Facelift

I got this shirt in Minneapolis for $6.00. It was missing some buttons but I didn't care because I wasn't a big fan of the cheap blue hearts anyway. I went into the bead shop yesterday for something else and asked if they had buttons. They had a great selection of Czechoslovakian glass buttons that were beautiful. I was limited by the size of the button holes, but it was a good thing, the ones I wanted cost $1.85 a piece. The ones I got were .85 each. So I spent $6.80 on buttons and spent yesterday sewing them on.


So much better! The buttons are much more substantial than the flimsy shirt, but that's alright. Now I just need to wear something other than pajamas or work out clothes on the weekends!


I watched this great movie called Microcosmos and loved it! I'm not a weirdo that usually takes pictures of my tv set, but some of the images were so beautiful I'm going to try to batik them. I love the swallowtail, and spent a fair amount of time last night trying to figure out what kind it is. It's hard since I have no idea where it's found. I want to do an egg, caterpillar and adult butterfly batik, and want to make the egg and caterpillar match the adult accurately. This movie had hardly any words, but with the way it was filmed and the music it had me laughing out loud several times. I don't think this is purely because I am a bug lover. Kay, have you seen it?

Getting Out

I called a friend yesterday and he asked me what I was up to. I said, I'm gong for a hike. He said, where, with who? I said Corvallis, with me. He kind of laughed, like who goes hiking by themselves. But I've been going hiking by myself nearly every day after work for a while now. I love it. Sometimes I go with someone, but really I actually prefer to go alone. There are so many beautiful trails around Corvallis, I've been using this book. I was going to try to do them all, I've probably done around 10, there are 60 in the book. I end up going back to my favorites. Sometimes I think, oh I've done that one a few times, maybe I'll get bored with it, maybe it's not as pretty as I remembered. But they are as pretty as I remember, and I see something different every time I go. Yesterday I saw two different pink flowers I didn't recognize, along with these teeny tiny spiders, they looked like ants, but they were unbelievably fast and shimmered metallic purpley pink. Not too far up the trail I saw a ground beetle the exact same shade of purple.
The bugs are starting to come out, I got my first legitimate bite yesterday. To me it meant it was officially summer. I was walking back and it was about 7 pm, the sun was still high, and the breeze was warm and I couldn't help but think that nothing beats a summer evening. I started going out hiking in February, and really it's not bad if it's not too rainy or windy or cold. But as nice as those early days are with no bugs and no people, it doesn't compare to long days, sunshine and perfect temperatures.
Also on the way back I saw the 3 Sisters in the distance, all snowy and beautiful. I don't know how I would survive in a city, with no escape to the forest. It is a life line for me. I am excited to live in Eugene and have all those trails and hills nearby for exploration. The landscape is so different for only being an hour away.
In other news I am blogging this early because I am an idiot. I woke up at 6:27, and thought, oh my alarm is going to go off soon, I'll just turn the radio on and slowly wake up. I had the hardest time waking up this morning, usually it only takes me 15 minutes to be up and moving. This morning it took me half an hour. Well I took a shower and got out and looked at the clock, 7:06? I had been off by an hour, I could have slept another hour. Not thrilled.

Update

Well, I have made my decision and it is official. I will be attending Lane. The $40,000 difference in tuition and supplies was the tipping point. I felt relieved within a day of making my decision. I feel so much more comfortable in Eugene. I have also been talking with one of Megan's friends that just graduated from the program, and she has only good things to say about Lane. They have been doing this program for 40 years. Pacific has had theirs for 2 years. She felt that she got an excellent education from Lane.
In other news, I can't seem to pass up a trip when I get a chunk of time I don't need to be anywhere. Next stop, Ohio to meet up with Megan and drive across West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York to get to Vermont. I'm super excited to go on a road trip with Megan to a new part of the world. In September I am going to visit Aaron for 2 weeks. He will have school, but only one class a day and no work. In December, Aaron and I are trying to find a cheap, yet warm place that we can spend 3 weeks. Any ideas? I would like to go to Belize, Guatemala or Honduras, but airfare is just over what we were hoping to spend. The idea is to actually be able to afford to be someplace for that long too, so it has to be a low cost of living, and being interesting enough to explore for that long. That rules out most Caribbean islands and Baja Mexico. Airfare to Europe is cheaper in the winter, but a. It's freezing cold there and b. everything will be too expensive.
I'm also a bit stressed about funds seeing as all this traveling does cost money, and I will have no income. I figure though, that we will be making enough later and it's ok to take advantage of our free time.
It's making me rethink my previous living thoughts of a perfect two bedroom apartment...I think I need to go cheaper.

