My dog is scared of the foot-locker lock

Logan bought me an airbrush kit a bit ago with paints and everything so I decided to paint his helmet. I've never used an airbrush before except to try it out when we first opened it and all that consisted of was red splotches on some scrap paper. Anyway, I was just playing around with it for a couple hours and this is what came out.


On this side I painted a side view of Pointe Du Hoc, it's where the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled cliffs on D-Day to take out enemy artillery.






Here's a little detail of the spiderwebbing or whatever you want to call it. It was probably an accident that I thought looked cool, I'm not quite sure.






I didn't get a good picture of this side, if you guys really want to see it I guess I can get another shot and post it. It's supposed to be New Zealand but the angle is off because the islands were seperate stencils and Stewart island is too big. Logan said it's ok though and that he can tell it's New Zealand.



So there, my first attempt at airbrushing. Not all that amazing but I think it looks cool and the design incorporates two big aspects of Logan :)

I like art.

Good news!!

I didn't kill the keyboard! I just forgot to put part of it back in when I put it back together :) and I found pictures of Logan!!






here he is walking with little Max,




















and here he's playing with a slightly bigger Max, :)














no Max here, just Logan. My slow camera skills that day failed to capture him "boarding" down the rocks. Unfortunately rock boarding is fun for the briefest moment then your board stops and you don't. Nonetheless I've heard it's a good time.






So there you go! Turns out I didn't need ninja skills at all :D

oops.. my bad

ok... sooo.... I would put a picture of Logan on here but... I'm on the laptop and there are only old pictures of him on here. There isn't anything wrong with the regular computer itself I just kind of... sort of.... killed the keyboard. I tried to clean it and now it won't work... we may have to get a new one.

I guess I'll have to just take a new picture and put it onto this here lappy, hey! :) Good plan! No worries 'Rise :D I'll get you a picture of your brother in law, and it'll be a GOOD one, rest assured, even if I have to whip out my mad ninj4 sk1llz :D

Logan is gone, my only company for the past few days has been the dog... so I took pictures

This is my dog,
Mad Max,
he's a cutie.

and here he is licking the futon... I can't assure you whether it is a delicious futon or not. Perhaps if I were a bit more tired or if Logan were here (just to weird him out and get a laugh at his confused face) I may do more extensive research but alas I am no where near 3-in-the-morning tired and Logan is somewhere being fantasically maggotish, probably in the woods, and probably marching*. So, without further ado or knowledge of the tastiness of my couch, I leave you to gaze upon Mad Max licking the futon.













*I put the little starry next to marching because sometimes it's not really marching. It's just walking long distances with a lot of pounds of ruck sack on his back and a gun in his hands... sometimes.

Hungry hungry Alyssa... breakfast shall be soon :)

Update time!

The party was fun, we missed everyone that didn't get to be there. I'm sad that we couldn't be more accommodating by giving people a bigger heads up but life is crazy, especially when you're in the army. I just hope that we can hang out with everybody who didn't get to come soon. I will post a picture or two when I get them, we didn't take any on our camera but there are a few on my Mom's.

What are we doing now? Not much; vacation is over, Logan is working while I chill out with the dog whilst deciding where I should work when we move. Making many plans of painting, building things and decorating at the new house :) plans are fun but I'm a little bummed that we can't move until November :P stupid lease. Oh well, all in God's timing which is perfect and right and good and all that. Praise God that we get a house and can move at all :D Yay God!!!

Now it's time to eat! Hooray breakfast!

sorry for the delay

TA DAAA!!!







































































There you go, pictures of the front, the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway and the back. I like the trees, the little window in the kitchen above the sink and Logan, cause he's hot :) the yard is fully fenced and is about 1/3 acre :D yay.

house house house

This morning Logan and I met up with Tony the inspector and took a good look at what will be our new place, hopefully, in about a month and a week. As long as nothing crazy happens... like rampant moosen...

That particular instance not seeming to be immanent we're in high spirits. Unfortunately blogger is being a butt and I can't get the pictures to load :( sorry guys. I'll try later and if that doesn't work I'll try tomorrow again... and if THAT doesn't work I'll print some out, stand on my balcony and hold them up reeeeally high. I'm sure if you have a good pair of binoculars you could make them up... I mean out, make them out... yeah.

hi guys

yeah Cherstuieseybug (that's a conglomeration of nickname, there, for ya) I'm in Portland. Logan and I drove his brother down here yesterday so we're hanging out for a couple days then we'll head back because Logan has to work. So... yeah, that's about it. Oh, and Mike Birbiglia is funny stuff.

Yay fourth

:) Hey guys, sorry about that silly pity party, (see: south and sad) it happens sometimes. But I'm better, thanks largely due to getting to be here in Sisters for some days hanging out with my Godsiff family (including a soon to be). Just so you know guys, they're best :D I love hanging out with them, especially when Caroline and I get to eat our best friends and get directions from nice landscapers.





I'll have to get a picture of the rest of these cool people at some stage but for now just the girls. Here's Caroline and I riding horses (superfun) you'll probably guess immediately who the photogenic one is eh. *cough* Caroline! *cough* *cough* I was riding Jesse and she was on Misty and all except for Misty being a bit shy we all look sensational!!! Yay us




I'm not sure what we're all doing down here today. Maybe finding a rodeo, maybe seeing fireworks.... if it doesn't storm on us... we'll see.

south and sad

I'm in Sisters now. I love Sisters, it's a great town. All except for the fact that I'm here without Logan. :P I don't know why but I'm being pouty about Logan being gone, it'll be at least 55 days (8 weeks) until I get to see him. I haven't figured out which description sounds like less but they both make me feel like I want to cry. Stupid school.... in stupid Georgia.... where I can't stupid see my husband....

I think I'm going to go curl up in a ball and be sad....

