Just a few short days after one of my favorite times on a mountain bike I had my worst. I didn't fall or anything. It wasn't too long or grueling or with bad company. We had just left. And within 3 minutes it was over. In Southern California if you see something besides concrete you go for it. I saw an open corner lot with small jumps and very minor technical challenges. I took it and when I got back on the street with the other six riders I had little "goatheads" (small sharp plant spikes) infecting not one but, you guessed it... both of my tires. I knew it was over. Right there in the middle of rush hour traffic I pulled one out and Psssssssssssssss...I knew I had about two minutes till I was flat. "See ya guys." I bolted home and made it to the end of the street before walking the rest of the way.


My evening was spent pulling the pieces of crap out of my tires so they wouldn't destroy the new tubes I have to put in. When I'm a PT I might opt for new tires in this situation altogether. But till then I put in the time and time is the only thing between looking at this with laughter and the frustration that I feel now. Stupid goatheads!Here's a riddle for you: What do guys when they are together and the wives are no where to be found the night before a wedding? PLAY ROCKBAND!!!!

A Good Friends Wedding

Above is the boys at the rehearsal up in Deer Park, Wa. These are some of my closest friends. The guy in the blue that I am joking with is the proud parent of the cutie below. She polished off a cupcake at the rehearsal dinner but choose to save the yellow icing for later.
Boys will be boys. Dan, on his wedding day, with cousin John and Jake scheming a way to capture fish for fun. We got together for Man Cakes (if you are clueless as to what a man cake is then you haven't read the previous blogs). Shame shame.
These lovely ladies have spent plenty of time together at weddings. The last few, the guys have been in them and they have hung out together. Katie looked amazing! When I escorted her to her seat I wanted a kiss so everyone knew I was the proud husband.
The reception was incredible. The ice cream cake was the best i've ever had. The weather was perfect. It was wonderful to see Dan get the girl he always talked about before they met. It was like a movie, one of those happy ending ones.

Back To The Basics

Monday afternoon I arrived in Spokane. I was picked up by a great friend, Dan Brossiot and he was quick to offer lunch. After lunch I was greeted with triscuits, a protien bar and Jason's wallet. Only those who know Jason can understand and find humor in his generosity.
Monday night was filled with the traditional Papa Murphy's pizza, Monday Night Football, and "Rock Band" a video game where we play the songs. I'm always the singer cause I have a great voice. NOT!Jason getting way to into it.

Tuesday we headed to the Idaho Panhandle. If you don't know this is one of the most beautiful places in the country and it's Spokane's backyard. This is the town of Wallace. The traffic light ahead was the last light in the west before they built the I-90 freeway. After this light heading east there weren't any until Minnesota or something. I love these old towns. They're so simple and everything is in walking distance. The median home price is around 180,000.Just outside of Wallace in between two mountains is a small dirt road. This road goes forever but we took it 20 miles in to a trailhead to start a mountain bike ride.

Beautiful is right. Katie and I miss these views down in Southern California. No people for miles. You know you are in the back country when you see more squirrells, lizards, snakes, and other wildlife than people. The Hiawatha trail is an old railroad bed that was converted into a bike trail.
Fall on the Hiawatha.There were roughly 7 tunnels and just as many bridges on the trail.


Jason going into a tunnel that was over a mile long. You are required to have a head lamp. Not only did he not have a head lamp but he did it shirtless. The temperature in the center was maybe low 40's. We had to go through twice because we choose to go out and back. Most people just go one way. The total trip was 28 miles.
Stretching.
I never get pictures of me so Nick agreed and has a photographers touch.
I caught Jason in the middle of a sneeze. Haha...
On the way back I had better light to work with. This tunnel lit up nicely.

I borrowed Dan's bike for the trek. It was just a little small and I felt the aches and pains last night. Jason had to run to the store at 3am for icy hot and advil.
We made it out before sunset.The scenery here is breath taking. It is too early to tell where we will live after school. The Northwest is a special place and we would definately consider coming back. I know that would make some people happy and others not so much.

Katie arrives in the morning. She will get here just in time for the wedding and festivities. I hope it's as refreshing for here as it is for me.

Spokane Reunion in Loma Linda

What a wonderful first week off from school. It started with getting plenty done. I was able to clean, plant, and build. It was nice to get it done before all the action took place. This is a picture off my front porch. Just a wonderful morning to sit outside and visit.



