saying goodbye to 5515 n. williamette blvd

this blog should have been written about 4 weeks ago but i just recently have had time to sit down and put my pictures on my computer from weeks ago (due to moving, vacations, teaching dance camps...) anyway my life is sorta on a normal routine finally again and therefore i have more time for things like blogging and pictures
**note-i added some pictures of the wedding to help make your imagination really fathom the beauty of as cousin david called it "broke-back-burns"

anyway...purpose of this post...moving out of my house (and into my parents house-which is entitled to it's own post...or several posts of their own) so we will make this simple in that moving always means junk/garbage/and crap...EVERYWHERE! times this by 10 and that is what it is like to move out of a college house...thankfully my sister is only a sophomore and knows lots of boys who are renting houses for the first time and in need of "furnishings," graciously we allowed them to haul out the broken piece of shit dresser i have been hauling around with me since my freshman year in the dorms, jordie's bed that wouldn't fit in her suit case she was taking with her to germany, a dresser from ashley's room, the kitchen rug, the living room rug, adams old tv dvd player and tv stand from the spare media room in the basement we NEVER used, meme's desk, and a mini fridge...apart from these we put the rest of the house junk on the front yard with a big FREE sign.

we had a few cholos come by and check out the goods, a fight between a man and a woman over one of jordies dressers, but our favorite customer was

a bumb who strapped the flower rug from the upstairs landing (outside my room) on his back and rode off on his road bike.

we had a few troubles getting rid of the last couple items so i decided to gift the neighbor boys down the street with a broken chair from the dinning room...

and this is me sitting on their front porch ...it looked great up there with the other 8 random chairs and a hammock they had.


it was sad to see all of our stuff go, but at the same time it was comforting to know that it all went to good homes (although kerry and i still aren't sure where the bottom white mattress cover sheet left over from kenna dorms ended up...it was on the yard with the free sign before we went to t-room and when we got back it was gone...hopefully it to is in a good home..)... missing the yellow cottage on williamette.

Family Reunion in Mexico City

it goes like this...

my cousin josh and his girlfriend of 10 years, jen, invited us to their wedding (a year ago the location was portland-about six months ago it changed to mexico city, aka burns, oregon...5 1/2 hours into the sage brush nothingness of eastern oregon) the wedding was this past saturday (august 25th). knowing that it would be a little po-dunk sister and i figured we would at least get some good laughs in especially with the cousins driving up from sanfrancisco to meet us...however we had no idea it would end up quite as amazing as it did...

we left friday morning at 9am. cousin david drove with us. josh had given my dad "directions" via a shortcut so we wouldn't have to go through salem and into bend on a friday during traffic...instead we took the mt. hood route putting us past the indians in kah-nee-tah through primeville, basically just hella back roads...the "short cut" took us on this...

a 42 mile gravel road...the "short cut" took us 6 hours (versus the 4.5 hours it took us to get home on the other road)

our hotel (if a best western is considered a hotel)

was actually pretty decent...and coincidentally it was the pitstop for all the other out-of-town guests...probably because it was the only hotel in burns. josh and jen also stayed their on their wedding night...totally normal, not awkward. on an up note the apple peddler was in the parking lot of the hotel, a decent restaurant we ate breakfast at...sister and i even saw a guy coming out of the bathroom (public bathroom...) with a stack of newspapers...very classy restaurant.

in keeping with the trend of classy...the wedding...really there are no words, the best one i can think of is priceless. the kind mastercard would use at the end of it's commercials. it was probably one of my best times ever. and if i were writing a book on my life, i would be able to write a whole chapter on this wedding ceremony/reception alone (stories for days...) but i will summarize in via short headlines. old school bus driving/fitzergerald going/emphysema talking photographer who i saw take only about 5 pictures (she was good at standing in the back corner with a beer showing off her long rat trail braid made of about six hairs down to her waist), center pieces consisting of plastic bowls of peanuts chinese after dinner mints (the kind that are pastel and melt in your mouth) peppermints and best of all atomic fireballs (the container with the extras was on the cake table in case you needed a few more) but also on the center pieces were

fish bowls with floating candles...
**note-notice the small fire burning from the light reflecting off the sun on the table cloths...
food, well due to the mexican caterers cancelling a week before the wedding the new food was catered via

from costco...guests enjoyed the feast served directly off of the black plastic "platters" thrown in free by costco, champagne toast courteous of lable brand cooks,

and a dj that rocked the old school jams of usher "yeah yeah yeah," "brick house," "save a horse ride a cowboy," "we are family," and of course props to owen and vince what is a wedding party without "SHOUT!" my cousin kayvahn even scored a phone number, email, aim, and myspace account name from millie gilmore of salem in her levis, white new balances, and red 4th of july old navy flag tank top (that is an entire story of its own...)

as promised here are a few more pics
my baby cousin shayla (she was the flower girl i did her cute hair!)

josh, jen, allie and i

my mom, hosain (my dad's cousin's husband), and kayvahn

the view beyond the green grass of the reception..my sister, kayvahn, and i posing with the shrubs

...my family is the best of my life...all 12 of us. burns, go there. cause really you don't understand until you try it yourself.

