Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Karl's trek to North Idaho


Quite possibly the highlight of our experience in Sandpoint was having the opportunity to show my brother the world we've been living in for the past 3 months. He took the train on Wednesday, and we were ready and waiting to pick him up early Thanksgiving morning.


We spent Thanksgiving relaxing and spending some time with Kara's family. It was great to celebrate the holiday with family and we had a great time. Friday morning, Kara worked for a few hours, and I was able to bring Nathan to my favorite coffee shop, Monarch Mountain Coffee. It has a great atmosphere; mismatched chairs and tables that just invite you to relax, a full wall mural of a cobblestone downtown at night, great music, good food, and they roast their own coffee. We'd encourage anyone to stop in if you're ever in the neighborhood. After Kara got off work, we spent time showing him around Sandpoint, went back up to Schweitzer, and then hit the town that night checking out some great live music and food.


We saved the best for Saturday, and decided to check out the mountain action on Schweitzer's opening weekend. It was incredible. Kara skiied, and my brother and I snowboarded. Millions of snowflakes were falling in slow motion all afternoon. The energy on the mountain completely changes one the ski resort is open, and it was great to be able to experience that before we left. None of us are pros at any snow sport, but we felt more and more comfortable as the day went on. We all agreed that we could really get into it if we ever lived near a ski resort.



You know how they say 'Time flies when you're having fun'? That definitely was the case here. Before we knew it, we were getting ready to bring Nathan back to the train station to hop his ride back to Nodak. We spent Saturday night relaxing and having fun, as well as getting a jump start on planning more fun trips as we travel from place to place. Both Kara and I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I know having my brother here made Kara miss her family as well, and we hope that they are able to visit us along the way as we travel too. All in all, it was an incredible weekend!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Let it Snow!

Fluorescent sunrise from earlier this week.

So it's been a while since we have blogged, so it's about time!


We are almost done with our 10th week here, and we only have 3 weeks left in Idaho after tomorrow. Time has been flying by, and we'll be back in ND for a short time before we know it. Work has been good for me (Kara), and I have really enjoyed things here. I have learned a lot, and really enjoy my coworkers. I have to say that I will be sad to leave them as well as some of my patients that I've been working with during most of my time here. Andy has also really enjoyed his job, and has learned a lot. We are not sure how things will look if he continues with them after we leave ID, but it's a possibility.


Sunset on our way up the mountain last weekend.

A couple weekends ago, we traveled to Spokane (WA) because friends from Bismarck - Sam and Lindsay Giezten - were there for a conference for work. We spent Saturday afternoon/evening with them downtown in the park and checking out a few restaurants. It was nice to see people from home and catch up with them. Spokane seems like a really fun place, and the downtown area is beautiful.

Lindsay, Andy, and Sam


In Spokane



Trying to see how close I could get.


Last Thursday, we went to a Shawn McDonald and Chris August concert in a nearby town. It was really good, and we think that Chris August is even better live. A co-worker of mine found out she would be able to go, so we went with her and her husband and had a lot of fun. It seems like now that we're almost finished, we're finally starting to get closer relationships with everyone here. I think that will definitely be a downside of travel therapy.

Last night it snowed around 11" up at the mountain, and it didn't snow at all in town. On our way home, we couldn't get into our lot, so we spent about 30 minutes putting chains on for the first time ever, only to have them snap off after driving about 3 feet. Haha, I think we did something wrong. It was quite the site for anyone around I'm sure. One thing that has been crazy here lately is that it gets around 3:30 PM now that daylight savings time has kicked in. So much for Vitamin D! :) Right now, it's snowing 'Dip n Dots' as Andy would say, and they look just like Dip n Dots, so they helped a little bit as we drove up the snowy roads tonight. We're supposedly supposed to have over 2 feet by next week, and the ski resort started making snow this week. We are at about 4700 feet elevation along with the resort, and the lifts go to the summit at about 6500 feet. Apparently there are 92 runs on the mountain, but we aren't sure we will have time to experience them while we are here. Click HERE to check out what the ski resort has to offer and to get our latest snow reports.

