2009: part II

From the last post, I left off where us Powelson's were enjoying a nice summer of work and taking time to play. Despite having a full and busy schedule of fun, somehow, we ended up with no plans for Labor day, and so spent a lazy Labor day morning talking about plans for where we wanted to be in a few years. Discussion turned from trying to move from our one bedroom apartment (since the lease was up) and trying to find a house to rent for a while. Craigslist results for houses to rent yielded very expensive results - how can people afford to rent houses? But there was a little two bedroom home for sale. With no intent of actually buying a house, we called the Realtor to see if we could check it out. We went to look at the home that afternoon, and really liked it. Two days later we put an offer on the house and the sellers accepted! I've heard that most people look at a few homes before buying their first, but it just felt right, and you can't dispute that feeling. So we bought it.

The house

The back of the house

The secret grow house, which is one of the many storage sheds on the property. (If you come to visit us, Richard gives a special "flashlight tour" of our crazy back yard. It's pretty spooky, but you do get your own flashlight.)

It turned out to be a good buy - 1) because the monthly mortgage payment turned out to be less than what we were paying to rent our apartment, and 2) because we found out we would soon need two bedrooms! About two weeks after signing an agreement to buy the house, we found out that we would be having a baby! And two weeks later, as we were trying to adjust to that news, we found that Kim would be losing her job (thanks to major state budget cuts the whole program was closed).

So to review, in just a little over a month, we bought our first home, found out we'd be having our first baby, and found out we would be losing our major source of income - in that order! Oh yeah, and Richard started graduate school sometime in there as well. And right after that, we moved into Richard's parent's home until the house closed (which, by the way, we sincerely appreciated them letting us crash there and eat their food for a month!).

According to the Holmes and Rahe stress scale, these factors alone should have made us both at risk for stress-induced illness (really, the scale should have said we were at risk of going crazy). And despite all this, I have to say that we've been incredibly blessed, not just because we haven't gotten ill, but also because life has continued to move along beautifully. We are loving the house, and slowly getting settled in. Kim is thoroughly enjoying some down time in-between jobs, and is enjoying a healthy pregnancy to date. Despite the recession, there's been pretty job interviews and it's looking hopeful that there will be a good job soon. Richard made it through his first semester of graduate school with great grades, despite all the life commotion. November and December were mostly spent wrapping things up (moving into our home, Kim finishing her job) and adjusting to all the changes. So I think, with the new year, we're ready to just veg for a while - at least until May 19th when our baby is due. Hopefully we'll have no exciting news until then! Here's a few more pics from the rest of the year...

Just got handed the keys to our house!


The first Thanksgiving we've ever cooked - rather beautiful, if I may say so...


My little brother - back from his 2-year church mission in Canada!


Out with the Powelson clan


Christmas in spangle - making truffles, going 4-wheeling, and gym night




And there's it is, 2009. Wishing all a wonderful 2010!

Another year has flown by, without a single addition to our blog...

I'm considering only posting on even years, that way every other year I have a guaranteed new year's resolution. Actually, Richard, who is in charge of the yearly Christmas letter was feeling a distinct lack of creative energy for the task, and so it never materialized. Thus, the task has fallen upon me to fill in the details of the last year - our 2009. I think the main problem with writing about the past year, is that it implies writing about things that happened before September - and there has been so much change in our lives since then, it's hard to believe that there were a full 8 months of the year before that. So, I'm doing two installments of 2009. here it goes!

January - August aka the part of the year where everything went along nicely.

Life was going well. We had settled into Tri-cities living, and into our jobs at Lutheran Community Services - Richard working in suicide prevention, and Kim working in hospitalization alternatives (keeping kids in their homes with intensive intervention instead of shipping them off to residential care). It was great for both of us to be working in the same building, but with different co-workers, as it meant that we each always had a lunch buddy, and someone to talk to if work got slow.
Richard's sister got married in February, so we spent a lovely Valentine's day helping with and participating in that event. In our spare time, Richard took to loving board games, and has become a collector of sorts (ask him about boards and bits if you dare), while Kim started, and actually finished multiple craft items - special shout out to craft club that lasted one meeting, but was still very fun! Richard was part of music club with the guys, while Kim spent craft night talking, shopping and doing anything but crafts. Craft club died, but music club turned into something greater - the Seaworthies reunion.

