Long time, No post

Hello everyone.

Our apologies on the lack of participation from the Oregon Rosses. Last term was terrible for me. I had to work all nights and most days and didn't get much time for living. But this term, I don't have any nights! This took some gambling the the number of classes for this term (at one point I thought I wouldnt be able to get more than 3 and until last week was signed on for 6), but it paid off in the end. I have evenings off and will be able to relax more. Time to enjoy the Good Life, as Dave would say!

I finally got the pictures off of my camera from around Christmas and now you guys get to see some oldie but goodies (at least in my humble opinion.)

From New Years in Big Sur with Mike and Caroline, we have the very cold creek crossing.

Next, is Dave and Caroline going to bed well before midnight....again....

This I just like. It is of Mike and Caroline on the beach we hiked to...before the above mentioned creek crossing.

After New Years, Dave got to work on 6 cluster posts for his old employer Oregon Timberworks. He was able to work in his shop, cold as that was in January. Here are some pics of the finished products

And we went to the Handmade Bike Show... Sure do wish I could buy custom-made!

The first of hopefully many brews by the team of Ross and Davidson occured sometime during the winter....Actually, it was before Christmas, I think, but I'll just say winter so these pictures are still kind-of chronological... This is the "ghetto" brewery constructed in our backyard. Things can only get better from this!

And yep, it continues... Over spring break I had some help from my wonderful family and we painted my front room. Amy, Zoe, and Maya helped me paint and my Mom watched the little ones. I could not have done it with their help!

As you can see, the house is still cluttered and disorganized (sadly, not due to the painting but due to the lifestyle of Dave and Becky! We have too many books and not enough bookcases. Dave is working on this however and I hope to have a very organized home soon.)

Finally, the last picture is of Dave's newest addition to his shop. We finally had the bandsaw sent up from Eagle Tools in LA. This is the crate it came in. Dave just got it last week and is still in the process of getting it all set up. (He just barely got it standing on its base today) I'll put up some new pictures soon of the bandsaw when it is up and running.

Well, if you made this far, thank you for humoring us! These pictures weren't great but its what we've been up to!

Love you guys,

becky and dave :)

the decision....

so after a lot of thought and talking with brians parents, we decided on an apartment. the big reason being dogs. we have our 2, kansas being quite the dominant female and they have 2 dogs, with kayla being a dominant female too... we dont see any way they could get along. the one time theyve actually met kayla attacked kansas and i ended up bleeding from a dog bite. not quite goign to work for 6 months. so we went and looked at an apartment pretty close to here yesterday. and were going to apply for it on saturday. would be a 2 bedroom 2 bath. so we can use the second bedroom for storage and not have to get a storage unit as well. were signing a 6 month lease and are setting 6 months as our deadline for saving a down. i am also changing jobs back to my old icu downtown sac. i really miss the people and the really sick patients. and there is actually an opportunity for overtime there. where i am now i dont get overtime ever. will keep you all informed! just thought id give you the update. =)

so i cut all my hair off.. couldnt handle long hair anymore..... brians cousin cut it for me..... dont you just love self portraits?

Happy Easter (19 shifts left)!

Looking forward to dinner on the 7th Tami and Billy. Mike and Carol, we'll call you and get together either tues wed or thurs. DAVID get my room ready and my fridge full of Perrier prepared. Becky can't wait to see you. Becky and Brian see you when we're passing through!

big decisions...

so our lease here is up soon, and weve been wanting to figure out what we need to do to buy a house. so weve been talking to dave (aunt kims wonderful boyfriend) about what we need to do. buying with no money down isnt an option really anymore, so were coming up with plans on how to save money. the easiest is to downsize life and living expenses that go with that. right now our rent is 1450, utilities run us about 150 to 175 a month and the list goes on and on. there are a few things we could downgrade but would only make a couple hundred a month difference. so it looks like were toying with the idea of buying a 5th wheel trailer and living in that for a year. brians parents have pleanty of space on their property and his mom is actually excited we would want to live there. if we went with that idea we could have the trailer paid off and save over 20000 in a year and then we could go on to buy a house with a nice down.the other option that seems to be fading out would be to get an apartment, but finding one that will let us have both dogs is hard to find and it would take us a lot longer to save. will keep you all updated. isnt that exciting... your little trailer trash sister! haha

