I have the best sister ever

How do people make it through life without a sister? ~Sara Corpening

Bless you, my darling, and remember you are always in the heart - oh tucked so close there is no chance of escape - of your sister. ~Katherine Mansfield

If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child. ~Linda Sunshine

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there. ~Amy Li

A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garretty

Sunny days and dance parties

Rachael and I love dance parties! Really who doesn't love dance parties? ( for those of you shaking your head can you honestly say you've never had the slight inclination to get up and dance at one moment or another? Rachael and I simply act on it). Its one of the many reasons I love living with my sister - the freedom to be absolutely silly among other good things. It also gives me the freedom to be grumpy and hibernate as I have done this week in an attempt to study. By God's good grace, lots of your prayers and Rachael's patience, the week has ended so much better than it began. My homework is complete and turned in and I have the weekend to study and prepare for the next round of class.

Sunshine on the park blocks makes it impossible to not fall a little more in love with this city. People have asked me how I put up with the rain in Oregon. After the last few days I can easily say its worth it to be here in the summer. Its been a perfect 70 degrees with a breeze, clear skies and no humidity. The roses are out in force and between that and the greenery it is its own slice of heaven here. I think the rain makes people all the more appreciative of the sunshine and in fact I've come to love the rain a bit in and of itself, as it has become a constant friend in the last few months.



My time in NC was refreshing and also tiring. I was up early and out late and it was absolutely worth it. What an amazing reminder of the love and support. I am blessed beyond measure. Being back at church of the apostles was a reminder of what home and church community is like and it made me grateful, thankful and more determined to invest more deeply in our church here.

Besides surviving biochem, Gig is here for a visit! Hoooray. Should see her sometime next week. Rach has started a new job that she loves and is back to cooking all sorts of goodies. We have fallen into a routine that I enjoy much more than the discombobulated late schedule we had at the beginning of our move. We both get up early - she heads to work, I head to the gym. I come back and study and get work done before heading to class. While she is at work I hit up the library until the evening and then we have dinner together, catch up on the day and in the case of tonight an amazing and a eclectic ( in terms of musical choice) dance party.

Really what more can a girl ask for?

Biochemistry is eating my brain

So I have lots of semi-finished post from my amazing visit to NC. I had such a good time seeing friends and family! I can't believe the trip is already over. Arriving home I have jumped straight back into school, which I was excited about until I encountered the evil monster that is biochemistry. Say a prayer there is so much I don't understand and a lot of basics that I have forgotten in being out of school for the last few years. On a positive note todays class and homework have gone much better than the beginning of the week and if I can simply survive I will be thrilled with a C for the first time in my life. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and encouragement. God's grace has brought me this far and will bring me the rest of the way. I need to remember that. More late, probably after I have survived the biochem beast.

p.s. GIG WILL BE HERE NEXT week! Hooray. Who would have though when I moved to Oregon I would get to see her 3 times in less than 6 months!

Oh Montana, my one true love.. you can never look beyond the Big Sky

So Rae and I finished Mansfield park. It was as fantastic as ever. I love Austen’s Heroes and the way the moment of clarity they have when they suddenly realize they have been in love with our heroine all the time and must immediately ( or shortly confess it). After finishing up mansfield we packed up our gear and headed back to our seats. Robert had taken residence in our seat and we felt bad about kicking him out but it was bed time. He didn’t mind though and went back to sitting with his father. We got settled into our seats and set up the computer to watch another version of Persuasion while we fell asleep. However, we didn’t quite get that far we ended up talking to Robert and his dad instead until the guy behind us got angry because he was trying to sleep. Oops. Robert was super sweet. He gave Rachael and I these small penguin keychains call CuCu’s that have a laser that projects the date and time. How fun is that. Rae then promptly fell asleep and I watched the movie myself before heading to sleep. Despite having lots of leg room I had trouble getting comfortable on the train. We should have probably spread out but instead we both tried to curl up on the same seat. Lol. I woke up early the next morning as the sun was just beginning its rise over the mountains. There was an ethereal mist hovering over the landscape as we chugged along towards whitefish Montana.  Not to long after that the conductor began walking up and down the aisle announcing “ Whitefish Montana, Next stop, Whitefish Montana”. We shook ourselves fully awake and began to gather up our gaggle of luggage. Robert offered to help us get our stuff off the train. Of course when the train did stop to unload Rae was in the bathroom. As we carted our luggage off the train, Robert kept saying “ so much luggage, so much luggage” in his chinese accent. I felt a bit bad since I was only traveling for a long weekend and coming from two states away when he was coming from across the pacific ocean and staying for two weeks and CLEARLY had less luggage than us. Someday I will be a better packer ( though Rae and I did share one bag of clothes, one bag for books and one for food). 

