Congratulations to Master Dan. He has officially submitted his thesis and it was approved. Happy graduation! We are all very proud of him. And he is happy to be done -- Enjoying his free week before work starts.
Some Jane stories (her intense side)

So the other day Jane hit me in the face (very unusual behavior ;). I tell her she needs to make it better. She runs to the kitchen and says "I go get mama ice. Mama need ice". A few minutes later she runs back "daddy, ice in freezer. Get mama ice" Despite our attempts to convince her I did not need ice she was determined to get it (if anyone has seen Jane browbeat someone they know what I'm talking about). Anyway she forces dan into getting ice for me. Then she walks up and sticks it on my forehead and rubs it around for a while. Cute. It's hard to discipline when the kid is so funny.

She has also developed a recent standard toddler obsession with ownership (and defensiveness of people's ownership). Not just her own (which has been around for a while) but things that are daddy's and mama's. Heaven forbid I use her daddy's pillow. If I dare to, out comes the aforementioned 'furrowed brow' and a very intense statement "NO MA-MA-THAT'S-DA-DDY'S-PIL-LOW" -- with every syllable emphasized. It's hilarious. And humbling I must say considering how much I am bossed around by a 1 year old.

She's no pushover that's for sure. We were at a concert in the park the other day. Little kids were all dancing up at the front. A boy ran up and pushed Jane. She turns and looks at him with the same intense look and her entire little body flexed and states "NO! no push jane" I think she scared him off. Let's hope that skill sticks around.

She's hilarious. It's funny how quickly she changes and how fast she's growing up. She is really sweet. She gives me hugs and kisses all the time. She tells me to "be careful mama" whenever we are crossing streets and she makes me eat some of her grapes if I don't happen to have any. She's learning to go potty (and teaching a couple of her toys as well) She gets very excited when she's successful and loves to wash her hands (and then run laughing away before I can get a diaper on her). Anyway we are having a great time.

We're excited to be in Portland. the weather is ridiculously amazing. the hills are BRUTAL (some of you may not appreciate the drastic difference between walking a mile in champaign "only one hill and that's an old landfill" Illinois and walking a mile in the foothills of portland but trust me, it almost killed me) I've removed the beyond awful curtains from our house (lets just say gold tassels) and we have a new yard. It's great.

Going on 11 hours--

Dan has been putting sod on our yard for 11 hours now. Not to mention man-handling some old concrete. I put in my token 2 hours too. Not something I thought I'd be doing while pregnant.

Our Nightmare...

Well I won't give you the entire chronicles of our nightmarish move but it was, as i said, a nightmare. Suffice it to say (generally this statement is supposed to precede a short remark. this will not be short) they showed up a week late, left our mattress, then arrived way early forcing dan to drive through the night to meet them (or they said they would leave for seattle with our belongings and who knows when we would get them), they claimed our weight was double the estimated amount and when they agreed to reweigh after dropping off our stuff just took our money and split (Poor dan was waiting at the weigh station for over an hour and they never showed up) After all that we get pieces of a box that we shipped in the mail saying it had broken and the contents are in some abyss in east nowhere minnesota. Sadly the contents are about 95% of jane's books. Oh and our cell phone bill was a joy as well. Apparently we went a whopping 800 minutes over the limit but kudos to Tmobile for dropping that in exchange for another 7months contract (I think our last 3 years of contracts have been due to some lost, broken or drowned phone castastrophe. It's starting to feel like indentured servitude) -- I realize that may seem like the entire chronicle I promised not to give, but trust me, it's not.

So it's been lovely. The good news is we are here, we love our house and the area. I especially enjoy having a playroom and our own bathroom and despite the irritation of losing our mattress the new one is seriously better . We will have a yard by the end of today (as of yet it's been a large cement area and thistles) The neighborhood is really quiet and the weather is unbelievably nice. Plus we moved from family to family so that's great too.

Jane seems to be adjusting well. She even sleeps in her new big bed (even more comfortable than ours :) She's started telling me what to do a lot lately ("come here right now!", "no mama, no touch Jane's hair" --though anyone who has seen her hair probably wouldn't think I ever even tried -- and the ever popular "mama, no swiping")

Anyway we think we are really going to like it here. We miss all our family and friends in Illinois but that's the way moves always go.

On the subject of lame celebrity sightings...

We ar ein portland (more on our nightmare of a move later) We decided a few hours ago to take a stroll down to the river. On our way we got side tracked into a mini-street market. We are standing buying some blueberries (which are very good and gone already) and lo and behold there is David Archuleta (sp?) and the dreadlock guy whose name escapes me at the moment. and yes i was 'that girl' and took a cell phone picture of this lame celebrity moment. --- i did spare a scrap of dignity though by not asking to be in the picture with them. I would post the pic, but i don't know how