Ignore the hand. If it's human, it's most certainly a large man's
This is our friend, Vicki. She's pregnant (not sure my drawing relays that)

HI

Hey Guys!
So Tami and Billy, we have off April 7 & 8th, so either of those nights will work for dinner. Let us know. AND we are buying a truck. Too long to get in to detail on the blog, but we will be driving it home! Woo hoo! Looking forward to driving home at a more leisurely pace. Mike bought the motor for the boat here at the fishing show for a great deal and we'll be hauling that back with us as well. It's all very exciting and as David would say EXPENSIVE. Still planning on leaving at the end of April unless we decide to stick it out a few more weeks. It's also nice because we don't need to know for sure so we can buy airline tickets etc.. Well hope all is well and Brian and Becky made it home safe and sound. Sorry we had to work all week.
C

Dates!

Dearest Family~~ :)

We bought our tickets this morning. We will be leaving Beijing on April the 4th. Our plan is to stay with Dad and Mom until Thursday morning the 10th. We are hoping to stay the night with Brian and Becky the 10th (and visit with you that afternoon/evening). We will then leave for Seattle the morning of the 11th (very early). We are wondering if that night (Friday) we can have dinner with Dave and Becky in Portland. Then on to Seattle late that night. Billy does not have a job yet, but he has been telling prospective employers that his is available to start work the 14th of April... so if we arrive in Seattle Friday night late, we can get ourselves slightly on our feet before he starts work the 14th(if he really does--heh heh).

So can everyone let us know if those dates work! If not....uh... we will be available in Seattle for anyone to visit anytime!! he hee....

Love to you all~~~
Tami (and Billy)

pics from tahoe

hello!!!

things here are a little more eventful than down south but not much... mostly working and having some days off together... were looking at buying a house sometime in the near future. the owner of this house wants to sell it, and we arent so sure this is the house we want to buy. we are talking to aunt kims boyfriend tomorrow about what he thinks we should do. took the dogs to the snow yesterday to go sledding and for them to play. had a blast, my friend disa and her dog brutus went to. we all had a great time. as for work, im getting used to where i work but still not loving it, the plan for now is to pick up a casual per diem job in the ER downtown at sutter general, where i used to work. as well as stay full time where i am. in hopes that getting my foot back in teh door there will help me get back in the icu when something opens up! heres some pics from yesterday! hope to see mike and caroline in a few weeks. oh and dave and becky.... were planning on using a week of brians time share on the coast in oregon for a week in june. hoping for a place in newport or otter rock. will let you know. the exact dates. hoping you guys can come for a night or 2 or we can come see you in portland before or after. =) miss all you guys!!!!
b & b

Hello Guys

Hey there.
Not really too much to report here and no exciting pictures to post but thought I'd say hello. We have ten weeks (forty shifts, hee hee) left, unless we decide to stay any longer. We're not thinking we will, but don't want to rule it out either. The work has been good as they have been putting Mike and I in this annex room with eight babies every day. It's nice because it's just the two of us so we sort of have control of the room ie organizing etc.. We'll see how long that lasts! Otherwise, haven't been doing too much other than trying to ride bikes and go for walks and spend time with family and friends on days off. We did get a chance to have a beer with the Davidsons a few days ago and see Melissa and Mandy and their husbands. That was a nice surprise. Thats about as "adventurous" as we've been in a few weeks! Well love to all. Hope everyone is well.
C

Hi Family~

Sorry, I was unable to reply to your previous post comments, because Billy and I have been away on an adventure to Xi'an for the past four days. :) Xi'an is home of the graves of many of China's earliest (and cruelist) emperors'. Xi'an was actually the capital of China for a long time. It has the grandest city wall in China and also is home to the terracotta soldiers (a grave of a famous emperor).

