RIP Jay Nelson

Apparently the weekend of February 19th, he and a few friends (and girls) went out to Deschutes Falls...out past Cougar Mountain/Bald Hills area and had a camping trip. There was drinking of course and I guess some fighting (over girls?) also occurred during the course of the night. I also heard there might have been flare guns/fireworks and possibly a firearm at the camping sit as well. Jay was way beyond comprehension and one of his friends became the babysitter by putting a stop to it and making him go to bed, I'm uncertain of how close this camp site was to the falls and the ledge. The next morning Jay was not where they had left him so they assumed he left and went home (someone would have heard something) but they all picked up their stuff and left. Later on that day, they all found out he wasn't home and no one had seen him. They called the cell phone, no answer. So they all went back up there and started looking. Monday afternoon is when I heard about it and looked it up on King 5 news.com. The Thurston County search and rescue along with 200 other people searched the area for two days. The S&R claimed that they were 99% sure he was not in the water and kind of loitered in the area while his dad tried to see what they were hiding from them (they would not let anyone down there except the S&R team). On Wednesday afternoon he was finally found directly below of where they thought he fell off into the river. They found him 15 feet under the water. So we have no idea why the S&R team were lying to them. He had died on February 20.

These are some of the questions about it that still have not been clarified:

Below is a list of questions that need to be immediately asked and there also needs to be an investigation of the head of the official Search and Rescue operation.

1. Why, after only 1 day after Jay went missing, was the official land search called off after the family had been told that the dive team had searched everywhere and there was no body in the water?
2. Why, after only 2 days after Jay went missing, has the official land search not been restarted since the dive team stated on Monday that they are 99.9% certain that there is no body in the water?
3. Why has the family been told that anyone who continues to search will be arrested for trespassing, even though the official search has been called off?
4. Why did it take 9 hours after Jay was reported missing for Search and Rescue to start a search, beginning after dark?
5. Why were friends and family members threatened with arrest if they aided in the official search, even though they were familiar with and lived in the area, but young Explorers unfamiliar with the area were allowed to search?
6. Why was Jay’s family’s assistance dismissed and ignored, leading to the wrong item of clothing, that of a non-missing male, being used by the search dogs.
7. Why is there a policy to search urgently for a missing child or female, but less importance is placed on a missing male, as stated by a member of the Search and Rescue team?
8. Why were those who were last with Jay not questioned immediately, in light of the fact that one male locked himself in his bedroom refusing to talk to anyone, other males who were with Jay when he went missing have not helped in the search, and those involved have had different stories and have also changed their stories about what happened the night before Jay went missing.

Either someone is lying and fears going to prison or he got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and got disoriented and fell. I won't know until someone comes clean. I still haven't heard about the autopsy report and what they had found.

March 1 was the saddest day I've ever had. I really didn't know Jay very well but we did hang out a lot when we were kids because of church activities and he and his family living behind us for several years. Being six years older, that's quite a gap especially since we really weren't that close to begin with. The whole town packed itself into the Rainier Sportsmen's Club. The ceremony was sad yet beautiful and touching. I just about knew everyone there. I haven't seen that much of my relatives since I was a little kid and we were down at Woodbrook Chapel with some sort of church event. When I went passed that open casket, my heart sank. I will never forget the way I felt when I looked at his body lying there in the box. Part of me thought he was going to wake up, climb out of the box and hug everyone but then I came into realization that he was gone and we were looking at his shell. For weeks after the funeral, I still can't get that image out of my mind. We drove to where his final resting place was, the Yelm Cemetery. Tons of people made the drive out. It didn't last that long but his grandmother, mother and father had a tough time. We went back to the Sportsmen's Club to reminisce and eat some food.

Life is precious and can be taken away from us at any given moment. Please please make good choices.

Rest in Peace Jay.

Chickens 2010

Haha the title itself kinda sounds like I have robot chickens....

My dad has always wanted chickens. We used to have chickens when I was little. So out on a whim, we saw the sign at Dell's Feed Store "Chicks are in," we went for it.

We brought home six little pullet Rhode Island Reds, a water, a food container and some feed.

We didn't have a place to put them so I went and got my big storage bin I bought last year for ten bucks, put some pet shavings in the bottom, found some lights to shine on them to keep them warm and we just needed to find a place to store them away from the cats...

Bathroom chickens. The chickens stayed in the bathroom for five weeks. Dad and I started building a temporary chicken pen. They moved in April 25.



Baby Chickens



Getting bigger



Inside the chicken house



Chickens enjoying being outside

WSU-Vancouver Job Fair

A few weeks ago when I was visiting Starrla for the Superbowl, I saw a flier on her fridge about a job fair. I was like, we should go and see if we can get any job leads. She already lives in Vancouver and I plan on moving down there this summer. On the way there, we got lost because of Starrla...but we knew where we were and fixed it. The first day was non-profits, environmental and engineering jobs...stuff we're not qualified for. Parking, as always was horrible, we just found a 30-min free meter parking and hoped for the best. Yay, no tickets. I tried yoga for the first time at Vince's personal training business. It was free. Man, was I sore the next day. I was sore in places that I've never been sore before. We got Subway on the way home and ate it while we watched the Olympics. We passed out around 11.

The next day we took the dog for an hour walk. Got back, ate food and got ready to go to the second day of the job fair. They had set ups for mostly business majors. Starrla and I hit up Safeway, The Columbian (Vancouver newspaper), UPS and Northwest Natural Products. At the NNP, we actually left our resumes behind. The company sounded amazing. I wouldn't mind working for them. We came home, changed, watched some Simpsons while we ate wings, and played a game of bowling at Big Al's. We had to wait about a half hour before we could bowl, they guy at the counter felt bad so he comped my shoes. Starrla beat me but I had no idea she bowled in a junior league when she was a teenager. She actually competed in Reno, Nevada back when she was 15. I stopped by Dairy Queen for a blizzard because it sounded good. We got back home and hung out with Vince...while he talked about personal training.

The job fair really wasn't all that great but it didn't hurt to go. I actually got some useful information out of it. And I had to dress up nice.

Fingers crossed.