Washington & Coeur d'Alene

Road trip! This past week Eric and I spent nearly 14 magical hours in the car. We survived with a little help from the Great Gatsby and Eric's very impressive (and deafening) musical impression of Jean Valjean. During the drive we almost hit 2 deer and a cat and passed some impressive landmarks (ie. The Hungry Redneck Cafe, Woodchuck Trucks, etc.) Unfortunately, we made the mistake of taking the barren desert freeway route through eastern Oregon/WA on our way there and took a much prettier way home through Coeur d'Alene and western Idaho - when it was dark! So, instead of enjoying the gorgeous fall-colored pine trees and mountains, we just admired their silhouettes.

The purpose of our little roadtrip was so Eric could meet for an interview with a firm in Spokane. He's now had 2 job interviews - 1 in Boise & 1 in Spokane, both of which went really well. I think the hiring committees were impressed. Unfortunately, the Boise firm isn't even hiring, but they were impressed enough with Eric's credentials to at least meet with him & maybe consider creating a position. The Spokane interview went great as well, but they apologized to Eric in advance for the "glacial" pace at which they conduct their hiring decisions. Apparently, Eric was one of the first to be interviewed. So now we wait!

The building on the right is the Spokane firm (19th floor). Eric unknowningly ran a solid red light trying to point it out to me as I was taking a picture out of our sunroof.

It was a close one, but Eric's proud to say he beat the statue.

These last two photos are of Coeur d'Alene. It's so stinkin' beautiful! We wouldn't mind living here. And these pictures don't do it justice; it was a weird overcast day.

And that's all! It was a fun trip. On Wed. night we got to have dinner with some old friends from BYU-I so that was really nice. Thanks again for having us over Fischers, and great dinner Melanie! I'll have to steal that recipe from you.

In Action

I suddenly find myself in love with a 30 y/o man. Eric's big 3-0 was yesterday, and we celebrated with crab legs & frisbee golf. Eric always beats me terribly, but it's good fun. This is Eric below making a nice mid-range shot.

This 2nd video is of us experimenting with one of Ty's wedding gifts - a parasail! None of us really knew what we were doing, but after about 2 or 3 hours and a lot of face-planting, we finally got it up! Turns out we had it upside down the entire time! Once we fixed that little problem, it was a peice of cake. We were a hilarious sight those first few tries - there were about 6 of us trying to hold the parasail open and high-step it on the sand bar to keep up with the boat, eventually being sucked down to the water, face-first when we couldn't keep up anymore. We always felt like we were so close, but because it was upside down, we never stood a chance (the wind was forcing it the wrong direction). Just watch until 1:10 or so. Thanks for recording Tiffany!

Fall...

How can anyone dislike the fall? It's stunning. So stunning in fact that I've been stealing pictures from our sunroof while driving. For the past week, we've had 70 degree weather & gorgeous blue skies. Eric and I have been doing our best to take advantage of the season - ice blocking, frisbee golf, street markets, a little hiking, and a lot of football.

6 years, 6 cars

We've only been married for 6 years, but somehow we've owned 6 cars. Most of them have been good to us, but for one reason or another we had to sell. One got smashed by a neighbor's Ranger (like a dune buggy). One was sold so we could escape to our tropical island. One was a mistake. One had terrible gas mileage, and the last had to stay on our tropical island.

Let us reflect...

1998 Nissan Sentra ($5500). Our first "married" car. This car was with us in Rexburg, Boise, Omaha, DC, back to Omaha & back to Boise. After 4 good years, I had to witness the death of our dear Sentra when a friend came ripping around the corner in his dune buggy, consequently slamming into our (innocently parked) car and then rolling and getting thrown from his. No humans were harmed.

1993 Toyota "PUH-say-oh", a bazillion miles on this thing but an awesome lil' car! (only cost us $800, from $1200). I'm suprised they stopped selling them in '97 because I've read nothing but great reviews about the Paseo. I think they're immortal.

1997 Nissan Altima ($1700, from $2000)...Not the smartest purchase. This was our first car on Saipan, and it wasn't really a good match for the island. The weather & unpaved roads had taken it's toll on this little guy. Luckily, we were able to sell it in one piece.

1999 Nissan Pathfinder ($4000, from $5500!). LOVED this car! Just didn't love filling it up - esp. since gas prices were of course at record highs during the Pathfinder era.

Thus, we replaced the brute Pathfinder with a little weanie '01 Toyota Echo ($3800 solid). It did get great gas, but it felt so light and cheap, I wasn't sad to let her go.

And as of Tuesday, we are now the proud owners of a Lexus ES 300 ($3100, from $3500). Ok, so it's a 1995, but we love it! Tan leather, heated seats, auto everything & very well-maintained. Low miles too (for a '95). So far, very happy with the purchase!

