Keeping Up With the Joneses

New Opportunities for Erica

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:33:00 +0000

I have been asked to interview for the Human Resources Manager position at Mid-Columbia Children Council (a Head Start program that serves three Oregon counties and two Washington counties in the area of early childhood education). My interview is this Friday at 10 am. Please pray that I have wisdom and poise in answering questions. Paul is helping me prepare for the interview.

Also, please pray for the best outcome. With the current state of the economy, it could be a risk to switch jobs. However, the Head Start progam has proven to be a long standing social program. Under Obama, who claims to be in support of early education programs, it may continue to thrive. I am assuming it receives funding from two state programs in addition to the federal monies, which could be a good sign at its stability. These will have to be questions I ask the interview panel on Friday.

The difference in this new position from what I do now as an HR Assistant is that I will actually have a hand at directing policy and the direction of HR programs. Currently, my role is to implement the programs determined by my boss. The new position is the only HR staff person for the entire five-county program, and therefore, I would be the boss (underneath the Executive Director of course). The new position will allow me greater responsibility that will no doubt be helpful to me in my future career in Human Resources. It will be of high enough level so that I can begin moving towards my professional certification in the field (kind of like recieving a nursing license). In addition, at Head Start I will be around an atmosphere of learning, a subject of high importance to me since I am a book worm and self proclaimed nerd at heart.

I have this overwhelming feeling that this opportunity is happening for a reason. Sometimes when things fall into place you have to let them land where they will - I am trying to allow myself to truely belive this. Please pray that doors will be opened that need me to walk through them, and to make it clear if the door is bolted shut.

It is always difficult to leave a position you enjoy and I have never been good at feeling like I am letting someone down. But I have to realize that I must do what is best for me and believe that my current organization got along without me before and will continue to survive without me in the future. I realize I may be getting WAY ahead of myself, as I don't know the competition I am up against for this job. But - the planner in me can't help but consider all options at the forefront. Wish me luck (or not, if that is the way it is supposed to go!)

I’ve been converted…

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:49:00 +0000

I am hooked on camping! I don’t mean the sort where you lug everything on your back and you have to hike out with everything you bring in, but more like the subdivision variety -- where you may get noisy neighbors from time to time, but a hot shower is never more than a short walk away. Maybe later I can graduate to the wilderness for more than an overnight stay.

Paul and I recently got back from a camping trip down the Oregon coast. We had a blast together – we rode our bikes, explored small coast cities (although not as much as I would have liked), played cards by the campfire and made camp coffee every morning. I think the thing Paul and I enjoyed the most was setting up and tearing down camp. By the end of our trip we had it down to a science – each with our own tasks to perform. Our campsite served as our home away from home.

Each night we played cards until the sun went down; I was victorious at Gin Rummy but Paul snaked me at Speed & Yhatzee (don’t tell him but I let him win). Paul usually retired to bed early and I read by the light of my headlamp until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. If I woke up in the middle of the night, I hoped it was almost time to get up so we could make coffee. Something about coffee made in a French Press over a camp stove makes my heart go pitter patter (especially with Cinnamon Bun creamer – yum!) As the end of the week approached, I was dreading having to return to a routine work week; I did NOT want to go home.

When we returned home Friday we didn’t quite jump back to our normal routines and we had a short stay from Mike and Lori until Monday. The rest of the weekend we attended a triathlon, a luncheon, a rocket party (quite amazing) and hiked at Lost Lake – I also enlisted Lori’s green thumb for some gardening advice. As I was still in the camping spirit I fell in love with Lost Lake, a small lake 20 miles from my doorstep complete with lake view campsites. If only we had discovered it earlier…we could have been camping there all summer. I guess there’s always next year!

Below is a slideshow of our vacation; if you click on it you will be able to see it larger and you can read the captions.