March brought on the much anticipated first show of the Seaworthies reunion - with Richard on the keys. Although much acclaimed, a few months later they performed their second and last show, leaving Richard wanting to perform more. Thus lead to the beginning of the Powelson family folk band:



While the Powelson family folk band has yet to perform, we have high hopes for summer 2010. Watch out free family events in the park!

In April - needing to refresh ourselves and shake off winter - we took a long weekend, and had a fabulous time in New York and Connecticut. That should have been a separate blog all in itself, but here's a few of the best pics:

The greatest grocery store of all time.
Easter Sunday at Yale, at the oldest campus church in the U.S.

Finally got to have a street vendor New York hot dog. Truthfully, the gyros were more amazing. But the hotdog experience was still good. All the food in New York was good.

Times Square

Richard and Al Roker.



When summer came around, we also took some time off to head to the coast with Richard's family.
At a little light house we visited.

A sporty shot of Richard on the beach

Yoga on the beach


Aside from work, summer also included going to Kim's 10-year high school reunion (why is it always so hard to believe that it's been 10 years since high school?), as well as a
best friend's weddings (and a guest appearance by DJ honeysauce).


We also floating down the river, watching the neighbor's fireworks on the 4th of July from Richard's parent's rooftop, and saw America at the county fair. It was all going so nicely, until that one fateful day in September when we got a crazy idea...but that's for the next post :)

x-mas mems and gems

X-mas eve was great. the boyz played rock band with their father, Their virtual band "mustache towel" really revolutionized West Richland WA. The funniest part was after about 8 songs, dad yelled out "I've got blisters on my fingers"... yeah, he owned the white album before it was cool to own the white album. As for what the girls did all night...they just complained about how all the guys wanted to do was play Rock Band all night...a bunch of Yoko Ono thems girls is.

X-mas was also great.

Richard gave Amy the greatest gift of all, a tee-shirt that had a women whose face was painted as a sky/tree overlooking a car driving on the highway with the words mother nature written over it... it was found in a mysterious department store. they are the type of store that does not realize how funny their clothes are.

Richard scored a sweet bolo tie from santa which is great, except that his nieces all thought it was a rope to grab on when they got off balance upon his lap... he almost died.

The following days were filled with returning stuff and stocking up on store credit... this way if the bad economy takes our jobs, we will survive... as long as they keep selling beef jerky at best buy





happy holidays

x-mas letter 2008

the blog is back.... well our lives have been crazy, but we just found out over x-mas that people actually read our blog, so we decided to continue... here is a copy of our x-mas letter for those whose address we lack... but let me say you are all worth the price of a stamp.

