Update

Mt. Bachelor is the local ski resort, and we were lucky enough to move here when they were beginning their hiring process for the winter season. We have always thought it would be fun to work at a ski resort (last year we almost took jobs at Vail Resort in CO). When we passed up the Vail jobs, we thought we may be passing up this opportunity all together, so we were excited to find out that we might get jobs at Bachelor. Unfortunately, because of the state of our economy, they had an overwhelming amount of applications...way more than normal. Mark just recently got a job as a snowboard instructor at Bachelor, which is very cool, because he gets a free season pass. I didn't want to wait around, so I ended up getting a job at a book store/coffee shop and a seasonal job at Bath and Body Works. I also just recently took a "holiday on-call" (read: week-long) job at Bachelor selling tickets. Not only do I get paid, but I get a free day lift ticket for each day I work. It's pretty nice. I'll take a free day of riding any time!

We are enjoying Oregon a lot though. It has been snowing a ton, and we definitely had a white Christmas. Because our families are in the midwest and our jobs wanted us around for the holidays, we stayed here. I would have guessed one or both of us would have actually had to work on Christmas day, but luckily, both of us were off and we got to spend the day together, relaxing and gearing up for the days ahead.

We found a church we like, and are looking forward to getting to know people and getting more involved. They have this great 5 minute break between the music and the sermon where parents take their kids to their classes. The rest of us get to chat with those around us, and we have met some great people in that 5 minutes. We even got invited to a Christmas party by a couple and we really had a great time! So, it's taking time, but we are getting involved and figuring out what life for us will look like here. It's definintely not all neat and tidy, but it's slowly but surely shaking out to be what we (and God) would have it be.