Friends

It's funny how hard it is to make new friends as you get older. When you are a kid, it is easy. Any neighbor, fellow teammate, or classmate that is not a bully can become one of your best buddies. It doesn't really matter what they look like, what they wear, or what their other interests are. If they will "play" with you, they are your friend.

Dogs seem to be no different. Jack is not "breedist", does not care about age, or even if another dog likes him in return. If he meets you, he wants to be your buddy.

But somewhere along the way, making new friends gets significantly more difficult. In middle school and high school, cliques form and we become more judgmental. By the time you are a full-blown adult, you also judge people on their careers and lifestyle choices, in addition to other things. The list of potential friends keeps getting smaller and smaller, until you are left with only a select handful of people. This is probably not a bad thing if you live close to those people and can see them on a regular basis, but for Joe and I it is kind of tough right now. All of our closest friends live 3 hours away or out-of-state. Needless to say, we miss them a lot.

So, I am trying to learn from Jack and other little kiddos with seemingly less intelligence than us educated adults. Although we love our "old" friends dearly, it is time that we try a little harder here in Roseburg. Jack reminded me of this important task last week when we had a visit from one of my besties Nicole and her pup, Olive. Jack and Olive had never met, but it took approximately 10 seconds for them to fall in love with one another and become buds. Here are some pics from their visit, along with some of my oldest and bestest friends. Love you all and hope to see you soon!

Introductions

They look so fierce here, but they are both so sweet :)

About to embark on an adventure with my babies

Nicole with our doggies before our walk

Frolicking with joy

The beautiful North Umqua River

Happy Olive

My crimpy-eared Jack

Sooo happy

Tug-o-War

And the winner is... Olive!

My first and oldest friend, Jimmy Hoover

8th grade softball with Merissa and Michelle

"The best night of my life!" (until my wedding and Maddie), with Nicole :)

My OSU buddies

My bestest girls and bridesmaids

My favorite boys and loves

My little love bug and favorite girl, Maddie

Words to live by.

As most of you probably know, I am currently on "summer break". While I have several jobs and projects keeping me busy this summer, I am fortunate enough to choose to do them when I want to. That means if the weather is nice and I feel like going hiking for the afternoon, I do. Or if I get a spontaneous urge to go somewhere or visit someone, I can. I know what most of you non-teachers out there are thinking ("you suck"), but the grass is not always greener on the other side. Because even though I am on summer break, my bestest friend in the whole world is not. And as the proverb goes, Without other people's companionship, even paradise would be an unlikable place.

In fact, not only has Jonas been working 50+ hours every week, he was also recently informed that he only gets 5 days of vacation this year. He has already taken 2 (thinking that he would get the standard 10 in a year), so that leaves a meager 3 days of vacation for the rest of the year. Considering we've already planned a hiking road trip in July, he now has to work 2 Saturdays next month just to get 5 days off in a row for our trip.

Ok. So I promise I am not writing this post just to complain. I am writing this post because I have been doing a lot of thinking about work-life balance lately, and I feel like our society really struggles with this one. Why is it that to have a "successful" career in our society, people have to sacrifice the majority of their free time and enjoyment? Maybe if we had a better balance we wouldn't spend our week wishing time would pass faster. (I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend my life wishing my days away.) Time with family and friends; exercise, nutrition, and sleep; house and yard maintenance; and hobbies of all sorts take a back seat to our jobs. And all for what... money?

Yes, I realize money is important to survive and also to pay for the things that we enjoy. I think it is important to work hard and earn everything we get. But I also think if we all spent a little more time enjoying life and being with our loved ones, maybe we wouldn't dread our jobs so much. Maybe we would even enjoy them a little, or at least appreciate them for the purpose they have in our lives. Maybe people would even be inspired to work harder and put in the effort they should... wouldn't that be a trip?

I am currently reading a book titled Boys Adrift (which I highly recommend for anyone who is the parent of a boy or works with boys- especially all of you teachers out there). In it, I read a quote that sums up my thoughts on this whole work-life balance thing quite nicely. It was taken from the famous book All I Really Need to Know in Life I Learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum. In it he says we should, "Learn some and think some and draw some and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some." I love this. I feel like every day would be a good day if we had this kind of balance in our lives.

