Cookie Decorating

In the days leading up to Christmas every year our family has a cookie decorating party, in which we invite two family friends to participate. In years past we have invited others to participate but Riley & Ryan are a constant.

Its quite fun, we drink hot chocolate, listen to carols, and eat large amounts of sugar, all while dectorating cookies for Santa. What could be more fun than getting children all hyped up on sugar and then returning them to their parents?

The kids have fun too, we provide sugar cookies, 3-5 different frosting colors, sprinkles, and candy to decorate with. We don't limit the amount to frosting or candy placed on their cookies - basicly their are no decorating rules.

After all the cookies are decorated for Santa, there is usually a rousing game of soccer in the backyard until parents show up.

Its a great tradition that helps us get in the mood for Christmas!

Happy Holiday's

Tiah

my awesome knitting skills

I just had to share with everyone, my awesome knitting skills. This is a picture of Mayson, my best friends 6 month old. I just finished knitting him a complete outfit. Hat, sweater, and pants. The hat was a little small and the pants are a little long, but overall a successful project.

Tiah

Christmas Fun

Today I went to Clunes Forest School and made christmas decorations from all natural materials. I had the opportunity to learn how to make wreaths but thought that it would be hard to get through customs but it was fun learning how to make them. I did make a little christmas tree and a star out of weaving tree branches. My fingers are a bit sore from this activity but it was lots of fun. I went with the physio and OT that I have been working with. They made wreaths and they were very cool. It was a great day although very cold. The fog never lifted today which meant the day did not warm at all and the thick frost is still covering everything, including the sheep.
~Meagan

Winter Tulips?

It was 24 degrees this morning in Portland. Yes, it has been unseasonably dry weather of late, but at no time has it resembled spring in any way. However, someone has forgotten to tell my tulips this. They are very seriously starting to come up. I re-covered them with dirt and piled leaves on them, which I am hoping to stop this early arrival. Tulips in December, I guess they forgot to read the directions.

Tiah

Hiking Fun

This past weekend David, Lauren and Rod came over to Fort William and by some miracle it stopped raining and the sun came out. We had a brilliant time hiking around Glenfinnan and taking some great photos on saturday afternoon. Sunday we hiked up part of the Ben Nevis path and then down and along some of the Glen River path. It was a great weekend for weather and fun with friends. We had our dinner at the Ben Nevis Inn, which looks out at Glen Nevis. We all drooled over the specials on the board and then I had a hamburger and everyone else had fish and chips.
~Meagan

Black Friday

This morning KelliJean & Tiah did their part for the American economy by joining the masses at 4:45am to begin their Christmas shopping. We sent Thursday afternoon, pouring over the ads, making lists, plotting strategy, and finally drawing our traditional Treasure Map of Savings.

It was cold and raining in Kennewick, but we made it to Kohls, Macy's, American Eagle, & Target all before 6:30am. At that time we picked our Mom & family friend April up before continuing on to Dutch Brother's Coffee, Walmart, Fred Meyer, & Craft Warehouse. By this time the trunk was full of purchases and we were exhausted. We had fun, managed to make a dent in the Christmas shopping, and saved quite a bit of money on door-buster sales.

Tiah

Community Paediatrics

For my elective Placement I am in Fort William doing community peadiatrics. I have done one week and it is brilliant. I am getting to see a lot of different conditions and see a lot of this part of the contry. The physio here covers a very large spread of the highlands and so we go all over to see patients. Next week we are going to see patients on one of the islands that we cover so very excited for that. The physio's case load is very varried so I am getting the opportunity to word with a good variety of children with different condidtions and see how the same condition can present completly differently. Fort William is very rainy just now so pretty wet but I managed to get out walking yesterday for several hours along the Great Glen path.
~Meagan

Last Night

For our last night all together everyone came out to the house in Stonehaven for dinner. After a long day of packing and giving half of my things to charity it was great to have everyone gathered for a night of fun. We got real Champagne and celebrated in style. Dinner had a autum theme so for starter I made sweet potato apple bake, Rod brought cheese and crackers. For main Caryn made chili, David and Lauren made corn bread, and Saf made a traditional dessert. It was truely a great night although a bit sad knowing that we will not all be living in the same location ever again. The past two years have been really great thanks to the great firends that I have made. The six of us will be friends for a very long time even though we are not living in the same countries, we have already started planning holidays together, and we will be keeping in touch.