It was nice and chilly, though clear in whitefish. The train had actually arrived several minutes early so grandma and grandpa were just around the corner ( wonderfully prompt as ever). Its always so good to see the. They scooped us up and we headed towards Kalispell to do some grocery shopping and eat breakfast. Cisclo’s a small down home restaurant was AMAZING for breakfast. They do a special for anyone who gets there before 8:30 am and today’s special was the spicy skillet which was essentially an omelet with spicy sausage and hash browns all mixed together served with yummy toast. You had better believe I killed that thing. This would prove to be a fat kid vacation in terms of food. Rae and I had an unlimited amount of oreos, ice cream, cake and pie not to mention good normal food in large quantities. Food at grandmas house is always so good. 

At any rate our first day was a relaxing one, we ate, Rae slept on an off, I read a book, we visited with grandma and grandpa, ran up the hill to see Uncle Larry and Aunt sue. Had an amazing lemon birthday cake with raspberries and ice cream and watched Dances with Wolves. So evidently for years I have confused the movie white fang with the movie dances with wolves. I did not love dances with wolves. The ending was sad and it was a FOREVER long movie. We also heard some good grandma stories and Aunt Sue told us how she and Uncle Larry got married. 

So evidently Aunt Suzie got married when she was 16 and her husband cheated on her. Despite the fact that she already had a son, Allen, the catholic church granted her an annulment but told her she could never get married or they would excommunicate her. Years later she meet uncle Larry in her 20’s. He’s driving trucks and she is a waitress. Aunt Sue’s family loves Uncle Larry and wants to know why she won’t marry him, since he kept asking her. She said she didn’t want to because she had already been through that, and I am guessing because the church told her she couldn’t get remarried. However her family was teasing her about it one night so bad that she told them she would go get married after they finished their game of cards if they would leaver her alone. He sister bet her 10 dollars she wouldn’t do it. Right after the card game Uncle Larry and Aunt Sue headed to Indiana to some town where you could get a quick license they were there in back in a matter of hours and have been together for 52 years. Consequently her sister owed her 10$. What is sad is that when she remarried she was officially excommunicated from the catholic church. But at the same time Frank Sinatra managed to receive an annulment from his current wife so he could marry someone else ( the same thing Aunt Sue did) and because of his wealth her was not excommunicated. Per Grandma Jeanine Aunt Sue has had a bit of a grudge against the church ever since, though I can see why. She still considers herself catholic though and sends what would be her tithes to a lot of different catholic missionary and relief efforts. 

People’s stories are so interesting. For instance, my grandmother doesn’t have a birth certificate because when she was born the doctor though she was dead and went to work on her mother, because she was bleeding heavily. Because he thought she was dead he simply tossed her on the bed and left her. Her aunt and grandmother however didn’t give up on her and they took her back to the kitchen, put her in some warm water, then dunked her in cold to shock her system. Then they wrapped her up warmly and put her in the over to stay warm. Because of this grandma considers herself half baked :) and she was never issued a birth certificate. 

When my Aunt Noni was born her family was living in their barn because their house was in the process of being built. She can truly claim to be born in a barn and get away with just about everything.  Rae also found one of grandpa’s old letters to grandma.  It wasn’t overly mushy but you can still see how he cared and I could imagine my young grandfather sending it to my young grandmother. My grandfather worked in Ohio and my grandmother was in nursing school in Tennessee and so their courtship was long distance. He would call occasionally - and talk while she cried because she missed him- send letters and occasionally visit. Grandma said on one particular visit they went to the drive in movie. Something Grandma had never been allowed to do because her mother said “ good girls do not go to drive in movies” though she would never tell her why. When they got there my grandfather fell asleep because he had driven 13 hours to see her and my grandmother spent most of the movie trying to look around and understand what was so bad about the drive in. She also told us about how they went to her black stripe dinner for nursing and ended up sitting in the drive way talking for hours and hours and not getting into the house until 5 am. She says nothing happened ( and I believe her,) other than he put his arm around her. Her sister, Jomeida was suspicious though, but upon taking off her corset and having all the powder fall to the floor, her suspicions were eased.. lol. Its funny to think of my grandmother doing that, though having seen pictures of them young I can see it in my head, just because I have moments like that myself. Especially when you are first getting to know someone you like and you cannot seem to get enough of their time or talk to them enough and you forfeit ridiculous amounts of sleep to innocently do just that. 