This is a picture of some classmates right before our last final. We were sharing in dinner and attempting to get some studying in before the test the next day. Our house can hold plenty of people. There were more in the living room.
This was a bitter sweet evening. I am losing confidence in my buckeyes. They have lost three huge games in a row. We still managed to have good eats, good company and I think the wives are going to be good friends.
These pictures are so out of order. This is a pool party the day of finals. We finished class and headed to a student's parents house for food and swimming.
Katie and I at the get together.
My buddy Joel arrived late Thursday night and I am still staring at him. Like I said before he is considering PA school and wanted to check out the area and the school. He has really enjoyed his time and I am glad our home can be a place where people feel rested and comfortable. He has had time to think, pray and enjoy lots of football, motorcycle racing and movies.


This morning we had another good friend show up- Sarah Gothold from Spokane. Her family lives in the L.A. area and made a short trip out here to see Katie and I and enjoy breakfast with the two of us and Joel.Spokane is our next trip and that should be fun. I will have just about a full week there. I'm interested in seeing how it accepts Katie and I. Will it be a place that we can see ourselves going back to when school is done? It is a long way away but will be interesting to see what it's like after being gone for a few months. Well, Ill update with pictures in a few days.

crazy evening

Well, its almost 1am and im out on my porch with a citronella candle lit, Katies sound asleep, the crickets are chirping and its a cool 60 degree evening. Joel, my buddy from spokane and recent Korean prisoner (Read about it on his blog to the right of the screen) is on his way and will arrive shortly to spend the weekend with myself and Katie. He is considering Loma Linda and wants to hit the beach. I am on break from school so this is a wonderful time to make it all happen.
Crazy evening. I got call tonight from a worried parent that their daughter(one of my classmates) had yet to call after a way too long hike up in the San Gorigio Mountains. They left at 545 this morning and had yet to give word of any return. They finally heard around 1030 tonight only to bring some news that two students hadn't made it down the mountain. So as of tonight, James and Rochelle are stuck up in the mountains in the pitch black sub 50degree temps and hopefully staying warm. Some humor must be applied to the situation that luckily for James, Rochelle is a rather attractive girl. Any guy would rather keep warm with the pretty girl than his best guy friend. It should be a long cold night and thats about it. I got word from Holly's parents to contact both Rochelles and James' Parents. Long story short I ended up calling Larry Chinnock, the Head of the Physical Therapy Dept., and the guy who interviewed me and gave me a shot at PT school. Yeah it was around 11pm. I met him at school with information and we went through the emergency contacts so he could notify the parents. Thats where we are now. There in the woods, the search and rescue will head out at 6am and I wait for Joel to arrive hoping he stays awake and makes it here. These are all concerns but it is good to know that I sit on the front porch like a guard while my bride sleeps soundly no more than a few feet away. She's safe. I mean if someone came up here now what am I going to do, throw the computer at them? Maybe Ill light them on fire with the citronella candle. That's the beauty of going crazy. When danger arrives it can turn anyone into an animal. Luckily Loma Linda is safe and we don't worry about those things often.
Man, crazy stuff. I played softball today. It was fun. Yeah not much more to say. I hear a car...headlights...yep...there we go...it's Joel. Welcome friend to my home. Brothers reunite. Welcome brother!

Our Day Mountain Retreat

This was our Fall retreat in the mountains of Big Bear State Park. It is a relief for all southern Californians because it's 20degrees cooler at 5000 feet compared to the sea level temperatures mixed with desert we get at home. We were at a small camp stuck in a valley. The grass in this picture is pretty much all there is in the area. Everyone here goes to Trinity.
This little guy gave us some words of wisdom before being baptized. He was a riot.

There are a surprisingly large amount of Ohio State Buckeye fans that attend the Church. I think they need to include that in there missions statement or something: "We worship God, recommend becoming a buckeye fan and one requirement is understanding the true meaning of becoming a buckeye."I had to get a picture of this guy. He dabbled in Agnosticism, Atheism, eastern faith and really questioned a belief in God. He put his mind to the task, asked some really hard questions, questions every "Christian" should ask themselves and over the course of a few years came away knowing why he believed what he believed. Thats something most people don't know...why they believe what they believe. I know that because I've asked them. '"What do you believe?" Christianity. "Why?" I don't know.' Ok cool, I couldn't do that but if you can, good.
This is Katie's boss, Elizebeth. She is a firecracker as you can see. Katie has already met tons of people. Like I said before there are lots of Buckeyes...I think three are pastors. Ahh, an influence besides me. It was good to see her interact with people. She is finally settled in down here. Once our budget catches up we will be officially settled in to Southern California.