~Meagan

Mark Your Calendars!!!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that the day I have been working towards for the past four years is coming! Drum roll, please!....... Graduation is June 11, 2010 in Cheney, WA!!! I'm not excited or anything!!! So mark your calendars! I hope I see you all there!

KelliJean

Class Farewell

On Novemer 11 after our dissertations were due the university lectures hosted a reception for us. Caryn, Safina and I were late because the bus took forever to get into Aberdeen however it was very nice. Fiona, the couse leader was still off ill but sent an email to say a few words it was very nice. We stood around in the classroom drinking wine and beer and having finger food. It was good to see everyone again since I had not seen many of my classmates in a while so good to see them. After the reception at school we all headed to The Old School House (a pub) and we had food and drinks and lots of fun talking and spending time with each other. The farewell was a bit sad and I cried saying goodbye to some of my classmates. Overall though it was great. I am going to really miss my class, we have all grown very close over the two years. We got a photo of us all. We were only missing one girl who broke her arm last week and went home to recover.

~Meagan

Early Thanksgiving

Today, being Vetran's Day the university was closed with almost everyone from my Baja group having the day off. So we had an early Thanksgiving to celebrate the season and all that we have to be thankful for. I was put in charge of desserts, which I normally don't mind - I love to bake. However, I had never successfully made a pie before. I researched around and talked to people and finally I found two very different pie's that I figured would not be too hard.

I made a pumpkin pecan pie and a coconut impossible pie. The pumpkin pecan pie had a pumpkin pie with a pecan pie layered on top. The coconut impossible pie is where you mix all the ingredients into a bowl & pour into the pie pan and when it bakes it "magically" creates a crust on the bottom, custard in the middle and a coconut top. Both pies turned out really good, I was very proud of myself.

Tiah

Tutoring

Hi guys, today was my first day of tutoring English Language Learners at Sheridan Elementary school in Spokane. I had been working very hard on getting my lesson plans set and it all paid off today. I was really nervous going in and meeting the two girls I am tutoring, but both girls were very well behaved and extremely chatty! We drew pictures and shared about our families, looked at my favorite wordless picture book called Wave by Suzie Lee, Read Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Williams, wrote summary statements, and read Recess Queen by Alexis O'Neil. Overall the lesson was extemely successful and I felt really good when we were done. Now I am looking forward to our tutoring session next week! Thats all for now!

KelliJean

TIME TO PARTY!!

I have officially finished my dissertation, the cds are burned and it has all been checked for plagerism. All I have to do is print it out tomorrow and turn it in! If you would like to read it just let me know and I can send it to you. But for now it is time to party!!!!!
~Meagan

Halloween 2009

The third annual Green Gables Halloween party was an sucessful event. People came, food was ate, drinks were drunk, candy was given out, and a good time was had by all.

It was a very good night for Halloween. I was worried when earlier in the afternoon we had a downpour and the wind started blowing. But by 6pm the skies had cleared & the weather warmed. Most of our trick or treaters did not even wear coats.

People were good sports and I think almost everyone wore a costume. My favorite costume of the night was one of my roommates friends who dressed as "Flo" the Progressive Insurance spokeswoman.

Tiah

Flood!!!!!

Stonehaven has flooded tonight! We have had torental down pour all day and the river broke and streets have flooded. Was just out and the water seems to not be rising any longer but a lot of homes and businesses have flooded. We did not get any water at our house but the water did get close. And of course what you do when it floods is you take photos so we went out and got some.