Our snow measuring stick. :)


We are planning on heading home for a couple weeks before going onto our next assignment, which will hopefully be in Texas. We are planning on having a few different family Christmases and are not sure if we will still be in ND to bring in the New Year at this time yet or not. We are very excited to see everyone and to spend some time relaxing with family and friends.

Next week we are planning on having Thanksgiving dinner with some of my family, and are VERY excited to have Nathan (Andy's brother) come visit for part of the Thanksgiving weekend! Should all be a lot of fun.

We hope that you are all having a great week, and that you are all able to spend some time with family and friends enjoying the Thanksgiving week.

 Here are a couple pics from our drive down the mountain. It's a pain sometimes, but it's also BEAUTIFUL!




Thanks for following us along this journey!!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Family visit and more....

Sorry for the lapse in time since our last post. It's been from a combination of busyness and procrastination. :) So a few weeks ago now my parents came to visit. We had a blast showing them around the Sandpoint area. We hiked to some waterfalls, ate at a lot of great restaurants, and toured Coeur d' Alene. That was the most social interaction we've had since moving here...haha. The only thing that could've made their trip better was having Kara's parents here too!





Our jobs continue to be going well. I'm starting to get a bit more comfortable with my job. My sales territory has now expanded to the entire U.S. and my knowledge of the industry is expanding. I'm finding the sales cycle to be a lot longer in the software arena vs. what I'm used to in the transportation industry ;). Patience is not a virtue I possess... I do have a lot of projects on the table right now, but they seem to be taking forever to come to a close. Last week Kara and I made Chili and I brought some for everyone at my work. It has been great to start building deeper relationships there. I think that's how this whole "travel experience" will work, once we start developing friendship we'll be moving on to our next location. That bums me out in a way, but I know that is we signed up for.


Kara is still enjoying work. She cares so much about her patients, and I know she is a bright light in their world. She is also growing closer with her co-workers. She still comes home with stories of how much food everyone brings each day, now including her, and it's sort of the running joke between us. We're not sure where we will be going next, but are open to wherever.

The craziest thing happened this week. We got 12" of SNOW!!!! It was super crazy. Lets just say that was not the best day. We had to get towed up the mountain and had to dig out our van from being parked in the resort parking lot. The whole time this was happening on Schweitzer mountain, the city of Sandpoint wasn't seeing a single snow flake! Needless to say we now have new tires, chains, a tow rope, sand bags in the back of the van, and a snow shovel. Thank you Wal-Mart! Since then, the snow has mostly melted and we are seeing mostly rain and clouds.



We didn't really do much this weekend for Halloween. Kara had to dress up for work on Friday so I got out of having to dress up with her over the weekend. :) We are starting to meet more people through church, work, and other things, but it's hard to actually form friendships when you only see people an hour or so during the week, and when we don't live in an area where we can host people easily. It's crazy that over half of our time is already up here and that we only have 6 weeks left! So far we'd rate our time here as a 7/10 and we're excited to see what the next 6 weeks have in store.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Sunrise to Sunset

Just wanted to add a some pics from a a few of the sunrises/sunsets we have been lucky enough to see this since we've started our adventure.

This song, along with our beautiful views, remind us that we need to continually refocus our lives not own our own plan, but for the plan that God has set for us.

Sunset on our way  to Yellowstone
Driving into Boise, ignore the bug guts
First morning sunrise....gorgeous.
Sunset while kayaking
Sunset while Kayaking
Tuesday Sunrise this week
Tuesday sunrise, overlooking Sandpoint
Wednesday's Sunrise

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Fall Festivities

Hiking Harrison Trail
I can hardly believe we've been here almost a month already! Our days seem to fly by, but there are always moments where we think that getting to ND in December seems like an eternity away. Andy is watching the Twins/Yankees game, so it looks like it'll be a Kara blog tonight. :)

The past week and a half have been good at work. I am really starting to get the hang of things: documentation, what's due on which day, where things are at, etc. Almost all of the patients I see are in sub-acute so they stay for quite a while or are in the nursing home. Sub-acute is like swing bed where you stay for a while to received skilled services, which is usually lots of therapy. Most people we get have hip or ankle fractures, strokes, following breaks, surgeries, ICU stays, etc. My favorite part about it is that I get to know the patients I work with a lot better than in an acute care setting. I get to know about their past and present, their families, hobbies, etc. Not everyone likes to go to therapy everyday (as I'm sure you can imagine), so I really like coming up with different ways to motivate people or turn their interests into exercises or activities.

