Snow Pictures

Here are a couple of snow pictures I took this morning while I was walking to work, unfortunately it has started raining, so it is just a big slushy mess out side right now!

Snow Snow Snow

I know, I post way to much about the weather... but it just looks so pretty outside right now! I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post! It was so nice this morning, walking to work with a light snow fall.

I really do miss being able to see the ocean all the time like we did when we lived in San Diego, but I think I may like the snow even more...

Just doesn't seem right

Procrastinating here - I really should be working on other things, but I just couldn't get this off my mind. So, I guess I'll blog about it. On Monday a colleague of mine did something really terrible. I didn't know him that well, but had been to a group miniature golf outing and dinner, and I see him around campus all the time (I work at a University). Seemed like a very nice guy. This week it seems that he 'lost it' and literally mowed down two students at Washington State University.

He hit two students early Monday morning, in two separate incidents. He hit one person in a side walk, then kept going and hit another person on the sidewalk, kept going and finally pulled over and got out of his car and was ranting and raving, still in his pajamas even. The police even had to taser him to subdue him. The students are alive, but injured.

I can't even begin to tell you how surprised I am about this. From what I knew of him, he was a hard worker who was involved on campus and in the community. Apparently, this may have been his downfall. The judge has ordered him to be evaluated for mental competency, because I guess he's even acting out in court. It's all just so strange.

Here is an AP article about the incident.

It's just one of those things... either, it can happen to anyone... or maybe you just don't know people as well as you think you do?

How cute is this kitten???

It's not my kitten but I just fell in love with the video! So darn cute!

Missing in Action!!!

Once upon a time, I actually wrote things on this blog. Updates about our time here in Idaho, information about our fun trips and excursions... now.... I forget its even here. So sad :-(

It has been a bit of a rough couple of months in the Jones' household. Mike has been sick and coughing for literally months now which makes studying difficult. We've both battle the flu and sinus infections... We are so ready to feel better!!!

But now the holiday's are upon us. Hopefully we will soon be in the Christmas mood. My brother brought over all our Christmas decorations as we store them in my mom's garage. The boxes are piled up in the living room...

We've started to get some holiday cards, with beautiful pictures of friends & family. They are on display on our bookcase at least!! I've even finished my Christmas shopping, now I just need to wrap & ship them all out. I wonder if that's why I'm a little down... I know that we are shipping almost all our gifts, which means we won't see the people who are getting them?

This particular post seems down... and I don't mean for it too. Just saying, I'm working on getting in the holiday spirit and I'm determined to get there - just probably not until next week. ;-) Happy Holidays y'all!!

Crazy Seattle Weekend!!

Crazy weekend!! My neighbor Tiff asked me on Wednesday of last week if I wanted to head to Seattle with her this past weekend to attend a Bachelorette party… hmm girls weekend in the City?? I was in!!

So we left Friday afternoon to head to Seattle! Normally it would take about 5 hours from where I live to get to Seattle so it’s a bit of a drive. However when they are working on I-90 and bringing it down to 1 lane… 5 hours turns into 8+ hours… turns into, not making to Seattle and finding a place to sleep ASAP before we fall asleep in the car.

Saturday, we got up, got moving and finished our trek to Seattle. Tiff, who used to live in Seattle and grew up north of there, showed me all around some of her old neighborhood haunts. I’ve been to Seattle once before, but just stayed downtown, seeing all the Touristy stuff. We picked up some coffee beans at Cafe Ladro in the Fremont neighborhood. I was on the look out for Dave Matthews as I had heard this was his area, but no luck. I did see Lenin though...

We headed down to a day spa in Tacoma to meet up with the girls for the bachelorette party. We'd been hanging out waiting for about 45 min or so, when Tiff decided to call them and see when they were coming. Well, it turns out the party was Friday afternoon, not Saturday afternoon... ooops. Sorry Tiff's friend. (But seriously, who has a bachelorette party on a Friday??) We enjoyed the rest of our afternoon at the spa and decided to go vist Tiff's folks in Burlington, WA about an hour north of Seattle.

