Wedding Plans, Thanksgiving, and the Great and Mysterious Job Search

This Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful for both the Russell and McKeown families. Josh and I spent Thanksgiving day with my family this year and Kim and Jesse migrated down to Bend from Hood River. It was pretty nice to have everyone together! Incidently, Thanksgiving day was my first day on my tele-skiis....EVER. Josh and I are brand-spakin' new to telemarking. We've both been alpine skiiers for over ten years and breaking those muscle memories is very challenging. We headed up to Mt. Bachelor for opening day on Thanksgiving day and after waiting in line for our season passes for what was too long to mention, we hit the slopes.

4 runs later and we were stoked on tele skiing. I can't say my skiing was even remotely close to what it should be (my left leg didn't listen to my brain and instead flopped around like a wet noodle) but Josh looked GREAT! His cross country background definitely helped! After our 4

runs we headed down to have a huge dinner and enjoy the evening with the family.

(Below) Working on the Chicken Puzzle

The growing family :)

The next day, Josh had work so I planned to do a Riverhouse paddle with Kim and Jesse. Unfortunately, Josh comandeered all of my paddling equipment. I scrounged around in our gear room and pulled together enough parts to go boat! Who would have thunk it. :) That eve I was picked up by Kellie and we headed out to Debbie's house for the McKeown family dinner. Josh followed shortly after and we enjoyed our second Thanksgiving dinner.

This weekend, I spent my time recovering from two big meals, and I used my time to prepare for the wedding. I finished the wedding invitations, reconfirmed my appointment with the Cake Lady, got up to speed on marriage licenses, looked in to a wedding band for Josh, started (and nearly finished) our "Good Thoughts" box, and edited the wedding webpage. Boom!

Here is the "good thoughts" box...in progress!

Below is the very advanced diagram I put together of Tumalo Creek all prettified with decorations! I used my brand new artist tablet and let me just say it will take some adjusting. I am a bit clumsy with my pen but I will get better! Thank you mom and dad!!!!

That was a lot to do but I feel much better having made progress. The dress is graciously being tailored by my mom so hopefully it will be all finished this week. We have all been so busy that it has been put on the back-burner with the holidays. It sure is unconventional but we are rockin' "unconventional" the whooooole way!

The job hunt continues but I remain positive. And as good ol' Van Wilder once said, "worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get ya anywhere". Bend is still my dream town to find work in so I am being persistent and working hard to find something. :) Josh and I are strong. We will make it work!