If you don't want to know what OTs do for a living, you may want to skip this paragraph--it may get long. Occupational therapists don't help people find jobs, which some people think. We work on a person's Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Pretty much everything you do during your day (aka occupations) that keeps you going. So that could be showering/dressing, working, bowling league, volunteering, feeding your cat, going to school, cleaning/cooking/laundry, playing, buying groceries, etc. So I get to work on a ton of things that you will do every day that you are having difficulties with. We also work on improving upper body strength/endurance, and decreasing upper body pain, as you need this to complete those ADLs. While we do all of these things, we are assessing how you sequence, problem solve, your vision, coordination, balance, endurance, etc. Some days I do things very similar with a lot of patients, while other days everyone is completely different. I love OT because it can be so many different things. Sorry for boring you to death there. :)





Ok, enough about that. So last week, Andy ended up getting a job at a software development and consulting firm in town called MetaXpert. They mostly develop apps (applications) for smart phones (Iphone, Android, Blackberry) and other devices. He is doing inside sales for them and is really learning a lot. His sales area is the East coast. One fantastic part is that they will allow him to work from any location, so he will be able to continue working for them as we travel from place to place. He may pursue another opportunity or two along the way, so we're excited to see what's coming up in his future.

I've been starting to apply for my Arizona license, and we are thinking about either looking for jobs in AZ or Texas for the winter. Everyone should attempt being a snowbird at least once right? :) Jobs will be easy to find at this time as snowbirds need therapists! I've heard that applying for an AZ license is a bit laborous, so it could get interesting.

We've been trying to spend time after work outside, but it's getting difficult since our days keep disappearing faster and faster. Last Saturday we drove north of Sandpoint a ways and hiked Harrison Trail which led to Harrison Lake at the top of the mountain. It was crystal clear and gorgeous all around! After we got to the Lake, Andy decided to keep climbing, getting to the complete top in about a half hour. I had no idea where he was until he yelled my name and I saw a little red dot at the top of this bluff....crazy guy! We didn't go to the orchard we were planning on for Sunday, but are hoping to do it this weekend.

Harrison Lake, at the End of the trail

Love the Water

Harrison Lake from above, courtesy of Andy :)

Andy's parents are coming to visit next weekend, so we are SUPER excited. We really miss our family and friends, and especially miss just seeing people we know. We're hoping for good weather, but will have a great time either way.

Haha, I have to add this, because we are arguing about it at the moment. This morning we went into town early so I could get to work by 7, and we saw a few bucks and does (which we see a lot of), as well as a WOLF!! (Andy swears it was a fox: it had a bushy tail, and I swear it was a wolf: it didn't have long pointy ears, was bigger, and was grayish.) So we might agree on a coyote or just agree to disagree. :-p We have also made friends with a family of turkeys that always seem to be walking along the road in the mornings. Sometimes I roll down my window and give them a little gobble gobble. I think they like us.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week! Happy October!!!!

Andy went to the top of that dark colored bluff toward the top/middle of the picture.

Great views

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Week Two in Sandpoint

Bridge/Hwy coming into Sandpoint
So we have now been in Sandpoint for two weeks, this week really flew by!

Work for me (Kara) has been really good. I don't feel completely comfortable with everything yet, but it's coming along well. The people I work with are great, and very helpful with newbies! Everyone seems to really love their jobs, and a few spend time there on days off sometimes just to hang out. I think that's a good sign a decent place to work. One crazy thing is that every day, someone brings in something for everyone to eat. Doughnuts (on four different days already), veggies, fruit, chips & dip, chili, candy, chocolate cake, popcorn, coffee, etc. (That's only for the first 2 weeks!). I am really going to need to watch how many 'snacks' I'm munching on between patients! :) It's been interesting to me to get to know the patients I work with since the work is completely different than in ND. Most of the older people I got to work with in ND and MN grew up farming or ranching, and here most people grew up being loggers. I even had one patient here whose grandma came here from Europe and was forced to work at a tuna cannery in California when she was 8. Crazy! So now it's  Andy's turn....