We had a lot of laughter, food and good company the rest of the weekend. We played games, watched movies, went to church, toured a historical house, watched the kayak race and made some awesome Jane Austen inspired stationary. We’ll elaborate later. For the moment we are once again on the train headed home. Rachael has fallen asleep next to me. I can’t blame her. I fell asleep earlier while we were doing a suduko puzzle ( which we aced together Whooopaaa). When we get home in the morning, mom, christian and richelle will be there for the day and then dad and jacks may stop by in the evening. I have a feeling I may not get very much census work done. Perhaps some on tuesday. We shall see. No more Safeway work for me until June 20th. I cannot believe in 2 days I will be NC bound. 

Even if we weren’t sisters I would go out of my way to be friends with her

      Whew this is way better than a plane. I’m not packed in like a sardine, I’m allowed to get up and move, and I’m not worried about being bombed.. We’re currently sitting in the lounge on the train to Whitefish, Montana ( hooray). There is a cute little Amish couple sitting at the table booth right behind us, and they make me happy. He has the very bowl like haircut, beard and glasses, and she has the cute little bonnet and fully covering dress, his undershirt is the same color as her dress. The Amish are the only exception to the no matching rule, and only because they are adorable.I don’t know if it is illegal to take pictures of the Amish, but I just did, so you all can enjoy their cuteness as well. 

      Today is Autumn’s Birthday, she is the big twenty-five. Our day didn’t go as planned, but has been wonderful all around regardless. We ignored our alarms, and slept in until almost ten AM. Once up we leisurely got ready, and made plans to possibly go to an afternoon showing of Robin Hood after a morning yoga session. YOU WOULD NEVER BELIEVE, BUT AUTUMN ASKED ME TO DO YOGA. The first half hour was full of grumpiness, lets just say not on my end, lots of I hate downward dog, and upward dog, and chaturangas (otherwise known as chimichangas.. helen), but once we got into the balancing stage, tree pose and down to the floor she was nice and zenned out you could say and normal pleasant autumn. We had some good laughs at her attempts to do several poses, and the lameness of her Yoga, but I still love her. After yoga we realized it was already almost 1pm. Yes, this is how slow we are. SO we made a yummy  birthday brunch of black bean burgers on english muffins, with what I think was escarole I bought from the farmers market, and some sautéed asparagus. (p.s Autumn just told me the Amish don’t like their photo taken because it is considered a graven image and preserving what can’t be preserved.. woops) 

       After breaky Autumn went to Safeway to buy some soil to replant our edamame plants. They are looking pretty weak, and I really want them to grow! Whilst out and about she met a homeless man named Steve to whom she offered to buy a ham sandwich. Unfortunately, Steve wanted a rheuben, but safeway did not carry them, so he then asked for an egg salad sandwich, which they also did not carry, and finally he asked for a grilled cheese. Autumn came back home to make him a grilled cheese only to realize we did not have bread, so we made it on an english muffin. We then had to have the conversation about having grace and just loving on the homeless population here. Sometimes it can be really hard, because it seems like they are so ungrateful, but then again we are so ungrateful about so many things who are we to judge. It really makes people like Matthew, and Moglie so great to get lunch or dinner or whatever for, because they are so polite and grateful it just makes us want to really get them exactly what they would like from wherever verses someone who is asking me for a specific odwalla juice or vegan food from whole foods, and doesn’t want anything otherwise. ( I don’t have money to buy myself odwalla.. and I’m working 2 jobs, what in the world. )

     SO anyways, after the sandwich debacle we “rushed” to clean up our apartment, pack our bags, both shower, make hummus and also slide in an impromptu dance party ( actually our second of the morning, seeing as it was Audi’s b-day.) All of this was attempted in un hour. yes, one hour. We needed to be at the max stop by 3:45 to ride to the train station to pick up our tickets 30 minutes early and leave at 4:45.

    3:45 we are still packing our bags, autumn is drying her hair and for once, I am ready to go. It was madness. 

4:00 We are running down the hall and out the door, when I see the mail man arriving with our mail. I make autumn wait, whilst she is freaking out, so we can see if their are any birthday cards for her. To her delight there was a b-day card from both Ashley williams and our grandmother. 