...and this is my work...

so i know that a lot of my blogs recently have been about kickball and this will be the last one because last night was the last game of the summer season...so unless we sign up for fall season (at $800 a team--and cause we are so good i'm sure that it will be well worth the money) but this will be the last recess time blog...

and officially i did not play in the game last night, so i don't have a whole lot to write about. i just decided that it was important to post this picture because you will then understand what my work is really like, how r/west lives, and why our kickball skills are so great.



and the "gay cowboy"...as he was named, is sean, the president.

How the Shepherds roll in the Black Butte

scene one:
car ride home from the higgin’s black butte house after having dinner over there thursday night…
mom got hella faded and on the way home she was giving one of her typical sermons on god only knows what cause when she drinks hella she rambles hella….and those are the moments she decides to get into the most important and passionate discussions about things…quote of the night?
“i is the best mother that EVER EXISTED!”
reason? It was said in a southern bell accent…so phonetically it was something like…
‘eeeyyyyeee izzzz theee beeeest mothaaaa that evaaaa ig-zis-did!”

scene two:
the morning after hella wine…
dad- “debbie do you remember buying a wii last night online?”
mom- “we bought a wii?! i love those!”
dad- “no not we…you…and you bought two remotes.”
me- “sweet that’s hella bomb!”

scene three:
sitting on the front porch. allie and i are reading in lawn chairs and mom is chillin in a chair next to me drinking wine.
allie- “guys are dumb they should be lucky to date me i don’t know what the hella is wrong with me…i just was held under house arrest and never allowed to do anything.”
me- “yeah me too! i have problems! i’m hella scarred…. i was a wild child and now i don’t do anything…!”
mom- “what? are you kidding me? you are so busy! you are like invisible with a trail of burn ass behind you…”

scene four:
watching the previews to the movie guess who that we rented from the little store…rent preview came on and mom started to sing.
mom- “5 thousand, 65 hundred, 600 hundred minutes…”
allie- “mom those are not the right numbers…”
mom- “well what are they?”
allie- “5 hundred, 25 thousand, 600 minutes”
mom- “oh well i don’t care that’s how i sing them.”

scene five:
sitting on the couch and molly slowly sneaks up to lay next to allie...and she is hella slinky cause she knows she isn’t suppose to be on the couch..
dad- “molly get off the couch!”
allie- “dad…noooo, she’s sick…she has cancer.”
me- “ahhhhahahahahaha”
allie- “its not that funny!”


scene six:
i was walking down the stairs and allie was standing at the window looking out onto the back deck…
me- “what are you doing?”
allie- “i keep hearing a rattlesnake”
me- “what!? no…sick there aren’t rattlesnakes out there…”
allie- “well i hear them!”
about an hour later we are sitting on the couch reading and the cheap old school medal blinds that are hanging in front of the window start to rattle because of the wind outside…
allie- “see! did you hear that rattlesnake!?”
me- “allie those were the blinds.”

scene seven:
walking into the pool area cause sister and i were going to hot tub.
me- “gosh it is so so crowded!”
allie- “yeah and everyone is hella starring why does everyone gotta hella stare at us?”
me- “cause they are jealous”
allie –“well why don’t they just get tan and dye their hair and then they will look like us…”
allie – “and just walk around like they own the joint…everyone will think they are a bitch and hella stare”
Kendall –“hahahhahah.”
allie- “oh quick that fat woman just got out…that means two spots just opened up.”

scene eight:
my mom getting my antibiotics. she keeps them in her purse so i never know where they are and so its always a fiasco trying to find them and remembering to take them…so she finally finds the bottle on the counter and it goes down like this.
mom- “here…here they are on the counter”
hands me a pill
me- “thanks bitch”
mom – “you’re welcome… how do you respond to that?”

scene nine:
mom is in the kitchen cooking breakfast
mom- “where is the salt?”
dad- “its over there behind the Jackie chan.”
mom- “jimmy choo?”
dad – “oh, i was close.”
referring to my mother’s purse.

black butte is the best of my life...and my family rolls like rockstars...be jealous if you aren't a shepherd. and if you aren't get to know us cause we like to adopt others.