Photograph....

So on the 8th of August I got the privilege of making money the most easy was possible, doing something I love. Ryan's cousin Rachel got married and I was asked to be the photographer. I was flattered beyond words. I love taking pictures and to be able to share my love with people is such a special feeling. While I am no where near professional standards I think that I did a fairly good job. Here are a few of my favorites from the day.
Did I mention that Ryan and I each caught something special?

July Part 2

Our other adventure for July was going to Cannon Beach for the day with Ryan's family. It was the first time that his Grandma Hennessy got to meet Heidi and Chase's twins. Everyone else stayed for a few nights at the beach house. But as always Ry and I had to head home that night to go to work the next day.

The rest of the month was filled with trying to get settled in the new place, Ryan painting a house, the way to hot weather, class and laying by the pool.

July Part 1

So after promises of being a better blogger I have gone yet again with a major lapse in my entries. Now that we are well into August I think that I will back track to July with a recap of the month.

The month started with Ryan and I taking a trip to Bend. If you read this blog you will know how much we love this place. Every time we visit we long to move there. Maybe someday if the economy ever turns we can find jobs there.... Anywho got a well deserved mini vacation and traveled around Central Oregon. Our first full day there was spent driving around the High Lakes. We started out driving to Fall River. I have special memories of going here with my parents and my Grandpa D.

It truly is a beautiful place, see all those fish!!


Next we drove to South Twin. Another place special to me. I spent alot of summers here as a kid with my Grandma and Grandpa Erickson. It was crazy going back after all these years. It was exactly as I remembered it, only smaller. It's funny how that works to me. Everything is so big when you are a child.

We made a loop around all the lakes and I have tons more pictures of it, if you really want to see them check out facebook.

The next day we went to Smith Rock. While most people visit this shear mass of rock to climb its walls, we decided to hike it.

We spent the rest of our time there exploring the town on foot and eating good food. If you ever make it there I HIGHLY recomend Flatbread in the Old Mill. It's one of Ryan's and my favorite restourants.

Missing my Grandma

June 2, 2009

One year ago today my Grandma passed away. I cannot even begin to believe that it has been a year without her. I still feel her presence every day. I miss her more than I could ever begin to articulate, if I let myself I could easily cry all day when I think about how much I miss her. But honestly the pain is getting a little better. And I know that day by day my sadness will be replaced by all of my happy memories of her. There is a quote by Rita Mae Brown that I often turn to when I feel down: "I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss." That is what sometimes gets me through the day, knowing that in time my loss will be conquered.

Today was really hard. My Mom, Ryan and I went up to the cemetery to put some flowers with my Grandma. We got roses and lilacs. I know that the deer will eat the roses tonight, but we didn't care. They were my Grandma's favorite. I hope that when she watches over me that I am making her proud of the person I am. There is so much that I am accomplishing that I wish she was here to see. But I hope that she knows that she helped form me into the person I am today. Also every day I strive to be like her... to have such a huge heart, to love unconditionally, to always be able to forgive, to always be there for family and friends. But most importantly I hope to leave behind the type of legacy that she did. That people can talk and smile and laugh when they think of me.

About a month after my Grandma's funeral we had a celebration of life. It was a time for all of her family and friends to get together and celebrate my Grandma's life. To put aside our sadness and remember what an amazing life she had. My parents and I made a slide show of her life and played that for everyone. We also had a time where people could say something about my Grandma. This is what I had to say:

Back in January I sat down and wrote a speech to read today for my Grandma. I decided to write it then because I was worried that come now, I wouldn’t be able to find the words I wanted to say. It seemed like such a great idea, until I sat down to re-read it the other day. For some reason it just wasn’t right. I don’t need to stand up here and tell you all how amazing my grandma was. I think that you all already know this, other wise you wouldn’t be here sharing this special day with me. So I’m going to throw my 2 terms of speech writing out the window, and try to tell you a few stories about my grandma that were important to me. They aren’t quite as eloquent as the speech that I had first written, but they are from my heart and they make me smile. So that is what I think is important to share today.

Some of my favorite memories with my grandma are when she took my hand in hers and we took off on a journey together. My grandma held my hand a lot. I remember in cars she would always take her hand and slip it back through the space between the car seat and door. I would be sitting behind her, this way we could hold hands. Looking back now, I can’t imagine that it was comfortable for her to sit like this, but she always did.

I used to stay over at my grandparent’s house a lot when I was young. This is where I spent a good majority of my vacations from school. When I was real young and my grandpa was still driving his “womp womp” trucks. For those of you who don’t speak “Melissa” the “womp womp” trucks are what I called my grandpa’s semi trucks that he used to drive. Anyways he would leave early in the mornings for work. After he would leave, I would go into my grandparent’s room and crawl into bed with my grandma. She would take my hand and we would both fall back to sleep.