We took a night train to get there (16 hours). Since it was the eve of the Chinese New Year, there were less passangers than at other times. We had to come back early because they had sold out all the train tickets. During the Chinese New Year around 180 million people in China all make the migration back to their hometowns. It is the biggest mass movement of humanity on earth! It is INCREDIBLY crazy! Lines are out of control and the train station is a scary place!

We spent one day at the tomb of two different emperors, and at a famous hot spring site where they claim Mao himself used to dip (who knows really?!). Then we took a day to go to a nearby mountain called Hua Shan which was really nice... but freezing cold. We also checked out the famous Muslim Quarters in Xi'an. Xi'an has a very high muslim population (actually, according to Lonely Planet, muslims are the largest identifiable religious group in China still active-- a fascinating fact!). In fact, the muslims in northwest China have been fighting for autonomy for decades... which, of course, has resulted in a high amount of political persecution... imprisonment and execution. But they sure make yummy food!! We ate delicious muslim food the whole time! Yummy bread and lots of lamb!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:

These are pictures from the Muslim Quarter.

It was SOO smoky from all the yummy food being cooked on the side of the road.



And these are the terracotta soldiers in the largest grave. There are 6,000 warriors in this grave. They were unearthed in 1974 by some peasants building a well. Each of the warriors has a different facial expression!! Also, when unearthed, each was bearing some sort of real weapon (which have since been removed and are in storage). But when they excavated the tomb, the weapons were still sharp... even after being buried for over 2,000 years!! Incredible. This picture kind of gives you a feel for how big it is. I would say maybe 10 airplanes could fit in this large tomb area.... at least.
You can sort of see the facial expressions here. The soldiers are life size. They are in a rectangular battle formation facing east.

And this is to prove we were there.

I hope everyone is well! And I hope Dave is recovering from his wounds. I'd say the craisans really ought to have helped. I will leave you with a quote by Edna Ferber: "Living in the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles..." :)

And so our adventure continues...... :)

Love to all!!

WALMART

Hi Family!


Billy and I made a trip to Walmart today (which we haven't done in nearly a year!), and I happened to have my camera! These are some pictures of the exciting things that Walmart in China sells! YAY! Unfortunately my favorite picture, the close up of the dried pig faces, would not upload (I tried several times and it repeatedly failed). So, I leave your imagination to that one! You can click on each of the following pictures to make them big for your viewing pleasure....




These are a selection of dried things... duck, pork, beef, fish... the dried pigs faces are the third thing hanging from the right... yuuuuuummmmmy!!









These are the pig carcasses hanging behind the meat case. Quite appetizing eh!?? Everyone was staring at me because I was taking these pictures. They couldn't figure out what was picture-worthy. :)







Hearts anyone?!!

That's my hand.... I bet you are wondering how many pounds I bought?!?! ..... ;OP






And then there were the turtles.... in America you would have been in a pet store. In Beijing, you are in the meat section. These poor turtles are destined to be on someone's plate for the Chinese New Year (which is Wednesday). Note the tank with live turtles at the bottom/right... the top/left is a cut, bloody turtle in wrapping, surrounded by a black chicken carcass :)



NOTE TO SELF: never bring children to Walmart in China, they might have nightmares......
:)

