Ready for Christmas music?

That's right - we've done it again. Perhaps you remember the break out sensational hit from last year.

Announcing the general availability of the second volume of Criddle Christmas Music:

With four new songs to help you get through the Holidays:

Download it now!
With work and school being crazy busy, this was a bit rushed and almost didn't finish, but we managed to pull it off somehow. What a fun family activity!
Will this new family Christmas tradition ever end?

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! So far, rain is keeping me from running my turkey trot.  Maybe I'll brave the elements...In the meantime, I will blog.  I am thankful for my life.  Have any of you ever felt that you were growing and improving in ways that are hard to describe?  That is how I have been feeling lately.  Some attempts to describe this feeling are: feeling more reliant on my husband.  He helps me everyday in real and meaningful ways, especially listening  Well, this is proving to be harder than I thought, but suffice it to say that I am growing and learning.  I'd say that these feelings are related to gaining experience and hopefully will turn into wisdom. 

In other news, school and work continue to be the majority of our lives.  I am at school for almost 10 hours everyday.  The bright side is that I am spending the time practicing my skills, doing paper work, calling patients--which really doesn't take that much time--and so there's not too much school work to do at home usually.  I have some great people in my class, too.  School is lots of fun. 

I am thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful for my husband, my family and my friends.  I'm thankful for my health, my ability to choose and for my mind.  I'm thankful for our home, clothing, food, cars and many other luxuries.  I'm thankful that today is a holiday and I can spend the next four days with Jefferson.  Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

What does Jefferson do?

Since our product is getting closer to completion, the shrouds of secrecy are beginning to lift and we're now allowed to discuss what we have been working on.

What I do for work

This recent post summarizes what I spend most of my time on. It is turning out very well and has the potential to radically change electronic software distribution models for rich client applications, especially for trial scenarios.

Camping in the Olympics

On a whim, we decided to spend the last warm enough clear enough weekend to go camping at our favorite Olympic National Park. It is getting too cold/cloudy/rainy for adventures like this now that winter is here. So, to properly send off such a fabulous summer/adventure season, we packed up and boarded the ferry.

The key goals of the plan were to 1) watch sunset from the hike to Hurricane Hill 2) camp at the nearby Heart O' the Hills campground 3) wake up early enough to 4) watch the sunrise from Hurricane ridge visitor center and 5) race back to get to church services in time.

We had success with everything. The sunset was a little too cloudy, but it still threw interesting colors everywhere. It got really cold at night. My sleeping bag was plenty warm, but my exposed nose froze. I'll need to come up with a solution for that which does not involve suffocating.

The one big letdown for you fans is that I put way too much trust in the Auto-ISO of my cheap old camera and it made the wrong decision for just about every shot. It picked much too high ISO and many pictures came out very noisy with ruined colors. Some salvaged ones are here.
The images are still vivid in our memories at least.

From Olympic campout Oct 2009

doodling

To get me through General conference as a kid, my parents would let me draw while it was going on. Getting the details right on Lamborghini's, spaceships, and various battle scenes would keep me behaved during the sessions.

In many respects I haven't grown up much.

Older people speaking slowly at a pulpit still does not capture my complete attention and I need to find something else to do to keep me from misbehaving. So, I got a book on how to draw flowers from the library and tried it out last general conference. See if you can match up these images with the source pictures. These are all from pictures we took at various gardens. enjoy




Sources:

No, we are not dead - just too busy livin'

Apologies to the folk who, unaware of RSS reader conviniences, eagerly checked this blog daily only to be disappointed with lack of new content. We hope you've learned your lesson.

Don't assume we haven't been doing anything since the last post as the truth is quite the opposite with adventures every week(end). With Vanessa back in school for the busiest semester yet and me with big work deliverables coming up we spend the valuable free time we do have together and not writing posts. But since I get a free hour from daily savings switch this morning, I'll see if I can bring this blog up to date.

Some noteables from the rest of summer -
Earlier in the year we tried to hike to Lake Serene but had to turn back due to blocking snow on the trail and I forgot my hiking poles. We returned and made it all the way (just shy of 30 switchbacks), but unfortunately clouds blocked the best views this time. I guess we'll need to go back again next year.

From Rest of summer 2009

By recommendation of some friendly fellow hikers at Lake Serene, we hiked Mount Pilchuck the next week. It is a rather prominent peak with 360 degree views of the Cascade range and Puget Sound. Or, at least it would have such views if there was not a thick cloud all around it. The whole hike was in a thick fog expect for the very end which was a few dozen feet above the clouds. So, we had 360 degree views of clouds in every direction save for a few near rocks jutting out. I would have preferred views unobstructed by clouds, but it was still a great experience and somewhat surreal. We found a nice rock to sit on and eat lunch while looking across the endless expanse. A small fire lookout tops the mountain. The top is a steep pile of large rocks and it looks like the lookout as well as the rocks will tumble over with the next breeze. Cool place

From Rest of summer 2009

We were invited by some of Vanessa's aunts and uncles to get together in Lincoln City Oregon. It was a beautiful weekend and the food was superb. We played at the beach, toured the delicious Tillamook factory, and also went to a lighthouse on the coast.

