March 14th

Quiet weekend. Gray sky's. Many rains. Slooooow...

In the brief periods of no-rain, we would go outside and play a little.

We had Tim's old friend stay with us over the weekend. It's been about 20 years since they seen each other last. Many things happened since, but the old memories quickly came back. Oh, the good old High School days!

I continued peeling wallpaper off the walls in Larissa's room (little progress made there) and I purchased all the supplies needed to finish it up the walls afterwards. I just need to "get on it" now!

And, of course, the St Patrick's Day parade in Hillsboro on Saturday.
It was out first year attending. We had a great time. Got a bunch of candy (thrown off the floats) to bring back home too.

March snow

Another week went by. We are getting closer and closer to the Summer, but weekends like this past one, sure make it feel like we are not even close.

Friday was a Western Day for kids at their school. Here is Larissa's version of a cowgirl:

This weekend I finally decided that I am ready to take on Larissa's room remodeling project. My biggest fear turned into reality. Taking off old wallpaper is quite challenging already, but discovering that previous owners just slapped the wallpaper directly onto a drywall is plain discouraging.
What I though would be a simple "remove wallpaper and paint" job is looking like "remove wallpaper, prime, texture, prime, paint" job now, but we are taking it easy. The job is messy and the process is slow, because you have to wait for paper to saturate before moving on. Kids had fun though... (pictured in Larissa's closet):

I see this possibly turning into a couple-of-months project for my weekends.

On Sunday Tim surprised Gabe with a new mountain bike. Gabe's old bike was barely big enough and not very well equipped for going on the actual trail. Hard to go trailing with a single speed bike... Gabe is happy he got a new bike, Larissa is happy she got Gabe's old bike!

I snapped this picture this morning, before going to the bus stop, while the sun was still sleeping in. I wish I could sleep in too. This Daylight Savings is just not going too well.

Good bye February! Hello March.

Oregon spring is here, which means that we will be teased by an occasional sunshine, but will mostly deal with either a drizzle or a heavy downpour. I suppose it's good for the grass... But sadly, it is also good for the moss in my yard. I see a trip to Home Depot in my near future.

This weekend I got a chance to cut some more vines in our backyard, cut them into small chunks and dispose of them, but there is still so much more.

Saturday was a quiet day for us. Larissa and I drove to WA, so I could purchase some decongestants... I know, I know... Silly, but you have to have a prescription in OR to buy it, and I didn't feel like spending $20 for a co-pay fee just to see my Dr so I could ask for a prescription... We made a girls' day out of it by having lunch together at my favorite sushi place.

Kids re-discovered the Bright-light toy and had lots of fun making their pictures. Then, both Gabe and Larissa tripped over the cord (once each), which resulted in a large spill of pegs all over the floor... That's when we had to say "all done!". I think this toy should not have a power cord. That is just plain dangerous for the little kids.

My only other goal for the weekend was to find a table that kids can use in their room for the Logo's. Something I didn't worry about scratching and something that had a place for the storage of extra pieces. Boy, did I luck out! Sunday morning I decided to take a quick look at http://www.craigslist.org/ and the very top (newest) posting was exactly what I was looking for. It said "first come", so I immediately called the seller and told him I was on my way to get it. $20 later I got the table, and no more Lego pieces all over the floor. Kids can sit in front of the table and not slouch over the floor. I am so happy!