Round Lake/Anniversary
Hello fellow blog followers! So the interview I had  last week went well. I am on the substitute teaching list at a charter school for middle and high school students. I  haven't gotten called yet, but was told that I could be as busy as 3-5 days/week. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I have had a few chances to network with business professionals around the area through chamber events and local business groups. I have a busy week ahead following up on employment leads such as:  short term marketing positions at 2 local coffee roasteries, and a possible sales position at a software company. Those are the job leads that would be based out of Sandpoint so far. In addition to that, I am also working on sales opportunities with a couple logistics companies as well as an audio and web meeting solutions co. You know the old saying, "if you throw enough stuff on the wall, something's gotta stick"! If anyone has any other ideas I am all ears. :) When I'm not job hunting I spend my time biking up mountains, and finding new trails to run. Back to Kare...


Round Lake State Park
Sour Patch Kid? :)


Round Lake

This past week we went hiking at Round Lake on our anniversary, which was really fun. They have pretty leveled trails in the mountains/trees surrounding a smaller lake. Yesterday we went hiking up Schweitzer, the mountain we are living on, called Mickinnick Trail. It was a pretty steep trail at times, but had amazing views! I was reminded just how out of shape I am, as today I am walking around like I need both hips replaced. :) We have started going to a church in town that we really like. Here's a link to their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sandpoint-ID/Grace-Sandpoint/232884868320?ref=ts . We have met a few people there and are hoping to meet more as we go. We are really missing friends and family this week, since we don't have the ability to be in contact as often and aren't able just to go hang out with people we know. We are hoping to have more opportunities to hang out with new friends after work and on weekends as soon as we can. 




Trees turning on Mickinnick Trail


 We hope that you are all finding time to enjoy the beginning of fall---heard it was gorgeous in ND today! Thanks for the care packages and cards this week, we really appreciate it. I am working on getting some return mail out soon! :) If anyone gets an itch to send a letter, our address is PO Box 2484, Sandpoint ID 83864. Have a great week!!


View of Sandpoint from the top of the trail

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Week One So Far.....

Since Sandpoint is beautiful and the days are getting shorter and shorter, we've been trying to take advantage of as much outside time as possible. On Monday, we took a walk around town and checked out some local businesses. Yesterday, we went for a shorter bike ride looking for fun trails. Andy took some of them and went on a long bike ride this morning. 

Taken from one of the trails last night.
After I got off work tonight, a couple of my co-workers were nice enough to borrow us kayaks and we hit the lake. I guess it's the biggest lake in Idaho and one of the deepest in the world (top ten or something like that). Sandpoint is a city built around part of this lake, which is surrounded by mountains.....gorgeous scenery!!!  It's been a lot of fun!! It's supposed to rain the rest of the week, so then we will probably do some more unpacking/organizing! Our landlord called last night to tell us that we need to park in the garage because some black bears have been breaking into cars in our neighborhood looking for food. I guess they're ripping off car doors for a candy bar. Luckily they're black bears, which I am told don't really like to snack on people parts. I guess the berry season was really short this year, so they haven't had as much food as usual.

Work has been going well so far. I feel a little slow on the documentation system they have, but I really like it. They have a super productive team and work side by side together. Each morning we have a meeting that is 30-60 minutes long addressing different things. Some are to talk about patients on Medicare and how well they are doing w/ therapy, updating their goals, etc., some are just to update us all on what's going on, and today they even had a time where you just let out anything you had to say about/for anyone, from problems to invitations to gatherings. I actually document what I did for each minute of my day, so my productivity balances out. I haven't had to do this at a job yet, but I like being able to keep track of it personally. I think I will learn a lot on this travel assignment!! They are also offering me free continuing education so that will be fantastic! 

Andy  has a job interview tomorrow, and has made a lot of calls/filled out a lot of applications this week. We are looking for something he can do for this entire travel period rather than just 13 weeks at a time. Surprisingly, he has had a lot of leads, so that's exciting. I just hope he is able to enjoy this next little bit being off of work, since I've had a lot more time off in the past few years than he has. :) 

I am still trying to get used to this time zone, and am not a huge fan of it. It's about a 20-30 minute drive from town up to our place, so by the time we get done in town and get back up here, it's already 8 pm or so, which means 10:00 central time. So if anyone wants to get a hold of us, please call in case we don't! :) I better get to bed, but here are a couple pics from kayaking tonight. They aren't the best since they're from my phone, but we haven't put the others on the computer yet.....sorry!