~Meagan

Lost our minds

Question...What do you do when you lose your mind with less than two weeks till your dissertation is do? Well the answer of course is rent a car! Caryn and I decided that we wanted something fun to do this saturday since we are very nearly done with our disertations and going to be leaving Scotland soon. We got the car for the whole weekend cause it is a better deal that way. Friday afternoon after spending the morning staring at my work trying to think how to add a few more words we went on a drive down the coast a wee bit. We ended up finding this amazing beach in Catterline. The waves were great! Saturday we drove down south to the Scottish boarders and went to the four boarder abby ruins. They were incredible. The first was in Melrose. The architecture was absolutly amazing. Unfortunatly my camera stopped working so I didn't get any photos, but will be getting loads from Caryn. Here the heart of Robert the Bruce is burried. Bought some batteries and the camera started working again, lucky for me. Next stop was Drybrugh Abby. This abby was smaller but just as beautiful. This one is smaller but a bit further off the road so very peacefull. Here Sir Walter Scott is burried. Next we drove up to a view point called Scott's View, it is where Sir Walter Scott loved to look out at the hills rising out of the Tweed valley, and I can say that it was beautiful. Very easy to see why this was his favorite spot. The next abby was my favorite, Jedburgh Abby. The archs on this abby were my favorite. The whole abby was beautiful, there was a bit of construction on part of it but it was still great to see. Also in Jedburgh we went to Mary Queen of Scots house, it was a very nice moderate sized stone cottage. I am sure back in her day is was a very large house. There was tons of information about her there but we didn't really have much time to sit and read through it all so we just had a short tour of the house. The last abby was the Kelo Abby. Although all that is left of this abby is just a small portion, in it's day it was the largest of the four boarder abby's. Just by looking at what is left you can tell it was huge. This abby was very beautiful too even though just a small part is left. Before coming home we stoped at Smailholm Tower, since we had gotten a student pass that got us entrance into it. This is a 15th century boarder home that once belonged to the Pringle's. As a boy Sir Walter Scott went to this home because his grandfather owned it. It has lots of history, google it if you want to know more. Anyway it was a really great day, the weather was warm and sunny, warm for the last day of october. Sunday we after church we drove to Glen Esk, which was wonderful. However the rains were pouring down torentually and so we were a bit worried about flooding so we were not out for long. Over all it was a very good weekend. Best part was the no work, but monday back to it.

~Meagan

The Night Before Halloween

Twas the night before Halloween,

When all though the house,

Every creature was stirring,

Even the mouse (not really we're mice free).

The cobwebs were hung by the chimney with care,

In the hopes that trick or treaters would soon be there.

The cookies were nestled all snug in their tupperware,

While visions of witch fingers danced in our heads.

As Annie (my roommate) in her apron, and I in my hat,

Had just settled our pumpkin curry for a long simmering bath.

When out in the library there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the kitchen to see what was the matter.

Away to the hall I flew like a flash,

Tore open the curtain and threw on the lights. . . .

Well, you get the picture. At my house we are getting ready for our annual Halloween party. I will have more pictures up soon. But for now here is a picture of my fun cookies that I made tonight.

Tiah

Baby Shower

This past weekend was one of my best friends baby shower, so I made the long drive from Cheney to Vancouver to attend. It was great getting to see Britnee again, she is getting so big!!! I loved getting to buy cute little girl clothes and lots of books! Also on my trip I stayed with Tiah and go to see my parents, which was very nice. Portland was so beautiful with the leaves changing! But overall it was a wonderful weekend! I hadnt seen Britnee in over four months so it was great getting to see her again, and it was wonderful to get out of cheney. Now I am looking forward to Homecoming weekend and Thanksgiving!

KelliJean

Nessie Hunting!