We grabbed some lunch/dinner at Thai Tom in the University District. So yummy!!! Prior to heading to Seattle this weekend, I didn't realize that UW was playing USC (football) at home on Saturday. By chance I was wearing purple, so I fit right in!!

Thai Tom's was GREAT, I could probably write a whole blog just about this crazy little restaurant. This is Tiff with her yummy dinner.

We had a really nice visit with Tiff's folks. Then Sunday morning it was time to head home. We learned our lessen with the I-90 traffic so we decided to Hwy 2 home, under normal circumstances it would take much longer this way, but since we were avoiding a certain two hour delay we thought it would be great.

We had lunch in Leavenworth, WA. A funny little Washington town, that has taken on a Bavarian theme to attract visitors. When Mike was a kid he lived there for a while so it was pretty neat getting to see where he lived as a kid.


Then.... about 10 miles out of Leavenworth... we pulled off the road to go a different route, and Tiff's car just kinda died. Luckily, a really nice gentleman pulled over behind us and called a tow truck for us. He was a retired policeman and used to drive a tow truck and he and his wife said they didn't want us just sitting out there by ourselves. They waited until our tow truck finally showed up.

Our 'lovely' tow truck driver took us all the way to Moses Lake, which was awesome, but meant that we had to hang with Donnie, the VERY Large, soon to be divorced, woman hating tow truck driver for like 2+ hours!!! Ugh!!!

Luckily Tiff's Aunt & Uncle live is Moses Lake, so we were able to stay with them. Her uncle took off her alternator, and walked her through the steps. The next morning we hit the auto parts store and sure enough her alternator had been dead. So, she got a new one, and put it back on all by herself! I was there to hold things in position, and provide a little muscle, but yeah Tiff rocks! Finally we headed home... again!!

Long... crazy weekend. And as we decided on the trip, Karma works on a pre-pay system, we built up some serious karma points this weekend! I felt bad that Tiff missed her friends party, and her car broke down, but I say thanks for still managing to make the rest of the weekend a blast!

What a Wonderful World

Ah, I love music... I'm sitting here at my crazy cluttered desk, with way to much on my to do list and the song that comes on my Pandora radio station, Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World.


I couldn't help but smile. We really do live a wonderful world. I'm not sure if everyone on the planet could agree, but overall I think I have a pretty blessed life. I was given every opportunity as a child to be educated, I took advantage of some of them and some of them I let just go right past me. I was loved, played with, fed, sheltered, so yeah... I live in a pretty wonderful world.


My husband, who has a painful, debilitating disease, has access to health care and medication that make each day livable for him. We may pay more than I think we should for it, but we have it, so we live in a wonderful world.


I live in a country that no matter what, every four years I get to help pick a new leader of my country - and every 8 years no matter that new leader will be someone new. So if I don't agree with our current leader, I know that in 4 or 8 more years I get to part of the process to try and elect someone new. Although, I guess I can say that I'm pretty happy with the one we have right now!! And I'm so happy that in this country, we can elect a man to be our President that would have only been considered 3/5 of a person 200 years ago when our constitution was written. It is a pretty wonderful world.


I have picked fresh tomatoes from my little garden patch almost everyday for the past month or so. They are delicious, and make fantastic salsa that I love to eat! What a Wonderful World!


Just a few thoughts on why things are wonderful in my world...


Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World:

I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see’em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.

The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin.. how do you do

They're really sayin'......i love you.
I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
They'll learn much more.....than Ill never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world

The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are there on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin'.. how do you do
They're really sayin'...*spoken*(I ....love....you).

I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
*spoken*(you know their gonna learn
A whole lot more than I’ll never know)
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself .......what a wonderful world.

Summer pt 1

Hello All!

It was recently brought to my attention that I haven't updated this in a while... sorry about that!! I just haven't been all that motivated to sit down and put something together. I'll be out and about and think... I should blog about this, then I get home and life starts to happen. I have NO IDEA how my friends with kids do it!

So, quick update, Mike is home!!! Yeah!!! He ended up only being gone two weeks, but it was a very strange two weeks. And, I even vacuumed while he was gone. I know, I should vacuum, I'm just not much of a house keeper. When I have a bigger place (& more money of course) I'm sure I'll be hiring one.

