Goo morning worl!

The “D” key still oesn’t work without me pounding on it so just fill in the blanks, if you woul be so kin. Wow – what a year! Amazing, increible, awesome! Fun! Last January, Brian an I were planning a wedding… or my mom and we were. I also starte working at US Bank on Jan. 10th. The last three months of our singleness passed and on March 18th we began a new life. Brian has since passe through two more terms of college an is oh so close to graduation! We are dreaming of the future, wondering what it will bring, but are very happy an content to be right where we are.

Speaking of which, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!! We went to my folks’ for lunch yesteray an sai goobye to my brother an Hollye… :-(:-(:-( an had a big lunch for Brian’s birthay. Then we came home an I cooke him a steak inner that turned out alright… the candlelight helped! Well, I am going to stick in here a copy of a letter I sent Emily. It isn’t very exciting, but I ought to put it in here for posterities sake. ha!

*edited throughout*

Hopefully I won’t lose this letter, because I am writing it in between customers. I am also typing up a list of things that we need to order here… my manager is getting tired of me making orders for supplies every other day and said we can only make them once a month…… but i order things when people say I need them – how are we supposed to get by without those things til my next “order date?” Hmmph. Well, I am making a list of every thing we order regularly and I am going to have people mark things they need or that are getting low and we’ll hopefully never get to critical level. 🙂

So Brian got $50 for his birthday and he is going to take me out to a fancy dinner! Isn’t that awesome? I told him he should take me out to somewhere he wants to go… like a steak house or something and he told me not to tell him where to go and that he would take me where he wanted. hehe – i think that spells a nice evening. You remember those black halter-top dresses we bought way back when? I am planning on wearing mine if he takes me somewhere appropriate… :-):-):-)

Hmm – perhaps I should write to you about Christmas and the New Years… I haven’t written to anybody about it or written it down anywhere else! Hmm….

Christmas:
Christmas Eve we went over to Brian’s family’s house after I worked til 2:30. There was a turkey in a roaster and all sorts of yummy things coooking. We talked and got the dinner ready and couldn’t wait til the turkey “popped” before we pulled it out and cut it up. (you know, the little dealy in the turkey that pops out when it’s done) So we had a nice dinner and played chinese checkers and opened presents. Brian made Jennifer an “ambient orb” like the things you see at the store which she liked and we’ve promised her a dinner out sometime. I got a cookbook and a promise to take me to “Women of Faith” with Tami in October and a CD that I have been enjoying since! It was a happy time. 🙂

We had stuffed the stockings the night before one at a time and when we woke up I ran and got them, brought them into the bedroom and we went through them there. When we were done playing through the candy and books and pliers and whatever else was in there we got up and I put some Dutch Babies in the oven. (Like German pancakes) We eventually got dressed and sat down in the living room and pulled the presents from under our Christmas tree.

Brian bought me some acrylic paints, nice brushes and a couple canvases!!! That is probably my favorite gift. Oh! I forgot, he also gave me some Tanzanite earrings that are really pretty! He had them “custom made” at a jewlery store in Lake Oswego. They are simple studs with a white gold setting and I am so proud to wear them. 🙂 I got Brian some shirts, an origami set (he was interested in learning), some needle-nose pliers, a little remote-controlled car… maybe something else too. What fun!

After opening gifts, we packed into the car and ran down to my parents house. They had just finished opening presents so we added ours to the mix, greeted Neal and Hollye who are in from NYC (they leave Sunday I think) and had lunch. mmm, I am getting hungry!!!! And I have gained about 8 pounds since I got married so I’m trying not to eat the fudge on the back counter here but it’s so hard!!!

But anyway, Neal has been sick but still up and about. We went to Bend, saw lots of people. Ate. Came home Monday night. And that was that. (sorry for the short description folks… here, I’ll add a bit)
Overnight, while Neal, Hollye, Brian an Kevin were upstairs watching what Kevin calle the worst movie ever, Grandma and I had a really wonderful talk that covered a dozen subjects. It was wonderful to share ideas an experiences and just talk with her. We also went through Kevin’s precious stone collection, oohing an ahhhing an having a nice time.

New Years we went to a hockey game cuz the bank had tickets to a suite and we thought we’d try that out. The game was good, there were three fights, one of them rather disgusting to my girly self where there was blood all over the ice by the tiem they were done beating each other. But anyway, we won and then we watched Narnia in the little Sellwood theatre and that was fun. 🙂

Maybe we can take you to that theatre – if we go to the 5:30 showing we can get in for 4.75 each… but they are only showing Narnia now so I don’t know if you’ve already seen it. Tonight I am going to go down and buy some good steak to broil for Brian’s birthday, which is the 8th. (that’s Sunday, right?) It is really wierd to write the date lately.. you know, with 01/06/06… my fingers just rebel!

Well, this is long enough and it is past time for me to go do some other work.

Can’t wait to see you!!!

Rachel