Who are those furry animals?

You may be wondering, who the neck are those furry animals in the banner picture? I've never talked about them here, so how would you know? The Siamese, blue eyed beauty is Vella. I adopted her from the human society in Corvallis my Sophomore year of college. Ken and I were together, and he helped to get her, but initially she was my kitty (of course she always has loved Ken more, and is totally his cat). Vella is leggy, lean, and beautiful but has a saggy middle that swings when she runs. It makes for good entertainment for us, but she would probably like a tummy tuck. Vella has the classic siamese yowl, but is overall pretty quiet. Mable, her black cubby counterpart was given to us in 2006 by a friend who couldn't have Mable in her apartment complex. She is soft as a bunny, and very vocal. She doesn't have Vella's yowl, as she's much more squeaky, but she talks nonstop. She likes to play fetch with catnip toys, and is a hardcore snuggler. Both kitties moved into my parents house with us in December. They seem to be adjusting fine, although Vella sometimes gets into arguments with my parent's cat Winston over the food dish. While we don't have any real babies yet, our kitties are our babies for now. 

Passport applications are sent!

Ken spent his morning at the post office waiting in line to submit our applications for passports. We had filled out the applications ahead of time, and had everything ready to go, so once it was his turn it didn't take long. The lady who reviewed our appliciations said that everything was in order, took our money, and sent them off with the morning mail. WooHoo!
 The most "awesome" part of the entire experience was getting our passport photos. We had some time to kill yesterday afternoon, so we decided to go get them. Ken didn't want to go because he'd been wearing a hat all day so his hair would look bad in the picture. I tell him that everyone looks bad in their passport photo, that I'll help him make his hair look ok, and that he just needs to suck it up. Of course during this time, I haven't looked in the mirror, which let me tell you, I should have done. We get the pictures back, and mine's horrid. I then remember that I didn't put hardly any makeup on that morning (so I have giant dark circles, and I look like I died a week ago yesterday), and I ran out the door with my hair soaking wet so it's flat as a pancake. Awesome. I'm super glad I'm going to have this photo attached to me for the next 10 years. Ken of couse looks dapper in his photo. Jerk.

One Last Hurrah!

Costa Rica.....here we come!

Ken and I decided that we needed one big fun adventure before he starts grad school. So we've reserved the week of May 17th off work, and we're heading off to Costa Rica! We had planned on going to Mexico City, and bopping around there a while, but tickets to Costa Rica weren't much more expensive and we both would prefer to go there as it's less urban and more tropical. We are flying out of Portland the evening of Friday, May 14th, and will return to Portland on May 23rd. I'm really excited to be going on this trip. I haven't been out of the country since I went to Mexico on a missions trip Junior year of High School, and Ken's never been outside of the US. We're hoping to travel quite a bit once Ken's done with school and before we have babies, so this will be a nice introduction to international travel. 
Now's the mad dash to get Ken a passport, and mine renewed, as I've changed my name since I last used it. We have 8 weeks as of today, but probably wont have all of the pieces needed until the middle of next week, so we may want to pay the extra money to have them expedited, as I'd rather not stress about it. My parents have my old passport in their safety deposit box, and we have our marriage license (to change my name on mine) and Ken's birth certificate here at the house. So I just need my dad to get my passport, get our pictures taken and get down to the passport office.

Wish us luck!

UOTeach Admission Decision

Got an email last night from the UO Ed Department ---

Congratulations! You are invited to accept admission into the UOTeach Program leading to the Initial Oregon Teaching License and to a Master’s of Education Degree in Curriculum and Teaching. Confirmation of formal admission will be sent to you directly from the University of Oregon Office of Admissions. The UOTeach program has been approved by the Oregon University System, the University of Oregon Graduate School, and the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission.


Yay Ken! He'll start the one year program in June, then complete his masters (an additional 3 months) from June to September next year.