Shortly after Mike returned was my B-Day! I turned 34, how did I get so grown up?? We went camping for a few days, found a great place to go swimming! Mike and our friends even had a little celebration for us. We played some ladder ball (or as we told the neighbor kid from the next campsite over 'Norwegian Monkey Ball'). It was very relaxing!!!

Below are some pictures from our camping trip! Fun times... more on our summer to come!!

Mike & I playing ladder ball - FUN game!

Jeremy, Mike , and Ryan riding/standing in the Amigo out to swim @ the Lagoons
And some pic's below of Ryan flipping and flying into the water at the Lagoons! Fun times!!

Mike the 'mannie'

Well, I'm sort of a single lady for a while. Mike's in Paradise, CA helping his sister out for the next 6-8 weeks. So I'm on my own. Not sure how much I like it, but I'll get through it. It's kind of funny, it the 10+ years that we have lived together until this Sunday, I have only slept AT HOME by myself two nights. I used to leave Mike at home by himself all the time, but he never really left me, so this is a little strange.


A little background: I was in California June 4th - 7th to give out the Davey Davis Outstanding Athlete Award (more on that in another post) and I went and spent the night with Mike's sister. She was saying how she really needed to have surgery but didn't know how or when they could do it because she would have to stay off her feet for 8 weeks. She's got two adorable little boys, 18 months and 4 years old, and her husband works out of town so she's got her hands full. It got me thinking, Mike wasn't doing anything this summer, he was supposed to get a job, but had successfully put that off, he could just come down and help her out.


I got home on the 7th and by the 10th of June, it was all set, Mike flew down on Sunday, Stef's surgery is tomorrow, and I'm home by myself...


All in all I think its a good thing. Mike gets to spend some time with our nephews, and he's doing a great thing helping out his sister. Of course I miss him! A lot!! And it is really strange staying at the house by myself. I'll get used to it, I know I will.


I'm trying to figure out ways to keep myself busy. Mike and I tend to be homebodies, so this is a good chance for me to push myself to get out of the house and keep busy. Tonight, in fact, I am attending a miniature golf, social deal with a young professionals group. Finger's crossed we don't get rained out!


Luckily I've got some good friends and family up here too, so they'll keep me busy as well... now someone just needs to come over and take out my trash.

Wedding Dress

Just a silly little joke for Sunday Morning!

Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement -- not even her parent's nasty divorce. Her mother had found the PERFECT dress to wear and would be the best Dressed mother- of-the-bride ever!

A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new young wife had bought the exact same dress! Jennifer asked her to exchange it, but she refused. "Absolutely not, I look like a million bucks in this dress, and I'm wearing it," she replied.

Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, "Never mind sweetheart. I'll get another dress. After all, it's your special day." A few days later, they went shopping and did find another gorgeous dress.

When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, "Aren't you going to return the other dress? You really don't have another occasion where you could wear it. Her mother just smiled and replied, "Of course I do, dear. I'm wearing it to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding."

So Sleepy!

Last week I started a summer school course here at the University of Idaho. I figure since it would only cost $35 to take a University Course, I should take advantage of it while I'm here. So, I'm take a History/Film Course on the films of Oliver Stone! It's not nearly as easy as that Sports in Film class at Chico, but I'm enjoying it just as much.
We are watching a variety of films, from JFK & Platoon, to Wall Street & his new film W. Oliver Stone is such a controversial film maker and has made some great movies. I'm not so sure his history is 100% correct, but then again when is history 100% correct. Why not at least enjoy the experience huh? Tonight we are watching Born on the 4th of July, I'm really excited about this one I remember really liking it when I was a younger.

The down side to all of this, VERY long days. work for 8 hours then class for 3 hours, then reading and writing for the class. Good thing its only 4 weeks!

Country Night!

This week is dead week at the University of Idaho. Mike's studying like crazy for finals next week and I'm feeling a little lonely since I'm not seeing him much.