We are wicked mega

I would just like to say that Hayden and Cameron are great and happen to be braver than me... well, at least on carnival rides. This one was sort of slow but went high. At the tallest part I held on whereas Cameron, while being smaller (ie. less strapped in) and on the outside (ie. he went higher) stuck his arms out like Superman through many of the very high bits of our flight. And of course Hayden is absolutely bogen, though the ness of this was cleverly hidden during this photo. I enjoy the rides that jostle a bit more while feeling more secure with locking lapbars and such, like the scrambler or that crazy one Hayden and I went on last year..... that was great. Thanks for the fun guys, can't wait for the next time we can get on rides and try to get so sick we puke! Or at least talk like we're going to... gotta love big talk at the waterfront villiage :)

HURRAH FOR FATHERS!!!

This year I get TWO fathers to hurrah!














Here's Dad and us chillin' by what we recently learned was a mower. Thanks for all the lessons Dad, from figuring out what the big metal thing at the side of Grandpa's driveway was to learning how to be a good spouse, you've always been there with wisdom, guidance and love :) Thanks, I love you!

And HURRAH to Dads in law! I just realized I don't have many pictures of my father in-law. We'll have to remedy that at some stage I suppose. In any case I'm so happy to be a Godsiff and to be in the wonderful family that I am. Thank you, my dear father in-law, for being great :) I look forward to many an adventure and many many a dumb joke to which I will dutifully and heartily laugh... provided they not be too dumb ;)








oh, and thanks for raising that husband of mine right and good :D

Oi

These kids in the next building are driving me nuts.

I wish I knew when they sleep that way I could avoid them if I need to. I walked out my door today and before I even saw the little buggers (I don't know if they saw me or if they saw the door close or what) one of them yelled, "Hey! Max!". I can't get him to do his business if those stinking kids are running up and waving at him and yelling his name over and over. A couple of them followed me all the way around my building today. I finally told them they had to leave and they needed to listen to me because I am Max's mom. I actually tried to find them so they could run around with him a bit after he was done but I think that I may have scared them inside, or at least away. Muahahaha.... I mean.... ;) I'm just kidding I don't want to scare them. The older ones are usually cool about it, I just tell them that Max won't go if they're around and they can't play with him until he goes so they leave until he's done. The little ones are another story, they're probably 3 - 5 years old and don't listen very often, there are maybe 4 of them that live close to me. They're the ones that follow and wave, of course if Max ever does pay attention to them they scream and/or giggle and run away. Then, of course, Max tries to herd them.

*sigh* crazy kids and puppy

When it rains, it pours

and by that I mean when it sucks it can REALLY suck. It seems like everytime something goes wrong involving the truck I lock my keys inside along with my spare set and my dog, except this time the lights are on.

I was backing out of my parents driveway, normally I don't park there but Hayden, Courtney, Cameron and I washed my truck and that's the sensible place to do it. Anyway I was an idiot and rammed into a (nice) car parked across the street. Luckily the guy who owns it was close by (I don't know if he was inside or not) so I didn't have to knock on someone's door and inform them that I'd just put a gigantic dent in their front bumper. Anyway, I was all emotional and scared and stuff so I parked and got out of my truck right away. Unfortunately my habit is to lock the door when I get out of it instead of remembering to take my keys out of the ignition. I heard the dinging noise but assumed it was only the lights and I was willing to leave them on for a second while I apologized to the man. So now I'm waiting for my dad to get home and help me get into my truck to save my dog and my battery, then I can get my insurance information and call the man who turned out to be pretty understanding and nice about it. Though I'm sure that me fighting back tears the whole time I talked to him may have persuaded him in that direction.

I sure wish this "first" could have waited until Logan was here too. It'd be nice to have that comfort, but at least I'm here in Portland, not stuck outside my truck with a puppy and a draining battery inside out in the middle of nowhere at some truck stop or something. Hooray for adventures.

Yah church

I went to church called Grace Fellowship this morning, it was really cool. It's a little church down the road that I didn't even know existed until this morning. I found the address online. Unfortunately I won't be back for a couple weeks because of siblings graduating, Kids Camp stuff and Ty and Caroline flying in. In any case I am excited about going back when I can.

I was talking to Logan and the minutes on his phone ran out :( I don't know when I'll get to talk to him next. Maybe later today if he gets a phone, maybe in three weeks... I hope I get to talk to him again today *sigh* we'll see.

HEY! My friend Jasmine is coming to my house today!! :D :D :D yah!! (haha, sometimes I like to use spellcheck even when I spell words wrong purposely, words like yay!!)

time for bed

I'm tired and feeling terribly boring... I'm going back home to Tacoma tomorrow. I need to pay rent... I'm taking Courtney and we'll probably hang out and watch movies a lot. I dunno. I guess we'll have to wait and see.


By the way, Logan is my favorite boy ever. I love him very much and I can't wait to see him in about 84 and a half days.... just so you know....

Bye Logan

I dropped Logan off at work this morning, 4:15AM is a quiet time on the roads... especially on Sunday morning of Memorial day weekend. We watched UFC 60 last night, a bunch of Logan's buddies came over. It was fun but only one was really rooting for the guy who ended up winning the main event. There were some good fights on the show and some dumb ones that lasted too long :P but all in all I liked it and I'm glad that it was done before 10 so Logan and I got a little time to just chill together and then SLEEP because we had to get up so early. So here we are, a few hugs and kisses, prayers, goodbyes and a lonely drive later *sigh* of course... only three months and I'll get to fly to Georgia and watch him graduate! :) As for today I'm going to sleep some more and probably drive to Portland, I was thinking about driving across Washington to Walla Walla but I think a six hour drive is a little much for my first long drive alone, but I think I might go to Walla Walla still... from Portland... maybe...

so pretty much separation pay = gas money

A little late, but only online

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
I LOVE YOU! I MISS YOU! I WILL BE BACK IN PORTLAND SOON!! RIDE FAST!! BUT NOT TOO FAST! DON'T RIDE IN FRONT OF ANY FAST MOVING FISH!

