Our first Christmas Presents

I thought since these where the first Christmas presents that we would make a video of us opening them. These are awesome signs. I might have to use this idea for other people.

FAV QUOTES

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
--Anne Bradstreet

snow day or artic blast

I'm adding this on because after I posted this I looked at the previous post of the snow day and I thought it was really funny if you compare the two. What I thought was snow looks like nothing when comparing the older pictures. HaHa. Perception is so interesting and important to remember when dealing with everything.
This looking down the street to the left

This is looking down the other way

This is looking at the house. I think I've lost 3 plants so far. maybe more

You can see next to the pool how deep the snow is.

So that a nice snow day last Sunday has lasted over a week. Usually our snow days are a quick trip. The snow is pretty and calming with kids building snowmen and freaking out there is no school. well its started that way. When portlanders wake up the next morning it usually has rained and melted the snow or the warm air has cleared the idea from the earth and our minds. however this time when we woke up the snow was not gone but had frozen solid. The next day the snow is still there, and the next day, and is still here and getting worse. Who said there is no climate change going on. I am stuck at home using my vacation time. Oh yeah my car broke down last Tuesday. It just stopped working so we have been stuck with one car. I know you people out there in Utah are like please give me a break, but the this city isn't prepared for this type of weather. Also there are layers of snow ice snow ice from the freezing rain. It's fun to walk on because its like a shell but death on wheels for cars. I'll put some pics up. Crazy. I've never wanted it to rain so bad. There is this weird thing that I notice about the seasons. When ever a season reaches it extream point I can't wait for the next one to start. When its summer and really hot you just want to see fall. When its winter and its bitter cold and you're locked down by the situtation you just want to see spring. It reminds me of life and its these extreams that make you really thankful when they are not there.

FAV QUOTES

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-- Thomas Edison,American inventor

Ginger bread house

The stockings. ah so cute.

The tree. Without the truck we have had to settle.

During the snow day we finally built the gingerbread house. it was fun. memories.

SNOW DAY!!!

We woke up to our annual snow day. We get maybe one or two a year so it was pretty cool. The tropical plants always look great in snow. It is a big deal here. The news channels go nuts. I'm sure you've heard me say that before. The big deal is that it usually ends up with some freezing rain. You don't mess with freezing rain. When the road is ice you just slide and slide even in four wheel drive. Chains are your best bet, at any luck, but even if you have those there will be someone on the road who doesn't. and yes they will hit you. Here is a video from last year. It makes me laugh. To answer Valerie's questions on thanksgiving. It was just Lucas, a friend, and me. They where both sick so we whipped up a quick 2.5 hour meal. I got called in to go work in the morning. It was pretty impressive meal. We had ham, prime roast, mashed potatoes, candy yams and sweet potatoes, stuffing, collard greens, cheese ball, rolls, and what you saw was those little hot dog/sausage things cooking in BBQ sauce-not cranberry sauce. They are super yummy and are a great easy snack.

Here is our attempt to decorate for Christmas.

Here is the light switch that Lucas cut his finger on. That probably makes more sense on the how.

blasted Nov.

What a ruff month Nov was- well at least for Lucas. There has been lots of opportunity for growth. First it was the bitter-sweet election for me focusing on the churches and peoples positions on prop 8 in California. It was a difficult time afterwords having understandings on both sides and I can say I grew in courage and understanding. It was an area that I wanted to improve in and I got my chance. The issue is in the past and I feel I have handled it. It also helped solidify fine lines that I have been struggling with for years. While I was struggling with that Lucas was hit up against a defamation issue. It help confirmed the need for equality for all. To judge a person upon their character and not on identifiers. It is why stereotypes and assumptions should never be used in making decisions, gossip, or judgments. What seems simple and harmless can be exemplified to a point where people are hurt or worse. "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This is the second time in my life have words hit me hard like this. Lucas will be okay and his company is working with him to help prosecute the accuser. So while this is all going on Lucas got strep pretty bad. This was around thanksgiving. I was on call for the week so I was stressed. Then a random parking light just snapped in half and landed on his truck. It shattered the windshield and hit the top of the passenger door. Its still getting fixed; hopefully it will be done this week. Then this week on Tue night lucas hit the edge of the light switch in the kitchen and cut his finger. We spent late into the night in the ER so he could get stitched up. BUT we are in the healing phase. All the wounds are scaring over and there are lessons learned. We are stronger then one month ago and more greatful then ever. This year we had an extraordinary warm fall. This caused the leaves on the trees to stick around a little longer. When leaves stick around they get those vibrant colors I remember growing up in a desert. On my way to work everyday I get to go through a forest. During this whole time of struggle I saw this striking beauty. Every time i drove through the bends of the freeway I noticed the leaves and their beauty with large evergreen trees in the back among a blue sky reminded me of how greatful I was just to see this. My problems melted. (to bad lucas drives the other way. haha)