So I was really excited when I found out that the county music singer Craig Morgan would be giving the dead week concert. Every year, I think maybe just in the spring but I'm not sure about that, the University brings in someone to give a concert during dead week for the students. Yes, I know I'm not really a student (but I am taking a summer school class, more on that in another post), but Mike is and he was ready for a break too.

When I just heard the name Craig Morgan I wasn't sure who that was but then when I looked him up I realized I knew quite of few of his songs, International Harvester, Love Remembers, Redneck Yacht Club to name a few. The concert itself was really small, I think they sold 800 tickets and it was just in a ballroom. It was just Craig Morgan and one other guy on acoustic guitars, but it was still a lot fun. Especially since the tickets where only $3.00!

This isn't the concert I saw, but you get the idea.

Spring!!!

Just a quick note because I am sooo excited that it is finally resembling spring around here. I have daffodils & hyacinths blooming in my 'front yard' and we've been BBQ'ing. It is just wonderful!! It actually hit 70 degrees yesterday, and is supposed to be flirting with 80 today. I know its going to be cold and raining by the end of the week, but in the meantime we are soaking up the sun!

How well do you know your husband?

I received this as an email forward, but I thought I would post here instead! Here's a chance to see how well you really know your husband. The real challenge is to send it to your husband to see how right you really are.


1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Jeopardy

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?Ranch

3. What's one food he doesn't like?Beets

4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order? Pale Ale

5. Where did he go to high school?University City, Gridley, & Durham

6. What size shoe does he wear?13

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Atari games

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Italian Sub!

9. What would this person eat every day if he could?Chili

10. What is his favorite cereal? -- so sad, I have no idea, he eats Bran Flakes though

11. What would he never wear? argyle sweater

12. What is his favorite sports team? San Diego Chargers

13. Who did he vote for? -- I didn't ask, but I think it was Obama

14. Who is his best friend? Hopefully me, but other than that, his sister Stef

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?Leave my stuff all over the apartment.

16. What is his heritage? Irish & probably English and/or Welsh

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? Scratch carrot cake, preferably his mom's recipe!

18. Did he play sports in high school?I think he played cricket for fun with his friends. :-)

19. What could he spend hours doing? Hiking & Playing World of Warcraft

20. What is one unique talent he has? His mind is like a sponge, that guy knows so much about so much, and he can juggle. :-)

Favorite Kids Games

I may not have children, but that doesn't mean I can't act like one sometimes!

Saturday night some friends were over and we were playing cards, but then we decided to play an old game that Mike and I had picked up at a yard sale a few years back. Pass the Pigs is a hilariously silly game, where you roll two little rubber piggies and then score based on how they land.

We had the BEST time, yelling at the little piggies, jumping up to see if they were touching, it was just a blast. I guess sometimes its good to play like a kid again! It got me thinking of what other games I loved, maybe I'll keep an eye out for these ones at yard sales as well:

1. Connect Four
2. Don't Break the Ice
3. Guess Who?
4. Chutes & Ladders
5. Mastermind (probably not really a kids game, but I loved playing it when I was kid)

I'm sure there were many others, but those are the ones that popped into my head when I thought of kids games I liked!

Haven't Posted in a While!

Wow! I didn’t realize that I hadn’t posted since February 6^th until I logged on to post my Happy St. Patrick’s Day post! So, what have we been up to?

Mike’s been studying – A LOT. I’ve been working. It’s a good thing that he has been studying too, because they decided to save the Physic’s program! So we are safe!

We’ve been playing a lot of Rock Bank on our neighbor’s Nintendo Wii. So now, Mike plays guitar and fake Rock Band guitar! But it’s a lot of fun.

For my mom’s birthday we went up to Coeur d’Alene for the day. It was absolutely beautiful! I would recommend visiting there to anyone. We had lunch at the Coeur d’Alene resort, up on the 7^th floor overlooking the lake, it was so nice. I’ve only been in the winter, so we are going to try and head up there sometime this summer so we can actually use the lake.

I went to a lot of University of Idaho Basketball games, both men’s and women’s. Last year both of our teams where really bad. But this year they got new coaches and turning things around. They both were picked by the preseason coaches’ poll to finish last in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), but they both finished 3^rd. So it was a lot of fun going to watch a team who was actually winning a game now and then. And the men’s coach is actually from the Auburn area, and went to Del Oro High School, which was our big high school rival. I had read that he actually coached at my high school while I was there but I don’t remember him.