From Rest of summer 2009

We have visited the gardens around here many times and enjoy seeing the variety of beautiful flowers. More pictures here

Oh and I guess we never posted about the best adventure of all this summer: the Alaska cruise! It was so much fun and we still think about it everyday. You probably have seen the pictures already from facebook. Here they are if you missed them

From Alaska Cruise 2009

Inside my head

It's been a long time since I've written, and since neither of us have posted anything besides pictures and summaries from our weekend adventures. Well, this post will be blag-free (that's blog and brag mixed together, you can thank one of my siblings for that one).

I've been back in school now for almost a year. Next week is the end of my 4th quarter! I'll finish dental hygiene school June 2010. I must say, the more and more time that goes by in this program, the more I love dental hygiene. I am so happy to be able to teach people about improving their health, to see them making changes and taking control of their lives and to be gathering all kinds of information from some one just by looking in their mouth. One of my instructors likes to say that each mouth has a story, and that it's our job to read it and find out what the tissues are telling me. I love being in clinic and seeing my skills improve-how to handle the instruments, which ones to use, how to teach a 7-year-old about plaque and keep him still for a three hour appointment that ends with four sealants placed without the help of an assistant. Sounds corny when I write it and re-read it, but you know how good it feels when you find something that you genuinely enjoy doing and that you're good at? That's how I feel about dental hygiene.

Which leads me to my next point. This Summer I've had Thursdays and Fridays off from school, and have used lots of my time researching the health care reform. It started with an assignment to write to our state senators and representatives to include oral health care in the bill. Well, I am not an idiot, so I did an extensive amount of research trying to find out what EXACTLY is being proposed to find out if I wanted anything to do with the reform or not. I'll tell you, it is not easy to get the facts. I spent a few hours over several days looking at healthreform.gov before I finally decided that it's a bunch of hooey and was not really saying ANYTHING! Simple answer to my opinion: I am opposed to the reform.

All of this research has led me to some interesting sites. One that I like mostly because of the other links she posts is: redistrubtingknowledge.blogspot.com. This lady is from Seattle and really involved in going to and organizing rallies and protests in the area. In fact, I went to one a few weeks ago on a Friday during lunch time. I was nervous, but wanted to take a step out of my comfort zone and see what other people had to say. I met some great people who are not crazy, mad, yelling, loud protesters like I pictured. Unfortunately, I haven't been to a protest since, and really wonder at their efficacy anyway. Another site that I found yesterday is kirbytalk.com. He is also a local, and apparently has a talkshow every morning on AM570 from 5-9 am. I'll be checking him out more in the future.

I've been developing political opinions lately, which has been quite fun and fulfilling. Except for the fact that pretty much everything I see in the news is the polar opposite of what I would like to see happening. This is my chance to make a shameless plug for everyone who has not read it, to read Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. You will not regret it. Both Jefferson and myself would love to talk to anyone about it anytime.

In other news, my older brother is getting married tomorrow. I'm very happy for him and Megan, his almost-wife. I was recently inventorying our food storage and determined that we have about 4 months worth of food. Food storage is one of my favorite church activities. That and toll painting XD jk. I am preparing a lesson on organizing your home to present to my relief society sometime in the next few weeks. This should be fun because I haven't talked to any one from RS for months, since I serve in young womens. Anyway, I have been feeling quite out of touch with other ladies and hopefully this will make a difference. Then again, I have never in my life felt in touch with others. I guess even around church people I am different. I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger. But I have my husband. He is the best friend and support I could ever have, and I'm not just saying that to say it and be mushy. I also have my dental hygiene friends, my family and a precious few other friends. I'm content with that, and wonder if I really want any more or only think I do. I know that other people who read this feel or have felt the same way.

I went on a long walk yesterday, as I am want to do when I have tests to study for. I bring my notes with me and walk while I read and memorize. This has become a great way for me to exercise while doing school work. Also, I find it much easier to study while walking now than I do just sitting at home. While I was out yesterday, I found the blackberry jackpot. I stopped and ate a few, but unfortunately did not have anything to carry more home in. I'm planning to either walk there with Jefferson tomorrow or go back on my own sometime next week after finals are over. I love living in the Northwest! This has been then best summer I've had in a long time, and the weather has been fantastic. I'm looking forward with optimism to the winter, when hopefully our repair project will be going on, and to the coming year. Life is good, I have loads to be grateful for, I am happy with the work I've done to get where I am, and will keep working and making sustainable changes to keep moving closer and closer to perfection.