Dear sir or madam,

Well another year has past. It’s finally time to deck the halls, trim the tree and the one time a year when hiding things from a spouse or loved one does not end with in a messy investigation and/or court hearing. Yes… it is the holidays, and so it’s time for the much anticipated but horribly executed Powelson Christmas letter.
When we last left the Kim and Richard they were wandering amongst the tranquil forests of Wenatchee completely numb to their own boredom. In all honesty neither Richard nor Kim can remember much about the first three months of 2008. They joined a gym that had a special: “Free three-night vacation if you work-out 100 times”. So most of the beginning of 2008 was spent walking in place while watching Tele Novella or The Food Network depending on who had the remote. Near the end of March, Eagle Administration offered Richard a full time position. This meant that instead of starring at a screen doing a remedial task in the scanning room, he now starred at screen doing a remedial task in the credit department. Plus, if he did literally become bored to the point of death, he would have benefits.
Spring began with a bang! Richard and Kim took a somewhat impromptu vacation to Seattle. The main idea of this trip was to experience effulgent rapture amongst The Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. For those of you who have not had this experience, it is where one can walk around looking at artifacts from bands no body has ever herd of…Then, walk down a hall viewing replicas of props used in movies no self-respecting person ever claims to have watched. Although, they do have Sir Mix a-lot’s drum machine (they specify that it in not the actual drum machine used to record “Baby got Back”). At first, the Experience reminds Richard of his many walks through pawn shops, but then he remembered that he never paid 40 bucks to walk around a pawn shop.
Later that April, future adventures began to take root. It all began when Richard was reminded, via MySpace, that he had been out of high school for 10 years. So, it was time for the forces of “The Class of 98” to reunite and expose how many of the popular girls have ruined their bodies with Rocky Road ice cream and/or multiple childbirths. This “reunion” became the perfect storm that would force Ivar Hillesland, Michael Cooper and Richard Powelson to sync their power rings of musical ability and bring about that magical force, known to the world as Rock and Roll Band. As if five albums of Genius were not enough to end the world’s problems. Rock and Roll band decided to record a sixth album. For album release date, consult The Book of Revelations.
This, of course, is a good segue into the summer of ‘08. Richard and sometimes Kim spent most of there time driving down to the Tri-city area on weekends for Rock’n Roll band practice and relearning the songs they had worked on the previous weekend. Kim went on some private vacations to Spokane to deal with the stress of being married to a man obsessed with his art. But Richard kept his eye on the prize. As the smoke cleared on the fateful August afternoon when Rock and Roll band declared their work was done (mostly because Ivar had to go back to Connecticut), they were left with twelve songs whose topics include: how much we are going to miss President Bush, Wolf-man real estate agents, and secret tears.
Around this time our friend Blaise said the agency he works for might have a job for Richard. They set up an interview for the first weekend in August. Three days before the interview, Blaise called and said they had a master’s level position open for Kim. This seemed a lot easier then a long distance internet marriage based around building a small hut in the Orc village of World of Warcraft in which they wile away the hours discussing virtual finances and who has enough attack points to slay a goat for dinner. So long story short, both got jobs at Lutheran Community Services – Richard in suicide prevention services, and Kim is in mental health hospitalization alternative services.
Then in came the fall. It began with a move to the tri-cities and was followed by 4 months of nothing but good-luck and fortune. Of course Kim misses all her kiddos in Wenatchee that she worked with and Richard really misses being micro-managed and the many lectures about taking his full hour lunch. Being closer to family and friends has allowed us to decrease travel time and return to our hobbies, hopes and dreams. Kim has been reading a lot and painting more and more. She finished her first scrap book and one whole page of the much anticipated wedding scrap book that people are dying to look through. Richard is in a new band doing what he always wanted to do, play rock organ. For those that don’t know, being rather awkward, Richard was forced to use “guitar player” status to get female attention during his bachelor years. Now that he has a permanent groupie, the black key furry is being unleashed. Both Richard and Kim have enjoyed working in the same building and having a lunch buddy to sit next to in the staff room. They also enjoy spending time with the next generation. This includes their newest niece Olive, whom most predict will become a sarcastic hipster who is mad at the world because she spent her first three years of life looking like a dude.
Well I guess that’s it for now. We love some of you, and have some sort of affection for the rest of you who receive this letter. We hope you all have a warm holiday season no matter what race, creed or color you may claim. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and to our friends in Olympia, have and holly jolly Winter Solstice free from evangelical pressure. May God/Nature/Xenu bless you all…