Big Decision

So I got into my first two school choices. Now I have to decide. I made a master comparison of the two before bed last night with everything I could think of. It may in the end, come down to money. I was so sure I wanted to go to Pacific, I really really love their program and their progressive attitudes. But I was never excited about living in Hillsboro. Lane has a good program, but it's just the basics compared to Pacific who teaches about business, sociology, body holistics, and also Spanish. But Pacific costs so much more. Here is my list. Re-doing list because the columns didn't stay. It's not as easy to read when it's not side by side, but oh well.

Pacific:
>$20,000/yr in tuition
Hillsboro
Better education w/more options for future
Real Classes
Busy schedule every day
Better environment
Cheap health insurance available
Further commute to see Aaron
Go to Nicaragua in December
Bachelors Degree
Learn Spanish
In the sprawly city
High rent
Can take Max to school
Maxride straight to PDX
Out $200 if I go to Lane (not a huge deal)
No roommate
More consuming
Investment, since I may have more options in the future
Finally learn my way around Portland
Semesters
3 weeks off in May to drive back with Aaron
Possibly more in common with my classmates
Less time to exercise

Lane:
<$6,000/yr in tuition
better location
Adequate education
Online Classes (con)
In class only 3 days/week (online classes)
Community college
Need my own health insurance (have, but $$$)
Closer to Corvallis
Associates Degree
Close to hiking
Cheaper rent?
Need to drive or take bus?
No trip to Nicaragua in December
Longer drive to the airport
Could room with Jason
Less challenging
Could cost extra in long run? If I want more ed. later
Learn my way around Eugene
Terms
No 3 week trip home with Aaron in May
Possibly less in common w/ my classmates
More time and places for exercising

Saturday

Check out this futuristic primary/secondary school! The only thing I can think of is that it's fairly tornado proof. Pretty cool though.


We checked out Amish country, which was beautiful of course. Kind of crazy to have buggies on the road though.


We stopped by Austin's Mohair, to find them closed. We got up at 6 so we could see more before we had to be back for family pictures, but apparently we were too efficient. It was after they should have been open, but it's not like they normally have a line out the door. So I walked around a bit, since we had driven that far anyway. The baby sheep were so cute and I was sad I had spent my last quarter on something else so I couldn't feed them.


On the way to the cave we saw this shack with Amish goods. We got some honey and some strawberry rhubarb jam. We passed on the wheelchair lady cards.




Then we went to Niagara Cave, it was pretty awesome with a 60 foot waterfall inside! You couldn't view the waterfall from across, but it was still impressive.




Then we had just enough time to hit up the other cave in the area, Mystery Cave. It was similar to the other cave, but had a neat pool at the end of it. Also the tree below was actually made of ceramics and was beautiful.




Then we went back to the hotel to get ready. In the time it took for both of us to shower and get ready it went from sunny/overcast, to torrential downpour. Aaron brought the car around for me, and it didn't let up much the whole night. My cousin Lynne in her dress.


I didn't get any good photos of the family, it was pretty dark in there.


Married! Lynne and Aaron


Their cake, it was super good.


We had to wait down stairs at the reception area for a good 30 minutes while the tornado sirens went off. Finally the club let us up, and there was some good lightning viewing with windows all around. Dinner was really good, and it was nice to be with family.

Friday

These are the pictures from our trip south on 35E on Friday. This is a midwestern "ski slope" not too far from Aaron's house. No it's not a joke. Well not to them anyway.



We went to Northfield, Minnesota and found the Malt O Meal factory, they did not offer factory tours, but the office ladies were extremely friendly and gave us samples from their cereal closet. It was so windy there, and actually I'd say most of the trip. Which makes sense because Aaron says it is always windy there, every season, all times of the day.



One of the many barns we passed. I really like being out in farm country, I think partially because it reminds me of visiting my grandma when I was young. But also I just like farms, I would love to spend a summer on a farm working, it's the kind of hard work that's so satisfying. And when you have a barn full of cows that need you to feed them, milk them, clean up after them, or a field that needs to be planted, harvested, plowed, there may not be a day off, no weekend. You live by the land, the weather and your animals. I'm fascinated by the simplicity (yet also the wealth of knowledge) of it and I have a lot of respect for all the hard work that goes into farming.


