October thus far

Man, October is flying by!! I don't know where its gone! We've been very busy, as usual, but are also having a good time as usual too :) Rick's birthday was September 29th, but we extended the celebration into the next weekend, the first weekend of October. We got some friends together and went to a local place here in North Portland. Luckily it also fell during a weekend when Jason was in town from New York! Jason is Rick's oldest friend and we love when he comes to town once or twice a year. Those two remind me of Becky and I when we get together. Old friends are definitely the best!
Jason has an impossibly long last name, so we call him Wojo for short
Wojo and Rick...
Tiff kissing the sweet bowling trophy that she wishes was hers

Ronn and his disgusting pickled sausage. So nasty.

No idea what Brad and Tiff are laughing at, but whatever it is, Rick didn't think it was funny

Some of Rick's best friends-Eric, Dave and Brad

me, Wojo and Dave Keys (that's quite the scary neck I have there!)

Some of Rick's supporters-Emily and Brandon, Jen & Dylan and Misty

Rick, me and Scott. Don't you love Rick's sweet Blazers jacket? Its the best Goodwill find ever!

Scott & Jackie got married October 10th, and we had an amazing weekend celebrating with them. We had their rehearsal and dinner Friday night, and the wedding Saturday. It was an amazing, beautiful Fall day and Rick was in the wedding too. We stayed the night at the McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove too, which was fun. I took 226 pictures over 2 days and guess what? I lost the memory card. I have never been so sad over something. I feel horrible because I got a lot of moments that the photographers weren't there for-and tons of great shots of not only the wedding-but Rick and his college friends and he and I all dressed up. I've looked everywhere but I can't find it. I had it in my pocket all day one day, and went to work, back home, then to school, so it really could be anywhere. I'm still so bummed out about it :(
On a lighter note, our niece Riley turned 9 last weekend and we went to Salem to celebrate with her. She is so darn cute, and I loved watching her open everything. She was thrilled with everything she got-and I love how grateful she is for everything.
Riley and the cute shirt we got her

The best part is that she got a cell phone. She was told she couldn't have one til she was 10, but they surprised her with one. They put it in a pair of new shoes, so as she took the shoes out to look at them, the phone inside the shoe started ringing!
Right here she's saying "Mom, is this real?"

The look of pure joy on a 9 year old's face!

The birthday girl, and Rick's sister, Kim

Last weekend I went bowling with some of my girl friends and we had a great time, even though I am terrible at bowling!
Me and Steph

Nichole bowled her last frame in Stilettos!

Me, Jaime and Stephine

Nichole and I

After bowling we headed to the Buffalo Gap to meet up with Rick and some other friends
A good one of Rick and I

I love how surprised Rick looks...

another one of us, cause after all, that's why you're here looking at our blog, right?!

And that's it for now! School is going well, I start mid-terms already this Monday. I am trying to cram a bunch of stuff in now so I won't have to be doing school work while we're in Mexico. We're looking so forward to that, under 3 weeks now!
We're also looking forward to Halloween next weekend and THREE parties that we have! Yikes!
Oh, and congrats to my three pregnant friends-Erin Linthorst, Ashley Jones and Makelle Marsee. Love you girls and can't wait to see your peanuts over the next several months!
Hope all is well with everyone, happy Fall!

Pearl Jam

My very favorite band of all time is Pearl Jam! I have loved them since I was in 7th grade. Sadly, I have only seen them live once before, back in 8th grade-1993. They just came through town, and I demanded that we go! We found out about an awesome deal, where if you join their fan club you can get two tickets that are guaranteed to be in the first 10 rows. We did this, but when we arrived Dylan and Jen got their tickets first and they were in row W, obviously not in the first 10 rows. I was bummed, because we joined the fan club after they did, so I knew I would have worse seats than them. However rows 1-2, and 9-10 are on a strictly lottery basis, and we somehow won seats in the 9th row! I was beyond thrilled. Our seats were awesome and the show was great!
Eddie Vedder (the lead singer) and stage from our seats

Enjoying the show!

Solo Eddie

Jammin' with Ben Harper

Sweet double guitar (Mike McCreedy is amazing!)

Another one of the stage

Hands down, the best pic I took-love it!

Stage

Rick with Eddie on stage behind him :)

More Eddie

By the last song, Yellow Ledbetter, everyone rushed the aisles and you can see my view became more obstructed!

Jeff Ament and Eddie Vedder saying goodnight.

I also took this short video, but I can't figure out how to get it sideways, sorry!

All in all, what a fantastic night!

School started back up last week and things are in full swing! This semester I am taking 14 credits-3 classes. I'm taking Supply Chain Management (for my major), Business Environment (about ethics and social responsibility) and my Senior Capstone, which is basically working in a group to create a 40 minute lesson plan for a Charter school in Milwaukie, where we'll teach the kids something "hands on" in whatever subject the teacher asks us to specialize in. We'll work all semester on the research and preparing the lesson plan, then the week before finals week we teach the lesson plan 6 times in a row to 6 different groups of students. Seems like it will be interesting-as long as I don't get Math :)
I can't believe this is the beginning of my last year of college. Although its been hard and challenging at times, it will be amazing to be done so soon. After this semester I will only have 6 classes left!
All else is well here, we are looking forward to Scott and Jackie's wedding this weekend, and leaving for Mexico in just barely over a month! Yikes!
Hope all is well with you all!