perception vers reality

I was in a leadership development class and this saying really stuck with me. There are many ways to say this idea but I like this one.

perception vers reality
perception is reality
you create your perception

Blog-fast

I am following my sisters lead and taking a break from the blog world. I was actually planning on this anyways. I'm part of a leadership program at work and we have started our projects and I have become very busy with those. More then that I have recently been battling a war I never thought I would fight. It seems odd that when I finally felt the acceptance of myself and of others- a conflict between two worlds who do not seem to understand each other starts. A conflict that effects the few people who lived in both worlds. We are the ones who are hurt. But with every battle there are scars. Scars tell a story. Stories remind us of how we felt. I know I'm changing. Becoming more. Understanding more. I know this is vague and I'm not sure how long the war will last. Could be weeks- could be years. I need to take a break. stop, listen, and learn. Love Joel

Mexico - Puerto Morelos

On the Balcony at the room in puerto morelos

eating diner on the beach

Picture of the moon. I wasn't fast enough to get it while half was covered by the ocean. this picture doesn't to justice for the size.

Driving on the road system. Actually they have pretty nice roads. As you can see its pretty green there. The jungle grows up to the road, but the do an awesome job at keeping the plants cut and the road clear. The weird thing is that the speed fluctuates a lot for no apparent reason. um...speed traps

I decided to do this by location instead of day. We went to Mexico to celebrate 5 years of being in a relationship. Its weird to think of how quick time can be and when I look back at the last five years its amazing how much has happen. This was all possible because last year during thanksgiving we had the chance to be bumped from our flight and in return received a free flight. So when you have a chance- do it! We arrived in Mexico around 5 pm and because they advise not to drive at night we decided to stay in a small fishing town just 15 miles south in Puerto Morelos. We got to the town pretty quick but once we got there we couldn't find the Hotel. yea-In this huge town of 8 blocks. (of course i didn't get bring any directions to any of the places we where staying) We called and no one spoke English at the hotel. We knew it was on the beach so we just drove down all these little alleys until finally we found it. It was on the beach and the room was pretty big and quite cheep. Another reason we went there was because they have one of the best spot for snorkeling along the reef. We didn't get to go there cause the ocean was to ruff. The people were nice and the food was pretty good. The best part was the moon. We were eating dinner outside at a restaurant and it was pretty dark. Then raised a large moon out in the ocean. It was orange and you could see it moving. The moon moves very quickly there. Its so beautiful and you could see the landscape of the moon without a telescope. We didn't do much else there. We were tired of the long travel and just relaxed and looked and listened to ocean in the moonlight. One funny thing is that Lucas ate half a bar similar to a granola bar and left the rest in the wrapper on the counter. In the morning there was this long long long line of sugar ants that where taking little parts of it. We had breakfast and headed south to Tulum. My favorite story of the trip happen on the way there. We are driving south and this is the longest part of the driving about 40 miles. (btw everyone there has new cars. I was surprised. I think we had the oldest car on the road) So we are going about 100k/h which is around 60 m per hour. And we see a truck that looks like a dump truck full of just junk. As we are passing it we notice two animals on top of the junk. It was two little monkeys fighting each other on top of this big truck going about 50 miles an hour down the road. It was so funny and i wish the camera wouldn't have been in the trunk of the car. We made sure to keep the camera handy for the rest of the trip.