It's thundering and lighting... a much needed rain storm

I'm enjoying the sound of the rain on the skylights. The thunder and lighting make it all the more interesting except Sadie is a little disturbed. We may have to move her bed into our room for the night. Otherwise Sadie will go into Lily's room looking for an understanding soul to give her a companion during the storm. While Mike and I were in Sacramento last weekend, Sadie wondered into Lily's room during the night. I think she has found a softy. Sadie would be happy to sit at someone's feet for the rest of her life.
We have met the neighbors, thanks to Sadie. She has gotten out 3 times and I now know 3 neighbors. :) the other day one neighbor got locked out of her house and she came over to use the phone. I had never seen her before but she knew Sadie because her husband had sat with her on the porch while he waited for me to pick her up.
Talked to Kim White today. Her husband is in Florida dropping real bombs. Then he is going to Las Vegas to the Red Flag routine. I heard that only the best airforce pilots get to attend the Red Flag. Kim only misses her husband. He will be gone for two months. When he gets home, he will go to the middle east for 4 months. Oh my. That's a long time.
I will post some pictures of our trip up north later... not as exotic as the Mancebos but fun for us. We had dinner with Bob, Debbie, Mackenzie, and Johnny; dinner with the Mancebos and brunch with Grandmama, Ben, Kim, Debbie, Mackenzie, and Rebekah. It was sooooo sweet to see everyone. Mom gave me a box of pictures and such that she has keep for me from my days of youth. Oh my did Mike have a great time looking at pictures and letters from before he met me. As for me, I was taken down a memory lane trip. Dad wants to share the stasch of pictures with you all when we get together. Heh, Mike and Caroline, when will that be?
We love you all.

were back!

were back. the cruise was great, very relaxing and a lot of fun. was great to get out of the cold and into the sun, although i could have done without the humidity. we went to roatan, honduras, san pedro, belize, cozumel mexico and great stirrup cay bahamas. heres some pics as promised.

Hi Family~~

I haven't posted pictures in a while, so I thought I would post a few fun ones.

This is from a recent trip to Shanghai. China is known for it's fakes.... they are way out of control here. This is a great wanna be. For those who don't know, it is trying to be Crocodile... I found it humerous.

This next one is out of our bedroom window recently. They say that photographers in Beijing don't need filters on their cameras, as the pollution does a good job. :) I agree! The pollution recently has been sickening. Days and days of overcast that is pollution caused.... the best is reading the weather forecast. I have a tool bar on my Windows Explorer that always tells me the temperature and current weather condition... for the past several days it has been "Smoke." Right now is reads "16 F. Smoke" :) Gotta love it. Only in China is "Smoke" considered a weather condition!



And this is just beautiful.... again, in Shanghai. The window of this restaurant reads, "Dumplings Stuffed with the Ovary and Digestive Glands of a Crad." Yuuuuummmmy. :)


Hope everyone is well. Thinking of you all~

Tami

so we survived the big storm, pretty unharmed... its a mess up here though.. brian was working the day of the storm, on average they run maybe a couple calls a day. they started calls at 5am and ran 17 calls between 5am and 1am the next night. his parents were out of power fro 60 hrs, luckily we live close so they came down quite a bit, for meals, showers, etc. hope everyone had a great new years. shiloh was here for a few days and we had a great time. visitors are always fun to have around. we leave on friday for a caribbean cruise for 7 days. should be fun and relaxing, going with my friend disa and some of her friends from ohio. we love you all! will definately post pictures when we get back!

I saw an article about a plane crash off the coast of Alaska... a plane from Anchorage to Homer.... didn't look too good. Just an FYI, in case anyone wants to check it out. Glad you all are in SoCal and safe.

Tami

Hannah and Nathan Crow's Wedding

Some pictures of the big day. Hannah and Nathan got back day before yesterday from their honeymoon. Hannah is doing student teaching this semester at McAuliffe. Nathan will be serving on the campus team with Dad and I. As soon as I find one of our cameras, we will send pictures of our new place.

Love to you all!

Just to let you know

I am feeling better. By next week I should be up and at 'em again. I will probably be a little more careful to eat right and sleep right... those laws of nature just don't seem to cooperated to let me get away with breaking them for too long :) We had a great New Years together and are looking forward to 2008 to be the best year of our lives.
Love you all very much,
Mom and Dad
Oh my. Don't tell Dad, but I can't find either camera.