the haps

As the days grow longer, the bloggging doth decrease. Finding time to write self-flattering jaunts of titillating reflection is hard when the sun is shining and the only thing that keeps a man indoors is his addiction to the halo game he bought at the pawn shop for four dollars. Ironically, during the hibernation months in Wenatchee, there really is not a lot to report... Now the sun is up, we've been having all kinds of adventures. Kim has decided to take a swing at gardening (its cheaper than a paternity test, now we will find out if she really is the daughter of Lori Konshuk) so far so good... Then again next to our neighbors cigarette butt lawn art, anything looks fantastic. Speaking of our loud obnoxious spent-all-the-macn'cheese-money-on-a-stereo-system neighbors, the other day the mother coined my favorite phrases yelled at 6:00 in the morning (of course this may be because most phrases yelled around here are in a foreign tongue), "Get your f**king A** to school, you little Sh*t, and quit dragging your f**king bag....and no more cussing or I'll wash your mouth out with soap". To build upon the imagery of this, you must understand that our neighbor could easily be a stand in for Gilbert's mom in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape".
Richard on the other hand has been hired on at Eagle (after being a temp for 8 months). He actually is working with the collections department, do to his unique proficient use of the term "where's my money". he is not making very much money, but they pay for college and a gym membership and after 6 months he gets a monogram denim shirt. Due to the fact that Wenatchee is 5-10 years behind the rest of the world, paintball is huge here (so is Linkin Park and tech vests). This has been great for Richard because during the initial paintball trend, Richard was a starving artist/student spending all his money on guitar strings and backstage fluzies. He bought a gun and went up for the first time this weekend. He did alright only getting pegged twice and hitting some middle school kid in the chest. Unfortunately the guys in the ward here only go every once in a while. So if anyone wants to shoot some paint, come on down to wenatchee, there is always a game going on and we won't laugh at your smashing pumpkins t-shirt.

Est Super Tol!

We went to Leavenworth (a German look-alike town in middle Washington) back in December as part of our pre-Christmas celebratory fun. I am just now getting the pictures posted. The day was throughly enjoyed by all. For those who enjoy a Christmas lights display and "Christmas magic" moments, I would highly recommend coming (Good Morning America came this year, and rated it as the number ?? of America's best light displays). For those who prefer rock concerts and extreme sports, this may not be your ideal, but if you like Chestnuts rosted on an open fire, Air Force bands, and Father Christmas walking down the street, this is the place for you! (Richie actually got out of buying rosted Chestnuts...a man was walking down the street and said to his wife, "Well, I'm done with these, we should see if anyone wants them." Not to miss an opportunity, Richie replied, "We'll take those off your hands for you," and the man gave them to us. What a friendly town!)

Us strolling down Main Street looking for Father Christmas.

Richie on an authentic German phone.


As the photographer of the trip, I felt it important to get a picture of myself.

After gathering into a huge crowd in town square and singing Silent Night, they turned on all the Christmas lights. It was lightly snowing at the same time and was beautiful. Here's some of the shops lit up.

Richard's top ten albums of all time

Recently I acquired three albums that made a big deal about being named one of Rolling Stones 500 greatest albums of all time! Since then I’ve become a little obsessed with this list. I remember when it came out. My roommate Pete and I had a few discussions, but I forgot about it soon after. It seems I now have more time to listen to music, so I’ve been thinking a lot about my own personal list of favorite albums. To me there are three things that make an album legendary and worthy of being called the “best”: It inspires future artists, it needs to be an pleasant experience from the first song to the last and it has to be a nice balance of talented musicianship that the masses would want to listen to (in other words no Dream Theater or Steve Vai). Also, one of the biggest beefs people have with Rolling Stones’ list is the inclusion of "greatest hits” compilations which is kind of cheating, I agree. I also think too many of Rolling Stones' selections were based on albums that had two or three really pivotal songs, while the rest of the songs on the album were sub-standard. I think a good album is allowed to have a little weird stuff between songs, but each real track should stand on its own. I think that comes from being a part of the I-pod generation and being able to put my whole music collection on shuffle. So here is my list of the top ten albums that I hope to be on my mp3 player if I get trapped in a cave and music is my only means of staying sane.