I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M YELLING, PROBABLY BECAUSE TACOMA IS SO FAR AWAY FROM PORTLAND!

ok.... I guess I'm done yelling. I hope you had a greatly and wonderful birthday, I like your new sweet pacman shirt.

Okay okay

geez, here's a post... man... :) just kidding. I just haven't thought of anything very exciting to post about. I've just been chillin with the puppy and/or the hubby lately :) fuuuun stuff. Today though Logan didn't come home, he's been put on a 24 hour duty *bleeeeeeh* so that means I have to wait to get him from work until tomorrow morning. Then he can come home and sleep. The up side is that he gets the rest of tomorrow off because of having to work so long AND he gets Friday off because... I can't remember why... for Memorial day I suppose. Though he'll be in Georgia by then. Yup he's off again soon. But it'll be ok I'm meeting people and making friends with the other wives. Anyway, today I kept myself occupied by playing with Mad Max, watching TV/movies (A League of Their Own is GREAT it made me cry) and drawing! Check out my barn :)


This one had the best (most true to life) color, the flash made a couple pictures I took too shiny. It's oil pastel and pencil. The lines are a bit off I think but it's ok it was just a whim to draw a red barn kind of skewed like it was in a children's book or something the sun was a way to sort of balance the layout since the silo is on the other side... yeah I'm an art geek. So what? :P My next picture is going to be AWESOME, I'll have to post a picture of that one too. Tune in next time! Same time... actually it probably won't be the same time... but it will be the same place.... so, SAME PLACE!











STEVE HOLT!

IIIIIT'S HERE!!

It's here! It's here! It's here!... well, not HERE here but here in the sense that it's in the U.S., not only THAT but it's in Washington and not only only THAT buuuuuuuuut it's in TACOMA!!! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I'd tell you what "it" is but Logan may read this before he should know what it is and oh crap I just remembered I need to go to the store! Bread now!!! GO!

clipful pedals

Today Logan bought me some fancy pedals (they're called spd clipless pedals) that I can clip into with the fancy shoes he also bought me... which raises the question... why the crap are they called clipLESS pedals? They seem pretty clipful to me... anyway I guess I'm doing ok with them, better than others Logan's seen try them... or so I've heard.

I'm getting the hang pretty quick I only fell three times but the last time wasn't because I'm not very good at using my clipful pedals. The first time was on the grass and I just slowed down and kinda spazed when my feet seemed stuck to the pedals, the next time I was in too high a gear to go up the hill I was riding so I slowed again and fell down on a bit of concrete, that one hurt, just a bit of blood. The last time was the most impressive, I learned how to bunnyhop (jump the bike so both wheels are off the ground without the aid of a ramp) so anyway, I bunnyhopped up the edge of a driveway onto some grass, unfortunately a new sidewalk was recently put in next to the grass and there was a gap between the grass and the sidewalk, my wheel went into it and I didn't have time to even think about twisting out of the pedals. I hit pretty hard and got my knee cut up a bit more but it's all good.

Unfortunately all three spills were on my right side :P I'm going to be soooooooooore tomorrow.

crazy hotness

as my husband would say... well, that or wicked mega...ness ;)

Logan learned a new trick yesterday, it's called a suicide no hander... I think, yeah I'm pretty sure that's it. Anyway it's sweet, I got a few pictures of him doing it.

Check 'em out, he was definitely rockin'





















P.S. Brandon, check out the pics on pinkbike. Logan put another one, maaaaaaaaybe two up on there also including these. Under freeride/DH and dirt jumping/BMX somethin-or-other.

Mad Max! The road WARRIOR

Hey guys we got a puppy! He's a toy Australian Shepherd (should be about 12 or 13 inches mature) and we named him Mad Max. His namesake being a character in a series of three Australian movies made in '79, '81 and '85 (respectively) starring Mel Gibson as Mad Max. I've only seen the second, Mad Max the Road Warrior. Which turns out to be, I think, a cute coincidence since the day we got Max he rode with us to Sisters and within about a week or so will ride to Portland and then home to Tacoma a few days after that. He's totally a road warrior, or at least he will be :) At the moment he is crying in his kennel resisting naptime but he's calming down a bit. He's a good puppy.


Here are a couple pictures I took this morning. He's a bit of a hard chap to get a decent picture of, apart from him wiggling and jumping and being all-around adorable the flash makes his eyes look weird and no flash means any movement Mad Max makes becomes a reddish brown blur.

Praise report

This morning I prayed for Logan and thanked the Lord that HE is our strength, especially when we're feeling weak. And I am happy to report that Logan did indeed pass his PT test despite being sick yesterday. Praise the Lord!

:( poor bubby, new puppy :)

Logan came home sick yesterday, I felt sad because all I could do was go and buy him lemonlime sodapop (yes those are both words, they're compound words like doghouse and iloveyou) and also be nice to him but mostly I just sat or stood around being perplexed and sad. I wanted to help so badly but you just can't make a throwy-up person be better. So we sat and laid around enjoying our new cable TV service and calling people about puppies. We figure he just needed sleep because he didn't get much the night before last (my fault, I was watching a movie) but he was in bed last night before 8 so that was good and this morning he just felt a bit weak because he obviously didn't eat much yesterday. And he has an important PT test this morning, it's a good thing though that God is our strength when we are weak eh?

About the puppy :D :D :D we're going to get a toy Australian shepherd puppy in the next two weeks, I'm mailing the deposit today. He's a bit more expensive than I ever thought a dog would be but he's less than the $1500 one so that's good. Granted I had never researched getting a dog through a breeder, let alone a rareish one. I guess mini and toy aussies aren't too common. He's supposed to get to be about 12 inches high when he's full grown (I also never thought that I'd get a small dog like that) but I think it's good to get a small dog if you live in an apartment, cooping up a big dog inside is just mean. At least to our little guy it'll be huge ;) I'm super excited. I think we're going to call him Max but we'll have to see when we meet him if the name fits.