Green Thumb

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:58:00 +0000

WARNING after reading this you could feel…

…jealousy, feelings of being less than or not worthy of. Or you might be pondering, “How do they do that? I wish my garden looked half as good.” Insert any cliché that pertains to people being jealous of THE GARDEN OF JONES.

This is Erica & my second attempt at tending to a garden. The first was in California; that garden did a great job of feeding all the deer in the neighborhood. Since then I have been determined to try gardening again. Earlier this spring I went to the rental center, rented a rototiller and cleared a small patch of dirt for the garden.

As a result of the Master Gardener course Erica took last winter, we had some great resources about what to plant in our area. I also asked the locals what to plant and, more importantly, when to plant. After gathering all this info we planted our garden over the course of a few weeks.

So far we have enjoyed the following: lettuce, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes (Roma & cherry), eggplants, peppers (hot and bell) and zucchini.

Next year - watch out folks! After our first Pacific Northwest gardening season behind us, we are going to pull out all the tricks from up our sleeves. We are even thinking about starting a booth at the local farmers market…

Education 101

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:11:00 +0000

This is my first attempt at writing a blog, so you will have to forgive me for trying to keep up with my sisters. They must have plenty of downtime to keep their blogs updated (or it takes them 5 mins and me 3 months to write one).

I will attempt to make a long story short. Over an afternoon of wine tasting with some mutual friends, we met the parents of one couple, Rich and Brook Remington. My ears perked up instantly when they said that they are long-time wheat farmers. Since I have been living in Oregon one of my favorite’s places to ride my bike is The Dalles, a town 20 minutes East of Hood River. The roads there are in great shape; no traffic and interesting landscape. Riding my bike around the vast, amazing fields, I could never figure out how they were planted, harvested or irrigated.

So over a glass of wine I expressed my interest in seeing how “things are done”. Somehow my logging career was mentioned and in the next breath Rich said, “Do you want to run combine for me during harvest?” (it must have been the wine talking). There was no way he could have taken me serious, could he? After all, I was just a skinny kid with shaved legs who likes to ride his bike on, as Rich would put it, “his roads”. Regardless, by the end of our wine tasting session I shook his hand and the deal was made; I told him I was serious, and he confirmed he was as well.

A few weeks later Erica and I went out to their ranch and he gave me the skinny on my new job. He said he would give me a call when the moisture in the wheat was under 11.5%, which means a green light for harvest. The phone call came on a Sunday and I showed up the next morning with a suitcase full of clothes and an ice chest of food. They had a fifth wheel trailer that I would stay in for the week and they would provide me dinner. What more could a guy ask for?

Monday Morning:

After 30 minutes of work I realized I had forgotten how much I enjoyed driving 1-ton pickups; ahhh, the smell of grease and big equipment. As they say “you can never get diesel out of your blood”. Within a few hours we had the combines moved to the fields and we were ready to start. Rich showed me a few keys things and I was off driving a huge combine around wheat fields and most importantly, LEARNING.

Sitting on a combine between 10 to 12 hours each day gave me plenty of time to think about all the amazing chances and people I have met in my lifetime that have allowed me the chance for once-in-a lifetime experiences like this. From living on a cutting horse ranch in Nevada when I was 14, later living in the mountains working on a cattle ranch, having my logging career, performing my various types of coaching, working excavation for a summer, to being a Director at a ski resort, I have found it all comes down to saying YES. (On the other hand, I have also learned the hard way about saying yes to too many things). As they say, “with age comes wisdom” - a good topic for another blog…maybe later!?

Back to learning - I think there are different ways to educate yourself, one is to go to school and learn how things should be done by the book, or say YES when opportunity knocks and learn on the job. After a seven day stint with the Remington’s, who answered every question that I had about wheat (which were a lot), I have educated myself by simply saying YES. The Remington’s are an amazing couple; they are great teachers, hard-working, possess good values, were very patient with me and best of all proved to be overall NICE PEOPLE.

I could sit here and go on and on telling you all about how wheat is harvested, but I will leave it up to you to say YES and educate yourself on the subject, or any subject you find interesting.