Now this memory in particular is so special to me. On the Tuesday and Wednesday before my grandma passed away, she was still sleeping in her and my grandpa’s bed. On those days, when I got the chance I would crawl into the bed with her and take her hand and lay there with her. Just like she took my hand when I was young. I tried to hold her hand as much as I could during her final days. It was a way that my grandma always showed me was there for me and loved me. I wanted to make sure that I could do the same for her.

My grandma showed me how a person should really live their life and what was truly important. I learned from her what I want to be as a person. I could say that I have some big shoes to fill to be just like my grandma, but I won’t for two reasons. The 1st is that her feet were bigger than mine. 2nd my grandma wouldn’t want me to be just like her. She would want me to take my own journey in life…to be a pioneer, a trailblazer. So now at age 25 I will take some of the most important lessons I have learned from my grandma and try to apply them in my own journey through life.

My grandma was never a rich with money. But she was rich with love, love from family and friends. My grandma showed me that these riches were more important than anything money could ever buy. Family was so important to my grandma. She told me stories, stories about my roots. My grandma believed that in order to know where you are going you have to know where you came from. She would tell me stories about growing up in Nebraska and moving out to Oregon. Things that shaped her life and made her who she was. These are stories that I hope to one day tell my children about their great-grandma Beverlee. The legacy that my grandma created will be a compass that will guide me though out my life.

My grandma showed me how to believe in yourself and how find strength and light in dark places. I saw this best when watching my grandma battle her cancer. She took every chemo treatment with such amazing integrity. Never showing that she was scared, never complaing about being stuck once again by another needle, and never giving up. I remember sitting with my grandma in the chemo lounge while she was having her therapy and listening to the other patients. So many of them were all complaining, moaning and groaning about having to have another treatment. I sat there so proud of my grandma, because she was sitting in her chair smiling. I asked her why she didn’t complain and she told me that it was because she got to spend one more day with her family and that made it all worth it.
So this leads me back once again to family. All of you here today, my grandma’s family and friends enriched her life in so many ways. I think that all of us are the reason she was able to fight the cancer for so long. I really think that basketball Coach, Jimmy V, can sum up my Grandma’s attitude best by saying: “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.”

Grandma, I love you so much and miss you.

bad blogger

So once again I have failed at updating my blog. It has been over a month and there has been so much going on. Nothing super eventful, but enough to keep me very busy. I guess that I will just try to post some blogs about what has been going on and such and maybe try to back date them or something. I will try my best!

Meet Carter and Brooklyn...

Heidi and Chase welcomed their twin babies into the world on Saturday night.

Meet Carter (Left) and Brooklyn (right). They are tiny little things and so very cute! We are big for being almost a month early

The new family
Heidi and Carter (and her much smaller belly)

Carter woke up for his photo ops. Look how tiny his head is compared to the pacifier.

Brooklyn was a sleepy little girl.

So I must say that I think that the twins were the most difficult subject I have ever photographed. I took over a hundred pictures just to get a handful of keepers. With two babies I will get in lots of practice. Congratulations Heidi and Chase!!

Bend

Ryan and I got back tonight from a trip to Bend. We were there for 5 days. The trip was amazing, but still felt to short. We really enjoyed being able to just relax and have fun. Which we really don't get to do to often these days. Between school, work, and just plain life an extended period of time with nothing to do is few and far between.

We got into Bend on Monday afternoon because Ryan got to get off work early (woo hoo!) We unpacked at the house and then walked over to the Old Mill for dinner. We ate at Flatbread, which is fastly becoming one of our favorite places to eat there. By the way if you are ever there you must go there for Monday night flights. It's a great deal for dinner and sampling great local wine.

Tuesday was probably my favorite day of the whole trip. We went to Shevlin Park for a hike. This place is so amazing. I remember going ice skating here in the winters when I was young.

After our hike we went the the Deschutes Brewery for sampling and a tour. This was surprisingly our first time there. We have never found time in the past to go. Since I'm not a big beer fan Ryan had a great time drinking all of my pours along with his. He was feeling pretty dang good by the the time the tour rolled around. I found the tour very interesting. Who knew that brewing was such a fine science.

As always, Ryan and I found ourselves walking around Bend talking about moving there. I don't know what it is, but that city is pure magic. I love how laid back it is and that from our house you can walk everywhere. That is something that you just can't do around here. Well... you can in downtown Portland, but I would never want to live there. So to make matters worse there is a house that is 2 blocks away from my family's house that Ryan and I have always lusted after. And its for sale. It's right in the heart of downtown Bend in the historical neighborhood. It's actually the first stone house built in Bend. The house is enormous for the area and has quite a big lot. This was bad because it got Ryan and I thinking even more about moving to Bend and if we could afford this house. Since the job market sucks, even for health care professionals like us, I don't think that it would be very smart to give up the jobs we have. Plus I'm still finishing up school. Ugh!! All I can say is that I hope the housing market stays this way for awhile and they drop the price on this house some more and a job opens up at St. Charles. Because who wouldn't want to see a view like this every night from your house?

Oh Bend, why do you have to be so perfect? Oddly enough I have found that almost every one who grew up there can't wait to move out to the Valley. Well, more room for me :-)