Terry's Baptism

Terry decided last week that he wanted to be baptised. He had previously been baptised, but didn't feel like he necessarily did it for the correct reasons. He talked with some friends and our minister about doing it again since he feels like his relationship and commitment to Jesus is stronger than ever and growing. It was a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest on Sunday after church so he decided to take the plunge at Silver Lake, near Eatonville.

It was a gorgeous day and friends surrounding him as Terry walked into Silver Lake. I don't think it could have gone better. After the baptism, we walked to the Olsen's house and barbecued some hot dogs for lunch. It was nice to fellowship with friends and enjoy the life changing decision Terry took. I couldn't be happier!

Accident Prone

So, those that know me, know that I am a little accident prone. Today, during my workout with Katie, I had to do side bench shuffles. Basically, you stand on one side of the bench, step up onto the bench with one foot, do a little jump-shuffle, and land with both feet on the other side. You do this back and forth and for me it was a total of 30 times for one set. I was so scared I was going to fall the whole time. However, that wasn't the case....

I did end up hurting myself, but not doing the side shuffle. I managed to hit myself in the face, right above me left eye, with a dumbbell when I was doing a push press. I have done this move many times in the past, and never had an issue. I guess I was bound to do something foolish today.

Operation Shore Patrol 2008

Terry and I decided to participate in Operation Shore Patrol with our 4-wheel drive club, the Timber Tamers, this year. Apparently, our club started the beach clean-up 37 years ago. We reserved a hook-up site and invited my parents to join us at Ocean City State Park and we stayed in the non hook-up loop near the other club members that the state provides to the OSP volunteers.

On Friday, Terry came home from work a couple hours early. I had the camper about loaded when he arrived. We still had to load the Jeep on the trailer and pack a few last minute items before we were ready to hit the road. This was our first trip towing the Jeep with the camper so Terry wasn’t sure the exact placement of the Jeep on the trailer. We ended up leaving our house around 1:15. I called my mom from the road, and they were about 15 minutes ahead of us. We got lucky with traffic as we headed west. It took us about 2.5 hours to make the trip from our house to the state park.

As we approached the state park, my parents stopped on the side of the road so we could enter together. No one was at the front gate, so we sent my parents to their site, #139, and we drove to find the Tamers. They had saved a small spot for us, site #44. It was a tiny site, so we had to disconnect the trailer before we could back the truck into its spot. We parked the Cherokee next to the truck, which covered the fire pit, but gave us some room to use the picnic table.

Once we arrived and got the rigs parked, we slowly started to set-up camp. I walked over to my parents’ site to give them the confirmation email and hung out for a little bit. For dinner, we decided to have chiliburgers and corn from Ed’s garden. My parents came to our campsite for dinner. It was yummy. After we ate, we walked down to the front gate and checked my parents into their site. Then, we walked to the Pacific Northwest 4-Wheel Drive Association tent and registered for the clean up.

After getting registered, my parents headed back to their site to feed their dogs. Terry and I ended up talking the Mary and Moose and looked at some of their pictures from the recent Moab trip. It looked very pretty where they went. We will definitely try to make it on the next Tamer Moab run. We stayed up past Terry’s bedtime talking with Mary and Moose and finally went to bed around 10:30.

We had to get up early on Saturday, as there was a mandatory driver’s meeting at 8:00. Terry and I woke up a little before 6:30 and started getting things together for the day ahead. I planned on making breakfast burritos for breakfast one day, so decided to cook on Saturday morning. My parents came over around 7:30 and had breakfast with us. The driver’s meeting was quick. We picked up bags, gloves and got our assigned area to clean. The Timer Tamers were assigned an area about 12 miles up the coast.

After we were all registered, we divided up into two groups within our club. Half of us started on the south end of our territory and the other group started on the north end with plans to meet in the middle. My mom rode with Terry and me while my dad rode with Gary since he had an open seat. We got lucky with the weather; it was overcast, but not too cold out. I was glad that we didn’t find anything too gross that we had to pick up on the beach. It seemed like there were mostly small pieces of rope. The dogs had a great time running around on the quiet beach.

