cRaZy JULY!!!

Well Friends, we are BOTH finally living in the same place in our new home in Newberg, OR. Please feel free to come see us if you are ever driving through the Portland area. Here's a brief overview of July. We celebrated the Fourth separately again this year, but had a good time anyhow. Ashley was at Girls Camp for the 3rd and 4th with the awesome Medford 3rd Ward Young Women and Dallas was hangin' out in the new house starting to get things squared away. Then, on the 5th, Dallas came down to Medford and we went to go see the Moody Blues in concert at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville. They were AMAZING, and sounded as good as they do on their Days of Future Passed album singing Knights in White Satin!!

The concert was really awesome. The picture on the right is obviously not very good, but it was fun to see the diverse crowd there. There were people our age, all the way to people in their 80's just jammin'.

After the concert, we drove back to Newberg and spent the weekend unpacking the house.


To any and all who are able, we totally recommend packers and movers!! We were blessed to have Dallas' company pay for all of our relocation expenses, so the packers came and packed everything up and moved it out, then a week later they delivered everything and put all the big things in their proper places. (Of course Ashley had to move it around several times before deciding the final setup). :)

After unpacking the kitchen that weekend, we went back down to Medford for our last Sunday in the 3rd Ward, and then Ashley worked her last week for APS. Although, she is very excited to be opening the Portland branch for her boss in September, so her last week was really an "until September."

After her last day with APS in Medford, Ash drove up to Newberg for the final time!!! YAY!! We spent the weekend unpacking, shopping and setting up the house. It's been so much more fun for us to dream and talk about what we can do with OUR new house.

We then left for Cali and spent the next week with Ashley's family on their annual houseboat trip at Lake Oroville. It was awesome. Dad learned how to ride an air chair, the girls kicked butt at tubing and although we missed Heath's humor and spirit this year, we had a lot of fun. We took our camera, but weren't very good at pulling it out and taking pictures, so our apologies. Dustin and Rachelle and Aidan were able to make it, so that was a highlight for us. Little Aidan was so hilarious. For a 21 month old, he's sure got a large vocabulary. "Aidan drive boat!" I think was my favorite of the week.

Dallas and Dustin drove back up to Portland and Provo at the end of the trip on Sunday, and Ashley stayed for a week with Rachelle, Aidan and the fam. It was so fun to spend some more
time with them. Here are some cute pictures of Aidan.

Isn't he adorable?!

So, I haven't taken final pictures of the inside of the house because I'm still trying to figure out what to put on some walls, but in the next couple of days I will and I'll post some more. But, here's a picture of us after church today in front of our new house.

Zee's adjusting nicely to our new place, except she is upset we won't let her outside till she has her babies and gets fixed. If anyone wants a kitty, let us know!! Until next time! Love to all~

HoUsE oF mYsTeRy!

So, here's an update on the Stahle Fam. Dallas currently lives at the Holiday Inn in Wilsonville and is enjoying his per diem for food that allows him to eat like a king. He's also enjoying his new job as a Manufacturing Engineer for Tyco Electronics. He will travel less to China, but be able to work with the China migration of electronic medical cable assemblies (things used for surgery, patient monitoring, ultrasounds, catheters, etc.), AND will ONLY have to travel about 3-4 times a year for a couple of weeks. Ashley is very grateful to have a husband that enjoys what he does, while still being able to live in the US with her. Although, with all of the miles that Dallas racked up going back and forth to China this last year, we got two round trip tickets to Taiwan!!! We are going for a week in November and so are excited to see Dallas' old stomping grounds of his mission. Ashley is particularly excited to try the food there that Dallas raves about so much, especially the zhenzhu drinks, what the Simmons clan so lovingly termed the "snot ball smoothies". :) And, not to forget the PHENOMENAL Taiwanese peanut butter, for those of you that have had it, you KNOW we speak the truth. So, that's exciting. We leave on Ashley's birthday and will be spending Thanksgiving there.

Ashley is finishing things up with Advanced Personnel Solutions in Medford and will be moving to Newberg with Dallas towards the middle of July. She is sad to leave and has learned a ton, but hopes to welcome some good opportunities up North.

Things are moving along nicely with our new house. We are waiting on just a few odds and ends, but may be able to close escrow sooner than July 3rd, which would be nice. The packers are coming to pack up the Medford house on the 27th, the movers come to move it all on the 29th, and they'll drop it all off and unpack it in Newberg on July 6th. We are excited to have professional packers come!

Other than that, business, work, church and everything else is all super! We hope some of you comment so we can keep in touch with everyone. (Disclaimer: Ashley messed with the comments a little while back and accidently made it so they all had to be moderated before they were posted...that's why none were showing up. But, Dallas came to the rescue, so all's well, sorry for the lack of response on our end if you left a comment...they were stuck in blog space).