This is his mug shot from the website, I'll be sure to post some more pictures once we get him.

but isn't he just the CUTEST thing??? :D

Yay

I did it! I installed our cable modem and a firewall :D I guess I know a little somethin about computers after all eh? I'm excited because now we don't have to wait until whoever had the other wireless network in our building turned theirs on to check email and such. We got our TV cable too and better still we are getting our couch between 12 and 4! Huzzah!!

Or, huzzoo!! ...as SOME would say...

I'm a Washingtonian guys!

Hello friends! Logan and I now live in our apartment up in Tacoma. Yay us. We don't have much, a few pieces of furniture borrowed and a couple bought. I'm excited for my today project, I'm going to put up a rooster wallpaper border in my kitchen because we get to decorate and paint what we want :) We have to put it back to white when we move but that's ok with me. Here are a couple pictures, they aren't the best of my life but that's mostly because I can't back up far enough from anything to get a really good shot.






Here is our mantle with a shelf the wonderful Overstreets brought over for us in the background. And of course my candles that I'm SO happy with, being all decorative and stuff :) and there's a front shot for you with the wood we bought at Safeway. Logan was a bit miffed, this being the first time in his life he's ever had to BUY wood but we have a fireplace, I wanted wood and I think they'd be a bit upset if we went chopping down the landscaping around the complex. Oh, and the little ornament there has a buddy that will go on the other side of the pillar candle I just forgot it down in Portland. No worries though, we're headed down south today :D yay!





Hmm... well guys, blogger is being a weirdo so you just get fireplace shots today. I'll post again when we get our couch :D yay couch. Oh, I just remembered! I was going to post about one of the best labels I've ever seen. Logan and I were browsing around our local Goodwill, which, by the way is the tidiest Goodwill I've ever been in ever. I was relieved to see toys on the floor in the toy aisle or it would've been like Stepford Goodwill or something. Anyway, we were checking out the furniture and every piece had a white paper label taped on it. I was dumbfounded by one in particular for a while before Logan came by and pronounced it "trash can". I couldn't figure it out at all until it was said out loud, it was spelled C-H-R-A-S-H C-A-N. We assume that whoever wrote must've been told that trash is spelled the way it sounds. I had never seen is spelled like that... it was pretty amazing.

Jigitty jig

He's home again :D huzzah, and we have an apartment (huzzah x 2) or at least we will as of tomorrow when Logan fills out the rest of the paperwork, aaaaaaand the Army will pay for us to move so if we get any furniture this weekend we can rent a uhaul and get reimbursed for it :D (hip x2) + hooray!

Yeah I know I'm a dork

It's really exciting but at the same time scary because it's the first time I've ever moved that I can remember clearly and I haven't gotten my license yet. I wish making a behind-the-wheel driving test appointment wasn't so ridiculous. Oh well, I'll have it soon and then I'll be more freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I think we're going to need another vehicle though... probably.

I will never forget you ghettobees

Tonight was pretty much my last day at work. At least I think so... I may be back in a while to work whilst Logan be away again. But we'll see, in any case all my coworking friends there got me a cake and a card and a couple of them even got me flowers. I didn't cry until right after they'd all cheered and presented me with my cake and card, then realized that we were still open and working so I was left pretty much alone at the table with a cake that said, "We'll miss you Alyssa" on it. Well that did it, I realized that I was really leaving and I cried a bit but didn't bawl because I was still working. In any case the cake was chocolate and yummy and I love all my friends at my Applebees (affectionately known as ghettobees) I told everyone not to worry because I would be back for visiting since my parents live right down the street and all... :) besides we have to have a montage party! Or at least I want to... we'll see :)

Good last night at work. Good friends. Good time to hit the sack. Goodnight all.

TWOOOOOOOO!

Happy Wyatt's birthday guys!
He's a good one!

A message to my favorite Walla Waller

HAPPY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERISE!!!!

You're twody-two!
Way for you!

I get to see you tomorrow! Huzzah!

Diabolical really is a great word, don't you think?

I guess I should tell you all about that fantastic adventure that never did, but should have, happened at work. WELL, the whole tale sort of came together in pieces and not in order so I'll just share the fancier version first.

Hokay, so. First of all, we (being Rami, Allan, Bridget, Andy, everyone else I talked to about it, and me) would have tee shirts, and they say "rebel alliance" on them. Except Bridget's, hers says "Rubel allowance" and if anyone else other than Andy wants to know why, it IS the rubel ALLOWANCE, duuuuh. Anyway, so we'd have our tee shirts, then we'd tape a hokie to the ceiling to distract the eeeeevil. THEEEN we'd all sneak into the kitchen with our ninjaness and free the creature that had been enslaved by Applebees to clean the dishes, the one that'd been wailing for many-a-moon and release it into the wilds of Lloyd Center! And we would be victorious.

The reason behind this valiant quest was really nothing more than water pressure... or so I was told.... Our dishwasher at work was making this weird noise for at least a day last week, it sounded like a ship's horn or a moose or something. Actually the hokie on the ceiling came about first, before we (we meaning... me, rolling silverware at carside, waiting for someone to come pick up their order, having many more minutes to contemplate nonsense than I should have been allowed) even thought about rescuing anything. I just thought it'd be a good diabolical plan, and being as amused by the word "diabolical" as I was... I sort of ran with it :)

bored now... tired....