Well I travel back to Inverness for a fifth time to go to Loch Ness with Alley to go Nessie hunting yet again. Sadly I did not find her still, but have decided that the boats that we go on are just too loud so Alley and I are planning to get some practice kayaking and then come back and kayak the Loch and that will give us a much better chance of spotting Nessie. We just went up for the day so after the tour of the Loch and Uruquhart Castle we had lunch at Bella Itiala and then went shopping for souvenirs for her family. We had lots of fun.
~Meagan

Edinburgh

I finally made it to Edinburgh, I know kinda lame that it took me nearly two years to get there but what can I say, I have gotten to see a lot of Scotland and have loved it. Edinburgh was not too bad, well the very small area that Alley and I toured. We stuck close to the royal mile cause we didn't have a map and did not want to get lost. We went to the castle which was pretty cool and had great views. We went to lots of souvenir shops but did not buy anything besides some shortbread for Alley's soilders and family and a small box of Edinburgh Castle Rock, which is a really strange candy that is kinda like tums, very weird. We also went on a ghost tour of the south bridge vaults. It was a bit scary being in there but nothing happen, besides me having nightmears for the next few days. Overall it was a pretty enjoyable day. Oh and we got our photos with William Wallace!

~Meagan

Road Trip!!

While Alley is here Caryn, Safina and I decided to rent a car to show her some different parts of Scotland. Day one we drove the four hours to Glencoe. Since fall has hit here the colors along the way were amazing and in Glencoe everything looked brilliant shades of organge, it was great. We drove through several glens and saw some great sites and stoped in a few towns along the way. Day two we took a drive up the coast along the coastal road. We went to three fishing villages that are down the cliffs one of which you cannot drive to you have to walk because there is no room in the village for cars. We went along all the way to Cullen and then turned around and drove back via a small village with a tall slender church. Day three we drove to Lochnagar and hiked up most of it, all the way to the Loch. It was a long hike, took four hours round trip but it was lots of fun and very exhasting. We did see a man hiking up that was wearing a kilt and that pretty much made all our days. The view from the top would have been great except for the gail force winds trying to knock us off the mountian so not many photos were taken up there. We took the scenic trip back to stonehaven and saw some more great sites.
~Meagan

Ireland

Alley and I took three days in Ireland and discovered that Ireland is a country where you should avoid the big cities and get a car and explore the contryside. Unfortunately we did not do that and was in the city for most of the time. We flew to Dublin and spent a day and half there, the first day was sunny for our half day of walking around and then the second day it was pouring rain all day. We went to a church that was built in the 8th century but it had not been kept up so not exciting. We went to the Guinness store house and walked up and had our free pint in the top of the world's largest pint glass. I ate Irish stew which was really tasty, was not sure if I was going to like the lamb but it was really good. We then headed down to Cork and spent a day there and took a trip out to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone. Blarney was the best part of the trip, we loved the grounds and wished that we could have spent several hours out there instead of just an hour. Cork itself was not a very nice city but we did a lot of walking around. We are planning for the next trip to Ireland going to Galway and the west coast.
~Meagan

Fall Quarter

Hello all! I am starting my final year of college at Eastern Washington University. This quarter is going to be a very, very stressful one. I am taking five classes. The first class I am taking is Student Centered Reading programs, which is focusing on tailoring individual students reading programs to their specific needs. Next I have, Reading for Language Diverse Students which is teaching me about how to work with ELL Students, or English Language Learners. Also, Content Area Reading, Management and Assessment, which is showing us the importance of bringing reading into other content areas such as science, social studies, art, music, P.E., etc. this class is full of non-reading majors so it is a little slow moving and repetitive of a lot of my other classes, it also contains mostly secondary education majors which feel like they don't need to be there because they wont have to teach reading. Man are they wrong! Then I have Instructional Media and Technology, this class teaching me about all new ways to bring technology into the classroom, I think I will learn a lot in this class but I know it will be very stressful because most of the things we are planning on talking about I have never heard of before. And last but not least I have Music Methods for the Elementary Classroom Teacher, this class will be a blast! On the first day of class we got to dance around, play games and sing. It was a lot like being back in Elementary school music class.

