It finally dried up

This is going to sound like a weird tradition. You see that marker in the picture? You know what that has been used for? I think two of my roommates from college can explain pretty clearly what it was used for.



This marker has been used prior to two weddings: Taylor and Mindy Swedberg's and James and Ingrid Aires' weddings in 2004.

The tradition started with me before I got married. My groomsmen, mainly my college roommates, thought it would be funny to sign their names on my rear the day of my wedding. They had their way with me and I spent part of my honeymoon with names and slogans on my rear. It didn't exactly wash off very easily.

I wasn't about to let any one of them get away with anything less than I what I got the day of my wedding. SO I BOUGHT THE BIGGEST PERMANENT MARKER I COULD FIND. (That's the marker in the picture.) Taylor and James both got a taste of the marker.

There are some great stories and memories behind this marker and I'm sad to say it finally dried out. Not to worry, the store has plenty more and there are still four roommates left to get married. Hahahahahahaha!

Check out the fossil I found

Guess what I did for the very first time? Yup, saw real fossils in the wild. Want to find a cool fossil like me? Here's how:

Step 1. Visit Chuckanut Drive after a rockslide.



2. Get private access to the slide zone



Step 3. Search out that sweet fossil, like the one below.



And it's just that easy.

In case you don't recognize the fossil on the side of that boulder, it's a palm tree frond. That rock is so big that its nearly the size of a small car.

Most fossil hunters don't wear orange vests and yellow hard hats when they're hunting. I do though, because I take it seriously.

Truth is, we had a rockslide on Chuckanut Drive near Bellingham. And for work I got to go to the slide area and check it out. I've been selling the story to the media for the last couple days. They love a good emergency. Its not uncommon for our maintenance crews to find fossils in the rocks when they slide off the hillside and onto the roadway. This just happens to be a really big, really nicely preserved fossil. According to some of the other engineers who've worked these slides before, they said that a fossil like this would sell for $5,ooo. To bad it was too heavy to put in the back of my jetta.

Yeahahahahaha!!!!

No, that is not Steve Irwin. Yes, that is Tim attempting to touch a real alligator. Watch the video to see if he survives. This happened in May 2007 when a gaggle of us traveled to the Everglades in Florida.

It was a full house

Abby and I hosted her family this weekend and we had a lot of fun together.


Before her family left to come up to Bellingham, Abby's dad called me to ask if I needed him to bring any of his tools. I said, "No, I don't think you need to. Why?" He said, "Okay. I just wanted to make sure; we dont' want the Vann's to out do us." I laughed after I recalled the blog post that Nick and Andi posted about her family doing stuff around their house all weekend.

What Abby and I really wanted was for the Marions to come have a fun weekend at our place with no strings attached. They host us all the time and we wanted to return the favor. Plus, it's nice to not have to drive to Tacoma every once in a while in order to see family.

But... truth be told, there were a few things I was looking forward to having Bob's help with.

(To mimic Nick and Andi's post)
Bob helped me do the following:

• Buy and install a new battery in the truck. (He helped me save $41 at Sears. Score!)
• Remove the old cd player and install the used one from the truck in the Neon
• Fix stereo wiring in the Neon
• Properly wire and operate our new DVD/VHS recorder
• And, on his own accord, straighten the alignment on the closet door in their guest bedroom because it was bothering him

The rest of the time we just hung out and had fun. Abby and Becca found time to bake a pear-cranberry pie together.


We even found time to go bowling together. Bob and Marty couldn't remember the last time they had been bowling. I think Bob may practice in his spare time though because he bowled several strikes and had the highest score. Something smells fishy there.



We went to church Saturday night so we could sleep in Sunday morning and watch the Seahawks lose.



We're very thankful to have a wonderful family.


Have you ever seen an 8-year old bowl before?

We got dressed up this year

Did you see what we were for Halloween?


That's my cowgirl! H-O-T, hot!


Notice the bling attached to the belt. I customized it.

Don't we just look like we walked off the prairie and into a saloon?

I'm most excited about today because...

Today is election day. That's not why I'm excited. I'm excited about today because it means that all the campaining can stop. No more giant poster-sized mailers in the mailbox. No more telephone calls (for those who still have home phones). No more negative advertisements during commercials on the radio and tv. No more candidates interrupting my halftime shows to pretend like they care about sports. No more roadside signs. No more of any of it for at least one year, hopefully. Since they campaigned for two years for this election, we can assume they will campaign for three next time, right? I'm not sure what the TV media are going to cover now that the election is practically over.

You know what my prayer has been for the last week? No, not that the campaigning and negative ads would stop. Regardless of who gets elected, I've been praying that God would use that candidate for His glory, His kingdom and revive this country. Neither candidate will make everyone happy. But God can use them to do miraculous things. That's what I'm praying for.

Best of luck to those who voted. I hope the right candidate wins.

Willamette Valley wine tasting

Abby and I drove to Salem, Oregon this weekend to visit our friends Kevin and Becky Hussey. It was nearly a six-hour drive from Bellingham, but it was worth it. We had a blast touring the Willamette Valley vineyards and tasting wines. We found time on Saturday to visit the Honeywood Winery, Willamette Valley Vineyard and Firesteed vineyard and winery. Our favorite was Firesteed.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from this weekend. One of the funniest pictures is where we're all jumping in the middle of a vineyard. Kevin has this fantastic cheerleader-arms-point-down jump going on.

This may have also been the best weekend to take a drive across Washington and parts of Oregon. You'll notice in the background of the pictures that the leaves are changing colors. The trees and vineyards were all ablaze with color. On our way down, Abby and I would point and say, "Oh, look at that tree!," or "no, look over there," or "did you see that one!," "wow!" Abby's favorite trees were the ones with red in them.