I went puddle jumping on my bike today :) fun stuff. If you're curious that's just me riding around and randomly stomping my front tire into puddles :D I want to go with Logan sometime, he'd probably think it was ridiculous but :P IIIIIIIII think it'd be fun! Rather I think it IS fun! :D I'm supposed to write out the fantastic adventure that should have happened at work tonight but I'm tired so I'm going to tell you all about it tomorrow. It's a great story, all about taping hokies and wailing creatures and a rebel alliance (with tee shirts!) :D oh yeah, that's right TEE shirts.

his name is Aaron Shust

I heard a song on the radio this morning, the chorus went like this:

My savior loves, my savior lives, my savior's always there for me, my God he was, my God he is, my God he's always gonna be.

It really touched my heart. So I went online to see if the guy had a website and/or a CD out, he does :) The three songs on listen page are good ones, you know, GOOD ones. Check them out!

http://aaronshust.com/v4/listen.html

HUZZAH!!!

I am done with winter term! :D yay spring break! My final projects turned out pretty darn well I must say. Check 'em out!

This is my ART 116 (color theory) final. I took a photo of Hayden, Cameron and myself and created an impressionist painting. Paying attention to the "temperature" of the colors, warm being foreground and cool being background. This photo had a GREAT lightsource so the shadows were pretty easy to figure out and that orange tank top of Cam's is fabulous. I could have gone a bit more abstract with this but I wanted to recreate the picture pretty faithfully, so I did.

Here's my ART 231 (intermediate drawing) final. The medium was open, I decided to use acryllic paint. We were given two guidelines 1) make a drawing based on a dictionary word (we were given a formula using our birthdate to find which word to use) and 2) don't illustrate it (i.e. if your word was apple you shouldn't literally draw an apple). My word was Galahad, which is "a noble or gallant man", it also refers to a knight in the stories of King Arthur, but you knew that ;) Anyway, in some stories Galahad had a white shield with a red cross, and of course, of all the men I know Logan has got to be the most noble and gallant of them all, at least to me. And of all the noble and gallant things Logan has done for me waiting to kiss me until our wedding is pretty much at the top of the list, right up there with being a soldier and protecting our way of life and our freedom. :D

Both my instructors said my projects were done well and everyone seemed to like them, I got a little bit of constructive criticism which is cool because it's good to get different opinions and suggestions. All in all I had fun and I learned quite a bit about drawing and color :) which is always a good thing. Now I get to keep myself busy with other things until my hubby comes home again :D Not too long now! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Pretty good night

carside went well tonight, the wonderful details definitely outweigh the not so happy ones. Not so happy was me forgetting to put in an order until the lady showed up to get it and not getting the phone number of my last order who was late so I stayed an extra half hour. Wonderful was Kevin pouring apple juice instead of pineapple juice on accident so I got to drink sweet appley goodness and getting over 10% tips for pretty much the first time I can remember on carside :D

Oh, another goodness was when a little family came in and the three kids had New Zealand hats on. When I asked if they'd been visiting there recently she said her children were born there (her accent made it obvious she hadn't been) and I thought that was just great! They're from the Taupo area which is a lake that my brother-in-law just spent his birthday at :D Although for about 30 minutes after they'd gone I was whining to my coworkers that I wanted New Zealand babies, that is, I would love to go to New Zealand, have babies, and if they happened at the same time that would be pretty darn cool as well. At one point I said I wanted kiwi babies, I got a strange look for that. I really wished that I could call Logan at that point because I could just imagine how the first words of the conversation would start

Logan: hello
Alyssa: hooooooooneeeeeeeeey
Logan: whaaat?
Alyssa: I want baaaaaabies, New Zealand babies

I'm not quite sure what he'd say to that but I'm sure it'd be an interesting conversation. One of my coworkers asked me what if they came out Asian, after a long hard split second of thought I told him that that just wouldn't do. (assuming of course that he meant what if I had babies while I was in Asia... Any other meaning for the question is just really weird...)

it's snowing again!

I got up this morning to the kids running around yelling that it was snowing. They were huge flakes and it didn't stick anywhere, anyway it stopped for a while now it's snowing again and I am working carside tonight. Whoopie... woopy?..... whoopy? ..... huzzah. I hope that it doesn't do this all day tomorrow because I've got a double. *shrug* oh well, if it gets bad enough that these silly Portland drivers are impaired I won't have to work at all :D

chillin in Sisters

I just watched Girl With a Pearl Earring with my Mum-in-law, it was a really pretty movie. The whole movie was sort of muted and the lighting was amazing. Almost every scene looked like it could have been if it wasn't already a painting. Beautiful, but apart from that I wasn't thrilled with it. It was a good movie and all but the ending was a bit odd to me and there were a lot of parts that left both of us tilting our heads and asking, "huh?". I guess I'm just not artsy or intellectual enough for those sorts of things. I like movies like The Rundown (or as it was apparently known in Australia and the UK "Welcome to the Jungle") starring Sean William Scott and the Rock. Oh yeah, shoot 'em up, make dumb jokes, fight some more and blow stuff up. Now THAT'S a good movie ;) throwing in the hero aspect is always good too, save the people, save the girl, save whoever, then blow more stuff up :) gotta love a good mindless action movie.


Well.... I guess you don't HAVE to.

mmmm cha! cha! cha!

I went out to lunch with a friend from work today. It was fun I rode my bike up to a Mexican restaurant on Broadway, one of the best parts of the day was riding down 17th. It was great! I don't think I've never been south on that street before, I saw houses I'd never seen in a neighborhood I've never been in (except maybe in a vehicle). I felt very happy :) I want to ride more places that I haven't ridden, or perhaps even been, before! Another best part was teaching the bible lesson to my 4-6 year olds in Sunday School (well, TECHNICALLY I suppose they were 4-7 year olds but the one 7 year old is fluent in Portuguese but not so much in English.) We learned about Jairus' daughter. I started out just talking to them but all I got were blank stares so we acted it out going between walking/running in place (being Jairus) and laying on the ground (being his daughter). They got it then so when I got to the point when they got to the house they were putty in my paws... haha, not really, I just said that because Logan likes to say it. But they did listen to the rest of the lesson intently. Which is not easy with 17 preschoolers let me tell you. In the end they learned about God and I made a new buddy! Bradley is a four year old who was new tonight, well new to me anyway. My favorite was when we watched Veggietales at the end of class, when the bogeyman song came on and he hunched his little shoulders, made creepy fingers and sang along, it was SO CUTE!

bittersweet sucks

I heard from Logan through one of his buddies but he can't email me right now. At least I know he's ok.