On top of that all I am now placed in a Kindergarten Classroom at Opportunity Elementary School in the Central Valley School District. And this I am very excited about! My cooperating teacher is a friend of mines Mom. I am really looking forward to getting to know my students and being able to finally put all of the knowlege I've been gaining into action.

As most of you have probably already heard, I moved in to Brewster Hall, which is one of the dorms on campus. So far I am having a blast and I really like all of my roommates, who I already knew. And I also got a job working in the Hall office, which is so nice! My work is less than two minutes away from my room, so no long commute, and has flexible hours and best of all I get to work on homework while I am there!

This quarter is shaping up to being a very busy one, but I am looking forward to it keeping me on my toes! I'll make sure to let you all know more as I go along!

KelliJean

Book Club BBQ

I decided to have my book club over for an end of summer barbecue this week. I have a very cute red Weber BBQ that my roommates have used several times this year, but I had not. I figured how hard could it be, I've watched them use it & I have cooked on charcoal grills before. Well, as it turns out, it can be difficult to light charcoal especially if you forget the lighter fluid. Once that problem was identified it was pretty easy to get flames. However, I could not keep the flames going or seem to get the charcoal hot enough. After an hour of trying, I gave up and cooked the turkey/veggie burgers inside.

The burgers were really good I mixed into the ground turkey chopped carrots, onion, & spinach. My new food processor that I received for my birthday worked fabulous.

The really funny part is, I am just really impatient because after the burgers were cooked & we finished eating I went back outside & the BBQ was all ready to go. So I ended up BBQing the rest of the burgers outside at 8:30 at night.


Tiah

Dunnottar Woods

This past Sunday Caryn, Safina and I went out to Dunnottar woods, which are about a 10 min walk from where we live. We had a great time exploring and are looking forward to going back for some more explorations. We saw Shell House which is a little house that the inside is all shells. Unfortunatly I lost my footing and fell while walking on the side of a hill and now have a very purple large bruise on my leg and my shoulder is very painful. I was fine when we were in the woods so when we found the rope swing we had a lot of fun swinging on the swing and taking photos. We found a beautiful waterfall with a bridge over it and took several photos here as well. Next time I don't know what we will find but I am sure it will be tons of fun!

~Meagan

Ceilidh

Last night Caryn and I went to a Ceilidh, which is a traditional Scottish social dance. It was a surprise party for a man at the Church we are going to, his 50th. It was tons of fun. One of the great things of Ceilidhs is that it does not matter if you don't know the dances cause the bands will walk you though the dances before you do them. I was asked to dance by a very nice 10 year old boy from the church and we did a dance called strip the willow, which for the part of the dance that it is your turn all you are doing is spinning around, makes you a bit dizzy by the time it is over. The rest of the dances that I did me and Caryn were partners and it was fun to get to learn the dances. This was the second Ceilidh that I have attended and I have really enjoyed them. For dinner we had traditional stovies, they were very good. I found out that I actually like beetroot as well. The man who's birthday it was had no idea that he was getting a Ceilidh for his party but he enjoyed it a lot.
~Meagan

Adventures in Stonehaven

So yesterday was a sunny day and Safina, Caryn and I needed a break from the constant work so decided to walk out to Dunottar Castle. Along the way we went into one of the fields and climbed up on one of the big rolls of hay and took photos. It was very entertaining watching Safina and Caryn get up, I some how was the best at getting up and I very quickly would get up. Because I was the best I got volunteered to be the one who set the timer on the camera on the ground and then run up and sit for a photo, 10 secs. Then we walked out thinking of ways we could combine our names into on, finaly set on Safrygan. We found a blackberry patch and picked some blackberries to enjoy and they were very good, tart but great. We then walked down the hill to the beach and along a rocky beach and back up the hill on the other side. It turned out to be a great afternoon.

