Been there, done that

My parents and I reside in the Methow valley, or at least my parents do and I am with them until I can get back on my feet with life. If you don't follow what goes on with the wildfires in this country, I'll at least update you on what has been going on in the last year with Washington.

Washington has burned. Not just this year in 2015, but last year in 2014 too. I'm not being completely sarcastic when I say that Washington has burned, in 2014 the wildfire was the largest in the history of the state. Not to be outdone, the fire this year has now reached the largest in the history of the state, with the smoke being seen and reaching all over the country.

Unfortunately the 2015 fire has taken the lives of 3 firefighters.

These fires aren't one fire that spreads and becomes the largest fire, they are a few smaller fires that converge and become a larger fire. The more spread out the fires are to each other, the harder it is for the firefighters to fight it because they have to travel between them depending on the day and on which particular 'branch' is hotter. At least that's my understanding of it.

Last year during the suprise of a fire, evacation orders and everything that goes with large forest fires, it felt like everyone was reacting. The power was out in 2014 for 8 days, and my dad was run ragged trying to get it back on as soon as possible. The adventure last year was just that, an adventure. I was starting to get into really high doses of Gabapentin as my latest trial in the migraines, and was really out of it from that in addition to having my sister in the country with some of her friends from China. It was a fun adventure but one that was surmountable and easy to see as something that would pass.

This year with the fires, Winthrop was evacuated due to the roads in and out being blocked by fire. My parents always stay as much as they can, due to my dad having to work. I stayed too and helped out at the Hotel where I work due to it still being open. We opened up all the rooms for firefighters and forest service personnel, and goodness what a stressful time. I'm 24 and was basically left in charge of a hotel during an emergency because my bossman went out of town. Me, in charge. It was stressful and hard.

I'm always just trying to learn from the things that happen, and to roll with whatever God gives me for the day.

Sometimes I just wish it was a different type of adventure.

I'm Alive!!!!

I haven't died, my life exploded.

I've also become addicted to Tumblr. So there are tons of posts on here. Not really real blog posts as much anymore, but the kind of posts that I had time for in the past few years. 

My life by the numbers: 

• 6 years of college
• 9 medical specialists (rough estimate) 
• 1 amazing dog
• 1 engineering degree
• 2 awesome siblings
• 2 awesome and understanding parents
• 5 different jobs
• 4 times taking Calculus 2.... ahem...
• 56 engineering jobs applied for
• 104,000 miles put on my 1 car (his name is Alfred and he rocks)
• 
  

So the big milestones that have occurred in my life. 

1. I guess the biggest change is that I GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!! I have a degree in Chemical Engineering. I mean, it took me 6 years, but I have made it out alive.
2. I was moved from the class of Episodic Migraines to Chronic Migraines. This means that I had moved from having less than 15 migraines to more than having that a month. Currently, I average 17 or so a month. Yay...
3. My dog is still awesome. Thankfully he has finally mellowed out with age. He's about 7 (or so we think). He's how I stay sane, my emotional support in so many situations. Although he's become such unfeeling guy lately, he wouldn't let me curl up and cry with him last week.