June 7th weekend

This weekend was Mom & Dad's 40th Anniversary!


Tim flew to MI as a surprise, overnight on Friday. He sure surprised his Mom when, while on the phone, he said that he needed to talk to her about something... in person... and then walked into the room!
I hear it's in 90's in MI, while it's barely mid 50's here in OR.

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We went on a Family Walk on Saturday, got rained on, but glad we walked! Beats sitting at home, getting over a nasty cold!

Jon REALLY didn't like wearing the safety vest and the number. He desperately tried wiggling his way out of it, but some distraction with Jelly Belly's took his mind away and he kept it on... at least most of it.

Still trying to clean out our boxes filled with junk. They go from garage into the house, get sorted into "keep" and "donate" piles, then "keepers" get put away.

Somehow, kids are managing to find toys that have not been designated as "keepers" yet... We did find good use for the wardrobe boxes. They make a wonderful "spaceships" and stand up to the abuse normal toys wouldn't stand up to!
Of course, Jon thinks it's a "Lego's Star Wars" and Larissa thinks it's a "Barbie" spaceship...

Home demolition, Part II

This weekend was spent watching "the carpet guy" complete his job, cleaning out the apartment, and moving more boxes out of the storage into garage.
Finally, about 2pm on Saturday (May 31st) the carpets were all done!

Spent the rest of my day vacuuming the carpet' fibers off the floors...
And making sure everyone had their shoes off...

On Friday I went on a field trip to Jackson Bottom Wetlands (Gabe went on another field trip with Dad to the Capitol) . What a cold nasty day for the outdoor activities! We were totally frozen by the end of our three hour hike/lunch/lecture. So glad I brought a blanket!

I think kids had fun, but would've been nicer with some sunshine.

We took a class photo. This is Ms. Nelson's last year at our school. She is moving on...

Home demolition, Part I

Our house is turning into one big remodeling project. We spent all weekend pulling out old carpets, old padding and removing old staples. We decided that if we want something done right, we should do it ourselves. We found a few items under the old carpets that I don't think I would've left there, if I installed the carpets myself... three carpenter blades, coins, staples, nails, beads, etc.

Granted, the blades were laying flat and they were "harmless", as someone pointed out to me, just the thought of a sharp blade laying under my feet, gives me chills...

Not to mention all the stains we had found. Every room had some major damage to the carpets, and since we don't know the origins of the stain, I feel relieved that it will be replaced with a brand new carpets and a pad. So, we can "install" our own stains!

Home improvement projects are certainly not easy. Lucky for us, temperatures were in a good range, but even so, we shed some sweat.
There is nothing better than finishing a hard day of work, cleaning up, having a nice dinner, then sitting outside with a glass of wine. Enjoying a new view:
Kids just love our new backyard and all the nature that comes with it. Old home owners left us a hammock, and after we gave it a good wash, I let kids sit on it. It is a little tricky though. If you loose your balance and fall off of it, you might end up rolling all the way down to where Turner Creek runs :-)
We also discovered that we will have many visitors enjoying our backyard. Besides the birds and squirrels, we already saw a couple of dogs, a raccoon, and lately a black cat likes to sit on the log just below the hammock.
* This weekend I learned that it is true, kids sometimes mistaken harmful things for something that is harmless. (A good example would be pills vs. candy)
Earlier this weekend Larissa bouthg a pocket size hand sanitizer that came in a "High School Musical" clear bottle, and she shared some of it with Jon.
On Monday, as I was loading the laundry, I turned around to find Jonathan with a clear bottle in his hand, applying "hand sanitizer"... or so he thought! To my horror, it was a bottle of "Loctite" glue. Not as strong as Super Glue, but Jon was trying to rub it on his hands!
The bottle reads "avoid eye and skin contact"... AWWW!!! He must have pulled it from one of the "to go through" boxes sitting around. We were able to get most of it out right away, he didn't get much on his hands yet, when I caught him.