~Meagan

Dorm Move In

Saturday was the big dorm move in for KelliJean.

She moved back to Eastern Washington University and moved into a dorm for the first time (as a senior). Much to our parents dismay.

We were very lucky that she was able to get a job on campus in the housing department, which allowed her to move in a week before the rest of campus. Her dorm only has one small, very slow elevator. I'm not sure how it will work next weekend when the majority of students move back into the dorm.

Her room is small, but once everything is unpacked & put away it should be nice & cozy.

Tiah

Birthday BBQ

Two weekends ago we had a birthday barbecue to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday. There was beautiful warm weather all morning in the Tri-Cities, and then about 30 minutes before guests were suppose to arrive, the wind picked up & the clouds moved in. So we packed up our supplies from the backyard & moved everything to the front yard hoping the house & bushes would give a little protection from the wind.

The BBQ turned out great, my cousin Art did a fabulous job as the guest chef on the BBQ Grill. And the downpour did not arrive until everyone was finished eating.

Tiah

Braemar Gathering

I got to see the Queen!!


So very exciting I went to the Braemar Gathering this year and this highland games is very special because the Queen attends, well she attends for about an hour. I went with my classmate Rod and we got seats infront of the heavy events but these seats were not great and so ended up after an hour walking round a bit and finding standing room directly accross the field from the Royal Booth, which meant good view of the Queen when she arrived. It was great fun, they do all the events at the same time so you get to see lots of things all at once. They had the traditiaonal caber tossing, hammer toss, tug-a-war and many other events. I think caber tossing was my favorite but the throwing a heavy weight over a high bar was a close second. In one of the running events there were two men that actually wore kilts, which they don't usually do this for the running events. Another cool even is running up a hill where they go and run up and back down this giant hill close to town. Although we were a ways from the Queen it was still really cool to see her. Many of the Royal family attended the games. Over all it was a very cold and enjoyable day.
~Meagan

Birthday Weekend

Every summer we have a big birthday weekend. Cherie's birthday, then Tiah's birthday and then 3 days later is Steve's birthday. This year we traveled to Seattle to celebrate our birthday's at a Mariner's Game. Tiah got the tickets - good seats right behind Ichrio - unfortuantely Ichrio took the night off as well as Ken Griffrey Jr., but it was a good game nontheless with the Mariner's beating the Kansas City Royals 6-3.

The next day we went for lunch at one of our family's favorite restaurants, Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union. The weather was nice enough that several boats were making their way past the restaurant for our lunchtime entertainment. Including a tense moment when a older gentleman slipped and fell off his boat and a few men had to come to the rescue. Luckily he was saved and appeared unharmed from the experience.

Tiah

Summer Adventures!!!!

Summer might be coming to an end, but thats not slowing me down!!! August has been a busy month for me. I started the month off by meeting Tiah in the Tri-Cities for a day of wine tasting while our parents were out and about in Scotland! Then four of my friends and I went to Silverwood for the day which was a blast! We went on all of the waterslides, floated on the lazy river, and I went on my first rollar coaster! It was quite the day! even though I did get sunburned! Then two weeks later, I ventured off to Seattle to visit my best friend Joanna and to go to one of my sorority sisters weddings. The five day trip started off with our sister Kathryn's wedding in Lakewood. The wedding was at a beautiful garden and the bride looked just as beautiful! We had a great time and danced the night away with our sisters. After the wedding we headed back to Joanna's parents house in the Greenlake area of Seattle and we played tourist for the next 3 days! We went to the EMP, Seattle Center, window shopped at Pacific Place, Pike Street Market, the Waterfront, walked Green Lake, and so much more. I had a blast hanging out with Joanna and her family! While I was there I got to celebrate Joanna's 22nd birthday which was a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of her family. The five days I spent in Seattle went by too fast, but i had a really good time catching up with Joanna! The summers not over so maybe more adventures are in store for me!!!