What will I learn next? Look for me next in a middle of a vineyard…I still don’t understand how THAT all works!!

Yard Work

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:19:00 +0000

The Jones family has been hard at work outside. It is hard to believe that there was new snow at our house just a few weeks ago. Lower in the valley, flowers have already been springing out of the ground. Since this is our first spring at the house. So far there has been many surprises about what has been popping up.

Since landscaping is such a large, and costly, endeavor, we have decided to do small projects to begin with. So far I have dug out the existing flower beds (what a task!) and made them wider. On the north side of the house I have planted a few shade perennials that I purchased, and elsewhere in the yard have planted divisions that a friend gave me from her own garden. Paul has been hard at work preparing a plot for our vegetable & cut flower garden. It is currently awaiting seeds and starters. We plan to grow tomatoes, peppers (bell and can't forget the spicy ones for Paul), onions, garlic, zucchini, a variety of herbs and whatever else we have room for.

We have so much lawn that we have been in search of a used riding lawn mower. We finally found one and gave our lawn its first shearing last weekend. Paul had the biggest grin on his face as he went back and forth on his "new toy" with beer in hand. It was really quite cute as you can see from the video - I couldn't stop giggling as I was taping.

Our next projects include planting our veggie garden and adding in some plants to use solely as cut flowers, continue to purchase shrubs for our borders, add a few annual flowers here and there, and most importantly...WATCH IT GROW!

Snow Days

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Snow fell Saturday in Hood River, after a week of below freezing temperatures void of moisture. The heavens finally opened up and dumped sparkling white flakes, covering everything it touched. However, not everyone in our area encountered fluffy white precipitation. Ever heard of "freezing rain?" Paul and I asked the same question when we first heard Oregonian locals referring to this wicked weather hazard. The main interstate from Hood River to Troutdale (about a 45 mile stretch of highway between Hood River and Portland) was closed due to freezing rain. According to Wikipedia, the definition of freezing rain is as follows: "Freezing rain is a type of precipitation that begins as snow at higher altitude, falling from a cloud towards earth, melts completely on its way down while passing through a layer of air above freezing temperature, and then encounters a layer below freezing at lower level to become supercooled. This water will then freeze upon impact with any object it encounters" (in our case yesterday, the road).
When the snow first began to fall I was caught off guard indoors at my Master Gardeners class. Of course I was driving our Yaris, our front wheel drive wind-up toy. The trusty Yaris got me home safely as the snow continued to fall.
So, this morning our lives continued as normal, except for having to wade knee deep in snow to uncover our vehicles. As the day went on, the roads were plowed and our neighbor graciously came over to plow our driveway. I thought to myself, "Why couldn't the highway be closed TOMMORROW so that I would be "forced" to take a three day weekend from work?" Oh well, it's back to the daily grind, except that the view is now covered in pure white.
The picture you see are from the morning after the main bulk of the storm. Today it continued to snow, but the accumulation was not so immense.

Christmas Time

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:26:00 +0000

This year, and last, I flew solo to California for the holiday to see my family. The holiday is crazy for Paul at work and thus he couldn't get away. Every time I go "home" (I guess I will always call it that), my parents always make me feel so welcome and cater to my every whim while staying. Maybe it is because I only get to visit several times a year now that I moved away to Oregon. Christmas this year was like going back to the core of our family unit (not counting the fact that there is now a toddler around to get into any and every thing). I made my parents a video of old pictures back from my parent's wedding up to our own weddings and grandchildren. It was great to remember the fun times we have had over the years. I also got to spend some quality time with my sisters. My sister Dena and I went on a serene bike ride through the park in Modesto. She has a beautiful cruiser (see pic) and we had a great time snapping photos and talking about nothing in particular. Another highlight of my trip was getting together with a group of girlfriends I have had for over 20 years. A few are onto their second or third child while others are married without kids (me) or single. They are the kind of friends that you may not see or talk to often, but when you get together, you pick up like no time has passed at all. We went to the Elephant Bar and took over the corner booth for more than two hours. The baby in the pic is Katie's two week old - Katie is sitting in the left, front.