We picked up several bags of trash before heading back for lunch around 12:30. Gary’s truck was full of garbage from the beach so we stopped at the front gates of the state park and emptied the garbage into the dumpsters that were provided. My parents headed back to their camp for lunch. Terry and I had cheese, crackers, salami, chips and salsa for lunch. It was a nice little snack.

When we were done eating, we went over to see if anyone needed help getting stuff ready for dinner. Zeus took a nap on Lori’s lap, while Terry helped Mark clean the grill for the big barbeque. The Tamers put on a steak dinner at Operation Shore Patrol as well as plan a poker run. We hung out for most of the afternoon at the other campsite and were able to bond with some of the other club members.

Terry and I treated my parents to dinner for their anniversary. I thought it was good. They barbequed tri tip and chicken, then also served corn, rolls, potato salad and green salad. Once dinner was finished, my parents headed back to their site to see their dogs. Terry and I went back to our camper to get cleaned up. I wanted to take a shower before the poker run. I showered first and when I got out, Terry and Zeus were asleep. So, I quietly dressed, then headed out to watch the rest of the raffle.


Once the raffle was over at 10:30, I jumped in Penny’s Jeep and we headed out to our poker run site. We were station #3, so waited for the participants to come and play our game for their card. It had started to rain during the end of the raffle, but luckily the rain died down for the poker run. It was fun, but we were both tired. The last group came through around 1:30 and when they were done, we loaded up our stuff and headed back to camp. I finally crawled into bed around 2:00.


On Sunday, we were able to sleep in some. We finally woke up around 8:00. Once Terry was out of the shower, we walked over to my parent’s site and had breakfast with them. Their site was nice and we know in the future to get a site in the hook-up loop on the outside. They were a little more private and pull thru sites. My mom made two types of breakfast sandwiches for us to try and both were great. After breakfast, we said our goodbyes.


Terry and I finished loading our gear and finally started our trek home a little after noon. We stopped a couple times on the way and finally made it home at 3:00. It sure is nice to get home at a decent hour.


Click here to see the rest of my weekend pictures!

I Wish this was My Life

Everyday when I go in to make my bed, this is what I see:



When I get up, he moves to my spot in the bed since it is warm but keeps his head out from under the covers and on my pillow. Too cute! I have to say, Zeus sure does have a good life.

On a separate note, this afternoon Terry and I are heading to the coast to take part in Operation Shore Patrol. Our 4-wheel drive club participates in this beach clean-up every year. We will be camping at Ocean City State Park. I am excited about checking out the park since we haven't been there yet and looking forward to spending some time with our club. My parents are also heading out for the weekend, so it will be fun hitting the beach with them again too! Whenever I think about the dunes, Jeeps and my parents, found memories of Pismo pop into my head.

Workout #2 & #3

So, yesterday my workout went well, but today my legs and behind are a little sore (okay, I can barely sit down so maybe they are more than a little sore). For the workout we did 5 rounds of the following:

15 Wall Ball w. 10 lb ball

20 Walking Lunges (10 each leg), give or take

200 m run

Today, I went back for more training. Katie decided to have me jump rope. Now, I haven't jumped rope since I was in grade school and overall I have bad hand eye coordination, so I was a little skeptical. It took me quite a while to get the hang of it. I started doing only 1-2 jumps in a row and by the end I could do about 12-15 jumps at one time. It was fun though, so I stopped on the way home and bought a jump rope so I can practice at home (however, when I took it out of its package, it's totally broken so I have to return it). The workout was 4 rounds of this:

50 Jumps (was suppose to be 150, but that would have taken forever)

15 Shoulder Press w. 15 lb dumbbells

15 Swings w. 30 lb dumbbell

I feel good now except my legs are crazy sore and my shoulder hurts. I will do some cardio and light lifting tomorrow and have another session of hell scheduled for Monday. I can't wait to see results!

First Workout

So, I decided to start training with Katie again and today was my first official workout. I thought I was going to die (okay, die may be a little over exaggerating, but I did feel like I was going to throw up). She said I did good, but I know I could do better. Here is what we did:

250 meter row
10, 20 lb dumbbell dead lift
10 push-ups
3 rounds in 9:38

Art Appreciation

So, on Saturday, Terry and I purchased some artwork for our house. Even though we have lived here over a year, our walls are still fairly empty. I have been wanting to get some bigger pieces of artwork up before I hung smaller pictures. We each found a piece we really liked at the Farmer's Market. Terry picked out the picture to hang in the front room, aka the gun safe room, over our new leather couch (thanks grandma) and I found one I liked for our bedroom. We both agree they make a nice addition to our house. (The pictures definitely look better in person as I had issues with the flash causing glare on the prints but you get the idea.)