Next we stopped at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park to see Hidden Falls. I'm not sure what I was expecting, due to the lack of hills here, but I think Oregon has spoiled me. This was a pretty waterfall though and the hikes around it were nice.

Columbine near the falls





There were some other Midwesterners there, and one of them told me there was another small waterfall a little further up. I got excited and went up the path a bit to find this:

I mean I understand there aren't many waterfalls here, but I was a bit disappointed as this looks like a trickle we see on the side of the road to someplace much prettier. I kind of thought the same thing when we hit the bluffs on the drive home up the Mississippi, now don't get me wrong, it was pretty...but it honestly looked like so many places in Oregon. It was quite different than the areas around, so I can see what the allure is for someone that lives here.

A Jack in the Pulpit hiding along the trail


Some mushrooms


These cool green beetles were all over, the same as the one you found Megan.


Then we went to Cabela's, 150,000 square feet of raw testosterone like a beacon in the prairie. We felt a bit out of place here, but it was a sight to behold. The numbers of stuffed animals were impressive, 100 white tailed deer alone. They had several nature scenes and all the animals were labeled well. There was a giant mountain I can't believe I didn't really get a picture of. You can see it in the background below, behind the table of firearms.




I really do not think I will ever understand hunting for the sport of it. I mean they had these tiny cats from Africa, why on earth would anyone want to kill them? Anything for that matter? They had some really beautiful animals there, and I can't imagine having the drive to want to kill a polar bear for the "fun" of it. Polar bears are freaking huge by the way, I don't know how big I pictured them, but not as big as they really are.
If you ever needed a classy light for your lakeside cabin, Cabela's would be the place to go. I think this one was on sale for $800. For the price, really it's much more practical than a chandelier.


After Lynne's pre-wedding dinner we headed to the nearest Hy-Vee. I'm glad we found one, as I think it was a true midwest experience. Need a gallon of salad? They've got you covered.


Grilling tonight? Pick up a pre-made griller, they had 5 or 6 different kinds. I think they are really into "grilling" over there.


We didn't know Sauerkraut Days was going on in Ackley, Iowa or we absolutely would have been there. Ackley is the town my mom grew up in and I haven't been since I was 13. I still remember them bringing in a pickup truck and unloading garbage cans, yes garbage cans, full of sauerkraut and hot dogs. Oh man, and funnel cakes, I'm sure this was the first place I ever had one.

The Weekend

Aaron and I had a great weekend, we had a bit of a late start due to no planning the night before. I was so wiped after my flight that I didn't even get our things ready for the next day while Aaron was at work. We drove direct down, stopping at a few places along the way. We took the long way home today. These are our pictures from today.

We found a hike in Whitewater State Park and made the big climb up. It was pretty humid and I hadn't switched to shorts yet, so it was hot. The view looked just like the Amazon. Well I haven't actually been to the Amazon, but it is so lush and tropical looking here right now. That is the Whitewater River below us.

We made a stop in Rochester, saw the Mayo Clinic but didn't really go in as it was closed today. Apparently Rochester is known for its huge goose population, so we went to a park we knew we would see some. The park was very unimpressive, at least the part we went to. I think they are having an overpopulation of geese and trying to keep them out of some of the vegetation, it wasn't very pretty. We did find geese however, some with babies and some with teenagers.


Then we drove to Elba to climb their fire lookout tower. Seen here from a distance.


It was 600 steps to the tower, then the 10 or so flights to the top from there.


I found this centipede on the way up.


The tower


From the top


Elba from the top, apparently you can see 280 silos from up there, I counted 20 in a small area.

Going down was way scarier than going up. I don't have a problem with heights really but I understood the saying "Weak in the knees" as we were descending.

Then we stopped in Kellogg to visit LARK toys. They had an impressive collection of old toys on display and quite a few new ones for sale too. I saw 3 cases full of Matryoshka dolls and they also had a wall of them for sale. We rode on the carousel, the animals were all so interesting and beautiful.



Then we drove over the bridge to Wisconsin, just to say we'd been there.


The mighty Mississippi in Wabasha. There was an eagle center here, but it was $6 to get in and closing in 30 minutes. All I really wanted to see was the live eagle, which I saw as we went in to ask about the place.


Then we headed home, Aaron has two tests tomorrow, one at 8 am. So I cooked us a nice dinner tonight and am amusing myself so he can study. I was too tired to take a picture, but I made pepper crusted chicken, new potatoes, corn on the cob, and a light garlic cream sauce with shallots and mushrooms. It was really good. I'll post pictures from the rest of the weekend soon.