Aug - Sept 2009

A few memories from the past month (Ok, so it's mostly Ava, but she's so darn cute!)...P.S. It's not really 20 pages, just 11 - in no particular order.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Patalie's Visit

Thanks again for coming Pat, Nat & Ava - we had a blast!

Tiffler's Wedding

Ty finally got hitched!

Hard Goodbye

Hands down, the hardest move yet. We left behind, not only the ocean and sunshine, but also the best friends we've ever had & certainly, the best branch we have ever and will ever be a part of.

We made a very last-minute decision to move so we only had one Sunday to say goodbye to the branch that we loved so much. I was resistant to give a full-blown talk that Sunday because, in addition to only having a few short hours to prepare, I just knew I would be an emotional wreck. And I was, but I'm glad I had the chance to express my gratitude to all of the members that had made such a huge impact on my life over the course of 2 years. Then, during the 3rd hr, the YW gave me an incredible gift when they decided to cancel their individual classes and share their testimonies instead. I can't quite explain how significant that was for me.


And the outpouring of love continued on through the evening when the branch threw us a last-minute going away party at the Conner's home. It was humbling to see all of the people who came to share their love. During the course of the night, we were given dozens of thoughtful gifts and letters. The most touching part, however, was when they all sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."

Speed blogging

I'm low on blogging fuel these days so let's see what I can do with highlights (mostly about Eric b/c, let's face it, he's cooler than I am)...

While in Korea, Eric ate silkworm, snails and live octopus The Saipan job offer for 1.5 years turned into a Guam job offer for 2.5 years. Eric declined. Eric's last official day at the court was on Friday so we had a farewell lunch in his honor at Tony Roma's. Afterward, we celebrated with dinner on the beach (Pacific Islands Club) and then KARAOKE. My first time with Eric, and he's a pro! The best (and boldest) sober Karaoke singer you'll ever meet! Our house was broken into Sun. night/Mon. morning (while we were asleep in the next room). A little unsettling. Fortunately, all they took was Eric's laptop. Ty's wedding is Aug 22. Airfare is over $2000! If, however, we decide to move back to the mainland, the court will cover the cost. So that's the decision we have to make in the next couple of days - to stay on Saipan (after living here for 2 yrs) or return to our homeland. It's been an extremely tough decision. Stay tuned...

Korea

Just got this email from Eric :

ㅗ됴 ㅊㅁㄴㄴ,

ㅑ ㅡㅁㅇㄷ ㅑㅅ 새 ㅏㅐㄱㄷㅁ ㄴㅁㄹ디ㅛ ㅁ. ㅑㅅ'ㄴ ㅁ ㅊㄱㅁ쿄 챠쇼. ㅑ 쟈노 ㅛㅐㅕ ㅈㄷㄱㄷ ㅗㄷㄱㄷ. ㅑ'ㅣㅣ 드먀ㅣ ㅣㅁㅅㄷㄱ. ㅣㅐㅍㄷ ㅛㅐㅕ.

ㄸ걏

And then I got one I could actually read:
I made it to Korea safely. After enjoying ourselves in the international lounge in Tokyo, Daniel and I landed in Korea at about 10:30 last night. Due to the language barriers I accidentally withdrew $500 from an ATM machine. Then we had an impossible time trying to figure our where our hotel was and how to get there. (Our contact in Korea hasn't given us a ton of details.) Plus, we had some shady characters try and talk us into taking a cab, but we finally found a really nice Korean man who saw we were struggling and took us under his wing and helped navigate us to our hotel.

Apparently, we're staying in a pretty seedy area of town (e.g., the Love Shop is across the street and there are millions of *Karaoke bars). But overall, the city is incredibly clean and seems really safe. This place has gotta be the technology capital of the world. I've never seen so much technology in my life. It's everywhere.

Daniel and I each have our own room. We each have a 60-inch plasma screen TV, a computer, and free internet acces in our rooms. Plus, I have a huge jacuzzi tub in my room. Not bad, especially considering the fact that Dan thinks we're staying in a dump and has apologized for it on several occassions.

I'll be judging from 10:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. today (mock trial).

* "Karaoke" is sometimes code for strip club.

Where is in the world is Eric Nelson? By the time Eric returns from Korea, this will be his travel break-down, from May - Aug. (by the way, he figured this out, not me...and he's also accounting for layovers, but it's still pretty crazy.) :

Saipan: Detroit: Atlanta: Manila: Honolulu: Kona: Guam: Tokyo: Nagoya: Seoul:

65 days 6 hrs 6 days 4 days 5 hrs 4 days 1 day 1 day 6 hrs 4 days