Long over-due Update

Jess and I are doing well. We've been married for over a year now. CRAZY! It's really amazing how quickly time flies by sometimes.

I started nursing school full-time back in January. I've got 4 1/2 more terms before I have my RN. I'll then do 9 months at OHSU to get my Bachelors Degree.

We've gotten a few new roommates since the last post. Currently in our home, we have Kendall, Matt & Aimee. Kendall is a 24 year old medical assistant for the VA Clinic down the street. Matt is a 29 year old new National Guard member headed to basic training in August. He's working at Olive Garden in the meantime. Aimee is a 33 year old new Portland transplant from Fargo, ND. She spent 3 weeks helping her neighbors sandbag in preparation for the river floods before moving out here to start her job as a social worker with Multnomah County.

It's a full house but we have lots of fun. Everybody gets along great and we all manage to live in our not-so-huge house without stepping on each others' toes.

Jess recently got a new job after getting laid off in October. He, along with about 50% of his old company, was left to fend for himself on unemployment at the end of October. We were down in Sacramento for him to take his Professional Engineering test and he flew back early Monday morning after his test--missing the birth of our niece--to show up at work and be told to go home with his things.

It was a trying experience and quite scary at first, but it turned out to be a huge blessing. Jess got the time he was really wanting to work on the house. He finished the basement bedroom remodel and updated a bunch of other things on the house and yard. Everyday I'd come home from work or school and he'd have improved something.
Then in March, the month when Oregon hit it's highest unemployment rates in years, Jess got a job for another engineering firm. The firm is a much smaller one than his old one. It's located in Oregon City. He's enjoying his time so far. His co-workers are great and he doesn't have traffic on his commute anymore.

Other life events over the past several months? Jess and I lost our grandmothers just one day apart from each other back in November. It was a very somber time for both of our families but we are confident that both grandmothers are in a much better place now.

My brother and sister-in-law gave birth to our gorgeous niece on October 28th, 2008.

I suppose that's enough updating for now. Thanks for reading! :)