4:05 Running down columbia with a backpack, my camera bag, and large cooler. Autumn is trailing behind me with a huge duffel and my purse. It is hard to run so we decide to speed walk instead. I am brushing past people saying, “excuse us, professional speed walkers training.” We are now noodley from laughter. As we come upon 6th ave we see the MAX line going by. I dart out in front of traffic, thanks for stopping portland drivers, and across the street to the MAX stop. Autumn is still across the block, as per usual. I get to the doors just as they are closing and shove my arm in. I have to stand in the doorway to keep the doors from closing again and autumn finally arrives, along with a few other stragglers. When we plopped down to catch our breath, Autumn told me she had yelled, “get the tickets!” as i caught the max. Isn’t she adorable, she wanted me to leave her and get our tickets and just race as fast as she could to union station. She would have never made it. Thank God we caught the MAX. Met a nice man on the train named C.W. He said he took the train to Pasco often and that it was a comfy and beautiful ride. I definitely agree with him. The sun has just started to set and the sky that  once was bright and creamy with yellows and orange has now turned to a periwinkle blue with shades of cotton candy pink. I think clouds are one of my favorite parts of nature, how thick and full they can look or whispy and light. 

Back to the beginning of the trip: 

4:15 We arrived at union station only to find out our veterans advantage discount from my Dad isn’t valid unless we have the card with us, even though we have already purchased our tickets online. After an additional $ 50.00 to pay we have our tickets and our waiting to board. We are in the second train car and pick the very front seat of a Row, yay for computer outlets. We set up all our bags and reach into Your cooler for some water and come out with some orange gunk on our hand. Uhh-- what is this?? No, not really... crap.. it’s our hummus. it must have gotten smooshed in the run to the max line, because the lid has been shoved down into the container and it has exploded onto all our other goods. .. lovely. Normally not a big deal, but Audi went a little heavy on the garlic this batch and you can smell it from a mile away.. and it is saturating my skin. After several trips to the bathroom to rinse our cooler contents and get plenty of paper towels, the crisis is taken care of and we can meet the people nearby.  Our seat neighbors are from China. We start talking to one of them and find out they are on their way to Harvard to speak at a conference on linguistics, and also education reform. He is very talkative and really nice, asking lots of questions. He is 24 and his English name is Robert, but his real name is Zou Shun Peng and he is traveling with his father, who is also speaking at the conference. His father’s english name is Jean Couch. He told us the first english name he picked was Robot. lol. His professors told him that americans would think he was unfriendly if that was his name and told him to change it to Robert. he gave us his card with his email and phone number in case we are ever visiting Beijing. It’s so strange to be so unaware of how everything works in the rest of the world. he is so up to date on everything about the states but I had no idea some of the stuff going on in China. He is an only child, because of laws restricting family size due to over population. That is so sad to me, to not even have a choice in having multiple children. I couldn’t live in China. Sadly, because of customs at the airport we do not get to try amazing chinese dried beef. He brought some with him, but it was confiscated at the airport. He seemed really sad about it, as were we. He did give us a Yen which is pronounced Yuwen. They are adjusting to a huge time zone difference and are in much need of a nap so while we are up here blogging to all you lovely friends and family they are catching some ZZzz’s and should be joining us us a bit for some cards. Robert asked if we played earlier and was surprised to hear us say we played capitalism.. lol. socialism he called it. After he had fallen asleep I packed up the cards we had gotten out only to see they were made in China. I tapped Autumn, and we both had a laugh. Visitors from Chins need to check what they are buying, pointless to buy something in America that was really from China, which 80 % at least of our things are. It was really nice and made me appreciate even more what a beautiful place we live in seeing him so excited about the scenery. I definitely take all the green around me for grant it a large majority of the time, so it’s nice to just sit on the train and soak it all in. So far by train is my travel method of choice.  It’s lovely to have no where to be with my bestie in the whole world and beautiful scenery rolling and changing alongside us. The clouds went from fresh whipped Chantilly to shadows in the dull blue night sky. Out the right side of the train we can see a storm in the distance that must be pretty torrential, because we can see the rain dumping out of the charcoal grey blobs and lightning bursting between. The only other lights are an occasional cabin or home and the few mills or power plants we chug by. “ Look at those pretty lights!” autumn exclaimed. “ Thats a power plant my dear” I responded. “Oh” she said “ Yes, but they’re pretty lights.. it’s kind of like it’s a barge!” (For Courtney Seigler, being excited about a barge, only to find out it was a trash barge.) On that note I will leave you all for the night. I’m swaying back and forth with the train and Autumn and I have just snagged a corner booth in the lounge to finish watching Jane Austin’s Mansfield Park. We also have a version of Persuasion we haven’t seen yet and Amelie. Oh how I love the train. Happy Birthday to Autumn, the best sister I could have dreamed up. 

p.s. i just received a response text from Grandma jeanine. Yes you read correctly, the infamous grandma jeanine is now texting. We text her to let her know we were on the train and on our way. She responded: “ Good, sleep on your money. see you both soon. love you.” I thought I had read it incorrectly, but no, I love my grandmother.