New Years 2008

Well we had a great time in Big Sur. It was perfect weather and excellent company! Nice walks, delicious meals and some GREAT laughs as per usual. Hope you guys had a good drive home! Love you so much! Carol, hope you're feeling better and look forward to seeing you too. Love to all!

Guess what's new? If you guessed herpes (shingles), you are right.

Just wanted to let the family know that mom has herpes on my face. Maybe we will post a picture; Dad says I look like I've been beat up. The bad news is it's contagious so until the leision heals, I have to be careful to keep the sore covered and I can't hug and kiss children (good thing there are no grandchildren yet), people with low immune systems, and older, frail people. The good news is it will only last a couple of weeks and then I will be good to go. I guess I should have taken better care of myself during the move. I got sick and kept going (I'm good at that) and my immune system reached a low enough level that I broke out on my forehead. I didn't go to the doctor right away because I thought it was something that would go away with a little soap and water and ointment. Boy was I wrong about that. Anyway, just wanted you all to know before you heard something through the grapevine. I am taking the right medicine, putting ointment on the sore, taking advil for the discomfort and getting a lot of rest. :)

High Waters!

Well, this is the little ole creek in our backyard. It didn't worry the landlord at all, he hasn't seen it flood and they've had the property since '48. But boy did it get high!

We had what was classified as some type of tropical storm....some may just call that a hurricane. The winds hit the triple digits on the coast and the waves hit as high as 45 feet. Dave wanted to drive out to see the surf but the roads to the coast were all closed due to down trees and downed powerlines and and flooded roads.... Portland just got a lot of rain and some wind. The news said Salem had high winds clocking in at 55 mph! But today, Tuesday, the sun is shining and I even wore my sunglasses as I walked across the bridge downtown! Good Times!

december

caroline.. which days is best for yall the 12th or the 13th? were planning on leaving early on the 14th. have a dinner to go to.

happy thanksgiving!

wish we could make it up to portland! as for our thanksgiving, we both work so we had ours tuesday night wiht brians parents and some of our friends. our first thanksgiving turned out pretty good! lots of yummy food and good company. too bad mom and dad didnt make it up. still havent heard anything from any depts at my old hospital about wanting me back, but theyre having some pretty big budget issues so maybe its better i got out while i could. from what im hearing a lot of people are lookign to get out and not too many places to go anymore. ill keep yall postedwith that one. as for brian he has his interview with cal fire ( formerly cdf) december 3. hoping he passes it! would be nice for him to have a change of scenery and better job. hes looking forward to it. i miss everyone!

becky (and brian too)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone!

We'll it is definitely fall here in the Pacific Northwest. It has be raining all week but we have a forecast of sun for the holiday. Dave and I have been busy entertaining and preparing for the big feast. My dad is in town for the festivities and we are expecting a big McNary turn out so we've been busy.

School is going well, I am much looking forward to the holiday break. 3 more weeks! Dave's been trying to squeeze in some time in his shop between guests and most of that time was spent organizing. He is almost happy with the garage and is getting ready to get to work on a table for my sister Liz.

Happy Thanksgiving! We are grateful to have such wonderful family. You guys rock!

Lots of love,
Dave and Becky

what....

is mike and carolines start date at memorial?

what....

is mike and carolines start date at memorial?

It's almost time

Well, we leave in a few days and are just trying to soak up Homer. Had an unexpected visit from Jeff and Louisa last week which was fun. Crazy to have people visit in October as it was pretty cold etc... Looking foward to spending time with Dave and Becky as usual! That is what makes the transition a bit easier! These are a few pictures of their visit. Mostly from the few days we spent at our friends house on Yukon Island. Love you guys!

more of the visit...