So, this is something that I am making a goal in my life. Especially with a crazy fall around the corner, I am going to try really hard to keep a good work-life balance. (In addition to my first full-time teaching job, I am also the new head soccer coach at SHS.) Given I will be working 70+ hours a week during soccer season, it's going to be tough. But until then, I guess I'll have to stock up on the "life" part of my work-life balance goal this summer. I only wish my bestie could be there to enjoy it with me, but Jack and good friends make great hiking buddies too...

Hanging out in central Oregon

Hiking Smith Rock with Lisa, Abby, and (of course) Jack

Me and my little buddy

I heart the Cascades

Beautiful lakes, mountains on the horizon, and mutli-million dollar estates... some people have it rough.

 Abs and Lisa taking in the view at the top of Smith Rock

Profile pic of Monkey Face

 Someone wore himself out hiking

Jack made a new friend :)

View while hiking Twin Lakes

At the big lake. So beautiful.

 Rachael playing fetch with Jack in the water.

I know he's thinking, "Hurry up guys!"

 Me and Rach- love this girl!

Introducing Rachael to mine and Joe's favorite Douglas County tradition- go hiking east of Roseburg, stop at the Illahee Restaurant/Bakery on the way home and eat HUGE  pieces of delicious homemade pie!

 My 2nd favorite choice: Marionberry Pie a la mode. Dutch Apple is THE best, but they were out of it, wah wah

Rule #32...

I love it when my low expectations for something are unexpectedly exceeded. It could be anything... a day of work, a new recipe, the weather, etc. Most recently, I was pleasantly surprised by a movie that Jonas had been bugging me to watch for awhile now: Zombieland. I mean, let's think about it. I hate scary movies, and apparently this one was about zombies. It could be scary, it could be stupid, or even worse, it could be both. In addition, I am not a huge fan of spoofs, and I vaguely remembered hearing that this was a satirical spin on zombie movies. In short, horror spoofs are probably at the top of my list for movie genres I aspire to avoid.


That being said, I really liked Zombieland. Aside from the first 10 minutes, which was ridiculous and gory, I found there was a lot to appreciate in this movie. Yes, it is about zombies. And yes, it is ludicrous 99% of the time. But it was also surprisingly funny, and it even made me think a little bit. Aside from all sorts of symbolism and parallels that one could dwell on, the main character has a list of "rules" in order to survive. Some are funny, such as Rule #3: Beware of Bathrooms, while others are quite insightful. My favorite of them all though, is Rule #32: Enjoy the little things.


How unexpectedly awesome that a movie such as Zombieland can remind us to appreciate the little things in life. It is such a simple idea, yet so hard for many of us to apply in our lives. Since watching this movie a couple of weeks ago, I've made a conscious effort to notice and revel in the little pleasures life brings us. Here are some of the things at the top of my list... 

1. Being silly. It's funny... we adults think we have it all figured out. But there are few things more fun than throwing all of our inhibitions aside and acting like a crazy kid again.

 

2. A child’s laughter. Lately, I have gotten the privilege to spend a lot of time with my nephew Wyatt. When he laughs, it is simply contagious. There is something about a baby/child laughing that makes you smile along with them, even if you have no idea what they are laughing at.  

3. Sibling love. While many of us grow up thinking we just despise our brothers/sisters, deep down we really love 'em. Besides, who else would you have gnawed on without your siblings around?

  

4. Motherly love. Simply put, there is no love sweeter or more true than that between a mother and her child(ren).

 

5. Someone (good) to love. It is so simple in theory, but hard to actually find. I am lucky that I have found mine :)

  

 

 

6. A (nice) day at the beach. On the surface, last year's Valentines Day, which we spent in Kauai, seems hard to beat. But in all honesty, this year was just as great as last year. A nice day at the Oregon Coast spent with my two loves was I needed to have a happy heart :)

 

  

  

7. Living in Oregon. For the last couple of weeks, the weather around here has been AWESOME. Last weekend, we even got to go hiking on the Rogue River with Jessie and Luke.

 

   

  

  

  

8. A beautiful sunrise/sunset. There is no better way to start your day or end your night with sights like these...

 

Ok. That is my list for now... Don't forget to make yours!