Kelli

Stonehaven

I have just moved to Stonehaven. Caryn, Safina and myself all needed someplace to live for three months and since in Scotland you have to sign a 6 month lease we really had a hard time finding someplace. We have been blessed to have found a house in Stonehaven, just a 40 min bus ride from Aberdeen city center, that is very beautiful. We are one block from the beach and can see it from just out our front door. There are many bakeries that we are already planning to try. My room is very pink but it is really nice. For the next three months we will be writing out thesis so wont have to go to Aberdeen very much so are going to enjoy living in a small town while writing out papers.
~Meagan

Holiday with Mom and Dad

Mom, Dad and I had a great time whene they were here in Scotland. I got to play tour guide and take them all over. We spent the first few days here in Aberdeen and I showed them about. We took day trips to Balmoral Castle, the summer home of the Queen, and to Perth to go to Scone Palace. Then I took them down to Carlisle England for a few days as a birthday present trip. We got to go out to two of the old Roman Forts and got to stand on Hadrian's Wall. The landscape was amazing down there and I have decided that I want to backpack the 80 miles of the wall. It looks like it will be a really nice walk. In Carlisle we ate some really good Italian food and went to a Greek restaurant that was amazing. We came back up to Aberdeen and spent a few more days, did some shopping and walking around. I attempted to take them to Duthie park but one wrong turn and they didn't believe that I knew where I was going and decided to turn back. We did make it out to Hazelhead park, on the bus, but once there it started raining so we did a quick walk around the Queen Mum's rose garden and headed to the canteen and got a cup of tea and a sweet treat. Next we went up to Inverness and took a tour of Loch Ness and the castle Urqhart which is along the Loch. We did more shopping in Inverness at the gift shops. From Inverness we headed to Fort William. We did a private car tour in Fort William which took us through Glen Nevis (Braveheart was filmed here), up to Spean Bridge, through the Cameron land (a Cameron family museum), to Glenfinnan (where we saw the Glenfinnan Viaduct which is the bridge in Harry Potter, and saw the church that is in Made of Honour), and along Loch Linnhe. The tour was really amazing and well worth the trip. We headed back to Aberdeen and it was time for packing for Mom and Dad to return to the US. It was a great holiday and very relaxing.

~Meagan

Perth

So I am a bit behind with telling everyone what I am up to. June 22 I began a placement in Perth doing stroke rehabilitation in the stroke unit at Perth Royal Infirary. I was not really looking forward to it thinking that I was not going to like that area of physio but ended up really enjoying it and learning lots. It is not an area of physio that I would like to specialize in but it was a great experience and am really glad I now have the background knowledge, it will come in handy if I ever work in acute wards in a hospital. I did really well on the placement and managed to get a B on it. While in Perth I did a little exploring of the city and walked out to Scone Palace. Scone is where the Scottish King's and Queen were crowned. The palace is lived in by the Earl of Mansfield and family. The stone of destiny is no longer in place there but there is a replica. The one that they believe is the real one that was stolen and then returned to Scotland many years later is in Edinburgh but tests on the stone are looking like it is not actually the real one. If that is the case then no one knows where the real stone of destiny is. Also at the Palace is the David Dougallas Tree which is a tree that was planted from a seed that was brought to Scotland from the Columbia River.

~Meagan

Softball World Series

This past week has been the Little League Softball World Series hosted by Alpenrose Dairy here in Portland. This years champions was the Northeast team from Georgia; a group of very skilled young softball players.

I volunteered all week as a scorekeeper with a friend of mine. It was a lot of fun we were able to meet teams from all over the world - our favorite teams were from Italy & Curacao. We also got to watch several really good softball games.

Tiah

World Travelers

Update on our family's world travelers. Mom & Dad are back home in Washington. They had a wonderful trip traveling throughout Scotland & England. They are taking a short rest before heading out on a road trip to Idaho to visit Dad's favorite restaurant Cracker Barrel.

