Are you serious about life?

So I woke up this morning to a noise that sounded like a dirt bike and since we live in the middle of the city, I knew it wasn't. Upon investigating further I saw the craziest thing. There was a man in one of the huge trees out front cutting off the branches with a chain saw.

OK so it doesn't look that weird BUT the crazy part is that this guy has his chain saw just dangling around his legs. He would cut off a branch and then his chain saw would fall and swing back and forth around his legs while it was still ON! Maybe I don't know anything about chain saws but either way it was insane to my city girl eyes. And then he would climb a little higher and grab the chain saw with one hand and start all over again.

Plus he wasn't even harnessed to anything. He just had a strap around his waist that he would move up as he went higher and used the stumps of the branches he already cut off to climb. And these trees are huge!
I mean this guy could fall and fall for 100 ft before bouncing off the pavement. I couldn't help but wonder if this guy was serious about life.

In all fairness I should mention that Portland just experienced an insane wind storm over the past few weeks. Big trees like the ones above fell over everywhere hitting houses and cars. I guess they are just trying to make the trees a little safer in case they fall because the branches are so thick and do most of the damage.

This tree fell right across the street. It squished a nice big shiny truck. And this was just a small tree.



This tree fell over and smashed a house. Look at the size of those roots. I mean these trees had been standing for decades. The wind was so nasty it blew over semi trucks and little old ladies. A girl at worked opened her car door just as a particularly nasty wind gust was coming and it bent the door until it was touching the front fender. A tree fell over in the yard at the school I teach at and it flattened a firetruck and spaceship that the kiddies loved to play on. They even had to shut down the highway and a few city streets due to debris. Grayson was so excited to get away from the southern Alberta wind but this was far worse than we have ever experienced at home. And this wind is a cold bitter wind. At home the wind is warm and blows for only a few days. This blasted wind blew straight and hard for almost two weeks! Even I was ready to give up and blow away!

PS

I already have more to blog about since we have been home for quite a while but dinner must be made and Grey's Anatomy needs to be watched. I will post soon and share some of our adventures we have had over the past month

Grayson and Diana Love Bears (thanks Angie)

It has been a long time since I posted much of anything and I can't believe I didn't even put up Christmas pics or anything! We are still alive (despite broken rib and pneumonia) and kicking.

We had an awesome time at Christmas! To start off our trip though our flight was cancelled due to the crazy Artic Blast weather that Portland experienced.
Good news was we got to fly First Class all the way to Dallas! (Don't even ask why we went half way across the USA to get to Calgary)

All the nummy breakfast we scarfed down

(cheese omelet, roasted potatoes, fruit, bagel and any drink we wanted!)

The leg room was fabulous!

We were so spoiled in first class that our flight from Dallas to Calgary was almost unbearable.....however on the way home we got nice roomy seats courtesy of the broken rib! When we got to Calgary we spent the night in a hotel and got up early to be ready for my aunt to come and pick us up! Soon we found out she chickened when there was a complete white out on the highway (I guess it was a pretty fatal one for some too) We then waited for hours until Grayson's dad came and rescued us. We finally made it home at 7:00pm Christmas Eve. This is what was waiting for us....

We also went to a hockey game which we so very much enjoyed.

To Grayson's delight there were three fights in a row....

I just loved being able to spend time with my family and Grayson's. It was a much needed rest full of TLC, loves and hugs!

Ryker, Kayla and Lola Dee Dee

Santa's load
Me with Jessi (XOXOXO)

In the end it was a great holiday! I love that my aunt and uncle live right next door with my little sweet cousins because we had so much fun with those girls. We also were able to see all of the nieces and nephews at Grayson's and give them Christmas loving.

We really hope that all of you had a perfect Christmas season and a great New Year. We are back to school and work now but I am still listening to Christmas tunes on my ipod.

Help Me!

Everytime I try to change my blog background, I mess up and my blog gets all offended and things get erased. It is downright nasty. So a shout out to all you experts how do you change your backgrounds but keep your blog style looking the same? I am totally lost!