On the brink of history...

The day has come.

January 20. 2009 is a few hours away. On this day, we will swear in Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

Actually, he is only the 43rd man to hold this office, as Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms as the 22nd and the 24th president.

Other interesting presidential trivia?

Nine presidents never attended college: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland, and Truman

The most common religious affiliation of the elite few elected to President is Episcopalian, followed next by Presbyterian.

Obama will be the first president born outside the continental US. He was born in Hawaii.

The tallest president was Lincoln at 6'4", the shortest? James Madison at 5'4".

4 people won the popular vote but lost the Presidency: Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but lost the election to John Quincy Adams (1824); Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote but lost the election to Rutherford B. Hayes (1876); Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the election to Benjamin Harrison (1888); Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election to George W. Bush (2000).

James Buchanan was the only president never to marry.

3 Presidents died on the 4th of July: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe. Adams and Jefferson died in the same year.

George Washington's salary while president was 25k, G. W. Bush's? 400K. One would argue the latter is way overpaid. Then again, you couldn't pay me enough to be President.

Tuesday we witness history as Barack Obama becomes the first African American to be sworn in as President. I think it speaks a true testament to this nation that this barrier has finally been broken. 150 years ago, the Civil War took place to end slavery, yet discrimination lived on. The 60's brought the courageous civil rights movement where names like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks became etched in history. And now, we see an African American elected to the highest position of the most powerful country in the world. Yes we can, America.

I think the next 4 years are going to be a time of trial as we are in a recession with an ever growing debt and a war that continues, but I think Obama brings hope, restores faith that America can rise up. That we can restore out economy, that we can bring home our soldiers overseas, that we can restore respect to our nation.

Whether you voted for him or not, let's give him the chance he deserves. Things could not be any worse than they are right now, after 8 years of this current administration. So tune in on Tuesday as we watch history....

If only I had the day off...oh well, I'll have to watch it on DVR.

2009!

Happy 2009! and happy 6 months of marriage to my hubby and me! :) Time flies....

My new year resolutions for 2009:

1. Blog a LOT more frequently.

2. Stay in better touch with family. Now that we have new nieces I want to know ALL about them as they reach their milestones.

3. Work out at least 30 minutes a day, 4 times a week. I'm not going to say "get healthy" or "lose X amount of pounds" because I think those resolutions are easily forgotten.

4. Buy a house. Super excited and super nervous about the prospect of that but I think it will be a fun adventure for James and I.

What are YOUR new year resolutions? Leave me a comment. Putting it in writing sometimes holds you more accountable. :)

Quick Recap of the Holidays

James and I had a great time back east visiting family but as usual it was a whirlwind and sometimes not very relaxing. It was GREAT to see all our siblings and parents and so much fun to meet our two adorable NEW nieces, Lily Anne, who is 5 months old, and Addison Naomi, who was just over 3 weeks when we met her.

Lily Anne

From Christmas 08

Addison Naomi

From Christmas 08

We're so in love with both of them, though sad we live so far away from them.

We made it out of Portland just in time as Portland was hammered with a snow storm the weekend we left. They received 11 inches of snow which is the most the city had seen since 1968.

We flew back to Portland Dec. 30 and headed to Bend, OR about 3.5 hours from Portland the afternoon of New Years Eve. Our plan was to spend two days on the ski slopes at Mt. Bachelor. A friend from PT school who I recently found on Facebook lives in Bend with her husband, and we were able to ring in the new year with them. It was great to see Meg again! We hadn't seen each other since we graduated over 6 years ago!

We were up early to head to the mountain on New Years Day, only to be met with hurricane force winds on the mountain with all the lifts closed except the bunny hill lift. Not wanting to spend the money for a lift ticket for one lift, we headed home. Good thing we did though since about mid-day the resort lost power and had to close, and with no refunds given, I would have been pissed! We spent the day shopping, hot tubbing, and going to see Marley & Me. (I bawled, no sobbed, like a baby) We got up early again on Friday to head back to the mountain to find a few more lifts open (still very windy) and were told by the ski patrol that conditions were "grim". Hearing ski patrol say they wouldn't ski in it was enough to convince me not to do it. Visibility was basically 6 inches in front of your face at the top of the mountain. So we went tubing instead and had a BLAST. It sucked not to be able to finally get on the mountain, but we had fun nonetheless.

We're back home in Portland, the Christmas decorations have been put away, and we're enjoying our last evening off before heading back into the working world. Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season!