An update

Apparantly I have a reader fanbase and my fans are after me for not blogging in a long time. okay, fans=one fan and his name is Devin...and he happens to be my husband...who happens to find any excuse for not studying and one excuse he uses is the need to read my blog...which is why he is after me. He is lacking new reading material which gives him one less reason to avoid studying. So there ya have it. With that out of the way....
a little bit has happened since my last post. The first being that I went home to visit the family for a bit. That was awesome to see them again! I spent a lot of time with my nieces and newphew and goign out to lunch with my mom and dad and seeing good ol' Utah again. I even got to spend a Sunday evening with mom and dad Farr. We had malts, which is a Sunday tradition, and they even had a fire going in thier stove! So cozy! It was a fun trip for sure! I loved having family dinner again, and talking to my family at the kitchen table, and going shopping with my mom and sister, and being in the familiar comfort of home. It was so fun to be with my nieces and nephews right befre Halloween. They all came over one night dressed in their costumes. They all looked so cute! I miss being around them and listening to their silliness. And I miss the family chats that we would all have sitting around the kitchen tables on Sunday (although Skype has worked wonderful as a substitute). So being home with my family again was the best in the world. As much as I love Utah, I was a little surprised to find myself missing my new home in Forest Grove. Crazy, i know. Utah will always be Home, but I do love living here in Oregon. I love the weather (so far, we'll talk after 3 months of rain), I love all the stuff to do here, and I love the people and friends that I've made here. But the best thing in the world is being with my family, and that is why I will always be a Utah girl :) I was happy to get home to Devin. I miss him too much to be gone from him for too long.
A few weeks after getting home from Utah, Devins dad and brother Brandon were able to come visit us and stay with us for a few days. And the best part is that Devin had school off the week they came! Yeah for no school! We did so much sight seeing and having fun it was awesome. We took his dad and bradon out to Tillamook and got cheese samples. Those workers in the factory are so interesting to watch. One part of the cheese packaging process involves bricks of cheese traveling single file along convery belts. The workers standing on each side of the belt were supposed to pull the cheese off the belt and do something to them. Well, if they missed one, there was a bucket at the very end of the convery belt would catch the cheese that was missed. So we waited and waited and waited to see if one brick of cheese could sneak past them and go into the bucket. Amazing! I didn't see a single cheese get past them! A few times, a bunch of bricks would go past them and I thought for sure they would be going in the bucket. But just as I thought the cheese was headed for the bucket, they'd turn around, grab all bricks of cheese, and keep going on with their job. So fascinating! After the cheese we went to a place in Oceanside called the Three Capes. We got to walk along the beach and enjoy the sound of the waves. Devins dad began "playing" with the waves. He would stand in one place and wait as long as he could until the waves came up to his feet. He would try to stand as close to the wave as he possible could without moving. If it looked like the wave was going to get him wet, he would try and move as little as possible and see how close he could keep to the wave. After doing this for a while his little game ended. He was waiting for a wave to come in that at first didn't look like it would continue far up the shore. As it got closer and closer it became obvious to all of us that this wave was going to keep coming. So he started walking away slowly at first, but soon he went faster and faster as the wave was coming upon him. Just as we all thought he had made it, a camera in his pocket fell out. He turned to reach for it and the wave crashed upon him (okay it didn't crash on him, it was more like it overcame him) he fell down into the water. Just as he fell, I wasn't thinking, "oh poor guy! What can I do to help?" or "oh that is too bad. I need ot help him" or anything like that. No, the first thought I had was "Jen, take a picture of this! Take a picture!" Yes, everyone. That is how caring I am for others :) He got himself up though, and he did get his camera...out of the water. The camera never worked again, but the memory card that had his pictures on it still worked. So all was not lost. So that was exciting. Other fun stuff we did included going up to Astoria and visiting Fort Clatsop (or Catslop), Saturday Market in Portland, hiking a trail on Mt. Hood, and eating at an authentic Moroccan restaurant (which involved sitting on the floor on pillows and eating the entire meal with our hands). It was an awesome week. And even though Brandon was sleeping on our couch, and we were all sharing our little bathroom never knowing when the hot water would run out, and spending those few days in a cramped tiny apartment, it was soooo much fun and can't wait for the next time family comes up to visit.
Devin is still studying every night...which means I am working every night. He is doing very awesome in his classes and I am so proud of him for doing this hard thing that will make a better future for our family. He is sacrificing a lot and I couldn't ask for a better husband. He had his first class final on Friday, which means that is one less class he has to worry about now for the rest of the semester. He told me that he thinks he passed it, which to me means that he totally rocked on it :) So he's doing great in school.
Today we went to an adoption conference put on by LDS Family Services. That was a pretty good experience and gave us some great insights and things to think about. I'm sure I'll be writing more on that topic in the future....
So that is the end of my current events. Questions? Comments?
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Farr Family Visiting Pics

Mt Hood Hike Pics