My mom and I volunteered at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival one day. That was a lot of fun, but boy I was TIRED after that. During the days, schools come and perform and compete and then they are critiqued by other professional musicians. It’s just an amazing opportunity for elementary, high school, and college performers. They have workshops all week. At our site, mid-sized high school’s jazz bands were performing. Since my musical ability consists of playing Rock Band, I’m so amazed when any group can string a few notes together a

nd I can recognize it as music. Lots of fun! And we went and some Brazilian and Cuban jazz performed by the professionals at one of the main performance. So much fun!

So, that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to. Oh, last Friday I saw a lecture by Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts. Well, I sorta saw it. I was in an overflow room watching it on the screen because the main lecture hall was already full. That was pretty cool! Getting to see current Chief Justice here at the University of Idaho… unbelievable for this politics/history junky. That's him and President Obama 'redoing' the Oath of Office.

Hope everyone is doing well! I may have some news next week as well! (Not baby news, just life in general!) -- Niki & Miki

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – A day late!

Our St. Patrick’s Day started in true Idaho fashion, it snowed! Now, as a California girl it is hard for me to accept that we could have a white St. Patrick’s Day, at least most of the snow melted by the afternoon. Mike is on Spring Break this week, and since we are old and I have to work, he spring break has consisted of computer games, laundry, cooking dinner, and cleaning the house. Poor Guy!! But I am sooooooo very thankful.

Growing up, St. Patrick’s Day was always a pretty big deal for Mike’s family. Not only did it involve green clothing, but it mean corned beef & cabbage for dinner. Guess it has something to do with being Irish. So, I have had to learn how to cook corned beef and cabbage, I’ve had my successes and failures over the years so yesterday was a little bit nerve racking. Mike started the brisket yesterday, I rushed home and pealed potatoes and carrots and got those started.

We had some of our neighbor’s over for dinner. Our friend Jeremy had never had corned beef and he was a little bit hesitant because he thought just based on the name it sounded pretty awful. It turned out great though! Nice and tender, I guess the slow cooker method was a good idea after all. So, we sat, enjoyed our corned beef & cabbage (well, some of us did, I’m not a huge cabbage eater!), listened to some Celtic Music had a couple of Guinness Pints and had a really nice evening.

Hope yours was good as well!

What No Physics???

Mike and I moved to Moscow, ID so he could attend the University of Idaho and study Physics. Why did we choose Idaho? Well, part of it had to do with finding somewhere with a lower cost of living so Mike wouldn’t have to work, part of it was because we both kinda wanted out of the suburbs, part of it was because we wanted a slower pace of life and less stress, and then when we actually came to visit the campus we just fell in love. Did Mike seriously evaluate the physics program, well, a little bit. He compared it to a few different schools that we looked at and felt like this was the best one. Did we compare the U of I to all other schools, no.

We had thought, with the economy tanking, that we were safe here in our little student world (well, besides our 401K’s being decimated like everyone else’s, that is). Turns out we were wrong, the University is struggling too. So, they decided they needed to cut or consolidate programs. They released the first round of suggestions and sure enough the BS and BA in Physics are included…

So my question is, who heard of school without a Physics Program??? They are planning to keep the PhD program, but not the Bachelor’s degrees, how does that work? I just don’t get it at all?? Is that a question we should have asked when we were evaluating whether or not to come here, “So, will the University be cutting out the Physics program in the next couple of years?” That thought never even occurred to us.

We won't know until April what the final decisions are and even if they do cut the program, it will be phased out so Mike will still be able to finish his B.S. But it is still really frustrating. Will professors be looking for other positions since they know their jobs will be ending soon? If they are looking for other positions, will they really be giving their current classes their full attention?

On the upside, they are definitely keeping the PhD program. So that will still be an option for Mike after he gets his B.S. assuming they don't decide to cut the PhD program later. Which, I don't see why they would do as the Physic's program brings in grant and research money.