So for more pictures....Dallas comes home every weekend so it breaks up the "long distance relationship" status, and we go on dates. Two weekends ago we went camping as you can see below, and last weekend we went to the Oregon Vortex/House of Mystery. It's crazy weird. It's a spherical field of force, half above the ground and half below the ground. According to www.oregonvortex.com, it goes way back to the time of the Native Americans. Their horses would not come into the affected area, so they wouldn't. The Native Americans called the area the "Forbidden Ground". Many years before The House of Mystery was built it was noted that unusual conditions existed there. It completely throws you off, because proven scientific theories we learn about in school, are reversed within the vortex. Go visit the website for more info, but here are a few pictures.


Obviously, you can't sense the direction of the ball, but we rolled this ball down the ramp, then it just rolled right back up. We also tried it inside the house with Dallas' chapstick, just in case they were using a tricky ball, and the vortex caused it to do the same thing.

This part bugged me. So the tour guide lady lined up all the children from tallest to smallest after showing us that her level proved that the ground was level. (They had levels all over for that kind of proof).
Then she lines them up smallest to tallest, and you expect to see the same type of angle as before, just in the opposite direction, but NO....look how much more slanted it is. Now, I know some of you skeptics will blame the phenomenon on my picture taking abilities, or the lines and angles of the house in the background, but Dallas and I stood on the plank and felt the difference as we walked towards and away from each other...TRIPPY. Here's one more....

These are some pretty sweet 7' posts. Again, we saw using a level that the ground was level. Each post was measured with a tape measure, and each was 7' tall, but looking at them the one on the right looks smaller. When people stood by the one on the right and walked to the one on the left you could see them get shorter, but they measured the same on each 7' post...It really was fascinating. We enjoyed our little tour out in the boonies of Gold Hill, Oregon last Saturday.

High Comedy

It's pretty funny to see Zee in all her glory. Ashley had so much fun bathing Zee, that she decided to take some pictures too. Her fur is very deceiving. She's only 5 pounds, and hasn't grown in the last 6 months, but you don't realize it till they are wet.

Even though she seems hormonal all the time, she really is quite a cuddly kitty. However, we think she's pregnant, so we'll see how long that lasts, or if she ends up being more mellow. We'll keep you posted if we have new kitties. Anybody looking for a baby kitten?

We went camping last weekend with Tim and Anja and had a total blast! The weather was a little overcast, but we got to do some fishing and had a good time chatting around the campfire.
Here's the view of the lake from our campsite. It was so beautiful out there.

Anja and I went out in the middle of the lake to fish in her sweet boat. It was lots of fun and very relaxing. The sun was tricky that day. It was so overcast and rainy that we couldn't wear our swimsuits, but my face got pretty burned.

Anja and Tim's friends Lissa and Jeremy have 3 adorable kids. They were so fun to be with and made us laugh a lot. They were great cheerleaders when we played horseshoes!

Tim was our master Chef out there. Here's a picture of him making chili in the dutch oven. We ate it with bread bowls and it was Yuummeee. Then we had chocolate peach cobbler for dessert, which was also FABulous. GO TIM!

My feet are always cold. Just ask Dallas. No matter how warm the rest of my body is, I always try to burrow my feet where it's warm. I was warming my feet by the fire, and the glue on the bottom of my Nike's melted, so the sole of my shoe is barely hanging. Good thing they're grubbies. Go me!

So, how cool is it that a group of "seasoned campers" makes breakfast for the whole campsite? They went all out and we loved it as you can see. :)

Dallas and Chase were buds. Cute kids.

The House We're going to buy!

Hi everyone! Ashley and I are moving to the Portland area, and this is the home that we are going to buy. We're still in the closing process, but right now we don't foresee any problems, so keep your fingers crossed. It's in the Newberg, OR area. We love the area, and can't wait to get up there.

Girls' Weekend!

So, obviously from the previous posts, it's evident that Dallas has been having some exciting adventures! Here are some pictures of what I've been doing while he's gone...


Mom and the girls came up during their spring break while Dallas was gone on his first trip to China in April. We had a blast! I need to be better at taking more pictures. This is Brie and I when all of us went to the Kat Wok in Ashland to have the best Sushi ever! Even better than Mikuni's (for all the Sacramento people). It's awesome...

Brie and Brooke are getting to be quite the chefs. We made some fun meals and ate out some too, but this is Brie's fruit pizza that we ate in between giving each other facials and pedicures after our shopping trip. Muy delicioso! (That was for Heath).

I tend to keep pretty busy when Dallas is gone and occasionally my family comes up to hang out. It's fabulous! I also play on a city league volleyball team, which makes things fun and exciting, except I think I'm a little too competitive, but anyone that knows me, knows that no game is "Just a game." :)

Last weekend I flew down to So Cal for Alicia Ingall's wedding. We were roommates for a couple of years in college and she's the last of the original 4 to get hitched. She married David Woolsey on Friday the 4th, a week after she graduated with her Masters in Accounting. They were so cute and I'm so happy for them. Here's a few quick pictures of them after the ceremony.



