own "brag" book of pictures. You know the grandma who always whips out her pictures of her grandchildren and they fall out accordian style for you to peruse? Well, I don't have grandchildren, but I do have Luke.

The best part of my "brag book" is the messages that Luke wrote to me on the back of all the pictures.

Well, our little inside joke has slowly started to spread out to others. Fellow teachers have heard us speaking of this "Luke" character and they want in on the action. Pretty soon we were seeing people sign up to take Zoomerang surverys just to catch a glimpse of our Luke. My husband even asked me "Who is this Luke and should I be worried?"

Women and men react differently to Luke. Case in point. Here is something my friend Ken sent to Cindy and I. (He is too creative!)

"Why, Hello Luke."

(said while looking down and glancing back up through eyelashes)

"Click here to see what you look like off duty? Ok."

Aahhh! It's a Ken cleverly hidden in a Luke body!

That wasn't all Ken created. Look at these pages.

   

You just have to love that guy - both Ken and Luke!

Just last month Cindy and I were at another tech. training and we were eagerly filling out our survey in anticipation of seeing "our" guy again. But, you wouldn't believe it, a girl was there thanking us instead!

I was ticked. Cindy quickly filled out her survey and the same thing - some bimbo, slut, tramp was there saying thanks in some boring old language like English.

Cindy and I pinky promised we were taking no more surveys until they brought Luke back and we agreed to promptly write to the head of Zoomerang and demand they bring Luke back immediately.

Before I could send our letter, I recieved this email:

That was cruel! I have already warned Mr. Joe that he had better watch out! Revenge shall be mine!

(Sidenote- aren't inside jokes the most fun! I love how with a few words or an invented name you can create your own language and laughs! I am loving how more and more people are being included in our little joke and all the things they are doing with it. You go ahead and try it - bring a little Luke into your life and start enjoying some laughs! I know only about 5 people read this blog but if you have an inside joke I would love to hear about it!)