A little boy anticapating a rush down a water slide.
The famous "Blob." I didn't post a picture of it. I should. Maybe next time. If you've never seen it is an inflatable big bubble lookin' thing that one kid sits on the end and another jumps from a tower and the impact blasts the other kid way up in the air and into the water.(run on sentence I think) We had a blob at "summers best two weeks" the kids camp I used to work at. On the weekends when the campers were gone and it was just staff, I would soak it with a hose and get a running start, jump the 20 ft and treat it like a slip-n-slide. If that doesn't make sense then just picture it being really fun and kinda dangerous. I almost separated my shoulder once. Another fun thing we did was simply jump off the tower missing the blob altogether and plunge into the water. I did lots of stuff without thinking at camp.
Today the high temp. is 86 degrees. That is the lowest high we've seen since our first week here. It ends a streak of 90+ that's been going for a while. The funny thing is I was told we had a mild summer. That's fine. I had the windows open till noon. It was great! '
There is so much to say. I'm going to hold back to space these writings out a bit. But topics to come: Summer quarter is over!, our Spokane trip next week, physical therapy pool party(i almost wrote "poop" party. good thing I caught that one. ha ha), my refinishing of a dresser pictures (bet you can't wait). Well, enjoy.

Making Memories Since 1982

Here I sit at the school library for a few reasons. One, i've got one final left tomorrow at 1pm. Two, my internet at home isn't working. I've called, Katie's called and we are tired of having to fix this thing every other week. Now it just doesn't work. I'm going to have them reimburse us for the time we've had internet and it's not worked. In a nice way of course, I have to remember that the person on the other end of the phone isn't directly responsible for my problem. I am a firm supporter in Verizons cell phone service but their internet is a mess. That's why today you get no new pictures of this weekends trip to the mountains and bikerides and stuff.
My test tomorrow is on Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Mormonism, Buddism, Judaism, Christian Science, Primal Religions, Confucianism, and Wicca (witches and warlocks). I have to know the founder/prophet, the core or essence of the belief, a decent amount of the history, the process of becoming one of these faiths, their distinctions, and how to handle them in the Physical Therapy world. It was interesting when the Christian Science guy came. Christian Science doesn't believe in using doctors, hospitals, or any medical treatment. They call on prayer for healing in a different sort of way. So here he sits speaking to a class of future medical/ health professionals. So we need to know what to do if at some random point one decided to have therapy from us.
Yesterday after church we decided to go up to the mountains. I had a final this morning and I was going to study either way so for Katies sake we took mountain air instead of air conditioning. Our church was up there for a fall reunion. It was a massive picnic. Katie said it looked like one of her family reunions. (with only a third of the food though) She comes from a cooking family. The only way I personally am going to meet anyone is at an event like this. I'm so overwhelmed with school that I won't make time for new friends that aren't in my program. Events force me to be somewhere for an extended period of time. I still managed to study in my lawn chair for three out of the six hours we were there. There was one rain cloud in the sky. It sprinkled for a few minutes. It was awesome! The feeling of rain stinging my face was a feeling i've forgotten about. When it ended the smell brought back smells of pine and clean air from Spokane. There was also a mixture of heavy humidity that spurred memories of the midwest. Late nights driving though fog in Cuyahoga Valley after buffalo wings at Fisher's and Winkin' Lizard. Those memories were cut short as the heat returned and kids splashed in the water and threw sand at each other. I guess we can't ever return to memories. That's what makes them so great. Now I know why I like to initiate new memory making times with friends and family. Grabbing a beer with my dad on the golf course in Mexico. Being dropped into a sandbox for the first time. Dinner every tuesday and thursday with six plus cassie. Baseball games with grandpa. Basketball with Dan. Late night trips home from the Chapel with the smell of Rally's in the back seat. Trips to Coure d'alene with Brossoit. A half dozen trips across the country...alone. Mountain biking with the brothers. Watching David play barbie's with Emily.(Just kidding Dave) Pizza, Chicken & Jojos on the patio on Marhofer. Marhofer superbowls. 60 hour work weeks of baseball in the backyard with the "team." Golfing 36 holes a day as a 7th grader at a par 3 course. Hundreds of thousands of fly balls hit to me by dad and grandpa yet I played infield for most organized teams. Meeting Katie for the first time. And our "DairyQueen" date. The trees outside are hinting at fall but the temperature here is still 90+. Midwestern falls and sunsets. Watching kids have the summer of their lives at Summer's Best Two Weeks.
How does one study with such a heavy heart to return to all these places.