Well... it seems Dad and Mom are busy packing up their lives to move down the street, so I will post more China photos for you all to enjoy... since I, on the other hand, am at the most low-key point in my life (that is, no work, little study, and few friends...).... :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of Pops. As is evident, he is about to burst into laughter. He was trying to just stare at the camera expressionlessly, but I insisted he look happy... heehee.... quite a handsome fella! (he is in a famous garden in Shanghai)

The last day of their stay in Beijing, I took them to the Temple of the Sun, a beautiful park area and we just hung out. It was great to notice the sign above the bathroom door......... nothing like a two-star toilet!! When Dad came out, he said he ranked it a negative one or two stars... teeeeheee!! You really cannot understand until you have seen them and had to squat next to a stranger to pee in a hole.... luckily with two stars, you at least get a little wall.... others just have a row of holes in the ground!!! Like camping.....










Another great Great Wall picture. :) Gotta love it! Quite a wall. :) One of the now, 12 (I believe?) wonders of the world.






This is Mom petting a lion who is about to devour her.



:) In that same famous garden in Shanghai.










And this is mom holding up a crab just before we ate a 18-plus course meal! We are in Xingcheng, a tiny town in northeastern China. Dad and Mom have friends in Long Beach whose parents live in this town.... so we went to visit them. They treated us like royalty.... This is where Dad and Mom began to gain weight. :) Out the window you can see the ocean... on the other side of it is north Korea. This city is where the Chinese navy is trained.

Welcome to my world! At least Dad and Mom were here to help off-set the severe racial imbalance in this country! :) Here we are with all the relatives of the people Dad and Mom know in Long Beach (at the same dinner in the picture above). The man on the right of Mom is the dad of their friend in Long Beach. He seemed fascinated by Dad's watch, and I told Dad that maybe he should give it to him as a gift (because they spent TONS of money entertaining us). Well, Dad did, as he figured I know Chinese culture and perhaps if someone complements you on something it is best to offer it to them (which is true in most cases). Oppsss.... after he gave it to him, I remembered that it is REALLY rude to give the Chinese a watch as a gift. They superstitiously believe that it means your days are limited and it is sending you to your death. You give a watch to an enemy! Oppss!!! Goes to show you one year hasn't been enough for me. :( Soooo... we hope the poor guy is doing okay today.

Much love to everyone! Thinking of you all! I still cannot read or comment on any of the comments.

Tami (and Billy)

the visit

Ok... here they are. Dad and Mom had an awesome trip in visit us! We enjoyed it thoroughly! We spent 7 days traveling to other places (both to northern China and southern), and then 5 days in Beijing.

This first picture is Dad and Mom in front of a Chinese junk on Tai Hu in Suzhou, China (the south~~about 4 hours car ride from Shanghai).
I think we all remember the story of Dad and Mom's first year of marriage when Mom gave Dad a model junk and then Dad said, "Thank for the junk!" Mom of course, not knowing that these Chinese boats are called "junks", and thinking that Dad was making fun of her gift, burst into tears! :) Here they are with a real junk!

This second photo is of Dad and Mom at the Summer Palace in Beijing. The Summer Palace is where the Emperors and Empresses would head to stay cool during the Beijing summer. It is only a few miles from our house. It has beautiful grounds and a lake (Kunming Lake) which we wandered around for several hours.

This is Dad and Mom in the Forbidden City. Mom enjoyed wandering around the grounds, as she taught Chinese history for so many years. The Chinese people we met all thought it was funny to meet an American Chinese history teacher. At the Forbidden City, Mom learned that she had taught students for so many years that the last dynasty was called the Chin dynasty (pronounced "Chen"), but actually the last dynasty was the Qing dynasty (pronounced cha-"ching"!). We all found that pretty amusing!

This last picture is Billy and I on a pedestrian bridge by our house. Our apartment complex is the white one behind us... you get a great feel for the pollution... it wasn't an overcast day, just a typically polluted one! :)


Hope everyone is well! If anyone else wants to visit, you have five months left in which to do it! :) We'd love to have any of you!

Much love~~~ Billy and Tami

china

we know mom and dad are back from china.... we want pics!!!!