Summer Concert

Yesterday, I attended the Portland Summer Concert Series in the Rose Garden outdoor amphitheater. Leave it to Oregon to have a outdoor concert almost rained out in the middle of August. But this being the northwest the show did go on even in the pouring rain.

There was two performances, a Butoh Theatre - which is a traditional Japanese movement. And the Portland Taiko, which is traditional drumming.

It was a very enjoyable evening even with the rain.

Tiah

Knitting Convention

This weekend was the Sock Summit, a knitting convention for sock knitters. This year's conference was held in Portland. I was unable to attend any of the classes, but I was able to attend a spinning demonstration, visit the sock museum, and look around the Marketplace.

The traveling sock museum was a little disappointing. I was hoping they would have actual socks knitting from various times in history. Instead they had sock patterns from throughout history and reproduction of the socks. The item that did interest me the most was a pattern from the Red Cross from WWII for knitting socks for the soldiers in Europe, along with a skein of earn that went with the pattern. What a wonderful & personal war time effort knitting socks for the military.

Tiah

Koren Taco's

Today is the day that the Koren Taco truck, Koi Fusion comes to campus. It has a wide following around campus and the staff gets really excited to see it drive up. They really are amazing. Corn tortilla's, beef, pork or tofu in a Koren marinate, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, cilantro, & lime.

Tiah

heat wave

For the past week the heat wave in the pacific northwest has been almost unbearable. Portland had record high temperatures, last Wednesday it actually got up to 111 degrees F. Unfortunately I don't have air conditioning like most houses in Portland and the heat was a little much. We don't usually have many days that reach 100 F, but last week we had 7. This week is suppose to be better, it should be in the 90's & then upper 80's which is what a normal Portland summer is.

This weekend I did meet KelliJean at our parents house in eastern Washington. We both enjoyed sitting inside a nice air conditioned house

Tiah

New Waffle Cart

This morning I had a great experience with two of my co-workers. We tried a new food cart near the PSU campus, Parkers Waffles and Coffee - which was incredible.

I tried the Southern Chocolate Grilled Banana waffle which had grilled banana's, pecans & chocolate hazelnut spread. Probably too sweet for a normal breakfast but it was really good. I totally recommend if you are ever in downtown Portland on a weekday morning to stopping my the cart on 4th Avenue. Its run by a very friendly couple who love to chat as they make waffles.
Their website is http://parkerswaffles.com/

Tiah

Middlekauff Family Reunion

This weekend was the annual Middlekauff Family Reunion. It was a gorgeous day in West Seattle, sunny and warm with a cool sea breeze, perfect sitting in the shade weather.

Jean made a wonderful lunch which everyone enjoyed with an amazing Cherry Clafoutis for dessert with Lapin Cherries, which is a dark cherry similar to a Bing.

Bob shared stories about growing up with Dorothy which is always a welcoming treat to hear. And then stories about Carl, Steve, & Jean as children were told.

Next year will be both John & Nancy's 90th birthdays, hopefully all 24 of us Middlekauff's will be able to attend.

Tiah

Berry Picking

This last week I went to Sauvie Island for berry picking with my friends Annie, Sarah & her little boy Caleb. Of course we had to choose the hottest part of the day and one of the warmest days of the year to do this. Although we had a lot of fun.

We picked boysenberries, blueberries, marionberries & a very small amount of raspberries. We were either a little too late or a little too early for the raspberries, possibly both. All together we picked 10 pounds of fruit which we took home & froze.

We finished the day with purple fingers and full from eating fresh berries.

Tiah

Summer!!!

Well I am just starting my first summer here in Cheney, and it should be interesting! I am taking two classes, although I one of them hasn't started. But other than that this is my first summer that I dont have a job, but I'm still looking. It should be nice and relaxing or at least that is what I am hoping for! So far I have been passing the days by going to Fish Lake which is about ten minutes outside of Cheney with my friend shannon and soaking up the sun and reading! It should be a fun summer!