Sunday, September 12, 2010

We Made It!!!!!

So after a few days journey, we are finally here!!!

I'll quick recap the rest of our trek and make a quick post. So we went to Boise from Yellowstone and stayed w/ my aunt and uncle Jane and Marv. We were able to catch up w/ her daughters (Anna and Alecia) and their families as well as my Aunt Kathy, and her daughter Kristy's family. We had a great time catching up with them and getting shown around. They were amazing hosts we hope to see them again while we are in Idaho. On Friday, we traveled to Couer d'Alene, in northern Idaho. Instead of driving through the mountain ranges the whole way through Idaho, we were advised to drive through Oregon and Washington instead. It's a longer distance but takes the same amount of time because of less mountains. It actually went pretty quickly and we saw some gorgeous scenery along the way. We stayed with my cousin Brooke and her family once we got there. We got to know CdA a lot better and had a lot of fun with her and her family, and were able to see my cousin Taylor & his girlfriend as well. It's a great city with a lot to do!

Today we drove up to Sandpoint, which is where I will be working. It's absolutely gorgeous. The town is in a valley surrounded by mountains, and in the middle, is the biggest lake in Idaho. We met up with the guy whose condo we will be living in and he said, "Welcome to Sandpoint. This is the town, and you will be living way up there," while he pointed to the top of a nearby mountain. We followed him up, thinking it would be just a little way up the mountain, but didn't stop driving until we got to the top. We are right by the Schweitzer ski resort, and could easily walk to the lift from our place. Crazy. It's only 9 or so miles, but it takes about a half hour to get here. I'll add pics tomorrow, but it's just getting to late at the moment. After we settled in a bit, we drove into town, ate supper, found where I will be working, and got groceries. We are in pacific time so it was pitch black by the time we got back up to the mountain, which meant a beautiful sky full of stars.....and the smell of pine needles of course. We hope to be able to explore the town a lot more this week.

I start work tomorrow and am excited but nervous too, as I think it is with most first days. I don't think it has hit me yet that I'm not home, since we've been so busy, but have a feeling it will hit me this week. I will definitely be missing family and friends while we are gone. But I am so glad that Andy is along with me. It makes me feel like there really is no reason to be lonely because it is going to be so great doing this together. Anyway, I better get going, but hopefully will have time to fill in some of the gaps tomorrow or Tuesday including lots of pictures from our week long trip to Sandpoint!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

And we're off!!!

So you know how things never really hit you until they happen? Let's just say, both Kara and I experienced that while we were saying our goodbyes. We knew it would be hard with our friends and family, but I never really knew it would be so hard to leave my brother. He's my best friend, along with Kara of course, and we've been together forever. If you are a twin, you know what I'm talking about. Although it was tough, I am really excited for this experience with Kara.

It's only been a day, and we've already had a great trip. It all started from Hazen yesterday, and we got to Yellowstone last night. My good friend John was kind enough to let us stay at his cabin for the night. This morning, we had a relaxing morning, toured the park a bit, and took off for Boise. Some of Kara's family lives there so we wanted to visit them for a couple days. Along the way we saw some incredible scenery: the Grand Tetons, many streams & rivers, and lots of wildlife. We listened to some of our favorite christian CDs while we admired God's creation. It's incredible to think of how big God is and how small we are. We know that He has had his hand in this moving process from the very beginning.

 My friend John's place at Yellowstone



Yesterday we traveled for about 12 hours and today will be about 9 or 10 including pit stops in Yellowstone. Tomorrow will be spent in Boise relaxing with family. We plan to be in Coeur d'Alene for part of the weekend to visit more family, and will be in Sandpoint by Sunday.

                                               The 6-cylinder is really going to have to do work!
                                                                   Wish it had a hemi!

Sorry the pics are a little blurry, they are from the phone. We will add more from our camera later---we have tons! We'd also like to give a shout out to Century Baptist Youth Group. We'll be checking up on you regularly. ;-)