Summer has officially begun!!!

Hello everyone!!!!!!

It's been a while since we posted anything! Things have been surprisingly busy. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I can give y'all a quick update of what's been going on with us these days:
1. We went to La Grande for Memorial weekend/Josh's grandma's 80th birthday party.I made strawberry cupcakes for the festivities--this time with a little help from Elsa.

2. Josh's birthday was last week. We kept it pretty low key. Josh took a half day, we went to Olive Garden for dinner, and we bought him this:So far the cats have been using his present more than he has, but the weather is FINALLY starting to perk up, so hopefully he can get some quality longboarding in this summer. Here is a gratuitous picture of his birthday cake:
You're welcome. Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, topped with chocolate peanut butter ganache. It was deadly, but it was FANTASTIC.

3. My brother's birthday was also last week. He turned 12!!! (sorry, no pictures)

4. My sister graduated from high school!

I'm so proud of her! Everyone is getting so big! I feel old. Also, I have bangs now!

Happy summer everyone!

Look Mom, I'm on TV!!!!!

As Brianne mentioned in our last blog post, there was some excitement at our apartment complex last Friday morning at about 4am. Yesterday Brianne and I were on TV! We were interviewed by KPTV Channel 12 and KGW Channel 8. The interviews were aired at 10pm and 11pm. The videos were posted on their websites this morning. Here is the video from KPTV Channel 12 called Feds Arrest 3 In Drug Raid At Salem Apartment. This is the better news report.

This video is the one from KGW




This is a written article entitled Agents Arrest 3 In Salem Drug Raid where we were quoted.

~Josh

Trouble With the Law

Some of you might remember our little run-in with the FBI last year. You know, the one that didn't actually happen?

Guess what?! Something really happened this time! Unfortunately Bruce Willis wasn't involved...

At about 4:00 this morning we heard a loud crash coming from upstairs. People were walking past the bedroom window with flashlights and we heard a voice over a loudspeaker telling us to stay in our apartment. I couldn't resist; I looked out the front window and saw a S.W.A.T. truck in the parking lot! We didn't know what was going on until a detective saw me peeking out the window and knocked on the door. He was pretty vague, but I guess the neighbors were stashing a bunch of drugs and guns in their apartment. The crash we heard was a flash grenade from the S.W.A.T. team. They had been watching the apartment for a while in a van (the S.W.A.T. truck left before I thought of taking a picture but I thought the blog post needed some visual interest) and for whatever reason decided that 4:00 AM was an appropriate time to bust the door down and arrest people. I have to admit, it was pretty cool. Stuff like this just doesn't happen in the suburbs of Salem.

The Surveillance Van

Here is the link to the story from the local newspaper. It doesn't really do it justice. And the reporter spelled heroin wrong. But it was exciting!

A few of my favorite things

Everyone who reads this blog knows I love cupcakes. I also love strawberries. So it was only natural to combine the two. This is my new favorite cupcake recipe.

These cupcakes totally blew my mind. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, but her website has the same recipe. Make them now.

Labor Law

About two weeks ago I got an update on my former employer. The company I used to work for was a farm and food processor. Labor laws in Oregon dictate that farm workers are exempt from overtime pay. The definition according to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry is: "A farmworker is any person who works for pay in the production and harvesting of agricultural commodities, including crops, animals, and horticulture specialties." While many of the employees fall into this definition not all did. However, they considered all employees as farm workers.

My former employer sent me a letter stating that there had been a lawsuit filed against them for non-compliance with wage and hour laws, particularly overtime pay. The lawsuit is being considered for class-action status. To avoid a class-action lawsuit they were offering a settlement to everyone that may be due overtime pay. The offer was for all overtime pay plus 9% interest.

If I were to take part in the class-action lawsuit and we won then I would be awarded my overtime pay, interest, plus state and federal penalties, minus attorney fees which would be about 1/3 of my winnings.

I decided to accept the offer because it wasn't worth it to me to be a part of the class. I went down to Corvallis and signed the settlement agreement and picked up my check.

With my money I paid off some bills and I used some of it on fun stuff. I bought a Blu-ray player, a movie on Blu-ray, and a Barbecue (or a grill for those of you who are accustomed to southern BBQ...Jordan). I didn't realize that the BBQ required full assembly. We've used the BBQ three times in the last two weeks, and only three times because the weather has been cold, rainy and windy. Over the next few months we will really enjoy the things that we got with this surprise.

~Josh