Leesh with her two brothers trying to take a picture of them kissing her on the cheek.


It was bright, what else can you do!

Yay for roommies. We had a blast the night before and the morning of her wedding. She was so ready to get married, and it was fun to see the sparkle in her eye throughout the whole day.

SOOO...after all the craziness, Kristen came and picked me up and we hung out that night and Saturday. She just got back from a mission in March and I haven't seen her since August of 2005. Good times!! We went to Huntington Beach...I got fried pretty bad...lol...but it was AWESOME. Here is a picture before the sunburn. :)

Some More China Pictures!!

This was some of the exquisite cuisine that I was able to partake of on my last trip to China. Any guesses.... Well you guessed right, it's a pig's foot. Every time I tried to bite into it, it would squirt out of my mouth. Not the easiest chew :)

Now the Chinese have an incredible ability to potty-train their children at an extremely young age. This is their secret. The children wear split-pants (crotchless pants). Whenever the children start to use the restroom, the parents will make a whistling noise. At the same time, the parents will take the child to the side of the sidewalk, off the beaten path, over a drain, or anyplace that can be consider a potty stop. Very soon, the children associate this sound with going to the bathroom, and will make the noise until their parents direct them to a potty spot. Quite effective, even if it's still in the middle of the sidewalk. At least they are whistling while they work.
This is a park in Beijing close to the forbidden city. The ancient Chinese architecture is definitely unique. I'm always fascinated by the designs, and colors that were used long before the rest of the world.

Fun Translation

This is a picture above the toilet in my hotel room. The Chinese says, "Be careful, slippery floor." But I guess if you're going to slip, you might as well be careful about it :)

The Great China!

I'm currently traveling in China, and thought I'd post some pictures. I'll post more later about my trip to western China with the Muslim people that live out there as well. Below is a picture of North Korea. The bridge (left) is what connects the city of Dandong (China) to North Korea. This is where most all of their trade happens. You see trucks going back and forth. The reason there are two bridges, is because we blew up the first one back in the 50's. You see it stops about halfway across.

I make a lot of trips to farm, and this is a very common site. An over loaded vehicle with something hanging on it. If you look closely, there is a person driving this monstrous bail of hay.

This is just a big spider that I almost walked into while visiting some strawberry fields. Yeah, I was really inches away from kissing that thing on accident.


This is a typical restaurant in China. All the food is sitting on the floor when you walk in. You point to what you want, then they go cook it for you.



For any of you wondering what you are looking at... yes that is really pig snout :)

These are pigeons that we had in Western China. They don't eat pork, so we ate a lot of lamb, and pigeon.
Just because. Our cat likes boxes that are too small for her. She likes the challenge of squeezing into them.

The last couple of weeks have been so much fun!! Sadly though, we didn't take as many pictures as we should have. So, sorry, you'll have to read about some of it...

So, I'm not sure how many of you know who Bernadette Peters is, but she is an amazing performer. Dallas' company treated us to some pretty awesome seats the night she came to perform in Medford. After the show, we even got to to up to meet her and take our pictures with her. Beautiful woman who does not look 59!

Our next fun activity was going to the Cabaret Theatre for Valentines Day. Since we switch off every year, this year was Ashley's turn. We got to eat an awesome meal of Morroccan Pork, some yummy mashed potatoes and asparagus while watching, "Guys on Ice," a play about guys from Wisconsin who ice fish and discuss all important topics like their snowmobile suits and "the one who got away." It was all very fun and for those of you in Sacramento, the Cabaret Theatre is very similar to Garbeau's Dinner Theatre by Aerojet.

So, our week got even better! On Thursday night, Ashley took of for Loomis, to spend the weekend with the fam. Dallas got to speak at Southern Oregon Univerisity's Cultural Celebration on Doing Business in China, so Ashley went solo this time...

On Friday she got to hang out with the fam and then Friday night went to see Placer Elementary's school play, "No Strings Attached." A cute play about Pinnochio. Here's a picture of the famous Simmons Sisters! Brie's wearing a wig if you were wondering.


The next day was Ashley's date with Heath. Since he was leaving the next day with Mom and Dad to go to the MTC, Ashley took him to Mikuni's for Sushi. Heath loved it apparently...
It was somewhat of a tearful goodbye, but watchout Argentina!!! Elder Simmons is gonna rock your world!! He's off to South America! What a stud. We should do a tribute to Heath on our next posting, eh? He's quite a man for a 19 year old. Anyone who knows him would agree.
And yes, totally random...we now have an organ too! While Ashley was gone in CA, the owner of the piano store where we bought our beauty down below, offered us a free organ. Being that we attend a church in which the organ is played, we figured, ah, what the heck, it's not every day you get a free organ. It took us a little while to figure out how to turn it on, (the guy didn't have the manual anymore), but now we're good...Zee kept trying to climb in the whole above the peddle so we'll have to work on that.

Well....other than that, we're just working away and keeping busy. We'll continue to keep ya'll posted. Love to all!