I hate this sometimes.

A dream is a wish... second verse

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're feeling small
Alone in the night you whisper
Thinking no one can hear you at all
You wake with the morning sunlight
To find fortune that is smiling on you
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow
For all you know, tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true

No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true


This is my song again, no word from Logan since Saturday....

I'm grumpy

I got off a stinking 8 O'CLOCK then I had to go and eat. I'm such a dork :P

So it was really slow tonight right? right. So I got off really REALLY early but my bloodsugar was really REALLY low so I ordered food. Well, I got to talking with (listening to) my friend and ended up not leaving work until 9 o'clock and I'm so frustrated and mad I don't even WANT to try and get homework done even though now is probably earlier than I'd be home on any normal work night. I want to puke I'm so frustrated and I want to cry because I'm sad that I didn't leave right when I got off :P I'm too emotional, I shouldn't have let my bloodsugar get so low. Stupid.


And I haven't heard from Logan in any way for a few days.... that makes me grumpy too but it's ok because I'm only really grumpy about it when I'm tired and he just doesn't have time which is understandable, I mean, he is in a war. I try to cut him slack and not be impatient or spoiled... I just miss him... :(

Not much goin on

but it seemed about time to post, so... here you go.

I've been at Art Media just about a bazillion times in the past week :P I keep forgetting things or just figuring I won't need them but it turns out that I do indeed need them so I have to go back. :P I need to finish my 2' x 3' drawing by Monday, I don' t think it'll be too bad but I'm already a bit stressed. And I need to be painting TODAY and I got up an hour late.... so..... I'm sitting here blogging instead of doing homework.... sooooo.... I'm going now to draw and paint like mad before work.

Yay valentines day

I had to work on valentines day and I ran into a lot of hostility towards the holiday in my coworkers. It was a bit depressing until we got so busy that I all but forgot that it was a holiday, except for the fact that it is one of the busiest day of the restaurant year, yes even at Applebees and especially at carside. It was crazy, but we got through and made a little cash in the process. Then I went home and found these on the table :D


They came with a very sweet card that Logan wrote and then communicated to his Mum who picked out a bouquet. Then the florist in Sisters, contacted the florist here and delivered the flowers to ME :D I like them so so much. My man is the best ever! There are roses and daisies and alstromeria and a bunch of other things I don't know the names for. In any case they're beautiful and I am happy :)


^This is my artistic shot of them^

stupid drawing class

I feel like an idiot. We had our critique in drawing class today and I got ripped up for putting that stupid, liney, grey background on there. Well... I guess it wasn't that bad I was just really embarrassed and felt like I was the only one in the whole class who would make such an obvious and stupid mistake on my drawing... the instructor even liked the animal and said that the background distracted from the beautiful drawing I just felt so stupid about the charcoal that I wanted to cry. Now I am crying and I'm sitting in the library and I feel like more of an idiot because it's just a stupid drawing and I shouldn't be so worked up....

I almost forgot!

I was going to post pictures of my art projects for school.

This first one is for my drawing class, we were supposed to first combine at least three animals into a new one, I combined the head of a fox, the neck of an ostrich and the body of a parrot, which will be much more exciting when I do the next drawing which will be in color... and the outside of the body, this is obviously a bone and muscle structure drawing. My teacher wanted to see how we changed and/or connected each animal's different skeletons and we had to put some muscle somewhere, anyway here's my fox/ostrich/parrot


this other project if for color theory class, the picture is a bit blurry but I'm too tired to try and get a good one with the dying battery camera right now. Anyway, our assignment was to paint at least three color scales using complementary colors (colors opposite each other on the 12 step color wheel) we were given free reign on how we could present our scales the only criteria is that they be complementary colors, saturated on the ends and that they be at least eight steps long. There's another part but I'm afraid what I've already explained is flying over a lot of heads and is probably too long and boring to explain to anyone but an art major. So without further delay, here she is, I call her Sa.


She's a fox with teratology! :D

hahaha, that's what the spellcheck said should be there instead of the word "dreadlocks" maybe I just don't know how to spell it, in any case I have no clue what teratology is... silly spellcheck.

have you heard about the 3 legged giraffe? ... me neither....

Oh my goodness, work was crazy tonight, I was busy for most of the night and the funniest thing at work since I've been working there happened. My buddies Kevin and Janessa were bartending tonight and at some point I walked over to the carside station to see the liquor closet door partially open, the light was off but I could hear Kevin and Janessa inside thumping around which is amusing enough by itself but then I thought I heard Janessa saying, "I can't find the baby, I can't find the baby!". Well that was it, I was done it was so funny I just busted up laughing and I couldn't stop. I was laughing to hard it looked like I was crying so a bunch of people were asking me what was wrong so I kept retelling the story and finding it hilarious all over again so I didn't stop laughing for a good ten minutes, by the end of it I thought I was going to throw up.

It was so SO funny, I can't believe how funny that was. It turned out that they were really looking for the Baileys and the light was off because it's burnt out. In any case that was just about the funniest thing of my life.... or at least the month. So so funny.

Almost like summer

I went to Panda Express yesterday with my Mom. It felt like summer.
Outside it was a bit cold but it was sunny so sitting inside by the window I was warm enough to take off my hoodie. Panda is in the place where the market used to be and I don't know why but it still kinda smelled like the old building, of course it's the same building technically, but I'm talking about the market/bibo/torre building, the good ol' days.

