Portland Rescue Mission

This year I joined my school's Interact Club. For those of you who don't know, this club is basically a service club. One of the events that I just recently went to was the Portland Rescue Mission. Katie and I were the only ones there, but we had a blast.

(Sorry about the picture quality. The lighting was terrible, and I didn't bring my regular camera.)

All of the tubes that you see behind Katie are full of donated clothing, that has been sorted by volunteers, such as Interact Club members.

The guy in the back is my dad. He came to help out. The boxes you see are full of gently used or new shoes. Nike donates their sample shoes to the Portland Rescue Mission too, so there are some quality shoes.

Katie has a thing for cows lately. As we were sorting the shoes into boxes, she found a cow slipper. You don't even know how excited she was.

This is how the donations start out. In that pile there are shoes, shirts, pants, scarves, etc. Then volunteers sort everything into male/female, shorts/jeans, dress shoe/athletic shoe... Because of the amount of donations that PRM receives, they only take the best of the best. We are told to keep only the things that we would actually wear ourselves. The rest of the clothing is shared with other homeless organizations in Portland.

There is a massive amount of food that has been donated my Winco. They donate anything that has been sliced with a box knife. Therefore, PRM has crates full of good food where only one of the hundred packages is cut open.

There are poster boards with homeless people on them around the entire warehouse. The first time I volunteered at PRM, I would turn the corner and jump when I saw a fake person. But now that it was my second time, i got to see Katie jump.

Just a little fun with the barrels.

This guy works at the PRM warehouse. My mind is at a blank and I forgot his name, but he's a pretty fun guy.

FHE with the Barnes

This past Monday we invited the Barnes' over for Family Night. We had a lesson on how we can become physically strong as well as spiritually Strong. As a visual add we made paper airplanes. Each individual fold or crease in the paper make it stronger and more sturdy (folds representing: personal prayer, fasting, tithing, sacrament, etc.) We had a great night.

J found the clothes pins and went at it.

Lilly had a blast making the best airplane.

Gideon had a fun time showing us how to be physically strong.

Elda' Butters' two years are up

Elder Butters came over the night before his mission was completed. He and my dad both love golf; hence the golf balls and hat.

Butters has been a great missionary here in Oregon. I cant wait to meet him again...which wont be long since he and my dad are meeting up to play golf in Utah.

The Flush...

The truth is painful, but true... I live with a murderer. I guess it's a good thing I'll be living next to her when we have our own families...just in case.

Sarah has killed another one of her pet fish. Of course, this comes as no surprise to those of us who know Sarah's history of pets; it's quite a rap sheet. Two birds, two hamsters, too many fish, and we all know the cat was her too.

There I was, running on the treadmill and I hear an innocent "Lizzy? Can you come up stairs?" Hmmmm, what could it be this time?

As I walk up the stairs, there Sarah is, standing in her doorway with terror and guilt pasted across her face. She ushers me to the fish bowl and there he was. Tequila, this fish, was floating, lifeless on the water. Just because I'm her sister, I had to rub in the guilt. "Sarah, you should be ashamed with yourself. How many fish will it take for you to realize you just can't handle the responsibility of another life?"

When my fun was over, I followed her to the toilet for the "burial".

Family Bowling

Sarah joined Liberty's Bowling Club this year. The four of us went out for our traditional bowling tournament on our day off of school. My dad always wins, so we say whoever wins has to buy treats for the losers. This is the one time I'm okay with coming in second.

"Fall For You"

Once again, LHS Leadership puts together a great dance. Ever since last Homecoming's success, I was determined to never miss a dance after that. Up until 30 minutes before the dance, I had planned on not going. Not because I didn't want to, but because I wasn't too excited about the price. I mean, seriously... 15 bucks for a school dance. I wasn't about to be robbed. After my friends reminded me about how much fun I had at the last dance, I still wouldn't budge. However, I couldn't let my friends go to the dance without taking some pictures. So I offered up my services for the night.

It was 10 minutes before I was about to drive over for pictures, and I think I might as well see if Sarah has any dresses that I can use, just in case I have to go for Yearbook. So I find a dress and I eventually decide to attend the dance...and I got Sarah to come too, BONUS!

Before going to the dance, a group of my friends and I went to Chang's Mongolian Grill. One word yum. It turned out to be a great night, and I thank Sarah for having so many dresses in her closet for me to choose from.

Christmas at the cabin...

This year was possibly the best Christmas I've had in a long time. Ever since my brothers and Melissa have grown up and moved away, Christmas has been very different. It is a rare occasion for all of us to be together in one state at a time. Usually someone is gone. It couldn't have been a better time to have the whole family together for the announcement of Melissa and Brett having a baby. We spent most of our time up at our family cabin. One of my favorite places in the whole world is the cabin that my best memories have been made at. Close to what I think heaven looks like is this cabin and the nature surrounding it.