Another busy weekend...

So, Terry and I had another busy, but fun weekend. On Friday night, we decided to go on a date to Orting. Anyone that knows Orting will think it's a peculiar place for a date as it's a small, country town. We went out to dinner at the Firehouse Bar and Grill and then took a walk on the Orting trail after dinner. It was fun seeing all the fishermen along the trail each at their own "secret" fishing hole. The funniest part of the walk was when Zeus got curious about the cows in the pasture and one came up and licked his nose through the fence. I am quite disappointed I couldn't get my camera out in time to catch the Kodak moment.

The "secret" fishing spot

On Saturday, we worked at the Puyallup Farmer's Market. We are helping with a church plant, so passed out balloons and brochures all day promoting the launch of our new church. When we got home, I made a batch of blackberry jam with some fruit that Jen picked for me. I felt very domestic as I poured the jam into the jars.

On Sunday, I ventured up to Seattle. My cousin was walking in the Breast Cancer 3-day so my mom, a friend, and I all met in Seattle to cheer her and the other walkers on. It was fun standing on the sidelines as a cheerer, but I did miss the fun of walking. Maybe I will do it again next year. And finally, last night, we went to Woodland Elementary where Renovo church will be meeting and did the first set up. It's amazing how it is all coming together, I just pray the kinks will get worked out before the launch on Oct. 5.

Now, it's Monday and I am back at work. I visiting the gym and signed up for some workout sessions with Katie. It will be nice hitting the gym regularly again and seeing my friend even though the "fun" workouts she plans are normally my version of hell. I do get results though so can't complain too much. I feel like there is so much to do this week. Every night after work, we have something planned. I can't wait until Friday when we jump in the truck and drive west. I think during that drive I will finally get to take my first relaxed breath of the week.

Kid Rock and Rev Run

Last night, Terry and I went to see Kid Rock at the Puyallup Fair. He had won the tickets a few months ago from a radio call in contest. He heard the cue to call and was caller 25 before he knew what he won. We weren't too excited about seeing Kid Rock, but I was excited to go to a concert with him and the tickets provided free entry into the fair.

I have to say, I was quite impressed with the show. Kid Rock put on a good performance and the views of the sun setting on the top of Mt Rainier makes the fair a venue like no other. The best part was that Rev Run was there to provides some old school hip-hop. Terry was surprised how excited I got about his performance and that I was actually singing along with the songs. I guess Run DMC was a little before his time.

Heliotrope Ridge Hike

Yesterday, Terry, my parents and I decided to hike up Heliotrope Ridge to see the Coleman Glacier on Mount Baker. It was about 2.5 miles each way and an elevation gain of 1600 feet. It was a perfect day for a hike.

We parked our car and started the hike a little before 10:00 on Saturday morning. It was still foggy when we started the trail. The first part of the trail is thru old-growth forest. There were several waterfalls along the way and streams to cross. As we climbed higher, the forest started to thin and wildflowers edged the trail.

The last water crossing was a little sketchy. The creek was rushing and we had to jump a couple feet from one large bolder to another. I made it across first and then helped everyone else across. We amazingly made it without getting too wet.

The view of the glacier was amazing. The pictures don't do it justice. You can tell the size of the glacier by location the climbers in several of the pictures. We stopped at the top for a quick snack before heading back. As we started the trek down, the clouds started to clear and blue sky emerge. The hike down was uneventful. We passed one guy who was hiking in ski boots and had intentions of spending the night at the summit and then skiing down the mountain the next day.

We got back to the car about 4.5 hours after we left. A short drive from the trailhead provided some amazing views of the glacier we just hiked to that we missed on the way up due to the low clouds. It was cool not knowing to expect on the hike up and I am glad we got to see the view on the drive down. On the way home, we stopped for lunch at a quirky little bar in Glacier. The food was great and we definately look forward to doing the hike again!

Click here to see the rest of our hiking pictures!