The part that made it most like summer was drinking an Arnold Palmer, Panda has the BEST iced tea and sweet lemonade to make my favorite Arnold Palmer in the world. IT'S SOOOO YUMMY! Mmmmmmmmm... summer.

incase anyone else is wondering

If you want to find my bug picture just click on the "my husband is a genius" title on the list over there to your right. It's hiding :)

heh heh... false alarm

hokay... so.

I was mistaken about what I needed to bring to drawing class, as it turns out I only needed to bring in pictures of animal skeletons and muscle systems from the internet or books. So I was actually ahead of the game with my five composite animal skeletons which I was freaking out about this morning because I thought I had less than half of what I needed. Man was that a big relief. Anyway, Jenn you have nothing to be worried about :) drawing class is just fine. Oh and Lita, I have a couple of ideas that I will scan in, this should be fun :D :D :D

loves to everyone!

does ANYBODY have a dollar???

people PEOPLE I am in need of your generous assistance! If anyone has an extra dollar and a love for lemonade I have a proposal for you. If you simply make your way to Walla Walla, Washington there is a young woman there, you will know her for her curly hair, lemonade in hand and unfortunate lack of a dollar bill. A dollar in change would be gladly accepted but a crisp fancily flat bill will work wonders as well. You will find this sad sad young woman in the library... should you find more than one library in the Wallas don't lose heart! Keep searching! She needs chocolate! Please people! Dig deep in your hearts for compassion and love and deep into your wallets for a dollar! It isn't a donation, it's a trade! There is no work for you, she has already put the money into the machine and everything! All you need to do is present the dollar to her and she'll happily and triumphantly present the lemonade to you. So answer the call! Be on your way! Be it by bus, train, plane, foot or pack mule may you fly... that is, go fast... and relieve her of the delicious however cursed lemonade so she can get some chocolate like she really wanted before the lemonade machine ate her dollar which was stupid because she was just testing it to make sure it was good because the chocolate machine wasn't taking it.

Thank you all and goodnight.

This is nuts

Drawing class is insane :P On Monday I have to bring in fourteen drawings, first of all I need to make up seven composite animals combining at least three real ones, then I need to sketch out skeletal and muscular diagrams of each :P APPARENTLY zoobooks are great for this. I say this is crazy and I'm going nuts, I don't even have seven ideas for animals let alone drawings of their skeletons and muscle structure! Bugs are one thing, animals? :P I know as soon as I have my animal it won't be horrible and having a sketch of it's skeleton and muscles will probably be an effective tool but... *whine* I don't want to draw SEVEN of them :P :P :P stupid intermediate drawing class.... *sigh* my best idea of an animal so far is a cat with horns and big tiger paws. Other than that a snake/fish/lizard is my best bet.

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!

YAY LITA'S BIRTHDAY!!! I think I have pictures too... let me see...
I DO!

Here is our friend party at the beach :D


and here is Lita in a van :)


and HERE AGAIN!! :D with the uncles and the Vieve (vee-vee) :D so cute! well... Cam's face is a little... but Lita looks GREAT! as always eh?



Happy happy happy day Lita friend! We love you!!

This is not easy

Not being motivated sucks. I've gotten into the bad habit of just waiting around for Logan to call or write. I don't really want to do anything else. A lot of the time I fall into that horrible cycle of being down because of circumstances and as a result slacking on things then feeling bad for slacking which just enhances the down feeling and then I feel worse and days go by without me doing much in the way of functional homework or housework... and I don't know how to dig myself out... I tend to swing from feeling sad because I haven't heard from Logan in x amount of days or gotten more than 2 or 3 sentence emails because he doesn't get much time on the computer to feeling spoiled because he gets to call or write at all. It seems like everything people say to try and help makes me feel worse because a lot of it (mainly at work) is the "look at the bright side" approach and as bad as it sounds there are many days that I just want to yell back in their face that I don't WANT to look at the "bright side". I don't care how much he gets to call or write, he's gone. And I don't care for how long, if you're husband is far away and you can't see him it's hard. I don't want to compare my situation with others', I don't want to feel so sluggish and sad, I don't want to randomly burst into tears, I want to be stable. I want to be grounded and at least semi-level headed. I know I'm an emotional person naturally, I'm not expecting to change who I am.... I just want to be stronger so that I can be more of a support to my husband and less of a burden to my friends and family who care about Logan and I.

Last Sunday in church I cried during worship because one of the men (I think he's the leader of one or more prayer teams) got onstage and shared a word about how God is changing us to be more like him and he said God is making us good. That touched my heart because there are a lot of days I think that I am a bad wife, or a bad employee or student or army wife or whatever. But when Troy said what he did I heard God telling me that I was good, and it's not in the sense that I have it all under control or I know how to do everything and am totally comfortable in the role that I have right now, more so that my heart is good, I know I'm in His hands but what is hard right now is resting in His hands. I haven't figured that one out yet, but I will. At least now I know what I'm not doing so that I can make an effort to change.

FINALLY!

NOW, on the computers at work and on my little receipts it says "ALYSSA G" oh yeah :) that's right, Alyssa G :D Not algae, Alyssa G.

... I was going to say something else... but... I think it flew away... or I have mud on me... I dunno...