Pictures of Mexico

This is taking much longer than I thought to get info on my trip up. I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures taken on the trip.

This is on the ferry ride to an island off of Cancun that we spent the last day on.

This is me at the shark tank at the local mall

This was the Tulum Beach.

pretty fish

This was the beach next to Tulum right before the second of three storms that we got caught in.

This Picture is also before the storm right outside of the Cabana. Its awesome picture for your desktop background.

This was our search for the Tulum ruins. It was actually pouring rain and the wind was really strong up there

This is the Largest ruin in Tulum.

This last picture is of the ruins in Tulum and my favorite. It's not full of color but its sums up the essence of Mexico (and the space is great in the picture).

Home at last!

After being in Mexico for the last week I am home. I actually got home on Tuesday after spending one quick night in LA (less than 12 hrs). Mexico was awesome and I hope to do a day- by-day now that I'm getting readjusted to normal life. I can stop saying hola and gracias or counting in Spanish. It's probably annoying to people at work. Over all being outside of the United States always reminds me how much I love my country. Regardless of the differences and the negative spin you sometimes get- being an American is and has a responsibility and a security. That said being in Mexico reminds me of the simple things. The basics is what we treasure, understand, and seek the most. I seem to get lost in "material objects" or accomplishment- sometimes just the routine of life. Stepping back in one of the most gorgeous places on Earth helps reline focus. Not that anything was profound but you start to notice the simple basics.

Mexico Bound

It has been a while but I've been busy getting ready to spend my first total relaxing vacation. Work's taken care of and the trip is planned. Since I have been a little boy it was my dream to see middle Americas pyramids. I going to do that tomorrow. Wish me luck! Hope you all have a GREAT day!

FAV QUOTES

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."

--Marie Curie, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist

My Blog had a blog baby

I mentioned in the last video post that I was going to start more post on nutrition and exercise. Instead of more post I made a new blog! It's called: Balance your Body. I've only copied the previous odes for now. Check it out-spread the word!

http://yourbodybalance.blogspot.com/

HEY YA DANETTE

MIKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mika is a singer from Britain. He is awesome and his album Life in Cartoon Motion was my favorite in 2007. I know it a little late but.... its never to late for Mika. He didn't get huge attention in the USA but his music is up beat and you cant help but smile and feel good when you listen to it. PEACE!

Labor Day and me

For labor day Lucas and I with some friends decided to hike the hike at multnomah falls. The water was really low being the end of the summer. But the hike was worth it. The view was awesome at the top and you don't realize how tall the fall is until you are there. It is a very steep hike (even though I saw lots of kids and someone in a wheel chair) and I was sore the next day. We spend the rest of the weekend building a bookcase and cleaning the garage and office. I'll have picture to update on it. HAVE A GREAT DAY! (If you click on the pictures they get much larger)

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama

When I first saw Michelle Obama she looked like a sweet lady but also she kind of annoyed me. Mostly cause I just put stereotypes on her(why do I still do this?). That all changed when I heard her speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=790hG6qBPx0 at the DNC the other day. Well I started it the other day and just finished it. I was wrong. I was extremely impressed by her. I was surprised how easy it was to connect to her (maybe it was that her speech focused around her father having MS and overcoming obstacles through the American dream) and how smart-not to mention beautiful. So I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama her and she is pretty amazing. Take a look into her. I think she will rock as a First lady and be a great advisor and support to Barack.

I do have to mention that I watched Hillary's speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFMZ7fpGHY at the DNC in between the to segs of Michelle's and the second half was a little dulled by Hillarys. The speech Hillary gave was a power house. This woman is seriously awesome. Its not just that she can articulate well its that I can actually feel the passion behind her words.

Flowers finally

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I've always loved plants and planting. Now that I finally own a house I started to design my yard- slowly. I keep though planting everything late and so they have been blooming late. But some have started and I'm super excited for the rest. Here are some pictures of how pretty the gladiolas are:

They look good in my front room too :)

This is my fuchsiaMy second Mexican palm is finally starting to open up too.