While I am on the subject of babies...my sisters son Hunter is quite a cutie. He can finally associate "Auntie Erica" and point to me, which is great since I don't get to see him often. He is just about ready to start talking - I can't wait until the darnedest things start spilling out!

The gift exchanges were full of action this year with an abundance of stealing causing lots of strategy and laughter. The only thing missing was my grandma (who passed away a few weeks earlier). We all laughed when we remembered several Christmases ago when she called my dad a "shit ass" (excuse her language) because he stole the gift she had; it was the only time most had ever heard her use such language.

Even as I reflect a few days later, I smile. Cristmas was perfect.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:44:00 +0000

Well, as the title of this blog suggests, I don't think I have to worry about that request.

Here is an update on what's been happening here, besides the snow..

Thanksgiving... Well, no Ultimate Frisbee was played, but instead, we stayed nice and cozy indoors, drinking wine and conversing with each other. It was the first time since my days in Italy that I did not share this holiday with my own family. Our hosts, the Fords, were very welcoming, even as we were a last minute addition. The company was great and the food was traditional and fantastic. We brought along a bottle of wine from grapes straight from good 'ole Modesto (thanks dad - it was a hit). I guess in that way we had a piece of Modesto with us . We left just before the game playing began since Paul had an early start for the opening day of their 40th season at the Mt Hood Meadows.

The Weekend...I convinced Paul to drag out our tree (yes, we have a BEAUTIFUL fake one) along with the other decorations. I spent the weekend listening to Christmas music on XM Radio and making the house festive. I think it turned out quite nicely, don't you? It's amazing what I can get done around the house without Paul :)

Sunday evening Mike and Lori (Paul's parents, for those reading who don't know) arrived for a week-long visit. This was the first time they had been to the house, after all of the work they had done to help us move in. As they are always willing to offer a hand, they brought along their tools. Mike built me a fabulous sewing center (I guess that means I will have to do a blog on all of the projects I will be completing in the near future) and Lori graciously helped with the meals (it was wonderful coming home from work with dinner already on the stove!). It snowed on and off all week, which made for a blanket of snow all around our house (see pic above). Our next door neighbor (an older man named Max)came twice to plow our driveway, without even being asked. Now that's what I call neighborly hospitality. We plan to bring him over a plate of brownies tomorrow so he would keep us in mind for future storms.

Until next time...

First Snow of the Year in Odell

noreply@blogger.com (Keeping up with the Joneses) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:07:00 +0000

Now that Paul and I have moved away from friends and family, we thought we would join the 21st Century and start a blog. We can't promise you wonderfully written prose or poetic themes, but as our title states, we will help you to "Keep Up" with the Joneses (in an informational use of the word).

As many of you know we are pretty much settled into our new home in Odell which is nestled in the middle of the Hood River Valley. This past weekend was a major turning point in our lives. Why, you ask? -- Snow has finally arrived! That means Paul is pretty much married to his job, rather than the woman with the ring on her finger. Although there are many perks to working at a ski resort, like the free season pass and product discounts, it also means major upsets during the Holidays. An example occurred just this week. We were supposed to go to Eugene where a small gathering of loved ones would be celebrating with a non-traditional Thanksgiving feast - sea food. However, because Mt. Hood Meadows will be open partially on Friday, our trip three hours south was halted. Instead we were forced to decide between paying an arm and a leg for a Thanksgiving buffet, mooching onto a friend's Thanksgiving, or turkey sandwiches in the cozy confines of our home. We ended up choosing to be with friends- after all who could pass up the offer of ultimate Frisbee...details of the day will come with the next post.

Please tell us what you would like to know about how we are spending our days...we will try to accommodate!