Oh yeah! 132 wet sheep! that's what my dad-in-law shore the other day. He's a shearer, from New Zealand, and pretty much the BEST dad-in-law EVER around ANYWHERE! I LOVE MY IN-LAWS!! :D :D :D

My husband is a genius

hokay, so, I was originally only signed up for my color theory class but Logan suggested I try a drawing class, which I had been a bit timid to try because I doubt my skills. Anyway, I took the advice of my signed up for a class and I'm a bit nervous about it because it's an intermediate class and I've never even had a beginning class. Anyway we jumped right into assignments and I'm pretty jazzed about this first one. We have to make a bug from three others. I put together the legs of a stick bug, the body of a beetle and the face of an apple blossom weevil. The scan is a bit dirty and this is only my first actual drawing of it. I don't know what I'm going to call it though... I also have to make up a biological background. I'm thinking I'll say it's from New Zealand because I can attribute any really weird things I think of to how remote the islands are and how there are places that no one has even been to there, that's where my bug is from. :)

on a serious note...

I miss my Logan. He hasn't even been gone that long, and I've gotten to hear from him quite a bit considering the circumstances. I think one of the things that makes it hard even though I get to hear from him and talk to him (besides that he's not here with me) is that I never really know when or if I'll get to be in contact with him until he comes home (nevermind that I don't even know for sure when that will be). It's the uncertainty and the complete lack of control and being so in the dark about him. I know he's doing pretty good, I don't know where he is or what he's doing but he says he misses me and he loves me and that he's ok... *sigh* and that's what keeps me going. :) I love him, even if I couldn't hear from him I know I'd keep going it would just be incredible hard. It's tough to explain how it feels, emotionally it's sort of like a cross between a rollercoaster and a cross country race... there are highs and lows and it feels long even though it's not THAT long... but it is.

BUT I know that God is with us, He is good and He's also the only reason that I get through any of this, yay God.

qwertyuiop... or something

Hooray for family!


Logan and I got to spend Christmas with BOTH families this year! yay! We spent Christmas eve and morning here in Portland then headed down for the rest of Christmas and then a good chunk of Boxing day down in Sisters. We got to ride the zoolights train too! :) I love being married! I'm just sad that he had to go back to work this week :( I won't see my Logan until Friday :P :( that makes me sad.... I'm going to go play the piano and try to feel better.


This is us at zoolights, ain't we cute? I like the lights, I think we were standing in front of the tiger exhibit, I think he was hiding because it was cold.

tired

Is holding a caged badger in front of the witness "badgering"?



oh, sorry...

HOORAY FOR BEING MRS.GODSIFF!!

you know what this means don't you? Now at work when my orders show up on the back of house computers it'll say Alyssa G. :D :D :D oh yeah, that's right folks... Alyssa G :D

the night before, Cherise is a weirdo


the first kiss :)

and of course there will be plenty more pictures to come. This is just the begining :D

Fun party!

I had my bridal shower on Sunday. That was fun :D I got lots of cool stuff: a BIG wonderful red comforter, a cheese grater, glasses, flatware, dishes, a racecar spatula, and of course... other things too, I'll have to going on all those thank you cards :)




















Thanks guys!

New plans guys :)

Well guys... it's been a road. One that was originally planned to be four years long.


That didn't happen obviously, we were engaged on January 8th, 2005. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

So the plan was modified to 18 months, and along the winding way from January to December there have been a lot of up and downs, emotionally, spiritually and of course physically up and down I-5. Even couple times a little further south, down to Sisters :)

Now plans have changed again.
Logan and I, through prayer and waiting on God and discussions with many loved ones older and wiser than ourselves, have officially moved our wedding date up to December 17th, 2005. That's right folks, two weeks. Yeah, we're crazy kids in love, what can we say? We're going to be having a small family wedding, probably in my parent's living or dining room. But no worries, we still want to have everyone dear and (in some cases not-so) near to us to be a part of our move to marriage... hood. We'll be having a BIG reception in a couple months. The reason for waiting so long to have the big reception is 1) my brother Rylan can be there then 2) consideration for out of state/country guests 3) Logan's job and 4) because we said so :P



Above all else we want to thank each and everyone who has been and is still a part of our lives for being there for us and supporting us throughout our lives and especially through our engagement. We love you ALL and will be sending out many many lovely wedding pictures and save-the-date cards for the reception so keep your eyes peeled... but not really, because that sounds gross.








And as always everyone, please, play safe. I know those logs laying around town may seem "safe" even "friendly" but you never know which ones may contain nuts. Thank you.

aaaaaaaww... poor little thing!

Hokay, so Hayden and I were traveling about the little Neopet world in search of food for Cameron's dying neopets when suddenly Hayden pointed to the screen and said, "click there, it's sad" I don't know why I was intrigued by this by I clicked anyway and it was sad! You click on this little dot off in nowhere land and it brings up a picture of this sad little .... thing... (some sort of cute stuffed toy that looked quite depressed) It was the "discarded magical blue grundo plushie of prosperity" I can't believe that name, it is so beautiful.... and yet so, tragically, ironic. It said next to the picture that you couldn't talk to it though, because it was a toy and wouldn't talk back. And that's it! you can't help the poor little thing, you can't pick it up and give it to someone else... all you can do it look at it... neopets you are surly!!!! *sniff* you are uncaring...

It's seven o'clock guys....

It's SEVEN O'CLOCK and we're just getting the "morning light", you know when things kinda look blue? It's supposed to happen within about the 5 o'clock hour, well.... I think so anyway. But today, and recently, it's been happening about 7 o'clock and that's just weird. Winter just HAS to be different doesn't it? You don't see summer gettin the sun up at 4 do you? No. You don't. Maybe winter has an inferiority complex because it thinks that everyone like the warmer seasons better. Personally I like winter and fall, it's crisp and nice.... well.... unless you live in Portland... then more often than not it's wet and coldISH but not cold enough to actually really be worth whining about. It's annoying when you feel cold but you can't just call someone up and whine at them, "Duuuuude it's so cold!" because they'd ask "Is is snowing?" of course you'd have to answer, "........ no ......" and then they would absolutely have license to mock you because if it's not snowing yet it's not really REALLY cold and so you're obviously a wuss. Well MLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHH I gueaa I'm a wuss coz it's COLD :P