10. Loaded, The Velvet Underground- Most people rant and rave about their first album due to Andy Warhol’s contributions. I think that album is great considering the drummer only had three drums and a tambourine, the violin player only knew about seven notes and Lou Reed still did not know how to tune his guitar. “Loaded”, however is really that album that I can put in anytime anywhere and feel good.

9. The Cars, The Cars- I think The Cars were the last band that could integrate synthesizer into their music but not depend too much on it (as many future 80's bands began to do). This album is that missing link between The Who and Erasure, and I love it.

8. Mtv Unplugged in New York, Nirvana- I hated this album when it first came out. I actually traded my first copy to my friend Brandon Leavitt for some trashy old school punk rock tape. Now that I am wiser, I realize the beauty of this album. I think it is awesome that they play a Ledbelly cover, yet never play their biggest hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. It shows there lack of ego in there own success and there love for music that made them great. I read a story once that you were just as like likely to hear Abba on their tour bus as you were Dinosaur Jr.

7. Paranoid, Black Sabbath- Nothing but power chords, pentatonic scales and a whole lot of energy. This album is track after track of music all rockers aspire to make.

6. Exodus, Bob Marley and the Wailers- This album was made after Peter Tosh had left and Bob added “Family man” and his back-up singers. It also was made while Marley and his wife were both recovering from gun shot wounds. I think it was his best album because instead of just track after track of rebel music, he actually has a few lighter songs like one about two little birds singing sweet songs.

5. Ok Computer, Radiohead- In the later nineties, rock music was growing very stale. Grunge had taken over and all bands either sounded like Pearl Jam or Nirvana. It got so bad people began to resort back to cheesy pop like the Back Street Boys. OK Computer was the album that seemed to shake everyone up and say, hey there is more to life then loud driven music with lyrics nobody understands, there is weird ambient music with lyrics that nobody can understand.

4. Weezer (the blue album), Weezer- take the grunge invasion, remove the screaming and add vocalist that harmonize with each other and you have Weezer. Everyone laughed when I wore my blue Weezer shirt in 1998… now it’s a desired eBay product I will never part with.

3. Odessey and Oracle, The Zombies- this album was actually recorded in Abby Road studios while the Beatles were recording Sgt. Peppers. It is said that the making this album was such an exhausting process the band broke up when they saw that odessey was spelled wrong on the cover (sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back). Since there was no band to tour and promote it, it was sort of pushed aside until a radio Dj in L.A. started playing "Time of the Season". Then a bunch of counterfeit groups toured as The Zombies and the album began to achieve some initial success. Since then it has become a staple to any music lovers’ collection including Elliot Smith (who covered "Care of Cell 44"). It is the best example of perfect vocal harmonies blended with organ rock.

2. Odelay, Beck- I really think this album took the word eclectic to a new level and brought it into musician’s vocabulary. It won Beck Artist of the year in 1998 and it one of the few albums from high school that I have not turned into Hastings. It helped get us all out of the mosh pit and on to the dance floor.

1. Revolver, The Beatles- Most “best of” lists really come down to what is the best Beatles album, and rightly so. Most people think its Sergeant Peppers because many believe it ushered in a new era and because it received so much commercial success. I think the only reason it was so popular is because so many other bands had gotten a hold of “Revolver” and created and pre-era that help cushion the blow. Plus Revolver has John Lennon singing over a guitar and drum loop, a technique that has been mimicked by everyone from Michael Jackson to The Chemical Brothers.

Honorable mention: Dark side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Soft Bulletin by The Flaming lips.

Now if I were to take out the influential part and count down my top ten most recent albums it would be

10. Foxtrot Hotel, Wilco

9. Our Ill Wills, The Shout out louds

8. Everything All the Time, Band of Horses

7. Castaways and Cutouts, The Decembrist

6. Cutes Too Narrow, The Shins

5. Trouble, Ray LaMontage

4. In Case we die, Architecture in Helsinki

3. Elephant, The White Stripes

2. The Throes, The Two Gallants

1. Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Belle and Sebastian

Honorable mention: Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens and Funeral by Arcade Fire.